For the first time in a while, Esme felt like she could breathe again. Yes, seeing Thor in his altered state was a little tough to swallow, but seeing him again brought her back to the better times they had shared, even if they had been adventurous and very dangerous.

Curtesy of Thor, he drove the two of them into the nearest town. Esme didn't venture often unless she needed to shop for supplies. For a time, she had tried to see if she could make it in the social world on Earth. She had quickly found out how much of a struggle it was.

The sun had set, bringing on dusk. The two got themselves parked and strolled through the town. Esme wasn't entirely familiar with everything, but she had a better idea than Thor did of this place. Those that walked by stole glances at them, rather out of curiosity, or possibly envy. Esme couldn't understand what they would have to envy them for, if anything.

Humans would not envy what Esme and Thor had been through, separately or together.

"Let's stop for food," Thor told her. She merely nodded in agreement.

As they passed many bars, Esme had a feeling they would land themselves in one of those places. The last time she had seen Thor, she couldn't remember the last instance he hadn't opened a beer to chug away.

"This town is rather quiet," Thor noted softly.

"It's what I like about it. It's nothing like New York, that place is way too loud for me." Her preferred place was countryside, or by a lake. Someplace that wasn't bustling with obnoxious melodies of car horns or curses by humans. While her current residence was near a forest, it was good enough for Esme.

"What, you didn't like our trip to New York?"

"That was not a trip, that was a mission." Esme recalled getting a location on Loki, Thor asking for his father's permission to send them to Midgard to retrieve the God of Mischief. That had been a dangerous adventure and an eye-opener for Esme into the true personality of Loki. "And no, who would like a trip that involves fighting aliens raining from an open hole in the sky?"

The two settled for a little mom-and-pop restaurant soon after, the topic of the Chitauri invasion of New York dying in the air. While Esme could recall the few good blips in that mission, she remembered most of what was bad about it. Loki had wanted to wage war on Midgard, and she couldn't understand why. She didn't care about humans at the time, what did they ever do for her? But Thor being the advocate he was about humanity appealed to her to help save Earth.

Needless to say, everyone involved got a few battle wounds and scars when everything was said and done.

"No beer?" Esme asked, surprised when Thor had ordered water when the server had come to ask about drink orders.

"Things have changed, so I feel I should change along with them, for the better."

Esme smiled. "Good for you." She messed with her utensils on her napkin. "Still awkward."

"Not as awkward as you may think."

"Are you sure?" Esme glanced down at her left hand, where one day she had hoped of wearing a wedding band on her ring finger. That hope had gotten smashed not due to Ragnarok's occurrence, but something far worse.

The abdomen scar throbbed in fresh pain, forcing Esme to buckle over in her seat. She gripped the table to keep herself from hitting the floor.

"Esme?"

"I'm all right," she hissed through her teeth, not in anger at Thor, but in anger at her stupid scar. "This happens."

Thor's eyes became sad. "Because of me?"

"You can't blame yourself for what happened. You told me to run, and I became stubborn until I realized if I didn't leave I'd die." Esme sniffed.

Some nights, her nightmares brought her back to the moment she had almost died. To that massive shard of metal penetrating right through her. If she hadn't gotten to the escape pods with Valkyrie, if she hadn't gotten the attention she had needed...

~*~

Hasn't Asgard suffered enough?

First Ragnarok, now the ship had been boarded by a giant purple man who called himself "Thanos", the "salvation of the people". By salvation, he meant annihilation.

While Thanos did not do much of the dirty work, rather his minions, many Asgardians either took a stand and fought or did the smarter thing and found escape pods to flee. Esme, among others, had been one to take a stand and fight. If Loki and Thor were going to fight, she would, too. She did not fight aliens on Midgard, become a guard for the Asgardian dungeon, and become Hela's reluctant servant for survival all to die at the hands of someone who had no right to be in any Asgardian's business!

Armed with her rather long daggers, Esme fought her hardest. She kept eyes out for Thor, Loki, and any Asgardians she could save. But countless times she lost sight of her mischievous friend and her fiancé, and countless times she could not save others.

When one of Thanos' men—more like alien henchman—grabbed her, they tossed her across the ship. When the chaos had started, the minions didn't care what they destroyed, whether it was ship or people. When Esme was launched, she had the unfortunate fate of being impaled by a huge shard of ship metal.

Her breaths were wet, her daggers had dropped from her hands upon impact. Esme was defenseless—one look from an enemy her way, and she was as good as dead...provided the shard didn't kill her first.

Any miniscule movement sent shockwaves of pain through Esme's body. Hot tears went down her face. Tears of fear, of rage, of sadness. Everything was falling apart, and she felt helpless, useless.

As her vision blurred, she could make out Thor and Loki's figures, who still fought hard against Thanos' cronies. When the two had a brief reprieve, Loki found Esme first. The two rushed to the wounded Asgardian. Their hands hovered over her, unsure as to what to do.

"Yeah...that's not coming out," Esme rasped.

"Oh, it's coming out," Thor demanded. He threw looks over his shoulder.

"Go help the others." Blood spurted up her throat, trickling out of a corner of her mouth.

"You are not dying here, Esme," Loki told her firmly. "You will get off this ship and get someplace safe."

"Yeah, in the bloody afterlife!" Esme coughed, more red rose from her throat.

"Do you trust us?"

Esme nodded.

With a look from Loki, Thor and Loki grabbed an arm each of Esme. She had never screamed so loud in her life as the two slowly pulled her off the metal shard. As strong as she could, she gripped them to fight the searing pain.

Esme's legs buckled, and she cried out with relief as the shard was free from her body.

"No time to rest, I'm afraid," Loki urged her. He and Thor got Esme to her feet. "Head for the pods, get out."

"We need to stop Thanos."

"You're in no condition. You're losing blood as we speak. Go now, Esme. Please, for both of us."

"Promise me we'll see each other soon."

"Esme—"

"Promise me, damn it all!" Esme said in hysterics.

"There's no time, I'm sorry."

With a gentle shove, Loki pushed Esme in the direction of the escape pods. On trembling legs, she stopped, looking back at the two with frightened eyes. Though both looked as though they were sad, they both nodded to her to flee.

With a fracturing heart, Esme limped her way away from the destruction in hopes that one of the pods was still available for her to use.

~*~

Esme never did find out Loki's fate; she had approached Thor about the topic once, and he couldn't even look her in the eye and speak a word about it. Judging by how he had reacted, the outlook didn't look good for the God of Mischief.

When the server came back with their drinks, the two ordered their food. Esme's stomach didn't feel so hungry anymore. In fact, she felt like running for the nearest bathroom to vomit. The memory was so sick and vile after all those years.

Esme couldn't meet Thor's eyes, she feared she would burst into tears.

Thor reached across the table, grabbing Esme's hand tenderly. The world slowly seemed to right itself. Though the pain of the memory was still there, she felt a little better.