#the strength i harbor that it took to hold myself back and shorten this to just this was so much

[moroser]

Lilith trying to keep it together on Hunter's first day of school 🥺

this ask like ignited a flame in me cause god i love THEM. i have actually talked about this before to someone in great depth!!

the weeks before the school year she takes him school shopping and there's so much hype. lilith makes school seem Cool and fun and as a scholar herself and because she's been taking hunter to work with her at the museum she works at for his whole life, he loves learning already.

and they deck him out. new outfits, new backpack, new lunchbox, new shoes (they light up), the WORKS. he's so hype. she's so hype, so excited and proud. like wow, she did it. she raised a son for five whole years and now he's setting off into The World. the big garden of kinder.

the night before when she tucks him in she asks if he's nervous and he says he is but he's not scared. he specifies that. she'd tell him it's okay to be nervous but he's going to have fun and meet new friends and a new teacher.

he asks her if she will miss him and it catches her off guard and makes her blush. motherhood has sort of forced her into this exposure therapy type deal to many emotions and feelings she's never been so great at showing or feeling. but even so, it's never something that goes away. just adjusts and sculpts with time and more exposure to this life. she tells him that he's silly to ask a silly question like that when he knows darn well she will, silly. it makes him smile but he reassures her that it's just school and she will see him when she picks him up!!

that night she wouldn't sleep well. she feels like it's affecting her more than him that he's going to school now. it will be weird, she thinks. it's a weird sort of anxiety she gets, a separation anxiety and it makes her feel doltish. like relax, it's just kindergarten, he's not going to the moon.

at the school in the morning, he's so brave and he never wants lilith to worry too much, even when he's that young, but he doesn't realize that it's just mom feelings. she also keeps herself together fairly well, given the whole thing. when theyre at the door she's turn and hold her arms to him stiffly like, well. this is goodbye, son. and he'd throw himself at her and hug her TIGHT! and she'd hug him back before that boy is off to make friends and start a new chapter of his tiny life.

in my au it's pretty much just them. her and the boy. her entire life is reshaped and adjusted to have him and they spend every day together. so giving him away to the school is hard. DEFINITELY leaks a few tears in the car when she drives away to work (where steve, the museum security guy, would ask her how she's doin' knowing today was The Big Day lol).

anyway im gonna cut myself off now thank you for this ask and im so sorry for what it made me vomit onto this answer.