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The rain was cold.
Instead of boiling streams searing through his clothes and skin, cold liquid was engulfing him, washing away some of the blood and soothing some of the pain.
Hunter moved from where he had been pushed by King, sitting up carefully, automatically assessing his injuries and situation. Or rather, their injuries and situation.
After all, he was part of a team now. It wasn’t about him anymore. He had to look out for himself, and his friends.
Luz was standing at the edge of the door, face scratched and sporting a deeper cut through her eyebrow, her teary eyes vacant. Willow and Amity were on either side of Hunter, both still with shock. Gus started crying, pitiful little sobs wracking his body as he to the ground.
But they were all alive.
While everyone else was dead.
Hunter shook his head. No, no, now was not the time to think that way. He watched as Amity hesitantly stood up, wincing a bit as she put weight on her ankles, and made her way over to Luz, who continued dissociating at the door. She placed her hands firmly on Luz’s shoulders, gently tugging her into a tight hug.
Willow inhaled shakily, taking off her glasses and wiping them before standing up. “I…I’ll make sure no one is around,” she croaked and quickly began circling the area. That should’ve been Hunter’s duty, his instincts had been sharpened from years of-
Well. Doesn’t matter. He couldn’t have argued with Willow about it even if he wanted to. It was as if words were stuck inside of him, hidden away somewhere in his throat and chest. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was so frustrating. But he had to do something.
Gus was still quietly crying on the ground, trembling from adrenaline and the bone-chilling rain. He looked so…small. Nothing like the powerful illusionist who had warned Hunter not to mess with Willow’s flyer derby team and had cast an elaborate illusion over Hexside. He just looked like a scared little kid.
Hunter could remember feeling like that.
He shuffled closer to Gus, hesitantly placing a hand on his shoulder. This was completely out of Hunter’s wheelhouse, he had never been good at comforting others. He hadn’t even been brought up around people close to his age unless they were scouts-in-training. Even then, they were often in their late teens or early adulthood.
Hunter tried to find some sort of soothing thing to say, but his tongue felt like lead. Instead, he awkwardly rubbed Gus’ back, his ears burning. Willow would be so much better at this.
To Hunter’s surprise, Gus rose himself from the ground, meeting Hunter’s wary eyes with his own before tentatively leaning towards him. Hunter wrapped his arms around the small kid, squeezing him tightly and inhaling the smells of dust and dirt coiled in his thick hair.
“Luz, where do we go?” Willow asked, coming to kneel by Hunter and Gus, one steady hand on either of them.
Luz and Amity broke apart and Luz wiped at her eyes. Taking a deep breath and smoothing back her damp hair, she said, “We can go to my house. I-It’s just down the street. We’ll be safe there.”
Hunter helped Gus up, ignoring his exhausted muscles screaming at him. He kept one arm wrapped around him, guiding him as they followed Luz out of the clearing. Willow clutched her right arm and Hunter tucked that piece of information for later, once they were safe.
A couple of minutes later, the five of them stood at a dark brown door and the four witches watched as a tearful Luz embraced her equally tearful mother.
“Luz, I’ve been so worried,” her mom gasped. Her eyes quickly swept over the rest of them and Hunter felt himself instinctively tighten his grip on Gus, ignoring the shooting pain in his arm. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Amity straighten up even more.
“Come in, all of you, you must be freezing, come on,” the older woman said, quickly stepping back to give space for the shivering teenagers. She kept one hand on Luz’s shoulder, squeezing her tightly like she was afraid Luz would vanish beneath her fingertips.
Once inside the warm home with its comforting spicy smells from whatever was on the stove, spots began to dance in Hunter’s vision, and he inhaled sharply, blinking the exhaustion away as best he could. He heard Luz and her mother talking, but their voices sounded far away. Willow was suddenly in front of him, her tired eyes now wide in concern. Gus had moved to place one hand on Hunter’s chest and the other wrapped around his side, and he was saying something but Hunter couldn’t hear it-
Hunter jerked upright, gasping and grabbing his right arm, only to feel some sort of rough cloth wrapped around his sigil. Startled, he looked down to see a bandage on his arm and could feel several other various bandages on his body.
He rubbed his eyes and looked around, noting that he seemed to be in Luz’s bedroom, judging by the various books and colorful decor. Gus and Willow were curled beside him on his left and Luz and Amity were curled on his right, as well as…
Wait why is there a basilisk next to Amity and Luz?
Hunter jerked to a standing position, only for his legs to give out immediately and thud heavily against the floor. Panting, he tried to stand up again, only for a warm hand to wrap around his unbandaged wrist. He flinched and whipped his head around to find Luz watching him.
“You shouldn’t get up,” she whispered. She tugged at his wrist again and he yanked it away from her.
“T-There’s a basilisk right next to you I…can you not see that-”
Luz chuckled softly. “Oh that’s just Vee. She escaped from Belos the same day I came to the Boiling Isles. It’s a long story but my mom took her in. She’s the one who patched up the more minor injuries. Now,” she patted beside her, “You need to rest.”
Hunter reluctantly crawled back to where he was originally laying down, eyes still darting to look at the basili-Vee. He supposed she didn’t look harmless. She looked pretty young, actually. Her head was laying on Amity’s shoulder and there were first aid kits scattered around her.
“How’re you feeling?” Luz asked, gesturing at his arm.
“Weird,” Hunter whispered after a moment. “My arm, it just feels…weird. But it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Luz nodded, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment before snapping back open. Hunter impulsively ruffled her hair, earning an amused squeak from her. “You need to sleep, you’ve been through a lot,” he murmured.
Luz scoffed and rolled her eyes, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jacket. “Not gonna happen,” she muttered. “I’ve gotta think about what to do and how to-” she swallowed hard, blinking her eyes rapidly. Hunter looked away, pretending that her various posters were suddenly extremely interesting. “-how to get us back and save everyone without destroying my mom’s heart all over again.”
Hunter wasn’t sure what she meant by that exactly but he did know that she couldn’t just run herself into the ground like this. He’s done it far too many times in his life and knows how badly it can screw someone up. The seemingly permanent dark circles under his eyes were just one testament of that.
“You’ll be able to think easier if you get some sleep,” he tried.
“I can think just fine right now.”
“Sure, but wouldn’t it be more productive if you got a bit of rest and then had more room in your head for thinking?” The whole productive trick was one Steve had used on Hunter a couple of times back when the two of them were going through the various trials to become scouts.
Luz just rolled her eyes at him. “Look, I appreciate it and all but-”
“Amity will be mad at you.”
Luz’s mouth snapped shut at that and she glared at him with as much ferocity as possible, which wasn’t much, but Hunter still raised his hands in surrender.
After a few moments of silence, Gus began to stir in his sleep before sitting up abruptly, his breaths coming in rapid bursts. “Hey, hey, you’re okay,” Hunter stammered awkwardly, his hands flailing around not knowing what to do.
Gus blinked at him and the room, taking in his surroundings before wrapping an arm around his upper stomach, rubbing it lightly. “Sorry,” he whispered. “I just…sorry. Nightmare. Ugh.”
“Don’t be sorry,” Luz murmured. “We’ve all been there.”
Hunter nodded at Luz’s words but was more concerned with Gus’ arm rubbing his upper stomach. “Did your ribs get hurt?” Hunter asked in alarm, forgetting to keep his voice quiet and winced at the raspy voice coming out of him. Luckily, no one else woke up.
Gus shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He lifted up part of his shirt, displaying a smattering of bruises where his ribs were. “I landed on a few rocks when Kin-” he glanced over at Luz, “-er, when we fell into the human realm. I’m fine.”
“Did you have my mom check, just in case?” Luz asked.
Gus sighed, wincing slightly. “No, no, I know I’m fine, I-Hunter what’re you doing?”
Hunter paused from where he was about to place his hands on Gus’ stomach. “Just let me make sure nothing’s broken.”
Gus rolled his eyes and gestured for him to go ahead. Hunter gently felt along the bruises. Nothing felt out of place, no broken ribs detected. “Nothing feels broken,” he said, turning back to sit normally. “I mean you’d know your body better than anyone, but sometimes injuries are worse than they seem. I just uh, wanted to make sure that wasn’t the case.”
Gus and Luz snickered. “Softie,” Luz muttered. Hunter’s cheeks and ears burned and he shoved her lightly before pouting at his lap. He’d had his fair share of broken ribs before and they were no joke!
“You should go back to sleep,” Luz murmured to Gus, shifting her weight slightly into a different position as Amity curled closer into Luz’s side. Hunter decided not to point out the hypocrisy in her statement.
“Well then why are you two up?” Gus quipped, raising an eyebrow at the two older teens. Hunter and Luz shared a glance.
“We both woke up a few minutes before you did. I wanted to make sure Hunter’s arm was okay,” Luz said quickly.
“Oh crap, yeah, are you-”
“I’m okay,” Hunter said hurriedly, showing Gus his bandaged arm. “It doesn’t hurt as much anymore, it just feels weird. Kinda sore. But I’m okay.”
When Gus continued to stare at him worriedly, Hunter said quietly, “I promise. I wouldn’t mess with you.”
Gus huffed a soft laugh before yawning. “Yeah, okay, tough guy.” With his free hand, he reached to hold Willow’s.
“Can you see if her arm is okay?” Hunter asked. “She was holding it earlier.”
Gus carefully checked both of Willow’s arms and murmured, “She’s okay, her right arm is kinda bruised but it’s okay.” Hunter exhaled with relief, earning a look from Gus that he didn’t quite understand.
Gus placed his hand back into Willow’s and squeezed it, the sight making Hunter’s heart twist. He wrapped an arm around the two of them, providing better support for their necks. Gus leaned even more against Hunter, his eyes fluttering shut.
“Promise me you’ll get some sleep, Hunter,” Gus whispered. Hunter nodded. He doubted he was going to, his body was pretty adjusted to not sleeping much, but he figured a little white lie to settle Gus’ nerves a bit more would be okay.
“You too, Luz, you gotta sleep.”
Luz smiled sadly and said, “Okay, Gus. I’ll try.” Gus mumbled something else that Hunter didn’t catch and a moment later his breathing deepened and his head nodded a bit forward.
After a few minutes, Luz whispered, “...That’s kinda why I don’t wanna sleep.”
Hunter turned to her. “What?”
“Nightmares. I um, started getting them after E-Eda almost got petrified. They got a lot worse after well…” When Hunter continued staring at her, she said, “...after the night we were in Philip’s mind.”
Hunter bristled but nodded. “Yeah,” he whispered. “I did too.”
Luz’s bottom lip wobbled and she inhaled shakily before wiping her eyes. “I’m sorry, I-that was all my fault and-”
“No, Luz, it wasn’t. It wasn’t, okay?”
Luz nodded slowly. A moment later she began to weep bitterly, bringing her hands to her face and balling them into fists. Hunter placed his free hand on her knee, squeezing gently and leaving it there. He knew there wasn’t anything he could say to make it better. He was the only one who could understand the pain, fear, and anger from the horrors in Bel-Philip’s mind. There was nothing he could say to make that all seem okay somehow. Not to mention everything else that had happened, especially today’s events…
His body suddenly engulfed in an illusion. Luz being taken to Philip. The airship crashing. Darius unconscious and writhing in pain. Philip’s cursed form. Philip splattering against a wall-
Hunter closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, counting by four. When he opened his eyes again, Luz’s tears had stopped and she was staring forward, eyes heavy but still stubbornly open. But he understood. He moved the hand he had on her knee to be over his, letting it relax.
Luz adjusted so that one of her legs pressed against his and she leaned further back into the wall they were against. Several minutes passed before either of them spoke.
“Are you going to sleep?” Luz asked.
Hunter rubbed his thumb and index finger together, the movement familiar and grounding. “I don’t know. Probably not. I’m uh, kinda used to not sleeping much. It’d be difficult. But that’s okay because,” he glanced at her, “I can keep you company.”
Luz’s face broke into a soft, genuine smile and she rested her head on his shoulder. “Thank you.” Hunter tentatively let his own head rest on top of hers, her mess of soft hair mixing with his own mess of blonde hair. He squeezed Gus and Willow closer and checked to make sure Amity’s head was still comfortably on Luz’s shoulder and not lolled in a position that would pain her the coming day.
Dangerous situations, sleepless nights, feeling uncertain and scared, all of these things were familiar to Hunter. But for the first time, he was sharing this with other people, people who cared about him and had shown him empathy, compassion, and love.
And he would be damned if he ever let them slip away.