Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 82

Loki has decided to watch Tangled.

It's a cute movie. He likes this Flynn Rider character. And his horse? Absolutely hilarious. All the characters are great, actually. He'd like to personally behead Mother Gothel, but otherwise, he's enjoying this — and them — immensely.

The boat scene leaves tears in his eyes, but the part that really gets him is Rapunzel watching Flynn sailing away. Loki's sitting on the couch with his knees pulled into his chest, and he slaps a hand over his mouth, watching in awe as this beautiful romance they'd built up is torn away from them.

Naturally, that's the moment the Avengers walk in.

"Hey!" Tony says accusatively. "You said you—"

"Shh!" Loki puts a finger to his lips, the other hand already reaching for the remote to turn the volume up.

"Loki," Steve says, and he just sounds exasperated.

Loki just turns the volume up louder. He lets his legs fall over the side of the couch and leans forward toward the TV, literally on the edge of his seat.

"Somebody just grab the Wii," Clint says. "We can take it somewhere else."

"Will you all stop talking?" Loki says irritably.

"God, you're so weird," Natasha mutters under her breath, which Loki promptly ignores.

Snowflake runs over and jumps up on the couch with him, but Loki can't tear his eyes away from the screen long enough to look at her. He's not sure what body part of hers he begins petting, but she seems content with it, whatever it is.

"Is he watching Tangled?" Jane whispers.

"He loves his kids' movies," Tony tells her.

Loki groans and pauses the movie. He finally turns his attention to the Avengers, his gaze passing right over Thor and the woman in his arms. He's sure Thor is going to yell at him for what he did soon enough. He'd like to ignore him until that time is over.

Instead, he mostly directs his frustration to Tony. "What is so important that you have to interrupt my movie at its most suspenseful moment?"

"I thought you were gonna stay in your room tonight," Tony says.

"You told me I would have this room to myself," Loki reminds him.

"Uh, yeah, I did, and you said 'no.'"

"I said not at that moment because I was communicating with Heimdall," Loki corrects him. He'd thought he was very clear about that. "Aren't there other TVs in this tower? Why are you all here?" They have god-only-knows how many TVs to choose from, and they always want to use the only one he has access to. It's ridiculous.

"Other TVs, yeah, but only one Wii," Tony says.

"So take the Wii and go!" Clint insists. "God, why has no one else figured out how to ignore him yet? It's really not that hard!"

"If you can do that quickly, go right ahead," Loki says. "And then go away so I can finish my movie."

Tony groans. "But that's so much work."

Despite his complaints, he heads over to the TV, ready to start taking the Wii out, however that works.

"Hey," Steve says to the god, "you want company?"

For the briefest moment, Loki hesitates. To anyone else, it must have looked like he assaulted Jane just hours ago, and he's not naive enough to think he can explain that away. He has to assume that Steve is going to try to talk to him about it, much to his dismay. It's such a Captain America thing to do, and probably his most frustrating quality.