Chapter 2
When they both finally got out of bed and got ready, they ended up making a late breakfast/lunch.
Mobius didn't have much food in the fridge, but there was enough for pancakes. Between their back and forth, arguments over how much to add, and each other saving their pancakes from being burn, they finally finished and were able to sit down at the table.
To Mobius was amused by Loki which stuffed the first large piece of pancakes into his mouth, moaning mercilessly with pleasure.
To his friend's amused look, Loki only responded by sticking his tongue out at him after swallowing the piece.
They finished the meal in friendly silence, enjoying each other's company.
After the pancakes, Loki demanded another tea, when Mobius told him he could make it himself, Loki said that if he do it himself it wouldn’t be that good. Then they had an unofficial staring contest because of that.
So of course it ended up being Mobius who made the tea. And even though Loki clearly had him wrapped around his finger, the gray-haired man would deny it anyway.
Then they started watching some comedy TV show that neither of them honestly paid any attention to.
Mobius remained silent, thinking about the dream he had, while trying to ignore the constant worried glances Loki was giving him when he thought he wasn't looking.
Suddenly he was brought out of his thoughts by the feeling of something rubbing the side of his thigh. Mobius looked at the cause and noticed Loki's feet slowly moving towards him.
The man raised an eyebrow at the god, who ignored his gaze when sipping his tea.
Finally, Loki unceremoniously placed his legs on Mobius's lap, sprawling himself on the sofa like a cat. Very long cat.
Mobius was really trying to decipher the god at this point. He was an expert on Loki, and yet this behavior from him was not something he recognized.
But eventually this Loki strayed from the path that was originally laid out for him and truly changed, so maybe that's why the analytical part of his mind was unable to follow the pattern he had learned.
However, one thing still hasn't changed about Loki. He was still unpredictable and mischievous, but not in that bad mischievous way. The reminder of this brought a small smile to Mobius' lips. Then, in a better mood, he thought that he could play this game.
So the next thing he did was to gently run his fingers over the underside of Loki's foot.
This made the God jump in his seat, almost spilling the tea from his mug as he abruptly tucked his legs back towards him in a protective manner.
He looked at Mobius as if he had grown a second head as man smiled mischievously at him.
Loki's jaw dropped when he saw that mischievous glint in Mobius' eye. It was something new for him to have someone respond to his certain behaviors with mischief. Usually people either got irritated or ignored his picking on.
"What, the god of mischief doesn't like mischief?" - Mobius teased, continuing to smile at Loki as he reached back towards his foot - "I didn't know you were ticklish, Lokes." - He added as he tickled Loki's foot again, who only now woke up from lethargy due to this feeling.
He quickly jumped to his feet, escaping from his friend's tickling touch.
"Because I do not have." - He denied with his head proudly straight, but his body tense.
Mobius hummed in response, completely disbelieving him with a proud smirk on his lips.
"The smile really suits him..." - Loki pondered again, looking with wide eyes at the face of the man in front of him. - "His eyes seem to shine then..."
"...Wait, what am I thinking anyway?" - He caught himself again at thinking about that, which caused an inappropriate blush to appear on his face.
"You're blushing." - Mobius laughed, looking at Loki's red face, who turned around in embarrassment and went to put down his half-drunk cup of tea.
"Not at all!" - He shouted, already turning his back to Mobius.
"You know a lot of people are ticklish, right?" - When Mobius said this, Loki breathed a sigh of relief.
"He thinks it made me feel embarrassed. At least he didn't notice the way I was staring at him like some virgin." - He thought.
“I know it's still early to ask this, but why did you come to me? No, I'm not happy or anything, but you were there at the end of time for quite a long time, so I guess something very important motivated you to come here.” - Finally, mercifully, Mobius decided to change the subject, but when Loki heard what Mobius had asked, he would have preferred that he wouldn't do it though.
Loki sighed, sitting again - "You're kind of right about that, if I hadn't had a little more on my mind than just coming to see you, it would probably have taken me a few months longer." - He confessed - although with how pathetically you're leading your new life, I really wanted to visit you earlier. "
"Pathetic?" - Mobius sighed, clutching his chest in mock offence. However, he quickly abandoned this act and laughed at himself - "You may be right... wait, have you seen me?"
Loki nodded - "I may have forgotten to mention this yesterday, but this multiverse thing has given me the ability to look into different timelines and universes. So it may have happened that I kept my eye on you a little more than others..."- Loki confessed. A little embarrassed because "a little more often" was a huge understatement.
Mobius, however, only smiled stupidly at Loki in response - "I see the roles have reversed, huh?"
Loki snorted in amusement at this statement. Then he looked at his lap. - "Mobius, I really wanted to apologize for leaving you and the others like that without any explanation..." - He began, but was interrupted by the weight of a hand on his shoulder. Loki looked up only to meet the kind eyes of Mobius.
"You have nothing to apologize for, you yourself explained yesterday what really happened and even when I didn't know about it... I was actually angry at first about what happened, but I was mainly worried about what happened to you. I was afraid that You are suffering and no one can help you." - He said, not adding that everyone else thought Loki was dead. He was the only one who still insisted that it definitely wasn't true. At one point, Mobius didn't know if he was just contradicting himself. But now, looking at the god sitting before him, he was glad that he had faith until the very end.
Loki didn't respond to this confession, his eyes glazed over and then he looked away.
"But one of the things I'm here for isn't...it's not positive..." - He muttered.
"And I'd love to hear about it, you know it doesn't have to be just you against the whole world, the multiverse? How about it being two of us? Two heads to come up with a solution are better than one, right?" - Mobius said.
Loki was deeply moved by these words. The man in front of him just knew how to push Loki's buttons to make him really emotional.
Loki moved gently away from Mobius. - “I saw variants of the he who remains conferring together. Let's be honest, nothing good can come from this. With my feat I postponed the war, but that doesn't mean I prevented it."
Mobius's face scrunched up. - "How much time do you think we have?"
"We can't be sure, it could be years or even days. Unless TVA has already taken care of it, of course."
Mobius looked thoughtful - "I left TVA so I didn't have access to the recent documents about monitoring these variants and what they were doing. However, as long as there were reports of this meeting, I don't think there is anything to worry about for now. However, there is only one way how to check." - He said, getting up and going to his bedroom, after a while he came back carrying his TemPad.
He waved it at Loki - "We need to go to TVA."
Loki nodded in agreement, getting up from the couch.
"Of course, as long as you come with me…I mean , because you probably have a lot of responsibilities at the end of time and..." - Mobius's chatter was interrupted by Loki placing his hands on his shoulders.
"Of course I'm going with you. Moreover, in this tree is terrible boredom and unless I have to, I won't go back there." - Loki said, looking at the shorter man.
Mobius smiled and moved out of Loki's embrace and began typing in the appropriate coordinates. But again Loki interrupted him.
Mobius looked confused at the black-haired man in front of him.
"I'll take us there." - He said with a proud smile, waved his hand and a forest green portal appeared in front of them. Loki then turned to the man as if waiting for praise.
Mobius chuckled. - "Good job. Let's go." - He said.
And they both went through the portal.
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When they left the portal, they were greeted by a very familiar, even nostalgic view of the TVA corridors. They both stood next to each other, staring at a place they hadn't seen for a long time when the portal closed behind them.
"Mobius?" - An incredulous voice asked behind them.
When they turned around, they discovered that the person who first encountered them here was none other than B-15.
"...Loki?" - She added after a while, still looking at the pair with big surprised eyes.
"Ah, B-15, long time no see." - Mobius greeted their friend.
"Bea." - Was the only thing she could say as her brain tried to process the whole situation at high speed. - "Now my name is Bea instead of B-15." - She added, because they probably didn't understand what she meant.
"…I-I, it's nice to see you guys." - She said, and then quickly walked towards them. First, she hugged Loki, to which he responded, surprised, after a while by wrapping his arms around the hunter.
Bea then grabbed and hugged Mobius, after a while when they separated, Bea spoke first - "I see retirement doesn't seem to suit you." - These words were addressed to Mobius, who just shrugged with a slight smile on his face.
After a while, his face became more serious - "B-15, I mean Bea, we are not here just for friendly matters, unfortunately."
Bea looked at them with understanding in her eyes, and when her eyes landed on Loki she added - "I didn't think anything else since the God of stories himself is here."
"Pardon?" - Loki asked, raising one eyebrow and looking at both people.
Mobius rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and explained with a sheepish smile - "You know, after all your sacrifices and stuff, the people at TVA have started calling you the savior of the multiverse."
"God of time." - Bea interjected.
"And the God of stories. The latter somehow stuck and stayed." - Finished Mobius.
Loki smiled slyly and was about to make a proud retort, but Mobius interrupted him.
"But we don't forget our original purpose of being here." - He said, holding his finger up and pointing it at Bea. -"We need access to the files containing information about all Kang variant gatherings."
"Of course, you both still kind of work here and stuff. Follow me." - She said and started leading them down the corridor she had just come from.
"Uh what? I thought I handed in my notice." - Mobius asked, walking quickly next to the Hunter.
"And you thought I accepted them? I knew it was only a matter of time before you came back, you damn workaholic." - She said with a sly smile on her lips, as if saying - "I told you so."
Mobius just smiled knowingly - "Okay, maybe you know me well..."
Bea just looked at him with a raised eyebrow as she opened the door to the new archives with her pass.
"Okay, I understand, Mobius. But me? I've never actually worked here!" - Loki finally interjected, feeling left out of this conversation.
"That you saved us all. That was enough." - Mobius said, looking at Loki again with those shining blue eyes that made Loki's chest spin.
"It's better for our good that he doesn't see his statue that stands in the center." - She commented, not looking at either of them now as she opened the door to the archives.
"I have a statue?" - Loki immediately looked at both of them, slightly surprised at first. But after a while his expression could only be read as somewhere between cocky and proud.
"Oh I'm not surprised, they just couldn't help but worship the divine being that I am." - Loki said, and the other two just snorted.
"Old Loki is back." - Mobius said as he entered the archives.
For the moment, this conversation ended as they entered what looked like a large warehouse.
Several minutemen were patrolling inside. This surprised the two men, and when they asked Bea about it, she only replied that due to the level of danger of the variant and the fact that they could even get here, documents about them were kept under strict supervision.
They followed Bea to one of the many filing cabinets. After a while of searching, the hunter found a whole box of documents on the topic they were looking for.
Everyone agreed to share the pile equally between the three of them.
"So, what exactly are we looking for?" - Bea asked, opening the first folder.
"While I was at the end of time, I saw three of his variants summon all the rest. This probably means that they are the commanders in chief. In addition to summoning the rest of their variants, they were clearly conferring with themselves, but for some reason I couldn't hear them. I didn't want to press further. so they won't sense my presence, so now all we have to do is check if TVA knows anything about them being taken away."
Bea looked surprised and worried at the same time - "I haven't heard anything about such a large Kang unification. If something like this was recorded by TVA it would probably be our main concern, and the fact that I haven't heard about it worries me. We can search the documents. But I really fear that they have somehow hidden themselves from our sight."
"I was afraid of that..." - Loki said with furrowed brows.
"Even if the chances are small, we should still check these files, if we don't find information about this meeting in them, maybe we will find some clue." - Said Mobius, as always, incredibly composed and logical.
The other two nodded in agreement and together they began to read the files on the variants of the he who remained.
After several hours of searching, the pile of documents finally disappeared and they still found nothing that could even be a clue.
At this moment, Loki was sprawled on the floor, leaning his head on the thigh of Mobius, who was sitting on the floor finishing the last files.
"I don't understand anything." - Mobius finally said - "Not even the slightest mention of any encounter between more than two Kangs at once. How is it possible that TVA missed the encounter of thousands if not more of the same variants?" - Mobius asked really no one, putting the last file aside in defeat on the pile of read files.
Loki, who had stopped reading the files a long time ago, claiming that it was pointless anyway, just looked up at his friend from his position.
Suddenly, footsteps caught their attention. It looked like Bea came back to them after a while ago, seeing that there was no mention of what they were looking for in these files, she went to get her personal files of all the variants of this one that she had on TVA's radar.
As she approached them and looked up from the briefcase she was holding, she just looked at them with a raised eyebrow at the position they were in.
After a while, Loki understand in which position they are, and with a speed that showed he was truly a god, he quickly got up to a standing position. Leaving only Mobius to get up on his own so as not to sit on the floor by himself.
Bea did not comment on the condition she found them in, but showed them files of one of the variants.
"I did a quick look through all the variant files for he who remains and it looks like we lost sight of all these variants at the same time for a few seconds. Apparently no one was interested, because after those few seconds they reappeared on the radar, but that may be only testify to one thing." - She said, handing the file over to Mobius.
"That everyone went to meet and not to drink coffee." - Mobius finished dryly when he felt the god look over his shoulder to look at the files.
Bea nodded with a worried expression.
"I will inform the council as soon as possible about this discovery and the fact that we clearly will not escape this war." - She said, already walking towards the exit.
Mobius nodded to her, agreeing with her idea - "If we find anything, we will go and notify you immediately." - He said.
Bea nodded, then stopped on her heels for a moment and took something out of her pocket and then threw it towards Loki, who, with his divine reflexes, easily caught the item she handed him.
"I think it will make communication between us easier." - She said with a smile as she turned and left the warehouse.
In Loki's hands was a new TemPad. The man was sincerely moved by this gesture, because even though he could get to TVA at any time, giving him the TemPad was a sign of trust in him.
Loki, not wanting to get it lost, put his TemPad into his interdimensional pocket.
"So who's ready to look through more of the files on all the Kanga variants?" - Mobius said with an irritating smile on his face, placing his hands on his hips.
Loki just sighed in boredom and together they went to the other side of the warehouse to take care of the next files.
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They spent a lot of time in this warehouse. At one point, Loki conjured up bean bags for them to sit on and, at Mobius' request, also conjured him what he called "Lokes Magic Lime Pie".
Loki himself, uninterested in the cake, tried to concentrate while reading the over a hundred folders about the kanga variant. At this point, they still hadn't found anything of note, and Loki himself was constantly moving around in different positions. Sometimes he sat properly on the bean bag, other times he lay on it upside down, and other times he walked around Mobius, who mostly ignored him.
The guards who patrolled the warehouse area often gave them strange looks as they passed by, but the two couldn't care less about it.
"It's pointless!" - Loki commented groaning as he closed the last folder of documents he was reading.
After a moment, Mobius looked up at the nervous god. Apparently being out of time didn't make the files any less boring for him. Mobius, on the other hand, did it with his usual patience, especially since he had to admit that he missed it a little.
"Maybe if you're bored, can you just use the same method when you discovered their meeting ?" - The half-hearted man asked half-jokingly, hoping to force the impatient God to sit down for a moment.
Hearing his friend's comment, Loki froze as if rooted to the ground, looked at Mobius and then put his head in his hands, emitting a long groan of irritation.
"How did I not think of that myself?!" - He said, irritated at himself, as he sat cross-legged on the floor next to one of the bean bags.
Mobius looked at him strangely but didn't comment on it. He just watched as Loki took a deep breath and then closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, they glowed forest green.
Mobius looked curiously at the young god, who was apparently looking in his direction, but the analyst had the impression that his friend didn't see him anyway.
They stayed like that for a while until Loki blinked as if in a daze, and the sparkle in his eyes faded and returned to his usual eye color.
It took Loki a moment to notice that Mobius was looking directly at him.
"And what?" - His friend finally asked.
"I think I know how to start our search." - Loki said, rising from his sitting position.
Mobius stood up as well and then walked Loki like a gentleman through the aisles towards the exit door.
Loki smiled slightly to himself at this gesture.
Then they both started to leave. Bean bags and papers still scattered behind them.
"So where do we go first?" - Mobius finally asked.
"I think O.B can help us with this." - Loki replied a little mysteriously.