"Are they always this sickeningly sweet?" Thor asked Jessie.

"Not always," Jessie grinned, "sometimes they are worse. I just put my earphones on and ignore them."

I stuck my tongue out at Jessie.

While Thor hadn't exactly made a great first impression on Jessie, she had soon warmed up to him. Disliking Thor was disliking a puppy, absolutely impossible.

Jessie had soon put herself in charge of Thor's education with regard to modern Midgardian technology. While that was an ongoing struggle, there was one thing where those two had found common ground: they both liked playing video games. Thor struggled with understanding how the remote control of the tv worked but was a natural at playing Fortnite.

That night Jessie was introducing him to Minecraft and because Thor was using my PC I was snuggled up on Loki's lap in his favourite chair.

I can't remember why we thought it was a good idea, but we were reading the same book at the same time. Loki reads faster than I do, so he was reading a second book by the side. Once I finished a page, I'd let him know I was ready to turn the page by kissing him.

Yes, reading back, I can see it was cloyingly sweet, but hey, we were in love. What can I say?

"Don't you have homework, Jessie?" I asked Jess. She was doing a summer course in accountancy to prepare her for the college course she was starting in September.

"I do, but Loki promised to help me and he seems rather occupied," Jessie pointed out.

I looked at Loki who just shrugged.

"What are you helping her with?" I asked curiously.

"Loki is teaching me how to cook the books," Jessie answered before Loki could.

"Loki!"

"Jess!" Loki glared at Jessie, "I'm perfectly capable of getting myself in trouble with your mother, young lady. I don't need your help with that!"

"But you always say you think mum looks cute when she's annoyed with you, I'm on your side here!" Jessie said with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

Loki looked at Jess with a horrified look in his eyes.

"Father was right… I am a bad influence," he whispered in dismay.

Thor howled with laughter.

In the end, it turned out that Loki was helping Jessie prepare for a test on fraud detection, and none of us felt a need to ask why Loki would be an expert on the subject of fraud. They made their way to the kitchen where they could study undisturbed.

Thor and I looked at each other.

"Want to watch a movie while they study?" I asked.

"Something with lots of action and explosions?" Thor suggested. "Not that weird boring stuff Loki likes." Thor's taste in movies was far more similar to mine than Loki's. We were simple people, with simple tastes.

When Thor moved in with us, Loki made me promise not to tell Thor about the Marvel movies, saying Thor would become unbearable if he found out. But it was only a matter of time until Thor would find out from other people, anyway. And with the sheer amount of Loki paraphernalia in the house, it was becoming hard to hide. There was only so long Thor would believe Loki's Funko Pops were religious artefacts Midgardians used to worship Loki, as Loki had told him.

I began to smile. No harm had ever come from breaking a promise to a god, right?

"Oh boy, have I got the movie for you!"

Thor loved the Marvel movies, of course. Even if he did find them a bit confusing at times. One thing that did become clear to me after watching them with Thor was that especially the first movie was rather accurate in its depiction of Asgard and its inhabitants. I had long wondered how much Loki had been involved with that movie beyond the casting, but I knew Loki well enough that there was no way to get a straight answer out of him if he didn't want to give it.

Loki got his revenge on me a few days later.

"Mum, uncle Thor is on the roof and Loki is encouraging him!"

I was walking into the house, my arms filled with groceries, when Jessie's anxious face greeted me.

Oh dear, what were they up to now?

I dropped the groceries on the kitchen table and ran into the back garden.

Loki was standing in the garden, wearing a t-shirt and jeans, recording Thor with this phone.

"Of course, you can do it, brother! I have full faith in you!" he yelled up at Thor. He hadn't seen me.

Thor was standing on the roof, in full armour, swinging Mjolnir above his head.

"What if Mjolnir was able to fly all this time and I didn't know it?" Thor roared back.

"Exactly, brother. There is only truly one way to find out now, isn't there?" Loki held his thumb up, still recording Thor with his phone in his other hand.

"Loki! Thor!" I bellowed at the brothers.

"Oh shit," Loki startled.

"Well met, sister!" Thor boomed from the roof, "I'm going to find out if Mjolnir can fly like in the movies!"

"Of course it can't, it's a hammer! Get down before the neighbours see you!"

"They are on holiday," Loki reassured me. I glared at him, but he just shrugged.

"I'm going to do it!" Thor spun Mjolnir even faster above his head.

"Can Mjolnir fly?" I asked Loki as I watched Thor spinning the hammer faster and faster.

"How am I supposed to know, it isn't my hammer. I can't even lift it," Loki grumbled at me.

"Get down from that roof!" I yelled at Thor, but it was too late. Thor took a leap and promptly fell down, crashing face-first into my lawn.

"Well, that didn't work," Loki shrugged casually.

"Loki!"

I went to help Thor.

"Thor, are you okay?"

After a moment, Thor groaned and held up a thumb.

"Maybe I should try again, and spin faster?" he said as he slowly stood up.

I looked in abject horror at my lawn. Where once had grown what was, admittedly, slightly weedy and overly long grass, was now a two feet deep Thor-shaped, Thor-sized hole.

I turned around to Loki, my annoyance building up into a rage.

"You!" I shook my finger at Loki. "This is all your fault!"

Loki held up his hands and smiled his most endearing smile. "May I remind you I am not the one that just jumped off the roof, darling?"

"But it was your idea! Wasn't it? Wasn't it?" I screeched.

Loki's eyes were big and blue and innocent. Far too innocent.

"Gah!" I proclaimed, apoplectic with rage.

Thor and Loki were shuffling their feet, trying not to look at me or each other. I took a deep breath and tried again.

"I'm taking Jessie out for the afternoon. When we come back you will have fixed this! Do you understand me?"

The two gods looked at the ground and nodded. I stomped into the house and grabbed my handbag.

"All things considered, that didn't go too badly. She could have been angrier." Loki's voice drifted into the house through the open kitchen window.

"Do you think I should try again? Just to be sure?" Thor's voice rumbled in reply.

"Maybe not today, brother. Perhaps we should leave it for another time." Loki answered regretfully.

Jessie grabbed me by the arm and dragged me out of the house before I could stomp right back out into the garden again.

Jessie and I went to the cinema. Watching a comedy together was just what I needed, and my mood had vastly improved by the time the movie was finished. We had McDonald's after, and I ordered some food to go to take home to Loki and Thor.

Loki opened the door before I could put my key in the lock, he must have been waiting for us. His jeans were dirty and there was a smudge on his nose that I wiped off before remembering I was still angry at him.

He smiled at me and I smiled back. And just like that, all my anger truly vanished. We were okay again.

Loki took my hand and pulled me out into the back garden. Thor must have changed into a t-shirt earlier because his shirt was dirty as well. He was tidying up the gardening tools and smiled and waved as he saw us.

Where there had been a Thor-shaped hole a few hours ago was now a Thor-shaped flowerbed, with a birdbath in the centre.

I was speechless. No, honestly, I had no idea what to say. It was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen.

Loki wrapped his arms around me from behind me and kissed me on top of my head. Taking my silence for approval he said softly: "I knew you'd love it."

I am not clairvoyant, but I suddenly had a clear vision of what would happen if I did anything now but voice my approval. Loki would claim something ridiculous along the lines of "some people being never truly being satisfied with anything even when the gods themselves descend from the heavens to plant flowers at their feet" even if that was far from what happened here, and we'd end up fighting again. And we'd been fighting far too often ever since Thor had shown up in our lives.

I turned around. "It is absolutely lovely," I lied with a smile.

"That bad, is it?" Richard asked sympathetically as I showed up on his doorstep with a bottle of wine in my hand. It was our weekly romcom night, but it was too warm to sit indoors and watch movies so we sat on Richard's balcony instead.

Richard got two glasses, two bowls, and a large tub of ice cream.

"You look like you need it," he grinned.

"Have you ever wanted to grab two gods by their ears and slam their heads together with all your might?" I asked.

"Can't say I've ever had the pleasure," Richard said dryly.

"Never thought I'd have either, and yet here we are," I said morosely.

"Do you remember the charming, elegant, suave, sophisticated man of the world Loki used to be?"

Richard patted my hand in sympathy.

"Because Loki certainly doesn't. Ever since Thor arrived Loki's reverted into a stroppy adolescent with mood swings to match, and Thor is just as bad. If they aren't fighting, they play practical jokes on each other of which Jessie and I end up being the unintended victims more often than not.

They drive me up the wall."

"Well, they are still quite young, comparatively speaking anyway," Richard said while handing me a glass of wine. "They are still adolescents."

"It doesn't exactly work that way," I disagreed, "There's still a thousand years' worth of life experiences there. Thor at least has the excuse he's a spoiled princeling that has never lived outside his father's palace, but Loki has been fending for himself for half his life. He knows better.

Having Thor around just brings out the worst in him."

I hardly recognised Loki sometimes, he was so different with Thor around. I knew I had always seen sides of him he'd let no one else see, the vulnerable side, the sensitive side, the insecure side. But now, even when it was just the two of us, he was different. Caged. Brittle. Sharp and fragile at the same time.

"Perhaps a date night is in order, just the two of you?" Richard suggested.

"I've thought about that, but Loki is just so hard to deal with right now. He goes from being the most loving and caring fiancé I could hope for, to being in tears because he's convinced I will leave him once I see him for who he truly is. And there's very little I can do to reassure him no matter what I say or do. At those times he's convinced he's not really worthy of me."

"He isn't," Richard agreed with Loki, "he's lucky to have you."

I tiredly rubbed my eyes.

"And I'm lucky to have him. Or at least, I was. Now I'm sometimes not sure whether I truly have him at all. If I truly know him at all."

We were arguing so often again. The cottage was so small and the walls were so thin, and even if we kept our arguments confined to the bedroom, I knew Thor and Jess could hear every word.

Loki's tongue was sharp, and he could be so mean and spiteful. He knew exactly what to say to hurt me, exactly how to exploit my insecurities and vulnerabilities. Afterwards, he'd be guiltridden, tearful and apologetic. It reminded me of the time before, when he had left me.

I was afraid that if I said or did the wrong thing, let my temper get the better of me, He'd leave again. And this time, for good.

But I didn't want to tell Richard that. He already didn't think that much of Loki as it was. A tear dripped into my bowl of ice cream.

"Have you learned any more of Loki's past? You said he's afraid of what you'll find out about him, have you learned yet what he was so afraid of you'd find?"

"No, I haven't," I gratefully took a tissue from the box Richard was offering me.

"I've told Thor that I don't really want to know all the sordid details. Loki's past should stay in the past. If Loki wants to tell me himself, then I'll listen.

But there is no use in bringing up the past and reopening old wounds.

Loki can't change what he did, he can only change his behaviour going forward."

"Aren't you the least bit curious though?" Richard asked. "I would be."

I shook my head. "I don't want to know. All that matters is who he is now," I lied.

I was curious. Part of me did want to know. But I was also scared. Afraid of what I might learn, afraid of what Loki was capable of.

Solomon Island had been bad enough. So many people had died, and he would have destroyed the world and unleashed the Dreamers into the universe if I hadn't stopped him.

He had been involved with numerous cults, and if the Morninglight was anything to go by, they weren't all benign. People who joined disappeared, never to be heard of again.

When Loki had aligned himself with Surtr, he had tried to make sure his family wasn't at the palace. But there would have been countless people, guards, servants, and civilians, including children, who would have perished in the flames if the Fire Giants had managed to burn Asgard to the ground. Plenty of people had died as it was, including his mother Frigga.

I didn't know what else he was capable of, what other horrible things he had done. What horrible things he might do, if he'd ever slip back into the darkness again.

I loved him, but sometimes I felt I didn't know him at all.

Richard's phone rang at the same time as mine.

"Do not engage, I repeat, do not engage. They are too dangerous. Cordon off the area and wait until we're there."

Richard looked at me and realised he didn't need to say a thing. I already knew.

"That was Cedric," I said, "Loki and Thor are fighting with each other outside the Horned God."

Richard drove as fast as he could. By the time we got there, however, the fight was over.

Thor was sitting on one side of the road, holding an icepack against his jaw. Had Loki hit him? Matt was with him, talking to Thor quietly but rapidly. Thor was in good hands for now.

Loki was on the other side of the road, looking far worse than Thor did, his white shirt covered in blood. Cedric had an arm around Loki's shoulder.

"He's okay," Cedric said quickly, but I already had a globe of blood in hand.

Cedric was right though, besides a nose bleed and a split lip Loki wasn't injured. The alcohol level in his blood however was alarming.

Loki winced as my blood magic healed his nose and lip. I could do nothing about how drunk he was.

"There was no need for that," Loki slurred at me, his eyes unfocussed.

Cedric helped him up, but the moment he let go of Loki, Loki's knees buckled and he was sitting down on the ground again.

I looked on helplessly, I had no way of getting him home if he was that drunk.

And then I felt a giant hand on my shoulder.

"Do not worry, sister, I have him."

Thor bent down and picked Loki up in his arms as if he weighed nothing.

"Unhand me, you big oaf," Loki managed to slur after a few tries.

"It is all right, brother, I have you now," Thor rumbled softly.

After a moment, Loki closed his eyes.

"I didn't mean it," Loki said, "I didn't mean what I said."

"I know Loki, you never do. You never do."

I swallowed a lump in my throat as Thor gently carried Loki in his arms as easily as one would carry a child.

"I'm sorry."

"It is fine, little brother. I have you now. Just rest. I know it gets hard sometimes. I'm here now.

All is forgiven.

I will carry you home."