what if...I took a basic meme premise and made it fucky - for icasm

[favoriteanalyst]

[He keeps things from Loki, of course.

Not the important things, the pertinent things. Everyone has their secrets, and no one is ever truly an open book. (Regardless of how well he knows Loki. Extenuating circumstances.) And while Loki has slowly gotten to learn more about how the TVA works, he isn't privy to every detail. He's genuinely curious sometimes. And maliciously curious at other times. Mobius tries to strike a balance, let him know or learn on his own the things he can, steer clear of the things he shouldn't.

So while he's Mobius' partner, something of a junior agent in his own right with several, several caveats, he also doesn't need to know about every aspect of his job.

It's harder when it's another Loki variant that comes across his desk. Sylvie is a point of...contention? A special case, that's for certain. Dangerous, yes, and well worth his involvement, but...different. Not, as such, a case at all anymore, not really. But this one's fairly cut and dry. He frowns when he looks through the casefile. Because Loki shouldn't be anywhere near this one.

Variant L1952 took a different turn after being picked up by Thanos. A mix of biding his time too long, the effects of the mind stone, some powerful persuasion, and a budding army of zealots - this one turned from desperate survivalist wannabe conqueror into a fullblown child of the Mad Titan. It's not pretty, the way things devolve for the variant from there, at least as far into the branch as they've been able to track. The trickiest part is how this one seems to elude their immediate grasp. He's slippery and powerful and needs another set of eyes to make a plan of action to find him and take him in with as little injury to the hunters as possible. The scepter is a tremendous artifact with a stone of great ability if used right (and he can see it now, a trophy in Ravonna's office, and the thought hurts more than he thinks it should), and even when Gamora and Nebula aren't around, or Proxima Midnight and the rest, there's still a Chitauri army to contend with.

It's the kind of thing where he realizes he could use Loki's insight on this, too. Not just for it being a Loki variant - Mobius has seen many come and go without issue before. There's a combination of who it is, and the circumstances surrounding him, and not to mention Thanos in play, that makes him realize that a little help might be prudent for expediency's sake.

He doesn't want to let Loki know. It's...delicate. The kind of thing that his Loki is still relatively fresh from, that might still bleed as an open wound. But Loki's a nosy little shit, and he has noticed a new case that he has decidedly not been specifically on, so there are questions. And he hates this. But. But.

Stonyfaced, he hands Loki the file.] You're not gonna like it.

Comments

[favoriteanalyst]

Hey, [a mild protest, because this is silly and they both recognize it] what do jet skis have anything to do with campy horror? [And there's probably a fun little argument and moment of discovery to be had in talking about something as small as movie genre preferences, but he's not sure--might be better to drop it and come back around when they've exhausted other options, maybe.

And maybe it's better to do so because Loki starts in on something that's apparently awkward, something that makes him nervous, something he isn't sure how to say. Takes a sip, offers it to Mobius, who dutifully also sips gently, and then it all comes to light.

Mobius has a coughing fit lest water suddenly get sucked down the wrong way.

In spite of whatever painkillers he's got thrumming through his system, the effort jostles his healing wound enough to make him wince, press a hand to it as though that'll stop it all as he tries to cough the last drop of water from his lungs.]

In spite- [no hold on he has a little more to do] In spite of that reaction, that's not a no, promise.

[icasm]

[ There's nothing quite so helpless a feeling as when you've caused someone else to forget how to breathe and swallow simultaneously and knowing there's nothing you can do about it but lay there and rub circles into someone's back. Naturally, this is what Loki does, along with concerned peering into Mobius' face like he's worried the man might asphyxiate. ]

So you don't think it's a terrible idea? [ He asks once he's had a moment to process and Mobius has had that self-same moment in order to catch his breath. He didn't know what he expected, seeing as how Mobius has a way of surprising him at nearly every turn when it comes to matters like these, but this wasn't quite it.

He tilts his head at the other man. Say more words; you like those, don't you? ]

[favoriteanalyst]

I've heard worse ideas. Out of your mouth, even.

[Is it smart? Well, nobody said that. That doesn't make it a terrible idea, though. They already spent so much time together, including sleeping, including more than sleeping. Loki had been learning the little details of Mobius' place, and they even made the little shower space work.]

Not like you've got a lot of furniture or personal items to move. [Something niggles, though. Something Loki had said, something important but set aside. What was it...?] Besides...you said they know?

[icasm]

[ Loki's eyes break from Mobius', taking in the shape of his nose, his lips. ]

I was, [ a beat, ] panicked, more than just a little, when you passed out and they made me leave to get looked at. I didn't threaten anyone... directly. [ Indirectly? Definitely. But he feels like he should have been allowed, he was worried. ] They wouldn't tell me what was happening, at first. Or if you were going to be okay.

I don't... imagine my behavior looked like that of just a worried subordinate. I wouldn't let them treat me until they told me what was happening with you.

[favoriteanalyst]

Loki. [Light admonishment. And a little dazed, dizzy even, from the power of his care.] You should've gotten checked out right away. I wasn't going anywhere.

[Still not going anywhere now, at least not without more rest. The very idea of getting to his feet seemed like a daunting task when he could instead just be here.] They probably didn't even know if I was gonna be okay. They needed you out of the way so you wouldn't fuss and contaminate the area while they worked. Besides...it's no secret we're friends. That you care.

[More than that, now, but that was the whole issue, wasn't it? That it had evolved and escalated.]

[icasm]

[ He bites his lower lip and meets Mobius' eyes again. ]

I needed to know that you were going to be alright. That they were doing everything they could for you. [ He shakes his head a little. ] I wasn't dying, and if I was, I'd died before; it wasn't the same, or as important.

[ Loki knows how that sounds, he can hear it in himself now, but it's neither untrue nor does he find himself sorry about it. ]

We're friends. [ That much is certain. ] But we're more than friends at this point. I more than care, at this point.

[favoriteanalyst]

They weren't gonna let me just die on the table, Loki. I am relatively well liked. More or less. I'm not hated, anyway. They're medics; of course they were doing everything they could.

[And yes, what Loki says about himself doesn't sit well with Mobius, even if it's all technically true. And in his state, he feels vulnerable. Not physically (well, yes, most certainly physically), but emotionally, like Loki will be able to see inside of him the way he does to Loki. He shuts his eyes with a little huff of a sigh, his only response to Loki's lack of self-preservation, and tucks his face more into Loki's shoulder.]

I more than care about you, too. Do we wanna use a certain word for it, are we at that point?

[icasm]

'It' being our feelings or 'it' being the relationship between the two of us, because either way, yes. We are at that point. You nearly died, [ he says in a rush, ] and I'm not... I'm still worried this is a dream I'm having and you're not actually alright and being obtuse and oddly adorable against my shoulder right now.

[ Does he really think he's dreaming? Well. Worse dreams have been had, certainly. He presses his nose to the top of Mobius' head, takes a deep breath, and tries to stop his brain from spinning off in some strange direction. ]

I like words. [ Specific words, flowery words, words that describe what he's up to. ] You know this about me.

[favoriteanalyst]

Loki. I'm aware. As the one that nearly died, I'm pretty aware of almost dying, and it's not a dream. It's not a dream. You're here, and you're with me.

[He's usually better with words. But he's not in the best condition. How does he- what does he say to bring Loki back down to solid ground? It isn't fair, he knows, to think that Loki should now take the time to care for him with nothing in return.]

Words are good. I... [He swallows. Breathes. He's so good at words, and they're failing him when they matter most.] Loki, I...

[Fuck. Fuck this. He huffs again and balls a fist in Loki's shirt, cursing lowly under his breath. With considerable effort, he pushes himself up, groaning and shifting until he's sitting upright. It takes more out of him than he'd like, but it helps, to be up, to actually make himself look at Loki. Frustrated at himself and afraid at the same time.]

Love. Love is a word. It's a verb that describes what I do to you. I don't know why it's so damn hard to say I love you. [Even with all of that, saying it takes his breath away, makes him freeze up. Feels like a stumbling block and doesn't know where to go with it next.]

I could have sworn I answered this, must have been dreaming about it

[icasm]

[ While Mobius hauls himself upright Loki remains still, as something to lean on, something to create leverage with; his hand comes up to cover Mobius' clenched into the material of his shirt, once he's sure doing so won't be an indication that he thinks Mobius should stop.

He's worried about pulled stitches or something else, but whatever has driven Mobius to need to be upright probably won't listen to Loki's worried shushing anyway.

Still. To hear that Mobius loves him is unexpected, causes Loki to draw a quick breath, fingers tensing over Mobius' hand. ]

Love is a word, for what you do to me. [ He tilts his head as he parrots Mobius' words back at him, amusement sparkling in his eyes for the first time in hours. ] An accurate one. I love you too, you know.


[ Mobius probably does know, actually... Loki has been aware of his feelings for a little while now, and so he imagines has been the other man, since Mobius knows him so well. Or maybe he didn't know. Maybe he'd been surprised to hear it returned to him.

Either way. He reaches out to touch the side of Mobius' face, softly. ]

Does that mean moving in is a given?

[favoriteanalyst]

[Good thing he doesn't try to stop Mobius, because he wouldn't have listened. He would have been stubborn and defiant and a little unsettled, and they know each other well enough by now to have enough sense to let them occasionally do stupid things just to get it out of their system. He's pretty sure he hasn't pulled any stitches, at any rate.

When Loki echoes the words back at him, he feels stupid. Really fucking stupid. These are not the ideal conditions to finally bust out the dreaded l-word by any means, but they're the conditions they've got right now. And when Loki says it back, like it's easy, without all the drama and struggle that Mobius had displayed, well, he feels even stupider. But also loved. But also like an idiot. But also cared for. So. Maybe it balances out?

He still isn't quite sure how to react. That they've said it now, to each other, and the universe hasn't ended. There's no nexus event in the TVA. Nobody's kicking open the door, or creating an amber doorway to come marching them off. It's just the two of them still saying things they both already knew but didn't have it in them to say.

He laughs when Loki touches his face, asks the question, like a heavy weight has lifted and he can finally start to relax.]

Yeah. You can take that as a given. [He raises a hand to cover Loki's.] You've got some really awful timing.

[icasm]

I've never been good at timing, [ he admits a little quietly, because gods above and below know that to be true about Loki. But it does bring to light, in Loki's mind, how he has no idea how confessions of love usually go. Perhaps with just the parties involved present, perhaps there are candles or chocolates or a post-coital haze involved. All the examples he knows of are fictions.

So he frowns, a little, lacing his fingers between Mobius' at the other man's cheek. ] I didn't say it before because... [ Because he thought Mobius knew? No. That is more excuse than anything. ] I wasn't sure you'd believe me, and I didn't want to know if you didn't feel the same.

[ The truth. An oftentimes ugly thing he'd rather have nothing to do with. ]

It would have been worse, I think, if I didn't say it back when you did. So perhaps you can be blamed for the timing, here.

[favoriteanalyst]

I'm pretty good at telling if you're lying. [And water's pretty good at being wet.] I would've believed you if you told me. But, I do wanna point out this is still fully on you, because you're the one who brought up the moving in thing. Which prompted this.

And... [His turn to frown, to glance away, to feel awkward. And recenter himself.] There's a difference in knowing and knowing. Pretty sure we were both pretty sure we both felt the same way. But saying it and acknowledging it is...a big deal. Because it's not conjecture or guesswork now. I'm not reading too much into it, right?

[icasm]

[ Loki rolls his eyes a little at being told it's still his fault but he can accept it, honestly, so it's mostly that he doesn't like it as opposed to any belief that Mobius is wrong, there. ]

I hate when we're both here and separated. I hate sleeping in my own room. [ Not that he manages much by way of sleeping in those assigned quarters. Too sterile, too strange, too devoid of the people he wants around him at all times. Too reminiscent of the fact that he didn't choose the TVA, it was merely the better option in the face of being erased from time. ] I brought it up because I don't want to deal with that anymore, not in the face of all this, and... I'm sorry, it's shitty timing. I don't know how people usually negotiate these things.

[ Admitting he doesn't know what's been expected of him, in this case, doesn't feel great, honestly. They still haven't decided on what to even call their dynamic. ]

It is a big deal; I've never... I've never said that to anyone. [ It was easier to be loose about it because Mobius said it first, but that doesn't change that it is a big deal and is important. ] No one has said it to me.

I don't think you're reading too much into it.

I just don't know what I'm supposed to do.

[favoriteanalyst]

[And Mobius can't be too helpful because...he's never done this, either. Never had anyone move in with him. Never said an I love you before, and meant it, in this kind of way. It's new territory for both of them.]

I can't tell you what you're supposed to do. [He breathes out a little sigh and then turns his head just enough to kiss the palm of Loki's hand.] But I can tell you what I'd like you to do.

I'd like you to get another blanket for me. And then I...well, I'd, uh. [Funny how it's the small things, the sweetly intimate things that trip him up. If this were strictly sexual, he wouldn't be shy about his desires. But this feels more, somehow, and he has to work up to it.] If you could hold me. That'd be nice. I can lay back against your chest. It's a pretty cozy place from experience.

[icasm]

[ Loki smiles, complicated and clearly wanting to be fleeting, but he holds it nonetheless. ]

Alright. I can definitely do that. Here; [ he turns and takes up the glass of water again, handing it to Mobius. ] Have more of this.

[ Fortunately, he knows where they are. Unfortunately, he has to get out of bed in order to obtain one. So he pries himself away and stands, moving to one of the walls where there are cupboards and opening one to find a series of folded blankets.

He grabs two. Just in case. He isn't cold personally, but he isn't warm either, and medical facilities he's learning are often colder than he finds strictly necessary.

One blanket is unfolded and added on top of the one Mobius is already using. The other he wraps around his shoulders before he goes back to join Mobius in the narrow bed. ]

[favoriteanalyst]

[Mobius likes to be a doer. He wants to be coming up with solutions, puzzling things out, doing something, and this whole stuck in bed healing thing lets him do very very little of that. So he's caught between one side finding this all very nice, watching Loki putter around and then cuddle up with him at his request while he sits back and sips on water he's really starting to wish was a stiff drink. And then the other side that feels downright infirm and useless and small. Having their scripts flipped, Loki the caretaker and Mobius the needing, is still a very odd sensation.

Less odd and very nice sensation: Loki back in bed with him. With a little moving about, they arrange themselves comfortably, Mobius leaning back against his partner who is actually pretty cozy in spite of his long lines and sharp angles with a deep sigh.]

I don't think you should be worried about any of the supposed to's when it comes to all this, [he says in lieu of a thank you.] This isn't exactly a typical kind of romance, time agent and variant god. We'll figure out our own way. And yeah, yeah, we'll probably make mistakes and hit bumps in the road, but we'll do it in our own way. Is that okay?

[icasm]

It feels like you're always telling me that.

[ That they'll figure it out in their own way, that he shouldn't be worried about what's 'supposed' to be. And he's not sure what it speaks to more— that Loki doesn't know what he's doing on any level, here, or that he's had no proper examples of how something like this might work. Or that he requires more comforting than most, because...well. Because of a lot of reasons.

His arms come up around Mobius lightly, holding him close but hopefully not squeezing too tightly against anything that is currently healing. He cards his fingers through Mobius' hair and sighs. ]

It'd be nice if I knew...anything about what I was doing.

[favoriteanalyst]

[The light touches are enough to get a pleasant rumble out of Mobius, between that and the extra blanket of warmth and this feeling of care and protection.]

It's not your fault. You've never done this before. [Not really. Not with this kind of seriousness.] I don't think anyone ever actually knows what they're doing. We think we do, from the stories and songs, but when you actually get to it, it's...it all just slips right through your fingers. Stumbling around blind until you find the lightswitch.

[icasm]

[ There's some wondering of whose fault it is, then, but asking that aloud feels a little too much like whining to be strictly useful and so it stays in his head, where it belongs. That Mobius thinks no one knows is both comforting and not; Casey didn't know what a fish was, so maybe those who work for the TVA are just uniquely naive about things.

Which should be fine, right? It means they're on relatively even footing. Yet he doesn't think that Mobius is as concerned with fucking it all up horribly as Loki is.

He sighs a little. ]

How long does finding the light switch take?

[ He suspects the answer is 'it depends'. On a lot of things that are beyond his own control at this moment. But he'd like to feel less...unmoored, about all of this, at some point. Certain about it might be asking too much but less scared, less jumpy? That'd be nice. ]

You don't really have to answer that.

[ A beat. ]

I love you.

[ Because it seems worth repeating. ]

[favoriteanalyst]

[It's hard to answer it anyway when Loki repeats the three words. It feels like his heart swells and stutters at the same time, allows the warmth to start seeping in to replace the cold that so gripped him. He lays a hand overtop Loki's.]

I love you.

[Easier the second time around, yet no less meaningful.]

I don't know if I've ever loved anyone in my life, y'know, before. [Seems like he might've, maybe. Family, kids, dog. Don't think about it.] But I haven't while I've been here. I haven't loved anyone the way I love you. So it's brand new to me, too.

[icasm]

[ Loki realizes that he'd presumed that Mobius had, at some point prior to this, loved others. Or at least been infatuated. He also realizes more or less at the same time that those are not equivalent things, really, and he should probably stop considering them to be such.

He makes a humming sound of consideration, tangling his fingers with Mobius'. ]

Do you ever wonder about your life before the TVA?

[favoriteanalyst]

Yeah. [The word is heavy in spite of how casual it is. Like dropping a stone from a height. He wonders if he feels heavy against Loki, or if Loki's physiology negates any of that.]

Hard not to. I try not to. But I do.

[He doesn't elaborate from there. He's not sure where he'd start if it's not asked. Loki asked a question, and he answered. It's the opposite of Loki, isn't it? Who peered into his potential future to learn what could have been and now, for him, will never be. There's a desire to know and a fear of what might be found.]

[icasm]

[ Loki wonders why Mobius tries not to, what it is he's so resistant towards learning about himself, about his past. But then again... there's a good chance that learning about his past would only make him feel upset at being forced to forget.

Maybe ignorance is bliss, here in this situation.

So he doesn't ask. He figures if Mobius wants him to know something specific, he'll tell Loki, but digging at this otherwise doesn't feel comfortable or fair at the moment. They can talk about something else.

Or he can tease him about it. ]

What if you turned out to be the inventor of the jet-ski?

[favoriteanalyst]

You think I haven't looked into who invented the jet ski? I'm definitely not that guy. Don't look a thing like him.

[The awful part about it is, humor aside, it means now he's thinking about it, and he would very much prefer not to be. Who was he before? Did he do anything noteworthy? Was he just some guy? What was his nexus event? Who were his loved ones?]

Anyway, it doesn't really matter, does it? My timeline would've gotten pruned. [In theory. That's how it's supposed to go. Not that everything always goes how it's supposed to in the TVA.

Maybe it's worse that it does matter. Because if he's a variant, that means somewhere out there is a sacred version of himself. How could he not know that? How could any of them been left unaware all along? Surely there would have been other variants of someone in the TVA. At some point. You can't just delete a whole person from the timeline. Right?]

Worried there might've been someone else before you?