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Before anyone could stop him, he’d shoved his knee into Ingram’s chest, knocked him back, and pinned him to the ground with it. Ingram growled beneath him while pushing at the pressure of his leg.

Ingram’s orbs mirrored Faunus’, and Emerie knew by the coiling of his tail that he was deeply agitated.

Faunus let out a menacing snarl and separated his sharp fangs threateningly.

“Touch my female, or hurt her again, and I won’t care that we are brothers.” Faunus’ thin tail swiped through the air behind him furiously. “This is your only warning.”

Emerie was about to get to her feet and do... she didn’t know what. She bet she could slam her entire body into his side and not budge him an inch. At least it would have beensomething.

However, she froze when Ingram’s head tilted sharply, just as a little blobby creature crawled up and over Faunus’ shoulder to sniff down.

“Faunus, you really don’t need to do that,” Mayumi said with a sigh. She approached to take a second small creature, no bigger than her hands, from somewhere else on his back. “He was just concerned for Emerie. You would have done the same thing.”

His head swiftly turned sideways to her. “Yeah, but she’s not the one–”

“Don’t want to hear it,” she cut in, walking over to the wide chair by the fireplace. “You would have done it regardless.”

With a growl in her direction, Faunus eventually huffed at her, before looking down to Ingram and giving him a deeper and louder one. He lifted off and approached Mayumi, only to steal the creature from her, pick her up and sit down with her between his thighs. He laid back against the arm of the chair, with only one pawed foot touching the ground.

It was obvious he’d been here often and had no issue making himself comfortable. His position appeared relaxed and lazy, whereas Mayumi was stiff as she glared at him. She didn’t move though, seeming to be content right where she was between his thighs.

“You made it just in time for dinner,” Delora stated as she began serving up four wooden plates. “How was the trip over?”

“Shit,” Faunus bit out, his tail swaying just beneath the underside of the chair, the legs of it high enough to allow Emerie to see the action. “We were attacked by two scouting Demons.”

“I can’t tell if they’re getting more confident or not,” Mayumi added. “They’re pretty nervous about attacking us though. Probably because I’m a force to be reckoned with.”

“That you are.” Faunus hummed, reaching forward so he could brush her ponytail forward over her shoulder with his claws.

His arm linking him to her allowed one of the little black creatures to crawl up it and attach itself to her shoulder. As soon as it was on her, it tucked itself into the back of her shirt and formed an unmoving lump between her shoulder blades. The second, however, crawled over both of them like it had bundles of energy, even occasionally sneaking over the backrest of the chair to explore, attempting to get away from them.

Mayumi or Faunus would take turns bringing it back into their cuddle, but they seemed to do so absentmindedly, like they were used to it.

“Do you mind if I ask what those are?” Emerie finally spoke up, unable to bear another second of not knowing.

They weren’t truly a black blob, but it wasn’t easy to make out their features. They had four short limbs and chubby little bodies, but they looked very soft and squishy. Every time Faunus grabbed the more active one with his massive hand, his fingers dug into it like soft, moist clay. It didn’t appear to have a proper face, since it was oval, featureless, and only had a point where it seemed to sniff from.

It had no eyes, not even a concave to highlight the potential for any, and she couldn’t see any ears. Its mouth was just a jagged line, and she hadn’t realised it had one until it opened its mouth and gave an annoyed whine at not being allowed to explore.

They kind of look like... Demons,she thought, surprised to find any living with the Duskwalkers and their females.

Mayumi’s lips twitched into a warm smile as she stared tenderly at Faunus.

“Younglings,” Faunus answered. “Or children, I guess you humans would say.”

“You’re taking care of baby Demons?”

Reia burst out into laughter, and Mayumi was quick to chuckle. Emerie looked around with an embarrassed flush staining her cheeks.

Delora’s gaze narrowed disapprovingly with her hands on her hips. “That’s not fair. It’s not her fault she would think that. I thought that too when I first saw one.”

“They’reourchildren,” Mayumi corrected. “They aren’t Demons, but baby Duskwalkers.”

Emerie paled as realisation dawned. This time, when she looked around the room, her eyes were wide and her lips were parted.

“You had a baby with him?” she said, her voice squeaky and high pitched.

“Yeah, happens when you let them turn you into Phantoms,” Mayumi explained. She turned to Reia. “I’m guessing you’ve already explained the whole soul eating thing?”