BEFORE YOU START READING: THIS STORY HAS BEEN DISCONTINUED. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

This was that story I mentioned both in the author's notes of my story Loki's Pranks and of The Avengers: Lokitty Edition.

In this fic Loki and Thor are teenagers, probably the equivalent of 14 and 16.

Also, for the purposes of this story, I'm using the geography from the myths, where Midgard and Jotunheim are adjacent on Yggdrasil, separated by a mountain range that are Ymir's eyebrows, rather than the movie geography where they're all separate planets.

It was summertime in Asgard.

The air was thick, sticky, stiflingly hot and humid, so that not even the darkest shadows offered mitigation. The sun was already high up in the sky, beating down on the golden realm.

And it truly was golden; not just the gold stones of the castle, but the dry grass in the fields, the gleam on the edge of everything that was remotely capable of reflecting light.

Getting up from where he had been languidly sprawled out under a tree after sword training, Thor stood up and stretched, heading inside, wearing naught but blue trousers that stopped at his knees, the same blue as his eyes and the summer sky, as well as a black belt around his hips.

He'd long ago taken off his shirt to try to deal with the heat, and his tan, muscular form glistened with sweat.

He was wandering towards the Library to look for his brother, when he spotted Loki walking down the hallway, heading deeper into the castle and carrying a book under one arm.

"Brother!" Thor exclaimed, bounding up to walk beside him. "Where are you going?"

"To the dungeons," Loki answered fluidly.

Thor stopped walking, his brow wrinkled in confusion. "The dungeons?!"

"Yes, the dungeons. It's colder down there, and I might finally be able to escape this distasteful heat," Loki said as he continued walking.

"You wouldn't be so overheated if you took your shirt off," Thor pointed out, catching up and plucking at his little brother's short-sleeved tunic.

Loki rolled his green eyes.

"Come on brother, come outside with me! You look like you haven't seen sunlight for decades at least," Thor said, grabbing Loki's pale arm and trying to pull him in the other direction.

"I was just outside," Loki lied, twisting his arm from Thor's grip. "And it was much too warm for my liking. So unless you plan on going to the snow, I'm staying inside."

Thor's blue eyes lit up. "That's a great idea! We should go to the snow!"

"And where do you plan to find any snow, exactly?" Loki asked practically, "All the snow on the mountains between Asgard and Valhalla has melted. We certainly won't be able to find any snow in this realm."

"Well... we could ask Heimdall to send us to Midgard! I'm sure it's winter there somewhere!" Thor proclaimed.

Loki licked his dry lips in thought.

"Come on, brother," Thor wheedled, nudging Loki in the shoulder. "I'm sure it'll be colder than the dungeons, and it'll be more exciting! We haven't been down to Midgard in years!"

"Oh alright," Loki consented.

Thor beamed, clapping his brother on the neck and turning to leave.

"But Thor?"

Thor looked back at Loki, who's lips were quirking into a smirk. "Yes?"

"You're going to want to put a shirt on."

"You're not dressed warmly enough," Heimdall intoned, as Loki and Thor dismounted their horses and came to the end of the bifrost. Thor walked down the bridge barefoot, now wearing a dark sleeveless shirt and a red vest, and had switched into long pants of a slightly darker blue than the cutoffs he'd been wearing earlier.

Loki was still wearing his green tunic and tight black pants, but had pulled on some large knee-high snow boots that made his legs look even longer and skinnier than usual.

"I'm dying of heat as it is!" Thor complained.

"I brought some layers, though," Loki pointed out to the gatekeeper, dumping a large pile of stuff he'd been carrying on the vacillating rainbow bridge. There was also a clatter of metal.

Heimdall eyed the two heavy fur cloaks, a fluffy pair of boots for Thor, and an awkwardly large shield.

"That enough clothing for you?" Loki asked coolly.

"What is the shield for?" Heimdall said suspiciously, "You're not planning on looking for any more dangerous beasts and almost getting yourselves killed again, are you?"

Loki snorted. "Of course not! The shield is for snow sledding."

"Is that..." Thor said, peering closer at the golden shield. "Is that father's shield?"

"Mayyyyybeeeeee," Loki drawled, his eyes glittering mischievously.

"How in Asgard did you get a hold of it?!" Thor asked in disbelief.

"He snuck past the guards in the royal armory and caused a distraction by making the shadows flicker in the corners of the guards' vision, and made off with the Allfather's shield while they were looking the other direction," Heimdall answered, not shifting his stance from where he was blocking their access to the bifrost, has hands folded atop the hilt of his golden sword.

"Loki," Thor groaned, though he couldn't hide his slight grin.

Loki just shrugged, his expression one of careless audacity. "It was easy. Besides, we'll have it back before they ever realize it was gone."

Thor shook his head fondly at his little brother's antics. The royal armory was heavily guarded; stealing—or in this case, borrowing—something from there was no easy task (albeit one the younger prince accomplished on whim.)

"So Heimdall," Thor said, turning back to the gatekeeper. "May we pass?"

Heimdall regarded them for a long moment with his intense amber eyes, and just when the princes thought he might deny them access to Midgard, he turned and walked into the bifrost dome.

Thor and Loki came in after him, each with their cloaks slung over their shoulders. Thor also carried his boots in one hand, and Odin's shield in the other.

"Try not to get yourselves into any exceptionally pernicious predicaments," Heimdall stated, as he slid his sword into place.

"You have so much faith in us!" Loki said sarcastically, placing a hand over his heart, his expression suggesting that he was somehow truly flattered.

Heimdall just shook his head slightly, and in the next moment Loki and Thor were yanked into the bifrost beam and shot into the galaxy.

The change in atmosphere was shocking and immediate. Snow-covered trees peppered the frozen landscape, mountains jutted up in the distance, and snowflakes filtered down lightly from the seemingly cloudless sky, which was the shade of plumbagos, in contrast to the cornflower skies of Asgard.

The two young gods were deposited roughly in a snowbank, where Loki immediately proceeded to make a snow angel, laughing at the exhilarating chill against his skin.

"ODIN'S FAVORITE PAIR OF BOOTS, IT'S COLD!" Thor yelped, springing to his feet and rubbing his arms, already shivering as he jumped up and down.

"Speaking of boots," Loki said, taking Thor's fur-lined shoes from where he'd dropped them, and chucking them at his face so he was forced to catch them. "Why don't you put yours on?"

Thor pulled the shoes on, which reached up to his knees, then walked over and grabbed his thick brown cloak as well, promptly clasping it on.

"Come on, lets start moving," Loki said, rolling onto his stomach in the snow before pushing himself lightly to his feet. He bent down and picked up his own cloak, swinging the black fur over his shoulders.

"I d-didn't realize it would b-be this c-cold," Thor stuttered.

Loki glanced back at his brother, a small smile stretching its way across his lips. "It's the snow, Thor, of course it's going to be cold. I rather think it's much nicer than the insufferable summer heat of Asgard, myself."

Thor glared at him hotly.

Loki swiftly kicked Thor's feet out from under him, before grabbing the shield and dashing off across the endless expanse of white, his black cloak flowing out behind him.

"LOKI!" Thor shouted in annoyance, getting up and chasing after his brother.

Loki kept running till he could hear Thor's labored breathing as the older boy slogged through the snow behind him, and he was sure Thor had warmed himself up sufficiently. Pausing under a large evergreen tree, Loki waited for his brother to catch up.

Instead of pulling to a stop Thor charged his brother to tackle him, but Loki easily stepped aside, causing Thor to slam into the trunk of the tree.

Thor looked up angrily, opening his mouth to yell at Loki indignantly, but upon seeing his little brother, burst out laughing.

"I fail to see how this is funny," Loki monotoned. He was standing defiantly with his arms cross, completely drenched in a pile of snow that had fallen of the limbs of the tree when Thor had rammed into it. He was stuck in the frozen water up to his waist, and snowflakes clung heavily to his body, frosting even his eyelashes in sparkles of white.

"Liar," Thor teased, when Loki broke out grinning.

Climbing out of the large pile of snow, Loki surreptitiously took a handful, and as he turned back to Thor threw the snowball in his face.

"Not fair," Thor spluttered, wiping the snow from his face.

When Thor started pegging snowballs at Loki, he was ready for Thor's attack.

"Eheheheh," Loki giggled from behind the Allfather's shield, as the snowballs bounced off, sending soft resonating clangs through the metal.

He poked his head around the side. "What say you we find a mountain to sled down," Loki suggested, before ducking back behind the shield as Thor aimed threw a snowball right where his head had been only a millisecond before.

"Not yet!" Thor protested, "I haven't even hit you once!"

"Fine," Loki said, dropping the shield to the ground and placing a foot on it. "Have at me!"

Thor frowned. "I can't hit you now. It would be too easy."

"Unlikely," Loki smirked tauntingly, his face crafted into the supercilious expression that he knew always got under his brother's skin; lips pressed tightly together and pulling up slightly on the left, chin tilted slightly down, green eyes glinting.

When the snowball came hurtling towards him, so fast no mortal would have even been able to see it, Loki's hand shot up and caught it, inches from his finely-carved nose.

He shot a look at Thor. That's the best you can do?

Thor glowered at him.

"Well," Loki concluded, letting the expression of mockery slip off his face to be replaced with a lighthearted smile. "Now that you've hit the palm of my hand, we can go snow sledding!"

"Loki!"

Loki looked back at his brother, who had stepped up to his waist in the snowfield. Again.

Sighing, Loki walked back to his brother, grabbing Thor's hand and yanking him out of the thick snow, one of his boots getting pulled off in the process. Loki reached down into the hole and pulled out Thor's boot, handing it to him.

Thor dumped out the snow from inside it, then pulled it back on, inquiring "How do you do that?!"

"Do what?" Loki asked, confused.

"Walk on top of the snow like that! You hardly leave any footprints, while I fall past my knees every-other-other step!" Thor exclaimed.

Loki shrugged. "I am lighter than you," he pointed out.

"I don't know how we're going to make it up to the top," Thor grumbled, casting an annoyed glance at large mountain they'd just barely started climbing.

"Well," Loki said thoughtfully,"I could always teleport us up there..."

"Why didn't you suggest that earlier?!"

Loki looked over at his exasperated brother. "Because you might have insisted on conquering the rock with your own two feet, had you not been sufficiently tired of such a needless venture. You seemed quite adamant about hiking."

"Hiking?" Thor blanched, "Well when you put it like that!"

"Just give the word," Loki said, idly examining his fingernails.

"Please teleport us up the mountain, brother?" Thor asked, putting almost-not-purposeful emphasis on the 'please.' Loki had scolded Thor about using his manners so many times that his voice was practically ingrained in the back of Thor's head, constantly remind him to be polite.

"Well, if you insist," Loki grinned, grabbing Thor's warm hand in his own cold one, and pulling them into the ether.

They reappeared at the top of the mountain in close to the same instant. Thor stumbled, dizzy, leaning against Loki to keep from falling over.

After a few moments he straightened, joining his brother in looking at their surroundings.

In either direction it was an impressive view, and they could see about for miles.

The side they'd been trekking up sloped down gradually, dark rocks protruding from the white snow randomly, and a few thousand feet down trees began spotting the slope, before thickening into a forest. They could track their path from the bottom of the mountain all the way to the distant runed circle that marked the bifrost site. The sky was clear, and the sunlight glinted brightly on the white snow.

The opposite side was significantly steeper, almost dangerously so, and though there were ridges (perfect ramps!) there seemed to be more ice and less rock. There were no trees to be seen, and the area seemed somehow darker, the snow almost blue. The horizon was hazy and it was hard for them to make out details of landscape, though they thought they could see more mountains in the distance.

"That way looks more fun," Thor said, pointing down the latter side.

Loki nodded in agreement.

Setting Odin's shield down, Thor sat down, crossing his legs, and placing his hands on either side, holding it steady while Loki stepped on and sat down on Thor's lap.

Loki braced his feet against the edge of the shield and gripped the handles, and Thor pushed them off over the edge, wrapping his arms around Loki's midriff as they started racing down the mountain.

They whooped, invigorated, as the air whipped past them, the icy landscape passing by in a blue-white blur.

Suddenly the ground swooped upwards slightly, and they were sent airborne.

It was, Loki thought, as his laughter was ripped from his throat by the wind, something akin to flying.

"RAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" Thor yelled, practicing his battle cry.

After several long, glorious seconds, the ground came rushing upwards to meet them, and they landed hard against the ice, bouncing up again, before continuing sliding down the mountain.

The awkward impact caused the shield to begin spinning, and both young gods shrieked, unable to tell where they were going.

And it just so happened that they were facing backwards when they crashed, both of them being thrown off the shield.

Thor landed face-first in the snow, and lay there dizzily for a moment before pushing himself up to his knees, wiping the frozen water from his face.

Loki rolled along the snow before catching himself in a lunge and flipping his hair as he looked up.

The smile melted off his face when he saw what they'd crashed into, to be replaced by horrified alarm.

In less than a second he had sprinted to his brother's side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Thor..." he breathed.

"What is it?" Thor asked, turning to follow Loki's anxious gaze and freezing.

What they had crashed into turned out to be large sleigh pulled by two giant polar bears. Three Jotuns leapt out of the sleigh, their red eyes burning like embers against their dark teal skin. They stalked toward the two boys. Each one was easily over twice the height of the Allfather, their bare chests, legs and arms heavily muscled. Their only clothes were dark kilts made of some leathery-looking material.

Thor quickly stood up, stepping protectively in front of his little brother. His hand gripped instinctively for his sword, and he glanced down when he grasped nothing, the dread dawning on his face as he realized that had no weapon with which to defend them.

"And what," one of the Jotuns hissed threateningly, "Are two young Asgardians doing in Jotunheim?"

Loki widened his eyes, realizing what they'd done. He hadn't realized they'd been so close to the edge of Midgard... he hadn't thought Heimdall would set them down so close...

"We are Odinsons! We mean you no harm; it was by mistake that we ended up here!" Thor declared, trying to cover up his growing panic.

The Jotuns exchanged glances.

Loki pressed closer to Thor, not liking what he read in their dark, scarred faces.

"In that case," one of the Jotuns growled, "How would the Princes of Asgard enjoy a little visit with King Laufey?" He spat out their title like it tasted foul in his mouth.

"As pleasant as that sounds, I'm afraid we must politely decline your most gracious offer," Loki spoke up, stepping up next to his older brother. "As we must be getting back."

He put a hand on Thor's shoulder.

"Your teleportation won't work here, magician," the Jotun said with a malicious smile.

Loki cocked his head to the side, carefully keeping down his panic as he discovered that the Jotun was right; shifting his gaze to include the ether, he found that the magic that was heavy in the air was roiling and chaotic, such that he could not travel through it without risking being asphyxiated by the unfamiliar power he had no preceding knowledge of how to control. Given enough time he was sure he could figure it out, but time did not seem to be something they had in excess. And he wasn't sure how the natural magic of Jotunheim would react to his own.

"In fact," the Jotun continued, as his two fellows moved to circle and surround the two princes, "We aren't giving you a choice."

Loki moved so that he covered Thor's back, preparing for the scuffle he knew was coming. He knew they didn't stand a chance against the Jotuns, but they sure weren't going to simply let themselves be taken into the heart of Jotunheim.

At twitch of his wrists, and couple throwing knives slipped surreptitiously into his hands.

Thor braced himself, ready to dive for the Allfather's shield, which was only a few feet away.

The Jotuns closed in.