If you have not seen Thor and want to, then turn away right this very minute. Spoilers ahead in this little description. The movie had Thor, Loki, Lady Sif and the Warriors Three go to Jotunheim, stir up trouble but be rescued in the nick of time by Odin who was so incensed by Thor doing this against his decrees that he banished him from Asgard. We find out that Loki had intentionally let it leak about their adventure, thus alerting Odin and causing his timely arrival. That's the movie. After they got back from Jotunheim, I went a slightly different way.

My friends, I tend to get a fair amount of love for my stories and boy do I love that! Reviews? Eh. Folk tend to be silent. I'd LOVE to hear what you have to say because this is a multi-chapter story that I shall be posting over some days. So, for the love of Loki, help a sistah out!


Odin was beyond livid. It would take all the flying horses in Asgard to hoist his anger right now and carry it away to the highest mountaintop where it could suffocate due to lack of oxygen. His sons knew his decrees. They knew how he felt about maintaining the fragile peace he had managed to forge between his people and the giants of Jotunheim. They knew retaliation was not his preferred course of action despite the Jotuns' recent surprise, albeit failed, break-in of the sacred vault where the most dangerous relics were kept and guarded. Yet, despite what they knew, the princes took it upon themselves to "do something," as Thor would be quick to say, as if Odin was ever one to rest on his laurels. If only his older son knew. If only either of them knew the reason — or at least one of the reasons — for Odin's reluctance to stir up the hornet's nest after the work it took to contain those hellions the first time. He knew. Frigga knew. And he feared a hornet's nest anew if he were to uncork this particular truth; the truth of what else he has long harbored from the land of cold and ice that he dared not risk exposing and possibly losing due to hasty actions of his bullheaded son and his younger brother who always seemed to be right on his heels no matter how unwise it might have been to do so. The irony. One son unknowingly risking the other in an effort to protect their home and thus each other.

But this wasn't something Odin could explain and need not. What he needed was for the princes to heed his commands. He was their father after all and more than that, he was their king. When Heimdall admitted their whereabouts by answering circles around Odin's direct questions, he knew they had disobeyed and immediately set out to bring his sons and their friends home before further damage could be inflicted. But it was too late. The peace had been broken by the actions of his boys and now Thor dared to disrespect him to his face? He dared to call him an old man and a fool, as if the wise king knew not the ways of diplomacy and politics after all these centuries?

It was all Odin could do to not strike Thor where he stood with the very lightening Odin had gifted him with. But he knew Frigga would be riled up to take vengeance upon him if he even accidentally caused permanent harm to one of her children. She allowed him the room to be the father and king he needed to be, even when she did not agree with his methods of discipline. But she always made her displeasure known, always to him alone, whenever she thought he was overstepping the bounds she had mentally placed in protection of those children. She knew who Odin had been and could be. She knew what it was already to lose a child to his temper and prior proclivities, and she would be damned to Hades if she'd let him lay a misdirected finger upon her remaining offspring, Thor or, even more so, upon the small child her husband had found and given to her in an attempt to assuage her anger over the loss of their only daughter, Hela. Loki could not take the place of Hela, but he had earned his own place in Frigga's heart, as he should, and he was as much a part of her as the two she had borne to Odin.

For now, however, the pair of princes was rescued from the Frost Giants, but faced a new threat — their father's wrath. Thor stood before Odin, his chest rapidly heaving with the breath of anger he sought to contain after Odin had admonished him for going down to the planet against his orders. Loki, as always, stood quietly by with downcast eyes, his one attempt to interfere on Thor's behalf silenced by Odin's grunted rebuke. There was no sense in both of them further angering their father. Loki knew it was best to let the old man simmer down anyway. He could visit his father later to offer whatever penance would mollify the king and, if he was lucky, add one more tiny, seemingly insignificant nail to Thor's coffin. His brother could be impetuous and easily swayed toward the direction his anger already led him. In this way, Thor made it easy for Loki to continue his secret campaign to gain their father's favor and eventually appoint him king of Asgard when the time came, or to at least delay the ascension of his oafish brother who was in no way ready to lead a nation. All Loki needed to do was dig the occasional metaphorical pit for Thor to fall into, his pride usually having already sunk to the bottom of a well-placed hole.

But right now? Right now Loki found himself as deep in it as Thor and slick words were best saved for another time. It would be all he could do to escape whatever Odin had planned. He could only hope Odin would see Thor as the ringleader and him as the reluctant sidekick, focusing the brunt of whatever punishment Odin had in mind on his thunderous brother — if the gods were with him.

"I should banish thee!" Odin roared, his threat clearly leveled at Thor who stood with his chin up in defiance. But the defiance wavered a bit upon hearing the word, "banish." Would he dare do such a thing, Thor thought to himself. After the risk we took to simply protect our home as well as our father's legacy? Thor glanced over at Loki, the briefest of pity darting in and out of his heart upon seeing the look of unquestioning obedience upon his little brother's countenance, as was the way with Loki. But Thor knew Loki's heart. He had wanted to go too. He just wasn't as brave as Thor when it came to standing up to their father. No matter. Thor could stand for the both of them.

"Banish me?" Thor challenged. "For protecting our home? Our reputation?!"

"For your folly, boy! Your disobedience! For risking our home and endangering the lives of the people you claim to protect by bringing war upon our very doorsteps!"

"We cannot let these monsters think they have us at a disadvantage!" Thor seethed.

"Nor can the princes risk our very futures by choosing to run without a plan into the mouths of the enemy!"

"We had a plan, Father!" Thor shouted. "And we were winning! We could have taken them together!"

"We would have lost more than we won!"

"But…," Thor spat.

"Enough!" Odin bellowed in interruption. "There shall be no further discussion! There is only the ramifications of your misguided actions. Both of you!"

Loki glanced up with wide eyes at his inclusion in the threat. He looked at Thor who continued to huff but would say no more. Even Thor knew when he had gone too far over the line. Loki considered pleading on his own behalf, but knew it might only serve to isolate Thor and that would not serve Loki's greater purpose. He could not be the devil whispering in his brother's ear if his brother would no longer listen to his cunning counsel. He had to play this carefully.

"We did it for you, Father," Loki whispered, opening himself further to Odin's wrath but cementing his place at his brother's side as his loyal companion in whatever Thor took a notion to do and needed his help with. The easier it would be to betray that loyalty later.

"Dare you speak?!" Odin retorted, raising another finger of admonishment in his younger son's direction.

"Beg your pardon, my liege," Loki quickly replied, deeply bowing to his father while casting an eye toward Thor, silently begging him to go along with it for both their sakes. Odin narrowed his eyes at the slight figure who was both finally paying his respects with his sign of apology and clearly showing he too harbored defiance like his older brother simply by saying anything at all.

"Let no more words pass thine lips," Odin demanded finally. "You are in need of space to consider your actions before I deliver my judgments upon you both."

Thor and Loki looked at each other in confusion, but neither would question the decision, whatever it meant. "Get thee each to thy chambers and await me there." Loki knew instantly what this meant. Thor wrestled further with his own anger and desire to reply before the realization dawned on him. And then he could contain his thoughts no longer. "You dare to send us to our rooms like children?!"

"You ARE my children!" Odin replied. "And foolish ones at that! You should count yourselves fortunate that this is my will for now, so get thee hence before greater calamities befall you at my own hand!"

Loki didn't need to be told twice. He made haste for his private chambers in hopes that it would be all the time he would need to serve to satisfy his father's wrath. "Yes, Father," he said quickly and quietly before Odin could reprimand him again for speaking.

Thor grunted his displeasure, silently mulling the cost of speaking further. He looked again at his father who now stood silently staring at him, willing him to take one more bold action. Thor's looks were the only daggers he dared throw before he huffed again then stormed off to get as quickly across the bifrost as his hammer could carry him. Seeing Loki below him, he circled back to claim his brother as well. For some reason Loki wasn't using his magic to hasten his retreat.

Upon their arrival at the entrance of their royal home, Thor slowed to free a wriggling Loki. "Put me down, brother. I can walk from here."

"I can take you straight to your private balcony, brother," Thor offered.

"Because we're in such a rush to be confined to our personal dwellings like whiney Midguardian waifs?"

"Huh. You make a good point, brother," Thor agreed. He placed his brother gently on the steps of their home, silently falling in step beside him. Even though the three of them had been alone on the deck of the bifrost, feeling the eyes of everyone as they now passed made it seem like they had been chasitized in front of all of Asgard. Heimdall would likely have seen it, but it was unreasonable to think anyone else had. Still, Thor could not help but feel his face heat up a bit at the thought. Glancing at his brother, he could tell Loki felt the same. The trickster was paler than usual.

"I do not regret what we did, Thor," Loki whispered as the two entered the hall leading to their private chambers. "You were right to fight back." Stopping before his own door, Loki quickly glanced at the guards who had already been waiting to watch over them, then back to his brother. Thor could read the sincerity on his face and appreciated the loyalty of his normally mischievous sibling.

"Enjoy the taste of our short-lived victory while you can, brother," Thor replied. "Our regret may soon be served to us on a dish delivered by Odin himself."

"I would not count the minutes just yet," their mother said as she made her way to stand by her sons. She reached out to gently squeeze the arm of each of them as she spoke. "Your father knows the value of a well-timed response. Making you wait will surely be part of the lesson he is seeking to teach you both."

"Mother," Thor began.

"No need, my son. It is my sometimes difficult, often lonely task to watch you all knowing what I know about each of you that the other has yet to fully realize. I understand your impulsiveness," she said to Thor. "And your need to align with your brother over your father," she said to Loki. "I also understand the concerns of your father and so I shall not interfere with his wishes. But that does not mean I cannot wait, for a time, with each of you."

Thor and Loki looked at each other yet again as they wondered just how much of their father's plan their mother was privy to. She would surely come with a lecture of her own as well, so there would be no reprieve just yet, however temporary it might have been.

"Go now, Thor," Frigga urged. "I will visit with Loki first, then I shall come to you."

It was not lost on either of her sons the order she had chosen. They knew she did not play favorites, so they surmised she did indeed know who would endure their father's correction first. Loki failed to understand why he should be first. The vengeful trip had not even been his idea! Well, ok. It sorta was, but no one knew that but him. Right?

"Come, Loki," Frigga said, interrupting his inner musings to take his hand as she opened his chamber door and led him inside. Thor watched sullenly as they entered, only continuing on to his own destination after Frigga had shooed him away. The guards in front of his own personal dwelling awaited, facing him as he walked down the candle-lit hall and resuming their places once he had reached his doors.

"Yeah, yeah," Thor grunted at them, garnering no response. Thor knew they were merely upholding their positions as palace security. The guards were well-trained to see all with selective amnesia. For the sake of the future king's pride, they pretended not to know what was about to happen and would carry that amnesia to their deaths if they had to, such was their loyalty.