Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or any other recognizable material. I am not profiting from any of this and am simply writing for enjoyment.

As Loki and Thor were walking down the busy New York street to the place Odin was last seen, they conversed in their mother tongue, Asgardian.

In my defense, I expanded the Asgardians' palette for pastimes.

Yes! You did! And how? With self indulgent flattery. And you didn't even attempt to conceal it!

Loki had just started his retort, when a teenage girl tapped Thor's arm. The two turned to inspect the golden haired interrupter. She had a blush on her cheeks and her eyes darted between the two brothers with a small, shy yet pleasant smile. She held her hands behind her back and was bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"Speak, child," Thor prompted.

"Well, you see, sir- or rather sirs- you see, I know you both from the news, you are Norse gods, aren't you? I overheard you talking- oh! Look at all those pockets on your jacket, sir, that is so cool! Anyway, I had overheard you…"

Loki sighed loudly. "Get on to the point, child, we are preoccupied and do not have time for such jabberwocky."

"My apologies, sir- you are familiar with Lewis Carroll?"

Loki twitched his eyebrows, 'Well cultured for a lass.'

"Please, tell us your original request," Thor hinted.

"Sorry, so I overheard you talking. You were talking in a dialect of Norwegian, were you not? I had supposed that you would speak Old Norse, which is more like Icelandic is it not?"

Thor chuckled and Loki allowed himself a smirk.

The teen glanced away.

"That was a rather sound hypothesis, child, but it was incorrect. Think about it, there is Old English, Middle English and Modern English, languages evolve over time no matter what. And since you associate Norse gods with old Viking literature, which was written in Icelandic and with the Viking tongue of Old Norse. But why would we as Asgardians, still very much alive, not change our language with time as well?" Thor explained.

The teen nodded. "One more question."

"Yes?"

"Am I pronouncing 'Mjölnir' correctly?"

Thor beamed, as he always did when reminded of his hammer. "Yes, actually, excellent pronunciation, how did you know to roll your 'r's?"

"How did you know Norwegian in the first place?" Loki quipped.

The girl's cheek lifted to a smirk which quickly dropped. "I know Norwegian, among other things."

Loki raised his eyebrows.

"Sorry, thank you for your time." The girl tipped her head and started to wander off when Loki grabbed her attention again. "Not bad, midgardian, keep up the studying, it shall do you good someday."

The girl gave a small smile and went on her way.

Loki spotted the look Thor gave him. "What? It was simply advice from a scholar to a student."

Thor chuckled, "So you do have a soft spot for humans."

Loki glared at his brother as they continued on their way.