He never thought he'd see the day. A child of his. A dog lover.
"Daddy, I go pets?" his little girl asked tugging lightly on his stone hand as the almost five-year-old in human terms girl pointed excitedly across the park towards some dog playing frisbee with its owner.
"Not right now Ruthy girl. Right now, it's lunchtime." Hellboy reminded using the middle-named nickname only he was ever able to use as he swept his daughter up into his arms. A move that normally earned a happy giggle from his second favorite lady love. Now, however, it just made her saddened pout deepen as his daughter stared in longing towards the pup obediently returning the slobber-covered plastic disk to its human's hand.
"Okay." The child sighed leaning against her father's shoulder as he carried her over to the picnic-tabled bench the unconventional family had claimed as theirs for the afternoon.
"Hey, kiddo you hungry?"
Hellboy rolled his eyes at Meyer's more baby-talked question as the father lowered his daughter down towards her seat. Considering both his children had inherited the red-skinned man's hearty appetite along with a few other things it was a wonder the more unconventional family had lasted as long as they had before decided to stop for a bite. But at least John wasn't attempting to talk him or Liz into leaving their kids to rejoin the BPRD again. It hadn't been the easiest of adjustments living outside the BPRD's watch after they'd all decided to quit after the fight with the Golden Army but somehow, he, Liz, and Abe had made it work.
Abe found work at a pool as a swim instructor a few times a week while most of the kid's parents shopped at the troll market whilst Liz had decided to become a fire investigator for a station a few blocks from their house.
Hellboy was currently working on his next lesson for homeschooling the twins. A continued shock for both parents in their children's flat denials at wanting to attend any class that had anyone but their father teaching it.
Ashley "Ash" Ruth Sherman-Broom only gives an uninterested "Uh-Huh" node in answer to her 'uncles' ask.
"Ashy, Ashy don't be sad. I picked you some nachos for lunch. " Her older brother by only a few minutes Trevor Abraham Sherman-Broom says in his own small attempt to brighten his little sister's soured mood. "Extra cheese and chili and everything." He adds when not even the mention of his twin's favorite food seemed to make her feel better as Ash's eyes find the dog once more.
"That's my boy." Hellboy smiled holding up his more human hand for a high five as Liz and Abe follow a little more slowly considering it was them actually bringing the already hinted-at nachos over to the table along with the rest of the group's meal orders.
"Careful Trev don't spill that." Liz called in reminder, considering she'd allowed her son to run ahead to check on his now sad-seeming twin and give her husband his surprise in the form of a Baby Ruth-infused milkshake after spying it on the food truck menu.
"I'm not sad." Ashley snapped noticing her uncle Abe's sympathetic expression as the Fishman took his seat across from her at the now food-ladened table.
"No one said you were, firefly." Liz calmed propping her cane against the table beside her once she'd sat down as she, like the others notice the warning clouds of smoke rising from the little girl's shoulders in her agitated state. The only one of their twins so far to show any fire related abilities other than sharing their father's flame resistance.
"Actually…." Meyers started to counter only for Hellboy to kick him into silence under the table as Liz rushed to pull out their daughter's favored dog plushy in an attempt to cool off their little girl's fiery temper before anything resembling sparks could follow in such a public setting.
The parents still trying to find just what company Abe had been able to find a flame resistant plushy to hold up against even Liz's most 'hot-headed' outburst as her husband had so jokingly called it when the pyro woman had been pregnant.
Ashley having taken to the pup at once almost as soon as her newborn eyes had found it in the recovery room and even now will have a full-blown 'fire fit' as her father dubbed them if she was separated for so much as a bath from her favored toy friend. The child always sitting with wrapped attention on the kitchen counter every time her parents decided her friend needed a wash in the kitchen sink what with the first and only time Hellboy had tossed the toy dog into the washing machine ending with the thing having been melted beyond recognition by his enraged daughter the same day the twins had turned a full-year-old.
"That wasn't necessary you know." Abe says instead with a hiss of pain when he was on the receiving end of attempted warning rather than the human man, he'd been seated next to.
Considering his children were currently at the table Hellboy quickly changed his curse at attacking the wrong man to something other than English before giving an apologetic "I'm sorry Blue I didn't mean…." In English.
"Mama, Daddy said a bad word." Trevor jumped in after taking a larger than needed bite of his hot dog as he spoke.
"Finish eating before you talk, T." Liz reminds calming a little when Ash's mood brightened as she hides her face in the toy dog's fur. Her food is yet to be touched in front of her. Another dead giveaway of her upset mood "and I'll be sure to have Daddy pay the swear jar as soon as we get home." She adds sending a confirming glance towards her husband.
Hellboy other than giving a halfhearted "Yeah, yeah," had eyes only for his daughter who was once again eyeing another newly rived dog making excited spin turns as their owner waved something over the fluffy animal's head.
It's only later in the evening once the children had been put down for an early but needed nap when his clever wife was able to corner him properly.
"What's up Red?" Liz prods leaning a little more against the support of her cane as she gingerly eased the door to the twin's shared room closed.
They had attempted to offer their children their own rooms but after the sixth time they'd noticed the twins as well as the family's growing number of house cats all piled in one room and normally into one bed they'd given up on the idea and allowed for Trevor to move back into the 'bigger' room Ashly had been given. His parents knew full well each offered room was of equal size but allowed the decision as they'd helped the four-year-old shift most of his things back into his sister's room across the small corridor opening into the cottage's library.
"Huh? Nothing's wrong. Why would something be wrong?" Hellboy answers without turning from his intent glowering at one of the many opened books scattered on the table in front of him.
"Red." His wife sighed over the soft sounds of her assisted approach.
He exhaled slowly leaning back in his chair as Liz stopped beside him the hand not resting on the steadying grip of the cane handle resting against his shoulder. Hellboy relented a little nuzzling the side of his head against her side before Liz moved instead to sit down across his lap.
"Don't try to say nothing is going on because this is exactly what you did after Abe confirmed my diagnosis and you started working yourself too hard to find….."
"I know you've accepted it, but I can't…. I can't lose you, Liz. Not again." Her husband says his strong voice wavering as his stone hand slides so carefully against her back.
On instinct, Liz presses closer to her 'big red monkey's' front remembering the recurring times neither could find peaceful dreams thanks to their time as Rasputin's captives. Although hers were more centered around the whispered confession of her pregnancy not being enough to save him after Prince Nuada's spear shard had been removed from his heart. And she'd considered it a good night if her dreams had allowed even that glimmering of hope.
"but this isn't…"
"I gathered that, thanks." Liz interrupts attempting in a small way to lighten the mood. Her arms lift with mild difficulty to wrap a little tighter around his neck to steady herself as she nuzzles her head against his shoulder. "So, what's all this then?" she asks noticing that for once the desk wasn't littered with crumpled pages of medical journals or textbooks.
"Ash wants a… a dog." Hellboy says his voice wavering on the last word as another of the family cats twists around his ankle under the table and a few more leap up to begin batting around a few crumpled pages he'd ripped from the notepad he'd been writing on.
"Well, she didn't get that from your side…." Liz attempted to tease but breaks off when smokey tremors shake her hands. With a practiced move, Hellboy slides the chair away from the closest of the room's more flammable objects before the smoke changes to pops of an actual fire.
"I can't help it that I'm too Alpha for them to handle." Hellboy says once the blaze had seemed to burn itself out along with the chair, he'd been sitting in. not a complete loss to his mind. He hadn't liked that chair much anyways. No back support at all.
"Been watching too much tv again." Liz coughed leaning gratefully into her husband's offered support as the crush of fatigue set in.
"But I figure if I can find something in one of Pop's books, I could maybe animate one of Ash's toys for a stand-in." Hellboy goes on in explanation. "But so far no luck."
Liz ducks her head to press a kiss against the smoking skin of her husband's shoulder his shirt having been burnt right off him as he'd held her. "that's really sweet, Red."
"I have my moments." The retired demon hunter scoffed with a pleased grin as he rubbed his human hand against his chin.
"True." She agrees with a soft smile pressing a kiss along his jaw.
"And I figure if it's one of her toys then it'd already have that bond to keep her safe if one of us you know can't." Hellboy reasoned unsure of himself now as his wife shifts a little more comfortably as she relaxed into his hold.
"You don't have to defend this idea to me, Red." Liz counters wrapping her arms a little more securely around her husband's neck to steady herself against him.
The couple was interrupted by heavy paw steps along the wooden floors of the short hallway between the twins' shared room and the kitchen the parents looking over just in time to catch the furred swish of a tail stalking past the doorway.
But that was impossible. None of the protective wards or charms Hellboy had set up had been triggered as the two demon hunting parents moved in tandem towards the door.
Not even the use of her cane hampers Liz's steps as she lets the lick of blue-colored flames dance around her fingertips as across from her, her husband's hand dropped to pull one of the many hidden weapons stashed discretely around the cottage for just this reason.
Both of them pause once again listening harder when they catch a yawned "Erm. I can't reach it," from their daughter then a soft scraping of clawed paws scrap the floor as Ash giggles quietly before the sounds of the kitchen faucet being turned on down the sounds of Meyer's snoring camped out as he was on the living room sofa.
"It's okay. It's water. It won't hurt." They hear Ash sooth in a low sleepy whisper backed by the low "See? It's good for you" along with another burst of water from the kitchen tap and a distrusting rumbling from the thing now threatening their unaware little girl. "Here. Now you dri- Oops."
Liz can't help but wince a little at the splattering sounds of water spilling reach them.
"It's okay. We can share." Ash says her voice so innocently trusting as she adds a nervous. "Help me down?"
Unable to stand by longer her eavesdropping parents rush into the kitchen archway earning a startled 'eep' from Ash at the sudden twisting of the furry ladder she was making of her new friend's back, a protective growl from the large, furred thing Ash was clinging to for dear life and a rounded-out mumble of "What?" from Meyers as the combined sounds seem to rouse him from sleep.
"No, no hurt him. No, hurt him. He's, my friend." Ash pleads looking into three equally untrusting sets of eyes now sitting upright astride the large dog-like thing's back whilst the animal she was more or less riding stands straighter as it attempts to shield her at the same time it shifts its weight to steady the child against it's back.
"Let down," the child instructs earning an untrusting huff of her own from her mount. "Peas." The child yawned more tired than anything. A regular occurrence after her not-so-sneaky drink request after a nap. Normally a glass of juice but seeing as her parents had moved her true prize well out of her reach it seemed Ash had found another way to get a late-night drink.
With a dragon worthy rumbling in its throat the animal lowered itself with shockingly deliberately soft movements to lower itself enough to allow the child across its back to reach the floor. "Gotta talk to Mama and Poppy then sleep." Ashley soothed rubbing her small hand against the soft-looking fur of the animal's muzzle.
"I'd still swear we are dreaming." Meyer's yawns
"We not dreaming Uncle Mey." Ashley scolds swaying tiredly on her feet.
Rather than allow the back and forth to continue Ashley's newly gained protector nudged the drooping youngster over towards the living room padding over the mess of blankets and pillows Ashley preferred to keep nested in one corner of the family gathering space.
Once the tired child was properly nestled into the small collection with a drugged blanket tucked over her shoulders the curious hybrid thing circled around Ashley's figure melting into an all too familiar plushy toy the half-second after Ashley's small hand fisted back into the dog's scruff as she dozed off.
"She definitely gets that from your side." Liz decides also attempting to hide a yawn of her own as she watched her dozing daughter snuggle up with the no longer animated dog she was clinging to.
"Last time I read from a book out loud anymore." Hellboy shrugged sharing a glance with his wife.
"Or you know what they say about the imagination of a child." Meyers offers rubbing a hand over his tired face as he replaces his drawn weapon back under the sofa cushion. "maybe this was just some kind of outward projection of how Ash sees it." he says with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Guess we sometimes have a dog now." Hellboy shrugged eyeing the toy dog curiously.