& ᴜɴᴅᴇʀ/ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ

Oʀɪᴏɴ & Nʏx Iɴᴅɪᴇ/ Sᴇʟᴇᴄᴛɪᴠᴇ / Pʀɪᴠᴀᴛᴇ / OC ғʀɪᴇɴᴅʟʏ ᴀғғɪʟɪᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀʟᴀɴᴅʙᴏʀɴ & ʟᴇᴀᴅᴇʀᴏғᴛʜᴇɴɪɢʜᴛʀɪᴅᴇʀs Pᴇɴɴᴇᴅ ʙʏ Mᴀɴᴜ

[leaderofthenightriders]

Silas watched the last shape of the sign.

Of course it would always be part of Orion. Silas had stood at Eve's side for centuries. He'd seen what the powers of the Underworld could do to a person. He'd watched Eve fight them every day and still refuse to become them.

“You keep saying that like I don't understand danger.” His hands were sharp now. Precise. Almost severe.

“I know what you're saying. I know this could happen again. I know next time it could be worse.” His jaw tightened. “I know you could kill me.”

A faint sting still lingered beneath his skin where Orion's darkness had nearly drained the life from him.

He welcomed it.

It kept his hands from shaking.

“You're not a threat I have to endure.”

The words came easily. The next ones didn't.

“You're my—”

The word caught. Hard.

“Fuck, Ori.” His voice broke around the name.

“You're my everything.”

He took a step closer. “I'm not going to let you run from me after spending all this time trying to stop me from running from you.”

[twoworlded]

“Maybe you were right” Orion forced himself to let out a dry, humorless laugh in his last ditch attempts to push Silas away. If using his past words against him didn’t work then he would simply walk away from this whole conversation

But Silas could never let him do that, could he? He had to go and pull out his own weapons to disarm all of Orion’s arguments “stop it. Not that, not now. You can’t think that after everything”

[kingoftheneverwoods]

Mal huffed a laugh through her nose.

“Wow,” she signed back, tapping her pencil once against the page. “Brutal.” A faint smile tugged at her mouth despite herself.

Then, because he wasn't wrong, she glanced down at the sketch again. “I was still working.”

His hands moved more easily than hers ever did. Cleaner. Faster. Effortless. There was something unfair about it. Like he was speaking a language that belonged to him instead of borrowing one that didn't. Mal caught enough to follow. What she missed, she filled in from context.

She flipped the sketchbook around and studied the bike, matching lines to metal. He had a point. The front fork needed more weight. She'd been too generous with the curve of the tank. She made a few quick corrections, then paused over the lower half of the engine.

“What is that part?” she asked, signing most of it before her hand stalled. She said the last word out loud instead. “The thing under—” She gestured vaguely with the pencil toward the bike. “That.”

[twoworlded]

Once again he would give this girl credit for her efforts at keeping up with the signing. Keeping up with him was something few people could manage unless they were close to Orion but her attempts were … endearing in the same way her hands’s faltering movements were

“That’s an air box, over the exhaust pipe” his signing was slower and his voice clearer, rationalizing mechanics needed to be explained in any language “and that one’s a transmission” he tilted his head towards the lower part of the motorcycle “ if his hands twirled along with normal talk then they practically danced when he got into mechanical talk

[leaderofthenightriders]

Silas didn’t flinch. Didn’t step back. Didn’t give Orion the mercy of looking wounded, even though something in his chest had gone very quiet and very still.

You aren’t in charge of me.

No. He wasn’t. He knew that. That wasn’t the point.

He exhaled slowly through his nose and made himself stay where he was, made himself keep his hands loose at his sides even though everything in him wanted to close the distance, wanted to take Orion in his arms and make him understand through sheer physical proximity what words apparently weren’t doing.

He signed instead. “It’s not about being in charge. You don’t get to decide that I need protecting from you. That’s not your call. It’s mine. And I’m not going anywhere.”

[twoworlded]

What would it take to make him understand? Orion internally cursed his own efforts to get Silas to let his walls down and give the two of them a chance. It would have saved all this trouble and heartache

“You think I’m being difficult and we can fix this but we can’t” Orion started to sign once he felt the tremors pass “this is always going to be part of me-even if i learn to keep it somehow under control”

[kingoftheneverwoods]

Oh.

Now it made sense why he kept looking at her mouth while she talked. Mal angled the page so the light hit it better. The sketch was good if she did say so herself. She’d caught the hard cut of the seat, the weight of the frame, the little scuff near the lower side. It wasn’t finished, but it was close.

She shifted the sketchbook in one hand and answered with her other, signing as she spoke, slower than she would have liked but clear enough. “See? Wasn’t kidding. Your bike’s interesting.”

She caught the surprise that briefly crossed his face. That was fair. Most people in this town barely managed basic manners, let alone ASL.

She shrugged. “Learned last summer,” she said, signing that too. “I was bored.”

It sounded stupid out loud, but that’s how it had started. Too much time, too much noise in her own head, and a stack of online videos Henry had found for her when he’d been on one of his “you should try a normal hobby” kicks. She’d stuck with it.

[twoworlded]

There was very little that Orion found himself impressed by and he had to admit this girl had managed a double whammy in record time. Not only had she sketched an almost accurate version of his bike but she could sign. The latter was a rare occurrence, most people only bothering to speak louder or dumbing down their words.

“Details are missing” he was still using his voice but now he let himself slip into signing as well. He wasn’t letting his guard down yet for a pretty face. “And self taught? That’s new”

[kingoftheneverwoods]

Mal sat on the low stone wall outside Granny’s with her sketchbook braced against one knee, pencil moving in quick, sure strokes while the afternoon dragged gold across Main Street. The bike was parked crooked near the curb. Black frame, clean lines, engine built with the kind of care that made her think whoever rode it loved machines. She narrowed one eye and shaded in the angle of the handlebars. She tucked a strand of blonde-and-purple hair behind her ear.

The diner door opened behind her with a groan of hinges. She ignored it. Granny had a steady stream of customers.

A shadow fell across the page. Mal’s pencil stopped. She looked up.

The guy standing beside the motorcycle had one hand wrapped around a to-go cup from Granny’s, and the other hung loose by his side.

He wasn’t speaking. Just looking at her. Then at the sketchbook. Then at his bike.

Mal shut the sketchbook halfway but didn’t move from the wall. “Relax,” she said. “I wasn’t stealing it.”

His gaze drifted to her mouth as she talked, then down to her sketchbook again before looking back up at her eyes.

She blinked at him. “You want to see it?”

[twoworlded]

His eyes followed her lips to put together whatever she was doing with his bike. More than once the town people had tried to get the hunt’s motorcycles towed away but she just seemed to be… admiring it? The sketch wouldn’t be so detailed otherwise

Right, he had to be verbal with a stranger “you drew my bike” Orion asked after another awkward silence, hoping it came out more of a statement than a question with his unused voice “yes, I want to” his free hand shot up for the sign of “yes”‘ as well

[leaderofthenightriders]

Silas stared at his hands for a beat too long, at the sharp, furious shape of Orion’s words hanging in the air between them even after the movement stopped.

My problem.

The phrase hit harder than the near-mauling had.

A laugh almost came out of him. As if Silas had any idea how to stand in the same room with him and keep his own heart out of it.

“You think I’m asking permission?” Silas signed, too low now, the anger burned clean into something meaner because it hurt. “I’m telling you how this goes. If you’re losing control, you come to me. If you want to tear the room apart, you come to me. If you hate me, if you want me gone, if seeing me makes it worse—fine. You still come to me.”

[twoworlded]

Orion's brows furrowed deeper the longer Silas's words continued. Being told exactly what you always wanted to hear could be a worse punishment than being thrown insults or rejection.

"I'm not risking it" he signed back with the same stubbornness he had carried around all his life, digging his heels into the sand. For as much as Silas was insistent on taking care of him, Orion's own sense of protecting him was twofold "You aren't in charge of me; this isn't up to you" because it would be on Orion if anything went wrong. If...- When he hurt him again no excuses would work

[leaderofthenightriders]

"You don't get to walk away from me. I don't care about the flames, or your eye color, or even that your bloodlust almost made you kill me. I couldn’t care less if you hurt me. Just don't lock yourself away from me. You come to me, understand?"

@twoworlded

[twoworlded]

Walking away was the one thing that was in Orion’s control at the moment so he would be taking it.

“I get to chose this” he signed quickly, the emotion making his movements sloppy “because it’s my problem and i have to learn to handle it. Not us, not you. Me”

[leaderofthenightriders]

Warmth spread through Silas’s chest at Orion’s words. The teasing felt achingly familiar. He set down the wrench and wiped his hands on a rag, suddenly needing to look at Orion properly.

“You’re right,” he signed, his movements deliberate, unhurried. “I wouldn’t like you half as much.”

He reached out, hesitating just before his fingers brushed Orion’s cheek. The contact sent a sharp rush of electricity skittering across his skin. He knew he should get back to work, but concentrating with Orion this close felt impossible. He just wanted to touch him again. To feel him beneath his hands and convince himself this was real.

[twoworlded]

Orion’s eyebrows shot up slightly at the sudden demonstration of vulnerability Silas was displaying. Since the truth had dawned on them this type of vulnerability hadn’t reared its head in but it was due to. You couldn’t go through all of what they had without some deep emotions like that

“We have time to figure it out” the way he signed in a slower motion reflected the intent of his words “just that”

[princeofhellskingdom]

Kai paused. Eve had been more knowing than she should have been. The way she’d looked at him during their first meeting—as if she’d recognized him before he’d even introduced himself.

“You think she remembers too?” he asked, his voice dropping. The thought that Eve might have orchestrated their reunion sent a strange mix of hope and unease through him. “That this was all a setup?”

He thought back to that first meeting—Eve insisting he was the only one qualified for the job despite his unconventional background. How she’d emphasized that only he could protect Nyx. At the time, he’d assumed she meant his combat skills, his history with dangerous clients. Now he wondered if she’d meant something else entirely

“It sounds like something she would do,” he said, a faint grin pulling at his mouth. “Though I always thought she didn’t like me very much.”

[twoworlded]

Nyx didn’t reply at first, the cogs on her mind working on piercing together the -seemingly- random pieces. Her mother’s insistence she had someone protecting her, how long until she found the ideal person and the constant reassurance her mother had given Nyx that everything would work out

“Oh she definitely knows” was the final verdict she came up with. Always moving the pieces like a battle strategy

“And I like you plenty. That’s enough” she added with a shake of her head, pointedly avoiding the topic

[leaderofthenightriders]

“He can visit because of our bond,” Eve said, trying to find a silver lining for her son, whose world was changing too quickly. “But the girls are too young to be there, and we can’t leave them alone.”

Eve turned away from her son’s questioning gaze, her decision pressing down on her shoulders. She couldn’t meet George’s eyes either. Not yet. Silence stretched between them, broken only by the distant sound of the twins playing downstairs.

“We need to tell the girls,” Eve said, her voice steadier than she felt. “They deserve to know why their brother is leaving.”

She moved toward the door, needing space. Air. The hallway seemed to stretch endlessly before her, each step slower than the last. How would she explain this to Freya and Nyx? They were too young to understand the darkness in their bloodline, too innocent to comprehend the sacrifices their family would have to make.

Eve stopped at the top of the stairs, her hand tightening around the banister. The home they had built together suddenly felt fragile, as if it might crumble around them. She had fought so hard to create this sanctuary. To shield her children from the legacy of blood and battle that had defined her own childhood.

She sank onto the top step and buried her face in her hands. This was her fault. All of it.

[twoworlded]

Orion quietly followed his mother out of the room with the air growing thicker all over the three of them with every second until her sudden stop at the stairs “Mom?”

George exchanged a look with Orion that conveyed what his words might not have been able to. Their son caught up quickly, bending down to give his mother a quick kiss on the head while making his way down to find the twins.

Once all their kids were out of earshot, George sat himself next to her and just let her be as she needed. The situation hadn’t been something they didn’t expect, just something they hoped never came truth “Come here” he finally offered with his arms wrapped around her shoulders

[princeofhellskingdom]

Kai laughed softly, the sound rumbling through his chest as he gazed down at her. She was right. In this lifetime, they would simply have to continue the tradition.

“I doubt your mother hired me thinking I’d be her future son-in-law,” he said, his voice low. The thought of explaining this to Eve sent a mix of amusement and dread through him. How exactly did one tell a client that their daughter was your soulmate from a past life?

[twoworlded]

The sound of his laughter was a comforting vibration under her hands. The position was a reminder of other lives for her too

“My mother has learned to expect anything and everything” a brief thought crossed her mind about her family regaining her own memories “have you ever seen my mother do anything without a plan behind it?” Did she already remember?

[leaderofthenightriders]

“It’s happening to him, George,” she said, her voice breaking. “I need to take him away, teach him to control it before it controls him.”

Eve looked between her husband and her son, gratitude and guilt twisting together in her chest. George’s steadiness grounded her, but this was her doing.

Eve hesitated. The Wild Hunt was her domain, but not a place for the uninitiated. The battles, the bloodlust, the endless cycle of death and rebirth. All of it would overwhelm Orion before he ever had a chance to learn control.

“I’m taking him to Valhalla,” she said. “We’ll stay with my father.”

[twoworlded]

George closed his eyes, head tilted to the side as he let her words sink in. This had always been a possibility that loomed over their heads.

Even when Orion was born and he didn’t seem to inherit those traits, they kept holding their breath. It was a matter of it, not when.

“When do you leave?” He finally asked as he closed the distance between them and rested his chin over her head with full body sigh

You. Not we.

He should have picked on it when his mother’s words didn’t seem to include his father on it but he had still been holding onto something “You aren’t coming with mom and me” he signing was careful. Putting the words out there made it real. The curse inside him had awakened and there would be no going back now. Just before and now

[leaderofthenightriders]

Silas watched Orion settle onto the bench, his posture relaxed in a way that felt achingly familiar. The weight of his gaze was comforting, not intrusive—a quiet presence Silas found himself craving more than he wanted to admit.

“You know,” Silas signed, his hands moving with practiced ease as he worked the carburetor, “I think I prefer you watching me work to criticizing me.”

The words slipped out before he could stop them—flirtatious, bolder than he meant. Something about this—about him—had loosened the careful restraints Silas had always kept in place. No more hiding. No more pretending.

[twoworlded]

“I don’t need to be talking to criticize” was the coy response that Orion signed back at him. It had been nice to settle into a calm moment. No need for any kind of conversation between them. Existing in the same space was enough

“You think I’m gonna go easy in you this life? You wouldn’t like me half as much if I did” the grin on his face was lighter compared to the teasing of his words

[princeofhellskingdom]

The resolve in her eyes was achingly familiar—that same unyielding fire had once pulled Kai back from damnation. He couldn’t argue with her when she looked at him like that.

“You’re still as stubborn as ever,” he murmured, brushing a strand of hair from her face. “Your mother hired me to protect you, not to…” His voice faltered, his thumb tracing the line of her jaw. Not to fall in love with you all over again.

“We’ll have to be careful,” he said at last.

[twoworlded]

“I’m determined” the stubborn spark on her eyes brightened up even more when Kai didn’t intend to fight her, even though she had already made up her mind about them being together. How could he ever think of it? They had found each other for a reason

“Aren’t we always?” Nyx’s smirk grew as she leaned into his touch. His palms were still roughened by manual labor, a familiar sensation from past lives she found comforting among everything “they’ll have to understand”

[leaderofthenightriders]

“Yeah… we need to talk to him.” George.

The thought alone sent dread curling through Eve’s chest. Not because he wouldn’t understand—he would. He always did. But neither of them had ever wanted this. George had been her anchor through every storm. This was different.

This was their son.

“He needs to know what’s happening.” She brushed a strand of Orion’s now-white hair back from his face, her touch lingering for a moment too long.

Eve rose, her movements smooth despite the weight in her chest, and crossed to the door. “George,” she called into the hallway, her voice carrying more urgency than she meant to show. “I need you in here.”

Footsteps answered drawing closer with each passing second.

Her mouth went dry.

She had faced gods. Monsters. Led armies without hesitation.

But this? This terrified her more than anything.

[twoworlded]

Something was going on, George was sure of it. The air around their house was practically crackling with something and he was soon to find out exactly what it was.

The image that greeted him did little to soothe him. Between Orion’s obvious apprehensive body language and Eve’s concern that practically screamed in his own head “what’s happening?” No point dancing around it when all three of them knew better

“Something’s-” messed up , different, wrong “changed. Mom understands it better than me” Orion signed as his eyes went from one parent to the other. He almost shrank into himself, trying to see if that would help with the noise. Even if the only solution was the one his mother already had decided on

[leaderofthenightriders]

Silas couldn’t quite hide his smile as he turned back to the motorcycle, acutely aware of Orion’s gaze following his every move.

“Impress you?” he signed, his hands moving with deliberate flair before reaching for his tools. “I thought that’s what I’ve been doing all along.”

He settled into the work with practiced ease, his fingers moving over the engine in a steady, familiar rhythm. It grounded him, even as his thoughts churned with memories that didn’t feel entirely new. Still, every so often, he glanced up—just to check, to make sure Orion was still there.

That this wasn’t something his mind had conjured.

[twoworlded]

“Amusing me it’s different than leaving an impression” Orion made quick work of his signing as he made himself comfortable on a bench that allowed him a more than comfortable view.

When there were no words to interchanged between them the air around the shop settled into a familiarity that was almost dream like for him. The type of thing that was so delicate it could break if you breathe the wrong way.

But this was good, wasn’t it? Something like that was something worth keeping and he had just decided he would. Simple as that in his stubborn mind

[princeofhellskingdom]

Though her words were confident, Kai’s protective instinct still flared at the thought of facing Asmodeus, even like this, stripped of the power they’d once possessed. His fingers traced slow, absent patterns along her spine, mapping territory he somehow knew by heart—as if this wasn’t the first time, as if it never had been.

“I remember the first time I pledged myself to you,” he said softly, the words catching somewhere between memory and confession. “You were so certain. So fearless.” A pause. “Just like now.”

The memory rose, vivid and unrelenting—her hand outstretched, offering him something no one else ever had. Choice. Freedom. Something that had felt dangerously close to hope.

“You were the only one who ever saw me as more than a damned soul,” Kai said, quieter now. The weight of it pressed into his chest until it was hard to breathe—until it felt like he might break under it. “I need to tell your mother I can’t be your bodyguard. I can’t be with you while I’m still bound by her contract.” He smiled faintly.

[twoworlded]

Her shoulders relaxed ever so slightly as Kai’s fingers retraced familiar lines along her body while his voice recalled their firs meeting. A smile bloomed on her face at how romantic his recollection made it sound

“I’ll always be a stubborn spitfire” she whispered the nickname he has given her with a prideful note

The precious atmosphere broke when he brought up the mere idea of the two of them being separated again “no” Nyx declared in a simple word “nobody else would understand it. And I don’t want anyone else”