Oldest Trick in the Book
Chapter 17: Oldest Trick in the Book
Loki called for an Uber with Sean's help. He didn't use the app very often, having little need to, but soon enough a car had pulled up for them and they climbed in. The ride back to the hotel was silent, but more so because Loki was exhausted. Now that the last of the adrenaline was fading from his system. His chest hurt. His head was pounding a little. His limbs felt heavy, but he still pulled it together and by the time they were pulling up in front of the hotel he found some remaining energy and climbed out of the car.
Once they had gotten into the lobby Loki dug into his pocket and fished out his key card for the room. "Here. I will be up in just a moment. I just have to stop by the laundry room and the front desk real quick alright?"
Sean nodded and took the key card with a quiet thanks. Loki watched him go before he went to the laundry room and transferred over to the dryer. He swiped his card and watched as the clothes started to get tumbled around before he set a timer on his phone so that he would know about when it would be time to come back down and collect them. After that he stopped by the front desk to collect his forgotten book which had been left behind in his haste to go find his family.
With his book secured he headed back up to the room he gave a knock on the door and after a moment Sean pulled it open. Loki politely shut his eyes as he saw that there was just a towel around his waist as he pulled the door shut. He heard the bathroom door shut soon after and he took that as a sign that he could open his eyes.
He heard the water start running and nodded as he sagged onto the sofa. He wasn't going to get much sleep tonight. If any. With the events of the day and without Mobius to ground him. Mobius...he forced himself not to break down again at the thought of everything. Reminding himself of what was important. That he was alive and he was okay. He would be anyway.
Eventually he sat his book on the coffee table in front of the couch and then readjusted himself so he could lay down fully on it and tiredly reached for the remote and clicked on the TV and started looking through what was commercial free to watch. He didn't want to be solicited by mediocre jingles right now.
***
Sean joined him in the living room about forty five minutes later carrying one of the blankets from the spare room that no one was using and Loki opened his arms in a silent offering. Sean had never been super clingy as a child, from what he could remember, but every now and then when he had had a really rough day he sometimes would seek someone out to be held for a little while for the reassurance and damn if Loki couldn't empathize with that. Just wanting to be held for a little while and comforted. Safe.
Just as he thought Sean laid down next to him and Loki put an arm loosely around him before he pulled the blanket over them. He knew Sean was putting on a brave face, probably out of spite, that he was a little more shaken than he was letting on. He just didn't want him to force him to give up on this madness of living in New York for school, but Loki didn't mention it. Just reached over to the armrest he had his head against and scooped up the remote and handed it to him. "I found a couple movies that should be okay to watch for us."
Sean took it and looked through some of the ones that Loki had picked out and finally settled on one of them with little complaint and set the remote on the floor next to the couch for easy reach.
It didn't really matter what it was. They were both asleep within an hour of the movie being on. They both only stirred when Loki's timer went off for the dryer and he called down to the front desk and asked if it would be possible for someone to bring it up for him. It had been delivered about twenty minutes later and he made sure to get the name of the person so that he could give them a little something for the trouble in the morning. Once that had been taken care of Loki slipped off his bracelet for a single second so that he could use a little Seidr to block out his nightmares. Just for tonight. Sean had fallen asleep before him and he didn't want to wake him by moving, but he didn't want to risk having a nightmare with him in his arms.
***
Both slept straight through the evening. Loki blinked awake at eight o clock and looked down to Sean still sleeping in his arms. He gently extracted himself from the couch and silently congratulated himself for not waking him up. He collected some clean clothes from the ones that had been washed and took a nice long shower. Took some time to breathe and center himself for the day. It was really, really hard not to revert to old habits like locking himself in the hotel room for the rest of trip. At this rate he would probably start going grey like Mobius in a year or two.
He dressed and then headed out to the living room where he saw Sean rubbing at his eyes a little as he sat up. He looked over when he heard Loki join him in the living room. "Where'd you go?"
"I just wanted to take a shower and get some clean clothes on." Loki said as he ruffled his hair despite the fact he was a little nauseous about the thought of going back out right away. He had to be strong though. Fight through it. "Why don't we send for some breakfast and then you can get dressed. I have to stop by the airport and pick up my suitcase, but then we can go visit your father. He's probably a lot better and a lot more awake today. He's also probably a little bored."
Sean laughed at the idea of Mobius being bored and shook his head. "Nah, he's probably sold at least two of the nurses on Jetskis by now."
Loki gave a little laugh of his own at that as he reached for the phone to call room service. "What sounds good this morning?"
Sean took a moment to think about that. "Can I have grilled cheese? Only if they have tomato soup though. If they don't then maybe just one of those breakfast sandwiches I brought you yesterday."
"Mm, if they have grilled cheese and tomato soup I may just join you on that endeavor." He could really use the comfort such a meal would bring and it would be fairly light on his stomach. He fished out the menu for room service and flicked through it and sighed. "They do have that, but they only serve it for lunch."
"What a bunch of lameos." Sean grumbled with a pout.
Loki chuckled as he tucked the menu away and then called down for a breakfast sandwich, one of their fruitbowls, a cup of tea and at Sean's puppy eyes a cup of hot chocolate as well. Once the order was placed he set the phone back on the receiver and ruffled Sean's hair a little. "We can stop at the store on the way back tonight and we can get the stuff to make it. I can make it better anyway."
Sean smiled at that. "That sounds great. It's been a while since you made any sort of a soup."
Loki blinked before he seemed to just now realize this himself. "You're right it has, but don't worry I haven't forgotten how."
"Do you think there's a chance that they'll let dad out today?"
"I'm going to try my best. I can do some pretty amazing things with my words. Persuassion is an artform after all."
"I know, I still don't understand why you don't go for some sort of a career as a lawyer or a politician. Man you would be awesome as a president."
Loki blinked. Then blinked again. And then out of nowhere he burst out in full on laughter as he thought back to all the Loki variants he had seen in the void. Being lead of all things by a Loki who had ran for president.
Sean seemed just a touch caught off guard by his laughter though so he reigned it in pretty quickly and just shook his head. "I'm sorry it's just so hard to imagine me in a profession like that. I wouldn't do well in a position of power like that." It was to similar to a throne. "It's to much responsibility and I like being able to come and go as I please. Plus...the world isn't ready for a mutant president."
Sean shrugged. "I don't know I think it would be pretty cool. If one of Xavier's people managed to run for president and won. Ooo could you imagine if cyclops was president? Nobody would want to mess with us for sure."
Loki chuckled again as he heard a knock on the door and he made his way over to look through the little peephole before he opened it to let in the person carrying a tray with their orders. Loki fished out a ten for them traded the currency note for the tray before he shut the door and brought it over to the couch where Sean had found the channel that plays some of the morning cartoon reruns that would play sometimes. He settled down on the couch once he set down the tray on the coffee table and collected his bowl of fruit while his tea cooled a little and Sean eagerly reached for his sandwich.
***
Once they were done eating they stopped by the airport which thankfully only took about forty five minutes and thirty five of those minutes was waiting in line. Once he had his suitcase in tow they piled back into the car and Loki set out for the hospital.
After they had parked Sean hopped out and ran ahead of him, but a quick reminder for him to stay in sight was enough to get him to stick close enough for comfort while he locked the door and followed after. Meeting him at the elevator that would take them to the ground floor of the parking garage so they could get to the entrance.
Loki lead the way inside and stopped briefly by the front desk just to make sure Mobius hadn't been moved before he let Sean have the quest of finding the room this time. "When we go into his room be a little quiet. He might be asleep still and he needs his rest alright? If he's not awake we can always come back later."
Sean nodded in agreement before he pushed open the door and beamed as he saw Mobius not only awake, but sitting up eating a late breakfast of his own though Loki wrinkled his nose a little as he
saw the contents on the tray.
Sean ran over to the bed and albeit gently threw his arms around Mobius and he hugged back with his good arm. "Hey champ how are you today?"
Loki took up residence in one of the chairs next to the bed to let them have a moment.
Sean smiled. "I'm okay now. It was a little scary yesterday, but I did get to see the Avengers yesterday so that made up for it."
"Of course it did." Mobius said with a fond shake of his head.
"Oh and before you ask because Lyle already did, yes I still want to go to school here. More than anything. It's so exciting here! Things are constantly changing. You never know what's going to happen next."
Mobius raised a small brow. "You're sure about this."
"I am."
"I feel I should be surprised, but I'm not." Mobius said with a laugh.
"Because he's a reckless one. It's in his nature." Loki piped up from his chair.
Sean pouted. "I'm not reckless. I just have a sense of adventure."
Loki barked out a laugh. "I have been on enough adventures to last me a lifetime. If I didn't know any better I would say you got it from me. Maybe I should have listened to Mobius and reigned in the stories I told you guys when you were little."
Mobius laughed at both of them before he looked to Sean. "Let Lyle get his hug."
"Oh yeah, sorry."
Loki pat his head before he moved to stand where Sean had been and hugged Mobius as tightly as he dared. "Do not scare me like that again." He whispered in French. "My heart can't take anymore panic."
Mobius kissed his cheek tenderly. "I didn't do it on purpose kitten, but I'm still sorry. I know you were probably terrified."
Loki shuddered a little, but not in a good way. "I thought you were dead. Both of you. I thought I had lost any reason I had left to live."
Mobius shushed him with another gentle kiss to his lips this time and Loki whimpered a little at how sure he was that it had been the end. "I'm right here sweetheart. I'm not going anywhere. Besides it wasn't that bad. The explosion was actually right outside the building so only those that were eating outside were mostly unforntunate."
Loki nodded as he finally pulled away and took his seat back in the chair again and was just getting ready to say something when they heard an excited shout from Sean who was looking down at his phone. He looked up to the both of them with wide eyes. "There's a reptile exhibition at the NYU campus today! Can I go? Please can I go? They're gonna have an Anaconda!"
"Not alone no. And I'm waiting to speak with the doctor so that we can get your father out of here today."
"But...that's gonna take hours. Please?"
"I said no Sean. I'm not letting you out in that city on your own right after what happened yesterday. I'm sure it will be there tomorrow. We can go then." Loki said with a tone of finality.
Sean frowned and looked to Mobius for a little back up, but Mobius just shook his head as well. "I'm with Lyle on this one. I'm not ready to let you go out there on your own just yet either."
Sean huffed out a breath, but relented. "Fine."
Loki did feel a little bad about letting him down, but he just wasn't ready to let him go again so soon. He had almost lost him yesterday. He looked back to Mobius. "We stopped by the airport and got my luggage this morning before we came and saw you. How did shopping go? Did you guys get everything?"
Mobius shook his head. "We got most of the furniture sorted. We got a bed for his room and then found a nice one for our room and then we got an additional recliner as well so that there would be a little more room to sit for company. It's all going to be delivered on Friday. We were stopping for lunch before we moved onto the kitchen and bathroom."
Loki nodded along. "Alright. Oh I should probably also call and get a delivery date set up for his couch that you got him and the desk."
He looked over as he heard the door open and smiled a little as he saw it was Doctor Hal. "Good morning Doctor." He said as he stood and offered up hand to shake. "How are you this morning."
"Busy as always, but managing." Hal said as he gave Loki's hand a shake.
Loki laughed a little. "I can imagine." He said before he let him move to check in with Mobius. He looked over when he felt a poke on his shoulder though. He looked over to see Sean. "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm just going to the restroom. I'll be back in a couple minutes."
Loki narrowed his eyes a little. "Don't even try lying to me Sean I am not in the mood."
Sean gave him a confused look. "I'm not...? I just wanted to let you know so you didn't panic."
Loki studied him for a good long moment more before he sighed. "Sorry." He said quietly before placed a kiss on the top of his head. "Come right back when you're done alright?"
"Of course." Sean said before he left the room.
Loki sighed. He wasn't an idiot. He knew exactly what the boy was up to, but he still wanted to see if he would possibly have second thoughts about what he was going to do. He really didn't want to
have to put his foot down with him.
For now though he turned his attention back to the Doctor and Mobius. "Doctor Hal?"
"Yes?"
"I know you said early Sunday afternoon, but he looks pretty fine to me. Could I please take him home today? I promise I'll keep a close eye on him still and if anything changes we'll come right back."
Doctor Hal looked through the file one more time before he smiled. "I don't see why not. He was perfectly fine through the night, no signs of any internal damage. I'll get the paperwork started, but it might take a little while. We're still kind of behind from yesterday's commotion."
Loki nodded. "That's just fine."
"You guys sit tight then and we'll get things moving along as fast as possible for you." The Doctor said as he left the room and shut the door behind him.
Loki sighed as he sat back in the chair.
"Wait where's Sean?" Mobius asked as he looked around a little in confusion.
"Sean 'had to go to the bathroom' and I just...I couldn't focus on disciplining him as well as you and the doctor at the same time."
Mobius gave him a confused look before it clicked and he cursed under his breath. "Did he really pull one of the oldest tricks in the book thinking you wouldn't call him out on it?"
"It would seem so. Once we're done here, I'll drop you off at the hotel and then I'll go and get him."
Mobius shook his head as he leaned back against the pillows. "Was it really asking him a lot to just stick around for a day?" Mobius grumbled under his breath. "Just...don't make a scene."
Loki waved his hand. "I'm not going to make a scene, but I'm not above carrying him to the car if I have to."
Mobius chuckled a little despite himself at that. "Are you okay though? Really? I...I can't imagine you took the news well. How...how did you find out?"
"I'm shaken of course, I want nothing more than to put all three of us on a plane and leave this Nornsforesaken city behind, but...I'm better now that I know both of you are alright. Bruises and bones can be healed. I was in the lobby reading while some laundry went for a round in the laundry room they have down stairs. I heard someone gasp and when I went over to the TV breaking news was covering it."
"Oh God Lyle...I'm sorry."
Loki shook his head as he got up and moved his chair closer to the bed so that he could hold one Mobius's hand in one of his own. "You don't have to keep apologizing it wasn't your fault. You're okay now and that's all that matters."
Mobius gave Loki's hand a squeeze and everything was right in Loki's little world again with the wave of reassurance that provided him.