Story Summary: Dominic and Jacob contemplate their new bed, old scars, and an unexpected Halloween request from their young human son.

Author’s Note: I was originally going to include this flashback story with all the other bonus content in Family Matters, but then I decided that I wanted to share it separately for Halloween instead. Contains adult themes.

Something Old, Something New

by C.L. Ingro

October 1999

As the sun breached the horizon and signaled the end of another night, Dominic and Jacob flopped down on their brand new king-sized bed, marveling at the amount of space between them.

“Why the hell didn’t we do this sooner?” Jacob asked as he rolled over and buried his face in the most comfortable pillow ever made.

Dominic lifted his head and pulled his long, black hair over his shoulder to keep from lying on top of it. “Because vampires are supposed to sleep in coffins.”

“Fine. You go sleep in a coffin, and I’ll stay right here.”

“I don’t think so.” Dominic swept Jacob into a crushing embrace and was just about to do more than that when they were interrupted by the sound of knocking. The lovers sat up and straightened out their clothes, making sure that all of their parts were presentable.

“Right on time,” Jacob muttered.

“At least he knocked,” Dominic pointed out. “Remember the last time?”

Jacob would not soon forget. Thanks to his quick thinking, another seven years would pass before Xan realized what the two of them were really up to when they were “wrestling” each other. It would be the first of many accusations of mental scarring to come.

“Come in!” Jacob called out.

Xan burst through the basement door in his Ninja Turtles pajamas and bolted down the steps far too fast for his fathers’ comfort. The seven-year-old ran over to the bed and dove between his two dads, his smiling face brighter than any sun.

“Hi, Daddy. Hi, Domi.”

“Morning, Goober.” Jacob kissed the child on top of his tiny blond head and then pretended to pull a quarter out of his ear. “Not the best place to keep money.”

“Cool!”  Xan was mystified by the coin in his hand. “How do you do that?”

“Magic,” Jacob replied proudly.

“Hey, Daddy.”

“Hey, what?”

“Becky says if you switch the G and the B in goober, it spells booger.”

Jacob tried hard not to smile. “Remind me to thank her for that.”

Xan flattened his hand on the bed, his small fingers smoothing over the blanket. “I thought that vampires were supposed to sleep in coffins. Old Man O’Malley still has a coffin in his basement.”

“You are right, Alexander,” Dominic said. “Vampires are supposed to sleep in coffins. It is tradition.”

“You don’t like our bed, Xan?” Jacob asked. “Now you’ll have a lot more room when you sleep with us.”

The little boy shrugged. “It’s okay, but the coffin was fun. I bet it’s easier to wrestle in a bed, though.”

Dominic pressed a hand to his mouth to hide his grin. Jacob lost it completely.

“What’s so funny?” Xan wanted to know.

“You’ll find out when you’re older,” Jacob told him. He spotted Luca in the doorway. “Go eat your breakfast.”

“Okay, Daddy.” Xan placed big, wet kisses on both his fathers’ cheeks. “Sleep tight, and don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

Dominic ruffled his hair. “If they do, we will just bite them back.”

“You’re silly, Domi.”

“Don’t tell anyone.”

Xan hopped off the bed and darted up the stairs just as recklessly as he came down. Luca waved at the couple and closed the door, leaving them to contemplate the bundle of wonder that was their son.

“We have a great kid,” Jacob said.

Dominic nodded. “Yes, we do.”

“According to Luca, he wants all of us to be vampires for Halloween. Go figure.” Jacob stood up and started unbuttoning his shirt. “I guess that would be the one night of the year when we can show the neighbors our fangs without freaking them out.”

“I suppose so.” Dominic narrowed his green eyes as he watched Jacob undress. “Why do you still do that?”

“Do what?”

“Hide your back from me.” The vampire rose to his feet and wrapped his arms around his lover. “I know very well what your body looks like.” He leaned down and kissed Jacob’s neck while pulling off his shirt. “Very, very well.”

“I know.” Jacob moaned when a tongue slid across his neck. He did so love the tongue thing. “I’m sorry.  Old habits.”

Dominic spun him around and planted teasing kisses along his shoulders and back. Jacob closed his eyes as his partner’s lips and hands traced over his scars. He was no longer quite as repulsed by them as he used to be, but he also doubted the day would ever come when he could fully accept such a grotesque disfigurement, no matter how many times that Dominic tried to convince him of his beauty.

“You should have let me kill him for what he did to you,” Dominic murmured suddenly against his skin. 

It was not a sentiment that the vampire expressed very often. While he had long since made what peace he could with the horrors of Jacob’s past as a slave and the terrible sequence of events that ultimately brought them together, a little bit of the old rage still surfaced every now and then.

Jacob turned around and stared at his lover. “If he hadn’t done it, they would’ve hanged me instead,” he said softly.

“I know that. But—”

“But he killed them all, and I’m still here. With you. I win.” Jacob held out his hand. “Now come on, I’m horny.”

And just like that, the storm was over. Dominic grinned and took Jacob’s outstretched hand. “Well, we cannot have that.”

“No, we can’t.”

They flopped onto the bed again, losing themselves in a tangle of limbs and rapidly shed clothing. By the time they realized just how loudly their new bed creaked, a red-faced Luca was frantically trying to divert Xan’s attention away from the fact that his dads really enjoyed wrestling one another. Thank goodness for cartoons.

Afterwards, Dominic clung to Jacob, his arms and legs and hair draped lazily across him. “So, vampires?”

Jacob nodded. “Yep. With capes and everything.”

“I am not wearing a cape, Jacob.”

“Why not? You’re all about tradition, right?”

“That is not tradition. That is a stereotype.”

“Hey, it’s better than the pointy ears and the jacked-up teeth,” Jacob argued.  “Anyway, suck it up because this is what our kid wants.”

Dominic groaned his disagreement.

“Besides, I think you would look good in a cape,” Jacob added.

“… You do?”

“Oh, yeah.” Jacob twirled a lock of black hair around his finger. “All tall and handsome and regal and bitey. I’m getting kind of turned on again just thinking about it.”

“All right,” Dominic finally relented. “I will do it for Alexander. And for all of the other children in the neighborhood who have a certain visual expectation of our kind. However offensive it might be.”

“And sex with me, right?” Jacob asked. “You’re doing it for sex with me?”

“And sex with you,” Dominic agreed.

“Then I win again.”

* * *

All of the neighbors were impressed by the family’s costumes, especially Dominic and Jacob’s eerily realistic fangs.

Xan ended up with two overstuffed bags of candy. When they got home, Dominic and Jacob ended up getting laid. Dominic kept his cape on the entire time.

It was one of the best Halloweens ever.

The End.

Family art by Kanna.