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Adaptation
Chapter 1: Kyrian
Ash had warned him that the transition back to mortal and human would be hard; much harder than the transition to Dark-Hunter had been. At the time, he'd thought the leader of the immortal Daimon exterminators had been exaggerating, but even with Amanda there helping him adjust to sunlight and paying taxes, he realized that despite all those years he'd been immortal, he still had no idea how to live. Even after all he'd learned about surviving after those long years, he still had far more to learn about enjoying living. And he was learning most of it the hard way.
Some of his lessons began the day he proposed to Amanda. Lessons like, for example, meeting the in-laws was a much harder and scarier thing when one was mortal and no longer had speedy healing rates and super strength.
Other lessons began his wedding day. Such as just how terrifying a hormonal pregnant woman could be, and that despite what his friends told him, chocolate was not the answer to every problem. Neither was sex.
Before he met Amanda, he would never have foreseen the way his life was about to change. He doubted that even his extremely psychic wife had the ability to foresee the drastic changes that lay in wait in his future.
Other things he learned as he went along, and some things were so different from the life he knew that it shocked him all the way to his newly returned soul.
He didn't know until he became a father that cherry Kool-Aid was far harder to get out of carpet than blood.
He didn't think he'd ever see the day he'd trade in his beloved Lamborghini, least of all for a minivan filled with pink fluffy animals and Disney soundtracks blasting from the stereo.
He had no idea that he would one day fear dirty diapers far more than demigod Daimons.
He never would have guessed that not only would he one day not hate Valerius Magnus, he would actually somewhat, sort of, and never to be admitted out loud, like the poor bastard.
Nor would he ever have thought that the psychotic, exiled Dark-Hunter from Alaska, Zarek of Moesia, would not only not be killed, he had gained his freedom, been made a demigod, gotten married and had a kid, and his latest brother-in-law was present at his table for all major holiday dinners, as was his brother Valerius, and not only were the men all able to get along, but they somehow managed to enjoy each others company. Not that they would ever admit that, not even to their wives. And most especially not to each other.
But the best thing, and the one he had never even dared to hope for, was the bright and smiling faces of his son and daughter that greeted him each morning. He was sure that the other men felt the same, and though they may not be the types to say it, it was clear on their faces and shining in their eyes whenever they looked at their children.
If there was one thing Kyrian Hunter, formerly of Thrace, had learned in his long years as a Dark-Hunter, it was that whenever a situation changed, to survive, you either had to adapt, or die.
And the one thing he'd learned in his short time as a born-again human, it was that if you wanted to do more than just survive, if you wanted to really live, you had to learn to enjoy every moment of everything you did, and make the best of things when they sucked.
So, Kyrian adapted. And you know what? He kind of liked it.