Deuce slowly opened his eyes behind green tinted lenses and smiled sleepily. His favorite part of watching movies with Cleo came when he woke up with her silky hair tickling his neck and her back pressed warm against his chest. Her amber perfume filled his nose as he gently kissed the top of her head and he could imagine waking up to this, to her, every morning. After a moment of blissful quiet broken only by the DVD's looping menu, his least favorite thing kicked in: harsh reality. Dull panic swept through him as he sought out the time, wondering how long they had slept and just how dead Ram would make him.

His nerves and snakes calmed instantly when he finally focused on what the massive clock on the high wall said. They hadn't slept that long and better yet, with more awake state of mind, he remembered the mummy had left for Cairo the day before. Deuce always felt better when Cleo's father left town and not just because she could stay later at the Gorgon's house; Ramses' pressure on the girl made her a different ghoul. The pharaoh had standards for his daughter that didn't jive with her personality. In her efforts to please him, she became a nightmare in platform wedges.

Moving carefully, Deuce managed to push himself up and over the back of the sofa. Standing, he checked Cleo only to find her still deep asleep. Daring the risk of waking her, he gently brushed a few loose strands of hair from her face. It struck him how peaceful and perfect she looked, free for a time of all the expectations placed on her. He stretched and quietly made his way to the warmly lit kitchen.

Medusa sat reading at the counter, snacking on olives when the boy came in. "Hey kiddo, movie over?"

"Yeah," he answered, leaning across the marble surface to reach the mostly empty bowl, "and Cleo's out cold. She's been going nonstop all week."

Maddy pushed the dish over to her son, her snakes weaving around her head before they settled back on her shoulders. "I know she looked positively exhausted at dinner. I hate to wake her up just to drive her home."

"Yeah," Deuce agreed.

"Ram's not home, is he?" the Greek woman suddenly asked, making him look up.

"Nah, he left yesterday for another three week trip. It's just her and the servants."

She ran a finger over her bottom lip in thought. "What about Nefera?"

"Gone to some modeling event in Scaris," he shrugged, "Cleo said something about her grabbing a whole bunch of her dad's idols, so I doubt it's something good. She tends to stay a while and gloat after she's wrecked havoc."

Maddy's expression changed to perplexed concern and her snakes hissed quietly. "That girl has got to find some better hobbies. Anyway," her tone became more pleasant, "let me call Manu and let him know Cleo's staying here tonight."

Deuce's eyebrows and snaked went up in surprise. "She is?"

"No sense waking the poor girl. It'll be our secret," she reached for her phone, "don't want it to get back to Ram."

"Right!" the teenager couldn't contain how stoked he felt. His ghoulfriend got to stay the night at his house! It didn't get anymore awesome!

His enthusiasm made Maddy raise a single, perfectly shaped eyebrow over her dark glasses. "You are going to get her a blanket and then you are going upstairs to bed in your room, where you will stay until breakfast. We'll get her home first thing after we eat and then you are cutting the grass. Clear?"

"As crystal, Mom," he vowed seriously, hearing in her voice that the chore doubled as warning. He'd have a lot more to do if she found him anywhere other then his room.

He took off to find a blanket while his mom called the de Nile house. Deuce had a feeling the staff would happily keep a secret if it meant they got the night and the morning off. Grabbing a thick comforter from one of the spare bedrooms, he quickly returned to the family room. He could hear Maddy on the phone and could tell by her flat tone that Manu was not containing his Cleo free excitement. The girl grew up believing that she needed to rule over the servants by making unbelievable demands and acting like a spoiled princess.

Shaking his head, Deuce gently tucked the cover over his sleeping ghoulfriend. Asleep, she looked less like a princess and more like a nice girl who had become lost in a sea of unachievable expectations. Free of her family, he really believed she would finally find out she didn't need to rule to be happy.

"Deuce?" Maddy whispered from the door, "Everything's taken care of. Come on, bed."

He nodded and shut off the TV, noting his mom patiently waiting. She let him pass her before she shut off the light and not so subtly herded her son upstairs. Once in his room, Deuce prepared for bed slowly, changing into a wife beater and shorts while he listened to his mother putter around her room in her own evening rituals. Leaving Cleo alone in the dark didn't sit will with him. She often woke up disoriented whenever she fell asleep on the bus; and he doubted waking up in a strange dark room would go any better.

As soon as the noise from the master suite faded to nothing more then Maddy and her snakes softly snoring, Deuce grabbed his iCoffin and slipped back down stairs. Cleo would probably wake up before long, so he would wait, let her know what the deal was, and then go back up to bed with Maddy none the wiser. Like Cleo's stay, his sitting with her would just be another secret.

The Egyptian girl hadn't moved the entire time. Deuce settled on the floor with his back against the sofa and looked at her. Curled on her side, she slept with her perfect lips slightly parted and her silken hair, so fine it defied being brushed off her face, fell over her cheek like streams leading off a river.

Smiling to himself, Deuce popped in his ear buds and got comfortable. He would just surf the web until she woke up, more than prepared to wait until morning for her.

Cleo woke with a start, disoriented and confused. She couldn't remember when she had fallen asleep. She knew she wasn't in her bed or even her house for that matter. Was she back in the tombs? Was the life at Monster High only a dream? She moved her arm and found herself tightly wrapped, triggering panic to grip her mind and body. She bolted upright and let out a strangled half gasp, half scream.

"Hey! It's ok! You're safe," a voice calm and familiar cut through her mounting terror.

"Deuce?" she whispered, her eyes trying to adjust to the dim light that emanated from beside the sofa.

Her boyfriend turned so he could glide his fingers over her cheek. His familiar features lit by his iCoffin made him look like a concerned specter. "Yeah, babe, I'm right here."

She tried to look around, but the darkness beyond the small circle of light hid all the details of the room. She shivered despite the heavy blanket, unable to shake the cold fear completely. "Where am I?"

Deuce moved his hand to stroke her hair. "You're in my family room, babe. You fell asleep when we were watching the movie, remember?"

With the panic fading, memory quickly filled its place and she recalled dinner with his mom and the first part of the movie. "Yes," she closed her eyes and sighed against the soothing motion of Deuce's hand. "What time is it?"

He glanced at the device in his other hand. "About 2:30."

Cleo's eyes widened as the panic she so recently banished came flooding back with vengeance. Her father was going to KILL her!

"Hey, it's ok!" Deuce saw her distress and cupped her face in his hands, "My mom called Manu. We just have to keep it a secret so your dad doesn't find out."

"Keep what a secret?" confusion and terror battled for control over the Egyptian girl's mind.

Deuce gave her a sly smile. "That you're spending the night at my house." His expression became serious. "But it has to stay a secret, Cleo. The ghoulfriends can't know. It only takes Spectra or Toralie to over hear it and we're toast."

"Right," Cleo nodded. As much as she wanted to brag that she got to stay the night at her boyfriend's house, she knew her father could never know. Ramses already made dating Deuce a challenge, if he found out about her stay the pharaoh would send her back to Egypt.

"I wanted to make sure you knew you were safe," Deuce's voice brought her back to the present, "so I'm going to head back upstairs before my mom catches me." He stood, pocketing the iCoffin, and Cleo realized the device had provided the only light in the room.

Cold fear crept back in, making her catch his hand. "Wait, Deuce, don't go! I'm-" she took a breath and her voice dropped to a whisper, "I'm afraid of the dark."

Because of his shades, Cleo couldn't see his eyes to judge his reaction to her admission of weakness. Nefera teased her for years, often purposely hiding her nightlights just to watch the younger de Nile panic. Deuce just smiled warmly and dropped back to the floor. "Then I'll stay with you," he pulled the phone back out, "Is the iCoffin enough light?"

Relief weighed Cleo back onto the sofa as much as the sudden exhaustion that filled her. "Yes, it's enough."

"Okay," Deuce opened a flashlight app and placed the phone on the arm of the sofa before he leaned over her like a scary tale prince and kissed her.

She couldn't help but moan softly against his lips, wrapping her arms around his neck and letting fingers gently scrape over his scales. Even in a house full of servants and guards, hexes and charms, Cleo never felt as protected and safe as she did when Deuce held her.

When he pulled back, the smile on his face told her what his covered eyes couldn't. Even without words, Cleo knew how deeply he cared for her. Not wanting to lose the moment, she hugged him tightly, teasing her fingers between his snakes in a way she knew made him shiver in pleasure. He sighed happily and kissed her forehead.

"Get some sleep, babe," he whispered before stretching out on the floor.

Cleo reached for the second throw pillow and dropped it on her boyfriend with a quiet giggle.

He laughed before he shushed her gently. "Don't want to wake up my mom."

She nodded and snuggled under the comforter but found it too confining. The mummy girl kicked the extra fabric off the edge of the sofa so that it draped over her boyfriend. Deuce murmured his thanks and settled on his side, already drifting off. Just before she slipped back to sleep, Cleo let her hand drop down and twined her fingers through his now slumbering snakes.

Medusa loved Saturday mornings. Belting her robe and shaking her snakes loose, she made her way to the broad staircase. Still partially asleep, the Greek woman almost missed that Deuce's door stood open.

Pursing her lips in suspicion, she glanced into the disastrously messy room and could tell her son had never slept in his destroyed bed. Her snakes hissed as her exasperation and anger rose. Spinning on her heel, Maddy marched down the stairs with renewed purpose already devising the various forms of punishment she would rain down on her only child.

Her plans and her fury vanished when she reached the family room and found the teenagers still fast asleep. Deuce lay wedged against the base of the sofa with an arm flung out and his shades loosing resting in his palm. Cleo burrowed under the comforter on the puffy piece of furniture with half of the blanket draped over the boy and her fingers nested in the tangled, snoring mass of his snakes.

Taking in the adorable scene, Maddy noticed Deuce's iCoffin sitting on the arm of the sofa. Curious at the odd location, she quietly slipped in the room to pick it up and checked only to find the battery dead. Partly to be a good mom and mostly to satisfy her curiosity, she took the device into the kitchen to charge while she prepared breakfast.

Since moving to the States, she had to revise the traditional Greek meals to work into their busy schedules. During the week, they ate quick, prepackaged food so on the weekend she broke out the more customary foods of her homeland. In the midst of laying out yogurt, bread, fruit and honey, the iCoffin dinged to indicate it had charged enough to turn on.

Maddy set a stack of dishes on the table and checked the open programs on the phone. To her surprise, the flashlight was the last app in use. After a moment of contemplating the program and the position she had found it on the sofa, she concluded that Deuce had used it to illuminate the room, than left it on the keep the place lit.

Just like a nightlight.

She wanted to march into the family room and hug her son. Sometimes, she wondered if she had done the right thing moving him to the States for his education, essentially raising him on her own while his father stayed at the family's ancestral home in Greece. Then Deuce would do something thoughtful and kind and Maddy knew she had somehow done the whole raising-a-kid thing right. Smiling happily, she called the two teens to the table.

After breakfast, Maddy drove Cleo home. She waited patiently while Deuce walked the girl to the front door of the Egyptian styled palace and forced a stern expression on her face when he returned and slid into the front passenger seat. Glancing over at him, she let her snakes hiss quietly. "You know I have to punish you for leaving your room."

"Totally worth it," he shrugged.

She finally let a smile cross her lips. "Cleo's afraid of the dark, isn't she?"

Deuce looked confused at the shift in conversation. "Yeah, I guess from being in the tombs for so long."

"You're cutting grass today and cooking dinner, plus dishes for the rest of the week," Maddy finally said in an authoritative tone.

The teen raised an eyebrow at his mom. "But it's my week to cook anyway."

"I know. Is there a problem?"

Grinning, Deuce laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back. "No, ma'am."

A/N: Many thanks to OtherHalf for beta-ing this for me and catching my (rather hilarious) goofs. As always he rocks for being my sound board while I bounce ideas, headcannon, and fandom trivia around.