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After a week of trying- and failing- to reactivate the portal to the demon realm, the kids had called it quits for the evening. In the once abandoned house Luz, Amity, Gus, and Vee were locked in an intense game of monopoly. He’d thought about playing, but after the incident with ‘Uno’ he had decided it was best to spectate. As he sat there, watching Gus and Amity duke it out over who owned the railroads he couldn’t help but be bothered that Willow was nowhere to be found. It wasn’t strange for members of the group to disappear for a short time. Living in a two bedroom house with seven people didn’t really leave any time for oneself after all. But then again, he knew that Willow didn’t like to pass up a challenge, even one that involved trading fake paper snails. Or 'dollars'- whatever it was called here. She was the most competitive person he knew, and he shuddered as he remembered the event that got board games banned from Camilla's living room.
It’s not a big deal , Hunter told himself, but he still stood up as casually as he could. If he raised his concern to the rest of the kids they were sure to all insist they go look for the girl, but if she was trying to get some privacy that was the last thing she’d want. I’ll just.. Go check on her myself. Make sure nothing… He shook the incoming paranoid thoughts off. Nothing in the human realm could hurt Willow. She was far too powerful for that. However, she could be sick, or injured for some other reason, or maybe he just wanted an excuse to look at her. Either way he'd made up his mind to go. “I’m gonna make myself.. Uhm… Ray-man?”
“Ramen.” Luz corrected, without looking up. “Can you bring some snacks back too?” Hunter bit back a snarky remark, something like Get them yourself. Instead he groaned, and set off from the house. He was barely two steps out the door when he heard a faint hum he recognized instantly. Willow- and she was obviously okay if she was humming. Still, he couldn’t contain the urge to peek around the side of the house where it had come from.
There she was, stretched out in a patch of long grass, staring at the sky. It was already getting dark, and the sky shone a brilliant orange, illuminating Willow in golden light. His heart jumped to his throat at the sight. She was like something out of a storybook- a princess. Then he realized he had been standing there gaping like an idiot. He ducked around the corner, flushing. Has she seen him staring?
“Hunter?” The answer was yes, yes she had. Reluctantly, he stepped out into plain view, hoping the orange shades from the sky would hide his blush.
“Yeah. Hi. Sorry. I didn’t mean to- I mean you just looked so nice- COMFORTABLE. I didn’t want to disturb you.”
As she sat up she patted the ground beside her. “C’mere.” He was by her side in an instant. The grass was soft beneath him, not firm and sharp like on the boiling isles. Willow noticed him fiddling with a blade and sighed. “It’s nice. Green and soft, but it’s just not- It’s not home.” She hovered her hand above a small patch, and he watched as the grass wiggled in response.
Hunter could understand, he supposed. He had no particular love for the red grass on the isles, but despite it all there were things he found himself missing about the titan. Sure, everything wanted you dead all the time and the rain was literally boiling, but as she’d said, it was home. The human realm was nice- much safer, but it was also missing something he’d never realized had been there until it was gone. The isles literally buzzed with magic- in the air, the water, the ground. His entire life he’d never known that the feeling was there, until they had stepped through the portal and it was gone. If he wasn’t so distracted by the world ending, perhaps it would have been more jarring.
The two sat in relative silence like that for a while, watching as the sky changed. The others could be mad at him for never bringing those snacks, he didn’t particularly care. Based on the faint shouts and laughter, they were just as distracted as he was. Hunter wasn’t completely sure what his feelings for Willow were, but he knew that when he was with her he felt good. That was all it needed to be, for now. Once again lost in thought, he nearly jumped out of his skin when Willow nudged him slightly. The sky was an inky black now, lit up with millions of tiny dots. On the isles he had learned to read the stars above the Titan for navigation. Now he stared up at a sky that was foreign. The characters in Cosmic Frontier said it was endless, and he wondered if it was the same back home.
Willow pointed into the sky. “That one’s the Big Dipper. I saw it in one of Luz’s school books. They call it that because it looks like a big spoon, but it’s also part of a bear, called Ursa Major.” Her arm raised higher. “That one is the little dipper. It’s a part of Ursa Minor, which is a little baby bear.” Hunter hummed in response as she pointed out a few more. A pegasus, a dragon, and a man carrying around a snake woman’s head. He couldn’t see how humans managed to get all of that from just a bunch of dots, but he was just happy to listen. “Anddddddddd… that’s all I remember.” She chuckled a little, and he was once again glad she couldn’t see just how bright red he is. Somewhere in the house, he hears Luz shout something about ‘Boardwalk’, followed by shouts of dismay and laughter.
“I wish I knew some of the constellations in the Boiling Isles. I know they exist, but I just never bothered to learn. I thought I had all the time in the world.” There’s a deep sadness in the way she says it, and he aches at the thought. There was something hopeless in the way she was speaking, something he couldn’t stand to hear from his Captain.
“We can learn.” It slips out of his mouth before he has time to question it. “When we get back, I mean. I can take you to the knee, where you can see everything. I don’t know the names, or any fun shapes, but we can learn.. together.”
She turns to him, and a sliver of the human realm's moon illuminates her smile. “I’d like that.” She says, and if he weren’t laying down he fears he might’ve fainted. Oh Titan, end me now. Every little thing Willow does, it gives him a fuzzy feeling he’d never known how to describe before. But as he sits here with her, he realizes the warm buzz inside him is more than familiar. It feels just like home.