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Johns felt his brow furrow, dreamless sleep giving way to blackness when he cracked his eyes open in the dark. He’d thought he heard something. He had no hint of a memory of a dream to explain the noise - and Chas was sleeping soundly beside him. Maybe Chas had mumbled something? John let his eyes close and burrowed closer to Chas’s chest.
“Dad,” This time John heard it. An emphasis put on the word, an insistence hinting at repetition. Chas stirred beside him, making a questioning noise.
“Dad.” Sharper this time, a little plaintive. John turned on his bedside lamp - something Chas had kindly contributed to the house when he got tired of fumbling his way to bed in the dark after switching off the overhead. He was met with Amon’s inky black eyes only about a foot from the bed and swore colourfully when he jumped with fright. He hadn’t realised Amon was so damn close.
The boy had his tail clutched in both hands, shoulders hunched up about his ears in fear. He’d closed the bedroom door behind him but kept glancing towards it fearfully.
“Bloody hell, scared me half to death lad,” John breathed, trying to uncurl his fingers from where they’d gone rigid after clutching at his chest. “Whats the matter?”
“Amon?” Chas propped himself up on his elbows but was quicker to soften than John was. It had taken a while to recognise the dark rings around Amons eyes as a replacement for the red of tears in a human, but now he could recognise it at a glance. That and the shine that made Amons eyes so reflective Chas could see himself in them. “Oh c’mere- bad dream?”
Amon quickly clambered up onto the bed. John was reminded of a cat when an uncoordinated knee narrowly missed his crotch and instead pressed uncomfortably on his stomach. Soon Amon was a little warm lump between them, tail seamlessly swishing back up to be clutched by his hands. Unnervingly his eyes were now locked on the door. “Theres a monster under my bed,” He said softly.
Simultaneously Chas chuckled good naturedly and Johns blood ran cold. “What kind of a monster?” Chas asked, clearly humouring the boy. John subtly made sure he had some boxers on before grabbing his lighter from the bedside and getting up. “John what are you doing?” Although disguised as a soft and curious question, John recognised the sharp undertone to Chas’s voice. A heavy warning: Don’t you dare leave your son while he’s scared, to go have a midnight smoke.
John winked at him, his usual cocky grin almost emphasised by his being shirtless and hair messed into every direction. “I’m going on a monster hunt Chas - what else?”
“Are you going to kill it, dad?”
Chas didn’t seem sure if he wanted to encourage this. The doubt in his eyes didn’t even really hurt - John knew full well its the kind of lie he’d tell to get a moment alone to enjoy a fag. He could see Chas weighing up his disappointment in what he thought was John shirking his duties vs the real comfort Amon seemed to be getting from the idea. “I’ll see if I can politely convince them to move along,” John hummed. “But if not… well we’ll see I suppose.”
Chas relented - for now. “Don’t take too long.”
“Please, I’m a bloody expert ain’t I? Give me ten minutes.”
“Five.”
“Sorry Chas, think it’ll take me ten,” John grinned at him and slipped out of the room before there could be further argument.
Chas resolved to spend the next ten minutes coaxing Amon less rigid. He managed to convince him to release his tail in order to play a game with it - where Chas would try to catch it as Amon swished it in and out of reach. He was soon smiling again, curled against Chas’ side. Eight minutes later there was an ungodly gurgling howl from the other room.
Chas stared at the wall that separated the rooms.
Two minutes after that John returned covered in a strange purple gunk with a cigarette between his lips. Chas wasn’t sure why he thought John would have the sense to lie so he could go outside to smoke when he often did it in bed. Soon enough there was a tempting smell of smoke in the room. Chas wondered how firm he was on quitting smoking himself, maybe it would help him forget the noise he just heard.
“Is it gone?” Amon asked happily, unphased by the mess.
John nodded. “Yup, but uh why don’t you stay in here with your papa and me tonight - see if we can’t clean up the mess while you’re at school in the morning.”
“I still have to go to school?” Amon whined a complaint, leaning forwards like he might just go boneless in a pseudo-tantrum. “But there was a monster - dont I get a day off school because of a monster?” John thought the boy had a reasonable point - extenuating circumstances and all that. Besides kids should be allowed to skive now and then. He and Chas would skip off for less when they were his age, sometimes just because they felt like it.
“No,” Chas cut in, still numbly observing what he had to assume was the monsters blood as it slowly dripped off John and stained the carpet. He supposed he did marry into this - willingly agreed to be a part of this life with their living house and his half-demon stepson and husband who regularly killed monsters. If this was going to be his normal then by god he was going to make sure everyone dealt with things normally. “You still have to go to school.”
Thankfully neither John nor Amon tried to argue. When Chas was firm on something there was no convincing him of anything else. Chas may have left his normal world behind but god help them all he was bringing as much of it as he could with him. He’d make it up to Amon in the morning with fresh pancakes.