Loki X Reader || Girl With The Gold Earring

16 | Breakfast With A Friend

When Y/N wakes the next morning she notices the curtains in their borrowed room are darned with little felt sunshines. They each have their own smiling face, the stitches a little uneven but friendly, the real sun lighting them up from behind.

Already, Y/N can hear the hum of many mouths chattering and the tinkle of spoons on flatware. The voices are young and female, apart from Arne's which sounds amongst the girlish giggles like a bear amongst sheep.

Sometimes—before her adventure to the Vanir Kingdom—Y/N would help Arne with chores he didn't have time to do between working at the apothecary's and caring for his family. She'd often do his grocery shopping and pick up shoes and tools that he'd sent to be repaired. She'd drop them off at his little cottage and occasionally remain for a drink—

—but the house would usually be empty; his five sisters off around a friend's, plotting in their rooms, or exploring the woods that are slowly climbing into their back garden.

However, she's heard so many stories about them that she can picture each of them in her head:

Hallie, the eldest, who had eyed them from the door with mistrust earlier that morning,

Samantha, who, now entering her turbulent tween years, will not answer unless referred to as 'Sam',

Marnie, and Johanna five-year-old twins who seem to have inherited their mother's bashful demeanour,

—and Addie, the youngest, with her wide eyes and fierce, unwavering curiosity.

Each of these girls are sitting at the table when Y/N and Loki enter the kitchen, shovelling porridge into their mouths and wrestling with each other for topping and the juice pitcher.

When one catches sight of movement in the doorway their head snaps up and the rest follow suit like hares, their spoons halting on their way to their mouths.

Unused to so many faces being aimed at her at once, Y/N gives an embarrassed little wave—

—but soon realises they're not looking at her but rather, straight past to the tall, rather peculiar man at her heels.

Admittedly, he does appear rather out of place in the ragged little kitchen; with his head almost brushing the ceiling, his pale complexion and—compared to the men the girls are probably used to seeing about their working-class village—rather narrow, almost delicate build.

Loki is the gentlest of men, but to one that doesn't know him---with his angular face and calculating eyes—Y/N could see how he could be mistaken for quite the opposite.

The five sets of brown eyes pin him in the doorway, following every step of his bare feet, every fold of his expensive green shirt with curious, cautious fascination.

Respectfully, Loki nods a polite greeting to each girl one by one.

They don't say anything, apart from the eldest, Hallie—who seems to have caught a glimpse of his neck. She elbows the sister to her right, who elbows the next and the next and the next, a whisper hissing around the table like a breeze.

Arne notices Loki blush under the heat of their stares. "Girls!" he scolds, his usually genial tone firm as any father. "What did I tell you about being polite to guests?"

Every head turns back to their porridge immediately, and it isn't long before two of them are once again arguing over the bowl of blueberries.

Grateful, Loki takes the empty seat next to Y/N, and, to his right, the least threatening of the girls.

Perched on a stack of books so she can reach the table, Addie is still staring at him intently, her eyes very large in her little round face. After a deeply pensive, unblinking few seconds she says, her expression unchanging: