Chapter Text
With the whole ordeal over, the illusion over Hexside gone, and the scouts kicked out - sufficiently humiliated along the way - Amity turned to face the next problem. Namely, the blond, atrociously dressed boy who is currently, awkwardly hanging out with her friends.
She didn’t know what to make of him.
Apparently, he ran away from the coven.
She wasn’t going to question that, him fighting the scouts alongside them convinced her about that well enough - as well as Willow's entire team standing up for him. If Amity wanted to be honest, she had her reservations about him after Willow showed her and Luz the picture of her new Flyer Derby team, considering how their last meeting ended up. Now he seemingly had gone rough and did everything to not be taken back.
He looked rough - like rough-rough.
Worse when she had seen her at Eclipse Lake.
And wasn’t that just the problem? Amity extended a hand to him back then and she doesn’t have to mention how that ended.
It was tempting to hold a grudge against him, after all, they did fight and he did threaten Luz. But she really couldn’t. Amity was serious about what she said at back at the lake - she sees far too much of herself in him to go and take back everything. And Titan knows she too wasn’t keen to change her ways when Luz came barging in.
So where does this leave them?
Second chances - maybe?
How was she meant to approach him now? What was she supposed to say to him? ‘Hi there! Remember me? We fought once!’ Yeah, she had a feeling that that wouldn’t work out so well.
Willow and Gus seem to be getting along fine with him. There is a story there that Amity wasn’t privy to. All she knew was that they played Fly Derby together and he helped them out, but that was it. She hoped that Willow would share it with her one day - when their friendship recovered, but as it stood she wouldn’t be butting in.
She wasn't going to interrupt them either. She will just… casually stand to the side and… wait for her turn or something.
Why do things have to be so complicated?
Ghost rubbed up against her leg, purring gently to catch Amity’s attention.
‘Something wrong?’ she meowed.
Amity smiled down at her palisman, she opened her arms and Ghost jumped right into them.
‘Witch is troubled,’ Ghost purred. And as if to get her to talk, she rubbed her head under the girl’s chin with affection. Amity chuckled, she could feel her palisman purring. It was helping already.
“It’s nothing,” Amity said. “Just catching my breath. We did fight off the coven scouts.” To be honest, the gravity of everything didn’t start to set in until now. She diplomatically decided to quietly have a panic attack about that latter. But boy, did she start to feel the consequences of their actions - mainly the exhaustion. The fight took a lot out of her, as it did everybody else.
Amity glanced over to her friends again.
The Golden Gua- Hunter was standing around, awkwardly shifting from foot to foot in an I-don’t-know-what-to-do-here kind of way and not in an I-want-to-be-out-of-here kind of way. She would know. After Amity and Willow reconnected and she apologized, Amity didn’t quite know how to interact with her old friend. And today taught her that she was still lacking when it came to Willow.
Amity was content to let things be as they were. Really, she didn’t need to interact with what Luz called a ‘bad but sad’ boy former Golden Guard.
Ghost had another idea.
She looked between her witch and the group of other children. She then rolled her eyes at the inability of witches to just talk things out. It appears that the palisman has to take matters into her paws.
Ghost jumped from Amity’s arms, surprising the witch when she made her way over to the others.
The cardinal was the first to notice her and came over for a chat. He apologized for fighting her - water under the bridge, in her opinion. It was obvious that he and his witch had been through a lot since then, which Flapjack confirmed. Along with complaining over his witch’s inability to take care of himself.
Amity caught up to them fast. “Ghost, what are you doing?” she made a move to scoop her up but stopped when she saw who she was talking to.
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you?” Amity pointed an accusing finger at her.
Ghost stuck her tongue out adorably. She caught up so fast.
“Oh, hi Amity!”
Amity jumped slightly. Willow and Gus were facing her now, with the former waving at her. Meanwhile, Hunter shied back a step with his palisman immediately rushing to his side - that can’t be good.
“Hi,” Amity waved awkwardly, “Crazy day, huh?”
Willow looked at her for a minute before gasping. “Oh, right! You mentioned meeting Hunter back when we showed you our group photo!”
“Yeah, about that…”
“You don’t have to worry about him, Amity!” Willow launched into her rant before even listening to her. “He isn’t with the Emperor anymore, you can trust him. He was looking out for Gus all along, and the scouts were going to take him back and-”
Hunter cringed. “Captain, it’s alright.”
“No, no,” Amity also interjected. “I know all that. I’m not suspecting him of anything.”
“You don’t?” both Hunter and Willow asked at the same time.
Amity expected Hunter to be surprised, but Willow - ouch. Well, one step at a time.
“No, I don’t.” The surprising part was that she believed it. She shook her head with a sigh. “Could I talk with you, Hunter? Alone?”
Willow and Gus glanced at each other, and in some form of silent communication, they both smiled and left them alone.
Now Hunter definitely looked the I-want-to-get-out-of-here kind of awkward. His palisman chirped at him, to which he took a deep breath and let it out. Calmer, he turned to Amity.
“Listen, I want you to know that I am sorry, for what happened at Eclipse Lake. I shouldn’t have said those things. I shouldn’t have threatened the human.”
Amity shrugged. “You were in a tight spot. I’m not mad anymore, and neither is Luz.”
“You told her?” his expression fell.
“You expected me not to?” Amity chuckled. “She is my girlfriend, you dingus. Of course, I tell her things!”
Hunter blushed and looked away. “Well, I uhm, I don’t know, I mean-”
“It’s fine, Hunter,” she stopped him before he could short-circuit. “I mean it. I’m not holding it against you.”
He looked at her, really looked at her and Amity had a feeling he didn’t know what to do with this information. “Oh… alright, thank you. It means a lot.”
“Do you know what else, Luz told me?”
“What?”
She gave him her best mischievous smile. “That you might be the Golden Guard, but under all that armour is a bad, but mostly sad boy. Nothing to be worried about.”
Hunter rolled his eyes. “Of course she said that.”
Amity laughed, she couldn't help herself.
Luz was right. He did seem like a normal teenager.
“So where have you been since, getting away from the coven?” Amity asked, more so wanting to keep the amicable air between them. But part of her really wanted to know, since it looked like he wasn’t doing that good.
“Well, here,” he blushed and lamely gestured towards the ground.
It took Amity a moment to understand. “Wait? You mean here-here? As in Hexside?”
Hunter nodded.
“Yeesh.”
“You don’t have to rub it in.”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” she put her hands in mock surrender. “But do you need somewhere to stay? I’m sure if you talked it out, the Owl Lady would allow you to stay with her. I’m sure Luz would be thrilled. Or maybe you could come with me? The manor is big enough to hide you, nobody would notice, and the staff are abominations, they wouldn’t care.”
Hunter shook his head. “I can’t go to the Owl House. It is closely monitored, if they find me there they could decide to attack. They could even send a Coven Head after us.”
“Ha, we have defeated a Coven Head already,” she crossed her arms smugly. “We can do it again.”
“Graye is one thing," he said. "I wouldn't want to try my luck with the others. People like Terra Snapdragon, or even Vitimir, would be more than happy to go in with the intent to kill and ask questions later. And we weren’t truly winning until Gus managed to pull one over Adrian.”
Putting it like that shook Amity’s confidence. Now that she thought about it, it was best to lay low for the time being.
“Also, I can’t go to your place either,” Hunter continued. “Your parents work with the Emperor’s Coven directly. One wrong move and Odalia is calling the scouts. Uhm, no offense.”
“None taken,” she shrugged. “She is my mom. I know how she can get.”
“Don’t mention it, she is a handful.”
“What? I thought you would have an easier time with her. She is afraid of you, you know?” she said. “Well, of the Golden Guard, she doesn’t know you are a kid and all.”
Hunter gave her a skeptical look, it was his turn to cross his arms. “Afraid? Or kissing up?”
“Maybe both?”
It was strange how once they got talking, her nerves calmed down. Hunter was just a kid like them, - in some really screwed up circumstances, but at the moment there wasn’t anything they could do about it. And she could see what Luz was on about. He was a bad but sad boy. It only goes to show how amazing her super awesome girlfriend is.
“Don’t worry about me,” Hunter finally said. “Gus offered that I can stay with him and his dad. So did the Captain. I will manage, at least until we figure out what to do.”
She knew that tone. It was the tone she would use to try and placate her pushy mother, or the occasional disappointed teacher.
“Alright, but will you take them up on their offer?”
Hunter looked away.
Amity had to admit that she was right, they were similar.
“You remember what I told you at Eclipse Lake?” she asked.
Hunter turned back to her, for a minute he bit his lip as if he was running through the possibilities of what she could be talking about - that too felt painfully familiar.
“That there are people out there who don’t make you feel worthless?” Hunter said uncertainly.
Amity gave him a small smile in turn. “Go with one of them,” she gestured to Willow and Gus’ direction, who were currently talking with other students, giving them some privacy.
“Right,” Hunter nods, more for himself than for anything else. “I will. Thank you.”
He turned to leave. His palisman was happily snuggling up against his neck, no doubt glad that his witch was taking steps to look after himself.
“And Hunter,” Amity called after him before he left. “We will figure this out, you are not alone.”
It was his turn to smile - small and shy, but it was there. “Thank you, truly.”
As he left Amity felt light.
Ghost jumped back into her arms. She purred up at her witch and her head against her chin.
“Thanks for giving me a push,” Amity ran a hand down on her palisman’s back. She was glad to have her in her life.
‘Proud of you,’ Ghost purred up at her.
Proud, yeah, that’s what that feeling was.