...
Early the next morning Thor watched the sun rise over this odd desert land. It was not at all like Asgard, there was nothing but dirt; sand in shades of orange and yellow and red. The air was hot and dry, but when night had fallen, the cold would seep into his flesh. He and Jane had spoken at length about stars and constellations, planets and the heavens, different as they were from this vantage point on Midgard. Jane had eagerly and excitedly taken notes in a brand-new note book.
He had, at first, taken her acceptance as natural. He was Thor, son of Odin, Prince of Asgard. To doubt his word was an insult of the highest kind, not to mention treason. But after a while, doubt had set in, other than a brief mention of his possible lack of sanity, something that may as well have been a jest, Jane Foster believed. In him, in everything he said. Foolish though that may be.
Now, alone in the dark with no company except the sleeping form of Jane, he wondered at her willingness to believe not only his origins, but his explanations of the universe. It hardly seemed scientific. An odd word, Thor mulled it over; it was unknown to him and yet, he knew of it. The definition of which did not include simply believing what people said.
Had a man fallen from the skies in front of his... horse, he supposed, there were no cars (another word that was both familiar and unfamiliar to him) on Asgard and claimed to be Bari, God of the skies and the stars, of travel and light in the darkness, and demanded Thor return him to his seat in the heavens, Thor would have had him locked in the dungeons. Erik Selvig's reaction seemed much more appropriate to his own situation than Jane's.
Regardless, Thor took great comfort in Jane's presence, more so than he expected. She, like science and car, was familiar to him, somehow. Her movement and energy, the wonder and excitement she felt for something he found so common; the stars. Also, more disconcerting he supposed, were things like the taste of Jane's skin and the sound of her.. pleasure. They were like memories of the future (he hoped, ye Gods he hoped it lay in his future) and like the press of unhappy magic (though perhaps unhappy was the wrong word) swirled around him at the edge of his perception. Not close enough to grab, to see or to know, but close enough make him wonder. He was distracted from his not entirely unpleasant musings by Jane waking.
"Oh! I fell asleep." Jane stated and looked around. Her hair was messy and she looked somewhat sleepy. Thor longed to touch her, a longing much stronger than such a short acquaintance dictated. He didn't off course, touch her, he deserved to be flogged if he went around kissing women he barely knew without so much as a hint his affections were welcome. So far his attraction to Jane seemingly lay within his knowledge of planets and stars.
"I'm sorry, I don't really do that." Jane said sheepishly.
"What, sleep?" Thor teased, it was easy he realised.
"No!" Jane exclaimed, she flushed and Thor would have sworn on Mjolnir that he had been here, in this moment, with this woman, before. "I mean yes, no!" Jane stumbled over her words and Thor couldn't help but grin. This tiny woman could chase away shadows better than the brightest fire. "I
mean," Jane collected herself. "I sleep. Just not.. here. Outside. Usually."
"You were perfectly safe." Thor reassured her. "And you looked quite comfortable." He added. Jane looked at him and Thor looked into her dark eyes, and the magic, no longer unhappy, danced and sang around them.
"Yes, I imagine I was." Jane agreed.
...
Later, when he had showered once more, he entered the kitchen rather lost. There were no more clothes that fit him, Jane had lost all her work and, even after last night, seemed very sad when she looked at her one old book and her one new one. Erik looked positively green. Darcy had stumbled into
the kitchen in bed clothes that swallowed her whole, looked him over once and uttered a 'Huh' full of contempt and sat down with a large mug of coffee. He suddenly felt if not small, rather useless.
After breakfast he followed Jane into her work space and it was wholly empty. Jane seemed saddened by this, which was not entirely unexpected. The room was not very big at all, but the emptiness made it seem that much bigger and Jane seemed small and vulnerable in the middle of it.
"So.." Darcy had entered behind them. The coffee had seemingly restored her to her previous self. "What are we gonna do?" Darcy had her arms crossed over her chest defiantly.
"I -" Jane started and twirled in a slow circle, taking in the emptiness once more. "I don't know." Jane sounded small. "Start again I suppose. But.." Jane made a helpless motion with her hands, motioning towards everything that was gone. Darcy looked around and wrinkled her nose.
"You're gonna have to rebuild all that.. stuff." Darcy agreed. "I mean, do you even remember what and how you built it in the first place?" Darcy asked and Jane glared at the girl.
"I'm just going to have to start again." Jane sounded determined now.
"I am sorry, Lady Jane. I have greatly disturbed you work." And life, Thor stopped himself from adding.
"It's not your fault." Jane said and laid a hand on his wrist. The warmth from her small hand spread and the magic hummed. It was a lie though, a lie only Jane believed. This was quite clearly illustrated by the guilt Thor felt and the snort Darcy let out. "It's SHIELD's fault." Jane declared.
"Point." Darcy agreed. "Speaking of which, they're still out there." Darcy flapped a hand at the window. It was covered by some sort of drapes, but even Thor knew the shiny black vehicle outside was not there to partake in the breakfast at the Diner. They all looked at the covered window and Jane
made an unhappy noise.
"Also." Darcy sighed and seemed to steel herself. "The grant-money has been retracted." Thor did not know what that meant, or the implications thereof, but Jane's reaction was enough.
"No!" She exclaimed. "Impossible! They can't do that!" Jane looked about ready to charge out and demand her 'grant-money' back.
"Well, they have." Darcy confirmed and held out a letter.
"No!" Jane snatched the offending piece of paper out of Darcy's hand and read it so quickly her eyes flicked left to right in an alarming fashion.
"No." Jane almost moaned and sank to the floor. She had apparently not believed Darcy until she had read it herself.
"Lady Jane!" Thor knelt besides her. "Are you well?" Thor was worried. He himself had never been concerned with money, being a Prince of Asgard, but he knew enough to realise Jane's livelihood had been taken away.
"I.." Jane breathed heavily. "No. No.. This is my life. This is who I am." She looked up at Thor, confused and shocked and small once more. "We didn't do anything wrong."
"This is my fault." The realisation set in. "I must make this right." Thor didn't quite know how, as last night's defeat still smarted (quite literally he had some interesting purple marks on him). These SHIELD people were many and he was one man alone. One mortal man. Nevertheless he started
towards the door.
"NO!" Both Darcy and Jane exclaimed simultaneously. Jane grabbed his hand
and Darcy danced in front of him.
"Whoa, whoa dude!" Darcy looked at him as if he were a simpleton. Though there was a measure of awe in there as well. "The hell are you gonna do? They're the government."
"Darcy's right." Jane agreed and Thor felt oddly betrayed. "They can make much more trouble for us than they already have." Jane pulled her knees up and leant her chin on them. "You may go back to Asgard, but I have to live here for the rest of my life." It wasn't a barb as such, but it hurt nonetheless. The magic, the pressure, swirled at the edge of his perception. Wrong. It whispered. Wrong! But Thor cared very little for mysterious magic.
"I can't." Thor spoke suddenly, not meaning to. "I can't go back." Jane whipped around to look at him, pain in her eyes, and even Darcy seemed to deflate. There was a pressing silence that did nothing for Thor's sudden homesickness. He did not want their pity.
"Oh." Darcy said. "That sucks." Thor frowned. On the one hand he had just said he didn't want any pity, on the other..
"Darcy, yo-" Jane started, admonishingly, but Darcy ploughed on, forgetting it seemed, anything that had been said in the last few minutes.
"Well, Jane and I are going to Walmart, you-"
"No! Darcy, I really do-"
"Jane!" Darcy overpowered. "We. Are going. To Walmart." Darcy said slowly and clearly while shooting a pointed look at the window from which the SHIELD vehicle could be seen had it not been shielded by drapes. Jane followed Darcy's gaze.
"Really?" Jane questiond, clearly disbelieving. Darcy waved the letter angrily back and forth. Jane looked at the letter and then at the window. Back at the letter and then back at the window with narrowed eyes. Her colour rose with anger. Were they listening somehow? Thor wondered. From
Darcy and Jane's interchange, it seemed they were.
"Yeah, okay, we could use some more pop-tarts." Thor imagined Jane was trying to be nonchalant, but failed rather miserably. Darcy rolled her eyes.
"Very well, let us go to this Walmart." Thor said, Walmart, apparently, was not conductive to spying magic.
"No, not you." Darcy gave him a pointed look and Thor felt made small once more. He was not used to this kind of treatment.
"No, no, he can come." Jane came to his defence and it made feel Thor that much better. It was pathetic really.
"No, he can't." Darcy stated, giving Jane, Thor and the window an angry look. She continued before an could speak.
"Don't break anything and don't do anything weird." Darcy threw at Thor and then stalked off, presumably towards her vehicle. Jane's gaze bounced between Darcy's retreating back, Thor and the window, before she gave him a helpless smile, presumably meant to assuage him.
"Please, make yourself at home." Jane said and then darted off after Darcy. This left Thor standing alone and quite abandoned in the ruin of a woman's life work. A woman he felt almost wholly consumed by, after a mere two days. With all that had happened, he was doing quite spectacularly awful these days.
...
What can I say. I totally see SHIELD pulling a dick move such as this.