Chapter 3
“You said he can hold a form for a little under a week?” Steve asks. Thor nods his agreement.
“I guess the countdown is on,” Tony says.
Day 1
“Stand back,” Steve says.
Loki rolls his eyes and obliges. It’s not like he’s going to try anything - one of Thor’s friends, the one Thor called Son of Stark, is pointing something at Loki from the doorway. The implication is pretty clear - and Thor’s friends have always liked weapons.
The other man, the one with the shield, heaves a mattress into the cell.
“Here,” he says. He hands Loki some blankets as well. Interesting - usually captors don’t particularly care about Loki’s wellbeing. Perhaps this is Thor’s doing? Though it would be odd…
The man is looking at him strangely.
“Is there something you would like to say,” Loki asks (rather magnanimously, in his opinion.)
“We’re as confused as you are,” the man says. “But we’re not going to punish you for that.”
Loki nods. He doesn’t know all of their ticks yet, the tells that let him know when people are lying. But this man seems sincere. Do they treat prisoners differently here, or is this man just an optimist?
“Interesting.” Loki says. And then, because he was raised to have manners, he thanks the man.
Well, technically he says “thanks, midgardian.” But then again, it was rude of the man to not introduce himself in the first place, so Loki thinks he’s morally in the clear.
The man blinks. “My name is Steve.”
Loki nods. “Thank you Steve.”
Day 3
“I come bearing gifts.”
Loki looks up. One of Thor’s friends - not Steve, the more annoying one - stands in front of the glass. He’s holding a couple books in his arms.
“Steve said I had to bring you something to read.” Tony shrugs. “Something about solitary confinement being torture and anti-American.”
Loki tilts his head. “America? Like, the colonies?”
“Well, not anymore. We had a whole war and everything.” Tony says flippantly. Maybe he shouldn’t be so callous about a literal war - but it is kind of amusing that Loki, whose every word implies that he thinks he’s the smartest person in the room, doesn’t know that America is America. Or, of course, he could be pretending. Which is a less amusing thought.
“Interesting.” Loki says. He raises an eyebrow at Tony. “I believe I was promised gifts?”
“That you were.” Tony concedes. “I don’t actually know what you like, but Pepper left some Shakespeare in the penthouse. And seeing how you and Thor talk like you’re trying to put on a play, I figured it would be appropriate.”
Tony holds out the top book so Loki can see it through the glass.
Loki smirks. “The mad prince of Denmark. Really?”
“Do you have a problem with that?” Tony asks.
Loki’s staring at him. “Well, that begs the question: do you think I’m crazy.”
“Why would you ask that?” Tony says, instead of saying what he wants, which is somewhere between ‘I think your brain is a bag of cats’ and ‘You threw me out of a goddamn window.’
“Perhaps because I’m on the wrong side of a cell. Perhaps because you seem to be allies with my brother. Perhaps because you’re offering me one of the best known pieces of literature about a mad prince’s untimely death?” Loki’s staring at Tony. Tony has an uncanny feeling that Loki has been cataloging his facial responses the entire time.
“If I was threatening you, you’d know it.” Maybe not the most diplomatic thing he could say, but Steve isn’t here to chide him and Thor isn’t here to give him puppy dog eyes over his homicidal little brother.
“Conscience doth make cowards of us all,” says Loki, who is apparently well versed in both Shakespeare and being fucking creepy.
Day 5
Thor’s first visit to the cell was spent in silence, the brothers staring at each other across the glass. Thor didn’t know what to say - and Loki was lost in thought, a childhood predisposition he never quite rid himself of.
The second visit, unfortunately, is not as uneventful.
“We’ve been brothers for over a millennium! And yet, without fail, you drop me every time something new and shiny comes along.” Loki snarls, his studied composure cracking for the first time that week. “You trust these midgardians more than you trust me?”
Thor sighs. “I trust most anyone more than I trust you.”
“What did I do for you to hate me so?” Under the anger in Loki’s voice, there is something young and desperate. Thor pretends not to hear it. Anger is so much easier.
“I don’t hate you Loki,” Thor sighs again. Loki thinks Thor looks unspeakably old. He looks a bit like the All Father. “If you’re the Loki we think you are, you know what you did. And if you’re not, then it’s better if you don’t know.”
Loki shakes his head. “I don’t really know what’s going on or why I’m here. But we both know I’ve never responded well to information kept from me ‘for my own good.’” Loki attempts a smile.
“I watched you die, Loki.” Thor’s voice is grave. Loki’s smile falls. He looks young and lost and kind of pitiful. Thor wants to hug him, wants to hit him, wants to scream until his voice goes hoarse.
Thor does none of those things. “You have done terrible things, Loki. But you also died a hero. You better not throw away this chance.”
Loki looks at Thor, pity coloring his gaze. “You do realize I’m not that person, right, Thor?” His voice is low, soothing. “Unlike you, I can traverse the universe without a ship. A couple days climbing through Yggdrasil and I’d be wherever I want. If I was this Loki who died, why wouldn’t I pretend to stay dead? What possible motive would I have to come back?”
“You have me,” Thor says.
Loki doesn’t have a response for that.
Day 7
“We need to talk,” Steve says, all patriotism and sincerity.
Thor nods. “Yes, we do. Clearly, my brother is innocent.”
Tony chuckles. It’s going to take a lot more than this to convince him. “I wouldn’t go that far, Point Break. But I will admit, it has been a week and he’s shown no sign of faking.”
“I think we should let him walk around or something. I’m still against solitary confinement.” Steve says. “It’s wrong. And if he is a teenager - which is seeming more likely by the day - this could be highly traumatic.”
Tony doesn’t particularly care if Loki is traumatized. (And, seeing how much of an asshole he is whenever anyone stops by his cell, Tony is pretty sure Loki’s doing just fine.)
“Do we have any magic suppressing cuffs?” Steve asks. “If so, we really should let him at least stretch his legs.”
Thor smiles like a fool. Tony throws his hands up. “Fine! Let’s just let the genocidal maniac walk around my house! What a great idea.”
(Tony is outvoted. Tony also has to go tell Loki of this update, because apparently life hates him.)
Day 7 + 1
“If you put these on, you can get out of there.” Tony holds up an extra pair of cuffs from the Battle of New York.
Loki looks at the cuffs with distaste and, if Tony’s not mistaken, a smidge of fear. “I’m not wearing those.”
Tony sighs. He knew he should have sent Cap to do this. “Come on. It’ll only be for a little bit. You can stretch your legs. And Thor really wants to see you.”
Loki shrugs. “Then he can come visit me in the cell that he put me in.”
Tony winces because, harsh. “Then you can’t come out.”
“Fine,” Loki shrugs. “You’re midgardian. You’ll die at some point in the next eighty years anyway. I can wait.”
Tony ignores the part of his mind that tells him Loki’s threatening him. If he was, he certainly has a long timeline. But Loki doesn’t sound like he’s joking, either.
Tony clears his throat because who the fuck would keep someone in a single cell for decades. Isn’t that against the Geneva Conventions or something? “We’re… we’re not going to keep you in a cell for eighty years.”
Loki shrugs and lies back on his bed. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Tony prides himself on his quips. But seriously… “What the fuck, kid.”
“I’d really prefer if there wasn’t any venom dripping into my eyes this time. Could that be arranged?”
Tony doesn’t dignify that with a response. Because seriously - what the fuck.