"Thor, it's... It's Elle. Remember?"
He said her name uncertainly and blinked several times before relaxing. "Elle. I'm... I'm so sorry."
"Are you okay?" She took a tentative step toward him but stopped.
He stood for a minute gathering himself, blew out a long breath, and sat on the edge of the bed. She waited before sitting next to him.
He hung his head in his hands. She wanted to reach out to him but wasn't sure he wanted her to.
Finally, he looked at her. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"No. Are you okay, though?"
He hung his head again. "It's been thousands of years, and still I suffer from nightmares."
"Of what?"
"Everything. The wars. The executions. The fighting. Just... all of it."
"But you're a hero."
He snorted. "Like they said, I ate my goats all the time?"
"You don't see yourself as a hero?"
"I did what I had to do to save my people and my family. But in the end... it was all destroyed anyway."
Elle's stomach squeezed. "Ragnarök."
Thor nodded. "No matter what I did. No matter how many realms I took. No matter how many battles I won, in the end, we lost everything anyway."
"But that was so long ago. Now you've made a new home for yourself and your family."
"But the remaining Asgardians were displaced. Many died. Some ended up here. Others in other realms. But it's not the same."
"Your people are in Valhalla. Paradise. Being cared for by virgins, fed meat and ale until they are content every day."
"In theory, that sounds wonderful, but after a thousand years or more, you start to go stir crazy. At least I did. The peace felt... fake. Forced. In the end, my family and I couldn't handle it."
"So that's why you all went to Helheim."
He nodded. "It was my father's idea, and to be honest, I've never seen him happier. I've never seen anyone in my family happier. Even in Valhalla, we were forced to mitigate any problems. But here. Here we are only responsible for ourselves. It's the first time I've been free to be myself in my entire life."
"That's a good thing then, right?" She smiled at him. "Maybe Ragnarök was a blessing."
He stared at her for a moment. "Why did you come to Midgard?"
Elle chewed the inside of her lip. "My... father wanted me to marry a man not of my choosing."
"Why didn't you say no?"
She chuckled, humorlessly. "Where I come from, women don't say no."
"So, you ran?"
She nodded.
"Do you miss it?"
