Chapter 3

When Thor thudded on Maria's door the next morning, sunshine riding high in the sky after his weather alteration the night before, he expected to see her glowing and rested.

He was wrong.

Shockingly wrong.

The shadows under her eyes were darker and bigger, collecting mostly over her left cheek – too dark and vast to be tiredness. Bruises. His eyes scanned down over the rest of her and located more marks, staining her upper arms and left forearm.

For a moment, his heart skipped a beat. Was he too late? Had the enemy attacked already?

No, he reminded himself. If they had come she would not be stood here. She'd be dead.

"W-what happened?" he forced out, eyes sharp beneath his frown. His fist tightened around Mjolnir out of instinct.

Maria's eyes darted to Thor's boots. "It's nothing." She mumbled. "I fell in the dark, that's all."

Thor's eyes washed over her again and found more bruises, hidden slightly beneath the pale colour of her tights on her legs. Had they been there last night, and he simply hadn't noticed? No, he dismissed. He'd seen her face clearly – her eyes had been dark but her cheek had been unblemished. These were fresh.

"You are hurt." he insisted, stepping himself into the house, and closing the door of his own accord. He couldn't take his eyes off the bruises.

"No," Maria said quickly, glancing up at Thor's taunt face. "It's nothing. Really. Just me being clumsy is all." She gulped and backed away a few steps, all too aware of Thor's gaze. "I didn't think I'd see you again."

Thor strode forward and placed Mjolnir on the table, his armour peeling away from his body. With Maria now loosely trapped between him and the kitchen counter, he could see just how nasty the bruises were. Nothing, she'd said. Thor bet they hurt like hell.

"My mission has changed." He informed her steadily. "I am to protect you in the absence of your father."

Maria's arms folded protectively around her middle. Thor couldn't help but wonder if there bruises there too. "Me? I… I don't understand. What's so important about me?"

"Loki may seek your father out, and if he does he will find you. You are in danger. It is my responsibility that you come to no harm." Which will be tricky if bruises continue to appear overnight with no admittable cause, he added in his head, eyes still suspicious.

He watched as Maria turned her back to him and her hands gripped the kitchen surface. His eyes washed over her bare back over the top of her sleeveless dress. No bruises.

"So what happens now?" she asked the wall. Why did her voice sound so lifeless? So dull.

Thor trained his eyes to the back of her head. "I will stay with you and keep you from harm."

"You're gonna follow me around?"

Why did she sound so hesitant? Thor wondered. It was almost like she would rather he leave her to risk Loki's wrath.

"You do not trust me?" he ventured.

He watched Maria wipe her hands over her face, as if wiping away tears. He didn't mention it. "Its not that." Her voice wavered.

Thor tried again. "Then you are afraid?"

Maria's head angled up slightly. "Maybe. Maybe a little."

That's a yes, Thor interpreted in his head. Mentally sighing with relief that he'd finally decoded the riddle – and at the same time cursing women for being such complicated creatures – he reached out and brushed his fingers over Maria's shoulder.

She darted round, with perhaps a little more than shock. Was that a wince Thor caught? More bruises maybe?

He put it from his mind however, as he secured Maria's hand in his and held it up to his mouth, hovering it before his lips.

"I, Thor Odinson, Prince of Asgard and God of Thunder, swear I will keep you safe." He brushed his lips over Maria's knuckles, like the gentleman his mother had tried to raise him to be. "You have my word."

He kept his eyes trained on her face, waiting for last nights blush to creep back, for her to become shy or smile or laugh with embarrassment.

What he did not expect was for her lips to press together, her sweet face to crumple and her eyes to spill with tears as she broke down in heartbreaking, hysterical sobs.

XXX

"You can take my room. There's nothing else."

Thor followed Maria up the stairs tentatively, feeling cramped in the confined space of the house. Walking through it like this made him question if he could really live like this after being so accustomed to the palace in Asgard.

She walked through the door directly in front of the stairs and Thor followed, keen to be in wider space.

He soon stopped in his tracks when he remembered where he was. "These are your chambers?"

The room was tiny! With a small single bed in the middle of the room and a tall wardrobe opposite there was hardly much moving space for a man of Thor's size. Maria, however, skirted nimbly around the end of the bed so it was safely between her and the god.

Maria shifted awkwardly across the room. "I- I guess you could call it that."

Thor took a step forward, his eyes drinking in the room around him. Pale walls, and pale carpet, with small bedside tables either side of the head of the bed, filled with pictures and photographs.

He moved closer for a better look. "Are these of you?" he asked, picking one at random and holding it up.

"Yeah…" she said quietly. "Me and my dad."

Thor studied the man he'd come to find. He looked young, with mild wrinkles lining his forehead and around his mouth. His hair was light brown, the same shade as Maria's, and so were his eyes, crinkled in the corners with glee, mirrored in those of the girl he had his arm wrapped around.

"How old were you?" Thor murmured more to himself than to anyone as he moved his attention to the little girl.

Across the room, Maria shrugged. "Ten. Maybe less."

Still, Thor could recognise her as herself. She still had the wavy light hair and same shade of eyes, same slight, though undeveloped frame.

But there was something about the girl that Thor did not see in the young woman across the room from him now. The girl's eyes were bright with life and happiness, her smile stretched so wide across her face, Thor was sure it must have ached her cheeks. Her whole face brimmed with beaming joy, so wonderful Thor found his own lips curving just looking at it.

Then he glanced up and his smile was weighted. Maria's dull eyes were angled to the wardrobe, her face drawn and sombre. Her mouth was stiff. No hint of a smile.

What happened?, he wondered sadly to himself.

"There's the bathroom across the landing," she said, folding her arms consciously over her middle again. "And there's towels in the cupboard. Spare tooth brush there too. There's some clothes in the bottom draw," she motioned loosely to the wardrobe. "But I can get more if you want."

Thor drank in the information. "You seem well prepared."

Maria shrugged. "My father warned me. He said someone might come one day." Her eyes flickered, and met Thor's bright blue eyes briefly. "He was right."