Chapter Text
Darius Deamonne was in his living room at the late hours of the night, sitting in the pitch black, tired to the bone, and unable to sleep.
It has been a long day, and a couple of long years before that if he wanted to be honest. And it took a lot out of him. But what mattered was that he was fine; he managed to get out on the other side fine and alive. The whole Boiling Isles, as a matter of fact, was safe and sound, and in the end, nobody could ask for anything more.
Well, it was a little worse for wear.
Darius looked around the living room. It looked as if a gorenado came through here. The whole place was a mess, but once in his life, he couldn't really bring himself to care. He had spent three months as a puppet, so he could cut himself some slack for 'letting the place get like this.' It still bothered him, just a little bit. Not like it would have before the whole Day of Unity went down - but what can you do?
They couldn't fix the place up on short notice, anyway. Not on their first day back home. There will be enough time to rebuild everything - the house, the island, all the mess they have been left with courtesy of their late Emperor. But tonight, they cleaned out the bedroom and the guest bedroom, which would suffice.
Darius looked up at the ceiling.
What was he supposed to do now?
For the last couple of years, Darius lived with only one mission at the forefront of his mind. Now that the Day of Unity had been stopped, he felt... purposeless.
Not completely, of course. He knew that the Boiling Isles needed to be rebuilt, and if he wasn't going to step up to the task, then hardly anybody was going to. And he wasn't going to stand by and watch some of his former colleagues make a mess of the whole thing. He knows that he only needed to say the word, and Eber would join him on an instant. Maybe Whispers, too. But Titan, he didn't have the energy to think about that right now.
His gaze drifted from the ceiling into the vague direction of the stairs behind him.
He should be sleeping.
Or maybe figure out what they are going to have for breakfast. Whatever was in the fridge was probably a nasty, moldy mush by this point. He wondered if he could justify throwing the whole thing out, because he was not going to clean that. Probably not.
Then, as he was musing on how he could bribe Eber to take care of the biohazard that was the fridge, he heard light, almost inaudible footsteps making their way down the stairs. He immediately knew who it was. There were only two people in his house, and one of them would have been running around on all fours.
"You can't sleep?"
Darius had no idea how Hunter could see him in the dark. He could barely make out the kid standing in the hallway. Maybe he just had better eyesight than Darius did. Maybe he heard him come down, and since he couldn't sleep either, and decided to come talk. Maybe he was getting old. Ugh, one more thing he didn't want to think about.
He shrugged, then remembering where he was, he added, "Yeah, I guess."
"...Me neither."
"Do you want to sit down?" Darius patted the couch beside him encouragingly. He did his best to dust it down so that there was at least a clean surface for them to sit in this mess.
Hunter didn't say anything for a long time, then he slowly sat beside him.
"Aren't you tired?" Darius asked.
He felt rather than saw the boy shrug. "Yeah, I just can't seem to fall asleep," he said. "I'm just..."
Darius waited for him to continue. "You are not used to it?" He guessed when he didn't.
"I guess."
"It's a shame," he decided to say. "You know, the guest room used to be very comfortable. But we will get it up to standard in no time."
Unfortunately, whatever force decided to rampage through downstairs didn't spare the upstairs rooms either. It's going to take months. Of course, the places where they sleep will have to come first. Or maybe the kitchen? He could figure it out later. Then the bathroom, of course. What he would give for a nice hot bath right about now.
"It's fine," Hunter said quietly.
"It's most certainly not fine," Darius gave a humourless laugh. "I can't have you sleeping in a derelict room. If nothing else, then my pride won't allow it."
He meant it as a joke, but the silence that followed made him mentally kick himself. Obviously, Hunter wasn't in the mood. Heck, Darius wouldn't be either if he had been through what the kid had been.
"Can I ask you something?" Hunter suddenly said, his voice a bit louder than before. As if he just found the courage to speak.
"Sure."
"What's going to happen?"
Darius sighed. "In general or...?"
He once again felt Hunter shrug, the motion moving the couch cushion behind them. He allowed himself to lean back and even slide down a bit.
"To be honest with you," Darius started. "I'm not sure."
"... Really?"
Darius ran a hand down his face. "The list is a mile long, and it will take years to put everything into order. And there are so many things that cannot wait that I couldn't even count them on two hands. Meanwhile, our home is in shambles. And we can't neglect that either." He allowed himself an exasperated sigh. "But you don't have to worry about any of that. We will figure it out one way or another."
Only now did he notice that Hunter seemed to go stiff as a board beside him. Did he say something wrong? But what?
"Little Prince?"
"Our home?" he asked. Darius almost didn't hear him, and when he did, he wasn't sure what he was referring to.
"...Well, yes, I... I assumed it was clear when I asked if you wanted to stay with me."
"Oh, yeah, right."
"If you would rather stay with somebody else-"
"No, no, that's not what I meant, I- It's stupid, forget I said anything."
"It's not stupid, Little Pri-"
"I'm sorry!"
"You don't have to apologize either."
"I know!"
Darius was about to say something, but the sound of what he assumed was Hunter burying his face into his hands stopped him.
The boy let out a drawn-out sigh. "I don't know why I am like this."
Darius, wisely, kept whatever comment he could have made to himself.
"I just feel so... aimless," Hunter said. "I don't know what I am supposed to do. What's the next step?"
Oh, Darius didn't want to admit how much he understood that.
"Maybe," Darius started carefully. "The next step should be what made the most sense."
He could almost see Hunter nod.
"We should clean up the house," he said.
Darius chuckled. "We should go to sleep."
Hunter laughed at that as well. It was a small and tired little thing, but Darius considered it a victory nonetheless.