Page 31 of Thor

“You did. But if it had been anything like this I would have been in the same spot, starving.”

“All right. All right.” Thor motioned the waitress over. “Please bring the lady a salad and some chicken teriyaki.”

“Is the chicken raw?”

“No,” said Thor. “It’s cooked.”

Elle smiled. “That I will eat.”

* * *

“Tell me about yourself,”Elle said, putting a piece of chicken in her mouth.

“I thought you knew everything about me already.” He laughed.

“Clearly I don’t. The books all depicted you with flowing blond hair and piercing blue eyes.”

“I’m pretty sure I inspired the whole Fabio fad in the 80s and 90s.”

“What?”

“Never mind.”

“Anyway, I read what books say. I heard what people say. But I don’t know what you say.”

Thor looked at her for a moment. “Well, I come from a massive, dysfunctional, semi-intermarried family. I have five brothers and a sister, not including the ones my parents don’t talk about. I grew up on Asgard. I was taught to fight. I fought. I fought more. Then it ended.”

She studied him as he meticulously piled ginger and wasabi on his pieces of fish before dipping them in soy sauce and popping them into his mouth. She saw his pain. His loneliness. She wondered for a moment what he had been like before Ragnarök. She assumed he would have been louder, more boisterous. Regaling people with his tales of war and wooing women to his bed.

“What are you thinking?”

She sipped her soda. “I was wondering why you choose to stay in the underworld when you could live up here.”

“Up here is chaos. Down there is not. Humans are unpredictable, violent, and in some ways primitive. Down there, the world is organized. It has a hierarchy and no matter what happens, hierarchy doesn’t change. If you step out of line, you are punished. If you obey the laws, no one bothers you.”

“I would have thought you’d prefer to be on Midgard, helping, trying to make order of the chaos.”

“There is no making order of this place. Many have tried and failed. Until they unite and see themselves as equal and one people, there will never be peace. So, there’s nothing I can do for them.”

“Interesting.”

“Do you think I’m wrong?”

“I am in no position to tell anyone what they should do with their life.”

“Well, you’ve been on Midgard for a bit, have you thought about what you want to do with your life? I’m sure you don’t want to waitress at the Raven Weaver for the rest of your existence.”

“Lady Frigg has been immensely kind to me, but no, I do not wish to waitress forever.”

“Have you found anything else you might want to do?”

Elle stabbed at her salad. She’d spent a lot of time thinking about what to do with the rest of her life. “I’m not sure. I love to read and I’ve always loved music but I haven’t researched what I could do with either of those. I’ve seen the people doing karaoke at the Raven Weaver and not only do I not understand why they do it, but I don’t think I’d ever sing in front of people.”

“You can sing?”

Elle shrugged. “Yes. I’ve never sung in front of other people though.”

“Would you sing for me?”

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