"it means the world to me."

belle's pov!

i shot up from the book i was reading to look at the time, only to realise there are no clocks here.

"lokes, what time is it?", i asked the man who was skimming the opposite stack of books across from me.

"hm? we're two hours late to dinner if you wanted to know.", he said, turning the page over with his fingers casually.

"what? loki!"

"i'm lying, belle. for someone who says i cannot lie to them, it is so easy to lie to you.", he snickered, his gaze unwavering from the book, "dinner is in twenty minutes."

i huffed before opening another book.

i skimmed the pages a bit before my eyes landed on one illustration, "hey loki, i think i found something."

"oh?", he perked up from his book standing up to move next to me to see the book in my hands.

it was funny how i'm helping with the research but not understanding a single thing about the text. i really do need to learn how to old norse or else i'm going to either have to ask loki to translate every single thing for me or read the scarce amount of english books in this library.

"this might be it, it says here-", he began, only to stop short at the sound of a door opening abruptly.

"pardon my intrusion, your majesty, but the queen sent me here to tell you that dinner is starting soon."

"ah, thank you, you may go back to your duties now.", loki said as the guard bowed again before leaving.

"it seems we'll have to continue at another time." he said, turning back to me.

i nodded as the book disappeared from his hands, saved for a later time.

walking to the dinner hall really did make me nervous, although i really tried not to show it. i think i failed miserably because when we got closer to the hall, and i could hear all the people, my feet started slowing down.

everything was telling me to turn back and run into the embrace of the quiet library.

"belle?", loki's voice asked filled of confusion.

i placed a smile on my face, and shook my head.

"tell me, why are you so quiet all of a sudden?"

i refused to look at him and instead started noting the small details of the plain wall behind him.

"belle..", he said, trailing softly, "are you nervous?"

"just a little.", i said turning to look at the door of the hall again, merry laughter and noisy chatter floating through it.

"what if i mess up? what if i don't know which utensil to use? what if i drop something? what if i embarrass you with my soulmark?"

"you'll be alright, i'll be there every step of the-", he paused suddenly, turning to look at me seriously, "wait, you think you will embarrass me with your soulmark?"

"mmm yeah.. i just thought so."

"belle, having a soulmate is very rare in asgard and certainly not frowned upon.", he said gently. "and i'm not ashamed of having one."

"it means the world to me.", he said slowly, before adding, "so don't ever think you could possibly bring any embarrassment to me."

"even if i was mortal and human?"

"perhaps that part of you is what i admire the most."

i smiled appreciatively, the wave of worry and self-doubt ebbing away from me.

his words echoed in my mind as we entered the room, a tugging thought constantly bothering me. i couldn't deny it though, those words just didn't seem like something only a friend would say.

author's note:

one,
thank you SO VERY MUCH on 1k reads for this book, thanks for sticking with me this far in! and shoutout to the rest of you who's also read furry feelings, it hit 10k recently and i'm so blessed that my not so good writing actually went somewhere :) love you all sm.

two, 
for the whole next week, i'll be having my termly exams, and i don't think i'll be able to update during that span of time, so i'll be gone for awhile..
good news is, if i do pass all of those exams with good grades, for the whole next week i can totally have more free time and post more chapters! 

three, 
isn't it weird that in several countries everyone's just starting to get back to school when here i'm still stuck at home now doing exams-

anyways have a great weekend! i'll be crying in math and chemistry :)