before the strike
It starts when the air begins to thicken. Staggering, dragging himself up the hill, limping along through the downtrodden leaves, Steve reaches Thor and... he's alone. An axe dripping purples and blacks like slime in his hands, as he shakes, he stands alone atop the hill and his knees threaten to give way. His expression is unwaveringly blank as he stares around.
Steve speaks, his breath heavier and he has to swallow down the back of his throat to form his words, and he repeats himself twice and he still gets no reply. And as his eyes trace the torn, purple streak across one of Thor's eyes, and his sweat drenched forehead and his hair dipped in blood-
His attention falls to the dust swirling through the air and he grabs at it. He can't catch it.
Thor stays still and does not say a word. Steve casts another glance over at him and he still refuses eye contact, chest heaving as he props himself up with the axe under his elbow.
And then they can't find Wanda or Sam or T'Challa on the battlefield, and the soldiers are split in half but there is not a corpse in sight. But one does roll over in its monochrome style, lifelessly going limp at his feet as he turns it over. And then Natasha hobbles over with Okoye, leaning on each other for support and clutching their sides, pressing their weight the best they can onto their wounds. Rhodes sweeps through the reeds, looking up helplessly, mouthing something along the lines of 'I can't find Sam.'
Thor collapses finally, and the raccoon sits with a small tree branch in hand beside him, sobbing quietly to himself as he clutches it to his chest. Steve figures what that must be pretty quickly, but he daren't speak on it. Bruce peeks out of the top of the Hulkbuster armour, struggling against the strong iron and staring at Thor sat shaking on the ground, frowning at the sight. He wants to help but he just can't.
———
It continues on the ship.
Thor is the last one to walk onto the ship, and he sits right at the edge and stares out of the window, hiding his hands by crossing his arms closely against his chest, tapping his leg anxiously against the floor of the ship but otherwise the god stays silent. Everybody is shushed into silent damnation by their grief at the beginning, but as the situation sets in properly they begin to talk amongst themselves worriedly, croaked whispers and anxious ramblings.
Rocket is angry, and he makes that apparent in his desperate sobs between yells, pleading furiously to know what exactly just happened.
Rhodey is trying to keep himself together, he's taking initiative and it seems to be helping him but his head pounds and aches and his hands are shaking under the suit.
Steve and Natasha are almost attached to eachother, staying close as they drag Vision's empty husk aboard the ship and as they sit down in the seats at the front of the ship.
Okoye reluctantly boards the ship too, though she insists she is not intending to leave Wakanda, just to help them get themselves out of the country and then she will return to help her city. Her home.
Bruce looks lost. His eyes continuously drift over to Thor, but then back to the floor to stare at his feet, nervously shifting around.
Vision is still.
The thick air still follows them onto the ship.
Has it really been so long since they cleaned up in here? Or is that not dust
———
Helpless- Steve has never looked at somebody so in need but felt so unable to even reach out, so useless. Both he and Natasha, and probably Rhodey, have all tried talking to him, but to no avail. They've only been back a couple hours but he has a feeling this isn't going to be a short lived silence.
He can almost see Thor's mind racing behind his empty stare, he can see the flashing and the colours swirling endlessly through his brain, constantly trying to process and process... and process. The god writhes in pain suddenly and shudders. The wind sweeps past in a gust.
Steve bites his lip and turns away, trying to refocus his attention on the screen.
But Bruce gets up. He stumbles up and shakes himself off, taking a deep breath and offering Steve an anxious smile, and he heads over to where Thor has been sitting unmoving for the past couple hours. Resting a hand on his tense shoulder, Bruce smiles weakly and...
"Hey."
Steve watches with baited breath, and beside him Natasha does too. As much as they wouldn't say it aloud, they both know deep down that they fear Thor could just... explode. Steve surely feels guilt for it, for this distrust and wariness, because he doesn't like to see power that way: but something is undeniably unnerving about such an unwavering force of nature losing a battle and falling completely silent.
Thunder is the noise that follows lightning.
And lightning strikes.
Thor looks up. His eyes sharpen and focus and he looks up for the first time and he sees Bruce and his shoulders relax and his balled up fists unclench, and everybody freezes, including Bruce. And they wait for the thunder.
"Hello." He whispers.
And that's almost all he needs to say, because the storm settles and it swirls near the ground, and the lightning strikes only once and the thunder does not follow a blank sky.
Bruce hadn't thought this far ahead, and he has to stop himself from cursing himself out for being so stupid, reminding himself that it's a miracle he even got a response, and that Thor isn't a wild animal, a creature, a monster. He's got a heart, a brain and a soul, like everybody else does. He takes a deep breath and reaches for Thor's hand.
"Come on," he says softly, "you haven't let anybody look at your wounds. Come with me, I'll fix those up for you."
And he sees the hesitation in Thor's face, the reluctancy and the flash of fear, and he patiently waits, because he doesn't want to force anything. Eventually, Bruce feels a gentle tug on his hand as Thor gets up off the bench, still holding onto the hand offered to him. He smiles.
He knows it's going to be okay eventually.