Saphael Week Day 7: In the Future
LIfe at the Dumort has been...interesting since Simon returned.
If you had told Raphael that he’d been housing, dealing with, raising two warlock children with the fledgling, well, he would have laughed, then killed you.
Yet, days after Simon’s return to the Dumort, Magnus showed up at his doorstep with a child, “a warlock” he said, “abandoned by their mother.”
When he’d asked why him, all he got was “Catarina can only do so much”
Fine
His initial plan was to raise it till it could survive on it’s own, simple and efficient. No use getting attached.
But, when has anything ever gone right in his undead life?
It was supposed to be simple, until Simon started holding her when she cried, started feeding her, reading copious amounts of maternity books “you know you’re not her mother right?”, “Someone should be”
They name her Rosa, after his late sister, and somewhere, he thinks, his mother is proud of him.
She’s rambunctious, and oh so very curious. She tears through the halls of Dumort like they are her playground and Raphael can’t help the smile that etches itself on his face when he hears Simon’s exasperated sigh of “Be careful, sweetie.”
Like father, like daughter
Unfortunately the world is a cruel place and it is not that much longer until Magnus shows up once more at his doorstep with a boy this time. He’s small and fragile. “I had no where else to go”
They name him Ethan, after Simon’s late father, and the boy is so quiet. He is shy and sickly, but Simon gives him his all. Tells stories and sings lullabies, tucks them in bed and makes them mac and cheese.
They were never supposed to be spoiled, never supposed to be treated like free children. They were meant to be raised as wards of the clan, minimal attention required. After all, vampire hotels are not for children.
But Simon refuses to let them live like that, so he acts as their father. Like the one he was robbed of.
Ethan is still closed off, until Raphael passes by his room one night to hear the soft sounds of crying. He sings an old, old lullaby, his native tongue sounded soft in the darkness. When he is done he expects to see the boy asleep. Instead he looks at him in awe and asks him, “Are you not mad at me anymore , Papa?”
After that night Ethan smiles and talks and dances around the lobby with his sister as Elliot and Stan chase after them.
He knew Simon responded to the title of Daddy or Dad when uttered, but he had never considered his part in this.
When had he become Papa? When had Simon started to answer to Daddy? When did Lily become Aunty Lily, and Elliot and Stan the cool uncles, a Grandpa Charlie who fought in the war of 1812?
Most importantly, when had he agreed with Simon to raise children together? moments of homework helping and family meals between the four of them come to mind. Simon teaching Rosa the guitar, while Ethan learned Spanish. They celebrated Christmas and Hanukkah together with the clan, Raphael taught them how to dance and Simon introduced them to Stars Wars.
He doesn’t really know when both he and Simon started working on the same page, gushing to each other about their successes and discussing plans for their upcoming school year. “They need to learn magic Simon” “They also need to learn math and history” “That’s why we have Grandpa Charlie!”
But
As he looks across the lobby floor, where Simon and Ethan are making Autumn wreathes, and Rosa is twirling under a cascade of fake red, orange, and yellow leaves thrown in the air by Stan and Elliot, he thinks that he doesn’t mind being a father with Simon.
“Like an old married couple” the redhead once said, he snorts.
Life at the Dumort surely hasn’t been the same since Simon returned, but he doesn’t mind that so much.
