Archive of Our Own

It starts accidentally. Jane's working and needs to look something up, but her own computer's maxed out running her program and she's picks up Thor's tablet, which he's left on the table. He's never been particularly precious about keeping his stuff to himself (and has, in fact, configured her fingerprints to let her in) so she helps herself without asking and opens his browser.

He's been reading about weddings. Specifically, American wedding traditions.

Holy shit.

Eyes widening, Jane drops the tablet on the table with a clatter. Hearing Thor bustling in the small kitchenette of their temporary accommodation, she shoves it back in place awkwardly and forces her eyes back to her own flickering screen. Suddenly, friction coefficients don't seem so important.

'Jane?'

She jumps out of her skin and turns to see Thor sticking his head around the door. He gives he a slightly concerned frown.

'Are you well?'

'Yes, fine, thanks, sorry, just... working.' She shakes herself and tries to get back to Earth. 'Sorry, I was just... concentrating.'

'Of course,' he says. 'I apologise for the interruption.'

'No, no, it's OK, it's fine.' Her voice sounds unnaturally high-pitched even for her. 'Sorry,' she says again, before realising that's the third time she's apologised for literally nothing.

Thor's concern doesn't seem to entirely abate, extremely reasonably given her babbling, and he steps closer and drops a gentle hand on her shoulder. Despite everything, something about him is always so perfectly solid and comforting and safe that she finds herself breathing almost normally again. She turns up to him and smiles, and it's not even really all that forced. A lot of his time is spent reading and learning about the different cultures and traditions on Earth so this doesn't have to mean anything.

He smiles back, stroking her shoulder with his thumb. 'The oven here is in a state of poor repair,' he says, and for the first time she notices a couple of grease stains on his t shirt. 'I am afraid that, despite my attempts, I may have been bested. The stovetop, however, appears to be functional, so I thought perhaps a stir fry? Or an omelette if you would prefer?'

Her smile broadens. 'Either would be wonderful,' she says. It's a far cry from take-out or something microwaveable, which is what she'd have been eating without him, even had the oven been fully functional. She reaches up to take her hand in his and squeezes. 'Thank you.'

Leaning down, he gives her a very gentle kiss. 'As always, it remains my deepest pleasure,' he replies, before nodding back to her program. 'Your computer appears to desire your attention. Dinner will be in half an hour unless you would rather I wait?'

'That's fine,' she says, 'I should be done by...' She trails off as the figures on the screen catch her attention. Well, that is interesting...

She hears Thor laugh softly and retreat into the kitchen.

~*~

'What is with you?' demands Darcy, the next day. 'I've just told you three times that I've got your data from the Stark supercomputer and your idea looks correct and not even a blink.'

Jane shakes her head. 'Oh, right, yeah, thanks!' She snatches the tablet from Darcy and flicks through the numbers, which are settling in a rather pleasingly expected pattern. There are, however, too many outliers, which is fantastic: she's on the right track but she's not finished yet! She grins to herself.

Now if only she could figure out non-physics related things quite as easily...

'All right, what's he done?'

Jane blinks at Darcy. It's disingenuous to pretend she doesn't know who 'he' is meant to be, but she finds Darcy's easy perception disconcerting.

'Nothing!' she insists. 'Not really! It's just... I borrowed his tablet and accidentally saw some of his browsing history.'

Darcy's eyebrows raise higher than Jane thought possible. 'Wait... Thor's been looking at-?'

'Not what you think!' interrupts Jane, wondering how she would feel if she'd found porn on Thor's computer. Confused, probably. They'd had a discussion or two about Asgardian versus Earth pornography but that definitely wasn't something she was going to share with Darcy. 'He was reading stuff about weddings. And I know it's probably nothing and just some background reading and whatever but I was just kinda shocked and for some reason my brain won't shut off and keeps thinking about it. Ugh.' She huffs and glares at the data on the tablet, as though it's at fault for the vagaries of her mind. 'I swear I'm not normally like this when I have a boyfriend. I don't know what's wrong!'

Darcy snorts with laughter and then just keeps laughing. Jane grumbles and turns back to her data.

'Dude, your life is turning into the worst sort of romantic comedy,' Darcy says. 'And you are apparently the worst sort of romantic comedy heroine. "Jane Foster had it all in her high-powered career as an astrophysicist finding secret paths around the galaxy... but she hadn't found love, until-"'

'Shut up,' mutters Jane, feeling herself go red.

'OK, just ask him why he's googling weddings, or don't, if you're worried you might spoil the surprise for his planned proposal-'

'Darcy, it's been four months!'

'So? My mom proposed to my dad after two.'

'Aren't your parents divorced?'

'That's not the point. Just chill, Jane. Maybe he's just doing research about Earth, maybe he's picking out wedding rings - I know which one I'd bet on bee-tee-dubs - but don't grumble about the fact that you finally have a boyfriend you like at least as much as physics. I mean, imagine if you'd caught, like, Donny Blake reading up about weddings.'

Jane grimaces. She would have been out of the door so quickly, even when their relationship was at its best.

~*~

She decides to ask him that evening.

She's always prided herself in being a practical kind of person and not someone who makes assumptions based on guesswork and a lack of evidence. Also, she hates surprises anyway, so there's nothing to spoil.

Thor cooks dinner again. He's bought some fresh bread and homemade a thick, tasty stew, still using only the stovetop. Darcy joins them for the meal, but vanishes shortly afterwards into her own rooms in the borrowed house. Jane curls up on the slightly lumpy couch in Thor's arms and they, ludicrously enough, have the radio on quietly in the background as the TV is also broken. She could probably fix it if she put her mind to it, but she's been either working or with Thor ever since they arrived, and hasn't wanted to waste her time fiddling with some dodgy old electronics.

In his arms, she's getting herself very comfortable, and he's already running his hands slowly up and down her back, pausing occasionally to massage the knots out of her shoulders. Before she either falls asleep or jumps his bones (and she's leaning towards the latter) she decides to force herself to bring up The Wedding Thing and she pulls back from him slightly, earning a quizzical glance.

'So... yesterday... I borrowed your tablet,' she says.

'Indeed? It is not broken, is it?'

'No, it's fine. It's just that I went on the internet. And I saw the last page you'd been on.'

He hesitates for a second with a slight frown before she sees him realise what she must mean.

'Oh,' he says. 'My apologies for that.'

It's her turn to frown.

'I wished to understand the traditions and implications before I broached the subject with you,' he explains.

'Oh,' she says, mind going blank and flailing around for something to say. 'So you've, um, been thinking...?'

He ducks his gaze. 'Is that...? Are you all right?' She doesn't think she's ever seen him less certain or more nervous. Unlike when he's world-saving, he's never felt the need to put on any bravado with her, so she's seen him hesitate before, but rarely quite so much, and never has he been so interested in staring at the upholstery.

'Yeah, um, I guess,' she says. 'I just didn't think I'd ever... And it's just very soon! Which I guess is why you googled it rather than talking.'

He gives her a bit of a wry smile. 'That is the case,' he says. 'And it is soon by my own people's standards too - moreso than I think you realise - but I have never been more certain about anyone in my life. Here with you, I am home. I- I do not wish to hurry the conversation along too quickly, but I do wish for you to know that I am do not take our relationship lightly.'

'Right,' she says faintly. She's never been very good at this sort of thing and she's spent most of her life knowing with certainty that all the things most people do - marriage and kids and the white picket fence - were just not going to happen to her. Her exes, small in number though they are, have sufficiently proved that her lifestyle just isn't conducive to serious relationships. And yet here's a man who could and did fly across the country in half an hour just to see her. It wasn't something she'd ever made plans for.

Thors smiles and reaches up to take her face in one hand, stroking his thumb across her cheek and winding his fingers through her hair.

'I know I've said much,' he says. 'And sooner than I had planned. Please do not feel I expect you to reply now or ever. I just... there is much that we would have to discuss, and one day I should like to do so, if you are willing.'

'Yeah, I, um, maybe?' she hazards. 'I think, I just...' She forces herself to stop. She is not ready for this conversation and he's made it quite clear he doesn't expect her to be. Goddamn perfect prince boyfriends, she thinks darkly to herself. Then, determined to show she is not at all nervous and freaked out and not sure what to say, she continues: 'You should probably look up Jewish wedding traditions, you know. My mom's definitely going to insist on a few.'

He smiles gently. 'I have been doing so,' he says. 'Though as you said your father was non-religious, I thought perhaps I should research a variety.'

'Right,' says Jane. She has nothing to say to that. He's right - she probably would want her own hypothetical wedding to be a mish-mash of Jewish and whatever looked fun from her father's Church of England family but without too much emphasis on organised religion because that's never been her thing - but what else can she possibly say that doesn't dive back into a conversation she's not ready to have. 'OK fine,' she says at last. 'We're going to have sex now because I need to distract my brain. If that's all right with you?'

Thor laughs and pulls her in closer, giving her a kiss before leaning back to hold her gaze. 'I love you,' he says.

She smiles automatically, his words warming her and reassuring her. 'I love you too,' she says. 'Now get your damn shirt off.'

He gives her a filthy grin and does exactly as he's told.

~*~

A month later, they're in a bog in the middle of nowhere collecting some radiation readings. Thor's just returned from some routine-ish (at least, as routine as stopping terrorists and saving lives can ever be) Avengers stuff. Since she kissed him 'hello' as thoroughly as she had the time for in between her equipment beeping angrily at her, he's been holding things and watching her work without a trace of boredom or frustration. She's been getting bitten to all hell by the bugs that probably can't even pierce Thor's skin because he doesn't notice them at all, damn him.

Finally, equipment all in place, she stands back slightly to wait as it begins to collect data.

'Hi,' she says to Thor, shooting him a smile. 'Again.'

'Hello,' he says, 'again.'

Laughing, she pulls him down for another proper kiss, glad that Darcy's sufficiently busy to give them some privacy. He slips his arms around her and kisses her perfectly, like this is exactly where he should be. When he pulls back, she sighs happily, bugs and other irritations momentarily forgotten.

'I missed you,' she says, and it's weirdly true. Even five months into their relationship (and this after two years of hunting), part of her's still not used to the tug on her heart his absence brings.

'And I, you,' he says. 'I returned as soon as I could. The others send their regards, and Colonel Rhodes has some atmospheric data from the military he hopes you will look at. It has, to much amusement all around, confused Stark as well as the Air Force.'

Jane grins. 'I'd be glad to,' she says. Rhodey, in her experience, makes use of his military connections to share information that'll help the Avengers, as opposed to anything he plans to feed back to the military itself. And while Stark may not be an expert in her field, anything out of the ordinary enough to throw him is bound to be fun.

Thor smiles and rests his arms around her and his chin on the top of her head comfortably. She pokes him in the ribs on principle - just because she's short, it doesn't make her a leaning post - but in reality she's happy for a bit of a cuddle.

'So I've been thinking,' she says.

'Mm?'

'Hypothetically,' she begins, then pauses for a moment thinking of how to phrase it. 'If we were to get married, would that make me a princess?'

She feels his surprise at her question by the slight stiffening of his arms, and then his nod. 'Yes it would.'

'And, um, Queen...?'

'If anything happened to my father, I am the only heir whether I wish for the role or not,' he says quietly. 'So yes, that is a possibility.'

'OK,' says Jane slowly. 'Even though I'm human?'

'It does not mean you would not receive the title,' he says. 'It would, I think be more complicated, legally speaking, but yes, you would be Asgardian royalty.'

She falls silent, thinking on it. 'Princess', is a lot to take in, and 'Queen' even more, although his answer doesn't exactly surprise her. She snuggles closer into the hug and wonders if she could do it. She's never exactly been a royalist, her American upbringing with more influence than even her dad - who was very fond of the British royals - could counter, and she wasn't exactly sentimental enough to care about things like the Royal Wedding. Could that be her? She's not sure. But that's what he'd be asking of her.

Later, data all collected, clothes stained with mud, and sun long-since set, she, Darcy and Thor make their way to an all-night diner for some food. She's quiet, while Darcy interrogates Thor about what he was up to with the Avengers and whether or not he agrees with the latest issue of Cosmopolitan's 'Sexiest Avengers' ranking. Thor politely insists he cannot pass judgement but definitely gives the impression that he doesn't have a problem at all with being top of the list.

Jane absently scratches at the mosquito bites on her arms until Darcy smacks her hand away.

'Hypothetically,' she says at last, and Thor sits up straighter. 'Hypothetically, what's expected of Asgardian princesses? Or Queens?'

Darcy spits out her drink. 'Um... what?'

Thor considers her question thoughtfully. 'The formal duties of a royal who marries into the family are minimal,' he says. 'There are expectations: around the line of succession, willingness to defend the people, and even socially - meeting visiting ambassadors and similar.'

'Dude,' says Darcy, 'Expectations around the line of succession is probably the most horrifying thing I've ever heard you say. There are ways to ask a woman to have your babies, and that is not one of them.'

Jane giggles - she can't help it. 'It's OK, Darce,' she says at last. 'It's a hypothetical.'

Thor fidgets in his seat. 'I do not wish to be unromantic,' he says, 'and you must understand that I have no expectations of you: I only wish you to be who you are. But it would not be fair to you to pretend that if we were to wed, there would not be pressure from others within Asgard.'

'That's OK,' says Jane. 'That's good, even. I want to know all the facts.'

'So like, seriously, are you guys thinking of tying the knot?' says Darcy.

'We are,' says Thor, with dignity, 'discussing hypotheticals.'

Darcy snorts. 'Whatever,' she says. 'I'm Maid of Honour, right?'

~*~

The next time Thor goes back to Asgard to visit, he brings her a book with a history of Asgard's Queens and Royal consorts. 'In case you were curious,' he says diffidently when he presents it to her.

They're in New York, temporarily to her relief. She hates big cities. The hazy glow of the lights and the high buildings always make her feel trapped in. However, she can't deny that Tony Stark's labs and resources are a powerful call when she needs to get her hands on some obscure equipment or data. She likes the Avengers, too, despite her best efforts to not get too involved with anything not directly related to her work, and it's also hard to escape the fact that Thor enjoys spending time with his friends, as much as he bickers with some of them.

While waiting on some code compiling, she begins to read the book. Most of Asgard's royal consorts have trained themselves as warriors of some kind, and she balks at that. She soon discovers, however, that Frigga was far from the only Queen who made a study of magic - Thor's great-great-great-great grandmother forced the founding of a university right in the middle of a war that lasted centuries and had gone down in history as being single-minded, pedantic and irritable. Jane grins. She could definitely cope with that legacy.

Of course, who's to say she'd have any legacy at all? Odin will far outlive her and that's the part that's hardest to swallow. It's hardly that she wants to be some great Queen of Asgard - frankly she doesn't - but for Thor to live on without her... Has he thought about this at all? It's a topic she's avoided bringing up because she feels hopelessly without an answer.

Thor finds her later - he's come from the gym and has some dust and bits of concrete in his hair. Jane laughs and reaches up to brush it out.

'What did you break?'

'Steve threw me through a wall,' he says proudly, as though it were his achievement and not Steve's.

She giggles again and tucks some stray hairs behind his ear,

'Hypothetically...' she begins.

'Yes?'

But she can't bring herself to finish the question, not now. 'What sort of Asgardian wedding traditions are there?' she manages, pulling a question that's comparatively irrelevant but nonetheless distracting out of her brain. The actual day itself has always seemed far less important than what would follow.

'For my marriage specifically?' says Thor. 'It would likely be a large affair, regardless of what mine or my, er, hypothetical bride's preferences might be.' He gives her an apologetic smile. 'The more we talk hypotheticals the more I realise how much I would be asking of you.'

'Thor,' she says, reaching up with both her hands to rest them on his shoulders, 'I can attend big parties. Don't worry. Just be honest with me.'

He gives her another uneasy smile. 'The celebrations would last a week with at least one national holiday on Asgard declared.'

She balks despite her reassurance. 'Oh my god, your life is ridiculous,' she says. 'That's it. We're eloping in Vegas.'

His lips twitch. 'Hypothetically,' he says,'my father would not be thrilled.'

'Hypothetically,' says Jane, 'he can stuff it.'

Thor laughs and kisses her soundly.

~*~

Jane buries the subject of the aging before him for a couple of months. She keeps her hypotheticals as light as she can: matters of tradition, and courtly rituals, and will Heimdall send the Bifrost at her request, and can they get a house in the Asgardian countryside with a telescope. (The latter two, to her joy, receive an affirmative answer, and part of her starts planning all the data she can get whilst on Asgard.)

'I'm starting to take this seriously,' she says to Darcy.

Darcy snorts. 'Well duh,' she says. 'When you're a space princess can I visit your space palace? Also has anyone made a crack about the son of a god being Jewish again yet?'

'You're the first,' says Jane with a roll of her eyes. 'But I'm sure only because Tony doesn't realise how seriously we're thinking about it yet.'

Grinning, Darcy turns back to her computer. 'Just marry the dude,' she says. 'You're ruined for every other man in the universe and you might as well accept it.'

Jane mutters something vaguely noncommittal under her breath. She wants to explain to Darcy her fears but can't quite get the words out. To acknowledge it makes real the problem she's been avoiding all along. Maybe it would have been far better, for Thor's sake, had they never continued their relationship. Maybe they should have had the sense to get out before they were both in way too deep. She turns back to her work, but finds she can't concentrate yet again. She doesn't even know if her and Thor's kids would be more human or Asgardian and how long they might live. The more seriously she finds herself taking this idea of marriage, the more she knows she needs to confront the topic. She huffs to herself, and squints at her work determinedly. This could be a revolutionary form of controlling portal stability and it's important she gives it her full attention.

In the time-honoured tradition of Jane-Foster-In-A-Relationship, she ignores the problem for a bit longer. Thor is not stupid - knows her at least as well as she knows herself - and makes a few tentative enquiries which she shuts down as elegantly as she can (which is: not particularly elegantly at all). He's not one to press the issue when she's clearly uncomfortable, and he's finding himself busier and busier with the Avengers anyway.

His latest Avengers Thing takes him away from her for two weeks. She's seen bits and pieces on the news and has bitten her nails right down over that time. It looks big and dangerous and everyone's getting the shit punched out of them, on and off, by some mysteriously disappearing and reappearing probably-alien forces. Tony forwards all the data about the appearances onto her and she hands back any anomalies she can find, part of her wishing she could be on the ground and fighting with them.

At last, though, she gets a text from Thor asking for her coordinates, and within two hours he's with her. For the past week she's been working in St Andrews University, giving some lectures on the Convergence, work which would have been far more relaxing had the news not been constantly showing video footage of her boyfriend getting beaten up. When he arrives, however, she's got the TV on in the background and is wrapped up in a blanket, waiting for him.

He's exhausted. His face is bruised and cuts are clearly visible, and she's rarely seen those last longer than a few hours. The smile he gives her is beautiful but weary to the extreme. Instantly worried, she propels him inside and fusses over him, doing her best to accept his steady reassurances that he'll be well soon enough. She makes him hot chocolate and a large bowl of pasta, pulls off his armour before he eats and sets about making sure his visible injuries are clean and healing. Then, when he's done eating, she wraps the fleece blanket around his shoulders, pulls him on top of her, cradling his head into her shoulder and winding her fingers through his hair.

'Jane, I don't want to harm you,' he murmurs.

'I can breathe,' she reassures him. 'You're not that heavy. Just rest.'

And so he does: warm and heavy and very much hers, wrapping one of his arms around her hips and allowing himself to lean into her. He falls asleep quickly, and she half watches the TV, half keeps an eye on him, watching his steady, relaxed breathing and the slight smile on his face as he slumbers.

He's only asleep for a couple of hours. In that time she's watched a documentary about Roman ruins, some cake-baking competition thing, and is just starting a Doctor Who re-run when she realises his eyes have flickered open.

'How are you?' she asks softly.

'Much better,' he replies then gives a yawn. 'Perhaps still a little tired.' He looks set to lever himself up and she holds him in place.

'Stay, I can still breathe, I promise.'

He chuckles softly and presses a kiss onto her collarbone before settling down again. His fingers make their way under the hem of her shirt but she can tell from his tiredness it's more of a desire for skin-to-skin contact than anything else and she traces her fingers over his cheeks and down his beard.

Idly watching Doctor Who again, Jane soon realises that the choice of show is an unfortunate one, given her own recent worries. There are still so many unsolved problems despite their hypotheticals.

'Hypothetically,' she says, then stops. He doesn't need this right now.

'Jane?' He leans up again and must see the hesitation in her eyes. 'Tell me,' he says quietly.

Jane sighs. 'Hypothetically, a thousand year old alien and a regular human being doesn't exactly seem to be an easy idea,' she says, voice rushed and high pitched and she's staring at the ceiling and willing herself to stop.

Thor glances at the television. 'It's working out for them,' he says.

Jane huffs. 'Just wait for the rest of the series,' she says. 'It's complicated and needs weird space Time Lord magic-science-stuff. It's not very scientific,' she adds.

Thor grins lazily. 'I do not have Time Lord magic-science-stuff,' he says. 'But from watching this television show, I cannot say I am impressed by anything other than his vehicle. Asgardian magic-science-stuff-' she pokes him in the ribs, 'is also not very scientific, but it is better. And for us there are options.'

'Options?' She's holding her breath.

'You've read the Norse legends of our people, have you not? They are not accurate in many cases, but in some aspects they are broadly correct. There are golden applies-'

'Oh Idunn? But I didn't think- How- I don't-' She's babbling and she cuts herself off. 'I could be like you?'

The thought is terrifying.

'Not entirely,' says Thor gently. 'I do not think any magic in all the realms could make you as tall as I.' That earns him another poke in the ribs because he's grinning. 'But you could live out an Asgardian lifespan, should you wish.'

'Right,' she says faintly.

'Or there remains the fact that my father made me mortal once before,' says Thor complacently. 'Such a thing could surely be achieved again.'

'You- what? You can't just...!'

'Why not?'

'Because... because...' She sighs and scrubs her face with her hands. 'This is better,' she reminds herself, and sees a slightly confused cocked eyebrow from Thor. 'I've just- I kept worrying about you outliving me or what would happen to our kids and knowing there are options is better than that.'

'But perhaps an overwhelming thought when you expected nothing or the sort?' he guesses.

She nods. 'I need to think,' she says.

'Of course,' he replies.

She's silent for a few minutes, half watching the drama play out on the screen in front of her. 'I bet I could build my own TARDIS given a couple of hundred years,' she says at last. Thor laughs fondly. 'Think of all the things we could see, Thor! We could visit half the planets in the galaxy. And imagine what Earth'll be like in a few hundred years. Maybe we could see humans colonising Mars!'

'Maybe we could borrow a ship from somewhere else, beat the first humans there and wave at them as they land,' suggests Thor.

Jane giggles. 'Maybe I could be on that first ship and you could have dinner waiting by the time I arrive!'

Thor laughs too, and leans across to give her a kiss.

'I still need to think,' she tells him.

'I know,' he says simply.

'And you need to sleep.'

'Believe me, that I also know!'

She kisses him again anyway, because the future seems to be somehow so much more wonderful and terrifying all at once.

~*~

Epilogue

'Stark, you must support the head of a child this young,' says Thor sternly, rearranging Tony's hands.

Sam Wilson's got a new baby niece who he's incredibly proud of, and he's showing her off to the Avengers with varying degrees of success and a nervous-looking sister standing at the side.

'This is not my natural area of expertise,' complains Tony.

'Really? We couldn't tell!' says Sam sarcastically, plucking the baby from Tony's arms. He, Steve and Thor crowd around and coo while Tony retreats to the safety of his robots after exchanging a silent and indecipherable conversation with Pepper in gestures alone. Jane wonders if he and Pepper will have kids or not. Deciding to leave that line of speculation for them to figure out themselves, Jane approaches the guys with the intent of doing her best to be Good With Babies.

Despite her usual lack of confidence around kids, something about Thor holding Sam's niece is making her feel very warm and gooey inside and she finds it a lot easier to make the appropriate baby noises than she might have expected. Thor smiles at her and rocks the baby gently.

'Hypothetically,' he says slowly, and she nods for him to continue. 'How many might you...?'

'Right now? Like, twelve.'

He blinks. Possibly he's not aware how seriously adorable he is holding a baby. Steve and Sam exchange amused glances.

'But more seriously, ask me when I've had one massive blonde Asgardian baby if I still fancy another,' says Jane. 'Hypothetically.'

Thor grins, passes the baby to Steve, and leans forward to give her a kiss.

She wonders how long before she drops the 'hypothetically' altogether and suspects it won't be all that long at all. She's done scarier things than being made Princess of Asgard, after all.