Nothing happened while you spent the day curled up comfortably with your books. Your suite was quiet and it was a relief to just relax for once. Loki had left you tales to read when you got bored of research and studying. You kept impatiently checking your eyes throughout the day, but nothing changed. They remained the same creepy black they'd been since you saved Pepper. Lunch arrived on the coffee-table in a flash of green magic, so you didn't have to go scavenge for something to eat, thanks to a courteous Trickster boyfriend. You smiled at his thoughtfulness, and thanked him, even though you weren't entirely sure he could hear you so far away.

A note appeared in your lap. -Anytime, darling- you grinned. You loved your silly mischievous boyfriend. And of course he was listening in on the outskirts of your thoughts. He wouldn't intrude, but he would be listening to see if you called him. It was a delicate balance, but one you knew he wouldn't cross the line of.

He came back to the suite in time to freshen up before dinner. He, however, forgot to warn you when he was returning, and teleported into the room without announcement or preamble. It was his suite after all and he'd probably been doing that since he learned how to teleport as a child.

You were on your feet with a dagger already thrown at him and two more in your hands before you realized who it was. Loki laughed and vanished the dagger before it could hit him. You dropped the other two and ran to him. "Loki! You scared me!" you scolded as you wrapped your arms around his neck. You had been startled by his sudden appearance, but what scared you more was that you had nearly stabbed him in the chest.

"I'm sorry, love," he whispered, holding you tightly, stroking your hair to soothe you. "I have been so used to just teleporting into my suite all these years that I forgot it might startle you," he admitted. You realized that he loved that you were here in his suite and safe, but that he hadn't gotten used to sharing it with you yet either. "I am impressed with your reaction, though. You have been practicing," he commented. You nodded, but still didn't dare let him go, still afraid over nearly stabbing him. "Darling, I'm alright," he soothed as he held you

"I'm sorry!" you wailed, clutching onto him tighter. "I threw a dagger at you!"

He laughed. "And that was the correct response to someone teleporting in to our suite," he reminded me, stroking your hair. "Had I been thinking, I would have at least warned you first." You nodded and finally relaxed, reassured that he was ok. "Shall we get ready for dinner?" he asked gently.

"That sounds like an excellent idea," you replied with a tentative smile up at him.

"Good," he leaned down to kiss you and used magic to dress you both for dinner. You loved that he could do it, but couldn't wait to get your magic back so you wouldn't have to rely on his magic. "First, though, I have a spell I need to look up." He summoned the spell book Frigga had given him earlier. "I have not had a chance all day to look for it." He flipped through the pages while you watched him, curious what spell he was looking for. "Here it is," he murmured with a smile. He used magic to hold the book open in midair and carefully reached up to untie the braid containing the lock of your hair.

You watched him confused. "You don't like it?" you asked, feeling a little hurt.

He shook his head. "Patience, darling," he replied with a smile. He held the lock of hair in his glowing hand and recited the spell. When he was done, the lock of your hair had disappeared from his hand and was back on his head, as if it was growing there. You reached up to touch it, and it was in fact attached to his head, growing among his own hair as if he had been born with the lock. "There, now it shall never be lost," he explained with a grin. "Unless of course, I should lose my Lady's favor. There is a reversal spell in here," he added, just to make sure you were aware.

"I don't see that happening," you replied with a smile. You kissed him, then reached up to rebraid that section of hair for him. You unbraided your own lovelock and handed the lock of raven hair to him. "Do mine?" you asked hopefully. He smiled and looked back to the spellbook. One recitation later, and he was carefully rebraiding your hair for you, a raven lock of his hair growing among your own comic book red. It wasn't just a dyed lock either, it was actually his. The texture was different than your hair.

"There is a reversal for it," he repeated reassuringly. "If you ever want to remove it," you just stood up on your toes to give him a kiss.

"Thank you," you replied, ignoring his comments about removing it.

He vanished the book again and offered you a hand so he could escort you to dinner.

"How was the play last night?" Frigga asked you during dinner that evening. None of the four of you would look at her. You didn't want to answer that question. She kept staring you all down until Sif finally saved you.

"The actors were very good," Sif hedged with as polite of an answer as she could.

"Oh dear. That is the nicest thing you can come up with?" Frigga asked. "Was the play crude, or insulting in some manner?" She had gone in protective mother mode. She wouldn't have her children, adopted or otherwise, be insulted in her palace.

"The play was the tale of my banishment and journey," Loki finally told explained to her. Frigga would know all the contents of that, as Loki had had to report his journey to her. "We were unprepared." His words were simple, but his tone wasn't. He still wasn't pleased that you hadn't been prepared and that you'd both had to remember unpleasant things. "I do not know how they acquired the entire tale, but they had every detail, Mother," he added, his eyes haunted. You touched his hand, placing yours over the mark on his skin. His expression softened and he gave you a smile.

"We were just unprepared, Lady Mother. I do no think they intended to cause offense," you added quickly before Frigga could truly get upset. She nodded, but didn't look entirely convinced. Thor and Sif jumped in to agree with you. None of you wanted the troupe in trouble just because you and Loki had been uncomfortable.

The rest of dinner passed without incident and with way too much delicious food. "Loki, I need your help this evening," Odin ordered towards the end of the meal.

"Mine too, Father?" Thor asked.

Odin shook his head. "Just your brother tonight,"

Thor nodded, though had a tinge of wariness to his response. "Very well, Father." Odin beckoned to Loki, who stood, but gave you a worried expression. You smiled at him, trying to be reassuring. He took your hand and bowed over it to kiss it.

"I will see you later, darling," he promised you in a whisper. "Thor?" Loki asked as he stood again.

Thor nodded. "I will escort her home safely,"

"Thank you," Loki clapped Thor on the shoulder and went to go help Odin with whatever it was he needed. Sif whispered something in Thor's ear. He nodded and stood, offering her his hand. He looked at you expectantly. You sighed, and stood.

"Sorry, Kat. I'm not feeling well tonight. Morning sickness is not very aptly named," she complained. It was the first time you had ever really seen her without her perfectly mannered formality. Apparently pregnant women got passes on formality on any world.

"It's no problem," you replied, though you were definitely going to have to get out of the suite tomorrow, since you had spent 90% of the day there and you were going to go stir crazy. Thor walked with his arm around Sif's waist and you followed behind them, trying to think of something fun to do that night. Thor looked back to you and reached back to grab your hand with his free one.

"Come along, Sister. I have seen that bored, lonely expression on my brother's face too many times. No tricks from you tonight." You pouted at him while Sif laughed. At least she was feeling ok enough to laugh. Thor stopped at the door to his suite. You managed to get free of his grip and continued on your way to your own suite. Thor grabbed your arm. "Where do you think you are going?"

"My suite? you can see it from here, Thor," you replied dryly. He sighed and let you go.

"You are such trouble. You and my brother both." You laughed and waved to them and headed quickly to your suite. You slipped back inside and changed into your pajamas, letting your hair down from the elaborate braid from dinner.

About an hour later, you were bored out of your mind and went to go find something fun to do. Thor was sitting outside of your suite's door. "Took you longer than it takes Loki," he greeted you with a grin. "He would have been out here about twenty minutes ago." He offered you a hand. "Come, I have some fun for you," he bid you. You grinned and took his hand. He led you down the hall to his suite. A board game was set up on his coffee table, but Sif was nowhere to be seen. "Sif retired already. She really was unwell." Thor told you, seeing your concerned expression.

"Can you tell Loki I'm here? He'll worry," you asked. Thor smiled at you and gestured to one of the big pillows on the floor.

"I have already sent him the message," he replied. "Sit," he bid you. You laughed and sat on one of the big pillows. Thor handed you the rulebook for the game. You just looked up at him, surprised he was so prepared. "I may have used this tactic on Loki before," he admitted. You laughed again and read the directions for the game. Thor picked a throw blanket off of his couch and wrapped it around your shoulders before he sat at the table with you and you began to play the board game. The game was fun, as was spending time with Thor. Thor was sweet and kind. Even if he constantly had a loud boisterous manner about it and seemed like an overgrown child most of the time.

The hour was late indeed when there was a knock on Thor's suite door. Thor gestured for you to stay where you were and went to answer it. He stepped aside and let Loki come in. You grinned and jumped to your feet to go greet him. He looked tired and wan. There was danger in his eyes. Something was really wrong and he was barely holding onto his control. "Is everything ok?" you asked him. He nodded and smiled at me.

You didn't quite trust the smile, it was off, almost malevolent.

"Did you have a pleasant evening with Thor?" he asked, sounding jealous. You had a feeling this was an old rivalry, and he had lost romantic interests to his brother before. You had to tread carefully with your answer so you didn't offend either of them.

"He was very generous to offer to keep me company tonight. Your company, however, is always much more preferable. No offense, Thor," you grinned over at Thor. You hoped your jovial tone might ease the situation. It didn't seem to work. Thor took a step forward.

"None taken, Sister," Thor replied, emphasizing the last word. "You look like hell, Brother. Father had you do complicated magics for him again, did he not?" Loki nodded brusquely, wrapping a possessive arm around you as he did. Thor glared at him, seeing the dangerous glint in Loki's eyes, just as you had. "Brother..." his tone was warning. "I know dealing with Father puts you on edge, but I will not allow you to endanger your soulbond over your own hurt feelings."

Ah, that was Loki's problem tonight.

Odin had done something to mess with his emotions.

"We'll be fine, Thor," you told him with what you hoped was a reassuring smile. In this mood of Loki's, if you went with him, you really were going to have to trust that he wouldn't hurt you. Or do something stupid just because of Odin messing with his emotions. Thor didn't look like he wanted to let you leave. He didn't trust Loki like this. "Love, let's go home," you bid Loki, hoping he would listen to you. You saw emotions run across his eyes. Hurt, betrayal, anger, fear, distrust.

His emotions landed on fear and you saw him make a decision. You saw how hard it was for him to make that decision too. He took a step away from you and pushed you, gently, but still pushed you, into Thor's arms. Thor caught you before you could fall. "Keep her here tonight." Loki said gruffly, his voice hoarse with emotion and fear. "I do not trust my control tonight, or her safety with me,"

"Loki! No!" you protested and tried to go to him, but Thor had wrapped his strong arms around you. You reached out a hand to Loki, but he vanished from the room without another word. "Thor, let me go," you warned him, angry at being held back.

"Calm down, Sister, calm. He did the right thing and we both know it," Thor tried to reason with you. That didn't stop you from pounding your elbow into his ribs, repeatedly. "I'm not letting go," he told you the second time you hit the same spot hard. "Kindly stop hitting me, Sister,"

"Let me go, Thor," you snarled at him, lifting one of your legs so you could kick him. He swung you around so you couldn't kick him. "I have to go to him," you insisted.

"Not tonight, you don't." Thor replied. "Calm down, he will be fine." you struggled against him again, but it was useless, not without actually hurting Thor, which you wouldn't do unless he actually hurt you. You finally stopped fighting him. He steered you toward the couch and pushed you onto it. He stayed standing, wisely not trusting you to stay put. "You have never seen him like this, have you?" Thor asked you gently, once he saw that you weren't jumping off the couch to try to escape again. You shook your head. "I have. Many times. Can I sit, or are you going to try to escape?"

"You can sit," you told him grumpily. He didn't look like he entirely believed you. You had been hanging around Loki too much.

"Loki has entrusted me with your safety tonight. Please don't make it difficult,"

"For now," you could agree to that much, especially if he was going to give you an explanation.

"I will take 'for now'." He sat next to you on the couch.

"He's hurting, Thor, I need to go help him," you begged.

Thor shook his head. "Not tonight. Let him calm down. At least let you tell you about it before you try fighting you again," he insisted. You held your hands up in surrender. you wouldn't fight him. Yet. He nodded and you lowered your hands. You picked up the throw blanket from where it had fallen earlier and wrapped it around yourself again. Thor finally relaxed when you did, since he finally felt that you wouldn't run. "Father can be a bit of a jerk. Actually quite a bit of a jerk. Fine, he is an asshole. He has pitted us against each other all of our lives. He always preferred me and Ball because we were big and strong like him. We look just like he did when he was young. Loki was adopted and yet he's the only one who took to Frigga's magic. Father hates him for it, and yet makes him do complicated super advanced magic for the benefit of the realm he says. And then he spends the entire time berating and belittling Loki while he does the complex spells. Between Father's verbal abuse and the drain of the magic, it puts him in the mood you saw him in. He'll be fine in the morning once he's slept it off," Thor promised you.

"And I can't go to him because?"

"He does not trust himself not to hurt you out of misplaced anger at our Father. His control on his powers and emotions are basically gone. He will be here first thing in the morning, feeling terrible, with flowers or some other romantic nonsense to make this up to you." You laughed at that and felt bad for Sif about Thor's feelings on romantic gestures.

"Thor? Is something wrong?" Sif asked from the doorway to their bedroom. Thor nodded.

"Loki is having an off night and would like for Kat to stay here tonight. Is the guest room set up?" he asked. Sif nodded. "I will get her settled and take the couch tonight. Go back to sleep, love," he bid her. He stood and kissed her gently and she went back to bed after wishing you a good night. He came back into the main room and looked at you. "Please stay here tonight, Sister,"

You sighed, but nodded. "Fine. You better be right about this," you told him. He nodded and took your hand, pulling you to your feet. He led you to the second bedroom in their suite. You was grateful that it hadn't been Torun's old room. It was decorated as a generic spare bedroom.

"Do I need to get you a tonic from Mother, or will you stay?" he asked you firmly.

"I'll stay. I promise," you told him, giving up. He nodded and bid you goodnight. He would be sleeping on the couch in the main room, keeping guard, and making sure you stayed in the suite. You weren't stupid enough to try to leave when Thor was keeping guard. You curled in the strange bed without your Loki and tried to get some sleep. It didn't go well. You were too worried about him and tossed and turned all night, but finally dozed off some to get a little sleep.