Little footsteps echoed throughout the quiet halls of the Nightgale manor, followed closely by larger footsteps and giggling. A small red-headed child, no older than ten, rounded the corner, running from a playful white haired demon.
The child ran and hid behind a chair in his fathers study, giggling wildly. "Papa! Papa! Save me from the monster!"
"Now, now Xavier, you're going to ruin your new clothes.." Marellius, the child's father, said, glancing at the child clinging to his chair.
"But Papa! The monster's gonna get me!" The child Xavier complained, giving his.. 'father' an upset face.
Now allow me to clear something up. This child wasn't really Marellius's. It was technically his close friend's, Fae's. She picked him up off the streets after his family left him to fend for himself. She cared for him as much as a pirate could. But...there was an unfortunate accident while she was infiltrating some savages camp to save a dear friend, and she was executed.
She handed the child off to Tsugaoth, who may have been slightly more than just a friend to her. The male demon was too unstable to care for the child himself, so he took him to Marellius. And well, that's how Marellius became a father.
"Daddy!" The child giggled out, now being tickled by a long tail, rolling on the floor. Tsugaoth had been the 'monster' the entire time in their little game.
Having the two of them in the manor was like raising two children, they were constantly causing trouble, never stopping to let the Vampric male process the mess that was made before another one appeared almost instantly.
"I swear Fae, if I didn't care like I do, they both would have been kicked to the streets long ago..." Marellius muttered out, crossing him arms and looking at the two. "Alright you two, get up. We can't be ruining Xavier's new clothes.
Reluctantly, the ten year old boy along with his more playful young adult father stood up giggling quietly to each other.
"We are having a guest today, and I want both of you to be on your absolute best behavior. Do you understand me?" He stated, glaring at the two males.
"Yes Papa... I solemnly swear I am up to no good." The child said sarcastically, rolling his little blue eyes.
Marellius narrowed his eyes at the red-headed child, as if he already knew something horrible was going to happen. "Don't roll your eyes at me, you rude child."
Xavier mimicked his father with the worst possible accent he could muster before running off, calling Tsugaoth to follow him.
The male huffed, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "What am I ever going to do with you?" He asked himself, returning to his books.
Hours passed, horrible, agonizing hours of giggling and a child not focusing on his studies of magic. While this would thoroughly aggravate Marellius, but nevertheless, knew he would have to keep his calm while Prince was here. After all, Prince was Fae's younger brother.
The familiar sound of a doorbell rang throughout the large manor.
"Dad! There's a human at the door!"
"Xavier, you're a human too!"
"No! I'm a half-demon! It's different!" "Xavier, there is no 'Demon' in you!"
"But Daddy's a Demon! And you're a-" "That's enough of that!"
"Quite an exciting home." Prince whispered to himself before the large doors were opened to reveal the small family of two waiting at the door to greet him.
"Welcome sir, to the Nightgale manor!" Xavier smiled, doing a cute little bow to the male.
"Welcome Claire." Marellius said with a smirk, "Come in, come in. Allow me to show you around."
Prince glared slightly at Marellius at the sound of his horrid nickname, and retorted, "Yes, MarMar. I would quite enjoy that."
The two adults sat in silence, with a child glancing confusedly between them, for a few minutes before carrying on with showing the male their home. There wasn't much to see, just the ballroom, the kitchen, the library. They were almost to the drawing room when they went through the courtyard.
"Oh! Papa! Papa!" Xavier said, tugging on his pants. "Can I show him what I can do with the paints? Can I? Can I?"
"Do you promise it won't set Papa's house on fire?" Marellius retorted.
"I swear!" Xavier grinned, running to the corner of the courtyard to grab what seemed to be paints. When the kid ran back, he set the paint buckets on the ground. "Ready?"
When both the adults nodded, Xavier pointed a finger at blue, then the sky. A blue drop flung itself into the sky, and exploded with a bang. This followed with several other colors.
Then came the pink. See, the pink just so happened to not want to cooperate with Xavier that day. Instead of flinging itself into the sky the entire paint bucket flung itself at Prince, completely soaking him head to toe in pink paint.
Prince blinked, growled softly, and narrowed his eyes.
"Oops..S-Sorry." The redhead choked out, taking a step or two back.
Marellius snorted, and tried to stifle back a laugh by looking at his feet rather than the giant pink blob next to him. The humor was abruptly stopped when the vampric male noticed a few spots on his newly laid stone floor that were dotted with pink paint.
"Xavier! You got it on the floor." Marellius said, frustrated and sighed. "I just got these stones re-done, too."
"Sorry Papa." Xavier said quietly, pointing at the paint, forcing whatever wasn't dry back into the bucket. Pretty much everything was clean except some bits in Princes hair, which were still pink.
"Looks like you need some practice, kid." Prince said, deciding that the tour of their courtyard was over, and continuing on.
Night carried on as usual, Prince left within an hour or two and Xavier was shooed off to his bedroom to continue his studies.
The family was a little broken, yes, with an adopted child, a sex demon and a vampire. But who was there to question them? No one had died in their family of three, they all ate together, and had a singular night where they would enjoy each others company. They all got plenty of rest, and had enough love between the three of them to share.
The only thing wrong with this family were the 'invisible people' Xavier would see every night. He would see visions of people he has never seen before, but yet were so tightly intertwined with his past.
He would see visions of his dead mother, and his technical grandfather. He would feel the waves on his face, and the cool air. He could smell the salt in the air, and the rum among the men of the ship. They were old memories he couldn't recall. Memories his sub-conscious pushed to the back of his mind. Memories he was forced to reject.
And that's what scared them the most.
At any point he could have remembered his actual parents, or even the woman who adopted him in the first place. At any point he could break down and be far beyond repair. The child had gone through so much already, that they tried to keep him in the house.
And that's what annoyed Xavier.
The Pirates Son.