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Hunter is going to be honest, he hated Father's Day.
He never really had a father or got the point of the holiday, he remembers complaining about it to Luz but all she said in response was "The Boiling Isles celebrates Father's Day?"
But this year, this year Hunter sorta had a dad.
Well, see, the problem is Hunter has no clue if the other even thinks of himself as Hunter's dad, or actually cares about him as much as Hinter cares for him.
But Hunter remembers reading that fathers were not just your actual fathers, but people who taught you the ways of "manhood," taught you how to be strong, were there for you, helped you grow.
And Hunter knew exactly who that was to him.
But he was scared, scared that maybe he read this all wrong and the other man thought nothing of their friendship.
So he confronted Willow.
"Hey Hunter!" She greeted as he entered her room.
"You have two dads." He stated and she looked up. "Yeah?"
"Sorry, uh, okay- I am sort of having trouble over something, Luz said I should be more open about my feelings and Amity said I should confide in someone I trust. I can't think of anyone I trust more than you, and I just really need help with something."
Willow smiled widely. "Sure! What's going on?"
Hunter joined her where she sat on the floor, previously doing homework.
"I want to celebrate Father's Day." Hunter stated. "Cause- He's not- He's not my actual dad, but he's basically raised me and has been there for me for- well probably ever. And I think of him like my dad. Sort of."
Willow just smiled and listened intently as Hunter rambled on.
"And I want to show my gratitude for him. But if I- If he doesn't see my as his son, or see himself as my dad, then it's going to be super awkward!" Hunter said and ran a hand through his hair.
"You have two dads, were you always close to them?" He settled on.
"Well, my dad married my papa when i was six, I didn't like Papa a lot at first to be honest, he was new and I wanted my dad all to myself. But eventually we started to get closer, he spent a lot of time with me and I called him Papa for the first time i think when I was ten? He almost cried because of how happy he was." Willow said.
"Hunter, if the person you're talking about is who I think it is, he'll love that you think of him as a father. And obviously you two are close, no matter what this won't effect how he'll think of you." Willow said and Hunter slowly nodded.
"Okay, okay," He mumbled and then hugged her tight. "Thank you so much."
He stood up and Willow smiled at him softly.
"I'll be back later to tell you how it went!" Hunter said and ran a hand down his shirt to smooth it out.
"I can't wait to hear how well it went." Willow said.
The next stop was Luz's.
He knocked on the owl house and the door opened by itself, Hooty screaming of his appearance into the house and Luz came running.
"Hunt! Hello good fellow what brings about thy presence?" Luz asked and Hunter rolled his eyes at her antics.
"I need help making a card." He said and Luz grinned at him and dragged him into the house over to the couch.
"Good thing you came to the best artiste of the land! We will make the best card ever! Is it for Father's Day?" She asked as she ran around the room, grabbing all sorts of random human art junk Eda had.
"Uh, yeah, but I want it to be a... a good card. The best." Hunter said and Luz grinned.
"Then let's make the BEST CARD EVER!"
The front of the card had a lot of tiny abominations dancing across it, Hunter and Luz spending way too long trying to make them perfect that Eda had to cut in at some point to make sure they took a break to eat.
The inside held a note that talked about Hunter's gratitude for the older man. Hunter panicked for a bit when some of the letters got squished because he ran out of space, thinking the other would hate it because it was sloppy but Luz just smiled and rewrote the note for him, taping it neatly inside and reassuring Hunter that even the messed up letters would've been fine (Hunter disagreed but just nodded)
A few hours later and Hunter stood in front of yet another door, shaking with nerves as he clutched the paper card to his chest, careful not to add a single wrinkle to it.
Shakily, Hunter raised his hand to knock on the door, breathing deeply before the soft bangs sounded out.
He heard movement on the other side and the door opened, someone standing before him and looking down.
"What brings you by today?" The person asked and Hunter inhaled deeply, gritting his teeth and holding the card out.
"Happy Father's Day, Darius." Hunter said and swallowed hard.
Darius grabbed the card from him and Hunter held his breath, looking down at his shoes as Darius read the card.
"To the number one fighter in all of Boiling Isles, thank you for helping me become the second. I don't know how I would've survived without your help, but I probably wouldn't have. Anytime Belos pushed me too hard, you made sure I pulled back, took a break and wasn't too hard.
It was awful, working for him, but you made sure it wasn't Hell. So thank you for that. You truly were and are a father to me, so thank you for caring
Sincerely Love From, Hunter."
It was silent for a while, Hunter feeling all the anxiety and worry from before come bubbling up and he almost started crying at the silence but willed himself not to.
Hunter kept his eyes trained on the ground, watching a small bug crawl across the dirt floor.
Until he heard a sniffle.
Hunter's head whipped up so fast and he met Darius' teary eyes. One hand covered his mouth and the other held the card.
"Are you-" "You're really something, kid." Darius said and then brought Hunter into a tight hug.
Hunter let all of the tension and worries flow away, feeling loose and happy as he brought his small arms up to wrap around Darius.
"You like the card?" Hunter asked and Darius crouched down to be level with Hunter.
"Kid, I love it. I'm gonna get this framed the next time i'm in town." Darius said and Hunter sighed.
"I-I was worried that- That I would- Offend you somehow? But you, you really are like a father to me. Even back when we were both loyal to Belos, you trained me, helped me get strong and I just- I wanted to let you know how much it meant to me." Hunter said and Darius smiled.
"Kid, stop it or I'm gonna start crying and I just did my makeup." Darius said but the tears already began to fall and Hunter let out a wet chuckle.
"Sorry," He mumbled and wiped away his own tears.
"It's okay, just," Darius held Hunter tight again and then stood up.
"I have snacks inside, wanna come chill for a bit and watch some of that humans trash shows?" Darius asked and Hunter nodded.
"Yeah, yeah that sounds fun."