New family.
ORIGINAL IMAGINE:
Imagine Loki pulling you up to sit before him on his horse. He rides with his arms around you.
Imagine Loki visiting your family's farm at the outskirts of Asgard with you.
RATING: general.
NOTES/WARNINGS: none.
Loki looked at her with a smile. "Good morning, my love." he said, kissing her on the forehead and caressing her cheek. "Good morning." Faye said, snuggling up with him. Loki had a day off, so they didn't have to get up early for anything. Or that's what Faye thought. "If it's okay with you, we are going on a trip today." Loki said. "Where to?" she asked, looking at him. "You will know where we are going before we get there." he explained with a smirk. Faye didn't know what to think of it, but she loved going on trips with Loki. This would be the first time they would be gone for the day, though. "Let's take a bath, have breakfast and after that we will go." Loki said, giving Faye a kiss. She looked at him and smiled. This was going to be a special day.
Walking up to the stables, Faye remembered the first time Loki took her to meet Vidar. They would be taking care of him together, grooming and feeding him, cleaning his stable. Faye enjoyed doing it and Loki liked having her with him, given the conversations they had. When Loki found out that Faye didn't know how to ride a horse, he wanted her to know how to do it. And he thought that his ways would work. Faye still didn't know who to ride a horse. She didn't get a horse's way of thinking and behaving, so it scared her and the horse would sense it. So, if they went on a horse ride, Faye would ride with Loki. He didn't mind it. And neither did Faye. As they arrived at the stables, Vidar wasn't hiding his excitement. He kept nudging his nose into Loki's face as he was putting on the saddle and if Faye tried to help out, the horse would start doing it to her. The only way to stop him from doing it was by petting and having a little talk with him. Faye loved doing things like that. The horse really liked getting petted and he kept talking back when she said something to him. Loki had finished strapping on the saddle and halter without Faye noticing it, and he couldn't help but smile when he watched them having a little quality time. "Okay, let's go." Loki said as he led his horse out of the stables and mounted it. As he pulled up Faye to sit before him, he waited for her to find a comfortable way to sit and got his horse to start walking. Loki liked having Faye with him like this. She enjoyed the ride and he enjoyed the way Faye smiled all the time as they made their way through Asgard.
Faye didn't know where to look first. Growing up on the outskirts of Asgard, she loved seeing new parts of Asgard. And doing that with Loki, made her happy. She liked the way Loki had her in his arms as he was riding his horse and enjoyed every second of it. Every now and then he would look at her with a smile and give her a kiss. After a while Faye started recognizing things she was seeing. They had been riding for a few hours now, so they were getting close to the outskirts of Asgard. As they reached a three-way intersection, Faye waited for Loki to pick a direction. If he picked the left road, she wouldn't know where he was taking her. If he picked the right road, she would know exactly where he was taking her. Loki was taking his time, as if he knew what she was thinking. "Let's go…" Loki started saying. Noticing the smirk on his face, he definitely knew what she was thinking. "… right." he said. Sending his horse to the right road, Faye looked at him. "We are going to visit my family?" she asked. Loki smiled. "We are helping out with harvesting." he said, looking at her. Faye didn't know what to say. "I want to see this farm you keep telling me things of." Loki explained. "This was your life and I want to know what that was like." he said with a smile. "It's different from the life you know." Faye replied, getting worried that Loki wouldn't like it. "I don't know if you will…" Loki didn't let her finish what she wanted to say. "I will love it." he said, giving her a kiss.
Faye knew that nothing would change his mind, so she just looked at him and smiled. Knowing that Loki felt this way, made her happy. Life on a farm was different from life in a palace and it would be a new experience for Loki, so Faye wanted to know what it would be like to share it with him. She didn't have to wait long, as they were getting closer to the farm with every step of Loki's horse. Faye started seeing orchards and at the end of the road, there was the farm. As they got to it, Faye noticed Vali walking up to them. Loki got off his horse and helped Faye down. "Morning." Vali said, suspiciously. He always put his guard up when talking with strangers and they looked like strangers to him. Faye was wearing her cloak with her hood on, and so was Loki. "Who are you? And what are you…" he started asking them. Taking her hood off, Vali didn't know what to say. Putting his guard down, he walked up to Faye and pulled her in for a hug. "Faye! I didn't know it was you." he said, looking at her as he let go of her. "Prince Loki. Welcome to the farm." Vali said, looking at Loki. "Forgive me. I didn't know you would be visiting." he explained, realizing he made a mistake. "My brother is always suspicious of strangers." she explained to Loki. "It's okay. No need to worry." he said with a smile, looking at Vali. "Where are mother and father?" Faye asked, trying to get Vali's mind off of it. "Mother is preparing lunch and father is getting everything set up for dinner." he said, pointing at it. "We will meet up them after getting Prince Loki's horse to the stables, he needs rest." Faye replied. "Okay, you go do that and I will let mother and father know of your visit."
As they got to the stables, Loki put Vidar in one of the empty stables and Faye got him fresh water and food. He scanned the stables and didn't find any horse. "Where are the horses?" Loki asked. "They are at the pen. We only keep them inside for the night. They need their exercise." Faye answered. Loki looked at Vidar and wondered what the horses would be like. He knew that they did work on the farm, so they had to be strong. "Okay. Let's go." Faye said, walking out of the stables. Loki picked up their things and followed. Faye entered the farm and made her way through hallways. Walking into a room, Loki smiled. "This is your room." he said, scanning it. A bed, a wardrobe, a desk. Plain and simple. Completely different from his chambers. "We will be keeping everything in my room, it's the easiest way." Faye said. After putting away everything, Faye and Loki made their way to the kitchens. As her mother noticed her, she stopped whatever she was doing. "Faye!" she said, pulling her in for a hug. Faye's father walked in and smiled as he noticed Faye. "Faye." he said as Faye gave him a hug. "Prince Loki, welcome to the farm." her father said, looking at him. "We didn't know you would be visiting." her mother said. "Prince Loki has a day off, so he wanted to make a trip." Faye explained, looking at him. "I hope you will like your visit." her mother said. "If we had known, we would've rescheduled the harvest." her father explained. "It's okay. I take it that you still need help to do that? I send all the extra help I found, it just wasn't what you needed at all." Loki asked. "We still need help." her father answered. "Okay. When did you want to start harvesting?" Loki asked. "After lunch." her father replied.
"Prince Loki wants to help out with harvesting." Faye explained. "No. We can't do that. That's no work for a prince." her father said. "This was Faye's life and I want to know what it's like." Loki explained. Her father and mother just looked at him, not knowing what to say. "I will stay with Faye. I will listen to Faye." Loki said, trying to convince them. "Okay." her father said, giving in. Loki smiled and looked at Faye. "I want to see everything on this farm and I want you to tell me every story you have. If that's okay?" he said, looking outside. "I would love to do that. We still have a little time." Faye replied with a smile. "We will see you when you return." her mother said, as they walked out of the farm. Faye didn't know where to take him first. There was a lot to see. "Let's start with the horses." she said, walking out of the farm and taking Loki to a pen located behind the stables. "Damn." Loki said, noticing the height and the build of the horses. Faye looked at him with a smile. "Yes, we have different horses on the farm than you have at the palace. Our horses have to pull carts with harvest and plows all day long, so they have to be strong. Your horses have to get you to places on missions, so they have to be fast." she explained. "Every farm you find in this part of Asgard, has horses we trained. They use them for all kinds of heavy work, whatever it is."
As Faye made a certain sound, one of the horses ran up to her. A big, black stallion. "Hi there, big boy." Faye said, petting the horse. Faye was right, the horses at the palace are different. "This is Frey. He's the first horse that I trained." she explained. Loki noticed a sweet, soft look on her face as she said it. It was easy to see that this was a special horse to her. Faye was taking her time petting it. "He is one of the four horses we use at the farm and get foals from. They are always just as magnificent as he is. We have foals every few years and they are all trained by my brother." Loki was taking a closer look at Frey as he was petting the horse. "You trained him to do what?" he asked. He knew Faye didn't know how to ride a horse, so that wasn't part of the training. "We train them to get used to pulling carts and plows, to get used to strangers, to get used to noises. If you start training them as foals, it's easy." Faye explained. "I can't wait to see them at work." Loki said. "These horses are stunners." Faye smiled as he expressed his respect for them. Loki noticed a lake next to the horse pen. "A lake." he said. "Yes. It's rain water. Rocks are keeping the water from seeping into the ground. We use it for the horses and if needed, for the trees too. It's deep and large, so there's plenty of water in it to get through warm and dry periods of weather." Faye explained.
Faye started walking up to the barn next to the farm. "This the barn where we keep all the harvest before it's send out to all of Asgard. As you see, we have three compartments, like we have three kinds of fruits. The carts are emptied and everything gets put in crates. We try to deliver it all in a few days, so even after the harvest there's still a lot of work to do." Faye explained. "You deliver it to all of Asgard? With only four horses?" Loki asked, as it surprised him. "No. We have a few market places halfway to the main part of Asgard that we deliver to, but we do have to get all it there. And it works with only four horses. It just takes time. And a few times to get everything delivered." Faye replied. "You also deliver to the palace. How do you do that?" Loki asked. "We always deliver to the palace ourselves, with the family. So every few harvests, we make the trip to the palace with all four the horses." Faye said. "Who is taking over from you?" Loki asked. "Kjell. He has been helping out on the farm since he was little and he knows the way everything works." Faye explained. Loki knew Kjell. He was a friend of Faye and Vali. Loki had never talked to him and yet he knew that Kjell didn't like him. He hated Loki. It wasn't Loki, it was Faye. Kjell knew that she liked Loki and that's what made him hate Loki. He didn't know what to expect if Kjell noticed him. He just knew that he wanted to make Faye happy and to do that, he would keep himself from getting in a fight with him.
Following Faye as she was making her way out of the barn, Loki started realizing what Faye meant by saying that life on a farm was different from life at the palace. It was work, every day and all year long. Everything she and her family did, was to provide all of Asgard with these fruits. All this work, just to give Loki his fresh and cool water with fruit. And their life wasn't easy, even without this work. As a prince, he did things for Asgard too, even for the other realms, but it was nothing like this. Everyone at the palace, who wasn't part of the royal family, was a servant. Everything these servants did, was to make their lives easier. And their life was easy, even without help. Loki was looking at Faye as she stopped in front of the farm. "We have four orchards with three kinds of fruits. Two orchards with limes behind the barn and behind the stables. One orchard with oranges and one orchard with lemons. Even though the fruits are different, the work you have with these trees is exactly the same. Watering, fertilizing, pruning, harvesting, treating pests. It just differs from fruit to fruit. Orange trees only produce fruits once a year, lemon and lime trees produce fruits several times a year." Faye explained.
Loki looked at the lime trees and could only think of one thing. "How do you know when a tree is ready to be harvested?" he asked. "Depends on the fruit. It always takes a few months to ripen, so you have to know when to check if they are ready. Limes need to be harvested when they are still green and not ripe. Ripe limes are yellow and not tasty. Oranges need to harvested when they have the right smell, but the easiest way is to taste one or two. Lemons need to harvested when they have the right size and the right glossy look. Completely yellow and squishy lemons are too ripe." Faye said.
Taking Loki to one of the orchards, Faye pointed at the trees. Most of them had a stick put in the ground in front of them, a few didn't. "From the moment the harvest is over, we check on the trees every week. Are they watered? Are they fertilized? Are they infested? We always do that in the morning. If needed, we have time to fix things. From the moment that the trees start to bud, we check on them every few days. From the moment the flowers stop blooming, we start checking on them every day. From the moment the fruits are ready to be harvested, we start picking fruits to check the color, the smell and the taste. If they are ready to be harvested, we put a stick in the ground in front of them." Faye explained. "Every now and then we have a few trees that got infested, so the fruits didn't start to ripe at the same time as the other trees and they need to be harvested on a later time. Luckily it doesn't happen a lot." she said. "Harvesting these fruits is the easiest thing there is, so I will explain that to you when we start." Faye added as she walked back to the farm.
Walking in after Faye, Loki smelled something delicious. Lunch. Faye noticed the look on his face. "Just a little while longer." she said with a smile, walking on. Loki followed and ended up in a room at the back of the farm. "This is where everyone gets changed and washes up. All the helpers have their own work outfits, so casual outfits will be kept in here. I still have my outfit and you will be getting one too. If that's okay?" Faye asked. "Yes. I can't help out in this one." he said, looking at the room. Benches and cabinets. That's all you need to get changed. Washing cloths and towels. That's all you needed to wash up. Buckets. There wasn't any water. As if Faye knew what he was thinking, she pointed at a… thing next to the buckets. "That's a water pump. You just get water from there to wash up." she explained. Loki looked at her with only one question on his mind. "You all get changed and wash up in here? Men and women together?" he asked. He didn't like the idea of any man seeing Faye like that. "No. We have separate changing rooms." she explained. Loki didn't say a word, but Faye noticed his jealousy. She didn't say a thing, she just looked at him with a smile.
Walking out of the changing room, Faye got Loki to the great dining room. It was a large room, with a long table and benches in the middle of it. "After the harvest, we have dinner together with everyone who helped out. That's why we have a great dining room." Faye explained. "We have a dining room for the family too." she said, walking back to the front of the farm. The room they walked in was part dining room, part living room. Lunch was served and her family was waiting for them to join them. They had lunch and just talked. Faye enjoyed it and so did Loki. "What is life like at the palace with Faye?" her brother asked Loki. "It's different with Faye from what it was like with previous servants that I have had." Loki replied with a smile. "Previous servants? She's not your first servant?" Vali asked. "No. I always have had a servant. I just sent them away after a week." Loki answered. Her family didn't know what to say or do. "That's why Prince Loki has a reputation at the palace." Faye explained. Even on her first day as a servant at the palace, she knew of it. Every servant spoke of it and it seriously scared her when King Odin appointed her to Loki. In the end, it all worked out just fine. Loki looked at her as he started explaining it. "I always give my new servants a week to get things started and it always goes wrong. They are always late or end up at the wrong place, they refuse to do what I ask them to do, they don't do what I expect of them without me having to tell them, they make mistakes. And it was like that every day. They didn't like what they were doing as a servant. They hate helping out and want to make things easier for them, not me. That's not the way things work." Loki explained.
He looked at Faye and smiled. He remembered her first week as his new servant. Everything was different and new with her. "Faye likes what she's doing as a servant and that's why it's different with her. She is always on time and doesn't end up at the wrong place, she just does what I ask her to do, she does what I expect of her without me having to tell her, she doesn't make mistakes. Faye even does things I don't ask her to do and she shows interest in what I do. That was new to me. And I liked it." Loki explained. "After only a week I knew that Faye was what I was looking for in a servant. She helps me out and makes my life easier. She likes doing that and that's why it works." Loki said and he noticed a smile on Faye's face. Faye's family didn't notice the sweet, soft look her face and just continued having lunch. "I take that I still get new helpers started?" Faye asked. "If you still want to do that, yes." her father replied. "Okay. I will first get Prince Loki started. We don't have lots of new helpers this time." she said. "It's not easy to find helpers. I sent out a lot of requests, I just didn't get a lot of replies. Sorry for that." Loki explained. "It's okay. We know it's not easy to find help." Faye's father replied. There was only one thing left on Loki's mind. "I don't want anyone to know who I am. Just Loki." he said. Faye and her family just looked at him, not knowing what to say. "I don't want things to get awkward when I'm helping out at this farm." Loki explained. He was a prince and things would definitely get awkward if they knew. "Everyone knows who you are, you are a prince. I just don't know if anyone will notice you, since everyone is always so focused on harvesting that they start noticing new faces when it's all over." Vali said.
"Kjell will definitely notice him." Faye replied, looking at her brother. "What of it?" Vali asked. "I don't know what he's like in a situation like that." Faye explained. "You do know what he's like, Faye. Handle it like you always do." her brother said. Loki noticed that it all was worrying Faye. "Just don't put him on the orchard we're harvesting at." Faye added, looking at him. "I will put him on your orchard. He hasn't seen you in a long time and he will want to talk to you." Vali said. Faye just looked at him and didn't say a word. "It will work out just fine." Vali said, trying to get her mind off of it. "And what if it doesn't?" Faye replied, looking at Loki. He knew what she was getting at. He hated disrespect and he had a special way of handling it. People always tried to make things awkward for him, but in the end he made things awkward for them. It had happened plenty of times in the past that he got disrespected and it would happen plenty of times in the future. He knew the way most citizens thought of him. The prince who wasn't worth their respect, since he would never be their king. Faye knew the way he handled situations like that, she had seen it happen plenty of times at the royal palace with Rebekah. Since Kjell was a friend, she didn't want Kjell to end up in a fight with him. Loki knew that and he would do whatever it takes to keep himself from losing it. He didn't want to put Faye in an awkward situation like that.
After lunch, Faye explained to him how things would go next. "First, we are going to get changed. Everyone is going to arrive soon and they have to change too. Luckily, they all arrive at a different time, so it's never too crowded in there. And it's the same thing after the harvest, as some orchards are done sooner or later than others." she explained. Faye walked into the men's changing room and opened up a storage cabinet. Taking out a work outfit, she handed it to him. Only she and her family had personal cabinets in the changing rooms. Loki was using the cabinet next to her brother's. Faye got to the girl's changing room and got changed herself. As Loki was done, he walked up to Faye, who was waiting for him. She looked at him and smiled. He noticed. "What?" Loki asked. "This is weird. It's nothing like any of your outfits." she explained. She had never seen him as normal as this. Loki looked at her and smiled. "I want to help out and I can't do that in my casual outfit. Or any of my outfits." he said. As her family finished getting changed too, they waited for everyone to arrive. "Everyone you see here, is from the outskirts and has a farm. Cattle, vegetables, fruits, grains. We all help out when needed." Faye explained. Loki looked at all the helpers and noticed that he was nothing like them. They were all muscly. He was scrawny. It would be easy to see that he was new to all of this and he was starting to get a little nervous. Faye noticed it. "You will do just fine." she said, trying to get him to calm down.
"Next, my father and Vali will put everyone on an orchard. They will get the horses and carts with all the materials we need. When we get to the orchards, we all take a ladder and two buckets." she explained. "Why two buckets?" Loki asked. "My father, Vali or Kjell will be riding up and down the orchard with a horse and a cart to collect the harvest. Sometimes it takes a while for them to get to you when you've filled up a bucket, that's why you need a second one." she answered. Before Loki knew it, he and Faye were standing in front of the orange orchard. Every helper was getting its ladder and buckets, and picked a tree to start harvesting. Faye pointed at two trees next to another and put her ladder up. "Get up here for a second." she said, getting up in a tree. Loki put up his own ladder and joined Faye. As he held onto a branch, an orange fell to the ground. It completely shocked him. First time up in a fruit tree and he's ruining harvest. "It's okay. Ripe oranges always fall off of the tree." Faye said as she noticed the shocked look on his face. Loki took a deep breath to calm himself down and looked at Faye. She picked out an orange on a branch and pulled it off. "You just grab the fruit, twist it and pull." Faye explained. "Like I said, harvesting these fruits is the easiest thing there is." she added. Loki looked at the orange that fell to the ground. "Ripe fruits just fall off of the trees? Wouldn't it be easier if you just shook the tree?" he asked. "Yes, but we would damage the fruits that way and we don't want that." Faye replied.
"Okay. I get it. I think." Loki said. "I will go get every new helper get started and after that I will get started myself." she said. Faye knew that Loki would do just fine. Getting down from the tree, Faye scanned the orchard for new helpers and got started helping them out. Loki got down from his tree, picked up a bucket and started harvesting. He was filling up his first bucket faster than she expected. This way, they would finish harvesting their trees in no time. They would move on to a new tree and start harvesting it. Filling up a first bucket, starting to fill up a second bucket, emptying them in a cart and repeat. For the next few hours. Luckily, time always went by fast. As Faye was done getting everyone started, she returned to their part of the orchard. On the way there, she noticed Kjell collecting harvest. Frey was pulling a cart and looked magnificent as always. It made her smile. Faye just didn't know what to expect of Kjell. Vali did put him on the orchard where she and Loki were harvesting at, like he said he would do. She was hoping that he wouldn't do that. It's not that she didn't want to meet up with Kjell. She would love meeting up with him. He was a friend and she had missed him. She just knew that him recognizing Loki would make things awkward. As she was hoping that this awkward moment would wait, it didn't.
She noticed Kjell riding up to their part of the orchard as she was filling up her second bucket. "Faye." he said, as he stopped Frey from pulling the cart and stepped off of it. "Kjell." she said, getting down from the tree. Kjell smiled at her as he pulled her in for a hug. "I have missed you." he said. Faye smiled back at him as he let go of her. "I have missed you too." she replied. "You're back." he said. "Just for a day." she answered. Leaning against his cart, Kjell looked at Faye as she emptied her bucket into the cart. "What is it?" she asked as he noticed him looking. "I'm just happy to have you back for a day." he answered. "And I'm happy to be back for a day. I have missed this." Faye replied with a smile. "You returned to the life you left behind." Kjell said. "I will never really leave this life behind, you know that." she explained. "Let me see that lovely smile of yours." Kjell said with a smug look on his face. Faye looked at him with a smile. "There it is. I have missed seeing it." he said, smiling back. Faye didn't know what to say, she just smiled. "You really need to leave this life behind if you want to keep smiling like that." Kjell said. "You love your new life. You're happy and you always smile when you're happy." he explained. Faye just looked at Kjell. "Your new life is filled with magic, books and evening walks. Like you always wanted." he said. "I still have to work, you know. I'm a servant. It's not just relaxing and enjoying life." Faye explained. "You love helping out everyone with everything. That's just who you are." Kjell said. "Prince Loki is lucky to have you as his servant and I hope he knows that." he added. Faye just looked at him with a smile. "I will get going. I still want to see that smile when I return." Kjell said. Faye just looked at him as he got on his cart and continued to collect harvest.
As she got back to harvesting, Loki looked at her. She was still smiling. Kjell got what he wanted. He didn't know what to think of it all. Kjell didn't notice him when he went to empty his buckets in the cart. He didn't recognize him and it surprised Loki. He visited Kjell's stand at the year market every year. Loki knew why he didn't noticed him. He was too interested in Faye to do that. Hugs, smiles. It was making him jealous to see Faye like this with him. Kjell was just a friend and yet he didn't like it. He felt stupid for getting jealous. There was no reason for it. Faye was his. She loved him. Loki went back to harvesting to get his mind off of it. Finishing filling up his first bucket in no time, he started filling up his second bucket as Kjell was back at their part of the orchard. Loki didn't know what to expect as he stopped Frey from pulling the cart again and stepped off of it. He just kept quiet. "Let's see it." Kjell said, leaning against the cart and looking at Faye. As she got down from the tree and emptied her buckets in his cart, she looked at him with a smile. Kjell just looked at her with a smug look. Loki didn't like it. He hated it. He just didn't know that things would get awkward. As Loki went to empty his bucket in his cart, Kjell stopped him by blocking his way.
It all happened so fast that Faye didn't have time to stop him from doing it. Not knowing what to expect, she just kept quiet. "I know who you are and you know who I am. If you do anything to make Faye lose her smile, I will make you end up in Hell." Kjell said. Faye knew that he was serious. He was extremely protective of her. Loki just looked at him. "Got it." he said, trying to keep calm. Faye didn't know what to expect of Loki. She didn't know what to expect of Kjell. As he let Loki through to get to the cart, Loki just emptied his bucket and got back to harvesting. Faye didn't know what to say or do. There was a lot of hate between Loki and Kjell at the moment. It didn't surprise her that Kjell noticed Loki from the moment he arrived at the farm. It did surprise her that he didn't make it known earlier. She didn't know what was going on with him or Loki. Their actions and reactions were completely different from what she expected. As Kjell looked at her, he noticed the way it all was making her feel. "I just wanted him to know. That's all." he said. "It would've surprised me if you didn't want him to know." Faye replied with a smile. Kjell smiled back at her. "You know what I'm like." he said. "I know what you're like." Faye replied. Kjell just smirked.
"Your way of writing completely reflects your personality, you know." Kjell said. "It's exactly the same with your letters. That's why I like reading them." Faye replied. "You always write different letters to me than you write to your family. Why?" Kjell asked her. "You know me in a different way than my family does. That's why." Faye explained. It surprised Loki to find out that she was writing letters to Kjell. He knew she was writing letters to her family, but he didn't know that Kjell was receiving letters too. It was making him extremely jealous. He didn't know what was going on with Faye and Kjell, he just knew that he didn't like it. "I will get going. I will talk to you later." Kjell said. As he got back on his cart to continue collecting harvest and Faye got back to harvesting, Loki didn't know what to say or do. He was still furious from Kjell disrespecting him and this jealousy didn't help at all. As he continued to fill up his buckets to get his mind off of it, he didn't notice that he was handling the fruits rougher than normal. A branch whipped his cheek as he was pulling an orange off of it, making Loki snap out of it. Faye noticed it. "You okay?" she asked. "Yes, I'm fine." Loki replied with a smile. As he was feeling his cheek, he noticed that he was bleeding. Ignoring the pain, he continued harvesting. For the next hours, Kjell would collect their harvest by riding up and down the orchard. For the next hours, Loki and Faye would fill up their buckets and empty them in Kjell's cart. Not a word was said.
Before Faye knew it, she emptied her last bucket in the cart. Loki was doing the same thing. Picking up their ladders and buckets, they got the material back to the barn and made their way to the changing rooms. As she was done getting changed, Faye made her way to the dining room. While her mother finished making diner, Faye would take care of everyone's injuries. Every time a few helpers would end up with scratches and bruises. Sitting down at a bench with bandages and ointment, she started treating whoever needed it. After a little while Loki sat down next to her and started handing her what she needed at that moment. Faye looked at him and smiled. Loki just smiled back. As Faye finished treating the last helper, she looked at Loki. "Let me have a look at that." she said, inching in closer to him. Turning his face, Loki let her check his cheek. The branch had left a deep cut. It was dirty and still bleeding. "I will have to wash this out or it won't heal properly." she said, getting up to get water and a wash cloth. Walking out of the room, Faye noticed Kjell looking at her. She knew Kjell was watching her every move. Faye was closer to Loki than he expected and he didn't like it. It was easy to see. Faye just ignored it. As she got water and a wash cloth, she washed out Loki's wound. He was trying to hide the pain, but Faye knew that it was hurting. After applying ointment, she put a pad on it to keep it clean. "There you go." she said, looking at Loki. "Thank you." he replied with a smile. Faye gathered the ointment and bandages, and put them away. Loki waited for her to return, still sitting at the bench.
Faye looked at him as she returned to the dining room and sat down next to him. "After dinner, I have a spot I want you to go to. It's perfect to watch the sunset from." she said. "Okay." Loki replied. He loved taking Faye to different places in Asgard to watch the sunset from. It was a moment for just the two of them. They would sit and watch it all, enjoying the moment for as long as it lasted. "Dinner's ready. There's plenty of food and drinks, so let's eat and enjoy the meal." Faye's mother said, as she walked into the dining room. Faye got up and went to take a seat. Her parents took seats in the middle of the table at the two sides. Faye and Vali would sit next to one of them. Loki sat down next to Faye's father and Faye sat down next to her mother, across Loki. Kjell sat down next to Faye's mother too, across Vali. "Prince Loki, how did it go?" Faye's father asked. "It went…" Loki started, hesitantly. "Great." Faye said. "He's a quick student." she explained. Her father looked at Loki and smiled. "Did you like it?" he asked. "Yes. If you're okay with it, we will help out with every next harvest too. I don't think I will find new helpers to help you out." Loki answered. "I would like that. Thank you." Faye's father replied. "Thank you for letting me help out." he said. Loki knew that it wasn't normal for a prince to help out at farms. While having dinner, they just talked.
After they finished dinner, all the helpers said their goodbyes and started leaving. Faye and Loki helped tidying up the dinner room with her mother, while Kjell and Vali helped her father tidying up the changing room. As they were done with everything, Loki looked at Faye. "We have to get back to the palace. It's getting late and we still have quite a trip to do. I will go get Vidar." he said and made his way out the farm, after picking up their things. Vali and Kjell were putting the horses back into their stables as Loki walked in. Vidar greeted him enthusiastically. "Hi there, ready for the trip back to the palace?" Loki said to his horse. Putting the saddle and halter back on, Loki put on the saddle bag. He noticed Faye walking into the stables and looked at her. "I just want to say goodbye to the horses." she said as she handed him his cloak. Loki put it on and joined her as she went by every stable. "You won't have to miss them for long." he said. Faye looked at him and smiled. As Faye said goodbye to her family, Loki mounted his horse and helped her up to sit in front of him. Putting on their hoods, Loki got Vidar to start walking and they were on their way back to the palace.
Faye guided Loki to a spot she always watched the sunset from when she was little. As they sat down to watch it, Loki pulled her onto his lap and gave her a kiss. This was the only moment, away from the palace and Loki's chambers, that they got to express their love without having to worry that someone would find out. Faye gave in to the kiss and Loki held her close. "I hope you liked today." Loki said as he broke their kiss and looked at her. "I loved it." Faye replied with a smile. Loki smiled back and pulled her in for another kiss. Since they hadn't been able to share a moment like this from the moment they left Loki's chambers, they enjoyed every second of it. Watching the sunset and just spending time together. Looking at Faye, Loki realized that he didn't have to get jealous of Kjell. Faye was his and she loved him. She was his. Forever.
