Chapter Text
Willow flips through the pages of her scrapbook with a heavy heart. Memories flood her mind and distract her from her Halloween costume.
Next to her, sitting with his legs crossed and his tongue poking out of his mouth from his concentration, Hunter works on sewing an addition to Willow’s outfit for the night. It’s a patch with her first initial on it, and he treats this simple task with the same amount of seriousness he does with all sewing projects.
Honestly, she mostly only asked him to do it because she knew how happy it’d make him.
While he’s busy being charming, Willow takes her mind away from the thumping of her heart against her chest by decorating paper. She sprinkles glitter and stickers stolen from Luz over polaroids and ticket stubs. Their two palismen nap together between them.
It’s difficult to fully appreciate the present when her thoughts are trapped in the painful past and the unknowable future. Scrapbooking has been a method for grounding herself this summer, and it seems it’ll continue to be that for more seasons to come. She can only hope that her fathers and other friends from the Boiling Isles will get a chance to see the results of her efforts someday too.
Willow misses her old life more than she’ll ever be able to say, but at least photography ensures that she won’t be able to forget her new one. She knows far too much about repairing fractured memories after her experiences at Hexside. She even misses school. That’s how she knows she’s spent too long in the Human Realm.
Eventually, Hunter beams with pride and shows off her upgraded costume. Willow thanks him with a grateful smile — along with a hug that makes his cheeks warm.
It’s a holiday, and they’re closer to getting back to the Boiling Isles than ever before. She can allow herself to be optimistic for a day, especially if it means she’ll get to have fun with a human tradition. With the help of her Human Realm family, she’ll have to take plenty of photos to show her Boiling Isles family.
On Halloween, mere hours before a devastating future will create itself, Willow obliviously closes her scrapbook to prepare for a night of bittersweet memories.