chapter 21: Apology kiss

Kaino's POV

"Kaino! Are you ready yet?" Parker yells from the living room as I finish getting dressed.

Shaking my head at his eagerness, I grab my phone from the table and leave the room. Heading to the living room, I find him pacing around the open space in the living room as pup watches him from his stroller. Today, we're going out and we decided to take pup with us because he's always at home whenever we go out. We felt once in a while it would be good to take him out with us and let him explore the outside world.

"What is the hurry? We're going this early, I believe the stores aren't even open yet." I comment as I walk to him and hold his shoulders, stopping him from moving unnecessarily.

"It's past ten already, the stores would be open. Don't try to give excuse for being late." He states, making his eyes big and pushing his lips out in a pout.

"I'm not giving excuses." I chuckle at how cute he looks before continuing, "shall we go now?"

"Yes, let's go already." He says and starts walking. I shake my head yet again before I hold pup's stroller and follow him.

Getting out of the house, we close the doors and lock them before heading to the car. Parker takes pup from the stroller and holds him while I fold it and put it in the trunk. Parker sits in the passenger seat with pup in his lap and I take the drivers seat as I start the car and pull away from the house. Soft music plays in the radio as we drive in comfortable silence on the way to the mall.

So, the reason we're going out today is to shop for Moon. After yesterday's decision to adopt him and signing the agreement, today early in the morning Parker woke me up from my sleep suddenly at four o'clock and told we should go to shopping and bring all the necessary things for Moon. I just started at him straight for one whole minute after which he said sorry as if it finally drowned him the time of the day and what he was doing. His face was quite funny while I watched him as hurriedly he put the blanket over him and slept off. I shook my head at him with a smile and went back to sleep.

Not so long later, he woke up again and got ready immediately. I doubt if he even slept after waking up at four. He prepared breakfast and after eating that, I went to get ready. It was only nine thirty but he was so eager to leave so I took a quick bath and got dressed. Now here we're, on the way to the mall to shop. After driving for almost thirty minutes, we reach the mall. I park the car in the parking lot and get down the car. Walking to the trunk, I open it and take the stroller out for pup and by the time I walk to the front, Parker already got out with pup. He helps me to put pup in his stroller and I lock the car as we make our way inside.

As it's still early, there's not much crowd here. While Parker walks by watching all the stores and thinking where to stop by to buy the things, I just walk beside him while strolling pup.

"What do you want to buy first?" I ask him because though he's eager, he seems not to have right idea of where to start.

"What do you think we should buy first?" He questions me in return, making me stop my steps and I give him a look, "what?" He says looking back at me, his cheeks red.

"Nothing, I think we should start from buying clothes." I suggest my opinion.

"Okay, we'll buy clothes first." He agrees and start walking again. I chuckle before following him.

He chooses a store among many and I just follow him as he steps into the store. I see wide range of varieties displayed in the store and I look at Parker to find him with his eyes open as he's just starting at the whole store. Knowing what's about to come, I take a seat in the available chair and settle myself. He might even end up taking whole day, I'm just preparing myself for it.

"Why are you sitting here? Come and help me." He calls me out as he walks to me furiously.

"I'm not good at shopping. You select the clothes, I'll wait here." I tell him.

"Really? But I'm not good too." He pouts with a worry.

"No problem, Parker. We'll ask the sales person to help us." I assure him because he looks like a lost puppy so I decide to help him.

To my words, he nods at me and I stand up as I go with him. Together, we head to the sales person and ask her to help us choosing the clothes.

"How old is the child, sir?" She asks politely with a smile.

"He's two years old." Parker answers her hurriedly and she nods at him before she starts picking the clothes.

She wanders all around the store and brings a lot of clothes to us asking us to choose the ones we like the most among all. As it's a small pile of clothes compared to the whole store, Parker and I choose few sets of clothes each for Moon. Finally with the help of sales lady, we finish purchasing the clothes. We then ask her to help us with footwear to match the clothes and she does that without a problem. When we finally finish with everything, we thank her as we pay the bill and leave the store with many shopping bags. By the time we step out, it's already time for lunch.

"Should we eat lunch before going home?" I query as it's time to eat and it would be a hassle to cook after going home.

"Okay, I'm not even in the mood to cook anyway." He agrees so we make our way out.

Walking to one of the food courts in the mall, we choose a table and take our seats. I settle all the bags in one of the chairs before carefully keeping pup's stroller next to me. Parker sits in the chair in front of me with a sigh.

"What do you want to eat?" I ask him as I look at his tired face.

"Anything is fine. Order the same as you for me as well." He replies.

Nodding at him, I call the waiter and order a bowl of noodle soup for each of us. When our lunch arrives minutes later, we eat in complete silence. Our lunch comes to an end in no time and I pay the bill.

"We'll go home, right? Or is there anything that you still want to buy?" I query hoping we're done, not for myself but for him. He looks exhausted already, if we shop for more time he might faint.

"We're done, I thi..." He goes to say something but stops. His eyes and mouth widen at whatever he is thinking, "TOYS! Kaino, I forgot about toys."

I sigh as he says worriedly. "It's okay, Parker. We can buy those some other day."

"No, we can't. Toys are more important than anything else, we have to buy them today." He denies my opinion.

"Okay, but you seem tired. I just want you to be fine." I tell him.

"I'm fine. We'll buy the toys and then leave." He replies and stands up.

I agree and get up after him. I carry all the bags as Parker holds pup's stroller. We head to the toy stores and Parker buy almost everything that he sees. I had to stop him at one point because he's literally going to buy the whole shop. It finally comes to an end and I drag him out of the shop after paying the bill and asked one of the helper to help because there are many bags that I couldn't carry on my own.

"Thank you." I thank the boy as he helped us by bringing the bags to the car.

"No problem, sir." With a smile he leaves after setting all the bags in the trunk.

Once he left, I hand pup to Parker and put the stroller in the trunk before we move to the front and settle in. I start the car and pull away from the mall. The drive to home goes in silence, not even the radio is on because Parker said his head is hurting a bit so I didn't turn it on. Halfway through the drive, I glance at Parker to find him sleeping by leaning his head back. I slow down the car a little so that I don't disturb him and to let him sleep comfortably. Sometime later, we reach the house.

As Parker's still sleeping, I get down the car and unlock the house before taking the shopping bags one after the other into the house. Once all the bags are done, I slowly take pup from Parker's hold and bring him in. Finally, I go to Parker and was about to bring him in by carrying him as he's sleeping. But before I could, he stirs a little and opens his eyes.

"What are you doing?" He whispers seeing my head inside the car but my body out, his voice very low.

"Because you were sleeping, I thought of carrying you inside." I tell him while retrieving my hands thinking he would walk as now he's awake.

"No," he says as he holds out his hands to me, "carry me, I can't walk now."

So, I carry him as he wraps his hands around my neck and his legs around my waist, sticking to me like a Koala. I kick the door close with my foot and walk us in. Instead of directly going to the room, I sit in the couch in the living room. Not that he's heavy but it's just that I'm also tired after shopping in the mall and driving all the way home, I also carried all the bags into the house. Settling on the couch, I sigh as I place Parker properly on my lap while he buries his face in my neck. I gently rub his back as I look at the clock which reads 6 o'clock.

We still have time for dinner so for time being we can rest. I then take a glance at all the bags sitting in the room and let out another sigh. We have to arrange all these and set the room for Moon but even that has to wait. I close my eyes and hug Parker as I decide to rest for sometime. Suddenly, Parker's voice echoes in the room and I open my eyes, looking down at him whose face is still hide in my neck.

"I'm sorry, Kaino." He whispers and places a small kiss on my neck and by that I know he's not just blubbering in sleep but really mean it.

"Why do you say that?" I query softly while I continue to rub his back.

"I tired you a lot today, I was just so excited about bringing everything for Moon." He mumbles apologitically.

"It's alright, as long as you're happy." I respond earning a hmm from him.

"I'm happy, real happy." He says before I feel his hold tighten around me.

"That's all it matters." I state, staring down at him, "let's rest for a while."

With one last nod from him, I press a soft kiss on his head and close my eyes, thinking to get a short nap.