Chapter Text
Loki smiled to Mobius proudly and he grinned harder when the man smiled back, genuine pride showing on his face. Loki did a double take and smiled harder, “see I was right!”. The two stepped into the time door as the rubble came flying past them, a little dust landing on Mobius’ shoulder as they stepped back into the TVA. Loki’s heart clenched as he wiped the dust off of Mobius’ shoulder and the man looked at him, surprise written over his face, “ah thanks” he mumbled. Loki shrugged and then watched as Mobius wiped a hand over Loki’s chest and then straightened his tie for him. “Both looking good?” the man chuckled, Loki nodded and smiled back at the agent and they walked down one of the similar corridors back to the library where they had been working before.
Loki sat down as Mobius walked over and shoved another stack of files next to the huge one that they were already working through. “There’s more?” Loki asked incredulously and Mobius nodded and huffed a laugh out, his tone and body language showing how tired he really was. As Mobius sat down Loki asked a question he had been dying to know, “so you eat, drink, go to the bathroom, do you sleep?”. Mobius looked at him suspiciously, and Loki gasped, “do you even know what sleep is?”. Mobius rolled up a file and swatted Loki’s arm with it, “of course I know what sleep is” he paused, “I thought you were being crude”. If Loki was a mortal, and not the God that he was, he would have blushed. But since he was indeed a God, he just winked, “could have been, but I wasn’t”. Mobius yawned and Loki grinned before being dragged into a yawn also, “fuck you” he mumbled as Mobius laughed.
“Yes we sleep, whenever we get tired,” he waved his hands around as he spoke, a thing Loki found adorable interesting. “there’s no day or night here, or days or weeks, so whenever your batteries get low, you go to sleep” he explained. Loki nodded and then looked around, “where? Are there bedrooms?”. Mobius nodded and then reclined in the chair, “why? Tryna get in mine?” he asked with a wink. Loki swatted his arm with his own outstretched hand and Mobius laughed before answering seriously, “yeah, agents get their own, hunters share dorms with their teams”. Loki winked again, “nice and private then”. Mobius gulped and then stood up, “I’m going to get food, don’t wander off” he barked before turning and marching off.
Loki sighed and returned to the file of Chernobyl, 100% sure that he had pushed too many of Mobius’ buttons and pissed him off. As much as Loki was having fun flirting, he wasn’t sure where the TVA stood on romance, or sex, or anything that wasn’t working towards finding variants. Loki wasn’t sure this would be the kind of place that would be homophobic, but everyone seemed to identify as cisgender and Loki felt another wave of distress roll over him. Without his magic, he was void of everything downstairs and he just felt weird without the ability to manipulate what he had; whenever he was feeling flirty, he altered his body to show off what he wanted the potential partner to see. Bigger packages, or smaller ones; a bustier chest, wider hips, fuller lips; or something else non-misgardian, Loki was well accustomed to accommodating even the weirdest fetishes.
After a while of staring weirdly at his crotch Loki snapped back into reality and realised that he should be reading the files that were stacked around him. Once he had read through six more, Mobius still hadn’t returned, and Loki was bored out of his mind. He laid his head down on his arms and counted sheep until he was being tapped on the arm. He raised his head and Mobius sat opposite him, “hey, let’s go for a walk” he said before standing up. Loki noticed that Mobius had either eaten and discarded all the food he went to get, or he never got any. Mobius had also returned for a while too because the files had shifted and his ‘to do’ pile was a lot shorter now, Loki nodded and got up, following like a puppy.
Sat in the cafeteria (so he hadn’t got food after all) the two talked a little more, and Loki turned the conversation to something he had thought about before: “are you allowed relationships?”. Mobius took a sip of his coffee and thought before talking, “yes and no. There are no rules saying you can’t, but also they cannot interfere with missions, and if they do everyone involved can be severely punished” he clarified and Loki nodded, cogs turning in his mind. “Any rules about, say, 2 women, or 2 men? How does gender work here, hunters are just J-35 or A-18 anyway…” Loki trailed off, a little scared for the very loaded questions he had just asked like they were the weather. Mobius replied instantly, “as I said, no rules except one: don’t get it in the way of work” Mobius looked like his mind had wandered somewhere else and Loki waited until he came back, he continued without prompting, “and as for gender, yeah everyone does what they want… you’re gender fluid. That’s why you’re asking right?” Mobius asked.
Loki was once again reminded that this man had watched his whole life and read every file about him. There was no point in lying so he just nodded, and Mobius shrugged, “yeah we don’t care. If you want another uniform, I can get you one, but the AC is on high recently though, so I recommend pants” he chuckled, Loki nodded and smiled, glad of the blanket acceptance. “It’s just odd, not having magic” he started, not really wanting to go on, but feeling as if he owed Mobius an explanation of his thoughts, “I- when I’m not locked in a magic-free place – I can do what I want with my body with simple adjustments, shapeshifting” he paused and gulped in a breath, “can’t do that right now” he trailed off. Mobius nodded and then his face went a little cold, “are you uncomfortable? Do you have dysphoria?” he asked, Loki shook his head: “not really, it’s just strange not being able to do something I’ve become very used to doing”.
Mobius nodded, “when we go into the field - you can do magic, so feel free to alter it all as much as you want. Nobody will care, and if they do, I’ll prune them with my stick” he promised. Loki felt his pulse quicken with desire at the beautiful man in front of him and his promise to make him feel safe, he nodded and smiled. “Thank you, that means a lot” Loki confessed, and Mobius shrugged, “speaking of things we care about. At your desk, why do you have a magazine of jet skis?” Mobius huffed and then began speaking, Loki too busy thinking about his threat against the judgement of others, and how nice it felt to have someone to talk to for once.