Asgard was so different from Olympus. Gone were the open gardens and plethora of natural features, replaced by marvelous metal and stone buildings. There were certainly more people in Asgard than back home, evidenced by the hundreds that welcomed them through the gates of the city when they first arrived. Artemis was on edge the entire time, as she was a little rattled from her journey between Earth and Asgard via the bifrost. It was a rainbow bridge that connected the two words, controlled by a stern, ominous figure in gold armour named Heimdell. He welcomed them stiffly to Asgard after the magical transportation had been accomplished, and Artemis fretted that Nomia was going to vomit all over the initial arrival dome. Mercifully, the human managed to maintain her bowels well enough, and they could go forth into the realm with an escort from the palace.
All of the servants and luggage were taken one way, and Artemis was marched through the streets with Zeus and Hera as though they were prizes on display. The notion continued to put her in an uncomfortable state, but she managed to produce something of a smile all the same. For the most part, she kept her head down as though she were some obedient daughter and left all the public displays up to her father. It was nice that the crowds were only throwing flowers at them, as it could have been something of a harder variety, but she was still overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people that had showed up as a part of their welcoming committee. Was that everyone? Were there more people scattered across the vast city of glass, steel and rock?
There wasn't much nature to be seen, even though there were street gardens and artificial trees littered along the corners of cross-walks. Her father told her that there was immense beauty outside the city, and many people saw fit to go on retreats into the mountains during the holidays. It was a depressing thought, but the idea of a mountain holiday excited her more in that moment than the thought of meeting Prince Thor.
Speaking of which… That wasn't quite the disaster she had been expecting, but the initial meeting wasn't exactly smooth sailing either. She looked pretty, and she knew that she could play the part of the blushing bride-to-be if she needed, but when it came to actually speaking to the prince for the first time, she was at a loss for words. It was clear that Zeus and Odin were old friends, and Hera and the Lady Frigga clearly had some sort of friendly relationship, but none of them saw fit to facilitate the interaction between their betrothed children. The prince reminded her a great deal of Orion; tall, muscular, and strikingly handsome in his attire. However, there was no immediate spark that she had felt with Orion when she first met the human hunter, and when Thor kissed her hand softly, she wanted nothing more than to pull it away and wipe it on her dress.
He wasn't a slimy fellow, nor did he seem like some greasy being who was out for her title or wealth. Instead, he only seemed as genuinely uncomfortable with their first meeting as she did, though they played it off well with smiles and intermittent eye contact. It wasn't until the man's brother, this Loki character, stepped in and offered up some sort of conversation that she felt a fraction of the enormous tension ease away.
It was difficult to believe they were brothers, as they both looked so different. Thor was tall, wide, blond, chiseled, while his brother was also tall, but much slimmer – as her father had obnoxiously commented on earlier – and incredibly pale by comparison, his hair black and his eyes a startling blue. Blue eyes were hardly special, as they ran in her lineage, but when paired with such dark hair, they certainly stood out. He was softer spoken, but direct, whereas Thor had a voice made for speaking to large halls like their fathers. It was clear why he had been chosen to rule almost immediately.
The brother fell behind quickly after they started drifting out of the enormous throne room, almost double the size of the Pantheon, and into a nearby hall. There were numerous tables set and ready to be seated at, and Artemis found herself positioned quite a distance away from her father. Zeus was obviously granted a seat near Odin at the head of the table, Hera in tow, but there were already countless individuals filling the seats around them, not a care in the world that Artemis was left floating in a sea of awkward with Thor. Luckily enough, just as he was surrounded by a group of his close companions on one side of the table, Artemis found herself nestled between Callisto and Nomia, their eyes full of reassurance as they managed to take charge of the conversation.
She marveled at just how easy the trio of handmaidens managed to keep the men around them talking. Only Aora seemed to do it with a flirtatious undertone to her voice, something that Artemis would need to speak with her about, but otherwise things seemed to flow with relative ease once they were in a much larger group. It certainly helped that they all polished off about four bottles of wine between them, which wasn't enough to get any of them drunk, but there was a more relaxed air around them.
The food was scrumptious, but different than what she was used to; it was all quite heavy, laden with meats and dark vegetables, whereas Artemis was used to a leafy diet mixed with sweet fruits and lean meats. It would take some adjustment to eat all of this every single day, but she was sure she could manage somehow.
The hall was quite elaborately decorated, with red table cloths and gold chalices littered across the tables. Armour and weaponry hung on the walls, and servants lurked in the shadows to attend to the prestigious guests. As time passed, it grew louder and louder, thanks to the wine no doubt, and Artemis had a chance to look around at the patrons. They were all quite elegant, robed in browns, reds, and cream hues, gold jewelry in their hair and on their arms. Most of the women had dresses that were similar to hers, but she had the only blue one as far as she could tell. Occasionally, she would spot a group looking at her, hardly subtle with the way they craned their neck. She stared back, unwilling to be cowed into submission by a pair of nosy onlookers, but Callisto usually brought her back into the conversation.
Her trio of handmaidens had dressed in the same outfit, a sign of solidarity behind her. It was a pale purple tunic, one that went just below their knees and barely showed any of their curves. Their facial beauty more than made up for the lack of skin or body shown beneath their clothing, and it was clear that at least two of Thor's trio of male warriors were interested in her girls. For the most part, it was those six individuals who carried their conversation. Artemis interjected occasionally, which always earned her Thor's attention. Thor embellished some of the adventure stories that they told, and she heard Loki pipe up a few times, only to be noisily overshadowed by one of the warriors.
They were called the Warriors Three, and consisted of a portly, round fellow named Volstagg; a dashing, charming man with the most obscenely neat facial hair she had ever seen, Fandral; and finally a mute, stern warrior named Hogun, who only seemed to speak if something was directed his way. So, in actuality, there were only five people carrying the conversation. There was a woman among them, Lady Sif, but she was not included as a Warrior Three. Instead, she seemed more like an afterthought, despite the fact her name was a constant in almost all the stories they regaled her with. She was a fit woman, muscle clearly visible on her arms, with raven hair and bright eyes. She was the one, of all of them, who seemed to be able to correct Thor without any repercussions.
Artemis took a sip of her wine, relishing the red liquid for a moment, and then set her chalice down. She smiled as she listened to Volstagg's tale, nodding a few times whenever he stopped to clarify something. Her handmaidens were enraptured, all three of them leaning forward with their elbows on the table, forsaking any table manners they may have started with at the beginning of their feast almost two hours ago.
"And so," Volstagg continued, a large piece of meat on the end of his thick fork, "as Hogun crawled away from the miserable beast, I did what any man would have done… I leapt upon it and slayed it where it stood!"
"Oh, how brave," Nomia said brightly, her eyes wide as she picked delicately at her plate of vegetables. "I can see why you are such a mighty warrior, my lord!"
"Now, now, you mustn't believe everything Volstagg says," Fandral insisted after he took a quick sip of his drink. "You see, Thor was the one who jumped on the beast-"
"Well, I had every intention of doing it," the portly man argued as Artemis laughed a little, "but he beat me to it!"
"Intention isn't action, my friend," the handsome warrior remarked, shooting a wink in Aora's direction. "You must only tell true tales… Have you ever faced a harrowing experience, my lady?"
The dark-haired nymph shrugged delicately, and then cleared her throat, "We once hunted a great boar down on Earth… He had immense tusks, which was surprising… He never had much of anything large when he was a man."
"When he was a man?" Lady Sif repeated, her well-plucked eyebrows shooting up.
"Hera turned him into a giant pig when he insulted one of her sons," Artemis explained lightly. "He wasn't very good at being an animal… We thought we should put him out of his misery sooner rather than later."
"I suppose I'll have to mind what I say around your mother," Thor voiced, grinning a little as his friends laughed. "I think I'd make a poor pig, too."
"I know someone who wouldn't," Fandral mused, making Aora giggle as Volstagg shot him a glare.
Artemis pursed her lips a little as she stared down at her empty plate; she had been full almost an hour ago, but it seemed the food was endless. All that aside, she felt the need to correct Thor, and when she looked up again, she noticed Loki studying her from his seat next to his brother. He turned away when their eyes met, and set about pouring himself another glass of wine.
"Hera isn't my mother," Artemis said after she contemplated the reasons why she should and shouldn't say it. She knew she shouldn't knock Hera down in their eyes, as she was bound to do that all on her own, but she didn't want Thor to think she came from that woman.
"Beg your pardon?" he asked, eyebrows shooting up as he leaned forward, no doubt unable to hear her over the dull roar of the hall.
"Hera," she clarified, "isn't my mother."
"Oh…"
"My mother's name is Leto," she continued. "She lives on Earth these days… Crete, mostly. Perhaps one day you'll meet her."
"Yes," Thor replied, giving her a nod, "I'd like that."
She wasn't sure if he genuinely wanted to meet her mother or if he couldn't think of anything else to say. It had sort of been out of the blue, and the conversation around them had dulled considerably. Artemis took another sip of her drink when she heard Fandral clear his throat, but she was saved by Callisto.
"You really must tell me more about this beast that almost had Hogun," she demanded as though nothing had happened. "I cannot fathom how such a fierce warrior would succumb to anything!"
The silent man grinned only a little, and he opened his mouth a tad, no doubt ready with an explanation, but Volstagg and Thor continued to story almost in tandem. The conversation lost all depth as they continued with the war and adventure stories, and Artemis was thankful for that. She could listen to tales of bravery and quests all day if it meant she didn't have to talk to Thor about anything regarding their impending marriage.
So, she smiled and tried to mimic her handmaidens' interest in the tales, even though her countless other brothers had done things that she considered more valiant or daring. The Warriors Three seemed proud of what they had done, and Thor was no better with his boasting of dangerous adventures; Artemis had a feeling this was what the usual dinner conversation was about, as Lady Sif seemed to roll her eyes quite a great deal over the course of the discussion.
Sometime later, she heard music from somewhere in the hall, and when she turned around from her position at the main table, she saw that they had been joined by a band of some kind. The music was swift, loud, and nothing like the soft hum of a lyre or the blended whistle of a pan flute. The people of the hall hardly seemed dignified when they dragged themselves away from their food and drink to dance, coupling up as they twirled around in the large open space beyond the mass of tables. It actually brought a smile to her face when she saw lords and ladies abandon all dignity and embrace the music…
It was almost human-like, because it certainly didn't happen at home among the Olympians; she was sure they wanted to assert that they were nothing like Dionysus and his ridiculous parties, but she didn't know if there was anything wrong with them. It all seemed like a lot of fun, actually.
"Lady Aora," she heard Fandral start, which brought her attention back to the people around her, "may I be so bold as to ask you for a dance?"
Aora immediately turned to Artemis, looking over Nomia at her for permission. Fandral also looked at her, and she contemplated her options. She didn't particularly want her chaste handmaiden dancing with some rogue, but she had a feeling there would be a great deal of disappointment from both parties if she said no. So, she nodded her head a little, and quirked an eyebrow toward the dance floor. Her handmaiden grinned brightly and hopped up, disappearing moments later with the handsome warrior.
"I'll watch her," Callisto insisted softly, dabbing the corners of her mouth with her napkin before she too rose. "Hogun, I'd be honoured if you would escort me for a walk around the hall. I'd love to hear more stories."
Artemis had never once questioned Callisto's intentions with men, particularly because she was the best-behaved of all her handmaidens. If she wanted to be alone with Hogun, the warrior who hadn't said more than two words since she had met him, Artemis saw no reason not to be. Now, Aora with a charming man who was forward enough to ask her to dance? That might have been a different story. However, with Callisto roaming the perimeter of the hall with an escort in tow, she was pleased to have another set of eyes watching the slightly drunker nymph.
Loki rose to his feet, and even though she had been seated almost directly across from him, she almost forgot he was there. Silent like Hogun, she had only heard him speak at the start of the conversation when the others weren't so dominant and competitive to tell their stories. For a moment she thought he might ask Nomia to dance, but he instead excused himself, dipping his head a little, and then disappeared into the crowd. It seemed the music had signaled the end of the dinner service, and people all along her long table were dispersing, getting up with a glass or mug of something to chat with different tables.
The dance floor grew a little rowdier behind her, and with only four of them left at one end of the massive table, it would have been easy to assume that she and Thor were going to end up out there soon with the rest of the dancers. Nomia was decent at making conversation, but Volstagg seemed too engrossed in dessert to contribute much, and she felt as though Thor might be running out of polite things to talk about after such a long dinner.
A large pair of hands suddenly wrapped around her shoulders, which made her flinch, and she looked up and into the white beard of her father.
"Well," she managed, "haven't seen you for a while. How wonderful of you to venture to this side of the table!"
"You're a grump when you've been drinking," her father teased, grasping her arm and pulling her to her feet. "Come dance with your father. Hera is too busy for dancing tonight."
She rolled her eyes a little as she looked in Hera's direction, hating how engrossed in a conversation with Thor's mother she seemed; it was fairly obvious what they were talking about, and it made her want to slap the woman. However, her father requested a dance, and she was happy to get away from the table to give it to him. She squeezed Nomia's shoulder as she left, trying to be reassuring, but it was clear the woman had no problems as long as there was some dessert in front of her.
Artemis let her father lead her toward the dance floor, ignoring the way some of the people around them studied her when she walked by. It was nice that no one seemed to make too big of a deal that Zeus was among them; on Earth, people trembled before him, and in Olympia they placed him on the same pedestal that the Asgardians seemed to place Odin. However, right here and right now, she could simply share a dance with her father, and aside from the unavoidable staring because of their high profile guest status, it was as if they weren't anything special at all.
Unfortunately, both realized once they were out there that they had no idea how to dance to this sort of music, and they resorted to a little bit of awkward swaying on the outskirts of the dance floor. Aora and Fandral were nowhere in sight, but she had confidence that Callisto was keeping an eye on the situation for her.
"So?"
She looked up at her father's expectant expression, and then raised her eyebrows, "So?"
"So, what do you think?" he clarified, nodding back toward the table, "Of Thor, I mean."
"Oh!" Artemis cleared her throat, hating the way he looked so eager for a response, and then shrugged, "I think it's too early to tell… He seems… nice."
"Haven't you two talked about anything yet?" he demanded, rolling his eyes dramatically when she shook her head. "Child… You need to discuss things with him! We won't be staying forever, and I want to leave knowing this will work for you."
She cocked her head to the side a hint, eyes narrowing, "What do you mean you're leaving?"
"Go wait out on that balcony," Zeus told her, pointing toward a nearby doorway, "and I'll find him… You two must discuss everything as soon as possible."
"Father-"
"Artemis, you'll listen to me," he told her quietly, his voice firm.
Her argument clearly fell to deaf ears, and he was already gone before she could ask him to explain what he meant by the notion that they wouldn't be 'staying forever'. Instead, she watched his retreating form for a moment, weaving his way through the crowd, and then turned, resigned to do as he asked.
Once she was out of the hall, the air around her had cooled considerably. She took a deep breath, moving to the edge of the balcony, her hands resting on the smooth surface. A light breeze wafted across the open space, and she inhaled deeply again as she spied the city landscape beneath her. It was a lovely view across the horizon, and now that she was out of the crowd and noise, she could feel a peace creeping in.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?"
She nearly jumped away from the source of the voice quite visibly, and she turned back to spy Loki seated on the edge of the balcony's railing, his hands held up as he smiled at her.
"I'm sorry," he said, chuckling a little. "I didn't mean to startle you… I thought you saw me."
"No," she told him, her heart rate slowing as she regained her composure, "I'm afraid I was lost in my head, and then the city claimed me."
"It's been known to do that," he mused, sliding off the railing and quickly joining her. She watched him survey the horizon, eyes traveling along the outlines of the different building designs, until finally he looked back down to her. Nearly half a head taller, he needn't crane so much to meet her eyes. "I've grown up here my entire life… but to someone outside it, I'm sure it's a strange place."
"It's… different," she acknowledged with a nod, turning her gaze back out to the city. "Olympus is so… green and soft, old. It hasn't aged, even though the humans that worship us are long into their technological era."
"I should like to see it one day," Loki insisted. "Olympus… It seems worlds away."
"It feels it," she admitted without thinking. Artemis certainly didn't want to appear ungrateful for the wonderful display of hospitality, and she quickly managed to mutter, "I mean, realistically it is…"
She stopped when she felt his hand touch her wrist, and Artemis looked up at him quickly, a little thrown.
"I can't begin to imagine what it feels like," he told her earnestly, "to be taken from one's home and thrust into a new place. I think it's very… brave."
Well, she didn't particularly have a choice, did she? She pursed her lips tightly, and then nodded, forcing a smile up at him.
"Thank you."
"I want you to think of me as a friend," he told her, giving her wrist a gentle squeeze. "If you are going to become my new sister, I think… I think we should be friends. If you need anything, something you feel like you can't ask anyone else, please think of me."
She retracted her arm, wrapping both around her body instead, "Thank you for your kindness."
"Not kindness," he corrected. "It's just good manners, isn't it? Being a good host…"
She looked across to him again, and he grinned an infectious grin that forced her to smile back.
"So," Loki sighed, turning just enough so that he could lean on the railing, comfortably facing her. "What do you make of Asgardian high society?"
Artemis followed his gaze back inside and she smirked, "I think it isn't terribly different from my own… A little rowdier, mind you."
"I think people are simply happy to have you here," Loki told her. "They brought out the good wine tonight."
"Glad I could help people become inebriated on the expensive stock," she mused, her tension slipping away once more with the light conversation. It hardly felt forced, and despite its lack of substance, Artemis found herself smiling more now than she had all night.
"Actually," he started, leaning in a tad closer, "if you…"
Her eyebrows rose when she saw him move away quickly, and she realized they were no longer alone. Thor stood a few feet away, and he scratched the back of his head, "I'm not interrupting, am I?"
"Nonsense, brother," Loki said before she could get a word in. "I was merely keeping Artemis company while she waited for you."
He shot her another smile before departing, and Thor nudged his arm when he strolled by. She watched them exchange a look, one that only seemed especially apparent if you actually had a sibling to share that same look with. It was surprising to see such a sense of family here; however, she had only been there for half a day, and she couldn't start jumping to conclusions now.
Thor joined her at the edge of the balcony, staring out at the city, and she sighed, the tension rising back in her body as though it had never left. Artemis cleared her throat and drummed her fingers along the railing, and then tried to say something. Unfortunately, Thor seemed to have the same idea, and they ended up talking over each other, and then apologizing profusely.
"You first."
"No, it wasn't… anything important," Artemis admitted weakly, her cheeks tinting a tad.
A silence settled over them again, and for a moment or so she listened to the dull chatter from inside the hall, wishing for anything that she wasn't alone with Thor. He wasn't a terrible man, but she felt so uncomfortable at the thought of being his wife in this very moment that she would have rather jumped off the balcony than had a serious discussion with him.
"I meant to find you some flowers," he said finally, "but compared with the ones in your hair… I think everything would have looked small in comparison."
"That's all right," she told him. "I didn't… I didn't expect anything of that kind."
"Good. I mean," he paused, "not 'good', but I'll find you something nicer."
"All right."
Her neck actually started to feel stiff the longer they stood together, mostly because she felt that if she moved too much, he might start talking again. They would move passed this, of course. It was only jitters from the first night, but a promising future wasn't enough to make this discomfort any better.
"It's a funny thing," Thor started after what felt like an eternity, "an arranged marriage."
She nodded, her eyes still focused on a particularly interesting spiral building in the distance, "It is."
Her eyes darted back to look at him, but he seemed lost in a world of his own, focusing a bit too hard on a building just as she had done. They both seemed willing to look just about anywhere but at one another.
"Would you like to dance?" she asked, unable to take the "private time" any longer. They would have plenty of other occasions to discuss their impending marriage, perhaps at a time when they were more comfortable with one another. She had to be logical and rational about this, lest she lose herself.
"Yes," he said quickly, clearly relieved to be moving on from the situation. Perhaps he too was nervous about having "the talk" to immediate into their relationship. They had plenty of time. He extended his arm to her, and she took it again, only marginally less awkward now than she was before.
It was a start, wasn't it? This was the way it was supposed to feel, right?
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Right, so imma throw this out here from the start – if you're looking for a dark, sensual Loki who bangs our sweet heroine in the third or fourth chapter, that's not what this is. I have started to enjoy developing relationships and working them into stories, particularly if I have a strong female character as my protagonist. Artemis is just that – she's a strong, confident woman, though clearly uncomfortable with the situation she's been put in. In mythology, she was forever a virgin and held her virtue high – clearly that isn't the case with my movie-comic-myth version, as she's had a lover in the past. However, some of her old traits will still hold true.
Loki is also pre-Avengers. Therefore, he's still a little awkward himself, still feeling out of place in his family and in his home. I'm excited to explore that side of him, despite the fact I lurve me some dark dangerous nasty goodness that I've read elsewhere on FF. It's fun. I wouldn't call this soft, but he isn't quite the badass yet we see him be, so I find the switch in dynamics – a strong woman who is self-assured, and a slightly less and downtrodden man who isn't quite sure of himself – to be kind of interesting. He's not going to be some whiny little punk either, mind you (ick, who says punk?), but I just want to warn you that's he's not that hawt, evil, horrible Loki we saw in the most recent film.
Thank you for all the kind reviews! They are like delicious, delicious candy.
