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leos-regression-cove · 2 years

Text

The New Sibling

Chapter: 18. The Kiddie Pool

Synopsis: Thor and Sylvie decide to test the waters to the concept of Mobius and Loki sharing a bath

Word count: 2,796

Stand Alone?: Maybe?

Notes: Oof, here's a silly throwaway chapter of Loki and Mobius with their caregivers. It's just kind of cute filler, but then again, that's just kind of the vibe of this whole fic. There's something... off about this chapter. Something about it's just not working and I don't know what. Maybe I should be workshopping this fic more, but honestly I've been so busy with everything else, I don't really have the energy to. As much as I love this fic, it ranks the lowest out of these three projects + regular life (which I was going to detail but JESUS this note would become an essay)

Warnings: Semi-detailed diaper change, reference to the fact that swim diapers only hold solids.

Read it on AO3!

As it neared a month of Mobius and Loki getting used to each other’s presence, Sylvie and Thor met up to make an executive decision.

They stood at the edge of the playpen, arms crossed and pretending to be simply idly supervising while the two babies busied themselves with a series of puzzles and storybooks that Loki, oh so desperately wished he could read. These ones weren’t like the ones Mobius was usually given, as the pages were cardboard, or sometimes even paper, not some waterproof plastic material or fabric. They even had words, not just textures and pictures, or the occasional teether.

“So do you think it’s time?”

“How would I know?”

“You were a little babysitter, you should know.”

“I guess, but I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“So… maybe we should test the waters first?”

“Yeah, that sounds right.”

This big discussion was about the fact that their water bill was through the roof. Or, more informally: if it was time to get the littles to share a bath.

The day was supposed to be unseasonably warm, so they decided a good step would be to share a swim. Unfortunately, neither little had any idea how to do that. So, Sylvie and Thor selected the next best option.

Loki sat in the driveway next to the car as he waited for Sylvie to bring out a battered old kiddie pool, which had nearly turned white in the long six seasons it had spent in the sun, braced against the side of the detached garage, while Thor took Mobius out to find him a pack of appropriately sized swim nappies and a swim suit, which in this case, didn’t mean trunks and flip flops like it might for an adult. It meant a plastic nappy cover, a pair of water wings or a life vest, some sort of sandal or water shoes, and a bucket hat to tie it all together.

Sylvie unceremoniously dropped the plastic tub down and grabbed the hose from the other side of the house while Loki watched her, curiously toddling a few yards behind her at all times, still trying his best to be her little helper.

“Move!” she commanded Loki once the hose was on.

So he did, just a few centimeters out of her way as she clamped her thumb down on the hose and made the water shoot out at a much higher speed.

With it, she rinsed the built-up cobwebs and gunk out of the pool before dumping it out again, just as Thor’s van rolled up and parked right on the street.

“Just in time,” Sylvie said as she greeted them, letting Thor carry the baby in, as he had been napping on the long car ride home, bundled up in a new towel like a swaddling cloth and clutching a partially finished bottle.

Mobius slowly opened his eyes as the warm air hit him and cooed at Loki and Sylvie.

“I’m just going to get him dressed and then you can play,” Thor said to the slightly older little, who was trying to take Mobius out of his arms.

“That’s when we can fill up the pool, too,” Sylvie added.

Getting Mobius up and dressed did take a little bit longer than expected due to the very simple, but unfortunate mistake of not realizing when the little one was done using his nappy and taking the tapes off just a little early. That paired with the typical baby fidgeting led to the need for some cleanup. But at least it wasn’t like when Loki was fussy and would purposefully hold it until then. This was just an effect of Thor not checking that he was already going.

When that whole ordeal was cleaned up, Thor got Mobius into a blue and orange swim nappy and covered it with some snapping plastic pants which were orange with a banana leaf design, followed by a matching bucket hat to appease Sylvie, and then Crocs that looked like little red race cars and water-wings with cartoon trains on them.

The little obviously wasn’t too sure about the look.

“You and Loki are going to swim outside today, what do you think about that? It’s like a big bath.”

Mobius pressed his mouth shut and nodded in a reserved fashion before Thor picked him up.

“Don’t freak out for me, okay? Let’s have fun. Loki’s very excited.”

Mobius nodded before sticking his thumb in his mouth as Thor made a quick stop in the bathroom and quite impressively squatted down to reach for a bucket of rubber toys inside the cabinet under the sink.

“Stay with me here,” he told the little, as Mobius struggled not to set his feet on the floor. “And--” Thor strained and grunted as he stood back up “--there we go.”

Mobius twisted in Thor’s arms and leaned backwards to try to look at the toys in the bucket, making the adult struggle for balance. Mobius suddenly and apologetically hugged onto him in a more convenient way.

“Mobis! Look!” Loki called once Thor and the younger tot stepped outside. He was bent over the pool in his own similar outfit, and splashed a little bit of water out at both of them.

Mobius covered his face even though he was well out of the way of the splash and let Thor set him down into the water. Loki happily crawled in afterwards.

Sylvie and Thor watched from the sides, and asked the littles about different toys that they set in, including the beloved washcloth alligator, Mr. Alligator, which both Mobius and Loki grabbed for immediately, almost taking the puppet off of Sylvie’s hand. When Loki eventually did get it, he knew how to put it on and started to snap the jaws at Thor and Mobius and Sylvie, eventually biting each of them on the hands and screaming with delight and giggles at how his family reacted, splashing his other hand in the low water and making waves by wiggling and hopping up and down with giddy happiness.

Mobius remained mostly still, sometimes playing with the rubber toys Sylvie or Thor had handed him and watching Loki play so actively in the small space.

“Loki, Loki,” Sylvie whispered to the tall little who was standing up on his knees in the pool to “bite” her again with the soft alligator.

Loki stopped his giggly play and slowly sat down to listen before taking the alligator puppet off of his hand and giving it to her.

“Do you think we can play with Mobius a little bit? Lookit, I brought more toys. How about the cups?”

Loki quickly took the rainbow stack of plastic cups she had handed him from her hands and took the stack apart, letting the cups float in the water until he had no more in his hands. “All gone!” he smiled at her before showing her his emptied hands.

“Wow, that’s very impressive, and how many was that?” she asked.

Loki shook his head. “All gone!” he repeated.

“How many cups were there before ‘all gone’?”

Loki looked and then scowled at her before trying to count. “Four!” he very proudly told her.

“Is it really four? Or is that just a number you like?” she asked back, looking at the eight cups strewn about the pool.

“Is four,” he assured her, definitely four .

Meanwhile, Mobius had begun to gather, dump out, and neatly set the cups at Thor’s flip-flopped feet. “Can I join you?” he asked the little, moving slightly to his side and dipping one of the cups in, scooping up the water.

Mobius, who had made a collection of seven dried cups, attempted to grabbed Thor's back.

Thor handed the cup back to the baby and watched him dump it out and set it behind him again.

Then, there was just one more, and it was a green one in Loki’s hands.

Mobius scooted closer to Loki and attempted to take the final cup hesitantly.

“Can you ask him ‘please’?” Thor prompted, but Mobius ignored him and reached across to take the cup from Loki.

Loki let him, just to curiously see where this was going, but when Mobius simply set it outside the pool, it was very obvious that this was not the desired outcome.

“Do you think you should share the cups?” Sylvie asked.

Before anyone could respond, Loki began to reach behind Mobius to grab a few of the cups, putting them under the water and dumping them into one another, or putting other toys inside the cups, with some stacking and an attempt to make an egg-like structure by pressing two together.

“Mumma! Lookit! Egg!” he showed her, when he finally got the hang of it.

Sylvie tapped on it to “crack” it, to which Loki responded by pulling the cups apart and freeing a small bath toy and some water.

“Here, Mobis!” He then said, trying to include Mobius a little more, even though the tot was already distraught and upset with the cups being taken from their spot from outside the pool. He scooped up a cup of water and dumped it right onto Mobius’ head, flattening his naturally fluffy and wispy hair into a pancake.

“Loki, that was very mean!” Sylvie scolded him as Mobius just sort of sat there in shock.

The smaller little wiped his eyes on his hands and tried to dry his face, but then smiled, he grinned and giggled and reached behind him for a cup, which he tossed at Loki.

But before Sylvie could tell them not to throw things, the two were throwing toys and splashing and screaming with giggles.

Sylvie and Thor both took a step back, leaving the toy bucket accessible, and trying to keep their clothes fairly dry as they chatted from a reasonable distance.

“Bathtime’s going to really be something,” Thor said.

“...Yeah…” Sylvie agreed. “So,” she switched the subject rather quickly. “Um, that water…” she added, as it was no longer as crisply colorless and clear, as is the pool ideal.

“We should probably take them out soon, right?”

“Well, there is one last thing I want to try. Just, can you watch them for a minute longer?”

“Yep, I’ve gottem.”

“Thanks.” Sylvie smiled before running inside to grab her final experiment.

Thor stopped the littles from drinking the water and tried to keep them settled and playing nicely with each other until Sylvie came back, which meant trying his best to create an interesting sensory experience for them. He wound up a boat and let it glide across the water, which Mobius immediately grabbed.

The little grinned and debated putting it into his mouth before looking at the wind-up key and trying to twist it himself. Then, he handed it back to Thor, clapping to tell the adult that he wanted more.

Thor set the boat back into the water after rewinding it.

This time, Loki dumped one of the cups of water onto the little boat, trying to sink it, but when it remained puttering around the pool, he decided to try and trap it instead.

“Okay, okay, I’m back!” Sylvie called with a smile as she shut the door and made it out to the driveway, making sure not to stumble in her wedge sandals before sitting down next to the kiddie pool in between the two littles.

She clicked open a light blue bottle and, in a Loki-like motion, dumped it upside down and squeezed in an almost reckless manner into the pool’s water.

Then came the fun part, when she got out the hose and refilled the steadily lowering water level of the pool, causing millions of bubbles to appear around the tots.

Mobius played like he usually would in the bath, clapping his hands with the bubbles in between and making little pieces of soap fly everywhere while Loki stood up, seemingly to make a point and grabbed a big brick of bubbles to try and throw at Thor, laughing and stomping in the water as Thor tried to catch the fluffy lump.

He then tried to scoop up more and threw it in the air, raising his arms up grandly to accent his impressive feat.

The pool began to slosh and overflow with Loki’s stomping about and eventual sit-down back into the water, and when that happened, Sylvie turned the water off and moved the hose out of the way to let the littles play just a bit more in the foam until she noticed Loki’s chest and belly beginning to pinken and Mobius’ fingers pruning up as he reached for her to pull her down and show her the bubbles firsthand and the boat that he had been playing with.

She begrudgingly reached her hand into the gross water and began to pull out toys and set them into the bath toy bucket after trying to flick away any droplets, and soon, Mobius began to join her while also covering himself in bubbles, sinking down as low as he could into the water while Loki instead got up and out.

“All done!” Loki said in an unbothered manner.

“All done?” Sylvie asked.

“Yep! All done!” he repeated, showing her he had nothing in his hands as if that had anything to do with anything.

“Okay, okay, I see you,” she smiled before grabbing the hose once more.

Thor lifted Mobius out of the gross but still bubble-filled water as Sylvie turned on the water and sprayed Loki as well as the side of the house, rinsing him off and making him giggle as the high pressure drops pelted him, knowing he’d then be able to run up to Thor and be wrapped in a big, warm towel.

Mobius was set down at the end of the driveway, but didn’t stand up until Sylvie instructed him to. She was gentler on him than Loki as she washed him off, taking his hand and letting the water pour over him, even daring to get his legs and belly and back, which he fought her on, threatening to sit back down on the pavement or even lie down until she turned off the hose and wrapped him in a hooded bear towel, before giving him plenty of cheek kisses and handing him off to Thor, taking Loki’s hand in her own instead.

“Here, switch?” she asked once they got inside.

Thor handed Mobius back to her and took Loki’s hand to get him redressed and diapered.

Sylvie cradled the baby in her lap. Practically rolling him up into a ball and tucking his head into her neck. “You did so good. You played so well with Loki and hardly any tears, huh?” she asked in a sympathetic cooing voice, rubbing his shoulder lovingly. “Such a sweet baby.”

Loki was quick to come toddling out of the nursery in one of his many pairs of not-denim short overalls with Thor behind him.

“Switch?” Thor asked her, offering to take the baby off her lap and leave her with Loki.

“Yes, thank you.” She handed the little up to the larger man, who let Mobius sleepily slump over his shoulder.

“Naptime already little one?” he asked gently.

Mobius nuzzled a nod.

“Okay, we’ll just need to get you into your naptime clothes then.”

Most of the day wasn’t of note, but of course, evenings meant messes, and messes meant baths, and that was yet another experiment for Sylvie.

She washed each of the littles up individually and gave them a rinsing off with the removable shower head before giving them a proper bath, the warm type with actual washcloths and real soap.

With Loki’s lanky limbs, it was a bit cramped, but both tots managed and Sylvie was shocked how easily it went, with exception to Loki’s splashing and Mobius almost crying over it-- and the loss of his pacifier to the water.

However, both were so exhausted by the time they were diapered and in warm clothing that they could hardly keep their eyes open for long, especially as Thor held Loki and rocked him back and forth with the most love in the world, kissing him on the temples and letting the little one lace their fingers together, as seemingly, the little didn’t know what to do with his sleepy, idle hands.

Mobius, however, refused to be cradled tonight, and instead slept on Sylvie’s lap on his tummy, letting her pet his back and speaking to him softly as he kicked his legs just a bit.

Another milestone had been made in the family, and yet it was still just another day, another night, more crib snuggles and stories and songs and pacifier snuffles and baby kicks.

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