Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 54

"Hey, Loki, wake up."

Loki groans and shoves a pillow over his face.

"Loki!" Tony's voice comes through the door again. "Get up!"

"Let me sleep," Loki mumbles.

"If you're not gonna get up for me, I'm just going to tell Thor to drag you downstairs instead," Tony tells him.

Loki groans again and tosses his pillow on the floor. "What do you want?"

"I want you to get up," Tony says. "I have a surprise for you."

"I cannot explain how much I do not want to see this surprise," Loki deadpans.

"Yeah, well, sucks to be you," Tony says. "Are you getting up for me or am I getting Thor?"

Loki groans once more, just in case Tony missed the first two times how inconveniencing this all is, but he reluctantly forces himself out of bed. He glances at his clock, and it's barely 10 in the morning. Why is Tony making him get up so early? Steve always lets him sleep until at least noon. Does Tony just not realize he stays up half the night so he can eat his last meal in peace?

Loki opens the door telekinetically as he walks towards it, and his moping disappears as soon as he sees the cat in Tony's hands. This still wasn't worth getting up early for, but he will admit, there are much worse things to wake up to.

"Here, take your cat and come with me," Tony says

Loki takes Snowflake in his own hands, and her front paws drape over his shoulders while he supports her butt with one hand and her stomach with the other. He really feels like he needs another hand right now. How does one hold a cat? Because he's fairly certain this is not it, but it's also possible that he's just terrified he's going to hurt her, regardless of what he does.

"Alright, c'mon," Tony says, gesturing for Loki to follow.

Loki does follow him, but only because he can tell Tony's not going to give him much of a choice. "What game are you playing, Stark?"

"A fun one," Tony says.

"Oh, I doubt that."

"I'm serious," Tony insists. "You're gonna hate me for it at first, but then I think you're gonna like it."

"I hate you already," Loki reminds him. "Whatever this is will surely not change that."

Tony rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

The rest of the walk is in silence. Tony decides to take the stairs — he probably thinks standing in the elevator for 30 awkwardly silent seconds with Loki would be unbearably uncomfortable (and he'd be right) — so Loki can't even begin to guess where they're going until Tony finally picks a floor. They must be going to the living room, he reasons, but why...?

He can sort of answer that question once they reach the living room. He's not sure exactly what Tony wants, but, if the giant plastic tree in the middle of the room is any indication, he has a feeling it's something very, very stupid. That's enough of an answer for him.

Loki only looks at the tree for the briefest second before he turns his gaze to Tony. "What is this?"

"It's Christmas!" Tony says with a grin. "I told you I was gonna get you to celebrate Christmas with us."

"And I told you 'no,'" Loki says.

He turns around, but Tony grabs his arm, anchoring him there. Snowflake jumps out of his arms, landing silently on the floor below them and looking up at them with her big brown eyes. Loki scowls. Great, and now he can't even hold his cat.