Collision

chapter 17: asgard

"Asgard."

The name rolls smoothly off Louis' tongue, seeps through his teeth and falls out his mouth with a childlike kind of admiration. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought this would happen. He's dreamed, fantasized, imagined this moment so many times, and the fact that he's now here, in person, is unbelievable to him. He remembers playing around during his childhood in the forest, swinging around fallen branches like lethal swords and stealing hammers from the dwarves to imitate Thor's Mjolnir, pretending the apples they hoarded during early September mornings were golden and holding eternal youth. Louis has grown up wanting to be a God, wanting to be his Gods.

And now here he is, on Asgardian ground, and Louis thinks he just might faint from pure ecstasy.

"Boys," he nearly squeals, looking around the room once again to truly savor the moment. "I don't want to be overly dramatic but I'm pretty sure my entire life has led up to this moment."

He turns around to face his companions with the widest smile on his face to see if any of them are matching his own ecstasy. Liam does, in fact, look quite awestruck, Zayn is visibly still recovering from being violently sent through space, Niall's mostly looking at the aforementioned pair, and Harry is looking severely unimpressed.

"Great," he mutters. "More pompous gods who despise my whole being. Was starting to get too comfortable without that."

Louis is not going to let Harry shit all over his happiness. Not here.

"Not everything is about you," he reminds the spirit assertively. "Quit whining."

He starts looking around for the door, a big and evidently heavy one, made from thick and rough wood with big, iron handles.

"We can't waste any time," he urges. "Come on, let's see where we are!"

He's already on his way to the door and he can hear at least two pairs of feet following him, when he's roughly taken aback by a terrified scream from behind him.

He stops immediately in his tracks and swiftly turns around to see what danger they are in this time.

Zayn is standing up, an absolutely horrified look in his eyes and limbs trembling as he looks to the werewolf next to him. It takes a moment for Louis to even realize what's going on, but when he does, his blood freezes cold and his eyes blow so wide he's scared they're going to pop out.

Next to Zayn stands Liam, lapidified in a crunched stance with one hand reaching out towards the floor, and he's completely made of gold.

He's made of gold.

It takes a good couple of seconds before Louis is even physically capable of tearing his gaze away from his now lifeless friend to stare at Zayn.

Zayn has his hands tightly balled up into fists pressed to his chest, taking a few stumbling steps away from Liam's golden figure.

"I don't know what happened," he utters, "he just took my hand to help me up and then he-what the fuck is going on?"

That's a splendid fucking question. Louis doesn't have an answer, just lets his stare wander rapidly between Zayn and Liam, Zayn, Liam, Zayn, Liam, as if doing it a certain amount of times will make him understand.

"Did I do that?" Zayn asks frantically. "Did I do this to him or was it just a really cruel coincidence that he turned into a statue right when I touched him?"

It doesn't sound like a coincidence, it really doesn't. Hence everyone's complete and utter horror and confusion. Zayn is, as far as they all know, an Earth human. An Earth human doesn't possess powers like these.