xp_logs | Alex and Lorna || Preparations

Alex and Lorna shop for their upcoming hike. Backdated to 7/30.

Lorna was in the cooking sections for outdoor camping at REI and was debating on what kind of package meals sounded better. "Hey Alex which one would sound better?" She looked up to see that he wasn't anywhere to be found. "MARCO?!" She said loudly, hoping he was within earshot.

Alex had, unsurprisingly, gotten caught up a few aisles back looking at new bike racks. A couple of the kids had sounded interested in going and bringing bikes sounded like a great idea, but their current one only fit two.

At the sound of Lorna's yell he laughed, shouting back "POLO!" As he followed the sound of her voice to where she was waiting. "Sorry babe, what's the question?"

"Bikes?" Lorna asked with a raised eyebrow, "Which one?" She held up the dry food in both hands. "Chicken and Rice. Or Salmon and Rice. Or would you like to just pack some spam and whatever we can fit into our bear canisters at the grocery store?"

"I'll show you in a minute. Hmmm." He tapped his chin, thinking. "How about a mix? Little chicken, little salmon, little spam, little bear canisters? We're bringing a lot more people than just us this time, different tastes and all that."

"Are we feeding everyone?" She frowned and looked at the food. "Food is already heavy to carry in packs. You know this from our trip to Yosemite when we first started dating. God, how long as it been." She lowered her hands and started to think about it.

"Well we're the experts, I'm sure we're going to need to take at least a little responsibility for them." Alex grinned as he pressed a kiss to Lorna's cheek. "Almost five years now." Four years, nine months, three weeks, and six days. Not that Alex was counting or anything.

"I wouldn't want people to die while they were with us." Lorna agreed and smiled when Alex kissed her. "I'll just put the bear canisters in your pack." Even if she could make them float behind them if need be. Looking up at him, "How quickly it flies. And to think, if you didn't go to orientation that day."

"Yeah Scott and the bigwigs might not like us much if we let people starve to death while they're with us." Alex wrapped his arms around Lorna's waist, tugging her against his chest. "Thank god my alarm went off that morning and I actually listened to it."

"Really don't want to give your brother any more reasons to hate me. I mean what happened was almost a year ago and I still feel his disapproving stare behind his glasses." She laughed, "And ever since then you have been late. Funny how that works. Maybe this year for Christmas I can get you one of the alarms that when it goes off the helicopter takes off and you can't shut it off until you retrieve the copter and put it back."

"He looks at everyone like that," Alex promised. "Except his girlfriend. It's nothing personal." His eyes widened at the mention of a helicopter alarm clock. "Wait is that real? I want it!"

"Even if I become part of the family?" She raised an eyebrow. "Yes. They are real. And done." She turned back to the dried foods. "Still need breakfast and something for lunch. I was thinking of just packing bread and peanut butter for lunch."

If. As if there was any question about that. "He's special. You get used to it." Alex refocused on the food as well. "Yeah, bread and peanut butter will be fine. Just stuff to snack on. That'll be good."

"Why must we have weird families." Except Wanda, Lorna liked Wanda. "I am assuming you would want extra cause of all the calories you burn." She poked him in the abs. Hmm, abs.

"We love them. Well, mostly." Alex's future father-in-law was something to be desired. "I can pack a few extra 'I'm a mutant who needs calories' things in my own pack for anyone who needs it."

"Mostly. Kind of." Lorna smirked. "Okay. You can carry all the food." She reached up and kissed his nose. "And we can stop by the grocery store on the way up there to get the fresher items. Now the next order of business, do you need a new pack? Or sleeping bag. I know we need a tent cause our last one...had that incident with the bear."

"I think we're good on packs and sleeping bags. How do we want to handle sleeping, actually? Do we want to bring enough tents for everyone or just rough it under the stars?" They'd gotten a few more people who wanted to go than Alex had really expected, if he was honest. Which was fine, great even. The more the merrier. But they'd definitely need to buy more than one tent if everyone wanted to sleep in one.

Lorna thought about it. "Let's just rough it. If they want to pack one more power to them. Besides, if I get cold I'll just snuggle closer to you. And seeing the stars would be pretty amazing."

"All sounds good to me." He pressed a kiss to her cheek before pulling away. "Come on, let's finish up this shopping, I'm starving."

"You are always starving." Lorna smirked and put the food into the cart and moved along.