All cats are grey in the dark

Chapter Ten

When she reaches the roof, her breath hitches in her throat. He has strung fairy lights from side to side above the door and created a pathway of balls of magic leading to a cream blanket laden with food of every description. To each side of the roof are elegant fabrics draped effortlessly over the walls masking yet more fairy lights behind them. It looks like some kind of gorgeous dream. And there, in the center of it all, stands Loki.

He wears an emerald green button-up shirt with black trousers and a black suit jacket. His hair floats around his shoulders like an ebony cloud, highlighting his shining eyes.

She manages something that no one has ever managed before: she leaves him speechless.

Loki's POV:

As I place the last items on the blanket, the door opens behind me. I twist around and there she is. Eldrid. She looks around her, all of the lights reflecting in her stormy grey eyes, in pure awe. Then, she turns and sees me.

She's wearing a dress. A black one that shimmers in the twinkling lights around her and, on her feet, she wears a pair of lace-up sandals that reach her knees. As she steps closer, I see that her eyes have been painted with shimmery gold powder and small gold stars at the sides. She looks... breathtaking.

"Good evening, my lady." I greet her, holding my hand out to kiss hers. She accepts graciously and bows her head, revealing the intricate braid in her hair.

"And you, Loki. This all looks gorgeous."

"You look, wonderful."

A delicate blush creeps up her neck. "Aha, thank you, you do too."

"Don't let Natasha know," I warn as he leads her over to the blanket "she was adamant that you'd like it but to let her know that you did would give her an even bigger ego than she has already."

I help her to sit down before sitting beside her, my legs crossed beneath me.

"You went to all this trouble?"

"Of course, love, only the best to say thank you for bringing me here." I look away from her imploring eyes, pouring us each a glass of mead into the intricately carved metal goblets that I summoned from my home. No doubt, my mother would wonder where they had gone but she would probably figure that I had taken them. I'd done this so many times in the past. One time, Thor and I had wanted to play at fighting, we were small at the time, so we stole my father's daggers. He was raging but my mother had quietened him by telling him that she had placed a protection charm on them that meant that they could not hurt anybody. Well, she was lying. That was the first time I stabbed my brother. She misplaced her faith but she never lost it, even after that.

We eat the picnic, enjoying the wonderful tastes that I have prepared. The whole time my lips are stretched into a smile from ear to ear. Hers are too. The delicately rouged lips are curved into a grin and her eyes glint in the gentle lights strung from side to side.

I knew her before all of this, not well but I knew of her.

When she was brought to the castle as a young witch I was stood in the doorway as she arrived. She was brought through wearing this grey, tatty dress, her hair all amuck and she carried only one bag with her. I remember simply wondering who this girl was and why she had been brought to the castle for she looked like a mere waif.

Later that night she came to dinner with my family and me and I was shocked, to say the least. She cleaned up well. Her hair had been brushed so that it hung down her back like spun gold and she wore a gown of the most dazzling deep green. I think, at that moment, I was so enthralled with her beauty that I forgot about everything around me. A server tripped over my foot and spilled mead all over me. I blushed so beet red that I had to leave the hall.

I watched her grow through the years as she became a member of our family. When I had my bad spell I felt too ashamed to see her, I didn't speak to her until the day that I met her on the Bifrost to travel to Midgard. 

Her beauty shocked me even then, she had matured into a gorgeous young woman. I felt all of those emotions from so long ago flood back immediately.

Then my decision was made, I must become her friend, do what the younger me was too cowardly to do and make her see me for the man I am, not the one whom I was forced to be.

And now, here in the golden glow, I feel like my mission has begun. In the delicate lights, with her eyes on mine, I feel things that I haven't felt in a long time.

Word count: 849
Word count exclusive