#beetrootgirl

Behind the women walked a girl, her head bowed down, fidgeting with her fingers. But what stood out about her was the white rose tucked behind her ear. And that thing opened the long-forgotten doors of his childhood memories.

The mysterious girl who loved to startle him in unusual ways? Yes. It was her. Even though he couldn't see her face properly he knew it was her. His heart, which didn't do anything besides pumping blood in his body, told him it was her.

"Loki." His mother's voice brought him back to reality and he noticed that he had stopped walking. His name did something to the girl that almost made her look up. Almost.

"Mother."

Frigga turned to the lady beside her, "Lady Brynn, this is my youngest son, Loki."

Lady Brynn looked at him and smiled, "Hello, Prince Loki. It's nice to finally meet you. The Allmother talks about you a lot."

He bowed down, giving her his most charming smile. "The pleasure is all mine, Lady Brynn."

Frigga asked, "Loki, could you keep Lady Brynn's daughter, Aidenne, company while we talk."

"Of course, mother."

The women left, leaving Loki and the girl alone. He sent the books to his chambers with his seidr then put his hands behind his back.

"So, Aidenne, right?"

She nodded, head still bowed down.

"Petal." He said, his voice softer.

"IamsorryIannoyedyouwhenwewerechildren-IdidntknowyouaretheprinceIthoughtyoutoo-snuckawayfromyourparentstowanderaroundthepalace-"

He chuckled. "Petal. Petal, stop. You didn't know because I didn't tell you. And you didn't annoy me, on the contrary, you intrigued me."

She looked up for the first time, her grey eyes meeting his green ones, and took a sharp intake of breath at seeing him. Seeing her face properly, her half Aesir-half Elf features, it took his breath away. She had changed so much through the years, so had him.

"Really? I intrigued you?" Her expression turned mischievous, her lips curling slightly at the corner, just like the old times.

"Well, a girl who just came and went without saying anything, climbed trees accidentally, who never told me her name. How can that girl not intrigue me?"

She laughed, oblivious to what that did to him and his heart. He blinked out of the trance the sound of her laugh had put him into.

"You owe me an explanation." He said after a moment.

She nodded her head. "Yes. The last time I saw you my mother told me that my father had returned and we had to leave that night. I wanted to say goodbye, but I couldn't."

Loki inclined his head in understanding.

"My mother couldn't stop talking about the things The Allmother told her. And when she told my father about the youngest son of Odin and how similar he sounded to you, I connected the pieces together. That was pretty embarrassing for me."

He laughed. "I can only imagine. I wish I was there to see your face."

She rolled her eyes. "Stop."

"What about now? How did you appear all of a sudden on Asgard?"

"My father and The Allfather are friends. He offered him a higher place in the court. So we'd be living in the palace from now on."

Loki's eyes lit up. "Really?"

She nodded. "Now, if I remember correctly, when we met last time you promised to teach me how to wield a knife."

~•~🌹~•~

A few months later....

Aidenne threw the knife at the tree, just slightly missing the target. She jumped in victory and turned to Loki behind her who looked unimpressed. Her smile faltered at his reaction, or rather, lack of reaction.

"You have not yet hit the target. No need to be excited. Try again." Loki told her in a strict tone.

She groaned and made another knife appear in her hand. Just then she heard roars of laughter and turned around to see a group of four boys and a girl heading their direction.

"Brother! What are you doing here?" Thor asked as he patted Loki hard on the back, at which he hissed. He looked towards Aidenne. "Who is this fair young maiden with you? Does she do stupid tricks too?"

"This 'fair young maiden' has a tongue too and can speak for herself." Aidenne quipped, pointing her knife at him.

"Watch your tongue, young lady. Do you even know who you're talking to?" Fandral spoke up.

"I know all too well that he is the first-born of Odin Allfather and you are his loyal friends who are training to be warriors. But that is no excuse to underestimate or make fun of me."

Sif smirked at her. "Now that's a girl worth talking to."

Loki took so much pride in the moment as he watched Petal interacting with his idiot brother and his friends.

Thor put a hand on his chest. "My apologies, Lady. I didn't know that it would anger you so much."

She smiled and shrugged. "It's okay now that you have realised your fault and is truly sorry for that. I am Aidenne."

Thor bowed down, took her hand and kissed the back of her palm. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Aidenne."

She laughed and he smiled charmingly at her all while Loki looked between them, not liking where that was going.

~•~🌹~•~

"How was your time with your father and brother? Did you get to learn anything new about the court?" Frigga asked Loki as she saw him going back to his chambers and accompanied him along the way.

Loki looked at his mother walking beside him then looked down and slowly nodded his head.

"Loki."

"Mother, please. You know how my time with them would have gone. I am tired and done, mother. I don't want to be in their presence anymore. They don't even acknowledge me."

"Why are you so distant to them?"

"You never ask that to them." He countered back. "I rather stay alone or with Petal instead of them." He called behind him as he opened his chambers' doors and went inside.

Frigga followed behind him and stopped at the doorway, frowning. "Who's Petal?"

Loki stopped what he was doing and mentally cursed himself for letting her name slip. When he looked at his mother and her face, he knew she would not listen to any of his lies.

"She...uh,..." He struggled to find the words to say to his mother.

Frigga quirked an eyebrow. "She? Do tell me more."

Looking at her facial expressions he knew he had to tell her the whole story from the start and there was no way out.

He watched as the first one to try and lift it from the ground was Fandral, then Volstagg, then Hogun, and Sif just stood beside them not interested in what they were doing.

"You aren't going to try?" A voice said from behind that startled him and he turned around to see a girl same age as his with auburn hair decorated with flowers and elf-like features.

She waved at him. "Hi." She gave him her biggest smile. "Aren't you going to see if you could lift the hammer too?" She asked him as she came and stood beside him watching the kids struggle to try and lift Mjolnir.

"I'm not worthy," he stated simply with a sad look in his eyes.

"And why do you think that? Have you tried to lift it?" The girl asked him curiously.

He looked at her and shook his head. "Why make a fool of myself when I already know I can't lift it?"

She smiled and gave him a flower she had in her hair. "You don't know till you actually try and who knows you could be actually worthy of more precious things than that hammer."

She turned and left, leaving him staring at the white rose she had given him, its petals scattering out in his hand.

~•~🌹~•~

Here they were again, shouting and bickering, not caring about others as they ran through the gardens playing and Thor pretending to be Asgard's savior with his mighty hammer, protecting his friends from the frost giant Volstagg played.

They had asked him to play the frost giant, as always, but he turned them down, saying he had to read. Thankfully, they ran to another part of the gardens where neither he could see nor hear them and he proceeded to read.

He flipped the pages of his book and sat cross-legged on the bench under a tree. He had just started to read when he heard someone whisper 'hey', but didn't think much of it as there was no one else and continued reading.

After a moment leaves and twigs fell on his head that made him look up and gasp at the sight he saw.

"Hey." The girl from a few days ago sat on the lowest branch of the tree, covered in dirt and leaves and waved down at him.

"How did you even get up there?" Was the first thing he got out of his mouth after the unexpected sight.

She put a hand behind her neck and looked down at her dirt-covered dress. "I saw a butterfly when I was looking at the flowers and wanted to catch it. I don't know the rest but when the butterfly flew higher I realised I had climbed the tree and now I am stuck here."

"How did you accidentally climb a tree?" He asked her, incredulous.

"Because I've climbed trees before but not this high."

"How long have you been up there?"

"I don't know? Maybe two hours?"

"Two hours?! Why didn't you call for help?"

A maid passing by looked at him worried, thinking why the prince was talking to a tree because she couldn't see the girl. He was about to call her for help but the girl immediately shushed him and the maid went away.

"I couldn't ask for help. If my mother knew about this she would never let me come here. She is the Queen's friend and she is here too. Help me get down."

"Me? I can't- I can't help you."

"Why can't you? You want me stuck here till my mother realises I am lost and find me like this, covered in dirt, and never let me come here again? Do you want that?" She pointed a finger at him and asked.

"Um, okay." He stood up on the bench and stretched his arms up. "I don't know if I could catch you but this is the most I could do without getting help."

"That is enough." She slowly leaned towards him and let go of the branch carefully. But unfortunately, the weight was too much for him to catch easily and he lost his balance. They both fell on the ground and rolled a few times on the grass before they dashed into a flowering bush and finally stopped.

She clung to him tightly and closed her eyes and didn't let go for a few seconds before pulling apart and looking down at him. She muttered a sorry as he moaned from the pain of falling hard with her on top.

She began to get off of him but was suddenly pulled back face-to-face with him. They both looked down at her pendant that had stuck in his tunic. She somehow managed to pull it out then stood up and helped him up as well.

She mumbled a thank you and ran away without looking back, the flower petals scattering along the way from her hair, leaving him rubbing the back of his head.

He dusted himself off only to find a broken piece of her rose pendant stuck to his tunic.

~•~🌹~•~

He sat near the fountain, gazing at the flow of water which made different mesmerising shapes as it fell down. He smiled at the beautiful sight as the water shined in the bright sunlight.

A sudden splash of cold water drenched his face and he gasped for air. He wiped his eyes with his hands and was met by the same mysterious girl giggling at him.

He pulled out his handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his face and asked, "Why do you appear all of a sudden with unusual ways?"

She laughed but didn't answer him and turned to look at the fountain. She dipped her hand in the cool water and swirled it around.

He fidgeted in his pocket and then pulled out something. "Here."

She turned to him and looked at his extended hand and the broken piece of her rose pendant in his palm.

"You must have realised till now that your pendant broke that day. It was actually stuck to my tunic. I waited days to find you and give it back to you."

She smiled and closed his fingers around the broken piece, confusing him. "Keep it with you. A small thing to remind you that you once met me." She then turned to leave.

Wrapping his mind around what she said he saw her leaving and his eyes fell on the scattering petals of the flowers in her hair and called to her, "Petal, wait!"

She frowned at the name and turned around. "Petal?"

"Well, you didn't tell me your name so I had to call you something and then I saw the flowers in your hair and I called you the first thing that came to my mind."

She chuckled at how nervous he was and how fast he was talking. He stopped talking as he heard the sound of her laugh and couldn't help but smile himself.

"I like it. Petal. No one has ever called me that before. Why did you stop me?"

"Do you come here daily?"

"Um, no. When my mother comes I come with her. Not daily, but often." She then turned to leave.

"Can I at least get your name?"

"You already gave me one. Besides, you didn't tell me yours either."

"Fair point. But I asked first."

"But you already gave me a name. What is yours?"

"You tell first."

"Okay, Angel Eyes. As you are not going to tell me yours I won't tell mine."

"Angel Eyes?" He asked, confused.

"You gave me a nickname. It's fair if I give you one." She then turned and left.

"Angel Eyes," he repeated to himself.

~•~🌹~•~

The library. The most quiet place in the palace. He loved to stay there all day and read all the fantasies and gain all the knowledge he could. He pulled a book he wanted to read from a high shelf with the help of his seidr.

He only knew basic spells now, according to his mother, but she didn't know that he had been practising secretly. He could even shape-shift into simpler and smaller animals now.

He found an empty seat near a window which was too high for him and he struggled to climb. When he climbed up he was startled to see Petal seated in front of him on the other chair. She waved at him and giggled at his expression.

"Hey, Angel Eyes."

He looked at her intently and noticed the faint glow of different colours around her. "You aren't actually here, are you?"

"No. I'm in the class with the other girls practicing my seidr in the palace. Not very good at it though as you could guess I'm not actually here." She swirled her hand in the air as the multicoloured glow surrounded it.

"You have seidr? I thought the seidr colour was the colour that suited the wielder. Yours is multicoloured," he said gesturing to her glowing hand.

"Yeah. Why do you think I came here often with my mother? I am different, I love all the colours. My teacher told us to practice making a copy of ourselves appear somewhere else. So I thought why not visit you while I'm at it?"

"You could have interrupted something personal, you know. I could have been bathing or something else."

"But I didn't, Angel Eyes."

"Why do you call me 'Angel Eyes'?" He asked.

"Have you ever looked in a mirror? You have the best puppy dog eyes ever and on top of that they have that angelic look because they are green. It suits you."

He blushed slightly at her honesty and how easily she said that.

She blinked and her copy started to falter slightly. "Time's up. Gotta go. Bye Angel Eyes." She waved and shimmered away.

He stared at the seat she was sitting in, not realising he was smiling and waving her back.

~•~🌹~•~

He was sitting on the bench under the tree with Petal beside him, teaching her how to make better copies of herself that would look alive.

"Think what you look like, how you breathe, how you express, how you walk, everything you do that you want your copies to do. And most importantly, concentrate when you make them, otherwise they would turn out just like the other day and also make them breathe. Like this."

He stood in front of her and snapped his fingers and there were two of them now. Petal couldn't even tell which one was real. They both were breathing, they both had shadows, and none of them looked like the other was fake. They looked like twins. He made another appear beside the first one, confusing her further.

Petal was amazed. "Wow. You're so good at it. How did you even master it that young?"

"I am a fast learner. But do tell me one thing; do you not think it weird me having seidr even though I'm a boy?"

She frowned. "No. Not at all. On Alfheim, everyone is allowed to practice seidr if they possess it, even boys. My father possess seidr too," she told him.

"Your father is of Alfheim? But you look more Aesir than elf."

"My mother is of Asgard. Father is on a trip to Vanaheim so mother decided to visit her family here."

"So you'd go when he would come back?" He asked her, a hint of sadness in his voice as he thought about her leaving.

"Yeah," she told him, matching his sadness.

There was a moment of silence between them.

"Okay. On the lesson now. Do as I told you to," he instructed her ignoring whatever he was feeling.

~•~🌹~•~

It continued for months. He would meet Petal in the gardens, they would practice seidr or just remain silent in each other's company. No one knew about them being together, not her nor his mother, nor Thor or his friends, nor the staff.

In the short amount of time, they grew close. To the point where they completed each other's sentences. Petal would go to him after her classes and he would help her master the tricks.

She was getting pretty good at making her copies and shape-shifting. He couldn't even tell which was the real one or which insect or bird she shape-shifted into.

One day he went to their usual place for practicing and waited. The sun set down but she didn't come. He waited the other day but still no sign of Petal. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and he lost any hope he had of her returning.

He thought at least she would tell him first before leaving, but she disappeared without saying anything, leaving him looking at the broken piece of her rose pendant in his hand.

~•~🌹~•~