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Hunter stood with Gus in the hall while the other went through his locker.
“-And so anyway, Darius said he’s going to take me out to see a movie. He said it’s uncultured that I haven’t seen much but Belos said they were unimportant to my training.” Hunter said and Gus smiled as he continued rooting through.
“It’s cool that Darius is getting along with you more.” Willow said, who had apparently been standing around the edge of Gus’ locker but Hunter wasn’t phased, he just smiled.
“Yeah! Since the whole Day of Unity, us getting sent to the human realm, coming back stuff, we’ve been really close. I- We celebrated Father’s Day together and I think that was like the tipping point.” Hunter admitted and his cheeks flushed a bit as he smiled.
“It’s really cool, I’ve never really had like an actual dad before and he’s never been a dad, obviously. We were reading a lot of parenting books and stuff like that together, reading family books and he wants to start watching family movies. We’re hoping it’ll give us some idea on how family is sorta supposed to work.” Hunter rambled.
“That is so sweet!” Willow said and Gus groaned in frustration. “I can’t find my textbook!” He shouted.
“Is that the one you lent to Matt?” Willow asked and Gus slammed his locker shut and banged his head on the door.
“It is,” He mumbled. “I’ll go ask him for it.” The trio walked down the hall together and Amity and Luz joined them.
“Hey guys!” Luz shouted, holding Amity’s hand tight. Hunter beamed at her. “Hey human,” He greeted and she smiled and rolled her eyes. “Darius is taking me to see a movie this weekend.”
“Oooh! Do you know which one yet?” Luz asked as she began to skip. Since the end of the Day of Unity and her mom and her sorted out her visiting times, she’s had little to no sources of entertainment and so she latched onto Hunter’s “found family” drama, eating it up all the time.
“No, but he said he’s found some places playing human movies that he wants to check out. We’re watching them to learn how to be a family.” Hunter said.
“Ooooh, it’s not a movie about family, but it’s a family movie that my cousins and I used to watch called Firehouse Dog.” Luz said. “You should check out that one.”
The group paused and Gus and Willow walked into a classroom Mattholomew was supposedly in, Amity kissing Luz’s cheek before departing for an after school activity.
“Firetrucks in the human realm were created by the human Thomas Lote in 1743,” Hunter said and Luz listened intently as she did while they stood near the door, other kids coming and going. Hunter had been learning a lot about the human realm in his free time, a lot of witches were now but Hunter had taken a particular fixation to first responders in the human worlds since the Boiling Isles lacked any form of them.
“It was originally man powered despite horse drawn carriages being a thing since like, 3000 BC. By the way, super weird your humans split time in half for no reason. How did you guys know when to split it?” Hunter asked and Luz smiled.
“It began because of religion, BC stands for Before Christ, it’s supposed to resemble before Jesus was born in christianity. Then AD stands for After Death.” Luz explained. Hunter smiled and nodded before continuing on with his tangent about firetrucks.
“Anyway, sirens were added to firetrucks in 1918. Humans filed a lot of lawsuits over them because they can sound up to 123 decibels. Did you know humans can only hear up to 120 before it’s permanently damaging? Witches can hear up to 180 before hearing loss.” Hunter informed her and Luz smiled.
“Oh that’s cool!” She complimented and two girls next to her began laughing and she turned to look at them. “What are you guys laughing at?” She asked.
“You two! It’s so adorable hearing you little babies talking about firetrucks and thinking it’s an interesting conversation topic.” One of them said and Hunter frowned.
“Firetrucks are an interesting conversation topic, that’s why we’re talking about them?” Hunter said and one of the girls approached him, patting his head and he flinched back, frowning at the condescending touch.
“Awwww, it’s okay whittle guy,” The girl said patronizingly. “It’s okay, no one's gonna take your fire-twuck.”
“I’m not little.” Hunter deflected, feeling a little upset at how she was babying him. “I’m older than you.” He stood up straighter and she cackled, making a bad feeling sink in Hunter’s chest.
“Not mentally.” The other girl piped up. “You’re a little slow in class, and a little slow in life. What, did mommy treat you too special?”
“I-” Hunter frowned, brows furrowed because everyone knew who he was. “I don’t have a mom.”
“Aw, she left you? Makes sense, if my kid acted like an infant for sixteen years I’d leave too.” The girl taunted, rubbing in his parent-less past. Luz stepped in, enraged.
“Leave him alone! Why are you guys being so mean?” She asked and the girls just ignored her, looking over at where Hunter started cowering away, hands opening and closing as he tried to ground himself.
“We’re not being mean!” One said, hand on her chest. “Is that not obvious or are you both too mentally stunted to tell? We’re just making nice conversation, it’s not our fault the little kiddo over there can’t tell the difference.”
Hunter frowned deeper, biting his lip and then releasing it. “You- You are making fun of me.” He stated. “That- You’re being sarcastic. Or- passive aggressive, it’s one of those.”
“What, need me to tell you my intentions little guy?”
Hunter sniffled a bit, tears brimming his eyes and he inwardly cursed himself for getting upset so easily. He used to be a soldier dammit, he can take someone patronizing him. But he hasn’t had to deal with stuff like this recently, so maybe it was just the fact he wasn’t used to it anymore.
Well now he was thinking about Belos again and getting a little overwhelmed.
People were still walking around the halls, their sneakers squeaking in that way that Hunter hated, the bell ringing once more, alerting people it was the end of school, people having passing conversations, the girls besides him laughing and Luz angrily yelling at them to quit it.
Too much, too much, his clothes were thick and scratchy and he wanted them off and he wanted to swim in cold water alone in silence to get rid of this ick.
Hunter felt a tear fall and immediately rubbed it away in a panic, hands making fists tighter as he toyed with the edge of his school uniform shirt.
“Awwww!” One girl crowed loudly. “He’s about to cry, Leicha!” Leicha moved forward at that, wrapping an arm around Hunter and it sent him into overstimulation, her touch feeling like fire and he wanted to cry more.
“It’s okay whittle baby, don’t cry, mommy’s here,” She said in a sickeningly sweet voice. Hunter pushed her off and rubbed at his eyes. “Stop,” He said, voice shaking.
“Awwww! He is crying!” The other girl cooed and Hunter took a step back. “Hunter, just ignore them.” Luz mumbled, worry etched on her face as she still tried to push the girls back.
“Ew, it’s touching me! Meria!” Leicha shrieked and shoved Luz away. Hunter took Luz’s moment of disorientation to run down the hall, fists shoved into his eyes as he tried not to cry, blindly running down the hall until he crashed into someone.
“No running in the halls.” The person said and Hunter, through bleary eyes, looked up at Principal Bump. “Sorry,” He mumbled and Bump put a hand on his shoulder.
“Who did this?” He asked, referring to Hunter’s state and Hunter weakly pointed over to where the girls were now degrading Luz.
Bump stormed over, Hunter hot on his heels and the girls glared at him when they approached.
“Ugh, he snitched?” Meria whispered. “Of course he did, he’s a baby.” Leicha whispered back but Hunter heard both, breathing heavy.
Bump was saying words to the girls but it was all muffled in his ears, Luz grabbing Hunter’s shoulders and pulling him where Willow and Gus were confronting Mattholomew.
They gave Luz questioning looks but she gestured she’d explain later as she walked Hunter to the corner, shoving him down so he sat down, opening his bag that he had dropped and pulling out his old golden guard cape (it was safe item to him, regardless of what it had stood for, it was lovingly stitched back together countless times by Darius and Hunter loved it) and covering his head so the lights were blocked out.
Luz scooted away so she was no longer touching him, rooting through his bag again and waking up Flapjack who had been in wood mode until nudged awake, panicking when they saw Hunter’s distressed state.
Twenty minutes passed and Hunter was finally calmed down, Luz, Willow and Gus having a hushed conversation while they had waited for him, Mattholomew long gone now.
Hunter pushed the cape away, grabbing Flapjack and bringing them close to his chest, smiling softly at Luz in thanks.
“So, you were talking about firetrucks?” Luz said and Hunter’s face almost split in half as he began to go back on a rant, explaining how humans mostly titled Brenda Birkham as the first firelady in 1982 but that the first firelady was actually Molly Williams in 1818.
~~~
When Hunter walked into his room, he was surprised to find Darius there.
Hunter was currently living in the remains of the palace as were a few other currently shelterless guards, he wanted to move out sometime soon but felt it was too presumptuous to ask Darius if it was okay if he came to live with him. Besides, Darius was over most times anyway.
“Bump called.” Darius said and Hunter frowned. “Why, what did I do?” He asked and Darius rolled his eyes.
“Not you, he said you were being bullied by these two girls?” Darius asked and Hunter felt shame creep up in him. Yeah, two girls who were years younger than him.
“It’s not a big deal.” Hunter mumbled and Darius sighed. “Bump said you were distressed and Luz had to pull you away. He said that Luz explained that you got overwhelmed. That sounds like a big deal.”
Hunter shrugged. “She called me a baby.” He mumbled and Darius frowned. “What? Why?”
Hunter gave Darius a strange look and then made a general gesture with his hands, pointing around his room like it was obvious.
“Hunter, being autistic doesn’t give anyone a pass to call you a baby, you’re 16, not a baby.” Darius said and Hunter sighed a little and shrugged.
“I dunno, they just- They made me feel like I was a baby.” Hunter mumbled and Darius walked forward and gave him a light hug. “We have to go to talk with Bump at 7, we can go out for dinner before that if you’d like?”
Hunter nodded and Darius smiled.
~~~
Hunter was fidgeting in his seat, Darius had his arms crossed and was glaring daggers at the other two parents, both of them pointedly ignoring him.
“Bump, why are you punishing our kids? Did they hurt the kid?” One asked and the principal sighed. “No, but this school has a zero bully tolerance.”
“We weren’t bullying him!” Leicha shouted. “Him crying leads me to believe otherwise.” Bump stated.
“It’s not our fault he’s a little crybaby!” Meira huffed and Darius leaned forward in his seat, Hunter quickly grabbing his shoulder and holding him still.
“Principal Bump, it’s okay, really…” Hunter mumbled. “Hunter, thank you for that, but I am concerned about this situation regardless. I don’t want my students thinking they have the right to infantilize others because of a disability.” Bump said.
“It’s hardly a disability.” One parents said with an eye roll. “It’s just an excuse to act out, obviously someone didn’t teach his kid manners and just wants an excuse.”
Darius was fuming but still was being restrained by Hunter’s grasp, which was growing tighter and firmer by the second.
“The girls will have a week of detention and will be taking a course learning about different disabilities so they can properly learn how this affects others.” Bump stated.
“What? You’re letting them get off that easily? They made Hunter cry!” Darius shouted.
“Mr. Deamonne, please realize that they did not in fact put their hands on or hurt Hunter, and technically they didn’t say anything rude. Babying him still counts as bullying but anything else is just drastic measures.” Bump said. “If they do something like this again the punishment will be more severe.”
Darius scoffed and pushed himself out of his chair, standing and pulling Hunter with him out of the room.Hunter stumbled as he followed after and Darius waited outside the school gate.
Hunter gave him a strange look but could tell Darius was upset (read: absolutely livid) so he stayed silent, picking at his gloves.
The other parents walked out and Darius moved quickly, confronting them both and Hunter blinked when his dad sorta just, poofed, from his side.
Darius backed the parents against a tree, using his abomination to appear taller and block any exit from them. Their kids stood in shock a few feet away.
“ I should have done better raising my son?” He asked them in reference to earlier. Leicha’s parents swallowed harshly while Meira’s did their best to seem unaffected. “At least my kids aren’t little brats who feel so unloved and pathetic at home because of their lazy ass parents that they feel the need to bring down others to feel better.”
“Darius, this is… Going too far?” Hunter mumbled but Darius ignored him.
“Perhaps whatever slow job you all have makes you think you can order others around, but just remember how it used to be. Remember who’s orders you used to follow and maybe make sure the kid you are defending your children bullying isn’t the former Golden Guard.” Darius didn’t like to pull that card a lot because it was a sore spot for Hunter, but he took a twisted sense of victory when all their faces paled at the name.
“Regardless of who he is though gives you no right to dismiss bullying because someone is different. What if I told your employers about this little scandal? How do you think they’d enjoy that?” Darius asked.
Leicha’s mom spoke up now. “What if we told yours about this?” She challenged and Darius smirked.
“Oh, go right ahead. I’ll even call her to tell her you’re coming. Of course, you do know my employer is The Owl Lady though, right?” Darius asked.
(Since Belos’ fall, there needed to be a new ruler of The Boiling Isles, someone to make sure laws were still in place and the economy didn’t fall apart, and the isle all agreed Eda should be the one to take that spot. She was doing better than either her or her friends would’ve expected fro someone who constantly ran and ridiculed power before)
The parents’ eyes widened and they all stammered and stuttered out endless apologies while Darius backed away. He brushed off the side of his shirt, levelled them with one last glare before turning.
He put a hand on Hunter’s shoulder and used his abomination to bring them home.
“That was a little rude,” Hunter said and Darius waved his hand around.
“I don’t like when people bully those I care about, especially you Hunter. Those girls were rude but their parents were worse, they shouldn’t excuse that type of behavior.” Darius said and Hunter smiled.
“You know Eda is gonna yell at you if she finds out though, right?” Darius groaned and covered his face with a hand. “Don’t remind me, Raine will have my head too for using her name to invoke fear.”
Hunter laughed a little and shuffled forward, pausing before wrapping his arms around Darius.
“Thank you though,” He mumbled and Darius smiled, hugging him back and then ruffling his hair.
“Anytime.”