Spaces Between

Prolouge

"And you're sure your brother won't come kill us?" Alrekr murmured beside Lorien, peeking around the corner. A mischievous grin stretched across her face as they waited patiently for Loki to wake up. Alrekr groaned when he saw her smirk, "he's going to kill us."

Lorien chuckled softly in response, her smirk only growing larger. "If this goes south, just book it. He can't catch the both of us."

***

As with most predictions Lorien made—yet again— she was sadly wrong. Loki had indeed, caught the both of of them and less then happily dragged them both back to his room. Loki had hoped that Alrekr wouldn't encourage Lorien's mischief but it seemed he only added to it. And besides—Lorien was the sister of the God of Mischief—he couldn't blame her too much. But it didn't justify her habit of pranking him.

"What is that?" Loki demanded, pointing a finger at the brown horse mask hanging above his bed. Lorien had to stop herself from bursting out laughing and Alrekr couldn't stop the smirk playing at the corner of his lips.

"Well, if I'm correct, it's a horse. I thought you were smarter then that." Lorien mused her eyes lighting up playfully.

Loki sighed and clenched his jaw. "Yes, I know it's a horse. Why is it hanging above my bed?"

"You have weird tastes in room decor?"

Loki raised his brows, his lips pursing in annoyance.

"Hey!" Lorien warned, "in my defense, it wasn't my idea."

Loki rolled his eyes, "and who's idea had it been?" His emerald eyes shifted warily over the two teenagers. Lorien smirked again.

"Tony. He bought the mask."

Loki murmured something under his breath along the lines of, 'damn you Stark,' before releasing them. He crossed his arms and continued glancing between the two of them. Lorien baring an innocent smirk on her lips and Alrekr following suit—Loki wouldn't have been surprised if Tove was in on it as well.

The three teens had quite possibly been Asgard's only problem over the course of the past year. Creating small amounts of chaos everywhere they went.

"Well then," Loki sighed, crossing his arms, "I will let you get away with this, only if when the next time you travel to Midgard, you prank Stark back."

At his comment, Lorien remembered what she had been meaning to ask her brother. 

"Speaking of Midgard; if I'm correct, tomorrow is the first day of October, the start of spooky month and I—"

"Spooky month?" Alrekr repeated—confusion in his dark hazel eyes. Lorien glanced over at him, taking in the way his eyes narrowed and his brows furled.

"I'll explained later." She announced once she had finished staring at—what she had earlier decided—Alrekr's beautiful face.

Her attention turned back to her brother, his own eyes narrowed but suspiciously. Lorien had suspected that Loki had realized her crush on the Asgardian teen—probably even before she realized it herself. She still hadn't decided if him knowing was a good or a bad thing yet.

"Continuing," Lorien mused, "I was wondering if it would be possible, that Alrekr, Tove and I could spend the month down on Earth?"

Loki's head tilted to side—taking in her words. "You decided to ask this after you pranked me?"

Lorien shrugged, "Well, yes."

"I'll not sure that's a good idea." Loki murmured and Lorien's shoulders slumped.

"Come on! I promised Tove nearly a year ago that if I got better, I'd let her come with me on a trip to Earth." She almost pouted, her hands clasping together in front of herself.  Her bottom lip was pushed out and she was trying her best at puppy dog eyes.

"Whining, is not how royalty gets their way." Loki snapped. Lorien instantly dropped the act and rolled her eyes.

"Really? You're such a hypocrite." She groaned before doing her best impression of her brother. "Whining is not how royalty gets their way, oh har har har. You're not innocent on that one."

Loki let a sigh escape his mouth and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine, you can go."

Lorien went to cheer in victory but Loki cut her off again.

"Under one condition—you're staying at the Stark tower the whole time. If you go out, you're with one of the Avengers. I'm not having some thing happen to you because you decide to sneak off with Alrekr. And not to mention, Käro will be going with you." Loki basically sneered Alrekr's name and Lorien felt her cheeks flush.

Loki—as with most typical older siblings—did not like the fact that a boy had taken interest in his little sister. And he could come up with a million excuses to keep them apart—boys are a bad influence, she's too young and etc.—but Lorien would always find a way to be around Alrekr.

"Deal." Lorien announced with a wide grin. Loki couldn't help but momentarily forget his hateful thoughts towards Alrekr. Lorien was happy and this was the first time since he had first met her; that she was truly happy.

And he wanted to keep it that way.