Glee/Thor - meeting the family, mostly gen, PG
Title: I was thinking of a son
Fandom: Glee/Thor movieverse(Norse mythology)
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Anne Sexton
Warnings: AU for Glee, Avengers movieverse, and Norse mythology
Pairings: none
Rating: PGish
Wordcount: 1385
Point of view: third
Note: I mess around with the ages of Loki’s children. This ‘verse, Jörmungandr is the oldest, then Hel, Fenrir, Váli&Nari, and finally Sleipnir. Deal with it.
More notes: in this 'verse
Kurt Hummel had never in his life wanted a dog. They were loud and messy, and whatever comfort could be derived from cuddling a dog would pale in comparison to the mud tracked into the house.
After Mama’s death, Kurt started dreaming of a wolf. He knew it was a wolf and not a dog, but it stretched out next to him and nuzzled into his hesitant petting. Kurt had no idea how to touch a dog. Snakes he could pick up, no problem, but the furred creatures he’d avoided, and this wolf was bigger than Daddy’s truck. (That’s how Kurt knew it was a dream.)
The wolf lay beside him and said his name was Fenrir and spoke about Mama, though he called her Papa. At first Kurt had been confused, but after Fenrir explained about slipping and sliding skins (like a snake!), Kurt understood. He thought it’d be marvelous to shift his little boy shape into something different, something big and strong and beautiful. Something that could’ve kept Mama with him and Daddy.
After months of dreaming, Fenrir crouched before him and said, Climb on my back, little brother. The rest of our brood want to meet you.
.
Kurt dreamed of different adventures every night for a month.
He and Fenrir went first to a great plain full of horses and Fenrir howled until a magical horse thundered up to them, eight-legged and powerful, the King of Horses. He was Sleipnir, Mama’s youngest until Kurt. He was the only other one Mama had carried.
Fenrir took Kurt to the shore, where the ocean roared and the waves crashed, and Fenrir howled again, until a giant snake lifted his head out of the water, and he was Jörmungandr, the World Serpent, the oldest of Mama’s children.
They went to a tall apartment building and Fenrir shrank himself to the size of a large dog. Kurt pushed the button for the top floor and as they rode up, Kurt asked Fenrir rapid-fire questions, since the others lived in the wild. But it looked like New York outside, a place Kurt had wanted to visit for as long as he could remember. The Newsies sang there. (Kurt really liked Jack.)
Two men stood in the hall when the elevator opened. One had dark hair and blue eyes, the other blond and green, and they were both grinning.
“He’s delectable, Fenrir,” the brunet said.
“And so small!” the blond added.
Kurt glared up at them. “I’m eight!”
Both men and Fenrir laughed. “Well, c’mon, little man,” the blond said, holding out a hand. “I’m Nari, he’s Váli. We’ve got movies and cake waiting in the apartment.”
Daddy had warned Kurt about strangers, but Fenrir was with him (Fenrir had brought him), and if these two were in the adventure, then they were Mama’s kids, too.
Nari and Váli were funny and nice, and they taught Kurt how to fight with his fists, and the rest of his body. Like someone from those silly old kungfu movies Daddy watched. Fenrir had taught Kurt to go straight for the throat, to put someone down so hard they wouldn’t get back up. Sleipnir had taught Kurt to run faster than the wind, and Jörmungandr to breathe underwater and swim faster than lightning.
Kurt was still too little to really use their lessons, though. And when he asked for something really dangerous, Nari said, “Dad will teach you knives later.” He grinned. “Dad really likes teaching people how to use knives.”
Váli nodded. “It’s our favorite weapon, but Dad - ooh, he’s somethin’ else when he’s usin’ a blade.”
Fenrir gave a small growl and Váli held up his hand. “Hey, brother, I’m just tellin’ the truth.”
Nari smacked his twin upside the head. Kurt giggled.
“Fine, whatever,” Váli said, rolling his eyes. “Guess I shouldn’t mention that we’re assassins, either?”
Kurt looked at Fenrir. “What’s a assin?”
Fenrir growled again. Nari hissed, “Váli!”
Váli laughed.
.
When Kurt woke up, he told Daddy that he really wanted to go to New York.
“One day, kiddo,” Daddy promised.
.
The last adventure Fenrir took Kurt on was to a land of ice and darkness. Ghosts followed them but, bent low over Fenrir’s back, Kurt wasn’t afraid. He thought the landscape beautiful, and he told Fenrir so.
“He’s lovely, brother,” a voice whispered on the wind.
Kurt quieted, looking around, and stilled when he saw her, his only sister.
“I am Hel,” she said gently, voice like teardrops and starlight. “I am the Lady of the Dead and this is my realm, where all those who die spend eternity.”
“You’re wearing a mask,” Kurt said after a moment. She looked like Mama, but it was fake, and Kurt wasn’t sure how he knew that, or why he blurted it out so rudely.
But Hel laughed. It sounded sad. “I did not want to frighten you, Kurt. Most people find my true face - unappealing.”
Kurt slipped down Fenrir’s side and took a few steps toward her. “Show me, please, Lady. You can’t be scarier than Daddy after I redecorated the den.”
She laughed again, this time sounding like Mama, sounding happy, like the way laughter should. “What did you do to the den?”
Kurt smiled. “I painted the couch.”
Fenrir laughed, too, and Hel - changed. Kurt studied her for a long moment, tilting his head, before he realized what was different: half her face was dead.
She waited patiently for Kurt’s reaction, and he glanced back at Fenrir for direction, but Fenrir just sat there.
“Can you show me how to hide myself?” he asked. “It seems like a good trick.”
Hel stared at him, then she smiled and nodded. “I’m sure our brothers taught you useful things, Kurt, but I can show you magic.”
Kurt bounced in place. The kungfu was fun, the swimming was awesome, and the running was alright, but magic - magic was in another league entirely. When Hel slowly held out her hand, Kurt didn’t hesitate to take it.
.
As the years passed and Kurt grew, his dream-adventures with Fenrir dwindled. A part of him thought he’d gone crazy, but he researched the names he knew: Fenrir, Sleipnir, Jörmungandr, Váli, Nari, Hel - and Loki. Gods and the children of gods. Monsters and the Mother of Monsters.
But eventually, Kurt decided to believe, and so he embraced it. He started practicing what they had taught him in his spare time (which he had a great deal of), and when he was fifteen, Mama stepped into a dream and said, “It’s time, love.”
Mama taught him to throw knives, and how to slice neatly and quickly, and how to gut a man if needed. She refined his siblings’ lessons and promised to never vanish again. She praised Kurt’s iron control of his temper and abilities, since all his schools still stood and none of the kids had died yet.
Then she asked, “Would you like to meet your brothers and sister in the waking world?”
Kurt nodded, eyes wide and mouth open in excitement. Mama smiled and took his hand and they were somewhere else.
.
After Blaine learned the truth, he asked, “How many of the myths are real?”
Kurt shrugged. “The important ones.”
.
(One of Fury’s minions - very high up on the chain of command - suggested taking Kurt into ‘protective custody’ once his relationship to Loki was revealed. Kurt, he said, was the only one of Loki’s known kids they might be able to control.
Later that same day, the man’s head was found in Fury’s office, the rest of his body scattered throughout the building in obvious, highly visual places. However, like the attempted kidnappers who originally brought Kurt to SHIELD’s attention, parts of him were never found.
The warning was clear, as were the consequences.
Thor, along with researchers and mythology experts, explained about the forces Loki could bring to bear on anyone who tried to interfere with his youngest child. He left some things out, of course. And a couple things, the humans refused to believe.
But there is a Lady of the Dead. And the World Serpent.
And Kurt is happy in Ohio, pretending to be a normal teenager, with his normal teenager boyfriend (who will be immortal until Kurt no longer loves him).
A Great Wolf shadows his steps.)