{SET BEFORE THE EVENTS OF 'THOR'}
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"Did you know," she said, sitting on the ground and turning to the prince, "that Midgard has an entire language dedicated to flowers? Each of them mean something else. It's a very sweet way they can express emotio...
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Loki yawned widely but he kept his eyes shut, intending to get a few more minutes of sleep while he still could. The night before had been nothing but restless tossing back and forth, attempting to rest and only dozing off for a few minutes. He reached out to wrap his arms around Maeve, but she was nowhere to be found.
His eyes flew open and he sat straight up, panic rising in his chest. She wasn't lying in bed next to him and she wasn't sitting in front of the fire. Daggers appeared in his hands without a second thought as he stumbled out of bed.
He couldn't even begin to comprehend how this happened. Every night, he slept with her in his embrace. How was she gone?
"Maeve?!"
A surprised shriek from the attached bathroom filled him with both relief and concern, but mostly relief. The knives clattered to the stone floor and he rushed over to the door just as she opened it.
"You scared me!" She said indignantly, pulling her robe more tightly around herself. She looked paler than usual, and cold sweat glistened on her face.
"You scared me! I thought that-" He fumbled with his words, which was very unlike him. Usually, words were his strong suit, but he struggled to find the right ones. "I woke up and you weren't there."
Wordlessly, Maeve pulled him into a tight hug that he didn't know he needed. He buried his face in her hair, inhaling the faint scent of flowers that somehow always lingered around her, and made himself breathe again.
He felt her tense up suddenly. Pulling away, he said, "Maeve-"
"I'm going to be sick," she muttered, running back into the bathroom, barely making it on time before she vomited into the toilet. It all clicked in Loki's mind and he knelt down next to her. "You can... you can go back to bed, if... you want."
"I'm staying right here with you," he said soothingly, holding back her blonde curls and rubbing comforting circles on her back. "Just get it all out. I'm here."
After a few minutes that felt like an eternity, Maeve leaned back, breathing deeply in an attempt to catch her breath. The naseua was gone, but she felt more exahusted than ever, almost like she had thrown up the few hours of sleep she had managed to get in.
"Do you feel any better?" Loki asked quietly, brushing a strand of hair out of her eyes with a gentle hand. She nodded and he immediately detected her lie but made no comment. "Are you feeling up to standing up?"
"In a minute." Maeve gave him a thin smile. "Good morning, by the way."
"Morning," he replied after pressing a kiss to her forehead and helping her to her feet. "Watch those, careful."
