Dear son

Sixth chapter

Hiii!

So... I just realized how many cute and fluffy chapters there are! I am so sorry :')

This one is especially fluffy, you'll see why.

There is only one TW in this whole chapter: ass-biting ferrets.

Thank you for reading and I hope you'll enjoy!

Best wishes,
Mr. Worldwide

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Dear son,

Congratulations! You were at your first party last night, possibly making you the youngest person to ever attend a party at only two years and two months old.
And let me tell you, you were a fantastical party attendee. You were entertaining guests, walking around and handing out beer bottles and best of all: you and Nico fell asleep together on the couch (there are so many funny videos and pictures, I'll show you when you're older).
Another good thing about this was, that since you were there, I didn't drink too much and don't have a hangover now.
Felix was there too, we all fell asleep together in my bed, after I woke you and Nico up. It was very sweet. Nico got his revenge this morning and took a picture of the scene (he sent it to me with about a hundred heart emojis attached, but that is my own fault for having friends that use emojis).
Now you're out in the yard playing with Felix -who by the way had a very bad hangover- and Nico and I are cleaning up the house before granny and grandpa get home tonight.
Aaaand he's throwing paper towels at me, I need to go back to helping him!

With all my heart,
Your Mom

"Where the fuck is that house?" Luke grunted, trying to read google maps, but we were so far into the forest that even google couldn't help us anymore.
Gaia had invited us to her house for dinner, so we went there after training on wednesday night. Luke had been excited for it all day, now not so much anymore.
"Come on, she has given us detailed instructions!" I said while taking a left turn, stripping some bushes in the process.
"Yeah on fucking paper!"
Even though Luke didn't seem to trust anything analogue anymore, he pulled out the paper Gaia had given us after school and started reading it aloud. He then looked at me wildly confused. "See? That doesn't make any sense! How are we supposed to-"
"We're on step seven, there's only two right turns left and then we should be there."
The bewilderment on Luke's face grew and he looked at me with a stare that said if we were in the middle ages he would now burn me on a stick for witchcraft. I laughed.
"I just memorised the instructions. That's all. Now put away your phone, we're on an adventure."
"We're going to eat at a friend's house."
"Have you ever been this deep into the woods? Because I sure haven't."
Luke rolled his eyes, but I sure noticed his lips twitching suspiciously.
We did manage to find the house and I turned out to be right. We entered a very long and broad gravel driveway. In the corner of my eye I could see some bunnies and foxes running into the bushes surrounding the path. I had to keep myself from stopping the car and running after them, because I had never seen wild bunnies or foxes up close.
"Holy shit..."
I looked in the same direction Luke and noticed exactly what he was staring at. A wooden, fairy-tale-like house with small towers, surrounded by trees and bushes. Everything was blooming, bees and other insects were buzzing around and when I paid a little bit more attention to the thing surrounding the house I could see animals hanging around almost everywhere.
Two bunnies were cuddled up together underneath a raspberry bush, their babies hopping around them. A crow was sitting on the brownish brick roof, overlooking the garden, a squirrel close by, keeping an eye on the crow. Somewhere in the distance there were dogs barking and cats meowing.
"Okay, I have a question... Is there any chance that we became friends with a literal disney princess?" I asked, my eyes still glued to the house and garden.
"I think we did..."
The gate of the overgrown, old fence swung open. Gaia walked through it with a sparrow on her shoulder and two hedgehogs following her like small dogs and then a big dog came. It towered over Gaia like a big, black shadow waiting for the perfect moment to kill its prey.
"That's a hellhound!" I exclaimed.
Luke's face visibly drained from any colour at the sight of Gaia so close to a monster. Automatically his hand slid to his belt, but of course there was no weapon there.
"Fuck!" He bared his teeth. "How the fuck is she not seeing that?!"
And then he was out of the car, running towards Gaia. I followed, frantically waving my arms, while Luke was pointing at the hellhound behind her, yelling for the girl.
The sight of both of us running to her at full speed and screaming like idiots, startled Gaia and she stopped, picking up one of the hedgehogs. Tilting her head she waited until we were close enough to understand her.
"What the fuck is up with you? Did Kiwi bite  you in the ass already?"
There was no time to ask who Kiwi was or why it sounded like she expected Kiwi to bite us in the ass at some point during our time here. I pointed at the hellhound too and said:
"Because there is a hellhound like a metre away from you!"
"Yeah, so?"
The fact that Gaia still seemed to be utterly confused about our panic and the hellhound just sitting there, wagging its tail made us stop. On second look there seemed to be nothing threatening about the hellhound, it was just like a very oversized, happy dog. But it had to be dangerous! Those things spawned down in Tartarus and were a great threat to demigods.
"What do you mean 'yeah so'?" Luke was out of breath, pulling Gaia further away from the hellhound. "Those things are dangerous!"
"Not really, but they are very misunderstood. Right, Olga?"
The hellhound let out a whine, then rubbed herself in the face with her paw as if she was rubbing away fake tears. Gaia giggled, then she removed her wrist from Luke's grip and went back over to the hellhound. She petted its neck carefully and turned back around. Neither Luke nor me dared to say anything, since we obviously misinterpreted the situation or we were being pranked.
"This is Olga. She has been with me since we were both very small. She's pleased to meet you and wants you to know she is a very good girl."
Olga let out an enthusiastic bark and then sat down, demonstrating her good behaviour. It got her more cuddles from Gaia. It looked very... out of place, because Gaia basically disappeared in the long fur of the large dog.
"You own... a hellhound?" Luke sounded like he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Fair enough, even I wasn't sure what to think of this. The godly and experienced part in me just wanted to go and get my bow and take care of the monster. Then again it didn't seem to do any harm, but that didn't make any sense to me either. And lastly... it just looked so funny seeing Gaia disappear in a fluffy black cloud of furr.
Luke's question seemed to be some kind of offence, because Gaia's face emerged from the shadows and she had a very serious look on.
"I don't own her! I don't own any of these animals!" She shook her head and looked down at the hedgehogs by her feet. "They decide if and how long they want to stay with me. They're friends."
That was probably the coolest and most beautiful thing I ever heard anyone say. This was my dream life. Surrounded by cute animals, living that cottage core lifestyle...
"Do you have a garden too?" I asked.
"Yes, of course! I can show you."
Gaia didn't even wait for us to answer and just went back through the gate. We followed her around the house (and I could have sworn it got a bit warmer in here), passing a big, overgrown backyard. Again everything was full of animals. A golden retriever was running around, playing with her litter of tiny golden puppies, some cats were chilling on a pile of firewood and my personal favourite was a deer standing next to the bushes, chewing off some blackberries. It seemed like a dream.
But nothing could have prepared me for the garden. It was truly magnificent. Almost made me shed a tear.
The space was huge, filled with many different vegetables and fruit, everything neatly planted in rows. I tried to name everything I saw: carrots, tomatoes, radishes, some strawberries, various types of melons... wait! None of this was supposed to grow in the middle of September!
"Gaia? How is this possible? I mean it's way too cold to properly grow any of this."
"Yeah, about that..." Gaia grinned, completely in her element. "Pan, my father, gifted this house to my mom and me. It has a pretty great location and it's ideal for what we do, but the biggest advantage is that the temperature never changes here. It's always twenty-three degrees, perfect for growing crops."
"That's awesome!" I looked around to see what Luke was thinking about it, but he had clocked out of the conversation and was cuddling with an orange cat on the ground. "You like that, huh?"
Luke looked up with the biggest smile on his face and nodded while the kitty pressed its head against his chin. It could barely get enough scratches and pets.
"By the way, who is Kiwi?", I asked after we had all sat down on the grass, so Luke wouldn't have to separate from his cat.
Gaia chuckled and shook her head, then she bent forward, talking in a lowered tone:
"She's a ferret that has started staying here about a week ago and she's a complete nut job. Keeps biting all the animals in their asses."
I laughed, but believed her right away. Somehow ferrets had always given off an ass-biting-vibe to me. "Even Olga?"
I nodded towards the hellhound lying behind Gaia. Her relaxed body suddenly got very tense and her tail stopped wiping across the ground.
"Especially Olga. The little punk has some personal beef with her. It makes her very nervous." Olga let out a fitting whine and then hid her long snout underneath her paws, covering her eyes as well.
"I never thought I could say this," Luke was interrupted by the cat giving him a gentle kiss. "But that hellhound is so cute!"
Gaia smiled, leaning over to pet the cat. Luke leaned back so she had full range and smiled at her. So they were both just smiling at each other for a couple seconds, before Gaia answered.
"Thank you, we appreciate your feedback." They were still looking into each other's eyes.
Okay, I might never have been in a relationship or any of that stuff, but that was something. I could tell. Not what it was exactly, but the way I knew Luke it was probably only sexual tension. Hopefully he wouldn't act on it, because that would mess up this little friend group very quickly.
To defuse whatever tension there was, I brought myself back into the conversation.
"So, Gaia, do you have any plans this weekend? If not, you are invited to come to my birthday party."
"It's your birthday?" Gaias head spun around. "Of course I am coming! What do you want? And I can also bring food!"
That was exactly what I was afraid of. A person who likes birthdays. I did my best not to sigh and look miserable and calm Gaia down instead, because she seemed to be in deep thought about what to get for me.
"That's good. You don't need to get me anything, actually I would prefer it that way. And yes, you can bring something, I'm sure my mom would appreciate it."
I wasn't particularly fond of birthdays, especially not my own. The whole celebration and throwing a big party, blowing out candles and unwrapping gifts in front of everyone was just tacky. And exhausting. And there was way too much attention on me that I did not want.
But my mom liked it. She loved celebrating with me, inviting our family and eating together, so I never told her to actually stop throwing birthday parties for me. She probably would have, but I knew how much this meant to her.
I did get her to quit the candles on the cake, the singing and I got down to one gift per person. Except for Mom, that was the one thing she did not accept. She would always get me four: something to wear, something to read, something I need and something I want.
It was a tradition she had since she was a kid and she passed it on to me. Another reason I didn't have the heart to seriously tell her to stop. It was a precious childhood memory and I was going to be grateful for as long as it lasted.
"Alright, I will come and I'll bring something vegetarian. I know that doesn't mean much in your household, but I am afraid there will only be non-vegetarian things otherwise."
"Wrong!" I said proudly and patted Luke's back. "This guy actually bought the ingredients to make vegetarian lasagna."
Luke gave me a glance like I said something I wasn't supposed to, but I just shrugged. If vegetarian lasagna was a touchy subject for him, then he should have told me on the way here.
"Oh, that is the thing you told me about last week right?" Gaia asked. "I never actually had lasagna before, so I'm looking forward to trying it."
Ah, now I got it. The realisation hit me like a brick in the face and I really had to control my mouth, so I wouldn't start smiling. That idiot of a cousin, thinking that he's so subtle. He found out what Gaia likes, so he can cook it to impress her... Maybe there was more than just sexual interest behind this (Oh gods, please no! But I'll ask him in the car).
Me being distracted for two seconds was enough for the two of them to strike up a conversation all on their own. And it was about food and cooking so there was no way for me to butt in again.
So I just sat there, petting a black cat that hopped up on my lap and started purring like crazy. Actually, this wasn't so bad. I had a cute, furry thing to pay attention to and no one who wanted to talk to me. If only there wasn't this weird tension going on right next to me...

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Thank you so much for reading!

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