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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“For the record, I don’t drink it either. But I am trying to stay dry for the important talks.” Valkyrie opened the door. “Or simply long enough for get the important bits written in stone.”

Val has a point.

"Earl Grey no milk, then," he says, passing over the threshold. He might not drink tea, but he knew enough about it. He'd learn to make tea for Jane just as he learned to cook for Tony now.

"You have any preferences?" Just in case he ever runs a meeting.

"Nothing floral." Valkyrie followed him inside. "If I'm to enjoy flowers, I'll go outside to do it." She may have emphasized a few words through partially grit teeth, considering her room's dedication to the cloyingly fragrant.

"Not crazy about the Krazy Dazy?" Thor asks with a smile. He had thoroughly critiqued the Hulk's room back in Sakaar after a spat, but he'd gradually warmed up to his new room, despite its tremendously more obnoxious design. That might just happen when you live somewhere long enough, though, Thor supposes.

"Your room, loud as it may be, doesn't reek of flowers the way mine does. I would offer to meet in yours if not for your dearly beloved." Valkyrie shrugged. "Unless you don't mind him being privy."

"I don't have a problem with it." Tony knew more than any other non-Asgardian about the fate of Asgard and her people. He may have not divulged all the details of Thanos' attack on The Statesman in as much detail as he had with Loki, but he knew enough.

Thor glances over at Valkyrie. "What do you think of Tony, anyway?"

"He reminds me of you." The tales and what little of the man she'd seen in person. "Hasn't given me a reason to doubt he's the ally you say he is."

"In good ways, I hope," Thor says. He never considered that the two of them might be similar, but now that he considers it, they do share some characteristics.

"The same look in your eye, I suppose." They certainly didn't resemble each other physically. Regarding looks, Tony didn't fit the profile of what she'd peg as Thor's 'type' at all. Or, at least, what she may have imagined his 'type' to be. But Thor was full of surprises.

Thor considers this answer and lets out a neutral hmmm of consideration.

"He does have nice eyes," Thor says, finally, though he knows that's not what Valkyrie was referencing at all. "They get this glossy look to them at times, and when they do they look truly beautiful."

"That wedding can't come fast enough for you, can it?" Valkyrie elbowed him good naturedly.

Thor tries (and fails) to look less satisfied than he feels.

"Actually, we're already married."

Valkyrie raised an eyebrow. "That was quick."

"You can't tell anybody," Thor says, as if he's a child swearing a sibling to secrecy. "We're still planning on having a formal ceremony. I still want you and Loki to be a part of it."

"What would you have me do, Your Majesty? Help you find the goat?" Valkyrie had little concept of Midgardian marriage rituals, but Thor had already stated that Tony was amenable to some of Asgard's..

Thor winces.

"That part was a lie as well," he says. "We can have goat at the reception, we just can't sacrifice it as part of the ceremony."

Unfortunately.

"I'll escort the both of you to bed but I'm leaving the moment you get there." Valkyrie had to draw a few lines in the sand of her own.

Thor turns himself around in front of her and begins walking backwards. "You could give me away in place of my father."

Thor always found that part of the ceremony utterly bizarre. Who was a person to be given away to another? A person's life was no one's but their own.

Valkyrie cast a doubtful look. "Give you away? Am I delivering you from something?"

This is where Thor's understanding of Midgardian culture falls flat. He started asking Jane about this part of the ceremony during her sister's wedding, but she quickly shh-ed him, leaving him to conjure up with his own conclusions.

"It's Midgardian custom -- you gift me to my partner to express your approval of their character."

"Am I expected to speak?" Rather difficult to speak for a man she barely knew. "Or do I literally pick you up and pass you off?"

"Something like that," Thor says, vaguely. "You have to walk me down an aisle first, then hand me off."

"I think I understand." Valkyrie snapped her fingers. "I hand you off in a big bag. Like this Santa Claus."

"It's not quite like that," Thor says, grinning. "I think I prefer your method, though. More entertaining than reality."

That much was true.

"Midgardian weddings are pretty dull affairs." At least compared to Asgardian ones, which leaned towards wild. "I nearly fell asleep during the one for Jane's sister."

He had actually dozed off for a moments -- just long enough for Jane to nudge him in the side.

"I could mount you on my back. Room for air?" Valkyrie sized Thor up in her head. "Or simply carry you."