Thank you for clicking on this fic! For now this is a one shot, but I might add more chapters later. This should, technically, be part three of a series of loosely-related stories of the time between the seasons, but I haven't finished the first two parts I had planned. They all stand alone as one-shots, but I was originally planning to upload them all together as a collection. I have a couple more chapters half-finished.

I've heard that the first episode of S3 has been leaked. I haven't watched it, I'll be waiting for the official release, so if you've seen it and notice anything out of canon, please at least wait until after the release to point it out.

Title is from "How to Rest" by The Crane Wives


Ch 1: How to Rest

(No, love don't know how to rest)

.

There was a ding from the other room and Luz scrambled up from where she'd been sitting on the floor beside Hunter.

"Wait right there!" she whispered, just loudly enough to be heard over the low rumble and thunk of the machine he was sitting in front of. "I'll be right back!" With that, she vanished into the doorway to the kitchen.

Hunter tightened his arms around his legs, hugging them closer to his chest, and rested his chin on his knees as he stared at the strange machine. Luz had called it "the drier." The pile of bedding she had stuffed in there had already been dry, though, so Hunter wasn't entirely sure what it was supposed to do. The pale metallic surface caught the dim lights leaking in from the other room, and the way they shimmied and danced as it shuddered from the engine spinning inside just added to the ominous feeling of the small dark room.

He cast a nervous glance at the open door to the kitchen. If he listened close, he could hear Luz moving around in there over the patter of the rain hitting the roof and walls. It was enough to reassure him that she hadn't abandoned him here and gone back to sleep in the room upstairs with the others.

He'd been having nightmares again. It wasn't anything new, he'd always had nightmares of varying degrees, he was used to it. And with everything that had happened recently, it came as no surprise that they had been worse than ever. What he wasn't used to, however, was sharing a room, and the nightmares were quickly proving to be a nuisance in a new way.

Gus had mentioned that Hunter spoke in his sleep the first night after the events at Hexside. Hunter had been too embarrassed to ask any questions, and Gus had seemed to sense the tension and moved on to another subject. It was easy enough to forget about. There were plenty of other things to worry about that day. Once in the human realm, it turned out he did more than just mumble nonsense. Sometimes he thrashed or even struck out.

He had no recollection of it, but he was told he had kicked Willow so hard she'd been thrown from the couch where they were all piled together the first morning. She only confessed what had happened when Vee had noticed a dark bruise on Willow's side that hadn't been there the night before while putting some salve on the scrapes on her back. The basilisk was growing increasingly panicked with the thought that Willow was bleeding internally and she had somehow missed it. Willow had finally reassured her that it was nothing more than a new bruise, she had just hit her side on the corner of the short table on the way down, and Amity confirmed she had woken up to the crash and helped Willow off the floor.

After that he'd been careful to sleep far enough away from the others to avoid any incidents, even if it made him feel strangely lonely.

It didn't fix the issue entirely, though. He'd been woken up a number of times by the others, their worried faces staring at him across the dark room as they explained he'd been crying, or screaming, or... begging. Every time, he felt his face grow hot with shame, and the burn of embarrassment in his chest grew into mortification as it happened again and again.

Luz must have finally had enough. This time when she woke him, she had done it quietly, holding a finger up to her mouth as he opened his eyes. None of the others were awake, and he held his mouth shut obediently as she tugged him up to his feet and led him out of the shared room. The burn of shame at having woken her up again turned to the icy chill of fear as he followed her out into the hallway. He tried to shove the rising dread aside. This was LUZ. Luz the human. Kind, patient, unwavering Luz. He wasn't being led aside to be punished where it wouldn't disturb the others. She wasn't going to try to hurt him. She wouldn't... right?

While his sleep-deprived mind worried over all the worst ways this could end, she'd taken him down the stairs and to the small room at the back of the house. It was a narrow space, with a hard floor and a doorway on each side, one that lead to the kitchen and one that let out into the living room, so it felt more like a misplaced hallway than an actual room. Here, Luz had gently pushed him down to sit, and panic swelled up again as he was suddenly sure she was punishing him after all. If she'd just wanted him out of the room, she would have offered him the couch in the living room, or at least just kicked him out to figure it out on his own, but they had passed the couch right by, and she was going to leave him here, specifically, to spend the night alone in this cold, dark corner.

A small, somewhat logical piece of his mind argued that he didn't really have to stay here. There was no magic in this realm for her glyphs to use, so they were on equal footing in terms of magic, and he could take her in a physical fight and escape. An even smaller voice pointed out that he was being ridiculous and Luz would never do that anyways. But his eyes were still burning with sleep, and the crushing grip of Belos's hand on his shoulder lingered from his nightmares just a few moments before. Logic was swept away and drowned in the currents of emotion.

Once he was settled, she turned around and opened a cabinet that contained spare blankets and towels. Camila had shown it to all the new additions to the house, in case they were ever needed. Luz pulled a pair of thick blankets into her arms and moved over to the pair of white machines across from where Hunter was sitting. He couldn't stop the flinch as the door to the second machine popped open with a metallic thunk, but Luz didn't seem to catch it, busy frowning at the small pile of clothes already inside the machine. A moment later she shrugged and shoved the blankets in on top of the existing pile and closed the door.

"It wasn't a full load," she explained in a whisper, though Hunter hadn't said anything, "it'll be fine."

After that, she fiddled with the knobs until the machine rumbled to life, and waved at him to stay where he was while she left to the kitchen. A light was turned on in there, the small lamp over the sink he'd guess, from the feint warm glow spilling through the doorway, and there was the sound of her opening and closing the fridge, and a metallic ting of cookware being jostled around. Several minutes later she came back, empty handed, and sat down next to him.

"It's a bit of a wait," she whispered, leaning back against the wall. "But I promise, it's worth it."

Hunter said nothing and that was the last anyone spoke until the timer dinged another few minutes later, and Luz had returned to the kitchen.

This time when she returned, it was with a mug in each hand and a bright smile. She set the mugs down on top of the machine that wasn't in use, and crouched down to yank open the door of the drier.

"My dad used to do this with me," she told him as she untangled one blankets from the rest of the laundry. "Back before he-... back when I was a kid. If I had a nightmare and couldn't sleep, this is what we'd do." With the blanket freed from the machine and gathered into her arms, she turned to face him and even in the half-light he could see the raw pain in her smile. Hunter didn't know what had happened to Luz's father, exactly, but he knew that the man was gone, and that Luz had obviously loved him very much.

Luz didn't give either of them much time to dwell on those thoughts as she stood up and stepped closer to drape the blanket over Hunter's shoulders. He was immediately engulfed in warmth and it was as if every dark thought in his head was halted in its tracks under the new weight.

"Wait!" Luz gasped when Hunter reached a hand up to tug the blanket tighter. "That's only half of it. Here."

One of the mugs was shoved into his hands. The warmth of the ceramic seeped through his gloves. He hadn't realized how much his hands had ached from him clenching them until the heat soothed it away. The tension in his entire body melted under the comfort of the moment. Slowly, he uncurled from the defensive ball he had unconsciously pulled himself into, to sit cross legged and stare numbly at the drink in his hands.

By the time he became aware of the world around him again, Luz was sitting beside him, bundled in her own blanket, with a matching mug held between both her hands. "It's warm milk. I was going to make hot cocoa, but there's so much sugar. Even if you did manage to sleep, you'd wake up with a bad taste in your mouth, and brushing your teeth again kind of breaks the spell." She paused and stared down into her drink for a moment before forcing a small laugh. "Wow. I sounded so old right then."

Hunter still didn't know what to say, so he lifted his mug up and took a small sip. "It's... good," he offered sincerely. His voice broke awkwardly over the word 'good.'

"Thanks, Hunter." Luz's smile was a little less sad when she looked back up. "Do you... want to talk about it?"

"The milk?"

Another hushed laugh, this one less forced. "No, your nightmares."

The mug in his hands creaked as his grip tightened. "I-"

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Luz hurriedly added. "I just-... I want you to know that -if you want to- the offer is there. Always."

She lifted her mug up and took a long, slurping drink, tilting back as if she was putting her whole body into the sip. When she brought the mug back down she had a bright white mustache left behind and it was Hunter's turn to laugh.

It bubbled out of his chest so suddenly it startled him.

With everything that had happened, it felt almost sacrilegious. His world was gone, in more ways than one. Everything he'd ever known, shattered by the realizations of what he and Belos truly were, and the tattered remains torn apart again by a god beyond his understanding. Even the rubble was now locked beyond his reach. And despite everything Hunter had learned about Belos over the past week and a half, he had spent his entire life up until then devoted to his uncle. Belos's love for him may have never been real, but Hunter's was, so what would it say about him to be able to forget all of that love entirely like the flip of a switch?

What did it say about him, that he couldn't?

He didn't miss his uncle now, and certainly didn't want to go back, but some tiny, childish part of him missed the person he once thought Belos was. The imaginary person Hunter grew up believing existed, if only Hunter could be good enough to deserve him. The warm, kind man Belos could be if only Hunter could stop disappointing him. The selfless uncle who had found an orphaned child and brought him in, took him under his wing and given him a chance at a greater purpose than starving in the streets or being devoured by the wild magic that lurked beyond the safety of the castle walls. That was all gone now and here he was, aching like he was in mourning of someone who never even existed.

His whole life, Hunter had spent cowering in the darkness of Belos's shadow, crushed under the weight of his thumb, and being grateful for its safety, only to find out that the devil he was cowering from never even existed. His whole life, he'd thought that his suffering had purpose. That he deserved it, and that suffering through it obediently somehow proved how good and righteous and devoted he was. The others complained or gave up because they were weak, of body and of heart, but Hunter wasn't. He could take it. And it would all be worth it when he could make his uncle proud. He somehow, ridiculously, believed that love was worth more when it was earned through pain. And now... now he just didn't know what to believe at all.

He blinked the dark swirling thoughts away and tugged the blanket tighter. It was soft and warm, the house was tranquil, and the rain pattering softly against the roof was cool and harmless. Sometimes this peaceful world felt more unbelievable than the visions that plagued his sleep. Sometimes he worried that this was the dream, and if he closed his eyes it would go away and he'd wake back up in the coven.

He didn't want to go back to the coven, and he didn't want to go back to his nightmares. He wanted to stay here in this quiet moment and enjoy it, but his eye-lids were already drooping.

Despite his best efforts not to fall asleep, he only got a few more sips out of his mug before he opened his eyes between increasingly longer blinks to see Luz carefully tugging it from his hands and setting it aside before he dropped it.

"Did you want to go back to the others?"

Through the fog of sleep, he was vaguely aware of shaking his head. He wanted to stay. Here. In the human realm. He didn't want to go back to the castle. To the coven. To his old life.

He wanted this to be real.

"Okay. You can stay if you want. I'll stay here with you."

–x-

In the morning, Camelia came to gather her favorite pair of scrubs that had been set to dry the night before. It was 5:00 am and it took her a moment to make sense of what she was looking at as she stood in the doorway to the kitchen with a fresh cup of coffee in one hand.

The older boy of the set of friends that her daughter had dragged home was laying with the upper half of his body in her drier. One of the spare blankets was draped and wrapped hap-hazardly over him, obscuring most of his body -so much so that it took her a moment to identify the lump as a teenager, and not just a pile of laundry spilling from the machine-. Camila had no idea how or why he had got there, but he was definitely asleep, and snoring softly. Just looking at him was making her back hurt.

As she pondered whether this was a normal teenage-boy thing, or a traumatized alternate-universe thing, and how best to wake him and get to her work clothes, a hissing noise came from the other doorway.

"Psst!" Luz was leaning around the entrance to the living room, frantically shaking her head and waving her arms in a big X. Behind her very animated daughter, Camila could see the purple haired girl also peeking into the room. When she caught Camila looking at her, she held one finger up to her lips to appeal for quiet as well.

Clearly outvoted, Camila waved at her daughter to come around and meet her in the kitchen. There, Luz promised in a hushed voice that she would explain to Hunter that he couldn't sleep inside the drier, swore it wouldn't happen again, but begged her to please just this once let him stay there. This was the longest anyone had seen him sleep peacefully.

Even Camila could see how desperately that kid needed rest. The teens all had dark shadows under their eyes, but she got the sense that his had been established there long before this 'Day of Unity' that brought them all to Earth.

With a final sigh, Camelia agreed to leave him be, and resigned herself to wearing the much less comfortable grey scrubs still in her dresser upstairs

-x-

It wound up bothering her all day at work.

So much so, that she found herself stopping at the nearest box store on the way home. With five extra mouths to house and feed, and absolutely no clue how long they would be staying, she really shouldn't be spending unnecessary money right now. Several minutes were spent chewing her lip and tapping her fingers against the steering wheel before she exited her car and marched into the store in search of what she was after. It was fall, so the thing she was after shouldn't be hard to find at all.

Not even fifteen minutes later, she was back in her car and headed home. Another fifteen and she was on her own front deck, unlocking her door with the familiar musical jingle of her keys.

"Hello!" she called as she let herself in, pausing to kick her shoes off and set them next to the now overflowing shoe rack. "I'm home... donde está todos?"

"Bienvenida mama!" Luz's voice rang out. "We're in the living room."

Camila set her purse and keys on the kitchen table and draped her coat over the back of a chair. Cradling the shopping bag from the box store in one arm, she entered the living room to find the teens scattered about on the floor and furniture. The TV was on and paused on a very poorly timed frame of an actor's face. Judging by the way most of them were angled towards the TV, and the remote in Luz's hand, she had interrupted some show or movie with her entrance. Her daughter had been using the television to help explain how things worked on Earth. The results so far were a bit mixed.

Even Vee was there, sitting on the floor a bit apart from the others with her face in a book, but she looked up at Camila's entrance with a warm smile which was happily returned.

The specific teen she was looking for was seated on the larger couch, between Gus and Willow.

"What's in the bag?" Luz asked. She was on the smaller couch, the currently apptly-named love seat, with her legs tucked up underneath her. One hand was still holding up the remote, while the other was wrapped around her new girlfriend who was leaning against her side.

The purple-haired girl looked like she couldn't decide if she needed to scoot away from Luz, or if doing so would bring more attention than just freezing where she was. Camila had noticed the girl would sometimes get nervous when she felt Camila had caught her in an act of affection towards Luz. At the moment, though, Camila was pretty sure it was mostly just standard meet-the-parents jitters. The tiny spark of normal teenager problems was almost comical admist the dark backdrop of the past few days.

"I stopped by the store on my way home," she pulled the box out of the paper bag by its little plastic handle and stepped forward to hand it to the blond teen boy that had been sleeping in her drier that morning. "This is for you, miho."

Clearly startled by the sudden attention, the boy sunk back into the couch, staring at the box and then at her with wide eyes.

"Go ahead and take it," she encouraged. Luz would have happily snatched the present up and ripped it open by now.

Slowly, cautiously, as if he thought it was a bomb about to go off, he reached his hands up and accepted the box. "Is this about this morning?" He asked nervously. "Luz explained I shouldn't have done that. I'm very sorry, Mrs. Noceda. It-it won't happen again, I promise-"

"Mijo!" Camila interrupted the boy before he could work himself up further. "You're not in any trouble. This isn't a punishment." Her heart clenched a bit at the way relief and suspicion visibly warred with each other on the boy's face. "It's a heated blanket."

"A... what?"

"Here," She held her hand out and he quickly handed the box back over. "I'll show you."

The blanket she'd bought was a rich crimson red velvet on one side, and deep black underneath. As she unfolded it from the box and unwound the cord, the other teens on the couch, Willow and Gus, were leaning in to get a closer look.

"It's like a normal blanket, only it has wires built into it." She handed the blanket back with one hand, and held the cord up with the other. "You just take this cord here, and plug it into an outlet. Excuse me Willow, I need to reach the outlet behind you, dear."

"Of course, Mrs Noceda," the girl happily hopped up from her end of the couch so Camila could reach over the back of the furniture to the plug hidden behind it.

"There you go! And then you just turn it on by pressing this button here. You can press it again for a warmer setting up to five times. Then it will turn off if you press it again. Does that make sense?"

The boy was sitting with the blanket held in both hands and draped half-over his lap, looking just as confused and uncertain as he had been. "Um... I think so?"

"Just give it a moment, it doesn't happen instantly, but it will be warm soon." She handed the cord with the control button back to Hunter as well.

Gus scooted closer and grabbed a fistful of the plush blanket. "It's so soft!" he gasped. "Hey, I think I can feel it warming up..."

Hunter frowned and curled his fists tighter. It was probably hard to feel the heat through the gloves he was wearing. He hadn't taken them off once in Camila's presence. "Oh!" He let out a gasp. The frown replaced with the start of a smile. "I can feel it now! That's... really nice."

"This is so cool!" Gus gushed. "Human technology is amazing! You have to let me borrow this sometime. I need to know its secrets!"

"Gus! Mrs Noceda gave it to Hunter," Willow teased as she took her seat back now that Camila was done climbing over the couch. "We shouldn't take it from- Oh wow! That really is soft!"

From her spot on the loveseat, Luz gave a laugh. "Yeah, heated blankets are the BEST. Especially on a cold rainy night!"

Gus laughed and released his hold on the corner of the blanket. "You're right. Sorry Hunter. I'll find another one to study."

Hunter finally broke into a smile. "Or we could just share?" he offered, lifting the edge of the plush blanket up towards Gus. A fraction of the tension in his shoulders seemed to break off and melt away.

"Um, yes!" Gus wasted no time scooting under the offered blanket, bundling it up to his shoulders and grinning in delight. "Willow you have to join us, this thing is amazing! It's like being hugged by the sun!"

"Well, I guess, yeah. I'll join you two." On Hunter's other side, Willow slid under the blanket as well. Now all three were huddled closely together under the swath of crimson that made the unnatural tone of the boy's eyes look a more cheerful pink or magenta than the usual almost ominous red they appeared.

There was a less than subtle snort from where Luz was on the loveseat, and Camila just barely held back a half-joking demand that all hands be above the blanket. Her own mother's voice echoed in the back of her mind, and memories of her high school days. There would be plenty of time to tease them and, if needed, rein them in later. For now, she would let them be and trust in Luz's judgement. What they needed most right now was to feel safe and support eachother.

"Alright!" Camila clapped her hands together and gathered up the box and bag from where she'd set them on the floor. "I'll leave you kids to your show."

"Thank you, Mama!" Luz called after her as she began to head for the stairs to get changed into house clothes.

"Yes! Thank you Mrs Noceda!" Hunter shouted maybe a bit too loudly, but sincerely. The other two echoes their thanks as well.

"You are very welcome. I hope it helps. Sweet dreams."

As she passed behind the love seat she reached out to ruffle Luz's hair. The mortified squawk and complaints about her hair between the laughter of the rest of the teens followed Camila up the stairs. Her daughter had never cared much about what state her hair was in before, but it was different story now with a cute girl to impress. Ah, young love.

-x-

The next morning, on her way out to work, her laundry room and drier were free from sleeping teenagers. When she poked her head into Luz's room, she found all the house guests present and accounted for. The blue tips of Vee's hair looked inky black in the darkness from where they poked out over the top bunk. Luz and Amity were sleeping together on the bottom bunk, with an aptly named cat tucked happily between them.

On the floor, Hunter was fast asleep and snoring softly under the heated blanket. His bird companion was a dark blotch nestled into the pale hair. Gus was sprawled next to him, laying on top of the edge of the new blanket like it was a heated bed, with his own blanket covering everything but half his face and one hand that was draped across his pillow and Hunter's, like he had fallen asleep petting the bird in his friend's hair. On the blond's other side, Willow was curled up with her own pillow hugged between her arms, and her blankets all kicked out around her. One foot was just barely touching the blanket over Hunter's legs, marking her as technically part of the pile of teens, even if the blanket was apparently too hot for her. It was a feeling Camila could well understand. Her late husband had loved warm blankets, but they turned her into a sweaty mess.

The room was peaceful. The house was quiet. Camila left for work that day with her favorite scrubs and a warmth of happiness that even the chill of a fall morning couldn't touch.

End


Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed.

If anyone's interested in more chapters, let me know.

-OMaM