"I should warn you, your majesty, that Prince Loki has ordered me to ensure that he and his brother have privacy," said Eir dryly.

Frigga smiled. She was not surprised that Loki had decided to take matters into his own hands. Of the options she had given him, this was the one he was bound to choose. That was why the platter she had brought from the kitchens was laden with enough buttered rolls, baked fish, greens, and fruit and cream for two growing boys, not just one. "Then perhaps I will just leave this with them," she said.

Eir unlocked the door for her and she walked inside, where she found her sons leaping from cot to cot, laughing, and waving practice swords (which, she noticed, they held in their left hands). Eir stiffened indignantly, no doubt at the sight of her patient so flagrantly defying her orders to rest, but Frigga had to fight hard not to burst out laughing.

"Boys, I hope you can call a ceasefire in your campaign long enough to eat your midday meal."

They both spun around at the sound of her voice and bounded over to her. "Thank you, Eir," she said, and the healer departed, closing the door behind her. Frigga set the platter on Thor's bedside table, then handed each of them their plates. They dug in with enthusiasm, though at a raised eyebrow from her, they did make an effort to be tidy. Loki was more successful there. After a few moments, she realized the difficulty was that they held their forks in their left hands. She looked down at Thor's right hand, then Loki's. Both had strips of white cloth tied around them, which appeared to have come from one of the blankets.

"Dare I ask why you have crafted makeshift bandages for your hands while you are in a healing room?"

They both froze and stared at each other, then looked guiltily up at her. "We didn't think Eir would like it," said Thor.

"Like what?"

They squirmed some more, so she held up a hand expectantly. Thor placed his right hand in hers, and she carefully untied the bandage and moved it aside, revealing a jagged cut on his palm and navy and crimson stains on the cloth. She removed Loki's bandage and found a similar wound.

"Loki, I seem to recall asking you to give me all of your daggers."

"I'm sorry, Mother," he said. He handed over a rather small, dull, unremarkable blade, and she slipped it into her dimensional pocket with the others.

"Is that the only one you kept?"

"Yes." The hint of sulkiness in his tone told her he wasn't lying.

"I will have to keep them all an extra week because you weren't honest with me. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

"Now, what happened to your hands?" she asked.

"It was my idea," said Thor.

"Oh?" said Frigga.

"We're brothers," said Thor, his round young face fierce. "I don't care if he's Jotun or how he got here, but now we have the same blood, so none of that matters."

Frigga pressed a hand to her mouth, unable to speak. She sat there like that for a long moment, tears welling up and streaking down her cheeks.

"Mother, are you well?" said Loki. "We didn't mean to make you sad."

"You haven't made me sad, darlings," said Frigga. She pulled both of them into a hug and kissed them one after the other. "This is not the way I would have chosen for you to show it, but one of the most wonderful things for a mother is to see that her children love each other."

"Of course we love each other," said Thor, scowling and attempting to wriggle free, but she briefly redoubled her grip on him, laughing, then released them. Loki remained sitting on her lap as he resumed eating his food, while Thor immediately sat back on the cot, seized another of the buttered rolls, and took a much larger bite than he could politely chew.

She watched both of them eating, her heart so full she thought it might burst. "Do you know that there is powerful magic in what you did?" she asked.

"There is?" said Loki.

"Oh yes. You made a pact to be brothers forever, and you sealed it with blood. There are accounts throughout history of pairs of brothers or companions who made similar bonds. It is some of the most powerful magic in all the nine realms." Their eyes went wide in amazement. She nodded and looked at them very seriously, taking the bandages and retying them around their hands. "It means that you will always be stronger when you are working together, but working against each other will weaken you. It will not be easy, which is why you must take care to listen, understand, and forgive each other so that you will not quarrel needlessly or grow apart."

"We will, Mother," said Thor, more solemn than she had ever seen him. Loki kept sneaking glances at him, relief and admiration in his eyes.

"These cuts will leave scars," she went on. "Whenever you are angry with each other, I want you to look at your scars and remember why you have them. Your brother should be your closest friend and your most important ally." She smiled. "At least until you find the one you're going to marry."

They both scowled and made noises of disgust, and she laughed and nudged Loki back over to the cot so she could get to her feet. "Well, I told your father I would hear his supplicants today to give him more time to negotiate with the dwarves. He thinks he will be able to join us for supper, and he asked me to give you his love in the meantime. I must leave you to your meal now, but I look forward to hearing about your lessons this evening. Bragi will expect you in the library in one hour, and then you will go to the conservatory to meet Vor, and finally to the training grounds with Tyr. I will send a raven to him to suggest he train you in off-hand fighting techniques for the next few days."

X

Buried in documents demanding his attention and irritable in the wake of his negotiations with Eitri and his brothers, Odin didn't realize he had missed supper until Frigga entered his study, accompanied by two servants. One carried a pitcher of mead, the other a platter of roast boar and potatoes. There was just enough space left on his desk to accommodate them.

"It appears I didn't save you much time after all," said Frigga, dismissing the servants with a nod and a smile.

"I'm sorry, my love," said Odin, setting down his pen. It truly had been a long day. "How are the boys?" He reached for the platter and began to eat, having only just realized how hungry he was.

"They are doing well," said Frigga, settling into the cushioned chair beside the desk and smoothing her skirts, "considering that Loki inadvertently shifted back into his true form today."

Odin choked on his first bite of boar.

"I have told him the truth about his heritage," she went on as he spluttered and gasped. "More importantly, he believes he has now discovered the reason you don't love him as well as Thor."

"What?" said Odin, still coughing. She had timed these revelations this way on purpose, he was sure of it. "Why would he believe such a thing in the first place?"

"He mentioned the amount of time you spend with each of them."

Odin frowned. "But they're nearly always together when I see them."

"Then perhaps the problem is not time but attention," said Frigga. "Loki is not so willing to shout for you and show off what he has learned as Thor, but that does not mean he does not crave your approval just as much. Though I am sure you have not withheld it deliberately, it has left Loki room to fear that he matters less to you because of what he is."

"What could have made him shift back?" said Odin. "He's never done so before. I would have thought that only strong exposure to Jotun magic—" He broke off at the sight of Frigga's raised eyebrow. "I see. It was the Casket, wasn't it?"

"It seems he and Thor crept out of their beds sometime in the night, evaded detection all the way down to the Vault, and got past the guards."

Fear and anger rose up in Odin. "What were they thinking?" he said loudly. "Most of those relics could have killed them, or worse! I'll have those guards cleaning the lavatories in the barracks for a decade for letting them anywhere near it. And as to Thor and Loki—"

"I think they have already faced consequence enough," Frigga cut smoothly across him, putting a hand on his shoulder to keep him from rising from his chair. "When Loki touched the Casket, it changed him back. Thor then tried to grab his arm and was badly frostbitten. Because they told no one, it became infected overnight. I found Thor unresponsive and Loki distraught and terrified over it. Eir has tended to Thor and he is perfectly well now, but I do not think they will soon forget this lesson."

Odin let out a long sigh and massaged his temples with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. "I never wanted this."

"No," said Frigga. "You wanted to keep them happily ignorant for as long as possible, but there should be no secrets in a family. I helped Loki return to his Aesir form and explained everything to him. It is for the best."

"And what of Thor?" Odin remembered Thor's enthusiasm at the idea of hunting down and slaughtering Frost Giants and winced. He had certainly not taken the right message from Odin's account of the war.

"Loki told him himself," said Frigga, "sometime this morning." Her fond smile melted Odin's worries. "I found them playing together in the healing room. The truth seems to have only brought them closer together. Which means there is only one member of Loki's family who has not reassured him of his place within it." She fixed him with an imperious gaze.

X

Loki leaned his elbows against the balcony railing outside his chambers, looking out over Asgard. The view was spectacular as always, and he knew from his cosmic navigation lessons that the dim blue speck directly ahead in the velvety black sky was Jotunheim. He'd never had such a hard time attending to his studies as he had that afternoon in his lessons with Bragi and Vor. Thor actually answered more of their questions than he did, which was unprecedented—not that he was always correct. For Thor, all seemed to have gone back to normal already. He had claimed Loki as his brother in blood, and in his straightforward mind that was all it took to settle the matter.

If only it could be so for him. While he had been distracted and struggled to concentrate in the more scholarly lessons, training with Tyr was the opposite. He had poured all the confusion, fear, and frustration he felt into his attacks, working himself into a blind fury before he even knew what was happening. The result was that Fandral had left the practice grounds with quite a few bruises and a distinctly sulky air. The two boys were normally fairly evenly matched—at least in bouts where Loki was barred from wielding seidr—and he was near enough to ambidextrous that being confined to using his left hand had barely slowed him down.

He only wished he knew where all that rage had come from. At supper (which Father had missed, again), Thor had boasted to Mother of how well Loki had fought, and Loki pretended to revel in the praise. He wasn't sure how convincing it had been. He'd seen Frigga glancing at his plate several times as he picked listlessly at his food.

He heard the door open behind him but didn't look around. It was probably Thor, or maybe his mother wanted to make sure he was still doing well after all the revelations the day had brought.

"Your mother tells me you have had a very interesting day."

Loki jumped and looked to his right. His visitor was not Frigga or Thor, but Odin. Heat rising in his cheeks, he looked back out at the stars. "Is that...all she told you?"

"No."

There was a long, painful silence. Loki did not want to be the first to break it, but eventually he couldn't help himself. "Why did you take me?" he burst out, fingers clenching around his arms. "You'd been fighting the Frost Giants for decades, and all of Asgard hates them. Why did you want to keep one alive, let alone adopt him?"

"All of Asgard does not hate the Frost Giants," said Odin. At this, Loki shot him a reproachful look. Did he think he was stupid?

"What they hate," said Odin, unperturbed by Loki's accusing expression, "is a false image they have constructed through millennia of poor relations culminating in a decades-long war. Very few truly know them well enough to hate them. If they did, I think they would find they have too much in common for it. The Aesir are not perfect—far from it, and there is much to admire and respect about the Jotnar."

Loki frowned.

"As to my bringing you home, I had many reasons."

"What were they?" said Loki, cautiously standing up straight and facing him. At the sight of the familiar eyepatch, he realized with a squirming sensation in his stomach that it was his own birth father who had gouged out Odin's eye.

"Firstly," said Odin, "you were an innocent child; the war was not your doing." He looked out over Asgard. "I thought of all the children who likely had lost their lives over the course of the war because no one was left to care for them. Saving just one wouldn't do anything to help the others, but it was a good way to mark the dawn of a new era for Asgard and Jotunheim." He glanced down at Loki, eye crinkling. "And if the child of my enemy could look up at me and smile, perhaps all hope for true peace was not lost."

"What were the other reasons?" said Loki.

"I walked into that temple to get a moment of quiet after such a long and bloody battle...a long war. A long life of little but war, it seemed. It weighed so heavily upon me, and even though Asgard had triumphed and I had my wife and son waiting for me at home, I had never felt so isolated. The very last thing I expected was to find a kindred spirit waiting for me inside."

"Mother said we have similar temperaments," said Loki.

"As in all things, your mother is right. I, like you, was the smallest of my father's three sons, the youngest, and the one most inclined towards seidr. To be able to transform so young is a gift few are blessed with, whether Aesir or Jotun.

"There were also, of course, strategic advantages in keeping a child of Jotunheim. I will not pretend I did not think of that. Someone like you would have value in future alliances and diplomacy that no Aesir child could achieve, simply by being Jotun. A more ruthless king, someone like my father, might have seen the abandoned son of Laufey not as a helpless infant but as an opportunity to destabilize his enemy's reign and insert a puppet king in his place. Perhaps that would have been the most efficient way to bring Jotunheim to heel longterm, but I did not want to purchase peace with that kind of currency.

"The simplest reason I took you, perhaps, is that you needed me. I'm not sure when it occurred to me that I was thinking as a father, not a king, but by the time I placed you in Frigga's arms, the idea of sending you to be raised by some other Aesir family had become intolerable to me."

"Have you…," Loki began hesitantly, fidgeting with the bandage on his hand. "Have you ever regretted—?"

"Not for a single moment," said Odin, turning to fix him with his gaze again.

Loki looked down at his feet. "Not even when I stabbed Thor?"

Odin chuckled. "You think my brothers and I did not do that and worse to each other when we were boys? I certainly would prefer you had not stabbed Thor, but I did not name you Odinson, enchant false memories of Frigga's second pregnancy into my people's minds, and swear Heimdall and Lady Eir to secrecy over Gungnir on a mere whim."

Loki didn't know whether to smile or weep, so he looked out at at the stars again, ignoring the ache in his throat. His eyes found Jotunheim again. "I hate him."

"Who?"

"Laufey." His hands were clenched around his arms again, so tightly it hurt. "Why didn't he want me? Why did he have to write that stupid law?" He gritted his teeth against the threat of more tears. He would not cry for Laufey.

"I'm afraid I don't know, my boy. If Laufey had been the kind of king to write just laws and love his children as they deserved, there might never have been a war. I hope you will not allow his actions to keep hurting you. He cast you aside without a thought for what you could bring to his household and his realm, but every day you have lived, learned, grown, and been a part of this family has been your triumph against his cruelty."

"And yet he is still king of Jotunheim, and he thinks he succeeded in getting rid of me," said Loki bitterly.

Odin sighed. "When I spoke to you and Thor yesterday, I told you that one of you would have to defend the peace between Asgard and Jotunheim. I was thinking particularly of you, Loki."

Loki turned to frown at his father. "You don't mean to make an ally of Laufey, do you?"

"Not Laufey. Laufey's reign will end one day, as surely as my own will. I have reason to believe Helblindi and Byleistr—your brothers by birth—will be far more fair-minded than their father. The peace I hope to build would be for them and their people, and you, my son, could be the key to helping our two peoples understand each other at last."

Loki stared up at Odin, eyes wide. He could almost feel the weight of responsibility settling around his shoulders, and he wondered if this was anything like what Thor had felt the first time he realized what it meant to be Crown Prince. The prospect was a terrifying one—and yet, in a way, it was a relief to know what was expected of him. The thought that Odin believed he could do it sparked a warm glow of pride in his chest. "How would I do that, Father?"

"Not easily, and not for several more centuries, I hope, so do not feel as though this is something you must solve in a week. But perhaps we can begin with a thought experiment. One of the obstacles in your path will be Jotunheim's attitude towards undersized Jotuns. Farbauti did not care about your size, but thanks to Laufey's poisonous lies, most Jotnar will not be able to see past it. In order to gain their trust, you will first have to persuade them to reject their king's ideas about their smaller kin. How might you go about it?"

Loki swallowed. "Must they know I am Jotun? Can I not simply approach them as a prince of Asgard? An ambassador?"

"It is possible that there is a way to succeed without revealing your true lineage to them, but you would then forfeit any opportunity to help those whom Laufey's law has harmed and spare those it will harm in the future. Why should the Jotun population at large care that an Aesir prince disapproves of one of their beliefs?"

Loki's frown deepened as he thought hard. He certainly did not want that law to remain unchallenged. After a moment, he said, "I would...need to learn exactly what the law and the religious texts say about small babies, as well as how gladly the people accept it. It would also be good to learn what it was like before Laufey made the law, and why he did it, though I suppose that would be much harder to ascertain. Perhaps I could start by visiting the cities on Alfheim and Vanaheim where the ones who escaped Jotunheim have made their homes. If they have any contact with their birth families, that would tell me a great deal about what the main population thinks. They might even want to help."

"Very good, yes. It will be crucial to make use of every possible resource. What else?"

"Well...Mother said that the law paints small Jotnar as cursed and dangerous. If...if a small Jotun were to do something so big and so obviously good for Jotunheim that Laufey's lies were ruined, then he would have to yield or risk losing his people's support."

"Something big, hmm?" said Odin, scratching his beard. "I agree, but what could be big enough to force Laufey's hand in such a way? He is one of the most stubborn beings I have ever met."

Loki opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. For a glorious moment, he felt like he'd been on the verge of something brilliant, but now it was like all the wind had gone out of his sails. He stared hopelessly at that dim blue speck of light not far above the horizon. It was the exact same wintry blue as the Casket.

He straightened up. "The Casket!" he exclaimed. "It is the heart of Jotunheim. I could feel that when I touched it, and you said they will never be able to restore their realm to its former glory without it." The words had barely passed his lips when the excitement drained out of him. What he was suggesting sounded an awful lot like he was taking Jotunheim's side over Asgard's. In spite of all that Frigga, Thor, and now Odin had said and done to reassure him that he belonged in their family, he was terrified that he might have ruined everything with his treasonous ideas. His father's large, warm hand settled on his shoulder and pulled him closer to his side, and yet again he had to fight back the urge to cry.

"The Casket was never meant to be used as a weapon," said Odin. His tone was far gentler than Loki had expected. "It was never meant to leave Jotunheim at all. Laufey betrayed his own realm when he took it to Midgard with the intent to conquer and destroy. He treated the greatest power within his grasp with the same contempt he offered his own newborn child, and for that he deserved to keep neither. It would serve him well to watch that very child use the Casket do what he has failed to do for his people."

"Then...you think I should?" said Loki, astonished.

"Loki, I think it might very well be the best way forward. Perhaps the only way forward. In my foolishness, I almost made it impossible because I believed it was more important to protect you from the truth than to prepare you."

Loki's relief was so intense that his bones seemed to have turned temporarily to liquid. He sagged against Odin's side, his next few breaths coming in shudders. The hand on his shoulder squeezed a little.

"Accomplishing this will be far more difficult than discussing it," said Odin. "And it is only half of the equation. Another obstacle is public sentiment on Asgard, and that must be addressed first. The reasons I hid your heritage from my own subjects still hold. Before you can approach Jotunheim, the people of Asgard will need to want peace. They will need to see more than a defeated enemy and the faceless figures of their frightening tales when they look upon the Jotnar. I will appreciate your suggestions on how to bring about these changes. Your mother and brother can certainly help as well, and I'm sure they will want to, but I would like it to be chiefly our project. Perhaps we could discuss such matters and anything else on your mind over a weekly game of hnefatafl? If my council complains, I will simply have to tell them that my son's claim on my time is higher than theirs."

"I would like that very much, Father," said Loki, and miraculously his voice did not tremble as he said it.

Odin chuckled. "Come here," he said, and he pulled Loki into an enveloping hug. Wrapped in his father's arms, with the prospect of all they would do together to achieve peace stretching out on the path ahead of him, he could allow himself to hope that all might be well.

While I do think Frigga has a good point about Loki and Odin having a harder time being close because they're both more reserved in temperament, I also think that's only part of it. In canon, the only purpose Loki seems to have on Asgard is to be the spare (and when he learns he's a Frost Giant, he thinks even that is gone). I think the best way Odin could show Loki that he loves him as a son would be to actually entrust him with a major responsibility—one that he is uniquely qualified for. And that line "one of you will have to defend that peace" in canon did strike me as a hint in that direction, as well as "I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day. Bring about an alliance, bring about permanent peace through you. But those plans no longer matter."

So because Loki finds out the truth as a kid in this AU, he'll get to grow up knowing what his purpose is, no barrier of lies between him and his parents, and a project to share with his dad that will last centuries. He'll have something constructive to focus his brilliant mind on. He'll probably still cause a fair amount of mischief, but it would be lighthearted rather than borne of frustration. And whether or not there is actual magic in the "blood bond" Thor and Loki made, I think it's a nudge in the right direction for Thor, so that he wouldn't be so inclined to brush aside Loki's discontentment or leave him behind in favor of more outgoing friends. Being closer to Loki would also benefit Thor. I'm not sure he'd ever get to a point where he's arrogant, thoughtless, and bloodthirsty enough to get himself banished.

(One Thor WIP down, several to go! Yay!)