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Darius walked around the small cottage, it was a place he had found a while ago and had been hiding from Belos in. It used to be broken down but since they beat Belos and the Collector, he’s spent time making it look livable.
He had cleaned out one of the extra rooms and after a very complicated day of paperwork, the newly adopted Hunter moved in.
Things were very awkward between the two of them at first. Yeah, they had been coworkers and always had a closer relationship than they did with others, but living together and officially being family was more awkward than they thought.
Hunter had nightmares, he claims he never had them before and Darius didn’t know whether or not to believe him, but for his sake, chalked it up to his childhood trauma not catching up until now.
Whenever Darius was awoken by Hunter's screams or soft cries, he would rush into the other’s room, checking to make sure he was okay and then holding him in a tight hug while Hunter sobbed into him.
Darius has never seen a 16 year old with so much grief and exhaustion and trauma and it made him wish he could go back to before they defeated Belos and kill him himself.
There was also the matter of physical affection. Yeah, Darius held him when he was crying, but any other time, both of them were too awkward to initiate contact.
At first, Darius thought Hunter just didn’t want physical affection, he was almost an adult after all. But then Darius went to collect him from hanging out with his school friends and saw how happy he looked when they were hugging or high-fiving him.
So Darius brought it on himself to slowly implement touch throughout their days, hugging Hunter goodbye before he went to school, a pat on his back when he got an A on a test, a firm squeeze when Hunter was nervous about hanging out with Willow, anything and Hunter seemed to eat it up every time.
Darius five years ago would’ve never described himself as parental, but now he found himself worrying over the smallest things.
Is Hunter getting teased at school? Should I find him a therapist? Am I a good enough father? Am I doing this right?
He asked the Owl Lady and she just smiled warmly at him, a teasing glint in her eye as she stood taller than him.
“You’ll have no clue what you’re doing at first, and maybe you guys will argue, fight from time to time, but, whatever you’re doing, just keep doing it. I remember Luz talking about when she first met Hunter, he was a “bad but sad boy” and “obviously needed help.” Now all I hear her talk about is how Hunter’s getting better grades than her or almost beat Willow in a one on one Flyer Derby match. You may be scared you’re not doing it right, but you’re giving him everything he needs.”
Darius felt a little more confident after that. She was right, Hunter had been way worse, especially right before defeating Belos, he had been hiding out, sneaking around, scared out of his mind that Belos was going to kill him.
Hunter could finally breathe now. He smiled and allowed Flapjack to roam as free as they pleased. It made Darius happy, seeing the little prince finally feel comfortable and live a normal childhood.
Just because things were going good didn’t mean they were always good.
Darius sometimes had to tell Hunter he wasn’t allowed to go out because, you know, it was acid raining . Or Hunter would close off completely after a panic attack.
Or, right now, when Hunter was vomiting into a bucket and curled up, holding his stomach tight with tears in his eyes.
“Hunter, let me take care of you,” Darius said and Hunter groaned, turning away from him after emptying his stomach for the eighth time that morning (school hadn’t even started yet and Darius was getting more and more worried).
“No, I’m fine.” Hunter said and Darius almost laughed at that. “You very clearly aren’t. Hunter, let me take care of you and you won’t be as miserable.”
“‘M not miserable.” Hunter whined and this was another moment where Darius had to remind himself that Hunter was just being a moody teenager.
“Can you stand up straight then?” Darius asked, getting more and more exasperated by the minute. Hunter looked over his shoulder but his face was grim, like the idea of uncurling from his spot would kill him. “Exactly, just, let me take care of you, please?”
There was a beat of silence and Hunter turned back to face him fully, burying his face in his pillow a bit. “Fine.” He mumbled and Darius sighed in relief and set about working.
Darius got a heating pad he had and placed it on Hunter’s stomach, setting the boy upright despite his protests and sticking a thermometer in his mouth before leaving and getting a pitcher of water and a glass.
He came back and grabbed the thermometer, sighing when he saw Hunter did indeed have a fever before handing him a glass of the cold water.
Hunter grabbed it and gave it a sad look before raising it to his mouth and drinking.
“Okay, so what hurts? Do you have a headache? Stomach? What’s wrong?” Darius asked and Hunter started fiddling with his hands (it was an old habit from when he used to fiddle with his gloves that covered scarred and burned hands, but after a while, he got comfortable enough with Darius to stop wearing them around the cottage. Darius felt that familiar urge to kill when he saw Hunter’s hands but squashed it.) which meant he was having a Belos-related thought and Darius, for probably the fiftieth time that week, had to restrain himself from reviving Belos just to make him suffer.
“I don’t- I don’t know what’s what.” Hunter mumbled and huffed assumedly in pain. “When I used to get sick, Belos just-” He paused and looked at Darius with wide eyes. Darius forgo every ick he had about germs and sat on the bed next to Hunter, pulling him into a sideways hug.
“He would put me in this- uh, containment cage.” Darius frowned. He knew of the containment box, he and the other covenheads thought it was for dud explosives or wild magics, they used to throw trash in there sometimes. Darius felt a wave of guilt wash over him when he realized Hunter probably had to sit in years worth of trash while sick.
“I had to stay there until I was better, it took two weeks one time. I- He didn’t feed me or anything. I thought I was going to die at that time but by some miracle I got better.” Darius also remembered that time, and he knew it was no miracle he got better. Raine had found the boy, dehydrated and starved and brought him to their secret meetup spot.
Darius and Eberwolf had done their best to get fluids and food into him while Raine sang some sort of healing song. He almost didn’t survive. Darius had no clue that had been the doing of Belos.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know how- How sick protocol worked, I was scared I-” Hunter started crying and Darius held him tighter.
“I know I say it a lot, but I’m not Belos, you can tell me anything, I will never hurt you.” Darius said and Hunter sniffled.
“I never even realized that was what he was doing.” Hunter mumbled and started to cry more.
Darius sighed and sat Hunter up properly. “Okay, I know crying is good, but right now it’s just going to make you more sick, you don’t want a stuffy nose and headache on top of all this, right?” Hunter gave him a strange look.
“Stuffy nose is when your nose gets all clogged and it’s hard to breathe out through it.” Hunter nodded. “And headache is when your head hurts, well, aches, like everything is too loud and lights are too bright.” Another nod.
“Okay, so I’ll explain things to you and you nod if that’s what you’re having right now.” Hunter nodded and Darius smiled.
“Stomach ache, your stomach hurts really bad, food won’t stay down, it feels like something is trying to escape.” Hunter nodded enthusiastically.
“Throat hurts, like it hurts to talk, it’s scratchy and stuff?” Hunter shook his head.
“Stuffy nose or headache?” Another shake.
“Is everything too hot or too cold?” Hunter nodded.
“This one is awkward, but I need you to tell the truth.” Hunter gave him a strange look and nodded.
“Okay, is your poop liquid?” Hunter turned bright red and Darius did laugh a little at that as Hunter brought his knees to his chest and gave a small nod.
“You have a stomach bug.” Darius diagnosed. “They normally only last a day or so, to help it pass sooner, you’re going to have to follow my instructions, okay?”
Still very red, Hunter nodded small again.
“Step one, drink a lot of water, you’re vomiting a lot, we don’t want you getting dehydrated.” Hunter nodded and finished his glass of water, holding it out for Darius to refill.
Darius smiled warmly at that and did as asked. Hunter rarely asked for help with such small things and Darius would help without hesitation if he was finally asking for it.
“Step two, we’ll have to monitor your eating.” Darius said. “No caffeine or dairy or stuff like that. I’ll make you some broth and get some crackers for you to munch on. If you need to throw up, just throw up and we’ll find a different food for you to eat.”
Hunter awkwardly glanced at the puke filled trash can and looked at Darius and nodded.
“Step three, sleep. I know it may seem counterproductive to you, but sleep is the best medicine, and stay off your scroll, technology and screens won’t help any.” Darius said and Hunter pouted at that.
“Relax, you can text your girlfriend all you want when you’re better.” Hunter flushed again and hid behind his cup. “She’s not my girlfriend.” He mumbled.
“Yet,” Darius added and stood up. “I’ll bring you a new trash can so this one doesn’t stink up your room.”
Hunter nodded for what seemed like the one hundredth time (maybe Darius should worry that his head was gonna fall off) as Darius left.
Hunter was passed out by the time Darius came back with a new bin and he smiled warmly, pulling the blanket over the teen and turning off the lights. Flapjack twittered at him before resting on Hunter’s head, hiding in his hair.
Darius went about disinfecting the house (because he may be able to forget germs for a bit to comfort Hunter but at the end of the day gerrrrrms! ) and making broth for Hunter, as well as finding possible alternate food for him.
He didn’t go back to Hunter’s room until around noon, when he could tell the other was awake by the sounds of him retching.
“How are you doing?” Darius asked and Hunter sniffled. “Still sick.” He mumbled.
“I see.” Darius ran a hand through Hunter’s hair and placed the bowl of warm broth and crackers next to him. “Here, try and eat something.”
Hunter did and as fast as it went down, it came right back up. Hunter sobbed a little as he threw up and Darius related with that, throwing up was never fun and could hurt and get tiring after a while.
Darius handed Hunter a pack of small cookies, Hunter eyeing it suspiciously.
“Should I really be eating junk food when sick?” He asked and Darius sighed.
“They’re wheat grain based cookies. And no dairy in them, you’ll be fine to eat them.” Darius said and Hunter scarfed them down in seconds, pausing for a second like he expected to throw it up again.
Both Darius and Hunter were pleased when he didn’t and Hunter drank another glass of water, holding it out for Darius to refill again.
Darius smiled and did as expected and Flapjack flew from Hunter’s head to Darius’, sitting in the abomination that covered his real hair for protection.
Hunter was back to sleep again soon and Darius continued cleaning and disinfecting stuff while Flapjack followed him around.
At first, he and the palisman hadn’t gotten along, Flapjack would peck at him anytime he got close to Hunter and Darius refused to be left along with it, but now they both realized they cared about Hunter more than anything and it sorta bonded them.
Around 3, there was a knock at the door. He opened it and was met with Hunter’s school friends.
“We brought his homework.” Gus informed. “And came to see him, the teachers said he was sick.” Willow added with a soft glare at Gus.
(Darius had called the school the moment he woke up to Hunter’s puking, regardless of what he thought Hunter was never going to school that day)
“Is he okay?” Luz asked and Darius made a motion for her to lower the volume. “He was sleeping last I checked but he’ll probably be up soon. I’ll take his homework, you guys can sit in the living room.”
The teens all filed in and made themselves at home on the couch, talking in hushed voices to each other and Darius smiled, Hunter made good friends.
Darius put the homework at Hunter’s desk (it was right next to the one Darius used for his new job, he was part of the new law system and had a lot of paperwork. Hunter liked to sit next to him and do homework with him and Darius loved it) and then went to Hunter’s room.
He heard the poor teen emptying his stomach once again and peered in. “Hey, your friends are here.” Darius said and Hunter brightened.
“You can sit in the living room with them for a bit, I’ll air out your room.” Darius said and Hunter slowly got out of bed and walked over to his friends while Darius went about fixing the room.
When he returned, Hunter was on the floor, keeping his distance so as to not get his other friends sick. They were all laughing and filling him in on stuff that happened at school. Darius got a few snacks for the not sick kids and more of the cookies Hunter had earlier since those stayed down better than any other food they tried.
He entered with arms fulls of snacks and started handing them out.
“No way, Matt asked Gus for tutor help?” Hunter said. “That’s what I said!” Willow shrieked. “I thought Gus was messing with us but Luz said she overheard it all!”
“I never thought we’d live to see a day where little Mattholomew asked us for help on anything,” Luz said with stars in her eyes.
“He’s getting better!” Gus claimed and thanked Darius for the snacks.
“Eda is right, you’ve gotten really soft.” Luz said before shoving a handful of chips into her mouth. Darius turned red.
“What?” He asked and scoffed. “I have not gotten soft.”
“Mhm!” Luz stated and pointed at him the Hunter. “You both have.”
“Hunter’s always been soft.” Willow stated and Hunter flushed.
“I have not!” He claimed and Darius sighed. “Okay, okay, enough of this, Hunter, how are you feeling?”
Hunter looked up. “A little better, still vomiting but my stomach no longer hurts.”
Darius nodded and handed him another full cup of water, the teen downing it in seconds and then he held it out for Darius, before remembering his friends were there and Hunter moved to fill it himself. Darius pointedly ignored Luz’s soft coos.
Darius smiled softly at him until Hunter stood on his feet and rushed to the kitchen garbage, throwing up.
“Okay, I think that's a cue for you guys to go.” Darius said. Luz pouted but stood up.
“Hope you get better, Hunter.” Willow said and Hunter flushed and waved goodbye to them all.
“Alright, back to bed.” Darius said and Hunter groaned. “All I’ve been doing is sleeping and eating, I’m bored.” He whined.
“Yeah, and it’s all you’ll keep doing until you feel better, okay?” Darius stated and Hunter groaned again but stood up, dragging himself to bed. Darius set about disinfecting once again (seriously, he was a germaphobe, okay? It was still surprising him that he was okay even being in the same room as the sick kid right now but he guesses he was more parental than he would like to admit) before returning with another pack of cookies.
Hunter sat up in his bed and scarfed them down in seconds, downing two cups of water faster than Darius could refill them.
The rest of the day was slow, Hunter mostly sleeping, Darius mostly cleaning but by the time it was 7 pm and Hunter hadn’t thrown up since his friends had been over, Darius offered him real food.
Hunter looked at the plate like it was going to attack him but slowly ate the dinner Darius made. Darius stayed nearby in case Hunter emptied his stomach again but smiled as he watched him eat.
Months ago, Hunter would scarf down every food like he was on a time limit, making himself sick more often than not from how quickly he ate and it took a while for Darius to get him comfortable enough to know that his food wasn’t going to be taken away and he could eat as slow as he wanted.
Flapjack came to rest on Darius’ lap while they waited for Hunter to finish. The boy perked up when he finished and didn’t feel ill right away.
“How are you feeling?” Darius asked and Hunter put his fork on the plate and rested it by his nightstand. “Better. Stomach still hurts a little but better. Way better.”
“Okay, I already called out for you for school tomorrow just in case, but you’ll probably be better by then. It’s up to you if you wanna go.” Darius said and Hunter was silent for a moment.
“If I don’t go,” He began. “Can we watch a movie here?”
Darius smiled and nodded. “Of course we can. We can make a pillow castle and snacks and make a whole day of it if you want.”
Hunter smiled big at that suggestion and Darius was once again reminded that no matter how mature and sophisticated he acted as the Golden Guard, he was still just a kid at the end of the day. A kid who never experienced his childhood.
“I’d like that.” Hunter said and Darius nodded. “Alright, well go to bed early so you feel 100% tomorrow, okay?”
Hunter didn’t need any more convincing, laying down and curling under his blanket, clutching a bird plush that Darius and Raine had found out on a secret mission on time close to his chest.
Darius ruffled his hair, setting Flapjack on the pillow next to him and turning off the light, taking the plate and making to leave the room.
“Love you, Darius.” Hunter sleepily mumbled and Darius felt his heart just melt. “Love you too kid, sleep well.”