Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Marvel Studios, Disney, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Aaaaaaah, sorry for the delay in posting! I had a bunch of fucking papers to write for college and then this chapter was like...harder than it needed to be? I mean, this is probably the most dialogue-heavy chapter in the entire fucking book (this is 100k+ now, it's a fucking book, fight me) and Thor's Shakespearean English drives me up a wall, but I think I've got him down pat. Maybe I don't, idk. We'll see!

Based off of what everybody said, which much kudos to y'all for giving me that feedback, I'm still going to try to get several chapters of this fic posted before hiatus. If that means I finish this, great. If not, it'll be my priority when I get back from the shit I gotta do. Sound fair?

Chapter title comes from It Had To Be You by Frank Sinatra. It's my favorite of the songs I've listened to by him, which probably isn't saying much, but whatever.

As always, I hope you enjoy! Until next chapter,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~primis, omega, superhero, genius~

~somebody to love~

~chapter 29: it had to be you~

They all clambered up to the helipad, taking the elevator and then spilling out of the building door to it. Penny felt her heart racing in her chest, and she knew she wasn't the only one. Everyone else's pulses, Natasha's included, were going a mile a minute.

But she knew for most of them, it was different. Clint and Steve were both grinning, Bruce was giving a small smile, and Tony was wearing one of his signature half-smirks. They were all excited to see the thunder god. And she was too, don't get her wrong, it was just –

Her entire life, she thought not for the first time with startling clarity, was basically waiting for the shoe to drop – or, as she preferred it, the hammer to fall – over and over again. The second that she was settled with something good in her life, the Penny Parker™ luck struck again. She had a happy childhood, her parents had died. She'd gotten spider powers, Ben had. She and Harry had started dating, May had. She and Harry had lived their happily ever after for four years, then –

She didn't want to be thinking about this on Christmas. The entire day had already had too much emotions for her to bear. But Thor was here.

Why else would he be here when he'd been off-world for the past nineteen months, just over a year and three-quarters of one, ever since shortly after the Battle of Manhattan? The only reason why Carol had come back to Earth when she had was because there'd been a world-ending threat before Fury had had the people to put his team together, and, well –

Another story for another time. She was getting ahead of herself.

"Thor!" Clint exclaimed. He barreled towards the god, who gave a hearty laugh. The two of them shook hands. "Long time, no see, dude."

"I know." Thor looked genuinely apologetic. "I did not want it to be this long from the last time I saw all of you. But alas, with the destruction of the Bifröst and the Tesseract back in the place it should've been all along, I did not have a way to traverse the Realms. And then, when the Bifröst was repaired..."

"Let me guess," Tony said, approaching them both. "Your father had a series of things he wanted you to do?"

Thor laughed again. He shook Tony's hand just like he had Clint's. "Indeed, you observe well, Tony. But ah, Heimdall told me that it is Yule here. He is giving me the cover that I need to be here until your New Year celebrations at the very least."

Clint scoffed. "He's going to cover you for several days?"

The god smiled. "Let us just say that, historically, there are other places in the Realms that I could be right now. He'll send my father to those places first before he sends them here, if he even cares to check. There has been..." As quickly as the smile had come, it slipped a little. "Troubles at home as of late."

Penny didn't need to be a genius to figure out what he meant by that.

Loki.

Thor's attention came to rest on those of them remaining. "Steve," he greeted the super soldier. Steve gave him a beam and waved at him. "Bruce." The male omega did the same as Steve. "Lady Natasha." The female alpha smiled at him, but nothing more, her arms crossed.

And then Thor's eyes landed on her.

His face blanked minutely. She had no idea what he was going to say, had no idea what he knew, because he obviously knew something. As best as she could, she conveyed her urgency to him through a look to keep his mouth shut.

He seemed to understand. Thor approached her slowly, and like the others besides Clint and Tony, he didn't offer his hand out to her. "You must be the Woman of Spiders," he said. "To be truthful, I was not certain if I would be able to meet you again during this visit to Earth."

She did her best to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. "Well, I'm here. It's nice to meet you without the mask between us. You can call me Delilah." And she knew she wasn't imagining how his eyes flitted back towards the others. It was only a moment, a brief glimpse in time, but she saw it. It made her fidget nervously. "Uh...I hope you don't mind me asking, but you're not here for anything...bad, are you?"

"'Bad?'" Thor quoted. He shook his head. "No, no, I assure you not. The Earth is under no threats from beyond at this time. I am merely here to spend some time with my friends for the holidays. And I hope that, despite the short time that we interacted the last time I was on this planet, I can include you in that number?"

She felt the edges of her mouth raise upwards in a more authentic manner to this. "Of course you can," she said. "We fought in battle together, didn't we?"

True to his word, Thor was able to stay for the next week.

He didn't spend all of his time with them, as during the afternoon of Christmas he went off to go find Jane Foster and stayed with her for a few days. Penny could only imagine how that conversation had gone, since from what she knew of his file they'd been in the beginnings of something like a romantic relationship during his first visit to Earth in modern times before the Battle of New York, and she knew she wouldn't have been too happy to be left with empty promises for a couple of years, regardless of the reason. But when he returned, he was still in good spirits, so she thought the reunion between the two of them couldn't have gone that bad.

On New Year's Eve, they had another celebration. They played poker (Natasha won almost every single round, to no one's surprise) and a few other games for the prizes of scratch-offs ("Isn't this a little stupid, fighting for scratch-offs with a literal billionaire?" "Shut up, Clint." "I'm just saying..."). They drank a lot of alcohol, including an Asgardian mead that Thor had smuggled off his world. He didn't let anyone drink it except for her and Steve, and even then they only got a glass each. Just the one was able to knock Steve off his ass, while she was left only tipsy. But she knew to stop while she was ahead.

After the ball dropped, she left the communal floor, leaving behind a properly drunk Tony, Clint, and Natasha, a passed out Steve, and Thor. Bruce had called it an earlier night after the Asgardian mead had been broken out, and she couldn't blame him for that. Alcohol and the Green Guy probably didn't mix together well.

She meant to go upstairs to her floor because she was one of the many unfortunate people in the city who had work tomorrow, but she didn't. Penny couldn't exactly explain it, so maybe she was drunker than she'd thought, but she found herself on the balcony she and Tony had talked on a couple of weeks ago, standing pretty much in the same position that she had been then.

Déjà vu, much?

Rather than going back inside, she let out a sigh, watching how her breath turned into a puff of white and flew away. She wasn't exactly dressed to be out here, since more snow had come and added to the already ridiculous amount in the city, but the cold was a bearable sort of pain.

A song popped into her head. She hummed it, but just doing the tune wasn't enough. Soon, thanks to the alcohol in her system, she wanted to do something more, which she hadn't done once more in a long while: she wanted to sing.

She took the song back to its beginning. "Why do I do just as you say? Why must I just give you your way? Why do I sigh, why don't I try to forget..." she started. She had to clear her throat when she trailed off, acting like the reason for it was physical and not psychological. "It must have been that something lovers call 'fate'..."

Penny wasn't the biggest fan of Frank Sinatra, and neither had been her aunt and uncle. But Ben had said that her grandparents had, so he'd introduced her to his repertoire. And really, the standard songs aside (Fly Me to the Moon and That's Life, for example), this was the only song that she liked. It was a good one.

When she was done, she closed her eyes and tilted her head up towards the sky. "Are you going to just stand there all night, or do you want to talk?"

Thor chuckled. "Perhaps I should not be surprised that you realized I was here."

"Well, everything about me is super. Super hearing, super other senses, super strength, super...depressed," she attempted to joke. It fell flat even to her own ears. She exhaled again. "I don't think I'm going to be much company for the rest of tonight, Thor."

"Nonsense," he said lightly. "I'd like to talk with you. You're at least better company than Tony, Clint, and Natasha."

"Let me guess: they all passed out like Steve did."

"Aye."

She snickered. "Lightweights."

"From the average mortal perspective, based on how much they drank, I'm sure they are not. But compared to you and I, indeed."

She turned her head to look at him properly, bringing her gaze away from the night sky. It wasn't like there were any stars to see, anyways. "So, what do you want to talk about, Point Break?"

Much to her delight, he cringed. "Tony does have his way with nicknames, does he not?"

"Oh, that's putting it lightly," she went airily. "But that's not what you wanted to talk about."

"No, it's not," he said. He still had a flask of his Asgardian mead in his hands. He swirled its contents around before taking a sip, thoughtful. "Please, before I say what I wish to, understand this: I am not going to use the knowledge that I was given against you, or without your permission. It was told to me in confidence, and in confidence it will remain until the time is right."

Her heart plunged into her stomach. "What did Loki tell you?" she asked, fear creeping into her voice.

Because although their interaction one-on-one had been brief, she remembered what the other god had told her on the helicarrier. Well, the multiple things he had told her, to be more precise. His words echoed in her mind like a forgotten dream, viciously brought back to the forefront.

"I can feel the magic around you, my dear. It is a simple spell, but quite powerful and unbreakable, by no means performed by an amateur. But who would allow themselves to be obfuscated from the Norns' weaving so completely? Moreover, who would perform – ?"

"And I know your death will spurn on those who fate has promised you. They will – "

There was no one else who Thor could be referring to in talking about information of her being given to him. She didn't think that Heimdall would've cared about the affairs of "mortals" enough to tell him anything, and Carol wasn't exactly active in Asgard's sector of the galaxy, since it was so quiet due to the –

"He told me enough," Thor spoke gently. "But please, do not blame him for it. My brother...to say he is a complicated person would not do him just – " her jokes weren't the only ones not getting a reaction now, but he seemed to pay no mind to this " – but in this, I believe he told me it because he truly does feel remorseful. He was not entirely of his own mind during the Invasion."

"What do you mean?"

Thor's expression was bittersweet. "Just as he controlled Clint using the Scepter, so too was my brother controlled by...someone else."

Oh.

Oh.

Sympathy for Loki twinged inside her. It wasn't much, because even if he had been mind-controlled, he'd still threatened her world, her home, herself. She had empathy, but it was hard for her to forgive that easily.

Her lips were dry. Penny took her bottom one into her mouth, dragging it against her teeth. "And what all did he...tell you, exactly?"

"To begin with," Thor said slowly. "That Tony, Steve, Natasha, and Clint are all your soulmates."

She'd figured that.

"And that your name is Penny Osborn."

Her heart didn't just stop.

Her breath didn't just catch in her throat.

Her knees didn't just grow weak, they gave out underneath her entirely. "Penny," Thor uttered, catching her before she could fall. His arms wrapped around her, and they were almost enough to ground her to her present, to reality. Almost."Penny...ah, by Auðumbla's tongue...Delilah."

That brought her back.

Air was forced back into her lungs as she gasped. "You...you said my name," she breathed.

"I did."

Words could not describe how unprepared she was to hear her own name for the first time in two years. She'd been trying to prepare for it, since if she told her soulmates and Bruce the truth, that was kind of a foregone conclusion. And sure, the people at the diner called her Penny on a regular basis, but that – that was different. They didn't know. They thought she was Penny Parker, beta.

Thor had said her name with the knowledge that she was Penny Osborn, omega. The secondary gender might not really matter to him, seeing as how Asgardians didn't have them due to the designations being the result of a human virus from over seventy thousand years ago, but he knew her name. He knew what it meant to her from at least the standpoint of knowing her identity.

He knew her name.

"Yes," Thor said. She must've said that last part out loud. His visage was soft. "I assure you, neither Loki nor I know much more than that. He tried to look past the spell to see what he could learn about you during the Invasion – "

Oh, God, she thought, her face blanching. She hadn't even noticed. Wasn't that terrifying?

" – But it is well and truly unbreakable. He was only able to learn of your name and a few other things, mainly your husband," he continued. "I'm sorry about him."

She hiccoughed as she stepped away from him, wiping at her eyes. Shit, she was crying again. She felt like a leaky faucet these days. "Don't be, it's been two years and...it was an Absolute Point in time. There was nothing anybody could've done."

"So you've met The Ancient One," he surmised.

"'Met?' Who do you think I got to do it?" she asked incredulously.

He abruptly became relieved. "So it happened as a choice of your own volition."

"Yeah," Penny said. She cocked her head. "Does that make it better?"

"Not really," he returned. He gave her a smile nonetheless. "But I am glad it was something you chose to happen, rather than something that you did not."

Sensing a change of subject, and knowing where he probably wanted to take their conversation, she leaned into the half-wall separating them from the drop of several hundred feet – not that it would have been a problem for either of them. "Is the spell why you weren't sure if I was going to be here?"

"At the Tower?" he clarified. At her nod, "Yes, along with your husband. But it wasn't the only 'here' that I was concerned for."

He was the second person after JARVIS to admit that he'd been worried she would've tried to kill herself. Penny wasn't quite sure of what to make of that.

She wasn't sure of why she wasn't upset at the fact he knew who she was, either. Realistically, considering her track record, it wasn't exactly something she should be as accepting of as she was right now. Her identity being known – that went against everything she'd stood for when she'd asked Tao to perform the spell on her.

But Thor had promised that he wouldn't reveal it to anybody without her say-so. She didn't know him that well, however she knew he was a man – god – of his word. It helped that he had little to gain from revealing her identity, with him not being from Earth or having a secondary gender.

"That wasn't going to happen," Penny argued. "I wasn't going to kill myself."

"Still, it was a concern of mine once Loki told me the truth – and my brother's," he responded. "That you are here, alive and with those who belong to you, is a great relief to me. But, I must ask – "

"Why I haven't told them yet?" she finished for him.

Instead of immediately answering her, Thor held out his flask of Asgardian mead to her. "Yes."

Scoffing at the action but unable to pass up some liquid courage, she accepted the flask and took a swig from it. The combination of honey and the carbonation of alcohol burned as it went down her throat, making her shudder. "Thanks," she rasped as she handed the flask back to him. She cleared her throat before she spoke again. "I think you know why."

"I would like to hear you say the words yourself, if you do not mind."

Penny turned around so she was leaning against the half-wall and clutched at the sleeves of her sweater – the one Clint had gotten her. "When the Battle of New York happened, I didn't want anything to do with them. It'd only been six months since Harry and I – " she rolled her eyes at her own antics " – I thought I could get away with it. But then I got hurt, and they asked me to move in, and I was an idiot and didn't say no."

"And when was this?"

"...February."

Thor was equally amused and sad. "You have been living with them for ten months, soon to be eleven, and you have not told them a single word?"

"No. I thought if I needed to, I'd be able to leave easily. But," she laughed pathetically. "Been there, tried that. It didn't work. They're going to have to find out soon, though. I don't have a choice now." She bit the inside of her cheek. "I'm going to have to tell them who I am, what I am to them, that I'm an omega. And..." She inhaled sharply.

"You don't know how to tell them."

"Yeah, that."

Thor didn't answer her right away. He seemed to be mulling things over. Penny grew impatient after a few minutes of it. She leaned further back into the half-wall, letting her spine arch as far the opposite way as it usually did. She did the same with her neck, too. Many of the celebrations in the city were still going on, despite how far past midnight it had to be now. The sounds of the nearest parties twinged at her ears.

"When my mother came to my father's court," Thor at last said, and it was such a non-sequitur that her entire posture straightened so she could look at him. He glimpsed at her briefly, but other than that remained staring into the night pensively, but in a good way. "It was not love at first sight for either of them. My father was grieving over the loss of his first wife, and my mother was from one of the Realms that he had conquered, Vanaheim. She didn't want anything to do with him, but she had come to serve him for her people as part of the treaty between her brother, Freyr, and my father.

"I've been told by her that, for many years, they did not interact beyond what was required of her. But then one day, when he was going over plans with his generals, my mother saw a weakness in their plans for their next battle that would result in not only their loss, but heavy casualties on their side. Even though she was a servant, she tried to bring it up during the meeting. The generals tried to silence her, saying that she was a Vanir wench, and that she knew nothing of strategy."

Penny propped her cheek against her hand. "And your father?"

"Oh, he did the same," Thor replied cheerily, causing her to make a sound of amusement. "My mother came directly to his face and shouted at him for it. The generals, even the strategic Týr, she could forgive for their idiocy, but the king of the Nine Realms, the Allfather, he had to know better. She reminded him that it was not just his soldiers who would lose their lives, but their mothers and fathers who would lose their sons, their siblings their brothers, their wives their husbands, and so on and so forth. Then she told him, using her magic, how to win the battle, even while telling him that she did not have to do so, that it would perhaps be better for her not to do so. But she had seen who he truly was, the person he could be, and she told him he was deserving of her help. That was when my father fell in love with my mother.

"He did not tell her for many more years. But finally, he gathered up the courage and did it. When he did, my mother smiled at him and said she'd known ever since that first meeting. Although she was the daughter of the king of Vanaheim, Njörðr, she'd been raised by witches, you see. They were the ones who taught her how to use magic, just as..." The idea was only now occurring to him, she could tell. But though it saddened him, it wasn't in a bothered sort of way. "Just as she taught magic to my brother."

Admittedly, she wasn't quite sure where he was going with this. The alcohol was actually making her a little hazy, something she hadn't felt in a long, long time. The fact that he was divulging this story to her so seamlessly and without hesitation in spite of only interacting with her during the Invasion and the past week only compounded it.

Thor realized this. He offered her his hand. She clasped theirs together, and his skin was searing. It was like there was fire – or ichor – running through his veins. "I tell you this, Penny, because I do not think the only reason why you have not told them until now is because you have not wished to: I think you have been afraid to. It is easy for us to assume those we love will think the worst of us when we reveal the truth to them."

"Those we love."

"I don't – " Penny attempted to say, but the protest died in her throat.

She really did love them, didn't she? That was why she hadn't been able to leave when she'd tried. It wasn't just because of her omega instincts, it was more than just those. All the thought she'd put into their Christmas gifts was only proof of it.

Thor pressed two fingers underneath her chin, pushing her head back up from where she'd looked down in shock and making her lock eyes with him once more. "But just as we think that, we must also remember that our loved ones will forgive us, even when there isn't anything to forgive," he spoke. "And that, even when they are gone, they will never truly leave us."

Her dream of Harry telling her to "move on" resurfaced in her mind.

Harry.

Penny's entire body was trembling, shaking at this point. It was all almost too much too much too much –

"How do you – ?"

"The Norns like to meddle from time to time, as impartial as they like to seem," Thor explained, mischief lacing his voice. "I am not skilled in the ways of magic like my mother and Loki, but even I can sense their magic on you. If you were visited by your husband in dream within the past six months, then I can tell you that he was very much real."

Harry had been real.

She was in love with her soulmates.

...But also, Harry had been real.

Penny swayed on her feet, and it wasn't only because of the alcohol in her system. Her body was hot and cold at the same time. Her mouth was numb. She forced her tongue to work in order to say, "I think...I need to..."

"I understand," Thor said. He patted her shoulder, but he was strong enough that the gentle gesture almost sent her into a face splat regardless. "I must leave soon, as Heimdall will not be able to explain away my presence much longer. But if you want me to be here when you tell them the truth, I will. You are my shield-sister, Penny Osborn, and just as I will fight with you in battle again when the time comes, I will be here for your other ones as well."

Word Count: 4,246

Next Chapter Title: don't you forget about me