A Quest for School Supplies
Chapter 23: A Quest for School Supplies
Loki hummed as he felt Mobius pull him a little closer to him. His alarm had just gone off for work, but he wasn't ready to get up just yet. And Loki was more than fine with that as it meant more cuddles. "You have any big plans for today?"
"Sean got the list of school supplies the other day, so I'm going to see what he needs, what he still has left over from last year. Maybe go and do some shopping. I know we're still a couple weeks out, but I'd rather do it now and leave time for anything he might have forgotten to mention." Loki murmured into the pillow.
"Sounds like a good enough idea to me. You're better at staying on top of things like that."
Loki chuckled as he rested his hands over Mobius's. "Not this weekend, but next weekend Sean said it would be alright if we came for a little visit. I'm not to keen on going back so soon, but I know Kevin really wants to see his apartment and it would be good for them to see one another because school keeps them busy."
"I promise not to let your stuff take a little world tour this time."
Loki pulled a small face at the reminder of that. "I know they won't lose it. I'm not going to give them the chance. I'll bring what I absolutely need and keep it on me this time." He said matter of factly.
Mobius just chuckled as he pressed a kiss to the back of his neck. "I'm also a little interested to meet this...he said this friend of his, Peter, lives with an Aunt?"
Loki nodded absentmindedly. "In Queens."
Mobius was silent for a long moment as he held Loki a little tighter.
"Is everything alright Mobius?"
Mobius forced himself to relax. There were lots of people named Peter who lived with their aunts in Queens. There was a possibility it was not who he was really hoping it wouldn't be, but he knew if Loki put any dots together he would panic. "Everything's alright...I should probably get up and get dressed."
"I would also like to make sure you get some breakfast in you this morning. The last two days you spent to much time cuddling me and didn't have time for more than a granola bar on your way out the door."
"It's okay. There's this really amazing guy that makes sure I have plenty to eat in my lunch box so I didn't starve."
"Mmm...well you'll have to give him my thanks for making sure my husband did not perish due to his own stupidity."
Mobius laughed at that before he unwound his arms from him, but then pulled him onto his back so he could lean over him and press a proper kiss to his lips before he finally got up so he could get dressed.
Loki sighed into the kiss and enjoyed every milisecond of it before he to a bit regretfully pulled himself from the bed. "I'm gonna go get started on breakfast."
He gave a knock on Kevin's door as he made sure the tie on his robe was done securely on his way downstairs and looked through what they had before he decided eggs on toast.
He had just set the first two on a plate and looked over as he saw Kevin coming down rubbing at his eyes. His glasses held loosely in his hand by one of the arms. "Morning Loki."
Loki slid the plate over to him as he walked by and gestured to the fruit bowl. "Good morning, how did you sleep?"
Kevin set his glasses at the chair he was planning to sit at on the table before he took the plate and he selected an orange from the fruit bowl. "Like a baby." He said as he took a seat at the table and slipped his glasses on before he dug into his first piece of toast. "Does Hiss need to be fed yet?"
Loki thought about that for a moment. He had fed him not to long ago in place of Sean, before Kevin had gotten home from Summer Camp. "I think it's probably about time."
"Can I do it?"
"Do what?" Mobius asked as he came into the room.
Loki couldn't help, but laugh a little as he saw the slight crookedness to Mobius's tie. "He wants to feed Hiss this time, but I was just thinking that you would probably want to do it. I know how much you look forward to it."
Mobius immediately waved his hands a little. "Oh no. It's fine. I-he can do it."
Loki chuckled as he slid two eggs on toast onto another plate before he took a moment to fix Mobius's tie and kiss his nose. "I know darling."
Mobius shook his head. "You're a menace sometimes."
"You wouldn't want it any other way." Loki said as he handed him his plate and then pointed to the fruit bowl. "Have a piece of fruit with breakfast."
Mobius obliged and selected a banana from the fruit bowl and took a seat at the table as well. Loki joined not to long after with his own plate and an apple. He also brought over a cup of coffee for Mobius, a cup of orange juice for Kevin and a cup of tea for himself.
"To answer your question Kevin yes you can feed him this time. Also after breakfast we're going to go shopping for some school supplies this year and go through what you have left over from last year alright?"
Kevin perked up. "Can I get a new backpack? I haven't had a new one sicne my Freshman year."
Loki looked to Mobius who shrugged a little. "I don't see why not, but only on the condition you donate your old one.
"That's fine. Maybe we could build one of those backpacks that the school gives out." Kevin said as he set to work peeling his orange.
Loki smiled warmly and Mobius shared the look with him before he caught the time on his phone. "Oh crap! I have to go."
"Don't forget your lunch." Loki said as he pointed to the fridge. "Have a good day."
"Bye dad! See you tonight." Kevin called with a wave.
Mobius returned both of their biddings as he snagged his lunchbox from the fridge and hurried out the door.
Loki watched him go with a soft smile on his facce before he reached for his cup of tea and treated himself to a sip.
After breakfast Kevin smiled as he eagerly bounced over to the freezer and Loki pulled it open to find one of the frozen mice they kept in a discreet bag in the back of the freezer so that it wouldn't creep out his dear husband who would sooner escort a mouse out the door than set a trap.
He handed it down to Kevin who was waiting with a paper towel. Loki tucked the bag away and Kevin rushed up the stairs ahead of him. Once they both got to Sean's room he looked down to him. "Hold it by the tail and just drop it in. Don't tease him with it."
Kevin nodded seriously as he dragged over the stool that Sean used to have to use to reach over the top of the glass cage and climbed up as Loki undid the top of the enclosure and opened it so that Kevin could reach in and drop it in.
Loki placed the top back on the enclosure while Kevin stood in front of it eagerly to see if Hiss would actually eat right away. At first he wasn't sure if he would or not, but as they both watched Hiss, an orange corn snake that had alternating stripes in a lighter and darker shade of orange, flicked his tongue out as he started to check out the offering that had been dropped in. After a little investigating he made quick work of the mouse.
"That was so cool!" Kevin cheered once the little show had been completed.
Loki chuckled. "We'll be going to visit Sean in a couple days. We're only going to stay for a weekend. Your father has taken a lot of time off recently, but we'll have plenty of fun."
Kevin frowned. "Only a weekend?"
Loki nodded. "Your father is going to take a Friday off so it will be a three day stay, we'll come home late Sunday evening. So we'll have plenty of time. We can go for a longer visit sometime in the near future. Your father just needs a little time before he takes a significant amount of time off again." He promised as he kissed him on the head.
"Yeah...okay..."
Loki smiled as he gestured for him to follow him and shut off the light in Sean's room. "Let's go through what you have for supplies."
Kevin nodded and followed after him. Loki waited for him to invite him into his room though. He had always both told the boys and respected the fact that their room was their space. They were entitled to their privacy as long as they didn't break his trust and abuse that priviledge. There had only been a couple times he had to revoke that priviledge for a little while when they were younger.
Once he had been invited in he stepped inside and took a seat on the edge of the bed as Kevin gathered up what he had leftover. "I don't have any notebooks left over. I can probably reuse the binder..."
"Let me see." Loki said as he held out his hand. He took it once Kevin held it out to him and he looked it over before he shook his head. "One of the clips feels a little loose, I don't want it to fail and possibly send your papers flying everywhere. We can get you a new one."
Kevin smiled at that as he took the binder back and set it in the discard pile and moved on. "The ruler is fine, I have enough pens and my mechanical pencils are fine, but I'll need some more lead."
"Well that's easy enough to get. What about your erasers."
"Uh...I'll need some of those and some staples for my little stapler. And some notebook paper. Just maybe a pack or two to have on back up I still have a pack from last year that I didn't use."
Loki nodded as he added to the list. "Do you still have your fancy calculator they made you use last year?"
"Yeah, I made sure to put it away in my desk until I needed it this year."
"That's good. Now what about dividers and your highlighters."
"Most of the tabs on mine are broken and I could use some new highlighters. I used them a lot last year."
Loki nodded as he added that to the list as well before he looked over the list the school had provided to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything. He still kept it on him though so that he could indeed put together one of those back packs that could be handed out to the less fortunate. He had always liked finding ways that he could help in small ways. It made him feel better about himself and he was happy to see his habit had rubbed off on both of his boys.
"I'm also going to see about getting you your own laptop this year to."
Sean perked up at that. "Really? You mean it?"
Loki nodded. "You've done a good job keeping your Switch in one piece and I promised you that if you could show me you could take care of it and hang on to it for more than a year then we could see about getting you one. And you have. You've had it for two years and only one drop down the stairs." He chuckled a little. "And that doesn't even really count considering you only dropped it because you had tripped yourself."
Kevin beamed at the praise. He had indeed worked hard to prove that he could take care of something that required a little more care. Growing up he had been hard on his toys and on his electronics. He had gone through two phones in one year at one point, but he had gotten a lot better. "That would be really cool! You know SI just put out a new laptop and they do have the best security on the market built in to it..."
Loki chuckled as he pushed himself up off the bed. "We'll see. For now, get your old backpack cleaned out and looking fairly new. Use one of the vaccuum attachments if there's any crumbs that need to be cleaned out and then get dressed. I'm going to go take a shower and do so myself and then we'll head out for the store. Alright?"
"Yes Loki!" Kevin said as he bounced up to collect his old backpack.
***
Loki shut the door of the car once he had climbed out and made sure it locked before he lead the way inside the store. Kevin a little closer to his side until they got inside. He let Kevin grab a basket as he opened up both lists. Kevin's old backpack sat in the cart ready to be loaded up with some fun goodies as well.
He let Kevin lead the charge for the most part they wandered among the aisles. Letting Kevin pick out what called to him as they checked things off the list. He found a couple extra things that he wanted to get, that Loki was willing to indulge in because they weren't much and he knew Kevin had an easier time learning and focusing when things were made fun for him. So if he was excited to use his new supplies then he would be more inclined to do better work and apply himself even things didn't necessarily interest him.
He also put together a nice little kit and kaboodle as they went and wound up getting enough to donate two backpacks instead of just one and once they had finished getting the essentials they were wandering through the clothes section when Kevin came to a full and abrupt stop and an elated smile split his face. "Macy!"
Loki looked in the direction he took off in and then smiled as he saw a young lady with brown hair down to the middle of her back and beautiful grey blue eyes. She was looking rather longingly at a pair pink and black checkered hightop converse, but she looked up and smiled as she saw Kevin and waved.
Loki follwed Kevin over. "Hello Macy."
"Hi Lyle." She said before she turned to Kevin. "Hey Kevin."
"Those are cool! Are you gonna get em?" Kevin asked as he looked at the shoes she was looking at.
She rubbed the back of her neck. "Ah, probably not. Mom and I are just here to get a couple things for school, but I just wanted to come over and look while she did some grocery shopping once we got my school stuff."
Macy's mom did a fine job considering she was a single mother. She made it work though. She was a receptionist for one of the private clinics in town, which paid well enough that they got by, but Macy's mom as their kids had gotten closer had admitted that there wasn't a whole lot left over once everything that needed to be paid was paid. Sometimes she felt like she wasn't doing enough. He always assured her that was far from the case and every now and then he found little ways to help without being so obvious about it and overstepping.
Kevin blinked. Seeming to pick up on what Stacy meant and without missing beat he silently looked to Loki who gave him a wink. That was all the confirmation he needed. "I have some allowance saved up!" Kevin cheered. "I could get them for you." He said as one of his hands went behind his back and Loki slipped him some cash folded into a tiny square so it wouldn't be an obvious hand off.
Macy looked to Kevin wide eyed. "Really? I..."
Kevin blushed a little. "Well...I...they would look really pretty with that pink sweater you have." He said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "So it's okay."
Macy gave an excited little squeal as she reached up to the shelf to pull down a box with her size. "Thanks Kev! I can't wait to show these off!"
Kevin smiled despite the tint he still had to his cheeks before they both turned as they heard Macy's mom calling her name. Loki stuck his hand in the air. "Over here Ms. Carr!" He said with a wave.
"Oh! Lyle nice to see you." Stephanie said as she found the two of them. "I really wish I could stay and chat, but they need me to come into the office so I need to call the babysitter-"
Loki saw the look on Macy's face at the mention of the baby sitter and he chuckled before he looked to Macy. "You want to come over for the afternoon?"
Macy nodded almost immediately before she looked up to her mom. "Can I mom? Please?"
Stephanie looked over to Loki. "Lyle are you sure?"
Loki waved one of his hands. "I don't mind at all. I'll make sure they get a snack, they can play on the trampoline if they want, you can pick her up when you get off."
Stephanie let out a sigh of relief. "You're an angel. Alright Macy," She said as she looked down to her. "I'll come and get you when I get off tonight. Be good."
"I will mom!" She called with a wave before she turned back to the both of them. "Thank you."
Loki smiled as he reached for her shoes so he could put them in the cart. "You're welcome dear. We have one more stop to make and then we can check out."
As they made their way back to the electronics department the two of them chattered back and forth and Loki just watched with a fond little smile on his face. Once they reached the laptop selection though Kevin was quickly distracted by all the new toys to look at.
As Kevin walked along Loki looked down to Macy. "Do you have a laptop for your school work?"
"Yes, mom bought me one last year for Christmas, but..."
"But?" Loki encouraged.
"My phone screen has a pretty good crack in it, but it still works well enough as long as I keep screen protector over it. My moms trying to get me a new one, but a couple other things came up."
Loki frowned. "Let me see your phone."
She pulled it out of her pocket and he took it carefully. Looking over the screen which had a crack that went down the middle of the screen about halfway and then sort of spider webbed from there.
Loki tutted. "I can get you a new phone. We should get you one from SI. All of their tech comes with a ten year warranty. That warranty saved me a couple times with Kev when he was younger."
"Lyyle!" Kevin groaned as his face flushed in embarrassment.
Macy just giggled as she took back her cracked phone, but then looked back up to Loki. "Are you sure? Those are kind of expensive."
"They are worth it though for the security alone. I insist." He said as he gestured nearby to where she could find said company's phones. "Pick out one that you like. We'll be over there in a couple minutes." He said before he turned back to Kevin. "So what are we thinking?"
Kevin looked over his options a second time. "Can I get this one?"
Loki looked over the specs and some of the features and took the price into consideration as well. "I don't see why not." He took down the name of the one Kevin wanted before they joined Macy who had found the phone that she wanted.
***
Once they got home Kevin and Macy both set up shop in the living room to set up their new electronics and Loki was content to sit in his reading nook with a cup of tea to read while they enjoyed their time together. He wasn't so naieve as to think that they would for sure end up together.
There was always the chance that things would not work out and that Kevin might get his heart broken a little or a lot, but that was all part of growing up. Falling in love for the first time, getting your heart broken for the first time. There was a chance it might not even be his last time either.
For now he was just going to let him enjoy the experience and see where it would lead him and he would be here along the way.