Chapter Text
The five of them collapse into a pile on the couch. Luz is trembling, just slightly, where she’s pressed against Hunter’s side. He winds one arm through one of hers, his other resting across Gus’ back and holding onto Willow. Clover and Ghost are curled in their witches’ laps, and Flux is pressing themself close to Gus’ face, making soft, soothing sounds.
Luz’s mom hovers over them, wringing her hands and muttering, and Hunter knows she’s not someone he needs to be afraid of, he’s not an idiot, he knows there’s no way Luz could’ve been everything she is if she was raised by anyone even close to Belos - Philip - him , but every time the woman steps closer he can’t help but flinch. The third or fourth time it happens, Gus moves his hand to grip tightly at Hunter’s shirt.
“It’s okay,” he whispers, low enough that only Hunter hears. “She won’t hurt you.”
Hunter bites his lip, trying to keep his eyes from welling with tears, and nods once. Flux glances at him and nudges softly at his neck before turning their attention back to Gus.
The basilisk comes in from the other room, a red and white box clutched in her arms. She looks at the group of them for a long moment, then settles on the floor in front of Amity and opens the box. Ghost meows curiously but doesn’t make a move to stop her.
“If any of you know healing magic, now would be the time,” she says, her voice light, and it’s almost enough to startle a smile onto Hunter’s face. Almost.
“Emira does,” Amity mutters, seeming to crumble further into herself with the words. Luz makes a soft sound of distress and pushes closer to her girlfriend, pulling out of Hunter’s reach. Which is fine. He’s not upset about it. It won’t make him spiral into a panic.
Willow reaches past Gus to grab Hunter’s shoulder. “Hey,” she says. “She’s right there. Luz is okay.”
He nods again, clenching his now-empty hand almost unconsciously. Luz turns back around at her name, exhaustion and shock and grief still written in every line of her face.
“Sorry, Hunter,” she whispers. She keeps one hand on Amity’s shoulder and grabs Hunter’s with the other. “I’m okay, okay? We’re all here. We’re all safe. I promise.”
The room is silent for a while as the basilisk works her way through all of Amity’s wounds, and then moves onto Luz. By the time she gets to Hunter, Luz’s mom is sitting in the chair across the room with her head in her hands.
“Luz,” she says, glancing up. There are tears in her eyes. “What happened , mija? Who… who are all of these kids?”
Luz makes some kind of noise that might be a laugh. “Oh. Right. Um, Mom, this is Willow, Gus, and Hunter, my best friends, and Amity, my girlfriend. Guys, this is my mom, Camila, and my sort-of sister, Vee.”
Vee waves and scoots over to treat Gus. Luz fiddles with the brightly-colored bandage taped on her hand, and when she speaks again her voice is watery and broken.
“We, um. We were sent through the portal. We’re… stuck.”
Gus starts to sob all over again. Hunter curls closer to him, his hand leaving Willow’s shoulder to rub at Gus’ back just as she takes the boy’s hand, and Flux jumps up to his shoulder, hissing softly. Camila startles and goes as if to stand, but stops herself. She stares at them instead, and the tears that’ve been building for so long start to slowly fall.
“Okay,” she says finally. “Okay. I’m going to make you all dinner, alright? And then we’ll get some extra blankets and air mattresses and you can all get a good night’s sleep. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
“Thank you, mamá,” Luz says, smiling. It’s small, but it’s real. Hunter squeezes her hand. “Can you make eggs? They’re basically the only thing I could eat on the Boiling Isles, so they’ll probably be okay for everyone else.”
Vee nods, closing up the medical box and crossing the room with Camila. “We can do toast, too. It’s been fine for me, so you should all be able to keep it down.”
The kids mutter words of thanks as the two of them leave the room. The tension slowly eases from Hunter’s shoulders, not disappearing entirely but fading enough for him to relax backwards into the cushions. Luz gets shakily to her feet and grabs a small black box covered in buttons from a table on the other side of the room, returning to her spot between Amity and Hunter as fast as she can.
“We’re gonna watch a Disney movie,” she announces, pressing one of the buttons. A large screen set into the wall above the table lights up.
She scrolls through menus of some kind, oblivious to the others’ fascination, and finally sets the small box down as something starts loading on the screen.
“Is that a TV remote?” Gus asks, sounding awed. Luz laughs softly.
“Yeah,” she says. “Sorry. I forgot you guys don’t know about all of this stuff.”
Pictures appear on the screen, and Hunter loses himself in the story of the drawings and voices for a little while. Luz pauses it every once in a while to explain things that only make sense in the human realm - who Elvis is, why the little blue demon ( alien , she insists) is treated any differently than the humans are.
Camila and Vee bring in plates of food after a while, heaped with what Hunter assumes are eggs, although they’re yellow instead of the pale pink he’s used to. There’s bread, too, and it’s warm and slightly browned and covered in what Luz explains is butter. It’s good, but Hunter’s still too nervous and overwhelmed to eat much of it. They all are.
“This is my family,” the demon-alien says towards the end of the movie, when Camila has taken the empty plates back to the kitchen and Vee has joined them on the couch and they can all barely keep their eyes open. “I found it, all on my own. It’s little, and broken, but still good.” He looks back at his sisters. “Yeah,” he smiles at them. “Still good.”
Hunter swallows thickly and holds onto Luz and Gus and Willow like they’re the only things keeping him tethered to the world. Gus’ hand tightens where it’s still curled up in his shirt and even Amity reaches over to squeeze his shoulder. The palismen look at each other and curl closer to their people.
Yeah, Hunter thinks. Still good.
He falls asleep quickly, and is exhausted enough that most of the night passes before he wakes, whimpering, from a nightmare. The others are all there, nestled together in a pile of pillows and blankets and the two air mattresses Camila had pulled out of a dusty closet.
Hunter breathes. The nightmare is still fresh in his mind, scenes of Belos giving him that terrifyingly wicked smile, of Belos lashing out, Belos angry, Belos dead --
He breathes, and reaches out carefully for Luz’s hand. She stirs when he grabs it, and slowly blinks her eyes open.
“Hunter?” she asks, in a whisper slurred with exhaustion. “You okay?”
They’d left the lamps on, none of them willing to sleep in complete darkness, so he knows she can see the tears staining his face just as clearly as she can see him shake his head.
“Okay,” she scoots closer and leans into his side. “You wanna talk about it? Or talk about something else?”
“Um,” he whispers, and his voice cracks with disuse. “Sorry. I think I just-- wanted to. Make sure you’re all okay.”
Luz sighs, sounding more exhausted than exasperated, and presses her face into his shoulder. “We are. All of us are. Did you have a nightmare?”
“A couple.”
“About… Belos?”
He nods. Every time he blinks, he sees it - again and again - the way he just-- splattered against the wall, a monster of a man reduced to barely a stain. It happened in a single second .
“Hey, hey , keep breathing, Hunter,” Luz says, sitting up and propping herself on her elbow. Her other hand rests on Hunter’s chest, moving steadily back and forth. “You’re safe here. We’re all safe here, okay?”
“Sorry,” he gasps, trying to count to four the way Gus showed him but it’s just-- there’s too much , he feels almost like he’s tied down and his heart is racing and everything’s too loud and too quiet and--
There’s a soft weight on his chest, just heavy enough for him to notice it through his haze, and it seems to be-- vibrating? Or rumbling, or something. He forces his eyes open - when did he close them? - and they lock onto Luz’s.
“Hi,” she whispers, and she looks so relieved that he has to smile. His mind is still racing, but his body feels more like his own, which is letting him start to clear his thoughts.
“Hi,” he says. “What did you--?”
“Vibrations on your vagus nerve,” she explains, gesturing at her phone where it rests on his sternum. It’s still buzzing oddly, hard enough that he can feel it shaking through his bones. “There are videos with the right frequency online. The stimulation eases physical symptoms of anxiety, which helps your mind calm down, too. How are you feeling?”
“Better,” Hunter admits, but he doesn’t remove the phone from his chest just yet. Neither does Luz. “I’m sorry I--”
“You don’t have to apologize for that,” she interrupts. “ Ever . I’m just glad you’re okay.”
Blankets rustle loudly behind him and Hunter turns his head to see Willow opening her eyes blearily, Clover still asleep on top of her head. “Wh’time is it?” she asks.
Luz shrugs. “Pretty early. We didn’t mean to wake you.”
Guilt spikes through Hunter again and he opens his mouth to apologize, but Willow smiles before he can.
“It’s fine. Are you both okay?”
“Yeah,” he says, and it comes out shaky and unsure. He clears his throat. “Just had a nightmare. I’m okay.”
Willow frowns and shuffles close enough to wrap her arm around his waist. “Is this okay?”
Hunter nods, a lump of emotion in his throat making it too difficult to speak. Luz smiles slightly and kisses his forehead.
“You wanna try to go back to sleep?” she asks, and he nods again. There’s a moment of rearranging as Luz pulls more blankets around herself and tugs Amity’s sleeping form closer, and then she settles down and sighs contentedly. “Let us know if you need anything else, alright?”
“Okay,” Hunter whispers. “And… thank you. Both of you.”
Willow hums and copies Luz’s kiss. “Of course, Hunter. That’s what we’re here for, okay? Anything you need.”
He drifts back to sleep, pressed between the two of them and listening to the soft sound of human rain.