Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Categories:
Fandom:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Stats:
Published:
2023-09-23
Completed:
2023-10-10
Words:
2,353
Chapters:
2/2
Comments:
15
Kudos:
347
Bookmarks:
46
Hits:
3,362

gnaw

Summary:

“Sit up slowly, baby. Are you in pain anywhere?”

Willow’s arms dug into whatever fresh wounds were spread on Hunter’s body as she gently ushered him upward. He knew Camila’s stare was scanning all throughout his frame. Hunter held his eyes distantly at the ground with an arm covering his abdomen. Titan, did it hurt.

“No, I’m okay.”

Notes:

ik ive written so many things related to this scene but ARRGRGHH i just love thanks to them so much

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: you were scarred

Chapter Text

“Sit up slowly, baby. Are you in pain anywhere?”

 

Willow’s arms dug into whatever fresh wounds were spread on Hunter’s body as she gently ushered him upward. He knew Camila’s stare was scanning all throughout his frame. Hunter held his eyes distantly at the ground with an arm covering his abdomen. Titan , did it hurt. 

 

“No, I’m okay.”

 

Multiple sets of eyes narrowed at him. 

 

“Are— Are you sure?” Gus’s voice filled Hunter’s ears. “I mean, that was… that— that was…”

 

“A lot. It was a lot, Hunter.” 

 

Hunter peeked up and saw Luz crouching down in front of him, next to her mom. “You have to tell us if anything hurts.”

 

Hunter’s face grimaced at her words and he looked away.  

 

Camila settled a gentle hand on her daughter’s shoulder. “What she means is that we’re worried. You can tell us anything you’re feeling right now.”

 

Hunter shook his head, a dizzy spell casting his eyes causing his friends’ distraught, horrified gazes spinning around in front of him. Willow’s grip from behind tightened. “No, I’m— I’m okay.”

 

Suddenly, the fatigue pinning his brain, his body, got impossibly worse. The homemade ice bridge tipped and slid under Hunter’s fingertips, his friends whirling around like the clothes in the dryer machine on laundry days. 

 

“‘M fine—“ 

 

Then, Hunter jerked to the side, away and out of Willow’s comforting hold. Whatever his stomach was made from, was now doing anything to get what he barely ate that morning out . He mostly was hurling up murky, gross lake water. Seems to be the result of drowning yourself to save your friends. But in the middle of it, when Hunter was heaving and trying to just focus on the gentle rubs on his back, unsure of who was trying to console him, he could spot greenish black muck in his vomit. A goopy substance that he was all way too familiar with in any and all senses now. 

 

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Just deeeep breaths.”

 

Without warning, the touches of comfort were too much and he was crying out and shoving himself away. He almost tumbled himself back into the lake before a hand was gripping the collar of his shirt and pulling him back. He kept crying, squirming and yelping. All he could feel was pain . 

 

The material of his shirt scratched agonizingly against what felt like the raw, peeled skin of his back. Whose hand was once there flung off of him like a burn. He continued to moan, the hurt gnawing away at him. He was shuddering and wheezing on his knees, salt water down his cheeks as he cried. 

 

“ Hunter , Hunter. What’s wrong ? What hurts?”

 

“ Everything ,” he whimpered to Camila, looking up at her through the wet on his eyelashes. He felt everyone exchange looks, his answer not helpful, only terrorizing their worry further. 

 

“His— His back. I think, when I touched his back—“ That was Willow speaking uncharacteristically nervous. She was still behind him, keeping her distance. Something inside of Hunter howled that wanted nothing but to crash back into her arms and wail for her to make it go away. 

 

He didn’t. He just let Camila carefully scoot into his space and slowly lift the back of his shirt up. Her cold, wet hands were shaking as she curled her fingers around the end of his soaked shirt. 

 

Immediately when it was lifted up and he was exposed, gasps followed around the group. 

 

“ Hunter ,” he heard Luz breathe.

 

He could only mewl a sob from deep inside his chest, squeezing his eyes shut. 

 

“Are those old or new ?” Willow asked, her voice pitching higher.

 

“Wha— What?” He managed to say in between heaves for air. They stayed quiet. Hunter turned to face Camila and Willow, eyebrows stitched down. “What? What is it? What’d— What’d he do?”

 

“Um—“ Willow warbled, fresh tears mixing in with the ones from a few minutes ago. “Sc—Scars, Hunter. Your back…”

 

“And your face,” Luz added. He whipped back around to look at her. He let one hand wander up to his cheeks and the same agonizing throb that emitted from his back came from his face. He hissed in between his teeth. 

 

He felt Camila drop his shirt back down. “Okay, just— just take it easy, cariño…”  

 

“Um, everyone?” Vee shakily alerted from behind them. “I think the portal’s closing…”

 

Hunter peeked up and saw the portal that his uncle backed in to flashing and fading. Anxiety poked itself into his chest. 

 

Luz jerked her head around to her sister, eyes widening. “Oh, crap. We, uh—“ she swallowed and met everyone’s gazes individually. “We better head in.” She turned back to Hunter, placing her hands on his trembling arms. “Can you… Can you stand? We have to get through the portal.”

 

Hunter stared at her for a moment, still panting like there wasn’t enough air in the world . Then he started to nod. “Think so.”

 

He tried to move his feet so they were out and under him, but he wobbled like a newborn. He crashed back down, the sound of his knees banging and pants scraping against the floor making the party in front of him wince. 

 

“Come on, mijas ,” Camila said to Willow and Luz. “Do you think you can lift him?” 

 

The mother barely finished her sentence before the two were grabbing under Hunter’s arms. He whined at the movement on his fresh scars, squirming weakly in their grip. 

 

“I’m sorry. I know it hurts,” he heard Willow whisper, trying to reach him through the pain. 

 

He just groaned in response. 

 

They had him on his feet. He let his chin fall to his chest, his entity spent and tired. Still breathing hard, he saw Camila warble away in his cloudy, unfocused vision. Her voice intermixed out his ears like a messed up radio, filling in and out with static. 

 

“Er— here,”  he heard Vee say to her mom. It was like he was underwater again. The hands and arms keeping him up had to remind him he was not. “You’ll need this. Make sure your hit counts.”

 

“Aw, baby. You’re not coming?”

 

“I’m… not ready.”

 

Hunter’s eyes rolled lazily around, his eyelids half closed. His vision started to cop out, black coming in the edges like pixels. His weight must have started to drop, because the girls supporting him cried out. 

 

“Hunter!?”

 

“No, Hunter! Don’t fall asleep. Stay awake!”

 

“Hunter!”

 

“Stay—!”

 

“—asleep, Hunter!”

 

“—awake!!”

 

“…Time to go home, Flap…” he mumbled in slurs sliding on his tongue, falling out of their arms. The last thing Hunter thought was if Luz or Willow would catch him. If anyone would.

Chapter 2: and you were crying loud

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Anxiety and fear are two very different things. 

 

The knot in Hunter’s chest only tightened as he grew older. It balled up and struck any time he knew he messed up. Any time he made a mistake and then he was kneeling in the throne room with his forehead almost touching the floor. His single knee rubbing against the path of carpet that led straight down to the Emperor, who stood tall and looming. Hunter waiting, waiting for the censure to end. Whether that concluded in a loud bellow to “ get OUT ” or a punishment that led to fixing up wounds in his room, it didn’t matter. Hunter just wanted it to happen and be done with. 

 

But he never was scared . Hunter wasn’t scared of his uncle. 

 

(Now, that has definitely changed. Hunter was terrified of finding Belos hiding behind a corner of the Noceda’s home as he rounded it. The fear intruded his insides, gnashing up his guts and stirring his stomach acid.)

 

Fear, though, was definitely different. Hunter hadn’t felt such raw fear as he did when Belos shoved him into the ash in his mindscape since he was a little scout.

 

And the fear only continued to roar and suffocate his heart. (Galderstone? he wasn’t sure how his biology worked.) It crept up his throat, up to his eyes where tears were ready to drip down his cheeks in his frozen terror as Belos hung over him, his uncle’s face plastered on a monster. “Why are you hurting me, Hunter? I only wanted to help you! ”

 

Hunter’s mouth had went dry, then immediately filled back up with saliva, nausea threatening his dignity. He couldn’t even back away from the man he could not recognize anymore. His eyes went so wide he was afraid they’d pop out and roll into the curse’s (was that a lie too?) goop that splattered around the floor. 

 

Hunter swallowed back bile, holding Flapjack close to his pounding chest. His arm felt like fire was climbing up the limb. It reached the scar that lays on the muscles in his cheek. “You’re… You’re lying!”

 

Belos glared deep knives into Hunter’s palisman. He roared, deafening the blonde’s ears so much they felt like they were cracking and bleeding. Hunter held together a sob as Belos launched himself upward, spit and goo raining out of his mouth. 

 

And the pain from his arm. The draining spell, Hunter reminded himself. The sigil that Uncle gave him at the ripe age of eight years. He had once held his arm out for Belos to ragdoll him with so much pride. Hunter felt sick. Remembering how he stood so straight and tall to be branded the very thing Belos was going to kill him with; no matter how hard he tried to make him proud or done anything to be reminded that Hunter is special. All that came in return was a death sentence no matter what he did. Belos was going to kill him .

 

Hunter awoke slowly, not even really knowing he was asleep in the first place. The first thing he was aware of was the pain . Soaring hurt that shot inside his skin, something scraping and pulling from deep inside. His blood felt like it was kicking and screaming, and his bones only ached to just sleep.

 

He voiced his agony, yelping and crying out, the sound raking his throat. He arched his back, trying to get his skin away from the touch. More hands surrounded him and he felt like the room he didn’t even know he was in was getting smaller, hands dragging him through dirt and he’s choking, he couldn’t breathe.

 

Hushes met his cries back, more touches to his shoulders to relax him back down into what felt like a nest of blankets on a hardwood floor. 

 

“Shh, shh, baby. Just relax…”

 

Hunter finally peeked open his eyes, sobs hiccuping his chest. “Cam—Camila—“

 

His eyes darted around and saw the culprit to his pain: a damp rag in Luz’s hands dabbing what probably she meant to be gentle against his wounds. He whined loudly so she’d hear him. 

 

“Make— Make it stop. It hurts. Please ,” he begged. 

 

“Okay, hija . That’s enough.”

 

“But, Mamá, he’s burning .”

 

“Yes, but it’s hurting him more than helping right now. It’s alright. Just leave him be for now.”

 

The “for now” struck anxiety to his chest. Camila must have noticed because her hand was now settled on the blanket next to his arm. “It’s gonna be alright, mijo . I promise. We will make sure the worst is over now.”

 

The worst felt like right then , Hunter wanted to tell her. But the more he stared at her and, her words drained into his ears and into his head, he realized she was right with a gasp. 

 

He remembered now. The sludge entering through the tiny, bloody slit in his finger and into his veins and into his brain . His uncle, who was supposed to be raising him , taking control of him, his limbs, his head, using him like a puppet. His strings clutched on tight in the Emperor’s hands. 

 

And it wasn’t like the possession was quick and easy. All the times Hunter felt a painful pull in him and the mortifying nightmares from the past week all made sense now. Belos had been planning to invade inside Hunter the moment he was able to get his grimy hands on the boy. 

 

Hunter moaned again as he let his head fall back down into the blankets. He looked to the ceiling of what he now recognized to be the Owl House. The room was vacant of the others. He didn’t remember the in between of how he got here.

 

He felt someone crawling next to him, and he peeked open an eye to see Luz’s guilty expression. 

 

“I’m so sorry, ‘mano . I didn’t mean to hurt you or—“

 

“Hey, hey,” he said, the air slurring around in his mouth uncomfortably. “Iss okay. I’m okay.”

 

“But you’re not! If it wasn’t for me, I—“

 

“No, no. Luz. Is’ okay,” the blonde continued to slur. 

 

“Hunter, do you even remember what happened?”

 

He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

 

Luz sniffled but didn’t say anything else. He shifted to get comfortable, hissing a little when it upsets his tired body. 

 

“Are you ever gonna tell me what any of that stuff means?” Hunter asked. 

 

Luz was wiping her tears. “What?”

 

“The stuff. ‘Mano . Hijo .”

 

Luz glanced at someone beside him. Hunter realized Camila was still at his other side. She smiled sadly at him, gently placing a hand on his leg. When it didn’t hurt, he was grateful to know she wasn’t scared to touch him still. 

 

“Guess you’ll have to keep up on the scary owl app.”

 

“Noooo,” he weakly whined. 

 

Luz giggled, surprising Hunter a little. He gave a little grin before turning to the ceiling and staring at it. He was so. tired. 

 

“ Hermano .”

 

“Huh?”

 

Luz stared at him. “It’s short for hermano . ‘Mano. It means brother.”

 

“Brother?”

 

“Are you gonna protest?”

 

Hunter furrowed his brows before breaking into tears. Immediately, Luz and Camila crowded him into a hug on the floor. It itched at his scars but right then he could push through it to let them gather up his broken pieces. 

 

“I’m sorry,” Luz was saying. “I don’t have to say it if—“

 

“No. No,” Hunter cried. “I like it. I really like it.”

 

Luz sniffed. “Good.”

 

Notes:

not sure how i feel ab this one, just kinda threw all my drafts into one place ahskdbdkne

im thinking of doing another chapter of willows pov but im not sure yet

Notes:

this has been in my drafts for a bit !!

ive been thinking about rewriting a super old deltarune fic of mine… what do we think of that….