Disclaimer: I don't own American Dragon; Jake Long

Title: A Dragon's Nest.

Summary: Johnathan has always wondered about his children's aversion to sleeping on the couch and their incessant need to lock their bedroom doors. Now he knows.

Warnings: It's been a long time since I wrote any American Dragon stuff, so I'm rusty. =)

...

He'd seen it with other kids. His boss had chuckled one night during their at-home business meeting as his daughter drooped against his side before excusing himself to put her to bed. His co-workers would sometimes talk about how, when they worked overtime, their kids would attempt to stay up late to wait for them and how cute it was to come home to find them curled up on the couch, a children's show blaring in the background, the bright colors serving as a nightlight.

He'd never had that. If Haley stayed up to wait for him, Jake would stay up with her to keep her company. Jake himself usually went to bed early in the evening. Both of their doors were locked, and he had no real way of getting to them, even if it were to comfort them.

"It's completely normal." Susan had said one night as they sat next to each other in bed. "Most kids do it."

It'd never felt normal to him.

Haley used to fall asleep in the living room all the time.

Watching TV, doing homework, she'd even managed to conk out practicing the violin a couple of times.

Jake had never been one for sleeping anywhere other than his room. He used to nod off on the couch once in a great while, but he had always preferred the solitude of his bed and the privacy of his door.

Now neither of them slept anywhere except their rooms. Haley did her work in her room, practicing in her room, and recorded her shows to watch in daylight hours. Her door was locked at all times. If she was too far gone to escape to her bed herself, she'd ask Jake to help her to her room.

"It's okay, Dad, I got her." He'd grunt, easily maneuvering her into his arms without complaint. Haley would curl up in his arms, as though trying to hide herself away from him.

Sometimes, when Jake would pass, he'd feel a small blast of heat. He couldn't help but wonder if that was embarrassment, that she was so humiliated to fall asleep in front of her 'uncool' dad that she had to hide her face and blush.

Later on, after the Hong Kong Fiasco, he'd find out that she wasn't embarrassed, and that the heat was merely the concentration of two fire-breathing lizards sharing body heat.

Sometimes, in the dead of night, he could hear the sound of nightmares.

It was Jake, usually. He'd turn and kick and grunt and groan. Sometimes he'd even yelp. Every once in awhile he'd hear what he could only guess was a hand or foot slapping against the wall (his tail, actually, but he hadn't known Jake had a tail at that point). Even Haley had the occasional bad dream, but she woke up rather quickly after only a few minutes of squirming and whimpering. Her door would open and shut and she'd cross the hall into Jake's room after knocking. She hadn't gone to sleep with them, to her parents, the people who were supposed to protect her, for years.

But the doors stayed locked, and they never really left their rooms. Sometimes he'd wake them up by knocking or jiggling the door knob, and they'd yell a thank-you and good-night in return, but that was as far as things went. Maybe he was being paranoid?

Locked bedroom doors had been the last thing on his mind lately.

He wasn't all that freaked out by it. Not as much as he should be, at least. Most people, upon finding out they'd married into a family of fire-breathing lizards with sharp claws and wings, would've screamed, fainted, woken up moments later, then dashed towards the nearest exit.

So... yeah. It could be said that he was taking things better than most people would.

He was really curious, though. He'd poked his nose into more old magic books the past month alone than he thought he ever would his entire life. He'd studied runes and spells and magic languages (conveniently skipping over any sections on dragons the books contained. How weird would it be if he had to learn about his family from a dusty old book instead of asking questions?)

Some things, however, didn't change. Jake still came home late, usually covered in different shades and odors of gunk and slime. He doesn't fault him like he used to- how could he when he's saving New York from evil?- and had quickly learned it's better not to ask when he shoos the boy upstairs for a shower, holding his nose. Haley still has the best grades and a couple of colleges are already waiting to give her scholarships, and she still likes to poke and prod at her older brother (although, now that they aren't hiding anymore, the prods are directed more towards magic than school.) Things like that never truly changed, as he'd soon found out.

And it's still the same when Susan checks the wall clock in the kitchen with a sigh as she sits down to eat breakfast. "Jake must've unplugged his alarm again."

"I got 'em." He quickly stood, pushing the chair in behind him. "I'll be right back."

Banging on the door doesn't work like it used to, and neither does shouting his name. Finally, as a last resort, he's forced to start twisting and tugging on the door handle in the vain hope it'll wake the boy up.

The door swung open.

He blinked, staring at the partially open door as though it were alien. It was alien.

He considered calling down for help, but thought against it. If Jake had left his door unlocked, then there had to be a reason for it. He'd never done it before, after all, and he knew that he was the one who usually woke him up when he slept in.

Pushing the door open the rest of the way open, he stepped into the room. Nothing seemed any different then it had been the last time he'd been in there; blue walls, clothing scattered around the room, a laptop perched on the table next to an old can of soda. It was like nothing had changed.

Unless, of course, you counted the pile of blankets and red scales curled up in the middle of the bed. Then, yeah, something definitely was different.

The blankets had been pushed and tugged into a blue cocoon, the pillow hanging haphazardly off the edge, looking as though it hadn't been of use in years. Jake was curled on top of the blankets as tightly as physically possible, head resting on claws, tail wrapped around his side. His wings twitched a little, signaling he was dreaming (That was how it worked, right? Like a dog will dream of running and it's paws'll twitch. It's the same thing, right?), a small blast of fire floating out of his snout and into the air, heating the room. Swallowing, he moved to stand beside the bed, hand hovering mid-air.

"Uh, Jake?" He lightly grabbed a scaled shoulder, careful not to shake hard enough to be considered threatening. The last thing he needed was for his son to mistake him for the enemy trying to drag him away in the middle of the night. "Er, Jakers? Jakerooni?"

"Huh?" Jake startled awake, pushing himself onto his front claws. Jonathan stepped back in surprise. He looked around the room before finally deeming it safe and relaxing, yawning and stretching, wings and tail easily brushing against the wall and end of the bed respectfully. "Dad?"

"It's, uh, it's breakfast time?" He thrust a thumb behind him, forcing himself to blink.

"It is?" Jake winced and slid off the side of the bed, casually pawing through the blankets, shifting them to his liking. "Sorry, my alarm broke. I'll be down in a sec."

"Oh, uh, sure! Take your time, I'm sure your mom will understand." He stepped backwards out of the room before turning and heading down the hall.

"Dad?"

He paused, sticking his head back into the doorway. "Yeah?"

"You sleep okay?"

"Er, yeah, I slept great. How about you?"

"Like a log."

"That's great. Um, you do realize..." He trailed off, pointing at his chest.

"Realize what?" He raised a claw to study it before glancing down and wincing. "Oh, sorry." He shifted back into his human for with a blast of blue fire, a sheepish grin on his face. "Didn't mean to give you an early morning scare, Dad."

"You didn't scare me. Just... surprised me, is all."

It was the same thing with Haley a few weeks later, only Haley had asked him to wake her up early for practice for an upcoming recital, and her pile of blankets were much neater and worked as a sort of cave to keep her warm instead of just a cushion to lay on. She'd also seemed quite at home in her scales, and had merely shrugged.

"Honey, do dragons... always change when they sleep?"

Susan glanced up from her book and watched him crawl under the covers, a quizzical look on her face. "Usually, yes. It takes more energy for us to stay in our human forms than it does to be in our dragon ones- considering they are technically our true forms, not counting me, that is-, and we need that extra bit of energy for things like dream-walking." She sipped at her glass of tea before setting it on the bedside table. "You've seen their nests, I take it."

He nodded. "They left their doors unlocked."

Susan didn't look the least bit surprised. "They mentioned they would awhile ago. I wondered if they'd pulled through with it or not." She shrugged, leaning back against the headboard. "Haley was all for it, but Jake seemed a little apprehensive."

"Was that why they locked their doors?" She nodded. He clenched his fists. "They were scared of me, weren't they?"

"Scared of you finding out? Yes. You have to remember, Johnathan, they've been hiding it from you since they were old enough to know. Its not easy to let something like that go." She set a hand on his arm, squeezing it reassuringly. "Besides, how would you have reacted to seeing a large winged lizard snoring in their bed?"

"Before?" She nodded again. "Badly, I guess."

"Exactly." She dropped her arm. "Don't worry, they're done locking their doors. Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if Haley eventually starts falling asleep on the couch again. They trust you."

He smiled, feeling a small pit in his stomach untangle, just a little, as he settled back in their bed and the matter was dropped for good.

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