Chapter 33

“Daddy?” A small voice asked quietly and Brian frowned when he heard it. He needed a second to understand where he was and why it was so dark. He had been sleeping in his bed at Britin when something had woken him up and that something had been Luke’s quiet voice.

“Yeah, sonny boy?” Brian replied tiredly, shaking his head to force himself to wake up some more. He slowly moved into a sitting position, switched on the light and looked carefully at his son who was standing by the side of his bed.

Luke was 4 ½ years old now and looked even more like Justin than ever before. His blond hair and big blue eyes were a clear giveaway of who the boy's father was. Just looking at him, Brian felt even more love for this small boy, who had been created by him and Justin and had gotten the best of both of them.

He had gotten Justin’s looks (something for which Brian was more than grateful), Justin’s goodness and kindness and Brian’s sense of humour and wit and his interest in soccer. As far as Brian was concerned, Luke was the perfect mixture of them both and they couldn’t have created a more perfect child. They couldn’t have gotten a child he would have been more proud of than he was of Luke.

“I am scared,” Luke mumbled, slowly walking over to his father and carefully climbing up on his bed when his father held out his arms to him and helped him up.

“Scared of what?”

“Monsters,” Luke mumbled, not looking at Brian, but burying his head in his father’s strong chest, a place where he knew he was safe and secure from all harm.

“What monsters?” Brian asked, gently, running a hand over his son’s back, holding the small boy close. This had been the third night in a row that Luke woke up in the middle of the night, claiming that there were monsters under his bed and that they were frightening him. Brian could curse Ted and Blake to hell and back for letting Luke watch Monsters Inc when he had been staying with them last weekend.

“In my room… under my bed,” the boy explained quietly, now leaning back a bit so he could look into his father’s eyes. His big, expressive blue eyes looked scared and fear was easy to see in them and Brian knew there was no sense in making Luke go back to his own bed. He had tried doing that for the last two nights and it had only ended in big temper tantrums from his son which had cost him even more sleep.

For once Brian decided to do what he knew he shouldn’t and lifted the corner of his blanked and nodded at Luke to climb under it. “Okay, how about this? Tonight you can stay here and sleep here and I’ll make sure that no monsters can come and scare you and tomorrow we’ll find a way to get rid of the monsters once and for all. After all it’s your room. It’s time we take it back from the evil monsters,” Brian said seriously as he watched Luke’s face relax visibly and watched his son get comfortable at his side.

“Alright, daddy,” Luke agreed as he snuggled into his father’s side, feeling way too tired to argue that the monsters probably wouldn’t just leave like that. His father seemed to think that just talking to them and explaining the situation would help, but Luke had a feeling it wouldn’t be as easy as that. Not by far. Those were bad monsters, really evil and he knew that his daddy was strong and could do anything, but Luke wondered if maybe his father had found his match in these evil monsters.

“Now go to sleep, sonny boy. I’ll make sure no monsters will come here tonight,” Brian whispered before he left a kiss on his son’s head, moving down into a lying position himself. He helped Luke get comfortable and smiled to himself when his son was back asleep less than five minutes later. Yes, Luke was clearly Justin’s son and just like his other father could fall asleep in seconds if not bothered.

Brian gently ran his hands through the blond locks, wondering to himself what he could do about their little monster “problem” in Luke’s room. He knew that he shouldn’t have given in and shouldn’t have allowed Luke to sleep in his bed, that the right thing would have been to go back to his room with him and turn on the light and show him that there were no monsters anywhere, but Brian had just been too tired for that. After two nights where his sleep had already been disrupted by Luke’s nightmares about monsters, he really needed to catch up on some sleep and especially this night it was important that he got the sleep he needed. He had an important presentation the next day for a big client that might actually put Kinnetik on the map with all those big New York agencies and he couldn’t risk not being on his best form for that presentation. So for now it had just been way easier to allow Luke to sleep by his side, allowing Brian to go back to sleep himself a few minutes later.

***

Of course Brian had killed it in his meeting with his prospective client and Kinnetik had been able to sign their biggest contract yet to date. A contract that would give them a chance to prove themselves internationally and to prove that they were as good, if not even better than those big shot ad agencies on Madison Avenue.

To celebrate the happy occasion, Brian had called it a day early at the office and had picked up Luke and Gus from Debbie’s place where they now spent their Thursdays in the same manner as they spent their Tuesdays with Jennifer, giving Brian a chance to actually spend two days a week at the office much to Ted’s and Cynthia’s delight. As much as Brian liked to work from home and liked to spend time with his sons, he knew that he was needed in the office and that as the boss and CEO he had to show his face. Two days a week didn’t sound too bad and had been a compromise everyone had easily agreed on.

Brian and his sons had enjoyed a lovely dinner at their favourite restaurant which offered, greasy, fat food for his children and healthy options for Brian. Luke and Gus had been delighted when Brian had informed them that yes, for once they were allowed to have a dessert as well as a soft drink with their dinner. Usually they had to choose either one as Brian was very careful to watch how much sugar his sons consumed, but on a special day like that he just couldn’t be bothered to spoil the good mood.

When they made their way home, Brian could feel some tension in Luke and he could only wonder what that was all about.

“Are you alright, sonny boy?” Brian asked his son who quietly made his way over to the front door, shuffling slowly as if to avoid entering the house. This was way different to the excited, always running boy Brian was used to.

“Hmmmm,” Luke nodded, as he made his way inside.

“Doesn’t seem that way to me. You’re awfully quiet,” Brian pointed out as he helped his son out of his winter jacket, boots, hat and scarf.

“Just thinking,” Luke replied, avoiding Brian’s eyes.

“About what? You know you can tell me, right?”

The boy nodded again, this time throwing his arms around his father’s neck and hugging him closely, surprising Brian by that action.

“Woah, what’s that for?” He smiled as he hugged his son back.

“I love you, daddy.”

“I love you, too.”

“You’ll make the monsters go away, right?”

Brian eyed the trepidation in his son and cursed himself for not having thought of this again before. Damn, he had been so concentrated on his presentation and the new account that he had all but forgotten about the monster situation in Luke’s room. Damn, think Kinney, think, he told himself as he nodded at his son with more conviction than he really felt at that moment.

“Of course! I promised you, didn’t I? And I always keep my promises.”

“Yes, you do, daddy,” Luke affirmed, before he let go of Brian and walked into the living-room to join Gus who had already settled in front of the TV to watch one of their favourite cartoons.

Brian was trying to think of a solution to his little monster promise as he sat down on the sofa with his two sons and watched them as they watched the cartoon.

After a couple of minutes a thought came to Brian and he wondered if that might actually work out. It was something that Justin had told him a long time ago, many years ago after his bashing when he had been scared of everything and everyone and had hardly left the loft. It had been a story he had told Brian at night in their bed about how easy it had been to convince him as a child that he was safe and protected and how naive he had been for actually falling for his parents’ crap or so he had said at the time.

He could only hope that Luke would fall for the same crap Justin had fallen for as a child and that this plan would actually work. He wasn’t looking forward to another sleepless night.

***

An hour later Brian had bathed Luke and was just dressing him in his pajamas.

“I still have to show you how we're going to get rid of those monsters, don't I?” He asked innocently, waiting for Luke to nod in agreement.

“Yeah,” the small boy quickly agreed.

“I made extra certain that it would work extra well against those evil monsters in your room.”

“Really, daddy?”

“Really,” Brian promised as he led Luke into his room to pick something up and then walked to the boy's room with him.

Brian switched on the lights and opened the door to the closet and looked inside. “No monsters here. So far so good.” Then he moved over to the boy's bed and leaned down in front of it, looking under the bed. “No monsters here either.”

“They only come when I sleep,” Luke said quietly and Brian nodded as if that made all the sense in the world.

“I see,” Brian said, then sat down on Luke's bed, patting the empty space next to him. “There are no monsters now and here, I have the perfect way to keep them out once and for all. With this on your nightstand, they won't ever come back,” Brian said seriously as he handed Luke a picture of him, Justin and a younger Gus which had been taken years ago on a day out the three of them had spent together.

Luke frowned and eyed the picture in apprehension, not quite sure what to make of what his father was telling him.

“Why?” Luke asked, as he eyed the picture of his fathers with Gus.

“You know, those monsters really are just envious. They don't like happy children and they like happy families even less. Whenever they see a happy family, they get scared and run off. So, as long as you have this picture of your family on the nightstand, they will be too scared to come into this room. They couldn't stand to be in a room where a boy as happy as you lives,” Brian explained quietly, using his best ad man techniques to sell his story. He just hoped that Luke would buy all the bullshit Brian was just telling him.

“Are you sure?” The small boy asked with obvious doubt.

“Yes, I am absolutely sure. I have it on very good authority that this works perfectly. Wanna know who told me?”

Luke seemed intrigued now and nodded as he eyed his father with curiousity.

“Your Papa.”

Luke's eyes widened almost comically at that statement from his father. “Really?”

“Really. He told me that when he was younger, the monsters came to his house as well and were scaring him as well. They came to his house because just like you, he was a really happy boy and the monsters didn't like that and wanted to make him less happy. Just as with you. It was Grandma Jen who told him about monsters being scared of happy families and she put a picture of his family on his nightstand and ever since that picture was on his nightstand, the monsters have never come back to his room.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, quite incredible, isn't it? So... if it worked for your Papa, why shouldn't we try and see if it works for you as well? What do you say?”

Luke seemed to contemplate Brian's question for a minute, but then nodded. “Yeah, I want to try that.”

Brian put the picture of him, Justin and Gus on the nightstand and couldn't help but smile at the happy memory. It had been a good day for the three of them with lots of laughter and fun and no bullshit or drama. Just them, no one else. As far as Brian was concerned it had been a perfect day. Not that he would have ever told anyone, least of all Justin. That would only have given him ideas of commitment and family that Brian hadn't been ready for at the time.

He positioned the picture in a way that the people in the picture seemed to be looking at Luke and then smiled at his sonny boy. “Looks good?”

“Very good,” Luke agreed, then climbed under his covers. “Daddy? When was this picture taken?”

“A long time ago. Gus was only as old as you are now,” Brian said as he settled himself next to his son, pulling the small boy close.

“Papa looks happy,” Luke said, still looking at the picture. Over the years Brian and Gus had told Luke many stories about Justin. Brian had never made a secret out of who Luke's father was and where he was. He had started telling Luke stories of his Papa long before he had even been born and had always kept it up when Luke had been a baby. The older Luke got, Brian kept on telling him about his family as did Jennifer. Luke had always known who his second father was and Brian had tried to explain to him why his father wasn't with him. He had tried to explain about Justin being an artist and working on his career and him having to live and work in New York to achieve the career he deserved. Still being so small, Luke had just accepted that and had been happy about every picture Brian had shown him of his Papa or every story anyone in his family would tell him that mentioned his second father. Brian knew that the older Luke got, the less satisfied he would be by those stories and that there would come a day when Luke would want to know the truth and Brian had sworn to himself that he would tell his son the truth, no matter how much it might hurt or how much it might pain himself to do so, but he had sworn to himself that Luke deserved to know the truth and he would never lie to his sons. Not even if it would make him look so much better. He had made the choice to exclude Justin from Luke's life, he would live with it and all it brought with it in consequences. It had been his choice and he would face the music for it.

“He was happy. We all were. It was a nice day and we had gone to the park together. I had played some soccer with Gus and then Papa and Gus had eaten some ice-cream. We all enjoyed the day a lot.”

“I like it too when we go to the park.”

“I know you do, sonny boy and once it gets warmer again, we'll go to the park more often. I promise.”

“Yay,” Luke exclaimed, before he left a wet kiss on Brian's cheek. “I love you, daddy!”

“I love you, too, sonny boy.”

“How much?”

“Hmmmm, a lot?” Brian joked, this being a kind of thing between the two of them.

“A whole lot?”

“Yeah, a whole lot.”

“A whole, whole, whole, whole lot?”

“More than a whole, whole, whole, whole lot,” Brian confirmed with a smile, running his hand through his son's blond locks that reminded him so much of Justin's.

“So really a lot,” Luke mused, grinning from ear to ear.

“More than that. More than life itself,” Brian finished their little thing and leaned down giving his son a kiss on his nose which made the boy giggle and then he smiled his own version of a sunshine smile at his father.

“Me too,” Luke smiled.

“You love yourself too? More than life?”

“No, daddy!” Luke exclaimed exasperatedly and sighed. “I love you more than life,” he then clarified.

“I guess that means I am the luckiest daddy in the world.”

“Yes, you are,” Luke agreed and then smiled as Brian picked up the story book they were reading at the moment and started reading to his son, making sure to change his voice ever so slightly when a new character appeared.

It didn't take more than ten pages and Brian knew that his son had fallen asleep by his side. He carefully climbed out of bed, not wanting to wake up the boy and then made sure that he was covered by the blanket completely, before he whispered a quiet “Good night, sonny boy” to his son and leaned down for a final good night kiss.

Brian then left the room and returned to the living-room where Gus was curled up on the couch reading a book. Another half an hour and then his older son would be in bed as well and Brian knew it wouldn't take him long after to fall asleep as well. The two sleepless nights had exhausted him.

Barely an hour later all three occupants of Britin were deeply asleep and for the first time in a couple of days they all had a peaceful night and slept through the night until the sun rose the next morning.

The family picture had worked as promised and had kept all monsters away, much to Luke's and Brian's delight.