Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 152

"This is ridiculous," Loki mutters as Natasha helps her into her dress for the night.

Natasha snorts. "Not as ridiculous as you sitting in your room all night when there's a whole big party going on."

Loki rolls her eyes. "Not that," she says – although she does also think it's ridiculous that Natasha won't let her have the night to herself to reread the Percy Jackson series again. "It's ridiculous that Midgardian dresses are so hard to put on." Under her breath, she adds, "At least in Asgard, I would have servants to help me." She misses having servants. Life was so much easier when she could ask other people to do things for her and they would just do it.

"Who needs servants when you've got girlfriends?" Natasha counters. She moves Loki's hair back from over her shoulder to cover the zipper she just zipped up for her.

"I would much rather have servants or gowns I can put on independently," Loki says. And she probably could have put this gown on herself, but with Natasha right there and ready to zip her up, she would have felt weird using magic to get dressed.

"Too bad," Natasha replies with a shrug. "This is how we do it on Earth. You ask your girlfriends to help you get dressed, and then they ask you to help them get dressed."

Loki glances over her shoulder at Natasha, who is already very much dressed to party. It looks like she won't be doing that part of it.

Natasha turns her around and takes a step back, letting her eyes trail down her body and taking in the sight before her. Loki bites her lip awkwardly. Does she look alright? She feels like she should. Nothing about her outfit, her minimal accessories, or her hair feels out of place. But then, she only knows Midgardian party etiquette from what she's seen from others. Nobody's ever explained the ins and outs and what's to be expected. It's entirely possible there's something glaringly wrong and she just has no idea.

"You got a bra?" Natasha asks finally.

Loki furrows her brows. "I don't?" That's a weird question – and probably a weird answer, but, in her defense, she can only conjure what she has, and she didn't tend to carry around spare bras before she was locked up here.

Answering her unspoken question, Natasha says, "Your nipples are poking through."

Loki looks down, and, sure enough, her nipples are poking through the fabric of her dress.

"What size are you?" Natasha asks. "I might have something you can borrow."

Loki cocks her head to the side.

"Unless you're into that sort of thing; I don't know," Natasha says. "You trying to flaunt your nipples?"

"I am very much not trying to flaunt my nipples," Loki says. She is not Thor. She does not like to walk around with her nipples showing – in any form, male, female, or otherwise – and flaunt her body. She likes to be a bit scandalous sometimes, but there's a limit to that.

"Alright, c'mon." Natasha kicks the shoe box on the floor toward her. "Put some shoes on. Let's see if I've got something you can steal."

Loki eyes her skeptically. "You'll let me borrow your own bra."

Natasha shrugs. "Yeah, sure," she says. "I let Wanda steal from my closet all the time. I don't care."

"I feel as though you cannot really compare a bra to a t-shirt," Loki says.

Natasha rolls her eyes. "God, you're such a dude," she mutters. Do you want a bra or not?"

Loki frowns. She's not a dude – not right now, at least. She must seem like one, though. She's never had the chance to explain her relationship with gender to the Avengers – and she's not sure she'd know how to even if the chance did arise – so how can she expect them to understand that when they see her in this form, they can generally assume that she is a woman, inside and out? How can she expect them to understand that this isn't just a game she likes to play?