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Loki stared.
The Avengers stared back, not missing a beat. Nick Fury held his head high, as strong and proud as ever, though his eye told a different story. There was a strangeness to it, a sign of tears unshed. Tears that he appeared to have been fighting his hardest to hold back.
It was disturbing to see such an emotion on Fury, of all people. From the little Loki had known of him, the man had appeared brave, fierce, almost as emotionally constipated as Odin. if he were born on Asgard, he would have been considered one of their best warriors.
"You're just giving it to me?" Loki asked, still quite unsure of their intentions. If his experiences had taught him anything, it was that this bunch does not give up that easily. Something had to have been amiss.
They all nodded in unison, looking strangely desperate for him to accept their offer.
Loki narrowed his eyes in suspicion, eyeing them cautiously. Something wasn't right here. "Why?"
"We've changed our minds," Steve said, his cheeks tinted deep, scarlet red, a mixture of shame and embarrassment to have stopped so low to actually resort to this. Almost a hundred years in the ice, and this was what he had to wake up to?
"Yes, but why?" Loki prodded. He wasn't about to let this one go. There had to have been a reason for their desperation, and until he had found out why, he wasn't going to make any rash moves. He wanted to rule Midgard, of course, but not like this. It was never this easy.
"Just take it!" Tony snapped, then softly, apologetically whispered: "Please."
"And if I decline?"
"NO!" they all shouted in unison.
Loki took a cautious step back, startled.
"You can't," Bruce said.
"Please," Steve said. "You have to accept."
"Why should I?" Loki inquired.
"Because we asked nicely?" Clint said half-sarcastically.
"You see," Loki said, taking a steadying breath, "that is the problem. You're asking. Nicely." He scrunched his nose at the mere thought of them asking him for anything. Nicely. "Something is going on, otherwise you wouldn't have surrendered this easily. All that gloating about avenging this pathetic world, and now you're just giving it up. Willingly."
"We've finally seen the light," Tony said, his voice that of a preacher on Sunday mass.
"We realized you're our only hope," Clint added, looking very ashamed of himself for speaking those words.
"You're our savior," Tony continued. "And we trust you'll be a great leader."
Loki raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"
"Really," Tony agreed.
"And there is no secret agenda?"
They shook their heads decisively.
"No grand plan to imprison me once again?"
Another round of head-shakes.
"You're doing this because you actually want me to be your king? Have I gotten this right?"
"To the last letter," Tony said.
"The Earth is yours, if you want it," Fury said. He looked as though he really, really wanted him to want it.
"You do still want it, right?" Natasha asked hopefully.
Loki pondered on it for a moment then, said: "Yes."
"Great!" Tony beamed happily, bumping his fist with Bruce's.
"Congratulations, Loki," Fury said monotonously, emotionless to the core. "You've officially become Earth's ruler."
Though he was happy to have finally archived his goals, this still didn't feel right. Loki couldn't quite put his finger on it. Perhaps it was because he had wanted to conquer this realm himself, earn it in a battle like a true, noble warrior he was raised as. Or maybe it was their strange behavior that had honestly started creeping him, of all people, out, and he wasn't the type to scare easily. In fact, he didn't scare at all, yet this bunch had somehow managed to make him uneasy by simply being too accepting.
He had an inkling that there was something, a big, fat something they weren't telling him, and whatever it was, it had to have been truly terrifying for them to have come to him with an offer that not many would refuse, especially not the likes of him.
This was what he had wanted, was it not? To rule them. Conquer them. Own them. To be their savior, their benevolent god, the one whose mercy they'd depend on.
Deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth, he raised his head proudly, putting on a cocky, smug smile he'd been famous for, and said: "Kneel."
Much to his surprise, they did.
And they looked disturbingly happy to have done so.