Age 9

"Loki," Thor whined. "Come on. You don't even have to be the bad guy this time."

"I already told you, Thor, I don't want to play." The younger boy sighed and placed a bookmark between two pages. "Why don't you ask one of the rat chasers to play with you or see if Vladimir is home and play with him."

Loki had been the victim of his brother's whining, day after day of asking him to play when all he wanted was to finish his studies. Thor had received wooden swords for his birthday and had insisted that someone play with him. It's not very fun capturing an enemy that doesn't exist and Thor never had a great imagination anyway. Why would he? He had a brother.

"Vladimir doesn't want me over when that lady is there and that's a lot so a lot of times I can't go there plus the rat chasers are mean to me and sometimes pull my hair when adults aren't around!" The blond pouted at the memory of his hair being tugged this way and that by several boys with dirty hands. He had to wash his hair five times before he felt better.

"What about Sif? She doesn't have ladies over and she won't pull your hair unless you've been dumb. Plus she's better at swords than me."

Now Loki had a new book open, a long and boring one about different wars and rulers and there was a whole section on just his dad. He started to read as Thor went on and on about how Sif was busy with her other friends and archery practice and she had to go visit her grandmother who was on the other side of the castle and other things that Loki tuned out. As Thor continued his run-on sentence, which would make any scholar cringe, Loki noticed something. His mother was nowhere in this book about important history. She's done more important things than Father! he thought. He hardly does anything; just sits around and occasionally kills bad guys. This of course wasn't true, but he didn't know what his father did exactly and had only seen him sitting on that huge throne and come back home in bloody armor.

Loki's eyes widened at a thought he had. If I'm king, then I'll only do what Father does! I'll be as lazy as him. He glanced at Thor, who was still talking but on a completely different subject. No, Loki corrected himself, I will do the important stuff and Thor can be the lazy one. He was, after all, that spitting image of Father. Yes, Loki would be the brains behind it all and Thor can do the sitting and fighting. It would be perfect. He loved Thor, but he could be pretty dumb sometimes, especially when it came to politics and ruling and stuff.

He shut the book just in time to hear Thor's fascinating story about the one-eyed cat he found yesterday behind some bakery. Loki hopped off the window seat, leaving the book behind. He began to push Thor out the door (it was a great struggle) and handed him the wooden swords he had set down while he was talking.

"Thor I don't need to practice swords anymore. I have decided that you will fight and I will be smart and political."

Thor made a face. "What?"

Loki sighed. "You will be like Father and I will be like Mother when we are kings."

It always frustrated the young god when Thor didn't understand, especially when Loki had already explained it. (The problem was in Loki; he was horrible at making things understandable.)

Before Thor opened his mouth to ask more questions, Loki shut and locked the door.