Too Little Too Late

Thor / Guardians of the Galaxy / Carol Danvers

Being a king was absolutely not what he had thought back then when he was the prince who thought that glory came with battles won. He had wanted the position so much, thinking that he would lead his people towards new horizons. Now, Asgard had been destroyed and they were living on Midgard. Not what he expected. Meetings were a thing of Midgard no doubt. Thor had to go to many every day. They were repeating the same things again and again, to make sure that all parties were happy with the results. Odin always made it look so easy, even glamourous. When his father was standing all regal, his sceptre in his hand, his eye on you, nobody would have dared to say a word. Odin was the conqueror, born to be king. Thor wasn't any of that. Loki had been right during his first coronation. Now, he didn't want to be king anymore. The nine realms were certainly doing better on their own. The elves, the dwarves or even the frost giants didn't need someone to tell them what was best for their people. The years Thor had spent on Midgard had taught him a lot about autonomy and liberty. Midgard's ways were not perfect in everything but the days of colonialism appeared to be a thing of the past. So, it seemed anyway.

New Asgard was doing very well. The Aesir had constructed, rapidly, anything that they would need. Some were even working on rebuilding here on Midgard another Bifrost. They didn't hesitate to share their technology with the rest of their new world. Some of his people were even going to work outside of New Asgard. Everything was going smoothly. They didn't really need his input. Loki would have been a better king. He was a better player at the political game. Carol Danvers and the guardians of the galaxy had come to spend some time in New Asgard before their departure from the planet. Thor liked them. Especially Quill and his team. They were really a family like the Avengers should have been but never really managed to be. The god was looking more and more at Valkyrie thinking that she would make a great queen. And he would be able to carry on doing what he was really made to do. Maybe he wasn't being fair to her.

Carol Danvers thought she had been doing a better job in the Kree side of the universe. Earth already had enough protectors and that wasn't the case of every planet in the galaxy. She might as well go where she was needed. Captain Marvel would come back regularly just to see some people in particular. Her best friend and her daughter, some people in New Asgard also. Earth was now on the map as a big player inside the entire galaxy. For now, it would be relatively protected. Others would rapidly know about Earth's victory against Thanos. But it would come a time when it would be all but forgotten or when yet another warlord would want to test that strength. Then she would have to come back.

Until then, Carol would travel the universe, make allies maybe along the way, meet the guardians regularly. She didn't think at first that they were that important. Now, they had been proving her wrong. It wasn't a bad thing to be reminded that you weren't the only one with abilities, that you weren't the only one in the universe capable of saving it. Or the smartest tool in the shed. Tony Stark came to meet them really quick a couple of days after the battle. Mainly because Colonel Rhodes had asked him to. The man was a hero but didn't want the title and was not comfortable with people, especially not with his ex-team. Seeing him like that, she surprised herself with a rush of protectiveness towards the man. He could defend himself though and much more than that. The other Captain was having that all righteous attitude again when Tony avoided talking to them all together. She hoped suddenly that her own attitude had nothing to do with Captain America's.

Rocket immediately bonded with Stark. All that technology was unbelievable. The man knew what he was talking about. He wanted to borrow – steal – everything. Even the pieces who were for him out of date, had a logic that was rather interesting to study. People on Earth didn't always have the knowledge but they certainly had a lot of ingenuity. They had spent hours talking about engineering. Peter and Gamora had to come get him. Groot had been playing on his new video game. Stark had just given him a whole bunch. The teenager was happy. As much as teenagers could be anyway.