ᴜɴᴅᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇ ʙʟᴏꜱꜱᴏᴍ ᴛʀᴇᴇ • ʟᴏᴋɪ

The truth was, he had been observing Lady Mara since they were children. Her father was loyal to Odin so he saw her frequently at the castle. He always remembered her face: porcelain skin, crystal-like eyes, hair white as snow with small flowers stuck in her braids. The one person that held him back from talking to her at length was himself. Whenever he spotted her around the castle and was about to approach her, somebody would come and take her away.

That's how Loki knew she was unlike any other Asgardian girl. She was always in the garden, reading or singing under the blossom tree. At first, Loki detested how pure and happy she seemed. She always gave him a bright, broad smile whenever they passed each other, and he would greet her with a slight glare and blush. They barely exchanged two full sentences to each other. The castle staff always thought Loki was out to "cause trouble".

He hated being a Trickster because of this. He couldn't have friends because apparently, all he did was play tricks on their and manipulate their thoughts. He wasn't like that at all... most of the time at least.

One day, from the archway, Loki gawked down at Mara, who was under the blossom tree reading a book, and he only realised this when his brother, Thor, shook him back to reality.

"Brother, just go talk to her." Thor insisted, wrapping his arm around Loki's shoulders. Loki shrugged him off with a sigh.

"I can't." Loki frowned, glaring at his brother. "She likes you. During the march this morning, she was practically eye-fucking you. It's always been that way. The girls are always into you."

Laughing, Thor replied, "That's because I'm a charming man. You, on the other hand, are..." He paused to think of suitable adjectives. "... angsty and... quiet."

Loki stood up, and pointing a finger at his brother, he said, "I am not angsty." Loki went up to his room and groaned as he flopped onto his bed. He remembered all the times he would send her small gifts to her, books mostly, but he would never sign them from him. It was like a secret admirer type of thing, hoping she would get the hint.

"Another book, Lady Mara?" her friends would comment, rolling their eyes. "Don't you get bored with them?"

"Nope!" Mara's smile broadened as she traced her fingers over the golden embroidery across the cove and spine.

But Mara would read each and every one of them from cover to cover. Loki didn't know what happened with the books after she'd read them; he hoped she kept them. As he sat up in his room, he remembered the first and probably only conversation they've had. He was in the garden, practising magic by manifesting other versions of himself when he spotted Mara reading in her usual spot. He was about to turn around and leave but when she looked up from her book, she grinned.

"Oh, hi there!" she beamed. He'd forgotten how beautiful her voice was.

"Wait, you're not scared?" Loki asked her, surprised. Somehow he found himself sitting down next to her under the tree.

"Why would I be?" she smiled, looking at him.

"Because I'm... me." He ran a hand through his hair, averting his eyes.

"That's why I'm not afraid."

Loki frowned. "Wh-what do you mean by that?"

"You're different, and I... I like that a lot." Mara closed her book and set it aside. "Sometimes I just get so bored of Asgard. It's always so... so..."

When she struggled to find the right words, she looked up at Loki, who simply said, "Bright?"

"Exactly." Mara laughed. "And loud too."