nine ── discussions
𝕬s soon as the words left the boy's mouth, he was rushing away from her and heading upstairs as quickly as he could. Eden sat in a stunned silence, her eyes wide. Suddenly, the pain in her hand wasn't as great as it had been before.
What had Luke meant by 'punched a god'? What was he talking about?
Pulling the peas away from her hand, she took in the sight of the bruises already forming on her knuckles and huffed. Placing it away, Eden headed up the stairs and towards Luke's room, knocking on the door.
"Yeah?"
"Luke." She opened it slowly, finding the boy sitting on his bed and fiddling with the Lego rocket ship. He wasn't looking at her, staring at the ground like he was trying to burn a hole in the carpet. "Have you got something to tell me?"
Luke remained silent, pursing his lips as she came into the room. Settling down, Eden leant forward on her hands to watch the boy as Bradley came padding into the room.
"You know, you can tell me anything, Luke."
"You won't believe me."
"Try me." Eden challenged as Luke finally looked up. He caught her eyes, chewing on his bottom lip. "If there's something that I should know, then I'd quite like for you to tell me but if you cannot, I won't be mad."
Luke opened his mouth, before snapping it closed. Eden waited for another few minutes, before standing up.
"Well, I'll start making dinner. I'm going to make curry, so I'll try not to make it too spicy for you." She brushed her jeans off, wincing as her knuckles ached, before heading downstairs and into the kitchen to start concocting food.
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The rice was almost done and the curry was bubbling away when Luke came downstairs. He hovered in the doorway, before starting to speak.
"My dad's name is Hermes."
"Like the Greek god?"
"He is the Greek god." Luke corrected as Eden's eyebrows furrowed. "Greek god of messenger, trade, travel and all of that stuff. It's why I'm so good at maths, PE and languages."
"Right." Eden wasn't so sure about this.
"Well, twelve years ago, he came down to Earth, fell in love with my mom and had me. I'm a demigod, Son of Hermes." Luke explained, coming to sit in front of her. "A few days after I was born, my mom decided to try and see if she could become the next Oracle, but it all went wrong and she went loopy. Hermes was around for a bit, but he was normally absent, which left me home alone to deal with her."
Luke took a deep breath, huffing as he continued.
"I hated it. She was never there, always talking about how great Hermes was even though he ditched us and muttering about some tragedy and occasionally, she'd have these episodes and her eyes would burn green." Luke gulped at the thought, swallowing his anger as he remembered the times earlier in his life. "I used to hide in the cupboard to get away from her."
Eden's stomach dropped, turning the food off. She continued to prepare it, not wanting to put too much pressure onto Luke as he spoke.
"So, when I was nine, I ran away. Hermes found me the first time, took me back and told me not to do it again." Luke shrugged, fighting a scowl. "So, I ran away anyway, got caught by the police, chucked into the care system. Kept running away, they kept catching me and dragging me back then when I think I would have a family, Hermes would screw it all up for me until you came along."
"Can I ask?" Eden served the food up, setting a plate in front of Luke as he watched her. "Why exactly should I believe that?"
"I thought you might ask." He pulled a large knife from his back pocket, setting it on the table in front of her. The woman jumped.
"Luke!"
"What? It doesn't hurt mortals. Just monsters." Luke picked it up, before slicing it across his hand.
"Luke!" Eden called again, grabbing his hand and looking for an injury, but there was none. She took a deep breath, her eyes wide as she stared at the boy. "You're telling me the truth."
"Yeah." Luke nodded his head, blue eyes wide. "I promise I'm telling you the truth. I can swear it on the River Styx!"
Thunder rumbled overhead.
"I punched a god." Eden sat down, putting her head into her hands. "Oh my god, I punched a god!"
"Yeah, it was pretty awesome though." Luke grinned at that. "He really had it coming and then you just hit him and I think you broke his nose."
"I broke a god's nose." Eden shook her head. "Is he going to smite me?"
"No, probably not. Might curse you with late mail or something, but Hermes isn't one of the angry gods."
"There are more?"
"Oh yeah, the whole Greek Parthenon is real."
"Right. So the Underworld, all of that?"
"Yeah, I'd assume so." Luke seemed to have perked up now though Eden was having some form of an existential life crisis. There were gods? Everything she knew up until this point had been a lie?
"So, there's only Greek Gods?"
"I think so." Luke nodded, chewing on his food. "You're still going to adopt me, right? The whole god thing hasn't put you off."
"If Hermes is a god, could he not have taken you to Olympus?"
"Apparently they're not allowed." Luke shrugged. "So we just get chased by monsters."
"Monsters? You've been chased by monsters?" Eden became horrified, her eyes going wide.
"Don't worry, I'm good at killing them."
"I should have punched him harder." Eden shook her head. "What sort of irresponsible father allows their son to wander around on the street with no protection? How can one person so be completely and utterly useless?"
"I mean he has other demigod kids. I'm not the only one." Luke shrugged. "But he liked my mom so I saw him a lot more. The others don't see him at all, I don't think."
That didn't seem to calm Eden down, her eyes narrowing at the thought. Luke didn't notice however, too busy eating the rest of his food. He felt like a weight was off of his shoulders, knowing that Eden knew all about it now and still wanted to adopt him. This was brilliant!
Eden on the other hand was wondering where she could find this so called god to give him a piece of her mind. How dare he leave helpless children alone to fend for themselves and then have the nerve to show up at her front door and demand that he have his son back!
"Can I have seconds?"
"Sure thing baby." Eden nodded, stabbing her fork into her curry as she scowled. Luke froze at the annoyed look on his face, cocking an eyebrow.
"I haven't annoyed you, have I?" Eden sat up at that, before beginning to shake her head.
"No, not at all." Reaching over, she squeezed his hand. "I'm not annoyed at you. I'm annoyed at your father and making a mental list of all the things that I need to yell at him about when I next see him."
"You're going to see him again?"
"Yes." Eden nodded, her mind made up. "I'm going to sit him down and lay out the terms for what's going to happen in the future. If he wants to try and be a parent, then he'll be playing by my rules especially when it comes to you and interfering with your life, like you say he has. If he doesn't want to, then he's going to stay the hell away from this house and not bother you anymore."
"You mean that?"
"Absolutely." Eden nodded. "No one messes with you and expects to get away scot-free. He's hurt you, so he will have consequences to his actions."
"He's a god."
"He's a father first and foremost." Eden winked at Luke. "Don't worry. You just tell me what you want from him, and I will make sure that it's done."
Luke jumped from his seat, heading around the island to wrap his arms around Eden. She smiled, reciprocating the hug as she rocked them gently and pressed a kiss to his head.
"Thank you."
"I told you. You're my top priority." Eden rubbed up and down his back. "Your needs are always going to come above everyone else's for me, even a god's."
"No one's ever believed me before when I tried to tell them." Luke pouted, pulling back as Eden grinned at her growing boy. "It's nice to have someone believing me."
"You can tell me anything, at any time." She smoothed his curly hair back from his forehead, before smiling gently. "Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me."
"Well, you did punch a god for me." Luke began to grin at that as Eden did the same. "I think that deserves some trust."
"I should have punched him harder, shouldn't I?"
"Maybe a little."
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Hiya,
Are Eden and Luke my cutest family? Yes. Is Hermes about to be ruined by Eden? Also yes. Is it going to be a very fun time from now on? Most definitely. Also, Eden having an existential life crisis is a mood and Luke deserves better.
Let me know what you think,
Love Li xx