Being with Ben was awkward.

Like, really awkward.

They sat on the couch in the basement, Anna's basement because they never went to his house and now she totally understood why, watching a movie. She wasn't even sure what movie. Maybe it was Up. Or Avatar. Whatever it was, she'd seen it before, and she was way too preoccupied with worrying to watch it.

Because, clearly, at any minute, Ben was going to light himself on fire and try to kill her.

And there was also the fact that he'd just taunted Loki the previous night.

So everything was awkward. It was the kind of awkward she liked to watch on TV and laugh at, the kind of awkward that made awesome plots. But being stuck in the middle of it sucked. Oh, and there was also the small fact that Loki's obvious hostility was making being in the basement damn near intolerable.

He was off in the corner in one of her dad's huge leather reading chairs, presumably reading, though she was pretty sure he was trying to be a chaperone or something else old school and lame. Granted, it wasn't so old school since Ben was a fire giant and Ben-as-Eldgrímr knew she was running around with Loki.

But she couldn't let Ben know that she knew that he was Eldgrímr. Or something.

It seemed needlessly complicated. She just wanted to tell him, because she was really terrible at keeping secrets like this, but Loki had expressly forbidden it earlier. They'd had a really stellar conversation about it.

"I want to tell Ben what we know when he comes over this afternoon," she had told him.

Loki had looked at her like she had two heads. Who knew. Maybe she did. Maybe the stupid magic tree stuck in the basement of her school slowly ruining her life had messed with her in her sleep. "Absolutely not," he had replied.

And because when Loki made a decision, arguing with him was like arguing with a brick wall, she hadn't pushed it. But she'd seen enough movies to know that poor communication ruined everything. Obviously, all they needed to do was sit down with Ben and explain what was going on. And then he'd explain why he was running around town, too, and they'd find out they were on the same side, and everything would be okay.

Except that she knew it wouldn't go like that. Or, at least, she was pretty sure it wouldn't. She wanted to believe the best of Ben, she really did, because he was a great guy, really, but in the end, she had to admit Loki had a point.

Loki also had way more experience with fire giants and duplicitous politics.

She sighed and snuggled closer to Ben. Loki's ire had made the temperature in the basement drop by at least five degrees, taking it from somewhere around sixty-eight to colder, and Ben threw off the heat of a small forge.

Anna smothered a bit of hysterical laughter. At least, now, she knew why he was always warm.

He turned his head and grinned at her. She saw his eyes flicker toward Loki for the briefest of moments – and she wondered how awkward it was for him, too, knowing that she was running around with an Asgardian prince fighting monsters – before he whispered in her ear, "Is he going to sit there all afternoon?"

"He nests," she replied, pitching her voice just loud enough that Loki would be able to hear.

Ben laughed. "He what?"

"Nests." Anna sniffed imperiously. "He builds himself little nests of books and pillows and pretty much sets down roots."

Whatever book he was reading, Loki snapped it shut hard enough that she could hear it, and a satisfied smirk curled across her face. Ben grinned back at her, and she had to fight to keep her smile from wavering, and she felt like a terrible person for it.

Ben had never hurt her. He sometimes got a bit more physical than she wanted, but he always backed off when she told him to, and he never hit her or anything. He was a good guy. A really sweet, good guy.

Who could be an enemy.

Loki glided past them, a frigid look on his face.

"Problem, Loki?" Ben asked, and Anna pressed her hands to her mouth to muffle her laughter. That, right there, was why she couldn't think of him as an enemy. He was in her house, within reaching distance of Loki, and instead of attacking him, he teased him.

Loki's face was expressionless when he turned to them. "Oh, no, not at all. Enjoy your film."

As he made his way up the stairs, Ben turned back to her. "Archaic bastard, isn't he?"


"I'll kill him," Loki hissed as he shut the door to the basement with slow, steady hands. It settled into its frame without a sound, and Jack stood there, holding his book, his lips quirked in an amused grin.

"Anna might not like that."

"I don't frankly care what Anna does or does not like." Anna was a child and didn't have the slightest clue what was good for her. Being with Ben was not good for her. Or for him and Mike since it put Ben – Eldgrímr – in striking distance.

Had Midgard considered her an adult, Loki would have asked her to exploit her relationship with Ben for their gain. But she barely qualified as an adolescent. She was only just a decade old, and for someone as old as he, she would always be a child.

One didn't ask a child to seduce information out of an enemy, and he doubted she had any particular skill with seduction regardless.

"You look like you just found gum on the bottom of your shoe."

"That isn't quite analogous to my current feelings," Loki replied. His gaze drifted to Jack's book. It was a masterpiece of magic for all that it had been made when his powers were severely curtailed. "Might I borrow your book?" he asked.

The wary look in Jack's eyes surprised him. "I dunno," he said, shifting his body away from Loki. Loki recognized the gesture as a protective one and marveled at it.

"Why not?" he asked, using his most gentle, cajoling tone.

Jack pulled a face. "Are you using magic on me?"

There were few times in Loki's life when anyone managed to surprise him. He lived like most people played chess: at any given time, Loki kept track of hundreds of possible moves any one person near him could make. He had plans and contingency plans and contingency plans for the contingency plans. What surprised most people was only tangentially interesting to him, and then only because the action was usually an outlying, improbable choice.

"I beg your pardon?" Loki managed.

Jack looked about sharply and then craned his head back to look at the catwalk. "Come with me," he said, grabbing Loki by the wrist and hauling him up the stairs to the second floor. He shut the door to his room behind him, locked it, and then turned to Loki.

Immediately, Loki saw how nervous the mortal child was. Jack shook, his pupils dilated, his breath coming in short bursts. Very slowly, trying not to alarm him, Loki sat on the edge of Jack's bed and placed his wrists on his knees. It was an attempt to be nonthreatening, but Jack's question and behavior suggested it wouldn't work.

Jack knew, at the very least, that he had magic.

It was, of course, the book's fault, he was sure. Magic, once released, had a tendency to change over time, as all things do. Except where iron rusted and wood rotted, the nature of a spell might fundamentally alter. An item that was once for protection might become something capable of great binding. Changes like that were gradual. Slow. They happened over the course of hundreds of years. But given the environment in which the book existed, Loki supposed it wasn't surprising that it had become different.

It should never have been able to reveal to Jack anything about Loki. Clearly, it had.

"Your Thor's brother," Jack whispered.

"I am," Loki said, his voice even and calm in spite of his internal conflicts.

Jack took two very hesitant steps forward. "I read a story." He swallowed. "The Prince of Asgard who Fell to Earth. It was about you. Us." He chewed on his lower lip. "And… And I read about…"

He finally understood the mortal expression likening the quickening of fear to an icy rush. Though he was a creature of ice and snow, rarely bothered by the cold, Loki found himself chilled from the inside. Mike and Anna had accepted him in part, he thought, because they had no choice. He saved Anna from the draugr, and that had predisposed her to liking him. Then they had, as mortals said, grown on each other. Jack had, Loki was sure, read about his exploits regarding Thor's banishment.

"How I conspired to see my brother exiled," Loki said. "And how I tried to destroy an entire world."

Jack's knuckles were white where they wrapped around the book, and he nodded. "On Halloween. When you were blue. That was…"

"My true face, yes."

Had he felt this same terrible foreboding when speaking to Mike and Anna? He could hardly remember; October seemed so far away. Mike and Anna had a reason to keep silent. He had protected them. But Jack had nothing to still his tongue.

Except, perhaps, genuine affection.

Very slowly, moving with great deliberation, Jack walked up to Loki. He chewed on his lower lip before he settled on the bed beside Loki's leg and opened his book to the table of contents. "Did you want to read these stories?" he asked, pointing to a title near the bottom of the list.

"The Princes of Asgard Reunited." Loki read the title and thought his heart might simply give up beating for all the stress it was under. Jack's presence at his side was tacit acceptance, and for that, he felt relief. But the titles his eyes skimmed over sent that relief spiraling out of his grasp, replacing it with anxiety and uncertainty and the vilest kind of hope.

"You probably shouldn't read them, though," Jack said, his voice soft and thoughtful. "They could be spoilers."

Loki chuckled at the statement, the words strangely soothing. "They would be," he agreed. "No, I was hoping for something about—ah, I don't know if I should say."

"Eldgrímr?" Jack asked, turning to the second page of the table of contents. Loki was, once again, surprised, though he thought he ought not to be. "I saw that coming a mile away. You hated him all this time for no reason. And so did Mike. It was a little obvious he was someone important."

"Oh, only a little," he drawled. "But, yes. Eldgrímr. Is there nothing about him?"

Jack shook his head. "Um, no, not really. Here, let's try the index." He flipped to the back of the book, the weight of it falling across Loki's thigh.

"It has an index, now?"

"You didn't make it with one?"

"No."

"Oh. Well. It does." Jack pressed his finger to the page and ran it down the list of words under E. "Oh." He tapped the page, and Loki pressed his lips into a thin line.

Under Eldgrímr's entry were the words "SPOILERS" repeated over and over, taking up the remainder of that page and all of the next.

"I am so glad this book has a sense of humor," Loki said, and Jack laughed.

"Well, I could always tell you what I've read."

Loki wondered at that, but he supposed that the magic in the pages would not have revealed to Jack anything he did not already know. "No. No, thank you. I'll simply have to find out more as time progresses." He paused as Jack closed the book, a considering look on his face. "Jack?"

"Yes?"

"Did you read these stories to Joe?" The guilty look on Jack's face was answer enough, and Loki sighed. He supposed, though, that they had managed to keep the secret well enough so far. "And it doesn't bother you that I am a frost giant?"

The look Jack gave him was priceless. Jack squinted at him as though he were out of his mind, slack-jawed. "But you're Asgardian," Jack protested, and it took Loki a moment to realize that Jack wasn't denying Loki's heritage, but merely affirming what Loki had always felt.

Biologically, yes, he was a frost giant, just like he was biologically Býleistr's brother.

But in truth, he was and always would be Asgardian.

And his brother would always be Thor.