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sergeantsporks · 3 years

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Do You Want the Knife You Left In My Back, or Can I Keep It?

Rating: Teen and up, Gen

An injured Hunter wanders into Hexside. What was Luz supposed to do, just let him bleed out on the floor?

Ch 2/5: Settling In

Ch 1

Ao3

Hunter woke up facedown on a couch. His back ached and throbbed, and he felt weak all over. Ugh—

“Hello!”

Hunter yelped as a bird—worm—thing—stuck its head in his face.

“Luuuuuuuz, he’s uuuuuuuup!”

The human shooed the bird-worm-thing out of Hunter’s face. “Hey! Get out of his personal space, Hooty!”

Hunter groaned, putting his face back in the couch. “Where am I?”

“The owl house,” Luz replied casually.

Hunter yelped again, rolling off of the couch. “I can’t be—” the movement sent spikes of pain hammering through his nerves, and his vision went spotty. His stomach heaved, and he retched, shaking. “Hngh—”

“Whoa, hey!” Luz knelt next to him. “You can’t be moving around! You just got stabbed, for titan’s sake, Hunter!”

“Remember!” the owl lady’s voice called from another room, “You’re cleaning up after him, Luz!”

Hunter’s face heated up. “I don’t—need—to be taken care of—”

He tried to push himself up, but another wave of pain swept over him, and everything went black for a minute. When he woke up again, he was back on the couch, Luz crouching next to him.

“You really shouldn’t move. Viney said it’s going to take time for your back to heal, and it would be… really bad… if you ripped out your stitches.”

“Take me back to the Emperor’s palace. Now.”

“See?” the owl lady said, poking her head in, “He agrees! Take the twerp back.”

“I’m not taking him back,” Luz said, exasperated, as if they’d been having this argument for a while. She turned back to Hunter. “I’m not taking you back. I’m going to keep you here, where you’re safe, until you’re better. Kikimora has it out for you, and you’re in no state to fight her off.”

“What else is new—I can handle Kikimora, I just—”

Luz pressed down on his shoulders as he tried to get up again. “Quit being so stubborn! You can’t handle her right now, you can’t even walk! What was the point of coming to me for help if you won’t let me help you!”

“I didn’t go to you for help, I went to you because if I didn’t warn you, Kikimora would have killed both of us and gotten the Emperor’s sole attention!”

Luz leaned back. “The emperor… isn’t a good guy, Hunter.”

Hunter looked away. “You wouldn’t get it.”

“No, I don’t.” Luz sighed. “Why did the emperor send you after me?”

Right. There it was. The real reason she’d saved him. “’m not telling.”

“What?! Seriously?! I saved your life!”

“I didn’t ask you to.”

“You were bleeding out in front of me! What was I supposed to do, just let you die?!”

“Yes.”

Luz paused and stared at him. “Wait, what?”

Hunter looked away, a sick feeling churning in his stomach. “I failed, again—you’re free, and I’m not even close to getting you back to the emperor. My own coven member tried to kill me outright—no subtlety, no monster attacks, just stabbed me in the back and planned to pin it on you. And now I’ve been captured by the person who I was supposed to be capturing.” He buried his face in the couch. “You should have just let me die,” he mumbled, muffled by the couch.

Luz didn’t say anything for a minute, and then gently touched his shoulder. “Hunter? I wasn’t ever going to let you die.”

“No, because you’re ‘too nice,’” he grumbled, “I get it. Fine. You’re the good guy, I’m the bad guy, is that what you want to hear? Just… leave me alone. Please.”

“Okay,” Luz said quietly, “if that’s what you really want.”

Her footsteps padded away, and Hunter tried one more time to get up, but a wave of dizzy exhaustion swept over him, and he flopped back down.

The owl lady came through, making an “I’m watching you,” gesture as she left, and he sighed. Okay. He just had to be patient. He could ride this out, pretend to be helpless longer than he really was, nab the human, expose Kikimora, bada-bing, bada-boom, everything would be perfect.

Wait.

A bolt of panic shot through Hunter, and he rolled off of the couch, adrenaline battling exhaustion and pain.

“Whoa, hey, there, you can’t—” Hooty started, but Hunter shoved the bird’s face away with a groan, stumbling towards the door.

“I have—to go—back—”

“Luz!” the house demon called, “Your sad friend is trying to escape!”

“I KNEW it!” the owl lady’s voice yowled, and Hunter was on the ground in two seconds flat. He screamed as she put pressure on his back, his vision wavering out. “You were just pretending to be hurt to get in here!” the owl lady continued, “And you were planning to—oh, beans, you weren’t pretending, you just have no sense of self-preservation, titan, kid, what were you thinking, I coulda killed you!”

Hunter whimpered, blinking spots out of his eyes as she climbed off of him. He retched at the pain, his back screaming in agony.

Luz came tearing down the stairs two at a time, skidding to a halt next to them. “Edaaaa! What happened?!”

“He was making a break for it!” Eda replied defensively, “He is a quick little bugger when he wants to be!”

“Huuuunteeeer!” Luz groaned, “You can’t go anywhere, how did you even get off of the couch, you literally got stabbed today!”

“My palisman,” Hunter gasped, “It’s—all alone—” he struggled to get back up, blinking back tears. “I have—to go back—for—”

Luz grabbed his shoulders. “No. Your palisman wouldn’t want you hurting yourself. It’ll be fine for a while.”

Hunter shook his head. “No—have to—”

“You’re not going anywhere, Hunter, you wouldn’t even make it to Bonesborough.”

“It’s true,” Hooty chimed in, “The funny little demon lady is lurking out there. She isn’t getting any closer right now, but if you go out there… you’re toast!”

Hunter clutched Luz’s arm, barely holding back tears. She didn’t get it! “I can’t—leave it—”

Luz put a hand on his arm. “Okay. If it really means that much to you… I’ll go get it.”

Eda shook her head. “Absolutely not, Luz, that creep is out for you, too!”

Right. That was it, then. Luz wouldn’t let him leave to get his palisman, and Eda wouldn’t let Luz leave.

Then Luz did a. Thing. With her face. A strange pouty thing, where she made her eyes really big at Eda. The owl lady sighed.

“Oh, geeze, don’t make that—ahhhh, Luz. Okay. Here’s the deal. I will send Owlbert to check on the palisman. If it’s safe enough, Owlbert will tell the Golden Dork’s palisman what’s going on and where he is. Everyone okay with that?”

Luz threw her arms around Eda. “You’re the best!”

“I know,” Eda grumbled, “Now take care of your dumb Belos-ite, he looks like he’s going to pass out.”

Xxx

Hunter was drifting off to sleep when it happened.

Kikimora appeared in front of him. “There you are.”

He yelped, struggling up, but his back throbbed and he fell back down.

“Consorting with traitors now, are we? I never thought you’d stoop this low.”

“Bold—words—coming from a backstabber,” Hunter gritted out, “Just—finish it—then.”

Kikimora swiped her claws at him, but they went right through. “I’m not really here, or you’d be dead already. You’re a persistent little worm, though, aren’t you?”

“That’s my middle name. Persistent little worm.”

Kikimora traced one translucent claw in a circle. “I haven’t figured out how to get past the house demon yet. But I will. And when I do, you are a sitting duck, and your little human friend will be next. Look at you. You’re pathetic. You can’t even move.”

Hunter swiped a hand through the illusion, gritting his teeth as the movement made his back throb.

“Hunter?” Luz was standing in the doorway, holding a bowl of something steaming and a juicebox. “Is… everything okay?”

Hunter gestured to the air where Kikimora had just been. “Didn’t you see her?!”

“See who, Hunter?”

“Kikimora! Or—a projection of her! She was right there!”

Luz set down the bowl and felt his forehead with the back of her hand. “Uh-oh. Feels like a fever.”

“She was there, I saw her, I talked to her—”

“Hunter, I didn’t see anyone.”

“I’m not crazy!”

She sat down next to him. “I didn’t say you were. But you do have a fever, and you lost a lot of blood, and you haven’t eaten, and you’re probably tired, and you’re in a new place—”

“Don’t patronize me! I know what I saw!”

To his surprise, Luz nodded. “Okay. I’ll have Hooty check the perimeter, and I’ll call Gus—he’d know more about illusion magic than I would.”

“Really?”

“Of course.” Luz patted his head as she got up, ignoring his growl. “I said you’d be safe here, Hunter. If you saw Kikimora, if she projected herself in here, then I’ll look into it.”

He eyed her. “This doesn’t change anything. I’m still not going to tell you any information.”

“I know. And… that’s okay.” Luz took in a deep breath. “As much as I’d like to know what Belos is up to, it wouldn’t be fair to put you in that position. I decided to help you because it was the right thing to do, not because of any information you could give me. This isn’t a business transaction—you don’t owe me anything.” She gave his head another pat, and walked off.

She was making it really hard to want to capture her and bring her to Belos.

No. What was he thinking?! After the disaster this had been so far? There was a snowball’s chance that he’d be going back empty handed.

You don’t have to go back at all, a tiny, treacherous voice whispered in the back of his head. He squashed the idea. Of course he was going back! The only reason he’d thought that was because Kikimora would be there. And… he didn’t want to see her again, not the least because she’d attempted to kill him twice. Three times if you counted Eclipse Lake. Yes. That was it. Plus, he had to go back for his palisman, anyway. It might be okay hiding out on its own for a bit until he healed, but he certainly didn’t want to abandon it there forever.

He heard a low, worried warble, and Owlbert flew in, his own cardinal right behind him. Hunter sort of hated how much relief and happiness swept over him when he saw the bird, but he lifted one hand for the palisman to perch on anyway.

The cardinal hopped up his arm, and nestled into his hair with a chirp that Hunter took to mean ‘Hi.’

“Hey, there.”

The palisman snuggled down, gripping his scalp with its tiny claws. Hunter winced.

“Hey, ow!”

It chirped fiercely at him about how he needed to be more careful.

“I got stabbed in the back by my coworker, there wasn’t much I could do about it!”

“Awwww, that’s adorable!”

Hunter groaned as Luz came back in, fawning over the palisman. “What do you want?”

“Just checking in.” She made kissy faces at Hunter’s palisman. “Awwww, he’s curled up in your hair like a blonde nest, that’s so cuuuuuuuuuute!” She pulled out a rectangle and pointed it at him, tapping her side of it. “Say cheese!”

“Hey—heyyyyy, what was that? What was that?”

Luz made another kissy face at his palisman, and turned the rectangle around to show him an image of himself, his palisman firmly rooted in his hair. Wow, he looked awful. “Look how cute the two of you are—best buddies for life! I’m gonna show Amity! She can’t possibly still think you’re going to kill me in my sleep after she sees this!”

“Do not—don’t you dare show Blight that picture!” Hunter swiped at the phone, yelping as his back throbbed.

Luz skipped backwards. “Ehehehe, still too slow!” She grabbed her cloak, heading for the door. “Edaaaa, I’m going to the library, don’t kill Hunter while I’m gooooone!”

“No proooooomiseeeees,” Eda called back, “Have fun, watch out for Kikimora!”

Luz ran out the door. Hunter put his face back in the couch while his palisman chirped comfortingly, wiggling down further into his hair. Never mind. He wouldn’t regret turning that human in to Belos one bit.

Ch 3

#toh #the owl house #toh fanfiction #my writing #toh hunter #luz noceda #eda clawthorne #lil rascal

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