i completely forgot to post this here. here is some huntlow stuff for you! set in the golden garden au. willow has now met luz but hunter hasnt yet.
anyway hunters injured and willows upset
read on ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43083801
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Hunter always was on task. Never once was he late and more often than not he was early. Which is why Willow was anxiously rubbing her fingers across her knuckles. Ever since Willow had met Hunter a few months ago they would meet once every other week near Hexide on the grudgby field. They didn’t get to see each other a lot but when they did they always had fun.
He’s always early, why isn’t he today? What if he doesn’t want to be friends anymore? What if I don’t matter to him anymore?
Willow tried to breathe more consistently, Don’t let yourself spiral Willow, you know better!
But it didn’t help. Willow's head was a storm of intrusive thoughts, What if he got hurt? What if someone in the Coven found out and now he isn’t allowed to see me anymore? What if he’s-
No, no, no. She wasn’t going to let herself think like that. She just would have to extract herself from the situation. Out of sight, out of mind. He was probably fine. Just some mission that was taking a long time.
Besides, she thought, clenching her fists, If he’s not here right now I highly doubt he’s coming today.
Willow sighed, looking back at the grudgby field again before starting to walk back to her house. The sun was setting anyway. They would always go home after the sunset. No reason to stay.
Still, as she left she could feel her whole body ache. Either her anxiety was getting the better of her - again - or something was seriously wrong.
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Willow sat on her bed looking out at the balcony. The night was quiet and there weren’t many clouds in the sky, the moon shining down into the room. The beauty of it would normally be calming. But Willow's thoughts refused to let her off the hook.
What if he’s on a really long mission that takes weeks, even months to complete? What if he’s seriously injured? What if he died ?
Willow mindlessly tugged on her curls, tears brewing in her eyes. Her face felt hot with anger. What if he had abandoned her like Amity? Was she really just a weakling? She looked over at the picture taped to her mirror.
Her and her friends are all having fun at Grom. Amity was there. Amity had come back. She looked at Luz.
You’re the strongest witch I know next to Eda.
She took a deep breath, loosening the grip on her curls. She wasn’t weak anymore. Hunter never saw her as weak and he wouldn’t abandon her. Something was definitely wrong-
Suddenly Willow heard someone crash onto her balcony. She jumped up out of bed, hands drawn into a defensive stance as she approached the figure.
Willow blinked in surprise hurrying over to help the figure up, “Hunter, why are you here now?”
“Belos kept me in the castle but I snuck out and then you weren’t at the grudgby field so I came here.”
“You snuck out,” Willow said worriedly, “What if Belos punishes you?”
“Willow,” Hunter said, waving off her concern, “I sneak out every time we meet, don’t worry about it.”
“I sneak out of the castle to see you.” He repeated, shifting awkwardly in his place.
Willow grabbed his gloved hands, holding them close to her, “Hunter, you cannot sneak out of the Emperor's castle just to see me.”
“Why not?” Hunter said stubbornly.
“We both know exactly why Hunter,” she said, crossing her arms.
He pushed the mask of the Golden Guard up to reveal his face, his eyes pleading, “Willow please I enjoy seeing you, don’t send me back.”
Willow squinted, noticing a huge slash across his side profile. That hadn’t been there before. The blood on it looked fresh and the cut looked deep. She gasped.
“Hunter what the hell happened to your face?”
“Oh yeah that…” he said, rubbing his arm letting out a hollow laugh.
“Who did that to you?” her eyes looked as though green lightning had struck through them.
Hunter shivered as he tried to shrug off the question, “It’s not important, don’t worry about it.”
Willow stepped forward, their faces barely inches away from each other, “You,” she said pointing at him while he blushed, “Are not the Golden Guard when it comes to me, so don’t try to tell me what to do.”
“Come, I’ve got some bandages from Luz,” she said, going back to her room sorting through her desk drawers, “I don’t know healing magic, sorry.”
Hunter sighed, “I really wish you wouldn’t talk to Luz and the Owl Lady, you might get into trouble.”
“Well I wish you wouldn’t sneak out and put yourself in harm's way just to see me,” Willow said simply, pulling out the antibacterial, “but it seems neither of us get what we want.”
Hunter shut his mouth quickly. She smirked at his reaction before walking over to him, “I need to clean out your wound but it’s going to hurt.”
Hunter shrugged, “I doubt it will hurt as much as this cut does.”
She frowned as she brought the gauze up to his face, “How did you get it anyway?”
He flinched, from the sting of the antibacterial or her words she couldn’t tell.
“Sorry,” she apologized, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“No, no it’s okay,” he assured her, “It’s just-”
His breathing became quick and inconsistent as he tried to hold back his tears. Willow pulled the gauze away from his face. She gently took his hands, holding them in her own.
“Hey,” she whispered, trying not to scare him, “try to breathe more steadily.”
He nodded, watching their hands as he started to breathe more slowly. He closed his eyes before opening them again, taking a deep breath as he looked down at Willow.
“It’s okay, you can cry if you need to.” she assured him, squeezing his hand.
He nodded and she returned to disinfecting the cut. He flinched a little when she got to the deeper part of the cut.
“Sorry, but I need to make sure this won’t get infected.”
“It’s okay,” Hunter said quickly, trying to assure her that all was well, “Better than anything Belos would have done.”
Willow flinched this time, her breath hitched, voice shaky as she asked him, “What would Belos do?”
Hunter fidgeted uncomfortably, “Well after he gave me the cut-”
“He gave me the cut,” he repeated slowly, “and then he sent me to my room.”
“Isn’t the Coven full of healing prodigies,” Willow said, feeling increasingly concerned by her friend's situation, “Why didn’t any of them help you?”
“Oh um,” he rubbed his arm, “They are not allowed to help me.”
“Why not?” she asked, trying to keep her temper under control so as to not scare the poor boy.
“Belos doesn’t want anyone to think the royal family is weak in any way.”
“You are not weak for getting hurt,” she stated firmly, “and Belos should never hurt you.”
“I messed up,” he said softly, avoiding looking at her eyes, “I suggested looking into wild magic to help with his- current issue.”
“So let me get this straight,” Willow asked, as calmly as she possibly could given the circumstance, “Belos struck you because you tried to help him?”
“What do you mean, ‘I guess’ that’s what happened!”
“Our family was killed by wild magic,” He responded angrily, “besides why does it matter, he can always find me and punish me no matter where I am on the Isles.”
“Willow, you can’t kill my uncle.”
“I’ll get Luz, Amity, Gus, and Eda to help,” she said stubbornly.
“Willow , I am trying to keep you safe,” he said, squeezing her hands, “I don’t want you to get hurt because of me, I care about you too much.”
“Well I care about you and don’t want you to get hurt.”
Hunter sighed, “Willow you won’t be able to get rid of Belos and if he orders me I’ll have no choice but to fight you, and in that case you would have to kill me.”
“I am not going to kill you Hunter-”
“ Willow, ” he pulled her closer so she had no choice but to look at him and acknowledge his words, “I need you to promise me you’ll kill me if that happens.”
“You’re more powerful and I could never bring myself to harm you,” he said firmly, “If you ever have to face me I need you to kill me.”
“Hunter, don't make me promise that,” she said, tightening her grip on his hands, tears starting to descend from her eyes, “I can’t, I would never be able to.”
“Well if you’re going to attack Belos, I need you to promise me that.”
“Well how am I supposed to protect you then?” she whispered, feeling defeated.
Hunter gently wiped the tears from her face, “You don’t have to.”
“It’s not your job to monitor my wellbeing,” he said softly, hands holding her face, “You can’t always protect me.”
Willow caved into his arms, wrapping her arms around his waist. He blinked in surprise before pulling her closer to him. His cloak draped over her shoulders like a blanket as she cried. Hunter held her close, resting his chin on the top of her head.
“I wish you could just stay here forever,” she said, loosening her grip on him slightly.
“Just… with me I guess,” she explained, glancing up at him briefly, “I just wish you could stay with me instead of going back to that awful hell hole of a castle.”
“Yeah,” Hunter said, brushing the hair out of her face, “I do as well.”
Willow looked up and rested her hand on the side of his face opposite to the cut. She pulled his face closer to her own, inspecting the cut. Hunter blushed bright red, confused by her actions but he decided not to say anything.
“Sorry, I forgot to put a bandaid on your cut,” she said, blushing slightly when she noticed their proximity. She got up quickly and went back to sorting through her desk drawers.
She picked up the box of bandaids that Luz had given her from the Owl House. ( Now you’re a boo-boo buddy as well! ) There were only a few large enough to cover up the cut. She turned back to Hunter, sitting down on the bed. She brought her right hand back up to his face, turning it so she could more easily see the huge cut. She peeled off the back of the bandaid and carefully placed it over the wound. She placed the rest in his hand.
“Here, you should probably change the bandaid every day,” she said, not noticing that her hand hadn’t left his face, “Make sure it doesn’t get dirty, I’ll try to get some more from Eda though; you’ll need to come back tomorrow.”
“Sure,” he smiled, “I wouldn’t mind that at all.”
“If you get into trouble I’m going to be so mad.”
“I won’t,” he repeated, trying not to laugh at her adorably stern expression.
“Good,” she smiled, before noticing her hand holding his face. And how close their faces were.
Her face flushed brightly, as she pulled away her hand, “Sorry bout’ that.”
“Oh,” Hunter pulled back slowly, “it’s fine, I didn’t really mind.”
“All right,” Hunter said laughing awkwardly as he walked over to the balcony, grabbing his artificial staff. He pulled his mask down and waved back to her quickly, “See you tomorrow I guess!”
Willow watched as he shot across the sky, back to the castle. She sat back on her bed. Oh that poor sweet adorable boy. She wished it wasn’t like this. She wished she could protect him.
