CASTLE ↝ Loki Laufeyson | 2

↳ CHAPTER TWO

         NIGHT HAD FALLEN, at least concluding from the darkness and silence emerging from most of the prisoners soundly asleep, but instead of following their lead and dreaming of what could have been, Nova had found her preferred way of amusement from yet another book. For a while, anyway — skimming the pages had been brief work, especially with most of the tales following the same pattern of a good guy winning and a bad guy losing. Perhaps it was ridicule from the guards, leaving Nova with nothing but stories of villains failing miserably, just like she had done.

        So when the pages seemed to laugh at her and sleep didn't strike, Nova settled for sitting by one of the walls with a handful of raspberries and tossing them into the sparking shade of golden, causing the food to hiss and melt. For a prisoner, she did have acceptable food, but what she didn't need, she used to fuel her rebelling, to irritate everyone in the vicinity with her antics. She, for one, was wildly amused by the sight of the pink goo, and knowing that sooner or later, one of the guards would get fed up, was more than satisfying.

        Loki beat them to it, however.

         "For heaven's sake, would you mind?" he exhaled deeply, raising his gaze from his own book, a thoroughly tired look shot at Nova — and not because of the ungodly hours. The frustration didn't do much to discourage the woman, though, a low chuckle rumbling from her throat as she purposefully flung one last berry at the wall.

        "Heaven, huh?" she picked on his words then, wiping her empty hands against each other before looking up at the white tiles in the ceiling and sighing. "Really didn't peg you as the type to believe in that kind of stuff", she wondered out loud, the attempt at conversation enough for Loki to put his book away and stare at Nova from his own cell, endless distance between them.

        Breaking into a sly grin, Loki narrowed his eyes at her. "You certainly look like a heavenly creature. Falling from above must have hurt", he theorized, balancing the fine line between harmless banter and genuine affection — he always was good at that — with a sparkle in his eye, the kind that Nova could imagine without even looking at him. Nonetheless, she cracked a profoundly amused laugh at the flirty comment, and as her cell echoed with the cackle, she finally faced him and quirked a doubtful eyebrow at him.

         "No, but I think I wounded my leg crawling up from the deepest depths of Hell", she countered with a proud smile on the faint red of her lips, effectively silencing Loki until she gestured at the golden window where the remains of her raspberries gradually slipped off. "Must be awful", she taunted vaguely, and the curious tone earned a confused look from Loki.

        "Care to elaborate?" he inquired with a bitter smile, eyebrows knitted together and the creases on his forehead only deepening when Nova laughed. Nonetheless, when she made a move from the farthest wall to the one nearest to Loki, he followed suit and crawled closer, leaving them separated only by the tempting golden. The company offered an unexpected feeling for them both, their cold hearts faltering a little with the surge of warmth neither dared to mention.