Princess of Asgard

She blinked a few times as the lamp came on, letting out a grumble of complaint but nonetheless shifting onto her stomach to better read the magazine Astrid passed to her. Reading the title, she chuckled lightly. “You really are planning ahead, aren’t you?” 

Curious to see the dress her sister was talking about, she flipped immediately to the middle, flipping a few more pages before she landed on a page with a rose gold dress. “This one?” she asked, turning her head slightly and holding it up for Astrid to see. Glancing back at the page, she nodded approvingly. “I like it.”

“Nope. A nurse at the hospital gave them to me. I’m not exactly sure why but they’re nice to look at.” She smiled, flipping through, occasionally stopping to admire the detailing of an item or a dress more closely until her sister spoke. At the question, Astrid glanced over before nodding, a small smile appearing on her face. 

“I think it will be a while before I call this home,” she admitted. “But who knows.” With so much family around, perhaps it could one day be more of a home than Jotunheim. A shrug of her own followed Astrid’s words as they stated walking. “It’s alright. Again, different, but not in a bad way.” 

“Who knows exactly.” She admitted with a smile, looking up at her niece happily. “It is something to adjust to, but if you want to stay then I’m sure you’ll adjust as quickly as Magni did.”

Bruce had hurriedly moved aside noticeable blood samples when Astrid came into the room, turning to give her his full attention. “An anxiety attack?” he frowned and pressed his lips together. “Oh, sweetheart, are you ok?”

It was a simple question but it was enough for Astrid to feel like she was losing it. Placing the food down on a chair the young girl took a step towards a cabinet and leant against it, shaking her head as she tried to control her emotions.

“Um, Papa?” She started quietly, almost hiding behind the offer of peace. “I uh. I had an anxiety attack at school today...”

@radioactivebanner

Jasmine wasn’t expecting to come home to find her girlfriend on her bed. She had been looking for Astrid the entire day, searching classroom after classroom for her. She had been worried sick. Looking at her now, though, Jasmine immediately felt her shoulders drop. She let out a relieved sigh.

“Hey, cutie,” she said, dropping her bag and making her way to her bed to give Astrid a quick kiss. She then sat back, looking at her more closely. “You alright? I looked for you all day today. Couldn’t find you so I got worried. What happened? Is everything okay?”

The anxiety attack had completely thrown Astrid off guard and after Magni had left the girl was left wondering what she was going to do to try and keep her mind off of herself. 

So she decided to rebel and break a certain rule. 

It wasn’t hard to break into Jasmine’s room, she knew where the spare key was and she took the time that Jasmine was at school to have a nap, only waking when the door opened. 

Sitting up half asleep the blonde girl rubbed at her face before she smiled warmly at the familiar sight. 

“No,” she chuckled. “But you get to spend your days divided between Asgard and Midgard.” Somehow, she didn’t think her sister would have too much of an issue with that. “And I suppose I could ask for you to accompany me if I have to visit other realms for whatever reason.” It was so natural to speak as if it was a definite, though even as she uttered the words she knew that whatever future she had envisioned for herself could all change in the blink of an eye if her father chose Magni to be heir. 

Shaking her head slightly to rid herself of those thoughts, not wanting the uncertainty to plague her at such an hour, she focused back on what Astrid was saying. “I have no issue with the Midgardians! Given father’s stories I could hardly dislike them, I’d just rather not put myself in a position where I know I’m going to end up losing people I care about.” 

“Fine.” Astrid finally caved on the conversation and gave up, flicking on the lamp since clearly, neither of them were sleeping. To find a different topic of conversation Astrid reached under her bed and pulled out two magazines, the same bridal ones she’d read at the hospital with Jasmine. 

“And that is what I will have my wonderful sister by my side for,” she grinned, only half teasing. Truth be told, if she did take the throne as she’d always believed she would before Magni turned up, then she knew the support of her sister, and indeed her whole family, would be invaluable. “I shall make you my head of inter-realm relations. At least when it comes to Midgard.” Who better, after all, given how well Astrid knew the place? 

She rolled her eyes, shifting her hip to bump against her sister in retaliation to the leg poke. “You sound like a parent talking to a child the first time they’re let out to play,” she frowned, feigning a grumble. “Why is it so important to you?”

“You mean I don’t get to spend my days galavanting around the Realms enjoying myself? Dammit.” Of course, Astrid knew that she would always play a part in the running of Asgard, whether she was the Queen or not, she just hoped playing a small part was all she ever had to do.

[Text: Astrid] I am proud of your grades. Training can be worked on, but that’s more of a thing your father can work on. 

[Text: Astrid] Ah, don’t worry so much about that. 

[Text: Daddy] Please no... I’ll take extra credit, just no more fighting classes.

“I’m not going to attempt to understand his actions,” Aelin shrugged. “He does what he does, and sometimes no one knows why. You should hear some of the stories my mother has about him.” Though they were amusing to say the least, particularly those from when the pair had been young, they all had the same hidden message; just go with it. “What’s done is done, and I think there’s been enough drama without holding onto thinks that can’t be changed. Just ask him if Jasmine can come over, and go from there.” 

The ongoing argument, if it could even be called an argument when it was conversed with such peace and understanding, was one Aelin doubted either of them would win. “I know it’s not bad, and I’m not about to go around like Uncle Loki did once trying to get the Midgardians to bow to me. But just because I’m temporarily residing here, it doesn’t mean I have to start befriending everyone. I came to be with my family, no one else.”

This time Astrid did actually give up on arguing her point about why Jasmine couldn’t come over, instead hoping that when she did decide to sneak the girl over, Aelin would happen to be out of the house.

“I suppose that makes sense,” she nodded, lips twisting thoughtfully for a moment before she gave a shrug of her own as Astrid changed the subject. She wouldn’t linger on the topic if her aunt didn’t want to. “Honestly, at the moment the best thing is the fact that the family is here,” she smiled, chuckling quietly at the reminder of how much younger than her Astrid was. “It’s strange to finally be meeting everyone, but a good strange. Other than that I’m just liking how different things are. I’ve always loved trying new things, and a new realm is about as different as it can get.”

“I like it here personally, but I’ve spent more time here than on Asgard.” She explained with a shrug, glancing around the school. “To a lot of kids this is our home, it’s the safest place to be. Or is now.” She added before the girl shrugged and started to walk. “What do you think of the food? Magni quite enjoys it.”

Agent Carter’s classes weren’t her favourite by a long stretch, but they also weren’t her least favourite either. The class sat somewhere in the middle, her opinion on it swaying either way depending on the topic that was being taught that day.

Today was guns, though thankfully they didn’t have to shoot them. Agent Carter explained that she was going to take everyone through the proper safety precautions that one had to take when they wanted to fire a gun, with the lesson ending with the class watching these precautions in action before Agent Carter showed them how to hit a target.

As long as Astrid wasn’t shooting the gun, she was fine. Safety was a good thing, safety was really important in fact and really, Astrid believed that she excelled at the safety part of the lesson. 

But then came the end of it. 

Agent Carter was nice, she told her students that if any of them weren’t comfortable with watching or hearing a gunshot they had permission to leave the class early and head on over to their next one, the rest of the students were invited to pick up safety glasses and earmuffs. 

That was when it all went wrong.

Astrid had been pushed to the front of the group, pressed against the glass to watch as her teacher repeated the final safety measure before she lifted the weapon, took aim, and fired. 

Despite the earmuffs, the gunshot was loud, incredibly loud and the vibration of the bullet seemed to send a shockwave through Astrid’s chest, knocking the breath out of her. 

It was when everyone started to clap that Astrid realised that the breath hadn’t come back. 

No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t breathe, every breath seemed to get stuck in her throat instead of travelling to her lungs.

Then her heart rate soared, blood pounding in her ears before suddenly her legs gave out from underneath her, the muscles in her limbs feeling weak and useless before she started to cry.

Everything was distorted through the tears but Astrid was able to see her teacher crouching in front of her, a concerned look on her face as she firmly told the other students to leave.

[Text: Astrid] I see. Well, we can discuss what happened when I get home. 

[Text: Astrid] I’m held up in the lab currently. 

[Text: Daddy] How about you be proud of your dyslexic daughter instead of being annoyed at the pacificist daughter?

[Text: Daddy] The bad news is, I failed self-defence again.

“I’d love to see Asgard one day,” she smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about it, especially since arriving here, but I’ve yet to visit.” It had always been somewhere she’d wanted to see, yet the desire was stronger since meeting the rest of her family; the family that had grown up there, and not on Jotunheim as she had. “I have to admit I’m intrigued to get to know the people here. Given how your dad has settled down here I assumed there had to be something good about the people. Why doesn’t Aelin want to make friends with them?”

“Because they’re mortal. The fact that Dad, Tyr, and myself are all dating mortals just makes her upset because she knows we’ll live to see them pass.” She shrugged innocently, knowing it was something that was bound to happen, but it was in the future, not now. “Anyway, moving on from sad things, what do you enjoy most about this place so far? Other than your annoying Aunt who happens to be something like half a century younger than you, obviously.”

She nodded slowly, trying to commit the word ‘dad’ to memory - it seemed that was a far more common term than ‘father’ around Midgard, and if she was to stick around as she planned, then she supposed it would be sensible to adjust to such things. “I think my father, I mean my dad,” she corrected, trying out the word, “did say he was planning to walk Chicken when I told him I was heading out.” At the question, she gave a shrug, but a smile remained on her lips. “It’s alright. I’m still trying to find my way around, and figure out what to do for fun, but I think I could grow to like it here.”

“I mean, it’s not as beautiful as where we’re from. Or, at least I don’t think it’s as beautiful as Asgard but it is nice. The people are mostly kind.” Mostly. But apparently, most people overlooked that as Astrid was starting to find out. “Don’t be like my sister though, she refuses to befriend the humans which is tragic, they make time here quite enjoyable.”

“How did I not hear about this?” Aelin frowned, turning her head to glance down at her sister. “I suppose I see why he said you were banned from each others, but given the circumstances I’d have thought it would only be a temporary thing. Some sort of punishment? I can’t see why else he would do that.” She shrugged. “And I think even mortal men would want to rip the door from a house if their child was hiding there. It just so happens that our father actually can.” 

Another sigh followed Astrid’s words. “I don’t hate it here. I don’t see it as home, but I don’t hate it. I wouldn’t have moved here if it wasn’t for you, though. Well, you, Tyr and father. Aesir too, I suppose. I just missed my family.”

“I’m not entirely sure. And he didn’t destroy it because I was there, he destroyed it because he was pissed off at Pops for some reason and because Gabe was there. They nearly demolished his house because they were both being stupid and pig headed and wanted to fight each other. I don’t know why Dad wanted to fight but Gabe was just using his frustration at the cheating situation to fuel his anger at Dad being dumb.” Astrid released in a single breath before she grabbed her pillow and pressed it against her face, groaning into it.