Nope. Nope. Nope. She didn’t leave. She was never sick of playing Jane. Marvel was the one to make that call. Marvel was the one that wrote her out and disparaged her character.
“Babe, behind us,” Jane said, brushing Thor’s arm to turn and face the two women approaching them. College students from the looks of it, and the sheer number of buttons on the straps of their bags. One of them pulled out a flag in different shaded stripes of pink, white, and red, and Thor’s face split into a grin as he realized what it was.
“Um, would you mind…” the girl trailed off as Thor took the flag from her without a moment’s hesitation.
“Not at all, I quite enjoy it!” he answered proudly. “Do you have a phone you’d like to use to capture the moment?” Flag girl’s friend took out her phone, and Jane smiled a little, seeing that it had a diagram of an Einstein-Rosen bridge on the case. “Excellent. Jane?”
“I’m on it.” Jane moved to take the phone and open the camera app. “Do you guys want video or photo?”
“We can do video?” the second girl asked eagerly.
“Of course you can. I’m guessing you want ‘let’s go, lesbians?’” Ever since Darcy had shown Thor Billy on the Streets, he’d latched onto that phrase, and Jane had grown fond of it. If nothing else, he’d had fun at Pride events.
“You would really do that?” the first girl asked in amazement, and Jane hit record just before Thor gave the answer that he’d gotten down to an art at this point.
“I am Thor, God of Thunder and Lesbians, protector of the Sapphics, of course I would do that. Now, look at the camera, and let’s go, lesbians—”
“Let’s go!” the girls finished the shout with him before bursting into giggles and Jane ended the video, passing the phone back.
“Actually, do you mind taking a picture, Dr. Foster?” the second girl asked, suddenly timid and Jane blinked in surprise.
“Wait, for real?”
“Yeah, I, um,” the girl blushes and pulls a thick stack of papers, holding them out to Jane. “I wrote one of my term papers about you. Would you mind signing this draft too? Please?”
“I mean… I’m…” Jane sputtered a little, trying to make her brain work through her shock at someone actually wanting her autograph.
“Give her a moment, she’s unused to this sort of attention,” Thor chuckled as he took the phone from the girl and retrieved a pen from his pocket. “But that is part of why I love her.”
Oh, my god, THOR. Jane cleared her throat as she managed to take the pen and look at the girl. “What’s your name?”
“Roz.”
“Roz,” Jane repeated, scribbling her name on the front page of the paper, along with ‘Roz, keep aiming for the stars.’ “This is… really gratifying, thank you.”
“No, thank you,” Roz said, hugging the paper to her chest.
“Jane, look at me,” Thor coached. “Both of you say Nobel.”
“Nobel!” Roz said more enthusiastically than Jane, who was still kind of processing everything, but managed to smile. As Thor took the picture, then gave the phone back to the two girls with one last energetic hug, Jane took the moment to collect herself.
“They were delightful,” Thor said cheerfully as they resumed walking.
“Yeah, they were.” She looked up at him. “But was it your plan to tell two complete strangers that you loved me before you told me?”
“Jane Foster, if you didn’t know how deeply I loved you before this moment, I have utterly failed as a boyfriend.”
“I mean, the issue could just as easily be my performance as a girlfriend.”
“Nonsense,” he chuckled, bending down to kiss her forehead.
“Oh, yeah, it’s definitely my fault,” she laughed. “But for the record, I love you too.”
“I know,” he grinned.
“Oh, my god, do not Solo me!”
“You should not have shown me the movies.”
“I hate you so much right now.”
“No,” he paused to brush back her hair with a smile. “No, you don’t.”
And even as she huffed to demonstrate that she was serious, she leaned up and kissed him, knowing that it was hardly the worst way to say their first ‘I love you’s.
well, my friends, i am what you might call a Poor™
and because i am a Poor™, i needed to take a job to make some extra money so i can be less of a Poor™
i’ve been waking up real early, and going to work where i’m on my feet for 4-9 hours every day helping dumbass college students find their books, then coming home and collapsing.
i am sorry i was gone. please come back to me and love me.
“Then I won’t pry,” She laughs, offering the other woman a smile. “How’s your work going?”
“Pretty well, actually. Winning a Nobel opens a lot of funding doors,” Jane laughed. “And I love that. Best part of having it. Aside from bragging rights.”
Carol laughs softly as the other woman begins speaking rapidly, her lips curled up into a smile once her hand is released. “Mm, yeah– I did. I’ve heard a lot about you, Thor doesn’t stop talking about you.”
“He doesn’t?” Jane’s eyes widened and she flushed pink. “I’m sorry about that, he’s... really enthusiastic.”
Her usual tic of starting to explain everything scientifically was a dead giveaway. Thor couldn’t miss it as she tried to talk her way out of the nervousness she felt, and the fact that her cheeks were enough to be considered crimson instead of merely pink. Thor just watched as she settled on the edge of the tub, letting her reason how she could fit, that she certainly could fit, and he chuckled gently in response to her words.
“Yes, you can. Join me?” He asked her, shifting so that she could slide into the warm water as she pleased, however she pleased. There was the option of sitting with her back to his chest, or across from him. Not really any other way this could really work, unless she wanted him sitting against her! The thought made him smile all the wider, wondering what she would do with the invitation now that it was expressly given. Would she dance around with her scientific explanations again, or would she give in?
“Well, how can I refuse when you ask so nicely?”
Jane laughed and dropped her robe, slipping into the tub with a smile. The angle she was at gave her a very good look at everything he had on display, even when refracted through the water. Thor’s body had a way of bypassing her usual disinterest in the human form that made her cheeks burn all the hotter, even as she briefly wondered if it had something to do with him technically being an alien.
“Navy blue, huh?” Jane considered the possibilities. “What do the other water bodies do? Just different colors, or are there other side effects I should know about?”
“The flavor of lime belongs on limes!
– And keylime pie, candy, in drinks, and in those fuckin’ rad little real fruit popsicles. It doesn’t belong already on chips.”
Darcy holds a rolling of her eyes at bay; in these situations, it always seemed to make Jane angrier, and she was already incredibly irrationally angry over food choices.
(Then again, she’d mad Thor sleep on the couch for his last food fuck-up, so…)
“Fine. Fine. Have your stupid, boring creamy peanutbutter.”
“If you get everything on the list,” Jane added, deciding to throw her assistant a bone. “I’ll let you have one extra night off next week.”
She hoped Darcy would realize that was not an offer to be taken lightly, given how much work they usually did at night.
