Chapter Text
Lucien knew when his dad was having a bad day. He wasn't often having bad days, and it was seldom he let it show he was having one, but Lucien had noticed signs of them. Like forgetting to take off his contacts at the end of the day, and when coming home from the shelter complain about headache because he forgot that he wore the contacts and still wore his glasses. Or the very rare times he allowed himself to take painkillers ('painkillers didn't exist in the victorian era, Lucien, so I should be fine for a couple of hours of headache rather than a lifetime of liver damage').
Today must have been bad, Lucien figured. It was the third time the same week he'd seen his dad take painkillers, and even after that, he was mumbling to himself, and Lucien was sure he heard him insult someone, though he had no idea who, as his dad never told him. He even found a whole empty wine bottle on the counter when he got home from school, when his dad very rarely finished a whole bottle in one night, much less before 5PM. It was slightly concerning.
"hey dad?" he dared ask, looking at his father sit in the living room, book in one hand, wineglass in the other, sitting by the fireplace, which he had fired up. Normally Lucien would sit on the other couch and read as well, reading by warm cozy fire was surprisingly one of his favorite things to do, especially in winter times, when Damien would make him hot cocoa. In summer though, the fire was barely on.
Damien blinked a bit, and looked up from the book, giving Lucien a gentle smile. "Ah, darling, I didn't hear you come home, did you have a good day?" he asked, putting the book down, keeping a finger in between the pages, to not lose the place he stopped. Luien just gave a frown, leaning against the doorway, shoving his school bag away with his foot.
"it was fine, but... it's only 3:30 PM, dad..." he spoke, eyeing the wineglass. he could see Damien's smile fade away, as he sighed, and put the glass onto the short table. Was he about to reveal some dark secret? Did he get a call home, that Lucien wasn't aware of, and his father's had enough?
"Lucien, darling... It's just adult stuff. You don't need to worry." he smiled, changing his sentence in the middle, as if he was gonna explain the truth, but changed his mind. The teenager gave a frown at the lackluster excuse, if it was even considered that.
“Alright,then.”
Damien visibly relaxed at Lucien’s defeat, or he was just happy not to explain, which made the boy more concerned. But he had already said he’d leave him be, so he quickly excused himself upstairs, claiming that he had ‘more homework today than last week all together’, earning him a chuckle from the older male, who went back to his book.
As soon as Lucien was i his room, door closed, backpack flung onto his bed, and shoes kicked off, he got to work. He pulled his hone out of his pocket, and scrolled though it for a couple minutes, getting distracted a while by notifications, and a text from Ernest asking if they were meeting up later. He finally did find who he was looking for, Mary’s phone number, and sent her a text.
It wasn’t even ten minutes later that the doorbell rang, and Lucien heard his father drop the book he was reading, and went to open it. Mary stood out there, her hair up in a ponytail, for once in her life, as she grinned at the man, who blinked, confused at her presence.
“Mary? Why on earth are you here?”
“Dames, my special boy, you and I have puppies to pet.” she grinned, and Damien looked up towards the staircase for a second, noticing Lucien’s door was peeking open. That boy. He focused again on the woman, giving her a smile. “Do come in while I get changed, please.” he spoke, opening the door further, as mary strided in, and grinned at him. “Hurry up though, because there is an adorable little pug who’s just dying to get some pets in.”
The long-haired man let out a laugh as he walked up the stairs to hurriedly change out of his vest, blouse, and pants to his normal work-outfit, the purple polo, Jeans, and of course, his hair up in the usual ponytail. Before going down, he knocked on Lucien’s door.
“Honey?” he called. “I’m heading out to the shelter with Mary.” he spoke, waiting for Lucien to open up and greet him goodbye.
Finally the teen opened up, and grinned slightly, only receiving a look from his father. “Thank you for caring about your old man.” he spoke, giving lucien a small peck on the forehead, which the teen is quick to rub away. “As long as you don’t get drunk and drive.” he quips, making Damien chuckle once more.
“ Just get that homework done before going to bed tonight, okay? I’ll be home late.”
“Dames! Let’s go!” Mary called from downstairs, and Lucien gently shoved his dad away and shutting his door. Giving his son’s door a last smile, Damien joined Mary, and left for the shelter, which he really needed.
A few hour later, Damien joined Mary on the floor, playing with some very rambunctious pups, who were crawling all over them, one pup laying sleeping in Mary’s lap, while another was trying its best to howl like a wolf right next to them.
“So what happened today?” the brunette woman spoke, shushing the howling dog, trying not to wake the one in her lap. Damien looked up at her, a confused look shining of his face. “Huh?”
“Lucien texted me, saying you needed a distraction, so, spill, what’s up? Normally you tell that kid anything that’s bothering you.” she pointed out, moving her, now out of the ponytail, brunette hair away from her eyes.
Damien frowned, and his eyes moved back to the puppies playing around him. Right, today. Did he even want to bring it up? He did usually feel safe to bring everything up with Lucien, as odd as that was to other parents he met, that, very graciously, always pointed out how him being gentle and understanding with Lucien, was wrong and was going to turn him into a nobody. ‘ What? You don’t scream and attack your son for getting in a fight? You gotta beat him into knowing violence is never the answer! ’
“Well…. A new coworker started last week.” he finally spoke again, and saw Mary scoot closer, like a child at storytelling in first grade.
“And..?”
“ He uh… he’s apparently not liking me.” he spoke, rubbing his arm a little, uncomfortableness rising. That was taking it lightly, the guy seemed to have had a personal vendetta against the other man as soon as he saw Damien.
Mary frowned at this. “In what way? Is he being a dickhead? Do Lucien and I gotta go over there and beat him up?” she always said outrageous things like that to make Damien laugh, but it didn't work today.
“No, no, I just… he’s asking a lot of… Personal questions.” he explained, sighing. God, he had been asked about his hair, his body, his whole appearance. The guy might as well have asked about Damien’s actual skin color if he was that nosy.
“Dames. That sounds a bit…. Sketchy.” The woman now showed deep concern. Could this guy be one of those assholes that were… not very accepting, of her Special Boy? She would end him.
The man gave a chuckle, and scratched one of the puppies’ back. “I know what’s going on in that head of yours, mary, but I’m sure it’s just my paranoia.”
Mary opened her mouth to respond, but they were interrupted by a text, which Damien checked to see that it was Lucien.
“Dad, something’s going on outside the door, what do I do?”
The man frowned, and showed Mary the text, which made her grab her own, and quickly text Robert. He lived door-to-door to the Bloodmarches, he’d be able to see what was going on and help.
Damien quickly sent Lucien a reply, saying Robert would check in on him, but Mary got a reply right after, which Mary was a bit hesitant to show him. Sh got up from the floor though, barely quick enough to remember a dog was sleeping on her lap, as she had to wake it up.
“Dames, we have to go.” she just spoke, getting the man’s attention, his heart racing. Was this dangerous? Was Lucien in trouble?
“Why, is everything okay? What did Robert say?”
“It was a vandalizer, who sprayed some profanity on your home.” she spoke, as she hurried in locking the puppy gates, and ushered them both out, Damien feeling his blood freeze slightly. Fuck changing clothes, he needed to hurry home, Lucien must have been scared. Also he would have to figure out how to get graffiti off of a wall without ruining the already-existing paint.
Thankfully Mary drove them not too slow, but fast enough that they got home pretty fast, as Damien almost fell out, his focus on making sure Lucien was okay. However, his steps halted when he got to the door, where Robert stood, with Lucien leaning on the wall, looking like he had a kick of depression. It was worrying. He didn’t even have time to ask before he saw the text.
“FREAK.”
Robert pushed himself off the wall, nudging Lucien lightly to get the boy’s attention, who frowned as he looked from the sprayed words to his dad.
“I just.. I just heard someone walk up, and I thought it was you, then I heard spraying, and I realized it wasn’t you, and I thought it was someone breaking in. I freaked out and texted you, but, we didn’t have time to get that off before…” he spoke, but Damien wasn’t listening, as he just walked up, embracing Lucien as tight as he could.
“Lucien, don’t worry, okay? I was so worried you were in danger, but thank god you are alright.” He spoke, mostly to himself than to Lucien. His son was alright, that’s all that mattered.
Hey Robert, any idea who did this shit?” Mary’s voice pierced the air, as her eyes focused on the bright Yellow text, glaring as if her rage could make the paint just drip off with the offending words.
“Some asshole, he fled when I walked out. I didn’t see anything on him, but he wore black, probably to hide, sorry Damien.” he frowned, looking at the paint. “At least you can easily paint over it.”
Damien just sighed, and shook his head as he let go of Lucien, to look at the text better. It felt disgusting just to read the words. “I feel like painting over it is just gonna be hiding it, rather than removing it… Guess I’ll spend the rest of the day scraping this off and painting over the scraped area.” he spoke, already feeling the headache of subjecting himself to the noise of scraping wood.
Lucien frowned as he read the words, hating them. If he found the one who had done it, he’d kill them, for sure. “I’ll help out..” he spoke, but Damien shook his head. “You still have homework, right? Finish that, and don’t worry, okay? He smiled, giving Lucien a light pat on his shoulder, before ushering him back inside. He then turned to Robert and Mary, and gave them a small bow. “Robert, thanks for keeping Lucien safe… and Mary, just… thank you, for trying to get my mood better.”
Robert nodded, giving a kind of mock-salute, then going back into his house, leaving Mary and the Bloodmarches alone. The woman turned to the father-son duo, and gave a smile.
“You two will be okay, so I can get home before Joseph makes up a story to tell the kids that I went out and got drunk. Lucien, make sure your pops sleeps tonight.” she grinned, patting he boy on the shoulder, gave Damien a nod, and then finally left for her home.
Lucien sighed, finally, and looked back at the wall, and the text. He couldn’t help but glare at it, as if the word was evil. “Motherfuckers.”
“Language, Lucien.” Damien gently scolded, although he wasn’t exactly scolding, but more just saying it, and guided the boy inside. Tonight neither of them would possibly sleep.