Once more, I found myself wandering the same garden where I had lost myself countless times before, your garden. This time, your laughter, a soft, silvery sound, danced through the hedgerows I had conjured in your honor. You were always one step ahead, always tempting fate by toying with a god’s mischief. Hiding. Darting. Disappearing. But I knew where you were, every single time. I always do.

You were relentless, a celestial force cloaked in silk and sunlight. A goddess, radiant and maddeningly idealistic, who somehow floated above the world while grounding me in ways I never thought possible. You walked as though the stars bent to your will, and for once, I knelt willingly… for you.

They wedded us young, a political arrangement, a game of kingdoms. But I, the god of lies, fell truthfully, completely. You were everything I was not. Light where I was a shadow. Hope where I had only ever known scorn. And somehow, even after seeing what lurked behind my tricks and temper, you welcomed me back. Again and again, arms open, heart unguarded.

You, the princess who spoke of love like it was law, who dared to believe in me, a creature the Nine Realms had all but condemned. When I faltered, you steadied me. When I burned with envy and rage, you cooled the flames. You calmed every tempest I refused to admit raged within me.

All of Asgard knew it. I had won the heart of the most exquisite woman in the realm. Even Thor, golden and gallant, envied the way you looked at me. But it didn't matter to me because you were mine. Entirely. And I was yours. Morning, night, and in every stolen breath between.

As I turned the corner of the hedge mazes, mirk poised, hair swept back just so, you, ever the trickster’s match, slipped behind me. Startled, I turned sharply, instinctively pulling you to me by the hips, your laughter spilling between us like magic.

“Well played, darling,” I whispered against your ear, unable to resist the curl of pride in my voice as I leaned in, eyes locked on yours. “Truly… you are divine.”

And then my lips found yours, and the world, as always, ceased to exist beyond you.