Author's note: Hey guys, I can't believe how much love this fic has been getting and I want to say thank you to everyone who has read, voted and commented, much love to you all :)I know you've been waiting patiently forever and I'm here to tell you there's not long to go now, I hope you're ready! XD Hope you enjoy this chapter <3
Side note: the writing in italics represents you and Loki talking through your minds, hopefully it's clear as to who is saying what!
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"Lady Y/N, this is Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral: The Warriors Three. And this of course is Lady Sif." Thor said, introducing you to the three men and woman he had been accompanied by at the door of your parents' house. Volstagg was massive; he looked like a proper Viking, and shook your hand like one too. Hogun was smaller but quite terrifying to look at, however his smile was a friendly one. Fandral was stupidly handsome, like some sort of fairy tale Prince Charming, and you couldn't help but blush slightly when he bowed and kissed your hand as Thor introduced him.
Sif was gorgeous, and had a firm handshake which you were slightly taken aback by.
"I'm so happy you're all finally getting to meet." Thor smiled happily.
"I've heard great things about the Warriors Three and Lady Sif." you grinned.
"And we've heard great things about Lady Y/N in the last few hours at the tavern." Sif joked, making you and the others laugh.
"Come on then you lot, or it'll be dark by the time we finish this tour." Volstagg said, and Thor strode ahead gesturing for you all to follow.
The 'tour' lasted for about two hours, although who knew how long it really was, what with the ambiguous time on Asgard in relation to Earth. The first half of the tour was spent actually showing you around, and Fandral telling you tall tales of his many conquests and battles at various locations, the others chiming in regularly to tell the story how it really had been, and once even to claim that one battle hadn't even happened like Fandral told it at all.
Funnily enough Thor's tour ended at the tavern, where you were introduced to countless people, all with difficult sounding names and different faces. It was there that you spent the second hour of the 'tour', getting slightly tipsier than you should have when you were about to attend a royal dinner at the palace.
Eventually Thor announced that it was time to leave, and the six of you made your way back up towards the palace, laughing and joking loudly all the way. At the palace doors the Warriors Three and Sif said goodbye ("We'll see each other later tonight, I'm sure." Fandral told you, kissing your hand yet again while Sif rolled her eyes in the background).
Then Thor led you back through the palace, past another cathedral sized room which had been prepared for the meal on and up several staircases, then down a long corridor where you met Loki walking the other way.
"You're late. They're expecting us down there in fifteen minutes." Loki told you both, looking you up and down, sending what felt like a jolt of electricity through your body. You fought to maintain a poker face; he was wearing what you assumed to be Asgardian formal wear, whereas you were still in your gear, and Thor in his. You desperately tried not to stare, or think about how good he looked at this moment in time.
"I don't have anything to wear." you suddenly realised, looking at Thor.
"Don't worry, you'll find something you like in there. This is where you're sleeping tonight by the way." he told you, gesturing to the door to your left. You opened the door and peeked inside; the room was huge, dominated by massive four poster bed, beyond which double doors led out to a balcony which looked out over all of Asgard.
"Wow." you breathed.
"Go, get changed. You don't want to be late." Loki told you, and you pulled a face at him before disappearing into your room. Once inside you made a beeline for the wardrobe, which you discovered to be full of gorgeous dresses along with matching shoes, all helpfully in your exact size. You were aware that you didn't have loads of time, you rifled through them in an attempt to pick your favourite but failed; you loved all of them. You were holding a green and a blue dress in either hand when you were interrupted.
"I think the green one suits you." a voice emitted from the doorway, and you turned in surprise to see a maid stood in the doorway. She must have only been a year or so younger than you, or maybe a hundred if you were talking in Asgardian years.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Prince Thor sent me to help you get ready." she smiled, curtseying.
"Oh, that's kind of him, but I'm actually okay." you smiled.
"Let me do your hair at least." the maid said, and your hand flew to your hair, suddenly self-conscious.
"Oh, okay." you agreed, and waited for her to leave so that you could get changed. When she didn't you turned around, embarrassed, and quickly changed into the green dress. Reaching behind you to do it up, you realised that instead of a zip there were about thirty buttons. You turned back to the maid, defeated, and she smiled again, gesturing for you to turn around. Holding your hair up for her as she started on the buttons, you admired the room you were in once again.
"What did you say your name was?" you asked the maid, eager to make conversation. You were excited but nervous, again.
"I didn't. I'm Astrid." the maid said, her fingers working impossibly quickly to do up the back of your dress.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Y/N."
"I know." she said, finishing with the buttons and guiding you to sit down on the stool in front of the dressing table and removing a hairbrush from one of the drawers.
"What shall I do with your hair?"
"I don't mind, whatever you think." you told her, thinking back to the time when Nat had done your hair at the tower all those months ago for the party. You felt a million miles away from the tower and your friends here.
"We don't have long, I think I'll just..." she trailed off as she concentrated, transforming your hair before your eyes from a tangled mess to an elegant updo in about one and a half minutes.
"How did you do that?" you asked in astonishment as she used nothing but a strip of fabric to hold it in place.
"Practice. You have lovely hair." Astrid replied, moving from your hair to a jewellery box on the dressing table.
"Thanks..." you said, before she revealed the contents of the box and you were rendered speechless. It was like looking into a treasure chest you only saw in movies. The earrings that she handed you were set with real emeralds and weighed a tonne; your ears protested as you put them in.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to the weight. This is the Queen's jewellery, so just don't lose it." Astrid told you, handing you a simple necklace to go with the earrings, which also weighed a lot despite the fact that the actual jewel was smaller than your little fingernail.
"The Queen's- right." you said nervously, gently fastening it around your neck.
"There, you're done. You look lovely." Astrid told you, and as you stood and looked in the mirror you realised that you actually didn't look half bad.
"Thank you Astrid, turns out I did need your help after all." you said, and she smiled.
"Don't forget your shoes."
Luckily, the shoes were nowhere near as high as the stilettos you'd been walking around in to prepare for your last mission, so you were able to walk around in them with ease. You sent a silent thank you to Nat before checking your reflection one last time in the mirror. The dress was a ballgown and quite heavy; it floated just above the floor as you walked and you struggled not to feel ridiculous as you walked to the door in it. It was like nothing you'd ever worn on Earth before and you tried not to laugh as you imagined what Nat and the others would think if you turned up to one of Tony's parties wearing this.
Hoping you weren't about to turn up to dinner with the royal family late, you thanked Astrid again and stepped outside to find Loki waiting in the corridor.
"You took your... time." he said, missing a beat as he took the sight of you in. You tried not to feel pleased.
"Am I late?"
"Yes, you took ages. Come on." he said, starting to walk briskly down the corridor ahead of you.
"Thanks for waiting for me. I'd have got lost." you told him, struggling to keep up with his long strides.
"I know. That's why I waited." he replied.
Huh, someone wasn't in a talking mood. You followed him in silence the rest of the way to the hall where you were eating. In was half inside, half outside, so you couldn't really call it a hall. Also, the ceiling was about sixty feet tall. You lifted your dress up a fraction as you made your way down some stairs, suddenly feeling immensely self-conscious, as though you were in fancy dress. Although, this was a different planet you were on.
"You look nice." Loki suddenly said. Had he heard you? You struggled to comprehend the fact that he'd paid you such a blatant compliment before replying.
"Thanks, you too." you replied, praying that you hadn't gone red.
He stopped in the corridor just before the huge doorway to the hall and turned to you. You looked towards the hall nervously.
"Don't be nervous. It'll be over soon." he told you.
"This is just so different. You're used to this sort of thing; I don't know how to be... like that." you said, glancing towards the doorway through which voices and the clinks of glasses were emitting.
"Just be yourself. I doubt mother or Odin will take any notice of you anyway." Loki said, reassuringly? You noted his use of Odin's name, not father, especially as he'd called Frigga mother.
"Come on then, seeing as we're so late." you grinned, and he fake bowed, gesturing towards the door.
"After you."
You walked into the room trying not to look as nervous as you felt, and actually deflated slightly in relief when you saw that Odin and Frigga's chairs at the head of the table were not yet occupied, along with a few other seats around the long table, set for about fifty people. There were name places on every plate. Thor waved at you both as you entered the room, seated near the head of the table and you waved back, dismayed to note that Loki was making his way to sit opposite him. Which meant that you were sat...
"Lady Y/N, how splendid!" Fandral exclaimed, jumping out of the seat next to yours to pull your chair out for you.
"Thank you Fandral." you smiled, sitting down and resigning yourself to a long dinner. You had a feeling that this seating arrangement hadn't been an accident. To your immense relief Sif was sat opposite you; hopefully she would swoop in if Fandral started laying it on a bit too thick again. She smiled at you broadly, as if she'd heard your thoughts. Six seats to your left, someone actually had heard your thoughts.
Unlucky.
Loki, get out of my head. Fandral is -
"You look exquisite tonight." Fandral muttered in your ear, as if you'd known each other for more than about three hours.
What where you saying? I couldn't quite hear over -
"Thank you. You don't look so bad yourself." you complimented him over the sound of Loki's voice in your head, which actually made him blush.
I was saying he seems really nice.
I'll say.
I like him. Didn't you hear? I'm 'exquisite'.
I could have told you that.
You weren't entirely sure whether he'd meant for you to hear that last comment, but you had. Your heart stopped for about three seconds, and then started beating double time. Was he flirting with you?
"Are you... talking to Loki?" Sif frowned, staring at you and then up the table at Loki.
Was it that obvious? You didn't know how well known the whole 'soulmates' story was on Asgard, but you didn't want to risk starting any rumours.
"What? No, why?" you laughed, and thankfully Sif didn't get a chance to reply because then Frigga and Odin had arrived.
"All rise for the King and Queen." someone announced, and everyone pushed their chairs back to stand as Odin and Frigga took their seats at the head of the table. As Odin gestured for everyone to return to their seats, you realised that two of the unoccupied chairs had been for your mother and father. You couldn't say you blamed them for not wanting to attend.
As the first plates of food began to appear you realised that you were starving, and soon after that you discovered that the food was very nice. You were sat next to a handsome man who was openly flirting with you, and just along the table from you was another very handsome man who also may or may not be flirting with you.
Maybe this wasn't so terrible after all.