Heyho everyone, new chapter for you lovely people.
Should I do a small swearing warning? Anyway...
Mieper and AmericaNidiot thanks a lot for your reviews.
NightOwl247: Thank you too, this is a huge encouragement for me! Hope to keep you hyped up :D
Frustrated, Selvig drowned another beer. The last days were mind-blowing awful. At first they rammed a stranger mid-storm, than they had to bail him out twice and now S.H.I.E.L.D had the lab equipment and Johanna was taken. She was at least returned tomorrow when the agent hadn't lied but still, everything was bloody awful.
Said stranger -Thor- was sitting beside him at the bar untouched by any alcoholic buzz unlike himself. With all the crazy things happening Selvig slowly started to believe him to be the God of Thunder against his better judgment.
In his mind he heard Jane scolding him for drinking too much alcohol so he reached for his purse.
Thor looked curious over Selvig's shoulder.
"What?"
"Selvig, who made this picture?"
Thor referred to the picture he had between his cards. He pulled it out and looked at it absentmindedly.
"Oh, you mean that one? That was made by my niece Johanna. Why are you asking?"
If Selvig was truthful, it was the last one Jojo had made him. It was small, dominated by green and various colorful flowers with a pond in the middle. She had tried to paint as small as possible. What made it heartbreaking was the note that had been erased from the backside. Lost dreams. He had noticed the pencil stains a few months after he got it and ever since had it in his purse. Thor brought him out of his thoughts.
"It reminds me of mother's hidden flower garden. She took us there every once in a while but my brother and I have never found it on our own. Nonetheless is it a beautiful picture. Your niece paints well."
Selvig sighed sadly.
"She's a natural, but she never really continued after the age of ten."
"Why did she stop. In Asgard she could easily sell her pieces for good prices. Where is she anyway?"
Without any thought Selvig raised his hand to get another beer.
"The girl the agent carried out? This...is Johanna. She just arr-rived and is -now right in this messss. Poor, poor and sweet Jojo..."
Selvig began slurring, finishing another beer. The excessive alcohol took its toll and his head met the bar table. Thor only chuckled, Selvig couldn't take in much alcohol. Something from Asgard would've nocked him out in an instance.
The first thing Johanna felt was a headache. She groaned, never had she ever such a bad one. It couldn't be alcohol, she never drank more than a glass of wine on special occasions. What had happened? Creaking her eyes open a simple grey ceiling greeted her. A pat to the sides confirmed that she wasn't in her bed, it was far to hard for her liking and to narrow to be her own.
With a start she sat up an regretted the movement instantly.
She had tried to takle Agent Coulson and after that was her memory blank. He must have rendered her unconscious.
Speaking of the devil, Coulson entered the room as she blinked her blurry vision away.
"Nice to see you awake."
Johanna hissed as she heard his voice overly loud. Coulson continued a bit gentler:
"I am sorry, here something against your headache."
He gave her a glass of water and aspirin. With a mistrusting glance she took it.
"What are you going to do with me?"
"You get some shut-eye, I'll be back in a few hours with a question and then you'll be brought home."
"Just that?"
A question alone wasn't much, why did they took her anyway?
"It wasn't planned to take you, we had to make sure that you don't have any lasting consequences from the hit."
"How reassuring."
True to his word, Coulson left and let Johanna sleep for a bit. As she awoke for the second time the headache was only a small throbbing and a few minutes later Coulson came back.
"So what do you want to ask me?"
"Do you want to join S.H.I.E.L.D?"
Johanna was confused and her face spoke for itself.
"You did good against our agents. With training you could be one too. I see potential. Think about it and we'll ask you again, shortly after your birthday. Please refrain from telling someone else outside of your family about that. We'll know if you do."
She had no clue what to answer, being an agent for a special organization? Johanna always saw herself doing something with space and astronomy as an assistant to a professor or as a guide in a museum, or maybe as a blacksmith, once she even hoped to be an artist selling her work all over the world. But being an agent like in an action film? -No.
A doctor came to check her through and with that Coulson led her through monotone hallways to a garage into a generic black car and truly brought her home.
As she left the car he remained seated. A bit torn Johanna looked to the front door and back to the agent. Sighing loudly she ducked her head back inside the car and asked a simple:
"Why?"
"We are only interested in the data."
"No, why asking me?"
"As I stated before. You have potential and I was never wrong before. We always need good and reliable agents."
Johanna shook her head and finally left without another word.
Johanna wasn't even through the door as Selvig embraced her in a big bear-hug.
"I am so glad that you are alright Jojo."
"I am too. Please be a bit quieter and what the heck happened the last few days?"
On clue Thor came into view followed quickly by Jane and Darcy.
Like a statue Johanna froze in place. She recognized his face. Never was she good with names, but she always remembered a face.
He looked a bit tired compared to her memory and he was clothed normally. No cape, no armor, no hammer.
Was she insane?
She felt like eight again, gazing at the stars, imagining epic battles with him in the front. A sneaky one, a grimm one, a big one, a Ken and a Lady always fighting at his side, protecting his backside. How could her childhood imagination be true?
She untangled from the hold of her uncle and went to him. Standing in front of him, looking at his face up-close there was no denying it. Johanna had seen him before.
"Hello, you have to be Lady Johanna. Nice to make your acquaintance, I am Thor, son of Odin. Your uncle spoke well of you."
Johanna could only stare at him. Thor - now she had a name to the face.
A pressure in her chest reminded her to breathe. Quite shocked, she sat down were she stood.
Thor was puzzled by the behavior of Johanna and by the reaction of the others it wasn't normal. As he crouched down and asked if she was alright she still looked at him like a frightened bird. Selvig ran to her sides, asking the same question. Johanna's answer was barely a whisper and grew nearly into a shout. It made no sense to him.
"He looks exactly like him...one...one of the books! Uncle, I bet you still have one of my old sketchbooks around. Please get one."
Selvig looked puzzled at her and only left after Jane and Darcy were at her sides. Johanna looked at him again.
"Thor...right? I- I have to ask you. Something."
"What is it Lady Johanna?"
"Do you have friends? I- I mean one in black and green, one who looks grimm and has darker skin, one who grooms himself throughout and one who has a... heavier body structure. And a woman warrior!"
"You mean my brother Loki, the warrior three and Sif? How do you know about them?" Now it was Thor's turn to look puzzled. He had no clue how she could knows about them after no one recognized him on Midgard.
The answer was somewhat found in Johannas sketchbook Selvig brought. It was older than the small painting Selvig had in his purse so the sketches weren't as accurate. But still, Thor recognized the scene were he was fighting with his friends agains a monster that had tried to attack Vanaheimr.
"How is that possible?"
"How should I know!"
On the verge of crying a ten-year old Johanna laid curled up in her bed. A small sketchbook, dirty and drenched in apple juice, was abandoned on her desk.
Her classmates overdid it today, she never wanted to draw again. The teasing for her stories, that she had learned to live with but today they took her book.
Johanna always sat hidden in the bushed to draw during the break or after school so her bullies never saw her, but they had followed her. Paul had her book in his hands laughing loudly, flipping roughly through the pages while two of his friend held her in place. As she had struggled they only laughed harder.
"Ah...look at that. Hanna, Hanna, Hanna. Do you truly think that this will help you, a shining knight on a horse? When do you grow up? Fairy tales are for babies."
His goons crackled at the joke. Paul thew the sketchbook on the floor and walked over it to his rucksack that laid on the sideline. He took out his apple juice and presented it like a newfound treasure.
Realizing were this was going, Johanna angrily trashed harder around.
"Oh look, she can't do anything."
The juice was poured over her whole sketchbook. Defeated she stopped struggling keeping her tears at bay.
"Weakling, weakling, weakling."
After a while they left her alone sitting in the dirt.
A soft knock on the door sounded. Her father came in and sat down at her side and pulled her onto his lap. Jojo let the tears flow down freely.
