3 | SWEET

Asa was a curious soul. She was quite intelligent considering she received no education throughout her life. Because she was so inquisitive, she would wander far and wide throughout Sakaar to meet new faces and see what the people of the planet were up to. It was a great help that the grandmaster owned many ships that she could borrow to fly out into the outskirts of Sakaar, where many of the grandmaster's scrappers would find slaves for him to use in his competition of champions. After all, it was where he found his star Hulk.

So, Asa would fly out to the wasteland outskirts of Sakaar just to snoop around a bit. She would never find anything, either the money hungry scrappers or the actually hungry natives would snatch up anything interesting left in the piles of garbage. However, on that particular day, that wouldn't be the case.

It was just like any other day, Asa had taken one of the grandmaster's ships and flew out to the outskirts. She rapidly landed the ship and exited it to begin walking around. She walked through the piles of junk, attempting to spot anything shiny or sparkly for herself. But, she was suddenly stopped in her tracks when she heard a loud grunt from under her feet. Asa jumped away from the noise, then curiously took a look at where it came from. It seemed to be a man! Asa cocked her head, quite confused. 'How'd he last five seconds without being spotted by some scavengers?' She thought to herself.

The man wore an entirely black outfit and his raven hair fell down to his shoulders in a slicked back look. His dark colors kept him blended in shadows of the mountains of junk. "Are you alright?" Asa asked, her eyes wide and attentive.

"Where am I?" The man in black asked as he began to get up.

"The planet of Sakaar." Asa told as she twisted her head around to check for any hostile headed toward her.

"Where?" The man asked.

"The planet is manmade. Created by the grandmaster himself." Asa explained.

"Who?" The man was entirely too lost to even understand her.

"Sir, you must come with me before—" Asa began, but she was too late. Scavengers from all around spotted her speaking to her new find. They began to charge at her and the man. She quickly pulled out her small gun and began trying to keep away the scavengers from stealing away the man. The man quickly followed her pursuit and pulled out a dagger from his coat and defended himself. Once they finished taking care of the small group attacking them, Asa rapidly turned to the man. "You must come with me. There'll be more, especially now that we've made a commotion." Asa informed and ran off toward her ship.

The man eyed her with a distrusting look but followed her anyway. The two entered the ship and Asa began to fly off back to the city. "What is your name?" The man asked Asa.

"Asa. What is yours?" She answered.

"I am Loki, King of Asgard." He spoke with a loud and confident voice, hoping to intimidate Asa. However, she had little to no knowledge of what a king was so she brushed his title off.

"Asgard. Hm... I think I've met some Asgardians here before. All lost and angry souls." Asa mentioned.

Loki raised his brows at her as she focused on piloting the ship. "Sounds about right." He commentated.

"What do you do, Asa?" Loki asked, curious if she was some kind of scavenger as well.

"Nothing. I simply accompany the grandmaster." She was short with her answers. She didn't know this man, nor did she know what to do with him. She thought she'd just turn him over to the grandmaster and allow him to deal with what to do with him. All Asa wanted from the wasteland was something shiny, not a person!

"And where are we going?" Loki asked again, watching Asa carefully as she maneuvered them through the sky.

"You ask a lot of questions." Asa groaned.

"Well—" Loki began.

"Shut up." She interrupted him.

The rest of the flight was entirely silent and awkward for Loki. He was unsure whether following that woman was the best idea, however, he knew how to slip out of sticky situations if he needed to.

* * *

Once the two arrived at the grandmaster's tower, they were instantly greeted by him. He sat tall and proud at his throne-like chair as he smiled to Asa. "Asa, darling!" He shouted loudly so that everyone knew Asa was present.

"Hello grandmaster." She curtly nodded at him.

"Who do you have here?" He eyed Loki.

"A gift to you, his name is Loki." Asa nudged Loki forward, throwing the responsibility of dealing with his presence to the grandmaster.

The grandmaster shook his head. "No, no. If he came with you he must be a friend to you. And any friend of yours is a friend of mine." The grandmaster chuckled.

"Huh? We aren't friends. You can't enslave him or something? Or melt his brains?" Asa scoffed.

Loki's eyes widened in sudden fear. He scanned the room for any quick exits if necessary. "You know I hate that word!" The grandmaster whined.

"Okay, sorry, laborers." Asa corrected herself.

"He isn't fit for that type of work. And I seem to have suddenly taken a liking to this Loki." The grandmaster told, waving over a man holding a plate of drinks to serve Loki.

"Oh?" Asa raised her brow.

"Someone lead this man to a bedroom and get him settled in. Loki, we have dinner at nine on the top floor. Be there and don't be late." The grandmaster told Loki.

Loki nodded and cheekily smiled over to Asa. "Thank you, grandmaster." He spoke out.

* * *

Later on that evening, Asa went to go see Loki in his new bedroom. Not for any reason in particular, simply because she thought that he'd like to see a familiar face. She knocked on his door and within seconds, the door was opened to reveal him standing tall in his same black suit.

"Hello." Asa greeted then slid past him to enter his room. She found herself a spot on a small couch that decorated the room wonderfully.

"You tried to give me away as a slave, and now you come here as a friendly visitor?" Loki scoffed as he closed the door and made his way over to Asa.

Asa shrugged. "I was bored and wanted to talk to someone new." She admitted.

Loki eyed her suspiciously, then sat next to her on the couch. "So, do you capture people often?" Loki sarcastically asked as he pretended to try and make conversation.

"No, you were my first." Asa told.

"Sounds auspicious for any man, I'm flattered." Loki twisted her words into an underlying sexual innuendo.

Asa rolled her eyes. "Changing topics... so, Asgard, huh?" She inquired. Loki nodded. "I don't know much about it except the Valkyrie and the Bifrost."

"I got to Sakaar because I fell out of the Bifrost, actually." Loki noted.

"Huh. You'd think the bridge would be a quick line straight from Asgard to Midgard using wormholes. Oooo, maybe the bridge uses quantum techniques..." Asa began to ponder aloud about how the Bifrost truly worked. It must've folded space and time to quickly transport from point A to B.

"You're quite intelligent." Loki's eyes ran over her entire face. He was watching her very carefully. Of course he had already realized she was physically attractive, but knowing that she was intelligent as well made Loki grow a respect for her— even though she tried to give him away as a slave.

"I know." Her humor even match his style of humor. He was starting to think they were the same person.

Asa stopped her train of thought to glance at Loki who was staring at her. "Okay, I get it. I'm hot. You don't have to make it obvious." She sneered at him, making his face flush with embarrassment. He didn't know he'd have someone pick at his brain with playful little jokes. He was the one to always do such things to others.

The two warmed up with each other more and more as time went on. And the more they felt comfortable with one another, the more they talked. Neither one of them knew they had such blabber mouths until then. Because the both of them went on and on and on talking about random, non personal topics. They even set aside their sarcasm and witty jokes to converse so much.

Hours later, a small knock came from the door and Loki scurried over to answer it. "Is Madame Asa in there with you? She wasn't in her room." A small woman that worked for the grandmaster spoke up.

Asa heard the call and hurried over to the door. "Yes?" She greeted the woman bluntly, quite irritated that her and Loki's peculiar conversation had been interrupted.

The woman handed a dress and a box full full of jewelry and undergarments that she had been holding over to Asa. "From the grandmaster. He wants you to wear it tonight." She relayed the message then hurried away.

Loki shut the door as Asa walked over to his bed to place the items down. "Does the grandmaster always give you dresses and lingerie to wear?" Loki questioned as he peered at the strange compilation of clothes she had to wear.

Asa sighed. "Yes. I'm his puppet, don't you know?" She falsely laughed.

Loki cocked his head inquisitively. "I'm his escort, Loki. Have you not realized? I'm just a plaything for men to look at." She grunted as she began to strip away her clothes.

"Woah, woah!" Loki shouted as he looked away.

"Calm down. I'm not shy about such things." She told him as she rapidly slipped on the clothes and jewelry she needed to wear.

Loki continued to look away, too flustered to speak. Women were never particularly fond of him, likely because he was always causing mischief. So, he never was too comfortable seeing a woman in little to no clothing. "I'm dressed now." She informed him, so that he could turn back around.

He sighed out in relief. "You let him control you like that?" Loki asked.

"Well, I have a roof over my head, don't I? So yes, I do." Asa didn't mind it, as long as she could live comfortably.

"You could do so much better, Asa." He told, shaking his head at her.

"How? I know of nothing else. I have no parents. I have no family. I have no friends." Asa stumped Loki. He had no ideas on how to help her, let alone help himself. Asa liked how Loki seemed to find a faint interest in caring for her.

"I don't know. If I knew what to do I would help you." Loki sighed.

Asa couldn't help but to hug Loki. She squeezed him so tightly that he was beginning to lose oxygen. "Thank you."

"For what exactly?" He inquired.

"For caring. No one does." She broke the hug to look him deeply in his bright green eyes. And in that moment, the stars seemed to be perfectly aligned in the universe for the both of them. And there seemed to be this unseen force pushing them to be together. Only hours ago they were strangers, but now, due to some sort of fate, they were close. Entirely too close for most people's liking. But close enough for a kiss. They stared wide eyed at each other for a bit, allowing the creeping anticipation to linger between them right before they finally pressed their lips onto each other.

The kiss was explosive. And it was magical. It felt entirely too right. It seemed as if they were meant to be together and they were supposed to fall in love. But, it didn't take long for reality to set in and for Asa to realize she couldn't be kissing another man or else she could be killed by the grandmaster for betraying him. She pulled away from Loki. "I'm sorry." She whispered as she pressed her fingertips to her lips, trying to savor the taste of his sweet lips. Then, she took off out of his room.