Ex Marks the Spot [for rogueinladysclothing]

[pirateangelbaby]

The summer sun is high in the sky when the little rental car turns the corner around the coast and up the narrow bridge onto the islands of Asvera. The rainbow paint on the concrete has been refreshed and augmented with something that makes it shimmer, though it's still a pale comparison to the rainbow bridge of Asgard. The driver has little room to contemplate that however, instead inching forward at a snail's pace while they stare around at the sleepy little fishing village.

There have been significant modifications made since Asgard's arrival, of course. Several of the outlying islands have been terraformed into housing, and towers of Wakandan and Asgardian design make up much of the new buildings. Handpainted signs point toward the administrative center, still based in an overhauled church, though symbols of Asgardian make have replaced all the existing iconography. It's no gleaming golden palace, and now that they've thought of it, they notice there hasn't been a single figure in armor guarding anything that looks important.

Is this the right place? It has to be, right?

The clothes on the villagers, at least, looks familiar. Fancy robes and dresses, embroidered tunics and embossed belts, though the styles are sometimes an odd mishmash with Earth dress. The hairstyles, too, are another reassurance. Few people on Earth have the time for this level of braiding for casualwear, and enough people are going about their daily trades that it's clear this isn't a special occasion, either.

It's the right place indeed. But the wrong time.

The young man at the reception desk in the admin center helpfully reveals that Thor is not currently in town. The visitor's shoulders slump, and they leave the rental car behind as they wander down the road, contemplating their next move. Wait for him to arrive, knowing that it could be hours? Even days? Leave a note, 'sorry I missed you,' and continue embodying those ships that pass in the night?

The sound of clanging metal and grunts of effort echo down the street, drawing their attention. There's little open land available in Asvera, but the Asgardians have made good use of what they have. A training ring has been established along the northern waterfront, large enough for several dozen people to run drills and skirmish with each other, separated from the main walkway by a split-rail fence. The trainees are lightly armored in leather, armed with carved wooden swords and shields, men and women and children alike. The woman at the head of the class has clearly done this a time or two; her armor is battleworn and well fitted, and her blade moves like an extension of her own arm.

Jane Foster leans against the fence to watch, the memory of Asgard in its glory fresh in her mind as she struggles to process what she's seeing now.

Comments

[rogueinladysclothing]

"There's also the fact that I'll speak for myself in all of this. That will probably move things along a bit." There's no family to consider or titles that will need a home in someone else when she becomes his wife. It's only her and what little she has, even if that "little" includes a sizeable amount of money she has no plans for but to leave to Asvera if she doesn't use it here throughout her life. Maybe she can offer that for this kind of negotiation? If there even is to be one.

She huffs a small laugh as a thought occurs to her. If needs be, she'd be paying her own dowry. What a strange place her life has led her if she's to do something like that for herself.

But she doesn't speak her small realization aloud, focusing instead on his words. This is another one of her fears, though she's kept it locked further away from her heart in those few moments she allowed herself to think of children with Thor before today. It's harder to swallow than knowing the man she loves will live on long after she passes.

"I know. I've seen the children born to mixed parentage here, and I know their aging is slowed like all of Loki's children." Children who will be children long after she can't run after them or carry them any longer. Children she'll have to teach what she knows while they're still too young, if she has any hope of passing along what knowledge she has that should be retained. It hurts to know this, but acknowledging it is important.

A soft, thoughtful frown settles on her lips. "It will hurt to know I can't be there for them as they grow, but I don't want to hold myself back from trying. If we marry, I want to try. I'll... need your support, but I want to try this with you." A beat as she grips his hands gently. "But only if you'll be all right carrying on for them without me." It will be just as painful for him, if not more so, to live without her at his side, and she doesn't want to subject him to being father to their children alone for centuries if he's uncertain about taking that responsibility on.

[pirateangelbaby]

"A bit," he agrees, that amused regret only growing stronger at the thought. "Neither of us have family that need to come to agreement. Well, except for Loki, of course." Thor's laugh is quiet, but affectionate. "Better him than my father."

Hmm. He'd better speak to his brother soon, actually. If Loki feels he's been slighted by being forgotten in all this, he's liable to resort to pranks, no matter how agreeable he's been in recent years. And that besides, Thor will want him there regardless. Both because Loki may recall more of royal wedding traditions than Thor does, and simply because Thor has always dreamed of his family standing at his side at such a milestone.

What Amelia asks next is something that, like her, he's not allowed himself to think on. Hard enough to contemplate losing Amelia one day, inevitable as the tides. He's always known it deep down, but picturing his life without her, raising their children on his own... could he do it? Probably. Any such children would be a piece of her, living on with him long after her pyre burns. But Thor has also known more grief and heartbreak than he'd ever expected to know, and he remembers well how easily it can drown a man in loss's wake. How can he say now, in this moment, that he knows what those days will hold for him?

But now is not a time for answers etched in stone, nor agreements made to bind. What matters is knowing the question, and beginning the search for the answer, no matter how long it takes.

He closes his eye for a moment, taking in a breath before opening it again, leaning forward to touch his forehead against hers, warm and solid. "I don't know," he admits quietly. "I don't want to lose you at all, but I must, one day."

[rogueinladysclothing]

"Much better when I already know him." Several versions of him, in fact. She knows which one he'll speak to about this, but there is a little amusement in the fact that he could have a number of Lokis all coming to the negotiation table to have their say about her and their marriage. Even that doesn't worry her when she's fond of every one she's met.

She frowns softly at his words. Expected as the last are, the first are painful to be reminded of. What they haven't isn't forever, or even for very long. They have a few decades at most, time enough to fall deeply in love only to lose it when death inevitably comes for her. There's no pushing back against it. There's no battle to fight that can be won. This will happen, and they'll both suffer for it. Him far more than her, but still... still it will hurt when she nears the end of her life and she knows she's going to dream alone for the rest of eternity.

Only... she's not certain of that anymore. With all ties to her world lost, she has no idea where her mind will go when she dies. Into nothingness? Into someone else's afterlife? To Thor's? She doesn't know, and now's not the time to ask when they have much more important things to focus on.

"It will be a sad day when we lose one another, but I will be glad for every other day I've had with you." She frees a hand to rest it along his cheek, closing her eyes to fall into the comfort of being close like this. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked something like this of you. It's unfair of me, knowing how much more you'll have to carry when I'm gone. You don't have to answer now. We have plenty else to talk on before any plans are made for our lives."

Her plans to love and marry him haven't changed because of this. They have time to decide if they even want children before they try for them. This doesn't need to be settled today when so many other, more important things have been brought up.

[pirateangelbaby]

"No," he protests softly, reaching up to touch her face in turn, a mirror of each other. "It's not unfair at all. How can we plan for a future if we do not face what it will look like?"

It's no more than he's asked her to consider, knowing what it would mean to be queen and Allmother. It's just as much that he consider what his days will be beyond her life, what it will mean to all those left behind, not just himself.

"If only my dreams would tell me of brighter days," he adds with a small smile, a gentle jest to lift the mood, though not an untruthful one. "But I suppose I will have to wait to experience them day by day as I live them, together with you. That alone will be a treasure worth cherishing."

[rogueinladysclothing]

She smiles just a little as he says that, but it's sad at the edges. It still feels unfair to her to have made this particular request of him, even if he's right that they must look forward. They get nowhere and gain nothing by hiding from the obvious realities of their situation.

"I'll cherish every day with you, good or bad. The same as I have every day we've had until now." Her smile warms as she brushes her thumb across his cheek. "I don't mind not knowing what's to come. My life has always felt like it was in my hands and best experienced by living it. That hasn't changed since we fell in love. Every day is an opportunity to exist and live as best we can, and that's all I truly need in my life with you." Everything else is simply a blessing she'll take exactly as it is.

Slowly, she opens her eyes to look up at him, then gently presses her lips to his cheek. "We'll face every day together for as long as we can. While I draw breath, at your side is where I want to be."

[pirateangelbaby]

A part of Thor is still in disbelief that this is real, that the Norns could be this kind. Surely they're waiting for him to let his guard down before they pull the rug from under his feet, and make him look the fool for thinking he could have someone who loves him so. But Thor has ever been a man who cannot help but wear his heart on his sleeve, who cannot help but trust and love and reach out to those he cares for, no matter how much he fears what might come of it.

"Then you truly are stuck with me," he murmurs, turning his head to capture her lips with his own before she can pull away again. "Til the day you perish, or I do."