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Loki rolled his eyes. Even at the dinner table, those blow-hard friends of Thor’s couldn’t shut up about all the fun they had had training that day. Odin and Frigga were at their usual places at the heads of the table, but with Thor’s friends joining them every night, the usual dynamic had been disrupted. It bothered Loki’s sense of order—had done from the first night.
To Odin’s right, since Baldur was back traveling the Nine Realms, sat Thor. Beside him was the red-haired large boy named Volstagg who would not be getting any smaller from the portions he was shoveling into his mouth. Next to Volstagg sat the handsome boy with the ready smile, Fandral. Fandral was trying his smile on the girl, Sif, who sat to Loki’s right and was studiously ignoring Fandral. To her right was the quiet boy, Hogun, the only quiet one among them.
Loki glanced to his left to catch the amused look on his mother’s face a moment before she cleared her throat. The talking quieted, albeit in spurts. Frigga addressed the diners once they were all quiet, with Odin being the last to stop talking with an embarrassed grin of apology to his wife.
Frigga looked from one to the other of them in turn. “I realize you all had a fun today, but this is a civilized space, not fit for talk of battle.”
Odin raised a surprised eyebrow and began to open his mouth, promptly shutting it when Frigga raised her own brows to him. He cleared his throat. “My lady wife is, as always, quite correct. We should behave like lords. And ladies.” Odin nodded acknowledgement to Sif and Frigga.
The boys sniggered but quieted. Loki spoke up. “My therapy went well today, Father. Sigrid says that if I keep working as hard as I have been, I will soon be walking again.”
More sniggers from across the table, quieted by a look from Frigga that would have frozen a Frost Giant in its tracks.
Loki raised his chin. “You may laugh, but I only sit where I am because I dared to climb Mt Drengir without all the training.”
Odin gestured with a chunk of bovine meat on his fork. “And it was foolhardy. You’d be training for the climb now, and ready to join these boys in training next summer if you hadn’t gone off all half-cocked.”
“But Father! It was Thor’s idea.” Odin’s tone stung Loki’s pride. All he wanted was to impress his father, but whatever he did never seemed to be good enough.
“Aye. And he made it. If Thor took a trip to Niflheim, would you follow him?” Odin’s brows were drawn down, but his mouth was quirked up, mocking.
Loki glanced at Thor, whose eyes were round, but whose mouth was actually shut. “I would. He is my brother. It is my duty to keep him safe.”
“Even if he is safe and you jeopardize him by following?”
“I…” Loki’s eyes began to water, but as he looked around the table at the others, he saw no support. Only Frigga spoke in his defense.
“Husband…”
Odin growled and Frigga sat back in her chair, brows high at his insult.
Loki swallowed. “I am not hungry. May I be excused?”
Frigga nodded immediately. “I will check on you later, my son.”
Loki pushed his wheelchair back and rolled out of the room. He didn’t stop until he reached the library, where he rolled in and up to the long windows, leaving the door ajar, so that the hall lights would be his only light. He wanted to be alone, but not in total darkness, and didn’t feel like fighting with the door anyway; it had been sticking more than usual and the servants had yet to fix the problem since only Loki seemed to have trouble with closing it.
He was staring out into the darkness of the garden at the night, lit only by a nearly full moon and some small strings of lights hung here and there. Small animals could be seen darting in and out of the bushes. It was peaceful, and Loki was beginning to calm down when he heard voices coming up the hallway. Odin’s baritone was easy to hear; Frigga’s quieter voice was not.
“The boy has to toughen up. If he’s healing as he says he is and he still wants to join the warrior training, he can’t have a thin skin.”
Loki strained to hear his mother’s voice. “He’s tougher than you think—than any of you think. You should give him more credit.”
Odin sighed. “Fine. I’ll speak with Thor and the others about proper conduct for a warrior.”
“Thank you, husband. That is all that I ask. They must learn to act like proper lords and lady amidst their warrior training.”
The voices faded as his parents moved down the hall toward their bedroom suites. Loki huffed out a breath, straightening his spine as much as he could. He would show them. He would show all of them. Once he was healed and could wield his magic, he would be a warrior that their ancestors would speak of long after his death.