Title: By the Light of the Lightning
Author: tarotgal
Fandom: Marvel
Rating: PG
Pairing: None
Summary: He's the God of Thunder, after all.
Notes: Happy birthday, Lady Korana

By the Light of the Lightning

There was a flash of lightning so bright everyone in the room was blinded for a moment. It was followed almost immediately by a thunderclap so loud it shook the tower.

“Damn it!” Clint winced. His quick reflexes had only allowed him to get a finger to his ear; he hadn’t been able to adjust his hearing aid in time. The result was intense pain.

“Maybe you should go stay with Coulson until this is over,” Steve suggested, nearly unaffected by the discomfort as he crossed the living room from the kitchen with a tray sporting soup, toast, and orange juice.

But Clint shook his head. “Weather reports say this storm’s spread out to cover the entire state! It’s not going to make much of a difference where I am!” He was practically shouting, his hearing aid on the fritz. He’d have to have Tony take a look at it, assuming he could even get into the lab where Tony had placed himself in quarantine. Tony was not overly fond of germs. “See if you can get him to go back to sleep! He can’t sneeze if he’s sleeping!”

Steve might be the leader of the Avengers, but his influence only went so far when facing an actual god, not to mention a god who was off his game, suffering from one heck of a head cold. Not for the first time, he wished he had the Hulk for backup. He wouldn’t have said no to having the whole team, in fact.

The walk down the hall to the room Thor used when he was on this world wasn’t easy. Another thunderclap sounded, making Steve stumble from one side to the other, his shoulder ramming into the wall. He did not, however, spill a drop of the meal. The door was closed but unlocked, so Steve let himself right in.

Thor lay in his bed with the covers pulled up to one sore, red nose. His eyes flashed at Steve, a look of helpless desperation about him. “You should go,” he rumbled.

“You should eat,” Steve countered, clearing a formidable mountain of tissues on the bedside table to make room for the tray.

Miserable, Thor shook his head. “I believe I need to… to… to snee—“ He wasn’t able to finish, but the lightning flashed in his eyes and second later, he pitched forward at the same time the room glowed with the presence of a lightning bolt cutting through the rain right outside. “HARASHOOOOOO!” The thunderclap that sounded directly overhead rocked everything, and Steve found himself tossed forward, clinging to the bedpost with a good portion of his strength in order to stay upright.

“Bless you,” Steve said as a reflex, unable to remember how many times someone had said that to him in his youth. Pre-serum, he’d had allergic fits just looking at paintings of flowers, and he’d caught every cold there was to catch at least twice. But it felt strange to say ‘bless you’ to a god, even one as immensely miserable as Thor was at the moment.  “Look, maybe this is reaching, but have you tried… um… this?” Steve pinched his own nose between thumb and forefinger. Not just strange; this felt absolutelyabsurd.

Thor stared at him quizzically. Outside the window, the storm raged, pelting the windows as if it wanted in, as if it wanted to get closer to the source of all this. Uncomprehendingly, Thor pinched his nose hard. “I dod’t udderstad what this is,” he said, his voice still deep and rumbly but noticeably nasal as well now. “How will this hel… oh…” His breath caught again. The whole room was bathed in white light as lightning illuminated the stormy night sky. “HAHHHH-UMPHHPTCHH!” There was still an inevitable clap of thunder, but this one was weaker, softer.

Steve easily stayed on his feet. “That’s it,” he said encouragingly. “How did that feel?”

Thor narrowed his eyes. “Awful.” He dropped his hand.

Well, it had been worth a try.

“HAH HAH HAHRRRRSHOOOOO!” Steve clung to the bed. His natural sense of balance could be pretty useful.

“Bless you.” He patted the bed, hitting Thor’s leg. “You want to try the soup? Or would you rather get some sleep?”

This seemed a difficult question to Thor. His brows knit together. His head cocked to the side. “Hit me,” he said, raising his hand, gesturing at the side of his face. “Knock me out. It is the only way I will be able to sleep.” Steve looked horrified by the idea, but Thor gave him a kind smile. “You cannot hurt me, Captain. I promise you that.”

As Steve pushed up his sleeves, he really wished he had brought the Hulk with him.