Chapter Text
Shortly after the battle with the Collector (and subsequently Belos) was over, Alador divorced Odalia. It was something he'd been planning on for a while, but the chaos of everything made it go on the backburner. However, with all this sudden free time, he saw clearer than ever that he could not go on with her. Whatever love was in their relationship at the beginning was long gone and he couldn't stand her abuse any longer.
Pretty much immediately after he and Odalia separated (and before their divorce was even finalized), he ran into Darius and the two of them began making amends. They realized their feud from high school was silly (it had been mostly over matters involving their families rather than the two boys themselves) and they became friends again.
"Friends" soon turned to "friends who spend every waking moment together and sometimes make out when drunk", and it quickly became clear to them that there were other feelings lingering under the surface of their relationship. Maybe there always had been. Maybe that's why they'd constantly found themselves thinking of each other, even though they weren't friends anymore.
It didn't take long for them to open up about these feelings to each other (Alador had been the one to take the first step) and they began dating soon after that. It was so weird to Alador, telling people he was seeing someone, because he'd been married for so many years, but it was a welcome change.
The concept of living together came up a few weeks into their relationship when Alador realized he had never been to Darius' residence. As it turned out, Darius' home was partially destroyed by the Collector and he was embarrassed to show that to anyone (aside from Hunter, who'd been living with him since the end of the battle).
"What if you just lived with me in Blight Manor?" Alador offered nonchalantly. Darius blinked in disbelief at how casually the other man had said it, which made Alador slightly nervous. "Only if you want to, of course" he quickly added. "Just throwing the offer on the table"
"Well of course I want to" Darius said with a slight chuckle. "Would your kids be okay with that, though?"
"I'll bring it up to them" Alador promised. "And you should do the same with Hunter"
"It's an agreement, then" Darius smiled. "If they're all okay with it then, yes, I would love to"
With that, Darius turned and left to find Hunter.