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"SERENA! SERENA! COME QUICK!" Loki's excited tone caught the attention of the quiet girl as he bounded into the public drawing-room, and for the first time that day brought a small smile to her face as she watched him walk hurriedly towards her. It had been a few days since their rendezvous in the library, and the pair had somewhat grown closer.
"Excuse me one moment, Asta." She muttered, her eyes not leaving the hasten prince who she was convinced had forgotten about her. Setting down her hoop of attempted embroidery, she stood from her seat and met him halfway silently wondering to herself if Loki would enjoy using a needle and thread, or if he would sweep her away to do something more entertaining.
His goofy smile told her all she needed to know as he grabbed her hand and lead her away from prying ears and the treacherous hoop stitch Asta was insistent she complete, having called it, 'the talent of any self-respecting woman'
Loki was most definitely not interested in crafts, but he was interested in the girl whose palm resided against his and although he would never admit it aloud, she was seemingly everywhere he looked and everywhere his mind wondered to nowadays. Her sorrowful eyes and pouted lips invaded his thoughts like wildfire, while her gentle words smothered his intrusive remarks like thick, heavy smoke.
Loki silently despised it, but curiosity held a far better grip on him than morals, and so he continued to lead her farther away from her motherly servant whose heavy eyes bore into his back like hot stones.
"What is it you wish to show me?" She asked softly, her voice tender in a way that he didn't quite understand. It was soft and sweet like his mother's, although severely lacking in the doting maternal undertone that would have made him cringe. Instead, it made his heart race when she spoke his name in that delicate timbre, and even faster when he got the chance to speak her's and see her head turn in response to his call.
"Need I have a reason to speak to my friend?" Loki inquired slyly, his sharp eyes taking in the slight bow of her head in his peripheral as she attempted to hide the red tinge prickling at her cheeks. Loki smiled a self-satisfied smirk and tightened his grip on her hand only slightly. "If you really must know and ruin my surprise—"
"No! I wish to be surprised!" Serena quickly cut in, her eyes widening as she realized she had raised her voice to an unnecessarily loud volume. A few on-duty guards sent the troublesome-looking pair an odd glance, though not much more as they returned to their statue-like positions. "I thought you had forgotten about me. I haven't seen you since last week." She added, this time much softer.
"I suppose our paths just never crossed," He lied through a smile. Loki was the master of little white lies, but the truth was, Loki had seen her; walking in the hallways, eating in the dining hall, reading through the same large stack of books in the library, and roaming around the gardens, all shadowed by the ever present Asta who'd made it a point to keep by her lady every hour of the day. Though it didn't seem to bother Serena, it bothered Loki immensely. How was he to spend any time with a girl who had an eternal chaperone?
