Peace of the Storm
Tess' eyes drifted open slowly, and what she felt was strange... something she hadn't felt in five years;
Peace.
Her world felt calm, and not one nightmare came that night as she slept, something she thought was a miracle considering that there hadn't been one time she'd fell asleep in years that she hasn't woke in terror.
She turned her head to the side, her hair falling in gentle waves around her face, slightly disheveled, and found her new stronghold peacefully asleep beside her.
Thor was still there. Still beside her. Alive, real, miraculous.
Tess couldn't help the small smile that greeted her lips, letting out a soft sigh as she watched him. She'd never thought things could change for her this way, never thought she'd find love or—more incredulously—that someone could love her as more than a friend or sibling, but as a partner, an equal, a soulmate.
And she'd never felt as loved by a man as she had that night. Maybe that's what kept the horrible images and memories away.
She smiled wider and a tiny breath of a laugh came from her lips, Kraglin was going to be beside himself when she finally showed her face later... Rocket would have that look he always seemed to do when her and Thor were within twelve feet of each other, even though he acted like he couldn't care less.
Another difference is that she actually felt warm, not just the physical sense, where as she'd felt that constant coolness for a long time, she actually felt like her insides had thawed, her heart beating better than it maybe ever had.
Tess reached her hand out, placing it on his arm, extended towards her where she remembered his fingers had been stroking her cheek some time when she'd half-woke during the night, maybe because he knew she'd always had the bad dreams and was comforting her through them. Her fingers wrapped around, holding in a show that she was willing to never let go, claiming and owning him.
She moved in closer, nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck and feeling him stir and move his hand under her shoulder. She closed her eyes, breathing in deeply, trying to memorize his scent until it was engrained in her heart, that musk that was so different than what she'd memorized of her brother, or even the fading smell she recalled of her father, theirs had been natural, grounded.
She only knew one word to describe his; ethereal. Like the cosmos and storms and lands far off and something that wasn't from a time or place she couldn't understand.
Even his very feel was different from what she was used to, when her scarred hand clasped around his arm, looking so small against the broadness and power of it alone, it wasn't like what she knew when she had held onto Kraglin, even with his double strength of a Terran man and years of Ravager survival. Even what she remembered of Yondu, for all the sturdy discipline she recalled, that feeling being wrapped in his arms that first and last time, and the battle-worn bodies they both possessed, they still felt so fragile compared to Thor... felt so mortal.
She could practically feel the power and centuries of battle and immortal pain flowing through his veins like the lightning he conjured just the small area her hand could cover.
He moved to where his chin was on top of head, then dipped down to place a tender kiss into her silver locks. She smiled, tracing her finger again and again down his shoulder. "Sleep well?" he asked, voice thick from sleep so that it rumbled into her core like gentle thunder.
"Better than a long, long time."
He hummed with approval, kissing her again. "Then I have only one regret." he said softly. She hated that her heart flipped over. But she stayed silent all but a tip of her head to inquire the answer. "That we waited so long."
Tess could hear the smile in his voice, and she chuckled softly. "You are in so much trouble, though."
"Mm, it'll be worth it."
"You'd be surprised..."
He was silent after that, but she felt his smile, felt his happiness, and it spilled over to her. They'd both lost so much, yet for all they were broken she felt him piecing her back together in all the places no one else could.
But she still felt herself so deeply in some devine chains of fate that the immortal would give himself away to the mortal, the god to the Ravager. The king to the criminal.
And even though she knew he deserved better, she also knew he'd never be loved more by another woman. Whether she was truly nothing but a mortal assassin—a creation at the hands of the evil while he was crafted of purity and honor— or not.