Loki X Reader || Girl With The Gold Earring

34| The Adventure Was A Bad Idea

Y/N waited in the safety of Loki's rooms as he checked the hallways, looking left and then right for stray maids, wandering royalty, or very lost members of the Allfather's court.

Evidently, he found none, because he stepped one bare foot over the threshold.

He waited a moment, as though expecting a booby trap to spring, then turned back to Y/N with a shrug of his wide shoulders. "It's fine, no one's about."

They're taking a risk by leaving the sanctuary of their private little patch of Asgard, and yet Loki appears nonchalant enough, one end of his mouth twitched up in his trademark smirk.

The same can not be said for Y/N, her ribcage all alight with little licking flames of excitement---and she's not even out the door yet. She rubbed a centimetre of her crisp maid's dress between finger and thumb. "Are you sure?" she asked stupidly, and felt her cheeks dust pink as Loki laughed at her.

"Yes, I'm sure. No one really comes around this part of the palace anyway."

Y/N knew he was right, and yet when she followed him it was still with cautious, tentative steps. He waited for her patiently, stifling a chuckle as she locked the door to his chambers with solemn seriousness, and edged over to his side.

She started as he touched a hand to the small of her back.

"We don't have to---"

"No, I want to," Y/N assured, although she's still trying to even out her breathing. It won't settle into a regular rhythm no matter how many times she mentally resets it.

It didn't improve as they took up an easy walk. Like a child, Y/N wanted to take Loki's hand, but thought better of it. The hallways are clear now, but someone could round a corner at any moment. Their rehearsed lie would be easier to deliver with their fingers not intertwined.

"We can turn back if you're scared," Loki said kindly enough, although his lip doing that smirky thing, and Y/N huffed at him---partly because she still couldn't grab a proper lungful of air.

"I'm not scared, I'm excited." A little way ahead, the hallway branches off like rivers through a gully. "Which way is it?"

Loki gestured to the stairs Y/N ascends and descends every day, long slender bars of gold merged seamlessly into the palace floor. "Down."

-- ❈ --

Before each new corridor, Y/N waited for Loki to give her the all-clear, then scurried to match his footsteps, his pale feet silent, hers slippered and padding softly like the frantic beating of rabbit's toes racing for a burrow.

They encountered no one, the palace predictably empty, and braved a few small, quiet conversations; usually about statues or paintings they passed along the way. Many were of Loki's relatives---grizzled war-scarred men as large and fierce as bears. Y/N couldn't tell whether the statues were life-size or not. 

"I'll be up there one day," Loki pointed out. "I'll look quite out of place, won't I?" 

As they neared the core of the palace, the sentences passed between them pittered out. Loki knew several short cuts and lesser-known passageways, but they'd still hear the occasional hum of the staff conversations behind closed doors.

They descended deeper into the palace, and Y/N wondered if they were going right down to the servants quarters. However, when they neared the bend where Y/N would usually turn off to reach the mess hall, Loki took a right, leading them in the opposite direction.