Mobius has never slept so soundly in his life.

This is what Loki grew up with? Giant rooms? Comfy beds? Fluffy pillows? Seven million blankets to pick and choose from? He could get used to this!

He flat-out refuses to get out of bed when he wakes up. It's just too damn comfortable. He's not moving until Loki comes in and physically drags him out of bed himself. And why should he? If he's supposed to stay in his room until Loki grabs him anyway, he might as well stay in bed the whole time.

But after drifting in and out of consciousness a few times, he starts to get a little bored. Rather reluctantly, he crawls out of bed. He started to look around last night, but between getting pruned and going to the Void and going back to the TVA and then meeting up with Loki and Sylvie again and then going to Earth and then coming to Asgard and just ugh, he was exhausted. His new bed was easily the most appealing thing in the room.

So he takes this time to look around now. He looks through the drawers in the bureau, and he's unsurprisingly met with clothing. He looks in the closet. More clothing. He looks in the drawer of his nightstand. That one's just empty. The drawers of the vanity are just as empty, save the comb and the hairbrush in the top. Everything is so empty and clean. It's nice, but it's sort of ominous, too.

Mobius sighs and plops down on the foot of his bed.

And now he's bored again.

He looks down at his silky Asgardian pajamas. Maybe he should take this time to get changed. He heads over to the closet and begins flipping through outfits. Honestly, he has no idea what he's looking at. He doesn't know how they work. He doesn't know how they go on. Some of them, he doesn't even know what he's looking at. Asgardian clothing is fucking weird, man.

So he slips his TVA suit back on instead. He'll wear this for now. He'll at least wear it for breakfast. Maybe after, he'll ask Loki to show him how to wear Asgardian clothes – or, alternatively, where he could find more TVA-like suits to cycle through and hopefully wash on a semi-regular basis.

Now what does he do?

He feels like he's been up for hours. That might just be his boredom talking or his ever-building enthusiasm over exploring Asgard, but it feels like it's been forever. He's getting really impatient with this whole "waiting" thing.

Finally, he gives up. He's gonna get this ball rolling himself if Loki's not going to do it for him. He gives himself a once-over in the mirror – he wants to make a good first impression with any Asgardians he may meet today – and heads out the door. He heads to Loki's room down the hall and knocks on the door.

Nothing.

Mobius furrows his brows. Okay... He knocks on the door again, a bit louder this time. He's once again met with silence. He tries calling Loki's name, but there's no response.

Mobius sighs. How does a guy sleep through all that?

He heads to Sylvie's room instead. He knocks on the door–

But the door's not quite latched, so it opens as soon as he touches it. He says a very quick, "Sorry!" and closes the door, but then he pauses. Did he even see her in there? He's not sure he did. He wasn't really looking, but he feels like he should have at least caught a glimpse as he closed the door.

Mobius knocks again. "Sylvie? You awake?"

Silence.

Mobius sighs. Well, here goes nothing. He slowly opens the door again, giving her ample opportunity to tell him to shut it. When it's open all the way, he looks around. She's nowhere to be seen. That's weird.

Maybe she's in Loki's room? He quietly closes her door and heads back to his other friend's. He knocks on the door again, the loudest he has so far. "Loki, you in there?"

There's no response.

"Alright, I'm opening the door," Mobius announces. He gives Loki the chance to argue, but when he doesn't, Mobius pushes the door open...

And the room is empty.

Mobius puts his hands on his hips. "Huh." He looks around the room thoughtfully. "Mischievous scamps."

Mobius shakes his head to himself and walks out of the room, closing the door behind himself. Alright, that didn't go as planned. Did they just forget that they were supposed to wait for each other? He wouldn't mind too much except that Loki was supposed to show him where to go in the morning. He has no idea where to even start.

He vaguely remembers the direction they came from last night (he hopes), so he heads back that way. He does his best to retrace their steps, though he's not at all sure he's going the right way. He figures he'll just wing it and hopefully not get lost enough that there's no one around to ask for help when he inevitably needs it.

He must have chosen the right way to go, because after a few minutes, he finally sees a familiar face. He breathes a sigh of relief and jogs up to him. "Thor!"

Thor turns around, and when he sees the analyst, he smiles. "Mobius! Back to exploring already, are you?"

Mobius chuckles. "Uh, no. I'm actually looking for Loki and Sylvie. Have you seen them today?"

Thor shakes his head. "I'm afraid not. Are they still in their rooms?"

"Nope," Mobius says. "That was the first place I looked."

Thor frowns. "Oh." He thinks about that for a few moments. "There was a time I would have said that if you could not find him, he was likely in the library. I do not know if I expect that to be true now that he has more friends to spend time with, but it may be worth a look."

Mobius isn't sure he buys it, but it's not like he has a better idea, so he says, "Alright, cool." He pauses. "How do I get to the library?"

Thor cracks a smile. "You may follow me. I can show you where it is."

Mobius hesitates. "Are you sure?" He doesn't have any... princely... stuff... to do?

"Of course," Thor says. "If you'd like my help, that is. I did promise to show you around Asgard one day, did I not?"

Honestly, Mobius had completely forgotten about that, but he's more than happy to take Thor up on the offer, so he says, "In that case, lead the way."

The first minute or so of their walk is quiet. It's not uncomfortable in the least. It just gives them a moment to reset before their conversation can begin again.

"Mobius," Thor says, "if I were to ask you a question about my brother, could we keep this conversation between us?"

Mobius raises his brows. "Yeah, sure, but I can't promise I'll answer it. I can't spill all his secrets."

"I understand," Thor says. "I was just wondering, do you know this Thanos he spoke of yesterday?"

Mobius sucks in a sharp breath through his teeth. "Yeah, that's..." He wasn't really expecting that one.

"Your Loki said that they'd made a deal," Thor says. "But the Loki of this timeline looked terrified. I have to assume there was something more to it."

Mobius heistates, then sighs. "There was," he says, "but that's all I can tell you. If you want to ask my Loki, you can try that, but even I haven't tried to talk to him about that."

Thor seems mostly unphased by that. "You're not his brother."

"No, but I am his friend," Mobius says. "And I know who Thanos is and what he did. Enough time has passed that he might be willing to talk about it, but I don't..." He shakes his head. "I don't know. Ask him at your own risk — but if he doesn't want to talk about it, don't force him to."

"Of course," Thor says.

"And don't ask the Loki from your timeline," Mobius adds. He's just gotten out of Thanos's grasp. He hasn't had as long to adjust. He definitely wouldn't handle the conversation well.

Thor looks at Mobius thoughtfully. "You really care for my brother."

Mobius gives a small shrug. "He's my best friend."

That earns a smile. "I'm glad," Thor says. "He didn't always have many of those."

"Well, he had you," Mobius says. That wasn't necessarily a good thing. Thor hasn't always sufficed as a friend. But after spending so long with Loki and watching him grow, he has a fair amount of confidence that if Thor puts him down again, Loki will fight back. He has a feeling things are going to be a lot better this time around, so what's the point in butting into their past, right? (Is he right? He honestly doesn't know.)

Thor gives him a smile for that comment. "Even so, I think he'll do much better with some friends of his own."

"Well, hey, it works out for both of us," Mobius says. After that mess with Ravonna, he's more than happy to have some new, less-likely-to-prune-him friends.

"I'm glad to hear it," Thor says. "What do you think of Asgard so far?"

"It's, um..." Mobius shakes his head helplessly. "It's not quite what I expected."

"How so?"

"I don't know," Mobius admits. "I don't even know what I expected. I just know it wasn't..." He gestures vaguely to the world around them. "This." He shrugs. "But I like it so far. Haven't been any glaring red flags yet, so I think I'll get used to it."

"I do as well," Thor says. "If there is anything I can do to help you adjust, please, let me know. I want to make your new home as welcoming as possible."

"I'm already feeling pretty welcome," Mobius tells him. He gets a lot of weird looks from people when he walks around, but he's pretty good at ignoring them. The royal family likes him and Thor's friends seem to not hate him, so he's feeling pretty good about himself. "I might take you up on it, though, 'cause if Loki and Sylvie are gonna keep disappearing on me, I'm gonna need some help figuring out what the hell I'm supposed to be doing."

Thor chuckles. "I will be more than happy to help."

"I appreciate that," Mobius says. "But shouldn't you be off fixing the Nine Realms? Are they not as messed up in this timeline?"

"They are," Thor says. "But they've been growing slowly and steadily worse for the last year. I see no harm in leaving them as they are for another day or two. I would rather be here while Asgard adjusts to its new residents – unless you know something about the future that I do not?"

Mobius shakes his head. "Nope," he says. "As far as the Sacred Timeline goes, I got nothing for you other than that this isn't what you usually do. I don't think it'll make much of a difference – but don't take my word for it, because I don't want to take the blame if I'm wrong."

"Duly noted," Thor says, an amused smile on his face.

"Hey, can I cut in where I don't belong real quick?" Mobius asks.

Thor gives him a questioning look. "I guess so?"

"I don't know what's going to change now that the Battle of New York isn't happening," Mobius says. "But there's a pretty good chance that Jane Foster is going to be in danger within the next year or two and you're gonna have to help her. So I'm just thinking, if you're going to see her eventually, there's no reason you can't go check in on her sooner. Even if you wait until things settle down here before you go. I think it'll be good for both of you."

Thor looks at him warily. "What sort of danger will she find herself in?"

Mobius shakes his head. "You're not supposed to know yet. When it gets closer to the Convergence, I'll tell you, but I don't want to say the wrong thing and mess it up."

"What does Jane have to do with the Convergence?" Thor asks.

"You'll see," Mobius says vaguely. If it comes to that in this timeline, at least. "But my point is just that Jane misses you, and I think you probably miss her, too, so if you don't mind me playing Cupid, I think you should pay her a visit — you know, whenever you get the chance. Since you'll probably end up seeing her eventually anyway."

Thor gives him a small smile. "Thank you for your counsel, Mobius. You're very wise."

"Yeah, any time," Mobius says. "What's the point in knowing the future if I don't do anything with it, right?"

It's at that moment when Thor and Mobius notice a few familiar faces off in the distance, and only a few seconds later when those familiar faces notice them. Sif beams and Fandral waves as they walk towards the two men, with a silent and pensive Hogun and a very hungry Volstagg right beside them.

"And the party grows," Mobius remarks.

"Perhaps they'll want to go to the library with us," Thor suggests.

Mobius hesitates. "They're not gonna want to come in, will they? 'Cause I don't think Loki..." Loki has come to love his brother again. That doesn't mean he loves his brother's friends as well.

"I'm fairly certain that Volstagg has never stepped foot in the library in his life," Thor tells him.

Mobius cracks a smile at that. "Okay, good," he says. "I feel better now."

"Would you mind if they came with us, then?" Thor asks.

Mobius shrugs. "Yeah, sure. I could stand to make some new friends." He figures if he's going to ignore all the slights Thor's made against his brother, he can ignore the plethora of rude remarks he's seen Sif and the Warriors Three make, too. They really do seem to be fun people when they're not bothering Loki.

So Thor waves them over, and their traveling party gets a little bit bigger.

Mobius likes to think he's a friendly person, so he greets them with a smile and a, "Hey."

Fandral eyes him with a mix of intrigue and distaste. "Not with Loki today, I see."

"Looking for him, actually," Mobius says. "Any chance you guys have seen him?"

"Not recently," Fandral says.

"You should enjoy the freedom while you've got it," Sif adds.

Mobius rolls his eyes good-naturedly. "Thanks," he says, not at all sincerely but not rudely, either, "but I actually do like Loki."

Fandral pats him on the back sympathetically. "I hope this affliction does not ail you for much longer."

Mobius chuckles, shaking his head. "He really is a fun guy if you, you know, let him be a fun guy."

Fandral shrugs that off. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Then you won't believe it," Sif quips, a playful smile on her face.

No, you won't, Mobius wants to say, but that's not his fault. But he's not naive enough to think he can single-handedly change the opinions they've held for centuries, especially without Loki present, so he just laughs along with them. He's not here to start a fight, after all.

Fortunately, Thor steps in with a lighthearted, "Alright, alright, that's enough."

"Oh, lighten up, Thor," Sif says, rolling her eyes. "We refrained from making jokes at his expense after his supposed death. Must we do the same now that he's returned?"

"In the presence of his new friend? Yes, you must," Thor says.

Mobius gives him a grateful smile for that, a silent sign of appreciation. He doesn't mind too much that most people don't seem to like Loki — he's used to that — but he'd rather not dwell on it.

Volstagg doesn't seem to get the message, because he says, "Well, there are two Lokis now. We can talk about the other one."

"I actually like both Lokis," Mobius tells him. "And Sylvie, too, for that matter."

"How strange," Fandral remarks. "If I hadn't known, I would have assumed you were as ordinary as ordinary comes, though that clearly cannot be true."

Mobius chuckles. "Yeah, no, not quite," he says. "There is no 'ordinary' in my line of work."

"Still," Fandral adds, "you're an interesting kind of unordinary."

"Thank you?" That's a weird compliment. He hopes it's a compliment. It sounds like a compliment, right?

The conversation does fortunately drift away from Loki after that, though it only lasts a few minutes until they reach the library. Mobius gapes at the sight before him. He thought the TVA had a large library, but this? It's even bigger – and more beautiful – in real life than it is in pictures and projections.

Thor excuses both Mobius and himself before leading his newest friend into the library. Mobius tries not to stare, but it's difficult not to. Asgard is just gorgeous, and he loves these continuous reminders that he's living a much more sophisticated life here than he was in the TVA.

They do not, in fact, find TVA Loki and Sylvie in the library like Mobius had hoped.

They do, however, find Avengers Loki here, sitting alone at a table far isolated from everybody else, his full attention on the book in front of him.

"I assume that's the wrong Loki," Thor remarks.

"Looks like," Mobius agrees. He's not sure if TVA Loki is going to change back into his Asgardian clothing now that he's here, so Avengers Loki's leather outfit isn't much of a clue, but the fact that Sylvie is nowhere to be seen is.

"If he's not here, I don't know where he would be," Thor says, "but I would be more than happy to help you look."

Mobius considers that for a few moments. He really has no idea where to go from here. He wouldn't know where to look; he wouldn't know how to get there and get back. And Thor is offering to do it, so he has to assume he's not inconveniencing him if he agrees.

But he shakes his head. "I think I'm going to stay here," he says. "But thanks for the help — and if you see my Loki or Sylvie around, let them know I'm looking for them, will you?"

"Of course," Thor says. He glances at Avengers Loki, completely oblivious to their presence. "If you are planning to talk to him, I wish you the best of luck."

Mobius fakes a smile. "Thanks," he says. "I'm gonna need it."

Thor pats him on the back, then leaves to join his friends. Mobius just stands there for a few moments, not entirely sure how to proceed, then says "fuck it" (internally, of course) and heads over to the table.

Mobius sits down across from Loki, looking at him expectantly. He doesn't say anything, but he shouldn't have to. He's fairly certain Loki will know he's here.

... Or maybe not, because Loki doesn't acknowledge him.

Mobius props his head up on his hand. "Hey."

Without looking up, Loki says, "Typically, when you find somebody sitting alone in the library with a book, it is because they would like to be alone in the library with their book."

"If everybody left you alone every time you wanted to me, you'd never talk to anybody again," Mobius remarks. He'd always known that Loki was a loner, but it seems far more true of this Variant than his own. Though there is one exception that he can think of. "Have you gotten to talk to your mom yet?"

Loki raises his gaze to meet Mobius's only long enough to ensure the agent understands his lack of interest before looking down at his book again.

"Really?" Mobius says, surprised. "Why not? You've had all morning."

Loki raises his gaze from the book again, this time with his eyes narrowed in a glare. "Why are you here, Mobius?"

"To talk to my friend, of course," Mobius says, gesturing to him with a grin.

"If it is a friend you seek, you've come to the wrong me," Loki deadpans.

"Ah, come on." Mobius nudges his arm across the table.

Loki just rolls his eyes.

"Really, though," Mobius says. "You haven't seen your mom yet?"

"Of course I've seen her," Loki says.

Mobius nods slowly. "Okay, so you've seen her. Have you gotten to talk to her yet?"

Loki sighs dramatically and closes his book. "I imagine she's more than happy to talk to the other me right now."

Mobius furrows his brows. "Are Loki and Sylvie with her now?"

"It would not surprise me if they were," Loki says. "They always tend to go where I would like to be."

"Well, you are the same person," Mobius remarks, though the reminder only makes him scowl. He presses his hands against the table. "I'll tell you what. Let's go find your mom, okay? And if the other Loki is already there, I'll drag him and Sylvie away. I was looking for them, anyway."

Loki juts his jaw out, looking at Mobius with narrowed eyes. Mobius just waits. He'll get an answer. He just has to let Loki be dramatic first. He's been studying Loki's life long enough to know that.

Sure enough, after what feels like a very long time, Loki answers. "Your friends were by the lake last night. I would suggest you begin your search there. They may have spent the night."

Mobius nods slowly. Okay, good to know. He's feeling kind of left out now, but it's good to know. "Or we could start the search wherever your mom is so you can finally talk to her." That was kind of the whole point, after all.

Loki hesitates, then sighs. "I've missed my window for a sincere conversation," he says. "The other me decided that every possible opportunity must belong to him and him alone." He shakes his head to himself. "If you truly want to see me reconcile with her, you will keep your friends busy tonight and let me try then."

"Yeah, totally," Mobius says without hesitation. "I'll keep them out of the way. Let me know how it goes, okay?"

"No."

"Okay, fair enough."

Mobius just looks at him for a few moments. Loki looks back at him wordlessly, a brow cocked as if daring him to say something.

"Well," Mobius says, "until then, you want to give me a hand finding my Loki?"

"I told you to look by the lake," Loki reminds him.

"I have no idea how to get to the lake."

Loki rolls his eyes. "The lake we were at yesterday."

"Yeah, no, I know," Mobius says. "But I have no idea how I got there."

Loki lolls his head back, exasperated. "If I help you find them, will you leave me alone?"

"Of course," Mobius says. "Unless my charm wins you over on the way and you decide you'd rather spend the day with me."

Loki scoffs. "Oh, I'm sure that will happen," he says sarcastically. He stands up and kicks his chair in. "Let me put my book away first. Then we can find your friends."

"Okie dokie, Loki."

Loki rolls his eyes, but Mobius swears he sees the hint of a smile on his lips. That's what he was hoping for. If all goes well, by the time they find the others, he and Loki will be as good of friends as they were the night before.

Because that's really all he wants, after all. He wants to be Loki's friend. He just wants Loki to have a friend.