"Not for me." I reply to him. Moving his hand from my chin. He chuckles and steps back. I shift my weight from off the shelf and start walking around to examine more books. "You're ankle, it does not bother you anymore?" Loki asks.

I shake my head, not bothering to look in his direction. "But you could hardly stand last night" Loki pressed. I waved my hands around. "It's a miracle, then." I said with a teasing voice. He does not look pleased with my reply, so I said, "I visited the healers this morning, if you must know," I said, raising my chin a little in confidence to my answer, though I know he doesn't need Dygö to read my lies. "If you have so much free time, and your ankle is definitely better, why not come to the garden with me?" Loki asks. I stiffened slightly, turning toward the bookshelves once again. "I don't think that is a good idea," I said, before braving the waters and turning back toward him once again. He quirked a brow. Sensing that my words may seem different than I meant them, I quickly justified them. "The garden is exclusive to royals only, and I do not wish to test my luck with Odin." I said sheepishly.

Loki laughed. "I seriously doubt my father would care much of you going to the garden." He laughed. And with that I knew I wasn't going to win that, and he would probably end up getting what he wanted anyone. So I nodded.

Loki, with a smile that could destroy me on his lips, led me out of the corridor, and I confusingly followed him out to the garden. As we walked down the hall and found the door to the garden, I opened it and realized I have never been back here before. He pushed open the door for me and I thanked him with the nod of my head and a quick murmur of gratitude. I was taken aback by the beauty of the garden. The roses were standing proudly with tulips and poppies. Patches of lilies were scattered across the exquisite sight. It took me a moment to register the view, the way the sunlight reflected so perfectly on the golden towers that it was not to bright, but illuminated every individual flower like that one was a godsend.

We walked for a moment, then we found a place in the beautiful scenery to sit.

"I wanted to speak with you." Loki says finally after a few moments of admiring its beauty. The garden was exquisite, absolutely breathtaking.

The garden exceeded my expectations, it's colors clashing together in ever shade you could imagine in an appeasing way.

"And you needed to do this in a garden why?" I ask. He chuckles. "Is this not more pleasant than a library?" He asks. I nod and smile. "So, what did you want to speak about?" I urged, overwhelmed by the circumstances I found myself in.

"Well, nothing really, I thought I could come up with something on the spot but nothing comes to mind." He says, my cheeks flush red and I turn my head away as I hid my laugh behind my hand, pretending to take interest in an exquisite flower next to the mahogany bench.

My pretending turned out to be a genuine moment to look at the flowers, admiring the beauty of the royals private garden. I'd had no desire to see this place, and I didn't care for botany in general, but I had to admit that this was quite the sight. "It's beautiful." I say. "What kind of flower is that?" I ask, I feel Loki lean forward to see what I was motioning toward. He comes so close I can feel his breath on my neck. "The gardener adds new ones quite often. But I believe those are tulips." He says, I almost laugh. He knew the big and bad God of Mischief knew so much about flowers. I turn my head to say something, but stop when my face comes close to Loki's. My breath shortens and my heart drops in my stomach. I swallowed forcefully, my throat bobbing. I made myself gather myself and stare at him normally, forcing a neutral mask over my face. "So.. to the point. Why did you need to be alone with me so badly?" I inquired, raising my chin in curiosity and failing terribly at keeping my voice steady.

I'd expected amusement, but Loki's eyes were serious and wistful, moving between my lips and my eyes. My breath came short of my lungs, and I found out that being around Loki was seriously dampening my oxygen intake.

"Would you like my honesty?" Loki purred, his green eyes darkening a shade. The corner of my lip twitched. "If you can manage it," I teased, knowing honesty isn't the God of Lies' strong suit. Loki surprised me when his hand suddenly went to my jaw and he was impossibly closer to me, heat flushed my face and I swear that I wasn't breathing.

His breath caressed my lips as he huskily told me, "To do this," his mouth came with a hairs breadth away and I gasped audibly, but before any contact was made we were interrupted.

"Brother! I have c- oh hello Lyra." A familiar voice yells from behind us. I flustered to a deep shade of red, my face igniting as we whipped our heads to see Thor standing there awkwardly, clearly not knowing how to react. I frowned at him angrily, suddenly wishing I could have something in my hand to throw at him. "Oh, uh, glad to see you two are getting along!" Thor says sheepishly. Loki shoots a glare at him. "What is it that can't wait," Loki snapped, and I think my face might've turned even redder if it was even possible. "Well, Loki, Father wishes to speak with you." Thor says.

-

Almost a week later, dinner was about the same as always, a lot of people gathered around Thor to ask him questions about his trips to other worlds. Thor ends up beating Volstagg in a drinking contest (along with many other men) and me and Sif eat in silence, occasionally making a joke to Thor when he tries to get our attention. I caught Loki staring at me from across the room, and Sif also notices. "Loki's staring at you." Sif says, nudging me with her arm. "I noticed." I tell her.

I smile at him and Sif scowls. I turn to her. "What is it?" I ask her. "Nothing." She says, shaking her head and turning her attention back to Thor. I look at my food, almost none of it was left. My mind wanders to the vision I had seen before, what could it have been? Could my imagination just have been spiraling out of control? I thought.

"Something troubling you, love?" Loki spoke in my mind. I looked up to see Loki staring at me. "Nothing really, just had a weird dream." I think, hoping Loki can hear me. "Show me."

He says in my mind. I meet eyes with him and shake my head. "Why not?" He asks. "Some things need to be private, Loki." I tell him. He stares at me, unreadable. I feel a sense of guilt wash over me, after all, his brother AND his father both know. "So my family knows." Loki says in my head. I feel myself heat with anger. "Stay out of my thoughts, Loki!" I demand. I look at Loki, and when I look at him, I feel a sense of jealousy and pain, and I've learned to identify these as Loki's feelings. I sighed, then thought, "Okay, I'll show you."

I imagine the vision I had, the Frost Giants breaking into the treasure room. "If it was only a dream why is it something to be worried about?" Loki asks. "Because there are Frost Giants on the loose and I wanted to be careful." I lied. He raises his eyebrows but I tear my gaze from his and focus on Thor.

He throws his mug behind him and yells, "Another!" The people around him erupt in laughter, and I turned to leave. "My dear Lady Lyra, where are you going?" Thor asks. "Just retiring to my chambers for the night. I trust you can take it from here." I say, with a subtle wink. He nods his head at me with a loud, drunken laugh and I dismissed myself. Once I shut the door behind me and no one was insight, I teleported to my room and peeled all my clothing off, I went to change into a nightgown, but when I opened the drawer inside the chiffarobe, there was a new article of clothing there.

It was a green and gold night gown, Loki's colours. Under it was a note that read, I couldn't help but notice you wearing red yesterday. That simply won't do. I laughed at the flirtatious note and folded the cloth back neatly into the drawer. I began to walk away before I turned back toward the dresser. Why not try it on? I might as well get out of my hot, torturous armor I wore. I quickly changed and examined myself in the full length mirror leaning on my chifforobe. The emerald embroidery hugged the hem of my nightgown and etched designs across the dip in my bosom, I studied it with a humored eye, not really surprised Loki would purposefully give me such a scandalous gift, and without changing into anything else I close my chifforobe. I walk out on the balcony, staring at the night sky.

Dinner always went on real late, so I liked to sit on the balcony and stare at the stars, but I hadn't been doing it much because of exhaustion. I had once read a book about the constellations that littered our skies, all the Greek mythology that goes into it. I breathed in the beautiful golden city, leaning my bare forearms against the golden ornate railing that kept me from plunging into, well, certain death. I pushed my body weight against the railing as I stared at the villages below, the town center that even in the dark of the night overhead was buzzing with people.

These people were my duty, they were the people Odin swore me to protect as admiral.
Odin may be the Allfather, but it is I that bares the sword. I was his sword, and through me, he protected the realms.

My thoughts we're interrupted abruptly when the railing bent from my weight, suddenly the poles attached to the balcony snapped and my body fell forward. Surprise filled me and I barely had time to registered what happened when my hand grabbed onto the serrated pole that was left from the railing that now fell to the palace grounds. While scrambling to find purchase, my hand stabbed onto the leftover pole while trying to save myself. I cried out in surprise but still stopped my descent, though blood now flowed freely from my wounded hand. Pain spread through my palm and sparks flew in my vision from the adrenaline, I knew I had seconds before I fell to pull myself up, but my strength or not I had no leverage.

I didn't have the capacity to think about how that happened, I was seconds away from falling to a death not even the Allfather could survive, I couldn't even think to teleport as my wounded hand began to give from the agony spreading through my palm.

I struggled to find some leverage, but I had nothing to aid me as my wounded hand failed me. "Shit!" I yelled out, trying to swing myself up onto the balcony, but it didn't matter, the smooth surface offered nothing, no traction, no retribution.

I began to fall.

A scream got stuck in my throat, and I didn't have time to think to teleport before another hand was wrapped around my bloody one, saving my from my descent. I gasped at the sudden stop in my fall, staring at the distance from me and the ground, before looking up to meet the eyes of my savior.

I was relieved and surprise to find frantic, emerald green eyes meeting mine, Loki's face not in the least bit humored. He was flat against my balcony, his shoulders pulled over the side. A millisecond later if he had tried to save me, I would've brought him with me. I couldn't think on it much longer when Loki sat upright and pulled me into the safety of the balcony. I gasped as my body slammed onto the cool material of the balcony while breathing heavily to try and clear my shock and my pain. I pulled myself to my knees and lifted my eyes to look at my savior.

Then suddenly Loki's arms were around me, if not for my sake then for his, his hands cupped my face and his eyes searched mine, searching for wounds not shown on the surface. "Gods, Lyra, how- what-"

"I'm okay," I answered for him in breaths, warmth spreading through my cheeks. I felt embarrassed for some absurd reason, shouldn't the king's admiral know what she was doing?

"No- your hand," Loki grabbed my hand gently and held it up for his evaluation, worry and distress creasing his eyes and wrinkling his nose.

"It's just a scratch, really, I'm okay-"

I felt my lie as soon as it left my mouth, Loki saw it, my wound was deep, bleeding, and my arm was trembling as blood pooled from the wound, but he didn't stay concentrated on the wound very long. His eyes went right back to my face.

"No- no its not, by the Gods, I heard a crash- you screamed- " his head fell against my shoulder and I stiffened in surprise at his intimate gesture, and even more at the tremble of his hands. Was this still the Loki with a mischievous glint in his eye?

"I thought you were being attacked- dead maybe- I hadn't known if I'd lost you-" his voice was choppy, he pulled his head away and looked at me. "Surely, Lyra, you must know who you are to me. You must know how much I-I-"

I couldn't think of the pain anymore, just that he saved me, all of his words played in my head and I needed him to know how I felt.

I interrupted him by tugging on his shirt and pulling him toward me, our lips smashing together roughly.