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The TVA felt… slower, since Loki had came back. To be clear, there was still much work to be done, and many variants of He Who Remains to be taken care of but also, less rush.
Loki hadn’t known what he would’ve found after leaving the tree, he had prepared himself for anything and everything — quite literally considering his time overseeing the entirety of the multiverse — only to end up watching cooking shows on Mobius’ couch.
He wasn’t complaining in the slightest, but sometimes he found himself looking at his surroundings and fearing everything was about to collapse. The calmness and comfort tore from his hands in an instant. So far, it hadn’t come to it, and Loki was trying to deal with his personal issues.
«She’s gonna get eliminated,» muttered Loki, watching one of the cooks in the show fuck up a scallop for the third time in a row.
«Who, Christine?» asked Mobius, his voice coming from the bedroom where, Loki imagined, he was changing out of his TVA suit.
«Uhm… I… maybe? She has red hair,» he offered, tilting his head back to see a glint of the door that had been left ajar.
«Glasses or no glasses?» Loki looked back at the screen to confirm something he knew already.
«Glasses,» he confirmed. Mobius came out of his bedroom pulling a sweater down and allowing Loki the shortest look at a line of skin of his stomach.
«That’s Gloria,» he explained, walking around the couch to sit down next to Loki.
«How do you remember these people’s names? There’s twenty people at least.» Loki was also not paying very close attention to the interpersonal drama and preferred to laugh whenever someone burnt something or cut their own finger.
«I’m just that good,» he hummed, stretching his legs out and placing his feet on the coffee table in front of the couch. Loki observed his bright orange socks and rolled his eyes, remembering the first time he had seen them peek out from below Mobius’s trousers leg.
«Do you think scallops are very hard to make?» wondered Loki, as Gloria finally managed to complete her task.
«No idea, but everyone seems to get them wrong, so,» Mobius’ shrugged.
«In all honesty, I wouldn’t trust half those people to boil pasta,» argued Loki as the focus of the episode shifted to the blue team, which seemed much more coordinated than the red one.
«I wouldn’t trust you to boil pasta,» retorted Mobius with a teasing smirk.
«Whyever not? I could be a great cook.» Mobius let out a sound that Loki interpreted as disagreeing.
«I could.» he insisted.
«Sorry, princess, if I don’t trust your dainty royal fingers behind a stove.»
«I’ve never seen you cook either.» Not like there was a free-to-use kitchen in the first place.
«And I’m happy with it, I know my limits.»
If there was something Loki didn’t care for was watching horny Midgardians have fights over the smallest things and talk behind each other’s back every chance they got.
«I thought this would be right up your alley,» stated Mobius with a warm cup of hot cocoa in his hands. Loki’s own cup of coffee laid abandoned on the table.
«You- Why would you think I’d like this?» Loki spluttered, waving at the box-shaped television.
«Please, just look at this.»
Loki looked. They looked and all they could see was a girl making out with her “bestie’s” boyfriend. Or something of the sort. The two moved to a luxurious bedroom and the recording shifted to what looked more like a security camera through which the audience could still see the two despite the darkness.
«This looks more like your thing, actually,» they stated «very voyeuristic.»
Mobius turned his head around in time to see Loki lean in, their face inches from the analyst as a smirk spread on their lips.
«I thought the betraying and theatrics would pull you right in,» replied Mobius, regrettably not taking the bait.
«Mhm, if you wanted to trap me into your kink you could’ve said so.» Loki turned to look at the screen and leaned their head against Mobius’ shoulder.
«We can watch something else, if you want,» Loki shook their head and snuggled even closer. Aside from the genuinely awful reality, Loki couldn’t say they hated their current arrangement.
Mobius quickly finished his drink and draped his arm over the couch’s backrest. Loki took notice of the shift but decided not to address it just yet.
They watched in silence as the participants — all rich white americans whose QI couldn’t legally go over 50 — got into any kind of drama possible, commenting on the absurdity of it all.
«Who would even throw a chair for a nickname?» wondered Loki, observing as a guy got dragged into an empty room by his temporary partner.
«You calling someone dramatic is pure irony,» retorted Mobius, his fingers grazing Loki’s hair gently.
«I wouldn’t throw a chair in your face if you gave me a nickname,» they realized their mistake the moment the words left their mouth.
«You did throw a chair at me,» they deserved that.
«Not for a nickname.»
«You looked pretty murderous when I called you a pussycat.»
Loki blushed at the memory, feeling the old humiliation resurface. Mobius’ fingers threading through their locks with more and more confidence wasn’t helping.
«I should find some other nickname for you, let’s see how good I become at dodging flying objects.» he teased. If Loki had been more present they would’ve had more to say. Too bad their mind had been emptied completely.
Loki came back to Mobius’ apartment — which had turned out to be more like their apartment — later than he should’ve and found his favorite analyst wrapped up in a blanket, watching television. The unnatural glow from the screen made Mobius look almost sickly.
«Hey!» Mobius greeted him with a chipper tone that Loki couldn’t match.
«Your case, huh?» Loki nodded and dropped his jacket on the floor before kicking his shoes off and walking up to the couch, plopping down on it.
«What are we watching?» he asked, allowing Mobius to wrap an arm around his shoulder, draping the blanket over him.
«Instant Wedding, two strangers get paired up by an algorithm and they meet for the first time on their wedding day, it never works out.» Loki huffed and cuddled up to Mobius, letting his cheek rest against the man’s shoulder.
The gentle fingers scratching his scalp made Loki wish he could stay in the moment forever, just enjoying Mobius’ touch while he half ignored the people on the screen.
«Do you wanna talk about your case?» whispered Mobius after some time, speaking over the woman scolding her grown “husband” for not being able to separate colored from whites.
«I want to talk about anything but my case.» They looked down at their hand that, at some point, had taken to rest on Mobius’ stomach, the pinky finger touching skin while the rest of his hand hadn’t been as lucky.
He tentatively moved to try and pull Mobius’ ugly sweater out of the way, just a bit, just enough for another finger to run over his skin.
«Are you trying to get me naked?» teased Mobius, making Loki stop in his tracks. The god looked up with a deer in headlights look on his face, unsure whether to apologize or joke back.
Mobius seemed to catch on the tension and moved his fingers down Loki’s neck, hooking them below the collar of his shirt. They were even, Loki realized.
«Don’t think about it too hard,» said Mobius, looking away to hide his own faint blush. Loki had seen it, however.
With a second of boosted confidence, Loki stuck his whole hand below Mobius’ sweater, sighing deeply as he felt the warm skin contrast with his own cold hand. Mobius flinched and wiggled for a moment before his body could get used to it.
If this was what Loki could expect from the new and renewed TVA, with its more relaxed schedule and lack of dictatorship, he decided he didn’t mind in the slightest.