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It started like all habits usual do for Mobius. Unexpectedly, but not at all questioned, technically it wasn't even his habit at all! Mobius couldn't help but wonder who would complain about Loki, the God of Mischief, reaching over and cuddling them close randomly. A madman, surely. If he had a knife that would be a different story, Mobius remembers watching Loki try that trick on 'lovers' too many times to count while going through his files. Anyways, here's how it happened the first time. Loki had walked into their shared apartment slumped over and groaning. Mobius had been sitting on the couch and making sure his report of the mission he had just been on had no spelling mistakes.
Miss Minutes would make him do all of the paperwork all over again if even one word was spelt incorrectly. While Mobius was focused he hadn't noticed Loki practically looming over him or how quiet the God was being. So he was completely caught off guard when suddenly Loki collapsed to lay on the couch before pulling the analyst into his arms on top of him tightly. "Loki? What the hell are you doing?" Mobius squirms in his partners arms, looking down at the sleeves of the variant jacket Loki is wearing just casually holding him close. Mobius means partner in a purely platonic context that he will not at all tell anyone about, because if anyone found out? He'd probably get pruned by Ravonna...right after she prunes Loki for somehow managing to sneak into Mobius' heart like that.
Mobius is thrown out of his thoughts when he feels Loki pull him closer and nuzzle into him sleepily, "Tell anyone and I'll find a way to stab you with a salad fork…" Loki mumbles into Mobius' chest. Mobius just hopes Loki can't feel the way his heart is practically trying to race out of his chest with how fast it's going, who cares about the threat to his life, when a literal God is holding on to him like a stuffed animal?
"Studying your bureaucratic rules is tiring even for a God like me…so just shut up." Loki had mumbled before he had completely fallen asleep right then and there.
So Mobius had done what he said. He didn't tell anyone and he kept quiet. He just enjoyed the moment where they weren't variant and his handler. And let himself pretend that the world around them was peaceful, no threats of pruning, they're just in a world where they can lay just like this without any fear of judgment. No fear of death. Where Mobius can pretend that Loki really is his partner by choice and not because he'll die otherwise. At some point, Mobius had even fallen asleep too, hugging him protectively, or that's what Casey had told him how it looked like at the time when he had walked in on them. But Casey doesn't even know what a fish is, so Mobius is going to assume he doesn't know what holding someone protectively is or even means.
"I have eyes, Mobius." Casey had mumbled right before Loki had walked up to them with a menacing look, he loomed over the poor guy, and made a zipper motion on his lips, which Casey repeated shakily with a nod.
And yeah, that's how it happened the first time. Simple, right? A small story that would never happen again, barely worth mentioning? Wrong. Because it happened a second time but after a couple months, maybe a year? Who knows? Time is different at the TVA but all you need to know is a lot of things happened that Mobius and Loki hadn't had a moment to talk about…until that one time they did. Mobius had been at his desk, desperately trying not to fall asleep as he read through the TVA Manual. Don't get him wrong, it's a GOOD manual, but that's what makes it so boring. When all Mobius wants to do is finish reading it and go get some dinner. But O.B. had practically begged for Mobius to read it and he couldn't say no to anyone…which he should probably get checked out because if he's going to be one of the three leaders of the TVA he can't just fold immediately because someone asked.
"Ugh, Mobius are you quite done reading that monster of a book yet?" Loki grumbles as he lays on his arms, turning his head to look at him with pleading eyes. "No, Loki. I am not done reading the manual. And don't call it a monster, you'll hurt O.B.'s feelings." Mobius scolds halfheartedly with a playful wag of a finger as he holds the book with one hand. "Besides, it was your idea in the first place for us to read the manual so we're prepared next time a life ending event happens." He mumbles as he flips a page onto one about the 'Heart' of the TVA. It's a brief history of the horrors they had all gone through just to keep the TVA from melting down, there's even a brief quote from Loki in it. Mobius grabs the book and leans forward to see what it says, he want to know what Loki had said, to see just a glimpse of what he was feeling when he was out there in that tree when they all thought he was dead. Mobius let's out a loud laugh, Loki instantly slides up like a snake hearing a flute, and practically launches himself at Mobius. Mobius let's out a groan as he's hit with 500 plus pounds of pure Time God. Thank goodness weight works differently in the TVA as well…or is it strength? Either way, it just feels like a slightly heavy human just shoved themselves at Mobius' back, clinging onto him like a cat.
"What? What's so funny? I wish to know what amuses you while I'm trying to get your attention!" Loki huffs as he cuddles into his neck, laying against Mobius' back while he sits in his chair. Mobius turns his head to look up at the pouty God. "Hey, you comfy up there?" He gives a grin as Loki groans, slapping his shoulder lightly, before cuddling in deeper. "Shut up, Mobius." He grumbles as he peeks over his shoulder to look down at the manual. He raises a brow at what he sees.
"Really? That's what had you laughing that hard?" Loki flips his hair with a huff but keeps his arms wrapped around Mobius and the chair, acting as if cuddling him right there in front of their co-workers is normal. But Mobius tends to forget the world exists when he's with Loki, especially since they've been reunited. Being close like this doesn't feel embarrassing when for so long Loki had only been a memory Mobius wished to just see again, to prove that he was real, that he hadn't just imagined him up.
"Hey." Loki starts to sway them side to side, noticing Mobius is falling back into one of those moods again. Apparently it started when Loki had left them to save the Timelines, and every time it happens, he can't help but want to fix it because it's his fault it's happening in the first place. But every time Loki tries to blame himself, his friends, especially Mobius, glare at him for blaming himself for feeling bad about sacrificing himself for them. Mobius had tried to actually stop it for a while, but Loki told him not to that he'd just help Mobius out of the dark, like his human had done for him. "I'm right here, Mobius. I'm not going anywhere. Not anymore. Not ever again. I promise." Loki whispers into his shoulder. Mobius turns to look at Loki with a smirk that doesn't quite meet his eyes, "Last time you said that you ended up sacrificing yourself with zero explanation." Loki gasps in false offense and moves back to his chair, sitting up in it with one leg crossed over the other as he raises a finger and points at Mobius.
"Excuse me, I believe I told you the context."
"Yeah, after you came back!"
"At least I told you right?"
"You told ME when you told everyone else!" Mobius sighs and raises his arms before letting them fall back to his knees with a huff.
"What's wrong with that?" Loki tilts his head with a furrowed brow.
"Because I'm your partner! And from the retelling you told us? Even during multiple tries, I could tell something was wrong! You just didn't tell me! Why didn't you let me in? I could've helped you! We're…" Mobius feels a sob crawling up his throat and turns away in his chair, whispering to hide it. "We're supposed to be a team…" Loki's eyes widen and he reaches out, slowly sliding his chair towards Mobius, he shakes his head "You know it's not like that. I just…" he sighs before looking back with a determined look "I just wanted to protect you." He puts his arms around Mobius' shoulders once more, pulling Mobius into his lap for a better cuddling session. Mobius mumbles as he hugs Loki back "Who's going to protect you…?" Loki sighs and holds him close rocking the office chair back and forth. They stay like that for a while under the orange lights of the TVA office. They continue ignoring their co-workers watching in a mix of concern and exasperation.
"Can't those two just get together already and get a room?" B-15 mumbles to Casey as they watch the exchange from the front, watching the monitors of the timeline.
"Wait. They're not…together?" Casey tilts his head, confused as he watches Mobius and Loki cuddle on an office chair, "But-" O.B. comes and covers his mouth. "Shhhh, it's called a slow burn. Just let it happen." O.B. turns to look at them eagerly, before he stops, turns, and grabs Casey's hand "Follow me, since Mobius is too busy to read my new manual, you'll do it for him." They then walk off, leaving B-15 to watch the Loki and Mobius in their own world, before she too shakes her head and leaves with a mumble of "Slow burn my ass…", her shoes clicking against the freshly cleaned linoleum floors.
That was the second time which, yeah maybe it was a little weird to outsiders, but Mobius and Loki have been known to be the uh, Touchy-feely…although, the last time Loki had initiated what Mobius lovingly called 'cuddle time' in his head, he was barely coherent. Loki and Mobius had been chosen to go onto a timeline where the Earth had completely frozen up. Because yes, somehow, someway…Kang had been born and was managing to build technology that looked too close to the TVA's for comfort. At some point the stealth mission had backfired, Mobius had avoided a tripwire, only to end up right on another one in front of it. Loki had used his magic to teleport Mobius away from the blast radius towards Loki, the God using his body to protect the human. The cave that they had been following the Kang signature in (Who puts tripwires in a cave?!), had well, caved in on them. It had been so cold that Loki's glamour had fallen, which made Mobius even more cold. Loki had been grunting from using his back to hold the large blocks of ice trying to crush them.
It had been hours before anyone had found them, it would've been longer, but Loki had seen Mobius pass out and used the last of his magic to control the communicator on the human's arm to let out a distress signal. When Mobius had slowly fluttered his eyes open to the roof of the infirmary, he realized he felt cold. He glanced tiredly next to him and saw Loki still without his glamour, sitting on his knees so he could properly hold Mobius' hand while being dramatic, Loki's forehead leaned against the hand he holds like he was mourning.
"Chill out…I'm not dead yet." Mobius clears his throat at Loki's glare "The pun was not intended…" but it had still made Mobius laugh when he realized the joke he accidentally made, then he started coughing. Which made Loki's annoyed face turn to one of worry, he stood up and grabbed the nearest cup on a side table. He then went back down on his knees and held it up like I servant.
"Mobius…you're okay. Thank goodness." Loki said as he poured the water into Mobius mouth. It tasted fresh and cold making him groan a bit at the feeling of his throat being nourished as he kept drinking rapidly. That made Loki glare again and pull it back much to Mobius' chagrin.
"Yes I'm fine, can you stop acting like I'm dying?" Mobius had huffed as he slowly got up in the bed, Loki had mad a motion as if to help but stopped himself. He moved to sit in the chair next to Mobius, putting a hand on Mobius' clenched one. Mobius couldn't help but notice the tremor in Loki's hand as he looked at Loki's face. Loki's red eyes were scanning him as if making sure nothing was wrong even now.
"The doctors explained it to me, Mobius. That you wouldn't have passed out because you were trained previously to handle insane weather conditions, but that weather mixed with…with my natural coldness." He glared down at his hand on Mobius' at that, "It gave you hypothermia, I gave you hypothermia! You were dying Mobius!" His voice seems to crack a bit as he moves away slowly, looking down at his blue hands with pure hatred. Mobius' face that had once been covered in a humorous smile, had faded once the rant had ended. He slowly reached up to one of Loki's hands, holding it softly.
"Don't blame yourself, Loki. You didn't do it on purpose. You tried to save me from being crushed…I can handle a cold induced nap and don't you dare mention that I almost died, because guess what?" Loki turned to look up at Mobius, "That's right. I'm still alive, Loki. And that's because of you." He pokes the palm of the Loki's large blue hand "Whether you like it or not." Mobius turned the hand between his own two shaking hands, he glanced up "And for the record, I've always found this side of you to look rather…" Mobius smirks and Loki's eyes widen as he realizes what he's about to say.
"Don't-"
"Cool."
Loki groans moving his hands away to cover his face as Mobius laughs softly.
"I'm assuming that pun was intended that time…" Loki mumbled into his hands as Mobius just nodded and clapped loudly his laughter echoing in the infirmary. Loki starts to laugh into his hands not because the joke is funny, but because of a combination of things really, but they all had one thing in common: Mobius.
"See? See? You think it's funny too!" Mobius pointed at him excitedly with a grin, moving far too much for a guy who should be resting.
Loki decided to shut him up in the only way he knew how, to not pounce on him because that would hurt the old man even more, but to crawl onto the bed and then plop himself to lay on his stomach on top of his smaller partner. Mobius let out a grunt which made Loki start to move up "Oh stop it, you gentle giant." He reached up and pulled Loki down "Just be my weighted blanket, you were about to do it anyways, why hesitate?" Mobius said easily as he laid back into the pillows behind him.
"Mobius you're injured." Loki spoke with an unimpressed look but didn't complain as he moved to get more comfortable above Mobius on the bed, he turned his head to lay against his heart with a full-body sigh. Mobius closed his eyes with a matching sigh, they laid there, listening to the sounds of workers traveling through the halls of the TVA. Then, Loki moved his chin to lay on Mobius chin to look up at him.
"Ow. Ow. Your chin is pointy as hell." Mobius grunted, his eyes opening, as Loki started to talk with a grin, "Okay, I'll stop but let me ask my question first!" It's quiet for a few seconds "So are you going to ask or-" Loki moved his chin again with an annoyed look "It was a dramatic pause. But anyways." He flipped his hair, "I was wondering…do you think B-15 will let me skip paperwork if I decide to cuddle you until you get better?" He lets out a grin as Mobius' mouth opens in shock, then Mobius shakes his head with a grin.
"Oh, you are Awful."
"Why thank you, Mobius."
"It wasn't a compliment." Mobius puts a fist up to his mouth to hide his grin with a cough "You'd really leave B-15 to lead the TVA without us? All that paperwork?" Loki just laughs and moves his head to lay on its side again on Mobius' chest, looking at him this time with that grin still on his face.
"We'll just say I'm your Emotional Support God!" He gives a goofy grin that Mobius can't help but give a more softer chuckle at, "Emotional support? You? Nah. I'm the emotional support, that's why you're calling off of work, right? Because I'm not there." Loki looks away with a scoff but doesn't deny it. Then he looks back and pokes Mobius' nose "What? Like an emotional support human?" Mobius raises his brows at the poke before he shakes his head with an unending grin. He wraps his arms around Loki with a louder chuckle.
"You keep laughing like that Mobius and you'll get me kicked out. You're supposed to be resting." Loki continues to grin, cuddling his head into Mobius' torso.
"Well, I was going to fall asleep but someone had to stab me with their chin."
"Oh it's not THAT pointy." Loki muttered before he closed his eyes "Fine. We'll sleep together to the count of three. I'll start okay?" He starts to breath deeply "1…" Mobius closes his eyes and whispers "2…" and then Mobius doesn't remember much after that. He doesn't even remember hearing Loki saying three. But he does remember that even though Loki was in his Jötunn form, he had felt warmer than ever in that moment.
After that day, Loki didn't start anymore cuddle time for a while. Mostly because there was suddenly an influx of issues on the timeline that needed all three leaders to address them during lengthy meetings that could've just been emails. Now, it wouldn't be Loki if he didn't get in a life or death situation after Mobius did. They've both noticed the pattern by now, Mobius is ahead by one and of course fate couldn't let that happen. So fate made their counts to a tie…by having a variant shoot Loki with some poison that required him to be held or he'd start getting too hot. So here's the one time that Mobius cuddled Loki.
"Man, I never thought we'd have temperature play as often in our relationship as we do now." Mobius had joked as he, for the first time, grabbed the sweating God on the couch glaring at the television, and pulled him down to lay with him for some cuddles. Loki scoffed "Mobius isn't that a bit…?" Mobius chuckled "What? It's just a joke, don't worry, the rating should be able to stay PG13…maybe PG14 if that's even a thing." Loki just shook his head with a smirk as his sweat slowly cooled off. Using the remote to change the channels on the TV, the screen shows a Loki variant having a gunfight with a black cowboy hat on.
"Do you think he has a voice like you or me?" Mobius asked as he tilted his head down to look at Loki on his chest.
"I've heard others with voices like yours before, but there's something about yours that others just can't seem to get right." Loki turns with a smile, looking briefly at Mobius' lips before looking back up at his eyes.
"Oh yeah?" Mobius grins cheekily.
"Yes." Loki glares "If I were to attempt such a voice It would be like comparing those confections you call sweets to grapes! One is better than the other naturally!"
"First you're a professor and now you're a connoisseur of what, sweets?…or my voice? I didn't know you had such a high opinion of my voice." He grins at the God.
"Of course I do. If I didn't I wouldn't consider you a close companion of mine. You know how I feel about people who annoy me." Loki huffs with a tilt of his nose upwards.
"What? I thought I was plenty of annoying! Guess I'll have to start waking you up early every day instead of letting you sleep in."
"You're starting to annoy me now…"
"Perfect! I'm already winning!"
Loki just shakes his head with a laugh, Mobius continues to grin and give his own small huffs of laughter. They then relax back into the cuddle, the cushions of the couch surrounding them warmly.
"So…" Loki starts before Mobius answers "So…?" The God hits him on the shoulder and continues, "How long exactly does this poison last?" He asks curiously. Mobius pats him on the back with a puff of air coming from his mouth that causes Loki's curls to move.
"Well, for as long as it takes for O.B. to finish making the cure. Which could either take a couple hours or a couple days." Mobius shrugs but he doesn't seem upset at the fact. Neither does Loki when he's told this.
"I guess I got that time off I wanted then." Loki grins. Mobius raises a brow as he realizes something, he points at Loki with a suspicious look, "You had something to do with this, didn't you?" Loki instantly denies it with a wider grin. They both start to speak at the same time.
"What? Noooo…" Loki starts to glance around.
"Because, because, you have those time powers now!" Mobius snaps his finger rapidly with an increasingly amused face, "You're The God of Stories!" He pokes Loki's cheek repeatedly "Which means you. Could. Have. Just. Stopped. That. Guy." Mobius singsongs as with every pause he pokes Loki's cheek harder.
"Fine. You caught me! I just wanted a little vacation was all." Loki huffs but he doesn't look upset or well, not too upset, because it's Mobius after all. If it were some idiot who had found out he definitely would have blasted them with his magic for having the audacity to poke him and tease him like this.
"You wanna watch the TV or just take a nap here? Of course, I could spend forver just bantering with you if that's what you'd like?" Mobius tilts his head at him.
Loki gets up and adjusts his position so he's laying his ear on Mobius' chest. His favorite spot…now that Mobius thinks about it, it's kind of like a cat. But he won't say that or they'll end up bantering for even longer. He just closes his eyes and enjoys the familiar feeling of 500 plus pounds of God on him.
"Hmmm, I think we'll take a nap. It seems to be inevitable whenever we cuddle anyways." Loki says as he closes his eyes. Mobius opens his eyes slightly "Finally saying the quiet part out loud?" Loki raises his brow "What? That I like to cuddle you? That's not anything to be ashamed of, you're rather soft." He pokes Mobius in the stomach in the same way the human had his cheek, with a teasing grin, before he lays his head on his side and looks at him in a way that reminds Mobius of when he was at the infirmary being laid on. Mobius shakes his head with amusement and decides to just let Loki win this round. He looks too cute to argue with right now…not that he would ever say that out loud. They remain laying there peacefully, the only sounds being their breathing as they fall asleep, and the almost quiet sound of whatever is on the TV now. A couple minutes later, the rest of their friends come in, crossing their arms with a simultaneous sour look that children get when witnessing their parents kiss, even if they're the ones who technically walked into the apartment.
"Are we serious? They're not gonna get together?" Casey whispers harshly as he watches how they seem to fit together like a puzzle on the couch. O.B. giggles a bit as he whispers back "How do you know they're not already together?" Casey raises both hands and gestures at them "This is like-normal behavior for them." O.B. shakes his head with a smirk and a wag of his finger "Yes, but have you considered that they already act like a couple? They don't need to do big romantic gestures to…just be them." Casey's eyes widen, his mouth opens a bit with a nod. B-15 just sighs and grabs them both by the shoulders.
"Let's go. We'll just give Loki the cure later." She then ushers them out, as she grabs the door to close it, she looks back at them still sleeping with a smile "sleep well, boys." B-15 then closes the door behind her, leaving the couple to cuddle in peace once more.