Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 60

Loki has finally mastered the art of being in two places at once.

Kind of.

Physically, he's sitting in bed, a cat on his lap. Mentally, he's in the woods dozens of miles from Stark Tower, but he's not entirely absent from the tower, either. He can still hear the music playing softly in the real world, just as much as he can hear the rustling of the leaves when the wind blows. It's a strange blend of the two, but he's rather enjoying it.

His magic has been getting stronger by the day. He never could have worked from such a distance before, but now the illusions come with ease; the energy he conjures hardly takes more effort than it would in the real world. He's come a long way. He's proud of himself.

The knock on the door brings him back to the real world entirely. He looks over at the door expectantly. "Yes?" Who's it going to be? Thor, maybe? To tell him off for his party shenanigans last night? He's been expecting that all day, if he's being honest. He's surprised it hasn't happened sooner.

But it's Steve's voice on the other side of the door who says, "Hey, Loki. Clint's making ravioli, if you're hungry."

Loki has no idea what ravioli is, but he is hungry, so he removes Snowflake from his lap and hops to his feet. He uses his magic to switch his pajamas for one of his typical Midgardian suits, then walks up to his CD player and turns the music off. It doesn't stop him from humming the next line as he makes his way to the door, and he opens it to see, of course, Steve.

Steve cocks an eyebrow, an amused smile on his face. "You're in a good mood."

"Mm." Loki just shrugs, but he can't hide the small smile on his lips. He is in a good mood. He had a lot of fun last night, and he hasn't faced any consequences for it. The Allfather can stick him in as many prisons as he'd like, but he can't remove all the fun from them.

"Party wasn't too loud?" Steve asks.

"Not at all," Loki says. "I could barely hear it over my music." That part is actually true; before he decided to snoop around, he had no problem ignoring the party. It was his curiosity that convinced him to check it out this time, not his frustration.

"Oh, good!" Steve says with a grin. "Oh, did you ever figure out the joke with that album?"

"I believe so," Loki says. "JARVIS said that Taylor Swift's music is frequently associated with young, lovesick girls." He rolls his eyes. "It seems I've made progress, though; he could have chosen children's music for me instead."

Steve chuckles. "Look at you; you've grown ten years in four months."

"Which is, of course, still a millennium younger than I truly am," Loki says, "but there are certainly worse ages to be. It does come with decent music, after all." As long as he skips the peppy, upbeat, overly happy songs. They're not as bad as Tony's music choice, which Loki would consider nothing but screaming into a microphone, but they're certainly nothing like Asgard's music. At least Taylor Swift has her fair share of ballads for him to enjoy. He likes the soft acoustic guitar-based instrumentals.

"Well, hey, whatever works, right?" Steve says with a shrug.

"Indeed," Loki agrees.

"Oh, hey," Steve says, changing the subject to one he seems much more interested in, "someone from one of the other realms was here last night. Did Thor mention that to you?"

Loki raises his brows. "No, I haven't seen him all day," he says. "Who was it?"

"Actually, I was hoping you'd know that," Steve says. "She wouldn't tell me her name. I was hoping Thor would've..." He shakes his head. "Nevermind."