A/N: R.I.P to Chadwick Boseman. Waking up to such heartbreaking news this morning completely broke me, but I'm going to continue churning out chapters and (when the time comes) keep his name and character alive. As devastated as I am, he can rest easy knowing he was the inspiration and representation for so many young black kids across the globe. He put his all to every single role he was given, in and out of the MCU, and my thoughts are with his loved ones right now.

Now for today's chapter x

…

The next morning was like a whole new experience for Christie. It was as if everything that had taken place the day before, whether 'for the mission' or not, had changed her attitude towards Asgard completely. A 'life changing experience', some may call it.

She wouldn't exactly call it that, though. It gave Loki entirely too much credit.

How was she feeling at this moment? Well, she felt reasonably indifferent. Aside from the infrequent and somewhat uncontrollable butterflies that Loki caused within her - she felt that for the most part, she was still somewhat in control, and she knew this tactic was going to give her the answers she needed.

For now, that's all that mattered.

"Good morning girls," Christie beamed that morning. Her hair was in a chunky messy side plait and her cheeks unusually pink and rosy. Delilah, Renesme and Jennie all stared at her as she walked into the room, which caused Christie to blink back at them with a baffled frown. "…What's the matter? Oh god, what's happened now?"

"Really, Annerledes? Please do not stand in front of us and act like you don't know why we are the slightest bit miffed," Delilah scoffed as she crossing her arms in annoyance. Christie's eyes widened as she shook her head.

"No, Delilah, I really don't have a clue why any of you are 'miffed' - which, by the way, is a word that nobody says if they're under the age of 50," she murmured, preparing herself for service duty. Delilah rolled her eyes before answering.

"Well I don't know about the rest of the girls, but I woke up to the news that you and Prince Loki Odinson are now a couple? When did THAT happen?!"

"I'm not overly sure that it has yet - and whether we are or we aren't, why would it bother you so much?" Christie spluttered as she carefully placed the bread basket on her assigned tray. She remembered all too well how they used to talk about him and was genuinely baffled as to why anything surrounding Loki would matter, when they barely liked him in the first place.

"Well thanks for the heads up Annerledes!" Jennie exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air dramatically. Christie rolled her eyes and finally turned to face them straight on - she honestly had no time for the theatrics today.

"Listen ladies, I'm sorry for…not telling you, I guess? I didn't think you'd care, to be fair, you hadn't shown that much interest in anything I did before. Plus, you guys always seemed like the biggest Thor fans anyway? So why would Loki even matter?" she broke it down for them fairly, leading Renesme and Delilah in particular to look rather bashful. Jennie bit down on her both her lips a little uncomfortably, shuffling around to distract herself from the awkwardness.

"Fair enough. Look, we honestly do care," Renesme assured her with a shy smile as she rubbed Christie's forearm in comfort. "We do care about what you do - even if we are 'Thor fans'." Christie smiled back at her and before she knew it, the girls had all circled around her and she was bang in the middle of an involuntary group hug, which she gritted her teeth and just went along with. Once that was over, after what felt like the longest seconds of her life. Christie cleared her throat, picked up the serving tray and carried it straight through into the dining hall again. Loki grinned as soon as he lay eyes on her. His eyes had a playful sparkle in them that Christie didn't recognise, but it was making her a little shaky once again. She placed the tray on the table in front of him, making sure to maintain eye contact because - well, why not?

They were full on flirting in front of the Odinsons, which was…new. For everyone.

"Do we happen to have any orange juice in the kitchens, Annerledes?" Loki suddenly inquired with a smirk playing at his lips. Christie quickly held herself from rolling her eyes at his obviously cheeky behaviour.

"Not that I know of, sir. This week's delivery hasn't yet arrived," she muttered back before slowly standing up straight again.

"Ah, such a shame. I could really do with some. May you pour me a chalice-full of grape mead?" Christie frowned a little at his request, wondering what he was playing at, but found herself bending over obediently to do as he asked regardless. Suddenly, she felt a hand slowly caress her outer thigh under the table. She jumped and let out a startled gasp, almost spilling the mead all over the table, and immediately glared up at Loki's grinning face. She was well aware that all eyes were now solely focussed on her.

"Oh! Is everything alright, Annerledes?" Loki blinked over at her innocently, retracting his hand as though nothing had even happened. Christie clenched her jaw and straightened herself up as quickly as possible.

"Yes Prince Loki, everything is perfectly fine. Your drink has been poured - now if you would excuse me, I must return to the kitchens," she excused herself with a small bow and began to back away, her heart still thumping boldly against her chest.

"Oh? But I am yet to receive my good morning kiss," Loki suddenly frowned with those green eyes still glinting with pure mischief. Frigga raised both eyebrows and Thor released a small noise of surprise before he could stop himself. Even Odin's eye was darting from Loki to Christie and back again. Delilah glanced over at Renesme who stared right back at her with wide eyes, neither one of them having expected to see this so soon and so…indiscreetly. Loki continued to smirk at Christie, clearly testing her to see how far she'd go in front of such a respect audience - but what he didn't yet know was that Christie rarely passed up on a challenge, regardless of who was watching.

"You're gonna get it later," she mouthed to him disapprovingly, but her steely grey eyes were sparkling too. Loki simply rose to his feet and placed one finger under Christie's chin, tilting his head to one side before kissing her softly in front of everyone in the dining hall. Christie tried everything in her power not to kiss him back the way she felt herself wanting to, still taking the entire family into consideration. Once they finally but reluctantly broke apart, Christie whispered, with her lips barely parting,

"Good morning my prince."

Frigga, Odin and Thor all exchanged confused yet wonderfully stunned looks across the table. They had never seen anything like this in the hundreds of years of them being alive.

Was Loki…dare they say it - falling in love?

Because Christie certainly was not. Anything for the mission, as usual.

?