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Laying there on the floor felt like dying. Not like being pruned, those thousand needles of hot nothingness, not like watching himself on the TVA screen choking out as his beloved brother watched. No. This felt like blunt force trauma to the chest, muscles that screamed, and a peace in the air that felt freeing. He could breathe.
“Little help here?” Mobius was rolled on the ground, panting, with some ridiculous spacesuit on that looked worse for the wear. Oh my god, is he okay? Loki, ignoring the screaming pain he was experiencing personally, bolted upright and climbed back on top of Mobius, hands darting around frantically.
“Oh dear, are you alright? How do you even-” The suit made no sense, it was bulky and burning hot, and all Loki could focus on was the fact that Mobius was inside and he might be burning alive or skinless. Mobius huffs a laugh and grabs one of Loki’s hands in his large puffy glove.
“I’m okay, I’m alive, it’s just a bit hot in here. Get O.B.” Loki didn’t want to walk away from Mobius to find their new friend, the notion seemed horrific and laughable at the same time-- luckily O.B. appeared in front of them smiling.
“It worked!” He said in his chiper tone, which while reassuring also made Loki’s neck twitch and stand up.
“Not yet, we don’t know if Mobius has all his skin. Get this thing off of him.” Mobius’s eyes squinted in a smile through the helmet, and O.B. laughed.
“Are you sure you are alright?” Loki was clinging to Mobius’s side as they walked back to his quarters. He had idley watched the large suit come off and a seemingly intact Mobius emerge, a bit crumbled and shaken. Still, in the hallway to the elevator, Mobius smelled a bit burnt. Not of flesh though, Loki could thank whoever pruned him in the future for that.
“I think so, seriously. I’m just glad you are here and not disappearing anymore.” Mobius sounded like he meant it. “Where did you slip to?” He asked casually as they both slipped into an empty elevator. Loki looked at Mobius quizically, momentarily focused on the present. “Before you flung yourself at me,” Mobius elbowed Loki’s side and smirked up at him.
“Oh right,” Loki shook his head. “I don’t know. It… It was the future. In the TVA. A future TVA?” He thought aloud, processing everything. “There was a phone ringing, but I didn’t answer it because Syvlie… She was in the elevator. And before I could talk to her or anything I got pruned.”
“Thank god for that,” Mobius said softly. They were both silent for a moment. “There is no future TVA.” Loki look his head.
“Clearly there is.” Mobius nodded thoughtfully.
“Who pruned you?” His blue eyes blinked up at Loki curiously, as if Loki knew. Loki’s brows furrowed, shaking his head.
“I didn’t see them.” The silence settled over the elevator as it climbed the floors. In the silence Loki realized he had never been to the living quarters in the TVA, hadn’t even really thought they existed until Mobius casually said he wanted to go shower. Strange. The elevator dinged and Loki trailed after Mobius, the hallway dimly light but stereotypically TVA. Only a few doors down, Mobius stopped and unlocked the door, gesturing for Loki to go ahead of him. The apartment was small, polite somehow, and smelled distinctly of Mobius. Loki liked it.
“Home sweet home.” Mobius closed the door behind them and switched on a lamp to illuminate the living room. Loki felt a wave of tiredness swell through him, looking back at Mobius to see a similar look on his face.
“It’s nice.” Loki said softly. Mobius smiled.
“Well make yourself at home, I’m going to shower.” But by the time Mobius had returned from the bathroom, Loki was curled on his orange couch asleep peacefully. What a sight.
When Loki wakes up, the lights are off and for the first time since being in the TVA it feels like nighttime. There’s a line of cracks of his spine and he sits up, looking around the unfamiliar apartment.
“Slept like a baby?” Mobius is in the kitchen, the light over the oven on, a backsplash of hideous orange and brown like the rest of this infinite place. He looks slightly damp, so Loki wasn’t asleep for too long. There’s a mug in his hands, lovingly held close to his chest, and Loki processes the lack of suit jacket or dress shirt. Just slacks and a white t-shirt.
“My apologies,” Loki responses, combing his hair out of his face and yawning slightly. Strangely domestic as he watches Mobius smile into his mug and then place it on the counter.
“You needed it, bud. Now come over here, I need to look at your arm.” There’s a lack of white noise in the apartment that could seem unsettling, but makes Loki’s brain settle. He slinks over to the kitchen to see a rudimentary first aid kit spread out on the countertop. Mobius guides Loki to stand in front of the sink, where he leans, letting Mobius start to unbutton his tattered and dirty shirt.
“It doesn’t hurt,” Loki says to break the silence as Mobius’s hands slid over his shoulders to shed the shirt and place it on the counter next to the bandages and gauze. Mobius meets Loki’s gaze briefly as he takes Loki’s arm and turns it to face the deep cut that’s covered in dried blood and debree.
“Doesn’t matter, it looks like shit.” That makes Loki smile as Mobius damps a cloth and starts to pass it over the wound. It stings distantly, but the simplicity of the dim kitchen light and the smell of Mobius’s shampoo: slightly floral. Once the blood is all removed, Mobius carefully applies an antibiotic ointment onto a square of gauze and holds it to the cut. Loki flinches at the cold ointment, making Mobius’s focus go to Loki’s face again. “Okay?” He says softly, Loki just nods. Bandages are wrapped around Loki’s arms and Mobius pats it to let Loki let his arm drop.
“Thanks,” Loki says because he means it, but also because he doesn’t want Mobius to step away yet. Mobius smiles up at him, something that happens too often with him. It makes Loki feel safe. “I don’t know the last time someone cared for me.” He says too truthfully, and Mobius’s eye show a sadness that he didn’t mean to instill in them. “Sorry.”
“Don’t,” Mobius says, bringing a hand up to turn Loki’s face to look at him. “You deserve to be cared for, if no one’s ever told you that before.” Loki smiles with his lips pursed, hating the honest care in the other man’s voice. He won’t accept it, not really, but it feels nice to hear. Just like how it feels nice to have Mobius’s hands on his skin, even if it’s all fake and temporary. It’s nice to imagine. In that moment, Mobius goes to step back and clean up the countertop, but Loki reacts before he can rationize it. He steps forward as Mobius steps back, trying to not let the heat between them escape. Mobius watches, curiously, as Loki’s hand react out and settle on the nape of Mobius’s neck. Bare skin, warm from the shower.
“I…” Loki starts, not knowing how to make Mobius stay close.
“What’s wrong, buddy?” Mobius’s voice has a twinge of sarcasm, his eyes sparkling in the kitchen light. What is wrong with me? Loki should step away and ask for a new shirt, but he doesn’t. He stares at where his thumb is on Mobius’s neck, feeling the skin.
“Sylvie kissed me.” What? Loki wants to run away, feeling like a small child of Asgard again. Why would you say that? Mobius tilts his head.
“Cool story?” Loki shakes his head, trying to get his point across but letting the kitchen air slow his brain.
“I haven’t been kissed anyone in a long time, and not really ever… not because I wanted to. Just because I could. And then she kissed me and I didn’t really want it. I felt out of control, and I hate being out of control.” He was feeling the panic rise in his chest that had appeared since his timeslipping started. Get yourself together. Mobius looked like he was about to respond but Loki cuts him off. “Can you kiss me?” The warmth of Mobius’s large calloused hand on his cheek caught him offgaurd in the best way, leaning into it as he studies Mobius’s face: Eyes wide, eyebrows raised in surprise, and a gentle smile. His thumb ran over Loki’s cheekbone before he patted his cheek and his hand dropped.
“No.” And he turned to start putting the first aid supplies in the kit. Loki stood there silently for a moment, feeling cold and confused. When Syvlie shoved him through the timedoor he felt heartbroken, right now he just felt a bit awful.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-” He starts, feeling like he just jepordized the friendship he had developed with the analyst, the only person who seemingly cared about the god.
“You aren’t wrong. But we shouldn’t.” Mobius doesn’t look at Loki, but he doesn’t seem awkward or embarrassed. It’s very factual. Wrong about how good it felt when Mobius’s hands were on Loki? Wrong about Mobius wanting to kiss Loki?
“Why… not?” Loki asks, still feeling like the stupid one. Mobius huffs a laugh, glancing at the god in his kitchen.
“Let’s discuss this when you’ve had time to think, you’ll probably come to a different answer.” Loki starts to interject but Mobius turns to him and puts a finger to his lips, smiling. “Shhhh. Let’s get dressed and go talk to B-15 about the whole finding Syvlie situation. Okay?” Loki just nods, feeling an awfulness settle in his stomach.
***
“What do you mean X-5 is off the radar?” The awfulness in Loki’s stomach had been replaced ten fold with the chaos of the TVA. The Syvlie mission coupled with every monitor showing thousands and thousands of new branches made everyone on edge. And on top of that, with no real leader in charge, Mobius and Loki were stuck tracking down rouge hunters. Why would X-5’s Temppad be so glitchy? Why was he seemingly stuck on a timeline? At first, B-15 had appeared with the news that X-5 had gone off radar just to pick up his temppad what felt like a few hours later, asking Mobius and Loki to look into the timeline he was seemingly stuck.
“No way,” Mobius had started laughing, staring at his computer screen with wide eyes. They had been at Mobius’s desk for ever trying to manually locate and assess the branched timeline X-5 was on, without Ms. Minutes everything around there took forever and Loki felt a thousand times more stressed and bored than he had seemingly forever ago when they were tracking down Syvlie.
“What?” Loki perked up out of his thoughts of the proximity between him and Mobius at his small desk.
“Brad Wolfe,” He turns his computer screen so Loki can see a pile of windows open with movie posters, timeline information, and yeah a giant headshot of X-5, hair slightly longer and lips pouted, staring at him. “X-5 is a movie star on this timeline, looks like he’s been there for awhile.” Mobius is still laughing slightly, but starting to stand up and get his jacket.
“So?” Loki asks as he follows suit, trailing behind Mobius like a lost puppy (as usual).
“We need to tell B-15,” Mobius turns back to Loki with a mischievous look in his eye. “But I’m thinking this means we get to go find him.” Loki is a bit lost, starting to ask why that is getting his partner so smiley but B-15 appears with the permanently stressed look on her face.
“Tell me you found him.” Mobius gives a cheery thumbs up, B-15 sighs. “Good. Dox is staying stationary, her temppad is glitching too. Something is wrong.” That doesn’t seem to knock the good mood out of Mobius who smiles at the hunter.
“Nothing a good ol’ undercover mission can’t fix, what do you say?” B-15 rolls her eyes and nods.
“Go change, we’ll meet back at your desk, I have to check in with Casey.” And she disappears.
“Undercover?” Loki’s interest is peaked, for all the stress this whole situation has caused he could use some fun. Mobius looks back at him, a kindness in his eyes that Loki has been noticing more. No one ever looks at him like that.
“Sounds fun, right?”
***
“So you just happened to have two nice suits for the occasion?” They are back in Mobius’s apartment, Loki awkwardly standing in Mobius’s bedroom as he searches through his brown themed closet. It’s a nice small bedroom, a faux window letting light in and a rug that looks slightly itchy. It feels wrong to be in his space like this, especially since they hadn’t talked yet. Mobius shrugs.
“Used to do more undercover stuff in my days as a hunter, hopefully the suits still fit.” The thought of Mobius as a hunter makes Loki smile strangely.
“You were a hunter?” Mobius turns back around with two suits folded over hangers, grinning goofily. They are both seemingly simple, black and white, classic. “What’s the time period?” Loki asks as Mobius hands him a hanger.
“1977, baby. These will work perfect.” Mobius’s eyes scan Loki’s tall awkward form in his bedroom, Loki assumes he feels just as odd about the situation. “You know, the 1970s are a big branching point for timelines. Guess keeping these was handy. Hopefully the pants won’t be too short.” Loki huffs,
“We’ll be on the ground, I can make them fit with my magic.” Mobius shrugs, eyes fixed on Loki.
“Show off.” It makes them both chuckle. They stand there for a moment in silence just looking at each other.
“You know,” Loki starts, stepping forwards towards were Mobius is standing by his open closet doors. “We haven’t really-” Mobius puts a hand up, clicking his tongue.
“You haven’t had time to think yet.” He says somewhat sternly, shaking his head as if mad at himself for letting himself stare at Loki. Loki feels his chest grow tight.
“Stop trying to pretend you live in my head!” He snaps, tossing the suit onto Mobius’s well-made bed just to let his hands awkwardly linger in the air between them.
“A lot is happening right now.” Mobius states, his eyes having grown cold and his body stiffened away from Loki. Loki groans and rubs his temple.
“Have you considered that I am well aware of all of that?” Mobius is silent. Loki continues. “I don’t care if you want to kiss me or not, I respect you and care about you and I am trying to show that. But even if you have watched my life a million times, you don’t know how I feel. And I feel a bit crazy when I’m around you! You make me feel strange, in my chest,” His hands are gesturing around wildly but he puts his hand on Mobius’s chest. “You want me too. I know it, you admitted it. Why are you making this difficult?” He didn’t mean to harsh but his head was full and his chest felt strange and he wanted Mobius to slap him or yell at him or Gods forbid kiss some sense into him. Mobius stood silently staring at Loki.
“I am sorry for assuming your feelings, that wasn’t right of me.” An apology first, soft-spoken and kind. So very Mobius. “I don’t want this to be difficult for you, I don’t. But I cannot allow myself to give into this temptation. I may not know your brain, but I know you. And there is a very likely chance that this feeling will pass for you, and I know it won’t for me. I don’t want to have to love you once you are gone. I don’t know if I could live having kissed you if I couldn’t do it forever.” Loki’s hand has dropped from Mobius’s chest, and they are just standing there looking at each other. There’s an expression on Mobius’s face that looks like a mixture of sadness and heartbreak, which makes Loki want to revolt. He wants to hold Mobius and make promises and tell him he isn’t ever planning on leaving him. That even though they haven’t known each other long, he can’t image a day without him anymore. But he stays silent as Mobius looks at him. Then Mobius looks at the ground and smiles softly.
“What?” Loki asks to his soft expression and Mobius laughs.
“I’m fucked.” That just makes Loki more confused and Mobius laughs more. “I love you, Loki. That’s crazy. I’m in love with a Loki, all I want to do is love you and care for you and look at you. I fucking said it, jesus. I love you. What do I do with that?” He’s still laughing but his eyes are teared up and Loki doesn’t really know what to do because, yeah fuck. Mobius loves him. This gentle beautiful man cares about him, and Loki cares about him too. Loki smiles back at Mobius, letting the strangeness in his chest turn into something good.
“You could kiss me.” Loki pitches jokingly, “Just saying.” And he’s worried Mobius will punch his arm or walk away or maybe whip out a timestick and prune him, but he doesn’t. No. Mobius, with a suit slung over his arm, shoes abandoned at his front door, leans up and kisses Loki. Free hand on his face, tips of his toes, cold nose pressing against Loki’s. Mobius is kissing him. Scratchy mustache against his upper lip, and hand moving to grip the back of Loki’s hair. It’s soft and yet drowning, Loki can’t think about anything else.
“We have to change,” Mobius says the first time he pulls back for air, eyes still closed and lips damp. It was true, they really did have to go find X-5, but the thought of it seemed distant at the moment.
“I can help with that,” Loki purred, his brain mushy and his hands slipping down to try to remove Mobius’s brown suit jacket that he was always wearing. All Loki could think about was the feeling of Mobius’s mustache hairs and the way he tasted like whiskey even though they hadn’t had a drink in seemingly days. Mobius laughed and pushed Loki back.
“Woah there,” Loki removed his hands and blinked at Mobius, who was watching Loki curiously. “Let’s slow down,” One kiss and he’s asking to slow down? Loki grumbled and crossed his arms.
“We don’t have all the time in the world, if you’ll remember.”
“Exactly my point!” Loki’s hands returns to Mobius, tugging at his shirt to untuck in from his pants, putting his hands under the fabris to touch the soft skin of his waist. Mobius flinched at the sensation, eyes wide while trying to remain calm. “We have very different understandings of take it slow,” Mobius’s eyes fluttered as Loki’s hands ran up his sides, Loki grinned.
“We also have different understandings of using our time effectively.” Mobius shook his head, his hand resting on Loki’s waist and pulling them slightly closer.
“We have to change and go on our mission, okay? We can do this later,” The promise of later made Loki’s brain swim, leaning down to capture Mobius’s mouth again. He didn’t want this to feel rushed or unmeaningful or lustful, he wanted to kiss Mobius like he was the only person in the world. Mobius hummed into the kiss, reaching up to grab Loki’s face and pull it away.
“Leave my room, now.” Loki stood up straight and stepped back, giving Mobius a once over and smiling at his flushed appearance.
“Yes, sir.” He laughed out, going to retrieve his suit from where it landed on Mobius’s bed. Loki retreaded to the doorway, looking as Mobius focused on unbuttoning his shirt and shrugging it off his shoulders.
“Stop staring,”
When Mobius appeared in his living room, quickly tying his bowtie with an insane amount of ease, Loki was standing, his hands in his pockets, looking deep in thought.
“Loki, I’m ready. Do you need help with your bo-”
“I’m also in love with you,” Loki started, looking up at Mobius with focus. Mobius paused and blinked at him. “I think.” Loki ended, making Mobius’s face shift slightly.
“Well yeah, that’s kind of what I was hoping for.” Mobius said, trying to sound lighthearted. Loki shook his head.
“I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to seem rash or impulsive. I knew I liked you when I met you, even if I pretended I hated you. A lot was going on. I know. And I know I’ve abandoned you for Syvlie many times, and I know how it feels to be abandoned. But it’s you. I want you. I don’t want to do any of this without you. So I will go horrifically slow and I will take my time if that is what you demand. But please know no matter what that I don’t want to hurt you. Ever.” Loki closed his mouth and stared at Mobius, who was busy admiring Loki in his ruffled dress shirt and slicked back hair. The man licked his lips and met Loki’s gaze.
“Sounds good to me, let’s go find this bitch.” And grabbed Loki’s hand to drag him to the elevator.
***
“Is that something people say about me?” Loki asked, key lime pie stuck to the roof of his mouth annoyingly. Finding X-5 had been easy enough, getting information out of him was proving harder. Mobius seemed to have an idea as they cleaned up their pie plates and returned to the mission at hand. Seeing Mobius slap X-5 had been bizarre, but Loki understood now. It wasn’t like he had been exactly thrilled seeing how his timeline was supposed to play out.
“What?” Mobius and Loki had ended up in a strange storage closet that Mobius claimed had “torture devices” and O.B. had seemingly not blinked at eye at-- the TVA kept proving weirder and weirder.
“What X-5 said,” Loki offered, Mobius looked up from the manual he was scanning (a guidebook to every interrogation device the TVA had). “That I’m your little pet.” Loki stared at Mobius while he said it, a funny feeling in his chest. It didn’t annoy him, or get under his skin, although being a sidekick was never his favorite thing. Just an odd feeling like everyone else was looking at them when they walked the halls of the TVA. They probably were. Loki the Variant being apart of the team. Strange. Mobius laughed.
“Oh don’t worry about it, X-5 just says stuff to annoy people. As we saw.” He looks back down at the manual, having to hold it closer to be able to read it which made Loki smile slightly.
“I don’t mind, I was just wondering if that’s how you view me.” Mobius’s head whipped up to meet Loki’s playful gaze. He narrowed his eyes.
“I don’t know if I like what you are getting at.” Loki just shrugged, smiling at the idea. Mobius seemed focused on the project at hand and offered the manual up to Loki, eyes darting around the large closet.
“It’s a larger device, so I feel like it should be pretty easy to find in here-” The way Mobius’s mustache twitched when he was thinking was driving Loki slightly insane, plus they were finally in a room alone with a closed door. He had wanted to lean over and kiss the whipped cream off of Mobius’s mouth while they had been eating but the room was too public and Loki wasn’t sure if that was a safe bet right now. What Mobius had said before they found X-5 rung in Loki’s ears. I don’t know if I could live having kissed you if I couldn’t do it forever.
Loki pocketed the manual, eyes darting to see the closest hard surface, and grabbed Mobius by his jacket collar. Mobius flailed, grabbing Loki’s arm as he was carefully, yet forcefully, shoved against the wall by a shelving unit full of what appeared to be batteries and reactors.
“What the-” Both of Mobius’s hands coming to grab Loki by the waist and shake his head to focus on the change of events.
“I thought we might take advantage of the moment while we can,” Loki was leaning in and brushing his hand over Mobius’s cheek. Mobius rolled his eyes and shook his head. “If you remember, I’ve been very patient. Barely any touching on our mission or during interrogation.” Mobius was chuckling at Loki who was practically pawing at him, trying to touch as much as he could.
“You aren’t challenging the idea you are my little pet, huh? What do you want? Me to tell you how good you’ve been and give you a treat? You’ve been on your best behavior, huh? Just for me?” Mobius’s soft southern accent and teasing tone made the comments less serious, but the look in Loki’s eyes as Mobius talked made him pause. The greens of his eyes were barely visible through the blackness of his dilated pupils. “Oh, you are actually into that, aren’t you.” Loki retracted in embarrassment, clearing his throat and shaking his head before Mobius could grab him and switch their positions, shoving his knee between Loki’s legs as his back his the cold TVA wall. Loki was caught offgaurd, staring at Mobius as he tilted his head and licked his lips. “You really do need therapy.” Loki gulped and avoided Mobius’s gaze. What had he gotten himself into?
***
“I’m taking you home,” Loki guided Mobius out of the control room, which was horrifically quiet and tense. As soon as they made it to the elevator, Mobius started to shake. It had been back to back chaos since they found Sylive, and while her abandoning Loki again made Loki want to punch someone or throw up, his focus shifted to Mobius as they climbed the floors to Mobius’s apartment.
“Sorry,” Mobius croaked out.
“For what?” Loki asked, hand steadily on Mobius’s back keeping him close. Mobius shook his head and sighed.
“Syvlie, she left again, and I’m supposed to know how to fix things but I’m proving helpless.” The elevator dinged, and Loki led Mobius out while staring at him with worry.
“None of that is anyone’s fault, we will figure it out.
“You sound like me.” Mobius searched for his keys in his pockets. Loki smiled at that.
“You are rubbing off on me,” That made Mobius shoot Loki a look that made Loki laugh a bit. They both just needed some rest. “It will be okay, you need to sleep. We can’t go back in time this once, but we will figure it out.” Mobius was discarding layers as Loki trailed into the apartment after him. Shoes, jacket, dress shirt. Loki awkwardly stood in Mobius’s living room as Mobius got himself water.
“What are you doing there?” Mobius asked as he turned around to see Loki still fully put together, hands in his pockets, shoes on the carpet.
“What?” Loki asked, confused.
“Come to bed with me, you need to sleep too.” It was said so simply and gently that Loki was caught off guard. Yes, they were an item of some sort (if you could even focus on these things after billions of lives were just bombed), but the idea of slipping into Mobius’s bed and waking up to him the next morning seemed insane.
“I can just, take the couch. I’m not to tired, need to think-” Mobius was shaking his head.
“I made you come in your pants in a storage closet, I also told you I loved you. I don’t think taking it slow is possible. Loki. I love you, and I need you to hold me right now so I can sleep.” Loki just nodded, trying not to feel all the feelings that came associated with someone loving him. They both undressed and crawled into Mobius’s criminally comfortable queen sized bed, the faux window’s curtains drawn. Mobius curled into Loki’s arms without confusion or a question, burying his head into Loki’s chest.
“Mobius,” Loki whispered into his grey hair, feeling the warmth of his bare back against his palm.
“Yeah?” Mobius muttered into Loki’s chest, a feeling that made Loki want to explode.
“I love you too.” And he’d never really said that out loud to anyone before, he’d certainly never meant it. Mobius laughed.
“Do you think?” Loki shook his head and kissed Mobius’s head.
“I know. That’s the only thing I’m certain of.”