Back home again, it seemed as though nothing had changed, save that Vali made less of a nuisance of himself. He was away much of the time, now, training with some errant guard who had been commissioned to coach him.

Sif wondered about what Loki had said to her. She'd been so caught up in her own misery at being left behind that it hadn't occurred to her that her father might be as miserable as she.

For whatever reason, that thought gave her an immense amount of pleasure.

Loki was training with them more and more. Sometimes he blamed his father, and sometimes he just appeared with no explanation. On several occasions, when they needed an extra man, instead of working with a lop-sided team, as they always had before, Sif or Thor would run to find him. Thor was delighted with this. It was clear to Sif how much he enjoyed the company of his little brother, and it was entertaining to watch them interact with each other. It reminded her in some ways of her own brothers. The teasing and shoving, all with the assurance of later retribution that both knew would amount to no more than a boys' game. It didn't hurt to see it now. She missed her own brothers, but not with the aching abandoned feeling she'd become accustomed to.

For the third time in a week, Loki had been sent for, and found in the library. It was the first place anyone thought to look now. Sif laughed at him and teased him about how he loved his books. He commented on her unmaidenly love for weapons. She shrugged, "At least I can't sleep through someone putting my make-up on."

Vidarr was near-by, lacing up his boot, he had had no part in the conversation thus far, but suddenly seemed taken with a fit of coughing.

Thor chuckled, clapping a heavy hand on Loki's shoulder. Loki almost stumbled. He gave her a look, and she shrugged, keeping silent under Thor's new story, "I bet he just might. Remember the time that we…"

The next day, Loki was with them again, this time of his own accord. He was behind her, talking to Otar, a younger member of the group, when Sif opened the weapons cabinet and tumbled backwards suddenly under a torrent of books. As she sprawled on the ground, surveying the damage, she saw that there were only nine or ten, all of them relatively small – only just enough to knock her down –

and they had been perched precariously in the cabinet to fall upon whomever first opened it.

"Sif! Are you alright?"

It was Thor. He reached out and she gave him her hand. "I'm fine." Her heart gave an uncomfortable little start that she prayed no one would notice.

Otar looked alarmed, "I had no idea that you liked books so much."

Sif was trying not to laugh. That boy needed no encouragement, "I don't."

"Well," Loki's mouth twitched, "They certainly seem to have taken a shine to you."

"Loki," Thor groaned.

"What?" Loki hadn't an ounce of remorse within him. Sif wasn't even sure it was an emotion he was capable of.

Fandral, new to the group, tall and blonde, hooted with laughter.

Sif laughed, but Thor wavered between seeing the joke, which he clearly did, and defending her. She brushed herself off, "I'm fine Thor, really," she looked back at Loki, who was still grinning like an imp, "No thanks to you," then again to Thor, "I'll have my vengeance later."

Fandral shook his head at Loki, raising a hand as in benediction, "Good luck to you, my friend. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes."

The next morning, well before the sun was up, remembering the shelves of books Loki kept in his rooms, Sif clambered up onto the balcony. The snakes had, by this time, worn away.

Loki was still asleep.

Sif smiled.

Making sure to cause some noise – not enough to wake the house, but enough to maybe rouse him a bit – Sif began to empty the shelves.

Soon, it was done, and Loki was walled in on all sides. It took longer than she had expected, but she'd given herself more than enough time.

All of her muttering to herself and shuffling books around should have done its work.

Now, it was time to see if it had worked. She bit her lip and took the last book – a rather large one – and slammed it shut.

She couldn't see through the wall of books, but she could hear sudden movement and a half-aborted ejaculation as the books crashed to the floor and Loki came flailing to the surface.

"Thor!"

But then his eyes lighted on her and he was so surprised that she couldn't stop laughing. He looked at her, then looked at the mess, then at her again.

When Fulla, sister to the queen and head handmaid to her, came in to find out what all the noise was, that was how she found them – Sif leaning weakly against the wall, with a large book closed on her lap, and Loki on a mound of books that now covered his bed and most of the surrounding floor. Both of them were laughing helplessly.

As funny as she was sure it was, such things were not to be permitted.

Suddenly Sif found herself with assigned duties that kept her busier than she had become accustomed to. She had always enjoyed busyness, but now she had to cut down on many things, including the time she spent training.

Loki mysteriously disappeared in much the same way. The story Sif gathered was that he had suffered a spike in his…abilities, and had to redouble his training in those arts temporarily in order to keep them in check.

Sif saw through it, but there was nothing she could do. It was too bad. And it wasn't as though they'd done anything wrong. But they'd been caught. And who knew, they could have been caught by someone who would gossip. And Norns knew that neither of them needed that. This was better. And mayhap it wouldn't have to last long.

Her training companions had mixed reactions. She was still allowed to train, just not as frequently or for as long, but it was enough that they noticed. One day, several weeks after this had begun, Thor caught her on the steps, lacing the tall boots she was wearing, and asked why she kept disappearing. And when she told them of her new duties, and that it wasn't to be a temporary thing, Fandral was the first to respond.

"Well, we can rest easy now boys. There will be less chance for us to be shamed."

Frodi punched his shoulder, "It's not like she's dead."

"I said less chance," Fandral pointed out, "not no chance."

"Did my brother have something to do with this?" Thor asked. His intense blue eyes bored into her.

"What?" if only he didn't make her like this, nervous and scattered. Maybe it was for the best she trained less often, "Loki? No, nothing."

"I had noticed that he seemed to have taken to causing you mischief. It would go poorly for him if I were to find he had done you any real harm."

"No, Thor. It's fine. I do have three brothers. I can take quite a lot."

Fandral peered forward, "Are you infringing the lady's strength, Thor? Far be it from you to do any such thing."

Thor flushed, and Sif's heart jumped a little in her chest, "No. It's only," he looked at her again, "I would not have her come to harm, if it was something I might have prevented."

Fandral's comment had given her enough space to breathe. "How gallant of you, my prince," she extended a hand, "Would you, perchance, help a lady to her feet?"

Solemnity gone, Thor helped her up and the day continued on in the new form she was beginning to grow accustomed to. She was surprised by what Thor had said. He had shown no sign of any suspicion. It was unlike Thor to keep his suspicions a secret. And besides, Loki played tricks on everyone.

Thor's manner towards her became more and more strange. And while she had been longing for just that since first she saw the blond prince, the reality of his interest in her was a bit alarming. She thought that mayhap Gerda had been right, when she had said that such things as romance were best left to those old enough for it. When she had said it, Sif had been lost in her dreaming and had thought herself plenty old. Now, she wasn't sure. Thor was her friend, her brother. Nothing more. Not yet.

That didn't stop her treacherous heart from racing when he was next to her, or sending lightning in her blood when she caught him looking at her.

It also didn't stop her from savoring the first startled moment of the kiss he gave her the one day when they found themselves alone. She slapped him for it.

"Sif-"

"One does not treat a lady so, my prince. Not if one means honorably."

His dismay was apparent, "I meant no disrespect, Sif, I'm sorry – I –"

He stopped because she was laughing, "Apology accepted Thor," he made a move toward her and she shied away, "though that gives you no right to touch me."

"I wasn't…" he was flushed scarlet, crouching down on the floor, gathering the papers she'd forgotten that she'd dropped and bundling them toward her.

They began walking, the silence awkward and nervous, "You aren't," he started, then cleared his throat, "You aren't angry?"

She brushed a loose hair back, "No,"

"Then everything can stay as it was?"

She nodded. It wasn't quite the truth, but he didn't need to know that.

~.~

It was amusing to watch Freya as she attempted to lie to him. If his abilities really had grown as much as she said they had, he would have felt it. In fact, he'd probably be too sick to get out of bed. This was just Fulla's way of keeping him busy. She couldn't assign him tasks as she could Sif, so she would see that he receive extra training.

Odd, to be punished when he'd done nothing wrong this time.

He thought to inform his mother. It was possible that she would put things back as they had been. But it was also possible – more than possible, in fact – that she would consult with his father.

Loki did not want to explain what Sif had been doing in his room to his father. So he held his tongue.

The weeks wore on, and to all intents and purposes, everything was much the same as it had been before Sif had asked him for help keeping Vali off her back.

He'd forgotten how discontent he had become with the way he had passed his time.

He spent much of it in the library, as he always had, but it was too quiet, and it was growing ever more wearisome to be alone with the books. In the past he had occasionally amused himself by wandering about in the woods. No one knew he was outside of the palace, and no one needed to. It became his new occupation. He liked exploring and he never went far. Plus, he found he had developed a special gift for not getting lost. He distracted himself by climbing trees to find out what could be seen from the top, or running up deer-trails to see where they led. Every hill and bend in the path was exciting to him.

One day, he happened to be coming in late, filthy with mud and leaves because the root he'd been holding to as he climbed his way out of a creek-bed had not been as firmly anchored as it had made itself out to be. On account of this, he was keeping to the quieter parts of the palace.

That was when he saw Thor and Sif. He saw Thor kiss her. Loki darted into another corridor, embarrassed to have caught them that way. But soon he grew indignant. Sif was his friend, Thor had no right to touch her. Not that he wanted to. But, the more he thought about it, the more he thought maybe he did. Nobody spoke to him the way Sif did…You have me…Nobody played along with his pranks, just because they thought it was fun. She was strong and wild and…well, beautiful. He'd never met anybody like her.

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. And the more he realized just how fond of her he had managed to become without realizing it. She different from her kind, just as he was different from his. Sif could see it, he knew she could. She could see more about him than anyone.

The thing that really puzzled him was that she still wanted to have a thing to do with him, even seeing it all.

He remembered the time, a week or so after they had been separated, when she had been training and had found him in the library to tell him that Thor was an idiot. He wondered if she had forgotten that.

It had been too long since they'd last done anything together. He was tired of amusing himself. Things had been just fine before Fulla had caught them, and it had been long enough that maybe he could fix it himself.

Besides, it was his turn now.