Melody made the decision to pursue a career as an Asgardian lawyer while acting on several misunderstandings and false assumptions. She'd thought she'd jump straight into debate form and the laws of Asgard.

Wrong.

Although, she supposed it did stand to reason that she had to learn the Asgardian writing system first. Otherwise, how was she supposed to read any of her textbooks?

Learning a whole new alphabet was harder than it sounded, though. She didn't remember it being so hard to learn how to read in Kindergarten.

She couldn't even move on to logical thinking until she could read the books, and that was the worst part. She only had one subject, and she had exactly one day of experience with it.

Loki was still in his "don't talk to me I'm figuring stuff out" stage, so Melody tracked down his big brother to help her with her homework.

She found him curled up in a window seat, completely focused on the paper resting on his knees and the pen in his hand, a pile of tangerines at his elbow, seemingly untouched.

"What are you drawing?" Melody asked, hoping she could butter him up before asking him favors.

Without a word, he showed her the paper. As it turned out, there was no buttering up necessary. Thor had been drawing a photo-realistic drawing of his girlfriend, asleep in a lawn chair with a blanket pulled up to her chin.

"Oh, I remember this!" Melody blurted. "This was just after you told her about Yggdrasil, right?"

"Let's expand that rule of 'no quoting us when we know you weren't there' to 'no implying you were watching us while we were certain we were alone'," Thor decided. "It's creepy."

"So you've told me," she giggled. It would never not be amusing to spook the god of thunder. "Sorry." She was not. "This is really good, though."

Thor smiled like he knew it was, but wasn't expecting her to notice it, and pulled it back towards himself as he continued to do shading on her hair.

"And it's in pen," she went on, sitting next to him to watch him work. "I can't even write in pen, I'd make mistakes."

Thor still didn't answer. He did still look pleased with the compliments, though, so Melody hazarded a few more.

"You should do this as your job." She watched his face for signs of irritation. "If you weren't going to be king, I mean."

He finally sighed, and laid down his pen. "What do you want?"

"What do I want?!" Melody gasped, and reeled back in faked offense. "How dare you assume I have ulterior motivation for recognizing your obvious talent?"

"Mm-hm," Thor rumbled, and rolled his eyes. "I'll wait."

"Well, I never," Melody sniffed, folded her arms, and hoped she looked more miffed than amused. "The disrespect! This isn't working, is it?"

"No one actually says 'well I never'," Thor agreed. "You forget, I grew up with a Loki in the house."

"No, I just forgot you're a lot smarter than he likes to pretend you are," Melody grumbled, as Thor's amused smile grew.

"Have a disappointment fruit," He waved at the pile of what Melody had previously thought were tangerines. "They're good conversation food."

She looked at the little round spheres. "Why are they called disappointment fruit?" They looked completely normal, to her.

"Inside joke between my brother and I," Thor shrugged.

Melody picked one up, and the peel immediately fell apart in her hand, revealing that Thor had already peeled and eaten the fruit, and then carefully rearranged the peel to look completely intact. There was no fruit, only disappointment. Her jaw dropped, and she looked up at Thor in outrage. He was giggling far too maniacally for her tastes.

"Disappointment fruit," he explained. "That's what you get for trying to manipulate me."

"Inside joke with you and Loki!" Melody sputtered. "I should've known. Which one of you thought of this first?"

"I did," he replied, "And then Loki made a disappointment candy that was only just the candy wrapper to get even with me, and now we do it to each other all the time, with all kinds of things." He hesitated. "Or, we used to. I don't know if he'd want to, any longer."

"How could he not?" Melody demanded. "That's hilarious. No magic necessary! Just pure chaos! How do I get even with you, now?"

"Well, you do still want me to grant you a favor," he pointed out, and nodded towards the notebook under her arm. "I assume it has something to do with that."

"Yes," she pulled out the notebook. "Can you help me with my homework?"

His good-natured smile immediately froze, his hands balled into fists, the sky outside darkened immediately. He opened his mouth to answer, but nothing came out. It was with a start that Melody realized he looked afraid.

Of schoolwork? The Mighty Thor trembled in front of a schoolbook? It wasn't even funny, just confusing. What had happened in school to put that look on the prince's face at just the mention of school?

"Uh… or not," she amended. "It's just that Loki's on a case, and your parents are busy governing, and… I don't have any other friends or anything. I figured you could…"

"I graduated for a reason, Melody." His voice was even lower than usual, and Melody regretted asking.

"Because… you're smart enough to know all the school things now?"

"No," he snapped. "If I was smart, I'd be like Loki, and… Just…" He fumbled, his leg bouncing angrily. "Don't ask me to do school ever again."

"Okay," she whispered. He glanced back at her regretfully.

There was obviously something deeper here. It was the same part of himself that had called himself stupid the first day she'd been there, the day with the sandwiches, and Melody suspected she knew where it's origin was.

"I'm sorry for overreacting," Thor said, at the same time that Melody said, "You know you're not stupid, right?"

Thor stopped with a practiced smile. "Pardon?"

'You're not stupid," Melody repeated herself. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah," he answered. "I'm just… I'm… really bad at thinking?"

Melody gave him a very blank stare, illustrating exactly how blank her mind was, at that moment.

"It's alright, though," Thor insisted. For some reason, he felt the need to reassure her. "I'm good at other things. Important things, like fighting."

Melody had no answer for that either, but she felt obligated to try. "Is that… Is that why you were… like that?"

"Like what?" His voice squeaked. "When?"

"Like always looking for a fight," Melody rushed. Now that she'd gotten started, she wasn't sure how to stop. "Like always picking fights with people, not caring about the consequences of your actions, and you didn't change until you got banished to Midgard. Oh my god, I thought it was because Odin only raised you to think that's what was important, but it's worse, isn't it? He told you that's the only thing you were good at, didn't he?"

Now it was Thor's turn to stare blankly. Melody, however, was not done.

"Oh my god," she repeated, rubbing her temples. "That's why you think you're stupid – you really didn't get any academic validation at all, did you?"

"Uhm," Thor began. "Melody…"

"Sorry, too much psychoanalyzing?" She smiled sheepishly. "That's my bad. I would like you to know that I hate your dad."

Thor gave a weak shrug. "You're not the only one," he admitted. "And… I think you're wrong. He didn't tell me I was stupid, he didn't have to."

"Explain yourself," Melody demanded, trying her hardest not to get outraged.

"I've never been good at academics," he elaborated. "I took ten times longer than Loki to pick up anything. I only ever cared about things that interest me, and everything else bored me. All my tutors hated me, because I spent more time inside my own head than paying attention. And when I actually apply myself, I can do the work, I just… didn't."

"Why not?"

"See, this is what I mean when I say I'm stupid. I don't know how to want to care about learning anything." He laughed, a hopeless, pathetic laugh. "Loki says there's nothing wrong with me, but he's not the god of lies for nothing, is he?"

"Hey!" Melody was far beyond outrage, now. She jumped up and stamped her foot. "Look at me!" Thor meekly obeyed. "You're fine, okay? Loki's right. Everyone learns differently, and just because your tutors didn't know how to get engage you doesn't mean… It isn't your fault they're bad at their jobs, okay?"

"Now that's just grossly inaccurate."

Thor and Melody both looked up to see Loki approaching them with a sarcastic smile.

"He literally called himself stupid!" Melody insisted, tempted to stamp her foot again. "Take that for inaccurate."

"Well then, let's clear up things for a change," Loki sat down where Melody had been sitting and crossed his legs. "Thor's tutors were so incompetent that they should've been fired and had their teaching permits revoked. They were a disgrace to the community of scholars and learned men, and it really is little wonder Thor only learned how to solve problems without violence once he left Asgard, seeing as hitting him was their very first resort. As if that would help him learn. Odin needed him to fit into the role of 'the stupid one' in the family so desperately that he never even realized Thor was able to look at the Bifrost in action and figure out how it worked, and then explained it to all his friends as if it was nothing when he was six."

"I didn't know you remembered that," Thor mumbled.

"You do realize why Frigga called you her starry-eyed boy, yes?" Loki countered. "That's why you and your woman get along so well, you're both prodigies when it comes to astronomy and astrophysics, and it's your teachers' fault for never noticing."

"Why are you being nice to me?" Thor narrowed his eyes. "I thought you were still angry with me."

"I got bored of being angry." Loki inspected his nails.

Melody and Thor exchanged a look. On Melody's part, it was exasperation and disbelief, and on Thor's, it was exasperation and begrudging resignment.

"Excuse you?" Melody decided to press the issue, as per usual. "Elaborate?"

Loki gave her an irritated glare. He wasn't used to being pursued in matters like this, apparently. Most people were more like Thor, and were just willing to let himself lie about his own emotions and feelings if he wanted to. "What more is there to say? It's not very amusing sulking in my room."

"Then I take it you're not depressed anymore."

He gave a noncommittal shrug, saying with everything but his voice that things were not that simple.

"Don't worry about it, Melody. He does this," Thor told her, a great weariness in his voice. "I'm just happy to have him back. This is as close as he gets to apologizing."

"I've gotten closer," Loki objected.

"Let me get this straight," Melody broke in. "You," she pointed to Loki, "have given Thor zero explanation for anything you've done, you haven't talked to him in what… a year?"

"He was gone seven months," Thor said in his great mood of helpfulness.

"Seven months plus nearly a week," she agreed. "You blamed him for your death, you're being cryptic and rude at him, and suddenly you think it's all okay because you got bored? And now it's sunshine and rainbows and complimenting each other? Not that it's bad to compliment each other, but you really can't leave him hanging like this."

Loki gave her a cold stare, and made no move to say or do anything.

"Seriously, is this what Asgardian therapists have been teaching you?" Melody waved her arms in exasperation, then paused. "No, actually. Is that what they told you to do? I've never been to therapy."

"I have had one thirty-minute session." Loki growled. "That isn't going to fix me."

"Ninety percent sure it's not supposed to 'fix' you," she returned. "What did you talk about?"

"We didn't talk," he admitted. "We played chess."

"You played chess!" Melody whooped. This time she did stomp her foot again. "Chess! That's so very therapeutic, isn't it?"

"I'm not going to bare my heart to some random stranger just because I'm legally obligated to," Loki insisted, his voice raising just a teeny voice in his exasperation.

"Don't yell at her," Thor attempted, but only got a withering glare for his efforts.

"Since when are you the peacemaker, brother? Isn't that my job?"

Thor didn't say anything.

Melody also only stared at the Trickster, trying her hardest not to look too judgmental.

"Why did I even try," Loki grumbled to himself, stood up, and started brushing off his clothes.

"Did you?" Melody retorted. "You didn't even say you're sorry."

In answer, Loki shoved past her, and stalked away.

Melody began to have a sinking suspicion she'd been partly to blame for his outburst, and glanced guiltily back to Thor.

He twisted his pencil awkwardly between his fingers. "Next time…" He didn't finish that sentence. Melody knew what she was supposed to do next time, and it sounded something along the lines of "poke your nose back into your own business". She really had let her temper run away with her.

"He can't treat you like that," she protested, even as she wilted.

"Loki does things slowly," Thor answered. "He's very… tactical. He wanted to test the waters, and you may have made them seem more dangerous than they were."

"Would he have apologized if I didn't say anything?"

He only shrugged. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. I have wronged him greatly, too. And beyond that, he is still getting used to you. He might not want to be that vulnerable in front of you."

She couldn't really deny that. She'd forgotten they'd really only know each other for a fortnight or so.

"You can't do his work for him," Thor went on. "Even if he never does apologize, it isn't your responsibility to force him. I'd rather… I'd rather he did it of his own accord, not because you made him feel obligated. I know he…" He sighed, and looked down at the upholstery of the seat. "I really do believe he's trying his best. You must understand: he's never really had a clear model for good behavior."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well…" Thor shrugged awkwardly, and scratched his beard. "That's how father apologizes. He does something wrong, and then he pretends it never happened and that everyone gets along swimmingly. It's not perfect… but he really can't know any better."

"And you know better?" Melody raised an eyebrow. "How?"

"Well, I didn't." He snorted. "I used to do just the same thing. It was Darcy, actually. She apologized to me for hitting me with her tazer. And Jane said she was sorry for hitting me with her car. And it got me… thinking." He smiled a little fondly. "The car… that was an accident on Jane's part; she didn't mean to hit me, either of the times she did. But she apologized, anyway. And Darcy absolutely did mean to electrocute me."

"She sure did," Melody agreed.

"But she apologized anyway, too. Not because I didn't have it coming…"

"Which you did."

"I did. But she apologized because she didn't want to resort to violence in order to stop me. And it made me rethink the purpose of an apology. It's not to say that you're weak, or a surrender of arms, like my Father modeled for the two of us. And… Loki doesn't understand that, yet."

"Oh." Melody felt really bad, now. She should've known better than to try to pressure The Loki into doing anything he didn't feel like, especially things he was already emotionally compromised about.

She should've listened to him. Of course one session of therapy wasn't going to do much good, especially when they were still getting to know each other. Now that she thought about it, chess was probably a really good tool for a therapist to use for someone like Loki. It would amuse him and get him to associate therapy with something he enjoyed, and with mental stimulation. And beyond that, Loki's cards were practically embedded in his chest. There was no way he was going to open up to his therapist already.

The more she thought about it, the more it did seem Loki really was trying his best to repair his relationship with his brother, and Melody had just had to bust in and mess everything up.

"I'm sorry," she told Thor. "I shouldn't have been so hard on him."

"Don't apologize to me," he replied.

"Right," Melody face palmed. "Should I go now?"

"Not yet," he advised. "Patience is the name of the game, with him. He'll find you when he's ready."

"Okay," she sighed. "It… Just because he doesn't know how to apologize… It doesn't mean it's okay, though. The way he treats you?"

"Of course not," Thor agreed. "But no one bases their actions on a golden morality standard. We only do what we know how to. That goes for all of us. Loki is doing his best just as much as I am, he just doesn't have as much to work with. It's as if he's trying to hammer in a nail, but all he's gotten as tools are rocks. It's possible, but it's not as clean a job, and people are more likely to get their thumbs crushed."

"That was very wise," Melody said. "Maybe we should give him a hammer."

"He couldn't lift it, anyway." Thor gave her a teasing smile.

"Hey!" Melody cackled. "Don't be mean! I mean a different hammer."

Thor only hummed in amusement, and refused to defend himself. "I think to an extent we already are. Just try not to be so indignant about it?"

"Right," she sighed. "I did kinda go bonkers, didn't I?"

"Just a little." Thor sighed. "I don't want to… what was the phrase you used just now?"

"Go bonkers?"

"No, before that. Leave you hanging." He pointed at Melody's notebook. "What are you learning?"

"ABC's." Melody grouched, and opened her notebook. "Your letters look so similar. Especially Eiwaz and Sowilo."

Thor leaned forward with a slightly relived smile. "Oh," he said, glad to helpful once again. "Well, I do know how to read."

"Then you're one step ahead of me," Melody snorted. "Please can you help me?"

Thor hesitated, and gave her a long stare. "Alright. But once you reach algebra or creative writing, I'm leaving you for the buzzards."