The Weight of the Universe | Avengers

21. Lost and Found

Valkyrie is, for once, sleeping somewhat peacefully. After three weeks of organizing the life of around a hundred Asgardians, peace and quiet have slowly settled in, even though everyone's still traumatized and grieving. It's difficult to adapt to the new world, but with her as their leader, they're able to move on. It's barely past five when a loud melody suddenly awakes the fierce warrior and she blinks in confusion through the weak darkness. The sun is already leaking out of the night sky, so she can actually see how the bed on the other side of the room is empty.

"Not again." Valkyrie mumbles with a sigh and gets up. Throwing a jacket over her shoulders and putting her feet into boots, Brunnhilde follows the music that comes from outside. The cold sea breeze softly meets her face and she finds Aurora working on the ship at the coast.

"And there's a girl in this harbor town
And she works layin' whiskey down
They say, 'Brandy, fetch another round'
She serves them– "

Aurora abruptly stops singing along the melody when she spots her friend standing on the dock. Without hesitation, she lowers the volume of the Looking Glass song and forces a nervous smile on her lips. "Oh, shit, sorry. Did I wake you up?"

"Aurora, what are you doing?" Valkyrie sighs tiredly and Aurora puts the screw wrench aside, climbing down the dredge to be closer to Valkyrie's height.

"Well, the dredge's mechanism was stuck, so I fixed it. And it's always funnier with music." She explains simply with a shrug and Brunnhilde releases another sigh.

"What I mean is, why aren't you asleep? You could've done this later today." In the last weeks, Aurora did nothing else but help to build up this town for the Asgardians. She worked on the electricity, showed them how to use the TV and WiFi and also how to figure out fishing. Aurora has been a great help to Valkyrie, but the warrior notices how something is wrong.

"Rocket and Nebula will be here sooner than expected, so I can finally go back to space. We want to look for some Ravagers. And I wanted to check on everything before I leave and I noticed how the mechanism was stuck." Aurora almost winces when Brunnhilde shoots her a knowing look, both know that this is not the entire truth.

"What's going on?" The Asgardian asks in a more demanding, yet still gentle tone and Aurora sighs, sitting on the edge of the ship. Valkyrie goes to sit next to her and Aurora turns off the music, staring at the song that is displayed on the screen.

"My brother loved this song." A sad smile graces her lips. "He got it from his mother. Coincidentally, I had this song, too, so it became our song. We used to dance and sing to it until everyone got annoyed. Groot even joined us this one time."

She pauses and her throat tightens when her eyes start burning. Val's eyes reflect deep sympathy for the auburn-haired girl. "I can't sleep anymore, Brunnhilde. Every time when I close my eyes, I'm on the Statesman again and everything's on fire. And although you said that it was just Loki's double on that ship, it doesn't change the fact that I saw how Thanos broke his neck and how blood ran down his nose, how I could hear this awful crack... When I held onto his dead body, all I could think of was that I couldn't leave him alone."

"You're suffering his lies. He put you through a lot of pain." Valkyrie mumbles, being at a loss for words. "Aren't you mad at him?"

"I am." She admits and glances down at the dark sea water. "He lied to me and broke my trust once again. And if he truly loved me, then he would trust me, right? But on the other hand, I understand why he hid the truth from me. I'm not a good liar and he had to hurt me on purpose, and this for several times, so we could both survive. In the end, it doesn't matter anymore because he died anyway."