Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 77

Click clack click clack.

Loki struts across the room, every step ringing out in time with Tony's god-awful party music. She walks with an air of confidence, of power, that has people stepping out of her way without hesitation to let her through.

When she reaches her favorite trio of Avengers to spend her party nights with, she brushes her hair over her shoulder, showing off her much-too-revealing "costume" that she made up on the fly just a few minutes earlier. She tugs on her skirt, straightening it out a bit, then looks around at the Avengers, a smile on her face.

Steve looks her up and down, his brows raised, but he wears a welcoming smile. "What's your costume supposed to be?"

"Oh, this?" Loki looks down at herself and curtsies. "I'm an entertainer from my home realm. See?" She digs her heel into the floor, showing off the shiny metal base of her shoes.

Natasha's eyes go wide, which is all the validation Loki needed. She is not an entertainer from her home realm. There's nothing of the sort in Asgard, or any other realm, as far as she knows. But she knows Natasha still has her own tap shoes, and if she's caught her wearing them once, she has to assume it's a recurring theme. It seemed like a fun idea to bring them up again, just subtly enough that nobody knows what she's doing. It seems to be working.

"Oh, cool," Clint says. "Does their entertaining involve poles?"

Steve gives him his classic look of disapproval. "Clint..."

"I'm just playing," Clint says. "You look great."

"Oh, thank you, Mr. Barton," she says. "And you are...?"

Clint points to his red hat, his finger tapping the large M in the middle. "I'm Mario." He lifts his plunger off the ground and gestures with it toward Natasha, donning a beautiful pink dress and a styrofoam crown. "And Nat's Princess Peach. They're from a video game."

"Ah," Loki says, like she understands any of that. To Natasha, she says, "You truly are fit to be a princess."

Natasha finally manages to pick her jaw up off the floor. "I, uh..." She jerks her head toward the god's feet. "I like your shoes."

Loki beams. "Oh, thank you!" She shuffles around a bit where she stands, and the tapping is somewhat audible above the music. "I hadn't expected to like them as much as I do." She can actually see why Natasha decided to keep hers. These are fun.

"You know," Clint says, "Stark got Nat a pair for Christmas last year." He glances over at her. "Hey, do you still have those?"

Natasha shakes her head, shrugging her shoulders. "No idea. I haven't looked at them since Christmas."

"Whyever not?" Loki asks. She knows it's a lie, of course, but she'd be interested to see if she has an answer for it.

Natasha shrugs uncomfortably. "Just not my thing," she says. "But you look great."

"Why, thank you." Loki curtsies. She looks at Steve next, eyeing his costume. It actually looks a lot like the Captain America costume. He even has his shield, though there's paper taped over it with a new design crudely drawn on top. She furrows her brows. "Captain Rogers, what is your costume?"

Steve holds his shield in front of him. "Captain Britain," he says. He points at the design on the front of his shield. "It's the British flag."

Loki stares at him blankly. Captain Britain. That is... certainly a choice.

"I know, I know," Steve says. "I thought it was stupid, too, but I couldn't think of anything else and Tony thought it was hilarious."

"Well, I like it," Loki tells him. "You look absolutely marvelous."

"I look ridiculous, but thank you," Steve says.

The last party involved a lot of quality Sylvie-and-Steve time, so tonight, she decides to turn her sights to Natasha. She offers her a hand and a smile. "I do believe we planned to share a dance tonight, Your Highness."

The last two words put a smile on her face. "Well, I can't refuse an offer like that, now, can I?"

"Well, you could," Loki says, "but I would be rather disappointed."

Natasha huffs a laugh. "Alright, c'mon." She takes Loki's hand, and they head to the dance floor together.

For the first minute or two, Loki and Natasha just kind of bounce around, bopping to the music. That's not quite what Loki had in mind — and not nearly as fun as their first dance all those months ago — but it takes her a while to think of a good segway.

"I wish I knew how to use these shoes," Loki says. "I've seen some truly impressive dancing in them that I couldn't even try to replicate."

Natasha hesitates, and, after a pause, says, "You know, I know a little bit."

"Oh, really?" Loki asks, as though she hadn't seen her teaching herself just that in her room one day. "I would love to learn if you'd like to teach me."

"I could show you a few steps," she says. "I don't know if it's the same as what you guys do in your realm, though. It's just something I picked up online."

Loki furrows her brows in what she hopes is a convincing display of almost skeptical surprise. "You're self-taught?" she asks. "You carry yourself like a dancer. I'd assumed you grew up with it." She did, and Loki knows that, but she'd like to try her hand at bringing up the Red Room. It will be interesting to see what she does.

"Self-taught with tap," she says, "but I did a bit of dancing growing up.

"I would have loved to see you perform," Loki says. "It must have been quite the sight."

She shakes her head. "I'm not much of a performer," she says. "Never have been."

"What a pity," Loki says. "The world doesn't know what it's missing." She flashes Natasha a smile. "Care to teach me? I'd love to be half as brilliant as you."

"You are such a charmer," Natasha tells her. "Okay, um..." She hikes her skirt up to reveal her glittering pink heels. "Well, there's the shuffle." She brushes her foot back and forth, and Loki mimics it. "That one's probably the easiest. And then paradiddles." She does a paradiddle, and Loki tries to copy it. She fails.

Natasha slows it down for her. She digs her heel; Loki digs her heel. She spanks her foot back; Loki spanks her foot back. She digs her toe down; Loki digs her toe down. Then they both drop their heels.

Natasha speeds it up the second time, and Loki finds that she's able to copy it decently well. It's even faster the third time, but it's easier, too.

"Other side?" Natasha asks.

Loki sucks in a breath through her teeth. "I've hardly figured it out on this side."

"You're doing great," Natasha assures her. She digs her left foot in front of her. "Come on, let's try it."

Loki hesitates, but she doesn't really have anything to lose, so she digs her heel, too. Together, they finish the move out, with no difficulties along the way. They do it a couple more times, and each time, Loki gets better and better.

"See?" Natasha says. "You're a natural."

Loki smiles. "I wouldn't say that, but I certainly am enjoying myself. You are a marvelous teacher."

"And you're a marvelous student," she says, imitating the accent as she says the word. "Is that good, or do you want to keep going?"

Honestly, Loki hadn't even expected to get this far, but she'd be lying if she says she wasn't enjoying this. She has absolutely no idea what tap dancing is supposed to look like, but it's actually really fun, in no small part to Natasha's presence.

Loki hasn't had any proper "girl time" in a long time, but right now, amidst the bustling crowd of Tony's party guests, she's having a hell of a time here with Natasha.