Loki and Thor Shovel Snow

James looked at Grandpa McMahon, being very careful not to show any expression on his face at all. He then looked over at his brother, Terry, who was literally bounding with excitement at "finding" a job so easily. Shoveling the walks in front of a breakfast dinner, a steakhouse, a coffee shop and the town newspaper might have qualified as "real jobs" if all four weren’t' family businesses. The McMahon Pack wasn't huge like the Hancocks Pack and they may not be rolling in the dough like the Waynes, but what they did have was power, in the form of owning four of the town's most prosperous privately-owned businesses.


And despite the family owning four businesses, James and his twin were going to be... shoveling walks. For Talbies, too, not US currency. James pondered again the irony of wolf genetics, that two absolutely polar-opposite individuals could have come from the same litter of pups. Not that they were a litter, exactly. There were only the two of them, after all. But Terry was a McMahon through and through. Big, strong, athletic, charming… basically Thor to James’ Loki. Thor picked fights while Loki warned him off and used his head.

Wait, James thought with a slight smile. Just wait! This shoveling thing could be a good thing. If he was Loki and Terry was Thor… And Loki was always tricking Thor into helping him punk others…

James grinned at his grandfather. “Yeah, Granddad, we’d love to lend a hand with the snow removal in exchange for a little spending money.” He tried—but not too hard—to look innocent when his grandfather shot him a hard, disbelieving look. No point trying to lie to a wily old wolf like Granddad; wolves could smell dishonesty a mile away and he, Loki—er, James—was not known for being a squeaky clean choirboy. Terry noticed Granddad’s face, looked at James and the grinned as well.

“Yep,” Terry said with twinkling eyes, knowing full-well the brains of the pair had just come up with a fantastic idea for getting into trouble. James was totally Emo to his surfer dude, but Terry loved action in all forms. When his smaller, dark-haired twin brother got that look on his face, it meant there was soon to be all kinds of mischief, trouble—and fun!—coming down the pipe line in no time at all.

**********

Vern stood back and shook his head in disbelief. He should have known those two were up to something. James—or Loki, as he’d taken to calling himself—was so full of piss and vinegar when he wanted to be at times. And Terry, who had started calling himself Thor after James pointed out how they were like the mythical brothers, was always perfectly willing to do whatever his little brother said they should do because it always ended in mischief. But this? Vern really wasn’t sure what to make of this…

From in front of Java Joe's:

From in front of the Guts & Butts Gazette:

                                 

From in  front of Ellie's Dinner:

                                      At this rate, Vern wasn't sure he really wanted to keep driving toward his steakhouse...