Hela woke up on the couch to her arm dead with sleep, tucked awkwardly under her body, her face smashed into her own couch, and an unearthly pounding in her head. She groped around her coffee table until her fingers brushed her phone and she held the screen to her face. Ten forty. "What?"

Now that her head wasn't buried in a couch cushion, the pounding turned into music, heavy on the bassline, and it was thumping down the hall in her bathroom. She rubbed crust from her eyes and sat up.

Oh, right. She had brought her step-brothers home, then spent three hours on a conference call with Frigga and Odin, yelling and being yelled at while the boys watched TV and ate Korean barbeque with Amanda in the back bedroom.

Apparently, Odin wasn't happy his eldest, estranged daughter had dragged his boys off to the city of lights and angels, but she'd zoned out for most of the conversation after that; the bellowing and yelling was enough to give her headache, but Heimdall, Frigga's silver-tongued and suave lawyer, had finagled it so the boys could stay with her until the court could sort it out. She had a good job, a nice condo, and a stable life. She could be trusted with two boys for a couple weeks.

Questionable.

Hela rubbed her stiff neck and groaned. She must have passed out on the couch and slept until the next morning like she was back in college. Ick. She could live without ever going back to that.

Judging from the rock music blasting in her bathroom, somebody else was awake too, and not her roommate. Amanda didn't listen to that. Hela rolled off the couch to her feet and wandered down the hall. The bathroom door stood half ajar, and she pushed it open. "Boys…"

Thor stood in front of the mirror, shirtless, in his sweatpants, scraping at some white foam on his cheeks with a disposable razor.

Hela rubbed her eyes. "What on earth are you—"

Thor's eyes went wide, and he kicked the door. It slammed in her face and she staggered back into the wall before growling and kicking the door back open. "What are you doing?"

"Shaving! Leave me alone!"

She grabbed her bathrobe off the towel hanger and yanked it on over her tank top and jeans. "You're like twelve, why are you shaving? Where's your brother?"

Thor grabbed a towel off the rack and wiped his face down, half hiding behind the old emerald thing. "I dunno. Sleeping probably. And I'm fourteen."

Hela pinched the bridge of her nose, which ached from the door slamming into it. The last thing she wanted was responsibility for these two, but it was better than leaving the two knuckleheads to bake on a Phoenix curb, and she'd be dead before she screwed it up and gave Odin something to hold over her head for the rest of her life. "I cannot believe this. Where is he?"

Thor shrugged then sniffed. Then sniffed again. "Hey, do you smell that?"

"What?"

"Is something burning?"

Hela looked around her condo with a frown. A thin trail of smoke drifted across the living room ceiling, twisting back into the kitchen. She gasped and sprinted into the kitchen, slid on the laminate floor, and slammed into the pantry. On the stove bubbled a frying pan with three eggs.

Hela hissed, shoved the whole thing in the steel sink, and blasted the burning mess with the faucet. A plume of steam billowed through the kitchen, and Hela skidded to the balcony door, threw it open, and grabbed a hand towel to wave at the smoke detector. She stood on a chair and waved at the alarm. "Oh, I'm glad Heimdall didn't see that. Thor!"

"What?" he hollered from the bathroom.

Hela whipped the towel at smoke detector, not sure it was working. "Why the hell did you leave the stove on?"

"I didn't do anything! I've been in here for like an hour."

"It doesn't take an hour to shave!"

A second of silence then, "How would you know?"

Hela rolled her eyes. "Then where's your brother?"

"I don't know. Playing with the dog."

"You said he was asleep." Hela's fanning waned, and she looked around for Fenris, but the black dog and his toys were nowhere in sight. Just takeout boxes spilling out of the garbage can, licked clean and scattered. "Where is my dog? And where's Amanda?"

An insistent knock came at the door. Hela hopped down from the chair, threw the towel over one shoulder, and jogged to the door. "Loki! Where have you been? I am going to kill—"

She yanked the door open and found Amanda kicking at the frame, her hands full of Starbucks drinks and a reusable bag hanging from her right elbow. Her blonde hair was pulled back copious messy-bun, and she was in green skinny jeans, jacket, and flawless makeup. As usual.

"What kind of hello is that, dear?" She brushed past Hela and into the apartment, her heels clicking on the laminate, and she took in the bags piled behind the couch, the steam and smoke drifting out the open door, and the faucet running over the burnt eggs. "Well, it looks like the morning is off to a rough start, so I'll excuse it. But don't worry, I brought everyone breakfast, which, uh, looks like a good call."

"You are not going to believe the past couple days I've had." Hela peered out into the hall. "Is Loki with you?"

Amanda set her haul on the counter and turned off the sink. "The younger one? Nah, they were both asleep when I left. And not the little monsters we were afraid of. Loud though." She frowned at the thumping music still echoing down the hall.

Hela shut the door. "Don't you have work?"

Amanda laughed and gestured to her outfit. "It's Saturday, dear."

"Oh. Okay, great." She hadn't burned another vacation day on the road; that was nice.

Amanda looked over Hela's wrinkled jeans, tank top, bathrobe, and disheveled hair. "You just wake up?" She looked past her roommate and wrinkled her nose. "And what are you burning?"

Hela rolled her eyes. "Now that you're here, you can help me look for Loki." She strode down the hall to the bedroom and office. "Loki!"

"What do you mean look for him? Where did he go?"

Hela threw open the door to the office where the boys had slept on the pullout bed. The sheets and blanket were a wreck and scattered with little boy clothes, but both rooms were empty. She strode back into the living room, banging on the bathroom door as she passed. "Thor! Hurry up."

Amanda frowned. "You don't think he ran away do you?"

"He's not stupid, and all his stuff is here. And where is my dog?" Hela laced her fingers in her hair and groaned. "Fenris? Fenris! I'm going to kill him."

Thor wandered out of the bathroom in a hoodie and sweatpants, his probably hairless face pink from shaving. He waved awkwardly to Amanda and crossed to the fridge where he grabbed the orange juice, uncapped it, and took a swig straight out of the carton.

"Hey!" Hela grabbed it out of his hands and jabbed it at his face for emphasis. "Glass. We're not animals."

He looked embarrassed but didn't say anything, just grabbed a cheese stick out of the fridge and sulked out to the balcony.

"I hope he took his phone," Hela said, pulling her own out of her pocket. "Thor, what's your brother's number?"

"Don't worry about it," he said around a bite of cheese. "He's down there. Hey, can we use the pool?"

The women came out to the balcony that overlooked the courtyard. Down on the ground was the pool, the patio, and a fluffy, black dog dragging a slip of a boy along the pool deck.

Amanda snickered. "Found your dog."

Hela took the elevator down and found their way to the pool area where Loki stood up to his knees on the pool steps. Fenris was running back and forth, snout to the ground, and on the lawn chairs lounged a few ladies keeping an eye on the huge dog snuffling around. Not very often did Hela walk him down here, so he was probably ecstatic.

"Loki!" Hela shouted.

He whipped around and blanched. She stopped on the edge of the pool and crossed her arms. The boy seemed to remember himself and flashed a charming smile. "Hi, Hela."

"You wanna try and explain or…"

"He wanted to go for a walk."

"And the eggs you left on the stove?"

His smiled faded. "Uh…"

Hela rolled her eyes and whistled. Fenris barked and bounded over to them, knocking an empty chair aside and knocking his shaggy head against Hela's elbow. Uncrossing her arms, she scratched his shoulder and grabbed his dragging leash. "Good boy." Then she looked back to her half-brother. "Let's go."

He sighed and sloshed out of the pool.

Hela sighed. "Where are your shoes?"

He pointed to the chair Fenris had knocked over, and the dog trotted over to the nearest sandal and picked it up in his teeth, then came bounding back with it half in his mouth. Grimacing, Loki took his shoe and dip it in the pool to clean it off. Hela pinched the bridge of her nose.

Hopping on one foot, the kid pulled on his baptized shoes. "Can I go swimming later?"

"Let's see if you burned my apartment down first."

"Sorry."

She put an arm around his shoulders and led his to the elevator. "Come on. Amanda brought us breakfast."

And they headed back inside, Fenris bounding at their heels.