A/n: Sinfulseraph- Translating it to Midgard years cuz I've got no clue how Asgardian aging works, Loki & Thor have to be hundreds of years old but look 30 at the oldest: I haven't got a set idea, but definitely over 14. Maybe 15/16-ish. Although if it does go to slash and gets at all explicit- they're over the legal age of consent in whatever country you live in. Please don't arrest me.
Also, regarding the punishment for it- they're supposed to be fighting with mundane means. Magic isn't allowed, he's definitely not supposed to use his magic in a way that could hurt somebody. Turning into and threatening someone as a giant wolf definitely qualifies as "could hurt somebody".
Despite his intentions and great efforts, Loki wasn't terribly able to read much that night. His arm still bothered him too much and he had a difficult time finding a comfortable position that allowed the book to stay open, him to easily turn pages and read that didn't hurt his arm. He gave up after about half an hour and got an early night's sleep.
This was a good thing, it turned out, as he was rather roughly awoken by his brother the next morning. He responded to this intrusion by throwing a pillow, which Thor dodged rather easily, and grumbling about wanting more sleep.
"Come on, get up, I want to make sure you get a good breakfast!" his brother insisted, yanking the blankets off. Loki shivered but got out of bed, grumbling the entire time. Somehow, Thor was a morning person. He hated it. "Good, now get dressed so we can go," Thor added once his brother was on his feet.
"Let me wash up first," Loki said with a resigned sigh.
Thor groaned, "It's just breakfast."
"Some of us actually care about how we look no matter what time of day it is," he replied, noticing that his brother was following him and he gave him an exhasperated glare, "Do you mind?"
"What? Why do you care? We bathed together when we were young, it's not like there's anything I haven't seen."
"That was ages ago!"
"And there is a communal bath that everyone else uses after training, so it really isn't that big a deal."
"I don't care, just get out," he insisted, trying to shove his brother out of the doorway. It was a rather futile attempt considering the large strength difference between them, but he felt better making it. Thor finally relented, causing Loki to stumble before closing and locking the door with a huff.
Longer than Thor wanted, Loki finally came out, fully dressed and his arm rebandaged. He was more or less ready for his brother to drag him around Asgard, which Thor did rather eagerly. It was actually nice, for all of Loki's complaining. After a breakfast of Thor fussing over how much and what Loki ate, they ended up lazing about outside in one of Asgard's many splendid gardens.
"I haven't seen you this relaxed in some time," Thor commented after they'd been there not saying anything for awhile. He smirked, "Maybe you need to be severely wounded more often."
"It's the glory of knowing I never have to take Tyr's blasted class again," he replied with a blissful smile.
"So long as you can improve enough in a month to convince our father that this is working better."
Loki scowled, "I suppose there is that…"
"I'll help you, you know."
He shook his head, "Thank you for the offer… But I don't think that would be a wise idea."
Thor looked at his brother sadly for a moment but knew better than to press. The two fell into a mostly comfortable silence. After a few moments of this, Loki glanced over at his brother and quietly asked, "May I ask you something?"
"Of course," he replied, glancing over in curiosity. It wasn't common for Loki to ask permission like that.
The pale boy remained silent for a moment, "How affectionate is Fandral usually?"
"I've never really thought about it," he admitted, "We play-fight a lot, the three of us, if that's what you mean. Why do you ask?"
"No reason," he replied with a reassuring smile. That didn't really answer any of the questions he had, but he didn't feel like asking further. Thor raised an eyebrow, wondering what caused that question. Of course, if he really wanted to know he knew that his brother was the wrong person to ask. Loki had never been good at opening up, even to Thor.
They spent a few hours like that, occasionally chatting but mostly just enjoying each others' company. It had been some time since they'd done this, and Loki tried not to think about the fact that it took one of them being badly hurt for it to happen.
At some point, Thor either noticed how much time had passed or started to get hungry and declared it time for lunch. Again Loki grumbled about having to get up when he was so comfortable, but this time was much more agreeable about it.
They went to the hall that a good chunk of Asgard was eating in, most meals were communal, and Thor noticed his three friends were already there. He glanced over at his brother, "I should probably talk to Sif."
"That's fine with me," Loki said, turning to leave.
Thor quickly grabbed his arm, "Come on, you need to eat. If you want, I'll stay with you."
"I can take care of myself," he said with a sigh, but at the look on his brother's face he added, "I will stay. Go talk to her."
Although he didn't want to stay, he supposed that going back on his word wasn't the greatest idea now either. He glanced over at his brother, who had gone straight to his friends and was saying something to Fandral. Loki's lips tightened, he could guess what Thor was saying. Sure enough, after Thor and Sif walked away together, Fandral got up and walked over to Loki.
"I don't need a babysitter," he said coldly, glaring at his brother with his arms crossed.
Fandral smiled at him, "I didn't think you did, your brother's just worried about you. Come sit with us anyways?"
"I…" don't really have a choice, he didn't finish the sentence out loud, "All right."
Sif had been sitting between Fandral and Volstagg, leaving an empty seat between them that Loki filled uncomfortably, sitting down stiffly. Volstagg raised an eyebrow about this but didn't make any comment, deciding it'd be easier to treat it as a normal event.
"How's that arm doing? I heard Sif did quite a number on it," he asked with a light chuckle.
Loki nodded, "It's been better, admittedly."
"You did some damage to her as well," Fandral told him, trying not to smile, "Broken nose, bruised chest…"
"Which she took out on me, thanks to you three," Volstagg reminded him.
Loki was able to eat in relatively uninterrupted silence as the two continued their conversation. He'd learned long ago how to fade into the background even when he was right next to other people. This was usually helped by Thor's rather dominating presence, but it wasn't necessary. If Fandral noticed, he didn't do anything to try and drag the trickster back into the conversation. Loki was thankful for this. Just being there was a bit more than he cared for, he was hardly up for a conversation with someone he barely knew.
"You haven't forgotten that I still want to do training today, right?" Fandral asked this some time after they had finished lunch. The two had ended up wandering the halls of Asgard rather aimlessly, and it seemed like a good time to make sure.
Loki shook his head, "No, but I was starting to wonder if you had."
"It's not good to exercise too soon after you've eaten," he said with a smile.
"What qualifies as too soon?"
The blond thought about it for a moment, "Well, at this pace, I imagine that if we started towards your room, by the time we got there we'd be fine."
"That's convenient," he murmured, stopping and looking around, realizing that he wasn't even sure where they were or which way they should be heading. It didn't take long to figure out, there were very few parts of Asgard he didn't know well.
"Not surprisingly," Fandral said with a slight laugh, "I realized that, and it's why I brought it up."
The two started walking in the proper direction, not in any particular hurry. After a few moments Fandral thought of something and looked over at Loki, "Er… you wouldn't happen to have a sling or something for your arm? That would probably make this easier." He probably should have thought about this while they were in the healing room. Or any point before now.
"I do, don't worry," the pale boy replied, "I have most things that the healing room does. I just lack the skill to heal myself when it comes to some things…" he sighed wistfully at that last part. He really didn't care for being healed and would have very much preferred being able to do it himself. Call it a dislike for having to rely on other people or desire to be as self-sufficient as possible.
"I'd be disturbed if anyone could heal themself when their arm was like yours was," Fandral said gently.
Loki smiled at him, "That is true. Thank you for staying with me, from the look on your face it must not have been easy."
The blond looked away, still smiling, "Hey, I just needed to get my own leg healed…" He looked up at Loki, "Thank you for letting me stay."
"I should warn you, though, that if you break this arm again today, I will find a way to smash several of yours."
Fandral was going to laugh, but the pale boy's face was too serious and he didn't quite manage to. He instead cleared his throat and nodded, "While that was not part of the plan, I'm still glad that you have a sling because that'll make it a lot easier."
Loki smiled gently at him, and the blond relaxed slightly.
Fandral managed to spend about 3 hours training Loki without breaking or otherwise really harming his arm. He did fall on it once, but it was not as bad as it could have been. Fandral actually had not intended to spend that long, but had lost track of time and ended up continuing until Loki complained of being too tired to go on. Well, until he complained of it and actually meant it rather than just complaining out of habit.
After this, Loki had gone to his bed and collapsed on it. Fandral followed suit, although he was in considerably better shape than Loki and not nearly as tired. The trickster spent a few minutes mumbling about his hatred for exercise and all things related to it, and after enough of that Fandral looked over to him and said, "Read me something."
"You read something," he groaned back.
"You're so much better at it!"
"Let me rest!" Loki insisted. He looked over at Fandral, who was giving him a pleading, puppy dog look. He groaned and sat up, grabbing a book from the shelves that were within arms reach of his bed. He handed it to Fandral before lying back down, "You read it."
"What is it?" the blond asked, frowning at it.
"It's from Midgard, about someone called 'Robin Hood', I think you'll like it," he replied.
Fandral raised an eyebrow, then smirked, "Do you want me to read it to you?"
