Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 165

They really thought this would be it.

They really thought they were finally going to find Rumlow.

They gathered the whole gang – Sam, Rhodes, Maria Hill; everyone they could call on, they did.

They showed Loki a picture of the man so he could report back if he found him – or, better yet, he could incapacitate him himself.

They did everything they could. They were determined to finally take him in.

He was nowhere to be found.

Loki doesn't know why he cares. This isn't even his fight; he just comes along with them because there's not much else to do when they're not around. None of this actually matters to him. And yet, he finds himself really disappointed that this didn't work out. It will, he's sure. Brock Rumlow can only hide for so long. But they really thought that today was going to be the day they finally found him, and it wasn't.

He very rarely makes himself visible on the flight back to the compound, but today, he doesn't join them at all. He's too annoyed that they wasted their time. (And, sure, they did arrest – and kill, in rare instances that he had no part in because he's sure Odin would not let it slide – a good number of HYDRA's people, but none of them were the person, so as far as he's concerned, it was a waste of time.)

So he's hanging out with Harley instead, because what better way to cheer himself up than hanging out with his favorite high schooler? (And, on that note, he can hardly believe the kid has grown up so much since they first met each other. Objectively, he knows humans age faster than Asgardians. They have to, if they're going to die in just eighty years. But Harley has aged ridiculously fast, and it's really not easy for Loki to wrap his head around.)

Right now, Harley is showing Loki his school project for some computer class, and though Loki has absolutely no idea what any of the words coming out of his mouth actually mean, he's sure this is very impressive to anyone who knows anything about computers. Harley certainly thinks it is – he's the self-proclaimed "smartest person in the class," and that does, as he's repeated numerous times, include the teacher.

And then the shed door opens.

That never happens.

Loki disappears, invisible but still present. Nobody is supposed to know that he's on Earth. An exception has been made for Harley for obvious reasons; his friends, not so much.

It's a girl who stands in the doorway. She looks a bit younger than Harley – and she looks a bit like Harley, too. This must be the little sister he's heard so many unflattering things about. He looks forward to seeing what she's really like, outside of Harley's irritated rantings.

Harley shoots her a glare. "What are you doing here?" he asks. "Go away! Get out of my lab!"

Loki will never get over how funny it is that he considers this run-down shed a lab. Maybe it's because Loki's only experience with Midgardian labs are the labs that were fully funded by multibillionaire Tony Stark, but this certainly pales in comparison to the laboratories he himself has worked in.

But his sister – Emily, Harley's called her in the past – is just staring at him, wide-eyed. "Oh my god."

"Go away," Harley says again, shooing her with his hand. "I'm doing homework."

Emily ignores that. "You weren't lying."

"Go away!" Harley whines. He picks up a pencil and chucks it toward her, though it misses by a spectacular margin.

"You really do hang out with Loki, the guy that blew up New York."

Loki cocks his head to the side. He's not even offended that she thinks he blew up New York (which he did not, for the record: it was the United States government that tried to blow up New York). He's just surprised that she was able to figure out who he was in the half-second she saw him here – and, he supposes, he's also surprised that Harley has apparently told her about him. They never did technically tell him not to, but it just kind of felt implied...