~ Dynasty ~ A Loki love story.

Chapter 5

I know the girl in the picture isn't wearing 'Asgardian clothes', and that Lilly's hair is supposed to be light blonde, and longer than that, but just go with it for me.

Lilly's pov:

I went home quite out of sorts after the...  -  incident. I sent a letter letting Loki know that I'd like to take a few personal days and his response was nothing but understanding.

One night, in particular, I was sitting on my bed hugging my knees and thinking.

'Loki killed all six of our attackers',  I thought, 'he has powers, he literally vanished and reappeared right in front of me, and he did all this to protect me.'

But I didn't even matter, no one besides my mother would miss me, my school friends might be sad for a day, but they wouldn't really care. So why would this talented, rich prince care about me?

'He already told you you idiot,'  the other me said - (who was really just another name for me, - I talked to myself a lot.)

'You're his friend, someone he can trust.'

"I know that," I thought, "but it still seems like a really caring thing to do if he doesn't love me."

~~~

A few days later...

"Hey," I stated, as I met Loki in the woods one afternoon.

His smile when he saw me was priceless, he crossed the distance between us quickly and asked, "how are you?"

"I'm alright now," I replied, "very eager to get back to training!"

He smiled again, "so am I," he declared.

Once at our little cove, I looked for any evidence of the incident, but there was none; thanks to Loki no doubt. We did a quick warm-up with the daggers until Loki stated, "you've got it perfectly, we can keep this up if you want, but there's no more I can teach you. Do you want to choose another weapon?"

I nodded, ran to the box and stared inside. My eyes wandered to a bow, it was made of smooth wood, it even had little carvings of intricate designs. The arrows were a pointed metal tip, green and grey in colour. Loki placed a hand on my shoulder making me jump - it shouldn't have, but it did.

"Sorry," he stated quickly, "I didn't mean to frighten you."

"I uh, like the bow," I replied, ignoring his apology.

He nodded and lifted it out along with several arrows, "now," he began in his 'teacher voice', "come over here."

I obeyed and joined him in our well-worn combat zone, "hold it," Loki instructed.

I did and ran my fingers over the smooth wood, it felt so incredible.

"Do you know how to use a bow and arrow?" Loki asked genuinely.

"I think so," I replied, adjusting my hold on the bow.

He nodded, "good, now here's an arrow, can you put the notch on the string?"

I tried three times and completely embarrassed myself, but finally got it on, "there," I breathed.

"Draw back the string and aim for that tree," Loki instructed, pointing to a tree about fifteen meters away from us.

I tried to draw it back, but the string was really strong and the arrow wouldn't stay still. I pulled back as hard as I could and let it go; my arrow flew about three meters and far right of my intended target.

"Maybe I shouldn't try this one," I sighed, slightly ashamed of myself.

"Here," Loki said softly, taking another arrow and standing behind me, "I'll show you."

He placed one hand over my own and the bow and with the other, slid an arrow on and moved my fingers on the opposite hand into the correct position. I felt myself blush - luckily he was behind me and didn't see my reddened cheeks. For the first time in the whole time I had known him, I felt nervous being close to my friend. Maybe it was because he saved my life. Once the arrow was in properly, he placed his hand over mine and pulled back on the string.

'Wow!'  I thought, that string had felt almost un-stretchable to me and yet he searches it like a rubber band.

"Stand up a bit taller," Loki spoke softly, "strong, confident."

'Ha, I feel anything but strong and confident right now, I feel weak, like my legs are going to give way,'  I thought.

I felt so strange with him standing close to me, apparently, the Midgardian term for this feeling is 'butterflies in your stomach,' but I tried to stand as confidently as possible.

"Good, now breath, deep breaths, always remember to stay calm when using the bow. Breath in," Loki instructed.

I did and felt him draw the string back further, "aim," he stated, pointing the arrow at the small target on the tree, "and breath out."

I did and felt him loose the arrow, it flew through the air and struck the mark perfectly. As it did I felt a great sense of power surge through me, I liked the bow. I took a few breaths to calm my shaky 'butterfly' nerves though, as Loki went to retrieve the arrow.

'I wonder if he has ever felt that way about me,' I thought.

'A true friend,'  Loki's words echoed in my memory.

'Just friends Lilly,'  I told myself, 'that's all it is and ever will be - friends.'