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Guillermo pops his head out from the crypt doorway, squinting bespectacled eyes at the small child standing on their doorstep. A mop of dark curls crowns a cherubic face, and while Guillermo has never seen her before, there is something unmistakably familiar about the young girl’s features. She also clearly isn’t a Girl Scout, based on the lack of any uniform or cookies. And the fact that it’s eleven o’clock at night.
“Heyyy…” He stretches out the greeting nervously. “You lost?”
The girl takes a step forward and her face becomes fully illuminated by the front hallway’s candlelight. The expression she wears is one that strikes Guillermo’s core with chilling recognition.
Guillermo experiences time differently than other people. While most people proceed from cradle to grave in a straight line, Guillermo’s timeline is twisted and forked. Somewhere in the coils of his DNA, an aberration causes his biological clock to skip back and forth through time. One moment he could be taking a test in Algebra II, the next standing on the stoop of his childhood home, twenty years before he was born, staring into the face of a father he’d only ever seen in photographs.
Wearing a look of astonished wonder that no doubt matched the one blooming across the features of the young girl before him.
“Apá… Baba?” The girl whispers, eyebrows lifting in awe.
“What’s your—” Before he can finish the question the girl disappears into thin air, leaving behind her a crackle of static electricity. The last remnant of doubt evaporates from Guillermo’s mind. Shit .
“Rude!” Nandor exclaims, swinging the door shut. His expression changes when he turns to Guillermo, heavy brow furrowing at what must be a haunted look on his boyfriend’s face.
“Babe…” Guillermo says. “Uh, remember how we first met? Er… I mean how you first met me ?”
Nandor’s lips spread into a wolfish grin, his eyes alight with the memory. “How could I forget? You appeared before me on the field of battle like a vision of glory. Naked, brown skin gleaming beneath the sun…”
The vampire steps forward to loom over Guillermo, long locks falling forward as he ducks to plant kisses along his lover’s neck.
“Ah… okay okay, back up.” Guillermo takes his own advice, stepping out of Nandor’s hold and meeting the man’s confused gaze. He takes a breath, fighting for focus in the face of Nandor’s lust. “So, you remember *how* I ended up there…”
“Through your fantastic time traveling ability, yes, yes. We went over this *ages* ago!”
Guillermo gives a delirious little chuckle. It really had been ages ago for Nandor.
“Well…” He gestures to the front door, “Did she look familiar to you at all?”
Nandor’s face goes blank. His eyes dart back and forth a few times between the door and Guillermo’s patient face before the dawn of realization lights within them.
“Shit!”
“Yeah. Shit.”
“Well, not shit. I mean… we have a daughter! That’s—” Terrifying. Baffling. Shocking. “ — wonderful!”
“Yes, yes of course it is!” Nandor replies, waving his hand with a flourish. His natural acceptance of their future as parents makes Guillermo’s heart squeeze in his chest, and he tightens his fingers around Nandor’s other hand.They’re strolling through the Night Market, Nandor having declared an urgent need for more wicker baskets.
“But!” The vampire goes on, “What if she is in danger of some kind? I remember you telling me of all kinds of tricky situations you found yourself in while time traveling! Popping up in the forest during a fox hunt! Lost in the streets of an unknown city—”
“Stranded on an ancient battlefield at the mercy of a fearsome warlord?” Guillermo smirks up at him.
“Well, that one wasn’t all bad…”
Guillermo grins, canoodling up against Nandor’s side. The vampire wraps his arm around his human’s broad shoulders, allowing his cape to cocoon them together. A nearby warlock rolls his eyes, looking nauseous at their wholesome display.
They walk on in silence for a few moments, weaving through the diverse crowd of monstrous shoppers, many casting matching judgmental glances at their obvious affection. Guillermo’s cheeks still flush each time Nandor kisses or embraces him in public. But the vampire seems determined to make up for over a decade of neglect, one smooch at a time.
“It is just,” Nandor returns to the subject more seriously, “I worry. It is a dangerous world we live in. And now to know that we will be guiding an innocent child through it all… What if she came to us that night seeking help? What if she is in danger in her own time?”
Guillermo looks up at Nandor, taking in the earnest concern written on those usually aloof features. His heart melts. “That’s not how it works, babe. Remember what I told you? You don’t really get to choose where you travel. It’s random. Well… not always.” He pauses, recalling the innumerable times he had popped into Nandor’s life over the centuries. The moonlit night in Wallachia… The cargo hold on the ship to America… That time with George Washington… “Important people and places… they tend to draw you in.”
Nandor’s fangs peek out beneath his thick mustache as his lips spread into a warming smile. “Do you think we are important to her?”
“Of course!” Guillermo assures him, leaning his head on Nandor’s shoulder. “I’m sure we’ll meet her again.”
Silvie crouches behind a garbage pail, watching her dads— So young! Apá is still human! — stroll away. The hubbub of the Night Market is loud, but she can pick out the calm harmony of their familiar voices easily. She rolls her eyes, batting away a tittering fairy attempting to nest in her hair. Have her dads *always* been this corny!?
“Guillermooo?!” Nandor bellows, his voice piercing through the cobweb-insulated walls. “There is a scout child at the door. Do you wish to buy any more boxes of thin cookies?”