A/N—I don't own this. Marvel owns everything.

Also, something about this seems familiar. It might just be that it's so cliched. If someone could let me know if they've run across this "Thor and Loki sitting in the Yggdrasil" idea, could you tell me please? Thanks!

For all my reviewers!

Please read/review!

"Happy Birtday."

A little something crawled into bed with him, rubbing icy cold toes against his leg.

Ever since the unexpected attack of the Frost Giants six months ago (no one really knew what had happened, except that celebrations for Valstaff's fifth birthday had been interrupted and havoc wreaked) Thor had suffered from a fear of anything cold. To have something so chilly in his bed—

A bubbly giggle cleared his mind, and he relaxed, shoving aside the urge to leap from his bed.

"Loki..."

"Happy Birtday!" Loki cried, shoving a messily wrapped package into Thor's hands. Thor felt the soft fabric of Loki's dearly beloved blanket against his fingers. Peeling it off, he saw a piece of paper.

Two stick figures stood atop of a scraggly...scraggly...Thor decided it didn't really matter.

But Loki sensed his confusion and pointed to the strange mess of lines.

"Yggy tree. You,"—he moved his finger to the taller figure—"and me,"—the smaller figure—"on the tree."

And then it made sense.

"We're pretty high, aren't we, baby?" Thor asked, falling momentarily into the habit of referring to Loki as "baby" or "honey" that the nurse had instilled into him.

The rainbow bridge shimmered far beneath them, and, blurred through the bridge, the vortex of stars that masked Midgard from view.

"Yup!" Loki chirped, swinging his feet. Three now, Loki had grown immensely, and no longer used baby talk so much, though he still couldn't form the "th" sound, morphing words like "Thor" and "birthday" and "tooth". But other than that, he spoke a lot like Thor did, even imitating Thor's tone of voice—something that got him into trouble when he adopted Thor's I-don't-have-listen-to-you voice around nurse.

They really shouldn't be up in the Yggdrasil, Thor knew, but ever since Fandral had shown Thor how to climb it, he'd wanted to show Loki.

Loki loved being high in the air. Thor remembered the first time he'd put Loki on a swing. When his "underdog" had gained Loki more height than intended, the little boy had screamed for pure delight. So of course he loved being at the tip-top of the Yggdrasil. And Thor enjoyed it too, sitting there with Loki on his lap, talking about "boy stuff"—how to prank nurse, or worry Mother, or how best to persuade Valstaff to play the Frost Giant.

"You like it?" Thor asked.

"I love it."

Thor fingered the picture.

"You draw this, Loki?" he asked.

"Yup!"

"It's great! I love it." Thor embraced his little brother, and Loki took advantage of the hug to crawl onto Thor's lap, plopping his little legs onto Thor's. They sat there like that for a long time, Thor's picture in between their legs.

"Happy Birthday, Thor!" Father roared as he and Mother entered the room. Loki scrambled off Thor's lap and let Father toss Thor into the air.

"Do it again!" he cheered, reveling in the happiness that radiated off his parents and elder brother. Father did, and then did the same to Loki, who gave a "wheeeee" of pleasure.

Mother picked up the picture that Loki had drawn.

"I see that Loki got here first."

"Yup!" Thor and Loki chorused.

"Do you love your brother, Loki?" Father asked, tickling his youngest boy.

Loki surged to his feet and hugged Thor.

"Yup!"