Chapter 2: Like Normal People

Dawn waddled around the side of the table, passing platters to Axl and Mike before Ty grabbed her gently by the elbow,

"You should be sitting down. I can get the food on the table for everyone. You should relax." He put his hand on her belly. It was still too early to feel the baby move, but he fancied he felt a stirring in response to the warmth of his touch. He steered her toward her seat at one end of the long table.

"I'm fine! You worry too much. I thought you would be less clingy once the whole god business was done." Dawn protested with a smile, but let Ty walk her to her chair and sat down in it.

"You're right. You're absolutely right. I'll work on that." He smiled down at her. From across the table he heard Mike lapse into his role as head of the family, assigning tasks like a drill sergeant,

"Right. Axl, you grab the chicken, Grandpa, you get the stuffing, I'll get the veg, and Anders, you grab the beers. And a water for Dawn." The men began moving as each of their names were called, but Anders moved slowly as he grumbled.

"I never understood why only goddesses had handmaidens. We need a handmaiden. Is that a thing nowadays? Can I hire a professional handmaiden to pour drinks? Like, a cute one. Young. Maybe blond. She could be brunnett; I'm open minded…"

"JUST…. get the drinks, ok Anders?" Mike was trying to maintain his calm, but Anders had recently taken up his old hobby of irritating Mike as often as possible. Their relationship had mended quite a bit during the three-year long quest to find the Frigg, but things had changed for Anders when Michele had announced two weeks ago that she was leaving him to travel the world. He had wanted to go with her, had even offered to close down his company, liquidate it, and follow Michele like a lovesick puppy. She had turned him down. She cared for him, but having nearly died, she just didn't want to waste the time she did have by spending it all on one small island. She had protested that it wasn't fair to make Anders give up his entire life for what she felt was her own personal quest. She had left only a few days later, and for once, Anders had felt more than a little gutted at the loss. If he had still been a god, only five months ago, still had his full Bragi powers, he would have done everything he could to make her stay. He would have told the security agents at the airport that she was smuggling a bomb, probably somewhere indecent. A good cavity search would have been pretty entertaining for him to contemplate. But he wasn't a god anymore, he was just another Johnson brother, grabbing beers from the fridge for everyone at the table. Plus, one glass of water.

"Fine. But the next time our bodies are inhabited by gods, I want a handmaiden to do all this menial shit for me." He brought the beers out and passed them around, then took his seat at the table.

"That's a very flattering sentiment. I'm sure you'll have goddesses lining up for a crack at that position…"

"I hadn't thought about positions, Hanna, but now that you mention it…"

"ANDERS!" Mike cut in. "This is family dinner. That means we all sit around a table, eat food, and talk about normal topics, like normal people." Mike's face had gone its usual shade of maroon and one vein was standing out in his forehead. Axl's hand on his arm brought him back to himself.

"He's having a laugh, Mike. I think family dinner was a great idea on Hanna's part. It's really nice to have a reason to see you guys regularly. I mean, without someone threatening to call a Thing or a.. ah…"

"Bergerbar." Said Olaf from the far side of the table.

"Right! Thanks, grandpa. No, I like this," he clapped Mike on the back with a smile on his face. He glanced around the room at the faces of his family. Initially, after releasing the gods from their human hosts, Axl had begun worrying that he wouldn't see as much of his brothers anymore. Before being told that he was the bodily incarnation of Odin, he rarely saw Mike and Anders in the same room. The quest to find the Frigg had brought them all closer, and Axl liked having his family around him. Now, with Dawn four months pregnant and Hanna a permanent fixture in Mike's life, the thought of things going back to the way they had been just a handful of years ago made him wince.

"Hey Axl, nobody likes a suck up." Teased Anders.

"Well I, for one, think it's lovely that your family is so close. Not many god families were, so I can't imagine they bridged those emotional barriers since the change. Quite sad, really, when you think about it…" Ingrid's eyes went a bit unfocused as she stood holding napkins between the kitchen and the dining room in Ty and Dawn's apartment.

"Right. Well, let's just all sit down, shall we?" Hanna brought them all back to the present as people started taking their seats.

"So, are we like… are we Christian now? Should we pray before eating or something?" Axl whispered to Olaf sitting to his right.

"I don't think All-Fathers pray to anyone." Olaf whispered back.

"I'm not Odin anymore, though."

"Pretty sure even former All-Fathers are exempt from the praying thing."

"Let's just all dig in!" said Hanna and people started passing plates and chattering among themselves. It was a warm feeling of family that pervaded the small apartment, and even Anders cut Mike some slack and went easy on him for a while. The conversations flowed, and the room was thick was laughter and talk of recent events in everyone's lives. Axl was finding steady work with Mike's new construction company, and Gaia had been in touch. Now that they were no longer gods, they were considering rekindling a relationship. Mike and Hanna were enjoying their apartment, and had squirreled away both the insurance money from the fire at Mike's bar, as well as his recent casino winnings, and were thinking about buying a house and starting a family.

"I guess some goddesses never change, huh Frigg? Still trying to rope a man into marriage?"

"What, Anders? What did you say?" Mike was leaning across the table, but it was hard to hear his brother over the noise.

"I said… I said Frigg is trying to… she's trying to… what the hell is that noise?! Jesus, do your neighbors always make that much noise when they're screwing?!" Anders was shouting to Ty who let out a frustrated sigh and got up out of his chair to head to the backyard.

"IT'S THE CATS!" Yelled Dawn. "THERE ARE TWO STRAY…" just then, Ty threw a rock, hitting the back fence and scaring away the feral animals, "cats. Stray cats. They must be mating, or something. They just started making that noise in the past two days."

"Cats…" muttered Ingrid next to Olaf, who looked at her quizzically. "Cats…" she said again. "There's something about cats…"

"Yes, it's a delightful Broadway production and I'd love to see it sometime, but until then, Ty please keep your pussy under control when I'm around, ok? Thanks."

"Nice, Anders." Ty responded, but even his brother's crass comments couldn't dull the happiness he had been feeling since Dawn had told him she was pregnant. She would be huge in a wedding dress, and he would love every minute of it. He considered showing Mike the scrap book of wedding ideas he'd been putting together in the last few weeks, but decided against it before he even sat back down at the table. If that got out, he would never hear the end of it.

Axl sat back and watched as the conversation resumed, and sipped his beer slowly. He wanted moments like this to last forever. Not so long ago, a hospital stay for him could have meant the end of New Zealand, but in this minute, right here with his family, everything was happy and warm and good. And there was no reason to think any of that would change.

"Cats…" muttered Olaf to himself as he spooned more stuffing into his mouth. "Cats…"