Work Text:
Hermione Granger paced the length of her sitting room as she racked her brain for an excuse she could use when asked why she was yet again the only single woman at the string of summer weddings she was being forced to attend. She rolled her eyes as she mumbled to herself, continuing her pacing. She could see Loki watching her out of the corner of his eye from the far side of the room.
"What are you staring at?" Hermione hissed, crossing her arms over her chest as she continued her pacing. She kept a watchful eye on him until she would run out of walking space and have to turn around to continue. Occasionally she would glance back over her shoulder as she awaited a response.
Loki closed his finger in the book he had been reading and watched Hermione continue wearing a path on the hardwood floor. He chuckled at the face Hermione was donning when she turned back to face him. "Must you pace?"
"What else is there to do?" Hermione asked, tossing her hands in the air. She turned to look at him, noticing his smirk. Hermione made her way over to him quickly, kicking the leg of the chair he was sitting in. "I can't show up to another wedding without a date. Ginny and Darcy will try to marry me off to the first single guy they find, even if he looks like Emperor Palpatine."
"Emperor who?" Loki asked, leaning forward in the chair. He was amused at the idea of another person with power that he could trick to be in an alliance with him.
"Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars," Hermione huffed, shaking her head. "He's creepy and definitely not my type." A shiver ran down Hermione's spine as the thought entered and quickly entered her mind.
"Who is your type?" Loki asked, flipping his book open once more to continue where he left off. At least if Hermione were preoccupied, the pacing would most likely stop.
"Good-looking. Intelligent. A good conversationalist," Hermione rambled off a list, thinking long and hard about each characteristic she rattled off. "A man who knows what he wants and isn't afraid to take it, within reason, of course."
"Of course," Loki agreed, nodding his head without looking up from his book.
Hermione directed her attention to Loki and raised an eyebrow when she heard him respond. She caught sight of the book in his hands and shook her head. "The ability to shapeshift would be an added plus. I'd never get bored that way."
"Mhmm," Loki mused, flipping the page.
"Are you even listening to me?" Hermione fussed, pulling the book out of his hands. She chuckled at the bewilderment on Loki's face as he looked up at her from the chair.
"Return my book, Lady Granger," Loki grumbled, extending a hand to her.
"No," Hermione retorted, tucking the book behind her back. "Help me figure out an answer to my dilemma, and then maybe I will return the book to you."
Loki rolled his eyes as he pushed himself up from the chair. He shook his head and started to make his way into the small kitchen on the opposite side of her flat. As he brushed past her, he reached for the book in her hands.
"Oh no, you don't," Hermione said, jumping around to pull the book out of his grasp once again.
"You do know if I wanted to take that book back from you, I could do so quite easily," Loki remarked, narrowing his eyes at her as a smirk pulled at the corners of his lips.
Hermione swallowed nervously as she nodded her head. "Then take it," she said, lifting her eyes to meet him.
Loki towered over her for a moment, reaching his hands around her body. His slender fingers wrapped around the spine of the book as his ice-cold skin brushed against Hermione's. A shiver ran through her body at his touch, her lips parting as she exhaled. Loki took advantage of the distraction and pulled the book out of her hands with ease.
He nodded his head as he turned away from her with his book in hand, making his way into the kitchen. "Why does it matter if Lady Weasley and Lady Lewis offer up potential suitors at these frivolous weddings?"
"They aren't frivolous," Hermione said, following after Loki. She observed as he took a seat at the counter before continuing on to grab herself something to drink out of the refrigerator. "Weddings are a beautiful representation of love between two people."
Loki smirked, raising an eyebrow as he looked Hermione over. "There are more intimate ways of showing love between two people or sometimes more than two."
"Anyways," Hermione said, fanning herself as she tried to return her face to a normal color rather than bright red. "I just don't want them to spend the whole time trying to set me up with someone, so I'm not alone while they enjoy their dates. I need to come up with someone to take with me that everyone would believe is my date - even if we're just friends."
As the words escaped her lips, an idea popped into her head, and a smile grew on Hermione's face. She took a quick drink of water before making her way over to Loki and gently pressing down on the book is hand, pulling his attention from the book to her face. Hermione giggled nervously as she took a deep breath.
"Lady Granger, you are disrupting my reading," Loki growled, glancing between her face and the hand on top of his book. "When I agreed to live here because my brother does not trust me alone on Midgard, I was under the impression you would know better than to disrupt me."
"Hear me out," Hermione said, carding her other hand through her hair. "You could come with me to the weddings as my date. We've been living together for three months now, so people probably already assume something is going on between us. It's perfect. You only have to pretend to like me at the weddings; then I can go back to annoying you and disrupting you when we leave."
"No," Loki replied, pulling his book out from underneath her hand. "That is a ridiculous idea, and it will never work."
"Why not?" Hermione asked, pouting her lower lip. "We live together, and we do have a lot in common if you'd ever bother to get to know me. Not to mention, it would make Thor question the arrangement he set up for you."
Loki thought about the idea for a moment. Every fiber of his being was telling him that this was a miserable idea and every outcome of this arrangement ended in disaster. However, the fact that it would get under Thor's skin was all the motivation that he needed. Loki placed the book aside and rested his elbows on the island. "So how convincing must this relationship be to keep Lady Weasley and Lady Lewis from attempting to marry you off?"
Hermione wrapped her arms around Loki's neck as she shrieked excitedly at the prospect of being able to pull this off. "You have no idea how much this means," she said, pulling away from him slowly.
"I haven't agreed yet, Lady Granger," Loki replied, raising an eyebrow. He smirked as the disappointment became apparent on her face. "However, since you have graciously let me live in your flat, it is the very least that I could do."
Hermione's smile returned to her face. "That and it will annoy the hell out of Thor, right?"
Loki nodded his head. "That would have something to do with it. As I said, how convincing must this relationship be? Just a few dances and my arm around your waist as we enjoy mindless conversation with the other wedding guests. Or more elaborate than that?"
Hermione thought about her options for a few moments. Certainly, a few dances and Loki at her side would be enough to keep Ginny and Darcy at bay for the first few weddings of the summer, but they would catch on quickly. However, she wasn't sure how long Loki would be willing to put up with her charade.
"We may need to play it by ear," Hermione said, nodding her head. "As intrigued as I am by something more elaborate, we do need them to believe us."
Loki nodded his head slowly as he reached for his book. "So it's settled then."
"We'll attend Pansy and Ron's wedding this weekend as our couple debut and see where we need to go from there," Hermione replied, nodding her head with a broad smile on her face.