Chapter 4

Lucy was exhausted. Thoroughly and totally exhausted. Spending the first thousand years of your life in manrel, the mineral of the gods, did have it’s perks, like being able to heal very quickly, and the ability to move things with her mind, oh and flying was pretty fun. But the down fall to it was that she got tired easily. Especially when she wasn’t on Asgard. Even though she had slept yesterday, that had only been for about three hours, and after her run in with the boys and reading a whole Harry Potter book, Lucy was fighting the urge to close her eyes.

Needless to say, she didn’t win the fight. Just as Loki was finishing Book Three, Lucy was out cold, her head resting on the arm rest. Loki grabbed the blanket off the bed and draped it over her. Glancing at the clock and seeing that it was a little after 11, he decided to go and get the next Harry Potter book. Looking out the window, he could tell that there were some huge clouds forming in the sky, but nothing was happening. At least, not yet. Changing his mind out the book, he opened the window and looked down three stories below. Nobody was out on the streets now, which was perfect.

Loki stretched out his hand and concentrated. These kinds of spells weren’t exactly difficult, but he hadn’t done this spell since he was a child. But, after a moments of concentration, he felt something cold land on his hand. A snowflake. He grinned proudly to himself.
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Searching for Loki and Lucy had proven quite difficult for Thor. He had been wandering around the city for hours, with no success. But his evening hadn’t been uneventful. He had been hit by three of those irritating yellow monsters, had been forced out of a store by a group of mortals who threatened to call the authorities and had gone in a huge circle about four times.

And now he felt like he was being followed. Thor knew that there was nothing that could threaten him here, even angry mortals, but it was irritating. He finally turned around and caught two boys following him.

“What are you doing?” Thor asked, trying to be as patient as he could.

“There’s nothing better to do,” the taller boy said.

“Yeah, and that hammer that you’re carrying is pretty cool,” the shorter boy said.

Thor just rolled his eyes. “Go home.”

The two boys laughed. “No way! We’re not going back to our stupid grandparent’s house!”

“Yeah, even if they are stinkin’ rich. It’s too boring there.”

“So you think attacking the Son of Odin is a better idea?”

The two boys looked at each other. “What are you talking about?”

Thor sighed. He could tell that these two were just idiotic adolescents who he could just knock into the next state if he wanted to. But he wanted to find his brother and sister, not knock these two into the next state. But then again, these two needed to go home. So, with an irritated sigh, he grabbed both by the collar and started to drag them down the street.

“Where do you live?”

“OW! Hey, what makes you think we’ll tell you?”

“Because I am holding onto your shirt, and I’m much bigger than you.” The boys reluctantly gave him their address, and part of it reminded him of a sign that he had seen while circling the city, so Thor started that way. As they were walking, cold, white flakes started falling from the sky. ‘Snow,’ Thor thought, looking up at the clouds. Something about this snow seemed different from what he had seen before, and there was only one word he could use to describe it: magical.
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Loki’s handy work was now falling steadily, and it looked quite beautiful, if he did say so himself. He had never been very partial  to snow, which he had seen on a few crazy adventures with his brother and friends, but this kind was much better. It wasn’t harsh and unforgiving like the snow in Jothihim; it was quiet, and well, beautiful.

He sat at the window, admiring his work for a long while, and when he looked at the clock again, it was five minutes past midnight: It was Christmas Day. Looking to his sister, he thought about letting her be surprised when she woke up to the blanket of snow that would cover the city. ‘But that would be no fun right now, would it?’ he thought.

“Lucy. Lucy, wake up,” he said, trying to shake her awake.

She opened one eye lazily. “Loki… go to sleep,” she said, and then shut her eye again, turned over so that her back was to Loki and curled back up again.

“Oh, come now, you’re being ridiculous. You’ll want to see this!” he said, going to the other side of the couch and kneeling down next to her. She just covered her head with her blanket. Loki sighed. “Alright, but you brought this on yourself.” He pulled the blanket off her head, and then scooped her up off the couch.

“Loki! Put me down! I want to finish my dream!” she complained.
“
Lucy, you are acting like a teenager.”

“That’s because I am a teenager,” she retorted, rubbing her eyes, but then they widened when she saw what was happening outside.

Loki grinned. "Technically you're 1,013."  

“Oh wow,” she said quietly ignoring Loki's last comment, amazed by snow that was now starting to cover the city. “This... this is… beautiful.” Loki let her down and Lucy held her hand out the window, letting the cold flakes melt on her hand. “Did you do this?”

“I helped it along,” Loki answered.

“Have I ever told you that you’re amazing?”

“It helps to hear it every now and then,” he said with a grin. “Merry Christmas.” Lucy flung her arms around her brother looking out at the wonderful snow.

“Well, since it’s Christmas, I guess I can give you your present now,” Lucy said, running over to retrieve the present from under her bed. It was wrapped in a brown paper bag that Lucy had grabbed from a hot dog cart on the street. When Loki pulled the scarf out of the bag, his eyes lit up.

“Is this what you did when you went out?”

Lucy nodded. “And those two boys from the rink tried to rob the store, and they almost stole this scarf! So you like it?”

“Of course,” he said, putting it on. “Though, I’m not sure when I’ll wear it. It’s not like we wear scarves on Asgard.”

“That’s alright. It’s a souvenir from our New York trip!”

“I have something for you too,” Loki said, grabbing a small bundle from his coat, which was laying on the counter in the kitchen area. “It was really for your birthday, and it’s not too terrible exciting but…” he handed her the bundle. Lucy undid the string that was holding the bundle together and unrolled it, and saw that it was a cape. A beautiful, blue cape that she had to slip over her head, since it had a collar and whole so that it showed her shoulders.

“It’s like Sif’s dress cape!” Lucy said, admiring it in the mirror.

“I knew that you liked hers, so I thought that you might like to have one of your own.”

“Thank you,” she said, twirling around with it. “It’s much better than my old one. This one is more…grown up.” She stole glance outside and had to do a double take. “Is…is that Thor?” Lucy said, looking down at the street. A huge man was pulling two boys along behind him. He looked up with he heard his name. “It is!”

“Lucy! Loki! I have found you!” Thor exclaimed. Lucy suddenly noticed that the two boys that Thor had been dragging along had been the two boys from the ice rink and the store.

“What are you doing with those two?” she asked, slipping off her cape.

“Oh them? They were following me and I’m taking them home, which is just over that way.”

“You should have thrown them into the forest,” Loki said. “They’ve been causing trouble for us over the past few days.”

“Well, what should I do with them now?” Loki and Lucy looked at each other, then looked to the two boys, who looked humiliated and furious at the same time. Lucy sighed, then shook her head. Thor did a double take between the two boys, then pushed them into the snow. “Go home! And if I find you again I will not be merciful!” The boys bolted down the street, and the three watched them run into a nice apartment building.

“Hopefully they’ll stay home,” Lucy said. Thor flew up to the window and climbed into the room.

“What have you two been doing?” Thor asked, looking around the strange room.

“Celebrating Christmas Time!” Lucy said, and she then went on to tell Thor all that the two had done over the past three days, with Loki chiming in every now and then.

“You just made it snow?”

Loki shrugged. “It wouldn’t be Christmas without snow,” he said, with made Lucy grin.

“It sounds like you had a lovely time, but Father sent me to find you two. He wants to have all three of his children at the celebration, says that it wouldn’t look good if two of them were missing.”

Lucy nodded. “I guess we ought to. And it’ll be nice not to be so tired anymore.” She looked down at her shoes, and sighed. “Good bye Converse. It was good to see you again.” Loki disappeared for a moment, then reappeared with the next three Harry Potter books. “Loki, you can’t just take those!”

“Don’t fret, they have a brand new set sitting on the shelves now,” he said, putting them all in a stack. He then pressed down on them and they shrunk down so that they fit in the palm of his hand. “You expect me to leave without knowing what happens next? I don’t think so.” They all got together and Loki put a hand on Thor and Lucy, and the three disappeared from the hotel suite, and reappeared on a bridge in Central Park. The three changed their Midgardian clothes back into their normal clothes, and Lucy slipped her new cape on over her dress. The snow continued to fall, falling gently to the ground and landing in their hair.

“Merry Christmas Midgard,” Lucy said under her breath, looking up at the falling snow and letting it fall on her face.

“Heimdall! Open the Bifrost!” Thor yelled, and a second later, a beam of light shot down from the sky, and the three Asgardians traveled home.
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Walking back in the halls of the palace, the three were greeted by Odin, who gave the his two younger children a look of annoyance. But then Lucy started talking, and his annoyance went away. “Oh Father, it was so wonderful on Midgard! Loki and I went ice skating and explored the park and watched Christmas specials and he even made it snow!”

“I see,” he said, trying not to crack a smile, but was failing. “Well, you all go get cleaned up and ready for the celebration. The guests are all here and we’ve been waiting for you to arrive to begin the feast.” He turned and went back to the banquet hall, and Thor went off to his quarters to get ready. But before Lucy went off to hers, she gave Loki a quick hug.

“Thank you so much, for everything,” she said, looking up at him.

“Of course, and thank you.”

“For what?” Lucy asked.

He smiled. “For being my friend, and just being you.” She smiled, then ran off to get ready. He watched her go. ‘She really is a gem,’ he thought to himself. ‘I’m lucky that she gets along better with me than with Thor.’ He smirked to himself. It was refreshing to be someone’s favorite, even if it was his 13, technically 1,013, year old adopted sister. With the slightest spring in his step, Loki went off to the banquet, already in his formal wear thanks to some magic, feeling truly joyful. “Maybe we should celebrate Christmas more often.”

The End