Eventually after hours on the sparring field Theia and Loki were both as equally covered in bruises and dirt as the other. It was almost lunch time when Theia held up her hands in defeat.

"That's it," She sighed. "I'm shattered, Loki."

"Time for some sustenance then?" He asked making the staff disappear with a flick of his wrist once more. Theia nodded stretching her arms above her head. Her joints hurt from sparring for so long, but she was glad she had. The sparring gave her some type of unnatural peace; the moves and stances had become an extension of her mind. Nothing else mattered, only practice and perfection.

The pair walked in silence up towards the palace, they shared nothing but each other's company and a few looks here and there. Loki turned off towards the left veering away from the palace, Theia kept walking for a moment until she noticed his action and then turned to scurry after him.

"I thought you wanted sustenance?" Said Theia, she kicked a small piece of rock across the stone floor. Loki turned to her smiling a toothy smile. Another mischievous smile.

"I do want sustenance, but I might as well have some fun getting it." Theia smelt the saltiness of the sea wafting in from the ocean and she realised they were heading to the docks. Theia faintly wondered what 'I might as well have some fun getting it,' actually meant.

The docks were busy. Asgardians wandered about the numerous amounts of stalls selling different types of fish and crustaceans. Two Asgardian salesmen bantered off to the left about whose fish was better priced. The smell of seafood was strong in Theia's nose. Theia stopped to see a small Asgardian girl dart past her with a small multi-coloured fish in a glass bowl full of water. It was strange how some of their customs related to the Midgardians. Many different coloured crabs and lobsters were clambering over one another in a large crate. Their pincers were tightly bound to avoid fights between the creatures or people getting injured by the sharpness of their claws.

Theia and Loki stopped to admire different stalls. Loki was over at stall whist Theia's eyes fell upon a bright green seahorse floating lonely in a tank. She crouched down so she was eye level with the small creature and put a single finger to the glass. Theia related to the sea creature who floated alone in the glass container. Although she was never truly alone physically, her mind was always alone. Always without someone by her.

Theia stood letting her hand drop from the tank and walked over to where Loki was standing. There was a long dock that jutted out into the ocean where the boats were usually tied up. But today there were no boats tied to the dock leaving a clear run out to the ocean. Loki had his arms crossed over his chest as Theia reached him, he shifted his eyes out to the ocean and Theia laughed.

"We're going fishing?" She asked, stepping out onto the dock with Loki following close behind. "The Midgardians usually see this as a boring activity."

"But we aren't going to fish like Midgardians," said Loki chuckling. He pulled off his khaki green shirt and shoes, before Theia could say anything he jumped into the ocean, splashing Theia's feet with water. Theia looked over the edge watching the water ripple where Loki had landed; moments later he emerged completely soaked a huge grin plastered on his face. "Come on!" He yelled, swishing his arms under the water to keep afloat. "The water's great!"

Theia rolled her eyes and glanced around, nobody had taken any notice of the pair on the docks. Theia didn't particularly care if anybody noticed, but she just imagined what her mother would say. 'It is not what a Lady would do.'

To Jotunheim with what a Lady does, she thought kicking off her shoes. And then she jumped, laughing as she flew through the air. Theia curled her knees up to her chest causing a much bigger splash than Loki had when she hit the water. The water curled up around her as she sunk lower and Theia glanced around at the clear blue water that lay out before her. She kicked upwards then emerging with a gasp and a laugh whilst she pushed her sodden hair out of her face.

"So," She said, kicking her legs out to stay afloat. "How do you propose we fish?" Loki smiled and then ducked under the water again. Theia didn't argue with herself this time, she just decided to follow him.

Theia sucked in a breath and dunked under the water again, she glanced around and saw Loki waving her over, his motions slow because of the density of the water. Theia kicked over to him glancing around very few seconds to see different fish darting around in all directions. Coming up for air when they needed it the pair swam the line of the beach to a small cave buried in a rock face. The water sloshed over the rocks into the entrance.

"There's a rock pool in there," Said Loki. "The fish get trapped when the tide goes out."

Loki clambered up onto the rocks and held out his hand so Theia could climb up with him. She took it and a little less than gracefully scrambled up onto the rock next to him. The sun streamed into the cave making the water in the rather large rock pool shimmer. Loki was right; the fish were trapped in the rock pool, as well as crabs and lobsters.

Theia crouched down next to the pools edge and glanced at the animals that were trapped in tranquillity. It was almost certain that nobody would find them in their little hiding place, but as fate had it Loki knew of this hiding place. The thought of their almost imminent death crossed Theia's mind. Loki crouched down next to Theia a small net in his hands. Theia took it from him and dunked it under the water causing the fish to scarper in different directions. Loki then put his net in the water and just waited. Theia on the other hand was chasing a particularly colourful fish that somehow was managing to avoid capture. Loki chuckled at Theia, he pulled his net from the water, an orange fish was floundering in its clutches.

"I've got one," He said triumphantly holding the net up so Theia could see. "Where's yours?" He asked jokingly.

Theia gasped dramatically and scooped up a handful of water, splashing Loki with it. "For your information, I am just about to retrieve my catch."

Theia slid from the side of the cave into the water. The rock pool was fairly deep, although it didn't seem like it from on the ridge, Theia could just about get her toes on the bottom while keeping her head above water. Loki surveyed her, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"What on Asgard are you doing?" He asked.

"I am retrieving my catch." She said before disappearing under the water.

Even under the water the fish were just as colourful, but they seemed a little more relaxed now that Theia was among them and not the nets. Theia scanned the bottom of the rock pool, she knew for a fact she wasn't going to be able to catch one of the fish that were darting around her. The perfect thing to get was a crab, but said crab was tucked right into the corner of the rock pool and it didn't have ties on its pincers like the ones in the container back at the docks.

Theia let out some of the air she was holding, causing bubbles to fly up around her, and disappeared into the darkened end of the rock pool. Theia didn't bother to survey how the crab behaved before she pushed her hand down towards the crevice it was hiding in. Theia wiggled her fingers and pushed them underneath the crab, she was sorry when she did because a stabbing pain in her finger alerted her to the crabs' pincers closing around the skin. She jolted back and rubbed her finger, eyeing the crab through slits and reached back down releasing another bit of air as she did so. This time Theia was cautious and decided to pick the crab up by one of its back legs instead of reaching underneath it. The beast wasn't too pleased by that either and attempted to swerve itself round to have another go at Theia's fingers. Undeterred, she picked up the angry creature and kicked off from the bottom emerging from the rock pool with the crab in hand.

"My catch," She said, pleased with herself. Loki laughed and took the struggling crustacean from Theia so she could climb up onto the ridge again. "It put up a better fight than your catch," She added a mocking tone onto the end.

Loki eyed his catch which now lay dead in the net. "I caught my catch without cheating," He retorted playfully.

"You didn't specify how we caught them," Said Theia taking the crab back from Loki, "Therefore, I caught it without cheating."

"Alright," Said Loki, he stood up and Theia quickly averted her eyes from his bare chest. She didn't know why she did, seeing the warriors bare chested on the sparring field never made her flush or look away but this did, and she was glad that Loki didn't notice. "Time for some sustenance."

The swim back was more of a race back than the relaxed swim to the cove. Even though Theia had kept up with Loki for most of the swim he beat her in the end. Theia was convinced he had used some of his magic to slow her down right at the end to which he didn't admit or deny anything. The pair kept their shoes off as they walked back up to the palace, Loki in the end did put his shirt back on which Theia was thankful for, she would like to look at someone when she was talking to them.

Loki intended to go up to the kitchens to have the fish cooked for himself and Theia, but Theia had another idea. She told Loki to wait in the gardens just inside the palace walls and she disappeared up to her bedroom to get changed. Theia hid her sodden tunic and leggings in the washroom and changed into a sea blue dress so her mother wouldn't suspect any sparring activities. She then picked one of her many Midgardian books off the shelves and hurried back down to the gardens.

Loki was sitting patiently under the branches of an apple tree as she approached; he lay against it with his hands behind his head and his eyes closed. Theia thought this was opportune, she couldn't resist pranking the God of Mischief at least once. He may have not been asleep, but he was certainly relaxed and after Theia decided to pick up the crab that was still scrambling about in the net and put it on his head he certainly wasn't relaxed anymore.

The princes' eyes flew open, hands quickly going to his head to discover the sudden weight that had dropped on it. He pulled the crab off by one of its legs and jumped dropping it to the ground. Theia was beside herself with laughter. She was too busy laughing that she didn't even notice the rather annoyed crustacean scuttle up to her before it clamped a small piece of skin on her bare foot between its pincers. Theia squeaked, kicking the annoying beast across the grass. Loki was now the one beside himself with laughter; he threw his head back his laugh echoing around the garden as Theia rubbed her foot.

"That was not funny!" Theia said, cursing herself for picking the prank that would backfire on her.

"Oh, I thought it was very funny." Loki chuckled, capturing the crab that attempted to blend in with the grass. He put it back in the net with the other fish.

Theia smirked and retrieved her Midgardian book before she took a seat next to Loki, as far away from the demon crab as possible. "Of course you would find it funny, but that beast won't when we make it into sushi."

"Sushi? What on Asgard?" He asked.

Theia was surprised the prince had never even heard of sushi, although it was a Midgardian dish she would have thought he'd have heard of it from his many trips to Midgard with the Allfather and Thor. Theia flipped open her Midgardian book and after scanning through several pages of dishes from other countries on Midgard she stopped and read.

"Sushi is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice, shari, combined with other ingredients, usually raw fish or other seafood." Theia looked down at the book and then at the crab and fish that were still in the net. "Well, it won't be like real sushi that the people on Midgard have but we have raw fish so it has to be something similar."

Loki picked up the net and examined the crab and fish inside it, he had never eaten raw fish before, and the idea had never really appealed to him or Theia for that matter. Theia took the net from him and picked out the crab by its back legs and eyed it suspiciously, she seemed to think that it was going to pull out a knife and butcher her like she planned to do to it. That was one thing she forgot to bring though, a knife. Theia sighed, but Loki who had taken the Midgardian book to read, had already conjured up a knife as he did with the staff on the sparring fields.

"Thank you," Said Theia breaking into the crab shell with her knife and killed it almost instantly to cause it a minimal amount of pain.

The crab meat was pearly white when Theia pulled back the skin to reveal it. The slight smell wafted up her nose, it smelt different to fish, it smelt better than some fish did. Theia offered the crab to Loki who took a small flake of meat before popping it into his mouth. Theia did the same moments later, letting the slight saltiness wash over her tongue.

If anyone would have saw the two of them together it certainly would have seemed like more than what it was. To Theia this was nothing more than a friendship quickly established over two days, it was a lot faster than it had taken her to become friends with Aria or Greta or any of her friends. But she was glad, she was glad she was friends with Loki, she was glad that she could be friends with a man without her mother forcing her into something, although she hadn't told her mother yet. There was something exciting about these secret moments that she spent with Loki that nobody knew about, as far as anyone else was concerned Theia's days were spent on the hillside above the sparring fields, but Theia knew better than anyone else that the past two days have entailed far more than that. They were more than Theia just being out and unsociable, they were about friendship, a different friendship entirely to any that she had ever experienced before, and trust. She knew no matter how little time she had known him, that she could trust Loki. And trust could sometimes be a very hard thing to come by, even on Asgard.

It turned out that although the idea of raw fish didn't really appeal to him, Loki found out that the raw fish or sushi as the Midgardians called it was delicious. Theia cleared up the fish bones and offered to dispose of them but Loki just banished them with a blast of quick magic. The two then parted ways for the rest of the day, Theia had to go back and clean her sparring clothes before her mother found them under her bed and knew what she was up to, and Loki had a meeting which he had no choice but to attend. It was safe to say however, that neither of them wanted to leave.


That night Theia was sitting in her room just down the hall from her mother's. In her hand was the Alfheim book that Loki had given her, she was almost finished with it but she was sure that she would read it again before returning it to Loki. Aria had been to visit her just before nightfall, she told Theia of how her mother wished for her to be married to a warrior named Blior; Aria didn't seem too pleased at that idea but she agreed to meet him nevertheless.

Theia let the open book drop onto her chest; she knew now that after Aria's mother wished for her daughter to be married it meant that her own mother wouldn't be far behind on that matter. Theia didn't want to get married, not yet anyway, and she didn't want to get married to someone that her mother chose for her. She'd rather marry an ogre from a Midgardian legend than have to spend the rest of her life with someone she didn't choose to be with.

There was a knock on the door that brought Theia out of her thoughts, she wrapped a silk shawl around her shoulders and turned the handle. Looking out into the hallway she saw that it was empty but upon looking down it wasn't as empty as it seemed. On the tiles outside her door, floating glass bowl filled with water was a bright green seahorse.


I must admit the end there was a wee bit lovey dovey for my liking but i had inspiration and i just had to use it! So then, please i want to know, what do you guys think of Theia and Loki? Things will progress somewhere soon and the movie will come into play too! I just can't stop writing!

Anyway *ends ramble* please please please with Loki on top review! XD