"YAAHHH!" Thor screamed, bringing his wooden sword down on the straw dummy. "YOU HAVE BEEN DEFEATED BY THE MIGHTY THOR!" He kicked and punched the dummy until it fell over in a broken heap on the ground. "BOW BEFORE ME!"
Frigga shook her head. Odin really needed to stop bringing the boy to all those plays about the exploits of war.
"Mother, I want to play with Thor," Loki pouted.
"You're not old enough yet, darling," Frigga smoothed his hair back. "Your brother might accidentally hurt you."
Loki stomped his tiny foot. "No he won't! He's not strong enough!"
Unfortunately, Thor overheard this and ran over furiously. "Am so strong enough!"
"Are not!"
"Am so!" To prove his point, Thor smacked Loki on the leg with the sword as hard as he could. Loki fell to the grass wailing.
"Thor!" Frigga gasped. She picked Loki up and examined his leg. "You apologize to your brother this instant."
To his credit, Thor looked genuinely remorseful. "Sorry, Loki." He patted his brother's head. Loki looked up at him through red, tear-stained eyes and glared in a way that clearly conveyed he was not forgiven.
"Thank you for apologizing, Thor. I think it's time for you to go inside now."
Thor picked up his sword and left the training grounds, sprinting back up to the palace.
With a wave of her hand, Frigga removed the growing bruise on Loki's leg and did away with the pain. Loki looked down at his leg in wonder. "How'd you do that, Mother?"
"Magic, dear."
Loki bounced up and down on his toes eagerly, all memories of his injury forgotten. "Teach me!"
"Well, all right." Frigga pondered how best to teach her younger son the basics of magic. It was a very complicated art, one that require lots of understanding and practice. While she was thinking through this problem, Loki wandered over to the rack of fake weapons where his brother had gotten the sword and picked up a knife.
Harmless illusions would be a good place to start...Loki likes those fireworks I've shown him...Maybe he'd enjoy some shapeshifting tricks...
"Hi-yah!" Frigga's train of thought was interrupted by Loki throwing his weapon at the dummy Thor had felled. He missed by a foot, but still happily picked up the knife to try again. "HI-YAH!"
Frigga laughed at his enthusiasm, but decided she probably couldn't trust her toddler with a blade, even if it was wooden. "Loki, darling, put down the knife and I can teach you some magic!" she called.
Loki perked up and immediately forgot his newly acquired knife, running over to his mother. "Teach me, teach me!" he demanded.
"Teach me..."
"Teach me please."
"Very good. Let's start with the fireworks, all right?"
Loki nodded eagerly, his eyes gleaming with excitement. Frigga picked him up and sat him down on the bench next to her. "Hold out your palm like this," she instructed. Loki copied her. "Good. Now picture the fireworks above your palm, close your eyes, and concentrate very, very hard." She went through the motions so Loki knew what to do, though she was skilled enough that very little concentration was necessary. Brightly colored fireworks sparkled above the small gold light in her palm.
Loki squinched his eyes shut and focused for a few moments. He opened his eyes cautiously to see a small green light flickering on his hand, but as soon as the concentration broke so did the spell. He frowned. "Why didn't it work, Mother?"
"You need a lot of practice, dear. Let's try again."
Frigga spent an hour in the training yard with Loki helping him learn magic. Finally he was able to make green and gold fireworks glitter above his palm, and Frigga would never forget how joyful he looked when he did it.
"Look, look!" he giggled. "Mother, look at the fireworks! I did it!"
"You certainly did! Excellent job! Why don't I teach you another trick, and then we can go show your father and Thor?"
After she helped Loki get a handle on his newfound magic, she led him up to the throne room where Odin was watching Thor swing his sword around.
"...And then I stabbed the evil Jotunn and sent him to Hel!" her firstborn yelled, running around the throne room and slashing the wooden weapon wildly. Frigga was slightly concerned that he would accidentally hit himself in the head.
"Thor, don't use that language," she scolded. "Odin, please stop saying those things around him."
"I'm sorry," her husband chuckled. Frigga didn't believe a word of it.
She turned the attention to her younger boy. "Loki has something to show us."
Loki shut his eyes and opened his hand, revealing fireworks that danced in the air.
"WOW!" Thor gasped. "That's amazing, Loki!" He cautiously swiped at the fireworks with his finger. "Cool!"
"Father, look!" Loki beamed. "Can you see?"
"Yes, that's nice, Loki." Odin reached forward to pat him on the head, but his hand went straight through with a shimmer of green magic. "What?..."
Frigga waved her hand and removed the concealment spell from the real Loki who was standing right next to her. He ran up to the throne, giggling madly. "I made an illooshun! It tricked you!" He grabbed his father's leg and slumped down to the floor in fits of laughter.
"Illusion," Frigga corrected, but she was laughing too. Odin shook his head with a smile.
"Ha! You got tricked, Father!" Thor grabbed his father's other leg. "Loki's going to beat you in battle one day!"
"Maybe so, but if you're going to beat me you need to keep training, hmm?"
"Yeah!" Thor grabbed his sword off the floor and ran away to find some poor guard to torment.
Loki, still holding onto Odin's leg, looked up at his father with big, innocent eyes. "Father, will you teach me how to fight like Thor?"
"Not now, son. I have kingly duties." Odin tried to pry the toddler off his leg, but Loki held on.
"You had time to teach Thor today," he pointed out.
"Maybe tomorrow," Odin said, finally succeeding in removing Loki. "Frigga, I think it's about time for Loki to go to bed."
"Come here, darling." Frigga crouched down and held out her arms. Loki scampered over and she swept him up.
She carried Loki to his bedroom. One day he would probably sleep in the same room as Thor, but for now their bedtimes were different enough that Thor would have kept Loki awake for a few hours. "Get on your pajamas, darling."
Loki returned with a white shirt that was quite a few sizes too big. He held up his arms proudly to show it off, making it obvious that the sleeves were much too long for him.
"Loki, that's your father's shirt. Where did you get it?"
"I stole it," he snickered.
"Loki, that's not nice. No stealing again, and you'll return that in the morning. Promise me?" said Frigga sternly.
"Promise, Mother."
"Good. Come here and I'll tuck you into bed."
Loki jumped up into his mother's lap. "Mother, why won't Father teach me how to fight like Thor?"
Frigga sighed. "You father believes that you are too young, and Thor is the one who has always been eager for battle."
"I'm not too young! I'm old enough to learn magic!" Loki scowled and crossed his arms. (As best he could, at least, with the ridiculously long sleeves.)
Frigga tried not to laugh. Loki had a point, but it was very difficult to take a toddler in an oversized nightshirt seriously. "How about this?" she suggested. "Tomorrow, I'll teach you how to use that knife you were playing with this evening."
"Okay!" Loki perked up. "And more magic!"
"And more magic," Frigga agreed with a smile. She picked Loki up and held him tight to her chest, kissing him on the forehead. Loki made a face and tried to wipe the kiss away but ended up smacking himself in the face with a sleeve and started crying.
Oh, Loki. Frigga gently bounced Loki in her arms to calm him down, which had always worked when he was a baby. She rolled up the sleeves as best she could to keep Loki from injuring or strangling himself in his sleep. Loki sniffled and rubbed the spot on his face that had been hit.
"It's all right, sweetheart," Frigga soothed. "Time for bed." She hummed a little children's tune.
Loki crawled off her lap and under his covers. Frigga pulled up the blankets and tucked him in tightly. "Good night, Loki."
"G'night, Mama," Loki yawned.