Bound To You: Marcus Volturi

Chapter 63: Shopping....and Shopping!

"Wake up! Up! It's time for shopping." The duvet comes out  from underneath me as Caius yanks it and I roll onto the floor from the bed. "Fuck!" I land on my side, banging my hip on the hard floor and Caius, totally unsympathetic, starts prodding me in my back.

"Up off the floor right now." His voice is free of emotion, and he stands there towering over me with his hands ready to prod me again. He reaches for me in warning and I quickly scramble to my feet. "The shower is waiting." He points to the bathroom door impaitently. "Off you go." He pushes me in through the door and closes it behind me.

"Yeah, good morning to you too." I mumble, noticing he has laid out an outfit across the towel rail on the bathroom wall. I turn on the shower hose, undress and step under the water. Barely thirty seconds later, Caius is banging on the door. "Hurry up!" He complains.

"You are joking me." I mumble to myself, lathering shampoo into my hair. "Dad, it's been less than a minute. Give me time." I command. "Women. They're all the same. They take an eternity to make themselves presentable." He huffs over the sound of the water.

I switch off the water about five minutes later and dress in the bathroom. When I emerge from my room, Caius is sitting imapitently on the bed. "About time." He complains. "I could have had a tour around the world by now." He mutters to himself, jumping up and heading to the door.

"Jeez, I know you're harsh and cruel to the guards, but do you have to do it with me?" I moan, trailing after him to the garage. He's never been this impaitent and blunt with me before. "Yes, well, I am on a tight schedule. There are things I'd like to get done yet I have to slow down because your routine takes too long." He continues.

We both slide into our seats in his car and he turns on the radio. "Well, sorry, Dad." I try, but he smiles his charming smile and the Caius I know is back.
"It's fine, sweetheart. I'm sorry for being so..abrupt this morning, but I'm thinking about serious things." He summarises.

"Like...?" I ask, but he remains tight lipped. "Nothing." He switches the radio station and smiles. "Oh, listen, it's that song you like." He says, distracting me. By the time we get to the shopping centre, he seems fine and enthusiastic to shop with me.

"Let's go in here." I hook my arm through his and lead him into a shop that sells band merchandise. "Here." I point at a P!ATD t-shirt and he stares. "Who's that?" He asks. I sigh at him. "That's Brendon Urie. The leadsinger." I take the t-shirt in my size and shove it in the basket.

"I like these." Caius takes some black and white checkerboard trainers and passes them to me. "These are cool." I go to put them back on the shelf but he stops me. "You're not a foster child anymore, Lee. You shouldn't be afraid of buying more than one thing. It's alright." He reassures.

He inspects them further. "I might get a pair for myself." He shrugs and I smile. "Funny, Dad." "I know. I am indeed." He agrees, heading to the checkout. We pay and head on to the next shop.

"How about some...what are they called?" He asks me. I stop and stand beside him as he thinks to himself. "I don't know what you're talking about, Dad."
He ignores me, muttering to himself before he straightens up. "Eureka!" He cries. "Jeans! Let's get some jeans." He grabs my hand and leads me to the boys department.

"You do wear men's jeans, don't you? Good." He thrusts a pair at me immediately.
"Thanks." I stare at the weirdly cut, purple shaded jeans and feign enthusiasm. He looks distraught at my face. "You don't like them do you? Oh no, I knew I should have let your mother come along instead. I can't pick out anything useful!" He walks around the rails of clothing, muttering to himself animatedly.
"As you can imagine, a 5000 year old man such as myself is not good with fashion." He says quietly, picking through the rails. I follow him over, listening to him without comment. "I try my best to be an up to date father, but it's virtually impossible if I'm thousands of years behind." He sulks miserably.

"Hey," I grab his shoulder. He looks up at me expectantly. "You're a really cool father. You're immortal, strong, you have red eyes, you're forever young and you're handsome. Most kids my age have fathers who are either tubby or going bald." I summarise.

He smiles down at the floor. "Also, you're so controlled and calm when it comes to Liam. He's so unsettled and off his head at times and you and Mum really deal with it. That's pretty awesome." I add.
"Wow, Lee." He blinks. I smile. "You actually said something worth listening to." He smirks.

I slap his arm. "Funny." I stalk off over to more jeans and Caius follows. "But thank you, Lee. For being so appreciative of my parenting." His arms encricle me from behind and he squeezes gently.

We shop for another half hour or so before deciding to take a break for lunch, heading to a nearby cafe, and of course, Caius complains at the 'human' and 'strange' setting.

As soon as we go to sit down, he's picking at things. "Look at these tacky chairs, horrible things. Cold and hard metal." He plonks himself down and shifts about uncomfortably. "Stop whining. You're like a stroppy teenager." I sip at my tea in amusement but Caius glares.

"We could have gone to any restaurant you wanted. CKF, McDaniels, Burger place, anything you wanted, yet you wanted to come here." He tuts at me. "It's KFC, McDonalds and Burger King, by the way. At least get the names right." I shoot back.

Caius smiles. "Alright, forgive me if I don't know the names of restaurants selling awful food." He sasses back.
I smirk and make my way through my burger, then my fries, sipping my tea as I go along, offering some food to Caius, who turns his nose up at it.

"None of that muck, thank you." He sniffs.

Afterwards, we exit the cafe and Caius, who obviously has sharp eyes, points at a sign. "Look!" He says.

I peer at the sign, written in Italian, and shrug at Caius.
"Translate. My Italian is limited." I explain. Caius sighs at me. "So you come to this country without learning the language? Lee, Lee, Lee." He sighs.

"Stop being ashamed of me and tell me what the sign says." I huff impaitently. Caius smiles. "It's an ice rink. Let's go ice skating." He pulls my hand and drags me over to the entrance before I even have a say in what's happening.