"Daddy!"

Jihoon flinches at the scream, immediately throwing himself out of bed to run down the hall and fling open the door to his son's room.

"Appa, a monster!" His son yells again, a quivering lump under the blankets. "A monster! Dad, help!"

Jihoon flicks the lights on and eases the blankets off his son, frowning when Chan curls further into himself and flinches away from his father's touch.

"Channie, hey. It's just me," Jihoon murmurs, his voice rough from sleep. "It's just daddy."

Chan peeks up from between his fingers and stares up at his father and Jihoon groans when Chan throws himself at him, sobbing into his nightshirt. Jihoon secures him in his grasp and runs his fingers through his son's hair, rocking him a little.

"Daddy, I was so scared! He said he was going to eat me!" Chan sobs into his shirt.

Jihoon hooks his arm underneath Chan's knees and hoists him into his arms, sighing when Chan clings desperately to him and hooks his chin over Jihoon's shoulder. Jihoon makes sure that his son won't fall and then he's walking out of his son's room, turning the light off and shutting the door behind him. Out in the hallway, Chan is starting to calm, his sobs growing quiet until he's sniffling once Jihoon reaches the master bedroom.

Soonyoung is sitting up in bed, eyes staring blankly at the wall and Seokmin is sprawled out across the mattress, deep in slumber. Jihoon pats Chan's head and slips them under the covers, fixing the ones he'd thrown off until Chan is cuddled up between him and Seokmin.

"What happened?" Soonyoung asks drowsily, his body turned at the waist to face them.

Jihoon shakes his head and mouths. "Nightmare."

Soonyoung nods, and lies back down, hitching his leg over Seokmin's waist once he has. Chan shifts around for awhile before settling into a comfortable position and Jihoon strokes his hair, pressing a few kisses to his forehead every now and then while Soonyoung hums a lullaby. Seokmin looks asleep but Jihoon knows he's awake when Chan shifts again and bumps into his chest and Seokmin immediately wraps an arm around their son, drawing him closer before he can shift away.

Chan falls asleep soon after that, a hand fisted into Seokmin's sleepshirt and Jihoon watches as his husbands soon fall asleep as well. He stays up for a while, ignoring the creak of a floorboard out in the hallway. This is an old house and it's not uncommon for things to squeak or creak around here. Jihoon curls himself around Chan and his husbands and falls back asleep soon after that.

The next night, Jihoon agrees to stay in his son's room until Chan is asleep. Seokmin reads him a bedtime story and Soonyoung hums another lullaby and when Chan has fallen asleep, Jihoon tucks the blanket around him and kisses his forehead, waving his husbands out as he settles into the rocking chair. Jihoon feels a ridiculous urge to stay in the room and make sure Chan is safe while he sleeps, an itch that's been bothering him since last night for some odd reason. Jihoon doesn't think much of it and continues to watch his son as the clock ticks slowly and soon Jihoon is nodding off, wrapped up in a blanket that makes him look like a lump.

Jihoon is known for being a deep sleeper. He clings to the mattress and blankets, always the last one up in the morning, but he'd been quick to respond last night and he's quick to wake up again tonight as well.

Chan is whimpering in his bed, still asleep but Jihoon is more focused on the thing standing over his son.

What the everloving fuck? Jihoon thinks.

He makes no moves or sounds and watches as it leans down, breathing all overーno, sniffing his son. Jihoon tenses when Chan begins to react, frowning in his sleep as he turns over.

The thing leans down even closer and something flicks out towards Chan. Jihoon thinks it might be a forked tongue.

Chan wakes up then, eyes wide as he looks directly up at the thing and Jihoon doesn't know if he can sit still any longer.

"You're awake," the thing says, its voice jarring. "Good. That'll make eating you so much more fun. I love it when they kick and scream."

Chan whimpers, frozen in place as the thing leans down once more, and that is definitely a tongue that flicks out and traces the line of Chan's jaw.

Jihoon flings himself across the room and tackles the thing to the floor, struggling to find a grasp on it as it fights him back. Something sharp pierces the back of his hand, but Jihoon doesn't let up and eventually has it pinned to the floor.

All the while, Chan is screaming a chant of "DADDY! APPA! DAD!" at the top of his lungs.

The thing tries to escape again, and though Jihoon is small, he's strong when he's pissed off and angry and he's most definitely pissed off and angry right now.

Chan's bedroom door is flung open and the lights turn on as Soonyoung brandishes a bat around and Seokmin trails in after him with a flyswatter.

"What's going on?" Soonyoung shouts, eyes wide as he spots Jihoon.

Jihoon is frozen. The thing underneath him is terrifying. No eyes or nose and a thin rip of a mouth that a tongue darts out from as it hisses at the brightness. It's a mass of nothing, essentially, and somehow Jihoon is keeping it down. The thing notices that Jihoon is no longer putting up a fight and seeps out from underneath him, rising up and up and up while Chan screams and Jihoon's husbands stand frozen by the door.

Jihoon can't move and he knows if he does nothing his loved ones will die. But he can't move, something other than fear holding him down.

The thing creeps forward then, busting the lightbulb as it passes and Chan's room is once again covered in darkness, the only light coming from the window which Jihoon realizes with a start is open.

It moves in quickly then and Jihoon knows it's all over.

Something gold flickers across his vision and then suddenly, golden ropes are wrapping themselves around the thing, all of it emitting from a single arrow lodged into Chan's wall. Jihoon looks towards the open window again, finding that someone decked in an outfit of white and gold is running across their lawn and readying themselves to jump through the window.

What the fuck? is all Jihoon gets to think before they're standing in front of him, feathers all Jihoon can see, and Seokmin is grabbing him by the armpits and dragging him out of Chan's room while Soonyoung holds Chan in his arms, their son crying and sniveling into Soonyoung's shirt.

Jihoon catches one last glimpse of the winged man as he shoots another arrow directly into the center of the thing and then Chan's door is shut and Seokmin is clinging to him, checking him for injuries.

Chan crawls into Jihoon's lap and Jihoon holds him to his chest, his face feeling cold and devoid of emotion. Seokmin wraps a blanket from the master bedroom around them and Soonyoung rubs Jihoon's back, humming the same lullaby again.

There's thrashing noises and something crashing into the walls that shakes the entire house coming from Chan's room, but all four ignore it, choosing to trust the winged stranger to handle things and focus on comforting one another. Jihoon doesn't realize he's crying until Seokmin is crying, thumbing away Jihoon's tears and then Soonyoung's lullaby erupts into ugly sobs and Jihoon now has to rock three crying boys in his arms.

Seokmin presses kisses all over Chan's face, laughing when Chan stares at his tears, utterly confused because his Appa has never cried before and his Dad sometimes cries, yeah, but not his Appa and definitely not his Daddy. Jihoon strokes Chan's hair and accepts the watery kiss Soonyoung gives him and then Seokmin is there too, wiping their tears away with the sleeve of his shirt and kissing Jihoon fiercely, relief and worry hanging heavy in the air around them.

Jihoon leads them to the master bedroom where they blockade the door and snuggle up into bed, wrapped around each other tightly. Chan is the first to nod off, his head on Soonyoung's chest and then Soonyoung yawns and holds Chan tighter to him as he falls asleep as well. Seokmin spends some time awake with Jihoon, his arm lain out for Jihoon to use as a pillow of sorts but even that doesn't keep him from eventually falling asleep as well.

Jihoon doesn't go back to sleep that night.