Day Four - Comfort

Comfort was not something Hunter was used to. Heck, growing up in the castle, the one place he could ever come close to letting his guard down was his room.

During his early years as a common scout, the barracks were filled with equally exhausted scouts, but they were all older than him and sometimes tried to remind him of it. A few punches to various throats and knees between legs staved them off, mostly. But he still couldn't let his guard down. Not fully.

After he got his room as the genius prodigy and then the Golden Guard, and the privacy that it entailed, he could let himself relax a little more. He could keep it as messily organized as he liked, study wild magic to help Belos's curse without having to sneak into the library, and could generally be … more of himself, by himself. But he could also be called at any moment by the Emperor for an important mission, so he still couldn't completely let his guard down.

Then came his brief stint of homelessness, which he refused to think about whenever possible.

After that came half a week staying at the Porter house, which was a step up. But he was a guest, still a fugitive, and still reeling from his trip into Belos's mind and the invasion of Hexside, so he couldn't bring himself to relax entirely. Then, of course, the Day of Unity happened and he and his comrades were trapped in the human realm.

There, he found more comfort than he'd ever felt before!

He slept in a bedroll in the basement with Gus, wasn't sure how everything worked, and the group were ever-searching for a way home … and he felt more at peace and comfortable than ever before in his whole damn life! In the human realm, he wasn't in constant danger. He didn't have to worry about being summoned for punishment for any large or small infraction or the scheming coven heads. He didn't have to hide his interests or hobbies.

Titan's Bones, he could sleep later than six in the morning!

It was only after they returned to the Boiling Isles, defeated Belos again along with the Collector, and helped reestablish order on the Isles that Hunter discovered the final step up in the comfort department.

Oh right, and he and Willow confessed their mutual romantic feelings and became official boyfriend-girlfriend. There was that, too.

Said step up mentioned previously … was Willow. She was comfortable! To lay his head against, to hug, to hold hands, to kiss …! Everything about her was so soft, and not just physically. She was kind, supportive, understanding … She made him feel safe, warm, and loved in a way no one ever had before. Even with so many people trying. (Luz, Gus, Camila, Amity, Vee, Viney, Skara, Eda, Lilith, Dell, Gwen, Darius, Raine, Eberwolf … The list went on.)

But Willow was in a league of her own.

The best night's sleep he ever got was when they were watching something on Eda's crystal ball after a long day of flyer derby practice. Hunter had leaned against Willow during the movie until he could barely keep his eyes open. He'd shifted without realizing it to settle his head on Willow's thighs … and promptly fallen fast asleep.

The epitome of comfort for him when he was awake was during Willow's hugs. Everything about her was soft and squishy — in a way that also made him blush like crazy — even with an underlay of hard muscle. He would relax in her arms and savor the moment, his thoughts quieting as he sunk into her warmth, her kindness, her love.

And kissing her? He couldn't even begin to describe that!

All of this wandered lazily through Hunter's brain as he lay cuddled up on the Owl House's couch with his lady love. He sighed contentedly as he curled closer into her, savoring her warm softness and the peace it brought.

'If only she knew how she really makes me feel just being close,' he mused.

Confidence was still not something Willow was used to.

For many years after Amity had cruelly — no matter how rational she'd considered it at the time, it was still beyond cruel — ended their friendship and the years of passive and/or aggressive bullying that followed, her self-esteem had been almost meticulously shredded.

Half-a-witch Willow. The nickname still haunted her in her lowest moments.

The only thing that had salvaged what little self-love Willow carried through her early years was thanks to her dads. Their unwavering love and support had ensured she knew she was in some way lovable. Then again, good intentions or not, they had forced her into a magic track she had no talent at, came to actively despise, and kept her in close proximity to her tormentor, so it still wasn't perfect.

Meeting Gus had also helped quite a bit in the later years. He was a prodigy where she was a late bloomer, but he knew very well what it was like to be an outsider being so young compared to his peers. They had bonded over anxiety and desire for a friend and supported each other through it all.

But great friend or no, Willow's confidence still suffered dearly.

Then she met Luz, and things began their turnaround. She stood up to Amity, got switched to the Plant track liked she always wanted, scratched the surface of her innate power with the Moonlight Conjuring, discovered the truth of Amity's betrayal and began steps to mend that charred bridge, confronted boscha and earned the respect of the school, planted seeds of rebellion, and even started her own flyer derby team!

But even with all of that progress, there were still pitfalls. Both Gus and Amity remembered the shy, insecure girl they'd first known. For the longest time, it was all Amity could see even now. At least Gus saw her for herself and urged her to embrace that side. Luz had always had unwavering faith in Willow's "awesomeness," but even she had seen the pale shell of the half-a-witch era.

That changed with "Caleb."

From the moment they met, when Willow brazenly yanked him from the sky with her vines only to sweetly offer him a spot on the flyer derby team, he only saw confident, kickass Willow Park. Future (now current!) captain of Hexide's flyer derby team. Even when he had brushed off Gus, Viney, and Skara as "pathetic," he still treated her with respect he believed a captain deserved. Her gently but firmly showing him the truth had clearly only deepened that respect.

It was only after they won and earned their title of Emerald Entrails, and then were thrown in jail to be shanghaied into the Emperor's coven, that Hunter saw the cracks in her confidence. Saw a glimpse of Willow's years of stacked self-loathing.

And even so, he still thought she deserved respect and freedom. Enough to defy a coven head, and by extension the will of his uncle.

Looking back on it during those few weeks between the club fair and the Hexside raid, that single act had fostered a seed of real, genuine, comfortable confidence in herself. And that only grew as she and her friends fought the Emperor's Coven, Odalia Blight, and Belos himself before being trapped in the human realm.

The time with Camila and Vee as they searched for a way home served to water and nurture that seed as she watched Hunter grow past his unthinkable trauma and blossom into the beginnings of his true self.

That strength was necessary for the terror of Hunter's near-death, only Flapjack's immeasurable sacrifice yanking him away from those icy talons. The confidence was real, now. And it gave her the strength to confess on the eve of their assault on the Collector, and then to carry her through the horrors that followed to save the Isles.

Her friends had dug the hole, but Hunter had planted the seed.

'I hope that one day she could explain to him what that means to me,' she thought, snuggling into Hunter's firm muscles on the couch at the Owl House.

It is said that a butterfly's wingbeat can cause a typhoon.

In many ways, this was the impact of these two teens on their futures.

Futures that would continue to unfold nestled in the love they had grown for one another.

Day Four is here! I love the balance and duality inherent in Huntlow, and I hope that came across well here. Have fun!