Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 197

When Loki crawls into bed that night, he finds himself hesitating before he turns out the light. He has everything he needs – his phone, his quiet Taylor Swift playlist, his cat – but he still feels like he's missing something.

Was he supposed to do anything today? He's fairly certain there was nothing he was supposed to do today. Anything that had to be done was done yesterday. He stopped the Avengers from murdering each other. He found the man who convinced them to try to murder each other. He saved Bucky's reputation. It's done now. It's over.

Or, he supposes, it will be over tomorrow after they're confronted by the United Nations and villainized for breaking the law to protect an innocent man – something that Loki is basically expected to solve himself, which sounded like a much better idea when he said he would do it yesterday, but has been stressing him out the more he thinks about it. What if he can't? What if his threats don't convince them of anything? What if they call his bluff? What if they hurt the Avengers because he can't persuade them not to?

There was a time this never would have bothered him. He and his silver tongue were made to manipulate people. This is what he does. It's what he's always done. Why does it feel so difficult for him now?

Maybe that's why he doesn't want to go to sleep just yet. Maybe it's just anxiety. Maybe he'd rather curl up and stare into the pitch-black void that is his bedroom at night and do nothing but think about what he's going to say and do tomorrow.

Or maybe it's Tony and Wanda.

He does feel a little bad that he never really acknowledged their messages. Maybe that's what he needs to do to allow himself to rest: he needs to shoot them each a text, then put his phone up for the night and fall asleep to the sound of Taylor Swift singing about love and loss and heartbreak.

So he sighs, sits back up, and pulls out his phone, and Snowflake, being the pain in the ass that she is, climbs into his lap and stands up on his chest with her front feet, blocking his view of the screen with no regard for his feelings in the matter.

"Snowflake, darling," Loki murmurs, "I love you dearly, but perhaps you could lie down?"

Snowflake lifts her paw and taps his chin a couple times.

Loki huffs a laugh. "Snowflake, my dear, you are a strange little girl." He presses a kiss to the top of her head, and she smushes her face against his, her ear folding back as she silently begs him to scratch beneath it. He obliges, rubbing his nose against the base of her ear, and she purrs softly, only for a few seconds before she steps off of him.

She steps out of his lap, only to curl up atop his blanket that's kicked off down by his feet. It seems he won't be using that tonight, at least until Snowflake gives it up. The hard part will be lying down without kicking the cat that's in the very center of his bed.

He opens up his text conversation with Tony. The most recent message is a photo Tony "stealthily" snapped of Loki passed out on the couch a week or two ago, which is both annoying (because why would he do that?) and endearing (because Snowflake looks so comfortable curled up behind his legs).

But that photo isn't why he opened their text conversation, so, once again, he starts typing.

Loki: I saw that you've decided to retire, and though it pains me to admit it, this will be quite a loss for your world. You're a good man, Stark, and the world is a better place for having you in it. Midgard owes you a debt.

He takes a deep breath, tries not to overthink this, and hits send. Hopefully Tony will find this flattering and not unendingly disturbing, especially with whom the message comes from.

No read tag pops up, so he switches over to his conversation with Wanda – one that consists of very few messages, nearly all of which are based around her learning to control her magic (with the occasional exception for when Wanda mentions that she likes a Taylor Swift song, to which Loki usually responds with a smiley face because he never knows what to say) and begins typing.

Loki: I saw that you've decided to quit the Avengers. I understand why you would want to do this, especially after our last mission in Nigeria, and I will certainly not tell you not to if this is truly what you'd like to do, but I hope that you know what happened in Nigeria was not your fault. You did your best in an impossible situation, and you saved both your own life and Rogers' life in the process. You've grown a lot in the year that I've known you, as both a person and a sorcerer, and you should be proud of yourself for who you've become and what you've accomplished.

He rereads that a few times, then sends it. It feels weird. It feels sappy – sentimental, even, and he's not very a sentimental person. But right now, he feels that's warranted. He feels like he's doing the right thing with this. He feels like this might be what Wanda needs to see right now.

Again, no read tag pops up, so he decides to put his phone–

Oh.

A text back from Tony.

He wasn't expecting that right now. It is the middle of the night. (Although it's earlier in California, isn't it? Midgard does something weird with their times, don't they?)

He opens up the conversation and gives this new message a read.

Tony: Thanks, Lokes. That means a lot, coming from you. But I've made one too many mistakes lately. I think it's about time to call it quits.

He's texting like a normal person. He's been texting like a normal person all day. He's even using punctuation. This is weird and suspicious and he doesn't like it.

Tony: Pep and I are about to head out, but I'll see you tomorrow?

Loki: I'll most certainly be here.

Tony: Cool beans

Loki cracks a smile. That sounds much more like the Tony Stark he knows and tolerates.

He checks back on his conversation with Wanda, but there's still no read tag. She's probably in bed, he reasons – or maybe just not looking at her phone. There's surely a lot more fun to be had in a house with two young children (and a baby, but he wouldn't consider babies fun in any sense).

So he puts his phone down beside his bed, carefully lies down on the mattress without crushing his sleepy kitty, and closes his eyes.

... He still doesn't feel like he'll be able to sleep.

Tonight is going to be so much fun.