Atermoiements: Distractions or hesitations leading to procrastination.
As part of his inevitable ascent to the throne, Thor has been enrolled in a few classes. On Midgard, one might call them Micro/Macroeconomics, International Relations, and Foreign Policy. On Asgard (or probably, just to Thor) they were Wastes of Time 1, 2, and 3, respectively. He didn't have much interest in foreign relations with Nibelheim or what he ought to do if an ambassador from Svartalfheim were to show up demanding political asylum.
However, his hopeful answer of throwing said ambassador into the dungeons until some well-meaning person came to fetch them was apparently not a good solution.
His teacher is an old man, prone to quaffing copious droughts of prune juice and enlightening Thor about the nature of his bowel movements. Unfortunately, this isn't of much interest to Thor either, and he usually spends his lesson times staring off into space or doodling in the margins of his notes.
And then there is the homework. Thor personally thinks it an injustice.
"Just do it!" Loki tells him, sighing and rolling his eyes as Thor pouts at him from across the big desk in the library where he is struggling to work out optimal trading ratios of ice to wheat. Did people on Jotunheimr even eat wheat? Thor wanted to know. He'd personally never seen Laufey eat anything other than meat and sugar. Sometimes at the same time. "I won't always be around to help you with these things."
"You won't be?" Thor asks, looking confused. "Where will you go?"
Loki sighs impatiently, shoves the lesson back towards Thor. "Just do your work. Otherwise you will never learn how to be a good king."
"But surely it has always been a dream of yours to be ruler of some realm, has it not?" Thor asks, frowning at his paper and hoping the problem would just somehow, miraculously, go away. "You could do it in my stead."
Loki snorts. "I think it is a well known fact that ruling a realm is not a fun task. Which is why," he pushes the page back towards Thor, who had been hesitantly pushing it, centimeter by centimeter, towards Loki's side of the table, in the hopes that he would not notice, "I would much rather be married to a ruler than actually be one. All of the status and power, none of the responsibility."
"I see," Thor says, pouting at the question, but Loki is not to be swayed.
The two sit in silence for a few minutes, Thor staring absentmindedly at the curve of Loki's mouth, his homework all but forgotten, until Loki sighs very loudly and gets up to move towards a more comfortable armchair by the library fire.
This does not deter Thor, who continues to stare at the back of Loki's head, imagining dark hair splayed out all over a pillow in reckless abandon, and the next day when his tutor asks him to produce his homework, he can only produce a blank page and a smattering of apologies and promises to have it be done by the next day.