(((I actually have this story all done except for about five paragraphs, but I'll be posting it at hourly intervals to keep my computer from bugging out; Scooter's a little sensitive this week! Enjoy, readers!)))

Introduction:

Leopold analyzed the piece of the impossibly large jigsaw puzzle, trying to think about what it was before he tried to fit it to the rest of the skeletal picture he had formed with Aine'. Aine' sighed and laid her head down on her hands, her arms folded neatly on the table as she stared across at her cousin. Aidan sat not far away looking through a stack of comic books he had been given by his father to try and ease the aggravation of the team being called away on duty twice in one week. It had grown more difficult for the children to spend meaningful time with their parents over the past six months and it was beginning to weigh heavily on the trio. With the BPRD now assisting the efforts of an international peacekeeping effort, their responsibilities had practically doubled in the realm of investigating and thoroughly checking for any further threats after a situation had been handled. Aidan thought it terribly unfair that each and every time their family had planned to do something fun together he wound up with a sitter and no one to play with but his annoying twin sister and cousin.

Leopold was an alright cousin, but he didn't like very many of the same things Aidan did and as they grew it made Aidan less and less inclined to try and play with the sea-elf. As Aidan had grown more physical and discovered a deep love for comic books and games reflecting their defeat of villains with unbelievable superpowers, Leopold had grown as fond as his father of more classical literature and wanted to play games that took him 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or into the wilderness to answer The Call of the Wild. Aine' was the only female in the group and did her best to make play with the other two, but found them uninterested in her desire to play hospital or house or, when her parents were sure to not notice and Leopold felt particularly spunky, House's Hospital. At one time or another, and more frequently than not these past few months, all three had longed for a brother or sister like them. At the moment, though, Aidan would've settled even for a cousin like him to play with. He folded the flimsy booklet shut and set it down on the stack of other comics with a bored sigh. He folded his legs, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands as he watched his cousin and twin sister tediously try and complete the complex image in the puzzle.

"This is the worst Thursday ever," Aidan groaned unhappily. Their current sitter, Princess Nuala, had made her way back upstairs to rest for a while. She had taken Keela, the newest addition to the bureau and Leopold's baby sister, upstairs to feed and sleep. The three remained down in the library, promising to play quietly together in order to escape the dismal alternative to the oppressive boredom now facing them . . . being apart. Aidan groaned more loudly as he watched Leopold continue to stare intently at the piece. Aine' sighed and shifted, becoming more and more unsatisfied with the puzzle the longer Leopold took to try and fit a piece in. The rules governing the use of the old puzzles from Professor Broom's old collection were clear and never to be broken; one piece per person per turn, and while this wouldn't have been much of an issue for most children, most children were not as decisive as Leopold. Aidan was becoming more irritated than his sister at this display and finally spoke up. "Oh put it somewhere or give up already!"

"You're not playing; you said it was silly and by default your opinion doesn't matter," Leopold replied unhappily. Aidan frowned at him. "Besides, I don't want to waste my turn."

"But he does have a point," Aine' complained. "Your turns are taking seven of mine at least."

"I'm not going to put this just anywhere," Leopold said defensively. "That ruins everything!"

"Then don't; try it out and then put it back," Aidan offered. Leopold turned and gave him a sharp look. "What? Normally watching this sort of thing is boring, but you're turning it into slow, painful torture."

"I'm trying to do this properly," Leopold shot back. "I'm not impulsive and mother says that's a good thing."

"We should've played hospital; a raging cholera epidemic would be much more fun than this," Aine' sighed. The other two looked at her in disgust. "What? Cholera's a serious disease and serious is best when you're playing hospital. If you get people coming in with ordinary viruses then you're ruining a perfectly good chance to study vector borne pathogens."

"You've gotta stop watching those emergency shows," Aidan said shaking his head. "I should've brought my car collection. We could've made a decent race track out of a few books and had some real fun for a while."

"That's an inappropriate use for good literature," Leopold corrected prompting Aidan to roll his eyes and fall back against the lounge. The two seemed to mirror their fathers' personalities perfectly and if there was one sure thing about the team mates of the BPRD, their free time was usually spent separately. "I wish Keela was old enough to talk and play, she'd appreciate the time it takes to put a puzzle together properly."

"No she wouldn't, she's a girl and girls never want to play anything good," Aidan stated firmly. Aine' sat up indignantly and glared at her brother. "They're always pretending something's wrong and you never get to do fun things to fix it."

"Hey! Not everything can be fixed with a flame-thrower or laser-eyes," Aine' quipped back.

"Shows what you know," Aidan muttered.

"Shows what you don't," Aine' shot back. Aidan sneered at her and Leopold shook his head with another sigh of boredom and pity. "I guess none of us will ever play the same thing and do it right."

"And yet you manage to remain friends, all three of you," the voice of Prince Nuada Silverlance announced as he approached the three. The eyes of each child lit up with individual joy and familiarity. Leopold leapt to his feet and ran to his uncle, embracing him tightly. Nuada folded his arms around his nephew and smiled. "Where is everyone else? I thought you two would be off with your mother and father to see where he was born in Scotland."

"We had to take a rain check without any rain," Aidan said as he quickly joined his cousin, though not as quickly as Aine' who looked up at the prince with continued adoration. Nuada turned and looked at the young demon's son with a measure of concern. The boy frowned. "We're always having to wait for them to finish something."

"It's the nature of having important parents, I'm afraid," Nuada replied, placing a hand comfortingly on the boy's shoulder. "It seemed like my mother and father were off on a diplomatic excursion every week when I was a lad. That was hardly the case, of course, but when it in the process of unfolding disappointments can last a veritable lifetime." The three nodded in agreement, the first unified action they'd taken in hours. "It's especially difficult when the people you're left to watch after or play with don't share your passions and philosophies."

"Tell me about it," Aidan muttered. Aine' and Leopold turned to him with a harsh stare. "What?"

"Uncle, you and mother shared interests, didn't you? You played together every chance you got, she's said so over and over again," Leopold said.

Nuada smiled kindly to his nephew and took a seat on the floor near the lounge where Aidan had been seated. Leopold and Aidan quickly took a seat as well in front of the king of the magical realms, folding themselves into a comfortable lotus pose as Aine crawled onto the lounge lying face down and lifting her herself up on her elbows to listen carefully as well, though with a better look at her prince's golden amber eyes. "There's very little play between two of the same people for very long," he replied. "As a general rule, there needs to be conflict on a very small scale to accomplish anything and when at play, someone needs to be the brains and someone needs to be the muscle."

"Which were you?" Aine' asked with a fond smile. The prince turned and smirked at her.

"We shared roles back and forth, but that's not important," he explained. Aidan and Leopold snickered at the near admittance that Nuada was neither and Nuala was likely both in their childhood. "There was a time when both of us found a kindred spirit. There had been a curious mishap in another realm and it catapulted two other siblings right into the middle of Bethmoora and right in front of us. They were just as different one from the other as Nuala and I were, but they were brothers and hardly twins."

"I wish I had a brother," Aidan muttered under his breath. Aine' turned and stuck her tongue out at her twin. He did the same. Nuada cleared his throat signaling a need to end the display. The two turned back to him as Leopold scooted closer, waiting anxiously for the story to begin.

"I thought the very same thing until I was forced to have one . . . of sorts," he said. All three gazed at him in bewilderment. How does one find themself forced to have a brother of sorts? He grinned. "It is fitting that I should tell you this story on Thursday, seeing as the very person for whom the day is named was that brother . . . of sorts."

"I thought Thursday was named for the Norse God of Thunder, Thor," Leopold interjected. Nuada grinned more brightly at his nephew as the boy's eyes widened in realization. "You mean you actually met someone from the nine realms of Yggdrasil?"

"Not just anyone; as you so rightly said, it was Thor, the son of Odin and he was not alone. My sister and I had our differences and she had a way of plotting that usually found the both of us in a great deal of trouble, but that paled in comparison to the schemes of Thor's brother and he just happened to along for the journey," Nuada added.

"That would be Loki, the God of Mischief," Aine' added, waiting for the approval of Nuada turned in her direction. The prince nodded to her as Aidan scoffed.

"The four of you wound up together in your palace; how could that have been exciting even with a trickster present?" Aidan asked with renewed boredom beginning to fill him.

"I never said we wound up together in the palace," Nuada corrected. All three gazed at the prince in astonishment and further anticipation of the story to come. "In fact, Thor and I wound up further from home than we had ever been before while Nuala and Loki found themselves in more trouble than they could remember causing alone."