a/n: thoughts occurred after season two but like. not many. I would lovee to do another book based on prompts from you guys!! i've missed this!!! 

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Tick. Tick. Tick.

Unbeknownst to you, your index finger taps out the rhythm of the clock on the wall behind you as you sit and stare out of the grimy window at the street outside. A slight frown creases in the centre of your forehead.

It's been mere hours since everything happened. Hours in which Strange has been shut up in his Sanctorium with the TemPad you had returned with, giving you no information and refusing to answer your calls.

Everything is perfect. You have Loki, your Loki, back. You're home, in New York. You're alive. Nothing stands between you and a near enough version of the happy ever after ending that you'd seen in the Time Theatre with Mobius and the Loki that hadn't been yours.

Nothing. Except...

Streetlights start to blink into life outside as the sun sets further, casting a grimy orange light over the sidewalk and the windowsill on which you're leaning. The colour reminds you of the interior of the TVA. A rat scurries across the street and sticks its nose into a nearby overturned bin.

In your mind's eye you see Lamentis. You see Alioth, careening over wide, empty plains. Asgard, exploding into nothingness. Pompeii, Vesuvius. You see Mobius, telling you to go, now, quickly. It's all whirling around in your head, faster, no matter how hard you try to bring your thoughts back to the present. The place you'd spent your whole time at the TVA trying to get back to.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

'Y/N?'

Your index finger stills against the outer edge of your thigh as you turn, a small smile tugging at your lips at the sound of Loki's voice, despite everything. He's watching you, something like resignation resting quietly behind his eyes.

You open your mouth to tell him that everything's fine, which it is, really, when you think about the fact that he'd been dead not too long ago, and then decide against it. He knows as well as you do, probably better, that that isn't the case. Instead you take a deep, unsteady breath as he moves across the room to sit at your side, bumping your leg with his.

'Something bad is going to happen,' you say, realising how scared you are as you voice the words aloud. Loki takes your hand gently in his before he replies.

'I think you're right.'

'Strange knows,' you continue, and Loki nods slowly, watching the rat you'd seen earlier, attempting to drag what looks like a stale pizza crust across the ground under the grimy orange hue of the streetlight.

'Yes.'

Silence, for a moment.

'You're thinking about going back.'

'No,' you lie quickly, turning to look at him. Loki just gives the rat outside a look of faint amusement, as if you could ever lie to him and get away with it.

I just... I don't think I can just sit here.

I know you can't. And you shouldn't.

You blink in confusion. You think I should go back?

'I think you're going back no matter what anyone says to try and stop you,' he says, finally gracing you with eye contact. You shake your head, sensing his apprehension behind the relaxed demeanour he's fronting.

'I don't want to go back. I want to stay with you.'

'Okay,' he smiles softly, but his tone is placating, as though he'd just lost an argument.

'I'm serious. I'm not leaving you again,' you tell him firmly, looking him straight in the face. He smiles properly now, eyes softening as his hand tightens around yours.

You wouldn't be leaving me. There's more of me there than here, from the sounds of it.

That's not the same. You know it's not.

Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?

You turn away, looking back out the window. It's dark, now. The rat is nowhere to be seen. 'I'm not going anywhere.'

Later that night, in bed, you lie wide awake staring at the ceiling. Loki shifts beside you, trying desperately not to pry. You know he knows exactly what you're thinking, regardless.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

'Would you come with me?'

A small exhalation of humour from his chest. 'That would only complicate things, don't you think?'

'As if this could be any more complicated than it already is.'

'I would suggest that it might be better for one of us to stay behind. Just in case.'

'Just in case what?'

'You need to find your way back.'

It makes sense, much as you hate to admit it. Which is the worse option? Leaving Loki behind again, right after you'd just got him back, or sitting here doing nothing, safe in the knowledge that reality as you know it could be ripped from around you at any second.

'It's the second one. The second one is worse,' Loki tells you, having been listening in on your internal dialogue. You grin, in spite of it all, and roll over so that your faces are inches apart on the pillow.

'What if it's all gone? Or I can't find them?'

'Then you come back here to me and we'll wait for the world to end together.'

You close your eyes and try to smile as he reaches up to brush your hair behind your ear. 'It'll all be okay,' he continues, when you don't reply.

'Okay,' you say, in that same placating tone he'd used on you earlier. It had been meant to make him smile, but a pained look passes across his face instead, and he reaches for you to be closer to him. You shift so that your back is flush against his torso, and he wraps his arms around you, pressing his face into the top of your head.

How could you leave this?

Tick. Tick. Tick.