A Phone Call Away
Chapter 22: A Phone Call Away
Those next two weeks waiting for Mobius to get home had been so hard. Especially the first couple of days. He kept an eye on the news far more than he normally did, but overall he did okay. He didn't break down at all and aside from a couple small fits of panic that he just fought with a couple breathing excercises, sometimes if it was really bad he would text Mobius for a little while if he was available and he would calm down agin.
The two letters he had gotten since from Kevin had been a welcome distraction as well. It was nice to have a break from the kids being around, but at the same time a small part of him did miss the chaos they brought to his day to day life. It would be quieter now without Sean here as much. It would take a little getting used to.
Still when he finally saw Mobius walk through the front door Sunday evening looking tired after his flight he felt relief wash through him. As soon as the door closed he wrapped his arms around him from behind and one of his hands laid over his heart to feel it's steady beating. "How was the flight?"
Mobius sighed as he relaxed into his arms and turned his head to the side to press a kiss to his cheek. "Long. A little bittersweet. I knew this day was coming, but...still can't quite prepare yourself for the day you let your kid go out into the world." He chuckled a little. "I find myself looking back on everything and wondering now if it was enough. If he's going to have all the tools he needs."
Loki hummed as he bent down to press a kiss to his head. "You did an amazing job with them Mobius. You can't prepare them for everything. The important thing is that you will be here when they need you." His hands came up to rest on his shoulders. "We both will. Why don't you go take a shower and I'll put together a nice warm meal and we can curl up on the couch together. There's a couple letters from Kevin here that you might want to read. I've been replying to them. Did you and Sean send him anymore from New York?"
"Mm...we did. Made sure to put Sean's New address in there to and we got his address changed through the post office so his mail will start going there."
Loki nodded. "Good." He nudged him towards the stairs. "Go on. I'll see you down here in a little bit."
Mobius obliged and grabbed the handle of his suitcase to haul it upstairs so he could put it away after work tomorrrow.
***
The days got easier as they went by. More often than not the conflicts he saw on TV were a fair distance away from the college and Sean's apartment. Of course he still worried. Whenever he heard word of something going down he was quick to call him, but luckily he hadn't been caught up in another incident since.
Kevin had gotten home from Summer Camp not to long ago so there was some life back in the house again and everything felt like it was balancing out again after the curveball had been thrown at him.
Kevin was out at a lake with a one of his friends whose older brother had a car and had invited his younger brother along so Kevin had gotten to tag along as well. Mobius was at work.
Loki was stretched out on the porch swing and he had a glass of lemonade resting on the porch as he read and enjoyed the nice afternoon weather. The sun on his face. He looked over though as his phone started ringing and he smiled a little as he saw it was Sean.
He scooped up his phone and answered as he rested his book on his chest and pressed the phone to his ear. "How are you today Sean. Is everything alright?"
"Everything's fine. I just hadn't called in a couple days."
"It's always nice to hear from you. How are things going? Did you get that coffee table you wanted for your living room?"
"I did! You should see it! It's so cool!"
Loki chuckled. "I did. You sent me a picture remember? Anyways how goes the job hunt? I know you've been looking for something part time." He and Mobius both had told him he didn't have to, but he had said he wanted to be a little independent and Loki could appreciate that. Just told him not to overwork himself.
"Oh that's going really good to. I actually had an interview at a movie theater the other day. They're looking for someone to work the ticket booth and concessions couple nights a week. I get to go and go see movies for free. Snack on that delicious buttery popcorn."
"How did it go?"
"I think it went it pretty well. They said they would get back to me in a day or two so probably sometime this afternoon.
"Well I wish you the best of luck. How are things going with the college side of things. Everything going smoothly?"
"Gooood, don't remind me right now. I'm kind of using you and dad to get out of a booklet of paperwork I have to do. They said it's supposed to be the last of what I have to do, but still. I'm so tired of it."
Loki laughed at that as he thought back to the stacks of files Mobius and him had dug through during their time at the TVA. "Might want to get used to paperwork now. There will be plenty of it to come."
Sean just groaned again. "I know...oh! I did make my first official friend yesterday though!"
"Really now?"
"Yeah. He's a new student just like me, I met him when I was going to get my Student ID set up yesterday. He lives in Queens with his Aunt, but he got a Stark Internship. HIs names Peter. He's really smart. He's doing something in Engineering. I forget what at the moment, but it's gonna be a good time. We saw some flyers in the robotics department for some sort of bot battles that get held annually and I think I might want to join...even though I've never built a bot before."
"Well he sounds like a nice enough kid. I'm glad to hear that you're making friends already. What are bot battles?"
"Oh my God you've never heard of bot battles?!"
"No I can't say I have."
"Okay so you build these bots that you can control with some sort of remote or your phone and you build it for battle and then you send it into a ring against other bots and you have to try and subdue the other persons bot. Best bot left standing wins."
Loki was quite intrigued. "Mm...so it's kind of like fighting except you build the bots to do the fighting on your behalf?"
"Pretty much yeah."
"Well if you do decide to partake in something such as that, if you don't mind, I would like an invite to one of the matches. It sounds like it would be a rather good time. Do you think Peter might have any interest in being a team?"
"He said he would be open to making a team, but we'd need a third person so we need to find someone else if we're going to be a team, but I think it would be cool if you came to one of the matches."
"So school is getting ready to start soon, would it be to hectic if you we came for a small visit? Just maybe like a weekend trip? Kevin's really excited to see your place."
"Uhhh..." Sean was quiet for a moment as he checked on something before he spoke again. "Yeah. I'm not overwhelmed or anything yet. I have plans this weekend, but next weekend if you guys wanted to come down you can. You're going to love the little statues I have on my bookshelf."
"Oh no what did you do?"
Sean just giggled before he sighed. "I should really probably get that paperwork done though..."
"You should, but it was nice to hear from you Sean. You have a good day alright?"
"You too Lyle."