Chapter Two

"... And they can live together in Arendelle and have lots of kids!" Anna finished triumphantly with a gleam in her eye, as she imagined all of her almost-too-cute, pale nieces and nephews. And when they grew up they would be absolutely gorgeous – how could they not with those two as parents! And cheekbones! They were going to have such cheekbones!

Thor coughed to bring his fiancée back to reality, seeing in her eyes that she had gone to a land far, far away. Anna started from her image of Conrad (Elsa and Loki's imaginary first-born) and remembered that she was, in fact, in Thor's mahogany-lined private reception chamber and snuggled down with said Asgardian on the most comfortable sofa-like thing ever the morning after the ball.

"I'm glad that you agree with me, my love. But the question is, how do we get those two to realise that they are perfect for one another?" Thor sighed.

"Well, we can't just tell them: "Hey don't you think you two would be cute together?" If I know my sister, she'd decide that she hates him just to prove that she doesn't take orders," Anna admitted ruefully.

"Alas, I fear that my brother is also of the same contrary cast of mind. Unfortunately, I do not really have a head for scheming; the only tactics I indulge in are those of the battlefield."

"Me neither. It's usually Elsa who does that kind of thing."

"Loki does it too. He is not called "The Trickster" for naught."

They looked at each other and frowned.

"Can we not just lock them in a room with mead and have a bard recite the great love ballads at the window?" Thor suggested half-heartedly.

"Elsa would blast her way out with ice, or make an ice giant to bust them out, or freeze the mead into a battering ram." She batted the suggestion aside.

"Most likely Loki would trick your sister and hold her hostage until we let them out. Or pretend to die." He loved his younger brother, but he had to acknowledge his ruthless streak. "Tis a pity that we can't consult with either of their fine minds!"

Anna's green eyes sparked into life:

"We're both idiots!" She exclaimed. "I know exactly who to ask!"

"Who?"

"Frigga!"

"Mother! Of course! I am such a fool!"

"Are you sure that you're the right choice for King?" Anna looked up at him with a playful smile.

"Hm! We shall see." He swooped down and stole a long and lingering kiss from her lips. "Was that not a kiss worthy of a King?" He smiled.

"You know can't just kiss me when you can't think of a way to win an argument, right? One day it's not going to work any more," she said weakly.

"Until then I am exploiting it to the fullest, I assure you."

"Oh that's... That's not a bad thing. At all." She blushed and looked away, as he stroked her head affectionately.

"Come, Anna. We must go and consult with Mother."

Loki perused the library. He'd read everything a few times over at least, but it didn't stop him looking hopefully in case some intriguing elf or dwarf had bequeathed some unusual scrolls or books since his last visit. He sighed; no such luck. Sutr, he was bored. Until the wedding in three days time everything in Asgard would be firmly on hiatus. Great. Stuck in a castle with love's young dream and the Ice Queen for three days. Mind you, being stuck in a room with Elsa for three days... He shook himself out of it. Ice Witch, Frost Giant – did that not sound like a toxic combination? They would only bring out the worst in each other. Well. He looked out of the mullioned windows and rubbed his arms. He would bring out the worst in her. He always did that to people.

He heard a rustle. His heart stopped. The only other people who came here regularly were the Scholars and his Mother; the Scholars were resting in honour of the wedding and he knew his Mother to be elsewhere. Moving stealthily, he peered around the shelf and was shocked by what he saw.

Elsa was sat there, poring over a scroll, in a thoughtful pose with one hand pressing the parchment down and the other preventing her swept-back fringe from flopping in front of her startlingly blue eyes. Intrigued he walked over to her shoulder.

"I wouldn't sneak up on a sorceress if I were you, Loki," she said without looking up from the page. "Nor would I try it in all that noisy leather."

He was glad that she couldn't see the dull flush of his cheeks now. He coughed and made a point of studying her scroll:

"So, I assume you that can actually read runes and that you are not just looking at the pretty pictures?" Get control of the situation, Laufeyson.

"Of course, can't you?" Elsa snorted softly, still without looking up. Clearly she was used to a better class of jibe.

"That's impressive. For a Midgardian."

She looked up. Finally.

"When you're the heir to the throne and possess an exceptionally volatile power, you would give anything to know how to control your powers. I'm pretty good with Gaelic and I can also translate most Slavic and Romance languages, anywhere where the legends were old enough and the winds were cold enough." She didn't seem sad, she just looked... Empty.

"That must have taken quite some time..." Loki said as he desperately cast around for something more to say.

"Ten years."

"Ten..." He looked at her with his eyes wide open. "My, you must have been a scholarly child!"

"Almost total exile to your chambers and desperately trying not to disappoint your parents can do that to a child." She raised an eyebrow, almost daring him to be shocked as she pressed her fingertips together in a pyramid and looked up at him. She was somewhat startled to see him look impressed.

"I can understand a little of that. However, my exile was on an emotional and psychological level – what did you do to deserve such treatment?" Loki was intrigued.

"Oh, long story. Nearly killed my sister, nearly did it again a few years later. It's a story I'm not sure I'll ever be drunk enough to tell when my sister tells it so often sober." She rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter. We're all living in its happily ever after right now."

"Are you?" His eyes seemed to pierce her soul and see into her underlying fears. They were the same sparkling and fathomless blue-green as Arendelle's fjords and drew her irresistibly in; all of a sudden she wanted to tell him how she was afraid, that with Elsa gone – with no-one to love her – she might lose control again, and how she feared to ever get close to a man – just in case she hurt him. Just as she had Anna. All those years ago. She blinked and swallowed.

"So far as I can." The edge in her voice made it plain that the subject was closed until future notice. Loki cleared his throat.

"You shan't find anything there," he supplied. "That scroll's about -"

"Yggdrassil, the tree that holds the nine realms; I know. This is for pleasure. I found any existing scraps about my powers a long time ago. Lore and legends are kind of... My hobby."

"You know, we have the most magnificent tapestry of this particular picture in the Banqueting Hall."

"Really?" Oh, now she was interested.

"Mind, if you wish to see it we shall be taking a mortal risk. It will require subtlety and subterfuge."

"Really?"

"My Mother is currently overseeing the decoration of the Hall; if we get under her feet, the consequences would be grave indeed. I don't take her rage lightly."

"Oh, grave indeed." She nodded with fake gravity. "Shame. I'm bored – you clearly are, it would have been nice." She looked wistfully into the distance, her head tilted to the side.

"My dear Elsa, your feminine wiles do you credit and a lesser man than I would crack. However it takes more than a pout to get me to do anyone's bidding. Even my own brother has difficulties getting me to obey promptly, if it is not in my interest."

Elsa adjusted her frame into a more business-like pose:

"I think I could make it worth your while."

"Really? Go on."

"One word."

"I'm listening."

"Chocolate."

Loki's tongue flickered over his bottom lip at the mere memory of the heavenly substance from the night before; he had never tried it before and now he was sure that he would never taste anything better.

"Go on," Loki's eyes narrowed. If he waited until the wedding he could get more chocolate, why would she think that any old chocolate could sway him now?

"I happen to have, among my luggage, a box of very special chocolates indeed. They are in fact a sample box of the chocolates which we have brought for the wedding; but these aren't like the chocolates we gave to last night's party. Oh no. These ones have fillings."

Loki swallowed to prevent himself from salivating over himself:

"Fillings?" He said trying to stay casual.

"Mm, yes. Praline, pistachio, marzipan, strawberry, raspberry, caramel – other kinds of chocolate. And things I can't even begin to remember." She looked at him and smiled wickedly. "But I'm sure it's not worth your ti-"

Loki pulled her up from the chair and started leading her towards the Banquet Hall at a brisk trot as he said, a little too loudly:

"Sold to the vexing Ice Witch at the back!" Elsa's laughter echoed down the stone corridors.

He didn't even know what half of those flavours were, but he knew he wanted to taste them. Badly.

Loki peered around the door into the Banqueting Hall and whipped back round to report to Elsa:

"Right," he said in a hurried whisper. "My Mother is overseeing the decorations by the High Table, if we're quick we can go and see the tapestry on the East Wall as long as we don't stand too still."

"Okay. Let's go." Elsa started to charge past Loki, until she grabbed her arm.

"You can't just go in! You stick out like Thor in a dress."

"Well how are we supposed to -"

"Sh... I have a little magic of my own, Ice Witch."

With a golden shimmer where a Queen and a Prince had stood, a dumpy serving woman and a kitchen boy stood instead. Elsa examined her arms in wonder.

"Transformation?" She hypothesised out loud. "No, not transformation -"

"Illusions,"Loki supplied. "Palpable illusions – which seems like a contradiction in terms, but isn't. Anyway come on!"

Loki scuttled across the Hall, like a kitchen boy evading his duties; Elsa decided to play the role of his pursuer and marched huffily after him, swinging her now not inconsiderable rear in indignation. She followed him over to one of the far walls and was stopped in her tracks by sheer wonder.

The entirety of the wall was draped with a rich indigo blue cloth that seemed to shimmer in the sunlight. The cloth itself was adorned with a twisting intricate tree design that seemed so strong, so immense, so... Beautiful, that Elsa had little difficulty believing that it could support the universe. She could have sworn that some of the leaves were moving in an invisible wind.

After about a minute the kitchen boy, Loki, tapped her on the shoulder:

"Come on," he whispered. "We'll be too conspicuous if we keep standing here."

They rushed back towards the door and found themselves in the Entrance Hall again. They took one look at each other and were overtaken with fits of giggles. Loki had missed this low-level mischief. Trying to stage a coup and destroy a world was all well and good, but that was grand scale, and a lot of hard work; there was a lot to be said for just sneaking in and out under his Mother's nose, without her knowing.

"Here." He waved his hand and both of their forms were restored.

"Well, Loki, " Elsa said after they had eventually stopped laughing. "That was certainly an experience. Thank you."

"Don't mention it. It was fun."

"Yes it was. Wasn't it?"

A moment passed in silence as they stared at each other. Elsa cleared her throat:

"Well, I'm sure that there's something I need to do. Maybe see that Anna hasn't tripped down any stairs or something yet."

"Hm? Oh yes, of course. That would be a good idea."

"I'll give you your chocolate tonight, okay?"

"Hm? Okay. Goodbye Elsa."

She hesitated just that millisecond too long before replying:

"Goodbye." And she swept off up the stairs.

He had forgotten about the chocolate. Now he felt almost bad into manipulating Elsa into manipulating him because he was bored. He shook his head and went back to the library.

Frigga emerged into the Entrance Hall with a smile that could only be described as devious on her face.

"Okay, you can come out now you two." She called, apparently to no-one.

Giggling, Thor and Anna emerged from an alcove.

""Goodbye Elsa,"" Thor intoned, attempting to imitate his younger brother.

""Goodbye,"" Anna gasped dramatically in Elsa's voice. They both cracked up again.

"Your plan has worked prodigiously well, Mother." Thor was impressed.

"Naturally. It was simply a question of rousing her curiosity and his sense of mischief and putting them both in the same place at the same time." She flicked a fan out in front of herself and batted it with a smirk on her face.

"Um, Mother? Where did you get the fan?" The King asked.

"Sorceress, remember?" Frigga rolled her eyes.

It had been easy to get Elsa to the library. Simply capitalising on an earlier conversation about the Library, Frigga might have mentioned the Yggdrasil scrolls to Elsa over breakfast – knowing that she would go after Anna mentioned that the she was particularly interested in myth hunting. Loki always went to the library when he was bored, so that was easy; and by explicitly forbidding any of the party to be in the Banqueting Hall while she was overseeing the decorations, she had essentially ensured an escapade of one kind or another.

Loki might be The Trickster, but he was decades behind her.


As always, Disney and Marvel own all these characters (well technically it's all Disney - so this crossover could totally work in universe. :P) My mistakes are my own and I apologize most profusely.