Change
He couldn’t sleep.
He had only just woken up but Loki knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to bed. He got up and walked towards the bathroom, glancing at Mobius’ alarm clock on the way out. The orange glow of 1:39 am stared back at him. Great.
Loki turned the light on before moving to the sink to splash cold water on his face. Drying his face off he looked up at the new mirror in front of him expecting to see his usual reflection with slightly more visible bags under his green eyes but instead an unsettling feeling filled his stomach. Something about his appearance was off, his jawline was slightly softer, his eyes slightly wider, his nose slightly smaller.
Loki backed away from the mirror, his upper half coming into view. The sight caused him to collapse, sliding down the wall behind him onto the floor.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” he whispered in his panic, “back, change back”.
His skin burned as he tried to force his body to revert to his usual appearance. Why was his body disobeying him? He had all his magic back he should be able to perform such a simple task.
“Lokes, are you okay?” a concerned voice came from the other side of the door.
Fuck, he had woken Mobius up. He couldn’t tell him that everything was fine Loki knew his voice would come out differently but he couldn’t just stay silent otherwise he would definitely worry Mobius.
…Well he did say any form. Loki decided to risk it. Getting up from the floor he walked over to the door pulling it open and launching himself onto his fiancé.
“Woah, hey, what’s wrong?” Mobius asked, hugging Loki whose face was buried in his neck.
Loki didn’t answer, instead holding on tighter. Mobius felt his neck get wet from Loki’s silent tears. He began rubbing circles on Loki's back while he muttered reassurances.Trying to think of a topic to distract his fiancè, Mobius noticed the new inches of hair draped over Loki’s shoulders.
”I like the hair, it's a nice change”. He said, in hopes of getting Loki to talk or atleast stop crying. Instead it caused the god to tense up. Thinking he had upset Loki, Mobius quickly tried to amend his mistake.
“Not that I didn’t like the old hair I just meant your hair always manages to look beautiful however you style it. I’m jealous, I don’t think I could pull that off. Could you imagine me with waist length hair?” he laughed softly.
A small muffled giggle came from Loki. It was a start but he was still hunched in a weird way which Mobius took to mean the god was still uncomfortable.
“Hey, do you think you can tell me what’s wrong now?” Mobius asked now that his crying had stopped.
Loki’s voice was muffled from where he was still pressed into Mobius “I appear to have changed forms”.
Wait, that didn’t sound right. His voice was distorted but not just by Mobius’ neck, no it was a lot more than muffled. It was higher in pitch, still undeniably loki with the smooth tone and strong accent but definitely different.
Before Mobius had time to process the change of voice Loki pulled away.The light from the open bathroom door illuminates the place they’re standing in allowing him to see every detail of the god. He notices the details on the god’s face that have shifted and the soft curves In Loki’s silhouette that weren’t there before. Suddenly he understood why Loki was upset, Why the subject of long hair had caused Loki to freeze, why Loki was hunched away and crying in a foreign yet familiar voice.
“You look beautiful as always my love” Mobius says as he cups her face to bring the goddess into a kiss.
Pulling away Loki looks at Mobius warily. “Are you ok with…this?” she questions, gesturing vaguely towards herself.
“I would love you in any form you choose.” Mobius promises as he reaches out to hold Loki’s hand. “Ok maybe not as a meerkat, I saw one on a mission once and it creeped me out". Loki broke out into a fit of laughter. “No seriously” Mobius continued “ I swear it was pure evil”.
“Mobius… really ?” Loki questioned between laughs.
“Hey, you didn’t see the look it gave me.” Mobius protested.
Loki paused for a second with a look of mock consideration on her face “Hmm well maybe I’ll have to think about living a life as a meerkat”.
Mobius gasped “You wouldn’t dare” Before he too descended into laughter.
As they both calmed down Mobius moved his hand to hold Loki’s face. “Are you ok with this?” he asked.
“Well, in truth, I’ve missed this. I can’t remember the last time I was in this form but I did love it, I still do” she answered.
“Well then I’m glad you’re able to have this again.”
- - - - - -
Six and half hours of sleep is what the clock next to the bed told Loki. She turned away from it to tuck herself closer into Mobius’ embrace. The analyst was still sleeping, clearly tired from the night before (or morning of today Loki supposed). It was a rare sight for her to see. Mobius was usually halfway out the door by the time Loki stirred, rushing to get to work. The thought made Loki freeze as she realised just why her fiancé was still laying next to her.
Mobius had taken this shift off so that he and Loki could visit a particular compound she had been desperate to go back to (though she denied it).Time passed, or rather didn't, in a weird fashion at the TVA which meant that all though she promised Thor she’d return soon, soon had no real definition. ‘Soon’ could mean the approximation of a thousand years for Loki but she could still show back up to Thor's timeline like only a couple days had passed. Nevertheless she knew she couldn’t postpone this. The TVA was still rebuilding and with Mobius and now Loki back at work (although only occasionally) finding time to take off was hard. Loki missed Thor too, after spending so much time without her brother she found it hard to be away from him.
Loki gently slipped out of her fiancé's hold, careful not to disturb him, before making her way towards the bathroom once again. Gripping the edges of the sink she glared into the mirror and willed her body to change. The familiar hot pain seared the goddesses skin forcing her to stop. Loki knew it wouldn’t work. Either her magic was still too unstable or maybe something was triggering her transformation similar to…
She was lucky her other form was hidden by illusion and not transformation, her blue skin was merely covered by a blanket of magic rather than actually genetically changed. Illusion magic was a lot easier and in this instance held up better due to Odin's involvement in the spell. This meant Loki could hide the form she hadn’t fully accepted, although it was still difficult to do so.
This form was different though, it physically changed her body making it harder to undo. It was also different in the sense that she accepted it because she chose it. Loki had created the form when she was little, of course Odin had hated it but it wasn’t like he particularly praised anything she did. He had banned the form but it didn’t stop Loki. She loved the form so she still used it but only in the safety of her bedroom and the gardens besides it to avoid Odin's wrath (although sometimes she would transform during arguments just to anger him). Frigga had liked the form though, she enjoyed braiding her long hair or pulling out her own old dresses to dress Loki in. Her mother had always been kind. Thor had never been clear on his feelings towards the form, torn between following his mother or his fathers opinion, he usually just avoided the goddess altogether. Sometimes Loki would spot Thor staring at her from the edge of the gardens but he would always walk away seconds later.
No one outside the palace grounds had seen her transformation and the royal staff that had wouldn’t comment on such a thing, rarely speaking outside of what their job required. This meant Loki didn’t have much of an idea on how she was perceived by the wider world. It definitely wasn’t as bad as her other form but it was still something different.
Midgard was a different place with a different culture and the little time the goddess spent there hadn’t exactly been the most informative. Loki supposed Mobius was originally from Earth but having spent so long at the TVA and around so much non Midgard culture he wasn’t the best representation of the human race. Well she’d just have to hope Thor and the Avengers didn’t take disgust in her form and try to banish her, she was tired of being separated from her brother because of their differences. She would just have to appear confident and unbothered, maybe everyone else would follow her lead. Decision made, Loki started to prepare herself.
- - - - - -
Mobius fumbled to turn the alarm off as he rolled over, hand outstretched toward it. The beeping finally stopped after a couple seconds along with the flashing digits that read 9:30. He sat up in the empty bed looking around in confusion for Loki. Thinking of last night, Mobius pulled himself out of bed and stumbled towards the bathroom.
Seeing that the door was slightly ajar he began to worry. Mobius knew how upset Loki had been last night, he really hoped she wasn’t panicking again. He reached for the door pushing it open prepared to comfort his fiancé. Instead he paused seeing Loki with a dagger held against her eye “Love, wha-”. Before Mobius could finish his question she turned around to face him.
Loki lowered the dagger from where it was being used as a guide, black eyeliner stretched across the top of both of her eyes and flicked out into a sharp line before dragging back down to meet the borrow of her eye. It was slightly blended out with equally black eye shadow that matched her lips. Gold medallions adorned her gentle curls which were pushed back by a gold horned headpiece that met at a point in the middle of Loki’s forehead and then arched upwards on either side before curving around to jut out just underneath her cheekbone.
She wore a long green jacket that reached below her knees with lapels that had gold accents along the outer edges to match the pointed shoulders. It also had long green sleeves that reached her wrists as well as a light brown fur collar. Underneath that she wore a bodysuit. The top half was the same green as the jacket but was made out of a scaled material. It also had gold details, some along the entire length of the sides which reached from the top of the suit to just before her thighs. More gold detail stretched along the neckline which sat just below her collar bones and pointed slightly inwards. Gold also lined the point where the top and bottom portion of the bodysuit met.
The bottom portion was made of black leather which kept going down past her long brown boots. The sleeves of the suit were also made out of black leather and followed along the entire length of her arm before joining into a point at her knuckles where it then wrapped around her middle finger. Loki’s waist was adored with multiple angled loose gold and brown belts that crossed over one another. She wore no other accessories besides her engagement ring although her nails were painted emerald to match its stone.
“I know I’m sorry.” Loki apologised “I know you said ‘no playing with daggers’ but I’m being very careful and this is more for necessity than fun, i can not have crooked liner”.
Before Loki could turn back around to put on the gold and blue earrings she had on the shelf in front of her, Mobius reached to cup her face. “I’m so proud of you”.
Loki smiled softly before leaning in to kiss Mobius “Thank you, now hurry up and get ready.”