Chapter 9

Thor throw a cautious look on his brother. Loki/Tony was sitting next to him on a bench near the small playground in Central Park. The God of Mischief hadn't said one word since the incident in the kitchen that morning. And now he was just staring at the playing kids with a bored look in his eyes.

"Daddy! Daddy! Look! I've made a castle again!"

Frigga came running towards the bench, her clothes, hands and face fully covered in sand.

Thor turned to his daughter and smiled.
"It's lovely, sweetheart" he said after seeing the piles of sand in the sandpit. Thor never really knew what to say to his daughter, but Frigga had grown used to that so she didn't expect her father to say anything else. The little girl timidly looked at Loki. She remembered how he'd been really excited about her castle. At least, Odin had been…

Loki looked up and found Frigga staring at him like she was expecting something from him. The young king's eyes fixed on the piles of sand in the sandpit. A smug smile appeared on his face before he turned to Frigga again.

"Be careful your Daddy doesn't destroy it with an alien ship… He's rather good at that…"

Frigga didn't fully understand, but she knew Loki had said something rude. Her smile dropped, she turned around and ran back to the sandpit while she desperately tried to hide her tears.

Thor clenched his teeth and turned to Loki. The young king didn't even pay attention to his daughter anymore!

"What is your problem!" he hissed.

Loki didn't move. "You!" he simply said.

"Is this because of what Jane was talking about… the Tesseract…." Thor asked after a short silence. He really had to try his best not to shout.

Loki bit his lip. So Thor had noticed. Turned out he wasn't as stupid as Loki thought he was… the young king considered his words before answering. With a deep sigh he turned to his brother, completely hiding the fear in his eyes.

"Excuse me if my behaviour bothers you, I'm only being held 'prisoner' on a lousy world while Asgard doesn't have a proper king. And I don't think I need to tell you the dangers that imbecile of a Stark in bringing on himself and the rest of Midgard by trying to make a new Tesseract…" Loki answered coldly.

"Don't play with me, Loki. I know there's something else you're not telling me…"

Loki rolled his eyes and looked away.
"Oh yes, because you know me so well…" he said.

"You would be surprised…" Thor muttered just loud enough for his brother to hear it.

Loki didn't answer. Somewhere, tugged away deeply inside his mind, a voice warned him he had to stop Stark. During the last five years the young king had developed some kind of king-conscience which always came to the surface whenever the nine realms could be in danger…
Again it instinctively advised him to control the use and development of that much energy. Loki knew better than anyone else what the Tesseract was capable of…

But on the other hand… If Stark succeeded he would possess an unlimited power source which could be used to solve the energy problem the earth suffered from. To accomplish that, the power source had to be in good hands and Loki knew that that was as good as impossible, especially for humans… They were just such pathetic creatures!

Loki didn't really know what to think of it so he decided to follow Jane's research which stated that succeeding was almost impossible…

Small raindrops woke the young king from his thoughts. Loki looked at the sky before he threw Thor a accusing look. Thor pulled up his shoulders innocently.
"What? This is not me!" he said before getting up to call Frigga.

The little girl ran towards her father.
"The rain is going to destroy my castle, Daddy!" she said sadly. Thor looked at the sandpit. The first big raindrops were starting to make holes in the sand piles.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I can't really help you with that… you can build a new castle tomorrow… We'll make one togeth…"

Thor went silent when an idea sprang to his mind. He turned to Loki and threw him a meaningful look. The young king didn't understand at first, but after Thor gestured to the sandpit, he couldn't keep a surprised look of his face.

"Since when am I allowed to use magic for something else then an illusion?" Loki asked.

"Since I asked you to use it just this once!" Thor answered harshly.

Loki pulled up his eyebrows.
"It's only sand…" he said with a bored expression covering his face.

"Now, Loki! You've got to set something right after all!" Thor said gesturing at his daughter who was looking between the two men, not fully understanding what they were talking about.

Loki sighed and stretched out his arm. A green glance formed a small, transparent dome over the piles of sand, stopping the rain from destroying it.

Frigga watched in amazement. Afterwards she turned to Loki, eyes full of admiration.

"Happy?" Loki asked Thor, but it was Frigga who answered. The little girl nodded fiercely and suppressed the desire to hug the man in front of her.

"Yes! Thank you very much!" she said with a huge smile covering her cute face.

Thor nervously tapped with his fingers on the steering wheel. They had made to the car just in time. The sky had turned dark grey and the clouds tore open like the jaws of a hungry dragon. It was bucketing down and the streets slowly flooded. The traffic was terrible, but Thor mentally thanked Jane for taking a taxi to Stark Tower. He wouldn't have survived the walk home in this weather…

Frigga was sitting on the back seat. Because they weren't moving, she'd lost her seatbelt – ignoring her father's protest – and was now sitting on her knees starring at Loki's neck. The young king tried hard not to turn around and shout at her, but the constant stinging feeling in his neck was making that quite a challenge.

After another five minutes of not moving, Frigga finally opened her mouth.
"How did you do that?" she asked in astonishment.

Loki sighed.
"I farted and used my magical fart to make the rain disappear…" he answered without looking at the girl.

Frigga frowned.
"Really?" she asked after a short silence.

Loki couldn't to smile.
"Oh yes of course!" he immediately answered.

Thor smiled and shook his head.
"No, Frigga! He's trying to be funny… and I thought we asked you not to speak to Frigga!" Thor said.

"I'm only answering a question.. "Loki answered childishly.

Thor didn't react. Instead he turned around and said "Frigga, sit down and don't forget your seatbelt!" for the eight time.

Ten minutes later the traffic started to move again and Thor was finally able to drive the last five minutes to their home.

Not able to stop trembling, Thor opened the front door. Even the few seconds they'd needed to run from the car to the apartment had been enough to get soaked to the bone. Frigga's smile seemed to be washed away while she ran inside to turn on the heat, leaving a trail of small puddles behind her. Loki slowly followed. The moment he entered he changed into his own appearance again which resulted in fully dried clothes. Thor sighed and closed the door. Sometimes he had to admit that Loki's magic could come in quite handy.

The two brothers walked into the living room and found Jane who just put a big towel over her daughter's shaking shoulders. She looked up and smiled sympathetically at her husband.

"You never guess what happened!" she said sarcastically while she walked over to Thor and handed him another towel. "I arrived at Stark's and you know what he said: "The Energy Converter is broken again! Sorry, Jarvis' fault." I'm quite sure Tony tried to fix the damn thing himself instead of letting Jarvis handle it… typical!"

"So you got home early.." Thor finished for Jane.

Jane nodded. She threw a quick look on Loki before realising that giving him a towel had no use. The young king just ignored her and sat down on the couch. Jane watched him and bit her lip. Was he still upset about whatever happened that morning or was she just imagining things? It wasn't like Loki was the most social being in the house… Jane looked at her husband, but Thor just pulled up is shoulders and left to get new clothes.

"Mummy! Mummy!" Frigga called out when her mother had put away the third towel. "Loki saved my castle with magic!"

Jane's eyes grew big. She turned to her husband who just returned from their bedroom and threw him a meaningful look like she was trying to say: "You let him use magic?"

Thor rolled with his eyes like he said: "it was nothing…"

Frigga didn't notice the silent conversation between her parents and just got more and more exited. She ran towards the sofa, staring up at the God of Mischief who did his best to keep ignoring the little girl.

"How did you doooooo iiiiit!" Frigga exclaimed while putting on her cutest expression possible.

Loki grinned.
"I already told you! I used my magical fart!" he whispered.

Jane frowned and pulled her daughter away from the cough.
"What? Soon she believes that farting is magical!" she said to Loki.

"Oh but it is!" the young king answered.

Jane pulled up her eyebrows. Was Loki actual capable of making jokes?
"I'm quite sure that there's nothing magical about farting!"

"How would you know, wiseacre?" Loki asked in challenging tone. He was starting to enjoy this – completely idiotic – conversation. Also Frigga couldn't keep a smile of her face while her eyes darted between her mother and Loki.

Jane crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"What did you just call me?" she asked with a smile.

Loki didn't respond. Instead he just said back and grinned from ear to ear.

"I'm a scientist." Jane continued. "If farting was magical, I would have noticed."

"Maybe Asgardian farts are magical!" Loki said while he jumped to his feet.

Jane looked at the young king in amazement. He actually succeeded to make her laugh about something absolutely foolish. Why was she even having this discussion. It didn't make any sense!

"Oh, and I probably should warn you: Thor's farts are extremely magical!" Loki continued with an - obviously fake - serious expression on his face.

Jane couldn't hold it anymore. She laughed and nodded.
"That, on the other hand, I did notice…" she said with a smile. Frigga giggled and pointed at her father who was watching the scene in astonishment.

"Hey! I'm still here!" he said.

"I'm only stating facts, dear brother…" Loki said with a huge grin while he walked past Thor to go to his room. Jane and Thor watched the young king in shock.

Jane just couldn't believe the young hadn't bitten Frigga's head of. He had been… nice and … funny… Maybe she's misjudged him…

Thor on the other hand had grown used to his brother's weird behaviour. At least as far as it was possible to grown used to that… but the scene he'd just witnessed made him think of long forgotten times. Loki almost seemed like his old self. Like his brother who was always in for a joke, who always made everybody laugh about something silly when no one had any reason to be happy…

A long forgotten memory came to the surface. It was a time The God of Thunder hadn't thought about in a very long time, but he never wanted to forget…

(MEMORY)

"Oh, get over it, Thor! It not the end of the universe!" Sif called out while picking an apple from the enormous fruit bowl that was standing against the wall of the room.
"You want an apple?" She asked without looking at the prince of Asgard.

"Easy for you to say! You got away! And yes, I want an apple." Thor answered harshly.

Sif rolled with her eyes and threw a big green apple towards Thor who never got it because it was caught in mid-air by another hand.

Loki walked in while he took a bite of the apple.
"Oh no, my beloved brother is jealous of a girl… " the young prince said dramatically through a mouth full of apple.

"It's not funny, Loki!" Thor groaned.

"My apologies, oh great leader of failure!" Loki sneered.

Thor picked up a pillow at threw it Loki's way, but the pillow just flew right through his body. A second later the illusion dissolved in the air and Loki appeared to be standing near the fruit bowl.

"Oops, you missed me!" he said with a smile. Thor scowled and threw another pillow towards his brother, but again the pillow only hit thin air.

"You really should learn how to aim…" a bored voice sounded behind Thor's chair. The young prince looked up and saw his brother standing behind him, grinning from ear to ear waving around his apple. At the other end of the room Sif couldn't help but laughing.

"Seriously, Thor. Loki's been standing there from the beginning and you didn't notice!" she said with a smile.

Thor blushed heavily and watched his brother walk across the room.
"Wait until I'll possess the power of the Mighty Mjölnir!" the blond haired prince said. "Then I will be the strongest! Even your magic tricks or your female warrior complex won't be so impressive anymore!"

Loki just ignored his brother and continued.
"No wonder you almost got us killed today…" he said with a challenging tone.

The blond prince said back in his chair and crossed his arms.
"I mean it, Loki! In case you forgot: we're grounded for a month!" Thor exclaimed angrily.

"Correction:" Loki started while he made himself comfortable in a big chair on the other side of the large, crackling fire in the middle of the room. "You are grounded for a month!"

The blue eyed prince looked up in surprise. "What!" he called out.

Loki grinned and took another bite from the apple.

"Don't be so surprised." Sif started while she sat down in a chair close to Thor's. "In case you forgot: It was me who saved your ass today…"

"And it was me who got us out in time!" Loki added.

"It wasn't my fault!" Thor defended himself. Loki and Sif shared a look.

"Of course not, brother. You just accidentally happened to bump in to the leader of the pack…" Loki answered innocently.

Thor picked up another pillow and threw it, over the fire, towards his brother. But the young prince stretched out his arm, stopped the pillow in mid-air and catapulted it right in Thor's face. Sif couldn't prevent a small giggle to leave her lips.

Just at that moment, two other Asgardians entered the room. The smallest, Hogun, casted a suspicious look on Loki when he stopped the pillow.

The young prince noticed and sighed. He threw the core of the apple in one perfect bow in the empty bowl next to the fruit bowl on the other end of the room and fixed his eyes on the Vanaheimer.

"Oh, come on, Hogun. It's only a pillow… it won't bite…" he said with a smile.

Hogun didn't show any emotion, not that he ever did…
"My apologies, my prince. It's just the magic that makes me feel uncomfortable." he said.

Loki's eyes turned dark for a moment. From all his friends, Hogun had always been the one to question him…
"Your Queen practices magic, you better have care how you speak!" the young prince answered bitterly.

Hogun bowed his head. "My apologies my prince…" he said.

Thor who could sense his brother was getting angry, quickly changed the subject. He put aside the pillow which had just hit him in the face, turned to the second newcomer and asked: "Any news from the infirmary, Volstagg?"

Volstagg's expression turned sad. "It seems Fandral was poisoned by the wolf's bite. The nurses don't know when he's going to wake up…

Sadness spread across the room. Loki looked around. He really hated sad faces!

"Oh come on, guys!" he called out, hoping to break the tension. "We all know Fandral! He's too stubborn and self-obsessed to die like that. Besides, he's going to leave a million weeping girls behind, all fighting over him. And who's going to have to take care of that? I'm not looking forward to keeping a million girls from ripping each other to pieces…"

Sif forced herself not to smile. Instead she threw her untouched apple towards the young prince and said: "Girls aren't like that at all! You know nothing of women!"

Loki caught the apple swift-handed and threw Sif a flirty grin.
"Oh really, enlighten me, Lady Sif!" he said sarcastically.

Sif opened her mouth in awe.
"Girls are not that naïve! You don't just buy our love, you earn it!" she said superciliously.

The others in the room eagerly followed the conversation.

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Thor asked with a smile.

Sif pulled up her eyebrows.
"You have to impress us…" she said with fake conceit.

The two brother shared a look and nodded.

"Like this, you mean…" Loki said while he made a small movement with his hand. Five little, sparkling butterflies appeared in the fire and fluttered towards Sif. The girl warrior immediately jumped behind her chair in an effort to escape the dangerously hot wings.

"Lokiiiiii! Don't!" she shouted, but she couldn't hide her smile.

Everyone – except for Hogun of course – laughed at the side of Lady Sif running across the room trying to fight off the fire butterflies.

Thor looked at his brother. They both knew Loki was going to pay for this, but at the moment they had way to much fun think about that.

(END MEMORY)

Thor smiled. He hadn't thought of that moment for a long time. He looked up and saw Jane pushing an exited and laughing Frigga too her room to get some dry clothes. Loki had done it again. He'd seen a sad face and turned it into a smile again.

"Thor, honey, I'm sorry, but I didn't feel like cooking tonight so I ordered Chinese. I hope that's okay with you…" Jane shouted from Frigga's room.

"Of course, sweetheart!" he shouted back.

Another laugh sounded through the house. It was Jane's.
"That poor feller is gonne be soaked because of me…" Jane said. "Poor guy…"

Hope you liked it (that memory came rather spontanious...;) )

Please review :)