note: I've had this finished for years, but to be honest I've been tired of this story for a while now. Still, it doesn't seem right to leave it unfinished when I actually have the ending done.

It was years before Loki looked on their daughter, though Thor sought her out as soon as it occurred to him that it was probably the thing to do. She was a tiny baby—all babies were, Thor supposed—with wispy blonde hair, and red eyes, though in all other respects she looked perfectly Aes.

The first time Loki saw her he did not tell her who he was. He observed, from the side of the room, as Thor and Thruð played. He was wearing what Thor would never be able to stop thinking of as his 'natural' form—the one they had both known all their lives.

When he finally ventured to talk to her, Thruð could already speak, and she regarded him curiously. "Are you my Mother?" she asked.

"You can call me Loki," Loki said. The girl shrugged. "All right," she said. "Here, you can play with us."

Thor did not stop looking for the missing piece. He told Loki he would know it when he saw it, though he had no idea if that was so, and Loki rolled his eyes. "Give it up," he said gently.

It was simple, when it came. Hodur hadn't been to court in years, not since his duel with his brother, Baldur, resulting in the latter's death. Thor would not have remembered him if Loki had not mentioned the day to him in passing.

"Loki—if either of us died, or were discredited, Hodur would be in line for the throne, would he not?"

"Yes," Loki answered. "Why?"

And Thor outlined his thoughts. Loki frowned, and tapped his chin with his pen. "Let me look into that," he said.

A year later and Thor had almost forgotten what he'd suggested, believing that it had been nothing more than a false hope. But Loki barged into his room and dragged him to the library in the middle of the night.

"This," he said, pointing at the picture—it was of two small vials, "Is what is called a love potion. It re-creates the feelings of love or lust for one night. For whoever is touched by the liquid in the violet bottle, that is the only effect. But for whoever is touched by the liquid in the blue bottle, when sex happens—which it will—they will become pregnant. Man or woman. It is a highly illegal potion, as you might imagine."

"And who drugged us with this?" Thor asked.

"It was Hodur. I did some digging around, and it was most definitely Hodur, and probably Baldur as well."

"So I was right," Thor said.

Loki grinned, ignoring Thor's words. "I think I'm in the mood to pay Hodur a little visit," he said quietly. "What about you?"

/

The two travelers introduced themselves as Thor and Loki, crown princes of Asgard. Hodur invited them into his house graciously, having a feast prepared in their honor.

The two sat next to each other, Loki aloof and regal, wearing a crown of ice ('Are you seriously going to wear that?' Thor had asked grinning. 'Shut up,' Loki answered. 'It looks intimidating.') Thor was beside him, courteous and genial. They made small talk with their host, wearing away the time between courses, and Loki stared at Hodur, red eyes glinting and unfathomable, until Hodur swallowed in nervousness. Then he smiled, ever so slightly, reached out, and took Thor's hand in a calculated gesture. Hodur followed the motion, stiff with anger, and his jaw tightened; but he made no other sign of his ire.

Hodur left them as soon as it would be polite, citing tiredness, and somehow happened to stumble across them kissing in the shadows of an alcove on the way to his bedchamber. His steps faltered.

As he hurried away, Loki collapsed in silent laughter.

"What was his face like?" Thor asked.

"Oh! He was furious, outraged! He can't bear to see that his plan backfired so badly."

Thor grinned.

They asked for adjacent rooms, and they lay on unmade beds, silently in the hours until dawn.

They exited the rooms quietly, making their way invisible, with Loki's aid, into Hodur's chambers. He was getting dressed when they slipped in, and he turned around, startled, as Loki stepped forward.

His eyes hardly had time to widen before he was tied to his bed in unbreakable chains, and his mouth gagged.

"Hello there," Loki whispered down, Thor standing silent behind him. "I think you know why we're here. I would have liked to punish your brother as well, but we can't have everything I suppose."

He drew from his robes a small black vial. "You've done enough shady dealings to know what this is, I presume," Loki said, ignoring Hodur's renewed struggles to move at the sight of it. "Serpent's venom. Acid so strong it can eat through your skull." He unstopped the top and held it over Hodur's face musingly.

"Mouth first," he decided, ripping out the invisible gag and letting a few drops fall into Hodur's mouth. His screams withered before they began.

"And now your eyes," Loki went on, calmly, and dropped one drop into each. The acid smoked and ate away where it touched, as Loki drew it next along his neck, and then his arms and legs. Enough to hurt, but not enough to die.

Then it was Thor's turn. He reached for his hammer, and swung it down in a satisfying crack upon Hodur's skull, leaving only a broken bed with a mangled corpse atop it.

Loki got rid of every trace of the crime, then the two travelers slipped away, unnoticed and unseen; bright-cloaked figures walking together into the pale cold light of morning.

.

.

.