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momentofmemory · 5 years

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fictober - day nine

Prompt #9: “It has a certain taste.”

Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe (Thor, Guardians of the Galaxy)

Warnings: Grief

Rating: T

Characters: Thor Odinson & Rocket Raccoon

Words: 1674

Author’s Note: set in the near vicinity (1-3 months) post endgame.

>>Snøsøte on the Mountains

The Milano was scheduled for planet departure in a little over forty earth minutes, and no one had seen Thor in six hours.

They’d landed on Krylor three days ago so that Rocket could make some much-needed repairs to the ship—Krylorians were famous for their psionic-guided engines and other advancements in interstellar flight—and Rocket was convinced he could use his reputation as “savior of the universe” to schmooze as much free tech out of them as possible. In his defense, it had been going stunningly well until Drax accidentally offended half the local government being, well, Drax.

The need to leave on time had increased significantly after that.

Rocket sat in the copilot’s chair, inspecting the hyper-wave bomb he’d lifted off the security guard that’d escorted him out.

“Rocket.”

He vaguely registered Quill’s voice, but decided it probably wasn’t important. Instead, he turned the bomb around until his claws found the seam. He huffed in triumph, then flipped it upside down and pried off the base.

It immediately lit up and started beeping.

“Mother of—”

Rocket chucked it at Drax, but it bounced harmlessly off his head and rolled to the floor. It glowed briefly, then powered down.

Drax didn’t even wake up.

“Huh.” Rocket crawled out of his chair and snatched up the orb. He bet he could reverse engineer the power core with some of those lame lithium-ion batteries he’d stolen from Rhodey last week.

“Rocket!”

He winced and flattened his ears back against his head. “Geez, what, Quill? You trying to wake up the whole sector?”

“If that’s what it takes to get your attention, then yes.” Quill closed the map he’d been looking at and walked to the front of the ship, stopping in front of Rocket. “Thor still hasn’t shown up, and he isn’t answering his comm.”

Rocket poked at one of the wires and was immediately shocked for his efforts. He swore and shook his hand vigorously, glaring up at Quill. “Yeah, and?”

“And I’d like to leave this planet in one piece, which means on time. We’re not exactly on the hottest terms with the locals.”

Rocket frowned. “I’m sorry, I seem to remember that being Drax’s fault. I don’t see you asking him about electro boy.”

“That’s because Drax is an idiot.”

Rocket snorted and tried to slip past. “Guess that explains why you’re not doing it yourself, either.”

“Rocket.”

“He’s a big guy! He can take care of himself.”

“He is sad.”

Both Quill and Rocket turned as Mantis appeared in the doorway. “I do not know what is wrong.”

Quill gave Rocket his best I told you so look and Rocket crossed his arms over his chest. “I still don’t see why that means I have to go get him.”

Groot, who hadn’t even bothered to look up from his console the entire trip, chose that moment to stare at Rocket with his obnoxiously sincere eyes. “I am Groot?”

Rocket deflated and tossed the grenade at Quill, who yelped and dropped the datapad he’d been holding to catch it. “Use this if things go south before I get back.”

Groot smirked. “I am Groot.”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it,” Rocket said, taking the datapad for himself. He sighed. “I’m the captain.”

_________________________

Krylorians are deathly allergic to all forms of alcohol, so that ruled out the normal kinds of places the Asgardian would frequent. Fortunately for Rocket, however, the Milano’s energy sensors are one system he’d managed to get updated before Drax blew his street cred. He tapped in a few commands and the system recalibrates to perform a city-wide search for the weird, low-grade electricity signature Thor always seemed to give off.

The wavelength was nowhere to be found in the city, but widening it to include the nearby geography quickly solved the problem.

“Hey Quill,” he said into his comm as he grabbed a jetpack from the Milano’s storage, “How long do you think you can delay that take off for?”

“How long do you like living?”

Rocket didn’t bother responding. Quill was an idiot, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t good at bullshitting excuses.

He exited the Milano and flew to the outskirts of town, keeping an eye on the map. It took him twenty minutes to approach the location, mostly because of the rain, and Thor’s marker didn’t move the entire time.

He knew Thor got moody around the anniversary of the snap—who didn’t—but that was reversed now and anyway, that date wasn’t for another three months.

He finally found the Asgardian sitting on the edge of a rocky outcrop, his legs hanging down and hands folded in his lap, looking out over the coastline. Rocket landed next to him, rain water soaking his fur and dripping onto the hard surface. Thor smiled in greeting.

“Rabbit!” The man spoke with the level of exuberance he reserved for when he was feeling truly miserable. “How goes your quest for the finest technology this side of the galaxy?”

“Not so great, actually,” Rocket said, hiding under one of the larger rocks and shaking off. "We kinda need you back at the ship.”

“…Ah.” Thor made no move to get up. “A shame, really.”

Rocket was still trying to de-clump his fur. “What? You got something against being dry?”

“No.” A chuckle, likely at the expense of Rocket’s struggling. “But nothing against being wet, either.”

Rocket gave up and stepped back into the rain, and noticed Thor was rotating something between his fingers. “What’s that?”

Thor blinked in surprise and looked down, as if he himself had forgotten the item.

“This is Yggdrasil,” he said, carefully placing it in Rocket’s palm so the raccoon could get a better look at it. “The great tree of life, out of which Asgard was grown.”

Rocket turned the figure from side to side. It was small, barely bigger than his own paw, and felt like Terran marble. The trunk of the tree fused into the bottom of a cylindrical city ringed with mountains, and three branches curved up and around its base to form a domed top. In the center of the city rose the spire of a magnificent palace, and out of that, the rest of the tree: nine branches in all.

Rocket handed the carving back. “Asgard, huh?”

“Mm. It was the crown jewel of the Nine Realms.” Thor looked at the tree, then tucked it away in one of the pouches on his belt. “Home of the first root of Yggdrasil.”

“Seems fancy.” Rocket curled his tail under him and sat down beside Thor, though his legs weren’t quite long enough to hang off the edge. “They just called my planet Halfworld.”

“Oh, I’m sure it was a very whole planet in its own right. Not anywhere near as impressive as Asgard, but still.”

“No, that was literally its—look, nevermind, that isn’t the point.”

The planet’s sun was beginning to set, casting the sky into deep shades of green, blue, and purple—a sharp contrast to the pale yellow of the day.

Thor sighed. “This place reminds me of my home.”

“…You sure?”

Thor laughed and clapped Rocket on the back, nearly hurling him off the ledge in the process. “My apologies, Rabbit! I forget sometimes that you, too, have seen Asgard.” His countenance fell. “But it is not merely the geography that makes up a place.”

Rocket’s eyebrows knitted together and Thor smiled. “My father said that to me, right before Ragnarok.”

“A what rock?”

“It’ll be six years tomorrow, actually,” Thor said, continuing as if Rocket hadn’t spoken. “Six years since I had to destroy my homeworld.”

Thunder cracked in the distance and Rocket suddenly wondered if the rain wasn’t just by chance.

“There are much more important things to mourn, of course. Mostly people. Lots of those.” Thor shrugged. “Still.”

Rocket shifted. His fur was completely soaked through, and the sunset meant the temperature was dropping. Quill probably needed them back to the ship as soon as possible.

But he was the captain.

“You said this place reminds you of Asgard?”

Thor looked at him in surprise. “So it does.”

“Gotta say I can’t see it, but, you were there longer, so.” Rocket leaned back on his paws. “Explain it if you want.”

The smallest of smiles appeared on Thor’s face. He turned towards the violet-coloured sea, watching the waves crash into the coastline. “It’s true that the appearances aren’t very similar. I’m sure you’re correct about Krylo being technologically advanced, but stylistically they seem very lacking.”

“Harsh, but continue.”

Thor laughed, and took in a deep breath. “It’s not about the visuals at all, really. It’s in the way the air feels.”

Rocket frowned. “The… air.”

“Indeed, Rabbit.” He closed his eyes. “There’s a certain… taste to it, almost. Fresh and crisp. Metallic, though not badly. The barest touch of salt from the sea.”

“Sounds like you knew the place pretty well,” Rocket said, thinking of his own distorted memories. “Shame I didn’t get to see more of it.”

A hopeful look appeared in Thor’s eyes. He rose to his feet, offering a hand to Rocket. “Perhaps I could tell you more on our journey back?”

“Better than listening to Quill whine, so sure.” Rocket accepted the hand and climbed up onto the man’s shoulder. “What was this Asgard of yours like.”

Thor thought of the palace, its golden spire glistening in the moonlight, even as the heart of the city cast its own light from below. The churning waterfalls at the edge of the world he and Loki had explored as children, always with the careful eye of Heimdal guarding them. Sunlight streaming through the great, gilded archways that had been so lavishly sculpted as his people bustled through. Lignonberry jelly on toast, shaved salads with dulse at the evening náttverðr, his mother’s pönnukökur for breakfast. Snøsøte blooming in the mountains, its rich, deep-blue petals stark against the fresh white snow.

Thor smiled, and twirling his hammer, launched both of them into the air.

“It was beautiful.”

#fictober19 #tw:grief #thor odinson #rocket raccoon #mcu fanfic #thor fic #fanfiction #yes that really is the name of rocket's homeworld #memsfic

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