"So, we merely toss this ball back and forth between us, with no competitive objective whatsoever?" Loki asked Thor as he tossed him a baseball.
"It would appear so, Brother. It is a common game of bonding known simply as 'catch.'" Thor answered as he tossed it back to Loki, and they continued this as they chatted.
"I suppose since our competing for the throne wasn't ideal, playing a game without real competition would be a welcome change of pace."
"…I suppose so."
"This is… nice."
"Indeed. Nice, easy…"
"This is boring you, isn't it?"
"Practically to tears."
"Likewise. Why don't you throw it a reasonable distance and make this less yawn-inducing for us both?" Loki suggested.
"As you wish." Thor hurled the baseball a ways in the distance, but not so far that his brother couldn't see where it would land. Loki promptly teleported to that spot as caught it, and Thor clapped. "Well done, Little Brother!"
Loki teleported back to his previous position. "Now it's your turn." Loki chucked the ball high in the sky, boosted even higher with his telekinesis, and Thor leapt into the air and stepped up the sides of buildings to climb higher, his lightning powers boosting his own speed and agility. "Very nicely done, Big Brother!" Loki applauded in turn.
When Thor reached the ball, he threw it down at Loki, who was startled to find an electrified ball hurtling down towards him at lightning speed! Thinking fast, Loki conjured a thick set of icy mittens around his hands, protecting them, dulling the shock to a mild tingle, and catching the fast ball. "Wooooo! Alright Loki!"
"So that's how you want to play, is it!?" Loki began to wind up the ball as Thor descended back to the ground, but as Loki pitched, it magically multiplied into about 50 baseballs, all headed right for Thor!
Thor raised his eyebrows and gulped, but he quickly braced himself. "Challenge accepted." As they approached, Thor rapidly grabbed for each ball that neared, making every illusion disappear one by one until he caught the real ball, panting from the effort.
"Ah. Excellent catch, Thor! But how about a compromise from here on: no illusionary balls from me and no electrified ones from you!"
"Agreed."
They later met Lady Sif and the Warriors Three on a large training field, marked off for a new game. Thor discussed the rules with them.
"Director Fury called this game 'football.' The objective is to form two teams of equal athletic prowess and carry this funny-shaped ball to the white line on your end, called an 'end zone,' scoring what is called a 'touchdown.' If the ball falls to the grass, we line up again around it like this. To encourage brotherly cooperation, Loki and I shall play against Lady Sif and the Warriors Three."
"The four of us against you two?" Fandral summarized. "Doesn't seem fair to me."
Thor smiled. "Of course, what was I thinking?" A moment later, the lineup was changed to make it a more even match: Thor and Loki vs. Lady Sif, The Warriors Three, and the legion of Einherjar guards!
"Thank you!" Fandral told him.
"They still don't stand a chance." Loki whispered to Thor.
"Shhh! Let them have some hope, at least. But no, they haven't a chance in a million!"
As the game began, Thor was the first to receive the football, plowing through the whole guard plus all of his friends as Loki sat back and watched the figurative massacre. While the guards recovered from Thor's offense, he just leapt over them to the other side in one enormous bound. After Thor easily made touchdown after touchdown, Loki decided to take his turn. As he ran with the ball, he quickly teleported between the rows of oncoming Asgardians, scoring touchdowns of his own without getting tackled. Remembering their talk of teamwork, as they took the defensive position, Thor easily took the ball from Sif and threw it to the endzone, where Loki teleported and caught it. Loki easily kicked the football into the goalpost with his telekinetic boosts, no matter how far away he had to stand, and the poor opposing team never got to advance an inch on Thor and Loki! After about half an hour, the brothers had scored over a thousand points while the others remained at zero.
"That's it, I'm out!" Huffed the exhausted Volstagg.
"Perhaps we should have had them both shackled as well!" Fandral agreed.
"Why did we even try?" Sif rolled her eyes.
"Next time we'll have to invite the other pantheons to aid us." Hogun remarked.
"Quitters!" Thor jeered.
The brothers rode horseback for a while, and when they wanted to rest, Loki suggested they see a famous Asgardian play recounting the tales of the Valkyries, complete with opera-style singers. Afterwards, they sang a few of the songs together, longing to try the Midgardian tradition of karaoke.
"So, what shall we do next?" Loki wondered.
"How about charades?"
"What sort of charades are you referring to?"
"You'll see."
Later, Loki sat puzzled in their palace as his brother groaned and flopped on his belly on the floor.
"Uhm… are you dying?" Loki asked.
Thor shook his head.
"Are… you a zombie?"
Thor shook his head again. He moved his flapping so that he brushed up along the side of the wall. Loki was perplexed.
"A drunken fish? No? Ugh… I don't knowwww…" Thor groaned louder, and Loki tried again. "Are you a beached whale?"
Thor excitedly gestured that his brother was close.
"Sort of like a beached whale? A beach bum?"
Thor thought for a moment until his face lit up with a new idea. He used his powers of wind to float in the air, and he flopped once more, groaning and undulating along the walls until Loki's face lit up in turn.
"Odin's beard, are you a Chitauri Leviathan!?"
"Yes, yes, that is correct, Brother!" Thor congratulated.
"Okay, my turn." Loki laid on the floor on his back, clutching his stomach and making a whining noise.
"Oh that's simple, it's you after Hulk smashed you across Stark Tower."
Loki narrowed his eyes, conveying an unspoken, "Thanks for reminding me, you boor, but no." He pushed his shirt outward from the inside, appearing to have a huge belly..
"Are you pregnant? No? Oh, you are a beached whale!"
Loki gestured that Thor was getting very warm. He pulled his long black hair around his chin, mimicking the appearance of a full beard.
"Hold on, you are Volstagg?" Loki nodded and motioned for Thor to continue further. "You are Volstagg… after The Feast of Yuletide Harvest!"
Loki nodded once more. "Very good! Alright, what's-"
"-next on the list?" Thor said at the same time as Loki. "Jinx!"
"What?"
"'Tis another Midgardian game: if we speak at the same time and one of us calls jinx, the other can't speak until someone says their name! You're it, Brother!"
Loki opened his mouth to protest, but instead he just pulled out a book from his stash and began to silently read. Thor's giddy smile faded as Loki became absorbed in his book, not particularly caring about the jinx.
Thor impatiently sighed. "Alright, you're unjinxed, Loki." But Loki ignored him, seemingly still reading. "Loki, did you hear me, I said-"
"-you're unjinxed. Jinx yourself, Brother."
Thor clapped a hand over his mouth, embarrassed at having fallen for such a trick. Loki grinned and went back to reading, peeking out of the corner of his eye as Thor anxiously waited for Loki to say his name. After a minute of waiting, Thor snatched Loki's book, trying to get his attention.
Loki looked at Thor. "So Brother, what happens if you should speak whilst you are under this jinx? Do I win?" Thor shook his head and demonstrated punching himself on the other arm. "Oh, I punch you, do I?" Thor gave a nod. "Yes, how very Asgardian, sounds like a game for you." Thor scowled and tried harder to get Loki to say his name, shaking him and even giving his hair noogies to mess it up, but Loki just chuckled at his brother's ironic desperation for attention and kept him at bay with a telekinetic push, pulling his book back into his grasp and magically fixing his hair.
A few moments later, Frigga walked in on them. "Good evening, boys. How is your first day of bondage going?"
"Very well, Mother." Loki replied.
"Indeed, we're having a grand time." Thor agreed.
"That's nice to hear. I hope my year of ruling shall go just as smoothly." Frigga left them, and Loki smirked at Thor.
"Hey, you spoke." Loki tickled his brother in the armpits. "No talking, jinx!"
"Loki-hehehehehe, you're supposed to hehe-hit me, not ti-hi-hi-ickle me-hehehe-"
"I know, but that's not a very fair punishment: I don't have nearly as much arm strength as you! This way it's equal to either side, and we're not supposed to be fighting, anyhow!" Loki tickled him harder. "By the way, you just spoke again, jinx! Ehehehehehe!" Thor almost broke into hysterics as Loki tickled further into his pits. "I'll have you know this is no picnic for me either, Brother, as I have to touch your armpit hair to make you laugh like this!" Since Thor was rendered unable to speak from the onslaught, Loki slowed his fingers to a stop. "Alright, I've had enough, Thor."
"Th-thank you." As Thor recovered, his laughter dying down, he quickly retaliated, lifting his brother's shirt and tickling his torso. "Now it's my turn!"
"H-hey, ehehe, I never s-s-spoke when I was-"
"-jinxed!" Thor finished.
"-observing the rules of silence that were established in this ritual!" Loki finished at the same time, assuring Thor couldn't jinx him again. Thor grunted in frustration.
"Nevertheless, I want revenge! It is time for a new game! Besides, I am your older brother: I merely enjoy pushing your buttons." Thor then pressed all over Loki's belly button, and he began to laugh uncontrollably.
"Stop! S-stop this, I-hihihihihihi told you-hoohoohoo, I'm do-o-one!"
Thor shook his head. "There is no stopping it: there is only the Tickle War!"
"…So be it." Loki jabbed at Thor's armpits again while Thor poked at Loki's belly, both sides evenly matched, as Loki predicted. In a matter of minutes, Frigga reentered the room.
"What is going on in- oh, 'tis a battle of tickles." Their mother grinned. "And you didn't think to invite me? Shame on you, boys." The brothers' eyes widened as Frigga grabbed them both, dominating their most ticklish spots until they surrendered. "I'm so glad you two found a non-violent method of fighting. Oh yes, the servants just informed me that dinner is ready, so if you'll follow your victorious mother to the dining room…"
"Yes Mother!" They replied in unison but didn't dare start another jinx war.
After dinner, Loki picked out a book of stories by the famous Midgardian author, Hans Christian Andersen, and read The Little Mermaid to his older brother.
"The youngest sister was very curious, especially about the humans and their world on the surface above. She longed more and more to be able to live among them, in a world vastly bigger than hers, with their ships that could soar over the oceans, their strong legs with which they could ascend mountains high above the clouds, and forests stretching farther than eyes could see! But there was nothing she longed for more than to be with the handsome prince that she rescued from the stormy waves, to hold him in her arms and kiss him passionately once more!" Loki gave Thor a teasing look. "Ooh, perhaps we should have that human girl you like so much brought to Asgard before a dashing, passionate merman swims away with her!"
"Shut up, Loki!"
Loki laughed. He kept on reading, doing surprisingly spot-on imitations of the different characters, even though they were mostly female. He was particularly good when delivering the emotions of each speaker, and his sea witch impression gave Thor goosebumps. "Drink this potion, and your flipper shall split in two to form two beautiful human legs, more graceful than any up above, but with each step you take upon them, it will feel as though you tread upon sharp knives. Win the fair prince's heart and you shall join forever with him in body and gain an immortal soul, but if he takes another as his bride, your heart will break and you shall die, your body turning to sea foam without a soul to live on." Loki cackled as a witch would. "But as payment, I must possess your beautiful voice!"
Loki read on after the mermaid accepted the sea witch's deal, and Thor was heartbroken as the prince was forced to marry another bride, even though he confessed that he truly loved the mermaid, and she turned to sea foam, though her kind deeds allowed her the chance to earn her immortal soul.
"That is… a very sad ending." Thor admitted. "An Asgardian would have fought that other bride-to-be and won the prince's heart with honor! It isn't fair…"
Loki smiled. "Mermaids aren't trained warriors, Thor. But you needn't worry: Heimdall keeps vigilant watch over Midgard as he does with all the realms, and if any human below should attempt to steal your lady, you shall be the first to know, and I could send one of your friends down to… meet them."
Thor nodded. "Jane is fierce and loyal: she won't allow such a thing to happen. So, what shall I read to you tomorrow night, Brother?"
Loki pointed in the book. "The Snow Queen."
"Oh, you found the time to write an autobiography?"
"I could easily find the time to turn your pillow stuffings into horse manure while you sleep."
Thor chuckled. "Good night, Brother. We shall see what tomorrow's day of punishment entails."
"We shall indeed. Good night, Brother."