Work Text:
Eda knew having an ex-coven kid would have plenty of difficulties.
She knew that. she knew that the moment she insisted he stay there. because even if he wasn’t very clearly abused and mistreated, she’d lived with Lilly and she had seen the very specific unhealthy habits the coven instilled in even normal people who had frames of reference for everything outside of it.
So a kid who had no friends, no outside reference, and had been raised in not just a coven but the emperor's coven?
Yeah, she knew he’d have no shortage of problems, and she was happy to try her best and help him with them.
But she thought, even with that, when he ran away, that he would’ve at least left a note.
Because Eda’s looked all over the house, the basement, all of the kid's rooms, she even asked Hooty , willingly. and There was no sign of him. no one had seen him for at least an hour, and normally if he went out he would tell them, especially because he was still terrified of belos finding him.
And she searched high and low for any note, and she hadn’t expected it to be obvious but she also hadn’t expected to find nothing, no trace whatsoever . not even a sign someone did take him, which she took as her small solace, because he’d definitely put up one hell of a fight and there’d no doubt be a mess behind .
And she was aware she sounded like a worried mother- and if it was any less urgent than it very well may be, she would gag at it.
But her kid is away and possibly in danger or panicking because she’s done the whole running away thing and it’s scary no matter what the reason but especially for a kid who got his every move punished and practically deep cleaned the house in just the first week of living there before Eda realized that it wasn’t just a weird self soothe, but, instead because he was scared he would ‘overstay his welcome’ like that could even happen, and he had wanted to convince them that he was useful.
The poor kid.
And frankly, she doesn’t know what to do, if she asked Hooty to see if he could feel where he went Hooty would go overboard if he did find Hunter and no doubt freak the poor kid out because it’s Hooty, and Eda doesn’t know if she should tell the other two about it or not because they would freak out and she can’t comfort them and search for him at the same time but she doesn’t know how upset they would be if she didn’t tell them immediately.
Titan, this whole parenting thing is not easy.
She hesitates, before grabbing the crow-caller quickly and dialing Lilith’s number, because she may have some idea what survival habits the kid has instilled in him, as well as it would mean she wouldn’t just be leaving the other two alone.
One routine caw before a voice answered it.
“Hey Lilly, I may need some help,”
—-
Hunter knew he probably shouldn’t have been in the linen closet, he had a room.
It was another transformed closet but it was still a room, a space, a place he could be without punishment or judgment.
But people knew when he was there and they just could walk in and it stressed him out, because if he wasn’t constantly paying attention they could be there and he wouldn’t even know, and if that happened they could get mad he hadn’t acknowledged them.
And he’d only even curled up in the closet to see if he could, and okay it was a somewhat tight fit, but he had, and he discovered how soft and warm it was in there, every surface covered in blankets, only a small few folded, the others halfheartedly pushed to the very back whenever there were too many surplus in the living room.
It was so soft and perfectly padded.
and he hadn’t really wanted to leave.
It was nice, and dinner was hours away so he had just stayed there, hidden and cushioned from the world.
He hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep.
Not until slowly but surely he woke up again, mouth unpleasantly dry but everything still soft and nice and he wasn’t hesitant at all to stay for a couple more minutes till he properly woke up.
It wasn’t like they would’ve even noticed him gone yet, a couple more minutes couldn’t hurt.
Eventually, though the sleep-dazed fog did lift to the point he couldn’t condone hiding in the closet anymore.
So now he just had to plot a way back to his room without notice and pretend he’s been in there for the past, what? Hour?
And luckily, Hunter was good at plans.
Step 1) open the closet door carefully enough that it wouldn’t creak.
Step 2) make sure to avoid all creaky floorboards as he walks back.
Step3) after getting back in his room make sure the door is closed before moving to pull out all his books haphazardly and pretend that’s what he’s been doing for however long he had been napping.
A perfect simple three-step plan. and it was entirely doable. Hunter knew most of the door's creakiness levels by heart and he’d practically memorized all the loud floorboards that could alert to his existence.
Just in case.
And yes, it was a very doable plan, he could’ve done it with practiced ease.
If it wasn’t for the fact that as soon as he opened the door he heard a loud distressed mostly one-sided conversation, one that must’ve been muffled by the blankets beforehand. it had startled him for a moment but he had been prepared to adjust his plan a little to pretend he just left his room because curiosity killed the bat and he was definitely curious and he knew it was probably none of his business but the still-slightly-muffled talking really did sound upset and he was concerned, just a little.
What if Luz got another flashback? What if King had a nightmare? What if the emperor's coven finally got into the house and they’re all having their last stand and he’s not helping them-
And then he picked his name up from the garbled nonsense.
And froze.
Why would they talk about him? Were they complaining about him? Were they turning him over? Did they want him to do more? He had tried and they’d stopped him but maybe they changed their minds? Adults did that a lot.
And he knew he shouldn’t because that would be rude and definitely not in favor of him, but if they were complaining that he wasn’t doing the things they wanted done, then it was better to figure out what that was and do it so they- the owl lady, didn’t have excess reason to throw him out or anything else.
And he still knew he shouldn’t because if he was caught the punishment would be worse than being thrown out, listening in on private conversations, even if it’s just lamenting about how annoying Hunter was, almost always got him in horrible, sometimes painful, trouble.
But he had always been too curious for his own good so the decision was made for him as he scuttled directly down the stairs, carefully avoiding that one step that always squeaked if it so much as thought you were going to step on it.
Hunter actually made it down in record time, he would be proud to admit, before doing his best to hide from view behind the wall that blocked off the stairs.
He’d barely even heard anything though before he realized maybe his mind was still a little hazed from sleep as he stepped forward against the wall and stepped on another creaky floorboard- seriously how old was this house? Why was everything so squeaky?
He paled, very careful to not take his foot off in case that would cause more noise, and instead shifting his weight to lean off of it, he held his breath in anticipation of them giving any sign they heard it.
One voice was still talking- what sounded like Lilith- and why would she be here? He knew they were sisters but she’d never once come by since he’d begun staying there, though he’s pretty sure that must’ve been hard to convince her to not do, especially at first after the whole mind-incident.
Why was she here now?
He didn’t get the chance to answer that as suddenly she was cut off by a “did you hear that?”
And suddenly footsteps were coming towards him and he quickly scuttled backward about to try and run up the stairs and pretend he was simply never there and pretend that would work before the owl lady rounded the corner.
Her eyes widened “kid?”
“Sorry I didn’t mean to eavesdrop-“ lie “-I mean I didn’t even really hear anything anyway I just heard my name and I thought-“
He was enveloped in arms out of nowhere and he flinched fight or flight fighting for a minute before he processed it was the human thing- a hug? and he simply froze instead.
And okay he knew the owl house and all of its inhabitants were weird and that combined with the emperor's coldness made a lot of the things they did not make sense to him.
But he was pretty sure this genuinely didn’t make any sense, and it wasn’t just a him thing, even if he hadn’t just been spying, this felt too emotional, the warm arms held him like he’d disappear if they let go, and that with everything else- Eda- the owl lady wasn’t typically very affectionate and when she was it was in that teasing sarcastic way.
Was he dying? He didn’t feel sick, in fact, he didn’t feel any different. Besides being a little more rested, What was going on?
He simply pushed her away a little awkwardly “um, I’m sorry, did something happen?” He asked, throwing a metaphorical rock and hoping it hit something.
It did.
“Did something happen-“ Eda asked almost flabbergasted before turning back to glance at Lilith who was now very much seeing this interaction before glancing back to him “you’ve been missing for two hours kid we’ve searched the house three times- Hooty didn’t know where you were-“
He blinked,
“What,” he asked deadpan.
And he was expecting something else to be added but nothing was.
What was added to the conversation however was Lilith narrowing her eyes in suspicion “actually, where were you? Hooty searched the forest, there was no trace of you and even if there was you couldn’t get back in because Edalyn and I have been in the living room,”
And suddenly his ears were scarlet red because how do you explain you fell asleep in a closet when you just went to go get a blanket? How did he?
Lilith was his biggest enemy, he’s decided. and he very much ignores his actual biggest enemy because if he thinks about anything belos did, he was going to think about those masks and he was confident he was going to throw up.
“Closet,” he said simply, decidedly not elaborating, but he did hesitate before adding a small “sorry to worry you ma’am” because he didn’t mean to upset the head of the house.
“What- kid, you’re under my protection don’t apologize for me worrying about you, it’s inevitable, and please stop calling me ma’am it’s making me feel old,” Eda held a hand to her head for a minute before finally taking a look at him.
“Now what do you mean ‘closet’?”
Hunter shifted uneasily under her gaze before scratching the back of his neck nervously, suddenly wondering where flapjack was, hopefully not getting into too much trouble.
He hesitated before motioning Lilith to leave, she looked at Eda before shrugging and heading towards the kitchen, hopefully not raiding Luz’s snacks because that meant he wouldn’t be able to.
He sighed before dropping his shoulders and playing with his gloves absentmindedly, looking like a direwolf pup in trouble.
“I.. uh, fell asleep in the closet”
He didn’t know what he was expecting.
What he received was silence before booming laughter.
He was pouting, he wasn’t too high and mighty to admit it.
Eventually, after a minute or two more of Eda laughing at Hunter, she wiped away a hypothetical tear from her eye “oh boy , that’s funny, hah! that reminds me of the good’ll days, King used to do that every other day!” She laughed before pausing “kid, this is serious, please say you aren’t gonna bring home another Jean Luke that thing is horrifying”
He paused.
Jean luke-? Oh, that weird thing in Luz’s room.
A grin slowly spread on his face at the realization of the power he suddenly held.
“But where is my poor creature I found in the boiling rain gonna go then?” He asked innocently.
Eda huffed another laugh before freezing once he didn’t laugh with her.
“Kid you're joking right?”
He was already making his way back upstairs.
“Kid, please tell me you're joking!”
“Sorry, you thought I went missing!” He replied instead as he got to the top.
“Blondie!”
He cackled as he happily walked back to his room.
Decidedly not in trouble.