Darker London

The kids were in bed and Stephie was working a late shift, which meant that Thomas and Mary were essentially alone in the house. Thomas had disappeared upstairs to take a shower, and by the time he returned, he found Mary lying on the bed in the guest room, her hand between her legs.

( WELP )

School was one of the safest places the kids could be, considering Peter very much had eyes on the place nearly all the time. He would never risk not keeping an eye out when the school was attended by the kids of Daria and Noah, Deirdre, Stephie and Thomas, and Peter himself. Not that Thomas could shut his worry off completely, but he was able to keep it at a low burn. Especially since Peter had let him know Rosa was on the lookout for anything amiss at the school today, including folklore obsessed demons.

Once the kids were gone, James opting to go to school even though he had been up late talking about upsetting things, Thomas, Stephie and Mary returned home.

The second the door was closed behind them, Thomas wrapped Mary in his arms. They had hardly said a word to each other since she had been back, both of their energies focused on the kids. Now though, now he could hold her and make sure she was okay. "God it's good to see you," he breathed, holding tight.

"I can tell," Mary tried to joke, but failed. "'s a good thing I don't have to breathe."

"Oh shit, sorry," Thomas loosened his grip a little, though he kissed her hair for good measure. "I- Thank you for coming back. I'm trying very hard not to think about the shit you went through."

Mary patted his back and pulled away, though only to cup his face in her hands. "Me too, my love. How are you, Stephie?"

Marie had decorated the house using the box of decorations from the kids previous parties and it was wildly overdone. “Taking inspiration from the way Thomas decorates, are you?” Stephie grinned, wrapping a streamer round her neck like a scarf.

“Stephie,” Marie said seriously, giving Stephie’s streamer the eye. “That one’s supposed to go over the door.”

“This one exactly or any one?” Stephie twirled the end of the streamer toward Marie’s face.

“That one exactly,” said Marie, who had a very clear plan and wasn’t going to let any adult silliness get in the way, and who was Stephie to argue with Marie’s artistic vision? She climbed up on a chair and pinned the streamer where it was supposed to go, then found another one.

( ... )

The darkness in the bedroom was soft and incomplete. Low clouds crowded the glow from streetlights close into the city, turned it into a gentle orangeish light that crept in through the crack in the curtains. It was enough to see the shape of Thomas asleep in front of her, without details, but Stephie didn’t need detail. She knew this face so well, yet it was so hard to draw her eyes away – or close them and sleep – in case...

He wasn’t going to disappear in the middle of the night, but the fear wouldn’t let her go. She could lose him. They didn’t know the rules. There were countless ways she could lose him and they crowded into her till she couldn’t think of anything else. She could lose him. How could she sleep knowing this?

( ... )

Katya's scream sent Thomas scrambling towards the bathroom at a frantic pace. Sure he could tell the difference between a scream that meant 'bug!' and a scream that meant 'hey, I'm really in trouble here' and this had definitely been one of the 'bug' screams, it didn't mean he liked his child being in distress and he wasn't going to move any less quickly for it.

"Up there!" Katya shouted in Russian, too scared to remember English. Luckily everyone in the house had picked up rudimentary Russian. And Katya was helpfully pointing in horror at the absolutely gigantic black spider in the corner of the bathroom. "Kill it!"

( Yikers )

Stephie had given them some time to themselves and while Thomas had told Stephie it wasn't neccessary, he was still glad to have it.

( Finding a way to be )

Thomas and Mary stayed curled up on the sofa together, until the thundering of feet meant that one of the kids was coming downstairs. Those were followed by another, more calm set of footfalls and Thomas smiled to himself when he realised it was James following one of his sisters down. "They're heeeereeeee!" he said, in a creepy voice, like Poltergeist.

Excitedly, Mary extracted herself from the tangle she had been in with Thomas, and the moment Katya zoomed around the corner and excitedly squealed, "MUMMY!" she was in Mary's arms.

"Mum!" James echoed, shooting across the room to wrap his arms around Mary's legs; a show of exuberance which wasn't normal for him. "You're here!" he said happily, muffled against Mary's legs.

"Oh my loves," Mary breathed, holding them all as close as she dared.

Normally Thomas would have woken up Stephie to talk to her about the nightmare he had had, but she had worked a nightshift and she looked so peaceful. She was lying there across his bed, buried under what looked like both Icarus and Coco, and he couldn't do it to her. He couldn't wake her up just to bitch about nightmares where Amaris kept putting food in front of him, just out of reach.

( WELP )

It was well after midnight when Thomas made his way downstairs to the living room of the house he was supposed to be sharing with his husband. Spectre was off in America, touring the states and playing some New Years Eve Prog spectacular in New York City. When Spectre returned near the beginning of February, Thomas had a feeling their relationship just might come to an end and he wasn't sure he could face that. Their phone conversations had become discussions about the children, the weather, and the bills. Nothing warm or even all that friendly passed between them.

It was emotional torture.

( Here have a wife )