Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 55

"Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance!"

Loki's almost reluctant to step in the kitchen and see what this chanting is about. Had Steve not been ahead of him and had he not given Loki a strange look when he didn't follow, he might have turned around and left, or at least waited until whatever this was was over.

He hesitantly steps into the doorway, but he doesn't come any further into the room. Everyone is standing in a semicircle around Natasha, whose face is a bright red. Well, at least he knows he doesn't have to be the center of attention.

"I'm not going to dance!" she says. "I don't know how to dance!"

"Do it anyway!" Clint says.

"It doesn't have to be good," Pepper adds. "I just want to hear your shoes."

"Guys—"

"Dance! Dance! Dance! Dance!" everyone begins to chant again. Even Steve joins in this time, caving to peer pressure after the first few chants from the others.

Natasha gives him a look. "Et tu, Brute?"

Steve shrugs. "I wanna see what you've got."

Natasha scoffs. She looks around the room, and the chants continue. Finally, her gaze settles on Loki, the only silent one in the room. "Why is Loki being the most tolerable person here?"

Loki cocks an eyebrow and remains silent.

"Because he's too distracted by his cat to care about anything else," Tony says dismissively. "Dance! Dance! Dance!"

Loki readjusts his grasp on the cat so he can stroke her stomach with his thumb. He really does care about this cat more than anything else, so Tony's not wrong there.

"I'm not gonna dance," Natasha insists.

That does nothing to quell the chanting.

"What do you want me to do?" she asks, exasperated. "I don't know how to dance. This is all I got." She brushes her foot back and forth a few times, and everyone falls silent to listen to the noise her shoes make against the tile floor. "That's all I got."

Pepper starts clapping, beaming. Steve, Clint, and Bruce join in, though not quite as enthusiastically.

Tony has a different idea, though, and begins chanting, "More! More! More! More!"

Clint joins in. "More! More! More!" He punctuates each one with a clap.

Rhodey chuckles and decides to do the same, followed shortly after by Pepper and Thor, and then Bruce and Steve, though the latter two are quieter and less insistent.

Natasha throws her hands up, exasperated. "Oh, come on!"

Loki fights back a laugh. This almost feels like something he would bear witness to in Asgard, likely with Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three — except they'd probably all be drunk, and they'd be cheering about something much worse than some harmless tap dancing.

"I hate you all," Natasha tells them.

"You can make it all stop by showing us your moves," Tony tells him.

"I did!" she says. "I don't have any more moves!"

"You're an assassin," Tony says. "You can literally bend yourself in half. Of course you have more moves."

Natasha scowls. "Fine." She pushes herself away from the counter, and the Avengers all cheer. "But this is all you're getting."

"I knew it would work," Tony whispers.