Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 22

Steve knocks on Loki's door. "Hey, Loki. The kitchen's empty. I'm going to make lunch if you're hungry."

Loki doesn't answer, which, at this point, is pretty much what Steve has come to expect from him. He can see the light on through the hole in the door, so he has to assume he's awake. Granted, he just made the opposite assumption earlier and he was wrong, so maybe he shouldn't rely on the light for that.

Half a minute or so passes, and Steve raises his fist to knock again, but Loki opens the door. That was actually a lot easier than he thought it was going to be. And he looks fine, too — or as fine as he can be, given the circumstances. He looks better than he did the day before, at least.

Steve gives him a small smile. "Hey. Did you sleep well?"

Loki raises an eyebrow. "Small talk?"

Steve shrugs. "Yeah. Small talk." He's not going to apologize for that. It's only weird if he makes it weird.

Loki shakes his head to himself. Clearly he's not sold on that idea, so they walk in silence. If he'd thought they bonded yesterday — and he's not sure he did think that; there were some nice moments but he did also imply that he would jump at the chance to kill them and take over the world again — it seems he was mistaken. Steve's actually a little disappointed. He was kind of hoping they'd get to talk a bit more. It was an interesting look in the mind of a mass murderer.

When they reach the kitchen, Loki goes straight to the table, sitting down immediately, and Steve's almost embarrassed to realize he completely forgot how difficult walking has been for him. It's not exactly a brief walk. He doesn't look like he's struggling with it anymore, but that seems to be his thing, pretending he's doing fine when he's not.

Steve doesn't mention it. He's sure Loki doesn't want him to, and he doesn't care enough to bother him about it. He just goes straight to filling up his pot in the sink.

"I'm making mac n cheese," Steve tells him, though he's sure Loki has no idea what that means. And, for the record, Natasha was right: stovetop mac n cheese is definitely better than microwavable mac n cheese.

Loki doesn't ask, so Steve doesn't explain it. He puts the pot on the stove, and now they wait.

A few minutes pass before Loki finally breaks the silence. "Is your friend here?"

Steve shakes his head. "They might come tomorrow. We're not sure yet."

Loki raises an eyebrow. "'They'?"

"Just one person," Steve clarifies. As a bit of a joke, he adds, "If we were throwing a party, we'd warn you."

Loki cracks a smile, amused. "You don't trust me to know the gender of your guest."

Steve gives a small shrug. No, he doesn't. Pepper doubtlessly doesn't want Loki to know that she might come over tomorrow. He's not going to allude to it. "Does it matter?"

"I suppose it doesn't; I'll ignore them just the same," Loki says. "If I make a guess, would you tell me if I'm right?"

"Sure," Steve says noncommittally. What's he going to do, guess the gender? That's not going to give anything away. There's really no real reason he couldn't just say "She's a woman."

"Is it Pepper Potts?"

Steve scoffs, his jaw dropping. "How did you...?"

"If it was someone from SHIELD, I'm sure they would want to see me," Loki says. "It had to be a civilian, and given that you don't have any friends, Stark's partner seemed like the logical assumption."