Work Text:
His phone pinged. A message from Loki appeared on his lock screen, saying simply, “I’m on my way home.”
He tapped on the notification and pulled up his emoji keyboard, ready to reply with a thumbs up, but then thought better of it when he remembered that Loki didn’t like it. He said that it felt passive-aggressive to receive only a thumbs up in reply to his messages. Mobius didn’t quite understand what he meant by that, but he had taken it out of rotation for Loki’s messages, settling instead for the green heart emoji—one Loki loved.
He hit the green heart a few times, then a couple more times for good measure before he pressed send. He sat back and watched as a chat bubble appeared, signifying that Loki was typing a reply.
It took awhile for him to respond. Mobius laid back on the sofa and stared at the bubble as it appeared, disappeared, and reappeared again. Loki was obviously trying to decide how best to reply, pausing and deleting his text while crafting his message to Mobius.
When it finally came through, the grey text bubble was a wall of green hearts. The message was so long that Mobius had to tap on it for it to unravel to its full length.
He laughed out loud at the absurdity of the God of Mischief and Time sending him a message entirely composed of emojis. He imagined Loki walking back home, his grocery bag hanging from his arm while he ferociously tapped away at his keyboard, trying to fill the screen with hearts just to make him smile. It worked.
The door opened, and before Mobius even had the chance to greet him, Loki instantly began to rant.
“I was held captive by Mr. Johnson in the corner shop.” Loki sighed, dropping his bag to the floor. “I only went in for those indigestible sweets that you enjoy so much but instead heard more about his tractor than I ever cared to.”
He left the bag where it was, not bothering to put anything away, and walked straight over to Mobius on the sofa.
“I don’t know what made him think that I would care about this vehicle of his.” He said as he flung himself down on top of Mobius, resting his head comfortably on his chest.
“I honestly couldn't care less, but I had to be nice to him because Gwendoline from the post office told me that he makes enemies out of people very easily, and I cannot be bothered to argue with an old man who isn’t you. Thank the gods it was closing time, or I might still be there now.”
Mobius huffed, and Loki lifted his head so that his chin rested on his chest. “Hello, by the way.” He smiled, pressing a kiss to Mobius’ lips and gazing into his eyes.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he replied, looking back at his partner with what he assumed was the most head-over-heels, love-struck look of all time.
Even after all this time, it was the simple moments like this that caught Mobius off guard. His heart thumped rapidly in his chest whenever he remembered that this was his life now. He was married, he lived on the timeline, and Loki was his life partner. To this day, he was unequivocally smitten with Loki.
No matter what, Loki always looked gorgeous, and he couldn’t help but stare at his husband in silence, struck by his beauty.
Enough time passed that Loki tipped his head to the side questioningly, eyes softening as his black hair fell across his face.
Mobius reached to brush the stray hair, threading his fingers through it and pushing the strands away from his eyes, gently grazing his scalp with his nails as he did so. Loki shivered at the touch.
“Come here,” he said, cupping Loki’s face and pulling him into a deep kiss.
“I missed you.” He murmured against Loki’s lips.
Loki smiled, kissing him softly before pulling back to look him in the eyes. “Mobius, I was only gone for 45 minutes.”
He held Loki close to his chest, tucking his head under his chin.
“I missed you.” He repeated.
Loki snuggled into Mobius, humming delightedly as he wrapped his arms around his waist.
“I missed you, too.”
Late afternoon sunlight streamed through the window, tinging their living room with a warm, golden glow. The sun’s rays shone off Mobius’ wedding band as he lifted his hand to stroke through Loki’s soft curls.
He smiled when he heard Loki hum in satisfaction. Laying on the sofa like this had become a routine of sorts. Loki sought out physical contact constantly, and Mobius was more than happy to give that to him.
A comfortable silence stretched between them before Mobius spoke again.
“I can’t believe anyone could hold you hostage. Not now, anyway.”
“You don’t understand,” Loki began. “The level of pettiness Mr. Johnson has achieved is above what I’m willing to put up with. I’m retired, you know; I don’t need that kind of energy.”
Mobius played with the hair next to Loki’s ear, then rubbed the pads of his fingers against his temple comfortingly.
“Can you retire if you never had a job, Your Highness?” He smirked.
“I think you’ll find that I had quite possibly the most important job in the universe.” Loki retorted, with no real bite.
Mobius’ heart clenched whenever he thought about the role that Loki had taken on. He had known that Loki was always capable of good, but holding together all of time was something he never imagined anyone being able to do. He was so proud of Loki for finally being able to be the person he’d always wanted to be, even if it wasn’t how he’d originally envisioned.
He pressed a kiss to the top of Loki’s head, breathing in the floral scent of his shampoo.
“You know a lot about the people in the town…” He started, scratching against Loki’s scalp in the way that he loved so much, totally not fishing for more information.
Loki sighed happily. “Oh, you must get into the drama of the people here, Mobius. It’s delightful!”
Mobius laughed, “Delightful, you say?”
He always joked that he didn’t care about the town drama, which was partially true, he just didn’t care to hear about it from anyone but Loki. He loved how excited he got spilling people's secrets to him. There was always something new going on and Mobius lived for the moments that he could listen to Loki talk uninterrupted.
“Precisely. You know Pat from the butchers? Well, apparently, she allowed one of the trees in her garden to grow too high, and Mr. Johnson took that personally.”
“What’s that got to do with him?” Mobius huffed, continuing to stroke through Loki’s hair absent-mindedly.
“The tree blocked his view, so he reported her to the council,” Loki cackled. “Oh, it’s wonderful that this is what they constitute as drama. Imagine if they heard about how you reacted after I went to Lamentis. Now that was real drama.”
“Hey!” Mobius grumbled, scratching his nails playfully against Loki’s scalp, “Stop bringing that up. If you’re allowed to be dramatic, then so am I.”
He felt Loki relax further as he continued to tease his hair and scalp with his fingers. If Loki were a cat, he would be positively purring right now.
“Let a man live, OK? It’s not every day you get betrayed by the first real friend you’ve made in centuries.”
Loki mumbled something into his neck and giggled playfully.
“What was that?”
“I said,” Loki lifted his head, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “You betrayed me.”
Mobius put on the most dramatic, fake offended gasp of his life.
“This again?” Mobius huffed fondly. “You’re lucky that I love you.”
Loki placed his hand against Mobius’ cheek and pulled him into a lazy kiss.
“Yes,” he said, resting his forehead against Mobius’, “I am lucky indeed.”