Touchy Subjects

Tony came back upstairs, feeling like he should have been dipped in butter, after the vigorous way Thor and his mini-self had shucked the broken suit off of him. Like a crab, indeed. He saw Kagome waiting up for him, and worry instantly hit him. "Kagome, you should go to bed. It's late and you've been through so much today, you have to be exhausted-"

"Re-aaa-lly..." She drew out, one perfectly arched brow going up.

Thor hurriedly intervened before Tony really insulted his daughter, knowing this much about magicians' pride from his brother, "Tony, that's a grave insult to a powerful being. For one of Lady Kagome's might, a night such as this is less than a scuffle."

Mollified, the brow came down. "Tou-san, I do not tire because of my power, and there was hardly any physical exertion." She mumbled something about hellgates and zombies that only Thor caught.

Amazed, he pushed to hear more. "You fought in the Hell's Gate War? Heimdall enthralled Loki, my friends, and myself with that tale as he watched the battle unfold. An evil sword possessed a dead man and opened the gates of hell onto Earth; the only champions who dared it's might was a small group of young warriors. Father was on the verge of sending one of his elite to seal the breach, until Heimdall told him to trust in them."

"Heimdall watched us?" she questioned, turning red as she remembered how clumsy she'd been.

"I never connected Heimdall's stories to the bow's dreams... He used you all as examples that a good warrior never gives up. The Lady Sif became the warrior she is by living up to you and your female companion's deeds." He came to a terrible realization. "You were their heart, you died... more than once..."

She flushed an even more brilliant scarlet as multiple sets of eyes stared at her. "Eh? Not quite..." she laughed nervously, disliking the attention. "I had my soul stolen multiple times... I was always able to get it back, though."

"The golem maker and the girl who wasn't there tried to take your soul, but you also took a heart-shot to your back."

"You didn't tell me about that..." Tony's eyes got fierce while Pepper forgot about her earlier embarrassment and looked at Thor and Kagome horrified.

"What does he mean, heart-shot? You aren't telling me you were shot. Thor? Tell me it was just a figure of speech. Who would shoot someone like Kagome?"

"They weren't shooting at me... Kaguya reflected my arrow and I took it instead of letting it kill... someone I care for. I was fine-"

"Heimdall knows his anatomy, it pierced your heart," Thor insisted, not letting her hide away. Asgardians did not dismiss their deeds during wartime, they took pride in them, and he was determined to change her disregard for her actions. "Just where it was supposed to hit the one you protected."

She shrugged, "But the celestial robe prevented my death and healed me. I doubt I could have been really hurt anyways, since time stopped."

"Time stopped for everyone but you and those wearing your tokens." Another thought hit him, and he knew he'd have to keep an eye out for her, whether she appreciated it or not. "Kagome, you have walked outside of time, you've been imprisoned in a hell dimension, and later in the void." She shivered at that recollection. "Have you considered that you may yet live outside of time's reach?"

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This was a serious line in the original plot draft. However, I wound up with so many plotlines to tie up, I axed this one.