Hot Chocolate and Conditions
Chapter 3: Hot Chocolate and Conditions:
A week had passed since Loki had had the bomb dropped on him at dinner and admittedly the first couple of nights he was a mess. His nightmares had gotten worse. His paranoia had ramped up. He couldn't stand to be alone and Mobius, dear Mobius, hadn't batted an eye about taking a couple days off work to stay by his side.
It took three emergency sessions with his therapist for things to calm down again, but once he was able to listen to reason he very slowly started coming around to the idea. After all it had been over a decade since the invasion of New York and he knew on this timeline he was probably dead on the Statesman by now. No one would really be looking for him. Plus yesterday breaking news came from all over about some massive battle in Wakanda. The mad Titan had been slain along with his henchman. That...that had been such a relief. That was one group of very powerful enemies that he was glad to have off his back. Even more so he felt avenged in some way knowing that it was Thor who had landed the final strike. Burying his new axe in Thanos's skull as deep as it could go. A cry of "For my Brother!!" shouted as he did so and that had hit a little different. Because he hadn't said for Asgard or for my people or anything else. No he had said Brother.
More to the point though a small amount of magic to change his appearace, which would hardly use anything worth tracing at all and a pair of magic suppression cuffs that he could fashion for himself so that other magic users in the city wouldn't be able to sense his he would be fine. If...If his son really wanted this then he wouldn't be stopping him, the least he could is make sure he was as safe as possible.
Saturday evening as he laid in bed thinking over everything he finally looked over to the clock to see it was still only eleven. Sean would probably still be up. He pushed himself out of bed and straightened out the light green robe decorated with outlines of roses in gold before he made his way down the hall to Sean's room. Just as he thought the light was on so he gave a knock on the door. He didn't get an answer though. He knocked a second time a little louder, but still no answer. He cracked open the door just barely so that if he was intruding on something he would hardly get a peek, but then he noticed the headphones over his ears and he relaxed as he opened the door all the way.
He noticed Sean was drawing so he hung back and waited until he set his pencil down for a moment to reach out and tap Sean lightly on the shoulder.
Sean startled a little as he looked over, but relaxed once he saw who it was and reached up to take off his headphones. Pressing a button on one side to pause his music. "Hey, are you...feeling better?"
Loki smiled a little. "I am Sean. I want to talk over a cup of hot chocolate. Meet me downstairs in a couple minutes alright?" Sean nodded and Loki thanked him before he left the room and pulled the door shut most of the way behind him and headed downstairs to make two cups of hot chocoolate.
Once they were both made, fixings including whip cream, those fluffy little delights called marshmellows, his had a dusting of cinnamon on it and Sean's had caramel drizzled over the top of it, he settled down on the porch swing on the back porch. It was a chilly evening out by mortal standards so he had brought out a blanket with him, but he was fine.
Once Sean joined him he handed him the blanket to wrap himself in and once he was settled on the swing next to him he handed over his cup of hot chocolate. "It should be perfect temperature. So...Brooklyn or Manhattan?" He asked and silently hoped it would not be the latter.
Sean looked at him. A little caught off guard by the question. "Huh?"
"NYU has two locations. Manhattan and Brooklyn. Which location will you be attending?"
"Uh..." Sean pulled out his phone to check his emails to make sure he had the right place. "Manhattan."
Loki's grip on his mug tightened for a moment before he forced himself to relax. It was fine. He calmed himself with a sip of his hot chocolate before he spoke again. "I have conditions."
"Wait so I can go?" Sean asked with wide eyes.
Loki held up a hand. "I have conditions. If you do not agree to them then no."
Sean took a moment to consider that before he looked to him. "What are your conditions?"
"You call us at least three times a week, you come home for all major holidays as well as during your breaks. There can be exceptions made if you, for example. get offered to stay with a friends family, but if you have nothing else planned you come home. I will pay for a good apartment with two bedrooms, one of those bedrooms will be our guest room for when we come to visit which we will be doing so on occasion. You will stay away from the fights and conflicts that break out around the city and listen to the officers when they evacuate an area, do not stand there and try to get footage of it on your phone. Please...please try and keep your contact with the Avengers to a bare minimum. If you can abide all of this and accept that I will always be paranoid as long as you're in that city then...you can go to New York."
Sean was quiet for a couple minutes as he went over everything that Loki had laid out on the table for conditions and admittedly most of it sounded pretty reasonable. He still wasn't sure what his deal with the Avengers were, but he doubted he would get much of a chance to interact with them anyway so that wouldn't be hard at all. "How are you going to afford to pay for an apartment in Manhattan though? I think it would be better if I stayed in the dorms."
Loki shook his head. "No son of mine is going to be staying in a cramped little dorm room sharing with someone he doesn't know. You deserve to have your own space. Don't worry about that." He had quite a bit of wealth hoarded away in his pocket dimension after all. He also had three different savings accounts under Mobius's name that all accrued interest. He would make sure his son was comfortable.
Sean looked over to him before he set his mug aside for a moment and reached over to throw his arms around Loki and pull him into a side hug. "Thank you. Thank you so much, I'll listen to all your rules I promise."
Loki bent his head down to press a worried kiss to the top of his head. "I love you more than you could ever know Sean. You and Kevin both. I only ever want you to be happy. When does school get out for you?" He asked as Sean pulled back and collected his mug once more.
"I get out of School in June and I'm starting school in their fall term."
Loki hummed. "Does that mean sometime around September?"
"Something like that."
"Mm...then we will have to take a vacation soon and go find a suitable apartment for you."
Sean beamed at that. "This is gonna be so fun. Dad took us to New York once when we were younger, but I don't remember a whole lot. Just that we had a lot of fun. It had been the most I had seen Dad laugh in a while."
Loki smiled a little despite himself as he thought of Mobius dozing upstairs in bed. "I haven't a single clue how I got so lucky, but as long as I have you three I don't need anything else. Please be smart and safe Sean."
"I will Loki. I promise."