Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 128

Tony keeps to his lab the rest of his day. He doesn't want to talk to anyone. He doesn't even want to talk to Pepper right now, and that never happens. He knows he should probably give her an update. He'd texted her when Thor left so he knows she's probably waiting by the phone for one right now. But he just... can't. He just can't right now.

He's been doing the best he can to focus on building; to focus on improving the Iron Man suit for whatever next mission they go on. It's easier than letting his thoughts stray back to Loki. He doesn't need to keep reminding himself that he's the stupidest, assholey-est person on the planet.

He's made some decent progress in his next suit when FRIDAY's voice rings through the room.

"Queen Frigga is leaving Loki's room."

Tony pushes himself to his feet. "Alright, where am I going?"

It takes some maneuvering, but with FRIDAY's help, they're able to plot a path for Tony that will just happen to coincide with hers. It's a complete coincidence, of course. He totally wasn't looking for her. He had no idea she was even out and about. Funny how things work out.

Tony greets her with a polite smile. "Oh, hi," he says, like he's at all surprised to see her here. "Done in Loki's room?" He realizes as he says it that that's such a stupid thing to say, but he's already said it so it's a little late to do anything about it now.

Frigga doesn't seem at all uncomfortable with the question, though. "It's getting late," she says. "We thought it best that he get some rest."

Tony nods. That makes sense. She's been here for hours. She probably wants to get home, too. Hopefully she won't mind having a conversation or two before she goes. "How's he doing?"

"Oh, he's..." Frigga sighs and shakes her head. "He's alright, I suppose. The homesickness is setting in; that's all."

That is a fat fucking lie and they both know it. There is so much more wrong than homesickness. But Frigga doesn't know how much he knows, so he tries not to show it on his face, instead opting for a look of sympathy. "Is there anything I can do?" he asks. "Does he need anything, did he say?" Like, say, bedsheets? Or soap? Or pants?

But Frigga shakes her head. "Not at the moment," she says, "but thank you..." She pauses. "I'm sorry; I don't think I caught your name."

"Tony," he says. "Tony Stark." He gives her an awkward smile. Hopefully, if she recognizes it, she associates it with Loki's "I've told him things I've told no one else" remark and not the spiel about how he's a horrible person that preceded it.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Mr. Stark," she says. "Thank you for taking care of my son. I know you were never truly given a choice, and on behalf of both myself and my husband, I apologize for that, but we truly appreciate what you've done for us and for him."

Tony waves that off. "Don't mention it." And he genuinely means he wishes she would not have mentioned it, because apparently he's been doing a pretty shitty job at it and he'd like to not be thanked for being a garbage person.

It seems that asking if Loki needs anything isn't good enough to fix things. Frigga really does seem to respect her son's choice not to mention it to anybody, even if she did find it laughable. That's fine. He has a backup plan. A backup plan that will work? Probably not, but a backup plan nonetheless.

"Actually," he says, "I've had some people working on cleaning up an old storage facility upstate. I haven't mentioned it to anyone else yet because honestly, I didn't think it was possible, but I think it would be a better home base than here. I just think the layout's better and it'd be more compact so everything's not spread out on 30 different floors. Do you think there's any way we could move up there with Loki?" It's not until his (very clunkily phrased) question leaves his mouth that he realizes he forgot one very important part of it. "Only if he wants to, of course. If he'd rather stay here or if he's really not allowed to leave, that's totally fine. I just figured I'd ask."