st_ormbreaker | (no subject)

"How close is close enough?" Without waiting for an answer, Tony linked his free arm around Thor's waist and huddled in like he was seeking warmth. He didn't need an excuse to do so, given their relationship, but he also didn't want to take risks with something as dramatic as extradimensional teleportation. He had reviewed all the leading hypotheses for acadaemia and for fun regarding the concept--some conclusions ranging from benign to lovecraftian. Thor always seemed to return in one piece, so Tony didn't feel too concerned.

In his free hand was a simple briefcase. Food, clothes, whatever else he might need was going to be provided, so all that was left were a few devices and a few personal artifacts. In his chest was his arc reactor, embedded firmly. Besides Thor himself, that was the true non-negotiable.

"Should I brace myself? Warm up? Keep my eyes closed, open?"

"Definitely keep your eyes open."

The best part of traveling via the Bifrost was seeing it in action; he'd seen it thousands upon thousands of times now, but he still never got over the beauty of the thing.

Besides, Thor wanted to see Tony's expression when he gazed upon it for the first time.

Thor lifts his hammer and Heimdall, as always, is the one to transport them back home.

Traversing the Bifrost bridge wasn't unlike what Tony must have imagined a fly being swept up a vaccuum cleaner must experience, if that vacuum cleaner was fitted with a kaleidoscope interior laid against the backdrop of space. Or taking off through the stratosphere in his armor if he dropped a tab beforehand. His instincts told him to shut his eyes against the wind, though there was none, despite the screaming speeds they were traveling at. There was no control beyond simply staying in place and trusting Thor's man to do his job, but there was no sense of fear--only awe.

It wasn't often Tony Stark was struck with sheer wonder, as he was a man who had lived enough for six lifetimes and done things far outside the realm of mortal men, but this was something else entirely.

And then the cacophony of colors abruptly stops, replaced by an endless sea of gold as they suddenly stand in Heimdall's Observatory, a few yards from its half-moon window. Light streams in through the window and Thor is suddenly drawn towards it.

He gently leads Tony to the window. "Loki and I used to look out upon the edge of the world when we were boys and watch the waterfalls pour off it. Look!"

Thor gestures, and for the first time in a long time, he finds himself gazing out upon it -- Asgard's waterfalls. It was a site that he'd seen so many times now, but never had it seen more beautiful until he was looking upon it now with Tony.

Had he just forgotten how beautiful it was?

He opens his mouth to say something else about his brother, but then suddenly, it feels like a bad idea (though Thor can't remember why), and as he strains to pull together that reasoning, he hears the warm sound of a booming voice behind him.

"Thor, Son of Odin."

Thor knows who it is before he turns -- and when he does, he watches as Heimdall turns the Bifrost sword like a key, the same way he always does whenever he activates the Bifrost, and a smile blossoms on Thor's face.

"Heimdall!" His feet carry him briskly towards his friend, and he throws an arm around the man as he pulls him towards Tony. "I'd like you to meet my partner, Tony Stark."

And that's how Tony's first few moments in Asgard begin.

Heimdall was unflappable, not unlike one of the Queen's Guard surrounding Buckingham Palace. Not that Tony tried his luck with testing it--he had enough decency to treat the occasion with all the gravitas it deserved.

Well. Not TOO much. He WAS still Tony Stark, a man unintimidated by even an ancient order of Norse aliens and he may have jovially likened the man to a far more handsome Sauron (not like anyone would have caught the reference and he would be quick insist it was nothing but reverent.)

By the time that introduction was over, Tony was the first to emerge from the observatory to survey the city itself, spurred by the initial view of the flowing water. He slowly removed his glasses (in part self-conscious about looking the part of the tourist) to get the most unobscured view possible. "...Should've brought a poet."

It's not often that Thor walks the length of the Bifrost. Most of the
time he's on horseback, or he rides his hammer. He's fine to walk with Tony. He wants to walk with Tony. He wants to enjoy every moment alone he can with him right now, and he's sure that his mother and sister are going to monopolize him immediately. It was one thing for him to tell them stories about Tony; it was another for them to get to know him firsthand.

"Why a poet?" he asks.

"Poets put into words all the big emotions one gets when looking upon something like this--" Tony gestured out at the glistening city before them, "But, you know. Prettily."

Even if there was no portals in space to get flung out of, Tony kept close to the larger man as he walked. He was going to get his steps in, that was for damn sure. "Think they'll like me? Your folks."

Thor reaches out and takes Tony's smaller hand into his own. He looks out at the city. He's sure that to someone who's never been here, it must be overwhelming. But this was home for him, and while he could recognize its beauty, he couldn't really experience the same strong emotions the few tourists Asgard got did.

"I can't imagine they wouldn't," he says, smiling. "Especially not if you use your trademark Stark charm."

Thor could admit that Tony was charming. Most people gravitated towards him because of it. Including him.

"Just not too much."

"Or what? I get to play the exotic one and cobble my Asgardian harem together?" Tony's leaned well over the edge of the bridge, keeping himself rooted with their intertwined fingers and Thor's weight. He whistled at the sheer drop.

Thor's hand tightens a little around Tony's hand as he looks over the edge. He knows that he can keep him steadied, but for a second, his mind flickers to Loki and that time he was clinging to the bridge and clinging to his brother's staff, and he just let go --

-- and for a second, something feels off. He doesn't know what it is, but when he thinks about Loki dying...

Thor pushes it aside with a smile.

"Something like that," he says.

Dusk is settling around Asgard by the time they reach the end of the bridge, and lanterns begin to light up across the city, like fireflies in the night sky.

How many times had he taken advantage of this sight?

The smell of food permeates the air. Voices chatter. The streets are crowded with stands and people, but as they walk the streets leading to the palace, people move out of the way as soon as they recognize him. Children, as they almost always do, reach out to touch Mjölnir and then squabble over which of them can lift it. He smiles down at them as their parents move to pull them away.

As always, Tony shone like the sun as the center of attention, or at least as a star in orbit in this case. Faces passed, staring and talking, and he wore his 100-watt smile for each and every one. Being stopped by a particularly insistent child who favored the secrets of his briefcase, Tony knelt down and engaged in a frank but patient conversation about 'Midgard' and how his fashion was the height of style where he came from and how he was essentially a prince in most regards, himself.

Sooner or later, he's reminded they're on a schedule and continues side-by-side with Thor among the throngs of Asgardians. "Cute kids. Any of 'em yours?"

Thor watches Tony interact with the child, and he smiles warmly at the sight of it. He never imagined that Tony would be good with children; the little he saw of Tony and children were in Barton's living room, and he didn't stick around long enough to see their interaction happen -- if it ever did.

Tony's question draws a laugh out of Thor. He's not sure if he's serious, but he responds anyway. "Do you think I have the time for children of my own?"

Thor continues, this time giving him a proper answer. "I don't. But I would with the right person at the right time."

"Yeah. Well." Tony simply chuckled, not needing to clarify that neither had the proper anatomy. "I've got a teenager back home. Sort of. Skipped all the cute stages, went right for the drama with that one."

Despite his words, Tony's grin hadn't lessened. He studied the passing sights, wondering what would make a decent souvenir for Peter. "He's a good kid. Helping him figure out the superhero thing."

"You'll have to introduce us," Thor says, clapping a hand onto Tony's shoulder. "Maybe when we get back. He can come with us the next time we visit."

At the least, it'd be another excuse to drag Tony back to Asgard. That was, if his family didn't drive him off, first.

True to Thor's suspicions, his sister and mother were quick to monopolize Tony's time. There were plenty of other people who wanted to monopolize his time, too: family friends and members of the court whose conversations he entertained mostly out of a sense of obligation, then later, Sif and the Warriors Three. Even though he made a concerted effort to keep an eye out for Tony, even while he chatted with others, he quickly lost sight and sound of him.

That didn't stop him from looking.

Volstagg had pounded down his eight flagon of Ale when Thor finally caught sight of Tony; immediately, he excuses himself from his friends ("Good luck, Thor!" Fandral calls out after him, as if Thor were a schoolboy again) and pushes his way through the crowd and over to him.

"Hey," Thor says, smiling. "Didn't mean to throw you to the bilgesnipes. You okay?"

Lounging amongst his newest circle as if they were old peers, Tony had a gauntlet-clad arm raised high as he regaled them with tales of The Avengers. A controlled blast and a shattering of glass purely for dramatic effect went over far better in Asgard than it ever had on Earth.

"Point Break! Just in time." Tony gestured at the man with his armor-clad fingers. "Just finished the part where I had you hit me with a shot of your good ol' discharge to splinter the falling hunk of terra mater before global extinction occurred. Good times."

Tony's words are only half-registering in Thor's head; as much as he tries to tear his eyes away from it, he can't seem to stop looking at the gauntlet.

Where did it come from? He remembers his father having a similar gauntlet in the vaults, and for a second, he thinks that's what this is -- that his father gave it to him as some sort of gesture (did he know that Thor planned to propose?). But then he recalls that the one in the vault had been right-handed.

This one was left.

A completely inexplicable uneasiness begins to fill Thor, and he doesn't quite know what to do with it. Most of the time he was able to pinpoint the source of his anxiety, and once he did that, he was able to confront his feelings head-on. He'd always been the sort to run headlong towards his problems, but there's no problem here for him to race into. No source of anxiety for him to confront. Just an unease that rises up from nowhere and that he has no idea what to do with.

Thor frowns.

"Where did you get the gauntlet?" he asks, gesturing at it.

Edited 2018-08-28 07:22 (UTC)

In Tony's still-quite inebriated state, he gave his partner a quizzical little smile and lowered his hand, giving it a firm pat. "It's my armor, Big Guy. Nanoparticles, fresh off the press." He emphasized his point with a metallic 'SNAP' that resonated above the dull roar of the crowds.

In the next moment, his arm was bare--the armor following his directives by mere thought.

"New development, I know. Usually I had to call on the clunky suit from afar." He tossed the crowd another shining grin, still bathed in their attention.

Snap.

Thor takes a step back, and he doesn't know why. The unease he felt before threatens to consume all of him.

And he doesn't know why.

Thor doesn't say anything to Tony. He just turns on heel and stalks away, trying to make sense of it. He's sure that if he just gets away from the crowd and the sounds maybe he can figure it all out.

Fandral calls out to him as he begins to make his exit, waving for Thor to join them again. Thor attempts a smile (he's always been good at those), but continues to maneuver through the impossibly growing crowd.

Were the doors to the Grand Hall always so far away?

Tony was left in Thor's wake, drawn rudely out of his comfortable boozey state. The look on the other man's face was unreadable, and while the others in his audience were content to laugh it off as the prince being called to more drink, Tony excused himself abruptly to follow in hot pursuit.

"Hey, hey, hey." Tony reached Thor in record time with a little foot-repulsor aid, stumbling into a stride along side him when he caught up right as Thor was making his exit. "What is the rush?"

Thor turns and looks at Tony, his brows furrowed; even with Tony here by him, he can't seem to shake this mounting feeling.

"I don't know," Thor says at Tony's shirt. He's not used to not knowing, and somehow that makes all of this even worse.

"Alright." Once they came to a full stop, Tony was tilting his head and getting his best read on Thor as he could. The man seemed genuinely beside himself in...something. If he was angry, it would have been obvious. Thor didn't exactly shy away from expressing it.

"We can go it alone for a bit. Maybe it'll come to you." Offering little else but some levity, as he always did, Tony drew close and gently rapped his knuckles on the larger man's jaw. "Don't say you need to go by yourself. I'm selectively deaf."

Thor nods dumbly at Tony's suggestion. He should say something, but he doesn't know what to say. When they push through the crowd, the doors somehow seem closer than they were before, and Thor's not sure if it's because it's less oppressive now that Tony's here, or if he was simply imagining it further than it was.

He reaches for Tony's hand, and leads the way out of the hall.

Tony struggled to keep up with the Asgardian's quick pace and long legs, practically jogging along behind to avoid being dragged altogether.

"Gentle, gentle...! I want to kiss you, not...whatever material we're walking on." A little lame with the quips with the Asgardian brew coursing through his veins. He wasn't, however, slow with the stunts, using Thor's grip on him as a pivot point to jet propel himself around to the man's front.

"Can we pause?" Tony's vision carne back into view as he steadied himself with Thor as the focal point. God, he was handsome. "I...have had the best time. Full stop."

Thor stops just short of plowing right into Tony, their bodies a mere inch or two apart. He looks down at him and finds that Tony does look truly happy. He really does look like he's having a good time.

And Thor is ruining it.

Just looking at Tony is enough to steady him emotionally, and though he can't shake the disconcerting feeling, it retreats just enough for him to be able to ignore it. "I'm sorry," he says. "I don't know what's come over me. I--"

He shakes his head.

"...Too much? Not enough?" Tony ran a hand through his hair, quirking his head to one side.

"I kid, I kid. Why don't you, ah, show me your princely quarters? Take a break from the noise." Ever since becoming an Avenger, there were nights where Tony would just need a moment or several away. "It's been a long day. I'm feeling a little change in ambiance."