Thor awakens to a headache.

With a groan, he rolls out of bed, then nearly stumbles as the blood readjusts itself, black spots clouding his vision.

He stood there for a good two minutes, feeling his tongue tingle in a not unpleasant way, but not exactly healthy.

He finally feels steady enough to not fall down the stairs, and he walks out of the bedroom and downstairs.

Sean is in the kitchen/dining room area, the wonderful smell of grease and bacon and butter filling the air.

“Hey Thor. You’re up early.”

Thor groans in response, plopping down on a wooden chair and letting his head fall to the table. The movement makes the pain in his head do… something. Moving but not.

Ow.

A plate is placed in front of him, and Thor feels sudden rejuvenation in the face of bacon.

“You alright?” Sean looks down on him curiously.

“Mm, my head hurts.” Thor chews on buttered toast with half of his usual eagerness in the face of Jack’s food. “I’m probably just dehydrated or something.”

Sean presses his hand to Thor’s forehead.

“Ooh, you’re kinda warm.” He frowns. “Maybe you have that bug going around. We should stay home today.”

“No–” Thor starts.

“I’m serious, you should stay at home, I’ll take a day off to–”

“Can we really afford a day off?” Thor mumbles. Sean sighs. “You don’t have to worry about the–”

“Stop treating me like a baby.”

“I’m not–”

“Yes, you are. I can help.”

“Oi.” Sean’s hand meets the table in not quite a slap, but a warning. “You’re 13. You don’t have to worry about the bullshit.”

“But–”

“You’re not winning this.” Sean grins. “I’m the adult here.”

Thor sighs. They’ve had this argument over and over and Thor never won, and this time Thor felt too weird to actually do anything about it. “Fine. But go to work.”

Sean opens his mouth but Thor cuts him off “I’m fine, it’s probably just a head cold, I’m 13, I know how to call 911 in the severely unlikely event that something happens, you have work. You missed two days, remember? I probably just had what you had.”

Sean’s jaw works before he finally says “ok. But call me if anything happens, ok?”

“Yeah yeah.”

“Seriously, I don’t trust emergency services not to be diverted elsewhere.”

“You work for emergency services.”

“Yeah, and that gives me firsthand experience. There’s not enough resources to go around and too many problems.”

Thor grabs a glass of orange juice and snorts into it. “That’s the Emergency fuckin’ Task Force for ya.” He slurps it up. “Can’t bear all those resources to go to places with us regular people around.”

“Thor?”

“Am I wrong?”

“They’re still dealing with fallout from the Sins.”

“Yeah, from like a century ago.” Thor snickers bitterly as memories from history class play out in his mind. Seven teenagers, that’s what they were, not monsters or anything, just kids who had been dealt a bad hand in life. Blood-splattered and staring into the camera. Some of those eyes were alight in glee at the carnage they had wrought, others looked dead, as if nothing could hurt them anymore, not even their own murderous tendencies. “They ended a war.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Because they were the common enemy.”

“Yeah, I passed history, I know.”

Thor leans back in his chair. “Whatever. I’ll call you if something goes wrong with emergency services.”

“Yeah ok.”

Sean rushes to the door, patting Thor absently on the head. He turns to a picture framed on the wall. “Bye mom, bye dad.” He says to their parents in the picture. “Bye Thor!”

“Bye!” Thor calls back, already grabbing his phone and scrolling through the internet.

----------------------------------------

Thor awakens for the second time that day on the couch. He doesn’t even remember falling asleep here.

He tries to sit up and gasps as the world spins. His eyes flit from wall to wall, trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

“Uh…” his mouth is dry. He should get water. Hydration is good, Jack always says. Always drink water when in doubt. Nurse’s orders.

He stands and immediately hugs the wall like a starfish as the room sways in the weirdest rhythm. It’s like… in time with his heartbeat.

It takes a whole five minutes to get from the living room to the kitchen sink, something that should really only take five seconds.

He fumbles with the cabinet, opens it, and squints at the cups inside. He has to be very careful. If he breaks another glass Jack was going to tear him a new asshole.

Slowly, slowly, he wraps his fingers around the glass, and hisses at the temperature. It’s so cold. Was it in the freezer or something? Or maybe Thor was just really hot. Oh, wow, yeah, he was really hot. He was burning alive.

Water is a really great idea.

He takes the cup and sways to the sink, gripping the faucet handle harder than necessary and turning it. Water poured out and he became distracted for a moment before realizing he had to put the cup under the water in order to get the water in the cup so he can drink the water from the cup.

He does just that. The cool water is such a relief to his burning skin when drops bounce out of the cup and onto it.

He removes the cup and puts it to his lips, sipping it. His tongue feels like cotton but he’s just realized that swallowing takes a whole lot of effort.

Bur Sean said he should drink water, and Sean was a nurse, so he should probably do what he said.

So Thor slowly drinks the water. Verrrrry slowly. It takes, like, ten minutes.

He sets the cup down, braces his hands on the edge of the sink, and lets his head hang. His head feels really heavy.

He lasts all of thirty seconds before he’s vomiting water and then bacon and eggs into the sink.

Ah, he thinks, maybe it’s time to call the hospital.

Oh fuck, but his phone is all the way back in the living room. Fuckity-fuck-fuck.

“Mmm no.” He says aloud. “I’m not doing that.”

Instead he plops to the floor, then lies down flat on his back.

The tile is so beautifully cold. It’s sooooo nice. His eyes roll back.

----------------------------------------

“...n, Thor, THOR, Jesus Christ THOR wake UP!” The third time Thor wakes up today is rather unpleasant. His brain is playing a heavy metal song in his cranium with speakers at max volume.

“..t’fuuuuu,” he says elegantly.

“Thor? Thor, are you awake?”

Oh, it was Sean. God, his brother was an asshole, couldn’t he see that Thor was taking a nap?

“Hi?” He mumbles.

“Thor, Jesus Christ, why didn’t you call me?”

“‘M mean, was tak’n nap.” He didn’t think his sleep habits were any of his brother's business.

“Yeah, on the fucking kitchen floor!”

Mmmm, that didn’t sound right. With great effort, he turned his head. Hey, what’d you know, he was on the kitchen floor.

“Hm,” he says. “That’s not right.”

“No.” Does Sean sound a touch hysterical? “No, it’s not.”

Sean reaches for him, probably to prop him up, and Thor hisses, pulling the taken arm away. “Hot. Too hot.”

“I’m too hot?” Sean’s hand hovers just above Thor’s forehead. “Holy fuck how are you still alive?”

Well that didn’t sound too good.

Sean sits back on his heels, pushing violently red hair back. “Ok. Ok. Jesus.” He stands up and Thor doesn’t bother to look, his head suddenly just way too full. He hears the rustle of cloth and the kitchen sink running.

“Come on.” There’s something cool against Thor’s skin and a soft sound leaves his mouth. His eyes crack open again. Jack has a cold, wet towel wrapped around Thor’s arm, so Jack can hold him up. “Come on, upstairs.”

“Hnnngh.” Thor allows himself to be dragged upstairs. At some point he tries to help his brother and attempts to walk normally, but his legs refuse to work properly.

Finally they make it upstairs to the bathroom. Sean topples Thor into the bath without giving Thor an accidental concussion, then starts the water.

It’s so pleasantly cold, but then Sean turns the heat dial and Thor grits his teeth. “No. This is fine. I’m fine.”

“You are so far from fine it should be illegal.”

“That doesn’t…” make any sense but now Thor was out of energy. His eyes roll again back as Sean yells at him to wake up.