Why Even Try (Book 1 of 4)

Chapter 21 - Finding Out Something Interesting

"It's just difficult to say what I am about to say..."

"It's ok, take your time..."

He turns away for a bit and releases my arms. Rubbing the back of his neck, he stares out of the window for a moment as people pass between us in the hallway. Eventually he turns around, as the crowd has thinned a bit; and looks deeply in my eyes. With determined steps he crosses the hallway quickly, grabs my arms again and places a kiss on my lips. My eyes go wide in shock and once I realize what he is doing I push him back from me. Reaching a hand up to my lips, I'm in shock at what he has done.

"Cedrin! How dare you!" I yell.

"My apologies, but you must know that I fancy you and could not help myself any longer" he says, and gives me a hopeful look.

Shaking my head from side to side, I look to him with disbelief.

"You don't mean that, we ...we barely know each other..." I say and try to hold tears back and storm away from him. He follows me down the hall.

"I'm sorry, I see that I have upset you. " he apologizes again. "But I must know, are you promised to the Prince?"

He grabs my arm and spins me around to face him.

"I am not talking about this with you, you are lucky I do not report what you did!," I begin to yell, "no gentleman on Asgard should ever steal a kiss from a lady!"

"I must know if you are promised to the Prince...If you are I will not bother you any longer," he says, "but if you are not....I would,... I...."

Just then Loki rounds the corner and sees that Cedrin has a hold of my arm and has pushed me against the wall. He can tell that I am upset because he can feel it and when I look over to him briefly he can see the tears in my eyes. I look back to Cedrin just as Loki speaks.

"Good morning Lady F/n, are you alright?" he asks, "My apologies for interrupting your...moment?"

Continuing to stare into each other's eyes, I break eye contact with Cedrin and look down.

"Your Highness," Cedrin says and bows to Loki, "good morning"

Loki merely just nods at Cedrin, and then turns to me.

"Lady F/n, are you alright?" Loki asks again

Looking up in to Loki's eyes, I turn to look at Cedrin again and then turn back to Loki.

"You are interrupting nothing Your Highness, " I say, "I am well, thank you for asking. Cedrin we can discuss this later, now if you will both excuse me"

I leave and wander down the hall and quickly teleport to another floor. I move and take a seat in the alcove. I am supposed to working a shift in the ward today too, but I do not know if that is a good idea now after what happened. I put my hand up to my head for a moment and get lost in my thoughts.

Cedrin likes me, and Fandral hinted that many people know not to get near me, but why? He moved Cedrin out of the way as soon as he saw...what? Loki appeared so quickly and interrupted us, how did he know? Or was is truly just a coincidence that he was there? Are men afraid to get near me because of Loki? But he and I are not anything more than friends. .. right? But he did send me the flowers this morning; if Loki really did like me, wouldn't he have shown up for breakfast this morning?

Getting up and squaring my shoulders I head to the healer's ward. I have a duty and I am not a coward. Reporting to the ward, I see Eira and Frigga, and I jump into help as needed. The three of us help a few people and I listen and learn more but both Frigga and Eira can tell that I am not completely paying attention to everything. Finally after awhile, Frigga comes over to me and pulls me aside.