Just a quick note here, a bit more below: This story is in the same continuity as my other stories (most of them - see my profile or ask me if you want more info). Because in my mind they're all interconnected, stories from the same lives, there are references in it to things from the other stories that you'll recognize if you've read them, but you don't need to have read them to get this story. So here we go...

Trials

Chapter One: No One in the History of Asgard

"Let's go out to the Starry Sky, Brother."

"So I can watch you get drunk?" Loki asked with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, Thor, that sounds like a delightful evening."

"No, you're going to get drunk with me," Thor said confidently, an arm slung over Loki's shoulder as they left their parents' chambers. "That will be a delightful evening."

"I'm not old enough. You keep 'forgetting.'"

"You're plenty old enough. Eight days until you turn twenty. Who cares about eight days? No one will turn you away, Loki, and you never made an oath to Mother that you wouldn't. Come on, we have to celebrate!" he said, squeezing Loki's shoulder before letting him go so they could trot down the stairs.

"Are you actively trying to make me fail? I can't go out drinking the night before the Trials."

"You aren't going to fail, Loki. No one in the history of Asgard has ever failed the Trials. Least of all my brother," Thor said, poking Loki in the chest in time with the last two words as they came to a halt on the landing of Loki's floor.

Loki reached out with well-practiced speed, grabbed Thor's arm, twisted it, spun him around, hooked a leg around Thor's, and laid his brother out on his back.

Thor lay there, eyes wide, staring at the ceiling for several seconds before the groan came.

"Good evening, Jolgeir," Loki said with his best manners to the Einherjar guard standing in the shadows at the end of the corridor.

"Good evening, Prince Loki."

"This floor is made of marble," Thor said, pushing himself up slowly into a sitting position. "Marble is hard. Marble hurts."

Loki stuck out his hand. "Worse than a hangover?" he asked as Thor took the offered hand and Loki helped him up.

"In certain places, yes. And at least a hangover means something fun came first."

Loki looked at Thor, now rubbing his backside, with skepticism. He thought his older brother just grew even louder and stupider when he drank heavily, but everyone else seemed to either not notice or not care, for they only loved him all the more when he sloshed mead over his clothing and smashed empty tankards on the floor. Loki tried to smile and laugh and join in as best he could without drinking, but sometimes he really detested those nights out at taverns with Thor. No way was he going to one tonight of all nights. "Well, sorry about that, Brother," Loki finally said as Thor finally finished making sure he hadn't broken anything. "You were reaching out for me. It was a classic attack posture. I thought you were helping me practice."

"I'll help you practice," Thor said with a nod. "Outside. On something softer than marble."

"Don't be a child, Thor, your body has reached its peak durability. You probably won't even bruise from that."

"So has yours. Shall we test that?"

"No, no," Loki said, laughing as he backed up a few steps. "I won't reach peak durability for another eight days." It was a jest, of course. An Aesir's body was considered to have reached full strength at age twenty, but that was merely part of the ritualization of the milestone; nothing magical happened precisely on one's birthday. "And I'm not showing up for my Trials drunk from a tavern or nursing injuries from a night of fighting you."

"Loki, you're no fun. Come on, we have to do something to celebrate. You don't want to go to a tavern, you don't want to spar, what then? It's your Trials, you name it. We'll celebrate however you want. I know! We could go to the bridge. Horse around like when we were still youths."

"I still am a youth, Thor. And celebrations follow successes, not precede them. We'll do something tomorrow night after the feast, all right? Tonight I'm going to bed early. I'm also not showing up for my Trials exhausted from having stayed up all night. So with that…I believe your chambers lie in that direction," Loki said, pointing back up the stairs. If Thor got the idea to follow him into his chambers, Loki might not ever be able to get him to leave.

"Oh, fine, Brother. Live like an old man if you wish," Thor said, reaching out and squeezing Loki's shoulder again. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to. I'll celebrate enough for the both of us."

Loki frowned. Worse than tagging along while Thor drank was not tagging along and having to track down where he'd passed out the night before, because without his moderating influence – or nagging or mothering or clucking or any number of other things Thor called it when he was drunk – his twenty-year-old barely-adult older brother liked to think he could hold his own in a tavern against Aesir decades and centuries older. "Perhaps you should stay in tonight, too. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow."

Thor laughed. "Such a mother hen, Loki! Calm your nerves, Brother. You'll be fine, you have nothing to worry about. You're ready. You could have gone for your Trials the same time I did and you would have passed then, too."

"All right, all right. Go on, then. Have fun. I'll see you tomorrow. Don't be late. You know I need you to be there."

Thor leaned in closer and wrapped his hand around the back of Loki's neck. "I'll be there. I'll be the loudest voice in the arena, just like you were for me."

Loki gave him a half-smile. "Well, don't embarrass yourself. Or me."

"Never," Thor said with a squeeze to his neck. "Well, at least not on your big day. I make no such promises about tonight. Sleep well, Brother," he said, and after one final squeeze of Loki's neck and Loki's reciprocal squeeze of his arm, Thor turned and galloped down the stairs.

Loki turned, too, toward the door to his chambers, but paused and looked to his left. "Will you be there, Jolgeir?" he asked, trying to make it sound as casual as he could. Loki knew many Einherjar, growing up in particular among those who watched over him and his brothers, but it was only Jolgeir he was close to, going back to an incident from his childhood when Jolgeir had saved him from drowning.

"I wouldn't miss it," Jolgeir said, bringing a quick smile to Loki's face. "And don't worry, Loki. Your brother's correct. No one has ever failed the Trials. Your trainers work hard with you to make sure you're ready by the time you face them."

Loki nodded. He wasn't worried. Well, maybe a little. But everyone had been saying the same thing to him for at least a month now. "No one in the history of Asgard has ever failed the Trials."

As it turned out, there was a first time for everything.

/

So, I don't know what got into me tonight, but despite insisting to myself and to other folks on this site for months that I would not post anything from this story until it was completed, I just couldn't help myself. (Oh my gosh, I just realized, it's exactly like a moment I wrote for Jane in another story today, ha.) I guess it's because I started writing the second half of the story, which gives me the confidence to assert that yes, it will be finished. (Memory Casket readers, please don't kill me, I promise, this story doesn't take time from that one, this is my "notebook story," that I write when I have some time to write but no access to my computer.) I'm not sure how frequently I'll update this one. I may try to keep it at just this chapter for a while. I currently estimate around 10 or 12 chapters (I'm on Ch. 6 as of June 3), but those of you who know me, that may mean 30. Ha. No, hopefully not.

I generally try to do something a little different in the writing style in every fanfic I've done. This one is entirely from Loki's POV. Unless I change my mind down the line. I hope you will enjoy it! Consider dropping me a line and letting me know what you think.

In the next chapter, "What Are Brothers For?"...let the Trials begin!