Work Text:
1. Frigga
He couldn’t help but scream as the nightmare plagued his mind, he could see Loki he was hurt and bruised and somehow Thor just knew it was his fault.
It was silly really, he and Loki had only been play sparring with a few of the other Asgardian children but as usual Thor tended to hit a little harder than he realised. Loki had laughed it off and assured him that he was fine and honestly Thor knew this to be true but the thought of hurting his brother scared him. This thought followed him for the rest of the day into the night.
His eyes shot open as a he felt a hand run through his hair and the voice of a women soothing him. His throat felt dry from screaming, and tears fell in a cascade down his face. He sat up and flung himself into his mother’s arms.
“Shh,” she tried to calm him, “It was just a dream.”
“Loki-” he started.
“He’s fine, he’s asleep in his room.” She began to once again run her fingers through his hair in slow motions and Thor finally let himself relax into her arms. A few minutes of silence continued and he allowed himself to feel his mother’s comfort.
“I was scared,” he whispered.
“Everyone gets scared,” Frigga replied. “But it was only a dream.” As she sensed Thor about to work himself up again she began to make little braids in his hair, the soft touches calming him further.
“Do you want to know a secret?” She said with a small smile on her face.
Thor’s eyes shone with childlike curiosity, the memories of his nightmare replaced as he glanced at her waiting impatiently.
“Even Odin gets scared.”
A look of shock ran across Thor’s face, “grown-ups don’t get scared!”
She completed her small braids in his hair, “look at your hair, you’re a real Asgardian warrior now.” She said, “Maybe one day you’ll get Mjolnir even.”
To which he giggled, Mjolnir was only for the most worthy warriors.
2. Darcy
They were celebrating, they’d defeated the destroyer, and Darcy decided that the three of them; herself, Jane and Thor should get some drinks. They’d deserved it after all. However, after an hour in a bar she seemed to be the only one actually drunk.
Her fingers slowly edged towards Thor, obviously not as discreetly as she planned with Jane giving her an odd look. But Darcy continued until she reached up and twirled a finger in his hair. She couldn’t help it, his hair looked like the sun and she wanted to touch it.
Her fingers ended up doing a completely scruffy braid with Thor cringing slightly as she pulled his hair, but not saying anything to stop her.
“Darcy!” Jane exasperated as Darcy clumsily grabbed Jane’s hair and took the hair-tie out of Jane’s ponytail and used it to tie Thor’s. To this Thor let out a rumbling laugh which caused Darcy to giggle drunkenly along with him.
3. Tony
Tony had thrown a party for the avengers after they successfully stopped Loki and the Chitauri’s invasion, and Thor, unable to decline Tony’s invitation, reluctantly returned to Midgard after Loki was secure back on Asgard.
He was tired, unable to rest properly since the invasion, Asgard was in anarchy after a supposed loyal Asgardian had tried to destroy another planet and so Thor had been constantly working trying to rebuild the civilization, and therefore just wanted to sleep.
Most of the guests had left, but the avengers remained, Tony telling them all elaborate stories. However, there was only so many times that Thor could listen to how Tony saved the world and consequently his eyes were dropping slightly as he sank further back into the chair he was sitting in. This went unnoticed for a while and Thor was beginning to relax into sleep, until Tony turned his attention to him, followed by the eyes of the other Avengers. Thor assumed Tony wanted his input in a story so he just nodded slightly. However, the conversation didn’t continue they all just continued to look at him.
Tony chuckled and poked him in the arm. Thor’s eyes opened, he didn’t even realize he’d shut them again. “We can have a sleepover,” Tony said with just the right amount of sarcasm in his voice, “braid each other’s hair.”
Thor, too tired to read into the sarcasm, got up from his chair and positioned himself next to Tony on a couch, moving his hair behind his shoulder to give Tony easier access.
Thor didn’t even notice the weird looks from his fellow avengers, or Clint Barton repressing a laugh as he realized what was happening. After a few seconds of shock, Tony shrugged and began to braid Thor’s hair. Unlike, how Frigga used to do it, Tony did one large plait down his back. The feeling of childhood comfort allowed Thor to fully relax and somehow his head ended up on Tony’s shoulder.
4. Steve
When Thor came down for breakfast in the Avengers Tower with his hair braided messily, none of the other Avengers commented on the hairstyle which had obviously been slept in. However, Steve looked him over for signs of injury to see if he was okay.
It was common knowledge now to the Avengers that Thor used Braids as a form of comfort, reminding him of when he was a child on Asgard and his mother would braid his hair when he was upset.
Thor pulled out the hair-tie and ran his fingers through his hair harshly trying to unsuccessfully get out the knots which he had acquired during the night tossing from a bad dream. When Thor deemed his hair to be sufficiently knot-free he began to attempt to braid his own hair in a single braid down his back. However, as the braid began to get messier and random pieces of hair fell out, he threw his fist down on the kitchen counter.
“Want a hand?”
Thor turned and looked at Steve questioningly.
“Hey, I’ve braided Peggy’s hair before, I know what I’m doing.”
xxx
When Nick Fury walked into the Avengers Tower to debrief his team, he opened his mouth to ask about the situation in front of him, Captain America braiding the God of thunder’s hair in the middle of the kitchen. However, he closed it again and decided he’d leave this to Coulson.
5. Maria
“This my friend is called a mermaid braid.”
This was not how Maria Hill had envisioned the Avengers meeting going, but it was fairly quiet right now, no alien invasion currently, and so the weekly meeting had little importance. However, she didn’t fully understand how the meeting went from talking about training programmes to her sitting in a chair and Thor on the floor in front of her, demanding to know how she managed to get her hair in the complex looking braid.
“Lady Maria, there are no mermaids here, how…”
She tuned him out, instead focusing on splitting his hair in half and beginning to braid the two sides. Thor looked at his reflecting in the window and marveled at the braid. “I understand why SHIELD holds you so highly, this is a great skill, worthy of Asgard.”
Maria didn’t really know how to respond so she just smiled and said, “next time I’ll show you a French braid.” To which Thor’s eyes shone with excitement.
+1. Pepper
Pepper was crying. Laying on the couch sobbing. Tony had be compromised in their last mission and was currently in medical with the watchful eye of Doctor Banner and SHIELD’s best medical team, it was supposed to be a simple mission, a quick in and out. However, as usual it didn’t quite go to plan and resulted in the side of the building collapsing, burying Tony completely as he pushed Natasha out of the way. The suit protected him to an extent but that didn’t stop Pepper’s panicking and fear.
Natasha sat on the edge of the couch looking uncomfortable, not quite knowing how to comfort Pepper. As she saw Thor approach she quickly got up and walked away mumbling something about checking on Tony for Pepper.
Thor sat next to her trying to think how to how comfort her and assure her that Tony will be okay. However, his hands reached over to her hair, the only way he knew how to comfort and began to braid. A French braid like Maria had taught him ended weaving down into the little braids his mother would do when he was a child.
“My mother used to do this,” he began, not thinking about why he was talking. “It is a great honor on Asgard, for a true brave warrior.”
“I’m not brave-”
“Yes you are, Lady Pepper, even the bravest people get scared”.