Poppies

Emma was just settling down for some personal fun with Bucky when there was a tap on the door. She burrowed her face in his neck.

"Emma, dear, please stop what you're doing and come out. There has been an interesting development. You too, Buchanan, this involves you as well. Meet me in the great hall and we will discuss this."

Emma sighed and looked around for her shift, absently handing Bucky his shirt. "Cockblocked by a goddess," she muttered. "I like Frigga a lot, but her timing is terrible." She heard faint silvery laughter and shook her head, reluctantly sliding off Bucky's lap.

Steve was waiting for them at the door and smiled wryly at them before giving Emma a light kiss. "Do you know what this is all about?" he asked, and the other two shook their heads. They went in together and Frigga's attendants brought chairs for them.

"Odin has made an interesting acquisition," she said, leaning forward. "He did not allow me to plead my case, for this man did not fall in battle, but passed into our realms gently." She frowned. "Odin is unrepentant," a slight snap to the words "for as he said, I am entitled to half of the warriors fallen in battle." She put an emphasis on the final three words. "So although this man was been a notable warrior, I was not allowed to offer for him. We will be meeting Valhalla in the battlefield soon, and I wish to soundly trounce my husband's army. I will take you to Valhalla to meet their new artificer, and I want you to look around during your visit, see what is being built and then return and turn your thoughts to defeating new creations. Now come, we are expected." She stood and the others dutifully followed.

They stood before the great hall in Valhalla, and Odin strode jauntily down the stairs, trailed by a smaller man. "Frigga, my dear," he said fondly. She received his kiss, and gestured behind her. Odin brightened and acknowledged the men before smiling at Emma. "My newest hero," he said complacently, and gestured to the man behind him.

"Hey, Tony," Emma said, unwilling affection in her voice. Tony smirked at them. He looked younger, as did they all, in his prime, energy fairly sparking off him. Steve repressed a sigh. Tony was a handful. Bucky nodded cautiously.

"Group hug," he demanded, extending his arms, and they came together for a brief moment.

"So how'd you die?" Bucky asked as Emma demanded news of mutual friends and acquaintances. Odin conjured a firepit and benches around it to combat the foggy twilight, shepherding the group over.

"Nice to see you too hobo," Tony snarked at Bucky. "I'd have thought you'd have at least cut your hair in the afterlife." Bucky's hair had reverted to the long style he'd worn toward the end of his career as HYDRA's asset.

Bucky smiled sunnily. "Emma likes it this way. She likes to run her fingers through it." Tony rolled his eyes and turned to Emma.

"Pete's fine, although he's privately having fits about May taking over for me, but MJ's keeping him in line. He's too busy running Stark Industries to have much time to fret. May's doing a good job of it, too. When she took command of the team, she started wearing a suit and now she's known as Iron Paladin." Emma nodded, impressed. "They're gearing up for the next Skrull-Kree battle. The last interrogation of a Kree I read said that now they're coming, not because they think they can really take the planet or keep it if they did, but because nobody wants to lose face in front of the galaxy by being defeated by one fractious little planet."

"Fuckers," Bucky muttered, and there were general nods of agreement.

"So what happened to you?" Steve said.

"Frustration," he said, and Emma snorted a laugh. "Not like that," Tony was quick to clarify. "I sort of had an apoplexy when I read the transcript of the interrogation. It's just so frustrating, you know? They won't ever quit, and each time they come back with improved weapons, and we have improved ours too. There's got to be a limit to how many times we can rebuild Manhattan." His face sagged. Emma reached over and squeezed his hand. They spoke of others and the state of the Avengers as Tony had last known it--time moved differently in the afterlife and none of them were sure what the exchange rate was or if it was even constant.

"So what are you working on these days?" Tony asked Emma during a lull in the conversation.

"Don't laugh," Emma warned him, a grin on her face. "Gardens. We're putting in gardens like the ones at Versailles or old manors and castles. I'm trying to figure out this epic fountain." Tony laughed.

"Well, what are you doing that's so much better?" she challenged him.

"Oh, the load in a trebuc-- well, I'm just getting started, really," Tony said quickly, his eyes cutting to Odin and back.

"Fine, don't tell me," Emma said dismissively. "It must be something embarrassing if you don't want to admit it."

"Ha! I've got swarms of little automatons and I thought about using bioenergy collectors to power weapons, but apparently we don't generate electricity like that here, so there's another challenge, and I'm improving siege weapons," Tony said quickly. Then he looked at Odin, who had facepalmed. "So...uh...fountains, you said?"

"Yeah...a flowering tree," Emma said politely. "Water jets out from each flower. The water pressure is a problem." Tony mentioned a few possible solutions off the top of his head, and conversation briefly stagnated.

"Father!" a deep voice bellowed, and Odin stood, turning toward the source. Everybody smiled as Thor and Loki strode into the circle. They looked around the fire and smiled. "My friends!" Thor said exuberantly, and did the manly handgrip-hug thing with each of the men before giving Emma a hug.

"Hi, Thor!" she gurgled, and the king released her, beaming, greeting his parents before returning to speak with Stark. Loki greeted Tony and Steve, spoke with Bucky at greater length, and sighed as he hugged Emma gently.

"My favorite aunt," he said with great affection. "It has been far too long since I have seen you. All of you, actually, except Stark, of course. How do you fare here?"

"Oh, Steve and Bucky and I are just visiting. Frigga brought us over to see Tony," Emma said. Loki looked at his father, who was looking at the sky, although the stars could not be seen due to the fog.

"That is interesting," Loki said mildly. "I understood you to be in Valhalla."

"Well, Odin offered Steve a place, but Frigga counter offered, and there was some compromises made, and Steve took up Frigga's offer, so of course Bucky and I did as well," Emma said, studiously ignoring Odin. Frigga covered her smile with her hand, and Thor merely shook his head.

"You should visit," Steve said enthusiastically. "I've got an obstacle course, so it's just like old times." Emma covered her face.

"Does Valhalla have an obstacle course, Tony?" she asked, and laughing, he said no. "I might have reconsidered if I'd known that my eternity included the obstacle course." Odin brightened, but Frigga put her hand on his arm and he subsided. Loki laughed.

"Come, I must return to my domain," Frigga said placidly, and they all rose. Odin kissed his wife goodbye, and the others made their farewells.

"It was so good to see you again," Emma said, squeezing Loki in a hug.

"Now that I know where to find you, perhaps I can visit more frequently," he said before releasing her.

"See you around, Tony," Steve said, slapping him on the back heartily. Stark staggered a step, then smirked at him.

Frigga waved them toward their home as they reappeared in Folkvangr. Emma walked between the two men. "I'm still kind of surprised that Tony didn't petition to change afterlifes after finding out where we are," she said as they reached the house. It was pentagon shaped; each of them had a bedroom, there was additionally a sumptuous bathroom and cozy main room, all arranged around an open outdoor area that had a tree, small gardens with roses, lavender, and pansies, and lounging furniture.

"I heard Stark telling Thor that he didn't want to spend eternity watching the three of us together," Bucky volunteered.

"I thought he got over his crush on me," she said, surprised, and the men made her laugh with a synchronized eye roll.

"Sweetheart, it wasn't ever just a crush," was all Steve said, and he slapped Bucky's arm as he went to his bedroom. Bucky escorted Emma to his room, which she'd helped him make cozy and welcoming, and they picked up where they'd been interrupted by Frigga.

*****

"That went well," Emma said brightly as she leaned on her poleaxe and surveyed the smoking destruction of the battlefield.

Steve laughed and kissed her passionately. Battle wasn't nearly as bad when nobody stayed dead, and he enjoyed the surge of endorphins after the exercise. And she'd be with him tonight. It was shaping up to be a pretty darned good day.

"Nice use of the tree fountains to blast away those freaky little robot dolls," Bucky said, coming up and kissing her cheek before hugging his friend. "Stark never saw that coming."

"I think he called them action figures," she said absently. "His suggestions for improving the water pressure for the fountains were a big help, he didn't know that the trees were articulated so that they move in the wind just like real trees. Or can be made to direct the jets of water to specific places. I wasn't sure what he was doing to the loads he was using in the trebuchets, but we were able to weaken the siege engines before they could do much damage. The use of thorn plants as the hedges is a really good, no-tech trick, I thought. But now they know our secrets, and Tony will get trickier for the next battle."

"Which will be at Valhalla," Steve said, nodding. "He's going to be embarrassed by his loss today."

"Well, we can hold off on planning for one night," Bucky said. "We waxed his ass today. Tomorrow we can all start plotting again."

"I wonder if we should talk to the commanders about setting sentries tonight. And by we, I mean you or Bucky, you're getting included in the highest rankings of the warriors these days. Odin's going to be pissed, so is Tony," Emma said thoughtfully.

"Wouldn't hurt," Steve agreed practically, and went to speak with Frigga and her chief advisors, patting Emma on the butt affectionately.

That night during the celebratory feast, the sentries repulsed a raiding party. With prejudice. The cheers from Sessrumnir might have echoed all the way back to Valhalla.