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“You’re not LISTENING TO ME!” the tiny Titan shouted, flexing his balled fists into the ground. From the kitchen, Eda frowned and cocked her hip. King glared up at her, buried in his legion of toys, all strewn about in a new battle formation - either a genius strategy that she’d never understand the complexity of, or plain old utter chaos.
“King,” Eda enunciated, and she flicked remnants of the halfway-finished dinner stew off her wooden spoon, setting it aside. “What is going on with you? You’ve been… touchy this week. Is something bothering you? We can talk about it, you know, if you want?”
King didn’t respond, but dropped his little head towards the floor. Eda turned down the heat, wiped her hands on her skirt, and joined her son in the living room. The couch let out a small “oomfph” as she fell into it, and Eda curled her feet under her and patted the cushion next to her. She’d wanted to give King some space, and unfortunately he needed it - the demon remained rooted to his spot on the floor, and his little claws clenched and unclenched repeatedly as he stared blankly at them. Eda’s heart squeezed painfully. She waited. After a minute, he raised his glowing yellow eyes to meet hers, then flinched.
“Eugh,” he sighed, turning his attention back to his hands. “I just… it’s been a few days since we found out that… I was… am a Titan… and I just feel so… confused about everything?” A heavy sigh left his chest, and his voice came out even smaller. “I just feel so bad and… scared.” King looked back up at his mom. Eda had leaned forwards over her knees, and she was listening to him closely, like it was the most important and the most reasonable thing to do - she looked back at him with softness, and King felt his throat close up.
Eda broke out in a thin smile and patted her thigh, and King scrambled over and up the side of the couch. He charged into her side, wrapped his arms around her torso. “Everything is going to be okay, King,” he heard her murmur. Eda’s nails began tracing gentle patterns on the back of his skull. King snuggled his face even more into her tummy as his breath embarrassingly caught on a sob.
“It’s alright to feel scared, and bad, and confused. It can be very lonely to be… the only one going through life like this.” King’s throat became tighter, and he swallowed another sob. There was a firm pressure as Eda pressed a kiss onto the top of his skull. “I don’t have experience in what you’re going through, but I promise I’ll be right here every step of the way. Nothing’s going to change that.” He squeezed her tighter. “Heck,” Eda snorted, “it’s my first time raising a Titan too, you know. We’ll figure this all out together.” She patted him on the back. “Us Clawthornes have always been strong, clever, not to mention totally awesome. We’re going to be okay.”
King nodded into her tummy. “Yeah, we are,” he said thickly. Eda’s claws returned to scratching rhythmically and softly across his back. “Kiddo, I hate to say it, but there isn’t all that much we can do about this right now. Would you like a snack before Luz gets back from school? Maybe we can have some paincakes?” King tightened his grip and nodded into her side again. He could feel warm tears leaking out of his eyes - embarrassing.
“Maybe,” he squeaked, despite himself. “Can we just stay like this? For a little bit longer?”
A soft coo rumbled out of Eda. “Sure thing, kiddo.”
The Owl Lady leaned back into the couch as her son clung onto her. King’s wet tears were seeping through her dress as he hiccuped; she kept rubbing his shoulders until his stuttering breaths subsided, and the rise and fall of his back evened out. There was nothing much to do, she’d said, but Eda frowned and pulled out her scroll all the same. Lily, obviously, was the go-to for historical information, and her sister had already promised to bring her a few books. Free tomorrow re: King? Eda sent - no harm in pushing up their plans. After considering for a moment, she shot another hext to an old friend - the Bonesborough Public Library had been useless; it’d taken no time at all to parse through any material even remotely related to King, or to the origin of Titans, or to raising a tiny god. But maybe Bump would let her access Hexide’s private archives. It was worth a shot - he was a softie, after all. She sighed and dropped her scroll, and absentmindedly leaned to peck another kiss onto King’s head.
“Thanks, Mom,” he whispered. Her heart clenched again. “I love you.”
“I love you too, kiddo. You ready for those paincakes?” King nodded into her, and she scooped him up with ease and headed back into the kitchen.