Prologue Pt. 5

--- Jon ---

Dinner was a task he tended to take on himself even before his more than eventful summer. After all, it was either learn to cook or live off of coffee and take out, (like the way ma apparently has been…)

He scowled at the various empty fast food containers that had been tossed next to the trash bin. (Honestly, if it wasn’t for her obscene exercise regime, she’d probably double in weight each summer.)

With a shake of his head, he began moving through the kitchen getting out everything he needed to make what was probably his mother’s first decent meal in months, all the while being thankful that at least a few of the groceries they lacked an expiration date. Especially since it looked like his mother hadn’t been in the fridge all summer if the rotten fruits and vegetables were any sign.

Luckily, after his first few times watching the kitchen, the rest of the camp had voted for him to start taking all of their shifts. Meaning he was more than used to feeding an army with sub-par ingredients, let alone two humans and a fairy.

(Speaking of I’m going to have to change how I cook around here to meet Pix’s diet.) Unlike humans, fairies -or Pix’s strain anyway- were incapable of eating actual meat, and instead tended to live off of fruits, honey, tree sap, and flower nectar.

Of course, given Pix’s gluttonous nature this didn’t actually do anything to keep her from eating pretty much anything he put in front of her, so long as it lacked meat anyway. Either way though, he’d picked up a number of vegetarian and fruit-based sides, dishes, and deserts to try and keep the little fairy fed.

Now for most people none of this was a problem. Unfortunately, he and his mother were from the part of the countryside where if your diet wasn’t at least fifty percent meat, then you were in fact considered a vegetarian by the locals. Meaning virtually everything he cooked prior to that summer had involved meat in some way or fashion.

(I guess I can just double down on the baked goods, if I have to.)

He froze as he heard the front door click open and Brutus start barking, his hand already on his knife as he quietly made his way from the kitchen, and-

“Down boy.”

-immediately relaxed as he realized it was just his mom, rather than some insanity driven individual wanting to rip his eyes out and eat them.

With a quick tilt of his head, he silently motioned for Pix to head back to his room.

Giving him a nod, she took off around the corner as he made his way towards the living room, letting him catch sight of his mother as she finally got Brutus off of her.

He’d just about caught up to his mother’s tall height, and would probably be passing her in the next few years, but while he was tall and often mistaken as string bean his mother also had a bit more width to balance out her build.

“Hey, ma.” He called, getting his mother’s forest green eyes to meet his own through their mutually brown hair.

“Jon, you’re back!” His mother smiled in that way that was a little less vibrant than his own, (then again mine hasn’t been that vibrant since- the corrupted cried tears of black blood as her hands wrapped around his throat and-)

“Jon?”

“Sorry, just haven’t seen you in a while.” He told her semi-honestly, not wanting to think about one of the numerous traumatic events from his summer.

His mother eyed him for a moment, and if he hadn’t picked up a certain amount of empathy after dealing with kids all summer he might’ve missed the way they seemed to judge whether or not he was lying to her.

He made sure to step in and give her a hug before she could realize he was.

“Missed you.” He admitted, even as he felt his mother tense in his arms, -(Something he tried very hard not to notice.)- before returning his hug.

“Missed you too, kiddo.”

The rest of the night went as peacefully as he’d hoped, a simple meal with his ma as he passively avoided talking about his summer, and the landmine field within.

(Still, it was a nice break from having something trying to kill me every other night.) And in the end, that was what was important.

Once he and his mother were done with dinner, he offered to do the dishes so he could sneak Pix a plate, something she seemed to appreciate if her excited chiming was anything to go by.

“Good to know you like whatever I can scramble up here.” He told her, as the lazy little glutton nodded, claiming one of his pillows as her bed the moment she was finished eating.

He couldn’t help but shake his head in amusement as he moved the pillow over and settled down himself.

Of course, it was as he laid there staring at the ceiling of his room in the dark of the night, that his mind decided to think about everything that had happened over the summer, or rather he think about all of the traumatic events he’d rather forget about.

From the one’s involving the corrupted, the infected, and whatever beasts they dragged out of the void between to the one’s where he’d been dragged into the fight between De Sade and the various men who hated him for everything he’d done pushing back the darkness of Blackwell, things that in no way could be considered morally just.

(Things you helped him do…)

(Stop that.) He told the darker thoughts. (We’re back home, it’s a fresh start, and we’re going to start it right.)