Chapter Text
The next morning, Hornet and Grimmchild were helping Ghost whip up some breakfast, when Mandiklo came into the kitchen, yawning, but looking much better than the day before.
“Good morning~!”, he said cheerfully.
Hornet grumbled in reply, like the Locust's serenity was a personal affront to her.
“Nyaaah!”, made the Grimmchild.
Ghost turned to him, so he could see them sign: “Good morning. Sleep well?”
Mandiklo beamed: “Never better! Really has done me a world of good after two sleepless nights!”
Ghost would've laughed, if not for the reminder, that someone had kept the poor bug awake for two nights in a row.
And speaking of someone … a silver white glow filled the kitchen, as the Pale King came in, thankfully much more lucid than the night before.
When he greeted them, his voice was hoarse, albeit not nearly as bad as the day before. Despite their resentment, Ghost had made him vegetable broth and tea for dinner, which seemingly had worked wonders for his throat.
Hornet grumbled another half-assed greeting into his direction and Ghost laughed; they hadn't known their sister was such a morning grouch!
Grimmchild hissed at him and Ghost had to hold their adopted child tightly in their arms, so he wouldn't immediately faceplant him out of spite.
Ghost themselves waved a tendril to be polite and asked him in their divine voice, where Holly was.
“Still asleep. We did not wish to wake them”, he answered softly (ewww, was he using the royal 'We'?! Gross!).
Mandiklo turned to him with a stack of breakfast plates in his lower arm pair.
“Oh! My apologies, I didn't realise you were standing there! Good morning, sir!”, he said with a reserved politeness that (according to a certain City of Tears resident) was code for: I don't like you, but I'll be nice to you, unless you give me a reason not to be.
The Pale King seemed to get it and shrunk in on himself.
“Uhm … good morning. How is thine arm?”
“It'll be fine. My barbs are expendable and thanks to my ointment, the cracks in my arm will close in no time. I'm just relieved you didn't bite it clean off. Your mandibles looked like you could have.”
He had the decency to look ashamed. “We apologise. For this and for having thee watch Us for two nights. We remember little, but …”
“It's forgiven and forgotten”, Mandiklo assured him. Then his eyes narrowed. “You didn't bite your own children, did you? Because feral or not, I won't stand for that!”
Before he could answer, Hornet snitched: “He tried to bite Holly's hand twice.”
He gave her a look of betrayal, as Ghost and Grimmchild howled with laughter (one aloud, the other silently).
When Holly finally came downstairs, they found their siblings and Grimmchild being entertained by the show of father getting chewed out by a righteously indignant Locust.
As soon as he saw Holly, Mandiklo cut his rant short, greeted them and asked, how they were feeling.
Ghost felt a pang in their chest, as Holly looked at him hesitantly, as if they were afraid to express themselves in front of him.
“You don't need his permission, dear sibling”, they reminded. “You don't need anything from him.”
Although Mandiklo couldn't hear their Void speech, he seemed to agree: “There is no shame in being upfront about your feelings. We won't think any less of you for it. Right, we won't?”
Literally everyone gave the Pale King the side-eye and the Grimmchild hissed some more.
The pale bastard lifted his hands in what seemed to be an appeasing gesture. “Of course not”, he said softly.
Holly relaxed and signed to Mandiklo, that they had barely slept and their shoulders hurt.
This made the others settle down enough to get back to what they had been doing.
When all six of them sat down, Mandiklo seemed to brighten up, when Ghost put the largest portion of food in front of him.
“You worked your butt off, while we were gone. It's the least you deserve”, they signed.
The Locust thanked them with a warm smile and dug into his breakfast.
Father dearest got the smallest portion, because fuck him. He was now the second smallest here anyway, after the growing Grimmchild.
He ended up not touching any of it anyway.
After they'd had breakfast and cleaned up, Mandiklo had wasted no time in sitting not just Holly, but all of them down for an examination.
Hornet thought it was stupid; she didn't need an examination! She was fine!
But the doctor clearly didn't give a damn and so she got the same treatment as Holly. After a while he concluded: “Alright, you're going to rest today. You're overtired and in dire need of a break. And no, you're not gonna go out to hunt. Your siblings can do that for you for now. You will sleep.”
Hornet was about to protest, but Holly bent down and nuzzled her affectionately. Curse them and their adorableness. So she swallowed her pride and agreed. He meant well. And perhaps rest wasn't so bad. (She wouldn't go into how the doctor clearly could tell she had cried all night but was too much of a gentlebug to bring that up.)
Holly got their bandages changed, their scars looked at and their left arm checked. “From what I can tell and the way you're describing your pain, your shoulders and arm are just cramping”, Mandiklo assured them and they relaxed. “Try to correct your posture; I know being this tall can be inconvenient, but being hunched over like this all the time is bad for your back. On top of that, you clearly aren't rested enough so like your sister, you will rest more. Doctor's orders.”
They tilted their head, but made no move to object.
Ghost was healthy and simply got a reminder to spend as much time with their adopted menace as possible (Hornet was so glad they were back to give that little shit an outlet for his energy), which they accepted with visible enthusiasm.
The Grimmchild was judged to be healthy too and the doctor noted his growth, though he expressed concern about his increasingly hoarse voice. But Ghost assured him, that this was normal and the Nightmare King just naturally sounded like an extreme chain smoker. Kinda freaky, but okay.
Hornet's biggest concern was the absolute mayhem that Ghost and their nightmare spawn would inevitably get up to.
Finally, Mandiklo turned to the Pale King. “And now to you, sir.”
Father backed away and looked like he was going to climb up the wall and hiss at everyone from the ceiling again. Fortunately, he left it at a firm head shake.
The Locust doctor looked just done. “Sir, I need to give you a medical examination.”
“Give Us a good reason to let thee prod Us, like-”
“I know what you did.”
Five words.
And everyone froze and stared at the common bug.
He continued, unbothered: “I don't know why you did what you did and it's not my place to judge. But I have children of my own and if someone told me to sacrifice them for any reason, I'd kill that piece of Aspid spit and make it look like suicide. Just saying.”
Father shut up real fast after that and finally allowed the doctor to check him up, treat his cracks and change his bandages.
“Don't make me resort to guilt-tripping next time”, Mandiklo sighed and made notes on a stone tablet he'd borrowed from Holly. “I'm not above it, but I think it's a distasteful and crappy thing to do. I'd rather have a cooperative patient.”
“We are not sick!”, the Pale King rasped.
Everyone, even Holly, gave him the most underwhelmed look.
Mandiklo folded his arms. “Right and I'm a beautiful Butterfly. Sarcasm aside, you're a physical wreck. Here's a list of things to aid in your recovery”, he handed Father the stone plate, “And you better follow it, because, while your tallest child wants you near, your daughter and ascended child have made it pretty clear, that they'd have you out of their feelers rather sooner than later. And by 'made it pretty clear', I mean they actually said that.”
Hornet and Ghost nodded in confirmation.
Father had the audacity to flinch at that, but nodded mutely.
“That aside, I've noticed a concerning number of scars on your shell, while taking care of you during your coma. That's something you and I need to discuss more privately. And no, I can't just let it lie, this is a serious matter.”
Father froze.
Ghost tensed up.
Holly tilted their head.
Hornet was just as confused. Was she missing some precious context here …? But she had been here the whole time had taken care of Father with Holly, ever since Ghost had fished him out of the Void. What was the Locust doctor talking about?
She was about to ask, but Ghost put a claw on her shoulder and shook their head. Even the Grimmchild suddenly seemed to sober up.
All of this made Hornet both curious and afraid, because in her experience, any secret her father had was something horrific, that would shatter her life and rob her of sleep.
Ghost gave her an affectionate nuzzle (she'd never admit, that it eased her anxiety), then cleared their throat telepathically to get everyone's attention.
“The pantry is growing empty, so Grimmchild and I will go out to hunt and do shopping. Does anyone here need anything we need to add to the list?”
“Yes, please!”, Mandiklo replied immediately. “I'm running low on medicines and the ingredients I use to make them, so if you can get even some of the items, I'd be really grateful!”
Ghost gave him a thumbs-up and received a stone tablet with a list.
Hornet seized the opportunity to ask them to get her something soft and fluffy to cheer her up.
Holly said something in Void, that Hornet couldn't hear, but Ghost nodded. Grimmchild chirped and nuzzled Holly affectionately. Hornet couldn't help but wonder, when the little menace would start to talk for real … would he call Ghost “papa”? Would he call her and Holly “uncle” and/or “auntie”?
Father asked for nothing, but he seemed to be pulling his tattered robes to himself.
Ghost sighed in Hornet's head: “He doesn't wanna ask for new clothes. Dumbass.”
She agreed.
Their father really was a dumbass.