Page 60 of Under His Heel

If Alex wasn’t going to enjoy the evening anyway, maybe it wouldn’t make a difference what he did. But… he didn’t trust Tracht not to make it even worse if he found out that Alex had been eating and drinking without his permission.

“Um, I was thinking of buying some souvenirs for Meilin? How about we just head to the shops?”

Alex nodded his agreement to that idea. Shopping sounded safe. Alex wouldn’t buy anything, of course, but looking never hurt anyone.

They ended up going to a toy store, Parsons chattering about his daughter and her newest test scores and how amazingly smart and clever and blah blah blah. Alex put up with it only because it meant he didn’t need to say anything.

Even the toys Parsons was looking at were some sort of intellectual BS. Puzzles and board games and trivia cards.

“The trivia cards are good to teach her about the rest of the solar system. But board games and puzzle games teach cognitive skills… Maybe I should just get both?” Parsons held up a complicated puzzle that Alex would have thrown in the trash as a kid. Not that his mom had ever bought toys for him or Nick.

“What if she just wants a doll?” Alex asked. “Those look boring as h—those look boring.”

“There are dolls on Cadmus. Educational toys aren’t as in demand there though, so the selection is a lot more limited.” Parsons looked between the trivia cards and the puzzle game. “The trivia cards might get outdated. And we can probably find something like this on the net. But if she becomes too reliant on the net, she won’t memorize…”

Good god, Alex was glad his mom hadn’t been like this. He felt almost sorry for Parsons’ daughter, being forced to learn when she probably just wanted to play.

“So just get whichever is cheapest,” Alex interrupted. “It really doesn’t matter.”

Naturally, Parsons proceeded to lecture Alex about the importance of ‘nurturing a child’s cognitive skills’ and how education was everything and blah-fucking-blah.

“I didn’t get any of that, and I’m fine,” Alex said when Parsons finally calmed down.

Parsons stared. Then he started walking towards the cash register with both items in hand. “Definitely both. I’ll go pay for this.”

Whatever. It was Parsons’ money, and Alex was glad to be out of the toy store. It was making him anxious, and he couldn’t pinpoint why. Probably all the kids in there whining to their parents about all the toys they wanted.

“My brother and I stole a toy ship once,” Alex told Parsons on their way out of the store. “Some kid at school kept bragging about hers, and Nick got mad about it. Said we needed one that was even better. ‘Course the security on these places makes it impossible to just walk out with a toy, so we like, stalked the place for a while and waited for somebody else to buy one. Followed some rich brat who got like three toys all at once, and when his dad wasn’t looking we snatched it right out of the kid’s hand.” Alex laughed. “Actually, I grabbed the ship, and Nick pretended to be me for the kid and dad to chase for a while. They were convinced he was me, except Nick led them halfway across the station and then sweet talked his way out.”

“Wow. Uh. How old were you?” Parsons started walking a little bit faster.

Must have been one of the first times Nick and Alex had used their identical looks to fool somebody. “Probably like ten?”

“That’s so young…” After some hesitation, Parsons asked, “Was it worth it?”

“Eh. We played with it for a few days, and then mom’s boyfriend found it and sold it.” Alex and Nick couldn’t reliably keep much stuff around the house without the risk of it disappearing.

The next stop was a kids’ clothing store, where Parsons fawned over the little skirts and the little blouses.

“Does she even like this stuff?” Alex asked, holding a tiny skirt up to his waist. It barely went past Alex’s crotch. Parsons quickly snatched it away from him.

“If it’s blue, she’ll like it. That’s her favorite color right now. And thankfully, still is, if her clothes when we vidded were any indication. She dropped green around… around the time her mother passed, so I had to get her a brand new wardrobe.” Parsons put the skirt back on the rack. “That’s way too short for her. What are kids around here wearing these days?”

Seriously, Alex hadn’t figured Parsons to be this controlling. It was almost funny watching him get worked up over the kid stuff, but he really did feel sorry for Parsons’ brat now.

“Hey, I know you… I know you aren’t allowed to eat,” Parsons said once he was done shopping for clothes, “but I’m getting kind of hungry. Is it okay if we stop by the food court? I’ll just get a quick snack.”

“What are you asking me for?” Alex crossed his arms. “You can do whatever you want.”

“Uh, no, I just thought it might be a bit insensitive.” Parsons frowned. “And anyway, I doubt the captain is going to know what we do out here.”

Alex stopped in his walking and glared at him. “Are you trying to get me in trouble?”

“No! Absolutely not!” Parsons looked around nervously and then pulled on Alex’s arm. “Come on, let’s just go. I’ll get a sandwich and then we can go wherever you want.”

There wasn’t anywhere that Alex particularly wanted to go, not until they passed the movie theater. He spotted a poster for a new installation in an action series he’d watched with Nick. “How about a movie?”

Parsons looked over at the movie listings. “Huh. We could come back tomorrow? If we do a morning showing it’ll be cheaper.”

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