Chapter 1
“Lay a hand on me, then. I'll go so far as to dare you.”
Sif's eyes harden, and Loki nearly grins at the open frustration in her eyes as she yields.
“As I thought,” he chides softly, and puts a hand on her shoulder, pursing his lips in mock pity as if addressing a petulant child. “If it would save your pride, my lady, you may tell your knights that I begged for mercy.”
He pushes a lock of hair behind her ear and whispers, “I wouldn't let that rumor leave the training grounds, though. Wouldn't that be a pain?”
She opens her mouth, but the next voice in the room isn't hers.
“You may go, Prince Loki.”
With a flourish, he turns, magic sweeping him directly in front of Thor. “My lord.” He inclines his head in a gesture of respect, that of one noble to another. From his bow, he glances up to the Asgardian, letting his eyes show their natural red from under his eyelashes.
Thor's shoulders tense, and the trickster smirks.
“Don't worry. I was just leaving.”
And before the older prince can reply, Loki is gone.
“… I detest him.”
Snapping from a haze, Thor walks over to his companion; he wraps an arm around her and squeezes empathetically. “I assure you I feel much the same. But so long as my mother is blinded by love…”
Sif nods sagely. “I do not intend to go against her wishes, my friend.”
“And for that I thank you.”
From a corridor where neither can hear him (yet he can them), Loki laughs.
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