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Loki took a deep breath in, it was manual, not quite a yawn, but it was out of the same need, his body was so tired it couldn’t even remember to breathe enough. Loki laid his head down on a pile of papers that Mobius definitely needed, and closed his eyes.
Loki hadn’t slept in awhile. He didn’t need to! He was a god, his could make himself feel fine even without sleep, (And food or drink for that matter) so if he was really busy, why wouldn’t he take that shortcut? Usually he only does this for weeks at a time.. But between the Frost Giants, Thanos…, and New York he didn’t really have the time. But it was fine! His seidr more than made up for it, and what’s a year if not a handful of weeks? He would be in a cell soon, right? Tons of time to catch up on sleep!
But, funny thing, he escaped the Avengers with the Tesseract and then got kidnapped and sent to a place where his seidr is rendered useless. He instantly felt the fatigue weighing on his bones when he was taken. Every part of his body felt heavy, not just his eyelids but his lungs, heart, veins.. Even his (likely now apparent) eye bags felt heavy. He doesn’t know if he truly is heavy or if his body is too weak to hold himself up, . His Jotun body’s basic biology beyond the whole magic thing can withstand sleep deprivation for egregiously long times, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel tired!
While this is more than likely beneath him, he resigns himself to sleeping under Mobius’s watch. Mobius seems trustable enough. Loki isn’t saying he trusts Mobius—! just that he doubts Mobius would stab him in his sleep. So he rests his head on his arms, blocking Mobius’s access of 7 different files, a standard issue TVA pen, (with a sticker plastered on it so worn out you cannot make out the image) and a pamphlet on Jet Skis ‘mental health benefits’ that Mobius quotes to Renslayer on a daily basis.
He lets sleep overtake him, never did closing his eyes feel so good, but with how sleep deprived he is it doesn’t make him feel better. It’s hard to fully, truly fall asleep. He’s out of practice! He hasn’t slept in awhile, so his body isn’t used to letting him succumb to his more mortal desires. But, he did mention he was exhausted? Truly and utterly exhausted. He eventually fell asleep, though it took twenty minutes.
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After an hour or so Mobius needed a paper underneath Loki's resting body. It pained him to wake Loki, but come on, Loki’s a god! He can handle being woken for a moment. Mobius taps Loki on the shoulder with a rolled up magazine (Surprisingly not about jet-skis!). Loki groans. It’s a half-hearted sob of a groan as he sits up, face lacking any emotion (His face would be scrunched up, but the weight of moving his expression was too much for Loki to bare). Mobius slides the files from in front of Loki to his side of the desk.
“Did I interrupt a really good dream? Why so.. Glum? I think?” He asks, originally rhetorical but shifting to more serious after the first question. “Were you the president? Or— Oh! Riding a jet-ski? All my best dreams are about jet-skis! Or Ra…! er.. Hot cocoa”
Loki doesn’t have the energy to decipher the fact Mobius was going to say ‘Ravonna’. His body didn’t even have enough energy to give him a dream. Loki grumbles out a “I am simply tired, you puerile oaf..” but it sounds more like “Im’smply trd…… yu’h purl ouf”
Mobius struggles to decipher what Loki is saying, in all his late night ‘studying’ sessions on Loki’s life, never has he read or heard Loki talk like this. Is this a side effect? Maybe that's what happens to gods when their timelines are destroyed? Whatever.. “Are you drunk? Take your time..”
“I’m.. tired.” He draws the words out much longer than needed.. Two whole seconds per word. Mobius gives him a puzzled look, so Loki rests his head back down and continues “No s.. Se.. magic…” He manages between long drawn out breaths, not able to say seidr, so settling for ‘magic’ instead
Mobius thinks for a moment, but nothing in Loki's files would explain this random enervation. “..So..?”
“I HAV..en’t ..slept in….” He blinks three times, heavy, long blinks “Since.. The frost giants came to.. Ehm.. Asgard” he mumbles, nearly asleep “no time.. Magic makes you.. It’s like caffeine but better.. I..”
Mobius just looks at him, (despite the author's brilliant translation) Loki was barely legible. He’s 90% sure his british-sounding accent (that he picked up only because Thor thought it’d be funny to speak only British English around baby Loki in a successful attempt to assimilate him into human culture) dropped and he was likely speaking half his sentences in full Nordic-Icelandic. Luckily Mobius understands. He looks pitifully at Loki before finally mustering up enough will to sigh out a “Loki…”
“Don’t say it like that.” Loki manages to say perfectly. His urge to be a pretentious prick much outweighing his foggy brain. He looks up at this, almost imperceptible fear on his face. Fear of being seen as weak or unworthy for being tired. Without his magic he is weak, but he doesn’t want anyone to know that.. Least of all Mobius (he should probably unpack why later).
“Like what? Like I’m worried about you? Because I am.” Mobius says firmly, watching Loki fiddle with his hands, intertwining his fingers together, fingers that have been slowly turning blue as if frostbitten since Loki entered the TVA.
Loki looks up at Mobius, not caring to fully lift his head. ‘Thank you, for caring’ he wants to say. Loki stays silent. Loki closes his eyes once more, but this time Mobius lets him stay asleep.