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Willow groaned and shut the door to her greenhouse.
Practice was annoying today.
Sure, she loves it, and she loves flyer derby, but they practiced against another team today.
And there was one girl on the other team who just got on her nerves.
She was nice sure, but she kept flirting with Willow despite her constantly saying she's already in a relationship. It made her uncomfortable.
Now she just wanted to spend some time alone in her greenhouse and calm down, then she'd go and hang out with Hunter.
Clover reverted from her staff form back to just a bee buzzed around her head, and she petted her face. "Today was a long day huh girl? You wanna take a nap in the flowers?"
She buzzed excitedly and Willow grew some new flowers in Clover's designated napping flowerpot.
Willow walked among her plants and watered them, or in the case of some of her carnivorous plants, fed them some giant bugs that she keeps in the plant food section of the greenhouse.
The door slammed open, and Hunter walked in flapping his hands with Waffles behind him. "Willow quick, give me something to touch so I can get the feeling of sandpaper off my hands. Dell asked me to sand something today and I hate the texture of sandpaper so much!" he whined, petting the leaves of one of her sensitive plants.
"Hunter don't touch that, Terry's sensitive."
"Sorry." he stopped touching the plant and immediately started touching another.
"Don't touch that one either, it's poisonous."
He ripped his hand away but then went back to touching Terry's leaves.
Willow groaned and thrust her hands down. "Hunter don't touch him!"
Hunter took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, just give me something to touch." he was still flapping his hands near his head.
"You can't touch anything in here Hunter, we've been over this! Plants are sensitive!"
He faltered for a minute but fired back, "I need something to touch, the texture of sandpaper is stuck on my hands, and I need it gone!"
Willow groaned, "But why do you need to bug me for this? I'm already frustrated and overwhelmed from practice today; I do not have the energy for this right now!" She stamped her foot and heard a crack, a yelp, and Waffles chirped in alarm.
She looked up and Hunter was still standing near the door, but he was shaking and holding his arm.
There was blood running down it, soaking his sleeve.
"I- I'm sorry." he muttered.
"Hunter, no don't apologize I- I'm so sorry- I-"
Hunter ran out while she was vainly trying to explain herself.
"Hunter wait!" she started to run after him, but he'd already disappeared in a flash of light, "shit..."
When Darius opened the door after a long day of work, he did not expect to see Hunter.
Least of all a crying, bleeding Hunter
"Holy Titan, Hunter, what happened?"
Hunter opened his mouth, but no words came out, just a strangled sob.
"Come inside, I'll patch you up."
He nods and follows him inside, taking a seat on the couch while Darius got the first-aid kit.
"So, are you willing to tell me what happened?" Darius asked, sitting down next to him.
"I had a fight with Willow..." he murmured, taking his hand off his arm so Darius could clean it.
He stopped in the process of rolling Hunter's sleeve up. "Willow did this?!"
He flinched at his volume.
"Sorry, sorry, but Willow did this?" He lowered his voice and finished rolling his sleeve up to begin cleaning the wound.
The gash wasn't too deep, but deep enough to be slightly concerning.
It there were 2 more smaller ones near it, and it was bleeding a lot.
"How exactly did this happen Hunter?"
"I had to sand today, and I went to her greenhouse because usually she had something I can mess with to get rid of the texture, and I guess she just got back from practice and was frustrated because was being really snappy and I kept messing with a bunch of different plants and after 3 strikes I guess she just kinda snapped because her eyes did the glowy thing they do when she's mad, or frustrated, or overwhelmed, and one of her carnivorous plants bit me when she stomped her foot. And I know it wasn't on purpose, but I was just reminded of Belos by her tone and how she acted and I just... ran."
He explained everything ridiculously fast and almost indecipherable, until the last sentence.
Darius sighed and began wrapping gauze around his arm. "You can hang out here until you feel ready to go home."
Hunter laughed softly, "I'm almost 21, why am I still upset about stuff that happened when I was 16?"
"Because it was traumatic Hunter, you're allowed to be upset." he wrapped bandages around that gauze a few times, "there, all finished up. Would you like to stay for a bit?"
"Please?"
Darius ruffled his hair to help him calm down. Waffles sat down in his lap, and he scratched under his beak how he liked.
Someone knocked on the door and Darius sighed. "I'll get it, you stay here and hang out with Waffles."
He got up and left to answer the door.
Waffles chirped to get his attention, and he continued petting him. "I'm okay, just sad."
He chirped again.
"I know she didn't mean it, I just... I was reminded of him. You never met him, and I'm glad you never had to. He was terrible."
Darius glared at Willow from the other side of the hallway.
"Darius, I know I screwed up, and you're probably really mad at me, but will you let me apologize please? I know I can't justify any of this, and I don't expect him to forgive me, but I really want to apologize."
He sighed and clenched his jaw. "Fine." He led her to the living room where Hunter was still talking to Waffles.
"Hunter... can we talk?" She asked softly, Darius still standing in the hallway watching.
Hunter startled and looked up. "Huh? Uh... sure."
Willow sat down next to him, making sure to keep her distance, and looked at his arm guiltily. Clover landed a bit closer to him and he scratched her head.
"Hunter, I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to hurt you, I promise. I just had a really really bad day, there was this girl on the other team we practiced against today, and she kept being all weird and flirting with me, and I was just really frustrated when I got home and when you came in trying to mess with all my plants, I guess I snapped and lost control. I'm so so sorry Hunter. I really didn't mean to hurt you. I don't expect you to forgive me, and you don't have to come back home with me if you don't want to, I just needed to apologize. I can leave if you want me too."
He shook his head. "No, I want you here. I know you didn't mean to; I'm not upset with you. I just... I got scared... I was reminded of him for a second and I just ran without thinking..."
Willow looked like she'd just been stabbed. "Hunter I... I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to make you think that."
"I know... but I think I'm gonna stay with Darius for a few days... I don't feel ready to go home yet."
Willow clenched her jaw and nodded. "Of course, I understand, is it okay if I stay here with you for a bit?"
Hunter looked at Darius, still watching from the hallway.
He nodded, "As long as you're comfortable with having her here. I'll be in my room." He walked away and they heard a door shut.
"I'm really sorry, I love you so much, I would never do this on purpose."
"I know, I just want to stay here for a few days, I need some time... just to get him out of my head, I don't like that I saw him in you, I wanna wait until that feeling goes away to come back home."
Willow nods. "I understand."
Waffles chirped at her.
"I think Waffles is still mad at me."
"Yeahhhh, Darius is too."
"I can tell, I thought he was gonna punch me when I showed up."
"He wouldn't actually do that; he knows I'd be mad at him for it."
"YES, I WOULD!!" Darius yelled from his room.
"NO, YOU WOULDN'T DARIUS!" Hunter yelled back.
Willow giggled. "You're adorable."
Hunter blushed and covered his face with his hands. "No, I'm not shut up."
"Except you are."
"Am not."
"Are to."
"Am not."
"Are to."
"Am not"
"I think Waffles agrees with me."
The bird chirped in agreement.
"He doesn't count- OW WAFFLES!" Hunter tried to get Waffles away from his head where he started pecking.
The bird chirped in satisfaction and settled in his hair.
Willow grinned. "My point stands."
Hunter leaned against Willow's shoulder and pouted. She was finally taller than him after knowing each other for almost 5 years.
"I hate you both."
"You love us."
He sighed and Clover settled into his lap.
This is okay.
This is safe.
This is nice.
Willow sighed and kissed his cheek, then stood up. Her heart squeezed at the sad look on Hunter's face. "I take it you haven't eaten dinner."
"Not yet, I was gonna make dinner and eat with you after I home but then uh... well obvious reasons."
Willow ignored the pang of guilt that stung her heart again. "Okay, I'll go get something."
"You sit back down, I already ordered food, I'm going to go pick it up." Darius said from his bedroom doorway.
"Oh no I really don't mind." Willow insisted.
"Please tell me you didn't order takeout just because I showed up tonight..." Hunter hid his face in his hands again.
"I was going to do it anyway, and even if I did, it's too late to stop me. Now I'll be back in 20 minutes tops, you kids behave."
He walked across the room and with a swish of his cape the door shut, and he disappeared.
Willow groaned and sat back down. "He knows we're adults, right?"
"He doesn't care. I'm gonna be 40 and I'll still be 'Little Prince' to him."
"Well, you're certainly my prince."
"Shut up."
"Nah," she smirked.
Clover spread across both of their laps and let out content buzzing noises, sorta similar to how a cat purrs.
And Waffles let out quiet chirps in a similar pattern.
Hunter made a soft sound of happiness and Willow had to fight the urge to get her phone out of her pocket and take a picture of the 4 of them.
This is their amazing little family.
This is the man she wants to adopt kids with one day.
These are their palismen.
This is the family she made.
And she wouldn't trade it for anything.