He starts to laugh again and stifles it with a cough behind his sleeve. Laughing at his alternate is probably not a good way to make friends, even if it's somewhat deserved in this case.

"First of all, it's not a ceremony--it's more like a game. Secondly, I beg your pardon, but I never fail to keep up a song unless I wish to do so."

Maybe their palace training wasn't quite the same; he won't presume, but this particular Loki prides himself on musical skill.

"I'm older," he answers then, expression easing into something more gently friendly. "And I've packed a lot into the last few years. What year is it that you've come from, by Midgardian reckoning?"