Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 94

Loki lolls his head back, exasperated. "You are just completely incapable of taking responsibility for your own actions, aren't you?"

Thor scoffs. "You hit me in the face, and I am the problem?"

"I've hit you in the face thousands of times!" Loki says, incredulously. "How does that alone make this my fault?"

"Because you hit me in the face!"

Steve and Natasha poke their faces in the room, and Loki rolls his eyes at the sight. Those 15 seconds in the kitchen were not an invitation for them to join their tennis game.

"See, I told you he had a Wii remote," Natasha says.

Loki pulls the remote off his wrist and tosses it on the couch.

"Oh, hello!" Thor says. Funny enough, his mouth no longer seems to bother him now that it can't finagle himself an unearned victory. "Did you need something?"

"No, we just wanted to figure out why Loki hit you in the face," Natasha says.

"We were playing tennis and his spatial awareness was not very good," Thor says.

"That is not true," Loki says. "I told you to back up. You refused to listen."

"I cannot play the game if I can't see the television," Thor tells him.

"You could see the television just fine when we started," Loki says. "If you'd stayed where you were instead of encroaching on my space—"

"You moved into me, not the other way around," Thor interrupts.

"Stop saying that!" Loki says. "It would make no sense to move backward during this game."

"It would make no sense to move forward during the game!" Thor says.

Steve shakes his head to himself. "I'm so glad I don't have a brother."

"I wish I could say the same," Loki says, earning a lighthearted shove from Thor.

"Well, now I want to play tennis," Natasha says. "Hey, Loki, you up for another game?"

Loki cocks a brow. "Thor is bleeding out on the carpet and you want to play tennis with me?"

"Hell yes, I do," Natasha says. "If I stand in the front, you're not gonna beat me up, right?"

"Only if you make me mad."

"Sounds like a good deal to me."

Loki isn't entirely sure he agrees that it's a good deal, but when the alternative is listening to these baseless accusations from his brother, this doesn't seem too bad. He uses his magic to toss Thor's remote to her, and she catches it with ease.

"This first game will not count," Loki says. "It just feels like a waste to end a perfectly good game just because someone" — he looks pointedly at Thor — "walked into my remote."

"I did not!" Thor says indignantly.

"Makes sense," Natasha says to the younger god. "Warm-up round."

"That, and I'm only one point away from winning," Loki says. It's hardly a fair fight.

"Doesn't mean you'll win, though," Natasha remarks, a smirk on her lips.

Loki raises his brows. "Is that a challenge, Ms. Romanoff?"

"It might be," she says, bouncing her eyebrows once.

"Very well, then," Loki says. "The first round does count. I wish you the best of luck."

"I'm not the one who's gonna need luck," she says.