A/N: This is my first fanfic on this site, so I'd appreciate it if you reviewed (criticism welcome). I obviously do not own Marvel's Loki.
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Loki had been called arrogant many times.
He wondered if anyone could still believe it after seeing Agent Romanoff's display. That was arrogance. He had seen her face, before she turned and walked away—professional, certainly, but Loki could recognize someone struggling to hold back a smile. He'd done it enough times, when he quietly watched his plans culminate in chaos, looking appropriately horrified for Thor and Odin's sake. But he was done with that. Just a few more lies, that was all it took.
Loki kept the incredulity even after Romanoff had disappeared, knowing that for every camera he could see in this cell, there were two he couldn't. Arrogance. He was arrogant? A young Midgardian thought she had just outwitted the God of Lies. And even if—he had to resist the urge to scoff—even if she had somehow tricked him, how could she believe he would reveal it in a manner so comically obvious? He wasn't Thor, he didn't simply gape when someone seemed to have outsmarted him.
Loki paced back and forth, keeping his face a careful mask of indifference. He would have had gained a smidgen of respect for Romanoff, perhaps, if she had actually exited the room in tears before giving up the façade. Did she have no appreciation for subtlety? Not many humans did, but Loki had hoped that they would send someone at least marginally competent if they honestly thought to trick him into revealing his plans. But that was what happened when Midgardians tried to be clever—they revealed every little nuance of their obvious deceptions. It just took a few tweaks here and there to honestly make them believe he was going to manipulate this flying castle into crashing from the inside.
It was a ridiculously stupid plan. Loki almost felt a bit annoyed that they didn't suspect him of anything even slightly more competent. Then again, their model for judging Asgardians came solely from Thor.
Through the glimmer of a connection Loki still had with the spear, he felt chaos erupting. It had always been one of his gifts, giving someone exactly the information they needed to start questioning their allies. He sent a little more disruption through the link—not enough to be suspicious, a little nudge was all it took to push them to each other's throats. Humans were never far from war. Really, it was in their best interest that someone smarter and more powerful than them could steer their puny planet. With Earth's Mightiest Heroes distracted in pointless bickering, Loki sat back and waited for Barton. He almost felt sad that this segment of the plan was drawing to a close. It had been so fun, tinkering with their tiny little fears and tactics. When he was king, that would all be over. Humans would have to learn their place in the natural order of the realms—kneel or burn.