The Girl In Battle (Carol x Valkyrie)

meeting new friends. don't have time for that. well, maybe. she's pretty.

Valkyrie was having a perfectly normal day, lounging around New Asgard's gardens, enjoying the time being alone, when somebody decided to be annoying and obnoxious and she was definitely not going to talk to-

To her surprise, it wasn't her loud friend. A smooth, velvety voice made her turn around. Thor's mischievous brother, Loki, with a few petals and branches sticking out of his black hair. He shrugged apologetically. "Sorry about that. Someone really needs to tame the plants here. They're too overgrown." He waved his hand to indicate the mess around them.

"Thor says he wants to tidy this place up so it'll look like a proper garden and that's over a month ago." Valkyrie crossed her arms. It's highly unusual for the God of Mischief to find her, least of all knowing she would be in this hell of a garden. Something was up. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, about that." Loki kicked a pebble and watched it bounce toward Valkyrie's boot. "Thor said to come fetch you. He wants to tell you something important."

"Important as in beating up that noobmaster someone in that stupid video game?" Valkyrie raised her eyebrows and suppressed a sigh. After all that had happened, Thor had been staying in the couch in his room for the duration of an entire day, except for some occasional trips to the bathroom or to get something to eat. Otherwise he would never get up from his place in front of the television, playing games with Korg and Meik and drinking his life away, all the while neglecting his duties as king. Normally, it was Valkyrie who took over his duties and sometimes Loki would help too. But she also couldn't blame him for acting the way he did because she was just the same as him before all this.

"He didn't tell me. He just said to come fetch you to his dirt hole. He said I'll find you here." Loki gave the wilted petals of a nearby rosebush a look. "Why would you want to be here anyway? This isn't even a garden, and is certainly not a good place to relax in."

Valkyrie pushed him aside. "Now go wash yourself up, Grease-face," she teased. "You look like you've been living here your whole life instead of the elegant, clean god you are."

Loki grumbled something behind her, but she just chuckled at his grouchy manner and went to find her friend.

-
"Brunnhilde!" Thor exclaimed, heaving himself off the couch. The glowing television screen was, for once, not displaying any video games, but something called a discovery channel which Thor had explained to her a while ago.

Valkyrie cringed when she entered the foul-smelling room and resisted the urge to pinch her nose. "Your Majesty, why did you summon me here?" She glanced around the room, bottles and piles of unwashed clothes scattered all over the floor. "Where are Korg and Meik?"

"Out somewhere, though I know not where." Thor clapped a hand on Valkyrie's shoulder. "There's a friend I'd like you to meet."

"Wait, Thor, with all due respect, is that the reason as to why you summon me here?" Valkyrie was miffed of course, but didn't voice her displeasure. Instead, she let out a grumble under her breath when Thor nodded.

"Oh, come on! You're gonna like her." Thor winked at her as he put his hands on her shoulders and steered her toward the direction of the door. "She's just outside."

Once outside, Valkyrie looked around in confusion. When she came to the entrance of Thor's house, she had looked around, a habit she normally did to check for any intruders. Though she knew there were no such people in Asgard, she was always on full alert. But she had seen no one. She turned around to look at the jolly king. "Thor, there's no one here."

Thor chuckled, and Valkyrie wondered whether he had finally lost his mind from all the alcohol, when something shiny came floating down in front of her from the sky. And then she wondered whether it was her who had finally lost her mind, because when the outline of a person appeared among the light, she was pretty sure there was no way a person could emit that much light. She jumped, unsheathing Dragonfang from her back and crouched in a battle stance.

To her surprise, the girl in front of her just smirked as the light slowly faded away from around her. She had hair as bright as the sun that came to just above her shoulders. "Hello."

Valkyrie looked at Thor warily. Thor looked relaxed and he was smiling, so she eased herself out of her stance, lowering her sword, but still keeping a tight grip on it just in case. She stepped closer to the glowing girl. Up close, she had stunning brown eyes and a little mole just below her left eye, above her cheekbone. Valkyrie blinked once, twice, and she wasn't sure what she was feeling. The girl was pretty, pretty in a way Valkyrie had never seen before. She turned around to face Thor. "So that's your new friend?"

"Yes." Thor had a sort of proud smile on his face. "Thought you'd like to meet her."

"I don't have time to meet new people," Valkyrie said. "I have my duties, and it doesn't involve pretty, sparkling girls with mysterious superpowers."

"Hmm. But it may now." The girl's voice made Valkyrie turn around. And again, she was stunned by the girl's beauty. "My name's Carol Danvers. Captain Marvel."

Valkyrie felt her previous annoyance smother a little. "I've heard of you before, Captain. My name's Brunnhilde, though most people call me Valkyrie." Horrible memories started poking at the edges of her mind, but she shoved them back.

"You women can go explore the place," Thor interjected from behind. He whistled a tune. "I'm going back in." With another smile, he disappeared into his house and the door closed.

"Thor told me you have a pegasus," Carol burst out as soon as they were left alone. Valkyrie startled at her sudden enthusiasm.

"Huh?"

"You have a pegasus, right?" Carol repeated. "Can you show me, please?"

Valkyrie tilted her head to the side. "You like pegasi? I thought you Midgardian people don't have winged horses. Or whatever you are."

"Yeah, but we have stories of them." Carol looked at the sky, as though expecting one to just appear out of the sky and land beside them. "And I've always loved the idea of having my own pegasus."

Valkyrie looked at the excited girl in front of her with a whole new perspective. She certainly felt more relaxed around Carol, and her love for pegasi cracked the ice around Valkyrie's heart. She motioned for Carol to follow her. "I have one. Follow me."

The afternoon continued with Valkyrie taking Carol to meet Aragon, and the blonde-haired girl had nearly exploded. Valkyrie had noticed Carol's sunshiny eyes were really endearing. They had taken Aragon for a few spins in the air and Valkyrie had led Carol to the garden, to which Carol had the same reaction as Loki, but they stayed there for hours, talking to each other and overall having fun. Valkyrie nearly forgot all her duties as a warrior while with Carol, and she had discovered both of them shared common personality traits. Carol was confident and headstrong and so was Valkyrie.

They even made fun of Loki's daily morning routine of stabbing his brother, which Valkyrie had told her about with great enthusiasm. Carol had laughed, and Valkyrie was pretty sure there was no other laugh better than the one she had heard, and so on. She had never had this much laughter expelled from her chest in forever, and it was a feeling she would cherish forever, she was sure.

And somewhere, in Valkyrie' s chest, her heart gave just a little jump.