Work Text:
Sometimes he still couldn’t comprehend the fact he was a Titan. The last one of his kind, the lost son of the Isles.
It sounded like the secret heir trope Luz gushed about in the books she read.
The revelation had come to him on some random day, on the day he thought he was supposed to be meeting his family. He remembered going home that day, feeling the sun on his fur on the main deck of the ship, feeling scared.
Him? Scared? Balderdash!
(That’s what the old him would’ve said anyway.)
He was scared of how everyone would perceive him now. He was afraid of the cryptic cult that seemingly wanted him dead. He was scared of his new powers. He was afraid of never meeting his dad or knowing where he really came from or never understanding his newfound powers.
He was afraid of himself.
But he learned two things that day. That he was a Titan. And that he already had a family, one that didn’t really care what he was.
The whole of them were already outcasts enough — a cursed witch, a lost human, an exiled coven head, and an infernal house demon. Why not add a Titan in the mix?
After all, weirdos had to stick together.
He told himself that that was enough, and he stuck by it.
I loaf you.
Of course the only words he had heard from his father was a bread pun.
When Luz first told him, he took a second to process it, to think. Then he started to laugh. Luz joined in, Eda snorting.
They were laying down, backs to the grass. They were all exhausted, bodies sore, minds singing. And now they were all laughing hysterically.
“I loaf you?” King echoed. “ Really?”
It meant I love you.
He felt Luz’s hands around him, pulling him closer. The three of them laid there, looking up at the sky. It was golden, like a new dawn, the start of something new. And, in a way, it was.
As he looked up at the sky, surrounded by his family, he blinked back his own tears. He knew he knew one thing.
He wished he had gotten to meet him.
I love you too, dad.
Life was quiet for a while, peaceful. He wasn’t complaining though. He supposed that was how it should be after saving the whole world.
It took a few years to rebuild all the damage the Collector had caused. In the end, he understood them. He was just a kid, trying to make friends. He had left to do some soul-searching or something, and had left with the knowledge King would be okay with him returning one day.
Luz, now with a stable portal, came and went as she pleased. She was busy with human school and her friends and girlfriend, but made time for her little brother.
Weekends were his favorite. Luz came home and often crashed on the couch, watching the crystal ball or reading a textbook and trying to understand the weird human study of “chemistry.” Whatever that was. King laid at her feet, just happy to be near her once again.
Sometimes Eda and Raine, now a permanent housemate, joined them. King had warmed up to Raine. The music they played helped him take nice, long afternoon naps and they gave good back scratches. Oh, and they made Eda happy. There was that too.
For the first few years, they fell into a routine. Council meetings, early morning breakfasts and family movie nights in the living room.
Raine was working with Alador and Darius on a machine to help remove sigils. Eda was chipping away on the idea of a school — a university of wild magic actually. King couldn’t picture her as a teacher, never in a million years, but it sounded like a cool, kick-butt school.
And so, the world moved on. It healed. Belos was dead, and the Isles was free to move on to a new era of peace and unity. Real unity, none of Belos’ mumbo jumbo.
Life was quaint. He had his family, and he was happy.
By the time Luz came back to start college, that’s when the real changes began.
King was no stranger to change. Change was all his life ever did since he had met a certain human in a marketplace.
He was also no stranger to growing up. He felt he had to, to live up to his name. He had “tall genes,” as Eda put it. He felt that he had to make her proud.
She was off as university headmaster now, with Raine working late too, and he was often left home alone, only with Hooty for company. He felt lonely.
He knew he had to grow up, to move on, as everyone else was doing. But the day Eda let out a groan as she plucked him up to say goodbye and quickly put him back down, he felt something in his heart deflate. “You’re getting big, King. Geez.”
His amber eyes flake to the floor, voice flat. “Huh. I guess I am.”
Eda opts for a kiss to his bony head instead. “ Mwah. Have a good day, kiddo.”
And then she is out the door, Raine not far behind. He sighs, and he is alone again.
As life goes on, he grows bigger. He reaches up to her waist by the time she is dressed in a black robe, graduating university with a proud-looking Eda and Camila behind her.
Luz is older too. All of them are. They are all taller, faces more narrowed and matured. They have jobs and talk of serious relationships and moving and houses and futures.
King is happy for them all. He really is.
He watches it all from the side.
Tonight, excitement is in the air. Luz had come over to visit with Amity. He sits next to her, notices her leg bouncing under the table. He sends her a questioning look she doesn't catch. She is too busy looking at her girlfriend, as always.
King is used to it by now.
Halfway into dinner, something in the air shifts. When Amity reaches across the table, the light reflects off her finger, catching on a ring.
Eda stands up so fast, chair squeaking. And then everyone is squealing and hugging, Luz diving into the story of her proposal to Amity at the Grom tree. The young couple beams.
King tries to join in on the hug, but it is stiff and awkward. He pokes Amity in the hip with his horn. “ Ow!”
He shuffled away, murmuring a sorry under his breath. He stood to the side and watched as his family celebrated without him.
It was a summer wedding, the summer after they graduated college. It was held on the cliff outside the house, the one overviewing the sea below.
The ceremony was amazing, their vows both poetic and beautiful. The reception is organized chaos, thanks to Eda. By the end, both brides are crying and tired, hair mused, makeup smeared.
It’s a night they won’t forget.
Eda swears she won’t cry.
She does.
During the ceremony, King catches her wiping her eyes. He had cried too, but nobody needed to know that.
Life went on, barreling straight forward. Hunter and Willow were next to get engaged, married in the autumn with the cascading leaves. They all gather again.
They have jobs King hears them talk excitedly about — Willow’s Flyer derby team, Hunter’s carving, Amity’s engineering and expeditions, Luz’s studies and the Human Exchange program.
They sound so grown up, moving on further without him.
He turns away.
The following year is a blur. Eda and Raine are busy with work, and the young adults settle into their new lives.
He hears of Luz and Amity’s new townhouse, and Hunter and Willow’s own home, a cottage not far from the edge of the wood of palistrom trees.
They don’t ask him to visit. That’s alright.
They set time up to see each other. Luz comes to visit weekly for dinner. Sometimes, Amity visits too, when she’s not off on another adventure to receive some artifact for Lilith.
She is here this week with Luz. King senses a new sort of demeanor from her as she enters the house that night, exchanging hugs and such from Raine and Eda.
They sit for dinner, Raine’s recipe. They are halfway through it when Eda asks when her next “work trip” is. She drops her fork and exchanges a look with Luz.
Luz picks at her meal. “Not for a while. Traveling across the Isles isn’t the safest option for a pregnant witch, y’know?”
Eda starts to nod. “Well, yeah, I guess—“ Then her eyes widened, face pinkening. “ Wait, WHAT?!”
For the next few months, there is seemingly a shift in the air. Luz visits more often, Amity in tow. She says she’s off work for the time being.
Amity seems more frigdetty, nervous. She wears baggy clothes and places a hand on her stomach with a vacant expression on her face.
King hears Luz explaining it to Raine and Eda while Amity is in the kitchen one night. She is afraid of her mom, or rather herself. She doesn’t know what to do with herself with being off and helping the Isles and working. It is a hard adjustment for them both.
As he listened from the door, something clicked in his head. He knew what she was feeling. He had been afraid of himself once too.
The next time he sees her alone, a few months after their sudden announcement at dinner, she was sitting on the couch, feet up. Luz and Eda were upstairs, going through old stuff to see if she had anything that could be of use to them for the baby.
The baby. That was still weird to think. But Luz and Amity were twenty-five now, old enough to have a family. It seemed just yesterday they were blushing fourteen-year-olds.
Argh. He sounded like Raine.
He looked back up at Amity. She was reading something that made her lip curl up in disgust. She had ditched her baggy clothes for her usual style, though in a bigger size, pants bunched up around her belly.
He scurried up to her and she sat up. “Hey, Buddy. What’s up?”
“Uh, are you feeling.. okay?” He asked.
She tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“I heard Luz talking the other night and..”
Amity let out a silent groan, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Oh, Luz.” She shook her head. “I love her, I really do.. but she’s so worried.” She sent him a smile. “I’m fine, King. Thank you for asking.”
He sensed the falter in it.
“You know,” he started. “I used to be afraid of myself too. When I first found out I was Titan, I was so confused. I must imagine you must have felt the same way when you found out..” he gestured to her. “You know.”
“King,” she said carefully. “What is this about?”
“That you have to learn to trust yourself. When I learned who my dad was, I kinda flipped. A Titan? How am I supposed to live up to that? And growing so big? I was scared to deal with that.” He paused. “But I don’t have to live up to him. I’m my own person. I’m not him.. and you’re not her.”
Then Amity was starting to cry and widened his eyes. “Oh, I didn’t..” He knew that pregnancy messed up the mother in many ways. Titan bless those with the ability to create life. He stretched out his paw to her shoulder. “It’s okay.. there, there.”
She sniffled. “Oh, King. You’re so sweet.” She looked at him, blinking back tears. “I’m okay. I am. I’m not scared anymore. You’re right. You just have to learn to accept it.”
She looked down with a new expression on her face.
“What’s wrong now?”
“Speaking of learning to accept it, it’s a lot to accept all the changes in our life and in my body,” she admitted. “Not being able to work, or help Willow with flyer derby. And lately, I’ve been feeling them move.”
He looked up at her with a new sense of wonder, like a small child. “Really?”
She nodded. She sat up, settling into the couch with one hand under her stomach. “Get up here.”
He carefully jumped up beside her. He looked up at her and she nodded. He tried to be gentle, remembering the way Luz had been so protective lately. She had sidestepped him, stopped him from running to her for a hug. He was too big now, too loud, too destructive.
Amity let out a laugh. “You won’t hurt them.”
He placed one paw tenderly on the middle of her abdomen and waited a second. Then he felt it. Something pressed up against him. A small, fluttering movement.
He instinctively pulled away. When he looked back at her, she was smiling. “I know. It’s weird.”
King smiled too. “Amazingly weird.”
That night, King went to bed with warm thoughts about his future niece or nephew.
They had a baby girl. And, of course, they named her after their favorite fictional character, the very thing that brought them together.
Azura Noceda-Blight was about the cutest thing he had ever seen. And she was so tiny.
King watched her be passed from arms to arms, family member to family member. She let out sleepy murmurs and everyone cooed over her.
Luz and Amity sat back on the couch, Luz’s arms around Amity. They both looked exhausted, but the warm look of love burned in their eyes. Their gaze never left their daughter as she was passed around.
Finally, she was held up to King. He looked up in surprise, as if saying me? I thought you were scared of me.
Luz tilted her head. “Don’t you wanna hold her, Buddy?”
He nodded eagerly. He sat down and held his arms straight out. She was carefully nestled into his arms, in between his chest and fur.
He looked down. Azura was a little thing. She had Luz’s skin color, a warm brown, and Amity’s natural brown hair. Her eyes were closed, but Luz said they were Amity’s color too, a bright amber.
When she settled in his arms, her tiny fist jerked up as she stirred. He held his breath. Her little finger only grazed the tip of his paw, holding on to it so tight for being only a few days old.
A new warmth spread in his chest. “Hey, Azura,” he said in a low, quiet voice. “I’m your uncle King. And I’m going to teach you to lead bloodthirsty armies.” He caught onto Amity and Luz’s warning looks. “When you’re older.”
Life went on as before. The family only grew, as whole as ever. Azura grew quickly, showing her mother’s creativity and Amity’s spunk. They called her a wild child. Eda beamed with pride at the mention of her crazy granddaughter.
By the time Azura was one, Willow and Hunter had an exciting announcement too. Then came along Holly, a little girl with ash blonde hair and her mother’s green eyes.
She was soft-spoken, shy. She often hid behind Azura, her loud cousin. The two cousins got along, best friends by the time they started Hexside. Azura was loud with others, but gentle with her cousin.
King watched it all. All the birthdays and celebrations. He watched them play on the floor with toys or play chase in the yard or talk with Hooty. They liked to sprawl out on the floor to hear his tales of his older life, adventures with Luz and Eda.
It was refreshing to have someone to talk to again.
But, as children did, they grew older. They got busy with school, and their incoming magic. Holly was busy with flyer derby and her powerful source of plant magic, pardon to her mom. Azura was busy figuring out the new glyph system with Luz, as being half-Human, it took a toll on her body to do much magic.
And, before they knew it, Amity and Luz had another announcement. Their second child was a baby boy. Manny looked like his sister, but had Luz’s brown eyes.
Azura didn’t seem to be too impressed with her brother.
As his sister did, Manny grew up fast too. While the older girls were off to school, Manny hung around the house while his moms worked. Eda looked after him or Raine.
Soon, he was walking and talking, and held an appreciation for King’s stories as much as his sister had. When he started school, King felt another loss.
He seemed alone. In those times, he was almost grateful for Hooty’s presence, even his loud voice and bad jokes. It kept him company.
Life was quiet, boring. Everyone was out there living their lives.
He took it all for granted.
By the time Azura was graduating, Holly not far behind her, Eda fell ill.
She had been slowing down, taking more and more days off from running the university. Luz had been filling in for her.
Her bones ached. Her body was sore. Her frame was awfully skinny. Her voice was hoarse.
The curse had reared its ugly head once again. She had fought it off once, kept it at bay, but, in the end, it would be the thing that took her.
They all gathered in the house, the summer after Azura graduated. It was a sad day.
Raine was in the room with Eda. When they came back out, there was a grim look on their face. They shook their head.
To which people started to cry. Luz started to sob into the crook of her wife’s arms, Amity trying to comfort her.
One by one, others went into the room. To say their goodbyes. It was too surreal.
When it was his turn, he paused in the doorway. He was most of its size by now. He was scared again. But then there a hand on his giant back and his big sister was with him, even though he had been bigger than her for years now.
They went in together, went out together. He still remembered Eda’s somber face as she gazed upon them. Weirdos have to stick together, right? Thank you for sticking with me. Until the very end.
Edalyn Clawthorne died on a warm, late summer day. She was buried not far from that snapdragon hill, then one she could no longer climb in her later years. There was a big gathering for her funeral.
The day she died, King felt the worst pain he ever felt in his life.
Life seemed to be slower after her death, dull, in black and white. Raine tried their best to make up for her absence, so did Hooty.
It wasn’t the same.
Everyone else moved on. Luz took on Eda’s position at the school. Amity was back to going off on trips every other week. The older girls were settling into college while Manny finished up school.
They didn’t have any visitors for a while.
Azura met a girl at college. Heidi, a wild witch with bright blue hair and a fanged-smile. Luz and Amity loved her. And she loved Azura.
They were married in the spring, before college graduation.
King wondered where all the time went.
Manny graduated soon enough. They didn’t have a family gathering like last time.
King hadn’t seen some of them for a long time. It was like it was too painful or they were too busy.
Luz talked on the phone with Raine sometimes. He didn’t bother to listen anymore.
Darius died the following winter. It was determined the cause of his death was a bile sac disease. Eber had pushed him to get treatment. He was too stubborn.
After the funeral, at which King stood off to the side at, so big that he might run someone over in the crowd, Raine came home and cried into their hands.
Lilith started to come around more. She came to talk to Raine. She hung around the house to talk to him or Hooty. She was trying her best to make up for lost time, the death of her sister.
She and Raine talked a lot. Some part of him knew something was up. She was suddenly so eager to see them all.
She was the oldest of them now, with fully gray hair and all. But he was glad to have his aunt around again.
He didn’t take anything for granted anymore.
For the few months it lasted, Lilith stayed in the guest room. She ate breakfast with them every morning and made small talk. She listened to him.
He was outside her door the day she died. She was laid to rest not far from her sister.
King felt something in his heart twist yet again at the burden of loss.
Not soon after Lilith passed, Raine went downhill. Mentally, and physically. They were still too stubborn to get proper help.
In the end, their life ended much like Darius, fighting for the last breath, eager to do more even after a whole life of giving.
The healer wasn’t able to make it in time. She stood in the doorway to the dark room and shook her head, much like Raine had done when it was Eda’s time.
He felt what was left of his heart crumple to the floor.
They were buried next to Eda. Their dying words were that they regretted not putting a ring on her finger when they had the chance. Now they could be together forever, Lilith and Darius not far, the old friends finally together again.
Luz cried at the funeral. In her lifetime, she had lost four parents. Her dad and mom, earlier that year to natural causes, and now Eda and Raine.
So much pain for someone so bright.
King ducked his head and looked away.
The Collector visited, but only sometimes. He hovered around, talking to King.
It was complicated. A few weeks for him might be a decade for them.
When he returned, someone else was gone. It confused them.
After all this time, the idea of death still was vague to him.
It was no longer vague to King.
A few months after Raine’s passing, Luz and Amity made an important decision. With the kids out of the house, both married, they were alone in their old home.
King had tried his best to keep up the owl house, but he was so big that getting around was a hussle.
They decided to move in.
And for the few years to come, the house was full of love and life again. Luz’s humming as she made dinner, the sound of the palismen chasing chasing each other, the sound of ink against paper as Amity wrote up another paper on her past journeys.
As they settled into retirement, they had family over again. It was nice. King was seen again, and had people to talk to.
It didn’t last forever. Nothing ever did.
A year after the funeral, Luz and Amity got their first grandchild. Another little girl they called Evelyn, after the long lost witch from the Clawthorne family. In a way, they were honoring Eda and Lilith’s legacy too.
Gone but not forgotten.
King watched Luz cry as she held her granddaughter for the first time.
It starts off slow. As the other grows older, they grow slower, more frail. As he grows older, he only grows bigger, more strong.
At some point, he realizes he will outlive them all.
He remembered seeing Luz and Amity with specks of gray in their hair, playing with their grandchildren. They complain of aches and pains. At some point, they both need glasses, and give up on hair dye, letting themselves go full gray.
They are retired now, living happily together like the old married couple they are, helping rear their grandkids. There is the little girl they nickname Eve, and two boys named Elian and August. Willow and Hunter had grown to have one grandchild, a small girl named Raina, in honor of Raine. Gus never had kids of his own, but is content with those of his old friends, and the company of his long term boyfriend.
They are happy, but King knows the signs of aging, of slowing down.
And he worries.
Luz falls ill that winter when the air is frosty and the sky sheds pure white snow. She doesn’t recover as hoped.
She is buried in the spring when the new flowers are blooming.
Without Luz, Amity is lost. King can tell. The kids grow into rowdy teenagers, and it becomes a chore to visit their grandmother.
Her kids are busy with their own kids and jobs. Her friends come over often, but soon it is hard for all of them to be gone all day long without resting.
King keeps her company the best he can in her final years. She is grateful. He can tell. That is not spoken aloud until her final years.
She passes away peacefully in her sleep at age eighty-five.
Her friends are not far behind her. They are all buried as they pass, not far from each other.
It’s an old tradition, to bury friends and family close together. It is believed that the lost souls will find each other and then always be together in the afterlife.
He hopes they all are.
By now, the kids he watched grow up and play on the floor are the ones sprouting gray hairs. He knows it will be then he will be mourning soon.
He loses track of the funerals.
Time is an empty vessel. He is merely a pawn in a bigger game.
It is the first time he starts to see immortality as a curse, as it truly is.
With Luz and Amity gone, no one steps in to take the house. It is empty.
He is alone again.
He will outgrow it soon enough anyway.
When he hears news of Eve’s marriage, his fast thought is still she is too young, still yet a little girl.
That is not true.
She is an adult with grown parents now.
Time moves on without him. He is completely and utterly alone.
No one has come to visit him in years. He doesn’t know how much time has passed.
He hears small snippets — marriages, births, deaths, birthdays, celebrations, promotions, pregnancies, adoptions, retirements, anniversaries, and other kinds of celebration imaginable.
It was like this family was no longer his.
In all this time, he only grows larger. Soon, he will settle himself in the sea, just like his father had.
He fantasizes about letting the lapping waves take him once and for all.
Eventually, Luz and Amity’s children pass of old age.
He remembers them playing on the floor. He remembers Azura’s first steps in the living room of the owl house.
He doesn’t attend the funeral.
Even Hooty is quiet nowadays.
He is going insane, half mad from silence.
The day he heard footsteps coming from the forest and a muffled voice, he turned his head. He had sat himself out on the cliff about a year ago, mostly too big to get in and out the door.
He hadn’t had visitors in a long, long time. He was alone. Maybe it was best it stayed that way.
The trees part and give way to a small figure. Everything is small to him now. He towers over every witch and demon.
The trees part and he is left staring into a pair of brown eyes. His first thought is Luz! and then he wants to jump off the cliff.
Luz is dead.
The girl in front of him is alarmingly similar though. Tan skin, dark hair and eyes. He can even see Luz in her nose and jawline.
He looks away.
“What do you want?” He grunts. His voice is loud, booming. He can’t help it. “This is, uh, private property, and all that.”
There is no reply.”
“You lost? Not my problem.”
When he looks down, the girl is looking up at him, nervous and fidgeting. “Sorry. I’ve never talked to a literal god before.”
“I’m not a god.”
“Oh.” She bites her lip. “But you kind of are?”
He snorts. The ground rumpled under her. “Whatever. Who are you?”
“You’re King Clawthorne?”
It’s been a long time since he’s heard his whole name spoken. He blinks. “Uh, yeah. That’s me.”
She beams. “Just the guy I’m looking for.”
“Look, kid, I can’t help you. I don’t have magical powers just because I’m a Titan—“
“No, no,” the girl stops him. “I’m not here for that.”
He widens his eyes at the girl that had the audacity to cut him off right after calling him a god. Who was this girl anyway?
She paused for a second. “I’m here for you.”
“Oh.”
She looks up, head tilted back, brown eyes glinting. They are all too familiar. “I’m Alma,” she said softly. “Alma Noceda-Blight.”
Oh.
Alma is quiet, yet kind. There is a certain bravery that burns quiet within her. King can see it at times.
He can see Luz in her too. She is Luz’s great-great-granddaughter after all.
And King is not quite alone.