chapter 4

The next day

The guys are putting together an X-28, the name of the ship, or flight vehicle, they're going to need to get to Nextron 4, where Ronan is supposedly hiding with Carol Danvers. They're sweaty and greasy and a mess, and none of them is wearing a shirt.

Steve is fixing the turbine. "Turn it around!", he yells out, putting on safety goggles. Somewhere, someone hit a switch because a fan spins quickly in his face. "Stop, stop, stop, this is going to go spinning right off here! Oh hey, Sophie."

"Hey, Steve, what's up?"

"Making a mess, not much else", he jokes. His narrow waist looks even thinner in comparison to his massive shoulders. He gets more ripped by the day. He never had the cut Thor did though before...well, that was years ago.

"I thought I heard your voice!" Long, but clean dreads tied back, beard still in a braid, Thor jogs over to me and throws his arms around me, his belly bouncing off me. He either doesn't notice or doesn't care because he pulls me into a deep kiss. He's beaming. He's also shirtless and round as a beach ball, wearing only pants and fingerless gloves.

"Look at the look on your face, man. That's beautiful", Steve comments, smiling.

"Can you stop running around here without a shirt on?", Rhodes quips. "I'm tired of seeing your tits bounce."

"My tits, Commander Rhodes, are fine without your commentary", Thor says with a grin and pulls me into a kiss. "What have you been up to today?", he asks me.

"Thinking", I say.

"Me too", he says, "Thinking about our future. I think I may actually have one now."

"I thought you were off with Quill and them", Rhodes points out.

"I planned to go into space with Quill and the rabbit and the green woman once our ship is finished, but that was before...now, well, of course we must find a home. A new Asgard."

"I uh..." I start.

"I don't think there are any other homes", Steve offers, "You mean on another planet?"

"Seeing that my own was destroyed, Captain Rogers, yes, I do mean on another planet", Thor offers.

"But Asgard is now on earth...", Rhodes says.

"Asgard is currently on earth, and it needs a king. I have the Valkyrie in mind. But..." He pulls me close, and I shiver as he whispers near my ear. "I have something else in mind for us."

"But, Thor, there may not be anywhere else", I say.

"When my father married my mother, he made her queen of heaven. He gave her the palace of Valhalla, and the millions of souls inside, as a wedding gift, along with a necklace made of diamonds forged from stars. I have a small broken-down fishing village in Norway that hasn't seen a new boat in 20 years." The pain in his voice creeps through the fake smile that he has plastered on his face since I saw him again. I wonder how long it's been there. Since Thanos I presume.

But...he's thinking of...marriage. I certainly didn't see this coming. It was one night!

"Thor...I think we should slow down." He steps back as if I punched him.

"Maybe she doesn't want to be queen of heaven with a hippopotamus", Rhodes offers. I squeeze my eyes closed.

"You're not even that big", I insist, "The truth is for the first time you actually look Scandinavian. You look like the Thor in the story books."

"She's right", Steve shrugs.

"But I'm not Scandinavian; they learned from us, they look like us, they worshipped us as gods, but..."

"You're Asgardian", I finish.

"Yes. And I need a new Asgard. Unless that's too fast for you", he says.

I pull him into my arms. His heart is beating faster. He's excited, and when I look at him, he's smiling.

"I found you again. I'm just grateful", I say, and he pulls me into another kiss.

"Can you stop, you're making me sick", Rhodes spits.

"Listen, I don't know you, Commander Rhodes, but please stop picking on Thor. I'm going to kiss him anywhere, any time I please", I say.

"Ooooohh, take him to the burn unit." Everyone turns around to see the enormous Dr. Banner--ripped, 10 feet tall, and green.

"I'm not picking on him. We need him! We need him in fighting form again, and that means to get off his ass, stop worrying about how sad he is, and get back in the gym", Rhodes fusses.

I'm about to say something, but Banner steps in front of me.

"I don't know you", he says, holding out a hand the size of a dinner plate.

"I'm Sophie, Thor and I dated a bit in the past", I supply.

"And you found each other again! That's awesome!", he gushes.

"She reminds me of my Peggy", Steve says. I hug him. I can't help myself.

"I'm so sorry..."

He holds up a hand. "There's nothing to say. I may try again when this is finished."

"I'm going to go get us some lunch", Banner offers. "Come with me, Sophie."

"Ummm...okay", I say surprised.

"Banner, you don't waltz in and steal someone's girl", Thor protests.

"I'd like to talk to the lady for a minute. No one is taking her away permanently." He looks at me intensely and a slow smile spreads across his face. "I think she's here to stay."

Thor is reluctant to let me go. I kiss him on the cheek. "I'm be back in a few, baby."

"But...." His eyes follow me out.

Banner holds the door for me and as we leave, I hear Steve say "Do yourself a favor, Lightning Rod, and don't screw this up."

Banner laughs. Outside is an enormous SUV, the size of three tanks glued together.

"This is yours?", I ask, dumbfounded.

"Yeah, the government built it for me. Thought it was the least they could do when I figured out how to bring half of them back from the dead. They were right."

"Tacos okay?", he asks, pulling up to Chipotle.

"You guys eat a lot of tacos around here", I say. "I didn't even know they had tacos in Norway."

"We can go somewhere else", he suggests. "I think it's just a taste of home. Once this gets built, some of us are taking off, but all of us are looking forward to getting back to New York."

"No, I love tacos, how could I not living in L.A. for so long."

"Oh that's right, you were writing movies, right?"

"Well I tried while I worked at the Natural History Museum", I answer.

"Great place. Nothing more important than teaching. Listen, what do you know about Norse mythology?", he prompts while we stand in the busy line.

"I'm an anthropologist, so quite a bit, but I'll warn you not to talk about it to Thor. He never fails to point out that he's neither Norse nor mythology", I say.

He laughs. Everyone is staring at the huge green guy, even though the world knows who the Hulk is.

"I'm not so sure about that", he says.

"Me either", I say and he smiles at me.

"You see in Norse mythology, there always had to be an All-Father. Odin never "died", it would have thrown off the entire balance of the cosmos. He doesn't die until end times, "Ragnarok." Ragnarok happened of course, but Asgard is just one branch on Ydrassil, the World Tree, Ragnarok should have destroyed everything--Earth too", he says. "The fact that we're still breathing would indicate Ragnarok did not happen."

"Yeah, that's the myth", I agree.

"I'm not sure that even was Ragnarok. If it was, it didn't bear much resemblance to the stories..."

"To which Thor would say the Vikings got their stories from the Asgardians, and didn't translate them perfectly", I interrupt.

"Of course. But this was a two-way street. My point is this--I see you arguing with Rhodes..."

"I don't mean to argue with him", I interrupt again, "But he has to be nice to Thor."

"I wasn't meaning it in a bad way. He wants Thor to return to being the man he was before. But I'm evidence that sometimes you just can't do that. Sometimes you have to...evolve. Maybe Thor is past being Thor. The stories about Thor are about a headstrong, egotistical young man who has to find his way to being worthy. Despite all the praise thrown at him, women who adore him, he has to learn that he has a lot left to learn. He has to learn just how wise he isn't, he has to be taken down a peg or two. This Thor has been through all that. This Thor has learned the hard way. His Thor doesn't have an ego left to crush. I think maybe it's time he evolved."

"Into what?", I ask, as we get to the front of the line.

"The All-Father. Hi, listen, can we get about 30 tacos, get us a couple family size boxes, plenty of sides...sorry.."

"It's okay, you're like 10 feet tall, I'm sure you can put it away..."

"Yeah, I can, but not as well as your boyfriend", he winks.

"He's not my boyfriend", I say.

"You sure about that?", he winks again.

"I almost had to drag him into my hotel room...I don't know what's going on, or what he's thinking."

"Yeah you do", he says, and I'm not so sure I like this wiser Brains 'n' Brawn Banner. "Thor is hurting. He's in pain, he's sad, he's depressed, he feels unworthy, and every single person he ever cared about or leaned on for anything is dead. He's the one, after a hundred thousand years of advanced civilization, who watched the destruction of his entire planet. He feels like a failure. But he can heal. He needs love, and time and space to recover. And I know how much he'd like to do it in your arms."

I blush furiously.

"But I need to know you love him as much as I think you do", he says.

"I appreciate you trying to protect him. But we just met again, we had one night, nobody is talking about love..."

"You may not be talking about it. But you feel it. Right?" He winks again. I'm going to smack his big green face if he keeps doing that. "He loves you too, Sophie. It radiates off him. Just take care of our Asgardian king, okay? Speaking of which, you know everybody who dies and how in the Ragnarok tale, correct?"

"Yes", I offer.

"Well it didn't play out correctly, and I think maybe it didn't play out at all."

I frown. "You don't think Odin is dead?", I ask.

"Oh, Odin is dead. It's somebody else I think might not be. I mean, he's died a million times, but did he ever really?", he as