Thor wasn't as perceptive and observant as his brother and that was something he'd just sort of always known. But that had never particularly bothered him. He didn't need to read into people's every word and movement. That was something Loki did to give him an advantage because he wasn't a fighter so much as he was a manipulator.
But Thor was a fighter. And he liked fighting. It was a good way to blow off steam.
So, like many days, he found himself in a gym personalized for him and his fighting style. He was swinging Mjolnir around at the punching bags hanging around. They swung around several times while he pretended they were Frost Giants or Dark Elves—or Loki on a bad day.
A breeze blew through the gym—at first Thor didn't even notice it. There was a small flash of color out of the corner of his eye, but other than that, there was nothing. He turned to look, but saw nothing.
He winched as he turned around. Huh? The only word he could think of.
There was something heavy on his back—two heavy-somethings. He twisted his head to look, but couldn't see anything. With every movement, whatever was on him moved out of the way.
He stormed over to one of the mirrors and turned to see.
An angry shout echoed through the gym.
"THIS IS NOT DIGNIFIED!" he roared.
Pigtail braids were hanging from his head, blond and tied with little purple bows at the end.
"STAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRK!" After smashing several punching bags and fighting dummies out of his way, he stormed off through the Tower to the lab near the top of the building. Throwing the door open, he angrily huffed his way over to the billionaire—who was busy re-stacking papers that had been blown around in a mystery wind that had come from nowhere. Seeing him coming, Tony ducked behind a table and put his arms up. "I DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT SORCERY HAS DONE THIS!"
"Whoa, big guy," Tony remarked, trying to diffuse the storm cloud gathering over the Tower. "You remember that we're not the ones with sorcery right?"
"Then explain this undignified act of treason!"
"You're getting carried away," Tony said. "Giving you pigtails is not treason. It's a prank."
"I demand to know who would play such a prank!"
"I'll go ask around. Relax. Take a breather, big fella." As Stark walked by the God of Thunder, he injected him with 200 mg of horse tranquilizer. Thor wobbled on his feet and crashed to the floor, cuddling his hammer like it was a teddy bear.
Around fifteen minutes later, he woke up. His hair was still braided, but the drug was still oozing through his system so he couldn't be angry. He felt really loopy. He stumbled to his feet and staggered out of the lab, nearly breaking the glass door with his sheer muscle mass alone. With eyelids fluttering, he made his way slowly back to his floor.
Catching his reflection in the mirror of his bathroom made him angry again, shaking off the last effects of the tranquilizer.
"STARK!" he shouted.
"You rang?" Tony asked over the intercom.
"Who is responsible for this humiliation?" Thor demanded—again.
"You know you could just unbraid it and be done, right?" a new, sarcastic voice commented. He whirled around to see the youngest girl in the Tower—Violet-Sky Barton—leaned against the wall in a violet T-shirt and tight shorts that went to her knees, as well as a pair of running shoes. "Unless you'd like me to French braid it." There was a mischievous smirk to rival his brother's on her lips, the twinkle in her eye reminiscent of both Loki and Pietro Maximoff—the two men who annoyed her guardian the most.
"You are responsible for this undignified hairstyle?"
She smirked. "Yeah. You're the only one besides Wanda and myself with hair long enough to braid easily."
"How? You were nowhere near me!" As he blinked, she disappeared.
"Just like I'm not right there anymore?" her voice teased from behind him. He whirled around to see her sitting on his kitchen counter, eating a cookie from the tray he kept. His hair was out of pigtails and back to normal—except for two spots where the little purple bows were tied. "You know, when I heard about Loki calling you a fool when the Dark Elves attacked and whatever, I thought he was the idiot. I knew you were intelligent and you knew more about the worlds beyond ours than anyone else. But it's times like this I see what Loki meant when he called you a fool. Just saying." She munched on the edges of her cookie as Thor gripped Mjolnir tighter in his fist threateningly. "Oh. You won't be able to hurt me with that so if you want to take a swing at me, I won't stop you."
"You humiliated me!" Thor protested.
"I did something to show off. I didn't realize you were so protective of your hair. Really, I'm not kidding, you could do with a haircut. It'd keep me off of it. Who's to say I won't do it again?" Violet-Sky winked at him and with a blur of vibrant purple streaking behind her, disappeared.