ANIMA V
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Jane had never seen Thor cry before.
Not just a tear or two effortly squeezed out for an appropriate moment, but really cry, with uncontrollable abandon.
He hadn't done it when his mother died, he hadn't done it when she'd miscarried their child, and he hadn't shed a tear when she decided that children was not in the stars for them. Jane held his great shaking form as he sobbed on the stairs in their house, careful to not touch his cuts and wounds.
"I'm sorry," he croaked.
"Shh." She stroked his hair.
She couldn't understand the reason for his breakdown. His apologies were punctuated with incoherent phrases and words like "grow old" and "lies". She gathered that she wouldn't be living forever after all. Frankly, she felt almost relieved.
There was something so distant and unreal about the idea of eternity that she struggled to place its significance, much like the way one cannot understand love without having experienced it.
"It's alright," she told him, "No matter how much time we have, it'll never seem enough. We would have just been borrowing. It would have just been harder in the end."
Thor shook his head and pushed her hand aside.
"Jane," he muttered in between spasming breaths, "I've cursed you."
"How?" she asked gently.
"You—" He didn't know how to tell her. It was too cruel.
She took in his look of pure horror and dread and wondered if it was better to not know.
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