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It was a beautiful day. Of course, only if you think the routine of TVA is beautiful, but either way it wasn't that bad. Mobius had worse days, or nights. Or whatever. Living in a timeless space had its pros, as well as cons. For example, he couldn’t jet ski, but he could drink some hot cocoa. This time he chose coffee. Mainly because he made it for someone else, and didn’t want to make him feel lonely while sipping it. Oh, that logic was stupid. Mobius generally wasn’t dumb, he was smart and rational. But…
But then he met Loki and decided to fix him. And later he decided Loki didn’t need fixing, just needed a friend. Someone who will be by his side, unconditionally. Someone who’d be loyal to him. Someone who wasn’t going to leave him at the end. Someone who didn’t expect him to change drastically. And that someone happened to be Mobius himself.
Loki was sleeping – and drooling awfully – on his desk. Mobius didn’t really want to wake him up, so he put the mug next to his paperwork gently. Then he moved some of the papers aside to sit on the desk, and continue watching him.
The other thing Mobius didn’t want was to look at him so long, but it was stronger than him. Mostly because Loki looked adorable while sleeping. Calm. For once, he wasn’t doing something absolutely outrageous and blatantly dumb, in that clever meaning. If there was any…
When he was observing his friend like that, he could easily say he was handsome. Not only handsome. He looked like a god. Which reminded him, Loki was actually one. Or more like an alien… Well, even if he was technically a magic-alien, he was still a god, in the cultural meaning of course. So let it be.
Mobius cleared his throat, hoping that will wake Loki up, but nothing happened. He was sleeping like a baby. He sighed, then chuckled, and he nudged him softly.
“Wakey-wakey,” said Mobius. “Your coffee’s getting cold.”
Loki grunted and opened his eyes… Uh, those eyes! Thank gods Mobius had a good self-control, because suddenly he felt like he needed to call him “princess”. Which wouldn’t be that far from the truth. Loki, no matter which pronouns he used, was still a gender-fluid Asgardian royalty. Mobius knew that. There was a time he had to know everything that was in his files, since Loki started as a Variant who strayed from his path.
“My- what?” Loki asked, clearly confused.
He straightened up on his chair and ran his fingers through the black curls. Their glorious purpose must have been looking good at all means, because Mobius couldn’t even imagine waking up with hair so well done.
“I’m a good friend, I made you coffee,” explained Mobius, but then he realized he should probably explain it further. “Not me exactly. A coffee machine, but you get the point.”
Loki looked at him just like he was looking at some sort of an idiot. But there was something soft in his expression, but either way Mobius realized he didn’t really need to explain anything further. He tried hard not to frown and explain something else.
“Yes. Got it.” Loki locked his eyes with Mobius, and smiled brightly. “Thanks.”
It was confusing, for Mobius at least. He was a TVA analyst who was identifying dangerous Variants for who knows how long, and yet he… Didn’t know if he could call Loki his friend. Or not like this… He knew he could call him his friend, but felt Loki wasn’t only a friend. He was more, and that made Mobius utterly devastated. Not because he was scared of anything, particularly not of any kind of love, but because the friendship was the most important for him. Especially with Loki. But his friend had too much to work through, so he kept his thoughts close to his heart. No one was supposed to know, and it was for the better. In the end they probably had eons to talk about it and make these small, little Mobius’ dreams come true.
He cleared his throat again and sipped his own coffee, looking at the pile of papers near Loki’s cup. Or rather near the stain it left on brown surface.
“You realize coffee won’t really help me with those?” Loki asked, pointed the papers with his finger, and got a sip of the hot drink.
“At least it can give you some nice time. What’s better than a conversation with your friend while drinking a hot, steamy and not-so-tasty piece of mechanical menu?”
Loki chuckled and shook his head, smiling brightly again. Mobius couldn’t help but smile himself. When the god of mischief smiled, it felt like it was getting warmer around. It was like watching the sun shun in a beautiful day. Like the whole galaxy laughed, happily and so innocently, which was pretty ironic considering Loki was supposed to be a liar, and a villain. And he was, back then, when no one was really there for him, and the only dream he had was power and a throne.
Loki didn’t say anything for a moment, and Mobius saw that his tie was in a mess. At first, he tried to ignore it, but after a while he couldn’t do it anymore.
“Need some help?”
“What?” He looked down at his loosened tie. “Ah, this. No.”
Mobius frowned, then smiled and put his coffee down, as Loki tried to fix the tie himself. He leaned towards him and touched his hands gently, letting him know that he’s going to help no matter what.
Technically, he knew Loki didn’t need help. Any help, actually, but Mobius couldn’t resist. In the end, he still remembered how Loki fixed his tie the last time. It was a weird feeling, weird but nice at the same time; just a distraction, but such a nice one. It was like energy flowing through Loki’s fingers, energy Mobius could feel even without directly touching his skin. He imagined it soft, even if he shouldn’t imagine anything.
Mobius fixed Loki’s tie fast. It wasn’t in a total mess, so it was pretty easy. Just one moment. One moment.
Loki was observing Mobius closely, like he wanted to examine his exact thoughts. And Mobius, even though he tried real hard, couldn’t force himself to pretend that the god of mischief was messing with his mind. Figuratively.
Mobius cleared his throat, trying to look as chill as he could be in any other moment, and smiled softly.
“Done.”
Loki didn’t answer. He locked his eyes on Mobius lips, which the agent couldn’t simply ignore, but needed to. Mostly to keep himself sane. He didn’t say anything for a long moment. He was looking right into Loki’s eyes, seeing the weird, soft sparkles in his pupils. The god looked just like he was planning to do something unexpected or – in his case, considering who he was, and what he did – something totally expected.
And Mobius couldn’t help but smile. Loki deserved to see this smile. Loki deserved to be loved, to be understood. He deserved to not feel the urge to change at all costs.
“I’m gonna grab some pie. You wanna?” Mobius asked, still looking into these beautiful, light and bright eyes.
“You wanna eat here? At my desk?”
“No one has to see…” He winked at him, got up and became more serious than a moment ago. Loki was still smiling. “I take your smile as a yes, partner.”
He knew Loki wanted to ask him about his use of this word. Were they partners only when it came to investigating stuff? Or did Mobius mean something deeper than this? He could, especially knowing he always had a soft spot for every variant of Loki, and the biggest soft spot that he had was for this one.
Him… He was… Different. Not because he acted differently, no. He acted like every other Loki he met in his entire life. The thing that made him special was that he let Mobius in, trusted him, felt comfortable next to him. That was the most important, and was also the biggest difference.
“Okay. I’d eat some pie, not gonna lie,” said Loki with this weird, soft expression on his face. An expression that always left Mobius speechless, even though he was pretty talkative.