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roxannarambles · 3 years

Text

title: ships that pass in the night (part 3)

ship: goldenlight (luz x hunter)

notes: I keep intending to stop this project and then I keep writing more. halp.

parts: Part 1 Part 2 -- Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part10 Part 11

thanks: Big thanks to Mel for the beta read <3

tags: angst, fluff, friendship, crushes, canon divergent

“All right! Forbidden midnight slumber party it is!”

It took some time, but Luz managed to scrounge up a bunch of blankets and an extra pillow. She wished she had a second sleeping bag, but the blankets were pretty fluffy, so they would have to do. She also grabbed a plate of chocolate-chip cricket cookies and some cartons of Apple Blood as a late-night snack. For one terrifying moment, she thought she'd woken up Hooty when she tripped on one of King's plushies, but thankfully the house demon continued to snore, blissfully unaware of her blundering about.

When she returned to her room, she arranged the blankets into a cozy little nest next to her sleeping bag, and cheerfully encouraged Hunter to have a cookie. To her surprise, he actually did, then drained a carton of Apple Blood and finally shucked off his boots, leaving them by the window.

"Hey, I didn't notice 'til now, we're basically the same height when you don't have those boots on," Luz observed, grinning as she held up a hand to compare. He seemed mildly embarrassed at her comment and squirmed away.

"I guess," he mumbled, and then changed subjects, looking awkwardly toward the floor.

"You, ah, ready to sleep, then?"

Luz nodded, saying,

"Yep! You can take my sleeping bag if you want to, might be a little more comfortable."

"N-no, that's fine, I'll be good with just a blanket."

Luz turned and went to blow out the candles scattered about.

"All right! Sorry I don't have anything better at the moment. I thought of letting you have the couch, but that might lead to some awkward questions from Eda in the morning."

"Yeah," he agreed. Luz returned and landed on top of her sleeping bag with a flop, smiling at the dim outline of Hunter next to her. She felt a weird flicker of excitement as she looked at him. Oh, man, she uh, put their sleeping arrangements kinda close together, didn't she? She didn't mean to do that. Hm. Well, maybe she, uhh, kinda did mean to, subconsciously? Stupid subconscious. Hunter actually didn't seem to mind, though. He'd already wriggled under the fluffy pink blankets, looking rather content in the little nest she'd made for him. It was distressingly adorable.

Nervously, Luz babbled,

"Umm, probably feels like a pretty big downgrade for you, I'm sure beds at the castle are probably super deluxe, right? Probably like huge canopy beds or maybe waterbeds even, silk sheets, all that. Sorry about that."

He was silent a moment, then said quietly,

"I've slept on much worse, honestly. This is fine."

Brightly, Luz replied,

"Oh. Ok!"

His magenta eyes were watching her in the dim room, and she wondered how she could possibly fall asleep like this. Her brain was buzzing.

"W-well, goodnight!" she said, fluffing her pillow up, then shooting him a smile. She added,

"Sweet dreams!"

Slowly, he settled his head down on his pillow.

"Thanks," he said, tugging the blanket around him. His strangely captivating eyes closed, and his face relaxed a little.

Luz shifted so she was facing the ceiling, her expression taut. Urgh. Ok, sleepy time. Never mind how wired she felt. Just . . . act like it was any other night.

Luz closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

Sleep, however, did not . . . really come.

To Luz's credit, she really did try. There were moments when she slipped in and out of a partial sort of sleep, fitfully, but then she'd just wake again. Hunter kept shifting as well. Eventually, Luz heaved a sigh, opening her eyes, trying to see her alarm clock. She winced at the red numbers reading 2:30.

Her eye fell onto the boy next to her, and she noticed his breathing didn't seem particularly slow and steady.

Cautiously, quietly, she asked,

"You awake?"

It was too dark now to really see his face, but after a moment, she heard him reply:

"Yeah."

Luz exhaled a silent laugh. In a hushed voice, she said,

"I figured after all you've been through today you'd be sleeping like the dead."

She heard him shift in the darkness.

"Yeah, well . . . there's kind of a lot on my mind, I guess."

That made sense. Luz couldn't even imagine how it might feel being in his position. And even if she tried to imagine, where would she even start? She knew virtually nothing about him.

Reaching down, she picked up a little slip of paper she'd left on the floor next to her. Tapping it, a tiny sphere of light appeared from the glyph, casting a faint glow between them.

"Y'wanna talk about it?" she offered gently, giving him a crooked little smile. He shifted to lean up just a bit. He seemed to consider it a moment and looked briefly tempted, but then sighed and admitted,

"Not really."

Luz was disappointed-- she was so close to getting him to talk this time, darn it-- but she accepted the need for him to move at his own pace.

"Ok, how about this then," she said, as a new idea struck her,

"We can play sleepover games. I mean, since actually getting to sleep seems like a lost cause at this point."

His breath puffed in a whipser of a laugh.

"And what are sleepover games?"

Her brows scrunched up as she thought.

"Mmm, well . . . I guess the few sleepovers I've actually been to were mostly just telling each other stories and trying to make each other laugh. Oh! And telling each other our deepest, darkest secrets. Stuff like that."

"Uh . . ."

She quickly waved her hand in the air,

"Not that I'm saying we do that, of course, I was just thinking out loud. I know you like to be Mr. Mystery Man, it's cool. Although, I mean, I could tell you something, I've got a lot of stories you might find entertaining."

She watched as he blinked his tired eyes, thinking. He answered,

"Sure, ok. Go ahead."

She smiled, scooching so she faced him more fully, and hummed.

"Ok, let's see, let's seeeee . . . something good . . . mm . . . oh! Ok, this is a good one. So, there was this book series I was really obsessed with when I was younger. Well, uh, I still am obsessed with it, but I was even more into it when I was younger. It's all about this witch named Azura, and all the amazing adventures she has fighting evil and exploring the strange and wonderful world she lives in."

Hunter frowned, looking lost in thought.

"Azura? Strange . . . the name doesn't sound familiar. What era is she from? And that's . . . really odd, too-- I thought humans have almost no knowledge of the demon realm. How did you get a book like that?"

Luz paused and then giggled.

"No, it wasn't-- Azura isn't an autobiography-- fiction, Hunter, it was fiction."

"Oh."

Luz looked at him for a beat, and then her eyes widened.

"Oh, god, but wait a minute, what if . . . she is real?! I never really thought about it before, but the author could totally have been a real witch who hopped into the human world! Whoa . . ."

He looked at her, slightly concerned. Luz shook her head.

"Uh, sorry. That's probably a long shot, and it's getting sidetracked anyway. Point is, incredible book series, and I adored it. Little Luz used to run around with a hat and a broomstick and pretend she was Azura. Like, a lot. One year, you could pretty much always find me outside somewhere with that broomstick. My favorite thing was pretending I could fly."

Hunter rested his chin on a palm, settling in to pay attention to her story. Luz continued,

"It was my favorite game. I'd run around for hours doing that. I would concentrate so hard on trying to make it happen, just trying to lift myself up with the power of my own will. I started to jump off little hills or ledges because I figured I needed a running start to get going. Mom did not like that, she scolded me for doing something dangerous and eventually took my broom away."

"But, y'know, I figured out where she was hiding the broom and snuck out with it sometimes. One evening I was playing near the house of some kids I knew from school. They called me over and said they wanted to help me fly. They said they'd help me climb up on their roof and I could jump off from there."

Luz smiled wryly.

"Now, I wasn't entirely stupid. I knew, um, that I couldn't actually fly. But I was excited the kids wanted to play with me, and, well, my silly child brain thought it would be fun. And definitely the best way to test whether or not I could fly, y'know, just in case it was maybe possible. So the kids helped give me a boost so I could crawl on the fence and up onto the roof."

She grinned.

"Once I got up there I got a little scared, because it was a lot higher then I realized. I thought I should probably just get back down, but the kids kept cheering me on, telling me to do it. They were really excited. I felt like I couldn't back down like that. So, I backed up a little, got a running start with my broom, held my breath and jumped."

Luz acted it out with her hands, indicating a figure careening off a roof and splattering to the ground.

"I did have the foresight to try and aim for the bushes. But yeah, I went down and body parts went crunch and I broke a leg and sprained an arm. The kids were laughing and yelling, saying they couldn't believe I actually did it. Apparently it was hilarious. Somebody went and got their parent and then they called my mom and rushed me to the hospital and boy was mom mad. I was grounded for a month. Later on she reduced the month sentence out of pity, but, umm, yeah, it wasn't my most shining moment."

She could feel Hunter's eyes on her, and when she looked, there was a faint note of sadness in his expression. Wait, no, this was supposed to be a funny story, why didn't he think it was funny?

"Ahaha, but I only had the cast on for a few weeks. Mom was amazed at how fast I healed, so was the doctor. They said my bones practically bounced off the ground like a rubber ball, it was kind of a medical marvel. Maybe instead of flying, super fast healing was my magical power, huh?"

"What those kids did to you was awful," he said quietly. Luz stared at him for a bit. She thought about it, and then slowly, she sighed, fiddling with the zip on her sleeping bag.

"Yeah, heh, I guess. I don't think they really meant that much harm. But they did . . . kinda like to make fun of me a lot. I was weird and different. Made for an easy target sometimes."

After a moment, he said,

"I'm sorry."

She grinned and shrugged.

"Hey, it's no big deal. I showed them in the end, didn't I? A real practicing witch now, with flying and magic and everything!"

He looked at her for a while; it seemed as though he was studying her, trying to work something out. It felt a little weird, being so carefully scrutinized.

Finally, he asked,

"Why were you so focused on being a witch, anyway?"

Luz thought about that. It wasn't as though she hadn't been asked that before-- she had, although usually the question came from her mom or other adults and it was framed with a tone of disdain. Hunter didn't sound judgmental, though; just genuinely curious.

She shrugged again.

"I dunno. It was fun. I liked getting lost in those kinds of worlds. Reality seemed so . . . boring in comparison, you know? When I was pretending I was Azura, I was a powerful witch on amazing adventures, and I could do anything and be anything I wanted. That felt so much better then . . . uh, well. Just being Luz."

She glanced down.

"I guess I wasn't super happy with 'just Luz.' School was kinda rough for me, and I didn't exactly have a lot of friends. The books I read were a nice escape from all that."

She looked up, expecting perhaps pity on Hunter's face, or amusement, or dismissal; surely her silly childhood dramas were utterly meaningless when compared to the enormous strife other people had faced in their lives.

But Hunter didn't seem dismissive. If anything, he sort of looked like he understood.

"You said these slumber party games are about telling secrets, right?"

Luz blinked at him.

"Yeah?"

He rubbed at his undercut-- Luz had identified it as a nervous habit by now-- and confessed,

"I didn't have any friends either."

It wasn't exactly a surprise; Luz had guessed that might have been the case. But it still startled her to hear him actually say it outloud. She stayed quiet and waited, and he eventually continued.

"When I was younger, I . . . wasn't very popular as a powerless witch. I always wondered what was wrong with me."

Luz sat very still, not wanting to interrupt or distract him from the rare moment of actually talking about himself. Hunter's eyes seemed to be focused on some distant point.

"When Belos found me, it felt like my savior had appeared. He took me away from my broken life, took me under his wing. Explained why I didn't have magic. Gave me a way to find my own power. I thought I had everything after that. I had . . . purpose, a vital role in the Emperor's Coven, I had respect, I had . . . everything."

He sighed.

"But . . . I didn't really. People respected me, but I learned that was very different from being liked. People resented me, coveted my position, whispered about me getting special treatment. I think most of the Coven actually hated my guts. And eventually I realized what I was getting wasn't even respect. People obeyed me, yeah. But only because they saw the mask. Without it, I was nothing to them."

He looked at Luz.

"It was the Golden Guard they hated, and the Golden Guard they feared. Nobody actually knew me at all."

He paused.

"Except Belos. Or . . . at least, I thought so. Now . . ."

He trailed off, and it didn't seem like he was going to finish the thought. The room slipped into silence for a while. Hunter's expression in the glow of Luz's orb of light seemed soft.

Then, he looked back to her. Quietly, he said,

"You're the first person who's actually called me a friend."

Luz reached out, placing a hand over one of his. She squeezed it gently and smiled.

"And I'm glad I get to call you a friend."

He smiled shyly, and it looked as though some of his tension melted away, his body relaxing.

Then he was caught off-guard by a yawn, which made Luz giggle. She said,

"Maybe we should go back to trying to get some rest."

He agreed,

"Yeah, probably a good idea."

He settled back down and Luz extinguished the little light orb. Luz heard a quiet,

"G'night."

Luz rolled over, smiling, and said,

"Good night."

Luz slept soundly after that. She didn't wake until the sun had already long started to shine through her window. Her body felt heavy, and it took her a few minutes to shake the grogginess away.

When she finally did, she sat up with a jolt, looking beside her. The pile of blankets lay there scattered and abandoned. Luz stood, glancing around her room, worried.

Then she spotted a piece of paper on her windowsill, weighed down with a candle. She picked it up and read it.

Luz,

I'm going to find out more about what he's planning. Please don't try to follow me-- it would only get us both caught. I promise I'll return.

Thank you for being my light in the darkness.

-H

Luz felt a complex mix of emotions and a lump formed in her throat.

She sighed.

"Oh, Hunter," she murmured sadly.

Then the glass above her head shattered and she screamed.

"HOOTY-HOOT! GOOD HOOTY MORNING!"

"Hooty!" Luz scolded, picking up the note she'd dropped and brushing broken glass off herself.

"Oh, soooorry, did I startle you?"

"You do realize replacing these windows costs money, right?"

Hooty twisted around so his face was upside-down.

"I just couldn't contain myself any longer, I've been waiting forever to ask you about your secret friend. What's his name? Does he like riddles? Do you have any other secret friends I don't know about? Can I be your secret friend too? Can we--"

"--whoa, slow down," Luz interjected, "One question at a time. Um. Er. You're already my friend, Hooty, so don't worry about it. And . . . no, he's my only . . . 'secret' friend. Could you do me a favor and not tell anyone about him for now?"

"Ugh, that's what he said, too," Hooty complained, and Luz perked up.

"You, uh, talked to him? What else did he say?"

Hooty seemed already bored with their conversation.

"I dunno, something something what in the Titan's name are you, please stop yelling, let Luz sleep, blah blah. Hey! You wanna see the newest additions to my bug collection?!"

Hooty started vomiting violently, spraying bugs on Luz's bedroom floor. Luz backed away quickly, keen to escape.

"That's ok, Hooty, maybe another time! But, uh, promise me-- no word about this to anyone else, right?"

Hooty looked at her, agahst.

"About my bug collection? But I worked so hard on it!"

Luz sighed and clarified,

"No, not that-- the whole, uhh, 'secret friend' thing. Also, we gotta work on that term, maybe rename it, but I'll get back to you on that later."

"Oh, don't worry! I'm a master of keeping secrets! My beak is sealed!" Hooty assured her.

"Great, thanks Hooty!" she said, opening her bedroom door. King was standing there, and said,

"Hey Luz--"

"LUZ HAS A SECRET FRIEND," Hooty shouted, and Luz pushed her way out of the room and slammed the door, face flushed. King looked confused.

"Don't mind him, you know how Hooty gets, he says the most random things-- craaazy, am I right?"

King put his little hands on his hips.

"Yeah, whatever. You didn't come down for breakfast but Eda said I should ask first, can I have yours?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luz wasn't sure how many days passed before she finally saw him again. Honestly, it probably wasn't even that long, but was really hard to tell; each day that passed felt like forever, with how incredibly tense and worried she was.

But then one night, while she'd stayed up reading, she heard a gentle tapping. She was across her room in an instant, throwing her window open wide.

He was there, and her eye quickly swept over him, checking for injuries. She didn't see any.

He said,

"Hi--"

Luz yanked him into her room, causing him to yelp, then hugged him fiercely.

"Hunter," she said, letting the relief flood her. He smelled lightly of the brimstone air of Bonesborough, but she didn't mind. She let his warmth slowly envelop her.

Then she pulled back and punched him in the arm.

"Ow," he complained, sliding his mask off.

"W-what was that for?"

"For just leaving without saying anything," she said, glaring at him.

"I-- I left a note!"

"I was worried! Hunter, you can't just run off like that, headlong into danger! I know you're still kinda new to all this, but friends help each other out, ok? You could have been killed."

He hesitated, and it seemed to finally dawn on him how deeply his actions had affected Luz. He gazed downward.

". . . sorry."

Maybe she shouldn't have been so quick to forgive, but it was obvious he wasn't used to others caring much about his wellbeing. She touched his shoulder lightly and answered with a gentle smile,

"I'm just glad you came back in one piece."

He looked up at her.

"We still knew so little, I had to find out more. And besides, I had to return for this."

He pulled something from his cloak, revealing a familiar bright-red bird. Luz gasped,

"Rascal!"

The little bird whistled happily at Luz, bounding over to land on her shoulder. She petted him and then admitted,

"I didn't realize he'd been left behind. No wonder you were worried."

He reached over to her shoulder, ruffling the bird's crest affectionately. Quietly, he said,

"After all he's done for me, I couldn't just leave him."

The bird chirped at Hunter, as if in reply. He smiled faintly and nodded. It was terribly sweet to see they were communicating now, but there were so many questions crowding Luz's mind. She asked,

"But how the heck did you manage to get back without getting killed?"

He sighed.

"It was . . . a challenge," he admitted.

Luz turned and gestured to a corner of her room, where she'd recently accumulated a pile of beat-up, old pillows.

"Sounds like a long story. Sit!"

They both sat on Luz's makeshift 'couch', and Hunter began to explain.

"I had to slip past all the people Kikimora had on the search for me. But I knew I couldn't hide forever. It would be impossible to return to the castle without being spotted by someone, eventually. Besides, I still needed to learn more information. So I needed a cover story."

"A cover story?"

He looked to her.

"A scapegoat. I lied through my teeth. Said I'd been chasing down the one who'd stolen the key. Then I acted completely mystified when Kikimora saw me and went after me in a rage. I told her she was confused. We had an escapee from The Conformatorium a little while back, you see. She was never recaptured, despite countless searches. At this point, she's been presumed dead. But it made for a useful scapegoat, because she happened to be a shapeshifter."

Luz's eyes lit up.

"She, uh . . . wouldn't happen to be a basilisk, then?"

He nodded.

"Yeah, a basilisk. I said she appeared as one of the Coven's guards and stolen the key, and I'd given chase. So I told Kikimora that must have been why she was so convinced I'd been the one with the key-- she'd obviously disguised herself as me."

"Hm. That's pretty clever."

He winced.

"Maybe. I'm honestly not sure if Belos really bought it. It did seem like a pretty convenient story. And when he was talking to me, I got the feeling he knew I was lying. But he . . . didn't call me out on it. He didn't even seem mad. More like . . ."

Hunter paused, pondering.

"Amused, I guess? It was weird. And kind of disturbing. But then he told me something that makes all our work so far pointless anyway."

"What do you mean?"

His expression was grim.

"He . . . revealed the 'wonderful news' to me that the mining operations at Eclipse Lake had finally turned something up. They found an active vein. He didn't need the key anymore-- they have all the Titan's Blood they need now."

"Oh," Luz said, feeling her heart sink. Dispassionately, Hunter continued;

"He laughed and asked if I saw the humor in it . . . in the one thing I'd worked so hard to contribute ending up being entirely useless in the end."

Luz stared at him. Hunter's eyes looked glassy as he recalled things.

"Then he . . . told me not to worry. That I'd get a chance to be helpful soon. All I had to do was keep safe and stay out of further trouble."

They were quiet for a few moments. Trying to look on the bright side, Luz said,

"Well, uh, at least you were able to avoid getting hurt, right?"

Hunter nodded.

"I was lucky."

Luz mulled things over, petting the cardinal on her shoulder. A question that had been burning a hole in her mind floated back to her.

"You never did tell me what it was you found out in the first place, though. What made you actually turn against Belos?"

His gaze shifted away from her. He was quiet for a while.

"I . . . overheard him talking to the Titan," he finally said, voice anxious.

"Late one night, when I'd gone to his room. I wasn't supposed to be there. No one's supposed to be present when he speaks with the Titan-- only Belos is supposed to have that honor. I couldn't actually hear the Titan, though. Only Belos speaking."

Luz watched Hunter closely, her curiosity overwhelming. He carried on,

"He was talking about those who would perish on the Day of Unity. At first I thought he just meant anyone who tried to stop us, stop the event from taking place. But then I realized that's not what he meant at all. I think . . .the event itself is going to kill people, Luz. And, um . . . possibly a lot of them."

Luz stared.

"W-what?"

Hunter recited Belos' words:

"He said that 'all the unworthy witches and humans will perish in the ashes of the old world.' And that 'only the worthy would remain."

They both fell quiet a moment. Luz let out a breath.

"Yeah, that's . . . whoo, boy. That's probably not good."

"No."

Luz smiled weakly.

"I wonder who qualifies as 'unworthy' in his mind."

Hunter answered plainly.

"I'm not sure. But I do know one thing. He said that anyone using wild magic would be burned from the inside out. I don't think he was being metaphorical. I think if he carries out this plan . . . all wild witches will die on the Day of Unity."

Luz sat there, absorbing that. Hunter's expression seemed to twist with guilt and anxiety.

"I never . . . Luz, I swear I never thought he'd do something like this. I don't understand. He always made it sound like he was doing all this for the good of everyone. That he'd help bring order and unity to our land. But the way he sounded that night, it . . ."

He looked at her, his eyes suddenly fiery. In a determined voice, he said,

"I refuse to accept it. If that really is the Titan's will, then I'll defy his will."

Luz was lost for a moment in how badass that sounded, but managed to shake herself and reply with full confidence:

"Then we both will, together."

Rascal chirped on Luz's shoulder, as if putting in his own two cents. Hunter gave a dry chuckle.

"Well . . . I guess if we get obliterated, at least we'll be in good company, then."

"Aawh," Luz cooed, her eyes sparkling, leaning closer. "You think I'd be a great person to die alongside? That's so sweet!"

He pushed her back, feigning irritation, but she could see the smile he was suppressing. He chided her,

"C'mon, we need to be serious. I'm not sure what we should do now."

Luz stuck her hands on her hips. Brightly, she said,

"Well, all we need is a plan!"

Hunter glanced away.

"I'm not sure if it's that simple. I thought about interfering with his portal again, but it's too closely watched now. There's no way I could get away with it."

Luz frowned.

"He's already made a portal?"

Hunter paused, then said,

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know. He repaired the one that you gave him."

"What? But-- how?"

He shrugged.

"The Emperor's Coven practically has all the power and resources of the Boiling Isles at its disposal."

Luz thought of the hours spent painfully piecing a portal together from scratch and groaned.

"Ugh. Must be nice. We haven't been able to build another portal since our last one burned out."

He sighed, then said,

"I could try to help, but it's an area I've never really studied, unfortunately. I doubt we could accomplish it faster than Belos, at this point."

They both fell quiet for a bit. Luz tried to brainstorm.

"Well, ok, maybe we can't get him on the whole portal thing, but what else could we do? There has to be some way we can interfere with his plans."

Hunter looked thoughtful. He admitted,

"I did learn something new. I'm not sure how to exploit it yet, though."

Eagerly, Luz said,

"Well what is it? Anything at all would be helpful."

"There's a new project taking place at the castle," he explained,

"But everyone's keeping it pretty tightly under wraps. I asked Belos about it, but he said it was nothing I had to worry about. All I really know about it is what I've been able to learn from snooping around. We're paying a lot of money to get something mass-produced and shipped out in crates. What exactly it is, I have no clue . . . although apparently it involves the Oracle Coven somehow. The crates are marked with their symbol."

"The Oracle Coven? Huh. That's strange."

He nodded.

"Yeah, I can't imagine what it's for. But I know the project is directly related to the Day of Unity somehow. If we can find some way to disrupt it, then . . ."

"Perfect!" Luz exclaimed. "Then that'll be our plan!"

He seemed wary.

"Yes, but . . . we need more information to go on, first."

Luz considered that. She admitted, "Yeah, I guess that would be useful."

She watched Hunter, who seemed to be putting something together in his mind. After a moment, he said,

"I think I should go back and keep gathering information."

Oh, no. Luz didn't like the sound of that.

"I don't know, Hunter, that's . . . that sounds pretty dangerous. Don't they already suspect there's something up with you?"

He shook his head.

"It'll be all right. Belos might be suspicious, but he's not going to do anything about it. Not unless I give him a real reason to. I've gotten really good at sneaking around-- your invisibility glyph helps a lot with that."

Luz protested,

"Still! You could get caught so easily, and I wouldn't even know about it! Nobody could help you. I don't even wanna think about what he might do to you if he decides you're one of the 'unworthy' ones . . ."

"Look, I know it isn't ideal," he said, shifting to face her more and looking at her with earnest eyes.

"But I really am in the best position right now to get the information we need. Security at the castle is intense. Nobody is getting information out of there unless it's an inside sort of job. We have to take advantage of that. And . . . I don't think Belos would actually have me killed, if it came down to things. I think . . . he needs me. I'm not sure what exactly for. He never actually tells me, but . . . he keeps saying the Titan has a purpose for me."

Luz didn't say anything more, but the worry still weighed heavy on her. Hunter seemed fully aware of it. After a moment, he spoke again, voice softer.

"I promise I won't do anything too risky, OK? And when I get the chance, I can keep coming back here and updating you on what I've found out."

Luz's stern expression began to relax a little.

"I . . . guess that could work. If we made it a regular thing. That way I'd know something was wrong if you don't show up."

"Exactly," he said, and added,

"I was going to keep coming back anyway."

Luz processed that, then smiled just a little.

"Oh? You were?"

He seemed to panic and hastily replied,

"For, uh, y-you know-- learning about wild magic. That would be helpful, right?"

Luz's smile increased.

"Makes sense to me."

"Okay then," he said, awkwardly. They sat there for a bit. Luz checked her clock.

"Does that mean you wanna . . . stay awhile? I know it's kinda late, but we could hang out. I mean, learn magic."

Slowly, he nodded.

"That'd . . . be good."

And so, that night, a new norm was established: Once or twice a week, under the cover of darkness, Hunter would sneak away from the castle and drop by Luz's bedroom. These evenings always started out seriously, as they reviewed whatever new information Hunter had managed to glean and discussed possible plans; then they'd move on to practicing glyph magic.

However, after they'd gotten the important things accomplished and spent an hour or two working on magic, their evenings tended to devolve into something a lot more . . . frivolous. Luz would tell Hunter all about her week at school and the wacky hijinks she and her friends tended to get up to. Hunter would vent about the duties he'd been assigned to in the Emperor's Coven--which was mostly just busywork at the moment-- and talk about the ridiculous, petty politics of the various levels of command in the Emperor's Coven, which he did his best to stay well away from. Instead of just drawing glyphs, Luz also started showing Hunter other drawings in her notebooks, which were a hodgepodge of creatures, comics, and illustrations of Azura-related things. One night, she stuck an earphone in his ear, which confused him enormously until she explained MP3s and headphones. Even then he found the human technology somewhat mystifying, but Luz had a great time playing various genres for him and watching his reactions. To her dismay, he seemed to develop an affinity for the few Linkin Park songs she had on there, but in retrospect that was maybe not much of a surprise. Sometimes, when he was listening and drawing glyphs, she'd catch him singing along quietly. He had a surprisingly nice singing voice, but he'd stop and look embarrassed if he noticed she was listening in. Luz made it her personal mission to get him to do karaoke one day.

Another time, when it was late, Luz decided to introduce Hunter to Azura, and began to read it to him outloud while he lay on their pile of pillows. He interjected frequently with disgusted groans and complaints about how flowery, corny or unrealistic it was. Yet each time she finished a chapter and asked if she should keep going, he said yes. Finally around chapter five she laughed and asked him if he hated it so much, why did he want her to keep going. He'd glanced away for a bit before quietly admitting he just liked hearing how passionate she was about it. Luz's heart about melted.

Another night, Luz had commandeered the crystal ball and they flipped through channels for a program to watch. They found a show that Hunter really liked, which was a nature documentary about some bug-type demons. Luz found it absolutely fascinating, even though it would probably give her nightmares later. Then they watched some professional grudgby for a bit, before finally landing on a truly awful, incredibly confusing movie. They spent the remainder of the night watching it, trying to understand the plot and making fun of the awful acting. It was honestly amazing. Luz had never heard Hunter laugh as much as he did that night, and she had a feeling it was maybe the most he'd ever laughed, period. The night had ended with them throwing popcorn at each other, making an utter mess of Luz's room. It was entirely worth it.

It was now a Friday night, and Hunter was late. Luz tried not to worry too much, knowing that sneaking away from the castle was tricky business sometimes, but she couldn't help looking at the clock every few minutes while she worked on her Potions homework. Finally, there came a familiar rapping at her window, and she eagerly bounded up and opened the window.

"Hey," she said, smiling.

He returned the greeting warmly,

"Hey."

She took his hand and helped hoist him up into the room.

"How's tricks?"

Hunter made a sound of disgust as he pulled his mask off and shedded his cloak.

"Ugh. Awful."

"Why, what's up?"

He flopped down onto Luz's chair and asked,

"Y'wanna know what I've just spent the past six hours doing?"

"Of course."

He crossed his arms.

"I was ordered to supervise . . . a cleanup crew. A clean-up crew."

Luz gave him a puzzled look.

"What, like . . . cleaning toilets? What do you mean?"

"Hah! Worse then that. Ever seen a sligguth beast?"

Luz shook her head. Hunter gestured with his hands.

"Bout this big, yellow-green goopy bastards, lotta tentacles. A bunch had infested one of the castle storage rooms and made a nest. They leave behind this thick slime that just sticks to everything and the whole room looked like an entire army had vomited in there for a week or something, I dunno."

"Sounds . . . pleasant."

"Uh-huh."

"Wait, so what exactly were you supervising?"

He gave her the smile of a man who is very much the opposite of happy.

"The sligguth beasts had all been exterminated already. I was apparently there in my official capacity as head of the Emperor's Coven . . . to protect the clean-up crew in case there were any stragglers."

He looked a little dead inside. Luz frowned.

"Far be it from me to question the Coven's operations, but, uh . . . isn't that kinda a waste of your time?"

He flailed his arms and shouted,

"Right?!"

Bounding up from his seat, he paced the room,

"This has to be Belos' new way of punishing me. First all the paperwork, then babysitting the new recruits, and now this? He's seeing how much I can take before I crack!"

Luz watched him with genuine sympathy. Unhappy with how powerless she felt, she said,

"I'm sorry. I wish I could help somehow."

He looked up at her, and his tense expression softened.

"It's all right," he said,

"You already do. Just by being here."

"Oh," Luz said, feeling a happy little flutter.

"Well, uh, good!"

Hunter looked down at himself and tugged on his shirt.

"Ugh, I swear I can still smell them, though. I took like three showers, I think the slime somehow got absorbed into my skin?"

Luz came closer and took a tentative sniff.

"Smells okay to me?"

He chuckled nervously and answered,

"Guess it's just the memory burned in my head." Then he perked up a little.

"Sorry, I forgot to ask how you're doing. Hopefully your week was a little better than mine?"

Luz grinned.

"Didn't have any sligguth beasts in it, so I'm gonna say yeah, probably."

She cast her mind back and added,

"Although, uh. I guess it was a little rough. I sort of accidentally . . . exploded some things in Potions class? And now I have to do some makeup work. And kinda missed a field trip because I mixed up the day it was on. That sucked. Aaaand Boscha is sort of back to being a jerk to me and my friends. Oh, also, Eda tried to pull a heist last night and botched it, so . . . . hmm. Maybe not the best week."

He frowned.

"I'm sorry your week sucked too."

Luz shrugged it off easily.

"Eh, whatever, you're here now, so it's better."

Hunter's previously gloomy state seemed to evaporate quickly as his mind turned to their evening.

"I have some new ideas for that fire spell we were working on, actually."

"Awesome. Lemme get my notes."

Even though Luz had homework from Hexside, and in a lot of ways working on glyph magic involved some similar things-- lots of reading and research-- it still felt completely different. Sure, she enjoyed her classes too; there was a reason she voluntarily went to Hexside, and it was largely because she was secretly a mega nerd. But, working on glyph magic with Hunter was even better then all that. There was so much experimentation and creativity involved, and teaming up with Hunter made it twice as enjoyable. His enthusiasm was infectious, and he always found a way to surprise Luz.

. . . that said, though, Luz did have her limit on how much research she could do at once. After a certain length of time she needed a break, because her brain just wasn't going to focus on one thing forever. Unfortunately, Hunter's tolerance for focused study was far greater. When Luz was ready to do something else, he often was still stuck to some old, dusty tome.

Fortunately, Luz was also pretty good at side-tracking him.

"Hunterrrrrrr," Luz whined dramatically from her seat at the desk.

"I'm borrrredddd."

They'd been working for close to two hours, and while it had been fun at first, she was ready to move on now. However, Hunter didn't even glance up from the notepad he was drawing a glyph combo on. He simply replied in a mild tone,

"I fail to see how that's my problem."

Luz laughed.

"You're mean."

"Mmm."

Luz tapped her fingers on her desk, trying to think of how she might distract Hunter. Her eye fell on her stack of notebooks from school.

"Oh, hey, I forgot, I have something to show you!"

She grabbed a notebook and flicked through the pages, smiling when she landed on the right spot. She bounded over to where Hunter was propped up against a pillow.

"Check out what I drew during class!"

Despite still being very absorbed with whatever glyph he was working on, he glanced up at the notebook she held open for him.

"Hmm, what . . ."

He paused, blinking in surprise, and reached out to take the notebook from her. He stared at the drawing: two people in big, sweeping cloaks adorned in feathers, each of them wearing feathered, beaked masks, similar to masquerade masks. One of them was decked out in blue and black feathers, while the other was covered in deep crimson feathers. Luz had spent a lot of time rendering each of their outfits in great detail, with boots, gloves, and vests. The figures were pressed back-to-back, the left one shooting out a huge bolt of ice, while the one on the right was summoning a great ball of fire.

"You drew this?"

Luz felt her pride swell at the wonder in his voice. Cheerfully, she said,

"Yep! It's us as wild witches, back in the Savage Ages!"

His eyes grew wide.

"Wh-what? Really?"

He looked back down at the drawing. Luz pointed.

"Yeah, see, this is you on the right with the fireball, and that one's me-- I tried to make it similar to the ritual outfits wild witches had, but because the books are kinda vague I took some creative liberties."

He continued to stare in shock at the drawing for long enough that Luz started to wonder what his reaction actually was.

"Do you, uh, like it? I know my anatomy's not perfect yet--"

He cut her off, his eyes glinting.

"It's amazing! We look so bad-ass! Are we fighting something?"

Luz grinned, relieved.

"Yeah, I figured we were surrounded by like a whole hoard of demons or something."

He looked back to the drawing, and oh, Luz was so glad he liked it. He seemed so happy. After studying it a bit more, he said,

"Your interpretation of their style of dress makes so much sense. This here-- this crest on my mask, is that supposed to be like my palisman?"

"Yeah! I figured it would be perfect for you. I don't have a palisman yet, so I just made mine up."

A soft smile reached him. He continued to look at the drawing, and it was clear how much it had struck a chord in him. After a while he seemed to snap from his daze and looked at her again.

"And you said, uh, you drew this during class?"

Luz nodded.

"Yeah, I know I probably shouldn't, but the professor in Abominations class likes to ramble on and on, and gets on these tangents that are just so dull . . ."

He glanced away, rubbing at his undercut. Sheepishly, he said,

"I'm just . . . surprised. That, uh, you were even thinking of that during class? With all the interesting stuff going on in your life, I mean, that you'd still . . ."

He seemed to regret his comments and wanted to now abort finishing them. Luz just laughed. Lightly, she replied,

"What are you talking about, man? Our weird secret meetings are like the highlight of my week of weird and wacky things. Why wouldn't I?"

His expression was one of surprise and gently flickering hope. Awkwardly, he said,

"Oh. . ."

Luz wondered how this guy was simultaneously the cockiest little shit she'd ever met and yet still had absolute trash self-esteem. At least she'd been successful at distracting him from his overstudying.

Wait, that reminded her of something.

"Oh hey, that's right, I was working on something I wanted your help with!"

She bounded away, leaving a puzzled Hunter sitting there.

". . . what?"

Luz hauled the crystal ball off one of her shelves and went to deposit it in the middle of her bedroom floor. She then pulled her phone from her pocket.

"I'm trying to figure out how to get my Bluetooth to connect with the crystal ball. I got the idea the other day when Gus was telling me how these things work, picking up the signals that are broadcasted. It sounded so similar, I thought they might be compatible."

Hunter came over, looking confused.

"I'm sorry, what? Blue-tooth?"

Luz held up her phone.

"It's a thingy I select that lets two pieces of technology communicate with each other."

He came closer, squinting at the little screen, which was displaying her Bluetooth searching for devices. Warily, he said,

"I dunno, Luz. Human technology and witch technology may have a lot of surface similarities, but they seem to work so differently. I've never understood all that stuff you told me about computer chips."

Luz smiled crookedly.

"That's probably because I don't really understand computer chips either. But maybe none of that matters. They might be made of different things, but they still do very similar things. My phone broadcasts a signal, right? All we need to do is get the crystal ball to intercept it."

He sat down and tapped the crystal ball.

"Maybe? It sounds simple in theory, but it might not be so simple in practice."

Luz shrugged.

"It's worth a shot, right? Let's make sure we're on the same page first, though. Tell me how crystal balls work. Just a summary."

He paused for a moment.

"Ok . . . well, basically, there's a camera, which is an opticus demon fused with witch technology, and the information is stored in its brain . . . then we use Oracle magic to broadcast that information over a distance . . . the crystal ball receives it and the integrated Illusion magic recreates the information."

Luz considered the explanation.

"All right . . . that could work. It's not so different from how we do it? Except we use . . . uhh, radio waves? I think."

Hunter gave her a very skeptical look. Luz pushed on anyway.

"How exactly does the crystal ball receive the information? Do you know?"

He nodded.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that uses Oracle magic too. For both the broadcasting and the receiving. It's like telepathic communication."

Luz stared at the crystal ball, confused.

"But . . . how, exactly? I mean, to me, it just looks like a crystal ball. Is it enchanted or something? Or, uh . . . you know, is it like a training wand or your artificial staff?"

Hunter frowned in thought.

"Not exactly. Well, I guess in some ways. But, it's not just a ball, there's components in the base, look."

He turned the ball upside-down and slid open a panel on the metal base. Luz leaned in to look and said,

"Oooh, whoa!"

Inside was . . . not exactly what Luz might have expected. In the center was a squishy red mass of organic-looking material, which pulsed disturbingly. There were also two brightly-colored crystals slotted into the base, one glowing purple and one glowing blue. There were lines that ran from the crystals to the organic matter in the center.

"What's this?" Luz asked, poking the gross center mass before even considering if that might not be a good idea. It seemed to flinch at her touch and pulse more erratically for a moment, the crystal ball flickering. Hunter chided,

"Careful! That's part of an opticus demon's brain. You don't want to damage it."

"Oh, sorry. Also, gross."

He pointed to the rest of it.

"These here are magical circuits. The crystals store magical energy. This one's the Illusion Magic crystal and that's the Oracle one."

Luz enthused,

"Cool! So is that what's inside a training wand?"

He nodded.

"There is a small magic circuit inside those, yeah."

She reached for one of the crystals.

"So what happens if we--"

He quickly grabbed her hand, spluttering,

"Careful! I swear to the Titan, Luz, you have no sense of self-preservation!"

She registered his panicked expression and smiled sheepishly.

"S-sorry. I'm, um, very touchy-feely."

He stared at her a moment before awkwardly releasing her hand and clearing his throat.

"Just don't go around grabbing live crystal circuits, ok? You could lose an arm or something."

Luz felt a little wave of disappointment.

"So does that mean we can't take them out and make them do something different?"

He looked down at the crystal ball skeptically.

"These components are powered and enchanted to do something very specific. I don't think it's a good idea to just tinker with them."

Luz hummed.

"Could you touch them with gloves on?"

"Luz--"

"Or, oh, what if we used our own magic on them? Without actually touching them?"

Exasperated, Hunter said,

"What would we even do? It's not like we have anything to . . ."

He trailed off and seemed lost in thought. Luz raised a brow.

"Hunter? You good?"

He looked at her.

"It probably wouldn't work. But, uh . . . I have an idea."

Luz grinned.

"Experimentation is basically our secret club's motto! Go for it, man."

He rolled his eyes and handed her the crystal ball.

"Hold his for sec. But don't touch anything."

He went over and picked through one of the notepads he'd brought over.

"I've been doing some research on Oracle magic, ever since I found those crates at the castle marked with their symbol. Everything's still very preliminary, but . . ."

He found what he'd been looking for and pulled a sheet of paper out of the notepad and brought it over with him. It was a combo glyph, and a fairly complex-looking one. He asked,

"You said you have something called a blue tooth that broadcasts a signal?"

Luz handed him the crystal ball and grabbed her cell phone again.

"Yeah! Lemme activate it."

She scrolled to her settings and flipped it on, then showed Hunter.

"If it senses any compatible devices it'll show up here."

He settled the ball on the floor and prepared to use the glyph.

"All right. If it's similar enough to other signals, then I'll try to find it. I've never done this before, but if I focus enough on the intent, maybe . . ."

Luz couldn't contain her excitement, immediately cheering,

"You got this, Hunter! I believe in you!"

He rolled his eyes again, but he was also smiling a little. He held out his glyph combo and activated it. A soft, purple light emanated from his hand, which he directed at the purple crystal. He closed his eyes, concentrating. Luz watched with a big smile. However, it was hard to tell if anything was happening. She kept looking at her phone to see if anything popped up there.

Eventually, the soft light from his hand extinguished, and he opened his eyes. Luz looked on in tense uncertainty. She asked,

"Did it . . . did it do anything?"

He looked down at the crystal ball, then took the little metal plate and slid it back into place, before flipping the orb over rightside-up. He tapped the ball to activate it, and it glowed a soft blue. He said,

". . . maybe?"

Luz looked at her phone again, and then gasped. There was a string of garbled text in her list of detected devices. Quickly, she selected it.

All at once, the image in the crystal ball changed, and projected a picture of her cell phone screen.

Luz squealed with glee and clapped her hands.

"Holy crap Hunter, you really are a genius teen prodigy!"

He laughed, looking embarrassed.

"I, ah, I never would have even thought to try something like this without your wild ideas, though."

Luz flicked through her phone eagerly, finding one of her playlists and selecting a song. To her immense satisfaction, it worked, and the music started playing from the crystal ball.

"Aw heck yeah! This is the best!"

Hunter raised a brow and looked at her.

"Luz . . . did you want to do all that just so you could play your music on the crystal ball?"

She smiled innocently.

". . . mmmmaybe?"

He crossed his arms, asking sternly,

"And how, exactly, is playing your MP3s on the crystal ball going to help us with the coming insurrection?"

Luz gave a laugh.

"Ok Hunter chill, it's not like our popcorn fight last week was going to help with that either."

His serious expression crumbled and he immediately looked self-conscious.

"Th-that's different! We were, you know, we were taking a break then!"

She bounded up to him, beaming.

"And we deserve a break now! C'mon, we've worked hard enough for tonight."

He still seemed hesitant, so Luz pushed her phone into his hands.

"Here, you get to pick the music, whatever you want."

He looked at her for a few beats. He surrendered;

"All right, fine . . ."

And then broke out in a grin. Luz was confused until he scrolled through her phone's selection and picked a song. The second the Linkin Park song started playing, her eyes widened and she cried in dismay,

"Oh, no no no, anything but that!"

"You said I could pick anything!"

"Euuuhhhh I am going to now go throw myself out the window," she stated dramatically, starting to walk away. He chuckled, grabbing her shoulder and saying,

"Then I'll catch you."

"Noooo," Luz said weakly.

"You know you like it too, it's on your phone for a reason."

Luz protested,

"I don't!! I really don't I swear, I dunno how it got on there!"

"Uh-huh," he deadpanned, still looking at her.

"All right, all right," she said, grabbing her phone back and hitting the pause,

"We'll listen to all of them, on one condition."

Warily, he asked,

"What?"

She gave him a crooked grin.

"Karaoke. I wanna hear you sing it."

He hesitated, and Luz fully expected him to decline-- but to her surprise, he then smiled and answered confidently,

"Then it's a deal, human."

Luz laughed.

"Okay, golden boy."

She handed him the phone and gleefully got into position to watch. Hunter seemed ready but then paused to ask her if they might wake Eda up. Luz breezily dismissed the idea, explaining that once Eda was asleep, she basically slept like the dead. Hunter shrugged and accepted that, then hit play.

Luz was telling the truth-- she really didn't like the music all that much-- but that didn't matter in the slightest. Because Hunter went into things 100% and didn't miss a beat. He sang the throat-shredding choruses at full volume, crooned the softer sections with velvety-sweetness, and did it all with the pure ease of someone who'd listened to the same songs way too many times. Luz was incredibly tickled by the whole thing; she cheered him on enthusiastically, and he kept tossing looks and smirks her way as he sang. By the time he'd run through all the songs she had of that band, she was absolutely hyper.

"That was so good!! Gahh, I wish I could sing that well! You do realize you've missed your calling, right? Clearly you were meant to be a rock star."

He laughed.

"Not the kind of life I'd want. But I have to admit that was, ah . . . cathartic."

Luz was shuffling through her songs quickly.

"I wanna do a duet! I've gotta have something in here."

However, she couldn't find anything even remotely useful for what she was looking for. Honestly, there was a lot of garbage on there. She groaned in frustration.

"If I'd have known I was going to be stranded in another dimension for like half a year I would have picked my music more carefully!"

Hunter snorted.

"You know we have plenty of music in the demon realm, we could just pick--"

"OH WAIT EVEN BETTER!"

Luz had landed on her meme playlist and cranked up the volume a bunch on the crystal ball, then started dancing along, giggling. Blank-faced, Hunter said,

"What. Are you doing."

"I'm dancing!" she proclaimed, wriggling back and forth.

"That is not dancing."

"It's the Caramell dance."

"You look like you're having a stroke."

Luz laughed and said,

"It's fun! C'mon, try it!"

"N o."

"Please?"

"No!"

She paused her dancing and reached out to grab his hands, giving him her absolute best puppydog eyes. Without a hint of shame, she begged,

"Pleeeease? If you do, you'll make me the happiest girl on the Boiling Isles."

Hunter stared at her, and she could see the exact moment his will broke. He began to blush and grumbled,

"Urghh . . . why do you do this to me . . ."

Luz laughed and let go of his hands so she could go back to dancing, shouting,

"Like this!"

Hunter watched her with trepidation, but Luz gave him another encouraging,

"C'mon!"

He groaned and imitated her swaying back and forth with an embarrassed smile, and she giggled,

"Yeah, now the hands!"

"This is stupid," he said loudly, but obeyed, lifting his hands up to his head and moving in time with Luz. The sight about broke Luz, and she cackled as they danced until she was light-headed. The song rolled over into the next one, and she grabbed Hunter's hands and started to dance free-style. They laughed and hollered as they moved, flailing about in a ridiculous, uncoordinated fashion, and Luz thought it was glorious. Positively glorious.

Eventually, in her erratic movements, Luz ended up slipping and grabbing hold of Hunter for support, but he was in the midst of a hop and quickly went down right along with her. Fortunately they happened to be near Luz's pillow pile and mostly fell onto those, Luz's head and back cushioned in her fall, with Hunter awkwardly sprawled partially on top of her. The fall hardly fazed Luz at all, as she just kept right on laughing, gasping for breath in between-- Hunter was giggling along with her, and it was the best noise Luz had ever heard in her life.

When their laughter finally started to abate a little, Hunter managed to get out a breathless,

"Are you ok?"

Luz looked at him, at those beautiful eyes of his still sparkling in mirth, at that wonderful, open smile that looked so at home on his face, and she felt her mind collapse into happy warm fuzz. Reaching out, she placed a hand on his cheek and confessed,

"You're adorable."

A lovely red blush bloomed on his face immediately, and it only made him even more adorable, and Luz couldn't bear it any more. She leaned in, closing the small gap between them. Hunter's eyes fluttered closed and he nudged forward. Luz thought she felt the feather-soft touch of their lips grazing . . .

The sound of Luz's door being swung open was a shock that jolted through her, followed by a very cranky voice:

"Word of advice, if you're having secret meetings in the middle of the night you might want to not blast music--"

In a desperate, horrified scramble, the two sprang apart from each other and turned around, faced with the sight of Eda in her pajamas, disheveled hair and sour expression. Everyone froze, blinking at each other.

In the background, Luz's music still played on the crystal ball, which was currently the Nyan Cat song. Eda's eyes quickly scanned the scene and her expression shifted into something incredulous.

"Oh. Wait-- seriously, this trash is your make-out music? Huh. Go figure. Well, who am I to judge, I guess . . ."

Luz made a sound akin to a squawk and Hunter stammered,

"N-no, it's not--"

Eda huffed and cut him off,

"Look, I don't care what you kids get up to in here so long as it doesn't catch the house on fire or get anybody arrested, but could you keep the ear-bleeding human music down to a minimum? Eda needs her beddy-bie time, or she's gonna be hell to deal with tomorrow."

"I-I'm sorry Eda, we were just-- I'm sorry, hold on, I got this--" Luz fumbled with her phone, why was it suddenly as slippery as a bar of butter in awkward situations?!

At Eda's feet, a very sleepy King came crawling into view, yawning. He murbled,

"What's going on, was there some party I don't know about?"

Luz finally managed to get the right screen up and stop the damned meowing music. A very sleepy and confused King pointed and asked,

" . . . hey, isn't that the guy we were fighting with at the lake?"

Eda chuckled and turned, shooing King away.

"Don't worry about it, King. I think these two want a little alone time, hmm? We can yell at them later, let's get back to bed for now."

Mortified, Luz called after her,

"E-Eda, I--"

The door clicked shut.

They sat there for a moment in the quiet room. Then Luz turned to Hunter. He looked panicked.

"She's gonna kill me."

Immediately, Luz reassured him,

"No, no she won't-- I'm sure it's fine. I'll go talk to her, ok?"

She scrambled to go and catch up with Eda, who was just about to re-enter her own room.

"Eda, wait-- I-I'm really sorry about all that--"

Eda waved her off casually.

"Mmhmm, talk later, sleep now."

Luz watched as she wandered back into her room.

"But-- aren't you mad?"

Sounding as though her mind was already shutting down again for bed, she turned and grunted,

"Hnn? At what?"

Luz glanced away and fidgeted.

"At, uhh, well, I guess the whole, meeting secretly with the head of the Emperor's Coven in my room thing?"

Eda snorted.

"You two've been at it for over a month, don't you think if I was mad I would have said something sooner?"

Luz blinked at her.

"You, uh . . . knew? About that?"

Eda looked mildly insulted.

"Give me a little credit, kid. It's not like you were being all that subtle. Or quiet."

"Heh, sorry--"

"That's not even touching on the fact that Hooty started giving me regular updates after I bribed him."

Luz scowled a little.

"Darn it, Hooty, I knew he'd rat me out! What'd you bribe him with?"

"A corn chip."

"Grahhh!"

Eda patted her head in a way that was half-motherly, half-condescending.

"The sooner you face the reality that there are no secrets in the Owl House, the better."

Then she turned and gave a short,

"G'night!"

Luz stammered,

"W-wait! Does that . . . does that mean Hunter's welcome here now? We don't have to sneak around anymore?"

Eda grumbled as she dropped down into her bed-slash-nest.

"I figured you were enjoying sneaking around, but sure, whatever, just please let me sleep."

Luz beamed.

"Ok! Thanks, Eda, you're the best!!"

She shut Eda's door and hurried back down the hall, eager to tell Hunter the good news. Wow, they'd been worried about nothing all along. Hunter had always been so wary about Eda finding out, he was sure to be relieved . . .

Luz paused in front of her bedroom door as an awful thought struck her. Oh god, what if he'd bailed out the window while she'd been talking to Eda? It seemed alarmingly likely, given his habit of vanishing. Luz's eyes widened and she grabbed the handle, yanking her door open quickly, half-expecting an empty room and another note left behind.

Instead, she startled Hunter, who gave a surprised little noise and looked up at her. He was seated on the floor, apparently watching something on the crystal ball.

"S-sorry," she said, closing the door and laughing nervously.

"I kinda, uh, thought maybe you might have bailed on me because of Eda."

He glanced away and admitted,

"Well, uh, I did think about it . . ."

"Hunter!"

He gestured at himself, countering,

"But I didn't!"

Luz smiled, and sat down across from him.

"True. Thank you. For staying."

She noticed the crystal ball was displaying some old video she'd taken with her phone of a praying mantis eating a giant bug. She'd shown him that video a few weeks ago, right? It was strangely endearing that he'd wanted to watch it again.

Cautiously, Hunter asked,

"So did you, um . . . work things out?"

Luz nodded, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Yep! Everything's totally fine. She's not mad at all. In fact, she said you're welcome here!"

He narrowed his eyes, looking deeply skeptical.

". . . really?"

"Yeah! She's actually kinda known about your visits for a while now, apparently. I promise, she really doesn't mind."

He remained quiet, but was clearly unconvinced. Luz asked,

"Why are you still worried?"

She watched as Hunter sighed and closed his eyes. After a bit, he answered quietly.

"I know that you've forgiven me for everything, Luz, but . . . not everyone is as willing to give people second chances as you are. There's a lot I've done to give her reason to hate me. I doubt any of that's really forgotten."

Luz felt a pang of empathy at his miserable expression. She scooched across the floor to be a little closer to him.

"Hey," she said gently,

"I know you've made mistakes, and she does too. But that doesn't mean we can't move past them. I know it's hard to tell, but Eda's more of a softy then it seems. I think she really is willing to give you a chance."

He looked up at her, and she could see the protest in his eyes before he'd even spoken it. She answered it quickly,

"And, yes, I think you deserve that chance."

He exhaled an amused puff of air and glanced away, idly watching the video of the bugs on the crystal ball. Slowly, quietly, he conceded:

"All right. I'll trust you."

Luz's heart soared to hear it, and she grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it affectionately.

"Yeah!! You are now officially welcome at the Owl House!"

The moment his eyes snapped back up to hers, a little pink dusting his cheeks, she realized she'd already sort of forgotten about the other issue that hadn't been addressed yet. She let go of his shoulder and pulled her hand back quickly, laughing nervously.

"A-and, uh, also . . . sorry if Eda made you, y'know, uncomfortable before, when . . ."

Oh god, this was awful, how exactly should she bring this up? Should she even bring it up at all? Well, it was too late now. Luz forced herself to continue,

"When she errrr, kinda jumped to conclusions, about, uhh . . ."

Oh, god, oh god. Luz squeaked out:

". . .W-what we were doing?"

He looked everywhere but her, mumbling,

"N-no, it's fine . . ."

Unfortunately, Luz's mouth kept going, because sometimes it was hard to turn off.

"Ahaha, yeah, I mean, she's just like that, she likes to tease people, but. But obviously we uh. Weren't. Actually kissing or anything, Eda's just silly! Very silly."

He blinked, and a light inside of him seemed to dim. He answered in a muted tone,

"A-ah . . . yeah. Of course. That's . . . a ridiculous idea."

Wait, this was coming out wrong. Luz tried again,

"I mean, uhh, I just mean that, Eda-- all I mean is she likes to tease--"

He looked at her, his expression a cool mask. Quietly, he said,

"It's fine. I get it."

Luz felt herself begin to panic. No, you don't! Quick, Luz, fix it, fix it! Uhh, somehow?

She stammered,

"R-r-right! It's silly since technically that didn't happen."

His cool expression didn't change at first, and he looked ready to end the conversation, opening his mouth to reply; but then his expression shifted, and he shut his mouth, blinking. Cautiously, he repeated,

"Technically?"

Luz wrung her hands together, smiling nervously and saying slowly:

"Right, sooo. Technically she was wrong. About what had, uh. Happened . . ."

She felt her pulse quicken, the sound thudding in her ears as she hesitated. Then she snuck a shy look at him, adding,

". . . so far."

"Ah," he blurted, awkwardly, but there was a clear tone of understanding in his voice. She smiled cheekily at him, feeling emboldened. He glanced away, rubbing his undercut, trying to smother the pleased little grin threatening to overtake his face. He looked back, their eyes meeting, and the electric little thrill that ran through Luz told her she was definitely in big trouble. She was falling hard.

"Aaaaanyway," she squeaked, struggling to change subjects before her face caught fire,

"I was thinking we should set up a day for you to finally meet Eda and King! I mean, in an official sort of way. That should be fun, right?"

He took a moment to process her change of topics, before nodding reluctantly.

"I . . . guess, yeah. I'll need to eventually."

Luz did her best to sound reassuring.

"Don't worry, I'll soften her up beforehand! And we'll be sure to time it better so it's not the middle of the night. Oh, hey, what if you stayed over tonight and then we all had breakfast together? That could work!"

He stared at her for a few moments.

"You . . . want me to sleep here tonight?"

Luz began to answer breezily,

"Sure, I--"

He raised a brow, a suggestive smile inching onto his face, and she stopped short, blushing furiously. She quickly amended,

"I MEAN, UHH, i-it was, uhh, just an idea! That popped into my head! I didn't mean-- I just was-- oh, boy."

His smile had grown to a sneaky little grin, and it became obvious he'd just been trying to rile her up. Before Luz could say anything further, he acknowledged:

"It is a nice idea. Unfortunately, I have to get back to the castle before 6 tomorrow. My shift starts early this time."

She blinked.

"Oh. Yeah. Ok."

They both fell quiet. Luz noticed the time from the projected image of her phone on the crystal ball and realized it was actually much later than she'd thought. Time always seemed to move so quickly whenever Hunter was over. Perhaps because she knew just how fleeting their time truly was.

She looked at him and smiled shyly, suggesting,

"Some other night, then?"

He returned her smile. His voice light and playful, he agreed,

"Next time."

Part 4

#toh #the owl house #goldenlight #goldenluz #luz x hunter #lunter #fanfic #mystuff #tropes #goldenlight fanfic

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