Day 4 - Cuddling/Sleep
Willow blinked her eyes open, her mind foggy, to be met with blurry darkness. As she slowly came back to herself, she felt the beginning of a headache brewing between her temples, and felt the cold metal of her skewed glasses. 'Ugh, what happened?' she wondered blearily. She cast a light spell and glanced around to find …
Oh. Oh, right.
Teen witchlings were splayed out across the carpet of Luz's room, four of them when not counting Willow herself. The place was a wreck, with furniture knocked over and feathers everywhere from busted pillows. And none of the girls were sleeping in positions that looked remotely comfortable.
Luz had suggested a girls' night-style slumber party while Gus was off on a weekend field trip with the HAS. Eda had taken King and Hooty to visit Lilith to give them some privacy, and Luz had gone the extra mile by inviting Viney and Amelia as a "buffer" against any romantic shenanigans that might happen between her and Amity. The only other person in the Owl House was Hunter, the Golden Guard who had recently defected from the Emperor's Coven. Though he'd had nowhere to go, he had graciously avoided them to upkeep the illusion of only girls — to the point of, according to Luz, eating in the basement to give them privacy.
After makeovers that were immediately cleaned off — except for lipstick on Amelia of all peoples' insistence — and binging on junk food while watching Eda's crystal ball, Viney had shown a surprise: a bottle of hard apple blood that she'd bartered from her cousin at St. Epiderm. She'd offered to all and assured them that there was no pressure to try it.
Luz, ever eager to try new things, had been happy to give it a literal shot. Amelia, who was more of a rebel than her appearance would suggest, had been right behind her. Willow and Amity had shared reservations, but decided to try it together. After that came a pillow fight and … everything went blurry.
Willow smacked her lips and winced at the dryness of her tongue. She winced and hauled herself to her feet, holding the light spell close to her to avoid disturbing the others. She noticed, however, that Luz and Amity were holding hands in their sleep, and she couldn't help but smile at that.
Willow stumbled down the hall and the stairs to the kitchen for a glass of water that she guzzled down, then filled another for the morning to take back to Luz's room. As she rubbed a knuckle over her eye, she paused as something registered to her hearing. Her ears tilted at the sound of … screaming? Willow raced down the hall and found the door it was coming from behind, flinging it open to find … Oh.
Hunter was drenched in sweat and writhing in his twisted sheets, animalistic grunts of pain tearing from his throat. He sobbed and screamed again, and Willow's heart snapped in two. Then came the name "Belos …!" and a string of frantic "No's" and grunts of sorrow that took those halves of her heart and put them in a meat grinder.
In the short time he'd been living at the Owl House, Willow had caught a small crush on Hunter. Besides being handsome, he was very smart, actually kind of witty, and even charming at times. More than anything, though, was how gentle he was with Lil Rascal, the adorable cardinal palisman, and how much he seemed to really care for Luz like a little sister.
Another cry from Hunter had Willow in motion. She sat on his bedside and brushed her fingers over his forehead, trying to soothe him. She shuddered at his faint fever and the sweat running down his brow, morbidly wondering what could have put him in this condition.
Hunter's back bowed at her touch and he rolled over to latch onto her waist and bury his face into her pajamas. Sobs tore at his throat as he wept, his grip like a vise. Willow couldn't help but cradle his head in a small attempt to show him that he was not alone. She carded her fingers through his damp hair and fought back tears of her own.
Slowly, he seemed to calm down. But his grip on her hardly slackened. Fatigue tugged at Willow and when she was fairly sure Hunter had moved past the terrors, she moved to return to Luz's room. But then he whimpered again and buried his face in her waist, and Willow couldn't bring herself to move in case it brought the night terrors back. So she shifted to get comfortable and cradled Hunter close as sleep came for her, too.
When Willow woke next, her glasses were skewed again, she had curled into Hunter's frame as much as he had hers … and Hunter was as peaceful as she had ever seen him. His breathing was even, he seemed to be smiling just a little in his sleep … even the constant dark circles under his eyes seemed less prominent. Willow looked up at the window to see the sky greying and she sighed. She felt warm and comfortable in Hunter's embrace, even if he wasn't aware of her presence, and a large part of her didn't want to lose that.
But when she thought about it, this was probably violating Hunter's privacy, and it would be really embarrassing to have him wake up in the arms of her, who was essentially a faint acquaintance. She very slowly and carefully extracted herself from Hunter's grasp, sighing with relief when he didn't begin to panic and instead curled into his pillow. Willow tiptoed to the door and closed it as quietly as she could before nodding to herself and returning to Luz's room.
She'd just settled back down when she smacked her lips and realized, "Oh, my water," she whispered. For an instant, she considered going back to get it. But then she shook her head and burrowed down into the blankets she had stripped from Luz's bed. She'd already gotten lucky. No need to push it.
After a few hours, when all of the girls had finally woken up — with some help from Willow's vines — the day found them all in the kitchen as Viney and Willow cooked up pancakes for everyone. The whole group were chatting and joking, even as they groaned and grimaced from headaches and swore off apple blood for all time.
Willow pursed her lips and fixed a plate for Hunter before everyone settled at the table to eat. And it was a good thing, as he chose that particular moment to enter. He sniffed the air with a smile and asked, "What smells so good?" before he noticed an extra plate. He glanced at the girls and Luz gestured for him to take it. And with a smile, he did.
As everyone finally began to eat, Willow noticed Hunter glance around the table before his gaze settled on her. His eyes widened and his cheeks pinked before he placed an empty glass on the table.
A glass with lipstick marks. Nude-color lipstick marks. Willow's lipstick marks.
"So, how'd you sleep, Hunter?" Luz asked cherrily. "I hope we didn't keep you up last night."
"Well, my sheets were drenched in sweat this morning, so …"
Luz's eyes went wide. "Another one?" she asked, carefully avoiding naming the topic, which he appreciated.
"Yeah," he said solemnly. Then he smiled just a bit. "But after it passed," his eyes flicked to Willow, "I slept better than I have in years."
Willow's cheeks pinked at the silent message. Thank you.
Willow blushed and smiled back. You're welcome.
A few days later would find Willow back at the Owl House to help Luz with her Plant magic homework. Usually these classes were some of Luz's best, as she had a whole glyph devoted to the art. But everyone needed help every now and then with learning the plant species native to the Boiling Isles; especially someone raised in a completely different realm.
"How about a snack break?" Luz asked after a solid two hours.
"That sounds good," Willow agreed patiently. Luz smiled and raced off to the kitchen to scrounge up who-knows-what to eat.
Suddenly alone, Willow's thoughts turned to Hunter. She glanced up the stairs and pursed her lips before making a decision. She absently felt Clover perch on her shoulder from across the room as she climbed the stairs, and a minute later found her in front of Hunter's door, and her knocking gently upon it.
"Yes?" came his muffled response. Willow opened the door to find Hunter sitting on his bed with a light spell illuminating a book he was reading. Luz had been teaching him glyph magic so that he didn't have to use Lil Rascal as a crutch, and they had been working together to make some impressive glyph combinations.
"Willow?" Hunter asked in clear surprise. Then he smiled faintly. "Of course. Who else in this house would actually knock?" He marked his page and closed the book, gesturing for her to sit down next to him. Lil Rascal, perched on a rafter, tweeted a greeting that Willow waved in reply to and Clover buzzed up to sit with him and leave the witchlings to their talk. "Can I, uh - Can I help you?" Hunter asked.
Willow sat, her face red as she considered how to speak what was on her mind. "Hunter, I-" She cleared her throat and tried again. "What I saw that night, does that … happen often?"
Hunter grimaced and dropped his head into his palms. "I really wish you hadn't seen that," he whispered.
"Well, if you want to talk," Willow said, "I'm happy to listen."
Hunter lifted his head to look at her with something like puzzlement in his eyes. "I'd … really rather not talk about that," he admitted. "But I would like to know why you were in my room." The question was asked with no anger or malice. Only curiosity.
"I heard screaming," Willow explained. "And when I came in, you were thrashing and, just, a lot of things. I … wanted to help." Had her face caught on fire yet? It certainly felt like it. Hunter stared at her for a long while, to the point where Willow began to feel uneasy. "Hunter?" she prodded.
"Thank you," he said. He snorted lightly. "I wasn't lying when I said it was the best sleep I've had in years." His cheeks were turning pink. "So thank you."
Lil Rascal chirped a little tune that had Hunter's blush deepen from light pink to probably about as red as Willow's. "What? No, I'm not gonna ask her! That's way inappropriate!"
"Ask me what?" Willow asked.
"You don't just ask that!" Hunter said upward to the cardinal, apparently not even having heard her question. "And I'm pretty sure you know that, Bird!"
"Ask me what?" Willow repeated, more firmly. That got Hunter's attention and he rubbed the back of his neck with a wince. Clover took that opportunity to buzz down and speak for herself. 'Lil Rascal advised Hunter to ask if you can sleep with him every night to ease the night terrors.'
Willow's cheeks lit up, and she even covered her mouth from shock. Hunter grimaced and glared at Clover. "Did you have to translate?" he asked miserably. Clover trilled and nodded; her loyalty was to Willow over Hunter's embarrassment. Though the twinkle in the bee palisman's eye showed it had been for fun, too.
"I'm not going to ask that," Hunter grumbled to Clover. But his blush didn't waver as he looked back at Willow. "But, um … Willow?" She tilted her head in acknowledgement. "Would you like to, er, uh," he rubbed his neck again, "that is-" Lil Rascal chirped again. "I'm getting to it!" Hunter snapped. He took a breath and looked at Willow. "Willow … would you like to, uh, go out with me?"
Willow blinked in surprise. "Me?" she asked. Hunter nodded. Willow felt a small, shy smile curl her lips. "Sure," she whispered.
"Really?!" Hunter asked, shock plain on his face.
"Mm-hmm," she confirmed, carefully holding back a giggle at his reaction.
"Great," he said, "uh … I don't really know how all of it works," he warned.
"Me neither," Willow admitted. "But maybe we can figure it out." She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. "Together."
"Together," Hunter smiled. "I like the sound of that." He glanced up at Lil Rascal and huffed a laugh before turning in his seat and falling backwards to lay on the bed. Then he looked at her with that adorable blush and patted the spot next to him. Willow couldn't stifle her giggles as she accepted the invitation and fell back as well to curl into his side.
"Can I tell you something?" Hunter asked.
"Of course," Willow said.
"I might have had a crush on you for the last few weeks."
Willow gasped, then smiled and leaned even harder into him. "Can I tell you something?" she echoed.
"Of course," he said back, a smile in the words.
"I've felt the same way about you."
When Luz came looking for Willow about ten minutes later, she opened Hunter's door — without knocking — to ask if he'd seen her … but her words died in her throat. She gasped at the sight of Willow and Hunter fast asleep on his bed, cuddling like sea otters from back home.
She silently squealed and danced in place a little before a quiet buzz and chirp from Clover and Lil Rascal sent her silently back out the door, closing it with nary a click. A few minutes later, the door opened a little to let Luz take a picture with Eda's scroll.
Posterity! For their eventual wedding!