Heyho everyone,
I am back with another Marvel Fanfic. I can't promise to hold my one-chapter-per-week like with the last one (I'm now in my final school-year) but I'll try my best. At first, I wanted to do a Cap fic but after watching Thor: Ragnarok this Tuesday, I couldn't help myself and gave my idea for Thor priority. The story will begin before the first movie, so no spoilers for that one. As a side note: I worked with the German schoolsystem for the first chap. (1 is the best grade you can get, 6 ist the worst; you change school after the 4th class)
I am a German native, but no one complained about mistakes in my Dr. Strange FF.
The disclaimer for the whole fanfic:
I don't own Thor nor Marvel. Johanna, her (back)story and with that, the changes from the original Thor movies were my ideas and serve only the purpose of entertainment and writing practice.
"What's bothering you Heimdall?"
"It's nothing your Majesty."
"Marry, Marry look what I drew!"
Exited and proud of what she had drawn, Johanna – or Jojo as most people called her – presented her newest crayon picture to her caretaker. Said caretaker Marry, a blonde haired, small woman in her late forties, picked the whirlwind up on her lap. A glance at the clock told the woman, that it was too late to be up for the 6-year old but her late-night escapades were nothing new.
"Little Lady, isn't it a bit too late for you to be up?"
"But Marry have you looked outside? There are so many stars!"
To empathize her words, Johanna threw her hands in a wide arc and it was only because of Marry's still good reflexes that a cup of tea didn't fell off the table.
"Jojo, you have to be careful."
Startled the girl made herself small and pulled picture and knees to her body. Smiling softly at the reaction, Marry brushed a hand through Johanna's brown and slightly curly hair mane.
"Come on, show me the picture. But promise, after that you go straight to bed."
The girl nodded eagerly and placed the drawing on the table. Browns and reds dominated the picture with a bit of yellow and green. Starting with the spiky drawn figure in the middle Johanna told the story to her picture:
"You see Mary, this is a dragon. A very wild and dangerous one. And those two are brothers and fight it. The one with the hammer, he is the strong one and the one with the horns. He is the...one-with-the-knowledge one."
"A beautiful story, but now go to bed, it's late and you'll fall asleep tomorrow when the Smith's come to visit you."
"Yes Marry."
Like the girl had promised, she rolled the drawing together and went upstairs into her room, which she shared with two others. Marry's smile turned more into a sad one. She would miss Johanna dearly when Lillith and Anton Smith accept the adoption fully tomorrow. Oh, how long Johanna had wished for parents.
- ten years later -
One would think that the last day of school ever is more…lively. Johanna had her, now empty of schoolbook (she had to return them this morning), bag on her back with only her report and a few pens in it. As she had to leave class early to catch her plane her classmates did wish her goodbye and a good life but there was no-one she considered her best friend. There was actually a week more worth of school, but all exams were through – so she got excused for leaving earlier. Her footsteps echoed overly loudly in the old building and the familiar screeching of the front doors of her school was the last thing she heard from it.
It's not that Johanna didn't get along with her classmates. She was just interested in other things, than the others. Space and fighting like in the Middle Ages weren't themes others cared for. It may be an unusual combination but it made more sense if you knew more of Johanna's life.
With a small smile she looked up to the cloudless sky where the moon was barely visible on the day's blue. The thought of life and/or landscapes beyond the surface of the Earth exited her and her well-kept and -used Newton Telescope was testimony to that. A warm feeling came up as she thought of the happiness she felt at Christmas two years prior as she saw the large box standing beside the tree and discovered the beauty she had named Luna inside. It had been a gift from her whole family and Uncle Erik promised her that she could come over for half-a-year after finishing school to have a completely clear sky for star-gazing.
She leaned back in the bus and closed her eyes. A dangerous yet pretty landscape made from ice appeared before her mental eye, winds twirled snow up and made a howling sound. Then a light appeared-
"J-, Jo, hey Johanna. Stop daydreaming, you have to go out."
Embarrassed she jumped up and out of the bus with a last wink at the bus-driver who was there since she changed school at the fifth grade. The walk from the bus stop to her house took only a few minutes. She lingered a bit longer at the door. Johanna couldn't describe what she felt. No more school until she finally decided what she wanted to study, and it would be a while until she comes through this door again. An end, but also a beginning of something new.
The scene awaiting her inside was so familiar that she had to laugh. Her father – a blacksmith – normally just leaves his heavy working shoes where he pulls them off and her mother, when she made one of her dancing circles, like the dance teacher that she is, had the tendency to fall over them. With a fifty-fifty chance her father caught her and she would always say, that he did it on purpose just like today.
"Hello sweetheart, how was your day? Exited for your trip?"
"Yes Mama, it's a strange feeling to go out of school for the last time. Did Papa forgot to put his shoes away. Again."
"That he did. Now show me your grades and grab yourself some sandwiches."
Johanna had an average of a solid 2,1 with Arts and English being her best grades and Math and German being her weakest. Her father reminded her that she had half an hour left before they had to drive to the airport.
Johanna used the time to lay on the carpet in her room. Her suitcase and bag were already packed just like her Telescope in a separate one with a bright label caution: fragile, it was special luggage. From her position she could see easily the sketchbook hidden under her bed. Pulling it out she flipped through the pages. She had been so proud of them as she drew them, and they were still good to look at. Lively, she had told the stories and was happy over every praise she got. Eventually people only said that she had a vivid imagination and her classmates in the first four school years made fun of it. Depressed she stopped drawing and still did it only if she had to.
In that time her father was her rock. He picked her up and showed her what he did for work to distract her. From the simple door locks to film and festival props. From the later he even taught her how to use them and now, when there was a Middle Age festival, Johanna and her father went to them together for the show fights.
Speaking of the devil, her father called.
"Are you finished Jojo?"
"I am, I am coming."
She putted the sketchbook back under her bed and went downstairs were her parents waited for her.
Her mother checked Johanna for the third time if she had everything.
"Clothes, mobile phone, charger, pocket watch…"
Johanna interrupted her:
"Mama I have everything."
She sighed and pulled her daughter into a deep hug.
"You will be careful, hear me?"
Johanna nodded only. The drive to the airport was mostly silent and as she hugged her parents for the last time she had to blink away a few tears. It wasn't forever, and they weren't out of the world.
What Johanna didn't knew at the time was, that her stay with her Uncle would change her whole view on the universe dramatically.