NOT ONCE HAD Olympia Amodei considered that the path she had so desperately sought would be one of gold and lightning — not once in her hunt for memories, her old life, a purpose for the future, had she expected the answers to lie within a marriage to the God of Thunder, roots in an otherworldly kingdom and family drama straight out of an Asgardian reality show. Yet the twists and turns that her life had taken, with the risk of bruises and tears, had been utterly worth it and the slow process of finding herself had been fulfilling, even if difficult. She missed her family on Earth, too, especially when FaceTiming Darcy wasn't really an option and Erik's letters had undoubtedly gotten lost somewhere in space, but even with the flaws and hardships it came with, the new page she had turned wasn't as tarnished as it could have been.
It had all been terrifying at first, but days spent meeting people from the kingdom, learning Asgardian etiquette with Frigga — she supposed Thor feeling out of place on Earth was justified now — and nights with her soulmate whether it was him guiding her to another hidden gem of a place somewhere in the realm or pushing their own boundaries within the confines of their bedroom, wasn't half-bad. It had taken some getting used to, and the idea of being queen one day still seemed almost like a joke, but she had even taken up training with Sif and the Warriors Three. As an Asgardian, she had powers to be unlocked; mighty strength, and as worthy of Mjölnir, she had her own weapon to be molded. She didn't see herself as a warrior just yet, but the thought wasn't so hard to swallow, anymore.
Cross-legged, Olympia sat on the bed she had grown to share with Thor with a book resting in the nook between her thighs — the first night in their sole chamber had been something of awkward, with Olympia missing home and trying her best to settle in, so Thor had kindly taken the couch-like seat under the tall window while the Amodei had prayed for sleep in the outrageously large bed. The next night, however, as Thor had collected his pillows onto the loveseat once more, she had called out shyly and offered him a place next to her — she was positive she'd never forget the way his face had lit up, only to be painted with concern that she had dismantled immediately. Now, she could hardly imagine sleeping without his warm, large body offering her comfort and safety in the dark of the night.
Right now, though, she was all alone in the silent room with her eyes repetitively scanning the cursive, almost messy scribbles on the yellowing pages. She had been cleaning up Loki's room, putting his memory to rest when Thor had so requested, proving unable to complete the task himself, when she had stumbled upon a hidden notebook, one that she wouldn't have pried any further in, had she not come across her mother's name on the front page. Delia Amodei, her journal being the only concrete thing left of her after her escape to Midgard, now exposed to Olympia along with the deepest, darkest corners of Delia's mind unloaded onto the fragile pages.
Olympia couldn't deny that she was the slightest bit on edge when it came to finding out who her mother had really been — whether she was someone to blame for how her life had turned out or someone to praise for giving her a second chance. Nonetheless, she had rushed back to her and Thor's room with the journal in her nervous grasp, and for the past hours, she had been reading through the same story more than she cared to admit.
It was a haunting tale, really. Olympia had been born into a happy family, to loving parents, but Delia had strayed away from the picture-perfect daydream and wound up in bed with someone else, before giving birth to her second daughter and trying to raise her without suspicions. Once she had been caught, though, she had avoided her husband and aimed to give Olympia a better life by fleeing to Midgard and never looking back — quite literally.
Olympia couldn't tell if her mother had known about Thor and the prophecy, but the last entry in the journal had been about how she knew the end was near and how she had made the complicated decision of wiping Olympia's memories to rid her of guilt and the need to finish something Delia had started. Then, Olympia supposed that she had been killed and the orphaned, amnesiac young woman had stumbled around until coming across Erik.
A part of Olympia wanted to be overcome with anger, and blame Delia for all her wrongdoings, but it wasn't like resentment would have gotten her anywhere. Remembering the dead in a positive light and letting go of the negativity felt much better — and after all, her mother had acted with her best interests at heart and things had worked out for the better, leaving her no good reason to linger in the past.
One thing that continued to torment her, nevertheless, was that she was meant to have a sister yet there were no mentions of her beyond her birth. Either she was living a whole new life out of Olympia's reach or she had been killed during those dark messy times, and the same went for her father, no longer mentioned in the tortured pages of the small, leather book.
Only when heavy footfalls she could easily identify as Thor's thudded outside the door which was swung open seconds later, she lifted her gaze from the journal while wiping her eyes, simply to find her unevenly breathing, evidently frustrated husband stomping into the room while rubbing his hands together. Effortlessly noting the emotion bubbling up to the surface, Olympia shut the book in her hands and knitted her eyebrows together, hands gesturing for Thor to join him on the bed as she frowned.
"Woah, woah. What's this all about? Is everything okay?" she questioned with sincere worry, tone laced with softness as she reached out to Thor. Spinning on his heel, he faced his wife with the intent to speak, but as soon as he spotted the fading remains of her tears on her pink cheeks, his sharp features contorted with something new as he rushed to her side.
"Are you alright, my love? What happened?" His voice quivered as he tried to remain calm, but when he knelt beside the bed and his thumbs caressed across her cheekbones, he was unable to stop the care from deepening on the creases of his forehead. Despite his gentle tone, the fierce protectiveness behind his attentive gaze was more than enough proof that he would have done just about anything to anyone to relieve Olympia of her troubles — and she knew it, earning a soft chuckle from her.
"I'm... fine, it's just the, uh—I found this in Loki's room", she stammered, not wanting to draw all the attention to herself but she supposed that the best way to get Thor to talk would be by sharing her own concerns first. But, she had an idea of what was weighing his heart down, as he automatically flinched at the name of his passed brother. "It belonged to my mom. It explains how I ended up on Earth and it's... a lot", Olympia continued with a heavy exhale, her eyes falling shut for a moment as she rested her forehead against her fingertips.
As for her free hand, though, it quickly became covered with the warmth of Thor's calloused one. "It must be difficult to read about all of that. If there is anything, anything at all, that I may assist with... I'm here for you, always. You know that, right? Whenever you are ready to talk about it...", the man drew in a deep breath, his forehead coming to rest against hers so he could give her an encouraging nudge.
Breaking into a smile, Olympia dropped her hands and closed her eyes, allowing herself this one moment of peace and quiet. "I know. Thank you", she muttered, making herself a silent promise to return to the topic by the end of the night, but sitting there with Thor's lips hardly an inch away from hers was too good to challenge with her sob story. Yet, even with such a minimal distance between them, neither of them moved, but rather, basked in the break it had become quite hard to catch as the heirs to the throne.
But when she noticed the way he was leaning into her, suggesting that he, too, wished to crawl under the covers of the bed for as long as possible, she remembered the distraught expression he had stormed into the room with, causing her to lift her own head enough to balance Thor's between her gentle hands. "Your turn", she reminded, "something's on your mind", the almost motherly voice earning a soft laugh in the back of Thor's throat as he nearly replied with a remark of how much time Olympia had seemed to be spending with Frigga.
What escaped his mouth, instead, wasn't quite so casual. "Loki is alive", he revealed with a sigh, his eyes remaining squeezed shut as Olympia tried to stare him down, only for her confidence to crumble as soon as the words entered the air. But, not one to falter by her loved ones' side, she continued to caress Thor's prickly jawline even if she couldn't hold back a scoff of shock and disbelief.
"And you let me go first?" she whispered, half-joking in hopes of getting a smile from her husband, but she didn't blame him when all he could muster was a thoughtful frown. "How are feeling about it?" Olympia added with a careful tone, wary of stepping over uncertain lines as Thor finally opened his eyes, the melancholic blue piercing her soul when she gazed right back at him with nothing but sympathy and understanding. When it came to Loki, the scales of good and bad actions were barely balanced, but he was still Thor's family — if he wished to give him another chance, Olympia was on board.
After all, she couldn't help but think that maybe she'd give her mother a second chance, too.
She wasn't wrong to assume the best of Thor, either. "I'm not oblivious to the horrors he has taken part in", he began with a deep inhale, his tall body crawling onto the mattress with Olympia while picking her hands from his face to enclose them against his large palms, "but he is still the person I grew up with. I fear I would be unable to rest if I turned my back on this." The glance he gave Olympia was almost prepared for rejection or judgment, but she couldn't possibly reprimand him for his kind nature and forgiving heart — instead, she gave him a reassuring nod and the kind of smile that, at last, sparked one on his own lips.
"I understand that. I've been reading about my family all day and if I could get them back... even after all the terrible, terrible things this book is full of...", Olympia trailed off, her stare dropping to the leather journal while her teeth gnawed on the inner side of her cheek. Before Thor could say anything typically comforting, she shrugged her shoulders and faced him again, with a less genuine smile but the squeeze she gave his hands was more than real. "I support you", she promised, and already visibly relieved, Thor directed a grateful nod at her, heart leaping in his chest as he silently wondered how he had gotten so lucky.
"Somehow, he survived the fall from the bridge and now, he's in Midgard to rule its people and be their king. It appears Son of Coul and his associates have made it their mission to capture Loki, but they can't possibly contain him and his tricks", the Odinson erupted into an explanation while trailing his fingertips from the back of Olympia's hand to her arm, a hopeful twinkle shining under his long eyelashes as he licked his lips nearly nervously. "Would you care to join me?" he proposed cautiously — as if there was any way the Amodei would decline a trip to Earth, or remaining loyal to her husband.
Pursing her lips in an immediate smile, Olympia threw both hands over Thor's broad shoulders, and before she had even managed to say anything, his face lit up with something immensely pure. "Anything for you, Mr. Thunder", she vowed with an overly dramatic tone, but quickly catching herself, she stopped herself from leaning into a kiss with a cringe. "No, wait, that sounds like a stripper's name."
One arm swooping around Olympia's waist, Thor caved in and flashed a charming smirk while dragging her a little closer, his voice tipping lower as he quirked an eyebrow. "Ah, is it a show you'd like?" he taunted, making an elaborate show of lifting the hem of his shirt while his other hand guided the woman closer to him in a fit of shared giggles. But, despite the amusement, they collided in the middle in a manner that had become second nature for them by now, both of them knowing exactly what worked for the other, where to place their fingers, how to twist their lips, when to press in a little harder.
A comfortable silence landed between them when they separated, their breaths still melting into one in the tiny space between their faces as they both fell deep into their own thoughts. There was, understandably, a lot on their minds — the topic of Olympia's family was one that she was going to need time to unpack, but the more pressing matter was the one part of Thor's that seemed to insistently come back over and over again. But, whereas the woman was going through her anxious thoughts while fiddling with the front of Thor's shirt, soon to be covered with his usual armor, he was thinking the very opposite. His eyes were glued on her twisting and turning features, his heart yearning for more of her, his hands unable to leave her and his stomach still, after all this time, full of butterflies.
"You know, Olympia, I really do love you quite a lot", he piped up eventually, full of affection as he gained Olympia's attention with the confession — even more so when they both slowly fell into the realization that those words had never before been spoken between them. It wasn't like they hadn't recognized the feelings within them, it wasn't like Thor hadn't wanted to shout it from the rooftops, it wasn't like he hadn't muttered it under his breath more than once, but the time had never seemed right. There was always a lot happening, and he had understood that with all the changes Olympia had gone through in her process of settling into Asgard, a premature love confession was the last thing she had needed.
But now, he didn't feel regret for blurting it out, and there was no need to, either — when the Amodei looked up, she was taken aback, but soon enough the surprise on her features faded into something much softer, convincing Thor that certainly, he loved her with all of his might.
"I love you too."
And, in some absolutely cliché way, that was all the encouragement they needed to make a difficult trip to Midgard and attempt locating Loki from the hands of Agent Coulson and his companions.
☾☾☾
WITH THE HELP of Heimdall — the gatekeeper of Asgard with whom Olympia had tried to click with for the longest time, only for the enigmatic Asgardian to keep it an eternal challenge — and his emergency magic of sorts, Thor and Olympia had been transported to Earth, him grasping Mjölnir while she carried the long sword that had been specifically designed for her. With Sif's assistance, she had even learned a trick or two with it, giving her much-needed confidence as the sight of a world that had been her home for most of her life stirred something uncomfortable in her stomach. But, for now, she ignored the rising tide of emotions and focused on the mission at hand.
Speeding through the air, they had spotted a sneaky jet amongst the thick clouds of the emerging storm — courtesy of Thor, naturally — and with a less than smooth landing, the couple stomped onto the top of the vehicle. Thor was sure of Loki's presence, and rather throwing a sassy retort on his ridiculously dramatic entrance than questioning his instincts with his brother, Olympia didn't argue as she climbed to both feet on top of the jet. Had she been a mere mortal, perhaps the whip of the wind and the incomprehensible speed of the jet would have affected her, but now that she owned the roll of thunder around them, she managed to keep her footing while giving Thor a look, as if to ask if he was ready.
No doubt, he was always prepared for battle, but whether or not he was ready to see Loki again was another question.
"I'll take Loki somewhere secure to talk to him", Thor's booming voice rose over the storm, and nodding in agreement, Olympia made it her mission to figure out who exactly was trying to harbor the God of Mischief. Concluding from the way the back of the jet made a slow, whirring opening, it was someone with the intention to defend — luckily, neither of the Asgardians hesitated to jump into action, with Thor leaping onto the bridge and Olympia following right behind.
Even if she had never doubted Thor, there was still a surge of surprise in her chest when she found Loki, seated, buckled and handcuffed by the wall, alive and well — or, at least alive. There was a lot to get used to when it came to being affiliated with magical beings and abilities, but she wasn't quite sure if cheating death would ever get any less confusing, astonishing and horrifying, all at the same time. Loki, on the other hand, didn't seem surprised at all to see his brother and sister-in-law, but alarmed, certainly; not that Olympia could blame him, as the chokehold Thor grabbed him with was far from kind, as was the bounce off of the jet with Mjölnir taking them deep into the forests below.
As the two disappeared into the dim night, Olympia heaved a sigh and twirled her sword in hand before turning to the other people in the jet — two men, one of them safely confined in a red-and-gold metal suit and the other wrapped in patriotism and tights. She didn't want to come off as threatening, but she was prepared to fight, should they try and chase after her husband — concluding from the puzzled looks they shared, neither really knew what to pull off as their next move.
And Olly, well, she wasn't sure whether to be relieved or insulted by their lack of action as she adjusted the body armor hugging her tightly.
"Oh, hey", she greeted with an inappropriate lightness, as if her other half hadn't just snatched their prisoner and flown out. "Nothing personal, you guys, just family stuff, you know?" she cleared her throat, eyes scanning the surroundings as she rested against her sword and sucked in a breath — as soon as the metal man made an attempt to follow after Thor, though, she snapped right back to the matter at hand, and with one delicate sweep of her hand, she brought the sharp edge of her weapon right up to his neck. "Ah, I wouldn't do that if I were you. We come in peace, blah blah blah, but he kinda belongs to us. In a... totally non-creepy way", Olympia rambled away, but once her blue eyes locked on the incredulous ones staring back at her, she came to a slow realization of who exactly she was holding back.
"Holy shit, you're Tony Stark!" she gasped, her red lips falling from their smirk as she lowered the sword, her free hand gesturing at the other man, blonde and traditionally beautiful while he rested both hands on his own hips. "And hold up, you're Steve Rogers!" Well, she could have as well kissed her cool exterior goodbye. Even if she had spent quite some time in Asgard now, she had read more than enough news when it came to Stark and the mantle of Iron Man, and no doubt, she had followed every update on Captain America's defrosting process, leaving her starstruck as she shook her head in front of the two.
Exchanging looks, the two men were evidently flattered yet they tried to remain professional, Tony taking the lead as he lifted a diplomatic hand in the air. "Look, princess, we really don't have time for this, because Goldilocks grabbed the guy threatening our very existence, so, you know, gotta go", he explained, biting edge in his words as he gestured for Olympia to move aside — as much as she admired him, though, she couldn't have that, so she fired back by flipping her sword around and shoving it against his armored chest, causing him to stumble back with a shocked look.
"I'm not a princess!" Olympia scoffed out, displeasure twisting her face as she pointed the tip of her sword at Tony and shrugged. "Well, technically I am, but not in that condescending tone, I'm not. And Goldilocks? Listen, I appreciate a good nickname, but that's my husband and the guy you took is his brother. Well, half-brother, but you know. I think if anyone is suited to handle this situation, it's him, so we're just gonna get him off of your backs and return him to Asgard. Sound good?" she huffed, rolling out her shoulders while eyeing Tony and Steve, both of which came up with some kind of silent plan by simply looking at one another and nodding.
"Ma'am, we can't let that happen", Steve finally spoke up, chivalrous as ever, and in any other moment, Olympia would have probably swooned, but right now, she could only groan and smack her sword against the floor for another blade to push through the handle — one for each, should the situation get completely out of hand. It seemed that for the first time in forever, she was going to stay in Midgard for a little bit longer and that she desperately needed to educate these poor fools on who she and Thor actually were.
Poor fools, who would end up being two of her closest friends, but right now, they were on opposite sides so she flashed a brave smile and aimed her sword at the men, ready to fight.
"Well? You guys need a minute or can I kick your asses now?"
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thank you for reading, it continuously amazes me how well-loved this book is and i'm so grateful ❤️ i had plans for a second part but that's kinda on hold so, for now, this is the end :) rewriting was a lot of fun though and i hope you guys liked it as much as i did!!
+ olympia is also featured in my loki fic, "castle", so check that out if you wish to x