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“You what?”
“Look, I know it sounds bad, but think about the positives!” Hunter barely managed to hide his guilt after seeing Willow’s expression. “If the healers know about a grimwalker’s anatomy, then they’ll- say another grimwalker gets made, for whatever reason-”
“It won’t happen, Hun. It’s still illegal.”
“But if it does happen, and they get sick or hurt, then the healers will have the knowledge on how to help them! Or, or they’ll just have some studies that’ll be useful.”
Willow stared at him. Maybe he should have worded that better.
“Willow-”
“No, I don’t- I can’t-”
“Willow, please. It… It was hard to find a healer who could help me back when I got an infection from my scars not being treated instantly after getting them from the-” Hunter paused. Not a good thing to bring up now. “And even then they had no idea how to help a grimwalker, let alone one made from the bones of a human.” Hunter takes her hands into his and rubbed his calloused thumbs over her knuckles. “I know that it means that I wouldn’t be in my grave for you to visit for a while if I…” He sighed. “But they’ll give me back. They always do.”
“But your body would have signs from where they’d cut you open… I don’t want to think about you being buried with even more scarring but from being experimented on.”
“I promise it’s not going to be bad, honeybee. I’m willing to let them look into me if it means it’ll help them know more about grimwalkers and, in turn, help any more that may come to be,” he leaned in to give her a kiss on her forehead. “Even if there won’t be more in the distant future, all previous records of them will be replaced with better, less outdated ones, just like how I’m proving that grimwalkers aren’t like changelings or that they don’t eat other witches." He looked down at their hands and gave hers a gentle squeeze. "I… I want this. I’ve wanted this after the incident with the healers. I wanted to make a change. I wanted to give them knowledge about grimwalkers so something like that doesn’t happen again.”
Willow swallows back the tears threatening to spill. It hurt Hunter seeing her upset, and a part of him was beginning to regret ever bringing this up to her. He ran a thumb over her cheek to wipe away a tear that had slipped out and trailed down her face.
“Hey…”
Willow breathed in and brought a hand up to the one cradling her cheek. “I- I know how eager you are about this, and I feel bad for how I'm reacting.”
He gave her hand another squeeze, encouraging her to keep talking.
“I guess I’m just scared that something would go wrong and there wouldn’t be a body to take back. What if they purposely dismember you, or do more things with you and not give you back?”
“Wills…”
She squeezes her eyes shut and chokes back a sob. “I’m sorry. I just don’t trust any strangers with you after all the awful things that were said and done to you because you were in the Emperor’s Coven. It wasn’t fair how they treated you and I don’t want anything bad to happen to you again.”
Hunter let out a shaky, watery sigh. He can’t blame her. The treatment he received after everything had blown over was relentless, more vocal than physical, but there was a time where he was ambushed and interrogated with threats of being harmed if he didn’t give them the answers they demanded.
The witches were extremely lucky they got out alive when the others learned where he was, but it left Willow so distressed that they had to drag her away to get her back to her senses before damage could be done to anyone and herself.
She’s rightfully upset, and he feels so Titandamned awful for bringing this up so soon at age thirty two, not even old enough to be thinking about letting the healing coven borrow his body for study.
He was being selfish.
He pulls her into his arms and curls himself over her, holding the back of her head to his chest with one hand and holding her firmly and gently against him with his other arm and letting her cry into him as he carefully ponders his next words.
“Listen, you are not selfish. I- you were right, I was eager about it. But I wasn’t thinking rationally about how you would feel. I let my excitement get ahead of me and that ended up hurting you, and that was the last thing I ever wanted to happen.” He pauses to sniffle. “Your feelings are valid. You’re right to be upset and to have distrust in strangers. You’re right to be angry at me for bringing this up so soon right as our life was getting somewhere.”
“I don’t want to be angry with you,” Willow sobbed. “You’ve had people be angry at you plenty.”
“You can be angry with me. I know you wouldn’t hurt me and I trust you fully, and I don’t want you to stop yourself from being mad at me for doing or saying stupid things. Titan knows I will continue to do those.” Hunter chuckled in an attempt to lighten the mood.
Willow turns her face to wipe her tears away with her palm. “I… I’m not angry, but you’re right about me being upset. I know you want to be helpful to them, but you don’t need to think about lending your body to the healing coven now. You’re still young! You should think about stuff like, tutoring a future palisman carver, or being a proud tío of Luz and Amity’s future kid.”
Hunter breathed out a laugh. “Yeah, you’re right. I think I need to start thinking about what I should make for baby clothes, because knowing them, mostly Luz, they may already be talking about being moms literally right after getting married.”
A giggle bubbled up from Willow. “And knowing you, you’d make them the cutest baby clothes that are all probably wolf themed.”
“Hey, wolf cubs are very cute, and I think they’d look cute in a fuzzy wolf onesie.”
Willow snorted. “Look at you already being a tío to a baby that doesn’t exist yet.”
“I’m practicing.”
They chuckled, then fell into a comfortable silence. Hunter played with Willow’s hair and felt her relax against him, nuzzling her face into his shoulder. He smiled, taking in the peaceful moment, then frowned.
“I really am sorry, Willow. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
“I know you weren’t. And I hope you know that I really am not angry with you.”
He presses a kiss into her hair. “I know.”
“And you said you haven’t gone to the healing coven yet?”
“Not yet, not until I was so sure that this was what I wanted.”
“And is it? Be honest, you don’t have to lie to make me feel better.”
“It is. I do want to be of some help to the healers by allowing them a chance to do a proper study on grimwalkers without them having to go off of whatever outdated sources are left. This will be the one chance I’ll get and I want to make it happen.”
Willow hummed. “Okay. It may take me a while to be alright with this, but I want you to do whatever makes you happy, and what makes you happy makes me happy.”
“Okay. I’m glad.” Hunter tightened his hug on Willow, smiling into her hair. “How about I make it up to you by making Camila’s homemade human toetato salad? I know how much you love it. We can go to the Human Realm and borrow the recipe and get the ingredients for it while we’re there.”
Willow smiled. “I think I’d like that.”