The Wheels On The Bus

(Happy Tuesday! I thought you might like a little flashy kind of treat, and it's been a while since we've seen Thor around these here parts--kind of. Really this is the result of my lack of focus today, but you know-- lemons into lemonade, and all that! I hope you enjoy it!)

We were on the bus.

Normally, I wouldn't have taken it, being that it travels through the less than savory part of town, and even with a Thunder God over my shoulder--maybe especially with a Thunder God over my shoulder-- I didn't care to take my chances. Finding out what Thor would do to a mugger wasn't on my top ten list of things to discover before I died, after all.

Anyway, we were on the bus.

I took the window seat, as always, and Thor dropped into the seat beside me with ill-grace, casting a dark glance at the other riders.

It isn't as though they're zombies," I murmured under my breath.

Thor snorted. "You don't have any idea."

"They aren't shambling, or drooling, or covered in glitter."

He raised both eyebrows, and his eyes slid over my shoulder. In spite of myself, I looked back.

"That doesn't count," I said immediately. "Girls her age are ALWAYS covered in glitter."

His lips twitched, and the sun beamed through the window. I sighed, turning my face toward it and soaking it up. He couldn't be that irritable if the sun was shining, so I relaxed and leaned back in my seat.

"It isn't just the zombies I worry about, you know." He kept his voice so low I could barely hear it over the rumble of the engine and the road noise. "It's winter, now."

"So?" I asked.

"Frost Giants," he murmured, and the sun disappeared again.

"Not on the bus!" I glared at him and pulled my hood up to protect myself from the temperature drop. Thunder gods, in my experience, didn't feel cold, but I was frequently freezing thanks to his cloud cover. 

He said nothing, but his mouth pressed into a thin line, and he stared pointedly at the back of a man's head, in front of us. Sure, the guy was tall, and his head was pretty lumpy, but that didn't mean he was a frost giant. He could just be having a bad hair day. Or. That disease where the skin turns into hard scaly masses...

Right. So that was probably unlikely.

"You can't be serious," I hissed.

His fingers wrapped around the grip of the hammer on his hip and his eyes blazed white. Thunder rumbled outside, in spite of the snow. I swore.

"Do not. Even. Think about it."

 Lightning flashed outside the window, any hope of sunlight long gone.

We were ON a bus. There were bystanders. And the last thing I needed was to have my buspass revoked because I brought an unruly passenger on board. People could be arrested for that kind of thing these days!

"Thor, I am begging you."

The lumpy-headed man's head jerked, and a cauliflower ear turned in our direction.

I swallowed. So maybe announcing the presence of the Thunder God on the bus next to me right behind his natural enemy wasn't exactly the wisest course. The tension in Thor's shoulders told me I only had a matter of seconds.

I jerked on the yellow stop-cord and the bus braked, nearly throwing me off balance as I rose from my seat and grabbed Thor by the arm. I tugged him with me.

"Our stop," I said.

It was a good thing he let me shove him down the aisle. Thunder Gods are like mountains when they don't want to be moved. The back doors on the bus hissed open and I pulled him after me down the three steps. The lumpy-headed man-- or Frost Giant, I suppose, stared at us through the window with yellow eyes.

"See?" Thor said, glaring at the creature.

I sighed, looking for the street signs.

"Well I hope you're happy," I said when I finally found them. "Now we're stuck in Zombie land."

The glitter was everywhere.