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Hunter found himself looking over at the alarm clock Luz had left behind in what was now his permanent bedroom - what was her old bedroom. 9:23am he read.
I haven't been up before 9:00am since I left the coven, he thought to himself as he pushed off the blankets and stood up. Letting out a yawn and stretching his arms above his head.
Looking around, he took notice of the odds and ends Luz had left behind. Some pictures, a few of King's plushies, or as he preferred everyone referred to them as his 'obedient servants,' a strange charger, scrolls didn't need to be charged though, a desk with a small mirror, as well as some other random trinkets.
Luz hadn't left the Boiling Isles permanently, of course. She decided that she would take the smaller room as Hunter would be staying in the Owl House full time now, and she was now going back and forth between the Isles and her own realm to be with her real mom too.
Eda seemed to think it was a good idea. Hunter was starting to appreciate the bigger space. It was a little bigger than the room he had taken residency in at the castle. Though, he hadn't taken the time to make the place his own yet. At least Luz's stuff made it feel less empty, he thought.
Looking over at the desk, he reached out and grabbed a small black comb that laid atop a few pictures that Luz had printed. One from what seemed to be a dance? A few others and the photo from the first Emerald End trails win. It was... nice she printed that one for me.
Comb in hand, Hunter brushed it through his hair at the slightest attempt to look presentable. He realized it seemed silly to want to look made up to go eat breakfast. Especially since no one else will be. But, he was still new to the house and it felt like the right thing to do.
Avoiding the mirror, he placed the comb gently back onto the desk. Glanced at the pictures that it was laying on before, and started to head out the door, closing it softly behind him, as to not make a sound.
Walking through the small hallway and through the living area, he noticed King still peacefully asleep curled up on the very worn out sofa.
He eventually came to the kitchen. Eda was sat at the table, seemingly half asleep with her hand holding her head up, snoring loudly on and off. Raine was by the stove, looking over at the table, gently laughing at Eda's current position, cooking something that smelt good but Hunter wasn't exactly sure what it could be.
"G'morning!" a way-too-chipper-for-the-morning voice came from behind him along with a swoosh of air. Luz most've stayed over last night, he thought as she raced from behind him and threw herself into the chair next to Eda, causing her to wake up with alarm.
Eda looked at Luz, hissed slightly, which Luz replied to with a giggle and then turned to Hunter as he stood in the doorway slightly overwhelmed by the scene. "Morning, Blondie. Luz wake you up too?" she asked with an exaggerated yarn.
Hunter shrugged in response with a soft laugh and walked over to the stove where Raine was now concentrating their focus. As they approached, Raine turned to him, "Hey, morning! There's some coffee I brewed earlier if you - wait. Can you have coffee?" they cut themselves off, remembering that Hunter was close in age to Amber who was definitely no longer allowed to have coffee.
"Of course he can have coffee, you expect him to deal with all of us without coffee?" Eda shot at the bard with a snort. "That - that's fair, well - help yourself!" Raine finished, and went back to preparing the food.
Hunter walked over to the cabinet and went to open it. Wait. Which one has mugs? he questioned, then shook his head still not remembering exactly which cabinet was the right answer, lifted his arm and opened the cabinet closest to him to find - Aha! He grabbed a white mug, turning it around to read it. Thirty & flirty?
"Oy! Not that one," Eda who was now up from the table, grabbed the mug out of his hand and replaced it with a plain brown one. He accepted the mug, filled it with coffee and sat down at the table across from Luz.
Sipping at his coffee, he looked over to Luz who was frantically going through what Hunter assumed to be her school bag. She let out an - "Ugh! I know you're in here!" and continued to rummage in the bag.
"That's a lot of frustration for this early in the morning," Raine noted as they placed down a plate in front of Luz. Then placed another in front of Hunter.
Luz's plate was filled with scrambled griffin eggs, a piece of bread, and what looked to be fairy bacon. Looking at his own plate, Hunter noticed he had the same but his eggs were a bit more seasoned and seemed to have bits of pepper in them. That's what smelt good.
Less interested in her bag now, Luz focused her attention on the food. Raine returned back to the table. Laid down a plate in front of Eda, placing a gentle kiss on her head and then gracefully sat themselves down.
Hunter looked over to see that Eda's plate looked like Luz's, and Raine's had looked like his own, peppers and all. They must've remembered we both enjoy spicy food. Huh.
"These are super good, Rainey! Way-to-go not burning down the kitchen and all," Eda spoke, knocking Hunter out of his own thoughts.
"Funny you still think I'm gonna burn the kitchen down despite the countless meals I have successfully made for you in here during the last few months," Raine shot back, grabbing Eda's hand that rested atop the table.
She replied with a soft, seemingly genuine smile which quickly turned into a laugh when Luz made a disgusted noise followed by - "You guys are so sappy. Bleh."
Raine, now gently laughing, looked over at Eda, then to Luz. "Oh, like you and Amity are any different?" They took a bite of their prepared food.
Luz blushed slightly, smiling. "I guess you're right," taking a bite of her food, then added - "Hunter knows a bit about being sappy now too," she said grinning.
"That's not true at all!"
"So what was that crow-call I was forced to overhear last night between you and Willow? Sounded pretty sappy to me."
"W-wha- you don't know what you're talking about! We were just planning!" he protested.
"Planning? What kind of planning?" Luz's grin was growing.
"Stuff! We were going to meet up later today!"
"So a DATE? A sappy DATE?"
"No! Mayb-no! It doesn't matter!" Hunter went back to focusing on eating his food and looked over at Raine, who was smiling, looking amused, as was Eda. "Thank you Raine, This is good."
"Anytime," they replied.
Eda interrupted, "Sooo, where will you be later today then? Mr. Planning."
"Just near downtown Bonesborough, by the library and possibly the community garden center," he said, then thought for a moment, "If- if that's okay of course. If you need me here to-"
"Of course it's okay, kid. Just let one of us know before you leave," Eda said, cutting him off.
Hunter, not knowing exactly what to say, simply smiled and went back to eating his breakfast.
"You're starting to look a little scruffy there, Hunter," Raine noted gently.
Reaching up to the piece of hair that stuck out in front of his face, Hunter stroked it. "Yea, I don't know, I guess I could get a haircut but flapjack seems to like the little piece and I don't mind-"
Cutting him off again, Eda snorted. "Not the hair, kid. Seems you've got some facial hair coming in."
Facial? Wha - oh. He moved his hand to feel over his right cheek. Oh. They were definitely right. How had I not noticed?
Lost in his thoughts, Hunter couldn't recall the last time he looked at himself in a mirror. Sure, he passed at least two every day but, he never really looked into one.
He knew he had scars. He knew his face showed the trauma that he deeply wished to keep inside and hidden away, best he could.
Not even just his face, his arm still held faint reminders of the draining spell. Faint spiderweb scars ran up his arm from where his sigil was. Much like the rest of the Isles.
With all of that, he hadn't really found reason to want to look in a mirror. Figured he couldn't change these things. Why bother seeing them?
"If you'd like, come find me later and I can help you with that," Raine said softly, breaking Hunter from his thoughts.
"You should take them up on that - especially before your DATE!" Luz nearly screamed, flicking Hunter's head, dashing off after putting her own plate away.
She might have a point.
-----
It was early afternoon now. Hunter was sitting on the sofa in the living room with Flapjack perched happily on his knee, as he read.
The Owl- Eda's bookshelves certainly were interesting. There was a mixture of pretty much every topic one could imagine. A lot of books on wild magic, some that seemed to come from the human realm, and a lot of old bard textbooks for whatever reason.
Though Hunter found them all interesting in someway or another, he settled on one titled "Planting Wild," which was mainly about how wild magic could be found in all different types of plants on the Isles. Willow would probably like it, he thought.
As he turned a page, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. He immediately went to close the book and hide it behind him - wait. Why am I doing that? He slowly rested it back on his lap.
"Oops! I didn't mean to startle you, sorry about that." It was just Raine.
"Oh- it's okay! You didn't, I mean," Hunter stated.
Raine made their way down the stairs completely, dropped something off in the kitchen, and made their way back to the living room. Sitting down on the chair next to the sofa.
Slowly closing the book, Hunter placed it on the coffee table and turned to look over at Raine, who had summoned their scroll.
"Hey - um, you mentioned earlier you might be able to help me with the whole," Hunter gestured to his face awkwardly.
Focused now completely on Hunter, Raine called off their scroll. "Yes, of course. Do you have a free moment now before you get ready to leave?" they asked gently.
Hunter nodded.
"I see... c'mon," they waved him to follow and got up off the chair to walk down the hallway to the small bathroom.
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Opening the downstairs bathroom door, Raine flicked the light switch on and kneeled down to start looking for something in the cabinet.
"Aha! Here we are," they said, grabbing a blue duffle bag that had the Healing Coven's sigil sewn into it. "With all the work I have been doing with helping witches recover, I accidentally brought home some of the extra resources that we have been giving out, resources that happen to include razors and abomination-cream."
Hunter grabbed the small purple canister that Raine handed him. Huh.
They closed up the duffle, shoving it off to the side and brought their attention to Hunter, who was holding the can he had been given, reading just about all the information he could consume from the label.
"It notes here that this is a special type of abomination goop that SHOULD NOT BE combined with any type of abomination magic, kind of weird," Hunter said.
Raine smiled softly, and went to explain what exactly Hunter should be doing with the objects he was just handed.
-----
Getting the hang of it now, Hunter spoke, "I feel stupid for not noticing it, the last potions Bel- they had me on seem to be different than the ones I'm on now."
"Happens. When you switch methods, sometimes things happen faster than they did before. And depending on the potion there might be different effects," Raine said, now sitting on the edge of the bathtub. "You went with Eda to pick the new ones up the first time, right?"
"I did, yea. I was specific on the type I wanted, so I really shouldn't have been too shocked by the new changes."
"Luckily nowadays those potions are more customizable. When I was a little younger than your age, it was a little more 'one size fits all.'"
Raine laughed softly and stood, watching Hunter wash off his face. "Not too shabby, kid. I remember when I had to teach myself," Raine let out a genuine laugh and continued, "lets just say I was just lucky your mo- Eda had listened in on some healing classes the week before."
Hunter dried his face with a towel Raine had handed him. He found himself looking in the mirror. Not as part of a task, but to look at himself. To actually look.
He took note of the scars - the new ones, and the old ones. Grazing over them with right hand. I don't look so bad.
"Excited for your plans tonight?"
Hunter nodded, "I am. It's nice to get out." He thought for a moment and then added, "Thank you for the help by the way."
"Anytime. I mean it, never be afraid to ask for it. We are all here," Raine said with a gentle voice, and walked out.
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