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leos-regression-cove · 2 years

Text

Nothing in the Parenting Books Prepared Me For This

42. Bucky's Birthday Bash

Synopsis: It's Bucky's Birthday and him and Sam are having a small get-together at their apartment.

Word count: 2,652

Stand Alone?: yes!

Warnings: accidents, swearing

Notes: Genderfluid Loki!

Read it on AO3!

One morning, Mobius took Sylvie and Loki on a morning walk to the mailbox to deliver the very important letters they had been working on. You could tell they were important because the postal stamps were stickers of a whale and a smiley face in the top right corners, and the postage seals were very apparent in sparkly green ink stamps of various animals all over the outer side of the envelope, accompanied by crayon scribbles of random numbers and letters from all sorts of languages. Loki’s page was pretty coherently Norwegian runes, with a couple Greek words at the bottom, but Sylvie’s was a jumbled mess of Cyrillic characters, a few from the Latin alphabet, with a couple specialty Icelandic characters. There were a couple in Korean, and many many more in alien languages that may have just been scribbles. Although the two were both barely reaching preschool today, Loki had gotten some extra coaching from his older brother while Sylvie had flat out refused any help at all.

However, the excitement of posting their first letters was overshadowed when Mobius looked in the mailbox and found a brightly colored invitation, addressed to “Loki, Sylvie, and Thor Laufey/Odin/son/dottir, and Mr. Mobius".

“Letters?” Mobius asked.

The two toddlers handed him their letters enthusiastically before they were even awarded the knowledge of the correspondence directed to them.

Sylvie’s pacifier dropped from her mouth as her and Loki were handed their invitation, decorated in an old fashioned style, complete with the vintage stylings popular in the 1920s: Watercolor sailboats were on the front with calligraphic lettering saying “Come celebrate with us!”. When flipped over, the card had fancy borders and said, in a much more easy to read, art-deco font “It’s Bucky’s (one hundred) eighth birthday and you’re (all) invited! On March 10. Please RSVP by the 5th. The party will be at our apartment…” and proceeded to list the address, food and other things neither Loki nor Sylvie particularly cared about reading.

“Daddy! Party!” Loki pointed out.

“Yeah, it is a party, do you want to go?”

Although Loki was very fond of parties, even small ones like this one seemed to be, the toddlers seemed disappointed that it seemed to be just a glorified playdate, but that was pretty in character for Bucky. He was very shy about his little-ness and only regressed around a small handful of people-- daycare and home were pretty much the only two places he would ever be comfortable in.

Loki and Sylvie put their heads together to find him a nice gift. What would Bucky like?

“Something with a star!” Loki suggested, “like the one on his arm.”

“I don’t think he likes the star, buddy,” Mobius shot it down gently.

“Oh! Storybook!” Sylvie tried. “An old one like he likes!”

“An airplane!” Loki tried again.

“Board game sounds better.”

“... yeah, a board game sounds good.”

“And a stuffie?”

“Yes! An’ a stuffie!”

They scribbled this down onto a list while sitting at the kitchen table to Mobius, who was drying and putting away dishes.

“Alright, so a stuffed animal and a board game.”

Loki and Sylvie looked up from their list of scribbles and nodded in confirmation.

As the day of the party came, Loki and Sylvie got dressed up in their fanciest dresses and had Mobius do their hair all fancy, with headbands covered in flowers and pearls. But the two refused to leave the home without a stuffed animal in their arms, a plus one, as Mobius called it. Loki had her Croki, and Sylvie took her pegasus, which she anxiously nibbled on the wings of during the whole car ride.

Loki opened the door of the apartment building and ran up the stairs as Mobius and Sylvie took time to actually get buzzed up. “Yeah, Loki’s on her way up already,” Mobius warned. “We’re right behind her though.”

He took Sylvie’s hand as he led her up the stairs, balancing the presents for Bucky underneath his other arm, thinking about how odd it was that she was so quiet and didn’t even yank his arm forward to get there sooner, but instead matched his leisurely pace.

Little Loki arrived at the apartment and rang the bell, shifting back and forth on the balls of her feet as she waited cheerfully. And soon, the door was opened to welcome her into the bustling apartment, filled with more life than she had ever seen. Granted, she had only seen it once.

Almost every face there was a friendly one she knew well, aside from a couple of Sam’s relatives whom she hadn’t met.

By the time the toddler began to explore her new environment, Mobius and Sylvie were greeting friends and setting presents on the gifts table.

Loki ran back up to her daddy, interrupting the conversation he was having with Sam. “Daddy! Daddy come see! Come see this!” she breathlessly grinned.

Sylvie, who had been waiting patiently by Mobius’ side, decided that whatever Loki had found was much more interesting than the adults and started to pull to follow her sister.

“I gotta go see this,” Mobius excused himself to run after the girls and see what had excited them so much with the same amount of enthusiasm.

Loki led him to the far side of the living area, where the space had been opened up to make room for a playspace for the littles, with a tiny fabric tipi and some blankets and pillows on the floor.

Bucky and Scott were engrossed in a game of cards on the floor; different ones than Loki or Sylvie had ever seen, they had bright colors and big numbers or symbols on them. Some were black with a rainbow in the center.

“Can you deal us in?” Mobius asked, as Sylvie sucked on a pacifier and kept glued to his side. He was starting to notice she was always like this at parties, anxious and quiet and taking on a younger headspace, in this case, younger than Loki.

Loki plopped down in a comfy spot in the circle, mostly just to see how much she could make her dress balloon out.

She took up a hand of cards, and Mobius did too, instructing her on how to play and pointing out a couple of moves, but she didn’t much need them, quickly picking up the rhythm of the game as she watched the boys play.

Mobius was the only adult to immediately volunteer to hang around the littles.

Thor, was supposed to arrive a few minutes late (common for him at this point), Kate and Yelena were chatting but somewhat interested in the game, just unsure of when a good opportunity to get in on it would arise, and Sam hung around in the kitchen with a few of his relatives and Bruce, although he wasn’t cooking something; leaning over the breakfast bar in conversation just made things feel a little more official as a host.

Cautiously, Sylvie began to explore the nearby environment, still trying to keep away from most interactions and have some kind of attachment to Mobius or Loki. After a scan of the nearby area, and realizing there weren’t many people she didn’t know there, she got up the confidence to sneak away and make herself a spot in the play tipi.

Mobius occasionally looked up to keep an eye on her as she touched the rounded pillows and tried to keep herself calm in the environment that she knew full well, in that rational part of her brain, should not be causing any distress because she was perfectly safe and cared for.

Scott won the game and Loki almost tackled him, with only Mobius pulling her off to make sure the poor boy didn’t get strangled.

“That’s the play tent,” Bucky informed Sylvie while he reshuffled the cards and put them away. “What do you think about it?”

Sylvie pet the doors of the shelter and inspected the fairy lights around the walls.

“Pretty cool, right?”

“Yeah, it nice,” Sylvie responded quietly around her pacifier. It was barely heard above the commotion of the four other conversations going.

“Do you want to see the cool cake papa got me?” he asked, hoping to engage her more.

He recognized that she wasn’t actually as small as she appeared, probably much closer to Loki’s age right now, just a bit overwhelmed.

“Um…” she shifted back and forth and watched Loki and Mobius. “Sure,” she decided.

While they were gone, Loki finally got over her sore loser-ness as a familiar face was welcomed in through the door.

“Tor! Tor!” Loki called, running over to her big brother.

“Sorry I’m late. I had to pick up a present. Can you take me to the birthday boy?” he asked, as he set Loki down after rubbing noses with her.

Sylvie poked up from the kitchen with Bucky next to her, “He’s here!” she told Thor, in a voice only slightly louder than her normal speaking volume.

Thor set down his store-wrapped gift on the present table, which was starting to get full, and greeted Bucky by offering a hug or a handshake, being a bit vague to see which one the little would go for, not wanting to push him out of his comfort zone (he had learned from being forced to be gentle with the littles under Mobius’ constant scrutinization).

Bucky gave him an excited handshake. “You should see my cake! It’s awesome!” The little bragged.

“He’ll get to see the cake soon, lil bear. How about another game?” Sam asked, pausing his conversation with Bruce Banner.

“Oh! Tor! Tent!” Loki remembered, yanking the sleeve of her older brother’s shirt to show him the little shelter.

But by the time the littles had dragged Thor over, the tent had become occupied by girls. Ew! Girls! Loki and Sylvie both thought, sticking their tongues out, despite both being girls themselves.

“We can be here!” Yelena defended herself, with a mouthful of appetizers and a small snack plate in her hand.

Sylvie did not try to argue, just scooched between them, causing Yelena to overdramatically whine and give her a nudge back, and for Kate to scoot over, making room for the toddler who proceeded to attempt to steal some tortilla chips off of Yelena’s plate.

“Hey, Sylvie, can we get our own plate of food? C’mon, I’ll help you,” Mobius coaxed. He called to Loki, too. But the littles were not easily distracted from their new common goal.

“Please?” Loki whined. “Wanna play!”

Kate was the first to get up and move.

“No… really? You’re backing down from that?” Yelena asked.

“They’re just kids!” she whispered, “we can take it back later.”

“Fine,” Yelena responded performatively before moving and letting the littles show it to Thor.

“Wow,” said Thor, crouching down by the door of the tent, looking into where the toddlers were sitting, “this is very cool.”

“Isn’t it?” Bucky asked as he tried to concoct a new game.

Not everyone could fit into the tent at once, only three at most and that was cramped, so most of the littles had to play their games outside the tent, taking up most of the apartment in their pretend game of “wolf pack” that Thor seemed to find himself in the middle of, despite not really playing, and more just being there to supervise and make sure the littles didn’t hurt themselves.

It went on for a long while until adult conversations wound down and Sam called everyone around for cake, which wasn’t very convenient as their table was only meant to seat four at the most, so many guests just stood, with the chairs being relegated to the littles and Bucky.

Loki and Sylvie helped sing the happy birthday song as the cake was presented to Bucky, familiarized with the tradition from daycare. They were mesmerized by the fire and cheered when Bucky blew the candles out, impatient to get their hands on a slice as soon as possible while Sam and Mobius helped cut and plate it, handing pieces with ice cream on the side to the littles first, before getting to the adults.

Loki happily chit-chatted with the other littles and her older brother and daddy as she ate, trying not to let crumbs fall out of her mouth as she grinned. But then there was a feeling. At first one which she simply recognized and let pass. It was a normal feeling. But then… wait… something wasn’t right. She was forgetting something. She looked down to check on the front of her dress, still dry, and then the spot on the chair beneath her, not so dry.

The little girl began to hyperventilate and cry as she looked to Mobius, who had hardly sat down to eat. She barely got up the courage to stand and run to him, shaking nervously and hardly able to get a word out as she panicked and beads of hot liquid traveled down her legs.

“Shit,” Mobius whispered aloud. But luckily, he knew Loki well, and had everything he needed for her at a second’s notice, and was quick to inform Sam about the accident, taking Loki to the bathroom to clean her up and help her get changed. She didn’t seem to mind the training pants and was more just happy to be allowed back to the party. A towel had been placed over her chair and there was a bleachy smell around it, but she was too consumed by the game that had begun while she was away to be embarrassed, quickly joining in “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” and almost winning if it wasn’t for her and Sylvie getting into a little bit of a tiff and needing to be taken aside before it could escalate.

Mobius and Thor held Loki and Sylvie during present time like they were trying to restrain prisoners and were scared of the tots running away, or in the actual case of their restraint, afraid of them getting overly excited over the pretty new toys, or worse, jealous. But their grips relaxed as that didn’t happen, not much anyway, nothing more than the mutterings of “wow, that’s cool!” and the encouragement of “Open that one next, Bucky!” The littles instead fumbled with the wrapping paper and stuck discarded bows into their hair and onto Thor’s arms, even making other group members laugh the second that their arms were free from the grips around them.

Afterwards, there was a bit of unstructured time left for the kids to play.

Watching Bucky open up and explore some of his new toys with the rest of the group was awfully fun, especially when it came to a couple of the board games, which he opened up and tried to play, trying to have guests work in teams for games that only allowed up to four players until Sam suggested they try out a different game instead. Loki and Sylvie’s favorite was a silly card game called Apples-to-Apples. It’s focus on reading meant that Mobius sometimes had to help them, whispering the words to them when they showed him their cards. Well, to be fair, when Loki showed him her cards. Sylvie was more of the “play the card anyway” type and took the risk of getting laughed at.

Some of the pairings that were made, made the whole group of pre-to-elementary-school-headspaced littles roar with laughter and giggles over potty humor or words that simply sounded funny.

Loki and Sylvie were very disappointed when Mobius began to pack up to leave. They had been having so much fun! How could he make them leave now? But, they soon noticed, Scott and Clint having the same reactions to their carers (or babysitters) packing up and saying their goodbyes, coaxing their littles to give Bucky a special birthday “good-bye” and leaving with a goodie bag of treats and a sad smile on their faces to go.

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