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The cat demon leapt off the roof in a flurry of laughter.
Hunter watched as he twisted in the air, the belt around his waist moving in a way it absolutely should not. A moment later, with the flicker of his hand, a staff was in his hand- but this one extended, lengthening all the way to the ground. He landed atop it, still above the rooftops before crouching and nodded at him, encouraging him to come along.
It only took Darius’ sigh for Hunter to convince Hunter to go with him.
“Just…” Hunter felt a strong hand land on his shoulder, before he turned his eyes to Darius’, concern rippling across the older witches’ face. “…keep your scroll on you, alright?”
Hunter nodded, smiling at him, materializing Waffle in his hand.
“…I could watch over you,” Eberwolf whispered, tearing his eyes away from Adrien- Cat Noir now? “Just in case.”
“I’m good,” he bumped his head against Eber’s, and nuzzled him in time with his purr. “Thank you Tio.”
“You sure Hunter? It won’t take much.”
“Yes Dad,” he said, snaking his arms around Darius to hug him. “Honestly, I’ll be fine. He’s nice!”
“He fell in our living room.”
“Still nice!”
“From a different multiverse.”
“And he’s cool! That little creature thing- Plagg, says they’ll be out of here soon anyway. If Adrien wants to get some fresh air and explore the Isles, I can help with that. Besides,” it was easy, twirling his staff into a defensive position and smirking at Darius. “I am more than capable of defending myself. Especially against someone who doesn’t have magic.”
That made Darius relax a bit, shooting Eber a small look. Eber nodded at him, before Darius sighed again.
“I expect you both to be back in an hour, you hear me?”
“Promise,” and with a confident smirk he was out the window, hopping on his staff and teleporting next to Adrien. “Byeee!”
And with that, Hunter teleported again, dashing several hundred feet away from Adrien, and watched as slit pupils landed on him, a cheshire grin growing on the strange boy’s face.
Game on.
Adrien was odd.
And really good at the cat-and-mouse tag thing they were doing.
Even if Hunter didn’t really know how to feel about being prey to someone who was very good at guessing where he would teleport next.
Adrien was incredible. Not just his speed and leaping distance, not just the way he doesn’t seem to have broken a sweat, not his weird… infinitely stretching staff, but with how… inhuman he acted. How satisfied, happy he was, acting more demon than human. He moved the way humans did without his…transformation, but with it?
Cat Noir seemed to settle atop Adrien like a skin he was more comfortable in.
Like being Cat Noir was what made him happy.
Hunter couldn’t keep the small grimace as he looked at the head of his staff, because he loved Waffles, more than the world itself.
…But.
(What was it like, enjoying a new part of your identity that was never there before?
Because he had said he couldn’t do this without Plagg, his tiny, sarcastic and protective cat-rat thing. That Plagg gave him power and he was the one borrowing it.)
Waffles was him accepting his new identity, finally feeling comfortable inside his skin.
But he’s never loved his differences, not like Adrien did.
“You’re real good at this!”
He snapped back to attention as Adrien appeared above him, and it took him a split second to dodge his small swipe again, Adrien’s grin almost splitting his face.
“Only my Lady’s able to keep up with me! And we haven’t done this in ages, you’re a fun partner.”
“Glad to be of service,” he called back, teleporting to a higher rooftop. “And how are you not tired yet?”
Adrien was still on foot, jumping and vaulting off rooftops like they were where he belonged, his staff catching the corners in just the right way to send him flying.
It looked exhausting.
(Adrien didn’t look tired at all.)
“Nah,” Adrien said, flexing his arms. “I don’t do that. And you could to, if you have the right cat-titude.”
Hunter stared at Adrien for a few seconds before his face fell.
“Wow you do not like puns.”
“I don’t like lazy puns.”
“Well you will not like me then because I have more puns than lives.”
Hunter rolled his eyes and motioned for Adrien to sit next to him, which he did with a fancy backflip. “Are you always that flashy?”
“If you suddenly gained the ability to do all the things I do, wouldn’t you push how far you could do stuff?” Adrien asked, leaning as far back as he could on the staff without falling. And there it was again, the uncanniness in his movement, the smirk with a mouth full of fangs that weren’t there before, the sway of a belt that moved as fluidly as a tail.
It wasn’t human.
Shouldn’t Adrien have more feelings about this? Or was it the reassurance of being able to leave the transformation- the knowledge that he would be perfectly human again later.
(A safety blanket- one Hunter would never have.)
…He swallowed, clenching his bitterness as he focused on flying Waffles.
It only took Hunter a few teleports to get to the place in the sky Eda had taken him, and he couldn’t resist his smile at Adrien’s quiet gasp.
If Adrien wanted the best views of the Isles, Hunter knew the place to be.
“Isn’t it beautiful?”
Adrien made a hum of excitement and when Hunter turned to look at his face-
He couldn’t help but let out his own small gasp.
Because Adrien was sitting in the way he’s seen Eber do countless times, propped up like a cat on their haunches, tail slashing lazily. But there was something about the quiet awe in Adrien’s eyes, the way they ate up the sight ahead of them…
And the way he could see that Adrien was finally relaxed.
(Because it wasn’t hard noticing the tension in his shoulders, despite his easy demeanor. It wasn’t hard noticing the way the polite posture and rigidness of Adrien’s frame around Darius and Eber, as if he was anything but a perfect statue, they would comment.
It was almost easy, noticing how Adrien only barely relaxed when it was just the two of them, how his eyes darted around as casual as he could make them, checking all the exits.
Checking where he could run.)
“You had some questions for me?”
And just like that, there it was. A persona almost enveloping him, bleeding charisma and confidence, covering up the wariness and small delight.
(He would know the feeling.
He’s been lost before.)
“How old are you?” he asked, watching Adrien jolt. “Was that a bad first question?”
“No. I mean… maybe? I just… thought you would ask about the other stuff like. Plagg or the magic?”
“We’ll get to that,” maybe. He’d like to, but he’s trying to be kind, not accidentally overwhelm him. “How old are you?”
Adrien blinked, before pointing at himself. “I’m 14.”
Just like Amity and Willow were.
“You’re 14?” he asked, clutching his staff. “And you’re not worried about going back home?”
(Hunter already knew he was. He knew that. That wasn’t the point.
The point was for how utterly alone Adrien was, he seemed to know the exact conversation cards he should use when talking to Darius and Eber.)
Adrien glared, but honestly it was made almost comical with how baby he looked. “My Lady will save me.”
“How is she planning on doing that?”
“The magic ladybugs,” Adrien said, as if that made any sense whatsoever to Hunter. “Once she figures out the akuma and what’s his deal and what ticked them off this time, she can return everything back to normal, including sending me back to my own universe.”
Hunter… simply turned to Adrien slowly, before he balled his hands into fists.
“So lemme get this straight,” he said, rubbing the bridge of his nose because oh my god was his life this extra? “Your ‘Lady’-”
“Ladybug. I call her My Lady. It’s a whole thing.”
“Alright fine. Ladybug. Who I’m gonna assume is also like you.”
“Yup!”
“Has the power to just… fix everything?” he asked, shaking his hands in front of him. “Like- is that her power? You get to be this weird human-demon thing and she gets the power to fix everything, are you serious?”
“No!” Adrien seemed, almost offended at the notion, his tail lashing out angrily. “She can do all this stuff too these aren’t- okay they are powers, but they aren’t the powers. It’s different!”
“What do you mean ‘the powers’?” he asked, with air-quotes. “You and Plagg said this wasn’t like magic but this seems…”
Hunter trailed off when he saw the slight dip in Adrien’s cat ears.
He trailed off when he finally noticed the tail belt moving- not erratically as if they too have gotten used to being more muted- but in more janky movements.
He trailed off with the defiant look in Adrien’s eyes- the ones that screamed I’m not afraid, when he very much was.
And Hunter sighed and dropped his hands in his lap. “I’m sorry.”
Adrien’s head snapped towards him, his eyes wide- and he could tell Adrien was surprised even with that tight wide smile on his face, a perfect cover to make sure he’s still in control. “Pardon?”
“I’m sorry,” he repeated, glancing at the other boy. “I shouldn’t- I don’t know what you go through. I shouldn’t just assume because you’re fourteen you should be feeling any way. I’m glad, you have a surefire way of getting home. Was I overwhelming you?”
Adrien slowly blinked, his smile growing a little tighter-
“Are you underestimating me?” Adrien asked, squinting with that same, fake smile. “Because it doesn’t matter what magic you all have here, I have the power of destruction and I’m pretty sure that wins.”
Destruction?
“Please,” Hunter scoffed, moving to rustle Adrien’s hair, ignoring the boy’s yowl in protest. “When I was fourteen I held the most important job in the entire Isles.”
“Like what?” Adrien asked, shaking his head hard to fix his hair. “Most sassy boy in the lands?”
Hunter shoved Adrien forward and was not at all surprised when Adrien simply locked his legs around the staff and whipped back on. “Jerk.”
“Liar.”
“Nope!” Hunter said, shaking his head. “Though Darius probably wishes I didn’t have that job. I was the Golden Guard, the right hand man of the Emperor of the Isles itself.”
Adrien raised an eyebrow at him, an unimpressed look falling over him.
“This place doesn’t have an Emperor,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You said that there was a Council.”
“And why do you think we needed a Council?” Hunter bumped elbows with him as Adrien’s eyes widened. “My dear old Uncle was a terrible Emperor. Even if I didn’t know it at the time.”
And Hunter stared at the Titan’s skull, the way the sunset illuminated it, the glass atop the tiara making it glow. “…He was a worse uncle. I didn’t have anyone except for him and… he wasn’t a very good guardian. Even when he was, he wasn’t… very good.”
The hardest part of being with Darius and going to the therapy was the realization that Belos might have actually loved him.
(That thought made him ill, because how could you treat someone you love that way?!)
But. Belos kept remaking the person he was made out of. Caleb. He kept remaking him, over and over again, hoping to find that person again.
But maybe Caleb didn’t deserve that.
Belos’ love always felt conditional. His position always felt conditional. It always felt like he failed, if he messed anything up, he would be replaced.
(Figuratively and literally.)
And when he turned back to Adrien, tired in a way he always was when he thought about Belos, at the concern in Adrien’s eyes, and he knew what really unsettled him about the boy.
It was like looking in a mirror, at a younger version of himself.
A version of him with a responsibility he shouldn’t have had, a version of him with a power different from everyone else.
Cat Noir seemed to settle atop Adrien like a skin he was more comfortable in.
And the Golden Guard’s mask was safe. He wasn’t Hunter in it, he was the strongest witch on the Isles.
“…How old are you?” Adrien asked, his eyes darting from his face to his own clawed hands, before he sat down on Hunter’s staff normally. “Like actually.”
Hunter huffed at that, shrugging. “19.”
“Oh…” Adrien’s tail lashed out, once, twice, before he inhaled sharply. “Can I ask you something personal? I can’t… ask anyone back home, but you opened up to me so maybe…”
And what he really needed back then.
Was someone he could relate to.
(Someone who would be his friend.)
“You can,” he said, lifting his hand up. “Do you like being petted? Some demons here do and you’re basically a super cool cat demon now right?”
That made Adrien bark out a laugh, before he shook his head. “I… yeah actually. I do like that.”
“Okay,” and he placed his fingers on the nape of Adrien’s neck, the leather slick, before he buried his fingers into the roots of Adrien’s hair. “This good?”
The immediate purr should be answer enough, but Adrien still spoke up. “Uh-may-maybe a little higher. Just a bit.”
“Alright,” and his fingers moved higher and-
Oh that was a loud purr.
“S-sorry-”
“Don’t be,” he said, shrugging. “You saw the demon I live with right? He purrs too and I can a little. But only if you hit a sweet spot on my head. It’s weird.”
“…Okay. Thank you.”
“No problem Adrien,” he said, looking back at the horizon. “Plagg said you should take advantage of the fact I know your identity right? And I’ll never make it to your world, so maybe you can talk to me a bit?”
Adrien’s eyes slowly slid open, a small frown on his face.
“Is Darius your father?” Adrien asked, looking a him from the corner of his eye.
“Adopted father. But yes.”
“Did he… was he there? He and Eber, they’re both part of the Council right?”
“Well,” and he almost huffed in amusement at the memory, when it was revealed Eber was a council member and Darius wasn’t. “After a bunch of nonsense and reorganizing, a human friend of ours recommended we do a vote. Eber was voted in, Darius was hired after.”
“…Oh. So does that mean Eber was part of the old government and Darius wasn’t? That’s- how the vote works right?”
“I mean. They both were, Eberwolf was just a lot more active in his own…section? Covens are what we call it, but it’s really just a profession. He was a more active member in that community than Darius was, so more witches voted for him.”
“…So they were both there” Adrien asked, curling up a little more, leaning closer to him. “They were both there when-when your Uncle wasn’t being good to you?”
…Oh.
Hunter inhaled slowly through his nose and out through his mouth. “I… they were in the castle. With me. But… they didn’t know what was going on. My Uncle was good at making sure no one was there for my… punishments, they assumed my scars were from missions.”
Adrien sat straight up, looking him over- looking at the scars his uncle put there- before wilting. “Hunter…”
“They didn’t know,” he insisted, his fingers finding their place in Adrien’s hair again, and Adrien curled back up next to him. “A lot of witches would’ve done something if they knew but. They didn’t. And the only ones who did…”
He still didn’t know how to feel about Kikimora.
“Didn’t care.” He said, with a shrug. “But they didn’t know. Uncle liked keeping me lonely.”
“…So they had no way of knowing,” Adrien muttered, keeping his eyes trained on his hands. “Right?”
“Yeah,” maybe there was a chance for them to notice, once or twice, but they weren’t looking.
(“And maybe that was part of the problem,” Darius admitted, swallowing nervously. “Maybe I should have been looking.”)
But that was neither here nor there so. They never noticed.
“My… father passed away a couple of months ago,” Adrien whispered, and Hunter let him lean against him fully, eliciting to stay quiet and wait out his words. “I don’t… think he was a very good Father.”
…Oh.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Hunter said. “Sorry that he’s gone and sorry. That he wasn’t the kind of father you deserved.”
“…I thought he was getting better, near the end,” Adrien said, his voice straining. “I-I thought that he- maybe he cared, maybe he was… moving on from Mother, that he wanted to be a family again.”
“…Mother?” Hunter asked, even as Adrien flinched into him, whining.
(The unnatural tail-belt wrapped around his leg, startling him for a moment. But Hunter simply whispered ‘keep it there’ when he felt it loosening again.
He didn’t mind the touch.)
“Mother she… went missing last year,” Adrien whispered, his ears flattening against his head with a broken mrr. “She-I don’t… no one knows where she went but. Maybe she left. Mother she-she always did what she wanted. It’s-it’s funny, he got angry once when I told him I was happy he was moving but…”
Hunter stayed quiet, and let his fingers dig deeper through Adrien’s hair, avoiding his ears.
(Even the ears looked like props more than anything, but they still moved and twitched with as much sensitivity as anything with nerves would.
He still hated the reminder that he still wasn’t happy as a Grimwalker. Accepted, it yes. But happy?
He wishes he was as happy about it as Adrien was as Cat Noir. Even if it was just another mask.)
Adrien’s next words were said with such a strong conviction, anger lacing each breath. “I know she’s dead. I just… don’t understand why he wanted me to believe otherwise. Why… why Mother couldn’t have a funeral.”
“Oh Adrien…” he whispered as the boy shivered against him. “I’m sorry.”
“No one ever tells me anything,” Adrien whined, the sound more sad than anything else. “No one- no one ever tells me anything, I don’t know what they’re protecting me from anymore! I know she’s not missing, she had an incurable, chronic disease, why did he want me to hope? Why did he decide to be there in that last month! If- if he wanted us to be a family, why would- why would he ignore everything I wanted? He never listened to me before, but Nathalie was the one telling me he was missing dinner again. But instead I got-”
Adrien gasped, a shuddering breath as another tremor racked over him, before he sighed.
“I’m sorry for being emotional.”
“Don’t be,” Hunter immediately refuted, shushing the boy quietly. “Someone saying you’re being emotional or hysterical is just another way of telling someone their thoughts don’t matter, never ever let anyone make you think that.”
Adrien chuckled, looking up at him slowly. “Father always did.”
“And he was wrong.”
Adrien chuckled again, a sad smile on his face, before he sighed and straightened up. “I… have a lot of thoughts on him, but I don’t like thinking badly about the dead. About… a hero. But can I ask you something?”
Hunter had many thoughts about Adrien’s father being ‘a hero’- a narrative, a lie, Belos never saved anyone he killed and killed and killed and placed the knife in someone else’s hand to take the fall- but he chose to focus on what mattered.
“Shoot.”
“I… his assistant. Nathalie,” Adrien began, his ears flicking nervously. “She’s been my guardian lately and she’s great! She gives me space, only makes me a schedule when I ask for it and she’s been open to me having a girlfriend. But…”
“But…?”
“She was there,” Adrien said, like it was shameful, quiet secret. “She almost never talked back to Father when he punished me, even when I begged her to let me out. Even the Gorilla was more lenient than she was, so I don’t understand… why she became so angry with him near the end. I thought they… they did have something, anyone with eyes could see it but. She became more protective of me the angrier she got at him. I know it was her job as an assistant to do what he asked but- but clearly he couldn't fire her because why would he keep her after all that! And so maybe it never mattered about her following what he said because there were no consequences on her when she didn’t listen to him so…”
Adrien trailed off before huffing, glaring down at his lap. “I’ve loved Nathalie my whole life. That’s not the issue the issue-”
“Was she could’ve been there before,” he finished, watching Adrien’s anger evaporate. “Maybe even should’ve been, if she was that secure in her job position.”
“…I don’t understand,” Adrien said, finally looking at him, and his tail wrapped tighter around Hunter’s leg in some mock hug. “And no one tells me anything.”
Hunter… didn’t know what to say there.
“Are you asking me if you should forgive her?” he gently asked, watching the way Adrien’s ears flattened in apprehension again. “Or whether or not there’s anything to forgive?”
Because there was something to forgive there, something deep. Adrien was hurt by his Father and Nathalie-begged her to let him out- even if he wasn’t hurt physically like Hunter was.
(But none of his scars could even amount to the pain of his Uncle ignoring him, grounding him to his rooms for days at a time- days with no one but his plushies because bad kids didn’t deserve to be around others- and.
And sometimes the deepest scars were the emotional ones. They were the hardest to ignore after all.)
“Yes. To both.”
“Of course there’s something for you to forgive,” he explained, giving Adrien a side hug. Adrien seemed to like touch and by the resounding purr, so deep he could feel it, he was right. “And whether or not you forgive her is your choice.”
“But… I love her. Shouldn’t that be enough?”
Belos loved him in his own strange, backwards way.
“The people you love the most can hurt you the most,” he said, repeating what his therapist told him. “Maybe she never meant to, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt. Even if she hurt you trying to keep you safe.”
“…Ladybug does that sometimes.”
“Hmmm?”
“Ladybug, she. Always takes on more than she needs, even when I could help her. Why doesn’t she trust me enough to let me help?”
…Oh.
No one tells this kid anything.
(Like him and Luz didn’t, even when everyone around them desperately wanted to help.)
“…I don’t know Ladybug’s position,” he chose to say, picking his words slowly. “But I have hidden stuff from people I trust with my life. It’s not about the lack of trust. It’s that… you’re afraid of losing that trust, that-that friendship.”
And Adrien whipped at him with a growl, fangs on full display.
“She knows I’ll always be on her side,” he snapped, his hair standing up like it was fur. “She knows that.”
Hunter simply shrugged before knocking on his own head. “I mean. Thoughts are mean sometimes dude, I don’t know what to tell you.”
Adrien huffed, eyes darting around, frowning.
“Maybe she wanted to protect your peace of mind,” Hunter continued, waving his hand around. “Maybe protecting you? I genuinely can’t tell you. I’m not her.”
“I know.”
“…I’m sorry if I wasn’t much help.”
“No. You were,” Adrien grabbed him and hugged him around his front, the other boys’ claws carefully wrapped around him. “I… I never told anyone this before. Thank you.”
Hunter glanced at him before wrapping his arms around Adrien, pulling him closer. “You should. Do you not trust your friends?”
“…Oh. I see your point now.”
That made Hunter snort. “Double standards much?”
“…I’m not used to having friends,” Adrien whispered and Hunter hated how much he just got that.
“I didn’t either,” it was almost easy to admit, even if Adrien still made him uncomfortable, just a little. “You don’t understand how much I wanted friends.”
“…Do you think I can have everything figured out someday?” Adrien asked. “Like you?”
And that one made Hunter laugh, because ohhh boy. “I absolutely do not have everything figured out. I am not even close to having everything figured out, I am so sorry if I gave you that impression.”
“So-so I won’t have everything figured out?”
“Your current problems? Absolutely. Someday,” Hunter said, standing up. It only took Adrien a second to stand up too, his tail finding it’s place on his leg again, the weird warm belt quickly becoming a welcome sensation. “But you’ll have more. And you’ll figure those out. You don’t stop figuring anything out at a certain age. It just… means you’ll always keep growing.”
Whatever Adrien was about to say was cut off as he looked down, before he smiled at him. “Our time’s up.”
And he wrapped his arms around Hunter again, squeezing him tight. “I’m glad I ended up here.”
And despite everything-
“I am too,” he said, holding the younger boy tight. “I hope you get the chance to keep growing.”
Adrien finally laughed, a startled thing, and he kept hugging him until a swarm of ladybugs surrounded Hunter and then he was gone.
…Huh.
“Magic ladybugs,” Hunter muttered, slowly sitting down on his staff. “…I forgot to ask him what his power was.”
…He’s grown a lot in the past three years, hasn’t he?
(He hopes Adrien continues to grow. To figure himself out.
And he hopes he does too. Learn to love himself as a Grimwalker someday and not just accept it.)
He almost absentmindedly accepted the call from his scroll, and Darius’ voice echoed out of it.
“Hunter?”
“Hey Darius,” he said, swinging his leg a bit. “I might stay out a bit later and just… enjoy the view. Adrien’s gone.”
“Yes I was going to ask about the swarm of red human bugs that came in through another portal, left, then came back.”
“Yeah those came for Adrien.”
There was some chittering before Darius came back on the line “Eberwolf wants to know if all human bugs can do that.”
“Nope. Magic ladybugs.”
“Since when do humans have magic bugs? Are they beasts?”
“…Hey Darius?”
“Yes?”
He knows he grew. He knows he’s better than he was at sixteen.
“Do you ever finishing growing as a person?”
“…I don’t think so,” Darius answered with a small hum. “There’s always things we can do to improve ourselves.”
“But will there ever be a point where you think that maybe right now, this moment, is enough?”
“Of course. But the world will keep going anyway, and you’ll need to keep making decisions.”
And Hunter smiled, looking at the moon that was slowly becoming visible. “Thank you. Also, no, there are no magic bugs in the human realm. Different multiverse.”
There was a louder chitter before Darius groaned. “Sorry, Eber is being dumb. He wants the human realm near us to have magic bugs.”
“He would,” Hunter said, smiling. “Talk to you both later?”
“Don’t stay out too late. Love you.”
“I love you too. See ya,” he said, smiling at his scroll.
And Hunter stared at the stars, admiring his home for a little while longer.