~ Uniting the Realms ~
Thor found himself restlessly waiting for his father to return with the Jotun prince. He was seated on the steps leading up to his father's throne with his head resting on his arms which were placed on his knees. His feet were bouncing lightly up and down, but he was too lost in his own thoughts to notice the way his head bounced along as well.
Yesterday had been spent in a small room with his father and his tutor, learning the most important parts about the Jotuns and their culture. It had somehow managed to make him even more intrigued and not in an "I want to see the monsters I have been told of all life" way.
There was much that Asgard did not know about the race, but it was still more than what Thor had known beforehand. The most curious thing was still the gender roles among the race. It seemed strange that all of them could have the same roles, and of course that they could all sire children and become impregnated. It made it even stranger when his father kept referring to Loki as a prince and a boy when obviously also a girl.
Thinking about it too much made his head hurt. He lifted his head from his arms and focused his eyes on the decoration adorning the golden floor in front of him. He idly wondered how his friends would react to the visitor. He had yet to tell them about it and smiled when he thought about their reactions.
His father had held a meeting where all of Asgard had been urged to attend and listen to what he had to say. They had all been surprised when he told them that a prince from Jotunheim was coming and he outright demanded that he be treated with respect.
There had been many confused faces in the crowd and Odin had seen this. "He is here to learn about us. I believe that if we learn more about the Jotuns and they learn more about us, we may be able to continue this peace."
Thor's friends had been surprised and had wanted to question him about it, but he did not have the time for it. He wanted it to be a surprise when he introduced them to the prince, but he wanted to be sure that the Jotun would be safe to bring to his friends. Despite his father's assurances, he was still a bit wary.
Suddenly the massive golden gates opened with a loud creaking sound and Thor rose clumsily from his sitting position. As quickly as he could, he jumped down the steps and stopped once he landed on the floor, standing up straight and making himself look presentable.
As he looked up from his attire at the two approaching figures, the reality of the situation finally settled in. He was going to meet his first Jotun!
At first he was confused because the person next to his father seemed very small, but when they came closer and they stepped into the light he saw that the boy's skin was a vibrant shade of blue, darker than the colour of the sky. When the boy looked up from the floor, hair falling into his face, a pair of blood red eyes stared back at Thor.
Prince Loki was clothed, despite the fact that Odin had stated that they were never cold and did not need clothes. They were very thin clothes, Thor noted and did not seem like they would belong to a prince, so he could only guess that his father had given them to Loki.
Thor's blue eyes briefly locked with the red ones of Loki before they both looked away and studied the other more. Loki's hair was now pushed back from his face and Thor realized that it was actually quite long, almost reaching to his shoulders.
He looked fragile.
Thor had heeded his father's warnings that Loki would be a bit different from the Jotuns described in the books, but now that he stood before him Thor did not feel like he was looking at a monster, he felt like he was looking at a small, fragile, scared boy.
His large red eyes reminded Thor of someone much younger than they were. He was much thinner and a bit shorter than Thor and that was made more prominent by the way that the obviously borrowed clothes hung off his frame.
The only that set him apart from being Asgardian were the different colour and the strange markings that Thor could now see adorning the skin of his face and arms. They were actually quite beautiful in a strange way even thought it should have disturbed him as he knew they had been cut into his skin at some point.
When Thor managed to drag his eyes away from the other prince, his father was looking down at him with an expression of expectation. "Thor, this is Prince Loki of Jotunheim," Thor looked at the boy again and this time their eyes met for a brief moment before the Jotun bowed in greeting to Thor.
The Asgardian prince reciprocated before as his father continued to speak. "He will be joining you and your friends today and the guards outside the gates will follow you around for protection."
Prince Loki looked up at Odin with a slightly panicked expression on his face and the king seemed to know what was on his mind because he smiled and put a comforting hand on the boy's cold shoulder. "You are here as a peaceful representative and everyone knows that, I made sure to make it clear."
The Jotun prince was frowning slightly and biting his lips, but he nodded and turned to look at Thor again, his expression softening slightly as he did so. Thor almost felt sorry for him when he had those insecure red eyes directed at him, anyone could see clearly that the other boy was afraid, and why should he not? He was in a strange world, surrounded by strangers that would certainly judge and perhaps hate him because of his race.
He looked away from Loki and averted his eyes to the floor. He felt guilty for ever having thought that Jotuns were just monsters when he looked at the other boy. There was no way that he could have pretended to be as insecure and afraid as he seemed.
The All-father straightened up to his full height before he stepped away from the two boys. "I will take my leave, but if you wish to speak with me the guards and Thor will bring you to me." Prince Loki turned to him and smiled insecurely at him before a calm expression seemed to settle over him.
The All-Father proceeded to leave through one of the rooms behind the throne. He smiled to himself as the door was closed behind him before he started to search for his wife. Things seemed to have gone well so far, Thor had not seemed to express any inappropriate things during the introduction and he could only hope that he carried on his good behaviour throughout the day.
He wanted them to become friends because then it would be easier when he eventually had to tell them later that they were destined to marry one another. Of course, it would be even easier if they would fall in love on their own, but he knew that while Loki was more than likely to fall in love with a man, Thor might not be as open.
"Did our son behave?"
Odin smiled as he heard the amused tone of his wife's voice from behind him as he walked into her study. She came up from behind him and placed a light kiss on his cheek before she strolled over to her spinning wheel and sat down on the chair next to it.
"Of course," he replied and walked closer to her, his eye watching as her wheel started to spin. "Have you seen anything?" she smiled and shook her head as she found a thread that was split in many pieces.
"It is too early to see anything yet. The future is clouded and there are too many possibilities."
Perhaps she would see something clearer at the end of the day, not that she would ever tell him something definite, it was the burden of being able to see possible futures, she would never tell anyone of them in detail
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
They stood there for a few moments, staring at each other and trying to get used to the way the other looked. Loki felt like the Asgardian was scrutinizing every inch of him and it felt strange. He was used to being stared at, but that was usually only because of his stature and no one could say anything about it because he was a prince and a very powerful sorcerer.
It was strange seeing a young Asgardian. The All-Father was the epitome of how the race was described in stories at home, small (tall compared to Loki) and broad, muscled and much hairier than Jotuns. But Thor looked much like Loki himself, only slightly bigger and with different skin colour and eye colour.
Thor cleared his throat awkwardly and Loki's eyes snapped to him. "Should we go meet my friends?" He asked after a few moments. The Jotun drew in a breath before he nodded hesitantly. He was slightly reluctant in meeting Thor's friends, but he could not refuse, he was a guest in this realm and all alone.
"Follow me," Thor gestured towards the doors that Loki had just come in through. They exited the palace and the guards outside followed them silently. Loki felt them stare at him just as the Asgardians in earlier had done and could not help but feel very uncomfortable surrounded by people who were staring at him like that.
Thor was not above staring either, and kept sneaking glances at the Jotun as they walked towards one of the gardens where Thor and his friends usually played. Loki could tell that his eyes were following the raised lines on his skin and had an intense urge to pull the sleeves of the shirt down to hide them from his view.
"What do they symbolize?"
Both stopped and Loki raised his eyebrows at the question, slightly impressed by the Prince's choice of wording. "Most people ask what they are."
Thor felt like he was making a good impression on the other prince. "I have read about your people and the books said that the marks mean different things." Loki smiled at the explanation and Thor felt some of the tension in the air melt away.
Loki then lifted his hand so that Thor could see it clearer and pointed to markings that looked like triangles with the bottom cut out. They started on the back of his hand and continued up his forearm. "These are markings to show that I am a sorcerer." He said and traced them slightly with his index finger.
"You're a sorcerer?"
Thor realized too late that he had shouted it out loud. He should not have been surprised, honestly, the thing that his mind had stuck most on when he read about the Jotuns were their gender. Of course, he could be a sorcerer when he was from another realm and also partially a girl.
Loki frowned and he looked nervously at the guards who turned away from his gaze to look elsewhere. "Well, yes... Father told me that only women and a few select men practice magic here, but we do not have the same restrictions that you do."
The Asgardian bit his lips nervously, afraid that he had offended the Jotun. "I know," he admitted rather quickly. "I read about it, but it is just surprising to me because I am not used to bo..." he trailed off when he realized that perhaps it would offend Loki if he called him a boy. His father had called him a prince and a boy, but perhaps Loki preferred to be referred to as a girl? It was highly confusing.
"I am sorry if asking this is rude, but... do you prefer to be referred to as a girl or a boy?" the guards' eyes popped open and they both set their eyes on Thor as if he had just insulted the king himself. It made Thor turn very still, hoping that he had mortally offended Loki.
"You seem quite knowledgeable about my kind," Loki said with a smile that he only let out because he was trying to contain his laughter. It must have been so hard for the Asgardian to ask that question and yet he had dared to ask it. It was impressive in a way that he had taken the time to learn something about Jotuns, most races never did. He could remember encounters with Dark Elves who asked them where their women were hiding.
"I'm used to being referred to as a boy," he said helpfully and saw the frightened look vanish from Thor's face instantly. "Did you know that we never used to specify whether or not we preferred to be called a boy or a girl? It was the influence of all the other realms that made us start doing it."
He had always thought it was strange himself that they had started to do so. There was no difference between those who considered themselves girls and those who considered themselves boys. All Jotun were created in the same image, unless they were like him, smaller and weaker, but still Jotun looking.
"I did not know that," Thor admitted slowly with a small smile. "If I'm to be honest it seems a bit silly because the books said that all Jotuns look the same and there are no large differences like there are between Asgardian men and women."
Loki chuckled loudly and seemed to agree with the statement. "Well, it's too late to change that tradition now; we have all become accustomed to it, even if it is a bit strange."
After that sentence from Loki, they resumed the walk towards the gardens. They chatted together about many different things, most of which were prompted by questions from Loki about the different things around them.
Loki told him that he had read about Asgardians in the same way as Thor had read about Jotuns. He knew much about Asgardians, but he did not know much about Asgard itself. He had never seen real flowers before and found them very interesting.
"Do you have many animals in Jotunheim?" Thor asked after Loki seemed to be in awe of one of the horses that was being lead down the same path that they walked on.
"Of course we do!" he chuckled and turned his eyes away from the animal. "I believe some are much the same as they are here, only that they have adapted to the cold and are much larger than your animals. I have a wolf which I use as a mount." He said proudly and Thor's eyebrows rose high.
Loki then proceeded to tell him about the animals of Jotunheim and Thor was glad that the animals in Asgard were much smaller and far less vicious. They rounded a corner and entered one of the large gardens close to the palace. Thor could see his friends fighting each other with wooden swords and smiled, nudging Loki carefully and pointing towards his friends with a big smile.
The Jotun started to slow down a bit as they walked deeper into the garden. Thor seemed happy to see his friends, but he could not know if they would be happy to see a Jotun walking towards them together with their prince. He was feeling very nervous as the neared the four playing Asgardians.
"Friends!" Thor shouted when they had walked almost up to the four and immediately they stopped their mock fighting and turned towards their friend with bright smiles. They lessened in brightness when they seemed to notice the small, blue boy trailing behind Thor.
"Thor!" Volstagg seemed to be the only one who was not completely put off by the strange boy following their friend and immediately walked over to Thor with the others following slowly behind him.
Thor could feel the tension in the air and tried to put on a friendly smile in front of the visitor. "Sif, Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral," Thor pointed out everyone to Loki before he gestured to the other prince. "This is Prince Loki of Jotunheim." He tried to ignore the very revealing expressions on his friends' faces. "Loki, these are my friends." At least the Jotun tried to smile friendly at the others who seemed to be glaring at him.
His friends whispered among each other, Volstagg pointing to Loki and saying "He can't possibly be a Frost Giant?" to an agreeing Hogun and Fandral. Thor noticed that Loki's calm, friendly expression faltered at the words. He felt like glaring at his friends, but they were right, of course, he was small.
Sif straightened up and walked quickly over to where Loki was standing and grabbed his exposed arm on a tight grip. The Jotun jumped in surprise and immediately tried to drag his arm away from the girl, but she was not letting him go. She grinned and stepped right into Loki's personal space, looking at him up close.
"You're so cold!" she exclaimed and then seemed to take note of the fact that even she was slightly taller than the prince. "And small!" she added with glee as Loki tried to get away from her grasp in vain.
Loki struggled against her grip and made his skin colder to the touch, but not enough to harm her. He wanted her to let go because he did not like being touched like this by complete strangers, especially not when he could do nothing to protect himself without being punished for it.
"Please, let go of me. I could hurt you!" he yelled in vain at the girl who only seemed to grip him tighter all while chuckling. "Sif!" Loki heard Thor shout and the prince sounded concerned, but Loki did not know which of them he was concerned for. He set his red eyes on her in attempt to scare her, but it seemed useless when he was squirming like a trapped animal.
The guards who had followed them from the palace were coming over to them with worried looks on their faces. Loki knew that he would surely be to blame if anything happened and he certainly did not want his earlier fear of being harmed coming true. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, feeling himself shift.
Thor was about to yank Sif away from Loki when he suddenly noticed that Loki's colour seemed to change around the area where Sif was holding him. The blueness of his skin disappeared slowly and was replaced by a pale shade that resembled Asgardian skin.
"Look!" Hogun seemed to have noticed the same thing and was pointing at the spreading patch of Asgardian skin. The guards stopped dead in their tracks, openly staring, and Sif dropped the boy's hand as if it had burned her, but it did not stop until all of the blue colour was gone, replaced by pale and pink shades.
"What did I do?" she asked in a frightened voice and looked apologetically toward Thor who was too busy staring at the Jotun. Loki only looked pleased as the red of his eyes disappeared to be replaced by white and green.
Thor was utterly surprised when he found himself looking at someone completely Asgardian standing where Loki had been. There were no symbols raised on his skin, his eyes were normal like and Asgardian's and so was his skin. It was astonishing to behold.
"What happened?" Thor could only stare at Loki, taking in every inch of him. Loki smiled and suddenly his eyes turned red again and his azure skin returned together with the strange markings. "I wanted your friend to let go, so I changed my shape to surprise her," he said proudly and all of the others looked even more shocked.
Sif seemed to have recovered slightly when she realized that he had not changed because she had done something wrong. However, her expression seemed to convey a bit of wariness towards him.
"Are you a magic wielder?"
The question made Loki smile a bit and Thor suddenly felt like something had been lifted off his shoulders. No one had been hurt and they did not seem to have offended their guest yet. "Yes, I am a magic wielder." he replied happily and demonstrated it by snapping his fingers, making a green flame appear in the palm of his hand. "But I am also a shape shifter; therefore I can change anything about my appearance." He said as he exstinguished the flame with his hand.
Thor was too busy watching the flame to stop his friends from saying anything. Fandral laughed for a few moments before he said what all of them were thinking. "Only girls are magic wielders!"
Loki glanced at Thor in confusion and before Thor could tell him in some way that they did not know much about Jotuns, Loki started to talk. "There are not many sorcerers left in Jotunheim, without our source of power, very few are born. And we don't believe that only women should be allowed to practice magic when the men are perfectly capable as well."
Thor realized that he did not mention the fact that Jotuns only had one gender and actually felt thankful. He had not the faintest idea how his friends would have reacted to that being revealed. He smiled carefully at Loki before he punched Volstagg's shoulder playfully. He could see that his friends were regretting that comment from Fandral and did the best he could to improve the situation at once.
"Let us not stand here and talk all day!" he said and put on one of his brightest smiles. "Do you wish to play with us, Loki?" he asked and picked up one of the many wooden swords that were laying around them.
The question from Thor seemed to break the ice a bit. The children spent the rest of the day playing together in the garden, teaching Loki how to fight with his wooden sword. The small giant entertained them with displays of his magic, using them to win the fights. The others seemed to find it funny instead of saying that it was cheating. They especially enjoyed it when he won by making clones of himself to distract them.
Naturally, using so much magic made him tire easily and the spells keeping him cool suffered from the extensive use. He had to excuse himself and sit down in the shade of a nearby tree and conjure up cold ice around him to cool down.
As he sat there he humoured himself by watching the others all while making ice cover the spot on which he was sitting. That was how Frigga found the small Jotun, creating shapes on the ground with his frost magic, fingers moving through the dirt and filling it with ice and a green glow.
He was smaller than she had ever imagined, but he was also better looking than any monster her mind had conjured up previously. From what she could tell, he seemed to be quite a beautiful child when you looked past the strangeness of his blue, scarred skin and red eyes.
The prince seemed to startle when he realized that he was not alone anymore. "Hello," she greeted him and sat down next to him, not caring that she would get dirt on her gown. She had waited a long time for this day and would not miss the chance to talk to the boy who could possibly be her son's future consort. "My name is Frigga, I am Thor's mother."
"Hello," The small boy greeted her and with a quick gesture of his hand made the ice around him disappear as if it had never existed. He held out a small blue hand and Frigga grabbed it with a warm smile, marvelling at the coldness of Loki's skin.
"It is an honour to meet you," his smile was bright and genuine and she felt herself smile brighter. If every giant was as polite and genuine as this boy then the Asgardians should be ashamed of the stories that they told their little ones.
"Are you having fun, Loki?" she asked as they watched the other children playfully fight against each other. The small boy beside her smiled and nodded eagerly. "It is different, but much easier than playing with the other Jotun children," he admitted, eyes still following the movements of the Asgardians.
The queen's expression faltered a bit and she felt sorry for the boy. Odin had told her many times that he would never look like the other Jotuns, but she had not realized that this would probably affect him like this. She had never seen another giant herself, but she could imagine even the children were quite a bit larger than the prince. It was also worth to note that the prince looked small and fragile even by Asgardian standards.
"I'm sorry to hear that," she spoke quietly and with honesty. He only seemed to shrug and twirl his fingers into the air, leaving small green sparks in their wake. "But I am glad that Thor has not scared you off, he can be a bit to excitable at times." She told him to lighten the mood and it seemed to work because the boy chuckled.
"He is not so different from the other Jotun children," Loki told her with a low chuckle. "They enjoy playing like this too, of course a bit differently as I said."
A yelp from the other children brought their attention to the playful fighting. Fandral was standing above a fallen Thor who was perched on the ground with a murderous expression on his face. Their swords had been dropped and even the others seemed to be paying attention to see what the usually hot-headed prince would do to retaliate.
They did not have to wait long. Before Frigga could shout out a warning to her son, Thor jumped up from the ground and brought Fandral down with him before they started to wrestle each other on the ground. Sif, Hogun and Volstagg ran to their friends and seemed to be unsure whether they should be separating them or cheering them on.
Frigga shot up from the ground, with Loki following closely behind her, and walked briskly over to the two fighting boys. She quickly grabbed both of them and separated them from each other, holding Thor by his shirt and Fandral by his arm.
She looked down at the two boys with a look of disapproval that would have made anyone feel guilty about their actions before she let go of them. Both boys stood completely still, looking down at the ground.
"I thought you father told you to behave?" she chastised her son and gave him a stern look when he looked up and was about to open his mouth and say something. She turned to Fandral and gave him the same look before she let out a sigh.
Thor glared at Fandral and gritted his teeth. "I'm sorry," he muttered lowly and crossed his arms over his chest. The queen made Fandral apologize too before she bid them all farewell, stating that she had some things to take care of, and left them to themselves. It took a few awkward moments before the children continued their playing, this time without Thor who joined Loki under the tree, sulking slightly.
"That was embarrassing," declared Thor after they had sat there for a while together, just watching the others. Loki turned to the other prince and scoffed, small puffs of frost coming out of his mouth. "You should see the scolding me and my brothers get when we start fighting each other." He told the other prince who lifted and eyebrow, looking quite intrigued by the statement.
"Are you brothers much larger than you?" The Asgardian asked and put his chin on one of his knees which had been drawn up to his chest. He watched as Loki nodded and with some movements of his hands made two shapes appear, created by green vapour. They appeared to look like people, one of the shapes reached up to the waist of the other one.
"I am quite a bit smaller than they are, but they are also full grown by now. The children are a bit smaller, but still bigger than me."
It was said in a quiet and reserved voice and Thor felt sorry for Loki. It must have been hard for him to fit in with the other children if they were very much bigger and stronger than he was.
The shapes dissipated into thin air with a snap of Loki's fingers and he suddenly looked to be in a better mood again. "They may all be bigger than me, but I am in no way weaker than them." his smiled wryly and made a flame appear in his palm like he had earlier. "Father has told them that using my magic is in no way cheating because they already have the advantage of being older and larger."
Thor laughed as he imagined the small boy fighting large, blue giants with his magic. They settled back against the tree and continued watching as Sif beat Fandral and Volstagg, but did not manage to beat Hogun who tricked her.
"Why did you not tell them why you are a sorcerer?" Thor asked suddenly out of the blue and Loki turned to him with a shy smile. "I have read about Asgardians, as I said, and I know that you are separate, boy and girl." He started and pointed to Sif and Fandral. "Father told me that not all races are very forthcoming when it comes to differences like these, and I did not come here to be made fun of or mocked because I am different from them in a way that they find amusing."
The Asgardian was suddenly very grateful for his father's warnings and for giving him the books. He imagined that this visit would not have gone well if he had been unprepared for all of the differences between Jotuns and Asgardians.
"I am glad you did not tell them," he admitted. "I'm not sure how they would have reacted to that." Loki seemed to agree with the statement.
"Loki, Thor, join us!"
The two princes smiled as they both got up from the ground and ran toward the others, picking up their discarded swords on the way.
A/n: I was going to update sooner, but suddenly everything decided to stop working. I had to send in my new laptop to get fixed and transfer everything to my old laptop and then our internet started to go nuts and disappeared. Our internet connection is currently a bit unreliable, so there may be some delays in uploading due to that. Also, things may go a bit slower due to the fact that I have to write a lot on the next chapters and I still have to work around the farm.
Long story short: Chapters may be coming out a bit slower due to the fact that I have to write a lot on them and that our internet is currently very unstable. I'm still going to try to update as soon as I can.