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Chapter Text

The Incarnation

(noun) incarnation: The act of incarnating or clothing with flesh; the act of assuming flesh or a human body and the nature of man.

(noun) incarnation: In surgery, the process whereby a wound heals, the affected part becoming filled with new flesh; granulation.

(noun) incarnation: A representation in an incarnate form; a personification; a visible embodiment; a distinct exemplification in form or act.

Thor sat in a chair with his hands bound together – the hands that failed to lift Mjolnir. They still shook behind him, still reeling with Mjolnir's accusations.

Unworthy.

Thor could not escape from the feeling of Mjolnir's unmoving handle beneath his fingers or how the muscles of his arms utterly failed to lift it.

You are unworthy.

A commonplace Midgardian man stood across from him, interrogating him on his action inside their temporary structure guarding the hammer. The tone of his voice was like ash mixed with water.

"The men you so easily subdued are highly-trained professionals, and in my experience, it takes someone who's received similar training to do what you did to them. Would you like to tell me where you received your training?"

"You are unworthy of these realms! Unworthy of your title! You're unworthy! Of the loved ones you have betrayed. I now take from you your power. In the name of my father and his father before, I, Odin Allfather, cast you out!"

Thor could not speak. Just how much longer would his banishment last? What exactly did his father expect him to do to prove himself worthy to return? He thought it was as simple as finding Mjolnir again. Once he reached his inviolate weapon, it would fly into its native home in his fist and Thor would become himself again. He would be able to return home.

"Pakistan? Chechnya? Afghanistan? Then again, you strike me more as the soldier of fortune type. What was it, South Africa? Certain groups pay well for a good mercenary. Especially HYDRA," his captor said, spilling out words that would have made little sense to Thor, even if he had been listening, which he wasn't.

"Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor," was now inscribed in runes on Mjolnir. Mjolnir tested him and found him lacking.

He was still unworthy.

"Who are you?" the man with the suit asked, rousing Thor from his stupor, forcing him to the unavoidable conclusion he had been running from since his feet hit Midgardian soil.

The wielder of storms. The son of Odin, son of Bor, son of Buri. Prince of Asgard, heir of the Crown of Yggrdrasil.
A vain, cruel, greedy boy.
An exile.

"Just a man."

Chapter Text

THE INCARNATION

At first, Thor was content to wait. When the harsh New Mexico sun rose, so did he. The lovely mortal woman was delighted to keep him nearby, on the condition he answered her many questions and carry her large machines wherever she directed. He was little better than a servant to the woman, but she allowed him to sleep on the cushioned chair in her glass house and permitted him to eat from the food in her kitchen. That alone was enough to keep him from wandering elsewhere, for now.

He did not know where else to go, or what else to do, and so he watched Jane talk to herself as she scribbled unintelligibly on a notepad and sought to unravel the mysteries of the stars through her primitive technology. He carried her heavy machines for her across the roof or across the desert and he made notations on computer, when she told him to, and he even learned to make coffee. The brilliant smile she rewarded him with more than made up for the number of times he spilled coffee grounds or fumbled the machine so it overflowed all over the counter.

He climbed to the roof each day, when the heat finally dwindled with the setting sun, and he stared out into the stars that his patroness loved. He did not know their names or their faces. They were strangers to him, but not to her. She knew them each by name and had a story to go alongside them. She told of heroes endowed with more strength than mortal men who fought fantastic beasts and fierce villains and so earned their memorials in the nighttime sky. Her eyes glowed more than the fire at their feet when she spoke of them and he did not understand why something as constant and as unexceptional as the night sky could stir up so much passion for her.

He wished, sometimes, that he could bottle the fire Jane so readily shared and imbibe it himself, to breathe new life into his stagnating, lost self and help him find his way. He had once been passionate about many things, but sometimes now he wondered why he bothered to wake at all. It grew worse, the more suns rose and set. The eager anticipation, the sureness that this would be but a quickly passing detour, began to wane with extinguished day.

He wandered the small village, watching the little Midgardians as they bustled to-and-fro, living their menial existences without any knowledge of the wider universe beyond them. They knew nothing of Asgard or Jotunheim or their place in the Nine Realms. They did not care if he had once been first in line to the throne which far surpassed the power of this entire realm put together. The them, he was simply a stranger, another face passing through their desert town.

To them, he was simply another mortal.

He learned the names of each of the shopkeepers and what wares they sold. He learned that horses could only be acquired from the next town over, but Farmer Jones could provide him with an old mule, if he was interested (which he wasn't). No one sold swords, but he managed to find a good hunting knife from Tom Smith's shop. It was far too dull and weak to be of much use for anything but to cut bread or skewer a pheasant. It was better than an empty sheathe and no weapon at all. Isabella could give him a plentiful supply of food and companionship, though he could not find food in the middle of the night (or so she told him, after the first time he tried).

Each establishment insisted he give them green paper and metal disks in exchange for their wares and services, though he could not decipher what possible use the strange currency could provide. The metal disks could not be melted down for jewelry or weapons and the green paper contained no spell work, at least none that his woefully inadequate skills in magic could distinguish. Jane assured him that their currency was soluble, nonetheless, and told him he was "on a budget" and that once he ran out of his supply, she would not give him any more. He had never had his purse strings limited and the thought that there was no an entire treasure vault financing his every whim came as a bit of a shock.

The village tavern was the best place for news in the area. He frequented the tavern, not only to enjoy its flowing supply of strong drink, but to inquire into the latest of information surrounding the mysterious tented city and the immovable hammer within. He feared that one such evening he would be informed that the hammer had vanished, or found a new owner. He wondered how long it would be guarded by so many Midgardian warriors. He dreamed, again and again, of the day he would be able to stride through the center of that tented city and claim his birthright as his own again.

In the meantime, he could do nothing but wait.

In fidelity to the promise extracted by Erik Selvig, Thor left town the day after Mjolnir's condemnation of the banished prince. He had nowhere to go and no discernable purpose to achieve. He had never felt so overwhelmingly aimless in his life. All that tied him to both his life in Asgard and his life on Midgard was Mjolnir, so he haunted the wastelands around the white tents. He stayed far enough from the swarming tents and vehicles to avoid detection, but near enough that he could still keep his eyes trained on them and track their movements.

Through the blaring desert days and nights, he stayed and watched. Only a day or two passed before he realized two distinctly uncomfortable revelations. The first was that he could not go indefinitely without sleep. After only a single night's vigil, his head swam and his body felt so heavy that he thought he could fall asleep on his feet. Such exhaustion was something he had never experienced in Asgard, even after staying awake for a month. While his Aesir form grew somewhat uncomfortable when he abstained from rest, it was nowhere near as debilitating as he currently felt after only one night's vigil.

Secondly, he was not sure if the thirst or the hunger was the greater opponent to his continued presence near Mjolnir. His tongue clung to the roof of his mouth and his stomach gurgled and he felt weakness flood his body like a wasting illness. He determined to not let it bother him and he stayed in place another day and night.

By the time dawn crept over the desert next, Thor knew he would need to find sustenance or his continued vigil would leave him in no condition to protect himself or Mjolnir from harm. He crept as quietly as he could to the temporary lodging of the Midgardian warriors. In the back of one vehicle, stationed far afield from the surrounding fence, he found boxes of provisions. These, he stole like a common thief and he found cover in the brush so he could eagerly ingest his prize.

He nearly spluttered when the sugary sweet beverage burned through his nostrils with bubbles and the wrapped packages of what he had assumed to be food seemed to be more a treat than true sustenance. Still it invigorated him enough that he thought his needs were met.

For another day and night, he watched. It was then, as the sun rose over him again, that he realized he could not continue on indefinitely. Thor's head swam in a manner uncomfortably reminiscent of the time he ingested that sorcerer's potion on Nornheim. The weakness of his newly acquired mortal form was nearly overpowering and he feared that if he deprived his body of further sustenance, he would have no strength to continue on. At dawn, he began to walk the half day's journey back to Puente Antiguo. He loathed going back on his word to Dr. Selvig, but he did not know which direction the next closest village would be and he was not sure how many days his mortal form could travel.

As it turned out, he could not even make it to Puente Antiguo. The morning sun morphed into the afternoon heat and the dusty road before him became more and more overpowering until, unbidden, he collapsed on the ground.

That was how Thor met Louis. When he woke next, he was laying in the back of a delivery truck on a blanket, surrounded by boxes. Despite his best efforts to stay awake, the gentle vibrations of travel and the rising heat of the morning sun lulled him back to sleep and he did not wake till the truck stopped and a group of mortals in white clothes surrounded the truck with a bed on tried to sit up and protest, but he failed.

"I found him lying by the side of the road like that," Louis told them. "It was hot as hell out there. I think he's dehydrated."

When he woke next, tubes and machines were attached to his body and Midgardian healers swarmed around him. Jane stood beside his bed, anxiously looking over at him and talking to the healer. He would have pulled the tubes from his veins and pushed his way out of the room if her hand had not stayed him in place. She gave him a firm glare and frowned.

"Oh no you don't," she said. "You are staying put until the doctor says you leave."

She stayed by his side, then she insisted he accompany her back to her glass home in Puente Antiguo.

"Thor, you were dehydrated and your blood sugar was far too low," she told him. "How long had it been since you last ate or drank anything?"

Thor gave a sheepish grin. "How often do mortals require sustenance? I fear I am ill-equipped with the knowledge required to care for my mortal form."

"Let's gloss over how that makes you sound like you should still be in the hospital. Thor, you need to eat and drink every day. I know, I know, I forget sometimes, too, but, really – what were you doing out in the middle of the desert without anything?"

"I did not know where else to go," he answered truthfully.

"Then why did you leave?"

When she had extracted the story of Dr. Selvig's interference from him, she promised to give her companion a thorough chiding and assured Thor of his longstanding invitation to stay with her.

"I could use your help around the lab," she told him. "Besides, I'd love to pick your brain about a few things."

He didn't know what his brain had to do with anything and he felt like the Midgardian healers had done more than enough "picking" of his body for some time, but he agreed. It was obvious that Mjolnir would not provide a means for him to survive his banishment and thus far, his only other firm direction, came from the woman he first found on the other side of the Bifrost.

Though Thor decided to stay with Jane, he still visited Mjolnir as often as he could. It just so happened that on Mondays, Louis drove his truck to the white tents out in the desert. Louis drove his truck from Albuquerque to Roswell each week and on the way, he stopped by the white tents to bring them their supplies of bottled water and nonperishable foods and box after box of unlabeled supplies.

It was Louis who sought out Thor. He came to Jane's home the week after Thor's return and he inquired after Thor's health.

"Hey man! I just, you know, wanted to make sure you were good. Isabella said I'd find you here."

"You have my thanks, mortal," Thor told them man with a broad grin.

Soon, the pair were fast friends and Thor acquired a longstanding invitation to accompany Louis on his weekly drives.

Louis had a pet dog named Nacho, who he let ride in the passenger seat. Louis liked to talk about Midgardian sports, which Thor had never seen, but Thor was content enough to listen and ask questions. He was an amiable enough companion and he tolerated Thor's company without question. Thor never left the truck when they arrived. It was as close as he dared to get without raising the suspicions of the Midgardian warriors who held his hammer captive.

It was the highlight of each week. He could not see Mjolnir and he certainly did not come within reach of it, but he knew it was there and that made him feel closer to home. Closer to who he had once been. Closer to being worthy.

Yet, the sun continued to rise and set. Midgard orbited around its sun and Thor Odinson remained on Midgard. Each day, he felt just a little farther away than he had been the day before.

For one full cycle of the moon, he had slept on Jane's cushioned chair and carried her machines about. He fulfilled the instructions of Lady Darcy and he spent his evenings on the rooftop, his eyes searching for any glimpse of his home.

"You see that one?" Jane said and pointed out overhead. She wrapped her shoulders in a blanket and a half eaten meal still rested on her knee. She had stopped studying the heavens only long enough to tell him stories again.

He leaned back in his chair and squinted overhead, trying to make out the constellation she pointed at. He could not, but he nodded and pretended he did. It appeased her enough that she continued with her tale, her warm eyes overflowing her with own special fervent passion.

"That one is Hercules. He was said to be a son of Zeus, the greatest of the Greek gods. His father gave him immortality and then he was given a series of impossible challenges to complete. He did them all. Once he was able to prove himself, he was able to join his father on Mount Olympus, the home of all the gods. They say he kneels on one leg because he is praying for his father's help in his tasks. With his other foot, he crushes the head of the serpent, Draco. Behind him, just out of his reach, is a crown, Corona Borealis."

"It is a noble tale," Thor answered, his eyes falling from the star and back to the fire. He could not help but wish he knew what impossible tasks he needed complete himself.

She stayed with him on the roof for some time, asking him questions about Asgard and the people who claimed him as their own. He answered truthfully, though he could not avoid his ignorance in his knowledge of their astronomy. He wished he remembered more about their stars. He wished he knew more about their planets. He wished he paid more attention to his tutors' stories about the magic holding together Yggdrasil. He gave Jane all he had, but he knew it wasn't enough to satisfy her insatiable curiosity.

Still, it was enough to please her and keep her eyes fixed on him when he spoke. It was enough to give him a place to sleep and food to eat and a place to belong, however impermanent.

When she had gone to retire for the night, Thor was left on the roof, his eyes still fixed on the stars overhead.

"Father, what must I do to be worthy?" he asked out loud. "How long will my banishment last? Why must I continue to inhabit this mortal form on this realm, of all realms?"

He knew Heimdall could hear and see him. He knew his father, mother, and brother could reach him – by Bifrost or by magic. Yet, they chose not to. No voices spoke. No apparitions appeared to direct his path. The stars remained silent and Asgard remained far out of reach.

By the time the sun rose again the next morning, and Thor fought the sudden wave of exhaustion that came with it, he realized that his banishment just might last longer than he had originally anticipated. It could last years and years.

What if it never ends? A small, traitorous voice whispered in the back of his mind, making him feel ill and even more determined to cling to the hope that kept him going, kept him waking, kept him believing it would soon be over. It had to be. He could not even comprehend the alternative.

Chapter Text

Darcy and Jane watched out of the lab window where Thor now walked towards Isabella's. He had consumed three days' worth of food in one meal and still he had room for lunch out. The sink overflowed with dishes and his dirty socks were strewn from one side of the lab to the other. He didn't even seem to notice.

"Yeah, he's way more expensive than a dog," Darcy said, once he was completely out-of-sight.

"I don't know what to do. My salary can't support his nightly visits to the bar. I've given him a budget, but it's for stuff like clothes. I don't think he has figured out that he can't blow it all in one week like he's been doing. He still needs to get himself clothes and basic necessities, but I don't think he even knows how to do that. He's still wearing my ex's old clothes."

It had been three months and their household guest had lost much of his effervescence and enthusiasm with the passing days. He seemed almost depressed.

"He's getting over the 'honeymoon stage' and he's going straight into the 'shock' stage of 'culture shock," Darcy said. "Don't be surprised if he's angry or moody or demeans everything us lowly earthlings do. That's all part of it. It'll take a long time to get over it and adjust. He's bound to be depressed and lonely. Even after he adjusts, he's gonna get hit with shock all over again if something happens to make him feel homesick or out-of-place."

"Yeah, but what do I do with him? I mean, do I just keep him here forever? He seemed to think his dad was going to bring him home sooner rather than later."

"I thought you liked him."

"I do."

"Oh, I see. Thor's not the only one jumping out of the 'honeymoon' stage and into the 'shock' stage."

"It's not like that… don't look at me like that. Fine. It is. It is completely like that."

SHIELD had given her back her equipment, but none of her data. They had wiped every hard drive and file cabinet until she was quite literally left with a blank slate. She could not support her hypothesis without her evidence and without another magic rainbow bridge opening in the sky, she wasn't likely to gather anymore.

Her dreams had literally come true. She had witnessed an Einstein-Rosen Bridge open up before her with her very eyes. She now had spoken face-to-face with an individual who had travelled it and had been to other realms, other planets, and could give her firsthand information about them. It was beyond her wildest expectations.

But none of it would grant her any additional standing in the scientific community or put bread on the table. She could not lord it over her naysayers or gloat over her theories being proved right. It wasn't fair. It was the word of two astrophysicists, a political sci college student, oh, and the blonde stud who was convinced he was the incarnation of a Norse god trapped in a human body. None of that would carry over into anything she could publish or would stand up under peer-review. Her grant would not be reinstated without results and SHIELD had stolen all of her results. She had till the end of the semester, then she'd be dead in the water.

She clung onto what Darcy called her "pet alien" with both hands as the only tangible piece of evidence that it had not all been wishful thinking or her overwrought imagination. He was still here, still full of tales of realms and stars far from here and eyes that were a more beautiful shade of blue than any man had a right to possess.

She had to believe him. To disregard him would be to undermine herself. But she didn't know what to do with him, or with herself.

Time was quickly running out.

"So, Prince Charming is great," Darcy said. "Until you realize he's kinda like a white elephant whose eating you out of house and home but you can't really use him for anything productive. I mean, besides being pretty to look at and literally being the incarnation of your wildest dreams of the universe coming true. But Prince Charming wants to keep being Prince Charming and he doesn't want to settle into doing chores with Cinderella and having the stepmother breathing down his back… all while maintaining a palatial living expenses."

"Yeah, pretty much," Jane said with a sigh.

"Let me talk to him," Darcy said. "I can at least try to make him more useful around here."

"The first thing you need to learn is that Pop-Tarts are not food," Darcy Lewis told him. She held up the box in her hand in demonstration and she tossed the box behind her onto the counter. It bounced off of a bag filled with recently purchased provisions from the market and then landed onto the freshly mopped floor. That, too, had been one of the mortal's tedious lessons in "How to Survive on Earth… more specifically with Jane Foster."

Three full moons passed without anything changing. Thor was still trapped on Midgard. Thor was still mortal. Thor still dwelt under the patronage of Lady Jane Foster, Seeker of Stars. And Thor had never, in his entire life, been so humiliated.

Princes did not mop floor. Princes in Asgard could not even be seen holding brooms, or it was a great dishonor and a scandal for both servants and royal family. Princes may tend wounds or wash off excrement in the aftermath of a battle. They may tend to care of horses or exert great efforts on the training grounds. Princes most certainly did not see to the sanitization of latrines and bath houses.

The Lady Darcy was adamant and would not let him escape, no matter how much he protested.

"Thor, you don't have a birth certificate, a Social Security card, a Work Authorization Permit, a Green Card, or even a high school diploma," Darcy said. "You have nothing you need to work legally here. You are the poster child for 'illegal alien.' Did your dad even send you here with any money or, I don't know, a treasure chest of gold and diamonds or something?"

"No."

"Perfect. Back to my point. Thor, if you are going to keep staying here, then you need to do something useful."

"I assist Jane around her lab."

"You gotta do more than that. Look, I have to leave and go back to school soon. Dr. Selvig can't return till Christmas, and honestly, he's not much better than Jane at the basic requirements of 'adulting.' If you are gonna stay here, then you need to take over my job as intern and do all the stuff around here that I usually do."

Thor didn't know what a "pigsty" was or what "Christmas" was, but he caught on enough to know that the woman he had heretofore considered Jane's personal servant was going away and she expected Thor to take over her duties. Thor was aghast.

"Princes do not do that!"

"It's simple. If you do not clean, then you do not eat. Look, you may be exiled alien royalty, but you aren't royalty here. Yeah, you've been cut off from everyone and everything you've ever known and that sucks. I can't say that I really get it, because I don't, but I'm trying. However, you've had three months of moping and wallowing and hanging out on the roof and you can't keep going on like this. If you can't get back to where you were, then you gotta go forward. You can't keep living like any day you are gonna get raptured back up to the paradise you came from.

"I know, I know. We are some backwater planet you have despised all your life. Cool. I don't care if your princely pants grew up with servants, you don't have servants now and Jane and I are not your maid or your cook or your mother. You can learn to do the dishes and do your own laundry. More importantly, you have nothing better to do than to help Jane and Jane needs help and she's your meal ticket. I am going to teach you how to be useful so the pair of you aren't living in a pigsty and surviving off Pop-Tarts and canned ravioli."

For the first time in his life, Thor wished he had Loki's gift of hiding himself from Heimdall's gaze. The thought of their gatekeeper seeing him elbow deep in a wash basin, gloves on his hands, and an apron around his waist while he scrubbed the porcelain tub clean was worse than the time he saw Thor and Loki masquerade as a bridal party to rescue his hammer.

When Darcy was satisfied with his introduction on how to properly clean their domestic sphere, she turned to the preparation of meals. He had tried to retain some dignity and he went hunting for meat for their table. Darcy was less than pleased.

"You skewered a freakin' armadillo. Thor, don't you ever do that again," Darcy said, much angrier than he felt the situation warranted. She refused him to so much as skin his kill and she insisted on burying it behind the storage shed at night when no one could see.

"Thor, you are going to learn to cook and everything you cook will already be dead. If its currently alive and moving, do not feed it to Jane, got it?"

"I do not understand. The meat we prepare and consume was once alive. Why is it different to purchase meat already dead rather than dressing an animal I have hunted?"

"Someday, maybe we can revisit this topic and I can give you a list of appropriate animals to hunt. Today is not that day. If it doesn't come from the grocery store, do not bring it into this house."

He didn't understand, but he reluctantly agreed.

Thus began what Darcy called their "fieldtrip to the grocery store." He did not mind her thorough instruction of how their marketplace was organized. He would have been utterly lost without her explanation of "labels" and "prices" and "checkout stands." Her following lesson in the basic requirements of mortal nutrition and meal preparations he also, begrudgingly, found enlightening.

"Why is a Pop-Tart not considered food? It is consumed and provides energy. Jane considers Pop-Tarts food," he responded. He, also, enjoyed the sweetened tarts and their flaky, sugary surfaces. Not to mention, they did not require much in the way or preparation or clean-up.

"Jane would exist on nothing but coffee and science, if left to herself all day. That's why we exist. Jane pretends she has interns to help with her research. In reality, she has interns to keep her alive. I have to go back to campus and can only visit on weekends. You need to take over as Jane's keeper or you will both starve and I will hold you personally responsible if that happens."

When she caught Thor's frown, she outstretched her hands in his direction placatingly. "Let me put it this way: for you to eat, Jane must have money. Jane gets money from grants. She can only get grants if she stays healthy and focused. She can only do that if she eats well, sleeps regularly, and goes out in the sun, on occasion. Your job, Intern, is to feed her, take her on walks, and put her to bed once every eighteen hours. Can I trust you to do that?"

"I shall do my utmost to ensure the well-being of the good Lady Jane," Thor replied. He did not take oaths lightly and this one was no exception. If such a task was entrusted to him, he would ensure it was fulfilled to the utmost of his abilities, even if it was a role which was far below the station of his birth.

"That's all I'm asking," Darcy replied. She turned to the bags behind her and she withdrew a rectangular box. "Now, back to 'Cooking with Darcy.' This is an egg. Have you seen eggs before?"

"Of course, I have seen eggs before. Most reptiles lay eggs."

"Ummm, yeah, no. No snake or lizard eggs here. This is from a bird. Have you ever seen a chicken?"

"What is a chicken?"

"Do you know the small birds that Farmer Jones keeps? They lay eggs."

"They do not give birth to live young? That is a strange manner of bird."

"Remind me to ask you more about alien birds later. Right now, let me show you how to cook an egg."

She withdrew a series of pots and pans with a clamor and began to demonstrate. Only half the eggs were broken or burned and so she considered it a passing success. When she felt satisfied with his mastery of "boiled" and "scrambled" she moved on to the loaf of bread.

"Alright, let's talk about toast. From there, we can move onto more advanced levels of 'adulting' and discuss spaghetti."

Thor did the best he could to fulfill Darcy's expectations for him. Darcy's sudden absence was felt through the broken silence that claimed every afternoon and the pile of stacked dishes that kept growing in the sink. Thor missed her companionship and the blunt patience with which she had overtly instructed him into the basics of 'being mortal.' Jane, when focused on her tasks, sometimes neglected her own basic needs and it was even rarer that she paused long enough to be concerned with his well-being. It's not that her neglect was intentional, but that the Lady Darcy had been so uniquely gifted as an intermediary translator of Midgardian life and etiquette that her loss was all the more acute to Thor. Jane tried to answer his questions and they still spent long hours on the roof top, sharing stories under the stars, but Jane did not have quite as insightful a perspective into the innerworkings of Midgard's people as she did into Midgard's heavens.

He also found the isolation nearly oppressive.

He had spent his entire life in a palace, surrounded by people. Even if his family was occupied, there were courtiers and servants and warriors and craftsmen in abundance. The only time he could remember being entirely alone was during a strengthening exercise in his warrior training when he was forced into solitary confinement as a show of his prowess. He was not like his brother. Loki craved isolation and intentionally sought the forgotten corners and quietest chambers of Asgard in order to be alone. Thor couldn't understand it.

Now, he dwelt only with Jane Foster, and she spent the greater part of her day engrossed in her labors. He genuinely enjoyed her companionship, when she was available to give it. Her mind was as quick and clever as is brother's. She was as ready to share in tales as Thor and her laughter was both warm and contagious. However, she was much occupied and could not be counted on as the sole companion for the idle prince.

Thor attempted to find companionship from other inhabitants of the town. He asked for lessons on Midgardian animal husbandry from Farmer Jones and learned how to drive a tractor. He visited Isabella's so often that she sometimes gave him a broom and told him to "sweep the floor instead of standing around and stealing hearts." He visited Mjolnir with Louis and even went so far as to travel Louis' entire truck route, just to see other roads, other towns, and other rock formations. There wasn't much else to see.

Mostly, he wandered to the local tavern. He could usually find at least a friend or two there and they could spend their time playing Midgardian games and sharing tall-tales. It passed the time and filled part of his growing ache for the home he could not return to. If he could not find companionship there, he could at least partially forget his isolation through the dulling influence of their ale. The ale which he had initially decried for its weakness had grown in strength over the months he dwelt on Midgard. He attributed this to the lack of alternatives with which to compare it and knew that if he were to have access to Asgardian mead, then the Midgardian would not taste anywhere near as strong as it now did.

That is, until the day he drank his usual amount, but had to be carried home and he woke the next day feeling like his head had been beaten with Mjolnir.

"Who has bewitched me?" Thor cried out the next day. "What sorcery is this?"

"It's called a hangover," a very unhappy Jane Foster informed him. "It's what happens when you drink too much."

He thought it was a fluke or due to some adverse reaction to a particular beverage… till the same thing happened again a week later, after ingesting even weaker drinks in even less amounts. He was convinced someone was poisoning his drinks. Jane was convinced he needed to spend less time in the tavern. She was even more adamant on this when he came home after he had started a brawl and was temporarily suspended from the tavern.

"I don't understand what happened," Thor said.

"You broke your hand punching a guy in the face and then he knocked you out," Jane said. "What's there to understand?"

"I did not hit him so very hard and he is a weakling. How could such an unimpressive, poorly formed strike render me unconscious?"

Jane sighed and rubbed at her temples. "What I want to know is why you decided to punch him."

"He insulted me in words I could not understand."

"José said he told you, 'good evening' and then you socked him."

"He is a liar and a coward. I have spoken with the Son of Garcia many a night and he has never said such unintelligible words to me before. He was obviously mocking me."

Jane sighed.

The next time Thor saw José, he could not understand a word out of the man's mouth. For months, Thor had spent hours conversing with the man and had never once struggled to understand him. Now, he could not even greet him properly or inquire into his day.

"Why is he not speaking words that I can understand? What spellwork is he using to confuse the All-Speak?" Thor asked Jane, after they stumbled into José across from the diner.

"Thor, he's speaking in Spanish and not in English. He's never known much English. He told me you've usually conversed with him in Spanish, as fluent as a native speaker, until last week. Then he couldn't understand you at all."

"I have never struggled to understand any number of tongues, regardless of realm. I do not understand what is happening."

Thor only grew more confused when it was not only his ability to understand languages dissipated but the very strength of his body, also, seemed to diminish. He first noticed when his muscles began to shake and quiver when carrying Jane's instruments around the lab. For months, he had helped her carry these same pieces of machinery around without difficulty, now he nearly had to strain to pick them up. He didn't understand what was happening.

"It, uh, appears that you have the strength of a regular man now instead of a superhuman one. Sorry, Thor. I don't think anything is wrong with you. I think you are just adjusting to what it means to be human," Jane said.

The next week, when his nose began leaking fluids and his entire body felt like he had swallowed hot coals, he thought it was the end.

"I'm dying! I do not think I will recover. I feel such anguish in my bones! My joints, they are disintegrating inside me! My head aches and yet I have not overindulged in strong drink. What poison have I ingested?"

"You caught the flu," Jane said. "We call get it. You'll be miserable for a few days, then you'll be fine. You don't even have a fever. Just wait till you catch the stomach flu. Then you'll know true misery."

She gave him what she called "medicine" and ended work early so she could prepare dinner for both of them. Then, they watched movies late into the night, both curled on the couch. He could not remember any of the stories they watched, but he was glad for her presence nearby.

He recovered, as she promised he would, but he came to the deeply unsettling conclusion that the longer he stayed on Midgard, the more mortal he became. Whatever lingering elements of his Aesir form he had retained upon his arrival were gradually evaporating. He realized he did not know how much of his abilities would remain or what else of his old self he would have to part with. It sent him into the greatest sense of turmoil he had yet experienced during his time on Midgard.

It was one thing to be trapped on Midgard when he knew he was the strongest and most skillful warrior around. It was quite another to have the same strength as everyone else… to be susceptible to the untold masses of Midgardian diseases and illnesses… to be bound to only one language and have to learn everything else all over again. He felt more exposed than he ever had before. Exposed and so very, very vulnerable.

It was not a comfortable feeling. He had spent so much of his life gaining his sense of worth from his near invincibility. Who was Thor Odinson without his strength? Without Mjolnir? Without his crown? What else did he have about him to give him value?

He didn't know.

When Jane found him on the roof top that night, he could not even offer her a greeting or a smile and his entire being felt burdened with the weight of his worries.

She began to prepare the fire and then pulled her blanket around her small shoulders. She handed him a cup of hot chocolate and looked at him with all the focused intensity that she typically reserved for the stars.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"I am at a loss of what I am to do now," he told her, truthfully. "I miss my home. I do not understand why I am still here."

She sighed deeply and took a long, steaming sip from her cup. Then she took his hands in hers. They were so warm from holding her cup and his hands nearly engulfed all of hers, they were so very much smaller than his.

"Tell me, Thor, what is it that you want to do now? Have you thought about what you will do if you are stuck here for a long time? What if you are here for a year? A decade?"

Thor looked away from her, back out into the open expanse of sky beyond. "I do not want to believe that I will be here that long."

"But if you are?"

"Then I have no idea what I want or even what I should want. I am not even certain I know who I am anymore."

"That makes sense."

"Jane, I am glad it was you who discovered me. You took me in and gave me a home when I had none. Few would be so generous with one such as myself and all my fumblings and mistakes. I appreciate all you have done for me."

"Oh, you could be worse," she said with a laugh.

"I could also be better."

"That's true. However, I haven't always been the patron saint of patience and kindness, either. I really appreciate all you've done around here for me. Since Darcy left, I mean. I know I should thank you for it more, but I forget to say it out loud sometimes. I can spend too much time in my head and forget that the rest of the world around me can't hear my thoughts, no matter how loud I think them. In case I forget to tell you tomorrow, I am very grateful for all you've done for me."

"It is my pleasure, Lady Jane," he said. As soon as he said it, he knew it was a lie. He had found very little pleasure in the duties thrust upon him by Darcy's departure, however he did enjoy feeling useful and less of a burden. He also enjoyed knowing that he was valuable to Jane, even if he felt entirely redundant everywhere else in the Nine Realms.

"I can't imagine all you are feeling or going through," Jane answered. "But I am glad you are still here. You, well, you changed my life for the better and I am so glad you, quite literally, fell from the stars and into my life."

It was only after she spoke that he realized just how close they had encroached in on each other or how long they had failed to look away. It was not the first time he had caught her eyes lingering on him, watching him with a longing he was far too familiar with to misinterpret. He was not surprised, then, when she leaned in and kissed him.

He was a bit more surprised when he found he didn't mind so overmuch and was returning the gesture in kind. If he was to continue indefinitely on Midgard, he could think of worse ways to spend his time than in the arms of a beautiful woman who admired him… and tasted like hot chocolate.

Chapter Text

Jane's computer glowed in the dark lab and cast a flickering light on her pile of printed papers. She supposed she could have turned a light on, but when Darcy had first called, it had still been light outside. It had been a few weeks since Darcy had been able to come visit and so they had more to catch up on than usual. Jane nursed her lukewarm cup of coffee in her hands and barely noticed the pencil precariously balanced behind her ear.

"I just don't know Darcy," she said to Darcy's image on her screen. "What's the point of any of this? I know I am right. Why do I need to work myself to death proving what I already know? Obviously, there is some big, bad, secret government entity that will swallow up my evidence as soon as I have it, even if I managed to get some more. I suppose you can say I'm having a midlife crisis. I've worked my whole life towards one goal and what's the point of any of it?"

"So, what have you been doing then? Every time I call, you haven't answered. I assumed it was because science ate your brain, but you don't sound like you usually do when you are all scientificated."

"I took a break," Jane answered. "You'd be proud of me. I just got so frustrated, I decided I needed to get out. So, we drove out to La Cruces and hiked Pine Tree and then camped out there for a few nights. Then we went out to Albuquerque to see the balloons. I haven't done anything useful for nearly two weeks and it's been perfect."

"Yay! Go you! You probably have like twenty years of vacation time coming to you," Darcy said. "So, by 'we,' do you mean you and Luke Skywalker?"

"Yeah. He was pretty depressed for awhile there. He spent most of the day watching T.V. and going to the bar in the evenings. He's doing better now that he is actually getting out of the lab and seeing more. I figured – what the hell? who knows how long he's gonna be here? I should take the time to show him around and be a proper tourist before he goes back to doing whatever alien royalty does."

"Makes sense. The guy can't go back to space without experiencing a proper bizcochito."

"Right? When he tried a chile relleno, it was pretty much love at first bite."

Darcy laughed. "Has E.T. been able to phone home yet?"

"Not yet. It's really bothering him. Sometimes I catch him on the roof talking to the sky like they can hear him. I don't know. Sometimes I really wonder if I'm the crazy one for believing him and maybe he is just a lost exchange student from Norway with amnesia or something, but I don't know. If I've come this far believing him, why pull out now?"

"I was there. In the desert with the car. You aren't crazy… ok… you are a little crazy, but not for that part."

"I'm thinking about taking him to Santa Fe in a few weeks. If we come up, I'll let you know."

"You better. I won't let you live it down if you don't."

When the call finally ended, Jane half-heartedly sifted through her stack of papers and sighed. Her emails were full of what she expected. Nothing. No new grants. No new funding. And a stack of monthly bills that were getting harder and harder to pay.

She would need to bite the bullet and come up with a "Plan B," just in case.

Jane was startled awake by the sound of a door slamming open and someone entering her trailer.

"Surprise!" came a familiar voice. "I brought coffee and scones and, oh… sorry. I should have knocked. I'll, uh, be in the lab. Waiting. Ok. Bye."

The door slammed shut again and Jane groaned. It was much too early in the morning for this. At least, she thought it was. She tried to reach for her phone on the counter but she couldn't reach it. A large, warm human barricade was between her and her phone.

"Lady Darcy has come?" he asked, his voice gruff with sleep. He was no better than she was in the morning, she had found, now that he had taken up permanent residence in her trailer.

"Yeah. She brought food."

"Mmmmmm."

A muffled snore followed and she knew he was out cold again. She struggled to extricate herself from his arm and leg and climb over him to reach the floor. She tumbled onto him instead, but he didn't so much as twitch. She righted herself and searched through the floor for her t-shirt and pants. She quickly brushed her teeth and splashed water on her face and then stumbled out the door and into the frigid morning air. She shivered and wished she had remembered to grab her jacket.

She found Darcy eating a scone and watching cat videos on Youtube. Darcy barely looked up when she came in but kept chuckling at regular intervals.

Jane eagerly imbibed her coffee and ate half a scone before sitting in the chair across from Darcy. She finished the rest of her scone before Darcy turned her phone off and looked up.

"Hi."

"Hi. You, uh, came? Thanks! It's really great to see you again."

"Yeah. I had a class cancelled and a work shift called off so I figured - what the hey?"

They each watched the other for a moment before Darcy shrugged and grabbed another scone.

"You look good, Boss Lady. The new intern is working out. No dark circles under your eyes. Your hair is both washed and recently brushed. You've even added weight. For most people that would not be a compliment, but for you it is. I'm impressed."

"I figured you'd appreciate that. Thor's gotten pretty good at cooking. He's spent a lot of time watching the Food Network lately."

"I can tell. Even alien Fabio has filled out a bit."

Jane sighed. "His divine abs have lost just a bit of their divinity."

"Oh, he is still cut, don't get me wrong. It's just, I noticed a change. Sorry about that, by the way. I guess I shoulda knocked. I, uh, didn't think… When I told him he was in charge of 'putting Jane to bed,' I didn't think he'd take it that literally."

"Yeah, uh, that was my fault," Jane said. She could feel herself flushing. "He was sad. He's happier now."

"I'm sure he is."

By the way Darcy twiddled with her coffee spoon and pursed her lips, Jane could tell she was upset. This made Jane feel defensive and she decided to speak first.

"I'm surprised. Weren't you the one wanting me to find a man and trying to set me up with your cousin?"

"Yeah. You did… you do… need a man. And he is quite the man, I gotta say, but I'm not sure this was the best idea… or timing. My cousin is a professor of biology and got his doctorate studying functional morphology. He knows more big words than I know 80's movies. I thought you two would enjoy basking in each other's brilliance.

"If Thor was a regular guy you met at Isabella's, I'd be all for it. I mean, I don't think it's necessarily your shared passions and intellectual acuity that drives you both together, but I am all for you doing something other than science and having a personal life. I just think motivation and context is important.

"Look, the guy is cut off from everyone and everything he knows and you are his only source of food, clothes, and lodging. As long as you are his meal ticket, it's kinda sketch."

Jane frowned. "He was willing. It's not like he hasn't had his choice of women in the past. He's a prince."

"I'm sure he has. I don't want to rain on your parade, but what would you think if roles were reversed? Let's say you managed to open up your own wormhole and tested it on yourself- because that's totally something you would do- and you stumbled onto Thor's planet. Then, he nearly hit you with his chariot or long boat or flying carpet or whatever. He takes you home with him and you find out you can't get back to Earth. You are stuck. You are completely alone and Thor is your only friend and ally on an alien planet. Then he wants to get into your pants. Its awkward.

"If he had other friends or his own external source of income, I would say, 'go you' and make you give me a play-by-play, but you said yourself that he was depressed and vulnerable. Then there's the whole 'interspecies' thing. Did you, you know, talk about your relationship or discuss what the implications of all this is?"

At Darcy's knowing expression Jane deflated. "You know I'm not good at that kind of thing. I didn't exactly think about things ahead of time. I just… he was sad and he's so pretty and I wanted to cheer him up… and got a little carried away. Then, we both rather liked getting carried away. Then, did I mention, he's gorgeous?"

"You might have. Once or twice. A day. That's my point though. Would you have been so drawn to him if he, say, looked exactly like your ex or couldn't speak your language? If he was Yoda, you might not feel such an instantaneous connection. Yeah, you'd still be curious and would hound the man for information, but you wouldn't be so ready to jump his bones."

"Are you saying I am shallow?"

"No, I am saying that… ok… fine. I'm saying your being shallow in this… not that that's necessarily a bad thing or an abnormal thing. I just think you might have tried to find more about him before you elevated him to become your personal bed-warmer, if he wasn't so easy on the eyes. Don't get me wrong. I think it goes both ways. I don't think he is drawn to you purely for your impressive intellect or that he enjoys your research as much as he enjoys your ass."

"Darcy…"

"Then, there's the fact that you both are from literally different worlds. You know, I had a friend once who studied abroad and then fell madly in love. She married this guy only to find out he had three wives already. He didn't understand why she was upset and thought she was totally unreasonable for divorcing him. Her whole mantra of 'he completes me' and 'he makes me happy' was kinda stuck in a blender and she couldn't understand what happened. We are talking about two people from the same freakin' planet. Throw in aliens who live thousands of years and travel through wormholes and give birth to snakes and eight-legged horses and I think you should ask more questions upfront.

"Do they lay eggs or give birth to live young? Considering the myths, have you even stopped to wonder in you might knock Thor up? You just hit the sack with the Norse god of fertility… what kind of crazy alien mojo does he have going on?"

Jane's mouth fell open and she shook her head. "First off, he's completely human now. Secondly, I am an adult. I do think some things through."

"Fine. Let's talk culture then. In Thor's worldview, are they polyandrous or polygynous? Are you now bound to him forever through some mystical alien soul bond or is this just alien sex tourism? Does he consider you his temporary 'friends-with-benefits,' his long-term earthling girlfriend or his eternal love and someday queen?"

"We are on the same page, I think. We've talked about some things, you know."

"Well, better late than never. Jane, I'm glad to see you out of your head and out of your lab. I'm glad you are doing other things and getting to know people, even if it's just alien Prince Charming. And I do like him, a lot."

"So do I."

"I'm glad."

"So, you, uh, mentioned he had a job interview. How did it go?" Darcy asked, giving Jane a rush of relief at the subject change.

"Yeah. SHIELD has been courting him rather seriously for a job," Jane explained. "One day, those black suits showed up here asking to talk to him. They have been sending him through all manner of tests since and have spoken about possibly hiring him on. He'd have room and board but would have to travel extensively. He likes the idea of being a 'Midgardian warrior' and having his own source of income. He's been much happier and more confident since they began conversations and he's been able to get out of here more."

"And he's okay with the idea of you staying with Erik in New York till you find a teaching job? I mean, have you talked about if you are gonna break up or try a distance relationship?"

"We haven't gotten that far yet. I'm waiting to hear back from some possible consulting and teaching positions and he hasn't been offered an official job yet. When we have more set possibilities before us, then we can make some decisions."

"But you aren't considering bringing him with you to Erik's?"

"I hadn't, no."

"And if he doesn't get the SHIELD job?"

"I don't know. Don't look at me like that. He's been adjusting pretty well. It's not like I signed up for this indefinitely."

"But you kinda insinuated you are in a relationship."

"Yeah. And it's been great. It really has. I just… I don't think I'm made for longer term relationships."

"In other words, he's not as sexy as science."

"Stop trying to make me feel guilty."

"I'm not trying to make you feel anything. I'm just trying to understand where your head is at."

Jane threw up her hands and groaned.

"My head is trying to figure out how to make ends meet once my grant runs out. Soon, I won't be able to feed me, let alone, the bottomless appetite of a Norse god. I don't want to make Erik take both of us in, but I don't want to kick Thor to the curb. I have no idea what I'm doing, Darcy."

"Got it. Hence the 'enjoy each day as it comes' mantra."

Thor sat in the same room he had once been a prisoner in, now as a free man. His outlook on life had improved exponentially in the past month as he not only understood he relationship to Jane better, but also saw potential for finding a Midgardian place to offer his services and gain a wage to bring back to his house.

He had not been overly surprised when the Midgardian warriors had sought him out. He had felt their eyes on him ever since their first conflict over Mjolnir and he had noted them keeping constant vigil of his movements ever since. He did not mind. They did not interfere in his affairs and they stayed clear of Jane and so he let them remain as they were. When they did approach him, he did not bother to hide his pleasure in their address.

"Dr. Donald Blake?" the Son of Coul had said. "We are interested in seeing more of what you are capable of. Would you be willing to come with us and undergo a series of tests for us? We will pay you for your time, of course."

All Thor heard was the offer of a challenge to publicly prove his skills and the possibility for his own acquisition of funds and so he immediately agreed.

Twice a week, he was picked up in a black SUV and taken to various locations – sometimes deep underground in a massive fortress, other times he visited the tented city around Mjolnir. Then, they asked him questions or required him to perform different tasks for them. Sometimes, they wished for him to spar against their warriors. Sometimes, they wished to ask him about his background and his interests and his knowledge of Midgard. Other times, they asked for him to speak with their healers and allow Midgardian technology to take pictures of his body. He was not entirely sure what it all meant, but every time he complied, they paid him well. This pleased Jane and so he was only too happy to repeat.

Of late, there were discussions about him staying in the underground fortress for longer or possibly traveling to another location to continue assisting SHIELD in their work. There were more promises of "compensation" and Jane was only too willing to encourage him to accept. If such work made her estimation of him rise, then he willingly agreed.

Now, he sat eating Midgardian food for what they called "lunch" and rested himself. The sparring session had been particularly strenuous and his entire body felt as sore as if he had fought five warriors instead of only one. He realized how lax he had been in not continuing his training exercises and just how quickly his Midgardian form forgot its strength if not maintained.

Before he could complete his sandwich, a uniform guard entered the room. The door closed and as soon as it did, the guard charged at him. The table toppled over, his meal spilled onto the floor, and Thor barely had the chance to react before he felt a solid fist in his temple. In three moves, the guard had him pinned to the floor with a hand at his neck.

Then, in a shimmer of light, the guard transformed into the visage of his brother, grinning so smugly that Thor was tempted to strike him in the face just to erase it.

"It is not often I have the chance to best you with only my fists, Thunderer," Loki said. He stood and released Thor. Then he extended his hand to help him stand upright. "However, that was a poor performance, even for you."

Loki took a moment to look him over from head to toe, his grin widening at the sight of the bruise blooming on Thor's cheek.

"I would never have believed it. It's true, then. You truly are mortal. Mjolnir's power has nearly entirely dimmed and you are as any other Midgardian."

"As you see me," Thor said, feeling his embarrassment rise. He leaned over to set the table upright, but before he could manage, the room flashed with light and Loki righted everything in it as if the confrontation had never happened. Thor sat down and continued eating his sandwich. Loki wrinkled his nose.

"How can you eat that? It smells foul."

"I am hungry and it is food," Thor answered.

Loki gave an exaggerated sigh that clearly communicated starvation was preferable to such fare. Then he materialized a chair across from Thor and sat in it, one leg crossed over the other and his hands carefully nestled in his lap.

"Have you come to bring me home?" Thor asked. He knew he shouldn't hope and, even more, he knew he shouldn't let Loki see his hope, but he failed on both counts.

"No, brother," Loki said. He had the decency to at least feign disappointment and sincerity over the fact. "Unfortunately, our father insists your banishment must continue indefinitely until whatever nebulous lesson he intends you to learn has been learned. Before you ask, no he has given me no more details than you and not even mother can pry out the qualifications for your return, and it is not for want of trying."

Thor felt that little wellspring of hope now turn to lead and it sank deep into the pit of his stomach. He no longer felt like eating and he pushed his sandwich away from him.

"Why are you here?"

"What's this? You do not wish for a little cordial visit from your favorite brother?"

"If I believed you were here only to inquire into my well-being, I would rejoice wholeheartedly and welcome you properly. However, by the hesitance with which you speak and the manner of your arrival I do not presume your visit is without a task."

Loki chuckled. "Shrewd, brother. You surprise me. Though, it is not for a lack of desire to seek you out that I have remained away. Technically, I am forbidden to be here at all."

"So, you have not been avoiding me from shame?" Thor asked, genuinely surprised.

Loki's laugh turned genuine. "Oh, what a question, brother! How am I to answer that? I will leave you to surmise the answer however you wish and let it torment you that I did not say otherwise. No, our father forbid Heimdall to allow any on Asgard to visit you here."

"Heimdall has disobeyed?" Thor asked.

"Our staunch as an iron statue gatekeeper? Of course, he has not disobeyed the All-Father! No, I did not travel by Bifrost. It has taken me this long to find another route to Midgard, one which technically leaves the All-Father's prohibition in place, but permits mother to speak with you."

"Mother?"

"It was she who bade me to seek another way to find you. You should have seen her expression when she realized that Father had cursed you to a mortal form! She was willing enough to bide your banishment, out of submission to his lofty wisdom, until she discovered that little detail. When she , discovered you were left without any weapon, protection, or your Aesir strength, she was downright livid. I've never seen her so angry. Father would insist on remaining as stubborn as a dwarf about it all and so Mother and I have worked tirelessly to find a way to communicate with you that does not technically count as treason."

Thor was genuinely ingratiated by the gesture. He leaned forward to clasp his brother's hands and he met his gaze as earnestly as he could. "I am glad of it," he said. "Thank you. Seeing you, hearing of mother, it does my heart good and revives some of my spirit. I was quite forlorn believing myself to be scorned and abandoned by those I love."

Loki waved his hands away and clicked his tongue. "None of that, none of that. As you surmised, I am here on a mission, and one that involves more than making you overly sentimental."

"What is your aim?"

"First, to clean up the mess you've made. Thor, do you ever think before you act or do you insist on falling headfirst into blunders?"

"I do not understand."

"No, I don't suppose you do. First off, what have I told you about believing the best about people and giving way to flattery? Here, Midgardian warriors say a few words of praise and you willingly abide by their wishes, no questions asked. Thor, you must be wiser than that, if you are to survive long on this realm."

Thor cocked his head to one said and looked over his brother's shoulder and through the door to where Midgardians milled about in the halls.

"These are not honorable warriors?" he asked.

"Some of them may be. I know not their hearts nor their motivations entirely, only the warnings Heimdall gave to our mother. Thor, why do you suppose they have invited you here? No, it is not to admire your battle prowess or bask in your extensive intellect, as you seem to think. Thor, they wish to study you as an anomaly. They have been watching you since the first time you were fool enough to fight your way in here to take Mjolnir by might. You still had the strength of an Aesir, then. They have your lover's documentation of the opening of the Bifrost and your presence in that opening. Each time you have visited their healing rooms, they have secretly confiscated data on your physical form so they can study you. Then you were fool enough to imbibe in Midgardian ale like a drunkard and allow your loosened lips to speak of your true home and identity. Truly, Thor, have you no sense at all?

"I have spent the better part of this morning erasing their records and those of the healing rooms you visited so there is no longer evidence of how entirely not mortal you still were when you first arrived. Now, the lingering traces of Aesir magic have dwindled enough that you should no longer be such an aberration and you should appear as any other mortal, but you were not at first, and these warriors know it. They fear you and they wish to run experiments on you to test your limitations. There are those who also wish to use you for even more nefarious purposes."

Thor felt like he had received a solid kick in his stomach and he rubbed at his temples with his hands. He had always relied on his brother's greater attunement to the motivations and sense of character of others and while Thor was prone to believe the best, Loki tended to believe the worst. However, as soon as he heard it, Thor knew Loki to be speaking the truth.

"As the crowned prince of Asgard exiled on Midgard and trapped in a fragile, mortal body, for the sake of Yggdrasil, do not speak of your identity to everyone you meet. Try to restrain yourself. To speak as you have only makes you seem to be a fool or lunatic at best or puts you in danger at worst. What do you think the enemies of Asgard would do if they hear tell that Thor Odinson is currently mortal? Please, try to keep it a secret. I know, I know. You are absolutely worthless as a liar, but in this case, you are simply forming a new identity and not creating a false one.

"Now, since you are utterly hopeless in looking after yourself, even on a realm so inferior as Midgard, Mother wishes to speak with you"

Loki set a small circular object engraved with runes on the table between them and began conjuring a spell. Then, Frigga materialized before them. Her visage was slightly translucent and did not appear anywhere near as sound as Loki's projections normally were, but considering the distance between Asgard and Midgard, Thor was impressed.

"My son!" Frigga gushed, holding out both her hands for him and that familiar all-encompassing warmth filling her features.

"Mother!" Thor said. He stood to his feet and would have thrown himself into her arms if Loki hadn't stopped him.

"Restrain yourself, Thor. You cannot reach her here and I have enough to do maintaining the projection and hiding us from Heimdall. I would appreciate it if you grant my spellwork some reprieve."

Thor nodded. "Of course. Mother, how do you fare? How is Asgard?"

"There is not time, Thor. We are all well and you should not concern yourself with us. We love you and miss you terribly."

"And I, you."

"For your own health and well-being, Thor, I wish to give you some advice and I pray you heed it."

"Speak, Mother."

"You have spent your time thus far seeking to escape your exile rather than embracing it. You have let your fate be entirely determined by the will of others. Thor, are you the prince of Asgard or aren't you? If you are to be exiled on Midgard, what can you do to seek the good of Midgard? You must turn your gaze away from Asgard because Asgard is far removed from you, for now, but your feet are on Midgardian soil. How can you learn to live there? What is it you can learn from them? How can you learn to be there? It is not your physical strength or the power to summon the storm that makes you Thor. Those gifts may emerge in an Aesir form, but you are still Thor, even in a Midgardian form. You still have gifts, they simply may manifest differently. You are still gifted with the ability to create and foster life. You still draw others to you and impart strength and confidence to them. You are gifted to nourish the spirits of others and hallow the spaces in which you dwell. Do that, wherever you go, rather than setting all your hopes on being where you are not."

"I will try, Mother."

"I know you will, darling. Now, I have some gifts for you. I leave you in your brother's care and know that I will be here for you, whenever you need."

She flickered then and disappeared. Thor already felt the weight of her absence before she had even gone completely. He turned then to his brother. With a wave of his hand, Loki produced a golden necklace with a pendant of Mjolnir. He handed this to Thor.

"Mother was furious that you neglected to wear this on your coronation."

Thor's expression turned sheepish. He had forgotten.

"She said to remind you that when she gives you a gift on a day as important as your maturity, she expects you to treat it with more care."

Thor took the pendant and placed it around his neck.

"This is more than a pretty bauble, Thor. She enchanted it, as you should have surmised, it being Mother. Even in your mortal form, it is still powerful. As long as you keep it on your person, it will provide a certain amount of protection from harm. It also enables her to find you with her magic and provides a means to communicate with her in return. Finally, she wanted me to remind you that you are more than Mjolnir or Aesir. You are still a son of Odin and Frigga."

"I am grateful. Tell her so."

"You will tell her yourself, idiot, or weren't you listening to any of the instructions I just gave you? Don't answer. I do not wish to know."

With another wave of his hands, Loki produced a pair of identical daggers. They were the length of Thor's forearm and their hilts were engraved with scarlet gems and the symbol of Mjolnir.

"Ceremonial daggers?" Thor asked, one eyebrow raised in question as he studied one of the daggers.

"My reaction was similar," Loki said, a smirk crossing his face and making Thor flush. "Especially seeing that they are a pair and you only fight with one. I did not wish to enquire just what trouble you have been getting yourself into on Midgard that you would require the rushed production of ceremonial daggers, but Mother said you need them both."

Thor felt the heat rush to his cheeks and he looked away from his brother. He hoped his brother did not ask any further questions or notice his reaction, but he knew Loki was too shrewd to miss it.

"Mother also enchanted these. She was furious that Father neglected to send you with a weapon or armor. She said these are as much for your protection as the necklace and to keep them with you always. The gem on the hilt with make them retract into the form of a small bracer."

Thor nodded.

"Now, brother, I do not know when I will be able to return to call upon you next. Do try to stay alive until then. I know, I ask much of you, but please, do your very best. I do not wish to spend as much time trifling through mortal vaults to cover your tracks in future."

"Thank you, Brother. I will eagerly await our next visit."

In a blink of light, Loki was gone. The bruise on Thor's cheek remained.

Chapter Text

Loki's world was turned upside down when he saw his brother, the Golden Prince, the Favored Son, pushed from the Bifrost and into indefinite banishment on Midgard. His shock quickly morphed into guilt. He had plotted and prodded… knowing too well how easily Thor could be incited into idiocy. Still, he had never dreamed to so incite the All-Father's wrath or that Odin could ever bestow such a punishment on Thor.

If Thor received such a punishment from Odin's hands, what would he say if Loki's involvement with the Frost Giants was uncovered? How much greater would his own punishment be for revealing weaknesses in Asgard's defenses to their enemies… and then acting as an accessory to a declaration of war?

Loki's guilt felt like a boulder on his shoulders and quickly flooded his heart with fear.

How long would Thor be stranded on Midgard? Defenseless and without even the protection of his natal form? Banishment alone was a punishment beyond comprehension, but to be bound to the form of a mortal was even worse. He would rather be bound to the form of a dumb beast than that of a Midgardian for at least a beast would have no knowledge of its state. To maintain the soul of an Aesir in the form of a mortal, with all memories of what Thor had once been, was beyond comprehension.

Loki wandered the halls of the palace in a daze.

It grew all the worse when the All-Father suddenly succumbed to the Odinsleep and Frigga placed Gungnir in his hands. If the truth of what he had done was discovered, if Frigga suspected what had occurred, she would not have entrusted him with the realm. He no longer trusted himself.

He reaped his own reward for his deeds when an army of Frost Giants invaded through the secret pathway he had revealed to them. They demanded the Casket in exchange for their secrecy over his treachery. He refused, but it was too late. Heimdall had seen and heard all and Frigga was informed.

The disappointment in her eyes was worse than a vial of poison and far more of a punishment than the All-Father's wrath.

"Oh, Loki," was all she could say.

She held out her hand for Gungnir to fall back into it and Loki could not even argue against it. Then it was Frigga who took the throne and handled sealing up the secret passages between Jotunheim and Asgard and trying to repair the fractured alliance between realms.

In penance for his transgression, Loki was assigned the task of keeping vigil over Odin in his magical sleep. Day and night, he sat by the unmoving side of his father, watching as his shuddered eyelids flickered in distant dreams and memories and the wisdom of the ages. The golden veil of power covered the All-Father, who looked all the more wizened and haggard for his long delay in rest.

Loki did not wonder at such a delay- with two such princes in line for the throne. If Thor had been unworthy of ruling, what of Loki?

When Odin woke, the hard as ice expression in his one eye told Loki all he needed to know. Loki shrank in his chair like a child about to be scolded and grit his teeth.

"Since when was Loki Odinson charged with contradicting the All-Father's decrees?" Odin said. He sat up, strength exuding from his refreshed body like water from a spring, and he stared so penetratingly into Loki's eyes that Loki felt he could read every thought within his mind. "Thor may be cruel, arrogant, and greedy, but you, my son, will allow all Asgard to be consumed by your jealousy and pride."

Odin could not very well banish both heirs and so Loki remained in Asgard. Alone. Without his brother for the first time in his very long life.

"When will you bring Thor back?" Loki asked his father, some months after Thor's banishment.

"I will not be bringing him back," Odin replied. "Thor will bring himself back, when he proves he has learned his lesson."

"How long will that take?" Loki asked, uncomfortable at the open-ended nature of his answer.

"Whether it last three days or a thousand years, what is that to you?" Odin answered. "You said yourself that Thor was not ready for the throne. Let him become better prepared."

An Asgard without Thor was like a summer without the sun. For so long, Loki had existed as the shadow to that sun, the night to his day, the winter to his summer. Without Thor, Loki felt set adrift and aimless. Who was there to correct? What was there to measure himself against and fall short from? Who was there to take the penetrating gaze of Odin and the rest of Asgard away from resting on Loki alone? He could no longer hide in the shadows, haunt to the library, or glory in Thor's fumbles.

Royal tasks fell on his shoulders alone. All social niceties, and transgressions of etiquette, were his alone and born by himself. The direction of the Warriors Three and Sif belonged to him. Odin's many lessons, tasks, chidings, and musings were carried by Loki alone. When the diplomats came from Nidavellir, it was Loki who must perform for them. When a ritual hunt was called for the Aesir, it was Loki who must head it, in Thor's absence. He could not hide in the shadows of Thor's gilded charisma.

It was more than in royal duties that Loki felt Thor's absence. Gone were the midnight explosions into his chambers, half intoxicated and booming about the victories on the latest quest. Gone were the knowing looks and shared jokes between brothers. Gone were the jests and teasing, the constant edge of competition and comparison.

How long had Loki relied on Thor like a crutch and allowed himself to spiral around Thor like a planet around a star? How long had Loki delighted in this arrangement, all the while despising it? Now, without Thor, he found he must lead, and he must take to the forefront. Loki must stand as sole son of Odin, or fall as sole son of Odin. If he was honest with himself, he could not say he preferred this arrangement. Who was there to make Loki appear wise? Who was there to make Loki superior than he truly was? He was forced to stand in the light of his own merit and he felt all the more his own lack.

All that remained was Loki.

He wondered how many others looked upon him and said he was unworthy.

Loki was convinced now, all the more, that he had no desire to ever be king.

Thor missed the rain. He didn't realize how much satisfaction he gained through the scent, the feel of conjuring the storm, the thickness of the gathering clouds, the wetness in the air, or the way the very earth seemed to breathe a sigh of relief after a deluge. He found joy in watching things grow and drink in what he gave. He delighted in knowing that people could count on a strong harvest due to the work of his hand.

In the barren New Mexico landscape, he could count on one hand the number of times it had rained. The storms were spectacular and so were the burst of wildflowers borne out of them, but he had to wait for the rain to come. He could not call it whenever he wished.

He wished he could summon rain to make Jane a garden of her own.

He missed knowing he was stronger than any other he came across. His defeat at the hands of an average Midgardian left him feeling more vulnerable than he ever had before. He was not invincible. He could be overthrown. That meant his home, his family, they too were vulnerable. He could not fulfill his role of protector and guardian as he was meant to, as he longed to do.

With the return of his enchanted Mjolnir talisman, his confidence grew. He knew he could finally tap into some of his innate magic. He still had one gift, one innate magic all his own, that he had thought diminished. Now, he hoped he could grant one gift to his Midgardian patroness, one way of proving himself worthy of her, of showing he was not entirely inept or without honor.

Thor, as prince, had an entirely different set of expectations on him than the rest of his Aesir counterparts. The rules were simple for him. He could do as he pleased in private, but in public, he must never show a preference to any but his queen and wife. The expectations were not so dissimilar in the lower classes of Asgard, but the amount of scandal to be expected from breaching taboos lessened according to the amount of property and influence of the wronged party. No one would think twice over two unwed servants gallivanting in a courtyard in Asgard. However, if one member of the party was a landholder, well, then it would be the outcry of the kingdom.

Someday, Thor would be expected to declare an official queen. Most expected the Lady Sif to be the obvious choice, however it was not the season set apart for marriages and families yet. On Asgard, all social life circled around the bi-millennial reproductive cycle of Aesir women. Of every five hundred years, one hundred was set aside for the creation of new houses and family lines. All warfare and inter-realm trade ceased and all Aesir came home for a time of what they called "Harvest." It was as if everything in Asgard took in a deep breath and reset itself for the next generation.

It was during this season that marriages were declared, spouses were exchanged or added, and offspring were possible. By the time the Harvest ended, the young had reached their maturity and no longer required the intensive care of their parents. Business and trade outside the realm resumed. Warriors took up their swords and traders their wares and all set their sights far afield from Asgard and onto the greater expanse of the Nine Realms.

As the bearer of Mjolnir and wielder of lightning, he was symbolically expected to preside over the beginning of each Harvest. It was the rain which made the earth seed and blossom and grow and it was his presence at the Harvest which declared the Aesir's seasons of growth had similarly come to fruition. During his first Harvest, he had been present at every single marriage of import and called forth rain on each, as was expected. However, it had been far too soon for his age-set to enter the Harvest as participants. It would not be until his second or third Harvest when his age-set would be expected to wed.

As a prince, Thor's choices in wife were a matter of great political importance and could not be ruled by the easier arrangements that the rest of the Aesir employed. It was not unusual for Aesir to exchange spouses at each Harvest, according to their whims and social aspirations. Since the stability of the realm depended on the role of the queen in the affairs of state, Thor was not permitted that luxury. Thus, he was not expected to declare a queen until his coronation and any dalliances before or after were simply not recognized.

On Midgard, Thor was neither prince nor wealthy Aesir. He had not land of his own and no house of extended kin who depended on him for protection and sustenance. He was reduced to the status of little better than a common laborer or house servant and he was acutely aware of this whenever he caught Jane worrying over bread and reducing his rations for drink.

In comparison with himself, Jane was a wealthy, established woman of means and autonomy. The Midgardians who interacted with her held in her respect and deferred to her greater knowledge. They used a title of honor when addressing her and did not expect her to perform menial labor for herself. She made decisions without consulting external kin and, as far as he could tell, she relied on no other patron for her well-being or protection. She held her own property and was beholden to none.

He considered himself lucky to have gained the patronage of such a woman. Thor was not surprised when Jane made advances on him and welcomed him into her bed. It was not uncommon for wealthy, unconnected women to take on their house servants or men of lower class as lovers. He considered himself fortunate that she was not only good-natured and companionable, but pleasing in face and form. While this was a sting to his pride, he would willingly accept the arrangement and even enjoy it.

He was surprised, however, when she began to shower him with affection when they toured Puente Antiguo or when they spent time within the glass-walled space of her lab. He had not realized she was serious enough for such a formal declaration of intent. For her to parade him alongside herself, out in the light of day and in the eyes of others, meant she wished for him as more than lover but as formal consort and he knew what expectations went along with such a position.

On Asgard, if a woman in possession of her own lands and fortune openly took a man with lesser means and connections into her home, all participants understood what to expect. Women of means who did not wish for their autonomy or holdings to be disturbed by the interference of a more influential husband would often choose men of lesser station to fill this role. While her lover's family would not be able to provide the appropriate gifts for a formal marriage arrangement, both families would, nonetheless, understand the pair to be married. The man could be expected to gain in both prestige and future status through the alliance, if he served his role honorably. Thor had known of young warriors from poor families who contented themselves with such marriages, until their positions were elevated enough for them to marry on their own merit.

Since the man could grant his wife no benefits of social standing or possessions, he was expected to serve as her protector and assist with her properties, at her direction. Most importantly, this chosen man was expected to father an heir, or his position and standing could be challenged.

Thor had thought… well, Jane was no maiden and her former lovers had dwelt in her home, under her patronage, but they had failed to perform their duties by her and she remained childless. He had thought that was why she sent them away. When Jane agreed to allow him to stay in her home, continued to provide for his needs, invited him into her bed, and then openly declared him as consort through her public actions, he thought he understood what she was asking him for.

He willingly assisted Jane with both her estate and her work, and fulfilled all the roles a husband should be expected to fulfill. He found no small amount of anticipation in the thought of fathering a child. He knew Midgardians were not like Asgardians and their cycles of procreation were not bound to a certain season. He rather enjoyed the thought of bypassing so much waiting and having such experiences so soon. The prospect gave him something to look forward to, a purpose to guide him through his otherwise floundering days. He knew his role and where he fit now.

As Jane's consort, he had greater standing and security than before. He was wed to her for the duration of their children's youth and she was beholden to him as his patroness until the time that their children reached maturity. He did not exactly know how long it took Midgardian children to age, but he knew it was laughingly faster than Aesir children. It would be a novelty like none of his age mates had yet experienced. He rather delighted in besting them all at something.

He was surprised when, a few months after their informal marriage, Jane did not show signs of being with child. He watched her and monitored her carefully, but he began to grow worried. What if he could not give her a child? She would be sorely disappointed with him and he would not be able to repay her for all the kindness she had given to him. Even worse, if he proved himself impotent, she may even reject him and replace him with another. Such a rejection would be all the worse for the it to come to the one who once wielded Mjolnir.

When his brother returned his Mjolnir necklace to him, his hopes were renewed. It may not be able to summon a storm to enrich this land around him, but it contained enough power to provide his patroness with an heir.

He carried himself even taller when he instinctively recognized his success. He did not think Jane had yet noticed how her form had already begun to shift and soften. Then again, Darcy had always reminded him that Jane tended to become so caught up in her mind that she forgot she had a physical form at all sometimes. It seemed that in this, she was no different.

He would wait until she noticed so he could see her joy himself. If nothing else, he had proved himself more valuable than her former lovers and this pleased him. Jane would be satisfied and he could look with anticipation to continuing to increase his estimation in her eyes and prove himself of greater worth than he had been at first.  In the meantime, he knew this was why his mother had sent the twin pair of ceremonial daggers. One was to be carried by Thor, the other by his wife, as a symbol of his role as protector and guardian of their house and family. Even if he was only a consort to the House of Foster, he would retain the dignity of giving his wife a ceremonial dagger encrusted with the symbols of the House of Thor. Any who came across her would know that she, and her offspring, were under his protection and he would defend their honor, in case need arose.

When he knew her to be with child, he finally felt confident enough to give her the dagger.   She had seemed surprised.  He wondered that Midgardians did not have such a custom of their own or if her surprise was merely due to not expecting him to have access to such a finely crafted dagger.

"A knife?" she asked.

"It is more than a knife. It is… uh… for your protection. Promise me, you will wear it always?" he pleaded.

"Ok. I'll, uh, try," she said. "I don't know much about weapons, though."

"Then wear it as a bangle, until you have need of a weapon. It will grant you strength and health as well as protection."

He showed her how with the press of one of the red gemstones, it retracted into a thick bracelet, studded with engravings of little hammers and glistening rubies. It still hummed with power, though he could not feel it as well as he once would have been able to. He knew the magic was strong, for his mother had enchanted it herself, and none in the Nine Realms would be able to grant their wife such a dagger.  

He may not be able to return to Asgard or lift Mjolnir, but at least, for a moment, he felt himself worthy.

Chapter Text

There were no stars that night and still Jane sat on the rooftop. She stared upward, as if it were the stars she sought when in reality her eyes grasped for answers they could not find in the sky. The flames of her fire flickered down to near embers, but still she sat. She pulled her sleeping bag tighter around her and pretended she did not need to stoke the dying flames.

She was interrupted from her musings by the sound of light feet on the ladder. A familiar pony tail and set of dark-rimmed glasses peeked over the edge of the roof and held a white disposable cup in one hand. Carefully, she climbed the rest of the way over the ledge and collapsed in the chair next to Jane. She gave a huff and frowned at the cloud her breath made around her face.

"It's freezing up here, woman. What's the point of a firepit without fire?"

Darcy stood and added a few more split logs onto the simmering orange and smiled in satisfaction when the hungry flames eagerly lapped them up.

Jane didn't even turn her gaze from the clouds. "I don't want to hear it," she said, in place of greeting.

Darcy snorted. "Hi to you, too. What don't you want to hear?"

"Your 'I told you so.'"

"Good. Cause I wasn't gonna say it. I brought you coffee. It's the good stuff."

This got Jane's attention and she turned to the cup in Darcy's hands. She eagerly took it in her hands as the peace offering it was, despite her growing skepticism. "You drove two hours to bring me coffee?"

"It's decaf."

"Ugh," Jane groaned. She drank it anyway. "Did Thor call you?"

"No. Isabella did... and then Louis. I guess they have an undeified Norse god on their hands who is making his own little thunderstorm of tears behind the restaurant. They called for backup."

"Yeah. That could have gone better. I kinda over reacted."

Darcy shrugged. "To be fair, finding out your alien 'friends with benefits' thinks you are his 'wife' is enough for a decent blow out. Finding out you are his baby mama is on a whole nother level."

"It shouldn't be possible. It never was possible. I don't even know what to think."

"Hey, you wouldn't be the first woman to get surprised. These things happen, even with protection."

"No, Darcy. They don't. Not to me. The doctors always told me I couldn't. I had a congenital abnormality. They said it was basically physically impossible for me to get pregnant. Ever. And I was good with that. You know how I am. I thought it was better than way. Then I could spend all my energy on my research and not have to think about anyone else. I made sure all the men I dated were good with that, too. It's just, now what do I do? This wasn't in my plan. Ever."

"And having an alien fall from the sky in front of your van was?"

"You have a point. That was also a surprise, but a different kind."

"Yeah. I guess this one is a bit more terrestrial… and not as helpful to your research."

Jane sighed. "That's one way to put it. What am I gonna do?"

"Oh, no, Boss Lady. I know when to keep my nose in coffee and out of y'all's business. I'm just here for moral support...for both of you."

"Are you going to see Thor?"

"Just came from there… hence your reheated coffee."

"Is he…?"

"Like a kicked puppy who is wandering lost around Puente Antiguo? Yeah. I explained how things work here the best I could. Louis helped. So did Isabella. I think Louis is gonna take Thor home with him for a few days. You know, till you both can figure yourselves out."

Jane felt guilt at the rush of relief she felt at that, but she couldn't help it. It was too much to take in and she didn't think she'd be able to think straight with Thor's bright blue eyes watching her every movement.

"I'm a terrible person," Jane said. She hung her head in her hands and failed to look over at Darcy. From Darcy's answering silence, she knew her friend was listening. "We only fought because he told me he wasn't going to take the SHIELD job. I was so caught up thinking how perfect the job would be for me that I never once thought about it from his side of things. Do you know why he didn't take it?"

"Because they are heartless suits who stole all your research?"

"See, even you get it more than I do. Not exactly. Because they suspect he's not from Earth and they want to keep an eye on him and run tests on him… possibly worse. I didn't even think of that, yet, isn't that basically what I've been doing with him, too? Using him for my own research and not thinking about him as a…what do we call him? A person?"

"Well, if he's human now, I think it's safe to call him a person."

"Yeah, well, despite how much I distrust SHIELD and how much they've set me back with my research, still, I wanted him to work for them so I could wash my hands of him for awhile without feeling guilty. That was terrible."

Darcy didn't answer, which Jane felt was answer enough. She finished up her coffee and threw the cup into the fire at her feet and watched as it sizzled and burned. "I've never been good at 'people stuff.' Science is easy. It's more black and white and easier to test and understand. There are laws that can be discovered and predicted. People, well, they are hard. They don't do what I expect and I don't always understand them. I don't even understand myself. But I can't always solve everything with a spectroscope and astro comb."

"Not even aliens… or demigods. You sure you don't have a baby snake in there?"

Jane snorted. "That would be more interesting. No. Thor's human now, or 'mortal' as he puts it. He assured me that everything would be entirely 'Midgardian.'"

"No Sigurds or Percy Jacksons? That's too bad. I'd like to see a baby thunderstorm."

At that Jane managed to chuckle and she realized that Darcy had managed to cheer her up in a way that only Darcy's personal brand of magic could muster. She stretched out and yawned. Then she stood.

"Well, I think I need to sleep. I'm exhausted. Are you staying the night?"

"Of course. I'm staying the weekend, actually."

"I'm glad. Thanks. For more than the coffee."

"You got it, Boss Lady," Darcy said and threw her arms around Jane in a quick hug.

Oooooo

Cabinets opened and slammed shut. Plates clattered and the microwave hummed. Thor could hear Louis humming to himself and open up a can of soda.

"Hey, man, you ok out there? It's cold," Louis called through the sliding door.

"I am well. The cold does not bother me," Thor answered. He lied. The cold, this minimal amount of it, should not bother him. It never had before. Now, he felt his skin prickle beneath his hands and he felt all the more determined to deny that he could feel it. If he pretended, then perhaps he could ignore how very weak he felt.

"Fine, fine. I'mma head out soon. See you ina few."

"May your journey be bountiful and your quest courageous."

Louis chuckled heartily and shut the door again.

Louis spent the better part of each week driving his trucking route. This left the small apartment inhabited only by Thor. It was quiet. Too quiet. When Louis returned, the apartment was filled with Louis' friends and family members again and Thor felt more at ease. When Louis left, well, then Thor was forced to face the emptiness again and it grew harder each time.

He still wore his vest and hardhat. True to his word, Louis connected him to a cousin who needed strong backs and arms to work at a construction site. They paid cash and asked no questions. It was hard work, but it was work and it made him tired enough to sleep. Even still, the nights seemed too long and he wished he didn't wake quite as often as he did.

Over and over again, his mind replayed that final conversation with Jane.

"Perfect," Jane had said. "You've got no job. You have no money. You don't even know how long you are staying. Then you decided to 'give me' a kid. Then what? Did you just plan on leaving me with your kid, once your dad calls you home? Did you even stop to consider the future or think of anyone but yourself?"

"How dare you speak of me so, mortal!" he cried back, fire in his eyes.

"You are as mortal as I am, now," she shot back.

He stormed out of the house. No thunder shook the sky, no storm clouds brewed on the horizon, the door did not break from the strength of his hand upon it.

That night, Thor gazed up at the night sky, as close to Mjolnir as he could get, and he cried out to Heimdall once more. He told the Gatekeeper all his troubles and sorrows. He pleaded to return home. He begged for his banishment to end. Then he chided himself, his heart falling further within him.

The worst of it was that he knew Jane was right.

What Thor heard, in between the lines of all Jane said, was another reiteration of what his father had told him upon his banishment.  He had marched right into Jotunheim to defend his slighted pride and broke a centuries old truce without once pausing to consider the consequences. How was this any different? Had he ever stopped long enough to wonder if Jane saw things the same as he? He had assumed she thought as an Aesir, despite ample evidence she was anything but Aesir. Did he truly seek to benefit Jane or only appease his wounded pride and prove his worth to himself? Still, the effect was only to prove the opposite- just as it had been on Jotunheim.

Unworthy. You are unworthy.

Perhaps they both were right. He was unworthy.

He made messes and left others to clean up after him. Now, in his banishment, his mother could not kiss away his errors. His brother was not here to fix what he broke or broker peace in his conflicts. His father was not here to speak truth into his blunders. His faithful companions were not with him to speak encouragement and unflinching loyalty despite how many times he erred and led them wrong.

He was alone.

Well, not entirely alone. He still had Jane, though he felt how much on the precipice even that relationship was now.

He had made nearly no effort to form other Midgardian relationships. He had not once tried to settle in or take on the daily life of a Midgardian. Jane was right. He spent all his time waiting to be rescued and avoiding the reality he found himself in. He lived as an Aesir- a stranger, a visitor, a tourist and not as someone building a home and a life. He had remained in denial about the fact that he could be here a very, very long time. A year? A decade? A century? How long would the All-Father leave him here? How long before he could be considered worthy?

If he did not change, how could he be considered worthy-by Odin or by Jane? He had done nothing. He needed to change. He needed to become worthy.

The lights of Santa Fe drowned out the stars and the nearly tangible quiet of Puente Antiguo was swallowed up in the relentless hum of mortal noise in the city around them. Thor still sat on the third floor balcony, his eyes watching the horizon, as if he were seeking the stars instead of simply losing himself in the urban mirage.

He heard the front door slam. He was surprised by the flash of light and the sound of a chair grating against the cement floor.

"I never thought I would see the day that Thor Odinson was refused by a woman," came a smug voice beside him. "Tell me where this woman of yours is. I am half in love with her already."

"What do you want, Loki?"

"To gloat, of course, and make you feel more miserable than you already do."

"Go away," Thor said, not in the mood for Loki's delight at his misfortune.

Thor felt gutted like a fish prepared for frying. Never had he faced such a rejection before. If he had given Jane a rainstorm and she had complained, he could have simply given her the sun instead. If she had protested his muscles as too bulky or his grip as too firm, he could have accepted it and mitigated his strength. But this was not the power to wield storm or strength. Clouds were summoned from the heavens. His strength came from his physical form. This was a piece of his very self. It was his very heart, his soul, his own being that he had imparted along with his lingering magic.

And it was all he had to give.

And it hadn't been enough.

His first and only time summoning his innate power to hallow a womb for his own seed and his recipient was displeased. More than that. She was furious.

Thor had not even considered that an option. He had assumed, well, he had made many assumptions. All had been proved faulty. Worse than that, Jane had sent him away. He was at a complete loss at what to do. Jane said she needed time and space and so he stayed away.

That space and the precipice they were on made him realize he had not merely been filling a role in Jane's life. He had come to care for her. Deeply so. Perhaps he should have realized it sooner. Perhaps he should not have assumed she felt the same way or that he would not have to court her for himself. He had been too lax. He had presumed she would fall for him because he was him and he had never struggled for the affections of a lady before. So many failed assumptions and Thor found himself, once again, swallowing his flawed pride.

Louis let him sleep on a couch in his living room and gave him further instruction into the ways of Midgard-mostly by teaching him the rules to American football and teaching him how to order a pizza. For six weeks, Louis had allowed him to stay, but Thor knew he could not remain there forever. He had no idea what to do next.

The image of Loki in full Asgardian regalia made Thor suddenly so homesick that he had to look away. His own pair of ill-fitting jeans now were covered in paint and grease and had a hole torn into one knee. He could even sense how his physical body was shifting and changing beneath. He could not even keep up with how much his world had changed.

He could feel his brother analyzing his appearance and he felt his cheeks burn at the thought of further disdain.

"Go ahead and gloat. If you would rejoice in my low conditions, at least one of us can benefit from my debasement."

Loki chuckled. "I like that. You truly are despondent today."

"Isn't that why you came?"

"Of course. Mother sent me. She thought I could cheer you up."

Thor snorted. "Ah, yes. Rubbing salt into my wounds will lighten my heart."

Loki grinned and gave a mock bow towards his brother. "I am nothing if not the essence of compassion and and sympathy."

Thor leaned farther back in his chair. At one point in time, his change in posture would have been enough to destroy the flimsy piece of Midgardian craftsmanship. Now he doubted he could even tear it asunder with his hands if he tried.

"Loki, you were right."

"I usually am. About what this time?'

"How many times did you rebuke me for my arrogance and my blindness to the realities around me? Do you remember the argument on Vanaheim? You said I believed I was a star and all around me were planets, forced to bend to my gravity, while I remained oblivious to their existence other than their orbit around myself."

Loki's smile faltered slightly, though he quickly replaced it. "I remember."

"I was born to fill a role. I was born a prince of Asgard. My acceptance, my ease, the respect granted to me from others is a byproduct of that role. It is not mine alone. When stripped of my title and position, what am I? Father was right. I am unworthy. Yet, how long have I believed myself superior to all? You have borne the brunt of my arrogance, and for that I apologize. I too often compared us and delighted to find you lacking, simply because you did not possess the same gifts as myself. Finding myself without the gifts I once thought to be innately mine, I find I am heartily ashamed of myself."

Loki inhaled deeply and sat back into his chair. His eyes were unreadable, but his lips twitched in the slightest hint of a frown. They sat in silence for some time before Loki sat forward again, his hands clasped in his lap.

"Did I tell you that your loyal companions sought to join you in your banishment?"

"Sif and the Warriors Three?"

"Yes. They begged most heartily for your return. I dared not defy the All-Father by summoning you back and Father was no more willing. He asked if they wished to defy his orders as well and when Sif volunteered herself to join you in your defiance and banishment, Odin refused. 'Your loyalty is first to Asgard, not to Thor,' he told her and he sent her to the training ground to remember her oaths.'"

Thor chuckled. "The Lady Sif would be a formidable companion on this realm. I do not believe she would revel in mortality."

"Even so, does it follow that the thought of it is without a certain charm?" Loki said, his grin turning predatory. "Imagine the Lady Sif wandering the urban byways of Midgard in full armor and sword, the loyal protector at your side."

"I would prefer if it were you at my side," Thor said, honestly.

Loki shuddered and shook his head. "Now you jest! I would not willingly banish myself to Midgard for anything, not even misplaced loyalty to you. I admit, you now know the full limits of my brotherly devotion, but there it is."

"And Father dare not have both his heirs mortal and on Midgard."

Loki considered this for a moment before he pursed his lips. "True, but it does not keep him from sending one of his heirs to Jotunheim while the other remains on Midgard."

"Jotunheim? Truly?" Thor asked, his interest piqued. "For what reason?"

"I suppose, if we are both bent on such shows of sentimentality, that I have my own confession to make. It was I who allowed the Frost Giants in to the Weapon's Vault to interrupt your coronation. Father has decided that my penance will be to spend some months on Jotunheim tallying damages for recompense and brokering a renewed treaty."

Thor sat frozen in shock for some time. So long that Loki began to shift in his seat, but he did not look away from his brother. Loki carefully watched his expression, like a cat stalking a mouse, waiting to see if he should pounce or hide. Thor's initial burst of fury and betrayal melted away into resignation and he closed his eyes.

"My own brother prefers our enemies in our sacred vaults over my place on the throne. I have truly never known myself until now."

"For what it's worth, I probably should have handled my doubts in a less destructive way," Loki said. "Father has more than chastised me and shown me the many, many errors of judgement I made."

"Your means may have been dubious, but your judgement of my worth was not. I was no more ready to take the throne than I was to inhabit mortality."

"Yes, well, I cannot say I was any more prepared for either eventuality than you were."

Thor opened his eyes and took the hard, plastic hat from his head. He flipped it in just the same way he was used to with his own winged helmet. The gesture felt familiar, comforting, even if the helmet itself was so foreign to him. He placed the hat on the nearby table and leaned forward in his chair, his elbows on his knees.

"Jotunheim? Well, I cannot say that is a preferable fate to my own."

"Well, at least I am not forced to take the native form of its inhabitants, unlike yourself."

Thor laughed. "You as a Jotun would be a sight I would pay a king's ransom to see."

"And a sight I would pay a king's ransom to make sure you never, ever saw! I will endeavor to avoid inciting the All-Father's wrath lest that be my fate! Now, if you are quite done moping and feeling sorry for yourself, mother would like to speak with you."

"I would be right glad to speak with her," Thor said.

"She thought you might."

oooooooo

It poured cats and dogs the day Jane left Puente Antiguo. All she owned in the world was packed up into cardboard boxes and crates and she looked around the space she had grown so very fond of in a wave of sadness. So many dreams and so many victories had filled this space. She wished that it had been sunny. She wanted to climb onto the roof one last time, but she not in the rain. Besides, she wouldn't be able to see much beside mile after mile of dreary, overcast sky and drenched, sodden desert.

Darcy came from the trailer, her hands full of precariously balanced boxes and she placed these on a counter. She rubbed some strands of hair out of her eyes and grinned.

"Well, that's about it," she said. "Let's hope this rain lets up or we won't be able to load up the truck."

Jane sighed. There wasn't much they could do but wait. She stretched and yawned but the movement felt awkward and bulky now. Overnight, it seemed, she could no longer force her jean buttons to meet over her expanding middle. She had been forced to exchange her jeans for some more stretchy sweats. Still, there was no hiding it anymore, even if she tried.

She yawned again and glanced out the door… and found a tall, bedraggled figure watching her from the window. The rain drenched his golden hair and his hands were jammed tight into his jean pockets. When she saw him there, she froze. They both watched each other for a few moments before she gave a hesitant wave. He took that as the invitation it was and came into the lab. Puddles dripped off him and onto the floor and he struggled to pull off his jacket. She didn't even protest when he dropped it unceremoniously on the floor.

"Hey," she said.

"Lady Jane," he said. He moved to kiss her hand but did not release it after. He simply searched her face with his eyes, asking a thousand questions without voicing a single one.

"Did Darcy call you?" she asked, casting an accusatory glare at the woman behind her. Darcy's guilty grin was both unashamed and defiant.

"We needed muscles and he has muscles to spare. You didn't think I was gonna let you carry those machines in your condition? And there's no way in hell I was gonna manage those by myself."

"It is an honor to assist you, in any way I can, Lady Jane."

Jane felt the weight of his eyes on her as heavily as if they were made of concrete and she flushed. After their argument, he had done exactly what she asked him to. He had left. He had found himself a place to stay and a job. He had not sought her out or asked her to make any decisions about them. Even more surprising, Louis began to stop by each week with an envelope filled with cash for her.

"Thor asked me to give this to you, Miss Jane," Louis said, rather bashfully. "He, uh, said, 'Tell her this is in gratitude for all she has done for me.'"

"Hey, Thor," Darcy said, swooping in for a hug. He released Jane's hand to lift Darcy from the ground and swing her around. His face finally broke into that wide, brilliant smile that Jane only then realized she had missed.

"Lady Darcy, you fare well, I can see."

He placed her back onto the ground and a thick, awkward silence fell onto the trio.

Darcy swallowed loudly and pushed her glasses farther onto her nose. "Uh, yeah, so, it's raining still. I think I'll just, uh, check the trailer again. You know, just in case we missed anything."

Jane knew she hadn't missed anything. She rolled her eyes, but did not protest. She knew she needed to talk to Thor. It was time.

"So, uh, it's good to see you again," she began. She chewed on the corner of her cheek and felt herself search for the pockets that her sweatpants didn't have. She gave up and intertwined her fingers behind her back. She felt his eyes settle on the now-unavoidable swell beneath her t-shirt and she felt her self-consciousness grow.

"You look well, Jane," he said, so earnestly that she had to look away. He did not feel a similar compulsion and openly drank her in. He took a step closer before catching himself. He leaned back against a table, rather than approaching closer.

"Thanks," she said. "I, uh, thanks for coming. Really…"

"Of course."

"I… I missed you," she said. And she had. She really had. "It's time we finally talk. Really talk."

Chapter Text

Jane brewed decaf coffee for both of them and set the steaming mugs on the table in front of each of their seats.  Thor was still soaked through, but he didn’t seem to mind.  His hair clung to his forehead and he watched her as warily as if she were a shaking rattlesnake near his ankle.  She supposed she didn’t blame him.  She spun her mug in a circle between her hands and let the warmth flood through her.  Hadn’t she practiced this conversation a hundred times?  Yet, she had already forgotten everything she was supposed to say. 

For nearly two decades, she had known exactly what she wanted to do with her life.  Her path had been clearer than the night sky over the New Mexico desert and she had forced her way forward, as obstinately as a plow through hard soil.  It had all changed that night when the heavens opened up before her very eyes and what should have been the fulfillment of her chosen path now appeared as its diversion. 

Jane looked across her lab to her bulletin board.  She didn’t know how many times she had lost herself there, staring at a card Erik had once sent her.  There, amidst calendars and schedules and star maps, the hand-written note proudly proclaimed his affection for her.  He had sent it to her when she finished her undergrad and she carried it with her always.  She’d never forget the feel of his kiss on her cheek or the warmth of his voice when he praised her accomplishment… and all the little victories that followed.  She knew he would cross the country in a moment just to be with her if she called and she appreciated that more than she could say.  

Years after her father died, after Erik took her in, she found out he had been offered a lucrative research position in Hong Kong.  It was everything he could have hoped for and all he had ever worked for.  He refused. He had never told her about it, not once.  When she heard about it through a mutual acquaintance, she confronted him about it.  He shrugged and ran a hand through her hair. 

“They offered me that position the month your father died.  Some things are more important.”

So, he stayed where he was-where they were.  He kept the lower paying, less ground-breaking position at the university.  He cut back on his hours and extra research projects and he took on a grieving, turbulent teenager as his own.    

“Did you ever regret it?” she asked him.

“Not once,” he answered. 

She wasn’t great at remembering to call regularly and she was even worse at remembering to ask personal questions instead of just research questions.  However, she never missed his birthday and she always spent Christmas with him.  Always. 

“Because we are family,” he used to say.  Even when it meant he had to cross an ocean or a continent to be with her, or postpone a conference or a consulting opportunity to do it, he was always there.

She hung up that card on her bulletin board no matter how many times she moved or changed schools or apartments.  She might go months without noticing it, but the past few days she had hardly been able to see anything else. 

Her hand drifted to her middle and she absentmindedly rubbed at the sore skin around her little bulge. 

“I’m going to stay… in New Mexico, I mean,” she said, breaking the silence between them.  “I can stay in my trailer for awhile, you know, while I look for a job nearby.”

Thor carefully gaged her expression before he nodded. 

“I, uh, I know it’s not a lot of space, but do you want to come?  I mean, do you want to stay with me?  I won’t exactly be doing research and most of my time will be spent looking for jobs but, well, we are kinda gonna have a kid soon so I thought… maybe…”

Thor’s face broke into a brilliant, glowing smile and he leaned forward to take both her hands in his. 

“Truly?”

She nodded.

“I would be most honored to continue by your side, Lady Jane.”

Jane snorted and rolled her eyes.  “You say that now.  If I can’t find a job soon, then that trailer’s gonna get real small real quick and you might think differently.”

“I have my own place of employment and it is time I contribute to our sustenance.  Whether our child is born to the House of Jane or the House of Thor, it is of no consequence.  The child will be held in high esteem.”

“Thor, I don’t know how we are gonna manage. Have you thought this through at all?” she asked, finally voicing some of the many worries which had clung to her mind like honey to a spoon.

“Oh, you are worrying over naught, Lady Jane,” Thor boomed good-naturedly.  “Children are a sign of favor from the gods and a show of a man’s strength.  They connect us to our ancestors and ensure our names will be remembered after out deaths!  They will ensure our care when we are aged and elderly and they can assist in all the tasks of running our household.”

Jane gave an incredulous laugh. 

“Who is gonna take care of the baby when I am working?  I can’t do research and raise a child.”

“Why, a nursemaid of course! We had several very gifted ones when I was young and they performed admirably when our mother had official duties to attend to. I would not expect you to raise our child alone.”

“Nursemaid?  Thor, you were a prince!  Of course, you had a nursemaid!  Newsflash, you are no longer a prince. Not here.  Not now.  How you gonna pay a nursemaid here?”

“Oh, it cannot be so troublesome. All shall be well.  Perhaps I can even assist with some of the less feminine tasks involved in child-rearing.”

“Oh, you ‘can assist’?  You better do a hell of a lot more than ‘assist’ and you had better be ready to do all the feminine tasks as well as me or we can’t do this.  I can’t do this.  Thor, I can’t.  I just can’t.”

“Where are your female relatives?” Thor asked.  “Is it not customary for them to come to your aid at such a joyous occasion?” 

“I don’t have any.”

“Of course, you must!”

“Thor, my parents are dead.  They were both only children.  I have no aunts or uncles.  Their parents, also, are dead.  I am an only child.  It’s only me.  I have no relatives at all.  Erik is the closest thing I have to family… and he’s never had kids of his own except me.  I am sure he’ll love to play grandpa, but he lives halfway across the country.  Your family lives in another galaxy.  Don’t you see?  This is why I am panicking.  We will be doing this completely alone.”

“No, Jane, not alone,” he said.  He stood to come around the table so he could wrap his arms around her and place a kiss on her cheek.  “Neither of us will be alone.”

Jane parked her trailer in a long-term RV park in Santa Fe which allowed her to pay for her space month-to-month.  It was better than nothing and it gave them time – something which they had far too little of. 

“In five months’ time?  I knew that the Midgardian reproductive cycle was rapid, but I never dreamed it would be so fast? Truly?  Less than one cycle around your sun is all it takes to grow a new mortal?”

“Thor, if you call your child a ‘mortal’ again, then you are going to be sleeping on the roof… and yes.  That is ‘all’ it takes.  Those are questions to ask before you knock up your alien lover.  Nine months in total, but we are almost halfway through,” she explained.

He nodded, quite pleased with this.  “That’s quicker than an Asgardian rabbit.”

“Thor…” she said in warning.

“I have never been known for my patience.  That suits me quite well.  Seven years is far too long to wait.”

“Seven years?” Jane asked.

“Yes.  Asgardian pregnancies last seven years.”

Jane’s eyes grew wide.  “Seven years of this?  How do they manage?”

“Oh, it is not so difficult.  Aesir women are strong and during the season of childbearing, they are not expecting to take any tasks upon themselves once they are known to be with child.  The women who are not partaking in the Harvest Season will tend to all their needs.”

“I wouldn’t mind that part.”

“In absence of the traditional care-takers, I will endeavor to fulfill the role that is expected of your female relatives,” Thor said, as if he had just decided something very important.  In the weeks that followed, he took it upon himself to do all the cooking and cleaning.  They didn’t have much space to clean, but Jane did not complain about his zeal or his diligence – especially as it meant she didn’t have to try to bend over to clean the floor.  Just tying her shoes became more and more of a challenge, especially as it became clear that they were not expecting a child but children.

“TWINS?!?” Jane had shouted, when the doctor pointed at the ultrasound that clearly displayed two distinct heads within her.  “You have got to be kidding me!”

“I’m not.  Twin girls, by the looks of it.”

The trailer was tight accommodations for one person, but for two it was positively claustrophobic.  Trying to fit Jane, a very tall and broad ex-deity, and a rapidly developing set of twins into that tiny bed proved nearly impossible.  Jane considered kicking Thor onto the floor more than once, but her frequent trips to the bathroom each night made her reconsider. 

Thor spent most of his days at the construction site and Jane haunted the local library and coffee shop so she could send out as many job applications as she could.  It was easier to work in venues with more space, but at night, they took turns cooking at the microscopic kitchen and whoever was not cooking was relegated either to the bed or to a lawn chair outside the trailer.  Thor enjoyed that the most as it gave him the chance to converse with their many, many neighbors.  He did not seem to mind if they were entirely intoxicated or sober, off their rocker or sane, he gave them each the same cheery grin and immediately fell into easy conversation, as if each were just as worthy of his time and attention as the others.  He drew them all in and it was not long before circles of neighbors frequented their space and laughter could be heard throughout the trailer. 

They taught him to play cornhole and horseshoes and it was not long before he began to teach them some Asgardian games that were similar, but involved knives.  Soon, a steady trickle of his work colleagues also materialized outside their trailer – each bearing a pizza or deck of cards or an invitation to watch a game.  Jane was in awe at how easily he gathered people around him. 

Thor never once complained about the tight quarters or their greatly reduced budget.  Now that they were entirely dependent on his salary, he was forced to recognize just how far (or not far) it went and he cut back on some of his expenditures himself.  He picked up as many extra shifts as he could and brought his envelopes of cash home to Jane each week with a proud grin on his face – as if he was presenting her with the crown jewels and not a couple hundred dollars in cash to pay for groceries.

Still, it wouldn’t be enough for an apartment.  It was barely minimum wage and they had nothing.  No furniture, no deposit, nothing to prepare them for two babies. 

For so many years, Jane had fought tooth and nail to get ahead in academia.  She had studied and researched.  She had argued and debated and fought to be recognized for her intelligence and merit.  She fought to be seen for something other than the package she came wrapped in, as more than the body she inhabited, but so often, her colleagues could not see past her feminine exterior.  She struggled to gain their respect and to be seen as an equal… and by some she finally succeeded, but it had not been easy.  In a predominately male field surrounded by male colleagues, she had always been an outlier.   

Now as what it meant to be a woman came and hit her in the head like a brick, she had to negotiate so many layers of her identity.  Without her research, without her position, what gave her value? 

She came home frustrated, again and again, after job interviews gave little to no fruit. 

“I’m either over-qualified or don’t have the right kind of experience,” she complained.  “Or they don’t have anything available till the fall semester.  We gotta have something before then.”

She didn’t think it was a coincidence that the adjunct summer classes she was hired on to teach came from interviews before she was quite so obviously pregnant.  The more she grew, well, the more she felt potential employers stared at her belly more than her face and calculated all the ways she would be more of a liability than an asset. 

“I’ve spent so much of my life fighting against myself and trying to prove that I am more than my physical form.  Is my body all that matters and all that defines me?” she said, her frustrating boiling over after another lackluster interview. 

“I do know something of what that is like,” Thor told her.  He glanced down at his arm and he flexed his fist.  “I’ve been asking myself those same questions of late.  I suppose I found too much of my identity in my strength and now I must ask who I am, apart from my physical form.”

“I guess you do understand.  A bit.”

“Does Jane Foster have something to give the world that is not dependent on her research and is found apart from the stars?  You are more than your mind, Jane,” he said. 

She sighed and moved to sit beside him on the bed.  He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and laid his head against hers.  For a few moments, all that could be heard was the boiling water in the pot on the stove and Mrs. Gardener’s T.V. at the next spot over.  Then Thor chuckled.  “You know, in some ways you remind me so much of my brother.”

“How so?”

“He has never quite Aesir ideals for a warrior or a prince.  He wields daggers rather than swords, magic rather than strength.  He is a formidable opponent and has a mind as clever as yours, but he simply is not what anyone expects.  This has always bothered him, though I have not always been as sympathetic to his struggles as I ought.”

“Have you heard from him again?” Jane asked. 

Thor’s face fell. “He is fulfilling the duties of two princes rather than one.  I do not expect to see him often.  Mother has been able to send me short messages, but they cannot be more than a sentence or two in length at a time. Still, I am glad when I can hear from her.”

“I wish you could see them more.”

“As do I.”

“I think it was that chicken.  I don’t think Mark cooked it all the way through,” Jane said.  Jane held the trash can to his chest so he could vomit into it again.  She cooed something he could not fully hear through his heaves but the concern on her face was plain enough to read.  She pressed a cool cloth to his forehead and brought him some water, once he was finished emptying his stomach.  He fell back onto his pillow, more exhausted than he could ever remember himself being.  He closed his eyes. 

“Jane.  I must go to work. If I don’t, we will not have the funds to purchase our provisions for this next week.”

“You are not going anywhere,” she said sternly.  “You are staying in bed.  You can’t possibly shovel cement with food poisoning.”

“But…”

“No.  Do not argue with me, Thor son of Odin.  We will eat beans and rice until my summer class starts and I get my first paycheck.”

“You hate beans and rice.”

She shrugged and ran her hand over his forehead again.  “I’d rather eat beans and rice than send you to work like this.  I told you.  This is way worse than the flu.”

It hurt to laugh, but he did anyway.  “You are right,” he gasped.  “This is worse than any sickness I have ever experienced.  It is worse, even, then the time I was stabbed through the stomach.”

“You are not serious.”

“While that was painful, a healing stone curried it within moments and my pain was then a distant memory.  This…well, there are no immediate cures and this lasts far longer.”

“Sorry.  No healing stones for food poisoning.  Tylenol isn’t even gonna help.  You just gotta stick it out and keep close to the trash can.”

She rubbed the damp cloth over his forehead again and he caught it before she could take it away.  He opened his eyes so he could see her.   There she sat beside him, her hair a loose and unexceptional bun behind her head.  Her eyes were shadowed from lack of sleep and her apparel was both simple and unadorned and stained with sauce from dinner.  She wore no makeup.  No finery.  Yet, in that moment, he thought he had never seen a more beautiful sight. 

He realized, then, that he was completely and utterly in love with her

While he never doubted that his mother loved his father, she was a queen.  Never would a queen be expected to clean the expulsions of a sick family member. They had servants and healers for such low tasks.  Never would a queen cook or clean a meal.  A queen would never be reduced to such small and menial lodgings or be seen in such an unadorned state.  As heir of the Nine, Thor’s future wife would also be treated as a queen and he would never see her stripped of all station or etiquette.  Never would he see his future queen as raw and exposed as Jane was now.    

“It is not me that you are drawn to.  It is because of our circumstances.  Would you have chosen me if I had not fallen from another realm?” he had cried out to her once, during an earlier argument. 

“I could ask you the same question.  If you had met me in Asgard, would you have chosen me? If you were not stranded on a foreign planet, would you have even noticed me?”

They each eyed the other, both knowing the truth the other spoke neither wishing to speak it out loud. 

She had been right, of course.  Surrounded by the gilded and jewel-encrusted beauties of Asgard, he would not have paid Jane a second glance.  Yet, he could not imagine one of his past conquests staying to wash his face during such an illness.  Never would they have stayed with him as he was now – mortal, unexceptional, and with nothing to offer but the life of a common laborer. 

Yet, to look into those honey brown eyes, knowing Jane willingly stayed with him, despite how little he had to offer her – it was a loyalty and an expression of love beyond what he had ever before imagined. 

He remembered how his father had once scoured all Alfheim for an exceptionally large gemstone – the largest the Nine Realms could provide of the rare type of violet opal.  Then, he painstakingly designed a setting for it and hired the finest craftsmen in Nidavellir to forge it.  His face beamed with pride when he presented it to Frigga on the thousand-year anniversary of their marriage. Thor knew is parents were deeply devoted to each other, yet never would their expressions of devotion be spoken like this.  It was a language entirely new and all the sweeter for how rare and exceptional it was to him. 

In that light, he realized that, similarly, each day he had cleaned their bathing facilities or scrubbed the floor, he was also communicating his loyalty in a way that he would never be able to show his future queen.  To work late at the building site, come home sweat-covered and sore, and bring his earnings to share between them was a means of showing his devotion.  When he took a smaller portion of food than he might otherwise have indulged in to ensure Jane would have enough, if was an experience that the king of Asgard would never have to emulate.  It was as if he was learning to speak a new language,

In the days that followed, he only missed two days of work.  It was enough to remove all rich fare from their diet and grant them much more meager meals.  Yet, Jane did not complain once.  She merely began to search for new recipes (for him to cook) and then ate heartily each time. 

It was some weeks later when Thor came home from work to find Jane sitting on the bed, tears streaming down her face.  A towel wrapped around her as far as it would reach, but it could no longer cover all of her anymore. She cradled her exposed belly in her hands, fixing her eyes on the movement beneath, and she cried. 

He knelt beside her and took her hands in his.  “What is this?  What has happened?”

“I can’t turn around in the shower anymore,” she said.  “I literally can’t fit anymore.   I can only shower sideways in that matchbox of a shower and then I have to come out to turn around and leave puddles all over the floor in order to wash the other side.  If my soap falls, I don’t have enough space to bend over to pick it up. 

“Thor, what are we gonna do?  We are gonna have two more human beings to jam into this sardine can and where are we gonna put them?  My teaching job ends in two weeks and I can’t take on another one till after the babies come.  What are we gonna do?  Stick them to sleep on the floor or maybe in the cupboard?”

“I will find other lodgings immediately,” Thor said, as confidently as he could. 

“How?”

“I do not know, but I swear to you, I will find a home for us.”

Thor burst into the trailer three days later with a grin stretching from ear-to-ear. 

“Louis said we can rent out his sister’s garage,” Thor said, as if he had just won a million dollars and solved world hunger. 

Jane was skeptical.  Thor brought her over to the other side of Santa Fe, closer to his work but farther from any place she’d rented in the past.  Granted, it wasn’t exactly the best part of the city, but the neighborhood itself was decent-ish.  A small Spanish-style house sat with a juniper tree in front.  Behind, a garage with guest house on top stared out over the long driveway.  Granted, it wasn’t a huge apartment, but it was still three times the size of Jane’s trailer.  It’s one bedroom (complete with door), a tiny living room, and a kitchen was felt like luxury after their tight quarters the past few months.

The white paint was slightly yellowed and the carpet was well-worn, but it had a balcony with potted cacti on it and the promise of being able to park her trailer down below. 

“Thor, it’s more than half what you make each month,” Jane protested. 

“But did you see its bathing facilities?  You and I could both fit, along with our offspring, and still have room to spare,” he said, as if the existence of a bathtub was the finest invention of the century.  In this case, it just might have been.  “And Marianna is quite knowledgeable about the ways of Midgardian infants.  She has borne four herself and so our young ones will be surrounded by agemates, and you will not be without the wisdom of another mother,” Thor said. 

He wasn’t wrong.  Louis’ sister, Marianna, was a plump, cheery woman with black hair in a bun and hands constantly busy with something, every time Jane saw her.  She welcomed them graciously, though she never did quite finish any of her sentences or finish any of her perpetual tasks.  Her voice could be heard at any time of day or night calling out for one of the four children who constantly wandered the house. 

“Yes, since my cousin moved out, this has just been sitting here,” Mariana said.  “My brother didn’t want to rent it to someone who isn’t family, not after that time with my other cousin’s boyfriend’s neighbor, which, let me tell you, was enough to make this place sit empty for years.  Louis says you are family, though, so we can make it work.”

When they moved into the apartment, they managed a mattress on the floor – a housewarming gift from Erik, a table and chairs- courtesy of Darcy’s mom’s efforts to clean out her garage, and a sofa they found on a curb ready for trash day.  True to Thor’s word, Jane could lay out her sore, tired body completely in the bathtub and no longer fear dropping the soap on the floor.  After her first bath, she dubbed him a genius and the most brilliant man in existence. 

When Marianna came by to check on them, she immediately returned with boxes full of old clothes and toys which her own children had outgrown.  After so many kids, they were not anywhere near in pristine condition, but Jane was grateful.    

“My first baby was a surprise, too,” Marianna said.  “Let me tell you, my mother was furious!  I was still a teenager then and so it was not exactly the best timing. Louis took on an afterschool job so that I could get a few things for the baby and then it took all of my mother, brother, aunts, uncles, and cousins to help me survive that first few years.  I did it though. I graduated high school too, and look at my firstborn.  He’s nearly as tall as me and he’s doing better in school than I ever did.  He’s smart. You two, well, you’ll be just fine.”

Jane was even more grateful when Marianna, and her mother, began sending over platters of food the day they came home from the hospital, arms full of two perfect little pink bundles. 

“I don’t care if Frigga is your mother’s name. You can’t name our babies after her.  They’d never live it down,” Jane said. 

“What of Gna or Snotra?  Those are admirable names.”

“Absolutely not.”

“Ugh!  It’s 2am.  They only slept a half hour,” Jane said, her voice rough with sleep deprivation. 

Thor groaned and tried to cover his head with a pillow.  “Maybe they will go back to sleep.”

Fifteen minutes later, the wailing only grew in intensity. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired in my life,” Jane said.  “Not even pulling two all-nighters in a row was this exhausting.  At least, then I was doing research.  This is not research.”

“What is wrong with them?” Thor cried out.  “Are all mortal infants this demanding?”

Jane quirked her eyebrow and gave a wide yawn.  “Aren’t Aesir infants?”  She wondered if this was one of those ‘Aesir women don’t experience labor pains’ moments… in hindsight, she probably should have forced him to read multiple books on basic human physiology the moment his feet hit the ground on Earth.  How many misunderstandings they might have avoided! 

Thor shook his head.  “No.  Through the All-Speak, we can understand the needs they are trying to communicate and they do not have to wail so inarticulately to have their needs communicated.  How do mortals survive this?  With your frail constitutions so in need of regular sleep, this does not seem a sustainable means of procreation and child-rearing.”

“What, you don’t need as much sleep?”

“I could go for a month without, if necessary.  This, this mortal frame is so very unwieldy.  It will not allow me to go a full day without sleep. Yet, our babes do not seem to understand this.  How am I to work at dawn if this continues?”

“Welcome to parenthood,” Jane said, yawning again.  “You just had to give us twins.  It’s your turn, by the way.  I had the last shift.  Have fun.”

Thor groaned again and unsteadily rose, but the crying did not stop for another hour. 

Jane woke to the scent of bacon and eggs wafting through the house and she stretched.  It was far later than she expected and she did not mind it.  It had been another rough night with both babies teething.  It was her last day of Thanksgiving break and she needed to catch up on grading papers before classes resumed again. 

When she rolled out of bed and opened the bedroom door, she was enveloped in a cacophony of shrieks and giggles.  Thor carried one baby in each arm, making roaring and growling sounds while he barreled around the room. Two heads of golden curls bounced up and down and their bright blue eyes wide and alert.   Turning in a circle and lifting them up and down till suddenly he was drenched with a spray of white liquid and he froze in horrified shock. 

Jane tried to stifle her giggles behind her hand but she devolved into a full laugh when Thor caught her watching. 

At that moment, covered in twin girls and baby vomit, Jane realized she had fallen for him.  Hard. 

It was more than the fact that he had literally traveled the stars.  These days, neither had much energy to even speak of other realms and their conversations tended to be consumed with rent money and who was picking up groceries.  It was more than simply attraction to his physical appearance.  Now, after long days working in the harsh sun, his face was still red and peeling from his last sunburn and his hands were calloused from the rough work.  His chiseled physique had slowly morphed into what could almost be described as a “beer belly” and even his biceps had lost some of their previous girth.  She still considered him strikingly handsome - but he was so much more, well, human than he had once been.  If she had met him as he was now, she doubted they would ever have ended up together.  What did they have in common that could possibly have forced them together? 

Yet, somewhere between those late-night feeds and long days of shared chores, she had fallen head over heels for him.  Not just with the external trappings that had once been so deliciously other… but with him.  The effervescent brightness of him and the way he filled up a room and made it feel like home just by being in it. 

She couldn’t say she regretted anything.  Even if teaching wasn’t what she had always dreamed of doing, she still enjoyed it.  She missed research, sometimes, but more often, she found herself finding enjoyment in the delight and growth of her students.  Perhaps, if she made astrophysics as contagious as the flu, she could see a new generation of scholars not bound by the presuppositions of their forebears and more willing to test the limits of the discipline. 

At the end of the day, when the babies finally slept and she felt like she could fall asleep sitting up, she took a few minutes to sit on the balcony and gaze out over the city-scape.  Most nights, she couldn’t see more than Venus and the Big Dipper through the bright city lights, but it was enough to ground her and remind her of what she loved. 

Thor usually joined her and there they stayed.  Sometimes they made up stories for the constellations – though lately these had all involved stars that resembled spilled milk or soiled diapers- and other times, they simply sat in silence, their hands intertwined. 

“Do you miss it?” he asked her, one night.  “Puente Antiguo, I mean.”

She knew he was referring to more than just her old lab in their former town. 

“Yeah,” she said.  “But not as much as I’d miss this, if I didn’t have it.”

He nodded. 

“Do you?  Miss Asgard, I mean?”

“Yes… though, perhaps, not as much as I once did.  Some days, I wonder, how much more I will have to miss of Midgard, once I am back home.”

Chapter Text

When Loki intruded upon Thor wearing an apron while preparing dinner for the twins, his brother laughed so hard, he nearly lost the spell cloaking him from Heimdall.

"Banishment suits you, brother," Loki said, clasping his stomach and leaning against the nearby counter for support. "How the Prince of Asgard has fallen! Tell me, does that apron have an extra pocket for Mjolnir? Oh, I forgot. You have lost Mjolnir along with what remained of your dignity."

Thor grimaced and stirred the soup again. "Is there a point to your visit other than to mock me?"

Loki wiped the tears from his eyes. "Yes, yes. Mother wished for me to send her official welcome for your offspring."

"Mother has used her magic to both see and speak with our daughters on multiple occasions," Thor said, confused at Loki's meaning. Loki waved him away and withdrew a golden box the size of his palm and engraved with runes.

"No, no, no. Their official welcoming. I admit, I was meant to come in person some time back and found myself busied with too many other matters. Here."

Thor took the proffered box from Loki's hand and opened it. Within, two necklaces inlaid with glowing gemstones blinked back at him. Thor swallowed back a wave of emotion. Such a gift was meant for the official ceremony when the infants were presented to Asgard, formally named as part of the royal family, and presented with symbols of Thor's House. The fine necklaces were fit for royalty, though no title, inheritance, or official position in Asgard waited his twin daughters. Also, as Loki said, the gift came far later than was strictly proper. Instead of bestowed upon them at the time they were first able to grasp a dagger in their small hands, it came when his daughters were able to run on their own and call for parents and were already weaned. It was as much a breach of propriety as it was an adherence to it and he wondered if Loki meant it as such or if it was truly just an oversight.

"Mother wishes she could have given these herself," Loki continued. His voice and actions were nonchalant, but he could not fully meet Thor's eyes.

"I wish that as well."

What Thor failed to say, what Loki did not acknowledge, was that he wished the All-Father would have acknowledged his children and that he could have presented them at court in Asgard rather than keeping them hidden away on Midgard as if they were illegitimate. Or how much Thor wished his mother could have been there in the flesh at their births and at each of their celebrations that followed.

"It has been long, brother," Thor said, rather than voicing his continued disappointment over his social exile. "What has so occupied your time?"

Loki gave a long-suffering groan and rolled his eyes. "Well, there was another rebellion on Vanaheim, then another raid by Fire Giants, then a positively insufferable contingent of Light Elves came for an exceedingly tiring treaty negotiation. Oh, and Father insists I continue rebuilding efforts on Jotunheim, on top of everything else. I believe I tire of your banishment even more than you do, you big oaf. Tell me, where are my nieces? I promised Mother I would not neglect welcoming them each properly."

"They are playing outside with our neighbors. Allow me to call for them." Thor opened up a window and called out for his daughters to come. The neighbor's children carried the pair up the stairs and returned them to their father. Two sets of wide eyes, the exact shade of blue as their father's, looked at their uncle. Blonde curls fell down their backs in ringlets, though they were messed and wild from their play. They wore simple Midgardian trousers and blouses, both covered in dirt and a few straggled splotches of carrots from their last meal. They hid behind their father's legs and peeked out at Loki from behind.

"Rose and Dahlia, meet your Uncle Loki," Thor said.

Loki knelt down to their level and looked them over carefully. "They are so grown! I expected infants! Do not tell me these are your recently born babes! I see I am even more remiss than I thought in my failure to come to you sooner."

"Indeed. Midgardian babes grow faster than Asgardian hares. It has truly been a marvel to watch them grow."

Loki's expression warmed and he beckoned the girls to come to him. He kissed each of their grubby hands in greeting. Then he cast an illusion of a flock of birds flying overhead and chuckled as the girls openly gaped in awe.

"More!" They clapped in unison and Loki willingly obliged.

He entertained them with "pictures" for some time before Thor washed them up and served them their supper. Loki watched it all in fascination. He could not look away from Thor as he fed each child and then changed them into their night clothes.

After putting the twins to sleep in the bedroom, Thor caught Loki's keen eyes sweeping over their lodgings and Thor grinned.

"This is all of it, brother," Thor said and laughed at Loki's expression. "I see you trying to search for additional chambers. I assure you, there are none. Do not pretend you were not wondering. I am familiar enough with your curiosity."

"The royal hounds have larger accommodations than the firstborns of Asgard's heir," Loki said, no longer disguising his dismay.

"Indeed. However, it is much larger than our previous accommodations. The yard is quite large and the weather pleasant enough to allow us to spend much of our time outdoors and our neighbors have grown as close as kin. We have been quite pleased with our arrangement."

Loki looked over the room again and shook his head again.

A set of keys jingled, the door handle turned, and Jane stepped in with an arm full of shopping bags and her laptop computer bag. Her hair was messed from her stop at the gym and she was still in her exercise clothes.

"Hello, my loves," she chirped happily, a wide, beautiful grin on her face. Her grin fell as soon as she noticed Loki. In his emerald cape with gold fastenings, leather tunic, and tall boots, he was a far cry from Thor's t-shirt and torn jeans. Loki gave a dramatic bow and moved to take her hand to place a kiss on it.

"Jane, this is my brother, Prince Loki of Asgard," Thor explained. "He came for an official introduction to our daughters and to bring a gift from our mother."

Jane warily looked Loki over from head-to-toe before she moved to place her bags on the counter. "It's, uh, nice to finally meet you," she said. "I've heard a lot about you."

Loki grinned. "I would be disappointed if you had not. It is a pleasure to finally meet you. The woman who has succeeded where the fairest of the Nine Realms have but tried and failed- both in domesticating the Thunderer and claiming Asgard's 'Golden Prince' as her own."

It was his turn to consider her. His eyes wandered from her messy bun and down to her worn tennis shoes. Then he arched one eyebrow in obvious question to his brother.

Thor's expression was full of warnings, which Loki paid no heed to.

"Truly, Brother?" Loki said. "I eagerly anticipate discovering your many charms, Good Lady, for you are surely not what I expected to meet."

"And what did you expect?" Jane asked, her tone slightly defensive, which Loki could not help but catch. This only made him purr like a cat about to pounce.

"I mean no offense, Lady Jane," Loki said. "It is just... my brother is nothing if not predictable in his choice of maidens... that is, until now. I had assumed, well, that he chose you as patroness due to your extensive wealth. As that is obviously not the case, then I assumed he must have fallen prey to your great beauty and thus accepted such low circumstances as your station provided him. Now I must assume you are a woman of great personal merit to so fell Asgard's greatest warrior. "

"What exactly do you mean by that?" Jane demanded, moving to place one hand on her hip.

"Brother, enough," Thor said with a frown. "Jane, he only means to stir up mischief and raise dissension between us. Pay him no heed."

"Oh, I have no wish to 'stir up mischief' here." By his expression and the way he glanced at Thor, it was obvious he had fully intended, and achieved, his desired result. Thor suspecter his brother found as much delight in the anticipated fall-out that would occur between Thor and Jane that evening when Thor was forced to recount his past conquests as in Jane's ire as she inevitably compared herself to Asgard's inhuman expectations for their prince. Having completed all his objectives, Loki did not linger long after meeting Thor's family. He made his leave with many empty promises to "return swiftly" and "bestow their greetings" to Queen Frigga and then vanished. Quite literally.

"Well, now you are acquainted with my brother," Thor said, breaking the silence that fell over the room. By Jane's open gaping, he was unsure what to expect from her next.

"How did he do that? He was just here and now he is gone... and did he come by Bifrost? How did we not see that?"

"My brother knows how to travel in ways that few others are familiar with. He does not require the Bifrost to make his way between realms."

Jane's eyes opened impossibly wider and by her forlorn expression, he knew she was now wishing she had caught him like a mouse in a trap and kept him in her lab for questioning. "He... there are ways to travel without a Bifrost? How? What makes it work? What sources of power and technology does such travel require?"

Thor laughed and held up both his hands in surrender. "I know not, Lady Jane. My brother's mysteries are his own."

"You...ugh! Seriously, you can't explain any of it?"

"Nay."

Her expression turned calculating and then dark and he knew what was coming next without her even saying another word. "What exactly did your brother mean when he said I am not what he expected... and just who were these 'many conquests'?"

Thor collapsed into a chair and hung his head in his hands. There was absolutely no way that this conversation would not dig directly into each and every one of Jane's insecurities or avoid raising her ire with him. His brother truly knew exactly where to cast his barbed arrows to stir up the most trouble when he wished to instigate mischief.

"These gems aren't found on Earth," Jane noticed, after the twins had fallen asleep, tempers had cooled, and she felt assured enough to rest in Thor's arms again. It was late now and both were exhausted, but she had just enough energy remaining to allow her curiosity to roam freely again. She fingered the pair of necklaces and the box they came in appreciatingly. The oval stones glowed with a gold and rose-hued light as if lit from within by dancing pixies. She was entirely transfixed.

"Nay. These opals are native to one of the moons of Alfheim and nowhere else in the Nine. These are exceptionally fine ones. They are gifts fit for royalty."

"Huh. So, probably cost a small fortune, right?"

"Yes. No common laborer could afford such a gift for their young."

"Universities and museums around the world would pay through their teeth to get ahold of these."

"We couldn't possibly..."

"No, no. I know that. I'm just pointing out the irony. Here, these necklaces could probably buy us a house and yet we cannot even think about selling them. Not just for the sentimentality and them being from your mom and all that, but because we can't actually tell anyone the truth about where they came from or how they got them. It would raise too many questions and put our daughters in danger."

"I wish I could give you everything and more," Thor began but she waved for him to stop.

"We've been over this, Thor. I am not doubting your intent or trying to make you feel self-conscious. We have everything we really need. I gotta admit, I think I'd rather have you than all your princeliness - and if you were still a prince, we'd have never had a chance. You gave me those beautiful babies and that's worth more than any cache of alien gemstones... I just find it all ironic."

"I apologize for my brother's behavior, again. It was uncouth of him to say such words upon your first introduction. He, uh, is known for intentionally eliciting very strong reactions from people sometimes."

"Don't worry about it. I guess I still have my own issues to work through. He's right, though. You know it as well as I do so there's no need to dance around it."

"What is he right about?" Thor asked, turning so he could see her face where she lay in his arms.

"We don't make any sense together. Of all the people in the universe to pair together, we would be the first choice of exactly nobody and by all accounts, it really shouldn't work."

"But we have made it work."

"That's my point. We have. I can't say that I am surprised that your brother was skeptical. Not that it makes it any easier to accept, it's just... well, I guess I'm just glad we have figured out a way to make it work."

"As am I, Jane. As am I," Thor said. He pulled her close so he could place a kiss on the crown of her head. It was not long before they were both asleep.

After Jane acquired the full-time teaching position at the University of New Mexico, they were forced to leave Santa Fe for Albuquerque. Jane was sad to leave the constant companionship of Marianna's family, but she was not sad to acquire two additional bedrooms at their new house in the suburbs of the desert city. The twins could finally move out of their parents' room and sleep in their own space and Jane's work could entirely consume the remaining bedroom, however her pay was still not enough to afford the luxury of a nanny. They compromised. Thor stayed with the babies when Jane went to the university, and she took over when he went to the construction site. Sundays, they all stayed home together. Somedays it felt like juggling swords, but they managed.

Jane enjoyed having the chance to play astrophysics sometimes and remembering her first passion. For so many months, she had not had the time or energy to think of much other than shopping lists and mornings at the park and keeping nap times. The opportunity to reenter the world of science and academia provided a breath of fresh air into her atrophied mind.

Thor went to work at dawn and she spent the morning digging dirt volcanoes in the backyard and building a fort out of cardboard boxes. When the twins finally went down for a nap, she hurried into her office to grade papers and prepare her lesson plan for the next day. She startled and nearly hit her head on her desk when a pair of black leather boots materialized next to her chair. She squeaked and forgot all about her fallen pen as she jumped to her feet.

"Oh, it's you again," she groaned and did not bother to hide her frown.

Thor's brother arched one eyebrow and his lips tugged up at the corners in an expression somewhere between a wry grin and a smirk. "Lady Jane, it is a pleasure to be in your company again," he said. He tried to catch her hand to place a kiss on it but she pulled her hand away.

"Thor's not here," she said. "He's at work and the girls are napping."

"I know."

"You know."

"As I said. I did not come to speak with them."

"You didn't."

Loki chuckled, obviously entertained by her less-than-warm reception. He turned his back to her, his long cape trailing behind him and his hands clasped behind his back. Then he began to investigate the walls of her office. Loki trailed his fingers along one of her telescopes and read through a print out of data she had pinned on her bulletin board. He came across Thor's drawing of Yggdrasil and he laughed out loud. Then he tore the drawing from the wall to carry with him.

Thor's brother had come by a few more times after their initial introduction, over a year ago, but she had not been around for them. Sometimes his visits cheered Thor up, other times they left him melancholy and depressed. Inevitably, he came with elaborate (and exceedingly impractical) gifts for the twins. Jane couldn't say she was disappointed to miss seeing him herself.

"What do you want?" she said, knowing it probably wasn't the best way to endear herself to him but not really caring one way or the other.

Loki turned then and fixed his eyes on her, his lips pursed in concentration as if she was a mystery to be solved. "You and I have more in common than I first anticipated, Lady Jane," he began. He turned away and began to pace the small space in front of her desk. "You see, it appears we both cannot rest until our curiosity is quenched. You look to the stars to find both your questions and answers. I find myself captivated by the quandaries Midgard presents. I propose... an exchange of sorts."

"Of what?"

"You answer some of my questions... and I will answer some of yours," he said. He held the drawing aloft for her to see. "Starting with a corrected representation of the World Tree... your previous tutor leaves something to be desired."

With a flick of his hands, her office filled with a three-dimensional model of a more-detailed star chart than Jane had ever seen. She openly gaped and ran her hand through a planet she had never seen before. It flickered but did not disappear.

"What do you want to know?" she asked.

"First of all, what precisely is it that you study?"

"You're sure they'll be ok with him?" Jane asked.

"Sure, they'll be fine," Thor answered, in a tone that suggested more hope than actual confidence. "Probably."

She cast a second glance over her shoulder at the pair of golden-haired girls. Both sets of blue eyes looked up bashfully at their uncle, thumbs in their mouths, unsure what to make of their parents' quick escape out the door.

"Let's go," she said. Jane bit back her unease. She was as desperate for a break as Thor and so she followed after him, not really caring where they went or what they did, so long as they did not have to answer another question about kittens or rainbows or change another diaper.

Speaking of which, she paused and placed a hand on Thor's shoulder.

"You are sure? Does he even know how to change a diaper? I mean, you had no idea there and you needed lessons."

"So did you."

"Exactly. At least I knew not to feed them meat until they had teeth."

"As I told you, Aesir babes eat meat from birth..."

"Only proving my point. Can he handle human toddlers on his own without setting them on fire or letting them drink toilet water? Can he even change their diapers without Youtube?"

"Oh, my brother will not change their diapers." At Jane's expression, Thor laughed. "He will simply magic away anything he finds distasteful. They will be in the same diapers they were in when he arrived, but they will be even cleaner than when they were first donned. Our house, too, will be immaculate, though my brother will not so much as touch a broom or dustpan."

"Magic?!" Jane asked. "Is that even a thing? Is it safe?"

"Do not fear, my Jane. I trust my brother with my life. He is more prudent than I in many ways and I have no doubt that if it were he in my place he would have made significantly fewer blunders and errors of judgement. Now, come. Let us take advantage of our time."

"Where do you want to go?"

"We are going to look at the stars, of course," Thor answered.

Jane's heart nearly burst in anticipation at that and she could not get her seat belt on fast enough.

The city lights of their current home drowned out so much of the astral view overhead that she found herself sorely missing her beloved stars. Yet, it was not worth interrupting the girls' bedtime to go seek them out. They had tried once. When the girls had spent the entire time eating sand, wandering off into the desert, and crying for the truck they lost under the blanket, they finally gave up and went home without so much as finding Jupiter in the telescope. So far from any friends and family and on such a limited budget, they had not been able to leave the girls with anyone else to allow them to go off on their own. At the prospect of a night of uninterrupted stargazing, Jane nearly swooned.

Thor drove them out into the middle of the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Preserve. It was far past sunset when they arrived. He impressed Jane by withdrawing a blanket and basket of food from the back of the van.

"How did you manage to prepare for this?" she asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Oh, Darcy. She sent me a list."

"I'm guessing this was her idea?"

Thor gave her a sheepish grin. "It was my idea to take you on a quest for stars, but it was Darcy's idea to ensure I was adequately prepared. She sent me a series of very detailed instructions."

Jane laughed and shook her head. She would have to call Darcy later and thank her. Her former intern was so busy now studying abroad in London that she barely heard from her, but they still managed to keep in contact every few months.

When sandwich wrappers and cans of Coke littered their blanket, the pair lay down to watch the journey of the heavenly bodies overhead. Jane pillowed her head against Thor's chest, enjoying the feel of his breaths beneath her, the warmth emanating from him, and the way his strong arms cradled her against him. Then, she simply watched and lost herself in the celestial dance she could never tire of witnessing.

"Did I tell you the story of that one there?" Thor said, his voice rumbling through his rib cage. He pointed upwards to where Sagittarius shone brightly.

"The story of that constellation? Do you know it?"

"Of course, of course! Now, that one is a charging bilgesnipe who sought to overthrow a nefarious fire demon. He gathered an entire contingent of centaurs to assist him in his quest for valor...that is, until he got caught in a jar of celestial honey and now, there he is, trapped for all time overhead."

Jane laughed and threw an elbow into his side. "A jar of honey? Like the one Rose poured all over the kitchen floor this morning?"

His answering laugh made her head shake and he nestled his head into her hair. "What? You have not heard that tale before?"

"Nope."

"It is unfortunate. It is one of nobility and bravery."

"I'm sure it is. Do you know any others?"

"Of course! Look at that one there... do you see it? Why, that is a dwarf fighting an overgrown squirrel."

Jane laughed till her sides hurt.

It was well past midnight before they entered the threshold of their home again. They quietly opened the door and there they found the TV the only source of light in the room. On a pile of blankets in front of the TV lay a long, dark-haired prince, fast asleep, with a golden head of hair pillowed on either side of him, leaning against his shoulders. An assortment of stuffed animals and dolls were strewn across them and the dark colors of the blankets were interrupted by the pink lace of the girls' nightgowns.

"Should we wake them?" Jane whispered.

Thor shook his head. "Let them be. You know the girls will insist on sleeping on the floor in their own rooms since they have refused all manner of proper bedding. And Loki, if he is tired enough to sleep through our arrival, then he needs the rest."

She nodded.

True to Thor's prediction, the house was spotless, save for the pile of blankets on the floor. She was relieved to find no obvious massive disaster had befallen the house in their absence. She still felt a little guilty at the thought that she had left her daughters in the care of their alien magician of an uncle. Overall, she had such a wonderful time, she could not regret it, especially now that she was assured all was well at home.

They quietly crept their way to their own room, more than ready to fall asleep themselves. She did not get far before she stopped and stared at the wall on the far side of the hall.

"Thor- what is that?"

"Oh, that is a target."

"A target... why is there a target in the hall... and... are those knives?"

"It would appear Loki brought the girls their first set of daggers and was teaching them how to cast them properly."

"Thor... please tell me you aren't serious."

"Why would I jest? It is customary for uncles and aunts to invest in the weapons training of their charges."

"Thor, the twins are not even three yet. I wouldn't trust them with a butter knife."

"Oh, do not fret, my wife. My brother can mend any manner of knife wounds, even on mortals."

"You are not making me feel any better," Jane said with a sigh. She rubbed at her eyes and decided she wouldn't think about the implications of this until the morning.

Chapter Text

"What news of Thor, Gatekeeper?" Loki asked again. He came too often, he knew, and he despised the vulnerability, the sentimentality he revealed in coming as often as he did, but still he longed to know. Heimdall could see more than even Frigga could uncover and so Loki kept finding himself in the observatory, inquiring into his brother’s well-being nearly weekly.  As much as Heimdall could see, the Gatekeeper was as blind as Loki as to what mattered most: How close was Thor to returning? How much longer would Loki be forced to wait? Heimdall and Loki both were forced to wait, wondering what Odin All-Father deemed “worthy” for yet another turn of Midgard around their sun. 

"He fares well enough for now," Heimdall replied impassively, his golden eyes fixed on the mysteries of the cosmos that only he could see. "A third child will soon be born to him and he toils ceaselessly to provide for his family as a common laborer."

Loki shook his head. He had not believed the All-Father would allow Thor to remain as he was for a month, let alone more than half a decade. Yet, years passed by like a leaf in the current of a stream and still Thor remained on Midgard, in the form of a mortal and living the simple life of a commoner.

For a moment, he wished that the Lady Sif and the Warriors Three could see Thor as he was now… they who so often mocked Loki for his failure to uphold Aesir ideals… and see their aghast expressions as he made house with a mortal woman.  But, then, just as quickly, the notion passed.  He did not think even he would find much satisfaction in humiliating his brother more than the All-Father had already seen fit to do.  Even Loki was impressed by just how thorough a job of it their father had done. 

He could not deny that his brother had changed.  The Thor he now beheld was vastly different than the one who had been cast out of Asgard and it never ceased to amaze Loki just how distinct the changes were.  In truth, Loki was entirely transfixed.  To see the Prince of Asgard washing dishes and feeding a mortal infant was a sight that Loki had never, not in his wildest dreams, ever expected to behold.

He had meant to despise Thor’s woman as much as possible, but in every instance, she proved herself both clever and without any improper ambition.  This, combined with her unflinching loyalty to his brother despite challenging circumstances meant Loki had to give her a begrudging respect.  Despite himself, Loki realized that he liked Jane.

At first, Loki could not make sense of her.  He expected, well, he expected what he normally saw in his brother’s taste – a witless beauty awed by Thor’s role and prowess.  At first, Loki found his mortal unexceptional, and that is what baffled him.  Of the billions of mortals on Midgard, how by the Wings of the Valkyrie did Thor settle for this one?  And why?  To the extent that he was taking on the life and tasks of a household servant and common laborer without protest.  Yet, still, Thor stayed and did not wander and Jane proved herself to be in possession of a much subtler beauty and more voracious mind than Loki had first anticipated.

To Loki’s amazement, Thor appeared perfectly content in his circumstances.  True, he was wearied by many toils and the hard labors of life as a common laborer wore on his mind and body, but his spirit remained unhampered.  No, indeed, he seemed even cheerier and more content than Loki had ever known him in Asgard.  Gone was the restless jitter of his limbs or the hungry, angry turn of his eyes.  Gone was his propensity to conquer and defend his honor at the slightest provocation.  Instead, there was a quiet patience and gentle humor which had not been there before.  His easy smile remained, but it was tethered in a gentility that had not been there before and a, dare he say it, a maturity. 

Since his banishment, Thor had done little other than continue to act without thinking and make blunder after blunder and still he gathered about him his own flock of followers.  How was it that even as a mortal, even without his strength and powers and titles, even without any wealth or land or honor due to him, Thor could still garner such loyalty and admiration?  Yet Loki, for all his constant toils at the role of not one but two princes still he struggled to garner even a modicum of respect.  He knew he could not trust the loyalty of his subjects any more than he could trust a charging bilgesnipe and he doubted even if he could wield Mjolnir would the situation be improved. 

Loki’s jealousy burned again and he was forced to sit and think through just what it was that he wished for.  He was no longer in Thor’s shadow.  His brother was far from Asgard as Yggdrasil could allow and still he felt Thor’s presence.  Thor was as weak and demeaned as a flogged dog and yet still Loki envied him.  Now, rather than longing for Thor’s effervescent gold and glamour and gilding, now he envied Thor’s obscurity and the quiet simplicity of his days.  He envied Thor his genuine friendships with his mortal companions and the constant showers of affections he now dwelt in easy familiarity with.  Thor never lacked for companionship and his home constantly overflowed with those who sought him out – not for his crown or his title or the benefits he could provide, but simply because he was Thor. 

Most of all, Loki was fiercely jealous that his brother could manage to find contentment, even as a mortal and banished in Yggdrasil’s Trunk.  Bereft of all trappings of glory and grandeur that all Asgard had once praised, yet still the oaf determined to enjoy his lot and take it all in with easy cheer – as if none of that reflected on his happiness. 

Loki wished, not for the first time, that their roles were reversed… not in the sense of Loki being banished on Midgard rather than Thor, but rather that it was Thor who envied Loki.  Separated from everyone and everything he once had and which Loki now possessed, Thor did not once cast a jealous glance at his brother.  Sometimes mournful, sometimes doleful, sometimes defeated, but never jealous… it was as if he never once thought Loki undeserving… as if he never once wished for their places to be reversed… as if he never once doubted Loki’s sudden elevation at Thor’s expense. 

Now, in possession of all he had once envied of Thor, Loki was forced to face the uncomfortable realization that satisfaction still eluded him.  Perhaps, just perhaps, it was not due to Thor at all…

Jane came home exhausted. Pregnancy was for the young and she hadn't been a spring chicken the first time around. This time, she felt it all the more even though she only carried one. She groaned and rubbed at her lower back. Her teaching clothes no longer fit over her belly and she had to run to the thrift store to stock up on temporary clothes to get her through until the end of the semester. She only had a few weeks to go before she could survive in her sweats and loose sundresses.  She looked forward to not having to spend so much of her day standing on her feet… though, with two young girls at home, she might not be able to put her feet up as often as she hoped. 

They were a thousand times more prepared for a newborn this time than the last and she still was in awe that the girls had survived their ill-prepared, oblivious parents.  It was a testament to the resilience of the young – and the long-suffering patience of Mariana and her mother – that any of them came out of that time sane.  This time, Jane could honestly say she looked forward to the beautiful chaos of another little person in their house. 

She quietly entered the house and hoped Thor had made dinner. She was starving…always.  She found the main hall dark, except for the flashing of a television screen from the nearby living room. There, she found Thor on the couch, a little golden-haired girl on each knee, leaning contentedly against his broad chest. Each girl wore their favored fairy costume, minus the wings, and Thor wore a princess crown on his head. Their eyes were all fixed on a cartoon on the TV. Dolls and trucks, trains and playdough shapes, all were strewn across the living room in a blizzard of untidy play.  A half-toppled glass of apple juice lay on the kitchen table and little sticky footprints shone across the linoleum to where a towel was half-heartedly cast a foot away from the spill – as if it could soak up the spill by osmosis and will-power alone.

Jane nearly laughed at the sight of it all and was about to speak, until she realized that tears flowed freely down Thor's face and dripped from his beard onto his chest.  At the sight of her, the little girls leapt from the couch to fight over possession of her arms first and each bright pair of eyes gazed up at her adoringly.

"Mamamamamamamama!" they cried in unison.

Thor gave her a sheepish smile when he caught sight of her, and then it turned into one of pure relief.

"Are you ok?" she asked, concerned. "Has something happened?"

He swiped at his eyes and shook his head. "Nothing is wrong. All are well. It is just, this tale we have watched…it has…some very moving parts which speak to my heart. May I… you must be tired but… can I…?"

He motioned with his crowned head to the backdoor.

"You go. I'll start dinner," she said.  He did not wait to be told again. The screen door flapped open and then closed and she did not see him again. 

She donned an apron over her teaching clothes and began to bustle about in the cupboards, hoping she could find a box of mac and cheese or some frozen burritos.  She gave a happy cry when she found an entire container filled with Navajo tacos and she wondered if it was Louis or Mariana or their mother who had stopped by.  She decided it didn’t matter.  She owed them all a month’s supply of Thor’s chicken enchiladas, the next time he felt inspired to make them.  She kissed the container when she saw they had even sent extra fry bread for dessert. 

She fed the twins and listened to them happily relay everything that had occurred during their day… though most of it was so entirely unchronological and intermixed with questions on the movie they had just watched and their dreams from the night before that she wasn’t entirely sure which parts were imagined and which were part of their day with their father.  She gleaned enough to know that finger painting was involved… and a game of hide-and-seek with Mariana’s children.  Somewhere in there, Thor let them eat cookies and Dahlia had skinned her knee on the driveway.

It took awhile to wash up – both the dishes and the children – and settle the girls enough for them to sleep.  They both still refused to sleep on their bunk beds and insisted on sleeping on the floor each night, wrapped in comforters and nearly covered in stuffed animals.  Jane had to run to the living room three times to gather a missing penguin and bunny and fine their water bottles before they were finally satisfied. 

She changed into more comfortable clothes and heated up a plate of food for Thor.  Then she made her way out to the backyard to find him sitting around their fire pit, leaning back in one of the lawn chairs, his eyes watching the stars.

Over the years, he had developed a passion for stargazing that nearly rivaled her own. While he had not been naturally interested in astronomy when she first met him, now he knew every constellation and its movement across the heavens.  In truth, he spent nearly as many hours watching the skies as she did, though for very different reasons than her own.

“Hey, you,” she said.  She ungracefully plopped into the chair beside him and gave a noise halfway between a groan and a sigh of relief. She looked over and realized that tears still streamed down his face.  “You ok?”

“Aye,” he answered, though not convincingly enough for her to believe him.  “I apologize.  You must be tired.”

“No more than you are, I’d bet,” she said with a shrug.  “It’s been awhile since I found you like this.”

It was true.  During their early years, Thor occasionally fell into dark, somber moods marked by deep depression and melancholy.  Those were days he longed for home and decried his continued existence on Earth the most.  Typically, they were initiated by either a bad day at work or his recollection of a particular festival or holiday on Asgard.  Occasionally, it was something his mother or brother said to him or another patronizing comment from an Earthling who presumed he was incompetent because of his accent and obvious otherness.  Still, those days had dwindled, along with many of his awkward fumblings to find what Darcy called his “sea legs” and he could almost pass as an Earthling now, if not for his occasional bout of temper or mishap. 

“Aye… that movie made me feel quite sorrowful,” he said. 

“The cartoon?” Jane asked, confused.  “I hadn’t realized it was a tearjerker.”

“No… no… it was, well, in the tale, an immortal creature is turned into a human woman to ward off an enemy and save her fellows.  She proves herself courageous in her quest, but she nearly forgets all of her stated aim of saving her lost companions when she falls in love with a human and forgets she ever was not mortal.”

“Oh.  Maybe I need to screen your movies before you watch them.”

“Have I become too complacent?  Have I neglected the quest my father sent me to Midgard for and become to settled in my mortality so that I have forgotten my true identity as an Aesir and a son of Odin?”

“How can you know that you aren’t doing what he sent you to do?  Maybe he just thinks you need to learn your lesson for a really, really long time.”

“Perhaps.”

“But you don’t think it’s so.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore, Jane.  That is not all.  At one moment, when this immortal creature discovers herself trapped in mortal form, she cries out and protests her change of state.  ‘I can feel this mortal body dying all around me,’ she cries.”

“I do not think I will like the parallels you are going to draw from this.”

He sighed deeply and leaned forward to poke at the fire.  A flame shot up and cast a golden glow over his troubled face.  "It's true, Jane. I can. My strength has waned. I grow weaker by the day and I feel mortality creeping upon me like the morning star. How can you bear it?"

She snorted a laugh and kicked up her swollen feet on the edge of the fire pit.  The movement made her feel the full weight of that growing baby on her bladder. Then she looked over at Thor. His face was tanned from the days he spent on building sites and he had the faintest creases along the sides of his eyes and between his eyebrows. His abs had never quite regained their divinity, even if his drinking days were over and the beer belly had subsided into more of a stocky trunk.

"You bear it cause you don't have a choice, babe," she said with a chuckle. "People have fought against mortality since time immemorial and no one has yet discovered the key to immortality or the fountain of youth. You live, you grow, you grow old, then you die. That's just how it goes."

"But… it's terrible!" he said. "Life is so very short and days go so fast! How do you bear it when you know that your loved ones will die?  Or when your own children are so very fragile?"

"Well, you can choose to love them all the more for how short it is, or you can choose not to, but that won't keep them around any longer.  I’m sorry.  I wish I had something brilliant and life-altering to tell you, but I don’t.”

He wiped back more of his tears and leaned over to place his hand on her belly. He was favored with a strong kick and he grinned at her and placed a kiss on her hand.  His beard tickled but she fought back her laugh. 

"I suppose you are right. Here, we have a son coming. I do appreciate how frequent and often Midgardian births occur. There are so many young children and I enjoy this aspect of mortality greatly."

"See there's some good," she said with a smile.

"It's just, some days, I hardly remember Asgard or life among the Aesir. What if I forget completely? What if physical weakness is only the beginning and someday my mind will forget my origins as surely as my body?"

"I don't know, Thor. I can't give you any promises. Just because you don't remember it, doesn't mean it isn't part of you, somehow."

"I fear that I will never be considered worthy… not even to return to my home, but simply to be considered worthy in the eyes of my father. I failed him and disappointed him so much. His last words to me were so very angry.  What if those are forever our last shared?  What if he never chooses to recognize me as his son again?"

"Thor, your greatest fear is that your father will never see you as worthy.  My greatest fear is that your father will accept you as worthy.  Then I will lose you, the girls will lose you.  You’ve told me yourself that you don’t think your father would let us come with you to Asgard.  Do you know how many times I’ve laid awake at night worrying about what I’d do if you are suddenly raptured back to your home someday?"

He opened and closed his mouth once before taking her hand in his and squeezing. "So, if I understand you properly, you are hoping I remain an unworthy wretch for the remainder of your lifetime and that you prefer me to remain locked in my shame?"

"Yeah. Pretty much. Cause then at least you'd be my unworthy wretch and I don't have to share you with any kings or kingdoms."

Thor burst into a hearty laughter.  The tears no longer flowed from his eyes. She placed her other hand on top of his.

"As long as you will keep me, I am greater than any king,” he said.

“As long as you will stay, I will keep you forever… or however long forever happens to be for us lowly mortals.”

“I doubt even forever would be long enough.”

Chapter Text

"How did this happen?" Jane asked.

"What?" Thor said, between bites of pizza. He glanced around the crowded gymnasium seeking whatever occurrence Jane referred to. He saw nothing out of the ordinary… well, nothing other than Midgardian youth costumed and enjoying a night of revels with their peers. He took another bite of pizza and looked back at Jane. She readjusted the oversized goggles on her face and she pointed the the badge she wore on her white lab coat.

"This! I mean, I thought I was going to aim for a Nobel prize for unlocking secrets of the universe. You thought you were going to be the freaking king of multiple planets. Yet, here we are, masquerading as ourselves. Look at me. I am dressed up as a scientist for Halloween and you, well, your plastic Viking helmet isn't gonna do much good against a real sword… and I don't think that plastic hammer of yours is gonna call down lightning.

Thor lifted the cheap plastic weapon over his head, spun it as he had always done with Mjolnir, and tried to catch it again… only he missed and the pretend weapon fell onto the floor in front of him. He gave Jane a sheepish smile and retrieved it. She snorted a laugh.

"Here we are," she continued. "Stuck manning the fishing booth at the Halloween festival of an elementary school and selling raffle tickets for baskets of coffee mugs and stale chocolate. I can honestly say that in a thousand years, I never once thought this was going to be my future."

"I believe you overlooked the intermediary chaos that three children can reap into one's circumstances."

"True," she said with a sigh. Then she stole the remaining slice of pizza from his plate and took a bite. She grimaced and handed it back to him. He finished it easily.

"I do not believe you anticipated how providing asylum to an exiled prince would impact your life plans as well," Thor added.

"Yeah. The whole 'I married a space alien' wasn't really on my bucket list when I was working on my doctorate."

"Is your heart heavy with regrets?" Thor asked, turning serious, though the boisterous sounds of children around them and the helmet on his head prevented the moment growing somber.

"Not that part," Jane said with a half smile.

"Then what, may I ask, do you regret?"

"The part where I agreed to Mrs. Smith's desperate request to stay two shifts instead of one. 8pm is really past my bedtime… and if I have to tell another kid not to stab their friends in the eye with fishing poles, I might just about cry."

"And I should have been the voice of reason. Perhaps, if I feign intoxication, they would release us earlier than we pledged to stay."

Jane giggled. "Yeah. That would probably do it. But then I'd never be able to show my face around the next PTA meeting."

"They already are dubious of our sanity."

"Your fault," Jane said and she poked him in the chest. Her hazel eyes danced with mirth and she smiled one of his favorite smiles.

"Nay, Lady Jane. I believe it was your explanation of your 'hobbies' that sent them over the edge."

"Hey, 'hunting for aliens' is a perfectly acceptable hobby."

Thor laughed. "You do not need to hunt terribly hard."

"Exactly. Easy hobby… especially when your brother is around and brings over baby dragons to show the kids."

"Aye. However, your council of parents is not aware of such happenings and so they cannot possibly understand your humor."

"You didn't exactly help matters. What with your whole 'my son must defend his honor against these ruffians' stance," Jane said, dropping her voice in imitation of Thor's accent.

"'Tis true! The lad must learn to defend himself."

"You sent a five-year-old to school with a broad sword and chain mail!"

"I received my first blade as soon as I could grasp it. It was long overdue."

Jane sighed. "Just saying… I don't think his kindergarten class is ever gonna forgive us for that one. I don't think Johnny Martin's parents are ever going to stop glaring at me."

"He is a cowardly excuse for a child and entirely without honor. He should not have run to his teacher and hid behind her apron strings. Has his father never taught him to stand and fight like a warrior?"

Jane sighed. "Yeah. I don't even know what to say to that. How come you didn't send the girls to school with a sword?"

Thor's mouth fell open and he shook his head. "It would be unseemly! They do not have to aspire to the same honor as their brother."

"You are a sexist pig. Why do I keep you around?"

Thor looked over at her, grinned, and intended to win this argument the way he usually did. Under the shadows of the table, he snuck his hand farther up her thigh than was entirely appropriate. She elbowed him in the gut in response and cast a warning glare at him before motioning to the incoming patrons. Then Jane placed a false smile on her face to greet the family coming to their booth, as if nothing had transpired.

"Hello Johnny… Mrs and Mr. Martin. Happy Halloween!" Jane said. She gave the lad a plastic fishing pole and assisted him in "catching" treats. When the boy had his fill, he wandered away, followed by a handful of other would-be "fishers-of-candy." During the next lull in their obligations, Thor dropped his voice to whisper to Jane again.

"Loki would have enjoyed this."

Jane snorted. "What? Scaring small children or eating too much candy?"

"Both. If my brother were here, we would not have to lower ourselves to accept such false impersonations of the mystic arts or parade around in false identities in this manner. He would simply change us into other beings and transform this gathering hall into one truly worthy of an ode to magic."

"That's creepy."

"Well, it is Loki."

"And your brother is creepy."

"Do not speak ill of a prince of Asgard!"

"I'm not. I'm speaking ill of my brother-in-law… who pops up in random places without warning and sneaks around as silently as a cat and randomly speaks to us from mirrors. Thor, that's creepy."

"He would not intrude upon you at an indecent moment."

"See, that's it, right there. The fact that he can differentiate when is a decent moment and when is not is what creeps me out. How does he know? Can he tell when I'm in the shower and then waits until I'm dressed to pop up? How do I know he's not there all invisible when I am getting dressed?"

"You have a point. I suppose you must trust in his judgement."

Jane snorted. "As I said, creepy….and the way he watches me sometimes…"

"Ah, well, Loki has been known to feel drawn to those I claim as my own…" Thor observed and then he cast Jane a rueful smile.

Jane threw up her hands in exasperation. "See. That, right there. That's not normal, Thor."

"My brother just feels we are in competition in everything."

"Oh the issues! You guys have more unresolved baggage than the airport! Come on, you guys need to talk. Like, actually talk, sometime."

"You are right, as usual," Thor said, after a moment's reflection. It wasn't the first time that they had disagreed over Thor's relationship with his family. His brother had a tendency to bring questionable gifts (hence the baby dragon) or illustrate his tales with very graphic illusions of battle scenes. However, he only appeared once or twice a year and rarely stayed more than half a day at a time and so Jane did little more than grumble in disapproval when he surprised them with another visit.

It was late that night, long after costumes were removed and the children were tucked into their beds, that the topic of their conversation appeared. Jane nearly screamed when the pale apparition appeared in their living room without warning. Her glass of water fell to the ground and shattered.

"Loki… can't you give us a warning or something?" she grumbled as she turned on a light and pulled her robe tighter around herself.

"I could, but where is the fun to be found in that? I believe that is five glasses now," he said. He grinned and with a snap of his fingers, her glass was restored in her hands. Rather than water, it now held diluted mead. She stared at the cup in surprise and then placed it on the nearby table. Loki moved to kiss her hand in greeting.

When he turned to Thor, Thor knew at once that this was not a social call. Despite the show he presented for Jane, the tightness of his eyes and the strain of his posture told Thor that something was troubling Loki. In a moment, Thor grabbed a jacket and the keys to the trailer. He cast Jane a look and she nodded in understanding. Then she went back to the bedroom.

Ever since young Erick's birth, Jane's office had been transformed into a bedroom. Now, when she managed to steal away time to work on her research, she did so from the privacy of their old trailer, which now sat parked in their driveway. It was a chilly night and so after switching on the lights, Thor turned on the heater. He moved a stack of papers and a laptop from the bed and motioned for Loki to sit on one side of the dilapidated mattress.

Loki did not so much as scoff or blink. He sank down as if grateful to no longer support his own weight, and stared off, unseeing, across the trailer. When he finally turned to face Thor, his mask was gone and he looked as if he had seen a ghost. His face was drawn, his hands shook, his eyes were wide. Thor could not remember the last time he saw his brother so out of sorts. Even impaled on a spear or surrounded by dragons, Loki maintained an air of repose and control. Thor grew instantly worried.

"Loki, what is it? What has happened?" Thor queried.

Loki opened his mouth once… then twice… then hung his head in his hands. "It is nothing… it is everything… I did not know who else to come to," he began.

"I am glad that you have come, but tell me, Brother, what troubles you so?"

"It is… not easy to speak on, even now. You remember what I spoke to you of from my journeys to Jotunheim?"

"Aye. You said they were successful and pleased Father greatly."

"Aye. Well, recently, another dispute arose. I went back again and had words with the king. Well, the king and I did not see eye-to-eye on matters. When I spoke to Father, I was frustrated. And angry. I decried the Jotuns for their innate barbarism and stubbornness and said they were too unintelligent to change or see reason. Father was displeased by this. That is an understatement. He was downright livid and he chastised me for what I said… and, Thor, I cannot even speak it aloud…" Loki said and he hung his head in his hands.

Thor moved himself so he could see his brother more clearly and he tried to coax more of an explanation from his brother through expression alone. After a few moments, Loki began again.

"Thor, did you know I was not birthed by Frigga?"

At Thor's surprised intake of breath, Loki propped his head up on one knee.

"At least, then, I can take comfort in knowing it is not only I who was ignorant of our true relations," Loki scoffed.

"Truly, Brother?" Thor managed to say, though he felt as though he choked out the words rather than speaking them.

"Aye. Not only am I not of the House of Odin by blood, but even Asgard cannot claim me as her son."

"Surely, you jest!" Thor sputtered out.

Loki shook his head. "Would that I were lying to you now! No, I am, and have ever been, the greatest of lies. My very form is the most obscene of lies for I am no Aesir, yet not even I was cognizant of the illusion. Father claims I am Jotun."

"He made you Jotun by punishment?"

"Nay. Father… or the man I thought was my father… said I am sired by none but King Laufey of Jotunheim, himself. My birth father was so disgusted with his runt of a son that he abandoned me to die in their temple. I was brought home from the fall of Utgarde by Odin All-Father, whose own hand ensured my natural shapeshifting tendencies returned only to an Aesir form. I have been masquerading as an Aesir and a son of Odin ever since."

Thor fell into a stunned silence… still half-waiting for Loki's face to twist into a mocking jeer to tease him for falling for another jest. Yet, the laughter at his gullible trust never came. Instead, for the first time since they were children, Thor saw his brother cry. Between waves of wracking grief, Thor saw his brother shatter like a pane of glass struck with a rock and no matter what Thor thought of to say, none of the words seemed to be right.

In past years, Thor's mouth would have burst with whatever sentiments floated to the surface. His hands would have itched for some means of remedying his brother's sadness, for finding some method of "fixing" what was wrong. Now, however, he did nothing but wait. Perhaps it was his own bewilderment and shock freezing him in place. Perhaps it was due to years of arguments with Jane.

"I'm just sad, ok?" She had told him once. "You can't fix it. It will pass, eventually. I just need you to sit here, listen, and give me a hug. If you try to tell me what to do or tell me I shouldn't feel what I'm feeling, then I'm gonna scream! I don't need you to tell me to be different than I am, I just need you to be here with me while I'm sad."

So, Thor sat next to his brother and listened to him cry. Then, after some time, he opened his arms and let his brother fall into his embrace until his tears were spent and his shoulders no longer shuddered with his cries.

"We are a pair, aren't we?" Loki said, as calmness slowly ebbed and flowed over his features again. "Here we are! The mighty Sons of Odin! A Jotun runt and a Midgardian mortal."

"Aye. Though, by that logic, it was your punishment to be made Aesir."

Loki barked a surprised laugh. "I suppose I was banished… to Asgard… I must confess I find it more tolerable than your current realm of exile."

"Jane would chastise you for being an 'ethnocentric prig.'"

"Ah, well, we cannot have the good Lady Jane displeased by how her realm compares to the Realm Eternal," Loki said, his eyes dancing with amusement at the long-running argument between himself and Jane. "And whose side will you take?"

"I told you. I am neutral. My bride and my children are of Midgard so Midgard now has as great a claim to my heart as Asgard."

Loki rolled his eyes, but the myriad of retorts he usually cast out after such a reply did not come. Instead, he fell silent and stared at his hands.

"Loki, you know of all we have claimed about the Midgardians in our Aesir pride and much of it is simply ignorance. The people here – when truly understood – are little different from those of Asgard. They live, they strive, they love, they die. There is much to admire and learn from them."

"Aye. So you have said. Repeatedly."

"It is still as true as the last time I said it… perhaps more so. Am I less myself for being bound to a mortal form rather than an Aesir? If you are Jotun or Aesir, you are still Loki. If my brother is of Jotunheim, then it is my view of Jotunheim that is flawed because there is much I admire of my brother. Whether you be stripped of your title as Prince of Asgard or all your Aesir strengths, you are no less. Not to me."

Loki visibly deflated and he turned to his brother, his levity replaced by desperation, like drowning man clinging to a floating board.

"How would you face Asgard, after returning?" Loki asked. "You have dwelt as a mortal… as a commoner… how could you face Asgard for the shame?"

Thor shrugged. "I had not thought of it. I suppose, years ago I might have, but then again, I foresaw this as being a temporary situation. I assumed the return of Mjolnir would prove my worth, despite my previous punishment and now I am not so sure. Perhaps, I may prove myself naught but unworthy. I do not know, Loki. The thought of facing all Asgard – as a mortal, knowing my failures were known by all – I cannot say I would have enjoyed it or that I would have reacted as I ought."

"But now?"

"Now I care very little what Asgard would think. I have more pressing concerns and Asgard is very far away."

"And if Mjolnir returned to you this very day?"

"I would be pleased to show Jane and the children a fine storm. They would be most delighted to see what I could do and I would enjoy showing them… but then, I do not believe I would be quite ready to return to Asgard. For all I love Father and Mother and am bound by oath to serve our realm, I am also bound by honor to my wife and children and I do not take that lightly. I, well, I have been happy here and I no longer feel shame at my mortality or the station I fill in this realm."

Loki sighed. "Thor, what would Asgard say, if they knew?"

Thor chuckled. "It is a wonder which of their princes they would be more ashamed by… Loki, if any doubt your worth based on your ancestry, merely show images of me sweeping a floor like a maid. They may choose if they despise Jotunheim or Midgard more since both represent their princes. At least none can doubt your rightful place as prince. Who else in the Nine can rightfully boast of being prince of two realms?"

"Perhaps I should remind Laufey of that, when next I am in Jotunheim."

"Aye. You do that. It will no doubt prove a diplomatic triumph in relations between our two realms."

Loki laughed in earnest. "Can I…?" Loki began and he motioned to the bed they both sat upon.

"Stay as long as you wish," Thor said.

Loki clasped his brother's shoulder in gratitude and grinned. "For once, Brother, I am glad you are banished."

"As am I, Brother. As am I."

Chapter Text

Thor's Hammer was a dark, smoke-filled bar with garish lights and cheap decorations. Artistic renditions of space aliens lined the walls and pseudo-Viking artifacts were crammed into each shelf and display case between the slightly sticky booths and creaky bar stools. Men with horned helmets filled up flasks with frothy beer. Women with revealing bodices and braided wigs took orders and carried axes on their backs. Over the entrance, a glowing sign of a stocky, red-headed man wielding a hammer welcomed patrons with a wide grin and a bolt of thunder. Nearby him stood a similarly glowing sign of an unnaturally tall, green creature with dark black eyes and a circular flying vehicle.

"Truly? This is what the Midgardians envision of us?" Loki asked, dubiously as he studiously observed the establishment from their shared table.

"Aye. I rather like the red hair. Perhaps I should allow you to bespell my locks someday," Thor said with a grin.

Loki scoffed. "The man resembles Voldstaadt more than you… and by Odin's beard, what is their fascination with me and serpents?"

"Apparently your third born is a snake."

Loki snorted so hard that he nearly spat out his beer. He carefully placed his tankard back onto the table and carefully looked over the painting of him carrying a snake in his arms. "Charming," he said, once he had caught his breath.

"And you were bound with your offspring's intestines under the venom of a snake in punishment for killing my younger brother."

"A thousand years of development and that is the best Midgardian minds can concoct? The fact that this realm continues in existence defies all logic."

"It grows on you, with time," Thor said.

"I have yet to be convinced," Loki said.

The brothers ordered two more tankards and a basket of fries before Thor pointed out the back door of the building.

"This is what I wished to show you," Thor said and motioned for his brother to follow him out the door. There, in the center of a gated courtyard lined with potted cacti, a group of semi-intoxicated men strained over something. They grunted and groaned and jostled each other until they finally parted ways and revealed a large rock exhumed from the surrounding sand. There, in the center of the little concave crater, sat Mjolnir. The fluorescent lights of "Thor's Hammer" reflected off its surface and danced along the engravings. A metal plaque screwed into its supporting rock read: "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." An engraving of a smiling man wielding lightning was next to it.

"This is Mjolnir's fate?" Loki asked, incredulously. His mouth fell slightly ajar as he took it all in and hesitantly approached Mjolnir's resting place.

"Local legends say this hammer mysteriously fell from the heavens over ten years ago, inscribed in runes of what linguists called the 'Elder Futhark'. None have been able to explain its mysterious appearance or been successful in moving it, but they were successful in translating the runes into the common tongue.

"Mjolnir's appearance caused quite the stir among the little mortals. Jane told me the Midgardians have a legend about a sword which was once encased in stone and only the one who could withdraw it could be the rightful king. As soon as SHIELD lost interest, an investor bought this property and has turned it into quite the successful tourist destination. Louis said it's become one of the most popular stops between Roswell and Santa Fe. People come from miles around to see the alien meteor and its mysterious hammer and to test their stamina against its strength."

"I do not believe Odin considered fully the implications of Mjolnir's fate."

"I do not believe Father would care."

"True."

They brothers fell silent and watched as a new group of men came and tried to move the hammer. They discussed various conspiracy theories and if the hammer was actually a fabrication – created merely to aid in the popularity of the establishment. The owner of the bar, a large man with a long mustache and thick, peppered eyebrows, approached the men and listened to their skepticism. Then, he grinned, slapped the men on the back, and told them there was only one way to know the truth.

"You tried it, didn't you?" Thor asked, once they men had given up. "That time you found me here."

Loki arched one eyebrow. "What makes you assume so?"

"You are far too curious not to try."

Loki sighed. He didn't bother answering. Thor was correct and he knew it. "When did you last try?"

"It has been some years. I used to try every week. Then every month. Then I came each year, around the time of my banishment. Then, well, about the time Erick was born, I realized I didn't want to try anymore."

"Why not?"

"It was no longer worth my efforts. There could only be two outcomes, neither of which aided my circumstances. If I reached out for Mjolnir and it failed to heed me, it would only remind me of my failure and my unworthiness. Worse by far, if I reached out for Mjolnir and it came to me, well, I would be forced to resume my life as a prince of Asgard and that is not a life I was ready to return to. I decided it was better to leave the hammer be."

"Does not it bother you? Not knowing, I mean."

"Nay. Not as much, not anymore…," Thor mused. Then he turned an inquiring eye on his brother. "And you? When did you last try?"

Loki sighed. "Not since I visited you here that first time."

"Go ahead, then. Try again."

"And prove what? Either I will humiliate myself by showing my unworthiness before you, or…"

"Or the hammer heeds you…"

"Aye. And as tempting as it is to have that moment of triumph, that would be worse by far."

"Why? I thought that is something you would seek."

"Nay, brother. If Mjolnir came to me, I would then have your powers… and title… and be trapped as heir apparent. I am a temporary heir and, if I am honest, I much prefer that arrangement. I never wanted the throne and now that I am first in line for it, I find I wish for it even less. Nay, Yggdrasil's Crown, is yours, brother, not mine and I dare not defy the Norns by wishing for a fate that is not my own."

"I thought you did not wish for me to sit on the throne."

"Not as you were, then, no. But now? I much prefer you on the throne than myself, by far."

"High praise, indeed."

Loki snorted and punched Thor's shoulder, causing him to spill his beer all over his shirt. Thor chortled and wiped his dripping arm all over his brother's shirt, despite Loki's attempts to move away. When he had cleaned off his arm, he pointed towards Mjolnir and quirked an eyebrow at his brother in challenge.

"You could try it now. Go ahead."

"So could you," Loki answered, his posture equally as defiant.

Neither brother moved nor looked away from the other. Then, by silent agreement, they refilled their tankards and did not speak of Mjolnir again.

It was Loki who drove them away from Thor's Hammer, once the bar finally closed. Rather than driving straight back to Albuquerque, he went the opposite way, into the lonely expanse of the desert. Thor watched his brother without comment and only opened his door to follow after Loki when he pulled the car over to the side of the road. He turned, then, and walked away from the road and climbed upwards as high as he could manage.

There, far in the isolation of the hills, where the barren earth yawned into the empty expanse of sky, Loki screamed. He tore at the rocks and crumbled them beneath his hands. He pounded against the sandy earth and cast stones into the sky with all his strength.

Thor waited in silence, neither speaking nor looking away while his brother's typically impassive mask was removed and the pent-up anguish was released against the star-filled night.

Then, just as suddenly, Loki walked back down the way he had come, got back into the car and turned the ignition. Thor followed him, though he eyed his brother warily once, wondering if he should offer to drive. By Loki's scowl, Thor decided not to ask. With the number of charms and protections his brother was capable of, for all Thor knew the car was actually driving itself.

They drove down the slightly bumpy highway in a thick silence for a time before Thor interrupted it with his own musings.

"Perhaps I should wonder if I, too, am adopted," Thor said.

"Thor, you look exactly like Odin," Loki scoffed and rewarded him with a flagrant eye roll.

"What of it? I always thought you resembled Uncle Vili and, well, your mannerisms take so after mother. I find it rather hard to believe you are not blood related."

"True. Then, perhaps you are from Alfheim after all."

"Nay, brother! Me – a light elf? It is far more likely I am of Muspelheim."

Loki barked a laugh. "It would be fitting, considering your temper."

Thor's answering chuckle was genuine. Then, he grew serious again. "Loki, I cannot help but think that I understand Father more than I would like to."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I have thought over all you told me much the last few days. Did you know? I have not told my children the truth of where I came from. In all honesty, I am afraid to. I do not believe they would be accepted or treated kindly if the truth of their origins came out. I fear this world discovering the truth and treating them as alien or rejecting them outright for their heritage. I do not wish for them to feel they do not belong here or that they are anything other than what they ought to be.

"It is because I love my children that I have not told them… it is not that I am ashamed of Asgard or being Aesir, but because Midgard cannot understand what it means to be Aesir. I believe the truth would be a barrier for Midgard to see them as they are."

"You are right. I do not like where you are going with this."

"Loki, I was lied to, as well. Not that it is anywhere near as painful to me as I can see it is for you and I cannot understand fully how this makes you feel, but it is difficult to think Father and Mother have kept such secrets from us… but I do think I understand their reasoning."

"What? That Father thought that he could simply wrap up a Jotun in an Aesir package and expect all to be as it should? I never felt like I belonged in Asgard, despite Father's omission. I never could fulfill the ideal for an Aesir…unlike you."

Thor snorted. "I embodied the ideals of an Aesir so well that I am now trapped in the form of a Midgardian."

"You see? That is my point. I do not understand. What is it that Father wants? What is it that Asgard wants? All my life, I have only ever wanted to please them and now I find it was a fruitless, vain effort all along."

"Loki, I just wonder- how much of what makes you different is due to your being Loki versus you being Jotun. Would you have fit the ideals of the Jotnar any better? I cannot see you trailing after Laufey as you are or standing amongst his inner circle of warriors."

"If you are trying to make me feel better by suggesting I am not only a failed Aesir but a failed Frost Giant, than it is an abysmal strategy."

"No, that's not what I mean… what I mean is, perhaps it is impossible to embody the values of an entire people or become the expression of a people… as Jane would put it, we are 'only human'."

"An interesting word choice."

"I know, I know. What I mean is, we are not perfect nor do we represent the entirety of our realms or peoples. We simply are. You are Loki and I am Thor."

"Yet, surely we cannot separate ourselves from the realms of our origins!"

"Nay, that is not what I am saying. I am blundering, but that is not unusual. I have not your way with words and I see you already preparing to mock me for it. What I mean is that we are more complicated… you are more Aesir in your opinions and thoughts than many I have ever met… yet, if the truth of your origins was known, it would blind everyone to all your years on Asgard and all your Aesir ways. Yet, neither are you entirely Jotun. How much is due to biology and how much is due to culture? I am not so sure that anyone knows the answer."

"What will you plan to tell your children?" Loki asked, not disguising his curiosity for Thor's answer.

"I do not know."

"Surely, you must tell them somehow!"

"How do I tell my children that they are rejected Asgardian royalty? Would they benefit from knowing they are the offspring of an exiled prince? That if my realm knew of their existence, they could be considered bastards for no reason other than the realm of their mother? That I should be able to offer them the Crown of Yggdrasil and yet I have naught by myself to give them?"

"Thor, perhaps that is the greatest gift of all... I cannot count the number of times I wished simply for Father's attention and it was the Crown which stole it away from me. You are able to be present with your children- no foreign dignities or declarations of war or peace treaties in the way. I believe that is of a greater value than the throne of Asgard."

"Perhaps."

"I still think you should tell them the truth," Loki continued, now glancing over at his brother with such earnestness that Thor hardly recognized the expression.

"Why?"

"Because they have a right to know who they are… even if it is a difficult truth and one that Midgard would not accept, it is still theirs."

Thor sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Then he nodded. "You are right. I will."

"Can I…," Loki began.

"Can you what?"

"Can I be present, when you inform them of their heritage? I think I would like to…," Loki said and he trailed off again, his eyes getting lost in the lines of the road before him.

"Of course."

The pair did not return to Albuquerque before dawn. Instead, weary from their long night, they fell asleep in the back of Thor's pickup. It was not until the sun hung low in the eastern sky that the pair stirred. It was Loki who woke first, as it usually was. With Loki awake, it was not long before Thor was forced back into consciousness… mainly because Loki started driving the truck without bothering to wake Thor. After a few solid bumps and a collision with his head against the cab, Thor shouted a dreary curse and pounded his fist against the window until Loki opened the passenger door for him.

"Loki, at least slow down enough for me to climb in," Thor pleaded. "I am not as young or as unbreakable as I used to be."

"Come now, Brother. It is not so treacherous a jump as that!" Loki responded.

"Fine, but you are healing whatever injuries I sustain in case this ends poorly," Thor mumbled.

With no damage other than a bruised elbow, Thor managed to climb into the passenger seat and close the door behind him.

"You know, I should be the one to drive, Brother," Thor said. "My mind is no longer muddled by ale and I am more familiar with Midgardian customs and laws."

"And rob me of the opportunity to manage such a gruesome vehicle? Never! Why, this behemoth is worse than even those horrible wagons on Nidavellir."

"I think she is quite an admirable, practical vehicle."

Loki laughed and rolled his eyes. "I see. Does she have a name?"

"Aye. This is the Lady Amarillo. I have bested many a foe and scaled many a mountain peak with her by my side."

"I do not think she would fare well against a dragon."

"True, however, as Midgardian dragons are in short supply, I do not fear meeting one."

The pair fell into sharing small trifles about their mutual acquaintances and the goings on in Asgard for the remainder of the trip. They were interrupted only a few streets away from the home claimed by the House of Thor.

"Thor," Jane said through his phone. "First off, we are fine. Everyone is ok. No one is hurt."

"That is not a fortuitous beginning, my love," Thor answered, sitting forward on the seat and staring at the screen of the phone as if it would display Jane's visage rather than only her photograph.

"Yeah, well, we were in a small car accident this morning. The car is totaled, but we are ok. The police are on their way but I wanted to see how long before you would be in the area so you can take us home."

"Tell me your location. We are on the street before ours."

"Oh, you are close! Good. Ok. I'll text you the intersection. See you soon."

Thor could already get a clear view of the shattered windshield and bent metal of what had once been the family SUV by the time Loki parked. His frown grew and he did not even wait for Loki to turn off the engine before he tore out of the truck and sprinted across the street. Jane stood with Erick carried in her arms and both girls clinging to her sides. She spoke in low tones to the children and none of them smiled.

Thor ran up to them and embraced them each in turn. "My wife. My children. Are you quite well? Do you have any injuries?"

"No. We are fine," Jane said.

"You are certainly not fine!" Thor boomed. "You have a wound!" He pointed to her arm where a small cut trickled blood and to her forehead where a bruise had just begun to bloom.

"Oh. I hadn't noticed that. Well, we aren't badly injured. Considering how it could have gone, we are doing pretty well. Just a little shaken up."

"What occurred?"

"A teenage kid wasn't paying attention and ran a light. He ran right into us. Thankfully, neither of us were going very fast and his car's as beat up as ours."

"Who? Where is he?" Thor asked, his voice growing low as his eyes searched the handful of bystanders mingling between the shattered cars. When he caught sight of a youth seated in the driver's seat of the offending vehicle, he did not wait. Fire burned in his eyes as he nearly ripped the door off the vehicle.

"By the gold of Gungnir, what is wrong with you? What foolery, what debauchery, what malintent made you dare to raise a hand against the House of Thor!" he shouted. He bent over to tear the seatbelt off the driver and lifted the unfortunate boy from his seat with one hand. The boy's legs dangled fruitlessly as his eyes grew wide with terror and he murmured out pleas and platitudes for clemency.

Jane rushed over as quickly as she could with a five-year-old in her arms and she used her spare hand to call Thor's attention. "Thor, let him go," she pleaded. "He's only a kid. He made a mistake. It could happen to anyone. We are all fine. No one is hurt. Put him down."

"Nay Lady Jane. His mistake could have caused irreparable harm and is a grave insult upon our House. He must pay in blood or gold or else the debt will remain."

"Thor, the insurance company will take care of it. We'll get a new car. His blood won't fix anything."

"By the Norns, if I had Mjolnir now, I would summon the full power of the storm to smite this mortal so that not even his closest kin could recognize his piteous face! In its absence, I will simply carve my name into his flesh so he will not easily forget to show caution in future."

Jane gave an exasperated huff and gave up trying to convince Thor. Instead, she turned and saw Loki approach, his face drawn into a grim line.

"Loki, help me," Jane said. "Tell Thor to put him down."

To her dismay, his eyes sparkled with a venomous green and his grin was dripping with menace rather than calm.

"Oh, I will assist you, indeed, dear sister. Thor, heed your lady. Put the miscreant down so I may liquify his internal organs. Then I will gouge his eyes out of his head with my fingernails so he may never bring harm to the House of a Son of Odin again."

"Loki, you will do no such thing," Jane said. She placed Erick down on the ground so she could force herself between both men and placed herself as a buffer between herself and the cowering teenager. "Both of you, back. Thor, Son of Odin, you listen to me. Put. Him. Down."

Thor startled and cast a wary glance at the petite woman, her hands on her hips as she glared at him. Thor looked over at the adolescent boy in his hands again and he slowly set the boy onto the ground. The boy nearly stumbled and then he backed away, terrified expression still plastered on his face. Thor fixed the collar of the boy's shirt and then patted him on the head once.

"Good. Now, leave him alone. Thor, I need you to tend to the children so I can talk to the policeman. The children are afraid and you aren't helping things here with all your Asgardian curses. Loki, you go with him."

By the glowering expression on his face at the mention of the children, Jane stepped forward to physically turn him in the direction of the sidewalk. Then, she turned to the cowering boy.

"Now then, do you have your insurance information with you?" she asked, plastering a false smile on her face.

The boy was stunned into silence for a moment and failed to speak until Jane cleared her throat. Then he reluctantly nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."

"Did you need to call someone?"

"Yes, Ma'am. I mean, no Ma'am. I already called my mother."

"Good. Good."

"Is he… is he going to kill me?"

"No, dear. Sorry about that. He, uh, gets a little protective sometimes and when he's upset, well, it's best to give him a wide berth till he calms down. Just, uh, stay near the car and don't make eye contact, ok."

The boy dropped his eyes to his feet and nodded. "Can I hide in my car now?"

"That's a good idea. Oh, and you might want to lock the door. You know, just in case…Oh, and just between you and me. You, uh, might not want to mention that little scene to anyone. Ever."

She didn't have to ask him twice. He retreated to his car as if it were a tank and he sank so low in the seat, he no longer appeared the legal age to drive. Jane sighed and returned to where the Sons of Odin had corralled the children and spoke to them in low tones, each child nestled tightly against one or other of the brothers.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to go all Viking on people Thor? You just can't do that," she muttered.

"He is a cowardly cur who is without honor and who brings shame to his mother," Loki commented – in the same tone as if he were commenting about the weather or the flavor of cheese.

"He is a child."

"At a comparable size, my brother and I had each slay our first enemies and would never, for a moment, behave like such a suckling babe," Loki said.

Jane sighed. Thor could tell by her expression that there would be more words, once they were in the safety of their home and without an audience. They waited till the tow truck came and then they watched the broken vehicle depart.

"Come on, oh majestic House of Thor. Let's go home," Jane said. "I think I need another cup of coffee… and then a nap… in that order… and Loki – I am watching you. Don't you dare even think about casting any curses of that boy behind my back."

"How does she do that?" Loki muttered as he followed after.

"She says she has eyes on the back of her head," Erick answered most solemnly.

"Aye. She does. Do not cross her, Brother, or you will learn true fear," Thor said.

"I heard that!"

Chapter Text

"You let your brother drive?" Jane asked as they squeezed into the backseat of the truck. She gave a final mournful look back at the wreckage of the other car and then helped settle her daughters into the miniscule seats beside her.

"Of course," Thor answered.

Loki grinned through the rearview mirror at Jane's dubious expression. "It's hardly the worst feat I've talked him into."

"That I can believe," she groused. "Both of you together are a disaster waiting to happen."

"Why, whatever led you to believe that?" Loki asked, far too innocently.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe the way you went Viking on a teenager and made him nearly pee his pants in terror."

"But he injured the House of Thor!" Thor responded defensively. He carried Erick in his lap and couldn't turn around to meet Jane's eyes, no matter how he tried to wriggle around the boy.

"No, he injured our car, not us."

"It matters not. Your honor must be avenged."

"No, Thor. It doesn't."

"He's right," Loki interjected. He knew it would spite Jane and that made him all the more eager to counter her. He was rewarded with a glower and he grinned. "In Asgard, it is how great men show their loyalty and devotion to their wives."

"Welcome to Earth, then. Here, normal men bring home flowers… not the limbs of their enemies."

"Flowers? What use are flowers?" Thor asked, genuinely confused.

"Perhaps they are bespelled to ward off invaders… or poisoned?" Loki suggested.

"No, Thor. Flowers are pretty. You put them in a vase on the kitchen table and look at them."

"Cut flowers?" Thor asked.

"Yes, Thor."

"Will not the flowers wilt and die?"

"Yes."

"So, Midgardian women appreciate reminders of mortality and the shortness of their existence?" Thor asked.

"No. We appreciate pretty things that show our men were thinking about us."

"Midgardians are very strange," Thor said with a sigh. "You refuse me to avenge your honor against one who has wronged you and yet you wish for me to bring you the decapitated corpse of an innocent plant. Would not such blooms be better served remaining attached to their mother plant?"

"You know, I would compromise and say you can leave the flowers on the bush if you leave the limbs on my enemies."

Loki chuckled at Jane's compromise. He did not think he would ever tire of watching the Heir of the Nine cower before the whims of a mortal. He pulled into the driveway where the family dwelt and parked the monstrosity of a vehicle in its spot across from the strange, box-like hut he had slept in his first night.

Jane helped the twins out of the back seat and then groaned. "I was supposed to go to the grocery store. That's where I was going when we got hit. We don't have anything for lunch."

"Loki and I will go on a quest to the market for provisions," Thor said with a glance back at Loki.

"Oh no. The pair of you in a grocery store is a terrible idea."

"You prefer to leave us in charge of the children?" Loki asked, one eyebrow raised.

"Yeah. I would. Actually, I would rather send Thor to the grocery store. Alone. Without someone who can talk the whiskers off a cat."

"Truly, Jane? I am not sure whether I should be offended or complimented," Loki responded.

"You know what? Never mind. Let's order a pizza and we can sort out shopping later. Rose and Dahlia, you will have to watch Mr. Gate's porch for the pizza guy's arrival."

Jane made a phone call and then sent the twins to the neighbor's porch. They eagerly stood and watched the road. A car came, deposited two boxes of a strange smelling food, and then left.

"I get the pepperoni first!" Rose shouted and she pushed her sister out of the way so hard she nearly crashed into the couch.

"Hey! Watch it!" Dahlia complained and shoved her sister's shoulder into the wall.

The girls so resembled their father in their size and overall appearance that their combined presence more than filled any room they entered. Yet, despite their growing muscle and girth, their intellects came from their mother. They were as brilliant as they were strong. They would never grow to be great beauties, but they would be a force to be reckoned with. Young Erick, on the other hand, did not possess the same sharpness as his sisters, but in appearance, he took after his mother. He was all lean edges and doe eyes and he could easily hide behind the noise and presence of his sisters. Thor was convinced the boy would make a warrior yet, but Loki rather suspected his efforts would be better spent training the twins rather than their slight and timid brother.

Thor was already engrossed in a football game and Erick was eagerly doing all in his power to distract his father from the television. Loki sat in an armchair and paged through one of Jane's books on the nature of the heavens. Jane sent the older girls to lay out plates and cups of juice while she distributed food on them.

"I'm so glad we figured this out," Jane said to Thor, who obviously wasn't listening. "I will never understand why the pizza guy can never find our house. The Amazon guy, too. Mr. Gates has been very kind in letting us use his address. It's not like our house is hard to find. I mean, we are the next house over to Mr. Gates and no one struggles to find his house."

Loki looked up and glanced over to the door and back to Jane. "You have strangers often try to find your residence?"

"Yeah. They never can."

Loki nodded. He placed the book on the chair and he went outside. With a subtle shifting of spell work, he added some additional exceptions to his protective barrier and then he returned to the house.

"There. Any stranger carrying food or items purchased for you will not struggle to find your residence again," Loki said. He sat back in the chair and resumed his perusal of the book.

"Excuse me?" Jane asked.

Thor's attention was piqued as well and he glanced over at his brother. "Loki, are you the reason the pizza man cannot find us?"

"Of course. Did you honestly believe I would let you stay in such a place unprotected?"

"Brother, did you believe us to be in danger?"

"Thor, when are you ever not in danger? Imbecile. Of course, there are more parties interested in investigated the Heir of the Nine than you can even imagine."

"There are? I thought SHIELD lost interest."

"Thor, are you truly this oblivious or is it your blind optimism to blame? Of course, SHIELD did not simply lose interest in you and Mjolnir. I did what needed to be done… what Odin should have thought of before he stranded you here. I set up wards to protect you and to blur the minds of any who came too close to the truth."

"Oh," Jane said, obviously bothered by this revelation. She momentarily resumed her tasks, though much slower than she had previously accomplished them. After she summoned the family to the table, she leant over Loki to whisper in his ear while handing him his plate. "Thank you. For looking after us."

Loki arched one eyebrow and nodded his head. "More acceptable than flowers?" he asked.

Jane laughed. "Definitely."

Ooooo

Loki fell into an easy rhythm in the House of Thor. Returning to a shared life with his brother was as easy as remembering the steps of a long-forgotten dance, once he heard the music play. Thor did not ask when he would leave and Loki did not ask how long he could stay. Someday he would return to Asgard, but he felt no draw to do so now and he much preferred to remain as he was.

Jane, on the other hand, did ask.

"For some time yet," each brother answered and she gave up asking for specifics. It wasn't that she minded an addition to the family as much as she was never quite at ease in his presence. Granted, he did little to help her feel at ease, but he also enjoyed the unabashed fascination she showed when he deigned to answer her questions. Her questions were as numerous as the Midgardians themselves and Loki knew that as long as he answered them, he would be welcomed by his brother's wife.

Once she realized Loki's tenure would last longer than a few days, she quietly moved all her belongings out of the trailer. She placed boxes of her work in a corner of their bedroom and took over the kitchen table whenever she needed to work. This left Loki undisturbed use of the temporary dwelling in front of their home. What Jane lost in her private office space, she gained in continual access to Loki's knowledge of the Nine Realms and she was more than willing to accept the compromise.

He settled himself into the flimsy shack in front of their house and they spoke no more about it. True, his accommodations were hardly ideal, however a simple shifting of the dimensions of space expanded the trailer whenever he entered it and he materialized the furnishings he preferred. True, as the seasons shifted, the temperature rose and this location in Midgard rivaled Muspelheim's oppressive heat. However, another set of spells cooled his temporary home enough so that even the bastard runt of Jotunheim could stay comfortable in his Midgardian hut.

Loki quickly discovered that the sustenance for the House of Thor depended primarily on the acquired culinary skills of Thor himself. While his brother had grown leaps and bounds in his knowledge of the art of food preparation, Loki was relieved to find there were a plethora of markets nearby from which he could procure sustenance of much greater quality and prepared with greater skill than Thor possessed. The town itself was not without its own diversions and so Loki could spend his days exploring the libraries and museums and theaters as he wished.

The anonymity was something Loki found nearly tantalizing in its candor and simplicity. Thor could be as blustering and oblivious as a charging bilgesnipe without starting any wars or causing anything more than a raised eyebrow or two form the other peasants. If he wished to be a fool, none were bothered by it. Loki enjoyed the brief reprieve from the eyes of Asgard as well. While his gift for illusion meant he could always disguise himself and hide, he enjoyed the freedom from established roles and expectations. There were no set duties for him to perform, not timetable for him to follow, and no audience continually watching for him to fail. He found he craved the isolation more than he first thought and spent days upon days wandering through the desert around their city.

That is, until the heat became so unendurably oppressive. Then, he spent his nights wandering instead.

The household left him to himself and gave him the isolation he sought – at least until he desired companionship, and that he could easily seek out within the confines of the main house. Between the primary members of the House of Thor and the many visitors drawn by its occupants, the house was rarely empty. Even when the children were away at school, Loki could still find Jane working away at the kitchen table and preparing for her next class or Thor stopping by to pick up supplies between shifts at his work.

The children and their many acquaintances filled the house and adjoining yards each afternoon and Loki enjoyed watching them at their play. Predictably, Thor, too, had his own constant supply of visitors. The oaf could befriend a rock without difficulty and so Midgardians flocked around the Thunderer as readily as sea birds around the carcass of a whale.

Louis was their most common visitor. Loki could hardly avoid interacting with Thor's Midgardian companion, seeing the pair sought each other out like magnets.

The stalky man was hardly exceptional in any way. He was nearly a foot shorter than Thor with skin a rich sandstone brown. His long, black hair was streaked with grey and kept bound down his back. His calloused hands were dark with oil stains and constantly fiddling with any objects within reach. Yet, the man was almost as gregarious as Thor himself and his easy laughter filled the house as readily as his feet filled the couch. From the moment he took up his nest in the living room, he turned on the television to a sports channel and did not turn it off again – day or night – until the day he decided to leave again.

"I found the idiot nearly dead by the side of the road. He thought camping in the desert without food and water was a good idea. He'd be there still if I hadn't taken him to the hospital. Well, despite his lack of survival skills, he's a pretty good guy so when Jane kicked him out, we moved in together," Louis explained upon their first introduction. He slapped Thor on the back in a show of warm familiarity born out of a long acquaintance and then proceeded to bicker over whatever Midgardian game was on the television.

Louis extended Loki the same easy acceptance he gave to everyone else. His identity as "Thor's brother" was enough to ensure that each time they met, Louis immediately regaled him with a half hour monologue of every Midgardian sporting event that had occurred the past fortnight. He did not press Loki for information about his continued presence in the household and when Loki sidestepped questions he did not wish to answer about his past, Louis did not comment. There was no need to prove himself worthy or pass through a series of rigorous initiations. He simply accepted that Loki was another addition to his band of acquaintances and that was the end of it.

Despite living a few hours away, Louis stopped by regularly while driving his monstrosity of a Midgardian vehicle between cities to make deliveries to various warehouses. He came so often, Jane gave him a spare key and kept a collection of blankets in the hall closet – just in case. A few times he came with a gaggle of relations- various nieces and nephews and cousins- who would all descend upon the house like a whirlwind and turn all into chaos until they departed again. A few times, he brought his sister or his aged mother, but more often than not, he came on his own and rarely stayed less than two days.

It was Louis who revealed the flaw in Loki's spellwork. While Loki had ensured any and all questions of Thor's origins would be obscured outside the home, he neglected to so charm the inside. With such frequent interactions, Louis was bound to find out the truth about Thor, eventually, or so Loki told himself. It really was not Loki's fault. If any were to blame for the breach, it had to be Thor and the oaf's fumbling attempts at subterfuge.

For one who had spent over a decade living with mortals and with all the information one could wish for available at his fingertips through Midgardian technology, there really was no excuse for Thor's ignorance. The first rule in taking on a new identity on a new realm is to educate oneself in the role one is to play. To that end, there are certain facts which any who are born and raised on a particular realm should now. That Thor remained oblivious to such basic facts of nature was bound to raise suspicion.

For one, most Midgardians were aware that Midgardian oceans were composed of water with a high content of salt and thus, ocean water was not ideal for mortal consumption. Thor, however, remained entirely ignorant of this until Louis corrected him. For another, most Midgardians knew that the onset of puberty occurs after the first decade of mortal life. For Thor to assume it was closer to the fifth raised eyebrows. Thor's complete and utter lack of exposure to any important historical events of the past hundred years also set him apart from his fellows.

"Midgardians… I mean humans… have sent a vehicle to their own moon? Successfully? Remarkable! Loki, you hear this? Would you have ever believed that it would be possible that the little mortals would ever master such skills! I thought they would never manage to build a catapult, let alone a flying ship!" Thor boomed, far too loudly for Loki to remedy or for his audience to miss and even Jane's sly kick under the table failed to stop him.

Thor failed to even research the most basic tenets of his own supposed origins.

"Jane told me to inform people I am from the country of Scandinavia and relocated to the polity of the Americas as a young child. Do you remember when we visited the northern climes of Midgard? Such jests! Such revels! Such tales!" Thor said.

He never did both to find out what the "northern climes" of Midgard currently held. Loki suspected Thor believed they looked exactly as they did a thousand years ago.

It was during the third month of Loki's tenure with them that this breach in Thor's education became apparent. That night, Louis came to visit them with a companion. He did not even attempt to hide his excitement as he introduced Thor to the young man.

"Here's Thor, the friend I was telling you about, and his brother, Loki," Louis boomed over the din of music in the crowded room. "This here is Henrik. He just got engaged to my oldest niece. They met at school, but he is originally from Sweden."

"It's great to meet you!" the young man said in thickly accented English. He flashed a broad grin and shook each of their hands with firm enthusiasm. It was only after they were settled at a table in the tavern with a round of ales before them that the question of origins resumed.

"Louis said you come from Scandinavia," Henrik said.

"Ah, 'tis true, my friend!" Thor boomed and clasped a large palm on Henrik's thin shoulder. "I come from beautiful lands of Scandinavia!"

"Yes, yes. Which part are you from?"

"The capital, of course."

The man's face fell in open confusion. "The… capital? Of Scandinavia?"

"Aye."

The man blinked. Loki's smirk grew. "We hale from Þrúðheimr," Loki supplied.

"Is that near Sweden or Denmark?" Henrik asked.

"Yes! That is the one!" Thor answered jovially.

"Ah, yes," the man said, his face brightening. "Nice place, that is. I have not yet been there myself, however I hear it is quite pleasant. I have missed the celebration of Midsommar since I arrived here. Will you celebrate with your children this year?"

"Of course, of course!" Thor boomed.

"Perhaps, I may join you!" Henrik said.

"You are always welcome! Come and we may celebrate together! When is this festival you refer to?"

"Is it not next month?" Loki suggested.

"No, no," Henrik answered. "It is held in June, of course."

"Well, I cannot wait for June. Let us celebrate next month as my brother has suggested! What is customary in this celebration?" Thor asked.

The more Henrik shared places and rituals he missed from his home, the more obvious it became that Thor knew absolutely nothing about them... and the harder Loki worked to ensure Thor's ignorance was displayed in full. Henrik may have been confused, but Louis grew downright suspicious. By the time the meal was finished and they prepared to depart, Louis frowned at Thor and shook his head.

"You aren't actually from anywhere near Scandinavia, are you?"

Loki's slight of hand caused Henrik to spill his drink over Louis plate, thus sparing Thor the fumbling attempt at answering such a direct question. By the look on Louis' face, Loki knew this would not be the end of his questions, but it was at least delayed, for a time.

In the end, though, it was the growing New Mexico heat that was really to blame for Louis' discovery. As Midgard tilted further on its axis and the cool spring days turned into the blaring heat of summer, Loki swore not to leave the comfort of his home without strong provocation. He coated his chambers with enough cooling spells to cause frost to cover the windows and he refused to leave unless night had already fallen. Thus, he was not always cognizant of Louis' presence in the House of Thor. How was he supposed to know when Louis was searching out a Coke from the refrigerator? Well, other than the loud screeching sound that came after Loki summoned the orange juice for himself.

"Jane! Jane!" came the dismayed grunt from the main house. "Why the hell did the orange juice just vanish? Is your refrigerator haunted?"

Jane, however, was locked away in her bedroom, furiously typing up a report. Focused on her work with her headphones in her ears, she wouldn't notice if her house was on fire, let alone Louis' panicked cries from the kitchen. When she did not respond, Loki felt compelled to remedy the situation. He transported himself from his trailer to the kitchen and placed the offending carton of orange juice back in its proper location in the refrigerator.

"My apologies, Louis. No ghosts here. I had need of a cool drink of this fruit," Loki said. "Be at ease."

However, it was still insufferably hot… and day time… and so he could not possibly be expected to walk the interminable distance between the house and the trailer under such circumstances. Louis' subsequent slack-jawed scream when Loki appeared and disappeared in the kitchen could be heard three houses away. Jane still didn't notice, but Mr. Gates did and the old man nearly felt compelled to rise from his recliner to investigate. He just as suddenly forgot about it and, as Louis stopped screaming, there was nothing to remind him. Mr. Gates settled comfortably back in his recliner and left Louis to gape at the place in the kitchen vacated by Loki's disappearance.

Later that night, after the sun had set and Loki deemed it tolerable enough to walk to the house himself, he found Louis strangely subdued. The television was on and his eyes were glued on it, but he doubted Louis registered any of what he watched. The rest of the family buzzed around them during the meal time and just as noisily, the entire House of Thor stumbled out of the house again. Jane and the twins disappeared to softball practice. Thor took Erick to the park. Louis did not so much as blink when they invited him to come with them. He remained motionless until the front door slammed shut. When they were finally alone, Louis turned away from the T.V., his eyes wide.

"I saw you. You appeared… out of thin air," Louis clumsily accused. "How did you… What are you?"

"Thor's brother," Loki answered with a disinterested toss of his head.

"You… aren't from Scandinavia, either, are you?"

"I have not set foot in those parts for at least five hundred years."

"Oh… but you have been there."

"Aye."

"Well, that's something."

"Is it?"

Louis shrugged but his visible struggle to swallow revealed his discomfort.

"But Thor- he's just a regular guy. I mean, we stayed together. He doesn't appear and disappear like that. He never did that to our orange juice."

"I do not believe Thor cares for orange juice."

"Yeah. You are right. I forgot about that. He really likes grape juice, though."

Loki snorted. "Of course, he does. We have a fruit similar to grapes on Asgard, nothing which resembles your oranges."

"Asgard…is that where you are really from?"

"Yes."

"Where is that? Somewhere in Canada?"

"A little farther than that."

"I see. So, Thor, he, uh, is he…"

"Now, Thor is as mortal as you."

"But you aren't."

Louis gasped and nearly fell out of his chair as Loki morphed into his Jotun form. Loki shifted back a moment later.

"I suppose Thor told you I am adopted."

Louis struggled to speak but finally nodded. "Yeah. He did."

Loki considered Louis for a long, awkward moment before he sprung at him and allowed a knife to materialize in his fist. He knelt before Louis and held the knife to his throat. "You will tell no one. Not a soul. If you speak of it to anyone, I will know. I will return and cut out your tongue and erase the memories of any you spoke to."

He gaped. "You can do that?"

Loki grinned wider and let the knife vanish from his palm. Then he sat back on his chair and watched as Louis sighed in relief. Louis rubbed over his neck where the blade had just been and then ran his hand through his hair.

"So, by no one, do you mean my mom and sister? Cause, I'm pretty sure they already know. They've been telling me for years but I didn't believe them, you know? Sometimes they say crazy stuff like that. And my mom… she does this thing where she looks at you and it's like she can read your mind without you even speaking. It's not even worth thinking a lie cause she'll catch you in it before it even finds your mouth."

"No one, Louis." Loki said. He made a mental not to investigate why such suspicions remained in the minds of Louis' kin. The presence of his spell work should have obscured such questions.

"Fine, fine."

Louis sat back on the couch and fumbled with the remote. He feigned interest in the baseball game, but the façade didn't last long.

"So, can you do that orange juice trick with anything? I mean, can you do that to, you know, make money disappear at the bank or something?"

"I suppose I could, but why bother?" Loki answered. "What use would I possibly have with your useless mortal currency."

"Huh."

Louis changed channels. Then he changed back again. Before long, he stifled a yawn. It was only after Loki had returned to his chambers outside the house that he heard Louis' sudden outburst.

"Loki, what'dya mean five hundred years?! Just how old are you? Loki! Come back here!"

Chapter Text

The summer air was still hot around them when Thor lit the fire in the backyard. Louis helped him roast hot dogs and hamburgers while Jane and the children prepared the side dishes. Loki refused to join them, at least, until the sun went down.

"I cannot understand how drawing close to a source of heat is in any way appealing," Loki grumbled. "Sensible people would conjure ice rather than flame… and do not mention to me those appalling sausages. Those are not fit for hounds."

No one argued with him but let him tend to his own meal and hide away until he felt like joining them. In many ways, Loki reminded Jane her childhood cat. Smurf was an unpredictable fellow. He wandered their neighborhood at large, sometimes vanishing for days, only to turn up at the most inconvenient moments to insist on immediate attention. He would plant himself on her book or in her pillow and glare at her until she dropped everything and scratched his chin. Loki may not have appeared for a chin-scratching, but he did turn up at spontaneous intervals for attention.

Their Asgardian guest prowled the streets of Albuquerque by night and never informed his hosts of where he had been or when he would return. Then, just as spontaneously, he appeared in the kitchen, hungrily rummaging through the cupboards for snacks and searching the living room for companionship. Jane tried, more than once, to ignore him. He feigned nonchalance until her avoidance outlasted his patience, then he sidled up to her with all the self-satisfied smugness of her old cat and insist on her attention. Rather than rub his head against her ankle, he simply dropped some outlandish fact so tantalizing she couldn't help but respond. He then purred through her fascinated questions until his need for attention was fulfilled. Then he up and left, sometimes mid conversation.

"That's just his way," Thor had explained. "He's always been like that."

Jane had been surprised when Louis burst in on her demanding to know the truth about Thor and Loki. Loki's failure to hold their secret was even more unexpected. After all his efforts to hide Thor's identity and mask their location, Loki was the one to spill the beans first.

"He told you what?" Jane asked, her mouth open as Louis expounded upon his conversation with her brother-in-law.

"You know, I want to say he's just pulling my leg and making up crap to make me look stupid, cause he's totally the kind that would do that. In this case, though, it all sounded so crazy that I kinda think it might be true. Jane, tell me it's not, ok?"

She sighed heavily and shook her head. "Sorry, Louis. I don't really know what to say."

"I figured you were gonna say that. I mean, it explains a lot of stuff about Thor that I found a little weird, but, you know, that's just Thor, right?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. Well, his brother isn't gonna like suck my brains out or carve out my intestines or anything, right?"

"No. Loki's, well, Loki is Loki. I don't think he's gonna do anything permanent, but try not to piss him off, ok?"

Louis huffed. "That's not exactly comforting."

Jane didn't know what else to tell him. If she was honest, she had no idea what to make of Loki herself. In his random, once-in-a-blue-moon visits, Jane had felt unnerved by his presence. Now, after half a year of constant, nearly daily interaction, she was more used to him but no more at ease than the day she first met him. It was hard to feel comfortable when the full intensity of his stare fell on her. She felt his eyes like a visceral weight from the moment he entered a room until he vacated it again. He unsettled her, more than she cared to admit. Was it an instinctive acknowledgment of his inhumaness which set her on edge or simply part of being Loki? She wondered if Thor in his natal form would cause the same response. She tried to ask, but Thor was no help.

"That's just Loki," Thor said, as if that alone explained the matter. It was enough for Thor.

Loki could travel the cosmos at a whim and did not seem bound by the same laws of physics she once believed to be unbreakable. If Thor was a wellspring of knowledge of the cosmos, then Loki was an ocean. True, he preferred to share his knowledge sparingly and like crumbs to train a starving dog, but she willingly complied and lapped up all she could get. Every day, he seemed to spring some unexpected ability or insight onto her that sent her ideas of the universe reeling and she was sure he did it on purpose.

It was slow work but she managed to pry more and more out of him. She quickly discovered that the best means to loosen his lips was to feign disinterest. As much as Loki delighted in hiding in the shadows and being underestimated, he could not abide being ignored. He preened like a peacock when she put away her laptop and gave him her undivided and awestruck attention. But only on his terms. Too much acknowledgement of his enjoyment in her attention caused him to recoil and run back to the shadows again.

When Loki decided to join the rest of the household, Jane was never sure if it was simply to ease his boredom or because he genuinely appreciated their company. Regardless, he did manage to "mingle with the mortals" more often than even Thor expected.

Thor, once he got over his own surprise at Louis' initiation into their secret, was thrilled to have a companion he could speak more openly with. He missed home and his frank, open disposition pushed against his need for secrecy and having another person to talk about was like a breath of fresh air. He nearly talked Louis' ear off for a week in his exuberance to share all his experiences and challenges as an "Asgardian dwelling on Midgard."

Between Loki and Louis, the children could not avoid initiation into the "secret" as well. It wasn't so much a formal initiation as inevitable exposure to the "tales of Asgard" and the "stories of your kin." Jane tried to explain to them that they couldn't repeat the stories they heard outside of their home, but that was about as effective as trying to tell a five-year-old that Santa Claus didn't exist. Jane knew that their ramblings could be excused as "childhood imagination and play" and so she was not terribly concerned, but she also anticipated more challenges as they aged and their both their comprehension and social circles grew. Those were problems for another day, another year. For the moment, her greatest concern was keeping Erick from falling into the fire or setting himself on fire.

Thor placed another bundle of logs onto the bonfire once their meal was finished. The last, lingering flickers of the vanishing sun remained on the horizon, but the burning heat had settled in the ground beneath their feet and was quickly dissipating. It would not be a cool night, but it was a relief from the heat of the oppressive summer day.

"Will you tell us more stories, Daddy?" Erick asked, once his fingers were entirely baptized in roasted marshmallow and chocolate. He pulled up his chair closer to the fire and stuck a stick into the coals to watch it burn. "Tell us the one about you fighting the dragon! That is my favorite!"

Thor's laugh boomed across the yard and he leaned closer to the flames so the flickering orange light illuminated his face.

"Of course, my son! That tale begins in the days of my youth, before I had earned Mjolnir as my own and could not wield the storm…"

"Part of me still says he's making most of this up," Louis whispered to Jane while Thor's tale continued. "He may be an alien, but he was probably just a taxi driver who got expelled for too many speeding tickets."

Jane stifled her laugh behind her cup of coffee and pushed Louis' shoulder. "I don't think he's a good enough liar for that," she answered.

"That's true. I can't believe he hasn't been called out on it before now."

Dahlia gasped when Thor described the dragon, but it was not due to the skill with which he told his tale. Instead, her burst of surprise was caused by the sudden image of a crimson dragon which appeared behind her father's back and flew circles around him and up into the night sky.

"Oooooo! Daddy! What is that?" Erick exclaimed, his little voice full of awe.

Thor glanced up and when he caught sight of the dragon, he grinned and his tale became even more animated. "Then, I took up my sword and shield and I dared the dragon to oppose me…."

Immediately, a figure appeared before the dragon, his cape an even brighter shade of red than the dragon. Long, golden hair fell down his back and his sword glimmered in the light cast by the dragon's fiery breath.

Jane searched around the rim of darkness separating their circle of firelight from the darkness beyond. There, just outside of the reach of the light, she saw the faintest glimmer of silver and she knew Loki was there.

"Now, that is really something," Louis whispered to her as he watched the illusions battle each other. "How does he do that?"

"He's Loki," Jane answered.

While the dragon had started off about the size of a bat, as the story progressed, both the images of Thor and the dragon grew until they nearly filled their entire back yard. The smoke from the bonfire curled and wavered through the air until it sunk into the illusion and became part of the dragon, adding both heat and the scent of smoke to the giant winged reptile. The image of Thor, too, grew until they could see the very sweat on his youthful brow and the broad muscles beneath his armor as his sword clanged against the dragon's scales.

After the dragon's held fell into a pile of green mist on the grass, the children clapped their hands in delight and Thor motioned for his brother to come forward.

"It is good to have you here, brother. It is your turn. Show your skill as a story-weaver," Thor prompted.

Loki left the shadows and took a seat by the fire. He wore Asgardian clothes and each of the fastenings glimmered in the firelight. He waved his hand over the fire and it suddenly burned green rather than gold and the flames themselves twisted and danced and began to turn themselves into shapes.

Louis whistled under his breath and Jane, too, could not take her eyes from the spectacle. Loki began another story and the moment his words flowed into the firelight, they were immediately enthralled. Thor may have been a charismatic and enthusiastic story-teller, but Loki, well, Loki's eloquence made Thor appear a novice and now they were in the presence of the master. Each shift in tone, hand gesture, combination of words was meant to cast a spell and paint a picture for his hearers and no one dared speak to interrupt the magic.

Loki's first tale melted into a second and then a third. This last tale, he illustrated again with his illusions. In this one, a much younger Thor and Loki tried to escape their capture by a giant.

"I remember when you looked like that," Jane whispered to Thor, who now sat on the other side of her with her hand in his. If her sigh was tinged with just a smidge too much longing, he did not comment on it. At his sideways glance between the muscular illusion and his own full girth, she winked and passed him the bowl of chips.

"Dad, is Uncle Loki making all this up?" Rose asked, once the story was over.

Thor opened and closed his mouth once, but before he could speak, Loki answered her.

"What do you think, young Rose?" Loki asked. "Would Uncle ever tell a tale that was untrue?"

Rose's face became entirely befuddled and she thought very hard over that. She knew very well that Uncle would sometimes tell tales that were untrue, but she did not know how to differentiate between Loki's tall tales and his true ones.

"Yes!" Erick interjected, making everyone laugh.

"Ah, but I will leave it to you to decide if the tales I have just told you are fabrications or not," Loki said, his head bowing in an elegant movement that appeared every bit that of the prince.

"What about Mama? Did she ever fight a dragon?" Dahlia asked.

Loki glanced back at Jane and grinned. The illusion changed to an entirely fabricated form of Jane - one decidedly taller and stronger than the original had ever been and garbed entirely in Asgardian armor. She nearly danced around her opponent, her dark hair falling in waves to her waist and the gold of her armor glinting in the light of the illusory sun. The children were delighted.

"I do not remember when you looked like that," Thor whispered back to Jane as he watched. She rolled her eyes.

"I never did," she said. "Not even in my younger days."

She watched this version of herself in a strange fascination. In that armor, striking her spear with such poise and skill, she looked like she belonged in the Asgardian tale, that she was part of Thor's "real" world.

Later that night, when she caught sight of herself in the mirror, she felt all the more the chasm between that woman and herself. Now, a few days away from her 48th birthday, she felt all the more reminded of the shortness of her days and the fragility of her life.

The call from Erick Selvig that morning hadn't helped.

He didn't come for Christmas. It was the first one he'd missed since her childhood.

"I have a minor surgery. Nothing to worry about. I'll be up on my feet in no time and then we will have our own little Christmas a month or two later," he promised.

She wanted to believe him. She really did.

"I'm sorry, Janey," he told her that morning. "I thought I could beat this. I thought all they had to do was remove a small tumor, but it's spread. There's nothing more they can do."

She booked her ticket to Sweden as soon as she got off the phone, but she couldn't take the whole family with her. It would be up to her to go and say "good-bye" to Morfar Selvig for them.

Thor put the kids to bed while Louis cleaned up dinner. This left Jane to sit by the fire, or what was left of it, and gaze upwards at the faint pinpricks of light. With so much light pollution, it was a wonder she could see any, but at least Cygnus shown brightly. She didn't actually register much of the constellation. Her mind was too far away for that. She was stuck somewhere in her past on a summer night, so similar to this one, when Erick Selvig and set up his telescope on a hillside for her to see Jupiter for the first time. The tears streamed down her face as she remembered just how late they stayed up that night and how patiently he taught her how to find the planet.

She startled when she heard a chair move beside her. Somehow, Loki had materialized next to her, as silently as a cat. She tried to brush away her tears with her sleeve.

Loki didn't speak. Instead, he sat in the chair with his chin resting on his hands and he stared into the dying embers of the fire. Jane inhaled deeply and tried to fight back another sob. If Loki chose this moment for another debate on the superiority of Asgard to Midgard or a discussion on Midgardian science, she might just walk away. He didn't. Instead, she felt the burning weight of his eyes move to her face and she found herself wondering just how keen his night vision was.

"You are troubled," he said, breaking the silence between them.

She nodded once.

"Your heart has been heavy since your call this morning. What has occurred?"

She gaped at him. Thor had not even noticed her shift in mood, despite being around her the entire day. Loki had only passed through the kitchen for a matter of moments and yet that was enough.

"That call was from the man who has been a father to me, ever since my own father died. He is sick and will not live much longer. There's so much he still wanted to do…" she said, but another round of tears halted her words.

"Your grief is understandable," Loki responded. "Will you go to him?"

"In two weeks."

They fell silent for a time before Loki looked away from her and poked at the fire with a stick. A single flame shot up before it sparked and sank back into the darkness.

"The Aesir do not die of illness," he said. "On Asgard, people may age, but it is not advanced years that end a life. It is always the fields of battle that claim us."

She looked up in confusion. "No one dies of old age?"

"Nay. There are enough wars that none are forced to face such a dishonorable end, if it even be possible."

"So, if I am understanding you properly, you are saying that the Aesir would rather die earlier in battle than face death by natural causes?"

"Aye. It is still strange to see Midgardians dying of means other than battle." At her expression, he quickly continued, his hands outstretched placatingly. "Lady Jane, do not misunderstand my sentiment. I am not boasting in Aesir ways in this matter anymore than I am despising Midgard's. I am simply trying to understand… and seeking to assist you in your own understanding. Does Thor know?"

"I haven't told him."

"I fear… if his banishment continues… he has known so few companions who have died. I fear it will be difficult for Thor to see those he cares about die, especially from sickness or age. On Asgard, such a death is a grave dishonor."

She shrugged. "He'll have to get used to it. There's not really another choice."

She fought back the tears that threatened to return. She rose, then, and walked back to the house, carrying a discarded plate with her on her way. She washed the plate and placed it on the rack to dry. Only a single light remained on and stacks of dishes lay drying on towels on the counter. The kitchen was clean… enough. She could finish up the rest in the morning.

"My wife!" boomed Thor's voice from the hall. He marched into the kitchen with a wide grin on his face and his arms outstretched before him. "Louis has requested my presence for a game of darts at the tavern. The children are abed and our affairs set in order. Would you care to accompany us? I am sure Loki would not be put out to stay with the children."

Jane shook her head. "No, Thor. Not tonight. You two go out and have fun."

He leaned in to place a whiskery kiss on her lips and then he grabbed the car keys. The front door slammed so loud, she worried it would wake the kids. They had been allowed to stay up far past their bedtime, however, and she didn't hear them stir.

In the sudden, unexpected silence that fell over the house, Jane took in a deep breath and sank against one of the kitchen counters.

The sliding glass door opened and closed and another glass came to rest gently in the sink.

"There is always another choice," came Loki's smooth voice behind her. She opened her eyes.

"What are you talking about, Loki?" she asked, not bothering to hide her weariness.

"You claim that Thor must grow used to watching those he cares about die of mortal ailments. You are wrong. There is always another choice."

"Yeah, yeah. If his banishment ends and he goes back to Asgard. I got that."

Loki took one step nearer, the full intensity of his gaze piercing her through like water through a burst dam. "You feel it. Your own mortality. It whispers to you from behind locked doors and it presses upon your aging shoulders. You know of what I speak."

He came another step nearer and his voice was as smooth as velvet as he spoke. "How many of your dreams have you delayed, telling yourself you can chase them tomorrow? How many of your heart's desires have you allowed to remain unfulfilled, while you defer them for others? Thor does not understand what you have sacrificed. He cannot touch the fires that burn in your soul or the thirst that propels your mind to the heavens. We are too alike, you and I. Thor loves us with all his great heart, but he can never truly understand us."

"What are you saying, Loki?" Jane asked, both Loki's tone and words setting her on edge.

"I can help you achieve what you seek and I can help Thor," Loki said. Then, he motioned with his hand and she was enfolded in a cascade of green light.

oooo

Loki paced the length of his temporary dwelling on Midgard, a scowl firmly planted on his face. His mother's projection flickered and spasmed, the power required to maintain the connection so great that they both strained to uphold it. The toll their argument caused made it even worse.

"Loki, you must come home," Frigga pleaded, her blue eyes earnest.

"My answer is the same as it has been. No."

"Loki, if you do not return by nightfall tomorrow, your father will come and fetch you himself… and he will not be subtle about it."

"Let him come."

"If it were only you on Midgard, I would happily let you remain and seek the consolation you need, but you must think of your brother. How would he and his House fare if the Bifrost opens its full strength in their courtyard and a host of Einherjar appear?"

"He wouldn't…"

"You wish to test it?"

"Mother, how is it that father even knows of my location? Have you betrayed my confidence?"

"Loki, you have sought out the exact same refuge since you were old enough to walk and get into mischief. Anytime you have been distressed, we always knew we would find you with Thor."

Loki frowned at this. She was right, but it irked him that he had been so predictable, so transparent.

"For once, let father come and face his mistakes. He should not have turned his back on Thor for so long or left him so alone as he has. Will he not acknowledge his firstborn or must Thor first meet his unreachable expectations before he can be seen by Odin All-Father?"

Frigga sighed. "Loki…"

"Nay, mother. You are as guilty as father in this. You let Thor remain in exile."

"I could not go against your father's edict."

"But you go against it in speaking with Thor, do you not? Or is it only for your true blood son that you would skirt the edges of treason?"

"Loki, if it were you in banishment and not Thor, I would not do any differently. These stolen conversations are as close as I can come without betraying your father. Do not force me to choose between my husband and my sons… for it would be impossible to say which of you is the most stubborn-minded and difficult."

"So, I am to come back and feign delight at being an imposter as a Son of Odin - at playing the role that not even the blood heir can hope to fill?"

"No, you are to return and fill the station you were born to fill. Loki, you are our son."

"And Thor is my brother."

Frigga responded with a long-suffering sigh. "Loki, there is purpose to everything your father does."

"Are you certain? By all he has said, he was prompted to steal a Jotun babe by sentiment and only fabricated a purpose after the deed was accomplished. He meant to speak truth to said babe, and sentiment again kept him from revealing all."

"Loki, I did not say I agree with all your father does, but I do trust his motivations, as should you."

Loki grumbled to himself again but he knew this was an argument he would not win. He could flee to another location on Midgard, but that would only delay the inevitable. If Loki refused, then Odin would come to visit the House of Thor and Loki did not expect that meeting to go peaceably.

Loki stalked back to the main house in a foul temper. He did not wish to return to Asgard nor take up the duties expected of him. He was furious, though without a full recollection of the exact object of his fury, he let it fall on anyone or everyone his mind thought of. He was angry at Odin for banishing Thor, for accepting Loki as his replacement, for insisting Loki return home, for not letting Thor return with him. He was angry at Frigga for keeping such secrets from him, for allying herself with Odin, for not fighting harder for Thor and for him. He was angry with Asgard for clinging to their love for Thor, even as he remained in banishment. He was angry with Thor for remaining so content in his banishment, for not working harder to come home, for finding a semblance of contentment in his lot rather than setting all his efforts on returning to Asgard.

Finally, he let his ire fall on the mortal woman. It was her fault for so bespelling the Thunderer and making him accept his mortal life. The more he thought of it, the more he directed his fury onto Jane herself for convincing Thor to remain on Midgard. It was she who made him settle and kept Thor from returning.

Months earlier, panic had nearly overwhelmed Loki when he saw Thor don spectacles for the first time. The Thunderer had given his brother a sheepish glance when he pulled the large-rimmed glasses out of his pocket in order to read a menu at a restaurant. Loki had stared in a morbid fascination.

"Whatever are you doing?" Loki had asked.

"Reading. My eyes are not as strong as they once were," Thor had said.

Loki took in the full sight of his brother then – the frosting of grey along his temples, the crinkling edges beside his eyes, and softening of once firm muscles into loose flesh – and he gaped.

"You are aging," Loki said, in utter amazement. "You truly are mortal."

"Perhaps, it would be prudent for you to prepare yourself to be king," was all that Thor replied.

This made panic well up in Loki's heart.

Loki could not be king. He would not.

The thought of returning to Asgard again without Thor… that there truly might be no end to his banishment, was untenable.

Loki decided, then and there, that Thor's banishment had gone on long enough. He needed to bring Thor home.

To shake Thor out of his complacency, Loki would need to give him proper motivation. Fortunately, Loki always knew just how to inspire Thor.

Oooo

After a bonfire and night of tales, Loki sought out Jane. He sought her often and was surprised to find her a tolerable companion. During his tenure on Midgard, he had spent countless hours discussing the mysteries of the cosmos with the Midgardian woman. They could hardly notice the passing of time or the lateness of the hour as they debated the stars and planets and expanse of the universe with equal fervor. She could not take notes fast enough or edit her interpretations of her data enough to keep up and her eyes overflowed with a burning heat of passion.

It was a heat which quickly extinguished each time Thor gave her an indulgent smile and feigned interest in the work she loved so dearly. He meant well. She knew that, but he could not understand. He would never understand. She was a falcon, tethered to a cage, staring out at the wide sky beyond and wishing to spread her clipped wings again. She was a spectrum of color granted in gift to a colorblind man. He loved her. He appreciated her, but he could never fully understand what a gift she truly was.

Loki was a master of illusion and so could easily notice what his oblivious brother did not. There were secrets within her heart that he could read on her face but which Thor knew nothing about and he could not abide leaving any mystery unsolved.

He saw the tell-tale signs of tears beneath Jane's makeup after she received that phone call. He saw the layers of dye used to cover up the strands of grey in her hair. His curiosity was so piqued by her that he slunk his way into her computer to read through her emails and picked the lock of her file cabinet to read what she kept there. There were job offers from universities and grant programs across the globe. Each she had denied. He saw the longing way she stared at the stars after all her household had gone to bed. He knew the emotion she hid so well- because it was an exact echo of the one which plagued the cracks and crevices of his own façade.

What fascinated him was the way her mortality clung to her and bore down on her, reminding her that her days were finite and quickly falling away from her. The opportunities she once longed for might soon be gone, extinguished by the passing of days and the oppression of age. It was something Loki had never had to wrestle with. He stared out into the millennia before him and feared neither death nor time. His own restlessness curdled within him like a caged beast, but it was constantly fed and kept at bay by the promise of future fulfillment – that unique fodder which only hope can provide. Yet Jane, with each passing day, each grey hair, saw that same sense of hope evaporate.

Loki was a master of illusion, but he was also a master strategist. He knew how to feel and find each chink in his opponent's armor and he knew just how to exploit a fault line to cause a mountain to crumble. He knew Thor's weaknesses and he knew Jane's. If he pushed and prodded and dangled the appropriate rewards, he could bring Thor home.

With a flick of magic, he enveloped Jane where she stood and forced her to shift forms. She stood a foot taller and her limbs were now lean and muscled. All evidence of age melted away and she stood strong and alert. A deep blue and violet Asgardian gown enfolded her and a crown of diamonds encircled her head. All she needed was a set of armor and she would be the very image of his illusion of her as a dragon-slayer. He nearly conjured her a sword and then decided against it. Instead, he stood back to admire his handiwork.

He was surprised to note that he truly had outdone himself. Molded into an Aesir form and garbed in Aesir dress, Jane was a vision. Like a silver vase which has been rubbed free of its tarnish, Jane now radiated a greater beauty than he had thought her capable of possessing.

In this form, she was fit to grace even the arm of a king.

"What did you do?" Jane asked, interrupting his musings. She gawked at her forearms and the folds of her gown and she glared at him.

"Jane… all your life you have longed for nothing more than to reach the stars. They could all be yours. Imagine. Five thousand years to chase after each and every star or planet in the universe that you wish to grasp. Neither illness nor age will interrupt your studies. You can gather the greatest scholars from across the Nine Realms and expand your tutelage to include the greatest minds in Yggdrasil. With the power of the Bifrost at your fingertips, with knowledge of the secret pathways between stars, nothing could stop you from reaching to the very ends of the heavens."

With a rushed intake of breath, she leaned back on the counter and stared at him. Her lower lip began to quiver.

"Take your place in Asgard," Loki continued. He stepped forward to run a finger along the wreathe of diamonds in her hair and he dropped his voice to just above a whisper. "Lady Jannike, goddess of the stars, patroness of the sciences and all learning. You should not be bound to one mortal lifetime, one realm, one star. You should be free to explore it all."

"And Thor?"

"Will join you as soon as his banishment ends. It could be tomorrow, it could be a century from now. It matters not for your years are not limited. Wait for him to join you."

Her face suddenly grew hard as comprehension dawned on her. "You wish for me to leave Thor… to leave my family… behind and come with you to Asgard?"

"My magic cannot override that of the All-Father. Thor remains as he is, banished and exiled. However, he can look forward to knowing that you would be reunited in Asgard and he would not be forced to watch you die a mortal death or age till you pass beyond his reach. Do not force my brother to mourn for you. Let him look forward to thousands of years by your side."

"Why not wait until he goes home? Why now?" she asked.

"Must I expound upon the fragility of mortal existence or the uncertainty of the number of days before you?" Loki asked, one eyebrow arched in question.

"You… made me Aesir?" she realized. "That is why I feel so strange."

He nodded.

She jerked away from him with her eyes wide. She pulled the crown off her head and threw it onto the floor. It vanished in a shattering of magic on the floor.

"Damn patronizing aliens. Don't you ever ask first or you think you can do whatever the hell you please just cause you live a little longer? Your dad throws Thor on Earth as if it was his to use for his son's cosmic time out. Thor intentionally knocks me up without talking to me first. And you – you put spells all over my house so no GPS can find us and now are turning me into an alien without my permission. Didn't any of you learn to ask first?"

"Why ask- when we obviously know better than you?"

"That right there- that's what I'm talking about. You get all pissy over your dad doing the same thing to you and yet you think you have the right do the same thing to us."

"It is hardly the same."

"Isn't it? Oh, what, am I supposed to be delighted at you turning me in an Aesir?"

"Cannot you feel the strength of this form? The endurance?"

"My point remains. You should ask first."

"I believe that is the purpose of this conversation."

Jane huffed and stood up taller to face him. He registered her surprise as she realized just how much taller she stood. She looked around in confusion and then waggled her finger at him in accusation.

"What if I don't want to be Aesir?"

"Why, by the Norns, would you refuse?"

Chapter Text

Jane inhaled deeply and clutched to the counter behind her.  She released it just as quickly when her fingers left indentations in the tile and she stared at her hands as if they were foreign objects, interlopers intruding on her person.  Then, her eyes snapped back up to Loki, fire gleaming in their hazel depths. 

“What’s your endgame here, Loki?  From all Thor has told me, it’s not like Asgard has any great need for a random human or a burning passion for astrophysics.  What is it that you are trying to accomplish?  What do you have to gain by separating me from Thor?” 

Her final question tumbled out of her mouth like wine from an overturned bottle, as if she had not actually meant to voice it out loud but only muse on it herself.    Loki chuckled inwardly, impressed again by her shrewdness. 

“You… Loki, do you realize how screwed up this is?” She exclaimed, throwing up her hands in the air as she spoke.  The layers of her Asgardian gown fluttered from her elbows like bird wings and revealed the silver bracers adorning her forearms.  “How much more do you need to take away from Thor before you will be satisfied? He has already lost his family and his home and all his friends. He has lost his hammer and his strength and everything he once cared about.  Would you really strip him of the small happiness he has found here with us? For what?  Spite? Jealousy? A desire to one-up Thor in everything?”

“What if it is Thor who has gained everything and found the greatest treasure of all?” Loki said.  He drew even closer to her, towering over where she stood so she had to crane her neck to see him.  “What if I am simply attempting to preserve his happiness and guard his best interests for his future life?”

“Loki, I’ve had three kids.  I know how this game goes.  My kids will spend all night fighting over a discarded pizza box simply because their other sibling wants it.  It’s still a piece of trash.  The only reason it has value is because their sibling wants it.”

“You underestimate your value… and my intentions,” Loki said.  “I assure you; this is all for Thor’s benefit.”

“Oh, I’m sure,” Jane said, her eyes rolling dramatically.    “Thor told me.  About the others, I mean.  You have a history of stealing his girlfriends.”

“Surely ‘steal’ is not the appropriate word.”

“Fine.  ‘Borrow’ then.”

Loki remembered Thor's earliest conquests with a sense of bitter smugness and half-hearted gloating… he could not deny Jane’s accusation.  The courtly maids of the Aesir were all so predictably similar.  They demurred and petted and praised the Heir of the Nine, and some even fancied themselves in love with him, yet none would hesitate to welcome Loki’s advances from the shadows. If Loki was as close to the throne as they would get, they would welcome him, but only into their rooms, in private.  It became a sort of quiet game... how long it took a courtier to bed the heir and how long it would take the second prince to immediately conquer said maid.  Loki had never once been spurned, but Thor had never commented on it.

“And you believe yourself to be like his past conquests – those silly, ambitious courtiers who seek not Thor but a Prince of Asgard?  You would believe so little of me as to accuse me of covetous intent?  Do you think my jealousy so blinding that I would fight over the affections of a Midgardian wench?”

She did not answer, but the icy glare she leveled on him spoke more than words could say.  At first, he was angry and nearly overcome with a desire to defend himself.    Before he unleashed a barrage of verbal assaults on his sister-in-law, he paused, letting the tension of the moment before him soak into him and around him.  He took in the dim light of the kitchen, the pile of washed dishes, the partly opened cupboard filled with mugs and then he let his eyes fall on the woman in the middle of it all.  He had once considered her plain, unexceptional, and well-beneath the station and notice of his brother.  He had despised her, belittled her, and insulted her more times than he could count.  They had fallen into a comfortable sort of truce, a begrudging respect forged from their shared attachment to Thor and their common unquenchable lust for knowledge. 

Yet, now, with the decades washed off her and her Midgardian weakness transformed into Asgardian strength, she was anything but mundane.  With the fierce anger kindled in her eyes, her staunch defense of his brother, and the unabashed honesty of her address, she truly embodied the goddess he had promised she could become. 

No, Loki had not set out upon his current path with the intention of besting Thor for her affections… yet.  However, that was due more to the fact that he had not considered her a worthy prize… until now.  Once separated from Thor, alone on Asgard, dependent on Loki for everything, how easy would it be to ingratiate her to himself?  How sweet the challenge would be! For Thor to arrive in Asgard, restored and back to full strength, only to find that the one woman he ever truly loved now adored Loki? 

Then, perhaps, his brother would know true jealousy.  Finally, Thor would covet what Loki had and learn to admire Loki’s accomplishments.  He could not deny the allure.

And then? Another part of himself whispered.

Was Loki truly so predictable?  So childish? 

Loki would not deny his jealousy.  In this case, however, he was not sure if it was his jealousy of Thor or for Thor which most motivated his actions.  He was jealous of both Jane and Thor in equal measure.  Regardless of which took precedent, he would gain precious little by arguing with Jane or correcting her assumptions about his motivations.  Rather than protesting his innocence, he returned her accusing glare with an impassive, disinterested shrug and turned away to read through the various schedules and communications posted on their refrigerator. 

“You do not deserve him,” she accused, throwing her voice at the back of his head.  “What kind of brother are you?  How dare you undermine him like this.  He trusts you with his life.”

“What bothers you more, my Lady?  The offer I have presented to you or your own desire to accept it?” Loki answered, his head turning so he could grant her a frosty grin.  “I’ve watched you; I’ve seen you.  In your heart, you long for more.  You despise him for his simplicity.  You are not content with the life he can give you and wish he could give you more.  He does not understand you.  He trusts you with his life and yet you cannot deny you are tempted by my offer.  Do not deny it.  I see the hungry look in your eyes.  I’ve known it each time you ask me for knowledge.  I can give you what you seek and you know it and everything in you fights to accept.

“You see, Lady Jane, neither of us deserve Thor’s particular brand of loyalty or his unconditional affection.  Neither of us is truly worthy of what he has given us.  Yet, his love is never enough, will never be enough.  That is what we share in common.  We cannot escape our bindings to the oaf, no matter how we may wish to, and we are both trapped beneath his shadow, longing for a freedom which will never be ours, that freedom which he takes for granted and possesses in abundance.  We both long for that contentment that he cannot help but embody.”

“I cannot leave Thor,” she said, lowering her voice and shaking her head. “The very fact that you would suggest this shows me that you don't know the first thing about love.”

“You would refuse what your heart most desires?  You would deny the opportunity at thousands of years of life by Thor’s side in order to spend only what remains of your current lifetime with him?” Loki asked, turning to face her, derision clear in his voice.  “You could die tomorrow and Thor would be bereft.  If you are, as you claim, truly loyal to my brother, then you would agree to come with me now.”

Jane frowned and took one step back, though the way she wrung her hands before her revealed her anxiety even more clearly than her expression.  “I notice you do not include my children in this offer. You also are insisting I make the decision immediately and without Thor present to be part of the decision.  Maybe you mean well, but I don’t…” she began and then quickly stalled. 

“Say it.  You don’t believe me.  You do not trust me,” Loki said, his overexaggerated sigh masking his irritation.  It was so very predictable.  “Talk to Thor, if you wish.  I must away to Asgard this night as the All-Father has summoned me and I do not know when I may return.  It is the All-Father’s desire to have me return which grants me more… how shall I put it?  Bargaining power… which I could more easily use to gain you a legitimate station on Asgard.  Your children, well, that is more difficult.  They are under the protection of the House of Thor and I cannot take them from their father.  As children of Thor, they must remain with him and would not be welcomed on Asgard without him.”

Jane opened and closed her mouth once, her anger simultaneously deflating and rising at his explanation. 

“No, Loki,” she whispered and she took a step back.  He took one step forward to catch her hand in his. 

“Think on it.  I do not wish you to finish what remains of your short life with regret.”

“You would rather I live five thousand years haunted by regrets instead.”

“No,” Loki protested.  “I would ensure you have nothing to regret.”

It was only after speaking the words, when her palm flew through the air and made sound purchase on his cheek, did he realize how she interpreted them.  With Aesir strength behind the swing, his head flew back and he could feel the beginnings of a bruise begin to form.  He hissed in surprise and held one palm to the injured cheek. 

“Get out,” she hissed. 

“If you had met me first…,” Loki began, but he could not finish.  He had not meant to say it, but in a burst of anger, the words tumbled out and he only registered the truth of the words after he had spoken them aloud.  Instead, he gave a terse bow, swung around, and vanished into thin air, leaving the Midgardian woman to her modest kitchen and her trite, Midgardian existence. 

Jane clung to the bathroom counter, staring at the stranger in the mirror before her.  It was the woman from Loki’s illusion: elegant, tall, powerful, breathtakingly beautiful. 

It was not Jane.

Each flaw and blemish had been wiped away.  Each weakness transformed into strength.  She was ethereal, otherworldly, and Jane could not look away from her own reflection. 

She could see it.  The vision Loki had painted, the snare he had laid for her.  She could see herself traipsing across the cosmos, seeking to fulfill her insatiable lust for knowledge, devouring each new solar system, each new galaxy, each new experience for thousands of years.  Would five thousand years ever be enough?  Or would she then seek some means to extend her life further?  Some means of granting infinity to her finite existence?  Wasn’t that the secret of immortality: learning to count each and every star? 

Oh, it was a rush of exhilaration that raced through her as she let her imagination travel across the Bifrost and see the spires of Asgard for herself.  She thought of all Loki had told her of his travels, his studies, his fantastical knowledge.  It was a dream come true, wasn’t it? 

Maybe. 

If she had met Loki first.

Those poisonous words snaked through her mind again, stealing the breath from her throat and making her nauseous. 

At the thought of Thor, her own fallen star, bound to a terrestrial existence, and the three little burning flames of life they had created together, she had to close her eyes and step away from the mirror. 

They would understand, she told herself.  They would come, too.  Eventually.

She sighed and rubbed her hand across her face.  What good came from trusting in the honeyed promises of the God of Mischief?  How much chaos could he reap in her life with only a few dangled words?

She made her way into the bedroom and lay on the bed, the fine Asgardian dress falling from in rivulets of silken folds.  The material was so beautiful she almost felt like the plain comforter she lay upon would taint it with its cotton ignominy.  She wondered if Loki planned on turning her fancy dress back into her jeans or if she was stuck with a dress she could never wear again, made for a woman she was not supposed to be.  She wondered just how long she was trapped in an Aesir form.  She didn’t mind the lack of aches and pains and so would enjoy that aspect for the night, however she dearly hoped she didn’t have to kiss a frog or find a magic apple or something to turn back to being herself again. 

She tossed and turned, her mind full and troubled, and she knew she would not find sleep that night.  Still, her mind was too full of galaxies and the allure of grasping those stars herself.  It was some hours later when she finally heard the tell-tale sounds of doors and Thor slowly crept into the room.  She felt him stop when he saw her lying on the bed, her eyes wide open. 

In the light cast by the bedside lamp, he did a double-take.  His eyes grew wide and he knelt down at the bedside and ran his hand along the folds of her gown and along her exposed shoulders. 

“Hey,” she said, granting him a smile. 

“My Jane, what is this?” he said, lingering on a jewel at the nape of her neck and running his hand down the bracers on her forearms. 

“Your brother…,” she began, then she bit on her bottom lip, unsure how much to tell him. Considering Loki hadn’t bothered to turn her back yet, she had no choice in the matter.  It was hard to miss that she was now a foot taller and appeared twenty-five years younger than she had been this morning. 

“My brother is clothing you in Asgardian garb fit for royalty?”

“Your brother offered to make me Aesir and take me to Asgard,” Jane said and explained all that had passed between them that night. 

“Jane, I cannot promise you I will ever return to Asgard,” Thor said.  “I have not guarantee that I will one day return, even if my brother seems to feel otherwise.”

“I know.  That’s part of why I refused.”

Thor sat back on his heels and his brow stormed over.  In that moment, such a maelstrom of emotion clouded his face that Jane knew she had made the right decision. 

“You… what?”

“I refused to go. He said your dad called him back to Asgard and he had to leave tonight.  I think I pissed him off cause he stormed outta here in a temper and I haven’t seen him since.”

Thor released a heavy breath and leaned forward to clasp his hands on hers, laying them both against the now firm plane of her abdomen.  He nestled his face into her lap and rested there. 

“Would it please you?  To go, I mean.  I do not wish to hinder you.  I know how much staying at my side has cost you, how you long for so much more than I can grant you.  I admit, to spend my days without you would be akin to the spring without the sun, but I would not wish to be the cause to rob you of this opportunity.  My brother has the means to grant you all he offered.”

She looked at the earnest, devastated blue depths of his eyes and she granted him a soft smile.  “You really mean that?”

“I would not say so if I did not.”

 She propped her head upright on one hand so she could see him better, forcing his hands to settle on the curve of her hip and his head to fall upon the bed beside her so she could see him more clearly. 

“You really mean that, don’t you?  Thor, I realized something tonight that I hadn’t known before.  Once, this might have worked and I would have taken Loki up on his offer, but you know what?  I’ve studied the stars as long as I can remember and there are always more stars than I can ever hope to study.  That’s part of their magic.  They are truly infinite and I am not.  Anyone that tries to tell me otherwise is lying.  A hundred thousand years wouldn’t be enough.  The stars have been there for millions of years and they will still be there for millions of years after I am gone.  They will never know my name and their secrets will remain, whether I discover them or not.  They are cold, lifeless things from far away which, when approached too closely, would incinerate me in moments.  I cannot grasp them or cling to them or keep them as my own.  Perhaps, I could traipse across planets and galaxies, but for what?  Who will benefit from what I learn?  Is it only for my own knowledge that I learn?  Is it only for my own mind that I study?

“It was this realization that helped me make my decision.  Thor, I’d rather be dissatisfied here, in my own home on Earth with my own family, than dissatisfied on another planet, far away and alone, even if it meant I get a few thousand more galaxies to study.  So, I choose to I remain Dr. Jane Foster, Midgardian astrophysicist, mother of three beautiful children, and wife of Thor Odinson.  Perhaps I am settling for too little but I believe I have found the universe right here and I would rather enjoy the light of the stars I currently have than run after those I can never hope to reach.”

“You are certain?” Thor asked, his voice quavering on the syllables and his hand clasping hers as if he was afraid to let go.

She sat up and placed each of her hands against his temple, leaning her forehead against his.  “I am.  I may regret it once my arthritis flares up again, but that is my decision.” 

Thor angled his face upwards with a quick thrust and fervently kissed her, infusing the motion with a desperate passion, a fire all the more precious for how close he had felt to losing it.  Jane answered the kiss with her own, not arguing as Thor began to untie the fastenings of her Asgardian dress and pulled her ever closer into him, her Aesir form all the more conscious of his Midgardian fragility and how vast the chasm of differences remained between them, even as they sought to forge a bridge.

When Jane woke the next morning, cushioned against Thor’s chest, she noted that it was a worn pair of jeans and old t-shirt that lay on the floor where her Asgardian dress had fallen the night before.  She glanced down at herself, noting the familiar scars and age marks on her skin.  She stretched her toes.  The expected aches accompanied the motion.  She snuggled down further against Thor, in all his mortal imperfection, and she closed her eyes in contentment.

When the siren call of coffee forced her to emerge from the bedroom, she yawned and padded her way down the carpeted hall to the kitchen.  She paused by the dining room when her attention was seized by a riot of colors on the table.  There, a bouquet of lilies poured out of a gilded vase and onto the face of the table, each flower a different combination of colors.  They were unlike anything she had ever seen.  Each lily was sculpted out of perfect, translucent ice.  Despite the warmth of the room, they did not melt or wilt.  Most spectacular of all, within the heart of each lily shone a miniature galaxy of stars.  No matter how close she studied them, she could not find their end. 

Nearby, a small note was scrawled on a piece of ivory parchment:

Lady Jannike, If you will not follow after the stars, then they must come to you.

Chapter Text

Loki hid in his chambers upon his arrival back in Asgard. It was late at night and he preferred to postpone the imminent confrontation with Odin for as long as possible. Slipping invisibly through seams of space and hiding through the shadows of the palace, Loki reached his allotted wing of the palace without anyone noticing.

It felt like half a lifetime had passed from the last time he walked through his chambers. The familiar scents and sights in the room stirred up a variety of emotions – from familiar nostalgia to rampant disgust. Ever since his last conversation with the All-Father – that night he was informed of his true origins – these chambers had sat empty. Well, empty enough. By the lack of dust and presence of freshly laundered linens, he knew his mother had ordered his rooms to be maintained. It wouldn't matter if he returned in a day or a hundred years, his mother would keep his rooms ready in hopes he would return.

Loki stood by the open window, looking down on the glittering lights of the city below, and he felt all the more inadequate to embody the façade of a prince of Asgard. Yet, that was the role Odin summoned him back to play, though it felt even more a deception now than it had ever been before.

"I don't want to be Aesir."

Jane's words ricocheted through his mind, overturning carefully constructed towers of Aesir ideals. His entire life, he had been taught that everyone wanted to be Aesir. In the Nine Realms, there were only two types of people: the Aesir and those who wished to be Aesir.

How could Jane refuse? He could give her everything – he could take her from Midgard and grant her a life on Asgard. He could grant her an Aesir form and an opportunity to pursue her greatest passions. She would have all the benefits and prestige of Asgard's royal family. Yet, she refused.

If it was out of ignorance, Loki could understand it. However, she had dwelt with Thor, former prince of Asgard and he knew enough of his brother's pride not to doubt Thor had regaled her with tales of the glory of Asgard. Even if banishment had somehow muted his delight in his Aesir heritage, Loki, himself, had spent countless hours recounting the many benefits of Asgard and the superiority of the Aesir over all other in the Nine Realms. Unless she had entirely stopped her ears or simply lost her memory, then she must know. More than any other on Midgard, she should long for Asgard.

"I don't want to be Aesir."

When had Loki ever been brave enough to cry that... and mean it? His entire life, he had sought to embody Aesir ideals, to inhabit the expectations of Asgard, and to prove himself worthy despite how far he fell short. To be proved anything less than "Aesir" was his greatest fear and yet Jane spoke of it so flippantly, so dismissively, as if it didn't matter. As if it was not all that mattered.

It was in her genuineness, her utter bare sincerity, that most resembled Thor. Neither could lie to save their lives. Loki both despised them and loved them for it. While he could wield deception as a trap and truth as a weapon, he prided himself on his discernment of the intents of others. How could he have been so wrong? She meant it. She chose a humiliated mortal Thor over the remaining prince of Asgard and Midgard's austerity over the glory of Yggdrasil's Crown.

Jane's words were laced with poisonous, corrosive truth which ate away at his own voluntary blindness and broke his fragile acceptance of his reality. Hiding on Midgard, he had sought to escape the truth of his origins. He was not Aesir. Nothing he could do would make him so, no matter how he fought or tried to prove otherwise. Yet, accepting the fact that he was not Aesir was a far cry from choosing not to be Aesir. Just the thought was contrary to everything he had ever known or been taught from infancy that he did not know what to do with it.

The courtiers on Asgard were only too willing to shift their public approval to Loki after his brother's banishment. Once Loki found a delicious challenge in overcoming their aversions to him, undermining their overt dislike, or delighting in their hypocrisy. Once Thor was no longer the heir, there was no challenge at all. The Aesir were more than willing to shift their flattery to the new heir apparent and his popularity exploded overnight.

And it was as false as it had ever been.

In truth, it was Asgard's Crown and the illusory power it granted that they longed for, not the glory of her princes. Stripped of that crown, they were nothing. They were so easily cast aside and forgotten. It was so easy, so simple, so despicable.

The current heir of Asgard's throne was not Aesir. He lived as an Aesir, but only in action. He was a Jotun who lived as an Aesir, who had been taught his entire life to hate himself and the realm he came from, that the only way to wish to live was as an Aesir.

Yet Jane, in all her insatiable curiosity and intelligence, chose to remain a mortal on Midgard. He had counted on her greed to define her. He was positive that her lust for knowledge would prove her defining trait and that he could prove her interest in Thor was one purchased by xenophilia alone. He thought that when offered the chance to see her beloved stars and travel the universe that she would stay true to her first love and agree.

It was Loki, not Jane, who was proved false, and the shockwaves of her refusal shook Loki to his core. In her refusal to become Aesir, she proved herself of greater worth than any other on Asgard, at least in Loki's eyes. Yet, this was a worth which Asgard would never recognize and would even despise. In light of this, Loki had to consider the possibility that Asgard could be wrong. Both Asgard's estimation and derision could be flawed and short-sighted. It was just possible that Asgard could be blind, in some ways, to true worth.

Or to what made a man a king.

And maybe, just maybe, Asgard was not the sole object of desire in the universe, the central measure of all that was to be valued and sought. Perhaps not even Mjolnir could discern the true measure of a man.

Loki was not sure whether to despise or adore Jane for her decision. In truth, if she had agreed, he would have remained just as torn. If he had succeeded in bringing her to Asgard, if she had conceded to his offer, he would have disdained her for it. Accepting the illusory worth of the Aesir would have robbed her of some of her true value. By refusing his offer, she gained all the more worth and weight in his eyes. Despite any and all promises elsewhere, despite her heart's own desires, she chose loyalty to Thor and that fierce fidelity was a trait more beautiful than any Loki had ever seen before.

His brother's mortal wife was the embodiment of the very stars she so loved. She could only be admired from afar for to approach too close was to risk incineration. The light he now saw was already beyond his grasp, farther away than he could ever hope to reach. In his mind, in his memory, she would forever dwell not as the mortal Jane Foster but as so much more. She was the extinguished promise, the unreachable potential of a star already vanished, whose light lingers for the distance it has travelled. Like Jane and her infinite universe of stars, he could admire that light from afar, but he could never claim it as his own, never feel its heat upon his skin, never grasp it as anything but a vanished memory, an echo of what once was and what could have been. In Loki's estimation, she had become divine, but only because she refused her own immortality.

Loki felt all the more the isolation of his chambers and the hollow emptiness of the role he filled. Absentmindedly, he ran his hand along the windowsill. He tangled his fingers through the sash around the curtain, but he did not move away from the window until dawn broke over the horizon and the first rays of light splashed onto the rooftops below him.

It was late in the morning before Loki decided he had tarried long enough. He nearly startled the wits out of a servant in the hall when he burst through a door and summoned for a meal to be brought to him in his chambers.

"While you are at it, can you please inform the All-Father and All-Mother that I have returned," he said.

He had bypassed the Bifrost and the Gatekeeper's knowledge of his return, thus the typical fanfare and public announcement of the return of a prince to Asgard never occurred. It was quite the breach of etiquette, but Loki rather delighted in that. The whispers would abound – both over his sudden and extended absence and his secretive return. Still, if Odin had the audacity to command him to return, Loki would make sure the All-Father rued that command as much as possible.

Loki was not surprised when it was Frigga and not Odin who first appeared at his door. Frigga immediately enfolded him in a tight embrace and refused to release him until he chided her and forced her to release him.

"Don't you ever leave like that again," she exhorted. "Do you think my heart can bear the absence of both my sons at once?"

"There is a simple enough solution. Bring Thor back and you need never dwell without a son again," he retorted.

"Loki," Frigga began with a long-suffering sigh.

"No, Mother. What is it that he must do? At least inform him so he knows! So that I know! This ambiguity is more than should be born. What is the All-Father waiting for?"

Frigga did not have the chance to answer before the subject of their conversation emerged from the doorway. Frigga cast Loki an apologetic glance and vanished back into the hall, but not before placing a gentle hand on Loki's forearm and entreating him to listen.

Odin did not bother with formalities and he did not sit. Instead, he paced the room, his one eye fixed on Loki with such intensity that Loki struggled not to shirk away from it.

"Tell me, my son, how is Thor ever to learn the lessons I mean him to with incessant interference from Asgard? What other mortal has the prince and queen of Asgard at their beck and call? No, Loki. You must cease this meddling in his affairs. Do not think I have forgotten your role in his banishment. This separation is for your benefit as much as for his. You must lead your own life as well rather than setting all your sights and focus entirely on your brother."

"But you left him on Midgard without any protections! Have you paid any heed to the dangers he has faced?"

"Aye. 'Tis true. 'Tis the same as any other mortal. I do not see you running in aid to any others."

"No other is my brother."

"Then you do not understand what it means to be king. Loki, to be a king, a brother must be as any other mortal and any mortal as a brother. You cannot allow your sentiment to cloud your judgement or influence your edicts. Loki, in the same breath you castigate Thor as unprepared for the throne and then hinder him from the experiences which will prepare him for the throne. Wish you see him made worthy or no?"

"What more does he need to do?" Loki cried. "Surely he has done enough to prove himself! At least tell him what you expect so that he may have the chance to fulfill it!"

"Loki, did you ever once pause to consider there is purpose behind my decisions? Of all Midgard, I deposited Thor in a polity plagued by neither war nor famine nor plague. He arrived in an isolated locale, far out of the notice of any save a handful of mortals. He was not far from both Mjolnir and a protective agency tasked with the defense of Midgard. He would have easily proved himself decades ago, if not for your constant interference in his affairs."

Loki paused and slowly answered, "You wished for him to work for SHIELD? They did not seek his good but his harm."

"Loki, Thor has not your propensity for camouflage, for strategy, or for secrecy. If you had not warned him away from them, Thor would have been in the center of political affairs on Midgard and spent time forming alliances with crucial leaders from across the realm. He would have gained exposure to the inner workings of life on the realm as it is now.

"No, according to Loki, in all your infinite wisdom, you preferred he remain insulated in a single location, free from serious want or conflict or the realities of life facing most of the realm. He knows little else than revels, the pursuit of sustenance, child-rearing, and the comforts of a privileged Midgardian existence. He is convinced he has faced challenges and yet has dwelt in relative comfort and ease in comparison with the majority of the inhabitants of the realm. And this small sliver of life he has lived, he will attribute to the realm as a whole and never wonder at the possible limitations of his exposure. He will believe himself an 'expert' on Midgard, without having seen more than a single place and people."

"Then why not tell him what you expect?" Loki cried out. "Why force him to stumble his way through?"

"Because, unlike your mother and you, I do not believe he should be coddled. He has been instructed all his life in the ways a prince of Asgard is to conduct himself on foreign realms. Yet, whenever given the opportunity, he forgets all those lessons immediately upon arrival on foreign soils. If he cannot remember even the most basic instructions, then he must remain as he is until he is ready to learn."

"So, that's it, then? You plan to forget about him on Midgard, letting him wilt and rot away until he somehow intuits your unspoken expectations?"

"What is that to you? Loki, how is Thor to grow if you continue to treat him as an infant and intercede in his affairs? What, of all he has experienced on Midgard, has not been influenced by your hand and your wisdom?" Odin said, sarcasm dripping from his words.

"He needs his family."

"Is it that he needs you or that you need him? This is temporary, Loki. He will return. For now, leave him be."

"And if I don't, what will you do? Banish me to Midgard? Exile me to Jotunheim? Remove me from the line of succession? Turn me into a mortal? Go ahead. I would be most pleased to be sent away from here. Or perhaps my punishment is to be imprisoned on Asgard for my crime of wishing to visit my brother."

Odin growled and ran his hands through his beard. "Why bother banishing you when you choose to banish yourself? How long have you hidden yourself away from your duties and responsibilities in your brother's mortal lodgings? You are the sole heir to the throne for the time being and I expect you to behave as if you take that responsibility seriously."

"I am not your child," Loki retorted, leveling a glare on Odin and allowing his greatest conflict to surface. "It is a falsehood to masquerade me as your heir."

"May the Norns help you if they ever grant you such children! With Thor, there is nothing that can be done. He is my blood and there is no choice in the matter. He is as he is and he was born my heir.

"You, Loki, are my son by choice. Of all the souls in the universe, you were chosen to be grafted into the House of Odin. That is not a choice we made flippantly or without great weight and consideration. Knowing both your origins and ancestry, we still chose you. Perhaps, once, there was consideration to use you to form an alliance between realms, but that is the curse of being son to a king. If it were Thor who was second in line to the throne, he, too, would be in such a situation. Through marriage or diplomacy, he is more than only a son, he is a prince, as you are, and nothing you do is done without political and symbolic meaning. Thor was next in line to the throne based on our rules of succession. Now, you are next in line until Thor proves himself worthy. You are already considered worthy unless you prove yourself otherwise."

"But Mjolnir…"

"Is not what defines the throne but what defines who may wield the power of Thor. Are you so dissatisfied with your own considerable powers that you would wish to usurp your brother's as well? Is it not enough to be the most powerful mage, you would also overshadow your brother in this?"

"It is I who has ever been the shadow!"

"Yet the moment your brother is absent, you choose to hide behind him still! Loki, it is your turn to stand in the full light and be the prince of Asgard you were chosen to be."

"But I am not Aesir!"

"You are still a prince of the Aesir and a Son of Odin, whether you be Aesir or not. There is no law which requires the throne be bound to Aesir heritage nor is there any law barring a Jotun from taking Asgardian citizenship."

Loki allowed the shift from his Aesir form to his Jotun and he stared at the All-Father's face with his red eyes full of defiance.

"Then why hide my identity behind an Aesir façade? Should I not traverse the realms in my natal heritage? You adopted me because you had use for me. It was my Jotun heritage that you found pragmatic, so, use it. Let me be on full display. Let all Asgard know their crowned prince is a son of Laufey."

Odin roared back, "Loki, you know better than this! We cannot just parade you through Asgard as you are until formal diplomatic announcements have been made with Jotunheim… and this is tantamount to beginning another war with Jotunheim."

"So, we are to keep pretending, keep with the charade, and make sure none know my identity?"

"No. If full disclosure is what you wish, then I will send you to Jotunheim to work this out with Laufey first. Then, you may parade around Asgard in Jotun skin till your heart is content, but only after I address all Asgard and appropriately prepare them. If you wish to cause chaos, this would surely be a tempest, but your first duty is to the protection of the realm and so you know better."

"Because you are ashamed."

"Because I lied to not only you but the entire Nine Realms," Odin roared, his temper showing in the flash of his eyes and the increasing clench of his fists.  "That is not something easily disclosed or revealed without consequences!"

"Then you admit it!"

"It was never denied! Loki, what would have occurred if I had introduced you to all the realms as a Jotun babe? In our tentative truce with Jotunheim, it would have proved a diplomatic nightmare and not even our most gifted emissaries would have been able to argue for the legality of it. Yes, the wisdom of taking in Laufey's son is suspect and perhaps I prove myself victim to sentimentality, but I would not go back and choose differently. Perhaps I am proved even more the fool Thor accused me to be in keeping the truth from you for so long. Even worse, perhaps I am proved to be a coward, yet I thought it for the best. Now, as a man of age and a prince of Asgard, I will bow to your wisdom and wishes. What is it that you wish? If you wish for all the realms to know the truth, then we will call a council meeting and begin drafting an appropriate announcement. If you wish otherwise, then I will not argue otherwise. You must be the one to decide what is best, as you no longer agree with the wisdom of my decisions. Tell me, Loki, what is it that you want?"

Chapter Text

Loki was surprised by the solitude granted him upon his return to Asgard.  No summons came from the All-Father.  No servants came to request his appearance at feasts or in the throne room.  Not even a single stack of parchments appeared for his official review.  After such an extended absence and Odin’s many requests for him to return, Loki had expected an immediate outpouring of duties to fall upon his desk and clamor for his attention.  Instead, he was met with delicious silence. 

Once, he might have chafed against being so “ignored” and quickly grown restless for activity, but now, well, the solitude was like a draught of cool water in the fires of Muspelheim.  He did not once decry the monotony.  He hardly knew how many hours or days passed as he took refuge in the quiet of his chambers, his attention hardly moving past the view from his balcony or his own tumultuous internal roiling. 

Once or twice, he wondered if his seclusion was a boon of the All-Mother or the meddlings of the All-Father.  In the end, he decided it did not matter.  He would accept it, regardless of the source.  The fact that his mother did not even intrude on him made him attribute it more to her own machinations than those of Odin.  He doubted even an edict from the All-Father would keep Frigga from pursuing her son.  However, if it was an idea borne out of her own interference, then she would give him the distance she knew he needed.

His mother’s intuition was rarely wrong. 

Loki thought long and hard over Odin’s words.  Was there merit to his accusations?  Was it Loki’s hand which kept Thor from returning?  Where would Thor have been now, if not for Loki’s meddling? He could admit that there were some uncomfortable truths to Odin’s words.  It was Loki who disrupted Thor’s coronation and prompted him to invade Jotunheim. It was Loki who gave Thor the Mjolnir pendant and steered him away from SHIELD.  Perhaps, if thrust into the nefarious innerworkings of SHIELD and set apart from Jane and his fall into domesticity, the mighty Thor would have proved himself worthy a decade ago.  Perhaps Thor was always meant to become a defender of Midgard rather than an ordinary citizen. 

If not for Loki, would Thor’s banishment have been avoided?  Would it have ended sooner?  Perhaps it was Loki would who meddled with his brother’s proper fate and tangled the innerworkings of the Norns.

Loki knew that his next meeting with his brother would be ripe with conflict.  Jane was little better at duplicity than his brother and he did not doubt she would have shared the entirety of his offer the moment Thor returned to her.  Thor would be as torn as Jane over it, and, rightly, angry. 

Yet, Thor’s banishment was not his only pressing concern as he paced his room.  Odin’s offer of self-disclosure was unexpected.  Loki spent more hours than he could count gazing at his own reflection in his mirror and mulling over the view of Asgard, wondering how the realm would respond to their Jotun prince.  It was a truth which, once spoken, could never be unsaid and Odin was correct.  It was not a decision to be made impulsively or out of a rash desire to incite mischief.  It was neither simple nor easy to predict what the implications would be for such an announcement.  Yet, maintaining the secret of his origins was just an unpredictable.  What would be the fate of Asgard if his origins were revealed at another time, in a more unexpected way? 

As much as Loki hated to admit it, Odin was correct.  He needed to consider what was best for Asgard and not only respond out of the emotions roaring through him like a stampede of bilgesnipes.  If it were Thor or Thor’s children, what would he choose to do? 

Odin All-Father did not hesitate to send all his servants and guards out of his office when Loki finally sought him out.  It was the work of a moment to dispense of the stack of parchments before him and to fix that one impenetrable stare on the recently emerged prince.

Loki had sought out Frigga first, of course, as she had known he would. For days, he had paced the length and breadth of her personal chamber, regaling her with all his frustrations and questions and accusations.    

“How could you lie to me?” he cried out, his sense of betrayal the underlying kindling to his anger.  “You, of all people, should have told me the truth!”

She did not flinch when he cast a dagger into a nearby vase and then poured out his remaining wrath onto the table that once held it.  It was only after he collapsed onto the ground, panting from the many shouts he had flung at her shadow, that she approached him and knelt beside him, a wary hand seeking his quivering shoulder.  With her other hand, she forced his chin upwards so she could force her gaze into his eyes. 

“Since the moment I first held you in my arms, you were my son.  I have never lied about that.”

“You should have told me.”

“You are right.”

“I should have been informed.”

“Yes, darling, you should have.”

He released a sound half-way between a gasp and a chuckle and pulled back from her so his face could fall back to the floor.  He felt as if he was once again a stumbling youth, seeking guidance from the presence of his mother and crying over a skinned knee after a quarrel with another youth.    

“What am I to do now?” he pleaded, as if she could guide him as she had once done.  He felt a gentle squeeze on his shoulder again. 

“Loki, I will not pretend your father and I have not made mistakes or that I would not have made different decisions if time’s clock worked backwards.  Loki, it is your decision what you will do next and who you will become.  I will not claim the perfection of either of my sons, but I do have faith in your ability to become the man I know you can be.  Just know that I love you, no matter what you decide.”

He arched an eyebrow and looked up at her defiantly.  “And if I were to decide to overthrow my brother to ensure the throne is my own?”

Frigga snorted and hid her smile behind her hand.  “Is that what you have been plotting, these many months dwelling with him in Midgard?”

“Of course.  What else?”

“I do believe that the best way to encourage Thor to take the throne in earnest would be for you to threaten to supplant him.  If you admit to your own disinterest then your father will be hard-pressed to inspire Thor to take on the responsibility.”

“Why, mother, if I did not know otherwise, I would accuse you of encouraging rivalry over the throne!”

“Loki, if it were not your desire to keep up with Thor, I doubt you would have worked so hard on the training grounds.  While you may not believe me when I say it, I daresay Thor would not have worked nearly so hard in his studies if he were not trying to prove himself next to you.  He may never reach your knowledge as a scholar, but he never would have attended classes as willingly if it were not your enthusiasm for them.”

Loki gaped at his mother slightly before rolling his eyes. “Now I know you jest.”

“Do you think I do not know my own sons?” she asked, her blue eyes daring him to counter her.  “You may fight.  You may quarrel.  You may each be the first to strike the other, but woe to any other who seek to harm a Son of Odin!  I know you both and you sharpen each other, like blades upon a whetting stone.” 

“Do not let Thor know you compared him to a blade rather than a hammer.”

She laughed and pulled him into a tight embrace.  She placed a kiss onto his forehead before releasing him. 

Late into that night and the next, their conversation continued as Loki sought to decide how he wished to proceed.  While there may have been more insults and accusations, Frigga’s longsuffering patience slowly bled them of their vitriol.  By the time Loki sought out Odin, he came with his anger burnt down into long-simmered embers rather than the exploding tongues of oil upon flames. 

Much to Loki’s irritation, Odin did not tell him to sit and he did not comment upon the Midgardian clothes he wore.  Instead, he simply watched as Loki began to pace, his hands clasped behind his back.  Loki allowed the silence to wear on, as grating as an untuned string plucked upon a lyre, and he let his gaze fix on anything rather than the looming presence at the desk in the center of the room. 

“Secrets have a way of emerging from hidden places when we least wish them to, like a rodent from a hole,” Loki finally said, breaking the silence.  “I prefer to choose when and how such secrets are uncovered lest they be used as weapons against me when I am least prepared for them.”

Odin’s eyebrow furrowed, making the twin scars across his forehead ripple.  He clasped his hands before him on the desk and continued to wait, but he did not look away from Loki. 

“I propose we determine the best way to inform Asgard and the Nine Realms of the truth and mitigate the implications as much as possible before we make our announcements.”

Odin nodded once.  “How would you recommend we go about the announcement?”

“I would assume the first step will be a rather unpleasant discussion with Laufey to formalize the shift of paternity.”

Odin snorted and leaned back in his chair with a weary sigh.  “Unpleasant may be an understatement.  You are certain?”

“I would rather dispense with such conversations now, while the realms are at peace, with plenty of preparation, rather than at a time when the realms are in conflict or during a time of succession when Asgard is vulnerable.  If we tarry, I fear what accusations may be made if any discover the heir of Asgard is not legally a son of Odin.”

“Will you wish for a public fosterage ceremony in front of all Asgard, then?”

“It is the custom, is it not?”

“Aye.”

“Then, let everything be done publicly and according to the law so that none may challenge my position.  I would prefer to face the disavowal and disapproval of Asgard while you preside on the throne and still claim me as heir than upon succession with none behind me but those who wish to place a dagger in my back.”

“As you say,” Odin said, his expression still inscrutable and Loki, not for the first time, wished he could penetrate into the thoughts below the surface.  Was Odin pleased?  Was he angry?  Did he disagree?  Loki could not tell. 

Yet, as Loki considered this, he realized it need not matter if Odin disagreed or not, as long as the All-Father stood behind him in his decision.  Was not that part of truly learning what it meant to be king?  A king could make poor decisions or wise ones, but regardless, he sat alone on his throne and had to face the consequences of those decisions forever after.  Was this not what Odin intended when he made Thor king?  Loki bit back the sudden wave of regret that curdled in his chest.  If he had not interrupted Thor’s coronation, then it would be Thor, rather than Loki, forced to face the weight of Gungnir and the longevity of the realms.  Yet, he could not change it nor go back in time. 

“I will gather my advisers and our emissary to Jotunheim and we will draft the appropriate oath.  Then, we will decide the best way to speak with Laufey,” Odin said. 

Loki nodded.  He finally stopped pacing and stood before the desk; his hands still clasped behind his back.  He was about to make his departure when Odin’s gaze turned hard and focused on some unseen object, far beyond Loki.  It was Odin’s turn to let a tense silent soak into the room, which seemed to grow oppressively small with the weight of whatever Odin was considering.  Then, he appeared to come to a decision for he wrapped his fist against his desk and clasped Gungnir in his other hand.  He whispered a silencing spell over the room and then the old king also rose to his feet and began to pace. 

“My son, there is wisdom in facing truths, however unpleasant.  I will admit that you convict me of my own cowardice in choosing to postpone such truths.  I may claim some secrets are kept for the ‘good of the realms’ but you speak wisely.  Let us face the truth, no matter how difficult, and plan accordingly together.”

Loki was so taken aback by Odin’s confession that he sat in the nearby chair and simply watched as the All-Father paced the room in nearly the same manner that Loki had done earlier.  He recognized the unease undergirding the movements and Loki wondered when he had last seen Odin so discomposed. 

“My origin is not the only secret,” Loki surmised, a sense of foreboding washing over him like ice water. 

“Nay, Loki.  That is child’s play in comparison with what I have to speak of next.”

“Tell me and let us be done with secrets and half-truths and omissions.”

“Thor is not my firstborn.  The greatest danger my heir will face is the return of my daughter upon my death.”

All Loki’s knowledge of Asgard proved as much a façade as the frescoes on the vaulted dome of the throne room in the palace.  The smiling faces of his family proved only a cover for the blood-soaked paintings underneath.  Layers upon layers of history were simply covered up with ever more elaborate lies, as if a thin layer of plaster and paint was enough to change the course of the last five millennia.

 It was little wonder he had not noticed the intricate spellwork disguising his natal form.  The entire realm was saturated in just as complicated and deceptive of spells to suppress the natal form of the Realm Eternal itself.  Asgard’s face was as false as Loki’s and the realm herself could not even uphold her own ideals.  They were both the products of Odin’s imaginings, born of lies and war and desperately longing for facades of virtues not innately theirs. 

“Truly, All-Father, is there a means of child-rearing and correction other than banishment and exile?” Loki had protested, once he had enough time to consider Odin’s revelations and spent many more days pacing his room in solitude.

“With such children…,” Odin began, until Loki’s harsh laughter cut him off. 

“With such children, I should take it as a compliment that I am not your blood kin!  Truly, it is of little wonder you chose to adopt a child not of your own – though, I wonder at choosing the offspring of your sworn enemy?  Surely, Alfheim or Vanaheim could have produced a more worthy babe to enfold into your mighty lineage?”

It was not the first time that Loki saw Odin deflate under his barbed words nor the first time he reveled in his newfound power to provoke his adoptive father.  In years past, Odin would never have accepted such insolence, but now, the old man simply cast a grave, regretful glance at his only remaining child.  His lack of ire dulled any victory Loki hoped to gain and he could not delight in the heavy slant of Odin’s shoulders nor the more prominent lines beneath his eyes as he sighed in response. 

It was disconcerting to realize the signs of age upon the All-Father and note how the Odinsleep did not quite return him to full power.  The gnawing fear that Thor would not return before Odin had to step down niggled at his thoughts at night and ate at him during his daily duties.  If… if… if that occurred, Loki would be king.  Permanently.  Even if Thor returned, if it was after the official succession had taken place then the best Thor could become was Loki’s possible successor. 

There was little Loki could do to change Thor’s circumstances, especially this far from Midgard.  It was not only out of deference to the All-Father that Loki avoided Midgard.  In truth, Loki suddenly found time slipping away from him faster than he could harness.  A plethora of secret councils were gathered and long weeks of heated discussions commenced with the wisest minds in Asgard. 

As if that wasn’t enough, the All-Father gave Loki, Sif, and the Warriors three another task.  They were to gather hidden relics.  These were not across the Nine Realms.  No, that would be far too simple.  These were relics of inestimable power that were hidden across the entire universe.  Finding a single relic could easily take Loki’s entire lifetime and Odin charged him to gather all six of them. 

“You would trust me with an Infinity Stone?” Loki questioned, a half-smile on his lips. 

Odin grimaced and allowed his head to fall heavily on his hands.  “I trust no one with such relics, least of all myself.  It is enough to say I trust them in your hands more than those of Malekith or the Mad Titan or Hela Odindóttir.”

“Such praise astounds, All-Father!  To admit you prefer the bastard prince of Laufey to Asgard’s greatest enemies.  I am sure Laufey would be most pleased.”

“Why must you twist my words?” Odin shouted back; his anger finally piqued. 

Rather than answer, Loki analyzed his fingernails and tapped his foot against the floor for a moment.  “What precisely do you expect me to do with these Stones?” Loki demanded. 

“Hide them.”

“And prove myself more adept at hiding potentially explosive secrets than the House of Odin?”

Odin clenched his teeth and grumbled under his breath.  Then he pierced Loki through with his gaze again.  “What would you suggest?”

“Ah! Now that you asked!  I would sire my own children who I can then send out to conquer what remains of the known universe, wielding the Infinity Stones as their own personal trinkets of mass destruction, and then, once I can claim the throne of all the realms known to exist, I will banish them all and forget about their existence.  Then, perhaps, I will adopt a Midgardian peasant as my heir.”

“Loki…,” Odin began but Loki grinned widely and waved him away. 

“If that plan will not satisfy you, then, perhaps I may simply hide the Stones away, beyond the reach of any save myself.”

“I believe that is the same plan I stated before.”

“Ah, but you did not add the second caveat.”

“Do you believe yourself capable to wield the Infinity Stones without causing irreparable harm to yourself and all you exert their influence on?”

“I believe that if I am bored of ruling in future millennia then I should simply destroy the universe and remake it to be more amenable to my whims and desires.”

“By Bor’s Beard, I am grateful I will only have to watch from Valhalla.”

“Or you could bring Thor back now, ensure I am not made king, and let him deal with the Infinity Stones and his delightful older sister.”

“And where will you go?”

“Why, to chase down all the Infinity Stones myself first so that he cannot find them and then conquer Asgard.”

Odin’s face had grown has red as Thor’s cape and he burst out a string of exceedingly unceremonial curses.  “Loki, will you please be serious?”

“Fine.  I will do as you say… on one condition.”

“Do I even wish to ask?”

“You do, because you have no other choice.  When I go to Midgard to gather the two Stones you so brilliantly hid for the little mortals to play with, you will sanction my visit to Thor.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

Chapter Text

Jane shuffled across the living room to the front door. She gave a loud, delighted squeak when she saw the familiar face through the window and she hurriedly fumbled with the lock to throw the door open. The afternoon sun poured into the living room around her visitor and made the curtained room feel dark. Jane's smile grew so wide that her cheeks began to ache as she threw her arms around the woman before her.

"Darcy Lewis! Are you a sight for sore eyes!" Jane shouted, though by the decibel of Darcy's own chorus of squeals, it was doubtful Jane could be heard. The pair stayed in the doorway, locked in a tight embrace, both equally torn between stepping away to look over the other more closely and remaining intertwined together. Finally, in a burst of giggles, they let go and took a step back.

"You look good, Boss Lady!" Darcy said as she looked Jane over from top to bottom and waggled her eyebrows.

Jane snorted. "It is sooooo good to see you again! It's been too long!"

"I agree. Five years is nearly a criminal offense. If it wasn't entirely my fault, I'd have something more to say about it," Darcy said and she placed one hand on her hip in mock affront, though the recipient of her scolding was herself.

Dr. Darcy Lewis, professor of political science, had taken a position in North Dakota shortly after completing her doctorate. Since her parents had passed and her brother moved to Montreal, it was rare that Darcy meandered through New Mexico these days. Jane had been there on her graduation and visited her after her first-year teaching but between visits to see Erik and her own responsibilities, she found it hard to justify the trip to North Dakota.

With her hair cut short and peppered gray, Darcy peered at Jane through thick, round glasses. Her blue eyes and wide-toothed grin were unmistakable, even if the rest of her had shifted and rounded out in ways that made her nearly unrecognizable.

Jane ushered her friend to the nearby couch and returned with a tray of coffee and pastries. Then, she leaned forward so she could claim Darcy's hand and she gave a contended grin again. "I can't believe you are here!"

Darcy snorted and took a sip of her coffee. "Honestly, I can't believe I pulled it off, either. If I hadn't talked Dr. Jones into subbing for me, it never would have worked. Burying me in winter and summer sessions has really put a damper on my wanderlust. I barely made time for Italy last spring and I had to cancel my trip to Australia this December. I keep telling my boss that the reason I took the academia route was so I could have my summer breaks to myself and he laughs and pats my head like I'm a confused puppy."

"Didn't you make it to that conference in Geneva?"

"Work conferences totally don't count. If I have half a dozen students to keep alive I can hardly have the full travel experience."

Jane laughed. "At least not your typical travel experience."

"You know how I roll. I have to at least appear semi-responsible and pretend to be an adult. It really puts a damper on my stye. Enough about me. How are you? Last I heard, you took that dream job with the research institute."

Jane's eyes grew wide and she knew she was in danger of gushing. She sat forward in her seat and grinned. "I LOVE it! Darce, it's so wonderful to be doing research again! I don't have to bother teaching anymore but can spend all day and night with some of the best telescopes in the world! I can only go to the observatory a few months a year, but they let me work remote the rest of the year and that's pretty ideal for our current life stage. I mean, the kids are all in school now and Thor has mastered the internet enough to help them with their homework and he's kinda loving the whole 'soccer dad' life thing."

Darcy laughed. "I'll bet. No more attempts at sword training or battle ax throwing?"

Jane let out a giggle and rolled her eyes. "I don't think he'll ever give it up, but not lately. At least, not since the last time Loki visited."

"Ah, yes. Mr. Creeptastic. When was the last time he showed his slithering self?"

"He's only turned up twice since that year he stayed with us. I never even saw him. He turned up at Thor's work once and then he came by once when I was in Sweden. I don't think it was an accident and I didn't complain about the slight. I don't exactly want to see him again, either."

"Oh, the melodrama! I really wish I could have been here to see you transformed into an alien goddess of the stars!" Darcy said and she waggled her eyebrows.

"Looking back, I really regret not at least getting photographic evidence of that night."

"I can't believe you didn't think of that first thing. Now I am stuck with my own pitiful imaginings which are either way overexaggerated or completely underwhelming."

The pair laughed and then fell into the comfortable, thick silence only known by decades of friendship. Darcy pushed her glasses further up her nose and held her cup closer to her chin. Her expression took on the penetrating stare which always signaled a shift from levity to depth in her line of questioning and Jane took in a deep breath to prepare herself.

"How are you? Really? I mean with Erik and all."

Jane swallowed heavily and fought back the burst of tears that threatened the corner of her eyes like little pinpricks of heat.

"Up and down, I guess. Some days, I can't believe that he's gone and I feel like I can just pick up my phone and call him, like I've always done. Then, something will happen that reminds me I can't and I break down in tears. I'm so glad I got to go visit him when I did. Those weeks were a gift and beyond precious, but it's never enough, you know?"

Darcy reached out to squeeze her hand, her own silent tears squeezing their way between her thick eyelashes. She didn't say anything else but by her expression, Jane knew she understood.

"He lived a full life, you know? He did what he loved and he got to spend all those Christmases with us and he got to experience life as a grandfather. I'm glad for that. It's just… it's hard to let go and last Christmas was really hard. I'm hoping this one goes a little easier."

"So, let me guess – you distract yourself by staying up all night with a star chart and spectrometer until you forget everything else but what's overhead," Darcy said, her smile knowing.

Jane shrugged and barked an uneasy laugh. "You caught me… or, almost. I'm old now and I can't handle the all-nighters like I used to. I need to take it a little easier and nap more and woe to me if I take any caffeine after three p.m."

Darcy snorted and lifted her coffee cup in a salute. "Girl, I hear you on that on!"

They were interrupted by the sound of a car engine and the front door burst open with just a tad too much enthusiasm.

"Lady Darcy!" Thor boomed as he entered the room, bags of groceries on each arm. He quickly set his burdens on the floor and lifted her from the couch in a bone-crushing hug. Jane giggled at the overexaggerated expression on Darcy's face as she struggled to find her feet again.

"Good to see you, too, buddy!" she squeaked out and gave him a pat on the back. He set her back down and gave her such a pleased expression that she might as well have been a visiting empress or a new puppy rather than just a very old friend. After a few minutes of inquiries into her health and well-being, Thor made his way to the kitchen and soon the sounds of cupboards opening and closing could be heard.

"Thor begged to make you lunch. He has mastered a new recipe and wants to impress you," Jane whispered conspiratorially.

"Ah, my padawan wishes to impress his master. I am so proud," she responded with mock tears.

"Wait to cast your verdict until after you taste it… some of his experiments turn out better than others!"

"Hey, if the man's cooking more than Pop tarts and toast, then he's got you beat!"

"Hey!" Jane said, stifling her affronted giggle. "I can make a sandwich, too!"

"Yeah, no. Still not impressed."

"Yeah, my kids aren't either. It's a good thing Thor cooks or we'd all starve," Jane said with rueful grin.

In truth, she still felt torn. Her new position had breathed new life into old passions and invigorated her mind in a way she had not experienced since Puente Antiguo. However, it came at a cost. She missed soccer games and PTA meetings and after school play dates, not to mention all she missed when she travelled for her months of research.

At first, she thought she could merely pickup where she had left off thirteen years earlier but it wasn't so simple. Technology and research had changed and morphed. Her years spent teaching had not helped her keep up with the cutting-edge developments and there was a learning curved to get back into the forefront of her field. Switching gears between her professional and domestic spheres proved harder now than it used to and she found herself feeling exhausted at the end of each week, despite how much she loved what she did.

Darcy cleared her throat, pulling Jane away from her musings. She set her mug on the table and leaned back against the couch, her expression turning unusually hesitant. "So, as much as I really did come to see you, I have another reason to be here…," Darcy began.

"Shoot."

"Would it be ok to, I mean, would I be able to, you know…"

"Spit it out, Darce."

"Yeah, you're right. Can I interview Thor about Asgard?" Darcy finally blurted out, as if the words were an avalanche. "I know, I know, I can't actually publish any of what I learn yet, but someday, maybe. I mean, someday he's gonna end up back in Asgard, right? When that happens, it should be cool to talk about Asgard, yeah?"

Jane thought about this for a minute and quirked an eyebrow at Darcy. "Haven't you already asked him about Asgard?"

"A bit, yeah, but not anywhere near enough. I mean, I asked about foods and general etiquette but I'd love to know about the political and social structures of Asgard and any of the other realms he can talk about. Who are their rulers? How are decisions made? What runs their economies? What are their basic religious beliefs? There's more questions than a lifetime can answer, but if I can, I'd like to try. Maybe it never gets published till we all are dead and gone, but at least Earth has something to go on and you never know, it might be useful someday."

"Wow. You really do ask different questions than I do."

"Sorry, Boss Lady. As awesome as the Bifrost must be to behold, I'm much more interested in who calls the shots and how they make laws, especially since Earth seems to be under their jurisdiction."

"Yeah, I mean, you will have to ask Thor but I don't see any problem with it."

"Cool beans," Darcy said with a grin. "If he agrees, you good with me staying for a week or so?"

"Of course! The trailer is open and ready for you!"

"Oh, that old sardine can is still around? I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed into dust yet!"

"Hey! That trailer, I'll have you know, has hosted not just one but two Asgardian princes! It's practically a palace!"

Darcy snorted. Then she pulled out a portable recorder, pencil, and notebook from her bag and gave Jane a sideways glance. "Wish me luck! I'm off to stalk my prey!"

"As if you need luck! When is Thor unwilling to run his mouth – on any subject?"

"True. Worse comes to worse, I can make a beer run, though that wouldn't be ideal for the validity of my research."

"Though the promised reward of a beer run may be the perfect bribe…"

Darcy laughed and made her way to the kitchen. It wasn't long before Thor's booming voice filled the house. Jane smiled. She knew he would enjoy the chance to speak openly and eloquently about his home.

When Loki appeared in the living room of the House of Thor, night had fallen and he was pleased to find the weather had turned cold again. Nearly two Midgardian years must have passed in the interim since he had last visited his brother and yet he hardly noticed the passing of time. With six Infinity Stones and an entire universe to hide them in, Loki found himself a bit busier than he liked. However, after raiding a SHIELD headquarters to covertly exchange the Tesseract for an imitation power source, Loki found himself conveniently close to his brother's Midgardian dwelling.

Why not? He mused as he made his way to the familiar house. After all, it is sanctioned by the All-Father now and I have earned a visit.

Despite two or three visits to his brother, he had not seen Jane since he returned to Asgard. He told himself this was his attempt to avoid "meddling" (or what the All-Father deemed meddling), but his own hesitance to seek her out signified there was more to it than that. Jane's rejection of his offer still smarted more than he thought it should, despite how much he approved of her fool-hardy decision.

Thor's fury had been explosive… but Loki also knew his forgiveness would shortly follow. Their first reunion had been full of shouted insults and barely restrained punches, but Loki let his brother give full vent to his anger without defense or excuse. Once spent, Loki left him to his thoughts again and did not bring up the incident again. He knew Thor would be past it now. Jane, though, he doubted would forgive him as quickly or as fully as Thor. He thought he would slowly but surely let her anger fizzle into reluctant acceptance and make himself scarce until more time had passed.

It was late, but not so late he should disturb the occupants. He expected to find the house preparing for bed. What he was not expecting was for his reception in the dark living room to immediately be followed by Jane's hand striking him soundly against the cheek. He was even more surprised by the following punch to the gut that Thor threw in his direction. He thought he had sapped Thor of all his ire already and he could not fathom what he had done to inspire such a welcome. While neither assault physically harmed him, his confusion only grew as Jane's greeting consisted of a flurry of shouted curses and invectives against him.

"Jane! Such language!" Loki said, his grin widening in his amusement. "If I had known you missed my presence this much, I would have attended you sooner!"

"Loki, you have crossed the line this time," Thor said, uncharacteristic gravity coloring his voice. The pair stood side-by-side in the dark room, each glaring daggers at Loki, their postures rigid in barely controlled anger.

"What precisely have I done this time?" he mused. "I have not set foot on this realm in two cycles around your sun and still I am a villain? Thor, I thought I already bore your full castigation for my ill-advised offer? Why do you still harbor this much animosity towards me?"

"Oh, so you are gonna pretend like this isn't your fault?" Jane spat and she pointed down to her abdomen, which only now did Loki notice was swollen with child.

"What, precisely, are you accusing me of?" Loki said, breaking the strained silence between them. He spoke as flatly and impassively as he could muster, but it was a challenge to restrain his own astonishment at her implications.

"Are you going to deny it?"

"Deny? I do believe, madam, that if I had any part in your current condition, I would not hesitate to own it proudly and vigorously. However, I do believe I would need to have been a conscious and willing participant for your accusations to be justified. Unless I am greatly mistaken in my knowledge of Midgardian biology, I believe it takes more than the brush of a hand for conception to occur."

Thor sighed. "Loki, did you or did you not transform Jane into the form of an Aesir?"

Loki glanced between the pair and slowly nodded. "I offered Jane a choice, which she soundly refused, and the transformation was of a temporary nature."

"A choice? A choice? Is that what you call it?" Jane snapped. "Is this your idea of a sick joke? Is this your revenge? Human lives are not playthings, Loki, and there are some kinds of mischief which are entirely out of line."

"I do not understand," Loki finally said, his wary eyes flickering between the faces before him, each worn and wearier than he had seen them before.

"While Jane's Midgardian form was past the age of childbearing, her Aesir form was not. She conceived while in Aesir form," Thor interjected, his eyes watching Loki for any reaction.

"Surely not!" Loki protested. "That was… over two Midgardian years ago!"

"Yes, Loki. It was," Jane spat back, her hands resting on her womb and her voice strained. "We didn't even know till over a year after you left."

"Loki," Thor continued, "Jane carries a pair of babes who do not grow at the rate of Midgardian babes. At the current rate of growth, they develop at half that of an Aesir babe and have many Aesir characteristics."

Loki paused to consider this. Now that he thought of it, he had left in a temper… he had not considered much of what occurred after, other than how much more her rejection stung than he had anticipated. She had been Aesir when she stormed away from him… but he had not considered the possibility of what could occur as her Aesir and Midgardian forms slowly shifted together.

He supposed it was possible… but he had never once anticipated such an outcome.

What should he do? He could pretend he meant for this to happen… that this was all part of his plan. Or he could admit poor planning… and his inept failure to consider the consequences of his actions.

His initial decision was to maintain a show of bravado - to pretend he had been in control the entire time, that this was a well-meant yet unexpected "gift". In the next, he felt keenly how wrong such a display would be. To anyone else, that is what Loki would have done. But with Thor, with this Thor, he knew he must admit his weakness.

"I swear to you I had no idea," Loki began. "It was never my intent… I didn't consider… I merely meant…" Loki swallowed the remaining explanation like a bitter poison and reconsidered how to phrase what needed to be said.

"Loki, you accuse me of many wrongs," Thor interrupted, "and I admit I freely I have failed you as a brother in many ways. Yet, I have tried to apologize and remedy my treatment of you. However, you have failed to reflect upon the ways you have also failed. Is this how it must always be between us? Of all the beings in the Nine Realms, is it my own brother I must protect my family from the most?"

When Thor spoke, his voice held not the fiery temper of youth but the deep hearth fire of a man wronged. In the care-worn, year-stained face, Thor had never before looked so aged. Jane, too, was thinner and more worn than he had ever seen her before. Loki slowly sat on a chair, his hands clasped before him and his lips tightly pursed. Loki closed his eyes and sighed.

They had every right to be angry. His apology must go deeper than excuses and ignorance. Yet, how could he admit the true deep of his betrayal or his own miserable folly?

I'm sorry Thor. I am infatuated with your wife. Did not seem like the appropriate way to begin. Yet, not even that was the heart of the matter. It was only after her rejection that he realized her true worth and he had already betrayed them both, long before.

I'm sorry about your coronation.

I'm sorry for Jotunheim.

I'm sorry I have tried to undermine all your greatest achievements.

I'm sorry for the ways I've made you appear a fool.

I'm sorry for mocking you when you were at your lowest.

I'm sorry for coveting what was owned by you and never meant for me.

I'm sorry for wishing I was you so much that I forgot to recognize you as a brother and not an enemy.

I'm sorry for the knives I have placed in your back when you were not looking.

I'm sorry for the lies that I have spoken and the truths I have failed to speak.

You have earned better. You deserve better.

I truly want to become better.

"Thor, Jane, I apologize for my interference," Loki began, the words tasting like gravel on his tongue. "However, that is not even the beginning of all I must beg your forgiveness for…" He took a deep breath and prepared to say the words they both deserved to hear.

Chapter Text

Jane lay in the hospital bed.  The hum of monitors and interminable beeps of machines held a steady rhythm around her, reminding her she still breathed, that her heart still beat.  She inhaled deeply through the oxygen tubes running into her lungs. 

Up, down.  Up, down.  In, out.  In, out.

With all the strength her depleted body could sustain, she clung to the pair of bundles carefully balanced on her bare chest.  With each breath, the pair heads rose and fell.  They were so light she could barely feel their weight.  She could feel their warmth, their tiny movements as they yawned and wiggled their limbs within their tightly wrapped blankets.   

They were too small, too weak, too early.  For a time, there, Jane thought none of them would survive.  The hum of machines reminded her that she still lived and the low, golden glow of magic enveloping each newborn showed why their little hearts kept beating, despite their premature entrance into their shared world. 

By the swish of a long skirt against the tiled floor and the quiet pair of footsteps, Jane knew she wasn’t alone in the hospital room.  Graceful hands took one baby from her and held the little being up so Jane could see the little face.  A pair of blue eyes, so very familiar, peered down at her from that aged face and gave her a sincere, hesitant smile.  A little squeak of protest emanated from the infant in her arms and the eyes cracked open, showing an echo of the exact same inhumanly beautiful shade of blue. 

“Oh, little darling. It is time for you to eat and you must allow your sister some time to have her mother all to herself.  It is also time for your amma to have you all to myself,” she said.  Then she placed a kiss on the little nose and swept across the room.  Her golden skirts against the sterile hospital room jarred Jane’s sense of cognitive dissonance and she forced herself to blink again, just to ensure it wasn’t all a vivid, disjointed dream.  No, Frigga, the All-Mother of Asgard remained in the room with her, sitting on a blue plastic chair in the corner of the white room.  A series of bottles stood on a nearby table. With a swish of a hand and a shower of gold, the contents of each bottle changed color before she lifted them to the mouth of the boy in her arms. 

The arrival of the Queen of Asgard in her hospital room was only one of a long series of surprises that left Jane feeling like she had no capacity for shock left in her.  She really shouldn’t be surprised by anything these days.  A trained dragon as a French chef?  A pair of flying goats playing football?  Butterfly milk capable of turning wood to gold?  Sure, why not?  After all she’d been through the past few years, she’d believe almost anything.    

It had all started with that trip to the ER almost two years ago.  Those routine blood tests showed more than the strain of influenza afflicting her.  She came home in a righteous fury, ready to impale Thor on his hammer if she couldn’t manage to pummel him with the relic. 

“Thor!  What did you do?” She screeched, without so much as a preamble.

He looked at her with a half-guilty, sheepish expression on his face.  “I’m sorry?” he asked, more as a question than a statement.  Then, as if recollecting himself, his eyes grew wide.  “Oh!  I forgot to buy the stamps!  With your illness and the school fieldtrip and Erick’s birthday party, it completely slipped my mind! I’ll take the letters to the post office directly!  Your recipients will not be overly inconvenienced, yes?”

She stamped her foot and glared at him.  “Not the stamps! I don’t care about the letters.”

He grew befuddled again.  By the frantic movements of his eyes, she knew he was groping through his memories, searching for the cause of her irritation.  She let out an exasperated breath.  “Thor, I thought we agreed.  No more children.  Why would you use your Mjolnir pendant without telling me?  We’ve been through this before.  We have to both agree. I’m too old for this!”

Thor’s eyebrows furrowed.  “I don’t understand.”

“I’m pregnant.”

“I thought you said you were past childbearing years.”

“Yeah.  That’s what I thought - until I met you.  Now, tell me why I’m pregnant again?  We’ve only ever conceived when you use your magic mojo necklace.  Tell me the truth.  What did you do?”

He lifted up his hands in a show of surrender and gaped.  “I swear by the throne of Asgard that I did not participate in your current pregnancy… I mean… uh… I suppose, if you are with child, then I did participate somehow, or, at least I would hope it was only my participation that assisted in your condition, but not in the way that you are accusing…”

“Thor…,” she interrupted, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at him. 

“I swear to you,  I have not utilized my pendant since Erick’s conception.”

“Ugh, Thor!  If you weren’t such a terrible liar, I would accuse you of lying!”

“Perhaps I am ignorant of its effectiveness and should keep it farther from the house?  If my pendant has proved too efficacious, it was entirely and completely unintentional on my part.”

“Thor!”

He shrugged and came to wrap his arms around her and she buried her head in the familiar pillow of his chest.  There, she closed her eyes and listened to the familiar cadence of his heartbeat.  She drank in the scent that clung to his clothes, no matter what detergent she used to wash them.  She sighed. 

They would figure it out.  They always did.  While not the path she expected her life to take, she couldn’t say it was the first time they’d been dished up unexpected events.  They always made the most of it.  She swallowed down the bittersweet taste of regret on her tongue as she calculated how long she could manage to continue full time research with a newborn in the mix.  She’d just gotten into a new rhythm and embraced her new life stage and now they would be starting over again.   

“All will be well, my Jane,” he whispered as he kissed the top of her head.  “I do not understand how or why, but I do know that all will be well.”

She stood on her tiptoes to place a kiss on Thor’s lips.  His beard tickled and she let out a giggle.  She felt his answering chuckle reverberate through his chest.

“I know,” she answered.  She even believed it. 

Then, at least, she believed it. 

It was harder to accept when the pregnancy failed to follow typical stages of development. 

“Twins!” the doctor told her, on that first visit.  She shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but she couldn’t help it.

“Ugh!  Seriously, Thor?” she had hissed back to her husband.  She planned to kick him in the shins once she was allowed to sit up again. 

He shrugged.  “They run in my family.  My father had twin brothers and his father before him.”

“Two sets of twins?  That first set almost killed us!”

“The greater surprise is that Erick was not a twin.”

“You aren’t making me feel better.”

“Twins are a gift!  A show of a man’s stamina and strength and a mother’s fertility.  They are a great honor!”

“Thor…,” she said in warning.

Thor leaned over to kiss her to stop whatever she was about to say next and then squeezed her hand. 

The children proved the most receptive of the news. 

“I hope we get more sisters!” Rose squeaked in delight. 

“I want brothers!” Erick said, nearly bouncing on his heels in excitement. 

“Well, you got a fifty-fifty chance of being right.  Whoever guesses right gets to share your room with the new siblings,” Jane answered.  At their shared groans, she laughed.  “I suppose Erick is almost big enough to stay in the trailer… or maybe it’s time your father and I move back into the trailer and let you hooligans take over the house.”

They still had time, Jane kept reminding herself.  At only ten weeks gestation, it would be some time before they needed to tear apart the whole house and throw the family schedule back into the blender to figure out their new normal.  At least, that’s what she thought, then. 

Until that third visit to the doctor. 

“The fetuses are not developing anywhere near as much as they should,” the doctor said, concern in her eyes as she moved the measuring tape around Jane’s bare abdomen.  “Their heart rates are a bit abnormal as well.  We will need to schedule another ultrasound and run some tests to ensure all is well.”

It may not have been the most professional way for the ultrasound tech to handle such a delicate situation, but her surprise overtook her training.  She burst out her observations as soon as she saw the screen.

“What in the world?  I’ve never seen anything like it!”

Her subsequent attempts to mask her outburst with a façade of normalcy was stopped by Jane’s glare and Thor’s frown. 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have said that.  It’s just… it’s like the hearts have an additional chamber.  The brains are not developing normally.  Then, here and here – there are two additional organs that shouldn’t be there and that’s just the beginning!  In all my years, I’ve never seen anything quite like it!”

Tears began to settle in the corner of Jane’s eyes as she stared at the colored screens.  It was Thor’s sudden exclamations of words she didn’t understand that distracted her from the moving, wriggling images. 

“What was that?” Jane asked.  “I don’t think you were speaking English.”

“I don’t believe there is an English equivalent – or even a Midgardian equivalent in any language.  Your biology does not include those organs.  I spoke what they are called on Asgard.  The Aesir use that one near the lungs to survive in low-oxygen environments and that other enhances our metabolism in times of starvation,” he said as he pointed at the enlarged image on the screen. 

“Thor, are you trying to tell me that our kids aren’t human?” Jane hissed.

He gaped at her.  “I am not sure what I am telling you.  I was simply identifying those additional organs.  I am not an expert on Aesir biology, but I know enough for that.”

It was at this point that they realized the ultrasound tech was still in the room… and her eyes were so wide they might as well have been pizza dishes.  Jane groaned and recognized they probably should have had this conversation after the appointment… without an audience.  Though, in hindsight, it was already too late.  This wasn’t even the beginning of the end of their human charade. 

No, in truth, any hope of staying under the radar was shot the moment Loki moved into their trailer.  For awhile, Jane suspected he had tried to be as ostentatious as possible, just to blow their cover in as many ways as possible.  However, only Louis was in on the secret, so far, and so she hoped that was the end of the breach. 

Covering up half-alien kids growing at almost half the rate of a human kid proved nearly impossible to keep hidden for long. 

At first, it wasn’t so hard.  Switching doctors, dodging calls, and avoiding visitors could keep questions to a minimum for a bit, but that was only a short-term solution.   It’s a little hard to cover up an abnormal pregnancy when it turns out the pregnancy is going to last years rather than months.    

Over three freaking years. 

It wasn’t fair.

“If they were Aesir, you would carry them for seven years,” Thor informed her, most unhelpfully.

“Thank God they aren’t fully Aesir!  Seven years?  I would die.”

She wished that was an exaggeration, but as months progressed, she didn’t think it was.  Based on what could be discovered about their rate of development, Thor assumed they were not fully Aesir.    

It all made sense, though, when she finally managed to calculate the rate of development backwards. 

Freaking Loki. 

Of course, it was all Loki’s fault. 

She was convinced he did it on purpose.  She raged and threw things at a wall.  She shouted at Loki as if he was in the room and she threatened to build an Einstein-Rosen bridge just to go to Asgard to kick his ass herself.  Afterwards, she blamed most of her excess tears and fury on her unending fount of pregnancy hormones coursing through her body.  Then she plotted her revenge all over again.

Yet, no matter how she raged or roared, Loki never showed his smug face or so much as sent a cosmic “joke’s on you” card.  She wasn’t sure if his absence at this point was a relief.  Sometimes, she found herself hoping he’d appear, just to mess with their address and keep the pizza delivery guy away.  Yet, he never did.

She rather missed his interference when SHIELD began to turn up in her neighborhood.  She quickly realized that whatever magic sparkle shielding spell or mind-messing mojo Loki had put over their house to keep Thor’s identity a secret would not handle the breach her alien offspring wrought.  Soon, it was not just her doctor’s office calling her but agents in dark glasses and scientists with scanners and test tubes.  Realizing they could not approach their house, agents began to accost her and Thor at the grocery store and the elementary school and the neighborhood park.  It wasn’t until Jane agreed to visit the SHIELD base and speak with Agent Coulson herself that they were given any reprieve. 

What could they do?  Thor really couldn’t lie to save his life and it’s not like Jane could pretend she wasn’t two years pregnant with alien spawn.  They didn’t know what else to do so they told the truth. 

“He’s a banished alien prince stuck in a human body… a very human body… and we’ve been very normal and boring.  Then his brother showed up, turned me into an alien, and I got pregnant while I was an alien.  I’m not an alien anymore, I promise.” 

Yeah, no matter how Jane tried to explain it, she could not deflect SHIELD’s displeasure or allay their suspicions.  To say SHIELD was displeased to discover the presence of an undocumented alien within their jurisdiction would be an understatement.  They were even more upset to find out that travel and communication between realms occurred on a regular basis, all without their knowledge or detection.  Day after day, Jane and Thor were interrogated over every action and decision they had made in the last fifteen years… and beyond.  Any hope of returning to their anonymous existence was blown to bits when agents began to call up each of their friends and co-workers to find out if they were in on the secret and if they could corroborate their story. 

Darcy was the only one who benefited from these external interviews.  SHIELD showed up at her door with a large check in exchange for all her research and a contract to hire her for more work in the future. 

“I am officially the top social science researcher on extraterrestrial political systems!  Can my life get any cooler?” she exclaimed.  “Oh, yeah.  Soon, I’ll be the honorary aunt to the next Percy Jackson and Hercules.  My life is officially the best ever!”

Jane snorted at that and rolled her eyes.  “I’m glad you can benefit from my life falling into complete and utter upheaval.”

“Maybe they’ll be able to cast little lightning bolts or have their own pet unicorns or something.”

“Perfect!  A toddler who wields lightning!  There’s absolutely nothing that can go wrong with that!” Jane retorted. 

It wasn’t only Darcy who was caught up in the novelty of her growing twins. It was only a matter of time before a swarm of white lab coats descended upon the Foster-Odinson family and insisted on running tests over each and every member of the family in their lab and studying them.  In minutiae.  They even took samples of their fingernails. 

It wasn’t all bad.  As the twins grew, Jane began to appreciate access to a high-tech medical facility with doctors used to all manner of weird and wonderful who were also sworn to secrecy.  Jane realized she would need their help, if she was going to survive this. 

While the twins grew painfully slow, it soon became apparent they would also grow stronger than human fetuses.  As they quickened, Jane could barely hold in her winces as they kicked and moved against her delicate muscles.  She also struggled to keep up with their nutritional needs.  No matter how much she ate or how many vitamins she took, she kept losing weight and showed signs of malnutrition.  Then there was the bone-crushing fatigue.  She was so tired all the time that she could hardly function. 

The fatigue alone would have kept her from continuing her day job, but being trapped in a super-secret government facility for weeks of interrogation had already taken care of that.  She supposed it was for the best.  She rather hoped her research could have benefited from their sudden exposure– if not for the taint of suspicion SHIELD held her in.  Apparently secretly harboring an alien fugitive didn’t give her any brownie points in SHIELD’s book.  Somehow, carrying on an extended love affair with the extraterrestrial prince and bearing his alien love children made SHIELD even less likely to take her astrophysics work seriously. 

It was her womb and the beings encased within which drew all their attention and focus, not her theories on Einstein-Rosen Bridges.   The scientists in the lab nearly drooled with the possibilities for research this opportunity presented and came out armed with hypodermic needs and test tubes en masse.  After all, Rose, Dahlia, Erick and Thor were terribly, horribly terrestrial.  There was absolutely nothing about their physiology that raised any questions.  For all intents and purposes, they were completely and utterly human. 

The twins in her womb were not.  Well, partly not.  And that part that was not drew SHIELD to her like flies to honey and she didn’t know how to wriggle herself out of their cloying curiosity. The tests she was forced to endure had grown more and more intrusive and SHIELD began curtailing her freedom in ways she found intolerable.  She did not know what would happen if she refused to follow their directives or where they could go if SHIELD decided she was not “allowed” to leave. She was even more worried about what would happen when the twins were born.  The organization that stole all her life’s work without batting an eye would have not compunction about squirreling away her offspring in the name of “global security” and “science.”    That was a fate she could not tolerate, no matter what. 

Before she could grow any more concerned, a certain Asgardian prince showed up in their living room one night out of the blue.  At first, she didn’t know whether she wanted to punch him or hug him.  Obviously, she decided violence was the best course of action.  Later, after slapping him in the face, she could admit to herself she was relieved to see him. 

At first, Jane was convinced this was all part of Loki’s plan.  The man overanalyzed everything.  Of course, he knew exactly what would happen when he turned her into an Aesir.  This was all part of his plan to throw their lives into perpetual chaos for his private entertainment. 

After his hours of questions and apologies, she was less convinced, but he was such a convincing liar, she was hesitant to truly accept his innocence.  Weeks later, he still insisted it was an unintended consequence and he would do all he could to mitigate its effects. 

She was still tempted to punch him in the face every time she saw him.  She tried it a few more times, till she realized it hurt her more than him.  It was somehow satisfying to try.    

She grew less inclined to strike him on sight when he obtained some glowing green Asgardian moss.  At first, she suspected it was some kind of psychedelic substance, despite all his claims that it was a “vital nutrient for Aesir babes.”  When she finally worked up enough nerve to taste it, the bitter taste nearly made her vomit.  However, her energy immediately improved and within a few days, she was feeling almost normal again – or as normal as a beached whale can really feel.  She didn’t completely strike out the theory that it had some kind of mind-altering properties, but then again, she wasn’t sure if her outlandish dreams were caused by pregnancy hormones, the moss, or Loki’s irritating presence. 

It was some weeks later that Loki stormed the SHIELD headquarters on their behalf.   He forced his way deep into their underground bunker, fury clouding his face and magic sparking from his fingertips like an avenging angel. 

“How dare you intrude in the affairs of a Son of Odin and treat Aesir babes as beasts!” he shouted through the halls to any who could hear. 

He spent the next two weeks in closed-door meetings with none other but Director Fury himself.  Loki refused to share all the details (or what threats and bribes he used to accomplish his purposes), however at the end of it, SHIELD backed off.  They offered extensive (though not very sincere) apologies to the Foster-Odinson family, released Jane from attendance to tests and meetings, and no longer visibly followed their every movement. 

When Jane asked about it, Loki’s eyes glinted with a dark green sheen and he grinned.  “I simply insisted on forming the first Midgardian-Asgardian treaty ever to be signed.  It is very simple. If they wish for Asgard as allies, then they will leave you be.  If they so much as move a stone of your firepit, a legion of Einherjar will surround the House of Thor and your enemies will find themselves on the wrong side of the Bifrost.”

“But Father…,” Thor began.

Loki interrupted him with a frown.  “Father should have developed the treaty himself before banishing you to these soils.  We transgressed Midgardian autonomy by not treating this realm with the same protocol we would treat affairs with any other realm.  Father could not banish you to Nidavellir without getting permission from the Queen’s Spokesman.  Why should Midgard be any different?”

At Thor’s open-mouthed expression, Loki laughed and turned to Jane.  “Lady Jane, you accuse me of oft belittling your realm and yet neglect to address the deficiencies in your vaunted warrior.  Please, inform the Heir of the Nine why Asgard should have a working treaty with Midgard.”

Rather than rising to Loki’s bait, she sat forward a bit in her chair and forced Loki back to the topic she truly wished to discuss. 

“So, they will actually leave us alone?” Jane mused, unsure whether to feel more dubious or hopeful.

“As much as you prefer to be left alone.  Your condition is rather unusual, so you may benefit from the knowledge and insights of their healers as you progress.  However, I leave it to your discretion whether you wish to seek them out or keep to your own counsel.  Thor, also, if you wish to utilize your knowledge of Asgard to Midgard’s benefit, you may seek out a position as a consultant or emissary of some kind.  I did not inquire into the particulars, however, the position will be compensated and based on your willingness to accept it.  There should be no compulsion of any kind and if there is even a hint of mistreatment, they will be answering to me… and I will not be pleased.”

“I wonder,” Jane mused, thinking to herself.

“What?” Thor asked.

“I wonder if they could help us sort out your citizenship mess.  You know what a quandary we’ve been in?  We can’t get you a Green Card or citizenship without papers from your home country – which don’t exist.  In case anything happens to me, you’d be in a bit of a mess.  It would be nice for you to be legal enough to be able to get a job that isn’t so physically demanding, too.  You aren’t getting any younger and construction is pretty grueling.”

“I will overlook the assault on my strength and eternal youth and instead focus on your desire for our well-being,” Thor answered, with a rueful glance at his brother.

Loki didn’t bother to hide his smirk at his brother.  However, he addressed Jane with his answer. 

“I know nothing about cards of any color but I do believe SHIELD’s current knowledge of your true identity could be used to your benefit, now that they are wary of Asgard’s involvement.  I have discerned from their agents that Asgard is not the first extraterrestrial contact they have on record and they have been keeping close observations on a number of other beings, including the Skrull.  I believe Thor’s knowledge, if we can dare give the fluff in his head such a designation, could be useful.”

By this point, Jane had decided she no longer wanted to inflict physical pain on Loki.  In fact, she was so grateful that she threw her arms around him in a teary-eyed hug and was genuinely sad to see him return to Asgard. 

By the time Loki left, Thor was officially on the SHIELD payroll and part of the same committee as Darcy Lewis.  It paid better than construction and the benefits were a hell of a lot more to speak of, but she secretly thought she preferred seeing him in his torn, messed jeans than the dark suits he now wore.  He even shaved. 

They never did manage to inform SHIELD of Thor’s connection to Mjolnir.  Perhaps it never came up.  Perhaps it was Loki’s subtle sense of irony.  Perhaps Thor still preferred not to admit to his mark of shame in public without need.  In any case, Mjolnir remained where it lay, in the flickering, florescent lights of the tavern, taunting patrons to display their worthiness to their companions.

They could never quite go back to being “just human,” not after so much happening, but at least they were able to forge a new way of being that in some ways felt a more genuine reflection of their Asgardian/Midgardian family.  The subsequent conversations with all their acquaintances proved a bit awkward.  They had to switch the kids to a new school and even considered moving for awhile.  Thor refused. 

“I am tired of hiding and pretending to be something I’m not.  This is who we are.  Let us embrace it and see where the bilgesnipes lay after they finish their charge.”

Jane let out an exasperated huff but then accepted his invitation into his open arms.  He squeezed her shoulders and kissed her cheek. 

“All will be well, my Jane.”

“I know.” 

It was harder to hold to that hope when Jane grew ill.  The virus should have been simple enough for her immune system to fight.  However, she was already so worn down that it hit her harder than it should have.  When she woke, gasping for breath and unable to sit upright, Thor panicked and took her to SHIELD’s medical facility in the middle of the night.  She didn’t ask to leave and they didn’t send her home.  No matter what treatments they gave her, she only grew weaker and weaker.  Soon, they feared they would have to deliver the babies, though based on their size, they were barely more than the equivalent of six months gestation. 

“If we don’t, Jane will die.  She can’t continue as she is,” the doctor said. “Her body is shutting down.  I can’t promise we can save the babies, but this is the only way we can save Jane.”

That night, Jane lay on her hospital bed hooked to machines, her eyes greedily taking in the sight of her husband and three children nearby.  With each unsteady breath, she tried to burn them into her memory, as if by doing so, she could carry them with her forever.  Weakly, too weakly, she grasped each of their hands in turn.  Her intubated larynx could not force out any words and so she used her fingers to sign the words she wanted to make sure to say. 

“I love you.”

“You will live, Jane,” Thor said, his own tears streaming down his rough cheeks as he knelt beside her.  “You must live.  Please. I can’t… Jane, do not leave me here alone.”

“I love you,” she signed again.  Then she rested her fingers around his wrist and let her heavy eyelids fall closed. 

Her chest rose and fell, rose and fell.  Up and down.  Up and down. 

Still she lived and so there was hope.    

She held her hands on the soft, vibrating mound of her abdomen for as long as she could.  She could feel the press of their feet, the hard bumps from their little heads, their strong and vibrant twists and turns. For now, they still lived.   So little was known of their anatomy or what treatments could support them that the doctors tried to prepare her for the worst.  So, she held her hands as close to them as she could, trying not to think about anything but the sensation of their movements within her. 

It was only an hour before the scheduled inducement that two uninvited beings appeared in her hospital room in a flash of light.  She woke up with a start.  In their Asgardian clothes and armor, so tall and stately, Jane thought she was dreaming.   She knew one was Loki.  She recognized the woman beside him from Thor’s brief communications with his mother.  She had talked to Frigga many times over the years, but seeing her in person was an entirely different experience.  The only way Jane could explain it was that Frigga filled the room with her presence in a way that turned the profane hospital room into hallowed sanctuary.

“Greetings, Lady Jane,” Loki whispered into her ear as he knelt before her.  “Do not fret.  All shall be well soon.”

Frigga came and bent down to place a kiss on her head and then she took Jane’s hand in hers.  She felt Loki’s hand rest on her shoulder and a steady warmth flooded her entire body.  Within a few minutes, Jane was asleep. 

There was no way to tell how long she slept or what occurred during her unconsciousness.  The next time she woke, she found Thor beside her, anxiously holding her hand.  She blinked into the light of the room and squeezed his hand, causing his heavy eyes to open and he sat up straight. 

“Jane!  There you are!” he said. He clasped her hand tighter and he stared into her eyes, unwilling to look away.  “I thought you would never awaken again.  You have no idea what a relief it is to see those beautiful eyes of yours.  Oh, Jane!  Are you truly still here with me?”

She blinked again and tried to look around.  However, her head felt so heavy she couldn’t do more than look to the door.  She tried to nod in response, but she could not.  Instead, she squeezed his hand in answer. 

Then, unconsciously, she moved her free hand to rest against her stomach.  Instead of a wriggling, moving mound, there was only a deflated expanse of flesh, sore and silent.  Her heart nearly dropped to the floor.  Her eyes grew wide and panicked and begged Thor to answer her with her eyes.   

His smile was as fragile as it was sincere – as if a broken vase glued back together again.  “The twins are fine,” he said.  “They are with Mother.  You do not need to fear for them.  It is for good reason that she has sometimes been called the ‘goddess of motherhood.’  You could not ask for a better guardian for our young ones.”

Jane gave a sigh of relief and her eyes fluttered closed.  If she ever managed to speak again, she would have such a store of questions that it would take Thor a month to answer.  She looked forward to the day she could ask them.  Today was not that day.  It only took another moment before she was asleep.

Another month passed in that hospital room before she was released to go home.  She was still so weak that Thor had to borrow a wheelchair and carry her from room-to-room all day and night.  However, that blasted tube was out of her throat and her lungs filled with air all on their own and she knew she would be ok.  Somehow.  Sometime.  She would be ok. 

To her surprise, her house was cleaner than she had ever seen it.  When Thor brought her home, she stared around the living room as if it was the wrong house and she arched an eyebrow in his direction.  He laughed. 

“Mother put Loki in charge of the older children and tending to the house.  I was tasked with your care.  She took on herself the care of the babes.”

“Maybe I will renege my prohibition on Loki staying here,” Jane said.  “I’ve never seen it this clean.”

“I think you are right.”

“Are the kids ok?”

“They have been very worried.  Knowing you are soon to be home with them has strengthened their spirits and they will soon be well.”

She was soon pummeled by three very relieved children and Thor could barely pry them from her arms for her to sleep again. 

“Dad has been so worried!  He even forgets to eat and Uncle tied him to a chair three times to make sure he ate,” Erick told her. 

“Did he now?”

“When he refused to sleep, Uncle putting a sleeping spell on him and he collapsed right there in the living room, where he stood.  He nearly knocked over the bookshelf," Rose added in. “Uncle had to carry him to bed or he would have slept all night, right there on the floor!”

“Wow!  I can’t say I’m surprised.  By any of it.”

The following days saw Jane resting in her own bed, in her own house.  Thor brought her food at regular intervals and helped her wash and take care of herself.  Loki brought in the children to visit her a few times each day and Frigga spent the greater part of each day with her, both babes in her arms. 

“I am constantly covering them in magic,” Frigga explained, when Jane asked about the golden glow enveloping each.  “The magic helps them grow and stay alive, though they are so young and fragile.  I must always stay nearby so that they are well.  If I neglect to sustain the spell, they will wither away.”

“I’m so glad you are here,” Jane answered, tears in her eyes.  “I’m so grateful you came.”

“The pleasure is all mine,” Frigga answered.  She brought the twins over to the bed and settled one on each side of Jane.  “There is no joy that can compare to seeing my children and grandchildren well.”

Frigga sat on the bed next to Jane and began to sing a song in her natal tongue.  Jane was not sure if it was Vanir or Aesir but the haunting melody was one of the most beautiful she had ever heard.  She drifted off to sleep to the sound, her dreams full of cascading waters and golden pillars and endless stars.

It took two months before Jane was finally strong enough to walk around the house on her own.  She reveled in the freedom this gave her and the sense of autonomy that returned.  She might not be up for a marathon yet, but she could help Erick with his math homework and laugh at Rose’s attempts to imitate Loki’s accent. 

She was folding laundry and sorting it into piles to go to the various rooms when she heard the door creak behind her.  Frigga entered and came to sit on the bed nearby.  She watched Jane fold for a few moments before she began to match socks together. 

“Jane, there is something of great import I must speak with you about,” she said, between pairs of socks.  She didn’t look up at Jane but remained diligently focused on her task.  “You know I must return to Asgard soon…,” she continued.

Jane nodded, her heart suddenly in her throat. 

“You also know these babes must stay nearby for their care,” Frigga continued.  Her graceful hands paused on the two pink socks they held and she looked up.  Her blue eyes gave her such a penetrating, intense stare that Jane had to close her eyes to fight back the tears that threatened to gather. 

“For how long?” Jane whispered, her focus suddenly on the nearby crib and the two slumbering forms prone within.

“Jane, these babes will not reach full maturity for perhaps half a century,” Frigga urged, her voice growing gentle and low.  “How many decades of incontinence would you like to endure?  How much of the storms of puberty can you manage in your dotage?”

Jane swallowed thickly, a single tear falling down her cheek.  “What are you saying?  Tell me straight.”

“According to Asgardian law, a mage is responsible for the lives of any babe he intentionally or unintentionally creates when casting spells.  By honor, Loki is responsible for the offspring of his brother in case his brother is unable to care for them.  Thus, by both law and honor, Loki is bound to the lives of these babes. 

“It is highly possible your young ones may live over a thousand years.  While it is too soon to tell, it is very likely they have innate magic and it is nearly assured their strength will be greater than any Midgardian.  If you will grant your permission, I recommend you permit Loki to taken them as his own fosterlings.  They will join his House, take his name, and be raised as his own.  Under his protection, they will have access to all Asgard has to offer and they will not be in danger of the attention they would receive if they remained on Midgard.”

“What does Loki think?” Jane asked with a resigned sigh.  She could pretend she hadn’t expected this, but she knew she would be lying.  Part of her hoped Frigga would remain until the twins were strong enough to be on their own. Another part of her knew this was unlikely to be possible. 

They were so beautiful.  Those dear, perfect, sweet little faces and their tiny, perfect toes and fingers.  She had only seen into their dark blue eyes once before she was completely and utterly taken by them both.  However, she knew Frigga was right.  Jane celebrated her fiftieth birthday in the hospital.  Even if her children developed at a normal human rate, she would struggle to keep up. 

“This scheme was of his design.  If you were to ask him, he would convince you of its pragmatism and inherent mischief.  Do not be deceived.  He acts out of his affection for his brother, his desire to make amends, and, truly, his devotion to these young ones.”

“What pragmatism or mischief could there be in this?” Jane asked.

Frigga laughed.  “Loki would be the first to inform you it is not wise for Asgard to remain with only one heir.  The next possible successors to the throne are my husband’s aged brothers.  Their sons are even less worthy of the throne than my sons during their worst of blunders.  By taking these babes, he ensures there are two more possible heirs in the line of succession.”

“Asgard would allow a half-human on the throne?” Jane asked in surprise.

“What could be more fitting than Asgard’s Jotun king appoint his Midgardian kin as successors to rule the Aesir?” came another voice from the doorway.  A dark head peeked into the room and smirked at their expression.  “What?  As this conversation involves me, I find it is fitting I be present for it to speak for myself.”

Frigga clicked her tongue, but then patted the side of the bed next to her.  “Come and have your say, then.” 

Instead of sitting beside his mother, he jumped onto the bed, nearly upsetting the laundry basket, and he sprawled out against the pillows with his feet balanced on a pile of Erick’s pants.  When Jane tried to push his feet off, he responded by kicking the neatly folded stack onto the floor in a tumbled mess.  Jane groaned and swatted his feet.  Before she could bend over to retrieve them, Loki snapped his fingers and the next moment, all of the laundry disappeared. 

“Hey!  What did you do?”

“Sent your interminable pile of garments where they belong.”

“Ugh.  Thanks.  I think,” she answered and she sat on the bed, her body angled so she could see both Frigga and Loki.  Without the pile of pants, Loki balanced his feet on the empty laundry basket, forcing the basket to topple over so he could settle on the other side of it.  He propped up his head on one arm and looked over at her.

“As I was saying,” he continued in a tone dripping with intentional irony.  “Is it not even more fitting that the Midgardian blood in their veins hails straight from the House of Odin while it is their Midgardian dame who grants them Aesir heritage?  No, I would not miss this opportunity for all the Nine Realms.  I can think of no better heirs for Asgard’s throne than those sired by a mortal Thor Odinson and his Aesir Midgardian wife.”

“I’m not sure upsetting Asgard is the best reason to adopt my kids as your own…,” Jane said, her brow furrowed as she considered it.

Loki grew serious.  “No, Jane.  The mischief is only an unexpected boon.  I offer because I believe it to be just and honorable for all involved.  This benefits not only myself.  When Thor returns, he will be greatly relieved to be reunited with some of his kin and he can choose to maintain them as the rightful successors or no.”

“Loki, what if Thor never...”

“He will return.  Simply because I refuse to be king and I will move all of the Nine Realms to make him return if I must.  You see how neatly I am sidestepping the council’s meddling in my affairs?  They will have no need to insist I take a bride I do not want or hurry me into producing half-Jotun offspring.  I appoint your progeny as my heirs and all are satisfied.”

“And you laugh at the irony for the next thousand years,” Frigga observed with an arched eyebrow.  “And irritate your father for far longer.”

“There is that.  I cannot deny the appeal.”

“What about the All-Father?” Jane asked.  “He cannot approve.”

Frigga took her hand and leant towards her, and earnestness coloring her eyes.  “The All-Father cannot go against Asgardian law.  These babes are half-Aesir and thus automatically have Asgardian citizenship.  In addition, as sirelings by the intervention of an Aesir mage, they are also Asgardian citizens.  Loki has full right and responsibility to adopt them as his own.  By our own laws of succession, any children of the Sons of Odin– whether by blood or law – fall into line of the throne.”

“Would Asgard ever accept them?” Jane asked.

“Would Midgard?” Loki retorted.

Jane sighed.  “I suppose they would be out-of-place, no matter where they are.”

“They will not appear different from other Aesir,” Loki said.  “These are not the first halflings in creation.  While their Midgardian background may be a disadvantage at times, they will not face direct ostracism for it.  Also, I will remind you, they would be part of the royal family and this helps offset some of the worst disadvantages they could face.  Of all Asgard, I would the most informed at what challenges those of alternate heritage face when challenging Aesir pride.  I have thought much upon this.  I believe this is best for everyone involved.”

“Would I ever see them again?” Jane asked, not bothering to stem the flow of tears that now dripped freely down her cheeks.  She kept her eyes fixed upon the crib, her heart already breaking at the thought of the crib lying there, empty and unused.

Frigga let out a rich, hearty chuckle.  “Of course!  In fact, I will insist upon it.  As part of the fostering ceremony, it can be included in the terms of agreement.  They should know Midgard and Asgard both.”

“I will also insist on full disclosure of their background,” Loki added.  “I do not wish for them to grow to adulthood and find their true identity has been kept a secret.  They will know which realm birthed them and under what circumstances.”

Frigga clasped her hand against his knee and gave him a squeeze, her expression turning apologetic.  “I believe that is wise.”

Jane took in a shuddering breath.  “You are right.  I know you are right.  I know this is best. Can I just say that I still hate it?  A lot?”

Frigga leaned over to place her arms around her and held on all the tighter as Jane sobbed into her shoulder.  “Nobody expects you to delight in the separation from your babes.  Think on it further.  Speak with Thor.  If you do not agree, then the babes will remain with you and stay in your care.” 

Frigga continued to stroke her hair until the babies woke and she left Jane to pace the room, her heart in turmoil as she forced herself to think about all that Frigga and Loki said.

Chapter Text

“Father will not approve of our meddling,” Loki observed to his mother as they made their way from the seam in space from Midgard to Asgard.  Carrying not only his mother but two fragile infants along with himself was a challenge but they arrived in Asgard without any hindrances.  Loki carefully held Thor’s son to his chest, Frigga’s magic settling on him and around him with a pleasant, familiar hum of power. 

“Your father can banish us both if he is displeased.  These babes would have died without our intervention.  I will not stand by and permit harm to come to these babes and Thor needed his family,” Frigga answered with a frown.  Carefully, she lifted up her long skirts so she could climb the back staircase into the palace.  With her other hand, she cradled Thor’s small daughter. 

“Mother, how much longer before Thor will return?” Loki asked.  It had been so many years since he had voiced this question to her, but he could not hold it in any longer. 

“I do not know,” she answered, her eyes growing distant.  “Your father… remains displeased with Thor’s decisions on Midgard. He is pleased with Thor taking responsibility and learning to be a husband and father, but Odin does not see this as naught but a temporary diversion and youthful frivolity unsuited to one of Thor’s station.  He would have been more pleased if Thor sought to spend his days in the protection of Midgard rather than immersing himself so fully in the lives of the mortals.  He did not expect Thor to so easily forget he was once a prince.”

“You realize how hypocritical that sounds?  Or what Thor would feel to hear it?”

“Aye.  I did not say I agreed.”

“If I am understanding you properly, Father wished for Thor to become mortal without becoming mortal?  He wished Thor to dwell on Midgard without taking on the lifestyle and values of the Midgardians?” Loki asked, incredulous.

“Your father is not pleased with how long Thor’s banishment remains.  He expected Thor to prove himself much sooner than this.  Thor has proved surprisingly patient and kept a stronger leash on his temper than your father ever believed possible.  This both pleases him and irritates him and I believe this banishment proves as beneficial for your father as for Thor and yourself.  He is not ready to admit such to himself, but he has been given much cause to reflect on his own values and his relationship with each of his sons.  He has learned to value you more than he ever had before and he has recognized the overreliance he once placed on Thor.  He is forced to recognize Thor’s gifts apart from his role as prince and see more of who his son can become.  He is also forced to recognize your gifts as a prince and acknowledge what a king you could be.”

“I do not wish to be king.”

“Neither does Thor.”

“A dreadfully inconvenient situation.  I shall thank the Norns I am the second son.  I shall endeavor to come up with some manner of mischief to remind the All-Father just why he also should be glad I am the second son.  It would benefit no one to impress him overmuch.”

Frigga laughed and reached over to kiss him on the cheek. 

“It will have to be some great feat of mischief to make him forget all you have already accomplished.  The gathering of the Infinity Stones alone is a feat worthy of warrior songs for generations to come.  Your father is deeply impressed.”

“Ah, yes.  I used deceit, trickery, and sly scurrying through the universe to steal glowing rocks from their inept keepers.  Truly a feat Asgard will laud before all their warriors.  It is a pity, then, that my deeds must remain secret for all time,” Loki answered with a scoff.

“Loki, you used the gifts you have to keep Thanos from at least four of the Infinity Stones.  If we can manage to gather the remaining two, then you will have played a direct hand in preserving the lives of at least half the universe.  This is a feat the greatest warriors and army of Asgard could not have accomplished, for they would have sought to accomplish their task through open warfare and direct bludgeoning.  Rather than quietly removing the Stones from circulation, they would have called all the greedy eyes of the universe to their scheme and welcomed in competition from among all the galaxies to find their mates.”

“‘Tis only too true.  I can see the Lady Sif and the Warriors Three descending on the Midgardian underground fortress, weapons drawn, demanding their one-eyed chief to surrender their Tesseract or face the edge of their blade.  Truly, it would have been a sight worth beholding, if anything could be seen other than carnage.”

“Instead, we have a working treaty with Midgard – the first ever developed , I might add – and the mortals have no idea they guard only a cheap imitation of the Tesseract,” Frigga answered, her voice warm and overly pleased, in a way only a mother’s can be. 

“Unfortunately, this also means my storage is so full of ancient relics that it has become quite cumbersome to hold onto and if I die, they will all be lost to the space between spaces forever.”

“Such a tragic outcome for all involved,” Frigga answered, one eyebrow arched in recognition of his sarcasm.   

They had not gone halfway through the family wing when they were interrupted by a familiar voice booming through the hall. 

“LOKI!” Roared Odin’s furious voice.  “What have you done!”

Frigga gave him an apologetic glance and reached out to take the babe he carried.  “I’ll be in my chambers and I will set up a new nursery for these young ones,” she whispered to him.  She placed another kiss on his cheek and whispered, “Do not worry.”

Reluctantly, Loki followed the sound of Odin’s voice until he found his father in front of the door of Loki’s own room, pacing with Gungnir in hand.  When he saw Loki approach, he pointed his scepter in the direction of the gilded door.  “You!  Inside!  Now.”

Once the door was locked behind them and a sound barrier shielded the room from outside ears, Odin turned to Loki, a deep frown on his face.  Loki’s irritation grew at this terse welcome and he grimaced as he thought through all the possible ways to defend himself against what he assumed to be his adoptive father’s grievances.  He spoke first to prevent Odin’s tirade before it began.

“It is my lawful right and duty to take Thor’s babes as my fosterlings.  You cannot deny me this,” Loki stated, as firmly as he could muster.  He gave Odin a defiant stare and dared him to argue further.

Odin paused from his pacing to stare at Loki through his one good eye, fierce and piercing.  “Did I deny it?”

Loki opened his mouth and then closed it.  He shook his head. 

“I would prove the greatest hypocrite in the Nine Realms if I denied you that right.  If you wish to adopt all of Thor’s Midgardian offspring as your own, that is your right and you may do as you choose.  No, Loki.  Is it or is it not true that these babes are half-Aesir?”

“It is true,” Loki gaped, unsure now of the underlying cause of Odin’s ire.

“And yet they were born of Thor and his Midgardian woman.”

“You are correct.”

“Tell me, then, how two mortals produce babes of Aesir heritage?” Odin asked, his own glare daring Loki to explain himself.

Loki gaped for a moment as he struggled to compose his answer.  He knew his actions and motivations would not please the All-Father and so he wished to present as little context as possible.

“I transformed Jane into an Aesir for a day,” he began.  “It was a fading spell and one which diminished within twenty-four hours, but that was enough.  I did not take into consideration how the shift between forms would influence her child-bearing capacities.”

Odin stopped his pacing to clasp the back of his great chair and his frown deepened.  “Loki, you were able to transform a Midgardian into Aesir form so thoroughly that she produced Aesir young?”

“Yes.”

“With only the use of magic?  No relics or intermediary artifacts were used?”

“Naught but my magic,” Loki answered warily, unsure what the underlying purpose of these prodding questions was or what answer Odin would consider acceptable. 

Odin pulled out a chair and sank into it.  Then he leaned against the nearby table, twirling his scepter in front of him and making the gold cast little flickers of light against the ceiling. 

“Loki, I knew of your illusions and your gift of bending our perceptions to your created realities, but this – this is something else entirely.  When you shift your forms, it is more than mere illusion?”

“I can shift by illusion or in truth.  I can also conduct a partial or full shift.”

“And you can apply this same transformation onto others?”

“Yes.”

“Can you transform yourself or another into the exact likeness of another?”

“Yes.”

Odin leaned back in his chair with a muttered oath and then he began to laugh.  It was an unexpectedly loud, boisterous sound that bounced off the high ceilings of the room and made Loki start in surprise.  It was so rare he heard the All-Father laugh and even more unusual for such an unrestrained expression to burst from the old ruler.    

“Woe to the realm that counts Loki Odinson among its enemies!” Odin said and he wiped at the tears of mirth in his eyes.  “I would assume, then, that if you wished, you could imitate my own person and masquerade as myself with none in Asgard the wiser.  If you so chose, you could, quite literally, become Thor.”

Loki gave a wary nod. 

“By the Halls of Valhalla!  I have never heard of such a gift!”

“The Skrull easily shift forms,” Loki said. “Even mimicking the genetic material of their subjects.”

“True, true!  However, they cannot cast such a shift onto any but their own selves.  The closest I have heard of this gift is what I may harness Gungnir to accomplish – such as the spellwork I used to keep you in Aesir form and to force Thor into a mortal form.  However, that is only a translation of your form and not a transformation into an entirely different individual. You and Thor still resemble your true selves, only in the forms of other species.  I am assuming that, if you wished, you could turn Thor into a bilgesnipe with none being the wiser for the change.”

Loki nodded, a smirk growing on his face. “An excellent suggestion.”

Odin chuckled for a few moments before he grew serious and he leaned forward on his scepter again, his gaze turning earnest.

“My son, I know you are a man who prefers to keep your own councils and keep your well of secrets tightly locked, but you must see the position I am in.  I must think further on this gift of yours.  Such a gift could cause the fall of entire realms and while I am right glad to have such a gift working for the good of Asgard, if you chose to use your gift against us…” he began and trailed off. 

Loki’s face hardened and he frowned.  “You could also argue that Thor’s powers would be quite formidable – if used against Asgard.”

“Aye.  You speak truth, Loki.  I cannot deny it.  According to that same logic, there is none in the Nine Realms who could prove such a danger as your mother,” Odin said, a thoughtful smile returning to his grizzled face.  “I suppose the real challenge you pose is ensuring your loyalty remains with Asgard.”

Loki rolled his eyes at Odin’s too-familiar conclusion.  It always came down to ensuring loyalty to Asgard, over and above any other. 

“I must admit to a fascination with the potential of this gift,” Odin mused.  “My next Odinsleep, we need not fear an enemy coming to find the throne filled by an intermediary ruler…. If a warrior left a widow without an heir, you could intervene to ensure the continuation of their House… if an envoy was required in two separate locations at the same time…”

“No, no!  Father, enough!” Loki spluttered between bursts of laughter.  “Perhaps it is I who should be concerned of the dangers Asgard poses to my gifts!  In one moment you fear I will masquerade as you and the next you plot convenient ways to force me to take on your visage and rule in your stead!  No, it will not do!”

“Tell me you have not considered these uses and even more?” Odin asked, one eyebrow raised.

Loki grinned widely.  “Of course not.  I would never consider such deception!”

Odin chuckled and reached out a hand to clasp Loki’s shoulder.  “Of course not.”

He rose to leave but not before a final glance back at Loki.  “I am glad you have returned.  Asgard has been all the emptier for the absence of nearly the entire House of Odin.”

“I am afraid it will remain empty no longer.  Now, the palace must make room for the newly formed House of Loki.” 

“Aye, so I have heard.  If that is what you wish.  I assume you will hold a public fostering ceremony?”

“As soon as the babes are well enough.”

“Fine, fine.”

“Before their fostering ceremony, I would request you to hold your own.  It is time.”

“So it will be done.”

Before all Asgard, and a few heavily bribed and disgruntled representatives from Jotunheim, Odin swore Loki into his House and claimed him as his son by law.  For months beforehand, proclamations explaining the event were sent across the realms and inviting any who wished to attend the celebration.  To say the revelation was as surprise would be an understatement.  The greatest surprise to Loki was that the object of their ire was not Loki but the All-Father.

“Loki was placed in the line of succession and even placed upon the throne of Asgard, all without legal fostering.  If any enemy had discovered such a breach, they would have overturned Loki’s right to the throne and thrown Asgard into chaos!” the Vanir envoys cried. 

“It is a breach of true Fatherhood,” the elves cried.  “How could you neglect to bind your fosterling to you in all ways!  It was beyond cruel not to tether his magic to your House or give him knowledge of his true name.  It is little wonder he has struggled to find his place in your House!”

“If the All-Father stoops to such deception, and in his own House, how can we trust any he places in Asgard,” the Aesir exclaimed.  “Perhaps Thor is a Son of Muspelheim and he has hidden it!”

The All-Father himself was forced to make trips to each of the realms to apologize for the deception and answer any questions directed at him.  None were more angered than the royal family on Jotunheim.  Long before the proclamation went out to the rest of the realms, Odin and Loki made their own private delegation to Laufey’s House.  The revelation of Loki’s identity was enough to almost tumble the old enemies into another war. 

“While I am honest enough to admit I find the idea of wars fought over my existence flattering, my vanity is not so great that I would like to see the reality of that idea actualized,” Loki observed, once he and Odin had returned to Asgard and could speak in the privacy of the palace again. 

“Laufey is a proud man.  He may not have wished for you to remain in his House, but woe to any Aesir who interfered in the life of a Jotun,” Odin answered.

“It was treasonous enough that I disobeyed his wishes and chose to live when he wished for me to die.  To then choose to live on the realm of his greatest enemy was indeed a moral failing of the worst kind.  It is little wonder he wished I should die before I could betray him in so many ways.”

“Aye, well, at least he is more than happy to sign your fostering agreement and sever all ties between you and Jotunheim.  If he refused and insisted you take your place as his heir, our negotiations could have truly disintegrated rapidly.”

Since Laufey did not actually have any wish to admit Loki into his House or line of succession, he was only too happy to acknowledge Loki’s symbolic death in his House and sign the parchments for the fostering ceremony.  Then, in front of all Asgard, Odin All-Father swore Loki into his House.  The parchments were signed and irrevocable.  By law, if not blood, Loki belonged to Frigga and Odin.  Forever.  For all time.  And none could question it again. 

Loki attended the ceremony in his Jotun skin, much to the shock and dismay of his audience.  However, he refused to cower or behave as if he was anything but a Son of Odin.  He stood tall in his full ceremonial armor, despite the oppressive heat and uncomfortable weight of the regalia.  Then, he faced Asgard as their Jotun prince, his sharp teeth shining in the flickering light of the torches and his red eyes daring them to defy the word of the All-Father. 

Asgard may have complained bitterly in the privacy of their homes.  They may have whispered in alleyways and scoffed at street corners, but they would not deny their prince or refuse a decree of the All-Father. 

Loki randomly wandered through Asgard in his Jotun skin after that – sometimes simply to stir up trouble, other times to provoke and prod and make the Aesir feel uncomfortable.  When he turned up blue at the fostering ceremony for the twins, none doubted it was anything but intentional.  All Asgard and a few representatives from the other realms attended the festivities that day, curious to see the fosterlings of the Asgardian prince. 

The babes were now strong enough to breathe on their own.  Their delicate stomachs could digest their milk without assistance and the aura of Frigga’s magic no longer enveloped them.  The babes were dressed in identical gold robes and held before all Asgard so each could see the newest son and daughter bound to the House of Loki. 

“Who are these young ones you bring before us?” asked the overly polite voice of the Councilor of the Harvest, the official charged with the establishment of Houses. 

“I present to you Luke Foster and Anna Foster, born on Midgard eleven months ago,” Loki responded.  He rather wished the public announcements had not preceded the ceremony, just so he could have witnessed the initial reaction of the crowd for himself.  Unfortunately, the ice had been broken, so to speak, months earlier and any lingering elements of surprise were smoothly glazed over by a veil of politeness and repetition.   

“Who sired these young ones?  Who was their dame?”  The Councilor asked, smoothly following his prescribed list of questions for such a ceremony.

“Thor, son of Odin, a mortal, was their sire.  Jane, daughter of Thomas, and Aesir, was their dame,” Loki responded. 

“From this day forth, do you swear to take them as your own?  Henceforth, they will belong not to the House of Thor but the House of Loki?”

“I do.”

“Do you solemnly swear to protect them, provide for them, instruct them, and guide them in the ways of the Aesir?”

“I do.”

“What shall they be called in your House?”

“They shall take the names of my mother’s kin.  From this time forward, they shall be known as Freyr Lokison and Freya Lokidóttir.  From this day onward, I shall be their father.”

“Here this, all Asgard.  On this day, the House of Loki is established and these babes, Freyr and Freya, fall under the protection of Loki, son of Odin, prince of Asgard.  Do you hear and bear witness to this?”

“We do,” came the reply of the crowd.  “We hear, we see, we witness.”

“Then let the celebrations commence!” the Councilor cried out. 

Soon the crowd made their way to the feasting hall where the food and mead already flowed in abundance.  Frigga claimed Freya as her own charge and eagerly cooed at the babe in her arms as they walked.  Loki held Freyr and followed after her.  The heat was now so oppressive, he could tolerate it no longer and he shifted back into his Aesir form.  Immediately, he sighed in relief. 

Once in the feasting hall, the House of Odin and House of Loki sat on the central dais, allowing all curious eyes and well-wishers to approach them to see the babes themselves. 

“Fine children,” Loki was told, over and over again, along with ample flattery and congratulations.  He feigned interest while attempting to allay his boredom by pondering what thoughts were truly going through their heads.  He could not doubt them overmuch, however, because in all truth, the babes were all that was lovely.  Now, old enough for their eyes to open and blink into the dim lights of the feasting hall, all could see the exact shade of blue as worn by the eyes of the banished prince.  Their hazel hair only now sprouted from their pale heads and their rosy cheeks were full and lively.

“They have more than a few traces of your magic in them,” Frigga had surmised, once their innate magic began to materialize.  They had yet to show any particular expressions but no discerning mage could miss the whispering hints of what would develop in years to come. 

“Mine in particular?” Loki had asked, dubiously.

“Your magic lingered in Jane to sustain her transformation.  It is your magic they have inherited and burns within them.  Can you not feel it?” she asked him.

He could.  He was simply hesitant to admit such out loud. 

“Will father ever acknowledge them, other than before all Asgard?” Loki had asked her, in the privacy of their chambers.

She gave him a soft, earnest smile and nodded.  “He will.  He cannot help it.  Once he holds them in his arms, he will be as tied to them as he ever was to you.  He could hardly put you down from the moment he first held you and he could not wait to gather you into his arms at the end of his meetings each day.  Give him time, Loki, and he will.”

Frigga was right.  By the time of their fostering, Odin spent nearly as much time with the twins as Frigga and Loki began to wish Jane had borne triplets instead.  Still, in all this, Loki could not help but feel the glaring absence of Thor in all of it. Thor should have been there, by his side.  Not only because the babes he now called his own were of Thor’s own siring, but because, as their uncle, he should have been there to take on his own duty in their care. 

Well, if Thor could not join them in Asgard, then it was time Loki return to Midgard.  He had promised Thor regular visits with his children and that was one promise Loki intended to keep. 

Chapter Text

The true sting of mortality was found not in the constant presence of death but in the relentless joys and reminders of life.  That these short-lived, fragile beings could force so much laughter into the days given to them cut Thor to the core.  If they had all been wandering around bemoaning their mortality and their small, meaningless place in the universe, he could have accepted it better.  But, no, they insisted on embracing life with both hands.  The human beings on the little realm of Earth filled their realm with their vibrant energy and dauntless desire to keep on living, keep on laughing, keep on loving, keep on pressing onward to make the most of the days granted them and this is what baffled him completely. 

Just like the Aesir, they celebrated life and death.  They grew and passed through stages of maturity.  They dreamed and mourned and lost and gained.  Granted, it was on a smaller time scale, but the emotions attached were the same as experienced on Asgard and Thor found he could relate much more than he had ever hoped to find, more than was truly safe to experience. 

In a span hardly enough for an Aesir child to reach the onset of puberty, Thor lived an entire mortal lifetime.    The amount he came to love Jane and his children was more than he could truly bear.  He had thought that his attachment to them would be all the less because of their mortality.  Instead, it cut him to the heart because he found it was so much more. 

The day that Jane came back from the doctor, her brown eyes moist but twinkling and her grey hair curled around her neck, that was the day Thor understood what mortality truly meant. 

After so many full decades working for SHIELD, Jane received her first diagnosis.  She fought tooth and nail and beat it back and went back to work again.  That second time, though, she had to give it up and finally retire. 

“I’m seventy-eight years old.  It’s been long enough,” she said, her smile bright and nostalgic.

For the decades after the last set of twins were born, Jane was able to focus all her mental energy onto her research – the research she had always wanted to do.  SHIELD hired her on full-time to investigate Einstein-Rosen Bridges and she had her own lab, full of all the technology she could have ever hoped for.  SHIELD ate up anything she developed, making huge strides in their capacity to both identify incoming portals through space and setting the foundation to create their own someday. 

Jane thrived.  It helped that the office of Thor Odinson, SHIELD consultant, was only across the hall.  They could take their coffee breaks together and share their various adventures. 

Thor was far past his years of chasing down foes and meeting possible threats on the front lines.  However, he was still involved in each and every extraterrestrial interaction that came through SHEILD’s notice.  While these events were more frequent than Jane had ever imagined, they did not occur often enough to keep Thor out of trouble.  SHIELD soon discovered Thor had more uses than telling long-winded stories about “that time in Nornheim.”  Thor’s true gifting lay in his ability to train and inspire new recruits into their ranks.  He had a natural charisma and ability to garner loyalty among his followers.  This, along with his insights into a vast array of forms of fighting, made him an ideal candidate for working with the greenest and most impressionable of SHIELD agents. 

Among the young SHIELD recruits, tales of Mr. Odinson were nearly legendary, as were the debates about which were tall tales and which were gospel truth.    

“Did you hear?  Mr. Odinson says he’s an alien stuck in a human body!”

“I heard he thinks he’s actually the reincarnation of a Norse god and he thinks he can call for lightning.”

“Nah, he just says all that to mess with our heads and see who is stupid enough to believe it.”

This debate continued long after the recruits completed their basic training and advanced through the ranks at SHIELD.  There were even betting pools set aside for the day Thor would prove himself an alien or for the day he finally admitted it was all a ruse. 

Thor ignored all the mystique around him. He didn’t really care if they believed him or not.  Actually, he didn’t really have the capacity to expect disbelief.  Why would any not believe his story when he always spoke exactly as he saw things?  What was there not to believe when it was all the truth?  He plastered the same, cheerful, earnest smile on his face and never once faltered from his story. 

There were other rumors that circulated around SHIELD that were much more classified, but just as scandalous.  For example, there were tales told of an atmospheric disturbance that occurred at the exact same place and same time every year without fail.  It left an identical runic mark in the New Mexico sands, not far from Puente Antiguo.  Thor and Jane disappeared for a few weeks around the disturbance.  Then, it was said that for a few weeks or months after, Thor and Jane Foster-Odinson hosted three additional “guests” in their house.  One was said to be tall, dark-haired, and perpetually covered in black armor and a green cape.  The other pair were said to be young nearly identical twins and the most beautiful children any observer had ever seen. 

“They can’t be human.  They just can’t be. They never age.  They are the same size whenever they come.  There’s just something about them that’s off, you know?  Something that sets my skin on edge and makes me wish the ground would swallow me up,” whispered one SHIELD recruit.  He claimed to have seen the trio once at the park, but he had not evidence to prove his claim. 

There were some of the older SHEILD employees, the ones who once worked cleaning hospital floors and filing paperwork many years earlier, who claimed Jane had once been a patient on the lowest (and most classified) of floors of a SHIELD medical facility.  They told tall tales of alien invaders who could enter the facility without tripping the security system and stories of hosting alien offspring in Jane’s own body. 

“She couldn’t have.  Thor is human. I’ve met their kids.  They are all human.”

“Maybe Thor’s not the only alien she’s ever met.  She’s the type who would sacrifice herself on behalf of science.  Maybe it was all one of those top-secret SHIELD experiments on live subjects.”

“I think she cheated on Thor with his alien brother.  You know, the one who shows up randomly and who the myths say was quite the favorite among the wives of the Norse pantheon.”

“I think it’s all made-up and she was there because SHIELD caught her shacking up with an alien lover and they wanted to make sure she wasn’t betraying Earth or hosting alien parasites in her body to take over the Earth.”

Whenever asked about their strange visitors, Thor only smiled and said they were his “family.”  He never elaborated further.  Dr. Foster, when asked, was said to lose herself in a far-away, somehow dreamy expression and then respond in exactly the same way as her husband.  Then she shooed the impertinent inquirers away or changed the subject to discuss the upcoming meteor shower. 

Thus, the rumors only continued to fly.   

It didn’t help that Thor and Jane began a tradition of visiting Puente Antiguo on their anniversary.  Every single time, they ate at Thor’s Hammer before driving out to the middle of the desert with a giant telescope strapped to the top of that raggedy old van Jane was so proud of.    

“What do you know about that mysterious hammer?” some of the recruits asked Thor, after his yearly visit to the famed tourist trap.  “Is it actually an alien artifact that fell from outer space?”

“Of course!  Have you not read what is written about it on its pedestal?  It fell from the heavens for any who is worthy enough to wield it!” Thor answered, his arms outstretched and his laugh booming through his chest.  “Have you not tried to lift it?”

Some years the recruits would admit to their failure in lifting the hammer.  Others refused to admit it and pretended they had never tried.  Some, once Thor’s back was turned, whispered their doubts in its authenticity. 

“After all, if Thor is supposed to be the reincarnation of a Norse god and that is supposed to be Thor’s hammer, shouldn’t he be able to lift it?  I call B.S. on all of it.”

Once, when Thor caught such a comment, he only laughed harder. 

“Then you must train harder so you might someday be worthy!” He cried and he ran them through exercises until they nearly wept with the pain of it. 

Thor and Jane laughed about the wild rumors they caught wind of, every time they heard them. It was a favored ritual of theirs to recount the most outlandish during their sojourns at Thor’s Hammer.  It was the fitting place and time for such nostalgia.   

After Jane retired from SHIELD, they made it back to Puente Antiguo, just in time for their thirty-seventh anniversary.  Jane walked slowly, with the aid of a walker and Thor’s solid hand on her back.  They settled in a corner booth, one not far from a window through which they could both watch the young, optimistic patrons try their hand at the hammer.  Jane’s laugh rang merrily at their efforts and the downcast, sheepish expressions they walked away with, once the hammer judged them as unworthy.  Thor watched, delighted to listen to her laugh and see the way the light glinted from her hazel eyes. 

She kept all her hair this time, evidence that she was done with at least one fight.  The wrinkles on her face made her nearly unrecognizable from the young woman he had first met here, thirty-seven years ago, but her eyes, they remained just as full of life and curiosity. 

“Do you remember when you served Darcy roasted armadillos?” she asked, laughing at the memory. 

“She swore to me they were not food when I first arrived and so I wished to prove her wrong.”

“It was delicious, but I don’t think she ever forgave you for it.”

“Indeed.  Though I believe she was pleased with the dried skin and claws of the beast I presented her with after.”

“She kept those in her office for years!”  Jane said.  “She told her students they were from an alien.  I suppose she was sort of telling the truth.”

Thor laughed.  “She was nearly as gifted at twisting her words as my brother.”

Jane sighed.  “I miss her.”

“As do I.”

“I miss Erick too.  It never seems to grow easier, no matter how many years pass by.”

“There is no substitution for faithful kin and loyal companions,” Thor said, solemnly.  He looked at her then, knowing full well that there would be no substitution for her, either.  Not even if he lived another five thousand years.  As if she could sense his thoughts, she leaned her head on his shoulder and nestled in his warmth. 

“I’ll never forget that night I first met you here,” she said.  “You were just as hot-headed and full of yourself as any of those young men over there now.  There you were, shaking your fist against the sky and shouting like a lunatic.  I’d say I fell in love with you then, but that would be a lie.”

He laughed.  “When did you finally decide to fall for me?  Was it when you saw my handsome face scowl in anger or when I charmed you through the destruction of crockery?”

It was Jane’s turn to laugh.  “Neither.  I am not so easily won over as that, oh Mighty Prince!”

“A worthy opponent is never one that is easily felled!”

“Exactly!  You know, I don’t think I really fell for you until that day Rose and Dahlia were placed in your arms and you looked up at me with that beautiful smile of yours.  Then I knew, I was done for.”

Thor’s brow furrowed and he frowned.  “I do not believe that is entirely flattering, Wife. If you had known me so very well and so very intimately for nearly a year and I had not yet won you, then it speaks poorly for my prowess as a suitor.  I can hardly take credit if it was our daughters which won my conquest on my behalf and not my own charms.”

“Take it as a complement to our daughters or an insult to yourself,” Jane said, her eyes turning mischievous and she kicked his ankle under the table.  “However, the end result is the same.  My heart was yours.”

Thor laughed and wrapped his foot around her ankle to keep her from kicking him again.  “A worthy conquest, though bought with my own thorough humiliation.” 

“A much-needed humiliation.”

“Very true, my Lady.  Very true.”

They both fell into silence and watched another burly man roll up his sleeves for his try at the hammer.  Thor watched the young man while Jane’s gaze fell upon the inscriptions on the hammer instead.  She placed a quivering hand on Thor’s forearm and tilted her head towards Mjolnir.

“If I was your father, I’d have given it back to you by now,” she whispered.  “I may not have travelled all the Nine Realms, but I think you are the worthiest man in all of them.”

“Then that is a compliment greater than even Mjolnir can grant,” Thor answered.  He leaned in and kissed her, long and sweet and grateful.  His own age-weathered face matched hers in its many lines and crinkles.  His hair fell in a ragged braid down his back and silver nearly over-powered the gold in its weave.  The muscles in his arms were now soft and withered, a far cry from the arms that once wielded Mjolnir.  However, the rest of the man he had grown into was hardly recognizable as the impulsive, unwieldy youth who had fallen upon the New Mexico desert. 

He was now someone else, something else.  After so many years, he had learned and grown and changed. 

Now, he knew for certain.  He was just a man.  He was only human.

It wasn’t long after their trip to Puente Antiguo that Jane fell ill again.  They made the best of it, for each and every day they had left.  However, the days proved fewer than Thor hoped and soon, he found himself facing his beloved in that hospital bed.  She could barely keep her eyes open or force the words through her frail, fragile lips. 

“You better be waiting for me on the other side of that Rainbow Bridge,” Jane commanded him, her voice low and ragged.  “You promised you’d show me Asgard, someday.”

“I will, Jane.  I promise,” he told her, as he held her hand as if it were a life-preserver, as if as long as he kept hold, she would remain on the other side. 

“Good.  I’m counting on it,” she said.  Despite her weakness, she still managed a smile and it was the most beautiful smile Thor had ever seen before.

“I love you, Jane,” Thor said, forcing the unsteady words out between his tears.    His took her hand, placed a quivering, lingering kiss on the delicate knuckles, and watched as she breathed her last.  The monitors hummed together, letting him know her heart had stopped.

Then he hung his head and wept. 

So many decades of laughter and tears had not prepared him for the full taste of mortality or just how the joy that had filled his heart for decades, deepening in potency the more time passed, now it pierced him through like a sword’s blade, all the more deadly for its depth. 

There was no burial ship and her body was buried and not set aflame.  He could not erect a gilded statue in her honor or perform ritual reenactments of her final moments before a gathering of mourners.  He did not fully understand it all, but his children informed him it would be very difficult to mourn for their mother in the Asgardian ways.   They told him this was for the best. 

He didn’t have the heart to disagree and so they mourned in ways his children said were acceptable on Midgard.  In the days leading up to the funeral, flowers overflowed from his living room table on onto the floor. 

Of course, the Midgardians would commemorate death with flowers, he thought to himself.  Was there a better reminder of the fragility and beauty of life or the bitterness of its loss than to fill his house with flowers? 

Only two bouquets were buried with Jane.  One was a bouquet composed of a flower from each of her children and a single white rose from Thor.  The other was a beautiful set of ice lilies, filled with the stars themselves.  Jane loved those lilies – nearly as much as she loved her telescope.  Thor could not bear to send her away without them at her side. 

Loki and his fosterlings attended the funeral.  They each placed an Asgardian lily next to the graveside – ones which would never wilt nor wither.  They remained long after all the other guests had departed and then they added Aesir runes to the gravestones, filled with their own enchantments.

There were so many well-wishers, so many words, so many hand-clasps and shoulder clasps and platters of casseroles that Thor couldn’t keep track of them all. Thor tried to notice and appreciate it all, but he felt like he was caught up in a whirlwind and couldn’t tell his head from his toes or this day from the next.  It was all grey and mumbled and tussled about. 

In the days after the memorial service and the burial, after prayers were prayed and songs sung, Thor returned to Puente Antiguo.  He sat by Mjolnir’s side and and he cried out to Heimdall again.  He told the Gatekeeper how cruel mortality was.  He allowed his fingers to trace a path along his hammer’s edges and feel the familiar cool surface of the metal. He did not try to lift it but let it remain in its hallowed resting spot.

In the days that followed, he watched the stars.  He sat in Jane’s favorite seat beside the firepit and he raised his eyes to the heavens.  There, he gazed at the patterns that drifted across the sky and he heard Jane’s voice as she told him their stories.  If he squinted just right, he could still see Hercules and his long-sought crown. 

He wondered if Hercules found the crown worthy of the Twelve Labors he undertook or if he would have preferred the anonymity of mortality.  He wondered what he told the gods once he returned to Olympus.  He wondered many things.  Then, he fell asleep. 

He did not speak to Mjolnir or Heimdall again.

“Dad, you have a visitor,” Rose said.  She reached for his hand and helped him stand to his feet.  Then she brought his walker over for him to cling to.  His arms shook and his footsteps were small and labored. 

“Lead on,” he said.  He grinned up at her, his blue eyes shining, and he nodded. 

“Hello, Brother,” Loki said, when Thor entered the small living room of Rose’s home.  He reached out to clasp Thor’s quivering arm and then helped him settle down on the nearby couch with a groan.  “Are you well?”

Thor grunted a response.  “You are my brother?” he asked, one bushy grey eyebrow raised. 

“I am.”

“You don’t look like my brother.  You are too young.  Rose, is this another of your boyfriends?”

Rose cast Loki an apologetic glance and she shook her grey and gold head.  “No, Dad.  This is your brother, Loki.  Don’t you remember Loki?”

“Sounds familiar, like I should have heard the name before.  So, what did you come here for?”

“To visit you and enjoy your charming company,” Loki answered smoothly.

“Where did you come from?”

“Asgard.”

“Never heard of it.  Is it near Tulsa?”

“Not so close to Tulsa.”

“Fine, fine.  Well, want to play Checkers?”

“I would be delighted,” Loki answered.  He was very familiar with the game since Thor insisted on playing, nearly every time Loki visited.

Thor was asleep on the couch, snoring loudly, as soon as the pair finished their lunch.  Loki helped Rose clear the dining room table and clean up their dishes. 

“He’s gotten worse,” he mused and cast a concerned glance to the sleeping elder.

“Today’s a bad day.  His memories come and go.  Sometimes he wakes up and he’s as sharp as a tack.  The next day, well, he’s like he is now.  Usually he knows me, but not always.  Last week, he woke up in the middle of the night calling for Mom and she’s been gone for over a decade.”

“How long do your healers say he has left?”

“A couple of months.  However, that’s what they said a couple of months ago.  It could be years or days.  It’s hard to tell. He’s stubborn as a mule and so he might surprise us and stick around for a few more years yet.”

Loki snorted.  “Sounds like him.  Only Thor would refuse death simply because it is another challenge.”

“Sometimes, he wakes and he thinks he’s back in Asgard.  Other times, he wakes and he doesn’t remember anything about New Mexico, let alone Asgard.  It’s hard, you know, seeing him like this.”

He nodded and placed a hand on her arm.  Wishing to change the subject and lighten her mood, he winked and spoke in a conspiratorial manner. 

“Your boyfriend now?  You have such a propensity to find younger men to follow you around that Thor now expects it of you?” 

She laughed.  “You do look younger than me nowadays, Uncle,” she said, emphasizing his title.  Rose splashed Loki with some of the dish water. 

It was strange.  These days, she looked closer to Frigga’s age than Loki’s and nothing would turn back time. 

“How are the others?” He asked.

She smiled fondly.  “Erick and his wife recently bought a house in Washington.  Their kids are all growing so big.  Johnny started high school now.  I can hardly believe it.  Erick got a job at a big hospital working the in NICU.  He was so fascinated by watching Amma with the twins that he decided he wanted to help premature babies live, using whatever ‘Midgardian magic’ we have available.  He loves it.  He sends us pictures of his success stories every week and he can’t stop talking about all his little charges.

“Dahlia and her husband both still work for SHIELD, but they got transferred to D.C.  She’s thinking about getting a second PhD, just for fun and they recently took a trip to Indonesia for almost a month.  Who knows where they will wander to next?”

“When were they here last?”

“Only a few months ago.  They all came out for Christmas here and Dad was so happy, he cried.  He couldn’t remember he saw them only a week later, but I still show him videos almost every day, just to remind him.  He misses having everyone close by.  He knows they are missing, even if he can’t identify it as such and it’s hard to have everyone so spread out.”

“And you, Rose?  Are you well?”

She nodded and forced a smile.  “I am.  I love teaching and the university I started working at has a lot of opportunities.  I’m taking classes for fun these days, when I’m not needed here with Dad.” 

“He must require a great deal of your time.”

“He does, but I’m glad I can be here with him.  He’s the best, you know? I couldn’t have asked for a better dad and he did so much for us over the years.  It’s my turn to look after him. 

“It’s hard, though, to see him go downhill like this.  Ever since mom died, and then Louis, well, he never quite recovered.”

“He has never experienced death except in battle… and that is considered a glorious end and not an aberration.  Nothing in Asgard would have prepared him for this.”

“Yeah, well, enough of all that,” Rose said, quickly wiping back her tears.  She rarely showed her emotions and tried to hide them whenever they overcame her.  “How are my little brother and sister?  I’m surprised you didn’t bring them this time.”

“Their studies have taken them to Alfheim now and I could not interrupt their time with their tutors.  Once they return, I will bring them to visit again.”

“Good!  We’d all like to see them again,” Rose said.  “Erick wants to see if they’ve grown out of their ‘awkward freshman stage’ yet or if they are still struggling with voice changes and feet too big for their shoes.”

Loki laughed.  “Nearly.  In the next decade or so they will reach their majority and cease growing.  Not quite yet, though Freyr is nearly as tall as me.”

“He might pass you.  Dad used to be taller than you, back in the day.”

Loki sighed.  It had been many years since Thor could look down on Loki.  It was strange to see his brother so very small, so very weak, and so very mortal. 

The next morn, Thor’s smile exploded across his aged face when he saw Loki. 

“Brother!  You are here!” he said.  His eyes brightened with recognition and acute understanding.  With slow, shaky movements, he rose to his feet and opened his arms for a wide hug.  “My heart is strengthened to see you again!  Tell me, how is Asgard?”

“Asgard is well.  She waits for her Golden Prince to return home.”

Thor chuckled.  “They will be sorely disappointed to see their ‘Golden Prince’ is now rather silver.”

“You never looked better.”

“Now I know you jest!”

“I assure you, Brother, I speak nothing but the truth!” Loki responded with an arched smile. 

The machines hummed and whirred and beeped in the stark hospital room.  Oxygen forced its way into his lungs and his heart beat out a waning rhythm in his chest. 

In and out.  In and out.  Up and down.  Up and down. 

The room really wasn’t big enough for all its inhabitants, but no one wanted to miss their chance.  Their beloved father… and grandfather… and great-grandfather… would not last the day, or so the doctors said.  Across state lines and time zones, they all gathered and filled the tiny room to bursting.  Hands clasped the withered palms and lips kissed the weathered brow.  Words of gratitude, adoration, and nostalgia filled the spaces between them and tears watered the thin hospital gown. 

“Will Afi ever wake up?” Little Thor asked his mother.  Sarah turned to her father, tears in her eyes. 

“Not here, Thor. Maybe somewhere else,” Erick answered softly.  He took his grandson into his arms and kissed the blonde hair on his head.  “Maybe you will see him again someday.  We can always hope.” 

Afi Thor often forgot the names of his various progeny or mixed them all up together.  However, they could always depend on his warm, full arms to embrace them and take him onto their knee for a whiskery kiss and his twinkling blue eyes to laugh at their antics and.  They delighted in his outlandish tales of golden spires and magic and battles and kings and queens. 

But the tales they loved the most were the stories of the constellations.  He told the old myths with tears on his face and such devotion in his eyes that they knew that when he looked at the stars, he saw their grandmother.  As long as he could still see the stars, he could remember and he loved to tell them her stories most of all. 

Yet, even the dearest of stories dwindled and there came a day he was too weak to walk outside to see the stars.  He was forced to stare at them from the window by his bed.  Then there came a day he no longer saw their light or noticed their passing. 

Rose summoned all the family together for one last time.  They all came as soon as they received the call. 

They were all there when the machines hummed and whined and told the tale they were all waiting for. 

The great man’s heart had stopped. 

His chest no longer rose and fell. 

Thor Odinson was gone.

A collective gasp went through the room while eyes grew wide.  Dahlia hid her face in her husband’s shoulder and reached out with her other hand to clasp her sister’s.  Erick gaped and tears quietly streamed down his face.  His wife wrapped her arm around him and his children, the younger, ones, came close.  His oldest son drew close to his own young family and moved to take his youngest out of the room before they could disturb the solemn silence with their noise. 

Even such an expected loss felt surreal and a single moment crept on as if it had grown to inhabit an hour.  It was Rose who broke the silence first. 

“Tell mom ‘hi’,” she whispered and moved to kiss her father’s forehead again.  “I’m sure she is waiting to lecture you for taking so long to join her.  Tell her I miss her and...” 

A nearby crash interrupted her from continuing and Dahlia pushed Rose so hard she nearly toppled into the second youngest grandchild.  Several voices shouted over each other at once, competing with the sound of shattering glass and chairs scraping across the linoleum.    

“What?!”

“Watch out!”

“The window!”

“What was that?”

“What’s happening.” 

They were torn between staring at the broken window or the silver object that had just flown through it – and straight into the outstretched arm on the bed before them.  In a flash of light so bright it nearly blinded them, their vision was filled with silver and gold and red.  In the next moment, a massive man sat on the bed before them, his fist gripping a silver hammer, and his blue eyes blinking in the light of the room in confusion.  A scarlet cape poured onto the bed behind him and every inch of his impressively muscled frame was wrapped in black leather and silver armor.  The flesh on his body was firm and every sign of age had been erased.  His golden hair fell down his back without a single thread of white and he sat as straight and tall as a man fresh into manhood.

Rose, always the bravest of the trio, was the first to recover her senses.  She took a tentative step forward and gaped. 

“Dad?” She managed to ask. 

The man on the bed blinked at her then looked down into his hands as if they were foreign objects.  He clenched and unclenched his fist. 

“Rose? Erick? Dahlia?” He asked as his piercing gaze fell on each of the faces of his children before him.  “Where am I?”

No one was able to answer for the very next moment he was engulfed in a golden light. 

Then he was gone.

Author’s Note:  One more chapter to go.  I think we can call it something along the lines of “The Return” or “The Reckoning” or something like that. 

Chapter Text

One moment, Thor had blinked into the forceful light of a hospital room and the next moment he glared at the relentless New Mexico sun above him.  He hardly noticed his brother’s presence or the fact that his brother had just transported him from the hospital to the barren solitude of the desert. 

Silently, Thor stood in abject confusion, Mjolnir in hand.  Forty-nine years of wrinkles had been smoothed out like gold leaf under a mallet. All his accumulated aches and pains and creaks and crevices evaporated away in a single moment and he stood tall and straight.  The strength of the Aesir flowed through his veins and he could taste the magic tingle on his tongue.

He thought he heard someone speaking, but he could not register the words.  His mind was brimming to overfull with the recently sharpened memories, made crisp and clear and all the more dimensional by their translation into his Aesir mind, and he found the sensation nearly overwhelming. 

There had been so much he had forgotten. He remembered it all now. 

In the next moment, a flash of rainbow light enveloped him and he gaped in the dim, gilded light of the Observatory.  He did not register the words directed at him by either Loki or Heimdall.  He did not see Heimdall’s genuflection to him as prince.  All he could see was the golden ceiling of the Observatory and the intricate patterns molded into its tiles. 

He clasped the hammer in his fist, remembering how many times he had failed to so much as budge it before, how many hours of sweat and tears he had wasted on it. Now, firmly in his hands, it tasted like ash on his tongue. With a careless clatter, he tossed it to one side of the Observatory.

Then, he walked out onto the expanse of the Bifrost, his hands unencumbered by their cast-off burden.  Despite this, his shoulders drooped and he walked with the slow steps of a man whose gravity is greater than those around him.

The Bifrost responded to his steps with their own illuminated reflections, stealing his attention from within himself and pulling him outside of himself.  He had only walked a few yards down the glistening bridge when he was overtaken.  He was enveloped in a world of brilliant darkness punctuated by endless patterns of light.  As if seeing it for the first time, as if seeing it through Jane’s eyes, he was awestruck.  He sat down on its edge, his feet dangling into the infinite expanse of the void below, and he leaned back to drink it all in. 

There were so many stars!  He did not remember all their names.  How many stories there must be!  He could recall a few, but he had never truly paid attention before.  He wished he had. 

He recognized colors and shapes and patterns he never had before.  Jane would have called them “supernovas” and “planetary nebula”.  She would have grabbed her notebook and begun to furiously scribble out notes with that pencil from behind her ear.  He would have watched the look of pure delight creep across her face and he would know it was another one of those days where she would forget to eat unless he brought her food.  Then her hazel eyes would melt with warmth and she would reach out to squeeze his hand for just a moment, at least, until the stars captured her attention again and she momentarily forgot about him all over again.

He was interrupted from his musings by the sound of light footsteps and a shadowy figure moving to sit beside him.  The figure joined him in his perusal of the view from the Bifrost for some moments.  Then he leaned over to whisper into Thor’s ear. 

“Brother, do you wish to spend the entire night here, upon the Bifrost?” came Loki’s voice.  While the voice was familiar, he still felt detached from the sound, as if hearing it from a dream. 

 Thor looked around him and stared up and down the vast expanse of the rainbow bridge.  They were alone, now, but it was termed a bridge for a reason.  It was not a place he could remain undisturbed for long.  Yet, he would not quite make out where he was to go.  His eyes slowly inched upwards and across the towering spires of Asgard. He had gazed upon that view his entire life.  He could name every building, every road, every tower.  Yet, now he felt as though he were a stranger. 

Loki, noticing his gaze and the thick swallow that followed reached out to take Thor’s hand to help him to his feet.  “I assume you do not wish to walk all the way through Asgard.”

Thor shook his head.  No, he did not wish for the eyes of all Asgard to follow him or to wander the streets. 

“Do you wish to return to your chambers undetected?”

Thor nodded. 

He felt a hand on his elbow and in the next moment, everything vanished in a flash of light.  He reappeared in his chambers in the palace. 

It was exactly as he had left it.  Nothing had moved.  Not a single piece of furniture was dusty or out of place.  It was as if no time had passed at all.    

He suddenly felt overcome by weariness.  Without another word, he walked into his bedroom, removed his clothes, and cast himself onto his bed to sleep.

His sleep was fitful.  When he arose sometime later, he found food waiting for him, though he could not see a servant.  He sat down and ate.  When he was satisfied, he stared down at his plate in confusion.  His first impulse was to take the plate to the kitchen to wash it. However, he had never, not even once, washed a plate in the palace.  He was struck anew by the disjuncture of his lives and he could not look away from the disturbing anomaly of that plate.  He glared at it as if it were an enemy he guarded. 

Then, he turned away.

Asgard expected their exiled prince to return to them in the way he always had.  Thor’s return was announced through a glorious burst of lightning, a peal of thunder so loud it shook the city, and then he would paint his own multicolored bridge of light over the city, letting all Asgard know he was home.  Their eyes would turn to the Bifrost to see his familiar red cape flying behind Mjolnir, returning to the city in glory and strength. 

Yet, the week their prince returned; it was the rain which informed them of his presence among them.  None saw the visage of their prince.  No lightning or thunder resounded over the city, yet the sun remained hidden.  The clouds clung to the palace in Asgard like mist to the ocean and the unseasonal rain fell in a constant, unceasing drizzle.

Truthfully, whenever Loki imagined his brother’s “return” to Asgard, his mental image had involved something of the fanfare of old, or, preferably, a burst of furious temper directed towards Odin for all Asgard to witness. 

He had never imagined the rain.

“Has he spoken to you at all?” Frigga asked, her blue eyes earnest with her concern. 

Loki glanced out through the nearby window to where he could just make out the balcony outside his brother’s chambers. 

Loki turned back to his mother and shook his head.  “I have attended him for an hour or two every day.  He has yet to say a word to me.  Not since the day I fetched him from Midgard.  It is as if he does not even notice my existence.”   

“What did he say when you went to him in Midgard?”

“He failed to speak a single word to me, even on Midgard.  He was entirely overcome and did not intimate his feelings or thoughts during that time.”

Frigga sighed and rubbed at her temples.  “Do you think he will see me?”

“You can try, but I would recommend waiting another day.  I have the sense that he needs the solitude and he will handle better if left to himself.”

“I will do as you suggest, though I cannot wait much longer.  I have longed to throw my arms around my son more than I can say.”

 “Wait no longer!  All you need do is ask, Mother,” Loki answered with a smirk.  He opened his arms wide for her.

She laughed and stepped forward to accept his invitation.  She held onto him tightly for a moment before kissing his cheek.  “I always wish for more such embraces – from both my sons,” she emphasized. 

“Ah, I suppose my embrace is not enough to fully satisfy you.  I would be jealous, except I can perfectly empathize with the sentiment,” Loki answered warmly.  “Speaking of which, I have two such imps of my own who both owe me just such embraces.  I will follow your example and permit neither to avoid me.”

Frigga ran one hand along Loki’s cheek and paused at his temple.  “Send them to me when you are finished with them.  I could use some companionship this afternoon.”

“Hmmm.  Assuming I wish to share?  What if I choose to be selfish and keep them both to myself?”

Frigga laughed.  “I see.  You are planning to bring them with you to visit your brother.  The strategy has merit.”

“You have caught the flaw in my plan.  I will send them to you when I go sit with Thor.”

“You do not wish to bring them with you?”

“Not just yet.  Though, they are just as eager to welcome back their Uncle Thor as you are.  You will have competition over properly returning our favorite exile.” 

“I would expect no less,” Frigga said, a fond smile on her face at the thought of her grandchildren.  “When you return to your brother, warn him he only has one day of solitude remaining before we will forcefully intrude on him.”

“I will do my best.”

“I know you will, darling.”

When Loki arrived in Thor’s room, he expected to find Thor in the exact same place he had been the previous three days: sitting on the couch, staring listlessly into the room around him.  Instead, he found Thor seated on his balcony, staring out into the sky above him. 

Loki was not quite sure how to interpret his brother’s mood.  He cautiously approached, as if Thor were an armed fire giant and not the Golden Prince.  Loki settled himself in a nearby chair and watched his brother’s profile.  Rather than the familiar, heavy silence, Thor spoke. 

“Do you know their stories?” Thor asked and he nodded upwards, towards the sky. 

“Which stories?” Loki asked. The Asgardian sky was mottled with galaxies and stars, despite the glow of the afternoon sun.  Loki and Thor had dwelt under the same sky for over a thousand years and Loki could not understand what Thor sought to find there.

“Those of the Asgardian stars,” Thor answered.  “I remember nurse told us some tales, when we were young.  We had a tutor who spoke a few others, but I did not attend well.”

Loki released a surprised huff of air and he leaned forward on his hands.  While not exactly what Loki wished to speak on, it was an improvement over Thor’s detached silence.  If Thor wished for childhood tales, he would grant them.  Loki nodded upwards to a gathering of stars.  With a flow of illusion, he highlighted the constellation, animating it into the figure of an archer and making it come to life. 

“That is the Bowman,” Loki said.  “He hunts the winged dragon, yonder, but the dragon always defeats him because he holds his bow so ill.”

Thor barked a laugh and watched as Loki’s dragon flew away in circles across the sky.  Then it vanished into the blue expanse of sky beyond.  The illusion shifted to another cluster of stars and the face of a man with a long beard appeared.

“There is the great king, Vili, the one who died defending his kingdom of old.  To remember his feat, he now dwells in the heavens above us, reminding us to be brave and give our lives for Asgard.”

Thor snorted.  “That is a familiar tale, both on Asgard and Midgard.  However, I do not know if I understand bravery anymore.”

Loki thought for a moment and unclasped his hands to settle them on each side of his chair.  “Thor, you are more intimately acquainted with bravery than any warrior I have ever met.”

Thor gave another derisive huff and he leaned his head all the way back in his chair.  Then he closed his eyes.

“Loki, why am I here?” he asked, her term more pleading than inquiring.

“In Asgard?” Loki asked, not sure of Thor’s meaning.

“Yes.”

“You proved yourself worthy.  Now you have returned to us to serve as our prince and heir once more.”

Thor sat contemplatively, the expression on his face one that Loki had never seen on Thor’s Aesir visage before.  “I suppose that is not what I meant…. I am not sure my own meaning… Loki, it is a very hard thing to return here, like this, and take up where I left off. I do not know how I am to continue on.”

“You are missing Midgard?” Loki surmised, not surprised by Thor’s hesitation to reengage with Asgard or his continued fidelity to the realm of his banishment.

Thor opened his eyes.  He tilted his head to one side in thought.  “It is partly that,” he surmised.  “But not entirely.  Loki, did you know that I died?”

“Yes.  Father set that as the terms of your return.  Once you faced death and understood your own limitations, he deemed you would be worthy to return.”

“That was it?” Thor exclaimed, his tone turning to one of surprise.

Loki snorted and nodded his head.  “I could hardly believe it, when he finally informed me.  All this time, all you had to do was throw your mortal frame off a building or into a lake and you would return.  If I had known, I would have driven a dagger into your sternum myself and forced you back to us decades ago.”

“It does not seem like a means of proving my worth.”

“Well, I may not be the best representative to defend Father’s cause.  He will wish to speak of you… and soon.”

“I know.  I appreciate the reprieve I have been granted.  I did not expect such a luxury.”

“If you wished for companionship, you could have easily sought it.  Solitude is a gift, and one much harder to come by.”

Thor nodded in appreciation.  He fell silent for some time, his eyes lost on the sky again.  Then, he shook his head.  “It is not Midgard.”

“I beg your pardon?” Loki asked, his own mind having wandered away from their previous conversation in the interim. 

“You asked if my melancholy is due to my absence from Midgard.  It is of no matter my location.  If I returned to Midgard, Asgard, or any of the realms, I would feel the same.”

“How so?”

“Loki, I died.  My soul departed entirely and I journeyed to the Halls of our Ancestors, to the Great Meadows Beyond, to the Land of the Dead.  I was there. I might have been there for a moment or an eternity, for time had no meaning.  I walked by streams of water sweeter and clearer than even those on Aflheim and I saw mountains that rivalled Asgard in height and grandeur.  Loki, I have never beheld such beauty. Not in all my days before.

“Then, there were the people.  So many people.  Loki, Jane was there.  And Louis and Erick.  Amma was there and Father’s brothers.  I could not bear it for the happiness.  I was so overcome.  It was as if all that had come before melted away and left me cleaned of all the weariness and sadness I bore before.

“Then, it all vanished.  In a moment, it was all gone.  I woke.  Like this,” he said and looked down on himself.  “How could I walk through such lands and return to this side of the veil?  How can colors ever be as bright?  How can any sight ever be so lovely?  I woke with Mjolnir in hand – as if the presence of that relic was supposed to be of importance instead of the meaningless pile of metal it is.   I come to face my fate as Ruler of the Nine when everything in me longs to return to where I just was.

“The cruelty is not that I faced death.  The cruelty is that I now must face life, after experiencing death.  I cannot unsee it.  I cannot erase it from my mind.  There is nothing on Asgard or Midgard or any realm to compare and now I must wait and pretend that I have a heart to face life here and now.”

Loki had expected Thor to bemoan the loss of his beloved Midgard.  He expected long monologues decrying his lost mortal companions and all he longed for on Midgard.  He expected anger at Odin or a hesitance to engage in courtly life in Asgard.  This, well, this was not what he expected. 

“You spoke with Jane?” Loki finally asked.

“I did.”

“She could have changed her mind. At any time, I would have…” Loki began, but Thor interrupted. 

“She knew that.”

At Loki’s arched eyebrow, Thor sighed and continued.  “Loki, she is so happy.  I could not bear to return without her, if I was not assured she would much rather remain as she is.  Loki, she’s where she wishes to be and I would suffer any fate rather than tear her from where she is now. She is well.  Truly.  Better than she has ever been before.”

Loki had not realized a tear had slipped down his cheek until his brother reached out and clasped his hand. 

“I apologize.  I do not intend to be so downcast.  It is just… it all seems so meaningless now.  Kings and kingdoms and treaties and wars and alliances.  It all comes and goes.  None are permanent and yet we labor so very hard to achieve them.  And for what purpose?  How I longed for the admiration of Asgard and the power of the throne!  What a vain and greedy youth I was!  How entirely unsuited to anything but banishment!” Thor mused. 

“You are not angry at father?”

“For banishing me?  Nay, Brother.  Banishment was the wisest decision he ever made.  There will be words aplenty on other matters, but none in complaint of my punishment.”

It was Odin himself who retrieved Mjolnir from the Observatory.  His patience was not as long as Loki’s prohibitions on Thor’s company and he summoned Thor to attend him in his council chamber.  He placed the hammer on the desk between them.  There it lay, casting a shadow against the wood. 

Thor hesitated before he sat.  He gave a polite nod in Odin’s direction, but his smile did not meet his eyes. 

“Your honorable return is an occasion of great joy for all Asgard, but most especially for your family,” Odin said. 

“Thank you, Father,” Thor answered with a slight nod of his head in acknowledgement. 

Neither spoke again for a few minutes.  The silence that fell over them was as thick as freshly churned butter and Thor chose to stare out the window rather than meet his father’s gaze.

Odin sighed and ran his hands through his beard.  “Thor, knowing what you do now of life on other realms, would you be so quick to declare war and bring the children of Yggdrasil to spill their blood on a field of battle?  Would you wish to see your Midgardian companions felled by needless conflict?"

At Thor’s silence, Odin continued.  “I do not doubt that what you have experienced has opened your eyes and changed you and, in many ways, will make your life harder, but I believe it will make you a better king… and a better man.”

Thor nodded once.  His expression was torn between anger and accusation. Finally, he leaned forward on Odin’s desk and frowned.  “You never came.  Not once.  Forty-nine years and you never came.”

Odin blinked and he leaned back against the headrest of his chair.  “Nay, Thor.  Did you forget?  You were banished.  There is none from Asgard you were supposed to see, myself included.

“Thor, you were born a prince of Asgard and have been raised all your life to serve in that role.  Yet, how have I failed in your preparation for that role?  When unleashed upon the realms, you sow chaos and war.  When exiled in Midgard, you sow nothing but your seed.  Do you consider anything other than your appetites for drink and women and sustenance and admiration?

“Tell me, Thor, how much of Midgard did you see in your time there?  How much of the complicated kingdoms and nations did you study?  How many heads of state did you meet or shadow?  Nay, you spent your days watching faux warriors stumble over a ball and tied to the skirts of a peasant woman as if it were she who directed your steps.  As if you had no other guidance, no other means of directing your path.” 

“Then why did you not tell me what to expect rather than forcing me to guess!  I cannot read your mind!”

“I have taught you your entire life and yet you have not learned!  Do you expect me to be standing behind the throne a thousand years from now to whisper instructions into your ear?  You were to be crowned king!  I expected you to have listened and remembered the lessons I already gave you so you did not require me to hold your hand!

“Thor, your entire life, you have been taught proper etiquette on other realms, even incognito.  Yet, when you are banished, do you follow?  Nay.  You do as you please without thought for anyone but yourself.  Like formless water, you let yourself fall to the lowest, easiest point and never once sought to try for anything more difficult.”

Thor’s anger kindled and he roared back at his father.  “I worked my hands to the bone and took care of my family as father and head of house.  I suffered both privation and hardship, sickness and death, all as a mortal.  Does the honor of such a station mean nothing?”

Odin gave Thor a penetrating stare and Thor nearly flinched at the intensity of it.  “You believe I should applaud you for living as a common laborer?  Thor, the Nine Realms are full of peasants who work themselves to the bone to tend to their households.  Why should I applaud you for doing as they do every day?  As if it is somehow an admirable task simply because a prince holds his hand to the plow rather than a peasant?  How many of those peasants should I applaud if they instead were given the opportunity to live as prince?  Whether peasant or prince, you are called to do your duty and do so with honor. 

“And, should I praise you for taking care of your own wife and children?  Thor, that is the most basic requirements of an honorable man.  Those who fail in such a basic task are to be despised, but those who fulfill them, they are good men…but that does not necessitate they would make a good king.  You are heir to the Nine Realms, no matter which form you inhabit, which realm you step upon, or where you find yourself exiled.  I expect you to conduct yourself as a king ought, and not as a youth seeking revels or a traveler seeking asylum.”

“You never even met my family!”

“And where is this family now?”

At Thor’s fallen face, Odin scoffed.  “I will answer for you.  They are either dead or dying.  I am sorry for the grief this will cause you and that you will spend the rest of your lifetime mourning for them.  Let that be your lesson in dealing with mortals.  No matter how excellent or lovely or cherished, in the blink of an eye, they wither away and it is only you who will remember them.”

“What was I to do, then?  Wander the Earth apart from all companionship?”

“You were to know your place and work for the good of the Nine, as you have ever been taught to do.”

“Know my place!  Know my place!” Thor roared, his anger finally overflowing.  He jumped to his feet and slammed his fist against the desk.  “All this time, my one task was to die?  My place was to spill my blood on Midgard?”

“Yes.  I did not expect your fate to take so long or to come upon you in such a dishonorable way.  I expected you to meet your fate at the hands of an enemy or in defense of Midgard, however, you still managed the same result.  Thus, you proved yourself worthy.”

“Jane struck me with her car that first night you cast me out.  If she had been going faster, if the vehicle had struck harder, if I had died, then would my banishment have ended that night?”

“Aye.”

“Why?” Thor exclaimed, throwing his hands up in confusion and falling back into the chair. 

“Because you are exactly like I was at your age!” Odin roared back.  “Do you think I chose your punishment lightly or without cause?  Thor, when I saw you on Jotunheim, I saw a mirror image of myself just after I took Asgard’s throne.  Do you know the bloodshed I caused?  The wars I started?  The way I ravished the Nine Realms in my greed for power? 

“Thor, I saw the path you were on and knew the regret you would carry later if you continued.  For the good of the Nine Realms, for the good of Asgard, for the good of yourself, I could not let you continue.  Thus, I set before you the same fate I faced, the same turning point which forced me to reevaluate myself and the path I chose to walk.  I brought the Aesir army to Mimir.  It was a fool’s errand and for naught but my pride.  I made a misstep and the enemy vanquished me.  I faced death for a moment before I was forced to return to the Land of the Living.

“Thor, I know where you went.  I know what you saw, for that is the sight which forever changed my path, which forced me to reevaluated everything I had ever known.  I could no longer lead Asgard the way I had before.  I could no longer be the man I had been before.  In light of what I saw, what I experienced, I could no longer continue as I was before.  Thus, I chose for you the same fate which first granted me wisdom and eyes to see what I could not see before.”

Thor exhaled loudly and leaned back in his chair, his posture unconsciously mirroring his father. 

“Why Midgard?”

“Because if you could learn to value the lives on Midgard, then you could learn to value any in the Nine Realms.”

“I thought my lesson was to be not caring for mortals.”

“Nay, Thor.  I said to be cautious in caring for mortals, to understand the cost and the grief that will be borne.  I did not say not to care.  It would be foolhardy for me not to expect you to form connections and relationships after such a duration.  You were to recognize how much longer your lifespan would be and that your duration on Midgard was temporary, but you were not to avoid forming relationships there.

“Thor, you did not respect or revere life.  For the one who holds Mjolnir, it was vital you comprehended the sanctity of life and use your gifts to hallow the ground for the next generation.  Rather than stirrup war, you must preserve peace.  How could you understand that without facing down death yourself?”

“I understand that.  I do no argue your point.  I do not argue your reasoning.  I can never look at anything the same way again.  However, I should not have faced death alone.  Perhaps, as my king, you may justify your absence.  As my father, you cannot.”

Thor fell silent for some time, his anger dwindling into thoughtfulness.  Finally, he turned back to his father, his own gaze as penetrating as Odin’s had been.  “I want to bring my family to visit.  You may leave your children alone.  I will not.”

Odin sighed.  He felt the sting in Thor’s accusation, as Thor meant it.  It was true. This was not the same man he had cast out of Asgard.  He had watched Thor from his throne, he had heard stories from Heimdall and Frigga. He had thought he knew what was best. 

Now, he was not so sure.  While, he knew Thor was a better man for the banishment, he felt the schism that had grown between them and he wondered if that had been a necessary byproduct, inevitable or if it was one he had created himself.

“Thor, I thought you would learn better away from my involvement.  Away from your family. You had over a thousand years to learn from us and the lessons were not enough.  I wished you the chance to grow on your own.”

“Perhaps I can understand that for a few years.  Father, you banished me to my own death. I lived an entire lifetime.  That is a fate I would never wish on my children, no matter how they err.”

Odin sighed.  “I thought it was best.”

“And sometimes, as a father, we must admit when we are wrong.”

Odin stared at his son.  “I apologize for not coming to you as a father, Thor.  Truly.”

Thor nodded in terse acceptance.  He clasped his father’s hand for a moment and then released.  While it was not in his nature to hold a grudge, he did not think he was quite ready to release the pain of the memory of his father’s silence just yet.  Perhaps in time, but not yet.  Instead, he decided to use the moment to press for a concession. 

 “Father, I wish your permission for my family to visit me in Asgard. I wish you to meet them and treat them with the honor due my House.”

“As you wish,” Odin answered.

“Very well,” Thor answered.  Then, he rose in a fluid movement, his cape shifting around and falling onto the ground behind him.  He glanced back and noted the presence of the hammer once more. He reached out, grasped Mjolnir in one hand, and swept out of the room.

Chapter Text

One day, the owner of Thor’s Hammer looked out across his patio and realized that the alien artifact, the main monetary draw to their little tourist town, was gone.  He nearly shouted in surprise and he scoured the building from top-to-bottom for clues.  However, the only evidence he found came from his security cameras.  When he reviewed the footage from the previous night, he watched the hammer begin to shake and hum. The next moment, the hammer shot out of the restaurant as if compelled by a gravitational force.  Then it was gone.  Never to be seen or heard from again. 

Conspiracy theories abounded.  Tabloids and reporters and SHIELD agents flocked to the area.  No one could ever explain it.  The hammer simply disappeared. 

The loss of the hammer proved nearly as good for business as its presence.  Tourists continued to flock to Thor’s Hammer to hear the tale and see pictures of the mysterious artifact.  A replica was created and mounted – firmly enough that no one could lift it from its solid base.  Yet, till the day he sold the business, the proprietor bemoaned the loss of the original. 

“It had special healing properties, I tell you.  It brought me good luck.  There’s nothing else like it.”

Stranger still, the atmospheric disturbances in the skies over the desert continued.  Stories said that the children and grandchildren of Thor Odinson were often found nearby, just before or just after the occurrences registered with SHIELD’s equipment (the equipment designed by the late Dr. Foster).  When questioned about their activities, the Odinson descendants simply smiled and said they knew nothing about it.

“We came into the area to visit our family,” they said.  “It’s a tradition of sorts.”

Sometimes SHIELD agents would follow them into the desert or track their movements.  Inevitably, their equipment would stop working as soon as the disturbances began and the agents would not be able to remember anything that occurred in the interim, as if their memories had been halted or erased.  No matter how many times SHIELD tried, they could not find a single agent who was not affected by the phenomenon. 

Not even Captain America.

Thor visited Heimdall nearly every seven nights without fail.  While the rest of Asgard partook in revels and feasts, Thor quietly walked down the Bifrost and into the isolated sanctuary of the Bifrost. 

“How fare the Broncos?  Will they make it to the Super Bowl this year?” Thor asked the Gatekeeper, once he settled himself on a stool. 

“They are playing poorly this season.  They will not make it that far,” Heimdall answered.  He had taken to keeping track of Thor’s favorite teams so he could indulge the crowned prince’s frequent bouts of curiosity. 

“That is unfortunate.  Perhaps next year.”

“Perhaps.”

“How fares young Thor? Is his young wife doing well?”

“Young Thor is quite well and he is expecting a daughter to join his House in the spring.”

“I am pleased to hear it!” Thor boomed, a genuine grin lighting up his face.  “I will be sure to make time to visit them for the happy occasion.  What of Louis’ sister’s descendants?  Do they remain in New Mexico?”

“Most of them have not strayed far from their home.  A few have moved away, but their family prefers to remain close by each other.”

“As they should.  I wish mine succeeded at that better.”

Heimdall’s golden eyes danced with amusement.  He was used to Thor’s frequent visits and the seemingly mundane questions he asked, but he did not complain. 

Thor fell into silence, then, and lost himself staring out of the Observatory and into the void beyond.  He nearly forgot about Heimdall’s presence, as he often did, and he imagined himself closer to Midgard there than he was back in the palace, despite the absurdity of the notion.

Thor’s children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren came to Asgard once a year for a three day visit.  All were welcome and they toured all Asgard had to offer during their time.  More often, Thor returned to Midgard to return the visit and to settle his frequent bouts of homesickness. 

However, years came and went.  Children grew. Priorities changed.  Not all the family could make the yearly trips and Thor felt more and more distanced from the Midgard he had dwelt in. 

Thor knew that teams would change, sports would come and go, neighbors would die off, and eventually his own offspring would fade beyond his knowledge.  The country he had inhabited might fall overnight and be replaced by another polity.  Someday he would return to New Mexico and find he did not recognize the place or its people anymore.  He knew this.  However, it was this knowledge that made him cling all the more to the life he had known. 

In Asgard, so little had changed.  One elder Aesir relative had died, after nearly 7,000 years of life.  He had grown so old that he claimed he needed a “dragon hunt” and thus pursued an honorable death at the other end of a dragon’s fire.  Everyone knew that is what he sought and no one argued against it.  There had been no other deaths and no other births.  The Harvest Season was soon to come, but until it did, no new children would be born to Asgard.  Thus, all Asgard remained much as it had been before Thor’s banishment. 

All, except for Thor. 

Sif and the Warriors Three welcomed him back.  They had missed him, genuinely, and he appreciated their warm reception.  However, they did not fully understand him.  They expected to rejoin the Thor of old and they could not comprehend his capacity for change. 

“Thor, old boy, it’s not been the same without you,” Fandral said, clapping him firmly on the back upon their reunion. “How was your time in Midgard?  Bored to tears? Did you manage to collect your own little throng of worshippers again?”

Fandral winked and Thor cringed.  Of course, he remembered what Fandral was referring to.  Their early explorations of Midgard did little to shrink Thor’s oversized ego and he had delighted in the adoration of the little Midgardians.  Those visits felt like a lifetime ago, in another universe. 

“Not precisely,” Thor answered.  He did not bother to explain himself further.  He decided he could in future, if the time was right.  However, the time never seemed to be right and so he kept his counsels to himself.  He could never make them understand his discomfort.  How could he explain that his chambers were too vast and empty.  The gold seemed too gaudy and cold.  He despised the formality of courtly manners, the feigned politeness, and empty smiles.  Were those around him seeking him for his companionship or his title?  He could not tell and that make him feel all the more isolated. 

He was young again.  He felt the heat of strength and recklessness flood his veins and cloud his mind, but at the same time, he felt old.  He had lived an entire lifetime already and experienced more stages of life than most of his agemates around him.  His body may have gone back in time, but his heart had not.  Even more, he had experienced life as a Midgardian.  He had felt their weakness and their strength, their resilience, and their capacity for change.  He could not accept the claim that the Aesir were superior, despite their greater length of years. 

As time passed, he found himself seeking out his brother more and more and his old friends less and less.  It was not due to a falling out or a difference of opinion.  It was more due to a shared understanding and a deeper communion. 

It was the glance of pure understanding that passed between the brothers at a stray comment about the “primitive Midgardians” or the “savage Jotnar.”  The brothers understood the internal flinch of pain which was hidden from the eyes of everyone around them. 

Thor had been an Aesir, trapped in a Midgardian body for nearly an entire lifetime.  Loki was a Jotunn, trapped in an Aesir form for nearly all his days.  Both had played so long at a part, embodied a role, that neither was quite certain who the real soul was or the real form was anymore.  How could Thor revert to youth without carrying with him some of the weight of his aged years on Midgard?  How could Loki carry on as an Aesir, knowing what weight he carried within him from his dual identities? 

It was only late at night, when all servants were dismissed and the pair were finally away from prying eyes that they could speak freely. 

“I don’t know who… or what… I am anymore.”

“Nor I.”

“None of the others would understand.  I doubt even Father or Mother truly understand.”

What remained understood and yet unspoken was the sympathy they gained from the other. 

Often, on those nights, between the words spoken and the silences that shouted more than any words, Thor stared up into the sky above him.  He never ceased to be captivated by the view. 

They were the wrong stars.  The wrong constellations.  Yet they were still the right ones.  Thor could not bridge the gap between them any more than he could bridge the gap between his Aesir body and his Midgardian heart. 

“At least you would not have been reviled as Asgard’s greatest enemy,” Loki said one evening.  “Destined for naught but the edge of a sword.”

“Aye,” Thor said.  “I would have been seen as naught but an ant, a child of the Nine.  It would not even be worth lifting the edge of a sword to my throat when an Aesir child could fell me with a wooden dagger.”

“I was supposed to die.”

“I did die.”

Loki threw back his head and laughed.  Then he held up his hands in a show of surrender.  “Must you best me in every argument, Brother?”

Thor chuckled and gave a conciliatory glance at his brother.  “Some things do not change.”

“Hmmm, I might wish to banish you again until you learn to concede an argument to me.”

“Ah, yes.  Then you could spend all your free time plotting means to unbanish me again.”

“True. That would be inconvenient, since I have no plans to be made king again.  Ever.”

Thor blew out a long breath and glared at the accusing handle of Mjolnir.  “I have no wish to be made king, either.  Loki, I was happier living as a mortal, as a peasant, as a common laborer, on the smallest and most reviled of the Nine Realms, than I ever have been as prince of the Aesir.  Yet, I am trapped here, now.”

“Oh, do not you worry.  I have it all figured out,” Loki told Thor, with such a tone of voice that Thor knew Loki was jesting with him.

“Tell me.”

“The future of Asgard, of course.  Now, you do not wish to be king and I do not wish to be king.  Therefore, the solution is very simple.”

“Ensure Father lives forever?”

Loki laughed.  “Bite your tongue!  That will never do!  Not for anyone!  No, it is very simple.  We simply give the throne to Odin’s firstborn.”

“To Hela?”  He thought of all the stories of death, destruction, and mayhem that surrounded the banished princess and his eyes grew wide.

“It is perfect!  She wishes for the throne so vehemently she was banished for it.  Now, she wants to destroy all Asgard in revenge.  I say, rather than court her fury, we court her favor.  What better way to make amends than granting her the throne?  Why would she wish to destroy the realm she is to rule?  What grudge could she hold once she is granted her heart’s desire?  See, two problems solved at once!”

“Only to sow a thousand more.”

“Where is your faith in her redemption?  Come now, Thor, banishment suited you so well, perhaps she is improved from her time away as well.”

“I see.  What does Father say about this?”

“Oh, I have yet to inform him.  I thought you would wish to be there when I did.”

Thor grinned.  “Absolutely. I would not miss such an important conversation for all the Nine Realms.”

Loki’s smirk only grew more pronounced and he flippantly tossed his knife into the air in front of him. 

“What of the Mad Titan?  You said you were able to gather all of the Infinity Stones save one.”

“Aye.  The sole remaining Stone I found myself disinclined to gather.”

“Does not that leave us vulnerable?”

“Perhaps.  I fear there was little in the way of stories or myths to speak of the capacities of the remaining Stone.  However, if the Mad Titan wishes to pay the price to obtain it, then I say let him have it.  I want none of it.”

“Is it so disagreeable?”

“It is.  The Soul Stone is unique among the others and the price it requires is more than I am willing to pay.  I am a very selfish creature, you see, and that is why the throne would suit me ill.  I find there are certain costs I am not willing to pay in order to ensure the survival of the universe.”

“Would you not give your own life to save that of your realm?”

“I would give my life to save the lives of those I care about.  Without hesitation.  I would not give the lives of any I care about in exchange for my realm or any magical relic, even one of near-unlimited power.  That is why you would make the better king.”

“Or Hela, apparently.”

“See, you understand me.”

“So, instead you gather five Infinity Stones yourself, as if they were golden shields or glass vases and not the most powerful singularities in the universe.”

“True. What can I say? My taste is unique among the realms.”

Thor chuckled and glanced back at his brother.  “What will become of the Stones, then?”

“I keep them hidden.  Forever.  As long as I live, there is a danger they could be compelled out of my hiding place.  Once I join our ancestors, they will be lost in the space between spaces and none will be able to find them again.”

“It seems like quite the risk.”

“Perhaps, but neither Father nor I could devise a better solution.”

Thor knew better than to argue with his father or brother’s capacity for strategizing.  If this was the solution they came up with, he trusted it must be the best.  One of his greatest lessons of his banishment was his need to rely on other people’s wisdom and to show greater humility in his responses.  His brother’s words, while sometimes whispered, were worth attending to and his father, while not without his faults, also could guide him rightly. 

One of Thor’s first tasks upon his return to Asgard was a few years of remedial studies and additional lessons to prepare him for the throne.  While he had taken most of these lessons in the past, he had not attended them well and now he had to revisit the topics anew.  Odin himself tested Thor after each completed section and did not permit Thor to continue on to the next until he was satisfied in Thor’s progress. 

While this entire process should have been humiliating, Thor was rather used to perpetual embarrassment and so did not mind it as much as he would have once.  He was the first to admit he needed a better grasp of the information and he had been foolish and too arrogant to attend his studies well the first time around. 

It also helped that he was not the only student and his remedial studies gave him the perfect excuse to spend nearly constant time with the young prince and princess.  Young Freyr and Freya were nearly full grown now and receiving the instruction due to those in the line of succession for the throne.  They proved themselves to be much quicker studies than Thor and far more diligent than he had ever been. 

He drank up the time with his lastborn children as if his return to his lessons was a reward rather than a punishment.  He wondered, sometimes, if this was one of the reasons Odin had commanded him to return to his lessons.  He decided not to argue the point but simply made the most of the days granted to him. 

The twins had visited Midgard nearly every year without fail.  He had watched them slowly grow and they had seen him quickly age.  To say they were surprised to see his return to his Aesir self would be an understatement.  They did not recognize him until Loki teased them for their lapse and reminded them of his portrait in the royal gallery. 

Even without the yearly visits, there was little chance that Thor would not have recognized them.  They looked so much like their mother.   Despite their shared inheritance of his eyes, the rest of their features seemed to come from Jane.  He saw her in the shape of Freya’s face, the curve of her cheeks, the way she threw her head back and laughed.  He could even hear Jane’s voice echoed in the cadence of Freya’s speech.  Freyr, too, resembled Jane and Erick so much that there was little doubt of their relation. 

Sometimes, Thor wished he could have spent more time with them during their childhoods.  Yet, he could not have truly wished to change anything.  Fatherhood had changed and settled Loki like nothing else had ever done before.  The twins had given him a purpose and a place of belonging that rooted him in place and gave him a deeper contentment than he had yet achieved.  He had performed his role as their guardian admirably. 

Freya inherited the most of Loki’s magic.  They discovered once she was old enough to storm about and throw tantrums of displeasure.  Rather than throw herself on the ground and cry, she threw herself into the air and screeched.  In a burst of feathers, she transformed into a falcon and took flight.  It took all of Loki’s pleading and cajoling to bring her back down again.  Freyr did not appear to have the same propensity for shifting forms, however, he did happen to inherit an almost uncanny level of intelligence.  He thirsted for knowledge like some thirsted for mead and he devoured any and all information Loki could feed him.  While Freyr quickly grew adept at magic, his skills would never become as great as his adoptive father or his grandmother or even his twin.

Fatherhood forced Loki to view his relationship with Odin in a new light.    For all he disagreed with Odin’s secrecy and the favoritism shown to Thor, he could not deny the truth.  Odin was his father.  In the same way, Loki now raised Freyr and Freya as his own, Odin had raised Loki.  True, their own blood father lived and may not have rejected them in the same way as Laufey, but in terms of their care and instruction, they were now Loki’s children.

Thor quickly fell into the easy role of “uncle” to his lastborn children.  He was (mostly) glad it was Loki to deal with their tempers and ire.  He enjoyed making them laugh and hearing of their many adventures. 

They were so beautiful… and so much like Jane.  This made him all the more grateful it was Loki who was primarily responsible for raising them.  Thor readily admitted that Loki’s own innate curiosity and intelligence made him much better suited to his charges than Thor felt he would have been.  Where Thor would have proved frustrated in their pursuit of magic and bored by their scholarly ambitions, Loki fed into their passions and encouraged their gifts.  Loki’s quiet patience and fierce brand of loyalty was well-suited to the unique challenges they faced on Asgard.

They were the only children on the entire realm.  No other would be born until they were nearly grown and even when births began, no other would grow as quickly as they had.  In hardly over half a century, they had reached full maturity.  In all other future life stages, they would prove to be equally as singular.  Loki’s experience as an anomaly among the Aesir proved exceedingly helpful in guiding them into their place on Asgard.

The more Thor grew to know his children, the more he was grateful for how their lives had enfolded.  Thor would not have wished to leave Jane or his fully Midgardian children and he would not have wished for the twins to dwell permanently on Midgard.  Thus, he appreciated the wisdom of Loki’s intervention all the more. 

“Fandral believes they were trysts,” Thor complained to his brother.  “He believes my children were the result of temporary dalliances with my many mortal admirers.  He thinks I behaved as our father did in his youth and produced mortal offspring I never raised nor saw other than occasional visits to bestow gifts and gain entertainment.  He does not truly believe I was mortal.  Did you not inform them during the fostering ceremony?”

“I did.”

“Yet Fandral cannot accept it as such.”

“At one point he believed you had found an Aesir woman on Midgard and married her.  He could not accept that you willingly tied yourself to a mortal.”

“How can I explain that it was not a dalliance and I was not merely passing time.”

“Thor, I know that.  Mother knows that.  Father, well, the Norns alone know what is in his heart.  But none of the others would understand.  How can they?  They have never been mortal.  They have never been forced to live as a Midgardian.  Their only visits to Midgard occurred as Aesir where they were welcomed as deities and honored throughout with showers of pigs and trinkets and gold coins.”

Thor growled in frustration. He did not know why it irritated him so but he was sorely tempted to punch Fandral in the face when he continued in his skepticism of Thor’s marriage to a mortal.  He just could not understand that Thor could learn to genuinely care about a mortal.

Sometimes, he wondered what it would have been like if Jane had accompanied him to Asgard.  He thought of all the places he would have liked to take her, how her eyes would have shined in her delight at all she saw and learned.  He thought of her barely contained fury if any of the Aesir spoke ill of Midgard.  Yet, the Aesir would never have truly appreciated her love of Midgard. 

Asgard would never have recognized Jane’s worth.  Even in Aesir form, they would have been blind to everything but her Midgardian origins.  For all of Asgard’s “wisdom,” it would take more than Mjolnir to prove someone worthy in Thor’s eyes and he would never define “worthiness” in the same way again. 

Jane would have loved to visit Asgard, but she would not have wished to dwell here. He thought of her at their kitchen table, her laptop casting a glow against her face, the table top littered with notebooks and Pop Tart wrappers.  He thought of her laughter at the firepit, late at night and the time she chased Rose all the way to her college dorm for accidentally stealing her favorite slippers.  No, part of what Thor loved of Jane was the Midgardian part.  He had fallen in love with Midgard as surely as he had fallen for Jane. 

Somedays, when he closed his eyes, it was the dry air of the New Mexico desert that he tasted in his memories.  He felt the warmed rocks in the heat of the sun and the smell of sage wafting through the afternoon air.  He felt the damp deluge of a sudden downpour and the scent of the wet sandstone after the rain had cleared. 

He gaped now into the interminable expanse of years before him.  They mocked him with their number and their emptiness and he felt stifled by the walls of the Eternal City in a way he never had before.  All the sudden, Asgard felt too small, too confining, too rigid.  He thought of the vastness of Midgard’s deserts, the lonely isolation of a New Mexico night under the stars.  How he had roared at those skies, demanding Heimdall and Father to hear him and bring him home. 

How much he would have missed if they had listened! 

Asgard no longer felt like home.  He had changed too much and while Asgard changed much slower, even Asgard had changed.  Everyone expected him to be the same and likewise he expected naught to have changed.  He continually rubbed against the awkward juts and edges of unexpected differences that prodded him on all sides. 

One day, a few years after Thor’s return to Asgard, Loki appeared in Thor’s chambers with a giant chest in his arms.  He placed this on the floor and cast Thor a self-satisfied expression. 

“What is this?” Thor inquired, curiously.

“Open it.”

Thor obeyed.  Within the wooden box, he found stack upon stack of photographs and boxes filled with familiar trinkets.

“These are from our home!” Thor said in surprise.  He held up a photograph of Jane and himself on their twentieth anniversary and tears began to form in his eyes.

“Rose helped me pack them,” Loki explained.  “She is selling the house to move to a new job.  She thought you would want these.” 

Loki gestured to the chest and then withdrew a large envelope. Thor opened it and found a collection of letters within.  Some were written in the well-formed writing of an adult, others in the messy scrawl of children.  Each had a photograph or two attached. 

“They each wrote to you,” Loki explained.  “Every single member of your family.  They even followed up with some old friends and neighbors.  They told them all it was a form of memorial for you after your loss.”

Thor choked slightly as he looked over them.  He ran his hands over the familiar faces, his minds filling with memories of laughter and days full of affection.  Then, he dug through the chest, a fragile smile breaking across his face as he withdrew treasure after treasure.  While these objects would have little-to-no value on Asgard or even on Midgard, they were reminders of his old life, his old self, and so he found them precious. 

“She even sent me Pop Tarts,” Thor said with a fond smile.  “She is so very thoughtful.”

Finally, he withdrew a small box which held a pair of rings.  The first was the twisted remains of a paperclip and the second was a plain gold band. He laughed. 

“Midgardians use rings rather than daggers to symbolize their marriages.  It is a very strange, useless custom.  I will never understand it,” Thor mused. 

“There are many Midgardian customs that I will never understand,” Loki answered him. He considered the contents of the box and arched an eyebrow in question.  “Is it Midgardian custom to form your own ill-crafted ring out of cheap metal?” 

Thor smiled.  “No.  That was Jane’s idea.  We did not have a proper ring at first.  We improvised.”

Thor could still remember that day, so many years ago.  Jane had been craving oranges and Thor finally got his paycheck.  Their first order of the day had been to buy oranges.  Jane had not yet even taken a single bite when she cut her finger on a knife.  Blood dripped down her hand as she swore and called for Thor to grab a paper towel.  He grabbed one and came to where she sat on the bed in their little trailer.  He held pressure on the wound.  Then, slowly, carefully, he removed the make-shift bandage to see the trickle of blood underneath.  He moved to her finger and let his tongue slip along the wound.

“Did you just lick my blood?” Jane asked, sticking out her tongue with a grimace. 

Thor smiled and kept his hand on the wound.  “I did.”

“Why?”

“In Asgard, after the ceremonial battle is complete, a warrior grants his dagger to his intended and then they exchange blood to seal their bond.  You already carry my dagger.  Now, I have sealed our bond.”

She gaped.  “So, are you telling me you just did an Aesir marriage ritual?”

He grinned at her bemused expression then placed his free hand on her rapidly filling womb.  “It is time, is it not?  I believe we have not followed the expected order of events.”

She snorted a laugh.  “Of course, you people would seal your marriage with fighting and knives and blood.  So typical.”

“Is that not how it is done here?”

“Of course not.”

“Tell me, then.”

“Well, there’s usually a big party, but I suppose that’s not really necessary. In its most basic form, we go to an authority figure charged with recognizing marriages, say we are getting married, then sign a paper.  After that, some people wear rings on their fingers, here, to show they are married.”

Thor’s eyes grew wide and he stood to help her to her feet. 

“What are you doing?”

“Finishing the ritual,” he answered.  “Let us go find this authority figure.”

“Wait, wait!  We can’t today.  They will be closed.”

“Tomorrow then?”

She gave him a bemused expression, as if unsure if he was genuine or not.  By his earnest gaze in response, she nodded.  “Tomorrow.”

Sure enough, the local Justice of the Peace found Thor and Jane at his doorstep the next morning.  They had not thought through the ceremony full and soon found they were in another conundrum. Jane gave Thor her mother’s wedding ring to place on her finger, but she did not have another wedding band to give to him.  She rummaged through her purse until she came up with something that would work.  She took a paperclip, twisted it into a ring, and placed it on his finger with a grin. 

“We’ll get you a proper one eventually.  Till then, this will have to do,” she said with a broad smile on her face. 

They completed the rather dull Midgardian ritual, registered the appropriate signatures and paperwork and returned home to celebrate their ceremony with a gallon of ice cream to split between them. 

“Well, now that’s done,” Jane mused, between bites. 

“Not quite,” Thor responded.

“What do you mean?”

“We have completed the Midgardian tradition.  What of the Aesir?”  He withdrew the dagger from where she kept it hidden and pierced his finger until a trickle of blood flowed down.

“Absolutely not.  That’s disgusting,” Jane protested.

At his expression, she recanted with a sigh. “I can’t believe you are making me do this.”  Then, she leaned in and put his finger in her mouth.  With a grimace, she released his finger again and eagerly swallowed and extra-large spoonful of ice cream. 

Thor leaned over to catch her in his arms.  He wrapped himself around her and brought her as close as her form would allow.  Then, he leaned in to kiss her.  Long and deep and tinted with peppermint ice cream.   

“Well, now our marriage has been established on two realms. There is naught that can break that,” he whispered.

“Except, you know, death,” she answered back. 

Thor lifted out the old paperclip ring he had diligently worn for years.  About the time the twins were three, Jane surprised him with a simple gold band for their anniversary.  He took this out of the box and tried to slip it on his finger.  It would not fit.  His Aesir hand was larger than his Midgardian one had been.  His face fell in disappointment and he was about to return it to the box when Loki took the ring from him. 

“Give me that, you big oaf,” Loki chided.  He touched a finger to the metal band.  Slowly, it expanded just enough that Thor could slip it the rest of the way on his finger.  He nodded in gratitude. 

“This means more to me than any treasure in the vault,” Thor said.  “Thank you.  I will wear it always.”

“And have to explain to every Aesir about obscure Midgardian courtship rituals?  I will leave you to it!”

Thor gladly did.  To any who inquired about the strange, unadorned and unenchanted gold band he wore, Thor informed about his Midgardian wife.  He failed to remove that ring even in battle and he refused to so much as consider another wife. 

Odin could not understand it.  “Thor, you must take the throne, marry, and produce an heir,” he argued.”

“Aye.  I will take the throne if I must, but as long as mother lives, there is no need for a new queen.  What need I for an additional heir when I already have two?”

“Those are Loki’s.”

“And mine.”

“Thor, you cannot possibly…”

“If you may adopt a Jotun babe as prince of Asgard why may I not appoint my own children, birthed of my own seed, as my heirs?  Is their Midgardian heritage, gained from myself, a barrier?”

“Thor, their life span…”

“Will span thousands of years and there is no guarantee mine will be longer, especially if battles loom ahead of us.  Tell me, is there a rule a law?”

“Nay.”

“Then I choose them as my heirs and if they expire before their succession, then I appoint their offspring.”

Odin sighed.  “Do you not wish to have your own companion and raise your own family here?  Would it not help you find your place on Asgard and add joy to your days?”

“I do not wish it, Father,” Thor argued. 

Later, when their father failed to relent, Thor sought out his brother to complain further.  He grumbled and scowled and paced the length of his brother’s chamber, all to his brother’s bemusement. 

“All Asgard can see the effects of your ill-temper, Brother.  What has disturbed you?”

“Father wants me to wed Sif,” Thor complained.

“Of course, he does.  That has been his wish for a millennium.  You say this as though you are surprised.”

“I suppose I should not be.  I thought he wanted you to marry Sif.”

“He did, but only as long as your banishment continued and there were no other heirs.”

“So, then you should marry her.”

Loki gave a laugh without any true mirth.  “Marry a woman who is in love with you?  Why, what a marvelous idea!  What better way to increase my own felicity than tie myself into such a bind!  I would rather wed a venomous serpent than bind myself to one of your admirers.”

“She might grow to love you and you could have your own children.”

Loki’s mirth quickly shifted to anger.  “I have my own children,” he spat.  “I have no need for the Lady Sif’s condescension or derision.  Nor do I wish to see the disgust she would treat the child of a Jotun.”

“But they would be Aesir young, as your fosterlings prove.”

“Nay.  I would rather wed a horse than the lady Sif.”

“Well, perhaps Fandral will wed her for this Harvest.  Then are companionable enough.”

“What makes you think the good lady wishes to wed any but yourself?”

“I do not know.  I am simply trying to avoid my part in the arrangement.”

“I cannot blame you that,” Loki responded. 

Thor knew he may someday change his mind.  Someday, after a few centuries or millennia had passed, perhaps he would not miss Midgard so much or feel so disconnected from Asgard.  He knew this because it was not in his nature to remain downcast and melancholy for long.  He could not tarry in sadness or lose himself in the past.  This truth of his nature almost caused him a different rise of fear.  What if he forgot Jane?  What if he forgot his children?  What if he forgot Louis?  He was so very present-focused that sometimes he forgot all that had come before.  Was it unfaithful to his love of those before for him to move forward? 

He did not think Jane would think so.  He thought of her there, that last time he had seen her, so filled with life and joy and overflowing her that beautiful warmth.  She would be glad to know he was returned to Asgard, that he would take up the throne and protect her beloved Midgard with his last breath.  The throne was no longer a platform to display his grandeur and prowess for Thor had nothing to prove anymore.  The throne was now an opportunity to guard what mattered most and shepherd what mattered most: life.

“You are gifted to preserve, hallow, and sustain life,” his mother liked to tell him.  This was what he meant to do. 

In years that followed, the Aesir complained their crowned prince was never the same as he had been before.  Their lauded champion, their proud warrior - he took no great delight in their battles and did not carry on their war cries. His laughter once again filled the feasting hall, though it was never quite the same thoughtless, boisterous sound it had once been.  There was a weight to it, a hidden gravity, which had never been there before. They were those in Asgard who were disappointed and said Midgard had weakened him. 

“There’s a sliver of Midgard still lodged in his heart and it bleeds still,” someone observed once.

Others said the time away improved him.  They noted how much brighter his rainbows shown in the sky over Asgard and how much more diligently he attended his duties to the realm.  He especially delighted in his position overseeing the Harvest and establishing the next generation in Asgard.  There was an unfeigned delight he received in hallowed Aesir Houses that had never been there before and it was said it was due to the age and maturity he gained in his time away. 

In was inevitable. Enemies would rise up against Asgard.  Battles would be fought and wars waged.  However, Thor would not be the one to start them.  He would be there in Asgard, Mjolnir in hand, prepared to defend the Nine Realms until his very last breath.  Then, on the day he joined the Halls of his Ancestors, his son would reign in his stead. Thor’s Midgardian-Aesir son. 

Thus, when stories were told in generations to come, some said that it was Midgard’s serpent, Loki’s own son, which fought against the Thunder God and overcame.  Midgard could not best Asgard’s son and Thor could not defeat Midgard’s stranglehold on his heart.  The venom of Midgard poisoned him until he could not remain as he was.  Thus, like the serpent biting its own tail, Asgard and Midgard, life and death, would continue to fight and then rise to fight again.

Yet, Thor never heard those stories.  They were told longer after his days were finished and buried. 

Thor, Son of Odin, Son of Bor, Son of Buri, the heir of the Crown of Yggdrasil, the Wielder of Storms had once been a vain, cruel, and greedy boy.  He had once been called unworthy.  He had once been an exile with no home and sometimes he still felt that way.  However, now he knew what was worthy.  It was through his life in human form, in the flesh of a Midgardian, in the form of a man, that he learned what was most worthy. 

And that was a lesson he would never forget, no matter how many days and years and centuries he lived.

The End

Author’s notes (that are so terribly long and nerdy that they won't even fit in the "chapter notes" section so get stuck here):  Well, there we have it.  Thank you all so very much for coming on this journey and for all your fierce defense (and anger) on behalf of these characters.  I’ve delighted in your input, ideas, and questions more than I can say.  Thank you for your investment and passion for this story! 

So, a couple of final notes.  I enjoyed the strong reactions to the catalyst for Thor’s return being his death.  Let me explain here why I chose that path.  I actually based it on the canon story shown in Thor 1. 

Here’s the logic:  When Thor faces the Destroyer, there are a couple possible catalysts for Mjolnir’s return to him.  I have catalogued them as follows: 

1.) Thor apologizes to his brother
2.) Thor is willing to sacrifice himself
3.) Thor is willing to sacrifice himself for innocent Midgardians
4.) Thor accepts he will never return to Asgard
5.) Thor dies

Since Odin didn’t know about the upcoming conflict with Loki, option #1 is unlikely.  However, if the humility such an activity requires is enough, then it is still possible.  Option 2 is also unlikely since Thor was more than willing to sacrifice himself on Jotunheim and in the SHIELD facility to capture Mjolnir.  He did not struggle with facing an army entirely alone and outmatched so facing the Destroyer in a mortal form was hardly a new character development.  The only way this could be the turning point is in the difference in motivation.  This brings us to option 3.  On Jotunheim/SHEILD facility, Thor was willing to sacrifice himself out of his own pride.  In facing the Destroyer, he was willing to sacrifice himself for other people, ones he would have previously discounted or found unworthy. Thus, the shift in focus to other and the growth of humility displayed could have been the catalyst.  Next, since from the outset, Thor’s banishment was never supposed to be permanent, the acceptance of its permanence seems an unlikely turning point. 

I will also note that options 1-4 are heart conditions and not definite, measurable actions.  I wonder about how effective magic is at discerning heart conditions.  If his “worthiness” is determined by a change in attitude, and magic is somehow able to discern true repentance and lasting change, then options 1-4 are possible. 

In this story, I go with option number 5.  I surmise it is a definite, measurable action which determines Thor’s worthiness and not a heart condition.  As many of you have pointed out, there are flaws to this logic (on Odin’s part), however, it can also be argued that a three day banishment would have led to similar flaws in any of the other possibilities.  My purpose is not to “agree” with Odin’s logic or defend it in any way.  It’s simply to explore the plot and character development of such logic.  Finally, the reason I went with option number 5 actually stems from Norse mythology more than the canon Thor 1. 

I find the Norse conceptions of life and death rather fascinating.  The Norse gods themselves are finite and have an end.  In Ragnarök, the “Twilight of the Gods,” they are already judged and found impermanent and imperfect.  These are gods who die. 

Rather than an evil to be avoided, it was a constant.  The world, their own deities, everyone was bound to mortality and it was the nature of the death that was of import.  An “honorable death,” or one obtained in battle, relegated one to Odin’s favor and army.  A “dishonorable death,” or one acquired through any other means, ensured one belonged to Helheim.  Yggdrasil is both the “tree of life” and “Odin’s gallows.”  Odin is the God of War and Death while also being the All-Father.  He brings healing and death, protection, and death.  The ritual sacrifices of victims on their own “Odin’s gallows” and “trees of life” are attested in contemporary writers and the archaeological record.  Odin himself was not exempt.  He hung himself on his own gallows tree and “sacrificed himself for himself” in his insatiable quest for knowledge and mystical power. He quite literally faced death so he could gain wisdom and gain knowledge to overcome death and come back to life again. 

Also, I should mention, this story grew out of musings last Christmas on the many different layers of symbols and meanings of the concept of the Incarnation.  I was reading through The Heliand (Anglo-Saxon epic poem which translates the Christian Gospel stories into the worldview of the Germanic peoples of the ninth century).  I continued to ruminate on all the Norse/Germanic symbols and characters that were evoked, inverted, and expanded upon within the work.  Really fascinating Christmas musings.  So many layers and multivalent symbols that richly exemplified what the “incarnation” and cultural translation into their worldview (in Middle Earth/Midgard) was like and its beautiful. Oh, I could continue musing, but then I would continue on forever since I find all the symbols and history absolutely fascinating.

What does all this rambling have to do with this story?  Basically, that was the seed for this story.  I got stuck on the idea of what the Incarnation (all three definitions) looks like when conducted by imperfect, finite, conflicted, flawed beings and how this changes the concept.  That’s the deep layered motivation.  The shallow layered motivation?  I like exploring culture shock and Thor really needed more than three days.

Oh, and Loki needed a better fate.  Seriously. 

The end.