The Bridge Between Us - Loki X Reader

10 - "Are you not going to thank me?"

"Teach me."

The prince's eyes widened, his black hair shimmering in the dappled sunlight as he cocked his head slightly. He seemed rather startled by her request.

"What?"

"Please," the girl begged, "I- I want to know how." Upon seeing his stunned expression, Y/N pushed it again, all previous disputes forgotten. "I've seen the things you can do with it and I want to learn."

Loki still didn't say anything. He only stared at her.

A few seconds passed.

Y/N's heart beat frantically as she waited for him to respond. Finally, he shook his head as if to knock himself out of a daze.

"You..." he started slowly, "want me to teach you?" He gestured to himself and then to her, his tone almost incredulous. Now seeing the boldness in her question, Y/N hurried to correct herself.

"I mean, if it's possible," she backpedaled, watching his face for any sort of change, "and if you wanted to- I'm not saying that you have to, I was just asking..." She was stumbling over herself and running out of things to say, and Loki didn't seem to be responding. She mentally slapped herself for being so stupid as to ask such a ridiculous thing of him, but she had gotten caught up in the moment and jumped a bit too far ahead. And to ask Loki of all people? What was she thinking?

She attempted to continue, hoping that she could recall her previous words, but Loki held up his hand to silence her. He still looked ruffled, but he seemed to force the emotion away.

"Why would you want to learn magic?" He asked, narrowing his eyes. Y/N couldn't decide if he was genuinely curious or if he was just pandering. Either way though, it gave her some inkling of hope that she latched onto.

"I find it fascinating," she said honestly, although hesitating halfway through her sentence. "It has so many uses and purposes...Asgard just wouldn't exist without it." She found herself growing excited just talking about it, the rather childish emotion returning as she explained (while carefully choosing her words). "It's not just practical, I've seen what your mother does with it and really..." she trailed off, pausing for a moment, "it's beautiful."

She was surprised to see his face soften.

"Well, you aren't lying."

She looked at him in confusion.

"I can tell when people are lying, and you...you aren't."

The girl didn't exactly know how to respond, so she just answered with a simple "oh". There was a long silence between the two. For her, it was agonizingly painful to maintain eye contact, but she kept it, hoping that he would see how badly she wanted this. Loki took a couple of steps backward and turned his back to her. She could see him fiddling with his hands, and a few seconds passed before he faced her again.

"Hold out your hands."

"What?"

"Hold out your hands," he repeated, and she obliged. "Magic is something that can't be learned by watching. You have to discover and experience it for yourself. Close your eyes."

Was...was he serious? Had something she said actually worked? Part of her was worried that he would try to pull something on her when she did, but for some reason that didn't seem to be his intent. She did as he asked.

"Now focus. The hardest part is finding it for the first time." Y/N opened her mouth to ask him what exactly she was trying to find, but he shushed her. "Don't speak. Just listen." She heard him walking around, the grass rustling beneath his feet.