Author's Note: By the way, that last part is not the continuation to the next day; it's more like just a little flash forward of what happened to the keys :P


When Loki reappeared where Thor and the guards had crashed into each other, he found the burly god towering over the others, the entire group disheveled.

"- you've been hounding something all through the night and still do not have it in your grasps?" Thor seemed somewhere between admonishment and arrogance, eyebrows raised and stance proud.

Loki stood at the corner of the passage, impassively watching what he knew would unfold: the God of Thunder reprimanding the watchmen as they listened, humbled, and tried to get some words of defense in.

"- How can you expect to be protectors of Asgard if you can't even catch Loki?" Thor was demanding. Loki's eyes lowered slightly. The guards protested in unintelligible mumbles before bowing their heads and leaving to return to their posts.

"I thought they might listen to you." Loki nodded to his brother as Thor turned to round on him.

"You wake me from my slumber to remedy the sentinels' uselessness?"

"Well, as I said, I thought they might listen to you; they don't take advice from 'scrawny trouble-makers', and something really needed to be done." Loki shrugged with a laughing glint in the green of his eyes.

"Return my helmet to me, Brother!"

Loki chuckled, Thor not noticing the second more impish gleam in his eyes as it hid behind wide-eyed innocence. "Of course."

He held out the helmet, his shadow softening the bright firelight to avoid the metal flashing.


Thor didn't know why the servants looked at him strangely when he called for another goblet of wine the next day, and thought the reason for all the guards' complete abstinence from their usual drinks during their watches was due to his criticism that night.

He hadn't noticed the wine cellar keys, that Loki had silenced and stuck on with magic, swinging from the left wing of his helmet.


Author's Note: Please review! But thank you for reading, regardless *-*