For All Time. Always!

35 - The One with a Plan and Some Tears

  I look at him process the story. He hadn't asked any questions during the story, so I could tell he was trying to think of the best ones to ask.

  "It seems you've been on quite the journey, love," he chuckles.

  I smile as butterflies swarm my stomach from the nickname. "It seems like there's a but in there."

  He laughs. "But I do have some questions and concerns."

  "I'm listening."

  He takes a deep breath. "Why did you self-prune, darling? She offered you your life back..."

  I sigh. "Loki. The only memories I can truly remember are the ones with you. How am I supposed to... enjoy our time together otherwise?" He smiles, accepting my answer. "Well, that and I can't just let two Lokis run around and probably break the time and flow of the universe." He lets out a good, hearty laugh.

  "Yeah? You think I'd destroy the universe? You might want to take that back, darling," he smiles mischievously.

  "Or what?" I thought I was smart. I didn't think I'd regret this decision as much as I do.

  His hands find my waist, tickling me as I burst into a fit of giggle. I fall on the ground as one of his hands moves up to my neck, which just so happens to be another ticklish spot of mine. Through laughter, I beg for him to stop.

  He doesn't.

  "Do you take it back?" he asks over my laughter.

  I think for a moment. "No!" His hands dig deeper into my waist, making me squeal more. "Okay, okay! I do!" His hands finally stop, leaving me out of breath on the ground with a stupid smile on my face.

  "Are you two done flirting?" We turn, seeing Mobius and the rest of the group walking towards us. "If you weren't having a tickle fight, you would've seen Alioth coming our way."

  I turn, seeing the giant purple cloud monster closer than before. "Shit," I mumble. Loki stands up, offering out his hand to me. I take it as he pulls me up to my feet, which of course don't keep me steady on the uneven terrain. I stumble, but Loki catches me.

  "Are you alright?" he asks, his face close to mine. His eyes genuinely worried, making a blush form on my cheeks. I nod, stepping back.

  "You two just can't help it, can you?" Mobius chuckles.

  "They've been like this since we found her," Classic Loki explains with a mischievous smile. "Although, it seems all of us Lokis are drawn to her."

  I smile softly, feeling a bit bad that there's only one of me yet so many Lokis depending on me. Hell, even the gang of Lokis just wanted to keep me safe.

  We stand in front of Alioth, each of us quiet. It reminded me a bit of my nightmares, but not quite. It was less scary, even.

  "Okay, so what's the next move?" Mobius yells over the thunder.

  "The TVA needs to be brought down. We don't know who created it or where they are, but that thing out there does. When it hit me earlier, I linked to it," Sylvie explains.

  "I thought you said you didn't know what that was!" I shout.

  "You try processing things when you're running from that!" she says pointing to it. "It was brief, but I caught a glimpse of something, and I think if I can get close enough to it, I can enchant it, and it's going to take me to whoever's behind all of this." She hands the tempad to me.

  "Loki will be coming with me in case I need more power," she continues. I turn to Loki in disbelief, seeing him already looking at me. He nods, confirming what Sylvie just said.