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It always fascinated Thor how Midgardian scientists so closely resembled warriors in their disposition. Their pursuits were sacred, their exploits carefully attributed to the right parties lest you wished truly horrendous fights, and it was unwise to part them from their instruments.
In retrospect, introducing Jane to Tony Stark might have required more finesse than Thor naturally held.
For instance, he should not have brought Tony to Jane’s labs without first informing her. Then, he should have kept at Tony’s side, to ensure that he would not disturb anything important. Of course, he presumed that as a man of science, Tony would respect Jane’s space.
Thor admitted that he was perhaps optimistic.
To be fair, despite their teamwork in the Battle of Manhattan, Thor did not know Tony all that well. He estimated that he had spent about a week in Tony’s company. Maybe two. The Man of Iron had a tendency to talk too quickly, with incomprehensible cultural references every few words. Thor often lost track of the conversation quickly, and had to be guided by the more understanding Dr. Banner or Captain Rogers, when they were around. He in turn could speak of physics with Tony, to a certain extent, but they were not yet comfortable with each other. Well, Thor was not yet comfortable with Tony. Tony let little bother him.
The idea was simple enough. Jane used Tony’s products, and read reports published by his company. Tony in turn seemed interested in Jane’s work, especially the bridge. He was a generous man, despite his nature, and perhaps they could benefit from speaking to each other.
When Tony accepted his offer to be introduced to Jane, Thor should have played the host more gallantly—and perhaps paid more attention to what drew Tony’s eye in the lab. However, once they had entered the building, it was only natural that Thor’s focus went first to Jane, and that she took precedence over…well, everything else.
The honeymoon phase, Darcy called it.
The lab gleamed in the late afternoon sun. Jane was bending over her desk, studying printouts scattered across its surface, writing on yellow squares of note paper and slapping them upon the corners. From time to time she scribbled notes in her journal, muttering incomprehensible words under her breath.
Thor crept up behind her, keeping out of her line of sight, alerting her to his presence with a light touch to her back. Jane started and looked up, smiling and accepting his kiss.
“Hello to you too,” she said.
“How goes your research?” he asked, briefly scanning over her workspace. She smelled flowery, and wore fresh clothes. Only one coffee mug adorned the desk and that only half empty. A smooth data run, it seemed. Not the results she would hope for, but it meant Jane might be open to an adventure later in the evening.
Jane pulled a face, confirming his expectations. “No breakthrough, but I guess we’d be in trouble if anomalies were occurring every couple of minutes. It would be another Convergence. How was your SHIELD thing?”
“It went well. Agent Hill wishes for me to test the mettle of their new agents.”
That startled a laugh out of her. “Oh really? Didn’t you embarrass their top class the first time you came here?”
“I believe that is why they offered me the position,” said Thor. “From what I gathered, some of their agents have become rather more assured of their abilities than they should be. Some might have boasted that they could fell me.”
Jane laughed again, and turned around fully to face him. She was smiling, but then something caught her eye and made her forehead crease. She looked around him. “Is-is that Tony Stark?”
Thor had forgotten Tony was there. He laughed, rueful. “It is. He has expressed interest in meeting you.”
Jane was still staring. “He’s shorter than on TV.”
“I suppose so,” said Thor, puzzled. Did it matter?
“Why is he here?”
“He is impressed by your work, Jane, as well as your animosity towards SHIELD—”
“Don’t touch that!” Jane barreled past Thor. Thor turned and saw her path was toward Tony, who held one of her instruments, but was not handling it with the delicacy it required.
“That’s very fragile!” Jane made a grab for her calibrator. Tony held it aloft without any apparent effort, and turns to inspect one of her scanners.
“How can it be fragile? There’s duct tape all over it.” He tapped it against the lab table. “Very resilient. Makes an engineer want to cry, but resilient. I’ll build you a new one, pronto.”
“I had a few missteps,” said Jane, jumping up and snatching the calibrator from Tony’s grasp. She cradled it tightly against her breast. “There wasn’t quite enough money to start again from scratch.”
“Yeah, and most people don’t date the physical evidence of their crazy science fictional theories. And money won’t be a problem anymore.”
“Excuse me,” said Jane, as Thor came up by her side. “I don’t remember applying for anything…”
“Access to my fortune,” said Tony. “As of right now. Your work is fascinating. Top of the field, if it wasn’t for the subpar equipment. Seriously, I almost expect to see a bamboo computer.”
“Tony—”
Thor’s attempted mediation came too late.
“Subpar equipment?” Jane’s words rose to what could be considered a screech, though Thor was hesitant to label it as such. She was practically shaking with rage.
“Tony,” Thor started again, “Jane has done incredible work with these instruments she built herself.”
“I know that,” said Tony, hands returning to his pockets, head cocked to the side. “What I’m saying is that, if she comes to work for me she will do even better, because all of this equipment is crap.”
Loath as Thor was to admit it, Tony reminded him uncomfortably of Loki at times like these. In fact, he was certain that Tony was only being so cruel in order to see how Jane will react. In the meantime, he had forgone her warning and picked up the instrument she used to defeat Malekith.
Jane’s eyes flashed and she rocked back on her heels. “I don’t care who you are. Put that down now.”
“This? Nah, I want to see how you got this to work—”
He flipped the device over and made to open it, but was interrupted by Jane throwing herself at him.
“Watch the eyes, watch the eyes—”
Thor would step in, eventually. For now, he reached over and plucked Jane’s device out of Tony’s hands, and wandered off to the kitchen, where hopefully coffee would be waiting.