Thor rushed over with lightning speed, planted himself by the door, and blocked Loki from pulling it open to come in.
Standing outside, Loki gave Thor a sweet smile as he forcefully tugged at the door. "Dear brother, how have you been lately? I missed you a little."
Thor clung to the doorframe with all his strength and gritted his teeth. "What trouble did you cause this time?!"
"You're breaking my heart!" Loki covered his face with one hand, drooped his brows and the corners of his eyes, and put on a deeply sorrowful expression. Then he said, "Can't I come chat with you without causing trouble? Christmas is only a few days away. It's a time for families to reunite..."
"Who did you swindle this time? How much did you take them for? When did they come knocking?" Thor fired off the questions in rapid succession.
Loki pursed his lips and stared at Thor with mournful eyes. "Brother, is that what I am to you? A con man?"
"Yes." Thor answered without hesitation. Loki's eyes gradually reddened, but Thor remained completely unmoved. One hand gripped the doorframe tightly to keep Loki from opening it, while the other counted off on his fingers.
"For the past several weeks, I've received an average of more than sixty calls a day! Every single one was a complaint about your illegal sales pitches, contract fraud, or outright scams!"
Thor's hand began to tremble. He raised a finger and pointed it at Loki's brow. "Do you know how much effort it took to make sure every last one of those calls came to me?!"
Through gritted teeth, he said, "Do you know that if those calls had gone to the All-Father and the Queen of the Gods, you'd have been beaten so badly you