“Sweetie, Jayson and I want to have a little talk with you.” Elizabeth was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, Jayson just behind her. He didn’t have to turn around to know that, his magic was thrumming off of him in lazy waves, sort of like a sonar reading or a bat’s echolocation. The humans behind him were little blips on his radar, along with Ethan who was upstairs and a small animal- probably a stray cat or opossum- in the front yard.

Silas added just a little more Lilly of the valley extract to the sleeping tonic he was brewing. The electric stove wasn’t exactly the most ideal source of heat, but this was a simple potion not worth building a fire in the backyard over. It didn’t take a lot of magic to make, but sometimes it was nice to let his magical walls down, let the pent-up energy loose for a bit. He had taken for granted living with his dad, where he could be himself.

He hummed a little in response, acknowledging their presence. Once the potion was the correct shade of light purple, he turned to look at them, noting the way they flinched. Here, his black eyes and the cold temperatures that surrounded him were tolerated at best. “About what?”

“What are you fixing?” Elizabeth asked, apparently wanting to make small talk. She tried to smile, but it looked more like a grimace. Silas wondered if she was unnerved.

“Sleeping potion.” He answered, but then they were blinking at him slowly, as if they couldn’t fathom any good reason why he would be making something like that. “For myself, Necromancers are naturally nocturnal.”

“Melatonin won’t work?” Jayson asked, and it was Silas’s turn to blink.

“I don’t know. I’ve never taken human medicine before.” Now the potion had been boiling for exactly two minutes, so he turned back to it, flipping the heat off and stirring it while beginning to chant softly. It glowed then, a bright lilac, from the magic he was pouring into it. Once the brightness subsided, he distributed it among seven vials, enough for a week. Once he was done corking them, he finally turned back to his guardians, who were still watching with some apprehensive wonder. According to Jayson witches were mentioned in their religion sometimes, but how they were perceived differed greatly from person to person. A lot of people didn’t believe they existed at all, especially now in modern times, but Elizabeth and Jayson apparently didn’t know how they felt about it.

He set the now empty pot into the sink, taking a few seconds to wall his magic back up. It was something akin to stuffing a shirt into an already too full drawer, meaning that the drawer was difficult to shut and little pieces of fabric were still sticking out. Still, he was fairly sure that his eyes were back to their blue-ish color now. He turned toward them then, “Are you ready to talk now?”

“Sure, honey. Let’s go sit in the living room, yeah?” So, they made their way into the living room, Jayson sitting in his big recliner while Elizabeth and himself claimed the sofa. Jayson was the first to speak, “So we know you’ve been seeing that young man.”

Silas cocked his head, wondering where this was going. He and Isaiah weren’t dating, not in the slightest, but maybe they had figured out the human was sneaking in every night? Maybe the charm that made his room soundproof had worn off.

“And we know that he’s transgender.” Jayson paused again, looking uncomfortable. Elizabeth continued then, her cheeks were a bright shade of red. “We just want to make sure you’re both practicing safe sex. It’s very important-“

She was cut off by Silas’s awkward, slightly embarrassed laughter. The sex talk he had with Michael when he was twelve was awkward enough, and he really didn’t need to have it with humans that he barely knew. “This is like, really unnecessary.” He mumbled, shifting awkwardly in his seat, and wishing he was anywhere but there. “Isaiah is my best friend, we aren’t having sex, and even if we were, I know what a condom is.”

“Yeah- okay, good.” Elizabeth nodded. They looked about as mortified as Silas felt, and he was about to try to flee the room when Jayson asked, “Does he know? About you know, you being a wizard…”

“Witch. This isn’t Harry Potter.” Silas corrected immediately, “And no, he doesn’t. You two and Ethan only know because you’re my relatives. If Isaiah knew and the Coterie found out, then they’d wipe his memories.” ALL of his memories. The Coterie didn’t play around and taking someone’s memories wasn’t an exact magic. To eliminate the risk of accidentally leaving some memories about the magic world, they’d erase all of them, leaving the human with complete retrograde amnesia.

He stood up then, ready to get away from this disaster of a conversation. “Can I go now?” They nodded thankfully, and he escaped back to the kitchen so that he could gather his sleeping tonic up. He wasn’t allowed to leave them in the kitchen pantry, because Elizabeth was afraid of Ethan getting into it and none of them knew what affects it might have on such a small human.

He hardly batted his eyes when he walked into his room and Isaiah was climbing through the window. This was a regular occurrence and although the human never talked about it, he knew that Isaiah’s parents were abusive. Maybe not physically, but verbally and emotionally. And they often ignored his entire existence, because he hadn’t seen them call Isaiah once in the few months they’d known each other, even when he hadn’t been home for days. “What is that?” Isaiah questioned once he was fully inside, shutting the window behind him. There used to be a screen over the window to keep the bugs out when it was open, but Silas had popped it off and now it lived in the back of his closet.

“Lavender syrup.” He lied easily, pulling a cardboard box out from under his bed where he was currently keeping his potions. He set bottles in there carefully, making sure the glass didn’t clink too much against the others.

Isaiah, who apparently didn’t care too much about why Silas would need lavender syrup, let alone seven bottles of it, moved on from the topic easily. “Why is your face red?”

“Elizabeth and Jayson felt like they needed to have a sex talk with me.” He huffed, shoving the box back under his bed and standing up. “They’re afraid I’m going to knock you up or something.”

“Ooh, did they give you condoms?” Isaiah asked, mischief lighting his blue eyes as he sidled up to Silas. “We could start practicing safe sex right now.” He sing-songed, and laughed loudly when Silas pushed him away.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

It was a hot summer evening, and everyone was sat at the table, even Isaiah. His guardians had apparently resigned to the fact that the human was going to be around a lot and had started setting a place for him at the dinner table without even asking. Elizabeth had made some sort of casserole that Silas wouldn’t dare touch, so she had made him some macaroni and cheese so that he’d have something to eat too.

Isaiah and Ethan had teamed up together to make fun of his eating habits when he felt it. One second there was nothing out of the ordinary, and the next there was something there, something strong and familiar on the porch. He was standing and halfway out of the kitchen when the doorbell finally rang. He was there in seconds, yanking the door open.

“Dad!” He yelled not even hesitating to throw himself at the older Necromancer. His father had never really been a physically affectionate person, but he still returned the hug. Silas kind of felt like crying, he had missed his dad so much. “What are you doing here?”

His dad patted his back awkwardly before they pulled away, glancing at the audience behind Silas. “I had a business trip in New Orleans, so I figured I’d drop by and check in on you.”

“Well why don’t you come in?” Elizabeth piped up, ever the perfect host. “We were just having supper. Are you hungry?”

“No, but if you have any coffee that would be appreciated.”

“I’ll put a pot on.” Elizabeth headed toward the kitchen and Ciaran stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. Ethan was looking at him skeptically, arms crossed over his chest. “You were married to my mom?”

Ciaran glanced down at the ten-year-old, raising an eyebrow at him. “No, we were never married.”

Ethan’s eyes widened, big like saucers. “Why are your eyes that color?”

Everyone froze, either out of fear or utter confusion. There was a charm on his dad’s eyes currently, so that they appeared a light blue like Silas’s. He didn’t know what Ethan was seeing, but apparently the charm was working for Jayson. “What are you talking about, Ethan? His eyes are the same as Silas’s.”

Silas tried to catch his half-brother’s gaze, tried to convey that he needed to shut up, but Ethan wasn’t looking at him at all. “No, they’re black like when-“

He darted forward and clamped a hand over Ethan’s mouth just in time. “So, how’s Michael doing?” He asked, wanting desperately to change the topic while Isaiah was present. Said human was watching with blatant confusion, darting between Silas and his dad.

“He’s good.” Ciaran responded vaguely, now looking at Isaiah like he’d just noticed the human for the first time. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“O-oh.” Isaiah stuttered like he was shy or something, “I’m Isaiah, the neighbor. Uhm, I think I should get home. My parents are probably getting worried.”

That was bullshit and everyone knew it, but Jayson nodded anyway. “Okay. Have a good evening.” Jayson said and Isaiah all but bolted. Once the front door shut behind him, everyone was turning their attention to Ethan.

“You can see my eyes.” His dad said, not beating around the bush. Ethan looked confused and a little petulant. “Am I not supposed to? They’re black, like completely. His eyes are the same way when he’s doing magic stuff!” He pointed to Silas.

His dad hummed thoughtfully, and Silas could tell he was thinking deeply. “How about we move into the living room?” Jayson suggested, and they moved into the room together. Once they were all settled and the adults had coffee, they moved back to the issue at hand.

“I’m going to pull something out of my pocket, Ethan. Tell me what you see.” His dad instructed, before pulling what looked like an apple out of his suit jacket. Silas had to concentrate for a second before he finally saw through the magic, realizing it was just a ballpoint pen.

“That’s a pen.” Ethan said immediately, and Ciaran turned to Elizabeth and Jayson. “What do you see?”

“An apple.” Elizabeth answered, and Jayson nodded in agreement. Ciaran nodded and waved his hand over the object, revealing its true form. “Can you hear through the sound blocking charm on Silas’s room?”

“What?” Elizabeth asked at the same time that Silas hissed “Dad!” at his father. Seriously, how was he supposed to get away with anything if they knew about it?

“Is that why you and Isaiah are always yelling at night?” Ethan asked with wide, fake innocent eyes.

“You’re such a snitch.” Silas growled, glaring at the kid.

“I’m sorry, I thought mom and dad knew.” Ethan lied, smiling sweetly. Silas wanted to strangle him.

“We’ll talk about that in a minute.” Elizabeth promised, before turning back to her ex-boyfriend. “So, what does it mean? That he can see through your magic?”

“It’s not that big of a deal.” His father assured, though he looked rather amused as Silas pouted beside him. “Some humans just have clear sight. He might grow out of it as he gets older.”

“It’s how I knew that Archer was a werewolf!” Ethan chirped, smiling happily at the thought of his best friend.

“Werewolf?” Elizabeth and Jayson asked simultaneously, looking horrified.