Chapter Text
‘And that is the energy differential between the quantum vacuum and the F.E.R.-space,’ said Stark, dropping his dry-erase marker and grinning smugly.
‘See, when you said let’s-go-visit-Jane, I didn’t realise you meant interrupt her and then try and do her work for her,’ said Rhodey. He took a slurp of his coffee and cocked an eyebrow inquiringly at Jane.
‘I did not- she asked for my help,’ Tony objected.
Jane snorted and inspected the board. ‘I said the math was being annoying. I didn’t say I needed you to fix it,’ she said. She chewed on the end of her own pen, following through the equations. ‘The logic is sound but-’
‘But what?’
‘But it’s wrong.’
‘No it’s not.’
‘Yes it is,’ said Jane.
‘Point to me where it’s wrong,’ Tony demanded, moving next to her and following her eyes as Rhodey snickered and also moved closer. He was walking quite normally on his prosthetics these days, Jane noticed, and he’d been using his cane less and less.
‘I don’t know,’ she admitted. ‘I just know it’s wrong.’
‘How can you possibly know that? The math holds up.’
‘Yes, but the end result… it’s just… wrong.’ Jane glared at the final few lines of scribbles. ‘Look, I want it to be right. I would love for you to have swooped in here and fixed this stupid stuff. It’s been bugging me for an hour. But the result you’ve got just doesn’t make sense.’
‘It made enough sense when you were explaining it ten minutes ago,’ said Tony. ‘This is your logic, remember. I just added a further level. Rhodey? Any thoughts?’
Rhodey tilted his head to the side and took another drink. ‘Not my field, but I can’t see any errors.‘
‘See!’ said Tony, folding his arms.
Jane sighed, reached for her long-since-cold coffee, and followed the logic through in her mind. It was her methodology. It should make sense. It did make sense. Except for the result, which wasn’t right.
‘Look, I’ve been studying this forever,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why it’s wrong, but I know the calculations don’t work.’
‘And this isn’t just your confirmation bias?’
‘No,’ said Jane.
Tony sighed. ‘All right, fine,’ he said. ‘But I’m not staying here all afternoon to help you.’
Good, thought Jane. Not that she didn’t appreciate the help, or even the company, for a short amount of time. There were just only about three people whose companionship didn’t start to grate on her after a while, and one was on a lecture tour, one was on a lunch date, and one was somewhere in space. Tony Stark was not one of them.
‘I think it is because you added one during the acceleration calculation eight lines from the last. You should have subtracted it instead.’ The voice came from behind them.
The suggestion was accurate, Jane saw that straight away. Tony’s unintelligible mutter of exclamation and his reaching for the eraser only confirmed it. But she suddenly didn’t care because the speaker’s voice was perfectly, wonderfully familiar to her. She whirled around, splattering cold coffee on her shirt as she did.
Thor. Thor who was meant to be in space, but who evidently wasn’t, and who was grinning openly at the shocked faces greeting him (and Tony’s grumpy mutterings about how many PhDs they had between the three of them and they’d somehow missed an arithmetic error). When his eyes found Jane’s properly though, his smile softened. She made a high-pitched noise that she just knew she was going to get shit for later, shoved her coffee cup back on the table, and flung herself at him, jumping into arms that opened to receive her.
He kissed her, and, because he was great at not caring about what any of the others thought, hoisted her up, one hand on her butt and the other around her waist, all without breaking lip contact. Jane went with it because it had been over a year and she wanted to cry and laugh and pull his stupid armour off there and then and also just kiss him forever.
‘You two are worse than any high-schoolers,’ said Rhodey.
‘We’ll, er, just be going,’ said Tony. ‘Or you guys could, you know, go to a bedroom and not defile my labs and ruin Friday’s innocence.’
Jane could hear movement from behind her and she waved vaguely, hoping they got the message she was trying to convey which was ‘thanks and get the hell out of here’.
Thor, unfortunately, chose that moment to lean back. His cheeks were faintly pink and his pupils were dark, and when Jane pouted he followed her lips with his eyes. But before she could kiss him again he turned to Tony and Rhodey, already most of the way out of the lab.
‘My friends, I have news to share,’ he said. ‘It is grave indeed.’
Jane did her best to suppress a sigh. Of course Thor was back with Avengers stuff. Of course he was. This was his life the same way the calculation he’d corrected was hers. She’d accepted that long ago. She just wished… well, she wished a lot of things.
She’d never felt the lack of someone so deeply in her bones before she’d met Thor. Every time he left it was like an ache. Suddenly each raindrop or clap of thunder seemed to hail a return that never was, her hopes being dashed in the quiet that followed. She wondered how long they would do this. Time went faster the older someone was, and Thor was the most extreme example she knew. A year to him was nothing. A year to her however, had seen her win a Nobel prize, publish a book, buy a house, and find her first grey hair. It was a long time.
Tony sighed. ‘I’ll assemble the gang,’ he said. ‘Just to warn you though, buddy, things have… changed.’
Thor lowered Jane to the ground at last as Tony and Rhodey left, Tony giving Friday instructions as he did.
‘I missed you,’ she said. ‘Can you stay? After this?’
‘For a little while the Nine Realms can wait,’ he said. He reached up to touch her cheek and she leaned forcefully into his hand. ‘I missed you too, Beloved,’ he said. ‘Not a day passed when I did not think of you.’
She reached up to clutch his hand to her, just watching him, loving the sight of him and wishing for more.
‘Come on,’ she said at last, reluctantly breaking the silence. ‘Let’s go talk to the others. Quickly if possible. Then I’ll show you my bedroom in the compound.’ He grinned. ‘I hope you stopped at the space-seven-eleven by the way, because I’m pretty sure I don’t have any condoms, and you’re going to be the one who asks Tony for some if not.’ Thor gave the shrug of someone who would absolutely be prepared to do that, which was a relief.
At the sight of the Avengers as they were, his smile became a frown. Tony, Rhodey and Vision sat at the conference table. T’Challa’s face appeared on a screen.
‘Thor, this is King T’Challa of Wakanda,’ said Tony.
Thor bowed. ‘Your Majesty,’ he greeted solemnly. Jane blinked. She’d never seen him being quite so deferential, even with his father, but she guessed T’Challa was an unknown to him.
‘Prince Thor,’ greeted T’Challa. ‘Please feel no need for the formality. I am here, like you, as an Avenger. Also like you, one who has many other responsibilities.’
Thor gave a nod. ‘It is an honour to meet you,’ he said. ‘I hope that you, too, will not stand on ceremony.’
‘What… is happening there? Can I see what’s happening?’ The voice was young and came from the phone. It took Jane a moment to place it until she remembered the kid Tony picked up occasionally. The one who pretended to be a spider.
‘And this is Peter. He’s sort of… a part-timer. In between classes.’ Tony coughed. ‘High school classes,’ he added, looking slightly abashed.
Thor frowned. ‘What of Steve, Natasha and Sam Wilson? Or for that matter Wanda Maximoff? I expected to see them here. I understood you yourself had stepped away, Tony.’
‘Uh… it’s complicated.’
‘The UN got scared, decided to regulate the Avengers, Steve and Tony had a massive, public falling out instead of talking to each other like adults. Steve and the others are now on the run from the government and the official Avengers are technically UN property,’ summarised Jane. ‘Not that complicated.’
Thor blinked.
‘Thanks Jane,’ said Tony through gritted teeth.
‘I hope that this disagreement is not insurmountable,’ said Thor evenly, not quite keeping the disapproval out of his voice. ‘For we may find we badly need our friends before long. Will our discussion here be reported to your governments?’
‘Not… exactly,’ said Tony. ‘We’re all just here, as friends, to hear what our good friend Thor has to say. If it needs to, we’ll let someone know.’
‘Um, can we hurry up?’ said Peter. ‘Only, my lunch break’s over soon and I’ve got to get to AP Bio.’
Tony gave a melodramatic sigh and eye roll, as though he weren’t the one who’d decided a high school student was best placed to be involved in the Avengers.
‘The information I have is still incomplete,’ said Thor before any further bickering could begin, ‘but it concerns Midgard, and it will concern you, Vision.’ And then he told them of an alien fanatic who’d acquired just one Infinity Stone and nearly destroyed a planet; of the rumours that a Midgardian was involved in stopping him; and of Thanos, a tyrant who wished to unite all the stones.
‘So you believe he will come here?’ said Vision.
‘For you,’ said Thor simply. ‘He cannot unite the stones while you live.’
‘Perhaps I should… go.’ Vision seemed to consider the idea.
‘To where?’ said Tony. ‘You were born- created- whatever here on Earth. You’re alive. You deserve to live, and live where you want.’ Vision gave a slight smile at Tony’s defense.
‘It is possible he would come anyway,’ said Thor. ‘It seems that it was he who first supplied Loki with the Mind Stone, and he who sent Loki to Midgard in search of the Tesseract. He may desire vengeance for your victory.’
‘Oh, great,’ said Tony sarcastically. ‘Thanks again to your brother.’
Jane reached out her hand to take Thor’s and he sent her a small, tight smile.
‘Uh, so, I’ve got to go to class,’ said Peter. ‘But thanks for letting me know there’s a probably alien overlord coming to squash our planet. That will help me with my finals.’
‘Study hard, kid,’ said Tony.
‘We’ll let you know if you miss anything,’ said Rhodey. ‘Don’t worry. Forewarned is forearmed, after all.’
‘What do we know of the location of the stones?’ asked T’Challa, once Peter had hung up. ‘Vision holds one, but you said there are six?’
‘The Tesseract is on Asgard and the Power Stone is held on the world of Xandar. I believe both are as safe as they can be,’ said Thor. ‘If one is stolen the other might be used to fight, after all.’
‘Isn’t the Aether on Asgard too?’ said Jane. Thor hesitated, which made the slight anxiety that thoughts of the Aether always brought curdle in her stomach. ‘Thor.’
‘It was too dangerous to have two stored on Asgard,’ said Thor. ‘My father sent the Aether to be protected by… another. In the fight over the Power Stone, its containment was broken. Its current location is unknown.’
‘Oh,’ said Jane, tightly. She clenched her free hand, looking down at it, remembering the redness and the darkness and the heat running through her veins, making her feel lighter somehow, less of a person. As though she might burn up at any moment. But before she did, it had clasped at her heart and soul until she’d wanted it to kill her. It hadn’t wanted that, though. She shuddered. Thor’s hand in hers tightened and forced her back to then and there and a table of concerned looking Avengers. ‘It’s fine. I’m fine. Sorry, just… went elsewhere.’
The concern on Thor’s face did not abate, but he allowed her to leave it there, turning back to the table to discuss his hunt for the remaining two stones. Those had not resurfaced in modern times (by which he meant the last millennium) so his hunt was based off myths and stories.
Jane settled back and counted her breathing against the ticking off the clock, listening to and watching Thor. Sometimes, when he was gone, she almost convinced herself he was a dream she had. A long, vivid, beautiful dream. When he was there, though, such a thought would be impossible. For an alien myth discussing aliens myths, he seemed to her to be more grounded in the world that she ever had been. His voice never wavered despite the doom he’d prophesied and the monstrous difficulty of the task he’d set himself. His physical presence in the room, always slightly different in a way she couldn’t categorise, seemed to almost exude a warmth that never failed to calm her.
‘So you’re going back into space, and we’ve got to decide whether or not to tell the UN that the planet might be doomed,’ said Tony at last.
‘We should probably mention it,’ said Rhodey. ‘Just, you know, casually drop it into conversation with Ross sometime. See how he reacts.’ Tony grinned.
‘It might cause difficulty for Vision if they perceive the threat is coming for him,’ said T’Challa. He pursed his lips before turning to address Vision directly. ‘Perhaps you should spend some time abroad and out of harm’s way.’
‘It seems wherever I go I would risk people’s lives,’ said Vision uncomfortably.
‘That may be the case,’ said T’Challa, ‘but there is nothing we can do about that. If the United Nations acted disproportionately to your existence, we could be in even more danger without your help. If you can find somewhere a little more under the radar, perhaps things would be safer for you/’
‘Maybe Helen’ll put you up for a bit?’ suggested Jane.
Vision gave a small smile. ‘It has been a while since I saw Helen,’ he said quietly.
‘Or we did once-upon-a-time know some people who were good at hiding,’ pointed out Rhodey. ‘So good that nobody knows where they are. I’m sure they’d help.’
‘I do not know that I have been forgiven,’ said Vision.
‘I’m sure they’d help anyway,’ said Rhodey.
‘This does leave the Avengers a bit thin on the ground here,’ pointed out Tony.
‘You should troll some more high schools,’ said Jane. ‘Isn’t that how you recruit these days?’ She got to her feet before Tony could object. ‘Come on, Thor.’
Thor followed her instantly, unembarrassed in the face of Tony’s leering.
Jane kissed him a couple of times in the corridors of the facility before shoving him playfully into her bedroom. ‘Just going to raid Darcy’s room before you have to risk asking Tony. Be back in a few.’
In Darcy’s room she ran a brush through her hair, reapplied deodorant, and hunted in Darcy’s drawers until she found some condoms. Then she texted her friend: “Thor’s back. Took your condoms. Can you pick some more up on your way back?” Darcy’s near-instantaneous reply was filthy, but Jane just grinned and set her phone to silent.
Sparing a last glance at herself in Darcy’s mirror - the coffee-stained shirt, several-days-overdue-a-wash bra, and unshaven legs were regrettable, but that sort of thing had never bothered Thor before - she hoiked up her bra straps, undid her top button, and hurried back to her room where Thor was waiting.
He’d already vanished most of his armour and pulled off the undershirt he always wore. Jane had a few moments to appreciate the view as he approached her with an unhurried confidence. Jane, however, didn’t share his lack of urgency, a tight lump her chest forming when she remembered he would be gone in just a few days.
She pulled him down to kiss her, grasping tightly at his hair, insisting he followed her direction, and receiving a low noise of approval in return for her efforts. She pushed him back towards her bed, fumbling with the fastenings on his pants. He went, compliant even as she pushed him down onto his back, tugging at her shirt buttons now as she went over with him.
A rising sense of need within her, Jane hastily pulled at her own clothes, forcing her shirt over her head and pushing down her jeans even as she was trying to kick her shoes off.
‘Jane,’ he said softly. ‘I will be here long enough for-’
‘I know. I missed you. I love you.’
‘I love you too,’ he replied. He smiled up at her, leaning up on his elbows as he watched her scramble back off the bed to kick off the last of her jeans and socks. ‘You are beautiful. Moreso even than the dreams I’ve had of this moment.’
She felt her cheeks warm, and even then thought it was ridiculous that he could still make her blush when he looked at her like that. It had been a while though.
He held out his arms, taking her hands and kissing the fingertips before he tugging her gently towards him. Jane went, needing to be against his skin, needing his hands and his mouth on her, holding her to that moment and letting her forget the rest of the universe.
Thor held her tightly - almost too tightly - and she thought he must have felt something of that too. Despite his offer to slow things, he met her urgent pace easily: kissing her hard, sliding hands across her skin, pulling her hips against his so she could feel how ready he was. In his hands, some of the tightness within her started to crumble. It would be all right. He was there now, with her.
‘Jane, I love you,’ he said again, pressing his nose against hers. His breaths were heavy against her face and she smiled. She liked that she could make a thunder god gasp for breath, and she rocked her hips against his because she knew he would again. ‘Jane,’ he sighed against her.
She went for his pants - already loose around his hips - and this time he helped her out.