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If it had been anyone else on the Isles, Darius would have been more careless about it.
Maybe amused even, at the way it was the most focused he had seen Hunter ever since he incursioned in the world of fanfiction. That had been… an experience. Hunter’s therapist had a new way to start unpacking all the emotional baggage the boy carried given the amount of projection he seemed to do, which relieved Darius enormously. But when he had asked Darius to be his beta reader after Luz got busier with her human school stuff and Gus was too busy writing his own, well.
As long as Darius didn’t have to read another book to understand his newer stories- Cosmic Frontier was catchy, but a lot for him to remember.
The thing was, Hunter had been caught up with whatever he was working on for days. The screammer break meant the kids had a lot more of free time, which allowed Darius to start planning activities for them and Eber, for Hunter and his friends, for Hunter to meet the rest of his and Eber’s family-
And yet, as soon as the last day of school was over, Hunter had barely grabbed a snack, and retreated to his room. It took about five tries for Darius to finally manage to get him to see the sunlight for a while, touch some grass, breathe some fresh air.
While he had enjoyed it, the second Hunter glanced at the kitchen clock when they went inside for a glass of water, he panicked.
“Sorry, erm, I- I have… things? To do?” He barely managed to get the words out as he sprinted upstairs.
It was frankly starting to concern Darius.
Hunter’s therapist had warned him about the possibility of the boy having setbacks in his path to healing. Bad days, moodiness combined with that normal in witches his age that none was sure about, Grimwalker biology and all. And, the one that worried Darius the most.
Closing off.
Again.
It had been hard enough to get him to begin opening up the first time. But, after a while, Hunter began trusting. Began sharing. Began showing that he was caring, his emotions and had even started to ask for help sometimes.
Suddenly, a muffled thump followed by a loud ouch coming from upstairs snapped Darius out of his thoughts.
Hunter.
He didn’t even bother using the stairs, and teleported outside of his room, knocking as quickly as he could without being frantic.
From his side of the door, he could hear Hunter trying to avoid whining too hard.
Oh Titan.
Was he hurt?
Thinking of the thump, a thought worried him even more.
Even worse, did he hurt himself?
Titan, Titan. He hoped he had more time before it became dangerous.
He knocked again.
If Hunter was having a flashback, he wasn’t sure how beneficial it would be to have him barge through the door without at least announcing his presence.
“Little Prince? Are you okay?”
He heard Hunter cuss under his breath. “Uh, yeah?”
The hesitation in the boy’s voice did not ease his worries in the slightest.
“I’m going to come in, if it’s alright. I just want to know you’re okay,” Darius announced. He wanted to respect Hunter’s privacy as much as he could, but he really needed to make sure.
“NO! Wait, no, I mean-”
“Hunter, you’re scaring me.”
It wasn’t a lie. He heard movement inside as soon as he said he was coming in, and Titan if Hunter had hurt himself and was trying to cover it up…
“Everything is a-okay in here, don’t worry at all! Nothing to worry about in here!”
Was that supposed to be reassuring?
More swooshing.
Darius had to know he was okay, and soon.
Titan forbid it, but if anything had happened and he had taken too long-
“Hunter, I’m not mad, but I am really concerned now. I’m coming in,” Darius said, as he turned the knob.
“WAIT-” Hunter reached for the door as fast as he could, but not fast enough. Darius was already peeking in, trapping him between the door and the wall.
A pair of scissors made his blood run cold.
If that wasn’t enough, the floor beside it sported a few red stains, smudged inexpertly as if someone had tried to clean them in a hurry.
Titan, no. Please, no.
“Darius, I can explain, I-”
He was clutching his own hand.
Darius’ bile sac made a spark of purple surround him for a second as his heart dropped.
“Oh, Hunter, no, no. We have to get you to a Healer, I- No, no, no.”
Darius prepared to teleport both of them, frantically preparing a spell circle. He had wasted precious time knocking, and what if-
“DARIUS, I’M OKAY!”
“What?”
Hunter’s cheeks and ears flushed.
“It’s a… paper cut,” he said as he extended his injured hand, a pair of nasty cuts painting the base of his thumb red.
“You did not..?”
“I kind of cut myself accidentally, then as I got up instinctively I forgot I had the scissors in my hand, I got a little dizzy, fell down and kind of stabbed my hand with the scissors.”
Now that Darius looked around properly, the wooden floor was oddly sparkly.
“And I might have knocked some glitter along.”
“Hunter, what in the Titan’s name were you doing?”
“Nothing important, just…”
”Hunter. You have barely come out of your room in days, what could possibly need so much time and glitter?”
“...I’m trying to create a glitter-based type of magic?”
Darius couldn’t believe how bad the boy was at lying.
“While that would be impressive and you can certainly help me later with that since you just gave me an idea for a new abomination formula, what would the scissors even be for?”
“Cutting the stream of source glitter? Since bileless, sacless magic is largely symbolic? At least that's what Luz and Eda always say.”
Darius raised an eyebrow.
“Fine, I… I was working on a letter.”
“You do remember I gave you a scroll and you can always use my crystal ball, right?”
Hunter’s ears dropped a little.
“It’s… different.”
“Are you finally going to tell that friend of yours, Willow it was?” Darius teased. Although, it would probably be better for Hunter to hurry up with that.
“WAIT- NO! I mean-” Hunter’s entire face blushed furiously.
“Take it easy, I was joking. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, I was just curious. I do enjoy the glitter detail, the spark always makes everything better as long as you don’t overdo it.”
Darius pointed at Hunter’s bed. “May I?”
Hunter nodded, as Darius patted the space beside him invitingly.
Once he settled, Hunter spoke.
“So not much glitter is better?”
“Well, it depends, but I would say that for a letter.”
“And if it’s for an important one?” Hunter asked.
“Well, if it’s a formal one I wouldn’t do that, think a Coven report. But, if it’s for someone you care about, I’d say it’s a pretty nice detail. Depending on who it is, heartfelt even.”
After a second of consideration, Darius asked the question.
“Who is it for? Who knows, maybe I can help you.”
“I don’t think you should, really. It will ruin the surprise-”
Hunter straightened up, eyes opening with realization. “Uh, forget I said that!”
“Surprise?” Darius wondered, confused.
“Ugh, it was supposed to be a surprise, but now well…”
Hunter reached under his bed for a few seconds until he found whatever he searched for.
A paper?
“So Luz told us about this one Human Realm festivity, pretty much like we have Parents’ Day. Only that they have specific days for mothers and fathers and well, parents can choose I guess? Anyways, she told us Father’s Day was tomorrow and I- I thought I could make you something.”
Hunter opened the letter.
While it was folded in half, he had somehow managed to make the borders sparkly with glitter that didn’t fall off. The letters were carefully drawn rather than written, every trace as defined and delicate as it could get, accompanied by some sort of golden stamp outlining every border of the paper.
Darius thought he might need to squint to read, but the letter was somehow clear enough, a single and simple enough message.
Thanks for keeping me.
Happy Father’s Day.
Those seven words meant way more than anything Darius would ever be able to express himself.
As soon as Hunter noticed him reading, he quickly added. “I mean, I understand if you think I’m rushing too much or if you would rather not get anything, but-”
“Is it okay if I hug you?” Darius interrupted.