My greatest hero

chapter 26

For the next few days loki seemed a bit jumpy.
"Loki" he was startled upon hearing his name, he was outside reading and thought he was alone.
"Eira, you startled me" he said smiling "I'm sorry, that wasn't my intention" she said walking over to him. He moved over to make room for her on the bench upon which we was sitting. She sat down, a little out of breath "Are you supposed to be up yet?" He asked her, raising an eyebrow, he could tell she was using a lot of energy to walk around.
"I'm actually feeling much better now, and Afya told me I should get some fresh air" she told him
"Afya?" He didn't know who she was talking about "Really? You don't know the names of the people who work for you? Shes the healer who's been taking care of me" she told him, playfully smacking his shoulder with the back of her hand
"Well it is hard to keep track of names, there's hundreds of guards and healers and soldiers, it's hard to keep track" he said jokingly defensive, Eira laughed a little bit, she was happy to be out of her chambers and would find anything funny right now.
"Loki" she said "Yes?".
"When you came to see me in the healing room, the first time, you said something to me, and I don't know If I heard you correctly, but I thought you said-" she was cut off "I said I love you" he told her quickly.
"And I meant it" he said smiling. "You do? You love me?" She was having a hard time believing it "Very much" he said softly. "Why?" She didn't understand what he loved about her. He thought for a moment. "I don't have a definitive answer, there are hundreds of things about you that I love, but if someone asked me why I was in love with you, I don't think I could answer with one thing. but I don't think we're supposed to be able To, I think that if you really love someone you just love the fact that no one else is them, they're irreplaceable. If there was just one thing we could all say is the reason we love someone, than I don't think we really love the person at all, we love a trait, and if we only love a trait, then if that person changes, or has a bad day and they loose that trait,

Even for a moment, the love would be lost too, and that's not real love at all. So I love you because you're you, and you're the only one there is" he said turning to her, she was listening to his words and they touched her heart.
"You have a way with words" she said after a moment of silence.
"Its my one strength" he said laughing a bit. She giggled a bit, she looked off at all the beautiful trees and then realized how colorful they were.
"Loki, what is today's date?" She asked, he thought about it for a moment "The fourteenth day of the eleventh month. Why do you ask?" He asked. She smiled "My birthday is in seven days" she said looking at him.
"Oh really?" He asked, he had no idea.
"Yeah, I had forgotten until now" she said staring off into space thinking about all that had happened since the day she first broke into the palace, it seemed like so long ago and so much had changed.
"Well I know exactly what I'm getting for you" he said with a smile
"Already?" She asked
"I've known for a couple days now" he said with his usual smirk "How is that possible? I just now told you my birthday was coming up" she asked a little curious "You'll just have to wait and see" she smiled, she loved how mysterious he was sometimes, it always made her excited to see what he was planing. She saw the book in his hands, it was a book she'd read many times growing up.
"Read to me" she said picking up his wrist and putting his arm around her shoulders. He continued reading. In a few minutes they both had gotten so into the book that he was no longer reading to her, she jumped in the they were each reading for one of the two characters in the scene, and in no time at all they were almost acting it out, reading the parts in perfect character. They didn't realize how late and cold it had gotten, and how far they had read, but finally loki realized it was too dark and he couldn't even see the words on the page anymore. "Hey, it's getting late, we should get back inside, I don't want you to get sick from the cold" he said standing up and offering a hand. She took his hand and they both went back inside.