For Kadma.
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own them.
Sif was left on Asgard in the palace once again, without Thor.
Brushing her dark brown, unruly hair into a ponytail, she contemplated exactly why Thor would be on Midgard in the first place. The Avengers, saving the world, Loki maybe.
But that blasted mortal on Midgard named Jane or something another had to come into his life and take Thor away from her, just as they were going to get married. Sif loved Thor. But it seemed like Thor would not love her back.
She never thought that he would anyway. With her crazy hair and the bright green eyes that seemed to look into every other person's soul, she could understand why nobody gave the woman warrior a second thought. Pairing that with her strength and her usually lopsided armor, Sif thought she was the exact image of what a man would not want in a woman.
Sif could not understand her thoughts as she went to bed that night, dreaming about long blonde hair and a bright, billowing cape.
Thor was back on Midgard, looking for a place to stay for the night.
He had gone back to Jane's apartment only to find that she was laying on the couch stark naked with another man on top her her, whispering sweet nothings into her ear as he thrusted her. Needless to say, he had stormed out of their quietly enough that he wouldn't interrupt their fucking with his raging anger.
And then he had burnt down the warehouse he had last seen her standing by.
He didn't know what he was supposed to say as the police arrived and tried to arrest him for the crime, so he whipped his hammer around in a circle and flew off into the night sky, not directing himself anywhere.
Thor wasn't surprised to look around at the afternoon sky and see that he was standing just in front of Stark Towers.
Sif awoke with a frown on her face, recalling the dream to show Thor deceiving her once and for all.
It was not a dream she had enjoyed at all.
She looked at the calendar beside her bed and grimaced when she saw the ten times crossed over date of January 24th, a day that Sif did now want to think about anymore in her life.
Knowing exactly what day it was at the moment, Sif stood up from her bed and padded softly into the walk-in closet in her room, pushing past battle clothing and casual dresses to find the one dress that had captured her heart the moment she had seen it.
The white dress was draped carefully on the mannequin that Frigga had found for her, and it fit Sif's personality perfectly. Taking much care to keep the dress nice and pretty looking, Sif took off her pajamas and slipped into the white fabric, the coolness of the silk feeling nice and soft on her skin.
The only problem was that she would never be wearing the dress during a real wedding.
And that was enough to break her heart.
Thor woke up in the middle of the night laying on Tony's penthouse couch, using his red cape as a blanket. Confused as to what exactly happened before he had gone to sleep, he woke up Tony.
"Man of Iron, I require your assistance." Thor whispered not quite as softly as he should've, and he heard a groan coming from the bed.
"What the hell do you want at two in the morning, Thor?" Tony snapped at him, and he rubbed his eyes, sitting up. The blue of his arc reactor suddenly lit up the room, and Thor made his way to his side of the bed, sitting down heavily.
"I need advice." Thor said, and Tony groaned, flopping back down into a sleepy position on the bed.
"Ask Pepper." Tony grumbled angrily, and suddenly Pepper was rising from the sheets next to him, holding the blankets to her chest.
"What's this early morning call about, Thor?" Pepper asked him, more kind than Tony had been to the thunder god, and Thor sighed.
"I am conflicted." Thor said. "Part of my mind wants one thing, but the other part of my mind wants another." Pepper smiled knowingly at him, and it kind of freaked both Thor and Tony out.
"What does your heart say?" She asked, and she pulled Tony closer to her to go to sleep. Thor left the room and walked onto the roof, knowing exactly what his heart wanted.
Sif didn't know how much heartbreak she could take before she become a cold-blooded mammal, but she seemed pretty close to the tipping point.
She was sitting on a bench in the private gardens of the palace of Asgard, and she held a prickly rose in her hands. The rose was her favorite flower because it expressed who she was perfectly: beautiful on the outside, but dangerous and deceiving with its hidden thorns not quite on the inside (but it was definitely close enough for her).
The saddening day was drawing to an end, and Sif set the rose down in her lap sideways, smoothing out the skirt of the wedding dress she wore to the same spot every year. She had noticed the pitying glances from the windows of the palace but had steadfastly ignored all of them, refusing to let them see her true pain. But the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, alerting her to the fact that someone was watching her.
As the sky darkened even more, Sif decided that it was time to go inside and change out of her dress. She stood up and held onto the rose gently, careful not to prick herself with it, but she dropped it onto the ground.
"Why does it always have to be me?" Sif finally broke, yelling up at the sky like it was going to spring rain onto them just to give her the answer she desired to know.
"That is the question I find myself asking at times." A voice said from behind her, and Sif gasped, turning to see Thor in his finest battle armor, the hammer no where in sight. He walked towards her and stopped just in front of her.
"What are you doing here Thor?" Sif asked, her tone turning cold, and Thor frowned, fiddling with the rose in his hands (and Sif was surprised to notice it just at that moment - she had sworn it hadn't been in his hands before!).
"I wanted to give you this." Thor sat down on the bench, leaving just enough room for her to sit down on, and after a moment's hesitation, Sif complied, taking the offered rose gently from his hands. "And I also wanted to apologize."
"For what?" The words just tumbled from Sif's mouth, and once they were out, she could never take them back. There's no going back now, Sif. "Months before we were to become betrothed, you got yourself banished, and when you came back you claimed you could not marry me because you were in love with a human!" Sif's words cut Thor to the core, and he hung his head in shame.
"I am so terribly sorry, Sif, you must know that I never meant to hurt your feelings." Thor said quietly, and Sif's anger vanished immediately as she saw a tear rolling down his cheek. She had only seen him cry one time before, and that had been a long time before. Sif placed the rose in her lap and lifted Thor's head up with two fingers, willing him silently to look into her eyes.
"Thor, what has you so troubled?" Sif asked quietly, and Thor shook his head. She let go of his chin and wiped away the tear gently, not liking how fragile and vulnerable Thor looked in that moment.
"I did not love Jane Foster, Sif." Thor said with a bit of a laugh, and Sif froze, not believing what she was hearing. "I don't ever think I did, to be truly honest."
"So why say you did?" Sif said, and Thor looked at her with shining eyes.
"Because until now, I could not confess my feelings to the woman that was right in front of me all along." He replied, and Sif frowned, not understanding what Thor was trying to say. Instead, she kept quiet as Thor kneeled onto one knee and took a ring from a pocket hidden in his armor.
"Thor, what...?" Sif couldn't find the words to put together a coherent sentence, and Thor smiled at her widely.
"My dear lady Sif," Thor began. "All this time, I was blind to see the love you had for me in your eyes. But now I can see it, and truthfully, it rivals my own. I have had many a time to think, and what was happening with Jane Foster back on Midgard was just an infatuation...a distraction. But I have seen the warrior side of you, and fallen in love with it." Sif frowned and opened her mouth to protest, but Thor continued talking to her. "I have also seen the lady side of you, the one part of yourself you hide so well. And that, truly, is the part of you that I have deeply fallen in love with." Sif's eyes were shining with tears, and she was smiling widely.
Everything she had ever wished for was standing - well, kneeling - in front of her, and she took a quiet moment to look him over.
Blond hair pulled back messily from his face, his bright blue eyes contrasting with the tan of his skin. The unshaven beard that hadn't been touch for weeks, at least. The bright red cape hanging down his back. The wide smile on his face that showed off teeth whiter than any moon flower would ever hope to be.
"Lady Sif, will you marry me on this day, like we were meant to?" Thor finished and Sif came back to reality, smiling down at her beloved.
"Of course, Thor." She replied with tears of happiness rushing down her cheeks, and Thor slid the ring onto her finger before wrapping his arms around her waist and spinning her around in a circle. Sif laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him back as tightly as she could.
Sif's broken heart had been mended, and the two were so happy that they didn't care that their finest clothing was getting drenched as it started to heavily downpour onto the entirety of Asgard.
And as the pair locked lips for the first time in the rain, they finally felt complete.
Fin.