Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 148

Oh, what a shame. What a rainy ending given to a perfect day. Every smile you fake is so condescending, counting all the scars that you made...

Loki stares at the ceiling blankly.

There's nothing like a depressing Taylor Swift song to keep his bored and lonely self occupied.

He just wants Thor to come back. At least it's always somewhat entertaining, having Thor around. Odin still won't let him hear about any of Asgard's affairs – so, essentially, he can't hear any stories of what Thor does when he's off-world – but he enjoys Thor's presence enough that he doesn't even care.

Well, he cares a little bit.

But mostly in a petty, spiteful way.

Sometimes he can't believe this whole disaster started because he let Odin's affection determine his self-worth. Life on Midgard isn't good for much, but at least he's come to realize how little weight Odin's opinions actually hold.

So how can I ever try to be better when nobody ever lets me in? I can still see you, this ain't the best view, on the outside looking in.

And now it sounds like Taylor Swift is singing about him specifically, because that's just what he wanted right now is to be the subject of a Taylor Swift song.

Knock knock knock.

That's a person.

Finally, there is somebody else in this godforsaken building.

Loki plasters on his most normal, not-bored-out-of-his-mind voice. "Yes?"

"We brought you dinner," Wanda says from outside his room. "If your chicken nuggets were not enough."

Loki scoffs. "Can you hear my thoughts when I'm not physically present?"

There's an awkward pause. "No?"

Loki rolls his eyes. That was not a convincing answer in the slightest.

He sits up, letting his legs hang over the edge of his bed, and opens the door with his magic. Wanda's standing in the doorway with a brown paper bag in her hands. He's not quite sure why she's bringing him food when Thor, Steve, and Bruce are doubtlessly here, too, and all of the Avengers must know he'd rather see them. The food better be good, or this will not be worth it.

Wanda holds the bag out to him. "We didn't know what you'd want, so we got you chicken tenders."

Loki stands up and crosses the room, snatching the bag from her hands. It's still the slightest bit warm. It's not ideal, but he doesn't feel like microwaving them so he'll take what he can get. He takes a peek at his food, and he's pleased to see that there's a nice helping of fries, too – something to really set it apart from his usual chicken nuggets, because as far as he can tell, chicken tenders are really just oversized chicken nuggets.

Loki raises his gaze to meet Wanda's. "I presume this was your idea."

"It was everyone's," she says.

Loki cocks an eyebrow skeptically. He knows damn well that the Avengers didn't think of it themselves. She didn't even think of it herself; she read his mind and saw that he was feeling left out – not that some lukewarm chicken tenders will fix that – and now she's trying to play it off like the Avengers really did care that he wasn't there. It would be kind of cute if it wasn't so ridiculous.

"It was Tony who brought you up," she tells him. "He said he felt like you should have been there with us."

Loki scoffs. "Oh, I'm sure," he says sarcastically.