Frigga cracked open her son's bedroom door and stepped aside so that Christie could step in with the breakfast tray. This entire ordeal was a lot of pressure, even for a well trained assassin, because this time she didn't have the girls to fall back on, or the loud chatter of Thor and Odin to mask her shakily uncertain breaths. Loki's bedroom was incredibly large, and actually rather dark in terms of theme. Instead of the common royal golds and sweet juicy reds of the palace, his room was soaked in dark shades of green and rustic browns, and didn't hold many tangible things. The word 'minimalistic' came to mind. Loki himself was sat in the centre of what could only be a king sized bed with black satin sheets - but only one matching pillow.

That threw Christie off considerably - did this guy not care for comfort?

"Your breakfast, Prince Loki," she shook her thoughts off to smile, carrying the tray straight over to him. The floor wasn't even carpeted - it was polished. This might as well have been a meeting hall with a bed, bookcase and wardrobe sitting in it. There was northing warm or homely about these surroundings whatsoever - and in fact, it made her a little uneasy.

"Thank you, Annerledes," Loki nodded back as he took the tray from her steady hands.

"Son, I do wish you'd open a few curtains in here. You have the most glorious windows in the entire palace and you let them go to waste every morning," Frigga tutted, already scurrying across the room to properly pull back those heavy duty black curtains. "You were not born in darkness, therefore I do not expect you to live in it."

"Apologies, mother," Loki drawled. He still hadn't looked away from Christie yet. "How do you feel today?" he suddenly hummed as Frigga allowed a stream of sunlight to burst into the room.

"I feel fine, son," she answered without turning around. Loki rolled his eyes at Christie and she bit back a coy smile. She had already assumed that he was speaking to her, but clearly Frigga hadn't cottoned on yet.

"Wonderful. And you, Annerledes?" Loki redirected the question purposefully.

"I'm well, thank you Prince Loki," Christie answered smoothly, finally meeting his eye contact. "I heard that you aren't very well today? What's…what's wrong, if you don't mind me asking?" Loki squinted his bottle green eyes at her question and briefly ran his tongue over his bottom lip.

He shouldn't have done that. That did something to her that she didn't expect and she prayed that she had kept it off her face.

"Oh, it's nothing more than a headache," Loki eventually waved her off, finally breaking his never-ending gaze. "Nothing remarkably worrying."

"If it's nothing remarkably worrying then you should've come down for breakfast," Frigga frowned as she spun back around from the windows with her arms crossed. "It's a family ordeal, Loki."

"Yes, one I truly hate," Loki muttered irritably under his breath. Christie watched the way he interacted with his mother intriguingly. Although there were still tones of bitterness lingering in his words, he was certainly much softer with her.

So all that negative energy was strictly reserved for his father? Understandable.

"Son, do you need me to call the healers or not?" Frigga asked him bluntly. "If the answer's no, I'll have to go and entertain your father and brother at breakfast before his arrogance kills him." Now Christie's eyes darted over to Frigga instead. Whose arrogance? Thor's or Odin's? Because between the two of them, they had enough macho-hardcore-realness to fill the entire palace.

"Oho please, don't let me stop you. Entertain away, Mother," Loki dismissed her with a small sarky smile playing at his lips. Frigga rolled her eyes but shot him a knowing smile back before nodding.

"Fine. Should Annerledes come back into the kitchens or would you prefer she stay and wait on you here?" she briskly offered up, standing next to Christie again. Christie's breath hitched straight in her throat as she focussed on the floor beneath her feet, unsure of what Loki's decision would be, and equally as unsure of what she'd prefer him to say - and his answer came quickly enough.

"She can stay," was all he replied. Frigga's eyes twinkled as she turned herself to Christie again. Loki rarely showed an interest in anyone, so this was both overwhelming and incredibly exciting for her. Christie, however, found that it put her under immense amounts of pressure again.

But not necessarily in a…bad way.

"Very well. Have a wonderful day, the two of you," Frigga hummed casually as she swept out of the room and shut the door behind her, leaving the two of them there alone. Christie found herself releasing a shaky sigh once she had gone, and Loki's head snapped up at the sound of it.

"Does my mother make you nervous?" he frowned - although his tone was edging on playful.

"You all make me nervous," Christie muttered back, shaking her head and running her hands through her silvery wispy locks. Loki watched her as she did so. He was so intrigued by every single thing she did.

"Is your hair naturally that colour? Or were you struck by lightening as a child?" he suddenly asked. This caught Christie off-guard.

"I'm…sorry?" she spluttered, trying her hardest not to start laughing at such a bizarre question. "Struck by lightening?" Loki stared at her, confused as to why she would find this so amusing, and all his innocence did was make Christie giggle out loud.

"I'm sorry, was that a ridiculous question?" he murmured a little uncomfortably, dropping his gaze in embarrassment.

"Aww, well…no," Christie attempted to regain her composure and slammed her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughs, "it's just…I've never heard that before. I was born with this hair colour."

"And the eyes to match?" Loki guessed as he looked back up at her again.

"Correct," Christie confirmed, straightening herself up properly. "I used to get stared at a lot as a child, and not in a good way either."

"Hm. Midgardians sound boring," Loki frowned as he placed his tray on his bedside table and arose from his bed. "Why would they stare at you if not in awe?"

"Because not everyone's like you, Loki," Christie responded with a risen eyebrow as she watched him pace across his room to the large black framed mirror opposite his bed, "when people don't understand things on Earth, they get scared. They hate what they can't explain." Loki frowned at his reflection and glanced at Christie over his shoulder.

"Do you think you are worthy of their stares?" he asked her slowly.

"In a good way? No. I guess I'd be a little thrown at the slender white haired girl with silver eyes too. Can't blame them for thinking I'm a little weird," Christie shrugged back, not seeing the big deal.

"Come here, Annerledes," Loki sighed, turning his head back to face his reflection again. Christie was thrown off by his request but did as she was told, walking over to stand beside him so that she could see herself in the mirror too. It was the first time she had seen herself this morning, actually - and honestly, she wasn't too impressed with what was looking back at her.

Loki, however…clearly was.

"Are you telling me that you don't think you're…and pardon me if I'm stepping beyond my boundaries here…beautiful?" he hummed, staring at her through the mirror. Christie's heart almost jumped straight into her throat. She had been sweet talked by many men, many targets before - but this one felt different.

"Beautiful?" she repeated quietly, "No. I think my sister's beautiful. I'm…an odd beauty."

"There's nothing 'odd' about you, Annerledes," Loki frowned in genuine confusion. "I find you somewhat breathtaking. And I don't tend to lie." The two of them stared at their reflections for a few moments of a comfortable but tense silence, before Loki cleared his throat and stepped away again, strolling over to his wardrobe.

And only then did Christie realise she was holding her breath.

"Well, Annerledes," Loki spoke clearly, "I hate to admit it, but I won't be eating my morning meal. I am in fact going to pet the storkatts today."

"The what?" Loki glanced over at her in amusement, shocked that she didn't know what he was talking about. He made his way over to his bed and lifted his one pillow to reveal a thick book with a matte black cover, flicking through the pages until he got to whatever he was looking for. Christie held her breath again as he approached her again with the book in his hands. On the page was the picture of a beautiful large black cat with the most piercing blue eyes - like a blue eyed panther, but with the ears of a doberman.

"Oh how beautiful," Christie breathed in awe, running her fingers across the page. Loki smiled up at her then - genuinely pleased at her enthusiasm. "What…you have one? Are they Asgardian? They look like panthers."

"I've read about the Midgardian 'panther'," Loki nodded excitedly. It was like that stony exterior was melting in front of Christie's very eyes, and she was rather surprised to see it. "I did have one, she sadly passed on a few weeks ago. But there's an entire enclosure with many of them in Eastern Asgard, I often visit them to spend time with them." Loki thought to himself for a moment before asking the next question. "Would you…would you like to come with me?"

"And hang with loads of these guys? Yes please!" Christie accepted his offer swiftly before she could stop herself. Other than the fact that she'd be gathering more intelligence on Loki and the family, she genuinely loved big cats and always had a dream of owning panthers. "Are they dangerous?"

"When provoked," Loki hummed back innocently, looking Christie dead in the eye, "explains why I can relate to them so much."

Christie made a mental note of that comment - whilst trying not to get lost in his gaze of course.

This was going to be harder than she thought.