On the First day of Christmas, My true love gave to me, A Loki in and pear tree

Day 2

It didn't both him what she had said the night before at dinner, he decided not to attend breakfast, and he didn't see her until after lunch when she was in the library. He was reading one of his favorite novels, she walked in, her heeled boots clicking against the fine marble flooring. She walked over to her side of the library, not far from his, just enough so that he may see her. His eyes kept glancing up from his book and every time they went back to the words, his mind could no longer focus on what was meant to be the best part. He groaned in annoyance, shut the book and let out a heavy sigh.

He slouched further into the fur seat was sitting in and leaned his forehead into his hands, looking at her, watching her. She didn't seem to be bothered by his presence the slightest. Her eyes washed over the book, back and forth until she finished the page and would flip it to the next. He never bothered looking at what she read, she spent hours sitting there. He knew she was mostly studying literature of the realms or ice spells.

She was wearing a rather revealing outfit, something he knew she hadn't been in before. It was a leather wrap of some sort, her leather pants tucked into the boots that she wore so frequently, but it had to have been the odd corset around her middle. It accented her curves and supple breasts, he kept having to remind himself that she hated him, just as much as he hated her... Or perhaps he hated her less, he was in love after all.

It was a complex feeling to Loki, he didn't love, he liked, but he didn't love. He thought he would never feel the way he felt about her with such infatuation that he nearly died seeing her flirt with other men. She wasn't a big flirt, usually kept her distance, but if there was something she liked, she wasn't to far from trying either. He true starting conversations with her and he just disregarded it completely, it had been becoming a bit of a 'problem' recently.

He told himself he would tell his mother, but it humiliated him. The fact that he was in love with anyone humiliated him, but he had to tell his mother. He had to talk to someone and she had always been there for him. He stood up and left the library, she don't flinch or shift to say goodbye, she just kept reading. It struck his heart with a pain he had never felt before, the neglect was growing to be annoying, but there was no reason that needed to be resolved that would mend their relationship. It was the moment he saw her that he hated her and she hated him, he just hated her because he loved her, but she must have hated him for real.

His mother was in the gardens, it had taken him a while to find her, but when he finally did. He didn't relent in his story-telling, he simply sat down beside her on a stone bench as she marveled at the flowers around her.

"Mother, how can I win the attention of a woman without her liking me?" Frigga laughed at his question, which he had blurted out so readily.

"Who exactly is this woman Loki?"

"Mysma." She paused, but her smile did not fall, she placed her hands on her lap.

"She is a stubborn one isn't she." It was like his mother had known all along and maybe she did, she really did know everything after all.

"She hates me." He growled out, his teeth clenching at the thought of how much hatred she had for him.

"Possibly my son, but have you talked to her?"

"She won't bother." He huffed, Frigga signed and glanced around the garden again.

"Give her a gift..." His mother suggested, Loki watched Frigga rise from her seat and walk over to the purple lilacs that Mysma always seemed adamant on smelling. She took a handful and tugged them off cleanly with help from a little magic. "A gift." His mother repeated, turning to him, she walked back over and handed him the bundle of flowers.

Why hadn't Loki thought of that? Was it such a white flag of surrender and weakness to give his dame a gift?

"Alright, but what is she doesn't want it." He bit back, his mother's smile widened.

"If that is the case, I will see what I can do." He didn't exactly know what his mother could do if Mysma didn't accept the gift. He left shortly after giving his mother a kiss to the cheek, he went straight to the library. A thousand scenarios running through his mind as to how she would react. He slammed through the double golden doors leading into the library, she snapped her eyes from her reading and looked up at him.

"Mysma." He held the flowers behind his back and started over to her.

"Loki." She spat, he sighed and opened his mouth to say the words he had been rehearsing before he made it here. "What?" His lips twitched slightly and he bit his bottom lip to refrain from showing her such weakness. "Listen Loki, I am trying to read, whatever-"

"I apologize for last night and I would like to give you these flowers as a token of my apology." He blurted out in jumbled words, completely ignorant to how his breath hitched at her expression. He held out the flowers, she looked back and forth from him to the flowers, contemplating whether or not she should accept them. She stood up and grabbed the flowers, staring into his eyes she dropped them to the floor and stomped on them... They were her favorite. Her face remained nonchalant, her features much more vibrant with the hatred he had seen plenty times before

"I don't accept your apology nor any apology you wish to give from this day on. I don't like you, I don't like you because you constantly think yourself above others. Some people say you have changed, but I think otherwise." He was frozen, he wasn't sure if he was attracted to how vicious she could be or incensed by how she treated her prince. He had never met a woman quite like her, he dreamed of having her as a queen one day despite the fact he would never be a king. "Good day Loki." She croaked out before shutting her book, grabbing it and leaving, most likely to go to the Garden. Loki had a second mind to follow, but he couldn't. All he could do was watch her bun sway from side to side as she walked away... He was in love.


That night at Dinner, it wasn't a silent one, the Warriors three were talking about their presents they had given or taken that day. Sif and Mysma seemed to be quite into a conversation about a certain dress that Odin had given to Frigga. Loki was alone, he had no one to talk to and if it was possible Mysma probably hated him even more. He looked across the table to see her raise her hand up to Sif, there... On her ring finger was an emerald ring. Loki's heart stopped... He immediately concluded that she was engaged. That was why she hated him, why she hadn't expected his gift. No? Yes? Loki wasn't sure, he couldn't contain those next few words.

"Where did you get that ring?" He asked from a cross the table, Sif and Mysma looked up, Mysma frowned at him.

"That shouldn't matter. Should it?" He shrugged, averting his eyes.

"An old woman in the street gave it to me. She said it complimented my beauty. I couldn't refuse." Sif smile and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I would agree, you are quite beautiful."

"Indeed..." Loki mumbled out, he stood up and left the room. He couldn't stand being near her anymore without wanting to be closer to her and that... Is why he hated her.