Young God | L. Laufeyson

50. A Green Surprise

"Thanks for letting me use your tools! I needed to fix my quad blasters and jet boots." Aurora smiles brightly as she still tinkers with her guns, focused on the wires and close to repairing her equipment. The two of them sit on the ground of Valkyrie's ship, the door is open to offer them a view of the crowded arena. The battle will soon begin. Valkyrie just shrugs and sits down next to the cross-legged auburn-haired girl while she drinks her booze.

"What kind of music is this?" She asks and points at Aurora's iPod that is connected to her ship to play the wonderfully smooth song.

"It's from my home planet Terra. It's called Anyone Who Knows What Love is, sung by Irma Thomas. It's beautiful, isn't it?" Aurora looks up and Valkyrie slowly nods. The melody sounds like heaven and is soothing. "Sometimes I like to pretend that my mom lived long enough to know this song, she would've loved it. She was a big music fan."

"And what happened to her?" Brunnhilde doesn't know why, but watching Aurora tinker is really entertaining, especially witnessing how excited the auburn-haired girl gets when it succeeds.

"My biological father killed her after raping her, so I and my half brother were forced to kill him before he could take over the whole universe." Aurora explains nonchalantly as she connects the red and blue wire. When she doesn't hear an answer and only gets an odd silence, she looks up again to meet Valkyrie's deep frown. "I'm not a killer, pinky swear."

"You don't look like one. This just sounds entirely insane." She mutters and actually feels bad for the Terran girl. "Must have been rough."

"It was. Especially since I lost my dad, Yondu, through the whole incident." A sad smile graces Aurora's lips but it gets quickly replaced by happiness. "But without the whole tragedy, I would have never met my brother and he's honestly the best! Things happen for a reason and I focus on the bright side. Because neither my mom nor my dad would have wanted me to waste my life with grieving."

"Maybe you're right." Brunnhilde gets lost in her own words, thinking back on the fight against Hela, how she has lost everyone and also her lover. The pain still stings in her chest and even today, she cannot move on.

"It takes some time." Aurora shoots her a sympathetic glance, gently stroking the Asgardian's back after putting the tools aside. "But you'll eventually be strong enough to embrace the pain."

Perhaps one day, Brunnhilde will be able to open up and talk to Aurora about the traumatic incident, but for now, she only sends the auburn-haired girl a small but grateful smile for her kind words. She hasn't felt loved and close with someone like this for an eternity. "By the way, what does pinky swear mean?"

"Oh, right, that's a Terran thing." Aurora chuckles and raises her finger, motioning Brunnhilde to do same. As the former Valkyrie does, she hooks both fingers together with a bright smile. "It's also called a pinky promise! You vow something important to the other person and are not allowed to break your sacred promise."

"So you give me your word on something?" The Asgardian is actually confused by this symbolic gesture and Aurora nods.

"I hereby pinky swear that I'll never hurt you." She promises with the greatest smile Valkyrie has ever seen.

"As will I." Brunnhilde swears and Aurora almost squeals in excitement since she has barely any female friends aside from Gamora and Mantis, and sometimes Nebula if she's not in the killing mood.

"I have the feeling that we'll get along well with each other, Brunnhilde!" Aurora pulls the Asgardian into a tight embrace which actually throws Valkyrie off her guard, surprised by the sudden hug. Only after a processing moment, she returns it as her heart grows warm by Aurora's sincere personality. The applause of the arena hints at the start of the fight and they pull back, looking down at the enormous hologram of the Grandmaster. Aurora turns off the music, scoffing. "Well, if this isn't conceited, then I don't know what is."