The next few weeks were uneventful for everyone. The allure of Asgard remained as clear as day- Kaisa loved walking around in the shops and talking with the citizens. She fit in with the Asgardian crowd wonderfully- with her long flowing hair and her gentle smile, people fell in love with her instantly. Kaisa spent the next couple of weeks traveling with Thor and helping him with his Princely duties. She even read to the peasant children most days.

Takumi, on the other hand, stayed reserved. She had kept her promise to Loki and kept up the act he desired, with difficulty, and tried to stay away from him as much as possible. She spent the same two weeks walking around the palace aimlessly, sometimes running to a horde of guards with their servants. Other than that, she just wasted her days by looking and thinking. It was horribly boring for her, and even a bit humiliating. Loki had her entire life underneath his thumb, and he knew it.

She longed to go to the meadows or the forest and run around barefoot, searching for colored rocks and animals. Her father didn't really like her being so wild, but he had allowed her that one escape. Even when she came home covered in dirt and her dress torn to shreds from the branches and thorns, he had never reprimanded her for it. Only when she had used magic.

Takumi sat down in her usual spot in the gardens. A gust of wind whistled past her, but she no longer felt it. Her heart felt heavy and her soul cold- she didn't feel the chilling gusts. Loki had turned her as cold as ice; something that she always detested.

She laughed once, her breath warm against her hands. It was getting colder, now that the realm of Asgard was turning back towards the BiFrost. This happened every year, she knew, that the Ninth Realm became colder.

She wondered if Jotunheim ever got a break from it's cold, vast landscape. It was supposedly ice-cold all years round- without a glimpse of warmth. She shuddered. It would seriously suck to live there, wouldn't it?

Takumi blinked a couple of times, her eyes stinging from the bitter cold. She wiped at her face, feeling a sense of disgust. She wasn't tearing up because of the damn weather. She was sniveling here on the palace bench because she was tired of living under the control of someone else. It had only been two weeks, yet it felt like centuries had passed. She wiped her eyes and took a deep breath, ashamed of herself a bit.

Crying, like a petty little kid. She sighed to herself.

"Thinking, are you?" a voice said from behind her.

Takumi immediately jumped and turned in her seat. She had half-expected Loki to be standing there behind her, with a smug grin laced across his face. But it was Thor, alone and giving her a soft smile.

"Did I scare you?" he asked, as he took a seat on the bench beside her.

Takumi gave him a short laugh, trying not to show her relief that he hadn't showed up seconds earlier. "I didn't hear you. You're rather quiet for someone who's got heavy armor on."

"I am very good at that." there was a soft twinkle in Thor's eyes, and she couldn't help but feel herself relax a little bit. He was calm, and he made her feel a little more comfortable in the alien realm. He looked at her, puzzled. "Why are you in here when you could be inside, making merriment with the rest of the royal ones?"

"I don't really know anyone." Takumi muttered, casting her eyes back to the gardens. They looked lovely today, she decided. There wasn't a sparkle of frost on them yet, and the suns were still warm enough for the flowers to bloom. She clasped her hands with one another as she stared at all the flowers. Would it be wrong of her to pick them sometime?

Thor raised an eyebrow as he took a seat next to her. Takumi felt the bench sag underneath his weight, and she briefly wondered if the thing would hold. "You should meet new people, Lady Takumi. I am sure many of them would like to meet Loki's to-be. It has been the talk of Asgard for many moons now."

"They can meet me at the wedding." she said dryly.

"Lady Takumi.." Thor's voice trailed off, and she felt a large hand gently touch her arm. "What is troubling you? Are you feeling ill?"

Takumi shook her head. Part of her wanted to scream at him and tell him that his brother was one of the biggest assholes she'd ever met, and that she never wanted to marry Loki in the first place. Another part of her wanted to keep it quiet, to try and act strong through the entire mess. It was a toss-up between the two. "I'm not sick or anything, Thor. I'm fine."

"You do not seem fine." Thor said quietly, still staring at her with those calm steely-grey eyes. "If something is bothering you, you know that you can talk to me for assistance, correct? Or even Loki. I know he is difficult to connect with, but he can be comforting when he wishes to be."

"If he wishes to be." Takumi snorted. "Which he doesn't."

"My brother is a complex person- even I cannot understand why he does the things that he does." Thor sighed and looked at her, as though he was agreeing with her. "He was a mischief maker before the entire incident, and now he is just worse."

"The incident involving Midgard?" Takumi asked, her voice feigning interest. She already knew of the situation from the scrolls back in Vanaheim. Loki had gone to Earth, tried to enslave all the people of that realm, and failed miserably. It was the rage of being denied the throne, probably from some stupid magic trick that went horribly wrong. It was the news of Vanaheim for the longest time, although Takumi hadn't really paid attention to it. Now she wished she had, so that she would have more dirt on him. She waited for Thor to say something.

Thor nodded, apparently not noticing her distant expression. "That is a part of it. After he learned of his true heritage, he has been hell-bent on destruction ever since."

"His true heritage?"Her attention suddenly came back, fully fledged. Now this was something she didn't know. "He's not from Asgard?"

"No." Thor sighed and rubbed his face tiredly with his large hands, looking weary. "He is a Jotun."

"A Frost Giant?" Takumi felt her heart plummet into her stomach. But a small voice in the back of her mind voiced that Kaisa had mentioned it before, probably to educate her on the Asgardian royalty. She just hadn't been listening, as usual. She looked back up at Thor, genuine surprise laced on her face.

Thor nodded again. "Father, ahem.. Odin, rescued Loki when he was an infant. He could not let a helpless child die in the snow, and he believed that if he took and cared for a Frost Giant as though it was an Asgardian, it would bring peace between the two realms. That Loki could be the one to bring harmony between our enemies."

Takumi shook her head, surprised to feel a small pang of sympathy for Loki now. Despite his irritating personality, she couldn't help but admit how crappy that must've been. How humiliating he must have felt when he realized that he was nothing more but a political pawn. She shifted uncomfortably. "Let me guess, that didn't work out in Odin's favor?"

"He was hurt, deeply so. After that, he hated me and everyone in Asgard, save for Frigga. He believed that I got the throne simply because I was the real birth-son of Odin." Thor looked explicitly sad now, as though talking about it impacted him more than ever.

"And now, after all of this, he still harbors a grudge against you? And everyone else?" Takumi asked, despite already knowing the answer.

"Yes." Thor said quietly. "And this marriage deal between the Vanaheim king has not helped."

Takumi simply nodded, unable to say anything to that. Well, know she knew exactly why Loki was the way he was. Cold, calculating and bitter- all because Odin had lied to him all those centuries about who he was. A Frost Giant that lived in a realm that detested his race. She let out a shuddered sigh and then turned to Thor again, this time putting a comforting hand on his large arm.

"It's not your fault." she said quietly. It wasn't a very good comforting sentence, but it was all she got. "You'll always be his brother, no matter what."

"I would like to believe that." Thor offered her a smile. and returned her touch with an embrace. Her head thudded gently against his hard shoulder, but it wasn't alarming in any way. It was more.. friendly, than anything else. A friend. Takumi couldn't help but smile a little as he got to his feet and bowed a little to her. "I must go now, Lady Takumi. Kaisa will be expecting me. Would you like to join us?"

Takumi shook her head. "No, I'm okay. You go on now."

Thor nodded and turned on his heel, his cape billowing behind him like a big regal cloud. Takumi got up herself and walked the other way, deeper into the Asgardian gardens.

Thoughts were pondering in her head as she walked. Her hand trailed aimlessly over a bed of flowers, and she stopped to pick some. White lilies with pink in the middle, her favorite flowers back in the mountains of Vanaheim. They were fragile and beautiful, growing only in the warmth of the sun or in well-cared for pots. They died in the winter, but never failed to come back once the snow had melted.

Snow. Jotunheim. Loki was a child born of the Frost Giants.

It was still a bit of a shock to her. Why hadn't this fact been in the scrolls? She had assumed that Loki was an Asgardian the entire time- a spoilt Prince that was simply enraged that he didn't get the throne that he wanted, so he threw a temper tantrum on an innocent realm that cost the lives of hundreds. She never thought that Loki was inferior to his brother, harboring bitter jealously and hatred.

She carefully took out a lily, taking care to make sure the roots weren't ripped out from the soil. Her fingers wrapped around the delicate green stem carefully, and she patted the soil back in place. Even as she tried to distract herself, she couldn't help but feel this heavy feeling in her gut. Was it possible that.. she and Loki were similar?

No, that wasn't possible. She pushed the thought from her head, grimacing as she patted the soil even harder. Even if Loki felt inferior to his brother, that didn't give him the excuse to hate him. Sure, Kaisa surpassed Takumi in almost everything, save for magic. Kaisa even possessed the 'Gift', the talent in which Takumi knew she didn't have. But that doesn't mean she hated her sister.

Takumi finished patting the soil and stood straight up, one lily clutched in her hand. Her hands trembled a bit and she sighed, watching as a white puff came from her mouth. It was getting a lot colder. She decided to go back to the palace and put her new flower in a pot of warm dirt. She had started walking down the path when she heard a strange crackling sound.

Turning, she saw something shimmering on the cobblestones a couple feet away from her. It was white, and it was spreading rapidly, crawling towards her. To her surprise, she realized it was frost.

White, icy frost was swirling over everything. It even traveled over the flowerbeds, inching towards the green foliage. She watched in horror as all the flowers in the garden seemed to stand up, their leaves pointing to the sky as they turned from green to white. The air turned from cold to icy almost instantly.

Takumi felt a sharp pain in her hand, and she looked down and saw her own lily changing from the vibrant green to entirely frost. With a shout, she dropped the thing and watched it shatter into a million pieces on the floor. What the hell? She thought, her mind in a panic. It hadn't been this cold before. Something was wrong, deadly wrong.

She was about to bolt from the gardens to warn someone, but then something cold clamped over her mouth and pulled her back. It was ice cold, and it shot a ripple of pain through her. Takumi struggled fiercely against the perpetrator, but the cold so painful that she couldn't move. She couldn't even move her arms to reach the dagger still hidden in her belt. A fearful whimper escaped her lips, and out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted a mess of dark blue.

"Be quiet, Princess, and you will have a swift death." a deep voice whispered in her ear, the breath icy and dark. Takumi felt her limbs go limp, not because she wanted to, but because they had gone numb from the cold.

Out from the pillars in front of her, two strange beings stepped out and stared at her, their eyes red and their skin blue.

"Let us go now." one of them said, it's mouth twisted up in a smile. "We do not have very long."

"Is that the one we want?" the other asked, pointing to Takumi. She felt her fear press up nauseatingly press up against her throat. There was a motion above her head, a nodding motion.

"We have Laufeyson's prize." the one above her said, chuckling. "What shall I do with her?"

Takumi watched in horror as they grinned at one another, looking at each other humorously. Then one spoke, chilling her even further.

"Kill her."

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