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Darius slowed down his pace subtly, making him and Hunter walk a few feet after the rest of the group.
“Are you sure you really want me there, Little Prince? Or your friends? I wouldn’t mind waiting for you all somewhere else,” Darius said quietly.
He was more than glad that Hunter had no objections to spending time with him, but this was supposed to be an outing for the kids, and his role to be more of a… In all honesty, he was not sure what he was supposed to do there. Camila had driven them all to the mall since he still couldn’t quite get the hang of the logistics of driving completely, and the kids all had their pocket money on them, so it wasn’t as if he was supposed to follow them to pay after them.
A chaperone maybe? They were more than qualified to go somewhere as peaceful as a human mall without dying in the process. Maybe he was supposed to be the adult in charge in case they had any unexpected magical outbursts? He was good at creating cover up stories for suspicious secret situations, after all.
“Come on, it’s okay! If anyone had something to say they would have told you already. We’re just going to have lunch. Besides, we’re gonna take a while and you can’t just sit somewhere else- what, sipping on some tea? Whatever you’re planning to do?”
“You will learn to appreciate the delicacy a good cup of tea is one day.”
“Yeah, but it would be mall tea in any case. Luz says the tea from Moonbucks sucks anyway, and I don’t see any other fancy tea shops around. In any case, you haven’t had lunch either, and if you don’t let me skip meals I’m not letting you either.”
Darius groaned in slight annoyance. It was suddenly a relief Eber was too difficult to disguise for the Human realm, because he would have a whole fifteen pounds of creature laughing at him on his shoulder otherwise.
“Hurry up, we’re going to lose them!” Hunter exclaimed as he sped up, noticing the group turning around a corner.
“Everything okay?” Gus asked once the boy had caught up.
“A-okay, Darius wanted to make sure we were all okay with him tagging along.”
“We were the ones to tell him to come anyways!” Luz pointed out. “If any of us had an objection we would have said so. Who’s gonna make a believable cover-up story if something happens? The security guards won’t believe us after the last time we were here.”
Darius blinked with confusion. “Last time you were here?”
“Yeah, the sales clerk at the pet shop took a while to realize they didn’t have blue chameleons in their inventory,” Willow explained with a giggle.
“Or giant bees,” Amity added. “Ghost was the hardest to explain, there was a litter of cats that looked like they could be her siblings. I’m never bringing her here again after that.”
“At least someone listened to me when I said it was a bad idea to bring palismen into the mall,” Luz remarked while looking at Hunter. “I don’t even know how he didn’t freak out seeing live animals turn into wood. I guess that’s not the weirdest thing you see at a place like this”, she finished with a shrug.
Suddenly, Darius’ presence made so much more sense. And he thought the Human Realm was a relatively peaceful place compared to the Isles-
“Wait, wasn’t that the place we were going to eat at?” Willow suddenly interrupted. The rest of the group hurried after her, gathering towards the fast food storefront she pointed at.
“Pizza? Wouldn’t it have been easier to order one?” Darius asked.
“Yeah, but then we wouldn’t have come!” Hunter explained, gesturing as he spoke.
“We always get pizza delivered there!” Luz seconded. “This is a new adventure!”
Suddenly, Amity seemed to remember something. “Did you remember to bring your Lactaid, batata?” she asked.
Luz simply pat her pocket with a mischievous smirk. “I brought enough for a cheese-filled crust.”
In all honesty, Darius was relieved that the new adventure in question was at the mall and not fighting another magic being to death. The kids moved towards the counter, chatting among themselves while debating toppings for their meal. The names sounded vaguely familiar, and yet entirely different. For a second, he could have sworn one of the kids mentioned Pepper Onis. If that was what they were going for, he sincerely wished the small red circles were very different from the Pepper Oni sausages Eberwolf had once found being sold in the night market, for the sake of their taste buds.
“Three pepperoni pizzas, please! WIth a cheese crust,” Luz announced at the cashier, and quickly paid for them. The cashier then gave her a weird artifact with a light inside, and the girl took it. What were three pizzas even for? And a glow stick?
“Let’s go find a seat,” Darius suggested. They could have waited beside the counter, but he had a feeling that other customers might not enjoy a group of teens blocking their way.
“OVER THERE!” Gus yelled out while pointing to an empty set of tables, only for Hunter to immediately jump from behind the boy and run. “On it!”
“I don’t think the mall is a great place for parkour, Hunter!” Darius called out when he began jumping over some stray chairs to get to his destination faster. Right on cue, the boy’s foot got caught up on —well, nothing—.
“Don’t worry, I’m okay!” Hunter called out from the floor while everyone rushed to his side.
“That crash didn’t exactly sound like okay to me,” WIllow glared at him. “You can’t die on us again, you know?” Amity exclaimed as she offered a hand for Hunter to lean on as he got up.
“Hey, there’s not a lake anywhere near here, we’re good!”
Those words struck Darius like a bucket of ice-cold water.
“Sorry, WHAT?” he asked, a bewildered expression taking over him.
The kids all turned their heads towards Hunter with uncanny synchrony.
“You haven’t told him?”
Hunter's silence was louder than any reply.
"I..." His voice broke. He hadn't planned to tell Darius like that, in the fast food court at a random mall, unprepared. Maybe ever.
Seeing his spiral, Luz intervened.
"Flapjack brought him back. At the lake, before we went back to the Isles."
"Was it..?" Darius asked, already knowing the answer.
Hunter nodded. Of course it was. What else could have been expected? Even the rest of the group was frozen still.
"It's okay, we don't have to talk about it right now." Darius said, trying to be comforting. He opened hos arms slightly, ready to offer a hug. "Would you like-"
Hunter moved straight towards him, and the group followed to offer some support, whatever they could get in.
Suddenly, the light stick buzzed from the inside of Luz's pocket. "Didn't that mean the pizza was ready?" Hunter asked, his voice still a little shaky.
"Do you want me to go grab it while you stay here with your friends? Take it slowly if you need," Darius offered.
"Let's go together," Hunter replied.