the next day
Willow lay her head in hunters lap, trying and failing not to fall asleep. The beat of hunter’s heart was soothing enough for her to doze off occasionally. Hunter leaned over to kiss her awake, and ask if she wanted him to go home, so she could go to bed. She said no every time. She basked in the boy’s heat as he massaged her scalp. She wished she could take a photo of this moment and keep it still forever. It was a little past 10 am when willow awoke with the blankets covering her body with hunter nowhere to be found. Willow had fallen asleep, and hunter had gone home. She was sad he had left, but she couldn’t help the smile that fell on her face when the memories of the night came back to her. she conjured her scroll to message hunter.
Hello_willow: hey are you free today?
RULERSREACHF4N: yes, of course, luz went out with amity today and will be spending the night at her house tonight. So, I’m free all day today and tomorrow.
Hello_willow: sleepover?
RULERSREACHF4N: please?
Willow’s giggles echoed through her bedroom into her bathroom, where she got ready for the day. she picked her outfit for the day with hunter in mind. a small navy-blue camisole with white and yellow flowers embroidered on the neckline, and her long flowy white pants. ‘Perfect’ she thought as she studied herself in the mirror, something was missing, though and so she replaced her silver horn-rimmed glasses with her classy gold ones. Putting her gold hoops and necklaces in place. Now, this is perfect. She looked good, and she knew hunter would love it. These were his favorite earrings, after all, he had gotten them for her. and she loved them. When she walked out of her restroom, she found a note and a small box on her bedside table. The note was from hunter, “a sweet gift for a sweet girl” it read. She turned the words over in her head and Willow blushed. She opened the box to find a small raspberry macaroon inside a plastic bag, tied with pink string. Oh! titan, she felt faint, her face warmed and her ears twitched. Hunter had managed to get her favorite human snack in a matter of hours. But how? Willow could ask about that later when she saw hunter, for now, she took the note and placed it in her dresser drawer underneath her photos and letters for her scrapbook, from her good friends. She grabbed her bag and placed the macaroon in its pocket, ‘always so sweet’ she thought of the boy and his gap-toothed smile as she set off downstairs to greet her parents. Her dad was downstairs reading the news while he drank his morning coffee, and her papa cooking a griffin egg in the kitchen. She kissed her dad on the cheek as she told him good morning. “You look nice!” he raved, “where you headed?” he inquired. “owl house” she said smoothly, “you mind if I spend the night over there tonight?” she asked her dad, “sure sweet pea” she giggled and walked away towards the door, her papa called to her from the kitchen, “forgetting something sweet pea?” willow turned to see her papa with a new warm cup of coffee for her, “aww thank you papa” she swooned, he dads were always so sweet. “Of course, sweet pea! Have fun with your friends!” willow smiled, she loved her family, they were always so nice and full of sweetness, “thank you, guys!” willow walked out the open door and started toward Hunter’s home.
Hunter was more than happy when willow texted him the following morning asking if he was free, she wanted to see him. He had the best time of his life last night and he wanted more than anything to do it all over again. he wanted to see willow again. feel her lips all over his face. He had left one of her favorite macaroons on her nightstand last night with a note. He had gotten it in the human realm with luz during his stay with Camilla. Luz knew that hunter liked willow before hunter realized he liked willow. It was a sibling thing, at least that’s what luz said. Or was he just blatantly obvious about his feelings? He wasn’t sure. Luz took him to their local café to eat with vee and her friends. He saw that they sold macaroons and luz offered to buy him one for willow. He knew her favorite flavor of everything. Strawberry Icee’s, mint chocolate chip ice cream, coconut caramel cookies, he could go on and on about her favorites. That was just how special willow was to him. He wanted everything that she liked to be known to him. The note had been written after he bought the macaroon, he hadn’t planned on giving it to her, but after last night hunter knew she would like it. Luz was leaving that morning to hang out with amity, his basically sister-in-law, and willow, and luz’s best friend. She was cool. But she also punched him in the face once. So, he was still on the fence. when hunter got out of bed to get ready, he felt a punch of nervousness in his gut. It hadn’t hit him yet just how excited he was to see willow, but also how nervous he was for her to SEE him, they had been in the dark last night so hunter hadn’t relatively cared about his appearance, but now he was racing to the bathroom to shower, gel his hair and put on clean clothes before willow would arrive. He wanted to smell good, so he washed his clothes with a nice-smelling detergent before he got dressed and sprayed himself with his nice cologne, a normal number of times. When he went downstairs to eat breakfast, he noticed luz hadn’t left yet, as her shoes were still at the door. Just then she ran down the stairs and jumped off the third to last step. “Good morning!” she almost yelled at him; luz was usually excited like this when she was about to hang out with amity. And it had been a while since she had hung out with her girlfriend. “morning” hunter smiled at his sister, a big ball of energy with a smile like no other. She stopped in her tracks and sniffed the air. “I smell Griffen eggs and toast!” she almost slipped on her socks running to the kitchen. Hunter ran after her knowing she would totally devour his meal if he didn’t catch her. “NO” he yelled stomping after her. she slid into the kitchen only to see three plates of eggs and sausage with raspberry toast. Her and hunter’s favorite. Eda stood in the kitchen cooking her last egg, While Raine helped set the table. "ABBA!!" luz jumped on Raine to give them a big hug, “Abba you’re here early?” hunter questioned with a smile on his face. He knew Raine had spent the night last night given their shoes were at the door this morning along with the stuff they brought last night. Raine and eda had been married for about a year and a half. and Raine still didn’t live with them in the owl house, which was strange considering they’d been together for years. But hunter never questioned it. But he did enjoy messing with the two of them when they were together. A redness rose to Raine’s cheeks at the coyness in hunter’s tone. Eda chuckled when she walked over with a plate in her hand, setting t down on the table and patting Raine on the back. Luz sat down at the table to eat before she left, hunter was glad he got to spend time with his family before they all left the house, and he was free to do whatever he wanted. With eda and Raine both being higher-ups on the council for the boiling isles he and luz were usually left alone at home. But today he would have willow over. And he wouldn’t be so lonely.
As willow walked the trail that led to the owl house, she thought about hunter, what he would look like when he saw her, what he would be wearing, what he would smell like, she thought of every detail while she waltzed through the clearing, the grass tickling her ankles and calves. She stopped to scratch her legs when a bush she hadn’t seen before caught her attention. They almost looked like gold bug-biter flowers, but different. She grabbed her plant guide from her bag and examined the pages. This wasn’t a flower she’d ever seen before, maybe native to the feet of the titan, they probably needed a warmer climate if they were growing over here. Ah, as she turned and examined the page, she found a picture that matched the one she was looking at. “Day Lillies” she whispered under her breath. They reminded her of hunter, the yellow and red that mixed on the petals were beautiful. Almost like a sea of wine and gold. They mesmerized her, she opened her scroll to look up more about these daylilies, she wanted to know if they were safe to pick and what they symbolized. She would love to give some to hunter. ‘Daylilies, used as a symbol of flirtatious behavior due to the habit of each flower only lasting one day after blooming’ Willow flushed. She couldn’t possibly tell hunter about these flowers. Was she crazy? They had just started- well she wasn’t even sure if they were dating, and gifts were definitely a big declaration, considering hunter had already given her a gift she guessed it wasn’t such a big deal. As she snipped the flowers one by one, she hummed a little toon, something her papa used to listen to, she couldn’t remember the name of the song. As she whistled the toon along with the humming in her brain, she gathered all the flowers up and tied them into a little bouquet. He would love them. She thought they represented him perfectly, red the strength of his exterior, and gold, the beauty inside. They were perfect. As she stood up and carefully placed the flowers in her bag, she began walking the trail to the owl house.
Everyone had left the house and said their goodbyes for the day, and willow was on her way! Hunter was so excited to see her, his willow. but he was nervous, this big knot welling up in his stomach, telling him something bad was going to happen, but he tried his best to ignore it, push it down, and remind himself that willow was the sweetest girl he’d ever met, and nothing bad could happen to him when she was around, just then there was a knock on the door when he heard hooty screech. “WILLOW, YOUR HERE!!!” hunter pulled the door open with such force he thought it would come off its hinges. And there she was in all her beauty, willow park, with her pretty gold earrings and matching gold-rimmed glasses, she looked amazing, she was wearing his favorite pants, the white ones that always made her look like she was floating, and a pretty top he hadn’t seen before, she looked beautiful, perfect even. He stood in the doorway while Willow smiled at him,” good morning!” she sang when she saw hunter, there was an air of nervousness to the boy, but it quelled when she smiled at him a bit longer, and he smiled back, his eyes reflecting the joy he felt inside when he saw her. she pulled her bag off her shoulder and rustled through it, only to pull out the most beautiful flowers hunter had ever seen, willow held the bouquet out to hunter with her grin a little bigger than it was before, hunter took the flowers from the girl and lifted them to his nose and gagged. They smelled horrendous, like an old rotting animal. Willow gasped as hunter tried to keep himself from throwing up, “are you ok?” willow was taken aback at the reaction hunter had to the smell of the flowers, she berated herself for not expecting the boiling isles plant to not have some trick up its sleeve. It was too perfect to be true. Hunter stoned himself and proceeded to place the flowers on the dining table, when he walked up to willow, she expected hunter to yell at her, for giving him such an awful gift, and for not taking him into consideration, but instead, he took willow into his arms and hugged her tightly. “they’re beautiful, thank you willow.” Willow almost laughed, she was being silly, hunter could never be mean to her, he was her best friend, they’d probably plant the flower or put it in a vase and laugh about it later. “Sorry about the smell, I didn’t even think to check if they were safe or not, that’s my fault.” Willow cursed herself for picking such a gross-smelling flower. “it’s all right will, they’re still really pretty” hunter silenced her doubt with his reassurance that though the gift was smelly, it was still special to him in the sense that it had come from willow. hunter finally let willow into the house to drop her stuff and take off her shoes, she sat her bag on the dining room table while hunter rushed to the kitchen to grab some snacks. Willow and hunter practically bounced up the stairs to hunter’s room, excited just to be in each other’s company, willow sat down on hunter’s cot, his bed made of pillows and fluffy comforters, like a giant blanket fort made of softness. She loved hunter’s room, the ceiling decorated with small glowing balls of light, shelves stuffed with cosmic frontier comic books and action figures, and all sorts of memorabilia from the movies and shows. Posters were hung on the walls of his favorite movies, like teenage mutant ninja turtles and power rangers, and his favorite of all how to train your dragon, he loved cartoons and animated shows. The art and work put into the show always had him reeling from the fact that humans were capable of creating such magic on a tiny or large screen. Hunter especially liked watching and explaining these shows and willow enjoyed having him rant and rave about all the characters and little details she would miss. She loved spending time with hunter, he was one of her favorite people, and she wanted to express that to hunter, so when packing for his house she brought three DVDs she knew he would love, his favorite at the moment, cars the 2006 animated film from the human realm, luz had given her some DVDs when they had first visited the human realm, and since this one had been one of hunters favorites, luz let her keep it. She also brought two movies they both favored, Howls moving castle, and spirited away, willow adored studio Ghibli movies, when she was introduced to them in the human realm, she binged every movie she could find for free. While hunter set down the snacks and drinks from the fridge, getting everything prepared for the movies he couldn’t help but stare at willow, the beautiful girl he’d invited over to watch movies with him. As she dug through her bag and pulled out the movies, she felt something in her pocket move, she stuffed her hand in and pulled out a tiny raspberry macaroon, she glanced at hunter, when she caught him staring her eyes widened, a blush rising to her face as she giggled, the boy’s lips were parted in awe at the girl and her laugh, it always made hunter feel a certain way when he heard it, his muscles relaxed and his mouth went dry, the demon flies swarming in his stomach just wouldn’t go away, willow always made him nervous, but in a way it also put him at ease, he realized he had been staring at willow while in thought for quite a bit, willow was staring back, a smile in her eyes, and a smirk on her face. "Thank you, hunter, for the macaroon... it was really sweet of you, and it made me really happy this morning." hunter had forgotten about the macaroon, he'd had so much on his mind that morning he forgot about the macaroon he'd left for her last night, oh my titan, he was so stupid. "Happy to help will" he said squeakily. willow was confused by the nervous look on his face "what are you thinking about?” the same question she had asked last night, a smile rose to hunter's face with unprecedented confidence. “You,” before he could think of anything else to say, he stopped himself from apologizing, his eyes full of love and admiration, willow just starred, unable to form words, she laughed as she scooted closer to hunter to sit next to him as he prepared their comfy spot to sit, he smelled good, like a warm sunny day and sweet honey. Like a dream of a childhood home, he turned his head as he straightened the blankets to look at willow. “Do you want to watch the movie now? or do you want to wait? Because we can do something else right now if you don’t want to watch the movie yet,” he was rambling a bit, but willow just laughed, “we can watch the movie now. Which one should we do first?” willow was excited when hunter pointed to her first choice, spirited away, hunter placed the DVD in its slot and sat next to willow, as they lay next to each other enjoying the film mid-day, hunter took his hand and hooked their pinkies, willow turned her head and smiled at hunter before she took her hand and intertwined their fingers together, holding his hand in hers. It was almost 6 o’clock by the time they finished all of their movies, hunter insisted they watch his last, as he wanted willow to enjoy herself, she had fun nonetheless and ended up laying down with hunter on the little pad of blankets and pillows, her back snuggled up against his stomach with his arms wrapped around her, she was in heaven, with hunters warmth encasing her, they were in their own little bubble, just listening to the credits of the last movie run in the background, while hunter held onto willow with all his might, hunter was flush against willows back with his arms wrapped around her waist, his face hidden in willows hair, he would often move his mouth to place kisses on the back of her head, her breath caught in her throat and she giggled, and hunter would laughed with her, willow twisted her body so she would be entirely facing hunter, her head resting on hunters upper arm, looking into his warm brown eyes, his long lashes fluttered, willow placed her hand on his cheek, caressing his soft skin with her thumb, hunter closed his eyes as his breath escaped his lungs, peace entering his body, his muscles relaxed as willow placed small kisses along his lips, his eyelids, and the tip of his nose. Hunter's ears warmed as willow left a trail of warm kisses on his jawline. She lifted her head to look hunter in the eyes before giving him a chaste kiss on the lips, she smiled when she pulled away to watch hunter closely, he surged forward so that their lips would meet again. willow gratefully gave him what he wanted, moving her lips against his own, needing to feel the warmth of his body pressed against her own, slowly applying more pressure to the kiss, sinking in his smell of honey and warm summer days, pure bliss flowing through her brain, hunters scroll rang, interrupting him and willow, they parted as willow turned her head to look at the ceiling, hunter answered whoever was calling. It was luz, just letting him know she wouldn’t be back till late tonight and to stay safe since eda was staying with Raine that weekend, hunter hummed an affirmative and told luz he loved her, hanging up and setting his scroll down, turning to see willow sitting cris cross on the mat of blankets, hands in her lap, smiling that gorgeous smile. Hunter loved her smile, he loved her, he loved willow, hunter sat up and scooted towards willow, so that he was right in front of her. he grabbed her hands to hold in his own before he asked in a quiet tone. “Can I kiss you again?” willow gave her consent with a nod, hunter leaned in to kiss her again, it was short and sweet and said a thousand words that hunter couldn’t say on his own yet. Willow was happy to accept the kiss, holding hunter's arms to keep herself straight. Hunter pulled away with a sigh. “y’know, I really like you will...” hunter said with a breath. Willow smiled. “I really like you to Hun.” Hunter blushed, he’d never been called that before, it made his stomach turn upside down. "But...” hunter led on, “but what?” willow questioned, “but what are we?” willow wasn’t shocked by the question, but she definitely wasn’t expecting it right now either. “Well…” she led on with a cheery voice, “were whatever you want us to be… if you want us to be more, we can be more” willow blushed, she hadn’t talked about this kind of thing before. But she knew in her heart what she wanted, she wanted hunter, all to herself, only for her and no one else. She wanted them to be together. hunter took a deep breath then, “I want us to be something more, if that’s okay with you…” he spoke with an air of confidence, like he’d rehearsed this before seeing the girl. Willow nodded, the demon flies in her stomach going absolutely ballistic, she was more excited than nervous in this moment, and it felt so right, like she shouldn’t be anywhere but where she is right now. “it’s more than ok with me Hun.” She spoke, hunter thought her voice felt like honey running through his veins, so syrupy and sweet, he embraced the girl wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head on her shoulder, a smile appeared on the girls' lips as she ran her fingers through hunter's thick golden blonde lock of hair. It was soft and smelled like peppermint, as they sat together intertwined in each other’s arms hunter drew circles on willows back and willow began to let her thoughts wonder. She thought about what life would be like with hunter now more than her best friend, and how all their friends would react. She thought about what it would be like hanging out with hunter every day and kissing him every day, feeling his warmth every day. Hunter removed her from her thoughts when he whispered in her ear, “what are you thinking about will?” willow hummed, “you” she said quietly. Hunter smiled then. Gently placing a kiss on her shoulder. Willow pulled his head up so that warm brown eyes would meet olive green ones. Willow kissed him slowly, crawling into his lap without breaking away from hunter. he caressed her back up and down gently, while willow tangled her fingers into his hair. Willow thought about how warm hunter was, how good he tasted, how seamlessly he melted into her. he was perfect. This was perfect. And if she was being honest, she wouldn’t want it any other way. bonus!!! Luz unlocked the door around 2:15 am. Walked inside, took off her shoes and threw her keys on the table. As she made her way upstairs, shrugging of her jacket, she noticed hunter's door was still open. When she peeked inside, the tv was still on with her best friend willow cuddled up with her brother, on a matt of blankets and pillows. She sighed, ‘finally’ she thought as she trudged to her room. Closed her door and fell asleep.