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Mobius didn’t know where he was going but somehow he’d ended up in a McDonalds in the 1980s.
Well he did know how he got there, he had his tempad from the TVA still, and since he left there he’d been wandering timelines with no direction.
It seemed X-5 was right, he was a nowhere man.
No home, no purpose.
He’d considered returning to the TVA but the memories of Loki that permeated every wall of the place was too much for him to bear.
At least for now.
So he wandered, trying to find some kind of purpose, but no matter where he went, he never found it.
And deep down he knew why. Because his purpose was gone, never to return.
Which is how he ended up visiting someone who may have an idea on how he feels, or at least be able to offer him some advice.
Him and Sylvie were hardly close, hell they’d tried to hurt each other many times. Mobius’ original purpose was to hunt her down and likely prune her.
But now after everything they’d fostered a small connection.
After Loki was gone, she’d stayed at the TVA for a little bit to try and help out, make up for what she’d done in the past; apparently losing Loki had made her regretful for her previous actions.
During that time while Mobius had been pretty despondent, they’d formed something akin to a friendship, or at least a mutual understanding of each other that didn’t involve hurting the other or yelling at them.
Sylvie had apologized for that, the yelling at him about the pie situation. He apologized about hunting her down and they agreed to put their pasts behind them.
When she went back to her timeline, she’d assured Mobius that he could visit her anytime.
Mobius had yet to take her up on that offer because any connection to Loki was painful, let alone another version of him. She may be her own person, but looking at her still felt far too much like looking at Loki.
But he had nowhere else to turn. So, he finally showed up at her place of work.
The sky was dark and he worried she may not be here, when he noticed her truck in the parking lot.
“Hello stranger.” He turned and she was walking towards him, dressed in her uniform and sipping on a milkshake, “I didn’t think I’d see you here. You should’ve come when we were open, I could’ve gotten you an apple pie.”
Mobius managed a small smile, “It was an impromptu visit.”
Sylvie reached him and eyed him. Mobius didn’t meet her eyes, he couldn’t, they were too familiar.
“You look like you need to talk.” She reached and unhooked the bed of the truck, sitting down on it and patting the space beside her, “I’m off the clock so have at it.”
Mobius lowered himself beside her with a soft sigh, wringing his hands together he tried to figure out what it was he wanted to say.
Honestly he just didn’t want to be alone.
“For someone who needs to talk, you sure are quiet.” Sylvie broke the quiet night air, pulling her leg up underneath her and leaning her arm on it as she looked at the quiet man.
“I just...” He rubbed between his eyes, “How can you just move on? I thought you loved him.”
He hadn’t meant to be so upfront, but it had just come out.
Sylvie let out a surprised chuckle, “Wow straight in with the hard stuff, huh?” but when Mobius didn’t smile, she turned serious, “I did, it’s complicated Mobius.” She sighed, fiddling with her straw.
“Short version is I never really loved him in that way I just... he was the first person to treat me kindly, I was so lonely and I guess I thought it was romance but it wasn't.” she looked up at the sky, “But I still care for him very much, and I wish he was here as much as you do.”
Mobius doubted that, but he didn’t say it aloud.
He was pretty sure Sylvie’s heart wasn’t constantly aching, never able to feel anything but pain because the very thing is began to beat for was gone forever.
“He made that sacrifice so that we could have a life, Mobius. So that’s what I’m doing. Living.”
The former analyst felt a sudden rush of anger. He felt the urge to yell at her, to ask how she could go on living when Loki was trapped and alone for all eternity.
But he knew that wouldn’t do anything. Sylvie was coping in her own way, it wasn’t fair for him to yell at her, it would make him no better than the time she yelled at him for the way he was coping back before they fixed the loom.
That felt like another lifetime ago now.
Besides she was right. Loki had made that sacrifice to let them live, he was the one unable to accept it.
Mobius took a breath and exhaled, letting his anger out into the air silently instead, clenching one fist open and closed as he tried to keep a hold on his emotions.
But after running away from them for so long, they were catching up to him.
“I just-“he began, his voice faltering, “I feel like I've got no purpose without him...I can't be at the TVA everything there reminds me of him. But on my timeline, it just feels wrong and like I don’t belong there. I don’t belong anywhere.”
There it was, the painful truth that he’d been avoiding.
Loki was his purpose, and with him gone he felt lost, floating in space with no anchor.
A nowhere man.
A brief silence stretched through the cool evening air, broken only by the sound of cars passing in the distance.
“Sounds like maybe the one who was really in love with him was you.” The tone of her voice was light, a joke since she seemed unsure of how to respond.
But when Mobius was sadly silent in response, not denying the claim, or giving a joke back, it turned serious.
“Oh shit you...are you actually in love with Loki?”
Mobius blinked away sudden tears, pulling his knees up to his chest with a soft sigh.
That was the real truth he’d been running from.
Ever since Loki walked into his life with his chaos and stupid smile, Mobius was a goner.
As time passed, he’d only fallen deeper and deeper in love with the variant he was simply meant to be using as a tool to get the Loki that was sat beside him. In the end she was the one by his side while he was sitting alone at the end of time.
There was no point hiding it, he wasn't here and never would be to hear it, “I suppose I am. A little too late though. Besides, it’s not like he loved me back anyway.”
He had thought he’d known heartbreak when he found out Loki liked Sylvie and not him, but he’d take that any day over the emptiness in his heart with him gone entirely.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
Mobius hated how his heart filled with the most hope it had since he lost Loki, “What do you mean?”
He finally looked properly at Sylvie, finding her smirking, “Oh come on. You cannot be blind enough to not see how he looked at you? How he followed you around like a puppy? Hell after I yelled at you he came after me to defend you. I can’t speak for him but that sure as shit looks like love to me.”
Mobius felt like the breath was robbed from his lungs. He saw moments with Loki flashing in front of his eyes, trying to see them in a different light, searching for what Sylvie claimed to see.
His heart twisted.
He saw the gentle looks, the soft smiles, the lingering touches. All things he’d ignored because he was so sure they weren’t meant like that.
“But…he loves you.” Mobius looked back at her, eyes brimmed with tears.
Sylvie smiled, shaking her head, “Not the way he loves you, Mobius. He made the same mistake as me. He thought he was falling in love, but really he was just healing, falling in love with himself.”
Mobius’ mind was reeling.
Was finding out your love may be reciprocated when it was too late worse than thinking it was never possible?
If he’d been less of a coward, maybe things would have ended differently.
If Loki knew he loved him, maybe he would have stayed.
Yes, he decided. It was far worse.
The tears started to fall, the pain that he thought was unbearable before became even worse.
Loki loved him. Loki loved him and neither of them got to tell each other.
They were a tragic love story that never got to be written.
“Mobius I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make things worse.” Sylvie saw how upset Mobius was and reached a hand out.
Mobius flinched back from it with a shake of his head, wiping his tears, “Y-you didn’t.”
Because while it hurt like his whole being was torn apart it was slowly seeping something else into him that he didn’t have before.
Motivation. Hope.
He loved Loki and he was going to tell him.
It was his turn to rescue Loki. He didn’t care how impossible it was.
Loki was his purpose, and still was. That fact he finally accepted.
And so he was going to return to the TVA and find a way to bring him home.
Mobius stood up and cleared his throat, taking a deep breath of air that felt like the first air he’d breathed in a long time, “Thank you Sylvie this actually really helped me.”
He’d come searching for comfort, and instead he found his way.
Sylvie looked at him knowingly, “You’re going back, aren’t you? I knew you couldn’t stay away from that place for long.”
Mobius shrugged, smiling, “I guess you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”
“I’m not so sure, I think you’ve learnt plenty.” She stood up, setting her cup aside, “But Mobius if you need me, you know where to find me. Promise me that if you need someone, you won’t let yourself be alone again?”
“I promise.”
She stepped closer and this time Mobius didn’t shy away. He let her hug him, and then he pulled out his tempad.
“Be safe Mobius.”
The orange door appeared.
“You too Sylvie.”
Mobius stepped through it.