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Song: Breaking the Habit by Linkin Park

This is going to be the last chapter. This story was originally supposed to be longer, but I just don't really feel like writing this anymore. I finished posting the last story almost a year ago, and it got a lot of attention relative to my other fics, and I feel like there's too much pressure on me for continuing it because of that. I finished writing Already Over (Now) before I started posting it, so I didn't have to worry about what people said. I feel like this story isn't as good, and even if nobody says anything negative (in fact, y'all have pretty much only said positive things to me), I just don't feel like worrying about whether this story is good enough or not. I kinda didn't feel like finishing this, but I already said I would and had 4 chapters written, so I figured I might as well get to a point where I could end the story without it being too abrupt. So sorry if this is disappointing, but I have a lot of things I want to work on, and I don't feel like being stuck working on a fic I don't want to write anymore. So. Don't expect anything else from this, I guess.

That being said, though, this chapter is pretty long so I'm gonna split it into 2 parts.

!TRIGGER WARNING: This story has been a lot lighter than the previous one, but this chapter will contain some self harm!

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"Memories Consume,

Like Opening the Wound;

I'm Picking Me Apart Again…"

.

.

.

A few weeks passed, and thankfully, Hunter did start getting used to going to classes at Hexside. The class material itself wasn't too bad- most of it was things he'd already learned, and the new material was things he could learn without too much difficulty. And he was getting a lot better with glyphs and using Rascal instead of his artificial staff.

He was also getting used to how schools worked- the other students, the teachers, general expectations. He still wasn't a fan of the loud, crowded hallways or the louder cafeteria, but he could tolerate them. After all, there were plenty of loud, crowded situations when he was still the Golden Guard.

He still wasn't exactly the most social person, though. For the most part, he kept to himself, and it seemed like most of his classmates had gotten the memo. He mostly just talked to Luz and, apparently, Edric, who was rather persistent in trying to talk to him. Hunter didn't particularly mind that, though. His friendship with Edric was similar to his friendship with Luz: they annoyed him into being friends. At least it turned out that Edric really wasn't a total idiot (despite first impressions). He was kind of an idiot because he insisted on getting into trouble for no reason with his pranks, but he was skilled in illusions, potions, and even beast-keeping. If they'd met before, Hunter might have thought he'd be a good candidate for the Emperor's Coven (so maybe he was glad they hadn't met until now).

Right now, they were working on a project together. They technically didn't share any classes, but a few of the potions classes had the same project and they were allowed to work with someone in another classroom. They were sitting in the living room, where Luz and Amity sat working on their own assignments.

"Where did I put the Dragon Scales…?" Edric murmured as he searched around.

"They're under that stack of papers," Hunter told him, pointing the stack out.

"Huh."

"Hey Amity, do you know the answer to question three?" Luz asked.

"It's 62 centibeads," Amity replied. "Do you want me to show you how to solve it?"

"Sure!"

They continued working for a little while before Amity spoke up again.

"Sooooo, Luz."

"Yeah?"

"It's going to be the Bonecoming Dance in about a week," Amity told her. "And there's no monster battles for this one, so we can just have fun. So, do you want to go with me?"

Luz beamed.

"Really?! Of course I'll go with you!"

"Great! You're the best girlfriend!"

Hunter rolled his eyes.

"You two are ridiculous."

"Oh, hush you," Luz chided. "You're just salty 'cuz you don't have a date to the dance."

Edric opened his mouth, but Hunter didn't notice and shot back a response:

"Neither did you until, like, 13 seconds ago!"

"Yeah, but I have a girlfriend, so of course we're gonna go together!"

"Then why bother asking?"

"Because that's just what you do," Luz answered. "It's romantic."

"… What exactly is romantic about being asked out while doing homework…?"

"Shhhhhhhhh!"

Hunter just shook his head and started flipping through his textbook. He thought that was the end of the dance discussion, but Edric seemed to have other ideas.

"So, you don't have a date for the dance yet, then?"

Hunter raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't even know there was a dance."

"Ha!"

"Oh, like you knew before now, Human!"

Luz stuck her tongue out at him, but Hunter resisted returning the gesture. He was mature, so he didn't have to stoop to her level (even if he was probably going to do it later, after Amity and Edric went home).

"Besides, it doesn't matter if I have a date or not," Hunter continued. "It's not like I'm gonna go."

Edric tilted his head, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Wait, why aren't you going?" he questioned. "Pretty much everyone's gonna go."

"I don't dance," Hunter answered.

"I mean you don't have to dance."

"Then why is it called a dance?"

"Well, there's music so you can dance? But you can eat snacks or hang out and stuff, and sometimes there's some games?" Edric told him. "Haven't you been to a dance before?"

"Uh, no?"

"Yeah, Hunter was homeschooled before going to Hexside," Luz said quickly. "So, no dances."

"Well then you have to go!" Edric exclaimed. "You can't miss your first dance!"

Hunter frowned.

"I don't know… I mean, what's the point?"

"To have fun!"

"… Is it fun…?" Hunter asked suspiciously, not really finding Edric's description to be particularly appealing.

"Yes!"

Hunter thought about it for a minute.

"… I don't need to find a date, right?"

"I mean, you don't have to, but-"

"I'll think about it, I guess."

Edric blinked before his gaze turned back to their homework awkwardly.

"Oh! Okay. Um, cool…"

XXX

"I am not wearing this."

Hunter and Luz were sorting through one of Eda's closets to look for clothes to wear to the dance. Mostly, they were looking for something for Hunter to wear, since, if Luz couldn't find anything she liked, she could still wear her Grom outfit. Luz had just shoved a bright red suit jacket into his hands, and he knew within moments that he hated it. It was made of some kind of thin plastic material that he couldn't quite place, but he knew it would be extremely uncomfortable and sweaty to wear for any length of time. Not to mention that it was so red that it hurt his eyes to look at it.

Rascal hopped down his arm to peck at it, and the cardinal didn't seem to know what it was, either.

"Awe, but it looks nice," Luz disagreed.

"If you like it so much, then you can wear it," Hunter told her, setting the offending article down on top of a pile of junk.

"I think it's a little too big for me," Luz shook her head. "Oh, but look at this! This looks kinda like the dress Hecate wore in the Sequel to the last live-action Azura movie! Maybe Amity will want to wear it?"

"Doesn't she already have a dress, though?" Hunter asked. "I thought she showed it to you yesterday?"

"Well yeah, but maybe she'll want to wear it some other time," Luz replied. "Like, maybe we can reenact some scenes during our Azura book club! Oh, it'll be so cool!"

Hunter just shrugged. It's not like he could agree on Amity's behalf, though he could guess that, based on Amity's feeling about both Luz and the Azura books, she'd probably say yes to something like that.

The two of them kept digging around while they (mostly Luz) talked, and after a while, Hunter unearthed a thick mound of fabric. As soon as he saw it, he could tell the fabric was soft, which was confirmed when the fabric rested on his arm as he picked it up. He unfolded it and held it out in front of him, seeing that he'd found a thick, black cape with a hood.

"What's that?" Luz asked, noticing that he was holding something up.

"Oh, a cape! I think you've found the start of a pretty nice ensemble."

At that, Hunter found himself nodding. He immediately liked the cape. Even with the uniforms' small capelets, he'd been missing the weight of a full cape on his shoulders. He couldn't go back to wearing his old cloak, though, even though he used to love it. It felt like the cloak had been tainted, every good memory getting twisted in hindsight.

He mentally shook himself. He wasn't going to go down that train of thoughts right now. They were supposed to be doing something fun to prepare for something that was supposed to be fun, right? He wasn't going to ruin it.

"Yeah, and it has some pockets for Rascal to hide in, too," Hunter praised the article of clothing. "I guess I still have to find something else to go under it, though."

"Well, black pretty much matches everything," said Luz. "Including the red jacket."

"I can't tell if you really like the red jacket and are upset that it doesn't fit you, or you just think it's funny that I hate it," Hunter sighed.

Luz poked his cheek.

"It can be both!" she pointed out. "By the way, do you know what Edric's wearing?"

Hunter blinked at her, tilting his head.

"Why would I know what Edric's wearing?" Hunter asked. "I mean, he hasn't even brought up the dance since Amity asked you to be her date for it."

"Really. Oh. Oh!" Luz exclaimed. "Uh, well, maybe he just doesn't want to talk about it 'cuz he got ditched at Grom. Might have reopened a wound or something… Heh…"

Suddenly, Luz's voice sounded weird, and Hunter wasn't sure why. Was he supposed to know what Edric was wearing? Did friends normally discuss outfits that much? He wasn't really sure, since everyone more-or-less wore the same thing all the time in the Emperor's Coven, and even with his uniform being different, it was still the same uniform every day. He hadn't really needed to put too much thought into clothes until he'd come to the Owl House. He just thought Luz and Amity talked about it so much because they were dating and maybe they were supposed to coordinate or something. But actually, Luz probably knew what her friends were wearing, too.

Was he supposed to have asked Edric about it? If it was that important, wouldn't Edric have just told him? Was Luz suddenly acting strangely because he'd accidentally broken some kind of important rule about dances?

"Anyway!" Luz shouted. "Let's keep digging!"

Hunter wasn't sure whether he should ask if he'd done something wrong or not. It definitely seemed like he had done something wrong. But Luz had already moved on, so maybe it was better to drop it.

He could just ask Edric what he was going to wear when they went to school tomorrow.

XXX

Sure enough, Hunter was on a mission the next morning and tracked Edric down as soon as they got to campus.

"Edric."

Seemingly surprised that Hunter had actually been the one to seek him out, jumped a little. In a second, though, he adjusted himself so he was leaning casually on a wall.

"Hunter?"

"What are you wearing to the dance?"

"Huh?"

"I'm supposed to ask you what you're wearing to the dance, right?"

A light blush rose up in Edric's cheeks for some reason.

"Um, well, I guess you could-"

"'Cuz Luz asked me if I knew what you were wearing, and I didn't know because you didn't tell me, but Luz knows what Amity's wearing, and then I thought that it might be because they're dating and needed to coordinate, but we're not dating, and Luz know what her friends are wearing, so I thought maybe I'm supposed to know what my friends are wearing to the dance and I'm breaking some kind of rule by not knowing," Hunter rambled quickly, not even looking at Edric in case he was breaking a rule and he had offended the other boy. "… Actually, I'm not really sure if we are friends, anyway, since we mostly just study together, and I did accidentally attack you. I mean, for all I know, you just want to study and that's it, and I'm kind of making assumptions here, but you know…"

And with the awkward pause in his ramble, all the embarrassment finally hit Hunter at once, knowing he probably shouldn't have said all that before Edric really even gave him a complete answer.

"I'm… uh… just going to stop talking now…"

His cheeks were flushed bright red now, eclipsing the slight pink that had adorned Edric's cheeks a minute ago. That pinkness was entirely gone on the other boy's face now, and Hunter instead found himself confronted by a pair of wide, almost confused eyes.

Fuck.

Fuck, he really had assumed, hadn't he? Maybe they weren't even friends at all and Edric was shocked that Hunter had even thought they were. Or maybe he'd messed up and Edric couldn't believe how stupid he was. Or maybe-

"Whoa, whoa, hold on there," Edric spoke finally, putting his hands up. "Of course we're friends! Dude, we've been hanging out ever since you came to Hexside. I mean, studying isn't exactly fun, but it still counts. We can do other stuff too, if you want, but I didn't want to freak you out again."

Oh.

Okay, so he'd made assumptions, but the wrong ones.

"And about the dance…," Edric trailed off, waited a moment, shook his head, and then continued. "You don't have to know what all you're friends are wearing. It's not some kind of rule. I mean, you can talk about it if you want to, though. A lot of people just discuss it because they're excited. Um, for couples, people do tend to discuss it so they can coordinate, though. Like, colors, or whatever. But you don't have to do that, either, if you don't want to. It's all just for fun, so you don't have to panic about it. Okay?"

Deep breath.

"O-Okay…," Hunter accepted. "Um… Sorry about all that…"

"Eh, it's fine," Edric brushed it off. "Since you're curious, though, I'm just gonna wear a normal suit. I guess I'll wear a green dress shirt. What about you?"

"Um… White shirt, black pants, and a cape…"

"Okay, cool," Edric nodded. "So, I was thinking that maybe-"

Again, Edric was cut off, but this time, it was the bell telling them to get to class.

"Oh! We should probably get going," Hunter said. "Talk later?"

Edric's shoulder appeared to droop just a little.

"Uh, yeah! Sure…"

XXX