Hi everyone.

I cannot express in words how ashamed I am to make you wait so damn long. I am so sorry! I suppose the only excuse I have is that life, death and everything in between has been working around the clock to keep me busy. I'm in my first year of university and things didn't always go as planned. It takes a lot of getting used to, but I suppose many of you know that. But summer vacation has started and even though writing didn't go as swiftly as I desired, I just had to get you guys a chapter, so here you go. I do have quite some exams in August and September (I failed them throughout the year, I have to them over, so sorry), so I'll have to start studying pretty soon, but I promise, I SWEAR, I will try to write in between studying.

Writing this fic has been amazing so far and I love everything about it, but most of all, I love all of you guys! You are the best readers someone can wish for! Your feedback, good or bad, keeps me going and infinitely inspires me. I truly wish I could give every single one you a hundred big hugs!

Guys! You're brilliant!

Thank you so much!

Now, I won't keep you any longer, please ENJOY!

Chapter 60

Loki stormed in Thor's chambers. "Seven years!" he exclaimed. "He's not even trying!"

Thor slowly followed his angry brother inside. When Jane and Frigga had entered as well, eagerly greeted by an overenthusiastically Prince, he closed the door.

"Seven years is better than nothing, Loki…," he tried, but his brother was too angry to listen.

"Seven years is nothing and he knows it! You know just how hard he'll make it for me!" Loki shouted back. "This is pathetic! An inspection every two days? Does he think I'm hiding an army in my chambers?"

Thor growled and rubbed his forehead. "Loki! You agreed with his terms, you swore an oath… Getting all worked up about it won't get you anywhere!"

"Just try to make the best of the situation," Jane added. Loki turned to her, wanting to shout something in return, but the young mother's angry face shut him up.

Thor took step forward and put one hand on his brother's shoulder. "Loki, your body still needs to heal… Try to rest…"

But Loki furiously shook off Thor's hand, threw an angry scowl on the white jumping form of Prince at his feet and marched towards the couch.

"I can rest when I'm dead!" he answered while sitting down and putting his feet on the low coffee table in front of him. Thor calmly made his way to the couch as well, pushed Loki's feet of the table and bend over his brother. His bright blue eyes were coloured with a for Loki new expression, which he could only blame on the six years of parenting.

"That could be sooner than you expected if you keep behaving like this, Loki!"

Loki wanted to shout something in return, but was interrupted by the sudden urge to sneeze. Thor, who noticed the danger one second too late got the full blast in his face. The God of Thunder froze for a second and then slowly backed away.

"Try to cover your mouth when you're sneezing!" Jane shouted with a smile. "And Thor, it's not very effective as a face scrub either… I checked numerous times with Frigga!"

Thor nodded and grinned stupidly while trying to figure out the best way to clean off his face without messing up his immensely expensive, custom made, silky and yet sturdy outfit. Loki on the other hand had no idea what'd just hit him. Of course he had sneezed before, but never like this. His eyes were watery and he felt as if breathing wasn't going as swiftly as he desired. A cold shiver ran down his spine.

"How am I supposed to proof him anything if he's already made up his mind?" Loki said, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling.

"Simple…," Jane said. "Make him change his mind!"

Loki sighed, closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. He was tired. A soft yelp made him open his eyes, only to stare into the bright blue orbs of the silver wolf cub that had crawled into his lap.

"What?" Loki asked when Prince kept staring at him.

"Prince missed you very much…," a voice sounded and Loki shifted his gaze to the worn out little girl standing behind Prince, just in front of the couch. A soft and sad smile played on her lips. With a lot of effort Frigga managed to pull Prince of Loki's lap, although the wolf kept trying to jump back on the couch. "I really missed you too…," Frigga added almost shyly.

Loki couldn't help but smile.

"You'll stay this time, right?" Frigga asked, sounding more desperate than she initially meant. Prince loudly barked in agreement. Loki sighed, knowing he was no match for two big pairs of big blue puppy eyes.

"Yes…," he finally said, although he seriously doubted how much truth there would be to his promise in the future.

Frigga smiled and crawled on the couch, wrapping her arms around her uncle. Prince immediately followed her example and excitedly jumped into Loki's lap once more, eagerly trying to wriggle himself in the space in between Loki's and Frigga's bodies. Just when Frigga closed her eyes, ready to fall asleep on Loki's shoulder after what probably had been the worst weeks of her life, she was disturbed by a loud knock on the front door.

Thor cautiously opened the door. Lord Atlas emotionless stared inside the room. "I came to inform Loki that his chambers have been inspected. He is free to move in his own chambers again."

Thor nodded. "Thank you, Lord Atlas," he said while attempting to close the door again, but the Lord quickly added: "And I also want to remind him of the inspection that will follow within two days from now and so on…"

Thor grinded his teeth, but tried his best to keep a smile on his face. "Yes, thank you for that reminder, Lord Atlas… We'll take it from here…"

"I do recommend Loki to not give us any reason…"

"Good day, Lord Atlas!" Thor interrupted while smashing the door closed. Everyone stared at Thor for a couple of seconds. The God of Thunder cleared his throat and turned to his daughter.

"Don't you ever close the door on a superior like that, Frigga! Daddy just gave the bad example!"

-xxx-

Tiredly Loki dragged himself through the hallways of the palace, finally going back to his own chambers. Although he tried his best to keep his head up, if only to show the staring eyes around him that he didn't care, his tired mind kept shutting down and Loki had to rely only on the strength in his legs to get him to his destination.

Just a few more meters… he thought, while trying to block out everything else. He only wanted to go to sleep. And afterwards he'd finally put on some of his own clean clothes. Maybe that would make him feel better, because ever since he'd left Thor's chambers, that odd, cold yet hot feeling had returned to his body. His muscles were naging, his head was pounding and he had an awful taste in his mouth.

Loki sighed, rubbed his forehead and pushed the door open. He made straight for the bed and lay down, only to realise he couldn't use his magic to close the door from his bed. So with a lot of effort he dragged himself back to the door, closed it and returned to his bed. His head had barely touched the pillow when he sank into a deep, yet restless sleep.

-xxx-

With a start, Loki woke up, breathing heavily, sweating under his blankets. The sun was high in the sky and brightly lit up his chambers, but Loki couldn't care less. He still felt tired. His body was aching and the bad feeling hadn't disappeared, if anything, it'd only got worse. Loki rolled on his side and sighed while moaning into his pillow. Why did he feel so bad? It wasn't like anything he'd felt before and it certainly never lasted for so long, but now…. Now he couldn't even breath properly.

With a lot of effort Loki dragged himself out of the bed towards his bathroom. Maybe a shower would help. Only then he noticed just how empty his room was. His table, which was normally covered in books, parchment, research of years, was now empty. The same counted for the other tables in the room. Besides that, all his shelves had been wiped clean. No more veils, no more potions, and no more books but the few childeren's books his mother had left behind.

"They took everything…," Loki whispered to himself, while a new anger took over his tired mind. He wanted to scream, throw something, just be angry, but he felt weaker than ever before. Loki sighed and rested his back against the wall. He sighed and rubbed his forehead. Tears of anger were forcing their way through his eyes, but Loki pushed them back. There was nothing he could do but wait… And so he sauntered into the bathroom and removed his dirty hospital clothing. While the water started flowing, Loki looked at his reflection in the mirror. He absolutely didn't like what he saw. His skin was pale and scarred. The big red gashes, forever carved in his body by Beastie, stood out like blood on fresh snow, all over his torso. He looked skinny, tired and just as weak as he felt. Loki let himself sink into the water, ignoring the painful stabs of his wounds and tried to relax. Odin could say what he wanted, but none of his terms said anything about training to get back in shape. If only he could find a way to show him…

Loki interrupted his own train of thoughts and sniggered. He couldn't belief it… he was back where he'd started… Trying to impress the Allfather…

Loki allowed the water to cover his head entirely, until he heard nothing but the soft gurgling of the water around him.

Classic… he thought.

-xxx-

In the late afternoon, while Loki tried to keep himself busy by throwing pieces of parchment into the bin at the other side of the room, someone knocked on his chambers' doors. Loki looked up in surprise.

"Emmm… enter…," he said.

The door opened and to Loki's surprise it was Thor who entered.

Loki cast a bored look on his brother and threw his last piece into the bin. "Thor…," he said. "Since when do you knock?"

But Thor didn't seem in the mood for sarcasm. He quickly closed the door and walked over the table where Loki patiently waited.

"I need to talk to you…," he said after a short silence. Loki gestured to a lonely chair in the corner. Thor took the chair and put it at the table across his brother.

Loki inspected his brother's features. Thor seemed tired and slightly scared or unsure about something. It was a rare look on the God of Thunder's face.

"Last night," Thor finally started. "I woke up of Frigga's moans in her sleep. I went to her room. She was having nightmares and…"

Thor fell silent. An almost defeated look spread across his face. "Everything in her room was floating, even her bed was floating a few inches above the ground. There was this strong sense of energy… I could feel it like static electricity in the air. When I finally managed to wake her up, everything just fell to the ground. She was confused and scared, but I could barely touch her skin. It seemed as if she was covered in electricity."

Loki frowned. He got up from his chair and walked around the room.

"She's getting stronger then…," he muttered while resting his shoulder against the wall next to the glass doors leading to his balcony.

"I figured that much!" Thor called out.

Loki smiled shortly. "So you've come to me for help…," he said with a playful grin. "Deja-vu…"

Thor scowled. "This is serious Loki!" he growled.

Loki raised his hands protectively in front of his chest. "I never said it wasn't!"

Thor sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Can you teach her?" he asked, underlining every word. Loki could hear the desperation and defeat in his brother's voice. In any other circumstances he'd quite enjoyed it, but now…

A deep frown appeared on Loki's face while he quietly played with the cup in his hand. Thor got up from his chair and walked over to his brother.

"Look, I can see that, due recent circumstances, teaching Frigga might be difficult. But if you'd only be able to tell her how to control this…"

"Teaching is not the problem Thor!" Loki exclaimed. He couldn't keep himself from sounding a tiny bit jealous. Was he supposed to teach Frigga, possibly one of the strongest witches ever, while he couldn't use even the tiniest bit of magic himself? It wouldn't definitely be a character building set of lessons.

Thor noticed the cold tone of jealousy in his brother's voice. He'd heard it more times than he wanted to admit.

"Then what is the problem?" he asked, trying to keep Loki talking. His brother put his cup down and started pacing around the room.

"What bothers me is Odin…," he admitted after a short silence. "If Frigga preformed this strong kind of magic as you claim, than I wonder why Odin didn't say anything about it already. He must have felt it somehow. In the state he's in, I doubt he'll tolerate any kind of magic, let alone a stronger kind than his own."

"Frigga's stronger than my father?" Thor asked, not able to hide the fear in his voice, but Loki just waved it off.

"Sure she is…," he said obviously thinking of something else.

"Loki, father doesn't matter in this case!" Thor exclaimed. He was getting annoyed of Loki's pacing.

Loki laughed. "Doesn't matter?" he asked. "You think Odin will just allow me to teach Frigga magic? He'll think I'll corrupt her!"

Thor sighed. "We'll have to do it in private than!"

Loki sank in his chair again and scowled. "That'll be fun. He'll notice…"

Thor closed his eyes in frustration. "Do you want to teach Frigga or not?" he asked rather harshly.

Yet Loki remained calm. He sank back into his chair and put his hands together, his fingertips resting on one another and smiled mysteriously. "Of course I want to teach her, brother. There wouldn't be a greater honour. However…"

Thor felt his stomach swirl into a tight knot. In all his panic and desperation he'd almost forgotten who he was talking to. Loki would never change and always take advantage of every situation.

"I will teach Frigga on one condition," Loki continued, enjoying the defeated look on his brother's face. "Once I regain my powers, my magic, you will still allow me to teach her."

Thor frowned. His first impulse was to agree, but he found himself digging in Loki's words, searching for a hidden meaning. Only then he realised that Loki was thinking far ahead. Now that he didn't have his magic, Thor hadn't given to much thought about Loki teaching his daughter. The lessons were merely meant to teach her how to control her magic and not necessarily how to use it or to get stronger. Without his magic Loki wasn't capable of doing much more than that, but if he were to regain his magic… Thor felt the old stab of fear return. Could he trust Loki? Would he teach Frigga dark magic? Would he corrupt her?

Loki smiled his usual smile and waited patiently. Thor sighed and rubbed his forehead. He knew that trying to strike his own deal wouldn't work. On the contrary…. All he could do now was comply. After all, he doubted Loki would be so foolish to use any kind of dark magic when he regained his powers. Odin could just take them away if he posed a threat to anyone.

"Fine, you have a deal," Thor finally said.

Loki smiled and nodded. "All right then. I'll teach Frigga in the morning when Odin is busy meeting with the Lords. That way he will be too occupied with Asgard's daily troubles to pay too much attention to us practising."

Thor nodded in agreement, silently hoping he'd made the right decision. His attention was dragged away however by Loki who suddenly lost his mysterious grin and closed his eyes.

"You look tired, brother," Thor said, suddenly noticing how pale Loki looked.

Loki opened his eyes and scowled. "I'm fine!" he said harshly, even though that was far from the truth. In fact, he felt pretty bad and he was exceptionally tired, but not just in a sleepy way. A never ending stiffness seemed to linger through his muscles like an annoying sound in the distance. On top of that he also felt as if someone had run a piece of sandpaper through his lungs and throat.

Loki cleared his throat and got up from his chair. "Please leave now, Thor," he said. "I have things to do."

Thor frowned, but decided not to bother his brother any longer. He slowly made his way to the door.

"So, you'll start tomorrow morning?" he asked with his hand resting on the doorknob.

Loki nodded. "Half past nine, I'll be on your doorstep, brother."

Thor smirked and opened the door.

"Oh, and do say hi to the Allfather for me tomorrow morning on the meeting, Thor!" Loki called after him with a smile, just before the door closed.

Thor needed all his willpower to keep walking and to not turn back to tell Loki exactly what he was thinking of his attitude. But while he strode through the halls, his pass slowed down. How could he blame his brother. He remembered all too well what it had felt like to lose the power he'd grown so used to and had always relied on. To be mortal had been a huge change, but at least he'd kept his natural physical strength, he'd known how to fix his problem and most importantly, he hadn't faced it alone. Loki didn't have much to go on and he didn't have the luxury of having a father, nor a mother, who wished him back.

Perhaps these lessons would distract his brother from his thoughts of revenge and hatred. And besides, Thor doubted Loki would have a bad influence on his daughter. After all, Thor was certain that he wasn't the only who recognised the warm and secure feeling that once had belonged to his mother's magic, in Frigga's power.

-xxx-

The next morning, Loki woke up when the warm morning sunlight cuddled his face. The sky was bright and blue and everything pointed out what a beautiful and perfect day was ahead. However, Loki didn't share in that forecast. He moaned into his pillow and tried to block out the light. He had the worst headache in Asgard's history and he could barely breath. On top of that, he'd barely slept at all, because he'd kept sneezing and coughing through the night. He had an awful taste in his mouth and felt as if his whole body had decided to shut down for the day.

Using all the courage he could master, Loki forced himself to open one eye and peak over the side of his pillow to the sundial on his balcony to check the time. Seven o-clock. He still had some time left.

Loki moaned and closed his eyes again. He was soaked in sweat, but cold shivered ran down his spine without end.

What's wrong with me? he thought. Was this a result of his magic or his immortality being taken away? Thor didn't really seem to have had a problem with it. He seemed a bit … off world, to say in the least, but he recovered pretty quickly. This awful feeling had only come long after Odin had done the unthinkable.

Loki sighed. A part of him wanted to stay in bed and even skip Frigga's first lesson. Yet his own sense of curiosity wanted to find answers. Mostly because he just wanted this feeling to end. And so Loki slowly dragged himself off the bed and stumbled to his bathroom. One look in the mirror and he agreed he looked just as bad as he felt. He threw on some simple clothes and dragged himself to the door. He opened the door of his chambers and stepped outside, but he was immediately pushed back by a strong arm crushing into his stomach. Loki almost doubled by the sudden stab of pain racing through his tired body. With a lot of effort he managed to keep standing.

Furiously he cast a look on the man who had dared to attack him. A guard. He was accompanied by another guard. Both men stood silently at the door and watched Loki.

Only then Loki realised Odin had probably put him under constant surveillance to make sure he wouldn't break any of his vows.

"M… My apologies, my lord," the guard quickly stuttered. "I didn't mean… I… we… we have orders to not let you leave the palace without surveillance, my lord."

Loki bit his tongue, and took a deep breath. His terrible headache wasn't helping his case, but he forced himself to calm down just enough to answer.

"I know that!" he bit back. "You don't have to knock me of my feet for that!"

"Please accept my apologies, my lord. I forgot that you…"

Loki smirked. "What? That I'm a puny mortal? I'm terribly sorry! Perhaps I should wear a sign?" Loki asked sarcastically.

The guard swallowed and focused his eyes on the ground.

"I'm not leaving the palace!" Loki continued harshly. "I was going to the library. If I'm not mistaken I am still allowed to do that on my own?"

"Of course, my lord," the second guards said while his eyes scanned the pale form of Loki. "But you're not fully dressed," he awkwardly continued, referring to the simple set of clothing Loki wore. It was nothing more than the outfit of a prisoner.

"Is that a problem?" Loki asked.

The two guards shook their heads. "Not at all my lord…," they mumbled.

"Are… are your certain you don't need an … an escort, my lord?" the first guard tried, but Loki had already walked passed them and strode barefoot towards the library to find answers on his mysterious, but above all tiring condition.

-xxx-

Loki sighed and closed another book before adding it to the tower of books he'd already skimmed through. Book about poisoning, spells, dark magic, Jotuns,… but none of the illnesses matched his symptoms.

"That's quite a pile…," a voice sounded behind him. Loki turned and faced to his surprise none other than Jane Foster. The young scientist's eyes scanned the books around Loki. Only then, Loki noticed the smaller form of a little girl. His niece peeked from behind her mother's back and smiled, making Loki feel a lot better in seconds.

"Frigga…," Loki stuttered, while snapping back to reality. His eyes searched the ceiling until he found the large crystal dome in the middle of the room. The sun shone through the ceiling and lit up a golden number in the dark copper circle underneath the dome. The entire dome worked as a giant clock. The copper circle was movable and was adjusted every day, so that when the light shone touched the numbers engraved in the metal, the right hour would always shine brightly gold.

Right now, the sunbeam danced in around ten.

Loki sighed. He'd missed Frigga's lesson.

"I'm sorry…," he tried to say, but the defeat of not finding an answer on his condition clearly showed in his words.

Jane smiled. "You didn't show up, so we checked your chambers, but the guards told us you were here."

Loki rubbed his forehead and smiled.

"Yeah…," he mumbled.

"What are you looking for?" Frigga suddenly asked. She was digging through the pile of books. "Does it have something to do with magic?" she asked with that excited sparkle in her blue eyes.

Loki sniggered. "Actually, I don't know…," he admitted, surprised that he did so. "I was…"

"Are you feeling okay, Loki?" Jane suddenly interrupted. She stepped closer and grabbed Loki's face, so he would face her.

Loki quickly pulled away.

"Don't touch…"

But Jane didn't let him stop her and grabbed his chin once more. "You look like shit!" she concluded.

"Yes, thank you for that observation!" Loki said harshly while pulling away once more. "That's what I was looking for! I'm ill, but this kind of illness is new to me… It's like some sort of poisoning or perhaps dark magic… I don't know… I was hoping to find…"

But Jane interrupted him by placing her hand on Loki's forehead after which she also quickly touched his cheeks, before returning back to his forehead. Her eyes never left his face, while a deep frown of worry was carved into her forehead.

Loki clumsily pulled her hands from him, almost losing his balance in the process. "Will you stop touching me!" he shouted, not able to hide the slight blush on his pale cheeks.

But Jane didn't seem impressed. She pierced her eyes into Loki's, giving him that uncomfortable feeling only mothers can give you.

"Sore throat, difficult breathing, sneezing and coughing all the time, stiff body, headache, cold sweat, bad sleep and perhaps a tiny bit nauseous?" she chattered in one breath. Loki automatically pulled his head back. He blinked confusedly.

"Errrr… yes…," he admitted in surprise. Jane finally took her eyes of him. The young mother looked at her daughter. Frigga frowned back before both of them turned to Loki, showing a weird kind of pity on their faces. Frigga took Loki's long fingers in her soft hands and looked her uncle in the eye.

"Poor Loki…," she said sadly. "You have the flu…"

The flu? Loki thought.

"The flu?" Loki asked.

"Yep!" Jane confirmed. "Certainly looks like it!"

"It's no fun is it?" Frigga asked. "I once had the flu for almost two weeks!" she added in a whisper as if she was talking about fighting of a herd of twenty angry male bilgesnipe during mating season.

Jane put a comforting hand on Loki's shoulder. "It'll pass Loki. Just rest and drink lots of tea…"

"I had to take this disgusting syrup!" Frigga added with a matching look of disgust on her face.

"I'm afraid they don't have syrup for the flu on Asgard…," Jane said with a smile. "You'll just have to sit this one out, Loki…"

Loki blinked confusedly. He hadn't really followed the conversation.

The flu… he thought, now recalling a book about Midgard where he'd first seen the word. "But that's a mortal illness from Midgard!" he called out in shock.

Jane grinned. "Frigga and I probably carried enough viruses with us. We've grown immune, but you never grew accustomed to them, so I fear you won't be enjoying yourself very much the next couple of days, Loki."

Loki couldn't belief it. Two mortals had actually proven to be ahead of Asgard on this.

Loki recalled the first lesson his mother had ever thought him.

Strength comes it different shapes and sizes, my son. Sometimes it is hard to spot, other times it shines like a beacon, but know that it is always there. When you least expect it, it will show itself. Everyone is strong Loki, from the tiniest creature to the mightiest giant. Everyone is strong in his own perfect and beautiful way, and that, my precious son, also counts for you.

So I hope you somewhat liked it. Please bare with me, the action will return soon enough ;)

Please let me know what you think. Leave a review or PM me with ideas and suggestions.

Thank you so much for reading this fic, even after so much time! I certainly enjoyed writing again!

See you soon!

Rumple x