You wake up from your slumber, greeted by the sound of the birds chirping outside and the sun seeping through your large curtained windows.
Royalty might sound extremely peaceful and pleasant, but you'd gladly switch places with a commoner.
You never felt like you belonged, after all.
"Your Highness, your presence is needed in the common room," your personal assistant (whom your mother calls 'maid', but you haven't exactly been too keen on using that word. Especially not after hearing how your mother spits it out from her tongue like it's poison) informs, going into your room to do your laundry.
"I'll be down in a bit," you groan into the pillow, burying your face in it. "Why does everything have to start so early?"
Your personal assistant, Claire, laughs lightly. "Well, you see, maybe the morning people took over and switched up all the times when we were sleeping," she jokes.
You groan once more, expressing how much you hate mornings. "But they could've asked for our opinion!"
"You've got a point there, Your Highness," Claire replies, although her voice is cheerful.
How can someone be so happy in the morning?
"Have you picked out what you want to wear, Your Highness?"
"Yeah," you answer, rolling over. "It's on top of the table over there." You blindly point at the spot to your right.
After a while of putting your clothes on and making sure that your hair is styled to perfection, you walk down the stairs to the common room, where your mother and father are already waiting.
"What took you so long?" your father asks in a hushed tone. "Prince Loki over here has been waiting for half an hour!"
"Sorry, father," you say sheepishly. "What's the schedule for today?" you ask your mother, who is standing on your right.
"You're meeting Prince Loki and getting to know him, and you've gotta work fast because the marriage is in two weeks."
You almost choke. "I'm- I'm sorry, what?"
"You are marrying Prince Loki in two weeks."
"Excuse me?!"
"You heard what I said. Now behave," your mother demands sternly.
***
"Thank you for bringing me here," Loki says politely, his hand loosely holding yours.
His touch is surprisingly warm to the touch, as you've heard that he lives in the snowy part of the land.
"I'm sorry for all this," he continues, gesturing to himself and the castle in front of you as you both continue to walk around the garden. "I don't want you to feel uncomfortable."
You just shrug, signaling that you don't mind it.
Clearly, you do, and he can see it in your eyes how much you wish this was over.
"I just wish they didn't have to force this upon us," you tell him truthfully. "Honestly, I'd prefer it if they'd let us meet and see what happens."
"I completely agree," he nods, squeezing your hand. "We can make this work, though, right?"
"I guess," you say absentmindedly. "I mean, there's really not a choice."
He chuckles warmly, turning around to face you.
"We'll take things slow and steady, alright? Whatever I'm doing that you're not comfortable with, you tell me," he says, grasping both of your hands, his eyes pleading.
You nod. Although still dreading the day you and Loki will be joined together by law, you realize that you're extremely lucky, having him as a future husband.
You didn't notice his dashingly good looks before, but now that you're up close, you can't help but notice how soulful his eyes look, and how perfectly his long hair frames his face. His skin pale, contrasting his black hair. The small happy creases in the corner of his eyes make him look like he's been smiling all his life.
"Thank you for being so considerate," you say, snapping out of your own trance, figuring that it might be creepy how you've been checking him out this whole time.
"I know how it feels like to not have control over things," he says as a shadow of pain flashes in his eyes before he conceals it with the same happiness you're more used to seeing. "And I certainly don't want you to feel that way, ever."
You smile. Despite being from practically half across the land from each other, you feel a large amount of comfort from his presence alone, and you wonder how you've gone so long without it.
"We should head back now, love," he says ever-so-casually, but managing to almost make you weak on your knees upon hearing the pet name.
"Yeah, absolutely," you say quickly, desperately trying to stop the blood from rushing to your face.
You've never expected your parents to pick someone so charming and handsome and all the good adjectives put together. And you definitely hadn't expected yourself to be liking this man just after your first encounter.
Maybe the whole arranged marriage thing isn't so bad after all, you think, mentally slapping yourself just a few moments after.
Once you're both inside, you separate ways after promising that you'd see each other tomorrow. You walk back to your room, flopping on the bed, sighing in content.
"I'm guessing it went well?" Claire's voice pulls you out of your thoughts, and you grin.
Nighttime is the time when Claire stops using her 'Your Highness's and formalities. You know that it's too risky for her to act like your best friend in the morning because of all the guards outside your door, so you've both come to an agreement that nighttime is when you can be yourselves.
"He's such a gentleman!" you whine, running your hand through your hair. "It's basically impossible to not like him."
Claire giggles, sitting next to you on the bed, wrapping her arm around your shoulders. "I can't tell you how happy I am for you!"
"You'll have the best spot during the wedding, I promise," you tell her. "Thanks for doing almost everything for me all this time."
She grins widely, tears brimming her eyes. "Ugh, I love you so much."
"You know I love you, too," you reply, hugging her tightly.
Today might've been the roller coaster of your life, but tomorrow, you know you won't be able to focus on anything else apart from Loki's stupid smile and his stupid hair and his stupid everything.