Disclaimer: I assume you've all read the other two Thor fics I've written? Yes? Good! No? You may want to, or this will confuse you. Either way, it's not mine. Nothing Marvel is mine. Maria – the OC, is mine. If you wish to use her, you may ask nicely. I like it when people ask nicely! But if you belong to Marvel or Disney or whatever, don't sue me. You won't really get anything.

Author's Note: I know it's nowhere near close to Christmas. But this one's been driving me nuts, so please enjoy this Christmas fic in May! This is what happens when an insane person listens to Christmas music.

Prologue

"All I want for Christmas is… YOU…!" Mariah's voice, mixed with another singer's, poured out of the speakers as the banged-up car slid into the parking space.

The car turned off and a young woman scrambled out of it, yanking a large black leather purse out with some ferocity. She was not dressed for hiking, noticed a park ranger. As a matter of fact, she looked quite the opposite. Her hair had been carefully swept up into a neat bun, drawing attention to the pearls around her neck. She had on light makeup, too – basic black shadow and red lipstick. A black leather jacket almost totally covered her pretty red sweater. A black circle skirt fell to her knees and white stockings made her legs look a mile long. She even had on black heels!

Looking around, the young woman pulled a white scarf out of her car, wrapped it round her neck, and started walking – she disappeared into the trees.

The ranger followed.

It was a good thing Christmas fell on a weekend this year, thought Maria. It was the only time work would let her have off… pretty much ever. Now, she stood out in the woods in a national park in her hometown. Already, she had fielded awkward questions from three different park rangers. Annoying, but she could kind of understand it. Probably not many girls turned up at this place to hang around in the middle of nowhere, all dressed up for a date. But that was still none of their damn business!

She picked her way out further into the forest, careful not to turn her heels on rocks and pine tree roots. Looking up, she watched the sky turning steely gray and pulled her leather jacket closer around her. The day had grown increasingly breezy over the last hour or two. Her nose had gone numb and cheeks felt very raw and chapped. Fishing in her large black purse, she extracted a tube of lipstick and gave herself a quick fix.

Her mom had not been crazy about the idea of her coming out here on a day like this. There had been a few hints – just enough to get every schoolchild's heart and hopes up – that it would snow soon. Now Maria felt slightly guilty. She had just made something up about going to the mall. How the hell was she going to explain this anyway! Maybe Mom would ignore the unusual circumstances – it was Christmas after all…

"Oh who am I kidding?" Maria grumbled. "Mom's going to have a fit…"

And she didn't really want to think about how her dad would react. Pacing back and forth in an attempt to keep herself warm, she started to worry. What guarantee did she have that he would show up? Sure he had come to her once before, but quite frankly that had been some special circumstances. Did that count as their 'once a year' thing? Her thoughts broke as the wind began to pick up.

All of a sudden, lightning flashed above the treetops. Shit! She really couldn't be sure if that was a good thing or just a horrible storm. The radio had said a few things about a storm front coming through. And they hadn't been sure if it would bring snow or just torrential rain. She found herself increasingly worried as a raindrop hit her cheek. Soon, she pushed up under a tree as the entire forest pattered with rain. Fuck… she thought – she had driven half an hour out here and then walked into the woods in heels for nothing!

"Where are you?" she asked, her question getting lost up in the rainy branches. Then she thought of how many times she wished she could see him this Christmas – it had been forever since she hadn't been alone on Christmas. Well, she had her family, but yeah… "You promised…"

Then she heard it – thunder, crashing far away. The clouds still flashed with lightning as the sound approached her position rapidly. Rain beat down upon everything, soaking her through to the skin. But she didn't mind – hell, she didn't care at this point. The clouds above her had formed a sort of whirlpool, swirling in tighter and tighter as the storm grew deathly fierce. She yelled in surprise as a small tree tore itself down about ten yards away. All of a sudden, she had to shield her eyes.

A brilliant flash of rainbow-colored light… A magnificent flash of lightning… Then a roar of thunder that could deafen a bull shook the entire forest.

And there stood the one she had waited for. Of course, his hair remained perfect – somehow, that had always been both endearing and annoying. She reached back and uselessly squeezed the water out of her bun. His armor shone bright as the rain stopped and a brilliant winter sunbeam hit him. The wind died down to a breeze, just enough to make her shake and sniffle. He turned around, hearing the small sound.

His smile, reaching his clear blue eyes, caused her to go a bit funny in the head. All the lectures she had given herself about being cool about this, maintaining her composure and all that, flew right out the window! Immediately, she tripped on a large pine root and pelted towards him. He opened his arms to her and her full weight smacked him in the chest. Granted, this wasn't much, considering what he had been familiar with. She was no Brunhilde, he thought, but she could certainly make her own sort of impact!

"I missed you," she whispered, her words muffled in his cape. He held her for a long moment and then finally set her down carefully. She looked up at him, happy tears mixing with the rain on her face. "Almost thought you weren't coming…"

He only smiled brighter, cradling her chin in his hand and kissing her softly.

"I did promise," he purred as he pulled away.

Though she couldn't stop smiling, something puzzled her.

"How did you know?" she asked. This time, she hadn't called out to him directly, just wished really hard. "I mean, I didn't think I had asked right… And I'm not in any kind of life-threatening situation."

Looking down at her, his smile turned enigmatic – okay, she had no idea he could even manage that expression!

"Of course you asked," he told her, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. Then, his voice got big and booming again. "Your voice can be nothing else but a gift from the gods, if I can hear it from the palace of Asgard!"

For a moment, Maria stared at him, blushing furiously down to the roots of her hair. Then she couldn't help laughing. He made the most awesome things sound totally ridiculous when he did that whole 'I am Thor – hear me now!' thing. At his confused stare, she calmed down. Now, she felt quite aware of what a huge mess she had to look like… Immediately, she broke into a frenzy of trying to straighten herself out, fixing clothes and hair and generally fidgeting. Thor reached out and stilled her hands with his own.

"So… we should probably get going," she said a little awkwardly, half hoping he would kiss her again and half wanting to just get out of there. "The park rangers probably want to know what just happened."

Thor looked at her in confusion again – what were park rangers and why should they care what just happened? But he allowed Maria to take him by the hand and lead the way out of the clearing. She walked a bit gingerly in her heels, but she seemed to know her way along these trails. It didn't take terribly long to get back to another large clearing. This, he recognized as a parking lot, with white lines on dark pavement. There were three men in a sort of khaki uniform standing around, looking off into the forest. One of them pointed at the sky, where the whirling clouds had been.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" said one of them, raising an arm to flag down Maria and Thor. He paused for a long second before asking slowly, "Sir?"

Maria stopped, putting her arm out to indicate Thor should stay behind her – at first, he bristled, but he did as she asked.

"Is there a problem, sir?" she asked the ranger, keeping her voice deliberately higher-pitched and extremely polite. "We were just leaving."

The ranger who flagged them down stepped back.

"No problem, ma'am – just curious about what a young lady's doing out here by herself," he told her, looking her up and down openly. "Especially all dressed up and so close to Christmas."

Maria frowned, not at all okay with his tone – Thor sensed her tension and stepped forward.

"Sir, this young lady was waiting for me," he said bluntly, towering over the now-sniveling ranger. "If this is not a problem, we would like to leave now."

The ranger's hand went to his gun, but he did not touch it.

"Are you threatening me?" he asked with an edge in his voice, unsure of whether to pull his weapon or take off running. "Because you should know I am still an officer of the law…"

Maria subtly kicked Thor in the shins and broke into the conversation.

"I'm really sorry – he's… not from around here," she told the ranger, hoping he would understand. "He had a hard trip and he's a little confused. Sir, I'd like to get him home so he can just relax. Jet-lag and all…"

One of the other rangers stepped forward.

"It's fine, Dave – let 'em go," he said firmly – this guy was always a bit too 'Barney Fife' for him, always raring to go with that one bullet. He turned back to Maria and Thor. "Y'all get on home."

Maria smiled, though Thor seemed to still be in 'intimidation mode.'

"Thank you, sir," she said quickly, taking Thor's arm and steering him to the car. "Car's over here!"

Thor all of a sudden looked very ill – when had he signed up for a ride in that deathtrap again?