Work Text:
Sylvie jumped through the glowing orange portal first, followed by Loki and Mobius. The pair were in the middle of yet another petty argument, and Sylvie was ready to abandon them at the next location.
“Would you two cut it out!”
Loki and Mobius both turned to face Sylvie. Loki looked around and realized they were surrounded by trees and snow.
“Where exactly did you take us to?”
“The Colorado Avalanche. January 27, 2056. That mountain up there,” Sylvie gestured, “sends a cascade of snow and crushes everyone at this resort.”
“Great, you sent us into the coldest disaster on the radar.”
“Would you prefer I send us to the Iran Blizzard of 1972?”
Sylvie didn’t bother to listen to his response, instead deciding to walk between the trees and towards the central part of the resort. Mobius followed, leaving a stunned Loki to jog to keep up. Sylvie walked over to the central hub of fairy lights and fencing.
“We’re going skating.”
“The TVA is trying to kill the three of us and you want us to glide around like ballerinas?”
Loki scoffed and began to walk away before Sylvie caught him by the arm.
“Are you missing a chance to show off?”
“I am a God, I don’t need to prove anything to anyone.”
Sylvie busted into laughter at the flustered Loki. Realizing exactly what it meant, she took the opportunity to mock the one who had annoyed her for so long.
“You can’t skate, can you? The son of a frost giant can’t skate. You were born of Jotunheim for heaven's sake!”
Mobius turned to look at the very embarrassed Loki beside him.
“What, have you come to jab at me too?”
“No, I was going to tell you I can’t skate either.”
Sylvie rolled her eyes. Looking at both Mobius and Loki, she devised a small plan. Their oblivious flirting was going nowhere, and it was driving her insane. She was going to do something about it. Walking up to the wooden platform that housed the rink, she motioned for the pair to follow.
Couples and children were all bundled up in coats mittens, enjoying the last hour before the entire structure collapsed. Sylvie waved her hand and transformed their shoes into pristine white figure skates.
“If you don’t want to make a fool of yourself, follow me.”
Loki reluctantly obliged and stumbled onto the ice. Having more experience around the ice, he was able to keep his balance. Mobius was not so fortunate. Slipping at the entrance, Loki caught him in his arms.
“Sorry, I have plenty of experience in the water, but not a lot on the ice.”
“Well, they are technically the same thing,” Loki quipped, causing Mobius to flash one of his heartwarming and genuine smiles.
People of the TVA would frequently comment on Mobius’ kindness and warm persona, but not a single person in the TVA would deny that Mobius was always the warmest around Loki. while he could lose his patience with the mischievous Variant from time to time, he could never stay mad for long.
Each of them had only taken a few steps onto the ice and was already gazing into each other's eyes. Sylvie had had enough.
“Both of you, pay attention.”
Sylvie began to glide, placing one toe forward and gliding across the ice.
“Copy my movements.”
Loki and Mobius clumsily repeated the gliding motion she was leading with. Struggling to move forwards, Mobius held tight to Loki’s arm.
“I thought you said you couldn’t skate?”
“I wouldn’t exactly call this skating.”
Neither had moved more than a few feet from the entrance. Sylvie had skated at least three laps around them in the time it took to get that distance.
After a while, Mobius didn’t rely on Loki’s support to glide, and Loki was able to move faster. Satisfied with their progress, Sylvie came to a stop next to them. With a wave of her hand, she transformed her previous outfit into a sparkling green figure skating dress.
“Finally, I can do some actual skating.”
“You’re just going to leave us here,” Loki questioned.
Sylvie only smirked and gave a condescending wave. Lifting her leg into the air, she glided away to the center of the rink to show off. Mobius watched in awe as she landed a perfect double axel.
“Show off,” Loki muttered.
Turning to his side, he found Mobius shivering beside him. He suddenly remembered that he and Sylvie were the only ones born with frost giant blood. With a wave of his hand, slightly mocking Sylvie’s transformation, he gave Mobius a jacket and gloves.
“Better?”
“Thank you, Loki.”
Loki held out his hand to Mobius, ignoring the cheering crowd forming around Sylvie.
“Shall we?”
Mobius gave him a small grin and stumbled forward. Loki kept the pair of them steady as they slowly made their way around the rink. As they made their way around, Loki couldn’t help but look at the figure skating variant twirling in the air. Mobius did his best to hold in a sigh but failed when he saw Loki turn for the fifth time.
“You like her, don’t you?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“The Variant, you like her.”
Loki turned and gave Mobius a very confused look. Mobius caught his gaze and looked away from the rink. Distracted, he slipped forward, only to be caught in Loki’s arms. Loki decided to take his chance. Still holding Mobius in his arms, he leaned in for a kiss. He slowly lifted him back up, still deep into a longing kiss. It was the release of a million pent-up feelings all at once.
“If I liked her, would I do that?”
The crowd gathered around Sylvie had dispersed, and Sylvie skated over to the pair of them.
“Finally! I thought you would never do it. Watching you two be oblivious to each other was killing me.”
“You set all of this up,” questioned Mobius.
“All I did was give you a push.”
“Well if your little game is over, I would like to get out of here,” Loki exclaimed.
Sylvie pointed to the bonfire a few yards from the rink.
“You two can gaze into each other's eyes over there, I’m not wasting this perfect skating weather.”
Without another word, she returned to the center of the ice, her dress sparkling in the moonlight. Loki helped Mobius out of the Rink and untied his skates. He found one of the many benches surrounding the fire and gestured for Mobius to sit.
“Were you in on this?”
“No, although as much as I hate to admit it, Sylvie did give me the perfect opportunity,” Loki admitted.
Mobius moved closer, and Loki wrapped his arm around him. The light of the fire reflected on their eyes, foreshadowing the destruction awaiting in only a few more moments.
“I was watching her glide around and realized you were right. She really is the superior Loki.”
“It takes more than figure skating to make a Loki a Loki,” Mobius reassured.
“The skating was only a mere annoyance. It’s the fact that her plan is the only reason we have been able to outrun the TVA as long as we have.”
“That’s not the way I see it.”
Mobius looked at him softly, compassion warming the air around them far more than the fire in front of them.
“I’m going to tell you a little secret, there is no superior Loki. I made up the phrase to convince you to help me. I’m ashamed of it now, and I owe you an apology.”
The air was warm between them, and the rest of the world seemed to fade away. Mobius did something he had waited to do since their first day together in the TVA. It seemed like such a long time ago now. He pulled Loki in close for a soft and gentle kiss. It was much sweeter than the deep and longing one back on the ice. Softer than the powdered snow falling from the sky.
They finally pulled apart, and Loki tightly wrapped his arms around Mobius.
“Apology accepted.”
“Are you two about finished?”
Sylvie waved her hand and turned her figure skating ensemble back into her regular attire.
“Or do I need to remind you about the impending doom following us in a matter of seconds?”
Right on cue, a large rumbling sound emanated from all around. Snow began to fly around from the tops of the trees as the Trio ran towards the surrounding woods. Loki grabbed onto Mobius’ hand as they ran, making sure he was able to keep up.
Sylvie opened up the portal to the next apocalypse and ran through the soft orange glow. Loki ran to follow, only for Mobius’ hand to slip. A tidal wave of snow came tumbling down towards them.
“MOBIUS,” Loki cried out.
Leaping back from the portal, he leaped out in front of the wave. With Mobius in his arms, he sprinted back towards the portal as fast as he could run. The wave came dangerously close, nearly engulfing the pair. With only mere seconds left, Loki leaped through the portal with Mobius in his arms. Sylvie quickly closed it and helped the pair of them off the ground.
“Are you two alright?”
Loki turned to Mobius and saw he was gripping his leg. Carefully inspecting it, he realized it was clearly sprained.
“You just had to drag us out to the middle of an avalanche. All so you could what, show off? Where did you drag us to this time, Pompeii?”
Loki was furious at Sylvie’s recklessness. He took in their surroundings. It was much warmer, and they were surrounded by flat and empty grassland.
“We’re on Dasion- 17. The volcano is set to explode in a few hours.”
“Why did I even ask? You might as well have taken us to Pompeii!”
“Unlike Pompeii,” Sylvie finished, “The area a few miles from here is completely unaffected. If we can just get to the safe zone, we can camp out for a while.”
As furious as Loki was, he was relieved by the thought of taking a break. For the past few days, they had been jumping from one disaster to another to escape the TVA. His hopes shattered as he looked down at the injured Mobius.
“If you haven’t noticed, your recklessness is going to make it difficult to travel.”
“You want to call me reckless! Which one of us stranded us on Lamentis-1, got drunk, and broke our only hope of escape?”
“Both of you,” Mobius called out, “I can walk, but we need to get a move on unless we want to get blasted by a volcano.”
Loki glared at Sylvie as he wrapped his arm around Mobius. It was going to be a long walk.
Mobius did his best to hide the pain of each step from his face. Loki offered as much support as was possible. When it was clear Mobius couldn’t walk any farther, Sylvie relented and the trio sat together on a large rock.
“How is your foot?” Loki asked.
“It’s fine,” Mobius lied, his usual calm demeanor straining.
Upon closer inspection, it was clear that Mobius was not in fact ‘fine’ as he had suggested. After gently removing his shoe, Loki noticed a massive bruise on his ankle.
“How on Earth have you made it this far?”
Loki quickly conjured a bandage and gently wrapped it around his ankle. Mobius winced each time the bandage wrapped.
“It’s alright, I'm almost finished.”
Loki placed the missing shoe into a pocket dimension, so as not to alert the TVA to their location, and continued moving. After realizing just how bad the situation, Sylvie supported Mobius from his other side. Together the trio continued walking.
“We’re almost there, just hold on a little longer,” Loki reassured Mobius.
Mobius nodded through gritted teeth as he leaned on Loki’s shoulder. Sylvie led the way to the campsite. Considering the disaster hadn’t happened just yet, she had to rely on her knowledge of the event to judge a safe distance,
“We’re twenty miles from the base of the volcano, and fifteen miles from the nearest town. We might get hit with a little ash, but no flying rocks.”
“The TVA won’t find us this far from the disaster,” Mobius added through gritted teeth,
“Then you can lay down and rest your leg.”
Loki waved his hands and created a fully functional campsite, complete with three tents and sleeping bags.
“These should shield us from any ash that falls.”
“Good. If we’re done here, I’m going to bed. You two should probably get some rest too.”
Loki nodded, too exhausted to come up with a witty reply. He helped Mobius into the tent and propped up his sprained ankle. Once he was certain Mobius was comfortable, he reluctantly headed to his own tent. Sensing his hesitation, Mobius made an offer.
“Loki, you can stay here. You-”
Loki turned back into the tent and moved into the sleeping bag before Mobius could even finish. Mobius wrapped his arm around Loki as he began to drift off. The exhausted pair fell asleep in each other’s arms, exhausted from the events of the day. Even in the face of disaster, they managed to find peace.