Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 169

Thor loves his brother very much, but he really didn't want to spend his day sitting on the couch and watching cartoon movies with him.

He sneaks a look at his phone every now and then, but there's no text from Jane. He's sure her conference is over by now, so if she hasn't texted him yet, he suspects she won't text him at all today, which is disappointing. He hopes it went well. A part of him wants to text and ask. A part of him doesn't want to bother her if it didn't – or, worse, if she's off having fun somewhere. The last thing he wants to do is ruin her fun with his boredom.

So Aladdin it is.

He will admit, it's a pretty good movie. He does find himself somewhat interested in the plot, and he enjoys the songs enough that he wouldn't really mind hearing them again. He'd even watch the movie again if Loki asked him to – though preferably not for at least a few weeks; he doesn't know how Loki rewatches things over and over in such a short period of time.

It's nearing the end of the movie when Natasha and Wanda step into the room, and though Loki ignores them, Thor looks up at them quizzically from the couch. It's not even so much that he's wondering what they're doing here; he's wondering what they're doing without Pietro. He's not sure he's ever seen Wanda without her brother. Granted, he doesn't see the twins all that often anyway, but it's a strange sight nonetheless.

Natasha points at Loki and mouths, "How's he doing?" (Or, at least, that's what he thinks she mouthed? Reading lips is not necessarily his strong suit.)

Thor furrows his brows. Does everyone know what happened last night? He supposes he shouldn't be too surprised; Loki wasn't very quiet about it.

He shrugs and mouths back to them, "Better." Not good, but better – better than he was last night, at least, but he's spoken so little since they sat down to watch his selection of movies that he's not really sure how he's handling it right now.

"Can I...?" She gestures between herself and Loki, which he's sure means something, not that he can figure out what it is.

Thor nods anyway. Whatever she wants to do, she can go ahead and do it. He trusts that she's thought it through, and if he decides it's a bad idea, he has no problem cutting her off and asking her to leave them alone for the evening.

Natasha clears her throat pointedly. "Hey, Loki."

Loki looks up at her, the hint of a frown on his lips. "Yes?"

"Wanda has just told me some devastating information," she begins.

Loki cocks his head to the side, and Thor finds himself somewhat concerned about this, too. Nothing Natasha mouthed implied that something bad was happening – and he really isn't sure Loki's in the right headspace for bad news right now.

"She has never had a girls night," Natasha declares.

This does absolutely nothing to lessen Thor's confusion, but at least it doesn't sound like this is going in a bad direction anymore.

Loki's quiet for a few moments, and when it becomes clear that Natasha's waiting for him to speak, he just says, "That's... sad." He doesn't sound very sure of his answer. Thor's not sure he could have answered any better.

"Isn't it?" Natasha agrees. "Obviously, I plan to remedy this immediately, but you can't have a girls night with only two people, so I'm recruiting Sylvie to give me a hand." She says it so matter-of-factly, like it's not so much a request as it is a general statement of what is certainly going to happen.

"Um..." Loki just looks at her for a few moments. "No, thank you."

"Come on, it'll be fun!" she insists. "We can braid each other's hair and paint each other's nails or whatever."