Warrior's Heart |Thor|

13. Words of Change

"Are you qualified to do this?"

"Well, no..."

"Then perhaps we should leave it be."

Esme sighed, pair of scissors at her side. "If we let this go much longer, your hair is going to be impossible to manage. Not that you would care about that, men usually don't seem to."

Thor cast her a rather offended glare. "Who says that I don't care about my hair? I do, thank you very much. In fact, I used to like how long it was...until an old man with lots of scissors chopped it against my will on Saakar."

"And then you grew to like your new look, as did I." Saakar was new to Esme's ears, Thor hadn't gotten into much detail about his time on the planet when Hela had taken command of Asgard. "I can't do the little lines on your head like I remember you having, but I can at least chop it. The beard might have to be trimmed too."

"What else do you want to change about me?"

Esme looked away, abashed. "I don't want to change anything about you."

Thor nodded to the scissors she wielded. "And yet we're having this discussion about my looks."

"You decided to want the hair chopped! I had no influence on that decision."

"You know, I gave some thought about what you'd said a while back, about...about things being too repetitive."

"Oh?"

"While I'm sure we both do enjoy the spoils of being here, it is small. There's not much to do. And while we have made new friends..."

"Are you saying you want to move? To where? Back to New Asgard?"

"Well, no, not exactly. Truth be told, I'm not quite sure where we could go."

Esme pursed her lips. "Are we having this conversation so you can keep your looks?"

Thor didn't answer.

"Well...maybe we don't have to pack everything up and leave right away. What if we travel, explore new places? Preferably by vehicle and not your means of flight transportation." Flight was not an ability of Esme's, and when Thor had shown her his, it almost made her vomit even though they had made a gentle landing.

"Where would you want to go?"

"Well..." Esme looked down at her feet. "What if, if you were up for it, what if you introduced me—or I suppose reintroduce me—to some of the Avengers?"

Thor became uncomfortable at the notion. "Two of them you won't be able to meet again. We haven't seen each other since Stark's funeral, let alone spoke to one another."

"Maybe it doesn't have to be that way. You have been through a lot with them, I find it hard to believe your friendship appears only when you come together to kick evil ass. Besides, I only got to meet the core group just the once when we were looking for Loki. In a way, they're family to you. I'd like to get to know them a little more."

"If you had really wanted that, you would've come to my aid when Ultron was around."

"Earth was not my domain, Thor. Asgard was. I had more duty to uphold at home than here. So...what do you say? Fancy a reunion?"

Thor shrugged. "I suppose it couldn't hurt."

"Do you have any means of contacting them? I'd rather not show up unannounced and give them the wrong impression, even if they've only met me once."

"There's someone I can get a hold of that can reach them."

Esme gave a tiny smile. "So...about your hair and your beard..."

"And we're back to this again. What if I like this look?"

"Dear, if you truly liked this look, you wouldn't have considered changing it to begin with. Now you're just being stubborn."