Archive of Our Own ^beta

Hunter had his arm around Gus as they stood on Luz's mother's front step. Gus clung to him, like he would disappear if he loosened his grip on the older boy. 

The sight of them made Luz's mother gasp, tears welling up in her eyes.

“Hi, Mom. I'm home.” Luz tried to sound upbeat, but it came out more broken than she had intended. Luz broke down and sobbed into her mother's arms.

She let them inside, out of the rain. Camila's kitchen was warm. Brown cabinets and yellow walls. Shelves brimming with human belongings.

He kept himself still, trying not to show how much pain he was in. He didn't even know half of the injuries he'd sustained. The effects from the draining spell were still evident; the right side of his body was sluggish and hurt, and his veins, which had dulled to a reddish pink, protruded slightly from his skin. His abdomen ached too, and blood slowly but steadily seeped through his shirt.

But it wasn't until his friends had all been cleaned up and bandaged that Hunter decided to care for his own wounds.

“Well, everyone else is done. Hunter, you want me to take a look?” Camila asked. “Those cuts don't look so good.”

As nice as Camila had been, he couldn't trust her, sorry Luz. He just couldn't. Plus, he knew how to tend to his own wounds by himself, there was no point in having her help him. He knew what to do.

“I am capable of handling it myself, ma'am,” he replied.

She handed him one of the first aid kits and a towel. “Okay, well, the bathroom is over there,” she pointed. “Is there anything else you need?”

“Oh, a sewing kit would be handy. If that's okay.” To his surprise, she handed him a small bag, it was about the size of Flapjack (who was currently cuddled up with the other palisman). It was basic, but it would do.

Once he was in the bath room he started looking over his wounds, his body was littered with scratches and a few bruises had formed on his skin, and his right side looked terrible. But surprisingly nothing seemed to be broken. 

But the worst of his injuries were the long slashes on his abdomen. He was glad he'd asked for the sewing kit.

He used the cotton balls and disinfectant on his wounds, it wasn't all that different from what he normally did in the castle after a mission gone sideways or after a punishment from his uncle. Titan, he was dead, thrown into a wall and ‘gooped’ -at least that's what Luz had dubbed it.

He didn't want to think about it anymore.

Then it came time for the thing he dreaded the most. Sewing up the horrible gash on his abdomen. It was still bleeding pretty badly.

Since they weren't very deep, the ones above and below didn't require much. But the middle one was nasty. It wasn't exactly the worst thing he'd ever had to sew up, but it certainly wasn't pretty either.

Using some of the disinfectant Camila had given him to clean everything before using it. Since the purple thread made him think of Darius, he chose that one.

He hoped he was okay. The last he saw him, he was unconscious, still under the effects of the draining spell.

He started working on sewing up his wound. He bit his bottom lip, trying to make the least amount of noise possible.

There was a knock on the door, and he jumped, pulling slightly on the needle in his skin by accident.

“Hunter, I've got some clean clothes for you.” Camila said, muffled slightly by the door. He didn't know if he trusted his voice. “Are you okay in there, Hunter?”

“Yes, ma’am, I’m fine,” he choked out.

“Okay, I'm going to leave some clothes at the door, alright?” 

“Alright.”

Hunter finished sewing up his wound and took a shower, washing away the blood, sweat, dirt, and other things he didn't want to know what or who it was.

Once he was done, he joined the others at the table, Gus was back at his side in an instant.

Luz explained what had happened to her mom, others jumping in when it would become too much. Hunter stayed silent for the most part.

They were given pizza and soup by Camila, which was better than the rations he received at the castle.

Next they got bedding situated. Camila let them all sleep in the living room for the night, none of them wanted to be separated right now, and she understood that, but in the morning they would get the basement cleaned up for him and Gus, and Luz/Vee's room would have a few more beds put in for Amity and Willow.

As they were setting up the living room for what Luz had said was going to be ‘the best sleepover blanket dreamland ever,’ he wasn't sure how he felt about it, but it made her happy, so he was fine with it.

Luz had accidentally elbowed him right where his stitches were, causing him to double over in pain.

“Oh my gosh, Hunter, I'm so sorry.” She was on the verge of tears.

“You're strong,” he wheezed, trying and probably failing to make a joke.

“I didn't mean to be so sorry.” She was hovering above him, arms reaching out.

“It's all good.” He gave her a thumbs up. “I'll just… ima just sit here for a minute.”

Soon enough they were finished with the monstrosity of blankets and pillows, and he had to admit it was pretty comfy.

It didn't take long for everyone to fall asleep quickly, well everyone except for Hunter. He just couldn't sleep, not with the random noises, the little lights that looked like glowing eyes in the dark, or when a ‘car’ blasting music and shaking the house like it owed them snails would pass by. Everything had him on edge. 

He didn't know how the others had crashed so fast. Unfortunately it seems that the sleep they were getting wasn't the best. He heard sniffles and quiet crying every so often. Willow called out for her dads in her sleep. Gus was still by his side, even in sleep, he would reach out, checking if he was still there.

Flapjack chirped at him with concern. 

“m’ fine, flap,” he whispered to his bird. He didn't seem convinced but curled up against his neck anyway.

Hunter wasn't sure when he finally drifted off to sleep. But he definitely knew how he woke up, screaming. At the top of his lungs, screaming. He bolted up, sweat making his hair stick to his forehead.

“Hunter, are you okay?” Luz asked beside him.

He was breathing heavily, he feverishly looked around the room. Nothing seemed wrong, at least, nothing was worse. He had woken everyone up though, he felt bad about that. He turned to look at her, nodding. “Sorry, bad dream. Everything's fine.”

“You wanna talk about it?” Willow asked.

He shook his head. "I don't remember. It just felt bad. I'm sorry for waking you guys up.”

“S’ fine,” Gus said, with a yawn.

They laid back down, but Hunter didn't sleep the rest of the night. Or the next night. Or the next. He napped throughout the day when he could.

He spent most of his time with Luz trying to fix the door, helping Willow in the garden, he and Gus made the basement more comfortable, Gus slept on the couch, and Hunter was given a sleeping bag.

His wound on his abdomen wasn't healing as fast as he would have liked, and the stitches pulled painfully when he moved. 

He had to retreat to the bathroom after one of his stitches had come loose.

Flapjack was worried and wanted him to ask Camila for help.

“Are you crazy? No, I'm not asking her for anything.” He frowned. “I don't know if we can trust her yet.”

His beloved bird sighed. Clearly tired of trying to reason with him.

“I'm sure it's just cus’ they don't have magic healing stuff here, it's gonna look different. I can do this on my own” He tried, he knew that's not why Flapjack was upset with him. Camila had been nothing but kind to them.

She seemed to be nice and said they could ask for anything. It was Luz's mom, for Titan's sake, anyone who raised someone like Luz must have been at least an okay person at worst. But every fiber in his body screamed that he still wasn't safe.

He didn't want to push his luck. Maybe if he knew what would set her off, then maybe he'd have an easier time, but she took everything in stride. When they destroyed the kitchen trying to make her something, when Willow broke a window, she was only concerned with whether Willow might have been hurt. “I can replace a window,” was all she said when he asked.

She helped teach him how to use the sewing machine. Consoling him after he started crying, because it reminded him of Darius. Camila asked about him, and Hunter couldn't stop himself. “He's the head of the abomination coven,” he sniffled.

“The purple slime one?” She asked.

“Mhm, he's really nice, once you get to know him. He's the one who taught me to sew, and he was also a part of the plan to stop the emperor.” He wiped his tears. “I miss him.”

“He sounds nice,” Camila had said.

Maybe Flapjack was right, he was really starting to trust her. But the thought of asking for help made his blood run cold. He would be fine. He had to be fine

No matter how much he cleaned and reapplied bandages the scratch across his abdomen still remained angry, inflamed, and refused to heal. This had happened a few times before, when Belos denied him access to healing. It worked out in the end. So he wasn't concerned about it. Not at all. He was fine, he was fine.

He went on like normal. He didn't want to bug anyone. He cleaned it with more disinfectant and wrapped it back up. He didn't want to be a burden. 

There was only so much he could do though.

It came to a head a few days later. They were all watching a movie when he felt tired, he tried to stay awake, but after a few minutes of fighting it, he fell asleep.

He was standing in front of his uncle. He couldn't remember what he had done, but from the look on his face, it was going to hurt.

“Hunter” Belos took a step closer. “Is this the kind of thanks I get for taking you in, feeding you and clothing you.”

“I'm sorry, Uncle, I will be better, I swear!" He cried out.

“I'm tired, Hunter. Tired of the disrespect.” His voice was even, a disapproving glare plastered on his face. Hunter felt so small. 

He wanted to run, but his feet stayed glued to the floor.

Belos raised his hand, it contorted into the horrible green thing, sharp and dangerous. He swung down.

He woke up with his body feeling like it was on fire, his abdomen burned. He jumped up from the couch, nearly falling flat on his face. Willow and Gus, who had been resting on his shoulders, fell into the void he left behind.

He clawed at his abdomen, it itched and burned, like a swarm of fire bees had decided to make their home there.

He doubled over on the ground clutching his stomach, sobbing into the carpet. If his mind had been clearer, he would have hated how pathetic he was acting. He saw stars from the pain.

Someone was rubbing circles into his back and was whispering to him. Flapjack was nipping at his ears and chirping at him.

The pain had started to subside, he wasn't sobbing anymore. Tears still flowed from his eyes, and he was still gasping for air. He felt the carpet below him, his face itched, it was extremely uncomfortable, he started clawing at his face and hair, trying to get the feeling of the fibers off of him. Everything was too much.

Someone grabbed his hands, keeping him from doing any damage. Or any more, he wasn't sure.

Someone helped him through the breathing exercise.

Once he was thinking clearly, he was helped to the couch, he was too tired to protest.

Flap started pecking at his shirt, saying something about him being hurt, and he jolted up. “Belos, he was," he started hyperventilating again.

Flapjack chirped that that wasn't the case, something about his stitches. Without thinking about the people in the room. He lifted his shirt and peeled back some of the bangles.

His wound was still angry and inflamed, worse than when he last looked at it. There was a gasp, and someone ran off. Maybe Luz?

“S’ not that bad,” he mumbled, not believing it for a second.

Camila was called, and she arrived with a bag of things Hunter couldn't even hope to name.

“Hunter, I’m going to take a look, okay?” Camila said he just nodded, he was too tired to think.

He was laid flat on the couch. Shirt pulled up.

"He's got an infection, it doesn't look like he has sepsis yet, but it's close,” she declared after a moment of looking. 

“Hunter, did you use the sewing kit I gave you to do this?” Camila had asked after poking around for a second. What a weird question, of course he had.

“Yeah?” He replied, “I had to do it all the time back at the castle.”

“All the time?” She pulled herself together, she took a deep breath. “I thought you were going to sew up your clothes, not… yourself.”

He shrugged, wincing from the pain.

Camila sighed. “We'll talk about that later. I'm going to replace the stitches and give you something for the pain, okay?”

She turned her attention to her daughter. “Luz, take everybody outside for a moment. I’ll get you when I'm done.” Luz nodded and gathered everyone up.

She gave him a pill of ‘ibuprofen’ and wiped his wound down. She cut and removed the stitches. Then cleaned out his wound more. It stung. He winced again.

“Sorry, mijo. I wish I had something better for the pain,” she said as she worked.

“Like I said, m’ fine. I've had worse.” Hunter really didn't know when to stop, did he? "I've broken nearly every bone in my body, mostly my ribs and arms, and almost got crushed in an avalanche. And I've been in two air ship crashes in the last few months. I've had punishments worse than this.”

“Is that why you have so many scars?” She mumbled with a sigh. “Hunter, that's not good, you know that, right?”

“What no, it's fine.” He tried to sound nonchalant, but he couldn't stop the tears from spilling. “I'm fine.” He pushed the palms of his hands into his face.

“You don't have to be fine. It's okay to not be okay, Hunter.” Camila rested her hand on his. “I don't know exactly what it is you're going through, but from what I've been told and seen, you have a lot of relearning to do when it comes to how you see yourself as a person, er, a witch? I see someone who's been forced to be strong and has had to take on so much more than he should. Way more than you should. I mean, you've held a conversation with me as I've been giving you stitches."

Hunter stayed silent for a moment. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“You don't have to call me that, you know. Camila is fine.” She patted his head. “Now, I think that's the best I can do. I want you to tell me if it gets worse, okay? Sepsis isn't fun.”

“I will, Camila, promise,” he smiled. And he meant it.

His friends were allowed back inside, they descended upon him immediately. Shouting over each other, asking if he was okay.

"I thought you were dying, dude,” Gus cried. Willow nodded as she stroked Hunter's hair.

“Guys, I'm fine. Really. Just tired and an idiot.” He sighed.

“So what even happened?” Amity asked.

“So uh, turns out you shouldn't use a sewing kit to give yourself stitches, or so I've heard.” Hunter scratched the side of his head.

“You did what?” Vee gasped. 

“Hunter, noooo. Why would you do that?” Luz squished his face.

“Alright, stop bugging him.” Camila tapped Luz on the shoulder.

“I’m not bugging him, I’m loving him,” she argued.

“Go love your girlfriend or something, my face is not to be squished”

Luz squished his face more. “Sorry, what? I can't hear you, you're too squashed.”

“I would hunt you down if I didn't hurt so much.” He flicked her forehead.

“HA hunter pun,” Luz giggled.

It took him a second to realize what she meant. “I hate you,” he grumbled, crossing his arms.

“No, you don't." She stuck her tongue out at him.

“Can I squish your face, Hunter?” Willow asked above him.

“Maybe,” Hunter mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

“Alright that's enough, the only one squishing his face is me.” Gus pointed his thumb at himself.

They all laughed. Hunter thought he might pop a stitch.