Hey. Before you go on to read this story, I just wanted to say a few things. First, this story is kind of an experiment from me for me: you see, I've never written a romance fic before, so this is a personal challenge that I hope to meet. Another challenge was: making a romance story with THANOS of all people, and make it convincing! Yup, Thanos.

Thanos is actually one of my favorite Marvel villains in the comics. Strong, hardcore, but also smart. I dislike how some recent comics have made him a generic baddie, when he used to be such a complex villain. So, I hope I do him justice!

My final challenge is that fic has my first ever large OC. I don't want to make her a Mary Sue, though. So, everyone who reads this; any review or criticism you have, I'll gladly accept! I really want to know if I'm doing well or not, so a review would be appreciated!

Thanks for your time, on to the story!

Lasers fired. Ships exploded or crashed. People were killed. Space was no longer a quiet emptiness.

Thanos sat on his captain's throne in the center of his ship. His calm demeanor didn't betray the fact that he had been in a space fight with the Nova Corps, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and a group of space pirates led by a blue alien for the last few hours.

None of his plans had worked, and all of his minions had failed, either dying or betraying him. Thanos was patient, but he had limits. He had finally decided on a final showdown with his enemies to gain the Infinity Gauntlet. Since the Kree were useless, he had teamed with the Skrulls [1]. It wasn't hard to convince the simpletons; they hated the Nova Corps as well.

Both sides had taken heavy damage and casualties, but Thanos knew he was losing this battle. Suddenly, on his chair, head leaning on a fist, he realized that he was growing weary; weary of this endless battle. Would losing be such an unwanted thing? If he were to die, he would join his beloved.

Through the monitors, he could see the Nova's mothership charging a suitably large cannon, one that was designed to fire particle beams, which destroyed on a molecular level.

Thanos grinned. Good, they were using the heavy artillery. Anything smaller might not end his life, and that wouldn't do. As the beam fired on his ship, and the Skrulls around him began to cry out, pray, or simply go numb in panic, Thanos slowly closed his eyes.

Soon, beloved. I will be by your side.

"Goodbye, teacher. See you tomorrow!" a chorus of young voices said brightly as they exited classroom 1-B. One kid even left an apple on the mahogany desk, next to the sign that read Layla Dunham. She smiled at the young boy who had left the red fruit. Ducking his head bashfully, the kid dashed out of the room to join his friends and enjoy the weekend.

And another school day was over for her, as was the week. She sighed. Layla loved her job, and she loved the children, honestly. But she had been a teacher at Crosswoods Academy for at least five years, and it was getting stale. As she put on her coat and walked out into the brisk air, she moved her brown bangs out of her eyes and checked her cell phone for any messages. The bright screen informed her that there were none.

Walking to her house, she tried to cheer herself up.

"Cheer up, Layla! You have two loving parents whom you visit every once in awhile, you've never had a kid who was a terror, you get paid fine, and you live in a house that, while not gorgeous, is far from a wreck." But she was bored and restless. Unfortunately, she lived in a small town where nothing happened. She had some nice neighbors, but most of them had left the previous weekend to attend the town's annual Fall Festival in the mountains near the town.

She went every year, and she had been invited this year, as usual. For the first time, however, she had passed, not being in the mood. She was beginning to regret that hasty decision now. With the sun setting, walking home alone with no neighbors nearby was almost creepy. Catching herself thinking dark thoughts, she laughed.

Yeah, right. As if a murderer would be in this sleepy town. I would almost welcome that, actually. Mentally, she slapped herself. With her luck, she would jinx herself. And it wasn't actually that dark, now that she thought about it. Actually, it was getting brighter.

Wait, what?

Looking up, she gasped as she saw what could only be described as a spaceship came crashing through the sky, landing not far from her house, in the middle of Main Street. She stood stunned for a few moments, before starting to run towards the ship. She didn't know what she would find, but whatever it was, she had a hunch it would not be boring.

There was an explosion, and a bright light. After that, there was pain, and darkness. A few moments later, another explosion. But a crash meant that he could feel. If he could feel, he was not dead. Thanos opened his eyes. He was still in the ship, which was now almost pitch black, except for the fires that had started. Thanos tried to get up, and winced. Raising his fingers to his forehead, he pulled them away after feeling something trickling down his face. Blood.

Thanos was not an emotional being. But realizing that he would not be joining his Lady Death made him want to roar, tear something apart violently, and kill millions to show his displeasure. But he would control himself, at least for the moment.

Slowly, painfully, Thanos crawled out of the wreckage. Cool air washed over the parts of his skin that was now uncovered by torn cloth. Hmm.

He looked around, getting a feel for his surroundings. He could see shrubbery, a road, and various living spaces. Houses, they were called. And then he realized that he was familiar with this planet.

"Earth," he growled out. A dirtball of a planet. He had once fought the Avengers here, and it was not a place he had ever intended to return to, or at least until he was in possession of the Gauntlet, so he could then destroy it.

His musings were interrupted when a feminine voice reached his ears.

"Hey, are you all right?" Layla called out to the large purple alien that had emerged from the flaming wreckage. She had been too scared to call out, until she noticed the wounds all over his body, bleeding purple blood. As she called out, he turned to face her. She put a hand in front of her mouth to stop herself from making a startled noise.

His eyes were black, with no pupils. But his mouth was what had scared her; it was in a grimace, and with his ridged chin and large figure, it made him very imposing. His helmet and battle armor, colored blue with gold edging, didn't help. Oh, she hoped he was a friendly alien.

She slowly approached him, hands in front of her in what she hoped was a universal sign for "I don't mean you harm", which was a laugh; she highly doubted she could harm him even if she wanted to.

"You're hurt. I can help; at least, I think I can help. If you let me, of course, I wouldn't force you." She realized that she was rambling, and she didn't even know if this purple alien spoke English! Still slowly walking towards him, she also realized he was bigger up close. He was at least three heads taller than her!

The small human female continued to edge towards him, her brown-hair moving about in the wind, prattling on about helping him. As if he wasn't upset enough, he apparently looked enough of a wreck that a human was taking pity on him. And yet, he was injured badly. While he did not mind being killed in combat, dying in this pitiful way would not be worthy of his Lady Death.

He would need a place to stay, and to build a new ship. He was tempted to kill the female standing in front of him, as thoughts of murder were never far from his mind, but she could prove beneficial. He would have to play it smart, but seeing as many humans were idiots, it would probably take little effort on his part to fool her.

Quickly scanning her mind, he was bemused to find that she wasn't sure if he spoke her native tongue.

I suppose she is in for a surprise, then.

"I speak your language, if that is a primary concern of yours. And in anticipation of future queries you might have, I am indeed an alien. I hail from a faraway planet, a planet of great beauty and prosperity. However, my planet was taken over by a savage race. I escaped in my ship, but they gave chase, and shot down my ship mercilessly, as you can see."

The female looked surprised, which gave Thanos a small sense of satisfaction. Perhaps it was a tad petty, but he enjoyed causing other beings to feel bewilderment in their lack of knowledge. The next part, however, might prove to be tricky.

"If I could bother you for a place to stay, I would be most appreciative. I would also need to build a ship, to return to my home planet." Thanos managed to keep a straight face while telling this ridiculous tale. Judging by the female's face, it seemed to be having the wanted effect, though.

"O-of course. My house is just down the street, you can stay there. But why would you need to build a ship? Why not just fix up the one you already have?" Getting over his surprise of how fast she accepted him into her household, Thanos realized her questions were well-founded. His ship no doubt still contained the bodies of the various Skrulls. If she were to see such a sight, he didn't know what would ensue.

It was best to tell a half truth, then.

"The enemy may have a trace on my ship. If I don't destroy it, I risk having the enemy follow me to this planet," Thanos explained, and it wasn't a lie; he knew that the Nova Corps could track his ship based off the unique Tesseract energy it ran on. He couldn't have them locate him in his weakened state.

The female looked at his ship, squinting a bit. Turning back to him, he braced himself for another question.

"Well, how do we destroy the ship? Most of the neighbors are gone, but if you blow it up, that would still bring a lot of attention." Thanos was pleased that he had an easy answer for this one. Reaching into one of the pockets on his suit, he pulled out the Tesseract, its pulsating light reflecting on his face. Holding it out towards the ship, Thanos smirked when he noticed the female gawking again.

Closing his eyes, Thanos concentrated his energy on the cube. He felt his power flowing into the cube, and as the cube began to glow brighter and brighter, the broken ship began to get sucked into a portal the Tesseract had produced. In a few moments, it was gone, completely silently. It was almost as if the wreckage had never existed. Putting the cube back in his pocket, Thanos turned back to the female, hands folded behind his back.

"Um, wow. I've never seen anything like that before," she breathed. Humans were easily impressed.

"Unless we have further business here, I suggest we head towards your living area," Thanos said, because standing here for the next ten minutes as she went into awe over every little thing would get tiresome. Jolting her head up as if she had forgotten, she nodded, and they began a brisk walk towards what Thanos easily assumed was her house. Decent-sized. It would do.

As they reached the front porch, the female gasped, and stopped. Thanos nearly banged into her.

"What?" he growled, almost forgetting to keep up his polite facade. The female grinned sheepishly.

"I am so sorry, but I never even asked your name. That was rude of me. My name is Layla Dunham." She seemed earnest, and Thanos saw no reason to not tell her. He would kill her after he was all healed anyway, and his name wasn't well known on this planet. He was also mad at himself, however, for not thinking to learn her name when he scanned her mind.

After she had given her name, Layla quickly held a hand out, and almost retracted it. What if his species didn't shake hands? She mentally breathed a sigh of relief when one of his large, gloved hands grabbed hers.

"Thanos," he replied. She could already tell he was one of those guys who wouldn't beat around the bush. Smiling at him, to put him at ease, she noticed his eyes weren't black anymore. They looked like normal, pupil-filled eyes.

"Do your eyes normally change like that?" she asked, hoping she wasn't crossing a line of privacy. He looked confused for a moment.

"Ah," he replied after a moment. "My eyes have been known to change, depending on the mood I am currently in. For obvious reasons, I myself wouldn't notice. Does that bother you?" He raised an eyebrow, or at least, the ridge above his eye where his eyebrow would have been. He didn't seem to have any hair on his head.

"No, not really," she lied. Layla still wasn't entirely sure how safe the alien – Thanos was, and she didn't want to offend. Turning to go back in the house, she felt him put a hand on her shoulder. Turning her head back questioningly, she saw him frowning.

"One last thing: don't tell anyone about me. You wouldn't want them to get involved, would you?" For the first time, Layla wondered if bringing this stranger into her house was a good idea. It would be a long night…

Author's Notes

1: The Skrulls are an alien race of shapeshifters, and are the Kree's mortal enemies.

Well, that's it for the first chapter, hopefully the first of many. One more thing I'm trying out with this fic, as you probably noticed, is adding little tidbits of info at the end of the chapter for fans only familiar with the film universe. Is that a good idea, or too distracting? Once again, thanks in advance for any feedback!