Thor frowned.
"That Purple Man... my eldest sister spared his life. If it were me, I would have flattened him with a single hammer strike."
Loki smiled softly. "So you are the God of Hammers?"
Thor glared at him. "I am the God of Thunder! Not some God of Hammers!"
Watching the two of them, Tony couldn't help but laugh.
"The three of you siblings," he said, "are truly interesting."
Thor grinned. "Of course!"
Loki elegantly picked up a teacup and took a sip.
Mavuika looked at them, the corners of her mouth curling up slightly.
Outside the window, the sky gradually darkened.
Several people chatted in the living room for a long time. Tony was full of curiosity about everything in Asgard and kept asking Thor various questions—what was Asgard like? How did the Bifrost Bridge work? Which Worlds made up the Nine Realms?
Thor spoke enthusiastically, gesturing wildly and standing up from time to time to demonstrate.
Loki occasionally added a few words from the side, mostly to undermine him.
Banner sat to one side, listening quietly, his expression shifting from shock to curiosity, and from curiosity to yearning.
"The Nine Realms..." he murmured. "So the Universe is this big."
Mavuika looked at him. "Yes, the Universe has always been vast..."
Banner was silent for a moment, then smiled softly. "True."
The group chatted for a while longer.
Thor pestered Tony with questions about the Iron Man Suit, and Tony explained it to him with rare patience.
Banner occasionally chimed in from the side, while Loki sat quietly on the balcony, holding a phone and looking at something unknown.
Mavuika leaned back on the sofa, watching all of this, a wave of warmth rising in her heart.
It had been hundreds of years.
Her family and her friends were all here in this small apartment.
This feeling was very good.
Then, the doorbell rang again.
Mavuika raised an eyebrow slightly—who would come at this hour?
She got up to open the door.
Two people were standing outside.
Fury and another man.
The man was very tall, more than half a head taller than Fury, with broad shoulders and a straight back.
He wore a plain blue shirt and khaki trousers; the clothes were new but looked a bit ill-fitting on him—as if they were borrowed on short notice.
His face—
Mavuika's gaze lingered on his face for a second.
That face was well-defined with a rugged jawline, and his golden-brown hair was neatly combed.
He looked very young, probably in his twenties.
But in those blue eyes, there was something a young person shouldn't have.
Exhaustion, the passage of time, and a sense of bewilderment after having traversed a long period of history.
"Director Fury." Mavuika stepped aside. "Come in."
Fury walked into the living room, and the man followed behind him.
Tony stood up from the sofa. Seeing Fury, his brow furrowed slightly.
"Why are you here again? What is it this time?"
Fury ignored him and turned to Mavuika.
"Ms. Marvica, sorry to intrude. This is—"
He looked at the man beside him.
"Steve Rogers."
The living room went silent for a second.
Tony was stunned.
Banner was also stunned.
Thor and Loki exchanged a look—they hadn't heard this name before, but he seemed quite famous here?
He was famous, naturally.
Captain America.
A legendary hero from the World War II era, a Super Soldier injected with the Super Soldier Serum.
He led the Howling Commandos to countless victories before finally—falling into the icy sea and disappearing for decades.
Everyone thought he was dead.
"Wait," Tony's voice was a bit tight.
"The Steve Rogers you're talking about, is it that Steve Rogers?"
Fury nodded.
"Yes."
Tony looked at the man, sizing him up from head to toe.
Golden-brown hair, blue eyes, broad shoulders, and a tall, straight posture—he indeed looked exactly like the man in those old photographs.
"You... how did you..." Tony stammered, a rare occurrence for him.
Fury explained briefly.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. found the wreckage of his plane in the North Pole ice last week. He was frozen inside, perfectly preserved. We brought him back, thawed him out, and revived him."
He paused.
"He slept for seventy years."
The living room remained silent for a long time.
Steve stood there, looking at these strangers with a calm expression but complex eyes.
His gaze moved from Tony to Banner, then to Thor and Loki, and finally landed on Mavuika.
"Director Fury," he spoke, his voice deep and steady, "won't you introduce them?"
Fury snapped back to reality. "Of course."
He pointed to Tony.
"Tony Stark. Howard Stark's son."
Steve's pupils contracted slightly.
He looked at Tony, something flickering in those blue eyes.
"Howard's... son," he repeated softly.
Looking at his expression, a strange feeling welled up in Tony's heart.
He knew Howard and Captain America were old acquaintances—in the old photos, they often stood together.
"Right," Tony said, his tone unusually devoid of banter.
"He's my father. He's... retired, living out his days in Florida."
Steve nodded and didn't speak.
Fury continued the introductions.
"Dr. Bruce Banner, a famous physicist. Thor and Loki—Prince and Princess of Asgard."
Steve looked at Thor and Loki, his brow furrowing slightly. "Asgard?"
Thor grinned. "The Asgard of norse mythology. Haven't you heard of it?"
Steve was silent for a second. "I've heard of it. But I thought it was just a myth."
Thor shrugged. "Many people think so."
Fury finally pointed to Mavuika. "Ms. Marvica, the sun goddess of Asgard, Odin's eldest daughter."
Steve looked at her with a scrutinizing yet polite gaze.
"sun goddess," he repeated.
Mavuika nodded. "Just call me Mavuika."
Steve nodded slightly. "Steve."
The group sat down in the living room.
Fury briefly explained the purpose of their visit.
"After Steve woke up, he asked about many things." He looked at Steve.
"Among the most important was the whereabouts of Bucky Barnes."
Steve's hands tightened slightly.
"Bucky was my comrade-in-arms," he said, his voice calm, but beneath that calmness was something suppressed for seventy years.
"A member of the Howling Commandos. When we were on our last mission, he fell from a train. I thought he was dead—"
He paused.
"But Director Fury told me he didn't die. He was saved by HYDRA and turned into... some kind of weapon. Later, it was Howard Stark who rescued him from HYDRA's hands."
He looked at Tony.
"Your father hid him away and gave him a new identity, a new life. But I don't know where he is, and Director Fury doesn't know either."
His gaze turned to Mavuika.
"He said you might know."
Mavuika was silent for a second.
Of course she knew where Bucky was.
After Howard rescued Bucky from HYDRA back then, he gave him comprehensive medical treatment and a psychiatric evaluation.
Bucky's body had recovered, but his memory remained unstable—sometimes he remembered things from World War II, and other times it was a complete blank.
Howard had arranged a new identity for him and bought a small house in the suburbs of New York so he could live a quiet life.