I was trying to do a chemistry lab... and it wasn't working at all... and I got a little frustrated. So I wrote this.
Loki liked doing magic. It made sense to him in instinctive way that fighting did not—what he had to learn, arduously, in other areas came to him easily. Most days, that is.
Some days… like today—some days nothing worked right.
He had been trying to learn this spell for hours. He'd started right after dinner, and now the sky outside his windows was black and filled with stars, and he'd progressed from sitting comfortably to being bent further and further down in his chair, till now his nose was hovering barely inches above the book.
Loki closed his eyes and sighed.
The problem wasn't that it didn't make sense—it did. Theoretically. But when he tried to do it, there were… fiddly bits. You had to concentrate just so—something you couldn't see, only feel in your mind—then add the next part of the spell. And it just kept slipping away. Every time. Without him noticing it happened, until it didn't work.
There was a knock on the door.
"What is it?" Loki snapped. He was hot, and tired, and really in no mood to talk to anyone until he could make this spell behave.
"Loki, you have not come out of there all night." Thor's voice came through the door, sounding vaguely reproachful.
"I'm busy," Loki said, gritting his teeth, and looked back down at his book. Next to him, scattered about the floor, were pieces of paper where he usually wrote his notes as he went, but they were filled now with more scribbles and drawings than anything else.
"Are you are having trouble with a spell?" Thor said. It wasn't a question, and that made Loki even madder, because Thor was right. Being right was Loki's area of expertise. Thor was supposed to be the one who didn't notice anything.
"Loki?"
"Yes," Loki answered, finally.
"May I come in?"
Loki didn't answer, but waved a hand distractedly, and the door unlocked.
Thor came in.
He looked around the room. "I suppose I wouldn't be of any help?" he asked.
"You suppose right," Loki said, sitting up and gathering together the wayward papers, stacking them neatly. "It's just… I should be able to do it!" he said under his breath.
"Perhaps you will have more luck tomorrow," Thor answered, sitting down across from Loki.
Loki shrugged and went to put his book away on the shelf. When he turned back, he saw that Thor had set up a game of Tafl.
Loki smiled. "So that is how you plan to cheer me up."
"Will it work?"
"I suppose," Loki admitted, and sat back down.
"The two shall sit round at Tæfl, until their troubles glide off
of them, they forget their cruel fortunes, and have joy on the
board…" Maxims I [Exeter Book]
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