Chapter Text
The sun peeked above the trees, signaling the start of a new day, and after a rough week of illness and school, the weekend had finally arrived. Hunter peacefully slept in… until 8:00 o'clock. He woke up on his own to no alarm, feeling groggy but far more rested than on a school morning. Waffles perked up when she felt Hunter moving, far more energized than her owner was. She eagerly flew in front of Hunter, waiting for him to hold out his finger for her to perch on. “Morning!” she tweeted.
Hunter smiled, feeling his palisman’s soft feathers underneath his fingers. He wasn't really much of a talker in the mornings. He could actually be a bit of a grump sometimes when people talked to him before he was ready, but he couldn't get annoyed at Waffles. He got up and went to the bathroom, brushed his hair, and went downstairs for breakfast, wondering what delicious meal Darius might’ve cooked for the day.
As Hunter went down the stairs, he immediately noticed that Darius wasn't around. Instead, he only saw Eberwolf, who was watching their big crystal ball in the living room. This wasn't entirely unusual on the weekends; sometimes Darius was out early, and he left what he cooked for breakfast on the table. Hunter didn’t think twice about it and went to grab it, only to find that there was oddly nothing prepared that morning. This meant he had to wait for breakfast.
Now Hunter was very, very confused. He'd been living there for months, and this had never happened. He began to try and think on why, until-
“Hungry!” Waffles chirped.
Hunter was brought out of his thoughts at Waffles’ demands. He nodded, went back upstairs to his room, and fed her some rattleworms he had stored. As she swallowed the rattleworms, Hunter petted her and smiled at her adorable little antics. Afterward, Hunter went back downstairs to talk to Eberwolf, who was lounging around on the couch. “What are you watching, Eber?”
“No tell you,” Eberwolf hissed. “You still grounded ‘till tomorrow,”
Hunter sighed, recalling how his idiotic actions had led to the grounding. “I know that. I'm not going to sit down and watch it with you. I'm just curious.”
Eberwolf nodded. “You no like it anyway. It an Emperor's Coven documentary.”
“Oh,” was all Hunter had to say. Before things could get awkward, he tried to change the topic. “...Where's Dad?”
Eberwolf shrugged. “He no tell me that he go out, so probably still snoozing.”
Hunter raised a brow. "...Odd. He's normally up by now. It's half past eight.”
“Me dunno, maybe he went to bed late,” Eberwolf suggested.
“No, he went to bed around nine last night,” Hunter corrected. “He always checks on me before he sleeps.”
Eberwolf stared blankly for a moment. “Weird,” he chattered. “Me think we should let him sleep for a bit longer. He might need it.”
Hunter wanted breakfast, and part of him wanted to try to convince Eberwolf to get Darius up now so they could eat, but Eberwolf was probably right. Darius might need some extra sleep, so they should be polite and wait.
11:00 AM
Darius was still asleep.
Hunter had been waiting for either Darius to get up or Eberwolf to say something, but his patience had run completely dry, and his hunger was only growing. At this point, he might as well just have lunch instead of breakfast. This annoyed Hunter since most of his favorite foods were breakfast foods.
Plus, nowadays, he never skipped breakfast unless he was running late for school. In fact, he hardly skipped meals at all anymore. After adjusting from Belos’ bare minimum diet to a much more healthy, well-rounded one, Hunter's body could hardly handle skipping meals anymore. While this was mostly a good thing, sometimes it could be massively inconvenient when he didn't have a choice but to skip a meal. Back as the Golden Guard, going to work on his shifts without food was fairly common. Hunter could usually handle it just fine, but nowadays, if he went to school without breakfast or if Boscha stole his lunch money, he could barely pay attention while his stomach embarrassed him by playing the class a hunger concert.
Hunter growled when the clock hit 11:30 AM. That's it. He wasn't waiting for another second. He was going to convince Eberwolf to wake up Darius. Hunter went back downstairs to see Eberwolf rolled up on his side, still watching the Crystal Ball. “Eberwolf, I think we should wake up Dad.”
“Let him snooze. He might need it,” Eberwolf chattered.
“It's past eleven. He's been asleep for over twelve hours,” Hunter grumbled. “And I'm hungry.”
Eberwolf glanced at the time. “Oh… it is that late. Me lost track of time. Yeah, let's wake him up.”
Hunter sighed in relief as they went up the stairs, heading to Darius’ room. They peered in to see him out like a light. Hunter was about to gently shake him, but Eberwolf jumped right on top of him. Darius was startled awake at this. “Eber!” Hunter hissed.
“Hi, sleepyhead!” Eberwolf taunted. “It's late; time to get up! We're hunnngryy!”
“Eber, stop it!” Hunter growled.
Darius immediately noticed he was drenched in sweat, his head was pounding, and his throat was sore. He knew it right away. He was sick. With strip throat, no less.
Great. Just great.
Just what he needed. To be out of commission when he needed to take care of others, but he knew he had to rest so he could be better as quickly as possible. Darius coughed, “...I think I've come down with strip throat,” Darius croaked, his voice incredibly raspy.
The world came to a stop for Hunter. His stomach sank as his knees weakened, his body freezing.
There was no doubt that Darius had caught strip throat from him, as he had it just a week prior. Plus, Darius repeatedly had to be in close contact with him because his fever made him irrational, making him try to escape the house for a ridiculous reason. There was absolutely no doubt about it: the illness had passed on from son to father.
As Eberwolf and Darius were having a brief conversation, with Darius writing out what he was saying with abomination goop, Hunter drowned it out as he slowly backed out of the room. Of course, this was why Darius was sleeping so late. He had been so blinded by hunger that he didn't even consider the fact there was a reason why he was sleeping this late.
Titan, no. Please no. This wasn't happening.
Darius was sick, and it was all his fault.