Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 173

There are a lot of things that Bruce could be doing.

He could be working in the lab. There are always things to work on in the lab.

He could go to bed early. Lord knows he doesn't get nearly enough sleep.

He could finally return Jen's call that he's been putting off for a week or two now. She's used to it by now, but he's sure he'll still get an earful. He should probably get that over with sooner rather than later.

But none of that sounds very exciting. They're all things he has to do eventually. They're all things he's sure he'll end up enjoying whenever he gets around to them. But he just doesn't want to do them right now.

So he'll do this instead.

"FRIDAY," he says, "where's Loki?" He's sure he could find him pretty easily without FRIDAY's help; he really only goes to four different places – his room, the kitchen, the common room, and outside – but that just sounds like too much work.

"Loki is on the roof," FRIDAY answers. Admittedly, that's not necessarily somewhere he would have thought to check, but it is technically outside so he wasn't not wrong about the whole 'four places' thing.

"He's so weird," Bruce mutters. He loves the guy, but he is not the most normal person in the world.

It's getting warm outside, but it's still chilly enough that he'd like to grab a jacket if there's a chance he might end up staying out there for more than a few minutes, so he makes a pit-stop in his room. He'll just grab a light jacket, and...

Actually, he's sure he knows what Loki's up to: listening to music, as always. He could – should? – give him a pair of earbuds. He'd probably like that. Maybe he wouldn't spend so much time outside if he could listen to music inside without worrying about annoying people. (Or maybe it won't change anything. Maybe Loki just really likes to be outside. Maybe he's still not used to being allowed outside – even though it's coming up on a year since they moved here; he really should be used to it by now.

Still, it won't hurt to offer him a pair of earbuds. With all the money Tony gives the Avengers for Christmas and their birthdays and when he's bored, Bruce has taken to buying new earbuds every time he loses his, and then he always finds them right after because the world hates him, so he has quite the collection.

So he slips his jacket on, puts some earbuds in his pocket, and then he's off to find Loki.

He's never actually been on the roof before. He's never had a reason to. And while Loki is strong enough that he can probably jump all the way up there (and he has his magic and whatever), Bruce very much cannot climb up to the roof from the outside, so he ends up asking FRIDAY for directions to somewhere inside that will lead him up there the easy way.

He can hear the music from inside, and it only grows louder once Bruce has opened the hatch. Whether it's the music hiding the sound or Loki's concentration on his phone that has him oblivious to the outside world, it's difficult to tell, but when Bruce pokes his head up, Loki doesn't even notice. He's slouched over his phone screen, very intently tapping and pausing and muttering under his breath words that Bruce can't make out over the music he's playing.

"Hey," Bruce greets him.

"One moment," Loki says absently, still wholly focused on his phone.

Bruce furrows his brows. Should he... go up there? Excuse himself and go back down? Stay half-inside the building until Loki's ready?

But then Loki drops his head forward, a clear sign of defeat. "Damn," he mutters. He clicks his phone screen off and looks over at the scientist. "Did you need something?"