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Loki’s time-slip into the TVA was a well-worn groove in the fabric of timespace.
He let the original moment unspool, playing his part as his friends shepherded Victor Timely toward the aura reader. They were tense with fear, hopeful that everything could be fixed with machines and equations and auras. Loki went through the motions, knowing there was only one ending that would keep them safe.
Loki had been in this moment more times than he could recall. This would be the last. He noticed little things about them all – B15’s quiet strength as she gripped the railing, like she could keep it all from falling apart by the sheer force of her will; the spark in OB’s eye as his fingers flew across the keyboard, his mind spinning with complex probabilities; Casey’s nervous grin as he stated a clever fact, inching closer to OB; the firm line of Sylvie’s mouth as she tried to hide the hope she felt. Victor, a man out of his time, crackling with awe and nerves and fear.
“It’s all right. You’ll be fine,” Loki told him calmly.
And Mobius…
Jaw gripped with urgency, Mobius gently took Victor’s glasses as the baffled inventor ducked into the aura reader.
Loki held his gaze over Victor’s bent back. Mobius’ eyes were warm, like he was looking at something precious. His look said, Here goes nothing and You okay? and I’m glad you’re here and Loki could have stayed in that moment for as long as it had taken him to learn quantum mechanics.
The bland automated voice welcomed He Who Remains. Mobius huffed with relief and looked away as the heavy metal shield doors clanked open, bathing the control room in the rippling light of the loom, timelines tangled and straining. Loki glared at it.
He finally understood. There was no way to fix the loom, because it wasn’t broken . When the timelines inevitably began to branch, the loom followed its design to preserve one timeline. He Who Remains thought them all inconsequential – their destruction justified if it could avoid a colossal war. This logic horrified Loki. Billions of lives would be lost either way – including every person in the TVA.
If... if there's a hope that you can replace that thing with something better…
Loki looked around at his friends and ached .
The loom couldn’t be fixed. It couldn’t be altered. It galled him, but he knew his efforts hadn’t been a waste. He had mastered time-manipulation. He’d accepted what he had to do to keep them all safe. It was the fire that fueled his choice, but it burned …
Had this been He Who Remains’ intention all along? Loki didn’t like to think about it. If he was to make this sacrifice, it would be his choice. His heart ached with the weight of past-Mobius’ advice: There’s no comfort. You just choose your burden.
Mobius…
He would understand, eventually.
The Mobius before him, his eyes hopeful in the glow of celestial radiation, had no memory of giving him that advice – that timeline branch had dissolved. Loki held thousands of such memories, little shards of what if that only he remembered.
Loki took a deep breath. It was time to choose his burden. He could do it. He just needed to do one more thing. Yes, Mobius would understand his choice, but Mobius needed to hear it from him. Mobius needed to remember.
Loki flicked his fingers, tugging gently at the fabric of time. The moment stopped. Words halted mid-syllable, steps defied gravity. The light of the straining loom, frozen in time, bathed all their faces.
I know what I want…
Loki pinched the air, sharp and quick, the threads of time so familiar that he could play them like a delicate instrument. Mobius alone surged back into motion, taking exactly three heartbeats to look around and realize something was very off. His eyes darted to Loki, who held up his hands, placating –
“Mobius, let me explain–”
Mobius rushed at him, crowding close, gripping the lapels of Loki’s jacket with white-knuckled fists. “Loki, what the shit is going on?”
“It’s okay – Mobius, we’re okay,” he tried to soothe. “I’ve stopped time. Please, I need to talk to you.”
Mobius gave him a little shake. “How did you stop time ? That’s not a thing you do –”
Loki’s words tangled in his throat. This was the first moment in thousands of time-slips that Mobius was present with him – really present. He pulled Mobius into a fierce hug, burying his face against his shoulder. Mobius’ huffed with surprise. His hands slid around Loki’s back, squeezing him close.
“Okay. Okay, Loki,” Mobius said quietly. He pulled back just far enough to study Loki’s eyes. “Tell me.”
Loki swallowed and nodded. “I will. Everything. But… not here.”
. . .
Loki tapped the edge of his plate with his fork, watching Mobius in the glow of the automat as he absorbed the enormity of Loki’s story. Two pieces of key lime pie sat untouched on their plates. The story had poured out of him and Mobius had listened, hands clasped tightly in his lap, chairs so close that their knees brushed under the table.
“You’ve been busy,” Mobius chuckled weakly. It was the saddest sound Loki had ever heard. “Wish I remembered.”
“That’s why we’re here, now,” Loki continued in a rush. “Mobius, I can’t do this without you knowing why .”
Mobius breathed a long, deflating sigh as the weight of Loki’s story settled over him. “So… let me get this straight. The only way this can all be fixed is if you stay at the end of time, overseeing all the timelines, holding them safe.” Mobius’ voice was strained, but calm. You didn’t live several eons in the TVA without becoming accustomed to certain impossible realities.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And you’re sure – you’re completely certain there’s no other way?”
“I’ve tried everything I can to alter the loom, to change the course of events. This is the only way to ensure the timelines can continue branching and keep everyone in the TVA safe.” Loki’s voice broke. “Keep you safe.”
I know what I want.
He leaned forward, taking Mobius' hands, and caught his breath as Mobius gripped his hands fiercely.
Mobius held Loki’s gaze and oh there was such clear, pained understanding in those light eyes. “But you’ll be alone.” His words were barely a whisper.
Tears burned Loki’s eyes, but he didn’t look away. He bit his lip and nodded.
Mobius studied him for an eternity of heartbeats. He took a deep breath and nodded. “I get it,” he said quietly. “You really have come so far.”
Loki had poured his heart out to many versions of Mobius, but his companion sitting before him remembered none of it. “You saved me, Mobius. When I first arrived here, you saw something in me that I couldn’t see in myself. Who I am today, the choice I’m able to make, is only possible because you trusted me when no one else would.”
Mobius squeezed his fingers. “I just wish…” and his voice caught.
Loki leaned closer. “What? What do you wish?”
Mobius’ thumbs rubbed gently over Loki’s knuckles. It sent white sparks through his veins. “I wish we’d had more time. You and me.”
Tears broke free and spilled down Loki’s cheeks. “You would really want that, with me?”
Mobius smiled. It reached his eyes, mingling with an iron resolve that filled Loki with heat. “You promise I’m going to remember all this?”
“Yes,” he breathed.
And then Mobius was close, so close his breath was warm on Loki’s lips and Loki surged to meet him and oh they were kissing, kissing . He had wanted this fiercely. He had hoped. He had been afraid to hope. Mobius freed one hand to curl around Loki’s jaw. Loki’s hand was in Mobius’ hair. They melted into one another, safe in their pocket of frozen time.
Many moments passed. Mobius pulled back gently, his fingers brushing over Loki’s tear-streaked cheek. “How long do we have? Can we stay here a while?”
“As long as we want.” Loki leaned in to kiss him again, then suddenly tensed, a realization hitting him like a bolt of lightning. “Oh – oh –”
Mobius searched his eyes, alarmed. “What? What’s wrong?”
Loki blinked rapidly as all the parts fell together in his mind. Of course. Of course. It was so simple. He cleared his throat, suddenly nervous. “Mobius… what if… what if there was a way we could be together? Have more time?”
Mobius’ smile was cautiously hopeful. “Tell me.”
“I think we could live parallel to this time,” Loki said hesitantly. “For as long as we wanted. We could go anywhere, if you wanted that. With me.”
Mobius kissed him, a quick hard press of lips. “Loki, you ridiculous god – of course I want that. But how would that even work?”
Loki pressed his fingers into the fabric of time, opening a portal. The portal’s edges pulsed around a patch of clear sky, sunlight reflecting on water. They could hear seagulls and waves lapping at a dock. A gust of salty air brushed over their skin.
Mobius gaped at it. “Is that the ocean ?” Hope bloomed on his face, but warred with doubts. “But – wouldn’t living on other timelines make them unstable?”
Loki threaded their fingers together. “I can feel which ones are more… flexible.”
Mobius huffed a laugh. “You’re remarkable.”
A blush crept up Loki’s neck. He ducked his head to smile.
“And we really could… “
“Live a life,” Loki whispered. “Live as many lives as we want. Go anywhere we like.”
“And you really want that, too?”
“Mobius, wherever I am, if I’m with you, I am home .”
Mobius pulled Loki to his chest and laughed wetly into his shoulder. He brushed his fingers in circles over Loki’s back, his neck, into his hair. “I love you.”
A nova burst in Loki’s chest. He pulled back to meet Mobius’ eyes. “I love you, Mobius. I have loved you for uncountable time, and I will love you for every moment to come.” He pressed their foreheads together and breathed his air, their fingers woven tightly.
This is happening. Loki felt giddiness like carbonation in his blood, disintegrating the heavy weight of his grief. It would return, one day. He couldn’t outrun his path forever. But first they could live , and Loki thought that might make the weight easier to bear, in the end.
Mobius sat back, keeping a firm grip on Loki’s hands, ever the methodic analyst. “If we do this… it won’t jeopardize your… plan?”
“I would keep us away from what I have come to think of as our sacred timeline. Things that must occur to make this final moment possible. There are countless places we could explore, even live, that would be safe. Oh Mobius, there is so much I want to show you.”
“And we’ll remember? Everything we do?”
“Yes. For us, every moment forward will be a continuous thread.”
“So whatever happens… after , we’ll have our memories. Of our time together.”
Loki raised their clasped hands to his lips. “Yes. Yes .”
“And the others? They’ll be okay while we go and… live?”
“They’ll be right here, waiting for us to come back and finish the story. When we’re ready.” He squeezed Mobius’ hands, lips quirking with a little mischief. “Perhaps we could finally get that drink.”
Mobius’ grinned at him, the warmth in his eyes setting a blaze inside Loki. “Oh, I’d like that.”
Loki cut a bite from his slice of pie and held it up to Mobius’ lips. Mobius chuckled as he accepted the bite. When Loki leaned in to kiss him, Mobius’ lips tasted like lime and sugar.
“Ready?” Loki asked against his lips.
Mobius savored the kiss a moment longer, then stood, tugging Loki from his chair. “Come on, I wanna see if there’s jet skis out there for our date.”
Loki grinned, feeling his cheeks heat. “Is this a date?”
Mobius squeezed his arm and didn’t let go. “Damn right it is.”
Pressed close, they stepped through the portal and into the sunlight.
. . .
The fabric of time absorbed them into its weft. They left little behind as they traveled –
– two wet jet skis on a sandy beach, footprints leading away that were soon erased by the incoming tide –
– plates with crumbs on a veranda overlooking ancient Rome –
– flashes of green magic –
– rumpled bed sheets at an inn on a distant moon –
– a patch of Asgardian wildflowers pressed flat and warm where two had lain close under a single blanket –
– tiny whorls and eddies of air currents from a thousand thousand embraces, clasped hands, thumbs brushed along a jaw, hair carded, lips pressed –
– sound waves traveling through space that carried laughter, gentle bickering, long talks, the song of two bodies entangled, and a promise uttered like a steady heartbeat –
I love you I love you I love you