Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Does Judge Renslayer know about all your dates?” Hunter B-15 asked.

Mobius frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m not stupid, Mobius,” she said. “Every couple days you and Loki disappear somewhere for hours. ”

“First of all, they’re not dates, ” he said. “Second of all,” he lowered his voice. “How do you know about that?”

“Oh please,” she rolled her eyes. “What is it then?”

Every once in a while, he would secretly take Loki somewhere on the timeline. For being a prince, he didn’t get to see much of the world, so he took it upon himself to show him. He got the idea after their secret trip to Pompeii, when he saw how excited the man was to be somewhere that was not the TVA.

“Look,” he sighed. “He’s like a puppy, okay?”

“A puppy.”

“Yes. A puppy dog that has way too much energy. And you know what happens when you don’t walk that puppy often enough? He’ll chew through all your clothes and pee in your shoes.”

“Ew.”

“Exactly. And you know what, it helps. He’s way better concentrated on the job when he gets some fresh air. I actually think we should start doing that for everyone in the offices. We’re all stuck here and suffocating.”

“He’s got some influence on you.”

“Oh shut up.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s cute you got someone-”

“I don’t have him , okay?”

“Whatever you say.”

Mobius rubbed his face. “You’re not gonna tell anyone, are you? Pretty please?”

She crossed her arms on her chest and raised her eyebrows. “What’s in it for me?”

“I, uh-”

“I’m joking. I won’t tell anyone. But if someone asks about it, I’m not gonna cover for you either.”

Mobius let out a breath of relief. “Thank you.”

“Whatever. Now go enjoy your date.”

“It’s not a date!”

But truth be told, she wasn’t entirely wrong. He did feel himself growing more and more appreciative of the man. But in the way everyone does when they get to know someone. Everyone imagines themselves spending their entire lives with their new acquaintances. Everyone thinks of what it would be like to hold hands with them. Everyone goes above and beyond, breaking rules for that person. Absolutely. Totally normal.

He wasn’t in love with the god of mischief. That was simply not true. Not in the slightest.

And besides, whatever their outings were, they could hardly be considered dates. Sure, the places might have been nice, but in order to remain undiscovered, they had to use the same trick as the other Loki variant that they hunted down together - hiding in apocalypses. Gallifrey in the middle of the Time War, the Titanic, Alderaan on the day it got blown up, the other Titanic, Sokovia. 

He met up with Loki at his desk, as they always did. He found him asleep atop a pile of papers, snoring quietly. He shook his head, ignoring just how adorable he found it.

“Hey, Lokes,” he nudged him slightly. Nothing. He grabbed a file and smacked him on the head. The god startled awake.

“Morning, sleeping beauty,” he chuckled.

“Oh, right, hi,” Loki said. “I don’t know how you do it, the paperwork is so daunting.”

“You just gotta muscle through it,” he said. “I wanted to ask if you wanted to go take a break, but I see you were just having one.”

“Oh please, I was just resting my eyes. Is it lunchtime already?”

“It’s always lunchtime somewhere,” he winked.

“Well that’s wonderful news then,” his eyes lit up as he got up from his chair. “Where is lunchtime right now?”

“Better if I just showed you, don’t you think? Come on,” he gestured for him to follow. They headed towards the archives, getting lost amongst the shelves. Well this doesn’t feel like a couple of teenagers hiding so they can smooch somewhere, he thought. When he was sure no one could see them, he opened the portal. He stepped aside, allowing Loki to go in first.

“I noticed you’ve been kinda worked up lately, so I thought you might like this.”

“Since when are you so mysterious?”

“Can’t a man have some fun every once in a while? Just step in.”

With one final suspicious glance, Loki finally walked into the doorway, followed by Mobius.

The forest was filled with golden light flowing in through the canopy in scattered beams. The air smelled of pine needles and freshwater. Birds were singing in the trees and a creek was bubbling somewhere nearby.

“Where are we?”

“Really? No idea?”

“Well, one, but that’s… you wouldn’t take me here.”

“You sure?”

Mobius stood resting against a tree, hands in his pockets, watching Loki look around in confusion. He finally stopped spinning and looked at Mobius directly.

“Did you take me to Asgard?” he asked, his voice soft and eyes glassy.

“I sure did,” Mobius said. “We can’t go near the city, but there’s a lookout just a few minutes away from here. You can see it in all its glory. It’s very shiny.”

“You’ve been here before?”

“Just to find a safe time and place to open the portal. Come on, the sun is gonna set soon.”

They began walking towards the edge of a forest silently. When they got out, the view in front of them couldn’t have been described as anything but magnificent. The city of Asgard laid before them, just as golden and beautiful as Loki remembered.

“Surprise!” Mobius grinned. “I found the perfect evening to come here. The sky is clear and it’s meteor shower season, so we’re gonna see some falling stars. And no one comes here, so there’s no way for us to-”

Before he could continue explaining, Loki engulfed him in a tight hug. He froze for a second, too shocked to do anything, but when the god wasn’t letting go, he returned the embrace.

“Thank you,” he whispered, his voice breaking. He was clutching fistfulls of his jacket, holding onto him with the despair of a drowning man reaching for a straw.

“Now now,” Mobius said, ignoring his rapidly increasing heartbeat as he held the god, refusing to break the embrace until Loki wanted him to. “You’re missing the show.”

After another few moments, Loki let go, clearing his throat and turning away. Mobius noticed his tear stained cheeks, but didn’t say anything and sat down on the ledge of the hill they were on. Loki joined him in a minute and they watched the sun setting over Asgard, the sky darkening into a beautiful indigo canvas splattered with silver dots. And soon enough, silver streaks started crossing it too.

“Make a wish,” Mobius said, only half joking. He could feel Loki’s gaze on him, but chose not to look at him right now, worried he’d do something dumb. Then Loki moved closer to him and laid his head on his shoulder.

“That can’t be good for you,” Mobius pointed out. Loki immediately sat back up.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“No, it’s not that I mind,” he assured him. Quite the opposite actually. “But it can’t be comfortable. Your back would hurt like crazy after a while.”

“Is it alright if I lie down then?” he asked.

“Uh, sure,” he nodded. And he did, resting his head in Mobius’ lap, making his throat feel dry all of a sudden. Unsure of what to do with his hands, he let them fall behind himself, putting some of his weight on them and leaning slightly back. They watched darkness slowly engulfing the planet, the city now glowing dimly against the sky. After a while, he felt something touch his hand, making him wince.

“Sorry,” Loki whispered. It was him running his fingers along the back of Mobius’ hand. “May I?”

Mobius was unsure of what Loki meant, but he lifted his hand off the ground, letting him do whatever he had in mind. With their fingers entwined, he let their hands rest on his chest. Mobius could feel his heartbeat; how is he so calm? His own heart felt like it was about to fly out of his chest.

“Thank you for this,” Loki said. “No one’s ever done anything like that for me. It… means a lot.”

“Oh don’t mention it,” he said. 

“When do we have to go back?”

“We can stay as long as you want. I asked for the afternoon off. Besides… time travel, you know?”

Loki chuckled. “Right.”

They stayed for hours, just watching the stars slowly move across the dark sky, the colour becoming a deeper and deeper blue.

“It really is a beautiful place,” Mobius said. “No wonder you miss it.”

“It’s a shame I destroyed it,” he sighed.

“What do you mean?” he frowned.

“I… ruined Asgard. My family. Everything.”

“Loki, that’s not true,” he squeezed his hand gently. “If I’m honest, I think your family was ruined way before everything went down. Odin-”

He felt Loki inhale sharply at the mention of the name.

“Sorry. I won’t talk about him,” he said. “But I meant what I said. You didn’t ruin your family.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“With every last bit of my soul.”

Loki smiled, closing his eyes and letting out a long breath. He looked exhausted.

“Hey, do you wanna go back so you can get some sleep?” Mobius suggested. “You look tired.”

“Might be for the best,” he agreed and sat up. “Otherwise I might fall asleep here.”

“Let’s get you to bed then,” he said as he stood, fiddling with his TemPad and opening a portal. “After you.”

He pulled Loki to his feet and let him walk first, finding himself in the tiny apartment the TVA provided him with.

“Get some rest,” he told him, reaching for the doorknob. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Wait,” Loki said. “Before you go, I… could you hold me again?”

Those damn puppy eyes. “Didn’t even have to ask,” he said as he pulled him close. Without realising it, one of his hands went to the god’s hair. “It’s called a hug by the way,” he said jokingly.

“I’ll try to remember,” Loki said. They held each other for a moment, neither of them wanting to let go. When they did, Mobius gave Loki one more smile.

“Sweet dreams,” he said as he left.

When he himself went to bed that evening, he dreamt of spectacular golden sunsets and of constellations he couldn't name if he tried.

Chapter Text

After the intimate moment they shared on Asgard, Mobius finally gave up lying to himself. I’m in love with this man. The realisation shouldn’t have hit him so hard, but it felt like a ton of bricks were suddenly dropped on his head. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?

He decided he would take him somewhere special to do something about it. But what could be a special place in Loki’s eyes that would also happen to have an apocalypse? He did think of Ragnarok for a second, but dismissed it just as fast as the thought came. A love confession while watching your homeland burning? Yeah, no. He had to think  harder. He found an old Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy in the archives, hoping he would find his answer. From what he understood, it was a travel guide for space backpackers that caused multiple massive Nexus events, so it ended up being deleted altogether. He managed to sneak it away to his apartment, and upon turning it on (after figuring out which one of the hundred buttons was the right one), he was greeted with a large Don’t Panic! text. He scoffed, remembering his brief panic whenever Loki stood too close. Too late for that, buddy. He began scrolling through the seemingly never ending list of places, randomly opening some. He soon realised that this thing would not be as helpful as he would have hoped.

“The irritatingly advanced and civilized lifestyle common on this planet, combined with the infuriating and inconsiderate silence which is one of the defining characteristics of the Belcerebon people, had predictably driven its surrounding planets completely mad with indignation,” the device spoke.

“Well that’s nice,” he sighed, rubbing his face. “But would it be a good place for a date?”

“No,” it said, startling Mobius. “But what do I know, I’m just a confiscated book, aren’t I?”

“Okay buddy, you’re going right back to the archive,” he said, turning it off again and setting it on his bedside table.

But he never brought himself to take it back. Every night, he would turn it on again out of curiosity, browsing its endless pages in the vain hope of finding the perfect place. In the meantime, he kept taking Loki to the usual places - exploding supernovas, flooding cities, bursting volcanoes, hurricane wasted coasts. If the apocalypses had a slight element of fun at the beginning, they were quickly starting to lose it. But Mobius was too scared to go anywhere else too often.

It took a long time to figure it out, as he kept having to look over his shoulder to not be caught. During that time, they grew a lot closer. When Loki fell asleep at the desk (which happened more often than either of them would like to admit), he would gently put his jacket over him as a blanket, choosing to ignore the fact that he definitely didn’t need it. Upon waking up, he always looked at him with the tiniest little smiles, mumbling a quiet thank you , making Mobius’ heart skip a beat. They would often chat during the duller moments of their work, about nothing in particular. But one time Loki mentioned something that caught his attention; they were looking for something in the endless archive aisles when he spoke.

“This is making me miss the palace libraries.”

That finally gave Mobius an idea - he was going to find the most marvellous library in the universe.

And he had to look no further than The Library - the largest, well, library ever built. It took up an entire planet, containing every book ever written on the timeline. And it even had its own apocalypse. It was perfect.

When the time finally came for the big trip, his hands were trembling with anticipation all day. It wasn’t bad enough that anyone else would notice, but it surely was annoying. 

“Are you alright?” Loki asked him at lunch. “You seem… distracted.”

“Yeah, I’m just tired,” he said, praying the god of lies wouldn’t call him out on his own dishonesty. “Care to take a trip today?” he asked casually.

“Actually,” Loki said. “I took it upon myself to plan one for us.”

“You did?” he could feel the confidence in his plan he managed to build over the past weeks begin to crumble.

“Yes!” he was so proud of himself, sporting what must have been the brightest smile in the whole world. “And seeing how fatigued you are, why don’t I take the lead today?”

Mobius thought for a second. Then he sighed and reached into his pocket to hand him his TemPad.

“Oh I don’t need that,” Loki said, pulling his own TemPad out. It took Mobius a moment to realise he wasn’t supposed to have one.

“Hold on, where’d you get that?”

“Not important.”

“Loki, did you steal a TemPad?”

“No! Of course not. I borrowed it.”

“Right, and does the owner know about it?”

“They do, actually.”

Mobius shook his head in disbelief, chuckling. “Okay then. Lead the way.”

Loki gave him another bright smile as they got up and headed to the archives. Finding a dark corner, Loki opened a portal and gestured for Mobius to step in. He did so hesitantly and was immediately greeted with a view unlike any others.

A monolith stood before him, made up of two rocky towers tall as mountains. The sky was all shades of orange - the sun was rising. And when he finally managed to calm down his heart, he could hear faint music, sounding like it was coming from the rocks themselves.

“You took me to a sunset,” Loki said. “So I found a sunrise that could be half as beautiful as what you showed me.”

He couldn’t speak. It felt like his voice was left behind when he walked through the doorway.

“Do you… not like it?” Loki asked, worry in his tone.

“I… I’m at a loss for words, Loki, this is… this is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen! Where even are we?”

“Darillium,” Loki said. “I’ve heard legends about it my whole life. Where the mountains sing and where a night takes one fourth of a century, they said. When the wind stands fair and the night is perfect, there is a song. Whenever you need it the most.”

“Wow,” he said. “So that’s why you took me here? You thought I needed to hear a song?”

“Maybe,” Loki said. “Or maybe I just wanted to show you a nice place.”

“Right,” Mobius chuckled. Loki sat down on the ground and gestured for him to do the same. He followed and they sat in silence, listening to the neverending music. It was like an orchestra of a thousand players, playing without any notes but still harmonosing perfectly. The melody was never the same, changing constantly. As the sun rose, very very slowly, the world got filled with wonderfully warm orange light, creating a truly majestic sight. He turned to look at Loki sitting there with his eyes closed, a tiny smile playing on his lips as the light breeze messed with his hair. He didn’t know for how long he had been looking at him when he suddenly opened his eyes and looked at him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare,” he mumbled, looking down at his hands. When he got the courage to look back up, Loki was still watching him, smiling. And before Mobius could say anything, he leaned forward, closing the space in a chaste kiss. It lasted barely two seconds, but Mobius could feel his brain crashing, electricity flowing through his entire being. When Loki backed away again, he inspected his face with curiosity.

“Did I go too far?” he asked softly. 

“No,” Mobius said, his voice barely audible. He cleared his throat and tried again: “You didn’t. I… I’ve been trying to… to kinda express how I felt about you. But I couldn’t figure out how to do it.”

“How do you feel about me?”

Mobius took a deep, shaky breath, closing his eyes. “I think I’m in love with you. And I know that it sounds stupid and like a-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Loki kissed him again, this time properly, with his hands on his cheeks. Mobius leaned into the kiss, awkwardly putting his hands on his shoulders.

“Is that why you’ve been so stressed lately?” Loki asked when he broke away. Mobius could only nod - admitting how weak it all made him feel was out of question, no matter how vulnerable the moment was. Loki smiled and pulled him into a hug, warm and comforting. Mobius closed his eyes, allowing himself to fall into the embrace.

“And if it wasn’t clear,” Loki said after a moment. “I feel the same way.”