Chapter Text
The first time Loki had fallen asleep around Mobius had been when they had that damned study session with the files and folders. Where Loki sat there blinking sleep away until he finally let himself rest his head on the table and let sleep take him away. He hadn’t really meant to do that, actually. He hadn’t meant to let himself sleep around the other. Because despite the comfortableness he felt around Mobius, there were still stabs of anxiety that would rot away the softhearted atmosphere.
Loki didn’t like to open up. He was a book that could not be read. He was a book locked shut tight, the story hidden to all those who wished to read. He didn’t like to be vulnerable. He didn’t like to offer that key to those who were curious. He didn’t like to offer his weaknesses to those he could not trust. Trust was for dogs, after all. And he, Loki Laufeyson, was not a dog. Or a robot, for that matter.
Despite that, he found himself tired more times than he wished to admit. Even on cases, he would find himself aching to sit down and rest his eyes for a few moments. But he’d never admit that he was tired. Not even when he let himself take those naps around Mobius. Not even when he left that key for the other to take. Not even when he trusted him.
The next time he fell asleep around Mobius, it was willingly.
He was back in his little cubicle, holding that little magazine about jet skis again. That little “Miss Minute” hologram was standing on his desk again, blabbering on and on about something about nexus events. He wasn’t really paying attention. He was rather indulged in the magazine he was reading. Not that he was exactly… reading. He was more so eyeing the jet skis.
Mobius, who was a cubicle over, seemed to be fascinated by these things. These little vessels that flew across water with Midgardians riding on them. He didn’t quite see the entertainment in doing so, aside from the few pictures of people being pulled on a small circle behind the jet ski. That looked… fun.
“Are you even listening?”
Loki looked up from the magazine, raising an eyebrow at the little hologram that was staring at him with a frown. Slowly, he closed the magazine and leaned forward. “Ah… no.” He smiled, licking his lips as he began to slowly roll the magazine up. Miss Minutes fixed him with a hard glare as he put his hands on her… hips? She didn’t quite have hips. But it was close enough. “Loki… you gotta pay attention to this stuff!”
“I really don’t see why you’re still jabbering about this. You’ve told me the same thing multiple times. I quite understand what a Nexus event is.” Loki let his shoulders droop a little, puffing out his lips as he fixed Miss Minutes with a heavily faked sad expression. “It’s giving me quite the headache.” He huffed out sarcastically.
“You’re giving me quite the headache.” Miss Minutes muttered, rolling her eyes and looking away. Loki frowned and straightened up, staring at the hologram for a moment before raising the rolled up magazine and swiping at her. Of course, the magazine simply drifted right there her body… fantastic
“Hey!” She whirled to glare at him, pointing a tiny finger at him. “That was rude!” She cried, earning a little huff of laughter from Loki. “Oh it was, dear. I know that.” He nodded, leaning back in his chair and looking around. It was far too quiet here for his liking. Mobius was occupied and none of the other people in this miserable space were worth talking to. He sighed, looking back at Miss Minutes. “You know you people have quite the boring workplace.”
“It’s because those people are actually doing their jobs.” Miss Minutes rolled her eyes, hopping on top of the wall of the cubicle. “If you did your work, maybe you wouldn’t be so bored.” She suggested, raising an eyebrow and extending her hands with a shrug. Loki looked up thoughtfully, humming before looking back at Miss Minutes with a little smile. “No. Because my ‘work’ is listening to you talk about the same thing over and over on loop… it’s like you’re a broken record.”
“I’m a clock. Not something for a phonograph.” Miss Minutes scoffed, folding her arms.
Loki rolled his eyes, leaning back with enough force to push his rolly chair back a little. “You’re a flat circle.” He muttered, slumping down in his chair. “I don’t really see the difference.” He looked away, glancing back towards where Mobius was. He could just barely see the back half of the other, as he leaned forward in his chair over his desk. Probably looking at files far more interesting than what Loki was stuck dealing with.
He opened his mouth, turning back to where Miss Minutes was to only stop when he found she was no longer there. He frowned, pushing himself upright in the chair with a little huff. Well now he was really bored. He had no little hologram to torment, no Casey to threaten, and no one to bother. Whilst intruding on Mobius did seem like an option, he was sure the man wouldn’t be very happy about him disrupting his work… which is exactly why Loki decided to proceed with that plan.
He slowly rotated his chair around so that the back was aimed towards the cubicle before pushing on the ground with his feet to slide over. The wheels rattled beneath him, but didn’t make too much noise. Not enough that would make him regret doing this.
He quietly stopped right outside the cubicle, leaning backwards in the chair enough so that from his chest and up was inside the cubicle. He opened his mouth to speak, but Mobius beat him to it. “What do you want?” And if his tone spoke i’m busy not right now in a way that almost made Loki hesitate from venturing further… Almost.
“I’m quite bored and you seemed like a good source of entertainment.”
Mobius sighed, slowly turning a page on the file he was reading. “You annoyed that poor thing away again, didn’t you?” And while Loki couldn’t see his face, he could see the other raising an eyebrow. Clicking his tongue, he shrugged. “She annoyed me. I merely bothered her enough so that she was… irritated! Not annoyed.” He nodded, smiling. Mobius paused for a second before he shook his head, slowly sitting upright. He pressed one arm into the arm of his chair and slowly rolled around so that he was looking at Loki, eyes half-lidded.
“You want something to do? You can help me with this.”
Not looking away from Loki, he grabbed the file he had opened and set it on Loki’s chest. It began to slide, which led to the god clumsily grabbing it and holding it. He looked down at it, eyes narrowing suspiciously before he looked back at Mobius. “You want me to read this file?” He muttered, voice low. Mobius nodded, turning around back to another file that was hidden beneath the one he had just picked up. “I already read half of it. I’m sure you can finish the rest.”
Loki sighed, slowly sitting upright in his chair. He stared at the file for a moment, only gathering the words “King Tut” and “tomb” from it. He narrowed his eyes further, glancing back towards the back of Mobius’s head before sighing. He quietly kicked the ground again, pushing his rolly chair further into the confined space… which Mobius didn’t seem to be a fan of. He sat upright immediately, looking over his shoulder at Loki with an accusing stare. “What are you doing?”
“I’m reading it here so I can give it back to you when I finish.” Loki stated in a matter of fact tone, leaning back in his chair once again so the back of it let him almost lay down in it. He could probably kick his legs up onto the top walls of the cubicle if he wanted to… in fact, that was just what he did. He folded his left right leg over the other around his ankle, looking at Mobius with a shit-eating smirk.
After a few moments of staring in disbelief, Mobius snorted and turned away. “Whatever…” He mumbled, shaking his head as he looked back at the file he was now reading. Loki stared at him for a few more moments before carefully looking back at his file. The file was titled “Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun,” which really didn’t seem all that interesting right away. Why was Mobius even reading about something like this? He looked to the time period this had happened and blinked, eyeing the year “1922” with narrowed eyes.
He let his eyes slide over more information on the file, noting that there was no variant essence detected. Which made him even more curious. He cleared his throat, flipping the page to another that had a lot of words on it. “Why exactly are you reading about this?” He asked, skimming over the words that were scattered along the page.
“Some variant has been messing things up with Egypt. A bunch of tombs are being found empty when they should have something in them.”
Loki nodded slowly, looking at one of the pictures that showed the tomb itself. He still really didn’t understand why such little things mattered so much to the TVA. Who cared if a tomb didn't have a body or two? He scoffed to himself, rolling his eyes. Timekeepers. That’s who. He just couldn’t get behind the idea that three people held time together. Those three… things kept this string of events going. It was absurd. He found it even more absurd that all these people really believed in these things as well.
He sighed, flipping the page again and staring at it with half-lidded eyes. This was more interesting than hearing about the same thing over and over again, yes, but it was still boring. He didn’t process half the words he read, simply taking in a few scraps here and there about things about this Tut guy. And he quickly decided that he was not going to read this entire thing. There were still a good fifteen or so pages left, and he was not excited about reading those.
He let the folder rest on his chest, leaning his head back and looking up at the tiled ceiling boredly. He had no way to pass the time other than chatting, which Mobius had denied quickly by giving him this folder. He wasn’t going to go crawling back to that Miss Minutes clock either. Besides, it would be awkward of him to leave without finishing the file! So, in other words, he was stuck… and bored.
This is miserable.
He shifted upright a little, letting the back of the chair come up a little but not too much. He folded his arms, staring down tiredly. He always found that these files exhausted him. Reading them and taking in all the information. Maybe it was the constant color of white paper that made his eyes tired, but Loki hated it. He truly did. As much as he tried to avoid it, it always seemed to come back to haunt him.
He sighed, looking over at Mobius. The other hadn’t turned around for a while… or said anything, not to mention. There didn’t seem to be any emergency about to happen either (though Loki really wouldn't be able to tell when one was about to happen anyways). What harm would there be in resting his eyes? He hummed, slumping down into his chair and leaving his arms folded. He let his chin meet his collar bone, keeping his legs propped up on the top of the wall of the cubicle.
He wasn’t sure when he fell asleep, but he knew when he woke up. Consciousness came back to him slowly, washing over him at an agonizingly slow pace. His body still felt heavy with grogginess. Noises were partially muffled and incoherent, words not forming properly when spoken… People were speaking. He blinked his eyes open lazily, only to let them close again when he felt how heavy they were.
He recognized Mobius’s voice immediately, a gravelly murmur that was responding to another lighter voice… Ah. B-15. He opened his eyes again, blinking lazily, His vision was fuzzy, and sleep beckoned for him. He huffed, closing his eyes again and tilting his head back a little. The murmuring stopped for a moment and his mind whirred as he tried to think of a reason for why it stopped. The worry melted away when the talking started again, though he refused to let himself fall back asleep. Instead, he focused on listening to what B-15 and Mobius were talking about.
“How long has he been there?’
“Two hours or so… why?”
“Isn’t he supposed to be-”
“He got bored.”
“He got bored so you let him take a nap?”
Loki almost laughed at that one. He was feeling more awake now. His body didn’t feel as heavy, nor did his eyes. He could feel his eyelashes fluttering, but he didn’t open his eyes just yet. He wanted to keep listening. This was entertaining him. Thankfully, Mobius’s response didn’t fail to entertain him further. “What? You don’t take naps when you get bored?”
“No. I don’t.” Loki could practically see her folding her arms. He thought he heard it too. “He’s supposed to be doing something.” She huffed. Mobius clicked his tongue, responding with a laugh in his voice. “The timeline is still in shape, so I think this is supposed to happen.” There was a little huff again and Loki decided it was time to “wake up.”
“This is entertaining and all, but,” he opened his eyes, looking at the two who’s heads snapped in his direction. “You interrupted my nap.” He rolled his neck, waiting for a crack before slowly moving his feet down off the cubicle wall. He sat up slowly, bringing his arms above his head to stretch before slowly lowering them down in front of him. B-15 rolled her eyes, muttering incoherent words under her breath as she began to stalk away.
Mobius slowly turned his chair around, staring at Loki with an amused expression that just told Loki he was about to say something. But to his surprise, he didn’t. Well, he did. But it wasn’t what he expected. It wasn’t a tease or some study about the way he slept. Instead, he pointed at the folder that was now in Loki’s lap. “Can I have that back?”
“I don’t see why not.”