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• • •
Willow finds the camera hidden away amidst a sea of human realm junk late one afternoon while she's down the basement helping the boys set up their new sleeping arrangements. They'd gotten the bunk beds for a steal, one of the vet techs at the clinic all too happy to let Camila take them off their hands now that their boys have gone off to college.
They've just finished building the frame and dressing up the mattresses, Gus on the top bunk in the midst of an epic battle between his dinosaur plushies and Camila's old Cosmic Frontier action figures, while Hunter meticulously arranges his extensive collection of secondhand paperbacks and borrowed library books on a little shelf installed into the bottom bunk.
"And now for the final touch," Willow says, wrapping the last of the fairy lights around the post of the bottom bunk and stepping back to admire her handiwork. "There, now you've got a little reading light! Why don't you come test it out?"
Hunter happily obliges, grabbing his most recent read (with its little cardstock paper bookmark sticking out of the top, laminated to protect all the little cardinals, bumblebees, and wildflowers hand-drawn across both sides in permanent ink) and settling back against the cushy pillows on his freshly-made bed.
"It's perfect," he sighs, wiggling his shoulders in a happy little dance that has Willow beaming at him like he's the most precious thing in the world.
She's about to ask him something, get him to tell her all about the new book he's been reading, anything to disguise the fact that she's been staring at him for far too long without saying a single word, when the sound of a dozen delicate things about to fall to the floor snaps her out of it.
The two of them turn in time to see Camila with her arms full of enough human junk to rival Eda's collection, in the midst of trying to clear off the little desk in the far corner so the boys can have a space to work on creative projects — Hunter's been asking about the possibility of learning how to use her sewing machine, and Camila is all for encouraging her kids to pursue creative hobbies.
She's in the middle of trying to relocate a bunch of clutter when one of the objects slips loose and topples the whole thing like a jenga tower. Luckily, Willow is quick with her magic, summoning vines to catch a number of fragile-looking things before they hit the floor.
"Oh thank you, mjia," Camila sighs in relief, setting down the rest of the objects to pick up an old polaroid camera, holding it up to the light to make sure the lens hasn't cracked. "Wouldn't want anything bad to happen to this old relic."
Willow quirks a curious eyebrow, coming closer to examine the familiar-looking object.
"What is that?" she asks, running her finger over the little photo slot underneath the lens as Camila carefully deposits the camera into her hands. "It looks like one of those memory-catchers we have back in the demon realm."
"It's a little like that, except it's powered by film instead of magic…and it can't extract memories directly from your brain," Camila chuckles in relief, remembering the story Luz had told her about the time Willow's memories were nearly burned to cinders because one of her memory photos caught fire, Amity looking sheepish the entire time. "I haven't used this thing in years — probably not since before Luz was born — but I think there might still be some film left inside, and if you think you might be interested in taking up photography, I'd be happy to get you some more."
"It's important to have hobbies," she adds, giving Willow an encouraging smile. "And it might be nice if you got to capture some of the happier moments of your time here — something to show your dads when you get back home."
"I— yeah. I would love that. Thank you so much," Willow replies, cradling the camera in her hands like a precious baby bird.
"Could you show me how to use it?" she asks, lifting the lens up to her glasses and peering inside.
"Of course," Camila says with a fond smile, gently rotating the camera so that Willow's eye lines up with the viewfinder on the other side. "And I think I know the perfect subjects for your first shot."
"Ay, you two!" she calls out to the top and bottom bunk with a cheerful smile. "Come and pose for a photo real quick."
Excited to take part in another human realm tradition, Gus hops down from the top bunk and crashes feet-first directly into Hunter's, accidentally kicking down half the books he'd just painstakingly lined up on his new shelf.
"Whoops! Sorry, dude!" Gus exclaims, hastening to clean them all up and accidentally knocking down the other half in the process, while Hunter merely falls about himself laughing.
And that's how Willow's first ever shot ends up being a candid of her two favorite boys, sprawled out across Hunter's bed, books scattered everywhere, Gus gazing at the camera with a shamefaced grin, Hunter with his head thrown back, eyes crinkled at the corners in soft little half-moons, adorable tooth gap on full display, scarred hands clutching at his stomach from the effort of laughing so hard.
Willow can't help the smile that curls across her face as the scene gradually fades into existence across the little white square. Turns out, the human realm does have its own form of magic, after all.
• • •
They're sitting on the couch a little while later, Gus utterly fascinated by the magic human picture device, bringing the portion with the little grooved opalescent box up close to his eye and gearing up to take his very first photo. Luckily, Willow is quick to snatch it from him and lift it up over his head so he doesn't blind himself with the flash.
"Amazing," Gus exclaims in a hushed whisper, dark blue eyes blinking in awe as a burst of bright white light bleaches out the wall behind him. "Oh man, imagine if I'd had something like this back when I was president of the H.A.S. Matty's gonna — what was that phrase Luz used the other day that Hunter took way too literally? Shit a brick? — when he sees this."
Willow giggles at the memory of Hunter's wide-eyed look of horror as he'd exclaimed, "But why would humans eat construction coven ingredients?"
"Yeah, I was telling Mrs. Noceda that it kind of reminds me of the ones we have back home…except apparently, this kind can't create extractable memories," Willow tells him, thinking back to the day she and Luz had cooed over each other's baby pictures. By now, Willow knows what all of her friends looked like back when they were little kids. Everyone except—
"Hey Hunter," she says, biting her lower lip to hold back a giddy smile at the thought of a tiny, adorable, toddler version of Hunter waddling through the castle halls, grinning with an even bigger gap between his two front teeth, bright red eyes full of wonder and curiosity. "Have you ever—"
But when she glances up, she finds him fast asleep, softly dozing in his bunk, scarred cheek smushed against his pillow as he curls his arms around it, Flapjack snuggled up in his hair like a makeshift nest, and oh Titan, if that isn't the cutest thing she's ever seen.
The moment she realizes she's been staring too long, Willow feels the weight of the camera drop into her lap, and glances over to find Gus smirking at her, eyes dancing back and forth between the two of them. Willow arches one very unamused eyebrow, daring him to tease her.
"What?" he says innocently, dragging out the vowel. "This is purely for blackmail purposes, I assure you."
Willow looks at him for a moment longer, and then sighs, accepting defeat. After all, this is too perfect of a moment not to capture, and if she keeps pretending like she doesn't want to, she might end up missing her only chance.
She lifts the camera to her eye just as Camila had taught her, fits him perfectly in the viewfinder in all his splendid sleepy glory, and snaps a photo. Only she completely forgot she'd left the flash on, and the moment she clicks the shutter, the whole room lights up like a supernova.
There's a soft, disgruntled groan from the bottom bunk as Gus and Willow turn to face each other, Gus's gleeful, snickering smile a perfect foil to Willow's look of wide-eyed, embarrassed horror. A moment later, Hunter blinks blearily awake to find Gus rolling around on the floor laughing, Willow little more than a green and gold blur as she bolts up the basement stairs.
• • •
Over the next couple of months, Willows falls completely in love with photography, eager to capture as many memorable moments as possible. She's collected so many photos by now, she could start a scrapbook. So that's exactly what she does — heads to the local craft store downtown and picks up a cute little photo album with a cheerful teal cover, some colorful tape, and a couple of packs of stickers featuring a collection of hearts and stars in vibrant shades of red, yellow, green, and blue.
She's sitting upstairs in Luz's bedroom with all the photos she's taken over the past couple of months spread out on the floor in front of her, trying to decide how best to arrange them. She'd made sure to choose a time when she'd have the room all to herself, Luz and Amity out on a double date with Vee and Masha.
Willow smiles as she picks up a photo from the end of summer, midnight blue sky lit up in tiny flashes of gold light as Hunter crouches in the backyard holding a jar full of fireflies, eyes wide and utterly mesmerized as one of them lands on his finger and doesn't immediately catch fire.
That one is definitely a keeper, she decides, placing it on top of the little teal scrapbook, before moving onto the next one — one of several where she'd caught Hunter fast asleep on the living room couch, Flapjack, Clover, Emmiline, and Ghost curled up on his chest, softly dozing.
They've made something of a habit of flocking to Hunter whenever he's asleep and using him as a cuddle spot. Maybe they consider him an honorary palisman, since he's partially made from palistrom wood? Or maybe he's just that comfy. Willow would be willing to bet that it's the latter, considering how many times she's fallen asleep on Hunter's shoulder during movie nights.
Can confirm: Hunter is super comfy to fall asleep on. And warm. And soft. And he's got a really nice bedtime story voice, too. Willow loves it when Hunter reads to her, dramatically acting out all of Captain Avery, Chief Engineer O'Bailey, and Security Officer Quando's action sequences. But even though the series has a really compelling plot and some really exciting twists (and, she's pretty sure, an adorable romance arc brewing between O'Bailey and Quando) Willow can't help but be lulled to sleep by Hunter's soft, soothing voice every time he reads to her. It's easily one of her favorite sounds in the whole world.
Willow feels her cheeks burn from how hard she's smiling, deciding that she has to put that photo in the collection as well — it's just too cute not to.
The next one is a selfie Willow took of the two of them working together in the garden, taken just seconds before she'd noticed the large swarm of bumblebees chasing Hunter down (turns out, he'd stuck his head into a wildflower patch and gotten pollen all over his sunhat, and the bees simply thought he was a giant dancing wildflower — luckily, Clover was able to swoop in and queen bee them all into submission.) Willow laughs, adding the photo to the pile.
Next is a photo of Hunter diligently working at his little crafting desk, tongue stuck between his teeth in concentration as he puts together his first big sewing project: a replica of the outfit worn by his favorite character from Cosmic Frontier, insisting that this is peak fashion from the year 2008. Willow can't help but agree wholeheartedly when he steps into their clubhouse decked out in the costume the very next day, cheeks flushed a delicate shade of pink when she'd goggled at him and exclaimed, "Oh, that is a look!" before eagerly snapping his photo. Willow giggles as she stacks both photos into the scrapbook pile.
Halloween is definitely a memory for the books, Willow decides as she grins down at the group photo Camila had taken of the six of them the night they'd all gone to the festival in Old Gravesfield — Luz and Amity in their matching Hecate and Azura costumes, Gus and Hunter in their red and gold Cosmic Frontier jumpsuits (both meticulously and proudly hand-sewn by Hunter himself) Vee in her normal basilisk form (knowing full well she'll win most realistic costume at the festival) and Willow, dressed in her purloined devil-bat costume, Hunter beaming at her as she flashes her plastic vampire teeth at the camera and does her best spooky villain cackle.
The next couple dozen are of a photo booth session with Gus and Hunter, arms wrapped around each other's shoulders as the three of them make increasingly silly faces at the camera. Willow looks at them closely, noticing for the first time that in at least half of them, Hunter is looking at her, cheeks tinged pink as he gazes at her with a smile that could melt all the snow off the Knee. Willow adds them all to the scrapbook pile because she can't bear to part with a single one.
The next one makes Willow's heart stutter in her chest, catching sight of Hunter's face pressed in close next to hers. Willow remembers that day — remembers how hard her heart had been pounding as she'd taken what felt like a giant leap and asked Hunter to pose with her, just the two of them.
At the time, she hadn't understood why she'd felt so nervous. Hunter was her friend. There was nothing weird about asking to take a photo together — they'd done it hundreds of times with Gus, Luz, Amity, and Vee. But she thinks she might be starting to get it now, heat curling up the back of her neck as she stares down at the precious photograph cradled in the palms of her hands.
Perfectly centered in the little white polaroid is a picture of the two of them snuggled up together on the lumpy bean bag chair in their shack-turned-clubhouse, the tips of Hunter's ears a bright, sunburnt shade of red, smiling so wide the adorable space between his two front teeth is on full display, vibrant red eyes gazing at her like he's utterly enamored just to be next to her. Looking at her like he loves her. Looking at her the very same way she's looking at him just now.
Oh.
Oh.
Oh Titan.
It's in that moment that Willow realizes that over half of the photos she'd taken these past few months are of Hunter. Everywhere she looks, there he is, blushing and beaming back at her through a sea of little white polaroids.
She'd set out with the sole intention of capturing all the things she felt were meaningful, beautiful — and oh, that's exactly what she'd done.
Well…that's one way to find out that you're in love with someone.
Willow gathers up all the "evidence" off the floor before anyone can come back and see them, meticulously counting out the number of Hunter-centric photos she includes in her scrapbook, making sure his don't outnumber anyone else's, lest they put two and two together and starting getting any funny ideas, shoving the rest of them into a shoebox labeled "pumpkin seeds" under her little camper bed.
And if she ends up pinning that last photo of the two of them to the wall above her bed, beaming up at it every night before she goes to sleep…well, Hunter doesn't have to know about that.
…until he happens to glance at it late one afternoon when he comes up to lend Willow the next volume of Cosmic Frontier, face somehow blushing an even deeper shade of red than the one in the photo.
Willow ends up having to buy a whole new scrapbook just to commemorate their very first date.
• • •