Archive of Our Own ^beta

Outside their house, Mobius steps around to the passenger side of the car and opens the door, holding a hand out for Loki to take. Her dark red nails curl around his fingers as the corner of her mouth does the same, whispering, “Thank you darling, so sweet to me.”

He presses a kiss to the back of her hand, smiling brightly, and whispers back in the quiet of the night, “I try, princess.”

Loki climbs out of the passenger seat with her long legs sprawling, closes the door, and walks with Mobius to the front porch, pulling him to her by their connected hands.

“It’s half nine on a Friday, the boys should still be up. Do you want to see if they want to stay up and watch something with us? Little family movie night?”

Mobius sighs and rubs his eyes with his free hand, “Loki you know I love those kids, of course I do, but in case you missed it, I’ve been drooling over you all evening. You’re driving me crazy in that outfit and I just want to get the boys asleep as quickly as possible, get you upstairs, and lock the fucking bedroom door.”

Loki interjects with a sarcastic smirk, “Oh really? I hadn’t noticed, I assumed all that drool was for your steak.”

“That too baby, but I’m much more interested in the other smokin’ hot piece of meat tonight, the one stood in front of me,” Mobius drawls with his hand sliding up Loki’s thigh, underneath her skirt.

She scoffs and nudges him off her, turning to wrest the door open. “Ugh, you’re such a man sometimes. Animalistic. What happened to the gentleman I was just talking to? Come on, let’s get the kids down, then you can make me a drink and retry that.”

“On it sweetheart,” Mobius chuckles as he follows her inside, “Kevin! Sean! We’re home! What are you nightmares up to?”

Loki shrugs off her woollen winter coat, dark brown and hitting her just below the knees, to reveal the offending outfit underneath, a short pleated skirt and tights, with long heeled boots and a tight satin bodice in the same colour as her fingernails. She adjusts one of the straps of her top back into place and leans halfway into the hallway waiting, accentuating her chest and collarbones.

When she turns around, Mobius is stood stock-still with his own jacket frozen in his hands, his eyes sweeping over her hungrily. They make eye contact and Mobius comes back to life, groaning as his eyes roll into the back of his head with a whispered, “Baby….”

Loki blows him a kiss, smiling, and turns around again to hang her jacket on the coat rack.

A few moments later two blonde heads surface from down the hall, chattering away to each other at rapid speeds, so much so Mobius can only make out snippets of the conversation, something about “You should have gone with Arsenal! Everyone knows-” and, “No, you’re wrong and stupid, Tottenham-“

Sean pokes his tongue out at his little brother and turns to the couple to say, “Hey Dad, hi Loki,” stretching out his hand in a silent request for a fist bump, which Mobius obliges.

Kevin greets them as well, giving Loki a side hug and turning into her so she can rest her arm around his neck, her thumb stroking the side of his face as he yawns a little.

“How was your night you two?” She looks cautiously between her children, judging the shifty expressions that come over their faces at her words.

Kevin opens his mouth to speak, but Sean shushes him and cuts over Kevin to say, “We mostly just played Fifa. And we ordered pizza for dinner, the change from the money you gave us is in the kitchen.”

Kevin’s mouth snaps shut and he nods aggressively along with Sean’s words, going a little red. Loki notices and tilts his head up with her thumb, still at his jaw, and narrows her eyes, leaning over him to inspect the red flush on his cheeks and the nervous look in his own eyes.

Wryly Mobius looks between what Loki is doing and Sean before replying, “Thanks kid. Now do we want to know what ‘mostly’ means or should we just be happy the house is standing and you’ve both still got ten fingers and ten toes?”

Sean answers immediately, “The second one.”

“Yeah, the second option,” Kevin pipes up too, cutting into Sean’s reply.

“Alright you little menaces, luckily we’ve had a lovely night and we're in a good mood, so we’ll let whatever it is slide. Just promise us there won’t be any calls from the neighbours or the police?” Mobius’ eyes wrinkle as he smiles.

Sean stands up straighter and nods, the picture of innocence. “Definitely. You should remember how we left you change from the pizza too, see, we could have spent it all but we didn’t, that’s responsible and well-behaved.”

Sighing again, Mobius ruffles Sean’s hair and explains placidly, “Sure kid, but we left you with two hundred dollars, for emergencies as well. That’s enough to feed you for days, I’d be mad if there wasn’t any change. Now both of you, go brush your teeth and get ready for bed.”

Sean grumbles and scuffs his feet on the floor before turning on his heel and following Kevin upstairs.

Mobius pulls Loki close with one hand and pinches the bridge of his nose with the other as she watches them walk upstairs, shaking her head fondly.

They stand for a minute in silence before Mobius exhales and asks, “Do you want that drink now love? You get comfortable and I’ll make sure they go to sleep, alright?”

She leans in to kiss him on the cheek and says, “No no, don’t bother, we’ll drink shortly. Let’s go say goodnight.”

She moves to walk upstairs so Mobius follows her, opting to stay behind Loki so he can keep ogling how her hips move from side to side and how her skirt cinches at her waist beautifully.

God, Mobius privately fears that if he has another drink tonight he’ll fall to the ground behind her and start kissing the ground she walks on.

At the top of the stairs he forces himself to let go of Loki and says goodnight to Kevin, pressing a kiss to his son’s forehead and wishing him a good night’s sleep before swapping with Loki and walking into Sean’s room.

Mobius almost laughs out loud at how visible Loki’s presence is in the room when he has to help Sean wiggle an arm out from the cocoon Loki has wrapped him in just so he can give Mobius a hug, and when he has to lick his thumb and wipe a smidge of Loki’s red lipstick off of Sean’s forehead from where she’s kissed him good night, and when he has to raise his hands in defeat and back away from his attempt to tidy Sean’s room, because Sean is raising his voice, insisting that he would rather ask Loki for help in the morning, because, “Dad, leave it! Loki knows how I like my hoodies folded and ordered, colour coded!”

But he doesn’t laugh.

Instead, his heart swells with so much love for Loki that he quietly closes the door to Sean’s room, wishing him a good night as well, and pounces on Loki, who is leaning against the stairwell waiting for him.

He kisses her desperately, like he can communicate all his love for her through their joined mouths, his hands pulling her closer with one tangled in the top of her hair and the other pressing tightly into the base of her neck.

Loki pulls back laughing and throws her head back, the laughter turning into a delighted shudder as Mobius lowers his head in response, sucking and kissing marks into a sweet spot on her jawline.

He shifts a hand onto her waist and reattaches their mouths, murmuring in between kisses, “I love you. So much.”

He guides her towards the stairs, “The boys. Love you.”

“You’re so brave. And beautiful. And good-“

She trips down a step at his words and lets out a nervous high pitched laugh, pressing her face into Mobius and breathing heavily into his neck.

Mobius lifts his head and tries to repress a smile at the ceiling, the points of contact between them beginning to fry away the parts of his brain he needs to walk and talk. Where her face is touching him, her chest against his, her arms around his waist and on his back, where his arms caught her around the neck, how her hair smells when he leans down and peppers kisses on her head, apologising for startling her.

He entertains the possibility for a second that based on that reaction, he affects her just as much as she affects him and he bursts into a second round of breathless laughter at the thought.

Somehow, they make it back to the kitchen, where they reluctantly peel off each other and Mobius instructs her to go sit down, telling her, “I’ll bring our drinks out in a sec doll.”

He takes a second to breathe out, untucking the hem of his button-up shirt from his pants before pulling out a wine glass for Loki and a tumbler for himself.

Mobius can feel the smile on his face growing involuntarily as he walks into the living room and catches sight of Loki again, stretching out on the couch and rubbing her legs together like a cat. The smile keeps growing and he has to take a sip of his whiskey to hide his face from her.

He’d won this, Mobius thinks, again and again. He’s won. Every terrible thing he’d been forced to go through, with and without Loki, their multiple separations, the stress of Sylvie, at first, and Ravonna, and He Who Remains, and the Loom, and Loki’s timeslipping, and being given back an entire life he hadn’t known he even had, had all brought him here, so he can take the love of his life out on a Friday night to a nice restaurant, and then watch her relax like this in the home they’d built together and fought to keep.

A place where for the first time in her long life, he knows she’s completely comfortable, and has all her defences down, thanks to him.

He thinks all of it has been worth it just to see Loki this happy.

She accepts the glass he proffers with a sweet smile and sits up for him, waiting only a second for Mobius to sit down before she curls back into him with her head on his shoulder, her front pressed into his side.

“So what do you think ‘mostly’ means?” Loki mumbles into his shoulder after a second, her tone tinged with worry.

“I don’t know babe, but I wouldn’t worry, they’re sweet kids,” He reassures her.

Then, with a wink, he adds, “Mostly.”

Loki rolls her eyes at him, “Your optimism is equal parts infuriating and endearing, but might I remind you I myself grew up with a brother, as you well know, and we were referred to on many occasions as sweet and well-mannered, and never once were any of those people correct?”

“Hon, that’s exactly why I’m not worried. Nothing they do can be worse than anything I know you and Thor have done, and the two of us are literal freakin’ experts in chaos and mischief. Those two aren’t getting anything big past us, trust me.”

He stretches his arm around her and squeezes her shoulder.

Loki looks down and mutters, “Kevin is terrible at lying. A failing on my part.”

Mobius only snorts in response, earning himself a grumpy scowl and a flick on the chin from Loki.

Growing impatient of taking small sips of her drink, Loki drains the last of her wine and places the cup on a side table, placing her hand instead over Mobius’ stomach and relaxing back into his side, wriggling even closer to him with her legs folded under her.

She drags the tips of her fingers south over Mobius’ stomach, talking to him in a low voice, “You’re such a good father, so calm and rational. It’s so sexy. Why aren’t we upstairs with the door locked yet?”

“With your parental track record it’s a little concerning to hear you say that, but I’m with you darling, let’s just give it a minute to make sure we won’t wake the kids.”

Loki sighs and rolls her eyes before gasping as Mobius betrays his own words, roughly pulling her into his lap with her legs split on either side of his.

“What happened to waiting?”

“We are, I just figure … why don’t we pass the time in a more productive way?”

Loki wraps her arms around Mobius’ neck and leans in close to his face.

“It’s the TVA, isn’t it? They turned you into this freak, ah, obsessed with time management and maximum productivity,” She stifles a sigh mid-sentence as Mobius’ hands come around to grip the backs of her thighs.

“And do I see you complaining?”

Loki smiles devilishly at him and tucks the toes of her boots under his legs, tightening the pressure on his groin, “No, sir.”

She grinds down into his lap once, twice, a third time, moving tantalisingly slowly to elicit a few beautifully strained noises from deep in Mobius’ throat.

“Sir? That’s new. I like it though,” He grunts out in between moans.

Loki laughs, “I’ll remember that,” before sitting up on her knees, pressing her chest into his face insistently.

Mobius gazes up at her towering over him with a starstruck look on his face. His hands slip up Loki’s legs and he lowers his head, dragging his mouth over her chest, leaving wet kisses everywhere he touches, only looking back up at Loki to find her staring down at him with a wild look in her eyes.

He smirks and doubles his efforts, licking and sucking a line up her chest to her neck, slowly moving his hands to her hips and pulling her down back into his lap as he works.

Loki lets out a breathy, loud, moan, crying out his name without restraint at his actions, which he forcefully smothers with his mouth.

He licks into her mouth and pulls back to order, “Lokii, quiet,” with a harsh emphasis on her name, only causing more muffled groans as he pushes them back together, already anticipating her reaction to his tone of voice.

She sits back from him slightly and he immediately rushes to cup her face with both hands, brushing his fingers over her cheeks and admiring the heat in her eyes aimed at him.

After a minute, Loki laughs shakily and moves one of his hands back to her hip, letting the other fall to her neck, which she bares to him willingly.

He leans in again and slips the strap of her top to the side, letting it fall over her arm to give him better access to the junction of her neck and shoulder.

Loki is in a blissed out state with Mobius gently kissing behind her ear, her eyes closed and a small smile plastered across her face, when she hears a noise at the foot of the stairs and her eyes fly open to spot Kevin in front of her, stood there with a hand freshly slapped over his eyes.

She yelps and tries to twist off of Mobius, but the grip he has on her side keeping her in place, along with the feet she has locked under Mobius’ thighs, catch her, sending her tumbling off of him onto the carpet in front of the sofa.

“Kevin!”

“Kevin?” Mobius echoes, turning around, “What are you doing up?”

“I thought I heard Loki screaming, so I came to check on you but you guys were just…,” Kevin chortles and flaps his hands around aimlessly.

“Kevin!” Loki repeats in a less surprised, more scandalised tone, going bright red as she stands up, slightly wobbly on her feet, and pulls the strap of her top back into place.

Mobius gets to his feet as well and fixes Kevin with a disbelieving look, hands on his hips, “I think you just heard any old noise and decided it would be a good excuse to avoid sleeping, mister.”

“Nooooo!”

Mobius just stares at his son, half embarrassed for him at the way Kevin’s voice wavers and squeaks trying to deny it.

He turns to Loki and says to her good-naturedly, “You might be right, he can’t lie to save his life.”

Then to Kevin again, “Take it down, several notches buddy,” as Loki sighs and falls into his back, pressing her face to the space between his shoulders and shaking her head.

She pushes herself back upright with her arms folded and Mobius instinctively turns to pull her back into a hug, forgetting Kevin’s presence in the room as soon as he moves to kiss along the line of her eyebrow.

“Eughhh, Dadd!!” Kevin giggles, “That’s so gross, can you not? This is a public area.”

“Oh, hadn’t you heard? A public area which is supposed to be free of you little shits right now, so go to sleep.”

“I can’ttt,” Kevin whines, “I’m already awake now and you’ve basically just traumatised me, there’s no way I’m gonna be able to sleep for ages.”

Loki gestures for Kevin to come over to them and compromises, “Sweetheart, we’re sorry, let’s just watch some TV until you get tired, alright?”

Practically before Loki has even finished her sentence, Kevin has swung himself over the armrest and is spread out on the couch, browsing through channels.

Mobius grumbles under his breath but follows Loki to the couch anyways, sitting down on the other side of Kevin to her.

Kevin turns away from Mobius and burrows into Loki’s side, letting her pet his hair and leaving Mobius to grumble some more, wrapping his arm around the pair of them and dragging them both closer.

“You won’t listen to me, but you’ll listen to Loki?”

“Of course I listen to Loki, she’s my favourite parent,” Kevin says as if it was obvious.

Above him, Loki flushes happily and Mobius frowns.

“Yeah yeah, is she really or is she just letting you watch TV past your bedtime?”

“Can’t it be both?” Argues Kevin, while Loki pipes in as well to say,

“What, are you jealous?”

Mobius’ eyebrow twitches as he says, “No and no. And I’m pretty sure I’m Sean’s favourite anyways, so there.”

Kevin pulls a face which Mobius thinks says, ‘negative chief’, or maybe, ‘I know something you don’t’, and Mobius’ jaw drops.

Loki snorts and leans in to kiss him over Kevin’s head, whispering, “Don’t worry darling, you’re my favourite.”

“Ewww, cut it out you guys, seriously. Disgusting.” Kevin mimes throwing up before shivering and shutting his eyes, still wrapped in Loki’s arms.

Loki laughs as Mobius kisses her again and again, relentless in the pursuit of embarrassing his preteen son.

After a few minutes of Kevin valiantly ignoring his parents, scrunching his face up to keep his eyes closed, Loki feels his face relax and his breathing even out, and she realises he must have committed so far he’d actually gone and fallen asleep.

She gently presses a hand to Mobius’ chest, pushing him back, and glares at him, hissing, “That was all your fault!”

“Hey, I don’t know what you’re pointing the finger at me for, I wasn’t the one making that racket.”

“I wouldn’t have been making any noise at all Mobius, if you had only been able to keep it in your pants for another twenty minutes!”

Kevin starts snoring lightly between them.

“Baby baby baby, does it really matter? Let’s say equal blame, alright? Now pass Kevin here, I’ll take him back up to bed, and you can meet me in ours. Deal? Sound good? Good,” Mobius placates her with a cheeky grin plastered to his face.

Loki meets his eyes for a moment before silently shifting Kevin’s weight, picking him up herself to make it easier for Mobius to take him.

“You’re only happy with equal blame because you know it was your fault, you skeeze,” she mutters, unable to let the argument die as she cleans up the living room, fluffing pillows and taking their glasses back to the kitchen.

Loki hears a dry, “Ouch,” from the living room and she walks back in to begrudgingly tell him,

“You’re still my favourite.”

Mobius winks at her, “Good,” as he starts to walk upstairs with Kevin.

In Kevin’s room, he tucks him back in, careful not to disturb his sleep, and then he takes a step back, watching the gentle rise and fall of Kevin’s chest for a while.

On his way back out he whispers over Kevin’s head, “Goodnight, we love you - and stay asleep this time!”

He clicks the door to his and Loki’s bedroom shut quietly, and turns around to see Loki sitting upright on the edge of the bed with her skirt and tights discarded and tossed into the corner of the room. She’s sat with one leg crossed over the other, watching him intently with her hands gently supporting her, palms spread out on the bed on either side of her.

Mobius swallows at the scene, taking in her dark lingerie that she must have been wearing around him all evening, and murmurs, “Fuck, my pretty baby.”

A smile immediately spreads over her face, and Mobius jolts forward towards her, finally unable to stop himself.

Mobius has always been good at restraint, it’s something he has long prided himself on - until now, until Loki.

He recalls Ravonna warning him against trusting, helping, befriending Loki with that look on her face, simultaneously betrayed and shocked, but also unsurprised?

He wonders if he’s always been like this with Lokis, like maybe he’s missing memories of the same thing happening in the past, in one of those memories the TVA erased from him.

Like this was always gonna happen, and he was always going to betray Von for a Loki, and he just didn’t know it. But she did, because maybe she’d seen him do it before and had managed to stop him, get the situation back under control.

Well, as much as Mobius had loved Von, had loved having a best friend like her, and as much as he hopes his fears are unjustified, Mobius knows deep in his stomach, unquestionably, that if it came to it, he would do it again for this Loki.

This Loki has changed like he’s never seen before, finally given respect and love and trust and attention, and she’s grown to be so powerful and do such great things Mobius has absolutely no say in the matter but to fold like a house of cards at her behest, and for once, he’s proud of his lack of restraint.

His Loki stands up and meets him halfway to the bed, smiling into his mouth, lovedrunk. She loosens his tie and runs her hands over his stomach, under his shirt, before grasping his tie again and using it to pull him to the bed.

Mobius goes willingly, complying as she lets go of his tie and pushes him down with both hands onto the centre of the bed, whispering sweet nothings to her as she crawls on top of him and up the length of his body, settling over his hips and leaning in for another kiss.

He runs his hands up and down her long, long, exposed legs while she fumbles with the buttons of his shirt.

“Door’s locked?” She checks.

Mobius huffs and laughs, “I’m not letting that happen again, and trust me, they don’t want to walk in on this either.”

She giggles, saying, “The way Kevin managed to manipulate extra TV and a late bedtime out of me when all he saw was you kissing my neck, I hate to think the kind of debt we’d be in to them if they saw any of what I’m planning on doing to you tonight.”

Loki’s long hair falls in front of her face and Mobius reaches out to hold it back for her, telling her, “See, they’re good kids really, only a slight tendency towards lying and manipulation. Just like you baby.”

“I know they are,” She grips his belt and unclasps it, ignoring his last comment as he bucks his hips up against her, “Now, ugh, fuck-!”

He mumbles, “That’s the general idea.”

“Well, get on with it then, and do at least try to make one with all your good qualities and none of the smartassery,” Loki mocks.

“It’s a package deal I’m afraid love,” He wrinkles his nose up in faux sympathy.

“Ah, exactly what I was afraid of,” She wraps a hand around him and he stutters, but she continues after a pause, “I think I’ll survive. In fact, I expect you to deliver on that. There’s nothing I want more than a third miniature version of you running around the house.”

Mobius might have the ability to go anywhere, see anyone, at any time in the history of the universe, and he has seen his fair share of all of it, but looking into Loki’s eyes, bright and full of love all directed at him at the thought of expanding their family, he knows just as unquestionably that there is quite literally nowhere he would rather be than here.