So I actually wrote about 4.5k words today in order to get this chapter up today. I started around 10:30am and I have been just writing on and off for the past 11 hours. I was so damn determined to get this out and my head HURTS lmao. I probably should've spread the writing over the next few days but I just wanted to get it finished otherwise I'd constantly be thinking about it while doing other unproductive stuff xD

Anyway, I had a good birthday. I am now the ripe ol' age of 29 and I can still hardly believe it. I don't feel like an adult, god knows how I'm gonna feel next year when I turn 30!

Just something to note: Any misspellings or grammar errors that occur during Daisy's dialogue is entirely intentional. She's like two and a half and talks like a lil baby.

This chapter takes place a few months after the last chapter!

Edelweiss Say I'll Be with You Till the Day You Leave

Chapter Four: We're All Going on a Summer Holiday

The three weeks following Trevor's suspension were practically blissful; without that jerk around to ruin everyone's day, lessons went far more smoothly, the students were visibly happier, and the teachers seemed far less stressed due to the biggest problem child being missing from classes - well, apart from Mrs. Balfour, she was her moody self as always.

Following the incident of Aster and Trevor's skirmish, which had been witnessed by many students, a few of the kids in their grade seemed to act differently around Aster. Some for the better, some for the worse - the boys in Trevor's immediate friend group sneered at her every moment they got and muttered mean things about her within clear earshot, obviously trying to upset her, while a lot of other kids who were used to being Trevor's metaphorical punching bag actually began to smile at her or say hi as they passed her in the hallway.

Aster wasn't used to the attention, it made her feel somewhat awkward that many more people were suddenly interacting with her rather than remaining entirely indifferent towards her. But none of those interactions were quite as odd as the exchange Aster shared with Charlotte that afternoon.

"Charlotte said some weird stuff today…" Aster trailed off with uncertainty as she sat at the dinner table with her family, carefully and subtly separating the slices of carrot from the rest of the piles of vegetables on one side of her plate so that she didn't have to eat them.

Loki lifted his gaze from the delicious meal his wife had cooked them, "Charlotte? Is that your friend?"

Aster lifted an eyebrow incredulously, "Wha-? No, dad."

"Charlotte's the mean girl who made fun of her accent for no reason," Amelia helpfully supplied, giving her husband a trying look.

Loki shrugged, "I don't remember their names. There's too many of them," he said by way of an excuse before addressing his daughter again, "What weird things did she say? Something mean again?"

"Well, no. Not mean… that's why it was weird," Aster murmured, looking over at her brother.

"Charlotte said something to you that wasn't mean? Have we entered an alternate reality where everything is opposite?" Kari quipped, smirking as he shoved a forkful of food into his mouth.

"What did she say to you, honey?" Amelia asked curiously and cautiously, she had heard a lot of stories from her kids about this girl, Charlotte. She wasn't as bad as Trevor, but apparently she had a lot of unkind opinions that she deemed necessary to spew day in and day out to the expense of several of her classmates.

Aster sighed, looking at her plate as she was lost in concentrated thought, "She said… she said she liked my scrunchie. The sparkly green one. And then she walked away."

"That's… unusual," Amelia tilted her head, "maybe she's had a change of heart?"

It was difficult to believe that the girl had decided to stop being horrible after Amelia's kids had complained so much about her, but she was always the one to give somebody the benefit of the doubt, and she didn't want to insinuate in front of her children that people couldn't change.

"No. She wants something from you," Loki stated in protest, like it was obvious.

"Huh?" Amelia said.

"What do you mean?" Aster asked, frowning contemplatively.

Loki looked between his wife and daughter with furrowed brows, "She wants something from you, it's obvious. Why would a bully just turn like that on the drop of a hat for seemingly no reason? Because they believe it will benefit them somehow."

"Or maybe she realised the error of her ways?" Amelia suggested optimistically.

Loki snorted, "Nobody has such revelations out of the blue."

"So it's more believable that Charlotte is trying to manipulate our daughter for some reason?" Amelia frowned, finding the notion of a manipulative seventh grader to be ridiculous.

"Darling, I'm a manipulator, I know it when I hear it," Loki declared with a self-satisfied smirk before turning back to his eldest daughter and leaning forward in his chair, "Don't fall for her tricks and don't give her what she wants, you're too smart to be manipulated."

Daisy, who had been quiet up until that moment as she picked at her plate of food, chose to speak, "What's mani-pu-pated?"

"Hmm," Loki hummed, trying to mentally calculate how to define the act of manipulation in a way his toddler would understand, "It's when you try to control someone without them realising, in order to get what you want."

Daisy tilted her head, processing what she'd been told, before pouting, "It sounds not nice," she said softly in her sweet little voice.

Loki nodded, "Well, you're right. It's not very nice."

With wide, shining eyes, Daisy looked up at her father with an expression of unhappiness, "But you said you do that."

Loki straightened up, pausing with his mouth open as he realised he'd dug himself into a hole when it came to his youngest daughter's approval, "Well I… I only… I mean, I only do it to… to bad people," he offered as an excuse, biting the inside of his cheek in an almost antsy state. It felt like a crime to disappoint Daisy, she was just such a sweet and innocent little girl, to be on the receiving end of her frown felt simply awful.

"Only to bad people?" Daisy repeated.

"Yes, only the bad people," Loki confirmed hurriedly.

"But you manipulate Uncle Thor all the time-" Kari began brazenly, the smirk on his face a clear giveaway that he knew what he was doing.

"Shhh," Loki hushed his son immediately, putting an aggressive finger to his lips.

Daisy, blessedly distracted as she continued to eat her dinner, did not hear Kari's sly remark.

"Well, regardless of what Charlotte's intentions were, you don't have to worry for the next two and a half months, because it's Summer vacation time, babies!" Amelia exclaimed in a sing-song voice. She expected her kids to smile or at the very least voice that they were excited, but what greeted Amelia were expressions of mixed emotions from her twins. "What? Aren't you excited? No school for two and a half months, and we're staying with Uncle Thor, Aunty Inga and your cousins in Asgard for most of it!"

Aster shrugged slightly, "Yes, I'm excited for that but… I won't see Autumn until we go back to school."

"And I don't get to hang out with Louis," Kari said, "I had to break the news to him that I wouldn't be in New York for almost all of the Summer. He was upset."

Amelia frowned, "I see. But you'll still be able to talk to them on your phones, right?"

"Yeah, but it's not the same," Kari groaned.

"Autumn's parent's don't let her use her phone all the time, too," Aster pointed out solemnly.

"I'm sorry, darlings," Amelia murmured, not sure what she could do to remedy the situation. It was unfortunate that Aster and Kari would miss their best friends, but there was no way to compromise - the two and a half months of Summer vacation were the only months in the year when they could spend time in Asgard, due to the twins' schooling, and it would be unfair to expect Loki to stay in Manhattan all year round rather than being with his people and spending time with his brother.

Loki would never admit out loud that he missed his brother when they weren't in Asgard, but Amelia knew it was the truth.

"I kinda wish Louis could come with us," Kari mumbled under his breath.

"I wish we could tell them our secret," Aster agreed.

"No," Loki stated, no room for argument, "that will never happen. You cannot tell anybody our secret because it could put any one of you in danger, understand?" His voice had risen ever so slightly in volume, trying to drill in his point.

"I know," Aster stated, her brows furrowing in agitation, "I just said I wish we could, not that I was going to."

The kids fell silent and Loki held Aster's gaze for a moment longer before continuing to eat his dinner; it could have been left there if Kari had decided to keep his mouth shut, but alas the boy couldn't help himself.

"Louis wouldn't tell anyone. Maybe next year he could come with us to Asgard," Kari proposed. It was wishful thinking, purely just an idealistic scenario he was imagining out loud, but Loki did not take it that way.

"You will not be telling your friend anything, end of story. Do you understand how detrimental it would be if the world discovered your real identities? You wouldn't be able to step outside this building without the press getting in your face and snapping photographs to document your every move."

"Darling, please," Amelia spoke softly, willing her husband to soften his tone. There was no need for an argument, especially not at the dinner table.

"Well maybe it wouldn't be so bad," Kari argued, raising his voice to match his father's tone.

"Bug-" Amelia lifted a hand to signal for Kari to back down, but it was too late.

"You have no idea how bad it would be. You might as well say goodbye to an ordinary life-"

"Well maybe I don't want an ordinary life!" Kari snapped, "Why do I have to keep this stuff a secret from my best friend! It's not fair!"

Aster was awkwardly silent, staring down at her plate while Amelia pinched the bridge of her nose, waiting for her husband to snap something back at their son, but Loki blessedly cracked down on his temper, falling silent rather than screaming back at the boy.

Loki clenched his fork in his hand, bending the metal without meaning too, but his eyes were drawn to Daisy, who was covering her ears and shutting her eyes tight. She couldn't stand to hear the raised voices and fiery back-and-forth between her brother and father.

Placing his fork down, Loki lifted a pointed finger with which to make his point more clear, "Enough of this. Eat your food. I won't hear another word about it."

Kari continued to stare at his father angrily, but Loki remained unaffected as he went back to his meal, purposely ignoring Kari's persistent glare until the boy gave up and went back to his own dinner, huffing in frustration.

Amelia rued the fact that the rest of the meal was eaten in silence, except for Daisy's fruitless attempts to lift the mood back up by shyly recounting nursery rhymes.

Thor's favourite time of the day was always the precise period of time when there was a lull in his kingly duties. When all the matters at hand were sorted, when he'd gone through all the queries and concerns that Asgard's residents had raised, and all security measures had been reviewed, that was the time that Thor enjoyed the most, because during the free time he was awarded, he would spend every last second of it with his family.

He would find his wife, the Queen of Asgard - whether she was tending to her self-bound duties as the palace's best healer in the infirmary, or playing with the boys in the gardens, or having a meal with them in the banquet hall - and he would take her in his arms and kiss her deeply. There was nothing more rewarding than enveloping Inga in his arms and feeling her lay her head against his shoulder as she welcomed the embrace.

Next, he would brace himself for the impact of his two son's Magni and Modi, as they inevitably barrelled into him at top speeds in the way they usually did when they too wanted to be hugged. Thor was more than happy to indulge them, of course, in fact he was proud that they managed to almost knock him off balance with how fast they came at him. Even Modi, who was only three and a half years old, seemed to have inherited his father's strength and was displaying it more and more clearly everyday.

The boys' hair glinted in the sun, their locks falling in waves that mirrored Thor's own hair, and their oceanic eyes much like his own - at least before one of his eyes was replaced - were wide and full of zest. They were highly energetic children, always bouncing about even when they hadn't been fed sugary treats.

While Inga insisted that their boys looked like the spitting image of him, Thor couldn't help but see his wife's gleaming beauty reflected in their little faces; he loved his family so much, and the smiles of his wife and children never failed to lift him up after a long, stressful day ruling a kingdom.

The only thing that could improve his mood even further was the knowledge that his brother would soon be arriving with Amelia and their three children. His nephew and two nieces, whom he hadn't seen since Yuletide, and that visit had only been for a few days. He missed his extended family when they weren't around.

But thankfully, Summer had come, and that meant his brother's family would be present for almost two and a half months - plenty of time to enjoy their company.

On the day of the expected arrival of Loki and the others, Thor was spending his time with the boys on the training grounds, showing them both with wooden swords how to wield their weapons like the expert palace guards. He demonstrated his perfect fighting form, even though he wasn't used to using a sword, and observed as Magni and Modi attempted to copy him.

They were both a bit clumsy, as was expected of the children, but the two of them displayed an admirable amount of determination which fueled their desire to learn how to fight like a warrior, and it made Thor immeasurably proud.

Magni swung his sword and shouted improvised battle cries, which Modi promptly copied - always wanting to be as cool as his big brother.

"Begone, foul beast!" Magni exclaimed, whacking his training sword against a dummy that was made from wood, sacks and straw.

"Begone!" Modi repeated, his voice significantly higher in pitch.

"Make the beast regret ever challenging you in battle!" Thor helpfully supplied, playing along for his sons' benefit. It served to playfully rile them up further and they began to strike the dummy multiple times, drawing a proud chuckle from Thor's lips. One day his sons would be strong warriors, perhaps even strong enough to give him a run for his money.

A gust of wind tickled Thor's neck and he turned and looked over his shoulder, noticing for the first time that the sun was almost directly above them, signifying midday - when Loki was expected. Thor clapped his hands twice, garnering the attention of his boys, "Your uncle, aunt and cousins will be arriving soon, shall we head to the courtyard to welcome them?"

The boys dropped their wooden swords, calling out affirmatively in enthusiastic excitement, and barrelled past their father, making a run for the steps that led up the path to the courtyard with Thor hurrying after them.

They reached the open area in record timing just as Queen Inga exited the palace in a fine gown that her sister Signy had made for her; it was the first time Thor was seeing her dressed in it and the sight made his heart jump for the briefest of moments. It was a stunning sky blue colour with golden embroidery across the torso in the shapes of leaves and vines. Inga never looked more magnificent than when she was dressed in a gift from her dear sister.

"You look pretty, mama!" Magni exclaimed, and Modi whole-heartedly agreed, grabbing his mother's hand as he admired the dress.

Inga smiled, a beaming grin that lit her whole face up, and Thor was certain a dreamy sigh escaped him. He cleared his throat when he realised he was staring and purposefully approached his wife to press a tender kiss to her cheek.

"It's about time your brother arrived, is it not?" Inga asked in her melodic voice.

"Indeed it is, this is the agreed upon time," Thor raised his hand, calling Stormbreaker to him, and it soon appeared, whooshing around the corner and straight for his palm. The boys jumped up and down, anticipating the burst of rainbow colours that would come with the power of the Bifrost.

And just as Thor expected, when he opened the Bifrost bridge using the power of his axe, the burst of blinding, colourful light glimmered for a few moments before Loki stepped out of it with his family in tow.

The light subsided, revealing the Avery family, which consisted of Loki looking alert and glad to be where he considered his real home, plus a very tired looking Amelia, two sleepy twins and the already slumbering Daisy, who was snoring into her father's shoulder. Naturally, due to the time differences in Norway and Manhattan, it was quite early in the morning where they had just departed from.

"Brother," Loki greeted, inclining his head, and Thor wanted to laugh at the formality of the address. If Loki wasn't holding his very small daughter, Thor would draw him into a tight hug, strong enough that he would hear the bones in his spine cracking - well, Thor could always do that later, but would probably risk being mildly stabbed in the process.

Perhaps Loki had purposely arrived holding Daisy, knowing it would deter Thor from coming at him with a killer hug - he'd learnt from the past, clearly. The smug look in Loki's eyes told Thor that this was precisely true.

"Good to see you," Thor stated instead, smiling his winning smile, "even if most of you are on the cusp of snoozing."

"Mm," Amelia hummed, blinking tiredly, "It's good to see you too Thor, Inga," she lowered her gaze to the boys and leaned down slightly, "and you two as well, always a pleasure. But I'll definitely be more enlivened once I've had a nap-" she cut herself off with a big yawn.

The twins were a little more subtle in their sleepiness, shown only in the slight shadow below Kari's eyes or the way Aster's hair was askew and not done up with the utmost care like usual.

"Perhaps a nap would suit you all good. Daisy seems to have the right idea," Thor chuckled, "and when you're a little bit more awake, we can gather in the banquet hall for a meal celebrating your arrival."

Loki looked at his nephews, who were bobbing up and down on their tiptoes, and smiled, "I'll put Daisy to bed, and then we can start by discussing the first prank we'll pull on your unsuspecting father this Summer."

Inga gave a playful roll of her eyes while Thor scoffed.

"We've got so many ideas already!" Magni claimed, steepling his fingers together in a scheming fashion, a gesture he'd likely picked up from his uncle at one time or another.

"You know, I'm not so unsuspecting if I know the pranks are coming," Thor pointed out with crossed arms.

Loki smirked, "And yet we'll still catch you by surprise."

Loki was thrilled to be spending a whole Summer in Asgard. Not only did he feel comfortable among his people, but the heat in Norway was also milder compared to that of Manhattan. It rained more, which Loki appreciated, because the sound of rain was soothing - it helped him sleep, and made for great background noise when he was reading.

When the twins got over their initial disappointment at not being able to see their school friends over the Summer, it was clear they were happy to be back in Asgard. They dressed in their elegant Asgardian clothing and went about their business in the palace which made up a mix of activities from reading books from the library, playing in the gardens, swimming in the pool, spending time with their cousins, aunts and uncle, to occasionally nipping down to the marketplace to buy from the stalls.

Loki knew they would settle in quickly, and he for one was glad he hadn't heard anymore talk of the twins sharing their most important secret with their friends.

Daisy started swimming lessons and took to the water well, splashing around like an overexcitable fish, while Modi - who had begun lessons at the exact same time - was not a fan of the water. He'd downright refused to step anywhere out of his depth, screaming and crying when anybody tried to urge him to the deep waters, even with the use of a flotation device. However, the sight of Daisy seemingly having so much fun in the scary water, despite being almost a whole year younger than Modi, was enough to give him the courage to try.

He still hated the deep water, but tried it anyway, because he was a very brave boy, according to his Uncle Loki. The knowledge that he and Daisy would always be treated to a sweet baked good after their lesson also helped to ease him into the routine.

Aster wore a different dress each day, always something green and delicately made, and she looked beautiful as she went about the palace, moving so elegantly that she appeared to be gliding. It was obvious she had all the makings of a graceful princess, and Loki couldn't help but draw attention to his decorous daughter and express the pride he felt for her.

"You are such a lovely young lady," Loki remarked when his daughter entered the banquet hall one afternoon, gently brushing her hair back behind her ears to reveal more of her face.

"Stop, dad," Aster responded bashfully, shrugging off the affectionate gesture. She felt embarrassed by his attention, especially in the presence of the palace servants moving to fill the table with food and drink for the lunchtime feast, and as such she batted his hands away.

"What? I'm not allowed to dote on my daughter?" A shadow of a pout appeared on Loki's face, "Why are you all embarrassed? I was just pointing out that you're blossoming into a beautiful young woman."

"Dad," Aster groaned, but failed to offer an explanation.

Loki paused, noticing perhaps for the first time that his daughter didn't call him 'daddy' as much as she used to; something about that revelation made him feel a little bit disheartened.

He sighed, "Okay, fine. I'll dote on your mother instead," Loki stated, turning to Amelia, who was seated on his other side and was mid-way through nibbling on some apple slices that she'd dipped into honey. Upon hearing his words, Amelia turned expectantly, a little smirk at the corner of her lips, alongside a stray drop of honey.

Loki lifted her chin slightly and leaned down to kiss the sugary taste away. That was, until Kari planted himself in the seat directly opposite them.

"Ugh, you guys are so gross," the teen boy grumbled, scrunching up his nose before immediately grabbing all sorts of food to fill up his plate, taking bites as he went along in a very impolite manner.

Loki's eyes narrowed at his son, "Maybe one day you'll have a beautiful wife to be 'gross' with too."

Kari snorted and rolled his eyes, chewing on buttered toast.

On Amelia's left, Daisy perked up, standing in her seat and leaning slightly over the table; Amelia automatically lifted her arm to stop the girl from climbing up onto the surface, but she appeared to just be getting a better vantage point.

"What's gross?" Daisy questioned, tilting her head in confusion as she searched for the source of Kari's disgust.

"Mom and dad kissing," Kari replied while still chewing his food.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, bug," Amelia gently reminded him.

"Why? Why's it gross?" Daisy asked her older brother, frowning in puzzlement.

"Because it is," the boy answered, thankfully after he'd swallowed his food.

"Why?"

"Because."

"But why!?" Daisy cried.

"I don't know, it just is!" Kari grumbled.

Loki eyed his son with a look of consideration. The young prince was not nearly as well-behaved as his twin sister, despite the fact that they had received the same guidance on how to act like royalty during their younger years. Loki didn't understand why Kari had so many issues with acting dignified; even the linen clothing the boy wore was fitted improperly rather than being neat and tucked in, and the top button of his shirt was undone. It wasn't a good look, he just came across as though he didn't care about looking sophisticated. Plus, there was the matter of his particularly loud chewing.

"Chew with your mouth closed, Kari," Loki ordered, and the boy let out a melodramatic sigh, as if he'd given Kari an impossible task. He'd spare his son the embarrassment of bringing attention to his crooked garments and mention it later when he was alone, because it really didn't sit well with Loki that his son was going around the palace dressed like a commoner.

"Dada," Daisy peered around her mother to get her father's attention, "I want to play hide and seek."

"You can play hide and seek after lunch. I'm sure your brother, sister and cousins will all play with you," Loki suggested, volunteering his twins to join the game.

"Dad, I was going to go to the library," Aster protested in a hushed voice.

"And I was gonna go to the marketplace," Kari argued too.

"With what money? My money? Because I know you don't save up your allowance," Loki inquired with a smirk, and Kari pouted, looking to his mother in the hopes that she would assure him he could use some of her money, but Amelia remained silent and looked curiously at her son.

"Do you have money saved up to take to the marketplace?" Amelia asked.

Kari said nothing, which answered her question.

"And Aster, you can go to the library after you play with your little sister," Amelia continued.

"But-"

"The library will still be there all afternoon, okay? You can go there anytime."

Aster sighed at her mother's reasoning tone, humming in a vaguely affirming way. A few rounds of hide and seek wouldn't take all that long, anyway, unless Kari decided to pull out the big guns and situate himself in a hiding place that took all day to find.

"Can you play too, daddy?" Daisy asked, her little face hopeful as she placed her hands together in a pleading way.

Loki looked indecisively at his daughter. On the one hand, he was supposed to be preparing for a meeting with Thor and the advisors that was purely for his benefit so that he could be brought up to date with all the political and potential security issues Asgard was currently dealing with, and just everything significant that he had missed in general while he was away in Manhattan. But on the other hand… Daisy's eyes were shimmering optimistically, and his youngest daughter truly had some sort of a hold on him.

Amelia was smirking at his side, because she knew Loki had trouble saying no to Daisy. The little girl just wasn't somebody he ever wanted to disappoint, and she seemed so joyful at the concept of playing hide and seek with him.

Loki's gaze flickered to Thor who was seated at the head of the table, staring straight at him with a grin that was similarly born from amusement with much the same reason as Amelia's; the King of Asgard knew what it was like to have an adorable little child with the cutest smile and to be utterly wrapped around their little finger.

"Can we push back the meeting?" Loki asked.

"Of course. Enjoy playing hide and seek, brother," Thor snickered.

Daisy let out a cheer, signifying how pleased she was to be playing a big game of hide and seek; it was one of her favourite games, but sadly there wasn't a lot of chances to play it in Avengers Tower seeing as there was a limited amount of people that could join in, plus Daisy always needed somebody to hide with her because of how young she was.

Kari was designated as the person that would hide with Daisy, the boundaries of the game were limited to within the walls of the palace gardens, and Loki was the seeker. He gave the children a modest one-hundred seconds to situate themselves in their hiding spots, plenty of time for them to shimmy into hidden nooks within the gardens and lurk unseen.

Kari, feeling particularly competitive, grabbed his little sister and made a bee-line for the bridge that connected two paths above a stream, intent to shuffle under and climb onto the hanging support logs, but Daisy protested.

"No, no, not there!" The little one squeaked.

"It's okay, you won't fall in the water, I'll hold onto you," Kari promised in a hushed tone, knowing his father had sensitive ears.

"No! I wanna hide over there!" Daisy pointed across the garden to where the large, colourful hydrangea and lavender bushes lined the wall. Kari made a face, looking between the bridge and the bushes.

"I don't know if I can fit there…" Kari pointed out.

"You can! There's lotsa space!" Daisy squeezed the sleeve of his shirt and gave him the classic puppy-dog eyes.

Kari gave a resigned sigh, "Alright, fine."

With his father still steadily counting down some distance away, Kari placed Daisy down by the hydrangea bushes and let her take the lead. She rushed down the row of bushes until she came to a small opening below one of the bushes, it wasn't a very large space and Kari remained sceptical even as he crouched down and shuffled into the bush, but once he was actually inside the space and hidden, it wasn't so tightly-packed. There was just enough room that he wasn't actively damaging any of the flora by going prone below the bush.

Daisy sat cross-legged, peeping through the tiny gaps in the leaves to where her father had finished counting and was now searching around the gardens, occasionally surveying an area with his hands on his hips.

"I think he won't find us," Daisy whispered, lightly patting her brother's head in a way that made him snort.

"If you say so," Kari remarked.

The first one to be found was Aster, who had picked a spot that wasn't all that impressive. She'd hidden behind a tree and made no effort to keep herself out of sight when her father stalked in her direction. Kari got the feeling that she had other things she wished she was doing and just wanted the game to be over quicker - he didn't really know why, the library wasn't all that exciting.

"That wasn't that great a hiding space," Loki remarked, loud enough that Kari could hear him, "you used to be so good at hide and seek. Your hiding skills have diminished." Kari didn't see Aster's reaction, but he wouldn't be surprised if she rolled her eyes.

Magni and Modi were next to be found, the two of them had taken up temporary residence in the playhouse that Brynjar had built for the twins when they were only young. It was a rather obvious spot, all things considered, but Kari didn't expect the two younglings to be as skilled in the art of hide and seek as himself and Daisy were at that moment.

"He'll never find us. We'll be hidden forever," Kari whispered, growing confident, up until the moment their father turned and began walking in their general direction, at which point he wished he could take the words back.

"Not forever," Daisy whispered concernedly, "what if we need to go pee?"

"Shh," Kari quieted his little sister, "he's coming."

Loki's eyes sifted the terrain, seeking out spots that could be utilised for hiding places. He passed the stream and moved around the side of the bridge, ducking in order to peek under it - and Kari inwardly praised Daisy for convincing him to hide elsewhere, or that would've been game over for them.

"See," Daisy whispered, grinning in a way that was oddly smug for a toddler.

Kari put his finger to his lips, trying to quell his sister's growing ego. Their father had started moving closer; Daisy made a show of holding her breath as Loki strolled past the large hydrangea bushes, totally oblivious to the fact that his children were nestled below it and peeping up at him.

A smirk made its way onto Kari's face as he realised he'd outsmarted his dad. He felt beyond self-satisfied, the amusement at besting his father was buzzing up and down his spine; he was definitely going to use this example for bragging rights.

That train of thought was cut short the moment he realised the buzzing up and down his spine was actually a bumblebee flying overhead. Then, with growing horror, Kari realised that the lavender bush a few feet away from him was absolutely full to the brim with pollinating bees.

Kari shrieked, his body going from stiff and cold to absolutely teeming with adrenaline and feeling far too hot for his liking. Without preamble, he dragged himself out of the hydrangea bush in an instant, lending absolutely no care to the poor plants that were damaged and uprooted as he moved. He didn't stop screaming as he pulled himself to his feet and began running in circles, paranoid that the bees were swarming him.

Daisy crawled out of the hiding space after Kari in a much calmer fashion, standing upright in front of the bush and placing her hands on her hips as she watched her brother freak out with a look that was certainly not amused.

"Is just a bee!" The little girl proclaimed in her honeyed voice.

"They're after me!" Kari screamed.

"Is just a bee," Daisy repeated, far more incredulous of the fact that her older brother was acting so scared of such a tiny creature. Bees were good, they weren't frightening, and they never stung people unless they absolutely had to. Kari needed to stop screaming, he was frightening the bees.

Meanwhile, Loki approached Daisy, staring at his son as the boy swatted at absolutely nothing in the air whilst high pitched wails escaped him. It was quite a marvel to know that Kari had stood up to a frost giant when he was just five years old, but the sight of a single bee was enough to send him spiralling into a panic at nearly thirteen and a half years old.

Eventually Kari collapsed on the floor, perhaps finally realising that the bees weren't chasing after him as he had thought. Aster, Magni and Modi approached from across the gardens, wondering what all the commotion was about while Amelia, Thor and Inga stared from the courtyard entrance, all overcome with curiosity and concern.

Kari let out a humiliated groan.

"Found you," said Loki, "I win."

Weeks later, it was a clear night and the stars above twinkled in the night sky. It was just past midnight, Loki and Amelia had stayed up late with Thor, Inga and Signy, all of them partaking in a party of sorts - a party just for adults. Mead and wine went around, though in Amelia's case she stuck only to the Midgardian wine that the servants supplied; she was pretty sure they only supplied it because of her since no Asgardians could get drunk on it if they tried, but even she was only having a small amount.

Amelia and Loki had made it back to their bedroom and the former was getting ready for bed, something that Loki was not making easy for her, because he kept trying to pepper her face with kisses and envelope her in his arms.

"I'm trying to put my nightgown on, babe," Amelia lightly complained, her words interrupted by giggles as Loki tickled her neck with his lips.

"Why? Just sleep naked," Loki protested, "it's a warm night."

The glide of his mouth caused Amelia to shiver, "Why do you always get horny when you're drunk?"

"I'm not drunk," Loki snorted, "I'm just full."

"Yeah, yeah, you're just full, like I don't know what that means."

"Oh, so what does it mean?" Loki lifted an eyebrow.

"It means you're very drunk, hah," Amelia slipped out of his clumsy grasp and ran around the bed, slipping into her nightgown. Loki sprawled out onto the mattress in a starfish shape, sighing as he laid his head down on the soft furs.

"But I'm really not that drunk, I promise. I just want to kiss my beautiful wife so that she knows how much I love her."

Amelia smiled, climbing onto the bed to lean down and capture Loki's lips with blessed mercy; he reacted by using his elbows to lean up into the kiss, a soft sigh escaping his nose as his fingers threaded through her hair soothingly.

"I love you," Amelia whispered when they parted.

"I love you more," Loki claimed with a content smile.

"I don't think that's possible because I, in fact, love you the most," Amelia clarified, gently brushing her finger down the side of Loki's face.

"I think actually your calculations are off."

"No, they're pretty spot on calculations."

"No, you're bad at maths. I love you the most."

"No, I love you the mostest," Amelia snickered, cuddling up alongside her husband.

"Imagine the highest number you can conceivably think of and multiply it by two. That's how much I love you," Loki stated with a particular tone of voice that left no room for argument. This was proven just moments later when Amelia opened her mouth to respond and Loki promptly put his fingers in his ears and said, "I can't hear you, la la la la, I can't hear you."

Amelia began laughing heartily, resting her head on his chest while lovingly caressing his arm, "You're so silly when you're drunk. You act like you're twelve."

"I was a lot worse than this when I was twelve."

"I can only imagine."

"I was sneaky and everything that came out of my mouth was a lie," Loki admitted with a sigh.

"Well, that's how you got your title as the God of Mischief," Amelia hummed, pulling back to observe her husband's face. His mood was changing, he'd gone from being all lovey dovey and smiley to staring up at the ceiling in thought. "What's on your mind, love?"

Loki hummed softly, "It's Aster. She takes after me. She's a liar too."

Amelia's eyes widened in surprise, a little trace of indignation going through her, because it seemed like an oddly rude thing to say about their daughter out of nowhere, but Loki's face appeared… concerned.

"Why do you say that?" Amelia asked. She'd never felt like Aster was lying to her, in fact Amelia was quite sure Aster was the honest type - everything from the girl's manner to her drives suggested she would tell the truth even if it wasn't beneficial to her. "I don't think she's ever lied to me, ever."

"Oh, she has. She's absolutely lied to you," Loki murmured, briefly smiling in amusement at Amelia's agitated look before his face fell again, "I would be proud of her, but she's started lying to me, and she thinks I don't realise it."

"When has she lied to you?"

"Today, she was late for dinner. I asked where she'd been and all she said was that she was reading in the library and lost track of time."

Amelia frowned, "That sounds… pretty in-character, if you ask me."

Loki shook his head, "She was lying, Amelia. I know how to spot deception."

"So what was she doing, if not reading in the library?"

Loki took a deep breath and then loudly sighed it all out, "I dunno." With that, he shifted and sat up, shimmying up the bed till he sat against the headboard, "You sleep, I'm going to read."

Amelia gave her husband a trying look, "You can't sprinkle some mystery on me and then dismiss it like I'm not going to be super curious. What do you think our daughter was doing? Why would she lie?" A sliver of worry worked its way into Amelia's tone, the mere knowledge that her daughter would lie about her whereabouts made her antsy, because that meant her daughter might have been doing something she shouldn't be.

Loki brushed Amelia's hair out of her face and leaned down to peck her on the lips, "I'll find out eventually. Don't worry." With that, he made himself comfortable, reached over to the side table for the book he was reading, and froze. "My book."

"Hm?"

"Where's my book?" He frowned, "Did you move it?"

Amelia arched an eyebrow at the accusatory tone he gave her, "You mean the romance book about those two adventurers who go to some cursed kingdom or something?"

"Yes, that's my book. What have you done with it?" Loki's eyebrows furrowed, "It's a good book."

Amelia laughed, shaking her head at her drunken husband, "Did you forget you had it with you earlier in the banquet hall? You must have left it on the table."

Loki practically launched himself out of bed, "My book!"

Amelia covered her mouth, stifling her laughter. Her husband rushed about the room, quickly throwing on some clothes that would be considered decent to wear outside their bedroom and slipped on some slippers.

"You can't just find it in the morning?" Amelia tilted her head.

Loki looked at her with an incredulous look, "Absolutely not. It'll get picked up by some servant who thinks it's just some rubbish or a regular old novel from the library, and then it'll get lost and I'll never get to read the ending. That's not an option, I'm retrieving it right now."

With that, he exited the room in a dramatic fashion and made his way to the banquet hall. The palace was dimly lit throughout the hallways, and he occasionally passed a guard who nodded to him respectfully, though all of them were probably curious as to why he was walking around after he'd already headed to bed with his wife.

When he reached the banquet hall, he entered dramatically, eyes sweeping across the dim room. The table was still in the process of being cleared following the party all the adults had had; he quickly hurried to the table where he'd been sat and eyed it searchingly with growing agitation which ended swiftly when his eyes fell upon the book.

He swiped it up at once, ignoring the stares from the servants in the room and cleared his throat, "Carry on." With that, he left the hall and slipped the book into one of the large inner pockets of his robe, all safe and secure.

On his way back to his and Amelia's bedchamber, Loki found his gaze drifting up and out at the night sky through the apertures down one hallway. He looked up at the full moon, admiring it for a few moments before he resumed his step.

But he stalled.

His body sobered up in an instant when he caught sight of a small figure scaling the outside of the astronomy tower; his mind screamed 'intruder' faster than his mouth could, but before he could swing around and shout to the nearest guard, he let his eyes focus properly on the person's silhouette.

When he recognised who it was, he went lax with relief at the fact the palace was not being invaded by an unknown assailant, and then promptly tensed up again when he realised his son, Kari, was lazily ascending the outside of a very high building.

"Shit," Loki whispered aloud, clenching his teeth, before he turned on his feet and headed in the direction of the spiral staircase that would lead up to the astronomy tower via the proper passage.

Damn his son and his talent for climbing. Amelia would have a heart-attack if she saw her dear boy in his current position.

Loki ascended the spiral staircase, passing guards that appeared confused that he was up and racing to the astronomy tower without explanation. He just ignored them, they'd probably understand when he came back down, dragging his son along with him.

He slowed as he drew closer to the large wooden door. It was locked up, which is probably why his son decided to take the alternate route up the outer brick wall of the tower, but Loki had his lock-opening talents to get him through the door.

As soon as the lock gave a reverberating, loud click, Loki heard the telltale sound of scrambling footsteps, and quickly threw the door open, spotting his son frantically trying to shuffle into a hiding place behind a bookshelf.

"Kari," Loki stated calmly as he placed his hands on his hips, "I know you're there. Come out, there's no point in hiding."

Kari visibly deflated before slinking out of his bad hiding spot, shoulders slumped with a nervous look on his face. Loki assessed his son, noting that his clothing was dirtied - probably from rubbing against the layer of moss on the outside of the tower as he climbed - and his hair was a mess, which suggested the boy had been in bed before he'd decided to scale a building.

"What do you think you're doing here? Are you crazy, boy? I saw you climbing up here, what would your mother say?" Loki's scolding was hushed, like he didn't really have the energy or will to shout at his son properly - it was probably a side effect to still being tipsy.

Kari shrugged worriedly, he knew he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't, but all he had to say about it was, "Peter climbs buildings…"

Loki blinked, frowning at his boy, "Sit down," he ordered, pointing to the grand looking two-seater sofa behind him. Kari did as he was told and Loki took a seat next to him, taking a breath and looking around the room.

The astronomy tower was a very calming place to be. The large telescope was aimed up out the open skylight, pointing at the twinkling stars above; there were astronomy books lining the shelves and messy work areas, along with a cluster of hand-drawn planetary images pinned to the walls.

"Is this your first time coming here?" Loki asked, sinking down in the seat. Any trace amounts of anger in his manner had completely melted away; it was almost one o'clock in the morning and he didn't want to have a shouting match with his son.

"No," Kari admitted quietly, though he looked a little relieved that his father wasn't screaming at him, "I've been up here twice already since we arrived at the start of Summer vacation."

Loki winced inwardly. The image of his son slipping on the climb up or misplacing his foot and plummeting to the ground below passed through his mind, and he shook his head, "Kari, I don't want you doing this. You can't climb the astronomy tower, please promise me you won't."

Kari looked downhearted but nodded defeatedly, "Alright… I won't do it."

"Why are you up here? It's late, you should be asleep in bed."

The expression on the teen boy's face was candid and open, illuminated by the lunar light peering in through the skylight, "I just wanted to look at the stars."

Loki eyed him for a moment, trying to pick out any deception, but unlike Aster, Kari was telling the truth, "You just wanted to look at the stars?" He repeated.

Kari nodded in confirmation, biting his lip anxiously.

"You… you realise you don't have to climb a tall building to do that, right? You could have just asked."

Kari's eyes widened, "Wh- you would've let me up here? Even though it's really late?"

"Well, probably not tonight, given that I'm drunk and your mother is wondering where I am," Loki mumbled, "but you could've said that you wanted to use the astronomy tower at some point. We could've arranged something, you know?"

"Really?" Kari seemed amazed by this, an emotion that Loki didn't understand at that moment.

"Wh- yes, of course. If you wanted a close look at the stars, I would happily bring you up and show you, why is that so surprising?"

The look Kari gave Loki reminded him that his son was just a little boy, especially paired with the way he fidgeted with his fingers. His eyes darted across his father's face and he honestly responded, "Because you always say no… to everything."

Loki fell quiet. Was that true? Did he always tell his son 'no', to the point that Kari didn't even see any point in asking to do something as acceptable and educational as using the astronomy tower to look up at the stars? Was he that boring and mean of a father?

"Oh…" Loki murmured, "I'm sorry, I… I don't mean to be so… I don't want to stop you from doing things you enjoy," he frowned, feeling a trickle of shame for making his son feel that way, "If you want to come here every so often, I can schedule nights for us to use the telescope."

"Really? Just the two of us?" Kari seemed gobsmacked at how well this was going for him, "Are you only saying this because you're drunk?"

Loki let out a chuckle, "No, I mean it. I'll help you learn about space, if that's what you want."

The glimmering of Kari's green eyes rivalled that of the stars as his son smiled a genuine, wide smile, "I'd like that, dad."

Loki smiled and curled his arm around Kari, pulling the boy to his side in a hug; Kari quickly responded, wrapping his arms around his father, and they shared a few moments in silence.

"Though really, do not climb buildings like that again, understood?" Loki stated aloud, a drop of humour in his otherwise serious voice.

"I understand, dad."

If you enjoyed this chapter then please do write a comment, it would be much appreciated and would make me feel super happy after spending so long working on it ;)