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It had only been a few days of living in the human realm, but the occupants of the Noceda house had already fallen into a sort of routine for their day to day activities.
First they would try to fix up the portal while Vee was at school, then when she was back they would all hang out together and do various ‘human’ activities the witches hadn’t experienced yet such as skateboarding, which as Gus heard they would be skateboarding, he started jumping about excitedly and laughing, which proved infectious and eventually spread to the rest of them fulling them all with new hope and high spirits. After wandering around (and avoiding Jacob whenever they would see him around town. The last time he has seen them, he’d chased them around town for an hour screaming about how he would save them from the ‘changeling’ among their ranks until they’d been able to lose him in the museum which he had so nicely been banned from ever stepping foot in again, fortunately).
As I was saying, after wandering around they would come back to the house, Hunter would insist on doing all of the some chores and they would either watch a movie, play some games or just talk, about the portal door, about the human realm, about their families, Hexside, what ever came to mind at the time. If they hadn’t talked about a topic during that time they would just converse about it over dinner, which was usually prepared by Vee and Camilla as even though the Hexsquad had fought lots of evil demons and even the Emperor himself, Camilla didn't really trust them to tackle the stovetop without parental supervision.
Sure they were all 14 (12 and 16 respectively in Gus and Hunters’ cases) but that didn't mean she couldn't fuss over them as if they were all small children right? Right.
After dinner they would usually head to bed (Vee, Amity, Luz and Willow in Luz’ room and the boys in the basement) and quietly talk amongst themselves until tiredness caught up to them.
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After helping clear away (he had helped enough right?) Hunter climbed down the stairs into the dark basement where he and Gus slept. He heard Gus chatting upstairs with Willow about some new human thing he had seen over the weekend and he made a mental note to ask him about it, Gus loved to talk about human things (he was president of the Human Appreciation Society for a reason) and Hunter figured it would help Gus take his mind off of his Dad and the Boiling Isles.
Hunter smoothed out his sleeping bag and went to fluff up the pillow, only to find Flapjack and Emmeline laying right on top of it.
He let a small smile break through at the sight of his best friend as he extended his finger to he, “Hey Flap, what’s up? Need anything?” Flapjack twittered a little as if it was a language, and Hunter listened to its words.
“Tired, it seemed to chirp, want to sleep with my boy, my boy nice, Blue One too ” Emmeline seemed to take offence from being referred to as the ‘Blue One’ and bapped Flapjack with her tongue, but then climbed up Hunters outstretched arm and snuggled in close to his neck. “ Sleep , she meeped, comfy now .” Hunter let the tension fall away from his shoulders and smiled, the palismen were nice to be around, and who was he to deny them some comforting snuggles?
He let Flapjack hop onto his finger and transferred him to his hair, then refluffed his pillow, grabbed the book he was currently reading (it was about foxes, a species like wolves, but they weren’t pack animals! How interesting human animals were!) and lay on his side while the (currently) two palismen got comfy on him and dozed off.
After reading about how foxes use the whiskers on their legs and face to help them navigate (which is really cool!! Wolves are cooler though..) he heard the door that led to the basement slightly creak open (he really needed to talk to Mrs Noceda about oiling the hinges of the doors in the house, it was getting to be quite a ruckus whenever he closed the door to the bathroom or if a window was left open and the drafts of wind pushed a door open. Anyways, he was getting off topic, he was learning about foxes and he was going to put his galderstone heart into it!). Hunter looked up to the stairs, expecting to see Gus clomping down them at the speed of sound, spewing some interesting fact he had learned about humans which he would then proceed to talk about for the next half and hour while they brushed their teeth and got ready for bed. What Hunter didn't expect was to see the small palismen that belong to Amity and Willow climb (and fly respectively) down the stairs and towards Hunters little sleeping mat/bag/thing (he’d heard Luz say it was a ‘sleeping bag’ but it didn't really look like it could hold any gear, and where were the straps to hold it up?)
Ghost padded up towards Hunter and swiftly squished herself into the small space between Hunters arms, against Hunters chest. She purred and got comfy as Clover buzzed over to his stomach and lay there, content with just being near him and the other palismen. Hunter gasped a little, but then smiled, the palismen were rather cute, and his eyes were beginning to droop.
Hunter decided to lay his book next to his sleeping mat which had been sufficient for the past few days, even with a couple of holes. Maybe he could use his sewing lessons Darius had insisted on giving him?
Oh right, Darius. The Boiling Isles, all of it suddenly came flooding back into his mind. The Collector, King, Belos. All of the bad memories seemed to have picked one of the times he was actually relaxing to come back and bite him. It had only been a few days since they had gone through the portal door to avoid dying to the Collector. Wait, dying? Oh Titan, the rest of the Boiling Isles could be in trouble and he was just laying here? He had to help somehow, fixing the portal door..it didn't matter if the streetlights outside were already lighting up the dark roads devoid of all cars, he had to help–
Hunters breathing started to quicken, if only a bit, and when the palismen surrounding him noticed how anxious he was getting, they all started saying reassurances of their own. Ghost nuzzled her head against his chin, Clover buzzed around his thumping heart, as if trying to keep it beating in time, Flapjack chirped comforting little words and Emmeline just bapped his chipped ear with her tongue.
“ Calm, Flapjack tweeted, My Boy calm, everything fine.” The rest of the palismen all agreed in their own ways and Hunters breathing gradually slowed down until he didn't sound like he was on the verge of passing out due to the lack of oxygen.
“Yeah, he whispered to himself, yeah, I’m calm.” He sighed, “thanks Flap, and you guys too.” He smiled at each of them in turn as he scritched Flapjack’s head, Flapjack leaned into the touch, chirping affectionately at his boy, his witchling.
“Now what do you say we get some sleep hmm? I know you’re all tired after trying to start up the portal again today.” The palismen all nodded and resumed their positions from before, all snuggling in towards Hunter, their buddy made from Palistrom wood, just like them.
Hunter lay down and as he began to doze off with the palismen all surrounding him, he distantly heard Luz walk down the stairs and let out an “¡Ay que lindo!” and the sound of Luz’ phones flash going off, but he was comfy, and the palismen were comfy, so he was perfectly content with just staying there and letting Luz take her photographs of him and the palismen, he was fine with it!
…Ehhh, he would just delete those photos in the morning anyways..