The Guardian (Sanders Sides Werewolf AU) *on hiatus*

4

mini a/n: i know that joan goes by they/them pronouns but they are 7 in this so doesn't know yet/is questioning. so please don't come for me, it'll only be for this chapter that i'll use masculine terms for joan

Virgil and Thomas burst through their front door, throwing their bags to the side and stumbling as they took off their shoes.

"Go, go, go, go, go, go, go! You tackle your room. I'll take care of the sitting room and kitchen!"

"Got it!" Thomas called as he sprinted up the stairs.

Virgil ran around the sitting room, placing the pillows on the sofa properly, folding up the blankets for when the boys arrive. He gathered up the take out boxes from last night and threw them in the recycling bin. He then ran around picking up discarded jumpers and socks and throwing them in the laundry basket.

"Thomathy hurry it up, just shove it in the wardrobe! Then move onto the bathroom"

"On it!" Thomas called back

Once Virgil was somewhat satisfied with the sitting room, not being too precious with it as the kids will just mess it up later, he slid into the kitchen and cleared up the dirty dishes, somehow there was a lot.

"Hey, kid? Why do we have so many dishes?"

"Because neither of us wanted to wash up?"

"But there is more than usual and we rarely cook!"

"We had that ice cream competition last night!"

"Oh yeah! I whooped your ass at that"

"You're...12 years older than me!"

"Excuses, excuses" Virgil chuckled

The doorbell rang just as Virgil turned on the dishwasher. He answered to find Joan excitedly bouncing side to side next to his mother who was holding his overnight bag.

"Hey there, excited for tonight?" Virgil asked, smiling down at Joan

"Yes!"

Virgil and Renee giggled at the boy.

"He has been excited all day. I'm kind of jealous, I don't know how you get these kids to love you so much. What do you guys do? He refuses to tell me."

"Well it's simple: pizza, chocolate, lots of movies and of course summoning a demon."

"Right well..." she gave Virgil a look like she couldn't tell if he was joking or not

"Come on Mum! I wanna go"

Renee smiled down at her son and handed him his bag, "okay, goodbye, be good. Thanks again for doing this Virgil"

"It's no problem" he smiled and let Joan in as his mother left, "Thomas! Joan is here!"

Thomas bounded down the stairs, "JOAN!"

The two ran and embraced each other in a hug. Virgil was very thankful for Joan; he was the first friend Thomas made when they moved here and the pair have been inseparable since. They went upstairs to play while they waited for Terrance.

Five minutes later, the doorbell rang again and Virgil greeted Terrance who was holding his rucksack with a big smile on his face.

"Hey Terrance, how you doing?"

"I'm good thank you!"

He waved to his mum before following Virgil into the house.

"Kids! Terrance is here!" Virgil called up the stairs, not two seconds later, they could hear two pairs of feet running down the stairs.