Thor And The Olympics
Thor wondered into the living room of Jane's apartment, brow knitted in a confused frown. He found Jane on the couch, gnawing at a finger as she leaned forwad eagerly towards the television.
He wondered up beside the couch, until he was close enough to hear her muttering. It sounded something like "Come on, come on...". He stared down at her, watching her eyes focussed intently on the screen of the box. He'd never seen her so in concentration, not even when she was working in her lab! And she loved her lab.
"What are you watching?" he asked, gaze drifting to the men in the water on the screen, moving their arms in a most bizarre fashion as they travelled.
Jane's eyes didn't leave the screen. "My man, Michael Phelps."
Thor's frown deepened in an instant - since when had this Michael Phelps seized the affections of his Jane? He had never been aware there was a threat to his and Jane's relationship. He ghosted his gaze back to the box, trying identify the culprit he had to challenge, but there were too many men in the shot for him to single out the one in question.
"You would choose this water dweller over me?" he asked, trying to hold the hurt and blooming anger out of his voice. He could feel both rising rapidly, but hadn't yet decided which one to surrender to yet.
Jane's hand waved at him dismissively. "No!" She pulled her hand away from her teeth and Thor could see faint marks where she'd chewed. Her gaze was still rivetted forward. "It's not like that. He's-" she sighed heavily, and ran her hand through her hair. "You know what, just sit down."
She patted the empty space on the couch beside her and Thor wondered forward with cautious steps. He followed Jane's gaze to the screen as he lowered himself slowly down into the seat.
She took his hand up in hers and Thor started to feel calm again. Still confused though. Very.
"It's a race." Jane explained patiently. "They're racing to see who can swim the fastest. Butterfly stroke. 200 metres. Michael Phelps is the guy I want to win. The guy who all of the United States of America wants to win."
Thor drank in the information. "This Michael Phelps is your lands champion?"
Jane's hand tipped to the side, pulling a face. "I guess you could say that. If he gets on the podium he's set an Olympic record. He'll have won more Olympic medals than anybody else in history."
Thor kept quiet for a moment, watching as the swimmers drew ever closer to the edge of the pool. He found himself leaning forward with Jane, interested despite not knowing any of the athletes and still somewhat bemused by the method they used to proppel themselves through the water. His heart was in his mouth, Jane's fingers clenching harder around his.
Then Thor jumped out of his skin-
"YES!"
Jane leapt to her feet, arms stretched high in the air as the first swimmer touched the side and stopped. Then another, then another. Finally all the swimmers were still at the water's edge, and Jane was jumping up and down like a child, a beam plastered on her face.
"Silver medal for us! I knew he could do it!"
Thor rose to his feet beside the overjoyed woman and tried to recapture her attention with a gentle hand on her shoulder.
He soon regretted it: "Omph!" Jane threw herself at him, linking her arms around his neck with a staggering force Thor hadn't even considered possible from a creature of Jane's size and stature. His smiled breathlessly over her shoulder, placing his hand at her back as he recovered from the impact. "You are happy?"
"Happy?" she peeled back slightly, and planted a hard kiss on his mouth, her hands cupping either side of his face. "Oh yes, I'm very happy."
"Then I owe this Michael Phelps my gratitude."
"No." Jane chuckled, releasing him at last. Thor wasn't so quick to let her go though, moving his hands to her waist. "It's his job. He's an athlete. He's representing the U.S.A at the Olympics."
Thor eyes clouded with confusion.
"You don't know about the Olympics?" One look at Thor's knitted brow gave Jane her answer: "Of course, you don't." She sighed, dropping back to the couch. "Sit."
Thor obliged, and Jane pressed the mute button on the remote control, silencing the television. She turned to the confused god, taking his hand in hers. "On Earth we have this thing called the Olympic Games." She started in a clear tone. "It's held every four years and it's a bunch of sports events were all the countries of the world compete against each other to be the best. You with me so far?"
Thor nodded slowly. "It sounds... like a tournament."
A smile blossomed over Jane's face. "Yes, it's like that." she confirmed, satisfied when Thor's frown eased slightly. "Every country sends athletes to represent their country in different sports. If you come in first, you get a gold medal. If you come in second, you get a silver medal. If you get come in third, you get a bronze medal."
"I think I understand." Thor nodded, eyes rolling back to the screen. "So this Michael Phelps has won the silver medal for your land?"
Jane sighed her relief. This was sinking in better than she'd thought it would! "Yes, he's got silver. He competes in the swimming but there's loads of events to watch besides that."
Thor pushed aside the swell of pride, trying to remain focussed as Jane grabbed for the remote again and changed the screen of the television, bringing up a menu of sorts on the front of the box. He scoured over them, hardly recognising any of the titles on the screen. Cycling, fencing, football... he couldn't even summon a vague link to any of them. They were alien to him.
"These are all the sports that are in the Olympics." Jane explained, creeping her gaze to the side to catch Thor's eyes gleaming with interest as they rolled over the television screen. "Anything catch your eye?"
Thor's lips ghosted open as he picked out the few events he recognised. "Does archery refer to the same event in this world as it does mine?"
A smile graced over Jane's lips as she pressed a button and the screen was suddenly filled with women, aiming bows at targets.
Thor's eyes blinked with surprise. "Women compete in these 'Olympic Games'? Is that permitted in this realm? And their attire... I have never seen anything like it in all my travels!" Jane struggled to hold back the giggles, and was forced to clamp a hand over her mouth as the camera shot zoned in on one woman and her bow and arrow: "What sort of contraption is that?!" Thor exclaimed, eyes running over the intricate shapes on the bows, very different to what he was used to. "That is no bow like we have in Asgard."
Thor's frowning gaze was sharply dragged back to Jane as she let out a burst of laughter, throwing her head back, as she slumped in the sofa. Her eyes were screwed shut, her hand tearing away from his to try and mask her gawfs uselessly.
She could feel the god staring at her and knew he didn't understand why she was laughing... but that just made it all the funnier! God, she loved him and his blissful naivety. She loved how he was so innocently ignorant to even the simplest of things they had on Earth!
It took her a while to finally wipe the tears from her eyes and straighten up, hand still on her stomach, aching from the intensity of her laughter.
She was still chuckling. "Things are a little different here. No wooden bows and arrows anymore, big guy." She clapped a hand on his shoulder, and leaned herself into him. "And women can do anything they want."
"Truly?"
Jane nodded in affirmation. And just to prove her point: "Go on," she nodded at the screen, popping the menu back in place. "Pick the 'manliest' sport you can see."
Thor leaned forward, scouring the options thorough before making his choice. "Weightlifting." he opted, with a smirk. He was sure he would win this one. Women did not lift weights as men did, he thoughts smugly, even in this world. He had his cocky grin already in place, ready to prove Jane wrong as she clicked on the sport he'd chosen.
His grin dropped instantly, along with his jaw. "W-what?" He watched with absolute disbelief as a woman - ripped with unbecoming muscle, but a woman nevertheless - gripped at the bar with weights either side and lifted it high over her head, gritting her teeth from the effort. Thor couldn't believe his eyes! He could feel Jane's sparkling gaze on him, the same satisfied expression he'd been prepare to give to her, and cleared his throat, determined to regain some of his dignity. "That is no task!" he insisted, keeping his chin up proudly. "I could have lifted that when I was but a boy!"
"Really?" Jane didn't look away. "I think it's pretty impressive. I could never lift stuff that heavy."
Thor's gaze hardened, irritated that he'd been proven wrong as another woman took her place behind the weighted bar. "That is because you are a woman, with all the feminine graces of one. Women should not partake in such events. It is not becoming. These creatures," his hand waved at the screen carelessly. "Will never find husbands if they continue to disgrace themselves in such a way."
Jane giggled and wrapped an arm around Thor's bicep, snuggling her cheek into his shoulder. She found his old-fashioned views as amusing as they were ridiculous.
"I like watching the diving." she murmured with a smile, scrolling the menu up again to take the offending women off Thor's mind. She snuggled her cheek against him, massaging his arm muscles with her fingers until she felt him start to relax. "And the horse stuff. And the gymnastics. I can't pick a favourite."
She waited tensely for a reply, and smiled when Thor sighed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She curled her legs up beside her and let him pull her in close.
"Then let us watch us one of those instead." he breathed.
Jane clicked on to the gymnastics and squirmed nervously when she saw that it was the women competing. Her eyes flickered up to Thor, but he merely tightened his arm around her, holding her closer.
"Which competitors do you support?" he asked stiffly.
"Team U.S.A." she nuzzled back. "The ones in red."
"Then I shall support them also."
Jane smirked. "You can't just support them because I do. You're lucky. You don't come from any country on Earth so you have no obligation to support anyone! You can pick and choose who you want." She thought for a moment. "Although, if you did want to support someone," she went on, worried that she might have dejected him somewhat from his silence. "You should probably support the British. You've got their accent, after all."
He glanced down at her, but Jane was more interested in watching one of the American athletes run to a vault. "You would rather I support the land of the British?"
The smirk widened, interrupted by Jane raising a triumphant fist as the vaulted landed well. After a moment of glimmering pride, her mind turned back to Thor and she shrugged. "It would make things more interesting. We could have a little competition between ourselves." Her eyes gleamed up at him suggestively.
Thor was a guy, and experience had taught Jane that nothing made a guy happier than a little bit of healthy competition.
Sure enough, a tempted smirk flickered over the god's lips. One he tried - and failed - to repress. Finally, he surrendered to the grin and rolled his intrigued orbs down to her. "You wish to challenge me, Jane Foster?"
Jane pressed her lips together in her own smirk. "Me and Team U.S.A."
Thor's eyebrows lifted. "Then I shall see your challenge, and time will tell as to who will emerge victorious."
"Bring it, mister."
They both settled deeper into the couch, turning their attention back to the screen. Both sets of eyes were focussed, resolved in their own determination to win.
"Although, for the record," Jane murmured, "My team are killing yours."
"Your competitors are triumphant thus far in these events?"
Jane shrugged half heartedly. "More than yours. We've just gotta shrug the Chinese and we'll be in the lead. Your guys however... they've got some catching up to do, to say the least."
"Then they shall meet the challenge with relish."
It was hours they stayed there on the couch, watching through the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening as the events proceeded. Thor enjoyed himself immensely. He tried to stay focussed on the success of his own team, but found himself drawn in to the sports, fascinated by the games more than the actual competitors.
The gymnastics ended - Thor forced to hand over a victory to Jane - but Thor's thoughts of respect for the athletes in question ran on for longer, deeply impressed with the skill they displayed.
He was much more interested in the equestrian events though. Jane was half disappointed that they'd missed the cross country, thinking that Thor would have liked the faster pace of the horses more than the controlled discipline of the jumps, but she relaxed when she saw the grin on his face. She listened to him telling her of his horse in Asgard and how it had 'the strength of three Earth horses', could jump higher and faster than any of the creatures in the arena, and how one day he would take her for a ride himself so she would know it was true. Jane's grin was particularly wide at the last one.
They watched some badminton and basketball, but both were abandoned fairly quickly after Jane determined it was taking too long to explain all the rules. She settled back on weightlifting, thinking it couldn't get any simpler than that.
Neither of them noticed the sun falling outside the window.
Thor watched the weightlifting athletes with a smirk, not noticing Jane getting heavier on his shoulder. He knew he could lift those bars effortlessly. He would have no gritting of teeth, or pained expression, or trembling muscles - he'd only have his triumphant, victorious grin. He made a mental note to one day make sure that Jane knew it too. He knew it was not chivalrous to boast, but he could not help but show off when Jane was concerned. Especially when he saw how impressed she always was.
He glanced down, the pressure of her body on his fuelling his ego - his smile faltered when he saw her eyes fluttered shut in slumber, her lips numbly parted. Her head rested against his shoulder, her hair falling slightly over her face.
A soft smile graced the gods lips as he watched her. She was much more interesting than any Olympic Games! He loved watching her while she slept, revelling in the peace the stretched over her face. It was rare to see her so still, the energetic, fretful creature she was, and Thor was always careful to treasure every second of it.
And more than anything, it gave him a chance to stare at her without the worry of making her self conscious. His adoring gaze gleamed over her perfect features, nestling her more comfortably in his arms as she slept against him.
He wondered what Jane would do if she were in these games. He'd never seen Jane do any of the events that were on the screen, but he still couldn't help be curious. Archery perhaps, he thought, thumb stroking the cheek of the sleeping woman in question. She certainly had the focus and concentration for it. Or the swimming events, based on her slim stature. The women on the horses had had a similarly graceful figure as well, he thought to himself.
He juggled Jane in his arms while he reached for the remote, jabbing at the button she'd told him silenced the box as darkness began to creep in through the windows.
He wanted nothing to disturb his Jane in her slumber.
He carefully repositioned himself to lie back on the couch, gently folding Jane's body over his once he was comfortable. His hand stroked over her dark locks lovingly, letting the feeling of her subtle breathing calm him to the brink of sleep himself.
His head rolled back to the box, for one final glimpse of the games before dreams claimed him and he smirked at the familiar man being interviewed on the screen.
"You will have to do more than that to steal my Jane from me, water dweller."
NOTE
The event times and what not may not be entirely accurate, but all the sports did happen on the day in question (Tuesday 31st). Just thought I'd say that in case people get on my case about false information. I read from the TV guide to make sure the events actually happened, but I don't know what times they were at.
I hope I didn't cause any offence to anyone. I didn't mean to put anything mean in there about any nationality, but just in case someone gets offended, I'm sorry.
PLUS, I know Chris Hemsworth is Australian, but Thor's accent is British, so... yeah. 'Nuf said.
Lastly, I'm British. So I've got Thor supporting my team. Mwahahaha!
GO TEAM GB!