Chapter Text
Glad Tidings
“What do we got?” Mobius demanded over the klaxon blare as he and Loki swept into the TVA’s main control room. Red lights flashed around the perimeter of the room. Analysts scurried around the room in a wonderful parody of frightened chickens.
Loki followed Mobius to one of the monitor stations where B-15 was leaning over the shoulder of a frightened looking tech. Urgent looking warning boxes flashed on the computer screen.
“Temporal disturbance alert. Something just jumped to our timeline from time branch CL-269. Looks like it might be variant L0966.”
“That one again?” Mobius hissed. “That’s the third time branch he’s jumped to this week.”
“But this time he’s come to our timeline,” Loki grimly pointed out. He, Mobius, and B-15 shared a heavy look. “We can’t ignore him this time. We’re going to have to take action. We’ve already seen what he’s done to other branches.”
“How many squads should we take?” B-15 asked, looking to Mobius.
Since the Splitting of the Sacred Timeline and fall of the TVA, Mobius had risen as one of the agency’s lead authority figures during its reorganization.
“At least two. Three if we can spare the manpower. Lord knows we’ve seen what chaos this variant’s caused in other timelines. We can’t take any chances.”
“Both of you coming?” B-15 asked. She didn't even try to disguise her disapproval.
“Yes,” Loki announced before Mobius could open his mouth.
B-15 looked to Mobius as though expecting the time agent to protest. But when no objections came, she gave a curt nod and began moving for the door.
“I’ll see both of you in the jump room then. Give me twenty minutes to get the troops together.”
Loki stared after the squad commander with a scowl. He was getting tired of the woman’s increasingly judgmental looks whenever he went into the field. As if she had any right to determine what he should or shouldn’t do, or what missions were too dangerous for him to take anymore.
He could decide what was best for himself, thank you very much.
“Dial back the death glare,” Mobius murmured. “She’s just trying to look out for you in her own way.”
“I never asked for her concern,” Loki snarled.
He and B-15 had never been close. Especially after he first came to the TVA. She’d been one of his most vocal opponents – always calling for his immediate pruning. After the Splitting they’d managed to form a mostly functional professional relationship. Lately, though, B-15 seemed determined to test the boundaries of that relationship by constantly nosing into things Loki felt she had no business caring about.
Together, he and Mobius headed for the door. They had to get ready to go into the timeline.
“It’s none of her business if I go on missions,” Loki went on. “It’s not like I’m suddenly incapable of defending myself. I still have plenty of time before I need to be banished to the inside of a cubicle.”
“No one’s saying you’re incapable of defending yourself. But this is going to be a dangerous mission. You know what this variant is like. Just out of an abundance of caution it might not be a bad idea if you decided to stay behind this one time.”
“Out of the question,” Loki sharply dismissed. “Until someone in Administration orders me to desk duty, I’m going with you.”
The two swept into the jump point room where half a dozen Minutemen were already suiting up for the mission. They went to their own lockers which were stationed next to each other.
As Mobius swapped his suit jacket for a Kevlar vest, Loki donned his own TVA-issued jacket over the black long-sleeved shirt he wore. He’d grown attached to it over the years even though the giant orange print on the back declaring him a VARIANT was a moot fact now. Everyone in the TVA was a variant.
Given a choice between the lightweight windbreaker or one of the heavy Kevlar vests Mobius favored, Loki would choose the jacket every time. He didn’t like how the vests restricted his movements in battle or how he could never seem to find a good place to stow his daggers while wearing one. He also doubted he’d be able to fit into one now even if he’d wanted to. No. His jacket was better. Its billowy sides also helped shield him from the worst of B-15’s judgmental side-eyes.
As Loki slid his daggers into the specially designed pockets he’d had added to the inside of his jacket, Mobius turned back to him.
“You know you don’t have to try and prove anything to me or anyone else by going, right? There’s not a single person in this organization that would think less of you if you decided to hang back.”
Loki released a gut-deep groan. “This still?” He turned to fully face the time agent, annoyed. “I’m not trying to “prove” anything, Mobius. I just feel better knowing I’d be there to protect you should anything go wrong.”
“I don’t know why you think I’d be so helpless in a fight,” Mobius wondered, his voice wounded. “I do have battle training, you know.”
One of Loki’s eyebrows rose in a skeptical arch. “I’ve seen your hand-to-hand fighting skills, Mobius. You wouldn’t last ten seconds in an Asgardian training ring. How you survived as long as you have as a field agent without me is a constant source of wonder to me. No. I prefer being out in the field with you instead of wasting my talents behind a desk. We’re partners, aren’t we? It’s my job to watch your back - both in the field and at home. I spent too long fighting my way back to our timeline after the Splitting to want to risk being separated from you again.”
Mobius sighed, still visibly uncomfortable with the whole situation. “I know. And I appreciate the sentiment. But you know who we’re going after. You know what he’s capable of. Of all the variants in the multiverse we could be hunting this one’s the worst.”
“You don’t think I know that? How many time branches have we seen go down in flames because of him? We need to make sure we don’t let him do the same to our timeline. It’s the whole reason everyone in the TVA stuck around after the Splitting – to protect our timeline from threats from other timelines. And it’s precisely because of who this variant is I need to help stop him.”
“Alright. Fine,” Mobius conceded, throwing both hands up in front of his chest in defeat. “I accept you’re coming along. I won’t mention it again. But if things start to go sideways, promise me you won’t jump into any fights. Let me and the Minutemen handle it. I’m asking as both your partner and your husband not to give me any more grey hairs than I already have. Okay?”
He took a half step closer into Loki’s personal space and held the prince’s gaze. “Is that a small enough request for the great God of Mischief to grant this humble supplicant? I’ll even sacrifice a goat or something in your name if it’ll help convince you.”
Loki heaved a sigh of mixed affection and exasperation. “Leave my horned friends out of this. Fine. I’ll grant you this one request, mortal. I promise I won’t recklessly go throwing myself into battle. Would you like to confiscate my daggers as well to make sure I don’t do anything foolish while we’re in the field?”
“No. You can keep them. Just… don’t get into any situation where you’ll need to actually use them, okay? Please?”
“I already said I won’t, Mobius. Have some trust in me.”
This seemed to finally ease some of the anxiety from Mobius’s face. But a gleam of worry still shined in his eyes.
“You know we’re jumping to Earth, 2024, right?”
“Yes. I saw the monitor readings, same as you.”
“So… you know there’s the possibility your brother might be there.”
Loki looked to the side, no longer able to meet his husband’s eyes. An inexplicable tightness squeezed his heart.
Even though he’d been settled in the TVA for some time now since finding his way back to their timeline after the Splitting, he still hadn’t made any efforts to reach out to his estranged brother. He wasn’t ready to reunite with Thor or let him know he still lived. Even after everything he’d done to try and make up for his sins he didn’t feel ready to seek out the God of Thunder.
Maybe someday in the future. After he’d done more to redeem himself. But not now. Right now he and Mobius had a job to do. They had to protect the timeline from a dangerous threat. He couldn’t risk personal matters getting in the way of their mission. It wouldn’t matter if he ever felt ready to see his brother again if the timeline Thor lived in no longer existed.
“I’ll be fine,” he said, looking back up at Mobius with a renewed sense of resolve. “We’ll keep a low profile. In and out just like normal. It’ll be like we were never even there.”
“If you’re sure…”
“I am. Let’s go.”
******
Dr. Stephen Strange was enjoying a cup of tea when the warning came.
It came to him quietly. There were no alarms or flashing lights. No panicked scramble for action. The disturbance vibrated the fabric of the universe and thumped against his soul like a ripple on the surface of a still lake. If he wasn’t so attuned to the magical framework of reality he could have probably overlooked the sensation.
In some ways the gentleness of the warning was more ominous than if there’d been a jarring sound or painful feeling in his gut.
Strange was instantly on his feet and hurrying for the scrying chamber of the Sanctum Sanctorum. He found Wong already there.
“You felt it too?” Strange asked. His hands began weaving an elegant series of summoning spells. Glowing gold sigils and ancient lines of script appeared in the air around the room’s central alter.
“It was subtle but kind of hard to miss,” Wong frowned. “What are we dealing with?”
The sigils and script continued to spin around them in the air. Strange searched the glowing array for meaning.
“Something from my list of inter-dimensional threats…”
The implication hung in the air between the two sorcerers. Strange had been closely monitoring the world for any signs of danger since the Madness began over a year ago.
A line of floating script caught Strange’s attention. He had to reread it several times before the glyphs finally registered in his brain.
“That… that’s impossible. He’s supposed to be dead. And there’s two of the same signatures here on Earth. How can that possibly be?”
“What is it?” Wong demanded.
Strange released the array. The room fell into near total darkness at the sudden loss of light. Strange was already heading for the door that would take him back into the Sanctum. His cape snapped sharply in the air behind him.
“I need to contact the Avengers. I’m going to need backup for this.”
Wong scrambled after him. “Do you need me to come too?”
Strange hesitated. Under the rules of their magical order, Wong should stay behind to guard the Sanctum. But... this threat might be big enough to need everyone he could get. Especially those with magical abilities.
“Yes.”
Wong’s expression became grave. He knew how serious it was if Strange was willing to leave the Sanctum Sanctorum unguarded. Doing so could only mean the planet – possibly even the whole universe- was in danger.
Strange summoned a ring of sparking orange light with a swirl of his hand. Together the two sorcerers stepped through the portal into a sterile white laboratory. Strange had to give the American government credit for how quickly they’d rebuilt the Avengers compound after their final battle with Thanos.
A large man with green skin stood at one of the tables. He visibly startled at their sudden appearance.
“Dr. Banner,” Strange greeted. “We need your help. We need you to send out an alert to all available members of the Avengers.”
“Dr. Strange?” Banner blinked, removing his reading glasses and leaning back from the microscope he’d been bent over. “What are you doing here?”
Strange tried not to be frustrated with the pace this meeting was progressing. They didn’t have any time to waste.
“I’ve just detected a class-1 threat here on Earth. I need your help assembling everyone. Send out an alert to Wilson and Barnes. I’ll contact Wanda myself. I think she’s currently in Romania. I can track her location with a spell. We’re going to need all the magic users we can get. Once you tell the others, Wong and I’ll bring them here with portals.”
Banner was instantly on his feet. As one of the original Avengers, he was familiar with sudden calls to action. “Yea. Okay. I’ll help. Do you know Thor’s back? He’s currently in Norway at the Asgardian colony to check in on Brunhilde. I don’t think Quill or the other Guardians stuck around to visit, though. Should I call him?”
Strange hesitated. “Yes,” he finally decided. “Thor might actually be the best one to have on our side right now. Or maybe the worst. I don’t know. I just know we need manpower.”
“Parker?”
“No. I’ll hold off on him for now. I want to avoid dragging a teenager into this if I can.”
“What about Scott Lang?”
“Who?”
“Antman,” Wong interjected at Strange’s confused expression. “Can turn really small. Or really big depending on the situation. He was there at the final battle against Thanos. He’s technically one of the new Avengers, but everyone always seems to forget about him.”
Strange was going to have to take Wong’s word on that. He only vaguely remembered someone of that description at the final battle. “Um… sure. Like I said - we’re going to need as many people as we can get.”
Banner was already pulling his cell phone from his lab coat pocket. “So what’s the threat? It’s got to be something bad if we’re calling in all the troops like this.”
Strange took a deep breath, his insides twisting at the thought of who they were about to face.
“The God of Mischief and Chaos.”
******
Loki stood beside Mobius. B-15 and her squad of Minutemen were fanning out across the area to check for any signs of the target.
They stood in front of the demolished remains of a weapons factory somewhere in central China. It was nighttime and the fire inside the gutted structure raged brightly in the darkness. Pieces of charred glass, concrete, and other debris lay all around them on the ground.
It looked like a massive explosion had ripped the building apart. By the look of things it had happened very recently. Luckily, no local authorities had arrived on the scene yet. But the sound of approaching sirens warbled in the distance. They were going to have to hurry.
Mobius was studying the readings on his tem-pad.
“Anything?” Loki asked.
Mobius sighed and returned the tem-pad to his pocket. “No. Temporal displacement readings are low. Looks like we just missed him. But this is definitely where he crossed over.”
“Can we track him?”
Mobius shook his head. “I don’t think so. The crossover point looks like it was somewhere inside the factory. If we could find the exact spot we might be able to pick up a residual trail. But since the building’s currently a towering inferno I don’t think that’s going to be an option.”
Loki scowled. His shoved his hands into his coat pockets. Despite the heat from the blaze, snowflakes lazily swirled around them in the air. It appeared they’d come to Earth during its northern hemisphere’s winter.
“So what’s our next move? We can’t just sit back and wait for the variant to make a strike against a civilian population.”
“I know, I know,” Mobius mollified. “We’ll find him. We just need to-“
A ring of crackling orange sparks materialized in front of them, several yards away.
“Is that thing yours?”
Loki shook his head, equally confused. “No.”
Before either Loki or Mobius could figure out what the ring of sparks was, it rushed them.
Loki instinctively tensed.
“Loki!” Mobius cried, diving towards him as though to push him from the ring’s path.
Unfortunately the time agent wasn’t fast enough.
In a whoosh of magically charged wind, the ring swept around them. Loki was startled to find himself and Mobius no longer outside in front of a burning factory, but inside what appeared to be the atrium of some government building. Tall windows made up one whole side of the enclosed space. They stretched up what seemed like three stories. The atrium was excessively large. A late evening sun hung over a distant tree line on the other side of the windows. Based on that, they appeared to be on a completely different side of the planet.
B-15 and her squad of Minutemen were nowhere to be seen. It looked like only he and Mobius had been transported away.
Mobius warily edged closer to Loki. A pruning rod had appeared in his hand. Its tip glowed a dangerous yellow.
“Drop yours weapons and put your hands in the air.”
Loki looked around to see that he and Mobius were surrounded by a ring of people. Most of them were armed with weapons trained directly at them.
He almost chuckled at the realization of what just happened.
“Let me guess. We’re in New York, aren’t we?”
A black man with metal wings and a red, white, and blue suit that was suspiciously similar to a certain America-loving blond answered. “Actually just outside of New York City. We’ll forgive you if you don’t recognize the place. Last time you were in the area you were mostly focused on leveling the city.”
This time Loki did chuckle. “How glib. But I’m not here to exchange pleasantries. I mean this world no harm. I’m actually here to help this time.”
An audible scoff went through the assembled group of heroes.
“Sorry if we don’t just take your word on that,” another man in a floating red cape said. Arrays of magical energy encircled his hands. “You coming here just tripped off three dozen different warning spells I’ve placed around the planet to warn of high risk threats to Earth.”
Loki recognized the man from the TVA’s file archives. He might have never met Dr. Strange (the one that did had been his other self – the Loki of the Sacred Timeline). But any self-respecting magic-using God of Mischief would have been interested in finding out more about the New York Sanctum’s newest Sorcerer Supreme. So he was aware of the man’s abilities.
“Oh, you have good reason to worry. But not because of any threat from me. The one you all should be worried about is the one we’re after too. As incredible as it might sound, our goals are actually aligned.”
Strange didn’t seem too interested in hearing Loki out. “How are you here, Loki? Last I heard you were supposed to be dead.”
“That,” Loki replied with a humorless chuckle, “is actually a very long story I’d be happy to tell if you’d all just put down your weapons and stand down.”
“Not going to happen, bud,” the one called Bucky Barnes growled. A nasty looking gun the length of Loki’s arm was aimed at his chest. Loki tried not to show any unease by shifting in the man’s crosshairs.
“Surrender now,” a woman haloed in an aura of blood red magic demanded. She had a heavy Eastern European accent. “You will not be warned again.”
Loki inwardly cursed their luck. He had to stall for time. B-15’s Minutemen should be able to track their locations using their tem-pads and jump to their location. But that was going to take time. TVA equipment didn’t exactly use the most modern technology. He needed to stall long enough for backup to arrive before these new trigger-happy Avengers decided to take revenge on him for New York.
Loki slowly turned in place to take in the assembled group of heroes. He was more familiar with some of them than others. Some he only knew from his research.
He tried not to cringe when he caught sight of Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk, who currently seemed to be caught in some mid-transformation amalgam of his normal human self and the green rage monster. Even now years later, Loki still remembered the embarrassment and pain of being so ingloriously grabbed by the ankle and repeatedly slammed against the ground like a rag doll.
He continued to scan the group, searching for anyone he might be able to convince not to attack him and his husband. He froze when he spotted a woman in a white and silver Valkyrie uniform. As if seeing a living Valkyrie in the flesh wasn’t shocking enough another Asgardian stood there beside her.
This one was a tall, bearded man wielding a fearsome looking ax. His features were so painfully familiar it made Loki’s heart clench with memories.
“…Thor?”
The other god’s face was a strained mask of pain. “Who are you? Why are you wearing my dead brother’s face?” He took a step into the kill circle he and his compatriots had made around the two. “Answer me! And do not lie. Or I swear it will be the last thing you ever do.”
Sparks of lightning danced along the edge of his battle axe. Electricity crackled the air around him.
Loki stood frozen in place. He’d been hoping to avoid such a meeting precisely for this reason.
“It’s really me, brother. This is no trick.”
“Do not call me that! I don’t know who you are but you are not my brother! I saw him die at the hands of Thanos myself! No more resurrections. That’s what Thanos said. I know in my heart he wasn’t lying. I don’t know what kind of cruel trick you're playing by using my brother’s image but it will not work! Loki is dead! Show yourself for who you really are, fiend!”
Strange cast the blond god a worried look. He seemed to be questioning the soundness of Thor being there. “Thor, I don’t know if this helps or hurts matters, but all my spells indicate this really is Loki. His matches the magical aura of Loki I have recorded in the Sanctum’s archives.”
A bit of the pained anger seemed to drain from Thor’s face. He looked back to Loki with a glimmer of fearful hope.
Loki held his gaze. He couldn’t say for sure what was going through the other man’s head. In the past, Thor had always been an open book for him to read. His brother had always worn his emotions on his sleeves. It was one of the reasons Loki had always found him so easy to manipulate when they were younger. But right now it was difficult to say what the other man was thinking. There were too many emotions flashing across Thor’s face to properly pinpoint and name just one.
Thor took another step into the circle.
“Thor, don’t,” Strange cautioned. “Stay back. We don’t know how dangerous he is or what he’s doing here.”
The blond god ignored him. His eyes were locked on Loki.
Loki couldn’t find the strength to move. Everyone else in the room seemed to fade into the background until it was only him and his brother.
Thor drew closer, staring at him as though he were seeing a ghost. “Is it really you, Loki?” The question was whispered as if he were begging Loki for it to be true.
Loki could only nod. He didn’t trust himself to speak. He didn’t know what he could possibly say. He’d rehearsed what he’d say if he ever saw his brother again a thousand times in his head. But now that he actually stood in front of Thor he seemed to have forgotten everything he’d ever thought of.
The battle ax slipped from Thor’s grasp. The weapon clattered on the floor by his feet. In two quick strides Thor was suddenly right there in front of Loki, crushing him to his chest.
“How are you here?!” he wailed into the side of Loki’s neck. “I saw you die! I was there! I held your body and felt it go cold!”
Loki could only helplessly shake his head. Tears stung the corners of his eyes. His arms came up to return Thor’s desperate embrace. He couldn’t find the words to answer. All he could focus on was the feel of his brother’s arms around him, holding him tight. They felt warm and familiar. Safe.
Like home.
But Loki’s nostalgia was short-lived.
With a deep inhale that sounded suspiciously close to a sob, Thor gripped Loki by his shoulders and roughly held him away at arms length.
“How are you here?!” he once again demanded. His shock seemed to have morphed back into anger. “So you faked your death again just like all the other times? How many times must I watch you die just for you to come waltzing back as though nothing happened?!”
Fresh tears appeared in the Norse god’s eyes. “Why did you not come find me? Six years, Loki! Six. Years! Why did you make me suffer so long if you survived Thanos? I thought I’d lost everything – first mother, father, Asgard, and then-“ His voice caught at the unspoken you. “Do you actually enjoy seeing me wallow in grief? Answer me! I at least deserve an explanation for that!”
Loki sorrowfully met his brother’s eyes. “I am sorry. I did not mean to make you suffer. I know I should have tried to find you sooner, but… it was not my place to do so. I wanted to see you. To explain and apologize. But I wasn’t good enough to see you yet.”
Thor’s grip on him did not ease.
“As difficult as it might be to believe, what happened was not an illusion or a lie. I did die at Thanos’s hands. Or… at least a different version of me did. The real me. The one who fulfilled his purpose on the Sacred Timeline. I am Loki. But not your Loki – the one you last knew.”
Confusion twisted the thunder god’s face. “You speak as if in riddles,” he accused.
“I…” Loki was at a hopeless loss for words. There was so much he wanted to say to Thor – so much he had to explain. But where could he begin that it would actually make sense?
Loki helplessly looked to Mobius. “Please help me explain.”
Thor finally tore his eyes away from Loki and seemed to notice Mobius standing there for the first time. “Who is this?”
His grip on Loki’s arms eased but did not completely fall away. He seemed afraid to let him go – as if he feared Loki would disappear in a cloud of smoke if he did.
Mobius stepped closer. He seemed oddly at ease now even though they were still surrounded by a small army of confused Avengers. Loki saw he’d already deactivated his pruning staff.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Thor,” Mobius smiled as if he were greeting an old friend. “I know all about you. I was hoping I’d get to meet you in person someday.”
He held his hand out to Thor with a grin.
Thor was too confused to do anything else except take the other man’s hand and give it a weak shake. The blond god looked back to Loki for explanation.
“This is Mobius,” Loki explained. “He… he is my husband.”
This seemed to finally snap Thor out of his shock of seeing Loki alive again into a completely different kind of cerebral trauma.
“Husband?” he weakly repeated.
“Yes. We work together at the Time Variance Authority. Or the TVA for short. That’s where I’ve been since I was removed from the Sacred Timeline in 2012.”
“2012?” Banner said from the sidelines of the kill circle. “Would that mean-?”
Loki nodded. “I’m the Loki that disappeared with the Tesseract when the Avengers went back in time to collect the infinity stones. That is how I’m still alive today.”
“We’re on the same side here, people,” Mobius announced to the room, his arms held out to his sides as if to demonstrate he meant them no harm. “I know it’s confusing but if you’ll just give us some time, we can explain everything. We can work together here.”
“You still haven’t explained why you’re here,” the new Captain American said. “How about giving us a book jacket synopsis before we decide to put our weapons away and start singing kumbaya?”
“We’re hunting a dangerous being from another timeline,” Mobius explained. “He crossed into this timeline looking to carry on the work of Thanos. We’re here to try and stop him before he destroys this timeline. He’s already destroyed six other time branches. That’s what we do at the TVA – we protect our timeline from the threats of other timelines.”
This seemed to finally temper the mood in the room. The assembled group of heroes exchanged uncertain looks.
Nothing like the threat of impending disaster to make strange allies, Loki thought with a sniff.
Thor shook his head. He still seemed overwhelmed. He turned his attention back to Loki.
“We will have to discuss these strange things more. I have so many questions for you.”
“I’m sure you do,” Loki gently agreed. “I know how jarring this must be. When I first learned of the multiverse it took me a long time to come to terms with it.”
Thor gave a weak chuckle. A watery shine of tears was once again in his eyes. “I need more of an explanation for how you’re still alive. There’s still so many things I don’t understand. But… you are here. I don’t care what Loki you say you are. You are my brother and you’re alive. That’s all that matters right now.”
Without any warning, Thor lunged at Loki and squeezed him to his chest in another desperate hug. “You are alive! You have no idea how happy that makes me.”
Loki was tempted to laugh at his brother’s boyish exuberance. He was buoyed by his own giddiness of being reunited with family. Their reunion had gone better than anything he could have ever hoped for.
But before he could revel in his joy too much, Thor shifted one arm lower on Loki’s back and squeezed.
Loki hissed in alarm at the sudden pressure around his middle. “Ack! Gentle, brother,” he cautioned, squirming out of the other god’s embrace. “Not so tight.”
Thor instantly released him. “Why? Are you injured? Are you hurt?” Panic lit the god’s face. His hands instinctively reached out to Loki as though to make sure he wasn’t bleeding to death where he stood.
“No, no,” Loki quickly assured him. “It’s just…”
He glanced over and shared a look with Mobius.
The time agent just shrugged as if to say, might as well tell him now.
Loki looked back to Thor. The other god was staring at him, waiting for an explanation.
The trickster sighed and stepped further back outside of Thor’s reach. He pulled the sides of his jacket back to reveal the rounded curve of his belly which had previously been hidden from view.
“It’s just that I’m pregnant.”
There was no immediate reaction from Thor or any of the other Avengers. If someone had dropped a pin at that moment Loki was sure all of them would have heard it.
Thor’s eyes didn’t stray from Loki’s belly.
“Is this some kind of illusion?”
“No. No illusion. No trick. I wouldn’t jest about something like this.”
He could feel the weight of everyone’s eyes on him. It was a struggle not to squirm under their collective gaze. The Minutemen, analysts, and administrative aides of the TVA were all used to seeing him like this now. They barely gave him a passing glance anymore when he walked through the office. They'd all become desensitized to such things over the centuries of working with variants of countless alien species.
So it was unnerving to be reminded of how shocking he must be to these Midgardians who were, as a species but even more so in certain cultures, rather prudish about their sexual expression and expected gender norms.
Unfortunately, it looked like his brother was of the same mindset as his human companions. Loki swore he saw a literal curl of smoke drift out of Thor’s left ear as the god struggled to comprehend what he was seeing.
Mobius edged closer to Loki’s side. He had an amused look on his face. “Sorry. Probably not the best way to find out you’re going to be an uncle, right?”
Loki wanted to snap at his husband that this wasn’t funny. That there wasn’t anything amusing about shocking his brother and compatriots into a stupor. He was trying to mend bridges between himself and Thor – not send his brother to the hospital for a brain hemorrhage.
“It…” Thor finally found his voice. “It would seem we have a lot to discuss, brother.”
“I think we do,” Loki agreed. He let the sides of his jacket fall back down around his stomach.
He might have said something else – maybe something about finding a more comfortable place to talk, or asking if Thor’s Avenger friends would kindly stow their weapons away now. For the baby’s sake if nothing else.
But just then half a dozen glowing orange rectangles of light blinked into existence around them. From the time gates streamed at least four squads of armed Minutemen. Within the blink of an eyes the atrium was a sea of paramilitary troopers and startled heroes.
B-15 seemed to materialize out of nowhere by Loki’s other side. Her pruning stick was lit and hovered threateningly just inches from Thor’s chest. At least the thunder god had enough sense to slowly raise his hands and step back.
Inwardly, Loki sighed. He doubted there was any way this mission could go farther off the rails than it already had.
So much for this being a quiet in-and-out mission.
To be continued
Next chapter: the Avengers have a lot of questions. Loki and Mobius answer them. Details of the threat facing their timeline is revealed.
I think what first inspired this story was the Thor/Loki reunion scene which was heavily inspired by Keiid's "and the sun shined on them again" mini-comic.
https://twitter.com/keiidakamya/status/1419718165291012100/photo/1
https://twitter.com/keiidakamya/status/1426559978127642632/photo/1
https://twitter.com/keiidakamya/status/1426559972616384517/photo/1
Please check it out. It has all the feels.