Proposition

Cordially Invited

Ezabella was less than thrilled about Loki's invitation, even less so when I told her that I had accepted it.

The conversation bounced back and forth with point after point until I pointed out that she had also been invited, Loki saying that I was welcome to bring her along and show her how I had lived while being impregnated.

Her attitude almost took an instant shift from angry, to surprised, to giddy.

"Seriously? I get to go into the finest depths of Asgard?"

"Yeah, it seems so."

"Oh, by Baldur's fate!" She squealed in excitement, hopping up and down excitedly with her hands pressed to her face.

I watched her move, feeling my head starting to throb as my eyes trailed her before I had to look away.

Honestly, I loved seeing her so happy and wanted to join in on her excitement, but for obvious limitations I couldn't and had to settle with beaming widely at her.

"Please stop bouncing," I laughed, rubbing my forehead, "you're giving me motion sickness."

"I don't think I can, I'm so excited."

"I never would have guessed."

Ezabella suddenly pounced onto the cushion beside me, grabbing my hand tightly and grinning wide enough to make my cheeks ache just from looking at it.

"When are we going? How long for? What should I pack?"

"We leave at the end of this week, it's for two weeks and I don't know, clothes and entertainment?"

"I don't even know what I have," she groaned before getting up as quickly as she'd jumped down, "I need to search around."

She continued to mutter to herself in giddy excitement while shooting off down the hall, leaving me sat near-alone in utter bemusement.

I leaned back in my seat and put my feet up, knowing that the next week would pass with constantly unpacking and repacking of her bag as she paced and muttered and ranted in eagerness.

Perhaps it would have been best if I held off the announcement for a little while longer, but I had so much going on in my mind that letting one small thing out already felt like a huge weight off my shoulders.

I still wasn't sure how I was going to break the biggest news to her.

How were you supposed to tell your best friend that you were carrying and going to push out a baby half-Jotun?

It wasn't news that I could imagine being announced often, unless there were many women about who had managed to sleep with Loki and get pregnant before his marriage, heck maybe even during his marriage, but the fact that no such rumours had sparked certainly didn't give that impression.

Had such a thing been spread about, I'd have been inclined to try and track one of these ladies down to ask a question.

It was hard to push down the fear that grew in my throat, I was just over halfway through this pregnancy and I wasn't sure how I could face pushing out this baby if he got any bigger.

At times, it felt as though I would be near immobile by the time the ninth month came around, purely from the size of the child and that worried me as well.

Aches, swells and pains I could cope with, but being stuck in bed with only my own thoughts seemed like a nightmare.

Pulling my shirt over my stomach, I looked at the large bulge and ran my hand over it, feeling the bumps and crevices that the stretchmarks created.

I remembered that the healer had given me a salve two months prior during a checkup, when it was evident that my bump was going to be larger than average, that she said would help to tame the marks but I found that I didn't wish to cover them.

I felt almost proud of them, in some warped sense.

I did, however, wish that she had given me a salve to help with my swollen ankles and sore nipples.

That and maybe something to stop my growing appetite, which had led me to getting up and heading to the kitchen to hunt down something to fill my craving.

Thankfully, nothing too bizarre had sparked during my appetite spikes yet, but I was waiting and lying in wait for the moment the worst one would kick in, the need for something strange rather than merely feeling hungry and needing food.

As I hunted through the cupboards, I could hear Ezabella rummaging through her belongings and muttering to herself.

It was nice, this little moment of calm sereneness and it had me smiling.

She was going to love the palace, I just knew it.