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Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10

One Month Later

“Get up, now! Come on, move, move, move!”

Alphonse clapped his hands loudly in the hallway and Cassandra opened her bedroom door, glaring at him. “God, I’m up!” she groaned, slamming the door in his face. He smiled and turned to see Antonio hurrying from his room.

“Hey, buddy, did you feed the hamster?”

“Yep!”

“And clean the cage?”

Antonio flushed. “Noooo…”

Alphonse shook his head at him. “After school. We don’t have a lot of time. You guys need to get dressed and eat and head out to school. That cage stinks, though! If I have to tell you one more time to clean the cage, you can’t keep him anymore.”

Antonio’s eyes widened in fear. “No! I promise I’ll do better. I’ll take good care of him and feed him and clean his home!”

They walked into the kitchen and Antonio sat to eat his breakfast—bacon and eggs with orange juice. “That’s what I like to hear—Cass!”

“I heard you!” Cass shouted. The sound of her stomping steps announced her arrival, but she squealed. “Jade broke up with her boyfriend! I mean, very sad, very sad.” She feigned sympathy, her smile betraying her as she sat to eat her breakfast with Antonio. “But… he totally sucked and I totally rock and we’re best friends and now I don’t have to suffer from his frat-bro douche attitude at lunch anymore.”

“And you can maybe tell her how you feel?” Alphonse suggested.

Cass frowned at him as she chewed. “Well, not yet! She has to, like, mourn or whatever.”

“He didn’t die, she broke up with him.”

“We’re teenagers.”

“Can I sleep over my friend’s house? It’s Monty,” Antonio interrupted after humming to himself quietly.

“Sure. Tonight? I’ll drive you,” Alphonse said. “Don’t forget you have soccer practice, though, and you know the rules.”

Antonio nodded happily. “Finish homework before sleepovers!”

“And…?” Alphonse tested, but Antonio didn’t say anything as he looked at him blankly. “Clean the hamster cage.”

Antonio giggled. “Oh, yeah.”

Alphonse looked at the time. They still had ten minutes before they had to go, so he relaxed and grabbed a granola bar to nibble on.

“Bud, you’re getting all dirty like that, come on,” Cass said as a bit of bacon grease dribbled on Antonio’s front. Alphonse watched as she fretted over wiping at his shirt. He could easily magic the stain away. It wasn’t noticeable, but it was these little things that Alphonse adored about his children. Antonio looked at her and kept apologizing quietly, and she groomed him until he looked presentable again. Then he offered her a piece of egg as a peace offering even though she still had some on her plate.

His children.

The wondrous thing about being a risen demon was his new powers. He could appear human to the public and become a part of society if need be. Alphonse managed to magic things in his favor to become the legal guardian of Cassandra and Antonio Vargas.

The day after they defeated Silas, Alphonse presented the proposal to the children. Antonio was distraught, even though their mother had been terrible to them. The simple lie was that their mother died in her sleep. Cassandra and Alphonse knew differently. Though she was affected by the events of the previous night, she emphatically accepted Alphonse’s proposal to become their legal guardian, almost desperately.

It was the only time she expressed any fear or excessive upset or nervousness over her mother dying in front of Antonio. She was always very good at pushing supernatural worries away in front of her brother, and Alphonse was helping her deal with any troubling nightmares she still had.

Alphonse was pulled out of his thoughts by her voice. “Al!” she said, waving for him to follow as she slung her brother’s bag over his shoulders. “Come on, come on, you’re the one who woke us up so early and now you’re daydreaming?”

“Oh, hush, get in the car,” Alphonse said as he followed them out. Antonio bounced as he ran to the back of the car and Alphonse got into the driver’s seat.

Cassandra sat beside him in the passenger seat and put her seatbelt on. She turned and looked at Antonio. “Put your seatbelt on, come on.”

“It’s on!”

“It’s not! I can see it’s off!”

Antonio pouted and put the seatbelt on. Alphonse laughed as he also put his seatbelt on, put the key into the ignition, and drove off.

Antonio’s school was closer, so Al dropped him off first. “Have a good day!” Alphonse called out. Antonio waved with a giggle. The boy with the soccer dreams found his friends rather quickly and went inside.

“Did you even do your homework?” He pestered Cassandra as he drove toward her high school.

“Of course, I did, Dad,” she said, and smiled softly, looking away. Alphonse looked at her with a big smile and wide eyes, and she scoffed. “Oh, shut up, Al. Just drive.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

She looked at him defiantly and shrugged, crossing her arms. “I was just kidding.”

“I know you were.”

She smiled at him, and he gave her a smile too, and they stayed quiet for the rest of the ride. Alphonse was pretty sure that even if she was teasing, the fondness in the word “Dad” was still present. She meant it.

At the high school, Cassandra got out. Alphonse didn’t usually say “Have a good day” to her in case she got embarrassed, but she came over to his open window and placed her hand on the base. “Thanks for everything… okay?”

Alphonse looked up at her and patted her hand. “Sure, Cass. Get to class,” Cassandra’s eyes widened in horror.

His first dad joke. Alphonse beamed.

“Hey!” His eyes lit up at the rhyme and she rolled her eyes and turned away with a deep groan. “HEY CASS, GET TO CLASS!”

She disappeared into the school and Alphonse laughed to himself as he drove away.

His children were everything. They have changed him for the better. If it weren’t for them, he wouldn’t be living and making their lives better than it was before. In turn, Cassandra and Antonio made him so embarrassingly happy after being void of these emotions and experiences for endless years. To cause love and care instead of pain made all the difference.

He didn’t know he ever wanted them, and now, he couldn’t imagine existing without them. They brought out the humanity within him, and he promised himself he would never let it go.