A Father's Job
Chapter 18: A Father's Job
It was three hours before the paperwork was finally brought in and Mobius got changed with his help due to the broken hand and one of the bigger cuts on his back from the glass that had required stitches was in a precarious place on his shoulder. Every time he would try to lift his arm it would pull at the stitches and cause him to wince.
Loki drove him back to the hotel and let him take his suitcase up with him while he headed out for the college campus. He found a place to park and then looked up what building it was being held in and set out for it.
He found Sean about fifteen minutes later with a giant snake wrapped around him listening to the handler tell about it. His back was to him, but he knew it was him. "Just using the restroom hm?" He said as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Sean went rigid as he heard Loki's voice, but to his credit he did manage to suppress his startle lest he frighten the snake. "I-"
"Don't." Loki said before he looked to the handler. "Could you please take your friend back?"
The handler quickly, but safely helped Sean devest the snake and Sean turned around to face him. "But Lyle I-"
Loki just took his hand and started to lead the way to the car. "I'm glad you're safe, but do not ever do something like that again. Especially while we are still here together in this city. Was yesterday not enough of a wake up call for you?" He whisper shouted, in an attempt to keep from drawing to much attention.
"Okay, but it's-"
"But nothing. I don't want excuses." He finally reached the car and unlocked it. "Get in."
Sean just frowned and stuck his tongue out at him when he thought he wasn't looking as he climbed into the backseat. The ride back to the hotel was quiet. Tense even. It wasn't until they got up to the room and the door had shut that Sean spoke.
"Dad can you please tell Loki that he is being completely unfair and overreacting?"
Mobius looked over from the couch where he had sat down to wait for them to get back and he gave Sean a disappointed look as well. "He isn't being unfair or overreacting Sean. You shouldn't have slipped off like that. Do you have any idea how worried I was?"
Sean just threw his hands in the air. "Oh come on! It's not like you didn't know where I was! It's the college campus! It's secure-"
"Nowhere in this city is secure that is a false sense of security." Loki chimed in from where he was standing behind the couch. "I told you we could go tomorrow and that was only because I wasn't sure how long discharge would take. It said right on the flyer for the event that it's going all weekend. We could have even gone after I got your father back to the hotel. Why couldn't you just wait an hour or two?"
Mobius was about to say something, but then Sean spoke before he could. "You know I am eighteen now. I'm not a little kid anymore. You don't need to hold my hand everywhere we go. You might as well get used to me going out alone in this city, because you're not going to be here everyday!"
"It's a father's job to protect their children." Loki said with the utmost conviction. "I will always take that job seriously. No I won't be here every day of college. Yes, I am terrified to let you loose on this city alone, but I'm still here for two more weeks, I don't have to let you go just yet."
"Well you're not my dad."
"Sean!" Mobius said as his head snapped over to Sean.
Sean looked surprised. As if he couldn't believe those words had just left his mouth.
Loki felt like he had just been struck across the face with Mjolnir with the weight of those words. And they cut deeper than any blade had ever cut him. Mobius saw him shuttering himself for the first time in a very, very long time. A heavy silence crashed through the room.
"Loki...I-" Sean started, but was cut off.
"No. You're right. I apologize. What was I thinking worrying about you?" Loki said quietly as he hunched in on himself before he disappeared to the room that Mobius and him were using.
Mobius watched him go before he leveled Sean with a look. "Twelve years Sean. Twelve years he has done nothing, but treat you like his own and laid the world at your feet. Always been there for you. Held you when you cried and I couldn't. Leant an ear when you needed one. Convinced me to let you have a snake. Would give his life for you and Kevin. How can you say that he's not your father? Because it's not his blood running through your veins?"
Sean's lip trembled a little as he curled in on himself. "I don't know why I said that." He said in a small voice. "I...I didn't mean it. I'm just so excited to see the city a-and...do you think he'll forgive me?"
Mobius ran his good hand through his hair. "I have a lot of damage control to do. Go...calm down. Get ahold of yourself and start thinking up some sort of an apology."
Sean nodded and Mobius did stop him to give him a small side hug before he let him go and then made his way to the bedroom. He pushed open the door and slipped inside to find Loki sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked over when he heard the door open though and Mobius tried for a small smile, but it died out before it had a chance to show at the look of complete and utter devastation on his face. "He didn't mean it."
Loki shut his eyes as he wrapped his arms around himself. "He did. Somewhere in there he does feel like that. Otherwise it wouldn't have just come out. I tried so hard Mobius...where did I go wrong?"
Mobius shook his head as he made his way over. "No no Sweetheart I promise he doesn't! He told me he didn't mean it. He loves you." He said as he took a seat on the side of the bed.
Loki just shook his head as he pulled off both bracelets before he stood to be in front of Mobius. Before any questions could be asked he pressed his lips to Mobius's and let his magic flow through him. He kissed him for a good minute or two as he took great care to heal all his ribs, his hand, and the cuts in his back. Afterwards he pulled away and then with a wave of the hand did away with the stitches and the cast and slipped his bracelets back on before he gathered his suitcase. "I have to go. That probably caused enough of a spike to be traced and my flight leaves in three hours. I'll see you in two weeks." He said quietly.
Mobius who was still a little dazed from the warm fuzzy feeling of Loki's Seidr running through him to heal his every cut and bruise was blinking. "Wha- wait!" He stood, but had to stop for a minute as the room spun just a little as he sat back down. "Loki wait...what do you mean your flight?"
Loki paused by the door. It was open halfway. "I don't want to be overbearing and get in the way of his fun and he seems to think he's ready enough to be without me, so I don't see a reason to put myself stupidly at risk when he doesn't need me. I was only here for him, but he has his father. You know how to summon for me if you absolutely need to. I'll call you when I get home." He said before he pulled the door shut and left his keycard on the coffee table. By the time Mobius was able to get on his feet again, Loki was tucked away in a cab back to the airport.
***
"Hey boss?"
"Not now babygirl daddy's busy." Tony said as he worked on a tediously small piece for one of his suits.
"But-"
"Baby girl please don't make mute you."
"Yes boss."
***
The ride to the airport was miserable. There was a hollow feeling in his chest. Like someone had just cored out everything that was propelling him forward and left him once more without a purpose. He wanted to cry, but there was no point and he wasn't sure he had to many tears left to spill. Plus he really didn't want to in front of a cabby either.
He went through the motions of the procedures. Letting them look through his bags unceremoniously and then sat down to wait for his flight by one of the windows. Did Kevin feel the same way? He had never actively tried to replace their mother or even demanded that they call him father. Dad would be confusing because Mobius was dad, but he hadn't liked father. It felt so formal so he had opted to just let them use his name, but he had tried to fill the void the loss a second parent could create. Had he pushed to hard? Had he unintentionally somehow tried to replace their mother? He laid his head against the window. Watching absently as planes took off and landed.
The line of thinking didn't get any better as his mind, in full self depreciation and sabotage mode now decided to dredge up something he had seen in his time reel when he had sat down and watched in it's entirety one night.
"Am I not your mother then?"
His eyes shut as he tried to will the tears away.
"No."
Now he knew how she felt firsthand. Not that those words had ever left his own lips since he had disappeared before he could get that far into his own story, but it was still...him in a way. He didn't feel bad for Odin, that man had never considered himself his father so it had no affect, but his mother just like him had only every considered him his son. Even after everything he had done. She had never treated him as anything less than her son knowing that he was not of her blood.
He wanted to go back to the hotel and crawl into Mobius's arms so that his soft words would chase away his demons. Like they always did when his demons decided to crawl out of the cracks and crevices he had forced them into when they smelled his moments of weakness, but he didn't. Besideds there would be letters at the house from Kevin. He would have to write him and give him Sean's address so that he could send his brother a letter and well...he might be a little happy to hear from him. It wouldn't be like getting a letter from his Dad...but he liked to think that Kevin would still be happy to get word back from home.