I got my first two reviews all at once, so I got the happies and went and wrote this chapter. It references newer norse mythology and the marvel short the Consultant, but you don't need to know anything about either of them to enjoy the jokes. I'll explain the mythology one at the bottom just 'cause I love it.

The hall was huge, seriously huge. Not that anyone was surprised by this, but it was still a little overwhelming. There were four long tables arranged in a rectangle around an actual, gigantic fireplace. The tables were covered in all kinds of food and drink, recognizable and not so much, and the benches around them were packed with all manners of people. The entire left wall was open to a balcony. It was void of people at the moment, but crammed with benches and chairs overlooking what could only be some kind of huge arena. At the end of the tables sat the king and queen themselves, glasses raised in a greeting for the latest visitors. If they said a word or two to go with the movement though, it was lost in the cheering of a thousand voices as no one lost a second in beginning the feast.

Sif pulled Natasha with her so that she could sit with her and her friends. The two women had bonded quickly, Sif enjoying speaking with another warrior woman and Natasha apparently being reassured by the shield-maiden's honest and straight-forward personality. Clint followed them while keeping half an eye on Fury making his way up to greet the Allfather properly.

Situated at the table it soon became apparent that at least one of the warriors three had already helped himself to the ale, for he soon spoke more freely than was proper, so early in the evening.

"You Midgardians are certainly fearsome warriors. Bested Loki in battle, last I heard!"

Clint let out an uncomfortable little sound as he turned towards the large man. Natasha put her hand lightly on his arm, but did not have the time to say anything before the man droned on.

"It was really such a shame what happened to him. I never cared much for him myself, but he was a lot of fun at these kinds of gatherings. He played the best tricks, but Thor must have told you this already."

Clint calmed down a little, it was obvious the man meant no harm. "No, not really. Got any examples?" Let no one ever say that Clint Barton did not have an ear for tricks.

"Oh, well, there was that time with Thrym, um…" Anyone within earshot suddenly looked up with a mixture of horror and amusement. "It is a long story, but the short version is that Loki tricked Thor into dressing up in one of Freyja's…" but whatever it was he was going to say, it disappeared as he was hit in the face with a half-full chalice of mead. A second later, Thor was upon him. The ensuing brawl ensured that the ending of that particular story was not passed on that day, but the few words that had been said were enough to reduce Clint to a helpless fit of laughter for minutes.

Bruce and Betty had seated themselves with Tony and Pepper, side by side once more.

"What now? Fighting already?" came an exasperated sigh from Pepper at the sight of the wrestling Asgardians. She did let out a little chuckle, though, when she saw Jane standing by, very visibly internally facepalming.

"I don't know what they're fighting over," said Bruce, a smile on his face, "but it's apparently turned Barton into some kind of hyena by the sound of it."

"Or a donkey," Tony shot in, "or possibly one of those birds, what were they called again?"

"A kookaburra?" offered Betty.

"Yeah, one of those. That's exactly what I meant."

Letting Clint's Australian-bird sounds wash over them through the chattering hall, the four of them went back to eating in silence before Betty spoke up again. "You know, 'till now this has been… surprisingly easy."

"What," Tony answered immediately "taking a trip through space for a party with aliens? Yeah, surprisingly problem-free."

"Mhm, you know, no feeling like we maybe shouldn't be here, no food you're unsure of is fit for humans to eat or not, as far as I can see, no weird customs we've broken or ignored to piss people off for no apparent reason and, best of all, no way for my dad to find his way here to remove me from improper company." there had been a few incidents with a certain General Ross since Betty had become a friend, "What was it you did to make him hate you so much again? Demolished his favourite bar?"

"Oh, yeah, I did that. Wow, that was a long time ago, back when… when Natasha was still Natalie." Pepper noticed the emission. Natalie Rushman turning out to be not Natalie Rushman was far from the most important thing to have happened back then. Betty did not notice.

"You have got to tell me that story."

And Tony happily did, going into details as to how he pissed off the man to the absolute best of his ability, until somebody noticed that Steve had gotten his hands on a concoction that, while still incapable of getting him completely drunk, affected him. The sight of him adapting to this new state of mind was, frankly, hilarious.

So, Trymskvida is basically a story where the jotun Trym steals Tor's hammer intending to give it as a bride-gift if anyone could get him the beautiful goddes Frøya as a wife (I use the Norwegian spelling here because this is definitely not MCU canon) Frøya answers the whole thing with a resounding "hell no" but agrees to lend Tor her dress and priceless jewelry, because Mjølner is one of Åsgard's greatest treasures after all. So Loke makes himself into a woman, they dress up Tor as Frøya, he makes an ass of himself at the wedding and then kills everyone attending the second he gets his hands on the hammer. Of course it wouldn't have happened exactly the same way with Marvel, but I like to think something similar happened once and that Thor would rather everyone forget it.