InsaneJournal

Who: Thor and Jane Foster
What: Recovering from the storm
Where: Their home in New Asgard
When: Immediately after their return and into the next morning

Jane didn’t say much as she and Thor trudged into the house.The only noise was a squelching and a subtle drip as they trailed a path of water from their sodden clothes on their way from the door to the bedroom. Marching them to the bathroom, she manhandled Thor in with her. His blue eye, the real one, looked glazed and far away, and he seemed disinclined to resist. She turned the water on in the shower, as hot as she could stand.

“In,” she ordered.

They left her wet clothes and his armor in a heap next to the tub. Rain soaked might be a natural state for Thor but Jane was sopping wet and cold. There was a temperature difference between New York in a hurricane and Norway in early spring. Already her skin was prickled into goosebumps and her teeth near chattering. Jane needed to warm up and while Thor wouldn’t be as affected by temperature as she was, Jane wanted him in the soothing heat of a hot shower. Another sensation to pull him further away from the storm in his blood could only be a good thing.

Only once they were out did their wet clothes finally get thrown over the edge of the tub to drip dry. Thor still had a faraway look and grim set to his mouth but there was also the small signs of exhaustion, even for an Asgardian. Jane curled beside Thor in bed and whispered in the dark.

“You’re okay. It’s going to be okay.”

In the morning, in defiance of the natural order of things, Jane was the one who got up. In every relationship there is one person who is bad at mornings and one person whose job it is to start the coffee pot. Jane was the late-sleeping coffee-drinker of this relationship. But there were always exceptions. The next morning Jane arose uncoerced and set about scrambling a ridiculous number of eggs.

Only when they were both had a chance to start on their plate of eggs and cup of coffee did she ask , “Do you want to talk about it?”

Thor looked down at the plate, and sighed. Did he want to talk about it? In all actuality, he still didn’t even know what had happened. How had he completely and utterly lost it? The events of the day before were so vague and yet so clear.

The news had come from Peter and the group texts were confusing but eventually stated that Loki was in trouble. Okay. He would rescue his brother, he’d done so many times before. Only this realm, everything was different. He couldn’t go to the actual prison and break him out -- it was all militarized, there were weapons and many people who didn’t deserve to die. No demons, no monsters, just regular Midgardians working. How could he fault them when they were simply following orders?

And Loki really should not have broken into ..wherever he broke into.

Then the storm ...and getting back home… If it wasn’t for Val fighting him...Jane coming to soothe him … it would have been worse. So much worse. It was already bad. While Jane had been downstairs making coffee and breakfast, a task that he couldn’t even bring himself to contemplate, he’d sneaked on his phone and watched the news channels in horror. One impulsive decision and he would be paying for it. His people would be paying for it.

“Loki is right,” Thor responded finally, after pushing his food around on his plate for a while. “I only know how to handle things with my fists. I am a failure, and worse, I have made a decision that will ripple through for many weeks, if not longer.” He gave her a wry smile, meeting her eyes. “So you see, my love, it is not you who has to worry about bringing great dishonour onto my people -- I have that category well under control.”

Jane’s phone had been buzzing with notifications all morning. She’d eventually shoved it into the kitchen junk drawer among old NYC takeout menus to keep from looking at it. The world would catch up to them. It usually did. Right now Jane was more focused on what was in front of her.

“You know that’s not true. You’re not a failure. What happened wasn’t good but it’s more important we figure out why it happened. Why the storm got so big and why you couldn’t calm down until I got there.”

Another heavy sigh escaped as he glanced out the window. The storm was still continuing, only now it was here in Norway. Not as bad as before, but the sun hadn’t peeked through since he returned, and he could feel it in his bones that it wouldn’t shine for some time. The sky was overcast, with clouds lightly drizzling rain.

“I cannot even stop it now,” he admitted. The depression had hit, and hit hard. His past memories had flooded back during the evening and reminded him of all his failures, all the times he couldn’t get past these emotions...reminded him of how he felt a few years ago, when his mother was still here, and he felt himself sinking.

Maybe he was weak. Ruled by his emotions instead of his fists.

Too many conflicting thoughts in his mind and if it wasn’t for the fact he didn’t want to offend Jane, he wouldn’t eat what was in front of him. Instead, he did. She didn’t often do this and it was a nice change. Not that he ever minded.

“Perhaps I should return to bed. I can accomplish nothing but harm.”

Jane was glad to see Thor finally eat something. He’d expended an enormous amount of energy in the storm last night. Even the grey skies now took something out of him. Asgardians could withstand a lot but they still had to eat. At least he wasn’t refusing that.

“Thor...no.” Jane got up and went over to him, draping her arms over his shoulders. She cradled his head for a moment and then stroked her fingers through his hair. “You’re a good person. Things got out of control and you made a bad choice. I know it’s hard and now you’ve got to figure out how to make it right and what we need to do to stop it from getting that bad again. We can do that.That’s who you are.”

He lifted his hand up to hold her arm without a second thought… until he then wondered about his worth, and whether he was worthy of having such an amazing woman at his side.

The answer was no. And yet here she stood.

"Yes," he answered softly, after several moments. "But not this eve. Tonight…." He cleared his throat. Was he choking up a bit? "I will eat this repast and then I need to rest for this storm to pass." He didn't add that he felt it would take some days for it to fully dissipate; he knew she'd put the two together soon enough.

Letting go of her arm, he reached down for his abandoned utensil and stared at his meal. His appetite which barely existed earlier was now non-existent but he knew he had to eat. Eat and then sleep. That was all his brain could process.