Loki variants did a lot of things, but falling in love with Mobius was not one of them.
Mobius knew this all too well. He had been a part of the TVA for eons and he was estimated to have been in charge of monitoring thousands upon thousands of different timelines. In fact, time did not run adjacent to that of the timelines so his estimations could be off by a large margin.
He had lived long enough and seen enough worlds to know that not a single Loki variant or Mobius had ever crossed paths– barred those that he had sent to the void– those did not really count as it was a job completed and the interaction was complete.
Not that he’d ever met with a Mobius variant prior to Don, whom he had only viewed from afar. Hell, he had spent most of his life under the impression that his own existence was conjured by the timekeepers and the thought that he had variants was a concept that was still difficult for him to process.
Mobius had suspected that he and every other TVA employee had been specifically singled out by He Who Remains to work there due to their lack of involvement with any of the variants that may happen to disrupt the flow of the sacred timeline.
After Mobius witnessed the Loki variant he became fond of destroying the loom that protected the sacred timeline and replacing it with their own body, he had grown absorbed in his own grief. Loki was not dead which was obvious through the timelines being alive, but there was hardly a possibility of Mobius ever seeing them again.
He wanted to be angry, but he knew that Loki’s actions had saved billions of people as well as those who would come to exist.
His one consolation was that with the sacred timeline becoming, well not so sacred anymore, in at least one of the ever-expanding number of branches, a Loki and a Mobius may finally be able to connect as they had.
In his heart, if the two of them had become so close then maybe it could be possible with their variants? He yearned to live vicariously through them to sate the burning pain in his heart. But, as with all of life’s bad jokes, this wasn’t the case.
No matter how many worlds he peered into there was not a single one in which either crossed paths in any way that mattered. It was unnatural for either person.
With the sacred timeline having kept its integrity for so long, many Lokis did as his own Loki and the one from Earth-616. They allowed their need for parental approval and feelings of inadequacy guide them into the poor decision-making that led to the events in New York.
Mobius had never judged Loki, or any Loki’s, for this event. He knew that Loki had been manipulated by Thanos and the mind stone and he knew that Loki had simply yearned for attention and love. Even if it was superficial and artificial. It would be hypocritical for him to judge. After all, the amount of lives Mobius took when following orders from the TVA was far more than Loki had.
The Loki variants that did not terrorize New York City all did various nefarious and mischievous actions that a child of royalty who yearned for attention would do and neither involved getting to know a person named Mobius or Don.
Mobius had seen his own variants. He was always your typical white, middle-class, single father living in a suburban neighborhood.
In some universe’s his wife was dead, in others she had left him, but in every universe, he was a single parent who loved his children and his jet skis. Most of the time his variants lived in Cleveland, Ohio, if it existed, but one had strayed and lived in Portland, Oregon to ride jet skis often. Not that it mattered. Either place was far from Asgard and had no relation to Loki in the slightest. After all, it didn’t really benefit Loki to release Chitauri in a city like Cleveland.
Mobius was nothing if not practical. He knew that Loki would always be far out of his reach. If not for the particular circumstances that put them in close proximity, Loki would have never looked at him twice. Even now as he watched Don through the TVA computer, working at the jet ski shop, he was aware that the likelihood of an Asgardian Prince, hell-bent on domination, coming in to buy a jet ski was zero.
Against all odds he had gotten the opportunity to meet Loki and despite the headaches and the arguments they had, he was grateful.
Grateful to Sylvie for causing such a ruckus that made him reach out to Loki for their help. Grateful to Renslayer for allowing him to recruit Loki, and most importantly grateful to Loki himself for allowing Mobius the opportunity to get to know them. The real Loki.
Through the screens in the TVA, he knew of Loki, how they portrayed themselves to others, and how they acted when they were alone and thought no one could see them.
Mobius had seen all of Loki’s life in many different timelines, but through the screens, he could not hear their thoughts or see their heart.
What he got to see was not the angsty young adult who was scared and under the influence of the mind stone. Not the Loki who harmed thousands of people in New York to prove to his father that he too was worthy of love, but the Loki who was open and vulnerable.
The one who laughed at his bad jokes and ate key lime pie with him at the automat even though Mobius knew it was his own fault they ended up there. The Loki who despite having lived for several centuries had never seen or eaten a piece of candy yet trusted Mobius to introduce them to ones that they would enjoy. Even the Loki who looked at him with tears in his eyes before sacrificing himself to save every single world.
This Loki had brought sunshine into his life when Mobius didn’t even know he was living in the dark. Had taken him by the hand and together they grew closer and closer until the only gap between them was the one between their lips.
The gap they never had the opportunity to close and Mobius would forever regret not having kissed him on that day.
He was mad at Loki for abandoning him and had spent months blaming himself for not having noticed Loki moving towards the door. If Mobius had noticed would Loki be with him now? If he had kissed him would Loki have stayed with him? He hated himself for it, but he had briefly wished that Loki had simply killed Sylvie and kept the loom and the TVA running as it had if it meant not losing the one person he had learned to love.
Loki was a god before. A very beautiful and loving one that had stolen his heart before he knew it and now he was an even nobler god. One that stood at the center of all of time.
Mobius had dug through the drawer of “paperweights” and dug out a time stone. Despite infinity stones being ineffective at the TVA he knew there was a bit of Loki in there. He would take it to OB later to see if he could fashion it into a ring.
It wouldn’t help with Mobius’ grief, regret, and self-blaming, but he would at least feel closer to his beloved. He would never stop looking for a way to bring Loki back after all, they were his one in infinity.