st_ormbreaker | (no subject)

(no subject)

It couldn't be anything important.

That's what Thor decided first. If he was going to lie to Valkyrie, it was going to be over something pointless, something trivial. Something that didn't matter. The first lie is a small one -- a message sent to her from his notebook:

I need to talk to you about something.

Truth be told, Thor had nothing of significance to talk about. The two of them chatted enough that there generally wasn't anything new to discuss about their day-to-day. The one truly significant thing he had to talk to Valkyrie about he had done so shortly after arrival, and even then he didn't feel particularly inclined to give out anything more than just the essentials -- then or now.

Pool Bar, one hour.

The Pool Bar was unoccupied this time of year. During the spring and summer months, you'd find people there all hours of the day, making their own drinks to suck down as they lay out at the pool's edge. Winter made the location less appealing. It was private, the perfect place to discuss something important.

That is, if Thor had something important to discuss.

Thor is sitting at one of the tables in the pool bar, notebook open, two bottles pulled from the bar's shelves: a Johnnie Walker and a newly-discovered malt scotch he'd pulled from the shelf based on name alone (Highland Park Valkyrie). It felt appropriate somehow.

Thor idly writes in his notebook as he waits, brows furrowed with thought.

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"Points for ambition." Valkyrie waved another piece of dried meat at him. "I'm not forgetting the name, I hope you know."

"What, do you plan to use it against me?"

Thor pops the rest of his jerky into his mouth and chews away.

"No. I just won't forget it." It would truly be a memory she'd recall every time she was lacking a smile in her life.

"I'm glad it's bringing someone joy in their life," Thor says, reaching for another piece of jerky. "I wasn't lying about the whole name-and-fiancee thing, though. 'd be weird to go back with someone else's surname when they're on the verge of marriage with somebody else."

"And you're fine with that?" Valkyrie leaned her forearms on the counter, fingers tapping the bag idly.

"Well, he'll be dead, possibly." Probably. "Or not, if we're able to change things. In any case, I don't want to spend whatever time we have here agonizing over consequences."

"I can't say I wouldn't do the same." Flickers of memories played in Valkyrie's head-- her Valkyrior sisters. If she had arrived at place where she could see them alive...

"And you said you weren't lovers back home. What changed?"

"Other than circumstances?" Thor stops chewing and thinks. "I'm not sure. Back home, he had Pepper and I had Jane. I wasn't around nearly enough." That could put a damper on any relationship, no matter how great the chemistry.

The more that Thor thinks about it, the more positive he is that his initial hunch was the correct one.

"It has to be that. Circumstances."

"So it could have been anyone." Valkyrie turned the piece of meat over in her fingers, warming it. Her breath was visible in the cold air.

"No, I don't think it could have been anyone," Thor says, shaking his head. "For me, at least, there had been something there since before I left Midgard, but there were plenty of things stopping it from moving any further."

Jane. Asgard. The Infinity Stones.

"And he can be trusted?" Valkyrie's dark eyes lifted to meet Thor's, stripping off a piece with her finger. "With everything."

"He's been trusted with basically everything there is to know," Thor says. "When our people make their way to Midgard, he will make sure that there's a place for them."

"He has those means?" Valkyrie asked through a small mouthful. Thor had mentioned that Tony was a man of wealth, but he only explained as far as it enabling him to build his suit.

"He's one of the wealthiest people on all of Midgard," Thor says, reaching for another piece of jerky. "He has the resources and the means."

"Where does he intend to place us?" It had been an age since she'd appeared before Midgardians, and if the Madonna Inn was anything reliable to go by, it had changed considerably.

"We haven't really discussed that yet," Thor says. True, the only thing that had happened was the offer had been placed on the table and Thor had been incredibly grateful for it. He wasn't entirely sure how kindly Earth would take to refugees. He had never spent more than a month or two on Earth at a time, but he knew from what bits and pieces of Earth politics he'd picked up from Jane or Selvig that there were plenty of countries there that didn't take kindly to refugees.

Thor thought that maybe he'd bought some goodwill as an Avenger. Now he wasn't entirely sure if that goodwill would still be there if Thanos' decimation was not averted. He wasn't sure if that goodwill existed in the first place.

But Earth it was. Thor would make it work if any of his people still lived. He had no other choice.

"I figured that when we did, you'd be part of the discussion."

"Negotiating a sovereign nation of our own." It was lofty, but Valkyrie had hope. There was surely knowledge or services that their could offer in return. "I put my faith in you and your Tony Stark to act as diplomats."

Thor laughs lightly at that. "I don't know if anyone on Midgard would call Tony or I diplomats. I know that that I have a reputation for being big and strong and hitting things. That and giving autographs and taking selfies with fans."

None of that really screamed diplomat to Thor and he doubted that it did to anyone else.

Thor knew he was capable of it, though.

"If you start sending the wrong message, I'll take over." Valkyrie ribbed him none too gently. "You'd do a sight better than our Green One, bless him."

"That's a pretty low bar, to be honest," Thor says with a grin. "I miss him, though. Him and Banner." Thor hadn't really had much of an opinion on Banner before their time on Sakaar; Banner had always been too quiet, too passive, too easily pulled into the schemes of others. Now, he felt a great deal of affection for the man -- and his body's co-inhabitant.

"I wouldn't have believed they shared a physical form if I didn't see the transformation with my own eyes." Partially a truth--Valkyrie still couldn't entirely believe it. "Banner was an admirable pilot, that one. I'd have taken him for a mouse if not for his sheer nerve. Jumping off a ship like that with his fragile body. I was certain he was dead right up until he turned colors."

"I wish I had been there to see it," Thor says. "Banner has never had much of a backbone and Hulk has had far too much of it." Fortunately, it seemed they hit a pleasant middle ground -- Banner was willing to make his own somewhat scary choices and the Hulk seemed more amendable to being reigned in when the situation called for it.

"Probably one of the Midgardians I miss the most right now." He and Jane were right there at the top of the list.

"I'm grateful to know he lives." In whatever future Valkyrie helped shape, she fully intended to keep it that way. Meanwhile, if it was truly too late for the man that sat beside her, at least she knew he would be in good company...or what remained of it. "When we meet again, I may even hug him."

Thor opens his mouth to say that he definitely would, but then he remembers how things were like those final moments after Thanos' death, how they all stood, somehow together but alone. When he does, a hug suddenly feels completely inappropriate and completely necessary all at once. Had he not been with River that day he's still not sure what would have happened.

"I'm sure he'd like that," he says, smiling lightly. "We should invite him to come live in our sovereign nation when the time comes for it."

“Shall we offer dual citizenship, then? If Midgardian suitors become a popular thing it would only make sense.” When considering repopulation, they’d need all the help they could get,