Thaw

"𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐳𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐜𝐞."

❅

"Love can transpose to form and dignity," Belle recites to an interested looking Peter as she allows herself to relax into the small chair by Loki's bedside. "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore-"

"And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind," Loki finishes softly, shocking Belle as she had thought the Frost Giant was asleep.

Surprise manifests itself across Belle's face in the soft daylight before she can stop herself, the girl turning towards Loki's bed in an instant.

"You know Shakespeare?"

"I had an expensive education," Loki grunts softly, turning over in bed to face her.

"Actually," Belle says in a flutter of excitement, "Romeo and Juliet's my favorite play."

Loki groans theatrically, slumping down in bed as he rolls his eyes in mock dismay.

"Why is that not a surprise," he mutters, although his blue-tinted lips can be seen curving into the smallest of smiles at the ends.

"I'm sorry?" Belle snaps back quickly.

"Well, all that heartache and pining and," Loki finishes his sentence with a scoff, sticking his tongue out to emphasize his point. "There are so many better things to read."

"Like what?" Belle scoffs, teasingly challenging the giant beside her.

"Like this," Loki says moments later, throwing open the ornate golden doors of a room Belle had previously never thought to explore. "I suppose there are a couple of things in here you could start with."

Any witty retorts that Belle had thought of are suddenly nonexistent as her eyes scan the endless shelves holding more books than she could ever previously have fathomed. A large fireplace crackles nearby, illuminating the room with a soft, warm light in addition to the large windows spanning the length of the library.

Belle lets out a small gasp in both shock and amazement as she turns slowly, still scanning the neverending rows of bookshelves, housing more books than she had thought could even be in existence.

"Are you alright?" Loki suddenly asks in response to Belle's gasp, the faintest traces of worry creasing the lines of the dusted-blue features of his face.

"It's...wonderful," Belle remarks for lack of any better words, still gazing upon the almost otherworldly sight before her.

"Yes, I suppose it is," Loki says half to himself as he examines the girl's wonder and amazement before him. Never before had he ever stopped to appreciate the ornate workings of this castle that he had taken for granted for all these years. His own fascination of Belle's reaction stretches far beyond any other emotion that he had felt in the past years he was stuck here alone--so much, in fact, that he doesn't even catch the double meaning of his own words. "If you like it so much, than it's yours."

Belle could have sworn that at that moment her heart might have leapt out of her chest. Confused at his own words and reaction, Loki takes Belle's wondrous silence as an excuse to slowly turn around and make his way back to the doorway, intending to leave the girl to her thoughts--and himself to his own.

"Have you really read every one of these books?" She asks quickly, making Loki's retreating frame pause.

"What?" Loki questions, cocking his head over his shoulder to look at Belle's uncertain form shifting her weight back and forth. Belle only smiles sheepishly in response, making Loki realize that she was dead serious in her question. "Well," he scoffs teasingly, "not all of them. Some of them are in Greek."

Shocked amusement lights Belle's face. "Was that a joke? Are you making jokes now?" She teases.

Loki stares at her with the faintest traces of mischief and delight in his ruby-red eyes, unaccustomed to such playful banter after years of loneliness.

"Maybe."

A small smile creeps up Belle's face as Loki turns towards the exit once again, retreating to wherever he spends his time with only a small limp, thanks to Belle's care.

Finally left alone in the library of her dreams, Belle lets out another half laugh, half gasp as she slowly turns around, attempting to take in the vast, almost unending rows of bookshelves.

Where was she to start?

❅

Taking inspiration from her conversation with Loki that morning, Belle finally settled on reading Hamlet, opting to read one of Shakespeare's more popular tragedies--although she reasoned that she truly did not have any real place to be stingy in her selection, as her previous 'library' had consisted of only 7 badly-worn books.

The second shock of the day had been when Mrs. Potts entered the library hours later, inviting Belle to dinner with Loki.

"He wants to have dinner with me?" She had asked incredulously from her seated position on the lush, comfortable couch across from the fireplace.

"That's what he said, Dear," Mrs. Potts responded with a wink, her tea cart that she was perched upon rolling out of the room soon after.

And now, as Belle finds herself seated at the table across from Loki, who is awkwardly shifting in his seat at the head of the table, she focuses her attention on the words of the page of the book in her left hand.

However, looks may be deceiving, as Belle's mind was going a mile a minute, wondering what Loki's change of heart may have been in inviting her to dinner under the guise that she was just truly immersed in her reading.

Suddenly, a soft slurping sound comes from the opposite end of the table, and Belle looks up from her reading to see Loki holding his bowl of soup up to his face, sipping directly from the bowl instead of using his spoon like Belle is.

A small giggle escapes Belle's lips before she can stop herself, and Loki looks up from his bowl sheepishly, a crimson, almost purple hue coloring his cheeks in what Belle can only assume is the Frost Giant equivalent of a blush.

Loki's embarrassment turns to a laugh a few seconds later, however, as he quickly realizes that Belle wasn't making fun of him, and the pair's joint laughter soon echoes through the dining room softly.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, Thor, Clint, Mrs. Potts, Natasha, and Peter are all huddled on the other side of the door, the chorus of the pair's laughter bringing soft smiles to their faces and a flutter of hope in their hearts.

❅

"The air is blue and keen and cold," Belle recites from the small book in her hands, "and in a frozen sheath, enrolled."

It had been, again, much to Belle's surprise when she found Thor outside her bedroom door the next morning, insisting that she go on a walk through the palace grounds that afternoon.

Bundled up in a shawl and cloak that Wanda had so graciously provided her between the wardrobe's sleeping spells, Belle was less than surprised to find Loki wandering the gardens himself, quietly admiring the unnatural blue hue of the roses.

It appeared that Thor was becoming quite the matchmaker, although neither Belle nor Loki expressed this notion as they walked through the courtyard together.

"Each branch, each twig, each blade of grass seems clad miraculously with glass," Belle continues reading out loud as Loki stops atop the small bridge they were on, admiring the frozen lake before the both of them.

The sun peaks out from behind the clouds, illuminating the sight before them just enough for the lake to appear as if it were made up of a million crystals, each shimmering individually in the soft sunlight.

"I feel as if I'm seeing it for the first time," Loki remarks quietly, gazing across the frozen wonder as birds chirp softly in the distance.

Belle gazes up at Loki's face, seeing the wonder of the sight manifest itself onto Loki's pale blue features, his skin almost the same coloring as the frozen lake in front of them.

"Is there any more?" Loki asks after a few beats of comfortable silence, looking down at Belle to find her already gazing up at him.

A light, airy laugh escapes Belle's lips as she looks back down at the book in her hands, leafing through the pages to find the spot that she had left off on.

"But in the solemn silence is heard the whisper of every sleeping thing," she continues. "Look. Look at me. Come wake me up. For still here I be."

Belle finishes the passage, her eyesight fluttering back up at Loki's larger frame to meet his eyes that had never left her face as she read.

Loki and Belle's eyes meet for a split second, both parties wanting to say something but not finding the words to before they both break eye contact and look back over to the sight in front of them, neither of them acknowledging the unspoken moment they had just shared.

As Belle and Loki approach the stables towards the end of their walk, Belle lets out a small gasp of amazement as she catching sight of a beautiful white mare.

Approaching the horse slowly, Belle reaches out a hand slowly to caress the horse's mane. After seeing that the mare was comfortable with her, she reaches out and slowly rubs the nose bridge softly.

"What's her name?" Belle asks, looking back to Loki who was watching from a distance.

"Angel," Loki answers, slowly making his way over to Belle's side.

"She's beautiful," Belle remarks as Loki reaches out to pat Angel, to which the mare neighs softly.

Loki retracts his hand in confusion, feeling bad for having seemingly agitated the horse.

"Shhh, it's okay," Belle consoles the horse gently before looking back at Loki and reaching her hand out to him.

Confused, Loki slowly extends his hand towards Belle, and she places her own smaller hand atop his large blue one before placing their now conjoined hands on Angel's side.

"It doesn't...hurt?" Loki asks, referring to Belle's bare skin on his own.

"No, why would it?" Belle asks genuinely, gazing up at him. "It's just a bit cold, that's all."

Loki says nothing in response, and Belle slowly removes her hand from Loki's, allowing him to stroke the horse by himself. Moving away silently, Belle lips form a mischievous smile as she gathers nearby snow in her hand, keeping her eyes on Loki's back to ensure that he doesn't look her way as he continues to pet Angel.

Compressing the snow in her hands into the perfect snowball, Belle tosses the snow a moment later, hitting the back of Loki's head with a small thump.

Belle can't help but laugh at Loki's adorable confusion as he turns to see her there, doubled over from laughing. Belle is so engrossed in her laughter, however, that she doesn't notice as Loki reaches down to make a snowball twice the size of her own.

Looking up just in time to see Loki extending his arm to throw the frozen projectile, Belle can do nothing but watch as the snowball hits her square in the face, almost knocking her down from the force of the impact.

However, at the last moment, Loki is by her side to catch her, a boyish grin on his face as they both burst out in laughter.

❅

Sitting at the table in the dining room once again for dinner after taking a long bath to remove the chill of the outside from her bones, Belle continues to read her book as she swallows a spoonful of soup from the bowl in front of her.

Belle is surprised, yet says nothing as Loki enters from the kitchen, carrying his own bowl of soup to the table before sitting down in the seat to her left instead of at the far end of the table like he had the day before.

Moments later, Belle's reading is once again interrupted by the slurping sounds of Loki drinking his soup directly from the bowl.

With a small smile, Belle marks her page before closing her book and putting it down on the table to the side, and places her spoon nearby. Grabbing her bowl gently, Belle raises it to her lips before sipping her soup slowly, catching Loki's eye with a glimmer as he repeats her actions.

Again, unbeknownst to Belle and Loki, Thor, Clint, Natasha, Mrs. Potts, and Peter all watch the scene unfolding from behind the door, peering through the small crack in the opening.

Clint and Thor quitely high-five, gossiping to themselves before walking off to give the couple some space, Natasha flying away to tell Wanda upstairs as Mrs. Potts and Peter roll away on the tea cart.

"What are they talking about?" Peter questions Mrs. Potts as they roll back towards the kitchen.

"I'll tell you when you're older, Peter," Mrs. Potts answers, laughing softly at the boy's childlike innocence.

"Hmm," Peter says, waiting for a few moments before saying, "okay, I'm older now!"

"Oh, Peter," she says, laughing at the boy's antics.

❅❅❅