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ROUND SIX
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“There’s no need to be abrasive, Stark. And do you really think that being offensive to change the topic is something new to this decade?” Steven, Captain Rogers, expresses his annoyance through pointed questions, Thor notes.
Anthony Stark, he of the metal armour, appears to be hiding his emotions behind angry words, in a way reminiscent of how he encases his body before battle. Thor frowns as he regards the two of them. A small sound at his elbow draws his gaze to the lady Pepper, who is standing slightly hidden behind him and chewing on her lip.
“You worry?” he asks quietly. Contrary to popular belief, he is more than capable of speaking softly - he merely prefers not when there is no need. “For whom?”
“Both of them,” she replies. “Tony…Tony has father issues. And Steve has so little left from his old life, it seems cruel to…to disillusion him, I guess. This, this just won’t end well.”
The lady Pepper is wise, and knowledgeable, and clever in the ways of people, and she is right to worry. Stark is grinning now, in a way that is less to show mirth and more to bare teeth.
“I told you, I barely knew him. He was too busy looking for you to have any time for me.”
“At least he was alive until you became an adult,” Rogers snaps. “You’re being melodramatic. He must’ve cared - that’s what families do.”
“Unless they’re alcoholic,” Banner mutters, then looks surprised that he actually said that out loud. Both Rogers and Stark swivel to regard him where he had previously been attempting to blend in with the furniture.
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“Leave it off, Stark,” Barton growls.
“And stop hacking SHIELD files,” Romanova adds.
“What’re you worried about?” Stark retorts. “There was nothing in yours about your family.”
“Well, given that she was a spy before she was pubescent…” Banner mutters, then looks up. “What? You told me that, Agent Romanov. I didn’t even have to twist your arm or anything.”
Thor leans down towards the lady Pepper, and asks, “is it common on Midgard for parents to force their children to forge their own lives through making their childhoods unbearable?”
Pepper looks up at him, horror spreading over her fair visage. “What? No! What, are you saying it’s like that on Asgard?”
“Not at all,” Thor replies.
“Then…what, you have no parental abuse?”
“Some, I suspect. But given the number of my comrades who have suffered at the hands of their parents compared to the ones who have not, it would appear that it is much more common here.”
“Not really, but in this group it does seem disproportionate,” Pepper mutters. She regards the group solemnly, and Thor follows her gaze. Stark stands next to Banner, doing admirably not to cower from the furious glare Romanova is sending him - she is very protective of Barton, with whom she is presenting a unified front. Rogers is looking distressed where he stands alone halfway between them.
“Come on, guys, was it really that bad? I can’t believe that everyone here had a nasty childhood,” he says.
“Why not? It’s not like your childhood was all fun and games, either. Didn’t both your parents die when you were still a kid?” This is Stark speaking again. “In fact, it’s almost a requirement. You don’t get to be an Avenger unless your childhood was crap.”
In the silence that follows, Thor says loudly for everyone to hear, “I suppose I must prepare to leave, then.”
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“Great. The only one with a normal parent-child relationship is the immortal magical alien. Whose brother tried to take over the world, and kill him.”
“Several times,” Thor agrees brightly. “The part where he tried to kill me, that is.”
“Didn’t your father render you powerless, mortal and banish you?” Barton asks, and Thor wonders how he knew.
“Well, yes, but I deserved that punishment, it allowed me to become a better person, and he most likely did it more as my liege than as my father. Are you attempting to comfort me because my parents are both alive and I have a good relationship with them?”
There is another stunned silence, which is finally broken by Banner’s chuckling. “Oh, god. We’re so messed up.”
“Was Howard really…?” asks Rogers, looking strangely vulnerable.
Stark sighs. “Mostly, he just didn’t have time for me and didn’t seem interested in anything I did. He could get a bit nasty when he was drunk, though.”
“Mine was violent,” Banner puts in, and Barton sighs.
“Mine too. The guys I ended up with after he got himself and mom killed weren’t all that great either. Tasha?”
She glares at him for a long moment before biting out, “abandoned me to a KGB training facility when I was three.”
They all stare at her, except Barton, who evidently knew, and has angled his body so that his elbow brushes her arm.
“She wins,” Stark says, before turning to Rogers. “Still, what about you, Manifest Destiny?”
Rogers sighs in resignation, although it is unclear whether it is at the nickname or being included in the enrolling of childhood trauma. “Well, my dad died when I was little, and I guess it was kinda tough for mom to raise me on her own, especially since I got sick so much, and then she got sick…but we stuck together. I thought that’s what families are all about.”
“In that case, I guess this is a better family than most of you had, then,” says Pepper brightly, stepping into the middle of the room.
“Hell yeah,” says Stark, walking over to her and slinging an arm around her shoulders. “Come one, everyone. Group hug?”
“Bite me,” Romanova mutters, but there is a subtle lessening of the tension in her spine as she turns to leave, and Barton flashes a quick grin at them before following her. Rogers laughs softly and moves to give Stark a pat on the shoulder before leaving, and Banner briefly puts his hands on both Stark and Pepper’s backs before following.
The next time Thor is in Asgard, he ignores custom and protocol to give Odin a hug, and he walks into Loki’s cell and picks his brother straight up off the ground in a crushing embrace, despite Loki’s protests, and then he spends an hour sitting on the floor next to his mother with his head against her knee. Frigga strokes his hair and doesn’t ask, but there is a glint in her eye that says she might be coming to see how he lives there down on Midgard sometime soon.
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Romanoff/Romanova: In Russian naming conventions, Romanoff is masculine (yeah, I spelled it wrong in the fic) and Romanova is feminine. I imagine that Natasha simplified hers when she came to America. However, since this is from Thor’s perspective and he doesn’t actually speak English but Alltongue, I decided that he would go with the correct rendering of her name.
It got a bit Thor-heavy, I’m afraid. Sorry about that.
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Anyway, awesome characterization. Had me laughing out loud in parts, which is always good.
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