Chapter Text
Hunter stared blankly at the ground, eyes blurring right over everything in front of him. He held his hands out in front of him, rain dripping down and soaking into his clothes. Huh, guess Uncle wasn’t lying about everything.
Someone broke into sobs nearby and he was barely able to lift his head to see Gus collapsed to the ground, fingers buried in his hair. I…gotta help. Hunter rose to his feet, dropping harshly to his knees, uncaring of the rocks that bit into his kneecaps. He couldn’t feel it anyways. He shakily let one hand rest on the kid’s back soothingly - he thinks, he doesn’t know how nice it is to have a walking corpse trying to help soothe you from a disaster they helped create - flinching as he remembered the blistering pain from the sigil draining his magic when rubbed against fabric.
Willow was up on the porch, hand clasped around Luz’s as she gently tugged the taller away. The former soldier looked around, catching sight of Amity - safe, everyone’s safe, no thanks to you, a former soldier yet you’re fucking weak - bent over herself hands trembling.
Hunter didn’t care that they weren’t that close, he looped his uninsured arm around her shoulder and tugged her closer. She fell into his side without even a noise of surprise. That he heard of at least, but everything was muted, drowned out by the rain pounding down overhead. If this was the Isles, they all would’ve been a pile of bones right now. Well, don’t give yourself too much credit. That’s all you are now too.
Grimwalker.
He couldn’t focus, unresponsive when tugged to his feet. He didn’t remember stumbling down the road, or climbing the steps, or being ushered inside by a woman who looked like an older and more tired Luz. It felt like he blinked and all of a sudden they were sitting in what Luz claimed was her house, a basilisk slithering over with a first aid kit in arm. He should jump up right? Protect them from the dangerous monster? But Luz talked to them fondly, hugging them tightly with tears in her eyes. Hunter watched from his slumped place against the couch on the floor, standing guard in front of Willow, Gus, and Amity. He wouldn’t let anyone else get hurt. Ha, as if. The only monster here is you.
Luz walked over, gait too smooth to be natural. Hunter narrowed his eyes at her, then cut his gaze over to the woman who stood watching them, her own expression unreadable. He wished she wasn’t there so he could tell Luz to rest, don’t worry, I can handle it.
He knew how exhausting it was to pretend for the adults.
He rose once she was close enough, swiftly lifting it from her hands. Amity pulled her girlfriend to sit on the couch and after a quick evaluation, Hunter handed the purple haired witch a roll of bandages along with a box that has something called “bandaids” when Luz softly requested it.
First aid kit propped up between Gus and Amity, Hunter set to work, cleaning Willow’s scratches and Gus’s scrapes and pushing through the shaky nature of his hands to place bandaids on their injuries and wrap ones too big for the small adhesive patch to cover.
He didn’t stop until they were fine - fine as they could be at least - sitting back on his heels, exhaustedly blinking back dark spots in his vision. Since he had done Gus first and Willow second, Gus had curled up on the couch and drifted off a while ago, leaning on the pillows fluffed and sitting pretty on the sofa. Hunter winced when he saw the boy's open mouth, carefully shifting him so he wouldn’t drool over Luz’s mom’s couch. Willow wasn’t much further away from sleep, stretched out over the parts Gus didn’t occupy and eyes half lidded. Hunter carefully pulled her glasses off her face, folding them and setting them neatly down on the table next to her within easy reach. Was there anything else he could do? He turned to look, catching sight of the other two.
Amity was propped up against the wall, arms curled around her legs and chin set on her knees. She looked…nervous. Nervous and exhausted. Exhausted from being nervous. Whatever, he got it. Besides, he hasn’t checked her over yet. He pushed himself up, groaning at the throbbing in his legs and shuffled over, making sure she saw him coming.
She didn’t say anything, looking up at him with a blank gaze. He knelt, the injuries he got earlier from crashing down knees first making itself known and he suppressed a yelp only because of the golden gaze that watched him.
“Hey,” he whispered quietly, unwilling to destroy the muffled atmosphere of the room. “Where’s…where’s Luz?” Luz, the basilisk, and Luz’s mom were all gone, when did that happen?
“She’s talking with her mom in the kitchen,” Amity whispered back. She had a patch on her cheek and a bandaged wrist, the work sloppy but clearly done lovingly. Luz’s work. Hunter hummed in reply, lifting her arm and unwrapping the arm. She didn’t stop him, head dropping to rest against the wall. Hunter quickly wrapped it again, making sure it was snug against her skin without being too tight. He could hear muffled voices and crying from the room next door. He ached to storm in and protect Luz but he knew what interruptions could mean to someone in the middle of disciplining. So he just slumped against the wall next to Amity, carefully placing himself in between Amity and the kitchen. The shadows cast over cabinets were moving erratically, hands thrown in every which way. He flinched every time the two shadows crossed, waiting for the sound of skin slapping skin. He could feel the tension in Amity’s shoulders, the minute shuddering at the same time he flinched.
He knew Odalia Blight, had sat across the table from her and she tried to bully him into following her plans, underestimating him simply because he was young and ignorant of the training he had endured to be here.
He saw how she treated her husband, and it wasn’t hard to imagine her acting worse against those too young to defend themselves.
He didn’t know Amity well, but he still pulled her close and rested his head against her, trying to comfort her the same way others had comforted him. She leaned into it, choking back tiny sobs and squeezing herself ever tighter. Hunter ran a hand up and down her back, stopping only once she fell fully into him, asleep.
He had just laid her down and pulled the blanket over, adjusting the pillow so she wouldn’t have red marks on her face when he heard a slight cough behind him. He spun, leaping to his feet, only lowering his fists once he registered who stood there.
“Luz?”
“Hi Hunter,” she said, smile not reaching her eyes. Her eyes looked dead, sunken in like Hunter’s every time he looked in a mirror. Her eyes drifted around the room, pausing on Willow and Gus’ sleeping forms and stopping on Amity, curled up on the carpet Hunter had moved her over to. She took in a deep breath before raising her eyes to meet Hunter’s, only to stop when she saw his hands. “I-what happened to your wrist?”
Hunter looked down, blinking in surprise at the angry red lines that bloomed outwards from his coven sigil, wrapping around his wrist and reaching up his arm. Luz reached out a hand, fingertips skating his face. Hunter flinched away, raising his own hand to realize the prickling heat from his face was not the gentle warmth of the home but from the same lines on his arm.
“Oh,” he said simply, unmoving. He…hadn’t realized how hurt he was. But if he had missed this on his own body, where he could feel it ( could he? He was just made out of a corpse, corpses don’t feel ) then what did he miss on the others? He made an aborted movement to turn before Luz’s gentle touch tugged him away and pulled him to a small bathroom.
She pushed him down onto the edge of the tub, before slathering ointment all up his arm. It was cold, and he hissed in discomfort, stiffening his arm to keep from pulling it away. Luz muttered a tiny sorry, raising a hand to his face. He held his breath but she was just as gentle as before - smoothing the ache he hadn’t realized was there.
Some more bandages and ointment later, they were back in the living room. Luz’s mom had set up an inflatable bed. Luz immediately made a beeline for Amity, lifting her off the floor and kneeling down to roll her onto the inflatable bed. Hunter snatched the pillow and set it under her head just in time. Luz sent him a grateful look before shucking off her grugby jacket and curling up next to her girlfriend. Hunter eyed the open space but turned his back to go look out the window.
“Hunter,” Luz called softly. Hunter shook his head. He knew what she would say but he didn’t deserve rest, didn’t deserve to sleep, didn’t deserve- “Hunter please.”
He used to be stronger.
Hunter kicked off his boots and slid under the blanket she held up. She hesitated for a second and just when Hunter opened his mouth to ask what she wanted, she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around his middle, squeezing tightly.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, shoulders shaking in a way Hunter had never seen. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Hunter breathed in slowly, before taking in another quicker breath and before he knew it he was crying, tears flooding down his cheeks as he cried, dragging up the blanket to muffle the pathetic noises. Luz pulled him closer, one hand drifting up to drag through his hair and he knew he was pathetic, a monster, and disgrace but it felt so good .
He couldn’t keep it, he knew, but he couldn’t pull away.
“It’s going to be okay,” Luz whispered, an echo of their past interactions between them. Hunter choked out a wet laugh, head buried in her shoulder. He knew, just as he had when he had said it to her so long ago in the cave.
It wasn’t, but…but maybe this time.
They had each other.