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When their ragtag little group (made up of Kid Loki, Alligator Loki, Old Loki, Loki himself, Mobius, and Sylvie) arrived at the little shack that the other Loki variants had deemed safe, Loki stood in the fray of everyone moving around and talking for a moment, feeling detached from all of it. Yet she felt her gaze drift to Mobius and stay there all the same.
Seeing him again had been a shock to her system. A good one, of course, but a shock all the same. She had missed him dearly, felt the pain of his supposed death as if it were her own. To see him alive had made a weight that Ravonna Renslayer had put on Loki's chest lift, giving her room to breathe again. But all three of them were in the void now, and they needed to get out, back to the TVA somehow.
Loki trusted that Sylvie had a plan. She always did, and that plan seemed to be running right into the angry cloud that crept through the void and ate everything it touched at her earliest convenience. Loki had no problems with that- if it would get them to the person who created the Timekeepers, they would do just about anything.
But- Mobius. It all came back to him.
Loki's friends were so few that they would have gone so far as to say that Mobius and Sylvie were their only true friends, and maybe their first real friends ever, in all their centuries of living. The thought made their heart twist. Loki, prince of Asgard, mostly beloved by the court of the gods, had two true friends. It wasn't a wish to have more (although maybe it would be nice, maybe), it was sadness expressed for the Loki they had once been, the Loki that didn't know friendship at all.
We would have liked this, he thought, we would have enjoyed having friends like these.
Friends like Sylvie, who was determined and perceptive and really cool. Who fought for what they believed in and always, always survived even the harshest situations. Friends like Mobius, whose easy smile and understanding nature put him instantly at ease, who was a bit of a dork and liked things like- like jet-skis. Loki hadn't thought about jet-skis since they were invented. Now they reminded him of possibly the only man who truly cared about him for no reason other than liking him.
You can be whoever you want to be. Even someone good.
You do know yourself.
A villain.
That's not how I see it.
Because I see a scared little boy, shivering in the cold. And you kinda feel bad for that ice runt.
You're very clever.
I know.
Just in case anyone ever told you different.
"Jet-skis," Loki muttered, realizing he was smiling.
"You're staring," said a voice from beside him. He turned to see Old Loki eyeing him shrewdly.
"I am not," they said, forcing themselves to look right at Old Loki and not back at Mobius.
"You kind of are," Old Loki said. "Don't look so defensive. I know myself, and a bunch of other Lokis, which means I know you. And I know how we look when we're-" he gestures at Mobius, then at Loki. "Like that."
"Like what?"
He gave her a look. "Are you still in denial about it?"
"In denial about what?" she asked, getting more confused by the second.
"Have you forgotten how old I am? I've seen all of this before. You care for him."
Loki frowned. "Of course I care for him."
"Not like that, dumbass," Old Loki rolled his eyes. "You love him."
"I-" he stopped.
You love him.
He looked over at Mobius, who was standing with Kid Loki. Kid Loki held Alligator Loki in his arms, and was talking somewhat animatedly about something. Mobius was smiling and gently petting Alligator Loki's head, nodding every so often to let Kid Loki know he was listening. Just like he did with them.
Love?
All her life, she'd believed that love was for children and people who couldn't face the harshness and pain of the real world. That love, if it did exist, was silly and made no sense and was worth nothing in the long run. That even if it was real, she wouldn't get to have it. But if the warming of her heart, the smile that consistently fought its way onto her face when she thought of Mobius, the way she trusted him with a nearly bone-deep conviction- if that was love, then maybe Old Loki was right.
I love him, he thought, and quite liked the sound of it.
However, this epiphany went unspoken. Feeling the need to fill the silence that had fallen instead, Loki said, "The alligator bit off President Loki's hand."
"And?" Old Loki said dryly. "I'm sure the thought of being bitten crossed his mind before he decided to touch him."
She winced as Alligator Loki yawned, showing off their abundance of pointy teeth. "Are you sure?" she asked. Old Loki just rolled his eyes, both of them watching as Sylvie joined Kid Loki's conversation.
"Probably trying to outdo each other with stories of their acts of violence," Old Loki said, and the fondness in his voice was unmistakable.
"He'll win," Loki replied.
"He's like that, too?" he asked.
They looked at Sylvie, then back at Old Loki. "Both of us."
Old Loki nodded. "Every Loki I've met here is the same way. It's nice to know we have something in common." The two stood in silence for a moment before he spoke again. "You know, before you showed up, there was this variant that came through here. He said his name was Mobius." They shrugged. "Looked nothing like your boy over there, though. Blonde hair, little bit of a different face, but he was just like him."
Loki shot them a glance. "A Mobius variant?"
"Yeah," Old Loki said. "He had this idea in his head that Lokis could change, after everything all of us have done. Nobody could convince him otherwise. Maybe that's why the kid liked him so much." He nodded at Kid Loki. "She likes your Mobius, too."
"And so does the alligator."
"And so does the alligator," they echoed. "We asked him why he got pruned. He said it was because he trusted a Loki. He was looking for him here, in case he got pruned, too." He let out a humorless laugh. "I thought he was crazy. Turns out, he did more than just trust a Loki, he fell in love with one." He gave Loki a knowing look. "And I doubt that this Mobius is different."
Loki shook his head, staring down at his shoes. "It's complicated."
"Everything's complicated," Old Loki shrugged. "This can be one thing that isn't."
"Hey," Mobius called, smiling at them both from across the room. He excused himself quickly, letting Sylvie, Kid Loki and Alligator Loki bicker and walking over to the other two.
Old Loki grasped Loki's shoulder and looked them right in the eyes. "If I know anything about us, it's that we deserve to be happy," he said quietly. "We've been through enough. I think it's time at least one of us gets to find some peace." He patted Loki on the shoulder and left, throwing a wink over his shoulder at her as he made his way over to Alligator Loki, who had gotten free from Kid Loki and was gnawing on the leg of a rickety wooden chair.
Loki looked at Mobius and smiled back. "Hi."
"You alright?" he asked. She could hardly look away from him, now that he was looking at her with such gentle concern the likes of which she hadn't seen since her mother was still alive.
"I'm okay," he said, and for once, he meant it. "I'm going to get some air. Do you want to come?"
"Sure," Mobius agreed, and Loki couldn't stop herself from reaching out and tugging at his sleeve to lead him outside. He laughed quietly, letting them lead him away from the house, out of the earshot of Sylvie and the other Lokis. There they stood there for a few long moments, taking in the landscape around them that neither had really had the time to appreciate while in somewhat-mortal danger.
"Old Loki told me something, back there," Loki started, willing his voice to not shake.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," he said. "He said that there was a Mobius variant that was here not too long ago."
Mobius looked over at them. "There's a variant of me?"
"Apparently." Loki stared hard at a tree in the distance. They could not believe they were doing this. "He got pruned because he trusted a Loki. Well- not because he trusted him. He got pruned because he fell in love with a Loki."
"He's got good taste," Mobius said, his voice light as if he was discussing the weather. How was he so calm about this when Loki felt like she was two steps away from an out of body experience? Her thoughts whirled until she didn't notice that she'd scoffed at the idea of good taste applying to a Loki until Mobius said-
"I mean it."
Loki looked up. "You mean it?"
"Of course I mean it," he smiled. "You're- all of you are, actually- incredibly smart, and hilarious, Loki, did you know how funny you are?"
"I've been told."
"I'm sure. You're good at so many things, Loki."
They chanced a look over at Mobius, who was smiling at them, something fond in his eyes.
"I think that Mobius variant and I are pretty similar," he said. "Except the TVA didn't prune me because I loved you. They pruned me because I trusted you, and because I knew the truth about everything."
Loki felt his heart drop into his stomach. He quickly put his hands in his pockets so they didn't visibly shake and dropped his gaze, thinking you were wrong angrily at Old Loki. Love is a dagger, he reminded himself, it's beautiful until it makes you bleed. And ultimately, when you reach for it...
It isn't real.
"Hey. Loki," Mobius said gently, "They pruned me because I trusted you."
"So you've said," she snapped.
"They didn't know that I love you," he continued. "So that couldn't have been what they pruned me for."
Loki's head shot up, eyes wide with incredulity. "You-?"
Mobius grinned brightly. "I love you. I figured that's what you were talking about when you brought up the variant of me."
"I think that's real!" they said indignantly. "The old Loki did say that."
"Do you think he was making it up?"
"Maybe," Loki said, "But I- I'd like to think that it was real."
"That I love you regardless of our positions in time or space," Mobius added helpfully.
She shot him a halfhearted glare. "I was going to say 'that we love each other regardless of our positions in time or space', but fine, have it your way." She didn't think it was possible for Mobius' smile to get wider, but at that, it did.
"If you insist," he said, and moved in, cupping Loki's face in his hands and kissing him tenderly. Loki went very still, only able to focus on the heat of Mobius' body and the feeling of his lips on theirs. Slowly they relaxed, kissing back just as gently. They placed one hand on Mobius' shoulder and used the other to run their fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck, eagerly pressing into his touch. A touch that didn't bring them pain, a touch that didn't serve as a goodbye. Their heart felt light, like it would burst from their chest at any moment.
The peace was broken a few seconds later by a loud whistle and shouting from the house. Mobius broke the kiss, resting their foreheads together, and then looked over at the Lokis. Kid Loki was cheering, Old Loki and Sylvie looked like they were having some competition as to who could wolf-whistle the loudest, and Alligator Loki was wriggling eagerly on the ground. Loki laughed and pulled Mobius into another kiss.
Old Loki was right, she thought, we do deserve happiness. All of us.