A/N: In this story Loki would be around 10 in human ages, and Thor would be around 12.

Loki was slouched down in his chair, bored out of his mind.

But he could never sit idly for long. His eyes flicked around the room, looking for some form of entertainment.

He saw it a few tables away: a group of guards still eating their breakfast.

"Thor, watch this!" he whispered, grinning mischievously.

Thor looked up from his plate, the fork heaping with food paused halfway to his mouth. His brow creased worriedly.

"You can keep eating," Loki said, rolling his eyes, "Just watch."

And with that Loki went strangely still.

"Loki?" Thor asked, confused.

Loki didn't answer, so Thor poked him. Only to find that his hand went right through. Thor was about to freak out, when a few tables away a pitcher of ale poured over one of the guards heads. He jumped up and spun around to see who had done it, only to fall on his face. He tried to get up again but his shoes were stuck firmly together.

Cursing, he tried to pull them apart, but they wouldn't budge. He tugged harder and harder but still nothing happened. Finally he was pulling with all his strength.

Then all of sudden, they slipped right off his feet and he hit himself in the face with them.

At this point, Loki couldn't hold in his laughter any longer, and as he snickered his control on his spells wavered.

The Loki who was sitting in the chair next to Thor flickered then faded away, and the real Loki appeared next to the table.

"YOU!" The guard roared.

"Uh oh..." Loki said, sobering up immediately.

Furious, the guard threw himself at Loki, who waited till the last second before ducking out of the way, and the guard crashed into a couple of the guards who were sitting nearby. Immediately all of the guards got up and attempted to tackle Loki. Except it didn't quite work that way.

Thor watched the chaos unfold. He had already given up trying to keep himself from laughing. He knew he shouldn't be amused, but he couldn't help it. Loki was always so good at making the guards look like idiots.

Loki was also standing to the side, smirking at everyone's foolishness. They'd meant to fight him, yes, but all he had to do was dodge their blows, and they would end up fighting each other instead, and he could watch without being noticed.

It was one of the advantages to being a shadow.

"ENOUGH!" Odin yelled, his voice thundering through the room.

The guards halted, some still in mid-swing. They glanced around, and noticing Loki was on the other side of the room, they realized they had been made a fool of. Which of course, made them even angrier.

"Loki, you are to go to your room and stay there," He said authoritatively. "I will be talking with you later."

Loki nodded meekly, pretending to be upset by this news. He dragged his feet as he walked out of the hall, head down so nobody could see his grin.