Two tiny snippets because I have been reading rather than writing for the past two weeks.
First, a snippet from my Human AU/Car crash story (can't link it because AO3 is doing maintenance).
He might as well have said, “Hello, there, I am single and you are everything I look for in a partner: kind, warm, older, unaware of being utterly stunning. Do you want to spend some time with me? I do not do casual, but if that is what you want, I am down for it.”
He had invited him for dinner!
Had it sounded like an invitation for a date?
It certainly sounded that way to him. At least, he had remembered to invite the children.
“Dad, why are you repeatedly bumping your head against the wheel.”
Exorcising the sudden onslaught of my desperate need to spend my free time with someone born in the last century. Be that in a kitchen or in be-
“Nothing, darling,” said Loki gently. “Removing an idea from my head.”
“Don and Kevin are really nice, aren’t they?” she asked.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Shall I congratulate you on your good instincts to bump into Kevin’s and not someone else’s car?”
“Dad!” she admonished, but it made her laugh, which had been his goal after all. It was important she knew how much he cared about, but that did not mean, he would let the lies she had told slide. Time to be a father after being a fellow trickster.
“Now,” he continued, “you know how I feel about lying, so why did you pretend you weren’t comfortable stepping back into that car?”
And this is from the beginning of this Tumblr post by @sunshinefelixi
Something was wrong.
Mobius chuckled.
So many things had been wrong lately that his brain instantly went, ‘Get in line, champ.’
Only.
Things were not technically wrong anymore, were they?
The Loom was being sustained thanks to some ingenious bit of engineering by O.B. and Loki himself whose understanding of temporal magic had increased exponentially during his awful bout of uncontrollably slipping through time. He figured it out at some point and used that frankly terrifying brainpower of his to let O.B. know exactly what they needed.
Potential calamity averted.
The TVA reformed.
All Well That Ends Well.
Only.
Something was still very, very wrong.
With Loki, specifically.
Mobius knew Loki (and yet, he had not known this Loki nearly as well as he had once thought) and his manner was… off.
It had been off for a long time.
It was not that Mobius could blame him either. Their easy banter and flawless partnership, while doing unsanctioned trips to apocalyptic events to find what turned out to by Slyvie, were a thing of the past. He was to blame for that, he knew; after all, he had held all the cards there and when Loki played what little he had, he had tortured him in a Time Cell in return. He had put a stop to it only because he had come to the realization that his remembered existence was a lie.
Only for the next disaster to strike with their pruning, the trip to the Void, the return to what turned out to be an even bigger disaster zone. What Mobius had once hoped could be the start of an amazing partnership had burned to ash sometime in between all these events, but he could not quite figure out the exact moment it happened. Yes, he had messed up, but Loki reiterated their friendship twice after that, once right after Mobius ended the torture (so that did not mean much) and once it had been sealed with the greatest hug he had ever received in his existence.
He was not kidding, Loki’s arms around you felt like were being engulfed by a warm, comforting blanket. The demi-god’s arms held you gingerly and yet so firmly that you could just sink into them: a promise of protection and respect, and Loki had not even put a hand on his suit since his return and that just was not right.
He was polite, ever-polite, but also distant.
Mischief gone.
Banter gone.
Professional.
Like the well-behaved prince he had always pretended to be.
It was wrong.
Thanks for tagging me so faithfully lately, sorry for not engaging. @westwardly @elodiah @megglesthegeek @blackbirdofasgard @lokimobius @lokisleftbranch @ineffablelara @pluppleseverywhere @loki-is-my-kink-awakening @mobiusismycomfortcharacter @mobius-m-mobius
