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**
Steve doesn’t recognize the place he finds himself in but he feels as though he’s seen the stars before. They’re not like stars he’s seen from Earth, which are so distant, dulled through pollution. Here the stars are close, they burst with light, and Steve can make out the clouds of dust or energy that surround them. They’re brilliant and Steve stands for a long time looking up at them. He’s seen these stars before but though his mind grasps for the answer, he doesn’t know where.
Am I dead? he wonders. He’s on a bridge. There is a great city before him, the bridge he’s on stretches out for ages towards it. It’s a long space to cross. Is this Heaven? Maybe the stars are ones that he’s seen before, just never from above, never without Earths blinding lights to cut them out.
Steve turns and starts walking. Every steps he takes, the bridge beneath him flashes with a thousand colours. As he walks, he remembers the impact of the plane crashing. The force of it had hurt like nothing Steve had felt before.
He lifts his head to look out over the city that steadily grows larger as he approaches. There is no pain in him now, nothing aside from the sharp regret that sears through him. He doesn’t look back, though, afraid of what he’ll see if he does.
The path to Heaven stays clear for him, until Steve is standing before tall and expansive gates. Closed gates. Steve stops, looks up the length of them and then around him. No one is there to let him in and Steve feels the first sense of fear hit him.
“Hello?” he tries, tentative and too quiet. When nothing happens and no one answers, he tries again. “Hello? Uh… Is someone there?” He raises his voice and then pauses to listen.
“How did you get onto this bridge?” A voice accuses from behind him and Steve spins around. They’re on a bridge, one that leads to nowhere behind Steve and where either side drops down hundreds of feet to wide expanses of water. But suddenly standing with Steve is a man or...an angel, maybe, but not one like Steve had ever envisioned. For the first time, Steve realizes that he doesn’t have his shield.
“I don’t know,” Steve says as he looks this man over. The hammer in his hand looks heavy and dangerous. His stance is threatening, he’s wearing a cape. If it’s meant to be intimidating then it works, quickly getting Steve’s defences up.
The man seems to understand what has Steve backing off from him and he locks eye contact with Steve before he very purposefully puts the hammer down and then even takes a step away from it. “Relax. I didn’t come here for a fight.”
“What did you come here for?”
At this, the man looks confused. “I felt something unknown enter the realm, a strange soul. How did you get past Heimdall?”
Steve doesn’t know what this means and he looks around as if some monster will suddenly appear further down the bridge. The man can tell Steve doesn’t know the answer. Steve just wants to go home but he supposes that’s impossible now.
“I guess we both have questions that we can’t answer for each other. Well...I sense no evil from you. Come.” The man lays his hand over Steve’s shoulder to turn him back towards the city where the gates open before them without a touch. The man flinches when he touches Steve. “Are you always so cold?”
Cold? Steve hadn’t thought he was but the moment this man says it, Steve can feel the warmth of the man’s hand through his uniform and he realizes that he is cold. A shiver works through him. In his mind's eye, he sees a flicker of some other place and in that place, he’s freezing. Some heavy weight pins him down.
“Wait, stop.” The man has Steve by both his shoulders now. Steve can feel the hot points of contact and he doesn’t want to lose them. “Wait!” The man tries to demand but Steve can’t see him anymore. He’s looking beyond the man and into...nothing. A stark whiteness. A freezing realm.
The city - Heaven? - swirls before him and falls into a void that drags Steve in.
**
“I met a man today.” This has been on Thor’s mind all morning and finally he cannot keep his concerns quiet.
Loki glances over at him with a quirked eyebrow, looking Thor over with budding amusement. “And? Was it love at first sight?”
But Thor isn’t very much in the mood for jokes. The encounter on the bridge had been vexing, confusing. And now Thor finds himself worried for the stranger who had vanished in his arms, worried for the fear he’d seen in that stranger’s eyes.
“He was on the rainbow bridge, stuck at the gate into Asgard. He was not of this realm. But I could not...read him, I could not get a real feel for him. He felt real when I touched him but then he vanished beneath my hands and wherever he was going, he was frightened of it.”
Loki drops his amused attitude as he listens to Thor. “No one can get passed Heimdall without his knowledge. Perhaps it was a vision,” Loki suggests and Thor perks up a little at that idea before Loki goes on, a little more dismissively. “Or perhaps you were just dreaming.”
But Thor doesn’t think it was a dream and he’s unsure what a vision would feel like if he did have one. Once he can shake himself of his father's duties later in the day, Thor returns to the bridge. He walks the length of it but there is nothing here out of the ordinary, nothing left behind to show the man had ever been there.
He approaches Heimdall at the bifrost and for a moment, he and Heimdall stand in silence together, Thor looking out at the stars and Heimdall looking everywhere.
“You noticed nothing out of the ordinary today,” Thor asks after some time has passed. He already knows the answer, of course. If Heimdall had noticed anything, he would have reported it.
“Nothing that has caught my eye. Nothing that Asgard need worry about. But with so many infinite places to look and beings to look at, there is always something out of the ordinary.” This does nothing to calm Thor’s worries and likely Heimdall can sense this because he glances to Thor with a knowing smile. “What troubles you, my young Lord?”
“I’m beginning to think that it must have been a dream I had,” Thor admits with a rueful expression. “A very realistic dream.”
“There is great power in dreams. Sometimes they can mean more than reality. My suggestion? Sleep on it,” Heimdall says with a smile. “And see if this dream comes again.”
Thor takes this to heart. Heimdall is wise and if he is not concerned with the wellbeing of Asgard then Thor won’t be, either. But he can hardly retire to his rooms to sleep in the middle of the day. Father would have his hide for that and Thor must wait until the night falls. He does turn in a little early, unable to help himself, and ignoring the way Loki’s knowing grin follows him from the room.
**
“Hello, again,” Thor greets when he spots a familiar man ahead of him. Familiar but still a stranger. Just like this place where Thor has found him is a strange place. It is not Asgard, not any place on it that Thor knows and Thor does like to think that he knows all of his realm.
The man turns and seems in a daze which does not clear when his gaze lands on Thor. Yet he still offers “Hi” in return. “Do I know you?” he follows up with and Thor’s expectations fall a little.
“Aye,” he says after a moment and with a slow nod. “We met on the rainbow bridge, before the mighty gates of Asgard. Do you not remember?”
A moments thought falls over the stranger but ultimately, he shakes his head. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. My name is Thor.”
“Ah...Steve. Steve Rogers.”
“Thor Odinson,” Thor decides to return in kind and then Steve offers a tentative smile though there is a grimace hidden there. Steve swallows and then glances around them so that Thor finds himself following suit.
They are standing together on what looks to be a vast field of snow and ice. In the distance, Thor can see great mountains of it. They have nothing like this on Asgard but it does remind Thor a little of Jotunheim. Only the cold isn’t so great as that and there is no ill feeling to the air. Steve seems to feel the cold more acutely as Thor catches a shiver work through him.
“Are you okay?” Thor asks as he steps forward, his head tilted as he studies this strange man.
Steve looks square at him and asks Thor a question that he isn’t expecting. “Am I dead?”
“Dead?” Thor echoes and then he shakes his head. “I think not. This is not Valhalla.”
“Heaven?” Steve seeks to replace the word. It takes Thor a moment to place it and then a couple of things slide into place.
“No, it is not Heaven, either. I don’t believe you are dead. I believe that we are dreaming.” Thor is more certain of it now than he was. Whatever this is, it isn’t a vision. Thor is able to interact with Steve in what seems to be real time. And it isn’t unheard of that a traumatized mind might reach out for something more stable. Though for a mind to reach across realms… What has happened to this man that his mind is cast so far afield?
Heaven. Those of Midgard believe in Heaven.
“You are sleeping,” Thor tries again when Steve doesn’t give much response, he only stands there and looks cold. “You should wake up.”
The fear that sinks into Steve’s gaze is alarming and Thor’s eyes widen as he steps forward but it is too late. Steve stumbles, he has time to open his mouth but Thor doesn’t know what Steve might say because Thor is waking up as well. He sits up in his bed, gasping for breaths that feel cold in his lungs.
It’s still night as Thor makes his way back to Heimdall. Heimdall is turned towards Asgard, awaiting his approach.
“I need you to find a man for me. Of Midgard.”
Heimdall first searches Thor’s gaze before he turns his attention out onto the realms. He is quiet for a long time, his eyes focused outward as Thor stands impatiently by his side.
“I do not see this man,” Heimdall eventually says and Thor stands stunned.
“But I spoke with him.”
“In a dream,” Heimdall says and Thor confirms this with a nod of his head though Heimdall has not asked. “This soul is not on Midgard nor in any other realm. If it was here, it has passed on now.”
Thor looks down and keeps his protest to himself. Steve Rogers was a man in trouble and Thor doesn’t think that that has passed.
**
Steve feels tired. He is cold and stretched out. Now he feels snapped back to this strange place, this unknown city with its unknown skies. At least the air is a little warmer here and Steve sits down where he is, crossed legged on the stone floor of a large balcony. He is very high up and the stone rails are built with wide gaps so that Steve can look out onto the city below even from where he sits.
It isn’t even a surprise now, when he looks to his side and Thor is standing where, a moment ago, there had been no one. Steve gives a subtle nod of acknowledgement and Thor pauses before he approaches, crouching down by Steve before he gives in and joins Steve in sitting cross-legged.
There is no cape draping from Thor’s shoulders this time and no war hammer in sight. Steve thinks that he likes this look better, this casual comfortable look. All Thor wears is a robe that cinches about his waist. Even his feet are bare. His hair is loose around his shoulders.
In comparison, Steve feels overdressed and ridiculous in his uniform, all red, white and blue which doesn’t seem to fit in with the tones of this place at all.
“Why are you here?” Thor asks him just when Steve is starting to wonder if he’ll say anything at all or if Steve isn’t just imagining him. Imagining this whole place.
“I don’t know. I don’t even know where ‘here’ is.”
Thor smiles at Steve’s admittance. “This is Asgard, one of the nine realms. You’re from Midgard.”
“Earth,” Steve says. He’s from Earth. New York. Brooklyn. Steve remembers all of these things but he still feels the need to repeat them to himself. Those places, they all feel fuzzy to him.
Thor takes a moment before he says “Earth” in agreement. “Do you remember what happened to you? Before you came here?”
“I think I might have died.” Steve remembers the pain of the impact. And then the cold, cold which he still feels now. He jumps a little at a sudden weight across his shoulders and looks over to find that apparently the robe wasn’t all that Thor had been wearing. Thor is busy tucking the robe around Steve’s shoulders and the clothes Thor was wearing underneath it look like silk.
“Tell me about the place you’re from,” Thor says.
“New York? Uh,” Steve stammers just a little. Because Thor is still close to him or maybe it’s Thor’s smile or maybe just how surreal this situation is. Steve doesn’t feel like he’s all there. “I love New York. I grew up there.”
“It is a city?” Thor asks, seeming eager for the information. “Like this city?”
Steve looks around them. “No, it’s…” He laughs a little, looking down and shaking his head. “It’s dirty. It can be pretty rough. But there are a lot of good parts if you look for them or you’re willing to see them. Central Park.” Steve thinks. “There’s this amazing diner on 34th. But, uh...it’s more than that. When it really matters, the people are amazing.”
“Perhaps I’ll visit one day,”
“You should.”
“I don’t believe that you are dead,” Thor says, out of nowhere and Steve stops staring ahead of him and looks over.
“I was in the middle of a war. One that I knew I wouldn’t come out of.” Which should somehow make it fine, maybe, but it doesn’t. Steve had thought he’d been willing to go but now he finds that he’s not. He’s not ready for it at all. “This is all some...dream. Instead of my life flashing before my eyes, I get this.”
Thor still insists on smiling at him. “I don’t believe that, either.”
Steve doesn’t think he gets it. “Just because you refuse to believe it doesn’t make it true.”
“Don’t be so eager to accept death, my friend. You must fight it. Life is for fighting.”
Steve blinks but when he opens his eyes, instead of seeing Thor, he sees a vast expanse of white. But the warmth of Thor’s robe and his hands stays with him. Fight it, Thor tells him, but Steve has no idea how to fight this.
**
“I wish to go to Midgard,” Thor demands of Heimdall and all he gets in return is a bland look though there is a hint of amusement lingering there. “Please, Heimdall.” Thor quickly changes his tune.
“It is forbidden. By your very father. Which you know, of course, as you have come to plead with me instead of him believing that I will be more easily moved.”
Thor is abashed but he stands his ground and doesn’t drop their eye contact. “I want to find this man.”
“The one you visit in dreams. I have told you that he does not exist.”
“Are you sure?”
“I would have seen him. You are impetuous, Thor. You cannot go chasing dreams.”
Frustration grows in Thor. He is the son of the King and still he is holden to ridiculous rules. “I ask only for a few hours.”
“And where would you go? If this man is there and I cannot see him, where would you go to look?”
Thor has that answer ready and gives it without pause. “New York. The city.” Where Steve grew up. Maybe Thor will find some sign or at least sate his curiosity of this place.
Heimdall considers him and Thor does his best to wait patiently while he reaches some verdict. At length, Heimdall sighs, a noise that does not become him, and he steps to the stone in the center of the bifrost. “I will give you a few hours.” He slides his sword into the stone and the bifrost moves.
**
New York is not what Steve remembers. He walks down the sidewalk, looks from left to right and not a single sight is familiar for him. From the tall skyscrapers to the street vendors, Steve is lost.
The first familiar thing that Steve sees is a red cape and with eyebrows raised, Steve makes his way towards it. A blaring car horn makes Thor jump, Steve can see him raise both a fist and his hammer at it.
“Thor!” Steve calls out and Thor turns towards him, his face lighting up in recognition, a smile that Steve simply has to return. Thor makes his way across the busy road, teaming with cars the likes of which Steve has never seen before. They’re fast, they’re large, they’re noisey. Thor agrees with this last sentiment as another horn sounds off on him and he catches up with Steve.
“It is very loud here.”
Steve agrees. “This isn’t how it used to be but...come on.” Steve reaches out, his fingers wrapping around Thor’s wrist. It’s the first time that Steve has touched Thor with skin on skin contact and something jolts through him. Jolts through them both.
Thor freezes for a moment, staring at Steve with some sort of renewed wonder that makes Steve uncomfortable. It also makes him want to get closer. In reaction, he looks away instead, though he never once loosens his grip as he tugs Thor on down the busy streets.
“Come on, this way,” Steve keeps encouraging Thor. His eyes seek out the street signs and he’s pleased to find that the names are still the same, the intersections are familiar even if nothing else is. “Just a little further.” They’re moving into Brooklyn and leaving the busy center behind. The buildings start to look a little older here, a familiar brick pattern taking over sheets of glass.
Soon and it’s quieter though the cars still remain steady on the streets. The press of people thin out and those they do pass do a double take at Thor. Their eyes all pass over Steve, even in his uniform. Thor has gotten over his shock by now and he keeps an easy pace by Steve’s side, until they are well away from the hustle and then Thor pulls them to a stop.
“I came here to look for you,” Thor says and Steve looks around them. They’re alone here, down a narrow side street. It’s dirty here, and that is something that Steve remembers a little more.
“Here I am.”
“Yes, and I think I’ve discovered something new.” While Steve is frowning over that, Thor lifts the hand not still locked in Steve’s grip and cups the side of Steve’s face. The touch is warm and inviting, bringing up a soft glow through Steve. A literal soft glow, like the sun, like gold, and Steve sees it reflected in Thor’s gaze.
“What?” Steve asks. He wants to reach out right then, latch onto Thor and not ever let go.
“I know what’s going on now.” Thor leans in and Steve feels like he’s reaching out for Thor, though he stays entirely still, even as Thor brushes his mouth across Steve’s in a kiss that makes that golden light burst open between them.
**
Thor is screaming. Hot light envelopes him, twines all around him, and it hurts. He is screaming, right up until cool hands grip him by the shoulders.
“Thor, listen to me.”
The world comes into focus slowly, flashes of disjointed images that war for his attention. He is in the bifrost. He can see Heimdall’s sword still lodged into the center. A moan breaks from him. His skin is crawling and the only thing that keeps him from losing his grip is the cool point of focus that comes from Loki’s hands on him.
“What did you allow him to do?” Loki is snapping. Thor blinks hard. Loki is crouching before him, glaring back over his shoulder and Thor’s vision swims before he catches sight of Heimdall.
“As I was asked,” Heimdall returns, not at all perturbed by Loki’s harsh attitude.
The world is beginning to settle again and Thor makes an attempt to bat away Loki’s hands though he immediately misses their cool counterpart to the heat inside of him. “I’m okay,” he tries to reassure them. Loki looks less than convinced.
“What were you thinking? You cannot touch a human soul withou-”
“Stop stop,” Thor demands. He manages to gain his feet though his legs feel weak, his chest tight. “Did you see him? Heimdall, did you-”
Heimdall looks reluctant to say anything at all. Loki is giving him a murderous expression. “I did. For a moment see the man you have told me about.”
“This is ridiculous,” Loki spits. “You are chasing dreams, Thor. You’re disobeying our father, putting yourself in danger. You allowed mortals to see you. Do you know the sort of damage-”
Thor cuts Loki off again and Loki actually throws his hands up into the air in defeat. “It was his soul,” Thor says, a tinge of excitement in his voice. He cannot help it. This man’s very soul has reached out to him and Thor has reached out in return, to feel it brush along his own. To say the experience had been overwhelming is an understatement. “I must find him,” Thor exclaims, his imagination, his desire, quickly running off with him. “He needs help and he came to me for it.”
Yet Heimdall is shaking his head. “I felt this soul for but a second. He is lost, Thor, and there is no way of helping with this.”
“But you must-”
“It is but a piece of him and we have no idea where the rest lays. If you allow this soul to become attached to you, you will only drive yourself mad. Humans have short lives, you must allow this one to pass.”
**
Thor lies awake as he now knows that he has been through each of these encounters. If he could see the way that Heimdall does, he would know exactly when Steve were about to appear for him again though as it is, Thor simply knows that he will appear and he is not disappointed.
Steve walks over to him, there from one moment to the next as if he always were, crossing the large expanse of Thor’s bedroom. Thor sits up to greet him though Steve is much more taken with his surroundings than with Thor himself, looking around him.
“Everything is so...large here,” Steve says when he does finally look at Thor. He hangs back a little, more hesitant now than he had been before and Thor wants to reach out to him. Touching Steve’s soul had been overwhelming to the point of pain but it had been addictive as well.
“We enjoy the grand here.”
Steve glances around and finally shakes his head though he is smiling now. “I think I prefer the smaller things in life.”
Thor laughs. “Ah, but you have not lived here. You have not experienced it.”
“I’d rather go home.”
Thor sobers a little at that, looking Steve over before he motions for Steve to come and sit down beside him. “I think that I would like to help you with that. Though those around me might disagree.”
“Why?”
Thor smiles. “Because I am reckless and impetuous. At least that is what I’m told. But I know when to follow my gut and when something is important. You are important.”
Steve still hesitates but he does go over after a moment of watching Thor and he sits next to Thor, gravitates close to him. He doesn’t flinch when Thor’s hand rests over the middle of his back but closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath.
“Are you always so cold?”
“I don’t know,” Steve answers, his eyes still closed, head tilted a little towards Thor. “I don’t think I used to be.”
“What happened to you when you died?” Thor asks bluntly. He believes that Steve knows the truth of this. Steve has mentioned it several times now, it should not come as a shock. But Steve’s eyes still snap open and he glances at Thor, nervous. No one wants to remember the way they died and asking a lost soul to remember the pain of its body might be asking too much.
“...I wanted to save New York.” A deep breath and Thor can see Steve concentrating, recalling things that should only be able to come from a conscious mind. Somewhere, Thor is sure, Steve’s body is still alive. He doesn’t know how, he just knows. “So I crashed a plane into the ocean and I hit...ice, a lot of ice. I don’t really remember after that. Just being cold.”
The only thing that Thor can think to do to this confession is drag the warm blankets from his bed up around Steve’s shoulders. It will do nothing for him. The cold he feels isn’t physical but Steve seems to appreciate the gesture anyway and smiles at Thor in return. Thor rests his hand over the back of Steve’s neck and when Steve doesn’t seem inclined to turn away from him, Thor brushes his mouth across Steve’s cheek until Steve turns his head a little Thor’s way for a brief catch of lips against lips.
“I don’t know about this,” Steve protests softly.
“You came to me,” Thor says. “You came to me for help, I don’t know why or how but your soul calls out to me and I cannot turn away now. This is the only way I know of to fix this.”
Thor leans in again and Steve turns to meet him fully this time, slotting their mouths together and Thor feels that burn through him again. Much like heat but no, he realizes that it is the opposite, the burn of ice against the very heart of him.
“Enough!” Odin’s voice in Thor’s chambers echoes. Odin’s hand clamps down against the back of Thor’s neck to physically haul him off and Thor lets out a deep cry of protest. Not now, he thinks frantically. He had almost had this and he can’t lose the physical contact with Steve now.
Odin is stronger than him but Thor is determined and he hangs on hard to Steve, sees the panic in Steve’s gaze followed by a blinding flash of golden light.
Thor’s chambers fall away from them and Odin loses his grip.
**
The cavern that Thor finds himself in is quiet, still. Ice is built up all around him, over the floor and up the walls. At first, Thor assumes them to be rock but a touch of his hand shows it to be metal. He is standing in a large metal room, filled with things that Thor doesn’t have names for.
There is some residue of energy in this place that causes the hairs on the back of Thor’s arms and neck to stand on end. Enough to make a shiver of distress run down his spine and Thor looks around him quickly but sees nothing threatening.
Steve is no longer with him and Thor wonders how he managed to lose his grip on the man. His neck is painful where Odin had grabbed him so hard but even Odin has not been able to follow him here.
“Hello?” Thor tries. “Steve?” His voice echoes and nothing comes back to him. In a matter of minutes, his father will have spoken to Heimdall and he’ll know exactly where Thor is. Thor needs to hurry, to figure out where he is and why he was dragged here of all places, to this desolate empty space.
Steve had gone down into the ice, Thor remembers and he begins a frantic search. He does not have his hammer but his fists work just as well to break chunks of ice and snow from the many mounds. It is dark and Thor cannot see very well.
“I know that you must be here!” Thor calls out into the cavern. “Please give me some sign.”
Nothing answers him. Steve does not walk up to him and the burning cold of his soul has dissipated.
A blinding flash of light and a sudden whirlwind of snow signal the bifrost and Odin’s arrival. Thor staggers back and raises his hands in some vain attempt to ward Odin off.
“I just need a few more moments. Father-”
“No,” Odin says and he does not need to raise his voice or become angry. The growl in his tone shuts Thor down quickly. “It is not up to us to play with the life and death of these mortals. Thor… You are young still. This is beyond your understanding but the only thing you must do now is let go.”
Thor dips his gaze and he is too late to react a second later when Odin raises his spear and Thor spins to watch as Odin throws it with accuracy into the ice. Thor knows its target before he sees it and the cry leaves him before he can stop it.
The center point of the three pronged spear cracks through the ice and Thor sees it finally, a flash of bright red.
“No!” He jolts forward but Odin catches his arm and the bifrost descends upon them.
**
For a week, Thor has no sense of Steve. He waits up at night in the hopes that Steve will appear and he walks the rainbow bridge in case Steve is waiting for him there. Once, he approaches Heimdall and begs him to be allowed back down to Midgard. Heimdall refuses and this time, will not be swayed otherwise.
“I do not understand,” Thor confesses his frustration to Frigga.
She beckons for him to come and join him in his parents sitting room and draws him down next to her on the one of the seats. Her long fingers brush through his hair as though he were still nothing but a child. Yet he takes comfort from it in a way he doesn’t very many things. With Frigga he can be...weaker.
“Your father is only looking after you.”
“Father is-” Thor starts with an angry curse on the edge of his tongue but Frigga smoothly cuts him off.
“A soul is a very tempting thing. It is something that you are going to have to learn to resist. To create a bond with a mortal soul? And one that has no clue what it even is. Thor… That would have done both of you a world of pain.”
“That is not what was happening,” Thor insists though he can no longer meet his mother’s eye.
“The first touch of a soul is addictive and dangerous. You would have trapped him in a world he did not understand. And human souls wear thin so quickly, he would have faded away with nothing that you could do to stop it.”
“But it was different,” Thor says and Frigga regards him patiently.
“I can see that you believe this. Come along then. Let’s go see Heimdall and you can introduce me this man. I would like to see what all this fuss has been about.”
Thor stares at her with widened eyes, hardly daring to believe the words. Before she can second guess them or take them back, though, Thor is on his feet and he has her hand in his to hurry her along. She laughs softly as she follows in his wake and Thor knows that he should feel ridiculous but he doesn’t. This is the right thing to do and with Frigga by his side, Heimdall cannot refuse them entrance into Midgard again.
**
“This is the place,” Thor says as they look around the ice caked metal. Heimdall has brought them straight back to the last place that Thor and Steve had been.
Frigga looks around them and steps delicately through the snow. Thor doesn’t need to look around, he knows exactly where he needs to go and he quickly finds the red and white that had caught his eye before. It’s a shield, he quickly realizes, and he brings his hammer down to crack the ice that holds it encased.
“I don’t understand,” Thor says as he stares at the sheet of metal.
Frigga gives him a look that says of course he doesn’t understand and Thor feels as young as they keep telling him. “We often become overly attached to inanimate things. Take Mjolnir for example.” Thor gives her an affronted look but Frigga goes on nonetheless. “You would be lost without Mjolnir.”
Thor is nodding along now, dropping down to one knee before the shield though he remains hesitant to touch it. “If Steve is lost without this shield and I reunite them-”
“It is not so easy.” Frigga approaches and she kneels down in the snow by Thor’s side. While Thor had hesitated, Frigga reaches out to run her fingers gently over the surface of the shield, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. Thor watches her. This is a part of her he has never entirely understood, a part more reserved for Loki. Maybe that is why all of this feels so out of Thor’s depth and Thor thinks that Steve probably would have been better going to Loki in the end. No doubt, Loki would have had this figured out by now. “He holds a soul bond with this shield. It is made of something very special, something nearly as indestructible as you.” Frigga cracks open an eye and glances at him, teasing. Thor knows what she is saying. That he is not half so indestructible as he likes to believe.
“As long as this shield exists then so does he.”
“Then what do we do? I could take the shield to Asgard,” Thor suggests and cannot hold back the note of hope.
Frigga shakes her head sadly. “It is not fair to allow a soul to languish. It is cruel.” It takes Thor a moment to understand but Frigga drives her words home. “Your hammer is stronger than this shield.”
Thor blinks at her and then stares at the shield. He still hasn’t reached out to touch it, unsure what would happen if he did. “I can’t do that.” And he’s not entirely sure that Frigga is right. Hesitantly, he reaches out his fingers to the shield and as Frigga does nothing to try and stop him, he lays them against the cold metal gently.
The moment Thor touches the shield, a vision flashes before his wide open eyes. His hammer meets this shield with a noise like a thunderclap, a soundwave the flattens the area around them. No, Thor thinks, Mjolnir could not so easily shatter this thing.
“Thor?” Frigga says his name as Thor stays there, hand now pressed firmly to the metal.
"When I first saw him, I thought I must be having a vision. He is alive for a reason, mother, and he came to me for a reason. For help. I have to give it.”
Frigga studies him silently for some time before she sighs. Either she sees the truth in Thor’s eyes or she sees that he will not be swayed. “Very well then. There is some part of you that is bound to him now as well. It seems you’ve found someone nearly as reckless as you are, Thor. But know this, I will help you to rejoin his subconscious soul with his conscious body but the subconscious does not remember. Steve will not know who helped him or why or that anyone did at all. Something in him will always know you but it will not come to his mind. Can you accept that?”
“Of course,” Thor says, eagerly brushing the warning off. She is being ridiculous, of course. In one breath she says that he and Steve will always be soul bonded and in the next that Steve will not know this? Thor brushes it off and Frigga still nods, accepting his words.
“Put both your hands on the shield and concentrate.”
**
Thor is standing before him, holding something in his hands when Steve approaches. It takes Steve a moment to recognize what it is and when he does, the shock that travels through him is electric. He reaches out a hand to touch it but just as quickly he draws back, lifting his gaze to Thor who looks so happy in this moment.
"How did you find this?”
“Fate, perhaps,” Thor answers.
“I forgot about it.” How could he have forgotten about it? His shield gripped in Thor’s hands. It doesn’t feel wrong that it should be there and Steve feels no urge to take it back.
“This is the answer,” Thor says, at once pleased and nervous. His gaze meets Steve’s and then flits away in a motion that draws Steve closer.
“The answer to what?”
“Saving your life.”
Does Steve need saving? He doesn’t seem to remember that. He remembers Thor, though, and he remembers this shield. The weight of it is ingrained back into his memory. This shield has saved not only Steve’s life but the lives of many people around him. Thor lets the shield down to his side and Steve blinks to realize he had been staring at it. When he catches Thor’s gaze again, the man looks more nervous than anything.
Thor has touched Steve before and now it’s Steve’s turn to make that connection, raising his palm to cup the line of Thor’s jaw. He brushes his thumb across Thor’s lips. “Are you sure this isn’t Heaven?” Steve asks, a cheesy one liner that does it’s job and makes Thor laugh.
“If you take this shield back,” Thor starts, “We’ll be saying goodbye for awhile. My mother says that when you wake up, you won’t remember any of this.”
Steve tips his head, doesn’t understand, and decides to play it off. “Well...I guess you’ll have to find a way to remind me, then.”
“I will,” Thor agrees. He holds the shield out to Steve. “Take the shield,” he says and Steve does. The world turns a brilliant gold.
**
Heimdall watches as Steve Rogers becomes a life that he can see again, recovered from the ice and given a second chance.
The next Thor sees Steve they’re standing in a forest. Thor takes one look at that shield and knows exactly what will happen next. He brings his hammer down hard, the sound is a thunderclap around them. Metal meets metal and a golden spark ignites in Steve’s gaze as soul touches soul and Steve remembers.