Loki hated being called into his father's throne room for things like this. Most children got called home when they did something wrong. He got called to the same place that his father laid out sentences to criminals. His brother placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently, and the two walked in.

His father was sitting at his thrown with Glungnir, his spear, in one hand. That always seemed terribly unnecessary. His mother stood at his father's side, and standing before them were Tyr and… Fandral.

Loki and Thor looked each other, both incredibly concerned now.

"Father," Loki said, bowing after they had walked in.

"Loki," Odin replied with a nod, "Do you know why I called you here?"

The trickster glanced up at Tyr, who wasn't looking at him, "I could guess."

"Your classes in fighting have not been going as I would have hoped." Loki bit his tongue to keep from shouting to let him stop taking it, he instead nodded solemnly. "But I believe we may have found a viable solution."

"Father, if I may, before we continue with this- am I going to be punished?" the trickster asked, wanting to get that over with first.

"For what?"

He looked over at Tyr before looking back at his father uncertainly, "For what happened with Sif today in class?"

"Don't be ridiculous, after hearing what happened I realize it was just self-defense. Although that incident does help me to realize that perhaps traditional methods are not right for you."

Loki raised his eyebrows but didn't press, he supposed that it was better not to insist that he be punished, but it still seemed odd. "What do you suggest instead, Father?"

"Your schoolmate Fandral has offered to tutor you instead. Tyr has agreed to allowing you to try this for a month's time before measuring your progress," Odin replied. Fandral looked over at Loki for a moment. Thor gave him a small smile but the pale boy's face was emotionless, his eyes fixed on his father.

"I see."

"I expect you to train hard, my son, it is disgraceful for a son of Odin to not know how to fight."

Loki nodded, bowed again, managed to get out a farewell before turning and leaving the room. Thor and Fandral followed suit quickly, although they needn't have bothered as the boy had stopped a few steps out of the hall.

"Loki—" Fandral started, but the pale boy only held up a hand to silence him.

Loki turned his head slightly, not enough to face him but enough that he could see the boy out of the corner of his eye, "Never again take it upon yourself to make my decisions for me."

"I didn't mean for… I didn't think…"

"No, I suspect you didn't," he spat before walking down the hall.

Fandrall looked helplessly at Thor, "I didn't think your father would do that. I only wanted to ask him if he would give me permission if his son wanted to…"

Thor nodded, clapping his friend on the back and shaking his head, "Once our father decides something is best, there is no deterring him." He smiled, "Don't worry- he's more upset by father than you."

"I know, that doesn't make me feel any better," Fandral said before starting after the trickster.


"I am not angry with you," Loki said as he heard Fandral's footsteps get within earshot. He stopped walking, and waited.

The blond smiled when he heard that, stopping next to Loki, "I wouldn't blame you if you were. I swear I didn't mean for that to happen."

The pale boy looked over at him through the corner of his eyes. He smiled slightly, "When father is involved, what you mean to happen counts for little." He looked down.

Fandral sighed heavily, nodding. He had never thought about what it would be like to be the son of the ruler of Asgard. "Do you want to go back to your room?"

"Are you going to hug me again?" Loki asked warily, Fandral just shrugged. "I suppose I can take my chances…"

The two started walking again. "I only wanted to ask him if it would be possible before I suggested it to you," the blond explained.

"You got an audience with the allfather just to ask if you might be able to do something?" Loki asked quietly.

"Silly, wasn't it?" Fandral asked with a self-deprecating laugh that was interrupted by Loki grabbing the boy into a hug. "But…"

"Shut up," the pale boy muttered, his head buried into the blond's shoulder. Fandral complied and returned the embrace gently.

"We should continue," he said, breaking the embrace awkwardly and starting to walk, smoothing his immaculately done hair. Fandral fell into step with him without saying anything, smiling softly.

"You're still going to be doing the class, though, right?" Loki asked when they started to approach his door, realizing something he hadn't thought of. Although he appreciated greatly his friend doing this, he couldn't accept it if it came at the cost of his own training.

Fandral nodded, "Of course, just now you don't have to and I have to spend as much time teaching you as you spend teaching me."

He chuckled, glad to hear that. "A fair trade, I suppose," he said as he opened the door to his room and stood aside to let Fandral enter. The two sat down on the same chairs they'd fallen into the habit of sitting in.

"I imagine Tyr was delighted to hear. Now not only is there an even number in his class, he doesn't have to spend every lesson bickering with you," the blond said airily.

"Oh, you're right," he said with a look of feigned horror, "I can't deprive him of the pleasure of our witty repartee."

Fandral let out a great laugh, shaking his head, "I'm sure he'll find some way to carry on."

The two fell into a comfortable silence for a moment. Loki pulled him his sleeve and looked at the bandages on his arm. He wondered if Fandral would insist upon training to make sure that Loki knew how to even without the use of an arm. His writing arm, as well. He looked over at the blond, who was looking at the bandage on his own ankle with distaste.

"Thank you," Loki said softly.

Fandral looked up in confusion, "What for?"

"Speaking to my father about this. It must have been hard just to get him to see you, much less to actually speak to him."

The blond looked down, his cheeks turning slightly red. He just nodded, not really wanting gratitude for that. If things had gone his way, hopefully Loki would never have known he had done it, which was the way he had wanted it. He now understood just why Loki had tried to hide the fact he had been looking for a way to help Fandral with his reading problems.

Loki stretched a bit in his chair, "I am glad that tomorrow's a day we don't have classes."

"Want to give Sif time to cool down?" Fandral asked.

Loki shook his head, "No, I want to give her time to find out I told Thor about her crush- if I'm going to be murdered I would like to deserve it."

"You didn't," the blond groaned.

"You saw what she did to my arm," he replied.

Fandral winced at the memory of exactly what Sif had done to his arm. He shook his head, "Remind me not to get on your bad side."

"I wasn't planning on spending the next decade or so sniping with you and progressively escalating it until it gets this out of hand," Loki said vaguely, "But if you want to…"

"At least you can't cut really off my hair," he said, running a hand over it.

"I could get rid of that facial hair," he pointed out.

Fandral put a protective hand over his still growing beard, "You wouldn't dare!"

Loki tapped his cheek thoughtfully, "I was thinking you'd look better clean shaven…"

Fandral chuckled, shaking his head. After a momen he said, "But, even if we don't have classes, don't think that gets you out of training."

The boy pouted, doing his best to look weak and sickly. With as pale as he was, it wasn't too difficult. "But I'm wounded!" he objected. The blond smirked at him and he rolled his eyes, giving up the act, "Yeah, I figured you'd want to take the opportunity to teach me how to deal with not being able to use my arm."

Fandral was delighted to hear that, he'd expected to get much more of a fight about this. "Make sure you get enough rest tonight then, all right?"

"Oh I don't know," Loki said, "I was thinking about staying up all night reading." This was actually something of a habit for him. He didn't do it all the time, but often enough. And while he said it more teasingly, this had been his plan.

"Do I need to stay here and make sure you get enough sleep?" the blond teased back, hoping to get a grimace at the thought from his friend.

Instead, he got a nonchalant "If you want to, I won't stop you." He looked at the black-haired boy curiously, Loki's face was at ease and there was no indication that this was said in jest. Fandral fell silent, not really sure how to feel about that. It wasn't exactly an invitation, but it was likely the closest Loki got to one.

He raised an eyebrow and warily asked, "Really?"

Loki blinked at the question before furrowing his brows. He shrugged and mumbled, "I guess." The boy hadn't thought this was a terribly odd thing to say, but Fandral reacted as if it was. He wasn't sure what to do about it. An uncomfortable squirming feeling filled his stomach. It had been a few weeks since he'd been reminded of how bad he was with this sort of social situation. "Is that bad?"

"No, I just didn't expect you to say that," he said hastily as he saw his friend starting to close up again.

The pale boy shrugged again and looked away, "I'm not telling you to- but if you were set on it I wouldn't be terribly bothered."

He smiled softly at the boy who managed an uncomfortable smile back. "Do you think I should?"

"No," he replied, resting his chin on his fist and glancing away. Fandral was surprised to find himself feeling a bit hurt at that. "I really did want to spend most of the night reading."

The blond looked up as he realized what Loki had just said and laughed. He shook his head, "I think after the day you had, I'll leave you to it."

"Oh… thank you for deciding not to intrude on my privacy," he drawled, causing Fandral to start, but he chuckled afterwards to make it clear that he was joking.

The blond shook his head and stood up, stretching slightly, "I think I should head off. Do you want to get started after lunch?"

"That's fine."