Gardenias (L. Laufeyson)

Chapter 23

Frigga walked briskly down the corridors of the palace with an excited sparkle in her eye. As she approached the hallway outside of the ballroom, her gaze fell on her younger son and her soon-to-be-daughter, a pairing that made her smile widen the longer she watched.

The couple stood apart from the rest of the Asgardian royal family. Frigga smiled fondly at the couple as Maeve fussed with the collar of Loki's emerald-colored cape, trying and failing to get it to lie straight. Instead of helping her, the prince plucked the delicate tiara off of her hair and held it above her head in a teasing way.

Thor stood alone on the other side of the hall, adjusting his scarlet cape. As Odin was busy conversing with a guard about security precautions, Frigga approached her eldest son.

"Thor," she said, smiling up at him, "you're oddly quiet, my son."

"Just thinking, Mother," he answered honestly. "I can't believe it's been a year."

"I know. Who would've thought things would turn out so well?" Frigga remembered how reluctant Loki acted, how reserved Maeve seemed. Yet somehow, they found each other through circumstance.

Thor grinned. "Not me."

"Oh?"

"I didn't think this would last an entire year," he confessed, chuckling. He greatly admired the girl his brother was to marry, and he already considered her to be a younger sister. The ceremony would just make things official. "I thought Loki was going to chase her out of the realm ages ago."

"Yes, they suit each other," Frigga replied. "I think they both received more than they bargained for."

Thor grinned as he recalled the day Maeve showed up to dinner with bright pink curls or Loki covered head to foot in flowers, how he sneezed all morning. He also remembered being hit in the head with a lady's shoe, and though he never had any proof, he felt like one of them had something to do with it. "In a good way."

"Don't tell me you are jealous of your brother."

Thor laughed loudly. "Oh no. She fits him perfectly. They're happy together and I'm happy for them. Besides, I think marrying this young would be awfully boring."

She winked at him. "Your time will come one day, my son."

Across the hall, Maeve and Loki occupied themselves by playfully bickering, a pastime at which the two excelled.

"Can't we go see them?" Maeve begged. Laughing, Loki put a hand on her shoulder to stop her from bouncing up and down.

"No. We have to wait to be announced," he replied with a smile. "It's against the court traditions to see any guests before we've been presented. Best for last. That's us."

"And suddenly you're all for the rules?"

He smirked and put an arm around her waist. "Not in the slightest, but Father is, and if I'm not mistaken, he's keeping his eye on us."

Both of them glanced over: Odin indeed was watching them intently.

"I didn't think you were keen on listening to him, either." Loki didn't miss the malice in Maeve's voice, and it shocked him. She possessed a sharp tongue, but it didn't usually emerge from behind her soft exterior and court mannerisms. Nothing she learned of Odin in her year of knowing him led her to embrace him as a father-in-law, or even to like him much at all.

"Cheer up, flower. We'll have fun tonight."

"Oh, yes. The two of us will definitely enjoy a night with dignitaries that we have to play nice with." She raised her eyebrows and gave him a shrewd look that made him want to kiss her, but he didn't. He preferred to keep their relationship private, at least the parts of it he could. Because even though they were forced together, he fell in love on his own.