Jane Foster (science_fact) wrote in avengers_logs, @ 2018-09-18 19:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | -complete, jane foster, thor odinson |
Who: Jane Foster and Thor
What: Taking a moment to rest
When: backdated before the dusted returned
Rating: Green
Every day presented its own challenges, but Thor liked that. It was important to him to feel needed, so while his family worked hard to help whichever way possible, Thor too threw himself into his projects with enthusiasm.
He participated in every Avengers meeting possible. He helped Bobbi Morse with various SHIELD activities. On his spare time, he pondered the fate of his people and how to bring them to Midgard now that he controlled the bifrost. He spent time with his friends, in whatever capacity they needed.
The only thing he'd been unable to do is tear Jane away from her work. It wasn't that Thor didn't understand the necessity of what she was doing. He could see it in the faces of Stark and the Man of Ants, the loss they had. He saw it in Jane's face everytime she tried to call her mother. He knew it was important work and yet he also knew that if Jane didn't stop, something bad would happen to her.
Entering the labs at Stark's penthouse, his eyes swept around the room. An already chaotic place, it had worsened under the scientists' ongoing studies. For once, he'd managed to find a time when it was Jane, and for that, he was thankful. Coming up behind her, he lightly placed his hands on her shoulders and bent down to brush a kiss on her head. "My love," he said quietly, so as not to startle her. "Have you rested today?"
Engrossed as she was in her monitors, Jane still jumped. There had been little else but the work since it began. She seemed to exist, here in this room. She had to. It had taken time to catch up, to get up to speed with what had to be done. This wasn't Jane's area of expertise and she wasn't Tony, where she could look at something and understand it in ten minutes. Only now was Jane starting to feel like she could contribute more than basic number crunching.
"I'm all right," Jane said, tilting her head to look up at Thor. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly as if that might convince him. "I'm almost done."
Thor almost started to argue, before realizing that wouldn't do anything. Instead, he thought maybe the scientific method would work better: a theory, a hypothesis and a result. Maybe not in that order but close.
"And of that, I don't doubt. You have worked tirelessly, sacrificing much." He smoothed out a strand of her hair, his eyes flickering across her face. There were semi permanent circles under her eyes, and a weariness he couldn't recall seeing before. "I wonder though, how long the human body can last on less than 4 hours of sleep a night, running on the bare caloric essentials..." He leaned down and gave her a kiss, surprised at how hard it was to restrain himself, but it'd been so long since they'd been able to simply relax....
Jane broke away with a glance to the door in case Tony or Scott should come back but she did turn more fully in to face Thor, stepping in to rest her cheek against his chest. She let him take her weight, eyes closed. Jane had missed him. Their conversations had been limited to the times Thor had brought food by the lab or the few times they both were awake when one of them crawled into bed to grab a few hours sleep. A couple weeks ago it felt like they were working towards making a life together. Now.. Jane didn't know what this was but it was hardly a life. Some sort of walking nightmare they were all just trying to survive. She and Thor hadn't really had any time alone together since the night before her disaster of a birthday.
She was so tired.
"Fiday?" Jane called, "can you save my progress? Upload it to the server so I can access it from my laptop later?"
The AI's voice chimed a response, seeming to come from everywhere. "No problem Dr. Foster."
Thor could barely contain his excitement when he heard her command. Tightening his grip, he pulled her as close as he could. "Does this mean you're mine for a few hours? Or dare I hope an entire night?" His eyes twinkled when he looked down at her. "We could get away from this place, anywhere you wish. I've missed you terribly."
"I missed you too." Jane saw that look and while she didn't know if she was too tired to want to go quite there yet, she nodded. What she wanted was to stand under the spray of a shower as hot as she could make it and then to sit with Thor's arms wrapped around her someplace she didn't have to feel guilty to still have the one she loved safe in her arms. "Home?" And then, "Somewhere. Anywhere. I don't care."
He drummed his fingers on her shoulder. Home. Who's home really? His? No, he didn't want to bring her there. Darcy and Loki were working tirelessly, dealing with international relations and diplomacy. His mother had also joined the fervor and if he went there, he'd feel compelled to assist.
Her home? It wasn't a home. Neither of them really enjoyed being there by themselves, and he hadn't really returned since everything happened.
And then he had an idea. "You know," he murmured, "I do control the bifrost now..my powers have grown exponentially and we could away to any place we desire...perhaps to where everything begin?" that was one of the last places he could remember being absolutely comfortable. "Puente Antiguo."
There was a homesick ache in Jane's chest as soon as Thor suggested it. "Yes," she agreed thickly, pulling to shove her laptop and notebooks into a bag. "I can't - I can't t - let's just go, okay?"
Before she could change her mind, he whisked her up to the roof, grabbing her bag and nothing else. A few moments later, and they were landing at her lab in New Mexico. Thor had to admit, he felt a sense of relief being there. No expectations, no responsibilities... yes, he'd probably feel guilty later on, but this was sorely needed.
"You've redecorated," he commented, his arms still wrapped loosely around her. "It looks much better than your New York apartment."
"Yeah. All those speeches I gave a few years ago paid for some remodeling." Jane' s lab was a converted mid-century service station and still looked it. The main space was one large round room functioning as lab and living space. She'd expanded the kitchen to make it more functional, then put on an addition for a bedroom and master so she would no longer need to sleep in a trailer out back. The lab area was a mess and unlike the New York apartment, this place felt lived in.
Jane still looked tired but the adrenaline of Bifrost travel chased some of her weariness away. "Home." she sighed. "Thank you."
He nodded, a smile still firmly on his face. Like jane, he felt revitalized by their travels, and being there, the one place that he could remember being truly himself... well, that did something to him. It reminded him all over again how much he loved her, reminded him of those first feelings, feelings he only recently was allowed to revel in again.
"Go and shower. I will see what I can make for you to eat. It will most likely be canned soup, but I promise: I'll use the freshest water available," he teased. He was nowhere near as skilled in the kitchen as his brother, but he could make do. "You deserve to relax in your own space for a while, since we both know at some point, you will escape from my side to check your calculations."
Jane tilted her face up to give him a gentle kiss before dumping her bag on her work bench and heading down a hall to the new master bedroom. She didn't know how long she stood under the shower for, letting the blazing hot water pound into her skin. Long enough to try and melt some of the tension from her back, through Jane was still aware of a stiffness. maybe she'd ask Thor to rub her shoulders later.
Jane emerged some time later with wet hair, wearing a slightly musty pair of pajama's pulled from a dresser drawer. Thor was in the kitchen and she slipped her arms around his waist from behind, pressing a kiss to his shoulder blade and resting her cheek against his broad back. "Any luck in finding food? Or is just old boxes of cereal?"
Thor turned towards her, revealing a few bowls on the counter. Taking her in with his eyes, he was pleased to notice she looked considerably relaxed. A shower was always refreshing. "As I suspected, there was chicken noodle soup and I managed to find crackers that were unopened."
He motioned to the table for her to sit down, and he followed her with the food. "I would like to make a request, if I may, and I am aware of how selfish it sounds but..." Thor reached out and touched Jane's hand. "Could we perhaps not speak of work, for either of us? I recognize it weighs heavy on both our minds, and I do understand it must be spoken of..." He looked down, almost feeling a bit of shame for even saying this. "But this dinner. This humble repast is for us. Together. There will be plenty of time later."
Thor gave a slight nod of understanding and allowed himself the smallest sigh of disappointment. It was worth trying."It's alright. I am grateful for any time spent with you." He smiled widely at that. "Especially here. You know, now that I have the bifrost at my command... we could return here as often as you'd like. You wouldn't need to stay at that apartment any longer."
For a moment, Jane could imagine what it would be like not just to go back and forth but to live here. For her and Thor to make this place their home. Then like an oncoming storm, Jane's face clouded over and she shook her head. "It's too far. I don't mean quantum mechanically. It's too far from your family." Three, four days at her apartment was too long away. He could never be halfway across the country.
"I let you slip through my fingers before, claiming family and responsibility." Something flashed across his eyes, memories of their breakup. "Jane, you are a priority as well. Please understand that. I do not wish to live without you by my side, nor do I wish you to feel you are simply an addition. You are the love of my life and I will endeavour to treat you as such for as long as you allow. Besides," he added, stirring his soup. "I believe it takes me longer to walk to your apartment in New York than to teleport here."
Jane slurped some of her soup from her spoon, a clump of noodles leaving an inelegant trail down her chin. "I know. And I know it's a priority and not the priority. I know who you are. I know you have responsibilities. And that's okay. I know that sounds like something someone says before they get mad, but it really really is." Jane looked over him. One blue eye, one brown.
"I just don't want to be left behind. You have to be in New York right now. Scott and Tony and the work is in New York. You can teleport but I haven't managed to build a bridge Yet," she added stubbornly. "Fetching me all the time would get old and if anything happened I'd be stuck here. I can't leave Darcy, anyways."
Chuckling lightly, Thor reached for a napkin, and passed it to Jane with a smile. "Why must you be so responsible, love? You are worse than all my advisors, especially since I am more inclined to listen to you than they."
He tilted his head. "Is that how felt before? That I was leaving you behind?"
A pause and then honesty. "Yes. I was looking for you, then I was waiting for you, and you weren't here. It's not easy." She frowned at the unpleasant memories, things she thought they were long past. "That's why it mattered so much that you asked me to go with you to Nidavellir. Really are doing things different this time."
Thor beamed. It was worth the argument with Loki to bring Jane along. "There will be times when the danger is too great, and I will have no choice but to go alone. Know that I will return as quickly as I can." His thoughts turned to Wakanda. He didn't want her near there but it seemed everyone would be going, so who would protect her? "Perhaps I will ask Tony if there is a communicator we could use for those times, something that can cross the realms..."
Jane set her spoon down with a clink, staring for a moment then went scrabbling in the mess of discarded wiring for a pen. "The Bifrost can carry matter," she muttered, scribbling quations furiously on the back of a cell phone bill from September 2017. "But it can also carry light. Light is both a particle and a wave. Sound is a wave. But how do you transmit when the only thing controlling the Bifrost is an axe...and how do you send a response..." She added a few more symbols, bending over the paper. A lock of hair drooped into her soup.
Thor's eyes widened and he shook his head with a groan. "Oh no, not right now." Getting up, he walked over to her chair and without ceremony, scooped her up into his arms. "You promised me at least a dinner, fair maiden." He gave her an insistent kiss before brushing his lips over her jawline and neck. "While I will be here as long as your science will be, I must insist: pay attention to me."
That was a siren song Jane had heard before. Jane knew that if she truly protested Thor would put her down and let her return to her scribbling. 'Pay attention to me' was just his way of not wanting to be left behind, of reminding her to balance life with the work. There hadn't been much of that lately. So little life all to speak of, just a desperate scramble for anything that might fix things alongside two men that still looked like a bomb had gone off.
Jane frowned and she squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her face tight against the crook of Thor's neck.
Taking that as a sign to continue, he skimmed his lips across her brow, effortlessly holding her. "How about we lay down for a while? If we fall asleep, so be it. If within a few hours, you wish to resume your calculations, do so. Just allow me some time to hold you." That seemed like a fair compromise.
"Can we go up on the roof?" Jane suggested. "See the stars?"
"Your wish is my command."
Jane had unearthed some blankets while Thor started a fire (there wasn't a lighter to be found but a small spark of lightning did the job just as well). The lounge chairs were a little worse for wear and probably too small to hold them both but Jane had crawled into Thor's lap, covered them both with a blanket, and somehow made it work. At some point she had fallen asleep, her head against Thor's shoulder and their legs tangled together. Aquila was in the sky when she woke again, her eye finding Altair at its point.
"Mmmph," she groaned, wriggling to stretch her sore muscles. The cramped positioning had made the crick in her back worse. "You awake?"
It was a few moments before Thor responded, as he too shook the drowsiness from his head. "A little bit," he responded honestly. "I think I might have fallen asleep for a moment there. It is very peaceful up here...I find these peaceful moments are what I yearn for these days, rather than the impulsiveness of battle.". Reaching down, he smoothed her hair and caressed her cheek. "Would you like me to bring you downstairs? It must not be very comfortable, how you fell asleep."
Jane stretched again, pointing her toes to release some of the tension from the way she had to scrunch up just to fit them both on the seat. "I have a knot in my back you might have to help me with but.." she paused, looking up at the sky. "I'm okay. I don't think I even left the building to go outside in two weeks." It was nice to be back under a blanket of stars again and Jane liked Thor seemed at peace.
Two weeks? Had it really only been two weeks? Nuzzling his chin on her head, he wrapped his arms around her and shifted her onto his lap in a more comfortable position. "Is there positive progress being made?"
"I hope so," Jane sighed. "I feel like I'm just coming up to speed. I can run the math on the physics but this isn't my field. I'm not Tony, I can't just become an expert at something half an hour after I see it for the first time. I feel like I'm barely making a dent."
"With confidence, I am sure I can say you are making a difference. Sometimes, another perspective is needed, and while your expertise is different than the others, it allows you to see things with a different lens."
Jame murmured an agreement. "It had better be. Otherwise..." She didn't finish the thought.
"Otherwise no one returns." Thor frowned a little and without thinking, held onto Jane a little tighter. "I am so grateful no harm came upon you. I do not think I could lose you again.....you know, thinking back to our conversation earlier...about where we live.... you should know, I am in the process of working with Loki and Darcy to obtain some land to relocate the remaining Asgardians.. it would be in Norway..."
Jane shifted, curling against Thor's chest in a way that made it easier to look at his face, "Oh? I think that makes sense, considering your history there."
He nodded, not really looking down as he asked his next question. "Would you come with?"
"You mean to stay, don't you? To live?" Why else would he be asking. It would be nice if the two of them could stay here but that wasn't what Thor's life was. This was him trying to find a way. "Yes. If you want me.. I still have my work and that might mean some travelling but yes."
His heart burst with joy at her answer. He was partly worried she wouldn't want to, maybe because this was still as new as it was old. "I will build you the lab of your dreams, however you want our home, it will be done. I want you to be as comfortable there as you possibly can be. I am so happy to hear you will be there. I do not want to be anywhere you are not."
Jane happiness was tinged with a hint of bittersweet that their home couldn't be here but they'd be together. Jane tucked her head back under Thor's chin. Tonight, home was here with Thor under the rolling sky. Eventually they need to go inside and Thor would have to to massage out the sore spot on her back but for now his arms were around her and they had the sky.