A Whole Bunch of Loki's

Stages

I fiddled with the letter in my hand, chewing on my lip a little as I made my way to the palace gardens.

Looking down, I take another glance over the intricate handwriting that I didn't recognise, though the eloquent wording sounded all too familiar, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions.

The letter wasn't long, merely an invite to meet an admirer in the palace gardens to discuss 'urgent matters', and I deeply hoped that it was Loki.

Initially I had wholeheartedly believed that it was him and my heart skipped a few beats at the thought, but then I began to doubt my own thoughts because surely if it was Loki he would be more straight forward with a confession.

Sending a secret letter and hiding behind the guise of 'urgent business' didn't seem too Loki-like, but who else would be allowed to arrange to meet someone in palace grounds?

Perhaps it was Thor.

Maybe Thor had asked someone to pen and send a letter to keep his identity well hidden until the big reveal.

As sweet as that thought was, I hoped it wasn't.

Whilst I loved Thor as a friend and could admit that he was undeniably attractive, I could never commit to him romantically when I felt more than friendship towards his brother.

That wouldn't be fair on either of us.

With a sigh I step out into the palace gardens and traipse around until I come to the stated area, a beautiful circle of flower bushes and grey stone benches.

The grass was a vibrant and stunning green and the flowers were all bright and amazing to look at.

Each of the benches was taken up by a duo apart from the one directly in front of me.

That's where Loki sat, reading a book that lay out on his lap.

"Hey! I wasn't done with that page yet!"

The yell from a small girl catches my attention.

Directly to my left sat two young children, a book shared between them.

The black haired boy was smiling widely whilst trying to ignore her whining as she poked at his sides, I couldn't help but smile at the sight.

On the next bench were two teenagers, the boy was showing off magic in the form of illusions created by green smoke.

The girl sat there enamoured with the boy's magic whilst he smirked proudly, creating intricate scenes from novels he had read and plays he had seen.

The scene played out exactly how I remembered it and my smile grew wider.

Two benches from them, jumping past the one Loki was sat on, were an expecting couple.

There was no denying that these were clones of the two of us, Loki looking exactly the same aside from having ever so slightly longer hair.

The woman besides him bore a striking resemblance to myself except she was somehow unfamiliar with an ethereal glow and the happiest smile I had ever seen decorated her face as they each had a hand resting on her considerably large bump.

"He's kicking," I overheard, her tone light and excited.

"He's just saying hello to daddy, that's all that is," the Loki clone chuckled.

"Just to daddy?"

"Of course, he's constantly around you so it's time for me to get some attention."

I laugh and look away as the expecting clone of me rolls her eyes good naturedly, my eyes fix onto the next bench where the same couple sat with two children, a boy and a girl, who were running excitedly around their parent's legs.

A third younger boy was sat on clone-Loki's lap, his head rested wearily against his dad's shoulder as his mother read to them from a large picture book.

My heart swells at the sight, seeing something I'd hoped for one day warming my insides.

Finally on the last bench sat an older couple, it was beyond obvious at this point that they would be us in years to come, still sat together in the palace gardens whilst watching over potential grandchildren and always with a book somewhere on us.

The older Loki read in a shaky and husky voice as the older me sat, staring ahead of herself, though I'd hazard a guess that her milky eyes didn't see much in front of her.

"So what do you think?"

I jump as Loki's voice suddenly sounds over my left shoulder, his breath ghosting over my ear and catching my hair.

"I'm astounded, the letter truly is from you."

"It is," he answered, sounding almost smug.

He placed his hand on my hip and stepped beside me, his eyes casting over the illusions.

"I had someone else write it for me though, I didn't want you sussing out that it was me straight away."

"Oh, now that's sneaky."

"Well I'm not the God of mischief for nothing."

"You have a point, I shall reluctantly give you that."

I look around as clockwise, one by one, the illusions disappeared until we were completely alone in the garden.

"So I repeat, what do you think?"

"This is very elaborate for a mere courting request," I laugh, looking up at him. "But I did like the look of us all grey and huddled together."

"That was a particular favourite of mine too," he chuckled, smiling down at me. "What do you say? Do you wish to try seeing if we could grow old together?"