Loki x Movie Theatre Employee M!Reader
Summary: AU where the MCU has its own release of “Avengers” in 2022. Y/N meets Loki during opening night.
Author’s Note: Loki is written as genderfluid and referred to as he/they. This is the first chapter to a possible series and I plan to further explore Loki’s flexible pronouns.
It was chaotic. People loved superhero movies, and everytime one was released the first few days the theatres were packed like sardines, lines out the door. Today was one of those days. The new “Avengers” movie was premiering at your small town theatre, and it had brought out almost everyone in the town. The movie was based on the true events of the 2012 Battle of New York, in honor of the 10th year anniversary of said battle. If you could call it honor. You kind of hated the fact that this company was glorifying the real trauma of citizens and the Avengers themselves. You’d think the company would have consulted the Avengers and let themselves tell their stories.
It was whatever though, people loved the Avengers and they’d enjoy whatever shlock was thrown on the big screen. It was already really loud but this one moment the doors opened and a cacophony of excitement spread amongst the customers in line. In between orders you tried to crane your head to see what all the fuss was about, but to no avail the crowd was too big of a swarm. The loudness eventually died down as customers made their way to their auditoriums. Finally you saw what was causing the ruckus. The actual Avengers in your small town theatre. Just your luck they were in your line. Thor, the massive God of Thunder, himself strutted up to your register. His deep voice practically boomed like the thunder he conjured.
“Alright, I’ll have 3 of your largest popcorns extra butter all throughout, 4 large sodas, 2 sprites and 2 lemonades, a cherry freeze thingy, and uh.. that’s it for me,” he turns slightly to his fellow warriors, “and what do you all want?” He chuckles heartily as they laugh with him, you notice his infamous brother is along with them, Loki.
Loki looked clearly annoyed by the cheerful bunch of friends, despite looking annoyed you note he also looks quite handsome in casual clothes, or well what you assume is casual for him. He wore a black leather jacket, black long sleeve v-neck and tight black leather pants, to top it all off he had some glimmers of gold jewelry and a thin forest green scarf hanging on his neck. As much as people hated him, they had to admit the androgynous man had some fashion sense.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what brings you all here to our lil’ theatre?”
Steve chimes in, “Well Bruce and I aren’t big fans of crowds, so we figured we’d make a bit of a drive to somewhere quaint but, I guess this movie is popular everywhere.”
You shrug, while continuing to prepare their order, “yeah I guess so, people just seem to love heroes, and all y’all.” You notice Loki’s uncomfortableness with the statement. You lean a bit on the counter while handing the heroes their drinks, “which of the order is yours, Loki?”
He looked at you confused, you must’ve been the only person to talk to him that night besides the Avengers. He clears his throat, “I don’t want anything,”
“Ah, come on, it’s a long movie.”
“I don’t even want to see this movie.. Do you have water?”
“I’ll have a water, then”
“Okay, I’ll add it on the order,”
Thor snorts, elbowing his brother, “oh come on live a little, do you have mead?”
“No, we’re not that type of theatre” you laugh while grabbing the water for Loki out of its fridge.
When you return to your register you hand the water to Loki, your fingers brush against his as he takes the bottled water into his hand. You feel your heart jitter from the slight touch. You hope and pray they don’t see your nervousness.
It felt like it was longer than a minute but the moment went away as quick as it came, “thank you, dear,” he calmly said smiling.
You fumble to finish the long order, your co-workers grinning and chatting up respective avenger members. You notice, Tony handing big bills to your fellow employees, you hope once he pays he’ll give you a tip too, this job only pays so much after all. You attempt to chat up Loki but Captain Steve Rogers interrupts, “I see theatres still sell hot dogs!”
You look over at it, “yeah, you want one?”
“No, not for a movie.” Steve waves off the offer.
You and one of your co-workers laugh, “yeah you get it.. we- we have this joke that your life has to have gone pretty downhill to buy a hotdog at the movie theatre.”
Just then you see an awkward man with a five o clock shadow and purple button up sprinting to the counter, “oh good! You’re not finished ordering!” He got a little closer to the counter, you figured out who it was, Bruce Banner. You assumed he had hid out in the bathroom to avoid an anxiety attack. You’ve been there that’s for sure, so you understood. After steadying his breathing he points to the menu. “Can I have a hot dog and a uhm..water?” You notice his face and hair is kind of damp from what you assume was where he splashed his face with water to cool him down, you didn’t comment on it though.
You smile awkwardly exchanging a look with Steve who attempts to casually go stand away from Bruce so as not to laugh. You see Loki looking down at the floor trying not to laugh, another jitter to your heart. You look away from the raven haired God to remain composure.
“Yes of course, dude!” You walk over swiftly to catch his hot dog off the warm roller. Loki notices you fidgeting with the plastic gloves and you swear you see his tongue graze against the inside part of his lip as he softly laughs at your small frustration.
“Struggling?” He asks through a laugh.
“Yes! I hate these stupid gloves. They’re so awkward and I can’t grab anything!”
You see him wiggle his fingers a bit and the gloves suddenly aren’t complicated and fit nicely.
You look at the gloves and then to him, your brow arching, “thanks?” You continue preparing Bruce’s hot dog.
“Don’t mention it, hey, is that ice cream?”
You hand the hot dog to Bruce, and continue ringing up orders. “A-Anything else for you guys?”
Natasha looks, “no I think we’re all good! Thank you all so much!”
“Aw no, thank you guys! Okay so, who’s paying?”
“That.” Tony walks up sliding a solid metal black card on the counter. “Would be me.”
You swipe the card, and begin to hand Tony the receipt and Natasha the tickets. “Can you sign here”
“Of course you want a autograph,”
“Uh no, I just need it cause the total was more than 100 dollars.”
Tony slides the tiny signed receipt to you with some large bills underneath. “That’s for you,”
“Wow, thank y’all so much, I hope you have a good night!”
They all thanked you one last time, and Bruce especially calmly speaks to you “Yet again, thanks for treating us like people and not.. some superstars.”
“It’s no biggie!” You lean a little on the counter to whisper to the awkward man, “by the way over by the arcade is a single bathroom so if you need to get away from people for a moment.. it’s right over there.”
He smiles breathlessly, “thanks!”
You watched as Loki left, and good god those pants accentuated everything, you called out to the group of heroes, “y’all enjoy your movie!“
You hear Loki instinctively respond “you too!” followed by Thor laughing and Loki calling back out “I mean!— ugh- Good night, Y/N!”
You laugh back at him, “good night, Loki!”
You smiled standing behind the counter at the finally empty lobby, you now could rest. Well, rest as much as you could with a smile beaming from such an amazing interaction with those Avengers. You felt your heart racing from the few words you shared with Loki. At first you were really intimidated by him but after he had the awkward ‘you too’ moment, you couldn’t help but feel maybe you intimidated him. You couldn’t stop smiling as you cleaned behind concessions.
One of your coworkers snickers at you, “you and Loki huh—“
“Oh what— oh yeah he, he was nice.”
“Next time he comes out you gotta ask him out.”
“What?! No way a guy like them would ever consider me worth their time.”
“Dude. He was so into you! You have to get their number.”
“I doubt he even has a phone but good idea!”
As the Avengers discussed how nice the staff was, Loki was silent. Loki walked past the theatre numbers, glancing at the movie posters. Natasha, while opening the door to their theatre said “that guy that rang us up was really sweet” Thor boisterously laughed at her statement, wrapping his arm around his brother’s shoulder shaking him in an accidental forceful way, “And Loki was quite sweet on him!”
Loki scoffed, loudly whispering while pushing Thor’s arm off of him “can you not announce it to the whole theatre!”
Clint interrupted, “it was pretty cool he talked to you, most people don’t.”
In a sarcastic tone, Bruce adds, “well they’re all probably still scared about the thing in New York”
Loki rolled his eyes and glared at Bruce, returning the sarcasm “you really think so, Bruce?”
They make it to their seats, and the movie begins. Halfway through the movie however, Loki gets tired of being reminded of one of his biggest regrets and decides to get some fresh air. The fresh air though was simply walking out of the theatre and back into the lobby. He did finish his water rather quickly, most likely drinking it during every awkward reminder of his past. He wanted to see that cute employee again, he really wondered why he spoke to him and treated him so nicely. And it wasn’t even a fake nice like he’s seen before it felt.. genuine.
“Ah, not enjoying the movie?”
“Not really no, that and I need another water.”
You grabbed another water bottle out of the fridge and turned back around to see Loki patting at his pockets, “Augh! I forgot to snatch Tony’s card!”
You giggle and scoot the water to him, “here it’s on the house,”
“Ah well it seems you’ve convinced me.”
You laugh together for a moment, and he sighs sadly. It looks like something was bothering him. You press your luck and ask him what’s wrong. “You alright?”
“Yeah, no. Um. I’m just worried the movie will spark old feelings in people and I just. I get so tired of people hating me, like on one hand I mean I deserve it I guess after what I did but no one seems to recognize that I’ve gotten better! And I’ve helped the Avengers, and I’ve helped save the day countless times but all people can see me as this attempted dictator who tried to take over New York, and then Earth.”
“But you saved Asgard!.. Well, the citizens of Asgard! And-and You helped fight Thanos right? Didn’t you fool him into thinking you were dead, made a dramatic entrance while joining the fight in Wakanda, even got some real good damage in? I think it’s cool that you’re working on yourself, and it takes time you know?”
Loki nods, he attempts to change the subject but all he can think of is that movie. “Have.. have you seen it yet?”
“I’ve caught some of it! Not enough to really catch the plot but I think I know most of what happens,”
“Yeah..” Loki breathes softly, fiddling with the cap to his water bottle, “I did enjoy the casting choice for me though, Matt Damon is doing a great job!”
“I agree he was a pretty good choice for you, though I do have to say, he doesn’t compare to the real thing.” Loki’s eyebrows raise and you realize what you just said right to his face. “I— um, I just mean—“
“I’m glad you can see my superiority to Mr. Matt Damon.” You were grateful Loki didn’t get creeped out by your declaration of attraction. But Loki continued on with his statement, “He is quite handsome, but more so am I, and even much more, you.”
“You think I’m handsome?” You felt your cheeks get warmer, you knew he could see you blushing.
His beautiful grin said it all, he looked you up and down smirking while admiring your features, “I do, yes.”
Loki rested his elbow on the counter, looking elegant and cool all at once. “When do you get off work?”
“That. Is a good question,” you turn to face your manager who had been standing behind concessions listening while doing paperwork.
Your manager immediately answered you, offering to allow you to leave early with a subtle wink towards you.
“The Avengers and I are going out for dinner after this, and I was wondering if you’d keep me company?”
“You want me to keep you company?”
“Yes, my darling.” You felt that same jitter in your heart as earlier, Loki really just referred to you as darling.
“You don’t have to. I just enjoy talking to you, that's all.”
You smile genuinely at him, “I enjoy talking to you too, Loki.”
