This takes place in and explores a little of a possible future I've conceived on my own, independent from my other current works. Enjoy!

Day 2 - Fathers

Gilbert Park was in most ways a gentle man. He loved his husband, Eun, as much now as he had in high school when they'd started dating. He loved their daughter, Willow, somehow even more than that. He was known for his generosity at his workplace in a meat market, and respected by his kindly employer and their patrons of all kinds.

But he also was a worrier. Gilbert was the kind of man who could not help but fear for the future, for his family's safety and prosperity. It was he who had spearheaded Willow's placement in a learning track at Hexside that she vocally disliked because it would provide more opportunities later in life, reasoning that she would forgive him in time. He had been wrong to do so — he knew that now — but his heart had been in the right place.

Today, as he worked the grill for audumbla burgers at the first ever "Owl House Family Jamboree" — a collection of the Owl House residents and their families that was very reminiscent of an extended-family reunion — his worries were taking hold of his paternal instincts and wreaking havoc on his nerves. As he flipped burgers, he watched with wide, nervous eyes as his only daughter spent her time with the most frightening thing imaginable: a boy.

The identity of said boy made it even worse. This was Hunter, known in the previous regime as the Golden Guard. He had been Emperor Belos's right-hand man until turning against him to ally with the residents of the Owl House in an uprising against Belos's Day of Unity. After the Emperor had been toppled and the heads of the Main Nine covens installed as de facto rulers for the time being, Hunter had remained to lead a reformation of the Emperor's Coven — now called the Peacekeeper Coven — to end the repressive aspects of the coven system and promote real justice within the Boiling Isles.

That had been two years ago, during which his little Willow had been approached by the head of the Plant Coven as an apprentice and future successor. Which meant that Willow spent much of her time with the head witch, who in turn spent much time at the castle-turned-headquarters of the Main Nine … and therefore in close proximity to the Golden Guard.

It was obvious to all who cared to look that such proximity had led to closeness. And Gilbert was seeing the fruits of such closeness right before his eyes. At the moment, Willow was watching an illusory production of some human story called "Sleeping Beauty" that he'd reportedly only heard about. Willow was standing and watching with good humor … and Hunter was pressed up behind her with his hands around her waist and his chin on her head.

"Gilbert, dear?" Eun asked. "Don't you smell smoke?"

Gilbert sniffed and did indeed smell smoke … coming from the burgers! He yelped and scooped them off of the grill and onto waiting plates for others to take and enjoy. When he'd finally plated all of the singed patties and replaced them with raw ones to cook, he sighed with relief before his gaze was drawn as if by a magnet back to his daughter and her … friend.

The both of them were sitting on the grass now, Hunter red-faced as he intently explained something with quite a few wild gesticulations and Willow had her chin propped in on hand while the other played with a strand of her hair, curling it in that coy, girlish fashion that seemed instinctual for a woman deeply attracted to someone.

"Eun, dear?" Gilbert asked distantly. "How would you feel about moving?"

"Moving?" Eun asked bemusedly. "To where?"

"Perhaps … another set of Isles?"

Gilbert pouted as his beloved husband laughed himself into a stomach ache over that innocent question.

It was less than three months after the jamboree when Willow formally introduced her new friend to her parents.

"Papa, Dad," Willow said, her smile warm and wide, her countenance glowing, "this is Hunter." She gently drew forward the young man she had been spending so much time with, and he was blushing and looking unsure. He smiled nervously and offered a hand.

"Sirs. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Oh, the pleasure is all ours, Hunter," Eun said, gladly accepting the hand with a firm shake. "Willow's told us so much about you," he added.

"Funny," Hunter replied with something like dry humor, "she's probably said even more about her dads."

"I would hope so," Gilbert said, reluctantly shaking the boy's — really a young man's, but Gilbert decided to ignore that fact — hand with only polite firmness. He took the moment to look over this Hunter's clothes, comprised of a dark, buttoned shirt and slacks with dark yellow vest, and leather gloves and loafers.

"So, Hunter," Eun said amicably, "what are your intentions with our dear daughter?"

'Hopefully we won't have to find out,' Gilbert thought.

Those distant hopes were futile.

As the years rolled on, Willow grew evermore close with the Golden Guard, as Gilbert exclusively referred to the young man when he didn't think of him simply as "that boy." He found he disliked the boy's real name, likening him to a hunter who was poaching his little girl of her innocence. Not that she or Eun would listen when he brought it up.

Three years after that fateful luncheon — including three more of them where Gilbert was subjected to such unsettlingly sweet displays — Gilbert was whittling on the balcony of their apartment building. Willow had moved out a few months ago and into an apartment on the other side of Bonesborough — with her school friend Amelia, thank the Titan — and the apartment seemed smaller without her. But that was the way of things. At least she wasn't shacked up with that boy.

His musings were interrupted when Eun arrived with news. "We have a guest," Eun said, eyes glittering behind his spectacles. Gilbert pursed his lips at the expression, something he had long learned meant trouble. But he put away his tools and followed Eun down stairs to their apartment.

As they entered their home and walked into the living room, Gilbert stopped in his tracks to find the Golden Guard, sans his mask or cloak or … any identifying gear, standing with his hands behind his back and a humble look on his scarred face. He was dressed in a maroon button-down, dark slacks, and loafers with what looked like a hand-knitted teal scarf draped around his shoulders. Willow's work, no doubt.

"Mr. Park," he said with a smile at Eun. That smile faded into polite neutrality. "Mr. Park," he said in a somewhat downcast tone. "I, um, thank you for having me over."

"Oh, it's our pleasure, Hunter," Eun said brightly, placing his hands on Gilbert's shoulders. "Isn't it, Gil?"

"Welcome," Gilbert said through grit teeth.

The Golden Guard chuckled nervously and ran a hand through his hair, something that would be an objectively endearing gesture on anyone else. "I, um, I'll try not to take up much of your time." He began to play with his hands, seeming to shrink just a little. "Uh," he cleared his throat, "Mr. and Mr. Park-"

"Oh, Hunter, please," Eun said, waving his hand at the boy, "call me Eun." He looked at Gilbert. "Gil?"

"Mr. Park is fine," Gilbert said stoically.

"Yes sirs," the Golden Guard replied. "I- Well, you see-" He groaned and brushed his fingers along the scarf around his neck, seeming to draw resolve from it as his faint smile returned. "Sirs, I'll be blunt." He dug around in his pocket and removed something small and shiny. It was a silver ring set with a pink ruby carved in the likeness of a flower bud, two emeralds carved into leaves flanking it.

"I would like your blessing to marry Willow," he said resolutely.

Gilbert's eye twitched as every fear he'd ever had for Willow dating — all boiled down to being caught in a marriage where the love faded and the spouse turned abusive and cruel and he couldn't help her, as he'd seen so many times before — flashed through his mind. His throat bunched up and he had to grunt to untighten it before he shouted, "Absolutely not!"

At the exact same time Eun, who had apparently been working through sheer joy, shouted, "Of course!"

"Wait, what?" both Eun and the Golden Guard asked in identically shocked tones.

"I will not have my little girl marry-!"

Eun slapped his hand over Gilbert's mouth and smiled tightly. "Would you excuse us for a moment, Hunter?"

"O-Of course," the boy said, still wide-eyed.

Eun all but dragged Gilbert into the kitchen, and then said in a harsh whisper, "Gilbert Park, what was that?!"

"I was making my feelings clear!" Gilbert whisper-yelled back. "I don't want Willow to be with that boy forever! He's not right for her!"

Eun crossed his arms with an unimpressed look. "Are you still on this?" he asked incredulously. "Firstly, you would say that about any boy Willow brought home. Secondly, they've already been together for at least four years!" He coughed into his fist. "And Willow's told me they've already been together, too."

Gilbert's dark skin turned ashen. "W-What?" he asked. "Why would she tell you and not me?"

"She didn't want to tell you because she felt you would unfairly judge Hunter," Eun explained exasperatedly, clapping a palm to his forehead. "And to be fair, I think she was right."

Gilbert blinked as his world shifted just a bit. "Willow has already-?"

"Yes, she has," Eun said patiently. "And she had nothing but good to say in the, ehem," his cheeks pinked, "the thankfully little she would describe." Eun sighed and pushed his glasses up to pinch the bridge of his nose before he settled them. "Look, Gil, Hunter has my blessing. And I get the feeling he's asking us out of courtesy and Willow's peace of mind more than anything else. So can you please bury whatever you have against the idea of them being together and accept this?" His eyes grew wider. "If not for Willow, then for me?"

Gilbert tried to remain strong, he really did. But in all the years they had been married, Eun had indulged his worries and gone along with any number of his mad-sounding preparations out of love. Very rarely had he asked for anything in return until now. He sighed with resignation.

"Alright, fine," he said. "Let's go give … Hunter the news.

"Good news, Hunter!" Eun said as he raced back into the living room dragging Gilbert behind him, "You have both of our blessings! The wedding is on!"

Gilbert tried to fight the smile at the sight of Hunter gasping with joy and then jumping into the air to shout his thanks. Gilbert still wasn't sure about all of this, but … maybe Hunter wasn't so bad after all.

They were calling it the wedding of the century.

Never, not once in fifty years, had two coven heads been joined in matrimony before the Titan. No one was certain why, only that it had never happened … until now. Granted, Willow was technically a successor to the current head witch of the Plant Coven, but people hardly cared for that detail in the face of something that was considered both very high-profile and so very romantic.

Gilbert shifted in his seat next to Eun's empty spot as the grand cathedral of Bonesborough slowly filled with high-profile well-wishers. As fathers of the bride, they were in the front seat, along with the head of the Plant Coven, Meliae, and the residents of the Owl House as both Willow and Hunter's "extended family."

Hunter stood at the altar, wearing his ceremonial Golden Guard regalia including a more elaborately-engraved mask — to be lifted during the vows and the kiss — and fiddling with his gloves. Gilbert grimaced and looked backward at the head of the massive hall, wishing he'd had the foresight to volunteer to walk Willow down the aisle. But he and Eun had known that Gilbert would have taken the opportunity to try and talk Willow out of this … and that was a waste of breath that no one needed.

Gilbert returned his attention forward and looked to the line of groomsmen beside Hunter. Gus, now more well-built like his father, was at the head of the line as best man, with a much taller and bulkier King beside him; the diminutive demon had exploded in size almost overnight on his tenth birthday and now towered over even Eda, with tremendous bulk to match. Behind King was Jerbo, one of the first dual-track graduates of Hexside and the proud liaison between the Plant and Abomination Covens, and behind him was Edwin, the buck-toothed byclops who was as endearingly dorky as ever.

Gilbert thought about those boys, and about the obvious crushes both had had on Willow when they were all younger. He mused briefly about what a wedding with either of them would have been like — certainly smaller.

His thoughts were interrupted by the pipe organ, played by the retired Bard head Scooter Crane himself, as it began the traditional wedding march ballad. Like everyone else, Gilbert turned to find the bridesmaids gliding down the aisle, all dressed in robe-themed dresses of green and yellow silk. First came Amelia Sage, followed by Viney Primrose; both friends from Hexside. Then came Amity Blight and the maid of honor, Luz Noceda.

When Luz had taken her place opposite Gus, the main doors opened to reveal Eun in a tweed suit escorting … oh my. Gilbert's eyes flooded with tears at the sight of his little girl all grown up. Willow was dressed in a beautiful dress of pale-gold silk, strapless and hugging her upper body to flare out at the skirt. A shawl of snowy white was draped over her shoulders while matching slippers adorned her feet, and a gold choker hung around her neck. Even the half-moon spectacles that she'd favored lately were polished.

The massive chamber was silent aside from the music as Eun led Willow down the aisle, eventually parting from her with a kiss to her forehead and a tearful smile before he joined Gilbert. Lilith Clawthorne, who had volunteered to lead the ceremony, took her place before all dressed in a dress much like her days in the Emperor's coven, though the color was ash-grey rather than charcoal and the ebony of her hair only remained at the ends, replaced by her natural strawberry-red.

"For most weddings," Lilith began, "the minister would offer some deep insight or wisdom to the crowd and the happy couple." She smiled. "And I am no exception." The crowd laughed politely before she continued. "It may surprise many of you that I first met Willow while she and her friends were robbing the then-Emperor's castle, intent on healing Edalyn." She gestured at Eda, who waved her off. "Willow attacked me, the head of the Emperor's Coven, to protect her friends. And looking back, I have to respect that kind of drive." She smiled. "And since that rocky start, I have had the chance to get to know Willow. And I have found her to be perhaps the kindest, most pure-hearted child, now woman, that I have ever met."

"As for Hunter," she continued, "I knew him for quite some time before that." She grimaced. "Or at least, I had thought I knew him. He seemed at the time a spoiled child waiting to knock me off my path." She scoffed with an honest grin. "And it wasn't entirely wrong, now was it? But the Golden Guard I knew has grown so much since then, into a noble and self-sacrificing young man."

She gestured between Hunter and Willow. "Both of these young people have shown the markings of true heroes. But more than that, I cannot fathom two people who compliment each other more than they. And it is an honor to me, as it should be to all others, to see them bound by word and by spirit on this most glorious of days."

With that, the final offer of objection was given with no hiccups, and they moved to the vows and the trading of rings.

"Willow," Hunter said, his echoing voice thick with emotion, "we first met on opposite sides of a cold war. But even then, you brought warmth into my life." He described a meeting by chance in the woods outside the Owl House, when Willow had asked him if he was happy; he'd never heard that question before. He spoke of continued meetings between enemy lines that wore away at his rose-tinted view of his uncle. And he spoke of their bond growing even deeper in the aftermath of the fall of Belos's regime. "There is no one I would rather have at my side, today or any day." Hunter finished.

"Hunter," Willow said back, tears streaming down her cheeks, "I first heard of you from Luz after the selkiedaumus hunt … and it didn't paint a great picture." A few who got the reference chuckled. "But the story of the palisman hunt showed a glimpse of depth behind the mask. And after that day we met, and every day since, more and more of that has been revealed. And I want more than anything to spend our lives looking deeper and finding more ways to love you."

Rings were traded, a ribbon of red silk tied around their crossed wrists as a symbol of their unbreaking bond, and finally the ceremony culminated in a kiss. Hunter tore off his mask and tossed it over his shoulder to Gus before he and Willow swept each other up into a passionate and loving kiss that had the crowd cheering like mad.

And as the new husband and wife ran up the aisle to later be followed by the crowd, it hit home for Gilbert what had just happened.

The evening after the wedding was … difficult.

Gilbert sat on the couch in their home — his and Eun's, no longer Willow's. He held a half-empty bottle of apple blood in one hand, three of its fellows, all empty, at his feet. He grimaced as unwelcome thoughts about what the newlyweds would be doing tonight, on the first night of their honeymoon in a rented cabin on the Right Hand, made him take another sip.

Eun sat in his favorite recliner, nursing his first glass of apple blood and watching his husband with concern shining in his eyes. He tapped his finger against the side of his glass as he pondered how best to broach the topic hanging in the room. After a while, he decided to be direct.

"Gil?" he prodded. "This is getting really unhealthy. You're starting to scare me."

"I know," Gilbert moaned pitifully. "It's out of my hands. Willow is all grown up and I need to cut the last apron string." He sighed heavily and palmed his scalp. "I need to move past it, but …" He grimaced. "It's their wedding night, and I can't stop thinking about it."

Eun tapped his finger against his glass in thought before a small, wicked smile quirked his lips. He stood up and settled next to his husband, leaning into him before placing a smoldering kiss on Gilbert's cheek. "Why don't I distract you?" he whispered.

His response was a light snore as Gilbert slumped over, finally succumbing to his drinks. Eun blinked and sighed with faint disappointment. "Let's hope that's not an omen," he groused, collecting Gilbert's glasses and hauling him over his shoulder to tuck away into their bed.

Gilbert would feel like death warmed over a fire in the morning, so he'd better rest up.

Willow announced her pregnancy less than three months after the wedding.

Then came the nine months of Willow actually being pregnant, which predictably left Gilbert's nerves in shambles as he thought about his daughter's health and wellbeing. Frankly, the only person who seemed more concerned about it was the father himself.

Whenever Willow was out and about from the time of the announcement to the days leading up to the predicted delivery, Hunter was close at hand to help her walk, feed her, massage her feet or back, or any number of other small things.

Several times, Willow had to lightly scold him with words like, "I'm pregnant, not dying," or "I'm not made of glass." Each and every time Hunter would nod and agree, and then the next time they were seen together he would be right back to doting on her.

This culminated on the day Willow had been rushed to their healer to deliver. Gilbert and Eun would pick up the story that Hunter had smashed down a wall of the building and threatened at least two nurses with bodily harm if they did not get Willow to the delivery room as fast as possible. Needless to say, she'd gotten there in record time.

The process was long, and the visiting area had slowly filled with Willow's beloved second family and many friends. But after several hours, the fathers were being ushered in first to find their … grandchildren. Willow had been carrying twins!

Willow had a little boy clutched to her chest, her body language tired but a worn and genuine smile on her face. Hunter sat at her bedside, weeping openly as he held a girl in his hands. "Holly" and "Rowan" were written on their nametags.

Hunter looked up at their arrival, giving no effort to hiding his tears. "Eun, Gilbert," he greeted, his voice hoarse. … Would you like to meet your granddaughter?"

And there it was. Gilbert felt tears streak down his face as he saw for the first time — or perhaps for the first time let himself see — the kind of man his daughter had married. He wasn't some ominous threat … he was her other half. Where he was broken, she would put him back together. And where she was weak, he would be strong for her. They were meant to be.

"I would like that very much," Gilbert said, brushing away tears before carefully taking his newborn granddaughter, "Son."