"Are you sure about this, Willow?" Hunter asked, squeezing the girl's hand as she led him to where they would meet up with Gus, Amity, and Luz. He was...very unsure to say the least. It felt strange that he was going to hang out with the 'Owl Crew' despite him being Willow's exclusive-ship, as the two decided to call their relationship. But, in the end, he was still on the opposite side of the battle-line. If he was caught with them, he would have to make sure they understood they had no idea he was The Golden Guard, and play along with a ruse of him spying on The Owl House after the cave incident. He just hoped Kikimora was too intimidated by what he said to think about sending people after them.
"Don't worry." Willow looked back at him, pausing their walk to better smile up at the boy and squeeze his hand back, " They will like you just fine. It will probably be a bit awkward at first, but you don't have to worry about anything. And if you get too uncomfortable I am by your side, ok?" Hunter flicked his ears as she moved to fix a fold on his vest. He decided to wear clothing that better fit his style, as rare as it was that he actually could. He had to admit, he felt rather nice in the darker gold vest and brown undershirt, but after Willow's blushing and wide-eyed reaction to seeing him, he felt a lot more handsome than he ever had before.
"Alrighty, I'll do my best." Hunter nodded, sighing as he tried to steel his nerves. Willow smiled up at him, flicking her ears. She moved to rest her hand on the side of his face, causing his face to burn and ears to flick and wiggle at her touch. She let out a light giggle, before Hunter reached up to take her hand with his own, " You are going to make an absolute fool of me, aren't you?"
"Rocky, I don't need to do anything. You already do that yourself." Willow gave him a teasing grin.
"Ow! Wow, coming for my heart and soul, aren't we, Flower-cake?" Hunter tried to pout at the witchling, but couldn't help but smile and lean down to place a kiss on her cheek, gaining another giggle in the process.
"We are almost there, come on." Willow took his hand in hers once more, turning to lead him down the path. Hunter couldn't help but stare at her as they walked, his sort-of-kinda girlfriend. Their talk after the lake incident really helped clear the air between them, and Hunter didn't even realize it needed to be cleaned. They ended up deciding that, yes, they do love each other and there was no use denying that, but they were taking their relationship too fast. Hunter had to grow as a person, and there was a lot of baggage he needed to clear before he was truly comfortable with committing to Willow the way he wanted to. Willow understood that, and encouraged it, and suggested that they become 'Exclusive', which was, from what she explained, they were committed to each other, but not officially dating. He liked that.
They soon breached into a clearing on the path, Hunter forced his eyes off Willow to look around at his new surroundings. The dirt gave way to the sand of the beach, the boiling waves of the ocean were calmer today than they had been. A few yards away he saw a large blanket was laid out, on it sitting Luz, Amity, and Gus. The three were chatting as Ghost and the chameleon palisman, Shimmer from what Hunter could remember, played in the sand next to the set up. As Luz noticed the two arrivals and went to stand up, Hunter felt Lil' Rascal, who had been chilling on his shoulder quietly, fly over and land on the picnic basket, followed close by Clover.
"Willow! Hunter!" Luz waved the two over, prompting Willow to almost drag Hunter with her over to the group. Hunter felt his anxiety rising as he got closer, he couldn't make eye contact with any of them, but he could really feel Amity's eyes on him.
"Hey, guys!" Willow greeted them, stopping at the edge of the blanket. She smiled back at Hunter, who was trying to play a 'Aloof-but-cool card' but she knew he was nervous. She gave him a reassuring squeeze with her hands, before looking back to the group. " Luz, Amity, you two have already met him officially, so...Gus." She looked to Gus who was eyeing over the older teen carefully, almost with admiration, " This is Hunter." She gave Hunter a light tug, looking back at him.
"A-ahh…" Hunter looked up to Willow, then to Gus, giving a small wave with his free hand. " What's up?" Gus hummed as he stood, rubbing his chin. He started to circle around Hunter, who followed the younger boy with a confused look. Willow couldn't help but watch Gus as well, trying to give him a look to tell him to knock it off, but it was too late. The Gus had no breaks. Soon Gus fronted Hunter, leaning in with narrowed eyes to look over the older teens face. Hunter looked between Willow and Gus, trying to get direction of what to do.
" Thoughts on humans, go!" Gus clapped his hands in front of him.
"What?" Hunter asked, looking over Gus as his eyes darted to Willow, HOPING she would help.
"Thoughts on humans! Give them thoughts, man!" Gus demanded.
"All humans? Or just the one?" Hunter looked over at Luz who was watching the interaction with a hand over her mouth trying not to laugh. Hunter narrowed his eyes at her before looking back to Gus.
"Ok, Gus, chill out, ok?" Willow moved to push Gus lightly back from Hunter, who relaxed and thanked the girl silently for saving him. " You will have plenty of time later to ask him what he thinks of humans and their weird 'car' things you keep talking about." Gus pouted before going back to sit, motioning to his eyes, then to Hunter… was that supposed to be a threat? Willow smiled back at Hunter, before pulling him to sit down with her. He felt his ears wiggle and his cheeks blush. So much for the 'Cool-and-aloof' card.
"So...How are you doing, Hunter?" Amity asked, slowly, as if questioning herself on if she should ask the question. Hunter looked up at her, she was trying to hide the look of concern she had. He couldn't blame her for the worry, last week at the lake was...something he was not proud of.
"I-I am fine...Thank you." Hunter said, feeling extremely out of place. He felt Willow give his hand another squeeze, and glancing at her he saw a small smile. These small actions were enough to help calm his nerves before he looked back to Amity, " You really...saved my butt back at the lake. I wish I could properly thank you for it, but I-"
"There is no need, Hunter." Amity cut him off, before smiling. " It's what friends do."
"U-uuh...right." Hunter rubbed his neck. He glanced at Luz, who was smiling, looking very proud at Amity, before he looked to the ground in front of him. 'Luz isn't mad about the key, then?' Hunter was a bit baffled, he was sure the human would have broken up with Amity at least after willingly handing the key over but, she seemed so proud of her? Hunter cleared his throat, desperate for the conversation to go somewhere else so the spot light wasn't on him. " S-so what were you guys talking about before we arrived?"
Gus smacked his hands together, staring at Luz before pointing at her. " You just can't appreciate my musical genius!" He accused the human. Hunter looked between the two with confusion, before looking to Willow, who was unphased with a light smile on her face, then to Amity who gave him a light shrug.
" I am telling you, Gus, as much as I really do appreciate that you were trying to set up a home-like atmosphere for me, mixing Opera and trains is a HORRIBLE idea!" Luz fired back. " It would have given me nightmares!"
" It was beautiful! Soothing to listen to! I know Hooty and Willow agree with me!" Gus motioned to Willow, who gave a small laugh.
" I kinda like how it sounded." She confirmed it to Luz, who looked a little mortified.
" Wouldn't human Opera music and train noises be too loud to enjoy the two aspects, though?" Hunter asked without thinking, causing Gus to freeze and look at him. Hunter looked between him and Luz, before shrugging slightly. " I mean, too much noise at once will just become noise, after all, you'd be unable to actually pick out lyrics or anything meaningful if the sounds you are using are just too loud. Besides...trains over Opera would really drown out the singer. " Hunter continued, realizing he had been staring at the picnic basket as he talked. He froze, looking up at Gus who looked amazed. He glanced over at Willow, looking for the answer of a question in the back of his head, and finding comfort in the small but proud smile she was wearing.
"...how do you know what trains are?" Gus shifted to sit fully facing Hunter now.
"U-uuhh…" Hunter leaned back, looking to Willow again before back to Gus. " I just… do? I uh-" Hunter cleared his throat, feeling Willow's hand squeeze again. " When I was...younger, I used to have a nanny who was very interested in the human realm." He shrugged, " After she passed away, I kept a few items she gave me, one of which was a book of pictures from the human realm. It has a train in it, and a song she showed me by a human bard had the sound of a distant train in the beginning of it." Gus' eyes were very large as he stared at Hunter, his mouth agape. He looked about ready to say something when Hunter felt Willow shifting beside him, probably trying to hint at the younger boy not to freak out. Gus clapped his hands together instead, inhaling deeply.
" Where was this guy when I needed to interview someone!" Gus asked no one in particular.
"Uuuhh…" Hunter looked back to Willow in confusion, who smiled and gave him a light shrug.
"Well, Hunter, do you know anything more about human music?" Luz asked, a big smile on her face as she encouraged the teen to talk. Hunter scratched at his cheek, looking over to Lil' Rascal who was now resting on his knee, looking up at him before chirping words of encouragement.
"I mean...a little." Hunter started. They talked for what must have been hours about human music, which led into movies, then video games, and other forms of human media, occasionally mentioning the Demon-realms media in the mix. The conversation was led for the most part by Gus, Luz, and surprisingly Hunter, with Amity and Willow speaking their thoughts on certain subjects and helping the conversations along. At some point Willow had opened the picnic basket and passed out the food that had been prepared inside, making sure to give Luz ones marked with a 'HUMAN ONLY' sign on them. It wasn't until Hunter was halfway done with his own sandwich he realized how relaxed he had been feeling.
He took another bite of his sandwich, slowly chewing it to act like he wasn't about to enter a train of thought as the others continued to chat. It was unusual for him to feel so relaxed around anyone except for Willow, but he had only been with this group for not even a handful of hours and he had already done a lot of info-dumping and might have overshared a few things...but, he didn't feel bad or awkward about it, he barely felt out of place anymore. The lot of them knew he was The Golden Guard, right hand man to Belos, leader of the Emperor's coven, but yet...they just accepted him so easily? Was it because they trusted Willow so much?
He stared down at his sandwich, thinking over how Belos would react if he was caught casually hanging out with 'The Enemies'...was him being here actually putting them in danger? Belos wouldn't care about such small pieces on the chess board, after all. The most Belos was interested in was Luz, but even then she had played her part. If Kikimora was going to try to use them as ammo against him, would his uncle actually side with her? When was Hunter supposed to pull out of getting too many attachments? Why wasn't he allowed to have friends like this?
"Hey," Willow whispered to Hunter, who flicked his ears and pulled himself out of his thoughts to look at her, then to the three others who appeared to be talking about human literature. Hunter smiled lightly to himself as he looked back to Willow, giving her a bigger grin. " How are you doing? You look like you zoned out."
" I did, I was just thinking." Hunter shrugged, looking back at his sandwich, " This is...really nice. I actually am surprised not to feel out of place…." he admitted, looking back at the girl who smiled at him.
" I told you, you had nothing to worry about." She teased, " I knew Gus and you would get a lot swimmingly. Thank you so much for doing this for me, I know it was hard for you to step so much out of your comfort zone." She whispered to him. Hunter felt his ears flicking as a light blush appeared on his face. He leaned over to press his head into the side of hers without thinking.
"You make it easy to take that step." he whispered, feeling Willow's ears flick against his cheek. But, their nice moment was interrupted by the loud-pitch squeal of a certain human. Hunter froze, before straightening his back to look at Luz, who had put her hand over her mouth.
"Oh, don't mind me!~" Luz waved at them. Hunter gave a scowl at the human, feeling his cheeks turning red as he forced himself to look away from the eyes on him to a nearby cliff. Willow shook her head slightly at Luz, but couldn't help but have an amused smirk on her face. Amity reached over to Luz, smiling but also shaking her head at her girlfriend.
" It looks like we should wrap up, guys." Willow said, looking to the shore where clouds had begun to form dark towers on the horizon. " It looks like the Boiling Rains will be arriving sooner than expected, we don't want to get caught in it." Hunter looked over, giving a nod before pushing himself to stand, offering his hands down for Willow to take and pulling her up as well.
" The weather sure has been blistering lately!" Luz punned, causing a few groans from the teens while Gus gave her a high-five. Amity rolled her eyes and gave a small laugh before looking at Willow and Hunter, their palisman flying over to land on their shoulders.
"You two go on ahead, we can clean up here." Amity offered.
"Are you sure?" Hunter asked, looking to the Blight.
"Yeah! You probably need to sneak into the castle anyway, right?" Luz joked at Hunter, making 'sneaking' motions with her hands. Hunter scoffed in amusement before looking to Willow, confirming if she wanted to leave earlier or not.
" Alrighty, I'll see you guys at school!" Willow smiled at the other three, before turning to take Hunter's arm in hers. Hunter flicked his ears, turning to start the walk with her but giving a wave over his shoulder back to the trio, who were saying their goodbyes before they started to clean up their picnic sight.
"So, first time hanging out with them. How do you think it went?" Willow asked once she and Hunter were out of sight of the trio.
" Really well, surprisingly well...I was expecting them to be more on edge with knowing who I am." Hunter rubbed his neck with his free hand, " They are...very nice." Willow smiled up at him, tightening her arms around his as she moved to snuggle into his side. He smiled down at her, feeling his heart bouncing in his chest at a rapid speed. " A-Ah, sorry about before, by the way." He started, " I wasn't really thinking about my actions around the group."
"What are you apologizing for?" Willow looked up at him, quirking her brow. " I think you handled everything perfectly."
"I-I mean when I w-whispered to you. I don't know if it was appropriate to-" Hunter was cut off by Willow placing her finger on his lips, causing his face to flush more before he cleared his throat.
" Don't worry so much, Hunter. If I wanted to stop you, I would have stopped you." Willow smiled, returning her hand to his arm.
"A-ahh...right!" Hunter cleared his throat, staring at the path ahead of them now. " D-do you mind if I walk you home, by the way?"
"I thought that is what you were already doing." Willow gave a small laugh, causing Hunter to smile to himself.
"I mean...walk you home, Willow." Hunter looked down at Willow, hoping she would catch on what he meant. She turned her head to look back up at him, confused before blinking in surprise.
"Are you sure? My Fathers will try to drag you inside for tea, and might keep you too long that the boiling rainstorm comes before you can return to the castle!"
'Oh I am counting on it, Flower-cake' Hunter thought to himself. He never had been gone from the castle for so long, except for missions, but for some reason he felt like avoiding going back as long as he could. The boiling rain could give him an excuse to play hooky, saying he was doing his rounds when it rolled in a lot sooner than expected and had to take cover as it passed. He wanted to feel bad for avoiding going home but...nothing in the castle felt right after he returned from Eclipse Lake.
'It never felt right to begin with.' The intrusive thought bellowed through his mind, causing Hunter to pause for just a moment before he looked back to the girl on his arm. " I am sure it will be fine, Willow." Hunter smiled down at her.
"If you are sure." Willow said, her smile returning. " Just be prepared to answer a lot of questions, but don't feel like you have to."
"Not to worry. I am honestly looking forward to meeting your parents." Hunter smiled, turning his attention back to the path before him as he steeled his nerves once more for what was to come.
_AN_
" On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your night working at big chain super store?"
" Which number is it on the scale that I update my fanfic off date just so I can have some f*cking positivity in my life?"
...aka it was a rough night and damn it, I LOVE THIS STORY AND IT MAKE ME HAPPY!