Thor waved and continued on.
"I think we scared him," said Elle.
"More likely, we woke him from his nap."
Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr clopped down the street, and as they neared the shop, they shrank to the size of bison, then to the size of horses, and finally to their more manageable sizes. They stopped outside the shop's back door.
"It's been a long time since we've been out for a race across the stars, hasn't it, boys?" Thor scratched their backs, and the goats bleated and pawed at the ground.
Thor helped Elle from the chariot and hoisted the heavy chest full of her belongings off as well. He carried the chest to the door and returned to unharness the goats.
"I quite enjoyed the ride," said Elle. "Perhaps we can make it a regular thing."
Thor stared at her. "You jest?"
She shook her head. "No. It was quite thrilling. And if Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr like it, why not? Mortals take their dogs for a walk; why can't we take the goats for a run?"
Thor’s heart swelled. He couldn't love her more. He'd never taken a woman on his chariot before, but with Elle, like everything else with her, it felt right.
"If you think that is thrilling, wait until you experience the rush of the wind on your face as we ride down the coast on my bike."
Elle nodded. "Sorry, but I'm sure nothing will compare to being pulled across the nine realms by two enormous thundering goats."
She was probably right.
Thor opened the door and hefted her out of the way. The goats butted in and ran straight for their water trough.
"Manners!" Thor called before taking Elle's hand. "You'd think they were raised by animals or something."
Elle laughed. "Teaching them some manners will be quite an adventure for the future."
The future. He hardly believed he was talking about it with someone.
Thor led her out to the shop floor and picked her up, carrying her up the winding metal staircase to his apartment above. He pushed the door inward, and Elle stared, wide-eyed as she took in his place.
"What the..."
Thor chuckled and walked through the entrance to the living room and set her on the plush white rug.
"Where did you find all this?"
Thor looked around the cream-and-green interior of his apartment. He'd spent close to a hundred years procuring the items for every inch of his place. Sculptures from Norway. Tables and artifacts from the Netherlands. An authentic four-poster cherry wood sleigh bed, complete with posters carved as dragons, from Sweden. Every single item in his apartment had been purchased from a private collector or a museum. As far as Thor was concerned, he'd made his apartment as close to Asgard as possible. He walked to the massive hutch on one wall and began taking off his armor, placing it back where it had sat before that day, untouched for centuries.
He unstrapped his breastplate and slung it over his head. "Mainly Europe. Though not from Asgard, it's all Norse, and I was able to rebuild or repair everything in poor condition. Everything except the kitchen, of course, that's state of the art."
Elle walked into the kitchen and ran her fingers over the granite countertop. "You do remember that I can't cook, right?"
He unstrapped his shin guards. "It still looks nice. And if you ever want to learn, you'll have the best money can buy."
She raised her eyebrows and smirked like there was a joke he wasn't in on.
She stepped into the dining room, and Thor removed his boots and followed her in.
She stared at the table shaped like a Viking long boat. The sixty-foot boat had taken a lot of finessing to fit into his apartment, but it had been worth it.
"It's called an Oseberg ship," said Thor. "It was discovered in a burial mound in Norway. I had to resurface the wood. I think I did a decent job."
Elle stared at the glass-covered boat. "This is... amazing," she said. "How many people does it fit?"
