Roland woke up from sleep to hear the sounds of cats mating in the dark.
His ears pricked up at the noise and scent. He rolled over in the crib and easily climbed out. ‘Seph and Caroline were both fast asleep in their cribs.
Although physically just over a year old, he and Caroline were already walking on their own. Roland had figured out how to get out of his crib, and it wouldn’t be the first time that his father would find him wandering on the second floor. To stave off him possibly falling down the stairs, into the toilet, or off the balcony, his father put up baby gates in key locations. Roland knew how to get around those, too, but he chose not to do it, not yet.
He walked confidently to his father’s room, where the scent was strongest. He heard someone cry out, and the noise stopped. Loud purring came from within his father’s room.
Roland sniffed the air. The scent was familiar, very familiar. Could it be?
He crept like the cat he was over to the door and pulled down on the handle. It was open. He slowly pushed the door open.
He saw two men, naked on the bed, his father stretched out on top of another man. Roland followed with his gaze up the man’s sleek body, to his face, ice blue eyes set in a chiseled face, topped by hair white like his own.
Roland’s heart leapt, as he ran into the room, crying, “Papa!”
Knight turned around to see the boy run and bound into the bed, landing hard on Mal’s legs and crawling up his body to nuzzle against him. Mal smiled and pulled Roland close to his chest, silent tears falling. “Papa go, papa go,” said Roland, holding onto Mal for dear life.
“Papa’s staying,” said Mal. Knight smiled at the two, clasping onto each other.
They heard a cry from the room next door. Knight rolled out of bed. “Oh, that’s ‘Seph, which means Caroline’ll be up.” Knight went into the other room, not bothering to put on any clothes. When he returned, ‘Seph in his arms and Caroline in tow, Mal sat up in bed.
Knight looked at Caroline, who was rubbing sleep from her eyes. He set ‘Seph on the bed, and she crawled determinedly to Mal, who scooped her up and held her, all the while watching Caroline warily.
Knight got to his knees and took Caroline’s head, turning it toward his face. “Caroline, listen.”
Caroline focused on Knight.
“I know you pro’lly don’ understand me, but what you did was wrong. What you did was very, very bad, an’ someday, when you’re old enough, I’ll have to punish you really hard for it. An’ someday you’re gonna haveta say you’re sorry.”
“She knew what she was doing,” said Mal, glaring at Caroline. Caroline, for her part, looked directly at Mal for a moment and then looked down. “See? She understands.”
Knight took her head again. Caroline jerked her head out of Knight’s grasp and dropped to the floor. Knight picked her up and brought her to the bed. At first, she resisted. At first, Mal resisted, so Knight just held Caroline, while the other two were sandwiched between them. As they lay there together, Mal and Knight looked over them at each other. Knight, with his free hand, caressed Mal’s face.
“You’re lucky they came in. You got a break,” said Knight with a grin.