[BL]Hunted by the God of Destruction-Chapter 293: Loud, messy and divine.

Chapter 293: Chapter 293: Loud, messy and divine.
The world felt different in the morning.
Elias woke first, which was unusual, because Victor had been glued to him since the bonding like a furnace with opinions. But when Elias blinked awake, the first thing he felt was an arm wrapped around his waist like a steel band, the second was an enormous amount of heat pressed against his back, and the third was Victor’s breath against his neck, warm and smug even in sleep.
Elias exhaled softly. Of course he’s smug while unconscious.
He shifted very carefully.
Victor tightened his hold instantly.
"Don’t even think about it," Victor murmured, voice still sleep-rough and far too satisfied for someone who had nearly melted Elias’s soul the night before.
"I want water," Elias said.
"I’ll get it."
"You’re not getting up."
Victor hummed like the world was predictable and obedient. "I don’t need to get up to get it. Watch."
He flicked two fingers.
A ripple of ether moved like a lazy wave across the floor, lifted the glass from the nightstand, and floated it to Elias’s hand as gently as if the house itself adored them.
Elias stared at it, unimpressed. "Show-off."
"Bonded privilege," Victor said against his shoulder. "I get to do that now."
"You always could do that."
"Yes, but now you can too."
Elias opened his mouth to argue and froze.
Because he could feel it. All of it. The red ether humming quietly beneath his skin, the silver threads weaving around it, everything in a perfect, controlled balance that felt... shockingly natural. Victor wasn’t wrong. He could do what Victor did now, instinctively, without digging for power or marking a boundary. It was simply there, waiting for him.
He moved one hand.
The curtains obeyed.
Elias stared.
Victor tightened his grip around him, pleased in a way that made Elias want to kick him. "You see?" he said, smug beyond salvation. "Now you understand why I’m irresistible."
"That’s not what I said."
"That’s what you meant."
"Victor."
"You love me."
"Victor."
"Yes?"
"Let go of me. I have to pee."
Victor made a very wounded noise and finally released him, though his hand still trailed after Elias like he had separation anxiety. Which, apparently, he now did.
Elias returned a minute later and found Victor sitting cross-legged on the bed, arms open, expression so overwhelmingly proud and clingy that Elias had to look away before his dignity suffered actual damage.
"Come back," Victor said.
"No."
Victor patted the mattress like a spoiled housecat. "Elias."
"I’m not coming..."
He didn’t get to finish.
Victor tugged him with a tiny ripple of ether, gentle, careful, but still cheating, and Elias found himself sitting between Victor’s thighs before he could protest.
"You cannot do that every time," Elias said, dry.
Victor rested his chin on Elias’s shoulder. "I can. And I will."
Elias closed his eyes. "God help me."
"I am helping you," Victor said happily.
They didn’t get ten minutes of peace.
A soft knock sounded at the bedroom door. Then another. Then a third one that popped like a sparkler.
Victor sighed with the resignation of a man who adored his children far too much. "Aria."
Sure enough, the door flew open, really more detonated open, and their eldest marched inside like a tiny golden inferno wrapped in a five-year-old’s body.
Aria was all confidence and chaos, her dark hair wild from sleep and her crimson eyes bright with Victor’s exact brand of mischief. She practically glowed. Not metaphorically, actual ether shimmered around her shoulders in little bursts, flaring every time she showed emotion, which was constantly.
"Breakfast!" she announced, proud of her own volume.
Behind her toddled Otis, smaller and rounder, clutching a dinosaur in each fist like he was ready to defend the room. He had the same dark hair as Victor, but his eyes were soft brown like Elias’s, big, gentle, and curious. He blinked up at them with the sweetness of a child who didn’t yet understand that he drooled on million-dollar furniture daily.
He tripped over his own dinosaur tail and bounced back up without a sound, because he was built like a rubber ball and Victor’s healing kept his bruises from ever lasting more than thirty seconds.
And bringing up the rear, determined, wobbly, and furious about every obstacle in her path, was Bellatrix.
Bellatrix was one year old going on ancient war general. She was tiny but intense, all dark curls and unwavering crimson eyes. Another copy of Victor, except smaller and angrier. She stalked across the floor like she had conquered it. Ether crackled at her fingertips even when she was trying to be good, which was never.
Elias sometimes wondered if she was aware she was a baby.
Victor scooped all three of them up without even bracing himself, balancing Aria on one hip, Otis on the other, and pulling Bellatrix into the curve of his arm like he had been forged for exactly this, carrying small, divine hazards with absolute devotion.
Aria immediately started chattering in his ear.
Otis hugged his father’s neck and dropped a dinosaur onto Victor’s foot.
Bellatrix grabbed Victor’s ear and pulled, hard.
Victor didn’t even flinch. He just beamed like the most blessed creature alive.
Elias watched them move around each other, this little constellation made of Victor’s fire and his own stubbornness. For a moment, the bond inside him hummed warm, like the universe was reminding him why he had agreed to everything in the first place.
Victor turned to him, glowing with fatherly pride. "They’re growing fast," he said, matter-of-factly. "They could shift into their adult forms whenever they want. Demigods do that."
Elias blinked at him slowly, then very slowly.
"No," he said.
Victor blinked back, confused. "No?"
"No. Absolutely not. They’re staying small. They’re staying exactly this size. They’re children. They’re supposed to be children."
Victor tilted his head slightly, a halo of slow-burning red light forming behind him like he was questioning physics itself. "But..."
Elias raised one finger. "Do you want to watch Bellatrix skip toddlerhood?"
Bellatrix sparkled threateningly and grabbed Otis’s shirt.
Victor hesitated. "...No?"
"Do you want Aria at twelve tomorrow morning?"
Aria perked up. "I want to be twelve!"
"Absolutely not," Elias said firmly. "Sit."
She sat. Immediately. Even sparks obeyed.
"And Otis," Elias added, "will stay small until I am emotionally ready for him to stop chewing dinosaurs."
Otis blinked, beamed, and tried to bite Victor’s shirt.
Victor sighed like the universe was unreasonable. "If that’s what you want," he murmured more softly, "then that’s what they’ll do."
Elias nodded, satisfied.
Victor leaned in and kissed his cheek. "We’ll raise them your way."
Elias corrected him quietly, "Our way."
Victor’s expression melted, soft, warm, and full of something too big to name.
And beneath all the chaos, all the sparks, all the dinosaurs and miniature firestorms, Elias realized this was the moment he would remember when people asked what bonding felt like.
Family. Right here. Loud, messy, and divine.