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1.
As he followed the mustached man who had refused to answer him when he asked who he was, Loki angrily muttered, "I'm gonna burn this place to the ground."
The man cheekily retorted, "I'll show you where my desk is, you can start there."
When suddenly, Loki stopped at the sight that appeared before him through the window. It was a sort of futuristic city, but it looked like it had just come out of the 70s.
"Have a look"
Loki stepped forward to take a closer look and the man said, "Home sweet home."
Curious, Loki said, "I thought there was no magic here.
"There isn't."
"That's not real.
The man whose name Loki still did not know, had the audacity to put his hand on his shoulder to make him move. While Loki expected to feel a sense of rejection, abhorring with all his body this inappropriate contact, he was more than surprised to feel nothing of the kind. No desire to struggle, no desire to escape this hand.
The man slid his hand along his back until he stopped and gave him a little tap to move Loki forward, while saying, "It is, and, unfortunately, so is all the paperwork. Good tinder for your fire, though. Come on."
Aside from embraces from his mother and brother, it had been a long time since Loki had felt the need to lengthen a touch.
However, at that moment...
While nothing in the situation called for it, Loki had almost regretted the moment when the touch of the hand had faded away. Maybe because it was a gentle touch, the first in a long time, Loki didn't know what the reason was, but he had longed to lengthen the touch of that warm hand on his shoulder a little longer.
2.
"I'll kill you!"
Mobius did not seem fazed by Loki's anger and answered in a provocative tone, "What, like you did your mother?
This was enough for Loki to let out the rage he was feeling at that moment, he threw a chair at Mobius, who moved aside. The chair went through the screen, making the image of Frigga's death decompose and recompose. Mobius then used the Time Twister and Loki was brought back to exactly where he was sitting, but without the chair, he fell to the ground.
Mobius, genuinely sorry, said, "Sorry, the Time Twister just loops you, not the furniture." He paused before continuing, "You weren't born to be king, Loki. You were born to cause pain and suffering and death. That's how it is, that's how it was, that's how it will be. All so that others can achieve their best versions of themselves."
On the screen, the Avengers appear ready to fight, magnificent.
As Loki shook his head at the sight, Mobius offered his hand to help him up.
Loki, slowly realizing that everything he had told him was true, asked with a hoarse voice, "What is this place?"
Looking up, he saw Mobius still reaching out his hand and saying softly, "Come on."
It was the hand of the one who had just told him the naked truth about himself.
While logic would have had him ignore that hand and get up on his own, Loki grabbed it almost without hesitation and held on to it to get up.
Mobius' hand was still holding Loki's wrist when the door suddenly opened. Mobius turned around and his hand released his grip.
For the second time, for some reason Loki didn't know, he felt a strange lack at the loss of that hand's touch.
Again a curious urge to lengthen the touch...
3.
They entered the cafeteria, empty except for themselves, and sat down at a table, facing each other.
The first thing Loki was aware of was their legs touching.
It was a touch, aimless, casual.
Knees against knees, nothing deliberate and yet Loki felt a closeness, an intimacy. Just like his relationship with Mobius.
Undeniably, he felt attracted to the man. Not in a physical way, but in a spiritual way.
There was something extremely paradoxical about Mobius.
While he was able to read Loki like an open book, much to the god's chagrin, he was completely blind to the TVA.
Loki had never met anyone like him, someone he didn't have to pretend to be with because he already knew everything about him.
He was a challenge that Loki wanted to meet and that made him want to know more about him.
That's why he asked Mobius, "By the way, at your desk, that magazine?"
"Yeah. The one on jet skis?"
"Yes. Why do you have that?"
"Because they're awesome."
As he felt Mobius' legs twitch at his enthusiasm, Loki chuckled and replied, "I suppose they are."
For Loki, who often used body language to show off, there was something appealing about feeling emotions translated into simple little uncontrolled motions.
Even more appealing was probably seeing Mobius' face come alive with an almost childlike joy as he spoke with passion.
"Yeah. You know, some things... Actually, most things in history are kinda dumb, and everything gets ruined eventually. But in the early 1990s, for a brief, shining moment, there was a beautiful union of form and function, which we call the jet ski, and a reasonable man cannot differ."
When Loki asked Mobius without any mischief if he had ever been on a jet ski, he was even more aware of all of this.
Mobius's shoulders dropped, he stopped moving, his knee was again immobile against Loki's knee.
A few moments later, when Mobius moved his chair back to get up, Loki felt the lack of touch much more vividly, and although this time the contact had lasted longer, he would have wanted to lengthen it once again.
4.
Loki had followed Mobius into the tight space between the shelves of the archive, with no idea what he was planning to do.
Mobius mumbled, but Loki was only aware of one thing at that moment.
Their proximity and all the parts of their bodies that were touching.
"The Variant left something behind at an old crime scene. A cathedral. A candy box. An obvious anachronism. I gave it to Analysis, but they couldn't find anything real."
Loki became acutely aware of Mobius' shoulder against his chest, how their thighs brushed against each other every time Mobius rummaged through the files, and how his chin rubbed against the collar of Mobius' jacket as he turned to face Loki.
It was probably his trouble that caused him not to be as sharp as usual in the conversation.
He asked, "Why does that matter?"
"Cause now we have two variables. Apocalyptic natural disasters and... Kablooie."
The motion Mobius made in answering the question did not help Loki refocus. Because now, he was only aware of one thing and that was the heat that radiated from the touch of Mobius' back against Loki's chest.
This touch gave him for the first time the desire to initiate the contact. To reach out and grasp. He summoned what little restraint and control he had left to remain still and asked, "What's that?"
Mobius replied, a little surprised, "Candy. Do you have candy on Asgard?"
"Yeah. Grapes, nuts."
The cheeky bastard replied, "No wonder you're so bitter."Loki thought, if he had to feel bitter at this moment, it was only because of the loss of this touch that he would have once again wanted to lengthen.
That he had been ready to maintain...
5.
Mobius looked at him, doubt and the urge to trust both evident on his face, and asked, "So, I just have to trust the word of two Lokis?"
Since they had found each other, Loki had been even more aware of how much his body had missed the brief touches. How much he had missed it.
It was like a language of their own that their bodies spoke without them knowing it, and Loki had broken that connection by following Sylvie and now he felt the loss even more because Mobius was in the same room as him, so close, within reach and yet so far away.
This time it was Loki who wanted to close the distance, so he offered, in a sincere way, "How about the word of a friend?
Clearly thinking, Mobius moved a little closer before exhaling deeply, so close that Loki felt his breath on his face, "You were right, about the TVA. You were right from the beginning. And if you wanna save her, you need to trust me. Can we do that?"
Loki replied with a burning urge to step forward, but not taking a step, "Yes."
"Okay."
Mobius moved closer again and when he motioned his hands to emphasize his words, they almost touched Loki's chest, "You could be whoever, whatever you wanna be, even someone good." He paused, his breathing quickening. Loki looked at him, bewildered by his words. Then Mobius continued, "I mean, just in case anyone ever told you different."
Mobius turned to the Timedoor and Loki had to restrain himself from rushing to embrace him. Because it wasn't the right time. So he followed him, very closely, and as they passed through the door, he relished in regaining the synchronization of before their separation, the one that made their shoulders touch and their hands brush against each other at every step.
He turned to Mobius and they smiled at each other for a moment, happy to have found each other again.
Until they were stopped by Ravonna and her hunters.
This time, Loki thought to himself, devastated, that he would never be able to lengthen the touch...
+1
"Well, see you later, Loki."
Mobius was there in front of him, holding out his hand, and Loki couldn't fathom that after finally finding him, he might lose him again.
He had an overwhelming urge to touch and be touched, but he didn't grasp the hand. Because he wanted more.
Mobius had taught him that he could be anyone he wanted, so Loki would reach out for what he wanted and grab it.
He stepped towards Mobius and embraced him.
He tightened his arms around him and Mobius did the same, in an endless motion.
Loki was suddenly aware of every part of his body touching Mobius'.
Of his head against his, of his chin on his shoulder, of his arms around his shoulders, of his fingers clutching Mobius. Aware of Mobius' arms around his waist, of his chin in the hollow of his neck, of his breath on his ear.
Of the tip of their feet, of their knees, of their chest, of their stomachs that touched each other.
Each touch saying, "I missed you, Don't leave me, I want to stay here, I love you."
Their bodies speaking for them, in tune, the only dissonance being the awareness of the impending separation.
When at last they parted, the wind rushed through the space, which grew larger as Mobius pulled back.
As Loki watched him go, he was acutely aware of the empty void left by the departure of the one he loved. He felt as if a piece of himself had been torn away, as if the time Mobius had spent in his arms, his body had formed an invisible bond with Loki's.
Loki turned around and determined, promised himself to fight until the end so that this bond would never be broken and that the touch this time would last forever.