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It’s their fourth week of glyph practice. Luz and Hunter sit in the woods just outside Bonesborough while Li'l Rascal is in staff form, leaning against a nearby tree. Several notebooks surround them, full of scratched out attempts at elemental glyphs and their combinations, as well as textbooks on Wild Magic collected from the Bonesborough library, Eda’s personal library and... some place in the Emperor’s Coven that Hunter will not elaborate on.
If Luz let herself think about it too hard, she’d be a little alarmed at how normal this feels. Not the lying to Eda part - she’ll never be comfortable lying to Eda - but working with Hunter. The Golden Guard. Spending hours with the right-hand to her and Eda’s nemesis, teaching him how to create magic of his own. She should be taking advantage of his weaknesses, not helping him overcome them. But she can’t help herself from empathizing with his struggles, and neither can she help but feel like he could be a better person with the right people around him - and if she can be one of those people, how can she say no?
As for the lying to Eda part, she’s tried to keep it to half-truths whenever she can. “Going out with friends,” being the most common explanation when she disappeared. “Doing homework,” was added whenever King expressed interest in coming along.
Today, the lie is mostly the truth. She does, in fact, have a date with Amity that afternoon. Eda and King didn’t need to know that the date was actually several hours later than she said, giving her time for her weekly lessons with Hunter while no one is the wiser.
However, it does mean that today she is a bit… distracted.
“What’s the matter - I thought you liked the Blight girl?” Hunter says after Luz has muttered for the umpteenth time that she should leave soon. At least it’s not mockery, simply an observation.
She had tried to keep her friends anonymous at first, but it was such a struggle that Hunter had put her out of her misery by informing her that he’d already known all of her attachments before they’d even properly met. It wasn’t exactly a reassuring statement, but at least she no longer had to trip over herself trying not to use names.
“That is what’s the matter,” Luz says, flopping onto her back and ignoring the twigs that will get into her hair or the grass stains that will get on her clothes. That’s the least of her worries. “This is our first real, actual date. Eda ended up needing me for a glyph combo gone wrong - again - the last time, and the time before that Ed and Em were told to chaperone us. They’re Amity’s older siblings-”
“You’ve told me,” Hunter says dryly. “Still don’t see the problem. Isn’t being alone with her what you wanted?”
“Yeah but now there’s pressure! It’s going to feel… I don’t know? Real this time?” She rolls to her feet again, propelled by nervous energy and butterflies in her stomach. A thought occurs to her suddenly and she squeaks.
“What if she wants me to kiss her? This is technically our third date- even if it’s the first real one, Amity might consider it the third and I’ve always heard that’s when you kiss someone. I don’t know if that’s a thing here - is that a thing here?”
Hunter looks mildly alarmed. “You are asking the wrong person,” he says.
She ignores this. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Again, wrong person, human,” he repeats and Luz absently notes he still calls her ‘human’ when he’s flustered or annoyed. He sighs. “Look. Do you want to kiss her?”
The butterflies in her stomach increase tenfold. It takes a minute for her mouth to work. “Uh-huh,” she manages.
“Cool; then you kiss her,” he says. “That’s what you do.”
Luz whines. “It’s not that simple, Hunter!”
“How is it not that simple? It sounds like you’re over-complicating it!”
“I am not! Have you ever kissed anyone?”
Hunter gives her the look he’s all but patented for when she’s said something he finds particularly stupid and Luz remembers that he’s significantly younger than all of his peers in the Emperor’s Coven. She tries again. “Have you ever wanted to kiss anyone?”
“This isn’t about me,” he reminds her archly.
“Ugh, you’re useless,” Luz says, ignoring that Hunter had never agreed to advise her in the first place. “Do you even know what a kiss is?”
“Do I- wha-?” He looks genuinely offended. “Yes, I know what kissing is - I grew up in the Emperor’s Coven, not under a rock! We have crystal balls.”
Luz puts the image of The Golden Guard watching romantic dramas on the Boiling Isles equivalent of Daytime TV out of her mind for now. “Well then you should know how important this is! I want it to be magical. Perfect.” Every book and show and movie she’s ever seen, the first kiss is the most important moment of connection. She couldn’t screw this up.
Of course, Luz feels like she’s screwed a lot of things up around Amity, and the girl still liked her anyway. That didn’t make her feel too much better; Amity deserved for this to be perfect.
“Uh, Luz?” Hunter says, and she realizes that while she’d zoned out, he had been talking to her.
“Weh! Sorry - I didn’t hear you. What did you say?”
“I said, why don’t you practice?”
Luz blinks. Had she heard him wrong again? “What?”
“Trouble with your ears, human?” He needles, but there’s less bite than usual and Luz can see the tips of his ears are a bit pinker than they were before. He doesn’t quite meet her eye. “Just thought if it- if it’s making you so nervous, maybe it would help for you to practice.”
“Practice? Like, practice kissing?” She looks around the woods - as though hunting for another helpful pair of lips - before her eyes fall back on him. “With- with you ?”
He shrugs and says “Sure,” and there’s not a hint of teasing in that. None of the confident posturing he puts on when he wants to get a rise out of her. It’s an honest offer and that more than anything else has Luz suddenly very sure he’s not as knowledgeable on kissing as he claims or else he’d never suggest this. Right?
At her silence, he clears his throat. She finds that a bit more comforting. “I mean, it’s just if you wanted.”
Luz opens her mouth. Closes it. Opens it again. “Um. I mean, I kinda planned that Amity would be my first kiss.”
“Right.” Hunter tilts his head to the side thoughtfully. “So you want it to be your first try and you want it to be perfect? If it is anything like magic, you know you don’t get both.”
Luz bristles, her face feeling very warm. “I didn’t mean it was literally like magic like- like that!” She catches the smirk tucked into the corner of his mouth and she blushes deeper. “And you don’t have any more experience than I do so it’s not like I’d get anything out of practicing with you anyway!”
Just like that, Hunter is as red-faced as she is. He splutters for a few seconds before crossing his arms and looking pointedly away from her. “Fine! It was just an idea! Forget I said anything!”
An awkward silence stretches between them.
Luz tries to look away from him, too, but her eyes betray her multiple times. She can tell from his embarrassed posture that he really had meant the suggestion innocently, that he was only offering to help, and she feels a little guilty about her rejection - if it can be called that.
There’s dozens of crumpled up papers around him, glyphs they’ve practiced together all morning that he is slowly but surely perfecting with more patience than Luz had expected from him at first. She suddenly understands that the phrase ‘ practice makes perfect ’ is something Hunter has probably lived by his entire life. He doesn’t have regular magic to fall back on, and had been taught to avoid Wild Magic at all costs; he’s had to work hard for every skill he has, and learned that nothing could be perfected without dedication. She appreciates that about him.
She wrings her hands, looking down as she considers this information in the current context. She’s a far more spontaneous person than Hunter - and likely a more romantic one as well - but his point about not getting spontaneity and perfection is well made. And of the two, she finds she desires the latter more.
She looks back at Hunter, who is still looking anywhere but her, and chews on her lower lip.
Her first kiss with Amity would still be her first kiss with Amity , after all.
“Come here,” she says at last.
Hunter’s head whips around, his expression dumbfounded. “What?”
“Trouble with your ears, Golden Guard?” She quips. He continues to stare and her attempt at a confident air evaporates. “Just, come here. Unless the offer has expired now?”
“I- uh- no. I mean, it’s- yeah, okay,” he stumbles to his feet.
He approaches her slowly, as though trying not to spook her. Luz would be offended by the assumption if it weren’t that with every step it sinks in a bit more that she’s just asked The Golden Guard to kiss her and her stomach is feeling something not quite like the butterflies she gets from Amity but not unlike it either.
They both say nothing until he’s right in front of her, until they’re practically toe-to-toe. He’s taller than her. Taller than Amity. She knew this, she knows she knew it already but it feels suddenly very different when he now stands close enough that she has to look up to meet his eyes. Eyes she had formerly thought were red but now, up close, she can see are a lighter, softer color. Almost a pink.
“Well?” Hunter prompts after a second too long of silence.
“Well?” She echoes.
“Here I am,” he says. “So, you know. Go for it.”
Luz blinks. “Are you sure you know how kissing works? It’s kinda a collaborative thing.” She gestures between them to articulate her point.
Color rises to his cheeks again. “Well, I’m not pretending to be your Amity.”
“Yeah, no one wants that,” she informs him immediately, ignoring her own answering blush. “But you have to do something other than just stand here or this whole thing is pointless.”
“Something like what?”
She groans. “You’re useless .” Emboldened by sheer annoyance - this had been his dumb idea to begin with - Luz grabs his gloved hands and pulls them toward her.
Hunter yelps and yanks away from her grip, looking thoroughly startled and almost distressed. Her annoyance is almost instantly doused as she considers how little physical contact he’s used to. And still he was willing to suggest this, for her.
“Sorry,” she says.
He doesn’t meet her eye. “Words, human; use them,” he says tightly. “I can move myself.”
She swallows. Words are hard. “Put, um, put your hands on my waist.”
He does, immediately and without question or smart remark. She’d never paid much attention to his hands before but now they feel much larger than she expected. And has he really always been this tall?
Hunter looks down at her expectantly and she shakes herself. “Right. So, I’m gonna- I’m just gonna... do this-” She brings her arms up slowly and, when he doesn’t startle, loops them around his neck, the way she’s seen people do in movies. It brings their faces closer together and Luz’s heart feels stuck in her throat.
“C-Close your eyes,” she manages to command.
He does.
There’s another second of hesitation before she decides she has been wasting too much time and this will only get more awkward the longer she waits. She’s doing this. She’s doing this. She’s doing this.
Squeezing her own eyes shut, Luz lifts herself up slightly on her toes - Hunter instinctively holds her waist a little tighter as though to help her balance - and pecks her lips against his. It’s quick, barely a millisecond of contact before she’s pulled away, her face positively burning.
Looking up she sees Hunter still has his eyes closed. His cheeks are a little red but he looks… like he’s still waiting for something.
It doesn’t seem possible, but she somehow blushes more and is grateful that he can’t see. “Yeah, so uhh. That didn’t count, okay?”
A corner of his newly-kissed lips quirks up. “Fair enough. Gonna try again?”
She nods, which he also can’t see. “Okay, okay, okay,” she mutters under her breath, trying to recall her favorite on-screen kisses. “Um. Tilt your head.” He does. “Not that much- uh…” Without thinking, she moves her arms from around his neck so she can take his face in her hands. Magenta eyes pop open in surprise, but he doesn’t jerk away this time.
She angles his head where she wants it but doesn’t drop her hands. This just feels… better, somehow. Her thumb brushes absently against the corner of his scar and as if it was an unspoken, planned signal, Hunter closes his eyes again. Using this new leverage, she doesn’t so much push herself up as guide him down to her, not closing her own eyes until the last second.
It’s longer this time, though just as soft - a featherlight brush of his lips against hers. One of his hands moves from her waist to rest against her back. It makes her feel supported. It’s nice. It’s really nice actually.
She pulls back slowly after it’s lasted a second - maybe two? - and finds Hunter looking at her with an expression she can best describe as curious. She drops her hands to his shoulders, pats them awkwardly.
“See?” She says brightly. “Not a bad actual first try.”
Her attempt at lightness lands, and he gives a rare, soft laugh.“Yeah.”
His hand is still on her back and Luz struggles to think of something else to say or do now. Two kisses doesn’t feel like enough practice, even if the second one was… pretty good. But she also can’t think of any other suggestions for how to improve.
How much practice is enough practice when what you’re practicing is your first kiss with your erstwhile rival?
Hunter is still looking at her curiously, which isn’t helping her gather her thoughts. It reminds her of when he’s studying a new glyph that he’s right on the edge of understanding - or like Lilith when she was practicing new combinations, more confident in experimenting once she felt she had a grasp of the basic premise.
When nothing else comes to mind, she clears her throat. “Okay. Um. Try again?”
He nods, which looks as much in response to her question as it is him coming to a decision. Then he shifts - readjusting the hand at her back and bringing his other hand to cup her cheek - and dips his head to bring his lips back to hers.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Luz notes that Hunter is also more confident once he knows the basics, and has a split second of indignation that he’s learning faster than she is when it’s supposed to be her practice. Those thoughts, however, are buried under the sound of her heart, pounding rapidly in her chest.
This time, their lips are firmly pressed together. She notices that his are a little dry and warmer than she expected. She pulls back just enough to angle her face a little before returning, gripping his forearms, scrunching up the fabric of his sleeves. His thumb brushes her cheek - echoing her earlier motion - and it feels nice. More than nice, it feels right . All it needs is a swelling musical score to be exactly the kind of cinematic first kiss she’s dreamt of. Exactly what she wants for Amity.
Luz doesn’t know how long the kiss lasts, time feels different for its duration, but when Hunter draws back it’s her eyes that remain closed for another second, two seconds, three. She doesn’t know what is written on his face in that time but when she looks at him again, it’s the closest to his smug Golden Guard smirk that she’s seen since this whole experiment began. It’s strangely comforting in its familiarity; unspoken proof that their strange friendship is the same.
She still knows she’s blushing when she steps back, fully breaking their embrace. They continue to look at each other, waiting for the other to speak first. No media has prepped her for what to do after you’ve finished kissing your friend to prepare for kissing your girlfriend.
Hunter’s smile falters slightly at the extended silence and Luz wants to kick herself. Before she can think of something spectacularly foolish to break the silence with, he glances up at the sky beyond the canopy of trees. “You- you should- you should probably get going, right?”
Luz digs her phone out of her pocket - lately all she’s used it for is a clock - and squeaks. “Oh Titan, you’re right!” She looks back at Hunter, who’s grin is back like it never left. “Um. Thanks. For that. That was… that helped.”
He shrugs, but she can tell he’s pleased. She looks past him to the mess of their books and papers and he waves her off before she speaks again. “I’ll handle it,” he says. “Go before you turn into a nervous wreck again.”
“Alright, alright, I’m going,” she grumbles. Still, she lingers a second longer, debating her next words. “Really though; thank you. If- if you ever find someone you want to kiss, I’d be up to… returning the favor. If you want.”
Hunter blinks, startled. “I- uh. Yeah. Thanks.” Luz nods, satisfied, and takes off. She gets a few feet before he calls, “Oh, and Luz?”
She spins on her heel to face him, miraculously not tripping in the process. “Mm?”
“Enjoy your first kiss,” he says, putting just enough cheeky emphasis on the word.
She sticks her tongue out at him. He laughs.
It’s nice.