Family Ties: Heavy In Your Arms
#6 of Family Ties
Heavy In Your Arms
A SideProject by Kyuuketsuki
"Pull over, Anthony!" One of the police officers shouted through a bullhorn. "We just want to talk!"
"Come along now, girls! Apply your mascara later! Gonna have to drive faster if ya wanna catch me!" Manya called back to the Hightown's Finest. He sped through Deepcrest - south of Hightown - on his black Harley, constantly taunting the human police as Anthony Watkins. The demon looked ahead. There were several cars ahead in both lanes stopped at a red light. Manya cursed in Blacktongue. He got as close as he could before he snapped his fingers, turning the car just before him into a ramp. Once he was in the air, the temporary shapeshift wore off. Needless to say, the humans inside were horrified.
When he landed on the other side of the intersection, Manya raised his right hand high and his middle finger higher. The demon fished his cell phone out of the pocket of Anthony's coat and held down the two key, speed-dialing Neirid. The phone rang twice before his mate picked up.
"Manya, are you alright?" Neirid asked, stretching out on the couch in the living room.
"I'm fine, sweetie. Have you and Erebus worked things out?"
"Just about. I took him upstairs and he hasn't come down yet."
Manya let out a torrent of curses in Blacktongue when a particularly slow-moving vehicle cut him off. "Sweetheart, don't watch this evening's news, alright?" he said as he got alongside the red Mini Cooper. The demon flipped off the driver, a peroxide blond wolf, before snapping his fingers. Before Neirid could speak a word to stop him, Manya temporarily turned the driver into a goldfish with no bowl and left him flopping on the seat.
"Manya, please keep the magick to a minimum!" Neirid pleaded. "My son has enough on his plate without the police trying to pin your antics on him."
"Oh don't be such a wet blanket, love. I'll be good." Manya promised as the car now behind him crashed into a wall. He watched the terrified wolf crawl out, gasping for air. "Starting now, I'll be good." He laughed as he skidded around a corner. "Neirid, sweetie, would you be against me popping into our homeland for a while after this? I'd like to pay Daddy a visit."
"Up to you." Neirid said. "Say hello for me?"
"Of course, deary."
"I hear him coming down the stairs. I need to go." Neirid said quietly. "Please be careful. I can smell the burnt rubber through the phone."
"Anything for you, babe."
Neirid closed his phone and stuffed it back into his pocket. Anthony came around the corner and down the hall slowly. The demon sat up on his elbows to find his son staring at him. Neither of them spoke for a few moments.
"Are you alright?" Neirid asked.
Anthony didn't respond. He walked over to the couch and sat next to the demon when he sat up completely.
"I left that place just three days ago." Anthony finally said. "I can't help but think this was too easy." He met Neirid's yellow eyes. "Are you really my dad?"
The demon chuckled and nodded. "I know it's hard to believe, but you should really keep in mind that finding family is only hard for human and other mortals. You had an unfair advantage." Anthony laughed at that. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you three days ago. I just didn't know how and I didn't want you to run."
"Where exactly would I have gone?" Anthony replied. "Sorry for what I said to Dra- Manya. I know you wanted to keep me. I don't know where it came from, I mean the only thing I wanted was to find you and that's the first thing I say."
Neirid put his arm around Anthony and gave him a squeeze. "Don't worry about it. All that matters is that you're here now and Manya says don't watch the news."
"What?"
The demon laughed. "Manya wasn't kidding. He's off on his motorcycle leading the police away." He said, running his fingers through Anthony's dark hair
Anthony shifted nervously in his seat. "Won't he get in trouble... or get me in more trouble?!" The boy started to panic, biting at his black claws and glancing around the room as if the police would come from any door in the house.
"Calm down." Neirid said, grabbing Anthony's wrists. "I told you we're going to take care of you. Don't worry. Manya's just drawing them away to take the heat off you for a while. Once we get this all settled - and we will get it settled - you'll never have to worry about the police again." He said, pressing his lips to his son's forehead. "In the meantime - if you want - you can go put on some of Manya's makeup and clothes and we can go out for a while. We could go out to eat, or maybe I could get some groceries and make dinner."
Anthony held a hand up. "I'm gonna stop you right there."
Neirid smirked. "I see Manya's already gotten to you. The makeup's in his desk, center drawer."
"Buy me some Bourbon?"
"No."
"I didn't think so." Anthony took Neirid's left hand and held his right hand to it. The tips of his father's fingers flexed over his easily. "Actually... I was kinda hoping we could just talk, y'know? Between Manya trying to get in my pants and trying to keep me out of jail, I haven't really gotten to talk to you."
Neirid chuckled. "I feared he'd succeeded when I found you in your underwear in his bed. I don't mind, mind you. If you want to say yes to Manya, you don't need my permission." He assured the boy, pressing a finger against the point of one of Anthony's horns. "I just want to see that fiend work for it for once."
"I'll keep that in mind." Anthony laughed. "Honestly, he's making it really hard to say no."
The demon nodded. "Well consider this a warning, if you sleep with him, he's a biter. Also, his bodily fluids are all black and certain ones show up under your skin for a few days."
Were he a cartoon, the boy's eyes would have exploded or fallen out of their sockets. Maybe even both. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thanked every deity he knew of that he hadn't been drinking, as it would have surely come through his nose.
Neirid laughed with him. "You're laughing, but I'm serious. Manya came in my mouth once and the words 'MANYA WAS HERE' were spelled out on my neck for a week." he managed to say between fits of laugher as he fell over on his side, curling back up on the couch.
"No... I believe you." Anthony replied holding his stomach as he caught his breath. "I just can't believe we're really having this particular conversation."
The demon waved a big hand at him. "Oh get used to it, son. There are no secrets here. I give great head and Manya likes it up the ass." Neirid paused. "Well, let me correct that before you try anything. Manya likes it up the ass from me. He might sleep with any stranger, but the only person he allows to top him is me."
"Why's that?" Anthony asked, idly playing with the demon's tail, holding its pointed end in his hand.
Neirid chuckled. Anthony looked up from the black tail in his hands. The demon had the same look in his eyes that Manya had the other day. He stared blankly, dreamily ahead as if he could see Manya before him instead of his empty armchair. "For the same reason he comes home to me. Because unlike any stranger, I love him."
Despite being polar opposites, Anthony could not ignore how perfect these two were for each other. At a glance they seemed like black and white puzzle pieces, but after getting to know them, those two pieces couldn't fit more perfectly together.
"You two are great, you know that?" Anthony said, crawling up the couch to lie next to Neirid. The larger demon took up most of the space, so he ended up lying on top of his father.
"We know, but it's good to be reminded." Neirid joked. He stretched out on the couch and held his arms around the boy on top of him. "Oh, I'm so happy you found your way back to me. I love you so much, Erebus." He said, kissing the boy on the forehead again.
Like kindness, those words had never existed to Anthony. They words were like a flamethrower on the wall of ice that protected his heart, aided in melting by the warm body beneath him. The melted ice left his chest and flowed upward on his nerves. Anthony rested his head on Neirid's shoulder. He held a hand over the demon's heart and the demon held his hand there. The melted ice reached his face and left through his eyes.
"I love you too, dad."
The black sky held the infernal crimson moon high above Otherworld. Nighttime was always eerily peaceful there. There were no crickets sounding. The trees were bare so the wind made little to no sound as it blew.
Manya's perfect bat-human face masked his excitement as best as it could. Were he mortal, it would have worked, but beneath his skin, the ink swirled happily, unable to hold itself as makeup on his lips and eyelids. He took a deep breath of Otherworld's warm night. The demon glowed from the inside. The fire inside him was so intense that his bare chest glowed from the inside. As he slowly exhaled, the flames reached his lips.
The demon stepped up to the edge of the winding path before him. He looked down the drop on either side. Were one to fall, it would surely be their end. Nothing but lava awaited any poor unfortunate soul that fell into the basin surrounding his old home. Manya looked up the winding path up the hill before him. Atop that hill stood a Sengoku-period castle. Not a replica, but one actually stolen from time by its current inhabitant.
Manya held out his paw and caught a piece of falling ash. He rubbed it between his fingers and smiled.
I'm home, Daddy..."