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Loki had no idea how long it had been since New York, one day? one week? a month? All the time spent in the monotone library endlessly flipping through files blended together.
Mobius had said time worked differently here, eventually he found himself rereading the same paragraph over and over unable to focus. The man across from him quickly picked up on his frustration.
“Hey Loki, everything alright?” Mobius asked gently.
“You mean besides being a prisoner in this helhole?”
“Real funny, I wouldn’t say you’re a prisoner.”
“Oh? What would you call this then? Because my two options are to sit here endlessly trying to find myself or get pruned from existence.” Loki leaned back on his chair fidgeting with a pen.
“If you wanted a break you could’ve just said so.” Mobius gathered his files and stood up, stretching his arms out above him. “Let's go.”
“Wait, hang on.” Loki stumbled over themselves to get up and follow the man leaving their workspace a total mess. In a few hurried strides he had caught up. “Now where exactly are you taking me?”
“My place.” They continued down the long hallways, people they passed shooting Loki dirty looks to which he simply smiled in response. Nobody was particularly happy he was here except maybe Mobius. Even he was just using Loki for his own interests.
“You have a home?”
“Well apartment but yes, did you think I just work nonstop? Plus you look like you could do with a shower and a nap.”
“I look amazing, thank you.” Although he couldn’t deny he was exhausted, he had learned not to show weakness. His limbs were starting to feel numb and sleep did sound nice.
“Okay ‘your highness’, but it looks like a bucket of grease has been dumped on your head.” Loki's face flushed with embarrassment as they struggled not to reach up to touch their hair.
“Well at least I wear it well.”
“Is that a jab at my suit, because I think it looks good.”
“Maybe.” The god replied with a smirk.
Mobius rolled his eyes as they reached the door to his apartment, he felt around his pockets for the key. Which ended up being in his back pocket for whatever reason.
When they entered Loki wasn’t surprised it was about as dull as the rest of the TVA save for a small pile of Jet Ski magazines next to the couch. Which was the only mark of individuality anywhere. Mobius led Loki through to his small bedroom.
“You can pick out something else to wear, that is unless you'd rather stay in that outfit? The bathroom is in there. I’ll wait out here.” With that he wandered back out to the living room.
Loki skimmed through the shirts which were almost identical. God this man had bad taste. He fished out a shirt and almost the only semi unique tie and found a suitable pair of pants all of which he laid out for after his shower. He wandered into the adjoined bathroom.
They turned on the shower and let it heat up and slowly got undressed. She got in and basked in the hot water, god she needed this. She stood still letting the water cover her. After a few minutes they reached out to grab shampoo. But could only find one bottle, upon closer inspection to their horror it said ‘3 in 1, shampoo, conditioner and body wash!’ as if that was something to brag about. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist and stormed out to the living space.
“Mobius, what the hell is this!” They thrust the bottle forward.
“Uh my shampoo?”
“How do you live like this!”
“It’s more efficient, what's the big deal.”
“The big deal is that I have standards.”
“You’re dripping water on my floor, and could be please cover up,” Mobius averted his eyes, feeling heat rise to his face and neck, “I’ll get some for next time, please just go.”
Loki knew she had no choice and so she turned around and returned to the shower in defeat. With utter disgust she lathered the liquid onto their hair. He quickly finished in the shower. Then dried off and moved back into the bedroom and got changed into the clothes he’d picked out. Then went to let Mobius know he was done.
“Loki, what are you wearing?”
“Your sad excuse of clothing, why?”
“You’re going to sleep in that? Here let me grab you an old t-shirt.” He rummaged around his drawers and pulled out a plain white oversized t-shirt. “Here, wear this.”
Loki quickly changed into the shirt, Mobius meanwhile was trying not to look. He had to admit the god has a gorgeously toned body, and he filled out his pant- Wait. Mobius cleared his mind and picked up a magazine. There was an article about the new Yamaha WaveRunner FX SVHO Jet Ski.
“Do you have any food?” Loki asked, casually flopping down into the couch in only the shirt and his boxers.
“Well I can’t exactly cook, but I’ve got some instant meals? It's probably not what you’re used to, but it's not half bad.”
“I’m sure it will suffice.”
Mobius smiled and put his magazine down and went over to the little fridge and pulled out two microwavable meals. Loki picked up the discarded magazine and flipped through it. “I still don’t get why you like these so much, there is literal magic and flying out there.”
“I’m not sure, they just are the perfect machine. It gives me hope,” Mobius went on to explain different types of Jet Skis for the 20 minutes it took for the meals to heat up. Loki didn't particularly care about any of it but it was nice to see the man's face light up for once. His eyes almost literally shone as he rambled. Interrupted only by the beeping of the microwave.
As the two ate Loki excitedly went on about a time he and his brother dressed up as a bride and bridesmaid to steal Thor's hammer back.
“You would not believe how blind they were, Thor hadn’t even properly shaved his beard he just covered it with a veil!” Suddenly Loki stopped, “But you probably already know about all that.”
“No it's alright, I’ve seen so much footage I barely remember keep going.”
Loki smiled “Okay so-.”
Once they finished eating Mobius cleared away their trays and came back with his hands behind his back.
“I’ve got something special for you.”
“Are you finally going to give me wearable clothes?” Loki jokes.
“No, mine clothes are completely fine thank you,” He moved his hands in front of him and opened his palm, “Ta da!” In his hand was a packet of MnMs .
“Mnmms? What is this Moby?”
“The Jet Ski of foods, you may have your fancy Asgardian food but we have this.” He opened the packet and poured a few out into his hand offering them to Loki.
“Mm colourful rocks, thank you so much.” Loki reluctantly grabs one and pops it into her mouth, as soon as she bites into it her face lights up.
“It's good right? Much better than grapes in my opinion” Mobius grabs a couple for himself, “It's the little things.”
Loki grabs a generous handful, “thank you Mobius…” he looked up into Mobius’ eyes “-for everything.”
“Of course Loki.” His cheeks warmed, and averted his eyes. “Well we should probably get some rest, we have more work to do. You can take my bed, I’ll sleep out here tonight.”
“You’re joking right? Unless you plan on sleeping sitting up you won’t fit.”
“And you will?”
“Surely there is plenty of space in your bed for both of us?”
Mobius turns away to hide the redness of his face, “Uh are you sure?”
“Well if you’re going to be rude, I can sleep out here.”
“No it's alright.”
Mobius quickly moved through his bedtime routine, by the time he got to the bed Loki was out cold, not surprising given he had been up for the equivalent of several earth days.
He noted how gentle and fragile Loki looked whilst asleep, their freshly washed hair astrew with a few pieces covering their face. Against his better judgement Mobius reached out and brushed their hair aside.
“Goodnight Loki.”
Mobius rolled over and did his best to fall asleep with the God sleeping right next to him. He too quickly also fell asleep the last few days had been very chaotic and busy for him too.
At god knows what time, Loki was awoken to Mobius sleeping with his head on Loki's chest and one arm hooked around his waist. Loki felt that weird warm feeling he’d been feeling in his chest all day. It finally hit him what it was. Shit he had a crush on the TVA agent.