Thor is back and they have set a time and a date; she doesn't know much more than that. Nothing of his trip or the plants that he found or if he had any complications at all, he was after all gone for quite a while.
She feels blinder now than she had during any of their previous conversations and it rattles her. What will happen today rattles her greatly.
Despite her fears or misconceptions, one thing she feels for certain. She can place her trust in Thor and whatever happens today is nothing that hasn't happened before in another time or another place.
Per Thor's request she wears the loosest T-shirt she can find and a plain skirt she doesn't remember how she got but it was most probably a gift because she really doesn't see herself shopping for it. She's looking into the mirror, at the flowy white fabric of the skirt and the shirt that is more of a crop top than anything. Natasha's stalling.
She sighs out and walks out of her room decisively, no point in dragging it out.
When she gets to his room she knocks, it's beginning to feel familiar, like Clint's room. It's not a bad feeling.
"Come in." Thor calls through the door and she enters.
His place almost doesn't look like his place at all. All the furniture has been pushed against the walls and the bed itself has been flipped on its side; creating a spacious sphere.
"Slumber party?" She jokes.
"If I had it my way we'd be in the middle of a field and far away from the city." He chuckles as he works on something at his table.
She walks to his side and observes the numerous bundles of plants and herbs spread over the wooden surface.
"Is it necessary?" Natasha asks but she suspects it really isn't.
"Not necessary. It would just be better. But I didn't want to inconvenience us too much." He cracks a bright smile at her for a moment and gets back to work. His big hands hold a wooden mortar where he crushes leaves and odd flowers.
"What makes it different?" She takes a seat on the other chair and contents herself on watching him concentrate.
"The world used to feel very different, faster now more than ever things are changing. The cities… the metal vibrates and resonates all around and I can feel the electric pulses that keep this place alive. It feels strange. It's not like natural lightning at all."
"We could've gone to a wheat field or some other place, you know. I wouldn't've minded." She looks to the windows; they are covered with a makeshift translucent curtain of a magenta color. The lights are out in the room and natural sun rays come from outside and through the cloth, it colors Thor's room in a warm and soft tint. She wonders if it bothered Thor that the blinders of the tower are mostly blackouts and where he got the fabric to hang up.
"Never mind that. It's quite alright honestly." He stops his work and dusts his hands on a rag by his side, "Are you ready?" he looks at her.
Natasha takes a breath and tries out a smile.
"Ready as I'll ever be."
"Excellent!" He stands up and gathers several items that he takes to the center of the room where a quilt is placed. "Please, join me."
Natasha does so and mirrors his crossed legs and straight back. In a bowl he places a coupe of dry reddish leaves and sets one of them on fire with a couple of whispered words.
Her eyes widen a little at the casual display of magic but she says nothing. Knowing is nothing like seeing, despite her being used to his lightning, this is... something new.
"A sniff if you will my lady?" He holds the lightly smoking bowl in between them and without asking questions she leans forward and breaths in.
"Poppies?" Natasha wonders when he leaves the still burning leaves beside them and adds some more to keep them slowly simmering perhaps by the will of his words for otherwise the dry leaves would've been consumed swiftly.
"You know your plants." He says lightly pleased.
"You'd be surprised at the things I have to know for my S.H.I.E.L.D. missions."
"Ah! The falsest statement anyone can say is 'It's more than enough knowledge' my brother would have said."
They don't follow that line of conversation, it is delicate ground and it's one better left undisturbed.
"Those are for your body to relax," he touches the edge of the bowl with the red leaves "this," Thor takes a cup in his hands and takes a generous swing "for opening up the soul and mind." He offers her the cup.
She doesn't question that either, although if this were anyone other than him she'd raise an unbelieving eyebrow and debate the need to call out some bullshit.
It smells vaguely familiar and not exactly unpleasant, but flowers tend to smell nice and that does not mean the taste will be as equally pleasant. She takes the cup and downs it. She coughs a couple of times but the god has the decency to say nothing at all but a little smile does creep across his lips.
He grabs another container with something green and pasty in it. He dips his fingers in and raises them up.
"May I?"
Natasha leans in again and lets him trace a line down from her forehead to the tip of her nose, the smell is very sharp and she has to suppress the urge to sneeze. He dips his fingers again and repeats the motion on her shoulders, then her collarbone, a bit on her upper arms and the backs of her hands.
"To purify." He says quietly.
The smell is overwhelming and it stings just a tad against her skin.
Thor puts the bowl down beside the rest of the things and looks at her with serious eyes.
"For any decent spell to work there must be an exchange of energy, but more complicated things like we are doing today have a price."
He is quiet for a moment, looking for her understanding. She nods.
"Payments of this kind are not of material trinkets so to say, they have to have weight beyond the physical realm. Often they hold an emotional connection to the giver. It is this which allows me to perform such complex spells; I am giving something of myself to make this true, so in exchange you must give something of yourself as well.
"In the past I've asked for many different things depending on what the situation called for and who the giver was. I could ask for some of the color of your hair or the sight of one of your eyes. I could ask for odd memories of your first three years of life or the love you feel for walks before dawn. Perhaps an object that holds for you great emotional weight, you could give me your attachment to it too."
She… didn't know this, despite all the deep conversations they have had, she never thought to ask if there would be a price and Thor had never offered. But it makes sense and she doesn't know how the possibility hadn't crossed her mind before; she had considered so many things it is a bit of a wonder this had not occurred to her.
There is something missing inside her, the blond had told her, something had been taken away in the wake of the operation so it'd made sense that the process to give it back to her won't be easy. After all, even magic can't create things out of nothingness as far as she's aware.
After a brief second of initial panic at the idea of a payment, Natasha settles and almost smiles to herself, he's not Satan asking for her soul. So she thinks, she takes into account all that Thor has said, what she could offer and what she couldn't give up. Giving the sight from one of her eyes would be harmful for her field performance, and she is reluctant to give up her love of walks despite the silliness of the idea. The other options though? They didn't really matter that much to her in the grand scheme of things. She could also bleach her hair if the look bothered her too much. She'd always wanted to go blonde, at least for a year or two.
"Alright then, what would be fair?" She asks after a moment of their silence.
"I would ask for a lock of your hair." Thor says simply.
"A… lock of my hair?" She asks slowly.
"Yes."
"Just that?" Natasha wonders fairly confused.
"Just that."
"But you just said-"
"I know what I said." He huffs a laugh "But alas, you've already given so much to me."
She doesn't know what he means, she tries thinking of what he could possibly be referring to or something she'd already agreed to but… When Natasha looks at him he almost looks a little bashful, but he is too confident in himself for more than a shadow of shyness.
"Our friendship is very precious to me and I do treasure it. It is something you have given me and which has taken time and effort, that in itself is very valuable." It's quiet but it holds much weight with the way he says it.
She can feel it, almost like a small tension in the air, the truth that his words hold, like they are charging in the wait for something. Like the enchantment has already begun to take form, the payment has been presented and it's in the cusp of being accepted.
"It can work like that?" Natasha asks a little breathless, not knowing how to show her gratitude through her voice. She never believed her friendship could mean so much to someone, maybe she hadn't believed it even could hold such weight, not when it came from her. Except with Clint that is.
It's not a common feeling for her but… for a moment she has the sudden urge to hug the god.
"Mayhaps. I will have to put a little of myself into the spell, but-"
The redhead is about to vehemently protest but he gives her a look and she waits a moment, her brows set in a deep frown.
"One or two of my years is but a blink of an eye to my immortal life Natasha, its inconsequential." Thor says this serenely, like offering his life is nothing at all.
"A lot can happen in one or two years though." She rebukes.
"It can, but I imagine after my 10,000th birthday I wont care too much if I miss a thing or two." Thor says in that charming way of his.
Right, because he is sort of immortal, because that is a thing. Okay.
"Okay." She concedes, wondering if she'll ever get used to knowing and being friends with a being who is a few steps away from being an actual god. And who knows? Maybe he is all that one needs to be given the god label and she just hasn't grasped it yet. That sounds plausible.
From his side he picks up a pair of small scissors and offers them to her with a grin.
"Braid it, just a small lock will suffice, no thicker than a pencil."
She takes the scissors and braids a bit of hair under her ear as instructed. With a quick snip, she passes it over to the blond. Gently he places the lock beside himself.
"Now, a prayer." Thor declares and extends both of his hands in front of him, she has to take a deep breath and trample all over her skepticism, as she exhales. Natasha hopes his fate is enough for the both of them as she places her hands on his own. She believes in him though, maybe that can be enough?
"Repeat after me."
He closes his eyes and after a moment, she follows suit.
"All-Mother, watch over us for we shall cast this spell in your name that is love, and all those who love are the children you protect."
She repeats this.
"All-Father, grant us your wisdom though seldom spared it may be, that we may walk the right path and stray not in our endeavor."
Again, Natasha repeats.
"And Freya, Lady of fertility, sister of my soul, gentle as you are, bless our deeds this day, that they may gladden you if they are to be accomplished."
One third time, she repeats after him.
"I am the god of thunder and war is in my blood, for all that it may count for, I gift us strength for this spell, let it flourish under my guidance. But also be it in me to gentle the earth until it bares all fruitful things, I will it and so it shall be."
As he finishes saying this, she feels it again, something in the air changing, something happening at the mere speaking of his words. The little hairs on her arms and neck tingle at the feeling; there is power in the air.
Thor gives a gentle squeeze to her hands and lets go. In his hands he takes the braid of red hair, he closes his eyes again. Under his breath the blond speaks words she doesn't understand but they are heavy in the air between them, the lock shimmers gold and blue in his palms until it turns to dusts and fades into his very skin. There is nothing in his hands anymore.
"Please, take of your shirt and lie down," he tells her.
Natasha takes in a breath and complies. Once she's complete flat on the quilt, she feels it; it's like a heavy drowsiness settling over her. Poppies, she thinks. And something more, she has no doubt, something magical.
Then to her surprise, and she really must get over being surprised, Thor starts humming. It starts as a single, steady note, long, constant and deep, she can almost feel it rumbling over skin as he places his hands on her stomach and lets them rest there. Slowly he starts changing the notes one for another, all perfectly steady, until it starts resembling a simple melody, it lulls her into a restful state until her body begins loosening all it's tension.
Her last though as she is losing her tenuous grip on reality is that she's being enchanted.
And so goes away her sense of time, her sense of space. She exists in a limbo of softness and the smell of burning leaves; she can somehow see the color of them in the air. But her sight is gone too so she doesn't know how any of that would make sense.
The song continues like a trustworthy friend and she thinks it carries words now, but she cannot tell what they mean nor would she be able to repeat them if she tried; they are heavy; she can feel the weigh of them on her body.
The world is soft around the edges and shapeless, like a moment suspended in time and stretched forever into eternity. The she jolts as she feels something inside her body, or she would've, but her limbs are boneless and she can hardly make a move on her own. There is something slithering beneath her skin and it scares her, she can't even run away from whatever this is, she is lost and at the mercy of something cold crawling inside of her. She wants to fight, fight, fight against this alien feeling but she cant, she's weak and still and the cold feeling is slithering over her organs and covering them and…
Then… Natasha sighs out. She hears him. Thor's voice reaches her again, he is still singing, though he is also talking to her, somehow, she doesn't think he is speaking with his mouth.
"Do not be afraid Natasha, there is no hurt I would ever inflict upon you, in my hands you will always be protected
She vaguely gets the sense of her hand again, there is another in it, she thinks she squeezes it back, but she is as weak as a kitten. All is soft and secure again, her insides are not cold but cool like a spring of water coming down from a mountain.
Time holds no meaning; she doesn't know how long she floats in the ether, held secure in a blanket of clouds, but she knows things are happening to her. There's gentle water running through her veins and her belly, currents without weight or form passing through her, a gentle breeze on her limbs.
She feels it then and finds it odd in a moment of vague consciousness, the cool touch of soft raindrops falling on her skin. Natasha opens her eyes and she's still entranced, the world is unfocused but she can see the rain falling in the room, from nowhere at all. It confuses her, she's not sure why. The murmur of the falling water surrounds her or maybe it is the humming of a steady song far away.
She turns her head slightly and gasps softly in surprise. Sitting by her side with hands going up and down her abdomen in slow motions, is Thor, or… maybe it's not. The man is golden haired and enfolded in light, he's dressed in robes made of dark blue bellowing clouds, and upon his head rests a crown of tiny stars. He sings, no, he rains. He hums with the voice of heavy raindrops, it also rains inside her, is that true?
The eyes of this creature of a man turn to her; they are florescent blue with the luminescence of lightning. She's frightened, but… comforted. She's safe. Natasha's sight and consciousness fade away and she's lost once more to nothingness and softness.
She wakes up again, she feels drowsy and oddly full but the world looks normal. Her abdomen feels cool and it makes her shiver a bit.
Someone sings softly to her side, it's deep, rich, and it almost warms her up.
"Is it raining? I heard rain." Natasha says quietly.
The singing stops and she wonders if it would've been better to say nothing.
"It was." The voice beside her chuckles, she turns to look. It's Thor, gold and soft in the midday light that passes through the thin fabric on the windows. "Here," he puts a hand on his chest "and for a moment here too." His digits land on her sternum.
"But I'm dry." She expresses confusion and distantly registers she's not all here.
He smiles at her, kindly, for a moment she imagines he radiates some form of unnatural light, but it banishes with a blink of her eyes. The world feels blurry again as he returns his hand to his breast.
"Here it's always raining." Thor says and she believes him. "Go to sleep Natasha, you need rest."
Her eyes close. The world is soft and she is protected. Her friend has her back. Faintly, she hears the far away pattering of rainfall, beside her a voice starts singing quietly as she fades away into sleep.
Abril: It's beeeeeen almost about a year and a half, oh my. I'm definitely not surprised but I'M definitely sorry. Hope a long-ish chapter makes up for it? A little bit?
Hope you guys enjoyed this! I'm hoping this last chapter doesn't take too long to come out, and I'm thinking it wont? But we'll see, I've already started it. Also, sorry for the wacky acid trip of a chapter you guys just read, it had to happen XD I just hope I did it okay u.u