Beauty and the Beast||Loki x Reader AU

Chapter 1

A/n: Hello everybody! Today is June 6, 2021. I'm so excited to write this and happy that you guys do not have to wait for updates and I can just put this all out and get it done with so the Rosies may swarm and feast with the beautiful food their mother has placed before them.

A small and sweet cottage nestled in the inner village of Asgard sits quiet, filled with knowledge, love, and warmth. The door swings open to reveal a pure beauty graced with intelligent, fiercly inquisitive e/c eyes. 

Y/n.

With a book in hand, Romeo and Juliet, to be specific, she takes a deep breath of the sweet morning air and glances up at the clock, which spirals above the rooftops. 

It's such a little town. It's a quiet village. Every day like the one before, with people waking up to say "həˈlō".

As if on cue, multiple windows open with wives airing out their laundry, bidding həˈlō to everyone. A butcher opens his shop, waves to a cobbler moving past with his cart. An old vagrant is the only one to notice Y/n, smiling at her as he's tossed inside a holding tank by two gendarmes.

"Həˈlō!" Y/n weaves between the villagers, making herself invisible. She passes a harried baker, dropping a few coins down on the tray and purchasing buys a baguette. She approaches Einar, the potter, tending to his mule.

"Good morning, Y/n!" He greets, scratching his head as if trying to remember something. He searches his cart which is loaded with pottery.

"Good morning, Mr. Einar. Have you lost something again?" She asks, pausing on her path.

"I believe I have. Problem is, I can't remember what," he hums. "Well, I'm sure it will come to me." She offers him a small smile before turning away. "Where are you off to?" He calls out after her.

"To return this book to Mr. Bragi. It's about two lovers in fair Verona," she says, a true smile spreading across her face.

Einar hums. "Sounds boring."

Y/n's smile disappears and she walks off, reminded by the idiocy of the people around her. She passes school boys as they march into the school. "That girl is strange, no question," one whispers to another. The nasty Headmaster ushers them in impatiently, glaring at her.

"She's dazed and distracted, can't you tell?" He spits in her direction. As the boys scramble into school, Y/n steps on the stones over the duck pond, revealing girls forced into "woman's work" chores, washing clothes in the circular laverie. They're surrounded by women kneading clothes on barrels.

"Never part of any crowd 'cause her head's up on some cloud," one of the washer woman comments absentmindly.

"No denying she's a funny girl," the little girls giggle as she hops over their laundry. Y/n hops off the laverie and passes a farmer flirting with a fishmonger's wife. A shrewish clothilde bickers about the cost of eggs to the rejected farmer.

"There must be more than this provincial life," Y/n sighs to herself as she escapes into the peace and serenity of a country church. Jolly Bragi looks up as she enters.

"Well! If it isn't the only bookworm in town. So where did you run off to this week?" He asks, climbing off his ladder.

Y/n sighs, clutching the book to her chest wistfully. "Two cities in Northern Italy. I didn't want to come back." She hands Romeo and Juliet to Bragi, who dutifully returns it to the shelves of the village's "library", only a couple dozen books in total. Still, Y/n remains hopeful. "Have you got any new places to go?"

"I'm afraid not," Bragi admits. "But you may reread any of the old ones that you'd like."

Y/n smiles sadly, none the less thanking the only person she likes in this village, other than her father. "Thank you, Bragi. Your library almost makes our small corner of the universe feel big." He smiles. She picks up a new book and smiles back.

"Ha det," he bids. Y/n steps out, her nose planted in her book as she walks into the crowded market which is just being set up. Y/n passes Leif, Jarl, and Odd - all burly, tough guys.

"The girl is so peculiar," Leif comments. Y/n buys jam then glides past an apothecary's open cart.

"I wonder if she's feeling well," he thinks aloud, handing a prescription to a patient. She ducks under cheese sellers carrying their trays.

"She's got a dreamy far-off look and her nose stuck in a book. What a puzzle to the rest of us," one of them says. Behind her, florists pass with huge bouquets. It's a glorious seeming parade but she remains oblivous as she continues to read.

Oh... isn't this amazing? It's my favorite part. Here's where she meets Prince Charming, but she won't discover that it's him until chapter three. Y/n thinks, affectionately cradling Cinderella.

Three fashion-crazed village lasses all dressed in the same style pop their heads from the windows of the dress shop. Their mother, who is besotted with Belle, heads outside when she sees her. "Her looks have got no parallel."

Her daughter seeth with jealously. "But behind that fair facade I'm afraid she's rather odd," she sneers. "She's nothing like the rest of us." Two men, one muscular with blonde hair and the other short but burly with flaming red hair ride through the village gates. The muscular one motions toward Y/n in the village square. Geese flock around her feet, seeming to follow her. He speaks something to his companion, but it is drowned out in the clatter of the rest of the market in her ears. 

Noticing her crossing the market, he starts off in pursuit. He grabs flowers from the perfume and makes a bouquet. Slightly out of breath, he finally catches up with her. "Good morning, Y/n! Wonderful book you have there," he says in a deep voice.

"You've read it, Fandral?" Y/n asks, slightly bewildered.

"Well, not that one. But, you know. Books," the newly named Fandral trails off, handing her the flowers. "For your dinner table. Shall I join you this evening?" He asks, flashing her a smile that would send women swooning.

"Sorry, not tonight," Y/n says curtly, stepping closer to her house.

"Busy?" He presses, following her closely.

"No!" She hums sweetly, closing the door on him.