“Papa?”

“Yeah, baby?”

“Can you tell me a story?” Ynda Grace Helman climbed up in her Papa’s lap, tired but not quite ready yet to go to sleep. Hawk wrapped his arm around his daughter and kissed the top of her blonde locks, her bright blue eyes shining up at him expectantly.

He smiled down at her. “Alright, what kind of story?”

She pursed her lips and wrinkled her nose, her usual expression of thought. Toji came in and flopped down on the bed with a loud sigh, arms and legs splayed out, his necklace shifting around his throat. Hawk grinned at him as his oldest turned his red and blue eyes back to him. 

“Mmmm…” Ynda said, tapping her chin with one small finger. Her face brightened as the answer came to her. Toji rolled his eyes and sighed loudly. 

“Really?” he moaned. 

She stuck her tongue out at him. “It’s a good one, shut up, Neko!”

Hawk laughed and poked Toji on the forehead twice. “I can guess which one it is.” From the bathroom, he heard a heavy sigh. Hero knew, too.

“A long, long time ago, Papa was sent to Earth by Lucifer, the High Devil King of Hell, for doing a lot of very bad things. Back then, I was an entirely different person, someone very bad, but it wasn’t because I wanted to be. Lucifer did experiments with souls and demons in order to create the perfect weapon against God, the High Divine of Heaven. I was fused with a demon—”

“Uncle Nox!” Toji piped up.

Hawk grinned. “Yes, Uncle Nox. We were created to be the Blood King. A very, very bad demon, the worst there’s ever been. Once I was exiled to Earth, I wandered around for a long time, not knowing what to do or who I really was anymore. I made friends and watched them die, and it scared me that one day I would lose someone very close to me and I would lose to the curse of madness. I met that someone after being exiled for one thousand years.”

“Daddy!” Ynda giggled, kicking her feet together.

“Yep!” Hawk said, poking her in the nose. “I met Daddy at work, and the first time I shook his hand, we made a connection that neither one of us could explain at the time. We found out later that it was a soul connection, something only true soulmates can have. But it scared me because I was a demon and—”

“Demons don’t have souls,” Toji sighed, unenthusiastically.

Hawk bopped him on the forehead. “For some reason, Hero, who was a human at the time, fell in love with me anyway. I fell for him, too, but I was still too scared to tell him. When I thought I’d lose him, I finally confessed to him and we completed our soul connection. Months later, our souls were married in the Veil, and that’s when everything began to change. We learned later that we were special, that we were the first souls ever created. I was born from a star and a god, and Hero was created to be with me. But we were never meant to be alone. Uncle Jordan and Aunt Elaine were also created to be with us forever. Daddy attained powers, and me and Aunt Charlotte began training him. We had to because a very angry angel was after me and wanted to hurt me for something I had done not long after I was exiled.

“The day finally came when we had to meet the angel and fight him. First, he came and took Daddy away, expecting me to go after him, which he knew I would.”

“But you and Uncle Nox had to separate first, remember?” Ynda pointed out.

Hawk nodded. “Yes, I did. It was scary, and it hurt like crazy, but I finally split apart, having pure reasons to do so. Me, Uncle Nox, Aunt Charlotte, Uncle Jordan, and Uncle Alerik chased after the bad angel to get Daddy back. Daddy let me know the entire time what was going on and did everything he could to keep the bad angel busy until we arrived.” He glanced into the bathroom then back at the kids. “Do you know why he could do that?”

“‘Cause of the soul link,” Ynda smiled. “It’s why we can all talk to each other with our minds.”

Hawk nodded. “If I couldn’t talk to Daddy and see what he was doing, more or less, I would have been far more terrified than I was. Thankfully we managed to make it there just in time and I swooped in and saved Hero at the very last second!” He tossed Ynda in the air, rewarded with a shriek of delight. Toji grinned and rolled his eyes. Hawk cradled his daughter to his side and finished the story.

“We all fought the bad angel as hard as we could but it was no use; all of us together couldn’t beat him. So me and Nox decided we would fight him myself. I hit him so hard, he was knocked unconscious, but we still got a little hurt in the process. When we walked away to get better, the bad angel woke up and came after us, hurting Daddy very badly.” He swallowed hard. No matter how many times he told this story, this part still made him uncomfortable.

“Daddy got hurt so badly…he couldn’t get back up.”

“He died.” Toji said bluntly.

Hawk winced. “Yeah,” he said softly. “He did. We both knew he had to in order to evolve even higher, but it was something I didn’t want. I didn’t want to risk losing Daddy forever. He was supposed to come right back, but he didn’t. Our connection broke entirely and my curse of madness took over, driving me to fight the bad angel in a more violent, chaotic way, without any concern for myself. But something happened during that fight that changed everything. Do you know what that was?” he asked Ynda.

A lock of blonde hair fell over Ynda’s eyes and Hawk brushed it back as she nodded enthusiastically. “Grandpa talked to you!”

Hawk chuckled. “He did. It was the first time I’d heard his voice in a very, very long time. He told me Daddy was coming and to be prepared because we were both going to change. When Daddy finally showed up, his powers created a brand new connection, one that was much stronger than before, and we both became what we are now; gods. Daddy brought down the bad angel and then we all defeated him for good.”

Ynda leaned heavily into her Papa, a tired smile on her lips. “And then Neko was born and you got married and had me!”

Hawk kissed her forehead, standing up to carry her to her room down the hall. “It took some time in between all of that, but yes. However, that story teaches us two things. One, that not all demons are bad, and not all angels are good. If someone wants to hurt you, it doesn’t matter what or who they are. If they do, you fight back, but make sure you have a reason to do it. Fighting just to fight is something cowards do.”

“What’s the second thing?” Ynda asked, her voice heavy with sleep as Hawk lay her in bed, covering her with her thick pink comforter. 

“Ever since that day, your daddy can’t be on time for anything, and has made us late for everything.”

“I heard that!” Hero called from their bedroom. 

Hawk smiled, knowing he’d been caught. Ynda smiled up at him, her eyelids fluttering. He sat next to her and kissed her forehead. He handed her one of her stuffed animals and she squeezed it tightly. 

“Get some sleep, Princess,” he said softly. “I love you.”

“I love you, Papa.” With a yawn, she closed her eyes and was asleep in seconds. Hawk continued to watch her, taking in every line and curve of her face. She really did look like his mother. After a few minutes, he kissed and squeezed her little hand then got up to rejoin his husband and seven year old son in his room. Hero was walking out of the bathroom, his blonde hair falling around his face in waves, his long braid with the three beads hanging over his shoulder. 

He was the epitome of beauty in Hawk’s eyes. Hero smiled at him, his ruby red eyes shining with feigned annoyance. “Do you really have to add that last part every time?”

Hawk shrugged. “Until it becomes a lie, I absolutely will.” He took Hero into his arms, kissing him gently on the mouth. Toji groaned from the bed nearby. 

Hero rolled his eyes and moved to pick his son up from the bed and place him on his feet, pushing him gently toward the door. “Alright, kid, bedtime.”

“Ahh but I don’t wanna!” His argument was tempered with a huge yawn and the expected wine of a tired child who still wanted to stay up past his bedtime. “When are you gonna be home?”

“When you’re asleep and won’t notice either way.”

Toji looked up at him as he walked, unimpressed. “Uh huh.”

Hero tapped him on the forehead twice and grinned down at him. “Just get to bed before Mercy comes for you.”

Toji’s eyes widened and his steps quickened. “No thanks, I’m good. Have fun, see you tomorrow!”

Hawk leaned on the doorframe, his arms crossed over his broad chest. “Toji,” he said, stopping the boy in his tracks. He looked back at his fathers, his mismatched eyes glancing between the two. Hawk smiled. “Say it again.”

Toji smiled. “I love you, Papa. You too, Daddy.”

“For how long?” Hero asked.

“For however long forever lasts.” With that, the boy hurried down the hall, past his sister’s room to his own. He climbed into bed and, before he lay down to sleep, he stared out his bedroom window, gazing up at the stars that hung above their house on the cliff, the lights of their castle built into the mountainside off in the distance helping to make the large structure look more homey than Toji felt it was.

He smiled as he hugged his knees to his chest, resting his cheek upon them. He absolutely loved his family but it still felt incomplete. He had been asking for one more sibling for years but Dad and Papa said they weren’t ready. He had to be happy with Ynda for now, something he was totally fine with. Still, one more sibling, maybe a brother, would be really nice.

He yawned once again and finally laid down, his head sinking into his pillow as his eyes closed and he drifted off to sleep. The last thought he had before he finally succumbed to his dreams was, I wonder if I can use Dad’s evolution as an excuse for the next time I’m late to something?

He highly doubted it. But it couldn’t hurt to try.

-*-