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"Ah!"
"Ahh! I'm sorry, I-"
"What are you doing?!"
"I... Loki? Is that you?"
"Thor? Oh for Ymir's sake, let go, I'm fine."
"I am sorry, brother, I did not mean to startle you!"
"Yes, yes, just unhand me. What are you doing in here?"
"I am not sure. Fandral brought me, he said there dwelt a maid in here that would do anything a man desired for the span of ten minutes, so long as he remained silent. I tried to tell him that I do not have time for such company, as I am expected at my recitation lesson, but he would not hear me and shoved me through the door instead.
"...brother?"
"...a maid that would do anything a man desired."
"That is what he said, yes."
"Dwelling inside a broom cupboard."
Thor flushed, though Loki could not see it. "I did not think it made much sense either, but like I said, he dragged me here despite my protestations."
"Hmm. Probably made a wrong turning on the way to Hildi's room."
"Loki!"
"What? It is not as though she does anything to contradict her reputation. In fact, I rather think she relishes it."
"Even so..."
"Yes, well, leaving aside the question of sweet Hildi's maidenhood, shouldn't you be elsewhere, dear brother?"
"Fandral said that he will not unbolt the door until he is convinced I've had my fill. He claims that pleasurable company will be a welcome distraction from my other duties."
"Of course he does. I suppose he waits without?"
"Yes."
"Hmm."
"Say, Loki, why were you here in the first place?"
"I was awaiting my secret lover. We were to have a tryst here."
"Truly?"
"No."
"Oh."
"Now leave, Thor. A bolted door is hardly the greatest foe you have faced, and even you should be able to spin Fandral a merry enough tale about the mysterious broom maiden to keep him happy."
Thor fidgeted.
"You are not leaving."
"It seems a shame to do so before I get what I came for."
"I thought you had no interest in this maid? And besides, she is not here."
"No, but you are."
There was a lengthy pause.
"How bold, brother."
"And why not? The door is bolted."
"I already told you that I was awaiting someone, did I not?"
"But that was a lie!"
"And?"
"Please, brother."
Thor heard the quietest of sighs.
"...oh fine, get over here."
Several minutes later Thor emerged into the hallway, hair slightly ruffled and tunic askew. Too full of energy for dull speech lessons, he began walking instead toward the training grounds, joined by Fandral who unfolded himself from the opposite wall with a grin.
"So how was it?" he asked jovially, clapping Thor on the shoulder.
"Everything that you said and more, friend." The smile came easily to Thor's face, as it always did after such sessions with Loki. It was not often that they chanced upon moments to be together during the day, and Thor found that he was suffused with a great warmth that would surely last till night fell and he could seek out his brother again.
Laughing, Thor broke into a sprint, leaving Fandral to give a startled cry as he struggled to catch up. Thor wanted to reach the grounds as quickly as possible; he felt as though he could wrestle an entire army and win.
Inside the broom cupboard, Loki smiled to himself. He had been quite drunk when he wove for Fandral the tale of the Broom Maiden, and in the form of a dim-witted palace guard besides, but it seemed the man must have been drunker by far to pay it any heed.
How fortunate that Loki had been there anyway for his own purposes; the magic roiling within him became more stable after sex, and he would need all of his abilities to be at their peak for this reconnaissance mission. It had taken months of methodical searching, but finally he had discovered the weakest dimensional point in the palace, and had scarcely kept himself from laughing when he had found it to be a broom cupboard. Even the weakest point within Odin's halls was immensely strong, of course, but the tiniest shift in energy was all that Loki needed to make this forbidden attempt that much easier.
Taking a deep breath, Loki wrapped his magic about himself and pulled at the minuscule disturbance in the dimensional rift, easing it open so that he could step forward into Jotunheim.