Chapter Text
Alador woke up on the couch to his ex wife looking at him with disdain and disgust, as usual. He sighed as he sat up, rubbing his forehead. What a night. Another screaming fight with Odalia.
Actually, no. Another few hours of Odalia screaming at him while he tried to tell her their kids were still sleeping and she should keep it down. Which of course made her even angrier and louder.
You see, usually Alador would just agree with her just to make the screaming stop, but ever since the divorce, he hasn’t been doing that. Barely even giving Odalia the attention she wanted at all.
Which did not make Odalia very happy.
She was cooking bacon, simply because Alador hated the smell of bacon, most of the children are vegetarian anyway, but when has she ever cared about that. When has she ever cared for their children for any reason besides self gain?
Never.
Alador got up and stretched out his back. Amity was sitting at the table, as well as Edric and Emira. They all gave him the same look they always do ever since he started sleeping on the couch. A look of confusion, worry, and sadness. Alador tried to not let it get to him. They were only children, they shouldn’t have to deal with this. He knew it wasn’t his fault, but he’s been so used to blaming himself for everything wrong that goes on in this house, it’s hard not to do it instinctively.
He sat at the table, well, he tried, but was immediately stopped with Odalia’s voice.
“Are you eating breakfast with us?” She said sharply before his ass could touch the seat.
“...No, but-”
“Only members of the family who are participating in breakfast can sit here.”
Alador gripped the table cloth. “I made this table, Odalia.”
“And I made these children.” Her eyes narrowed in on him. “You don’t want to cause a dispute in front of them, do you?”
Alador grit his teeth and glanced at the kids, their heads down, focussed on their food. He looked at Amity. And all the anger he had at Odalia left him as he saw a single tear drop from her face down to her eggs.
He stood up “Amity-”
“I’m gonna be late for school,” She blurts out as she grabs her bag and runs out the door.
“Amity!” Emira shouts, getting up. She whips her head around and points at both her parents “You and you need to figure your shit out! For her.” She scolds before running off to fetch her sister.
Edric looks between the both of them “I…I just don’t wanna be here.” He hurriedly gathers his things and joins his siblings out the door.
Alador reached for them, for whatever reason. As if trying to hold onto them, pull them closer and not let them go.
He gripped his shirt when he heard Odalia speak.
“Uagh, how dramatic teenagers can be,”
“Shut up.”
Odalia clutched her necklace “Excuse me?”
“I said shut. Up. Being a terrible wife is one thing, but now we are affecting our children. And unlike you I want them to lead happy lives,”
“Don’t you dare comment on my parenting skills! You’re barely here most of the time!”
“You’re right, you’re right being at my work rather than home and letting you treat and shape our children the way you do has been the worst mistake I've ever made, worse than marrying you in the first place! You don’t want our kids to be happy-You don’t even love them! You want them to be your plain clay figures to mold and sculpt into what you couldn’t be! What you’re convinced you could have been! You didn’t want children, you wanted a dollhouse! You don’t love them, you love who you convince yourself they are! I may not be here a lot but at least I love my kids, who they are and what they do. And I always will. And you-”
Alador was cut off by a harsh thwack to the face. It was sharp, quick, and it stung. He hadn’t felt Odalia’s back hand for a while. She never did it where there were witnesses, not even the kids. So he tried not to be alone with her. Him staying late at work had become so usual he had forgotten why he started doing it in the first place. But that slap reminded him.
Their bedroom had become a place to fear, when they were alone with each other, it was nothing but abuse. Only harsh enough to hurt, but not enough to leave a scar. Leave proof.
Odalia was smart that way, he hated to admit.
So he started staying late, avoiding his wife but also neglecting their kids. In the process.
He felt angry. He felt guilty. He…he didn’t know what he felt. He just knew he had to get out.
“I didn’t want to have to do that,” Odalia said, putting her glove back on as Alador was still frozen in shock. “But sometimes that mouth of yours leaves me no choice. I-What are you doing?”
Alador didn’t reply, he just silently started collecting his very solemn collection of material items. Odalia was yelling, berating him, crying but he knew better than to give into her crocodile tears. He cursed himself for still feeling a pain in his chest when she asked “Don’t you love us anymore?”
As he started walking out the door, he heard Odalia call out to him, as just a final grasap to get the last word.
“W-Well just get out! Get out of my house since you hate it here so much!”
He stopped, and turned around to look at her. “Thank you.”
Those were his last words to Odalia. Thank you. For what? For his wonderful children he wouldn’t have without her. For the good times. The times she made his heart flutter. The times he had clung onto for so long telling himself that they were still okay, that they could still make it work.
But those times were gone. Gone years ago. He could still remember the last one, they were watching a movie, Amity was in his lap, still a toddler, babbling about, before she turned her little head and said “Dada?”
The two of them jumped up in excitement and embraced in a kiss, one that wasn’t so good as they both couldn’t stop smiling. Eric and Emira were even excited. Amity didn’t know what she did but she was giggling. It was perfect. The family was perfect. And that was the last time it would ever be that way.
Alador was long far away from the house now, as he set his things down, sat himself down, and started crying, into his hands. He didn’t stop crying until the sun went down.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·
The sun has gone down and the moon has come up. Alador is still slumped against a tree, the wind has dried up his tears, but his face is still cold. He feels numb, like all his emotion has drained from him. He sighs as he gets up and looks around, realizing where he is.
He loved the forest, he used to explore it when he was younger. Him and...a friend…would spend hours in nature together. Then he met Odalia, and unfortunately, fell in love with her/
Odalia didn’t like the outdoors very much, which was fine, she just wouldn’t come. But then they moved in together. And Odalia got tired of Alador tracking dirt and grass into the house, and always smelling like nature. And slowly, Alador conformed, for her. Because of course he would. He loved her.
Idiot.
But now he didn’t have to worry. He could frolic freely.
He dug around in his bag and pulled out his old notebook he used to keep to remember all the things he found in his nature walks.
He read through a few and realized how they slowly stopped talking about the nature, and more about who he was experiencing it with. Alador’s chest tightened at the memories, as he quickly flipped the page and started looking around.
He felt…happy. Happier than he’s been in a while. He used a reading light to see his book and just wrote down the different things he saw and it felt good.
He found various flowers, bugs, leaves, the whole shabang.
He eventually wandered into a back part of the forest, a large patch of land that was filled with these blue, glowing mushrooms. They were all around the ground and trees, trees whose branches made a makeshift roof.
Alador’s mouth hung open ever so slightly as he looked around the mushroom cove. It was beautiful, it harbored enough light for him to turn off his reading light.
It felt…alive, as he stepped into it, like it was inspecting him. The mushrooms eventually decided he was good and moved on their own to make a patch of just grass for Alador to lay down in.
Alador blinked. “O-Oh, no, no you’re too kind but I-”
Before he could finish, a tree’s branch pushed him into the soft grass. He had never felt grass this soft before.
The trees shook their leaves off to make him a blanket, and Alador could feel himself struggling to keep awake.
The cove felt almost. Parental. Which he knows sounds incredibly silly. But he didn’t worry about his thoughts as his mind drifted off to sleep.
And in the middle of the forest, in an unknown place, in the cold winter night.
Alador had never gotten such wonderful sleep before in his life.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ ·
The morning came sooner than Alador would like. The trees parted to shine the light in his face. He groaned and turned around, but the mushrooms only pushed him to standing. He groaned once more. “Alright alright, I’m up.”
He rubbed his eyes as his stomach growled. The mushrooms pushed over a dead squirrel to his feet.
“...Oh, um. Ah,” He picked it up using a stick. “Thank…you.”
The mushrooms glowed bright, their colors having a greener tint, more of a teal than a blue. He smiled slightly.
Whatever thoughts were in his head were brushed away when he heard the noise of the bustling boiling isles. Specifically he heard the sound of a tomato boy yelling about his new low prices.
“I’m near town square…they’ll have food, maybe even some more clothes.”
He grabbed his bag and journal and started walking, when suddenly his feet were unable to move, held back by mushrooms that were glowing a deep blue.
He looked down at them and smiled. “Don’t worry, I'm not leaving for good. I’ll be back.”
The mushrooms slowly let him go. “Thank you. For the hospitality.”
And with that, he was off.
· · ─ ·✶· ─ ·
Darius typically didn’t concern himself with the town square market, opting for other places to fend for food. But today was different, as Hunter was staying with him. And Hunter’s favorite fruit in the entire world was nowhere but here. So, Darius conceded.
He looked very out of place in his full purple tailored suit and sunglasses.
“You don’t have to-”
“Hush, little one.” Darius interrupted Hunter, who felt very bad for making Darius come here. “There are 700,000 hours in our lives, I can spare a few picking out fruit for you. And you should spend less of them feeling anxious about things that don’t matter.”
Hunter rolled his eyes, but he smiled and hugged Darius’s side. Darius froze for a moment, before awkwardly patting his back.
“I know exactly where they are,” Hunter said, pulling away. “I’ll go grab them and meet you back here, okay?”
Darius nodded and waved him off. He glanced around idly, watching the crowd. They were all dreadfully dressed, unlike himself. He wonders why people don’t put more effort into their state of dress. You only live once, after all. His gaze snags on a flash of his favorite shade of purple, a delicate aubergine that was all too familiar to him. He raised his eyes to the person’s face and sighed with disgruntled recognition. Alador, his old……aquaintance. Darius watches the man as he shoulders through the crowd, undoubtedly stepping on toes without a care in the world. He was oblivious like that, he always has been. He glanced over at Hunter, engaged in an enthusiastic conversation about the qualities of different fruits, and then back to Alador, whose coattails he saw turning off onto a sidestreet. He sighs and peels off to follow his old friend.
When he caught up, Alador seemed to be in an argument with a vendor. Darius gears up to take over, smooth talk Alador out of it or flash the coven head badge….that he no longer had. He paused on that realization for a moment, ruminating before returning to the task at hand. Alador had already managed to diffuse the situation however, stalking off as the shopkeeper made a shooing motion at him. Darius caught up to him swiftly, being sure to catch the corner of his eye so as not to startle him. Luckily, being a former coven head still affords him the luxury of people getting out of his way.
Alador slows to walk at his side. “Darius.” he says by way of greeting.
“Alador. What trouble are you getting into now?”
“I don’t believe haggling is ‘trouble’. It’s a normal way of going about business. Besides,” he continues at a lower volume. “I didn’t have the money. It wasn’t for me, anyhow. He was refusing to sell to a kid who needed it, so I bought it for ‘em.”
Darius was caught off guard by the information. “Since when does Mr. Corporate not have enough money?”
“Since when does Mr. Coven have time to speak with a bum like me?”
Darius went quiet, and Alador calmed a bit. “To answer your question, since I got divorced.”
“Ah..” he was unsure what to say. It was only at that moment he realized he was steering Alador towards his own home. “Are you, uh, staying anywhere?”
Alador shook his head lightly. He very much had the disposition of a sad old dog.
“You could stay with me, if needed. I’ve…got the space.”
Alador’s expression lit up in what might’ve been surprise, or even hope. “I’ve never known you to be charitable.”
“It’s a habit I’ve taken up recently.” They were starting to walk up the path of his home, an elaborate cottage suited perfectly to his needs. His mind wandered to his recent acts of ‘charity’, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Alador turned to look at him quizzically.
“The cottage is right up the path, there’s an abomination behind the doorbell that will give you the spare key. I….forgot something.” he turns, nearly sprinting back to the market square to collect Hunter.