A/N: The crossover thread of the forum I'm constantly talking about (regarding Shikako from Dreaming of Sunshine, owned by Silver Queen) has been talking about Thor!Shikako and I wrote a thing.

"Awaken, daughter. Come see the sunset with me," she hears the words as a whisper, gentle and warm and an offering she cannot refuse. She has not seen the sunset in so long, not since he last asked it of her. It feels like an eternity, like time standing still.

She thinks she must be wrong.

Still, she awakens, blinking slowly up at the man who holds out his right hand. It draws her attention to the left, to the gauntlet that shines in so many colors.

The colors whispers to her so low that she does not hear what they utter.

Shikako takes his hand and lets him lead her outside, to a battlefield with a winner already declared. She can't help but look when they pass a woman with such dark, dark hair.

It reminds her of her brothers. Brother. She hopes he is well.

"My brother...?"

"Awaits us at Titan," Thanos promises, but does not offer her assurances of his well being. It matters not, she chooses to have faith in Loki. He will have survived.

Sitting with him, she turns her gaze towards the sun setting, the red blending well in and hiding the unwanted from her sight.

"You have brought balance here?"

"I have."

They will leave soon, then. Good, Loki is waiting for her.

"Would you like to see them again?"

"No," she denies his offer like she always does. Leading Thanos to Asgard would bring them ruin. Leading Thanos to Asgard would prove to him that she still cares. He will think she wishes for them to survive, for the world to thrive in balance.

He would be right, but balance is more than he thinks it is. It holds itself, and if it tips to one side... It will eventually tip back. There's no need to force it.

Everybody dies in the end.

Even her, as wrong as she is these days.

"Does it hurt?" he strokes her cheek with a finger, gentle as always until he decides otherwise.

"It aches," she tells him, for it is what he wants to hear.

"You will get used to it," it's a promise she hopes will not hold, but his always do.

"It will ache more when I fail you again."

"You will not. Have faith in yourself, daughter."

She smiles.

It is easy to smile, even if she has no father in this life worth calling that. They all still call her daughter.

None of them are right.