Work Text:
‘This is it?’
‘This is it.’
Mobius looked through the car window. The white villa had two floors and an attic. The sides of the house and the roof of the veranda were overgrown with wisteria, which spread a pleasant smell. In all ground floor windows, the blinds were down. The veranda ran all the way into the lake. Mobius couldn’t see if there was a boat docked.
Next to the veranda, near the forest, stood an abandoned swing set, overgrown with Ivy.
‘I assumed it would be bigger,’ Mobius said. ‘I mean, it’s the country house of business tycoon Odin Borson. I thought it would be… more bombastic.’
Loki shrugged. ‘That’s mums’ influence. She doesn’t much like bombastic.’
Mobius turned off the car. ‘And Odin listens to her?’
‘Usually,’ Loki said, as they grabbed their backpack. ‘He likes to leave things to her at home. Good for us, it meant he wasn’t a complete tyrant. More like, seventy-five percent tyrant.’ Loki pursed their lips. ‘It probably also has something to do with gender roles.’
‘Hm.’ Mobius opened the car door. ‘Is your room in the attic?’
Loki shook his head. ‘That’s where Hela used to sleep, and presumably will now. If she’s coming, that is.’
‘Ah-ha.’
‘She doesn’t like Odin much, so she doesn’t come much. Or, well, at all.’ Loki sighed and opened his own door. ‘Let’s face it. And sorry, I know you like attic rooms.’
Mobius squeezed Loki’s hand as they walked up to the veranda. ‘No issue.’
‘Thanks for coming along,’ Loki whispered, before raising his hand to knock on the door. Before he could, a large, blonde man lifted up the blinds. ‘Loki! Door’s open!’
‘Thor! Put those down!’ Someone yelled from inside.
Loki pushed against the door. ‘Guess I’m home,’ they whispered, unable to conceal a smile.
Mobius and Loki left their coats and shoes in the hallway and walked into the kitchen, which seamlessly ran into the living room. It was a modern, cozy space, with a large L-shaped couch in front of a hearth. The kitchen looked old and smelled like something out of a family movie or a 70’s sitcom. Every part of the wall from the hall to the hearth was lined with bookshelves, stuffed full of books and trinkets. On the kitchen table and the coffee table stood bunches of withered flowers in colorful vases.
At the kitchen table sat a brunette and two men; the two men looked like they could be the same person, only forty years apart. The younger one- the blonde, large one, so Thor, Mobius assumed- jumped up.
‘Loki!’ Loki yelped as their brother swept them into a bear hug. ‘From now on,’ He said as he put Loki back on their feet, ‘you are going to call and write and send pictures every week, and you are going to come over once a month. I miss you.’
‘Hm-hm.’ Loki forced himself not to laugh.
‘And why didn’t I know you had a lover before you told us he came along?’
‘Hey!’ Loki pointed a finger at Thor. ‘I did! I even sent pictures from our vacation!’
Thor blinked. ‘Right. Anyhow-‘ he put Loki down on his feet in order to look at Mobius. ‘You’re the lucky man, then?’
Mobius nodded. ‘I am-‘ Before he knew it, Thor had pulled him into an equally crushing bear-hug.
‘Thor!’ Loki screeched while Mobius struggled to keep his balance.
Thor shrugged. ‘I just want to show you I accept him.’ At the dinner table, the brunette shook her head with a smile.
‘You don’t have to kill him for that,’ Loki rebutted.
‘Come on, Loki, you know-‘
‘My sons.’ They both shut up when Odin spoke. The woman turned her gaze to the tabletop.
Odin got up from his chair and stood in between Loki and Thor. He looked from one to the other, before turning his gaze to Mobius.
Loki had prepared Mobius for the moment when he had to face Odin. Still, under his gaze, Mobius felt his muscles tense up.
‘So this is your… ‘partner’.’
Mobius’ gaze trailed to the ground. Loki straightened their shoulders. ‘Yes.’
‘I get why you wrote ‘partner’.’
‘Does it shock you, father?’ Loki cocked their chin. ‘Luckily, I didn’t bring him for you. I brought him to meet mom.’ A muscle twitched by Odins’ mouth. ‘Actually, is she upstairs? I want to say hello.’
Odin nodded. ‘She’s in our bedroom.’
Loki turned to Mobius. ‘Hm…’
‘Go greet her,’ Mobius quickly said. ‘I can stay here for now.’
Loki smiled a little unsurely, before walking out of the living room.
As Loki went upstairs, Thor moved in between Mobius and his father. ‘Anyone want more coffee?’ He asked, as he pushed Mobius towards the dinner table.
No-one replied with a yes. Still, Thor made everyone coffee, and then another one, as he babbled away. The woman- who was called Jane, Mobius learned- sometimes corrected her boyfriend. Mobius said what he could. Odin spoke sporadically, and all that came out took a condescending turn.
A roaring motorcycle disturbed their second cup of coffee and a story about an encounter Thor recently had with a patient. Odin scowled. Thors’ face got more serious and Jane giggled nervously.
A few moments later they heard loud banging on the door. This time, Thor didn’t pull up the blinds to tell the new visitor the door was open.
He and Odin locked eyes. After a few seconds, Thor got up to open the door.
Two hushed ‘hello’s’ were followed by the sound of a coat being thrown onto the floor and the clacking of heels. A woman with long black hair, dressed in a black and green leather bike suit, appeared in the doorframe.
‘Hela,’ Odin said. ‘I’m glad you’re here.’
She didn’t reply. Instead, she looked around the room.
‘That's your girl?’ She asked Thor, while pointing at Jane. Thor nodded.
‘And then that’s Loki’s… I get why they said partner.’ She scanned Mobius from head to toe. ‘Good for them. I assume Loki is upstairs with mom right now?’
‘He- They are,’ Thor replied with a nod.
‘Then I’ll go when they come back.’
She sat down on the chair next to Mobius, which left a chair between her and Odin.
‘You want coffee?’ Thor asked.
Hela shook her head. ‘I am here for mom, not to build bridges,’ she said. ‘Now, you were probably right in the middle of a story about the last thing you ate, drank, or punched. Continue on. Please act like I am not here. That would bring me great joy.’
For a moment it seemed as if Thor wanted to turn on the coffee machine again. He opted for talking more instead.
As soon as they heard Loki coming downstairs, Hela jumped up. She almost bumped into her sibling in the hallway. ‘Hey,’ Loki said, to which she replied ‘hey’ back, and that was the end of their interaction.
Loki walked into the room, looked around, and sighed. ‘Mobius, what do you say I… show you around the area for a bit?’
<-->
They went outside and sat on the dock, which did have a small rowing boat attached to it. Loki took a deep breath and gestured at the house. ‘So. You’ve met them.’ They sighed. ‘Do you now understand why I am the way I am?’ Loki stuck his hand into the water. Tadpoles swam to their fingers and nipped at the tips. ‘Mom’s in bad shape,’ they continued.
Mobius ran his finger over Loki’s shoulder in slow circles. ‘I know, love.’
Loki swallowed. ‘No, but she was worse than I had expected. Like, I don’t know why they let her leave the hospital.’ He twirled a lock of hair around their finger. ‘I understand why she wanted to get out. It’s because she’d rather… you know… die, here, then there.’
Mobius nodded. ‘Maybe your father… I mean, Odin, pulled a few strings.’
Loki rolled their eyes. ‘Thor is the only person who still calls him ‘dad.’
Mobius nodded. ‘Your sister didn’t say a word to him.’
‘Nope.’ Loki formed their hand into a cup in the water and pulled out a handful of tadpoles. They held them for a moment before releasing them into the water again. ‘Me and my brother are not wholly sure what exactly happened to Hela. Mom thinks she’ll tell us when she’s ready and Odin would rather we don’t know.’ Loki picked up a few more tadpoles, and released them again.
Mobius moved his hand from Loki’s shoulder to Loki’s back.
‘Mom was happy to see me, I think. She asked if you came with me, and I said yes, and that you would see her when she got down.’ They nodded. ‘I don’t think I want to tell you what we talked about.’
Mobius squeezed Loki’s shoulder. ‘That’s alright, love. I didn’t expect you to tell me any-’
‘Loki! Loki’s boyfriend! Get your asses over here!’ Thor yelled from the house.
‘His name is Mobius!’ Loki screeched back. He stood up, took Mobius by the hand and pulled him up. Together, they walked to the house.
<-->
As Thor drove them through the hall, they heard voices up the stairs; Odin, and presumably Loki’s mother.
Jane sat on the couch, fidgeting with her scarf. Thor sat down next to her and tapped his fingers on the wooden handrail. Hela was sitting at the dinner table, with her back to the hall. Loki and Mobius both took a chair.
A few moments later, they could hear Odin and Frigga come down the stairs. With every step, Thor tapped his fingers louder.
They arrived in the door frame and Mobius held his breath for a moment. He only knew Frigga from pictures in the tabloids, where she had been styled and healthy, with gray and flaxen-golden hair and fashionable suits and dresses. Now, she was wearing a black training suit and her hair was held together with a large clip. She didn’t wear any make-up. Nothing hid the large bags under her eyes or the spots on her skin, and the track suit had gotten too big since she had gotten ill. She leaned on her husbands’ arm, and still it seemed like standing asked too much of her.
Still, when she saw Mobius, she smiled. ‘I haven’t met you yet.‘
Mobius forced a smile. ‘Good afternoon, Mrs. Borson. It‘s a pleasure to meet you. Loki already told me lots about you.’
‘Good to meet you too, Mobius. I must say I haven’t heard much about you yet, but that’ll change soon. You can call me Frigga.’
‘Good to meet you,’ Mobius said again.
Frigga winked. Odin guided her to the couch, next to Thor. He sat down at the very end of the couch, far away from everyone else.
‘Thor, can you get everyone a cup of tea?’ Frigga asked.
Thor got up so fast he accidentally pulled off Jane’s scarf in the process. ‘Sorry,’ he said, as he tried to fix her scarf. In the end, Loki sighed, got up and walked to the kitchen. Hela grinned.
Mobius' eyes drifted to Odin, who looked at the display with disapproval.
‘What tea does everybody want?’ Loki yelled. ‘You got five seconds to decide,’ they said when no one answered.
‘Loki-’
‘Otherwise they’ll think for six hours, mom, and it’s already five ‘o clock. we have to get started on dinner soon. Three… two… one…’
‘Strawberry!’ Thor blurted out.
‘Earl gray, I think?’ Jane said more as a question than a decision.
‘You know what,’ Hela said.
Loki glanced at Odin, who shook his head. They took six cups out of the cupboard before opening another one, which was filled with boxes of tea.
‘I heard a strawberry, an earl gray, mum has lavender, Mobius has English breakfast because he’s basic, love you by the way, I have citrus and I hear another strawberry for Hela.’
Hela narrowed her eyes. ‘Brat.’
‘Hela-’
‘He knows I have-’
‘Hela, are you thirteen or thirty? Stay calm,’ Odin commanded, to which Hela didn’t reply.
‘That’s thirteen,’ Mobius heard him whisper to his wife, while Hela and Loki squabled in the kitchen.
‘Let her,’ Frigga replied. Loki snatched a box of tea from the shelf and dangled it above their head while Hela threatened to kill them. ‘At least they act normal. I want them to act normal.’
Odin didn’t reply. He took the clip out of her hair. He took a comb out of his pocket and started to brush his wife’s hair. In the meantime, Hela and Loki threw tea bags at each other in the kitchen and Thor replied like a sports commentator every time one of them hit.
In the end, Loki and Hela managed to produce six cups of tea. ‘Thank you,’ Frigga said. ‘Hela, there is a tea bag hanging from your shirt.’
Hela pulled a face as she took it away. She sat down at the table again, arms crossed.
Mobius sighed and patted Loki on their upper arm, which gained him a disapproving look from Odin.
Frigga beamed at him, while Odin began to braid her hair. ‘How did you two meet?’
‘Mom-’
‘It’s okay, Loki,’ Mobius said. ‘We met about a year ago, very classic, in a bar. I was there after work with some colleagues.’
‘Except the colleagues had already left and you didn’t want to,’ Loki said before taking a sip from their tea.
‘No kidding,’ Mobius replied, while pushing a lock of hair out of Loki’s face.
Hela and Odin pulled a face at the exact same time, only for Hela to stop when she noticed she was mimicking her father.
‘Lovely,’ Frigga replied. ‘Are you living together?’
‘You didn’t tell your family we were living together?’ Mobius asked dryly. This time, both Odin and Hela raised an eyebrow.
Loki shrugged. ‘I told Thor.’
‘He did.’ Thor nodded. ‘But he refused to give me the address, because I would ‘send him too many postcards.’’
‘I his defense,’ Jane said, ‘You would’ve.’
‘Still!’
‘And all postcards from, like, your own town too,’ Loki said.
‘Not true! We went to all kinds of different places I could have sent you cards from!’
‘Oh yeah? Like?’ Loki smirked.
‘Loki…’ Frigga shook her head.
They rolled their eyes innocently, while Thor launched into a long story about all the places he and Jane visited on holiday.
Odin finished making two braids in his wife’s hair. He tied them up with elastic bands, before binding them together with a more chique hair clip by the nape of her neck.
Frigga ran them through her hands. She smiled at her husband, who squeezed her shoulder.
Mobius didn’t remember what exactly was said during dinner. It was more of the same. Thor talking, the others listening and Hela ignoring her father. Only when Frigga talked did people remember themselves.
<-->
After dinner, Odin took Frigga back upstairs, and everyone went their own way. Loki took Mobius back outside, down the path by the lake. The smell of the Wisteria mingled with the fresh lake water and the pines in the forest.
‘It’s nice here,’ he said. ‘I get why your mom would rather be here than in the hospital.’
‘She also wouldn’t be able to keep all of us by her side in the hospital,’ Loki commented. ‘And she wants us all to be here. If only because this will probably be the last time we are all together.’ He sighed as they sat down on a dead tree trunk. ‘Maybe that’s too dark of a notion. I am sure Thor will force us all together in a decade or so.’
‘What’s your issue with your brother?’ Mobius stroked Loki’s cheek.
Loki shrugged. ‘He’s so… idolate of my father, still. I guess he was always the favorite.’ Loki crossed his arms. ‘You know, Mobius, I truly do love Thor. But I always get some old, bitter, childish taste in my mouth when I see him.’ He put his head on Mobius’ shoulder.
Mobius nodded. ‘I think he understands that, Loki.’
Loki nodded. ‘Still-’
They looked up when they heard a cough. Around the corner came Hela, with her leather Jacket flung over her shoulder. She raised her chin when she saw Mobius and Loki. ‘Am I interrupting something?’
Loki shook his head. ‘I don’t know what you could be interrupting.’
Hela laughed as she sat down on the ground before them. ‘No?’ She cocked her head at Mobius. ‘Does your lover know about race car guy?’
Loki grew blood red. ‘I almost forgot,’ he mumbeld, as he looked away from Mobius.
‘I think you did tell me that, love,’ Mobius said.
Hela winked. ‘Let me jog your memory. You see, Mobius, one time, while I was visiting this family’s city house, Loki hooked up with this random dude in the back of some racecar. Just so happened to be parked in the zone where the rest of our family was walking around pretending to be normal.’ She grinned as Loki winced. ‘I was the only one who spotted it, lucky for him, and could make sure he got out without the rest of the family finding out.’ She shrugged. ‘At least, we think they never found out.’
Loki gave their sister a look. ‘Still a shrill bitch, Hela,’ they said.
She pulled out a cigarette tin. ‘Your lover doesn’t seem very shocked.’
‘That’s because I told him about the past. I trust him. Maybe you should find someone you trust some time,’ Loki replied.
Hela took a cigarette out of her tin. ‘Want one, brother?’
Loki pouted at Mobius while they accepted. ‘Don’t look like that, Mobius,’ they said. ‘I only smoke with Hela, that’s it.’
‘Hm.’ Mobius sniffed. ‘I guess I never smell it on your clothing.
‘You can trust me.’ Loki winked.
Hela snickered. ‘So, what do you do, Mobius?’
‘I’m an accountant,’ he replied. ‘At a bank.’
Hela burst out laughing. ‘Loki, you’re not telling me you chose someone with the boringest of boring jobs.’
Loki shrugged. ‘Let’s just say he can even make accounting sound interesting.’
‘He sounds as interesting as the people I work with. And I work in a mortuary,’ Hela replied. She took a drag of her cigarette.
‘And how’s that going?’ Loki asked. Mobius crossed his arms.
‘As lively as always. But it’s okay. Karnilla- that’s my girlfriend- now, she works at a medicinal lab. She brings in the big bucks.’
‘You have a gírlfriend?’ Mobius raised his eyebrows.
Hela exhaled. ‘You’re not going to tell me you’re homophobic, Mobius.’
Mobius grinned. ‘I was thinking, poor Odin.’
‘Screw him. Anyhow, it’s not like he’s going to have to suffer through this all- his kids being people, you know it- for long. When mum dies, we might as well keep her on ice for a few weeks and wait until Odin succumbs to loneliness so they can be buried together. I’m telling you now, he can’t live without her. He’ll simply wither.’ She sniffed and made out her cigarette on the forest ground. ‘Serves him right. He left me, you know. When I was six.’
Mobius looked at Loki, whose hand had frozen midway in the air. They never told us. Ah, so this was news for him as well.
‘That was when he divorced my biological mother. I can’t blame him, she’s a piece of shit too, maybe even more so than him. But when they seperated, and she got main custody, he just left me. He couldn’t bear to see her, so he didn’t come to see me.’ Her smile had disappeared. Mobius saw tears blinking in the corners of her eyes. ‘I only saw him again when I was ten and that bitch woman decided to leave with some other fucker. She decided she didn’t want me anymore and sent me to my dad. Lo and behold, he already had a new wife and these two.’ She pointed at Loki. ‘He tried to act like he didn’t not see me for six years. Just wanted to move on. The only one who gave me the time to heal and to ground, and forced me to see a shrink while she was at it, was Frigga. She was just in time too. I was ten, so it still made an impact.’ She lit her second cigarette. ‘And that’s why she deserves mom. That’s also why I am here and I’ll be gone tomorrow. I’m here for her, not for any of you other fuckers.’ She exhaled her smoke, before running a hand through Loki’s hair. ‘That being said, you’re bearable, little brother.’
Loki put out their cigarette. ‘You love us, Hela. Me and Thor. We know, don’t worry. Remember when I was four and Thor was six, and we were afraid of the thunder outside, and you’d come to hug us?’
‘You weren’t supposed to remember,’ Hela replied.
‘Well, we did. Core memory.’
‘Tsk.’ She got up, cigarette still in hand. ‘I’m going for a walk. You two do… melodramatic gay lover stuff, or something. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.’
‘Buh-bye,’ Loki greeted as she walked off.
When they didn’t see her anymore, Mobius took a deep breath. ‘She’s… imposing.’
‘She has it from Odin. She’s more like him then she’ll ever want to admit and she’d split open my skull and display it as a keepsake in her mortuary if she’d hear me say that.’ Loki slid off the tree trunk and laid down on the sandy path. ‘I guess now I understand why she dislikes him as much as she does, however.’ His expression soured. ‘Well, except for all the things I already knew.’ Mobius sat down next to them. ‘It’s not that Odin doesn’t love us, it’s just that he is so crack-awful at showing it that it doesn’t matter anymore. ‘But I love you’ is no longer an excuse when you’re fucked over for life.’ Mobius pulled Loki close. ‘And don’t think I haven’t had difficulties with my mother staying with him.’
Mobius nodded. ‘I know, baby.’ Loki sighed and grabbed his hand.
Together, they looked at the trees above them. Loki laid their head on Mobius’ chest, and Mobius stroked and kissed and soothed them.
When the night had gotten so dark they could barely see where they stood, they got back to the villa. Once there, they went straight to bed, and it didn’t take long for the rest to follow them.
<-->
Mobius opened his eyes. He looked at the clock on his nightstand; 03.36 A.M. Next to him, Loki was sound asleep. From the next room over, he could hear Thor snoring.
Poor Jane, he thought, as he got out of bed to grab a drink of water.
He tiptoed down the stairs and through the hallway, to the kitchen. He was thinking about which cupboard the glasses were in again, when he accidentally stepped on soft fabric. When he looked down to see what it was, he found Odin sitting on the kitchen floor, wearing a large vest.
Mobius screamed. Odin sighed. ‘Be quiet or you’ll wake everyone in the house. Frigga needs her sleep, she gets so little as it is.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Fun, disease. It’ll wear out your body and then it won’t even let you sleep. What are you here for?’
‘Water,’ Mobius mumbled.
‘Glasses are in the second cupboard from the right, just above your head.’
Mobius nodded and did as told.
Odin sighed. ‘She wants me to sleep by her side, and it’s probably good that she forces me to, otherwise I’d be on the couch at best and in the city on the other side of the country with a nurse in my place at worst,’ he said. Mobius filled his cup with water. ‘Still, I can’t handle it. I just can’t. Every night, I wait until she is asleep and then I have to get out of bed and sit here just to try and process what is happening.’ Mobius sipped his water. ‘I can’t live without her. I just can’t. Even if you would give her a rabid street cat, she’d find a way to love it. Just the way she is, and that is why she loves me. I- I know I am not a good person.’ Odin put his hand over his eyes. ‘I don’t deserve her, but I need her, and now she is going to die, and it is that she wants me to sleep next to her, otherwise I’d have ran.’ He stared into the dark while Mobius finished his water.
Mobius quietly put down his glass. When he tried to leave the kitchen, Odin spoke again: ‘Take good care of Loki, will you? Better then I took care of him… of them. No, that bar is too low. Take better care of them then I did of Frigga. Still low, but you at least have to make a little jump to get over it.’ He turned his head towards Mobius. ‘Promise me.’
‘I promise,’ Mobius muttered.
‘Good, good.’ Odin stared off into the darkness again.
‘Good night,’ Mobius whispered, before leaving the room.
<-->
That morning, as they went down for breakfast, they passed Thor in the hallway. He greeted Mobius and Loki with the usual hearty cheer.
Mobius went before them on the staircase. Behind him, he could hear Thor whisper: ‘did Hela tell you about herself last night as well?’
‘Yes,’ Loki replied.
‘Explains a lot.’
‘It does.’ Then they were downstairs, so they stopped talking.
Before they walked through the door, into the living room, Mobius squeezed Loki’s hand. It made them smile.
Odin was the only one already in the kitchen. He looked pale.
Mobius put an arm around Loki’s shoulders when he made eye contact with the old man. Odin lowered his eyes.
While Thor started pulling plates, cups, teabags and eggs out of cupboards and fridges, Odin walked upstairs again.
While he was up, Hela came into the living room. She was already wearing her boots and didn’t make an effort to sit down. When Thor asked how she wanted her egg, she just shook her head.
‘You can’t mean you’re leaving already!’
She shrugged. ‘I’m afraid I am.’
Odin and Frigga came back into the room. This time, Frigga’s hair was already in braids.
When she saw her daughter dressed up, she let go of her husbands’ arm. ‘Hela, can you come with me for a moment?’
Odin scoffed. ‘Are you sure that is-’
‘Odin.’ She shot him a look. Odin closed his mouth and sat down on the couch.
Hela chuckled, before following her mother out the door. They heard the front door fall into the lock.
‘I made an egg for both Hela and mother,’ Thor mumbled.
Loki crossed his arms. ‘I am sure it’ll be okay, Thor. It’s just eggs.’
Thors’ eyebrows sunk down. ‘I want all of you to understand,’ he said in a stark tone, ‘That I am the only one who tries to keep the mood bearable. Mama is going to-’ He swallowed ‘-we all fucking know, otherwise we wouldn’t be here, and all of you are just fighting and being angry and refusing to do anything. I know-’ He put down his fists on the kitchen counter. Jane wanted to put a hand on his shoulder, but Thor shook her off. ‘I know, there is hurt in this family. We all fucking know. But this isn’t about us, it’s about mom, and if you all can’t find it in yourselves to behave for two fucking days, at least appreciate my efforts to do so.’ He stared at the counter and took a few deep breaths. ‘Sorry, Jane,’ he whispered, before he turned around and walked out the kitchen.
‘Thor-’ Odin began, only to be stopped by a stark ‘Shut up.’
Again, they heard the door fall into the lock.
Odin sighed, sat down and leaned his forehead against his palm. It made him look older and frailer than ever before.
Loki looked at the scene in front of him, before following his brother out the door. Mobius and Jane stayed behind.
They quietly continued preparing breakfast, for when everyone would return. Afterwards, they sat down on the couch. Mobius coughed. ‘So. How did you meet Thor?’
Jane tugged on the sleeves of her cardigan. ‘We met like, three years ago. For my internship I was at a medical center where he worked as a paramedic. The first day, we were in the same break room, and he bought everybody there coffee. He did the same thing the day after, and then again, and then I decided I would buy him a coffee. And then the next day, he bought coffee again, and he had written his number on the paper cup.’
Mobius chuckled. ‘Lovely.’
Jane nodded, choosing not to mention the part where she only found out about the number when they were making out on her couch and he told her, after she had asked him on a date a few weeks earlier. Not while Odin was in the room, no matter how far away in thought he seemed. ‘I guess I already know how you met Loki.’
Mobius smiled, deciding not to tell how really, the first few nights had been messy hook-ups where they didn’t even know each others’ names. ‘If I may ask, did you meet them before yesterday?’
Jane nodded. ‘Twice, during other family gatherings, and Thor would show me the pictures they sent. I hadn’t met Hela before, though.’
Mobius nodded. ‘She doesn’t come often, they say.’
Jane shook her head. ‘I think I’ve been here more often in the last three years than she has since she turned eighteen. I don’t blame her, I think.’ She shot a glance at Odin.
Mobius coughed. ‘Ehm, and where do you work now?’
Jane sounded relieved as she began to talk about her work as a cancer researcher and her new PHD candidate, and how glad she was that Thor found a job in a new hospital closer by.
Quitely, Hela and Frigga walked back into the room. Odin looked up. Frigga stared at him until he helped her to the couch. Hela stayed by the door frame, with her arms and ankles crossed.
Thor and Loki came back together, looking brighter than before. When he saw that everyone was already in the room, Thor quietly walked to the kitchen counter and began serving out the plates.
Hela took a deep breath. ‘I’m leaving. Loki, Thor, I’ll see you again, some day.’ She looked at her father. ‘If I never see you again, thanks for being a seed donor, I guess. That’s all.’ She waved, before leaving the room. A few minutes later, they heard the roar of her motor, and she was gone.
Odin looked at his plate. Then put it away. ‘You two help your mother,’ he mumbeld, before he walked out the door.
Thor shot a look at the others, as if to say ‘What I just said.’
Frigga took a deep breath. ‘Did you make the eggs, Thor?’ She asked.
He nodded and forced a smile. ‘I did. I hope everyone got the right ones, and well, otherwise there are two more plates left.’ He sighed and put down his cutlery. ‘Sorry, mama.’
‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘It’s… difficult for all of us.’
‘Still dad could act better than that,’ Loki muttered.
Frigga nodded almost invisibly. Loki angrily cut off a piece of egg.
<-->
After breakfast, Loki asked Mobius to follow them upstairs, to their bedroom. Loki laid down on the covers and closed their eyes. Mobius put his hands on his hips, realizing he hadn’t taken the time last night to take a look at Loki’s childhood bedroom.
There were posters of emo, rock and punk bands on the wall, a low desk with scratches, writings and stickers, a closet with only a few clothes, black curtains, a simple two person bed and brown wallpaper.
Mobius chuckled. ‘Real rebel fase, I see.’
‘More like a true emo fase.’ Loki rolled their eyes. ‘I have to admit: I am not sure if I really liked those bands or if I just wanted to be defiant. Now come. Sit.’ They patted the bed next to them. When Mobius laid down, they put their head on his chest.
They closed their eyes. ‘I don’t know if I can stay here any longer.’
Mobius nodded. ‘I understand. But?’
Loki shivered, before letting out a sob. ‘I don’t want to leave before mom dies, but I dread being here when she does as well.’ Their lip quivered. ‘And I don’t want to see Odin anymore.’
Mobius put his arms around Loki’s back and softly stroked their shoulders. ‘He is wrecked with grief, and guilt,’ he mumbeld. ‘Sorry. I am not sure why I defend him.’
Loki shrugged. ‘He can leave forever and never be seen again for all I care.’ They let out a sob. ‘But even that is not true. I can’t just unlove my dad. I don’t know, Mobius.’
‘Sh.’ Mobius kissed Loki’s forehead. ‘I know. I know, Loki.’
Loki began to cry, with their head buried in Mobius’ shirt. Mobius kept shushing, and whispering, as long as needed.
At that moment, neither of them knew that it would be done the next morning, and that her body had been brought to the mortuary by noon, after which Odin kicked everyone out of the house. Neither did they know that Hela’s prediction would be true, even if not in the way she thought- even she couldn’t have predicted that the usually so proud Odin Borson would break- at the thought of the funeral, of loneliness and of having to face the world- and took what was left of his wife’s painkillers, called an ambulance with the last of his remaining strength and died that very night.
The funeral would be the last time they were all together, at least until Thors’ son was born, a boy they called Magni. It was all still way, way further into the future.
For now, the wisteria bloomed and spread it’s intoxicating smell, while Thor, Jane and Frigga talked downstairs, Loki cried comforted by Mobius, and Odin sat on the dock, letting the tadpoles and the cool water run over his hand, thinking to himself that the next day, he should bring Frigga there one last time.