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After entering through the portal, Hunter honestly didn’t know what he’d see on the other side. He was terrified, but he had to go through first, because if Belos was there, waiting to strike, Hunter couldn’t let the first person he hurts be any of his friends and family. He wouldn’t even let them be the last.
He stepped out, a hand still clutching at his chest and the other clenched in a fist, a poor attempt to ground himself enough to be ready to fight the moment he encountered Belos.
But Belos didn’t try to attack him on the other side, or at all. He wasn’t even there.
Everything looks exactly as it’s supposed to, and it feels wrong.
The sky wasn’t falling apart and the sun was still there. There were creatures singing in the forest, and one of them sounded so much like a bird that he began to shake.
Camila takes his hand. She squeezes it tightly and pulls him forwards towards the house Luz is already running to. Vaguely, he recalls seeing his friends pull out their scrolls and begin contacting their families. And he remembers himself wrapping his arms around Gus when the younger boy fell to his knees, hugging the scroll to his chest at the sound of Perry’s voice cutting through the static. He remembers that Luz cried a lot, and that she really didn’t like the answer to the question “where is King.”
She runs away up the stairs despite her mothers doing everything they can to reassure her.
When Camila suggests he go up and check on her several hours later, he nods and follows the sounds of sobbing to find her. He sees her sitting on the floor hugging a plushie, so tightly that he’d believe she was trying to wring out the tears that had soaked it. Hunter is appalled to find that he doesn’t feel anything as he sits down next to her and she immediately hides her face in his chest. He remembers the last time he saw Luz cry, he wanted nothing more than to take the world that had hurt her apart and use the pieces to build a new one that couldn’t.
Had Belos done something to him, something more permanent than the scars? When he was expelled from his body, did he take all of Hunter’s emotions with him?
His little sister needed comfort, and all Hunter could do about it was sit there and wonder why the world still hasn’t stopped.
Perhaps Hunter was finally becoming the monster he was made to be. Something that could never be as kind as humans or love as much as witches. A thing that didn’t deserve—
“I don’t understand why he would do that…!”
He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of Luz’s voice. Her words were hardly comprehensible behind the sobs that accompanied them.
“Why would King— decide to stay with the Collector? Doesn’t he understand… that it all means nothing if he’s not— if he’s not here too? I don't care about saving anything if I can’t save him too.”
“You will save him—” Hunter starts, and then corrects himself. “We will save everyone.” Because he can’t stop Luz from being so profoundly compassionate that she tries to fix every broken thing she sees, but he can be there to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.
“But what if I mess up again, Hunter? What if you get hurt again?” She peels herself away from his chest, leaving a gross wet spot on his shirt as she looks away in shame. “I don’t want us to lose anyone else.”
“Stupid.” He mumbles, knowing that he did a poor job of disguising the way his voice wobbled when he spoke. “You did your best to protect him, and he decided he’d rather protect you instead. That’s… that’s not your fault.”
Luz went quiet, likely turning his words over in her head, until finally, she looked at him, a new glow in her eyes that Hunter could see as pure determination.
“Like Flapjack did for you?”
Oh.
With just those five words, the empty hole in his chest had filled and erupted with emotion, giving him a whiplash so much more intense than anything he experienced on a battlefield.
“Y... Yeah. Exactly.” He breathed out.
He could feel the tears on his face, and they tickled his cheeks in a way that made him want to scratch at them. But then Luz put her arms around him again, so he hugged her back instead.
“When we find King… I’m gonna show you all his favorite games, and his favorite stories. You’re gonna love him. He’s the best little brother you could ever ask for.” She murmured, and the softness in her tone made him cry harder, then silent sniffles becoming violent sobs. Luz kept talking— about King, and then Eda, and everything they would do together when everything was over.
At some point, both of them had run out of tears to cry, and instead Luz made him meet all the plushies in her room. One of them, a little bunny named ‘Francis’ or something, had a little tear on his ear. Hunter asked if he could have that one, but Luz shook her head and said it was King’s favorite. Hunter asked again, and that time Luz agreed, reiterating just how important the bunny was to King.
Several days later, when they’re all once again worn and battered from battle, Hunter will take Franco out of his hoodie pocket, and present it to King as if bestoying treasure to royalty. Luz would be giggling next to him while Willow took a picture.
King will look at the fine thread keeping the bunny’s ear attached, point his little claw at Luz, and say, “You better stop making new brothers!” Then he will look at the bunny in his paws again, hug it close to his chest with a small yawn.
“I will only approve of this one because Francois said it’s okay! Now, up!” He’ll hold his arms up towards Hunter, making his demands clear.
Hunter will laugh, picking the sleepy King up into his arms, careful not to crush Francois, while Luz nudges his elbow, a goofy grin on her face.
“What do you think he’ll say… when he finds out we have another sister?” She'll ask, and Hunter will shrug.
“Probably… weh?”
They'll look at the little bundle in Hunter's arms, both so full of joy that they don't know what to do with it.