Loki: Odin's babysitter

[moonshadows]

The gauntleted fist closed around Loki’s throat, lifting him until his toes scrabbled for purchase. He fought not to gasp, only to have the wind knocked out of him as rough bricks impacted against his back. He clung to Thor’s wrist with both hands, giving himself just enough freedom to breathe while pressed against the wall.

Loki laughed.

“You caught me, brother,” he said between gasping breaths. “But now – what are you going to do with me? Kill me?” A knowing smirk slid across his face. “No. You could never bring yourself to kill me, no matter how much you want to. Are you going to bring me home, then? Drag me before Father in chains as you did once before?”

Thor growled low in his throat, knowing where his brother was going with this.

“No…you can’t do that, because Father didn’t send you to bring me back. You won’t just release me, because you don’t trust what mischief I’ll get into, so what exactly are you going to do with me?” Loki laughed again. “Brother.”

The other fist drew back. “I’ll think of something,” Thor said ominously.

The world went dark.

 *~*~*~*~*

Linoleum and booted legs bobbed in Loki’s field of vision. A familiar metal taste and pressure assured him that Thor had once again muzzled him, and he didn’t need the clinking of chains to deduce that he had been manacled. The firm arm around his legs was one he’d felt many times around his shoulders, and the flowing red fabric beneath him confirmed it: Thor was carrying him like so much cargo. Through SHIELD headquarters. His head ached, both in back and in front, from the blow that had knocked him out. Several voices muttered urgently, only to be swept aside as Thor passed. Finally, a handful of armed guards fell into step and escorted the Asgardian, bowing to the inevitable. They eased his passage through several hallways, doors, and uncomfortable elevator rides until finally, Loki found himself flung roughly to the ground.

“And what,” Director Fury’s voice rang out, outraged and unafraid, “do you expect me to do with this?”

“Keep him secure,” Thor replied, equally fearless. “I do not trust what mischief he could enact if left to his own devices.”

“Then take him back to Asgard,” Fury’s tone fell just short of being a demand.

“He has proven himself able to fool the eyes of even the most vigilant guards.”

Loki rolled his eyes as the silence stretched.

“You’re telling me you do not have orders to return him to your realm.”

Evenly, Thor said, “That is correct.”

Silence again. Loki tried to admire the ceiling, but it was impersonally blank.

“Take him to detention block H,” Fury said at last. “We’ll keep him there for now.”

“Yes, sir!”

Hands beneath his arms and on his ankles lifted Loki. He tried to smile to the one-eyed director as he passed, but the muzzle thwarted him.

  *~*~*~*~*

Loki rubbed his wrists, mindful of the four assorted weapons aimed in his direction. “What’s beneath me this time?”

Director Fury almost smiled at the question. “A cone-shaped drop into a pool of water. Only this cage stays put – scratch the glass, and the floor opens up and drops you.”

Faint lines indicated where the bottom of the cage would iris open. Loki raised both eyebrows and inclined his head, conceding the point. Pale eyes darted over the smooth contours of his prison, identical to the one that had housed him once before. “May I have a magazine or something?”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Fury deadpanned. “Now if you’ll excuse me…” The door hissed shut.

“Oh, of course,” Loki said mildly, the very picture of innocence. “Take your time. I don’t want to be a bother.”

He backed up casually until he could sit on the bench across from the door, back against one side while he tucked his knees up against his chest and wrapped his arms loosely around them. On the other side of the glass, Thor scowled. The SHIELD agents relaxed their vigilant stance, two of them taking positions at what was clearly a monitoring station. A minute motion was Fury’s eye flicking to Thor and rolling. Loki swallowed his grin as the director led his brother and the remaining agents away.

  *~*~*~*~*

“So they’ve got you in this thing again?”

Loki glanced over to where Dr. Banner stood self-consciously by the door, hands conspicuously behind his back to reassure the nervous guards. “Well, no. Technically, I’ve never been in this particular one before. But yes, once again I am inhabiting the space reserved for you. I hope you don’t mind.”

Banner smiled at Loki’s mild tone. “Oh, not at all. Better you than me, in my opinion. If you don’t mind me asking – I’ve been pretty buried in my research lately, didn’t catch the news – what did you do to earn a stay here?”

Loki smiled back, still making no move to leave the bench. “I’m afraid you’d have to ask my brother that. He objected to my presence in a park – I assume he’d been following me for some time, as he waited until I was out of sight of any witnesses before snatching me up.”

“Aaaand what were you up to before that?” Banner asked, his smile treading the line between amusement and waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“Viewing the new gallery that just opened up. Not my taste, really. Some of it was fairly evocative, but in general I find that impressionistic art is hardly better than a child’s scribble, executed with more skill.”

“Doctor Banner?”

Both men turned to the guard who’d interrupted them. His eyes darted back and forth between the two, hands gripping his weapon nervously.

“Uh…sorry for the interruption, but Director Fury is on his way to speak to the prisoner and he asks that you return to your lab.”

“Later?” Banner asked, eyebrows raised.

Loki grinned. “I’ll be here.”

  *~*~*~*~*

Director Fury stood boldly in front of the door, his very posture demanding that Loki leave the bench he’d been lounging on and attend him. Loki complied.

“Your brother was remarkably evasive about what it was that you were doing when he found you.” Fury threw the statement out like a challenge.

Loki’s eyebrows arched slightly. “Are you asking for a confession?”

“I’m asking for an explanation. Last we knew, you were being taken to Asgard to answer for your crimes. The council wasn’t exactly happy about that, you know. I haven’t told them that you’re here…yet. So tell me why I shouldn’t tell them, and let them have you.”

The mild amusement drained away. Pensively, Loki’s pale eyes wandered over the vacant monitoring station. “I don’t expect you to not hold a grudge after our previous relations,” he said slowly. “Nor do I expect to be taken at my word after how thoroughly I manipulated all of you. But you must have realized that my brother was not under orders from our father to fetch me and bring me home.”

“He said you slipped the guards. That you had been imprisoned on Asgard, and you escaped.”

“I was, and I did. It’s true.”

Fury’s even tone didn’t waver. “Why?”

The wandering pale gaze came to rest on Fury’s dark eye. “I came here in search of something, something I will not find on Asgard, and I do not intend to leave this realm until I have it.”

“And what might that be?”

“I can’t tell you.” Loki matched Fury’s even tone, his voice just as firm but without the edge of challenge or demand.

“Why not?”

“Because.”

“Because why?” The words snapped, vibrating with command.

Loki turned away, pacing aimlessly. “Because I don’t want to, okay?” Long fingers spread across one smooth wall as Loki stared blankly at it. “It’s personal.”

Fury watched him for a long minute. “Does Thor know this?”

“I don’t know.”

“Would you tell him?”

Loki spit out a harsh laugh.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

Silence.

“I couldn’t find a magazine,” Fury said finally.

The door slid open, then shut. Loki turned to find a well-read paperback on the floor.

“That ought to hold you until I can find something better. Maybe an encyclopedia or something.” The eyebrow over his missing eye arched as if inviting comment. “I’ll take the risk of educating you on how this world works if it keeps you from getting into trouble because you’re bored. You step one pretty little toe out of line, though, and I turn you over to the council. Got it?”

Loki stared at the book for a long moment before raising his eyes to the director’s face, expression curious but guarded. “I understand.”