The living room of the little town-house was cheerful looking and specious, colourful toys were scattered everywhere and the chairs and sofas looked well used. For a second Seamus thought they've landed in the wrong house because surely the prissy and uptight Draco Malfoy would never let his house look like the upgraded version of the Burrow, but then he saw Draco move around the place and realized how much his husband had changed. Draco didn't seemed to mind the mess at all, and he hitched the sleeping Sage higher on his hip before turning to Seamus,

"I'm going to put him in bed, you want to come?" Seamus didn't waste a second and followed Draco up the stairs to the small landing which had four doors, "This door is the guest room," Draco pointed to the farthest door, "This is the bathroom and next to it is Sage's room." He pointed and walked towards the door he claimed to be the nursery. Seamus flicked his gaze to the fourth door, the one Draco said nothing of and was obviously his bedroom and tried not to think of how much he wanted to open it and take a peek inside. Instead he followed Draco into the most extraordinary room. It wasn't very big but every inch of the walls was covered with beautiful paintings, making the room seem like some sort of pre-historic landscape. Painted on the walls were dinosaurs and ferns, smoking volcanoes and wet swamps and the whole ambience of the room was that of a small child that loved big creatures.

"Sage is crazy about dinosaurs. Not dragons, dinosaurs…" Draco said with a heavy sigh, "I think it's appalling." He complained cheerfully and Seamus smiled. Draco lowered Sage into his little bed and tucked him lovingly. The boy wriggled a little to get comfortable but didn't wake. When Draco straightened up again he fixed Seamus with a stern glare, "Now it's explanations time." Seamus wrapped his arms around himself in self-defence, he knew that this moment would come but wished he could postpone it as much as possible. He'd be happy to stay here and watch the boy sleep, his boy. He didn't think he could ever get over this marvel, the fact that he had a son.

Seamus followed Draco downstairs and into the kitchen. The kitchen was just as small and snugly as the rest of the house and Seamus could easily imagine Draco and Sage having their meals at the round table, laughing together. He gingerly sat himself in one of the chairs and watched Draco bustle around the kitchen making tea, noticing how easy and sure his movements were. When Seamus left, Draco wasn't even apt to lift his wand to heat the water up and now he was looking like a merry house-wife. Draco placed a steaming mug in front of Seamus and added a splash of whiskey to it before he took a seat on the other side of the table, cupping his own spiked tea mug.

"Two sugars and lots of milk, just like you used to take it." Draco said softly and Seamus smiled,

"You remembered."

"Of course I remembered," Draco scoffed, but without malice,

"Well, you never used to make me tea before so I wasn't sure you would remember." Seamus flashed him a hearty grin which was returned with a small chuckle. They drank their tea in silence for a while, each waiting for the other to start the conversation, until Draco lost his patience,

"So, tell me, why did you leave?" Seamus fixed his eyes on the steaming mug, as if his tea held the answers to Draco's question,

"I had to."

"Had to?" Seamus nodded, trying to brace himself for what was to come, he knew he had to tell Draco the truth, Draco deserved to know it, but the truth is exactly the reason Seamus ran away in the first place… "Where did you go?"

"It doesn't matter, you'll just have to trust me baby- I can't tell you anything." Seamus pleaded and lifted his eyes to see Draco's nostrils flare, uh-oh, not a good sign,

"Trust you? After you left without a word, you come back here and still refuse to say where you've been and I'm suppose to trust you? I don't think so Finnigan!" He snarled and leaned forward in his chair, "I'm not against using force to get what I want, now tell me!" Seamus' eyes grew wide at Draco's words and the way his face were hardening, he gulped and clutched his mug tight, for a second Draco looked so much like Lucius and that scared Seamus more that he was willing to admit.

"I… they made me leave, I did it for you Draco, to keep you safe." He mumbled, still transfixed by the transformation of Draco when the blond man's face crumbled in surprise and confusion, once again becoming the face of the man Seamus loved,

"Keep me safe? From what? And who are 'they'?" Seamus rubbed his forehead and then splayed his fingers straight on the table top, watching the ten digits and trying to ignore Draco's annoyed huff at his transparent attempt to stall for time.

"I can't tell you." Draco took a deep breath to stifle the scream that was clawing to get out of his throat, he knew that Seamus was a stubborn git, but in the last three and a half years he had managed to convince himself otherwise. "Look, Draco, I shouldn't have come here, I didn't mean to cause troubles. I better go." He started to rise when Draco's cold voice stopped him short,

"Sit. Down!" Draco took a deep breath and tried again, knowing that Seamus' Gryffindor nature wouldn't let him lie and evade the truth for long, "Who's been threatening you?" Seamus refused to meet his gaze and started fidgeting even more than before,

"I… it's… I'm sorry…" He muttered, face constricting with pain and suddenly Draco knew the answer without being told,

"Oh, bugger! Oh, fuck." He swore under his breath and moved his seat closer to Seamus. "It's him isn't it?" Without lifting his head Seamus nodded, and Draco sprang to his feet and started pacing the length of the kitchen, "Lucius Bloody Malfoy!"

"I'm sorry." Seamus mumbled again, and Draco took his seat again and put a comforting hand over Seamus',

"What did he do? Tell me what happened, please." Seamus raised his head and Draco could see the eyes glistening with tears,

"Your father and I have a very interesting relationship, you see, He barks and I refuse to step down and then he bites, hard, and I flee the country." Seamus chuckled dryly and humourlessly. Draco bit his lip and pulled Seamus into his arms, hugging him tight. Seamus let himself be pulled into his husband's arms, this is what he wanted, for the last three and a half years this is all he's been dreaming of. The feel of those arms around him simply broke him and he couldn't nor wanted to stop the tears from falling. Draco softly rocked him, murmuring sweet nothings in his ear until he felt the worst of the storm passing, then he lifted the pliant and emotionally exhausted Seamus from his chair and led him over to the living room and sat them both on the sofa, offering Seamus a box of tissues.

Seamus tried to smile, feeling a little embarrassed at his breakdown but at the same time quite happy that Draco wasn't too mad at him. He wiped his face and nose and took a deep breath, phase one was over but now came the really hard part- telling Draco what exactly happened. He worried his lip for a while, trying to find the right words,

"I… Do you remember that evening, two days after our wedding, when I went back to mine to grab some clothes?" He asked tentatively, trying to ease into things, Draco nodded, of course he remembered that night, it was the last time he saw his husband before today, "Well, when I got to my flat the place was… it was shattered, a complete mess. Each bloody furniture was broken, just smashed into splinters- they even tore away the wall paper!" Draco took deep breaths trying to calm himself, because he could feel the bubble of hate and rage towards his father rising again, worse than ever. Ever since his husband left Lucius ignored him completely, both financially and otherwise. Just when Draco needed help the most, with his pregnancy and then the little baby, the only family he had left turned his back on him.

"I didn't even have time to take it all in, there were three men standing there, in the middle of the wreckage and one Lucius Malfoy. He told me to leave you," Seamus shrugged and fiddled with the tissue in his hand, eyes fixed on the white square of thin paper, as if it held all the answers, "I told him that I would never do that, that I loved you and you loved me. He laughed… He said that you were just using me for sex and that no Malfoy would ever fall in love with a filthy half-blood. And then I really stuck my foot in my mouth and told him that we got married," Seamus gave another humourless chuckle, "Gods, you should have seen his face then, he was so mad… before I could even get my wand out he cursed me with 'Crucio' and told me that our marriage was null and void and that if I didn't leave right there and then he'd come after you. I told him I didn't believe him, that he couldn't keep us apart or undue our marriage. Well, that sure sent him round the bend…" Seamus paused in his speech and pulled his knees to his chest, he rubbed his forehead and tried to blink tears away, even though those were not his memories anymore he still felt mortified by what has been done to him, by his father-in-low no less. He felt Draco's hand slip into his and squeezed the warm fingers in thanks. Drawing strength from Draco he continued his story,

"He cast a full-body-bind on me and barked at his men to take me to the bedroom. When we got there I found out that the bastard had trashed that room as well, but left the bed intact though… he shredded every piece of clothe I had, every memory I had of you but he left the bed in one piece… the bed that we first made love in… The three men tossed me on the bed and then they…" Seamus' voice caught in his throat and he had to swallow a couple of times before he could say another word, "They… took turns… it felt like forever, they just wouldn't stop and I couldn't do anything to stop them!"

The tears were now flowing freely again, and Seamus' entire body was shaking uncontrollably, Draco clenched his jaw, his eyes watering as well as he pulled Seamus close to him, trying to ease away the pain his husband was feeling. This was so wrong, so unbelievably wrong- he never thought that Lucius would sink so low in order to hurt him, but he should have known better. The sadistic bastard that was his father, the famous Death Eater, the Dark Lord's right hand man… How could he ever think that his father would show mercy, compassion to his own son. But to go after the man he loved, to break him down so wholly that Seamus fled the country without a word and had to live with this horror for almost four years, all alone in Merlin knows where was more than Draco could bear. He swore to himself that Lucius would pay, Draco had suffered enough for Narcissa's death and it was about time Lucius would understand that Draco had nothing to do with it!

"What happened then? Where did you go?" He asked in a hoarse voice,

"He stood there and watched, with that little smirk on his face. He didn't care one bit about what would happen to me! He just stood there and watched them beat me up and r… rape me." Seamus spat out the word, as if saying it out loud made it happen all over again, "When they were finally done, he sent them away. Then he approached the bed and told me very clearly that if I set one foot anywhere near you again, he's going to do the same to you and then he just apparated away. I couldn't even think of the possibility that someone would touch you, not like this, not because of me. It took me about three hours but I finally managed to move, my entire body was sore and aching and there was blood everywhere. Fuck, I didn't even have something to cover myself with, all my clothes have been torn to pieces not big enough to be rags! I somehow managed to find enough floo powder and landed naked and bleeding on Hermione's hearth. She was shocked I can tell you that!" Draco nuzzled the side of Seamus' face and the Irishman leaned into the touch. He was tiered, so tiered. He never realized that telling his story to someone else would take so much out of him.

"She was brilliant, she healed me and took care of me. It took me three days to be able to just sit and another three before I could walk, there were so many bones in my body that needed mending. By the end of that week I was back to myself physically but I was a complete mess emotionally. I couldn't sleep, even dreamless potion hardly worked anymore, I wouldn't speak to anyone, didn't dare to leave the house- hell, the room I was in. I hardly ate and I kept seeing those men at every turn, even in shadows on the wall. I had my wand with me every single second, Hermione learned after the first day to announce herself before entering my room or I'll hex her without a thought. I asked her to keep my whereabouts a secret, I couldn't risk you finding me and then a word would travel back to your father. I don't know if he watched me then, I didn't really care as long as you were safe. When I was fit enough again Hermione made me put the memories of that night in a pensieve, and then watch them."

"What?" Draco nearly jumped from his seat, damn that stupid woman! After Seamus finally got rid of the horrible memories she made him watch them? Relive the horror again? Sadistic bastard of a fucking Gryffindor… Seamus watched the array of emotions playing on Draco's face and nearly smiled, he felt his heart swell with love for his husband for being so angry at Hermione on his behalf, but still he couldn't just let Draco loose on her,

"It was the right thing to do, love. I could never forget what happened, I didn't want to. But this way it was more like… a bad dream or something- I knew what happened and I knew how it played out but I didn't feel it anymore… I mean, it was no longer part of me." Seamus tried to explain desperately, suddenly wishing that Hermione was here to explain this in a way that made sense. "I still have the memory with me, I carry it wherever I go, just so I won't forget." He pulled out a small glass vial from his pocket and showed it to Draco. Before he could put it back in his pocket though Draco grabbed his hand and took the vial,

"I want to see it." He stated firmly, his jaw set and his eyes hard, Seamus shook his head, "Please, baby, I need to see what happened." Seamus eyes were swimming in tears again,

"No, please Draco, I… I don't want you to see it. Not yet." He begged. Draco looked into the pleading blue eyes and released Seamus' hand,

"Alright. But you will show me one day!" Seamus gave him a slight nod and pocketed the memory again.

"When I left Hermione I made her take a wizard's oath not to tell anyone what happened to me. I couldn't risk hurting more people. I took the first international portkey out of England and ended up in Australia. I spent the last three years, seven months and nine days running from place to place. I knew he was watching me, he never made a secret out of it, sending men to watch over my steps, try and stop me if I was trying to return here. I went muggle, working odd jobs here and there just trying to get by."

"Why did you come back now?"

"My father got ill, very ill and I decided to go back to Ireland to be with him. The funny bit is, I wasn't being watched here. I guess Lucius was so certain of his intimidating tactics that he didn't think I'd be foolish enough to return. I didn't mean to come here, I really didn't but just the thought of seeing you again, that slim chance was more than I could afford to pass on." Draco nodded and tried to smile, squashing the little irrational pang of disappointment at the thought that Seamus didn't come back to England for him.

"Are you going back to Australia?" He asked quietly, his eyes fixed on their entwined fingers,

"No." Seamus replied, "There's nothing for me there. Draco, I'm sorry I didn't say anything, I'm sorry I left so suddenly, but you have to understand that I did it for you…" He tried to plea but Draco held his free hand up,

"No, forget it, it doesn't matter anymore. Whatever the reason you left is not important. What's important now is that you're back and you're staying with us." He said with all the confidence of someone used to getting his own way. Seamus couldn't help but smile a little, apparently Draco hasn't changed that much over the years.

"So, what do we do now?" Draco gave him a long look, brushing aside stray hairs that clung to Seamus' wet cheeks, before he reached for his wand and spelled the blotchiness of Seamus' skin and the puffiness of his eyes away.

"First we're going to wake Sage up otherwise he won't sleep tonight. Then you are going to play with him and get to know him while I make us something to eat." He said with his best cheerful tone, the one he always used around Sage when things got a little too much but he didn't want to upset his son. Seamus nodded and followed him back to their son's room, where Draco proceeded to gently wake the sleeping boy. Sage proved rather resilient in the face of his father's attempts and when Draco shot a rather accusatory glare at Seamus, the latter grinned sheepishly, secretly proud that Sage had inherited at least one of his trades, even if it was his uncanny ability to sleep.

When Sage finally woke up and was dressed and ready for the rest of his day Draco took him downstairs and sat him on the sofa. Seamus followed slowly, thoughts scattering in million directions, what if Sage didn't like him, what if he rejected him as a father, what if he, Seamus sucked at being one- after all he never thought about kids before, not until the biological evidence was presented before him. He rubbed his sweaty palms in his trousers repeatedly and tried to take deep calming breaths that only left him gasping and dizzy with oxygen deficiency. When he entered the living room he saw Draco and Sage sitting on the sofa, looking happy and relaxed, and Seamus felt more out of place than before. The way Draco carried on around his son was so gentle and caring, something that Seamus never thought his husband capable of. The younger version of Draco Malfoy, the one he left behind all those years ago was not what you might call a parental material. In fact, Seamus could distinctly remember more than one occasion when Draco actually intimidated little kids to the point of tears. But now Draco was a father himself and Seamus figured that carrying a baby for nine months and then having to care for him would turn anyone parental.

"Sage, love, I want you to meet someone." Draco started when Seamus sat on a nearby armchair, smiling nervously and trying not to fidget too much. Draco sent him a reassuring smile and Seamus did his best to look like he fitted there and not like he was some creepy new boyfriend that Sage was bound to hate. "You remember I told you about your other daddy?" Sage nodded vigorously, his eyes never leaving Draco, "Well, this is him. I want you to say hello to Seamus, your father." Sage scooted closer to Draco before turning his gaze and looking at Seamus. Seamus gave him a bright smile and a small wave,

"Hi, Sage, it's a pleasure to finally meet you." Sage didn't return the smile right away, he first swapped his gaze all over Seamus, his grey-blue eyes as piercing as Draco's. But eventually he seemed satisfied with what he saw and grinned wide,

"Hello." Seamus nearly collapsed with relief, only then realizing how tight he was holding himself for the scrutiny of three years old. He sagged back in his chair and smiled wide.

"Sage, why don't you take Seamus upstairs and show him your toys while I make us dinner, ok?" Seamus was quite impressed by the fact that Draco talked to his son as an equal, without any coquetry or high-pitched voices that people normally adopted around small children. Sage nodded again and jumped from the sofa, coming to a halt in front of Seamus and held out his little hand,

"You like dinosaurs?" He asked in a serious tone, brows slightly drawn together and Seamus knew this was his right of passage,

"I love them." He said truthfully, as a kid he was simply fascinated with them, and now that he thought about it, this was probably another trait that Sage got from him,

"Daddy thinks they're boring." Sage complained as Seamus took his hand and he started to pull the man behind him towards the stairs. Seamus tossed a glance at Draco who smiled back at him and mouthed 'you're doing great'. Seamus followed Sage back to his room, all the while Sage kept telling him about dinosaurs and other things that Seamus didn't understand since Sage's speech wasn't perfect yet and he kept messing up words and, Seamus suspected, making some of them up.

They settled comfortably on the floor while Sage showed Seamus his favourite toys, mostly dinosaur related of course and taught him a few games. Seamus soon found out that his son might have gotten his love for dinosaurs from him but his bossy attitude was pure Draco. He simply couldn't get past that little jutting of the chin whenever Seamus did something that Sage didn't like- it was identical to the expression Draco wore when things didn't go his way.

When about thirty minutes later Draco walked up the stairs to call them down to dinner he found Seamus and Sage laying on their stomachs, having a rather animated dinosaur battle laughing their heads off. Draco leaned on the doorframe for a few moments just taking it all in, lately he's began to question the faith of Seamus returning and Sage ever knowing him. Draco never made a secret out of Sage sire's identity, not to his son and not to the world but it was a long way from showing Sage old pictures of Seamus to having the actual man around.

"Who's hungry?" He called when he saw the battle coming to an end when Sage still clutching his dinosaur plushie pounced on Seamus and started tickling him. The two flushed faced blonds on the floor looked up in surprise to hear Draco's voice before Sage jumped to his feet,

"Me!" He cried and rushed to the door and tried to duck under Draco's arm, but his father was ready for him and caught him easily, swinging him through the air,

"Not so fast Tiny! First you're going to pack this mess up and then you're going to wash your hands." Sage gave him a fierce pout, which Draco bravely ignored and placed his son back on the floor. Sage ran back to the pile of toys and started to shove them back in their basket as fast as he could while Seamus and Draco watched the little tornado with amusement. Before long the room has retained a resemblance of tidiness and Sage sprinted towards the bathroom to wash his hands while Draco flicked his wand almost lazily and brought the room together properly. The three made their way down the stairs rather messily, laughing and pocking and tickling each other.

When Seamus entered the kitchen he could hardly believe his eyes- the table was set for dinner and there were delicious smells wafting from the stove. He stood stock still and bewildered, if he had not known better he could have sworn that Draco was hiding a house-elf to do the cooking and cleaning around but since neither Draco nor Sage mentioned one he was forced to reach the conclusion that Draco must have learned how to cook.

"Having a kid makes you learn quite a lot of things you never thought you would." Draco whispered in Seamus' ear as he passed him on the way into the kitchen, heading to tie a little bib around Sage's neck. Seamus took his seat and was quite lost for words. This is the perfect life he should have been living for near four years now, instead of running for his life. The feel of regret was burdening heavy on him again when he watched Draco give Sage a big sloppy kiss that made the toddler giggle. Seamus wanted more than anything to wrap his arms around both of them and hold them tight, but he stayed where he was.

They ate in relative silence, broken only by Sage's endless chatter about random things while the grown-ups kept mostly to themselves. Seamus was mightily surprised at how good the food tasted, a simple vegetable stir-fry and white rice, but the casserole was flavoured with many spices he did not recognise but blended together beautifully to create a rich taste.

When dinner was over Draco asked Sage if he'd like Seamus to give him his bath. Seamus looked up startled at the offer; as much as he wanted to spend time with Sage giving him a bath was making Seamus cringe with fright. What if he managed to drown the kid? Draco would flat out kill him! Granted Sage was rather too big to be drowned so easily but there was an endless list of perils involving a three years old child and a bath full of water. Sage, on the other hand, jumped on the offer and once again dragged Seamus behind him to show him his bath toys.

When Draco finally finished cleaning the kitchen and went upstairs to see what was going on in the bath he found his husband and son clearly having the time of their life, drawing on the tile with Sage's water crayons. Seamus' whole front was soaked with water and Sage looked even dirtier than he was before entering the bath- covered nearly from head to toe in colours. Draco had a hard time trying to suppress his grin but he did his best,

"What on earth is going on here?" He cried and both of them jumped and turned, flashing him a near identical sheepish grins. Draco rolled his eyes, not knowing whether to hug or scold them. In the end he settled for kneeling next to Seamus and reaching his hand forward with a commanding glance. Seamus and Sage placed their crayons in Draco's outstretched hand looking quite guilty. He put them aside and proceeded to wash Sage clean. Seamus watched in awe the way Draco made every task seem so easy, while Seamus had a hard time trying to not to succumb to his childish nature.

When Sage was finally clean enough for Draco's satisfaction he ordered Seamus to clean the bath while he wrapped the giggling and squirming Sage in a big towel and carried him to his room. When Seamus finished Sage returned to the bathroom already in a pair of bright green footed pyjamas and climbed the little stool he pulled from under the sink and grabbed his toothbrush. Seamus obediently applied toothpaste on it and watched as his son brushed his teeth a little awkwardly but enthusiastically. After finishing he reached his little arms to Seamus in a plea to be picked up. Seamus nearly sobbed when Sage asked him to carry him back to his room and he held him tight against his body, feeling the soft skin against his and the warmth of his little body pressed against his side.

Together Seamus and Draco tucked Sage in, and gave him a goodnight kiss, before turning the lights off and exiting the room, Seamus still sporting a huge goofy grin at the kiss Sage gave him. Standing outside Sage's room he suddenly felt nervous, what was he to do next? Should he thank Draco for the great afternoon and be on his way? Should he presume he was welcome to stay a bit longer? He started shuffling his feet nervously, ducking his head and trying to send furtive looks at Draco at the same time. From under his fringe Seamus concluded that Draco looked just as nervous as he felt, which wasn't helping Seamus much.

A/N: I'm for shit when it comes to baby talk… So if you know any three years old kids than just imagine how they talk when Sage speaks.