Loki looked at the recipe book again and sighed heavily. He didn't remember if he put in all the necessary ingredients. The flour was everywhere. Loki looked around the table, trying to figure out exactly what he had forgotten. On the table were eggs and eggshells, a torn bag of flour, salt, sugar and vanilla. Also, Loki noticed a rubber rat. It clearly didn't belong here. The bowl of cherries crawled to the edge of the table, but the god quickly cut short Croki's attempt to steal the pie filling.
"Please stop! Do not bother me. If we get a piece of inedible stone instead of a pie, then I'll blame you..."
Strangely, Loki was cooking on his own for the first time in his life. He often watched others cook. Recently, he often helped Mobius. But now the kitchen was at his disposal. He turned on the music. Mobius always turn the music on this kitchen, it was much more fun that way.
Loki heard something slam against the edge of the table. Looking around, he noticed a washcloth brought by an alligator.
"Croki!"
He didn't know if Croki was trying to help him or just teasing him. After all, he was Loki too.
God wanted to bake a pie for dinner. He was waiting for Mobius from work and preparing dinner, oh gods. It was a very strange feeling: this is how ordinary people lived, this is how he imagined family comfort. Yes, not every family had their own alligator, but nevertheless.
Today Loki even went to the store himself. For the first time in his life. He opened a portal to Midgard, wandered between the shelves of the supermarket for a long time and looked for everything needed for the pie. Nobody recognized him. He was a simple dark-haired guy in a blue jumper, who stood in line at the checkout. He thought that the customers in that store would be very surprised to know who he was.
Loki carefully poured the batter onto the baking sheet, then began to spread the filling on top. Croki snorted under the table.
"No, I will not put a rubber rat in the pie!"
"Fnarrrrrf?"
"And NO for a real rat too. And I don't care what you think about it. When we make a pue for you, then you will choose the filling yourself."
"Pfffrrrr! Agrrrrrhhhh..." said Croki dreamily.
"It won't be a pie if you put all this things in it," Loki replied. "It'll be a rat casserole with chips."
He put in the last cherry and placed the baking sheet in the oven, looking around for a special alarm clock. Mobius's kitchen was full of strange objects. Loki and Croki found an egg cutter, a tea strainer, and god knows what else. The recipe book was old, all entries were made by Mobius himself. Nothing surprising. But Loki did not even suspect that he can get emotional when reading a recipe book. The fact is that Mobius made notes in the margins. Older recipes, apparently made before they met, often had comments like "He would love this..." or "That's the way apples were baked in Asgard".
But the comments on the newer entries were different. "Loki's favorite waffles" or "The only thing our god eats when he has a cold" and simply "Chocolate cookies, a special recipe for my boy."
Loki did not find the alarm clock and turned on the countdown in TemPad. While he was doing this, Croki stole a bag of flour from the table.
"Bring back the flour! You, little son of a lizard! Bring it back!" the trickster demanded. Croki growled in response. God rolled his eyes. He knew that Mobius would return home very soon.
* * * *
When Mobius opened the doors, the apartment smelled of freshly baked goods. He heard something fall and Loki hissed. Then everything was quiet and a completely white alligator crawled out towards him. Behind him was Loki with a towel.
"Oh, Mobius!" Loki exclaimed. 'You are so early today..."
The agent smiled and asked, pointing at Croki:
"What happened to him?"
"Oh, he was watching the Discovery Channel. Now he is a albino alligator, very rarely found in the wild."
"Is it flour?" Mobius stated.
"He helped me in the kitchen," Loki smiled. "To be honest, I took away a bag of flour from him and the bag was torn."
"Did you bake something, Sweetie?" the agent asked gently touching the trickster's cheek.
"Just a pie with cherries. I hope you enjoy it. We tried our best..."
"Smells amazing. Loki, you are so talented."
Mobius embraced his god. It was surprisingly pleasant to return to the apartment where the beloved man was waiting for him. It was so warm and cozy in here. Mobius thought that this is how family life should look like: you come home, where they are waiting for you, where the pie is already ready in the kitchen. And where crawls the albino alligator, rarely found in the wild.