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Chapter Text

Quentin stood next to Ora as she tried to entice the monster out of its hiding place. “Love? Come out! Did you fall asleep?”

He felt the nervousness rise up his throat and make breathing hard. Luckily he was used to feeling anxious. “What can it do?”

Ora gave him a meaningful glance but before she could answer there was an ominous chuckle.

The monster slowly walked out of the door way. “Will you play with me?”

Quentin pulled out his pack of playing cards.

“You’re into poker?” Quentin whirled around to see Eliot stepping away from a column and towards them. “I always liked the mysteriousness poker player emanate, you know. Although Bambi claims my poker face can’t hide shit. Oh well.” He shrugs exaggeratedly.

Quentin felt his mouth go dry. “Eliot what are doing?” He whispered waving his hands in a shooing motion. “You have to go away!”

“I’m sorry Q!” By now Eliot was standing next to him and took hold of his waving hands. His hands were warm and as Eliot pulled him closer Quentin got a wave of a well-known smell. “I was a coward.”

“Elliot right now really isn’t the time…!”

Quentin was silenced by the kiss Elliot pressed to his lips. It felt new and familiar at the same time. Like an old friend you met again after years of distance.

“I’m not leaving you!” Elliot whispered pulling only a few centimeters away. “Not again!”

Quentin shook his head but couldn’t bring himself to step away. “You don’t understand: We are going to be stuck here for decades – CENTURIES together.”

“Well, our fifty-year trial run seemed to have gone pretty well.” Elliot teased.

“You can’t…” Quentin stuttered. “I can’t…”

“Q, shut up!” Elliot kissed him again.

A moment later Q felt something pull at the hem of his shirt. The Monster was starring at them with curious eyes. “What are you doing?” It cooked its head. “Are you playing a game right now? Can I play too?” The smile on its face was… disconcerting.

“Oh god.” Elliot groaned. “It’s like having a toddler again.”

“We managed fine with the last one.” Quentin commented.

“Do you remember the terrible twos? It was horrible! And this one has more magic in his fingertips than the two of us combined.”

“I WANT to play!” The Monster whined in a manner that indeed reminded Quentin a lot of how their son had sounded – had he ever really sounded like that? It had never happened in the end, did it? But he remembered him so vividly.

“Of course, dear one!” Elliot had thoughtlessly slipped into his old habit of nick-naming their charge as he patted his head. It had incredibly annoyed their son as he became a teenager.

Ora looked from one of them to the other hope lining her expression. “You seem to have things under control. I’ll just… go then.”

As she took a step back the Monster’s hand shot out and held onto her arm. “Where are you going?”

“I… I…”

“I don’t want you to go!” Back to whining again but this time there were actual tears glittering in its eyes. “I thought we were FRIENDS. Friends don’t leave to play with someone else, do they? Don’t you like me anymore?”

Ora hissed in pain as the hold on her arm turned inhumanely strong.

“Hey sweetheart!” Eliot easily slipped in between the Monster and his former guardian and effortlessly held the attention of everyone in the room. “Quentin wanted to show you his card tricks, remember?”

The Monster’s anger turned like a flag waving in the wind and a smile appeared on its face. “Card tricks?” He turned to Quentin Omra forgotten for now. “I want to see them!”

Quentin swallowed hard and raised his hand with the card pack easily letting the cards glide between one hand and the other. The Monster laughed in delight. Behind it Quentin saw Elliot turn to Omra and mouth the word. “RUN!”

Seconds later Ora was gone. It was too late for Eliot or himself to follow her.

Quentin was in the middle of vanishing a certain card when they heard the scream.

The cards fell out of his hands, spreading all around the floor.

The Monster looked at them with a frown. “I don’t understand. Is that part of the trick?”

“No!” Eliot turned around. “No, no, no, the others are supposed to be safe. We are here so that they are safe!”

Quentin hurried after him as Eliot ran out of the room.

The Monster had no problems keeping pace. “Is this a new game?”

“Yes,” Quentin agreed. “It’s called ‘Rescue your friends’.”

“Sounds fun!”

Quentin wouldn’t say he agreed. They had already been running for far too long. What if their friends were already dead if they arrived? Who had been screaming? It sounded female? Was it Julia? Kady? Margot? None of them tended to easily panic what happened? Would he have been able to stop it if he had been there? Had he…?

They stormed into a big hall to the sight of all their friends on their knees looking up at three figures: Quentin recognized Dean Fogg, Haime Newman and one of the librarians who was just about to put something on a fountain running with glowing blue water…

“STOP!” Eliot shouted, his hands already moving in a complicated pattern releasing seconds later a ball of energy that hit the librarian in the chest and threw him against a wall, the device falling out of his hand and rolling over the floor.

Newman raised her hand that was encompassed in a black, silvery fog and suddenly Quentin felt the air leaving his body and he fell to his knees gasping for air.

“Quentin?” The Monster stood next to him looking down at him with a frown. “Eliot?” Eliot was kneeling on its other side with his hands around his throat. Then the Monster looked up at Newman and something changed in its eyes. “You are doing this. STOP!” It raised its hand and now it was Newman grasping at her throat gasping for air. “How are they going to play with me when they’re dead?”

Quentin could finally pull a breath into his lungs and started coughing.

“Q!” Julia shouted but was apparently not able to stand up, magic keeping her on her knees.

“Eliot!” Margot screamed. “What are you doing?”

Quentin turned his head and saw Eliot put a hand on the Monster’s outstretched hand. His voice still sounded gruff as he told it: “You don’t have to kill her.”

The Monster looked down at him with a cocked head. “I know.” It smiled. “I want to though.”

As it had its diverted for a moment the librarian on the ground slowly managed to get back to his knees then Quentin blinked and he stood between Newman and Fogg again. Q blinked again and all three were gone.

“Oh.” The Monster sounded disappointed. Then it turned to Quentin again. “Can you show me your card trick now?”

Chapter Text

It wasn’t easy to say goodbye to their friends as they left.

“Not forever!” Julia emphasized. “Penny can bring us back whenever we want to get back!”

“I also got a flying boat!” Margo added. “So don’t even think about doing something stupid as if I’m not just around the corner ready to kick your ass, El!”

A few weeks later Kady had procured magical mirrors from… somewhere so they could talk to each other whenever they wanted. It was nice.

Even nicer was finally being allowed to just… be with Eliot. No world to safe, no responsibilities – well except one.

“I’m bored!” The Monster whined. “Let’s play a game.”

“What a plot-twist.” Eliot answered where he sat on the fluffy rug leaning against the sofa with his head on Q’s shoulder. “Words I never expected from you.”

The Monster frowned. “I don’t understand. Is what you’re saying supposed to be a game?”

“It’s called sarcasm.” Eliot responded. “I’m a master at it.”

“Like Quentin is with card games?”

Quentin chucked and brushed a lock of hair away from Eliot’s face. “He probably trained similarly long.”

“Don’t insult me baby!” Eliot turned his head to press a short kiss to his lips. “I trained with every word I’ve ever spoken.”

Quentin raised an eyebrow. “I see, you probably were a very sassy baby.”

“My first words were: Why don’t you say mummy?“

Chuckling Quentin kissed back.

The kiss became weird as the Monster leaned in close enough that Quentin felt his breath on his cheek to observe. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?” Quentin asked.

“Press your lips together?” The Monster answered.

“Eh,” Quentin frowned not knowing how to explain such a human thing to a… none-human. “People do that when they like each other.”

“But you like me.” The Monster responded. “You don’t do that with me though.”

Quentin felt alarm rise in himself at the thought of kissing the Monster. “You have to like each other a lot.”

The Monster’s lip wobbled. “You don’t like me a lot?” There was a spark of anger lighting up in his eyes. “Do you like Eliot more than me?” His lips twisted into something ugly. “Is he taking you away from me? Will you leave me like Omra?”

Breathing became harder as the animal part of his brain told him to run from the predator.

Luckily Elliot was always better at smooth-talking than himself. “We have different kinds of kissing for different people we like a lot.”

The Monster frowned. “But you never kissed me.”

“You’re right, I’m sorry darling.” Eliot stood up towering half-a-head over the body the Monster inhabited. He slowly leaned in closer and kissed the front of its head. “There you are.”

The Monster raised a hand to where Eliot had kissed him and then looked at it with a curious glance. Then there was a wide smile on its face. “Does that mean you like me a lot?”

“Yes.” Eliot rubbed a hand over the Monster’s back as he had done with their son when he had been upset. “Yes, it does.”

The look of admiration on the Monster’s face was the most human thing Quentin had seen it do so far. It also made it look a lot more like a child. Quentin should remember what stood before them. How dangerous – and murderous – it was. They were its guardians not his parents.

“Will you teach me sarcasm now?”

Eliot couldn’t help but smile. “Sure. First lesson: Do the opposite of whatever Q is doing he is terrible at sarcasm.”

“HEY!”

“Well, it’s true baby.” Eliot continued unrepentant. “Lesson number two…”

Sometimes they had what Eliot had christened as “babysitters”.

It started with Margo visiting them as she did every few weeks to listen to Eliot’s whining.“I swear that monster means an everlasting dry spell.”

“Oh no how will you ever survive?” Margo taunted. “Your dick will surely fall off soon.”

“That’s sarcasm!” The Monster shouted in triumph. “I recognized it.”

“Well done sweety.” Eliot shouted back not looking up from the glass of wine in his hand then leaned back to Margo to whisper. “It never leaves us alone. Yesterday I had Q’s pants at his ankles and suddenly it was standing behind me and wanted to know what game we were playing and if it could play as well.”

Margo raised an amused eyebrow as she sipped her wine. “Well you were never one to decline a good threesome.”

“Bambi, I doubt he even fully knows what a penis does; he’s basically a child.” Eliot groaned. “I’m not into pedophilia!”

“It’s centuries older than you.” Margo pointed out.

“Eliot!” The Monster wailed. “Why are you spending so much time with her? I want you to play with me.” It stamped its foot in frustration.

“Alright,” Margo nodded and put her wine glass on the table in front of her. “I see what you mean.” She leaned forward on the couch to give the monster a sweet smile. “Hey there, Eliot has just recruited me to show you my favorite game.”

“A game?” The Monster perked up.

“Yeeeeep.” Margo drew the word out so she could think about something to add. She had never liked children very much and her mother-instincts tended to be a bit underdeveloped.

“Auntie Margo will play nail salon with you.” Eliot exclaimed.

Margo looked at him with wide eyes.

“What?” Eliot leaned in to whisper. “It’s a win-win, once you manage to teach it some skills I have someone to help me with my nails. Quentin is hopeless.” He rolled his eyes.

The Monster knelt down on the other side of the table and looked at Margo with excited eyes. “How do we play?”

“Eh, right.” Margo stuttered. “First we need some nail polish and a nail file.”

The Monster waved its hand and suddenly the table was full off nail-utensils.

“Good.” She looked nearly impressed.

“You two have fun.” Eliot was halfway to the door already. “I just have to find Q and the nearest horizontal surface. Or I guess vertical will do as well. Maybe we’ll try a slope.”

Once Eliot and Q returned again both sweaty but with satisfied looks on their faces Margo had already started braiding the Monster’s hair.

Chapter Text

It started becoming normal to walk into the Monster “playing” with one of their friends that had come to visit.

At some point Q found Julia lying under a table with the Monster reading from “Fillory and Further”. He sat next to them, leaning against the table leg. After several hours the Monster’s breathing slowed down and Julia stopped reading.

“Does it even sleep?” She asked.

“I don’t think it has to.” Quentin answered. “Whoever this body belonged to before is long dead so the body is kept alive artificially anyway but it does like to eat with me and El so I guess it can sleep as well if it wants to.”

“Oh.” Julia looked down at it, her eyes soft. “It looks so innocent when it sleeps. Like a child.”

“Yeah.” Quentin nodded. “He does.”

“Fen, darling.” Eliot’s voice betrayed his nervousness even if nothing else did. “Why did you give him knives?”

“We’re playing with knives.” Fen answered with a bright smile while juggling three knives in the air easily.

“Are you… sure that giving the immortal, all-powerful being even more weapons is a good idea?”

Fen caught her knives easily and rolled her eyes at Eliot. “Well, if he already is all-powerful a little knife will hardly make a difference will it?”

Eliot didn’t know how to argue with that.

Alice didn’t even know why she came. Since she nearly stopped everyone from getting magic back nobody had been very happy to see her again but she needed… something. Someone to tell her what she was supposed to do now. How to fix this. So she came to talk to Quentin even if it still hurt to see him leave her for someone else. She understood. In the end they had probably never really fit in the first place.

“Q said you can bend light.” A small voice sat behind her and she whirled around to see the Monster in front of her. It had changed its outfit since she last saw it: Somebody had put it into a pink hoodie that was three sizes too big and with the words “Daddy’s boy” on it.

“Eh, yes…?” Alice answered still uncomfortable around someone that could kill her with a thought.

Suddenly it stood directly in front of her its hand on her arm and with wide eyes. “Can you show me?”

“Okay.” She agreed. “What do you want to see?”

“Something pretty!”

“I can do that… I guess.”

Quentin found them three hours later lying on a plush rug on the ground as Alice let colorful glowing figures dance across the ceiling dancing, intertwining and fighting each other. The Monster clapped his hands in delight.

As it saw Quentin approach it jumped up and ran into his arms demanding a hug. “Auntie Alice made the lights dance. Auntie Alice is my favorite auntie!”

Quentin looked down at him with a soft smile and stroked a hand over his head. “That sounds nice.”

“Can Auntie Alice come over more often?” The Monster’s eyes were wide as he pleaded.

Quentin looked at Alice who gave a helpless shrug and then back at the monster. “Yes. Yes of course Alice can come over more often if she wants to.”

The Monster turned to her. “Auntie Alice wants to, doesn’t she?” There was a threatening undertone that made Alice swallow hard.

“Of course.”

“Yay.” The Monster clapped his hands again.

Kady was too busy with a few small disasters concerning the hedgewitches to take care of this monster-business. The few occasions she came over she brought her a bundle of marbles. She shrugged as she emptied the bundle on the floor. “Never had much to play with as a child. We made do with what we had.”

The Monster didn’t seem to care how cheap his toys were and was delighted as Kady let him keep the marbles.

“Something smells nice.” Margo shouted from the couch were she was cuddling with Eliot. Eliot’s free hand was hanging from the couch was slowly stroking up and down Quentin’s hair who sat next to the couch leaning into the touch.

“Of course it is.” Josh answered from what has become a modern kitchen since he started teaching the Monster how to cook and bake. “I’m showing Max how to make proper soufflés.”

“Max?” Quentin asked.

“Yeah,” Josh shrugged. “I mean it’s weird to always call him “The Monster” isn’t it? I mean he is just a guy with a feelings, hopes and dreams like all of us.”

“An immortal, incredible powerful and most of all homicidal guy.” Margo pointed out.

“You can be quite homicidal too, Bambi.” Eliot responded.

“Oh you charmer.” Margo waved her hand.

Quentin frowned. “Have you ever asked… it – or him if he likes the name?”

“Not so far.” Josh turned to the Monster. “Hey, are you okay with us calling you Max?”

“Maaaaax.” The Monster tested the word in his mouth. “Mhmmmm, I think I like it.” He looked over to where Eliot, Margo and Quentin relaxed. “Daddy, my name is Max now.”

Quentin choked on his own spit. “Daddy?”

“Real question: who of us does he mean with that?” Eliot said sounding a bit choked himself.

“Well he most definitely doesn’t mean me!” Margo slowly sat up and pulled herself of the sofa. “Josh, how long is your baking course going to take? I need to get back to my throne soon.”

As the two of them bickered Quentin looked up at Eliot who was still lying on the couch. “I think you’re more of the daddy-type than me.”

“Fine!” Eliot stretched like a cat lying in the sun and turned around so he faced Quentin with an impish smile. “You can be papa.”

Quentin chuckled. “And we didn’t even got to name him ourselves.”

“Damn that Josh guy.” Eliot answered playfully. “He should be happy he’ll soon be my brother-in-law otherwise I’d give him a piece of my mind.”

“Oi!” Margo shouted from the kitchen. “You better not be planning my soon-to-be husband’s murder or no more babysitting so you can have sex for you.”

“Daddy what is sex?” The Monster – Max asked.

“Ask me again in four centuries!” Eliot shouted.

“The woes of parenting.” Quentin couldn’t help a satisfied smile.

Penny wasn’t really supposed to spend any alone time with the Monster because of the dangers of it escaping through him. The first time he was around it for a longer amount of time was at Eliot’s birthday party that took place nearly a year after they managed to bring magic back.

Margo had gone all out for the party: There were decoration all over the hall, loud music made the crystals of the chandelier clink, there was enough alcohol and drugs to knock out an entire herd of elephants and the birthday boy was standing on the table with a crown on its head right now. “You want to play a new game now, Max?” He had drunk enough that he was slightly stumbling and Quentin rushed over to stabilize him. Eliot laughed in delight and pulled a reluctant Quentin onto the table. “I’ll show you how to party like there’s no tomorrow.”

Luckily the table was quite big because otherwise Eliot would have already fallen off as he put his right hand around Quentin’s waist, his left hand in Quentin’s right one and forcing him into a dance. Quentin just laughed and let himself be pushed into a deep dip before Eliot easily pulled him up again and spun him around.

Julia appeared on Penny’s right. “Can you imagine Quentin was hiding in his bedroom and reading books whenever there was a party before he came to Brakebills?”

Penny chuckled and put an arm around her. “I can imagine.”

“Macaroons?” A voice asked on his other side and Penny jumped slightly as he saw the Monster so close.

“Eh…”

“I made them myself. Uncle Josh says I’m getting really good at them.” The Monster smiled, took a macaroon of the plate he was holding and pushed it into Penny’s mouth. “What do you think?”

Penny sputtered around the sudden Macaroon in his mouth but managed to eat most of it without choking. Then he grimaced. “What is that taste?”

“Petrol.” The Monster said proudly. “Eliot told me he always thought it smelled really nice.”

Julia tried to stop herself from laughing at Penny’s expression. “Yeah but Max, buddy, it smells good to us humans but it doesn’t taste good.”

“Oh,” The Monster looked disappointed. “I thought I did well.”

Julia patted his shoulder. “You’ll work on it.”

“MAX!” Margo was clearly quite plastered as well from the way she more stumbled then walked towards them and then fell into the Monster’s arms. “I… gotta show you how to properly dance. No godson of mine is allowed to not know how to dance.”

A few minutes later the Monster awkwardly tried imitating Margo looking more like an alien trying to imitate how human moved than anything.

The next morning all of them somehow woke up in a giant cuddle pile with Eliot in the middle, Quentin on one side, Margo on his other and Max on top of him. Eliot let his head fall to the ground and mumbled to Margo: “Best party ever!”

Chapter Text

They had been watching Max for several years when the Castle at the end of the world was once again disturbed by loud voices.

“LET ME GO!”

Eliot rushed to the entrance where they had parked their ship once upon a time as they first visited Castle Blackspire hoping that Quentin could keep Max distracted. Elliot saw Margo standing over a man with short, graying hair who was in chains and got pulled into the castle by Fen and Josh.

“Bambi?” Eliot looked at the scene in confusion.

“Oh hey Eliot.” Margo took her eyes of the prisoner and walked over to Eliot to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Got you another prisoner.”

“Excuse me?” Eliot stared at her then at the man still struggling against his chains.

The man looked at him with a desperation that tugged at Eliot’s heartstrings. “Please, I beg of you, help me. I mean no harm to anyone, just let me go!”

“Right, that…” Margo pointed at him. “Is Sebastian, also known as the dark king. Now as the name might already suggest he is up to no good no matter what he is saying.”

“Please,” Sebastian shouted. “I just want to get him back!”

“He,” Margo continued louder to be heard over the shouting. “Is putting all of Fillory into jeopardy to get his dead lover back. It’s all very sad I assure you but most definitely not worth the lives of millions. Unfortunately he,” she nodded at Sebastian who seemed close to tears. “is also immortal unless I want to burn all of Fillory to the ground. Which I’d rather not do. So I thought about where I could put an immortal, powerful magician and…” She raised his hands toward Eliot. “I thought of you.”

“I… but…” Eliot stuttered.

Margo patted his cheek. “You will do fine. He is a handsome, broken bad boy who desperately needs someone to comfort him, he’s really your and Q’s type.” She clapped her hands together. “Right, there is a lot of chaos in Fillory because of this clown so I need to run. Fen give Eliot the keys to the chains and then let’s go.”

Josh and Fen let go of the chains so that Sebastian lost his balance and fell to his knees. Fen pushed the keys into Eliot’s unresisting hand and waved at him. “Have fun!”

Then the ship was already pulling away from the port and flying away.

Eliot looked after it, then at the keys and then at Sebastian. “Oh, fuck me!”

Sebastian was struggling to his feet again. “Please, you have to let me go!”

Eliot hurried over to help him to his feet. “Mate, there is no way off this castle. It is literally the perfect prison!”

The man in his arms let out a half-choked sob. Oh god, what was he supposed to do now? It had been awhile that Eliot had to deal with a truly distraught person. Max was as good as always upbeat, only Quentin could get a bit melancholy at times. QUENTIN! Q would know what to do!

“Hey,” Eliot ran a comforting hand over Sebastian’s back while also slowly pushing him inside the castle. The man had stopped trying to resist him so it was easy to pull him to where he wanted him to go. “Everything will be fine, okay.” He turned his head to shout into the corridor they were walking down. “Quentin!” Sebastian winced at his loud voice. “Hey, hey, relax. I’m just bringing you somewhere comfortable where we can get rid of the chains, okay? QUENTIN!”

“Hello daddy.” Max suddenly stood in front of them even though the corridor had been empty a second ago. “Who is that?”

“Ehh, that is uncle Seb.” Eliot decided as on as an explanation. “He’s staying with us for a while.”

“Yay,” Max smiled wildly. “A new friend.”

“Yep.” Eliot nodded and stretched his neck to look past Max down the corridor. “Do you know where your papa is?”

“Papa and I are playing catch.” Max declared. “I’m winning!” Not a very fair game if one of you could teleport and the other one couldn’t.

“I see that.” Eliot nodded. “But I need to find Q real fast. Can you do a time-out and resume later.”

Max sulked a bit but then sighed. “Fine, if you want to!”

He waved his hand and suddenly all three of them were in what Quentin had declared as their living room where Quentin himself standing. He turned around as he saw them arrive and frowned at Sebastian.

“Daddy says time-out!” Max declared. “Because our new friend is here.”

“I see.” Quentin nodded. “And who is our new friend.”

“Q that is Seb!” Eliot pointed at Sebastian. “He is immortal just like you Max!”

“Really!” Max looked now far more interested at Sebastian. “Can I try it out?”

“NO!” Quentin and Eliot shouted at the same time but Max had already raised a hand and Sebastian’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell over like a puppet whose strings were cut.

“Max!” Quentin scolded. “How often did we tell you already: No killing people!”

“But you said he’s immortal!” Max protested with a wobbling lower lip. “Look, he’s waking up already.”

He was right, Sebastian let out a gasp as his eyes rolled back to their proper place and color returned to his cheeks.

“That is not an excuse!” Quentin responded as Eliot rushed to Sebastian’s side.

“I’m sorry papa.” Max sniffed.

“You’re going to the corner and think about what you did!” Quentin told it

“But the corner is boring!”

“I know. That is the point.”

Max huffed but obediently went into the corner Q was pointing at. If he didn’t he knew Quentin and Eliot would be angry at him and then they wouldn’t play with him for awhile. Better to be bored a bit then for days on end.

Meanwhile Elliot was kneeling at Sebastian’s side and helped him sit up while still chained up.

“What…” Sebastian gasped. “Is that?”

“The Monster.” Elliot answered. “The Nameless One. The One that even the gods fear. Call it whatever you want. We call him Max.”

“And you are… you are… its parents?” Sebastian looked at him with wide eyes.

“More like his caretakers and guards wrapped into one.” Eliot finally took the time to open Sebastian’s chains with the key. “And I guess so are you now.” The lock opened and the chains slowly fell off Sebastian’s shoulders. Eliot helped him onto his legs and waved an arm around. “Welcome to your new life.”