I'm so glad to be able to post this today! I hope you all enjoy this chapter ;)

Edelweiss Say I'll Be with you Till the Day you Leave

Chapter Nine: Stepping on Roses

It was two and a half weeks before Kari was well enough to return to school.

His cough had been perpetual throughout his recovery period and had slowly become less severe each day, though he'd suffered a dastardly sore throat for almost the entire time he'd been confined to the infirmary. A spike in fever during the first week led to the doctors diagnosing him with bronchitis, causing him to feel even worse than he already did.

Amelia had admittedly babied her son a little, fetching him his favourite video games, fluffing up his pillows and bringing him extra blankets so that he felt comfy and cosy.

When his condition improved, he was discharged from the infirmary and allowed back into his own room, where he continued to sleep most of the time anyway, physically worn out from the infection in his lungs.

Loki had asked his son what he wanted for breakfast one morning, and Kari had responded without hesitation that he wanted Dunkin Donuts, and needless to say - as Loki was still feeling guilty from the way he treated his son, he left the tower at once and returned with a box of six scrumptious donuts, all for Kari to devour. The truth of how unwell Kari was at the time was evident in the fact that he only ate two donuts that morning and offered the rest to his siblings.

Kari regained his strength eventually, and was overjoyed the first day he woke up without a sore throat. Amazingly, he was actually looking forward to going back to school, which was certainly saying something, though a lot of it had to do with seeing Louis again. They'd been messaging each other non-stop, Louis had been invested in Kari's recovery and constantly sent funny videos to make his friend feel better. Kari appreciated each and every one.

It was clear to Kari that things were going to be different when he finally walked through the front entrance of his school again, but he could never have anticipated just how much things were about to change.

Stepping in through the threshold of his high school for the first time in almost three weeks, Kari fiddled nervously with his bag straps, peering around for his best friend amongst the rush of students. Aster walked alongside him, looking oddly anxious as well, something Kari attributed to the stories she had been telling him about a bunch of kids at school who had repeatedly been asking about him; even kids he'd never spoken to before seemed interested to hear how he was doing, and Aster being Aster - she just wasn't a fan of the attention, especially from the kids who had barely ever spoken a word to them - and she'd simply said he was fine and prayed the conversation would end.

It seemed Aster was anticipating a lot of attention now that Kari was back and on his feet, but Kari couldn't quite imagine gleaning any attention from anyone beyond their immediate friend group.

As they drifted through the hallway, passing students as they went, they finally reached the locker hall and peered around for their friends, and at long last Kari saw his best friend face to face for the first time in what felt like ages. Louis and Autumn were waiting by Kari's locker, tapping their feet like they couldn't wait any longer, but the moment they locked eyes, Louis's face brightened like the sun. Kari had never seen a smile so big on his friend's face as Louis's hand shot up to wave him over, the boy's mouth opening wide.

"Kari!"

Kari froze in place, turning to his right to see who had called his name with deafening loudness, because it definitely hadn't been his best friend.

A girl with braces and her hair pulled back in a ponytail had drawn his attention, it was someone he only vaguely recognised as sharing a few classes with him and in all honesty, he couldn't remember if her name was Kirsten or Crystal, but she seemed overly excited to see him.

"Oh crap," Aster sighed to his left, taking a few cautious steps back, and that's when Kari realised that almost everybody in the hallway had stopped moving, and were now pinning him with gazes holding varying states of surprise.

Suddenly, he was surrounded.

Aster ducked out, discomfited by the flood of people that rapidly grew around Kari, while Kari's eyes flitted around at all the kids saying his name and trying to catch his attention. Some of them were overly touchy in their efforts to speak to him, tugging on his bag or his sweater, tapping on his arm or his shoulder, someone even grabbed him by the wrist and almost yanked him into the crowd.

Kari was speechless, confusion evident on his face, and grew flustered at the attention from all these kids - more than half of which he had never interacted with before. He didn't know their names, but they seemed to know his because they kept repeating it over and over.

"That was so cool, what you did!"

"Did you get any burn scars?"

"I can't believe you met Iron Man!"

He picked up a few words amongst the crowd but the rest of it was gibberish all melding into each other. He did not know what to say as he looked back at all these unfamiliar faces greeting him as if he was their long-time friend, and it felt oddly refreshing.

Unlike his sister, Kari found the recognition to be extraordinary and bewildering in the best way possible. Aster hadn't been exaggerating when she spoke of how everyone wanted to know how he was doing.

Kari found himself laughing, utterly dumbfounded by the warm welcome.

Before he could get too comfortable with being the centre of attention, Louis parted the crowd like the Red Sea by shoving his way through to the middle.

"Uh, excuse me, the newest Avenger's best friend is coming through," Louis snarked as he turned on the rowdy group, causing them to quieten a little and look at him with offended stares, "and give the guy some room to breathe, please, his lungs are working overtime these days, ever since his heroic stunt!"

The mob of excitable children slowly began to disperse and move along while Louis took the opportunity to drag his friend to the edge of the corridor, away from all the nosy kids, and safely hug the wall until they reached the lockers where Aster and Autumn were waiting. Charlotte had arrived at some point, and was watching the boys with an unamused look as she stood with her arms crossed over her chest.

Kari allowed himself to be led towards them, trying to wipe the disappointment off of his face after Louis felt the need to save him from a scenario that he was very much enjoying. Once they were completely free of the student swarm, Louis turned to Kari once again, grinning that huge grin that made the corners of his eyes wrinkle, and wrapped his arms around him, purposefully restraining his urge to squash his best friend under the assumption that his lungs were still recovering.

Kari returned the hug and showed Louis that he was fully healed by squeezing the boy with all his controlled might. Louis exhaled a laugh, a very pleasant sound to Kari's ears, and it was tinged with relief; when they released each other, Louis's eyes appeared to be almost glistening.

"I've missed you."

Hearing the emotion in Louis's voice, Kari gave him a soothing smile, "I missed you too."

"Touching reunion," Charlotte deadpanned, causing the other four in the group to glare at her.

The day proceeded with more unexpected instances of random students approaching Kari before and after class, asking questions about what happened to him after Iron Man had carried him to safety; some of them remarked how they had heard a rumour that Tony Stark offered him a position in the Avengers, which caused Kari to burst out laughing - it was like something right out of his wildest dreams, to be offered the chance to become a famous superhero like his father, beloved and celebrated by all.

Louis shut down the rumour almost immediately with a sarcastic sounding tone, "Please, why would Tony Stark recruit a random, totally normal fourteen year old kid?" He made a face at the kids who had suggested it, and they shrugged in return before ambling away, all of them missing the way Kari's face fell at his friend's inquiry.

Is that what he was, then? A random, totally normal fourteen year old kid. Kari knew Louis was ignorant of his true identity, but the way he'd said that made him feel… kind of dispirited, like his friend had pointed out how ordinary and unremarkable a person he was.

Kari didn't voice his thoughts, but he didn't fully dismiss them into the back of his mind. They lingered on and off throughout the day. Every time somebody came up to Kari to ask him about Iron Man, Louis said something to shut them down and turn them away; the more it happened, the more Kari wondered about it.

Was Louis… jealous of the attention Kari was getting?

"Why do you keep doing that?" Kari asked as they waited outside the classroom of their final period before lunch.

"Doing what?" Louis asked curiously.

"You keep cutting people off when they come up to talk to me about what I did," Kari pointed out.

Louis lifted an eyebrow, giving Kari an expectant look, "Well yeah, they're all being so fake. They're not your friends, they just wanna know about your interaction with Tony Stark."

Kari bristled defensively, not quite believing what Louis was telling him, "Maybe they've decided they want to be my friend, you can't read their minds."

Louis frowned, "Kari, I'm telling you, they're only interested in talking to you cause Tony Stark saved you."

Kari didn't even try to hide his agitation, giving his best friend a dirty look before crossing his arms and proceeding to ignore him and anything he said for the entire lesson. Louis kept nudging his shoulder, trying to get a response out of him and growing steadily more upset the longer Kari refused to answer him; Kari gleaned a sadistic enjoyment out of seeing Louis all pouty at the punishment he was giving him, but really, Louis deserved to feel bad for what he'd insinuated - that Kari wasn't special and everyone at school was really only interested in Iron Man.

Partway through the lesson, a folded piece of paper was placed on the corner of Kari's desk, and he looked curiously over at the kid beside him, who subtly pointed across the room to where the mysterious note had initially come from.

Towards the front of the classroom sat Maya Green, who was perhaps the most popular girl in their entire grade. She was also certainly the prettiest; Maya had long, mousy brown hair that looked akin to a curtain of silk, and the most vibrant blue eyes Kari had ever seen on a person. She had hardly ever spoken a word to Kari in the few years they'd known of each other's existence, but there she was, peering back over her shoulder in a way that was almost shy, a sweet smile on her face.

Kari's mouth hung open in surprise for a few moments, astonished that she was even looking at him let alone writing him a note in class, before he snapped his mouth shut and hurriedly unfolded the paper in his hands.

Do you want to sit with me at lunch? Yes / No.

Louis leaned closer to read the elegant, curly writing and Kari made no effort to stop him. Kari himself was awestruck that Maya Green wanted him to sit at her table - the popular kids' table - at lunch; he tried to remain cool, knowing that her eyes were on him as he read her note, and then he all too quickly made up his mind.

Kari made it painfully obvious as he picked up his pen in plain view of Louis and circled the affirmative answer before folding the note back up and passing it back through the line of students that delivered it in the first place.

He could feel Louis's eyes burning into the side of his head as Kari kept his eyes on the teacher at the front of class.

Dinner was quiet that evening.

Aster sat upright in her chair at the dining table opposite her twin brother, who was acting as though the vegetables on his plate were fascinating, anything to avoid her piercing gaze.

Amelia looked between her eldest children, sensing some tension, and shared a look with Loki who sat across from her, discovering that he seemed to be thinking the exact same thing.

"Did everything go well on your first day back at school, Kari?" Amelia questioned casually, as if she wasn't prying for the exact reason the twins were acting strange.

Kari hummed, "Yeah, it was fine."

Silence.

Amelia frowned, she'd been expecting her son to elaborate a little more than that, but she supposed she would have to delicately push if she wanted to know what was going on.

"Was Louis happy to see you?" She asked, and spotted the slight twitch of Kari's nose at the mention of his best friend.

"He was," Kari answered stiffly, and again there was a distinct lack of conversation as the family ate together.

Another look passed between Amelia and Loki, and the latter shrugged.

"Did that little fool, Trey, do anything to upset you today?" Loki questioned.

"His name's Trevor, dad, and nah, he stayed away from me today," Kari murmured, taking a reluctant bite of a piece of carrot and shuddering at the taste as he swallowed it down.

"I see," Loki responded, "well… that's good."

Amelia let out an inaudible sigh, resigning herself to the fact that she wasn't always going to be able to know everything that was going on in the lives of her children. She was glad, at least, that Kari did not seem to be moping exactly, he just seemed to be tired and a little cranky.

Daisy pointed across the table at a basket of warm bread rolls, blissfully unaware of the tension, "Can I have a roll, mama?"

"Of course, sweetie," Amelia picked a roll from the basket and handed it towards Aster, "could you pass this to your sister?"

Without taking her steely glare off of her brother, Aster took the roll and passed it along to Daisy, who gently took it and murmured a gleeful 'thank you' in the process. Amelia observed her eldest daughter, trying to figure out what was going on in her mind; she appeared to be angry at her brother, and while Amelia knew Kari was the type to tease and antagonise his sister sometimes, she didn't know what the boy could do at school to make her so persistently angry.

"Honey, you seem upse-"

"Kari has a girlfriend."

Amelia blinked. Everyone at the table fell silent, apart from Daisy who hummed to herself as she pulled her bread roll apart and slowly ate it.

Loki and Amelia locked eyes, sharing a bemused look while Kari held solid eye contact with his sister, uncharacteristically chewing and swallowing the rest of the food in his mouth before opening it to speak.

"I do not have a girlfriend."

Amelia's brow furrowed as she looked between her children. Hearing her astute daughter proclaim that brother had a girlfriend was not something she'd expected to hear, but Kari was refuting Aster's words, so had Aster simply misinterpreted something that had happened at school? And if so, how did her anger fit into all of this?

She didn't want to pry, because her children seemed agitated enough as it was, but at the same time, she really wanted to know what was going on.

"A girlfriend?" Loki questioned, curiously looking over his son's face.

Aster tore her piercing gaze from her brother to look at her father, seemingly like she was searching for some sort of a reaction, but Loki just looked vaguely puzzled as he idly ate his dinner.

"She's not my girlfriend, oh my god," Kari groaned as he sat back in his chair.

"Who isn't your girlfriend?" Amelia wondered.

"Maya Green," Kari answered grumpily, "she's a new friend I made at school today," he eyed his sister at the drop of the word.

"Friend," Aster sarcastically repeated, "he ditched his actual friends to go hang out with the popular kids because they finally showed him a little positive attention."

"Oh shut up, just cause everyone at school treats you like you're invisible doesn't mean the rest of us aren't allowed to make more friends," Kari sneered.

"Yeah, I'm sure Louis is happy that you abandoned him because a pretty girl smiled at you," Aster retorted, crossing her arms over her chest like she meant business.

"You're being so dramatic, I didn't abandon him. Maybe he should've been more supportive instead of telling me I'm not that special."

"That is not what he said, you're paraphrasing."

"I don't even know what 'paraphrasing' means!" Kari scoffed, slamming his hand down on the table.

"It means you're an idiot!" Aster snapped.

"Enough!" Loki finally exclaimed, causing the twins to shut their mouths and sit back in their seats, "Enough arguing! You're going to eat in peaceful silence and enjoy the dinner your mother made for us!" Loki gingerly took his hands away from Daisy's ears, where he'd placed them shortly before raising his voice so as not to startle her. She was peering up at him with wide eyes, much more aware that there was some conflict happening.

Amelia frowned, finding it difficult to believe that Louis and Kari's friendship had shattered over a few misinterpreted words. Surely when they returned to school tomorrow, they'd apologise and make up and this odd skirmish would all be forgotten about.

They didn't make up the next day, nor did they make up the day after that. Weeks went by and Amelia listened to Aster every evening recount how stubborn both Kari and Louis were, how Kari never sat with them at lunch, and how he and Maya sat together in class. Louis was constantly miserable in class, Aster said. Kari never hung about after school - instead, he just went up to his room to play video games by himself.

Kari and Aster seemed to suddenly become a lot less amicable towards one another, merely putting up with the other's presence but ultimately ignoring each other. It was so clear that even Daisy noticed. When Amelia put Daisy to bed one night, the little girl asked why her siblings were fighting, and Amelia didn't know what to tell her.

She tried multiple times to talk to Aster and Kari each individually in an effort to get them to stop fighting, but they were both insistent that the other was the one with the problem; as a mother, it was painful having to watch her children act this way towards each other.

Loki seemed confident that they would get over it, that this was just normal sibling behaviour, but Amelia couldn't relate - she didn't recall ever acting this way towards her brother when he was alive, nor had he acted this way towards her. They'd had a few meaningless spats every now and then, but their arguments had never lasted longer than a few hours.

For Aster and Kari to actively ignore each other for weeks, it wasn't normal.

Weeks turned into months, and then eventually on the last day of school before the Summer, Amelia pulled Kari aside and told him before he hopped into the car with the driver that he needed to figure things out with Louis, or they'd both end up having a miserable Summer.

Then hopefully, if Kari mended things with Louis, he and his sister would make up by extension.

Kari's brow furrowed, his eyes drifting off into the middle-distance for a brief moment before he sighed and shook his head, "I'm not apologising for anything. Louis owes me an apology, not the other way around. Whether or not we figure things out today is entirely up to him."

With that, he kissed her on the cheek and then climbed into the car, closing the door shut as he made every effort to look anywhere but at his sister, who he was forced to share the car ride with, and who was in the process of burning a hole into the side of Kari's head with her intense stare.

Amelia sighed dejectedly. How long was this pointless feud going to last?

When Kari returned home that afternoon, he did so with his eyes downcast, and Amelia cursed his stubbornness - she could see it in his face that he'd been hoping Louis would cave first. Kari wanted them to be friends again, and now he'd have to wait until the Summer was over.

The weather in Norway seemed hotter than usual, to Loki's dismay. Usually the heat was easily manageable, but after just a couple weeks in New Asgard, Loki was grousing every hour about how the sun was too intense; Kari hated it too, the teen deciding to spend a lot of time in the confines of his room where he could escape the harsh rays, or chasing a dip in the cool lake by himself under the watchful eye of a guard.

Aster handled the heat a lot more gracefully, wearing light, thin dresses and spending her time reading in the shade beneath the trees of the palace gardens. While the heat was bothersome, it was controllable as long as she remained hydrated and kept out of direct sunlight.

Daisy was different. She thrived in the heat and shied away from the cold of winter; it was fascinating to Amelia that her twins seemed to have inherited most of their biological attributes from their father while Daisy appeared more human than Jotun. Amelia had yet to see Daisy turn blue at the touch of ice, and wasn't sure whether she ever would, given the fact that cold weather caused Daisy to shiver and run for warmth.

The physical Jotun appearance wasn't the only thing Daisy lacked in comparison to her siblings, for years now Loki and Amelia had been keeping their eyes peeled for any hint of natural magical abilities in the young girl, but so far there had simply been nothing. Not a sign of objects seeming to move by themselves or a flicker of illusory magic to be heard of; given that the twins had developed their innate magical abilities long before they turned four years old - the age that Daisy was gradually approaching - they were beginning to assume that the magical gene just hadn't passed to her. It was roughly four months until her fourth birthday and Loki was confident that if Daisy was going to exhibit any magic, she would have done so by now.

Amelia wasn't by any means upset that Daisy couldn't perform magical feats like her siblings, but the girl was beginning to adopt a sense of envy in that she often wondered aloud why she couldn't make things float like her brother Kari, or make little butterflies appear like her sister Aster.

She and Daisy were in the middle of a picnic one day in the centre of the palace gardens, the two of them enjoying the sunshine and spending a little quality time together while Loki was off in the training grounds with his brother and nephews. Amelia was in the middle of unloading the food she had packed - which included bread rolls, cheese and meats, and a little pot of strawberries for dessert - when Daisy had spoken up suddenly, her voice sounding a whole lot less chipper than it usually did.

"Mama?"

Amelia lifted her gaze from the basket, looking at her youngest child with a concerned eye, "Yes, sweetheart?"

"Why can't I do magic?" The way little Daisy asked the question, so heavy with self awareness, spoken with a dull and dissatisfied tone, caused Amelia to mentally recoil. Rarely did she see her youngest looking so dejected - she was always so unerringly positive and radiant, but today she just looked… sad.

It was a crime for Daisy to be sad.

Amelia followed Daisy's gaze across the garden to a large tree at the adjacent end, one that sat along the edge of a woods and provided plenty of shade from the sun. Aster sat beneath it at the very base, reading a book while one hand idly twirled in the air, her fingertips shimmering with a faint green glow. There were butterflies fluttering around her, the result of a spell she had always had a knack for casting, and Amelia realised Daisy had been watching her sister and wishing she could do the same.

"Not everyone can do magic, sweet girl," Amelia explained, "there was a time once, when I was pregnant with Kari and Aster, where I could do a little magic every now and then, but it fizzled out eventually, and now I'm just… ordinary, like I was before I met your father." She offered a small smile. The last thing she wanted to do was give her empty promises by telling the girl that there was a chance she could do magic in the future, she didn't want to get Daisy's hopes up.

"But I want to," Daisy murmured, looking back to her mother with wide eyes.

"I know, baby. I wish I could do magic again too, but most people can't - and that's okay, because there are ways in which people can be talented and skilled without the use of magic," Amelia told her daughter, reaching out to cup her face gently.

The shiny brown eyes of her daughter looked back at her, still looking unfortunately unconvinced, and Amelia knew she needed a different approach to help her daughter look at things from a new perspective.

"What about…" Amelia began, scratching her chin thoughtfully as she searched her mind for something that could give Daisy a reason to reconsider her thought process, and that was when it came to her with clarity, "What about Mirabel? From Encanto?"

"Hm?" Daisy hummed, tilting her head at the mention of her favourite Disney movie.

"Remember what happened to Mirabel? She didn't get a special gift like the others in her family and it made her sad, didn't it? Because she thought she wasn't special. But then she ended up being the one to save the miracle and all of them realised that they don't need their gifts to be considered special. The miracle is you, remember?" Amelia tapped her daughter on the nose with the tip of her finger.

"The miracle is you," Daisy parrotted gently, her lips slowly forming a smile, and she pointed at her own chest, "I'm like Mirabel?"

"You don't need magic to do amazing things, and we love you all the same, my darling," Amelia lightly pinched Daisy's cheek and she giggled, falling into her mother's arms. After a moment, she looked back over at Aster and a soft sigh escaped her - it didn't sound so dejected this time, but rather wistful.

"What are you thinking, Daisy?" Amelia asked, stroking her daughter's head.

"If I could do magic, I would make bees, not butterflies," Daisy said matter-of-factly.

Amelia smiled fondly. Her daughter truly had an affinity with bees and it made her quite happy to see how gleeful she always was at the existence of the little flying pollinators. Without bees, there would be no flowers, she had told her daughter once.

"Maybe you could make bees another way. You could draw or paint lots of bees, hm?" Amelia suggested, knowing her daughter loved to paint.

"Maybe!" Daisy exclaimed, content with the idea. She shifted closer to the picnic basket, wordlessly telling her mother that she was ready to eat, and Amelia was glad that her moment of sadness had passed. It was possible it would come back in the future, but Amelia would always be quick to remind her baby that she had the potential to do great and wonderful things with or without magic.

"There is another curious matter we need to discuss," one of Thor's advisors spoke, forty-five minutes deep into a meeting one afternoon. Loki had been loosely paying attention throughout, but none of it had seemed overly important or concerning until now, when the advisor went on to explain the issue at hand. "We've had multiple reports of theft throughout the castle involving valuable possessions such as jewellery and gold, but not once have we managed to detect any clues as to a perpetrator. It is as if we are dealing with a phantom burglar."

The King placed his steepled hands against his bearded chin as his eyes narrowed in thought for a few moments before he spoke up, "One of my wife's bracelets went missing this week, and my eldest son insisted several coins from his coin purse were missing. I had not thought anything of it, merely that Inga must have misplaced it, and my son must have miscounted, but now that you bring this matter to my attention…"

"It has to be related, my king. Too much of a coincidence not to be," another advisor prompted.

"A phantom burglar?" Thor repeated as if he was considering the possibility.

"Or somebody gifted with magic," the first advisor suggested, and Loki had to suppress a chuckle, already knowing that the eyes of the advisory group would all be on him before he lifted his gaze to stare back at them.

"You think I'm cloaking myself with magic and tip-toeing around, stealing jewellery and coins from palace inhabitants?" Loki questioned, and this time he did laugh, lifting his goblet to sip his wine.

"Well, it would certainly befit the actions of the God of Mischief, wouldn't you agree?" An advisor pointed out.

Loki snorted, "Perhaps when I was twelve years old. Now though, I'm afraid I'm not the mischievous criminal you seek. Might I suggest we increase our security, perhaps have guards patrol the corridors and grounds at night every few hours?"

"That would be apt. And perhaps put out a statement reminding everybody to make sure their doors and windows are locked when they're away from their rooms," Thor agreed, "if the problem persists and this mysterious thief continues to elude our grasp, we may have to create a ploy to trap them."

"An excellent proposal, I will inform the captain of the guard," the first advisor concurred, and began taking notes on his parchment. "Will that be all before we call this meeting to a close?"

"Actually," Thor spoke up, turning to his brother, "I was wondering what exactly has occurred between Aster and Kari to lead them to act as though the other does not exist?"

Loki gave his brother a weary look, "Is this really a matter for your advisory council?"

"Well, I just figured I would broach the topic while you're here," Thor shrugged, "It's odd to see them so… dismissive of each other."

"It's no worse than how we were as children. At least they aren't actively at each other's throats," Loki grumbled; the whole subject of his twins' dismay for one another brought him immense agitation. He hated to see them fighting, he'd thought they would have forgiven and forgotten by now, but it seemed they were unfortunately as stubborn as him.

"What has them acting this way?" Thor asked.

Loki sighed when he realised Thor wasn't going to let the matter go, "They've been acting this way ever since Kari went back to school following his heroic stunt months ago. Apparently, Kari had a falling out with one of his school friends and Aster took their side instead of Kari's. They've been this way for months, it's horrendous and Amelia and I have tried to help, but it only ends up creating more conflict." He threw his hands up and shrugged, "If you have a solution to this problem, please speak now." He was loath to admit that he didn't know how to help his children be civil to each other in front of the advisors, but he was practically at his wit's end; the advisors remained silent on the matter anyway, knowing that it wasn't their place to interject with anything, while Thor scratched his beard, gazing off deep in thought.

"I fear I do not have a solution except to give them more time…" Thor sighed, "It must be difficult for them to spend the Summer here without each other's cordial company, especially when their friends are all in Manhattan. They have their cousins, but my boys are quite a bit younger than them, so I worry that they might feel… lonely."

Loki blinked, having stopped listening after Thor alluded to the twins only having friends in Manhattan, because it seemed to jump-start his memory so suddenly that it nearly gave him whiplash. Aster didn't only have friends in Manhattan, Loki recalled. She had a friend here in Asgard, a friend who Loki had wished to meet.

If only he could remember their name.

He ruminated on it for a few moments, cursing himself for being so awful at remembering the names of his childrens' friends, and then gave up, deciding that he would promptly seek out Aster the moment the advisory meeting came to an end.

"Mm," Loki murmured, when he realised Thor had been quiet for a minute and he hadn't quite acknowledged what he'd said, "yes, I'm… sure the twins will figure things out in due time."

Thor lifted an eyebrow but said nothing, turning his attention to the others present, "If that is all, then I think we should bring this meeting to a close."

The advisors agreed unanimously and not a moment later, Loki was on his feet stalking out of the room, intent on hunting down his eldest daughter.

The last Loki heard, Aster had headed to the gardens to sit and read in the sun, a use of free time that he wholeheartedly approved of, so he made his way there, knowing there were only a few spots in the palace grounds that she preferred to situate herself in. One spot was below the large oak tree at the edge of the woods; oftentimes he would see her reclined against its roots with a cushion to soften her seat, but he saw very quickly that she was not there.

Another spot was the gazebo, and what a beautiful spot it was - it allowed a cosy little nook to nap, or sit and eat lunch in, or to just read a book, while also offering the gift of shade from the abominable sun - the sun that was beating down on his skin right that second and making him feel uncomfortable.

Aster wasn't in the gazebo when he arrived, and Loki let out a grumble.

There was another spot, down the path into the wooded area that opened into a small clearing; it was peaceful and most definitely the kind of place Aster would go to read, and it was the only place left in the gardens that Loki could think of. He increased the speed of his step, knowing the quicker he found her, the quicker he could ask about her friend, and the quicker he could return inside the palace and out of the sun.

His shoes thumped against the brick path as he walked, glad at least to be below the minimal shade that the trees offered, and after a few minutes of speed-walking, he reached the area he had been looking for.

Aster faced away from him, her back oddly stiff as she sat on a bench within the grassy clearing, looking down at the book in her lap. There were more books piled on either side of the bench and Loki couldn't help but think it was beyond impressive how much reading material his daughter consumed.

Behind the bench stood a palace worker, a boy with long blonde hair that was so bright it was almost silver, and in his hands he held a tray with a pitcher of water and a couple of glasses.

"My prince," the servant boy inclined his head respectfully and Loki acknowledged him with a nod.

"Aster," he greeted as he walked around the bench, leaning forward slightly to try and pick out the words upon the pages of the book she held - just a precaution after what he'd discovered last time, though he was mostly confident that the library receptionist had done everything possible to not allow his young daughter to be checking out such books.

"Oh, hi dad," Aster murmured, snapping the book shut in an almost spiteful way.

Loki sat beside his daughter on the bench and glanced back at the servant boy; he wanted to speak to Aster alone so he motioned up the path with a slight nod of his head and said, "Leave us."

The boy blinked, eyes flickering between him and Aster momentarily before he bowed slightly and did as he was told, following the path down until he was out of sight and hearing distance.

Aster glared at her father, a slight pout to her lips, "I was trying to stay hydrated in the heat, but nevermind, I guess."

"Shush," Loki told her, brushing off her sulky demeanour, "I came to talk to you about your friend."

"My friend?" Aster repeated, eyes widening a tad.

"Your friend, the one you talked to using your diary while we were in Manhattan," he clarified, "I think it's time I met her. Where is she?"

Aster looked vaguely rattled before she hid the look, peering away from him into the woods as if she was idly looking around, "Uh, they're, um, you know, probably working right now, about the palace."

"Which area of the palace does she work in?"

Swallowing hard, Aster shrugged her shoulders, "Oh, um, here and there. All over the palace, really."

Loki regarded his daughter with a suspicious eye, "Hm. Sounds like your friend is a very versatile worker."

Aster nodded, picking at the cover of her book anxiously, "Yep."

"So when can I meet her?" Loki pressed, frowning at his daughter's skittish behaviour.

Giving him a shrug, Aster hummed softly, "I don't know, dad. They're really quite busy."

Loki almost laughed, shaking his head slightly, "Nonsense. I'm the prince, if I say a worker can skip their duties, then they can do so without consequence. If your friend is worried about not being paid, I will ensure she gets paid."

"Dad, I don't think-"

"Tomorrow at noon, you can bring your friend to the gazebo and I'll have tea and cakes brought to us. I'd like to get to know them," Loki told his daughter, speaking in a way that left no room for protest. There was no reason Aster's friend shouldn't be able to join them, not now that Loki was offering to give them paid leave from their duties while they sat and ate cake together.

Aster said nothing, staring down at the book in her lap as she bit the inside of her cheek.

Now that his plans to meet Aster's friend were settled, he decided to shift the subject to that of her brother, "How are you and Kari? Have you started talking again yet?" He didn't know why he asked, because he already knew the answer. They'd all had breakfast together that morning and Aster had not spoken a word to Kari, and vice versa.

"No, he's still being an idiot," Aster's gaze hardened at once, her gaze full of agitation.

Loki sighed, "Sooner or later, the two of you are going to have to make up. You can't go your whole life without speaking another word to your brother."

"Then he's going to have to apologise to his best friend for ditching him for some dumb girl."

"Ah, yes…" Loki trailed off awkwardly, "His… girlfriend?" It felt weird to allude to the fact that his son had a girlfriend at school; especially because their situation as a family was unusual, and he probably wouldn't ever get the chance to actually meet this girl.

Aster rolled her eyes, "She's just a girl who hangs off his arm. Kari is too dumb to realise that she doesn't really like him for him. She's just running off the hype that came from Kari getting saved by Tony during that building fire, and now he's sitting on the popular kid's table with a bunch of children who used to call him a nerd and say mean things about him behind his back. He hurt Louis, all because Louis tried to tell him that those kids weren't being genuine. He's an idiot, dad!"

His daughter's face had reddened slightly in her anger, and her eyes were somewhat misty, as though she was fighting the welling of tears. It was clear Aster missed her brother, but she couldn't just forgive him for wronging his friend; it sounded to Loki like Aster was rightfully upset rather than her being jealous over the attention Kari had received after heading back to school. Both Loki and Amelia had been discussing the possible details behind the twins' falling out, seeing as any attempts to talk to them about it before had just ended with vague, unintelligible explanations or yelling.

"I hear what you're saying," Loki told his daughter, "but you need to stop calling your brother an idiot, it's not helping matters."

"But it's true."

"Regardless, you need to stop. Listen, I'll talk with your brother about this, perhaps I can get his side of the story and understand with clarity everything that's going on. I don't want you two fighting forever."

With that, he leaned forward and kissed the side of her head, offering a smile.

"Tomorrow at noon, remember."

He fondly patted his daughter's head as he stood, missing the way she grew tense once again, and he turned and walked the way he'd come, heading back to the palace where he could escape the heat of the sun.

The next chapter, I am very excited to write, so I'm going to get started on that in a few days because there may be a tiny chance that I can finish it before Christmas and I think that would be a cool Christmas present to all of you seeing as my update schedule has been far between chapters with this fic. It shouldn't be a super long chapter so I hope that will mean it's not too daunting of a task for me to tackle a Christmas deadline :D

I would super appreciate if you reviewed!