By popular demand, here's Thor getting whacked 3

The first few smacks are not too bad. But they're definitely not entirely painless either, not even close. Thor realises this with a vague feeling of foreboding.

Coulson seems to follow a very precise pattern, covering the entirety of his backside in sharp smacks. Their intensity seems to increase with every circuit, until Thor is sure that every whack is leaving a horrible red imprint the shape of Coulson's hand on his rear. Thor loses track of the number of smacks very quickly, mostly because they come at such an outrageous tempo and also because, to his utter surprise and humiliation, he is starting to feel the need to twist his body just a little bit, to try and escape the fire that is gradually starting to blossom on his cheeks.

He forces himself to stay still. It's not that bad. Verily, it isn't, and even if it is he's had worse. Coulson will tire soon, he promises himself. No mortal can pursue such a course of action for a very long time.

But Coulson shows now sign of stopping, until Thor finally bucks and twists despite himself, yelping at a series of particularly fierce smacks aimed at his thighs.

"For pity's sake!"

To his surprise, Coulson actually stops. He doesn't lift has hand from the small of Thor's back however, where it is keeping him firmly pinned to the table.

"Why am I spanking you?" Coulson asks, not even out of breath. The man must be superpowered, and someone had just neglected to inform Thor.

"Disobeying orders?" Thor says, uncertainly. The officers in his father's army certainly never required him to carry on a conversation in the midst of being punishment.

"Are you asking me or telling me?"

"Telling you," Thor says hastily. "I am being punished for disobeying orders, endangering myself and being an...and arrogant wretch. I promise you, however, that I am quite done with all of those things. Quite."

"I'll hold you to that." Coulson says. "Like I said, Thor, pride is a deadly thing. You're not developing a fatal flaw on my watch, not when you have so much potential. Be done with it, because if not this will seem like a pleasant walk in the park. You got me?"

There's a deadly sincerity in his voice, a promise, that somehow comforts Thor as much as it frightens him.

"I understand," he says. "Thank you, son of Coul."

"Good man," Coulson says. "Let's finish this, then."

Thor wants dearly to say "let's not" but Coulson is smacking him again already and the fresh surge of pain has him yelping before he can brace himself. He tries to keep the sounds at bay, tries to keep his eyes shut tight against the tears threatening to spill. It is all in vain though, when Coulson turns his attention to the sensitive undercurve of his butt.

Maybe it's the relentlessness of the smacks, maybe it's the pain, maybe it's the realisation that Coulson knows and acknowledges that he is an absolute wretched nuisance and is still somehow willing to try and correct him, instead of just giving up on him. Whatever the reason, he finds himself no longer able to stem the tears or the yelps that turn to sobs.

After a while, he realises that it is finished. His backside still stings, as Barton would say, like a bitch, but new agonies are no longer being added to it.

"Take your time," Coulson says calmly, as Thor struggles to his feet and hitches up his leathers.

But he can't very well stay down there for the rest of eternity, he has to face Coulson and the world again at some point.

Coulson, for his part, doesn't seem like he begrudges Thor the wetness on his cheeks or the vulnerability he knows is plastered all over him. He just gives him a neutral smile and opens his arms.

"Hug?"

Thor does not believe anybody, in all his many centuries, has ever had to offer him a hug twice. He folds himself into the son of Coul's embrace, burrowing into the warmth he finds there.

"I truly am sorry," he says, mostly just to say something, but there's a very un-warriorlike wobble in his voice.

"Hush, now," Coulson says into his hair. "You're not the first person to act like a fool. Someday, if you make me drink enough of that Asgardian mead you let Natasha and Clint get their hands on, I'll tell you about the time I got a little overconfident and nearly allowed a bunch of Kree to pillage Wyoming. It was entirely horrifying, I assure you. And, if you give me even more mead, I'll even tell you what Fury had to say about it. THAT was even more horrifying."

I hope y'all enjoyed that!

Next up will most likely be Nat. IF she's willing to cooperate.

Tremulous xx