Chapter Text
“Children, I need your help!”
Hunter and Luz hear a muffled cry from outside the walls of the owl house. They poke their head out the window to see Philip levitating a small pile of heavy boxes above the red grass. With the snap of his fingers, the boxes settle gently on the ground.
“On our way, Phil!” Luz calls back and the 2 hurry down to join him with Flapjack close behind them. Hunter lifts up a box, feeling the contents inside jumble around. He purposely gives it a good shake before Philip frantically stops him.
“Ah ah ah, no no no no- don’t do that.”
Hunter immediately freezes, then pulls himself together before setting the box back on the ground.
“What is all this stuff, Phil?” Luz asks, lifting the flaps of a larger box. Philip wipes his brow with his wrist and rests a hand on his hip. “I thought I’d visit the castle ruins for supplies,” with a hefty grunt, he squats down and rifles through a box close to Luz. He pulls his reading glasses out and sets them on the tip of his nose. “Some things that helped me reconstruct the portal. Some clothes…. Things like that.” he pulls out a set of trousers and hooks them over his forearm before looking down at the clothes he was currently wearing. A pair of grey slacks and a pale, pink shirt that had become worn out, despite Philip’s best efforts to maintain it. The color, which wasn’t very bright to begin with, had faded and stained from endless stress and adventures. Still, Philip had found an odd sense of comfort in the garment.
“My current attire has seen better days,”
“Ohhh,” Luz says with a sly smile. She cheekily taps the tips of her fingers together in a mockingly evil manner. “Do I get to pick out your clothes again?”
Philip rolls his eyes with a light smile. “Good heavens, no. That was a massive mistake on my end.”
“Definitely not the worst one, though.” Luz pokes, to which Philip shakes his head.
“Shall we come to an agreement that it was in the top 5?”
Luz nods with mock seriousness, like this is some sort of business exchange.
“Yes, I do believe that we can come to an agreement on that, Philly Cheesesteak.”
Hunter watches them banter from the sidelines. It churns something deep down. An unpleasant feeling, one of coldness and a bitter taste that coated the inside of his mouth with dry envy. He continues opening up the boxes. “Why are we even opening them out here?” He asks, a slight edge to his voice. One that doesn’t go unnoticed.
“Right, of course,” Philip snaps his fingers and all the boxes are quickly surrounded by a red smoke that levitates them from the ground. With the flick of his wrist, the boxes are redirected inside, through the door. Hunter folds his arms across his chest.
“Why did you even need our help?”
Philip hesitated, because he really doesn’t have much of an answer to that. “I thought you’d want to be involved.” He reluctantly says. Hunter raises an eyebrow, unconvinced by the answer. Philip clasps his hands together in front of him, tapping the pads of his thumbs together in an uncomfortable motion before he finally claps them together and heads inside. “Right then, I reckon we’ve wasted enough time, haven’t we?”
Luz bounds after him with Hunter lingering by the door.
Philip heads in to grab a small fold-out table. He takes it outside while Luz and Hunter move boxes inside. They found many things, some ingredients, equipment, and a few sets of expensive clothes, elongated and thin, yet regal and obviously expensive. Luz had a hard time imagining Philip in them. She was so used to seeing him in plaid pajama pants and a Cosmic Frontier t-shirt, not a rather, old fashioned, silk nightgown. He was so painfully awkward sometimes that she forgot he was once a ruthless emperor with innocent blood on his hands.
Then she notices something, built into the shoulders of a few of the shirts. A light, but noticeable padding, designed to square the shoulders. It was then that she noticed just how thick most of his clothes were, like it was his way of hiding his lanky body. A disguise to appear more powerful than he truly was. In a way, it amused Luz, but also saddened her in a way she couldn’t quite describe.
The more she studied the garments, the more her amusement dwindled as things finally begin to click. It suddenly made sense to her why most of his shirts had puffy sleeves and that nothing was ever form-fitting. Purposely a few sizes too big for the sake of hiding his graceless form.
Luz decides to put them back for now, folding the flaps of the box over them and shoving them to the side for Philip to deal with later.
Philip pulls some old blueprints from a crate beside him and spreads it over his makeshift workbench, one that wasn’t going to be as tidy as it currently was for much longer. His ears perk up at a faint slithering noise behind him, something lengthy moving through the grass. He turns his head and looks down to see Hooty, who freezes immediately after being caught. His simple facial features go blank for a moment before the owl tube shoots up into his face. HELLO!!!”
He raises his eyebrow, unimpressed before turning back to his work.. “Ah… good afternoon to you as well, Hooty.”
“You don’t have to be so regal all the time, sheesh.” Hooty cuts in, rolling his eyes.
Philip straightens out his papers on the workbench with an impatient sigh. “Yes, well, I’m afraid I’m quite busy and, you’re right. My extensive vocabulary can be rather time wasting to a certain degree,” he says flatly, barely paying attention anymore. “But I’m not open for criticism right now. I have far too much on my agenda for the next couple of years.”
Hooty pouts, putting extra effort in to look as pitiful and annoyed as possible. “You know who you remind me of? Lulu! She used to work for you!!!”
“Did she now?”
“Yup, she uses unnecessarily huge words, too!”
“What word did I use that was too challenging for you, Hooty?” Philip asks, craning his neck around to him again. His words have no real bite to them. Hooty huffs. “Why don’t you just talk, I dunno, normal?”
“”Normally”.” Philip corrects.
Hooty’s pout only grows. He extends himself over Philip’s shoulder and looks over his work, making Philip give a long, heavy sigh, seeing that he wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon. “I’m sorry, can I help you?”
“That’s some blueprint you’ve got! What’s with the massive, obnoxious wings? And- WOAH!! Is that the portal door?!”
Philip flinches at his volume, immediately taking a step further from the house demon, who then follows him.
“These are my old plans from a while ago. I’m going to modify them to create a smaller, much more, stable and permanent portal. The wings were a decorative embellishment,” then he mutters bitterly; “back when I had money.”
“WOW!” Hooty screeches, causing Philip to wince again. “That’s going to be some portal.”
Philip nods quickly, wishing desperately to hurry things up with this interaction. “Indeed it is.”
“Why are blueprints blue?” Hooty suddenly asks, causing Philip to physically stop for a minute. “…. What?”
“I tried making blueprints once,” Hooty continued, his voice grating on Philip’s ears like a rusty, metal spoon to a smooth plate. “Yup, I tried making my own owl house blueprints! I put in a bouncy castle. I don’t have legs, so I couldn’t use it, but I still like the idea. But, well, you see, I drew them on GREEN paper. I chose it because I just liked the color. There was also lime green, but I liked the darker green better. Why is it called construction paper if it comes in so many colors? Isn’t blue the color of construction?”
Philip’s fingernails dig into the plywood beneath him. Why did he have to bring his work outside?
“It was difficult to create copies of things back in the day. Blueprints were invented in the early to mid 1800’s by concocting potassium ferrocyanide with ammonium iron citrate, which created a cyanotype,” Philip explains calmly, trying his best to ignore Hooty and his increasing confusion and continue on with his work. “When you take your illustration and place it onto a piece of paper soaked in the solution, then put it under UV light, the paper will turn blue over time and, wherever there was a marking from the pencil, it would leave white underneath. It’s really quite simple.” He hears snoring from behind him. Loud, almost mocking snoring. He whips his head back to glare at Hooty, who is now laying in the dirt asleep.
“Bloody Titan,” he mutters to himself, shaking his head and turning back around. “Would you like me to explain it to you like you’re 5?”
“No, I’ve lost interest.” Hooty admits, shooting up again. “But I do have another question-“
“Titan, Hooty. You’re going to put the old man into a coma.”
Philip turns to the female voice, never being so relieved to see Eda in all his life. She holds a cup of apple blood in her only remaining hand, nodding her head towards the front door to signal Hooty to leave.
Philip turns his attention to her with a grateful sigh before massaging the broken bridge of his nose, pressing his glasses out of place. “Thank you.”
“No problem, Wettabed,” Eda says. That damn nickname again. Philip was going to have to bend his head to prepare to be annoyed with a completely different member of the owl family for completely different reason. Eda glances past the tall man’s thin arm and at the blueprint.
“You’re working on the portal already?”
Philip nods, tapping his finger against the page and reaching up to adjust his glasses. “Yes. I don’t understand why you seem so surprised.”
“You killed off 3 sky gods like 4 hours ago, and you spent what time between then to collect supplies.” Eda explains. Philip nods again. “Yes, that is correct. If I don’t get started now, it won’t be done sooner.”
He says it so casually. Like he isn’t the slightest bit exhausted. It both slightly concerns Eda, but mostly impresses her, as well. She gives a small smile and crosses her arms across her chest. “You know…. You could always stay in the owl house if you want to,” she offers. “While you rebuilt the portal. And the isles.”
Philip’s eyes widen, making his glasses look comically small in comparison. He shakes his head quickly. “Oh…. No, I couldn’t do that,”
“Why not?” Eda asks. “I mean, all we have is the basement. It’s got lots of space and Luz told me you love basements.”
“That’s truly incredibly generous of you, Edalyn. It really is, but I’m afraid it’s just not….. practical.” Philip dismisses, making Eda frown.
“Where do you have to go?”
To that, Philip hesitates. He really…. Had nowhere else to go. The guilt of staying at the owl house outweighed his rational thinking. He simply shakes his head again. “I’ve been homeless before, I can do it again.”
To that, Eda barks out a laugh, catching Philip off guard a little. When Eda continues to laugh for a moment too long, Philip finally realizes that she’s less amused and more so mocking him. He narrows his eyes. “Please, don’t tell me you’ll grow that hideous beard again, like in Luz’s drawings.” Eda snorts.
Philip’s ears flush with embarrassment, something that only made Eda’s laughter grow.
“Oh, hush, will you?” Philip mutters, throwing his hands over his ears and turning away. He didn’t want to admit that he had liked his beard before it had become wild, untrainable mess. “And what does it matter? I’ll continue my work in the woods, cleanly shaven or not.”
Eda rolls her eyes with an amused smile. “Just take the basement, you dingus.”
Philip scowls to himself, running his tongue from one cheek to the other in a frustrated manner. “Fine, I’ll take it, if it makes you so happy.”
“Oh, thrilled.” Eda says with a roll of her eyes before she turns on her heels and heads back. Philip could hardly believe he was going to do this.
Luz and Hunter continue to pack up boxes until they hear the front door open before Eda walks in. She shuts the door behind her and leans against the doorframe, looking fondly down at the 2, then shifts his attention to Hunter. “You sure you’re going to be okay at the Porters, blondie?”
Hunter nods and Eda smiles. “That’s going to be fun,” she says before throwing her thumb towards the basement door. “Philip’s
Going to be staying in the basement, so prepare mentally for that, Luz.”
“What?!” Luz and Hunter both exclaim in unison. One with shock and the other with excitement.
Luz pumps her fist in the air, obviously enthusiastic about having an old man in the basement again. “Heck yeah! This is gonna be great.”
“Yeah, sure, kid,” Eda snorts with slight disbelief before looking over at Hunter. His face is twisted in a way Eda can’t quite put her finger on. “Is everything okay, blondie?”
Hunter looks up at her, suddenly becoming hyper aware of his expression and his emotions. He quickly brushes them back and rubs the back of his neck with slight embarrassment.
“Yeah… I’m fine,” he points back to the contents strewn around the floor and couch. “I’m going to get back to work now,” then he mumbles bitterly; “I guess all this stuff is going to the basement now.”
His words fail to go unnoticed by Luz and Eda. They exchange glances.
Later, Luz finds Hunter on the balcony. A good chunk of Willow’s garden had survived and was still producing fruit, herbs, and vegetables. Hunter leans over the wall, into the breeze. Flapjack sits beside him, the feathers of his tail draping over the edge. The little cardinal sits there quietly, occasionally glancing up at his best friend before standing up and pecking at his wrist to alert him of Luz’s presence. Hunter doesn’t turn. He just lets Luz approach him and station herself beside Flapjack. She greets him by gently pulling the red feathers of his crest upwards, defining the point and bringing her amusement.
“Hey, Hunter,” she says. Hunter grunts lightly, in acknowledgment. “You know…. We still have one extra bedroom, if you wanna crash with us as well,” Luz offers with a light smile. Hunter sighs and lowers his head towards his folded hands.
“No, thanks. I’m already crashing with Gus for the time being.”
“Then… what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
Luz’s eyes crease with disbelief. Why did he have to be so difficult? Why did he have to deny that everything was fine despite him obviously feeling otherwise. “Dude, are you serious? You’re obviously not okay.”
“Well, nobody made you come up and find me,” Hunter snaps, whipping his head towards him. Luz recoils a little at his tone, making Hunter’s expression fall just a little. He sighs and turns back. “Okay, sure. I’ve… been better,” he gestures awkwardly with his hands, as if the words are stuck in his throat. “Can we just… not talk about it?”
Luz frowns, then nudges him ever so slightly in the shoulder. “Come on. You’ll feel so much better.
“No I won’t,” He huffs. His fingers grip the wall tightly as he mulls it over. “I just wish uncle Belos- Philip… liked me the way he likes you.”
“What?”
Hunter’s ears drop instantly. He snaps his head towards her, eyes wide with immediate regret. “Nothing! Never mind.”
Luz stared at him for a moment as she absorbs in his confession, then she smiles. “What do you mean? Phil likes you tons.”
Hunter blows a strand of hair from out of his face and rests his head beside Flapjack on the edge of the wall. “….. does he? He’s always hanging out with you. You guys play off of each other so well, it drives me crazy.”
Luz listens to him, swallowing back a hard lump of guilt in her throat.
“I’ve known him my entire life. I learned to respect him or suffer the consequences, but you pick on him and all he does is roll his eyes without even telling you off! It’s not fair.”
“Hey,” Luz puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “He’s different now. I’m sure you could have a similar bond if you spent some more time with the new Philip instead of Belos.”
Hunter shakes her off and huffs, her words leaving a common irritation in his head. How easily she said it, like nothing in the past mattered anymore. “I just… wish there was a way to know if he actually liked me.”
Luz laughs through her nose and casually leans on the wall beside him, crossing one foot behind her with a dry smile. “Yeah, we could go inside his head again. That’ll do it.”
Hunter’s face suddenly lights up with intrigue. He raises an eyebrow ever so slightly and Luz sees it. Her eyes widen that he’s legitimately taking her jab into consideration as a plausible idea. “No…. No no no, Hunter. That was a joke.”
“Could we?”
“Are you out of your mind?!” Luz explains.
Hunter slowly raises himself up from the edge of the wall. Flapjack looks equally as freaked out, his brow eyes flooded with dread and darkened with concern. He chirps a couple times and Hunter ignores it.
He taps his finger along the wall. “We couldn’t tell anyone because they’d try to stop us….”
“HUNTER! Do you even hear yourself right now?” Luz begs. Hunter ignores her, too, and begins pacing the floor. Luz follows him. “How would we get out if we didn’t tell anyone? Do you even remember what we saw last time?! The golden guards, the memories- INNER BELOS!!”
Hunter smiles bitterly at her. “If he really is as reformed as he acts around you, then that won’t be a problem.”
Luz’s jaw tumbles open. She stares with perplexity at him. She almost can’t believe her ears. She finally exhales sharply, doing her absolute best to control her lightly trembling voice. She clasps her hands together and points at him. “Hunter. This is stupid. Do you honestly need to get reassurance that he genuinely likes you that badly?”
“Yes!” Hunter snaps. “and if you won’t go with me, I’ll do it alone.”
“What- no. Hunter. I’m going with you-“
Hunter immediately cuts her off and stares off into the setting sun and its casted reflections on the water below the cliffs.
“Then we have a lot to do before nightfall.”