Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers. The characters—and all references to the movies—belong to Marvel. I'm just borrowing them for a fun story.
.
Tony was beginning to get antsy. This wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but he had hoped for some peace and quiet when he decided to go for a run. He had spent the morning in his lab, but his thoughts had started getting jumpy and his hands shook slightly as he worked on a new project, so he had decided to burn off the caffeine in his third-least favorite form of cardio activity.
About halfway through his run, Tony became aware that Thor had joined him in the Training Room. The god of thunder was quieter than usual—generally, he would have greeted Tony at incredibly inappropriate volumes for any place other than an open field.
The man literally has no inside voice, Tony thought. His caps lock button is always broken.
Then he snickered to himself. Haha "Cap" lock.
As it was, Thor didn't even spare Tony a glance. His focus was single-mindedly on his hammer. Tony slowed the treadmill to a walk, shooting furtive glances over his shoulder. It concerned him that Thor was unaware of his presence—and creepy stealth efforts—since the Asgardian was generally hyper aware of his surroundings. The large man slowly spun Mjolnir's grip in his right hand, so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice Tony shut down the treadmill and walk over.
"What's up, Point Break?"
Thor went from intent on his weapon to intent on killing the threat in less time than it took Tony to breathe a sharp intake of air.
"Whoa, easy there, Thunder Clap," Tony placated. "I would prefer not to have a Mjolnir sized imprint on my face today."
Thor looked affronted now that he had identified the non-threat. He frowned and his brow furrowed. "No Asgardian would knowingly harm an ally."
"Right. Of course." Tony moved to sit on one of the many benches that were placed along the walls of the room. He busied himself with retying the laces on his left sneaker.
"Mjolnir and I are not communicating today," Thor said, breaking the silence. "Ordinarily our union is flawless—I am unsure how to correct this change."
Tony's head shot up and found Thor staring pensively at the hammer again.
Well, obviously, I'm going to have to make fun of him for having a relationship with the hammer in the future, Tony thought. You know, when he's not upset and could possibly throw me through the nearest wall.
Tony's head immediately swam with thoughts and calculations, pondering the extent to which Mjolnir could be sentient—and could possess moods.
He cleared his throat to get the other man's attention. "Has this happened before?" He gestured at the hammer. "Have you ever experienced this strange connection with Mjolnir?"
Thor rumbled deep in his throat. Whether it was a sound of thought or of warning, Tony couldn't tell, so he squirmed as he waited for an answer.
"This has not happened in my living memory," Thor spoke quietly, sounding almost depressed at the prospect of his hammer being pissed at him.
Tony was stuck between finding the whole thing very amusing, being wary that Thor might express his distress by flinging the weapon around or calling lightning, and wanting to help his friend. Despite the façade Tony put on about having to share his tower with "a bunch of fucking weirdos," he had found that his teammates had become his friends—this towering Norse god of thunder included.
For the first time since Thor appeared in the Training Room, Tony took in his appearance in full. His blond hair was tied back messily with a leather strap. Though Thor usually strode around the tower in full armor—or nothing, but that was an entirely different problem—today he wore regular Midgardian clothes. He was practically busting out of an unmarked grey t-shirt, and he wore dark jeans with no shoes. Faint dark circles had appeared under his eyes, and a line of worry seemed to be perpetually etched into his forehead.
Thor was truly worried.
"Listen, big guy," Tony said, standing and hesitantly reaching out to touch Thor's shoulder. At the last second, the billionaire pulled back, his hand falling to his side, unsure how the other man would take physical contact in his current state of mind. He sat back down. "Maybe I could run some tests, see if any of the readings are different than before."
Thor shot him a pointed look.
"Alright, we can wait to run some tests," Tony muttered. He ran through some quick stretches to cool down from his run. "Tell me about the relationship that you and Mjolnir share."
The slight dig went right over Thor's head, leaving Tony suppressing a smirk.
"We are generally of…one mind," Thor said, struggling for words as he turned the grip in his hands.
"Though we do not communicate in words," he continued, "there is a sense that passes between us. When I call Mjolnir to my hand, something calls back."
He flipped the hammer lightly, end over grip, and studied the patterns in the metal. "Today that call is fainter. It is as if a voice calls through sheets of rain."
Tony steepled his fingers, rested his elbows on his knees, and placed his mouth up against his hands in thought. His mind was moving so quickly that he couldn't be still. With a jerky movement, he jumped to his feet and began pacing.
"JARVIS, call up everything we know about Mjolnir. Previous scans, legends, hearsay, whatever we have."
"Absolutely, sir," came the AI's smooth voice. Instantaneously, holo-projections appeared around Tony. They detailed everything that was known about the Asgardian hammer, and some information on the makeup of the Asgardian atmosphere.
No extraterrestrial stone unturned, Tony mused.
As he sifted through the information, Thor walked around in quiet awe. He went from projection to projection, running his fingers through the manipulatable light and staring at them when they came back clean and undamaged. Tony looked up from his work to grin at the god of thunder's back. It never ceased to amaze him that beings from other planets could be impressed by his work. Tony knew he was fantastic, after all, but this couldn't be good for his ego. Pepper had pointed out on numerous occasions that it was already healthier than it needed to be.
Pepper.
Tony froze as his thoughts raced.
"Thor, when was the last time you used your hammer? Like actually used it?"
Thor glanced at him in confusion. "I carry Mjolnir with me each and every day. We are inseparable."
"Of course, absolutely," Tony gestured the projections away impatiently. "But when was the last time you and Mjolnir—you know—vanquished a foe together."
Tony had to fight the urge to emphasize that last bit with air quotes.
A look of understanding crossed the Asgardian's face and he raised his eyebrows in surprise. "The last occasion for such battle was many weeks ago. There has been an admirable period of peace on Midgard for some time now."
Tony rolled his eyes. "Don't expect that to last too much longer."
"Here's what I'm thinking," Tony continued enthusiastically. "In any relationship, some stress starts to form if you don't do the things you enjoy together. Perhaps your hammer—is it a she? I have no idea what pronoun to use—is feeling neglected."
Thor looked a little dubious. "If that is the case, how can I restore the communication between myself and Mjolnir?"
Tony was going from enthusiastic to downright excited. "I'll suit up and we can spar. Obviously, you don't need to actually vanquish me," he felt the need to say this, for some reason. "But maybe this will help smooth things over between you two."
Thor's face lit up in a smile, and he stood a little taller. "I accept," he said. "I will try anything to restore the relationship between us."
Ten minutes later, Tony stood on the roof of the tower in his full armor. The suit gleamed in the afternoon sun, hot-rod red and gold in all its glory. Knowing the somewhat—um—destructive battle tendencies of the Norse god, Tony had chosen to spar outside. He may have the funds to replace everything in the Training Room, but what a headache.
Thor dove at Tony, driving his fists toward the faceplate. Even though Tony knew Thor was pulling his punches, and a fist to the face would only hurt like a son of a bitch, his heartrate still shot up.
Impending threat, impending threat, impending threat.
JARVIS spoke a few calming words, special programming that Tony had included to help with the PTSD that plagued him since Afghanistan. Tony calmed down as Thor playfully continued to throw weak shots. He felt the surge of pride and relief that the trigger had not become a full-out panic attack.
Some days are better than others, he thought with an internal shrug.
The sparring escalated quickly, giving Tony some excellent practice at hand-to-hand from within the suit. Thor was smiling now, something fierce and animalistic that made Tony realize how much the god of thunder loved the battle.
Thor angled each blow from Mjolnir, making sure that Tony had the time to dodge or parry Thor's wrist. Despite that, the hammer was making frequent appearances in the sparring.
Thor shot Tony a victorious grin as Tony breathlessly dodged another blow. "Your plan has worked, the communication between us is restored," Thor bellowed.
He thrust his hammer to the sky victoriously, bringing a lightning strike down on the roof.
"Whoa, Thor, buddy," Tony said, firing up the repuslors and hovering a few feet above the roof.
Thor ended the strike with a sheepish grin. He strode over and wrapped Tony in a giant bear hug as he landed on the roof. Tony had one moment to process that Thor's fingers were still dancing with blue electricity before he was flat on his back, gasping for air.
Shit, ouch—motherfucker. Why does this stuff always happen to me?
A dull, aching pain filled in for the sharp pain that had consumed him the moment Thor touched him. Speaking of which, Tony opened bleary eyes and found the god of thunder wildly staring at him from inches away.
"Hey buddy," Tony croaked. "I think you zapped me with some residual energy."
His head felt a little fuzzy and his extremities tingled, but he seemed to be okay. He knew for a fact—not because he was electrocuted more often than the average person—that he would have some irritation around the reactor chamber in his chest. Other than that, Tony had had worse encounters with electricity in the lab.
"Help me up," Tony moaned, taking Thor's offered hand. An irrational part of his brain flinched when they made contact, but nothing horrible happened.
"I apologize," Thor said, his blue gaze drilling into Tony, "I never meant to harm you. I am grateful that you are well."
"Of course I am," Tony grumbled, only staggering a little bit. "I'm fucking fantastic. Now let's get inside and get cleaned up."
"Oh, and," Tony thought to add, a wicked smile on his face, "I'm glad you're back on her good side."
When Thor looked confused, Tony pointed at Mjolnir. Thor threw his head back in a belly laugh and stroked the grip of his hammer affectionately.
So much to mock, so little time—, Tony thought
"As am I," Thor rumbled happily. "As am I."
