Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was Saturday, noon, with perfect autumn weather outside. 

Mobius listened to the sound of brown leaves crunching underneath his Converse, felt the cold air puff against his blonde hair that desperately needed a cut. It flew wildly against the wind and away from his face. His arms swung back and forth either side of his body and the contents of his backpack clunked loudly every time he took a heavier step forward. 

Mobius was running his hand against a mossy stone wall to his right when he heard a familiar ping from within his deep trouser pocket. 

He quickly fished his phone out of his pocket, careful not to drop it on the concrete below. Opening his messages, he noticed a notification from Bea. 

B-15  

you almost here????

pls hurry up I want my ice cream 

Mobius huffed. Rolling his eyes fondly. He paused in his movements, leaning against a worn brick wall while typing carelessly on the digital keyboard. 

Mo🐝

almosr there 

almost*

I’m by that old skatboard thing

park  

The old skateboarding park had been run down for as long as Mobius could remember. He’d seen pictures of what it used to look like, but the quality of the photos only proved that the park had been abandoned for longer than Mobius had been alive. Every few years some skater kid would start a half-assed clean up project. Or bring up the park's existence to someone rich enough to fix it up again. But within weeks they would give up and forget about it again until the cycle continued. 

As Mobius strolled past the rusted gateway, he took a glance into the sad old park. The large skateboarding ramp was rusted over and the lowest part of it had collected a puddle of rainwater. There were increased numbers of snack packets and crushed energy drink cans discarded carelessly across the abandoned floor. Every time Mobius passed by the park there would be another couple of shitty street ‘art pieces’ layered on top of the last few. Or the last few hundred. Most were illegible. 

Two legs dangled from the flat platform at the top of the ramp. They swung back and forth minutely. Two pale-fingered hands rested a hardcover book lightly on them.

The person at the top of the ramp sat on a dark green raincoat. Most likely placed there to protect the owner from damp concrete wetting their black trousers. 

The person wore a blank expression. The wind blew lightly on black hair. Gently swirling against the pale face, then towards the side, then dancing away. It revealed spotless, white cheeks and striking green eyes. 

“Oh..”

Loki didn’t hear him, too immersed in his book, and Mobius spoke in barely a whisper. 

Mobius fished his phone out of his pocket with lightning speed, tucking himself behind the mossy stone gate. He wasn’t hiding from Loki. He just didn’t want Loki to see him. 

Maybe Loki would say nothing. Maybe Loki would smirk with his perfect lips and say something cliche like ‘ hey Moby ’ with his perfect voice. Mobius couldn’t afford to take that risk. Couldn’t afford the chance of anyone seeing the full body reaction that would undoubtedly take place on the off chance of that happening.

Mo🐝

BEA

BEA

ITS LOKI 

HES HERE

B-15

wot

Mo🐝

HS HERE  

B-15

wheres here  

Mo🐝 

THE SKATEPARK 

WHAT DO I DO

B-15

lmao does he wanna come get ice cream 

Idfk??? Just ignore him???

Mo 🐝

b what if he sees me

B-15

oh my god

it cannot be this big of a deal

if you aren’t here in 5 mins im buying ice cream w/o u 

Mo🐝

ur ignoring the struggle rn 

hes hot 

B-15

5 minutes. 

Mobius looked straight ahead. Directly across to the other side of the gate, he moved one foot forward, took a step and-

“Fuck!”

A solid pain flamed up in Mobius’ head. He jumped back, roughly clutching one hand to his hairline. Squinting his eyes. When he opened them he was greeted with the sight of a roughed up Loki, clutching his lower lip just as roughly. Loki let out a muffled groan. “Shi-it…” 

“Oh… my god,”

“Fuck..”

“Are.. you okay?” Mobius asked, the pain in his head had not subsided, but both of his arms were frozen in front of him, awkwardly unable to make the decision of comforting Loki or not. Loki’s voice was breathless. 

“Yeah, yeah..” He removed his hand from his face. No blood, thank god. 

“I’m so so sorry.” Mobius’ arms had made the decision for him, he held either one of Loki’s shoulders gently in his hands. 

“It’s okay.. I’m fine.” Loki Chuckled. He smiled as softly as he could after his face had been smashed by Mobius’ head. “Hi Mobius.”

Mobius gave a lopsided smile, “Hiya Loki…” he thought back to Bea’s ‘warning’. Five minutes. “I’m.. kind of in a rush, I’ve got some water you can have…for your mouth… I didn’t hit you too hard, right?” He moved to shift his backpack off of his back, reaching for his bottle, Loki grabbed his wrist, stopping the movement. 

“No,” He said “I'm fine.” Loki paused for a moment, merely staring into Mobius’ blue eyes. Eventually he shifted, awkwardly apologising. Still, Mobius felt bad, he wanted to make it up to the other boy. 

“Listen, I’m meeting up with Bea,” He said, “We’re getting ice cream, you want one? On me.” Please say yes please say yes god this is so awkward do they even eat ice cream in Iceland?

“Only if it’s on you.” Loki smirked. Mobius let out a breath. Staring into the other boy’s emerald green eyes. All of a sudden, Mobius remembered Bea’s text. His face dropped.

“We’re gonna have to run, she was getting a little mad about me being late.” A hand slipped around his wrist yet again. 

“We must be off then.” Loki smiled cockily. Only giving Mobius a glimpse of his face before he started to run past him, and pulled Mobius along with him. Together, they ran towards the town centre. Both boys grinning from ear to ear and giggling childishly the entire way there. 

Chapter Text

Bea was giving him the look . Mobius saw it out of the corner of his eye, her eyebrows were raised and she just barely wore a smirk on her lips. Mobius’ own lips were pursed, he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He was, to the best of his ability, hiding his face behind his mint choc chip ice cream. 

He was watching Loki, at the counter, ordering his own ice cream. The shop worker handed the boy his dessert. Loki seemed to have quite the sweet tooth, his sorbet was smothered in sugary sauce and sprinkles. Loki took long strides towards their table. He sat opposite Bea and Mobius in their booth. 

“So,” Bea started, “Why’d you move here?” 

“Dad’s job, he didn’t explain the explicit reason to be honest.” Loki took a lick of his sorbet. 

“That must’ve been hard,” Mobius said quickly, “leaving everything behind, your friends.” Loki looked at the boy opposite him, an unreadable expression on his slender face. 

“No,” He started, he looked down at his sorbet, fiddling with the spoon. “I didn’t have friends.” There was an awkward pause, Mobius looked towards Bea, her brows were furrowed. Loki quickly ended the uncomfortable silence. “Thor did, my brother. He had quite a few.” 

Mobius looked away from Bea, “Thor? The big buff guy? He’s your brother?” They were polar opposites, Thor was a big loud burly guy. Loki, on the other hand was quiet, smug occasionally, of course, but when Mobius found him in the old skatepark he was alone, reading. Mobius had only been aware of the brothers’ existence for around a week but he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Thor alone, never mind reading. Loki nodded his head. 

“He’s made friends with Steve Rogers, all those guys.” Bea said to Mobius, she turned her head towards Loki, “Popular kids, jocks ‘n smart guys, Tony Stark’s one of ‘em. As in Stark Industries.” Loki frowned, and spooned another chunk of sugar-covered sorbet into his mouth. Mobius looked down at his own dessert. 

“Shit!” He exclaimed. A stream of mint ice cream had travelled down the cone and onto his hand. Mobius instinctively started licking the melted ice cream off of his hand and reaching for the paper towels in the centre of their table. The back of his hand remained unpleasantly sticky, but he lifted his head when he heard the sound of Loki giggling at his predicament. 

Loki’s eyes were squinted shut, his pale hand hovered just in front of his thin lips, and his shoulders shook slightly. At the enchanting sound of his laugh, Mobius no longer paid any attention to the remaining melted ice cream on his hand, but began to laugh with him. 

As their laughter died down, Mobius opened his squinted eyes. Loki was grinning gleefully at him, his jaw rested on his hand. Mobius smiled back, feeling his face heat up. Suddenly shy, he hid his face behind his ice cream cone and turned towards the girl sitting next to him. 

Bea too, was smiling, though her eyes were smug, she licked her own strawberry ice cream and turned towards Loki. “Could we get your number, or your instagram or something?” 

Ah, yes. Bea always had the confidence that Mobius didn’t, at least when it came to potential crushe- friends. 

“Uh, yeah.” Loki picked his jaw up off of his palm, and fished his phone out of his pocket. Mobius noticed that Loki’s phone had a Polaroid picture of him and his brother between it and his clear phone case. They seemed younger, Loki maybe thirteen, Thor perhaps two years older. They wore funny halloween makeup, kid Loki was even paler than regular Loki, and his black hair was slicked back onto his head. Young Loki bore his teeth, showing off stick-on vampire fangs. Still, he was much more cute than scary, to Mobius, at least. 

Before he could figure out Thor’s costume, Loki turned his phone around and placed it in front of the two other teens. On screen was his instagram account. The username; God.of.Mischief. 

Mobius looked up at him, “Nerd.” Loki grinned back. 

—-

“Thanks for inviting me.” Loki said as he closed the shop door behind him. “And thanks for paying.” He smiled. 

“No prob, text us later?” He was silently hoping he would. 

“Of course.” Loki smirked. Bea looked up from her phone. 

“Mom’s texted, I needa be home soon. See you on Monday guys.” She waved. 

After waving the two goodbye, Mobius took the long way home. Half an hour into his walk his phone pinged in his pocket. 

Lowkey  

Hey 

Mobius smiled excitedly at the message. 

—-

Frigga was taking fresh home-baked sugar cookies out of the oven when she heard the click of the heavy front door opening. Lifting the oven door, she placed the hot metal tray onto the kitchen counter, before removing her oven mitt. She peeked her head around the open kitchen doorway.

Loki stood inside of the front door. His head was bowed, black hair fallen to cover bright eyes. Both of Loki’s hands gripped his phone, which was held just below his chest. His hidden eyes were equally glued to the screen he grasped in his hands. Loki shut the door with his back. 

“Hello,” Frigga started carefully when, uncharacteristically, no words of greeting came from Loki. She watched as Loki lazily wandered into the house, all focus remaining on the rectangle of light in his palms. Frigga stepped out of the kitchen and leaned against the doorframe, eyes narrowed and brows furrowed as she watched her son stumble around their new home. 

“Loki.” She said, a little louder. This time, she earned Loki’s attention. 

“Hi,” Came his slightly sheepish reply. 

“Who are you messaging?” Loki was undoubtedly going to deny messaging anyone but Frigga knew better, she knew her son better than he knew himself. And her suspicions were confirmed when Loki's face grew pink, and he began to stutter. 

“What? I’m not… messaging anyone.” 

Frigga stared knowingly, her raised eyebrows conveying the message of sure you aren’t . Loki continued to stand uncomfortably for a few moments. Frigga took pity on her son, breaking the heavy eye contact. “Do you want a cookie? I’ve only just taken them out of the oven.” Loki visibly relaxed, he took a step backwards towards the staircase. 

“Uh, maybe late-“ Loki’s back hit the banister behind him in his escape attempt, “Maybe later.” He smiled uncomfortably. Before turning and darting up the hardwood staircase. 

“I love you!” Frigga called after him, half smug, half fondly. She barely heard the distant reply of the same words coming from upstairs. Whoever it was that made Loki act so uncharacteristic must be someone special. Putting the incident out of her mind, for now, Frigga turned her attention back to the fresh cookies. Though her smile never left her face.