selene // thor odinson

X

new york

I swiped my finger across the long gash on my cheek, smoothing away the dripping blood and wiping it onto my pteruges. I was utterly covered, not a single spot of my skin was clean, debris and dirt made its way into every crevice that it could find. Even my armour was splattered with blood. Hephaestus was going to have fun tinkering with this. I was never a person who was overly concerned about my hair but right now, I wanted nothing more than to chop it all off in frustration of its tangles.

"I have never yearned more for my bed up in Olympus," I muttered as the six of us set off for Stark Tower where Loki was currently at, most probably knocked out.

"Hey, could I, like, come visit?" Stark asked, craning his neck back to visit me. "By any chance, I don't know."

"No," I said, quickly then grimaced. "Sorry, that sounded harsh. They just don't let mortals in, not even my father is allowed."

"Well, I don't think that's very fair. You literally just ostracising a whole species. I mean think of all the things we could do to help your civilisation, all the technology we could bring," he shrugged. "Even give you some proper pants."

"Do you really think they need our help?" mused Cap, snorting at Stark.

"If anything, you mortals will squeeze the resources out of them if they let you in," added Thor. "The realm will become barren of Adamantine."

"Exactly," I hummed, bending over to pick up one of my arrows to hand to Barton who was complaining moments ago about his empty quiver.

As I did, my eyes locked with a New Yorker who was hiding behind a fallen sign. The ruins of the city was absolutely tragic. It shattered my heart to see millions of people's homes being torn into a state of pity. As much as what we achieved was entirely for the protection of human kind, we also played a significant role in the destruction of it. The question was most definitely raised, was this initiative worth it? Was there not an easier, simpler, more efficient way to handle this? The seeming innocent death toll sure does suggest it.

I sent a soft smile to the women's face, urging her that she was now safe. That led to her peaking back out from salvation. Many others, that I didn't even notice, were doing the same thing. Hundreds of New Yorkers appeared and stared at us among the streets. Raises of claps rang out around us, cheers and whoops yelled over it all. I smiled at them, nodding my head at them in gratefulness yet I still couldn't help but question whether we deserved it. 

We stepped into the tower, shards of glass completely littered the floor and in the centre of it, crawled Loki in a futile attempt to push himself up. Moving towards him, he noticed our arrival. My face was set as hard as stone, I almost seemed like Artemis herself, as he slowly turned around, nervous, his expressions pained in shock.

Barton knocked my arrow into his bow and aimed it at Loki's face, preventing him from moving.

"If it's all the same to you," Loki started, a manipulative smile etching onto his face. "I'll have that drink now."

Yet, none of us moved an inch. The sheer nerve of this guy was truly outstanding, I had to stop myself from scoffing harshly.

"Alright, get him on his feet. We can all stand around posing up a storm later," Stark ordered, setting off away from Loki. "By the way, feel free to clean up."

I looked down at Loki, cocking my eyebrows at him.

"Come on, Selene. We're friends aren't we?" Loki tried, still sprawled out on the ground.

"Yes, maybe if I were conniving idiot like you. Let's go," I said, rolling my eyes as Thor pulled him up to secure him.

"Who gets the, uh, magic wand?" Romanoff asked, waving the scpetre in her hands.

"STRIKE team's coming to secure it," Cap answered, staring down at Loki.

A few moments later they arrived as I sat on the cold ground of the tower, wiping down my sword with a cloth I found behind the bar. I watched, swiping the dirty patches therapeutically as the team swarmed onto the floor and took a hold of the scpetre, waiting for the entire operation to be over so I could simply go home, my part had already been well played out.

"On my way down to coordinate search and rescue," Cap said, taking into his earpiece.

"On my way down to coordinate search and rescue," he repeated, causing me to look up from my sword to see Loki shifted into Rogers and I rolled my eyes at him. "I mean, honestly, how do you keep your food dow-"

"Shut up," Thor hissed, slapping a mouth guard onto him as Hulk roared in annoyance.

"Thank you," I muttered under my breath, lifting myself and swishing my sword back into its hilt to follow the rest of the team into the elevator.

I grimanced and smiled apologetically as the result of the team protested profusely at the Hulk who attempted to get into the elevator.

"So now that we're all done, can we get back onto the topic of shawarma?"