I tucked away the last of my clothing in the dresser and closet respectively and began to remove the extra rounds from the dufflel bag and opened the nightstand, intending to place them inside the top drawer when the sight of Yuki's face stopped me cold and drained the energy from my body.

            I closed my eyes for a moment and struggled to take a breath as it suddenly felt like my ribs were being crushed by steel bands. I began to put the rounds away, deliberately avoiding the smiling picture of Yuki and I-the last thing I needed to do was start crying. Crying would do nothing and bring me no closer to the frost giant. But training so I could get past the first trial? That would get me a lot closer.

So I stripped out of clothing I was wearing and switched into sports bra along with a pair of sports leggings. My typical workout gear. I gathered up my hair then and reached for a hair tie around my wrist that wasn't there. I cursed myself for forgetting something so simple back on Earth and let my hair fall. I felt the strands swish across the middle of my back and I dimly realized I'd probably need a haircut while I was here.

            I didn't spare the matter much more thought however and strode towards the door, sense of purpose rippling through me. I had no idea just where all of these facilities were but I figured it wouldn't take me too long to either find one, or find someone to point me in the right direction.

            I opened the door that thought leaving me even surer in my task but that assurance faltered as I prepared to step out into the hallway and was stopped short. Thor was outside my doorway.

            "Miss Hamada," he greeted polity, crossing his muscular arms which were now visible as he'd changed from his suit into a grey t-shirt and jeans.

            "Call me Suzume," I said, leaning against the door frame and blowing my errant hair from my eyes. This was why I carried a hair tie and once again, I cursed myself for forgetting them on Earth. "Can I help you? Did you need more information about what happened on Earth?"

            "No," he said quickly, eyes darkening to storm grey as I brought up the Trickster. The change took me aback a little and I blinked several times, trying to see if it was a trick of the light or a result of his wardrobe change.

            "Um," I muttered, heart fluttering when the color didn't shift back. "Your eyes...?"

            "Oh sorry," Thor blinked several times and forced a grin. "That happens sometimes when I get...well when I'm feeling a rather unpleasant emotion."

            "Sounds annoying," I remarked. "Never being able to hide what you're feeling."

            "It is annoying," Thor agreed with a shrug. "But it does keep me honest."

            "So if you're not here for information," I said, still a bit shaken up at the change in his eyes. "What's going on?"

            Thor smiled at me and I noticed it wasn't nearly as self-assured as it had been earlier in the rec room this morning. "Well," he shifted his feet a little and I saw his still dark grey eyes flicker towards the carpet. "I did state earlier this morning that I would be taking time now to spend time with you and the rest of the candidates now that you're all here."

            "And today's my day?" I guessed as I recalled his plan. One day with each of us, each week with a little swapping to accommodate the size of the group.

"I know it might seem a bit sudden," he said, lips twitching into an awkward smile. "But I don't think I made the greatest impression last night and I wanted a chance to fix that."

I felt a slight blush rise in my face and I smiled at him. "It's okay, I didn't really show myself in the greatest light either. I was really impatient with you and I'm sorry."

"You deserved to have answers after what you went through." His eyes flashed to dark grey again. "If you have any questions about the Jotun, all you have to do is ask."

I nodded, that was something I would definitely be taking him up on. "Thank you."

"If I caught you at a bad time, we can just do this later," he offered, gesturing to my attire. "If you'd rather rest, I understand."

"I wasn't going to sleep. I was going to go and lift some weights but if you have something planned I can do it later."

"Um no," he said, biting his lower lip. The gesture was strange, a bit boyish though he was clearly a grown man. "I didn't make any plans. I wasn't sure what you enjoyed and I didn't want to set anything up without consulting you first."

"Thanks," I said, unsure of what to make of the gesture. It was either very thoughtful or he was covering up for laziness and I had no idea which it was. "Well, if it's alright with you, I'd really like to get a work out in. Want to come with?"

"You enjoy exercising?"

"Yes and no," I said, rubbing the back of my neck, unsure if my explanation made sense. "It's not the most fun thing I admit, but I like the benefits. They're useful."

"Yes, I suppose they are." Thor said and the continued formality of our exchange made me feel even more awkward. "Though I think my clothes are a little too restricting for such an activity. Give me a moment?"

His image blurred, like a heat mirage and he was gone. I blinked, felting a jolt leap through my muscles as my mind registered that someone had just completely disappeared right in front of me.

            I'm not in Kansas anymore, I reminded myself. I'm on Asgard. I leaned back against the wall, wishing I knew as much about Asgard as I did about Oz. Oz had Munchkins, three witches and flying monkeys. Here, all I knew was that they had Loki, a man who could invade my dreams and leave relics in the real world, giants who would conjure and throw ice like daggers and Sif, who could generate golden shields from nothing.

"Ready to go?"

I screeched, jumping up into the air and banging my head against the wall. "Ow!" I held a hand against the back of my head, which was throbbing hotly under my palm.

            "I'm sorry!" Thor's hands were on my arms, his skin rough and calloused. "I didn't mean to startle you! How's your vision? Are you seeing stars or black spots? Do you need to sit down?"

            "I don't have a concussion but damn," I cursed, moaning as I moved my hand, checking for blood. "Put a bell around your neck or something-you're going to give someone a heart attack!" I drew in a few more sharp breaths, focusing on bringing my heart rate back into a normal range. "You can let go of me you know, I'm not gonna fall."

            "Sorry," Thor let go of me and I straightened up. My initial shock at his sudden reappearance was fading out and I figured the throbbing would leave with a bit of time as well. Nothing serious overall and I smiled, trying to reassure Thor who was still watching me with wide eyes.

            "I'm fine," I said again. "You spoked me more than anything. People don't just appear and reappear like that on Earth."

            "Sif mentioned that," Thor remarked, sliding his hands into the pockets of his white athletic shorts. He'd changed into more work-out appropriate clothing. Good. "She said you Midgardians did have some ingenious inventions to make up for your lack of teleportation abilities."

            "She did?"

            "Yeah. Said something about a subway."

            "That is a brilliant invention," I agreed. "I took it through most of college. So much better than the bus." I hated the bus, all the old creeps on it ogling me as climbed on had been horrible. The subway had them too, but at least the train ride was faster than the bus. "Which way to the gym?"

            Thor held out his hand. "I can get us there in-."

            "I am not teleporting!" I exclaimed, drawing away from him like his hand had turned into a viper. "Sorry," I dialed back, realizing I sounded slightly hysterical. "I've just gotten sick that last few times I've done it and I really don't want to puke all over your shoes."

            "It's that bad for you?"

            I nodded. "I haven't tossed my cookies, but it's only because I didn't have anything in my system at the time." Planning Yuki's funeral had taken away my appetite so my subsequent interstellar traveling had been on a relatively empty stomach.

            Thor nodded. "Then we'll walk, this way." He titled his head to the left and I followed. His legs were a great deal longer than mine and so I had to hustle a bit to keep up.  I noted the same color palette with tan walls and grey carpet continued through the wing of this place as well. Guess the designer wanted to keep things simple.

            We walked in silence for a few minutes which was then broken by Thor as we stepped into an elevator. It was pretty standard, but I saw a bunch of stick drawings all around the doors themselves. They didn't look like any sort of image I was familiar with, maybe it was just meant to be a texturing detail.

            However, as the silver doors dinged open, I realized that assumption was wrong. When I turned to push a button, I found I was not going to be able to do that. Each of the glowing circles were marked, not by numbers or words, but by the same stick-like figures I'd seen around the doors.

            I traced one of them, a vertical line with two points, the one on the top slanted downwards to the right, the other on the bottom moved left and upwards. It was certainly nothing like I'd ever seen before and reminded me more of scribbles that a toddler might create. However, given their placement around here, I knew that it wasn't the case.

            "Hit that one," Thor told me and I looked at the strange shape I was still tracing.

            "This one?" I asked, making sure I had the correct one.

            "Yep, the eibwaz."

            I snorted at the funny word and pushed the button and the symbol lit up. "What are these things? Is that your language? Well your first one anyways." I corrected myself.

            "It was, a long time ago," he said. "I never learned to speak it fluently, it's dead now."

            "Then this building is really old," I remarked. "If they're using a dead language to mark their elevator floors I mean."

            "It's not that old," he said as he surveyed the shiny space. "It was built for the trails. And it doesn't look dated does it? Aren't elevators like this on Midgard?"

            "They are," I said even as the door dinged. Damn. This thing was fast. "But they aren't this fast." We stepped out of the elevator and onto a floor, but it was not like the rest of the hotel. It was a simple cement floor, the metal rafters gleaming above us, more of the strange symbols carved into the ceiling. "Why would new construction use something so outdated though?" I asked hearing my footsteps echo on the hard floor.

            "Do you want the simple answer or the complicated one?"

            "Simple please." I assumed it would be simple anyways, a visual detail or a nod to old heritage. My money was on the heritage bit and I wasn't eager to get an in-depth look at that. History had never really been a favorite subject of mine.

            "Magic." I blinked. I knew magic was real now, but even so, hearing it through about so casually was off putting. "Have I upset you?" Thor asked, frowning and I shook my head.

"No, it's not that. It's just that on Earth, magic is something that is real only in movies. Wand-waving, hocus pocus and all that-it's kind of hard for me to remember that it's real now."

"Well, I then allow me to educate you, are no wands and I don't believe I've ever heard the word 'hocus pocus' until now."He smiled. "It's quite an amusing expression, I think I'll use it sometimes."

"It's also a really good Halloween movie."

"What's Halloween?"

"It's just a holiday we have on Earth," I said, not wanting to get into that just now. The topic of magic was far more interesting . "So, since humans apparently have the wrong ideas about magic, what are the basics exactly?"

"Every Asgardian has an innate magic in them for one thing," he explained, rubbing his chin. I could hear the scratching of his stubble echoing in the hall. "It's why we're all so strong and why we can all teleport like you've seen, but that's where it stops."

            "Sif mentioned something about an Affinity," I interjected. "Is that where it changes?" I didn't recall much about the conversation. Only that Loki had one, which is what allowed him to shapeshift; he'd said as much in the notes he'd left me after invading my dream.

            "Yes," he smiled at me, wider than before, showing his gleaming white teeth. The grin was a bit boyish, a sort of delight in it that didn't match his rather roguish exterior, but I found it suited him. Added a softness to him that I hadn't expected.

            "She explained it a little," I found myself saying. "Said some forms of magic would be stronger in others and that it tended to occur in the royal family or soldiers."

            "She was right, but it's a little more complex than that." Thor stopped before a plan stretch of wall. The grey cement blocks looked incredibly unassuming to me and I would have just walked passed them had I been down here alone.

            Thor snapped his fingers once and I leapt back, seeing sparks of blue electricity fly between his fingertips. The outline of a door glowed on the once blank wall and I squinted against the bright light.

            "Put your hand on the door," Thor told me and I did, but not until I'd hesitated for a moment. This didn't go unnoticed either.

            "Are you afraid?" he asked.

            "Yes," I said as I put my hand against the door. The outline burned cobalt blue and then solidified into a real door. A brass handle formed underneath my hand and I turned it and stepped inside, feeling a buzzing energy run through me, a potent mix of excitement and anticipation. I wasn't sure if the anticipation was a good thing yet. I had answered Thor truthfully when he asked me if I was afraid of the magic I was seeing.

            I was afraid of it. It was alien. It was unstoppable. Something I could never hope to defend myself against no matter what tools or skills I had at my disposal. I'd seen that first hand when I encountered Loki. Of course I was afraid.

            But it wasn't going to stop me.

I stepped into the room, which I realized might not have been there before Thor did that little bit of magic and gasped. Inside was a gym, just as Thor had promised me, but it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. The wrestling mats were nestled in one corner of the room, dummies made of straw and plastic lined in front- a clear set up for sparring. On the far, broad wall, wooden staffs, crossbows, swords, metal and wood, shields and armor lined the walls-weapons training.

            Against the south wall, I saw several sets of weights, which looked very homey and familiar to me. The sight of bench presses, dumbbells, weight plates, barbells and leg presses were a relief to me. Something normal in a world that now had magic.

            "Does this meet your approval Suzume?" Thor asked me, and I merely gestured at him to be quiet. I was still taking it all in. "I'm going to take that as a yes," I heard him mutter. There was a shuffling of feet beside me and then he spoke again. "So where do you want to start?"

***

            Two hours later, sweat was pouring off me in buckets, and my limbs felt a bit rubbery as I moped my face off with a towel, and yet I felt better now than I had in days. The familiarity of a workout, the strain as I tried to push my limits, do more than I had done in earlier sessions-it was something that felt familiar to me. Something that I had control over, something I could tangibly see results with and after what happened with Loki something tangible was a needed thing indeed.

            "You do this every day?" Thor asked me as he sat down beside me on the bench. I knew this workout session had been far less taxing for him than it had been for me, as seen by his even breathing and lack of sweat. 

            "Not this per se," I admitted, guzzling down some water and pushing my sweaty hair from my face. Besides being stocked with training gear, this place also had a healthy supply of water for which I was very grateful. Gasping, I continued. "I sometimes run, or I do something a bit less...intense like yoga."

            Thor snorted. "What's yoga?" he snickered and I realized the word must have sounded as funny to him as Jotun and Bifrost did to me.

            "Stretching more or less." I didn't want to go into details about yoga. They were a pretty boring thing. The only reason I bothered with it was because I needed to keep my flexibility up to par. Being able to bend and move around freely had proven to be incredibly useful to me in my daily life and career.

            "You enjoy that as well?" Thor asked.

            I shook my head. "Nope, I hate that with a passion."

            "Then why do it? Clearly you have a very healthy lifestyle already, so why the additional work? You don't need it."

            "Flexibility is a pain in the ass to work on," I agreed. "I hate stretching, but it is really useful to have. Makes things easier."

            "What things?"

            "Well when I get old and wrinkly I'll still be able to tie my shoes for one thing." I laughed at my joke, but Thor did not which surprised me. That one usually went over pretty well.  He didn't look the least bit amused. On the contrary, he looked confused.

            "What does being old have to do with tying shoes?" he asked.

            I looked at Thor a moment. Sif had told me back on Earth that they had always been close, which told me they probably grew up together. She had also told me that their divorce had been ten years ago. Looking at Thor, he easily appeared to be anywhere from his mid-twenties to his early thirties. However, I knew the stories about Thor and Asgard had been around far longer than that.

            "I guess you don't age the way humans do." I remarked, finally trying to answer his question. "We're not immortal like you guys are, so our peak condition doesn't stay forever. Our bodies wear out with age."

            "We're not technically immortal," Thor told me, and I blinked and my surprise did not go unnoticed. "We do age for a while," he explained, "but it does stop eventually."

            "When?"

            "Different for everyone," Thor said. "But the average is about," he paused, tiling his head as he recalled the figure, "twenty-five. After that point we stop showing signs of aging, but death is still possible. Sickness, injury and the like can still do us in same as a Midgardian."

            "That still sounds like immorality to me," I admitted. "Humans don't do that."

            "We can still age after we hit twenty five."

            "Yeah I figured that, you said it's only an average."

            "No, I mean we can stop aging and start again."

            I dropped my water bottle. "So you guys can control whether or not you age?"

            Thor shook his head. "No, it's not like that either." He grabbed my water bottle from the ground. "You mind?" he asked and I shook my head. He took a swig of it and handed it back to me. Wiping his mouth off on his arm, he continued. "You already know all Asgardians have magic inborn as part of them, but because it's part of us, it can still be damaged."

            "So magic is like an organ? Like a heart or lung?" I asked, trying to work out what he was saying.

            "No," he corrected me. "Not quite. Organs are physical, concrete lumps of cells. You could cut open my chest and point to the exact place where my heart and lungs are. Magic isn't like that. Magic is...in our cells. I guess that's the best way to explain it. It's in all aspects of who we are."

            "So is there a disease then? Some illness that affects magic in the body?" My mind flashed back, dimly to my biology class in high school. We'd talked about some illness that affected normal functions of the body like HIV. Perhaps Asgard had their own version, bur rather than affect the immune system, maybe it just affected magic.

            "It can happen, but it's not just that."

            "What else then, if not illness?"

             "What I mean is, while there has been a few documented cases of an illness sapping magic or making it weaker, the most common cause is from our minds. Loss, emotional shock-that saps magic more commonly than illness."

            The pieces connected for me then. "So if you experienced a sudden loss of a loved one..."

            "You could easily start aging again because your magic is no longer working as it should." Thor finished. "You understand now?"

            "Yes," I muttered, taking a drink of water again. "And I imagine that aging again isn't the only problem you'd face if your magic stopped functioning properly?"

            "It's not." Thor leaned back, putting his hands behind him and letting his arms take on the weight of his torso. He looked around the room for a moment and then back at me.

            "We've talked an awful lot about Asgard," he said finally. "My home, but not so much about yours. So, what's Midgard like? Where are you from?"

            I blew some hair from my face and for the hundredth time I wished I had an elastic. "Well for starters we call it Earth and I'm from Boston- a city in the United States. I hope you know where that is already," I said, smiling a bit. "Because I barely paid attention when I was forced to study world geography."

            Thor snickered at my lame joke. "I know enough; what's it like there?"

            I paused, biting my lip as I tried to think of something to say that could sum up my city. "Well, Boston is one of the oldest cities in the country and that's left it with a lot of history. It even was the place where some major historical events took place, like the Boston Tea Party."

            "Boston Tea Party?" Thor repeated, snickering a little. "Why do I get the feeling that it was not a cheerful as it sounds?"

            "Because it wasn't," I said, smiling. "They were protesting high taxes and so they sneaked onto boats in the harbor and dumped all of the tea overboard."

            This time he didn't just giggle softly. Thor threw back his head and laughed loudly. The booming sound echoing all around us. "Sounds like people from Boston have a great deal of spirit," he wheezed, gaining control of himself after a few moments.

            "Yeah," I agreed. "We do. It's probably why I love the city so much. I mean, it has its flaws, same as any other place and the people don't always get along. In fact, I've seen some of the worst people in Boston." A bitter taste entered my mouth as I recalled all the drug raids and drive-by shootings I'd been called to over the last few months. "I'm cop on the police force of the city," I explained. "And it's been a rough few months. Lots of gang violence in poorer parts of the city and a lot of innocents are getting caught in the crossfire."

            Thor looked away from me. "Yeah," he said, voice rougher than usual. "I can see that."

            Briefly, the snippet of conversation from the night of my arrival came back to me. Something about giants that had been bitter enemies of Asgard for hundreds of years. Given the grave expression on Thor's face, I assumed that animosity was still at large and people were still being harmed over it.

            Later, I thought to myself. I wanted to know more about those giants, but I didn't want to drag up such unpleasant topics on what was sort of our first date. I'll ask Sif later, she'll probably know something.

            "But even with the worst of it," I said, "there are days that make it better. Shutting down the drug ring, bringing a runaway back home to their families-days like that make the hard ones easier to bear. You know you did something good. That you made the city a safer place."

            Thor smiled, flashing his brilliantly white teeth. He didn't say anything but his expression certainly looked appreciative. I figured being the would-be king of Asgard, he probably knew the feeling too.

            "And your family?" he prodded. "What do they think of your occupation?"

I toyed with a strand of my hair. "My uncle Enmei and my cousin weren't thrilled about the career choice," I said, still unable to say Yuki's name aloud. "But they supported me anyways and they were proud of me. My mother was...less than supportive of my choice."

"Why?"

"My father was a cop too," I said, feeling the old wounds sting. "He was killed on the job when I was eleven."

"I'm sorry," Thor said, his smiling fading.

            I shrugged. "It was along time ago." I missed my dad every day, but it didn't hurt like it did twelve years ago. The memories of him didn't make me shy away in pain anymore. Now, I could smile. I looked away from Thor, suddenly very self-conscious. "He wasn't a uniformed officer, he was state patrol."

            "What's the difference?"

            "Uniformed officers-like me, we spend most of our time answering calls and doing paper work within the given area we patrol. We work for the city of Boston itself. State trooper as the name implies work for the state itself. They tend to be out on the highways mostly and they patrol there. There's more to it than that, but those are the basic differences."

            He nodded as I spoke, fingers tapping against his knee. I didn't think he knew he was doing it. Since he wasn't talking, I took my chance to shift the conversation. "What about your dad? He's passing the family business onto you isn't he?"

            Thor shrugged. "You could call it that I guess, but it's not quite that easy. It's not the typical monarchy. Not anymore at least."

            I titled my head as I pondered those words. "What do you mean?"

            "Well, my father does have the power to name a successor to his throne."

            "That's you."

            "Me," Thor agreed, "should I accept the appointment, which I did. But the rest of the council had to approve of me as well as at least three of our top ranked generals."

            "And they did?"

            "Yes, but if one had objected, Father would have either had to appeal the choice in a higher court or search for a new successor."

            I pondered that as well. "What would you have done if that had happened? If someone disapproved of your becoming next in line for the throne?"

            Thor laid back on the mat and stared up at the ceiling and folded his hands behind his head. For a while, he said nothing and looking at him, I got a fair view of his muscled chest. His change of position had shifted his shirt upwards and gave a clear view of his sharply defined abdominal muscles. Clearly, he was no stranger to the gym either.

            Thor spoke up and my mind snapped back to the conversation. "I don't know what I would have done to be honest. I've always wanted to lead my people-to lose that, it would have been...difficult for me. I would've made it through, but it would have been hard to deal with."

            I nodded. I knew the feeling well. It had curled up in the pit of my stomach when I'd waited to know if I'd gotten my acceptance letter to the police academy. "What would you have done, if you hadn't been able to do this?" I hoped he understand that "this" was the whole royalty thing.

            "I'm not sure. I never gave it that much thought."

            We lapsed into silence and I didn't feel the need to break it this time. A chill was settling over my body and I was becoming more and more aware of the sour smell that was hanging around me. "This has been great," I said, sitting upright and stretching. "But I really need to hit the showers. I stink."

            Thor snorted.

            "I'm serious."

            "I know," he said, "I'm just surprised by how forthright you are about it."

            "How can I not be? I smell like a wrestling mat-there's no way to be subtle about that."

            I got up from my position on the mat and stood up. "Thanks Thor, this was nice. I'll be seeing you later then?"

            Thor looked up at me. He was still laying down on the floor. "Yeah. I will."

            He smiled at me, the expression a bit shy. "Do you mind if I walk you back to your room?"

I felt the same expression mirror on my face. "Sure."

****************************

New chapter! Suzume and Thor have had their first date and it's not quite over yet either! Gotta say, I am way happier with this version of the first date than the original draft!

Write on! :)