Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 34

Steve is so wrapped up in reading his book that he doesn't realize it's gotten so late until he hears the voice in the doorway.

"You told me he wasn't here, JARVIS," Loki mutters.

Steve lays his book on the table, holding it open with his hand so he doesn't lose his place. "Yeah, sorry," he says. "I told him to." And JARVIS wasn't happy about it, but he was given an order and he had to comply.

Loki shakes his head to himself. "Great." He heads to the freezer and pulls out a tub of ice cream. Steve went out today to get some today just for him, though he knows better than to expect a thank you for it.

"I just want to make sure you're doing okay," Steve tells him. "You're still coming out to eat, right? More than once a day?"

"Of course," Loki says, kind of irritably. "I don't need you to tell me when I can and cannot eat."

"I know; I just wanted to make sure," Steve says. "So you're all good?"

"Yes."

"Okay, great," Steve says.

Steve picks his book back up and turns his attention back to its pages. He's getting really close to the ending and the suspense is really picking up. He's been reading for a few hours nonstop and it's getting so late that the words are starting to blur before his eyes, but he's determined to finish this tonight. He's not sure he could force himself to put this down so close to the end.

Loki scoops out a bowl of ice cream and puts the rest back in the freezer. He gives Steve a questioning look. "Was that all?"

Steve looks up from his book. "What?"

"Was that all you wanted?" Loki asks. "You've been sitting out here all night for that?"

"Yeah, I mean, I've seen what happens when you don't eat enough," Steve says. "I didn't want to put you through that again. But I know you don't want to talk to me right now, so I just wanted to make sure you were okay and then I was going to leave you alone." He holds up his book. "But now I want to finish this before I go to bed."

Loki looks at it curiously. "Is that the book you spoke of yesterday? The third novel of the series?"

"Yeah, it is." Steve perks up at that. Is this going to be an actual conversation? It sounds like it has all the making of an actual conversation. "Did you start the first two?"

"I finished them," Loki says.

Steve's eyebrows shoot up. "You already finished them? Both of them?"

"I did."

"Did you like them?" He'd like to think he must have if he finished them, but he also doesn't have much else to do in his room. Even reading a bad book must be better than doing nothing.

"I was pleasantly surprised," Loki says. "Most of the literature in Asgard is factual; meant to help further our studies. This was an interesting departure."

"You don't have novels in Asgard?" He'd assumed fiction was a standard in every culture.

"Very few," Loki says. "Our stories are usually told orally."

So like the Iliad and the Odyssey. Maybe Asgard is just lagging a couple millennia behind Earth in that sense.

"Did you like the book more than the movie?" Steve asks. He knows Loki doesn't think much of the movie — or that he wouldn't admit to enjoying it, at least.

"I did," Loki says. "I found it far more interesting when faced with Katniss's thought process and moral dilemmas than just viewing a recording on a screen."