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"Mom?"
The voice that wakes Eda up from her sleep was small and quiet, as if they were afraid to actually wake her up. For a second Eda wonders if she's really awake or not and why is it so dark , until another call truly awakens her up. She could hear how shaky the voice that calls for her and the evident fear in them, like an animal knowing that they're stepping right into a trap.
"Mom?"
A part of her was saying it's so late and that she's too goddamn tired for this, but another part of her was screaming at her to get up, get up, your child is calling for you -
"I'm up, I'm up," she muttered, groaning as she reached the edge of the nest for leverage to sit up. Her abrupt movement scares them and sends them backing away, and Eda, though barely awake, knows almost immediately that they're frightened by whatever it is that's happened.
She squints into the darkness to see a silhouette of a small figure hunched up into themself, trembling in place. "Who's there?" Eda calls as gently as she could, moving up to approach them. "King? Luz? Hunt - "
"Mom?"
And then Eda knew immediately that it was her boy. Her sweet, "bad but sad" boy. There’s no mistaking the slight fear in that voice, and the small sniffles that accompany it. "Hunter? Hey, what's - "
He involuntarily whimpers and scoots back from his place when she stood up to walk over to him, and Eda realizes her mistake. She crouches down and slowly, carefully approaches him, offering a hand for him to trust before she could get any closer. “ Hey , c’mon. It’s okay. It’s just me, kiddo.”
Hunter slowly takes her hand, and Eda uses his to pull him closer into her arms trying to examine him in the dark. “Hey, there,” she smiles, hoping he could see it in the dark. “ Shhh, shhh - it’s okay. Bad dream?”
He nods fervently, hands grasping on the hem of her shirt. “M’sorry.”
“No, no, you did the right thing,” she assures, rocking him. “I know it’s not easy to get up and find me. Good call, kiddo.”
“Eda?” Raine’s sleepy voice calls for her from the nest. “Whu - what’s going on?”
Eda feels Hunter’s fingers grasping tighter in fear. “It’s okay,” she assures the both of them, “it’s just Hunter. He had a bad dream.”
“Oh,” Raine sighs sympathetically as they sit up, a hand wiping on their eyes and putting on their glasses before they walk up to approach them. “Oh, I’m sorry, sweetheart. C’mere.”
Raine reaches out to hold Hunter’s face and immediately frowns upon the heat they felt, pressing their palm against his forehead and cheeks. “Mm, looks like you’ve got a fever along with it too, kid.”
“Again?” Eda whispers in surprise. “Titans."
Hunter sobs, a red blush forming on his cheeks and ears. “I’m sorry.”
The two cooed out a chorus of no’s almost immediately, not wanting the boy to feel like they’re blaming him for it. “It’s not your fault, baby,” Raine says, squeezing his hand gently. “Tell you what, why don’t you stay with me while Eda gets you a potion to make you feel better?”
He nods, letting Raine take over Eda’s place while the other woman gets up from the floor. “I’ll be right back, 'kay?” she whispers reassuringly before heading out of the room, into the dark corridors of the house. She checks on Luz and King on the way to the kitchen, relieved to see her other two kids safe and asleep, then hurries over to retrieve the fever potion from the kitchen along with a glass of water, some towels and a bucket. She had all of those things stored together around the corner just in case she needed them for times like these, because Titans know it happens more often than she would like.
Contrary to popular beliefs, Hunter was in fact sickly for someone his age, because a Grimwalker body also means a horrible immune system - Eda still hasn’t really managed to wrap her head around the whole thing yet, and she's been researching and reading every book she can find in the library about it. Adding his constant nightmares and traumas equals the bad nights where she wishes she could just hug him out of it and take his pain away.
She guesses that’s being what a mother is all about.
When Eda walks back into the room, now dimly lit with a soft yellow glow of a light spell hanging on the ceiling, Raine was asking Hunter softly if he could sit up for a bit. They sounded a little bit hurried and panicked, sighing in relief when they saw Eda walk in.
“Hurry, give me the bucket,” Raine says, and Eda knows enough to act fast. She hands the bucket to them without a word and runs around the nest to help Hunter, the boy coughing weakly as she rolls his body on his side so that he doesn’t choke.
“It’s okay, ‘s okay,” Eda murmurs, rubbing his back gently while Raine holds up the bucket for him. “Get it up. You’ll feel better.”
“He’s so out of it,” they whispered, expression full of worry when they looked up at her. “He just started puking all of a sudden and I…”
“I know,” Eda nods, brushing back the bangs away from his forehead. “He’s having it bad again.”
“I just, I wish I could - “ Raine bites their lip to prevent themself from letting out a sob. Instead, a silent tear fell on their cheek, and Eda reached out to wipe them reassuringly.
They both waited until Hunter’s coughing subsided, replaced by small sniffles and sobs that wrecked his weak body. Raine wipes off the rest of the vomit off him while murmuring comforting nothings, and Eda helps him lay down on his back, feeling bad for having to wake him up again.
“Just one last thing, kiddo,” she promises, holding out the uncorked potion bottle in her hand. She presses the glass against his dry lips and tips it over, careful to give him breaks in between for him to breathe. “You’re doing good. There you are.”
She watches Raine press a kiss against his forehead as he curls closer into their arms, like a cat. Eda guesses that the only possibly good thing that's come out of this is the way Hunter is too sick and tired to shy away from their affection anymore.
He's touch starved and scared and a child. And the only moment he would let himself be one is when he's sick enough to not think. When there's a dim yellow light above him, shielding him from the dark. When Eda's fingers are softly running between the gold strands of his hair. When Raine is gently rocking him, whispering the words of a lullaby into the shell of his ears as he drifts away into a restful sleep.
Once in a lullaby, Hunter finally lets himself be loved.