Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Loki stop eating the gumdrops. They’re for the houses.” Mobius scolds as he carries the two already built houses into the dining room. He places one in front of Loki, the other at his own seat across from Loki.

“What is the point of wasting all this candy on a house we cannot eat.” Loki grumbles putting the gumdrop back in the bowl, crossing his arms and flopping back in the chair.

“Well, first of all, we can eat these...” Loki scoffs. “They’re made the same as those cookies you had me try last week and they were disgusting. So, I see this as a waste.”

“Second of all,” Mobius rolls his eyes, ignoring Loki’s comment “it’s fun. It’s festive. And I’m asking you nicely to appease an old man whom you love. I even did the hard part for you and built it. All you have to do is decorate it.”

Loki sighs again, sitting up in the chair, looking a little sheepish. “What is the purpose of the covers?” Loki questions poking at the cut-up cardboard that surrounds his place setting, an identical one resting around Mobius’.

“So that you don’t copy my design.” Mobius said with a serious look, but the twinkle in his eye gives him away. Loki chuckles, shaking his head. “As you wish, darling. May the best house win.”

“Bring it on, kitten.” Mobius smirks before grabbing his icing bag and handfuls of different candies and disappearing behind his divider.

Loki reaches forward, grabbing an icing bag and handfuls of gum drops, M&Ms, and peppermints. He starts squeezing the icing onto the roof before pressing M&Ms on top of it.

Loki watches with dismay as a few start sliding off the icing and off the house. Loki glares at the offending candies before putting more icing and trying to stick them again. Once again, they slide off.

Loki decides to ignore it for now, moving on to the front of the house, squeezing icing onto the wall and pressing one of the peppermints to the wall. When the one sticks, he does a second one and it falls off.

He glances up over the divider watching Mobius reach over his own divider, grabbing more candy. Loki looks back down at his sad house. He wrinkles his nose as he raises his hands, manipulating the house into a beautifully decorated house. It has M&Ms on the roof like tiles, peppermints on the exterior walls like windows, a gumdrop fence and coconut shaving snow.

“You almost done?” Loki asked glancing over the divider. Mobius’ head shoots up, eyes surprised. “What’s wrong, darling?”

“How can you be done already? I thought it would take you longer.” Mobius says, confused. Loki smirks.

“Please, darling. It’s a simple task, it really doesn’t take that long.” Mobius rolls his eyes at Loki’s cockiness.

“Alright, alright. I’m done anyway.” Mobius mumbles, putting his icing bag down and grabbing the edge of his cover. “On three?” Loki nods, grabbing the edge of his cover. “One…two…three.”

They both lift their covers away and look at the other’s house. Loki takes one look at Mobius’ house and suddenly feels a little guilty. It wasn’t perfect, the icing wasn’t applied evenly, some of the pieces were uneven and some looked ready to fall off. Loki glances up at Mobius eyes and he can see annoyance floating in them.

“You used your magic.” It wasn’t a question – he just knew. Mobius meets Loki’s eyes, which have turned shameful. He waves his hand with a sigh, revealing the over iced, falling apart house. Mobius looks down at it and can’t help but smile.

“Yeah that’s about what I expected.” Loki glares up at the man, grabbing a few gumdrops and tossing them at his head. Mobius feigns pain at the impact, flopping back in his chair dramatically.

“Drama queen.” Loki mumbles picking up a few more and shoving them in his mouth. Mobius laughs, getting up from his seat and coming around to Loki’s side.

Mobius puts his arm around Loki’s shoulders; Loki in response leans into Mobius’ stomach staring at his pitiful house.

“Thanks for at least trying, kitten.”

“Only for you, darling.”