Hello everyone! Back again with chapter 5! This chapter was actually written out of order, so if you notice any weird continuity errors... I'm sorry :') Also, y'all are so not ready for something that happens in this chapter and I can't wait for your reactions xD

Notes: In my fic, Loki, Thor, Amelia and the twins have special 'Stark' phones that were designed and created by Tony and they're like self-charging somehow and work in New Asgard so that's how they can all have working phones while there, just for the convenience of the scenes were they use them.

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

Chapter Five: The Princess and the Knight

Thor had reached his boiling point with his brother's antics.

Yes, he had been missing Loki before he had arrived for the Summer, but now Thor was beginning to think he couldn't wait for the God of Mischief to piss off back to Manhattan until the end of the year. His sneaky brother really brought out the worst in Magni and Modi, the two boys were becoming a handful and Thor desperately needed to think of a way to dissuade their inclinations to act like their beloved uncle.

The first prank Loki and his sons had collaborated on hadn't been too terrible, they were more of a harmless inconvenience more than anything else. Somehow, Loki had gotten ahold of some ingredients in the kitchens and had a servant bring out a tray of caramel-coated apples on sticks - one of Thor's favourite sweet treats - except when he'd plucked one off the tray and taken a large bite into them, he froze in disgust upon realising they were not apples, but onions. Then, Loki had started snickering in satisfaction as he watched Thor's face screw up, followed by the young boys' maniacal laughter.

The second brilliant prank was one Thor really, really should have seen coming, because it was practically one Loki had pulled before. Thor had fallen for it in the past and he'd fallen for it again now, it was embarrassing more than anything else. Magni and Modi had been innocuously playing in the palace gardens and Loki was supposed to have been in the training grounds with his twins on the other side of the palace, so Thor told himself time and time again that it was not his fault he fell for it hook, line and sinker.

The boys had rushed up to him, carrying a delightful, little green snake that seemed friendly and entirely unthreatening. Magni was enthusiastic about it, informing their father that they'd found the coolest snake and they'd brought it to Thor because they knew he loved snakes.

Thor was an idiot. Blinded by his love for snakes.

He'd happily taken the snake from his boys, holding it up to admire it, and that was when it suddenly transformed, taking on the larger and much heavier shape of his brother.

"Bleh! It's me!" Loki exclaimed, already laughing as Thor let out a startled yelp and staggered in place under Loki's weight before dropping him on the floor and stomping away, humiliated and genuinely disappointed that it wasn't a real snake.

The third prank had been a little more than harmless, it ended up being extremely agitating and even affected the queen, much to Thor's dismay. Somehow, Loki had sprinkled Thor's clothing with a handful of itching powder before he'd gotten dressed into them one morning, leading to a long day of constant, undignified scratching and a burgeoning worry for Thor as he assumed he was coming down with some sort of rash or illness that was characterised by incessant itching below the skin on every part of his body.

Of course, Thor had been in close proximity with Queen Inga from the very moment he'd gotten dressed in his contaminated garments, and some of the powder had gotten onto her, thus prompting suspicion. It was Inga who had suggested Thor head to his bathing chamber, completely strip down and hop into the bath.

After the itchy symptoms disappeared, Thor knew it was Loki who was to blame. He didn't have any solid evidence to point the finger at his brother, he just knew it was his doing, and yet when he angrily confronted Loki about it in the banquet hall, the God of Mischief completely denied sprinkling itching powder in Thor's clothing.

"You know me, brother, if I was the mastermind behind a prank, then I would own up to it," Loki stated pointedly.

Thor was confused for all of ten seconds, because Loki did always own up to a prank once he'd been found out, but then his son's had begun giggling, and Thor had turned his scrutinising gaze on Magni and Modi.

"Tell the truth, boys. Who put itching powder in my undergarments?"

Magni and Modi both pointed at each other as they tried and failed to hide their amused little grins; Thor pinched the bridge of his nose and wiped his hand down his face in agitation. Why did his two little angelic-looking boys have to inherit their uncle's mischievous personality?

That was when Inga swooped in, ready and eager to discipline her children for their actions, and the boys' faces immediately fell, both horrendously upset to hear they wouldn't be getting dessert after dinner. They were made to apologise to their father, and then Modi let slip that Uncle Loki had been the one to supply the itching powder to begin with.

Thor turned sharply to Loki, who had frozen mid-meal, glaring at the youngest boy with a look that screamed 'you betrayed me.'

Before Thor could open up his mouth though, Inga spoke.

"And you won't be getting any dessert either, Loki."

Loki's eyebrows had shot up in surprise and he blinked as if puzzled before scoffing, stifling an amused chuckle, "You can't just forbid me from eating dessert, I'm a grown man."

Inga turned to one of the kitchen maids present, "Hilda, ensure that no sweet treats are served to Prince Loki this evening, he has misbehaved and lost his dessert privileges."

Loki's jaw fell as Hilda nodded her head with a 'yes, your majesty', and he glared with indignation at the queen, "That's not- you can't-"

"Oh, I'm the queen, I assure you I can," Inga pointed out swiftly, before turning and making her way to her seat, dismissing the conversation. Thor found it immensely satisfying and smirked smugly at his brother, moving to take his seat beside his wife as he watched Loki turn and place a hopeful hand on Amelia's shoulder.

"You'll share yours with me, won't you darling?" Loki asked optimistically.

Amelia lightly patted his hand and gave him a soft smile, "No, my love, I will not."

Thor had hoped that would be the end of it, but he was so wrong, because the worst prank was yet to come.

He walked now, stomping his way towards the dining hall for breakfast, ignoring the stares from absolutely everybody he walked past. Upon reaching the hall, he slammed the huge double doors wide open and shouted, "LOKI."

Loki lifted his head from his breakfast, the only one at the table not to flinch in surprise, a composed and polite smile on his face; and then he saw his brother and he couldn't compose himself, needing to look away in order to stifle his undignified snorts.

Amelia, Daisy and the twins all stared at Thor, mouths hanging open in shock.

"Um… Thor, you…" Amelia began, her eyes glued to the king's hair.

"Uncle Thor, why is your hair like that?" Daisy asked innocently, pointing up at his head as he walked around the table - well, more like flounced around the table - and grabbed Loki by the collar of his shirt, forcing him to look Thor in the eyes.

"What did you do to me?" Thor hissed dangerously.

All Thor had done that morning was get out of bed, tidy up his beard, bathe, and wash his hair, and when he'd exited the bath and looked in the mirror, that was when he was greeted with the absolute horror of his reflection. His hair was bright green, not just a little bit green - very, very bright green. It was practically glowing.

"Why brother," Loki began, practically on the verge of tears with how hard he was trying not to burst into fits of laughter, "how sweet of you to wear my colours!"

"Fix this, now."

"Fix it? Why? It looks wonderful."

"Loki, whatever it is you put in my shampoo, reverse it."

"Sorry brother," Loki shrugged with a shit-eating grin, "it's semi-permanent… it'll take a while to fade."

"I'm going to destroy you in the training grounds today, be there at noon for our sparring session or I will brand you a coward and the entire kingdom will know it," Thor threatened.

"Easy, Thor, lighten up. This is almost as funny as the time I turned you into a frog," Loki proclaimed, "besides, this brilliant idea was the result of your sons putting their heads together to come up with the ultimate prank. Aren't you proud of them?"

Thor gritted his teeth; Loki knew how protective he was over his hair, this was truly toeing the line.

"I will get you back for this, brother. Some day, when you least expect it," Thor let the daunting threat loom in the air for several moments before leaving the Avery family to their breakfast.

But not before Daisy could get the final word in, "It looks pretty, Unca Thor!"

The words sent a fresh wave of hilarity over Loki, and a wriggling feeling of humiliation through Thor. He would be so glad when Loki was gone.

Aster was mysteriously absent from lunch, again.

Loki was getting fed up. He wouldn't have been so suspicious if it wasn't for the fact that every time he sought her out following her unusual absences, she lied about where she had been and what she had been doing.

Knowing that Aster was doing something she felt the need to lie about caused Loki a whole world of concern. He never pushed or called her out on her lies, his eldest daughter remained convinced that she was successfully swindling him with her faux excuses, but if Loki didn't discover the root cause of all these instances where Aster could not be found, he would be forced to pry.

The most annoying thing was that Amelia didn't seem all that bothered by the fact Aster was always off somewhere and being secretive about it. She said he was overreacting, that Aster's choice to not be truthful wasn't necessarily something to be suspicious about.

"Teenagers are just like that," Amelia told him, "they don't have to share every aspect of their lives with us, they're allowed privacy too."

"She would have no reason to lie to us if she wasn't up to no good," Loki argued back, "why aren't you more worried about this? Aster has never been the dishonest type before now. Something's happened."

Amelia let out a sigh and rolled her eyes, "Oh god, and I was worried I was going to be a helicopter parent."

Loki's eyes narrowed at the unfamiliar term, "What do Midgardian airborne vehicles have to do with being a parent?"

A dismissive wave and a snicker from his wife told Loki that he wasn't going to get an answer to that question, so when he later googled the term on his phone while lying in bed, waiting for Amelia to finish brushing her teeth in the bathroom, he ended up crossing his arms and glaring at her when she walked back in.

"I am not a helicopter parent."

Amelia blinked with a brief flicker of confusion before remembering their earlier conversation and she snorted, getting into bed beside her husband, "You're far too overprotective."

"No, Amelia, I'm the normal amount of protective! You're underprotective."

"That's not a thing."

"It is and you are it."

"Loki, why are you even worried about this?" Amelia asked, sitting back against the headboard with a groan.

"Because she's lying," Loki exclaimed, punctuating his words by grabbing Amelia's shoulders and shaking her.

Amelia only laughed, "Well I guess you have a lot to apologise to your mother for, huh?"

Loki's expression soured and he tutted, rolling over and pulling the cover up to his neck, curling up into a little ball of agitation, though that didn't last all too long because it was a warm Summer night and Loki loathed the heat. So in retaliation for Amelia's flippant attitude towards their daughter's habitual vanishing, Loki kicked the cover off himself and onto Amelia.

When Aster disappeared for the umpteenth time the next day, Loki stomped all about the palace in search of her. She was supposed to meet him at the training grounds with her brother, but when Kari turned up alone and couldn't answer when Loki asked him for Aster's whereabouts, Loki simmered with irritation.

He went to the library first, because that was often where she said she was whenever she lied to him. If he went there first and couldn't find her, then she couldn't feasibly use it as an excuse when he did eventually find her.

Just as Loki rounded the corner in a strop, turning into the hallway that housed the library's entrance, he bumped straight into his daughter, who took a step back in surprise at his speedy pace.

"Where have you been?" Loki demanded, frowning at her.

Aster's eyes widened in surprise at his terse tone, "I was just in the library."

"Really?" Loki mumbled, not even trying to hide the fact he didn't believe her, "You were supposed to be at the training grounds twenty minutes ago."

She shrugged slightly and shook her head, "I just-"

"Lost track of time?" Loki finished her excuse for her, far from impressed, and glanced down at her dress, "You're not even dressed for training. Do I need to buy you a watch?"

Aster frowned, "Why do you sound so angry?"

"What exactly were you doing in the library?" Loki asked, ignoring her query.

"I was playing baseball," she responded with a tone swathed in sarcasm, "what do you think I was doing?"

"Enough attitude, young lady. You're coming with me," Loki scolded, grabbing her wrist and leading her into the library. He had the gentlest hold on her, but Aster embellished the theatrics and made a fuss about it, trying to pull her arm away while grumbling in protest.

He brought her straight to the elderly librarian, Aksel, who sat at his station, head down as he looked over his list of stock, and cleared his throat to get the man's attention. When the librarian looked up, he quickly straightened himself and inclined his head in greeting.

"Good morning, my prince. How may I assist you?"

"I need you to answer a question for me, Aksel. Was my daughter, Aster, just here?" Loki released Aster's wrist and crossed his arms, a self-satisfied smirk pulling at his lips.

"Yes."

"Hah!" Loki snapped prematurely as if he'd caught his daughter red-handed, before he realised the librarian and corroborated her excuse as true, and did a double take, "Huh?"

"Yes, she was just in the library. She left about a minute before you brought her back in here," Aksel explained, a hint of confusion in his expression as he looked between Loki and his daughter.

Now it was Aster's turn to cross her arms and glare, "Can I go now?"

"No," Loki stated, and returned his scrutinising gaze to Aksel, "has my daughter had any company while she's been in here?"

The elderly man looked up in thought before shaking his head, "She's had no company except the library assistant fetching her the books she's requested. Your girl reads a lot, you should be very proud of her," he remarked, and then added off-handedly, "I don't see your boy in here a lot, though."

Loki looked down at his daughter, defeated and uncertain. Had he completely misidentified her excuses as lies this whole time? She looked awfully upset with him, but still he couldn't help but trust his instincts that something was up. Whenever he'd questioned Aster in the past, she had always seemed to be unequivocally hiding something.

With a narrowed gaze, Loki asked the librarian one last question, "What books has my daughter been checking out?"

In his peripheral vision, Aster tensed up, and Loki felt victory soar through him; he'd certainly sussed out the issue at hand if her reaction was anything to go by.

"Oh, let me just check here-" Aksel picked up his log book and opened it to the most recent page, but Aster quickly spoke up before he could answer.

"It's nothing! Just some silly little romance novels, that's all!" Aster practically stumbled over her words as she rushed to get them out, her voice having risen an octave.

"Ah, here, the last one she checked out was The Princess and the Knight, by Anya Johandottir", Aksel elucidated.

"The Princess and the Knight?" Loki parrotted, frowning as he scratched his chin and pondered where he knew that title from. It was familiar, so he assumed he had read it before. A princess and her knight…

Oh! He had read it before. Yes, it was a romantic tale about a princess and the man that had sworn to protect her; it all flooded back to Loki, he'd checked it out multiple times before because it was just so well written, and-

Loki's thoughts stalled to a hard stop and his eyes went as wide as saucers.

It wasn't just a romantic tale. It was an erotic romantic tale.

"WHAT?" Loki shouted, his voice reverberating throughout the library and no doubt to the surrounding areas. Aster covered her ears, her face going bright red, and her eyes drilled into the floor.

Askel startled at the volume of Loki's voice, stammering incoherently in perplexity and a little bit of fear - and it wasn't very unfounded given the rage radiating off of Loki in a wave of heat.

"Do you have any idea what the contents of that book holds?" Loki snapped, grabbing Askel by the front of his collar and lifting the poor, oblivious man out of his seat.

"N-no sir!" Askel yelped, his glasses crooked on his face after the jolt of being pulled forwards.

"Books like that are not for children!" Loki seethed, before releasing the elderly man and running his hand down his face, shuddering in mortification.

The Princess and the Knight was, thankfully, on the tamer side of some of the erotic books in the Asgardian library's arsenal, but still, Loki didn't know what other books she had been reading - were they of a similar calibre of were they much, much worse.

Loki practically vibrated in horror. Some of the books he had read from this very library… he felt his heart begin to palpitate as he feared what kind of filth his daughter may have accidentally absorbed in her quest to read all the books available at her disposal.

Yeah… 'accidentally'...

Now it all made sense. She hadn't been lying, no, she'd been keeping the full truth from him though; Loki was right to trust his gut on this, he knew something had been wrong here and now he knew what. Aster had known she shouldn't be reading these types of books, she was much too young. That is why she always seemed so panicked to be caught late to her prior engagements.

Loki turned sharply to his daughter. Shame burned on her face and she still couldn't look at anything but the floor.

He knew she was getting to that kind of age when her hormones were all over the place, but he had never expected this kind of behaviour from her, of all people.

Gods, no, he really, really hoped she hadn't read Courting Chaos. That one was really bad. Probably the most explicit book in the library's collection.

Bristling with anger, though much more controlled than his emotions initially had been, Loki pinned Askel with another scathing look, "You are not to allow my daughter to check out these kinds of books ever again, do you understand?"

"Y-yes, sir! Please, my prince, I was not the one checking her books out - I never would have allowed this! It would have been the assistant aiding her, he is the one to blame!"

Loki's lip curled in disgust at the man's cowardly response, "Yes, but you are responsible for training your assistants."

Askel gulped, "I will see to it that he receives appropriate punishment and is retrained!"

"See to it that he is," Loki growled, before grabbing his daughter's wrist and leading her back out of the library. Once they were back in the hallway, Aster yanked her hand free and wiped her eyes with her sleeve as she began to speed walk away from her father.

"Not so fast," Loki spoke, his voice a lot softer with her than it was with the librarian, but it still caused Aster to halt suddenly, shoulders drawn up rigidly. He stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder, pressing it down to urge her to relax, and turned her to face him.

She still refused to look at him. Loki understood why, she was embarrassed.

Loki sighed, "Look, I'm not going to punish you. I was young once too," he left out the fact that he still read those kinds of books today, "but you really should have known better than to check those books out. They're not supposed to be read by children."

The tips of Aster's ears were as red as her cheeks, she kept her mouth tightly shut.

"Listen. If you stop reading those adult books, nobody has to know. I won't tell your mother or anyone else, I promise. Do we have a deal?"

Aster's only response was a silent nod, though she was still glaringly annoyed and unhappy.

"Good… go get changed for training and meet me at the training grounds," Loki instructed.

"No," Aster refused, "I'm going to spend time with mum and Daisy instead."

Loki fought the urge to roll his eyes as Aster whisked around and stormed off. She acted as though he had barred her from partaking in her most beloved hobby rather than reading naughty literature; at least he didn't have to worry any longer that she was up to no good or doing anything that could get herself hurt in any way.

Loki let out a drained sigh. The struggles of raising a teenager.

It was a clear, starry night in late August and Loki was sitting in the astronomy tower with his son, sifting through images in tomes about the stars and planets; the boy had taken a serious liking to all things space-related, Loki had deduced, because Kari poured through the books with more interest and wonder than had ever been present on his face when learning was involved.

"There, this one," Loki pointed down at the slightly worn page of the book, "that's Ursa Major. Do you see how the position of the stars here matches the ones in the sky?"

Kari tore his gaze away from the eyepiece of the telescope to take in the image on the paper, before looking back through the lens; he gave a soft gasp after a moment, smiling widely.

"I see it!" The boy exclaimed, "Wow, that's so cool! It looks like an animal."

"Like a bear?" Loki helpfully supplied with a smirk.

"Yeah, kinda."

"Well 'Ursa Major' means greater bear, so I should hope that is the animal it resembles," Loki pointed out.

"It's so cool, how did people manage to spot these constellations in the sky? There's just so many stars," Kari wondered aloud, staring through the eyepiece into the blackness above, filled with twinkling lights that left him in awe.

"Well, I suppose there were some people who just really loved watching the night sky, and noticed the patterns appeared more than once… then they made it their life's work to study the stars," Loki shrugged slightly, "or at least, that's how I imagine it happened. The stars were analysed long before even I was born."

"What do they look like up close?" Kari asked, tilting his head towards his father.

Loki lifted an eyebrow, "Like huge, bright, glowing balls of fire."

"So like the sun?"

"Yes, the sun itself is a star, you know."

Kari scrunched his nose up, "What? The sun isn't a star! It's the sun."

Loki exhaled in amusement, shaking his head, "If you paid attention in science class, you would know that the sun is indeed a star. The celestial body at the centre of this solar system."

Kari looked at his father with scepticism, wondering if a prank was being played on him, to the point where Loki let out an incredulous chuckle, "I'm not lying about the scientific definition of the sun, Kari."

The boy snorted and shook his head, before looking back through the telescope, his eyes scanning the skies for more constellations that mirrored the ones in the book beside him. Loki watched his son, finding a flutter of pride in himself at his boy's newfound passion for learning about astronomy. It was… fun. Being able to share these things with his boy was fun, it brought him joy to pass his knowledge along.

"Dad?" Kari murmured, his tone suggestive of the fact that he desired something he felt was probably unreasonable, but was attempting to ask for it anyway. It was the kind of tone that usually had Loki saying 'no' immediately, but he held his tongue and waited to hear what his boy wanted from him, rather than just shutting him down at once.

"Yes?"

"Do you think, maybe… like, one day, could you- could you, like, take me to space or something?" Kari stammered, just about getting his request out in a way that was comprehensible.

No. Loki wanted to squash the thought quickly, because space was dangerous and no place for a child. Any number of things could go wrong, and Loki didn't want to even risk it.

But he'd learned recently that he'd inadvertently become a bit too boring because he was always saying no to his children, and 'boring' was the last thing he wanted to be, so he sighed, taking a moment to deliberate on the question, before asking, "Why do you want to go to space?"

Kari's eyes widened, "Because it would be fun. There's so many cool things to see out there! It would be amazing to visit another planet, and see the Earth from afar, I guess." The boy's eyes shimmered with hope and optimism, and he pulled his mouth into a pout. He wasn't as skilled at utilising the pout as his youngest sister Daisy was.

But Loki also didn't want to crush that optimism.

"Perhaps one day," Loki answered, "but not any day soon. It would have to be when you're older, and also you would have to follow my every instruction if we were to go to space, understand? Is that something you could do?"

Kari nodded eagerly, "I'd do everything you say, I swear!"

"This isn't a definite yes, boy," Loki reminded him, "don't let your hopes soar too high."

"But it's not a definite no!" Kari exclaimed, grinning happily, "Dad, can you tell me about any of your adventures in space? Like, any missions you've been on? I want to hear about any times you met aliens."

Loki scoffed, "Are you sure you want to hear me prattle on about stories from my past? Usually you roll your eyes and try your best to walk away as quickly as possible."

"Yeah, but if they're space-related then I wanna know!"

"Oh, alright," Loki relented and then lifted his gaze to the night sky in thought, pondering which story would be suitable to tell his son, "hmm, well, there was this time when your uncle and I had to make a quick escape from Earth with the use of the Bifrost, except there were unforeseen circumstances when our enemy chased us through it-"

"Wait, you ran away from an enemy?" Kari inquired, lips parted in surprise.

Loki paused, giving his son a weary look, "We were caught unawares, faced with a very powerful enemy and we needed time to come up with a plan, because marching headfirst into a fight that we felt we could not win would be completely foolish."

"I guess," Kari shrugged in agreement, "who was the enemy?"

Loki opened his mouth and then closed it again. The children probably weren't ready to learn that they had an evil aunt who tried to kill Loki and his brother; he didn't much care to talk about Hela - thankfully she was trapped in Hel where she belonged.

"It doesn't matter," Loki dismissively shook his head and continued to speak before Kari could protest, "anyway, they followed us into the Bifrost and managed to knock me out of it, where I then fell into a wormhole and was spat out onto a disgusting trash planet full of garbage. And I'm not exaggerating, it was literally full of piles of garbage."

"Ew."

"Indeed. I was then captured and brought to meet a man who called himself the Grandmaster, he was… the self-proclaimed ruler of the planet and he was an absolute lunatic. He was power-mad and spoilt, but because I am incredibly charismatic and witty, I managed to charm my way into his good books and do his bidding while secretly planning my great escape," Loki explained convincingly enough. In actuality, Loki had planned to simply stay put on Sakaar for a while, mainly because he was still on the run from Thanos, and he really didn't feel up to dealing with his long-lost murderous sister, nor did he really feel like managing whatever issues he and Thor had, but he wasn't about to pile all that onto his young son.

"But what happened to Uncle Thor?" Kari asked, leaning forward with rapt attention, eager to hear this story through.

"Ah, he was knocked out of the Bifrost too! But he arrived on the planet, Sakaar, three weeks after I did. Time passed differently on that planet, it's difficult to explain. But anyway, the Grandmaster took a liking to him in a different way - he put Thor in an arena and forced him to fight the champion… which just so happened to be the Hulk."

"Huh? Why was Doctor Banner in space?" Kari looked utterly confused, and Loki had to pinch the bridge of his nose as he realised everything he said would simply breed more and more questions.

"Long story. Something happened on Earth before that - I wasn't here so I don't know the whole story, but Banner transformed into the Hulk and the Hulk decided he wanted to leave Earth, and then it turned out Banner didn't regain control for a whole two years… that must've been jarring for him," Loki murmured, "anyway, Thor and the Hulk fought, it was more or less a tie, and that's when we met Valkyrie."

Kari nodded, his mouth hanging open as he listened.

"Together, Thor and I teamed up with Banner and Valkyrie and we commandeered a ship from the Grandmaster's arsenal and piloted it through a wormhole called the Devil's- uh," Loki stalled, "we, uh, we left through the wormhole and arrived in Asgard where altogether we fought our enemy. That was the day our old home perished in flames, but… we were lucky to escape with many Asgardians, and we came to Earth, established our home in Norway where work began on the kingdom of New Asgard, and some months after that… I met your mother."

Loki was sure to leave out the details of how he tried to betray his brother one more time and ended up being zapped by the Grandmaster's obedience disk for several hours all thanks to Uncle Thor, but what Kari didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"How did you meet mom?" Kari wondered, an open and honest look on the boy's face. Loki leaned forward and patted the boy's head, brushing his hand through the dark curls.

"That's a story for another day."

"Aw, come on, dad."

Loki shook his head, "Another day, I promise. What did you think of my little space adventure story?"

Kari laughed, "Well, I think I want to meet this Grandmaster guy, he sounds funny."

"No," Loki exclaimed, incredulous and indignant, "that man is a maniac and you do not want to meet him."

Kari found his father's reaction to be funny, "What was his deal, anyway?"

Loki had wondered about the answer to that very question himself for the entirety of his stay on Sakaar, but even he could not explain the level of eccentricity that came from that strange, strange man.

"If I knew, I would tell you. He was one of the oddest people I've ever known. He talked all weird and used a lot of hand gestures and really just had the creepiest presence without even trying. In reality, he was an idiot with a lot of power. I find myself wondering what happened to him after we left that planet."

"See, that's why you should go back and see how he's doing!"

Loki grabbed his son's head, a hand on either side of his face and narrowed his eyes at the boy, "Absolutely not."

Kari snorted, his toothy grin evident that he was just teasing, and Loki rolled his eyes, secretly pushing down the hideous thoughts of ever coming face to face with the Grandmaster again.

The Summer was approaching its end and Loki was happy with how their visit to Asgard had been. It may have started off a little bit rocky with the kids expressing upset at having to keep their grand secret from their friends, but as it came to a close, Loki was content that his children's minds had shifted away from that woe.

His relationship with his son had improved greatly ever since Loki had caught the boy scaling the astronomy tower - the two of them sharing a common hobby in stargazing had led to an opportunity for Loki to spend time with Kari in a very positive way, plus his boy was now interested in hearing the stories he had to share, granted they all took place on a world other than Earth.

Aster was rather fickle. One moment she would be fine, enjoying her day as normal, and the next moment she would seem to remember that Loki put an end to her indecent hobby and would grow cold towards him. Loki wasn't worried - she would most certainly get over it when school started again, but for the moment he was glad she no longer arrived late to any plans they made.

Daisy had enjoyed every moment of Summer. The toddler found great joy in playing with her cousins and the environment in general was something she thrived in. The clear air, the blue sky, the gardens and the beautiful valley Asgard was nestled in were by far more pleasant than Avengers Tower in the bustling city of New York. Though Daisy expressed on more than one occasion that she couldn't wait to see the Avengers again, nor could she wait to watch Encanto on the television once again. That was perhaps the one downside for Daisy - Asgard had no televisions.

Thor had, thankfully, not taken revenge on Loki for his awful selection of pranks. Well, not yet at least. Loki would definitely have to watch out in the future; he did find it tremendously difficult not to laugh whenever he walked past Thor, however, because the faint green in the king's hair was still absolutely visible to all.

Magni and Modi had been delightful little apprentices throughout the Summer. Loki was proud of what they had achieved together, and he knew their skills in practical jokes would only grow. Before he, Amelia and the kids were set to leave, Loki made sure to inform his nephews furtively that they were to practise what they had learned while Loki was away. They were all too eager to agree, sending mischievous grins towards their father when he wasn't looking.

When it was finally time to return to Manhattan, Amelia joined Loki in the courtyard with their children and Thor waved them off with his family before initiating the Bifrost, sending them home to Avengers Tower. After that, the remaining days of Summer vacation rolled over quickly, and the twins prepared to enter eighth grade.

The first day back at school, Kari and Louis practically tackled each other the moment they saw the other, creating just as much a scene as many other students converging in the busy hallways. Aster and Autumn's reunion was a little more controlled and subtle, the two girls shared a long hug and then proceeded to talk about the books they had read over the Summer.

As the children filtered into their first lesson of the day, Aster and Autumn came face to face with Trevor at the door of the classroom, who they had not seen since his suspension, and were greeted to a tense few seconds and the dirtiest scowl Aster had even been on the receiving end of.

Trevor's nose still looked vaguely… wrong. It bent a slightly different way from before, it was going to look crooked for the rest of his life. Aster didn't care one way or the other, her goal had been only to stop the bully from pulling at her bra strap in the moment, the long-term repercussions hadn't even occurred, but she could safely say now as she gazed upon his wrathful expression that she was glad to have taken him down a peg.

And now he just seemed agitated that she was silently staring at him in return, as if he assumed his glowering would have intimidated her even slightly. He had no such luck, Aster could not be intimidated by this fool standing before her.

Without exchanging any words, Trevor slipped into the classroom first with an angry scoff, and Aster merely shrugged at Autumn when she looked at Aster with concern. It seemed that even a whole Summer wouldn't be enough time for Trevor to sit down and ponder in retrospection about just how stupid he had been.

When Aster took her seat and began pulling her stationary out of her bag to prepare for the imminent lesson, she was quickly reminded of the strange interaction she and Charlotte had had on the last day of seventh grade when the aforementioned girl walked into the classroom and looked at her briefly before taking the seat directly behind her and Autumn.

With this, Aster expected a series of agitating remarks from under Charlotte's breath, and maybe some annoying actions like kicking the back of her seat or tugging on her hair, but Charlotte did none of those things for the entire lesson. In fact, Aster could feel Charlotte's eyes on her the entire time.

Now that was unsettling. Aster began to wonder if something may have happened over the Summer for the girl she'd known only as a mean bully to suddenly drop all the attitude she usually possessed.

Towards the end of the lesson, there was a tap on Aster's shoulder. Her first assumption was that she had been wrong and that Charlotte's attitude was about to rear its ugly head, but as Aster cautiously turned to glance over her shoulder at the blonde girl, her attention was drawn down to the little slip of paper being held out to her between two fingers.

Aster blinked, glancing from Charlotte's face to the folded note in her hand, and caught sight of Charlotte's eye-roll before she prompted Aster to take it from her and read it with an expectant look. Aster finally did so, silently looking to Autumn, who had noticed the movement out of the corner of the eye and was now staring at the note with intrigue.

She unfolded the note and read the scribbled cursive in pink ink.

Meet me in the library at lunch. Alone.

Alarm bells seemed to go off in Autumn's mind, because the redhead gave Aster a wide-eyed look that seemed to say 'this is clearly some sort of trap,' but Aster was nothing if not incredibly curious, and she also didn't think Charlotte could try anything nasty in the middle of the school library without drawing a lot of unwanted attention.

Aster peered back, captured Charlotte's gaze, and gave a single nod of confirmation.

"Are you sure about this, Aster?"

Autumn had been trying to dissuade her best friend from meeting Charlotte of all people alone in the library ever since she'd received that note in class. It was too suspicious for Autumn, the idea that Charlotte would stop her villainous ways for no reason - there was something entirely unusual about it.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Aster protested as the two of them walked through the corridors towards the school library.

"Ugh, I don't know, pour a carton of milk over you? Again."

Autumn had a point, but Aster didn't think Charlotte would try something so blatant ever again; ever since that first day, Charlotte's mean-girl remarks had been more subtle and on the verbal side of bullying rather than the physical. But this was the first time Charlotte had ever asked to meet with her somewhere.

Aster's curiosity was getting the better of her.

"You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat," Autumn stated as she wagged a pointer finger, as if reading her friend's mind.

Aster stopped at the entrance of the library, seeing Charlotte standing on the far side of the room in a covert corner, looking out the window as she waited. "But satisfaction brought it back," Aster said with a smile.

With that, she left Autumn waiting worriedly at the entrance and walked in, crossing the room and passing various bookcases full of published works that consisted of academic research volumes to fictional novels, many of which Aster had already worked her way through in the pursuit of knowledge and entertainment. Her steps were silent as she approached Charlotte, whose back was turned, and Aster came to a stop about a yard away from the girl, waiting for her to notice her presence.

Charlotte seemed to sense the proximity, because she turned her head slightly and promptly jumped when she saw Aster in her peripheral vision. The girl's icy blue eyes very quickly narrowed in a glare and she grumbled, "Don't sneak up on me, weirdo!"

Aster looked unimpressed, crossing her arms as she scrutinised the blonde girl, "Let's just cut straight to it. Why did you wish to meet me alone in the library?"

Charlotte sighed, glancing around to make sure nobody was nearby or eavesdropping before regarding Aster with a drawn out, silent judgemental look, looking her up and down.

"If you invited me here just to glare at me, I think I'll just walk away," Aster made the movement to turn and Charlotte protested.

"Wait!" She huffed, quickly brushing her hair back behind her ears before bluntly declaring, "Trevor's scared of you."

Aster stared at Charlotte, still unsure of where exactly this subject was going, and lifted an eyebrow to prompt her to continue.

Charlotte rolled her eyes, "Trevor is a dick, the whole class thinks so, but out of everyone in there, there's only two girls he's dared to mess with. You," Charlotte pointed at her, then turned her finger on herself, "and me."

Aster blinked. She never actually knew that Trevor picked on Charlotte the same way he picked on her, "Okay."

"And you punched him in the face."

"Yes, I did."

"And he's scared of you."

"What's your point?" Aster asked.

Charlotte rolled her eyes again, "Oh my god, are you dense?"

"Perhaps you should just speak plainly, and then I wouldn't have to play a guessing game," Aster suggested frankly.

Charlotte's nose scrunched up in a way that suggested she was agitated, "Listen. Trevor hasn't learned his lesson after he got suspended. The first thing he did when he walked past me this morning was slap my ass, do you even know how humiliating and degrading that is?"

"Maybe you should punch him in the face instead. You might punch his nose back into the right position," Aster proposed.

"I can't go around punching people, because I'll get suspended! You got let off by complete fluke," Charlotte haughtily snapped, as if it was the stupidest thing she had ever heard.

"I got let off because my mother is amazing," Aster proudly responded, "so, what are you suggesting then? Are you asking me to punch him again? He's already scared of me, as you said, so why would I bother punching him unless he starts messing with me again?"

Charlotte grinded her teeth, "I'm not asking you to punch him again. What I'm saying is that we-" she cut herself off, crossing her arms like a kid throwing a temper tantrum as she averted her gaze away from Aster for a brief moment, shaking her head silently; she looked like the next words out of her mouth were going to be practically abhorrent, "What I'm saying is that we should be friends, that way Trevor will leave me alone."

Aster was regrettably stunned into silence. The moments that followed Charlotte's proclamation were awkward for the both of them.

"Oh come on, is it that shocking to you?" Charlotte mumbled.

"Yes, actually. Why would you want to be friends with me? You hate me."

"Well I hate Trevor more. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. We can be frenemies."

"Yeah, that doesn't really count if my frenemy ends up stabbing me in the back at some point," Aster retorted. Again, she made a move as if to leave, but this time Charlotte lunged forward and grabbed her arm.

"Wait!" She exclaimed in a hushed voice, and then a defeated look passed over her face, "Please."

Aster perked up, "What was that?"

"You heard me," Charlotte sneered, "I'm desperate here, being friends with you is the only thing that'll get Trevor off my back. I'm willing to swallow my pride and be your friend."

Aster gave Charlotte a dirty look, "Yeah, that's all well and good for you but what do I get out of this exactly? I get to be your bodyguard and in return you insult me to my face every single day?"

"What? No. You're not going to be my bodyguard, idiot. And I'm not going to insult you to your face everyday."

The irony of Charlotte's words were not lost on either of them, and the blonde girl quickly backed up and tried again, "I mean, I don't need constant babysitting, you don't even need to interact with me all that much if you don't want to. Just let me sit with you at lunch and join you with group projects."

"Again, I ask, what do I get out of this deal?" Aster inquired, she wasn't the type to agree to something like this if there was nothing in it for her.

"Well firstly, I'll stop being mean to you. And I'll tell Nadia and Megan to stop being mean to you too."

Nadia and Megan were part of Charlotte's girl gang, her 'friends', though Aster would use that term loosely since any interaction she'd ever witnessed between them and Charlotte was described more accurately as 'dutiful acquaintances'. There was no warmth between them, and their verbal nastiness towards Aster had never been quite on Charlotte's level anyway.

"That's not good enough. All three of you need to stop being mean to Autumn too, you always pick on her and make fun of her red hair, glasses and freckles," Aster declared.

Charlotte rolled her eyes yet again - it seemed to be something she was fond of doing, "Fine, whatever. So do we have a deal?"

Nothing if not the opportunist, Aster responded, "No. What other perks does our 'friendship' offer me?"

"Huh?"

"You said firstly, which implies there's a secondly."

Charlotte tutted, "Right. Well, you like Harry Potter, right? You know that Harry Potter store down on Broadway, the really massive one?" The blonde girl stifled a smirk when Aster's ears seemed to perk up at the mention of her favourite book series. "Well one of my uncles knows the owner. I can get you gift vouchers to spend there whenever you want, uh, within reason of course."

Aster lifted her gaze up as she imagined all the many Harry Potter themed goodies she could buy with this opportunity. Even though her family was really quite wealthy, she and Kari got a very restricted allowance, they still had to save up their pocket money if they wanted to buy themselves more expensive items, and Aster spent a lot of money on books and pretty clothes. She wasn't as bad as Kari though, who spent all his money on candy and video games at the first chance he got.

Meeting Charlotte's gaze again, Aster hummed and eventually said, "I'm going to have to sleep on it."

Charlotte didn't seem overly satisfied with this outcome, but she nodded anyway and finally allowed Aster to leave. She met up again with Autumn outside, who immediately jumped up and began asking plenty of questions; Aster vaguely explained everything Charlotte had told her, including the promise that Charlotte would stop with the mean-girl act and the Harry Potter Store gift vouchers she seemed confident she could get.

Autumn's mouth hung open from the very beginning when Aster initially told her of Charlotte's desire to become her 'friend', but by the end Autumn was shaking her head and frowning, "I don't know about this, Aster… what if this is all some trick?"

"Don't worry… I'm pretty good at spotting a lie. Charlotte was being truthful, I think she really just doesn't want Trevor bothering her and in her mind, the easiest way to put Trevor off is for her to become friends with the one who taught him a lesson," Aster explained, "I told her I'm going to sleep on it, there's someone I want advice from first."

At the end of the school day, Aster and Kari stood in the parking lot of the school waiting to be picked up - Amelia had texted them and let them know that she and the driver were going to be a little bit late, which was fine with Aster, because she was unleashing the events in the library upon her twin brother to get him up to speed.

"That's crazy. That's so crazy. She wants to be friends with you because she's scared of Trevor and Trevor's scared of you? Wow," Kari laughed, shaking his head, "I hope you told her to shove off. If she wanted your friendship, she shouldn't have made fun of you on the first day of school."

"I haven't said anything to her yet. I want advice first," Aster revealed.

"Oh, right. You gonna talk to dad about it?" Kari asked curiously.

"No," Aster frowned, giving her brother a look, "I wanted advice from you."

Kari blinked, "Wha- me?"

"Yes, you. I want to know what you think."

"But… Why me?" The idea that his sister, who had much better grades and was the designated smart and mature sibling, would want advice from him was simply unbelievable.

"Well, out of everyone in my life, I've known you the longest," Aster gave her brother a smile and he snorted, nodding his head in agreement, "plus, you know Charlotte pretty well too."

"Alright, I'm gonna be brutally honest here. Charlotte is-" Kari quickly glanced over his shoulder to make sure there were no grown-ups around, "an absolute bitch. She's horrible for literally no reason, my question is why should you defend her from Trevor? Why not let Trevor mess with her until the end of time? It's kind of what she deserves anyway."

"I don't think any girl deserves to be assaulted by a dumb boy," Aster murmured.

"Oh- well when you put it like that," Kari rolled his eyes, "but why can't she fight her own battles, huh? Why does she think she can come to the one she bullies for protection?"

Aster sighed, "I don't know. But she says if we let her into the friend group, she and her minions will stop bullying me and Autumn, and apparently she can get me gift vouchers for the Harry Potter Store."

Just like that, on the drop of a dime, Kari seemed to switch gears.

"Are you serious? She can get us gift vouchers for the Harry Potter Store? Well did you say yes? Aster, please, I need one of those vouchers-"

Aster interrupted her brother with a series of giggles, "You're the definition of a material girl, you know that, right?"

"Oh please, don't tell me you didn't consider her offer on that promise alone."

Kari knew her well, but she didn't let it show on her face that he was correct; Aster shook her head with a knowing smile and then sighed, "I'm considering it if it helps get the bullies off of Autumn's back. She gets a lot of awful remarks for her appearance, it doesn't help her self-confidence."

"The girls are just jealous that she's prettier than them," Kari shrugged, prompting Aster to smirk at him silently for an extended period of time, "What?"

"Do you like Autumn?" Aster asked, that irritating smirk not faltering for even a minute.

"What? No- I don't like her like that, shut up," Kari rolled his eyes, "I think it's worth agreeing to Charlotte's deal and seeing how things pan out. If she goes back to her old ways of being a bitch then you can always just say screw it and let Trevor chew her out."

Aster sighed, "I suppose you're right."

The next day, upon meeting Charlotte in the hallway outside their first class together, Aster silently gave her a nod - a simple gesture that Charlotte understood for what it was, an agreement to the terms she had set out. Immediately, the furrow in Charlotte's eyebrows unwinded, and her expression went remarkably lax in a way Aster had never really seen before. Then, she smiled, and Aster was sure that somewhere in the world, a pig had grown wings and taken off flying.

I was giggling hysterically while writing that bit with Aster and Loki. I'm actually dying to read your comments :')

Also, there will be more of Daisy in the next chapter, I promise! ;) I know you all love that adorable little bean!