1. Ohio, USA:1983 A.D.
“Well, it’s like I always say- a SeaDoo will never Sea- do you wrong!” Mobius chuckled, slapping the seat of the showroom model. “So, what do you say? Ready to take one of these bad boys home?”
After helping his customers fill out the purchase agreements and waving them out of the store, Mobius felt his brilliant showroom grin fall. This life…wasn’t all that it was cracked up to be.
No, that was wrong. He took a seat at his desk and tried to sort out his thoughts, mindlessly flipping through the latest issue of “Make A Splash!” magazine to appear busy. Selling jet skis was a great life- it’s not like he minded the job. It was just…
“Hey, Don! Don!”
Belatedly, Mobius remembered that he was supposed to be Don here. “Hm? What’s up?” He glanced across the showroom at his assistant manager, Dale.
“It’s 5. Can we close up?”
Mobius was silent, a beat too long, and Dale mistook his silence for a passion for the job. “Look, man, I know you love this work, but-” he laughed ruefully, “Cheri’ll kill me if I’m late picking up the kids from practice.”
“Oh, yeah, yeah, go ahead,” Mobius waved dismissively. “I can lock up here.”
“Listen…” Dale hesitated, rocking back and forth on his heels in the doorway. “You have the boys tonight?”
“Nah,” Mobius shrugged, trying valiantly to look like he actually cared who had custody of children he’d only met recently. “Julie has them again. She’s thinking about moving them to Utah, so…”
Dale shoved his hands deep into his jean pockets, looking uncomfortable and like he regretted asking. “Look, Don, do you want to come over for dinner tonight? Home cooked meal might do you good. I think it’s spaghetti tonight.”
Suddenly overwhelmed by the urge to escape this conversation by any means necessary, Mobius forced a smile and rose from his desk. “No, I have some stuff I need to get done tonight. Thanks, though, Dale. Give Cheri and the kids my love, okay?”
With Dale finally gone, taking his suffocating concern with him, Mobius let his facade drop, and sunk back behind his desk in the now dimly-lit showroom.
What was wrong with him? This is the life he was supposed to be living. He just didn’t think… well, what was so great about it, anyway? He was divorced, his kids were- let’s face it- hellions, he went home to a big empty house every night, and Ohio was a terrible market for a jet ski salesman. By all accounts, this life was a failure.
Mobius unlocked his desk drawer and withdrew a bottle of scotch and poured himself a generous glass, not caring about the invoices he was dripping on.
And yet.. Mobius took a sip. Dale was living an almost identical life, and he seemed happy enough. Was it a personal problem? Mobius considered the facts that maybe he should have allowed the TVA to reset his memory. Maybe it was that he missed the action. Mobius swirled around the amber liquor in his mouth thoughtfully. That could be it. It was just hard to settle down, that was all. After all, hawking jet skis was awfully tame compared to his work at the TVA.
“Loki, what am I missing here?” Mobius murmured. Talking to Loki was a habit he had fallen into almost immediately after his arrival on the timeline. He had no idea if it was possible that Loki heard him, all the way in the center of time and space, but he figured it was like praying, and Loki was a god, after all.
“I’m so unhappy here,” he continued in a whisper, tracing the rim of his glass with one finger. “Should I leave? Go somewhere else? Maybe find a little bit of adventure?”
It was a question he had asked before, with no reply, but this time, a blinding flash of green blazed through the showroom, bathing the Yamahas and SeaDoos and life jackets in a verdant glow. Mobius let out a yelp, leaping to his feet, but the light faded just as quickly as it had come.
“Loki,” Mobius breathed. “Loki? Loki! Can you hear me?!”
But the showroom remained dark and silent, as though nothing had happened. “Okay,” Mobius said shakily. “Okay, Loki. I hear you. I’m going somewhere else.” With trembling fingers, he removed a TemPad from his pocket and created a new time door. Before stepping through, he paused, took a deep breath, and spoke into the dim room. “I miss you, you know. I really do miss you.”
He stepped through the door and vanished through time and space.
Eons ago and millennia to come, lightyears away and inches apart, Loki wept.
2. Florida, USA: 1999 A.D.
Balanced proudly astride his city-issued SeaDoo 787 ( excellent choice, if he did say so himself) Mobius surveyed his quadrant carefully. All seemed calm- a few kids were splashing around, someone was trying to swim the length of the beach, and a man was tossing a frisbee for his dog to chase through the waves. Damn, the sun was hot, though. Mobius dug around in his fanny pack for a tube of Banana Boat, and reapplied sunscreen to the back of his neck without breaking his field of vision. He was gunning for Miami-Dade County Lifeguard of the Year for the second year running, and he would only make it there with extreme focus.
He squinted through his sunglasses. Oh, that was unacceptable. He revved his jet ski to move a little close to the action, and blew his whistle authoritatively. “No roughhousing!” he ordered the kids, who had begun trying to dunk one another’s heads under the water. He thought he saw one or two of the little punks roll their eyes at him, so he remained floating vigilantly nearby.
“They remind me of you,” he muttered to Loki. “And I don’t mean that as a compliment. Insubordinate buggers, all of you.”
Then… no. Mobius whipped his head around. He thought… no. Couldn’t have been. He thought he’d heard a soft chuckle, deep and rich. He thought he’d heard Loki’s laugh. He shook his head. “Must be going crazy,” he whispered.
There was a shriek as the kids started playing chicken, and the shrill hooting of Mobius’ whistle drove all other thoughts from his mind.
It was only later, once Mobius had lovingly docked his jet ski and clocked out for the day, that he was truly able to consider what had happened. Dangling his legs over the edge of the pier, watching the sun set, Mobius wondered if maybe it could have been real. Maybe… his pulse quickened. Maybe Loki could hear him. Maybe Loki was listening. Maybe Loki missed him, too.
“Loki?” He hissed, glancing around to make sure he was alone. “Are you there?”
“I’m here,” a smooth voice danced across the wind.
Mobius yelped, almost falling off the pier. “Loki! What the hell! What’s going on?”
The disembodied chuckle again. “Apologies. Although, I’d have liked to see you try to lifeguard yourself.”
“You… you know about that?” Mobius gaped. “Are you… watching me?”
“A bit,” he could almost see Loki rolling his emerald eyes. “Imagine how frightfully invasive it would be for me to watch your entire life.”
“Oh, ha ha, very funny,” Mobius retorted, still in disbelief. “I can’t believe it’s really you. I’ve m- how are you doing this?”
“I don’t really know,” Loki’s voice had taken a melancholy turn. “Not much to do all day here except try to figure out how to… I don’t know. I’m learning the job, I guess.”
A pit opened in Mobius’ stomach. “Is it… lonely?”
A beat. Then, “Listen, I don’t know how long I can sustain this connection. I’m worried about you.”
“ Me ?”
A puff of a sigh on the breeze. “You don’t have any friends. Or enemies. Nobody. For two years. At least in Ohio you had Dale and the boys and the rest of that dreadfully dull bunch.”
Mobius wants to argue, but finds that he can’t. “Kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience , don’t you think?”
“Talk to Sylvie. She figured it out. I’m losing this connection, but Mobius, I-”
“You what?” Mobius whispered.
Only the cawing of seagulls answered him.
“I guess you’re… kind of the authority on being lonely, aren’t you?” Mobius stared out over the gently breaking whitecaps. “Sorry. Maybe that was mean. I just meant… you’re probably right. I miss you.”
3. McDonalds: liminal space just outside the flow of time (as all fast food chains are)
“You know what’s weird?”
“What?” Sylvie didn’t turn to face Mobius, content to lay beside him on the hood of her car, watching the stars.
“You’re my boss now,” Mobius chuckled. “God, who would’ve ever seen that coming?”
“Please,” Sylvie snapped dismissively, although a small smile played around the edges of her mouth. “I was always pulling the strings, telling you lot what to do.”
“Well, that might be kind of true,” Mobius inclined his head. “Congratulations, by the way. On the promotion. I know today was big for you.”
“Thank you.”
There was a brief silence, and Mobius sipped his strawberry milkshake. God, he was never going to get tired of these things. He might have stayed at the TVA if they started stocking the automat with these bad boys. “I appreciate you letting me…”
“What?” she smirked. “Steal my job? Crash on my couch for nine months? Teach my cat to beg for table scraps?”
“Yeah,” Mobius replied honestly. “All of that.”
“It’s a good life,” Sylvie nodded. “It’s ordinary, and safe. There’s work, and the little record store in town, and a real shithole apartment, and pub nights on Fridays... It’s a good life,” she repeated, “but I don’t think it’s your life.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mobius tried to sound offended, as if he didn’t know exactly what she meant. As if he hadn’t been thinking the same thing.
“You can’t honestly tell me that you like selling french fries all day. And following the same routine every, Single. Week.”
“He hates it,” a soft wry voice announced from behind them.
In one fluid motion, Sylvie leapt down from the hood of the truck and pointed her machete towards the noise. For his part, Mobius knocked over his milkeshake but managed not to scream, though it was a near miss, and he was still scrambling down off of the car when he heard Sylvie whisper, “ Loki ?”
Sure enough, a wavering, almost holographic Loki stood behind the Chevy, backlit by the glowing Golden Arches sign.
“Loki,” Mobius breathed, feeling suddenly as if he’d just plunged into a warm bath.
He let his eyes travel across Loki’s form- hungry to just see him, to be near him. Loki’s hair had grown, the dark curls more pronounced as they brushed his collarbone. His shoulders, though still strong-looking, were definitely slimmer, and though his face remained pale, smooth, and impassive, there were dark smudges below Loki’s green eyes, which looked exhausted and sad.
“Hi,” Mobius managed.
Sylvie raised her eyebrows, tossing her machete into the truck bed. “You look like shit.”
“Well, I’m holding every timeline of the universe in my hands and communicating across all of space and time at the moment.” Loki shot back. “Remind me what it is you do for work?”
She huffed irritably, then softened. “It is good to see you again.” The goddess glanced between Mobius and Loki, reading something hanging in the air. “You two look like you need to talk. But Loki… stop by again sometime, alright?”
As Sylvie made her way into the darkened restaurant, Mobius laughed shakily, running a hand over his face. “How are you?”
“I’m…” a shadow chased across Loki’s face, and the pit in Mobius’ stomach grew. “I’m being useful. And I think I’m learning how to communicate better… harnessing the time slipping, and all that.”
“Good, good. Are you still…”
“Keeping an eye on you?” Loki cracked a small smile. “Yes. Not much out here in the way of entertainment. What I wouldn’t give to watch a Brad Wolfe film now.”
Mobius chuckled. “I miss you.”
“And I you. But it has to be this way. I have to do this.”
“Loki, I wish-” Mobius cut himself off. There was so much that he wished, he didn’t even know where to start.
“I know,” Loki replied. “And it’s okay. This was my choice. But you need to live, actually have a life. For me.” A pause, and the mirage flickered. “I think I’m losing the connection. I’ll see you soon, I hope.”
A burst of green, and Mobius was alone in a darkened parking lot. He plopped down heavily on the curb, scrubbing at his face.
Loki wanted him to build a happy life. That was the whole reason he’d sacrificed himself. But he couldn’t do that, Mobius realized, because the only life he actually wanted was one with Loki.
“Finally had a little realization, did you?” Sylvie delicately perched herself on the curb beside him. They weren’t exactly touching, but this was as close as she got to offering comfort.
“I… I didn’t…”
Sylvie nibbled at her thumbnail. “If it’s any consolation, I think he feels the same.”
“I just want to be with him,” Mobius took a steadying breath. “The one thing I want…”
“And it’s out of reach,” Sylvie nodded. “I know the feeling.” A beat. “Too bad you can’t time travel in the TVA, or else you could just go back in time and be with him there.”
Mobius lifted his eyes, an idea growing. “But… I can go to Asgard! Before New York, before any of it!”
“Mobius, that is a seriously bad idea,” Sylvie grabbed his wrist urgently. “Asgard is not a happy place for Lokis and-”
“I already know all that,” Mobius wriggled out of her grasp. “But I can just… befriend him or something.”
“Right, well, I’ll see you when you’ve realized this plan won’t work.” Sylvie stepped back as a time door grew beside her truck.
“Thank you for everything.” Mobius thought about hugging her, remembered the machete, and settled for a salute.
“Good luck.” She didn’t smile, but almost, and he stepped through the door.
4. Asgard: Third century of King Odin Borson’s rule
It took Mobius until his second week as a palace servant to even catch a glimpse of Loki for the first time. The younger prince avoided mealtimes, and it’s not like a lowly servant such as himself had access to any of the royal chambers. It was only by chance that a teenage Loki had walked past as he was scrubbing the flagstones, Thor hot on his heels.
“- you for the thousandth time, you oaf,” Loki was rolling his eyes, mid-sentence, as he rounded the corner. “I’m busy .”
“You don’t need sorcery classes,” Thor had rebutted, a bit of whine coloring his voice. “You’re already so great! What you need is to come with me and-”
“And what?” Loki quickened his pace. “Listen to you and the Wastrels Three debate the merits of ax versus sword? I think I’ll pass on that rousing intellectual debate, thank you.”
Thor mumbled something about hammers clearly being the superior weapon and sulked off. Loki continued in the opposite direction, never even noticing Mobius’ presence at all.
No sooner had the door swung shut behind teenage Loki, did adult Loki waver into focus, causing Mobius to jump and overturn his sudsy bucket. “Quit doing that!” Mobius whisper-shouted, clutching his chest.
“No!” Loki retorted, matching his volume. “What the hell are you playing at, coming here? I check in on you and find you’ve decided to… to… I don’t even know what!”
Chest heaving, curls tangled, eyes darting around, Loki looked more than a little mad- not to mention the fact that he was even paler, thinner, and more tired looking than before.
“Look,” Mobius held his hands out placatingly, “Loki, I just missed you, okay?”
“This is not where I would have you find me!” Loki hissed, and his mirage-self disappeared in a green whirl.
As much as it gave him a stomachache to think of Loki all alone, angry with him, and feeling betrayed, Mobius couldn’t make himself leave Asgard. For one thing, he genuinely did not understand Loki’s opposition to his presence; it’s not like anything of Loki’s past was a secret to the TVA. And for another, he had finally memorized the young prince’s schedule enough to allow himself to observe Loki a few times a day. Just stolen moments, really- nothing untoward, nothing the adult Loki should mind too terribly.
He was like a thirsty man walking toward a mirage, knowing it was an illusion, and still hoping for satisfaction anyway.
“See?” He found himself whispering to his Loki a few times a day. “This isn’t so bad. Talk to me, Loki.” But the radio silence dragged on.
It happened by chance, really- Mobius was on dirty-dishes duty during a particularly raucous feast, circulating the room to remove empty crockery from the tables before they ended up shattered at the warriors’ feet.
Clutching an armload of dirty dishes, Mobius- always attuned to Loki- became aware of his voice issuing lowly from an alcove set just apart from the party. Although they were partially obscured in the shadows thrown by the flickering torches, the agent could just make out the shapes of Loki and his father. Edging closer, and feigning focus on his task, Mobius tried to hear what was being said.
“Allfather, I simply-”
“ Enough .” Odin’s voice was quiet but powerful. Loki stopped talking at once. Mobius winced to himself. Loki was clearly quite young, if he was still trying to earn the king’s love. “You shame me, Loki. Bad enough to use trickery on the battlefield- ”
“It’s not trickery!” Loki blurted out, showing his age in his eagerness. “It’s sorcery! I’m a mage and you know it!”
“I know that it is womanish and ill-fitting of the throne,” Odin growled. “To use it in battle is honorless, and to expect pride of place with the true warriors…” the king trailed off disdainfully.
The young Loki was silent.
“Try to celebrate your brother’s accomplishment this night.” His father admonished as he swept off, leaving his youngest son bereft.
Frozen in place, Mobius heard tiny, tell-tale sniffs from the alcove, sounds he had heard only when his Loki was weeping and desperately trying not to, then there was a minute flash of green, and the prince was gone.
His Loki was waiting in Mobius’ chamber that night after the feast, perched on the edge of the bed, looking world-weary.
“Loki!” Mobius’ breath caught.“Are…?”
Loki stood slowly stretching his arms out so that Mobius could see that he was, in fact, fully corporeal. “In the flesh. I’m getting better at this.”
“Oh my God,” Mobius breathed, moving toward Loki, arms outstretched. To his immense disappointment, Loki stepped back, and Mobius could see that his defenses were up. “You’re still angry with me. Did you come all the way here just to yell at me?”
Loki dragged an elegant hand down his pale face. “Surely you see now why I didn’t want you here?”
“I… Not really, no.”
Loki sank back down on the cot, and patted the mattress beside him in invitation. When Mobius sat beside him, he could feel Loki trembling slightly beneath his shirt.
“In this place,” Loki sighed, “during this time, I was not who I am. I’m not even particularly ashamed of this version of myself-” his face darkened for a moment- “but it is painful. And pathetic. And I don’t wish that you should be witness to it more than you already have been.”
“Not pathetic to seek love,” Mobius hummed, taking a risk and wrapping an arm around Loki’s shoulders.
Almost immediately, the god deflated into him, wrapping long, pale arms around the analyst’s waist. “I know that’s what you’re doing, too.”
“Don’t be mad at me,” Mobius murmured, stroking Loki’s dark curls. Loki just huffed in response, but it seemed that his frustration had drained away.
The two remained locked in place for what felt like hours. Finally, Mobius placed a gentle kiss at Loki's hairline. “Please stay.”
Loki sat up and sighed. “I can’t. I’m working on it. I promise.”
“See you soon?”
“See you soon.”
5. Galaxy’s Edge, Present Day
Mobius couldn’t help but feel nervous as he climbed the steep entry ramp to the ship. His nerves only increased as he knocked on the door and heard shrill shrieking emanating from within.
The door swung open, and Thor stood smiling expectantly and wearing, for some reason, a t-shirt that read “World’s Okayest Dad.” The floor of the entryway behind him was a jumble of adult shoes and small pink sneakers, glittery rain boots, and the like. The walls were hung haphazardly with childish artwork, and… were those pancakes he smelled?
Mobius and Thor stared at each other for a moment before Mobius blurted out, “You have a kid ?”
The smile dropped from his face and Thor clenched a fist dangerously. “What business do you have with her?”
“Sorry, sorry,” Mobius backpedaled. “No business. It’s just… Loki never mentioned…”
Thor’s mouth dropped open almost comically. “You knew my brother?” he whispered, blue eyes tearing up at the mere mention of his little brother. “You knew Loki?”
“I know Loki,” Mobius replied definitively. “Can I come in for some coffee? We need to talk.”
Hours later, Mobius and Thor were still seated at Thor’s still-sticky-with-syrup kitchen table. Thor had already cracked two mugs with his grip and had given up on coffee, and Mobius’ had gone cold. Mobius had expected this to be a difficult, emotional conversation, which was why he had put it off for so long. But lately, it had begun to feel cruel to leave Thor so terribly in the dark. He at least deserved to know that he had been right about Loki, at the end.
Thor rubbed at his puffy eyes. “Thank you… for traveling through time and space to tell me this. I can hardly believe…”
“I know,” Mobius chuckled. “He changed so much. And yet, it was right there in him the whole time. I think you were maybe the first person to see that.”
Thor nodded, swiping at his eyes, momentarily silent. “Will you stay?”
“St-stay here?” Mobius cocked his head.
“At least for a little while,” Thor amended. “You seem adrift, and I… I would like someone with whom I can discuss Loki.”
“I’ll stay. For a little while.”
A little while turned into weeks- Thor and Love seemed to have accepted him into their lives without blinking, and Mobius was feeling awfully comfortable, like he may have finally found his place. One afternoon, while Thor and Love were off on some mission- her first crack at creating battle plans, she’d told him excitedly- Loki appeared to Mobius.
“Loki,” Mobius breathed, not hesitating to wrap the god up in his arms this time.
“Thank you for coming to Thor,” Loki breathed, still not releasing Mobius from his hold.
“I wanted him to know who you are. Or, who you became.”
Loki leaned back enough to allow Mobius to see his face. “It was in the back of my mind, sometimes. At the TVA. The way that I wished my family could know me… as I am now.”
Mobius tugged Loki onto the couch, where they landed in a tangle of limbs, Loki stretched out, cat-like, with his head in the agent’s lap. “Thor knows now,” Mobius hummed comfortingly. “And you can show him yourself.”
“I have it almost figured out,” Loki sighed exhaustedly. “I can timeslip away from my post as my full self now, anytime I want to. I just need to figure out how to do it for longer than an hour at a time.”
Mobius tilted the prince’s chin upwards, just enough to see his face. “You are a brilliant man, do you know that?” Loki flushed, blotchy and unprincelike. Mobius loved it. Mobius loved him. “You look worn out, though.”
“I am weary.” Loki replied formally.
.“You need to rest,” he chastised, fingernails drawing patterns across Loki’s back.
“Not long,” Loki mumbled sleepily. “Thor can’t… can’t see me.”
“What? No, he misses you!”
“Yeah,” Loki closed his eyes. “Miss him too. But he’s not… equipped for me to come and go like this. Need to see him… once I figure this out.”
“Okay,” Mobius nodded. “Okay. You just rest for now, okay babe?”
Loki propped himself up on his arms, just enough to press a gentle kiss to Mobius’ lips before dropping back down. “Okay.” It was just so natural, just so them, that words were hardly needed.
But if Mobius held his fingertips to his tingling lips for the rest of Loki’s nap, that was nobody’s business but his own.
+1. New Asgard, Present Day
“I’m home,” Loki called, swinging open the door to the cottage he shared with Mobius. “I’m home,” he repeated, levitating his cloak into the closet and dropping his bag with a huff, “and the timeline will run itself for the next 12 hours or so. Where are you?”
“In the backyard,” Mobius hollered, unwilling to stand from his comfortable chair. He had been relaxing, watching the sun set, and waiting on Loki. The wait was so much easier, these days, when he knew that his Loki would always return to him.
In a matter of moments, Loki appeared in the doorway. His eyes were clear and confident, curls soft and clean, and the set of his shoulders was befitting of a prince.
“My heart,” he pressed a gentle kiss onto Mobius’ lips as he sank into the neighboring chair, taking Mobius’s sturdy hand in his slender one. “How was your day?”
Mobius shrugged a shoulder. “Things are good down at the docks. The warriors are getting good at running their jet ski patrols.”
Loki smiled fondly. “Asgard certainly has changed.”
Mobius hummed in agreement. “Oh! I heard from Thor today. He’s going to be here with Love next week, for the festival.”
“As long as the oaf doesn’t park his craft in our gardens again- the way he absolutely mangled the flowerbeds! I have half a mind to give him flying lessons… make sure he doesn’t kill my niece with his terrible piloting.”
Mobius laughed. “I’d love to see that.”
Silence fell over the little garden for a minute. Then Mobius murmured, “it’s crazy, you know?”
“What is?”
“All that time,” Mobius squeezed Loki’s hand. “All that time in the TVA, I was trying to protect the Sacred Timeline. But I didn’t really understand what I was protecting. But being here… with you…”
“Yes,” Loki murmured. “This is worth… everything .”