Loki oneshots

You Can't Get Rid Of Me That Easily (s01e05 Loki & Mobius)

Loki has been in this hellscape for all of 10 minutes and he's already bored out of his mind. His new acquaintances have been talking to him as they walk, but he can't force himself to pay attention. He's lost in thought, too rattled to even try to formulate his own game plan, never mind to work with this new group.

Essentially, he's deduced, this is the TVA's garbage can. This is where people go when the TVA prunes them. These people (and alligator) he's found himself surrounded by are just more examples of that: previous Loki Variants that had been pruned upon their arrival at the TVA like Loki was supposed to be until Mobius stepped in.

Mobius.

He was pruned, too. He could be here. He should be here. That's how this works, isn't it? They all end up here. The question is, where here is he? This place never seems to end. It's dull and lifeless and full of savages; those who have doubtlessly been here alone for too long and lost any ounce of humanity they may have once had.

He hopes Mobius is faring better than those poor souls...

It has all the making of a never-ending cycle, he notices. Those heathens make the place an unbearable garbage heap, and the fact that they live in an unbearable garbage heap turns them into heathens. It's almost poetic, in a cruel sort of way. It really does--

A flash of tan catches his eye, cutting his thought short. Loki pushes through the other Loki Variants, ignoring their complaints as he tries to get a better look. There's no way that's him. There's no way he's actually found--

The man turns around.

"Mobius!" Loki runs over to him, the other Variants forgotten.

Mobius looks over at the sound of his voice, and Loki can see the exact moment he realizes who called his name. Loki has made him smile many, many times before -- usually out of bemusement but also in normal, friendly conversation -- but never like this. Now he just looks relieved, and Loki can't even begin to explain how much he can relate.

"Oh, Mobius, thank god!" Loki pulls him into a tight hug. He can't believe it. Mobius is here. He's here here, right in front of him. Watching him disintegrate before his eyes, he'd been so sure they'd never... but here they are, together again.

... and hugging.

And a very one-sided hug at that.

Loki awkwardly lets go and takes a step back. "Was that weird? That was weird. I'm sorry, I just..."

Mobius chuckles and shakes his head to himself. "No, Loki, it's not weird at all." He pulls Loki back in for a hug -- a real hug this time -- and Loki doesn't hesitate to hug him back.

Loki feels tears welling up in his eyes, so he squeezes them shut. It has been such a long, chaotic day. It's been a long, chaotic month, really; he hasn't known peace since Thor was supposed to claim the throne of Asgard. It's just been one thing after another, all cascading down like a waterfall of misery. But this? Seeing Mobius again? This might be the first good thing to happen to him in a long time.

"I thought you were gone," Loki murmurs.

"Don't worry," Mobius says. "You can't get rid of me that easily."