Hunter slammed his room door behind him, pacing around as he processed the conversation. Find a replacement? He could be replaced? As the leader of The Emperor's Coven, sure but...He was more than that, right? Why couldn't Belos just tell him what these big plans the Titan had for him were anyway? Hunter sat on the edge of his bed, discarding his mask to the pillows before running his hands through his hair.

'Ok...ok...Maybe this is...this is a good thing?'

'How is this a good thing? He can replace you with Kikimora! Maybe he will replace you permanently with her?!'

'This...this just means I can go see Willow without a mission in the way. He told me to stay in the castle, but I know how to take care of myself…'

'She's the reason you are in this mess in the first place!" His brain froze for a few moments. 'No...no, how dare I think that! She doesn't know anything about this! How dare I even think about blaming her!" He reached up to put his palms over his forehead, silently screaming at himself. He was starting to get upset, he tried to keep himself from coughing but it was hard to fight as his body tried to force it. Something started to move in his cloak, before the bird fluttered and landed on his knee. Hunter gave himself a few moments before turning his attention to the palisman.

"What were you thinking?!" He reached over, taking the palisman in his grasp, but being careful not to hurt him. " You realize what would have happened if Belos saw you?" He frowned at the bird, who chirped again and went to nuzzle his beak against the glove, a form of apology. Hunter sighed, leaning back and setting the cardinal down on his lap. He had a lot to think about, but before he could even make a list he heard a chime go off...his scroll.

Hunter quickly stood up, moving to pick the scroll of his desk to look into his messages. Willow had texted him a few times! His heart started beating faster as he breathed in, and readied himself. No doubt she was angry, right? She knew he had the thought of blaming her and didn't want anything to do with him. Or decided she didn't like the kiss and never wanted to see him again. As he opened the messages he felt his shoulders relax in stupid relief.

'Heyy...I know we still have a lot to talk about, but…' a photo attached showed Luz, who had socks on her hands and looked VERY delirious, almost insane. 'The common mold has her… I just spent 15 minutes trying to calm her down because she asked Amity if she was single, and when Amity said she had a girlfriend, she broke down crying!'

Hunter snorted at the message, smiling to himself as he scrolled through more of the messages.

'So...maybe tomorrow or the next day we can meet up and talk?'

'Luz just tried to eat one of her socks… then tried to start a revolution against me for not letting her. She had rallied Hooty, King, and Gus to her cause...please send help.`

Another picture showed Luz with what appeared to be an Echo Mouse on her face, her hand was dug into an abomination holding a box of tissues. 'This is worse than babysitting any toddler!'

Hunter let himself laugh, smiling over the messages as he thought about what to reply. His mind went to the mission at the knee...if Willow was watching Luz, well...there would be no reason for him not to try and prove himself to his uncle, right? He started typing back, feeling Lil Rascal land on his shoulder, before the palisman started to chirp loudly in his ear as if in protest, but it was too little too late.

'Keep me updated on THAT whole ordeal. I actually forgot I had a mission today, so...Please let's talk tomorrow.'

With that, Hunter put his scroll into his desk, turned to kneel down, and pulled out the bag he kept under his bed. A scouts uniform laid inside, perfect for times like this.

"Soooo…" Gus started, he knew he agreed with Luz and Amity to leave the subject of The Golden Guard alone, but Willow seemed very distracted today. She was on her scroll a lot more than usual, and looked to have a light blush on her cheeks. Something was very much up. " How are you doing today, Willow?"

"Hmm? Oh, I am doing perfect, Gus!" Willow smiled at him before turning back to continue chopping up the human safe vegetables that she grew for Luz. "How are you?"

Ok, trying to figure out what was going on would be a lot more difficult than he thought. " Doing pretty good… Honestly, a bit bitter that all this human gold was just laying around! The Owl House is always full of goodies from the human realm!"

" And other things, hoot hoot!" Hooty spoke up from his 'sitting' position at one of the stools. Willow gave a small giggle as she set back to work on the soup, dumping the veggies into the pot to start letting them tenderize in the heat. She smiled to herself, her brain forcing her to think about making a stew for Hunter if he was sick...why is her brain doing this?

" Eda sure has a lot of these C.D. things. Under-ground Korean Hip-Hop? The Scuttles? Oh, look at this one!" Gus held up an album labeled 'King: Greatest Hits' with a big and amused smile, " I need to show this to King when he gets back!"

Willow giggled as she looked the cover over, a sigil of two tigers with a large winged beast stared back at her. " I am sure he would love that!" She turned back to the pot. 'Didn't Hunter talk about that human band once?' She thought to herself. One of the topics Hunter never stuttered over, and one he talked about with a lot more passion, was human music. That's why she knew him and Gus would really click once they met. Hunter had apparently been lucky enough to have a human music player, and figured out how to get it to work.

He talked for hours about how human music and Boiling Isles music differed, Willow occasionally asking a question to prompt him into sharing more. Hunter had told her of a few different human bards that he knew the names of, the band 'King' only being one of the many, he liked their music a lot. He had a desire to know more about the different human bards he listened to, and hoped in the future to one day travel to the human realm and experience music there for himself.

"Willow?" Gus called out in a stern, questioning tone, causing the witch to jerk and look over to him. "Are you ok? You look really pink."

"Yeah, did you stand over the steam for too long?" Hooty asked, his neck growing to look over Willow.

"Oh, yeah! Sorry, just a little lost in thought!" Willow waved her spoon around in a dismissive way, turning back to the pot to look over the contents before moving to pour in the stock. She felt Hooty staring her down, the house demon making a long humming noise as his eyes narrowed. 'There is no way he could possibly know, right?" She thought to herself.

" Who you thinking about, Willow?"

"THERE IS NO WAY HE CAN POSSIBLY KNOW, RIGHT?" Willow screamed in her head as she looked to Hooty through the corner of her eye. Was her face betraying her right now? Oh no, it was, wasn't it? She could FEEL the blood rushing to her cheeks! Clover buzzed, moving to Willow's opposite shoulder away from the owl-worm, offering no protection against his gaze.

"Whoooo you thinking about, Wiiiiilllllooowwww?" Hooty asked again, turning his head upside down as he stared at her.

"What? N-Noohooho! I am not thinking about anyone!" Willow's voice betrayed her, the tattle-tail squeak of her lying voice giving her away.

"J'accuse!" Gus pointed at Willow, standing up. He silently thanked Hooty for the opportunity to strike. " This is about the grove guy, isn't it!"

Willow's face flared red, she turned back to her cooking and wondered if diving her face into the soup would save her from this situation. She heard Hooty giving a gasp before a squeal of happiness.

" YOU CAN USE MY TUNNEL OF LOVE TO CONFESS TO THEM!" He screamed into her ear.

"W-WHAT? Confessing?! No no no! Nope! I-I mean not in the-" Willow stopped, did Hooty just say he had a tunnel of love?

" Not in the tunnel of love, but you STILL want to confess!" Gus had run over to her other side, smiling up to her in the way she'd imagine an annoying little brother would.

"Yes- Wait, NO NO! It's- URGH!" Willow threw her hands up in the air, " It's complicated!"

Suddenly she felt feathers wrapping around her as Hooty scooped her up and almost threw her into the stool he had been using, " Now now, Willow! Tell Uncle Hooty everything, hoot hoot!" The bird demon and the illusionist stared at her expectantly. Willow had never wanted more than in this moment for Luz to come save her.

_A.N._

Thank you guys for bearing with me. I honestly wrote and rewrote this story about 3 times before I was satisfied with the result. I been thinking lately about expanding in Hunter X Willow fics, too, and have been thinking about doing different AU ideas or scenarios that wouldn't fit into this current storyline. Tell me if that is something you guys will be interested in!

Thank you all again, too, for leaving so many kind and supportive comments. I know I don't tend to reply, but I cherish each and every one I read and always look forward to seeing more!

That is it for now! The next update will be soon! (I maaay or may not have a stock pile of chapters now)