love will come

Hunter can't pinpoint the exact moment he started feeling loved.

It happened somewhere between walks around the shady neighborhood of Luz's childhood

and long talks at the kitchen table, where everyone listened about each other's days

and having seconds at dinner until the sharp edges of his joints softened out and he looked younger, his cheeks less hollow.

He isn't sure exactly when he starts believing his friends when they tell him.

But even as they are stranded, they find a way to love each other enough to keep going.

Titan, what has he done to deserve these people, this love that just fell right into his lap without him having to earn it?

when love comes, love will hold you

The Clawthorne family are huggers. It takes Hunter a little while to stop assuming that they are attacking him when they pull him close, but once he gets used to it, he sinks into the embraces that are offered more often in one day than in the first sixteen years of his life.

He would never tell anyone (it might hurt their feelings) but Eda gives his favorite hugs. She is never the first to pull away. He does when he can feel himself start to doze off, he pulls away and forces himself to stay awake.

When Raine officially becomes a part of the Clawthorne family, suddenly there is a tie for Hunter's favorite Clawthorne hugs. Raine's are nice too. They always smell like lavender- and sometimes like pine from the rosin dust that falls onto their shirt after playing for hours.

They can both tell when he needs it most.

love will call your name, and you will melt

When his uncle used his name- Hunter, not Golden Guard- it was a mixed bag. Sometimes it was good, and other times- well...

He preferred the distance of Golden Guard sometimes. He would get an order, and carry it out. Easy as pie. He knew how to act: as the Golden Guard should. Professionally. Respectful. Like the adults, like the Coven Heads.

He isn't the Golden Guard anymore. Now he's just Hunter, and that's what everyone calls him. He doesn't know how to act like Hunter at first.

It doesn't seem that anyone else knows either. So he came to the conclusion that acting like Hunter meant doing whatever he wanted.

When Darius called his name from the bottom of the steps after school, gesturing for him to hurry up, they had places to be- Hunter didn't stop himself from running right into his arms.

"Woah, what's this?"

"A hug. Is it bad? Should I stop?" Hunter asked, his face tucked in the taller man's shoulder.

"It's fine." Darius's arms hovered over Hunter's back hesitantly for a long moment before he settled into the embrace.

Raine says his name softly, and he doesn't snap to attention anymore, only turns his head with a flick of his ear to show that he's paying attention.

Blondie is a nickname he now responds to as if it is his name, with a silly grin on his face because someone gave him a nice nickname.

He also responds to Bro, another name of his given by Gus.

Willow called him sweetheart once and it was a good thing she was already holding him because he felt like melting right into the ground.

sometimes though, love will hurt you

Hunter used to think that his uncle loved him.

But loving a person and being loved were two different things.

Now that he has a new family he cares about, he knows better. He knows how it feels to have someone under his protection too. He would never hurt Flapjack.

He could. He knew he was stronger, bigger, and the bird trusted him. Maybe a little too much. At certain points, Flapjack could be considered at Hunter's mercy.

But he wasn't like Belos. He couldn't imagine purposefully giving his palisman another scar like the one over his eye that he had gained centuries ago.

Belos didn't hurt him in spite of loving him, he just hurt him.

It was Hunter's love for him that kept him there, being hurt over and over again.

but love will never mean to

He turned too quickly in the crowded kitchen, holding something in his hands as Eda instructed him where to put it and King ran past them, barely coming up to their knees and Hunter did not move out of the way fast enough. An elbow connected with his nose.

Darius pulled back and whirled around, eyes widening in what Hunter thought of as almost comical horror. Luz gasped. Hunter rubbed his watery eyes.

"Are you okay?" Raine and the other CATTs looked concerned.

"Titan, I didn't see you- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that," Darius fretted. "Let me see," he tried to gently move Hunter's hand away from his face, cupping his jaw in his hand so gently it nearly brings more tears to Hunter's eyes.

"I'm fine, I'm fine I was in your way I'm sorry, I'm too quiet," Hunter rambled, trying to wave off everyone's concerns. 'See, look, it isn't even bleeding."

"Let us see, move your hand kid," Eda insisted, making her way across the kitchen, trying not to knock over any of the mess on the counters.

"That might bruise," Luz murmured, sticking an ice glyph to a folded-up rag from one of Eda's terribly unorganized drawers, turning it into a cold compress. She insisted upon pressing it to his face.

"I'm so sorry," Darius repeated.

"It's okay, it's not bad. I've had a lot worse."

The older man rolled his eyes. "Well, I know that. That doesn't mean I'm not still sorry. Do you need anything else?"

"I'm fine."

In the next ten minutes, Hunter still finds himself on the couch with a bowl of ice cream instead of helping out with potions making and being useful. King sits in his lap to keep him company. He isn't sure why he's being babied. The dull ache fades quickly, there's no blood, no scar.

Darius checks behind him more often after that, for the boy who was taught to walk so quietly and take up so little space.

love will play no games

Willow was very straightforward when she confessed. No beating around the bush. No teary, drawn-out confessions like Hunter saw in the movies, it was like a normal conversation. Only sweaty palms and even less eye contact than there usually was.

She offered time to think it over, but his response was already at the tip of his tongue.

"I love you too."

And from that day on, it was official.

because love knows

life has been hard enough already

Hunter is sprawled across the couch, long, gangly teenager legs hooked over one armrest, a book lying open on his chest. Without his gloves, the scars littering his hands are visible. The others on his arms are covered by his oversized fuzzy sweater. Flapjack has made a nest out of his hair (he'll have to brush that before game night at Eda's). Darius can hardly bring himself to wake the kid up when he and his bird look so comfortable. Hunter's breath whistled quietly through his tooth gap, and there are no signs of any nightmares. He doesn't mumble or even twitch. It's probably (hopefully) that deep dreamless sleep that drags you way, way under.

The bags under Hunter's eyes aren't gone yet. Faded, yes, but he's still up for hours, terrified, way too often for them to be gone.

Yeah, he isn't going to wake them up yet. Darius finds a blanket to drape over Hunter instead.