Ficlet - Marked, Avengers movie-verse, gen-ish
I thought at first this would be a quick little haha ficlet. Nope, it's festering like Bloodlines did. Like that little Merlin AU, this seems to be growing so there will probably be at least one follow-up ficlet.
***
Title: Marked
Author: Lakhesis
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: None
Summary: The legends of Asgard have been obscured by the mythology of Midgard, but some truths were hidden even from the Aesir.
Word Count (approx.): 1800
Warnings: Profanity, Parental issues
Spoilers: Marvel Avengers movie-verse, including but not limited to Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers.
Disclaimer: Title 17 of the US Code, § 107, aka the Fair Use Doctrine
***
“I would speak with you, should you be well enough, friend Anthony.”
Tony Stark looked up from the Stark Tech touchpad that was currently receiving the abuse he couldn’t level elsewhere due to his medical treatment. He was quite sure that partial traction couldn’t be justified, but they had strung him up anyway.
“You know, that reminds me, why exactly do you speak English?”
Thor grinned at the inquisitive misdirection, settling into the lone visitor’s chair in the private room. The newly founded Avenger headquarters had quickly found use for their medical research labs being expanded into an actual treatment facility.
“I do not speak the tongues of Midgard. The Allspeak is perceived by all races of Yggdrasil.”
“Huh,” Tony concluded, turning back to the computer to continue working.
“There is another subject on which I wish to converse with you.”
“Hit me,” he instructed distractedly.
“To strike an incapacitated opponent would be most cowardly.”
Perceiving the offense being taken by his offhand idiom, Stark lowered the computer and raised an eyebrow at the Norse god sharing his, in his opinion unnecessary, hospital room. There was a glint in Thor’s eye as he returned the level stare. Tony was pretty damn sure the Asgardian was screwing with him, and he’d bet Rogers was in on the joke, but getting either of them to admit it… that would be a challenge.
“You have my full and complete attention,” Tony rolled his eyes as he set aside the pad and folded his hands on his chest, fingers interlaced over the soft pulse of the arc reactor. “Now what did you want to talk about?”
“On the field of battle, when the Man of Iron was removed from you and your wounds most grievous were treated.”
Tony interrupted, “That was part of the problem, the suit would have stabilized the spinal injury… Don’t let them take it off me in the field, whether I lose consciousness or not! I wouldn’t be strung up like a damn Christmas goose if they hadn’t moved me out there.”
Thor caught one of Tony’s gesticulating hands and clasped it between two of his own. He leaned into the bed, his left elbow settled upon the white sheets, as he gazed intently upon his team member.
Tony tugged futilely at his hand, but alien gods or super soldiers, they let go when they wanted to. “Okay, big guy, you have a girlfriend.”
“The Lady Jane is most delightful, but I believe we have a bond that goes much deeper friend Anthony.”
Tony’s eyes went wide as his joke was twisted upon him. But it didn’t quite look like Thor was joking. “Okay, no problem with that in theory, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be on the business end of Darcy’s taser of sisterhood indignation if you don’t let go.”
Thor frowned, and then smiled softly. “You misconstrue my words.” He leaned back in the chair and crossed his left leg to rest upon his right knee. Tony’s released hand was quickly put away in safety as he crossed his arms over his chest, tucking his hands into his armpits for warmth.
“I would share with you a tale of Asgard and the pains that a father may visit upon a son.”
“Had quite enough of those in my life, Thor. Don’t think I really need to hear the alien god version,” Tony muttered, looking away, wishing the room had some item to hold his interest.
“I believe this most vital to impart,” Thor insisted.
“Fine,” Stark conceded with a pale imitation of good humor.
Thor nodded to himself, accepting even this grudging agreement, he relaxed into the chair he occupied to share a story of his people.
“Many ages ago, for the lives of the Aesir extend for centuries, the AllFather sought to teach one of his house the lesson of humility. For such a lesson is hard to learn in the shining halls of Asgard for a prince. Odin cast his child, locked in the form of a woman, to Midgard to learn this truth in the hardship of lives much shorter than our own.”
Tony was busy picturing Thor as a truly curvaceous blonde bombshell, but had the courtesy to keep his mouth shut.
“Finding the people of Midgard to be wary of the independence of his enforced gender, the prince sought stability through marriage. A marriage of convenience is a reality most resolved to the ways of royalty so this disturbed not his soul. But the lesson sought by his father was not imparted until the banished prince bore his husband a child.”
Tony opened his mouth to speak, face twisting, just before Thor added, “When the AllFather forces a transfiguration upon one, it is most complete.”
Snapping his mouth shut again, Tony lifted one of his hands to gesture for Thor to continue but made sure to keep it out of maidenly clutching range.
“The Prince found his lesson in this young heir, a first born son for his husband. The humility that the AllFather sought to teach was not found in the realm of Midgard, but in the acknowledgement that such a mother would not doom his child by returning them to Asgard. For Odin recalled his banished son and returned his former appearance. The prince knew that his son would be sheltered in the arms of Midgard with such privilege of freedom as would not greet him among the Aesir.”
Thor finished his tale with a simple, “And so the AllFather granted to his prince one boon - that the knowledge of the child would be locked away within his mind such that the grief of separation would ease upon him. The prince would know that he had walked the realm of Midgard, but remember not that time and know not his child until the mark of Odin was revealed.”
Stark looked at Thor for a moment and then nodded. “Okay, so you’ve got an illegitimate kid floating around somewhere and you want me to help find them?”
The laugh of a god was nothing to ignore and Tony found himself smiling in sympathy with the booming amusement of Thor.
“The mark upon your navel…”
Tony actually laughed this time, “Now you want to talk about my tattoo?”
Thor’s nod was precise. “I glimpsed the marking upon the battlefield.”
Good natured and lacking any residue of shyness, Stark shifted his shirt until the circle around his navel was revealed. “When you’re young, rich, and drunk, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have one or two.”
“And yet it is not such, friend Anthony.”
“No, pretty sure…” Tony’s gaze, twisted from his own belly button to a matching mark on Thor’s navel as he lifted his shirt.
“It is not mere mortal decoration, but the mark of the line of Odin revealed only in the presence of kin. Have you not questioned why none have gazed upon it?”
Tony let his shirt drop back to cover himself, laughing. “Okay, you had me going there for a moment. I hate to tell you, but I’m not your lost kid, Thor.”
“No,” Thor acknowledged with a nod and rueful grin. “You are not my progeny, but I would wager that thy mother was raven of hair, emerald of eye, and taught thee to twist your words to please or torment at your whim.”
The laughter was gone.
Tony’s jaw dropped, then his face hardened. “No. No, no, no, and hell no.”
He reached over and began pressing the call button. Repeatedly. Insistently.
“Nephew, I tell you this not to grieve your soul.”
“You’re not telling me this at all,” Stark rebutted. “Because you took a head injury in that battle… Probably from your brother… who is most fucking certainly not my mother.”
A member of the medical staff opened the door, looking between the two Avengers with confusion. “Thor needs a CAT scan,” Tony insisted. “Now. Somewhere far away from me.”
Thor stood and sighed deeply. “I will depart, but you must think upon my words. There are duties to be seen to.”
“Out!” Tony pointed insistently at the door, shrugging the medical technician away when the individual approached him. “I don’t need you; just get him out of here.”
~~~
He lay in a stupor, his little hissy fit at the God of Thunder having led the staff to drug him. The schematics that practically danced out of his computer had Tony blinking away after images. Clearly he wasn’t going to be able to work and he thought he’d had just about enough of napping away the time as he waited for the swelling on his back injury to go down.
“The good drugs,” Tony laughed to himself, dropping the touchpad onto the bed and staring at the waves of energy that seemed to pulse out from his arc reactor.
The shadows on the wall seemed to shift and a figure stepped out of them into the room.
Tony groaned, rubbing his eyes now. “Nope, definitely the bad drugs.”
But when he dropped his hands and sighed, the man was still standing there. Oddly, despite his having put Tony in this treatment facility, Loki didn’t seem to be about to finish the job. His face was blank and he didn’t blink, just stared at the mortal laying in the bed half-trussed into medical contraptions designed to keep him from sneaking out.
His own particular lifetime of experiences hadn’t exactly addressed this situation but, when in doubt, sarcasm was a good fall back plan.
“So should I be honored I’m not a wolf or a snake or some other beast?”
Loki smiled. It was mildly terrifying for such a gentle look. “Your mortal storytellers can be quite vindictive in their creativity, but you have no siblings.”
Tony pursed his lips. “So we’re actually going along with Thor’s insanity?”
“For once,” Loki sighed, reaching into his Asgardian robe, “my brother isn’t wrong.”
Tony blinked, certain this hallucination would go away very quickly. Hoping this hallucination ended quickly.
And was in fact a hallucination.
The apple Loki lifted out of his robes caught the glint of the light from the arc reactor, practically refracting a storm of colors onto the walls as it was balanced precariously on the clear shell of the device.
“This locale hardly befits your station. Eat.”
Tony glanced down at the apple. When he looked back up, Loki was gone.
The apple was still there.
“Possibly the good drugs,” Tony concluded. Then, since his own hallucination would hardly poison him, he picked up the apple and took a bite. What the hell, he thought, chewing. He’d probably been unconscious since the battle, was probably still unconscious or comatose, and dreamed the whole damn thing up.
~Finis~
***
Title: Marked
Author: Lakhesis
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: None
Summary: The legends of Asgard have been obscured by the mythology of Midgard, but some truths were hidden even from the Aesir.
Word Count (approx.): 1800
Warnings: Profanity, Parental issues
Spoilers: Marvel Avengers movie-verse, including but not limited to Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers.
Disclaimer: Title 17 of the US Code, § 107, aka the Fair Use Doctrine
***
“I would speak with you, should you be well enough, friend Anthony.”
Tony Stark looked up from the Stark Tech touchpad that was currently receiving the abuse he couldn’t level elsewhere due to his medical treatment. He was quite sure that partial traction couldn’t be justified, but they had strung him up anyway.
“You know, that reminds me, why exactly do you speak English?”
Thor grinned at the inquisitive misdirection, settling into the lone visitor’s chair in the private room. The newly founded Avenger headquarters had quickly found use for their medical research labs being expanded into an actual treatment facility.
“I do not speak the tongues of Midgard. The Allspeak is perceived by all races of Yggdrasil.”
“Huh,” Tony concluded, turning back to the computer to continue working.
“There is another subject on which I wish to converse with you.”
“Hit me,” he instructed distractedly.
“To strike an incapacitated opponent would be most cowardly.”
Perceiving the offense being taken by his offhand idiom, Stark lowered the computer and raised an eyebrow at the Norse god sharing his, in his opinion unnecessary, hospital room. There was a glint in Thor’s eye as he returned the level stare. Tony was pretty damn sure the Asgardian was screwing with him, and he’d bet Rogers was in on the joke, but getting either of them to admit it… that would be a challenge.
“You have my full and complete attention,” Tony rolled his eyes as he set aside the pad and folded his hands on his chest, fingers interlaced over the soft pulse of the arc reactor. “Now what did you want to talk about?”
“On the field of battle, when the Man of Iron was removed from you and your wounds most grievous were treated.”
Tony interrupted, “That was part of the problem, the suit would have stabilized the spinal injury… Don’t let them take it off me in the field, whether I lose consciousness or not! I wouldn’t be strung up like a damn Christmas goose if they hadn’t moved me out there.”
Thor caught one of Tony’s gesticulating hands and clasped it between two of his own. He leaned into the bed, his left elbow settled upon the white sheets, as he gazed intently upon his team member.
Tony tugged futilely at his hand, but alien gods or super soldiers, they let go when they wanted to. “Okay, big guy, you have a girlfriend.”
“The Lady Jane is most delightful, but I believe we have a bond that goes much deeper friend Anthony.”
Tony’s eyes went wide as his joke was twisted upon him. But it didn’t quite look like Thor was joking. “Okay, no problem with that in theory, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be on the business end of Darcy’s taser of sisterhood indignation if you don’t let go.”
Thor frowned, and then smiled softly. “You misconstrue my words.” He leaned back in the chair and crossed his left leg to rest upon his right knee. Tony’s released hand was quickly put away in safety as he crossed his arms over his chest, tucking his hands into his armpits for warmth.
“I would share with you a tale of Asgard and the pains that a father may visit upon a son.”
“Had quite enough of those in my life, Thor. Don’t think I really need to hear the alien god version,” Tony muttered, looking away, wishing the room had some item to hold his interest.
“I believe this most vital to impart,” Thor insisted.
“Fine,” Stark conceded with a pale imitation of good humor.
Thor nodded to himself, accepting even this grudging agreement, he relaxed into the chair he occupied to share a story of his people.
“Many ages ago, for the lives of the Aesir extend for centuries, the AllFather sought to teach one of his house the lesson of humility. For such a lesson is hard to learn in the shining halls of Asgard for a prince. Odin cast his child, locked in the form of a woman, to Midgard to learn this truth in the hardship of lives much shorter than our own.”
Tony was busy picturing Thor as a truly curvaceous blonde bombshell, but had the courtesy to keep his mouth shut.
“Finding the people of Midgard to be wary of the independence of his enforced gender, the prince sought stability through marriage. A marriage of convenience is a reality most resolved to the ways of royalty so this disturbed not his soul. But the lesson sought by his father was not imparted until the banished prince bore his husband a child.”
Tony opened his mouth to speak, face twisting, just before Thor added, “When the AllFather forces a transfiguration upon one, it is most complete.”
Snapping his mouth shut again, Tony lifted one of his hands to gesture for Thor to continue but made sure to keep it out of maidenly clutching range.
“The Prince found his lesson in this young heir, a first born son for his husband. The humility that the AllFather sought to teach was not found in the realm of Midgard, but in the acknowledgement that such a mother would not doom his child by returning them to Asgard. For Odin recalled his banished son and returned his former appearance. The prince knew that his son would be sheltered in the arms of Midgard with such privilege of freedom as would not greet him among the Aesir.”
Thor finished his tale with a simple, “And so the AllFather granted to his prince one boon - that the knowledge of the child would be locked away within his mind such that the grief of separation would ease upon him. The prince would know that he had walked the realm of Midgard, but remember not that time and know not his child until the mark of Odin was revealed.”
Stark looked at Thor for a moment and then nodded. “Okay, so you’ve got an illegitimate kid floating around somewhere and you want me to help find them?”
The laugh of a god was nothing to ignore and Tony found himself smiling in sympathy with the booming amusement of Thor.
“The mark upon your navel…”
Tony actually laughed this time, “Now you want to talk about my tattoo?”
Thor’s nod was precise. “I glimpsed the marking upon the battlefield.”
Good natured and lacking any residue of shyness, Stark shifted his shirt until the circle around his navel was revealed. “When you’re young, rich, and drunk, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have one or two.”
“And yet it is not such, friend Anthony.”
“No, pretty sure…” Tony’s gaze, twisted from his own belly button to a matching mark on Thor’s navel as he lifted his shirt.
“It is not mere mortal decoration, but the mark of the line of Odin revealed only in the presence of kin. Have you not questioned why none have gazed upon it?”
Tony let his shirt drop back to cover himself, laughing. “Okay, you had me going there for a moment. I hate to tell you, but I’m not your lost kid, Thor.”
“No,” Thor acknowledged with a nod and rueful grin. “You are not my progeny, but I would wager that thy mother was raven of hair, emerald of eye, and taught thee to twist your words to please or torment at your whim.”
The laughter was gone.
Tony’s jaw dropped, then his face hardened. “No. No, no, no, and hell no.”
He reached over and began pressing the call button. Repeatedly. Insistently.
“Nephew, I tell you this not to grieve your soul.”
“You’re not telling me this at all,” Stark rebutted. “Because you took a head injury in that battle… Probably from your brother… who is most fucking certainly not my mother.”
A member of the medical staff opened the door, looking between the two Avengers with confusion. “Thor needs a CAT scan,” Tony insisted. “Now. Somewhere far away from me.”
Thor stood and sighed deeply. “I will depart, but you must think upon my words. There are duties to be seen to.”
“Out!” Tony pointed insistently at the door, shrugging the medical technician away when the individual approached him. “I don’t need you; just get him out of here.”
~~~
He lay in a stupor, his little hissy fit at the God of Thunder having led the staff to drug him. The schematics that practically danced out of his computer had Tony blinking away after images. Clearly he wasn’t going to be able to work and he thought he’d had just about enough of napping away the time as he waited for the swelling on his back injury to go down.
“The good drugs,” Tony laughed to himself, dropping the touchpad onto the bed and staring at the waves of energy that seemed to pulse out from his arc reactor.
The shadows on the wall seemed to shift and a figure stepped out of them into the room.
Tony groaned, rubbing his eyes now. “Nope, definitely the bad drugs.”
But when he dropped his hands and sighed, the man was still standing there. Oddly, despite his having put Tony in this treatment facility, Loki didn’t seem to be about to finish the job. His face was blank and he didn’t blink, just stared at the mortal laying in the bed half-trussed into medical contraptions designed to keep him from sneaking out.
His own particular lifetime of experiences hadn’t exactly addressed this situation but, when in doubt, sarcasm was a good fall back plan.
“So should I be honored I’m not a wolf or a snake or some other beast?”
Loki smiled. It was mildly terrifying for such a gentle look. “Your mortal storytellers can be quite vindictive in their creativity, but you have no siblings.”
Tony pursed his lips. “So we’re actually going along with Thor’s insanity?”
“For once,” Loki sighed, reaching into his Asgardian robe, “my brother isn’t wrong.”
Tony blinked, certain this hallucination would go away very quickly. Hoping this hallucination ended quickly.
And was in fact a hallucination.
The apple Loki lifted out of his robes caught the glint of the light from the arc reactor, practically refracting a storm of colors onto the walls as it was balanced precariously on the clear shell of the device.
“This locale hardly befits your station. Eat.”
Tony glanced down at the apple. When he looked back up, Loki was gone.
The apple was still there.
“Possibly the good drugs,” Tony concluded. Then, since his own hallucination would hardly poison him, he picked up the apple and took a bite. What the hell, he thought, chewing. He’d probably been unconscious since the battle, was probably still unconscious or comatose, and dreamed the whole damn thing up.
~Finis~