A/N: I've been sitting on this idea for a little while now. I hope you enjoy it and leave plenty of reviews and things because they make me happy.
Apple Of My Eye
Stark Tower was busy, noisy and full. Luckily that was just how Thor liked it. Having all the people that he could constantly joke and laugh with made him feel at home. Every day at the Stark Tower was like a night of feasting in Asgard. He found this to be particularly enjoyable. Of course he would, it was food. Thor thought about Midgard food all the time while he was in Asgard. His home food was more elaborate than the stuff he enjoyed back at the tower but there was something about the simple tastiness that Thor enjoyed. Maybe it was because it barely took any preparation (not that he was the one preparing it in Asgard at all. One of the perks of being royal). Maybe it was because it was new and a novelty thing for Thor at this time. Whatever it was there was something that made Midgard nutrients more desirable than those he received in Asgard.
That wasn't to say that food was his one and only reason for staying at Stark Tower. He had already mentioned the people. It was just that the food was definitely a large factor in the matter. He thought about this as he took the Rainbow bridge back to Midgard.
With a loud clap of thunder he landed on the pavement outside the tower. He frowned, looking up at the Earth's sky that was cloudy and dull. At that moment the heavens opened, pouring buckets of water across Thor's unsuspecting face. Well, he definitely didn't come back to Midgard for the weather. He crinkled his features against the impact of the many raindrops and turned to head inside quickly. However he stopped.
His ears strained quickly as he swore he heard a sound. It was a squeal of sorts; high-pitched and scared. Thor looked around the area, seeing if he could source the noise but nothing stood out from the city's wall of sound as wrong or different. He went to turn back towards the complex when he heard it again. This time it was accompanied by a hush from something else.
"Is somebody there?" Thor called out, his voice booming across the street. A small gasp was heard and that settled any doubt in Thor's mind that somebody definitely was there. "I'm not going to hurt you." He said in the most reassuring voice he could muster. The disembodied sound had turned into repetitive sniffles with a few occasional shrieks added in for good measure. It was not hard to follow the noise but the place where it appeared to be coming from was strange.
Thor was now heading down a dark alleyway, the rain was still coming down in torrents and he was now soaked to the bone. Mjolnir was threatening to slip from his hands as water collected underneath his grasp. He held it tighter and continued all the way down to the end of the strange lane. The sniffs had stopped but the shrieks hadn't. They kept coming just as loud and getting quicker by the second. Eventually it turned into a long, never-ending wail.
"Who's making that noise?" Thor asked to the darkness. He didn't expect a reply. In fact he had only expected the noise to vanish altogether now that he was this close. Instead he heard a whisper.
"Ollie.. Shush. Please!" He heard. The voice was little, tiny in fact and it sounded fragile. It was the voice of a girl he was sure. She sounded to be pleading with somebody and was in obvious distress. The wails were still coming but Thor didn't think they were coming from her. Somebody else must have been there.
"No!" Came a moody voice in between his crying This voice, Thor decided, was a young male. Very young in fact if the lack of sentence structure was going to go by. The boy was louder though and apparently had no knowledge that they were supposed to be hiding. Thor traced it quickly. The noises came from behind a large dumpster. Thor pushed it aside with ease. What he found was a little surprising.
A young girl with long brown hair that looked tangled and knotty was crouched, clutching hold of a toddler boy around his waist. Thor's eyes widened as he took in the little boy and short, dirty blonde hair and the streaks of dirt across his cheeks. The girl was also dirty but it covered her arms as well as he face. They appeared to be dry; the bin obviously acting as a shelter for them. The boy's eyes were red as if he was crying. It was then that Thor realised that his clap of thunder must have frightened the poor boy. He immediately felt terrible.
"I am sorry! I did not mean to frighten you both!" He cried out, kneeling in front of the two children quickly. The young girl stared up at him silently but the boy giggled and made grabby hands towards Mjölnir. He must have thought it was a toy. Thor looked down at the now giggling boy. His sobs had stopped suddenly and he seemed infinitely happier.
Thor couldn't work out how old the young girl was but he guessed that she was somewhere between 5 and 8. She held the boy tightly as she peered up at the large bulk of a man in front of her. Thor had to have been bigger than any average person she'd ever seen in her life because Thor was exactly that, bigger than an average person.
"My name is Thor, young Midgardian. What is yours?" Thor said, ignoring the fact that the girl didn't actually know what a Midgardian was, let alone the fact she was one herself. The girl bit her lip before answering.
"Mummy told me never to talk to strangers." She answered like a parrot and Thor smiled.
"What about strangers that are trying to help?" He asked.
"Well..." She lengthened her word more than it should have been as she thought. "I suppose that's okay." She nodded.
"So, what is your name?" Thor asked again.
"My name is Ella. And this is Ollie." She said, referring to the young boy in her grasp. Holding onto him was all she could do to stop the boy running towards Thor and his hammer to play. Thor nodded. The rain had cleared up while they had been talking but once again the clouds let down its rain, now drenching the three of them. Without the dumpster bin to shelter them the children were getting cold and wet.
Ollie's nose crinkled up and he let out a few struggled breaths as though about to cry. It was then that he wailed at the top is the lungs. The little girl cringed at the noise and started up her act of trying to calm him again. It was clear that the boy wasn't happy in the rain. He could only have been 2 years old at a push. The two children didn't have coats on them. This was strange, it was the middle of November. The weather had got progressively colder for a few weeks now.
"Come with me. I will get you to some place dry." Thor spoke loudly again. His voice carrying back down the alleyway and reaching people who were walking past the entrance. They turned to stare at the man dressed in odd clothes. He lifted the crying boy into one arm and held out his free hand to take Ella's. However the girl simply stayed crouch.
"I'm not supposed to go with strangers. Mummy said not to." She said, once again sounding like a parrot repeating a phrase it had heard too many times. Thor began to wonder exactly where this "Mummy" was. There had been no sign of a woman looking for her children and she let them outside without a coat at this time of year. Compared to the mothers in Asgard the ones are Earth appeared to be very careless. To an Asgardian mother, her children were her pride and joy. There was nothing that she would love more. This had been evident throughout the whole of Thor's childhood. Even whether a child had not been theirs they would swear to take good care of it. His own mother had taken Loki under her wing had she not?
"Where is your mother, Ella?" Thor asked slowly.
"I..." She frowned for a moment. "I don't know."
"Then come with me. I can find you food. Do you like poptarts? I didn't know what they were until recently and now they're my favourite food. And you will be warm."
Ella appeared to be a very trusting girl as she thought over the offer for a moment before agreeing happily. Thor couldn't quite decide if that was a good thing or not. It was good in the sense that it allowed him to take her somewhere safe but on the other hand if another person with not so valiant intentions had won her trust, what could have happened?
He took her hand and led her out of the alleyway. In one arm he carried Ollie and held Mjölnir in a precarious position at his fingertips. His other hand was keeping Ella close by him; his giant palms swallowing up her whole fist.
"Where are we going?" She asked quietly as they reached the end of the alley and Thor looked to cross the road. The little boy was silent in Thor's arms, in fact Thor thought he may have fallen asleep.
That was surprisingly easy.
"Do you know of Stark Tower?"
"Yes! I walk past it to get to school. It's very big" Remarked the girl, her eyes lighting up.
"That's where we're going."
"Really?"
"Yes." Thor said in a confused tone. Didn't the girl believe him at first? He didn't quite understand the child's mind. He finally deemed it safe to cross the road (he was being extra careful now that he was responsible for two other lives) and entered the pass code on the gate. They opened automatically, granting the trio entrance to the building in a rather grand fashion. Ella let out a small gasp as she looked up at the towering complex, her mouth dropping open into a perfect 'O' shape.
They walked up to the front doors in silence. Ella still taking in everything and Ollie, who Thor had definitely decided was asleep, began to drool across Thor's armour. He let go of Ella's hand for just a moment to push the door open before taking a firm grip of her fragile limb once more and entering.
"I have arrived!" He called out down the hallway, "And I have visitors!"
Alright then, so that was the first chapter of hopefully many if you enjoyed it. Do favourite it and leave reviews so I know if people want me to continue with this. I enjoyed writing it so that has to be a good sign, right?