Broken Boulder no children

so how many days, legally, can you avoid talking to your sorta-ex-friend-mother-of-your-children before lighting strikes you down from the sky?

delight doesn't know but he's pretty intent on pushing the limit right now.

whatever bad feelings have settled between them since.. fuck, since everything, nothing has been done to relieve the tension. the kids are being fed properly now so maybe they don't need to talk at ahaha who is he kidding their relationship is nearly fucked up beyond repair, and honestly, is it even worth saving? he doesn't know anymore, but there are three kids on the line so. gotta figure it out.

unfortunately it seems as if queenie already has. her scent lingers still at the borders and in the den, but there is no sign of her. delight tries to follow her scent out of the sanctuary but can't get a grasp of her trail. the thought that she might have left -- just left, with no word? it doesn't -- he never thought that she'd be the type to do that to him. maybe he shouldn't be surrpised, though. he'd put her in a terrible position and all but abandoned her for alarian.

saying out loud his suspicion makes it too real, and so delight sequesters himself in his children's den, hiding from alarian and the rest of the pack. he'll need to talk to eris -- food, they need food he reminds himself -- but... not yet. just... not yet.

He hasn't noticed Queenie's absence; he doesn't leave his den much lately, and when he does he finds himself slipping past the borders. The Sanctuary feels more like a prison than ever, and for the billionth time he wishes he could leave it all behind. He can't— his family is here, and he loves them, even if he really doesn't want to lead them or deal with Queenie or exist.
It's these thoughts, ironically (though he can't know that just yet), that drive him to search for Delight. There's a burning rawness in his chest and he doesn't want to see anyone at all, he wants to leave, so he does the exact opposite. He follows his partner's scent trail, stopping just outside the den and noting that he can't scent Queenie anywhere near; it crosses his mind, a little irritably, that he hopes she's feeding them enough now.
For a few beats he lingers, uncertain and a little insecure in his decision to seek company when it's the last thing he wants. After what feels like forever, he finally chuffs softly and takes a step back, just in case Queenie shows up and decides he's too close.

of course the one time he doesn't want to be found is when alarian comes looking for him --  he could make a joke about it, the irony of it, but he doesn't have it in him. the governor has to know eventually. might as well be now, even if it's the last thing he wants.

gently crawling past his children, the chancellor pokes his head from the den, greeting his partner with a returned chuff. "you can come in," delight says quietly, and before alarian can protest (if he does) withdraws back into the den, leaving space for one more slim adult body to join him.

pping sol a bit w permission/guidance haha

He only has a moment to study Delight's expression, but he decides it's not good somewhere around the tail end of his words. All he can do is blink and watch him retreat for a few beats, a little stunned and a little worried. Something must be wrong— or Delight's lost his mind. Or both.
He's not sure why he complies anyway, slipping anxiously into the den and lingering just inside the entrance until he notices Delight's daughter— the girl he's taken to calling sunshine. She's only barely awake, but she smiles when she sees him and stretches out. "Mmmmmmmmhiiiii...." She smacks her lips and yawns, then settles back down to drift off again.
The greeting settles his nerves some, but he's still convinced Queenie will come bite him any moment now. He presses up against Delight a little tentatively— he's allowed to touch him now, right?— and gives him a questioning look, but he doesn't say anything yet. There's a tension in the air that doesn't sit right with him, but he can't quite tell if he's imagining it or not— maybe this is normal and fine, maybe Delight is just making a very bad decision for both of them. Or maybe he's finally decided to team up with Queenie to kill him. In front of the children, though? Hmm.

at least the children seem relatively unaffected by their mother's absence, he thinks, watching solomon greet alarian with a soft, strained smile. brilliance squirms out of his attempt to regrasp her and he lets her go, watching her spotted form settle near her brother before he brings himself to look at the govenor, feeling his belly clench anxiously. 

"i think," delight starts, carefully, before abandoning that track. he doesn't think, he knows. he clears his throat, shakes his head, and tries again: "i can't find queenie. she's left the sanctuary." there's no emotional resonance to the words -- he can't emote, not about this, not right now. the way he's phrased it leaves ambiguity -- she could be coming back -- but he suspects alarian is smart enough to figure out what he means, the way he was smart enough to figure it out when delight asked-without-asking to join him at the sanctuary.

Honestly, it can never even be remotely close to anything he might expect, can it? It's obvious from Delight's tone and expression that Queenie's gone for more than just a pack of smokes, and despite what he might have thought before, his first instinct is to feel guilty. Queenie may have been awful, but she was Delight's friend and the mother of his children, and now she's gone. It's his fault, of course, as most things tend to be; he thinks fleetingly that he's grateful Delight isn't blaming him, at least not yet.
But mostly he thinks about how he has no idea what to say. Oh, He manages quietly, dimly aware of a tiny chocolate figure worming her way toward him. He presses a little closer to Delight, quiet for a few more beats before he finds something else to say. I'm sorry. Other things come to him, but he swallows them back; abandonment is a deep wound, and this is fresh. He doesn't want to risk hurting him more— god knows he knows what it's like to not want to talk about something.
Instead he gently grooms behind Delight's ears, settling comfortably against him. At some point he feels something small and warm press against him; he doesn't need to look to know it's his partner's daughter. He does pause a moment when she starts chewing on his toes— but it's not really hurting anything, so whatever, right?

alarian's apology is unexpected but not unappreciated: he manages a wan smile, his eyes firmly fastened to solomon's pudgy body. distantly he thinks, good that the kids like alarian or at least don't seem to mind him. bodes well. out loud he says, "it's not that i thought she'd stay forever -- she was miserable and it was my fault, you know -- but i thought. i don't know. i thought she'd at least say something first." not even a good bye but a fuck you -- really, anything at all. 

then the feeling hits him and he lets his head droop, his eyes squeezing shut. "she must hate me," delight says into his feet, "and i don't blame her a bit. i'd hate me, too. i don't know why you don't hate me."

but he doesn't, at least, not yet. delight will take the quiet company while he can get it.