Over the next few days, leading into a week, Daniel had become an outcast amongst everyone. Those on the streets and even at the palace began to shun him, children and teachers alike at the school only made matters worse, either avoiding him or taunting him with hurtful comments.

  "Freak"

  "Monster"

  "Demon born of sin"

And  the insults...tossing his things across the room or knocking them out of his arms, telling him to go fetch. Calling him flea infested, mocking him with barking. Almost everyday he would arrive home crying until Luke and Grayson had no other choice but to pull him from public school and homeschool him instead. The boy was learning a lot under the wings of his parents, Grayson teaching hm much about geography and Luke teaching about politics and the way the imperial government was run. It was all confusing to his young mind but eventually he got it down. They took him camping and hunting, teaching him how to survive on his own. It was nice, but...his dad's fought often and it was almost always about him.
He missed Rufus, but as time past, he decided to embrace his animal half. After all, he had no other choice. He had searched and searched but nothing he found offered any reliable solutions that would not possibly result in his death or the complete scrambling of his brain and memories. He would rather keep his memories with all of his hardships and pain so that he could also remember all of the happy moments he had shared with his family, then to forget everything and watch his parents completely fall apart, only knowing them in their depressed, guilt filled states. He could not put his parents through more pain.
He sat on his bed, looking down at Rufus's color. Some of his fur was still on the leather. His thumb ran along the silver, looking at his reflection. For a moment, it was like he could hear two heartbeats beating inside of his chest.

  This is who you are now, Daniel. Now and forever, and that's okay.

The boy put the collar firmly around his neck, being sure that it would not choke him as he moved his head. Once secured, he held onto the tag, apologizing to his doggie best friend, wondering if his soul was unconscious inside of his own body or if he had passed on into another, better life. Daniel knew better than to keep his mind tangled with such insoluble questions. A sliver of a smile came to his cheeks.
Suddenly, he gasped and straightened his back as his dad raised his voice, Luke beginning to once again become angered with Grayson. Daniel stood, making his way to his door. He cracked it open, listening in silence to his parents argument.

  "Stop saying that everything is okay! It's not!" Luke shouted, tears running down his red hot cheeks. "Our son is never going to be normal again because of you!"

Grayson growled, his chest rising and falling with quickened breaths that burned as it rushed out from his flaring nostrils. "Me? And how could you say that?! That is still our little boy! It doesn't matter what he looks like! How many times have we gone over this?!"

Luke snapped back. "I know that, Grayson! No matter what, I still love him! Don't you ever think that I don't!...If you would have just listened and watched over him and kept him away from that magic sh*t, he'd be fine! He would have friends, he'd still have his best friend and we wouldn't be like this!"

  "This isn't my fault! If anything it's both of our faults! We should have been watching him and-and teaching him..." Grayson's tears were plummeting to the floor drop after drop. "And we didn't."

They became silent for a brief moment, hiccuping and taking in sharp breaths. They both felt guilty for what had happened. Even so, Luke could not set aside his fears. He could not put out that burning anger.

  "What sort of life is he going to live? People are treating him like an animal and once he's an adult, what do you think they'll do to him? Huh?"

The blonde stayed silent, not knowing how to answer. Luke cleared his throat, catching his breath to continue. "They could traffic him, enslave him, kill him! H**l, they could do that to him now if we weren't around!"

  "Shut the h**l up!"

  "You know that, Grayson. He can't make friends because everyone either hates him because his parents are gay or because he's part dog! Once we're gone, who is he going to have? Not the emperor, not your buddy Drake."

Grayson snarled. "Don't you dare start with Drake."

  "Drake is dead, Grayson!...I-" He snapped. "Aaaahhhh!" He screamed, grabbing a handful of his hair.

They both fell silent as a light, trembling voice hit their ears. "Dad? Daddy?"

Their heads turned, eyes coming to rest on their quivering, crying son. All the anger seemed to disappear, guilt taking its place. All Luke could do was let out a murmur of Daniel's name, hand falling back to his side. The child whined in his k9ish manner, tail between his legs. Grayson turned his head and wiped his eyes, not wanting his son to see his tears. Tears flowed from the child's eyes, sniffing up the mucus slowly leaking from his nostrils.
Before the parents could get another word out, Daniel turned and his heels and ran back upstairs. Grayson and Luke chased after, catching up only to get a door slammed in their faces.

  "Daniel!" Luke called before Grayson opened the door.

They stepped into the darkness, their vision adjusting to see the child laying on his bed, face in his pillows. It broke their hearts to hear his sobs, hiccups, and gasps for breath. Daniel hugged his pillow, biting his lip as his mattress lowered, feeling as both fathers sat down next to him. He rolled over to face the wall, unable to bring himself to look at them.

  "Daniel, we're sorry. We're sorry for fighting so much." Grayson said, pulling his hand away from his son when he flinched.

Luke cleared his throat. "Honey, we love you and no matter what, we always will. We're a family, all three of us! Yes, we've been having a difficult time, but...we will get through this, okay?"

The child remained silent, his fingers grabbing the tag of his collar, seeking comfort in the good memories before the accident. They tried comforting him, but nothing seemed to work. Eventually the two decided to leave him be, leaving the room, closing the door behind them. Grayson and Luke locked eyes, the deep seeded sorrow and guilt strongly apparent in one another.

  "Grayson..." The assassin nearly choked from the tears. "I'm sorry...about everything. I'm sorry for losing my temper a-and not watching over him! I should have..."

His tears were falling to the floor. "It's not your fault. You're right, we both should have been better parents. I-I need to be a better parent."

Grayson pulled him into a hug, placing his hand on the back of his head, forcing it beneath his beanie, running through his soft hat headed hair. He whispered soothing words into his ears, assuring him that he was a great parent and that neither of them could have predicted this. He then chuckled, asking the rhetorical question of why they had been arguing this whole time. His voice was cracking as well, tearing falling onto Luke's back.
Daniel laid in his bed in the fetal position, his eyes burning and tears dried upon his pale skin. His breathing had relaxed but his mind was far from peace. His parents were going to continue fighting as long as he was around. He would only make their lives more difficult. They'd be too worried, too scared to live their own lives...
An idea came to his head, a scary idea.
Daniel pushed himself out of his bed, quietly shuffling across the room so his parents would not hear. The tears had returned to his emerald and boysenberry shaded eyes, his sharp teeth quick to draw blood as he bit his lip. He tossed a small black leather poncho cape over his shoulders, wrapping an eggplant colored scarf around his neck over his mask that he pulled up over his mouth to hide his sharp fangs. He packed a few personal items in a backpack, a dagger, magic books and chalk, and a crossbow with a few arrows.
He grabbed one last item, a photo of him and his family before the accident. They all looked so happy. Rufus was by the fully human Daniel's side and his parents stood behind him, wide smiles of genuine happiness across their cheeks. A warm tear spilled onto the photo, running down as he held it at an angle. He could not take it. It was too painful. Leaving the photo behind, as well as his previous life, Daniel opened the window, greeted by a gust of cold air before slipping out into the darkness.
...

Luke groaned as he opened his eyes, comforted by his mate's arms wrapped around his chest. As his regained consciousness caused him to yawn and shift his body, Grayson too awoke. For the first time in awhile, he smiled to have woken up with Luke in his arms. He placed a kiss in his messy lavender hair, pulling him closer despite his lover trying to slip from his grasp.

  "Good morning."

Luke smiled, rolling over so their noses nearly touched. "Good morning, sweet cheeks." They both leaned in and kissed with more passion sparking then there had been since Daniel had his magic accident.

They pulled away, Grayson finally allowing Luke to sit up as he to sat up, stretching his arms above his head with a loud yawn. They both had heavy bags beneath their eyes, sclera tinted red from the tears they had shed the previous night. They thought about their child, tension and worry quickly building up in the atmosphere around the couple.

  "Hopefully he doesn't get pink eye after last night." Luke said simply, lifting the covers and tossing his legs over the side of the bed. Grayson's smile lowered as they both shared a sigh.

Luke collected saliva in his mouth so it was moist enough for him to speak. "I don't know what to say to make it better...we fought about him but we never thought about his feelings when it came to our stupid conflicts." He put his forehead against his palm, fingers pulling his hair.

  "How are we supposed to fix everything we have broken?"

  "Let's just keep our voices down and show him all of the love and attention that we should have been showing this entire time. Not just to him, but to each other."

Luke smiled as he glanced to his mate. That was exactly what he, what they would do. The two got dressed and fixed themselves up for the day, looking to their son's door as they left their own room. They could only hope that his day would be better than it had been for so long, that he was not having nightmares at that exact moment. They went downstairs, helping each other to cook breakfast.
Breakfast laid out for the boy had gone cold around 30 to noon. Both Luke and Grayson were becoming anxious.

  "He doesn't usually sleep this long. I need to go wake him." Luke pushed himself from his seat, Grayson quickly doing the same.

Luke approached Daniel's door, hesitating for a second before knocking on the wood with the back of his knuckles. He called out, telling Daniel that it was time to wake up. A knot twisted in his stomach when there was no response, not even a groan. Grayson walked up from behind, pointing out the omission cold rush of air coming from the crack at the bottom of the door. Finally Luke reached out, twisting the doorknob until he heard a faint click.
As Luke pushed the door open, they were swatted by a gust of ice chilled air. Luke's head peered past the doorway, only able to open his mouth before his heart seemed to stop. The window was wide open, their son...gone.

  "Daniel!" Luke screamed at the top of his lungs, dashing to the window.

He stuck his head out, looking down, left, and right but there was no sight of his beloved child. Grayson could barely keep up as Luke turned and ran down stairs, opening the door and running outside calling his son's name. Grayson had chased him for nearly a block before the assassin had collapsed in grief.
Grayson fell to his knees behind him, wrapping his arms around Luke. The heterochromatic turned his body, hands grabbing Grayson's chest as the blonde pulled him close. They cried against each other, trying hard not to blame themselves, but it was near impossible. It was impossible.
...

He wondered the land for months traveling north. It was difficult to get out of the empire with all of the bandits out for him for his abnormal appearance and being the son of two highly renounced nobleman. One way or another, he managed to make his way through, just slipping out into the badlands. He was lucky that his parents had taught him how to hunt and survive on his own in the wilderness, otherwise he never would have made it this far. Daniel wiped away the tear that welled in his eye at the memories of his parents that he still loved so much. He wondered how they were getting by now.
The boy could see a village up head, an odd scent of burned wood flooding to his nostrils. He wondered how these people would react to a child wondering all all alone, if these were people at all. They could have been Paganum. His back shivered with the creeps at the thought. As he got closer, the child noticed something odd about the town. His eyes grew, his steps getting slower.
Buildings were burned, some partially destroyed while others were completely demolished to the ground. It was as if the town was raided by enemies. He was scared to look around, afraid to see corpses litter the ground. Fortunately he saw none, at least not yet. His heart was pounding, suddenly sweating from the pores on his skin. There was no aroma of burnt flesh, much to his relief. Perhaps there were no casualties?

  "Hello?" Daniel's breath caught in his throat, his body becoming stiff. It wasn't him who called out. Someone else was here.

Daniel's thoughts began to run wild. His tail went between his legs, wondering if whoever this was was friend or foe. Based on the man's voice, he was definitely older as to be expected. Should he fight, run, hide? Running was a cowards move...one he would not make again, but fighting at the lower level defense magic he was in would result in death. He had to hide. Swiftly, Daniel got behind a partially destroyed wall of a building, getting in through a part of the wall that was more destroyed than a majority of the rest, at least on the east side of the former home.

He tried to calm his breathing, listening closer to the deep male voice. "Anyone here?" There was a brief pause as he awaited a response. "Nope, still nothing."

Daniel took off a strap of his backpack, scavenging through his items to find his dagger. Finally he grabbed the handle with his gloved fingers, pulling it out as a mean of defense. He listened anxiously as the footsteps grew closer, crunching against the dirt and debris. I was getting more difficult to breathe, then suddenly, the footsteps came to a halt.

  "H-hey...hey! Come out! It-it's okay!" Daniel's heart seemed to freeze. The only way this person could have known that he was there was if...

  "I don't mean you any harm! I'm here to help anyone who survived the attack. Here, I have health potions and everything."

Daniel could hear clinging glass from bottles of healing elixir. His heart was racing with too much haste for comfort, sweating profusely from how nervous and scared he now was. This guy must have been a Mage. Why did his life force feel so corrupt? Why was it so powerful? Daniel could no longer resist the temptation, peering out from his place of hiding. His eyes settled upon a pair of legs, traveling up and up until his neck hurt, finally resting on a face that left him terrified. Daniel yelped and fell back, pushing himself back a bit. He whimpered in fear.
The person standing before him wore blue clothing reduced to near rags, black spread across his chest from the corroded black skin that infected the right half of his face. One eye was purple and magenta while the other was glossed over, holding almost nothing inside of it. His right ear was long, coming to a point. A demon hybrid...like the one his father Grayson had told him stories about.

  "Oh! Hi!" The demon hybrid did not not know what to say, especially once he saw Daniel's ears and tail. A hybrid..just like him.

  "Y-you're...a hybrid...like me."

Daniel swallowed a lump in his throat, body trembling. "My name is D-Daniel. You?"

The demon hybrid took a moment to collect his thoughts that had been scrambled. "My name is Drake. It's nice to meet you, Daniel... I never thought that I would meet someone else like me! And I can sense your mana. Another Mage!"

Daniel giggled at the other hybrid's enthusiasm.
Drake's smile disappeared as he realized something. Where was this kids parents? He looked around but saw, nor sensed any other life force aside from Daniel's and his own. There was no one else around. He had not seen any bodies in the area so perhaps in all of the chaos from the raid, the others had escaped but accidentally left their child behind? Some parents.

  "Pardon me for asking, but...where are your parents." He was afraid to ask.

Daniel looked to the ground, hurt coming over his eyes that made Drake regret asking. "I ran away a few months ago. I only made life difficult for them after I...for what I am."

Drake was alarmed when he began to cry. He stepped over the rubble, kneeling beside the boy as he put on a smile, holding out the health potion for the boy to take, rather he needed it or not. Daniel looked up at his warm smile, his sorrow suddenly becoming distant.

  "Listen, Daniel." He spoke gently, so calm with a voice so soothing. "I'm sure that you're parents are worried sick about you, and just because you're a hybrid, it does not mean that they love you any less. Anyone should be grateful to have you as their son."

Drake didn't expect the boy's arms to toss themselves around him, holding him tight as he listened to the boy gently crying on his shoulder. Drake hugged him and rubbed his back to comfort him.

  "You know, you look a lot like an old friend of mine..."