roadrunnermuses | the EMILY HAS CONQUERED NANO open post

The day after Thor returns to Earth, they go out for waffles.

Jane probably could have made them herself, but, well, her cooking skills don't really extend beyond the frozen kind, and given that Thor is here and not going back to Asgard and they could actually go out and do things. She's hesitant to call them dates, because he's been here for all of a day, and she doesn't know what his being here actually means yet, but she's trying not to dwell. Or needle. Or ... only stare at him with a stupid grin on her face because none of those things are really conducive to actually getting those answers.

"So. You're here." An example of the sparkling conversation over their breakfast this morning. The stupid grin is still there as she pours syrup over her plate with one hand, and reaches out to poke one strong arm across the table from her with the other. "Actually ... here."

Thor had smiled at the waitress, two rows of white teeth and a word of gratitude that had made the older woman look at him a little wryly, no recognition at all in her face. However striking he'd like to think himself, the Prince of Asgard is not as recognizable as Tony Stark outside his armor.

He doesn't care about that, though.

One might guess at what he cares about based on the way he's beaming across at Jane. His eyes drop to follow the stream of syrup, however, ostensibly to check if the little grid of pastry overflows, possibly also the plate, but it can't really hold his attention for long. The next, he looks up at her again. One big hand chases hers across the table again. Her fingers are dwarfed by the thickness of his palm, the calluses, the breadth of his wrist. "And I am glad to be. I was pleased to bring you the spectacle of Asgard, but Earth is a jewel of Midgard and I very much enjoy this breakfast facet."

"Good! Not to say that going to Asgard wasn't ... amazing." And they still have to do that rainbow bridge thing again. She's not going to take no for an answer. Not until she figures out how it works. "But this is kind of ... the best of both. We get to spend more time together."

And she can still do her research and run all over London looking for anomalies. It's perfect!

"So ... you're planning on staying then?"

Always a great fan of Jane's work, Thor would probably not have reacted badly if she'd mentioned her ongoing project aloud. As it is, though, his whole face looks like sunshine when she talks about spending more time together. Long distance killed, man. "My home had its qualities," he agrees, humbly. They'll talk about the rainbow bridge thing another time; he tends to prefer spacing out his dad's scoldings, y'know. "But I do indeed tend to stay here."

He sets down his fork, which is surely prelude and unmistakable indicator that an important speech is about to occur. He wipes his mouth with a napkin first.

And he doesn't let go of her hand. "Jane, I intend to stay on Earth for the foreseeable future, if Earth will have me." He hasn't done anything about, for example, his lack of a passport, citizenship, ...job, but you know, that seems less important to him, who was once worshipped as a god. "I have abdicated the throne of Asgard. I was never the proper temperament to be King. My father knows my true desires, my real fate lies here-- with you."

.... Oh wow.

Yeah, that's ... wow.

Jane sucks in a breath, because as much as she is not one of those girls who swoons at a guy, Thor is ... extremely swoon-worthy. He is not the normal threshold that she's usually subjected to. And while there's a part of her that finds that incredibly unfair, she also knows that he appreciates all the parts of her that she wants him to appreciate, which makes the swooning completely legitimate.

"Well, if I can speak for Earth - which I think I can - you are more than welcome to stay."

Can she speak for Earth, actually. Thor should probably follow up on logistics some more, but he's preoccupied with her loveliness which, though the community of chronically underappreciative scientists has apparently demonstrated enormous ignorance of, he appreciates for being more than the sum of her little frame and heart-shaped face. (His eyes are full of her heart-shaped face.)

She wants him to stay. His grin stretches huge, foolish across his face. He utterly forgets for a few long moments to say something in response. "Excellent," he says though, when he summons that-- eventually. He cuts a waffle in two with the teeth of his fork. "I hope that I will be of some assistance to your work while I am here. If nothing else, ah. Though Darcy's 'intern' seems a competent driver," humorously, "I thought I might facilitate your travel."

"Oh, you can definitely do some ... facilitating." Because she is very, very curious about his particular means of travel. "But you could probably help in other ways too."

Thor's brows peak on his face. He says, "Oh?" with genuine interest as he stuffs a fat half of a waffle into his mouth, inflating the corresponding cheek. He looks far more cordial with her, about her research, than he did about Phase 2.

"Well, you know a lot about the way the universe works." And he does. He knows far more than she knows at least. "You can help me ... put things into words in a way I couldn't before."

If he's going to help with her research, she wants him to be a part of it, not just her chauffeur.

There is dignity in chauffeuring. He's fucked with one too many chariot-pulling goats in his father's stable to think anything otherwise. There is dignity, too though, in scholarship and discovery and it always puts this look on his face when she starts to talk about her work, a bright stillness in his eyes, like he's trying to stop time, right then and there, the wash of centuries and countless adventure, superlative skies and the falling inertia of the past, to keep the look in her face right here and now for as long as humanly possible.

"When we conduct our readings upon Mjolnir, we are going to need a bigger workspace," he observes, cheerfully, and then leans in for a kiss.

She grins into the kiss, pushing up a bit to meet him halfway. Or ... a quarter of the way as he is much taller and has more leverage. The idea of doing readings on Mjolnir is enticing and exciting all the same.

"We could go back to New Mexico. There is ... a lot of desert. Plenty of space to not attract too much attention."

"Will your funding extend there?" Thor does not presume to drop gold on her; he knows that Jane has earned her own way in the scientific community, and her explanation of funding and grants and whatnot had seemed very tedious but not unlike the tedium of court.

And her, it is she who wields all of the manners and protocol, and with finesse. He grins at her, doesn't move back very far away. "Can they do without you in England?"

"My funding ... pretty much goes wherever I go. I just have to make sure I report back to the university with the results." Or maybe that wasn't quite how that worked, but did they really want her testing the effects of a preternatural hammer in the middle of London?

She didn't think so.

"And I think they'll manage."

Thor looks happy. Really happy. Not that the waffles and the company and knowing that Darcy was creepering around somewhere, her boy-toy in tow, here, on Earth, his chosen life now, wasn't enough to lift his heart up from the recent grief over his brother and the lives lost. However, his features register a dark change a moment later, and he folds his arms on the table top to lean closer. He regards her very seriously.

"Though while we remain, there is one matter I know not the custom for, in Midgard," he tells her. "I know my ways with time are inconceivably long, yet in other things myself and my fellow Asgardians seem brash and hasty, but I hope that what I ask is not too forward nor too strange. I consulted Darcy, and she noted-- concern." Darcy, you ask? WHAT INCONCEIVABLE SEX ACT IS THIS, YOU ASK? "I feel I ought to ask now, while we are in England, where you may be more liberal with such intimacy than you would be in the United States." He folds his hands under his chin. His eyes have started to twinkle, possibly. "Know that it is my dearest wish to see this through, but I will understand if you would sooner not--

"--may I meet your mother?"

Jane's face grows more and more concerned as he goes on, trying to figure out exactly what it is that he's trying to get at. The word "Darcy" followed by the word "intimacy" sets off all kinds of warning bells, and when the answer finally comes ...

... it is both better and worse than she expected. She's not entirely sure how that's possible. She continues to gape for a moment, before it melts into a placating smile and she reaches forward to pat his hand gently.

"We'll talk about this later."

Much, much later.

the EMILY HAS CONQUERED NANO open post

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/waft into ancient halls of inbox-- only respond if u really feel like

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fade after A Comedic Reaction?

o7