Chapter 9

Dante's Day:

I left home on automatic pilot, not wanting to think about what I was doing or had to do, until it was necessary. I was stunned when I found myself in front of the passenger door of the car, staring at Lok's chair. I let out an exasperated sigh. My autopilot was broken. In my day to day, I don't use a car, I don't even have a car, I only used it for missions. This habit did not change when boys came into my life, but now I have a baby. When I have to make long trips or possible heavy purchases, I always take the car. I shook my head; I couldn't think of Lok and the 234 things that could have happened while I was trying to get out of my house. A little defeated, I passed the car and walked, I wanted to take advantage of the fact that I was only going to walk a little, I believed that a walk would help me…, anything.

I arrived on time for my meeting, a Greek restaurant. It was closed, but had already spoken with the owners to see us before opening and that the staff will arrive. I went around the restaurant and knocked on the back door, where the merchandise was coming in. It was opened by a big man, with a moustache, short black hair with some gray hair, he was a bit fat, he was wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt, black pants and an apron.

-Good morning, I'm Dante Vale. We talked on the phone- I held out my hand and the man shook it.

-Good morning, I'm Caesar Makris, a pleasure-Caesar moved away and let me pass-I went in, my wife is waiting for us in the dining room.

We went through the kitchen and into the dining room, it was larger than it looked from the outside. The decor was blue and white, on one wall there were photographs of people, many in black and white, probably family members, and on another there was a painting of the coast of Greece. I couldn't help but feel nostalgic as I recalled the mission we had over a year ago, searching for the Argonauts' ship, where we had to collect information off the coast of Greece and in which Lok almost drowned. I bit my tongue to bring myself back to reality, this was no time for nostalgia.

The woman was sitting at one of the tables with many papers scattered around her, a notebook in which she wrote and a calculator. She had brown hair in a messy bun, red glasses, and she was wearing a white blouse and black pants. When she noticed our presence she got up to greet me.

-Hi, I'm Cristel Makris.

-Good morning, Dante Vale. I see you busy, is it a bad time? -I studied the woman a little more, apart from the messy hair she had a lot of dark circles, she seemed very tired and a little defeated.

-Do not worry. I do not think there would be a good time-The woman gave a sad laugh-But what manners, please sit down.

The three of us sat at a table next to where he was working, doing accounts, I sensed.

-How can I help you?

-See- Caesar was nervous, his wife conveyed her support by grabbing his hand on the table-For a few months we have had losses. At first there were few, little things. One euro was missing from the box or some drink that he had paid us, always water or a soft drink.

-We did not associate these losses until later with thefts, at first we thought that they were errors in the box, or some mistake of a waiter, things that sometimes happen. But the problem got worse, the frequency with which the losses increased has made us lose up to 100 euros a week, and we began to notice that things were missing from the inventory: meat, fish and wines, all of the highest quality.- Cristel seemed ready to cry.

-We tried to investigate ourselves, but we didn't find out anything. We spoke with the head waiter, but she did not know anything and had not noticed anything strange.

-This problem is serious, they are having very large losses, and not only in the checkout, but due to the disappearance of food the costs of the orders must have increased, which causes a greater loss, right?

-Exactly- Cristel wiped away the tears that were beginning to come out -The losses are so great that, if things do not change, we will have to close in 3 months.

-We don't want that, Mr. Vale.- My family opened this restaurant over 80 years ago-Caesar pointed to the wall full of photos-We have adapted to the times and modernized over the years. This restaurant has been through a lot, we can't close. Our whole life is here, we can't lose it.

-I will do everything in my power to prevent that from happening. If you don't mind, I'll ask you a few questions to find out what I'm up against and how to proceed.

- Whatever you need.

-What role do you play in the restaurant?

- I am the head chef.

-I take care of the accounts, make the orders together with my husband and organize the table service with the help of the head waiter.

-They work every day?

-No. At first we did, but it affected family life as soon as we had our first child. So we work 5 days and we have two days off to dedicate to our children and grandchildren- Caesar explained

-Do they release together or on different days?

-Together. Jessica, our head waiter is the one who stays in charge when we're not around.

I asked them a few more questions, about the disappearing food and drink and about the staff. All the meat that had disappeared was of the highest quality, and of the most expensive cuts, the fish that disappeared were the most delicious and the best wines had disappeared. I had a staff full of suspects. Four more people worked in the kitchen apart from the owner, a dishwasher, the second cook and two laborers. A waiter worked at the bar and Jessica and 5 other waiters worked in the room. Despite so many employees, my suspicions were mainly in the head waiter, Jessica, she is the main person in charge when the bosses are not there, but I suspected that she did not do it alone, she must have an accomplice, and it was probably someone from the kitchen, since they were the only ones, apart from the owners, who could go to the warehouse and receive the food orders. I had my eyes on Marcos, the second cook and the one in charge when Caesar was on his days off.

I asked them about who or who they suspected, and they did not know how to tell me, they had full confidence in their employees since they had been with them for years before the problems began, and that was one of the problems that Caesar and Cristiel did not know, nor they could cope, that's why they wanted someone objective to help them, because being suspicious of someone from their employees caused them pain.

I arranged for Caesar and Cristiel to leave as soon as they started the shift with some excuse and leave the employees alone, since it was very likely that they would steal the days they were off. I would pretend to be a customer and spend a while working after lunch, which was real, only the employees didn't know that my job was to study the waiters and their movements. I would strategically place myself at a table where I would have a direct view of the box and the computer where they marked the orders, in this way I could see that waiters did not correctly mark the drinks and all the operations that were carried out in the box. I was still not very clear on how to investigate the thefts of raw material, I had planned to enter the warehouse and observe from the inside in some way, but I was not yet clear. For now I was going to focus on the thefts from the safe.

I left the restaurant and I was away before some employee arrived and could see me, I did not want to spoil the plan before starting. Since I had to wait for the place to open, I took a little walk a couple of blocks away. I took out my cell phone and saw that I had a couple of messages from Zhalia hating me for leaving without saying anything. I didn't pay much attention to her, she had told myself that today I would have to focus on my work. It kind of scared me that Sophie hadn't contacted me in any way. It was supposed to be a good thing, right? I mean, that meant there was no problem, and everything was fine, and Lok was fine, and that he could live without me ... maybe it shouldn't be so overprotective and that it is possible to be able to work outside the home and to take days off and be able to go out with Zhalia without having to worry about whether I have enough diapers. I didn't really know how to feel, it was a good thing that Lok was safe under Sophie's care and in the company of Den and Zhalia, Cherit didn't worry me. But I didn't feel relieved, or happy, or calm, or anything like how I'm supposed to feel, rather I feel overwhelmed and nervous and sad and disappointed, and because I knew I shouldn't feel that way, I felt like a bad person. I put my phone away and forced myself not to think about Lok, and the things that were happening. I lengthened the walk a little longer to clear up and try to calm my emotions and that they will not affect my work. I work, for that reason I had left home to work and regain normalcy in my life.

I decided that I had waited long enough, or didn't want to wait any longer, and went back to the restaurant, this time as a customer. As we had agreed, Cristiel and Caesar should not be there, since they were nowhere to be seen. A waiter took me to my table that I had reserved in advance, and I took my drink order, the menu was on the table, I took a quick look at it while keeping my eye on the box and the computer. After placing my order, I took my notebook out of my briefcase and began to write profiles of the waiters, who they were most suspicious of and what they marked on the computer. While there were few customers in the restaurant I did not notice anything unusual, the service was working properly and the head waiter directed the restaurant quite well. Little by little the room began to fill up and I began to notice slight changes, such as that Jessica anchored herself in the cashier and in the computer, according to her it was a method to speed up the work, since she was the only one who could charge and mark the commands on the computer. I had to admit that it was effective, there was no queue of waiters to write down orders, and customers did not have to wait to be charged, but what was effective, it lost with a bad job, Jessica began to make mistakes already "forgetting" to dial correctly on the computer and charge for certain products. I discreetly took a couple of photos with my mobile, I am a professional and I cannot accuse anyone without proof. I was lucky enough to be able to take a video of Jessica putting some of the money from one of the accounts where clients had paid in cash in her pocket, stealing six euros from her boss. As I already had enough evidence, I focused on finishing my lunch, which had already gone cold from focusing so much on catching Jessica.

While I had a coffee, I looked at the messages from the team again, I was scared to death, I had no messages, not even a missed call. I looked at the time, it was already three in the afternoon, it was more than an hour since Lok had eaten and now he should be taking a nap, probably, if Sophie listened to me, he would sleep on it while she reads or something like that. I had only missed nap time today and I already missed it, my body was asking me to sleep, that is why I had not been forced to have a coffee, to be able to continue working, and my body missed the heat and the light weight of Lok on my chest. I wanted to finish the job today, both for my clients, a lovely couple who were hurting a lot, and for myself, I didn't want to have to come back tomorrow and lose sight of Lok again. Nor did I want to come home very late and have him asleep already, I couldn't allow that, I had already missed my nap, I was not going to miss the bath and putting him in the crib as well.

Pay cash and watch and watch from a distance as Jessica kept some of the money again. Now it was the hardest part of the job, investigating the thefts of wine, fish and meat. I had to find some way to get into the warehouse, the easiest thing would be to pick the lock on the back door and get in, but I had to do it without anyone on the kitchen staff noticing. Snakingly, I went around the restaurant, when I did it previously to meet my clients I noticed that there were a couple of garbage containers, which I could use to hide and wait for the right moment to enter. I studied the hideout a little more and waited. I had to admit that it had not been one of my best ideas, being hidden between two garbage containers was not a pleasant thing, but I did not have many options, I wanted to finish my work today and not have to go back to do a reconnaissance and come up with another plan.

I waited a while to find out what the employees were doing at the door and in the back area of the restaurant, to find out how likely it was that they would catch me in the act of picking the lock. After two and a half hours of observing, I saw that an employee went out to smoke every half hour, but the others did not go out or use that door. During those two and a half hours I couldn't help looking at my cell phone constantly hoping that Sophie would call me with a problem or ask for help or advice about anything about Lok, or that Zhalia would send me a message cursing because Lok wouldn't stop crying or she had messed up the kitchen at mealtime, or he might have had a bad awakening from his nap. I tried with all my might to eliminate those thoughts from my head, I shouldn't have been thinking about the baby that was relapsing in my house right now and that I wasn't taking care of right now. But having free time, if I wasn't thinking about mini-Lok, I was remembering our missions. Now that I was on the Board of the Huntik Foundation my adventure time had been so shortened to nonexistence, I missed the action, the travel and the team. And the loss of Lok made me see how long I had been away from them, and during my mourning I couldn't help but blame myself for not having spent time with them and for all the missions I missed. It was definitely not good for me to think, it ends up feeling really bad about myself, or life in general, it filled me with a feeling of guilt and bitterness that was making me want to run home and leave everything.

I also had time to think about what I would do when I entered, I decided that I would go in two minutes after the jerk came in after smoking and I would sneak into the warehouse where I would hide and put a small camera to record what happens inside and the thief. I was getting ready to go in when a delivery truck suddenly arrived. The driver got out and rang the doorbell and went straight to unload while someone opened the door.

The person who opened it was the dishwasher, he seemed puzzled when he saw the delivery man and told him that he will wait, that he had to go find the superior of him since he could not take care of the shipments. Marcos left in a hurry and in a bad mood, he began to argue with the delivery man, unhappy with his presence, according to him there were no orders today. In the end he calmed down and received the merchandise, but he did not sign any paper or allow it to be entered until he verified that everything that should have been ordered was there. I took a couple of photos of Marcos counting what was in each box, he wrote it down on a piece of paper and then put it in its corresponding box. Once Marco was satisfied, he allowed the ingredients in. I was forced to wait for the truck to leave and for the employer smoker to get out again to have as much time as possible. Which meant having time to be able to be in my head and keep getting paranoid about what was happening at home or feeling sorry for myself. I took advantage of that time to contact the owners and gather information about a question that I had in my head, I did take the opportunity to avoid having to think about what I should not, it was just an advantage. In my conversation with Caesar my suspicions were confirmed, what Marcos said was true, today they did not expect any cast, or at least none that they had requested.

After waiting for so long between two garbage containers, I finally had my chance and was able to enter. I forced the lock in 30 seconds, closed the door as quietly as possible and went in without making any noise, although due to the bustle in the kitchen I don't think it was possible that they would hear me. The warehouse was near the door. Once there I placed the camera in a discreet place, but one that will allow us to record the door and most of the warehouse. As I had time, I checked the merchandise that had arrived today, because, even if Marcos had counted it, it did not mean that he had deliberately recorded the quantity of each ingredient correctly. I had to admit that I had made a mistake with Marcos, I had correctly noted the new merchandise and I saw that hidden throughout the warehouse there were more notes with an inventory than there were, and I had even noted the time and day of arrival and withdrawal of every product, even the wines. Everything was written in the same handwriting. Apparently, Marcos was aware of the robberies and was not happy, so he did everything he could to prevent them.

I left just as quietly as I had arrived and reconnected with my clients to meet at my house the next day, after Lok had breakfast and was quiet. I was hoping to record something with the camera, I could see the recording on my laptop, but I would review them after I put Lok to bed, now I just wanted to go home, I was tired, and not paranoid at all.

Finally, I was finally home, crossing the metal door tasted like glory to me, it had not even been a long day, nor complicated, although standing between two stinky containers had not been easy, nor pleasant, but being at home was fantastic. I knew it must smell a little garbage and that the first thing I should do is take a shower, but what I really wanted was to pick up a certain baby and hug him. I also wanted to check that everything was fine and that the lack of calls was a good thing, although that did not take away the feeling of panic that is an accent in my chest.

I walked up the stairs feeling anxious and opened the door so nervous my hand was shaking. Once inside, I greeted everyone to alert everyone present to my presence. Sophie and Den were sitting on the living room floor surrounded by children's toys, Lok was standing leaning on the table with his stuffed animal on it, at a distance from Den and Sophie. I noticed that he was wearing different clothes than what I had put on him this morning, but it was a relief to see that he still had the pacifier and the hook. Lok smiled a lot when he saw me and came running to greet me with outstretched arms for me to pick him up. I can't help but smile and I gladly took him and his teddy, being apart for so long had been really horrible and it filled me with happiness to hold him in my arms and feel his little hand clutching my clothes.

Sophie's Day:

It is clear that Dante did not want to leave or at least, he did not want to leave Lok, Dante was a bit gone. Dante's departure did not sit well with Lok, he began to pout without taking his eyes off the door in the hope that Dante would return. I started bouncing him and rocking him to try to calm him down, but I couldn't, Lok began to wail as he extended an arm towards the door, while he opened and closed his hand asking for Dante to come back. When he was aware that Dante was not coming back, Lok burst into tears in disagreement with the situation.

I walked around the house trying to make Lok calm down, but it was not accomplishing anything. Den was no help, he hid in his task of removing the exaggerated amount of lasso, who has so much free time to fill a red house? Anyway, Den not only refused to help me, but he asked me to leave and take Lok to another part where he could not hear him, that stupid comment would be worth revenge later. Zhalia came out from somewhere in the house, disturbed by Lok's crying and screaming. She was not happy, and things got worse, she did not like that Dante left without saying anything and left her here with Lok in my charge. She started to curse in a whisper, she said something like she was not going to hold on and left the house with a slam of the door.

I ended up sitting in the training room, spread a blanket on the floor and put Lok down, surrounded him with his toys after bringing the basket from the livingroom. Nothing worked, Lok just cried and cried and nothing comforted him. After pleading with Cherit a bit, he got Den to come help me. Between the two of us we tried to make him stop crying and calm down, but nothing works, if we gave him the cubes, he would throw them at us, if it was the car, he would slap it and take it out of his sight, if we read one of his books he would cry higher. We did not know what to do. Even Cherit had been affected. He had tried to do his job by crawling into the back of one of the cabinets to get away from the noise, but he had only managed to get dizzy from the amount of lassos there were. He came flying out of focus and doing "S", dropped into the toy basket that was partially empty and began to read a parenting book that Dante had left inside. Den suggested that we call Dante for help, but I didn't want him to think that I couldn't take care of Lok. Dante had been taking care of Lok by himself for three weeks, and he had been doing what he did was nothing for a long time. Today, finally, he had decided to go back to work, and I was not going to bother him, I was sure that Dante was enjoying his time without Lok and doing things that had nothing to do with babysitting.

-Here says that it is normal for babies to feel panic when separated from the main caregiver of him, and that she shows it with an inconsolable cry.

-Thank you, Cherit. That is very helpful.

Cherit shrugged and put the book down. He said that he was going to rest because his head hurt. When Cherit began to fly there was silence, Lok stared at Cherit with wide eyes full of astonishment. He stared at Cherit as he flew across the room trying to reach the door, due to the dizziness caused by the lassos combined with Lok's screams, he made a miscalculation and collided with the wall, falling to the floor. Den and I winced, but Lok started laughing, Den and I couldn't help but turn our heads to look at him puzzled.

-Den, he's laughing.

-Yes. He's cute.

I looked at Den in surprise. Shortly before Lok disappeared Den had become obsessed with being "a tough guy" and quite a "man". So he avoided certain behaviors, actions, places and saying certain things, like, for example, he stopped going to arcades with Lok because he considered them for children. Lok was taking care of that, but after he disappeared, the whole thing got worse.

-What?

-Nothing, it's rare for you to say that a baby is cute.

-I'm not blind, I am perfectly capable of seeing that Lok has laughed and has been cute. And I recognize him as every man that I am.

I burst out laughing. Den was offended and punched me on the shoulder. Lok ignored us in favour of standing up and running over to Cherit, who was recovering from the blow. I felt a little bad for him, neither Den nor I went to see how he was, just Lok, and he had laughed at his blow. Cherit was flying above Lok, out of reach of him, but that did not discourage Lok, he kept smiling and tried to reach him with both hands. I begged him with my eyes to help me and he accepted, Lok was happy and distracted with him, so Den decided to go back to his task of removing lassos, he did not want to waste much time of the day with that to be able to play with Lok, although he did not have much faith that Den understood, or planned, to play with Lok the way he is supposed to play with a baby.

Cherit flew followed by Lok to the blanket, sat down and Lok followed suit. I took advantage of the fact that I was distracted to put the placer in your mouth, I hadn't wanted it while he had his tantrum, he did put it on, he took it off and threw it in my direction, but since he had it tied to his shirt, it wasn't going anywhere. Lok wanted to pet Cherit and he allowed it, I had to help him because he was a bit rough. Lok ignored me the whole time, he only listened to Cherit. It was a really adorable situation, he showed him his toys, and even showed him his stuffed animal and he would not stop talking, or rather babbling, with his placer on I was not able to understand anything, although I'm not sure I can understand something without the placer, so it was in them.

Cherit was recovering from his headache, and decided to help Den again, it did not seem right to abandon him with this heinous task. Lok became angry again when he saw Cherit leaving, and refused to play with me, preferred to get up and go and touch all the training material, he threw all the wooden poles from their supports, he released the ropes that tied the mats making that the top ones fell off, although that wasn't entirely his fault, I think Den was the last to use it and the one who kept them wrong, you could see from afar that they weren't secured, and the closures were wrong. While trying to pick up everything he was throwing away, Lok ran off, I had no choice but to drop the things and run after him to prevent anything from happening. Despite being small he is surprisingly fast, I lost Lok when I turned a corner and I could not find him. I looked for it all over the house, but couldn't find it, I ended up in the kitchen screaming hysterically for not being able to find it. Cherit was sprawled across the table in the shape of a starfish, and he didn't flinch from my despair, Den just looked at me strangely from where he was kneeling on the counter in front of a closet where he was removing lassos.

-Sophie, you want to calm down. Lok has been sitting there for a while.

Den pointed to a mountain of ribbons behind the table, Lok was sitting on the floor with his legs covered by them and a ribbon on his head, in his hands he had another and he looked at it like a treasure, or so I thought until he put his mouth on it and started sucking and biting it.

-There you are! May I know what you have against me? Yesterday we got along very well.- I knelt in front of him. Lok looked at me, took the bow out of his mouth, and handed it to me. I took it by the end a little disgusted.-Ew… Thanks?

I set the slobbery lasso on the ground and picked up Lok, supporting him on my run for a better grip and more comfort.

-Guys, I need help. I can't handle Lok by myself.

-That is your mission, mine and Cherit's is to remove ties, although as you can see my partner abandons me.

-Cool! so he can help me.

-I don't think, I think he's dead or something.

-I do not care, I only need his body, that he is alive I do not care.

-I don't know if that's cruel or desperate, but whatever it is, I don't think Cherit is going to help you. You should look for another solution.

-Like what?

-I don't know, call Dante? - I glared at Den at the suggestion of ruining Dante's day-You're supposed to be the one who knows and the one who should take care of the baby is you, I just came to accompany you because I thought I had a chance to have a little fun at Lok's expense, now I'm removing lassos. Why is there so much bond ?! This is sick! now I understand why Dante ran away.

The boys weren't going to be helpful. I tried to play with him again, but Lok preferred to play alone or with his dragon, in any case, they were no longer crying and screaming. I left Lok playing on the blanket while I cleaned up the mess I had accused in his tantrum. I'll make sure to place the mats well and lock the latches tightly, putting the latches that Den had forgotten to put, set them at a decent height so they were out of Lok's reach, which wasn't too difficult. Around 1:00 p.m. I took Lok to the kitchen, it was time for him to eat and I didn't want to be late with his schedule. Den was nowhere to be seen, yet Cherit hadn't moved and was in the same spot and position on the table. I went to leave Lok in the highchair so I could warm the food and try to help Cherit, he seemed sick, but Lok had another idea. As soon as he saw that I was going to seat him in the highchair, he had another open one again and he began to scream and cry, I tried to calm him down before sitting him down, but it was impossible, I had no choice but to sit him down and fasten him, which was not easy anymore, who kept fighting and kicking, was not happy and made sure my ears and arms will notice. Cherit, aching, dizzy and tired sat on the highchair tray, since his presence was the only thing that seemed to calm the poor baby.

I was sick of taking care of Lok, I had zucchini puree all over my clothes, Lok had stained from top to bottom and the kitchen was scary, none of the food had entered Lok's mouth. At first, I let him eat by himself, because he was supposed to know how to do it, but he started throwing the puree all over the kitchen and at me, making something fall on him. Then I tried to feed him myself, but there was no way to get the spoon into his mouth, he not only turned his head, but also hit my hand or the spoon, throwing the puree. Cherit had to leave because of the migraine, and he couldn't help me, I was sure that if it were Cherit who fed him he would be happy. The only good thing about this whole situation is that Lok had stopped crying. Den walked into the kitchen just as Lok threw mash in my face. He carried a mountain of ribbons in his arms, he looked tired, it seemed that he had run a marathon.

-Dante has started using several of the things without having removed the ties.

-And can you blame him? You look terrible- I wiped my face with a napkin.

-You don't look any better- Den dropped the flagstones on the floor -Okay, now I have to trash these ties and finish the rest-He said the last part completely defeated.

- I'll change it!

-What?

-You take care of Lok and I take care of the ties.

-Not dead, you look worse than me, and the cook too.

Den began to turn around trying to orient himself looking for something. I gave up, put the pot of mash on the table, and paid more attention to Den.

-What are you doing?"-Den knelt in front of a closet.

-I have to bag these ribbons to throw them away when I'm done.-Den proudly pulled out the roll of garbage bags.

-Why didn't you prepare the bag earlier and throw them inside?- Den looked at me very seriously.

-It hadn't occurred to me.- Den looked at me for a moment without saying anything. Den was holding an open bag and I was holding the spoon with which he was feeding Lok- You keeps the lassos, I tried to make him eat.

Den and I were sitting on the couch, with Lok in the middle. The three of us were covered in zucchini puree. Neither of them had gotten him to eat anything. The ties occupied two bags to the top, luckily, we did not find more in the house, now, we only had to take them out and throw them away, but none of them had the strength. We had taken off our shoes and rested our feet on the table. After giving up on food, we thought it was a good idea to put a movie on him so that he would fall asleep, we hoped that crying, screaming and hitting each other would have made him tired and he wanted to cry. We settled on a Disney classic, Peter Pan, although since Lok is only a year old, I don't think he knows anything about it.

-Sophie! Sophie, wake up!

-What? What's wrong? - I rubbed my eyes wearily to get rid of sleep, I felt puzzled.

-Lok you are not!

-As the?

-We fell asleep- I couldn't believe it, though on second thought, the last thing I remembered was the mermaids being mean to Wendy.

-We have to find it! We both stood up.

-Oh! What is a Lok cube doing here?

-I put it on when you fell asleep.

-What? Why did you do it?

-For kicking me out of the kitchen instead of helping me when I asked for your help.

-You're cruel.

-We are straying from the topic! Lok must be found!

-Can you know that we are passing you now?

Den and I looked at Zhalia strangely, she was coming from the kitchen and she was looking at us angrily with her arms in the form of handles.

-And good? Who explains it to me?

-Lok has disappeared- Den we spoke at the same time and it was weird.

-Lok is in the kitchen with Mezt, he is feeding him.

Zhalia turned and walked into the kitchen, Den and I followed. Zhalia was not lying; Lok was sitting in her highchair with a bib on over clean clothes and puffy cheeks full of pure. Mezt sat across from him with an empty pumpkin puree jar in one hand and a spoon in the other. Zhalia took the plate of meatballs Dante had prepared from the microwave and held it in front of Lok, handed Mezt the fork, and sat down next to him. Lok happily ate everything Mezt offered him, he did not protest, he did not complain, he did not cry, he did not hit him and he did not throw food at him. He just opened his mouth waiting for Mezt to continue feeding him.

-But…? How…? - I couldn't believe it, I was stunned- He's eating.

-That matters. He is calm and does not cry.

-Why doesn't he hate you?

-Lok doesn't hate anyone, he only has a preference for Dante. And don't worry, the first time I got Dante to leave, and I was alone with Lok, I also tortured myself. Have you eaten?

-Eh no. - Den scratched his arm a bit- We didn't give us time.

-Rather, I would say that we have forgotten.

-We guessed it. Mezt and I brought you pizza. And something for dinner.

Lok groaned with his mouth open, Mezt had stopped while he fed him Lok wanted that piece of meatball that Mezt was offering him, but he didn't give him.

-Sorry my friend.

Mezt shoved the piece of meatball into his mouth and Lok banged on the tray of the happy highchair. Den and I sat down and started eating the pizza straight out of the box, Zhalia brought us some napkins.

-When you finish eating take out those bags- Den and I didn't feel like moving too much, but Zhalia was right, it was our job.

-Have you gotten him to take a nap?

-Please, Mezt. What question is that? We found them sleeping on the couch while Lok roamed the house.

-Dante is not going to be content with that. And I don't think Lok will make it easy for us if he doesn't sleep.

-Has this morning been easy?

After eating Lok was less crying, but just as complaining. After throwing out the trash bags with the ties, Den and I got to play with it. I had to calm Den down a bit, he was very excited and I worried that he will upset Lok or hurt him by accident. After stacking cubes and playing with the car, Lok started yawning and rubbing his eyes, Mezt suggested that I put him to sleep and asked Den to put the toys away while I went to put Lok to bed. As I climbed the stairs with Lok in my arms, I felt that I was forgetting something, but I did not fall into what. I sat in the rocking chair in Lok's room to make Lok sleep. It was not difficult at all, he immediately fell asleep, I got up in silence and tried to put him in the crib, but he must have noticed that I put him to bed and woke up crying. I sat down again and rocked him, Lok stared at me with a frown, but I put the sucker on him and he went back to sleep, I tried to put him in the crib again, but the same thing happened again. This event happened three more times, and each time he woke up he seemed more angry and had a harder time falling asleep. Mezt came to remind me that Lok liked to sleep sitting on Dante's lap and leaning against his chest. At that moment the wires connected in my brain and I remembered that Dante had already warned me. At that moment I decided that would be rule number 3. Mezt offered to take care of Lok and I was delighted to do so, I know it was wrong to run away, leaving Mezt in charge of Lok, but in my defence, I had already endured taking care of Lok all morning and I was exhausted, the nap had not been enough.

Den and I spent Lok's nap time lying on the couch watching TV and disconnecting from everything. I felt like a bad person, I had failed Dante, I had not been able to respect Lok's schedule, I was not able to handle it, I had forgotten the new official mini-Lok rule, I had left Mezt in charge of Lok and I just wanted to go home, meditate, take a relaxing bath, and eat homemade LeBlanche cookies.

After Lok's nap, Mezt gave Den and me time to wash up, wash clothes, and put on whatever and clean up the mess in the kitchen, while he and Zhalia entertained Lok. Mezt and Zhalia weren't saying it, but they were helping us hide our inability to take care of Lok from Dante. Zhalia, so that she wouldn't have to take care of Lok and that Dante kept asking me to take care of him and Mezt so that he could enjoy his "fake grandson", as he put it.

Lok wanted nothing to do with Den or me, not after Den destroyed his mountain of cubes, and I accidentally hid his stuffed animal with a sofa cushion and he wasn't able to find it, even though I did find it the 10 seconds was not enough for him. We haven't heard from Cherit since 1:00 PM, but Zhalia said he was in Dante's office with a horrible migraine from the ties. As Dante's return time was approaching, Zhalia was kind enough to take our clothes out of the dryer so we could change and hide the fact that we had spent most of the afternoon in other clothes, Den was lucky and had something of clothes still at Dante's house, but Zhalia had to lend me some pants and I stole a shirt from Lok again. She then she went to Dante's office to watch out the window if he would come and to let us know. After we changed, Den and I tidied up the house while Mezt took care of Lok.

Mezt, Den, Lok and I were in the living room. Mezt was sitting on one of the sofas flipping through a children's toy magazine with a pen in hand, Den and I were sitting on the floor with a couple of toys scattered on the floor and Lok was standing leaning on the side table in front of him. He messed with his dragon. Zhalia peered down the stairs.

-Dante just entered the courtyard.

She disappeared into Dante's office again. Mezt closed the magazine and rolled it up, stood up while putting the pen in a pocket.

-I have to go. Not a word to Dante about my presence in the house.

Den and I nodded, Mezt said goodbye to Lok, stroking his hair lovingly, and left through the back door. Dante came in and greeted everyone. He was very happy to see Lok and Lok to see him, he ran towards Dante with outstretched arms and Dante took him with pleasure. Den and I were also relieved that Dante was back, our nightmare was over, and we didn't intend to repeat it for a while.

Shopping list

-Vaccum cleaner

Mini-Lok Rules

1.- Never separate him from his dragon stuffed animal.

2.- Do not shout in his presence, he does not like people who yell.

3.- He must nap on top of someone, preferably Dante

In the next chapter I will try to write the days of Mezt, Zhalia and Den. If this is not possible, I would like to know who you prefer the day of, leave it in the comments if possible.

The next update will be from my other fanfic, Electricity, light, fire and sorcery, but I don't know when I'll upload it, I hope do it asap.