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It was dark, an all consuming void seemed to surround him as he felt like he was floating in the infinite darkness as he never moved, never got any closer to escaping. If there even was a thing such as escaping.
The feeling of dread washed over him in waves as the feeling of being trapped crushed him, constricting his lungs and making him unable to breathe properly.
Not only was it dark, it was cold and lonely. The type of cold you can feel all the way into your bones and causes you to shiver no matter what you do, it cannot be fixed or helped, you feel like the warmth always escapes you, just barely out of your reach before it’s stripped from you.
Hunter was scared that he would never feel the warmth of Darius’ hugs again, or the warmth of laughter as his friends played, having fun and relaxing in each other's presence. All of it was a fate he never wanted to experience.
This void, this darkness that was consuming him, it reminded him of when he died in that lake, sacrificing himself for the greater good.
But now?
Hunter didn’t want to die, he had so much he wanted to do still, people he wanted to be around, spend time with, say goodbye to.
Knock knock.
But here he was, floating in the stillness, unsure what had happened or why he was here. He was trapped in his own mind with no escape.
It happened before, that he got too wrapped up in his own thoughts and missed the present, zoning out with no escape as panicked came crashing over him like a wave, drowning him and dragging him down to the bottom of the ocean and trapping him there.
Hunter are you in there?
But this felt different, it wasn’t usually this dark, this cold and empty. Even as he curled up he couldn’t feel the heat from his own body.
He was shaking, and he couldn’t tell if it was from the cold or from fear but he closed his eyes, shutting them tightly. It was still dark though, like there wasn’t a difference between his eyes being open or closed. It made him feel powerless, even in his own mind he had no control, he never had because Belos-
Hunter jolted as he opened his eyes again, it was no longer completely black, still dark, although a soft light from his desk lamp illuminated the room which he now recognized as his bedroom. But, he wasn’t lying on the soft mattress of his bed, rather he was hunched over his desk.
“Hunter, dinner is ready.” He could hear Darius outside his bedroom door causing Hunter to sit up properly, blinking away the remaining sleep that was trying to drag him back, still utterly exhausted despite having been napping for what felt like hours.
Realizing that Darius must have been knocking for a while, (he never entered Hunters room unless he had explicit permission as a way of giving Hunter his own space, something he never had at the castle although the exception to this was if he thought something was seriously wrong) Hunter finally responded, “I’ll be down in a moment.” his voice was slightly raspy from sleep.
Darius lingered outside the door for a moment, Hunter could tell since there weren't any footsteps leaving, but he could imagine the nod his dad gave before saying, “alright, don’t take too long or the food will get cold.”
In reality, Darius urging him to come down to eat most likely didn’t have anything to do with the temperature of the food, rather underlying worry for Hunter and his well being considering his prolonged silence. Darius had always been good at picking up small things like that.
As he stood up Hunter stretched a little until he could feel his back pop, no doubt from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position. He could feel some drool on the corner of his mouth which he was quick to wipe away. A quick glance down upon his desk revealed that a little had gotten onto his abomination homework, smudging his hand writing on a small part of the paper which he would need to redo later.
Maybe he could ask Darius to help him…
He stored that thought in the back of his mind as he started making his way downstairs and into the dining room. Darius and Eber were already seated, an empty chair across from the abomination witch, food already on the plate and Hunter could see the steam.
“It smells delicious.” Hunter said as he sat down. With the nightmare still very present in the back of his mind, like he couldn’t stop thinking about it, festering until it consumed his thought it was hard to focus throughout the dinner, constantly zoning out or not paying attention when Darius spoke to him.
Clearly, Darius had noticed something was amiss because it didn’t take long before an abomination was taking out Hunter's plate and the witch controlling it was crouched in front of his son, the worry was obvious just going off his body language.
“What’s wrong?” Darius asked, keeping his tone low as to not scare Hunter, he knew how finicky these situations could be and they had lived long enough together at this point that Darius knew the best way to handle this was with staying calm but also showing patience, let Hunter open up in his own time, rushing it would never lead to anything good, even if Darius wanted nothing more than to help him.
Hunter shrugged, “had a nightmare.” he said, attempting to say it as nonchalantly as possible, as if it was nothing to be concerned about.
“Oh sweetheart…” Darius said, pulled him into a hug which he could feel Hunter returning quickly, burying his face in Darius’ neck, “you should have told me and I could have helped you sooner.”
When Hunter couldn’t come up with a good response to that, Darius sighed, “it doesn’t matter, come on now, you’re resting for the rest of the day.”
As Darius picked Hunter up into his arms and started carrying him towards the couch he could hear Hunter quietly say, “what about my homework?”
“Not important.” the abomination witch was quick to reassure, “if your teacher asks you could always say Eber ate your homework.”
Hunter couldn’t help but giggle as Darius sat down on the couch, keeping Hunter in his lap as he picked up a blanket that had previously been draped over the back of the couch. It was a soft, weighted blanket in a scarlet color that he kept around specifically for Hunter. The bright red stood out among the more muted colors and purples that the rest of the living room was decorated in, but for his son it was all worth it.
He was quick to wrap Hunter in the blanket, hoping the pressure that the weight added would help at least just a little.
And it seemed like it did, immediately he could feel how Hunter sagged against him, relaxing just a little and closed his eyes when he could feel Darius bring a hand up to play with his hair and massage his scalp with one hand. It felt so nice to be held like this that he forgot what he was even upset about.
It was dark, with his eyes closed, and yet he could constantly feel the warm presence of Darius next to him, bringing his hand down from Hunters head to gentle massage between his eyebrows with a single finger, the feeling causing Hunter to somehow relax even further, it felt like pure bliss to be pampered like this.
In the background, Hunter could tell that Darius was talking to him, but with how relaxed he was, all he could manage was to make a hum in agreement to whatever was said.
Since he was leaning against Darius, he could feel the vibrations as his dad chuckled, most likely getting amusement out of seeing Hunter this calm for the first time in what must have been forever.
Hunters eyes were bleary when he opened them, and even then he only did so when he heard footsteps. They belonged to an abomination, it was holding a round tin can which it handed to Darius.
As he removed the lid off the can he kept an arm wrapped around Hunter, still intent on holding him despite doing something else. He placed the lid down onto the coffee table before offering one of the cookies inside to Hunter, determined to get him to eat a little considering how he had barely touched his dinner.
Even if it was more on the unhealthy side of things Darius could let it slide this once, Hunter seemed to like the cookies they had baked and right now it was all about bringing Hunter comfort.
It worked as Hunter took one of the cookies out, immediately biting into it and he couldn’t help but smile at the sweet vanilla taste and as he finished chewing he was left with the aftertaste of the almonds, butter and sugar that had also been in the batter.
This was the first time he, Darius and Eber had attempted to make any sort of human dessert and it just happened to be a type of cookie related to something called ‘christmas’ which was a human holiday of some type. Luz had been very excited when she talked about it, hands doing dramatic gestures as she explained something about trees and presents. It had been an exciting rant but she had talked so fast that Hunter hadn’t even been able to catch half of what she was talking about.
But, despite it being the first time, Hunter thought they tasted delicious as he took another bite out of the cookie he was holding.
As he continued eating the cookie, he could still remember the day a few weeks ago when they baked it.
- - -
To say the kitchen in the Deamonne household was a mess would be an understatement, and if you asked the three who lived there no one would have any idea how this even happened.
Hunter had bits of batter stuck in his hair and half of the flour from the bag had ended up on the floor which Eber was now rolling in, if only because Darius had told him not to do it.
Hunter looked over the recipe, determined to follow the instructions exactly as was written, not even getting a gram too much of sugar or he was convinced it would somehow ruin the entire recipe and while Darius didn’t know a lot about human baking he was desperately trying to say otherwise, trying to get Hunter to loosen up a bit, it was supposed to be fun after all.
The blonde stuck his tongue out as he measured the amount of sugar they would need, deeply concentrated and Darius couldn’t help but laugh, especially when Eber jumped onto Hunter's back, causing him to spill the sugar basically everywhere, including on the floor.
“Eber!” Hunter hissed at the demon now sitting on his shoulder with a grin on his face. “we’re going to mess up the recipe.”
“Cub gotta relax.” Eber grunted, getting flour all over Hunter's hair and shirt, internally Darius winced at the fact he would need to clean this up later, but seeing the way Hunter fondly smiled and how his brother chuckled made it all worth it.
It took a while, but eventually the dough was finished and Darius had to keep an eye on Hunter and Eber, constantly making sure the two weren’t eating the dough raw, according to Camila you shouldn’t eat human eggs raw, which just happened to be in this batter, and not wanting to get stuck taking care of two sick people, he would gently slap their hands away and remind them that they could eat one the cookies had finished baking.
Forming the dough into small ring shapes sounds like it shouldn’t have taken very long, but, of course, nothing goes to plan and as soon as they had started placing the cookies onto the baking tray Hunter started pointing out how he thought they looked too small.
So on the next tray they made them a little bit bigger, because of course Darius would always do anything his son asked, he was mushy like that and everyone knew it. Especially Eber who mouthed ‘pushover’ from where he was sitting on the counter.
All he could do in return was roll his eyes, knowing his brother was 100% correct.
- - -
Darius looked down at Hunter who was lying in his arms, a half eaten cookie about to fall out of his hands and the tin can closely dangerous to falling to the floor, with a slight smile he used his abomination to place both on the coffee table.
Hunter barely stirred at the movement, only just cuddled closer to Darius, a slight smile on his face.
Even though Hunter seemed to have fallen asleep, Darius continued running his fingers through his hair and the younger was still leaning into the touch causing Darius to coo a little.
It seemed Eberwolf had gotten bored as he jumped onto the coffee table, eating the last of Hunter's half finished cookie.
“Eber!” Darius hissed quietly, nothing wanting to wake Hunter as he watched as the demon chewed obnoxiously with his mouth open, getting crumbs everywhere. Meanwhile, Eberwolf stared Darius right in the eyes, knowing exactly what he was doing as he spoke (with food still in his mouth) “what? Were you planning on eating it?”
Darius’ silence revealed that he did in fact want the sugary treat, only supplied by how he leaned forward and took another cookie out of the tin and began eating it, much to Ebers amusement.
Once he was finished eating, Eber jumped from the table onto the couch, curling up half on top of Hunter, half on Darius and began purring immediately as he nuzzled Hunter a little, “cub seems calmer.”
“He does.” Darius agreed, leaning down to kiss the top of Hunter's head.
It was ironic, a few years ago Darius had never thought he would have anyone other than Eberwolf and now he couldn't imagine his life without his son, he would do anything for Hunter.
As he took another bite of the cookie he couldn't help but smile, the taste reminded him of time spent with family.