Monsters, Ghosts, and Mommies

"I wanna be a mon'er!"

"You are," the man insisted, continuing to rub the homemade paint on his son's face. It was the best you could do on the island, made up of water and mashed plants. Still, the little ones on the island loved it and how could the man deny his own son the joy? "If you'd hold still."

"I don't wanna," the boy whined, wiggling slightly. That only caused his long, raven colored hair to fall over his eyes. The boy's father sighed, moving to push it back once more, shaking his head.

"What happened to tying your hair back, buddy?"

"It makes me look like a girl. Girls are icky."

"All girls?"

"All girls."

"Oh." The man continued to cake his son's face with the gunk in hopes to make him as unrecognizable as all the other young children on the island would be later that night when they had their big Halloween party. "Even your little sister?"

"'specially her."

"I love her."

"That's because you're stupid."

The man smirked at his son. "You know, boy, I find it best not to insult the person painting on your face."

"I don't care."

"I know you don't," he said to his four-year-old. "You don't care about nothing, do you?"

"I care about Mommy."

That finally made him full on grin. "Yeah, I care about her too."

This wasn't entertaining the boy though as he continued to bounce around on his feet. He wanted to go meet up with all of his friends down on the beach. Everyone would be there. Everyone. They were probably already there, having a great time without him. And all because Daddy wouldn't hurry up!

"Daddy-"

"You know the scariest monster I've ever seen, Nicky?"

"No," the boy grumbled.

"You wanna hear about it?"

That caused the almost five-year-old boy some pause. His mommy and daddy's stories were the best. They were greater than any of his friends' parents' stories. Even better than Granny's! Yeah, his parents were pretty much the coolest parents ever.

'cept for when they were embarrassing him of course. 'cause they did that a lot too.

"Yes," he said then, shaking his head. Sighing, the man pushed his hair back before going back to painting his son's face.

"Oh, I was probably about fourteen. How much older is that than you?"

"Mmmm…a lot."

"Ten years, buddy."

"That's a lot."

"It is," he agreed before shaking his head. "So anyways, there I was, me and Mommy and all our friends."

"Mommy was there?"

"Mommy was always there. If Mommy wasn't there, it wouldn't be much a story, would it?"

"No," the little boy giggled as his father sat the bowl of green paint down before standing and going over to one of the shelves in the treehouse an picking up a different bowl with red paint. "Hurry, Daddy."

"I'm hurrying," he insisted as he came over. Getting back down on his knees in front of his son, he said, "Do you remember the Uber-Director?"

"Yes," he said, nodding his head slightly. This time the man caught the hair before pushing it back. "I 'member."

"One of the Uber-Director's creations was the monster I'm going to tell you about. You wanna know his name?"

"Yes," the boy said, the anticipation almost killing him. Whether it was about the story or the party though, he wasn't sure. "Daddy."

"Gozen," the man said, voice low. "Can you say that?"

"Gozen," the little boy said slowly.

"That's right. Gozen was a cyborg. Do you know what that is?"

"No."

"It means he was half human and half computer."

"What's a compooter?"

The man smiled, grasping his son's head in one hand before pulling him close and kissing the top of his forehead. Life on an island…

"Don't worry about it," the man said, smiling. "It just means that he was super strong."

"Like Batman?"

"Stronger."

"Superman?"

"Stronger."

"Cyclops?"

"Stronger."

"Wolverine?"

"Even stronger."

"Juggernaut?"

"Stronger still."

"You?"

That made him smile again, but shake his head no. "Even stronger."

"Wow."

"Yeah."

"What'd he do?"

"He tried to hurt the Flock."

"Mommy?"

"Mmmhmm."

"And you."

"Mmmhmm."

"And Angel."

"Mmmhmm."

"And Aunt Nudge."

"Mmmhmm."

"And Uncle Iggy."

"Mmmhmm."

"And," he started, but paused to giggle. "Gasman."

"Yep. Total too."

"Total," the boy said slowly. "Total. He went away."

"Yeah, buddy," the man sighed. "He went away."

"Mommy said he died."

"Yeah."

They were both silent for a moment before the man kissed his son again.

"Back to Gozen though."

That made the little boy giggle once more. "Gozen is a funny word."

"It is, isn't it?"

"What happened to 'im?"

"Mommy happened to him."

"Uh-oh."

"Yeah, uh-oh."

The little boy reached out and patted his father's face. "What'd Mommy do?"

"Well, Gozen wasn't all bad. He was just confused."

"Confused?"

"Yeah. He didn't have anyone telling him right from wrong like you do." He smiled at his son again, not able to help it. Just seeing his boy made him happy. It truly did. His son. His. "Who tells you right from wrong?"

"Granny," the boy said, still rubbing his father's cheek. It was so rare that he and his father were the same height and whenever they were, he liked to look into his father's eye. They weren't like his own. The boy had the same brown eyes of his mother, always curious and full of wonder. His father's dark, watchful and concerned eyes never ceased to amaze the little boy.

"Who else?"

"Mmmm…Mommy."

"What about me, buddy?"

"You too," he said as an afterthought. "Daddy, can I go now?"

"Almost, Nick," he assured his son as he ran his paint covered fingers around his son's eyes, making them red. "So anyways, Gozen was trying to hurt us."

"Did he?"

"He broke Angel's arm."

The little boy frowned. "Really?"

"It was okay. Iggy healed her," the man sighed. "But it made Mommy so upset. You know that she loves Angel."

"I love Angel."

"We all love Angel," his father agreed. "She's a very nice person, isn't she?"

"Yes. She's snuggly."

"I wouldn't know much about that, bud, but if you say so." Finally, the man sat the little bowl of red paint down. "Okay, buddy, I think you're ready."

"Yay!" The boy opened his wings in excitement, the murky black appendages fluttering around from his shirtless back. "I'mma monster!"

"You very much are," his father agreed. "Do you want me to draw something on your chest too or-"

"No, Daddy," he said quickly, jumping up and down. "Can I go down to the beach now? To the party?"

"Of course you can," he said, sighing as he stood up. "Can you go down there all alone?"

"Yes, Daddy."

"Go straight there. If I find out you went somewhere else-"

"I won't."

He ran out of the treehouse and onto the deck, quickly taking to the air from there. The man just went to stand on the deck, as from up there he could keep track of the little dark dot on the purple horizon of the setting sun. He'd learn to fly much earlier than the other children his age. Of course that was probably due to the fact his parents frequently took him off the island with them, where he loved to show off to all the normal kids on the more inhabited continents. He was anything, his son, if he was a showoff.

"And what do we have here?"

The man smiled as another person dropped from the sky, landing on the deck with him. "Our boy's out there. Being a monster."

"I'll go down there later. I'm sure one of us is supposed to take over for supervising at some point."

"Mmmm."

The woman just went to stand at his side, bouncing the little bundle in her arms. "I suppose I'll need a costume though."

"You mean you're not wearing one now?"

"The nineties are over, Fang. Get better jokes."

"Ha ha." He turned to take the child from her arms, quickly pressing a kiss to his wife's cheek. "Ooh, this one's getting heavy."

"Don't call your daughter fat."

"I'm not. It was compliment." He brushed his lips against his baby's cheek too. "She was so tiny when she was born. Look at her now, Max."

"Look at her," the woman sighed, leaning against his arm as he smiled down at the three month old. Resting a hand on the rail in front of her, she said, "I was thinking about going as a ghost."

"Hmmm?"

Fang always got distracted with his children and had pretty much tuned the woman out. His daughter meant the world to him and he hadn't been able to see her all day. He'd been working most of the day and then, when he got off, had to help his boy get ready for the party. It had been three months since she was born and even that time had seemed to speed by. It wasn't fair. Even Iggy seemed to spend more time with his kids than he got to.

"For the party."

"You could always go as a computer. They'll never figure that one out."

"What?"

He just shook his head slightly before smiling at his baby. "Nothing."

"Do you think I'd make a good ghost?"

"I think you'd make a good anything," he mumbled, moving cradle his daughter now. "Look at her, Max. My baby's smiling at me."

"She probably has gas."

"No," he said with a slight shake of his head. "Little Emma."

"You always call her little."

"She is little. My little baby."

It was then that she yawned which just about made Fang's heart break. Max just made a face at his expression.

"I fell in love with a boy who turned into a man who now might be the most unmanly guy I know."

Fang couldn't help it though. He was grinning like crazy.

"It's her first Halloween." He chuckled softly. "Of many."

"It's also her bedtime."

"She can't go to the party?"

"No, Fang," Max said with an eye roll. "She can't."

"But it's her first-"

"She can't go."

"Fine," Fang grumbled, looking back out over their island. "She's probably safer up here anyways with Daddy in the treehouse."

"No," Max said slowly. "Daddy is taking Mommy down to the party."

"Daddy can't leave his baby."

"Daddy's baby is going to be watched by Angel."

"Daddy doesn't believe that Angel doesn't have Halloween plans."

"Mommy wants Daddy to stop referring to himself as Daddy."

Fang just sighed as the wind blew softly. Turning, he headed back into the treehouse. After all, he didn't want his baby to catch a cold. Maybe her going down to the party wasn't such a good idea.

"Why doesn't Angel have plans, Max?"

"She did," the woman said, following along behind him. "But they're for later tonight."

"Tonight plans," Fang said slowly. "I don't think I like the sound of those."

"You have a new girl to worry about," Max told him as he went to lay their baby down in her little crib. Fang had brought it to the island back when Max was pregnant with Nicky. They'd always known they were having more and held onto it.

"I have too many girls to worry about," Fang mumbled, pressing a gentle kiss to his baby's head before taking a step back and staring down at her. "Do you think Angel can handle the responsibility?"

"Fang, Angel's not a little girl anymore. Besides, she used to baby-sit for Nicky all the time."

"I guess so," he mumbled, unconvinced. "But I'm not wearing a costume."

"I have to find one."

"I thought you were going as a ghost?"

"I was thinking about it, but-"

"Don't dress up as anything, baby." He finally looked away from his daughter only to smile at his wife. "Go as you are. And I'll goes as I am."

"What if one of the little kids ask us what we are?"

"Tell them you're freaking Maximum Ride. That in itself should be enough. Who would you ever want to dress up as? No one's as good as you."

She rolled her eyes. "You've been really horny then I can assume?"

"Huh?"

"All this flattery-"

"I'm just really in love with you," he told her simply as she sat down on their bed. "It does things, you know, to your mind. Makes you say things like that."

"No, I wouldn't know."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I'm not in love with you."

"I call bull shit."

"Fang," she reprimanded, a frown on her face. "You know we don't curse in front of-"

"You said horny."

"She doesn't know what that means."

"Babe, she doesn't even know what her own name means." He leaned down to stroke his baby's cheek gently. "But she will. Eventually."

Max just sighed, slowly moving to lay back on the bed. "Hey, Fang?"

"Hmmm?"

"I love you."

"I know. I'm loveable."

"Who told you that?"

"No one had to. I can just tell."

"You sure are self-centered."

"I'm self-centered."

"Yes."

"Out of the two of us, I'm self-centered."

"That's what I said."

Shaking his head, the man gave his daughter's cheek on last stroke before going to lay down on the bed next to his wife. "At least I know where Nicky gets it."

"Gets what?"

"His delusions."

"Delusions?"

"He thinks I'm stronger than the Juggernaut."

"I don't know what that is," Max said slowly as they both turned to face one another, cuddling into each other. "But I know you're definitely hotter."

"That's not hard to accomplish," he mumbled, pressing a kiss to her head as she ran a hand through his raven hair.

"You know what I mean." She smiled up at him, the same brown eyes he saw in his son staring into the dark ones he shared with his daughter. "Besides, I'm way stronger than you."

"Are you?"

"Uh-huh. Specially now that you're all girly and wimpy."

"Not wimpy," he challenged as she snuggled into his chest. "Just in love with my life."

"Your life or your wife?"

"Wouldn't life imply wife as well?"

"I suppose so."

"I'm just still in that funny phase," he said. "Where it's still weird, you know, to have a new baby around."

"Mmmm," Max sighed. "I guess it's different for me."

"What do you mean?"

"I carried her around for months," she explained to him. "I've already gotten used to the idea of her being around."

He let out a long, low growl. Not in an upset way, but rather a tired way. Max could feel his chest rumbled against her forehead, making her smile.

"That's my baby. Little Emma."

"You love her?"

"More than life."

Max sighed in contentment. "We have to get up soon, Fang. Go down to the party. Keep up appearances and such."

"As ghosts," he sighed. "We'll be ghosts. Ghosts."

"What's Nicky?"

"A monster."

"Ghosts and monsters."

"Mmmm."

Needless to say when Angel showed up two hours later to find the couple passed out and the baby sleeping peacefully in her crib, she just smiled and went to tell Nudge or Iggy that they should take Nicky for the night. After all, it was only ever so often that the two of them got the night off. It only took Halloween for them to get some peace and quiet…

So there's that one-shot. Anyways, with only one more chapter of Spy Games left, I need to start a new story. I'm thinking this sequel to Island Time that I've been working on, but part of me is completely against that. I dunno though. Maybe. I just don't want to fuck up a good thing.