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Sander smiles at the tugging on his hand.
He looks down and sees David isn’t even looking at him, just trying to pull Sander along on his mission to get to the automatic doors.
Sander hears a low laugh from just behind him and he looks over his shoulder to find Robbe watching the two of them affectionately. When Robbe notices Sander’s eyes on him, he walks a bit faster in order to catch up to them and then grabs at the fingers of Sander’s free hand.
Some days Sander can’t believe this is his life, spending every day with the love of his life and his child. He has a job he loves and an apartment in the city he grew up in. It seems too good to be true and yet somehow it is.
Robbe snuggles against his side, trying to escape the cold air being whipped around the car park by the wind, not that Sander minds, being close to Robbe is probably his favourite activity.
They finally reach the entrance, a hot blast of air coming at them as the double doors slide open. David drags them over to the trolleys, immediately releasing Sander’s hand and trying to pull one out himself, without much success.
Robbe lets go of Sander and goes round to help him, lining his hands up beside David’s on the handle and tugging until the trolley comes free. David barely gives Robbe any time to pull it fully out before trying to clamber up and over into it.
Sander laughs and bends down, grabbing David by the waist and hoisting him up and into the cart.
Robbe looks between the two of them sternly. “What are the rules?”
Sander sighs, amused, as David starts rambling, “No racing the trolley, no spinning the trolley, no standing on the trolley.”
“Very good.” Robbe nods satisfied and starts steering the trolley over to the aisles.
Sander slides up behind him, bracketing Robbe in and leaving a kiss where his neck meets his shoulder before murmuring, “I seem to remember you quite liked being spun around in a shopping cart once upon a time.”
Robbe snorts but doesn’t shift away from Sander’s embrace. “Yeah, until you crashed me into a pile of boxes.”
Sander hums, “I dunno, you still seemed pretty happy after that.”
“Well, it’s hard to stay annoyed when a hot boy is singing David Bowie to you and flirting with you in the middle of the supermarket.”
“A hot boy?” Sander breathes into his ear, pressing a light kiss there. “Tell me more.”
Robbe shrugs, but he’s smiling, trying hard to resist. “Nah, he doesn’t need his ego inflated any more than it already is.”
“Rude.” Sander bites at his earlobe and then pulls away, leaving Robbe slightly dazed. “Alright what do we need? David, I gave you the list.”
David, who had been distracted by all the interesting packages on display, sticks a little hand into his jeans pocket and fishes out a crumpled piece of paper, unfolding it and brandishing it out for Sander to take. Sander grabs a hold of it, positioning it in front of him and Robbe, tucking his chin into Robbe’s shoulder so they can read together. “The bread, cereal and chocolate spread will all be down this end, let’s get it first.”
Robbe doesn’t suggest splitting up to get the list done faster and neither does Sander. They’ve never been very good at untangling themselves and doing things separately.
Unlike most people they actually like grocery shopping. David rarely misbehaves and he likes being with them and well supermarkets have always kind of been their thing. Sometimes it’s just nice to go out and do something mundane together. So, family shopping trips are a regular occurrence.
Robbe controls the cart, with Sander still wrapped around him and David directing them from inside the trolley. They make it to the bread section first, Sander stepping away from Robbe to go retrieve it.
“Make sure you get the thinly sliced, you know I hate the other one.” Robbe says, pointing towards a white loaf.
Sander does as he’s told, but he can’t help poking fun, “Baby, how can you even taste the bread once you’ve slathered it with chocolate and biscuits?”
He hands David the bread for him to drop into the cart as Robbe glares at him.
Robbe bends down to mock-whisper to David, “Daddy thinks he’s funny until I make him sleep on the couch tonight.”
David giggles and it sounds so much like Robbe that Sander can’t even fake a pout. He’s too happy.
They collect the cereal and chocolate spread without much trouble, but on the way to the next aisle David catches sight of some brightly coloured bags and turns to his parents with pleading eyes. “Can we get chips pleaseeeeeee?”
Robbe gets that conflicted look on his face that Sander knows means he wants to say no, because he’s insistent that David eat healthier than the two of them did as children, but that he also wants to say yes, because David is probably the best kid in all the universes and Robbe wants to reward him.
Sander decides to distract David instead and make it easier for the both of them. Flirting with Robbe earlier got him nostalgic and though they’ve told David a lot of stories about them, they’ve never told him this particular one. “You know, Papa fell in love with me in a supermarket.”
David’s eyes widen. “Really?”
Sander nods solemnly. “Mmhmm, I’d seen him weeks before and I knew I wanted to meet him, so I got up really early in the morning and convinced him to go to the shops with me.”
David turns to Robbe for confirmation and Sander glances at him too, only to find that Robbe’s face has gone all soft and sweet, his cheeks flushed, and Sander loses his train of thought. For a moment all he can see is Robbe and his pink lips and brown eyes and he starts to lean in before a whine breaks them apart.
“Daaaad!” David insists, “what happened next?”
Sander is a little miffed at being interrupted before he could kiss Robbe stupid, but then Robbe moulds himself into his side, scratching at the nape of Sander’s neck with soothing fingers and nods for him to go on.
“Well,” Sander continues, tone softer, “We got there, and I was trying to play it cool because I really wanted him to like me, but then David Bowie started playing over the speakers.”
“We love Bowie!” David exclaims and Sander smiles so wide his cheeks hurt.
“Exactly and so of course I started singing along and goofing off and when I looked at Papa, he wasn’t annoyed or weirded out, he was smiling at me and he asked me questions and I realized I could just be myself and he liked me anyway.”
“I did. I liked you so much,” Robbe leans up and presses a gentle kiss to the corner of Sander’s mouth
“So that’s really when you fell in love with Daddy?” David asks.
Robbe bends down, folding his arms over the handle of the trolley and leaning in like he’s telling David a secret. “Yep, he started telling me all about David Bowie and he looked so beautiful, and I knew I wanted to listen to him talk forever.”
“Cool,” David says, looking a little mystified.
Robbe laughs, “Yeah, pretty cool.” He draws himself back up to his full height and tucks a curl of David’s hair behind his ear. “Okay we’ve been standing here reminiscing long enough, let’s grab the rest of this stuff and go home.”
They finish the rest of the shopping, Robbe even lets Sander push the trolley a bit faster than usual, much to David’s delight.
At the checkout Sander carries David out of the trolley, setting him down on the laminate floor as Robbe starts grabbing items from inside the cart and passing them to David to put on the conveyor belt.
David always recites what he’s being given out loud, which Sander thinks is really fucking adorable and clearly so does the checkout girl because she smiles widely at him, whenever he puts something onto the counter, offering him a couple of smitten thank yous for his help.
David’s still too short to reach right at the back so Sander lifts him up to put the last few things on, as the girl rings them up. Robbe crouches down and presses a kiss to the crown of David’s head.
“Hey, don’t I get one too?” Sander grumbles, and he notices the checkout girl trying not to laugh out of the corner of his eye.
Robbe rolls his eyes, but still pecks Sander’s cheek and then whispers in his ear, voice full of promises, “I’ll give you a real kiss at home.”
Sander arches an eyebrow and can’t resist leaving little kisses all over Robbe’s temple and down his jaw until Robbe shoves him away with a laugh.
Sander pays and they push the trolley out to the car park, unloading their bags into the back and bundling David into his booster seat. Sander shuts the back door but before he can open the driver door, Robbe winds his arms around Sander’s neck and pulls him down into a hug.
Sander hugs him back, hands low on his spine and rubs his nose against Robbe’s throat, breathing in his smell.
Robbe draws away slightly, until they’re nose to nose and then slides their lips together, his hands caressing Sander’s cheeks.
“I love you.” Robbe murmurs when he pulls away, still wrapped up in Sander’s arms and Sander loves him so much it rattles something loose in his chest.
“I love you too.”