Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 147

Loki is outside, enjoying the near-silence of the natural world. Every now and then, he'll hear a bird chirp or some leaves rustle, but otherwise, it's quiet out here. This is the kind of serenity he'd come to miss from Asgard. He never would have imagined even months ago that he'd be able to experience it here on Midgard, too.

He only hears the footsteps in the grass as they're approaching, and he cranes his neck to see who it is. He expects to see Thor here to tell him he's going back to Asgard, or even maybe Steve, though he doesn't tend to bother him when he's out here. But instead, it's Tony who stands over him. That's a little weirder.

Loki sits up in the grass and looks up at him, an eyebrow raised. This is weird.

"Hey," Tony greets him. "We got a lead on a potential HYDRA base. We're gonna take a field trip and see what's down there."

Loki blinks at that. "Oh. Alright." He hadn't really expected to get any updates on this whole thing. Although Bruce did make a point in saying that they weren't going to keep any more secrets from him, so maybe he should have known. It's nice to be included for once – although he supposes that not much has changed; they'd always tell him when they'd leave, and it was never all that difficult to figure out where they were going.

"You coming?" Tony asks.

Loki cocks his head to the side. "I beg your pardon?"

"You wanna give us a hand?" Tony asks. "We can always use some long-distance godly help."

"You want my help," Loki repeats skeptically. What's he playing at here?

"Yeah, if you've got nothing better to do," Tony says. "It's up to you."

Still, he's a little skeptical, but he's also intrigued. "What would you be expecting me to do?"

Tony shrugs. "I dunno. Depends on what we run into. You might not get to do anything, or you might get to beat up some Nazis."

Loki does like beating people up, and he gets to do it so rarely these days...

He smiles. "I would love to help."

~~~

Loki lurks during the flight. The Avengers, Wanda, Pietro, and Sam Wilson are packed much too tightly in this ship for his liking. He certainly wouldn't want to be here in his corporeal form, and even projecting, he feels like he's taking up too much space, so he remains silent and invisible.

It appears he does too good of a job at not taking up space, because eventually, Sam asks, "Are you guys sure Loki's coming? 'Cause..."

"Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure," Tony says. "He said he was going to. Can't blame the guy for not wanting to suffer through the flight over."

"It is dreadfully boring, isn't it?" Loki remarks.

Nearly everybody on the jet jumps – even Thor, as if Loki hasn't done this to him thousands of times over their lifetime. If anybody should have known better, it should have been him. Still, he can't deny that he gets a kick out of it every time. Wanda does, too, it seems; she's smirking to herself much the same way he is.

"Have you been there the whole time?" Bruce asks.

"Off and on," Loki replies. "I don't know how you all have the patience for this." (He's lying through his teeth, for the record. He has absolutely stayed with them this entire time. He's just set such a precedent over the years of not admitting that he enjoys their presence that he can't bring himself to tell them that he likes eavesdropping on their conversations.)

"Nor do I," Thor remarks. "Midgardian transportation is so slow."

"Slow?" Tony scoffs. "We're going almost a thousand miles an hour. What do you mean, slow?"