Shedding Illusions (Loki Love Story)

Four - Begin

Loki opens his eyes to remember he no longer lives in a cell. He looks over to see Mila sitting in the same spot she was in when he went to sleep. He notices she's wearing a pale dull pastel pink flowing dress that goes to her ankles. Around her waist she has wide brown belt with silver plates on it and her shoulders pauldrons. She still wears the vambraces on her forearms and her cloak, her wavy auburn brown hair down going past her waist and almost reaching the floor when she sits.

Large piles of books around her. She cleared out a third of his bookshelf.
"Could she have read all of those books?" Loki wonders, out loud on accident.
"Yes, she did. Don't worry she'll put them back." Mila answers in third person not looking up. "You have slept in quite a bit, missed your morning and afternoon meals. Are you hungry?" She puts down another finished book, and Loki gets up to change from his nightwear.

The two had a snack knowing dinner was coming up, but they still had quite a bit of time to kill.
"If you would come with me Mila." Loki says walking down a hallway pretty quickly. Also noticing glancing to her, that her hair is suddenly in a side braid again.
"Where else would I go?" She asks still being able to easily keep up with him.

They walk up to large doors and Loki opens them. Mila look in to see tall shelves of books, upon books, upon books, and literally no one else there.
"This is the palace library."
"Tony Stark has half a floor filled with books. I have read them dozens of times." Loki savours her appreciative smile, not feeling any time pass, lost in the library's light, glowing against her skin.
"Asgard possesses a library ten times the size of this one." Loki says in a surprisingly soft voice.
"Really?" She asked looking to him.
"Yes." He admires her sparkle dusted eyes, seeing the skies of Asgard in her purple orbs.

Mila walks over and looks up at a shelf. She reaches up, rocking on her feet to her toes, but she just couldn't grasp the book, and plants her feet firmly on the ground not looking away from her target.

"Would you like assistance?" Loki asks with a light smirk on his face. A gold glow pulls at the book and it falls off the shelf while the glow fades quickly. It falls straight down in front of her and glows gold again, and takes the book in her arms.
"I truly appreciate the offer." Loki hears from behind him "But I don't necessarily need to reach the things that I want to get." He turns to see Mila sitting at a table with dozens of books. "Thank you again though."

Loki gathers books for himself and sits beside her. They sit together in a gentle warm silence for a bit. As time went on they would talk, and smile. They enjoyed each other's company and the books until they read what they had gathered.

Suddenly Thor bursts through the door of the library.
"Ah, I have finally discovered where the both of you have been." He walks over to the two and puts his hands on their shoulders. "It is time for dinner brother." The two stand up and Loki notices that Thor only spoke to him about dinner. "Lady Mila, go rest I will watch my brother for a the time being."
"I am fine Thor. I've only just started here." She looks up at Thor with a soft sincere look, and Thor puts his hands on her shoulders.
"Mila, rest. You have not slept for days preparing. I promise not think any less of you. No one will." The words Thor used to convince her hung in Loki's mind for a while.

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Loki and Thor walk to the dinning room. Loki thinks about Mila, about how she's been up for at least two days and from what Thor said probably more, but didn't look or seem tired. He wondered why she needed to hear that she would not be thought less of her if she rested.

Thor, Loki, Frigga and Odin all sit in silence as they eat. The silence is cold and heavy, full on tension, and nothing like the comfortable, peaceful silence of sitting next to Mila. Thor and Loki finish their food quickly and they leave.

Loki walking back to his own room with Thor following right behind him. Loki enters his room and closes the door on Thor.
"Behave until Lady Mila wakes brother!" Thor yells through the door, but Loki doesn't acknowledge him as he walks away, so he assumes his brother is just standing there.

He turns away from the door to see Mila in his bed, and he walks over to get a closer look. She lays on her side facing the door, with her long hair laying lose around her body, her knees curled up and her arms huddled close with her hands laying beside her face. She wears a v neck lace nightgown, layered in thin white fabric going down just above her knees falling perfect against her skin. She has a white shear shawl laying on her shoulders wrapped multiple times around her arms.

Loki sits on the side of the bed studying her features, admiring the delicate fragile looking figure of the beautiful woman. Loki becomes more content with the fact that in her sleep she still has her soft smile on her face, also thinking that she looks like an angel.

Her eyes flutter open to see Loki right there. She sits up leaning on her arm and gold sparks form at the ends of the shawl moving up her arms making it disappear, while gold sparks form around her shoulders and neck moving up over her head and down her back making her dark blue cloak appear.

"Good evening Prince Loki." Her gentle voice calms him and her soft smile becomes a brighter making Loki happy to see her face and he halfheartedly smiles back listening to her words.
"Good evening Mila." His voice gentle to match her's.