What Frigga Left

     Mobius received a few texts from Loki over the weekend just planning out more days to spend cleaning. Loki seemed to have wanted to work every day possible, filling up Mobius’s little pocket planner for the next month. Oddly enough, the beneficiary only seemed to be active from around 4 PM to 4AM yet anything before midnight was sparse. The two even agreed to have Mobius drive Loki to the first social club meeting and back. 

     When Mobius drove up on Monday, the estate already had a few fixes. Vines growing on the house were pulled off and the stone path seemed to have been pressure washed- whether Loki was the laborer behind it was another question. Mobius knocked on the front door, and after a longer wait than expected Loki opened the door, looking like a snake in a satin dressing robe and black pajamas. “Hi.” 

     Loki took a moment, seeming to be adjusting to the lights, “hello,” Loki fashioned a bun with a hair tie and exposed a single gold earring with ‘he/him’ stamped onto the plate. Mobius didn’t think of it as a purposeful reveal, but rather as a way for him to cool off- it was a tad warm that day. Loki waved at Mobius to follow and he obliged. The house already had some changes, mostly rearranged furniture, a few pieces were gone or swapped out, and the kitchen had some fruit bowls out already. “Do you need to be in there with me, or should I grab a chair for you?”

     They headed outside where the leaves were all moved to a giant pile- composting possibly? And the furniture was all cleaned, “Did you do all this?” 

     “Yes, I do have the occasional habit of doing things for myself. Do you want to watch from outside or not?”

     “I can sit outside, yeah.” Mobius turned to get a chair before Loki could, and dragged it over off to the side of the entrance of the shed. It wasn’t in the most convenient spot, but it was out of the way. 

     Loki seemed to have dropped off supplies to the shed beforehand, plastic and cardboard boxes, trash bags, gloves, the sort. He picked up the crate of things and headed inside to begin working. Mobius could only see through a small window into the shed, but knew that Loki had to leave at some point; however he did not expect Loki to stay inside for as long as he did. The first chunk of time was roughly 30 minutes, Loki brought out a single bag of trash in a quick manner. Briskly walking out and back in and turning his head away from Mobius the whole time. Silence followed the next 43 minutes, Mobius tried to hear anything from inside but only managed to pick up the sound of shuffling. Loki exited with another bag of trash and was still trying to hide his face but Mobius managed to see him rubbing his cheek. 

     Loki only took ten minutes before surfacing with yet again another trash bag. It was already Seven and while Mobius expected Loki to take a while, he hadn’t considered any dinner plans. So, right before Loki slunk back inside Mobius called out “Do you know if anywhere delivers here?” 

     Loki still kept his back to Mobius, “No, we’re too far out.” His voice didn’t sound quite right, more swallowed and deep than before. Mobius didn’t want to make any assumptions, but it did seem like Loki was in fact crying.

     “Is it okay if I use your kitchen then?” Mobius leaned in his chair in an attempt to see if he could catch Loki’s face. It didn’t work.

     “Sure,” Loki headed back inside and Mobius got up and wandered to the kitchen. The shed was just visible from the kitchen window, but Mobius didn’t quite care about how well he could observe. Loki was doing an okay job so far, and it didn’t seem like there was anyone hidden in the bushes. Mobius then began to rummage through the kitchen, there was the fruit that was already out, some bread, a small assortment of vegetables, cured meats, and shelf-stable condiments. Sandwiches and fruit it was. 

     Mobius threw together some sandwiches and toasted them on a skillet, washed the fruit, and balanced two cups of water with two full plates on his way to the shed. When he came back, Edison bulb string lights and some light features had turned on already, and Loki was still in the shed. Mobius knocked on the door with his foot- it was open but he still wanted permission to be there. “I made you a sandwich, I didn’t know what you wanted so I just threw some things together,” Loki let out a little huff. “Should probably take a little break.”

     “Thank you,” Loki walked over and lightened Mobius’s load. The lights were not great, the single lightbulb in the shed was dying and the outdoor lights illuminated more despite them being funneled through a small space. He could still see it though, Loki’s red puffy eyes. His cupid's bow and the tip of his nose looked irritated against his flushed face too. 

     “Let’s take a break,” Mobius looked at Loki, who seemed to be searching the room for an excuse to stay. “It’s cooler outside and you’ve been working for a while.” 

     “Fine then,” Loki and Mobius walked over to the outdoor patio and settled into their seats at the table. Loki took small bites and sips of his meal with wonderful table manners, which Mobius found a tad silly. He chewed his food a tad, then only spoke when his mouth was empty “The shed will be done before the end of the month if we stay at this rate. I’ll start the greenhouse shortly after.” 

     He didn’t want to seem emotional, that was okay, Mobius had a feeling Loki wouldn’t show that side of him unless it had a point. “I saw a cabinet in there, seems pretty big, do you need any help with carrying it or anything?” 

     “I don’t need to move it now, nor do I think I’ll be needing your help,” Loki tucked a strand of hair behind his ear while biting into his sandwich. It didn’t seem to do much, so much of his hair was out of the bun already it began to look like a messy half up style. 

     “I’m surprised you don’t braid it.” Mobius pointed to his hair.

     “What?” Loki was caught off guard by the comment.

     “I’m surprised you don’t braid your hair, it’d stay up longer and you have enough to make it work.” Mobius took a gulp of his water. 

     Loki placed his forearms on the table, even then he still kept his elbows off the table, “It’s easier to do it this way and I like the look more.”

     Mobius thought for a second, “wait, do you not know how to braid?” 

     “That’s ridiculous, of course I know how. I had a few braids in when we first met, of course I can braid,”

     “Oh my god you can’t! Do you get someone to do it for you? Like your hairdresser, I assume you have one with that kind of shine.”

     “I do have a stylist, but I don’t have them waiting on me hand and foot every day,”

     “Then braid your hair,”

     “I am not going to braid my hair in front of you just to prove a point, and why do you care so much?”

     “Because if you don’t know how and I’ve seen you with braids someone clearly must do it for you and you’re a grown adult.”

     “Like you know how,”

     “I do actually,”

     “Really?” 

     “Yes! My friend, Ravonna, even taught me how to french braid,” 

     Loki scoffed.

     “Do you want me to braid your hair?” 

     “Would it make you let this go?”

     Mobius paused, “yeah,” he shrugged. 

     Loki gave a defeated sigh and Mobius took that as a sign to stand up. “My hands are clean so don’t worry,” Mobius assured; Loki pulled out his hair tie and shook his hair loose before putting his hands in his lap. Mobius raked his fingers through his hair to detangle any knots and saw Loki’s shoulders lift up and down. “It’s not that hard, you know.”

     “I’m sure it’s not,” Loki straightened his back slightly to Mobius sectioning pieces at his crown. He didn’t seem comfortable, but a distraction would have served him well.

     “I’m doing a french braid, which is like a normal braid but you keep adding hair to the strands so it can go all the way down,” Mobius made sure to talk with a softer tone, even with loud bugs and electric hums it was still in the yard. “It’s like twisting strands together, but you alternate the pieces? Like, this is strand one, two, and three,” As he spoke, Loki’s shoulders eased and melted to his back, the tight posture remained but he was usually upright like that. Mobius was gentle when gathering locks, parting them with delicacy, and making the tension as little as possible; Loki tilted his head back in response to the tender rhythm of it all.

     “Twist one with two, so that one goes in the middle. Then do one and three, putting three in the middle, and twist that with two.” Mobius almost forgot to keep narrating the process, and tried his best to explain it as he was running out of hair to add “What makes it a french braid is that you just add a piece of hair to the outermost strand before you twist it.” Mobius finished the last few twists and looked at his work. Not too shabby.

     “Mhm,” Loki had leaned against the back of his chair by this point, he tried to hide it but it seemed as though he was a tad touch starved over the whole thing.

     “Hair tie?” Mobius tried to not break the mood, but Loki slid right back up to a better posture and silently handed his hair tie over. Mobius tied the end together and walked to the front of Loki. His eyes didn’t seem as puffy as before, but his eyes were lost as he felt the end product with his finger tips. “Doesn’t seem so hard, does it?”

     “Not at all,” Loki’s fingers lingered over the hair tie before looking back at his meal. Mobius was done and only a bit of bread was left on Loki’s plate. Their break was over. He stood up and reached for his plate, but Mobius grabbed it before he could. 

     “I’ll take the dishes inside, you keep working on what you got,” Mobius stacked their plates and glasses and walked back inside. He watched Loki saunter back into the shed and placed the dirty dishes in the sink. Back to his chair, back to watching Loki. 

     Loki only did one more load out of the shed, a black garbage bag, the same as before. He walked Mobius to his car as they confirmed the next date, and Mobius even saw Loki watch him drive off from his rearview mirror. The drive back to his house was almost automatic at this point, so Mobius was able to spend more of his energy on thinking rather than the route. As expected, Loki would try to hide the expected emotions that would come up and be as short as he was before, but dinner was nice. He liked that moment, Loki seemed to enjoy that too and the witty remarks stopped after that. A good tactic to remember if he ever became dramatic again. Which was bound to happen, Frigga was very honest about how dramatic he could be and she had yet to be proven wrong.