Chapter 4
"So, Mobius," Loki whispers to his friend-turned-housemate-turned-coworker, "what exactly is it that we do here?"
"The same thing we always do," Mobius says with a shrug.
"Okay, and what is it we always do,?" Loki asks.
"This."
Loki stares at him blankly. That's it? That's all the help he's getting? He doesn't even know what his job is. How is he supposed to do it?
Meanwhile, one of his coworkers (that Loki doesn't know the name of, but, to be fair, he doesn't know most people's names) has done a whole stack of whatever-it-is-they're-doing, which makes Loki feel very inadequate right now. At least Norm (he does know that name, if only because it was just said) is as impressed as Loki is, so clearly this isn't the expectation.
"Hey!" Loki whispers loudly, raising a hand to get the guy's attention.
The man furrows his brows. "Yes?"
Loki gestures for him to come closer, and, after a pause, he does. "What's your name?"
He cocks his head to the side. "Vision."
Loki raises his eyebrows. Weird name. "Okay, Vision, what do we do here?"
Vision chuckles awkwardly. "I was about to ask the same thing."
Loki stares at him. "You've done more work today than everyone else combined. How do you not know what we do here?"
"I can do a computational form," Vision says. "I just... don't know what they're for. I don't know what type of data I've been computing."
Loki scoffs and shakes his head to himself. "Oh, this is fun." His job isn't even a real job. It's the facade of a job. Even the other employees don't know what they're doing.
The door by the wall opens, and Vision immediately goes back to his seat. Loki drops his head to look at the papers on his desk that he can't make sense of for the life of him, but his gaze remains on his coworkers to see what's happening.
Two men leave the room adjacent to theirs, and while one heads out of the office, the other stays. "Vision," he says.
Vision whips his head around to look at him. "Yes?"
He seems really on-edge around this new guy. He must be the boss, Loki deduces. That's why everyone is working hard right now. He should probably do the same, then. (He's still absolutely going to watch what happens, but he should start working hard.)
"Wife and I are looking forward to this evening," the boss tells him.
That seems to be some great big realization for him. "Mr. Hart, of course!" Vision says. "Dinner with Mr. Hart and his dear lady wife Mrs. Hart!"
"That's what I just said," Mr. Hart says. "What's wrong with you? Have you got a screw loose?"
Loki figures out fairly quickly that this Mr. Hart is not a nice guy. It's obvious from the moment he first sees the man, but the longer he's in the room, the worse it gets. Apparently he fired Phil Jones over a failed dinner party — and not even a poorly done dinner. From the sound of it, he and his wife would do the Asgardian royal family proud.
By the time Mr. Hart returns to his office, Vision looks sufficiently terrified. Loki feels the same way, and it's not even his future on the line. Mr. Hart may actually be the single most intimidating person Loki has ever met — and the bar is not low.
Mobius lets out a low whistle. "I can't believe Mr. Hart told Dottie Jones her dinner wasn't good enough. That man isn't afraid of anything."
Loki raises an eyebrow. Whatever that means.
"I told him he should have asked us for help," Mobius continues. "I know planning and organizing is Dottie's favorite thing, but we've done this before. We could've come in and kachow! Saved his job!"
Loki shakes his head to himself. "I am so glad I don't remember that dinner."
"You don't?" Mobius scoffs. "It was the cat's meow, I tell you. Best dinner I've ever had."
"Mm-hmm," Loki hums. "I'm sure it was." Except that he never actually had it, but he doesn't know that. "Give me a second."
Loki gets up and heads to Vision's desk. Logically, he knows it doesn't actually matter. None of this is real. Even if Vision messes up his dinner tonight and gets fired, it won't affect his future once the town is restored. Still, he's not sure how long it will take for everything to go back to normal, so he'd like to at least try to help.
"Oh, this is horrible," Vision says, looking up at him with a frown. "I'd forgotten this was tonight. I'm not at all ready."
"Then let's get you ready," Loki says. "What do you need? We'll figure it out together."
Vision smiles warily. "Oh, thank you... I'm sorry, what's your name again?"
"Loki."
"Loki," Vision finishes. "But I don't know what I need help with."
"Well, what do you have?" Loki asks. "We can go from there."
Vision thinks about that for a moment, then sighs. "I don't know. I'll have to ask my wife. Hopefully she's more prepared than I am."
Loki leans against the desk. "Go ahead, call her," he says. "See what she needs."
Vision nods. "That's a good idea." He picks up the phone and dials her number. There's a pause, and Vision looks up at him nervously. Loki gives him a thumbs up, earning a small smile. She must pick up the phone, because he says a quiet, "Wanda, darling. Listen, about tonight —"
Vision stops talking, so suddenly that Loki can only assume he got cut off. But after a few seconds, he says, "Oh, well, that is a relief," which leads Loki to assume this is going well. "I must confess, I'm really rather nervous."
Yeah, he probably should be.
"There's an awful lot riding on this one, Wanda," Vision continues. "If tonight doesn't go just so, I think this could be the end."
Loki shakes his head. You'll be fine, he mouths.
Vision hesitates, then nods once, though he's still so tense and so nervous, it's obvious he doesn't believe it. (And, honestly, neither does Loki.) "Look, I think the best course of action is to impress the wife."
Loki nods enthusiastically and gives him another thumbs up. This is good! He has a plan! And it sounds like a good plan, too! Mr. Hart wouldn't bring his wife to these dinners if he didn't value her opinion. It's definitely a good idea to keep her in mind while they're planning.
"Well, wonderful!" Vision says. "Glad to know we're both on the same page. Until tonight, then, my darling..."
Loki waits until he hangs up the phone before he asks, "So? What did she say?"
"Well..." Vision shrugs, a smile on his face. "She said everything is under control."
"Oh!" Loki grins. "Look at that! All worried for nothing."
"I hope so," Vision says, but he still looks nervous. "You've done this before, haven't you?"
Loki hesitates, then says an awkward, "... Yes?"
"Do you have any advice?" Vision asks. "Anything I should know before tonight?"
Loki hesitates. He really doesn't. If Phil's dinner was a miserable failure, he can't even imagine what a success looks like. But he has to give him something.
Finally, Loki says, "Here, give me some paper. I'll write down my number. If you realize later tonight that you need something, call me, okay? I live with three other people. I'm sure at least one of us will be able to help you."
Vision breathes a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank you, Loki. You don't know how much I appreciate it."
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