Our Secret Garden (Loki X Reader)

Night Eight

Today had been one of our days off from wedding planning. We were currently waiting for planners and florists and musicians to get back with us, so we decided today would be a rest day while we did so. But the universe had a different plan for me. Ulf had decided he wanted to get to know his future bride, so he asked me to go with him to dinner.

I should never have said yes. I should have run away and hid in my room claiming I was sick. I should have told him I wasn't quite ready yet. I should have told him that I still had preparations for the wedding. Anything. Because now I was one hundred percent sure I didn't want anything to do with that man.

He was rude. Rude to everyone, including me. And he was ugly. Not physically, but his entire personality was. He thought himself better than anyone, and all he knew how to talk about was that he thought so. The way he talked about everyone in his life made them seem to be terrible people. This person did that, and this person did this, and I am better than all of them, blah blah bah. It seemed he just liked hearing himself talk.

And then he got on to what he thought the perfect woman was, and I realized he hoped that I would become a perfect little wife, who was rarely seen and heard. Everything that came out of his mouth after 'hello' made me sick.

But as weird as it seemed, knowing I would see the man in the woods calmed me, helped me get through the day. Knowing that he would be there, waiting for me, even though we may not talk or even really acknowledge each other, it made me happy. Happy that I would just be able to be around him again.

One of the thoughts that had run through my mind all day had been one that I wasn't sure I could actually go through with voicing. I wanted to ask the man in the woods what he felt about me. I wanted to know if he would want to maybe go on a date, or get to know each other in better ways, maybe he could begin to feel about me the way I felt about him.

But one thing kept me from doing so.

'It wouldn't be fair to him.'

How could I try to form a relationship with a man who wouldn't even be able to be with me. It was like leading a horse to water, only to bring them upon a dried up pond. And why would he want to be with me? I had already told him that I was engaged to be married, although against my will. But that meant that he already knew that any relationship was unable to progress. Unless we wanted to be together in secret.

But I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

No, those thoughts were what kept my mouth shut.

Maybe we could become friends, and I could watch as he met another woman and became happy with her, the way I wanted him to be happy with me.

As the thoughts slowly wrapped up, I heard footsteps come from behind me. I turned to see the man walking up behind me.

"Hey," I said to him.

"Hello," He answered.

I watched him as he walked around me and sat on the ground next to me, and looked into the fire, his hands on his knees.

"Are you okay?" I asked. I don't know what made me ask this question, as I hadn't known him very long I really didn't know him too well, but somehow I knew something was off.

"What makes you ask?" He looked at me and I could see something in his eyes, an emotion I couldn't quite pin, but the closest guess would have been anger and sadness.

"I'm not sure, I can just... tell." I told him. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I'm a good listener. But I'm also comfortable with silence, or changing subjects, it's whatever you prefer." I turned back to the fire, allowing him to continue if he wanted to.

"I just... very recently found out that my whole life," He stared into the fire, his eyes shifting back and forth as he was searching his brain. "I don't know why I'm telling you this but, I found out that I've been lied to my whole life. About a lot of things." He turned to look at me and he looked like a child seeking reassurance. It clicked almost immediately.

"Adopted?" I asked. That one word question sent the man into a downward spiral.

"My whole life was a lie! The whole thing! You think you're raised for something, only to be told your life's purpose was to die! My father took me as a pawn, he didn't want me, he didn't need me. He hoped to use me in order to gain the trust of-" He inhaled and I could tell he was trying to compose himself. I let him continue. "And I find out I'm a monster, someone no one would ever want, someone who would have been better off being left at the altar I was found at as a child."

I got up, and walked over to him. I had never been good at comforting people, but I knew I needed to comfort him, I wanted to. I stood in front of him as he looked at me, and I wrapped my arms around him, and held my hand against the back of his neck. I felt his body begin to shake slightly with sobs, but only for a moment before all I could feel were his arms wrap around me and water fall down my shoulder.

"You are not a nobody," I told him. I felt him bury his head in my shoulder. "You have people who love and care about you, I know it. I may not have known you for very long, but I can tell you you are burdened. But you have greatness in you, you have love," I ran my hand along his back. "You would not have become the person you are today if there wasn't love around you. It may not feel like it today, or tomorrow, but one day you will realize it. You will realize that you are not a monster and that you are worthy, that you deserve the world."

"How can you be so sure? How can you know that?"

"I know that I care for you, maybe more than I should care about a stranger I met only a week ago. I can tell by the way you do things selflessly for others that you care about them as well, but you feel that you can't show it. You cover it with your mischievous persona. Maybe all that I'm saying doesn't make sense or maybe you don't believe it or maybe it just doesn't mean anything to you, but" I pulled away and looked at his face. "All I'm trying to say is that no matter what lie you may have grown up on, it doesn't change the person that I can tell you are inside, someone who loves and cares deeply."

His green eyes stared into mine and his face leaned closer, ever so closer, and I could feel his breath lightly touch my face. His hand reached up to cup my cheek and before I knew it, I leaned into him and our lips collided. I placed my hand on his chest as we continued. I felt his hands move to my hips and pull me closer to him. Soon we broke apart, both gasping slightly for air.

"Well," He said. "I wasn't expecting that from you,"

"I - I wasn't really expecting it from myself." I replied. "You poured your heart out, and I still don't even know your name."

"I didn't pour my heart out."

"You kind of did,"

"And then you confessed your love for me," He joked. "So I think we both poured our hearts out."

"I never said 'love'," I told him. I stared at him, his black hair mingling with the balck of the night. Stars surrounded his head like a crown and he smirked down at me.

"But that's what you meant, right?"

"Maybe,"

"Loki,"

"What?"

"My name, it's Loki."