I didn't get to delve much into Hunter and Darius' dynamic in my main fic series, so I decided to make a spin-off oneshot series about it! Enjoy my possibly cringe writing!
Small TW: Panic attack in the ending bit.
For the first time in a long while since the Day Of Unity, Hunter had finally been able to relax for a moment and breathe. Belos was finally gone, and he was truly free to make his own choices... But, he didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet.
The grimwalker didn't really know what he was going to do now that everything was over. Hunter had wandered into the crowd of various witches and demons that had been recently freed from the Collector's control. He watched as families reunited, friends hugged, and even previous enemies exchanged glances.
Then there was him. The kid with no living family to reunite with.
Hunter sighed, and his face fell slightly. Titan, he hated this feeling. Maybe he could go and try and find Camila? Yeah, that would be nice! Though she's probably busy catching up with Luz after all this chaos...
Just as Hunter was about to go leave and take his chances talking to Camila, he felt a hand suddenly ruffle his hair from behind him. He instinctively began to swat the hand away, and turned around with an irritated scowl... Only for that scowl to instead turn into a shocked smile, as he to found that the hand belonged to a familiar face.
"You're a sight for sore eyes, little prince..." Darius smiled at Hunter.
"D-Darius! Titan, it's... It's good to see you!" Hunter grinned. He almost hugged the coven leader in the heat of the reunion, but stopped himself.
"Same for me. I see you managed to stay alive during the chaos after all... And here we were worried about your fate." Darius remarked, as Eberwolf appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and scurried up to Darius' shoulder.
"Eberwolf! You're okay too!" Hunter grinned, happy to see the former leader of the beast keeping coven alive and well.
Eberwolf chittered happily, running one of his hands through Hunter's front hair. As he did that, Darius noticed what Hunter was wearing.
"Hm, interesting choice of clothing..." Darius remarked, pointing at the grimwalker's shirt.
"Oh! This!" Hunter grabbed at his own shirt excitedly, "Yeah! These are wolves from the human realm! They're awesome! They live in packs, hunt prey, and howl in the forests!"
Darius chuckled at Hunter's enthusiasm, while Eberwolf seemed just as interested as Hunter was in the subject, hopping onto Hunter's shoulder to look closer at the shirt.
"Very interesting, you'll have to tell me more later. Speaking of later... Do you have plans on where you'll be staying now that your "uncle" is gone?" Darius asked, a faint tone of resentment slipping through on the word 'uncle'.
"Uhh, not really..." Hunter admitted, rubbing his arm. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, I was wondering if you'd possibly like to come stay with me for a while?" Darius offered. "With how long the house has been left to it's own devices, it's probably a mess at this point. I could use some help cleaning around there."
Eberwolf chittered a bit, offended. Darius rolled his eyes.
"Okay, MORE help..." Darius corrected.
Hunter thought it over. He didn't really have much other options for places to stay right now... The Owl House was gonna be full of people who were tired after everything that had happened, Camila had her hands full and going back to the human realm wasn't even possible at the moment. The grimwalker gave it a little more thought, before shrugging.
"Sure, I guess if you don't mind I could..." Hunter decided, to which Darius and Eberwolf both smiled slightly.
"Well, let's get going then. I live across town, so you might want to use that Palismen of yours to fly there. I'll just use my abomination form to get there myself ahead of you. We can meet around that one bridge that leads into the forest and out of town." Darius remarked.
Hunter was silent. Oh Titan, Flapjack... He had almost managed to banish the memory to the back of his head during everything that had happened since then. But now, what the heck was he even supposed to say here? "Oh Darius, I'd love to use Flapjack to fly there... But he's sorta dead, and he isn't coming back... Ever."
Okay, the more Hunter was thinking about it, the worse it was beginning to make him feel. Maybe he could just lie, that would work! Darius didn't need to know about all that yet, he could-
"You know what, we can just walk there... It isn't that far to reach the end of town anyways." Darius changed his mind after he saw Hunter's nervous stammering.
He wanted to know what was wrong, but he figured he'd have to ask about that later, when things had calmed down. Darius was very curious on a few changes about the little prince in fact, notably where his Palismen had gone, and where those faded scars on his face came from.
Hunter blinked. Was he stammering the entire time he was thinking? Titan, that's kinda embarrassing... Now Darius will definitely know something's wrong.
"Now come on... Maybe there's actually something remaining of my house that survived all this madness." Darius motioned for Hunter to follow him.
Hunter thought for a moment as Darius began to walk, and looked to Eberwolf, almost like he wanted approval to follow the ex-coven leader. Eberwolf chittered, and pointed ahead as if to say "Go on". The grimwalker shrugged, before following behind Darius.
Darius' home had surprisingly been left almost untouched during all the chaos that had occurred in the last few months. Only a few graffiti symbols here and there (One of which pictured him and Alador doing... Questionable things to each other's midsections).
"If I find whoever drew that, I'm going to shove so much abomination matter down their throat..." Darius promised himself, heavily annoyed by the sight. As if he'd ever do something like... That, to Alador of all people.
Eberwolf sniffed around the front door, before gesturing for Darius and Hunter to follow as he scurried inside.
"Well, Eberwolf seems to think it's safe inside..." Hunter remarked.
The two walked into the house... To find that the inside had been perfectly left untouched as well... Except for the kitchen, which was a complete mess. Pots and pans everywhere, splotches of what Darius hoped was hard apple blood, and food splattered on the floor. The ex-coven leader groaned heavily at the sight.
"Oh Titan, who the hell breaks into a house and only loots a kitchen?!" Darius exclaimed, heavily irritated by the state of the room.
Eberwolf chittered curiously, and sniffed around the messy kitchen. Hunter awkwardly looked around.
"Yeah, really weird..." Hunter clicked his tongue, "So uh... Where am I gonna sleep?"
"There's a room for guests across the hall..." Darius pointed away towards said hall. "You can't miss it. Dinner might be a little late today..."
A crash was heard, and they both looked back at the kitchen to see Eberwolf had gotten a pan stuck on his head, and was whimpering as he tried to get it off.
"...Or just never happen at all." Darius deadpanned, as he went to help his ex-coven leader companion.
Hunter looked at the sight for a little longer, before he began to make his way down the hall. He reached the end, and found a room with a golden name plate on it. What Hunter found weird about it was that the name was scratched out of it. He shrugged, and opened the door to walk inside.
Hunter glanced around the guest room as he shut the door behind him. It seemed pretty nice all things considered. The room was neat, there was a skylight over a bed against the wall that had a wonderful view of Bonesborough (Not that the town was much to view at the moment), and a desk next to another window on the other end of the room. The desk was the only really messy part of the room, with it having small splotches of abomination goo, mechanical parts, and ripped apart blueprints.
"Huh, that's weird." Hunter murmured, but chose to ignore it as he sat down on the bed.
The grimwalker put his stuff down on the end table nearby, and laid down on the bed. Maybe it was just the fact he had finally dealt with most of his problems in the world, but it felt as if this bed was the most comfortable thing his back had ever felt in years.
Hunter sighed contently, as he laid on the pillow, and glanced out at the setting sun outside.
Maybe for once he'd actually get a decent night's sleep!
It was about one in the morning that Hunter had realized he was not getting that decent night's sleep he wanted.
Somehow sleeping in the Boiling Isles even after Belos had finally perished STILL didn't stave off the nightmares in Hunter's mind. If anything, they were somehow worse now.
The grimwalker barely had to close his eyes for a couple moments for him to see himself crushing Flapjack in his hands, his green blood running down his hand like melted ice cream. Oh Titan, how warm it was...
Opening his eyes wasn't much better, especially with how dark the room had gotten at this point in the night. Even though he was awake now, Hunter still felt his heart beating in his chest, like he had just ran miles upon miles.
He could feel himself breathing faster, almost as if his lungs were trying to compensate for the rising heartbeat. Hunter looked out the window, using his left arm to lift himself up to get a better look. His right hand had the job of grasping his chest like his heart was in danger of rocketing out of it any moment.
The stars were still up in the sky, and the moon was shining down on the isles. Some of the rays even illuminated through the abandoned windows of the Archive House on the Titan's skull. It truly was a beautiful sight... It was just too bad Hunter couldn't enjoy it at the moment.
Just as the heartbeat began to get worse, he heard the door to the room opening with a creak.
Hunter nearly fell out of the bed. Someone was in the room! They were looking for him!
The grimwalker grabbed the nearest object... Which happened to be one of the unfinished metal parts from the desk, and held it like a baseball bat.
He looked towards the door... Only to be surprised by a familiar biped demon scurrying up to him.
Hunter stammered, and instinctively backed away from Eberwolf as he approached. The ex-coven leader seemed surprised by Hunter's state, and sniffed him curiously. After doing so, he looked up at the distressed grimwalker with a slight frown.
Eberwolf leapt up onto the bed, and patted it, as if he was trying to get Hunter to get back on it.
But Hunter seemed hesitant to follow Eberwolf's wants, and only stood in place. His heart continuing to beat fast, and his grip on the makeshift metal weapon unmoving.
Eberwolf sighed, and did something that slightly confused Hunter... He kneeled down, and lowered his head. Positioning himself in a way that made it seem like Eberwolf wanted him to... Pet him?
Hunter slowly and hesitantly took his right hand off the metal... And began to softly pet Eberwolf's head.
Eberwolf smiled, and leaned into the pets. Hunter could feel himself slowly begin to calm down as he stroked Eberwolf's head. He got more confident in his petting, and did it more as he sat down on the bed next to the furry biped demon.
Eberwolf seemed to enjoy the petting, and laid down as Hunter continued to do so. The grimwalker moved on to Eberwolf's back section as he laid down, much to the happiness of the demon.
Hunter had put down the metal piece down on the desk at this point, and had gotten fully back onto the bed to pet Eberwolf more while still being able to be comfy himself. He was thankful for the biped demon's presence right now, beyond thankful in fact.
"T-Thank you..." Hunter managed to finally say, laying back down in the bed, his heartbeat beginning to become normal once more.
Eberwolf hummed softly, before nestling next to Hunter comfortably.
Yeah... Maybe he could call this place a home.
I'll give a cookie to any of you in the reviews who can guess who lived in that guest room before in the past. :D
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