Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 23

Tony's been pacing back and forth in the lobby for three minutes now. Pepper said she would be here in a minute. This is more than a minute. This is a three times a minute. If he has to wait much longer, he's going to lose his mind.

He's fully aware that he's being dramatic. Of course he is; he'd have to be an idiot not to be. But he hasn't seen Pepper in weeks, and he doesn't want to wait another second to hold her in his arms. He doesn't even care if she makes fun of him for being sappy. It's been a very trying few weeks and he misses his girl more than he can say.

Pepper finally walks through the door, her shoes click-clacking against the tile floor with every step. Tony smiles at the sight of her. She's so professional, walking around in her fancy white suit with her hair done all nice. If he has it his way, none of that is going to last.

Pepper looks around uncomfortably. "I've never seen it so empty before."

"Forget the tower," Tony says. Who gives a shit about the tower? He runs up to her and pulls her into a hug, burying his face in the crook of her neck.

"Woah!" Pepper laughs and hugs him back. "What's this about?" she asks. "I mean, not that I'm complaining, but...?"

"I might have kind of missed you," Tony murmurs. "Just a little bit."

"It's only been a couple weeks," she reminds him.

"There is nothing 'only' about a couple weeks," Tony says. "It felt like an eternity — the longest two and a half weeks of my life."

"At least you had the Avengers —"

"No," Tony says immediately, putting an abrupt end to the hug that he would have been perfectly content to let continue forever. "No, that is not a good thing. Don't try to turn this into a good thing. It's not. It's a bad thing."

Pepper rolls her eyes, a fond smile on her lips. "Right, right, of course. I'm very sorry you've had to spend the last two weeks with your friends. It must have been very difficult."

"They're not my friends," Tony says. She knows that. He spends most of his time in the lab, anyway, far away from them. "We worked together. We're coworkers. That doesn't make us friends."

"No," Pepper agrees, "the Star Wars movie nights make your friends."

He hates that she has a point. He never would have sent her the video of Loki whining on the man cave floor like a depressed kitten if he knew she was going to throw it back in his face like this.

"No, see," Tony says, "Star Wars movie nights with Rhodey could make us friends. He's not here." If he was, Tony might actually be able to convince himself this is fun.

"Then invite him over," Pepper says with a shrug. "Easy."

"I tried," Tony says. That was the whole point of the little man cave video — showing Rhodey how stupid Loki looks and trying to get him to visit. "He doesn't want to deal with Loki any more than you do."

"Ah, right," she says. "I forgot that not everyone likes to harass the most powerful being on the planet."

"I know, weird, right?" Tony says with a grin. He puts a hand on her back and gently leads her to the elevator. "Speaking of Loki, Steve takes him out for lunch and dinner and he comes out when everyone's asleep. Other than that, he doesn't leave his room. You can just pretend he's not even here."

"You can say that as many times as you want," Pepper says. "It won't make me feel any better."

"Okay, but it makes me feel better," Tony says. Because he can pretend that assuring her for the hundredth time that he won't even see her makes her feel better, and that makes him feel better.