(Oh my gosh! I'm soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo sorry that it's taken me so long to get back to working on any of my stories! T^T College has been keeping me so busy that now that Finals are over that I actually have found the time to actually work on stuff not related to school. I've been meaning to work on all of my stories, but it may be a while yet because I've got some stories that I've got to re-figure out where I was going next on them. Hopefully, this chapter is at least a little longer than last chapter. Enjoy.)
Thor:
Matters Concerning Kings and Queens
Chapter 7:
Hospital, Jane, Midgardians
She watched him for a while before she got bored and stared at the ceiling again as she leaned against a pile of pillows. "It's not possible!" Thor grunted as he fought with the straps.
"And, yet, it is." Mina muttered as she gently fingered her left side, trying to figure out how long she had before she was back to full health. Mina listened as he grunted a while longer before she turned to him to tell him to 'shut up,' only to find him free of his bonds and on his feet at her bedside. She jumped slightly and moved away from him, "What the…" she began as he held out a hand to her, but she stared at it for a little; confused as to why he was offering her a hand, she was not so weak as to need his help. She couldn't help but feel a bit offended by the idea of needing help and at the same time she felt that it was a nice gesture coming from him.
"Let's get out of this… enemy filled place." Thor said as he grabbed her arm, when she refused to budge, and pulled her to her feet and out the door of the room and into the many hallways of the hospital.
"Are you crazy?" Mina whisper-yelled at him as she freed her arm, "You don't just drag an injured person out of a bed in a healing room!"
"This place? A healing room?"
"It is a place of healing; it is the Midgardian equivalent of the healing room on Ama or Asgard." Mina stated as she closed her eyes, but a small noise of surprise and shock escaped her and her eyes flew open as she was lifted off the ground. "W-what are you doing?!" she screeched. Thor was carrying her bridal style as he tried to find the exit.
"Carrying you, what else?"
"P-put me down!" she tried to keep from crying out as she was jostled, causing her injured side to throb painfully. "You're causing more harm than good."
"I meant no offense." He said as he stopped and set her back on her feet. "You're injured?" he scanned her form, trying to locate her wound.
"Of course, I am! Why else would I be in a hospital?" she snipped as she slowly lifted her shirts just enough for him to see the bandages.
As she did this, Thor's face started to take on a red tint and he asked, "What are you doing?" But the answer was simply getting to see the bandages that were wrapped around her middle and disappeared under her shirts and her pants.
"You don't walk smoothly enough to carry me in this condition." Mina said as she turned away, hiding her now slightly pink cheeks – feeling very much like she had when her kimono had ripped and her male cousin had walked in on her while she was changing – , and fixed her shirts. After a few minutes, Thor walked past her, claimed he would lead them out of the hospital, and took off with Mina following.
"Where is Inari?" Thor asked as they walked passed the nurse's station for what seemed like the third time. "I would have thought your Mother would have sent her here too."
"You don't pay much attention to that which does not involve you, do you?" Mina asked, "Inari is probably bound to Asgard 'til Mother says otherwise."
"She's in Asgard then?"
"That is what I believe." Mina said before mumbling, "She's with Loki…" She stopped walking as that realization hit her and she made a face.
Thor turned to see why she was not following and asked upon seeing her face, "Does your wound trouble you?"
"Inari…Loki…" was all Thor could make out from so far away from her; he was half way down the hall and she was talking quietly.
"What of them?"
"Inari is with Loki."
"Yes, and?" Thor said as he drew closer to her.
"No, you don't understand; Inari and Loki are together."
"And?"
"I think they're an item."
"A what?"
"A couple; Loki's courting Inari."
"Impossible." Thor stated in disbelief, "My brother would have told me."
"Not if they wanted it to be a secret." Mina said, displeased to see the same nurse's station for what she thought to be the third time but could have been the second or fourth or even the eighth or ninth time.
"Why?"
"Who knows?" Mina snapped as she walked pass Thor and took a right, leaving him to follow her. Her face red and her eyes too bright.
"What brought this idea about?" Thor inquired.
"Did you even once look at Loki and Nari as they were fighting on Jotunheim? They fought in perfect union, covering each others blind spots and weak points, as if they had been doing so their entire lives." Mina stated.
"That means nothing."
"Have you ever seen them practice together or even spar together?"
"No, but what does…"
Mina interrupted, "They fought too well together for it to have just been a coincidence. She stood up for Loki when you scolded him, or didn't you notice? Plus, they hold hands all the time."
"And? They are friends."
"Do you hold Lady Sif's hand, or one of your other friends' hands? Do you hold mine?" Mina pointed out, "No, you don't." Mina looked at Thor just in time to see an odd look on his face fade. Mina frowned, but let him be as they exited the building. Thor stopped and Mina just continued until she was on the other side of a large vehicle; she realized that Thor was not next to her and turned. "You coming?" she asked. As he made his way to her, the vehicle she had passed behind backed up, hitting him.
Three familiar figures got out of the car and rushed to Thor just as Mina knelt next to him. "I'm so sorry. I swear I'm not doing this on purpose." Jane said.
"I'm not sure that you doing that on purpose changes my amusement any." Mina said as she helped Thor to sit up.
"Mina," Darcy said as she looked back and forth between Thor and Mina.
"What?" Mina asked as she and Jane got Thor to his feet.
"Think we could ask you two some questions?" Jane asked.
"We'll see." Mina said, "But either way, he needs some clothes." This brought the fact that Thor was dressed in a medical gown to everyone's attention.
"Come on, I think I've got something he can wear." Jane said as they headed back towards the car.
In a small living space in the car dealership, Thor was getting changed in the bathroom as Mina and the others sat or walked around in the adjacent room. "You know, for a crazy homeless person, he's pretty cute." Darcy said as she admired the view of a shirtless Thor via mirrors.
Mina laughed and turned to the window facing the town. "Thor has been training since he was young."
"Really?" Darcy asked, "Hey, how do you know so much about Thor? Are you two an item?"
"What? Kami no!" Mina exclaimed. "Thor and I are not together!"
"Sure, you're not." Darcy said. "I bet you've been on several dates together."
"Why would I, Kaminari of Ama, go out with an arrogant, stupid…?" Mina was interrupted by Darcy.
"Hey, sorry I tased you!" she called to Thor as he entered the room with a shirt in hand; Mina turned to say something to Darcy but seemed to change her mind upon seeing Thor. She quickly crossed her arms and turned her back to him, acting as if the view outside was all that mattered.
"Excuse me, excuse me!" Jane said as Thor picked up some item from a nearby table. She took the item from him, placed it back on the table and looked him over real quick. Jane was shorter than Thor, coming up to just below his collar bone, and Mina, who came up to Thor's lips.
"What is this?" Thor asked as he held up the shirt, revealing a name tag that said: Donald Blake M. D.
"Oh," Jane said as she made a face and then processed to remove the name tag. "My ex. Good with patients and bad with relationships. Uh, they're the only clothes I had that would fit you." Jane said.
"They will suffice." Thor said before moving away from her and deeper into the room.
"You're welcome." Jane said as she followed him.
"This mortal form has grown weak." Thor said as he pulled the shirt over his head. "I need sustenance."
"Thor, can I talk to you for a moment?" Mina asked, not looking at him. "Alone."
When they were away from the others, Mina finally looked at Thor before looking away again. "You wish to speak with me?" Thor asked.
"Yeah… Um, Thor, you can't talk to people like that."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that you can't talk to people as if they are beneath you." Mina said as she turned to face him. "Midgardians don't take it very well."
"I meant no offense."
"I know that, but them? They don't. Thor, they don't remember our kind very well." Thor's face contorted in confusion. "We are but Myths and Legends to them, remember? We are from tales they would have heard as children; we are fairytales come to life to them." Thor seemed to understand, but Mina wasn't sure. "Try speaking as they do, it will help you… blend in."
After returning to the others, they left to go get something to eat; after Thor had devoured a whole box of Pop-Tarts, of course.
Back in Asgard, Lady Sif, the warriors three, Loki, and Inari were in a room much like the other rooms in the palace. The room was circular and seemed to be made of gold with three large couches, each with arms shaped like different animals. A warm fire burnt in the fire pit in the center of the room. Lady Sif sat on the couch that had its back to the door of the room. Volstagg sat on the one to her left, Hogun was making his way to the couch on her right to grab some medicine before heading over to Volstagg, Fandral was seated on the ground in front of the couch to Lady Sif's right and leaning against it, and Loki stood outside the triangle made by the couches with his back towards some point between Sif and the door. Inari was pacing not too far from Loki.
"We should never have let him go." Volstagg said, holding a goblet in his left hand as he rested his injured, right arm on the nearest arm of the couch.
"There was no stopping him." Sif said.
"Well, at least he's only banished, not dead." Fandral said, "Which is what we'd all be if that guard hadn't told Odin where we'd gone." Loki and Inari shared a look before looking at Loki's left hand.
"How did the guard even know?" Volstagg wanted to know.
"I told him." Loki stated, turning his head to look at the others.
"What?" Fandral asked as they all looked at Loki.
"I told him to go to Odin after we'd left. He should be flogged for taking so long." Inari smiled at this. "We should never have reached Jotunheim."
