"You aren't even trying!" The second prince of Asgard let out an annoyed sigh and slumped against the wall. "How can I get into this if you're not even trying to take me out?" He grumbled.
"You're not preparing to be married, you know." The young woman with chocolate locks that hung to her hips sighed, rolling her bright green eyes at him. "I can't have you accidentally hurting me."
"Are you sure, Lilah? Because that isn't want you said the other night—-" Loki received a hard slap across the face for that comment, and his skin stung where she had hit him. "Alright, that was warranted, but you know it's true."
"You are extremely aggravating, you know that?" She pulled her hair out of the braids she had them up in.
They began to spar, although they were almost equally matched with regards to wit, skill, and cunning. Both had been trained by Frigga herself, and they spent a lot of their time training together. Loki didn't actually love Lilah, but Lilah was very much in love with Loki; she was, however, being married off to someone her mother Agnes saw as less of a threat to her totalitarian rule over her daughter—- a warrior named Felix Lorson.
When they had both grown tired and had managed to accidentally injure each other by tripping on knocked over cup, they called it a day and went off in search of food. They had a snack in the palace gardens, and Loki talked Lilah into spending the night with him; it was the night before her wedding, and Loki didn't want to hand her over to someone else yet. He would never be ready for that. Lilah was his best friend besides his brother, and while he didn't think he truly loved her on a romantic level, he knew that he loved her as a friend. He also despised her soon-to-be husband, Felix, with a fiery, burning passion.
Lilah felt incredibly guilty after Loki's jab about their tryst a few evenings prior; she was used goods, which mean she was, under Asgardian law, not able to marry anyone but Loki, as he was the one who she had been with. Loki had already been married to a woman named Sigyn, but they had a falling out and she had been banished from Asgard for reasons that weren't known even to Lilah. She felt guilty about betraying her future husband, but she felt guilty that she wasn't able to stay with Loki. Not that Loki cared, she thought.
That night, they talked about what the next day would do to their friendship, how it would change things, and Loki began trying to convince her to back out of it, by bringing to light the fact that they had lain together.
"Just tell them, let it be done. I can't just let you… You don't even love him! You love me, don't you?" Loki moved his hand up Lilah's thigh and under her skirt. "After all, I've had you… He treats you poorly, more than I do, and we both know it." He made to tug her underwear down, but she smacked his hand.
"What do you want me to do? Go into my wedding, with all my family and friends and his family and friends gathered around and say oh, by the way, I been with Prince Loki and therefore this is all for nothing?"
"Well, it's a start."
"Loki!" Lilah was visibly upset, and Loki sighed. "Do you not understand that I can't do that?! You are, technically, married to Sigyn, which puts my having been with you into an even worse light? I can't marry you, which is what would be required if I did reveal that we've been together… So, back to square one, my lovely prince; I can't say anything, even if I wanted to, which I don't."
Loki rolled his eyes.
"You're content to spend eternity married to someone you don't love and who only sees you as an object, rather than just admit you're not marriageable any longer and settle with me?"
"You sever your ties with Sigyn, officially, and we'll talk; until then, no dice."
They spent the rest of the night in silence, and Loki thought about how irritating it was that she wouldn't just give in and admit to their night together.