Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Darius had told Hunter he needed to develop some form of a social life, but Darius often told Hunter he should do alot of things Hunter had no intention of ever doing. He always had Hunter’s best interest at heart, despite the rather arrogant way he phrased things, but usually he dropped things after it was evident that Hunter believed he had better things to do. He was Hunter’s tutor but given Hunter’s natural ability to absorb information, he job was fairly easy. Surely he had better things to do than worry about whether or not Hunter was social, he certainly didn’t get paid extra for it. But in truth, Darius could see no one else worried, so he worried more. And he wasn’t dropping this notion.

 Hunter was convinced he just wanted him out of the office, that he shared Kiki’s (his uncle’s secretary) opinion that he was an annoying brat. He wasn’t Hunter’s therapist or father so he really had no business telling him what he should and shouldn’t do. But for some reason, the sentiment stuck with Hunter. It was very important to Darius that Hunter made friends but Darius just hadn’t considered how unlikeable Hunter truly believed he was.

Hunter never imagined he would join a band.

They required so much time and focus. They were loud, didn't have a very high success rate and required a certain level of teamwork which was appealing to Hunter who preferred to work alone. When he wasn’t doing odd jobs for his uncle, any extra time he managed to acquire went to his studies. With no free time to speak of, why would his mind ever consider pointless recreation like joining a band?

Because a pretty girl handed him a flier.

As Hunter waited in line at the coffee shop, he could see a large group gathered outside the entrance. He got his earphones ready so he would have an excuse not to interact with them once he left, but as he did something caught his eye. Or rather, someone. She had shoulder length black hair that she wore in two loose braids, tied off with green bows that matched her knee length dress. But they didn't compare to the green of her eyes, which he could see even from far away. They shone through large circular glasses, golden like her long cardigan. She was in the middle of talking to someone and something about the way her face lit up as she did so made Hunter's stomach flip. She seemed so passionate and engaged, he was almost tempted to see what they gathered by the entrance for. Almost

He had too much to get back to allow for a distraction, so once he got his coffee he put in his headphones and headed toward the exit. No stranger to stealth, he was able to slip out without anyone in the group stopping him. Almost.

“Hey you!” a voice called from behind him. He didn't turn around, easily able to blame it on his headphones which played nothing.

"Woah!" Hunter suddenly found himself being pulled backwards, he turned around and saw the girl with the pigtails standing behind him, holding the end of his headphone cord.

"Next time, maybe try plugging these in," she said with a light giggle, as she handed the cord to him. "You almost tripped."

"Oh right, thanks," said Hunter, tucking them in his pocket. "Sorry, I wasn’t ignoring you, I was just..."

"Ignoring everyone? I can understand that," she smiled. "But the singing under your breath to allude to them being plugged in was a nice touch. You have a pretty nice voice."

"What? No." scoffed Hunter. "That was just like whispering, there's no way you could even really tell from that."

"I can tell right now, by talking to you," said the girl. "Do you wanna join my band?"

“Um what?”

“My band!” she repeated happily, holding up her stack of fliers. “We’re looking for a lead singer! We’re pretty good!”

"Um, I don't think I have time for something like that," he said. "But thank you."

“Oh, well at least take a flier,” she said, presenting him with the top sheet. “My manager gave me a quota and I’m falling behind.”

"I can relate to that," he said with a chuckle of his own as he took it from her and read it. It was a colorful collection of bright reds and purple and... flames?. "So... ‘The Bad Girl Coven? That's... a unique name."

She nodded. “It’s vintage. We let the woman whose garage we practice in pick it. I play bass," she said. "I'm Willow, Willow Park." She extended her hand for him to shake but between holding his coffee and her flier, he didn't have a free hand. He tucked the flier under his arm and took her hand as she gave it a dramatic shake, her grip surprisingly strong. 

“Nice to meet you," he said, as he took his hand back trying to let on just how tight her grip had been. "Good luck with your band.

"Well, stop by if you want," she said. "It would be nice to hear you sing for real, Caleb."

"What? How did you-?" 

"It's written on your cup," she said, pointing to the fake name scribbled poorly on the side. "That's a lot of espresso by the way, are you a fan of not sleeping?"

"Oh what, the eyebags don't give it away?" he laughed nervously though he wasn’t sure why he was so nervous.

"They're very rock n' roll," Willow complemented, and Hunter blushed not used to compliments let alone about things most people made fun of. "Well, I gotta get back but think about it? I think you'd really like the band."

-----

 Hunter had joined the band because of Willow. 

Not for Willow, no. That had to be clear. That would suggest something… more. But she had given him the flier, that’s what he meant. And she had been… nice to talk to, who wouldn’t want to see her again? He figured he could blend in with the crowd, see her again and then leave. No big deal. He could at least tell Darius he had tried to make connections, maybe that would be enough for him to drop the idea for awhile. 

“Sign in,” said a small voice as Hunter went to knock on the door.

“What?” Hunter looked around for the source of the voice, before looking down to see a boy about six standing in front of him holding out a clipboard. 

“Oh, uh, okay,” he said as he obliged. The boy promptly took the clipboard once Hunter had finished and walked over the garage. “We’ll don’t just stand there, follow me.”

“Oh, yeah okay.” Hunter said as he did. The boy pressed a button to open the garage door where three girls sat behind a fold out table. He recognized Amity immediately, her parents ran a company that often worked with his uncle. She used to be on the same track as him, focused on taking over the family business, but the most recent slice of gossip suggested that since she dyed her hair she had given up on trying to be a clone of her mother. He knew very little about Amity but he knew her mother and that was enough the confirm she was probably better off.

Beside her was Luz, who Hunter knew from the vet’s office  He had first met her in the waiting room but from that one interaction had learned the girl’s whole life story. He had never met anyone who could talk as much as her, and he remembered her saying she took music lessons from the “Owl Lady” who Hunter knew from how much her sister complained about her. She was probably the only person Lilith complained about more than Hunter.  What a small world. Hunter couldn’t help but think he was walking into yet another room where everyone’s association with him was less than pleasant,

But then on the far end sat Willow. She was doodling flowers on the cover of her notebook and Hunter was so engrossed by watching her he didn’t hear the fake name he wrote down be called

“‘Caleb?’ Really, you used a fake name?” Amity sighed.

“Well, I didn’t think I’d be going first,” he admitted, matching her bitter tone. His plan to blend in wouldn’t be so easy because he was the only one there. But a part of him knew there was a chance he’d have to sign, did a part of him… want to really try out? 

“I’m surprised you’re going at all,” Amity remarked, crossing her arms. “Didn’t peg you as the musical type.”

“I could say the same thing about you, Blight,” said Hunter. 

“You want me to throw this guy out, Luz?” the young boy asked, making a tiny fist. “I told you I’d be a goo bouncer.”

“No King, it’s okay,” Luz assured him brightly, stepping in front of her girlfriend before Amity could prepare another comeback. “Guys, let’s not forget why we’re all here: music, community, to find a lead singer so we compete in Battle of the Bands!

“Yeah, I wanna hear him sing,” chimed Willow, looking back at him, her glasses shining as she gave him a nod of encouragement.

“Oh, uh yeah I guess…” Hunter’s hand hid in his pockets. “So, stand anywhere? Or should I just start or-oof!” While looking at Willow, he wasn’t looking where he was going and bumped into Luz’s drum set and fell over onto the ground. “Sorry! Sorry! I uh… I can just go if you think…”

“Yikes,” whispered King.

“Do you know what you wanna sing?” Willow asked, getting up from her seat and reaching her hand down to help him up . “Usually Gus accompanies on keyboard but he had to do something after school. I can play with you if that makes it easier.”

He didn’t have the words to respond as he looked up at her, caught somewhere between being embarrassed and entranced as his hand reached up to take hers as she brought him to his feet. She didn’t laugh at him, her smile did not suggest he should feel embarrassed, so why could he feel himself blushing? 

She brushed off some dust from his shoulder and then ran over to grab an emerald green bass that was leaning against her seat, and began strumming it after she plugged it in and motioned for him to stand beside her. “Even if I don’t know it I can catch on pretty quick, do you know what key it’s in?”

“Oh, um,” Hunter did enjoy singing but he knew very little about music. He couldn’t read music or name any popular bands, his job at his uncle's company made it more of a secret hobby. Suddenly he felt embarrassed not having an answer for her and his chest felt heavy and he remembered why he didn’t sing in front of people: he had terrible stage fright. 

“I can pull up lyrics on my phone or we can sing something simple,” she offered, she spoke softly to him and put her hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I mean, I might as well since I came all this way,” he chuckled, clearing his throat. "Can I show you the song? It had an intro so it might… um….” He quickly typed it into the search bar of his phone and showed it to Willow who smiled. 

“You picked a fun one,” she said as she played him in. The way she played the familiar melody was calming to him, she offered it so effortlessly the simple intro echoing off the walls as though ushering the words out of him. He couldn’t look at her as he sang, he wasn’t used to having anyone around when he did but his mind wandered to her as he did. He couldn’t sing to her, but for some reason this song came to his mind when she did. Surely she wouldn’t be able to tell he was singing about her, right?

You're sailing softly through the sun

In a broken stone age dawn

You fly so high

I get a strange magic

Oh, what a strange magic

Oh, it's a strange magic

Got a strange magic

Got a strange magi c

Hunter’s voice had a natural raspiness to it that lived dormant in his speaking voice unless he was upset. But he wasn’t upset now. When he sang, he could focus on each word giving it attention and authority and purpose. He liked that feeling, but it was a hard feeling to feel without drawing attention. 

But maybe some attention was good.

“He’s not too bad,” commented Amity with a smirk.

“He is pretty good,” agreed Luz. “I think we gotta let him in.”

“I think he’s also the only one who showed up,” whispered Amity. “But, I don’t think that matters too much to Willow.” She pointed with her chin to the pair who were lost in a conversation of their own.

“I knew I was right, you have a really nice voice Caleb.”

“Hunter.” he corrected her sheepishly.

“Hm?”

“My real name is Hunter,” he admitted, bashful. “I use a fake name when I go to the coffee shop.”

“Wow, you already have a stage name,” laughed Willow. “Told you you were very rock n roll.”

---

Hunter’s goal had been to show Darius that he didn’t need a ‘hobby’ that he knew what he was doing, dedicating his life to learning the business from his uncle. He planned to show Darius that despite his age, he was an important part of the company and he needed to spend more time there, not less. 

But the more time he spent with the band, the more he started to enjoy it. He even dared to think that the others weren’t merely tolerating his presence until they found a replacement but maybe they… even liked having him around? 

And he had to believe it was because of Willow.

Hunter was usually timid about singing in front of other people, but she was patient with him and helped steady his breath. He didn't think he’d get it, what band wanted a lead singer with stage fright? Not to mention he knew next to nothing about music. But Willow convinced them to give him a chance, and the next thing he knew he was meeting in Luz’s garage twice a week as the lead singer of The Bad Girl Coven (“the irony will sell more shirts,” Luz had said).

To his surprise, he was actually good at it. It was fun. He hadn’t had much experience with fun, but he was sure this was it. It had only been a few weeks, but Hunter was warming up to the idea that this might be a permanent thing. Surely if they were going to replace him they would've done it by now, right? And Willow wouldn’t have fought so hard for him to join if she didn’t believe in him, and he couldn't let her down. 

Speaking of which…

“Hey, where’s Willow? It’s not like her to be late.” Hunter observed as the rest of the band was setting up. He adjusted his mic stand’s height as he continued to look around for her, seeing everyone else there already. “She’s typically running late but she’s never the last one here.”

“She must’ve gotten stuck in the rain,” said Luz casually. “She usually walks to practice from the greenhouse.”

“She’s walking in the rain?” Said Hunter, reacting as though the rain was boiling

“Yeah, but- where are you going?”

Hunter ran out the garage door without explanation and got in his car, exiting the driveway like a bat out of hell. He took to the street with his windshield wipers going as fast as they possibly could. It was pouring! How could the others be so calm when Willow was walking through what was basically a hurricane? 

Finally, he spotted Willow walking leisurely along the sidewalk, umbrella in hand and seemingly unbothered by the rain. She was lost in thought, admiring the clouds and the way the rain hit the trees above her when suddenly, the screeching of tires on the pavement caught her attention.  She turned around to find Hunter pulled up beside her. She smiled at him but before l she could wave, he jumped out of the car and ran over to her, his jacket like a cape to cover him from the rain. He swiftly took her umbrella and grabbed her guitar case for her and wordlessly walked her over to his car’s passenger side.

He took his place behind the wheel when suddenly his actions caught up to him, his eyes widening in terror. Had he really just basically kidnapped Willow off the sidewalk? Forcing her into his car? Not even bothering to greet her? Who does that?? She must think he’s totally insane or a creep or a weirdo. Hunter could only wonder what her expression was, surely she was repulsed. He couldn’t get an idea because he refused to jeopardize his driving by taking his eyes off the road, especially while transporting her.

“Huh,” she said at last, her tone suggesting she had just discovered something. 

“W-What is it?” asked Hunter, his heart racing.

“Your eyebrows,” she said simply.

“What about them?”

“They’re still there,” said Willow quizzically, squinting. “I thought the rain would wash them off.”

“What? Why?”

“Well, they always look so perfect I thought they were drawn on,” explained Willow with a chuckle, Hunter could feel her eyes on him. “Or maybe you filled them in or something. But wow, that’s interesting.”

“Is it?” he asked nervously. “I-I don’t… is that… you think they’re perfect?”

“Yeah,” she said casually, watching the rain hit the front window. “The other night Amity and I were talking about you and we realized you look alot like this singer from a band we listened to when we were younger. He was my favorite one and I had such a cr-...crazy respect for.”

“You guys were talking about me?” Hunter asked nervously. 

“Yeah, I told her I was-oh! That reminds me!” Willow remembered as she reached into her bag and pulled something out. “I made you this.”

“What is it?”

“It’s a mixed CD,” said Willow, despite the answer being obvious she knew Hunter wouldn't take his eyes off the road to see for himself. “I remember we were talking about that song you wanted to cover and it made me think of other songs I thought you’d like.”

“You made that for me?”

“Yeah, consider it your ‘welcome to the band’ present,” she said. “Though I’ll have to make you another one to thank you for saving me from the rain.”

“Oh, no you don’t have to do that,” blushed Hunter. “I mean, you can if you want to. I’d like that, I mean if you would like that. I would be totally fine with that, but up to you-.”

“How about you listen to this one first and then let me know if you like it, okay?” said Willow, placing the CD in his glove compartment for safe keeping. Hunter was already certain he was going to love it.

“Deal,” he said with a smile as they pulled into Luz’s driveway. He put the car into park as he summoned the courage to look at her. “And uh, I can give you my number if you ever need another ride,” he said sheepishly. “Not just practice, anywhere! Practice, or school or wherever. If you want.”

“Sounds good,” she said, digging out her phone. “Here, put your number in.”

Hunter’s hand shook as he took her phone, the lanyard decorated with flower and bee beads dangling from the side as he added his contact info. 

“Hunter (from band)” Willow read as he handed the phone back to her, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Just in case you know another Hunter,” he explained with a small smile. 

“Gotcha,” she said, returning his smile. He saw as he went to save his contact, she added a small yellow heart beside his name. His heart twirled, a voice in his mind saying she did that for everyone. But somehow that didn’t matter. She went to open the door and he quickly ran around the car to open the door for her. She hopped out, grabbing her guitar from the back and headed over to the garage.

Hunter went to follow her when his phone buzzed from inside his pocket. He pulled it out, curious, and saw it was a text from a new number. 

Hey! It’s Willow (from band)

Chapter Text

Hunter had had Willow’s number for a week now and had no idea what he was supposed to do with it. Was it for emergencies only? Business purposes? What hours were acceptable? What constituted being worthy of a text? He agonized over his drafts, deeming nothing good enough for his first official text to her. He knew it was really no big deal, but the fact that he had a link to Willow outside of rehearsal seemed magical and almost forbidden. He wanted to know more about her and now he had a way to do just that! But typing was hard for some reason. Hunter usually worked with his hands, but that work rarely involved texting so he worried his conversation skills would not be up to par. 

As he laid on his bed as he tried yet again to think of something more thought provoking than “hey” when suddenly his phone started ringing. Her name came up to accompany the noise and he instinctively threw his phone across the room. 

“Hello? Hunter?” came a familiar voice from the device and Hunter leapt from his bed to scoop it up, as though it was in need of recusing.

“Willow?”

“Hey! I tried to video chat you but it wasn’t an option,” she laughed. 

“Oh yeah,” he laughed, embarrassed. “I don’t think my phone can do that.” He cursed himself for getting the oldest phone possibly just because it was the cheapest option. 

“No biggie!” came Willow’s voice, bright and bubbly and Hunter was grateful it wasn’t a video call as he felt his face get warmer.

“So, uh, what’s up?” Hunter said, trying to make his voice sound low and casual.

“Um, Luz just told me you have a pet cardinal? I wanted to see him!”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” said Hunter, surprised he hadn’t been the one to mention it to her. As though on cue, Flapjack flew over to Hunter’s shoulder and chirped happily into the phone.

Willow gasped in delight. “Is that him?”

“Yeah,” Hunter laughed. ‘He says hi.”

“Oh my gosh! Send me a picture!” she said as though it was a matter of extreme urgency. 

Hunter searched the phone but soon figured out the function, and angled the camera to get the best one to send to Willow. 

“Oh my gosh! What a cutie pie!” She swooned. “How did you manage to get a cardinal?”

“Well, he kind of found me,” he said. “He flew in through an open window, chirping widely and I tried to get rid of him but he kept coming back. I know it's not the best idea to let a wild animal into your room, but he’s really harmless. He’s free to go but he always comes back.”

“What’s his name?”

“Flapjack.”

”Omigosh I am literally obsessed with him,” said Willow. “Send me a picture of you with him. I wanna make it your contact photo.”

“Oh uh sure yeah,” he whistled and Flapjack took his favorite spot atop Hunter’s head and Hunter tried to do what he considered a ‘cool; pose, giving the peace sign in front to his face to try and cover his scar. “How’s that?”

“Perfect,” she said, “Let me send you one!” 

The next few seconds, his phone buzzed and a picture of Willow appeared. She was laying in her bed, looking up at the camera doing a similar gesture. Her braids flung to either side of her face laying on her flower-patterned pillow cases as she smiled up at the camera Hunter looked at it like it was a priceless painting and his heart racing at the fanatical notion that she was smiling for him, because of him .

”Wow,” he murmured with quiet fondness.

“Did you get it?” came Willow’s voice. Oh yeah, she was right there,

“Oh uh yeah! It looks great! You look great! Looks just like you. Perfect!” said Hunter, embarrassed by his hesitation to respond. Even a photo of Willow rendered him speechless.

“Okay weirdo,” she laughed. “Anyway, I was calling to ask you if you wanted to come to my roller derby practice this weekend.”

“You want me to come watch you?” he asked.

“Yeah, me and Gus do roller derby on the weekends and I feel like we never hang out outside of rehearsal. I thought it would be fun.”

“You… and Gus?”

“Yeah! Is that okay?”

“Yeah! I mean, why wouldn’t it be? Gus is cool! I know Gus!”

Hunter did know Gus. He also knew that Gus wasn’t exactly his biggest fan. 

Gus was not crazy about a new member being added to the band while he was at his student council meeting. But, as Willow kept saying, no one else had showed up and he was actually really good. Gus suspected that even if neither of those things were true that Willow still would’ve insisted on him joining. 

Gus knew Willow well enough to know when she liked someone, he probably knew it before she did. She went out of her way to make Hunter feel welcome, she said it was because she knew him, Amity and Luz had a weird history that none of them really mentioned but had agreed to move past and didn’t want to risk that being a factor in him quitting. But Gus suspected that it was because she was more concerned with the future and securing him a place in it. 

Hunter was… weird. He was weird in a way Gus couldn’t put into words. He never really spoke unless spoken to and he always seemed nervous. Despite Gus’ best effort to stalk him, he was also an enigma. He had no social media presence of any kind, any search of his name brought up links to his uncle’s company in which he was only briefly mentioned. He was homeschooled, so he couldn’t even turn to the rumor mill for information on him. He just couldn’t figure out why someone like him would want to join their silly little garage band. Hunter had started picking her up from school and driving her to band practice and Willow repaid him with custom made mixed CDs, trying to help him broaden his musical tastes after he admitted he didn't really know anything beyond what the radio in his car picked up. And now she was trying to include him in things outside the band? He knew where this was headed.

Willow had a bright, big, bubbly personality and Gus couldn’t help but think that Hunter was… boring. And usually boring people had something to hide.

 “All right everyone, gather round! Let’s watch the tape from the performance!” said Luz excitedly as she ran from behind her drum set. She grabbed an old camcorder that no one had seen her place on the hood of Hunter's car right before they started rehearsing their set. She began rewinding the tape and everyone gathered around her to see. 

“Why are you filming us? You’re not trying to start a vlog again are you?” Willow asked Luz, giving her a teasing grin. 

“No! I’m helping us with our audience presence,” answered Luz. “Or our presence in the audience. To the audience?”

“She’s filming us to see what we look like while we perform,” offered Gus.

“Yes! Exactly!” exclaimed Luz. “And I didn’t tell you so it would be a more authentic performance.”

“Well that seems a little illegal but okay,” said Hunter, rolling his eyes.

“Fine, sure whatever,” said Luz, pressing play. “Aw there’s a part where we all bop our heads at the same time! That’s so cute! It’s like we’re cosmically connected!”

“Or just keeping beat to the same song,” said Gus flatly. 

“Aw, and your drumstick twirl looks sooo good! That practice really paid off!” gushed Amity.

“Why thank you, sweet potato.” smiled Luz, kissing her girlfriend’s temple. 

“Hunter… are you okay?” Luz asked as the first song came to an end.

“No more so than usual, why?”

“In the tape you just look so… stiff,” said Luz, holding the camcorder up to him. “You’re just… standing there.”

“I’m singing?” Hunter said as though it was obvious. “Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do?”

“But you’re singing about dancing and you’re stuck to the ground like a tree,” Luz went on. “You’re supposed to be the front man, you’re the one everyone’s looking at and you’re giving us nothing.”

“I’m not much of a dancer, so sue me,” Hunter said, slightly hurt. “I don’t want to risk the song sounding weird or something.”

“You should at least try, move around a little bit, engage,” offered Gus. “It’ll probably be easier when there’s a bunch of screaming fans in front of you-.”

Gus saw the terrified look on Hunter’s face and quickly changed directions. 

“-or it’ll help you build a routine and keep you focused.”

“Well you don’t want it to feel too rehearsed,” pointed out Luz. “Music is supposed to be free and spontaneous and fun!”

“Well, some people happen to find focus and routine fun,” said Hunter smugly. 

“Well, this is rehearsal so let’s try rehearsing it,” offered Amity. “Hunter, you do look kind of bored but we can’t put all the pressure on you, we should all be engaging. Why don’t you try storytelling? Try acting out the song, showing the feelings in your face too.”

“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?”

“Pretend you’re singing to someone or about someone,” offered Willow. “And pretend they’re here, listening. Don’t try to force it, let it find you.”

“Good idea! Hunter, pretend you’re singing to Willow,” said Gus.

“What?"

“She's the closest to you onstage and she can move around a little too, you can interact with each other,” said Gus. “Try it out until you find what works for you.”

“Yeah okay sure,” gulped Hunter, feeling more stuck than before. How was this supposed to go down? He couldn’t even let himself think about Willow during this song let alone look at her. But he didn’t want her to think that he thought it was impossible for this song to be sung about her but he didn’t want it make a fool of himself either.

“Hey don’t worry,” Willow whispered as though reading his mind as she walked by him to take her place. “Just have fun.”

Hunter gave her a small nervous nod as he tried to steady his breathing. He was still getting over his stage fright and now he had to sing to the girl he… thought was pretty cool in front of everyone like it wasn’t a big deal?

The song started with Willow playing them in and Hunter usually looked to the ground and counted the beats, too worried about becoming distracted but now he looked at her and saw how she conveyed that she felt the music she was creating. She moved her head up and down and soon her shoulders joined in as her braids traveled from side to side. She brought her eyes up to him and gave him a wink as though to cue him and he took the mic from the stand so he could move closer to her, not wanting to disobey her cue.

He didn’t have to do much, right? Just sing the same song he’d been singing for weeks while looking at her. It was what, three minutes he had to pretend he wasn’t totally freaking out internally. He could do that right?

It seems like I can do no wrong

Through your eyes

Sing the wrong lines to my own song

You don't mind

Make it up as we go

All the words we don't know

She looked back at him as though she also believed the words were true. It made sense, Willow had more experience and knowledge of music so of course following her lead was the right move. It was so odd because he was so sure he’d be nervous, but singing to her now made him want to sing better. The words sounded different, maybe because he wasn’t just hitting notes but he was saying something. Was that cheesy? No. Was that what he was supposed to be doing the whole time? He didn’t care about sounding good, he cared about sounding sincere. 

Those eyes, damn, those eyes

They get me every time

Those eyes, in those eyes

I can do no crime

When dance like I don't care

You call me Fred Astaire

He felt bold for a moment and noticed her glasses were sliding and pushed them back up the bridge of her nose in step with the music. Willow didn’t seem to mind, in fact she appreciated it. During the bridge when she took a break from playing to clap, Hunter seized the moment and offered her his hand. She took it, no hesitations, just a playful curiosity and Hunter dared to pull her towards him and spin her. It fits the song , he told himself, it’s a part of the musical journey. He hasn’t felt this lost in a song in a long time and never with someone else. The adrenaline was taking over and Hunter felt particularly bold as the song reached the buildup into the  acapella bridge.

When I lose myself

There is no one else

Who ever sees through me

Quite like you

He sang this directly to her and he meant every world. As he sent each word to Willow he made sure it carried the sentiment behind the music. She could chalk it up to performance, but he knew he would get in his own way when it came to saying this words to her outside this moment. From the moment they met, her eyes had stood out to them. The peridot color, the soft assurance they held, the way a simple wink sent a shiver up his spine. But he didn’t know how to vocalize this fascination without being misunderstood. So he put himself in the mindset that within these three minutes there were fear or consequences. 

Those eyes, damn those eyes, they get me every time

Those eyes, in those eyes, I can do no crime

When I dance like I don't care

You call me Fred Astaire

Was his hand under her chin? Tilting her head up to look into his eyes? What was he doing?!?! What if she needed to look down to make sure her hands were in the correct position on her bass??? This part was acapella, it was okay he had time. But she looked surprised, did she hate this? Did she feel indifferent? Did she respect his artistic interpretation???

But there she was, joining in the chorus as usual. Maybe he hadn’t ruined things. Maybe they were on the same page. Maybe she was professional and understood the creative  process better than he ever would and wasn’t overthinking this like he later would because she knew that in the grand scheme of things this was only a three minute segment of a rehearsal. 

Hunter took full advantage of the acapella section of the song and offered Willow his hand again. She took it, playing along, and Hunter held it for a moment before delicately spinning her around, not worried about getting tangled in cords for once or holding onto her hand too long. Willow laughed and used the spin to ease into the next part of the song as though it was established choreography and smiled at Hunter as he continued singing. He was used to feeling different when he sang, feeling free and light, but never had he felt so bold and…(dare he even THINK this???) flirty. 

But even though Hunter would later overthink every second, he still managed to get lost in the moment. These instructive thoughts and possible regret did not manifest until after the song had ended when his soul re-entered his body and found that instead of standing center stage as usual, now he was beside Willow watching her end the song. He was so mesmerized, he also didn’t hear the rest of the band calling for him until Willow redirected his attention. 

“Wow! That sounded great Hunter!” praised Gus. 

“Look who has some moves after all!” Luz laughed. 

“Yeah, a major improvement,” agreed Amity. “I could tell you had fun, but next time maybe don’t focus so much on Willow.”

“What? But you said to-.”

“We said interact with her, act like the song was about her, not forget the rest of us were here,” teased Gus.

“I did not-.”

“I stopped playing the whole second chorus and you didn’t even notice,” Amity deadpanned. 

“Oh! If we’re doing romantic serenades, I’ve got one I’ve been saving-.” started Luz but Hunter cut her off, lest Willow be made uncomfortable by the implication. 

“No! No, it’s just… I’m really good at following directions,” said Hunter, slight panic creeping into his voice. “So next time just be more specific about what I should do. You said to sing to Willow so I did.”

“Well, I liked it,” said Willow brightly. “I think you did perfect Hunter.”

“Really?” said Hunter bashfully, twirling the microphone cord. “Uh, thanks. You too.”

“Okay, well let’s take it from the top, and this time try and use the whole stage,” said Luz, tapping her drumsticks to start them off.

The song quickly became Willow’s new favorite song to play. 

Even if Hunter never gave a performance like this one again, it was enough to confirm Gus’ suspicions. He could see Willow was right when she insisted Hunter was a talented singer and a great performer under the right circumstances. But he was not an actor. He could not fake emotion, even on his best day he couldn’t get away with telling even the smallest white lie. 

So even though he’d blame it on the music and his amazing ability to follow directions, Gus was fairly confident he wouldn’t be able to perform this song while looking into the eyes of anyone else. 

Gus was right, Hunter was hiding something. But he wasn’t hiding it very well.

Chapter Text

“We’ve got our first gig!” Amity announced as she rushed into the garage.

“What? Spill it hermosa!” exclaimed Luz, nearly knocking over her drums as she rushed to greet her girlfriend. 

“Well, you know how me and the twins have a Halloween party every year?”

“Yeah,” said Willow, and only Hunter seemed to notice something extra lingered in her reply.

“Well, we usually have a band play a set in the middle and they asked if we would do it since we’d do it for free,” she said. “So… we got our first gig!”

“Ah nepotism, you gotta love it,” Gus said fondly. 

“Um excuse me, all gigs have to go through management,” said King, tucking his iPad under his arm. “And you’re doing it for free? What about my cut?”

“We’ll bring you a bucket of candy back from the party, we usually give them out as goodie bags,” said Amity, prepared for this reaction.

“Okay,” he said. “But I’m expecting at least three full sized bars. And nothing with coconut!”

“Of course,” she assured him. 

“Who is this kid again?” Hunter whispered to Willow.

“He’s Eda’s kid,” she whispered back. “Luz is technically babysitting him, that’s why we can practice in the garage.”

“Oh, and where is Eda?”

“We’re not allowed to know, that way we can have deniability.”

“Wait, what?”

“You guys this is huge!” Luz exclaimed. “We’ve gotta get our set list ready! We’ve gotta coordinate costumes! Should we get a fog machine? Amity, do you already have a fog machine? Should we add spooky songs or is that too on the nose?”

“Um, you can figure out all that after you take me to the park like you promised,” said King. 

“King! As our manager, shouldn’t you want us to focus on making sure we sound our best for our first public performance?”

“Yes, but right now my priority is feeding the ducks at the park while the ranger who is too lazy to chase me away is on duty,” said King. “And we have a very small window of opportunity and a verbal agreement so chop chop!”

“Fine, but while we’re at the park, you guys brainstorm what we should have for the set list,” said Luz as she slipped on her jacket. “I think this would be a perfect opportunity to add the Monster Mash like I’ve been suggesting since the beginning. We’ll be back soon!”

As Luz and King took off towards the park, Hunter finally started to register what Amity’s announcement meant. They would be performing. Outside the garage. For people. Strangers. With him singing. That was the goal, right? Why was he so surprised? 

“So, uh, how big is this party exactly?” asked Hunter.

“Well, not to brag but it’s kind of a big deal,” said Amity, her voice having no trace of modesty. “We host it every year, the whole school usually comes.”

“Yeah, this year everyone at school will be there,” said Willow. Hunter wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but by the way Amity’s eyes widened and the way Gus’ darted to the floor, he could tell he wasn’t meant to ask.

“Yeah, uh, well I was thinking we could do some solo songs too,” said Amity, moving on from the pause of awkwardness. “Ya know, in case Hunter needs a break between group numbers. I know Luz and I are working on a mashup we could have done in time. Might be a fun way to show off our range?”

“Actually, that is a good idea, Amity,” said Gus. “Willow has been working on something lately, haven't you, Will?”

“Really?” asked Hunter. 

“Yeah,” confirmed Willow, somewhat shyly. “I um, I’ve been working on it awhile actually with Gus on the keyboard.”

“Can we hear it?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I-I’d love to hear you sing,” said Hunter, before realizing how that might sound. “I-I mean since we’ve got the time and you hear me sing all the time I think it’s only fair.”

“Yeah! Let’s show them Willow! It’s really good!” Gus exclaimed, running to the keyboard. She needed very little convincing to walk up the mic, excited to finally share what they had been practicing. As Hunter and Amity pulled up the folding chairs, Gus played the intro and Willow was instantly transported into the music. Hunter was instantly captivated before she even opened her mouth. 

And when she did… it was magic.

Something always brings me back to you

It never takes too long

No matter what I say or do

I'll still feel you here 'till the moment I'm gone...

Listening to Willow sing made Hunter feel like he was floating. He had heard her sing before, of course, but never like this. Her voice was gentle and strong and purposeful, just like her. It was beautiful. It was honest. And the song she chose? Phenomenal.  Hunter wished this had been the performance they recorded because he needed her to know just how amazing she had done.

“Wow, Willow that was… you were… it was so…” Hunter literally did not have the words

“It was great!” Said Amity with an enthusiasm that was littered with something else. “It’s just that-.”

“Here we go.” Groaned Gus under his breath as Amity crafted her sentence.

“Are you absolutely sure that song is the best choice for you?”

“Amity, you know how much this song means to me,” said Willow plainly. “Gus and I worked really hard on it and I know I sound great.”

“It’s just that… it’s not our usual sound, it’s kind of slow.”

“Plenty of bands add ballads and acoustic stuff to their sets to cool down, plus I finally got the big note down and people go nuts for those.”

“I mean yeah you can sing it now when it’s just us, but in front of close to a hundred people? Are you sure you won’t-.”

“Amity, are you serious right now?” Said Willow, smacking her hand on Gus’ keyboard. “After everything I’ve done you still… you still think I can’t do it.”

“I didn’t say that!” Amity said quickly. “I just want to make sure that you’re sure before-.”

“I am sure,” said Willow sternly. “I know the Willow you knew wasn’t sure of herself, but I am now and I have reason to be. I thought you would’ve seen that by now.”

Willow rushed out of the garage past Amity and took off down the sidewalk.

“What did I say?” Amity asked. “I said she sounded good! I just don’t want her to embarrass herself.”

“Yeah, you’ve always been an expert at embarrassing Willow huh Amity.” Said Gus as he took off after his friend.

“What’s he talking about?” Hunter asked, wanting to take after her too but not sure if it was his place to.

“It’s… complicated.”

---

The next day Hunter waited for Willow in his usual spot, not sure if she would show.

As Hunter looked for her out the passenger's window for her as his mind raced with what to say, she sheepishly knocked on the driver’s side window and Hunter nearly had a heart attack before he quickly rolled down the window to greet her. His heart sank a little when he saw her normal smiling face had a faint forced smile today, signaling that she was happy to see him but that was all she was happy about at the moment . 

“Hey, I’m not going to rehearsal today,” she said. “So I think I’ll just walk home today.”

“I figured,” said Hunter. “Gus texted me the same thing but I wanted to make sure you were okay. I tried texting you but -.”

“Yeah, my phone is off,” she sighed. “Amity keeps messaging and calling and I’m not ready to talk to her and I don’t wanna block her so and I dunno maybe I’m just being dramatic-.”

“No! No uh… I heard about what happened,” Hunter admitted. “From Amity at least and even though it was her side of the story she knows she was in the wrong. I know you probably wanna be alone right now but if you don’t and you wanna talk about it I wouldn’t mind playing hooky. We could grab a coffee or something.”

“Actually… I’d really like that.”

---

“So, Amity was your bully?” said Hunter as he handed Willow her iced coffee. They were back at the coffee shop where they had first met. He could help but find it kind of funny.

“Basically,” she said, swirling the ice with her straw. “Ugh, it sounds so cliche but that’s what she was. We were best friends when we were little and then right before high school, she ditched me. And I thought, ‘okay, people grow apart it happens’ but then the friends she ditched me for…”

“Boscha?” finished Hunter, remembering Amity mentioned the name.

“Yeah,” Willow confirmed. “She wanted to make my life miserable any chance she got.”

“Why?”

“I dunno, I guess I was an easy target,” sighed Willow, sipping her drink. “I was a late bloomer. I was shy. I wore glasses. Kids don’t need a lot or go off to find a reason to be mean. And when I had Amity, it didn’t seem like a big deal. But then, I dunno, I guess Amity was just embarrassed by me. Then she started hanging out with Boscha and the insults became alot more… personal.``

“She mentioned… a certain nickname.” said Hunter quietly.

“Yeah, it’s so stupid,” sighed Willow. “I mean, ‘half-a-wit Willow?’ It’s not even that clever. But it was enough to make high school really suck. I really thought about transferring schools for awhile. But then sophomore year I met Gus, this scared little freshman who skipped two grades and didn’t know anyone. He needed a friend and it made things a little better. Then Luz moved here and I mentioned I wanted to start a band and well, I’m sure you can figure out the rest.”

“But you and Amity are… okay now?”

“We’re definitely… better,” said Willow, not seeming too convinced. “I mean, she apologized and we’ve hung out more but like sometimes she’ll say something that makes me think that the things she said weren’t peer pressure or whatever. That a part of her really believes I’m weak and scared. And, yeah, maybe I used to be, but even if that was true now, it’s like she thinks that’s all I’ll ever be and she needs to protect me and I don’t want her to protect me. She can defend me but there’s a difference, you know? I mean- ugh, sorry I’m rambling aren’t I?”

“No, no not at all!” Hunter insisted. “I mean, I get it. I know what it’s like to have people underestimate you.”

Willow smiled, grateful for his sincerity. “Thanks, I just can’t really talk to Luz about this,” Willow sighed. “I mean I can but ever since they started dating it feels… different. Like she’ll always take Amity’s side and I know that’s not true but it still feels weird.”

“I mean that makes sense. I know everything I tell Luz will usually end up with Amity.”

“And when I met Gus, Amity and I hadn’t been friends for awhile so he only recently got over disliking her so I feel like he doesn’t need an excuse to be mad at her and I just don’t know how to express how I feel I guess.”

“Well if you need an impartial party, I’ll do my best,” assured Hunter, although a part of him couldn’t help but feel he’d usually be on Willow’s side.

“It’s like… she’s trying, I know she is,” sighed Willow. “But she doesn’t see how much I’ve changed which makes it feel like she doesn’t really know me. It just feels… it feels like we’ll never get things back the way they were.”

“Well that doesn’t mean they can’t be good though right? They’ll just be… different.”

“And sometimes I worry that if things ever got bad again, like if Amity and I fought or stopped trying that… Luz would have to pick sides and that she…” Willow trailed off, knowing that if she finished the sentiment she’d start crying.

“I don’t think Luz would let you go,” Hunter said quietly.

“I used to think that about Amity too,”  said Willow. “I kept giving her the benefit of the doubt, ya know? I wanted to give her a chance to take it back but it only made her treat me worse. She’s the one who stopped being my friend but it was hard to stop being a friend to her. But she got colder and distant and it made me feel so small and worthless. And I just… I would never have treated her that way. Even when she gave me good reason to. It’s just confusing because sometimes I wonder that if Luz hadn’t come along and reminded us how close we used to be, would Amity have ever apologized to me? Would she have missed me enough on her own?”

“Have you told her any of this?”

“I feel like it’s a lot,” she said. “I know it is and I’m worried we’re not strong enough yet to tackle it.”

“Well, maybe it’ll make you stronger,” offered Hunter. “It seems like Blight’s social circle has lacked sincerity the last few years and I think she’d really appreciate you being honest with her. 

“I think you’re right,” said Willow. “I think I spend so much time missing her that I never got a chance to be mad at her. I never got to tell her how much she hurt me and I think I’ve been afraid to bring it up because I know she is trying and I don’t want her to think that I didn’t miss her but damn it I wish I had a place for this anger.”

“Is that why you do roller derby? That seems to be a good way for you to let off steam.” said Hunter, having sat in on a few of her practices. She was truly a force to be reckoned with.

“Nah, that’s just cause I’m naturally violent,” she joked, and Hunter’s drink nearly came out his nose. Willow’s hand darted to her mouth to try and prevent the same fate, reaction to his reaction. She hadn’t intended for it to be that funny, but for some reason Hunter always found even the tiniest joke she made utterly hysterical.

“I did… write something.” She said delicately once they had both calmed down. “And I wanna share it with the band but I didn’t wanna sound passive aggressive. I mean it’s how I really feel so maybe it’s not? But to ask Amity to perform a song about herself? Maybe that’s so much.”

“Maybe that could be your new solo song?” offered Hunter. “I’d love to hear it, if you’re up for it. I know band practice is canceled today, but I bet Eda will let us in the garage if I bring her a danish.”

As Willow went to respond, she looked down and realized for the first time that Hunter’s hand rested on top of her reassuringly on the table. She wondered how long it had been there, maybe the whole time, and if he was aware. She looked back up at his brownish-crimson eyes that seemed to widen when she entered their gaze, and she felt so seen that she had no problem saying:

“Okay.”

---

WitchChick128: I’m worried about Willow hanging out with Hunter so much

Luzura: Why? He seems harmless.

Luzura:A little grumpy maybe. But Willow’s always had a thing for bad but sad boys

Luzura:Is that what your fight was about?

WitchChick128: Kind of?

WitchChick128:Idk

Luzura:They’re at Eda’s rn

WitchChick128: What? I thought band practice was canceled today

Luzura:Eda says they’re working on a song together

Luzura:She says Willow sounds really good.

WitchChick128: She does sound good. I just remember the last time she tried doing a solo.

WitchChick128: It wasn’t a good night.

Luzura: She told me about it.

Luzura: But she seems really excited about it

Luzura: And she seems really excited about Hunter 

WitchChick128: I know. I guess its just weird seeing him because the last time I did, we had alot of common

WitchChick128: If you know what i mean

Luzura: Oh you mean he was a butthead like you used to be

WitchChick128: Thats one way to put it i guess

WitchChick128: And I remember how I treated Willow and I just dont wanna see her get hurt 

Luzura: But you changed!

Luzura:Maybe hunter has too.

Luzura: It’s the power of love

WitchChick128: Maybe

Luzura: Willow’s changed too ya know

Luzura: She no longer hides what a badass she is

Luzura: If Hunter ever hurt her I think she can handle herself

Luzura: And I don’t think he would do that. I think hes kind of scared of her

Luzura: Again, the power of love

WitchChick128: I think youre right

WitchChick128:I need to be supportive

WitchChick128:She would do the same for me

Chapter Text

InGusWeTrust:  Idk he just seems grumpy all the time

Hello_Willow: He’s just really serious. He’s a busy guy, the day you met him he was on caffeine withdrawal 

InGusWeTrust:   I guess it is kinda funny when him and Amity argue about what key to start in

InGusWeTrust:   You really know how to pick em Park

Hello_Willow: Um it was a group decision

Hello_Willow:And he’s actually so sweet, you should see him with his pet bird. Here, lemme show you a pic.

InGusWeTrust:   ???

InGusWeTrust:   Um is that his room??? Willow Alexandra Park is there something you’re not telling me???

Hello_Willow: Okay 1. That’s not my middle name 

Hello_Willow: 2. He sent me the picture. He sends like 10 a day.

InGusWeTrust: Oh wow, I didn’t know you guys were so serious 😏

Hello_Willow: Oh shut up 🙄

Hello_Willow:I think you guys would really get along if you got to know him

InGusWeTrust: Willow Elizabeth Park are you trying to get my seal of approval before you marry the grumpy boy

Hello_Willow: No  

InGusWeTrust: No to the Elizabeth or no to the approval 

Hello_Willow: No to both 

InGusWeTrust: but not no to marrying the grumpy boy 👀👀👀👀

Hello_Willow: I will block you 

InGusWeTrust: Is he gonna take your last name 

InGusWeTrust: Mr. Willow Millicent Park 

Hello_Willow: No

InGusWeTrust: No he’s not taking you last name or no to the Millicent 

InGusWeTrust: Wait did you actually block me

InGusWeTrust: Willow Rose Amanda Vivian Maria Park did you block me????

---

Hunter didn’t mind driving Willow to roller derby practice. She insisted he didn’t need to, that she could walk or catch a ride with Skara but she did not insist too hard when his face got red when he insisted it was on his way. It wasn't on his way back though, but he still always found a reason to stay and watch.  Willow was a force to be reckoned with and something about watching her command the group and run drills that kept Hunter at the rink. He said he wanted to learn the rules better so when their first match came he would know how to show support but really he just liked being in the same room as Willow. He also didn’t mind a little entertaining violence. 
Even when he couldn’t drive her because he had to do something for his uncle, he would often still stop by to watch and drive her and Gus home. Willow and him would often linger in the car after, the conversation eventually starting from roller derby to band to anything else they wanted it talk about. They’d listen to the new CD Willow had made and fine a nice place to park as the conversation flowed effortlessly. 

The only person more excited than Willow for the Emerald Entrails first match was Hunter. When he was younger, he had loved roller blading and even though the tricks he had taught himself were nothing like the fast paced thrilling world Willow introduced him to, he was honored to be included in any way. He had dug out his old skates so she could attempt to teach him some of her favorite moves and he told her it was so he could be an informed spectator. It definitely wasn’t because she would sometimes hold his hand to help him stay balanced.

“Hunter, you came!” Willow exclaimed as she ran over to him from the locker room.

“Yeah, don’t I always?” He said, returning her smile. “You left your water bottle in my car so I cleaned it out and filled it with that sports drink you like.”

“Oh, why are you so sweet?” she said with a smile as she took it from him, lingering the moment their hands touched during the exchange. “So uh, listen um I have a really big favor to ask you.”

“Sure, anything!”

“You didn’t even hear the favor yet.”

“Oh, right go ahead,” 

“So,long story short our alternate broke their leg and now we’re a player short and if we don’t don’t find another rusher we’re gonna have to forfeit,” said Willow.

“Oh no, do you need me to help you find a replacement?” He thought maybe she’d ask him to pick up Luz or Amity. 

“I was kinda hoping you’d… be the replacement?”

“Me?”

“I know it’s super short notice, like insanely short, it’s actually no notice,” she said. “But you’re an amazing skater and I know you always keep your skates in your car and you have a really high pain tolerance and I talked to the team and we can keep you out of the line of fire, we really just need a body.”

“Is there a rule book I can look over?” He asked nervously. “I mean I have a basic understanding but I’m not familiar with all the policies and I’m not really dressed for it-.”

“No it’s okay I totally get it, it’s a lot to ask,” said Willow. “I mean, no, you just got off work and you’re probably really tired and I hate to make you uncomfortable and I shouldn’t have just assumed-.”

“Willow hold up,” he said, taking her arm as she turned to leave. “I didn’t say no, I just wanna be prepared.”

“Wait, really?”

“I can't promise I’ll be any good but I kinda owe you one so-.”

“Hunter omigod are you serious?” Willow could hardly catch her breath. “Hunter, I could kiss you right now, you’re seriously saving the day.”

“Yeah, well,” he tried not to focus too much on her words. He had to remind himself that was a pretty common phrase, right? He shouldn’t think too much of it. “Don’t thank me just yet, I could be horrible.”

“So long as you have skates on you can be whatever you want, c’mon!” She shouted as she dragged him from the stand into the back. “Um, go grab your skates and I’m gonna find you something to change into, okay?”

Hunter nodded as he went to his car to fetch his skates out of the trunk. He rummaged around, certain he had some clean shorts from gym class in there too. A striped polo shirt and green basketball shorts shouldn’t look too ridiculous right? It didn’t matter as much as helping Willow. 

I could kiss you right now 

That’s not why he was doing this, he would do anything for her. Everything she led him to managed to change his life for the better, even if it did seem scary at first. She was always helping him. It was the least he could do, getting pushed around by yelling strangers in the dark while rolling around at great speeds… okay, a kiss wouldn’t hurt. 

“You’re back! Perfect! I’ve got an extra helmet, some spare knee pads and a mouth guard.”

“Is the mouth guard-.”

“It’s brand new, I promise,” she assured with a smile. Hunter sat on the bench as he got his gear on as Willow gave him a quick run down. 

“So Skara is our jammer, that's what the star on her helmet means. So we’re blockers and we have to stop the player with the star in the other team from passing and helping Skara pass.” Willow gave him a refresher as though they didn’t discuss the game every week in his car as they shared an order of fries. 

“So it’s like football?”

“It’s like a lot of things,” Willow smiled. “We were all gonna paint our faces before the match but you don’t have to if you don’t-.”

“No it sounds cool,” he said, standing up to make sure his skate was secure. “I don’t wanna stick out by not sticking out.”

“Do you want me to paint your face for you?”

“Uh, sure that sounds- woah!” Before Hunter could finish, Willow plopped him back on the seat next to her as she hastily got out the supplies. Sitting down, she was able to reach him easier and get close enough to his face to properly add the detail she wanted. 

People passed behind her, as though there were no boundaries here and each time they did she ended up closer to him. She didn’t step back after each interruption until eventually she was practically sitting in his lap. Hunter held his breath, worried about breathing on her for some reason, watching the way she stuck her tongue to the side as she lined the left side of his face with green face paint. He had no idea what he looked like and he didn’t really care.

“Oh, I don’t want your shirt getting ruined, do you wanna wear mine?” She asked, he wasn’t sure if she meant by the paint or the impending violence. 

“Wear… your shirt?”

“Yeah, it’s my dad's old shirt that I wear for luck and I think you could use some extra luck,” she said. She reached down to pull the oversized shirt over her head and Hunter instinctively averted his eyes. Willow laughed. “Sorry, it’s okay I have a tank top on, see?”

Skeptically and slowly, he turned to see it was true. Under the faded green oversized shirt she had on a striped green tank top he had seen her in before. Her arms littered with miscellaneous bruises and bandages and he couldn’t help but notice she was fairly muscular. How was this the same girl who wore flowered tights and bumblebee cardigans?

“Here, why don’t you go change while I put my contacts in, then we can meet here before we start with any questions?” She suggested as she handed him the shirt. “Gus can show you around a little more.”

Hunter nodded, still processing the fact that he was about to wear something of hers, not to mention something she considered sacred. 

“So…” came Gus’s voice from beside him, breaking his train of thought. “She managed to rope you in too?”

“Oh, uh hi,” said Hunter. “I mean, I guess. But it’s just temporary.”

“I’m sure,” said Gus unconvinced, remembering he had said the same thing about the band. “Willow told me you’re the one who thought of the team name.”

“Oh, uh, I guess?” said Hunter, clearing his throat. “We were just brainstorming and I dunno I-.”

“You think you can handle it?” asked Gus, as sounds of shouts and skates colliding echoed behind him. “It’s not… too much for you is it?”

“It actually kind of reminds me of this one scene from Cosmic Frontier,” said Hunter, almost more to himself. “When they go to the tilting planet, they have a festival where O’Bailey has to adjust to the new gravity and because of his robot arm he’s off balance the whole time and he almost gets-.”

“-discovered by the head of the alliance!’” Gus finished with him, looking at Hunter in shock, his face in a wide gasp. “Wait, no way, you read Cosmic Frontier?”

“Yeah, doesn’t everyone?”

“Dude! I’m obsessed with those books!”

“Really?” said Hunter, suddenly less nervous. “Luz’s mom lent me the first one awhile back and I’ve hooked ever since.”

“That’s how I found them!” exclaimed Gus. “Woah, this is awesome! What did you think about the movie?”

“There’s a movie?!”

“Oh my gosh dude, if you’re an O’Bailey fan you’re gonna flip,” said Gus. “The casting is spot on. We should totally watch it sometime.”

“That sounds amazing!” said Hunter, totally pumped before dropping his voice to try and trying to seem cooler. “I mean, yeah sure I guess.”

“Yeah dude, come meet the rest of the team!” said Gus, leading him over to where Viney and Skara were arguing about something. 

“Blockingjay!”

“Hunter Gatherer”

“Wage Gap!” Viney received some confused stares for that one. “Like… the gap in his teeth? I’m working with what I got; which do you like best, Hunter?”

“For… what?”

“Everyone gets a special roller derby nickname,” explained Gus. “It’s a team tradition.”

“Well those are all… choices,” said Hunter delicately. “But I don’t think I really need a special name…”

“Yeah! Don’t worry bro, I’ll think of one.” Said Gus with confidence. “I’ve thought of names for everyone, it’s kind of my gift.”

“Really?” 

“Yup, check it: Viney is Clobbering Vine, Skara is S Skar Go and yours truly is Max Penalty.”

“Impressive,” said Hunter, always a fan of decent word play. “What’s Willow’s?”

“She used to go by Mother Nature but now we just call her Captain, cause she’s the captain. Pretty self explanatory. Once I see you in action, I’m sure it’ll come to me.”

“Yeah dude, you’re gonna have a blast,” said Viney. “You did sign the waiver, right? I just reloaded the first aid kit so we should be fine.”

“But of course our first match is against Boscha,” groaned Skara, who had only recently cut ties with the pink haired menace. “I just know she’s gonna go after Willow the whole time.”

“Boshca?” He remembered the cursed name. 

“Yeah, she’s the other team’s captain,” said Gus. “The Banshees, the same name as her band. I can’t tell if she is uncreative or trying to start a brand but either way she's the worst.”

“I didn’t know Boscha was in a band too?” said Hunter, finding it odd how that fact never came up.

“That’s a story for another time,” said Gus delicately. “For now, we gotta make sure she doesn’t ruin this for Willow. Roller derby is pretty hardcore, but Boscha still manages to play dirty. Think of her like the cyclops from Terra who attacked Ivy’s garden.”

“Oh, then she is bad news,” said Hunter, who already had a low opinion on the infamous Boscha. From their huddle, he could see a blur of pink that must’ve been her barking orders to get her team in line. He knew Willow often raise her voice to direct her team, but never with such disgust. Hunter didn’t consider himself a particularly violent person. But he truthfully wouldn't mind seeing her fall on her face a few times. 

“Alright team! Let’s gather up and focus!” called Willow, her look complete with her own face paint applied. “Now, we’re ready for this, okay? Remember to stay focused and communicate, okay?”

“Okay!” The team screamed in unison. 

“I know the Banshees are gonna try some tricky stuff, but let’s not let them throw us,” Willow went on. “We’re the Entrails for a reason! There’s more to us than they think! Let’s show em we’re not only strong, but we’ve got buff brains!”

“Buff brains!” the team repeated with vigor, raising their arms high in triumph. Hunter followed suit awkwardly.

“Ha ha, yeah!” he said as they gathered to finish the cheer.

“The Emerald Entrails on 3! 1, 2,3 !”

“EMERALD ENTRAILS!”

The team went to take their positions and Hunter went to follow but turned when he felt Willow’s hand on his shoulder. 

“Are you sure you're sure?” Willow asked again. “If you wanna back out it’s okay, I can pretend to sprain my ankle so no one will know and we can all go get milkshakes. It's no big deal. It’s totally fine if you-.”

“Hey,” he said, putting his hand over hers and giving her a nod. “We got this, Captain.”

Willow liked hearing him say that.

Roller derby was fast. The whole game was a blur, but it was like something took over Hunter. He caught on quick, he needed to. He was alert, aware, surrounded. It felt like when he sang. It was scary but amazing and… fun. He would push and dodge and leap, keeping his eye on his team using his speed to practically teleport to the right place at the right time. He liked being a part of something. 

Willow was an amazing leader. She was fearless. She laughed at danger. She threw elbows and took punches and did stunts. It was bloody and sweaty and breathtaking. Hunter knew she was tough, but out here she was a force of nature and under her leadership Hunter managed to survive.

And, even better, they managed to win.

Hunter didn’t realize what he had done until it was done. But he saw Bocha headed towards Willow and there was no reason for her to be. The whole match she had been focused on Willow and even by roller derby standards it was excessive. Another blur and suddenly he was gunning towards her and cutting her off. Willow and Gus sent Skara hurling toward the front and apparently that meant they won. And apparently, Hunter had helped.

As the announcement blared over the speakers, the Entrails screamed in celebration as the Banshees held a look of disgust. Hunter looked around confused, putting the pieces together when his eyes locked with Willow’s who looked overjoyed. Willow skated over to him at full speed and he held out his arms to greet her, only for Boscha to pull a sore loser move and stick out her leg at the last second to trip her. This sent Willow spiraling into Hunter’s arms who happily caught her but they lost their balance and ended up on the ground. 

“Hunter! Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Willow panted, placing her hands at either side of his face to lift herself off him to look down at him.

“Yup! I’m fine! Totally great!” He stuttered looking up at her like she was a fallen Angel, her face mere inches from his. If he was in pain, the racing of his heart was too loud for him to really notice. “Better to fall now than during the game, right?” He laughed nervously.

“I guess so,” she laughed with him, giving him a look of excitement and adoration as she pushed her braid behind her ear so it wouldn’t dangle in his face. “Have I mentioned that you’re my hero for that, by the way?”

“Not in the last two minutes,” he laughed.

“Well,” she smiled and leaned down to place a kiss on his cheek, her green lipstick leaving the perfect imprint of a kiss mark. “You’re my hero.”

His face might have well been a Christmas decoration, covered in red and green. Hero . He froze as Willow rose to her feet and offered him a hand to help him up.

“We’re gonna take a group photo then we’re all going out for pizza to celebrate,” she said. “And you’re the guest of honor, my treat.”

“Oh, Hunter!” Gus called excitedly and he skated over to the pair still holding hands. “I thought of the perfect roller derby name for you!”

“What?”

“The Golden Guard!”

---

Gus was worried that if Willow started dating someone he would fall in the background.They had always been a duo. Sure, they had other friends in different clubs and groups but at the end of the day Willow was always there for him. She was like his older sister, she was protective and funny and patient with him. But now, sitting in the backseat as Hunter drove them home from the restaurant and listening as he tried to explain the plot of Cosmic Frontier to Willow while avoiding spoilers, Gus didn’t feel like that dynamic was in danger. He felt like it was growing.

He looked out the window and every so often Hunter would ask Gus how he would describe something or mention how well he had done. Gus could tell it was genuine and not just being said to fill the silence. As Hunter and Willow tried to think of what songs would be a on a Cosmic Frontier CD, Gus rested his eyes as he felt the hectic day catch up with. He continued to listen to his friends in the front, feeling safe and comfortable.

“Oh my gosh, Hunter my lipstick is still on your cheek,” laughed Willow.

“Oh? Uh, I had no idea.”

“Here lemme wipe it off for you,” she said, reaching forward to smudge it with her finger. “Can you imagine what Darius would think if you came home like that? He’d probably think we were smooching in your car.”

It took everything in Gus not to burst out laughing at the fact that Willow had said “smooching” and the fact that it made Hunter so flustered.

“Oh yeah, we wouldn’t want that,” stuttered Hunter, though Willow seemed oblivious to the effect she had on him. Gus opened one eye to confirm that Hunter was as red as a tomato. “We wouldn’t want anyone… thinking that, thinking we were… yeah thanks.”

“We probably should’ve washed the paint off before we got pizza, it’s probably not great for the skin,” said Willow. “Gus, did you- oh I think he fell asleep.”

“Really?” said Hunter, pulling up to his house and parking the car, looking back to see Gus apparently fast asleep leaning against the window. “I mean, I can’t blame him for being tired; he was the fastest one out there.”

“Oh, I hate to wake him but we gotta get him inside,” whispered Willow.

“Oh, I can probably carry him in,” said Hunter.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, let’s let him rest,” said Hunter. “If you wanna grab the door, I’ll carry him in and he can nap on the couch.”

All according to plan, thought Gus. Willow and Hunter got out of the car and Willow carefully unbuckled him as Hunter scooped him up effortlessly. He heard Willow unlock the door and rush ahead of them, leading Hunter to the living room and setting up a cozy spot on the couch for him. Hunter gently set him down as Willow brought over a blanket to tuck him in.

“Woah are these his school books? I knew he was smart, but holy cow,” said Hunter, seeing his books stacked on the end table. “He really is a genius. I should ask him to tutor me.”

“He would never charge you a fair price,” laughed Willow.

“It’d be worth it,” said Hunter. Gus turned over so they wouldn’t see the smirk on his face. 

“Oh I think he’s waking up,” Willow whispered. “You should sing him a lullaby.”

“What? No, I don’t think-.”

“Oh yeah yeah yeah,” she whispered, taking his hand. “Sign the song you guys were singing in the car.”

“Okay, I… “ he couldn’t say no to her. He cleared his throat and started to sing softly. 

“What would you do if I sang out of tune? 

Would you stand up and walk out on me?

Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song and I'll try not to sing out of key

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends

Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends.”

Willow smiled and joined in.

“What do I do when my love is away?

Does it worry you to be alone?

How do I feel by the end of the day?

Are you sad because you're on your own?”

No, I get by with a little help from my friends

Mm, get high with a little help from my friends

Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

“Okay, I’m gonna go grab his charger so his phone won’t be dead when he wakes up and then we can head out, okay?” said Willow.

“Yeah, sure of course,” said Hunter, sitting in the arm chair across from Gus. As Willow left, Gus opened an eye and saw Hunter continued the song under his breath, his eyes lingering in the direction she had gone.

“Do you need anybody?

I need somebody to love

Could it be anybody?

I want somebody to love.”

---

Rulerzreachf4n: gUS!

Rulerzreachf4n: it is hunter 

Rulerzreachf4n: look at these patches i   found!

Rulerzreachf4n: its just like the  C osmic fRONIERlogo!!!

InGusWeTrust: Woah! Yeah totally!

Rulerzreachf4n:  iwas thinking about dressing up as OBailey for the Halloween p arty

Rulerzreachf4n: would u wanna go as avery? I can make a costume for u

InGusWeTrust:Are you serious???

Rulerzreachf4n: yeah if youre o k with doing matching costumes

InGusWeTrust:Yeah dude that would be sick

Rulerzreachf4n:Sick is. good right

InGusWeTrust:Yeah sick is good

InGusWeTrust: I didn't know you could sew

Rulerzreachf4n: Yeah, willow and i are at the store getting stuff to make her something

InGusWeTrust: Ohhhh is she gonna be the Ivy to your O’Bailey 👀

Rulerzreachf4n: i wish

InGusWeTrust: Oh so you do want her to be your Ivy huh? 😏

Rulerzreachf4n:no i meant she hasnt read cosmic frontier

Rulerzreachf4n: but i weather to

Rulerzreachf4n: I do want her

Rulerzreachf4n: want her to read it

InGusWeTrust: Why did it take you so long to respond lol

Rulerzreachf4n: sorry were getting coffee NOw

InGusWeTrust:Tell her to unblock  me

Rulerzreachf4n:  o k 

Rulerzreachf4n: she said no 

Rulerzreachf4n: do if you want me to get u anything

InGusWeTrust: Yeah get me Willow’s middle name lol

Rulerzreachf4n: Hazel?

Rulerzreachf4n: like a hazelnut coffee?

InGusWeTrust:  Wtf 

InGusWeTrust: Did she tell you???

InGusWeTrust:  How do to you know that

Rulerzreachf4n: when her dads found out they were gonna have her they each picked a tree to plant to grow up with her and those were the trees they planted. It’s like a tradition in Harvey’s family I think,

InGusWeTrust:  Okay how do you know THAT

Rulerzreachf4n: they told me when we had tea together

InGusWeTrust: You had tea with her and her dads???

Rulerzreachf4n: no

Rulerzreachf4n:just  her dads

Rulerzreachf4n:she forget something in my car and i went to bring it to her but she wasnt home so they gave some tea

Rulerzreachf4n:why is that weird

Rulerzreachf4n: gUS is that weird????

InGusWeTrust: no

Rulerzreachf4n: why did u take so long to respond 

Rulerzreachf4n: do u want a hazelnut coffee tho

Rulerzreachf4n: i got u a cake pop

InGusWeTrust: Tell Willow to unblock me so I can make a group chat with all three of us

Chapter Text

Things were going good for Hunter, which was something he hadn’t been able to say for awhile.

Darius had requested his uncle stick to a more structured schedule when providing his tasks to do, allowing Hunter to have evenings and weekends to himself. Hunter easily devoted this time to the band (and more specifically, Willow) and was starting to feel more excited about their first gig coming up. He could safely say his excitement now outweighed his nerves. That was another thing he hadn’t been able to say for awhile.

Darius felt it best that Hunter didn’t mention his recent extracurriculars to his uncle who had been strongly against the suggestion. Even if Hunter wanted to, he didn’t have the chance considering he hadn’t seen his uncle in person in weeks. The reason Hunter had a phone was so his uncle could tell him to run errands, pick up documents or check in on training but Hunter realized that wasn’t the same as quality time. His uncle always said Titan Inc. had big plans for Hunter and would surely view any activity outside that goal as a pointless distraction. 

Hunter realized his uncle hadn’t been home in weeks.

Hunter was spending more time with his friends, eating dinner at Luz’s or trying a new restaurant with Gus and Willow that he didn’t realize that he had been the one doing all the grocery shopping. One day he came home late and realized the kitchen was completely empty. Hunter had his own private room above the garage and before he loved the independence it allowed him, but after spending so much time with his friends and seeing how warm and welcoming their homes were, he now saw it as rather lonely.

But Hunter could do his own shopping or just order in, that was really no big deal. What was a big deal was when he invited Gus over to show him the new bed he had made for Flapjack to discover the power was out. No, not out. Off.

But actually, no it wasn't a big deal. Hunter could call the electric company, This had happened before, He knew sometimes his uncle just forgot, having so much on his plate. Hunter could surely pay his own bills, he had the means to. He paid for his own car, bought his own clothes, and cooked his own meals. There was no need to bother his uncle with these things.

But Darius disagreed.

When Hunter mentioned he had to go to the laundry mat because the water hadn’t been turned back on yet which is why his clothes were wrinkled, Darius went into a blind rage. Darius had known Hunter’s uncle Philip for years and seemed to be a truly neutral party in regards to his opinion of the industry giant. Hunter was the deciding factor in his feelings. And this was the last straw. 

Darius decided Hunter would stay with him for awhile, which proved to be difficult considering that his apartment was the very definition of a bachelor pad. He was not set up for guests, let alone children, and despite the awkwardness of the close quarters Hunter was grateful to know Darius cared enough about him to be inconvenienced. 

---

He spent more time at Luz’s house. She lived across the street from the “Owl House” as it was so famously referred to due to Eda’s… unique decorating style. So everyday after rehearsal they’d go inside to see Eda’s latest thrift store finds and get music pointers from her and her partner Raine who taught music at the local university. Then run across the street to do their homework and more often than not Camila would insist Hunter stay for dinner.

“Mijo, tu eres muy util gracias,” said Camila as Hunter began doing the dishes after dinner. She had stopped insisting he help out so much after dinner when she saw he enjoyed genuinely making himself useful.

“No hay problema, es un placer,” Hunter replied with a smile.

“¡Oh! tu español realmente está mejorando.”“

"Gracias, Darius has been helping me study as well.”

“Oh, maravilloso,” Camila said. “I can’t wait to meet him in person, he needs to join us for dinner one night so I can tell him what a smart and helpful pupil he has.” Camila tugged Hunter’s cheek endearingly as she went to put the leftovers in the fridge. Her phone rang and Vee took over while she excused herself to the next room to answer it.  

“If Vee isn’t careful you’re gonna steal her title of ‘favorite child,’” said Luz, leaning against the sink as Hunter added more soap.

“Well, she’s a much better cook than I am so I think I’ll stay a close second,” chuckled Hunter. 

“Thank you, Hunter.” said Vee with a smile.

“Besides, I don’t think I’m eligible for the position considering I’m not even one of Camila’s kids.”

“Then why is your picture on the fridge?”

“Because I volunteered at the vet clinic for the dog adoption event,” he said. “It’s a group photo from the paper, I’d hardly say that counts. She’s in it too.”

“Yeah, standing next to you and she looks so proud of you,” said Luz. It was true, she had her hand on his shoulder as he smiled for the camera holding a husky puppy. She looked at him like he was her rescue. “She bought a bunch of issues just for that picture, you know, She has a copy in her wallet.”

“Yeah, she gave me a copy for Darius too,” said Hunter quietly. “But I would never want you to think that I was trying to steal your mom or something.”

“Hunter, I would and could never think that,” said Luz. “I mean, she doesn’t get jealous that Eda is like my second mom, she has enough love for a million kids. And frankly, Vee and I have always wanted an older brother. Right Vee?”

“I would do anything to make Luz a middle child,” said Vee, walking back to the dining room as Luz playful threw a dish towel after her.

“Hunter sweetie, I just got off the phone with Darius,” Camila called from downstairs. “Something came up and he won’t be back from his trip until tomorrow so he wants you to stay here tonight, okay?”

“Yes ma’am, thank you ma’am.”

“Call me Camila,” she said for what must’ve been the hundredth time. “I’ll go set up the basement for you.”

“You’re staying with Darius?” asked Luz. “I thought you had like a swanky little apartment.”

“Yeah, well I did,” said Hunter, clearing the table. “But uh, it’s getting… renovated so Darius said I should stay with him in the meantime.”

“Isn’t that kinda crowded?” asked Luz. “Eda’s always saying how fancy and uptight he is, isn't everything in his apartment made of like imported crystal?”

“It’s… difficult,” admitted Hunter. “But it’s just temporary.”

“Ya know, you can stay here if you want,” said Luz. “Like, we literally never use the basement and my mom loves having you here. No offense, and maybe it’s just Eda’s influence, but from what I can tell your uncle is kind of a jerk, dude.”

“He’s just… busy.”

“Both things can be true,” said Liuz. “Just, think about it, okay? There’s some of my dad’s old clothes down there you can sleep in. There’s also a dresser, if you ever wanna leave clothes here. Just a thought.”

“Thanks, I’ll… consider it,” said Hunter. “But it’s just temporary.”

“Yeah, of course,” said Luz. “Well, until Darius and my mom get married and adopt you and officially make you my big brother.”

“‘Get married?’ What are you talking about?”

“Oh, yeah me and Vee decided are gonna parent trap them,” said Luz.

“There’s a number of reasons that wouldn’t work,” said Hunter, removing his dish gloves. 

“As twins, we are legally required to provide whimsical hijinks,” said Luz.

“But you’re not even identical twins,” said Hunter. 

“Well, not technically but we used to look really similar until Vee changed her hair,” said Luz.

“I’d be willing to change my hair back if it meant you got to be our brother, Hunter,” called Vee from the next room. “You fixed my favorite sweatshirt, I owe you one.”

“Putting a patch on a tear hardly seems like enough to want to add me to your family,” said Hunter, trying not to show how choked up the fact that they seemed to be so insistent. “And I certainly don’t think it’s enough to make Camila and Darius want to get married.”

“Well, not yet ,” said Vee. “We’re still in the early stages, don’t worry about it.” 

“Besides, Willow always used to say to me ‘gosh Luz, I wish you had an older brother that I could date so we could be sisters in law and go on vacation together and double date and stuff.’”

“She did not say that.”

“Oh she definitely did, didn’t she always used to say that, Vee?”

“Oh yeah, she definitely did.”

“Okay then, why is this the first I’m hearing of this?” said Hunter, joining the joke. “Why doesn’t she say it anymore?”

“Porque ahora ella no tiene que desearlo.”

---

Hunter was great at making schedules. He always knew exactly how long he was able to stay and hang out after rehearsal and he always knew what time he would need to leave to make it to the office. It became harder and harder to leave each time, but he had always been efficient and focused. These traits made him an ideal student, yet Darius was always the one telling him to take it easy and be a normal teenager every once in awhile. Despite Hunter’s initial hesitance to take his advice, he was grateful he did. He was starting to see what parts of his life he wanted to fix, and that meant spending less time at his uncle’s office. Darius had gotten his uncle to give him less hours but Hunter didn’t tell him he hadn't given him less work. So he had less time to do things and the same amount needed to be done. But it was fine, he could handle it.

Until he couldn’t.

“Hunter, how nice of you to join me,” came a voice that sent a chill down Hunter’s spine as he opened the office door. Hunter froze. Why didn’t Kiki tell him he was back today? He wouldn’t have taken the long way here after dropping Gus and Willow off at the roller rink. He would’ve dressed more professional. He wouldn’t have been whistling when he walked in the office. He would’ve been on time.

“H-hello uncle,” said Hunter, his voice adopting a low and serious tone it hadn’t known in practically months. “Nice to see you.”

“Is it?” he said, unconvinced not turning his chair to face Hunter as he spoke to him. “Kiki Mora told me she hasn’t seen you very much lately. I hope you aren’t forgetting your responsibilities.”

“Of course not, uncle,” he said quickly. “I’ve just been busy.”

“Busy? Hm, interesting,” said Philip. “Is this company not your top priority, nephew? What could possibly be more important that your duties here?”

“Well, you see,” started Hunter, trying to keep his breath steady. “M-my friend Willow, she has this-.”

“Enough,” said his uncle, raising his hand. “The correct answer is ‘nothing, dear uncle, there is nothing is more important than my legacy here.’’

‘Well, yes of course but it really didn’t take that much time-.”

“But it did take time, didn’t it?” his uncle hissed. “Tsk tsk tsk, this is how my brother strayed. This is how it starts.”

Hunter’s heart plummeted as his uncle rose from his chair. Hunter prayed he wouldn’t walk over to him, but he kept his eyes out the window aware of the distress any movement caused. 

“You look so much like him, my foolish brother,” he sighed in a way that was meant to be seen fondly. “This all could’ve been his, had he made better choices. I hope you learn from your father’s mistakes, not repeat them.”

“Yes sir, of course sir.”

“You are the face of this company, the future of Titan Inc.” said Philip. “If I hear another word that you’ve been neglecting your duties, the punishment will be severe. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Now, may I have the flash drive I sent you to collect?”

“F-flash drive?”

“Yes, and I’m growing impatient,” he said, reaching out his hand. “Can you not handle a task so simple as retrieving a flash drive?”

“Oh, oh yes o-o-of course I have it right-.” Hunter’s eyes widened in horror as his hand went into his pocket to retrieve the device and found nothing. “-here.”

“You lost it?!” his uncle demanded, turning angrily to throw his chair to the ground and throwing a paper weight at Hunter which just narrowly missed hitting him as it sailed to the door.

“No!” said Hunter desperately. “I-I-I just misplaced it! No, I know where it is! I can go get it and rush right back if you’d like.”

”What I’d like is for you to do these things right the first time.” His uncle's voice covered in a calm tone more terrifying than his bellows.

“Of course uncle, it won’t happen again,” Hunter assured, eager to leave.

“I should hope not. I’d hate for you to end up like my idiot brother.”

---

Hunter had to work twice as hard to get back in his uncle's version of good favor was. He needed to prove himself all over again. But now, he wasn't sure he wanted to be everything his uncle thought he should be, let alone prove him right. He was pulled back into the world just as he was getting used to having it in the background all because of a tiny piece of plastic. After a string of late nights, each one ended with Hunter tearing apart his room looking for the drive, but he found nothing. 

"Aw man, what am I gonna do Flapjack?" he whispered, sinking to the floor as the little bird hopped on his lap. The bird merely tilted his head to the side, as though trying to decide how to share the answer. When he did, he let out a low chirp which confused Hunter. This was a new sound for him. "Flap, are you okay? Why do you sound-." he picked him up carefully and as he did the bird winced as though in pain. Hunter carefully ran him finger along the birds chest and found his answer for both questions at once.

-

"Oh, hola Hunter I thought you were the mailperson," said Camila as she opened the front door, home on her lunch break. “What are you-?"

"He swallowed it!"

"Excuse me?" she looked in confusion at the sweaty blonde boy clutching a cardinal for further clarification, but he merely kept frantically repeating himself.

"He swallowed it! Flapjack swallowed it! He swallowed it!"

"Okay, okay calm down!" said Camila, her vet and mom modes activating. "What did Flapjack swallow?"

"He swallowed it!" said Hunter, his voice shaky. "He swallowed the flash drive. It fell out of my pocket and he swallowed it, it's all my fault. He could've choked, he swallowed it, he-."

"Hunter, mijo it's okay take a breath," said Camila. "Let me grab my purse and we'll head to my office, okay? We'll see what's going on."

"Okay, okay," said Hunter, trying not to cry. 

"Just monitor his breathing, okay? His heart rate should be-."

"-280 beats per minute," finished Hunter.

"Perfecto," said Camila, as she opened the car door for Hunter to sit in the passengers seat. "Keep him calm, okay? If he gets scared it could lodge the drive down deeper."

"How can I keep him calm when I'm not calm?" he said, keeping his voice low so the shaking wasn't so apparent. 

"Just talk to him," said Camila, pulling out of the driveway. "Say anything, just let him know you're here. Why don't you sing him something?"

"Okay, yeah." said Hunter, looking down at Flapjack looking up at him for reassurance. He couldn't help but feel responsible, because he was responsible. Flapjack needed him, loved him, helped him and this is how he repays him? Endangering his life with his carelessness? Why he was no better than...

He started signing a song he had been signing to himself a lot lately, knowing Flapjack would know it was him. 

When I'm away from you, I'm happier than ever
Wish I could explain it better
I wish it wasn't true
Give me a day or two to think of something clever
To write myself a letter
To tell me what to do, mm-mmm...

"Thank you Camila, thank you so much,"said Hunter, gently holding him against his chest relived to feel him breathing regularly. "Is he gonna be okay?" 

"He's gonna be just fine," assured Camila. "He'll be a little sleepy for a bit and there's a treatment that you're gonna have to give him for awhile to make sure there's no infections but it was a very minor surgery and he was a great little guy."

"Thank you so much Camila," said Hunter again, bowing his head in gratitude. "I don't know what I would've done if something had happened to him. I'd never be able to forgive myself."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, birds are tough; they swallow shiny things all the time even though they're not supposed to," she said. "He's very lucky to have someone who cares about him so much."

"I'm the reason he's here in the first place."

"You're the reason he's still here," corrected Camila. "You knew exactly how to take care of him because you care about him. I know you didn't feed it to him, mijo. He's just a curious little guy and hopefully now he knows better."

"I think we both do," he sighed, gently petting the top of his head.

"Now, I wanna keep him here a few more hours for observation," she went on. "Just to make sure there are no side effects or difficulties with his breathing. If you want I can call you when he's ready to be picked up."

"Oh, uh yeah," said Hunter, hesitantly. "Actually... would it be okay if I hung out here while I wait?"

"Oh, well sure, but we don't have many magazines and I know the chairs aren't very comfortable and-."

"I could help you out if you want," offered Hunter. "I could sweep or hand you things or something."

"Well, I have a pretty full evening and I could use the help... " Camila pondered, knowing that Hunter was very good with animals. "Are you sure? It's not very glamorous work. There might be some poop scooping involved."

"Sounds better than the day I had planned," said Hunter with a shrug, hating his word choice.

"Well okay then," said Camila with a smile. "Let's go find some scrubs in your size."

---

Hunter forgot why he was anxious for awhile, but as he helped Camila close up and she reminded him to grab the baggie before getting in the car, boy did he remember then. He couldn't enjoy the relief of having Flapjack nestled in his lap still fast asleep or the Cosmic Frontier podcast Camila played as she drove him home. His uncle had expected him to be back hours ago, and now he didn't even know if it was working.

"Luz said she was dropping something off at Eda's if you wanna run across the street and see if your flash drive still works," said Camila, sensing he was stressed. She hadn't asked what the drive contained, but she could tell it was important it was preserved. So she did not think it rude when the moment they pulled in the driveway, Hunter rushed over to the Owl House with a now energetic Flapjack trailing behind him. 

"Luz! I need to borrow your laptop!"

"Oh hey dude," greeted Luz, not immediately sensing his urgency. "Do you wanna see this video Amity sent me of a cat that knows how to-."

"I need to see if this flash drive Flapjack ate stills works," said Hunter, presenting the small device that had been slightly worn by Flapjack briefly pecking at it, still in the bag from the vet.

"Yeah okay, just don't give me a virus." replied Luz, handing him her laptop as this was not the oddest thing Hunter had ever said to her.

Hunter had just expected for the computer to say the flash drive was readable and then remove it, but then suddenly, things started popping up on the screen.

"Uh Hunter, what are those?"

"They're just... names and numbers, it's business stuff," Hunter explained, not truly understanding it himself.

"Hunter it looks like people's bank information," said Luz. "Why does your uncle have this? Why does he need it?"

"He's... probably just keeping it safe," said Hunter. "Yeah, I mean he wouldn't use this for... anything bad. It's nothing. It's fine."

"Hunter this looks... illegal," said Luz. "Like, grade A spy movie hacking level illegal. And he was just letting you walk around with it? It feel like if you got caught with it you'd be in big trouble."

"What? No this is... this is just complicated stuff," he tried. "There's no way my uncle is..." He couldn't force himself to finish, the words seemed so obscure and yet he could not say them with confidence. Because this didn't make sense, this didn't feel right. This didn't feel safe. These were all things his uncle definitely was.

"He's gonna know we saw this," said Hunter, as the reason no excuses populated finally burst through. "He's gonna know I saw it, and he's gonna..."

Hunter couldn't go back this time.

Hunter’s face had gone white as a ghost, he couldn't control his breathing. He thought he was going to pass out. He set down the laptop and began to pace, his mind racing as his feet struggled with deciding where to lead him.

"Hunter? Hunter, are you okay? Hunter, breath!"

He's gonna know we saw this, he's gonna know I saw this, he's gonna know I know. 

“Okay maybe breathe differently? Uh, oh boy hold on," said Luz. "Edaaaaa! Eda, Eda, Eda, Eda!”

“What’s wrong? Did King let Hooty out again?” said Eda, emerging from the kitchen.

“No, I think something’s wrong with Hunter,” said Luz. 

Eda turned and saw the boy in question did indeed look unwell. “Here, sit him down at the table and give him some space.”

Luz obeyed and sat Hunter down as Eda spoke calmly to him. 

“Hey kid, listen to me, okay? Focus on my voice. Focus on me. You’re safe, do you hear me? You’re safe here. You’re safe here, can you repeat that for me?”

“I-I’m… safe here,” said Hunter quietly. “I’m safe here. I’m safe.”

“Right, good,” said Eda.

"I can't... go back... I can't..."

"Now what's he talking about? Go back where?"

"He was... supposed to bring something to his uncle," said Luz, not wanting to trigger another panic attack with Hunter and also not sure how much she should say about what she saw anyway.

“Well it's getting late anyway, I'll give Darius a call and see if he can swing by and drop it off for you," said Eda. "I'll let him know you’re safe. King, why don’t you get him a drink to help him calm down. Luz, can you come in the kitchen with me?"

Hunter focused on his breathing. He remembered a technique Gus and Willow had shown him once and it seemed to work. He felt embarrassed, helpless, stupid. He hadn’t felt this way in awhile. He hated the power his uncle had over him. He started to suspect he hated his uncle. Now he had a good reason to.

“Here, mom drinks this when she needs to calm down,” said King, placing a can in front of Hunter. 

“Thanks,” said Hunter, lost in his own thoughts before quickly chugging the whole thing.

“Woah, you are thirsty,” said King, impressed that he didn’t need to burp. “I’ll go get you another one.”

He hated his uncle. He hated everything his uncle wanted him to be. 

King set another drink in front of him.

He was stealing from people, and he wanted Hunter to help him. Hunter had once thought so highly of his uncle, but now he realized that was only because his uncle had wanted him to think so little of himself.

He hated his father for being related to his uncle.

King brought another drink.

He hated how much he looked like his father.

Another drink.

Hunter started to feel dizzy. His mind felt foggy and heavy. He felt like crying and maybe throwing up. He could faintly hear Luz and Eda whispering in the kitchen, probably about him, as he snuck past to go to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and he nearly punched what he saw. He did look like his father. He had his same stupid face and his same stupid eyes and his same stupid hair. There wasn’t much he could do about that though. He hated that he thought of his uncle every time he looked in the mirror. He hated it.

You are the face of this company, the future of Titan Inc.

He scoured through the drawers of the sink until he found the solution: scissors. He didn’t have a style or direction in mind, he just knew he needed a change. He needed to look in the mirror and see someone else, anybody else. His hair quickly became a collection of jagged ends and uneven locs, but he was too determined to notice. In fact, if his phone hadn’t rang when it did he might’ve shaved his head totally bald.

“Willow?” he answered, trying desperately to hide the panic in his voice. 

“Hunter!” she said his voice with such genuine enthusiasm that always made his heart melt. 

“Hey you get the deciding vote! Should I dye my hair?”

”What?”

“We’re dying Amity’s hair purple,” explained Willow. “And Emira is touching up her green and she had some dye leftover and she thinks I should do some green streaks but I dunno. What do you think, will it look cute? I know you’ll tell me the truth.”

“I think you would look cute,” said Hunter softly, the sound of her voice allowing distracted him enough to steady his heart rate.

“More cute or the same amount of cute?” came another voice he didn’t recognize, most likely Emira’s. 

“The same amount?” said Hunter, feeling like he was entering a trap.

“See Willow? I told you he thinks you’re cute!”

“Wait, wait!” Hunter sputtered, trap confirmed.

“Emira!” scolded Willow. “Sorry about that, I swear it wasn’t my intention to harass you. Sorry, you weren’t busy were you?”

“No! No, I’m never too busy for you,” said Hunter, his head feeling a little less foggy and heavy. “I think you should do it, if that’s what you want. Just uh send me a picture if you do so I can update your contact photo.”

“Oh wow, he is a terrible flirt,” Emira commented.

“Yeah, I told you he’s really terrible at it,” said Amity. 

“Both of you, stop it!” demanded Willow, her voice still coated in laughter. “Okay okay I think I’m gonna do it. Hopefully I don’t regret not going to a real salon.”

“Rude!” Emira called from the background. And the girls erupted into another round of laughter, whispering things Hunter couldn't quite hear before Willow returned her attention to Hunter.

“Looks like Vee just got back with the pizza. I’ll text you later okay?” 

“Okay, yeah,” said Hunter, as suddenly he began to process how much hair there was in the sink. His eyes darted to the mirror as he realized what he had done. “Talk to you later.”

He hung up the phone and ran downstairs, drinking another one of those apple drinks to calm his nerves. As he passed the hallway mirror, his eyes widened in horror as he remembered what the call had interrupted.

“Luz! I made a mistake!” he exclaimed as he ran into the next room. “I made a mistake!”

“Woah, that’s a… choice,” said Eda as she walked in to see what all the screaming was about. “I can dig it though, it’s still pretty rock n roll.”

“Where’s Luz?”

“She had to run back across the street quickly to grab something,” said Eda. “But listen, King accidentally gave you some of my Apple Blood so you’re gonna need to-.”

He didn’t wait for her to finish as he ran across the street and burst through the front door and ran up to her room, panting. He pushed open her bedroom door and when he did, his eyes widened in horror again. Sitting on the floor in front of Luz’s bed was Amity as her sister Emira sat behind her putting purple dye in her hair. Beside her, Vee sat painting her nails and next to her was Willow undoing her braids.

They didn’t mention the salon night was happening at the Noceda’s.

Chapter Text

They all looked back at him in shared confusion as he quickly closed the door and ran down the hall to lock himself in the bathroom once more. Maybe he could just stay here forever. His hair would grow back and then he could leave. He couldn’t let anyone see him like this, especially not-

“Knock knock,” came a voice outside the door, accompanied by a gentle tap on the door.

“Willow?”

“Yeah,” she said gently. “Can I come in?”

“I-I don’t want you to see me like this,” said Hunter, ignoring the fact that she kind of already saw him like this.

“Well, I can close my eyes but it might make it kind of hard to finish cutting your hair,” said Willow. 

It looks like my eyes were closed when I cut it , he thought to himself.

“I know it can be hard cutting your own hair,” she went casually as though this was an issue she encoutered often. “You always need someone to get the back for you, especially if you don’t have a second mirror to help you see. I can help you, if you want. Since we’re having a salon day anyway. If not I can slide the stuff under the door. I brought some good hair cutting scissors and this gel Luz uses but we don’t have to use that and I also have some pizza but I have a plate so it shouldn’t be too gross and Luz mentioned you should probably drink some water so-.”

Hunter opened the door a tiny crack. “Do you promise not to laugh?” he whispered. Willow could see he had tied the hood of his hoodie tight around his head to hide his hair (or what was left of it). She nodded. 

“Cross my heart.”

“Okay… you can come in,” he said, opening the door. She gathered her supplies and set them in the sink and then motioned him to sit on the toilet. He obeyed as she got to work setting up her station. She did not chuckle or gawk or make a comment as he removed his hood to reveal his handiwork. He could feel his face flushing and he didn’t know if it was because of the alcohol, the day he had, or being so close to her. 

"You know, it's really not that bad." she lied as she brushed aside the jagged edges from his eyes.

"Really?"

"I mean... it could be worse," she offered, pulling out her phone and swiping through options to recreate. “Now, I’m not an expert but I definitely think I can give you something manageable. Hmm, oh what about this one? It would look cute on you. Do you-.”

“Do it.” 

“What? Don’t you wanna see it first?”

“No, I trust you; do that one.” he said. It would look cute on you , his mind repeated. It would look cute on you.

“Well okay then,” said Willow, beginning to part his hair. Feeling her hands on his scalp sent a chill up his  spine. He prayed she didn’t notice but if she did she didn’t say anything. He was suddenly overly aware of everything: the fact that he couldn’t remember the last time he had washed his hair and now Willow running her fingers through it, the fact that she was in her pajamas, the fact that she could probably tell he had been crying.

“So, how many Apple Bloods did you have?” Willow asked playfully, breaking his trance.

“I dunno, like five?” 

“Five?!”

“I thought they were energy drinks!”

“You thought they were energy drinks and you drank five of them?” Willow chortled. “Sounds like a hangover is the least of your worries.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes as Willow got the hang of shaping his hair and he held his breath as just how close she was standing to him. His mind raced with what to say, still foggy and groggy but it was a different kind of dizzy now. It was a familiar kind of dizzy that Willow often inspired in him. He wanted to tell her he liked her hair, the new streak of green bringing out her eyes even more. He wanted to apologize for crashing her slumber party, faintly hearing the rest of the girls laughing down the hall. He wanted to thank her. But, as usual, the words just didn’t string together fast enough. 

He was truly having the worst day of his life and she turned it around with no effort at all.

"We've missed having you at the last few rehearsals," said Willow, sensing he needed to be saved from his thoughts.

"Oh, yeah sorry," he said. His errands had been bleeding into his usual free time, despite Darius' help. He cursed himself knowing what he knew now that he had allowed assisting the devious actions of his uncle to take priority over the happiness he felt at rehearsal. They had accepted his excuses and had no reason to suspect anything was going on but in his panic, he hadn't realized he was dishonoring his commitment to the group. "I guess it's pretty hard to rehearse without a singer, huh?"

"Well, it's not impossible, we worked on some solo stuff and transition chords" said Willow, taking some pieces of hair between her finger to give a small trim. "But I meant we missed you."

"Me?" 

"Yeah dummy," she laughed. "You know we'd spend time with you even if you weren't in the band, right?"

"Pshhhh why?" the drunkenness reared its head again. "I'm like... not even good at anything."

"Hey!" exclaimed Willow, smacking the back of his head.

"Ow!" exclaimed Hunter dramatically, even though it did not hurt at all. "What was that for?"

"If I tell Camila you're talking like that about yourself she's gonna throw her shoe at you," said Willow, wagging her finger at him before wetting her comb in the sink. "And it'll hurt alot more, trust me."

"Has she ever thrown it at you?" asked Hunter, remembering Luz had also referenced the action before.

"No, but she offered to throw it at Boscha for me," laughed Willow. "And it was a veeeery tempting offer."

"Ugh Boscha," said Hunter in disgust as though it left a bad taste in his mouth, trying in vain not to slur his words. "Ugh, she is such a... such a gilipolla. Ya know I told Darius about her and how she treats you because I just can't understand it and he said it's because she probably has a crush on you and I'm like..." Hunter made a series of perplexed unintelligible sounds that only a person under the influence could summon. "..that doesn't even make sense?"

"Yeah, I've heard that theory before," Willow sighed, clearly unimpressed with explanation adults had given her in place of actually disciplining Bosha for her behavior for years. "But I very highly doubt it."

"Right?" said Hunter, any notions of his troubles had been officially dissolved. "Like, how is that helpful? I would never treat you like that!"

Willow went to respond but stopped as she started to process Hunter's sentiment. Surely he meant he would never treat her that way because it was wring and he was her friend and cared about her. He certainly wasn't referencing the crush aspect... was he? She knew in his current state it wouldn't take much to find out for sure, but if that was true she knew this was not the way he intended for to find out. She decided to change the subject. For now. 

"So Camila's teaching you Spanish curses now is she?"

"Oh, no! Oh, gosh no!" Hunter's hand slapped to his mouth as he realized he had cursed in front of her in Camila's house no less. "Luz taught them to me and I guess I just got...carried away."

"She mentioned you've been getting better," said Willow. Hunter tried make sure his face didn't show the rush he felt at the notion that Willow talked about him to other people, maybe even in the way he talked about her. "She also said you guys wanted to do a song in Spanish?” 

“Huh? Oh yeah, maybe.”

“Can I hear a little?”

“What, now?”

“Yeah, if you want,” she said. “My Spanish isn’t great, but Camila’s been trying to teach us a bit here and there. It’s a beautiful language, I wish I knew enough to sing a whole song.”

“Well, I’m not fluent or anything yet but there is one song I’ve been working on,” he said. “But I don’t know if I can even remember the English version now my brain is a little like blaaah.”

“Well if you wanna try I’d love a sneak peak,” She brushed some excess hair off his shoulder. “Now, tilt your head up a bit and hold still.”

He did, and Willow took his chin in her hand and angled it upward to face her. When he looked up at her, the lights surrounded her head like a halo and he felt like he was paralyzed. She absentmindedly stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth as she focused on evening the sides and Hunter swore he heard the music start playing. It was like that day at the roller rink when she had painted his face and then later when they tumbled on to the floor. She was so close to him and it made him so nervous but so certain at the same time. The way gentle but firm way she held his face in her hand, the way time rushed and slowed down at the same time, how did she manage to be a constant contradiction? She confused him in a way he completely understood. He knew he couldn't blame this trance on the accidental alcohol, she was just effortlessly intoxicating. 

As he gazed up at her without shyness, the song came out of him as easily as breathing.

“Eres demasiado bueno para ser verdad

no puedo apartar mis ojos de ti 

Debe ser como tocar el cielo

quiero abrazarte mucho

Por fin el amor ha llegado 

Y doy gracias a Dios por estar vivo

“Eres demasiado bueno para ser verdad

no puedo apartar mis ojos de ti.”

“Da da da da da da dada da da da da da daaaaa!” Continued Willow enthusiastically under her breath. 

“Wait, you know that song?” asked Hunter, who somehow forgot that she could hear him and he wasn’t in some kind of lucid dream. 

“Of course! I love that song,” said Willow. 

“So you… knew what I was singing?”

“More or less, it's probably a little different in Spanish” she said. 

“Yeah that was me just translating it on the fly,” he said sheepishly, averting his eyes to the ground. “Plus my head’s a little fuzzy so it probably wasn't even that good.”

“Well I think it sounded lovely,” Willow assured. “And if you wanna finish it in English, I won’t tell.” 

It took very little coaxing to bring the words out of him. Once his eyes locked on her again, it was like the words had a mind of their own dancing out as though they were finally free. He sang them carefully as though they were created from his own mind, because they were how he felt. Someone has just beat him to it when it came to actually expressing them. 

“Pardon the way that I stare

There's nothin' else to compare

The sight of you leaves me weak

There are no words left to speak

But if you feel like I feel

Please let me know that it's real

You're just too good to be true

Can't take my eyes off of you.”

She realized she had stopped cutting his hair, the scissors floating in suspension as he full attention was on his spontaneous serenade. He looked right into her eyes and her chest felt tight. He wasn’t doing it ironically or as a joke, he was extremely sincere. Maybe it was the alcohol removing his filter, silencing his nerves and making his voice softer than Willow had ever heard before. Hunter reached the end of his verse but did not break away his eyes from hers. The silence felt heavy, as though it was surrounding them like a snake pulling them closer together. She had read books about people getting lost in someone's eyes and she had never understood how that was possible until now. It seemed so cheesy but it absolutely true, his eyes had become tractor beams and they had captured her and she was happily at their mercy. She might as well have been drowning, not realizing she had been holding her breath until Hunter spoke and snapped her back to the real world.

“And then it’s the uh ba da da da part,” said Hunter, as though he had been waiting for her to take that part. 

“Oh, yeah right of course,” said Willow, shaking her head to regain focus. Why was it suddenly so hot in here? “So um, w-what made you pick that song?”

“You.”

“What?” She nearly dropped the scissors on the floor.

“Yoooou are really good at cutting hair,” he said, hiding his slip up with a nervous laugh when he realized the face he was so hyper focused on had seemed surprised by his answer. 

“Oh yeah, uh thank you,” she said, seeing the response as a compliment either way. She could return to the bubble when she wasn't holding scissors so close to his face. “Lucky for you, I have plenty of practice now. When we were little, we tried cutting Amity’s bangs and we accidentally cut them too short. She had to wear a bandana for a month while they grew back. But then I tried giving myself a bob and I used crafting scissors so it came out jagged and uneven, so fixing this is a piece of cake.”

“Really? So it’s not like… weird that I did this? ”

“Not at all, making impulsive hair decisions is like a rite of passage,” she said, fluffing it with some mousse. “And, not to toot my own horn, but I think your new haircut looks cute on you.”

“Like… more cute or the same amount of cute?”

“Hmm, see for yourself,” she said, putting a handheld mirror in front of him so he could see the results. It was shorter, but it was evident she had put thought into every adjustment. It suited him. He did look cute. He looked confident. He looked like him. He liked the person the mirror showed him.

He felt his eyes fill with tears as he lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Thank you.” he whispered. Slightly caught off guard, Willow safely set down the scissors and returned his embrace.

“Of course,” she said with a smile, holding him tightly. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Willow slowly pulled back. “Do you want me to give you a green streak so we can match?”

“Uh, maybe next time,” he said with a hiccup. His hand flew to his mouth to cover it, embarrassed. Willow laughed and picked her phone back up. 

“Here, lemme get a new picture for your contact photo, smile!” It didn’t take much for him to smile around her and he gave her a wide, genuine, dopey grin showing off the gap in his teeth he often tried to hide. It was perfect. He held the pose for a moment before hiccupping again. Willow laughed. “Okay, let’s get you some water mister.”

---

Luz made Hunter his usual spot down in the basement. Despite their best efforts to sober him up, he was still feeling the effects of the Apple Blood and felt it best to try and sleep it off.

“Are you sure you don’t wanna join the slumber party?” Luz asked as she and Amity brought him some more pillows. “We’re gonna do facials.’”

“I think I’ve embarrassed myself enough for one night thank you,” said Hunter, laying on the couch with his arm draped over his eyes. “But thank you.”

“No problem dude,” said Luz. “Eda said to drink one of those pills before you fall asleep and you should feel better in the morning. If that doesn’t work, Vee usually makes pancakes the morning after a sleepover and I can have her put extra chocolate chips in yours.”

“You guys aren’t… mad at me?”

“For not doing facials? No, of course not,” said Amity. “Willow said they’re not really mud but knowing her I’m not totally convinced because she-.’

“No, I mean… like, Eda’s not mad at me? After what I did and I just… came over without asking and she had to clean up my hair and I got-.”

“Hunter, no one is mad at you I promise,” assured Luz. “We love having you here and you had a long, stressful day and it’s understandable you would feel the way you did. We care about you. We wanna help you, we would never be mad at you for asking for help.”

“Can you tell Eda I’ll buy her more Apple Blood?”

“She says don’t worry about it,” said Luz. “She told me to tell you, and I quote ‘been there, done that.’ And from the pictures I’ve seen of her from high school, I can confirm. Hold on I’m gonna grab you a glass of water, be right back.”

Amity smiled as Luz rushed back up the stairs, always enjoying playing hostess.

“If you need anything, we’re right upstairs making milkshakes and telling secrets,” said Amity

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“Um, sure I guess,” said Amity from the staircase.

“Willow is… so pretty,”

“I don’t think that’s technically a secret,” said Amity with a smile.

“Well she’s also… very pretty,” said Hunter with a hiccup.

“Oh, is she now?” Amity said with a smirk. “I’m sure she has noooooo idea.”

“Okay, okay wait, do you wanna know another secret? Like a real one?”

“Only if you want me to.”

“I was so scared today,” he said, his voice wavering. “Like it’s so stupid, it wasn’t even a big deal but… I, when I saw my uncle today after so long I felt so…”

“Are you okay, Hunter?”

“I’m terrified of him,” he said. It was the first time he had ever said it out loud and he felt so much lighter all of a sudden. “I’m terrified of the way he makes me feel. I hate the person he wants me to be, and I’m so scared… and he knows I’m scared of him and he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care that I’m… and he doesn’t… care about me.”

“Can I tell you a secret?” Amity said softly, taking a seat on the stairs. “ I know… I gave you a hard time when you first joined the band and I think that’s because you and I have alot in common. My mom had big plans for me and I started to think that she cared more about the plans than she cared about me. I felt so on edge all the time, and I never wanted to go home and I told you about what she said about Willow so I… I think I know how you’re feeling, a little bit.  I grew up thinking everything was an opportunity to justify existing, but there are people out there who won't make you feel worthless. You just have to let yourself meet them.”

It was quiet for a moment before Hunter spoke. “I appreciate that Amity. I mean it.”

“Yeah! Uh sure,” said Amity, standing up quickly still not the best at expressing emotion as Luz came back down with two glasses of water for Hunter and set them on the table beside him.

“Now, drink both of those so you’re not hungover for rehearsal tomorrow,” ordered Luz. “I’m showing off a new drum solo and you know once I get going I can’t hold back.”

“Thanks,” he said quietly. “For everything.”

“Don’t mention it dude,” she said, running back upstairs. “We’re all just glad you’re safe.”

Hunter waited until he was sure she was all the way upstairs before he exhaled and the tears streamed down his face. He somehow knew they weren't the same tears from earlier in the day.

You’re just too good to be true…

Chapter Text

Willow, Luz, and Gus sat at Eda’s kitchen table, fabric and photos covering every inch of it as The Bad Girl Coven PR team was hard at work. With their first gig quickly approaching, they needed to be prepared for any exposure the party brought them. Willow was hard at work updating their instagram, making sure each member had a good bio and their personality was seen. Gus was on merch having finally picked a logo they liked and was custom making stickers and t-shirts (Just make patches and I can sew them on! It’ll be cheaper!” Hunter had said. “You wanna sew 75 patches when we could just order them premade?” Gus had countered.) Luz was putting the rehearsal footage to good use and making music videos for their youtube. 

“‘Bad Girl Coven?’” said Eda, entering with a cup of coffee and reading the design Gus was making over his shoulder. “I thought it was the ‘Bad Girl’s Coven,’”

“Eda, we agreed not to go possessive after the whole comma place debate,” said Gus, remembering the night he and Luz lost sleep going back and forth between Bad Girl’s and Bad Girls’

“Eh, whatever floats your boat, shorty,” said Eda, sipping her drink loudly. “It’s my garage. I assumed it was my coven.”

“We used a drawing King did of you as our logo,” said Luz happily.

“And I expect my cut of the merchandising up front,” chimed in King from the counter where he was coloring happily.

“There’s a box of popsicles in the fridge for you,” said Willow.

“There better be jokes on the sticks!” said King as he ran to get his step stool to reap his benefits. 

“You better save me a red one!” Eda called. “Well, you three got a pretty nice operation going here. Lemme know if you need anything hot glued, you know how mama likes hot gluing stuff.”

“Thanks Eda!” they called out in unison.

“Wow, King managed to get some pretty decent footage despite being three feet tall,” said Luz as the files uploaded to her computer 

“Yeah, Hunter looks really good in that one,” agreed Willow, leaning over. She immediately regretted it when she saw the twisted smile sprout on Luz’s face,

“Oh, does he now?” she said in an overly bubbly tone. “If you want I can make you a video to announce to your dads that you’re dating like I did for my mom about me and Amity,”

“Oh, stop.” laughed Willow.

“That’s not a ‘no.’” said Gus, not looking up from his laptop.

“I have enough footage for it,” continued Luz, turning her laptop to show her. “He’s always staring at you.”

“Well that’s just because I’m the closest to him,” said Willow simply. “I mean like on stage. He’s just performing, especially since you guys gave him such a hard time about it.”

“Well yes but no there’s like 20 minutes of footage from where King forgot to stop recording where it’s just us like goofing around and stuff and literally I don’t think his eyes leave you once. I don’t think he even blinked. Who’s he performing for there, Park?”

“And look at these,” added Gus, taking her phone to swipe through the pictures she had taken for the band’s Instagram. “Every photo he’s either not looking at the camera because he’s looking at you or he’s only looking at the camera because you’re behind it taking the picture. You also took like a lot of pictures of him. Like a lot a lot.”

“Well he’s the lead singer, he's like the focal point of the performance.”

“Okay then what about these like 30 photos of him trying boba for the first time?”

“It’s… behind the scenes stuff.”

“Or all these photos of him surrounded by sunflowers in the greenhouse?”

“Hey, that could be an album cover,” said Willow innocently.

“A wedding album maybe,” said Gus whispered loudly to Luz. Willow gave a dramatic sigh and grabbed her phone away before they could get to the section that was just pictures of the time he fell asleep on the couch with Flapjack nestled in his hair. Even she didn’t have a good explanation for that. 

“He’s got Willow fever I’m telling you!” Said Luz. “Last weekend we were volunteering at the animal shelter and a dog came in that just had puppies and they said we could name them and he named them all after flowers, it’s obviously your influence 

“A lot of people name dogs after flowers,” said Willow, remembering the pictures Hunter had sent her from that day. 

“He named them all after rare types of orchids,” said Luz. “There’s a dog named Miltonia at the shelter, Willow.”

“Awww he’s reading the book on Orchidology I lent him.” 

“He’d read the phone book for you if you asked him,” said Luz. “But I’m really glad he has you. I heard Eda says things aren’t going as fast as they want.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Gus. ‘What did Eda say?”

“I er well… okay.” She lowered her voice to a real whisper. “You remember the night King accidentally gave him Eda’s Apple Blood?”

“Yeah?” Willow has omitted telling anyone about their... moment. As much as she wanted to and as much as remembering it made her blush and wanna kick her feet and scream, she wasn’t sure if Hunter remembered it. There really was no good way to say: “Hey remember that time you were having a panic attack and I helped you cut you hair and then you basically implied you had a crush on me but you might not remember it because you were kind of drunk? If he did remember it, he hadn’t brought it up in any aspect so maybe that was a hint Willow should take.

But she would be lying is she said she wasn’t curious about what had triggered the spiral. 

“Well, while you were cutting his hair Eda told me her sister Lilith got fired from Titan Inc. and was telling her how things really work over there and the things his uncle says about him. Then he said he was afraid of his uncle. l told my mom and she called Darius and that’s why he hasn’t been there in awhile. He kind of like... ran away and I don’t even know if his uncle has noticed.”

“He hasn’t said anything to me, but he usually doesn’t like talking about his uncle.” said Willow, remembering the distress look in Hunter’s eyes when he walked into the sleepover with his jagged hair.

“I can see why,” said Gus softly. “Wait, is that why Lilith has been sleeping on the couch the last few days?”

“Yes,” said Lilith, her head buried in a throw pillow as she woke up from her daily nap. “And if you’re going to talk so loudly can you at least bring me a popsicle?”

---

The closer the Halloween party got, the more serious Hunter got about the band. 

Darius said that Hunter’s usual errands could go through him, that he would report to his uncle for him so he wouldn't have to go in person. Hunter didn’t tell Darius how  his uncle made him feel, but he suspected he knew. He hoped he was the only one who did.

He didn’t remember much from that night he cried himself to sleep on Luz’s basement couch. He remembered Willow cutting his hair, but even that was a bit blurry. But no one mentioned it so he had to assume he hadn’t embarrassed himself beyond all repair. Willow made him a whole mixed CD with songs about hair and that was all they spoke of from that night.

He didn’t know how she did it, she seemed like an endless vault of musical knowledge. She never ceased to amaze him. She could capture any mood, any moment, any thought in a series of songs in a way Hunter would never think to. She even made him a whole CD with songs about birds to play for Flapjack. 

He truly believed there was nothing she couldn’t do.

---

“I don’t think I’m gonna do my solo song tonight,” said Willow suddenly as they sat in his car in Luz's driveway. She said it so casually as though she had just decided but Hunter knew it was it was more than that.

“What? Why not? You sound amazing! And Gus rigged up that cool light thing to go with it!”

“I know but… I was just thinking maybe it’s too soon,” she started, and Hunter didn’t believe a word of it. “It’s a pretty honest song and I kind of wrote it about Amity and I dunno what if she takes it the wrong way and I don’t wanna cause drama in the band and I-.”

“Hey, it’s your solo song, it's about you, no one else,” said Hunter. “And if Amity gets to do a Kelly Clarkson medley about her parents’ divorce, you get to express yourself about how you felt when your friendship broke up. It’s only fair.”

“I guess…”

“What’s this really about?”

“I guess I’m just a little nervous because… uh, well usually Boscha’s band plays the party,” said Willow.

“Well Amity said Boscha’s not on the guest list so there’s no way they double booked.”

“I… used to be in Boschas’s band,” said Willow.

“What?”

“Yeah, before everything with Amity we used to both be in her band and I played the bass but the only difference was I kind of just stayed in the background,” she said. “I played songs I hated and I was miserable but I told myself I couldn’t be picky because I was shy and was just lucky to be included. But I was determined to do a solo song, so I practiced learning Gravity and I wanted to sing it at one of our shows but when I went to show them I… froze. I got this awful stage fright like I was too deep in my head and I couldn’t breathe.”

“That’s… kind of how I felt at first,” said Hunter. “And you taught me the breathing thing that helped me.”

“Well that’s how I learned it,” she said with a small smile. “But when I froze, Boscha made me feel so awful for no reason. Like I was only ever meant to stand in the back and for a long time I believed her. And it took me a long time to like music again and trust myself again ya know? So getting to sing this song and get to say what I couldn’t say then means a lot to me. But it also reminds me that that scared little girl is still inside of me, she’s still a part of me. But I know she’s not all of me and I shouldn’t be ashamed of her, I’m grateful for her actually.”

“Well I’m grateful for that girl too,” said Hunter. "I think she’s pretty amazing, and I’ll tell you what: if you freeze at the party and forget all the words and fall flat on your face then I will too in solidarity.”

“Aw really? You’d do that for me?” Willow laughed.

“Well, that’s what I’d be doing without you,” he said. “Remember last week when I twirled the microphone cord around my legs and you caught me before I fell?”

“Well luckily you didn’t do it during my guitar solo,” she said. “So my hands were free.”

“What I’m saying is, I would do anything for you captain,” said Hunter. “I know everyone is gonna love your song tonight and they’ll think twice before making the mistake of doubting Willow Park again.”

---

“Check it out! Isn’t it dope? Hunter made it for me!” Gus burst through the basement door where the boys were getting ready and spun around happily showing off his handmade Cosmic Frontier costume.

“Aw Gus! You look so cute!” Willow gushed, raising her camera to capture the moment.

“I’m not supposed to look cute! This look is supposed to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy!”

“Well, I don’t know why it can’t be both,” she smiled. “Where's Hunter?”

“Oh! Just wait until you see him; his costume is amazing!”

As though waiting for his cue, Hunter walked in striking a nonchalant pose as the group took in the sight of him. He had clearly worked very hard on his costume and the resemblance was uncanny. Even without knowing the source material, Willow could tell he was a dead ringer for the handsome leading man.

“Woah, now that is a look,” said Willow, snapping a photo of him.

“It’s not too much is it?” He asked with a nervous smile. “I considered adding the robotic arm he gets in the time jump but it seemed too bulky and hard to sing with.”

“No dude, it looks awesome!” Said Gus. “You’re totally gonna win best costume!”

“Um hello? What about me and Amity?” Luz said, dressed as Azura for the third year in a row with Amity already at the party dressed as Hecate to no one’s surprise. 

“Your costumes are store bought, these are made with love,” said Hus smugly. “Plus our movie adaptation is way better.”

“Those are fighting words Porter!” 

As Gus and Luz squabbled, Hunter's eyes wandered to Willow who had opted for a more traditional Halloween costume. She hadn’t been able to decide between a witch, a bat, and a demon and Hunter had helped her craft a unique costume that was a perfect combination of all three. Hunter knew she was aiming to look terrifying but he couldn’t help but think she looked stunning. But he didn’t say that. Instead, what he said was:

“Nice wings.”

“Thanks,” she said with a smile, showing off her faux fangs. “I like your robotic eye.”

“Thanks!” Hunter beamed. “Ya know, I have the pattern for the other members on the ship, next year you should dress up with us!”

“Oh yeah!” agreed Gus, ripping himself from his argument having been trying to convince Willow to do a Cosmic Frontier costume since they met. “She’d make a great Ivy, wouldn’t you say Hunter?” Gus gave Hunter a gentle nudge in the ribs, knowing the romantic connection between Ivy and O’Bailey. 

“I mean, yeah if that's what she wanted,” Hunter replied bashfully. “She’d make a great anything but yeah she’d be great at that, it’d be really great yeah for sure.”

“Well, I’ll think about it,” said Willow. “We should, uh, probably go load up the car, huh?”

“Oh yeah, here lemme take that for you,” said Hunter, taking Willow’s guitar case from her to put in the car.

“It’s okay Hunter, I can carry it myself.”

“I know you can, but I want to,” said Hunter brightly. “I mean, I wanna get my muscles as big as yours. Uh, I mean, not that I… ya know I’ll just see you in the car, okay?”

“Pshh, what a dork,” she said endearingly, rolling her eyes as Hunter sped to help load the cars. Vee and Luz would be driving any equipment not already at Amity's and Hunter would be transporting The Emerald Trio (trademark the group chat name Gus had selected for them).

“He wants to be your dork, ya know,” said Gus.

“Oh please,” Willow laughed. “What’re you even-why? Did he say something?”

“He didn’t have to,” laughed Gus. “He talks about you constantly, he’s always like ‘oh Willow would love this’ or ‘I should ask Willow what she thinks’ or ‘I’m late because I had a dream about kissing Willow and I wanted to write it in my dream journal before I forgot all the details.’”

“Okay, now you’re just being silly,” scoffed Willow as they made their way down the porch steps. “Hunter doesn’t keep a dream journal.”

---

Blight Manor was a sight to behold. The twins were Halloween experts and the party was their annual proof of that. Every corner of the main room was covered in some sort of ghost or skeleton. Hunter had only seen these types of parties in bad teen movies and he had thought they were cliché or exaggerated, but maybe the Blights just excelled at being these things.

“Okay, the stage is all set up and everything and we can do our set around 10:30,” said Amity, coming out to greet them. 

“So… what do we do until then?” asked Hunter,

“It’s a party,” Amity said as though it was obvious. “Just like… walk around and stuff.”

“Oh! We can pretend we’re in the chapter where they go to the peace keeping gala and one of the guests is from the hidden planet and they’re trying to sabotage the treaty and O’Bailey and Avery have to stop them!”

“Oh yeah!”

“Or you can… not be weird at my party?” offered Amity. 

“Don’t listen to her!” said Willow dramatically, covering her mouth with her hand as she wanted nothing more than to see how this played out. Amity glared at her before rolling her eyes.

“Okay fine, just be back here at 10:15 for sound check, okay?”

---

Willow watched fondly as Gus and Hunter maneuvered the party, talking on their phones as though they were the character’s communicators, speaking in a complex code only they knew. As much as she was so glad they were having fun and getting along, Willow secretly hoped they would finish up so she could ask Hunter to dance with her.

And apparently, love struck minds think alike.

“Go lay some of that O’Bailey charm on her,” said Gus when they stopped their reenactment to get some punch. He couldn't help but notice Hunter’s eyes  instantly found Willow across the room, laughing with Viney about something. “Worst case scenario, she'll just think you’re in character.”

“But she hasn’t read Cosmic Frontier, how would she know?” Hunter said nervously. With the band’s first performance and the glue on his robotic eye coming loose, he was too nervous to deny to Gus that he was thinking about Willow. “She might think I’m flirting with her for real.”

“Is that the worst thing?’

“No the worst thing is that she could flirt back,” said Hunter with a gulp as Gus gave him a gentle shove. 

“O’Bailey, I thought you were a man who prided himself on exploring the unknown,” said Gus in a pretty good Avery impression.

“He is, I mean I am! Of course I am!” said Hunter, remembering his character.

“You’ve shattered the flying ice beasts of Domilera 4, escaped the craters of Sotokaan without breaking a sweat, but you draw the line at making conversation with a pretty girl at a party? Tsk tsk tsk, I should strip you of your rank,”

“You know what? You’re right!” said Hunter triumphantly. “Willow is conquering her fear tonight, I can conquer mine!” He puffed out his chest and went to move his feet, but then Willow pulled down her hood to reveal her loosening braids and suddenly everything was in slow motion and Hunter’s feet were coated in concrete.

“Or maybe, ya know we should go make sure we’ve located all the emergency exits because I think it’s getting too crowded in here and I bet the fire marshal isn’t aware that this is-.”

“Hey hey hey, don’t worry dude, calm down; there’s no pressure. Just take your time.” said Gus gently, patting him on the back. “HEY WILLOW HUNTER WANTS TO DANCE WITH YOU!”  The boy shouted from across the room before darting out of sight.

Upon hearing her name, Willow turned and saw Hunter standing across the room paralyzed. She gave him an enthusiastic wave which he timidly returned and she eagerly ran over to him. Hunter felt as though any essence of O'Bailey was leaving his body and he fought frantically to get it to return as she approached him. 

“Hey! Getting some punch?” Willow asked, immediately regretting it. Of course he’s getting punch, it’s so obvious. What else would he be doing over here???

“Oh, uh yeah,” said Hunter. “Do you want some?” What are you doing she can get her own punch it’s not even that hard

“Sure,” she said sweetly, “As long as you’re sure it’s not alcoholic.” TO SOON, PARK. TOO SOON.

“Oh my goodness,” groaned Hunter with a smile. “I’m never gonna live that down, am I?” SHE THINKS I’M AN IDIOT.

“Only because I like taking credit for your new look,” said Willow. Omg he’s so cute.

“Well, I’m glad,” he said, sipping his punch. Did she just kind of call me cute??? “ Um, hey I was thinking, if you want…”

“Yeah?”

“W-would you wanna… uh, I mean since you…. Er, do you wanna…” Come on Hunter, O’Bailey wouldn’t chicken out! Just ask her! Ask her! ASK HER! “... show me around?”

Close enough.

“Oh, yeah sure,” she said. It wasn’t the question she was hoping for, but she could work with it.

“It’s just that I don’t really know anyone else here and I’ve never really been to a party before,” said Hunter as though the question required further explanation. And I just need an excuse to spend time with you.

“Yeah, of course,” said Willow, sharing his thought. “Um, I’m gonna run to the bathroom real quick but then we can meet by the stage and walk around, okay?”

“Yeah, sure totally,” said Hunter dreamily as Willow scurried away. He had done it! Kind of.

“Ugh, I still can’t believe half-a-wit Willow is in the band like I literally can’t even,” scoffed a voice in disgust behind Hunter. That voice, that word, that could only mean…

“Oh c’mon Boscha I heard she’s actually really good,” said her friend, or whatever Boscha called the people who were unlucky enough to spend time with her. 

“It doesn’t matter how good she thinks she is, this was supposed to be my gig and half-a-wit took it from me just because she got Blight to feel bad for her.”

“But it’s Amity’s party and Amity’s also in the band.”

“Well, she used to be in my band, but thanks to half-a-wit I had to go solo.” groaned Boscha. Hunter could tell by the way she did not hesitate to continue that she either didn’t notice him or didn’t recognize him. He was about to turn and tell her off when Boscha dropped a bombshell.

“We’ll see how much better than me she is when she’s wearing the punch bowl,” laughed Boscha. 

“You wouldn’t…”

“Oh, I definitely am,” she said. “You don’t take my slot and remove me from the guest list without getting what you deserve. During her big number, I’m gonna make sure everyone sees that she’s still the same pathetic sad sack she’s always been.” 

She walked laughing her signature sickening laugh. Hunter knew what he had to do.

---

“Hunter!” called Willow, arriving at the spot they agreed to meet at. “Hunter?” Maybe the music was too loud. Maybe he had gotten lost. She waited a few minutes, just to be sure. But he never showed.

“Hey Willow! Come join us!” called a voice from the corner. “We’re gonna play a game!’

“Oh no, that’s okay,” she said. “I’m waiting for someone.”

“Well you can wait over here!” they called. “C’mon!”

“Well… okay.”

Willow sat on the floor as she watched her classmates eagerly form a circle and start to spin a bottle someone had found in  the kitchen. As she watched them take turns laughing and crossing their fingers about who the bottle would land on and then excuse themselves to the closet as everyone laughed, she couldn't help but wish Hunter was here. She knew he would ask a million questions she wouldn’t know how to answer and she knew it was stupid and cliché but she wanted to see him experience it all.

Just when she had given up searching the room, she heard a familiar voice.

“Excuse me! Have you seen Willow? Has anyone seen Willow?”

“Hunter?” she said softly. She looked up but she did not see the boy dressed as a sci-fi character. Before her was a boy in a hastily made paper plate mask and a table clothe around his shoulders. 

Even for a costume party it was a bit much.

At last he spotted her and quickly ran over. “Willow, I need to talk to you,” he said with authority, sounding as though he was trying to disguise his voice.

“Dude, we’re in the middle of a game right now,” said someone.

“Yeah, if you wanna talk to her you’re gonna have to spin the bottle and hope it lands on her.”

“Fine!” said Hunter as he reached down and gave the bottle a spin and then quickly stopped it so it landed on Willow. He then extended his hand to her to help her off the floor and everyone around the circle let out a collective “oooh” as he led her to the hall closet. Willow followed wordlessly behind as Hunter pulled her inside and closed the door tight behind them.

“Don’t worry; it’s just me,” said Hunter, removing his makeshift mask. 

“I know,” said Willow.

“Oh, uh good,” he said, clearing his throat. “Sorry for being so weird but I needed to warn you. Boscha has something planned to try and embarrass you.”

“Ugh of course she does,” groaned Willow. “How did you find out?”

“I overheard her talking about it,” he said. “She said was gonna dump the punch bowl on you during your song. But don’t worry, I took care of it.”

“Did you dump all the punch down the drain or just hide the bowl?”

“Oh… yeah I did one of those. I totally didn’t drink all the punch myself or anything because that would be… stupid.”

“You did that for me? Hunter, that's so much sugar you’re gonna be up all night!”

“Yeah well, you’re worth it,” he said, and Willow’s eyes widened at the sincerity. Hunter had always preferred for his actions to speak for him and only he could make drinking an entire bowl of punch the most romantic thing she’d ever heard. 

“Is that where you’ve been this whole time?”

“Yeah well that and the bathroom,” he said, clearing his throat. “Then I found the twins so they could try and remove her before she could try anything. They’re still working on it. I hope you didn’t think I ditched you or anything.”

“No, I um… what’s with the new look?”

“Oh, this? It’s my disguise, so Boscha wouldn’t recognize me,” he answered.

“Isn’t your original costume already kind of a disguise?”

“Oh, um I guess,” he admitted bashfully. “But uh, the mask makes me feel confident.”

“Well, thanks for taking on that mission for me,” said Willow. "The Golden Guard strikes again." 

“Of course,” he said, putting his mask back on, as he gripped the door knob. “We should probably go let the others know what’s going on. We need to be at sound check soon.”

“Hold on, we’ve got like three minutes left,” said Willow, grabbing his arm to stop him from leaving. 

“Three minutes of what?”

“Well, they were playing 7 minutes in heaven, that’s why people were going in the closet.”

“Seven minutes for what? Like to solve a puzzle?”

“Well I guess you can do whatever you want with your seven minutes,” laughed Willow

“What do most people do?”

“Well…” Willow trained off, standing in front of him and slowly pulling his mask back up. “Do you really wanna know?”

“Um…maybe?” he said suddenly, nervous. Willow considered it for a moment. It was kind of unoriginal, but wasn't it also a little bit romantic? Hadn’t he come to her rescue? Hadn’t he gone above and beyond to make sure she got her big moment? Hadn’t she wanted to do this for months anyway? And he looked so handsome in the low watt lighting the single light bulb offered. She stepped closer, his mask still in hand as her eyes darted to his lips and by the way his eyes did the same she suspected he was starting to catch on. But before she could make up her mind, the door opened signaling their time was up.

“Time for sound check.” Hunter declared, pulling down his mask to cover his blushing face as he grabbed Willow’s hand to lead her to the stage before anyone could try asking any questions.

---

They were nailing it.

The songs flowed together perfectly, the jokes Gus wrote between sets killed, and everyone was dancing and having the time of their lives. Hunter had never felt such a rush, and it could only get better.

“Ready?” Hunter asked Willow as Gus ran to the mic to give her introduction.

“As I’ll ever be,” she said, steadying her breathing.

“You’re gonna be amazing, captain,” he said. 

“Thanks,” she said. “For everything.”

“And for extra luck, may I offer you the Nacluv symbol of success,” said Hunter, excitedly extending his three inner finger forward and extending his pinkie to the side.

“Oh, uh thank you.” Willow knew the gesture clearly meant alot to him, so she mirrored it and interlocked the tips of their fingers like a delicate high five. Or so she thought.

“Oh.” Hunter said, quickly pulling his hand back.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just uh, in Cosmic Frontier… in O’Bailey’s culture…. touching fingers while doing that gesture is like their version of… kissing.”

“Oh.” said Willow, taking note that considering how seriously he took this character he did not look disappointed. As Willow heard Gus finishing her introduction, she quickly shot her arm out so her fingers touched Hunter’s again and pulled him into a quick but solid hug before running towards the stage. He didn't have time to question her intentions as he watched in awe as he entered the spotlight. He felt as though it was there until she onstage to give it purpose, the golden light looked so natural on her shoulders like pieces of sunshine. 

More hyped than ever, Willow took her place center stage as she played the introduction she had been rehearsing for weeks, looking into the audience with ease as she let out everything she had been holding back since the last time she had tried to sing on this stage.

“Well, good for you, I guess you moved on really easily

You found a new girl, and it only took a couple weeks

Remember when you said that you wanted to give me the world? 

And good for you, I guess that you've been working on yourself

I guess that therapist I found for you, she really helped

Now you can be a better man for your brand-new girl 

Well, good for you, you look happy and healthy

Not me, if you ever cared to ask

Good for you, you're doing great out there without me, baby

God, I wish that I could do that

I've lost my mind, I've spent the night crying on the floor of my bathroom

But you're so unaffected, I really don't get it

But I guess good for you.”

After successfully shaking himself out of his daze, Hunter focused on how amazing Willow looked on the stage. Everything was going perfectly, it was everything she deserved. He scanned the audience for Bocha, happily noticing the punch bowl was still empty. He kept looking at Willow, who had the audience totally hooked. But the moment his eyes strayed from the crowd, Boscha entered again carrying a bag of garbage from the kitchen swiftly making her way to the front of the crowd.

Maybe I'm too emotional

Your apathy is like a wound in salt

Maybe I'm too emotional

Or maybe you never cared at all

Well, good for you, you look happy and healthy

Not me, if you ever cared to ask

Good for you, you're doing great out there without me, baby

As though on cue, Boshca raised the sack over her head and summoned all her strength as she prepared to launch it at Willow before her last chorus. Hunter spotted her and scrambled to run in front of Willow to protect her from the blow.

Like a damn sociopath!

He closed his eyes and braced himself, but the impact never came. He heard Boscha exclaim as though her plan had been foiled, but he felt no garbage hit him signaling he was the cause. The music stopped and Willow looked down and saw Amity and Boscha in front of the stage, covered in the bag’s contents.

“AHHH! You’ve ruined everything!” screamed Boscha.

“I’m not the one throwing garbage at people like some kind of feral raccoon!” Amity yelled back. “You need to leave Boscha! There’s a reason you weren’t invited!”

“Oh please,” she scoffed, picking a banana peel off her head and throwing it to the ground in disgust. “Everyone knows this party is just as much mine as it is yours. Everyone’s only here because I made the social event of the season and once this little slumming it phase is over, you’ll be begging to be back in the winners circle. Face it Blight, I made you.”

“I know, that’s how I know I have alot to undo,” said Amity. “But like I said, you weren’t invited and you need to leave but before you do, you need to apologize to my friend for trying to ruin her song.”

“Me? Apologize to the half wit? Not likely.” 

“Well then, we’ll have to have the police escort you off for trespassing.”

“Yeah, right. You’d never call the cops because then your parents would find out about your little party; you don’t have the guts Blight.”

“Well either they come to escort you away or they come to rip me off you after I bash your face in. Your choice.”

“As if you weren’t treating her the exact same way a few months ago.”

“I know. That’s how I know how much you deserve to be punched in the face.”

“Ugh whatever, I don’t need you Blight. If you wanna be a loser like Park then so be it, I’m outta here.”

Gus ran to the mic. “Looks like the trash is taking itself out, everyone!”

The crowd laughed as Luz enunciated the point with a rimshot to help the joke land even more and the crowd absolutely lost it. There was no confusion about whose side they were on as they cleared a path to help Boscha leave as quickly as possible. Willow couldn’t imagine a better ending to her performance. The crowd started cheering even louder and Hunter ran off the stage so Willow could take it all in.

“It seems like everyone wants an encore,” said Amity with a smile, brushing some lingering trash from her shoulder. “Maybe this would be a good time to premiere your ballad?”

“Depends, would you sing backup for me?” asked Willow, offering Amity her hand to pull her up on stage..

Amity smiled and took it, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Always.”

Chapter Text

After the Halloween party, The Bad Girl Coven was really taking off. They were at house parties, a few birthday parties, Luz's mom even got them a gig at a pat adoption event. With each event, they got better and better. Eventually, they were so busy Hunter hardly had time to worry about his uncle. He knew he would classify the whole thing as a pointless distraction.

But maybe Hunter liked being distracted.

After school, Willow would run to the greenhouse to tend to the plants until Hunter arrived to pick her up for rehearsal. Now that she didn’t need to leave early to walk, she could spend more time in the greenhouse and was pleased to report the plants were doing better than ever. Despite the routine, she always managed to lose track of time, getting lost in thought as she watered the plants. But then she would remember how he liked to be on time so she always tried to pick up the pace, knowing he would never ask her to cut corners if she lingered. She was the only person he would wait for and he was the only person she would rush for.

Normally, he waited for her in the car and would honk the horn to let her know he had arrived. But today, he was ahead of schedule so he decided to try and surprise her. As he walked in, he saw how natural she looked among the flowers, truly in her element. Hunter leaned in the doorway of the greenhouse watching Willow bounce from plant to plant, dousing them with water speaking with each one like she was a friendly waitress taking a coffee order. She spoke to the plants quiet enough where Hunter couldn’t quite make out what she was saying but close enough that it made him a little jealous.

He heard her start to gently hum and it relaxed him, he listened closer trying to pick up on the melody and see if he knew it. He started humming along, catching onto fairly quickly and closed his eyes to focus on her song. 

“Did you know plants respond to music?” Willow asked, noticing him and breaking his trance. “It helps them grow.”

“Really?” Hunter said, standing up as straight as he could, feeling as though he had been caught spying even though she was expecting him. “H-how interesting.”

“Yeah,” she confirmed. “Plants respond to sound waves and the vibrations cause plant cells to move, which leads to more nutrients which helps them grow.”

“Ah, so it’s more sound than music,” said Hunter, genuinely interested but trying not to seem too interested for some reason.

“I suppose, technically,” said Willow with a chuckle, pulling some dead leaves off a collection of irises. “But I like to think every plant has its own unique music taste. I try to sing or play something different each time I come, give them some variety.”

“Oh, like an experiment,” commented Hunter, able to better understand things on an academic level. “So what are the results so far?”

“Well, we’ve got some big fans of classical music over here,” she gestured to the section she was currently watering. “The chrysanthemums really like showtunes, the lilies like kpop, and so far no one has responded to jazz.”

“It’s an acquired taste,” noted Hunter with a shrug. “Do you think they’d like Bad Girl Coven?”

“With you on vocals? Of course.” Willow smiled, patting down some soil, not noticing the small twisted smile her words put on his face.

“Maybe we should play a show here,” he said as casually as he could manage, hoping it didn’t sound stupid. “We could uh really grow our fan base.” He ended his point with finger guns. Why did he do finger guns? He had never done finger guns before. “Get it? Cause flowers... grow?”

Willow laughed, a genuine laugh despite the joke being totally awful. “I would love that,” she said with a sigh. “But, we probably couldn’t fit Luz’s drum set in here. We could do an acoustic show, though. I’ve actually always wanted to do one of those; I think it’d be really nice.”

“It would,” Hunter agreed, his mind easily envisioning it. Though, in his vision it wasn’t the whole band playing. “But most of our usual stuff might not work for this kind of setting, we’d have to find a whole new set. I bet you could think of some, you’ve got good taste in music.”

“They’ve heard all my stuff already,” she laughed. “We’d need something totally new for the plants’ show.”

“Well, you know more about music than I do,” he said. “I’m sure they’d like anything you picked or wrote.”

“You should try writing a song,” suggested Willow, beginning to water another section. “I bet you’d be good at it.”

“Me?” Hunter asked.

“No, the fern,” she laughed. “Yes, you.  Luz told me how you always correct her English homework so I know you’re good with words.”

“M-me? Not really,” he blushed, rubbing the back of his neck trying not to seem flustered. “I’m better with the technical more than the creative stuff. I wouldn’t even know what to write about.”

“Well, I bet whatever you wrote would be great,” she said. “A few months ago you said you didn’t sing and now look at you. You’re full of surprises.”

“Oh, well I don’t know about that,” he placed his hand on the table and leaned against the edge trying to seem aloof. “I’m pretty predictable actually, I- woah!”

He didn’t realize he had placed his hand in a puddle of water and when he placed his weight on his arm, it sent him flying forward. Reacting instantly, Willow dropped her watering can and lunged forward to catch him. She placed one hand on his bicep and the other on his chest to stop him from falling. She moved so quickly her glasses nearly fell off her face and rested on the edge of her nose. Hunter held his breath and chuckled nervously, trying not to focus on Willow’s touch and the fact that her face was so close to his. He certainly couldn’t think about if she could feel how sweaty his arm was, and if she did he hoped she would blame it on the humidity of the greenhouse.

Hunter didn’t know what to say or if he was supposed to say something so instead he raised his free hand and pushed her glasses back to their proper spot in her face. He always liked how the gold frames complimented her green eyes and made them even brighter. And here among so much green and vibrancy she shone even brighter.

“Did you predict that?” She laughed, returning him to his proper footing.

“Um I uh,” he pretended to cough, trying to save face. “Guess it’s a good thing we’re in a band and not a dance troop huh? I probably wouldn’t be the front man then would I?”

Willow laughed again. Hunter had never considered himself funny, but somehow he made her laugh quite a lot. It wasn’t a pity laugh or a laugh of mockery and while he still didn’t fully understand how he did it, he loved making her laugh. It was like a miniature symphony.

“I bet you’re actually a pretty good dancer,” said Willow, walking over to the closet to put away her gardening gloves and watering can. If only that trip had happened at the Halloween party, she thought “But I don’t know how the plants react to dancing yet, so maybe we’ll test that out outside the greenhouse.” She gave him a playful wink.

“Oh, what, so I'm supposed to write a song and choreograph?” He sputtered trying to keep his cool, well, to seem cool. He didn’t have any cool to keep when he was around Willow. “You’re killing me, Park.”

“Well, actually,” began Willow as she slipped on her jacket so they could leave. “I did write something awhile back.”

“Really?”

“It’s not much,” she said, reaching over to her bag to pull out a green folder covered in bright neon doodles of flowers. “It’s just music, actually. It doesn’t have any lyrics yet but I like playing it on my guitar. It’s just the little song I like to hum when I’m gardening so I thought I would write it down and see if words came later.”

She handed him the paper, the notes carefully scripted in her bold yet carefully handwriting. The top of the paper held the title in deep ink.

“‘The Language of Flowers ,’” Hunter read aloud. It was perfect, very her.

“Yeah, it’s kind of cheesy,” she said with a small blush. “But maybe you could help me figure out some lyrics? It’s in a key that would sound good with your voice and I’d love to play it with you.”

“Have you shown the others this? Maybe they have some ideas.”

“No, you’re the first person I’ve ever shown,” admitted Willow. “I was too embarrassed to share it when I first wrote it, so I guess I’ve just been waiting.”

Waiting... for me? He dared to let himself think. What pressure, what an honor.

“I’ll see if I can think of anything,” he said, glancing back down at the sheet music, holding it careful like it could disintegrate at any moment. “Thanks for sharing this with me.”

———

He knew there was no real pressure from Willow to find lyrics, but he treated it as a high priority task. He had only gained the confidence to sing in front of people a few months ago and his sight reading was a new skill but it didn’t take long to commit her melody to memory. He’d carry it with him in his mind everywhere and the words came slowly, not necessarily in order. When a verse did come, he’d jot it down on whatever paper he had available: notebooks, napkins, math homework so he wouldn’t forget. 

He stayed up all night, the words rushing out of him.

“Hey, uh Willow,” he said the next day after practice. “It’s not much but I came up with some lyrics for your song and I -.

“Really?” She beamed, as she carefully placed her guitar in its case. “That’s awesome! Can I hear it?”

“Hear it? Uh...” Hunter looked up to where Amity Luz and Gus were all talking and laughing about something. He knew that the main purpose of writing a song was to play it eventually but he had barely performed it for himself. He was almost too scared to share it with Willow, let alone the rest of the band who he knew if they heard he wrote a song for Willow he’d never hear the end of it.

“Um, I don’t think this is the right setting for it,” he said. “I pictured it more...”

“Say no more, I know just the place."

———

“Are we even allowed to be here so late after school?” Asked Hunter as he followed Willow to the greenhouse doors in the night. Band practice had run late and so it was already darker than normal. He hoped it wasn’t too close to her curfew, he didn’t want her dads associating him with breaking rules (even though he was sure they were aware Willow didn’t need encouragement to break rules).

“You’re forgetting I’m the president of the gardening club so I have a key for emergencies,” said Willow, jingling the keys that held a large cactus keychain to signify their importance.

“Does this count as an emergency?”

“It does to me,” she said, fidgeting with the door handle before letting them in. “I wanna hear your song!”

She ran ahead and started setting up her guitar. The  stars shone through the clear glass ceiling, and luckily the moon was full tonight to give them enough light to see. The moonlight hit her hair that made it look like another night sky was cascading over her shoulder, twisting in her braid. Focus! He needed to focus! This happened before at practice, he’d look at her and start thinking and then overthinking and then he’d be totally distracted. During practice, he could find something else to blame it on: a passing car, a weird sound from the amp, or even his shoelace being untied. But now it was just the two of them and it would be harder to explain himself if he spaced out. They had been alone plenty of times, but something about this setting at this time of night seemed...more. More intimate, more important, more... everything. 

“Hunter?” Said Willow, and Hunter could tell by her tone this wasn’t the first time she had called him. Damn it, it was happening already!

“Uh, yeah?”

“Come sit by me,” she said, patting an overturned milk crate that they used to bring in new plants beside her. She sat on one of her own, gently strumming her guitar to make sure it was tuned. She was perched comfortably on the crate, positioning her guitar in a way that told him she had done this before. His long legs didn’t know if they should stick out or bend so he alternated between the two as he listened to her strum.

“I’m ready whenever you are,” she said at last, he could tell she waited a bit to speak so he wouldn’t feel pressured. He realized then that he had forgotten the nice copy of the song he had transferred to a notebook in the car. He didn’t want to get up and lose his nerve, so he dug through his pockets for the scarp papers that composed his rough draft. She snuck a glance at him in the moonlight, and smiled as he brought them closer to his face to see better and put them in order. But she was in no rush. “If it’s too dark and you can’t see what you wrote, I can try-.”

“No, it’s okay,” he said, crumbling the paper. Besides lyrics there were other things mindlessly scribbled and doodled on the pages he wasn’t ready for her to see. He wouldn’t know how to explain why he liked writing her name in different fonts when he was bored, or how to say he just liked having a reminder of her nearby without it sounding off putting or creepy.

“It’s not much,” he started, smoothing the collection of scribbles and chicken scratch. “And I didn’t have a lot of time, but I dunno if it makes sense and it’s probably not that good...”

“Hunter, I’m sure it’s great!” insisted Willow, hugging her guitar excited to start. “Everything you sing sounds great!”

“Yeah, well maybe not everything,” he blushed, grateful it was probably too dark for her to see. He smoothed out the pages and organized them as she started strumming the chords again and gave him a nod to start whenever he felt comfortable. His nerves took a back seat when he saw her get lost in playing, she closed her eyes and slowly swayed her head, the music light and calming. Soon he felt the confidence to share his lyrics, his voice shaken at first but as he went on it gained its usual raspy smoothness:

“The gardenias told me you used to be shy, the chrysanthemums know but they won’t tell me why

Your kingdoms your garden, you rule roses and daisies there’s weeds and there’s thorns but no that doesn’t phase me

The flowers told me to tell you, your laughter's their favorite song

They can’t wait to bloom because it means that soon they’ll get to hear it all day long

The sunflowers follow you, that’s no surprise 'cause the sun can’t compare to the light in your eyes

Shades of emeralds, springtime, and envious vines, they’re wide and they’re wild but mostly they’re kind

The bees and the clovers-.” He stopped, because she had stopped. He looked up to see why she had stopped playing and saw her eyes were locked on him, and they were shimmering. Hunter always thought they were shimmering, but he had never seen them look like this, at least not at him. “What’s wrong? Do you not like it?”

“No! No, it’s not that at all,” she stammered, adjusting her grip on her guitar. “It’s just... it’s really good.”

“Thanks it’s uh, just something I thought of,” he muttered. “I thought, if we play it in a garden it should be about flowers and stuff. So...”

“Yeah, flowers! It’s about flowers!” chuckled Willow, but couldn’t help but notice it wasn’t her usual laugh. “Do you... think you’ll bring it to the rest of the band? See if they wanna play it?”

“Hm, I dunno,” he said, folding the papers absentmindedly. “ I kind of like the way it sounds with just the two of us. I mean, but if you think that’s weird-.”

“No, I like it with just the two of us too,” she said.

“Yeah, especially since the band normally doesn’t do slow tempo love songs so-.”

“Love songs?” she repeated breathlessly. 

“Is that okay?” Hunter nearly tore the sheets in half. “I mean it’s your music and if you didn’t want it to be a love song I can change-.”

“It can be a love song!” She said quicker and louder than she intended to. “I-I want it to be a love song.”

“Oh. Yeah, okay! Great, good,” Hunter tried to remember to breathe. “It just seemed like the natural way to go, since it’s about you- FOR YOU! It’s for you! For you about your garden. I mean I didn’t write it for you, I wrote it with you! About how much you love your garden!”

A moment of silence passed between them, one of them mortified the other ridiculously giddy. Neither knew what to do next.

“I... really wanna hear the rest of it,” said Willow at last, tapping on the side of her guitar.

“Yeah! Of course!” Hunter stuttered, flipping through the papers again, his eyes darting between her and the pages. “It’s not totally finished yet though, I didn’t know how to end it... wait, hold on. Don’t move.”

She looked back to him and saw him lean over to her, her heart couldn’t decide to beat faster or stop altogether. She sat still as he slowly reached out his hand and brought it to her cheek. She looked right at him and engulfed him in her wide and curious eyes but his remained focused on her, biting on his lip in concentration. She held her breath, anticipating what she hoped was about to happen was about to happen. In a swift motion, he rubbed his thumb against her face and then turned away.

“Sorry, you had some dirt on your face,” he explained with a nervous chuckle. “Guess that just shows how much your garden likes you back, huh?”

“Yeah,” she said, her eyes still locked on him feeling like the moonlight was his personal spotlight. “I guess.”

She touched the spot his hand had just been and felt how hot it was, she knew in the daylight her face would be mistaken for one of the tomatoes.

“Ya know, Hunter... if you did write that song about me... I wouldn’t be mad...”

“Oh uh you... you wouldn’t?”

“No, I’d actually be kinda the opposite,” she said bashfully, smoothing her skirt.

“Oh.” He cleared his throat and tried not to sound as flustered as he was, hoping she wasn’t bored or regretting coming here with him, but she just smiled and played with her braid. He hid his face from her view and he continued to force the words out. He wished he could just write them down instead. “Good then, I guess... because maybe it was a little bit, you know inspired by...”

Hunter was so focused on not ruining the moment, he didn’t notice Willow slowly leaning towards him.

“You,” he finally managed to finish turning back to face her, and was confused by her sudden closeness. It felt so familiar, yet different this time. “Oh, uh sorry, do I have dirt on my face too?” He asked, thinking that was the only reason she could be so close to him, brushing the sides of his face.

“No.” Willow said softly, as she continued to move closer. Her eyes darted down to his mouth for a moment before looking back up at him brightly as if they were sending him a message about her destination. She slowly closed her eyes and stopped moving. The space between them was so scarce now, but she was allowing Hunter to decide if it would be filled or not. He gulped, waiting for her to pull away or change her mind because he was pretty confident that what he hoped was happening was happening. He held his breath and followed her lead by closing his eyes too. He titled his head to the side, close enough to feel her breathe on his face. He clung onto the sides on the milk crate, certain he was going to float away as he held his breath and prepared to-

“Ahhh!” Willow exclaimed, surprised. The trance was broken and Hunter suddenly found himself doused in water. It was raining? But weren’t they technically inside?

“It’s the sprinklers!” Willow explained with a laugh. “I forgot they’re on a timer!”

“Oh no, your guitar!” Hunter exclaimed, realizing the case was also in his car. He unzipped his jacket and attempted to cover it so it wouldn’t get damaged by the water. In doing so, the papers containing his lyrics fell out of his pockets and onto the wet ground. 

“Oh, no your song!” Willow gasped, watching as the water instantly disintegrated the thin papers.

“Leave it! It’s fine!” Said Hunter, ushering her out as quick as he could, trying his best to shelter her from the falling water knowing it was harder for her to see when her glasses were wet. “I can always write a new one!”

They reached the door and just before they could walk out, Willow turned back and swiftly rose to her tiptoes to catch Hunter’s lips with hers as he essentially crashed into her while trying to leave. She wrapped her arm around the back of his neck, her other arm holding her guitar outside the door so it wouldn’t linger in the makeshift rain with her. His eyes closed instantly as he leaned into the kiss, nearly falling forward off his feet as she almost didn’t stop moving out the door when she pulled him down to her. He could feel her smiling and when she did break the kiss, and she exhaled with a heavy and content sigh. Her smile only got wider when she saw the dazed and delightfully confused look on his face. 

“That oughta make a pretty good lyric, huh?” She whispered before booping his nose and running out of the greenhouse, leaving him behind to be soaked, her laughter beckoning him to follow her. 

But it would be more than a lyric, it was a whole album.

---

It took Hunter awhile to get back to the car, when he finally managed to compose himself enough to walk back, Willow was already in her usual seat in the passenger's side. She was slouching down and hiding her face in Hunter’s jacket that he left on her shoulders like a cape. He had only been drunk once in his life but he felt like after Willow kissed him, he needed to sober up before he got behind the wheel.

He didn't know how he was supposed to get in and just start the car like normal, but somehow he did. Neither of them said a word. Hunter never let anything distract him while he was driving, but he was tempted to look over at Willow and peek at her expression to get a clue about how she was feeling. Her body language suggested she was comfortable, but maybe she was just cold from the water.

What he couldn't see was that Willow was still grinning ear to ear, trying to hold herself back from bursting into a storm of giggles, still in awe of her own impulsiveness.

He didn’t want to bring up the kiss if she didn’t want to talk about it, but it was all that was on his mind. He had basically confessed to her and she had given him a response beyond anything he dared dream about. But he didn't know what was supposed to come next. He didn't know who was supposed to know. He was elated and confused and half convinced the whole thing was a dream. He never thought he would get so far let alone so soon. 

“Wait, did you need to lock up the greenhouse?” said Hunter after awhile, breaking the silence with his concern.

“No, the door locks automatically,” said Willow faintly, looking out the window and twirling the end of her braid.

“Oh, oh okay good, good,” said Hunter clearing his throat, nervously drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. “A-are you cold?”

“No.”

“Are you sure? I can turn the heat on.”

“No, I’m okay thanks.”

“Okay.” Hunter exhaled sharply through his nose, trying to focus on the road. “You’re not gonna get in trouble with your dads are you?”

“No I texted them, it’s okay,” she said, smiling at his concern. “Don’t worry you’re not in trouble with them either.”

“Me?” Hunter gave an overdramatic fake gasp which he knew would make her laugh, easing his own tension. “Why would I be in trouble? What did I do?”

“You’re my chauffeur, if I’m late it’s your fault!”

“’Chauffeur?’“ he repeated with a snort. ”Hold on, hold on, when did I agree to this?”

 “You basically hired yourself,” she laughed, pulling her legs up to her chest.  “You know I know I’m not on your way home, right?”

“That’s not true,” Hunter lied. “The greenhouse is on my way-.”

“No it’s not,” Willow shook her head endearingly. “Hunter, I know you come from the totally opposite direction. Why do you always insist on driving me?”

“Do you... not want me to?”

“No I do!” she said before he got the wrong idea. “But you won’t even let me give you gas money. I tried putting $20 in your wallet when you were setting up and you slipped it back in my purse when you thought I wasn’t looking. I must be costing you a fortune.”

“Don’t worry about it, I like the company,” adjusting his grip on the wheel.

“Then why don’t you offer to drive Luz or Amity home from school?”

“I like your company,” he said, almost too quiet for her to hear, before catching himself. “Anyway, I don't need to; they always catch a ride with Vee. Why don’t you ride with them?”

“I like having shotgun,” she said sweetly, wriggling down and getting more comfortable in her seat. 

“Hey, I drive Gus to practice,” Hunter pointed out. “We go and get frappuccinos together.”

“Yeah, and then you come back to school after you drop him off to get me,” added Willow. “You’re wasting your gas, think of the environment!”

“It’s a hybrid,” he said matter-of-factly. “Don’t worry about the gas, I’d go anywhere for you. You’re the reason I’m in the band in the first place.”

Willow thought Hunter was just being stubborn but it turns out he was being incredibly sweet. She remembered that day in the rain, how he had appeared out of nowhere. He always seemed to appear out of nowhere in the knick of time. Finally, she had confirmation as to why.

“Plus, you run boring errands with me and you make them enjoyable so it evens out,” added Hunter. “Don’t worry about it. Don’t think about it too much.”

“Ya know, we could drive somewhere else besides school or rehearsal,” said Willow, wiping some lingering water off her glasses.

“We’ve gone to the hardware store,” said Hunter, turning to check his blind spot before merging.

“Yeah, that’s true,” murmured Willow. “But I was thinking... maybe we could go see a movie on Saturday? There’s a drive in near my house, so we wouldn't even have to leave the car. Luz and Amity go all the time and they say it’s really... nice.”

“No offense, but I don’t think I wanna go to a movie with Luz and Amity,” Hunter said as nicely as he could. “They don’t exactly ‘watch’ the movie, if you know what I mean.”

“I sure do,” she said with a mischievous grin. “I don’t mean all of us, just you and me. My treat, to say thank you.”

“Just you and me?”

“Yeah,” said Willow casually, as if she wasn't aware she was making him sweat. “They usually show scary movies and Gus doesn’t really like scary movies, so yeah; just you and me.”

Just you and me, in the dark, parked at the movies, his mind repeated what his mouth couldn't like he was describing a dream. 

“Wait, you don’t like scary movies either,” pointed out Hunter, turning into her driveway and putting the car in park.

“Oh yeah, that’s right,” she said as though that fact about herself had completely slipped her mind. “Hmm, I guess we’ll just have to find something to do when the movie gets too scary.”

She hopped out of the car and slammed the door behind her and gave time to process her words. His face turned a deep shade of red, but he quickly shook that idea out of his head, surely he had misunderstood her. He didn’t want to assume. He couldn’t start thinking about it now and become distracted. His thoughts were cut off when she tapped on his driver’s side window and motioned for him to roll it down. He did, though it got stuck for a moment (curse this used hunk of junk) but she smiled and patiently waited. 

“Did you, uh forget something?” he asked, worried she could read his mind and came back to tell him he was a fool.

“Yeah,” she smirked. “I gotta pay you for the ride.” 

“Willow, I told you that you don’t have-.”

She stuck her head inside and pressed a firm kiss on his cheek and that drunk feeling was back. Her face was cold and still a little wet from the sprinklers and he hoped she wasn’t going to wake up with a cold. But that thought took a temporary backseat to the fact that this was the second time she had kissed him that night. 

This was his new favorite night.

“Sure, uh no problem” his voice cracked, making him scream internally. But he felt like he could drive to the ends of the earth. “See ya tomorrow?”

“You betcha,” she said, booping his nose in a familiar way that made his heart drop and spin and melt all at the same time. As she walked to the front door, she turned around and blew him another kiss, for good measure, as though she knew he was wondering if this was all a dream.

----

“So Hunter, I hear you’re in the songwriting business now,” Luz said with a smirk before they started rehearsing the next day.

“No, I- wait what? How did you hear that?” Hunter asked sternly. “D-did Willow tell you?”

“Yeah, of course! we’re besties; we tell each other everything.”

“Everything?”

“Everything.”

“Everything everything?”

“Everything everything,” confirmed Gus, seeming to appear out of nowhere, wearing a wide smirk of his own. “Are you gonna ask for your jacket back?”

“Oh yeah,” he had forgotten he had given it to her last night to shield her from the water. She must’ve kept it. He didn’t drive her over today because she had stayed home sick, the guilt of which had weighed on his mind all day. “Well, if she needs it she can keep it. Why? Did she say she didn’t want it? Does it smell weird? Why were you talking about it?”

“She said it smells like you,” said Amity from across the room, Hunter wasn’t even aware she had been listening.

“What does that mean? How do I smell?”

“Woah, calm down Blondie,” Luz laughed. “If you wanna know so bad why don’t you ask her yourself?”

“I can’t,” he groaned. “She stayed home sick today and it’s all my fault! I should’ve gotten her out of there sooner or turned up the heat in my car or-.”

“Hey now, don’t start spiraling,” said Gus, snapping her fingers in front of his eyes. “Just text her!”

“I tried but I don’t know what to say!’ he whined, in spite of himself. “Do I just say ‘hey?’ Should I be more formal? Ugh, I’m such a slow typer and I never know what her little pictures mean!’

“Do you mean emojis?” laughed Gus.

“See! I don’t even know what they’re called!”

“Hey now, I thought you were a bad boy, not a sad boy,” Luz said perkily, but her words just made him grimace. 

“I told you to stop calling me that,” he said faintly, too preoccupied to be upset with her. “I’m just… what if she’s not really sick? What if…that was just an excuse to not see me? Because what if she…?”

“Dude, full disclosure, Willow has been planning to kiss you for weeks now.” said Gus.

“What?!”

“Yeah, my money was on the Halloween party,” said Gus. "Well, maybe you can count the-.”

“She’s wanted to kiss me since Halloween?!” Hunter exclaimed, the question echoing into the mic. 

“Dude, are you serious?” said Luz. “Did you even listen to the mixed CD’s she makes for you?”

“Yes, I listen to them everyday,” he said smugly. 

“Mhm hmm but did you reeeeeally listen to them?” asked Amity. 

“Yes? I mean, she has really good diverse taste in music. What does that have to-.”

“Name the first five songs off the last CD she made you,”

“Um, let’s see Love So Soft, Little of Your Love, Accidentally In Love-oh.”

“See? She is totally into you dude.”

“That’s probably just a coincidence “

“That she made you a CD of love songs?”

“Most songs are love songs,” said Hunter. “I mean, what kind of songs does she put on the CDS she makes for you guys?”

“She doesn't make us mixed CDs,” said Amity. “At least not every single week.”

“Ya know, for someone so smart you’re a little stupid aren’t cha bro?” said Luz.

“I don’t think you and Miss “Wow Sports” over here have any place to criticize,” said Gus. 

“Oh, well if you wanna see Willow, I have her homework from today by my stuff,” called Amity, tuning her guitar. “I was gonna drop it off, but if you need an excuse to see her you can take it to her-.”

She looked up and saw Hunter was already running to his car with the folder containing Willow’s assignments tucked under his arm.

“-after rehearsal.” finished Amity. “Okay, well I guess rehearsal’s over early today.”

---

Hunter’s hands felt sweaty and his knees weak as he stood on Willow’s porch debating if he should knock or ring the doorbell. The doorbell might wake her up if she was sleeping and then she wouldn’t get the sleep she needed to get better and it would be all his fault! But if he knocked-

“Hi Hunter!” The door swung up and Willow greeted him, bright and chipper. He was glad to see she looked okay, but surprised at the same time. “Amity told me you were coming by!”

“Oh yeah! I uh, I have your homework,” he smiled, presenting her with the folder. He noticed immediately that she was still wearing his jacket but didn’t say anything. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m actually feeling much better,” she said with a giggle, struggling slightly to maintain her balance. “I just might have taken a smiiiiidge too much cold medicine. So I’ve been a little loopy. It’s totally my fault; I thought if I took more I would get better quicker so I wouldn’t have to miss our date tomorrow.”

A date! She called it a date! It might be a side effect of the medicine but some part of her considered it a date and that was enough for him. 

“I mean, it sounds like solid logic to me,” he said. “I’m glad you’re feeling better, you getting sick was all my fault.”

“No, don’t say that,” she said, her voice a little whiny, playfully tapping his shoulder. “If that was true, you’d be sick too. It’s my own fault; I didn't change out of my wet clothes right away and then I was up all night texting Luz.”

“Yeah, she mentioned that,” chuckled Hunter, sticking his hands in his pockets, his eyes darting behind her. “A-are your dads home?”

“They’re not mad at you, Hunter.” she said, reading his mind. “They like you. Stop worrying!”

“I’m not worried!” he stuttered. He was terrified of them and craved their approval.

“I told them you wrote a song for me,” she said, leaning against the doorframe and playing with the strings of his jacket that she was wearing.  “They thought it was really sweet.”

“R-really?

“Don’t worry, I didn’t tell them it was a love song,” she whispered loudly in a tone that clearly showed that it was a lie. Her face was flushed and her eyes looked heavy, clearly she was still sicker than she cared to let on.

“Are you sure you’re feeling better?” Hunter asked, her eyes on him creating a fluttering feeling in his chest making him feel as though he was the sick one. He lunged forward to place the back of his hand to her forehead. “Do you want me to get you some soup? Hmm, you don’t feel warm, but to be safe maybe we should-.”

“Hunter stop, I’m fine,” she laughed, removing his hand from her forehead. She held onto it and laced her fingers through his and swung their linked arms side to side. “You worry too much, you know that right?”

“I think I worry just the right amount,” he countered bashfully. “Sorry, I know it can be annoying and overbearing-.”

“I think it’s cute.”

Hunter felt as though he was about to float away. Once again, he couldn’t pick a few sentences from the thousands of things he wanted to say to her and she needed so few words to absolutely paralyze him. She didn’t notice his shock as she fixated on continuing to swing their arms, tightening her grip on his hand and running her fingers over his knuckles. How did she make his heart race and manage to put it as ease in the same beat?

He leaned against the doorframe with his free arm, his face rating against his forearm as he looked down at her with a doting gaze. He was hypnotized.

“You’re cute,” he sighed dreamily without thinking, she looked up at him with a smile, pushing up her glasses so he got the full view of her soft eyes. “Uh, I mean you look cute, but you always look cute. I mean, what do I mean? Sorry, I don’t-.”

But she just stared at him, totally entranced. So content she could fall asleep right there standing in her doorway.

“You look tired,” said Hunter, pushing himself out of his loop.

“I’m not,” she yawned. “Your voice is just so soothing, I’m just relaxed is all. I’ve been sleeping all day, I’m all sleeped out. Tell me about rehearsal, I wanna know...”

Before she could finish her sentence, her medicine made itself known and lured her back into sleep. Hunter couldn’t help but smile, noticing that she didn’t let go of his hand even in her deluded state. She mumbled softly as she tried to stay standing "Oh pretty baaaaaby, don't bring me down, I pray pretty baaaaaby baby babyyyy..." 

“Willow?” He said gently, not wanting to scare her. He got closer to her face, not wanting to yell but needed his voice to get louder. “Willow?”

Her eyes shot open as she inhaled sharply. She saw him looking at her and smiled, seeing they were standing in her doorway her mind connected the dots.

“Hey Hunter! You ready for the movie? Let’s go!” She attempted to move forward towards his car but he held her back trying to suppress his laughter.

“You’re a little early there Park,” he said, tightening his hold on her hand so she wouldn’t fall and pulled her back to her door. “You go rest up and I’ll come back to pick you up tomorrow, okay?”

Something about having to take care of her at this moment made his nerves fade away. He could focus on her without feeling timid or overly aware of himself. He felt silly for feeling nervous about coming here, because now he couldn't think of how he was supposed to leave.

“Okaaay,” she pouted, fighting off the sleep as best she could while still wanting to look at his face more than anything. And they were suddenly trapped in a bubble, staring at each other. Hunter preferred this, hard to say the wrong thing during a wordless interaction. A pink frame surrounded her as the usual filter his prolonged stare contrived kicked in, but Hunter quickly snapped back, when he remembered that Willow needed to rest and he didn’t want to risk her falling asleep and falling on the porch.

“Pick you up at 7:30?” he said finally.

“How about 7:15?” offered Willow, her voice so calm it was barely audible. “It’s sooner.”

“Sounds good.” he said. 

“Can I… prepay you for the ride?” she asked, but this time he knew exactly what she meant.

“Nah, this one’s on me,” he said, having absolutely no idea where this suaveness was coming from as he leaned forward (barely at all, they were so close, when did they get so close?) to kiss her forehead. She was the perfect height for it. It was a quick, swift, natural motion and Hunter fell into it like it was engraved in his routine.

When he pulled back, she looked up at him with starry eyes and he suddenly heard a thundering orchestra. She pressed her lips together and took a deep breath, unsure if it was till the cold medicine that was making her dizzy. “And I should probably pay you for the gas you used today too,” she said, but she moved her head slightly as suddenly sleep was coming for her. Turns out it was the cold medicine a little bit.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Hunter said fondly.

“Can we make it 7, actually?”

———

Hunter actually got there at 6:30, but drove around the block so he wouldn’t be too early and freak her out. When the the time finally came to pick her up, he didn't know whether he was supposed to go to the door or wait outside the car and open the door or just text her-

“Hi Hunter!” Willow exclaimed, sailing into the passenger's seat the way she always did. Hunter should’ve known this would be the answer seeing as he picked her up nearly every day. She looked as though she had made a full recovery and was back to her usual self. She was still wearing his jacket and it looked as though she had styled her outfit around it.

"Hi! Hi, uh you look... great," Hunter said softly.

"Aw thanks for noticing," she said as she scrunched her nose and turned herself to face him better. His heart flipped for a moment when he thought she was leaning over to kiss him, but he turned forward when he realized she was just buckling in her seatbelt. 

“Oh! These are for you!” She said, handing him a small bouquet of mixed flowers from her bag. He took them and marveled at the expert arrangement of color. He didn’t know for sure what meaning the flowers she had chosen held, but he knew she hadn’t just thrown them together randomly. He had never gotten flowers before. 

“So what movie are we seeing?” asked Willow, hoping it was a scary movie.

“Um, I forget the name,” said Hunter, as he smelled his custom floral arrangement. “Lemme me double check. Hmm where’s my phone?”

“Oh, here let me check the backseat,” said Willow twisting around, having been in his car so often she knew where he tended to leave things. 

“Oh, uh, don’t worry-.”

“What’s this?” she said, turning back with something in her hand that was definitely not a phone. “It has my name on it?”

“It’s nothing,” blushed Hunter. “It’s just...well, I figure you’re always making me mixed CDs, I wanted to try making you one. But it’s probably not that great, I didn’t really know what I was doing-.”

“Willow’s Rad Mix,’“ she read the title written on the CD cover in sharpie, obviously in reference to the silly names she would give his custom CDs. He had drawn intricate flowers and bees and had written her name in big bold letters, filling each one with a unique design. It had way too much detail to be something he just threw together last minute. “You made this for me?”

“Well, yeah but you don’t have to-.”

“Hunter, this is so cute!”

“Really? No! It’s what? No!” Hunter didn’t think she would look at it closely when she was still in the car with him. He was planning on slipping it into her purse after the movie and she would find it after he dropped her off and would listen to her by herself and-

“Let’s listen to it on the way to the movies!” exclaimed Willow, removing it from the case to pop in the CD player.

“Now?!” panicked Hunter. “Don’t you wanna wait until... later?”

“No way!” said Willow, carefully putting the CD in the player and turning the volume up as Hunter stared at her excited face in horror. 

“Okay, listen wait before you start, just know I didn’t think you’d listen to it right away,” Hunter rambled. “And also I don’t know alot about music yet and it makes more sense all together, like the tracks tell a story. I don't want you to think-.”

“Hunter, calm down! I’m sure whatever you put on is gonna be-,”

Your boy boy b-b-b-b-b-boyfriend

Your boy boy b-b-b-b-b-boyfriend

Your boy boy b-b-b-b-b-boyfriend

Your boy boy b-b-b-b-b-boy

Hunter’s face somehow grew even more red as he watched Willow’s face freeze as the first song started.

“Is this.... Big Time Rush?” she asked, turning her head slowly to him in shock, though she already knew the answer.

“Yes! Okay, but hear me out!” he pleaded, utterly mortified. “If you listen to the whole thing, it tells a story! It’s like-.”

“What kind of story?” she said as she turned down the volume.

“Well, I don’t...” he struggled to explain it in words that weren’t prewritten. “I really think you should listen to it later, it’ll make more sense if you do. By yourself. Cause I made it to ask you, er, to tell you-.”

“Yeah?” Willow asked with a knowing smile. 

Hunter buried his face in his hands and groaned. This was not the way this was supposed to unfold.

"I just… can’t say the words if they're not in music, and I wanna say them because well…but it’s like more than just one song? Because every-.”

“Hunter,” Willow cut him off, making him meet her eyes.“If you don’t want me to listen to it right now, I won’t. But I’m really excited to.”

Hunter melted. Okay, maybe they had some time. Maybe this was the right time. He kept his eyes on her as he turned the volume back up so she could hear and leaned back to study her reaction.

“Hunter, are you asking me to be your girlfriend?” Willow asked when the song ended, turning to face forward. Her voice carried an alarmed tone that made Hunter nervous.

“You don’t have to say yes, or answer right now,” Hunter began. “Or answer at all, if you don’t want to. I’ll still drive you to practice if you say no, if that’s okay with you. I was gonna ask you after the movie because I really like you and-.”

“Hunter... omigosh I’m so embarrassed,” she said, burying her face in her hands, her glasses askew over her fingertips.

“I’m so sorry! See, this is why I wanted you to listen to it later, I didn’t want you to feel-.”

“I’ve already been telling everyone that you were my boyfriend!” Willow announced, totally abashed.

“You... what?”

“When you said the song was... I thought it... that you, that we... oh my gosh!” she hid her face even more.

“Is that why you…?”

Willow nodded.

“So you thought...?”

She nodded again.

“Wow…” Hunter murmured, not sure how to process the fact that he had worried for nothing. “I didn’t realize my song was that good, heh.”

“Well, it was my music, so of course it was good,” she replied, feeling a little bit more at ease as she removed her hands from her face and relaxed. They looked at each other and found the bubble again, where silence was okay. He angled his elbow on the steering wheel and rested his chin on the back of his hand.

“Well, I can’t say I disagree with you there.” Hunter said dreamily, wondering if he was looking at his girlfriend right now. “You’ve had a pretty positive impact on my musical taste.”

“Well, I’ll be the judge of that,” she said slyly. “I’ll have to listen to the whole thing first, and there better not be any jazz on here because I’m gonna wanna play it for my plants.”

“So… is that a ‘yes?’” 

Willow sucked her teeth letting him linger in anticipation as she crafted her response. She leaned closer, as the next track played faintly in the background. 

“Hunter! Hunter!” Came an urgent voice came from behind him, he dragged his focus away from Willow and saw Luz frantically tapping on his window looking frazzled. 

He rolled his eyes at her timing and rolled down his window and gave her a glare to indicate his displeasure. “Can I help you?”

“I’ve been trying to call you but you’re not answering your phone,” her voice was shaken and any resentment Hunter had turned to worry. 

“Luz, what’s wrong?”

“Darius came to my house and told us… it just happened… the news is still…” she stammered. 

“Luz, calm down what’s going on?”

“There was some kind of investigation at Titan Inc. ” said Luz as calmly as she could. “Your uncle’s been arrested.” 

Chapter Text

Everything was a blur. Hunter only took in bits and pieces of what was being said. The news, Darius, the sources blended together but one thing was certain...

"Apparently, there was a flash drive that someone turned in…

"Someone close to him turned him in…

"There’s been a coup in the works for months…

... there was a chance he would never have to see his uncle again.

“Why didn’t he tell me?” Hunter asked as he and Luz sat on the front porch of the Noceda house as the adults were talking inside. 

“Who?”

“Darius,” said Hunter. “He knew what was gonna happen, he knew that my uncle was stealing from all those people and he didn’t tell me.”

“He didn’t wanna put you in danger,” said Luz. “He didn’t wanna get you involved-.”

“I am involved Luz!” Hunter spat angrily, his leg shaking as he tried in vain to keep his voice lowered. “I ran errands for him for years, and I never asked questions. I was a pawn. I was an idiot. How could I not see what monster he was?”

“I think you did see,” said Luz. “I think alot of people saw. But the reasons monsters live so long is because they make themselves so big. Apparently, Darius spent years gathering enough evidence to finally be able to bring him down. He knew he only had one shot, that if he messed up that he’d be out and you’d be alone.”

“He told you that?’

“I was eavesdropping,” said Luz. “He’d be over with Eda and Lillith and Raine drawing stuff on whiteboards and yelling in like code and stuff.”

“But why didn’t he tell me?”

“I think it didn't want it getting traced back to you," said Luz. “I know he’s not the touchy feely type but he cares about you alot. I don’t think he wanted to get you involved.”

“The whole time he was risking his life for me. He just kept me in the dark like I was a child! Like I was-

“You are a child, Hunter.”

“But I should’ve been doing more. I should’ve-.”

“No, you shouldn’t have,” said Luz. “You shouldn’t have to give him any more of your time and energy to him. The adults are doing something about it, because that’s who’s job this is. You're supposed to be focusing on being a teenager and doing silly teenager things.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” he said. “It’s not that easy to just throw away my whole life overnight.”

“Hunter, he didn’t care about you, he didn't care about anyone but himself,” said Luz. “He put you in an impossible position. He was supposed to look out for you but he lied to you. He lied to everyone.”

“But I should’ve been doing more!” Hunter nearly yelled. “I should’ve been paying more attention. But I let myself get distracted, I let Darius convince me I could be normal but I can’t Luz. It doesn’t matter that he might go to jail, I’m always going to be connected to him. Now I’m always going to be the stupid kid who let him get away with these things, the stupid kid who was the reason it took so long to stop him, t-the stupid kid who doesn’t belong anywhere.”

“Hunter that’s crazy."

“Is it?” He said, covering his eyes with his hands. “I didn’t belong there but at least I knew what my future held. I had expectations. And then here I’m… scattered. All this planning and whispering going on without me. about me. What am I supposed to do without Titan Inc.? Who am I supposed to be? I’m not good enough at anything else to do anything else. Did I really think I could be like a professional singer o-o-or sew patches on things for living? I got distracted and now everything’s falling apart and-.”

“Hey, stop it!” said Luz, placing her hand over his mouth to stop him rambling. He looked at her with a furrowed brow and flared at her before-

“Ew! Did you just lick my hand?” She exclaimed in disgust, wiping it on his shirt. “That’s disgusting!”

“This is serious Luz!” Said a Hunter, pushing her away. “This was a wake up call, I’m not supposed to have these things. When I lose focus things fall apart, Titan Inc., could've do a lot of good in the right hands. If I had just held out a little longer and just kept my mouth shut I couldn't have been the one to fix it instead of letting my family ruin things for everyone.”

“You really wanna blame yourself for all this, huh?”

“I don’t… want to…”

“And you shouldn’t because it’s not your fault,” said Luz. “I know it’s a lot to process. But you’re not alone. You’re not stupid. You’re not the reason all these awful things happened. You’re the reason a lot of good things happen in spite of them.”

“Really? Name one thing.”

“You helped me get a better grade in English.”

“That’s hardly something,”

“But it’s not nothing.” Luz insisted.  “Hunter, you don’t have to do life changing earth shattering things every second of every day to be important and good. Sometimes you just have to… be.”

“Nicely put.”

“Hey I said my grade was better, not perfect.” said Luz, gently nudging his arm. “But you don’t need to do anything for us to care about you. I’m sorry if he ever made you feel like that was something you had to earn, because it’s not. 

“I just… what if the charges don’t stick? What if this isn’t over and he comes back and he knows how I… and then everything will be…”

“Well, can't blame you for being paranoid after everything you've been through.” said Luz. "I understand that you might still be in shock.”

“Yeah.” he said. “You know, I just wanna make sure everyone's safe.”

“Same. And that includes you too.”

“What?”

“Yeah. Gonna make sure you're safe too, Hunter. You're family now.” said Luz, wrapping her arm around him. “You stuck with us now, whether you like it or not.”

He turned his head to the side as her words sank in. He had no argument for that, he didn’t want to have one. He liked how it sounded. The last time his uncle said they were family as justification for something, he had gotten the scar on his face. Hearing Luz say it, he felt like it healed something he hadn’t realized was in desperate need of repair and maybe that was because when she said it he actually believed it

After he didn’t talk for awhile, Luz went to get up to give him some space when suddenly he turned and leaned his head on her shoulder and began sobbing. His shoulders heaved as he tried to hold back but Luz simply put her arm back around him and allowed him to continue. Hunter had never been allowed to openly weep, to express himself in any way and he knew he probably looked ridiculous but he didn’t care. It just felt so good to finally unload everything. 

After a few minutes, he wiped the remaining tears from his face and sat back up. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” said Luz, rising to her feet. “I’m sure you have a million texts to respond to. Don’t take too long though, okay? Mom is having Darius, Eda, Raine and Lilith stay for dinner and I know you’re gonna want a good seat.”

Hunter gave her a small smile as he remained on the steps and looked out at the quiet street. The air was crisp and cold and smelled like rain. He took out his phone and read his missed messages, a collection of supportive texts from Gus, the Entrails, even the Blights. Hunter wondered how the Blight kids were holding up, this news kind of affected them too. Their mother had been one of his uncle’s biggest supporters. Luckily their dad had gotten out just in time, he heard Darius mention he had been a part of the coup.

He also had seven missed calls from Willow. What must she think of all this?

”Your inbox was full.” came Willow’s voice, and Hunter’s head jerked up from his phone to see he had not imagined it as she stood before him, still in his patch covered jean jacket. That must've been where Vee had gone off to earlier. 

“Willow, hi.” he breathed. It seems like lifetimes ago they were sitting in his car. The last he saw her, she was rushing out the door as Luz rushed him into Darius’ car and Hunter could only hear white noise. He knew Luz was saying something to Willow and she understood and she wasn’t mad but everything since then had been a blur like he was trapped in a dream. How odd, he had never been pulled out of a dream by another dream. He wished he had gotten to pick which one he was stuck in, because then he would be dropping her off from the movie instead of watching his whole world crumble around him.

“ I just really wanted to make sure you were okay, I understand if you wanna be alone but if you don’t-.”

“I don’t,” he said quietly. “I really don’t.”

“Luz said everyone’s in there fighting about who gets to let you stay with them,” said Willow, sitting beside him. It seemed redundant in a way, his things were already scattered equally among the three households as he constantly found a reason to not return to the house his uncle built.

“Yeah,” said Hunter, wiping away a lingering tear. “It’s funny, this time last year I would think they were fighting over who got me because no one wanted me, not the other way around.”

“Well, I’m not surprised,” said Willow. “This is why Gus and I always make you sit in the middle.”

“I mean, it seems kind of silly; I turn 17 next month and then I’m 18 and it won’t really matter then will it?”

“You don’t stop having a family when you turn 18,” said Willow simply.

“Heh, that’s what Luz said.”

“Well she’s right,” said Willow with a sigh. “You deserve to be around people who love you and care about you. I mean, I know you’re strong and independent but wouldn’t it be kinda nice to be part of a big sappy  family?”

“I mean, it doesn’t sound terrible…”

“Having Eda and Camila team up to yell at Darius on the regular? Iconic.” 

“I’m not worth the trouble-.”

“Don’t you dare start that,” said Willow sternly. “I’ve caused more trouble over lesser things. I haven’t even begun to cause the amount of trouble you’re worth Hunter.”

He smiled. “I’m grateful… for the trouble, I really am. I just don’t want you guys to look at me differently,” he admitted. 

“We’ll, that ship has already sailed,” said Willow. “You’ve gone from mysterious homeschooler to Luz and Vee’s mysterious older brother.”

Hunter believed for the first time that Luz hadn’t been joking when she said Willow wishing she and Vee had an older brother. 

“And… you know you can tell me when things aren’t okay, right?”

“I know.”

“Do you? Because I had no idea about any of this,” she said, slightly hurt. “I didn’t wanna pry because I wanted to respect your privacy but if we’re gonna be… anything, I need to know what’s going on. You don't have to tell me everything but I hate to think you're holding something back because you're afraid it'll make you look weak or whatever. I’ve told you alot of stuff I haven’t told anyone else because I trust you. I want you to know you can trust me too.”

“I do trust you,” he said. “I really do. I guess it was just… hard to admit what was going on to myself, let alone anyone else. I thought if I could ignore it it would go away and I wouldn’t have to let you see that side of me because I was worried… you wouldn’t like it.”

“I’ll tell you what I don’t like,” said Willow, putting her head on his shoulder. “I don’t like your uncle. I don’t like how he talked to you or how he treated you or that he made you feel like you weren’t good enough. But you? I like you alot. Like, alot alot. You’re thoughtful, creative and kind and you’re still all these things even when you don’t believe you are.”

“Well… if I am all those things, it’s because you rubbed off on me.”

“Look at you, going through so much and still finding a way to compliment me,” she said, placing her hand on the side of his face and rubbing her thumb gently over his scar. “I rest my case, you’re simply the sweetest boy in the world. I’m not taking any arguments, I’m sorry; it’s been decided.”

“Fine,” he said with a small laugh. “If you insist.”

They say in silence for a moment, stuck in their little bubble from before where the silence was okay and peaceful and the outside world slowed down. Hunter wondered if not would be a good time to-.

“You let him drink how many energy drinks a day?!” Camila shouted from inside. “No wonder he never sleeps!”

“Even I know that ya dingus!” chimed in Eda.

 “¿Qué tipo de tonto piensa que está bien?”

“Ow ow ow!” Darius' voice came in response. “I’m sorry!”

“Do you think she’s attacking him?” asked Hunter.

“I’m guessing she grabbed his ear and is making him read the ingredients on a Red Bull,” laughed Willow. “I feel like Camila’s gonna try and wean you off caffeine so I’ll sneak you a coffee when you come and pick up your car.” 

“Bless you.”

He wanted to bring up the movies. He wanted to revisit the conversation in the car. He wanted to go back to that moment or start it five minutes earlier. He wanted to hear Willow say she thought he was her boyfriend so he could say he was with confidence. That’s what he should’ve done. Now… where were they now? How could he bring it up now without her pitying him? Did this change nothing or did this change everything? She knew about his uncle and how awful he was, she knew how he stayed out of the house as long as he could and she hadn’t thought less of him. She said she still liked him, but did she like him the way he liked her?

He wanted to ask her again but would she be able to let him down if that’s what she really wanted to do? Or would she be too kind for that? Hey my uncle just got arrested and my whole life is flipped upside down. Do you wanna be even more involved in my life?

Hunter didn’t think he could do it.

Willow’s phone rang and she offered an apologetic face as she went to answer it. Hunter noticed her background was a photo of them from the night she cut his hair. His stomach leapt. 

“Hey Viney, what’s up?” She said, answering the phone. “No, I’m not at the greenhouse right now, I'm still at my boyfriend’s house. Why? Did you forget something?”

Hunter's eyes widened at the casual and confident way she had said the word. Boyfriend. She was at her boyfriend’s house. She was at his house and she was his girlfriend and she knew it and everything. He wanted to pick her up and spin her around a kiss her entire face and scream at the top of his lungs but instead he said:

“Do you wanna stay for dinner?”

---

“So, this is where you run off to every day, little prince” said Darius, walking around Eda’s garage, placing some boxes of Hunter’s things from the estate inside. “It’s not… as tacky as I expected.”

“Thanks?” said Luz, still adjusting to Darius’... unique way of putting things.

“Eda says you made t-shirts,” said Darius, as casually as he could. “Did you happen to make one in my size?”

“You’d wear a shirt with Eda’s face on it?” Hunter asked, knowing how seriously Darius took his appearance, even in their current suburban setting where very few people would see him.

“Well, it would be nice not having to wear my formal attire while moving these boxes,” he replied. “And I would be willing to make a fashion fopa if it meant getting to support the arts, and you.”

“How do you even know if we’re any good?”

“Well, I guess you’ll just have to show me,” said Darius. 

“Really?”

“Yes, let’s take a break from all this chaos and sweating and you and the loud girl can serenade me.” said Darius, dusting off a lawn chair from the corner. He was all in favor of taking a break after a long day of moving and packing.

“Yeah!” exclaimed Luz, leaping to her drums. “Oh! Hunter, we can play that song Gus taught you on the keyboard, it’ll be perfect.”

“You think so?”

“Absolutely. I think it’s the perfect choice.”

He thought of all the rehearsals where he had sung this song and tried to convey the meaning. And now, here he stood fully aware of it. As Luz played him in, he allowed the word to release the weight he had been holding for far too long. He thought about how hard Darius fought to get him out of that situation. How much he would have to care about him to take those chances. How Camila and Eda had taken him in and welcomed him without a second thought. How that real solid life made the one his uncle provided him so fake and frail. 

“I want to break free, I want to break free

I want to break free from your lies

You're so self-satisfied I don't need you

I've got to break free

God knows, God knows I want to break free

He thought about Willow. How little he had to do for her to care about him and how much he was willing to do to show her how much that meant to him. 

I've fallen in love

I've fallen in love for the first time

This time I know it's for real

I've fallen in love, yeah

God knows, God knows I've fallen in love...”

---

 “You’re a born performer, little prince,” Darius said while later when it was just them sorting through things Hunter had been meaning to sort through for months.

“Oh, uh, thank you.” he said. “But, you should’ve seen me when we first started.”

“I wish I had,” he said. “But, the Noceda girl showed me a video the Blight twins took of your show at their house and.., you looked really at home on that stage.”

“I never thanked you for making me join.” said Hunter.

“Well, I never apologized for not explaining why it was so important,” said Darius. “I always felt it was important to me that you had connections outside the company, but when I started to have suspensions it became more important. I don’t regret what I did, I only regret not being able to do it sooner.”

“Were you scared of him too Darius?”

“I might’ve been,” he said with a sigh. “But not for myself. I was afraid of what he would do to you. Everything he made you believe about yourself, about how the world works, the lies, the fear, I could only undo so much with the time I was given. And I thought that was enough because the money was so good I had gotten used to a certain way of living. But the day he gave you that scar… I knew I couldn’t risk waiting for him to change, because he wouldn’t.”

“You left a voicemail on his phone,” said Darius. “And, given the state you were in, I don’t think you remember leaving it. But, when the investigation was in full swing we had his phone bugged and I saved it, so make sure I didn’t lose sight of what was at stake. I want you to hear it, so you don’t either.”

“ You know what I'd like, uncle?” his voice was coarse and quiet, it was clear he had been crying, He was distressed, he had been so miserable at the very thought of him.  “I'd like to leave the Titan Inc. and never step foot in that office again. I’d like to study music and learn about animals and I’d like to attend Hexide as a regular student and do roller derby with my friends. But most of all… I'd like to make sure you never hurt anyone again!"

"I know this isn't over and we can't change the past," started Darius. "But I want to make sure your future is everything you deserve. I want to make sure you have every single wonderful, awkward cliché teenage experience there is. I know I'm not the most... fatherly figure out there, so I know I'll make mistakes. Yes, despite being perfect in nearly every other way I'm bound to experience some trial and error in this endeavor. But, most of all, I want to make sure you're safe. So if I seem overbearing or unreasonable, please believe that I have only your best intentions in mind."

"I do," said Hunter. "Just... can there be no more secrets?"

Darius smiled and nodded and Hunter wrapped his arms around him and embraced him. Despite Darius' initial dislike of physical contact, he welcomed and returned the hug, patting Hunter on the back as he had seen in reruns of cheesy 90's sitcoms.

"No more secrets," confirmed Darius. "So I guess that means you're gonna tell me what's been going on with you and the roller derby girl then, huh?"

Chapter Text

Hunter stood nervously on the doorstep, clutching his bouquet for dear life. He knew he was early. But he couldn't decide if it would be seen as rude or endearing. His indecisiveness was paralyzing. The sweater Darius had bought for him, while impressive, was a little itchy. But Darius had said that it was made of 'boyfriend material' and Hunter was too nervous to ask if that was a joke or not so he wore it just in case. 

“Oh my gosh, where did you even find daffodils this time of year?” said Willow, truly impressed as she opened the door to usher him in from the cold.

“I special ordered them because I read that they signify respect and I want you dads to know I respect them. And you. And floriography.” 

“Hunter, they already know you’re a great guy, you don’t have to try so hard to impress them.”

“This is a big moment, Willow,” said Hunter quietly, scanning the hall to see if her dads were nearby so he could ensure he greeted them properly. “First impressions are essential.”

“Hunter, you’ve met them like dozens of times before,” said Willow. “You helped organize our junk drawer. You watered our plants when we went to my grandmothers for the weekend. I think they’ve been waiting for you to be my boyfriend longer than I have.”

“Exactly! This is the first time I’m meeting them as your boyfriend,” he said, emphasizing the word. “What if they’re upset I didn’t ask for their blessing before asking you out?”

“If they were gonna be upset with anyone it would be with me for not asking you out,” laughed Willow. “They want nothing more than to tell you embarrassing stories about me when I was in marching band.”

“You were in marching band?” he asked, suddenly flustered by the image of Willow in a marching band uniform.

“Papa played the clarinet so I tried it for a bit before I took up bass,” said Willow. “If you want some bonus points with them, ask if he’ll play you something.”

“I’ll add that to my flashcards,” he said with a smile.

“You do that, I’m sure-oh you were serious,” said Willow as Hunter pulled a pen and a stack of cards from his pocket, and furiously added the note. Willow couldn’t help but smile at how ... all in he was. “They also love how you’ve put patches on all the rips in my jeans.”

”Oh... right,” Hunter blushed, remembering how he had thought he was extending the life of her clothes by insisting on making the repairs until Amity said it was a part of fashion. Willow had not protested, seeing the colorful carefully picked patches as tokens of his affection she could carry with her always. “I guess I have a tendency to overdo things, Huh?”

“I think it’s sweet,” She said, admiring the meticulous way he organized his collection of flash cards. She couldn’t help but swoon a little at the careful way he always wrote her name, as though it was the reason he learned calligraphy.

“There he is! The man of the hour!” called Harvey, seeing Hunter in the hallway. 

“How have you been, son?” added Gilbert, following behind his husband in an apron. “We’ve been looking forward to this all week!”

“Likewise sirs!” said Hunter with an awkward laugh as he extended his arm to shake their hands, forgetting he was still holding his bouquet. Gilbert laughed as he took the flowers from Hunter as Harvey went to shake his hand.

“I wanna say the formality isn’t necessary but it’s rather nice,” laughed Harvey, gripping his hand firmly and Hunter saw where Willow got her strong handshake from as he tried not to wince. “It’s an honor to know our daughter is dating such a nice, upstanding, respectable young man who- Hunter, is that a tattoo on your wrist?”

The boy was too stunned to speak.

---

“Do you think they liked me?” he said, wiping his hands on his pants, unable to stop sweating as Willow walked him to the door. “Should I have brought a vase with the flowers? They seemed to have trouble finding a free vase, I should’ve known your house would be full of flowers. I should’ve brought something else like chocolates o-or savings bonds, not to mention I’m still figuring out how to style my hair like this so I probably look-.”

“You look great,” said Willow, placing her hand on his shoulder. “They’ve been through the exact same thing, you could've done everything perfectly and they still would’ve found a way to make you frazzled, it’s their job,”

“So you’re saying I didn’t do everything perfectly?”

“I’m saying, if they didn’t like you you wouldn’t have made it to dessert,” she laughed, lacing her fingers through his and giving him a reassuring smile.

“I should’ve covered my tattoo with makeup or something,” groaned Hunter. “I usually wear gloves so you can’t see it, I keep meaning to get it removed but do you think-.”

“Hey,” she said softly, pressing the tips of her fingers to his lips to cease his ramblings. “It means a lot to me that this meant a lot to you.” She booped his nose and his anxiety melted.

“Yeah well you mean a lot to me,” he said bashfully, swinging their arms. “I guess I just feel it’s a little unfair because sometimes I think all of my parental figures like you more than they like me.”

“Oh, that’s not true,” teased Willow. “Only Darius likes me more, everyone else likes us equally.”

“Well, hopefully if your dads have me over again I can try and get my score up.”

“I’m sure I can talk them into it,” she smiled. “Well, goodnight,” said Willow softly as she leaned forward but Hunter stepped back. 

“What are you doing?” He whispered, looking frantically behind her.

“Kissing you goodnight?” She answered, confused.

“Are you crazy?! Your dads are like right there!”

“I’m preeeetty sure they know that I kiss you,” she said, crossing her arms.

“They do? Oh, no wonder they hate me!”

“Hunter, you're being silly,” Willow said. “What’s the big deal? We kiss all the time!”

“Shhhh!” He whispered, stepping closer to her. “What if they hear you? We do not kiss all the time! Weeee’ve-” he pointed dramatically to her and himself to emphasize his point “-only kissed once!”

Willow leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on the top of his nose. “Well what do you call that?”

“You-!” Hunter recoiled like it was venom and Willow laughed. “That’s not what I mean! I mean, you always kiss me but we’ve only kissed once.” 

She understood what he meant, she hadn’t realized that despite the occasional peek on the cheek, they had only really kissed that one time at the greenhouse when the sprinklers went off. It was kind of rushed and awkward and wet (from the sprinklers) but it was perfect to Willow. But that was almost a month ago and they weren’t even technically dating then.

“Well do you wanna kiss me?”

“Not with your dads on the other side of the door listening!”

“They are not on the other side of the-,” Willow's demeanor changed and she reached back and pounded the door with her with full force and was met with the sound of two grown men saying Ow! “Well dang, I stand corrected.”

Willow swiftly opened the door and stuck her head instead and whispered something Hunter could not hear. But when she closed the door and turned back to face him, he could only assume she had asked her dads to give them some privacy. 

“So… what about now?”

“Well now they know we’re out here kissing,” Hunter said in an even more frantic whisper. “And if you’re out here too long they’re gonna think I’m some kind of player or rebel or-.”

“Except, we’re not out here kissing,” said Willow bluntly, acting as though she was preparing to head back inside. “We’re out here talking. I would like to be out here kissing, but if you don’t want to…”

“Oh! No! I want to!” Hunter declared, placing his hands on her shoulders to stop her, and then panicked all over again when he realized how that action could be taken. “Uh! It’s just that I…ya know… we just ate and I’m worried my breath might smell.”

“We ate the same thing, do you think my breath smells?”

“No! No, no it’s just that… I don’t know how,” Hunter finally admitted. “And I don’t want you to regret going out with me. It’s stupid, I know, but every time I think about it I just get so nervous and overwhelmed- but in a good way! I just… don’t wanna mess it up.”

“It’s not stupid,” Willow assured. She couldn’t blame him really; their first kiss had been more of an ambush, more spontaneous. While Hunter wasn’t typically the spontaneous type, sometimes giving him too much time to think made him get in his own head. She took his hand back  in hers and swung them side to side as though trying to hypnotize him to calm him down. “Do you… think about it a lot?”

“Yeah,” his face calm for a moment before his response reached his ears. “I mean! N-Not like ‘alot’ a lot, like a normal amount. I just… never thought it would be this easy to know that you wanted me to kiss you, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the signs would be and now I’m kind of just skipping a lot of steps I guess.”

“Would you rather I drag you into the rain and kiss when you least expect it?” she teased. He would like that, actually. 

“What a shame there isn’t a cloud in the sky,” said Hunter with quiet fondness, leaning against a pillar in the doorway while still holding her hand. “I did a backflip off the amp last week, but this is where my nerves decide to kick in? It’s just not fair.”

“Well you’re pretty confident when you sing,” whispered Willow, moving in closer as she took his other hand as well. “Why not try singing about it?”

“R-right now?” Hunter chuckled. “I dunno, y-you’d laugh at me.”

“Have I ever laughed at you?” She said sweetly. 

She was right. She always laughed with him, never at his expense. She was never anything but sincere, kindness without cruelty, humor without hindrance. Who wouldn’t want to kiss her?

“Kiss me, out of the bearded barley ,” Willow started to sing faintly after a moment. “Nightly, beside the green, green grass…”

“That song? Really?” Hunter chuckled lightly. “It’s a little on the nose, don’t cha think?”

“Swing, swing, ” Willow went on melodramatically, whispering the echoes in the song for effect. “Swing the spinning step, you wear those shoes and I will wear that dress.”

She took advantage of having both Hunter's hand in hers and pulled him closer to dance with her and she got louder and sillier, clearly loving his reaction to the song and glad she could make him forget his uneasiness. She got cheesier as he pretended to groan in frustration but quietly began to join in, hypnotized by her vibrancy.  

"Oh, kiss me, beneath the milky twilight

Lead me out on the moonlit floor

Lift your open hand.”

Hunter took it as his cue to spin Willow around just as he had done at rehearsal a few weeks before and he led her around as though he had any clue about dancing. She laughed as she sang as the overzealous way he’d soon her, even attempting a dip that only brought them closer.

“Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance

Silver moon's sparkling.”

He pulled in close in one connected motion, his mind lost in the song so he didn’t have time to rationalize as he brought her into his chest and the moment she reached him he placed his hands on either side of her face and gently angled her face up to his and brought their lips together. He made sure it wasn’t as messy or forced or fast as the greenhouse, but it was every bit as perfect. 

So kiss me

He felt her hands on his chest, slightly gripping his shirt to bring him closer but she didn’t have to worry about him not wanting to be close. The moment their lips met, Hunter allowed himself to relax and closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax. He held her close as though she was the only tangible thing that could keep him from floating away but she was the reason he was so light to begin with. He felt like he was melting from the inside out, as he was suddenly surrounded by everything she was. Her subtle hint of her rose scented perfume, the cold edges of her glasses, the unmistaken shape of her jaw all shaping the moment to be everything Hunter dreamed it would be. He could feel her lips form a smile and that made him wonder how he was ever supposed to stop. 

When they eventually parted, Willow didn’t let him go too far as she rested her forehead against his. She moved her arms around his neck so she could look into his eyes better and placed his hands around her waist to make sure she knew he had no intention of letting her go. It felt as though they were slow dancing and with the full orchestra blaring in Hunter’s heart they very well could have. 

“Wow,” she murmured, her face a bright pink color. “You couldn’t even let me finish the song?”

“Sorry,” he laughed. “Did you wanna-?”

“Nah, I’m good,” she said with a content sigh. “It has completed its task. I knew I put it on a CD for a reason.” 

“It was from the first week of October if I’m not mistaken.”

“You’re not,” she said with a wide smile. “I’ve been trying to brainwash you for months with my CDs. Am I gonna have to sing every time I wanna kiss you?”

“I don’t think so,” he replied, tightening his grip slightly to bring her a little closer. “Considering we’re in a band I don’t think it’s the best idea. Otherwise every time we play a song I’ll want to kiss you.”

“Wow that’s so weird, because every time we play a song I wanna kiss you,” Willow said smugly. “I must’ve brainwashed myself in the process.”

“Oh is that so?” Hunter asked. Willow nodded and Hunter started to sing another chorus as Willow went to lean up to bring him into another kiss when suddenly the porch lights started flashing. 

“Oop, looks like that’s our cue,” said Willow, stopping right before she reached Hunter's lips, very much to the poor boy's dismay. “My dads are telling me to wrap it up.”

“Y-your dads? But I thought they weren’t watching us!”

“Well, I asked them not to, so I don’t think they did. But they definitely heard us,” chuckled Willow. “They probably thought it was too quiet for too long if ya know what I mean.”

“Oh… okay?”

“Anyway…” said Willow as she backed up towards the door. “I’d better head inside before they turn the sprinklers on, which knowing us wouldn’t be a determent.”

They both laughed. “Thank you for having me over,” said Hunter softly as he watched her linger in the doorway. 

“Thanks for coming,” she smiled. “And, uh, thanks for sticking around after.” She shot him one of her signature winks and Hunter felt a familiar twist in his stomach. Surely these would go away soon, how did she still manage to get him so nervous?

“Of course,” he replied, sticking his hands in his pockets. “Kiss you tomorrow? I mean see! I mean see you tomorrow.”

“Yes,” Willow giggled before disappearing behind the door completely. “To both.”

---

The group hardly knew the difference between Willow and Hunter dating and Willow and Hunter mutually pining. But Hunter felt as though his whole world had changed. Every time Willow’s hand brushed against his and he no longer questioned if it was because she wanted him to hold it. Soon, he could not talk about Willow without putting ‘my girlfriend’ before her name:

"I'm patching up this cardigan for my girlfriend Willow."

"Oh my girlfriend Willow loves that song."

"My girlfriend Willow wanted to know if you guys wanted to order pizza later."

Every time he was referred to as her boyfriend, he felt utterly invincible. But the title wasn't the only change that Hunter was eagerly adjusting to.

A few days later they were at Gus’ watching a movie. They sat on the couch together, which was nothing new since they always managed to sit next to each other before. But now, Willow swung her legs over so they rested across Hunter's lap and she could rest the side of her head on the couch to see the TV better. It made it so Hunter couldn’t tell if she was looking at him or the movie but he liked the idea that she would prefer the sight of him over anything, even for a brief moment. 

“I’m gonna go grab some snacks before we start,” said Gus, jumping up from the armchair.

“Take your time!” called Willow. Once Gus left the room, she turned to Hunter and said. “Hey.”

He turned his head to return the greeting and was met by Willow moving her head forward to give him a gentle kiss on the lips. He was slightly surprised, still getting used to the notion that Willow returned his feelings (with such intensity) and had no issue assuring him of that. She only pulled back when Gus called to them from the kitchen.

“Do you guys want butter on your popcorn?”

“I do!” Said Willow casually as though she hadn’t just been putting Hunter at risk for cardiac arrest. “Do you?”

He forgot how to form words and simply nodded his response so she could answer for him. “We both do!”

“Cool, cause I put extra on it,” said Gus, returning with a large bowl. “Oh, Let me get some drinks too. Lemonade okay?”

“Yes please,” stuttered Hunter.

“Same,” said Willow. She watched Gus leave the room again and once he was in the kitchen, she placed her hand on Hunter’s cheek and turned his face back to hers and kissed him again. He was less surprised this time, but every bit as speechless. Thankfully, he recovered quicker and had enough time to kiss her back before she broke the kiss when they heard Gus making his way back again. He set their drinks on the end table beside Willow.

“Ok, I’m gonna run to the bathroom real quick and then we can start.”

Hunter found himself slowly drifting to Willow and the moment the bathroom door closed, she gravitated toward him like a magnet.  He reached out to caress the side of her face and pull her closer, tilting his head to avoid smushing her glasses. She placed one hand over his as the other gripped the front of his shirt as she held herself since even sitting down he was taller than her. But he would gladly risk neck pain in the name of this. When they parted upon hearing Gus’ footprints, she smoothed out the front of her shift casually as Hunter struggled to regain his breath. He was self conscious only for a moment that she did not feel as transported by the kiss as he did, until she went to speak and the tone of her voice was lighter than usual.

“Gus, did you get yourself a drink?”

“Oh, you’re right, I must’ve left it in the kitchen.” He said, snapping his fingers and turning around. 

Once Gus had left the room, Hunter instinctively turned his face to Willow, eyes closed and lips puckered as he waited for them to resume their routine. When her lips didn’t meet his, he opened his eyes in confusion and was met with Willow squinting her eyes and offering him a mischievous and pleased smirk. She had successfully Pavloed him.

“Really dude?” Came Gus’ voice from behind him. “I leave the room for one minute and you try kissing Willow?”

“Yeah Hunter, what’s your deal?” Willow teased, matching Gus’ tone. “Do you like me or something?” She playfully booped his nose and he responded by boldly leaning forward to give her a quick peck on her lips as response and she started laughing.

“Really guys? You have to do that now? In front of my innocent eyes?” said Gus in fake disgust.

“You were literally harassing me about not kissing her for months and now you’re against it?” Hunter asked, pretending to be offended as he extended his arm around Willow and she rested her head on his shoulder. “Make up your mind Porter.”

“You can kiss at your wedding, I don’t want you being distracted during the movie,” said Gus, pressing play.

“Well can we at least kiss during the scary parts?” Willow joked.

Gus paused it. “The only scary thing about the Cosmic Frontier movie is when it strays from canon and Hunter will be too busy pointing out the inconsistencies to kiss you.”

“I dunno, I think he could do both.”

“That’s it!” Said Gus with authority as he gathered his snacks and marched over to their couch. He threw Willow’s legs off Hunter’s lap and plopped himself between the couple who just laughed.

“Oh no Gus,” gasped Willow.

“What?”

“You’re in the line of fire!” She declared dramatically. “I’m trying to kiss Hunter but when I turned you’re in the way and I- ppfffttt!” She grabbed Gus face and pressed her lips to his cheek to give him a loud obnoxious raspberry. 

“Ew! Gross, stop!” Gus begged, trying to stifle his laughter and free himself from Willow’s clutches. 

“And I’m trying to hand Willow a pillow but you’re blocking me from reaching her and- oh no!” Hunter joined in dramatically, picking up a throw pillow and giving Gus a playfully whack on the shoulder which only made the young boy laugh harder and made escaping impossible.

“Stop! You guys are so weird!”

“See this is what happens when you don’t let us kiss,” said Willow with a sigh. “And now we wanna hold hands but we can’t reach around you and- Oh no! Look out!” Willow looked up and gave Hunter a nod and the two began furiously tickling the younger boy.

“No fair!” He laughed so hard he almost couldn’t breathe. “No fair! It’s two against one!”

“Well that’s because I’m not ticklish,” stated Willow. Then, as though inspired by her own words, she looked at Hunter with wild eyes. “But I don’t know if Hunter is…”

The blonde boy stopped dead in his tracks and he saw Willow and Gus exchange and look before turning to him, ready to pounce. “Wait, what?” He asked nervously.

“Get him!” Exclaimed Willow and Gus together as they jumped to ambush the poor boy, and tickled him before he knew what was going on. Gus managed to get him in a headlock as Willow jumped in from above so there was so escape from their combined force. Hunter managed to escape by rolling off the couch.

“Two against one again?” He asked, still laughing. “I thought it wasn’t fair?”

“Only when I’m the one.” Gus explained.

Hunter strategically rolled off the couch onto the floor, picked up a pillow along the way as he stood up and used it as a shield. “Well then, me and Gus will just have to-.”

“No!” Said Gus quickly, removing the pillow from Hunter’s hands. “I appreciate the sentiment, but you cannot challenge Willow to a pillow fight. She’s too strong. We’d never make it out alive, even if it’s two against one.”

Willow just shrugged in agreement from her place on the couch, her hair fighting to be free from his braids after the back to back scuffles. The boys quickly followed suit, as Hunter picked up the fallen pillows and Gus took his spot between the two as he put the movie back on.

“Thanks for letting me crash your date,” said Gus.

“Gus we’re at your house, I thought I was crashing your boys’ night.” laughed Willow.

Hunter didn’t care what it technically was, he couldn’t think of better company for a better night. For once, he wasn’t so focused on his future that he wasn’t able to enjoy his present. 

But the future was coming nevertheless.

Chapter Text

"Little prince, with Titan Inc. dissolving, I think we need to have a serious talk about your future," said Darius as the two sat down to dinner. "I've done everything I can to keep the actions of your uncle from sourly affecting you but the funds that had been put aside for your college fund have been dissolved when they wee linked to the embezzling so I'm afraid I've failed you in that regard."

"Darius, it's no big deal. I-."

"No little prince it is a very big deal," Darius insisted. "You've worked hard and you deserve to go to a good school. As your tutor I can attest that you're exceptionally bright and I-."

"Exactly," said Hunter. "I'm smart. I've had the best teacher in the country as my tutor and mentor, I can write essays and get scholarships. I can get a part time job to help pay for school. I've been taking some courses online already so I'll be going in with some credits. I'm really not worried about it."

"I know we've always talked about the career path you'd follow and the schools you would apply to, but I want to make sure that if you do still follow that path that it's what you want," said Darius. Hunter had truthfully never given much thought to what he wanted. He knew what he would do, where he was meant to go, and he knew how to do it even if his heart wasn't fully in it. But now, he had a choice and the options weren't limited as he choices had usually been. He  was finally enjoying his present and wanted to live in it awhile longer to ensure it extended into his future. But if the future came too quickly, would he have to leave it all behind?

"I'm not sure if I'll be able to apply for those kinds of schools anyway with my uncle's name still linked to me."

"Well, that's another thing Camila and I were talking about."

---

Later that night, he was dropping Willow off at her house and she noticed he had been unusually quiet on the drive there. She knew he had more he wanted to say about the movie, but there was something else on his mind.

“Earth to O’Bailey,” she said sweetly as they stopped outside her house. “You look… distracted. What’s up?”

“I just uh… I got a scholarship.” he said cautiously. 

“A scholarship, really? Hunter, that's great! You worked so hard, I’m so proud of you-.”

“It’s the scholarship for the Knee.” 

“That’s… pretty far.”

“I applied when I was trying to get away from my uncle,” said a Hunter. “I wanted to get as far away as possible and with everything going on I kind of forgot about it until now. I knew it was a long shot. but they have the programs and classes I need. And it’s a full scholarship, early admission, almost a  full ride. But I don’t even know if it’s where I wanna go.”

“So when do you have to decide?”

“End of next week,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity, it's just a big commitment. I know Darius and Camila wanna help pay and this would take alot of pressure off them and it’s actually a really nice campus and-.”

“I’m not hearing a downside.”

“They don’t have Willow Park,” said Hunter simply.

“Well, we are in short supply and high demand,” Willow said, taking his hand. “But I can’t let you turn this down for me.”

“It’s not just you,” he said. “I mean, yes it is a lot you, but I’m just getting used to everything: family dinners and having time for hobbies and not being stressed and I kind of… don’t wanna give it up yet. I know I can come back for weekends and vacations but I don’t know if I’m ready to go back to constantly studying all the time. I just feel like… It’ll be lonely. I don’t think I’m ready.”

“Well, you’ve been through a lot, I think you more than deserve a little break,” said Willow. “I mean, we can always see if they can push it back or something and if you were smart enough to get it once you can get it again. We can always have Darius call them, he’s very persuasive.”

“Eda offered to blackmail them for me,” said Hunter with a smile.

“See? You’ve got so many options,” Willow said with a laugh. “But in the meantime I get to brag about how smart my boyfriend is.”

“Oh, you mean you don’t do that already?”

“Yeah, but mostly just about how much you know about wolves.” she said, brushing the side of his hair. It had grown so long since she had given him that impromptu haircut months ago.

“The smartest thing I ever did was take that flier from you,” he said with a sigh, raising her hand to his lips and kissing the back of it.

“Yeah, I brag about that too,” she smiled. “But you really are smart, Hunter. I know you’ll do amazing at whatever you decide, but you don’t have to stay on this path if it doesn’t make you happy. Like, you applied so long ago when your idea of the future was different then and if you want something different for yourself, you should see what else is out there. I want you to be happy.”

“Are you sure this isn’t just you trying to keep me nearby?” Hunter asked with a smug smile.

“I can want both,” she said, giving him a matching smile. "I’m efficient.”

“A part of me does want to apply for all the schools my uncle wouldn’t let me consider, places I can travel and see new things but… that would mean being far from you too.”

“Well, it’s not like you won’t know where to find me.”

“I know but I just got you, I don't wanna leave so soon,” he admitted. 

“We can try long distance.”

“I just don’t want you to think that I’m trying to leave because-.”

“What if the band went on tour?” Willow thought aloud. “What if we won the Battle of the Bands and got signed and went on tour together in a big bus with our logo painted on the side?”

“That seems like a large prize for a local contest.”

“And on the way we could tour all the colleges that you wanted to see and walk around campus trying the best food places and get cheesy souvenir shirts. We could make a chart with the pros and cons and then when we find the best one we can see where the halfway point is between there and here and find a place we can meet up on some weekends.”

“That seems… doable.”

“And we can video chat or talk on the phone every night and on days where we can’t we can send cute pictures of our matching plushies so we know that we’re thinking of the other person.”

“That seems… less stressful.”

“See? It doesn’t have to be so scary,” smiled Willow. “I mean, it’s a lot I’m not gonna lie, but we can take things as they come. And if you find that after awhile of being away you can’t come home for holidays or breaks, I can come to you.”

“But how will you get there if I’m not driving you?”

“Hunter, I have my license,” laughed Willow. “For like a year now.”

“What?”

“Yeah,” she laughed. “But I like having you drive me so I never mentioned it, But I can always borrow my dad's car to come see you, they mentioned wanting to pass it down to me awhile back anyway. Or if you end up further away, I can fly to you and you can pick me up. You can’t get rid of me that easily.”

“Well then, can I pre reimburse you for the gas for the ride up?”

He leaned over and kissed her cheek and she looked at him fondly as he pulled away. She turned her head to offer him the other side of her face and pointed to her other cheek.

“Don’t forget the drive back.”

---

“What’s this?” asked Hunter looking up at Eda as she dropped a thick stack of papers in front of him as he worked at the kitchen table.

“Letters of recommendation,” she said with a flourish. “Signed, sealed, and ready to impress.”

“Real letters or forged letters?” he asked with a smile.

“Well, as great as my forgery skills are, everyone insisted on their authenticity,” said Eda. “Darius, Camila, Raine, even Lilith wrote something nice about you. They’ve all got fancy schooling so you can continue your life as a nepotism baby. And if you wanna apply to the school of hard knocks, there’s a glowing review from yours truly on top.”

“Wow, Eda that’s so nice,” said Hunter. “I don’t know what to say.”

“King also drew a picture of you and him riding wolves on the moon,” said Eda. “Personally, I think that could get you into any of the Ivys.”

---

Willow knew he had news. All through rehearsal he kept forgetting words and missing cues. But she didn’t want to pry. But she knew she wouldn’t have to, if they sat in his car in silence for too long and she wasn’t trying to kiss him, he always found a way to break the silence first. 

“I got the letter,” he said at last. “And I wanted you to be the first to know what it says.”

“Oh my gosh!” Said Willow, latching onto his arm and shaking it. “Wait, which letter? You’ve been getting so many letters lately. How important is it? You looked extra pale, are you okay?” 

“I'm scared to open it.” he said, rubbing the envelope between his fingers. 

“Do you wanna open it later?”

“I dunno.”

“Do you want me to open it for you?”

“I dunno.”

“Do you wanna kiss a little bit?”

“What?” Hunter said with a chuckle as Willow rested her elbow on the arm rest and gave him a wink, knowing the suggestion would make him laugh and ease his mind. “Ya know actually yeah a little bit.”

He leaned forward to kiss her and she leaned forward too, but at the last second leaned to the side and grabbed the envelope from him, laughing in victory as she displayed it over her head. 

“Now, what will make you feel better: reading it now and getting it over with or putting it in the glove compartment and forgetting about it? I’ll do whichever one you want, but I think I know what the right answer is.”

“I… open it.” He said, shutting his eyes. “Open it.”

“Okay,” said Willow with a smile, slowly opening the envelope delighting in the suspense she created as she made a show of unfolding the paper before bringing it close to her face so there wouldn’t be a chance of spoilers.

“Read it.” Said Hunter.

“Okay,” said Willow calmly trying to hold back the smile that formed watching his squirm. A few moments of silence went by as Hunter looked up from his panic as he waited for Willow to share his news. She looked at him in playfully fake confusion.

“Oh, out loud?” She said as though the idea had never occurred to her.

“Willow!”

“Um excuse me, Hunter Deamonne-Noceda,” she scoffed dramatically. “Just because you got into a fancy vet school doesn’t mean you get to yell at your cute girlfriend!”

“Willow, I wasn't- wait what did you say?”

“What? 

“Willow, you know I- Willow are you serious?”

“I’m as serious as I am cute,” she said, handing him the letter. “You did it!”

“I did it?”

“You did!” Said Willow excitedly, kissing him repeatedly on the cheek. “You got in!”

“I got in?” He said, still in disbelief as his eyes frantically scanned the letter. “I… I got in.”

“I’m so proud of you!”

“But how do I know… how do I know this is the right thing? I mean it’s a long program and it’s a really competitive school and -.”

“Hunter, I know this is the right choice because you were so nervous about that letter,” said Willow. “You were nervous because you wanted it to say yes because you care about this. I know you do because when you care about something, you care with your whole entire heart. You care so hard it drives you crazy. That’s how I know you’re gonna do amazing.”

He looked at her with soft tear filled eyes and felt like he was going to float away. He wanted to scream. He cared about her so much it drove him crazy.

“Okay, since it’s open can we kiss a little now?”

-

Hunter became busier than ever. He had gotten a good scholarship, but he still insisted on getting a job to help pay the additional expenses. He still had his car payment and other miscellaneous things and even though his collection of guardians insisted on helping him any way they could, he wanted to make sure he did his fair share.

He tried to stay in the band, but it proved too difficult with his new schedule. The school was fairly close, but if rehearsal ran late or they wanted to do anything after he'd be driving late or leaving early and both options took a toll on his sleep. Everyone knew how slippery that slop was.

He would come on the weekends, but soon labs and study sessions forced his visits to become less frequent.

He called less than he wanted to. Often, when he'd be free Willow would have something with the gardening club or roller derby and when she was free he'd be unavailable. Calling during rehearsal seemed the best solution, but it was really more of him listening to them play and the connection wasn't the best so it sounded more like a collection of static.

He was torn. He loved his classes, he loved what he was learning and he loved what it meant he would be able to do. Soon he could help animals and work with Camila and have a schedule where he could work his friends and girlfriend in easier. But he hadn't had these nice things long enough to know if they were meant to last for him. In the back of his mind, the fear of losing them was always lingering. 

---

"I think Willow is gonna break up with me," Hunter admitted, seemingly out of nowhere in the middle of a video chat with Gus.

"What? Dude, what are you talking about, why would you say that?" asked Gus, clutching the screen for dear life.

"I'm a terrible boyfriend!" said Hunter. "She deserves to be with someone who's... around!"

"You think she'd break up with you just because you're busy?" Gus scoffed. "Hunter, she's crazy about you. Don't you remember when you came home for Thanksgiving break? She brought that huge bouquet of flowers and tackled you before you were even fully out out the car. She kissed you for so long I'm surprised she didn't pass out from lack of oxygen."

"Heh, yeah," said Hunter, his face flushing at the memory. She had said then that the distance didn't bother her, but it made the time they did have together special. But a part of him was still convinced he should be doing more. Everyone in his classes had an opinion on long distance and how it was doomed to fail. And he truly loved Willow, and he truly dreaded the idea that her returning his feelings could hold her back in any way. “It's just that...I barely understand how I got her in the first place, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing."

"Hey, she's busy too," said Gus. "That paper she wrote about how music affects plants had been getting some major traction."

"Yeah, it was pretty amazing," agreed Hunter who had a copy of the paper lamented and another in a series of frames. "But without the band and getting to see her everyday... I'm worried that I... I'm not good at expressing myself. I want her to know she means the world to me but it's hard to do that in just a text."

"I'm pretty sure she knows," Gus assured. "She has a whole album on her phone just for photos of you."

"Well, she has alot of you too," Hunter pointed out, knowing that Gus always looked for a chance to photo bomb. 

“Well, yeah but that's because I'm highly photogenic and the camera loves me," he said, pretending to flip his nonexistent long hair. "Your photos are because the person behind the camera loves you. Because between you and me dude, there are waaaaay too many photos of you with that ugly haircut. Only someone crazy in love with you would wanna keep those."

---

Hello_Willow: hey! How was your day? 

Rulerzreachf4n sorry just s aw this! Have to have  my. phone off in class. Itwas long, wat about yours?

Hello_Willow: sorry I fell asleep after practice. The team misses you, maybe you can alternate the next weekend you’re in town?

Rulerzreachf4n: would love that. Probably won’t be till next month tho, my new class has a pretty strict professor. I can barely keep up.

Hello_Willow: let me know if you want a study buddy! I can quiz you :) 

Rulerzreachf4n: I’ll be in the library Tik like 2am. Call you around dinner?

Hello_Willow: sorry just saw this, the signal in the greenhouse is nonexistent 

Hello_Willow: miss you 💚💚💚💚💚💚

Rulerzreachf4n 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛

Hello_Willow: are you trying to out heart me?  💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

Rulerzreachf4n: 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛💛

-

Hello_Willow: Flapjack came to see me while I was beekeeping today. We took a pic for you

Hello_Willow: Miss u 💚💚💚

-

3 missed calls from Hello_Willow

-

4 missed calls from Rulerzreachf4n

-

Hello_Willow: Sorry I missed your call. Didn't realize I left it in my bag

Hello_ Willow: Miss you 

Hello_Willow: any update on this weekend?

Rulerzreachf4n: I just got my work schedule 

Rulerzreachf4n: at this rate my next day off will in 52 weeks 

Rulerzreachf4n: I understand if u need to find a replacement 

Rulerzreachf4n: miss u. so much.

———

“Are you sure you can’t do the battle of the bands?” Luz asked, managing to call him right as he left a lab.

“I can make it to watch, but it’s not fair if I’m not able to go to rehearsals," said Hunter as he rushed across campus to make it to his next class. 

“We can do a song you already know!”

“Gus showed me the new material you guys were working on and you deserve to show it off,” said Hunter. “I’m excited to see it.”

“You just wanna throw flowers at your girlfriend at the end of our set,” teased Luz.

“If she still wants to be my girlfriend,” sighed Hunter, slowing his pace.

“Where is this coming from? Are you guys fighting?”

“What? No, of course not,” said Hunter. “But I’m a terrible boyfriend. I had to study on our anniversary. Our first anniversary, Luz!"

“She understands that's not your fault," said Luz. "Every time she talks about you she says what a great boyfriend you are. I mean, you text her like everyday. I can always tell it’s you because her face gets all red and dreamy when she looks at her phone. And she does this little sigh. You write her like little poems.” 

"Has she... shown them to you?"

"Maaaaybe," said Luz mischievously. "But mostly because you sent her one in Spanish that she needed help translating."

"Oh cariño, la vida hace que el amor trabaje duro," gushed Camila from what sounded like not very far away.

"Luz, am I on speaker phone?"

"Maaaaybe."

---

His exam ran late. There was traffic. The weather was awful.

Everything seemed to be working against him as he drove furiously to make it on time. He knew they went on at 6, and he knew he had missed some of the other bands perform but he didn't care about them. He needed to be there for his friends. He hadn't been able to wish them luck and his phone was dead so he couldn't even let them know he was running late but he was determined to make it there against all odds.

He pushed his way through the crowd, having no time for politeness as he made his way to the front. He scanned the crowd for a familiar face and found Darius also looking for him. He waved frantically as he rushed to his side, the look on his face confirming he hadn't missed it.

"Well, look who was almost fashionably late," he said. "And that seems to be the only fashionable thing about you. What are you wearing?"

"My exam ran late so I didn't have time to change," said Hunter, seeing nothing wrong with his wolf shirt. "But Willow gave me this shirt so it's lucky. I thought it would bring them luck!"

"Dummy, don't you know it's bad luck to say good luck?" came Luz's voice, much to Hunter's confusion.

"Actually, I think that might only apply to theatre," said Amity. "Like plays and stuff."

"Wait, what are you guys doing in the audience?" asked Hunter, perplexed. "Did I miss your set?"

"Oh no bro, you're just in time," assured Gus. Practically the whole band was here. What was going on?

"Raine is a judge, so we technically can't compete because we use their garage to practice so it's a conflict of interest," explained Luz, somehow unbothered by this. "So the Bad Girl Coven can't perform."

"But you guys worked so hard for this!" said Hunter. remembering how they had missed the cutoff last year and were so excited for this one. How could they bee so calm about this? This was probably another call he had missed. "Why didn't you say anything before?"

"Because the Bad Girl Coven can't perform, but we can offer up one solo act," said Amity. "And she's about to go on."

Hunter turned and saw the curtains part and the crowd started to die down. Willow stepped slowly into the spotlight, her hair gently curled as though it had recently been carefully unbraided. 

She was wearing Hunter's jean jacket.

"This is a song that my boyfriend wrote for me," said Willow into the mic, easily finding Hunter in the crowd and giving him a sweet smile. “He’s kind of a dork and he’s been really stressed out lately, well his whole life actually, and I want him to know that I’d rather wait 52 weeks for his next day off than find a replacement.”

Is it the song from the greenhouse? he wondered. He had never finished it. What song was she talking about? As she began to play, the answer still wasn't entirely clear. And Hunter panicked for a moment thinking maybe Willow had been referring to a different boyfriend but soon he understood what she meant.

"Elevator buttons and morning air

Strangers' silence makes me wanna take the stairs

If you were here we'd laugh about their vacant stares

But right now my time is theirs."

He had sent her that text before on of his early shifts when he was still working for his uncle. He had just gotten his morning coffee and had accidentally asked for her usual order as well as his, having gotten into the habit of always thinking about her. That was from before they were even dating.

Seems like there's always someone who disapproves

They'll judge it like they know about me and you

And the verdict comes from those with nothing else to do

The jury's out, but my choice is you

He remembered he had sent that after a late night study session when he was telling his classmates about her and they said he was a fool to try doing long distance with his high school girlfriend and that he should be dating around. But of course, Hunter thought the notion was utterly ridiculous. 

So don't you worry your pretty, little mind

People throw rocks at things that shine

And life makes love look hard

That had been the text he had sent in Spanish, something Camila would always tell him when he got stressed or stuck.

The stakes are high, the water's rough

That, he would not admit at the time, was actually a quote from Cosmic Frontier

But this love is ours

It did not take Hunter long to realize that Willow had saved and complied nearly every text he had sent her into this song. Maybe he was better at expressing himself than he thought. He remembered the series of green hearts she often responded with and now, as silly as it might seem, he really understood the sentient they held.

You never know what people have up their sleeves

Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me

Lurking in the shadows with their lip gloss smiles

But I don't care 'cause right now you're mine

Every time Boscha tried getting in her head, every time she felt like she was kidding her self and felt lesser than, he assured her the way she assured him that the past was not something that could deter him. 

And it’s not theirs to speculate if it’s wrong and 

Your hands are tough but they are where mine belong in

I’ll fight their doubt and give you faith with this song for you 

He felt as though every other person in the room had vanished and it was just him and Willow as she sang directly to him. Her voice was gentle and reassuring and Hunter was under her spell. Though, to be fair, he had never really left it.

Cause I love the gap between your teeth 

And I love the riddles that you speak 

And any snide remakes from my fathers about your tattoos will be ignored 

Cause my heart is yours 

That part was all Willow. She laughed as she sung the chorus again and Hunter both wished this moment could last forever and that the song would end so he could tell her how amazing it was.

The moment it was over, Hunter rushed to the door to meet her backstage. Once again, politeness took a backseat to his mission. As he opened the door, he was delighted to find she had been rushing to meet him too. She tackled him in a fierce embrace and Hunter spun her around singing praises of how well she did and how much he had missed her, their matching joy overlapping as they couldn't decide when to breath. When they stopped spinning, he held her tighter than he ever had before, making up for lost time and pulled her into a kiss 

"You did amazing," he whispered, tears staining his eyes. "It was beautiful."

"Well, it was my music so of course it was," she whispered back with a playful laugh, wiping a fallen tear from his cheek. "Oh, I have something else for you." She took his hand and went to lead him out the back door.

"But wait, they'll be announcing the winner soon," he said, pulling back. "Don't you wanna know if you-."

"If I win, I gave Gus permission to accept in my name," shrugged Willow, continuing her way. "He's got a speech all ready. And if I don't, well I'd rather be with you anyway."

Well how could he argue with that?

"I know we haven't been able to see each other as much as we want to, which to be far is all the time," said Willow as they found a secluded hallway and she ran around the corner to fetch her bag. "But you mean alot to me and I wanna make sure you never forget that, so I made you something." She reached into her bag and pulled out what appeared to be a large oversized binder.

Hunter took it carefully and saw immediately it was a photo album, every page filled to the brim with photos and mementos.

Photos of them sitting in her room studying, photos of the band getting a late dinner after a performance, photos of him and Gus getting ready for their first Cosmic Frontier convention.  Photos of him lost in a song, photos of him and Luz yelling at game night about rules, photos of Amity taking Luz's side just to make him upset.

Pieces of sheet music, movie tickets, pressed flowers.

Photos of moments he thought were too small to dwell on, but they meant everything to him. And he knew she felt the same. He had been so paranoid he hadn't made enough grand gestures, hadn't given her enough defining moments. But these little things were the sum of it all. Every little thing they shared gained importance simply from the fact that it was theirs.

Photos of everyone dropping him off on his first day, surrounding him wearing the excessive amount of school merchandise Darius had bought them. They had taken fours cars to get everyone there just to see him off. There were countless photos of him and Darius, him and Camila, every combination of parent posing with him with pride and assurance. Luz insisted to hold the camera selfie style and Amity was caught mid sentence trying to dictate how they should pose. Gus had surprised Hunter with a noogie at the last minute while Willow stood beside him holding his hand and looking up at him with joy and pure love as his own eyes were closed from being overtaken in laughter.

"Willow I... I love it," he said, unable to remove his eyes from the priceless treasure. "This is... I just...it's perfect."

"Read the inscription," she prompted, utterly delighted. He laughed as he flipped to the front and there in her careful whimsical handwriting, surrounded by a border of lovingly doodled of hearts, flowers, birds, bees, and music notes she had written in bold glittery pen, each letter alternating between green and gold:

To Hunter (from band)