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If there was one thing that Darius hated doing, it was chores. Darius hated chores. Whether it be cleaning his kitchen or vacuuming or cooking food or trimming the garden, Darius hated it.
Being a Coven Head, though, it was not hard for him to get people to do it for him. He would pay regular witches to come in and take care of his home, even for the most minor inconveniences, for as much as he hated chores, he hated dirt even more.
But ever since Darius agreed to adopt Hunter, after the emperor had been killed and the monarchy had come to an end, Darius no longer had to worry about paying for his chores. Hunter was just as happy to do it.
It wasn't like Darius ever asked him to help. He was more concerned about him being and feeling safe, and he didn't want to force him to work, just like he was in the Emperor's Coven. But Hunter always offered and forced Darius to let him.
The Coven Head always found it slightly suspicious, how much of a liking that he had taken to of work. There was never a task that Darius mentioned that Hunter didn't just jump to his feet to do.
Darius first noticed it, the evening after Hunter moved in. He mentioned how he needed to call a handyman, as a shingle had fallen off of his roof. The next morning, the first thing Darius heard was a crash, and he ran outside.
To his surprise, Hunter was found up on the roof, shingles in his hand, cringing as he tried to carefully push himself down to collect the dropped one. He then saw Darius, standing below him, and staring right after him.
After climbing down- and apologizing- Hunter explained that he was just trying to help. Darius appreciated it, of course, but he knew that it wasn't safe for Hunter, of all witches, to be up on the roof unsupervised.
Soon, though, Darius realized that Hunter wasn't going to stop. No matter how bad the idea, Hunter was determined to make himself useful. He was constantly doing the dishes, washing windows, and ironing Darius' clothes.
He had tried to have an "intervention" with him before, sometimes even dragging Luz and Camila into it, but none of that seemed to work. Darius figured that, if it made Hunter happy, he shouldn't stop him, as long as it wasn't dangerous.
But Darius wasn't entirely sure if it made him happy. He always acted like it, but Darius did know just how good Hunter was at hiding whatever he was feeling. He wanted him to be genuinely happy, not just happy because he had to pretend to be.
Hunter's actual interest in helping Darius soon started to overtake his hobbies and interests in studies, however. Darius was called into meetings with the teachers as Hunter wasn't showing up to class on time. Instead, he was helping around the home.
There was one thing that Darius truly prioritized for Hunter, and that was education. He knew that Hunter knew this, but it seemed like Hunter couldn't get his head around the fact that anything could be more important than work.
But his bad habits were becoming a bit too hard to ignore. Hunter had stopped eating properly, choosing to cook food for Darius and then get back to work. He was getting new cuts and bruises from all of his tough tasks. Darius didn't like that.
He didn't want to see his son in pain, but any attempts to convince him against helping didn't work. He even tried to convince him to split the duties, but Hunter was relentless in his attempts to keep helping, so Darius wouldn't have to do anything.
The first time that Darius truly knew that he had to do something about Hunter's behavior was when he came home from work late one day, trying to find Hunter, but to no avail. He was very worried about him. He needed to know where he was.
His thoughts spun, because he truly didn't trust him to be unattended to for too long. But he soon did find him, in his room, alone, bleeding from his arm, and crying.
Darius freaked out, quickly rushing to bandage his son up. He asked Hunter what happened, but he didn't want to tell him. Darius began to worry about all of the options that it could have been, and how he was going to fix it.
Finally, he spilled it. "Darius, I cut myself trying to get outside and clean your window, and I fell," the boy admitted through tears, "I was trying to make it easier for you, I was trying to help you, Darius! But look, now I've made it worse!"
Quickly Darius wrapped Hunter up into his arms. "Hey, it's okay, it's not your fault. You were just trying to help, but you really need to..." he stopped, attempting to tone himself down, "you really need to rest a bit, Kid."
"I live in your house, I need to help!" Hunter quickly protested, stuttering a bit. "I just want to help you, but now look what I've done! I tried to dress the wound myself, so at least I didn't get any blood anywhere."
"That's the problem, Hunter, you don't have to always be helping. I appreciate it, I really do. But you're just a kid!" Darius replied, sorrowfully. "You're just a kid and you don't need to constantly be working. Honestly, Kid, I promise!"
Darius now knew that he had no choice but to stop Hunter, before it was too late. He was lucky that all that had happened was a cut. So much worse could easily happen, with the amount of work that he was putting in.
He tried to ensure that he spent most of his days resting, but the grimwalker soon became antsy. Darius wondered, was it somehow part of Hunter's nature? Was it an inevitable trait of a grimwalker, to always need to be working, to always need to help?
The Coven Head did know that grimwalkers weren't indestructible, however. He knew that from his old mentor. All grimwalkers had an end, whether it was at the hands of Belos, or otherwise. Darius needed Hunter's end to not be soon.
But if the way that things were going continued as so, Darius knew that the kid was going to seriously hurt himself- or worse- one way or another. Whether it be from an injury, or simply just the stress of overworking himself so much.
So, when Darius came home from work on one hot summer day, not being able to find Hunter anywhere, his stomach automatically dropped. He searched around the entire house, was calling him, and everything. But he could not find Hunter.
Racing, Darius teleported down to the backyard, hoping that maybe Hunter sat outside in the pool to cool off for a bit. He knew how much Hunter obsessed over his Scroll, and that he would have answered even if he was in the pool, thought.
Then Darius found Hunter, laying face down in the garden, by the Vicious Verbena and the Luring Lavender. He was without water, a mini shovel hanging from loosely one hand, and a dried out watering can from the other.
"Titan!" Darius yelled, quickly running over to his son's side. He shook him, but Hunter was unconscious. He rolled him over, his face and lips covered in dirt from face planting in the flower beds.
He scooped up his son's limp body, feeling just how hot his forehead was. Hunter was ill, very ill. He must have gotten heatstroke from being out in the sun for too long, and he clearly wasn't doing any sort of job at hydrating himself.
Carefully he carried him into the home, and laid him on his couch. Usually Darius would care about how dirty he was, but now, he had no time to waste. He could clean off the couch later- he couldn't wait to help Hunter.
Pulling out ice from the freezer, Darius immediately started a call with the Healing Coven, begging them to send some witches as soon as possible. They instructed him to put the ice on his neck and under his arms.
He also placed a large, mobile fan over his face. His hair blew, and so did the dirt covering him, but again, Darius didn't care. He had much bigger issues than a soon to be mess awaiting him. He was concerned for his kid.
A few moments later, Hunter opened his eyes, still glazed over from the episode. "Darius?" he said, barely understandable through his parched mouth. "What- what happened? I was just trying to help!"
"I know you were!" Darius replied, sounding much angrier than intended. "Hunter, you are pushing yourself too hard! Why were you out in my flowers? What were you doing?"
Darius saw that Hunter was crying, although no tears were coming down his face. He was too dehydrated to make tears. "I am so sorry, Darius, I- I didn't realize I was supposed to be out in the flowers. I will never do that again," he braced himself for a blow.
"I'm not mad at you," Darius said, cracking an anxious smile. "Thank you for helping me, Kid. But you need to take better care of yourself! You need to stop working so hard!"
"But, Uncle Belos-" Hunter stammered out, shuddering at the name. His skin color was slowly returning to normal, but the sunburns remained on his normally pale face, already blistering underneath his eyes.
"I don't care about him," Darius answered. He really didn't. He hated even thinking about Belos, and all that he did to his son. "What I care about is you. You are no longer going to be working so hard, okay?"
The boy replied nervously in reply, as Darius slowly gave him some water, per the advice of the lady on the phone. He then heard the knock at his door- a Healing Coven member had teleported out front. He let her in.
She was very kind and helpful, and agreed to not take Hunter to the Healing Center, with the requirement that he stayed off of work for a while. He agreed sadly, but Darius was glad. Maybe this would finally help him to stop feeling so pressured.