Autism Acceptance Month Daily Prompts 2023

Prompt 3 : Nonverbal

**Past child abuse, panic attack
Prompt : Write a fic where a character either is nonverbal or goes nonverbal
Fandom : The Owl House
Pairing(s) : Hunter & Darius, Darius/Alador (mentioned)
Headcanon(s) : Autistic!Hunter, Hunter's new pet bird is named Pancake, Hunter (and Alador) use an AAC device, Autistic!Alador (mentioned)

It'd been a few weeks since Luz went away to college, so her regular visits to the Boiling Isles came to a sudden halt.

That wasn't to say she blocked them all out or anything. She would often video call with her mother, who would invite the others to join in on the call and she'd even sent a few handwritten letters, but her physical presence in their world had stopped.

Hunter wasn't taking it too well.

He understood ahead of time, of course, the concept of her no longer being with them, but it was different when it actually happened. She'd been a constant in their lives for years, and now it had been several weeks without her.

His mood had been shifting wildly with her absence- Sometimes it was panic over the idea that she'd abandoned her. That she'd abandoned him. Other times, it was depression. He ate less and less and spent more time in his room, just staring at the ceiling.

All this was weighing on him, and it eventually led to a nonverbal episode.

Truly, he felt silly for not sensing it sooner. He knew that he'd go silent if he got so overwhelmed- It'd been an issue his whole life, but he hadn't dealt with it that much since Belos was defeated. At most, he'd get a little overstimulated and go nonverbal for a few hours and then he'd be back to normal.

But, this was familiar, this quietness. He knew as soon as he woke up that he wouldn't be talking for a while, and that thought scared the living daylights out of him.

See, no one knew this was a thing that could happen. The only people that knew of these episodes was Belos, who'd grown so tired of the quirk over each generation of grimwalker that, by the time Hunter came around, he had no tolerance for it and would lock the boy in a room for days on end until he got talking again.

This thought made him feel horrible. What if Darius locked him up? What if Willow realized how weird he was and broke up with him? What if everyone abandoned him?

Darius knocked on his door and he flinched back wildly, his breath picking up. Pancake went over to the door and opened it- Hunter was in his pajamas, so it wasn't really an invasion of privacy to let the coven head inside.

"Oh, Hunter" Darius said sadly upon seeing the boy's panicked state. He slowly and cautiously sat by the boy on the bed, just holding out his hand and allowing him to grip on as tight as he needed to calm down. Eventually, the panic wore away, but Hunter still looked nervous. "What is wrong, little prince?"

Hunter opened his mouth to speak but no words came out, causing a few fresh tears to fall. Darius frowned for a moment before getting up and leaving the room, which made Hunter cry more because he was right. Darius was abandoning him.

Only, that wasn't the case, as the older witch returned a minute or two later holding a tablet. It was a device they'd gotten from the human realm for when Hunter or Alador couldn't speak. All they had to do was type into it and an automated voice would speak for them.

'Can't talk' Hunter typed slowly, keeping his gaze focused solidly on the device.

"Well, that's okay" Darius chuckled, surprised that this is what got Hunter so worked up. The kid went quiet all the time, as did Alador. They both would get overstimulated and then go "nonverbal", as the human called it, and then they'd be fine again. It was just part of their normal, and no one judged them for it, especially since plenty of other people in the Isles dealt with the same thing.

'You don't understand' Hunter typed. 'This isn't just going to fix itself in a few hours. I'm probably going to be like this for a few days at LEAST'

"Oh" Darius said, and Hunter cried a little bit more.

'I'm so sorry' Hunter typed through tears. 'I'm sorry, Darius, I'm so sorry' he repeated, his breath coming out in short gasps as he began to sob. 'I didn't mean to get so worn down, honest. I'm so sorry'

"Hey, none of that" Darius told him firmly and Hunter finally looked up at him, scared out of his mind. "Can I hug you, Hunter?"

...

'What?'

"Well, I'd like to hug you to let you know that I'm not upset with you, but I don't want to touch you if that'll stress you out any more" he explained. "So, can I hug you?"

'Please'

And so, Darius leaned over and wrapped his arms around the sobbing boy. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Hunter gave a small tap on the man's back, his tears mostly gone.

"I'm not mad at you, kid" Darius told him firmly. "It's okay if you're not back to normal for a bit, okay? And I'm sure the others will understand, too. We love you, Hunter"

'Belos would lock me up when I got like this' Hunter responded after a moment and now Darius was the one tearing up.

"Oh, kid..."

'Don't pity me, please' Hunter typed immediately. 'It's just hard to grasp that you won't do the same'

"Never, prince" Darius told him. "I promise, okay? I'll never do anything like that to you. I love you more than anything in this world, got it? I'd sooner gauge my eyes out than do something like that to you. We'll work through these next few days or even longer however you need to"

Hunter just smiled and leaned against him and Darius knew that was his way of saying Thank you and I love you

"I love you too, kid"

AUTHOR'S NOTE : I HAVE JUST LEARNED THE BIRD'S NAME IS CANONICALLY WAFFLE AND WILL CHANGE THAT ON THE AO3 PORT OF THIS FIC WHEN THAT IS POSTED AT THE END OF THIS MONTH!!