"That was the god of Mischief?" Anna asked incredulously as Loki dashed out of the house again to get the melting tubs of ice cream from the car.

"Prety much, yes," I grinned. Leave it up to Loki to not be able to go grocery shopping without it turning into unintended chaos, as events so often seem to do in his life.

"He's… not quite what I expected…" Anna admitted.

"He's normally a bit more…" Elegant? Graceful? Sophisticated? Better dressed? I wasn't really sure what word I was looking for. I supposed that if you had dedicated your life to studying the Norse pantheon meeting Loki and Thor for the first time while they were doing chores around the house was rather anticlimactic.

"...impressive." I finished my sentence.

"I see…" said Anna, expectantly looking at the door. "And your fiancé? Where is he?"

It was my turn to be confused.

"Loki is my fiancé," I said.

"But didn't you say were engaged to Thor's brother?"

"I am. Loki is Thor's only brother."

"Adopted," Loki corrected as he hurtled back in with the tubs of ice cream and a carton of eggs. "Very much adopted. Thank the Norns there is not a shed of shared DNA between us, even the thought of it makes me shudder."

Loki grinned. "I found most of the eggs, but one seems to have made a mad dash for freedom and remains unaccounted for. I can only hope it is out there living it's best life!"

I grinned back.

At the same time, Thor came bounding down the stairs and into the kitchen in his full armour, winged helmet perched on his head.

"Behold! For I am Thor, god of Thunder!"

Loki rolled his eyes. "Truly brother? Are you even done with your chores yet?"

Anna was starting to look rather wild-eyed. I couldn't blame her. I tried to restore some order.

"Anna, Loki was adopted by Odin, which makes him Thor's brother. Loki is my fiancé.

Thor, please take your helmet off and sit down.

Loki, Anna is a scholar, who specialises in Norse Mythology and Early Medieval History. She is here to help us locate the Places of Power."

Loki put the ice cream in the freezer and turned around.

"A scholar who specialises in Norse Mythology? So you have studied the Poetic Edda, the Prose Edda and the Codex Regius, if am I correct?"

Anna nodded enthusiastically. "That is correct, I made it my life's work."

"Very good," Loki drawled insincerely.

"I'm certain your parents are proud of you.

Well, it was lovely to meet you, but we won't be needing your services.

Now get out of my house!"

"Loki!" I was horrified at his rudeness.

"I'll reassure you I am the world's leading expert in my field," Anna said angrily, "you will not find anyone who knows Norse mythology better than I do!"

She hesitated for a moment, realising who she was talking to. "Present company excluded of course."

"You know nothing!" Loki barked at her. "The Edda is complete and utter nonsense! If Snorri Sturluson was alive today he'd be writing Thorki smut fanfiction on the internet!"

"What is Thorki smut fanfiction?" Thor asked me in a whisper.

"Trust me, it's better that you don't know," I giggled.

"But I'm curious now!" Thor rumbled under his breath.

"You know how you are always trying to protect me? This is me, returning the favour. Don't look it up, you can never unsee it!"

"Are you two quite done?" Loki asked acerbically.

"Anna, I'm certain you've spent an extraordinary amount of time studying your field, but what we need is facts, not fiction." Loki continued a bit calmer.

"I know, and I agree," Anna replied unexpectedly. "For years I have doubted the validity of the Eddas and the Codex. These are stories that were written down after being retold over and over, by men who had their own agenda and let their own opinions taint which tales to add and which to omit.

I have dedicated my life to finding the truth behind the myth, to find proof of whether the gods truly walked the earth, and what they were truly like if they did.

I don't know what these Places of Power are, but I know more about Early Medieval History as it pertains to Northern Europe than anyone alive. If anyone will be able to help you connect the past with today, it is me."

Loki studied her for a moment, a frown on his face. It seemed that whatever he was looking for, he found because after a moment he said brusquely:

"Very well. We'll soon find out whether you are of any use to us. How good is your Asgardian?" And he went to grab Odin's scroll.

Anna didn't know how to read Asgardian, but it was easy enough for Loki to translate the scroll for her, and soon the three of them were in deep discussion. I left them to it to tidy away the rest of the groceries and clean the rest of the house. (If you are invested in the tale of the missing egg by now; we never did find it. Loki and I like to think it hatched and is living its best life as a free-range chicken. We named it Mabel.)

After a while, I heard the three of them coming up the stairs.

"Thor wants to show Anna his room," Loki rolled his eyes, "he has the attention span of a Golden Retriever pup."

"And you all truly live here in this little cottage? How fascinating!" Anna seemed to have recovered a bit from the initial shock of watching her life's work come to life.

"This is my room," Thor announced proudly. "The instruments aren't all mine though, they mostly belong to Loki and Sorcha."

We had moved the drumset and keyboard to the side and bought Thor a proper bed and a rail to hang his clothes on. The walls were covered in Avengers posters and fan art, and there was a row of Thor Funko Pops on a shelf.

"It is lovely," Anna thrilled, "and I assume the drumset is yours?"

"Thor knows better than to touch the Ludwig, that's Sorcha's," Loki grinned.

"Fascinating! And you play an instrument too?" she asked Loki politely. She still didn't seem sure what to make of him.

"I play the guitar, piano, keyboard, violin, lute, flute and cello," Loki failed to sound modest.

"Don't forget the harp!" Thor rumbled with a grin.

"Thor!" Loki warningly shook his finger at him.

"You play the harp?" I tried not to giggle.

"One summer! One summer while I was young I practised the harp, and only because it was Mother's favourite instrument! And you, Sif and the Warriors Three teased me so much with it I smashed it over your head!" Loki barked at his brother angrily.

"He looked like a skinny angry emo cherub," Thor howled with laughter.

"Thor!" I did everything I could to not burst out in laughter at the thought.

"And which instrument do you play, Thor?" Anna asked quickly as she saw Loki's face turn an ugly red.

"I play the bass guitar," Thor said proudly. "Sorcha says the bass is the heartbeat of the band."

"Fascinating! And what is your band called?"

"Thor and the Lightning Bolts," Thor answered promptly.

"Loki and the Mischiefs," Loki replied at the same time.

"Neither of those!" I denied, "Those names are terrible, they make us sound like a 1950s barbershop quartet!"

I turned to Anna. "We don't really have a name, we aren't really a band. It's just a way to unwind after a long day at work. We don't perform or anything."

"We should!" Thor said, "We are really good!"

"There's no way I'm letting either of you near a stage," I grinned, "you two turn everything into a spectacle, and people aren't supposed to know you exist, remember?"

It didn't take Loki long to translate the scroll for Anna, but connecting the at times almost cryptical descriptions with names of modern places was far harder. It was going to take weeks for Anna to research it all, even with Thor and Loki's help.

Anna soon became an almost permanent fixture in my kitchen.

I liked her, she was so enthusiastic about everything. She was thrilled to find that the gods were not only real but right there to answer any question she could come up with.

Thor did so happily, but Loki was often uncooperative and would lie or plainly refuse to answer. As much as he liked to talk about himself, Anna's questioning often turned to either the Eddas or the darker times in his past and he wouldn't really talk about those to anyone, not even me.

I was still an agent for the Templars as well, even with magic fading there was still a job to do.

I returned home from Temple Hall after handing Richard my latest reports only to nearly be barreled over by an angry Loki.

"Not a word, Sorcha!" he warned as he stormed out of the door.

Thor and Anna were in the kitchen. Thor was avoiding my eyes and was playing with a button on his shirt instead, Anna was wide-eyed and pale-faced.

"What did you ask him this time?" I asked wearily.

"She asked about Sleipnir, Fenrir and Jörmungandr," Thor said when Anna didn't answer.

"Yes, that would do it," I sighed. "Anna, how did you think he'd respond?"

"How am I supposed to learn fact from fiction if I don't ask?" she replied.

"By using your brain?" I snapped back. Questions about the more fantastical parts of the mythology surrounding Loki angered him. They offended him on a personal level, he felt they painted him into a grotesque caricature, and Anna knew that. But she often asked her questions anyway, even though she knew they would rile up Loki.

"Loki doesn't have any children, there's no Narfi or Váli and most certainly not a petting zoo worth of animals. And Hel is older than Loki."

I sighed. "You aren't going to get any answers out of Loki at all if you keep annoying him, trust me."

"He lies to me and avoids answering my questions all the time. I don't think he likes me much," Anna admitted.

"That doesn't mean anything. Loki lies to everyone and avoids answering their questions even when he likes them," Thor comforted her.

I didn't say anything. But I knew Anna was right, Loki didn't like her very much. The constant prodding and digging into his past made him weary and uncomfortable, and her never-ending enthusiasm was grating on him.

We needed Anna to help find those Places of Power, and the sooner we'd get started on that, the better.

I woke up in the middle of the night, but Loki wasn't there. He hadn't really slept since we returned from Jotunnheim, so I got up to try and persuade him to come back to bed and at least try to rest.

The light was still on in Thor's room, and I wondered if Loki was talking to his brother.

Loki was alone, playing the keyboard, the magic wards preventing the music from waking up the rest of the house. I sat down next to him and listened to the melancholic piece he was playing.

"It would sound better on a piano," Loki said.

"It's beautiful, what is it?" I asked.

"Chopin's Nocturne No. 20 in C-Sharp Minor," Loki replied, as he kept playing.

"Where's Thor?"

"Asleep on the sofa. He came in a while ago, rather drunk, and didn't make his way up the stairs. He was watching rugby at the Horned God. I don't know why he bothers, he doesn't even know the rules."

"He's lonely," I said, "He misses his friends at home and his wife."

"I know," Loki sighed. "If I could help I would, but I'm rather attached to my head after all these years and would prefer to keep it where it belongs."

He stopped playing.

"We could send Tom Hiddleston in my stead, he does a reasonable impression of me, or so I've been told. It might fool Odin long enough!" His eyes sparkled mischievously, and the corner of his mouth twitched into a smile.

"No Loki, we can't!" I laughed. "Poor Tom did nothing to deserve that!"

"Probably not," Loki admitted with a laugh.

He began to play again, his eyes closed. After a moment he opened them again.

"I could really use a drink," he confessed while he kept playing.

"I know," I said softly. Loki was an alcoholic. Alcoholics always feel like they could use a drink, but it was more than that. I knew he was struggling with his mental health again after Laufey's rejection.

"I haven't slept in what feels like forever. Every time I try my mind goes around in circles and circles, it never ends, and I can't shut it down. I keep feeling I'm about to lose everything all over again. I am so tired. I could really use a drink right now."

I rested my head against his shoulder and listened to him play.

"I have an idea," I said suddenly. "How about we go and visit Aaron and Lucas tomorrow? We haven't seen them in weeks and babies change so fast at that age. And you have that huge pile of packages you ordered from Etsy hidden in your wardrobe that you think I don't know about, that undoubtedly contain a whole bunch of Loki-themed baby clothes he'll grow out of if we don't bring them over."

Loki smiled guiltily. "Lucas likes Loki-themed gifts!" he defended himself.

"He's a baby, how would you know?"

"Because he smiles when he sees anything with me on it!"

"Exactly," I said smugly, "So let's spend an afternoon with your godchild because spending an afternoon listening to Lucas laugh will do you far more good than any drink ever could!"

Loki rested his head against mine. "How did I ever manage before I met you?"

"Not very well," I smiled. "You were trying to destroy the world, remember?"

"You've been stopping me from making terrible mistakes right from the start," he admitted.

I listened as Chopin slowly changed into the Beatles' 'Here comes the sun,' and I smiled.

"You are my sun, my moon, my stars, my universe," Loki said softly.

"And you are mine," I replied.

The day after we visited Aaron and Lucas, Anna had a breakthrough.

"I found it! I think I found the location of one of Thor's Places of Power!" she barged into the house enthusiastically.

"I cross-referenced with a colleague, not revealing why of course, but I think it is reasonably certain it truly is where I think it is! We're off to Denmark!"