Loki oneshots

Please Don't Leave Me Alone With My Thoughts (Lokius)

Loki has done more reading today than he has in his entire life.

It's just file after file, a never-ending cycle of boredom. Every now and then, he thinks about stopping, taking a quick break to rest his eyes and his brain, but he'd probably just fall asleep, falling asleep in the middle of the TVA sounds like a bad idea. He doesn't trust these people not to just walk over and prune him in his sleep.

So he soldiers on, reading through this mountain of files and just hoping something will jump out at him so he can tell Mobius (who's nowhere to be seen, by the way; apparently he gets a very long lunch break and Loki doesn't get shit) and they can be done with this.

After rereading the same file three times because he realized he was processing absolutely none of it, he sighs and rubs his eyes. Reading is such an easy thing to do. He's been doing it for centuries. Why is it so goddamn hard right now?

He props his head up on his hand and tries to read it again. He's sure it will be the same thing as most of the others — the Variant killed a bunch of Minutemen and stole a reset charge — but maybe he'll get lucky and find something more.

He doesn't, obviously, but he keeps telling himself he will because someone needs to hype him up and there's no one else around to do it.

A hand on his shoulder makes him jump, and he immediately pulls away. A glance behind him reveals that it's just Mobius, and Loki turns his attention back to his stack of files. He props his head back up on his hand. Oh, this is fun. Not.

"Still going, huh?" Mobius says.

"Mm," Loki hums.

"Find anything interesting?"

"Mm-mm." He squeezes his eyes shut briefly to try to force himself awake, and then he's back to reading.

He notices out of the corner of his eye that Mobius sits down across from him. He doesn't even have the energy to look at the guy. He doesn't move at all until he finishes the file, and even then, all he does is move this one out of the way so he can read the next.

Mobius sighs and stands up. "Alright, come on. We're taking a break."

"To do what?"

"Rest."

Loki gives a minute shake of his head. "I'm fine."

"I can see you falling asleep," Mobius says.

"I'm fine," Loki repeats, more forcefully this time. "I just want to finish these files."

"Why?" Mobius asks, and he almost sounds amused. "You like seeing the superior Loki's work?"

"No, I just want you to find him so I can talk to the Time Keepers about going home," Loki deadpans.

"If you're too tired to insist he's not the superior Loki, you're too tired to find anything important in these files." Mobius shoves them all into two piles, read and unread, and pulls Loki's chair out and away from the table. "Come on, get up."

"Mobius, I don't —"

"It wasn't a request."

It's becoming increasingly clear that Loki doesn't really have a choice in this, so he reluctantly stands up and lets Mobius lead him through the TVA.

Maybe this was a good idea. Even just standing up and walking around is starting to wake him up a little bit. It should be a little easier to go back to work now, whenever Mobius decides to bring him back to his little work station.

Mobius looks over at him as they're walking. "How you doing, Loki?"

"I've been kidnapped by the Time Police and being held against my will to kidnap another me," Loki deadpans. "I'm doing great."