"I thought you'd be here," said a voice.
Thor looked up into a pair of bright golden eyes. "Of course you did. You see everything."
Heimdall chuckled and sat next to Thor. "True. At least I still do when it comes to you."
Thor stared out at a crumbling piece of mural for a moment before it collided with another piece and exploded into dust. "Did you see her? Elle?"
Heimdall shrugged.
"And did you see that she was my 'one'?"
Heimdall stared at him for a moment. "Is she your 'one'?"
Thor blew out a harsh breath. The answer jumped into his mind without a second of hesitation. His chest squeezed. In all the fates, why? Why her? Why was she the one?
"I will take that as a yes," Heimdall said.
Thor groaned.
"This news makes you unhappy? Interesting. I didn't think it possible for you to be more miserable than you already were. To be honest, most men find it a happy occasion to find the one they were meant to be with. Especially immortals who have waited thousands of years."
"It was, until I found out she was Surtr's daughter."
Heimdall shrugged. "So what? She isn't Surtr."
"But-"
"But what? Does it change who she is? Why you fell for her? How you feel about her?"
"I... don't know," Thor admitted.
Heimdall stayed silent for a long while, both of them staring off at the swirling void before them where their home world used to be.
"I can tell you this, Odinson,” Heimdall finally said. “For as much as you have suffered over Ragnarök, that girl has suffered a thousand times over at the hands of her father."
Thor remembered the few things she’d told him. And then remembered the way she’d frozen when the human had grabbed her. How she’d flinched at every turn, afraid of being hit. The thought made Thor's gut clench and sent a spike of rage coursing through him. Lightning cracked across the sky.
"Have you stopped to think why she ran from her home?"
"She told me of some of her abuse."
"And I can attest to as much as she told you, there are a thousand things she didn’t. When the girl started a month ago, she was more scared than a rabbit in a snare. She jumped at the slightest sound. There wasn’t one time that the door didn't open that she didn't duck behind the bar and hide. If someone moved too fast, she cowered. She's been getting better day by day, yet I've still seen her fear. But these last few days with you, she changed. She isn't as scared anymore. She holds herself differently, and her smile meets her eyes. You did that for her, as she's done for you. Are you going to let that go because of this?" He gestured around. "When are you going to stop letting something you couldn't control then and can’t change now ruin your life?"
"It's my fault-"
"No. It's not, Thor. Why can't you understand? Why do you torture yourself? No one else does. No one blames you. And if you are being honest with yourself, aren't you at least a small amount relieved? Ragnarök set you free. It set us all free. Stop being a gigantic baby and move on."
Thor snorted. "You think I'm being a baby?"
"About this, yes. Odin loves you most. He expects the most from you, but even he knew Ragnarök was inevitable. And if you think about it. Really, truly, look deep, past the pain, past the guilt, isn't there a part of you that is glad it happened? Glad you got to move on. Glad you no longer have to be Thor, the savior of Asgard and humanity alike. You can just be Thor, motorcycle mechanic, and lover of Elle."
Thor hated it, but when he searched deep, Heimdall was right. If it hadn't been for Ragnarök, he would still be fighting. Working to earn the love of people he didn't know. Constantly at his father's beck and call. Never who he wanted to be.
"I'll leave you with your thoughts," said Heimdall. "But if you want one last piece of advice, I'll give it to you."
"Does it matter whether I want it or not?"
Heimdall snorted. "No."
