He stared into the darkness, body shaking as he brought the sheets and covers closer to his chin, a million different images of what could be in his closet and room flashing before his mind’s eye. What if it was a monster, wanting to eat him and then turn him into candy for other little kids to break? What if it was a pony that would bite him instead of let him ride it? What if it was the orphanage staff who were there to punish him for another crime he didn’t commit?

Crying out softly, he hid underneath his covers, shaking even more terribly until the sound of the door slowly opening caused his heart to stop all together and his blood to run cold, the veins turning into ice. The monsters... they were coming for him...

Feeling a hand rest on his blanket covered shoulder, he whimpered before clamping his mouth shut, biting his lower lip in order to keep himself from crying. If they’re going to eat me, they should do it now so that I don’t have to deal with all this f-

“Jaejoong,” a soft and familiar masculine voice murmured before the sheets were removed from his face so that he could see the person sitting at his bedside, “it’s okay, I’m here, what’s wrong?”

“P-Papa...” he whimpered before he cried out and crawled over to him, wrapping his arms around his neck and crying, burying his face in his adoptive father’s chest, shaking terribly in the largers arms. The olders face grew soft with worry and love as his arms wrapped around his child’s body.

“What’s wrong, baby, what happened?”

“N-Nightmare... there... there’s something in my closet...”

Smiling softly, he stood, setting the little boy back in his bed before walking to his closet and turning on the light, noting that the boy was shivering as he watched his father advance towards the dark closet at first. Sitting there waiting until the other had realized that there was nothing in the small extension-room, the new father chuckled and walked back over to the boy, sitting back down.

“See? There’s nothing to be afraid of, no monsters in your closet.”

“I... I... what if they come back?” the little one whimpered as he chewed on his bottom lip and Yunho’s eyebrows furrowed in concern, touching the little boy’s lower lip so that he’d stop abusing the tissue.

“How about this- I’ll stay here all night so that you can sleep and feel safe, mmkay?” he murmured, moving and climbing into the little boy’s bed, wrapping his arms around his cuddling little boy and closing his eyes, running his hand through the boy’s neck-length ragged hair, “is that alright with you, buddy?”

Jaejoong hummed in agreement, cuddling closer to his father’s shirt before closing his eyes and quickly falling asleep. However, the entire time Yunho waited for his son to fall into slumber the older man was staring down at the little boy, wondering what on earth those orphanage staff members had told this young male to make him so terrified. By this age he should have been accustomed to sleeping in the dark - He was 12 years old and yet he was still needing to be held at night. Was that even normal?

Making it a priority of his to call Yoochun the next day and talk to him about it, the 22 year old closed his eyes again and quickly fell asleep due to the warmth radiating from the pre-teen’s heater-like body.

“I’m not kidding around here Yoochun, what if they did something seriously wrong to him?” the chestnut haired male asked as the two males grabbed a cup of coffee from the local cafe. They had decided to hang out while Jaejoong was at school, Yunho seizing the time to talk to his brother about the situations going on at home, and the younger sibling grimaced as he thought over what his brother had said.

“That doesn’t make sense though, they’d be reported if they did something inappropriate to their wards.”

“Unless no one ever came in their to adopt-”

“-besides you,” Yoochun murmured, stirring the creme into his coffee, “considering that it could be plausible, but lets not make any rash assumptions. How is Jaejoong any other time than at night?”

“Perfectly fine, that’s just it! Occasionally he’ll come home crying because something reminded him of the orphanage, but other than that he’s doing great in school, he’s making friends, and socially he’s wonderful,” Yunho sighed, rubbing his temple while looking down at his cup of caffeinated beverage.

“Then you really have nothing you need to worry about,” Yoochun said, trying to get his brother to not stress too much, “maybe he’s just not as mature as the other kids his age. Maybe it’s because now that he has a father he’s able to mature at a faster pace, giving you the task of telling him what’s okay and what’s not.”

The chestnut haired male could only nod silently as he sipped at his drink, taking in everything that his sibling had said. Yet something seemed off...

“He screams in his sleep.”

“What?”

“When he has nightmares... he screams in his sleep. Random things too, but mostly things like ‘no’ or ‘go away’.”

Yoochun grew unnaturally quiet, looking down at his cup. Maybe they had a bigger issue on their hands than just a little boy growing accustomed to new surroundings.