Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a time when humans were the predominant species on the planet, they lived everywhere, spreading like a plague. However, with the emergence of new species, which were born to be the predators, humans easily became the prey.

 Fernando remembers meeting some humans in his youth, nowadays they are rare. Werewolves are still able to coexist with humans, despite being able to change their form to that of a wild wolf, they are not the main threat. And yes, the vampires.

 Since their emergence, vampires have hunted humans, as they are their main source of food. It was the vampires' fault that humans practically disappeared from Earth, with few left to survive. Those who managed to survive often live isolated from the monsters that ruined their lives.

 For vampires, it doesn't matter, humans are food and not friends. Werewolves are indifferent, as humans are not on their menu (perhaps on a full moon, in specific cases). There are even stories of werewolves who run away to live with humans and build a family, but they never come back.

 Despite having a cold heart, Fernando does not behave like his species. Firstly, he prefers not to join other vampires and go hunting silly humans who get lost in the surrounding area. He knows he needs blood to live and has contented himself with only animal blood for many years, which is still a living being, but which qualifies him as 'vegetarian' as he has not tasted human blood. Secondly, he doesn't live among other vampires.

 This decision was not made by him, in fact, when you are a different vampire like him, living in the center with other vampires is considered an affront. Fernando is known in his town for being a vegetarian vampire and that's enough of a joke. Therefore, he accepted the offer to go live in Mark's cabin with him.

 Mark is a traditional werewolf, considering he has all the characteristics of one. He lives in a cabin far from the city, lives a lumberjack-style life, is furry and playful. Fernando isn't sure how they became friends, perhaps because Mark was the first to extend his hand (pun alert: or paw) when Fernando moved to that city and never left him without his pleasant company again.

 And there is also the story about Mark's origin, which qualifies him as 'different' just like Fernando. Mark, despite being a werewolf, had a human mother, which qualifies him as half-breed. Being half-breed is more shameful than being a vampire who doesn't kill humans, because it means that some werewolf purposely went into exile to marry a human and have children with her.

 Mark came to town alone and never mentioned his parents, and Fernando never wanted to ask either, out of respect. Considering that some vampires found out about his mother, it is already possible to suspect what happened to her.

 So living together and being best friends was the right thing to do. Their dynamic works perfectly. Mark likes to chop firewood during the day, he drives his truck into town looking for supplies and sells his own trades while talking to people, sometimes he scouts the land to make sure there are no trespassers and returns in time for dinner . At this time, Fernando is already awake and taking care of his tasks. He works as a writer and already has a few books published, which is perfect for him as he hates leaving the house and seeing people. He prepares dinner and leaves everything ready for when Mark arrives and, as always, he will tell the taller man to go take a shower because he smells. The two have dinner and talk, Mark goes to sleep and Fernando stays awake, writing.

 Fernando likes their routine, it's comfortable for the lifestyle he wants to have.

 To say that Mark is not his only friend, Fernando sometimes goes into town at night and meets Jenson, Lewis or Sebastian.

“You should come more often, we all miss you” said Jenson once. The werewolf placed his hand friendly on his shoulder and shook him playfully “You just stay locked in that house with Mark, I need to regulate my bedtime every time I want to see you”

"I don’t isolate myself on purpose” he does “I need to write on my computer, that’s where I work”

“He actually likes to play house with Mark,” Lewis teases, making the others laugh.

 Fernando narrows his eyes at the other vampire “How is Nico?”

 Lewis's smile quickly disappears, which provokes even more laughter.

"Shut up"

 Lewis and Nico are complicated, sometimes they are together and sometimes they are not. Based on the vampire's reaction, Fernando assumes that they have broken up again.

“You should come with Mark next time, then you can hear what he says about you” says Sebastian, causing Fernando's curiosity.

 He frowns at him “What does he say about me?”

 The blonde laughs, along with the rest of the group, but doesn't respond. Fernando doesn't like it when he doesn't know why they're laughing.

 He needs to remember to talk to Mark about his weird friends.

***

 The next time Fernando wakes up, the sun is waving goodbye on the horizon.

 He gets up from his coffin and begins his usual routine. After he finishes dinner, he will sit at his desk and not get up until he writes an entire chapter.

 Fernando is not sure what to write, usually inspiration comes to him when he starts writing things that pop into his head. This time, he faces the giant challenge of creative block.

 He prepares Mark's dinner and leaves it in the microwave, he should be home soon. As the werewolf usually walks through the forest, he hunts animals and leaves them ready for Fernando to drink the blood later. A good exchange of favors.

 After eating properly, Fernando sits down in front of the computer and looks at what he has written so far. No light dawns, he hasn't thought of anything good yet.

 Looking out the window, he notices that it has started to rain. Fernando writes a few lines, reads, deletes, writes again, again, reads, deletes, reads again. And the pattern follows.

 An eerily loud thunder startles him, the rain managed to get heavier outside as the hours passed. Hours. Mark isn't used to taking so long to get home.

 Fernando decides to take a break from his work and goes to the kitchen, looks inside the microwave and sees Mark's dinner still there, but cold. He thinks that the other one shouldn't take any longer, that he should be on his way, so he heats the food again.

 He sits in front of the computer and tries to occupy himself with writing, but worry about his friend's whereabouts prevents him from concentrating. Mark isn't late and the rain looks scary. There's nothing he can do other than wait, but if Fernando's instinct tells him something serious may have happened, he'll call someone.

 The clock seems to know that he is anxious and purposely slows the hands, making it seem like the time doesn't change.

 Fortunately, there is still power in the cabin.

 Fernando is ready to pick up his cell phone when he sees the approaching headlights of the truck from afar. He sighs, relieved, but then anger overwhelms him and he wants to grab Mark by the ears and shake his head for making Fernando worry.

 The truck parks in front of the cabin, somewhat crookedly, and Fernando can see Mark get out of it and run towards the entrance, holding something in his arms and trying, miserably, to protect himself from the rain with his coat.

 Fernando walks faster and opens the door in time for Mark to just pass through and escape the rain. He turns around, ready to argue.

“Where the hell were you-”

"I need your help"

 Of all the things Fernando could have expected, nothing prepared him for Mark returning in the middle of the night wet as a dog in the rain, holding a child, a human child, shivering in his arms.

 Fernando's eyes widen and he takes a step back.

“Mark… what is this?”

 The child clings to Mark as if his life depends on it, his lips turning purple from the cold.

“Please, Nando,” Mark says, turning in place until he locates the path he wants to take. He climbs the stairs, leaving a wet trail and some dirt from his boots along the way.

 When Fernando wakes up from his trance, realizing that yes, it's real, Mark has brought home a human child, he follows the trail of dirt to the werewolf's room. There, he sees Mark drying the boy with a towel on his bed, who has his chin shaking and some whimpers escaping his mouth.

 He quickly notices Fernando at the door and orders him “Get some dry clothes from my closet”

“For you or for him?”

 Mark snorts, impatiently “For him!”

 Fernando wants to point out that Mark is wet too, but stays quiet realizing that his friend won't listen to him now. He goes to the closet and opens it, sniffing at the strong werewolf smell, he takes out some clothes and throws them on the bed, not daring to go near that scene.

 Mark doesn't respond, he leaves the towel aside and holds the clothes Fernando gave him, showing them to the boy.

“I’m going to change your wet clothes,” he says slowly, punctuating each word, “and I’m going to dress you in these dry clothes, okay?”

 The boy doesn't respond, just stares at Mark with scared eyes.

 Mark doesn't wait for an answer either. His movements are calm, despite his anxiety, as he takes off the boy's wet clothes and puts the dry (and much larger) ones on him, all the while talking in a soft voice.

 As expected, Mark's clothes looked huge on the boy. Fernando would laugh if he weren't so confused.

 Mark then holds the boy under his arms and turns to hand him to Fernando, who walks away.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

 Mark looks angrily “Go down to the kitchen and give him something warm to eat, I need to change my clothes”

"You are kidding"

 Mark’s shoulders slump tiredly “Please, Nando. I’ll explain everything later, we can’t let him freeze to death before then.”

 Fernando looks at the boy. His hair is all messed up from the way Mark towel-dried and his clothes are too big on him, which is ridiculous. He is still shaking a little and is haggard, perhaps hungry.

 Looking at Mark again, Fernando finally gives in.

“Okay” he holds the boy, not really sure how to hold someone that size.

 In the kitchen, the only thing Fernando has ready is Mark's dinner.

“He won't mind,” the vampire mutters to himself.

 Not wanting to hold the boy the whole time, Fernando leaves him sitting in a chair and puts a blanket he found on the couch around his shoulders (the boy won't mind that that's the blanket Mark likes to sleep on in his wolf form, also Fernando hopes he doesn't have an allergy to dogs).

 He heats the food again and leaves it in front of the boy, on the table.

“Eat” he says.

 The boy just stares at him, in silence.

 Fernando remembers how Mark spoke to him, and tries to do the same.

 He gets a little closer and repeats, this time slower, “Eeeeat”

 The boy doesn't react.

 Fernando is frustrated by this, but before he can insist, Mark appears in the kitchen.

“What did you cook for him?” he asks, then looks at the dish served on the table. Furrowing his eyebrows, he asks, “Steak and mashed potatoes?”

“It was your dinner” Fernando explains “Are you sure he can understand us?”

 Mark sighs, approaching the boy. When he squats down, staying at the same height as him, who follows him with his eyes the entire time, he mimes what it would be like for him to eat the food.

“You” he points to the boy, then to the food “can eat this”

“Does he have enough teeth to eat that steak?” Fernando asks, looking the boy up and down with judgement. “He’s very small. In fact, where did you find it?”

 Mark gets up and guides Fernando out of the kitchen, speaking only when he believes the boy can't hear them.

“I… found it in the rain” he explains.

 Fernando snorts “That’s pretty obvious. What I want to know is why is there a human child in my kitchen?” he grits his teeth. “Does he realize he's under the same roof as a vampire and a werewolf? Do you know what will happen when they find out he's here? You need to return it”

 Mark’s eyes widen and he exclaims “We can’t do this!”

"And why not?" Fernando counters.

“Because…” he sighs “Look, I was driving home when the rain started. It was impossible to see anything from inside the car and I almost ran over him. Initially, I thought it was some lost child, but when I got closer and could smell him... he was so scared, Nando, shaking too, I couldn't leave him there!”

“Well, if what you want to hear is a speech about how you were a hero and saved his life, that’s not what I’m going to say. He's in a lot of danger being here, especially if they smell him on us! He. can. not. to. stay."

 Mark's lips press into a thin line, holding back a disgruntled growl. His hair is still wet and drips onto the floor.

 He takes a step forward.

“I don't know what happened to him, but he's definitely far from home. He's going to stay” Fernando opens his mouth but Mark quickly interrupts him, continuing “He's going to stay, that won't be debatable. I'll research and see if I can find out about nearby humans and we'll talk to him too, when we find his family then he'll leave.”

“What if we don’t find it?” It was a possibility, after all, and also the fate of his family is predictable if he was found alone.

 Mark's face darkens.

“Then he will stay” he leaves no room for discussion.

 Fernando bites his tongue to avoid saying some things he will regret later. He doesn't want the boy there, it's not safe, the other vampires can smell it. So if he follows Mark's first plan it means the boy is gone forever, so he'll do whatever it takes.

 He worries that Mark will make this personal for him.

“Let's find his human family and return him” Fernando agrees.

 Mark for the first time seems satisfied “Yes, I will take care of the research and you will take care of the boy”

“Wait, what?”

“Yes, well” Mark shrugs “You stay at home all the time, that way no one finds out about him and you take care of it. You can do it, can’t you?”

“I have a book to write, Mark. In case you forgot” the vampire crosses his arms.

 The other scoffs with a laugh, looking towards the abandoned computer “It doesn’t look like you’ve made much progress in the last few weeks”

 Fernando is about to defend himself when a noise in the kitchen reminds them that there is a child under the same roof as them. When they return, they observe the boy licking his fingers full of mashed potatoes and a slightly bitten steak on his plate.

 The boy notices their presence and lowers his hands, staring in silence.

 Fernando says “Okay, obstacle number one: can he speak?”

“The most important thing is that he's eating” Mark murmurs, slowly approaching the child “Hi, buddy. Was the food good?”

 As expected, the boy doesn't respond.

 Fernando remembers that there is milk in the fridge and quickly goes to get it. He lifts the box into the air and shows it to the boy.

“You like this here, right?”

 Hesitantly, the boy nods his head, showing yes. If Mark and Fernando hadn't been paying attention exclusively to him, they wouldn't have noticed the movement.

“Warm up a little for him” Mark says and Fernando is already carrying out the task. Meanwhile, the werewolf bends down to talk to the boy.

“I’m glad you ate all the potatoes, can I clean your hand?” He takes a dish towel that is within reach and offers a hand to the boy, who stares at his every move in deafening silence.

 Meanwhile, Fernando looks for any cup suitable for those little hands.

 The boy hesitates again, but then, when Mark reaches out to hold his hand, he doesn't try to run away. Just like he didn't try to run away when Mark caught him and put him in the truck.

 Mark cleans his dirty fingers while chatting “Very good” he praises “You can understand, that's good. I know it's been scary up until now, but here you are safe. My name is Mark, and that one over there” he nods at Fernando, who has his back turned “It’s Fernando, he’s only grumpy at first, then he becomes cute”

“Shut up,” the vampire mutters under his breath, pouring the warm milk into the only plastic cup he could find. He turns and walks to the other two, Mark has already finished cleaning the child.

“Here” he hands the glass of milk to Mark, who must know better than him what to do with.

 Mark looks at the cup and then back at him. “Don’t we have any straws?”

 Fernando stares at him in silence, turning to look for a straw somewhere.

 Mark goes back to talking to the boy “Well, you know our names now, what’s yours?”

 The boy looks at Mark curiously, he no longer feels as scared as before. So far those people have only helped him.

 Fernando comes back with a plastic straw and throws it into the glass “There it is”

 Mark holds out the glass and the boy stares at the familiar white liquid. He waits a few seconds before putting his mouth on the straw and drinking. After changing into dry clothes and eating, the color returns to his face and he looks healthy for the first time.

 Mark and Fernando just stare, mesmerized and in anticipation of… anything new.

 The boy drinks almost all the milk in the glass and shyly wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. He faces the two adults in front of him and speaks for the first time, his voice low and embarrassed.

“Oscar”

"Sorry?" Fernando has very good hearing, as does Mark, but both men lean forward in euphoria the first time they hear the boy speak.

 The boy presses his back even more against the chair, hiding his mouth with his hands, but he repeats “Oscar”

“Is your name Oscar?” Mark asks.

 The boy nods positively.

 The werewolf stares at the vampire, a victorious smile on his lips.

 Fernando insists on more questions “Where are your parents? What happened? Where are you from?"

“One at a time, Nando” Mark scolds his friend.

 The boy, Oscar, whimpers and buries his body more against the chair “I don’t know…”

"You do not know?" Mark asks “Don’t you remember?”

 Oscar just whimpers, rubbing his eyes.

“Tired” he says.

 Fernando feels all his hopes of getting rid of that boy as quickly as possible going out the window.

Chapter Text

 Fernando stares at his computer monitor, trying to concentrate and think about how to continue what he has written so far. But the annoying sound of Mark making noises with his mouth while feeding Oscar soup disturbs him.

“Can you stop this?”

 Mark turns his head, the spoon he holds simulating a plane stops in the air, Oscar stares expectantly waiting to be fed.

"Stop with what?"

“With those… noises” the vampire snorts “He's big enough, he can eat without help. And you don’t have to turn everything into a joke.”

 Mark unfreezes and puts the spoon in the boy's mouth, who eats all the food that is offered "He can't eat without getting all dirty, I don't have enough clean clothes to wear him"

“It’s been two days, Mark, when are you going to go out and buy him real clothes?” Fernando massaged his forehead, trying to ease the headache that was slowly starting “It’s ridiculous to see him trip and fall because of your huge t-shirts”

 The werewolf sighs, leaning back in the chair.

“I already said I'll come tomorrow, I promise” the vampire scoffs, turning his back “I'm serious!”

“More” Oscar asks shyly. Mark turns to him again and pours some more soup onto the spoon, it's almost finished, and makes the same joke as before.

“Here goes the plane. Open your mouth, really big” he says.

 Oscar complies, opening his mouth as wide as he can. Mark holds back his laughter and makes noises with his mouth, pretending that the spoon is an airplane and will land.

“He is very obedient” he praises the boy to Fernando, using a napkin to clean his mouth.

 Fernando snorts again, staring at his failed project.

“He better go to sleep soon” Fernando reminds him of that.

 Mark looks at the watch on his wrist and purses his lips, “True, I almost forgot. Would you like some more soup, Oscar? Then we will take a shower and sleep.”

 The boy nods and opens his mouth to receive more, the werewolf laughs.

 Oscar has been with them for two days and Mark hasn't done anything he promised Fernando. The boy still wears his giant clothes. He also doesn't have a proper place to sleep, but Mark said he's working on that, so for now he sleeps in a large basket lined with blankets.

 Since Fernando is awake at night, Mark's routine is the most similar to Oscar's. He has been taking care of the boy during the day until then, but this is something that they will need to better agree on how to manage. The only thing Fernando asks is that they not make noise that disturbs his sleep during the day.

 The vampire finds it strange that the boy is not afraid of them. Obviously he noticed the sharp fangs, but his behavior was never hostile. He is shy and talks little, responding more to Mark than Fernando. He understands this part, after all, the werewolf is having fun playing with the child the whole time.

 All the questions they ask about the past, Oscar doesn't know how to answer or doesn't remember. Which clearly makes the main task difficult: return him.

“It's good that he trusts us, so it's easier for him to tell what happened” the werewolf said the night before, washing the dishes. Fernando uses a dish towel to dry and store, and responds:

“This task is your responsibility, he likes you more”

“It’s because you don’t talk to him, you should try”

 The vampire makes a displeased face “No, thank you. I don’t want to get attached to the little thing”

“Oscar” Mark corrects “His name is Oscar”

 The only thing Fernando could think at that moment was: please, Mark, don't get attached to him too.

 Mark leaves the dirty dishes in the sink and holds Oscar on his lap, the boy has learned to hold onto his neck every time for safety. He takes him to the bathroom and draws him a bath in the tub, talking the whole time to make the boy feel better.

“Let’s take off these dirty clothes and take a shower, buddy.”

 He realized that even though Oscar doesn't respond much, he understands what they say and allows Mark to touch him if he says everything he's going to do first. This way, it's easier to take off that huge t-shirt that covers his entire tiny body and bathe it.

 Oscar plays with the soap as he lets the werewolf wash his hair, yawning every now and then.

“Tired,” he says, lifting his head to look at the man with those sleepy brown eyes.

“We're almost done” Mark laughs, taking care to rinse the boy's hair without letting foam get into his eyes.

 He wraps Oscar in a towel and takes him to his room, laying the boy on the bed. There are no more t-shirts he can wear Oscar, he needs to go shopping urgently.

“Nando is right, you need real clothes” the werewolf dries the boy's hair and takes a comb, following the vampire's advice to comb that unruly hair “I can't let you fall around anymore, otherwise you could get hurt ”

 The boy doesn't respond, too tired to speak.

 After he's ready and dressed, Mark picks him up and takes him to the basket next to his bed, placing him inside. The sight reminds him of a chick in a nest, making his heart miss a beat.

“I'm going to go buy some things for you tomorrow, then Nando will take care of you” he says, resting his chin in his hand, watching the boy get more comfortable in his makeshift bed “I'll give you a real bed and a real room too, don't worry"

 He reaches out and brushes a strand of hair off the boy's forehead, paying attention to how his chest rises and falls with deep breaths. Oscar stares back at him.

 Mark smiles.

“Can you say Mark? Mark, Maaaark” he repeats, slowly so the boy understands.

“Mike” Oscar says, very sleepily.

“No, no, no” the werewolf laughs “No Mike, Maaark. Mark”

 Oscar yawns, rubbing his eyes with his hands “Mark”

 If the werewolf managed to shine, that moment would be ideal “That’s right! You said my name, very well, Oscar. Now, can you say Fernando?”

 But Oscar is already asleep.

 Mark's shoulders slump, clearly disappointed at having missed this opportunity.

“It's okay, you're tired. Good night, buddy”

 He returns downstairs, finding Fernando in the same position as before. Mark approaches and tries to read what is written on the monitor, but when the vampire notices his presence, he urgently covers the screen with his hands.

"What are you doing?"

 Mark sighs, moving away to sit in his chair. When his body relaxes, he drops his head back and closes his eyes. “Trying to read what you've written so far. No good ideas?”

“I have a lot of good ideas” Fernando defends himself, but then looks at his project and gets discouraged again “I just… I can’t continue where I left off”

“You should take a break, if not-”

"I can't! I mean, I don't-, you might be right” he messes up his hair even more, pulling the strands back. Maybe he can sit down and watch something on tv, then he will get inspiration “Did the little thing sleep?”

“Oscar” Mark corrects.

 Fernando rolls his eyes “Oscar, yes. He slept?"

“Yes, it didn’t take long”

“Did you manage to find out anything? Did you ask about his parents?”

“No, Nando… he fell asleep too quickly”

 There is a pause in the air. Mark takes the opportunity to find the courage to ask for what he is going to ask for.

“You need to take care of him tomorrow”

 Fernando laughs, because that obviously has to be a joke.

"Very funny"

“I'm not kidding” Mark opens his eyes, tiredness was visible in him “I can't go to the city and take him with me”

“Oh, so you’re finally going to start doing what you promised?”

“Oscar cannot be left unsupervised, and it is not difficult to take care of him. Before you know it, I'll be back” the werewolf prefers to ignore the previous comment, he understands that his friend is not happy with the current situation.

 Fernando reflects on this.

“How are you going to go out and research him and work if he follows the same routine as you? I can't stay awake during the day.”

“We take turns!” Mark says, the idea popping into his head, “I stay with him during the day, normally, but when I need to go out, he stays with you. If it works, we can keep this routine.”

 Fernando doesn't like this idea, sleep is extremely essential for him.

 Mark gets up, approaching his friend. With his best sad dog face, he says “Please, Nando. Just for a few days, I won't demand this from you forever. When we have a better idea, then no one will stop you.”

 Fernando closes his eyes, knowing he will regret it.

“Tomorrow will be the test, if I can’t take care of him, you will need to think of something else.”

 Mark's smile grows and it takes all his self-control not to hug his friend tightly.

***

 As it would be impossible to write anything, Fernando tried to sleep to have some energy during the day. Which didn't work. He was thinking a million things at the same time and, mainly, worrying about how he was going to take care of the boy.

 Mark got up early and went to call Fernando, so the vampire could be on alert.

“In the morning he doesn't feel very hungry, so a glass of warm milk is enough” he instructs before leaving in his truck towards the city.

 Fernando stays in the living room and waits for any movement upstairs that indicates that the boy has woken up. It takes a while and the TV show he watches isn't interesting, unlike the ones he watches in the early hours of the morning, but soon he can hear Oscar whining upstairs.

 He enters Mark's room and sees the boy moving in the basket, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to expel the sleep. He seems confused to see the vampire there.

“Yes, I know I'm not your favorite person, but it's you and me today” he says, walking over to pick Oscar up.

 The boy goes easily, but becomes tense when Fernando holds him. He stares silently, as if he is mentally analyzing all the things he could do to ruin Fernando's day.

“Eww, you smell like Mark” maybe wearing the werewolf clothes and sleeping in his room were the reason Oscar started to smell like him, his human scent being masked a little by that.

 Fernando prepares a plastic cup with warm milk and leaves Oscar sitting on the sofa drinking it.

"Do not move"

 He sits in front of the computer and tries to write down some things he thought of during the night, looking from time to time at the boy on the couch who was distracted by the TV.

 The vampire writes a few lines, looks at Oscar, writes some more, looks at Oscar. The pattern continues, until Fernando feels inspired for the first time and gets excited about writing.

 After writing a paragraph that is worthy of pride, he turns to face Oscar and almost falls out of his chair when he realizes that the boy is missing.

“Little thing- I mean, Oscar!”

 He gets up and searches the room, looking behind the sofa and even under the cushions. The glass of milk was abandoned on the floor, empty.

“He couldn’t have gone far”

 Fernando walks to the kitchen and observes the room, he is about to turn around when he hears a giggle. He looks again, seeing something hidden under the table.

 Kneeling on the ground, the vampire leans over and sees the boy curled up, covering his eyes with his hands.

“Oscar?” calls him.

 The boy takes his hands off his face and laughs when he sees Fernando in front of him.

"You found me! It’s your turn to hide!” He comes out of hiding and pushes Fernando out of the kitchen, the vampire doesn't understand what is happening and how the boy gained so much energy from a simple glass of milk.

“Go hide!” Oscar orders, running into the living room and covering his face with his hands. He starts counting “1… 2… 4… 5… 8…”

 Fernando needs to ask Mark if that behavior is normal. Confused, not knowing what to do, he looks around and thinks how he will hide in this game. Staying behind the curtain is the best option.

 As he waits, he can't help but think that this boy doesn't know how to count.

“33… 12… and 100! I will find you!”

 Fernando holds his breath and hears Oscar's feet walking around the room, until it doesn't take long for him to approach and pull the curtain.

"I found you! It was very easy” the boy laughs “Now it’s your turn to look for me”

 Fernando's day is going to be long.

***

 Mark returns home with the truck full of bags of things for Oscar.

 The house didn't burn down while he was gone, which is a good sign that Fernando made it through the day.

 When he enters and looks around, his face shows pure surprise at the scene he sees next.

“Don't you dare say anything” the vampire says, his voice thick with exhaustion “I'm very tired…”

 Fernando is lying on the sofa, with Oscar sitting on the floor next to him, drawing shapes on the man's face with a pen. After playing hide and seek for a few hours, he managed to get Oscar to eat something and take a nap. But when he thought he could sleep too, Oscar woke up and found the pen, asking to draw. Without wanting to move, the vampire let the boy draw on his face.

 Mark feels compassion for his friend, it takes a lot of effort for him to stay awake during the day and this will certainly have consequences.

“Well, this just proves that I was right in buying this” the werewolf approaches the other two and takes out a notebook and some colored pencils from a bag “Look what I brought for you, Oscar”

 The boy looks at the notebook and pencils with interest, abandoning the drawing he was making on the other man's forehead. Fernando murmured a painful 'thank you, Mark'.

"Wow!" he exclaims, marveling at the colors. Oscar looks at Mark, looking shy again. “Can I draw?”

“It’s yours, do what you want. Then we’ll wash our hands and have dinner, okay?”

 Oscar nods and lies down in the middle of the room, starting his new drawing in his new notebook.

“Please tell me you bought him clothes too” Fernando whimpers, trying to wipe his face with his hands “He fell on the floor several times tripping over that t-shirt”

“Of course I bought it, it was the main reason I went shopping. I’ll organize it later, but tell me, how was your day?”

“Great, don’t ever leave me alone with him again.”

 The werewolf laughs “What did you do?”

 Fernando sighs, changing his position on the sofa to sitting, thus giving space for someone else to also sit. “He was calm until he drank milk, then he had the energy of 10 puppies. I’ve never seen him move so much, is this normal?”

 Mark responds visibly excited.

“Oh! That is good! It means he feels comfortable with you, he is shy at first but loves to move around and play.”

 The vampire watches the boy drawing on the floor “I noticed, he forced me to play hide and seek all the time”

 Mark leans his shoulder, giving the other a playful shove in sympathy.

“On the first day taking care of him” he begins to say “I didn't know what to do to keep him entertained, the TV didn't work as I expected. Also, there aren't many things a kid like him can play here, so I asked him what he would like to do. He suggested playing hide and seek, so we've done that ever since. I tried to give him other ideas, but he is insistent.”

“It's easy for him, he's the perfect size for the best hiding places” Fernando grumbles, massaging his neck “How was it in the city, did anyone think it was strange that you bought clothes that were too small?”

“I got a few looks, but nothing bad.”

"Great"

“Look at my drawing!” Oscar jumps to the ground, turning to show his notebook to the two men. “It’s a cow.”

“Ohh, how… beautiful” Mark laughs lightly, observing the figure “What can you draw too?”

 The boy thinks, then responds “Trees, animals, flowers…”

“And what do you like to play, besides hide and seek?” Fernando asks, checking to see if there is another activity the boy likes to do.

 His face lights up and he promptly responds “Hide and seek!”

 The adults snort, tired of that game.

“Isn’t there something else? Don’t you like football or cycling?” the vampire tried other activities that the boy might know about, but he shook his head at every suggestion.

“I like playing hide and seek, but mommy isn’t very good at it.”

 It's the first time Oscar mentions any of his parents, Mark and Fernando stay alert on the sofa. They don't want to miss that opportunity, it's their first chance to find out where the boy came from.

“Does your mother like to play hide and seek with you?” the werewolf asks.

 Oscar nods positively.

“Were you with her before you came here?” the vampire asks.

 Oscar hesitates, becoming shy again. He looked away and sat down on the floor, turning to go back to drawing.

“Oscar, answer the question” Fernando persists, letting his tiredness deceive his common sense and speak more harshly to the child. Mark reprimanded him with his gaze, slowly approaching Oscar and speaking to him calmly.

“Hey, Oscar, it’s okay. We just want to help you find your mommy again” Mark explains “I also like playing hide and seek, just like you. Tell me... why isn't your mother good at playing hide and seek? Huh? Doesn’t she know how to hide like Fernando?”

 The vampire furrows his eyebrows, finding it strange how Mark knows about this, maybe it's a lucky guess, but quickly focuses on the boy when he speaks again.

 In a low voice, Oscar says, with a sad, humorless laugh, “She hasn't been able to find me so far,” and then, completely changing the subject, he asks, “Can we eat now?”

 Mark and Fernando face each other, fearing that this will be more difficult than they imagined.

Chapter Text

 Of all the things Mark bought for the boy, what interested him most were the pencils and the notebook.

"Look!" Oscar showed another drawing he completed that day.

 Mark’s eyebrows rose to his hairline, feigning admiration for his artistic gifts. “Wow, what did you draw?”

“A red car, just like yours” he explained, sitting down on the floor again to color again.

 Fortunately, this is an activity that doesn't make as much noise, which doesn't disturb Fernando's sleep upstairs. When he wakes up, the vampire will be hungry and Mark sighs internally, knowing what he needs to do today.

 He just doesn't know what he's going to do about Oscar.

 When he was in town buying clothes, he tried to find out if any groups of humans had been around in the last week, but he returned home without any new information.

 Oscar has a mother somewhere, who must be desperately looking for him. In the world they live in, humans know that they cannot survive alone and that children are the most vulnerable, which is why they are taught about the dangers that surround them since they are born. They are taught not to trust werewolves or vampires.

“My sun is smiling” Oscar proudly shows the same drawing of the car, but this time with a sun drawn in the corner of the page with a happy face.

 It seems that Oscar doesn't know or understand that Mark and Fernando's species is a threat to his own.

 He saw the sharp teeth, curiously tried to touch Mark's fangs when the man carried him in his arms a few times, without being afraid. The werewolf thinks the boy has no survival instinct.

 He's lucky Mark found him.

 Or not.

“Oscar” Mark calls him.

 The boy lifts his head and looks at him expectantly.

“Want to take a ride in my red car?” he shows off the truck keys dangling from his finger. Fernando will hate, maybe, that he will take Oscar with him into the forest, but he can sort that out later.

 The little human's lips curve until they turn into a smile.

***

 Mark is only doing this because Fernando is sleeping and Oscar can't be alone.

 He is pleased with himself that he bought clothes for the boy's right size, figuring he must be 5 years old or older. It's a little windy and no one wants to deal with a sick child, so he made sure to put on Oscar the warmest coat and appropriate shoes.

 He thought it was so cute to see that the store sold boots that size.

 Oscar, in question, enjoyed the path better now that it was daytime and it wasn't raining. He knelt on the seat next to the driver and stared the entire way curiously.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

“Well…” Mark hesitates. He heads towards a forest further away from where he normally goes, as it is less common for other vampires and werewolves to appear there. “We are going to look for food”

"What food?" Oscar turns to face him “Fruits?”

 Mark lets out a breathy laugh, “Oh, no, no. Well, you might know about that, but we're going, I mean, I'm going to hunt some animals.”

 He turns his head to see if the boy reacts in any negative way, what he least wants to do is deal with a human child's crisis over the death of animals.

 Contrary to what he thought, the boy doesn't seem affected in any way.

“Ah, ok” then he returns to staring at the landscape through the window, indifferent.

 Well, Mark thinks, at least he's not sad.

 As the truck approaches the forest, Oscar shifts in his seat, uneasy. He moves away from the window and sits closer to Mark. The werewolf notices the boy's fear, talking to him in a calmer voice than before.

“Hey, buddy, are you scared of the forest?”

 Oscar shakes his head, but hides his face against Mark's ribs the deeper they get into the trees.

 The man takes one hand off the steering wheel to stroke the younger boy's hair. Confidently, he says “It's okay, it's just a forest, there are only trees and some animals here” the boy doesn't react, so he adds “I'm glad you came with me, actually, I feel braver”

 Oscar raises his head to look at him, curious, he asks in a shy voice “Really?”

“Yeah” he continues “I used to come to the forest almost every day alone, and I felt scared sometimes too. But now that you’ve come with me, I feel braver.”

 Oscar reflects in silence, absorbing those words, then responds.

“Then I will be brave too”

 Mark smiles, ruffling the boy’s hair “I know you will”

 The truck stops.

 It is common for werewolf children to go to forests with their parents and learn to hunt, stimulating their animal instincts. Everything Mark learned was taught by his father. He wondered, during his youth, if someday he would go back to a forest and teach his kid the same things he learned.

 He never imagined he would take a human child hunting with him.

 It's not an ideal location and it's highly dangerous because he has to choose between focusing on hunting or protecting the boy. Therefore, he knows he can't go too far ahead with Oscar.

“Listen, Oscar” he says seriously “You're going to stay here in the car and you're not going to get out, under any circumstances. If you hear any noise, keep quiet, okay? I promise I won’t be long”

 Oscar looks at him, in a way that makes Mark feel and trust that he knows what it means to disobey those orders.

“Okay” the boy takes out his notebook and shows it to Mark “I'll draw a picture for you when you get back. But it won’t take long, okay?”

 Mark sighs, relieved “I won’t be long, I promise” but before getting out of the truck, he gives the following instruction “If you need help, press the horn and I’ll listen, ok?”

 The boy shakes his head.

 Despite the relief, the sinking feeling in his heart only grows as he walks away from the car and leaves Oscar alone.

 Mark's thoughts kept returning to Oscar as he chased some animals. He couldn't shake the feeling of worry that consumed him. Ever since he saw the boy for the first time, appearing in front of his car's headlights out of nowhere, soaked from the rain and completely scared, he decided to himself that he would never want to see that scene again.

 It wasn't his best work, but it's enough flesh and blood to last Fernando for a few days. He did his best to carry those deer towards the truck, when he sensed movement nearby.

 He looked around attentively, but didn't see or hear anyone. He kept walking, faster this time, eager to get this over with and get back to the cabin.

 He was already close, he could see the bed of his truck waiting for him. When he was closer, happy that he could leave, he tried to see through the windows if Oscar was okay inside the car.

 But he didn't see him.

 His heart skipped a beat and he abandoned the deer right there, running toward the car. Oscar should have pressed the horn if something bad was happening.

 He opens the driver's door, panting, finding Oscar lying between the seats.

 The boy is startled by the sudden movement of the door, soon relaxing when he sees that it is just Mark.

 He smiles, sitting in his previous seat. “You’re back!”

 Mark sighs, enjoying the feeling of relief that fills his chest.

“Yes…” he breathes, catching his breath “We can go home now. Did you behave?”

 Oscar nods, then remembers what he's been working on for the last few minutes and hands it to Mark, "I made this drawing for you."

“Oh, thank you very much, this drawing is-” he freezes, trailing off.

 Of all the drawings Mark has seen the boy do, this is the only one where he doesn't need to ask what it is to be sure. The brown lines illustrate well the figure, maybe, of a large dog. A wolf. The animal is in the middle of a scenario that he is used to seeing, a green lawn with trees around and a smiling sun.

"Did you like it?" the boy asks, afraid because of the man's slow reaction.

 Mark shouldn't be surprised that Oscar knows what wolves and werewolves are, yet he feels like a lightning strike that Oscar knows what these creatures are.

 And he's not afraid, apparently.

“I… loved it, it’s a very beautiful drawing. What is it?" he asks, just to be sure.

 The smile returns to decorate the boy's face, in a shy way.

"My daddy"

 Mark thinks he's going to faint.

***

 Fernando woke up and found no one at home.

 He's furious. And hungry.

 Mark must have gone completely crazy when he left and took Oscar with him. Waking up Fernando would be a bad option anyway, but!

 He waits in the living room, looking out the window. When the werewolf returns, he will hear the vampire's grumpy complaints.

 The truck appears on the horizon and Fernando doesn't wait for Mark to park before opening the front door and arguing with him.

“When you were born your brain was replaced by a sack of potatoes?!” Fernando exclaims, standing in front of the door with his hands on his hips.

 After Mark parks, Oscar urgently jumps out of the car towards Fernando, getting under his legs to quickly enter the house. He yells “I need to pee!”

 The vampire turns his neck to shout back at the boy, who scrambles up the stairs. “Don’t think I won’t talk to you too, young man!”

“Fernando” Mark gets out of the car, staggering. His astonished expression does not arouse any curiosity in his friend.

"You!" Fernando approaches, pointing an accusing finger in the other's face. “What were you doing? To hunt? And took Oscar? It has to be a joke”

“Fernando” the werewolf tries to speak again, but the other hasn't finished arguing yet.

“I thought you went to leave him where you found him, but I remembered you wouldn't be able to do that. So I came up with the worst alternative: you took him to a dangerous place that would draw attention, everyone would discover that we have a human child-”

“Nando!”

“I thought you were more responsible-”

"NANDO!" Mark holds Fernando by the shoulders, shaking him roughly. The vampire for the first time notices the state his friend is in, paler and sweating, eyes distressed and desperate to speak.

"What happened? Why are you like that?"

 Mark lets go of him and sighs deeply, deciding to pull the bandage off and break the news at once.

“Oscar’s father is a werewolf”

 Fernando opens his mouth, then closes it, then opens again.

 Mark snorts impatiently “Did you turn into a fish?”

"What do you mean by that? It's not possible, or is it? Wait, how did you-”

“He made this drawing for me” Mark takes a folded sheet of paper from his coat pocket, showing the figure “When I asked what it was, he said 'my daddy'” he brings the piece of paper closer to the other's face “I think it means exactly what it is.”

 Fernando grumbles and snatches the drawing from Mark's hands, looking more closely. If this really is supposed to be Oscar's father, then he is the son of a werewolf or Oscar really is as bad at drawing as Fernando thought.

“Shit… what are we going to do?”

 Mark throws his arms in the air, in disbelief that the vampire still doesn't understand. “We have the best clue ever! It made sense, we didn't understand. He was never afraid of us, even though we were clearly different-”

“If we follow your logic, it makes more sense that he wouldn't be afraid of you who are the same species as his father, but I'm a vampire. Why isn’t he afraid of me?”

"I don't know!" Mark laughs breathlessly “But now we can understand and it will be easier to find his parents. If Oscar's father is a werewolf, it means he was exiled for choosing to marry a human. I can ask around if people have seen an exiled werewolf, it’s easier than asking if they’ve seen a human.”

 Fernando reflects on this.

“Right…” he smiles “Now that we know about it, I believe we are closer to returning the little thing”

“Oscar”

"That's what I said"

 Mark sighs, tired after a day full of emotions. He takes the drawing back and puts it in the same pocket as before, receiving a questioning look from the vampire.

"What? That's the only clue I have as to what his father looks like.”

 Fernando rolls his eyes “Please don't go around asking 'have you seen this wolf?'”

 The other man shrugs “It might work” and laughs at the disdain he receives.

***

 Oscar whimpers, turning from side to side.

"I do not want to be alone"

“It’s okay, Oscar. We will be on the other side of the wall”

“Nooooo” the boy cries more.

 Mark cleaned and emptied the small room he used to store his mess and set up a room for Oscar. He also built a bed with the firewood he collected from the trees, very proud of his project.

 But Oscar doesn't care about any of that, he doesn't want to sleep in a room alone.

“He's going to sleep anyway, he's too tired” Fernando says, standing in the doorway, watching Mark try to get Oscar to lie down in his new bed.

 The werewolf ignores his friend, talking to the boy. “This bed is much better than that little basket, don’t you think?”

"No!" Oscar complains, refusing to lie down.

 The werewolf sighs.

“What’s the problem, Oscar? Why don’t you want to sleep here?”

 The boy crosses his arms, burying his chin against his chest.

“Oscar” Mark calls, more sternly this time.

 Oscar snorts, avoiding meeting the adults' eyes. He plays with the blanket that covers his legs, embarrassed to admit what really bothers him.

“There’s a monster under my bed”

 Fernando laughs, Mark looks at the vampire angrily when the boy's lip trembles.

“Sorry, it’s just so ironic!” the man tries to defend himself.

 Mark comforts Oscar, stroking his head to calm him “There’s no monster under your bed, Oscar. I can guarantee you”

 Oscar throws himself onto his side and buries his face against the pillow, muttering, “How do you know if you didn’t look?”

 Mark sighs, holding back his urge to laugh as well.

“Okay, I’ll look”

 Oscar turns around, watching Mark kneel on the floor and stare under his bed. The man watches, as expected, he sees nothing, then he stands up and stares into those sleepy brown eyes.

 He replies smiling “I checked, and there is no monster under your bed”

"You promise?" the boy asks in a tearful voice.

"I promise. Do you want me to stay until you sleep?”

 Oscar nods.

 Fernando decides to leave the two alone and returns to the living room, going to sit and write on his computer.

 He feels frustrated that he hasn't made much progress since last time, for the first time the words he needs don't come to him like they used to.

 Mark comes downstairs minutes later.

"He slept?"

“Yes, it didn’t take as long as I thought, that was the real problem. I left his bedroom door open too, he’s afraid of the dark.”

 Fernando snorts “Monsters… does he know he’s living with them? Or rather, does he know that his own father is one?”

“Don’t say that” the werewolf approaches, sitting in his armchair. He sighs deeply as his body relaxes “He has the innocence of a child”

“I wonder why” Fernando turns around, looking at his friend “What are you going to do tomorrow?”

“Ah, the way you ask me it seems like I’m going to ask you a favor” he laughs.

 The vampire waits, 3… 2… 1…

“I need a favor, Nando”

“I know” Fernando rubs his neck “You’re going to go out tomorrow and research his parents, I’ll stay and take care of him”

"You are the best! I'm going to eat something in the kitchen” he gets up, before going towards his friend and squeezing his shoulder with his big hand, a normal gesture of partnership.

 The vampire coughs, ignoring the tingling that remained in the area. He also gets up and follows the werewolf's silhouette to the kitchen, stopping at the entrance that separates one room from another.

 He watches Mark prepare his own dinner, humming happily, happier than he's seen him in months.

“When I'm in town, I'm going to buy some toys for Oscar to play with. What does he like?” Mark asks.

 Fernando crosses his arms, staring at the man's broad back.

"What's happening with you?" he asks, looking suspicious.

 Mark turns around after placing his plate in the microwave, smiling. “What do you mean?”

"You are happy"

“Is there anything wrong with being happy?” Mark says “I feel good”

“Yes, but you've also been weirder than usual since you found out that Oscar's father is a werewolf. Now spill the beans, what happened?”

 Mark opens his mouth but closes it immediately afterwards, he shrugs like it's nothing.

“It’s just interesting to meet another half-breed”

 The vampire takes a step forward, facing what he has feared most since they found Oscar and the werewolf decided that the boy would stay “He's not half-breed, he's human.”

“Yes, but, like me, he has a human mother and a werewolf father” Mark points out.

“Don't make this about you, Oscar isn't like you” Fernando says, trying to talk some reason into his friend's brain “Please, Mark, don't make this personal. Let’s take care of the boy and find his parents, then we’ll never see him again.”

"But-"

“Mark”

 The two stare at each other in silence.

 The werewolf sighs, defeated.

“I'm sorry, I'm really getting weird. I just- I…” he bites his lip, looking away “I want to find his parents, I really do. I just felt happy knowing that Oscar isn't so different from me, from us. He's still human, I know. Just… I don’t want him to suffer the same fate as me.”

 Fernando approaches until he is next to Mark and hugs him tightly. Mark returns the hug, burying his nose in the vampire's hair and breathing in.

 They stay like that for a while until Fernando says “Let's find his family and everything will go back to the way it was before. You’re going to go out tomorrow and do some research and I’ll take care of him, everything will be fine, Mark.”

 The werewolf nods “Yes, everything will go back to normal later” and then smiles.

 Fernando also smiles, praying for that nightmare to end.

Chapter Text

 Fernando only realized that he slept on the sofa when he woke up, but it wasn't because of the brightness of the day or the sound of birds singing. But yes, the weight of a child sitting on his belly.

 He opens only one eye, seeing the boy sitting on top of him.

“Good morning” Oscar says, smiling innocently. His hair is completely messed up and he apparently lost a sock.

 The vampire sighs deeply, which makes the child laugh, trying to balance himself on his belly.

“Good morning, Oscar” he replies, without hiding the tiredness in his voice “Let’s get ready for another day”

 Fernando holds Oscar in his arms and takes him to the room that Mark made for him, letting the child jump on the unmade bed while he chooses a piece of clothing to replace his pajamas.

“Can you stop jumping or did you swallow a rabbit in your sleep?” the man complains, having difficulty getting Oscar to wear a t-shirt.

 The boy laughs, finding the other's bad mood very funny. “I swallowed a rabbit!”

 Fernando snorts.

 Combing his hair is easier because it doesn't take long for the boy to sit down, tired of jumping. He does his best work to keep those strands straight, reflecting on whether Oscar should be blonde or not.

 Afterwards, Fernando carries Oscar to the kitchen, but when he tries to make the boy sit on the chair so he can prepare his warm milk, the boy complains and clings to his neck.

“Oscar…” the man talks to him, trying to imitate the calm tone that Mark normally uses “I can't make your breakfast if I'm holding you”

 But the boy doesn't care, burying his face against Fernando's neck and refusing to leave the comfort of Fernando's arms. The vampire sighs, reviewing his options.

“Okay,” he decides, turning to get the milk from the fridge.

 It's harder to cook while holding a child, but once he adjusts Oscar on his hip he can work with only one arm available. Oscar keeps his head lying on his shoulder, watching every movement the man makes.

 When it was time for Fernando to pour the warm milk into the bottle that Mark bought, which was the perfect replacement for the plastic cup, Oscar raised his head with interest and stretched his arm towards it.

“I want to help,” he said, twisting his fingers.

 The vampire placed Oscar on his hip, leaning his body forward. The boy held the bottle with both hands while Fernando poured the milk, seeming pleased to help.

 He tries again to make the boy sit on the chair, however, as Oscar is refusing to make things easier, he gives up any effort and sits with the boy on his lap.

 Fernando rests his elbow on the table and watches Oscar drink his breakfast, his head lying on the vampire's shoulder again. The child looks at him and laughs. For Fernando, it was diabolical.

“What did you eat for breakfast before?” It's not possible that this is what he drinks every morning.

 Oscar takes a while to respond, thinking “Fruits”

 Fernando raises his eyebrows “And what else?”

"And milk"

 He snorts.

“I see… I’ll talk to Mark about it. What happened to you today- Hey!”

 As he spoke, Oscar raised his hand and placed his fingers inside the vampire's mouth, touching his fangs. Fernando grabbed his wrist and pulled him away, ready to scold the boy.

“You can't put your fingers in people's mouths,” he says seriously. Fernando heard Mark say that Oscar already tried this on him too, how he stared curiously at the sharp teeth and tried to touch them whenever he felt the opportunity.

“You have sharp teeth” Oscar says, not at all embarrassed by his attitude.

“Yes, that’s precisely why you can’t- Stop!” he pushes his hand away again “Why do you insist on this?”

 Oscar just laughs.

 Fernando rolls his eyes. Without Mark to correct him, he says “You’re a little thing.”

 After feeding the boy, the vampire carried him to the living room and managed to make him sit on the floor, in front of his colored pencils and notebook with drawings spread out on the carpet. His art items quickly caught his interest.

 Taking advantage of the fact that he had some time left (until the boy wanted to eat something, go to the bathroom to do the number 2 or sleep), Fernando sat down in front of his computer. He thought of some ideas the night before and wrote them down in his notebook so he wouldn't forget, now is the time to put them in his paragraphs.

 He and Oscar sat in a pleasant silence, with only the sound of the keyboard keys clicking and the pencil scratching the paper filling the room. The vampire paused to read what he had managed to write so far, not feeling that feeling of satisfaction he so longed for. His story isn't interesting, he can imagine people yawning just reading the summary. No one would buy his book if it continued like this.

 Maybe he should erase everything and write again.

 A tug on his shirt draws his attention to the child now standing next to him. Oscar holds a sheet of paper in one hand, which he holds up to show Fernando.

 The man takes the drawing and observes the mix of colors and shapes, without noticing the small smile that grows in the corner of his lips.

“You really have fun doing these things. What is this supposed to be, uh?”

 Oscar smiles shyly, standing on tiptoe so he can see his drawing in the vampire's hands. “It's you.”

 Fernando faces the largest character in the drawing, whose head is completely disproportionate in size and blue, holding a red flower in one of his hands. If someone pays close attention, they can tell that Oscar captured his most sensitive side.

“And what is that on my other hand? An octopus? It has many arms…”

 Oscar laughs, stretching his short arm towards the figure with 'many arms' and painted purple, pointing his finger. “It's not an octopus, it's me!”

 The vampire clears his throat, surprised by the answer “Why did you draw that?”

“Um…” the boy makes a funny 'I'm thinking' face, which makes him even cuter, then looks at Fernando and explains “So you remember me”

 Fernando has lived many years, he remembers some things and has forgotten many, but he doesn't think it's possible to forget the experience of hiding a human child in his house and taking care of him. 100 years from now, he will still remember the day he told Mark to buy Oscar children's toothpaste.

“Oh, that’s…thank you, Oscar”

 The boy looks proud of himself, blushing with happiness, but then hesitated. “Can you write my name down here?” He points with his finger where he would like his name to appear.

 Fernando frowned, confused “You don’t know how to write your name?”

 The boy lowered his eyes, embarrassed, avoiding the older man's gaze. “Not yet...”

 An abnormal feeling takes over the vampire, like the need to make a difference. Cautiously, he asks.

“Have you been to school before?”

 Still avoiding looking at him, Oscar shakes his head negatively.

“There was no school where I lived” he explains, in a low voice.

 That confession made Fernando's heart sick in his chest. Unable to leave things as they are, he makes a decision.

 Trying to inspire confidence, he says “Well, that’s no problem. If you want, I can teach you how to read and write.”

 The boy's head whips up and stares at the man with wide eyes. “Really?”

 The vampire smiled, forgetting his work. “Of course, I'm practically a teacher, I'm reading and writing every day. Soon you will be able to do this too and you will write your name on all the drawings.”

 Oscar jumps in place, excited, grabbing Fernando's arm and pulling him from his chair using what little strength he had. “Can we do this now? I want to write my name!”

“Well…” he looks at the text open on his monitor, then at the boy, giving in. “Okay, I'll give you some tasks, but I need to keep working, okay?”

 Fernando sat on the floor next to Oscar and picked up a pencil and some sheets of paper to begin his explanation. First he wrote all the letters of the alphabet, saying out loud the sound they made. “Let's try to write your name, what is the first letter?”

"O!" he promptly responded, excited.

“Correct, now let’s write. You hold the pencil like this…” he guided Oscar's hand, helping him draw the letter 'O' on the paper.

 The boy giggles “It looks like a ball”

 Fernando also laughs “It’s true. Now, what is the second letter of your name?”

 This time Oscar hesitated, looking at all the letters of the alphabet the man wrote earlier. Fernando tries to help.

“Remember the sound they make? Which letter makes the same sound as a snake?”

 The boy thinks, looking at him uncertainly “S?”

"Very good!" he praises, perhaps he is becoming more proud than he imagined “Let's write the 'S'...” he helps Oscar hold the pencil again and draw the letter on the paper, next to the 'O'”

 So the two continue, Fernando teaching Oscar how to write letter by letter. The boy followed the instructions with enthusiasm, finding the task fun. After a while, they finished and Oscar admired his name written on the paper by himself.

"I did it! I did it!" he cheers, jumping.

“I knew you could do it” Fernando gets up from the floor, seeing that there are only a few hours left before Oscar needs to eat again. If he finished proofreading his text now, he wouldn't have to do it for the rest of the day. “Listen, Oscar, I'm going to sit down to work and you can keep practicing, okay?”

 The boy nodded, looking for another pencil to write his name in a different color.

 So, Fernando sat down in his chair and yawned loudly, having to make a small effort not to fall asleep sitting up. He continued reading, hearing the noise of Oscar saying the letters out loud as he tried to repeat what Fernando had shown him earlier.

 Oscar interrupted Fernando whenever he needed to remember how to write a letter or when he wanted a new letter to try. The vampire counted the seconds, waiting for the next time the boy would lift his head and speak. 1... 2... 3... it took 7 seconds before Oscar asked again.

 They repeated the scene several times.

 Fernando finished reading his book just over 10 minutes ago, but he rested his head on his hand thinking about what the boy said before. Oscar is young enough that it's not strange that he can't read, but he seemed deeply saddened by it. And there were no schools where he lived, which left Fernando thinking...

 How did humans teach their children to read and write? They created cities for themselves, isolated and hidden, and they must have built schools if, since the last time Fernando remembers, they built churches.

 If he could have the superpower to read minds, Fernando would get inside Oscar's head and find out everything he needed.

 He wonders what Mark must be doing at that moment.

 The vampire turns his head, seeing the boy practicing his writing uninterruptedly. He's already on the third sheet of paper.

 Biting his tongue, he questions whether he should ask or not. When Oscar is like this, calm, that's when he releases the necessary information. But he doesn't answer more than one question, so he needs to choose carefully until he gets the next chance, if he does.

 Oscar is such a weird boy, Fernando thinks.

 Maybe it's a characteristic of a half-breed.

 Sometimes, after expending all his energy, Oscar liked to lie down on the rug and receive the sunlight, with his eyes closed, and sometimes he also napped there. Moments like this made Fernando wonder how much wolf DNA that boy must have, because he swears he saw Mark do the same thing once.

“Oscar” he calls.

 The boy lifts his head and looks at him with those brown eyes. His hair is already all messy again, from lying and rolling around on the floor so much just that morning.

 It's now or never.

“Have you… ever had spaghetti and meatballs before?” he gets up from the chair, stretching his body “I’m thinking about preparing this for your lunch”

 Fernando is ashamed of his cowardice, but he doesn't understand himself. Maybe he should wait for Mark to return with the news instead of rushing things, after all, what bad could happen if the boy stayed a few more days?

 A lot of things.

***

 When Mark returns, Oscar greets him at the door.

“I'm learning to write, this is my name” he proudly shows all the sheets he has used so far to practice.

“Wow” the werewolf kneels on the ground to be close to Oscar's height, and carefully observes what the boy came to show him “That's impressive!”

 Oscar's smile grows wider and he runs back to the living room, wanting to practice more.

“Hello, welcome back. There is a plate of spaghetti and meatballs in the microwave waiting for you” Fernando appears, emerging from the kitchen.

 Mark takes off his boots and places them on the floor to the side. As he hangs his coat on the back of the door, he says “Ah, that's every man's dream. Coming home with food ready and his wife and children waiting- ow!” He laughs, massaging the sore spot from the well-deserved punch he received.

“Shut up” Fernando approaches, speaking more quietly so the child in the next room doesn’t hear “What did you manage to do today?”

 Mark sighs, moving around the vampire and going after his food. Taking the cutlery from the drawer he says “I'm impressed you took the time to cook meatballs, you haven't done that since you moved here and were trying to please me.”

“Don’t change the subject” Fernando sighs, rubbing his face with his hands “I’m dying to lay in my coffin and sleep for the next 10 years, just tell me if you have any news or not”

 The werewolf doesn't respond at first, busying himself with sitting down and eating some of the spaghetti. Fernando waits impatiently for the other to finish chewing and swallowing. If he wished Mark would choke, it was just a fleeting and harmless thought.

“I went back to the place where I found him, I went into the forest looking for clues” Mark begins to explain “I walked everywhere and looked for any trace, I should recognize it, after all, I've lived like that”

 Exiled wolves are not used to having a fixed place to live, as they need to be in constant movement for the safety of their human family members. They are good at outwitting other curious wolves and vampires.

 Mark traveled for many years, living from city to city, forest to forest, until he separated from his family and went to live in his cabin permanently. If there was anyone who could recognize the camp where Oscar was and follow his family's trail, it would be him.

"And then?"

 The werewolf snorted, Fernando didn't have a good feeling of what was about to be said.

“I already imagined that it wouldn't be easy to find a trail, so I did my best. I looked everywhere, Nando, but I didn't find anything. No signage, no items left behind, nothing.”

 Realizing that the vampire didn't understand what that meant, Mark explained.

“It was quite obvious to me that his family had no intention of staying, much less walking there, the forest is too close to the city, it is too dangerous. Which made it clear that they didn’t arrive by choice, they were running away from something.”

 It makes sense, after all. The path that Oscar took to find Mark was a path that no exiled werewolf would willingly take with his human partner and child. They were following a path, but they needed to change in order to try to survive.

“Running away from what?” Fernando asks.

 Mark's lips press into a thin line, afraid to respond.

 Whatever was chasing Oscar and his family, it only let the boy go unpunished. Which leaves little hope of imagining that anything other than the obvious happened to the parents.

“Vampires” Mark responds.

 If there were vampires involved, Oscar wouldn't be safe anywhere but with Mark and Fernando.

***

 When everyone in the house was asleep, with the exception of Fernando, the vampire sat down in the dark of the living room. Only the light from the monitor caused any illumination.

 He thought he could write, but this time the only thing that came to his mind were unhappy thoughts. He's not responsible for what happened to Oscar's parents, but he can't help but blame himself.

 Vampires can be cruel when they want to, there was a good chance that Oscar's parents were dead.

 But he couldn't assume it was true without proof, no. However, the guilt of being part of the same species that causes so much suffering to others is torture. No human would look twice at him and think Fernando is anything other than a monster.

 Oscar doesn't look at him that way, which makes things worse. It would be so much easier if Oscar realized what he is and felt afraid, blaming him for his unhappy life. But the boy looks at him with a mixture of curiosity and admiration. He doesn't hesitate to raise his arms and be held by him, much less is he afraid of his sharp teeth.

 Oscar looks at Fernando as if he trusts him to never do any harm.

 The vampire would rather have his head ripped off before hurting the boy.

 He knows this, but he cannot escape the terrible guilt.

 Something behind his monitor catches his eye attention. He reaches out and takes the piece of paper, seeing that it is the same drawing that Oscar made for him. This time, written on the paper, there is the boy's name. Fernando smiles without realizing it, proud, he still wants Oscar to learn new words.

 It's strange how 5 days ago that child was a stranger to him, but now Fernando will never be able to forget him.

Chapter Text

 Mark sat on the floor with Oscar and brought up an activity that entertained the boy for a great deal of time. The last time he was in town, selling some firewood, the werewolf couldn't help but buy some toys and games for the boy.

 What brought Oscar the most interest was a red toy car. The first time he saw it, he showed it to Mark as if the man hadn't noticed the similarity between his truck and the toy.

 So they sat on the living room floor, playing with the toy cars. The boy crawled around, exploring every corner of the room with his new favorite toy, making sounds with his mouth and giving voices to the other toys.

 Mark found himself admiring his imagination, paying attention to the way Oscar brought his cars to life and made them talk to each other. When he was a child, the werewolf didn't have many toys to play with other than a truck with a missing tire and a rope. Buying new toys and bringing them home not only satisfy the boy, but also the inner child that lives inside Mark.

 A sneeze interrupts his thoughts. He looks at Oscar and sees him sniffling.

 It had rained the night before, they could feel the change in temperature as the colder days approached.

“Where are your socks?” Mark asked, stretching out his arm and bringing Oscar closer to him by his ankle. He touches his feet and feels them cold.

 The boy laughs as he is dragged and responds with a naughty smile “I don’t know”

 The man looks at him suspiciously.

 Oscar hates wearing socks, he always wakes up with just one or none on his feet. Fernando says he takes them off on purpose, as they soon find them lost in the middle of the blanket.

“We have a deal, Oscar. Either you wear socks inside the house or you wear shoes, you can’t walk around barefoot.”

 The boy has been living with them for more than 8 days and, fortunately, he hasn't been sick once, but that requires the right care.

 The boy visually withers, hating being forced to wear those uncomfortable things that make him slide across the floor so easily. Don't Mark and Fernando realize this?

“But I don't know where my socks are” he explains, honestly. This happened from time to time, the socks would just disappear from his feet at some point.

 Mark sighs, accepting that “Okay, then let’s go get some new socks” response.

 After managing to get the boy to wear a new pair of socks, Oscar says he wants to draw again. Papers are running out, Mark needs to go buy new ones soon. Oscar says he wants Mark to draw with him and the werewolf is too weak to say no.

 The werewolf has never been the biggest fan of art, his drawings compare to those of the 5-year-old boy. He decides to do something easy, like grass and flowers.

“What are you drawing?” he asks, trying to peek and understand the enigmatic figure the boy was drawing.

“Surprise” Oscar simply responds, without taking his eyes off the paper.

 Mark shrugs, choosing a new color to paint his flowers.

 After a few minutes, both announce that they are ready.

“Okay, I drew a beautiful flower garden” Mark shows his drawing, visibly proud of his work “Hey, why are you laughing?”

"I'm not laughing!" says Oscar, laughing.

“I know, how could I imagine that you would be at least a little humble with me, a beginner… let’s see what you drew, uh?”

 Practice makes perfect, that's a fact, and after a few days of drawing every day, Oscar improved a lot. Currently, Fernando and Mark are able to understand more quickly what the boy does.

 On the sheet of paper, he can clearly identify a red face with a big mouth and sharp teeth. Unlike any other happy thing Oscar had drawn, this was a drawing of an evil-looking figure.

 The werewolf laughs nervously. “What is that, Oscar?”

"The monster!" the boy explains, then puts the drawing in front of his face and growls, showing that that monster was supposed to be scary. It just looks cute.

“Oh… Ah!” now it makes sense. Ever since he moved into his new room, Oscar has complained about a monster hiding under his bed. It's normal for children to believe that creatures from their imagination exist in real life, maybe the monster in Oscar's nightmares looks like a red pepper. “Well, I'm glad you drew him, now if he appears in front of me I'll recognize him”

 Oscar is visibly pleased to hear that.

 Footsteps approach where they are and soon Fernando appears, stopping between the two.

"What are you doing?" he asks, taking in all the boy's art supplies scattered across the floor.

 Oscar quickly puts the drawing back against his face and tries to scare the vampire “BOO!”

 Fernando pretends to be scared, placing his hand on his chest and shouting “Ah! A monster!"

 He's a better interpreter of drawings, Mark thinks.

 But instead of laughing after completing his objective, Oscar takes the drawing off his face in a hurry and looks worriedly at Fernando, truly believing that the man believed he was a monster “No, no, no. It’s me, Nano, Oscar” he indicates to himself.

 Mark stops laughing at the scene when he hears the boy say the vampire's name for the first time, or at least try.

“He said your name!” the werewolf looks at Fernando.

“Yeah… yes” the vampire replies, not sure if he really felt that tug inside his chest.

 Mark turns to the boy, wanting to encourage him to talk more “Can you say Fernando? Fer-nan-do"

 Oscar repeats “Nano”

“Okay, maybe it's too difficult name for him. I call you Nando all the time, he must be imitating me. Can you say 'Nando', Oscar?”

“Nano”

“Nando”

“Nano”

“Okay, it's too complicated for your child's brain. You know how to say my name, say Mark”

“Mike”

"No!" the werewolf laughs, noticing the naughty smile that Oscar has on his lips “You torture me on purpose”

“Anyway” Fernando interrupts, bringing the attention back to himself “I came here to find out from you” he says, looking at Mark “if Oscar is going to take a shower before or after dinner”

“Oh, after, no doubt” the werewolf stands up, extending his arms to pick Oscar up “I almost forgot about dinner, little guy. Thankfully-"

“Why is he not wearing socks?” the vampire asks.

 Mark freezes, looking at the boy's sockless feet dangling from his hip.

“Oscar!”

***

 What makes a house a home?

 For Fernando, home was the house in which he was born and raised. For many years as he traveled, until he met Mark, he remembered that little green wooden house as his first and only home. The place where he would sit at his grandmother's feet and help her crochet whenever she thought she needed a new blanket.

 For Mark, home was never about a place, it was about people. There's no time to put down roots in a new city when you know you'll be leaving soon, and he's always traveled a lot. But when he thinks of home, he remembers his mother's hugs and his father's advice.

 When they decided to live together, they never thought that that cabin was anything more than just theirs. It's our home, they said, but they didn't appreciate the sentiment. Maybe because they were two single men with opposite lives, dancing around each other in their defined routine, they didn't see the point in calling the place something different.

 But something changed.

 As the days passed since Oscar showed up, the house began to change. Whoever is inside it doesn't notice unless they pay attention.

 The house now has a new bedroom, with a new bed made from the best firewood Mark collected. You need to be careful where you step, there may be cars or other toys scattered across the floor. If Fernando wants to look for something inside the refrigerator, he needs to be careful not to knock over any drawings that were glued to the door with magnets. Near the stairs a marking appeared, on which Mark scratched the wall with a pen to measure how much Oscar is growing.

 Cups, plates and cutlery themed with children's characters are present on the table at dinner time, which is the time when everyone is sitting at the table to talk about their days.

 Naturally, without them noticing, the house changed, no longer just a house.

 It wasn't green like Fernando's old house, his grandmother wasn't there to crochet blankets. And there were no hugs from Mark's mother or advice from his father.

 So maybe this home would be different because it is made of breakfast, protection and toys scattered on the floor.

 Even though Oscar was small, his presence was huge.

“I think he’s blonde” Fernando says.

 Mark furrows his eyebrows, moving his eyes between the boy and the vampire. He responds after finishing chewing and swallowing his food “He's not"

“How not?” It’s Fernando’s turn to look at him skeptically “His hair is as light as Jenson’s”

“But Jenson is blond” the werewolf replies, not understanding Fernando’s difficulty in understanding a color “Oscar is brunette"

“Just look at him, it’s obvious he’s blond.”

 Mark looks.

 Oscar is distracted, playing with his red car on the table instead of finishing his dinner.

 Mark looks back at Fernando “He looks too brunette to me”

 The vampire snorts, frustrated “I don't know why I mentioned it” he turns his body towards the boy and holds his abandoned spoon, serving a little more food and taking it towards the other “Open your mouth, Oscar. You won’t be able to play with your toys if you don’t eat all your dinner.”

 Oscar opens his mouth and chews the food, never once taking his eyes off his toy, using the plate and cup as obstacles in his play.

 Mark looks on disapprovingly “I thought we talked about rules, Oscar. You can’t play with your toys while you’re eating.”

 This attracts the boy's attention. He freezes and looks at the werewolf as if he would be able to take his toy out of his hands right then and there.

“Can I hold it?” he asks meekly.

 Mark should say no, because he knows Oscar will be back playing with the car on the table soon, but he's just a man.

“Yes, you can hold it. But don’t put it on the table, you’re eating”

 Oscar shakes his head up and down agitatedly, making it difficult for the vampire to bring the spoon closer to his mouth.

“Just a few more spoons” he says, helping the boy drink some juice.

 Mark finishes eating first, after all, he doesn't need help with that. He gets up to go wash his own plate and starts a new topic with the vampire “You mentioned Jenson before, that reminded me that I ran into him and Lewis in town”

“Ah” Fernando responds with disinterest “How cool”

“They asked about you”

"Interesting"

“When are you going to go out with them again, or give them any news”

“Wow”

“Fernando, I'm serious” Mark approaches the two who are sitting at the table and wipes the boy's mouth with a napkin, continuing saying “They miss you, you should go see him more often”

“If you haven't noticed, I have a child who demands a lot of my attention. I can’t even write my book, let alone go out with my friends.”

“Don’t blame Oscar, you couldn’t write this book long before he came along.”

 The two stare at each other in silence.

 Oscar notices that the vampire has stopped feeding him and pulls his shirt sleeve, trying to get his attention.

 Mark swallows hard “Nando, I’m sorry”

“No, you're right” the vampire finishes feeding the boy and holds him under his arms, handing it to Mark “You're going to give him a bath and then I'll put him to sleep” and then left the kitchen, going to sit in in front of his computer.

 Mark snorts, talking about himself “Stupid Mark”

 Oscar laughs, poking his sharp teeth with his fingertips “Stupid Mark”

 The werewolf raises an eyebrow. “Now you say my name right?”

***

  While bathing the child, the werewolf couldn't help but think about what Fernando said.

 The vampire is taking care of Oscar when he needs to go out, which messes with his sleep and visibly interferes with his work. The question 'let's think of a way' came later than it should have.

 Mark thinks it would be an interesting idea to take Oscar outside to play, perhaps with other children. If they planned perfectly, maybe they could…

 This is a bolder idea.

 Maybe they could enroll Oscar in a school.

 It's not impossible and perhaps the werewolf has thought of some details already.

 The main one involves his friends, so it would be interesting if Fernando went out with them again and implemented the idea.

 They couldn't tell the truth, obviously, it's dangerous if too many people know.

 But if Oscar wore the right clothes...

 Mark wakes up from his thoughts when a few drops of water hit his face. He raises his arm to protect himself from Oscar, who is shaking his wet head in the bathtub.

 The man laughs “If someone saw you now, they would think you were a puppy”

 After the bath, Mark puts on some clothes in Oscar and gets him ready for bed. Before he needs to call the vampire, Fernando is standing in the doorway watching the two.

“Good night” Mark says to Oscar, brushing away some of the hair that falls on his forehead. “I'll be in the living room” he says to Fernando, walking past him.

 The vampire approaches and sits at the foot of the bed, watching the boy get more comfortable.

 Oscar scratches one eye with his closed fist and watches the vampire with a different look.

“Lie down next to me?” the boy asks.

 Fernando laughs “The bed is not big enough for both of us”

 But Oscar doesn't give up, he moves his body a little to the side and offers the new free space to the other, saying with his eyes 'See? There's plenty of space for both of us now.'

 The man playfully rolls his eyes and gives in, dragging his body until he is half-lying next to the boy. Oscar immediately reaches out and grabs his arm, holding on with more force than Fernando had ever felt.

 He looks worried, finding the boy's behavior abnormal. His eyes are full of sleep, but he looks at him in a distressed way.

"Everything is fine?" he asks, fearing any answer other than yes.

 Oscar nods and says “I want you to stay until I sleep”

“I’ll stay, don’t worry”

“Have you… checked if there’s a monster under the bed?”

 Fernando hesitates, holding in a heavy sigh and turning to look under the bed, so that he is kneeling on the bed and facing upside down. He sees nothing, obviously, and lies back down next to the boy who quickly grabs his arm again.

“There are no monsters under your bed” he says.

 Oscar nods, but doesn't close his eyes to sleep like he normally does.

 Worry grows in the vampire's chest. “Is everything okay?” he asks again, not believing the previous answer.

 This time, the boy hesitates before responding in a somewhat whiny way.

“I…” he looks away to the ceiling, then looks back at the man. His brown eyes are brighter as he sadly responds, “I miss my mommy.”

 Fernando nods slightly, looking empathetically at the boy. “What is she like?”

"She is very nice. She always sleeps with me” he says.

 Ah, that's the problem.

 Oscar continues talking, lost in his memories.

“She has books, but they have no words. She said the letter 'O' was the first letter of my name” the boy smiles slightly, eyes focused on the man's chest “She said that one day we would have a house and then there would be lots of toys in that house. And if I behaved well, she would take me to a place where there was a school, there I would learn to read and write and I would have really cool friends.”

 Fernando bites his lip, trying to control his emotions at that moment. He should call Mark, he's better at welcoming people when they're feeling sad.

 Maybe he can get through this, he will have a calm conversation with the child and then he will calm down and sleep.

 But then, Oscar looks at him with those wet eyes, as if Fernando were capable of having all the answers in the world.

“Nano thinks I’ll see my mommy again soon?”

“Oh, Oscar, I…”

 So he does the one thing he learned from Mark to do when one of them is feeling sad, he hugs him.

 Oscar squeezes him with all his strength and sniffles softly, letting the man stroke his hair. Fernando's fingers comb through the blond strands, because he knows he's right, and he realizes that Oscar might need a haircut soon. Few things in life were able to make the vampire feel his heart beat, this was certainly the first time he felt his heart stop.

 How can there be a creature that is capable of harming someone like Oscar? How can there be someone who sees it as food and nothing more?

 When Fernando thinks of Oscar, he sees laughter, toys and drawings with a smiling sun. He sees life.

“It's okay, it's okay” he whispers in the boy's ear, as he calms down.

 He needs to ask more than ever.

“What were you and your mom doing… before Mark found you?”

 Oscar sniffles, pulling away from the man's embrace to wipe his drenched face. Fernando waits anxiously, but is patient in giving the boy his own time.

 The moment the boy felt better, he replied “We were playing hide and seek…”

“Okay, and before?”

 Whenever they tried to find out more than the boy was willing to answer, Oscar began to get restless and twitch like a centipede.

 And he repeated “I don’t know… I don’t remember…”

 Fernando sighs, finishing drying his tears with his thumb “Shh… it’s okay, you’re okay”

 Oscar took a deep breath and settled down next to Fernando, closing his eyes, decreeing that the conversation was over.

 Fernando adjusted himself better in bed, with one hand on Oscar, feeling his chest rise and fall as he breathed, until he passed out in a needy sleep.

 The vampire thought that if Oscar's stay became permanent, their lives would change forever. If not, Mark would be very disappointed. Fernando realized he did too.

Chapter Text

 Fernando went downstairs and found Mark sitting in the armchair, with his eyes closed. For a second he believed he was asleep, but when the werewolf smelled the other man approaching, he opened his eyes and watched him sit down in front of the computer.

“Wow, I almost dozed off here. Did he take a while to sleep this time?” he asked while rubbing his eyes, referring to Oscar.

“Yes…” the vampire murmured, still a little dejected by the recent event “He said he missed his mother” before Mark asked, he added “And no, he didn't say anything we don't already know”

 Mark lets out a disgruntled sigh “Poor kid”

 Fernando knows the other man is tired and anxious to go to sleep, but he forces himself to wait to talk to Fernando about it sooner. He doesn't blame him for anything, after all, no one is more responsible for the failure of his book than himself.

 A pair of hands massage his shoulders and he lets himself relax.

“I'm sorry for what I said before, I didn't mean to make you sad.”

 Fernando and Mark almost never fight, and if they do, it doesn't take long for one of them to give in and apologize. They wouldn't be who they are if they didn't fight over silly things and come running away afterwards regretting their mistakes.

“It’s okay, really.”

 The werewolf murmurs, still massaging his tense shoulders. Fernando closes his eyes and enjoys the comforting sensation. In addition to Mark's big hands on him, he also feels the other's nose approaching and sniffing the top of his head, slowly sniffing his way down to his neck.

 The vampire grumbles “Don’t leave your werewolf scent on me, it’s not enough for Oscar to smell like you 24 hours a day.”

 Mark laughs, taking one last sniff before walking away. “Sorry.”

 Fernando doesn't understand why Mark insists on transmitting his scent on him, and sniffing him all the time. Werewolves are strange. Oscar can't smell it but he smells like Mark all the time, as if he were his puppy.

 If Fernando knew a little more about wolves' customs, perhaps he would understand Mark's intentions.

“You know what would be interesting?” the werewolf suddenly asks.

 He makes a noise that he hopes will be understood so the other person can continue talking, the massage is very good and he doesn't want to open his mouth to speak.

“I was thinking… Oscar is always inside the house, it would be interesting if we went outside to play somewhere. Maybe I can take him to a playground, maybe he can meet other kids…”

 The vampire waits, knowing there is more.

“Maybe he can go to school…”

“No way” Fernando opens his eyes and moves the other's hands away from him, turning his head to look at him with an unfriendly face “It's very risky and they can find out about him, you know that. Other kids would realize he’s different.”

“No, they wouldn’t”

“Yes, they would”

“Nando” Mark sighs “We both know his safety is a priority, but we can't be with him 24 hours a day. You need to sleep during the day and you're always grumpy after taking care of Oscar because you didn't get enough sleep.”

"It's not my fault!"

"Exactly! I can stay with him sometimes, but I need to leave the house to go to town because you're not willing to go out at night and I need to work, if I don't sell the firewood I collect we won't have any money. I know there are books you’ve published and sold, but don’t you think our situation has changed and we need help?”

 Fernando considers countering, but knows the other is right. They agreed that they would go to the limit with this routine and the limit is knocking on their door.

"It's dangerous"

“Is it possible to make it work, can you agree to at least help me think of a plan?”

“Oscar can't go to school, he... doesn't know how to read or write” the vampire argues.

 Mark rolls his eyes “I thought that was why most kids go to school”

“And anyway, I'm teaching him a few things. He has already learned to write his own name and knows some letters of the alphabet” his chest puffs up, proudly “In fact, he is also learning to count numbers thanks to me”

“Yes, I heard you playing hide and seek, what did he say? 1, 2, 16, 8, 25 and 100?” Mark mockingly says “Maybe you should go to school too”

 The vampire makes a face, turning his back on him and returning to face his computer “That was just training”

 Mark laughs lightly, moving closer to give the vampire's hair one last sniff. When his lips touch his head, he says “Think about what I said, please. We can find a way to work.”

 Only after Mark went up the stairs to his room did Fernando nervously touch the parts of his body where the werewolf had been sniffing him, his head and neck.

“Cur” grumbles. If he doesn't take a shower afterwards, he will smell like the other man.

 His new book is a total failure, he has never had such difficulty before. He's thought about deleting all the chapters and pretending he never tried to write, calling his publisher and telling them she gave up and to leave him alone.

 But the memory of his previous books, the passion he felt, how he was involved in each line following the characters, haunts him and forces him to want to feel that way again. It's great to see his work ready after weeks of writing, the satisfaction of publishing and receiving feedback from the public, because they are the ones who really matter.

 His readers wanted romance, they were begging for it. Fernando thought, oh, it will be easy!, but discovered that he was terribly wrong the moment he suffered just to get an idea. Everything seemed too silly. It never crossed his mind that writing a love story would be so frustrating.

 The vampire opens a new document, staring at that blank screen.

 Only one thing occupied his mind in the last few days, whether he wanted to or not, hindering his creativity in writing his book. Maybe, he thinks, he can write about it until his mind clears and then he can get back to normal.

“No strings attached” speaks to himself. Any time he wants to stop writing, he will.

 He sighs, fingers hovering over the keyboard.

 And then begins.

'This is going to sound crazy, but when suddenly your best friend and you need to look after a child, everything around you is about the child. I would be more normal about this if the child himself wasn't Oscar, because this boy is unlike anything else I've ever seen.'

 He pauses, remembering the last few days they were together.

'Oscar is different, that's the first thing you notice when you meet him. The second thing is that he is very small and quiet. He managed to brainwash me and Mark, now, before doing anything, we think about how this could affect Oscar. If I turn the radio on too loud, will it interrupt his sleep? If I add a different seasoning to the food, will he like it? It's as if the house belonged to the boy and we are mere citizens staying with his permission'

 Fernando laughed writing this part.

'I am part of the species that is blood hungry and is responsible for the most deaths from earth attack, Mark is a 6'4 tall werewolf with equally sharp teeth, he can transform into a wild creature once per month. And Oscar is an adorable little thing, with rosy cheeks, and his most lethal weapon is a crayon. Believe it or not, it's Mark and I who are more afraid of him than he is of us.'

 After that, the vampire continues writing throughout the night until the sun begins to slowly rise over the horizon. Feeling inspired like used to.

***

 One day Mark woke up and opened his bedroom door, finding Oscar sitting on the floor playing with some blocks, still in his pajamas.

 When he looked up and saw that the person he was waiting for finally woke up, the boy proudly showed the tower he built.

“Ta-da!”

 Mark laughed, crouching on the ground. Oscar immediately got up and threw himself out of the man's arms, asking to be held. The werewolf got up from the ground and was careful not to knock down the block tower that was built in front of his door.

"What time did you wake up?" he asked, even though he knew the boy wouldn't know how to answer. It's earlier than he usually wakes up, and he's had enough time to go downstairs and get his toy blocks and carry them all to Mark's bedroom door.

 The werewolf only noticed during breakfast that Oscar had gotten used to their routine. Knowing that today would be Mark's day to stay with him, the boy woke up and waited in front of his door.

 Mark wanted to take advantage of the solitude of the early morning hours and take a walk with Oscar around his land, but realizing how the temperature had plummeted in the last few days he thought it wasn't a good idea.

 Luckily for him, the boy never complained about being indoors. He had everything he needed: warm clothes, food and toys. There couldn't be a better place than there.

 Mark, however, loves home life, but he was made to be outside every now and then. The full moon is approaching and he feels the need to be in the woods, not stuck indoors. His skin itches every time his instincts start to take control of his body.

 Fernando must have noticed by now, Mark always acts strange when the moon changes its shape. The vampire always complains about him leaving his scent everywhere, especially on him and, now, on Oscar.

 At least the boy doesn't complain about his strange behavior.

 Oscar laughs loudly the more Mark sniffs him, his beard tickling the exposed skin on his neck. The two lay down on the living room floor to play and at some point the werewolf crawled up to the boy, starting to smell his hair, and then the back of his neck and, currently, his entire neck. Oscar finds this very funny and laughs without any shame.

 Mark likes his natural smell, but he likes it even more when the boy smells like him. His wolf celebrates internally whenever he is home and smells his mate and puppy protected with his scent.

 Even if Fernando is not his mate nor Oscar his puppy.

 It's just instincts.

 Mark stops sniffing the boy's neck so he can breathe, his cheeks are redder than usual and he is panting.

 When his breathing evens out, Oscar says “Again! Again!"

 Mark smiles, welcoming the idea of keeping his beard for a while longer.

***

 While he was washing some dishes in the kitchen, he heard someone knock on the door.

 Mark raised his head alertly and returned to the living room, without bothering to dry his hands, in search of Oscar. What he saw was just toys scattered across the carpet, but no sign of the child.

 The first guess is that he went to play hide and seek, which is what it usually means when Oscar disappears like that.

 Someone knocks louder on the door, attracting Mark's attention. He approaches cautiously, sniffing the air for any unfamiliar scent that brings him a sense of threat.

 At least Oscar is nowhere in sight.

 He holds the door handle and waits, identifying the scent of the idiot who came to his house without warning him beforehand.

 Mark opens the door seconds before Jenson's fist hits his forehead.

 The brunette touches the attacked area and moans painfully “What the fuck?!”

 Jenson apologized with a toothy smile “You were taking too long, I thought I would have to start shouting and risk waking up Fernando” and as if the surprise visit wasn't enough, he slipped to the side and entered the house.

 Mark smiled as he let the other werewolf through the door, but he actually wished he hadn't come to visit in the first place.

 Running to block the view of the living room, he asked “Do you want anything to drink?”

 Jenson licked his lips the moment Mark mentioned “I'll take a beer, thanks. And don’t worry, I know it’s been a long time since I visited, but I remember where the fridge is” and he turned around, heading towards the kitchen.

 If the blonde werewolf noticed the brunette following him like a shadow, he didn't mention it. He turned his head just as he opened the refrigerator door, losing sight of the hanging drawings, to talk to him.

“If you're wondering what I came here for, you must really be lost, man” Jenson picks up a bottle of beer and opens it without the help of a bottle opener, in expert fashion “The full moon is approaching, already I talked to Seb and the only thing missing was you, but it's difficult to stop you for 30 minutes and talk. When I see you in the city, you're running with bags in your hands” he laughs, taking a long sip of his drink.

 Mark knows he should have contacted his friends about the full moon, but he was busy. And he knows he should listen to Jenson now, but he can't bring himself to let go and look at every possible hiding place in the kitchen for a human child that can't be discovered.

 The other werewolf notices his differently behavior.

“Wow, it looks like the moon is affecting you a lot this time” and then he closes the refrigerator door, only then noticing the drawings pasted on it.

 Mark's blood runs cold.

 Before he could think of an excuse to say, the blonde pointed to one of the drawings and started laughing.

“Wow, Mark, you sure draw really bad.”

 Jenson has his finger on the drawing that Mark made with Oscar, where he tried to draw a garden. The werewolf feels offended, after all, who is Jenson to say anything about artistic gifts, but soon the blonde's eyebrows come together and he brings his face closer to read more carefully.

“Who is Oscar?”

 Mark was convinced that luck was not on his side when he felt a pair of very small hands grab his legs. Looking down, he saw the boy he was looking for, using his long legs as a shield, peering at the new visitor.

 Due to the lack of response, Jenson turned his head and saw what caught his friend's attention.

 His mouth opens in complete shock.

“Jenson, I can explain” Mark swallows hard, thinking how he will do this “This… is Oscar”

 Not the best explanation.

 Jenson puts his beer aside and runs his hands through his hair, alternating his gaze between Mark and Oscar, unable to respond. But he understands, oh, he understands.

“I should have suspected…” the blonde says, his heart racing “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

 Mark takes a step back and places a protective hand on top of the boy's head, responding seriously “I couldn't do that, Jenson. Fernando and I-... it's very recent, I wanted to tell you, but-”

 Jenson lets out a loud laugh, jumping in place excitedly. His reaction confuses Mark, who just stares with furrowed eyebrows and half-open mouth.

“I can't believe it, I'm so happy for you!” then he approaches the other werewolf, giving him an awkward and tight hug. “I thought it would take forever, but Fernando finally agreed to be your mate!” he released him, stepping back and getting a good look at Oscar. Even though he is being watched by those suspicious brown eyes, he speaks very quickly without containing his excitement “And you have a puppy now! How old is he? He seems to be too young, I don't see any fangs... but that's okay, you didn't have any at his age either, did you? According to what you told me, I don't believe it was. Now your disappearance makes total sense.”

 And as if that wasn't enough, Jenson looked at Mark with hope brimming in his eyes, and said "Can I be his godfather?"

 Mark thinks he's going to faint from the excess information.

 ***

 Fernando wakes up and when he walks towards the stairs, he wrinkles his nose when he smells his friend Jenson. There's no way he's here. But as he walked down the steps, the excited voice coming from the living room sounded more and more like the blonde's voice.

 He arrived in time to hear Jenson say “I imagined that if you were going to have children, it would be a vampire child because Fernando is annoying- Ah! Hello, Fernando!”

 The scene he find in front of him cannot be real.

 The vampire doesn't know which of the werewolves he's going to strangle first. He has two hands, maybe he could strangle them at the same time.

 While Fernando slept, Mark managed to bring the conversation to the living room and tried to explain the situation to Jenson. However, the blonde knew his feelings for the vampire, and noticed the entire domestic environment and the child smelling like him, so he didn't accept any answer other than that Mark and Fernando are a couple and have a puppy now.

 As much as it hurts to be a lie, something inside the brunette is satisfied with the idea.

 The difficult part will be convincing Fernando to pretend to be dating him.

 While they waited for the vampire, Mark told the... details of their relationship, at least what Jenson asked. The blonde was curious to know how it started and what Mark did to convince Fernando to date a werewolf, and how they came to the conclusion that they wanted to have children.

“It was… a surprise” Mark said, with a nervous laugh “It was like Oscar was destined to find us, you know?”

 Jenson found it very romantic.

 Mark didn't need to lie about him and Fernando, their lives weren't that different from other couples out there. Not that Fernando realized that.

 During the conversation, Jenson sat on the floor and tried to gain Oscar's attention, participating in his game. The boy was hesitant and looked at Mark for approval, then accepted that the man was not bad and accepted that he played with his cars.

“Seriously, I want to be his godfather” Jenson said.

 Minutes later Fernando appears, and that's where they are now.

"What is happening?" he asks Mark directly, with a forced smile bordering on murderous.

 Mark gets up and pulls Fernando by the arm to the kitchen, telling Jenson that he will tell him the news calmly. The blonde gave him a thumbs up and continued playing with his new favorite child.

 The vampire watches the scene in amazement, he punches the werewolf in the shoulder when they are alone and whispers violently “What the fuck, what the fuck, what the hell is going on?!”

 Mark massages his sore shoulder and tries to explain as best he can. As he talks, he worries that Fernando's eyes are going to pop out, they're so wide.

 The vampire punches him again “Why did you think that was a good idea?! Jenson will realize that Oscar is not a werewolf!”

“Oscar smells like me all the time, you're welcome” he quickly continues speaking before he is interrupted with despicable comments from the other man “Thanks to that, Jenson thinks he's a werewolf. And everything is fine!"

"It is not alright!" Fernando doesn't know whether he should take his head or Mark's head off first and put an end to this story. “When we return Oscar, what will we say to him?”

“Well, the truth!” Mark snorts “When that day comes, we will explain the whole situation and he will understand, our problem will be if it is discovered that Oscar is not a werewolf before we can return him. It won't be difficult, I didn't need to say anything, he just looked at Oscar and believed he was a werewolf.”

“That doesn’t mean others will too. Remember that Jenson was the only one to believe that Nico was a woman? This lasted 3 months, Mark”

 The taller one shrugged “Nico really looked like a woman back then…”

"Focus!" the vampire sighs, massaging his forehead. He can feel a headache throbbing against his fingers.

 Mark's plan is nothing but stupid, as if people would actually believe they are a couple and are parents. Ha! Very hilarious.

“Just for a few days…” Mark whispers close to his face, he can feel the warm breath hit his closed eyes.

 A few days turn into a few weeks, and the next thing Fernando knows he'll be attending Oscar's high school graduation.

 The vampire sighs, letting himself be seduced by the other's absurd idea.

“A few days” he declares.

 When they return to the living room, Jenson and Oscar's heads turn to them. The adult asks:

“So, what are we having for dinner?”

Chapter Text

 Mark and Fernando worriedly thought: 'what will happen after Jenson opens that big mouth and spreads the news?'. The next time Jenson returned to the cabin, they found out.

 Fernando opened the front door, with an excuse on the tip of his tongue to send Jenson away, but he was speechless as soon as he saw that the werewolf brought his other two friends with him this time.

“What- What?!” he managed to say, after staring at the bags they brought.

 Mark left the kitchen and went to see what had shocked the vampire. He stopped walking halfway when he made eye contact with Jenson.

 The idiot smiled widely and raised the bags he was holding in both hands into the air, saying “We brought gifts for our nephew!”

 Fernando, consumed by the initial shock, was unable to prevent them from entering his house. When he turns his head, he sees Lewis and Sebastian handing some bags to Mark, who began to look curiously at what was inside.

 With an apologetic tone of voice, Lewis said, “Jenson wasn't clear about his size, so if these clothes are too small, you can still exchange them in the store.”

 Mark takes a set of green sweatshirts with a dinosaur print out of a bag, not made of the same cheap material as the clothes he bought for Oscar on the spur of the moment. He even thought that he would need to buy better clothes soon, with winter approaching, but it seems that his friends spared him that task.

 He notes that it is of excellent quality and is not impressed, after all, it was Lewis who bought it. And the vampire was humble enough to take off the price tag so Mark wouldn't see how much he paid.

“I don’t know what to say, there are a lot of bags. You didn't need to buy so many things” the werewolf feels bad for fooling his friends with that story, but, in a way, it will be very good for Oscar to get all those gifts.

 The boy who arrived in the middle of the night with only the clothes on his back has a better wardrobe than him now.

 Sebastian squeezes his shoulder, being the good friend that he is, and says “Don’t worry about it, we want to spoil the new member of the family a little.”

“You will die when you see him, he is so cute with those red cheeks!” Jenson walks into the living room, his eyes darting around the room. His shoulders slump when he doesn't find the child and drops the gifts he brought on the floor. “Where is he? Don’t tell me he’s already gone to sleep.”

“He's playing in his room” Fernando manages to say something coherent for the first time, approaching with his arms crossed.

 Jenson laughs and makes a gesture with his hand as if rushing Fernando with something “Alright, go get him”

“You don’t give orders in this house, Jenson” the vampire replies dryly, but turns and walks towards the stairs “But I’m going to go get him because I want to”

 Mark, who until then had been distracted by seeing the fancy and expensive clothes that Lewis brought (he definitely liked this part more than Oscar will), raised his head and said to his friends “Well, uh… do you want to wait on the sofa? ”

 As they settled down, listening to Mark's explanation about Oscar being shy around new people, the werewolf cooed when he found two sets of identical clothes, adult and child sizes, inside a bag.

 Lewis smiled knowing he nailed it. He wouldn't admit his secret desire out loud. To be a godfather, he needs to win over the parents, not the child.

  Lewis 1 x 0 Jenson.

***

 The last few days have been the best of Oscar's relatively short life.

 He'd never had a real bed before, his mother didn't comb his hair after a bath and put pajamas on him, his father didn't have a house like that, and certainly the boy had never had toys like those before.

 Oscar gathered all the cars he had on his bed and started a game where he jumped on the mattress and his toys flew into the air. He paused every now and then to collect those that fell out and to rest when he felt too breathless.

 A knock on the door interrupts his game. He falls lying in the middle of his toys, breathing heavily and tired. When he looks at the door, he sees Fernando standing there with a soft smile at him.

“Do I need to give you another bath? You're all sweaty and red” the vampire approaches, removing the long hair stuck to the boy's forehead.

"The food is ready?" and also, Oscar hadn't had such regular hot meals before. Even if he was distracted by his toys on the table, he ate everything that was served to him.

 Fernando laughs, shaking his head “Not yet, but there’s a surprise for you down there”

 The boy’s eyes light up with suspense “What is it?”

 The vampire extends his arms and Oscar quickly throws himself into their midst, without hesitating to be held by him. Fernando is still trying to make the boy's hair more presentable, he can't let his friends see him like that, but the long strands make his task difficult.

“Do you remember that blond man who came here the other day?”

 Oscar tries to remember someone who came to see them in the last few days and remembers a tall man who constantly wanted to play with him and his toys on the living room floor.

 He shakes his head.

“Well, he came back and brought you some gifts. And also…” Fernando pauses “He came with two other friends, who also brought gifts and want to meet you”

 The vampire believes that mentioning the gifts will convince Oscar to at least look twice at his friends' faces, after all, this usually attracts children, doesn't it?

 Oscar hesitates for a few seconds, feeling nervous about meeting new people. Last time, he and Mark were playing a fun game of hide and seek, but when Mark took time to look for him and he found Mark talking to a noisy man in the kitchen, Oscar was embarrassed and hid behind Mark's legs.

 But after talking to that man and realizing that he also liked cars like him, it was easier to want to lend his toys, even if he felt a little embarrassed. The man was nice.

"Everything is ok?" Fernando asks, worried about the delay in responding. Mistaking his shyness for fear, he adds “They’re all cool, don’t worry. Mark and I will never let anyone dangerous near you.”

 Oscar remembers all the times Mark and Fernando made sure the monster didn't come to get him. If they have his back, there is no reason to doubt them.

“It's okay” the boy says, asking just to take his red car with them before laying his head on the vampire's shoulder and breathing in, smelling the smell of clean clothes.

***

 When Fernando is descending the last steps, he notices three pairs of anxious eyes on him and the boy in his arms.

 The vampire walks over to Mark, who sat in his usual armchair, and let the boy slide until he sat on the werewolf's lap. Everyone remained quiet, carefully watching every movement the boy made. He easily exchanged the comfort of Fernando's arms for Mark's, wrapping his fist in Fernando's shirt and looking shyly but curiously at the new faces present.

 Nobody says anything in the first few seconds, which worries Fernando and Mark. Did they realize that Oscar is a human?

 Jenson is the first to break the silence, with an amused expression “Hi, Oscar. Remember me?"

 It's almost non-existent, but Oscar makes the motion of shaking his head. Yes, he remembers him.

 He squeezes the car in his hand and says, in a low voice, “Jason.”

 The adults, with the exception of Jenson, laugh loudly. The atmosphere in the room is replaced by a more pleasant one, leaving aside the initial tension. Oscar looks at Fernando and Mark, seeing them laughing, and allows himself to smile too, happy that he managed to make the adults laugh.

 Jenson clicks his tongue against his palate, laughing slowly “Ha ha ha… Jenson, actually. But that's fine"

“He has trouble with names, don't think it's just you” Mark explains after composing himself and thinking that this must be how Fernando feels every time Oscar says his name wrong. He runs his hand through the boy's hair, feeling a little sweat on the back of his neck. “You need to say your name slowly, so he can understand the syllables. Like this” he demonstrates, turning his face so Oscar can see the movement of his lips “Maaaaaark”

 The boy repeats “Miiiiiike”

"No no. Maaaaark, Maaaaark”

 Then Oscar says “Maaaark”

“My name is the most difficult so far. Fer-nan-do” the vampire leans behind Mark, imitating his way of talking to the child.

 Oscar makes a face, not even daring to try to say that difficult name, responding “Naaanoo”

“There's this, he heard me call Fernando 'Nando' and he started trying to say it too, but he has a problem with the letter 'N'. Says Nando, Oscar”

“Nano”

“Anyway” the werewolf sighs, looking back at his friends and smiling, explaining to them “Still learning, but he’ll be able to say everyone’s names correctly if he keeps training”

 But none of them are paying attention to it. Jenson, Sebastian and Lewis huddled together on the sofa and leaned their heads forward, watching their friends interact with their son. It was mesmerizing, they truly looked like family.

 Sebastian says, a goofy smile on his lips. “We're so happy to see you guys like this, uh-”

“Complete” Lewis complements “A family”

 Fernando and Mark look at each other, relieved that the plan is working, and a little embarrassed.

“Oscar will open my present first!” Jenson says, breaking the atmosphere a little of feeling his heart warm inside their chest.

 After introductions are made (“You can call us Uncle Lews and Uncle Seb”), Oscar settles into Mark’s lap and opens the gifts those people brought him for some reason.

 He wears clothes over the ones he currently wears, trying them on to see if they are the right size. He only received winter clothes, with prints of characters he didn't know and animals with funny faces.

 Oscar liked the clothes, but his eyes really lit up when he opened a gift and saw that it was a track for his cars.

 His normally tired-looking eyes become twice their size and he shows Mark and Fernando how cool it is.

“I can make my car do a somersault!” he said, showing in the image on the box a part of the track where a car was upside down while leaving a trail of fire along the way.

 Jenson celebrates with the boy. He turns his head and sees his other two friends looking at him with judgment in their eyes.

"What?"

 Lewis snorts “A Hot Wheels track, really?” He notes that his friend wasn't even able to remove the price tag when he notices Fernando's eyes widen after finding it.

 The blonde shrugs “He likes cars, it’s a good complement”

 But his friends don't seem convinced. Jenson runs his hand through his hair, annoyed. Why were they bothering him for his gift? So what if it has a higher price, no one talked about the fancy clothes Lewis bought.

“You’re just jealous because you didn’t have the same idea as me.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Jenson.”

“Guys” Mark gets their attention, leaving Oscar to play on the floor with his new gifts “Are you staying for dinner? I need to start preparing the food now, Oscar is hungry.”

 Lewis is a vampire like Fernando, so he knows he doesn't need to be satisfied with anything Mark cooks up. Jenson and Sebastian are werewolves and feel hungry like Mark.

“Well, if you are inviting and there is no problem, we would like to stay a little longer, yes.”

 The brunette nods, getting up from his armchair and stretching his body before walking towards the kitchen. When he passes by Jenson, he gives him a friendly slap on the shoulder to get his attention and ask “In the meantime, do you want a beer?”

 The werewolf does not hide his joy at the offer “Yes, buddy”

 Mark liked to drink a little beer every now and then to relax. Since Oscar started living with them, the werewolf bought fewer beers, even almost nothing, forgetting the drinks at the back of the refrigerator, behind the boy's juice boxes. Luckily Jenson is here to drink for him and clear out the stock.

“Thank you, won’t you drink too?” Jenson asked, accepting the bottle.

 Mark shook his head “I’m not drinking anymore”

 He doesn't justify himself, but the blonde werewolf looked away to look at the vampires sitting next to Oscar and helping to open the rest of the presents. Then he looks back at Mark and says, eyes shining, “What an example you are, not drinking beer in front of your son. I want to be like you when I grow up"

 Before Mark can get emotional about this or laugh, and then go back to the kitchen and prepare dinner, he hears Oscar's shy voice ask "What is that?"

“That’s a superhero, his name is Spider-Man” it’s Sebastian who responds, after all, he was the one who gave the boy the toy “There are some animated films on Netflix, maybe it would be interesting for him to watch them to get to know the character” this part he directs directly to Fernando, who immediately responds.

“Oh, he doesn’t watch Netflix” he explains.

 The room is silent.

“Wow, are you those modern parents who control their child’s screen time?”

***

 Mark has known his friends for so long that he doesn't remember how they became friends, but he does remember why.

 With Fernando it was the same thing.

 His group of friends is made up of people who saw that he was different and still accepted him. Lewis was a vampire with the same abnormal habits for his species as Fernando, however, unlike him, he did not isolate himself in a cabin far from the city with his best werewolf friend. It brought them closer

 Sebastian and Mark didn't like each other at first, due to misunderstandings involving werewolves. But Sebastian was friends with Lewis, who was friends with Fernando, and consequently Sebastian joined his group of friends quite often. After a sincere conversation, they decided to try to be friends, and it worked.

 Jenson was always there being the social butterfly, the man with a lively personality and a giant heart.

 They make a good group. Fernando and Mark trust their friends, but they don't confess what is really happening because they fear the risks the boy could take if more people find out. Because of this, they feel bad about lying to them.

 In fact, Jenson was the one who invented the lie, they are just continuing it. Either way, the weight of guilt doesn't go away, frankly, it just grows as they receive praise for the way they treat Oscar.

 The adults talk and eat. Fernando and Mark listen and catch up on topics they didn't know about during the time they avoided their friends. However, sometimes, when one of them looks away to help Oscar drink juice or to wipe his cheek with a napkin, Sebastian, Lewis and Jenson stop talking to pay attention to that scene.

“You are great parents”

 Who knew they would get the award for most convincing fathers of the year for just stopping Oscar from spilling all the juice on himself.

 Although the guilt hurts, they also feel relief. His friends are smart, but it took no effort to convince him that Oscar is a werewolf. All thanks to Mark's scent.

 After dinner, Oscar wanted to play with his new toys and Jenson quickly joined him as his loyal play partner. Fernando followed the two to the room to supervise (“Don't think you're going to run away from the task of helping to set up this track” said Jenson. “You buy it, you put it together” countered the vampire) and Lewis followed to help with the task of organizing all the mess they made in the room earlier, receiving a grateful smile from the other vampire and a frown from the blonde werewolf.

 Mark stayed in the kitchen, washing the dirty dishes.

 He lets his mind wander and think about recent events, how his life is now. It was a great dinner, it had been a while since everyone had met and organized something similar. Oscar wasn't scared of any of them and luckily he didn't say something that would unmask everything. And best of all, when Lewis held him on his lap for a few seconds to help Mark, the boy didn't try to touch his sharp teeth.

 The werewolf misses the way they used to be, younger and more social. He wants to arrange another dinner some other day, but how will his friends look at him after Oscar leaves?

 Last time he checked, he might have a lead on an exiled werewolf roaming around the city for the last month.

 Shit, what the hell is he going to say?

 Sorry, guys. Oscar's biological parents wanted him back. Very sad, I know.

 It won't be a lie, but he will need to justify himself better than that.

 An ugly side inside him secretly wishes Oscar's parents didn't want him back. Apparently, they abandoned him in the forest and never came back. This deeply irritates him because there was no chance of the child surviving if Mark hadn't found him, which perhaps indicates that he was abandoned to die.

 Taking a child to the forest and “playing hide and seek”, and then simply disappearing, does not seem like something loving parents would do.

 He can make this work. His mind creates the illusion that he can pretend that Oscar is a werewolf forever and that his friends will accept him, that a happy ending awaits them after all.

 Mark absentmindedly rubs his chin with his still soapy hand.

 Fernando certainly blames himself for being a liar and hiding the truth from his closest friends, but Mark can't help but think that he's the biggest liar among them.

 It was always him.

"Need help?"

 The werewolf takes a while to realize that someone has spoken to him until he feels that same person wipe the foam that stuck to his beard with a dish towel.

“Ah, uh… yes, yes. Thank you” he hands Sebastian a plate and the blonde immediately starts drying it. Mark looks to the side and notices that the pile of dishes he left to dry later has disappeared, the blonde must have done the task while he was thinking.

 The two remain in a comfortable silence until the blonde werewolf starts to speak.

“I must admit, Mark, I am surprised. Who would have thought you would be such a good father?” It was said with affection and Sebastian knew the other could hear it in his voice.

 Mark laughed nasally “What can I say? I spent many years taking care of you, little shit.”

 Even though there was a time when he and Sebastian didn't like each other, Mark understood that the blonde was young and had a terrible idea to get his attention. Nowadays, he can't imagine not being his friend. How funny.

 The youngest was a little too rebellious for his liking and teased mercilessly, then the two would fight, but if Sebastian needed someone's help to resolve his antics, he would call Mark. And the brunette always came to his rescue.

 All the patience Mark has these days in dealing with Oscar is thanks to Sebastian. And the gray hair is thanks to him too.

 The blonde laughs openly, amused by that conversation. He responds as he dries a glass “You know, Mark. I speak honestly when I praise you with Oscar. He seems like a wonderful boy. The way he looks at you and Fernando…” he trails off, his eyes become softer “You deserve the family you always wanted”

 For a moment, Mark lets the words sink in. He likes them a lot. There is something comforting about them.

 It's no secret that he always wanted that, a mate and a puppy. The way it came to fruition, with Fernando and Oscar playing his fantasy roles, was a welcome serendipity.

 Jenson and Sebastian were the first to discover that he is in love with the vampire, his two friends always advised him to tell him. Now they think he's finally said it and is living what he always dreamed of. Sebastian, especially, trusts that he has overcome the main barrier that separated the two.

 Mark is a liar.

“How did you convince him to date a werewolf?” the blonde asks.

 Mark didn't do it, Fernando doesn't love him.

 When he looks at Sebastian, he sees that his eyes are focused on something else. He watches over his shoulder and sees the commotion in the living room, with Lewis and Jenson lying next to Oscar and playing with the finished Hot Wheels track.

 Sebastian has a small smile on his lips, dreaming the same dreams that Mark has, as he stares at the other vampire.

 Mark hears Fernando laugh and immediately looks at him.

 He wanted it to be real.

“Well…” he says, realizing he left Sebastian waiting too long “I brought Oscar home.”

 The blonde werewolf laughs, rolling his eyes. “Well, Lewis and I don't live together, but if we did, I don't think he'd fall in love with me if I brought some random kid home,” he says humorously, interpreting the other man's response differently.

 Mark swallows hard “It’s true”

***

 After everyone says goodbye and leaves, Fernando finds Oscar sleeping on the sofa in the living room.

 Mark walks past him to hold the boy, but the vampire stops him with a hand holding his arm.

“No, go to bed, you did a lot today and need to sleep”

 The werewolf opens his mouth to refuse the offer, he loves putting the boy to sleep, but ends up yawning by accident. The vampire looks at him, smug.

“Okay…” Mark leans towards the boy and runs his finger gently over his cheek, and smiles “Good night, Osc”

 Fernando carries Oscar in his arms to the bedroom, being careful not to drop any of the toys that the boy is holding in his hands: his red car and the Spider-Man doll.

 It was a very busy night, even he is tired.

 The vampire places the child on the bed and covers him up to the chin to keep him feeling warm. And even though Oscar isn't awake to ask for it, he kneels down to look under his bed.

“No monsters” he whispers, removing some of the hair that covers the boy’s eyes “Good night, Oscar”

 Before leaving the room, he leaves the door a little ajar so the light from the hallway can shine a little. After all, Oscar is afraid of the dark.

Chapter Text

 Winter arrived and with it came the snow, Oscar had already been living with them for 2 weeks and 3 days.

 Oscar was disappointed to discover that Mark would not be attending dinner with them, much less would be present when it was time to say goodnight.

 But Fernando assured him that he would see the other man as soon as he woke up the next day. He wasn't worried about having to take care of Oscar alone while Mark was out with Sebastian and Jenson because of the full moon, he was already used to the routine he built with the boy on those days when he was responsible for him.

 His plan was the same: take care of Oscar and make him sleep on time.

 Before dinner the vampire decided to get some things in order. He puts some clothes to wash and vacuums the living room carpet with the vacuum cleaner. All the while, Oscar follows him like a shadow, carrying his toys in his arms. When Fernando needed to bend down to pick up or put something away, Oscar would invade his field of vision and ask if he could help with that. The man didn't deny it, after all, it was better for his knees and the boy was the perfect height for those tasks.

 Until Fernando decides to venture out and enter Mark's room.

 The werewolf's room smelled exactly like him. When he woke up, Mark didn't bother to make the bed, Fernando noticed, so he decided to do this task before he got back.

 The vampire grabbed some pillows to change the sheets and couldn't help but breathe in and smell Mark's shampoo. He missed the smell of aftershave, but he doesn't admit that he liked the look his friend adopted in recent weeks. Oscar is a more obvious fan of the werewolf beard.

 Speaking of the boy, Oscar sat on the floor and patiently waited his turn to help, playing with the toys he brought.

 The werewolf's blankets smelled of grass and coffee. Fernando didn't need to see a cup in the sink to know that the other man drank some of the bitter drink, he just had to get close to him and then it looked like Mark was carrying coffee beans in his pockets. But the vampire wouldn't like the same smell if he walked into a coffee shop, it's just nice on Mark.

 After Fernando spread the blanket over the bed, Oscar attacked, throwing his body onto the bed and using the mattress as a trampoline, until he sat down tired.

 After that, he looked at the man with a satisfied expression, as if he had contributed to the task of making the bed.

 Fernando rolled his eyes affectionately and helped the boy back to the ground. “You're being a perfect helper today, aren't you?”

 Later, the two went to the kitchen. The vampire decided to make pasta with meatballs again, as it turned out to be the boy's favorite food so far. As the days went by, it became clear how clingy Oscar is to them, not being able to let Mark or Fernando out of his sight for more than a few minutes without walking around the house looking for them.

 But sometimes he could be really clingy, like now. While Fernando is standing, taking long steps around the kitchen, Oscar is sitting on his feet, giving the vampire more work to move around.

 He thinks this is fun, giggling whenever the man takes a larger step or raises his leg in the air to amuse him. The boy clings to his legs with impressive strength.

“That way you look like a koala, a baby koala” Fernando said with an ironic smile on his lips, mixing the meatball sauce with a spoon.

 Oscar laughs, then makes a confused face and says “What’s a koala?”

 Fernando is to blame for a bad habit that Oscar acquired. Whenever the boy goes to eat pasta, he holds the food with his fingertips and puts it between his lips, then he presses his own ears and sucks the pasta until his mouth is covered in sauce and the food disappears inside.

 The first time Mark saw this scene, he looked disapprovingly at the laughing vampire. But deep down he also thought it was funny and cute.

 This time it was no different. Oscar sat at the table and Fernando served him a plate of pasta and meatballs. He immediately used his hands and ears to do that funny trick the man taught him. The good part about this game is that Oscar doesn't have the patience to do it more than twice and so he goes back to using the fork available next to him.

 Fernando will miss these moments after Oscar leaves.

 Everything was going perfectly well until bedtime, when the boy decided that he wasn't going to sleep without saying goodnight to Mark.

“Mark is out tonight, but he can say goodnight to you tomorrow” Fernando tries to explain, as if a 5-year-old child would rationally understand that things wouldn't work out the way he wanted that night.

 For Oscar, tomorrow was terribly far away. He didn't want to wait.

“I'm not going to sleep until Mark comes back” he takes the blanket that covered his legs off him and looks at Fernando with determination.

 Fernando raises an eyebrow at him, not believing that Oscar will be able to stay awake for more than 10 minutes.

“Oh, okay then” he responds wryly “Let’s stay up and wait for Mark then”

 They return to the living room and Fernando believes that Oscar is going to play with his toys and quickly pass out on the sofa, as he was yawning a few hours before. Never before had Oscar resisted the urge to sleep.

 He sat on the sofa, next to the boy, watching how his body responds to tiredness while watching an animated Spider-Man movie (the vampire couldn't resist Sebastian's recommendation, it entertained the children for hours!).

 10 minutes later and Oscar was still awake.

 Fernando has swallowed 3 yawns so far, having spent the whole day awake, he forced himself to wait until dawn to sleep.

 The boy focused on the mission of waiting for Mark, eyes as wide as if he hadn't been ready to sleep minutes before.

 The vampire realizes that he needs to play some tricks up his sleeve if he wants the boy to sleep.

“Would you like some warm milk?” he offers, knowing objectively that it would bring a little more sleep that his small body would be unable to handle.

 Unfortunately for him, Oscar shakes his head, denying it. Unfortunately for him again, he asks Fernando to put on another Spider-Man movie.

 They stay in the living room for another hour.

 Fernando is considering begging on his knees for Oscar to agree to go to sleep, promising to never doubt his stubbornness again, when the boy lets himself lie down more comfortably on the sofa and looks at Fernando with sleepy eyes, then says:

“Can I have milk now?” he reconsidered the idea.

“Of course…” Fernando whispers, getting up on the sofa slowly and going to the kitchen with light steps, trying not to make any loud sound that would put Oscar on alert again, mentally thanking him.

 As he prepares Oscar's bottle, he thinks that it shouldn't be long before the boy finally falls asleep. Maybe he drinks half the bottle and passes out on the sofa. The vampire listens to the television with the volume turned down, hears the boy's breathing with a little wheezing. He frowns, perhaps it's a sign that with the arrival of winter Oscar could get sick.

 Not if he can help it.

 Bottle ready, he walks back to the room. His head instinctively looks towards the front door, thinking if Mark will be back at dawn or just in the morning. Anyway, the only thing the werewolf asked of Fernando was that Oscar be out of sight until he was himself again.

“Here Oscar…” Fernando goes around the sofa to hand him the bottle, but freezes when he doesn’t find the boy’s sleeping body as he expected.

“Oscar?” he calls across the room, getting no response.

 He doesn't worry about it so much because it's just the boy wanting to play hide and seek, again.

 Fernando leaves the bottle on the coffee table and starts looking. He knows Oscar isn't in the room, yet he ventures to look behind the curtains. In this type of game it would be easy to cheat, just smell Oscar and look for him in the exact place where he hides, but Oscar smells strongly like Mark and Mark's smell is everywhere...

 Fernando goes back to the kitchen and looks in the same places the boy usually hides, finding nothing other than what should be inside the cupboards. This starts to irritate him.

“Shit, he’s getting good at this.”

 The vampire thinks he would hear if someone came up the stairs, but he goes searching the bedrooms and bathroom anyway.

“It's okay, Oscar, this was more fun before” he says, returning to the room, unsatisfied. This time worry tightens his chest, it never took so long to find the boy before.

 He thinks about looking in the kitchen again, maybe he didn't look under the table properly, when he hears it.

 A laugh.

 It's low and muffled, but Fernando recognizes that laugh and can imagine Oscar's button nose twitching as he laughs, thinking it's funny to torture Fernando like that.

 The vampire heads towards where the sound came from, frowning to see that it led to the door of the cramped pantry that Oscar was forbidden to enter, as that is where Mark keeps his weapons.

 He stops, his ear pressed to the wood of the door, waiting to hear the sound again. After he finds Oscar, he must reprimand him for entering that place that was strictly prohibited, Mark always reinforced that the boy should not hide there during his hide-and-seek games because it is dangerous, unless Mark was with him. There were kept sharp traps that could easily take off a finger.

 Fernando hears the laughter again, but this time, he also hears the boy talking to someone.

“Shhh, stop it! He will find us”

 This is enough to break the vampire's patience and make him open the door.

 He doesn't believe what's in front of his eyes.

 Oscar jumps in fright when the door is opened abruptly, then gives an adorable laugh and looks at Fernando with shining eyes, despite the poor lighting. “You found us!”

 To the vampire's surprise, the boy was not alone inside the pantry.

 Oscar is sitting huddled on the floor, due to limited space. Behind him, the one most responsible for taking up all the free space, is a huge gray wolf. The wolf's mouth is large, capable of devouring the boy's head in a single bite. He sits like a patient dog, looks at Fernando as if he doesn't see anything that impresses him, and then starts sniffing Oscar's hair until he licks his cheeks.

 The boy laughs like before. Ah, so that was what was making him laugh.

 Fernando opens his mouth, speaking directly to the wolf.

“Mark?”

 The wolf sniffles, which makes the boy laugh more as he gets more attention from the animal.

 The vampire wonders how he got into the house and when, if he didn't notice. What's worse, Oscar is with him, when Mark himself said that Fernando was supposed to avoid this.

 Well, he can't say later that he didn't try.

 What impressed Fernando most was not the natural way Oscar behaved with that huge wolf, without any fear, it was what he said after they returned to the sofa in the living room.

“Now that Mark is back, I can drink my milk and sleep.”

 Fernando froze, watching Mark lay down on his favorite blanket and allowing Oscar to lay on top of him like he was a giant, warm pillow. The boy made himself comfortable and accepted the bottle when it was offered to him.

“How did you… know that this wolf is Mark?” the vampire asks, convincing himself that the boy won't return to his own bed that night.

 He deals so well with a huge wolf in the room, without finding it the least bit different.

 Oscar lets out a loud yawn, rubbing his eyes with his free hand.

 Then he answers Fernando as if he were answering whether he prefers orange or apple juice “He smells just like Mark”.

 As the vampire predicted, Oscar didn't drink half of his bottle before falling into a deep sleep, on top of Mark's ribs.

 The next morning, when Mark had returned to normal, Fernando told him what happened and the werewolf replied that he didn't quite understand what happened. His wolf, unlike other full moons, wanted to roam around the property itself, as if making sure that no intruder tried to harm those inside the cabin.

***

 'I tried to stop it, I swear I tried. I tried to spare my friends from the brainwashing I suffered, but they were like mosquitoes flying towards the light of death. The worst of all was that they brought offerings to our leader Oscar, such as new clothes and toys, all to please your majesty. They did it.

 And Oscar gave each of his subordinates a role. Mark and I share more common tasks because we live with him, but the others are adored by him for different reasons. Jenson is his partner to play with the cars and track he has, being naturally funny, he manages to make Oscar laugh without much effort with funny voices. Lewis was the first to have the honor of holding Oscar on his lap, then he let Oscar climb on his back and walked around with him, having a lot of fun. Sebastian realized that Oscar already had a lot of friends to play with, so he invested in art, buying more paper and paint. Thanks Seb, I always thought my wall needed a red sunflower.

 Oscar doesn't need to ask, there is always someone willing to do something for him. Once, while we were discussing food, Mark said that one of his favorite desserts is chocolate cake. And Oscar, in an adorably evil way, said he'd never eaten that in his life.

“If I had told you 1 year ago that you would be up late making a chocolate cake because the boy you brought home said he had never tried it in his life, would you have believed it?” I asked Mark.

“Not for a second” he replied, and then threw a cup full of flour right in the middle of my face. Idiot.

 There was a day when I was walking up the stairs when I heard Mark and Oscar talking in the bathroom. I crept closer, then realized they weren't talking, but singing.

“Five little ducks went swimming one day” Mark sang.

“Over the hill and far away” Oscar continued.

“Mummy duck said…”

“Quack, quack, quack!”

“But only four little ducks came back” the werewolf breathed “Four little ducks went swimming one day…”

 I realized that Oscar's favorite part was imitating the ducks. He played in the bathtub with rubber ducks that Mark had bought for him, so I understood why he chose that song.

 I had never heard Mark sing before, he was always embarrassed to be caught in the act humming something. I had to stay hidden and listen until the song ended.

 This just proves that Oscar's evil plan to become a superior being is going according to his plans.'

“Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you write so intensely like this” Mark walked past him, finishing collecting the toys scattered on the floor “Did you manage to find inspiration for your book?”

 Fernando stopped with his fingers on the keyboard, deciding whether to tell the truth or not.

“Well, not exactly”

 Mark groans when he has to bend down to retrieve a lost toy from under the sofa. With his face touching the ground he responds “What do you mean?”

“So… I started writing something new, but it’s no strings attached. Whenever inspiration disappears, I start writing about this new story and then I can feel motivated again” he explains.

 The werewolf finally manages to reach the toy, showing Fernando his prize. The vampire snorts and goes back to facing what he wrote so far.

 He knows Mark is standing behind him when he smells the coffee grow stronger and feels Mark's hips press against the back of his chair as he leans over to try and read.

“Hmm” he murmurs.

 Fernando looks at him from below “What happened? Was it a good 'hmm' or a bad 'hmm'? You know what, forget it, it was bad, I know.”

“Danm, Nando! I'm still reading, I can't be as fast as you” Mark rests his hands on the vampire's shoulders and leans closer to try to read what is written on the monitor. Fernando has already said that he should wear glasses, but the other refuses.

 They sit in silence for a while, Mark reading the paragraphs and muttering things like 'ooh' and 'um' and laughing, and Fernando just waits anxiously, really feeling the presence of hands massaging his tense shoulders. How does Mark always know this?

 When it was over, Mark tilted his head to look at Fernando and gave him a smug smile. “Do you like hearing me sing, Nando?”

“Shut up, I’ll delete this part”

"No!" the werewolf exclaimed “It’s good, really. It's interesting the way you're writing Oscar, as if he were a villain or something evil.”

 The vampire blinked “But he is”

 Mark tugs his ear affectionately “It’s good, really. I'm glad you found inspiration in something again. You…"

 Fernando crosses his arms “I what?”

 The werewolf bites his lip “You are happy doing what you like, so I am happy”

 He pretends that Mark's words don't make him feel ashamed, responding in a controlled voice, "Thanks, I guess."

 Mark plays with the hair on the back of his neck before saying goodbye and going upstairs to sleep, leaving Fernando in the dark living room. The vampire scratches the back of his head and grumbles, cursing his imagination for playing tricks on him, showing him things that don't exist.

 A few weeks ago, more precisely after Oscar arrived, it seems that Mark became another person. He was worried at first, he still is, because he knows how big a werewolf's heart can be, capable of absorbing any and all feelings into itself.

 He knows Mark, he knows his flaws and his qualities. But recently he discovered something about his friend that he had no idea about, and the consequence of this 'discovery' is that some of his feelings are changing.

 Fernando is not like werewolves, who have the instinct to find partners and have children. He believed he would live for many years sharing a house with Mark because he thought the other would be like him. But since the Oscars arrived…

 In part, Fernando wants to continue believing that they will be what they always were.

Chapter Text

 Upstairs in the cabin, Fernando leans back until his head sinks as deep as possible inside the coffin. He was sleeping peacefully until the loud sound of footsteps, laughter and screams invaded the space of his room and woke him up.

 He just wanted to sleep.

 His book, not the one he writes about Oscar, has become a painfully obvious novel. The dialogue is predictable to the point of not causing any tingles when the characters try to flirt. He's stuck in one part because his desperate mind needed to use whatever ammunition he had, and he decreed that the main couple was a vampire and a werewolf. The problem, in this case, is that they want to show the world that they are together and the vampire asks the werewolf to mark her neck.

 That's the part where he stopped writing, he doesn't know what happens if a werewolf marks a vampire. Does their DNA allow this?

 The loud laughter of a familiar human child echoes again, distracting his thoughts.

 Fernando should be used to it, after all, he stopped sleeping completely well since Oscar came to live with them. But he asked, actually begged, Mark to try to keep quiet while he was trying to sleep during the day.

 Giving up on sleep and overcome by anger, Fernando gets up and walks with determined steps. As he descends the stairs, he hears Mark's laugh more clearly above Oscar's, coming from the living room.

 He turns around, ready to fight and scold the man for making so much noise, feeling inspired to complain about other things as well, just to show the werewolf how it ruined his mood.

 But when he entered the room, he stopped.

 Mark is lying on the rug, enjoying some of the sunlight streaming in through the windows. On top of his chest is Oscar. The boy sits with his legs hanging over the man's shoulders, who rests his hands on his knees, and with his small hands he plays with his newly trimmed beard. Mark laughs uncontrollably, feeling tickled by those little fingers touching his neck. The boy laughs at his reaction, finding it very amusing to hear the man's laugh and how he squirms, falsely trying to escape that attack.

 Neither of them noticed his presence, too distracted in their own world.

 Fernando took a few more seconds to memorize that moment, wanting to write about it later. He pays attention to the details: how Mark moves his head from side to side, pretending he's trying to free himself from the boy's evil hands. How his hands gently rest on Oscar's knees. How Oscar's hair shines in the sunlight and smiles. How they wear matching long sleeve t-shirts.

 After completing his analysis, the vampire turns around and returns to his room, preferring not to get in the way.

***

 Mark announced that he would go hunting in 5 minutes.

 Fernando muttered 'mhmm', with his book document open on his monitor. It was a little late to go out and go hunting, but the werewolf spent the whole afternoon with Oscar and managed to get the boy to take a nap only now, it's the time when he is free for duty.

 The vampire rubs his face and thinks of synonyms, but minutes later he's staring out the window and watching Mark finish loadying some hunting tools into the bed of the truck.

 Desperate to escape from his work and unread emails from his publisher, he gets up and runs to catch up with Mark.

"I can go with you?"

“Do you want to go hunting?” Mark asks.

 Fernando doesn't like to get involved with these things, so he is eternally grateful that Mark is the one who gets his hands dirty with dirt and other things. If he turns his head, he will see the empty gallon jugs that will soon be filled with fresh blood in the dumpster, next to traps made to catch smaller animals.

“I think it might inspire me if I change the environment a little” he responds “My book is about vampires and werewolves and I realized that I know very little about them, ironic”

“Do you want to go hunting?” Mark asks again, his tone more sarcastic this time. He never saw his friend make any effort to get his own food, he had to laugh about it.

 The vampire snorts “No, I’ll just watch and help with traps maybe”

“Well… what about Oscar?” He indicates with his chin the house behind Fernando “I don’t know how long we’ll take, he’ll be alone”

“He’s safe, you don't need to worry. Plus, he’s sleeping, we can stay out for 5 hours and he won’t notice.”

 The boy's naps last for hours if he is not woken up before dinner.

 The werewolf purses his lips, trying to forget his worry.

“We’ll be back in less than 2 hours”

 Fernando celebrates, running to sit on the passenger side.

“So… vampires and werewolves?” Mark asks after they drive away from the cabin in silence.

 Fernando looks away from the horizon to look at him, forgetting for a moment that he invented that excuse to escape his responsibilities.

“Oh yes, actually, it's a romance between a vampire and a werewolf. I wanted to do something more daring. Have you noticed that there aren’t many vampire-werewolf couples out there?”

 Mark presses his hands against the steering wheel “I didn’t notice. What inspired you to write about this?”

 The vampire feels a wave of embarrassment at admitting it. He looks at the other seriously “Promise you won’t laugh”

“I won’t laugh”

"Promise"

"Fine! I promise, I won’t laugh.”

 Fernando takes a deep breath.

“I was having trouble creating a romance and I thought that making the character fall in love with a werewolf would have a different effect” he explains “There aren't that many couples like that that I could be inspired by, I don't know how a romance between a werewolf and- ”

“Nando, just say it”

“Okay” he snorts “I’m using you and me as inspiration”

 They are silent for 3 seconds.

“See, I didn’t laugh,” Mark says.

"But its alright?"

"Sure!" the werewolf’s knuckles are getting whiter and whiter “Why would there be a problem?”

“It’s just that ever since we lied to our friends that we’re a couple, I’ve been thinking about this- Hey!” Fernando exclaims, holding himself back from hitting his head against the window when Mark makes a sharp turn without warning “Be careful”

“Sorry, I couldn't miss that path. What were you saying?”

“Ah, so” the vampire continues “I noticed that everyone accepted it well, which doesn't surprise me because they are our friends. But it's something different, isn't it? And you're the only werewolf I don't mind leaving fur on the sofa.”

 Fernando only said that because he knew it would make Mark laugh, so he continued saying, feeling that they were in a safe space to talk about those things “I'm in trouble because I write the characters thinking about us, but in the romance part I don't know how to do that thing , you know? Like, how would others react to this union, and if they were to have a baby soon, would it be a vampire or werewolf? These are hard things to think about.”

“Vampires and werewolves have very different customs, yes. Why don’t you write how each expresses how they feel about the other through this?” Mark suggests, avoiding turning his neck and revealing himself to his friend “Show that, despite the challenges, they can love each other. If a werewolf is able to exile himself to be with a human, he would be able to ignore society's judgment as long as the vampire loved him back.”

 Fernando reflects “It’s a good idea. Have you been reading romances between different species and haven’t told me?” he asks jokingly.

 Mark laughs nervously “No, it was just something I thought of now”

“That line of yours is good: 'He's able to ignore society's judgment as long as the vampire loves him back.' I will use it in my book”

 Then they follow the route in silence.

 Mark starts to feel hot, or perhaps he is hallucinating about his sweaty armpits. He is about to open the window a little when Fernando speaks again.

“What would happen if I let you mark my neck?”

 The truck stopped abruptly.

 The vampire doesn't have time to complain to the other, because soon the werewolf jumps out of the car and goes to get the traps from the truck bed. “We're here! Let’s go after some blood”

***

 To the werewolf's happiness, they managed to get a successful outcome after the hunt.

 And luckily for him, the only topic Fernando had was:

“You’re not going to go into my house with those boots or have dinner before a shower” he complained, looking disapprovingly “A strong shower”

 Okay, he got a little dirty, but that happens when the ground is wet and he has to do all the dirty work himself.

“You’re welcome, Mark! Thanks to you, I've had blood for weeks. Oh, Nando, there's no need to thank me, I don't mind helping my friend” the werewolf responds sarcastically, imitating their voices.

 The vampire narrows his eyes “You’re ridiculous”

 The sky has darkened quickly since they left, with the truck's headlights the only thing lighting the way. On the horizon they saw the cabin, indicating that they were approaching the property.

“While I take a shower…” Mark says humorously “What are you going to do?”

“I can wake Oscar up and let him play while I prepare dinner for you” he rests his elbow on the window and sighs “We let him sleep too much, tonight he’ll stay up late again”

“What if we give warm milk? It worked before”

 Fernando laughs “Okay, you can fool yourself into believing that a glass of milk will knock him out”

 The vampire likes to live away from city lights, likes to be around so much grass and trees, solitude. Once Mark built a chicken coop and tried to get his chickens to give him eggs, but his poor birds disappeared after a few months.

 Watching the house get closer and closer, he has the comforting feeling that this is where he lives. He hated Mark's chickens, if he didn't find it very funny that his friend still questions what happened to Beth, Susie and Meg, he would confess that drinking their blood wasn't really pleasurable.

 He laughs at the memory, earning a questioning look from the driver.

"What?"

 Fernando pulls himself together “Nothing”

 Only when Mark parks the truck do they hear it.

“Did you hear that?” the werewolf whispers, trying to keep his voice down to hear again.

“I think so” the vampire replies, also whispering.

 They are on alert, waiting for it to happen again.

 Then it happens.

 A scream.

 The two jump out of the car and run as fast as they can to the house. Upon opening the door, they were greeted by a sound that broke their hearts. It was the sound of Oscar's inconsolable crying, echoing through the empty house.

 Fernando and Mark look at each other, worried and confused, then run towards the source of the sound. They find Oscar in Mark's room, on top of the unmade bed, hugging the blankets tightly, tears rolling down his red face.

“Oscar, what’s wrong?” Fernando is the first to move, sitting on the bed next to Oscar. He brushes some hair off his forehead, hating seeing the boy like that.

 It doesn't take long for Mark to follow suit, sitting on Oscar's other side and speaking in a soft voice, “Hey, buddy. Can you tell us what happened?”

 Oscar looked up, his brown eyes full of tears and fear “I woke up… and you weren’t… here” he replied between sobs “I thought… you… left without me…”

 The werewolf cannot resist his protective instinct, wrapping the boy in his arms. Oscar quickly pressed his face against his chest, not caring that he was covered in dirt. Mark says softly as he strokes his hair “Oh, honey, we would never leave without you.”

 Fernando nodded, holding Oscar's hand tenderly. “We just left for a few hours, we thought we'd be back before you woke up. This will not happen again”

 The last comment applies to both Oscar and Mark. The adults share a worried look over the child's head.

 After ensuring that everything was fine, when Oscar finally stops crying and calms down, Fernando picks him up so Mark can go take a shower.

 In the kitchen, Fernando prepares dinner with just one arm free, using the other to support the weight of the boy who clings to him as if his life depended on it. Every time Oscar sniffled, Fernando felt as if needles were piercing his heart. Regret and guilt. He shouldn't have gone with Mark, thanks to his stupid idea, Oscar woke up in an empty house.

 He doesn't want to imagine what it must have been like, the little boy desperately searching every room until he stopped in Mark's room and cried, believing he was left behind. Calling their names, wanting to be protected, and receiving only silence in return.

 The vampire tightens his grip on Oscar, protectively.

 Mark decides he will unload his truck later. After his bath, he helps Oscar eat his food, as the boy is still dejected about the event earlier and doesn't seem to have any energy other than blinking his eyes.

“Want to drink some juice, Oscar?” Fernando asks, offering the Spider-Man cup he liked so much.

 Lost in thought, the boy takes a while to realize that they are talking to him. He nods, accepting the drink.

 Fernando looks up at the werewolf and realizes that Mark is already staring at him. The two share a silent connection, joining forces for a common good: taking care of Oscar.

 For unknown reasons, Fernando sometimes thinks that he is not meant to have a family. Not that there was a deeper problem with it, he just believed that it wouldn't be useful to change diapers, teach how to ride a bike or have someone he loved so much that he would think: I only want to live forever if it's with you.

 Mark smiles and, without realizing it, Fernando's face imitates his.

 Oscar asks to sit on Mark's lap while he eats and the man allows it. Mark holds him so carefully and the action is simple, Fernando has seen this thousands of times before, yet he notices with shock as the boy lets himself be fed, responding to the werewolf's games.

“Here goes the plaaane”

 Oscar had earned his place among them.

***

 Mark likes his cabin away from the city and close to the forest, but he dreamed of one day buying a house on the ocean. For many years he saved up his savings, saved a little money to have a place to go on vacation, a big house with enough rooms for all his friends.

 But then, Oscar needed new clothes and shoes, and he used some of that money to buy them. Then he bought the sheets of paper, the notebook and the box of colored pencils, more and more because Oscar loved to draw. He couldn't resist buying new toys or anything else he thought the boy would like.

 His money for the beach house was increasingly diminishing, pushing his dream away for a few more years. But he doesn't really care.

 Even if he had the money to buy thousands of houses, how many of those would just wait for an opportunity to sit on his lap or draw a picture for him? Would any of these houses have brown eyes and a button nose, or wake Mark up in the morning by jumping on his bed with incredible news?

“My teeth are moving!”

 Mark rubbed the sleep from his face and checked the time, 4:32, before staring at what Oscar was showing him. His two front teeth were wobbling as the boy moved his tongue against them.

“Wow, that’s amazing, Osc. You have two baby teeth.”

 The boy smiled, happy that it was something incredible, and then frowned and looked at him in confusion.

"What do I do now?"

 The beach house can wait, it would be a sin to miss that opportunity now.

“Well…” he sits on the bed, knowing he won’t be able to sleep soon, and lets the boy sit on his lap while he explains to him “When a tooth starts to move, it means it’s a baby tooth and it was time for him to leave, so that a stronger tooth could grow in its place.”

 Oscar keeps his mouth open, moving his teeth with his finger “But I have 2 teeth moving”

 The werewolf shakes his head “Yes, that's right, that's good too, it means you'll have 2 new teeth instead of 1.”

 The boy turns to rest his back against the man's chest, thinking about what he said. Then he asks “When will they fall? It will hurt? When will my new teeth appear?”

 Mark helps Oscar tilt his head back and looks at his baby teeth, seeing two white spots starting to appear on the gums behind the teeth that are about to come out.

“Your teeth will fall out when it's time, don't worry, it's normal and happens to everyone”

 The boy murmurs, reaching out to touch the werewolf's teeth with his fingers. This time Mark allows it, knowing that soon his bad morning breath will scare Oscar away from his mouth.

 The boy pokes his fangs “Your teeth are really big” then he runs his fingers over Mark's cheeks, feeling his beard growing. The man closes his eyes, enjoying the touch. He opens his eyes when the boy says something, but he doesn't understand the first time.

"What?"

 Oscar repeats “Can we go to breakfast now?”

 Mark looks at the time, 4:39.

 It looks like their day is starting early.

***

 'Enjoy him while he's still little, because before you know it he'll have grown up' is a cliché that any parent has heard in their life, that's what Mark heard from Jenson.

“My nephews were babies and 2 weeks later they were talking and walking”

 The werewolf didn't believe these leaps in development were as shocking as his friends tried to make them out to be.

 However, one day, as he was preparing lunch for himself and the boy, he noticed Oscar slowly sneaking towards the plate with pieces of carrot. He liked to steal some before a meal, believing he couldn't be seen if he walked in short steps.

 Mark watched sideways, silently, holding back a laugh. Oscar always betrayed his presence when he stood on tiptoe and tried to reach the plate, making noise as his fingers searched blindly inside the plate.

 But this time the boy didn't stand on tiptoe, he just stretched out his arm and victoriously managed to steal as many carrots as his little hand could hold.

 Mark stares at the boy running into the living room, his jaw dropped to the floor.

 Later he brings Oscar close to that wall where they began to mark his height, asking the boy to position himself as before. The boy stays as still as he can, almost rolling his eyes back as he tries to see where Mark is scratching.

 He has to face the facts after that.

 Oscar has grown 4 and a half centimeters since last time, which scares Mark because he didn't notice it happening. Oscar is always so small.

 But he's also growing, getting taller and getting baby teeth that are about to fall out, and he's only been living with them for 3 weeks and 4 days.

 The werewolf's chest burns.

“How long did it take for your nephews’ next leap in development?” Mark asked the next time he called Jenson.

Chapter Text

 It was the first time they let Oscar play in the snow, and it was fantastic. The boy kept running and sliding, opening his mouth and sticking out his tongue, feeling the snowflakes land on his nose. He laughed as if he was tickled.

 Mark crouched on the floor and took his cell phone out of his pocket, taking some photos to show Fernando later. The vampire said that Oscar could go and play outside as long as he dressed warmly, and that's what he did. Whenever the werewolf invents a different activity, he makes a point of recording it and showing it to his friend later.

“Can you send me this photo?” Fernando asked when Mark was preparing dinner, sitting at the table with the other's cell phone in hand. He just had time to help Oscar take off all those coats before the werewolf handed him his cell phone and told him to check out his gallery.

 Mark looked over his shoulder, seeing which photo they were talking about. “Oh, sure, send as many as you want.”

 And Fernando promptly did so, selecting a total of 12 photos and 2 videos, and sending them to his contact via Mark's cell phone.

“He's very funny,” he said, commenting on the photos of the boy making faces while eating snow.

“Yes, he is,” the werewolf agreed.

 There is a pause.

“Did you discover anything?” Fernando asks, as he normally does, always being the one to remind them that their obligation is not just to take care of Oscar, but to return him. Even if it causes his chest to tighten.

 Mark responds with a simple “No” and continues preparing dinner. Since he discovered that vampires may be involved, he has taken a break from his quest to enjoy some quality time with Oscar. But he didn't tell Fernando about it, knowing that his friend disapproves.

 When Mark brought the chickens home, he said they shouldn't give them names because they would only be used to lay eggs and, when they were no longer useful, they would become food. Fernando agreed, even though he wouldn't lift a finger to take care of the chickens. On the second day, Mark said that he knew how to tell Beth from Susie because Susie had a broken tip.

 In other words, Mark has a tendency to break his own rules.

 If Fernando wasn't here, there wouldn't be anyone to be the voice of reason.

“Can you go tell Oscar that dinner is ready?” Mark says, drying his hands on a tea towel slung over his shoulder.

 The vampire leaves his cell phone on the table and gets up silently, walking to the foot of the stairs. He rests his hands on his hips and looks up, feeling unwilling to climb all those steps and then come down.

“Oscar!” he calls and waits.

 A few seconds later the boy appears at the top of the stairs, coming from his room. His hair sticking to his forehead betrays that he was using his own bed as a trampoline again, if his red cheeks aren't enough.

 Fernando rolls his eyes affectionately.

“Dinner is ready” he says.

 This is enough to bring a new recharge of energy to the boy's body, which promptly begins to descend the steps.

“After eating we can-” Oscar is mid-sentence when the unexpected happens.

 He's wearing socks, surprisingly, but when his right foot steps on the next step his sock slips, which makes the boy try to regain his balance and push his body forward, hands outstretched to break his fall.

 It happens so fast that Fernando can only watch.

 Oscar hits his face on the bottom steps, making a loud crashing sound, and his body rolls to the side, he lands in a sitting position, wide-eyed, processing what happened. Only when he leans his head forward and opens his mouth to cry does he notice, Fernando too, an alarming amount of blood running down his lips.

 In the same second that Oscar screams, starting to cry after the fall, Fernando reacts.

“OSCAR”

 Fernando runs and kneels in front of the boy, trying to analyze the gravity of the situation. He holds his chin and tilts it back, trying to see inside his mouth.

 Mark appears close behind, appearing out of nowhere, looking around for any explanation of what happened. Then his eyes fix on two white dots on the step.

“Your baby teeth fell out, Osc” he says.

 Oscar looks in the direction Mark was looking and just cries more, hurt and scared.

 Fernando believes that all that blood is not just because of the teeth that fell out in the fall, apparently the child bit his tongue too.

 The vampire opens his mouth to tell his discovery when he freezes.

 He looks at his hand, which is holding Oscar's face, Oscar's face that is crying uninterruptedly. His hand is just below the boy's chin, only now noticing the blood running over it.

 Blood red, hot and fresh.

 His mouth fills with water. His teeth itch.

"Fernando?" Mark's voice sounds strangely distant, as if Fernando had his head underwater.

 His eyes look away from his blood-covered hand to stare into brown eyes filled with tears and fear. Only then does he wake up from his trance.

 He pulls away as if being near to Oscar burns his skin. Without hearing Mark call for him, Fernando runs upstairs and locks himself in his room. For the first time he realized how fragile Oscar was, how easily he could bleed. This horrified him.

 Later, someone knocks on the door.

“...Go away” the vampire says in a tearful voice.

 But the person insists, knocking again and saying “Nando, open the door, please”

“Go away, I said” he reinforces.

 He can hear Mark sigh on the other side of the door, then press his back against the wood and slide down until he sits on the floor.

"Are you okay?" the werewolf asks.

 Fernando is also sitting on the floor, he hears his best friend's voice more closely and it calms him down. He returns with another question “Is Oscar okay?”

“He calmed down, we cleaned up the blood and I showed in the mirror that his teeth fell out. Now he is drinking juice with a straw through the windows in his teeth” he says humorously, remembering the impressed face when he discovered that he could drink juice through a straw even with his mouth closed.

"He is fine?"

 A few seconds of silence.

“Yes, Nando. Oscar is fine” then he asks about the elephant in the room “But what about you? What happened?"

 Fernando pulls his hair hard.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget”

"Forget what?" the werewolf asks from the other side of the door.

 The vampire tries to swallow the lump inside his neck “The smell of his blood” he breathes deeply. As there is no response from the other side, he continues saying “I didn’t realize it at first, but when I realized there was his blood on my hand I felt like… biting”

 Even though he can't see how Mark's face reacts, he imagines it to be something akin to disappointment.

 Then Mark says, in a calm voice “Did you want to drink the blood?” He doesn’t see it, but Fernando nods, and continues talking anyway as if he had seen it “Nando, I don’t think you would do anything bad”

“Mark-”

“Let me talk” he interrupts quickly “Have you forgotten that you're not like other vampires? Other vampires feel the thirst to kill, you feel the thirst to feed. Of course you will feel like drinking some fresh blood in front of you.”

 The vampire lets his friend's comforting words sink into his head.

“I trust you, Nando, and Oscar trusts you too. Even if your instincts speak louder, I'm sure you would never hurt him” Mark continues.

 Fernando also trusts him, blindly. Mark is the kind of person you can tell an embarrassing secret without worrying, he can make you laugh by telling back an even more embarrassing secret of his.

“I need to confess something” Fernando says, rubbing his forehead against the door.

 He hears a light knock, Mark copies his position on the other side “Say it”

“I was the one who killed Beth, Susie and Meg”

 There is a pause until the werewolf responds.

"Son of a bitch"

 Fernando laughs “If it’s any consolation, their blood wasn’t very good”

“Nothing serves as consolation!” Mark exclaims “What did you do with the bodies?”

“I gave it to Jenson”

“Another son of a bitch!” and hits the ground with his fist.

 Fernando laughs a little more, enjoying the feeling of his light shoulders with guilt. Despite appearing irritated, Mark's soft voice belies his anger.

“Can you open the door now?”

 The vampire gets up from the floor, taking a few steps away and opening the door.

 Mark is sitting on the floor, in front of his feet, with a beautiful smile on his lips.

“Nando!”

 Fernando loves the way Mark says his name, as if he's always happy to see him rather than anyone else.

 The werewolf's eyes fall to his hand and his clothes, realizing that he used the fabric to clean off as much of the blood as possible from his skin.

“Maybe you should change your clothes so we can go downstairs and watch a movie in the living room, but a warning: Oscar has learned a new trick now that he’s toothless.”

 Fernando feels that same familiar tingling in his chest.

***

 They are sitting on the sofa, with the light from the TV being the only thing illuminating the dark living room.

 Oscar sleeps in the middle of them, with his head resting on the vampire's arm and one of his feet on the werewolf's thigh. Mark is paying a little attention to Spider-Man talking to a wizard, with his head tilted back, when Fernando starts talking to him in a whisper.

“I think we can make it work”

 Mark looks at him, sleep clouding his thoughts. “What?”

 The vampire sighs, without looking back “Oscar is a very intelligent boy, even if I teach him some things at home, I believe he will learn much more in a suitable place”

 Mark raises his head, attentive.

“Do you want to send him to school?”

“Also, interacting with other children can be healthy for him.”

“You want to send him to school”

“I’ve been researching…”

"You…"

“And there may be a place…”

"Want…"

“Suitable for him”

“...Send him to school”

“Yes, Mark, I want to send him to school.”

 The werewolf's smile is huge. Fernando pretends that he is not happy either.

“Let’s make it work” he says, determined.

***

 Last night, Mark told Oscar to keep his teeth under his pillow.

 The next morning, the boy found money instead of his teeth.

“Maaaaaaark” he ran screaming down the hall, forgetting about the vampire who likes to sleep during the day, until he reached the werewolf door handle and entered his room.

 Mark woke up, startled by the scream, ready to put out the fire, but he only sees Oscar climbing into his bed.

“Will this become a frequent event?” he asks, rubbing his eyes.

 Oscar ignores his question because he didn't understand “My teeth were gone and there was this in their place” he shows the money.

 The man yawns “Yes, Osc, that's what happens when you put baby teeth under your pillow, you get money in return” he explains, thinking it's pretty obvious.

 But the boy just stares at him with more confusion. “Why?”

“Because… that’s what tooth fairies do, in exchange for your tooth they leave money as a prize.”

 The child analyzes the money in his hands, trying to understand what those numbers meant.

“And what do I do with money?” he wrinkles his nose, tilting his head to the side. “And what are tooth fairies?”

 It will be a long morning.

 After a whole explanation about tooth fairies and baby teeth, Mark concludes by saying that Oscar can use the money to buy things.

“Can I buy whatever I want?” the boy asks.

 Mark nods “Whatever you want”

“Where can I buy 'whatever I want'?”

“Uh…” he thinks “One day we can go to a toy store, then you can choose one to buy with this money, what do you think?”

 Oscar nods excitedly, proudly showing off his toothless smile “Yes!”

 ***

 Mark sat in his armchair, with Fernando hovering beside him. Lewis, sitting on the sofa, watched his friends' hands come together. The werewolf's thumb nervously gave the other's hand a long squeeze.

 Fernando had invited the other vampire to join them that night, as he had a matter to discuss with him.

 Lewis smiled without knowing what awaited him and looked at Mark when he started to speak.

“We… realized that the time has come for Oscar to start going to school” he began saying with a controlled smile.

“And we thought you could help us with this part” completed Fernando.

 The man sitting on the sofa alternated his eyes between the two friends in front of him, not understanding how he would help with this.

“Well, I'm happy to know that Osc is going to start this new stage, but I don't understand how I would contribute to that” he replied with a strange laugh.

 Mark and Fernando looked at each other.

"Well-"

“We want you to convince Nico to let Oscar join his class” Fernando says quickly.

 Lewis's smile disappears. He prepares to get up.

“Thank you for the invitation, but I believe it’s time for me to go-”

“You can't leave us hanging, Lewis” Fernando steps forward furiously, stopping right in front of the other vampire “I know you and Nico have a complicated past, but you're the only person he would listen to if we needed a favor-"

“Why don’t you enroll Oscar like any other child?” Lewis snaps, angry that his friends want to put him in this kind of situation with his ex.

 Because Oscar is not like any other child, and we do not have any document proving adoption or Oscar's origin, any paper that the school would ask for as bureaucracy before enrollment. Because Nico has access inside and he would ignore any rules if it were Lewis who asked him to do so.

 That's what Mark thinks, but what he actually says is:

“I know this is difficult for you, Lewis. But we need this giant favor because we want the best for the Oscars. We can stay on the waiting list until they accept, but we can't take care of him all day while we have other responsibilities” he explained the situation carefully and asked for compassion with his eyes in a way that only an exhausted father would do “It will be a challenge If he enters in the middle of the year, imagine if he only manages to enter next year? He will be a year late and the one who can help us speed things up is Nico, but he just listens to you.”

 Lewis sighed, crossing his arms, not giving in completely.

 Fernando decides to use the secret weapon. The only thing he thinks is enough to convince his friend to make this sacrifice for them. He looks instead at Mark, who nods his head in silent conversation.

 The vampires face each other, and Fernando says:

“I know it sucks to have to contact Nico again, and I'm sorry for all the jokes I've ever made about you two” he doesn't regret it, in fact, he just responded on the same level as the teasing Lewis did about him and Mark “But if you do this… Mark and I will allow you to be Oscar’s official godfather”

 Lewis purses his lips and looks at Mark to make sure this is serious, the werewolf nods, then looks back at the vampire's face in front of him.

 After a long sigh, giving in, he responds somewhat embarrassedly.

“Uh, well, I think I still have Nico’s number saved on my phone.”

 Mark and Fernando mentally celebrate, victorious.

***

 Mark went out to buy a backpack and some materials that Oscar will need at school, according to Nico's list.

 The blonde made an exception and went against the rules, bringing up Oscar's special case. This way, the boy could go to a class with other children and leave Fernando and Mark free from responsibility for a few hours.

 Fernando sat Oscar in the bathtub and grabbed a comb and scissors.

“It's time for you to have a haircut, Oscar” the vampire said, combing the long strands back, thinking what he could do to make the boy more presentable without hair blocking his vision.

 Mark said they need to do everything they can to make Oscar smell like him while he's around other people so no one gets suspicious. It's a huge risk, but if his friends believed it...

 The boy laughed as the first tufts of hair fell across his nose.

“Don't move, I might end up cutting your nose off with these scissors” Fernando warns, cutting a little more hair.

 The vampire cut off as much as he could with the scissors and took Mark's razor to trim the rest. The child laughed more at this point, playing with his hair that fell into the bathtub.

 Footsteps approach down the hallway and Mark stops in the doorway.

“My god” he covered his mouth, miserably trying to hide his laughter at that scene “What did you do to him?” he asked between laughs.

“Don't laugh, he's not bad” Fernando knows he cut off a lot more than he imagined, but it didn't leave the boy bald or anything. He runs his fingers through the small fringe he left behind. “I don't think he's ever cut his hair in his life, look how good he looks now- Stop laughing, Mark!”

 But the werewolf can't control himself, he's hugging his belly and curling up in place, repeating “Oh god, what did you do?”

 Oscar looked at the vampire with a confused smile, as if to say that Mark had gone completely crazy.

“Don’t care about him. Mark is jealous. Do you want to see your new hair?”

"Yes! New hair! New hair!"

 Fernando wrapped his arm around Oscar and lifted him above the sink, so the boy could see his reflection in the mirror. Oscar was surprised for a moment that he could see his own ears, but then he smiled again as he ran his fingers over the parts that were shorter.

“I liked it” he said.

"See? We don’t need to know the opinion of that idiot over there” Fernando replied, referring to Mark.

 The werewolf manages to stop laughing after a few seconds, stroking his own belly and wiping some invisible tears from the corners of his eyes.

“I never said I didn’t like it, didn’t you notice that I didn’t stop smiling for a minute?”

“Say what you want, I still know how to cut hair” the vampire left Oscar on the floor, who quickly ran out of the bathroom “I would cut your hair before you got scared”

“You cut my ears 3 times, Nando” he said, touching his left ear with his fingertips as if he could still feel the scars from the scissor cuts “I heal quickly, but I can't make a new ear grow in place of the old one.”

 Fernando shrugged “You learn from making mistakes”

Chapter Text

 Mark wakes up earlier than his alarm due to anxiety, kicking off his blankets to free his legs and going to the kitchen to prepare his and Oscar's breakfast. Today is the day the boy goes to school.

 If his hand shakes when he pours a cup of coffee, he pretends not to notice and drinks the hot liquid without worrying about burning his tongue. Then he takes a bowl and puts some cereal and milk in it, trying to encourage the boy to eat something other than milk in the morning.

 Oscar is hard to wake up, Mark has to rub his back several times and remind the boy the conversation they had last night about that day.

“After you have breakfast, we will go for a drive and then you will go to school, remember how excited you were?”

 The boy groans with his face pressed against the pillow, but after two more attempts he gets excited about the idea of visiting the school and allows himself to be carried to the kitchen.

 Oscar is still getting used to the cereal in his milk, however, he likes his food to be colorful and specifically starts eating the blue ones first, then the pink ones, then the orange ones...

 This takes a while, but it's part of introducing the new food.

 To Mark's surprise, he hears footsteps coming down the stairs and Fernando appears in the kitchen with dark circles under his eyes.

 Oscar turns his head to the vampire and smiles, raising his spoon in the air “Good morning, Nano”

“Good morning, Oscar” then he leaves a comb and other products on the table, which only then did the werewolf realize he brought.

"What is that?" he points out.

“Even after a new haircut, his hair is difficult to manage. I'm going to comb his hair and use this hair product that I found in the back of the closet to keep his strands aligned” Fernando explained, absentmindedly reading the label on that bottle.

 Mark was still looking at him curiously. “Okay, now the question that really matters: what are you doing awake?”

 The vampire shrugged, “I just want to make sure he’s prepared for his first day.”

 A smile slowly appears on the werewolf's lips. “You couldn't sleep because you're worried too?”

“No, shut up, who said I was worried? Me? Worried?” Fernando huffed, walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge. Over his shoulder he says “Oscar, what fruit do you want to take to school?”

 The boy thinks, eating the green ones from his cereal “Strawberry”

“We don’t have strawberries, do you want…” he looks at what the options are “Papaya or apple?”

 Oscar needs to think again to be sure what he would like to eat later.

“Papaya” decides.

“Great” Fernando says, taking the fruit and a jar from the cupboard. Oscar already has a sandwich, a box of juice and water prepared for him to eat at school, but Fernando forgot that the boy loves to eat fruit, so now he prepares something extra for him to have something to eat.

 He feels like he's being watched as he cuts the papaya into small cubes and notices Mark still staring at him, with that stupid smile.

“I'm not worried” he reinforces.

 The werewolf raises his coffee cup in the air as if toasting something “Okay”

 After breakfast, Mark changes Oscar's clothes into something more reinforced for winter. He also helps the boy put on his boots and zip up his coat.

 Oscar sat on the sofa and let Fernando proudly fix his hair, playing with the details of his backpack. After that, Mark returned with the car keys and said they were going to leave.

 The vampire took a winter hat and placed it on the boy's head, taking care to cover his small ears. To Mark, he says a series of warnings.

“Tell Nico to let you know if Oscar doesn’t eat all of his lunch. It's not normal for this to happen, he always eats everything. And also tell him to call you immediately if Oscar cries or if a child fights with him-”

“Nando”

"What?"

 Mark slung the backpack over his shoulder, holding the strap with one hand, and held Oscar's hand with the other. Even though he's been biting his nails since last night, he tries to give his friend his best reassuring look.

“Oscar will be fine. Isn’t that right, buddy?”

 Oscar raises his head to face whoever is talking to him, but the hat is a little too big for his head and covers his eyes.

 Fernando purses his lips and helps him see again, feeling calmer when those brown eyes look at him.

 The boy raises a thumbs up and answers what adults want to hear “I’ll be fine”

 In the car, Oscar is enchanted by how much snow there is outside. Mark's hands grip the steering wheel nervously as they approach the city.

 Oscar's eyes double in size when he starts to see other people walking down the street and, as expected, he cowers next to the werewolf's rib. The man takes one hand off the steering wheel and hugs him, trying to reassure him.

“It’s okay, Osc. You'll meet other cool kids at school” he says, faking an excited voice “You'll learn new things too. You’ll be able to show everyone that you’re the best hide and seek player in the world, imagine how cool that is?”

 The conversation manages to make the boy less tense. They talk about things at school and how fun it will be to make friends.

 Mark truly believes that introducing Oscar to new people will do him good, unless the truth comes out.

 The truck parks a few meters from the entrance gate, the werewolf sees some parents walking with their children on the sidewalk next to them, children of similar ages and sizes to Oscar. He sees the familiar blond man greeting parents leaving their children at the gate and sighs.

“It’s time, let's go?”

 Oscar doesn't respond verbally, he nods without taking his eyes off a group of older children passing by his window.

 Nico welcomes them with a polite smile, the way all kindergarten teachers do to gain their parents' trust.

“Mark!” he greets, raising his eyebrows “It feels like I haven’t seen you in years, how is Fernando?”

 The werewolf clears his throat, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice “He’s fine, working hard on the new book”

 Nico shakes his head and opens his mouth as if to say 'oh yes, I understand'. Then his eyes fall to the small figure standing next to the werewolf, holding his hand tightly and staring back warily.

 The blonde crouches down and talks to him in his childish voice. “Hello, you must be Oscar. My name is Nico” he introduces himself.

 Oscar feels a light squeeze on his hand and looks up to see Mark smiling at him, which makes him feel his shyness disappear a little. He looks at Nico again and responds in a low voice.

"Hi"

 Nico's smile widens “You must be excited to meet your new friends, they are excited to meet you too. Did you know that you will have a table just for you? It even has your name written on it. Do you want to come with me and see? Later your daddy will come and pick you up and then you can tell him everything you did” then he held out his hand.

 Oscar hesitated, looking at Mark once more to make sure everything was okay. Even with a heavy heart, the werewolf imitated Nico's position and talked to Oscar.

“I think Nico will love seeing the drawings you can make”

“Oh yes, I'm sure of that. You can decorate your desk however you want” the blonde looks at the boy's backpack “In fact, I think we can have some Spider-Man accessories in the classroom, do you want to go and see?”

 With that, Oscar's interest is piqued. He agrees to hold Nico's hand and takes a few steps away from Mark. The man's throat tightens.

“Let me know if he doesn’t eat all his lunch, Fernando is worried about that” he said.

 Nico nodded, leading Oscar with him into the school gates. “Don’t worry, Mark. In a few hours you will have him safe and sound.”

 He watches Oscar disappear from his sight, mentally praying that Nico is right.

 Lewis deserves all the good things for doing them this favor.

***

 Mark returns home and finds Fernando sitting on the sofa, watching TV.

“Why didn’t you go to sleep?” is the first thing he says after hanging his coat behind the door “You must be exhausted”

 The vampire actually looks tired, his eyes are droopy and his dark circles are even bigger.

“I can't sleep, my coffin seems very uncomfortable and every slightest noise bothers me. What are you doing?"

 Mark curls up on the sofa next to him, hanging his feet on the coffee table.

“I couldn't sleep well last night, I was too worried about leaving Oscar alone among so many unknown people” he admits.

“Yeah, eh… maybe me too” the vampire scratches his throat “For the first time in weeks it’s like we were before, just the two of us”

“Just the two of us, really” Mark agrees, relaxing his body.

 Fernando and Mark were under the illusion that it wouldn't make much difference to leave Oscar at school, that the house would remain the same.

 They didn't hear the footsteps of tiny feet following them wherever they went, or the whispers of voices that Oscar gave to his toys, much less the small sound of crayons scratching the paper to decorate the refrigerator with yet another drawing.

 There was no one to use the beds or sofa as a trampoline, or anyone to straighten the hair. They didn't need to remind any child to wear socks on their feet and warn them not to run on the stairs again.

 Even though things seemed the way they used to, the way they always liked it, there was something missing.

“I feel weird,” Fernando confesses, his body slowly sliding to the side until he uses Mark as his pillow.

"Me too"

“No, I mean, I'm scared” he drawls his words as his voice becomes more and more sleepy “I couldn't sleep because I'm scared that someone will hurt him and I'm too far away to help, it feels like my entire body has stiffened like stone and I couldn't relax until I looked at his face one last time and made sure that he… that he felt safe. Are we doing the right thing?”

 Mark lets his mind wander, reflecting on the vampire's speech. He also feels scared. What makes him feel less worse is knowing that if Nico finds out that Oscar is human he will have the decency to confront them before anything else, for this main reason that Mark thought it would be a good idea for the boy to go to school since let the blonde be his teacher.

 The werewolf turns his head, but instead of answering the other's question, he returns it with another question.

“Are you wearing my hoodie?”

 Fernando doesn't respond, as he fell into a deep sleep with his head resting on Mark's shoulder. He seems calm for once, then the werewolf feels bad about waking him up and decides to stay there for a few more hours.

 Fernando's strands of hair tickle as he inhales deeply, equally calming with his scent.

***

 So far nothing bad has happened to Oscar.

 He sat in the seat Nico said was his (he got a Spider-Man sticker and stuck it on his desk) and observed the other children around him with curiosity. No one came to talk to him, which made him sad and happy at the same time.

 Nico did an activity with the students where they needed to draw everything he said. Oscar knew some of the things and drew the best way he could, others not so much. When Nico walked close to his table and saw that the boy had written his name on the paper, he praised him and gave him a gold star.

"That is great! You are quite intelligent”

 He felt so proud of himself that he wanted to get up and go tell Mark and Fernando immediately. Look! I'm smart, I got a star!

 Later at lunch, Oscar followed Nico and other children to a place where more children were eating together. He made a point of staying closer to the blonde man because he didn't feel confident enough to talk to the other children.

 There were children younger and older than him. He has never seen so many children like this.

 He sat down with his lunch on his lap and began to eat, observing everything around him.

 So that was school.

"Everything is fine?" Nico asked, checking to see if his new student was adapting well despite his shyness.

 Oscar shook his head, taking a bite of his sandwich, without taking his eyes off a group of children talking loudly a few meters away from him.

 A few minutes later, when Oscar was about to start eating his papaya, a boy approached and stood next to him, looking curiously. It's not sure if it was for him or for his food.

“Do you want to swap?” he asked.

 The boy was holding a jar of strawberry pieces and was offering to exchange his snack for Oscar's jar of papaya.

 Oscar wanted strawberries, so he agreed to swap.

 The boy sat down next to him and promptly started eating, looking happier. He had blue eyes and brown hair.

“My name…” he said with his mouth full, a behavior that Mark and Fernando don’t let him do “It’s Lando”

 Oscar eats another strawberry and waits a few seconds before introducing himself “Oscar.”

“You're weird, Oscar,” Lando says, stuffing more pieces of papaya into his mouth.

“Be nice, Lando” Nico says, standing to the side and listening to their conversation.

 The boy finishes swallowing and shows an apologetic smile to the teacher “Sorry” then he looks at Oscar and says “I'm not trying to be bad, it's just that you're a good weird, you know?”

 Oscar doesn't know, but he shakes his head anyway.

 Lando finishes eating quickly and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “Do you want to play before we go back to the class?”

 He has already finished eating the strawberries and only has the juice left, with Nico's approval he takes the box and follows Lando to a corner where some children were playing.

 Oscar quickly learned that Lando is equally weird, if he is. Lando studies in a different class than him because he is older.

"How old are you?" Lando asked.

 He raised all the fingers on his hand, imitating the way Fernando taught him to count “One, two, three, four… five”

 The other boy's smile is smug as he responds “I'm seven, I'm older than you” then he puffs out his chest and proudly shows off his full height “And I'm getting really tall too, my dad said I'm going to get so tall as much as him”

 Oscar corrected his posture and stood facing Lando, realizing that they were practically the same height. Lando also notices and automatically gets angry, how is a five year old boy the same size as him?

 In the few minutes they have left, Lando and Oscar play isolated in their own world. The older boy gives him orders on how the blocks should be stacked because, according to him, he is older and Oscar must obey. Oscar doesn't care, and his indifference bothers Lando sometimes.

"No! Why did you do that?" the boy growls, taking the blocks Oscar stole from him back and stacking them again.

“I want to build a house” Oscar explained, but Lando paid him no attention.

“Use those blocks over there, those are mine” Lando knows he hates it when his toys are stolen since he has siblings to invade his room and make a mess. He points in the direction of other blocks and turns his back to his new friend.

 Oscar looks in the direction and walks there, starting to build the house he wanted so much. He sits with his body curled up, not paying attention to his surroundings. Lando watches over his shoulder, feeling bad about fighting with his friend, watching him play alone.

 His mother always says that he needs to be more patient with the younger ones, maybe he should apologize to Oscar.

 Lando walks towards him, noticing that the boy has shown no recognition of his approach. But then he felt an irresistible urge and tilted his head until his nose touched Oscar's head and he smelled him.

 This makes Oscar turn his head and look at him confused, only Mark smelled him like that.

 Lando feels embarrassed and quickly tries to justify himself, stuttering a few words “Pretend it didn’t happen! Uh, I was wondering if you, uh, forget it, I didn’t want to fight, uh… can I help you build your house?”

 Oscar believes even more that Lando is weird, even so he shows a slight smile and accepts his participation.

 Lando constantly gives him tips on how to make a house bigger and cooler, sitting closer to him. In a way he had never felt before, the older boy liked the younger boy's scent. Whether he pretended he was helping Oscar place a block in a higher place, just to be close and inspire, no one can prove it.

 Soon Nico appeared and called Oscar to return to the class. He felt bad about saying goodbye, after all, he really enjoyed making a new friend.

 Lando got up from the floor and played with the sleeves of his clothes nervously, looking everywhere but at Oscar. “I don't usually play with younger kids, but if you want we can play again tomorrow. I can bring my Venom and Spider-Man dolls from home.”

 Oscar’s eyes light up with the offer “Can I play with Spider-Man?”

“But I always!- fine…” Lando snorts, giving in. “But just this once!”

 Later, Lando will tell his friend Max that he didn't like playing with a 5-year-old boy that much, but internally he looks forward to seeing him again.

***

 Mark waited restlessly at the school entrance, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Some children ran to the gate and met their parents, others waited next to their teachers.

 Eventually Nico stood out among those children, walking towards Mark holding Oscar's hand. The boy was holding a piece of paper in his free hand and immediately wanted to run towards the werewolf when he saw him.

 Mark didn't think twice before crouching down and holding Oscar in his arms, feeling that weight on his chest disappear in the same second that the boy's arms wrapped around his neck in a hug.

“I missed you so much” he takes the hat off the boy head and smells his hair, relieved “How was your day? Did you have fun?"

 Oscar shakes his head and shows that that piece of paper was nothing more than a drawing he made during class. With his fingertip, he proudly shows the gold star he earned. Mark holds the drawing and looks closely.

“Wow, it’s a beautiful frog”

“It’s a bird” Oscar corrects.

“That's what I said” only then did the werewolf look up and notice Nico's presence. He tries to hide his embarrassment as the blonde smiles mockingly at him.

“Oscar ate all of his lunch, except for the papaya.”

 Mark frowns “What was wrong with the papaya?”

“Oh, nothing really, Oscar made a friend and wanted to swap his papaya for strawberries” then Nico shows his sympathetic look “He did very well, he's a very intelligent child. Only him and 2 other children know how to write a few words in my class.

 Nico's comment makes any feelings of apprehension the werewolf felt disappear. Everything went well, Oscar is fine.

 When they get home, Fernando is still sleeping. Mark helps Oscar take a shower while the boy tells him about his new friend at school, the man listens and mutters 'mhmm' every now and then to show he is paying attention.

 The vampire wakes up when Mark is preparing dinner and Oscar is watching TV. Just as flustered as the werewolf was waiting in front of the school, Fernando walks directly towards the child and holds him in his arms, killing the longing he felt for him during the day.

“Tell me everything you did and don’t skip any details”

 Everything went perfectly well, Oscar likes school and Nico and has already made a new friend. Mark and Fernando wait until he falls asleep and prepare to start all over again tomorrow, feeling more confident that they can make this new routine work for now.

***

 2 days later, Fernando woke Mark up in the middle of the night with an aggressive shake.

“Mark, wake up! Oscar has a fever of 39.5ºC.”

 The werewolf quickly propped himself up on his elbow and rubbed his eyes, trying to expel the sleep.

"What?" he asked, still confused.

 The vampire is standing next to his bed, with his cell phone glued to his ear. His face is tense and in his eyes, even in the darkness of the room, he can see that he is worried.

“Who are you calling?” the werewolf asks, sitting down on the bed.

 Fernando snorts, irritated that he isn't acting faster "I went to check on Oscar during the night and I noticed that he was shaking and sweating, I took his temperature and he has a high fever" he explains, but before he can continue saying anything the person he is trying to contact answers the call and he disperses.

 Mark puts together the information he can understand. Oscar has a fever, is Oscar in the room?

 The werewolf gets up, tripping over his own feet and runs to the boy's room. The door is open and the light is on, when he crosses the door he feels his heart go weak at the sight of the boy curled up and whimpering in the bed.

 Mark takes Oscar to his room so he can sleep in a bigger bed and changes his clothes into clean ones, as his pajamas were very sweaty. Fernando argues furiously with Sebastian, in which he called seeking guidance with a sick child.

“What do you mean it’s normal?!” he exclaims, with his cell phone resting between his shoulder and his ear, as he prepares the recipe that the blonde werewolf gave that makes any sick person feel good afterwards.

“It's normal for children to get sick after going to school, there Oscar had contact with new viruses” Sebastian explained on the other end of the line, patiently assisting his distressed friend “It's probably temporary. If his fever doesn't go down, give him a bath with room temperature water and an antibiotic for fever, do you have any?”

 Fernando doesn’t know “Maybe”

“Well, the soup will help a lot anyway. If he is not well by morning, you should take him to a hospital.”

 Oh, that will be great.

“Thank you, Seb. And I'm sorry I woke you up, I didn't know what to do-”

“It’s okay, Fernando. We're friends and I care about Oscar. Call me later with updates, okay?”

 Fernando takes a bowl of soup to Mark's room and sees him drying some of the sweat that appears on the boy's forehead with the sleeve of his clothes.

“Sebastian said this soup works miracles”

 The werewolf nodded, helping Oscar sit on the bed with pillows resting on his back. “Hey, Osc. I know you want to sleep, but try eating some soup? Look, Nando prepared it especially for you.”

 Fernando sits on the other side, lifting a spoon and blowing on it to make the food less hot “It’s a very good soup, you’ll feel better after eating it”

 Even though he just wants to sink against the mattress and sleep, Oscar lets the vampire feed him. Every now and then he shudders and sniffles, not showing that he likes the soup much or not. The men's eyes are fixed on him, fearing that he will show any sign of worsening and need to go to the hospital.

 This last case is far from happening, they need to make this fever go down.

 After eating some soup, Oscar sweated a little more and Mark took him to take a shower. Fernando left the dishes in the sink and worked on changing the sheets and blankets on Mark's bed. When the werewolf returns, he places the boy in the center of the bed and makes him comfortable.

 Neither of them, Mark and Fernando, want to do anything other than stay there and monitor. Each one lies down next to Oscar, every now and then putting their hand on his forehead to feel the temperature or wipe away sweat.

“Damn children and their bacteria” the werewolf growled.

“They infect our Oscar with a virus, could it evolve into something worse?”

 Mark waited a few seconds before answering Fernando’s question “No, we are taking good care of him. He'll be fine"

 Some time later, Fernando starts to get up and leave the two sleeping in bed, but Oscar abruptly wakes up and whimpers asking him to stay. The vampire can't say no, so he sits on the other side of the bed and lets the boy hold his arm. Mark sighs, resisting his exhaustion to watch the boy's chest rise and fall in a stuttering manner.

 Eventually the werewolf gives in and sleeps with his head sharing the pillow with the child. Fernando gets out of bed carefully and goes after the thermometer to check Oscar's temperature. 37.6ºC.

“You're going to be fine” he says to no one in particular.

 Instead of going back to his computer and continuing writing the book, the vampire decides to lie down in bed again and make sure neither Mark nor Oscar's sleep is interrupted again.

Chapter Text

 Fortunately, the episode with the fever did not reach a more serious level. Oscar felt more energetic in the morning, but he skipped school the rest of the week to be sure.

 Days later, they were already more used to that routine. Mark took Oscar to school in the morning and resolved some obligations in the city, then picked up Oscar, and Fernando waited anxiously at home for them, wanting to play with the boy and talk about the day.

 Always checking that everything was ok, no one suspecting...

 One day Mark goes to pick Oscar up from school and someone comes to talk to him.

"Hey! I’m sorry, are you Oscar’s father?” asks a brunette woman.

 His first instinct is to be defensive, he doesn't know that woman who is asking about the boy and Nico is nowhere in sight to help with anything. His second feeling is feeling awkward at being called Oscar's father.

"Yes, it's me"

 The woman smiles and extends her hand “Nice to meet you, my name is Cisca”

 He shakes her hand, a confident handshake “Mark, nice to meet you too”

“So, Mark, uh… my son met your son at school and they love playing together. Lando can't stop talking about Oscar at home, it's always 'Oscar this' 'Oscar that'” she laughs “I wonder if we can arrange a day for them to play outside of school? Lando insisted all week that I come talk to you.”

“Moooooom,” a boy hiding behind her whimpers, embarrassed that his mother is talking more than she should in front of his friend's father.

 Mark just noticed his presence now and raised his eyebrows. So this is Lando.

“Oh” not feeling her to be a threat, he responds more amiably “Of course, I'm sure Oscar would appreciate that. You want my number? Then we can combine better”

 Cisca nodded and fished her cell phone out of her bag. At all times, Lando monitored whether his mother was writing down the correct number for Oscar's father, controlling a nervous energy within him to not show how excited he was to see his friend outside of school.

 After they leave, Nico appears with Oscar in tow and Mark tells him the news.

“It looks like your friend Lando wants to play with you after school.”

 The boy looked at him with shining eyes.

"Really? How do you know?"

 The werewolf smiled “I spoke to his mother. Let’s see what Fernando thinks when we get home?”

 The vampire's opinion was neutral, but he demanded that Oscar's friend come to their house, where both he and Mark could supervise. Thus, Mark exchanged some messages with Cisca and they arranged for the meeting to take place the next weekend.

 Lando watched in the backseat as his mother's car drove further and further away from the city, approaching the forest, with curiosity. He didn't know Oscar lived so far away. He hugged the backpack he brought with his toys in his lap, swinging his feet back and forth excitedly.

 Mark was waiting outside, he waved his hand as the car parked in front. With a cordial smile, he stayed talking to Cisca for a while, remembering the agreement that she would come and pick up her son in a few hours, if something happened he should call, etc.

 Lando bit his lip, uneasy. He tried to watch through the window, looking for Oscar, impatient to go play.

 Noticing the boy's anxiety, Mark interrupted the conversation for a second to talk to him, “Hey, if you want, you can come in. Oscar is waiting in the living room.”

 All it took was one last look at Cisca and a quick 'bye, I love you!' and Lando ran into the cabin. When he crossed the door, he stopped to look around and soon smelled the familiar scent. Following the scent into the living room and around the sofa, he saw Oscar sitting on the floor playing with some toys.

 For a few seconds, he just watches, finding it funny that the other boy never reacts by acknowledging his presence a few meters away from him. But eventually Oscar notices, he turns his head and his face changes when he realizes Lando is there.

“I brought us some toys,” he says, walking over to sit across from Oscar. Lando opens his backpack and lets the other boy spill all the contents onto the floor.

 Oscar proudly shows off the Spider-Man doll he also has. Lando nods, holding up his own toy.

“Now we can both be Spider-Man!”

 Eventually Mark says goodbye to Cisca and enters the house, seeing the boys lost within their own world. He leaves the instruction not to make so much noise because of the vampire who slept upstairs. Afterwards, he decides to continue with his daily tasks, letting Oscar have the experience of playing with another child.

 The red car was Oscar's big focus, along with a few different toys that Lando brought. Lando said his Venom doll's feet were bitten off because his younger sisters had changed teeth and were biting everything in the house.

“They always bite everything” he snorted, as if he had never destroyed one of his older brother's toys when he felt the need to bite something.

 Oscar raises his head, curious about that story.

“Did their teeth fell out too?”

“Uhum…” the older boy muttered absently, then looked up and stared at the other boy’s mouth “Oh, your teeth fell out too! I forgot. Your parents must be crazy about you biting them” then he laughed.

 Oscar wrinkled his nose, he wasn't biting anything. “My two front teeth were moving every time I did that,” he demonstrates, touching the place on the gum where new teeth were growing with his tongue. “But one day I fell down the stairs and hit my face on the floor, so they fell out.”

 Lando looked at his face after he said that with wide eyes, as if silently asking if he was joking.

“And you didn’t die?” he asked.

 Oscar shook his head “No”

“Ah…” even though the accident is over and the boy is fine now, Lando felt a little worry rise inside his chest “Uh, when my tooth was moving my dad tied some of his dental floss and pulled it. A little blood came out, but I was brave and didn't cry. I'm not a baby”

 Oscar shrugs, embarrassed that he's not as cool as Lando "I cried when my teeth fell out"

“Yes, but… uh, you’re not a baby!” Lando is quick to correct his mistake, nervously organizing his words with his limited vocabulary. “You're so much better than a baby, my sisters are babies. I don’t let them play with my toys, but I allow you.”

 Slowly Oscar becomes convinced that he is telling the truth, so he corrects his posture and fixes his eyes on the older boy's mouth, especially his teeth.

“You have sharp teeth” he says.

 'Sharp' is too strong a word to describe what they were, but Lando has already lost some baby teeth and has fixed fangs that will only grow over the years is true.

 Lando smiles, proud that someone finally realizes he no longer has puppy fangs. He likes that about Oscar, the boy seems to be the only one who believes that Lando isn't a silly little werewolf cub.

"Yes!" His face lit up “They were the first teeth I lost”

 Oscar wants to ask if he can touch them, but remembers that Fernando and Mark constantly correct him that he can't put his fingers in someone else's mouth. Lando mistakes his hesitation for intimidation and tries to cheer him up.

“Don't worry, you'll soon have teeth like mine” he repeats the speech that his brother repeated several times when he cried because he didn't have fangs yet.

 Oscar nods, taking his red car and going back to playing, not very interested in continuing that conversation.

 Later, Mark shows up with juice and snacks for the boys. Lando sat next to his friend and continued dictating stories that shocked the younger boy. Oscar made Lando see himself as he dreamed of being: a strong, intelligent boy with the potential to be good at many things. The other kids thought Lando was small and talked too much.

 But Oscar is different. Lando loves his calm voice, as Oscar believes anything he says. Lando doesn't lie, his mother said that no one likes to be friends with a liar and he wants Oscar to be his friend. Because Oscar is nice, he lets the younger boy play with his favorite toy, for example.

 Oscar's eyes compared to the color of the dry leaves on the trees in autumn, similar to his short hair. Lando wanted autumn to come quickly so he could show the younger boy this detail that only he noticed.

 Sometimes he is very quiet, sometimes he talks a lot. Lando has never been good at telling jokes, but Oscar laughs at anything silly he says. Sometimes he believes too easily, sometimes he doubts what the older boy says.

 There are so many things to say. Oscar is a really cool friend, unlike any other kid, unlike Max. Lando wants to impress, but he also doesn't want to be too much and make Oscar get tired of him.

 But it really seems like a difficult task not to sniff him out.

 After finishing drinking his juice, Lando turned his head to tell him something funny that Max said yesterday when he felt it. It's easy to identify when this feeling began, the moment his gaze crossed the room and saw a strange boy at break.

 Perhaps due to his young age, the smell brings an illusion of childish innocence, also reminding Lando of the smell he smells every time he accompanies his mother to the bakery. The feeling of looking excitedly in the window at all those sweets is the same one that Oscar brings to him. It makes him feel good.

 That's why his nose becomes uncontrollable from time to time and leans towards it, sometimes daring to get closer and tickle the other's hair.

 It is common for werewolves to smell members of their family, to calm down with the scent of loved ones.

 Oscar notices Lando leaning over him and turns his head just in time to see the older boy's cheeks turn red and he walks away.

“Don’t tell Max,” he says nervously.

 Oscar has already met Max once, but the other boy showed no interest in looking twice at him.

"Why?" questioned. He doesn't talk to Max normally, why would he say anything to him?

 Lando opens his mouth but hesitates, embarrassed to admit that he just likes Oscar. He doesn't want to be weird. If he did this to any other friend, he would be laughed at.

“Just pretend it didn’t happen, okay? I wasn’t smelling you”

 Oscar doesn't understand the embarrassment people feel about this, how this display of affection isn't common, unless they're part of the same family. In a different situation, future partners do this to demonstrate their intention to stay together. Maybe in some future he will understand, but for now he listens to what Lando has to say and lets that moment pass, ignorant of the affection that the older boy has for him.

***

“I don’t want to play that anymore” Oscar says, after many minutes of playing the same thing.

 Lando got up from the ground, previously lying down playing on the hotwheels track, and looked at the boy with a sullen face.

“So what do you want to play?” questioned.

 His mother will be picking him up in a little while, so if Oscar wants to play something different, he needs to think about it soon. Lando offers some options, knowing a little about what the other boy likes.

“Do you want to draw more? Or play hide and seek.”

 But Oscar shakes his head. He carefully observes all the toys scattered on the floor, looking for something. The Spider-Man doll Sebastian gave him is the closest option to what he truly wants.

 He hands the toy to Lando, correcting the way he holds it with both arms. The older boy waits, curious.

 Once satisfied, Oscar stands back and observes what he has created.

“Let’s play 'house', this is the baby” he points to Spider-Man “And you are the father. I’m going to go to work”

 Lando's eyes widen, gasping, “What? But that’s a girl’s game.”

 Oscar tilts his head to the side, confused “But there are no girls here”

“Yes, but…” he stutters, still holding Spider-Man in his arms like one would hold a baby “I never played with that, I don’t do that”

“But I want to play that now” Oscar insists, stubbornly “I used to play that with my parents sometimes”

 Lando tries to imagine Mark's tall figure cradling Spider-Man in his arms and pretending he's a baby, when he obeys Oscar's orders. It's a funny image.

“I don’t know how to play this”

“I will teach you” so Oscar grabs a toy car and hands it to Lando to hold “Pretend this is the baby’s food. Now I’m going to go to work, uh… selling firewood!”

 Lando feels awkward playing something he always tells his sisters he doesn't like, but if Oscar wants to do it he can make an effort and participate. He can continue pretending he doesn't like it later.

“Okay, but you can’t tell Max” he repeats the same speech. Today he did many things that would be enough content for his friend to mock him.

 Oscar nods happily, promising not to tell Max. Whatever it is he's not allowed to tell.

 Over time, Lando proves to be an active participant. He knows his parents' routine and tells Oscar things they need to do to transform it into something more real. No one can ever find out they did this, or Lando will die of shame.

 At some point they switch roles and Oscar becomes the father who takes care of the baby, feeding and bathing him. When it's time to put the baby to sleep, he holds Lando by the arm and insists that they both need to say goodnight.

 Mark appears in the room, with his cell phone in his hand, and observes that scene. Then he asks:

“Why is Spider-Man sleeping on the sofa?”

 Oscar and Lando scold him for speaking too loudly and tell him to be silent, with a finger pressed to their lips and a loud 'shhhhhhh'.

 The werewolf shrugs and responds, whispering “Sorry...”

 Lando is sad when it's time to leave, Oscar too. Mark and Cisca promise that there will be another day like that and remember that they will see each other at school next week.

 Mark and Oscar organize the toys and try to get the living room tidy again. While collecting his cars from the ground, the boy says with conviction:

“I already know what I want to buy with the money the tooth fairy gave me”

 Mark takes a while to remember what that subject is about. After understanding, he lets out a slurred 'ah', takes out a blue block hidden under the sofa, and responds.

“Okay, we can go to the toy store another day. What are you going to buy?"

 Oscar shows a mischievous smile and presses his finger against his lips “It’s a secret”

 The man reaches out and tickles his stomach, getting a few laughs. “You’re full of secrets, hmm?” he says with fake annoyance.

 Fernando goes downstairs and finds them cleaning up the mess in the living room. He looks at the sofa and asks a question, confused.

“Why is Spider-Man sleeping on the sofa?”

 Mark and Oscar scold him with a loud “Shhhhh”, telling him to be silent.

***

 Fernando watched through the window as Mark's car disappeared into the horizon. Before going, the werewolf asked him if he was having trouble sleeping, as he was waking up in the middle of the afternoon more often.

“I’m just stressed about my book, the final chapters are the hardest”

 Mark showed a sympathetic look and laughed lightly, but he didn't seem amused. He took the keys to the truck and said he would be back in 20 minutes.

 The vampire sighed heavily, not feeling the energy to do anything. Still, someone needs to sort the clean clothes.

 He walks with a basket under his arm to the small laundry room at the back of the house and opens the dryer, throwing all the clothes into the basket. Maybe a little housework will improve his mood.

 Mark likes summer because the weather is good to hang his clothes on a line outside and enjoy the sun, while Fernando prefers to use the good old dryer to do all the work. It's a plus for winter too, no one needs to go outside and suffer in the freezing wind.

 Fernando shakes his head and tries not to get angry when he has to organize his clothes again. Why is he thinking about Mark? He hasn't been gone 10 minutes and he's already thinking about the werewolf again.

 Before he can add to the pile of colorful clothes, his hand finds pieces of clothing he haven't seen in a long time. At first Fernando thinks he was wrong, but when he holds the small t-shirt firmly and looks closely he realizes he was right. These are the clothes Oscar was wearing the night they met.

 In addition to seeing those clothes, he realizes that they are smaller than the ones Oscar currently wears, which only proves that the boy has grown up since then. This doesn't surprise him, what shocks him is remembering how different the boy was that rainy night.

 After so many weeks, it finally appeared among other clean clothes, it was not missed in the meantime as long as there were other clothes to replace. After Mark changed Oscar's clothes for the first time, neither of them, Mark or Fernando, realized that those clothes were lost among others.

 The vampire examined it closely, also finding the pants the boy was wearing. For the first time he notices how they are: simple fabric, nothing fancy, and they looked worn from use. It's not the kind of typical children's clothing he's used to seeing.

 It's strange how something as simple as a piece of clothing can evoke so many memories and feelings.

 In the early days, Oscar had long hair, as if he had never cut it in his life, with light strands that looked even blonder in the sunlight (but Fernando was convinced it was brown, after the boy's hair darkened over time). He was thinner, storing most of the fat in his cheeks. He didn't know how to read, write, and didn't know some things that other children were used to.

 Now he has grown, he looks bigger every day, and he has gained a little more fat on his body instead of his cheeks. Short hair is still a challenge to style, but half the work it once was is no longer there. Mark bought letter-shaped fridge magnets and every day Oscar proudly shows off a new word he learned.

 Not only serving as a symbol of how Oscar changed over the weeks, but those clothes also remind Fernando that Oscar had a life before Mark and him, the boy had a family.

 The main objective from the beginning is that this is a temporary home, they are just adapting to a routine that works while they don't find other humans to take care of Oscar, perhaps his own family.

 It's been... well, living with the boy has been good, but it's temporary.

 Of all the people to forget about this, Fernando should be the last of them all.

 With a sigh, the vampire separates those old clothes from the others. When Oscar leaves he won't really need it, he can keep the new ones they bought. That old shirt and pants could perhaps be kept as a souvenir, in the back of the closet.

 Fernando won't talk about it, but he will know that a part of the boy will still be in that house.

Chapter Text

 It was windier than usual, a bone-chilling wind. Even so, Mark and Fernando decided to leave late in the afternoon, just before it started to get dark, to go to a toy store in the city.

 Oscar walks down the sidewalk between the two men, looking everywhere with curious eyes and with both hands busy holding theirs. Every now and then someone would give the vampire and werewolf couple with a child a strange look, but it didn't last long, thankfully.

 Taking advantage of being away from home, they agreed to meet up with their friends. They just didn't specify where.

“Did they open a new music store?” Fernando asked, watching from across the street.

 Mark looked in the same direction as the other and waved, making a little effort to pull Oscar up when the boy clung to his arm.

“Yes, it’s been a few weeks. Didn’t I tell you?”

 Fernando grimaces when a strong wind ruffles his hair and runs his hand nervously over his head “I don't remember, it's been so long since I've been here that a lot of things seem new. Is that a gas station?”

 After letting out a nasal laugh, Mark responds mockingly “Please, Nando. That gas station has been there since we moved here.”

“What about that store? I don't remember seeing it before.”

 The werewolf widens his eyes in disbelief. “You bought my clothes there last time!”

 Fernando laughs, purposely pretending not to know some places in the city. Although he truly doesn't remember that gas station.

 The wind is increasingly disturbing your mood. The vampire runs his hand through his hair for the thousandth time in an attempt to make his strands not look like Oscar's, who doesn't care and is just impressed by anything different he finds.

 Mark licks his lips. The sound of his heartbeat is so loud that it prevents him from hearing his brain telling him to shut up.

“You look beautiful”

 Fernando looks suspiciously at the werewolf “I look like I always did”

“So you are always beautiful”

 The vampire laughs, thinking it's a joke, but when Mark doesn't laugh too, his smile fades and a cold feeling invades his stomach. Before he can even open his mouth, wanting to ask if the other was okay, they are interrupted by the arrival of his friends.

 Jenson is the first to advance on them, walking like a runaway train.

 Melancholy, he says “Traitors, how could you do this to me? I hate you"

 Mark and Fernando looked at each other, confused.

“You guys have defined Lewis as Oscar's godfather when I'm clearly his favorite uncle” the blonde werewolf says after Mark asks to explain further. He crosses his arms, hurt that his friends stabbed him in the back like that “I would be a much better godfather than him”

“Stop being dramatic” Lewis and Sebastian catch up to them, as well bundled up for the winter as they are “Everyone knew you weren’t even an option”

 Jenson opens his mouth, offended, and is about to curse Lewis when Mark interrupts the discussion.

 With his hands covering Oscar's ears, he says to his friends through clenched teeth, "How about you don't argue or say any bad words in front of a child?"

 At the mention of Oscar, Jenson's hostile behavior disappeared like smoke. He crouches down with one knee touching the ground and talks to the boy with a big smile on his face.

“Hi, Oscar! Wow, your teeth are growing fast. Soon they will become bigger than mine” he says showing off his infectious smile.

 The boy shows his toothless smile shyly, leaning his body to hide his face against Fernando's leg.

 Jenson's dramatic scene served as a distraction from the previous topic, Mark used it as an opportunity to remind his friends why they were there. Fernando looked directly at the back of his head, seeing the werewolf walking a few steps ahead with Oscar while discussing something with Sebastian, as if he had forgotten the awkward moment before.

 The vampire sighs, following close behind with Jenson and Lewis, who are once again arguing over who would make a better godfather. It's funny to think that a 5 year old boy is more mature than them.

***

 The woman who works at the toy store says they will close in 15 minutes, then gives Oscar a friendly smile and talks to him sweetly.

“I hope you find the toy you’re looking for, sweetie” then looks back at the adults, less friendly this time, and reinforces “15 minutes”

 Oscar holds Mark's hand firmly and leads the way, looking up and down the shelves full of toys. Nothing interests him or resembles what he's looking for, and he won't tell Mark what it is either.

“It's the first time I've seen a child not want to take the entire store home” Jenson whispers to Sebastian, impressed and amused at the same time by the eager way in which Mark lets himself be pulled through the aisles and by the determination the boy look for what he wants.

 Sebastian observes the scene before responding “At least he doesn't stop walking every 5 seconds to play with something he's not even going to buy. Remember what that woman said? 15 minutes” he mockingly imitates the woman’s voice, then looks at his wristwatch “9 minutes, actually”

 Fernando walks slowly behind, absentmindedly looking at some board games, until he completely separates himself from the group. From afar he can hear Mark's voice asking if Oscar could give any tips on what they are looking for and Oscar answering no.

 The vampire stops walking, observing some toy cars.

“He always talked about you, the same way a man who has just fallen in love talks about his passion.”

 Fernando gets scared and turns his head, seeing Lewis looking at him.

"What?"

 The other vampire takes a few steps forward, taking a blue toy car and analyzing it in his hand.

“Mark. He always spoke passionately about you. I mean, considering he's a werewolf, that never surprised me. They always manage to be more sentimental, perhaps because they are hot-blooded or because they know that there is only one chance to love.”

 Lewis looks away from the toy to look at Fernando, who watches him with a curious look, wanting to know more.

 He turns the blue car between his fingers and continues his explanation.

“You are the only person besides me in this group who understands what I mean when it comes to love. Werewolves love their partners and when they decide it's forever it means it will be as long as they live, and they know it won't be for long. Unlike us vampires, werewolves have as short lives as humans and can die more easily than us. That's why some werewolves abandon everything to be together, and they do the same when they love a human, it works because they both have a shorter life expectancy and value the life they have.”

“What does this have to do with Mark and me?”

 Lewis had a flash of amusement in his eyes, despite his serious face saying otherwise.

“Mark is a werewolf, you are a vampire” he says slowly, as if explaining something to a child “Couples between werewolves and vampires are not common because of this cliff that is the difference between us, there are almost no stories about them. When you told us that you are together-” Fernando holds his breath “-we were very happy, me and the others, because that means it can be different. Following you these last few weeks just proved that you are proof that a vampire and a werewolf can love each other, despite society's prejudices.”

 It's true that Mark is more sentimental than him, just as Sebastian and Jenson are too. It's a characteristic that werewolves have because it romanticizes the idea of ​​partners for eternity, mating marks to prove their love and children running around the house.

 But Mark isn't in love with him, is he? It's just his personality.

 Isn't?

“Nico and I just have a long history because, even though we knew we wouldn't be together, we couldn't stop trying” Lewis continues talking, oblivious to the internal battle he created inside Fernando's head “I thought that because we were vampires and we knew each other since forever, we could love each other more and stay together for a few more years, and a few more, and a few... we ended our relationship and got back together so many times, always thinking that it would be different, that I would finally feel that I really loved him, but every time it was the same disappointment. I did what I thought was right until I cut contact with Nico once and for all” he laughs “I mean, I needed to talk to him to help 2 friends”

 Fernando feels a bitter taste in his mouth, he never stopped to discuss with Lewis whether he was really happy in that relationship.

“I'm sorry for all the jokes I made about you two” this time he's being honest.

 The other vampire shrugs, looking at a spot behind Fernando. “It's okay. I’m happy for you and Mark, just so I was able to see what was right in front of me this whole time.”

 Fernando turns his head and watches as his friends suggest down the hall, turning back to look for them when they realize their friends are left behind. Oscar is holding Sebastian's hand now, laughing at something the blonde said that made Mark and Jenson sulk behind them.

 Fernando doesn't fail to notice that Lewis' smile increases when Sebastian gets closer and closer to him, smiling equally.

“You and Seb-”

“Vampires have more difficulty valuing life because they have higher expectations than other living beings. You'll only realize the end has come when you're holding your heart in your bloodstained hands” Lewis gives him one last look “If all vampires realized this, maybe they'd be like us and allow themselves to truly love”

 Fernando swallows dryly.

"What happened? Have you lost your way to us?” Sebastian asks when they finally catch up.

“Maybe…” Fernando moves just in time to stop Oscar from falling to the ground when he trips over his untied shoelaces. As he kneels on the floor to tie his shoelaces, he asks no one in particular, “Did you find the toy?”

“Not yet, Oscar noticed you weren’t following us and wanted to go back and look for you” Mark replies, rubbing his hand over his forehead “And now we only have 4 minutes before we get kicked out”

“Let’s find this toy” Jenson says with conviction. Now it's his turn to hold Oscar's hand and wander around.

 Everyone walks down a few more hallways until Oscar gasps loudly. They enter a hallway full of pink toys, the boy lets go of Jenson's hand and runs objectively towards a shelf full of boxes.

 With his small hands, he makes a great effort to pull the box off the low shelf. He looks at that toy with a sparkle in his eyes that neither Mark nor Fernando have seen before.

"I want this one!" the boy says, smiling widely.

 They would all be lying if they said they weren't at least a little surprised by that.

“Oh… are you sure, Osc?” Mark says, approaching him and running his hand through his hair affectionately.

 Oscar nods positively, showing the doll inside the box that he wants so much with pride.

“I want to buy this doll” is a doll with a pink dress and no hair, big enough for Oscar to carry effortlessly, similar to a real baby.

 Mark looks at Fernando, who stares back.

"What?"

"It's ok?"

“He buys a doll?”

“Uh, yeah”

“Of course it’s okay” Fernando puts his hands on his hips “Do you have a problem with that?”

"No!" Mark says, then looks back at the toy. He sighs “Okay, let’s buy the doll”

 Oscar celebrates, hugging the box tightly and very happy.

 They meet the same woman as before when it's time to pay. She raises a questioning eyebrow toward Oscar and his doll, then looks at the supposed parents. Mark hands over the money with a forced smile and says.

“Don’t you need to close the store?”

 The moment they step onto the sidewalk, the doll's box is discarded in the first trash can they find. Oscar holds his doll in his arm and with his other hand he holds the hand of his official godfather.

 The sky had turned a darker color since they were inside the store and some of them were feeling hungry.

“You guys can't leave yet” Jenson says as he saw Mark fish his car keys out of his pocket “There's a restaurant nearby, we can all have dinner there and order some drinks. Please, like old times”

 The blonde werewolf says the last part looking specifically at Fernando, knowing that it is more difficult for him to accept the offer.

 The vampire stared at his friends until his eyes finally landed on Oscar. Previously his opinion would be entirely based on how lazy he was feeling, now it's based on whether it will be a safe environment for Oscar.

 Mark decides to speak after noticing Fernando's hesitation “Well, I believe we can have a night like the old days. But when it’s close to Oscar’s bedtime, we’ll leave.”

 So it was decided. They walk a little to the restaurant that Jenson mentioned and sit at a large table with 6 seats. Mark debates with Fernando about the food options available on the menu, something they believe Oscar will eat.

“Ask for pasta, he always eats it” the vampire replies, then adds “And a juice. Which juice do you want, Oscar? Grape, orange or apple?”

“Orange” the boy responds, placing the doll on his lap.

 The waiter arrives and takes the order, including some more exotic drinks for the vampires. He notices the boy playing with a doll and shares a look with Mark.

“My son also loved playing with his sister’s toys at that age.”

 The werewolf opens his mouth and shakes his head the way any inexperienced father does when he finds another father who has more children giving him advice.

 The adults enjoy dinner, talking and laughing. Fernando always forgets how good it is to have fun like this, being with the people he cares about next to him. Oscar works well in the middle of the group, having every adult present at the table wrapped around his fingertips.

 Sometimes Sebastian helped Oscar hold the glass of juice, other times Jenson helped him wipe his mouth, Lewis already asked if he could buy the boy a dessert. Fernando looked at Mark over the glass and they both laughed mentally, seeing their friends acting so stupid.

 Oscar was really enjoying that night, he didn't want it to end. He even tried to hide his tiredness, but Mark noticed his eyes blinking heavily more and more.

“I think it’s time to go home”

 Fernando nods and looks at his friends the same way parents do when they have to say goodbye to somewhere early “Thank you for coming along and having dinner with us today”

“It’s okay, we’re happy to be part of it” Sebastian replies.

 Mark gets up from the chair and wipes Oscar's hands with a napkin, he cleans the doll a little too. Then he says “Do you want to go to the bathroom before we get in the car?”

 It's a considerably long journey to the cabin and the werewolf is sure that Oscar will fall asleep halfway, making his task of just needing to carry him to bed easier. So if he can, he would like Oscar to use the bathroom.

 The boy considers whether he feels like going to the bathroom or not, then nods his head, signaling yes.

“Let's go then” Mark helps him get off the chair and leaves the doll with Fernando, he holds Oscar's hand and prepares to look for a bathroom when Oscar pulls his hand back.

 The werewolf looks at him confused “What’s wrong? Don’t you want to go to the bathroom?”

 The boy turns his head and looks at Jenson, who was quietly observing the scene, still sitting at the table. He holds out his free hand as an invitation for the blonde werewolf to join them.

“Lets go to the bathroom, uncle Jense?”

 The man thinks he might cry at that moment. He gets up in an agitated manner, dragging the chair back and causing a scene that draws some attention from other people around him.

“Yes, Oscar, I want to go to the bathroom” Jenson responds, spellbound, and holds the hand that the boy offers him. He doesn't feel like using the bathroom but will follow them anyway.

 Mark walks ahead, holding back the urge to laugh every time he hears Jenson whisper 'Uncle Jense' over and over again as if he doesn't believe what happened was real.

 Fernando watches from afar until the three disappear, then turns his head to comment on what an idiot Jenson is, but what he ends up seeing stops him.

 Lewis and Sebastian are in their own world, talking quietly in each other's ears and laughing. From the position of the arm, he can tell that the vampire's hand is touching the werewolf's knee.

 The scene makes Fernando refuse a little, he doesn't want to disturb the couple. It also reminds him of the conversation from earlier, when Lewis gave him that whole speech about love and life, only to conclude that Mark and him are the reason Lewis and Sebastian are together now.

 Although Lewis and Sebastian are in a real relationship, Mark and Fernando are not.

 This makes him feel not so good.

 Did Lewis start to see Sebastian in a different light or did he fall in love with Sebastian because he is… Sebastian? It must be strange to date someone you've been friends with for so many years, or maybe it's easier, because that person knows you better than anyone else.

 He figured his friends would soon realize that Mark and he are faking a relationship, after all, none of them have tried to fake anything in front of them. The two of them just acted like they always did and took care of Oscar, and that was enough.

 Which is very strange.

 Maybe it's all thanks to Mark, because he was the sentimental part of this friendship that managed to convince everyone on his own.

 Mark is…

 Mark is someone who loves too much and deserves someone who loves him back with the same intensity. Fernando knows he's looking for this, or was looking for it, because since he met the werewolf he's never heard of him dating anyone. The vampire also didn't look for romance, it's difficult to maintain a relationship with the lifestyle he likes to have.

 His friends complain that Fernando has many quirks.

 The only person who understands is Mark, so much so that he has gotten used to a functional routine with him. That's why the two are best friends, that's why they live together and that's why they're taking care of a child together.

 Fernando is the only one who would agree with Mark's absurd ideas and the werewolf does the same for him.

 Does he loves Mark?

 Or worst.

 Does Mark loves him?

 Suddenly Fernando feels something forcefully throw himself into his lap, knocking the air out of him. He looks down confused and sees Oscar's familiar hair, a few seconds later he realizes that the boy is crying.

 No.

 Oscar is panicking.

 The boy threw himself into his arms, coming running from somewhere, and buried his face against his chest. His small hands grab Fernando desperately, he cries against the vampire's clothes and curls up, muttering incoherent words.

 Lewis and Sebastian separate and look at them with confused and worried faces.

 Before either of them can ask anything, Mark and Jenson come running in the same direction that Oscar came before.

"What happened?" Fernando asks, cradling the inconsolable child in his arms.

“I don't know, we were leaving the bathroom when he got scared by something and ran away” Mark explains, messing up his hair even more by running his fingers through it.

 They try to calm Oscar, make him explain what made him so scared, but the boy just hugs Fernando and cries. The vampire understands some loose words.

“…monster…house…scary…”

 Mark gives him a worried look and Fernando imitates him.

“He must be sleepy and remembering the nightmares” the werewolf says, then turns to Oscar, running his hand gently over his head “Let's go home now, okay? Do you want to come on my lap? Let’s get in the car”

 Oscar hesitated a bit, sobbing, then agreed to go into Mark's arms. He hides his face in the crook of the werewolf's neck and inhales, gripping his shoulders tightly.

 He takes one last look at Fernando and walks ahead, leaving the vampire behind to pay the bill.

“Sorry about that, guys. I do not know what happened"

“There’s no need to explain, it’s been a busy day and he must be wanting to sleep” Sebastian reassures him “Send a message and let we know if he’s okay.”

 Fernando is standing in line, restlessly waiting for his turn to pay. Mark and Oscar must already be in the car and the werewolf must have managed to calm the boy down a little. If he had taken the doll with him, maybe it would have helped Oscar calm down faster.

 The vampire was staring at the doll in his hands when a voice spoke from behind him.

“Well, if it isn’t good old Fernando Alonso”

 His body becomes rigid. He slowly turns to face the person, giving him a look of disgust.

“Otmar”

 The man smiled, a yellow smile. He pointed to the doll in his hand.

“I couldn’t help but notice, you have a child now. Wow, how time flies…” he says with a nostalgic air.

"Yes..."

 When Fernando arrived in that city, Otmar was his first boss. The older vampire offered him a proposal to work for him at the old mechanic shop in the city, which ceased to exist after the two fought and Fernando left.

 A malice close to madness flowed from him, awakened by the sight of the blood that had always flowed from the necks of defenseless humans. Fernando abhorred the man since he met him, for being the traditional and petty vampire type who goes against all the values ​​that Fernando defends.

 Otmar loved to show off by saying how many human souls, overcome by despair, he took, counting the number on his fingers as if counting how many clouds there were in the sky.

 Mark advised him to give up that job that wasn't doing him any good and encouraged him to work in something that was more comfortable for him. That's how Fernando became a writer.

 In any human being's nightmare, Otmar qualifies as a monster.

“The little thing must be a lovely boy, if he isn’t giving you a headache. If I remember correctly, you were not a man who wanted children.”

 Fernando clenched his jaw.

“Oscar” he corrected before he could control it, irritated by Otmar calling the boy that way “His name is Oscar”

 The other vampire smiles, repeating the name “Oscar… yes, I'm sorry for bothering you, Fernando”

 Luckily he's next in line and can say goodbye to that unpleasant conversation. For this and other reasons, Fernando doesn't like coming to the city, living with other vampires who live their lives peacefully as if they hadn't killed innocent humans at last night's despicable dinner.

 He hopes this was the last time he saw Otmar.

Chapter Text

 Nicole lived in a small human-only village, with her parents and 2 older sisters. She was a beautiful and very intelligent girl, stealing sighs wherever she went.

 One day, Nicole decided to venture out and explore around the village alone. She lied to her older sister, saying that she was going to look for flowers behind the church, but in fact, she walked much further than that.

 She walked among the trees, believing she was being discreet, not knowing that she had caught the attention of someone who was also exploring that region.

 Later, when she stopped walking and looked around to see how far she had gone, Nicole noticed a pair of brown eyes staring at her from the trees.

 Her first reaction was to take a few steps back, with her hand against her chest in fright. Afterwards, when she took a closer look at that face, her shoulders relaxed and she felt her cheeks turn red.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you” said a boy, looking to be the same age as her. He takes a few steps forward, no longer hiding between the trees. Nicole thinks his voice suits his friendly face.

“It’s okay” she hesitates, remembering her parents’ stern warning not to talk to strangers “Who are you?”

 The boy smiles without showing his teeth “My name is Chris, what about you?”

“Nicole” she responds, hugging her body, shyly.

 From that day on, Chris and Nicole began meeting in the woods without their families knowing. They built a friendship on a basis of trust. Nicole was 15, Chris was 16. She knew he was a werewolf and stated several times that she was not afraid of him.

“I know you won’t hurt me.”

 Chris had decided to explore the forests further away from the city when he smelled a different smell and went to investigate. He was enchanted by Nicole's beauty, just like any boy their age, and followed her until his presence was noticed. He heard stories about humans but never had the chance to meet one.

 Truth be told, he fell in love with her very quickly, but convinced himself that they would be nothing more than friends. Besides being a werewolf, Chris had a simple, ordinary appearance that never attracted attention from any other girl. Why would Nicole be interested in a pale teenager with a button nose and dull brown hair and eyes? Not to mention the pimples that covered his face.

 Nicole was beautiful, with long golden hair, green eyes and pink lips. She was the smartest, funniest girl Chris had ever met, an angel on earth, a forbidden fruit.

 Even so, Nicole wanted to kiss him. And he loved kissing her.

 The two, whenever they could meet in secret, liked to talk about everything that happened while they were away. He sat against a tree and ran his hand through her hair while Nicole complained about her sisters, lying with her head in his lap.

 Chris said he had no siblings, he was raised by his overprotective mother who always peppered him with questions after he took a long shower after meeting Nicole, so the older woman wouldn't smell it. He never met his father.

 Being too young didn't stop them from feeling and saying how much they loved each other.

 Chris brought out his old Polaroid camera one day and took two photos, one for each.

“For you to remember me while we are apart” he said, leaning in to kiss her “And one for me to remember you”

 Their secret managed to last a few months. The middle daughter of the family noticed that her younger sister disappeared for several hours every few days, so, curious, she decided to follow Nicole one day.

 After witnessing her younger sister, the baby of the family, letting herself be hugged by a werewolf, she couldn't resist and told her parents after dragging Nicole home.

“What were you thinking?!” shouted the mother, scolding her daughter in the room.

 Nicole flinched, crossing her arms and trying to hold back the urge to cry. She is so angry, why did her sister decide to tell her? She wasn't doing anything wrong.

“He's dangerous and you were letting yourself be seduced by him” the older woman ran her hands over her forehead, feeling a little sweat build up.

"He is not-"

“Your mother didn't finish talking” her father scolded, equally furious “How many times did we warn you not to go too far? It seems like it wasn't enough! He must have already told everyone that there are humans living here!”

“Chris wouldn’t do that” Nicole defended him, refusing to wipe the tears that stream down her pretty face “He loves me”

 His parents laugh sarcastically and his mother responds bitterly.

“You don't know what love is, you're only 15 years old. You are too naive to believe he would love you.”

 That's not true, Chris loves her and she knows it. She would put her hand in the fire for this, completely convinced.

 Nicole hates how her parents reject any chance she asks to explain herself, she hates how her sisters laugh at her in the next room, talking about how she is too young and innocent.

 Chris, on the other hand, feeling the end was near, decided to face his mother and be honest with her.

“I fell in love with a human girl” his voice is serious as it has never been before “Her family found out and wants to stop us from dating. I love her very much and I don’t want that to happen.”

 His mother stared at him in silence for a few seconds, completely forgetting to finish cutting potatoes for dinner.

“I hope this is a joke, Christopher.”

 Even though he feels his body shaking, he puffs out his chest and faces her.

“It's not a joke” he swallows hard “I don't want them to find out where she lives and hurt her, I don't want to be away from her either. The problem is that her parents think we are dangerous-”

“You're not going to give up your life for a human girl” his mother retorts, angrily “Do you know what happens to werewolves who go into exile for humans? They become weak, without having their pack to protect them. Most often they die trying to protect their human partners and half-breed bastard children. You…” she pauses, massaging her forehead “You have so much potential, you can’t let a human ruin your life. Look, we can forget this conversation, I'll pretend this never happened and you can find a decent girl when you're older. There are a lot of other girls in the world who will fall in love with you, don't be fooled by a…” she curls her lip “a human girl”

 Chris clenches his fists, feeling the anger of injustice burn inside his body. He wants to scream, he wants to cry, he wants to say that Nicole is not just any girl, that he will never love again if it's not her.

 The young couple manage to find themselves hiding in the middle of the night. They hug and let each other enjoy a few seconds of that moment to kill the longing they've felt for each other in the last few days. He smells her hair and can feel tears of emotion welling up in his eyes.

"Oh my love. Don't cry” Nicole says, drying his tears with her thumb.

“But you're crying too” he says, holding her delicate face with both hands. Then he kisses her, and again, and again “I missed you”

"I missed you too"

"I can not live without you"

“I can not live without you too…” she leans in as if it were possible for his hand to touch her face even more. Then she gasps, looking at him with uncertainty “I couldn’t live without you.”

“I can't live without you either, my love” he says.

“I…” she swallows hard “I… what if we ran away?”

 Chris's eyes widen.

 Nicole is quick to continue saying “I was thinking about the time I was away from you and I realized that I would be eternally unhappy without you. If you want, we can run away together and go live in a place where there are others like us and we will be happy! I know what it means for a werewolf to go into exile, but I wouldn't ask for it if I didn't believe you loved me.”

 He nods without realizing “Yes, yes, I love you”

“So…” she bites her lower lip “Will you run away with me?”

 He nods his head again and fills her with kisses, unable to resist touching her. “Yes, I will become an exile for you. I love you so much, you are my life”

 She kisses him “I love you too, you are my life”

 So they plan to escape in the middle of the night in 3 days. Nicole and Chris acted normally with their families so as not to arouse suspicion, despite their hurt hearts carrying the sadness of their love being banned.

 But the ban on seeing each other again wouldn't stop the young couple from staying together, the love they felt for each other flared up like dry grass.

 In the middle of the night, Nicole packed her backpack and sneaked out without her parents noticing, running to meet her boyfriend.

 She didn't know she was already pregnant.

***

 Chris returned to camp after a successful hunt.

 He smiled as he approached and saw Nicole inside the nest he built, cradling her son in her arms.

 The werewolf walked straight to the fire, throwing some wood to make the fire bigger and fishing out his best knife strapped to his hip to cut off some pieces of the dead deer.

“Yay, dinner tonight will be good” Nicole says, raising her eyebrows excitedly.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, looking at her sideways.

 Nicole shrugged indifferently, “I can wait, but this little boy here might get impatient soon. Isn’t that right, my love?” she says in a sweet voice, poking the baby's little button nose.

“Mhmm” Chris mutters, preparing to roast a piece of meat “Then I’ll prepare dinner as quickly as I can.”

 Luckily for them, the only source of food their son needs is the milk that Nicole produces. Chris makes a point of hunting frequently to keep Nicole well-fed and strong enough to breastfeed their son.

“You can have a few more pieces of meat, I can't eat that much” she says, giving him a look.

 He pretends not to notice “It's okay, I don't feel that hungry” then he smiles, getting up to go clean his hands. Then he comes back and sits next to his mate, feeling proud to see the mating mark faded from her neck. “Can I hold him?”

“He’s your son, of course you can” she rolls her eyes, handing the baby into his awkward arms “Say 'hi' to daddy”

 Chris holds the baby cautiously, worried that he will use his strong lungs and cry loudly like last time.

“Hey, Oscar” he says, smiling at the baby “It’s me, daddy”

 The baby just stares back at him with its big brown eyes, babbling and drooling.

 It was scary when they discovered that Nicole was pregnant, a wave of despair took over the two teenagers and they almost chose to shamefully return home and ask their parents what they should do.

 But they were brave and kept walking.

 Chris had the hardest time setting up decent camps for them along the way and ensuring the safety of his pregnant girlfriend. When they approached a town, Nicole stayed behind and hid in the camp while Chris went after jobs that paid him a little money, he had gotten really good at carpentry and gardening in the last few months.

 Oscar decided to be born in the summer when they found a small abandoned cabin and decided to live there for a while. After 2 months, they continued their journey.

 They still haven't found the home they've been looking for.

 Nicole sighs, watching her son “He looks so much like you, the nose, the eyes… at least he has my hair”

 Chris frowned “What do you mean?”

"What? He's clearly blond” she says, stroking the small strands of hair that have started to grow.

“Uh… no” Chris laughs “He’s brunette, not blonde”

“Say whatever makes you feel better, this boy will grow up and still be blonde like his mommy” she leans over and kisses his head.

 Oscar laughs, but then grimaces and twists his lips, starting to cry.

 Chris hands him back to Nicole “Okay, I get it, he’s hungry. I will continue preparing your dinner.”

***

 Nicole is hanging out the clothes she just washed on the makeshift clothesline she proudly built between the trees, meanwhile, Chris is out working in the city and Oscar is sitting behind her, eating fruits.

 He is already 1 year and 2 months old and still isn't talking or walking, which worries her.

“You will talk and walk when you are ready” she said to him once as she rocked him in her arms and put him to sleep, enchanted by him as mothers tend to be with their babies.

 After hanging up the last of the clothes, she turned around and saw her little boy looking at her, obediently sitting with dirty hands and face.

“Aren’t you the most beautiful thing?” she says, using the hem of her clothes to wipe his cheeks.

 Chris returns a few hours later, tired after a long day. They still live in a camp, which frustrates him because he misses being able to lie down on a sofa.

 The werewolf lies down on the ground uncomfortably and lets the grass tickle his skin. Nicole walks past him and says.

“The ants will bite you”

 He doesn't care, he's tired.

 At least he got money.

 Oscar is sitting a few feet away from him, playing with a truck Chris bought him the other day.

"Are you ok?"

 Chris opens his eyes, not even realizing he closed them, and sees his angel crouching next to him with a curious expression.

“Yeah, I’m just tired. Tomorrow I'll be better"

 Nicole smiles, then looks at her son and then back at him. She pouts “With each passing day he looks even more like you”

“I thought that was a good thing,” Chris responds humorously.

“It's a good thing” she reinforces “I just feel a little jealous because I wish he was more like me. Well, at least he took after my main characteristic.”

“Your blonde hair”

“He is human like me”

 Chris pauses to think. It is true that there are chances of a mixed-race baby being born a werewolf or a human (as if it were possible to be born something else), until then Oscar only showed signs that he would be human like his mother.

“It’s true…” Chris says, leaning on his elbows to bring his face closer to Nicole’s “He couldn’t be more perfect than that”

 Nicole smiles, leaning in to kiss him, when her eyes catch sight of something above Chris' head.

 Her eyes widen and she can’t help but look so scared “Oscar!”

 Chris turns quickly and prepares to run and help his son, but Nicole grabs his arm and stops him. He falls into a sitting position, is about to ask what is wrong with her when he also sees the same thing that shocked her.

 Oscar is standing.

 For the first time he is standing without anyone's help.

 The boy looks at them and the parents look back, frozen, afraid to move a muscle and that moment will disappear.

 Nicole and Chris are dizzy when Oscar takes his first step, staggering towards them.

“Oh my god” she covered her mouth with her hands and felt her eyes moisten, while Chris held out his arms and encouraged his son to keep walking.

“Come on, buddy. Daddy will catch you”

 Oscar extends his arms equally and laughs, taking his last steps before falling forward and being caught by his father's hands. He laughs even more when he is kissed by his parents, silly and too emotional for that moment.

 They love this baby so much.

***

“96… 97… 98… 99… 100!” Nicole opened her eyes, finding nothing more than a tree staring back at her.

 She turns and looks around, considering her options. After deciding to take the left path, she goes after her goal. She gave Oscar enough time to look for a good hiding place.

 Chris and Nicole did everything they could to deprive him of the experience of just living with hate and pain in his soul. It's very difficult to explain to a 4-year-old child that there are werewolves in the world who aren't as good as his father. And even worse, there are vampires.

 Agreeing that Oscar is too young to know about the cruelty of the world, they decided to invent a way to teach him how to survive in the best way he could.

 Nicole looks for the most obvious places first, becoming proud when she doesn't find her son hiding in them. He's getting smarter and picking harder places.

 While they can't give Oscar a home, a real bed, more toys, hot food regularly... in short, a more dignified life, they will preserve his innocence. That's what they can do.

 Oscar loves playing hide and seek, especially when it's his turn to hide. His mother says he is very good.

 Nicole taught him that he should run as far as he can, not look back, find a place to hide and stay there, silent and with his eyes closed, hiding until she or daddy found him. That's how the game works, that's how Oscar survives.

 She stops walking, observing a bush. Nicole approaches cautiously and places her arms between the leaves and, in a sudden movement, she opens the way and can see her son curled up there in the middle.

 Oscar is scared but soon laughs, leaving his hiding place and crawling across the floor.

“You took a while to find me” he says.

“That means you're getting good, you're the best hide and seek player I've ever seen” she runs her fingers through his hair, trying to make it more organized. Just like Chris, Oscar's hair gets messy very easily.

 They play for a while longer, until Chris returns to camp with dinner.

 Oscar sits on his father's lap and lets himself be fed by him, mainly with bread and cheese and a little meat. Nicole prepares a bottle of milk for him and helps him drink it when Oscar leaves the comfort of his father's arms for his mother's. It doesn't take long for him to fall asleep.

 She rocks him a little and watches his eyelashes flutter in his sleep.

“Do you think we are the right parents for him? I feel like I don't know what I'm doing, I wish my mom was here to help me” she says wistfully.

 Their lives are going completely the opposite of what they planned, they have some regrets but none of them involve the love they feel for each other and for their son.

 Chris looks at his baby, never ceasing to feel mesmerized. It's very strange being a father “My mother would like to have a grandson, even though she said those things… I feel guilty for hiding the only grandson she has and will never know about.”

 They stand in silence staring at Oscar, the human being they put into this world who will only be cruel to him. If they could, they would preserve his childhood innocence forever, even if it meant continuing to travel and run away from bloodthirsty vampires.

It's scary to think that they are parents. Even though they have that immense responsibility, Chris and Nicole still feel like children. They miss their families, they miss having a home, all they want most is to be children again.

 Nicole lets her head rest on Chris's shoulder and he kisses her forehead.

 Even with the pain, they would never give up Oscar.

***

 They have been traveling for days and still haven't found a safe enough place to set up camp. The weather changed and became colder, Chris gave Oscar his coat to keep warm, the boy closed his eyes and breathed in his father's scent while being carried in his mother's arms.

 Chris walks ahead, diverting their path to walk further away from a nearby city. He looks up at the sky and clenches his jaw, it's going to rain soon, which means they need to hurry.

 They managed to escape a storm in the last town they crossed, perhaps they won't be so lucky this time.

 Nicole yawns, tired of carrying Oscar. Chris notices and turns his head to suggest she let him carry their child, but he gets distracted by noticing something else.

 A car is approaching on the road on the horizon, which is a sign of danger because it means they can be seen.

 The werewolf analyzes his options, the quickest way to avoid being seen is to enter the forest.

“Let's walk through the forest, if not they can' see us” he says, placing a hand on Nicole's back and forcing her to walk faster. Any flicker of sleep disappeared from her body with that comment and she made sure to walk faster.

 They walk nervously through the forest. Chris sharpens his senses to check if the car has moved away, leaving Nicole to walk ahead with Oscar. She is always anxious when she needs to run away, cradling her son against her chest as if she could merge her body with his.

 Chris heard the car's engine stop and the presence of some creature following their tracks through the forest, probably scenting them.

“Keep walking, I’ll lose him and then I’ll catch up with you.”

 Nicole stops walking and turns around, eyes distressed.

“Chris, don’t-”

“It’s okay, my love. We’ve done this before, remember?” he says, holding her face tenderly and showing her the smile she loves so much “Keep walking. You know I'll be back”

 She holds back the urge to resist when she remembers Oscar's presence in her arms.

“Alright… don’t take too long, okay?”

 Chris smiles, kissing her forehead one last time before dropping his luggage behind a tree and turning around, heading to find and lose whoever is following them.

 It's okay, they've done this a million times.

 Nicole sighs heavily and turns around, continuing walking.

 She walks several meters, looking back many times. With each passing second her nervousness only grows, agonizing over Chris' delay.

 Oscar tried to get to sleep but gave up after realizing that his mother won't stop shaking him in her arms all the time. He looks up and sees her worried face, which makes him feel insecure.

 When they are in the heart of the forest, Nicole can't take it anymore. She wants to throw herself on the floor and cry, needing Chris' strength to lift her off the ground. He's never taken this long before, she fears the worst.

 Her hearing identifies approaching footsteps and her heart freezes when she doesn't recognize who those footsteps belong to.

“Chris…” she whimpers, scared.

 Nicole feels at that moment that she will never see the love of her life, her soulmate, again and that if she wanted to do something to change her destiny and of her son there would only be one thing to do.

 She knew the two wouldn't survive together.

“O-Oscar, my love…” she puts him down, holding him by the shoulders. With a fake smile, she says “Let's… let’s play hide and seek now, okay?”

 The boy tilts his head to the side, confused “Now?” he looks up at the sky, seeing nothing but the darkness of the tree leaves.

“Yes, now” she takes a deep breath “You will hide and I will count to 100. Find a really good hiding place, the best you can, and stay hidden until I find you. Do not, under any circumstances, leave your hiding place… until I find you” her voice began to waver as she spoke, using all the self-control in her body to not cry.

“Okay, mommy,” Oscar responds, excited by the idea of ​​playing.

 Nicole looks closely at his face, wanting to memorize every feature of her precious boy that she loves so much.

“You’re just like your father…” she leans over and hugs him one last time “Now go, run!”

 And Oscar does, he turns and runs.

 For a few seconds she lets herself see Oscar's figure disappear between the trees, unaware that it was a goodbye.

 Nicole runs in the opposite direction and catches the attention of the vampire who was following them the whole time, who finds her, already stained with Chris's blood, so he can kill her in her son's place. She prays to god or whoever is listening that Oscar runs away, to a safe place, and that maybe he will find a kind soul who will take care of him the way he deserves.

 Oscar finds the perfect hiding place. He goes into a hole inside a tree and stays there, as quiet as he can, no matter how much he feels like laughing. Playing hide and seek is so fun.

 The boy stayed like that for a while, until it soon started to rain. He removed his hands from covering his eyes and looked worriedly up at the sky. He thinks if his mother will be able to find him in the rain and waits. It's taking longer than last time, maybe he'll win the game by staying hidden longer.

 A loud thunder scares him, he shrinks into his father's coat, which is very large and covers his entire body.

 Mom always tells him not to play in the rain because he might get sick, so maybe she's looking for him to tell that the game is over and now they're going to sleep.

 Oscar came out of hiding and walked back along the path he thought was the one he came from before. The rain makes his father's coat heavier and he is forced to leave it behind, promising that he will remind his father about it later and then they will come back for it.

 He walks a few meters through the rain, trying to find his mother. Another loud thunder startles him and he quickens his pace.

 Further ahead, Oscar sees a figure moving. Believing is his mother, he starts running, relieved to have found her. They can play hide and seek tomorrow if it's not raining anymore.

 The boy opens his mouth and is about to call his mother when the figure turns and faces him from afar, Oscar's body freezes in place.

 That thing looks at him with fierce eyes and huge teeth, big fangs covered in blood. Not just in his mouth, there was blood on his clothes and face, as if he devoured his prey in an animalistic and savage way.

 Oscar comes to no other conclusion than that it's the monster from the stories his father told him, so he doesn't hesitate to turn his back and run.

 He runs as fast as he can, scared, feeling like he is being chased by the monster. He wants to cry. Where are his parents?

"Mommy!" he shouts, desperately calling out “DADDY!”

 Oscar runs until he trips over his own feet and falls to the ground. He groans painfully and tries to open his eyes, but a bright light blinds his vision and he has to cover his eyes with his hands again.

 A figure approaches, emerging from behind that bright light. It's a man, and he's talking to him.

"I hurt you? Are you ok?" the man asks worriedly.

 Oscar looks towards the forest where he came from and doesn't see the monster, he must have been scared by that man because he is very tall.

“You’re shaking,” the man says, crouching down beside him.

 Oscar looks up and can now see that man's face. The man does the same, looking carefully at him until he raises his eyebrows, as if he has noticed something.

“You’re okay now, buddy. Let me take care of you” he says in a soft voice.

 He doesn't know why he let that man hold him on his arms and put him in the car, but when his nose touched his clothes and he breathed in… it felt right to trust and hold on to him as if his life depended on it. The coat the man was wearing smelled similar to his father's.

  The man drives away from the forest, casting glances at the shocked boy beside him. Oscar can only think that he managed to escape the monster that lives in the forest.

 The boy also wonders if his mother will continue looking for him.

Chapter Text

 It was impossible to lose sight of Mark with his exceptional height, the moment Nico saw him approaching the gate the blonde asked another teacher to keep an eye on the children and walked towards him.

“Hi, Nico. Everything is fine?" the werewolf asked, his usual easy smile on his lips. Obviously he notices that something is different, because the vampire didn't come with Oscar this time. “Where's Oscar?”

“Another teacher is watching him, I wanted to talk to you in private” he replies.

 Mark's smile becomes tense, he watches Nico shake his hands. “Did something happen?”

 Nico sighs, preparing to say the rehearsed speech he's been telling to the parents since earlier.

“Nothing serious happened to your son, but it is still important to raise awareness. A strange man was seen walking around the school today, watching the children and trying to talk to them. We have a security system and we have already informed the police about this, but we also need to ask parents not to be late to pick up their children. You know, Mark, I deliver Oscar to you every day, but there are other children I need to take care of and I don't want my misdirection to result in a missing child.”

 The werewolf clenches his jaw, a movement Nico quickly notices.

“The good news is that nothing bad happened and we intend to keep it that way” the blonde continues speaking “Now, if you have a few minutes, can you follow me to the secretary so we can update the contact numbers? It's also important that you give the list of people who can pick up Oscar if you don't show up at the right time.”

 Mark follows him obediently, trying to ignore the bitter feeling of worry growing in his chest. He finds Oscar waiting sitting on a bench, oblivious to the danger.

 When they get home, Mark tells Fernando what Nico said.

 Fernando doesn't take his eyes off the computer, even though he's not writing or reading anything. He can hear and feel the boy's presence upstairs, that's enough for him to swallow his worry.

“You always arrive on time, I even believe that you've been waiting in front of the gate since the moment you hand it to Nico in the morning” he says, trying to make the other more relaxed “And anyone who sees your height will think twice before trying to kidnap Oscar.”

“This is serious, Nando” Mark says, standing next to him with his hands on his hips “I'm not just talking about a man who might want to hurt Oscar, what if he's looking for him because he found out he's human?”

 This makes the vampire turn his head and look up, staring directly into those green eyes. Mark furrows his eyebrows, waiting for an answer.

“If anyone had found out about Oscar, the police would already be knocking on our door.”

 The werewolf rolls his eyes, not believing that his friend is taking this seriously.

“Nando-”

“I'm serious” interrupts him “The first second it reaches the police that we have a human child in this house, but that he is not being served for dinner, they would be here the next second to take Oscar away and do the whatever they want with him.”

 Mark purses his lips, without looking away.

“But what if someone finds out and wants to kill him and doesn’t report us to the police?”

 Fernando prefers not to worry about a problem that doesn't exist, so far they've taken a lot of risks but they've done everything right. Oscar is safe. It's not like they don't follow every step he takes.

 He hears the boy's footsteps upstairs, leaving the room, then going down the first few steps of the stairs, probably coming to ask about dinner.

“No need to be paranoid, he’s safe with us”

 After saying this, Oscar appears in his field of vision. He looks from side to side until he realizes they are in the living room. The boy slowly approached until he was a few centimeters away from Mark's leg and leaned towards him.

“Is dinner ready?” he asks shyly, rubbing his belly.

***

“I don’t need new clothes”

 Fernando looked him up and down, walking in front hand in hand with Oscar through the store.

"Yes, you need"

 Mark followed close behind, glaring sullenly at anyone who caught his eye.

 The vampire continued talking, speaking his reason “I'm the one who washes your clothes and organizes your wardrobe, I'm the first to notice when you need new shirts and underwear”

 The werewolf, who stopped to observe a green polo shirt, looked at him over his shoulder. Teasingly, he says “Are you taking care of my underwear?”

 Fernando ignores him and walks with Oscar to the dressing room area, with some options hanging on his free arm.

 Mark was surprised when it was Fernando who wanted to leave the house and go into town, but that just meant the vampire wanted to buy clothes. Mainly clothes for Mark.

 He doesn't notice what's wrong with his clothes, but every 6 months the vampire decides that he needs to replace his old clothes with better ones. He grimaces and snorts, pretending he doesn't like the other man taking care of him.

 Oscar follows them throughout the store with his red car, looking with little interest at the clothes and employees walking around, asking if they need help with a nervous smile.

 Fernando always scares them away, determined. He doesn't like when these young employees want to give opinions on what clothes will make Mark more handsome, he already knows what will make him more handsome.

 When Mark is inside the dressing room, changing, and Fernando is waiting outside to judge as a 'clothes-that-suit-Mark' expert, Oscar is sitting nearby, playing with his car.

 Mark gets irritated by the noise the curtain makes when he pushes it aside and shows how the shirt fits on his body. He spins in place with arms outstretched, letting the vampire watch.

 Fernando puts a hand on his chin and murmurs “I liked the shirt, but those pants don’t look good on you”

 Mark looks at him offended “I came with these pants from home!”

 The other one widens his eyes, as if he had the right to be offended. “I didn’t buy that rubbish for you, when did you do that?”

“Jenson and I-”

 The vampire snorts, “Of course, why is that cur always involved in these things?” He takes out a pair of pants he selected earlier and hands them to Mark “Put these on and let me see, if they look good you can burn this shit later”

 The werewolf holds the pants and opens his mouth to protest, but Fernando shuts him up with just one look and he goes back into the dressing room with his tail between his legs.

 Fernando turns his head and smiles, seeing Oscar playing.

 They do this for a while, Mark wears the clothes Fernando wants, Fernando decides whether to buy them or not and every now and then he goes looking for other clothes. The werewolf observes himself in the mirror and allows himself to be admired. Luckily his bossy friend knows what he likes to wear and selects the best options. If Fernando hadn't cut off his ears before, Mark would still allow him to take care of his hair too.

 It means he cares, it's Fernando's way of taking care of people. Okay, he doesn't go shopping with Jenson, Sebastian, much less Lewis, maybe he cares about Mark differently.

 Mark reveals the last outfit he would be trying on that day, already tired. The vampire wrinkles his nose, no longer liking the stripes on the shirt now that he's seen how they look on Mark's body. He says this to the werewolf, who snorts.

 He was about to start to answer something, undoubtedly tired of the criticism, when the vampire noticed with more curiosity than concern that the toy car, which Oscar was playing with, was on the floor.

 His concern only arises when he realizes that the boy is not around.

“Where is Oscar?” he says, looking around.

 Mark sensed a nervous energy building within him, ready to erupt like a volcano. He comes out of the dressing room and starts looking, calling for the boy.

“Oscar?”

“Oscar!”

 Fernando and Mark begin to despair when the seconds pass and they still don't find Oscar. How could he have disappeared so quickly? The vampire remembers what Mark said, about the man walking near the school, and despairs for deluding himself into thinking he shouldn't worry. He underestimated Mark.

 A store employee approaches them and offers help, soon, more people start looking for Oscar. It's not a big store, so it shouldn't take long. They meet a security guard who works at the store and give him a description of the boy.

“He has brown hair and eyes, 5 years old, about that height…” Mark says, because Fernando is too nervous to be able to speak “He’s wearing an orange coat and dark brown pants, blue sneakers”

 The security guard nods “Is he a vampire or a werewolf?”

"What?!" Fernando exclaims.

 The security guard looks between them “That way it will be easier to find him”

“He’s… he’s a werewolf,” the vampire responds, clenching his fists angrily.

“Okay” he passes the last information to another security guard on the other side of the walkie-talkie, then says to Mark “We are going to find your son”

 Seeing that authorities were taking charge of the case, store employees returned to work. Mark and Fernando stood in a corner, the werewolf's arm wrapped around the other's shoulders, trying to calm him and himself, while the vampire held tight the red toy car. The security guard who spoke to them stood nearby, wandering around talking into his walkie-talkie.

 After an eternity, he came to talk to them.

“Good news, they found a boy matching your son’s description” again, speaking only to Mark, although he had a strange look at the werewolf’s arm comforting the vampire.

 Coming from outside the store, another man dressed in the same safety gear approaches with a child in his arms.

 Fernando runs towards him, ready to hug Oscar and forget about this episode so they can go home, where it's safe, but he freezes in the middle of the way.

“This is not Oscar”

 Mark also approaches and notices that the boy in the security guard's arms has the same characteristics he described about Oscar, including his clothes, but it is not Oscar. He is another boy who got lost.

 The two security guards looked at each other, confused, believing that they had solved the problem. Now they have a child without their parents and parents without their child.

 Fernando felt the blood drain from his head and his ears were ringing.

 Mark held his hand firmly and let him lean on him. His eyes brimmed with the same concern.

 They continue searching, more desperate this time. Fernando staggers through the store, not knowing what to do, leaving Mark to talk to the security guard. The vampire feels like he might faint, vomit, or both, he doesn't feel well.

 He puts his hand on his forehead and takes a deep breath, trying to regain his strength and do something useful besides whining. Mark talks to him, but the vampire doesn't listen. Fernando only realizes that he is sitting down when his senses gradually begin to return.

 Within his field of vision he can see Mark arguing furiously with the security guard, a scene he believes he has never seen before. He's usually the one who loses control and fights with people, while Mark is the one who offers a reassuring smile and rests his hand on his back.

 Fernando saw his friendly werewolf transform before his eyes into someone fierce and ready to fight if it meant they would bring Oscar back.

 The store's front door opens and closes, the sound attracts the vampire's attention as it seems to be too loud for his ears. He feels his body freeze again and then start moving as if he were in the middle of a race.

“OSCAR” he can't contain his relief when he sees his boy, the right one, in the arms of a woman he doesn't mind looking twice at. When he sees Oscar, he runs towards him and wraps him in his arms protectively, leaving no chance of taking him away from him again.

 Mark joins them just as Fernando is squeezing the boy, the werewolf immediately smells his hair and feels his entire body relax. His breath shakes with relief.

“Oscar, darling” Fernando says, in a crying voice, making the boy look at him. There are no injuries, fortunately “What happened? Why did you walk away from me? From us?"

 Oscar looks at them and blinks 3 times before starting to speak, shyly “I… uh…” he looks around, as if embarrassed by his attitude, then fixes his eyes on Fernando again “Sorry, I wanted to play hide and seek… sorry”

 Mark and Fernando sigh. Even though the attitude was wrong and will certainly give them nightmares, nothing worse happened to the boy and they managed to find him.

 The werewolf kisses his forehead several times, never getting tired of it. “You can't play hide and seek when we're in public, much less without telling us. Something very dangerous could have happened.”

 Oscar flinches “A monster?”

 Fernando runs his hand through his hair, as if he could dispel the idea with this gesture “Don't worry about monsters, we'll take care of you”

 When Oscar is sitting in the car on the way home, watching the scenery out the window, he can't help but think about what happened today. Mark and Fernando found him during hide and seek, even though he went far and found a very difficult hiding place (which a security guard found him, because under a bench is not a very good hiding place after all...), which makes them the best hide and seek seekers he has ever met.

 When mommy and daddy find him, maybe Mark and Fernando can be friends with them too.

***

 It rained throughout the day and continues to rain at night, with strong thunder that reminds Fernando of the fragile houses in the story of the 3 little pigs. But their house is strong and won't fall, fortunately.

 The vampire looks out the window, watching the battle of lights in the sky. This night reminds him of the night Mark found Oscar.

 Thinking about Mark again, Fernando groans in frustration.

 Had the werewolf sent some doubts into his head over the past few days, or was weeks? The problem only got worse after recalling the awkward conversations he had with his friends, all of whom subtly (sometimes not) drop hints that Mark is in love with him.

 Even if it's true, which he's not sure, Fernando doesn't understand. He knows himself better than anyone, he also believes that he knows the werewolf very well after all these years.

 The vampire wants to know what it is about him that makes Mark think he is so special.

 Rising from his chair at the same second that loud thunder sounds, Fernando abandons his computer and hurriedly walks up the stairs. He knows it's the middle of the night and the werewolf is certainly sleeping in a deep sleep, but now that his mind has decided to implant doubts inside his mind he needs to be satisfied.

 Fernando doesn't knock on the door before entering, his hand finds the switch in a familiar way and stares at the man lying on the bed. Mark jumps when the bright light from the lamp interrupts his sleep and groans miserably, trying to block the light with his arm. Still confused by sleep, he sees a blurry figure standing in front of his bed.

"Nando?" he asks in a voice hoarse with sleep.

 The vampire's body trembles, he wants to turn around and pretend this never happened, like a coward, but he continues to stand there and can't hold back the words that come out of his mouth next.

“Why are you sleeping without a shirt?”

 Mark, not yet fully awake, takes a while to understand the question, more worried about not going blind. Since when are these lamps so bright?

“It makes me more comfortable…” now it’s his turn to ask the questions “What are you doing here? Did something happen to Oscar?”

 Fernando doesn't miss the chance and takes a good look at the werewolf's body before sitting on the other side of the bed. Mark yawns and sits up in bed and looks at him, one eye open and one closed, hair messy, still shirtless.

 The vampire won't mention it.

“Oscar is fine, he’s not the one I want to talk about.”

“Can you… turn off the light? I think I'm blind in my right eye and I'm afraid the same thing will happen to my left.”

 And Fernando does, he gets up and goes to turn off the light, then returns to the same place as before. This time he can't see Mark like he used to, but maybe it's better that there's darkness between them as he says what he has to say.

 Although vampires and werewolves see well in the dark.

“What do you want to talk about… that you couldn’t wait until tomorrow?” Mark laughs, rubbing his face with his hands.

 It's now.

 With all the seriousness he can muster, Fernando looks at the other man and asks.

“Are you in love with me, Mark?”

 Mark's smile quickly fades.

"What?"

“Uh, well, our friends were very clear about this matter after we started pretending to be in love.”

“And do you believe what they say?” The werewolf's voice is different from normal, it's emptier, the vampire twists his lip because he thinks it doesn't suit him.

“Not really, that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I've been thinking about it for days and it's… weird” Mark swallows hard at the use of that word “They always make jokes about silly things, so I didn't believe it”

“Is this a silly thing?”

“Mark” Fernando sighs, softening his voice “For me this is all confusing and the last thing I want is to fight with you, of all people. I thought about it so much because Sebastian said you talk about me whenever you get the chance, Jenson said I'm the only person you've been interested in mixing scents with, Lewis said you... that you love me and it stresses me out because I don’t understand what it is in me that could make you-”

 Mark is kissing him.

 Fernando doesn't have time to react because the werewolf's lips soon move away from him. The tingling sensation remains, as if his lips were burning.

 He tries to meet Mark's eyes but the werewolf refuses to look at him, turning his body to pick up his forgotten t-shirt on the floor. Fernando wants to hold him by the shoulders and shake him hard, demand answers, what is this damn kiss supposed to mean? You did not answer the question!

 Loud thunder sounds again, the vampire even forgot about the rain. It doesn't take long for them to hear footsteps running into the room and Oscar appears, rubbing his eyes.

“Scared” he whimpers.

“Come here, buddy” Mark says, opening space between Fernando and him (Fernando sees that he wants to move away from him). The boy jumps onto the bed and quickly settles himself between the two, using Mark's arm as a pillow.

“Mark” Fernando tries to talk, but the werewolf silences him.

“Oscar needs to sleep…” he swallows hard before adding “We can talk tomorrow”

 Fernando sighs, watching the two snuggle together in bed to try to sleep once again. Feeling like it's a losing battle, he tries to get up and leave the two alone, but Oscar calls him out.

“No, Nano” he hits his little hand on the side of the bed he was on before “Stay”

 Mark pretends to be already asleep and doesn't move when Fernando comes back and lies down on Oscar's other side. The vampire watches his chest rise and fall as he breathes and thinks, as he runs his fingers through the boy's hair the way he likes, that he won't let the werewolf get away with this conversation.

 Mark can ignore his feelings, but Fernando needs him to know what to do with his.

Chapter Text

 They don't talk the next day.

 Mark acts like a stranger, running away from Fernando with any excuse he can come up with, just to not be alone with him for more than 2 minutes.

 This is driving the vampire crazy.

 He can't forget the short feeling of Mark's lips touching his. If Fernando closes his eyes, he can make that moment last a little longer than a few seconds, so he becomes frustrated that he is being left wanting more.

 Mark has no right to 1) Not answer his question, and 2) Kiss him without any explanation, Fernando needs to know what that means.

 While the werewolf is brave, he also can be a coward.

 They can forget about the kiss if that's what Mark wants, Fernando can get used to it. Kissing his best friend won't make their relationship awkward, not if he can help it.

 Maybe that's what the other person wants, to forget that matter. He just kissed him to make him shut up, it didn't mean anything. Although Mark had never made him stay quiet like that before.

 The two have been acting strange since Oscar appeared, as if the child's small presence was responsible for awakening very well-kept feelings.

 Fernando watches Mark ignore him throughout the day, avoiding his gaze and his attempts to talk. The more he insists, the more the werewolf seems to get angry, which is strange because Mark doesn't usually show his irritation so easily.

 The two pretend that there isn't tension in the air when they are around Oscar, but they realize that they are doing a terrible job when they notice the curious looks that the boy gives them. He is the excuse Mark uses most for not being close to Fernando.

“I’m going to help Oscar eat”

“I need to give Oscar a bath”

“Oscar wants me to play with him”

 This irritates him, Fernando didn't realize how much he disliked being left out of the tasks of taking care of Oscar. Even if it's to wipe his dirty nose, the vampire wants to be part of it, but Mark is stealing all the boy's attention for himself.

 He tries to be patient and give Mark his space, but by the third day he's had enough of it.

“Mark, we need to talk” he says just as Mark is walking up stairs.

“Later, Oscar needs to-” he tries to say.

“Oscar can wait, I can’t” Fernando interrupts him, grinding his teeth “You can’t run away from me forever, Mark Webber”

 The werewolf looked at him coldly and Fernando resisted the urge to show his true emotions. Mark has never been cold to him or ignored him, this irritates him and makes him sad at the same time. His Mark isn't like that, not with him.

 Whatever is going on needs to change, the vampire wants his sweet werewolf back.

 Mark goes down some steps and walks until he is a few meters away, Fernando inhales before starting to speak and feels calmer with the familiar smell of coffee.

“We need to talk about our last conversation… and the kiss.”

 Mark shows no reaction and responds with “Why?”

 It has to be a joke “Why?” the vampire repeats “Because I want to understand if our friends were just making fun of us, or if we pretended to be in love with each other so well that they believed it, and why you kissed me!”

 He hates that the werewolf snorts and looks away from him.

“Why do you say these things?” Mark asks, rough as sandpaper. “Sometimes you can be so insensitive when you talk about feelings, including me in your indifference, that I don't feel strong enough to fight back. Are you angry because I kissed you? Well then, I’m sorry!”

 Fernando takes a step back, unaccustomed to the other's heated mood. “Why are you angry?”

 Mark laughs, but it doesn't seem amused "I'm angry because I never pretended I was in love with you, while for me it was the easiest thing in the world to show you that I love you... for you it was a game, and I know it was me that invented the lie, I just didn’t think it would hurt me so much to see that you… you don’t like me”

 Fernando's body didn't know whether to make him pale from the confession or blush, he felt difficulty breathing regularly due to the shock. His silence makes Mark's face sad, his shoulders slump in dismay.

“Please, Nando. Don’t pretend you never noticed that i love you”

 Mark is without a doubt a handsome man, a virile and masculine beauty. His very distinct features always stole a little more attention from the vampire and just maybe, maybe, he was inspired by his appearance to write about beautiful characters in his books.

 But Mark has no right to look good now, not when they're arguing. He has no right to be beautiful and confess his love to him in this desperate way, already convinced that he is not loved in return.

 How could he not notice Mark's love?

 Because of Fernando's slow reaction, Mark is convinced that he is being mocked, that the vampire is making him say all those things so that don't mean anything, so he makes to turn around and go up the stairs again.

 Fernando reacts in the blink of an eye, grabbing the werewolf's arm.

“Wait” he laughs nervously, still processing all that information “You can't say things like that and expect me to have an answer ready to give you. I confess that sometimes I noticed something different between us... but I didn't pay any attention because you were always my best friend, Mark. You were always by my side” Fernando widens his eyes as if a movie was playing in his head “It was always you by my side”

 Mark looks at him, uncertain, but allows himself to be pulled back and held by the vampire. It seems that if Fernando is not allowed to touch him, the vampire will faint right there.

“I know it took me a while to realize how we felt about each other and I created barriers between us so I didn't realize…” Fernando says, looking straight into Mark's eyes. His hands run up his arms to his shoulders, then rest on the back of his neck as if they belong there “That was my biggest mistake”

 Without any hesitation and wanting this since last time, the vampire pulled the werewolf into a kiss.

 As if he had lost control of his own body, Mark leans forward and takes his time to enjoy the sensation, letting his hands explore and touch Fernando's back, waist and finally hold Fernando's hips and gradually pull him closer. Increasing the intensity of the kiss, but nothing too fast.

 Fernando's hands go up to the werewolf's hair and disorganize all the strands, then they go down and he puts his fingers behind his ears. His slightly long nails scratch the skin at the back of his neck, teasing slowly, and Mark can't hold back the murmur of approval.

 They part their lips and look at each other. If Fernando thought Mark was handsome before, after that kiss he seems even more so. An unconscious smile appears on his lips when he thinks he needs to leave the werewolf like that more often to see the vision of Mark with his swollen lips and dilated pupils.

“I feel like I've waited 100 years for you” the werewolf says, leaning in to steal another kiss “And I would wait a lot longer if I could have you like this”

 The vampire laughs, accepting another kiss “But werewolves don’t live as long as vampires.”

 Mark pauses, thinking about what the other said “So that’s the same as saying I would have loved you for all my eternity”

 This makes Fernando's heart hurt, he doesn't want to think about one day living without Mark.

“I would also love you for all my eternity”

 The werewolf smiles and hugs him warmly. Hugs were reserved for moments that were meaningful to them. Fernando wasn't used to lasting more than 3 seconds in a hug and Mark much less. But when they both knew they needed it, found comfort in each other's arms and stayed like that for a minute or more, it was something special and exclusive to them.

 Fernando previously loved Mark's hugs in secret, because that was when he could close his eyes and breathe in, smell his perfume. The strong arms around him conveyed a sense of security and comfort, like bandaging a scraped knee or holding someone's hand before crossing the street.

 Mark became aware of something moving around his feet. He looked down and saw Oscar squeeze between the adults' knees and join in the hug. Even though his cheek was squeezed together, making his face form a strange grimace, he looked happy.

"Hug!" the boy said, fun to be there.

 Fernando holds him in his arms to give him a more appropriate group hug, after a few seconds Oscar asks.

“Why are we hugging?”

 The adults laugh and can't resist kissing his head.

“We are happy, so we hug” Mark explains.

“Let me guess why you came looking for us…” the vampire pokes the boy’s belly, causing some laughter “You came to ask about dinner”

 The boy hides his face in the hollow of his neck and nods, embarrassed.

“It’s okay” the werewolf makes circles with his hand on the child’s back “Luckily, we can start preparing dinner now”

***

 Oscar was a big fan of the food that Fernando prepared, but since he started attending school (and became friends with Lando) he started saying that he no longer liked the vegetables that were served on his plate.

“I don't like green things” said the boy before pushing a plate of broccoli away, making a face.

 Fernando watched this in confusion, two days ago Oscar devoured an entire plate of broccoli.

 Mark especially blames Lando, the oldest child shared his likes and dislikes and then suddenly Oscar didn't want to eat fish.

“But you like fish” the werewolf said, trying to convince the boy to eat.

 Oscar shook his head “I don’t like anymore”

 It was a challenge that they could not have imagined facing with such difficulty, half of the things that were useful to the boy before were no longer appreciated, all because of the influence of friendships.

“He's doing this because he sees Lando as an example and wants to be like him” Nico explained calmly after Mark was disappointed to hear that Oscar didn't eat all of his lunch “But there's something you can do to improve this behavior”

"What?"

“Well, you’re his father, Mark. If he sees that you eat vegetables and like them, he will want to imitate you” the blonde smiles “No son can resist the chance to look like his father”

 Mark shared the idea with Fernando and they came up with a plan.

 The next time they went to dinner, the vampire cooked all the things that Oscar liked to eat before, but that he 'doesn't like anymore'. The boy doesn't seem happy to see carrots and peas on his plate, that's when Mark needs to act.

“Wow, I love eating carrots” the werewolf says, eating some and enjoying “Did you know, Nando, that carrots are very good for our health?”

"Really? I didn't know that” the man replies, pretending to be impressed by that information.

“Yes, that's why I like eating carrots. Peas are also very good, it’s thanks to them that I’m this tall.”

 Oscar listens to the adults talking and watches his plate of food. If he stops eating these things will he stop growing too? He doesn't want to be small, he wants to be as big as Mark is.

 The boy holds his fork and picks up a carrot, bringing it to his mouth and eating it. It doesn't taste bad, he likes it.

“I'm going to be tall too” he says, showing that he is also eating the peas.

 Mark and Fernando look at each other, victorious.

 When Oscar goes to school the next day, he tells Lando about his incredible discovery, and warns that the other boy needs to eat more vegetables or else he will continue to be short.

 Offended, Lando responds “Who’s short here?!”

 But of all the food he has ever eaten, Oscar's greatest passion is chocolate cake. It seems like there's always more space inside his stomach for one more piece. Because of this little sugar addiction, Mark only bakes the cake rarely.

 The werewolf feels in a good mood one day and decides to stop by the market before picking up Oscar from school and buying the ingredients he needs. As a chocolate admirer, he makes a point of preparing the best cake ever.

 After properly eating dinner and eating some lettuce and some tomatoes, Oscar is allowed to eat a slice of cake.

 Mark and Fernando have been dancing around each other since discovering their feelings, acting shamefully like teenagers in love. They are content with innocent touches when the boy is present and a few glances, which they eagerly wait for the time to put Oscar to sleep much more than before.

 It's those moments when they can enjoy each other, when Oscar is at school and when he's sleeping.

 The werewolf's hand itches with the desire to touch Fernando's cold skin under his clothes, but he just plays with his knuckles on the table and hears the vampire say inspiredly the end of his book and how it is. Happy to finally be in the final stretch of his work.

“After I send it to the publisher we can, maybe, go on vacation some weekend” he says.

 Mark raises his eyebrows “Vacation? Where?"

“Ah, I don’t know” Fernando pretends to think indifferently “Maybe somewhere with a beach, you like swimming, don’t you?”

 One corner of Mark’s mouth turned up. “Wait… seriously?”

 The vampire nods “Yes, why not? It would be nice to have a weekend of our own, away from the routine. I don't think Oscar has ever seen the sea.” At the mention of the boy, Fernando turned his head to look at him and observed the exact moment when Oscar was about to take another piece of cake, a larger one than usual. Feeling a flash of concern, he leaned toward the boy.

“Oscar, this piece of cake is really big. You know you might end up feeling sick if you eat too much” he warned gently.

 The boy looked at him with his cheeks and mouth smeared with chocolate, a scene that deserves to be captured with a photo before they clean him up.

 Mark smiled at Fernando and caressed his hand “It's okay if he eats one more piece, my love. We can save what’s left for tomorrow.”

 The vampire looked at him and repeated “My love?”

“Yes… is everything okay?”

 It's the first time they've mentioned pet names, so the werewolf smiles nervously to avoid showing that he's unsure of saying the wrong thing.

 But Fernando likes it, he's not sure if what influences him is Mark's warm hands in his or if it's those green eyes.

“It’s okay, yes…” then he adds “My love?”

 Mark laughs “My love”

"My love"

"My-"

 Oscar burps loudly.

 The adults look at him amazed at how strong that burp was, the boy looks back and laughs.

 Mark raises a fist and punches the air as if celebrating a goal for his favorite football team “That’s my boy!”

***

 Mark and Fernando lay down together on the werewolf's bed, amidst a mess and disorganization, to see who takes off which item of the other's clothing first.

 Fernando asks the other to raise his arms and takes off his shirt. Mark can't resist nibbling on the vampire's neck while unbuttoning his pants, murmuring in his ear in a deep voice.

“I’ve been waiting for this all day.”

 Fernando moans, responding breathlessly “Me too”

 Soon the two are under the covers, making out while touching each other, too drunk on the sensation. Mark pushes and Fernando scratches his shoulders and back, not resisting leaving some bites that will heal soon.

 Letting himself be seduced in this intimate moment is much more intense when his partner is his best friend for many years. It feels right, it feels like they finally found the answer, the only missing piece was this.

 Suddenly Mark stops and looks at Fernando, who looks back confused.

"What?"

“Did you hear that?”

 The only thing the vampire can hear at that moment is how the werewolf's heart is racing.

“No, why are you-”

“Shhh” Mark silences him “Listen”

 Then Fernando listens. It's muffled but soon starts to get louder, like small footsteps approaching the door hesitantly.

 Mark moves away from the other man and covers them just in time before Oscar turns the door handle and pokes his head into the room.

“O-Osc, buddy… uh, is everything okay?” the werewolf asks, mentally praying that the boy doesn't ask about any loud noises or if they're play fighting.

 However, the boy seemed more agitated and embarrassed than curious as to why Fernando and Mark are in bed together and covering themselves up to their shoulders with a blanket.

“My stomach was hurting and I threw up on my bed” he rubs his eyes, showing that he still feels tired “Can I sleep with you?”

 Fernando slaps Mark on the arm “I warned you that he shouldn’t eat that piece of cake”

Chapter Text

 Fernando is sitting in front of his computer, focused on writing an email to the publisher of his book. He wanted to make sure everything was perfect before submitting the final document.

 As he typed, Mark paced back and forth in the kitchen, preparing dinner and talking to him about… something, the vampire isn't sure because he can't concentrate on listening and writing at the same time. But he understands some subjects.

“We need to buy more milk”

“Oscar needs help with his homework, if you have some time later can you help him?”

“Jenson invited us to dinner at his house, in a week it’s his birthday. What should we buy?”

“I think I need to shave my beard...”

 Meanwhile, Oscar plays next to Fernando in the living room with his doll. He treats her as if she were his baby, cradling her in his arm while pretending to prepare her dinner. The doll's diet is blocks and cars.

 The boy also asked Fernando for attention, wanting the man to participate in his game.

“Look, Nano, she's going to sleep now,” Oscar says, placing the doll on a makeshift bed he built with sofa cushions. Then he sits next to the doll and holds her plastic hand, signaling to the vampire that they should be silent “Shhh, she’s sleeping”

 Fernando smiles, appreciating. He often caught the boy treating the doll the same way they treat him, imitating some lines that adults have. He needs to have a lot of self-control not to laugh when he hears Oscar's childish voice scolding the doll for using her bed (the pillows) as a trampoline.

 Once, Mark had the audacity to try to remove the doll sitting on the chair and, on top of that, call her a doll in front of Oscar. The boy promptly corrected him.

“Her name isn’t ‘doll,’ it’s Lily!”

 Fernando raises an eyebrow “Where did you hear that name?”

 The boy fixes her dress and leaves it in the same position as before “It’s the name of the girl who studies in the same class as me”

 So yes, Lily needs to be respected within this house like any other resident.

 Fernando felt distracted when he found himself getting lost in memories, also due to the constant interruptions. He tried to get back to writing the email, but was eventually interrupted by Mark or Oscar again.

 A few minutes later, the werewolf announced that dinner was ready and the boy got up from the floor and ran to the kitchen, taking Lily (obviously) with him. The vampire turned his head and said he was going, even if he wasn't going to eat he liked to participate in those moments, so he selected his book file and gave it a quick review before clicking send.

 As he usually did, Fernando sat next to Oscar and cut the pieces of meat into smaller sizes for the boy to eat. Mark took a sip of juice and snorted, the other man always thought he cut pieces of meat too big for a child to chew.

 The house seemed happier, even with the stress of the routine, it's as if sitting at the table and having dinner with those he cares about brought a feeling of satisfaction that Mark wants to get addicted to.

 Fernando debates what they could buy as a gift for Jenson and Mark says he saw some interesting things the last time he visited a store in the city.

“He might like a new toolbox,” the werewolf says.

 Fernando frowns and wipes the corner of Oscar’s lips with a napkin “What do you mean? What happened to his toolbox?”

“Do you remember how he calls me every week asking to borrow a tool? That guy has a knack for losing his stuff, now he doesn't have any tools anymore” Mark responds after swallowing his food, coughs, and continues talking “I'm sure I saw an iron toolbox heavy enough that it wouldn't lift itself and walk away”

 Oscar laughs at this comment, imagining a toolbox with little legs walking around, running away from Uncle Jense.

 The vampire laughs lightly “Then you should see if this store also sells trackers, because Jenson is going to lose his tools again. When do you plan to go shopping?”

“Tomorrow in the afternoon, probably” he responds, then remembers that the boy doesn’t have school the next day “Oh, do you mind being alone with him during the day?”

“You know I’ve gotten used to it. Careful, Osc” Fernando stops Oscar from spilling his glass of juice on himself “I can take care of him”

"Ok, fine"

 Mark is responsible for washing the dishes while Fernando helps Oscar with his homework, which is nothing more than coloring some pictures in the right colors. The vampire notices the short yawns that the boy can't contain and helps him color faster, damned if Nico notices, but he colors outside the lines so as not to create suspicion anyway.

 Oscar is carried in Mark's arms to the bedroom, with his head lying on his shoulder, drowsy. The vampire follows them to be the one who stays with the boy for a few minutes until he falls asleep, as Mark also appears to be quite tired.

“Leave him to me and go to sleep”

“Are you going to visit me in my room later and make sure I’m sleeping well?” the werewolf shows his arrogant smile, Fernando smiles and rolls his eyes.

“Maybe” then he leans in to give him a short kiss, Oscar realizes he is being crushed and laughs watching the scene.

“You kissed”

 The werewolf tickles the boy's ribs, even though he knows that it ends up taking away some of his sleep. “Yes, and you apparently thought that was very funny”

 Oscar squirms in his arms, trying to escape the tickle attack.

 Fernando takes him out of the werewolf's arms before he gets too excited and doesn't want to sleep later "We can leave the funny things for tomorrow, it's time for a little boy to go to sleep" then takes Oscar to the bed and sets out some comfortable pajamas for him to wear, over his shoulder he gives one last warning to Mark “I was talking about you, little boy”

 The werewolf gasps, pretending to be offended. This makes Oscar laugh more and Mark has to dodge a shoe that Fernando throws at him, kicking him out of the room with a smile on his face.

***

 It wasn't difficult to find the toolbox he was looking for, luckily no one else had to buy a new one in the last few days. And just as he imagined, it is really heavy.

 The store sells new things, used items and some donations from residents, Mark himself usually donates his and Fernando's clothes there to someone who needs 'ugly' jeans or several models of flannel t-shirt.

 Jimmy, a 40-something werewolf with a friendly face and large glasses, greeted him at the register. He's known Mark for years and has always been kind to him because it's part of his personality. Mark thinks he's a little weird, but he likes him.

“Hi, Jimmy,” he greeted, pursing his lips with the effort of placing the toolbox on the counter.

“Mark! It's always good to see you. No bags of clothes to donate?”

“Not this time, I still need to organize… maybe next week” he shrugged, fishing his wallet out of his pocket. Jimmy smiled at him.

“Next week then” he sees the label attached to the box “65 dollars”

 Jenson better not miss out on this crap this time, Mark thinks, pretending not to be bothered by the steep price. The important thing is quality and it's his friend's birthday.

 For a few seconds the werewolf's eyes explore around, as if looking for another interesting thing to buy. He sees a cardigan hanging among other clothes and approaches it to observe, it was certainly a donation from someone who put the clothing to good use. It appears to be handmade and could cost more if it weren't for the faded stain.

 Jimmy notices his interest in the cardigan and starts saying “Oh, this was a donation. Otmar brought it a few weeks ago, it's a beautiful piece of clothing but no one wants to buy it because of the stain” the friendly salesman snorted angrily, remembering “Otmar didn't have the decency to wash the clothes before bringing it, I had to wash this cardigan 3 times and this It was the most blood I could clean up.”

“Ow, ow, wait. Clothes with blood?” Mark turns to him, frowning.

“Oh yes, it was full of blood. Otmar said he went hunting and thought it would be a waste to throw these clothes away. I don't know why you're interested in women's clothes, but he brought some men's clothes too, if you want to see” then, as if remembering something, Jimmy's face lit up and he looked under the counter “I found this inside one of the pockets, luckily it didn't get blood on it. I don’t know why I kept it, it must be because it’s a pretty photo.”

 Mark slowly approaches and Jimmy hands him the polaroid. He doesn't know if the other werewolf realizes he's scared, he certainly wasn't prepared to hear about it today.

 Mark holds the photo and turns it over with trembling fingers, he is shocked by what he sees. It's a young couple, probably teenagers, standing next to each other with giant smiles. What really got him nervous was seeing the boy, who looks so much like an older version of another boy who lives in his house.

“Was this among the clothes Otmar brought?” he asks, not believing he still has a voice to speak.

 Jimmy nods “Yes, it was a successful hunt by the looks of it. I imagine this couple is the one Otmar hunted a few weeks ago…” he drums his fingers on his thin chin “Silly humans”

 He feels nausea wash over him, unable to look away. Mark feels sad as if he has known this young couple for decades, with Oscar being the only connection they have. He doesn't know what their names were or their history, but his heart breaks into a thousand pieces to see how young they were. Two teenagers raising a child alone in a world that doesn't deserve them. Anyone can tell from this simple polaroid that they loved each other.

 And now they are dead.

 Mark remembers when his mother died. His father was out hunting with other werewolves when vampires discovered the camp and attacked. His mother told him to run and Mark ran, believing his mother was right behind him, but she wasn't.

 His father had never been so angry in his life and blamed Mark for letting his mother die, not caring that he was a tall, skinny teenager with no strength to fight a vampire.

“It should have been you instead of her!” the man shouted, furious.

 That night, Mark lost his mother and father, after running away and deciding to have a different life. Reintegrating into society is less painful than living with someone who considers him guilty of his own mother's death.

 Oscar's parents are dead. Just as Mark's mother did to protect him, there is only an assumption of what the boy's parents did for him to be the only one to survive.

 Oblivious to Mark's distress, Jimmy says impatiently, "Are you going to pay for that toolbox or not?"

***

 It's dinner time and Mark hasn't come home yet.

 Fernando watches the minutes pass impatiently, having already sent some messages that were never read. He hates when Mark doesn't tell him he won't be back for a while.

 Oscar notices his uneasiness and looks out the window, seeing the sky gradually darken. “Mark isn’t going to have dinner?”

 The vampire sighs, looking back at the boy. He has prepared pasta and meatballs, his favorite dish, but he is too distracted to notice the silly things the boy does to make him laugh.

“I don’t think so, he probably met Jenson in the city and is still talking” He doesn’t know if he says this to reassure himself or to reassure Oscar.

 Oscar finishes eating and Fernando plays with him in the living room for a while, until the boy starts to feel sleepy. But it seems like he's more needy because of Mark's absence, so he keeps climbing on the vampire and asking to sit on his lap.

 Time passes and Mark doesn't show up, Fernando needs to put Oscar to bed. He helps the boy brush his teeth, with one foot resting on the small bench the werewolf built so the boy could reach the bathroom sink.

“Arms up” he says and Oscar obeys, making it easier to take off his clothes to put on pajamas. Before lying down next to him, Fernando checked under the bed to see if there was a monster. Since the episode at the restaurant, he needed to do this job with better quality.

“There are no monsters here”

"Are you sure?" the boy asked, pulling his blanket up to his chin.

“I'm sure, there is no monster under your bed”

"Really?"

"Yep"

“Uh…” he considers, slowly believing the vampire’s words and freeing up some space on his bed for Fernando to lie down next to him.

 Fernando talks to him a little longer in a soft voice, making the task of putting the boy to sleep easier. Oscar blinks his eyes slowly and asks if tomorrow Mark will come and say goodnight to him, Fernando says yes, so the boy nods and snuggles better in bed.

 The vampire gets out of bed carefully and runs his hand through Oscar's hair.

“Good night, Oscar”

 With his eyes closed and his face pressed against the pillow, Oscar responds in a sleepy voice.

"Good night, daddy"

 Fernando freezes.

 He waits a few seconds, processing what just happened. The boy lies unresponsive in bed, trapped in a deep sleep.

 The vampire leaves the room cautiously and returns to the living room, still scared by what just happened. But what scares him wasn't that the boy confused him, because that must be the only explanation, it was that he liked it.

 Being a father, but specifically, being Oscar's father.

 Seems to be good.

 Fernando notices his computer monitor is on and approaches it, seeing a new notification indicating that he has received an email. He finds this strange because it's an email from his publisher, which shouldn't be returning so soon. It usually takes a few more days to read the entire document.

 Hi Fernando,

 I just read the document and immediately came to write to you. I must confess that I was surprised by this story, it's not exactly what you promised. Instead of questioning, I decided to read, curious, and swallowed my words.

 It's a funny story that involves a lot of family feeling, in addition to making the reader (in this case me) easily become attached to these characters. It's different from what you normally write, but it still has your sarcasm and a nice slow build-up between the characters' romance. But I have to ask, do you want to change the names or do you intend to use your own? And what name would you be thinking of for the book? I didn't find any of your usual notes.

 I realize it is incomplete and I would recommend you finish writing it for one last review before publishing. I see potential in this new writing style you’ve adopted.

 I eagerly await your return,

 Tom

 P.s.: Oscar is my favorite character, give him a good ending!

 Fernando clicks on his own email and realizes he sent the wrong file. Instead of sending his book, he ended up sending by accident the file where he wrote about Oscar and this crazy situation he is living in.

 He can't write back to Tom that it was a mistake, some voice inside his head whispers positive words about this being his new successful book. Another voice reminds him that Oscar is not a character he invented, that the boy is sleeping upstairs and said something a few minutes ago that shook his entire emotional state.

 With his hands still resting in front of his keyboard, Fernando sees in his peripheral vision the headlights of Mark's truck approaching through the window. He feels a sense of dejavu as he runs to open the door and talk to the werewolf at the entrance, but this time Mark enters slowly and shaken.

 The vampire doesn't notice at first, very energetic, wanting to talk about recent events. He forgets his concern about asking why the other took so long to come home, not noticing the serious face.

“Mark, you won’t believe what happened” he says “I mean, two strange things happened-”

“Oscar's parents are dead” Mark says after a quick scan of the room, seeing that the child was not present “I found out earlier that Otmar went hunting the same week I found Oscar and he killed his parents”

 There is a pause.

“Oh, oh…” the vampire takes a few steps back, processing the information. He previously imagined that the boy's parents were dead, but confirming this is more serious. Mark is visibly more affected, as if it physically hurts him.

 Any joy inside his body was gone.

 Oscar no longer has his parents, his real parents. The vampire was very foolish and let himself be deluded with the idea of ​​being someone's father, as if it were possible. What a joke.

 Fernando realizes that he got lost between what was real and what he invented.

 Mark walks past him, sitting down in the armchair and rubbing his face with his hands. It took him hours to get home because he didn't have the courage to look into Oscar's eyes, not after what he found out.

 Now they have to do the hard part.

“Let's tell Oscar tomorrow” the werewolf says, without looking at Fernando.

"Tomorrow?" he repeats, turning his body and stopping in front of the other man “Isn’t it too early?”

“His parents died over a month ago and I won’t be able to look at him without saying something” Mark replies, harshly. But then his eyes became softer and he reached down to hold Fernando's hand. “Will you help me with this?”

“What a stupid question” Fernando shakes their hands, trying to convey comfort or receive it for himself “Of course I will help”

 The werewolf looks away to a spot behind the vampire, near the stairs. It's as if he can see the figures of the ghosts of two teenagers who were victims of what fate wrote for them.

 He goes upstairs to sleep later, not feeling hungry for dinner. When his head rests on the pillow, alone in his room, Mark can't help but think that Fernando has changed.

Chapter Text

 They take as long as they can before telling Oscar.

 Mark felt unable to go on with his day as if he hadn't discovered something terrible, and Fernando did all his tasks with melancholy weighing on his shoulders.

 Before starting to prepare dinner, when the sun begins to disappear over the horizon, that's when they decide it's time.

“Oscar, can you take a break from your toys and come talk to us for a bit?”

 The boy sat on the sofa, facing the two adults, and looked at them curiously. If he asked why they looked so serious, he wasn't used to seeing their faces like that.

 Mark crouched in front of him and Fernando stood behind him, arms crossed, serving more as emotional support. With the best calm voice he could find in the back of his throat, the werewolf began to talk.

 He thought about it all night and throughout the day, trying to figure out the best way to break the news. He even googled how to deal with grief with children.

“Do you remember what the story of Spider-Man is like? That his mom and dad loved him very much, but they had an accident and had to go live in heaven?” Mark read on a website that the best way to break death news to a child is to use the topic with something the child is already familiar with.

 Oscar shook his head, knowing the story very well after watching so many movies.

“Spider-Man's parents left, but they knew there would be someone to take care of their son. You know who?"

“Aunt May and Uncle Ben!” the boy replied confidently.

 Fernando swallowed hard, but remained quiet while Mark explained.

“So, Oscar, sometimes the people we love very much need to go away and live in heaven. It doesn’t mean they stopped loving us, it means they will now take care of us from above.”

 The vampire had heard before how Mark would break the news, but he was shocked now that he heard it. The werewolf had never been very religious, but he used the terms 'heaven' to comfort the child with the idea that his parents were not gone forever.

 Oscar absorbs those words and thinks he understands what the man is trying to say.

“But mommy and daddy aren’t in heaven, they’re looking for me” he feels less calm now, with a sense of urgency growing inside him to explain that it’s all part of a game of hide and seek.

“Osc… it’s not easy, I know what it’s like, but the truth is” he hesitates, with his heart in his throat “Your parents went to live in heaven, no one is playing hide and seek anymore”

 Tears begin to fill the boy's eyes as he asks, in a weak voice, “They abandoned me?”

“No!” Fernando kneels on the floor next to Mark and reaches out to caress Oscar’s knee. “If they could, they would never have left, I’m sure. They had to make a choice and you…” he swallows hard again “it’s not your time to go live in heaven yet. No one can stop these things.”

 They stay frozen, it's a matter of seconds before Oscar starts crying for good. A loud and painful cry, angry, afraid, stubbornly not wanting to believe that his parents weren't going to come back. Mark and Fernando are lying, but why would they lie to him? He was so scared that he couldn't go back to the forest, now the evil monster took his parents away.

 He is cradled in Mark's protective arms, who rocks him and whispers into his hair, assuring him that everything will be okay. Oscar clutches his shirt and cries, loudly, his cries so loud that Fernando fears he is hurting his lungs from not breathing regularly. If they had neighbors, there would surely be someone at their door asking what the hell was going on.

 It is not known how long it lasts, eventually the boy lets himself pass out from exhaustion and sleeps. Mark carries him to the bedroom and puts him on the bed, wiping the remaining tears from the boy's rosy cheeks.

 When he returns downstairs, he sees Fernando nervously biting his nails while looking out the window.

“He finally fell asleep,” he said tiredly. “After he wakes up we should try to get him to eat something—”

“He can’t stay”

 Mark stares at the back of the other man's head, not sure if he was deafened by Oscar's shouting and misunderstood or if Fernando really said what he said.

"Excuse me?"

 Something changed in him.

 The vampire turns and stares at Mark blankly.

“He can’t stay, we can’t keep pretending he’s something he’s not. What Oscar needs is a human family to take care of him,” he said, with a slight lump in his throat.

 Mark presses his lips together and shakes his head, tired of intense emotions.

“Okay, let's imagine that we manage to find humans willing to adopt a boy, because you know very well how easy it is to find a group of humans these days” he says sarcastically “But what if he goes to another home where there are people who don't love him?”

 Fernando tries to retort but Mark interrupts, speaking increasingly frantically.

“Okay, he might find other humans who will take care of him, but why do you think… how do you know they will love him as much as he is loved here?” His voice sounds hurt as if he was the one who screamed and cried for the last few hours. He spares no bitterness when he adds “At least I believed you loved him too”

 In his eyes he can see disappointment, but the anger he feels is not because of Fernando. He is angry about something else, but it is Fernando who is in front of him.

 The vampire told Mark so many secrets that stopped being just his, over time they became one, but at that moment they became two again.

 Fernando is not the type of person to stay quiet when he is attacked, he can be rude with his words too. From the beginning he warned Mark not to take it personally, but the werewolf is unable to stop being sensitive and turns other people's problems into his own. There was a time when this delighted the vampire, but now it irritates him how stupid the other man can be.

 Their argument becomes increasingly heated, both trying to convince the other of their own reason.

"You are afraid!" Mark shouted.

“The only coward here is you, it’s always been you!” Fernando counters.