It was late in the day when they finally made it back to Brooklyn, first taking Mimir to Stark's tower and then dispersing slowly from there. Coming from Vanaheim and returning back to the real, grimy streets of New York was startling for all of them. And Anu was sicker than ever with homesickness.
Steve had lingered at first. Laughing with Bruce and Natasha about talk from the feast the previous evening. But she'd given him a look and he walked over to her.
"Can we please just… go home?" she asked softly.
Steve was surprised to hear her say it like that but he obliged. "Of course, I'm sure you're exhausted."
But when they got home, she'd been unable to fall asleep. She romped around his house acting depressed instead. Steve really did sleep, though. Long and hard. For Midgardians, the first few trips between realms were difficult, especially when you took Mimir. She hoped though, that the Avengers might fare better than normal Midgardians. Sure enough, the next day a sort of care package had arrived for Steve from Stark Towers. It contained an injection to get their pressure, protein, and electrolyte levels back up to normal. And also, thoughtfully, chicken soup.
Steve had already been up and about early the next morning, albeit a bit sluggish and out of it. He took the shot and, about 15 minutes later, he was back to his old self—though considerably hungry, it would seem, as he finished the container of soup within seconds.
Anu's depression from returning had been making her feel dark. She probably had the least dark magic of her sisters but the depression alone was enough to make her appear more lackluster and pale.
"Are you alright?" Steve asked her as he cleaned up the thermos of soup, purposefully busying himself in the kitchen. "You look a little sick. I know I was asleep for awhile there, I hope you didn't need anything…"
"I'm depressed," she said simply, convincing herself that a Midgardian was simply not worth the effort of lying to and not that she was opening up to him.
Steve too was shocked at her bluntness. "Because of… the trip? The wedding?" he ventured.
She did not answer directly. "It's bringing out the small amount of dark magic I possess. Negative feelings always do."
"What does that mean exactly?" Steve asked; he didn't like the sound of dark magic. It instantly reminded him of Loki.
"All of my sisters and I have dark magic, because we are daughters of The Spring of Mimir." she said to Steve.
"I'm sorry, I don't…"
"Our Cosmos or galaxy, the Great Tree of Yggdrasill that Midgardians call the Milky Way," she explained, "It really does have roots. And one is fed with ice from the Jotunheim, the realm of the Frost Giants. The ice melts into the Spring of Mimir on Vanaheim where all royal women go to give birth. It's also the stream we used to travel there and back."
He listened, allowing her to continue. He was able to picture what she described surprisingly well. He also remembered the enormous basin of water within a room of Vanaheim's capital palace where they had arrived in a rush of rain more like a flood.
"Zinia probably has the most dark magic of all of us," Anu continued. "My mother labored with her in Mimir for two days. The Spring is supposed to dull the pain, but not with Zinia. They were sure my mother would die; occasionally there are some wounds on Vanaheim that cannot be healed, especially if Fate steps in. But they both survived! And it's why Zinia gets all white and scary sometimes; I swear she's half Frost Giant or something."
Steve laughed, appreciating the perspective of something so fascinating and fundamental about their universe coming from a young woman who knew it intimately. It affected her much more closely than it did he. Her family was their galaxy, in a sense. A root of the universe made up part of her very DNA.
"I was a quick and easy birth, barely touched by Mimir," she said, "So, unfortunately, only useless negative emotions like depression bring my dark magic out. It won't even emerge for the emotion of fear, I have so little."
Even talking like this seemed to make her more depressed. But Steve was not sure if she was done or not. And if she was, what was he supposed to make of this? Was he meant to console her? How could he even attempt to, this being the first instance she'd given him insight into her history?
"So, no," she said as if she head read his mind when she initially began this story, "My dark magic is of no threat to your realm. Have no concern."
He could hear that her voice was thick. Her eyes were watering and she seemed like she would begin to cry any moment. He made a step toward her, thinking of what he would want to hear if anything was upsetting him in such a fashion: "Hey, talk to me-" But she turned and made her way back to her room. She was much quicker than he and slipped away easily when he made an attempt to catch her. The door locked resignedly.
"Anu," he said, resting an ear against the door to try to hear her, "Come out. You do have friends here, you know."
A loud, resonating kick landed on the door right where his ear was on the other side. Through the door it hurt, and he could have sworn he hear it buckle and then splinter on her side, but he managed to only mouth his "ow!"
"Fine," he said, "If you're going to be that way, be that way. I'm going to cook some dinner and invite Bruce over. If you don't join us… it will be awkward."
He knew her highborn lineage would prevent her from seeming impolite. So just mere moments before Bruce was to arrive, she emerged from the room. Steve had been cooking one of the few things he could, a classic beef stew. They'd briefly had him in the kitchens in the army and he was one of a few that could actually prepare the recipe well. Anu had dressed in something more appropriate. A short white skirt with scalloped trim and a low-cut black top.
"Nice to finally see you," he said, "Literally. You look very… beautiful."
She nodded her head to him, "Thank you," already unsure of what to say next. Dashing away from him earlier had left things more than slightly awkward. But, luckily, the doorbell rang and she rushed to answer it so that Steve could continue cooking.
Banner had not come alone. Tony Stark had invited himself along and insisted that Pepper join him.
"Hi, I'm so sorry," she said handing Anu three stacked take-out casserole dishes, "I made she he stopped for food since we'd be adding two more people."
"And beer!" Tony added showing three cases that he and Bruce were carrying with them.
"And wine," Pepper finished, holding up one sad bottle.
Anu smiled. "Well, welcome," she said, "I'm sure Steve won't mind at all."
"Not at all; come on in!" Steve called from the kitchen.
One thing that could not be doubted about Midgard was it's love of alcohol. And given her current state she didn't think she'd mind partaking; but she'd need something stronger. Luckily for her, she'd snuck back two flasks of the amber liquor from the elves of Svartalfheim as well as a cask of nice Sikaru, the local mead of Vanaheim. With occasional trips to her private stash, she would be able to drink away her sorrows nightly, for one night at least.
"I don't know why we don't have all of our dinners at my house," Tony said, after his fourth beer, not that he ever needed any liquid courage to be brash. "In fact, I don't know why everyone doesn't just live at my house. It would be so much more convenient."
"I think your friends find it important to… to maintain a sense of autonomy," Pepper told him shortly, as if she was explaining something to a small child.
"Autonomy, psssh," he said with a laugh, "What's autonomy when your food, booze, lodgings, and even the clothes on your back are paid for?"
Pepper sighed, kneading her forehead with one hand but everyone else just looked bemused.
Anu excused herself for yet another shot from her flask in Steve's bathroom. She wasn't sure why she didn't just break it out in front of them. She certainly didn't want to share, that was one thing. And the Man of Iron would definitely expect her to offer him some. But also, the fact that she needed to drink something stronger than what they'd made available, well… she wasn't exactly sure why but it just sort of made her seem like she had a problem. So she kept coming up with excuses to visit the bathroom. From what she could tell she had not drawn any attention.
"Okay, what is up with her?" Tony asked jutting a thumb over his shoulder once they'd heard the door to the bathroom shut.
"What do you mean, isn't it obvious?" Bruce asked, "She broke the seal!"
Pepper laughed so hard that she almost spit out her sip of red wine onto Steve's carpet. She caught herself at the last moment and pressed a napkin to her lips.
"Broke the seal?" Steve asked.
"You know…" Pepper began to explain, "When you're out drinking and then, for some reason, after your first trip to the bathroom…"
"Ohhh," Steve said, understanding, "Guys! We don't need to talk about that! Please, you're not 15."
"Tony might as well be," Bruce said with a shrug. Tony shoved him hard enough in the shoulder to push him over a bit. "Oh, are you trying to start something? Cause I don't think you want to," Banner said, with only amusement in his voice.
"I'm actually being serious for once," Tony said, finishing his beer and opening another, "There's breaking the seal… and then there's overactive bladder syndrome."
"Maybe she has that. We don't know. We can't assume," Bruce said.
"Somehow I find it hard to believe one of the godesses of our galaxy has OBS," Tony argued.
"We don't know, that's all I'm saying," Bruce repeated, holding up his hands.
"It is a bit strange…" Steve noted.
"Thank you!" Tony said, "What should we do? We could listen at the door…" But the bathroom door clicked open. His back facing towards the direction Anu would be returning from, Tony mouthed to Steve: "Next time."
And indeed, there was a next time. After what seemed less than 15 minutes more of conversation, she excused herself again. Anu was mistakenly under the impression that the Midgardians were more intoxicated than she. But, when as drunk off of Midgardian, Vanahemian, and Svartalfheimian booze all at the same time, her impressions were liable to be considerably off.
As soon as they heard the door shut behind her, Tony was up and rounding the corner. He gestured frantically at Steve who was loathe to follow; but the idea of Tony alone listening to Anu at the bathroom door somehow seemed worse than joining him so he followed. He didn't miss the surprised look from Pepper though and, that one glance, made his stomach churn in embarrassment.
Tony was already crouching with his ear to the door. When Steve joined him, he felt like a schoolchild. But even he was surprised to hear absolutely nothing. She definitely wasn't going to the bathroom, so what on Earth was she doing? Tony gave him a "What gives?" sort of gesture. Steve shook his head and, before he had a second to react, Tony was turning to door handle open.
Steve toppled into the bathroom on the floor while Tony was able to enter standing. There, Anu sat perched on the edge of his bathtub holding a flask in hand.
"How dare you?" she started but Tony interjected.
"Wait, wait, wait… don't even start!" he said, "You should have locked the door."
"Steve? Really?" she asked incredulously.
"We were worried!" he said, pushing himself off the tile floor.
"He was. I was curious," Tony said, and yanked the flask from her grasp, "Is this what you've been doing? Holding out of the booze?" He unscrewed the cap and gave it a cautious sniff, tossing it back into her hands and reeling backwards after realizing what it was. "That elf shit? You still have that?"
"Well your Midgardian drinks simply don't accomplish enough!" she defended.
"You don't drink to get wasted!" Tony scolded, "You drink to… well, I don't know. Maybe you're right, actually."
By this time, Pepper and Bruce were looking around the corner. Upon seeing her embarrassment and distress, Pepper made a move to pull Tony out but stopped when she herself smelled the liquor in Anu's flash.
"What is that? It smells toxic!"
Anu held her face in her hands melodramatically; this was exactly what she'd hoped to avoid.
"Anu," it was Dr. Banner, "Why are you drinking that?"
She was really drunk, she must have been to say: "I'm depressed!"
And so, even Tony on his best behavior, they led her out of the bathroom to hear what she had to say.
"I can understand missing your home," Pepper said finally, "It sounds like someone hasn't done the best job helping make New York your new home." She finished the statement with a pointed look at Steve.
"What? I took her shopping for stuff for the apartment!"
"To learn to love New York she needs to actually see the city, beyond your apartment windows, Steve!" she admonished, "Take her to some of the museums."
So, the next morning, Steve did take her out of the apartment.
"Where are we going?" she asked, for maybe the fiftieth time as they walked along the blocks of the city. Steve had tried to tell her it was a surprise but, after last night, Anu knew that he was probably taking her to a museum.
"Fine," he said with exasperation, "The Metropolitan Museum of Art. That's where we're going."
Anu startled him by throwing her arms around his neck in the middle of their walk. Slowly he wrapped his own arms about her waist. "I adore art," she said while still embracing him, "Thank you, so much."
Her reaction alone was enough to send him into a spiral of guilt. He really should have done this sooner.
"You're welcome," was all he answered her with, though.
She'd impatiently pulled him to the section of the museum with art from Ancient Rome, explaining her mother had married a Midgardian from Ancient Rome. Her father, Deus, having gone through the painful trial of immortality, barely remembered his old life but Anu had always found whatever bits of memory he had left fascinating.
The two of them walked closely together, admiring marble busts and sculptures. Steve was glad he'd finally found a friend who could enjoy the past as much as he did. Everyone else, these days, seemed to care much more for whatever was coming next.
They approached a table encased in glass that was displaying old Roman currency. Each coin was engraved with the profile of a famous historical figure. And then she saw one she recognized…
"That's myfather!" she said, pointing enthusiastically to a coin. A visitor next to her looked at them with raised eyebrows. "I mean, that looks like my father."
Steve read the information displayed next to the coin and lead Anu away by the elbow so he could speak with her more privately. "Your father is Mark Antony?" he asked, incredulous.
"Well, he used to be. Now's he's Deus of Vanaheim."
"Your father is basically a legend in this country!" Steve told her.
"Really? Oh, he'll be so pleased to hear that! How does everyone know him?"
"Well there are some very famous works in which he plays a role, this film-"
"There's a film, about my father?" she asked him, alarmed and excited all at once.
"Forget about the movie!" Steve told her, excited as well, "Shakespeare wrote an entire play! Now Shakespeare was around even before I was froze-"
"-Yes, yes! I know who Shakespeare is, you simpleton. Trust me, the Vanir and Aesir pay attention to your geniuses far more closely than you do."
"Well, maybe before Nick Fury was around-"
She interrupted again, simply too excited to listen to him very long. "-I never knew he wrote a play on my father… do you think we can go see it?"
"I guess we can see if anyone is staging a production anywhere nearby but, if not, you'll have to read it I suppose," he said.
"The movie! Can we procure the film?"
"Yeah we can grab it now, I'm sure. Let's go," he replied, still astounded himself at how easily accessible everything was these days.
For any readers also on "For the Nine," these stories are concurrent but, chapter to chapter, they don't always cohesively line up. These events are still marginally behind where "For the Nine," is. And, as usual, if you haven't read it, give it a try! It's gotta a hefty dose of Marvel-comics-canon for extra shenanigans beyond what the movies gave us to work with.
I'd love to hear what you all think! Thanks again to everyone who gave this a read!