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“So,” Amity says to her one sunny day in September, “Hunter, huh?”
Willow freezes, holding a glue stick she was about to use on her scrapbook in midair as she flounders for words.
Amity does not stop braiding Willow’s hair. Apparently, this is not as much of a big deal to Amity as it is to Willow.
“What are you talking about?” Willow tries, but Amity is not one to take bullshit. She doesn’t even say anything, just ties off one of Willow’s braids and moves on to the next one while she waits. And, eventually-
“Is that a bad thing?”
She says it with only a little bit of a tremor in her voice, but Amity still knows her. “Of course not!” she rushes to assure her friend, “I wasn’t saying it’s bad! I was just wondering how that whole thing’s going.”
Willow sighs, but now that Amity knows, it’s a perfect opportunity to gush, and she takes it. “He’s so dumb,” she starts, and Amity gives a startled laugh.
“Wait, I didn’t mean it like that,” Willow insists, “He’s one of the smartest people I know! He’s just…dumb in some ways, you know?”
Amity murmurs her assent while Willow continues. “I think he’s caught on that I’m flirting with him at this point, I mean, I’ve made it really obvious-”
“You’re telling me?” Amity says, but Willow ignores her.
“-I’m not even being subtle at this point. He knows, I know, but I don’t think he really knows where to go from here. Not that I do either, of course, it’s just….ugh.”
“I don’t know,” Amity says thoughtfully, “I think you’re doing a really great job. I could barely talk to Luz before we started dating, let alone flirt with her. The fact that you’re loudly and obviously flirting is seriously impressive.”
“You think so?”
Amity ties off the second braid, and Willow turns around, questions in her eyes. Amity tries to fight off a smile. The fact that Willow actually values her opinion again is unbelievable to her. She can’t mess this up.
“Absolutely,” she says. “Keep doing what you’re doing. Honestly, you’re doing all the work, it’s high time Hunter did something back.”
“Maybe I just have to flirt harder?” Willow asks. “I don’t actually know if that’s possible, though. I could ask him out, but I want him to get there on his own. I don’t want him to be forced into something he’s not comfortable with.”
“That’s really sweet, Willow,” Amity says sincerely. “I know you’re gonna get him. It might just take a little time.”
“I can wait,” Willow says instantly. “I’d wait for him forever.”
Amity raises an eyebrow.
“Okay, not forever,” Willow confesses. “I’m not that patient. But yeah, I’m okay with waiting for now. I think he’s worth it.”
~
“I need your help.”
Luz appraises Hunter over the Demon Slayer comic she’s reading.
“I’ve been waiting for this day,” she says seriously, shutting her book.
“Luz, you have no idea what I’m gonna say.”
“You want my help with Willow, don’t you?”
Hunter goes red right to the tips of his ears, and Luz grins mischievously. “Knew it,” she says.
Hunter doesn’t say anything. He simply turns around to leave the kitchen.
“Wait, wait,” Luz says, springing up to put a hand on his shoulder before he can get far, “I want to help you! Please please let me???”
Hunter turns around, tight lipped. “I don’t need you making fun of me for this,” he says.
“I won’t,” Luz says. “I want you to be happy. And Willow’s my best friend. I only want the best for her, and honestly I think that’s you.”
“Wh- you do???”
“Yep!” Luz says. “You may be super lame sometimes-” (“Thanks,” Hunter mutters) “-But I know how much you care about Willow, and I think you’d treat her well.”
“I- I would,” Hunter says earnestly. “I want to. I just…I don’t know how. ”
He sits forlornly down on a chair. “I’ve barely said three words to her since we got here. We hang out a lot, sure, but when she’s around I just…freeze up. And I think…I think she may be flirting with me? I’m not sure, but-”
Luz puts a hand up to stop him in his tracks.
“Willow is definitely flirting with you, and it’s about time you flirted back.”
“I can do that?” Hunter asks, like it never occurred to him.
“I think you are capable of it, yes.”
“Honestly,” Hunter says, “As soon as she leaves the room I come up with the best things to say! It’s like, I know exactly how to do things, as long as she’s not in front of me.”
“Hmmm,” Luz says. “I think I may have a solution. What if you wrote them down? And then practiced?”
“Practiced?”
“Yeah man, talk in the mirror or something til you get it down and you can say it no problem. Then, when you need it, it’ll just come to you.”
Hunter scratched his chin idly. “You really think that’ll work?”
“Are you doubting my romantic prowess?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry, which one of us has a girlfriend?” Luz asks, and Hunter sighs. “Fine,” he says. “I’ll try it.”
He gets up to leave the kitchen again, but turns around at the last second.
“Thanks, Luz,” he says, and Luz smiles brightly. “No problem, bro. You’ve got this.”
~
The first time he manages to use his new lines, he and Willow are alone in the basement. Normally, this would make him nervous, but she asked him to explain a plot point of Cosmic Frontier to her, and he can always talk about Cosmic Frontier. He’s waving his arms, getting really into it, when Willow interrupts and says “You know, you’re really cute when you’re passionate about something.”
Hunter stops. Freezes. Turns bright red.
This is the part where he’d usually stammer out something that sounds like “Wuh-uh?”, but he’s prepared this time.
He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, trying to pretend he’s alone in the bathroom, talking to his reflection.
“You know,” he starts in a shaky voice, “You’re really cute when you’re…um, doing anything.”
Oh no oh god oh man, he messed that up so bad. What a lame thing to say, Willow is going to think he’s such a loser.
He opens his eyes slowly, trying to gauge Willow’s reaction, and is surprised to find her mouth wide open, and a blush brightening up her cheeks.
“I- um- I-” Willow tries, but appears to have no other words. She points upstairs and says “Gonna…um….go up?”
And then she’s gone, out of the room faster than a bullet.
Hunter is glued to the couch. He could not move even if he wanted to, rooted there in absolute shock.
Did he really do that? Did he really make Captain Willow Park blush????
He’s still sitting there ten minutes later when Gus runs down the stairs. “Man,” he says, “what in the world did you do to Willow?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, she locked herself in Luz’s room with Amity and refuses to let me in. She looked like she’d seen a ghost before she closed the door, though.”
“I- I think I flirted with her,” Hunter says uncertainly.
Gus blinks at him, and then lowers himself onto the couch slowly.
“Finally,” he says, closing his eyes. “This nightmare will be over soon.”
“What nightmare?”
“Hunter,” Gus says,” Before Luz and Amity got together, I had to watch them acting like complete idiots around each other. But the worse it got, the closer they got to getting together. You’re finally on track, and soon I won’t have to pretend not to hear it when Willow talks about how good you look or whatever. I will finally know peace.”
“You- you think me and Willow are gonna be like Luz and Amity?”
Gus snorts. “Nobody can be like Luz and Amity. They have the corniest, most gushy relationship I’ve ever seen. But yeah, I think you and Willow will get together soon. Willow doesn’t like to lose.”
“What do you mean lose?”
“I mean, now that you started flirting with her, she’s definitely gonna take it as a challenge. She doesn’t wanna get caught off guard again, so she’s gonna try to flirt harder until you break.”
“Oh, Titan,” Hunter groans. “You mean she’s gonna be even harder to talk to? What do I do?”
“You have two options. Either bite the bullet and tell her how you feel-”
“Absolutely not.”
“-Or, I guess, flirt better until she asks you out. If you ask me, you should just ask her and end this whole thing, but I know you’re not gonna listen to that, so…”
“So it’s a challenge, then?” Hunter says, a gleam in his eye, completely ignoring Gus’s last statement. “It’s like Flyer Derby!”
“It’s nothing like Flyer Derby,” Gus says dryly, but Hunter is on a roll now. “Okay, I think I understand this now! Thanks Gus. I know what I have to do.”
Newly excited, Hunter runs up the stairs, leaving Gus muttering “this is so stupid,” to himself. But not before a fond smile crosses his face.
~
The air is charged with anticipation the next day as Hunter sits in the kitchen waiting for Willow to wake up. Vee, Gus, Luz, and Amity are sitting on the couch exchanging bets, a combination of snails and dollars changing hands surreptitiously.
Hunter is twitchy and anxious, pulling absentmindedly on his hair and muttering to himself.
“Good morning!” Willow’s sunny voice trills down the stairs, and Hunter sits up straighter, like he’s about to be reprimanded. He takes a deep breath, smooths out his hair, and sits back, trying to put on an air of nonchalance.
“Morning, Willow!” Luz says. “There’s breakfast in the kitchen if you want some!”
Willow’s footsteps get closer and closer until she’s walking through the kitchen doorway. “Oh!” she says, sounding surprised, “Hi, Hunter! I didn’t know you were awake!”
If she’s embarrassed about yesterday, she doesn’t show it. She looks completely at ease, the opposite of how Hunter feels right now.
She also looks really, really pretty.
Hunter tries not to stare as he answers her. “Yeah,” he says casually, staring at a spot on the ceiling, “You know how it is. I like to work out in the mornings.”
“Hmm,” Willow responds. “We should work out together sometime.”
Hunter imagines it for a second: him and Willow, spotting each other. Him and Willow, sweating in the early morning sun. Willow could probably bench press him if she wanted to.
He needs to stop imagining.
“We should,” he says. He had more to say, but the thought of Willow picking him up is kind of distracting, so he stops there.
Willow smirks, like she knows she’s got him on the edge. “Hey. Bet I can lift more than you.”
Hunter raises his eyebrows. Interesting.
“Captain, I was in the Emperor’s Coven. I’ve been lifting weights since I was five years old.”
“So?” Willow says. “I’ve still got these.” She flexes her biceps, and Hunter gulps. “You- you sure do,” he says, flailing for something, anything clever to say. He ends up landing on “And I’ve got these.”
He copies Willow, flexing his arms, and he’s pleased to note that some of the color leaves Willow’s face.
“Well I guess we’ll just have to see then,” she says, once she’s recovered. “Meet me in the backyard in an hour. And bring a water bottle. You’re gonna need it.”
She practically skips out of the room.
Oh. It is on.
~
“Okay kids, we want a good clean match,” Gus says, a sweatband around his forehead and whistle hanging from his neck.
Willow and Hunter face each other in the middle of the backyard. Their friends are standing on the sidelines, cheering for them both.
Well, Luz and Amity are cheering for Willow. Vee is just there for the entertainment.
“Today, we are going to be bench pressing. You’ll take turns lifting, and whoever can hold the weights in the air for longest wins. Got it?”
Willow and Hunter both nod, not taking their narrowed eyes off each other.
“Now, shake,” Gus demands.
The two competitors meet in the middle and extend their hands to shake. Hunter isn’t surprised to discover that Willow’s handshake is firm and strong, but somehow soft at the same time. It fits her. He briefly imagines holding her hand for extended periods of time, but then shakes himself out of it. He needs to get in the zone.
Willow is up first. They start with one hundred pounds. “One, two, three…go!” Gus yells, and Willow lifts the weight easily. After a minute and a half, she hefts the weight into one hand.
“Stop showing off, Captain,” Hunter says. “I already think you’re impressive.”
Willow doesn’t respond, instead lifting the weight higher. After three minutes and forty seven seconds, she finally puts it down.
“That’s it?” Hunter teases, and Willow rolls her eyes. “I got bored,” she says simply.
Hunter laughs. “Okay, Captain, sure.” He lies down on the bench and prepares to lift. “Go!” Gus yells, and he picks the weight up almost absentmindedly. One hundred pounds is child's play, and both he and Willow know it.
“Three minutes, thirty seconds,” Gus announces a few minutes later, marking the time. Hunter makes no move to put the weight down, determined to outlast Willow.
He almost does it, too. Until suddenly, Willow is behind him, whispering in his ear. “I think guys with freckles are really attractive.”
Hunter is very confused, until he remembers the smattering of freckles covering his nose and cheeks. He turns bright red and coughs, dropping the weight straight onto himself.
“Oops,” Willow says, not sounding sorry at all. To her credit, though, she does make sure he’s okay, helping him throw the weight to the ground before asking Gus what Hunter’s time was.
“Three minutes, forty one seconds.”
Willow smirks, and has the audacity to wink in Hunter’s direction. He narrows his eyes. Two can play at that game.
“Gus,” he says, while Willow is concentrating on lifting two hundred pounds, “Did you know there was a girl in the Emperor’s Coven who had a crush on me?”
He’s full of shit. There was no girl. Nobody looked at him twice when he was in the Coven, and besides, he was the youngest one there. He’d never met anyone his age until Willow and Gus, but they don’t need to know that right now.
Gus rolls his eyes. “You don’t say,” he says, deadpan.
“Yup!” Hunter says loudly. “Really cute girl. Super into me. I wonder what she’s up to right now…”
Willow grunts and throws the weight to the side so that it almost lands on Hunter’s toes. She doesn’t actually hurt him, but the message is sent. Hunter smiles widely. “Everything okay, Captain?”
“Everything’s great, Hunter,” Willow says sweetly. “Your turn!”
He beats her by twenty two seconds.
Willow manages to hold the three hundred pound weight for a solid minute, and then it’s Hunter’s turn. He is determined not to lose. He knows he can do this, he just needs to not get distracted.
“Three…two…one.”
Hunter lifts. It’s a little bit of a struggle, but he’s bench pressed this much before, so he’s not too worried about beating Willow’s score.
Until.
Willow appears at his side with a shit eating grin on her face.
“You can’t distract me, Captain,” Hunter says. “Nothing is going to make me drop this weight before the minute is up.”
Willow doesn’t answer. Instead, she leans in until she’s way in his space, and then, light as a feather, she gives his scarred cheek a kiss.
Hunter’s brain short circuits. For all that Willow flirts with him, she’s never done anything remotely like this. He doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t know where to go.
He needs to get away immediately.
He gingerly lowers the weight until he can put it to the side, and then he sits up. Everyone in the backyard is looking at him, holding their collective breath.
“I lose,” he announces to the backyard as a whole, and then makes a beeline into the house.
~
Hunter sits on the couch with his face in his hands.
He doesn’t think he can do this anymore.
It’s been less than a day, but Willow is going to be the absolute death of him. He touches his cheek where Willow had kissed it, blushing fiercely. Nobody has ever done anything like that to him before. It was so gentle.
“I’m…I’m really sorry,” a voice says behind him, and he startles. Willow walks into view, tugging on her braids. “I didn’t mean to freak you out. I guess what I did was way out of line, and…I’m just really sorry.”
Hunter doesn’t understand why she’s apologizing.
He clears his throat. “I don’t mind that I lost, Captain,” he says hoarsely.
“It’s not just that.” Willow sits down next to him, and Hunter tries not to move away. Or move closer. It’s very confusing in his head right now.
“I think I made you uncomfortable. I’m sorry I…I’m sorry I kissed you.”
“I’m not,” Hunter says immediately, before his brain can catch up with his mouth.
Willow blushes a pretty pink. “What?”
“I- I mean….” Hunter flounders for the right words to say. “I didn’t…I didn’t mind it.”
Now he’s blushing, and shit this is new, they’ve never ever gotten this close to admitting what they’re really feeling, and Hunter feels a combination of thrilled and terrified.
He steals a glance at Willow, who has a look on her face he can’t recognize. Finally she says “Did you know that I think your scar makes you look rugged? She looks straight into his eyes when she adds “And handsome.”
She’s sitting so close to him that their legs are practically touching, and he takes the whole of her in. She’s beautiful, and smart, and tough, and amazing, and suddenly Hunter can’t remember why he would ever let up a chance to be with her go.
So he straightens up, turns to look at her, and smirks. “You think I’m handsome, Captain?” He asks, like a challenge.
“I do,” Willow says simply, turning towards him, too. “So what?”
He moves his leg so it’s touching hers, and she jumps a little. He grins. “I may be handsome,” he says, “But you’re downright beautiful.”
Willow gulps, but maintains her composure. She leans in a few inches, almost like it’s an accident, and stares into his eyes. “You,” she says, “Are smart, and talented, and you look really good in a Cosmic Frontier uniform.”
Hunter can’t handle this. He can’t handle the way she’s looking at him. But he needs to do this. He needs to. He leans a little closer, looking at her nose so he doesn’t have to look directly into her eyes.
“You’re the coolest, most badass, most talented witch I’ve ever met.”
“You’re amazing at everything you do.”
“Your hair is so soft, and sometimes it’s hard for me to stop myself from running my hands through it.”
Willow’s eyes widen. This is uncharted territory. He’s not just describing her. He’s describing them together. But he’s on a roll.
“You make my heart feel like it’s doing cartwheels in my chest,” he says. Willow closes her eyes and appears to wrestle with herself for a second.
“OKAY,” she says loudly. “Fine, you win Hunter, you win!!!!! Just- stop looking at me like that!”
Hunter grins. “Are you saying you lose, Captain?”
Willow grimaces, unable to say it out loud. But then she gets a gleam in her eye.
Before he even knows what’s happening, Willow is grabbing fistfuls of his shirt and pulling him towards her. She plants her lips squarely on his, and Hunter’s brain turns to complete mush. This is unexpected, he is melting down, he can’t handle this- so he does the only thing he can think of. He kisses her back.
After what seems like an eternity, she pulls away, breathing hard.
And then she smiles deviously.
“I win,” she says simply.
“You- uh?” Hunter says dumbly, and Willow giggles.
“You’re really cute when you can’t think of anything to say.”
Hunter’s brain is still reeling, because Willow Park just kissed him and his lips feel like they’re on fire. “Flirting is…hard,” is all he can think of to say, and Willow laughs again.
“I don’t know,” she says. “I think you’re pretty good at it.”
He blinks at her. “I really, really like you,” he says, because it’s true, oh man is it true, he is so in deep for Captain Willow Park and all he wants to do is kiss her again.
Willow puts her hand on his. “I really, really like you too,” she whispers.
“Really?”
“Hunter, you know that already.”
“Yeah but- it-it wasn’t real til you said it out loud.”
Willow smiles kindly. “I’ll say it as many times as you want, Hunter.”
It’s the way she says his name that throws him over the edge, the way she says ‘Hunter’ like it’s the most precious thing in the world.
“I’m going to kiss you again,” he announces.
And he does.