You woke to the dangerous combination of the feel of magic in the air and Loki cursing loudly. That was a terrifying combination and not a good way to wake up. It was so terrifying that you were instantly awake with a dagger drawn looking for the danger.

You didn't see any danger. You did see a kid sitting in the bed against the pillows in the same place where Loki had been sleeping last night. It was a twelve year old or so looking kid with long raven black hair pulled back in a tail with a magenta-red streak in it. "Loki? Why are you twelve?" you asked once it sank in that this kid was Loki. It took embarrassingly long for you to realize that, but you were half awake.

"Eleven," he corrected absently, starting at the spell book on the bed in front of him. "And you're one to talk, oh queen of the 8 years olds," he grumbled, but had his typical mischievous grin. His eyes didn't leave his book as he spoke. You risked a glance in a nearby mirror. He was right. Somehow you were both kids. Though you didn't look exactly as you had as a child. Your eyes were still black, there was a raven streak in your hair, and the soulbond marks on your arm.

"Darling soulbond, why, pray tell, are we children?" you asked. At least your mental age didn't seem to be affected by whatever was going on. You also noted that the tunic of his you had worn as pajamas that night was now a proper dress and would fall well past your knees.

"A spell went very wrong," he answered, rifling through the spellbook. That wasn't particularly helpful.

You sighed heavily. He was being difficult. "What was the spell supposed to do?" you asked, getting ready to steal the book from him if he didn't give you proper answers soon. Maybe your mental age was a bit affected by his spell.

"It was supposed to let me see if going back to the past would break the soulbond," he answered absently.

You ripped the book from his hands at that. "You want to break the soulbond?" you demanded with tears in your eyes. You couldn't believe that he wanted to break the soulbond. You thought he loved you and wanted to be with you. Yes, the circumstances behind the soulbond were unfortunate, but you had both accepted it. You thought you had anyway.

Loki looked over at you confused, then shocked at your tears. "No!" he exclaimed. He came over to your side of the bed and wrapped his arms around you. "Not at all, darling, not one bit. I was just doing research on the soulbond. I swear, it was just research. I do not wis to break it. I wasn't trying to break it. I just read that there were cases where it had been successfully broken. I wanted to know how, since I had never heard of such a thing until this book," he hesitated a moment, then added. "And if I am being completely honest, I would feel better about our soulbond if I knew that you had the option of breaking it, since you did not have the option of accepting it when it was made," he admitted softly, looking away from you in shame. He shouldn't have bound you to him without your consent, but he'd had to in order to save your life.

"Loki, I'm happy the way things are," you reminded him. "Except being stuck as an eight year old," you added.

Loki tugged the book back from your hands. "I am looking for the reversal," he commented dryly. "If not, it will reverse automatically at midnight,"

"So we just have to not leave the suite until then," you replied. That could probably be accomplished. Probably. Ok, only possibly. "Any other books it might be in?" you asked. You could at least help him research how to fix his mess. He pulled a book from the stack and handed it to you. "You promise it was just research?" you asked him, still hurt.

"Yes, darling. I swear it on the soulbond," he replied softly. "I'm sorry to have worried you. And I'm sorry to have accidentally turned you into an adorable child,"

You stuck your tongue out at him for that comment before you got to work on the research. You both poured over the texts, looking for a reversal spell until the door to the suite burst open. "Brother! Mother sent me to find you. She said you are causing trouble. Again. What did you do this time?" Thor called as he stormed further into the suite. You made a noise that was some kind of awful mix between a squeak and an embarrassed yelp and hid under the blanket before he could see you like this. Loki didn't hide fast enough. Thor just looked at him and started laughing. "What did you do?" he roared in laughter.

"A spell backfired," Loki replied sourly. He climbed out of bed to go face down his brother, who was now towering over Loki.

"And where is your darling soulbond?" Thor's laughter continued.

"Don't Thor-" Loki started, but he was pushed aside by the much bigger Thor. Thor pulled the covers back. You admittedly had not picked a good hiding spot, but you hadn't had a lot of time either. You looked up at him with tears in your eyes, mostly from embarrassment. You didn't want him to see you like this. you didn't want anyone to see you like this.

"Loki..." Thor started.

"It was a mistake. The spell went wrong," Loki protested. "I was trying to find a reversal spell for it when you came barging in," he grumbled.

"I better take you two to Mother. Maybe she can sort you out,"

"No!" you shrieked, grabbing for the blankets again.

"Shh, little princess," Thor replied kindly. "Spells go wrong around here all the time. Usually not with such adorable results. No one will think anything bad about you, especially when it is his fault," you still sniffled and tried to avoid going with him. Unfortunately, it was Thor you were dealing with. Not going with him wasn't an option. His solution to everything was to pick up the offending person and put them where they needed to be. And he was just so nice about it that you couldn't do anything about it either. He grabbed Loki around the waist before he could escape and held him under one arm. He held you against his chest, cradled in his other arm. "Come along children," he laughed and left Loki's suite. Loki grumbled, since he was held rather uncomfortably. You just hid your face in Thor's tunic and prayed no one recognized you. That was a useless prayer, though. "Mother, I found the troublesome children," Thor announced as he entered the breakfast room where Frigga was waiting. He set Loki on his feet in the breakfast room and held him by the back of the tunic so he couldn't run off.

"Oh dear," Frigga exclaimed. "What happened?" she directed her question to Loki, who scuffed his foot against the floor and refused to look at her. She smiled fondly. "Loki, darling, I can't help you fix it, if you don't tell you what happened." This sounded like a conversation that happened quite a lot when Loki was younger. Thor let Loki go, now that Frigga had Loki's attention. He wouldn't run from her. So Thor settled in one of the breakfast chairs with you cuddled in his lap. You had the feeling he was enjoying this a little too much, since he didn't have any younger siblings or kids around anymore. Loki explained what had happened with the spell that went wrong. Frigga summoned a book and the two of them poured over it at the table. She seemed to enjoy the trip down memory lane too. You just wanted this over. You hated this whole situation. It was especially uncomfortable since they hadn't been your family when you were a kid, so this whole thing was just embarrassing.

"Don't worry, little sister. They will get this sorted out," Thor told you gently. Loki and Frigga spent the rest of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon looking for a spell that would work. They tried spell after spell, but nothing seemed to work, until a couple hours after lunch when they finally stumbled upon the one that worked. With a poof of green and gold magic, they managed to reverse the spell. You blushed and scrambled off of Thor's lap when you were back to normal.

The three of them laughed about the incident and how ridiculous Loki looked as an eleven year old again. You were almost grateful they were ignoring you. You wrapped your arms over your chest, even more embarrassed that you was standing in the breakfast room in front of the queen in your pajamas, which happened to only be one of Loki's tunics, which was only barely not showing your underpants. "Lo, a little help?" you asked. He looked over at you and you saw him blush purple when he realized what you were wearing. Thor had looked over to see what the problem was and immediately decided that the spot on the floor between his feet was extremely interesting and needed his undivided attention. You would have laughed if you weren't so embarrassed. Loki pulled you into his arms, turning you so you were shielded from the room as he used magic to change your outfit for you to one of your own tunics and a pair of black leggings. "Thanks," you murmured, still hiding in his arms. You saw Thor still staring at the floor and laughed. "Thor, it's safe now," you told him, still giggling.

"Thank you for the assistance, Mother," Loki told Frigga.

"Yes, thank you, Lady Mother," you added.

She gave Loki a fond smile. "Anytime, dears."

You were relieved when you could finally escape.

"That was so embarrassing!" you whined at Loki the second you were safely out of earshot.

He chuckled. "I'm sorry, darling,"

"Your mother and brother did not need to see what I looked like at 8, or what I wear to bed..." you grumbled. You knew you were still really red from blushing and just wanted to hide under the blankets for the rest of the day and try to forget any of that had happened.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, sounding actually sincere this time, no hint of jokes. "I will make it up to you, I promise."

You did hide in your suite for most of the rest of the day. You also forbade him from reading the book that had caused all of this trouble until at least tomorrow. He laughed, but didn't try to read that particular book again that day.