-Aesop’s POV-

Life with Victor was amazing. The only downside? None :) Victor is a very happy boy that reminds me of Eli sometimes, and he always manages to cheer me up. Like when I went to visit my “parents” to see how they were doing. Unfortunately, they had moved away, so I’m completely cut off from them. But that was the past, and I’ve moved on. Losing the powers of Exorcist wasn’t really that bad, since there isn’t any world-saving to do, but I found out from Emily that slowly over time, my powers will grow back. But I’m not going to use them ever again, in fear that Eli will lose his life. But that’s not what this spin-off is about; it’s about Victor and his great (?) idea.

I was cooking in the kitchen, preparing dinner, when I heard Victor coming back from a playdate with Luca and Andrew. “Welcome back Vicky!” I called, but was confused to find no answer. I turned around and saw no one there, but then I saw a small hat poking out from behind a counter suspiciously. I resisted the urge to smile, then turned back around, saying, “Oh well, guess he’s not home.” I felt a presence behind him, and he silently laughed under his mask. 

“BOO!!” Victor yelled, jumping onto my back. “Aaaah!” I yelled, laughing. “Did I scare you?” Victor asked, clutching onto my shoulders for life. “Yes, you are a sneaky boy,” I giggled, bending down so Victor could get down. “Hello Sop,” Eli greeted, coming into the kitchen to join us. Eli wrapped his arms around Victor and lifted him up, spinning in circles. “Wheee!!” Victor giggled. Seconds after Eli placed him back down, coming over and giving me a hug. “Hey Sop, can we go talk for a bit? Over there?” he asked, pointing towards a more private area. “Okay, just let me finish this,” I replied, turning back to cooking.

“So what did you want to talk about?” I asked, sitting on the couch next to Eli. “I found this in Victor’s backpack,” Eli said, handing me what looked like one of his assignments. I quickly scanned it not seeing anything wrong. “Look down here,” Eli explained, pointing towards the last question, which read, ‘What is your wish?’ Victor had written, ‘To have a little brother :D’ I looked over at Eli, who seemed nervous. “Is there something wrong with this?” I asked. Eli nodded, then said, “He wants a brother, right?” I nodded, not sure where this was going. “If he wanted one, we could get him one, right?” Once again, I nodded. “But there is a problem.”

“Just get to the point Eli,” I said. He looked at me. “We can’t go to the orphanage because Victor would know what we were doing. It has to be a surprise!” he whisper-shouted, holding my shoulders. “Then what will we do?” I asked, blinking. Eli blinked back at me. “You don't see what we have to do here?” he asked. “Wow. And I thought Tracy was innocent,” he said as I tilted my head in confusion. Eli grabbed my hand and pulled me to the front door, putting on his coat.

“Vicky, we’re going to go buy some potatoes! You stay home, okay? Call our neighbors if you need help!” “Okay!” Victor shouted back. Eli pulled me outside, dragging me to an unknown place. “Wait- Eli!” I tried to get him to stop walking for a bit. “We can’t just leave Victor alone at home!” “Don't worry, we’re only going to be out for a few minutes.” “But why?” I asked, still being dragged. “We need to go see Hastur,” he replied. “But couldn’t we just text him or something?” I asked. Eli turned towards me. “He doesn’t believe in phones. Now come on, let’s go.”

At Hastur’s house, Eli barged in without knocking. “Hastur! You home?” he shouted, looking around. I noticed that the house seemed deserted. “Eli, I don't think he’s here,” I said, holding his arm for warmth. “No, he is. I’ve come here before,” he said. I narrowed my eyes at him, and he quickly said, “Um, for advice! Not for anything else, of course!” I laughed, playfully punching him. But I must’ve hit him a bit too hard, since later I saw him rubbing his arm.

“Oh wait, I forgot. If Hastur isn’t around he’s probably in his kingdom.” “Wait- Hastur has a WHAT-” Eli went around a corner, and I quickly followed him. “Look around. The button is in here somewhere,” Eli said, feeling the walls and floor. I just looked around the room, a plain, sort of dark, room. Dust could be seen here and there, and there was little furniture. The only thing that really stood out was a desk with few items sitting near the walls. I walked over to it, picking up a chibi figure of some random person. Underneath, there was a puzzle, but one piece stuck out. I pushed it in, and immediately afterwards, the floor shook and we fell through it.

“Oof!” I fell on the floor, expecting to hit hard cement, but instead I felt a soft velvet pillow. “What the-” I opened my eyes, shocked to find that around me were all sorts of fancy things like gold statues and fountains. Besides me, Eli was stuck in the pillow head first, his legs kicking around. I laughed, pulling him up and fixing his hair, pulling his hood back over it. “Oh, we made it!” he exclaimed, bouncing on the pillow in excitement. But all of a sudden he fell off the side.

“Eli!” I exclaimed, rushing over to the side of the pillow, jumping off it and landing perfectly. “I’m alright, just fell,” he laughed, getting up. He looked forward, pointing at a pile of gold. “If my memory serves correctly, he should be behind there.” He walked forward, then around the large pile. I followed closely behind him, in case something would jump out at us.

“Waah!” Eli was suddenly pulled away by a purple blur. I ran forward and was confused to find that he was hanging upside down, a tentacle on his ankle. I felt a cold sensation around me, and before I knew it, a tentacle had risen me off the ground by my waist. Strangely enough, there were octopus plushies on the ground around us. I didn’t even remember where they came from.

“Hey Eli, where did those plushies come from?” I asked him, thinking that maybe he would know. When he looked down though, he seemed a bit frightened. “Wait, what day is it today?!” he yelled randomly. “Uh… I think it’s the 31st,” I replied, wondering why he was asking that. “How did I forget?? Today is the gathering!” he exclaimed. “What gathering??” I yelled back. Eli pointed at the plushies. “Those dudes are real! They’re Hastur’s followers, and every 31st they gather here to try and speak with him!”

“Hastur’s followers? What-” Suddenly, I was interrupted when one of the little octopi jumped up onto my shoe. It hopped up onto my arm. “Oh, he’s actually kinda cute- OW!” The darn thing bit my arm, then made a noise like laughing. A bunch more jumped onto the tentacle, climbing up towards me. “Stay back!” I shouted, while seeing that some others were climbing Eli. “Wait! Why aren’t they hurting you?” I exclaimed. “Oh, that’s ‘cause they know me-”

Suddenly, the tentacle disappeared, dropping me and Eli. Octopi rained on us, bouncing on the floor. “I told you all, only the trustworthy know how to get in here. You don't have to attack every new person here,” a voice said. I turned around, and standing beside me was the god we were looking for. Hastur turned his eyes all around, as if he was trying to look everywhere at once. But most of them landed on me and Eli, making me uncomfortable.

“Hastur! Heyo!” Eli shouted casually, standing up and going over to him. I stood up as well, watching the little octopi to make sure they wouldn’t try to hurt me again. “What did you come here for, fortune teller?” Hastur asked, making a bored expression (at least, I think so. It’s hard to tell with him not having a face and all). “I came here to ask you something,” Eli said, then, “But first, can you go into your mortal form? You’re so tall my neck hurts.”

“Then you know what the photographer feels like,” Hastur replied, before gesturing to the ceiling. “Let’s go talk in the house.” He wrapped us with tentacles again, and after a blink, we were standing in the dusty home again. “Maybe I should clean up,” Hastur muttered, then, with a wave of his hand, the house instantly warmed up, and all the dust disappeared. The kitchen wafted wonderful smells, and soft music started playing.

“You could have done this the whole time?” I said, staring at him with an annoyed expression. “Well, I may have forgotten to do the chores for a while,” he replied, all of his eyes blinking. “Ok, well, mortal form?” Eli asked. “Oh. Right,” Hastur put his hands over our eyes. “What-” “Shush,” he interrupted me. “You can’t see the transformation. “I… can’t see anyways,” Eli commented.

A quick flash, and his hands were gone from our eyes. Hastur stood in front of us, but on actual legs. He wasn’t as tall as before, but was still taller than us. His many eyes disappeared, leaving only two sparkling red eyes in his human face. White hair came down over his shoulders, splattered with red like a murder scene. “Better?” he asked sarcastically.

We sat comfortably on Hastur’s couch, holding hot cocoa in our hands. Or, rather, I was holding it, while Eli was drowning himself in it. Hastur watched him with what I assume was confusion. Maybe he found it entertaining to watch a grown man spill chocolate all over him. “Can we just get this over with?” I asked impatiently. “We literally just came here to exchange three words, and now suddenly we’re in your living room preparing for a sleepover,” I said sarcastically.

“Alright alright, what is it you want to know?” Hastur asked, looking at me expectantly. I looked over at Eli, who was on his fifth cup of cocoa. “Ahem,” I elbowed him, trying to get his attention. “Huh?” he turned towards me, and I held back a laugh. What was visible of his face was smeared in brown. “Um, tell Hastur what you need,” I said while wiping off chocolate from his face.

“Oh yeah! I almost forgot!” Eli turned towards Hastur, all smiles. “I was gonna ask if we’re in an omegaverse,” Hastur choked on his drink. “Wh-” he stared at Eli with widened eyes. “Um, what’s an omega thing?” I asked. Hastur looked at me, probably wondering why he had to deal with us. He sighed, rubbing his temples. “I can’t answer that question, but technically for the sake of this spin-off, yes, we are,” he said. “What’s a spin-off-” But before I could finish my sentence we found ourselves outside of his home. Inside the windows, everything looked as dead as when we first got here. “Let’s just get home to Victor,” I mumbled, running down the street.

Once home, I ran into the living room, sighing in relief to find that Victor was just fine. “Vicky, we’re back,” I said to him, sitting next to him. “Huh?” He looked up at me. “I hope you weren’t too lonely being by yourself for an entire hour,” I said. “But- didn’t you just leave?” he asked, confused. “Huh?” I turned to Eli, who magically had perfectly clean clothes. “The power of gods,” he smiled.

***

“Eli?” I called, sitting on my bed. For some reason, he had been in the restroom for a long time. He had insisted that he use my bathroom, even though he had his own. I suspected that he broke something, and was about to go check, when I heard, “I’m coming soon.” Eli walked out of the bathroom, his hair all frizzled up and his blue eyes revealed to me. He sat down next to me. “Is there something you need?” he asked. I looked at him. “Why did we spend an entire hour at Hastur’s place just to ask about an omega thingy?”

Eli smiled at me suspiciously. “You know how you said that you would give Victor what he wants?” I nodded. “And that he mentioned wanting a brother?” I nodded again. “Well, since we’re in an omegaverse, we can give him that!” he exclaimed, smiling, as if I should know what he’s saying. “Aaand…?” I asked. “Oh come on! Don't tell me you don't know!” he flapped his arms, waving them around randomly. “Uh, I can search it up, if you want-” “anOPE,” he took my phone away and stuffed it in a drawer.

“Then can I at least know why you were in my restroom?” I asked. “Oh, I was just looking for evidence of what you are,” he said. “Huh?” I asked. “Luckily, with my information gathered, I can assume that I am your alpha~” he smirked, leaning closer to me. I leaned backwards, confused, until I couldn’t hold my position anymore and fell onto the bed. “So, Aesop,” Eli said casually while bringing his legs off the floor onto the bed. “Do you want to know what it means to have your husband be an alpha?” he asked. “Uh… yes? I’d like to know what’s going on,” I answered. “Then let me show you,” he whispered.

***

“Hey Vicky!” I shouted, coming through the front door with excitement and joy pouring out of me. “Guess what I brought ho~me!” I sang, gesturing to Eli to close the door behind us. He smiled at me, a huge smile bigger than almost all of his smiles. Victor came running through the house, stopping in front of us with Wick. “What is it? What is it?” he asked, seemingly almost as happy as me. I bent down moving the blankets aside that I held. Victor gasped, long and loud. His smile was even wider than Eli’s. “OH. MY. GOOOOOOOSH!!!” he screamed, bouncing on his toes. “IS THAT A (CHICKEN-) BABY?!?!” I smiled, holding him out towards him. “Yes, it is (a chicken-).” His name is Naib, and he’s not only a baby boy, he is your brother!”

Words could not express the absolute joy (read that as chaos) that ran around the house for the entire night. Victor could barely even fall asleep. I had many sleepless nights taking care of Naib, and so did Eli, but I think we both agreed that it was totally worth it to see the joy on Victor’s face to have made this decision.

Years later, when Victor is in school, and Naib can talk, Eli and I thought that we could finally relax with them being old enough to at least watch themselves for five minutes. But boy, were we wrong. “YAAA-HOOOOO!!!” Naib yelled, running around the house at incredible speeds. “Naib!” I tried to catch him but missed, while Eli sat there watching uselessly. “Hey everyone! Watch this!!” he shouted, climbing the fridge. “NAIB-” before I finished, he leaped off the fridge, did a double backflip, and landed on his feet.

“Ta-daaa!” he exclaimed, puffing his little chest in pride. Eli totally lost it in the living room, rolling with laughter. I stared at Naib, thinking, ‘He better hope that he can read minds,’ He opened his eyes, saw me, said, “Uh oh,” and ran up the stairs. Life was crazy. But not nearly as crazy as it had been years ago in the showdown again Lucky. If I could survive that, then I can survive 16 years with a hyper mini sonic and useless husband. But hey, who am I to complain? You’re life probably sucks more than mine does -w-

-End-

PS: To this day, nobody still knows yet that a small group of friends had saved all of the world as we know it.