Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Loki and Mobius trudged along the beachside in a gentle silence, one that lasted forever, and one that was almost comfortable, but not quite. Loki wore a silky green shirt with simple black pants, and boots that matched. Mobius wore something vaguely similar, practically the same. Only he sported a grey, rougher shirt and brown pants. With shoes that did not match. Loki thought it cute.

The sand smelt like wet dirt, and the air around them was light and warm. They’d spent the afternoon in muggy weather, Loki was enjoying the soft breeze that was currently blowing over the entire area. His boots felt strong against the ground, even if it was hard to walk in any type of boot on sand, he liked the feeling that came along with being above every grain rather than sinking into every step.

Neither of them had reason to be there. Technically, Loki was meant to be in training right now. He was meant to be training with Thor and was meant to be fiddling around with knives, swords, hammers, and whatnot. He was meant to be getting chastised for not being as muscly, or as talented as his intensely skilled brother. But he wasn’t.

He was trotting along a beach with the boy he so desperately cherished. He didn’t quite know why Mobius was here either, he had just sort of run into him on the way out of the palace. So, Mobius walked with him. It was extremely calming; the entire reason Loki had come out was to gain some peace. He no longer wanted to deal with the incessant, grating voices of Thor’s companions. Even if they claimed to be close friends with both two brothers, it was made constantly clear who they held to a higher regard.

Mobius was different. He always made time for Loki, sought him out in a crowd of people during a party, asked him to continue talking when someone else interrupted in the middle of his story, sat next to him in the library when he read and most definitely faked reading his own book so that Loki didn’t feel dumb. Nobody ever did that, not for Loki. Save maybe his own mother.

The prince was fairly certain that Mobius as well was meant to be doing lessons, most likely meant to be in a class right now. Learning about some war or an older Asgardian king. Though he was not, he was here. Walking along the beach. With Loki.

On purpose.

They did not talk for what was far too long of a time. Not until they reached the end of the shore and found themselves at the bottom of a short rocky cliff. Mobius looked up, and muttered:

“I never thought of you as the type of person to go on long walks across the beach.”

The use of person and not boy made Loki a little happy on the inside. He couldn’t help the smile wiggling its way onto his face.

“Really?”

“No, I would have thought you the type of person to go sit in a quiet place of the palace, maybe behind a statue or something for some quiet.”

Loki stood and thought for a moment, pondering, and looking down awkwardly at his feet.

“I’ve tried that, my father sends out Thor to find me.” He glanced up. “And he always finds me, he has a knack for that type of thing.”

“What finding Loki hiding spots?”

“No, doing what my father asks of him.” Loki joked.

Mobius chuckled and peered over the rocks, stopped talking, stopped looking in Loki’s direction. He immediately internally screamed at himself, why had he said that? Maybe he should have just gone with Thor being able to find him, what if Mobius thought he was ruining the calm moment?

“Sorry, I was trying to make a joke.” He apologized. “I didn’t mean to make it awkward.”

“Oh! No, it’s fine I just didn’t know how to respond.” Mobius mumbled. Before quickly adding, “Not in a That was so weird way, I mean like, there was just nothing in my head to respond to that with type of way.”

“Yeah, I know.”

The two smiled at each other, and Loki just stared at the other. He analyzed his face, his short hair, his crooked nose, his cheeks risen from his smile. His eyes ventured down to Loki’s lips, and Loki’s eyes ventured down to his. They both stood like that for some amount of time that somehow felt longer than the walk there.

He freaked out, he almost bolted away but that would certainly not make this situation better. Mobius was looking at his lips. His lips! And not looking away! Butterflies flew around in circles, going from his stomach to his chest and never stopping.

Loki grew closer, until Mobius’s face was only inches way from his own. He placed a gentle hand against the space between the other boy’s neck and chin before leaning in and softly placing his own lips against those of the face in front of him.

It could only be described as such; it was barely a kiss at all. Simply placing lips against lips and having a soft tingly feeling scatter its way up his spine and across his torso. Loki swore he could feel Mobius kissing back, for a breadth of a second for he retracted and waited for a reaction. He took his hand away and stepped back.

Mobius was silent, he was completely, and utterly silent. Just before Loki was about to collapse and go into a panic, Mobius let out a breath and hugged Loki.

He hugged the prince like he was a lifeline, fully and with purpose. His arms were wrapped around him, his face snuggled up against his neck and their legs so close together that had they been laying down, could easily have been tangled around each other like vines.

Loki didn’t have a chance to react when Mobius unwinded himself from Loki’s grasp and gazed into him with eyes that screamed “I’m sorry.” Before walking backwards, towards their city, then turning around and jogging away, then speed walking, and then Loki could barely even see him anymore. The action would have felt far weirder to watch had Loki not been in a complete daze, it was like his brain glazed over and every simply thought just jogged away along with Mobius.

He just stared, watched as Mobius left. Watched as he disappeared, almost in a paralyzed state. Loki was supposed to be in training, he would get scolded on returning to the palace, but he didn’t care. All he did was look down at the footprints Mobius left behind when standing right in front of him, reminiscing of the moment he had shared minutes before. Minutes? Maybe, he couldn’t tell. For all he knew that moment happened dozens of minutes ago, he wasn’t so sure.

He thought back to that sacred moment, recorded it in his mind and stored every sight, every feeling, every scent from that moment carefully so that he would never forget what it was like to be held and kissed by someone so close.

His lips still felt tingly.

Then, he walked back home. The walk back home was infinitely louder than the walk to that cliff, because this time rather than paying attention to Mobius’s footsteps, he was paying attention to the waves crashing just a few feet away. He was paying attention to the distant sound of civilization nearby. He was replaying that moment in his head and listening with due care to every delicately worded sentence that came out of Mobius’s mouth.

He walked slowly, cherishing the moments before he would have to be back in that palace with oh, so many people that did not trust him. Oh, so many people that were simply not the one he wanted to be spending his time with.

He walked home a different person than he had begun his walk.

He walked alone.

He walked without Mobius.

Chapter Text

Loki had in fact, gotten a good scolding from his father the minute he had gotten home. Nothing unexpected, just the usual “Thor was there, what was stopping you from being there? Why weren't you?” Loki internally rolled his eyes and wondered how on earth skipping a training session had gotten him here. And everyone calls me the drama queen. He thought, catching sight of an uneven eyebrow hair on his father’s face.

This time around, Frigga wasn’t there to watch her husband yell at him, so he had no reason to making it look like he was paying attention. Instead, his eyes raked over the golden walls of his father’s throne room. Why Odin insisted on scolding him here, he did not know.

Maybe he just wanted to flaunt the room he knew Loki would never rule over while he degraded him.

Though still, the only thing that he could remember was Mobius, Mobius’s scent, his look, his hug. Why had he looked at Loki like that before leaving? He knew he should feel nervous, maybe a bit anxious after having his best friend run away after being kissed. But for some odd reason he didn’t, he felt at peace.

Mobius never moved away from him, well at least not until after he almost kissed back and hugged Loki. So, maybe he liked him back? He had hope. Mobius was just about the only person on Asgard Loki was unsure about romancing. He wanted to give everything to Mobius, which made him feel sappy and gross.

The minute Odin was done with his eternal yapping, Loki immediately speed walked out, gracefully of course, and made his way to his own chambers.

~

He hadn’t seen mobius for weeks. That feeling of being in peace faded after a little bit, and the upset type of feeling kicked in. Usually, he was in the library sometimes working on some papers with a mug of tea or wandering the streets of the market nearby doing Mobius things. But he hadn’t been in either of those places no matter how many times the prince had checked.

Loki had also been checking the edge of the beach, the place where they had shared their moment. Not just in the case of a certain person being there, but also just because he appreciated the quietness of the tranquil spot. So, when lunch was over and he was free to do as he pleased for the rest of his night, he began his walk to the beach.

It was beginning to become dark out, and mostly every Asgardian that would have been up and running doing errands and whatnot, was sleeping inside. The streets were silent, and Loki could hear his footsteps against the roads and paths of his city. It was windy outside, had he not made the decision to put his hair up before going out he was sure that one step outside would’ve gotten him so annoyed he would have walked right back inside. He hated dealing with wind while having a form with long hair.

Once he was at the beach, he saw a figure in the distance. Not someone super tall, or at least not taller than him, and they didn’t have long hair. Could that be... The figure turned around and spotted him, seemed to stutter in his movements, and then continued walking. This time towards the prince.

“Mobius...?” Loki muttered under his breath. The moment he was properly in sight with this figure, he jogged over. “Mobius! Look, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I thought you wanted it to. I mean you were looking at my lips the same way that everyone else that is romantically attracted to me looks at them, but that’s not the point. I’m... I won’t do it again.” Sorry was on the tip of his tongue, but he didn’t get the chance to say it before Mobius piped up.

“Loki, calm down.” He slowed his breathing. “Really, it’s okay I didn’t take anything from it.” Not even anything good? A quiet voice in the back of his head asked, but he let Mobius finish. “You didn’t have to avoid me for the past couple of weeks.”

“What?!” Loki screeched. “My bad, that was loud. But I have not been avoiding you, Mobius. I’ve been actively looking for you in your normal spots. You’ve been avoiding me.”

“Okay, first of all, I’ve not been avoiding you.” Mobius put his arms on Loki’s shoulders, presumably to calm him down. It didn’t work, all it did was make his heartbeat increase. But he wasn’t about to tell Mobius to take his wonderful hands off of him.

“Secondly, my usual spots?”

“Yeah, like the market and that little desk in the corner of the library.”

“First of all, -”

“Stop saying first of all, it was boring the first time and repetitive the second.”

“Okay, rude.”

“Sorry, continue.” There it was, the sorry. Loki felt something inside of him calm at the knowledge that he at least said sorry once this evening.

“I only sit in the library for you, do you actually think I like doing paperwork?”

“Well, yes.”

“No. I don’t, who likes doing paperwork?”

“I thought you did.”

“You were wrong.” They both laughed, it was freeing. Other than the fact that Mobius had since taken his hands off of Loki, this moment seemed perfect. As soon as they both went silent, Mobius talked again. “Do you want to go to the party your brother is organizing next week with me? As a friend, of course.”

The as a friend was a bit sad, but Loki quickly made peace with it when the realization hit that Mobius had just asked him to go to an event with him and was not still upset with him, and frankly was never upset with him. It was all his head betraying him and assuming.

“Yes! Of course, I’ll make sure to put on something nice.” Mobius smiled; Loki grinned because Mobius was smiling.

“I will too then.” They continued the walk down the beach, this time they talked, and this time they did not kiss. Even so, Loki still thought it was nice.

~

He waited at the entrance to the hall Thor was holding his party at for Mobius, he made sure not to discard his promise to wear something nice. He wore a green Midgardian suit with ruffles cream ruffles peeking out from the cuffs of his sleeves, coming from the undershirt he wore. His tie was incredibly stupid, patterned and just barely matched the rest of the look, and his pants matched the suit. He almost wore a dress and his feminine form because he thought maybe Mobius would like it more, but he really didn’t feel like lacing up the back. He also had to remind himself that he had confirmation that Mobius did not like him like that, so he had to make an effort not to do things based from Mobius’s opinions.

Speaking of, Mobius walked up the minute Loki began to think about him. Mobius was also wearing a Midgardian suit, only in black. He looked incredible. They would definitely get looks throughout the night, considering the average Asgardian partywear was not Midgardian clothing, but Loki lacked enough interest in any of Thor’s peers to actually care.

“You look great.” Loki complimented.

“As do you, shall we enter, my prince?” Mobius joked. Loki rolled his eyes and glared at Mobius before placing a hand to his back and leading him in.

Most people were already dancing, they both took that as a reason to dance themselves. Loki could dance, he had a fun time. Almost the entire time his eyes were not on Mobius for once. Though when he was looking at Mobius, he couldn’t bear looking at his “dance moves”, if you could even call them that.

“Who on earth taught you to dance?”

“Nobody, I’m self-taught.” Mobius said, maybe a bit too proudly.

It shows, come on over here I am about to fix... whatever on earth is going on here.” Mobius frowned but followed when Loki grabbed his wrist anyway.

They ended up in a separate hall, near enough so that they could hear the music. Loki taught Mobius a couple of basic things, like to actually look like he was having fun and to loosen up a bit.

Somehow, they ended up right in front of each other again. Loki had a hand on his waist and another on his wrist. Mobius was looking at him like that again, like he wanted to kiss Loki but was holding back. They both stopped.

Mobius took one look at his lips before switching from having his wrist held by Loki to holding Loki’s hand, and he kissed Loki. Immediately, Loki panicked, thinking he had done something wrong. Then he realized that Mobius was kissing him. Not the other way around. He kissed back too, pulling Mobius close so that they were practically hugging again, just like that afternoon on the beach all those weeks ago. His body felt like it was made of a million stars twinkling and glowing. He felt like he was ‘glowing.’ Mobius held him when they separated, looked into his eyes, and then kissed him again as if it was just his second nature. Loki felt like he was actually floating, he was so comfy against Mobius.

When they let go of each other, Mobius was the first to say anything.

“I didn’t want to come to the party with you as a friend.” He looked down. “And I wore this suit because I thought you’d like it, and I did not want to leave you when you kissed me, I don’t exactly know why I did. And I was avoiding you, because I thought you would be mad and chastise me for leaving you. I couldn’t deal with that. Not when I still could remember how it felt to have you close to me.”

Loki didn’t respond, he only hugged mobius, the same way that Mobius had hugged him when he kissed him. He figured if it worked in calming him then, it would function the same way now. Once he stopped the hug, he gave Mobius another chaste kiss.

“Obviously I was upset that you left, but I wasn’t mad.”

“Can we go back to the party?” He asked, “As partners?” ‘Partners.’ The idea ran around his head like an excited child, he ‘felt’ like an excited child.

“Obviously.”