Loki Still Misses The Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 201

Sometimes Thor wonders if he exaggerated the threat he felt Loki posed when he showed up on Midgard all those years ago. He's not a bad person. He's never been a bad person. He was hostile, of course. He'd been hostile when they were in Asgard in the end, and he was hostile when he reappeared on Midgard. But he was never truly a bad person. He was never truly evil.

Unfortunately, trying to reason with the United Nations council doesn't work. They don't care that they nearly killed an innocent man; they don't consider Bucky Barnes innocent at all. They don't care that they almost let the real murderer go – they should have shared that information with the council, they claim; it wasn't Steve's place to take his teammates and sort it out himself.

They won't accept the proposition that the Avengers forfeit many of their potential missions in exchange for maintaining their autonomy. They want them on lockdown. They want to control the Avengers' every move, and they insist that they'll take nothing less. Nobody can change their mind – not Thor, the crown prince of Asgard; not T'Challa, the king of Wakanda. They're set firm in their beliefs.

So Loki takes matters into their own hands.

And he's kind of terrifying.

Thor knows he doesn't mean a word he says. He's not going to hurt anybody here. He can't hurt anybody here. Asgard would never allow it. But there are times, even for only a few moments, where he truly fears that Loki will do something rash. With what is said to him, Thor certainly couldn't fault him for it, but at the same time...

"The Avengers are under my protection," Loki had said finally. "You will not touch them. You have already seen the lengths I will go to to get my way. For your safety and that of the people you claim to protect, I recommend you not test me."

That, Thor feels, is about when it became clear that Loki was not taking 'no' for an answer. A few people tried to put up a bit more of a fight after that, but ultimately, Loki had said his piece, and nobody truly felt they could argue.

And, in true Loki fashion, once his dramatic rage has ended and the Avengers board the Quinjet to go home, he's all smiles, as though that had never even happened.

"You," Sam points at him, "are a miracle worker."

"I know," Loki replies smugly.

"You know," Natasha says, "for a minute there, I didn't think that was going to work."

"Never underestimate my ability to get what I want," Loki says. "Just because it does not work on you does not mean it does not work."

"Yes," Tony agrees, "we are immune to your Loki anti-charm."

Loki scoffs, mock-offended. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, you're sure as hell not charming," Tony says teasingly.

Loki makes a show of rolling his eyes before he turns his attention to Bucky. "And how does it feel to know that you are no longer a wanted terrorist?"

Bucky shrugs unenthusiastically. "Fine."

"Does it?" Loki asks. "I wouldn't know."

That gets a bit of a laugh out of the others, which means they must be in high spirits because it really wasn't very funny. All this worrying, and for what? Everything's fine. Everyone is fine. They're still one big, happy Avengers family, just the way he likes them to be.

Natasha pats Bucky on the back once. "We'll have your name cleared in no time. It'll be a fresh start."

Bucky just nods. He's not a very loud person, Thor notices. He's certainly no Tony Stark. Maybe they should get him drunk. Every quiet person is more fun when they're drunk (except for Loki; he ends up crying a lot, for some inexplicable reason).