Thor, the date-whisperer

[st_hotflashes]

Maria was feeling under the weather and so could not help with Liz's current dilemma. When she had left her room to go to the boutique for a new dress, she was thankful to have run into Thor. When she explained she had a date - a more romantic one than usual - and she felt like she had literally nothing to wear, Thor had said he would help her be date-ready in no time.

Liz's big problem was that she felt like Peter had seen all of her wardrobe at least five times and she wanted to 'wow' him. It might have been silly - they had been dating for almost a year now - but she still did.

She dumped the various new dresses from the boutique than had been in her size onto the bed. "Okay... one of these has to look nice, right?"

Comments

[st_hotflashes]

"I guess that's true." She smiled at him, letting him fiddle. "It's funny, you know... I haven't really met a lot of aliens who don't look human." She knew Xavin didn't in their original form, but that was it. "I'm sure there has to be a lot of different sort of aliens out there, though."

[st_ormbreaker]

"Many do," he says. "And many appear to be human-like, but have different internal composition or genitalia. My physiology makes me stronger and faster and more resilient than humans. It's very difficult to knock an Asgardian down."

Thor pulls a flap over her shoulder, and then the other and there -- he has it! He steps away and surveys Liz with a light smile.

"It looks good."

[st_hotflashes]

For a moment, Liz tried to picture various different types of aliens and then stopped because it was getting too weird. She flushed a little.

The flush remained when Thor stepped back and complimented her. Liz looked down at what Thor managed to make with the once-skirt and was surprised. It definitely didn't look like a skirt anymore.

"This looks... it's really pretty. I would never have thought of doing this. Thank you." She looked fondly at him.

[st_ormbreaker]

"Happy to help. Uh..."

He gestures to her hair.

"Did you require assistance with your hair?" he asks hopefully.

[st_hotflashes]

She couldn't help but smile at Thor. It hadn't gone unnoticed that he liked hair and while she often avoided Annie for the little girl's sake, she knew Thor enjoyed braiding his hair.

"Actually, um." She clasped her hands together in front of her. "I was hoping you might like to do something? I was kind of hoping for something different than I usually do." Which was either hair up or hair down except for rare occasions.

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'd like to," Thor says. "My hair used to be considerably longer than this until some creepy man cut it off."

He takes a seat in one of Liz's chairs, and gestures her to join him.

"When we were much younger, Loki and I used to braid each other's hair."

[st_hotflashes]

"You braided Lokis?" She knew, of course, that Loki had long hair. "Why doesn't Loki braid it now?"

Liz followed Thor's directions and joined him at the chair. She trusted Thor with her hair - there were only a few men she would do that with, actually.

[st_ormbreaker]

"I don't know," he says, combing his fingers through Liz's hair. "Once we got older he stopped doing it, but you stop doing plenty of things when you get older."

[st_hotflashes]

"I think he'd look nice with one." Though she was aware of then tension between the brothers so she wasn't about to suggest that Thor try to do now.

"For a while when I was younger, I always wanted a sibling. But Maria was there since kindergarten, so she's sort of like a sister to me."

[st_ormbreaker]

"Friends are often as good as siblings," Thor says, as he begins to braid her hair. "I have seen your friend around, but I haven't yet met her. It is good she is here with you."

[st_hotflashes]

"Sometimes I feel a little guilty because I'm glad she's here, but her being here means she can't go home." Thus, the guilt. "She thinks Mr. Rodgers is really cute."

[st_ormbreaker]

"I think we can all agree that he's handsome," Thor says, continuing to work on her hair. "I think all of the Avengers are, in their own way."

Some might not think some the older or ordinary Avengers to be handsome, but Thor certainly thought so. Especially the one he was dating.

[st_hotflashes]

"I've noticed there seems to be a sort of... common theme with the superheroes in your world." Meaning they all seemed easy on the eyes, though Liz seemed more drawn to 'smaller' frames than Maria usually was. "Must be hard walking around in public."

[st_ormbreaker]

"Sometimes," Thor says. "I was gone from Earth for two years, but I was approached by two women wanting a selfie within ten minutes of my arrival."

It hadn't taken very long at all.

"I don't mind it, though," he says. At least not most of the time. "People need to be excited about something."

[st_hotflashes]

"I don't know if I could do something like that... I'd probably get embarrassed a lot. You've got a lot of confidence." She smiled despite facing away from Thor.

"But I also think what you all do is pretty amazing."

[st_ormbreaker]

"There's nothing much amazing about it." Thor stops with the braid on one side, and starts one on the other. "I fought my first battle when I was fourteen years old. But what the humans do, I'm far more impressed with that. They have less experience, they're more fragile, and still they fight."

[st_hotflashes]

Liz didn't know a lot about what was going to happen in Peter's future, but she knew enough to be scared of Thanos. She didn't think that was no big deal.

"An alien once called us 'resilient and annoying'. He, um... well, he wasn't really a nice person, but he had a tendency to underestimate us."

[st_ormbreaker]

"Your people are very strong-willed and determined. It's part of why I love humans so much and why I am so fond of Earth," he says. "I do not think you are annoying."

Liz, not the human race as a whole.

"You're very good-hearted, just like Jane."

[st_hotflashes]

Liz was pretty sure she could be annoying sometimes, but most people were like that. His compliment warmed her smile, though.

"I think you have a good heart too." It was hard to miss that Thor was always trying to be happy and helpful. "For the record, I think you make a good brother." Even if Liz had no idea what it was like to be a sibling at all.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor smiles at the compliment. The second braid is done, and now it's time to braid the two of them together into one.

"I am, sometimes," he says. "But other times, I was so preoccupied with myself that I couldn't didn't notice my brother's problems at all."

Now, in hindsight, it should have been obvious.

"We fight all the time now, and still our relationship is much improved than it has been over the past ten years."

[st_hotflashes]

"Fighting's normal, right? I mean, for siblings." She knew Max and Isabel fought often, but that they still cared a lot for each other as well.

[st_ormbreaker]

"Probably," Thor says with a smile. "Sometimes the fighting is far more serious, though. I'd rather us not fight at all. He's all the family I have left."

And not even that in his own reality.

[st_hotflashes]

She gave a slight nod - she didn't want to mess up what Thor was doing. "I think sometimes places like this, where it's closed in and there's not a whole lot to do, it can cause people to be a little more grumpy... Most of us are used to being distracted with our lives most of the time."

[st_ormbreaker]

"What about you?" he asks, finishing up the end of the braid. "You have something to be grumpy about?"

[st_hotflashes]

She felt him finish as she considered the question. "I don't think I'm grumpy... I think for me being somewhere like this, um, makes me over think things more than I might back home." Maybe it could lead to grumpiness, but it often led to crying.