Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 2

"You're dead to me, Stark."

Tony snorts. "It's nice to see you, too."

Natasha Romanoff lets herself into the room, looking around for a few moments before her gaze settles on Tony. "Where is he?"

"One of the guest rooms," Tony says. "I threw him in there when he got here and I haven't seen him since."

Natasha raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure he's still in there?"

Tony shrugs. "JARVIS hasn't told me he's opened the door and he can't go out the window, so yeah, I'm pretty confident he's still in there." He didn't exactly get the chance to install a camera in there, but the alarm on the door should be enough.

"He hasn't opened the door at all?" Natasha asks. "No food, no drink, no... nothing?"

Tony shakes his head. "Not a peep."

"Then what the hell am I doing here?" Natasha asks.

Tony gives her a fake smile. "You're here to light up the room with that wonderfully cheerful personality."

Natasha just rolls her eyes.

"No, I don't know why Fury sent you over here," Tony tells her. "I told him I could handle it myself."

"Why did you tell him at all?" Natasha asks, exasperated. "You have to have known he wasn't going to let you 'handle it.'"

"Because if something went wrong and he got out, it would be my ass on the line," Tony tells her. "This way, it's only half my ass on the line."

Natasha shakes her head to herself. "Alright, where's his room? If I'm going to be stuck here for a few days, I want to know where the psychopathic god is."

Tony gestures for her to follow him, and they head down the hall without saying a word. It's a bit of a walk to get there, which Tony did on purpose. There are plenty of spare rooms he could have thrown the guy in, but he made sure to choose one that was far away from anywhere Tony would habitually be walking by.

When they finally reach his room, Tony gestures to the door silently. He's right there. And now that she knows where to avoid, they can leave and --

Natasha knocks on the door.

"Hey!" Tony whispers. "What are you doing?"

Natasha puts a finger to her lips and leans in towards the door, listening for any sound from the other side. Admittedly, Tony thinks that's stupid at first, but when they're met with complete silence, he realizes she may have a point.

This time, it's Tony who knocks on the door. "Yoo-hoo! Anybody home?"

Tony puts his ear against the door, but they're met with silence yet again.

Natasha slams her fist against the door, louder and more frantically than either time before. "Loki!"

"Oh joy," Loki deadpans. "There are more of you."

Tony leans against the wall and breathes a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god, he's still here."

Natasha walks away, and Tony follows quickly behind her. They don't speak until they're well out of Loki's hearing range, not because they're talking about anything specific that they don't want him to hear but because they just don't want to deal with him.

"Is it just us?" Natasha asks.

"Unless Fury sends someone else in," Tony says.

"No Pepper?"

Tony shakes his head. "She was supposed to come back tomorrow, but I told her about you-know-who and she just..." He shrugs, trying to put on the air that it doesn't bother him though it's not at all true. "Didn't want to deal with him."

"Oh, wow," Natasha says quietly. "So she's not coming back at all?"

"I don't know," Tony admits. "She said she won't step foot in the tower while he's here and I can't exactly leave him here alone, so..." He shakes his head as if he can shake the thought out and forces a more cheerful mood. "But Thor said he'll be back soon. Maybe I can convince him to take his brother home with him."

"God, I hope so," she mutters. "Isn't the world broken enough without murderous space gods sharing our living space?"