Chapter Text
The date is August 11th, 1987—Also known as Thor Odinson’s 13th birthday. All he ever wanted in life (as a 13 year old) is simple, which is a (pretty) cool drum set.
“What do you mean you can’t get me one?” Thor, the birthday boy, donning his party hat over his short and choppy golden blonde locks, frowns at his parents’ rejection of his proposal as they sat on the porch overlooking the final preparations of his birthday party.
“We’re very sorry, Thor—but our expenditure for this month isn’t really allowing us any room for a birthday gift of such… scale…” Thor’s mother Frigga apologetically pats her son’s head, plastering a rueful smile on her face.
“That’s insane! I don’t even know what expenditure means and I already hate it!” The birthday boy pouts, puffing his cheeks while crossing his arms.
Frigga ruefully smiled at his son’s antics, sighing after a long while. Her face lit up when she sees the first guest arriving. “Oh, dear—looks like your best friend is here”
“Bruce!” The birthday boy let go of his arms’ cross, and he got up from the chair as he sees his best friend approaching—with a big box in tow. He stepped down the porch to greet him, grinning from ear to ear.
“Hey, Thor” Thor’s best friend Bruce Banner smiles at the birthday boy, wanting to shake his hand if not for the big box currently occupying both his hands. “I made you something”
“The party hasn’t started yet!” Thor tries to play it cool, but the thought of opening gifts always put a smile on his face. “But… since you’re the first guest, it makes you the guest of honor, and that means I can open your present first!”
“Yeah, right” Bruce shrugged his best friend’s warped logic off, but he couldn’t help smiling as well. “I don’t think it works that way, Thor.”
“Whatever! Let’s just open it inside the house,” Thor grabs his best friend by the crook of his left arm, pulling him into the direction of his house. “Mom, it’s OK if I take Bruce inside and open his gift first, right?”
“Of course, sweetie. You go on ahead. But don’t disturb your brother, he’s in your father’s study right now” Frigga smiles, sipping her afternoon tea on the porch.
“Come on, Bruce! She said it’s fine!” Thor practically ushers his best friend inside with lightning speed, beaming and grinning from ear to ear.
-
“I’m gonna put it in your table over here, okay?” Bruce carefully sets down the big box he’s been carrying onto the large dining table, the size of the box is bigger than his entire torso. “Okay. You can open it now”
“What is it?” Thor inspects the box, the wrapping a simple yellow with purple dots decorated on it. He beams at the box, looking at Bruce expectantly for a little bit of hint.
“You’re gonna have to open and see for yourself” Bruce smiles sheepishly, trying his best not to spoil the content for his best friend’s sake.
“Okay—here I go!” Thor rips open the wrapping excitedly, although he tries his best to be careful with it. “Whoa—what’s this?”
Thor gawks at the content—a 2-floored doll house made from actual wood, carved to resemble a real working house and its appliances, fully furnished. The dark plum and beige-colored house is a marvel to the eyes, and seeing this, Thor turns to his best friend teary-eyed.
“Wow—Bruce, you did this for me?” Thor beams to his best friend, immediately wrapping him in a huge bear hug without even waiting for a response.
“Oof—well, yeah,” Bruce returns the hug endearingly, patting Thor in the back. “I’ve been working on it for quite some time, but you haven’t seen the best part yet”
“There’s another best part!?”
“Yeah, here” Bruce takes out a plastic bag that’s filled to the brim from his pocket, its contents shimmering under the sunlight.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a…” Bruce pauses for a bit, as if embarrassed to say what comes next. “It’s a… magic wishing dust. I know I’m a man of science—but a bunch of people who bought it believed in its wish-granting magic, so I thought… why not, you know? Maybe you can… pour it over at the doll house and make a wish” Bruce sheepishly rubs the back of his neck, handing the bag of wishing dust over to his best friend.
Thor accepts it, smiling at the sentiment. “Wow—thank you, Bruce. I’m going to take good care of this house, and the magic wishing dust” he smiles at his best friend, and they share a warm smile for a lingering while, neither of them saying a word until an extravagantly forced, fake cough breaks the silence.
“heh hem,” A young raven-haired boy pops his head out from the kitchen, interrupting the comfortable silence between the two best friends. “If I may interject, brother, your other guests are arriving—and they brought their noise pollution with them, too” the young boy thinly smiles as if sarcastic, carrying several notebooks in one hand and a bowl of cereal in the other. “If you need me, I’ll be in my room.”
“Thanks, Loki—but aren’t you going to celebrate with me?” Thor furrows his brows at his younger brother, somewhat disappointed even though he knew parties aren’t exactly Loki’s scene.
“No way,” Loki rolls his eyes, not even stopping on his tracks as he makes his way to his room upstairs. “You know I hate parties. Now excuse me” and with that, he left without a backwards glance.
Thor sighs, turning to Bruce, who’s already making an apologetic face. “It’s okay, Bruce—he’s only 9,” he squeezed his best friend’s shoulder reassuringly. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but what can I do about it?”
“Yeah... but it still sucks,” Bruce sighs, but noticing the crowd forming outside the Odinson’s house snaps him out of the current funk almost immediately. “Hey—the doll house is kind of big, should I just keep it somewhere else?”
“Oh, right; I’ll just carry this to my room, you should go and say hi to Tony and the gang! I’ll be right back!” Thor carries the entire doll house up his arms—already making his way to his room upstairs, motioning for Bruce to mingle with the others.
-
Upstairs, Thor is still busy carrying the doll house as he carefully makes his way to his room, but stops short when he sees Loki’s door opened wide, and the younger sibling sprawled on bed with several books and a bunch of food wrapper lying close, ears jammed with headphones wired to a walkman.
“Loki…” Thor muttered under his breath, his mood turning south seeing his brother choosing studying over celebrating his birthday with him. ‘Whatever, I have somewhere else to be’, he thinks to himself, finally passing by his brother’s room and onto his own.
After setting down the doll house on his computer desk, Thor sets out to greet his party guests and to hopefully lighten his overall mood. Stepping out of his room, he’s immediately greeted with a sharp pang in his left feet. “Ow! What the hell—Knives?!” Thor gets down on the floor to check on the sole of his feet, and the cut from one of the knives scattered across the floor runs deep. “Loki!!”
“What?—oh, you stumbled upon one of my knives, huh,” Loki popped his head out of his room as he heard his name being called, nonchalantly shrugging off his brother’s cry of pain.
“Stumbled? It literally stabbed my leg!” Thor wails, face contorted with the mix of rage and pain all in one, hands clutching the sole of his bleeding feet.
“Please,” Loki waved him off dismissively. “You’ll be fine. Just grab some first aid kit, the bathroom is right next to your room anyway” the younger sibling turned back into his room without a shred of guilt.
Not knowing which one is pain and which one is anger, Thor hobbles back into his room instead of heading for the bathroom. “Whatever,” he grumbled under his breath, approaching his computer desk. “Stab me any other day and I’ll be fine! But today—today is my fricking birthday! All I wanted was a super cool drum set, and that wasn’t even allowed! And Loki didn’t even want to celebrate my birthday with me, and now he stabbed me with one of his knives!?” Angrily, he pulled out the magic wishing dust out of his pocket and poured a bunch of it down on the doll house Bruce gave to him.
“I don’t know—I just don’t want to deal with this right now! Please—just fast forward to when I can do things on my own and not be disappointed by anyone anymore!” and with that, he blew the magic dust off the roof of the doll house and closed his eyes shut.