Title: Midnight with Macen
Fandom: Adventure World
Rating: PG
Length: 619 words
Content notes: Child POV, with poorly-observed maybe-sex (or maybe just makeouts.)
Summary: Macen wakes up in the middle of the night and goes to find his daddy.

Macen stirred from his trance, unsure what the strange noise was that had disturbed him. There was no light coming from outside his bedroom, so it was still trance-time, but he didn’t want to settle down again, he wanted to get up. He looked over to the other bed, where Nursey should have been, but it was empty. He was all alone, and that was a little scary. He crawled his way over to the edge of the bed, squeezing around the end of the rail that was there to keep him in, a trick he had learned not long ago. He padded across the soft rug in his bare feet, to the edge where it turned into hard wooden floor, and then past it, bravely venturing out of his room.

The door to Daddy’s room was open, and that was where the funny noises were coming from. But it meant Daddy must be in there, and Macen wanted to be with him. Nursey always took him back to his own bed when he got up, but Daddy would sometimes let him stay and cuddle, and he liked that, especially when it was night time and things were a little bit scary. He ran inside with quiet steps, right to the edge of the big bed.

Someone else was in Daddy’s bed and they were having hugs and kisses together. Macen tried to climb his way up onto the bed as well, but it was too high and he cried with frustration and wanting to be not-alone. The someone said “oh!” and a pair of big hands reached down and scooped him up. It wasn’t Daddy, it was the tall man with the nice smile and the hair that stuck up in funny ways. He didn’t have a shirt on, and his skin was warm and sort of furry and he smelled a little like Daddy, but not quite. “What are you doing up?” he said, but he was smiley, not making an angry face. Macen squirmed in his grip, knowing Daddy was right next to him, and so the man gently plunked him down in the middle of the bed. Still crying and confused, Macen was relieved when Daddy took him in his arms and said all the good things to him, that it was all right, nothing to be scared of, Daddy was here.

Snuggled up against Daddy’s chest, Macen could hear them talking together, but didn’t really understand everything they were saying. He could tell that Daddy was saying sorry, and the other man was saying it was all right. Macen knew what it meant when Daddy said “I can take him back to his room,” though, and started crying again and saying “no no no!”

“It’s okay,” the man said, and sat up. “I can go sleep in the spare bed.”

Macen could tell that made Daddy feel sad, and he didn’t like it when Daddy was sad, and besides, it was colder and less cozy when he got up. He reached out a hand to pull on the other man’s arm, and said the word he remembered Daddy calling him. “Lane!”

“I think he wants you to stay,” Daddy said, and his voice was smiley.

“Well, since he asked me,” said the man (Aleyn, Macen thought, filing that away), and curled back into bed beside them, all warm and comfortable. Macen didn’t even put up a fuss when Daddy said it was time for more trance, because he sang the trees and leaves song, and the raindrops song. By the time he started the star-counting song, Macen was deep in his trance, and the sound of Aleyn snoring quietly didn’t bother him at all.