Ragnor was terribly tired after a long night of babysitting Max for Magnus and Alec. They had wanted a "date night", and Ragnor didn't really want to think about what that meant. He and Max had spent all night watching movies and generally laughing as much as possible. Max loved it most of all when Ragnor would sit and help him practice his magic. Magnus usually gave Max a couple of things to work on each week, and he loved getting practice with Ragnor.

At the moment, Ragnor was simply sprawled across his couch, Max asleep beside of him, his head in the crook of Ragnor's arm. Glancing down at Max, Ragnor got the oddest of feelings, a feeling he'd been recently getting quite often whenever he spent time with Max. He'd been feeling like something was missing from his life, and spending time with Max was beginning to make him think that he was missing not ever having a family. For centuries he had thought that immortality made having a family impossible, but Max himself was proving that to be very wrong.

He was just beginning to think that he needed to fall asleep when he heard a sharp knock at the door. The first thought he had was that something had happened to either Magnus or Alec, but he knew they would have called first, not wanting to scare Max. Ragnor thought about trying to get up without waking Max, but before he could, Max opened his eyes anyway.

"Uncle Ragnor?" Ragnor couldn't help but smile at how groggy Max's voice was. "Is something wrong?" Ragnor couldn't help but ruffle Max's hair as he got up.

"I don't know, bud. You just lie back down, I'm sure everything is fine." Under normal circumstances, Ragnor would have been terribly annoyed at someone coming to his door this late at night. Something about Max always seemed to calm him, to put him unusually at ease.

Ragnor wasn't terribly surprised when he opened the door to see Raphael Santiago staring back at him. Without saying anything, Raphael simply walked past him and into the living room. Any other day, this wouldn't have bothered Ragnor at all, but when he turned around, he could see the terror in Max's eyes.

"What's this?" Raphael's voice was on edge, but that was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Raphael, this is Max. We haven't spoken in a long time, I know, but surely by now you've heard that Magnus and Alec started a family." Ragnor quickly turned to Max, knowing that this meeting was going to be terribly awkward but wanting to calm Max down nonetheless. "Max, bud, this is a very old friend of mine, Raphael. He's a good guy, I promise."

As Ragnor sat down on the couch once more, Max scurried to sit in Ragnor's lap, obviously unsure about how good Raphael really was. On reflex, Ragnor wrapped his arms around Max, not thinking much of it. Raphael, however, clearly thought something of it because he raised a questioning eyebrow at Ragnor but thankfully remained silent.

"Are you Daddy's friend, too?" Max surprised Ragnor by speaking up before Raphael could say anything else. It was easy to tell that Raphael was surprised as well, but he recovered before the silence stretched out too far.

"Yes, Max, your dad is a really good friend of mine, one of the best." At that, Max smiled very widely, and Ragnor watched in awe as a smile lit up Raphael's face as well. It generally took a lot out of a person to make Raphael smile, but all Max had done was give him a sleepy smile.

"Then you must be a very good man." Max looked up at Ragnor then, his face still lit up. "Not all vampires are bad, right Uncle Ragnor? Even though he's scary, that doesn't mean he's bad, right? Kind of like you when you're grumpy."

Ragnor wanted to respond in a witty way like Magnus would have done, but all he could do was laugh and kiss Max on the forehead.

Throughout the rest of the night, Max remained relatively silent, falling asleep once again fairly quickly. As soon as he fell asleep, Ragnor carried him to his bedroom and tucked him in bed, knowing that he was not likely to get any sleep himself.

Walking back into the living room, Raphael seemed to watch him with an amused sort of curiosity. "What, exactly, was that, Ragnor?'

For a moment, Ragnor became slightly annoyed, something that rarely ever happened with Raphael. "What are you talking about, Raphael? I told you, he's Magnus and Alec's."

When Raphael answered, his voice was a bit calmer than normal, and Ragnor absentmindedly wondered why. "That's not what I meant, Ragnor. You're different with that child. You're milder, gentler somehow. And I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that." When Raphael finished speaking, there was yet another surprising smile on his face. Ragnor was too tired to figure out exactly what that meant.

"That child has taught me a thing or two, Raphael. He's taught me that life doesn't have to be taken so seriously. His innocence is staggering. You could learn a thing or two from him yourself." Ragnor had thought that sounded reasonable enough, that he hadn't been accusing Raphael or anything of the sort.

But Raphael was being utterly serious when he responded. "That child might be innocent now, Ragnor. But he won't be innocent for long." Ragnor must have looked as horrified as he felt at that comment because Raphael gave a sharp chuckle and continued speaking. "Unfortunately, children never stay innocent for very long, especially children who grow up in the Shadow world."

Smiling, Ragnor replied with full honesty, something he rarely did with anyone other than Magnus and Raphael. "I think that's what makes Magnus and Alec such amazing parents. They know that better than anyone else, so they're making sure they protect Max as long as possible."

Raphael's eyes were sad as he looked back at Ragnor. "Sure, Ragnor. But how much longer is that going to be possible?"

That night, Ragnor hardly slept at all, worried beyond belief by what Raphael had said. The next morning, Magnus came to pick up Max, clearly not having gotten any sleep himself, although for a completely different reason. As Max ran to him, Magnus smiled over at Ragnor. "You're different, you know?" Watching Magnus with Max was like watching someone completely different than the man he had known for centuries.

Ragnor rolled his eyes, but he knew it was too late to keep anything from Magnus. "No, I mean it. You seem happier somehow." As Max raced back inside to grab his backpack, Magnus continued in a low voice. "Maybe you should think about adopting a child."

Smiling more than he probably should have, Ragnor simply responded. "Yeah, maybe."