Pairing: Mobius M. Mobius x TVAworker!Reader
Word Count: 2.0k
T/W: flufffff / comfort
A/N: comfort fic, sometimes life changes even positive ones are scary.
It had been an exciting weekend for you, new promotion, new office, and new tasks. It was what everyone would call “moving up in life,” yet somehow you didn’t feel the positiveness that everyone claimed should be surrounding you. Replacing it was a sensation of fear and doubt, not of anyone around you, rather of yourself. Clearly people, Ravonna, the Timekeepers, thought you were worthy of this position otherwise you wouldn’t have been given it. Regardless, that just didn’t compute with you.
Mobius had thrown you a mini congratulations-on-your-new-office party a few days ago, or at least he called it a party, it was really only the two of you. You thought about expressing your fears and anxieties then, but he was so proud of you and venting over champagne didn’t seem like the right time. So, you took to repressing anything and everything regarding negativity about this new promotion, although that doesn’t mean they just vanished from your thoughts. Instead they hung like heavy rain clouds in your mind, keeping you on edge wondering when the downpour of emotion would break free and drown out every bit of functional reasoning.
On Mobius’ newly memorized walk to your office he nodded at everyone he walked past, hands in his pockets, like any other day. Expecting to find you in the new uniform Ravonna had required of you, he already had a witty compliment planned out for when you stepped out from behind your desk. Walking into your office he began, hands on his hips as he looked immediately to a pile of files to his left, “Hey Hun, do you have the-“ He only stopped when he looked up to your desk and realised he’d been talking to thin air.
Dropping his hands from his hips, he looked around, made one quick sweep behind your desk, just for good measure, but found no trace of you. Pausing for a moment to think, he went through the check list: it wasn’t your day off, it wasn’t lunch hour, it wasn’t a staff meeting day, etc. He hung around only for a moment, before heading off to his cubicle. You had a habit of dropping by, and he figured with all the praise for the new office, you might want some place to hide. He half expected to find you waiting for him there with a “there you are” smile across your lips, but stepping around the corner, hand on the glass half-wall, he found his chair as he had left it: empty.
Setting a hand on his hip, he tapped the top of the half-wall that cornered in his cubicle. Closing his eyes and dropping his head with a smile as if to say “right, of course,” he had one more place to check and headed for the elevators. Down, down, down, each ding resembled a level and it seemed to go on for quite some time, but finally he was there: Level 4. The golden doors slid open and immediately a sweet, but faint, aroma of cookies and cake batter occupied his sense of smell. It wasn’t enough to make one nauseous, just enough to feel like a comfort. The gentle sound of soft melodic harps were played on the level. He nearly ran into a cotton candy coloured cloud on his path.
Taking a deep breath, he opened the door to the level’s conference room, he found it’s soft velvet lined chairs unoccupied, but heard a familiar mumbling. It was numbers, months, days and smooshed together with “ifs, ands, buts, ors” between phrases. The occasional sniffle and heavy sigh followed by a shallow inhale was easily heard as well. Shutting the door behind him, he circled the table and found exactly what he was looking for. Sitting criss-cross on the floor, surrounded by two stacks of files, and papers sprawled out in every direction, he found you in an old TVA sweatshirt people were given during training days.
“If B-15 could be there in twenty minutes, the fifteen minute break wouldn’t need to be a concern, but- but,” you were mumbling through apparent tears, but wiping them away in time to keep them from falling onto your papers.
Standing a few feet away, as to not startle you, Mobius watched the scene play out, repeating: mumbles, tears, wipe, sniffle, scribble-scribble, move paper; mumbles, tears, wipe, sniffle, and so on. Only once did he see you lean back against the glass wall, pen in hand, fists pressed to your temples, as you squeezed your eyes shut and tried to take deep breaths. He opted to move in after witnessing your distress.
“Hey there,” he started, soft tone as always, catching your attention without startling you.
“Hey,” you managed in a hoarse tone, wiping your eyes now with both hands gently, before looking up at him from where you sat, “did you- do you need me to sign something?”
Your eyebrows were furrowed and lips slightly parted, tear stains obvious even though they were currently absent and now absorbed into your sweatshirt sleeve, leaving little dark blobs in the fabric. It was a look that seemed to say if he said yes you would shatter and only prove that you’d already forgotten something pertaining to your new job.
A sympathetic smile came to his face, “no,” he shook his head, “I don’t need you to sign anything, Sweetheart.”
“Okay,” you said almost silently.
“But I would like you to tell me what’s going on,” he stated.
“I don’t know what you mean,” you played it off, glancing back down at your paperwork, but you couldn’t repress a quick sniffle, to which you, as casually as you could, wiped your top lip with the edge of your rolled over sleeve.
“Honey, you’re crying on Level 4,” Mobius said with loving honesty, and a tender chuckle.
“So?” You asked, tilting your head just enough to see him.
“This is the Sweet Dreams level,” he took his hands out of his pockets to gesture to the glass window, “there are literally sheep, ridiculously fluffy sheep, jumping over fences in a time loop. The air smells like a fresh bakery, clouds float down the hallway, the sound of harps are somehow everywhere. I’m pretty sure they have a teddy bear for a secretary. . .,” he paused furrowing his eyebrows and looking down, “how does that work? They don’t have fingers do they- no, that’d be creepy.”
That managed a small laugh from you, bringing his attention back to you, “so, come on, talk to me.”
You leaned your back against the glass pane, staring straight down at all your paperwork, “I know I should be happy, overjoyed, excited, but. . .I’m not,” you shrugged, feeling the tears well in your eyes, “I’m scared, really scared.”
With that, the wave of emotion hit again, there was always something about finally speaking your feelings aloud to another soul that forced you to feel the weight of them. Covering your mouth with your hand and squeezing your eyes shut, attempting to halt the full on tear attack, you heard a loving “aw, honey.”
Next thing you knew, Mobius was sitting next to you, opening his arms to you. Gladly accepting, you took a few minutes to cry it out in his embrace, he hushed you and reassured you that it was okay and not to worry about soaking his favourite tie. He just held you until you raised your head and took a deep breath, his arm was still around you, now slipping to rub your back as you straightened up.
Seeing you cry hurt his heart, but he knew this was a needed, necessary, long overdue cry. He brushed a thumb featherlike across your wet eyelashes and kissed your forehead while you composed yourself best you could.
“You wanna talk about that?” He asked with a half smile and tilt of the head.
You nodded, smiling to yourself that you let yourself get to this point. Setting your hands in your lap, you used your hands to talk, interlacing them and unlacing them, opening them and clenching them, spinning them, and so on, as you did when nervous or stressed.
“I know this promotion is a positive, I know that,” you started as if convincing yourself still.
“Right,” Mobius nodded, hanging his wrist over his bent knee.
“But,” you inhaled, “the change is scary. I’m farther away from you, I’m in a new location, with new people, new assignments, and that is kind of terrifying. I know I was picked for a reason, but if i get this wrong, I could screw up so much stuff, that has a lot of consequences, for more people than just myself. If all goes well no worries, BUT if something, one thing goes wrong. . .”
He let you take a breather without interruption.
“I want this, I’ve wanted this,” you admitted, looking down at your hands in your lap, “but now that I’m here, it feels so much scarier than I ever imagined. Now I’m asking myself: am I up for this? And if I’m not-”
Looking up, your eyes were lined with tear drops ready to fall like rain. Mobius tilted his head sympathetically telling you ‘it’s okay.’
Tilting your head back, you tried even harder to keep them from falling. Laughing, you sniffled, pressing the bridge of your nose with both fingertips, “this is pathetic right? I’m pathetic for thinking like this, right?” You mumbled into your hands.
“No,” Mobius started, sincerely, “no, you’re not. It’s natural to dislike change, good or bad, it’s still forcing you to change, which we are creatures of habit, so there’s nothing wrong with being scared about the uncertainty ahead.”
Looking at him, you rolled your head almost against your shoulder with a ‘really or are you just saying that?’ expression.
“I’m serious,” he started again, shaking his head, “you know what happens when things change, it can be dangerous, it can be good, but it always takes time to get used to. New things are scary, but you’ve got this. Don’t put the pressure on yourself to be perfect though, some of the best things happen when we aren’t perfect. But, if anything happens, I’ll take the blame.”
You smiled, “you’re technically not in my department.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Mobius shrugged, “I get in trouble enough that I know how to get out of it.”
You leaned into him and hummed, knowing his statement was all too true. He kept you close with one arm still reaching around your frame. Change could be good, you knew that to be true as well by just looking at the person next to you; you swore you’d never fall in love, and yet it was the best change you’d ever experienced.
“So, what is all this?” he stretched out his legs, crossing one heel over the other and pointed to your paperwork labyrinth.
“Well, this is everyone’s schedule,” you gestured to everything, “based on the daily reports that are submitted to me from everyone and every department, so far I’ve managed to schedule three months out-”
“Three months?” Mobius said with a shocked laugh, “wow, I haven't even submitted my paperwork for today. . .I’m gonna get a pass on that though right?”
You looked up to find him already looking at you, there was no way you could deny him that, “yes,” you agreed, leaning in to press a soft kiss against his lips, which he obviously saw coming and was prepared to respond to. Your smile broke the kiss, pulling back you glanced up through your eyelashes.
“See,” he whispered, softly shaking your shoulder, “you’re already helping people out.” You closed your eyes and laughed, leaning further against his chest. Kissing your temple he said in a more serious and confident tone, “you’re gonna do great.”
“I love you,” you sighed, wrapping your arms around him.
“I love you more,” he spoke softly, before a pause, “is that my sweatshirt?”
Summary: Fix it fic of sorts after the trauma that was episode 6 of the Loki series. Loki is in pain after discovering Mobius doesn’t remember him. He’s been living in apocalypses to avoid capture by this new TVA until he formulates a plan to get his Mobius back.
Rating: T for later chapters
Emotional angst.
Chapter One.
Chapter Two.
“And so that’s where I grew up, the ends of a thousand worlds.”
The ends of a thousand worlds. The words of his accomplice echoed through the god’s mind as he fiddled with the straps of his worn and tattered holster. The fluorescent above him flickered with every gust of wind that battled against the sides of the building that Loki was crouched down in. He slid his long legs out against the tiled floor in front of him and sat with his head propped against the wall. He sighed. Loki tapped his foot on the door of the space he was hiding in to close it, drowning out the cries of fear from the people outside in their final hours of life. There he sat waiting for the tempad to charge. Alone. Living in another world where every person he met would be dead by the end of the day. Another world where Mobius didn’t exist. His Mobius.
Was this what it was like? For her? To never be able to stay in one place for more than a day? To always see the same faces riddled with fear as they awaited their painful fate? To only know destruction, screaming, fires, earthquakes, the literal gates of hel? To be utterly alone with your only desire to live in the hope that one day your glorious purpose would be fulfilled?
Glorious purpose.
Loki scoffed. The god didn’t know what his purpose was anymore. Taking down the TVA was a complete failure. The chances for fixing the mess they started seemed impossible now as branches grew and new timelines erupted, with endless TVAs to monitor every universe. At least, that’s what Loki assumed. He knew next to nothing about what they had unleashed. It wasn’t the same TVA. Different hunters, different analysts, different ruler. Many he recognized, but they were still different people. They weren’t the same. She wasn’t the real B. He wasn’t his Mobius. And Loki was at a complete loss on how to find them again.
The first tempad he stole only brought him back to the place he snatched it from. The same Time Variance Authority where Mobius didn’t remember him and not a single file existed for Loki Laufeyson, God of Mischief, God of Outcasts, God of Lies. Even when he dragged the analyst through the timedoor into the roxxcart parking lot to access his memories, nothing existed of him. No laughter over silly metaphors, mischief at pompeii, not even the memory of their first encounter in the elevator. It was like they never met. This led to Loki wasting away their days hopping from one disaster to the next until his brain racked up a solution. The TVA never once did follow him. Why would they? No one remembered his brilliant discovery about the apocalypses. He could run free. But as the days whittled by, the hope Loki had began to fade into nothingness.
For awhile he kept track of the places he went and the time that had passed.
Day 1 - I finally stole a tempad and left that dreadful place. I came here first. Hoping I’d see you. But I guess that’s not how time travel works in apocalypses. No trace we were ever here. The storm reminded me of my brother. I hope to see him again one day. Now that I know we could have been friends. Everything was eventually going to be okay.
Day 24 - I’ve been sitting in a coffee shop awaiting the earthquake of 2098. Met a lovely redhead with the most peculiar of tattoos. But alas! Little does she know this friendship could never blossom in the wake of death!
Day 37 - I miss him. My brother. The pain that solitude brings makes me think of home more often. How ironic that the very place that caused me the most pain I miss. But anything is better than this. So today I visited home right before its destruction. I saw my brother. I saw Thor from afar. Oh how I wish I could have talked to him somehow and tell him i’m sorry for being such an ass.
Being there brought back memories of the silly metaphor he made using Mobius’ lunch. The corners of Loki’s mouth crept into a smile at the thought. But that smile faded away in the next second and was replaced with tears.
Day 56 - I went to Pompeii again. I stood in the shadows. I tried to picture your expressions of skepticism at my insane ideas. I tried to picture how your face lit up with pride and joy when you realized I was right. I wish I could have stayed longer but I never can anywhere I go.
He whistled like a bird before he exited through the time door.
By day 125 he had lost his will to live again. It was their fourth visit to Lamentis-1. Perhaps it was a mistake on his part to journey here once more and feel both the pains of betrayal and heartache at the prospect of never seeing Mobius again. The second time they had visited Lamentis, the god decided to stay until the very last second with the false hope that maybe him facing death would create a nexus event. His mobius would come find him and save him at the last second. But the time door never came. Maybe it was because he knew there was a chance to escape and he could take it. Or maybe it was because there were so many time branches no one would care to fix a world that was about to end.
“You were always meant to be alone.”
And so this time Loki threw the tempad to the ground and waited. He watched as the lethal disaster unfolded before his eyes once more, ready to die. Alone. Alone with no one to assure him everything will be alright in the face of death. Not a single soul would know he was gone. No one would care.
But at the last second they saw something on the tempad that made them change their mind. A glimmer of hope.
Any hope Loki had, a glorious purpose he had left to fulfill, it was in finding Mobius. It was the only desire left that fueled him to keep existing. He was all that mattered. His only friend. The only person left among the universes who trusted him and saw beyond his flaws. The only person left who hadn’t betrayed the fragile levels of trust the god could give. He was his hope that one day, he wouldn’t have to be alone.
And so he found himself walking the streets of New York in the summer of 2197, on the brink of some disaster he knew nothing about. Not a single idea when it would happen, where it would occur, and what he was doomed to witness. He saw something that could potentially lead him to his destination. The tempad had given him an alert for an aura match - two of the same people in one place. An oddity. Something that wasn’t supposed to exist.
They weren’t just any entity either. They were registered hunters in the TVA database. Which meant one had to be from another universe.
And he knew the TVA would be coming for them.
He had to get there first.
Loki speed walked down the sidewalk frantically scanning his surroundings for any clue as to what was happening. He couldn’t read any signs of fear or confusion on the faces of those who passed him. He didn’t know how much time he had.
Upon hearing shouts of anger, Loki broke out into a run across the street towards the source, dodging every dystopian vehicle that nearly collided with him in the process. It was coming from the roof of the parking tower. With a snap of his magic, Loki teleported himself to the top, hiding behind a parked vehicle to assess what he was working with.
There were two agents standing about 10 feet away who looked nearly identical, one waving her arms frantically while the other looked on stoically, possibly from shock, with a pruning stick in hand. Loki locked eyes on the tempad fastened to the belt of the frantic one. Then he glanced at the one in the other hunter’s hand.
Well shit.
Now he had to figure out which agent had jumped from the other timeline. He quickly flashed himself closer to the two, but not before one caught on that someone was there.
“I was given orders by a man to…what was that?” one of the hunters asked.
Loki crouched down farther on the other side of the wall. He reached for a dagger, ready to pounce once their suspicions subsided. They listened intently to the words from the first hunter for the first clue on who to attack.
“He sent me here to grab this,” the hunter pulled up someone on her tempad, “entity and leave. Those were the orders given to me. So if you’ll excuse me.”
The other hunter planted herself in front of her clone. “I can’t let you do that. Not until you’ve told me everything I want to know. How are you me? How is this possible?”
The first hunter was from an alternate timeline. Loki took that as his cue. But before he could sneak behind the hunter, he was shot backwards by a blast of energy from a ring of light.
Out from the ring stepped a peculiar man with graying hair who was wearing blue robes and an assymetrical cloak that sparked the curiosity of the confused hunter. Within a split second, the portal closed behind him. Loki laid very still on the concrete and held his breath in the hopes that the man would believe him to be dead.
“You know I can tell when someone is playing dead.”
Loki grimaced and winced as he heaved himself off the ground. He came face to face with the strange man, his hand lingering in the air where he placed the pocket for his dagger.
“You.” was all the man said.
“Am I supposed to know you?” the god questioned.
“You always manage to show up in New York again at the most in-opportune times.” The man raised his hands and Loki mimicked his movements, summoning his daggers in place.
“I’m gonna assume we’ve met before sir, perhaps in the future? I don’t know! And i’m terribly sorry about New York! Look let me explain…” they lowered their hands in their attempt to make peace with the angry man in front of him.
“Dr. Strange.” He kept his fist in the air, golden sparks flying from whatever spell he had in mind to attack the prince with. “And until you prove otherwise Im going to assume you are here for hostile reasons.”
Loki blinked. Well he’s kind of not wrong, they thought.
“Well I’m afraid I can’t prove anything else.” and with that the god blasted the sorcerer into the nearest column with their magic and teleported across the space.
Loki noticed that one of the hunters had disappeared. He assumed she had returned to the TVA. The other was charging towards him fast. He whipped out his daggers to face his attacker, but suddenly his feet were dragged out from under him and he hit the concrete hard. He was being dragged backwards, body scrapping against the concrete. So fast, that the god could barely think about what was happening to him.
When he came to his senses he cut the magic ropes with his powers and rolled across the ground. So he was dealing with another magic user, this “Dr. Strange.” Loki teleported again before he was up on his feet to where he was standing directly behind the hunter.
“D-11…” Dr. Strange said with a hint of caution in his tone.
So this was the man Hunter D-11 was working for. Before the hunter could turn around to face them, Loki snatched the tempad off her belt and snapped himself to the furthest side of the building. Dr. Strange reacted quickly and stood his ground in front of Loki, prepared to attack again.
“Loki, perhaps we can work out some type of deal. What is it that you want? Maybe I can help you. Maybe we can reach a compromise.”
Offer him a deal? Nah.
“I’m done trusting people I’ve just met. All they ever do is stab me in the back.” he conjured the time door behind him.
Strange titled his head. “You do realize we can follow you right straight back to the TVA?”
Loki turned to face him and D-11. “You’ll never find me. You won’t know the first place to look.” The time door closed with Loki inside of it, before the two even had a chance to reach their hands out to follow the god.
…….
And that’s how Loki had ended up here. At Roxxcart again, waiting for the new tempad to charge up before hopping through timelines again.
He breathed in deeply as he felt the bubble of excitement, relief, and happiness build in his chest for the first time in months at the prospect of achieving his goal. Being reunited with the only one who mattered: Mobius. His Mobius.
But as he released his breath in a sigh, his chest tightened again and worry clouded his mind. What if this didn’t work? What if this was just another dead end? What if this was just another one of the countless TVAs that might exist in the vast multiverse?
At first, all Loki felt was sadness and regret in the days following Sylvie’s betrayal. But now all he felt was anger boiling deep inside him. That same unwelcome feeling he experienced after discovering his father lied to him. The feeling that harbored in the abyss of Thanos’ chambers. The feeling that never left his soul until Mobius looked him in the eyes and assured him that he didn’t have to be the villain in his story.
She had taken everything from him and he was afraid he couldn’t wash away the resentment this time. He wanted desperately to feel anything besides the pain he had known for the past year.
He needed to feel love again.
“He cares about you.”
Loki couldn’t wait any longer. He picked up the tempad and tapped the time door request for the TVA home base. He drew in a shaky breath as he paused in front of the portal.
This was it.
He was either about to be reunited with his greatest source of happiness, or find himself hiding in apocalypses again for months as he searched for another plan.
And he would do it. He would search through a thousand worlds to find him.
