Bruce eventually caved and accepted one invitation to dance, if only to prove to the ladies of Asgard what his peers in high school and college already knew: that he was an uncoordinated disaster with no sense of rhythm. He could bob his head or tap his foot to the music, but even that was pushing it. Luckily, unlike with his former classmates, he couldn't injure an Asgardian lady's toes when he stepped on them. His partner took his clumsiness as merely a charming and funny mortal quirk. A little condescending, maybe, but it was better than open mockery.

She did not, however, ask him to dance again, and nobody else did either. This left him free to retreat from the ballroom without feeling rude. He promptly did so, because he'd thought of a few more things to try with the diagnostics tests on the malfunctioning transporter, and he should be able to get through them before bed.

Bruce, along with Jane and Erik, had gotten fairly comfortable working in an Asgard-style lab, but it was still a pretty steep learning curve, and they generally had a much easier time applying concepts of "seidr-smithing" to their calculations and formulae when Vidar was present. (Darcy had wanted to call it "magitechnology" because it annoyed Jane, and had shot down Bruce's suggestion of "technomancy" for being "too sci-fi sounding," which made him question her sanity. Erik had ended the argument by pointing out that they should probably just call it what the Asgardians did, even though he was the only one who could actually pronounce it.)

Working by himself, running the diagnostics was a slow process. Bruce welcomed the challenge, though, and enjoyed the temporary solitude. One by one, his tests came up negative. It seemed more and more like the transporter's navigation system was flawless, but that couldn't be right.

X

Leif was up and out of the house before first light and on his way to the palace. The conversation with his father had made him feel much better, but as he rode into the mostly quiet city towards Gladsheim with the hard lump of the pendant pressed against his leg, he grew more and more nervous. Would Fjolnir's parents even let him in? What had Fjolnir told them? Did he hate Leif now?

He reached the palace, left his horse at the royal stables, and went up to the side door. A guard asked him his business.

"I'm here to see Fjolnir Freyrson," said Leif. The guard nodded and opened the door for him.

Moments later, Leif was standing in front of the door to the House of Freyr's chambers, rocking backward and forward on the balls of his feet. They didn't know he was out here yet. He could just leave the pendant hanging on the door handle and get out of here before he was spotted. That way he'd never have to find out if Fjolnir hated him.

...But then he'd never find out if Fjolnir didn't hate him. He had to at least try, no matter what happened, and no matter how uncomfortable he felt. That was what warriors did. Before he could lose his courage, he shut his eyes tight, held his breath, and knocked on the door.

It opened to reveal Uilleag, their Ljosalfr manservant. "Oh, hello, Leif," he said. "You caught us in the middle of packing up."

"What?" said Leif, a vague panicky feeling stealing over him. "Packing up?"

"That's right. We'll be off back to Vanaheim not long after breakfast."

"No!" Leif forgot all about being nervous and uncomfortable. He ran past Uilleag into the main chamber, where Lord Freyr, Lady Gerd, and Mallaidh (the lady's maid and Uilleag's sister) were all standing amid open trunks with arms full of clothing and other items. "You can't just leave!"

All four of them stared at him, and the feeling of having done something bad came rushing back. "Good morning, Leif," said Freyr, stepping forward. "Do your parents know where you are so early?"

He was doing that voice grown-ups did when they'd already decided they weren't going to listen to him. Leif got it all the time from his tutors and sometimes from his mother. Gudrun and Gunnhild had started trying to imitate it when they spoke to Leif and their younger siblings, which, seeing as they weren't grown-ups at all and had no right to boss him around, was just about the most vexing thing in his entire life. Fjolnir's father didn't talk that way, though. If he was doing it now, it probably meant that Fjolnir did hate him.

"Yes," said Leif. He dug in his pocket for the pendant and held it up. "I'm here to bring this back." He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see Fjolnir peeking out from the doorway to his bedchamber. His skin was still blue.

Lady Gerd noticed too and went over to Fjolnir, closing his chamber door behind her. Leif took one step in that direction, but Freyr moved to block the way, his big arms folded over his chest. Leif wanted to disappear into the floor. The seconds dragged out for what felt like ages, before Lady Gerd reappeared. Freyr stepped aside and Gerd beckoned Leif over.

Leif obeyed at once.

"Fjolnir will see you," she said. Leif's heart leapt, but she held up a hand. "However, there is something I must know first. Do you come of your own accord or under your parents' orders?"

"O-on my own, Lady Gerd." He noticed that her pendant looked just like the one in his hand. If Fjolnir was half-Frost Giant, then she must be full Jotun. That would have been a much more alarming thought yesterday, but today she just reminded him of his own mother when someone had upset him or one of his siblings. Definitely still alarming, but only in a normal way. "I don't just want to give it back. I want to apologize."

She nodded. "Then you may see him."

X

It often took Fandral a moment or two upon waking to remember where he was and how he got there. That was the case this morning, though for far less pleasant reasons than usual. Pain radiated from his nose and jaw, his entire stomach seemed a continuous bruise, and his knuckles felt raw.

He blinked his eyes open and winced against a blaze of flat white light. All around him on the floor were other men sporting minor injuries. Most were still asleep. One of the ones who'd woken was humming a slightly off-key rendition of a Hljodfall-Tivar song to himself. A little beyond him were Bjarke, Colborn, and Hjalmar, who appeared to have been deposited in the cell in a haphazard pile.

The sight of Colborn's flattened nose and Hjalmar's vibrant black eye were some consolation. For a three-on-one fight with no weapons, Fandral thought he'd done rather well before being knocked out. Alas, that didn't much matter; wine-sodden brawling—particularly within the palace—was an excellent way to get yourself tossed in the ofrolvi-hold for the night. Volstagg had been here once or twice before he began courting Hildegund, but this was a first for Fandral. The cell took up the entire top floor of the dungeon. It reeked of sweat and drunkenness with faint undercurrents of blood, urine, and vomit, but was otherwise remarkably clean considering how long it had been used for this purpose.

Fandral got up and picked his way carefully around his sprawled-out cellmates to the golden barrier to see if he could catch the attention of a guard. There was one not far away, and Thor was talking to him. He spotted Fandral and grinned. Fandral grinned back only halfheartedly. The guard put fist to heart in reply to whatever Thor had said and went to fiddle with something on the console. The barrier parted to make a gap three feet across, and Fandral stepped out.

"I heard you got into a fight!" said Thor, clapping Fandral on the shoulder. "Sif and Volstagg will be sorry you didn't save any for them. What happened?"

Fandral had never felt more uncomfortable in Thor's company. "A few louts with unpleasant intentions wanted me to help them find Loki."

Thor's demeanor changed and his eyes flashed in the direction of the cell. "I was afraid of this," he said. "Are they going to be a problem?"

There was such ease and confidence in Thor's manner. While he wasn't surprised to learn of the other men's hostility, it plainly hadn't even crossed his mind that any of his friends might be less than true. The idea only deepened Fandral's sense of shame. It didn't matter how noble his intentions had been; he had been wrong, and he may have done great harm to one of the people Thor loved most. "Not an especially competent one," he said. "but I don't know how common their sentiments are." He only knew they were one man fewer than the previous day, for whatever that was worth.

The anger drained out of Thor and he just looked frustrated and sad. It must be difficult to be living this all over again, making some headway towards positive change only to run into new obstacles. If this was a new obstacle. How far away had they gotten from how things had played out before? Fandral nearly asked what he could do to help, but he already knew what he needed to do first.

"I haven't really talked to Loki since before Sakaar," he said. "Is he at breakfast?"

"He might be," said Thor. "Romanoff and the Bartons are going back to Earth soon, though. He could be seeing that everything is in order for them."

X

Fjolnir watched Leif as the chamber door closed. Leif didn't seem to want to look at him, but he stuck out his hand, the pendant hanging from it. "Here," he said. "I'm sorry I kept it."

Fjolnir reached out for it. Leif flinched, and Fjolnir drew back. "You're still scared of me," he said, the same wave of hurt and misery from last night threatening to engulf him again.

"I'm not!" said Leif, finally looking around, his eyes wide. "Really! I just—" He ducked his head. "I wouldn't blame you if you felt like freezing me after yesterday."

"I don't want to freeze you," said Fjolnir.

"Oh."

"You're my friend. Aren't you?"

"If you still want me to be," said Leif. He held up the pendant. Fjolnir took it. Immediately, the familiar shift rolled over him, leaving him squinting a bit against the semidarkness. He started working the clasp. "Do, er, do you have to put it on right away?"

"You don't want me to?" said Fjolnir, surprised.

"Well, it's just, I've never played with a half-Frost Giant before."

Fjolnir raised his eyebrows. "You've been playing with me for weeks."

"You know what I mean," said Leif.

Fjolnir set the pendant down on his bedside table.

Leif stared at him, looking fascinated. "What are those lines?"

"They're ancestry lines," said Fjolnir. "I get them from Mama. They're almost exactly like hers. If I were all Jotun, I'd have them on my arms and legs too."

"Oh," said Leif. "I've seen them in books, but I thought they were just drawn on."

"Some of the Jotnar on Alfheim get tattoos to emphasize them," said Fjolnir. "But I don't think they do that on Jotunheim. Mama says that a lot of people in important families on Jotunheim shave off all their hair so that everyone can see their lineage, and the drengjar do too."

"That's why they don't have hair?" said Leif.

"What, you thought they don't grow it at all?" Fjolnir giggled. "No, they only can't grow beards, but neither can the Ljosalfar. Papa and Mama have a bet whether I'll be able to grow one or not when I get older. My hair is curly like his, so he thinks I will, but it's white like hers, so she thinks I won't."

Leif laughed. Fjolnir was starting to feel better. He noticed that the door was ajar and he could see his mother looking in. He smiled at her. She smiled back and withdrew.

"Can you show me some ice magic?" said Leif.

"Yeah, but we should go to the bath chamber down the corridor."

"What for?"

"Because I can't make ice without water," said Fjolnir, rolling his eyes, "and there's only a little of it in the air. Let's go!"

X

Loki was the only one in the royal breakfast room when Thor arrived. He had a half-full plate in front of him but was paying more attention to the book in his hand.

"Are Mother and Father still abed?" Thor asked, taking an empty plate.

"No, they've eaten and gone," said Loki. He frowned over at Thor. "What about you? You took your time getting here."

"I was letting Fandral out of the ofrovli-hold," Thor snickered, loading his plate with fruit, pastries, eggs, and sausage before returning to the table and taking the seat next to Loki. "It's too bad he didn't come with me; he wanted to talk to you about something."

"How did he end up in ofrolvi-hold?" said Loki.

"Defending you, it seems," said Thor, taking a big bite of sausage and egg.

"Then not everyone took Father at his word," said Loki. All the good spirits vanished from the room like light from a snuffed candle.

Thor swallowed his food, kicking himself for having said anything. He cast around for a change of subject. Fortunately, there was a fairly obvious one available that he had not yet discussed with his brother. "You had a good evening, though, didn't you? I saw the way you danced with Brunnhilde." Loki glared at him, but he ignored it. "Your meeting with her in that mead hall on Sakaar must've gone well for things to play out as they have this time."

"Hardly," said Loki. "By the time Maw arrived, she had a dagger to my throat."

The mental image had Thor letting out a full belly laugh.

"Yes, yes, my courtship skills are highly amusing," said Loki, swatting Thor up the back of his head with his book.

"No, it's not that," said Thor, rubbing his head, eyes streaming with mirth and pain. "You clearly made a better first impression than I did."

"How is that possible?"

"She slapped an obedience disk on me, which she wasn't at all shy about activating, and sold me to the Grandmaster."

"Oh." Loki hesitated for a moment, during which Thor resumed eating his breakfast. "What happened last time? Between her and me, I mean. Is this very different?"

Thor shrugged. "She didn't seem overly fond of you, but then, she didn't seem overly fond of anyone except the Hulk, so I could be wrong. She did beat you up and put you in chains at one point, though."

Loki choked on a piece of fruit. Thor pounded him on the back, grinning. "If you've finished eating, you should check in with Jane, Erik, and Banner about the transporter malfunction. Banner said he was going to work on it more last night."

"You check in with them if you're so interested," said Loki sourly. Thor grimaced, and Loki rolled his eyes. "I'm not going to help you avoid Jane Foster every time, you know."

"I'm not avoiding her, I just have other things to attend to."

X

Cooper was awake and dressed in his weird Asgard clothes long before the rest of his family was up. Breakfast was still forever away, and he didn't want to waste a second of his time off Earth. He scribbled a note to let his parents know where he was going and then tiptoed out of their huge guest rooms. He'd paid very close attention to the way they'd gone to get there from where Fjolnir's family was staying, and he was pretty sure he could find it on his own. It all looked sort of different in the morning, but that was okay.

Five minutes later, he was starting to worry that maybe he was lost in the enormous palace when someone called his name. "Hey, Cooper!"

He turned and saw Fjolnir and Leif running down the hall towards him. Fjolnir had his pendant back and they both looked excited about something. "I was coming to find you," said Cooper to Fjolnir.

"Good!" said Fjolnir. "We're going to the bath chamber so I can use the water to make snow. Want to come?"

Eager to see more magic, Cooper beamed and nodded.

X

Bruce didn't realize he'd worked through the night until Jane and Vidar arrived at the lab. "You left the banquet to work, Banner?" said Vidar, chuckling and shaking his head.

"I just had some ideas I wanted to test out," said Bruce, glancing at the windows. Soft morning light was filtering in. "Didn't mean to pull an all-nighter." The soreness in his neck and shoulders suddenly made itself known. He stretched and groaned, wishing that Asgard had coffee.

"And?" said Jane, picking up his notes and looking over them.

"I've tried everything I can think of, and I can't find any evidence that the transporter malfunctioned."

"Wait, let me just try something," said Jane. "Vidar, come here."

"Erik and Darcy?" said Bruce, while the other two poked around at the inner workings of the transporter.

"He's hungover and she's making new friends," Jane muttered vaguely.

The door opened again. Vidar was the first to look around. He stood up straight and clapped his right fist over his chest. "My prince."

It was Loki. "Morning, all," he said. "How goes the work on the transporter?"

"I was up all night running diagnostics on a few different problems it could have been," said Bruce. "They all came up negative."

"Dammit," said Jane, stopping what she was doing and looking up at them. "Yeah, my big idea was a bust too."

"Perhaps we've missed something," said Vidar.

"Perhaps you haven't," said Loki.

Bruce's stomach dropped as he realized what Loki was implying. It hadn't occurred to him before now because he'd been in the second transporter group himself and nothing had seemed suspicious at the time. "That could only be true if the destination change wasn't caused by a malfunction."

Jane and Vidar exchanged an alarmed glance.

"Your services are greatly appreciated," said Loki. His expression was unnervingly calm, and he turned and strode back out without another word.

"...Should we tell someone about this?" said Jane.

"If the destination was altered deliberately to put a prince of Asgard at risk, then we must!" said Vidar.

"We don't know enough yet," said Bruce. "We should talk to some of the other people who were there. Are the SHIELD agents at breakfast by now? I didn't see anything, but maybe they did."

X

Clint stifled a snort when he saw the piece of torn notebook paper sitting on the table by the bed, covered in large, uneven first grader handwriting.

Mom and Dad,

Don't worry. I went to find Fyolneer. See you at brekfust.

Hugs and kisses,

Cooper

He showed the note to Laura, who wasn't as amused by it. Given that they were in a massive building on another planet, it probably wasn't the best time for Cooper to run off by himself, but Clint wasn't worried. They got dressed quickly and Laura helped Lila get up and back into her pretty banquet outfit, and then they headed for the room where Fjolnir's family was staying.

Gerd answered the door this time. "Good morning," she said, smiling.

Lila stared at her, her eyes round as coins. "Are you a fairy princess?" she asked before either Clint or Laura could reply.

Gerd laughed. "You precious thing," she said. "I am not a fairy princess, though I am good friends with one."

"Is Cooper here?" said Laura. "He left us a note that he'd come to find Fjolnir already."

"No," said Gerd, "though I have a good idea of where he might be."

She led the way up the hall and around a corner. They passed a few more doors, but could hear young boys laughing before they reached the fifth one. Gerd opened it and a rush of cold air hit them. Cooper was busy building a snow fort while Fjolnir and Leif pelted snowballs at each other. Clint was a little surprised to see that Fjolnir wasn't blond and pink-cheeked anymore, but this didn't seem to bother either Leif or his son at all.

"There you are, Cooper!" said Laura. "You look like you're freezing!"

"I'm ok-k-kay," said Cooper. His face was bright red and he was visibly shivering. "R-r-really!"

"I'm sure you are, buddy," said Clint, "but what do you boys say to taking a little break so we can eat?"

X

After taking the briefest detour to tend to his injuries and make himself presentable, Fandral headed straight for the breakfast room nearest the mortals' guest quarters. He grimaced at the thought that Darcy might be there, but wasn't deterred. However, when he arrived, he found only Agent Romanoff and a bleary-eyed Selvig.

"Can we help you?" said Romanoff.

"You haven't seen Prince Loki about, have you? There's something I need to discuss with him."

"We danced one song last night, and then he danced with Sif," she said. "I didn't see him again after that."

"Are you by any chance expecting him shortly? Thor said he might want to speak with you and Agent Barton before you return to Midgard."

"I haven't heard anything. Have you checked the lab?"

"Splendid idea," said Fandral. "You have my thanks." He bowed to her before setting off towards the laboratory. He needed to find Loki before his courage deserted him. Alas, when he arrived, the laboratory was empty.

X

Loki couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so angry. It shouldn't come as a surprise; he'd never been betrayed before. Not like this. Not by someone who'd been his friend nearly all his life. Centuries of adventures together, of fighting side-by-side and saving each other's necks from countless perils, and it came to this? Yes, they'd quarrelled from time to time and Loki had perhaps gone a bit far with his mischief on occasion, yet what kind of excuse was that? The fact that he was Jotun was bound to get out eventually, whether he wanted it to or not, but how could someone he trusted be responsible for stripping any control over that information away from him? To expose him and then to carry on like nothing had happened?

The back doors of the palace flew open before he could reach them, and guards standing at their posts scrambled to get out of his way. He took the steps down to the training grounds two at a time. As expected, even after a long banquet night when any sane person would be fully justified in sleeping late, the target of his ire was up, alert, and practicing sword forms like she did nearly every morning.

I've already written the next scene, but it didn't work very well as part of this chapter. This made a better twist ending. :D

The "ofrolvi-hold," if it wasn't clear from context, is the drunk tank. I feel like such a place would be an absolute necessity on Asgard. I couldn't find a word that meant cell or prison in Old Norse, but we must've gotten "hold" from the Vikings, because it means the same thing. "Ofrolvi" means "over-drunk." Perfect. And Fjolnir said another word I haven't used before when talking to Leif about Jotunheim. "Drengjar" means warriors. We got into my headcanon about why Loki has hair but all the other Jotnar we saw in canon don't. I've gone back and forth on this a bit, but for this fic, I'm going with they have minimal to no body hair but do have head hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes, though it's common to shave your head to display your ancestral lines more clearly. Which puts an interesting emphasis on maternal lineage. Might have some other implications.

Also, the two Ljosalfar servants of the House of Freyr have Irish names. I've pretty much decided that Alfheim is tied to Irish mythology as much as it is to Norse, but I don't know if there'll ever be a real opportunity to delve into that.

This wraps up the subplot with the little boys, and now we can focus on the drama of the grown-ups. The scene with Thor and Loki at breakfast was a late addition to the chapter, because it occurred to me that Loki hadn't been worked up very well over the idea that some of his people are less willing to support him if he's Jotun before he went storming off to confront the wrong person about it. And it's been a while since we had a good Brodinsons scene.