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There were a lot of oddities that came along with Hunter's new life. Beside the obvious things, the lack of abuse and abundance of affection he receives in the Owl House being such a strong contrast to his previous life with the Emperor's Coven. That was hard to adjust to, of course, but it wasn't just that.
During his time at the Owl House, Hunter grows to realize even more how unusual his life with Belos and the coven really was. In the castle, there was a set schedule, and if you strayed from it you were punished. Here, now, everyone did whatever during the day, woke and napped when they wanted, and Eda isn't very big on punishing her kids.
It was so strange. The other morning, while Hunter was sitting on the couch and watching some random show on the Crystal Ball, Eda had hugged him and told him she loves him. With no prompting or request, she simply did because she wanted to. Affection was given at random in the Owl House, affection was a hard to earn reward in the castle.
So, needless to say, many things in Hunter's life were odd now.
And upon many of these odd things, was Amity Blight.
She's Luz's girlfriend. That's what she was re-introduced to him as, at least, and for a while that was all he saw her as. But as she came around the house more, she might as well live there, he felt more and more guilty about their past encounters.
Or.. encounter. The one they had prior to his "redemption", at Eclipse Lake. She hated him for that, and he knew, but after a few months he found it odd she never dropped it.
Luz had forgiven him, and Eda, and King, and their friends, even if he'd not directly fought them. But never Amity. She held up this wall around her whenever he was around.
He knew she didn't talk to everyone the way she does him, with that cold, sharp voice that made him feel as if he was in trouble. It was hate, and it was unfiltered. But she wasn't just like that, he knew. He'd walked by Luz's room during her visits on more then one account and has heard her voice fall into some odd, soft, sugary, tone when speaking with Luz.
It was him, and only him, that she hated. And after three months of it, Hunter decided he wanted that to change.
And so it became his personal mission to befriend Amity Blight, no matter how difficult it would be. If Luz did it, so could he.
He kept a notebook, where he took notes whilst on his journey to make a friend of his past foe. A few days after he'd started using it, he'd told Luz about it, and she'd jokingly written a title across the front like it was an instruction manual. It read "Hunter's guide to befriending enemies", in the human's oddly perfect handwriting.
He set out one morning to continue his mission. It was around nine in the morning, and it was bright and hot outside, the rest of the members of the house were sitting on the couch with ice-packs and popsicles. Huter almost laughed out loud at the sight of Eda with her feet in a bowl of ice water.
He didn't, though, because he thought it would be obnoxious of him. He observed everyone currently in the living room as he stood on the bottom step of the stairs. Eda was on the couch, with King just next to her. The little demon was eating a popsicle and complaining rather loudly about Hooty not giving them air conditioning, or something like that.
On the floor, by the coffee table, Luz sits with her legs draped over Amity's lap, despite the awful heat. Amity is doing what Hunter assumes is homework, as there are multiple pieces of paper laid out in front of her with a great deal of text on all of them. Or perhaps it's portal research, because Luz seems genuinely interested in the work.
Eda lifts a wet washcloth from her eyes for a moment, to peek over at Hunter, and then drops it back down. "Mornin' sunshine!" She says, teasingly. Of course, there was no real issue with him waking up late.
"Good morning, Ma." He says back, and he makes his way to sit at the end of the coffee table, opposite of Luz and Amity. Luz greets him cheerfully, but Amity doesn't look up from her work for even a moment.
Hunter clears his throat, coughing into his fist. "Hey, Amity!" He says, and the lilac-haired witch glances up to him, one brow raised.
"I- I didn't know you were coming by today!" He lies, "it's.. good to see you."
Amity hums, returning to her work. Hunter's ears droop sadly, but she begins to respond after a moment of silence.
"I'm here almost every day, Hunter." She says, and then nods toward something just beside the table. It's the echo mouse, in it's cage. "Portal stuff."
"R-right, right, I- uh.." he fidgets nervously with the hem of his tank top, words trailing off. He sees Luz whisper something in the girl's ear, but he can't hear what it is. Amity sits back from her notes and sighs.
King whines and kicks Eda's leg repeatedly, and then throws a wooden popsicle stick at her face. The older witch groans and scolds him, and he begins yelling.
"I want more popsicles!" He says, and Eda gestures to the kitchen, saying "so go get another one!"
Luz then mumbles a quiet, "oh, uh.." and fidgets with her hands nervously. "I may have taken the last one.. sorry, King."
The little demon wriggles around angrily, and lets out a loud, shrill cry. His "squeak of rage", as Eda had once called it. Everyone covers their ears and groans in annoyance at the noise.
"Fine, fine!" Eda says, standing and stepping out of her water pale, "I'll go into town and get you more!"
But before she could go upstairs and change out of her robe, and head out to retrieve frozen treats for the King Of Demons, Amity puts her hand in the air like she's waiting to be called on in school.
"I can go, Ms. Eda!" She says, and Luz whines when her legs are pushed (softly) off of her girlfriend's lap. "You don't have to get up."
Eda chuckles, placing her hands on her hips. "You sure, kid?" She asks.
"Yes, I'm sure." Amity says, "I'll even pay, if you want, uh- I could use the fresh air."
She looks to the side briefly at Hunter when saying 'fresh air', and he all but winces at it. He's made it awkward, again, just by showing up.
"Nah, Boots. You ain't for paying for ice-pops for my kid just 'cause he's grumpy." He hears Eda say, but he stops listening just moments after. He continues to mess with the bottom of his shirt, sighing to himself lightly.
He feels a hand on his shoulder, suddenly. He glances up.
It's Luz. It's his sister.
"Hey, man. Are you okay?" She asks, and you can tell she's really concerned from the way she says it.
Hunter nods quickly, and forces a smile. Luz doesn't smile back, though, and it falls just as fast as it came. There was no fooling her, she could always read him.
He looks away, and stares emptily at the coffee table in front of him. His eyes trace indents and scratches across the wood, small drawings and carved initials left there for an eternity. Every mark held so much history in it. History Hunter wasn't there for..
Amity walks past the two of them, silently, and leaves for the town to get King more popsicles, as promised.
Hunter gulps, and then speaks, quietly, so only Luz may hear him. "Why doesn't she like me?"
There's so need to say her name, Luz knows. She shrugs lightly, looking to the table as well.
"I dunno... I think she's just still hung up on the Eclipse Lake thing, she was.. really mad when we talked later."
"But- but that was so long ago, Luz. I-... why can't she just.. be over it? I'm really trying here, I just want to be friends."
The human nods, "I know, Hunter. I know you are. I can talk with her, okay?"
"I just.." Hunter says, shoulders slouching. "I don't want her to hate me."
Luz pats his shoulder, standing up. "She doesn't hate you. She's just.. on edge."
Hunter doesn't say anything else, and Luz walks to the door as well. She says something to Eda briefly, and then she's gone, too, off to find her love and convince her not to despise to adopted-brother anymore.
He grumbles to himself, and takes out his notebook.
'Don't talk.' He writes, bitterly, underlining it three times just to emphasize it's importance. He stares at it for a good long moment, and then scribbles it out, almost ripping the paper.
'Talk less. She doesn't like my voice?'
And then,
'Don't say dumb things.'
He looks over previous notes, then. 'She seems to like Owlbert and King, maybe introduce her to Rascal? ' He hums, he has yet to do that.
He sees Eda looking at his from her spot on the couch, and closes the book and stands up.
"Hey," he starts, pointing with his thumb to the door. "I'm gonna step out for a sec, 's that okay?"
Eda waves him off, "'course."
And then, just as he's opening to door to step out, "Don't follow the lovebirds, though. 'Kay, hun?"
Hunter nods, and then heads outside. He sits on the front stone step of the house, sighing. He leans his head back, resting it against the wood of the door.
Back when he lived at the palace, it'd be embarrassing to go outside in just a tank-top and his boxers. But the Owl House was secluded to the middle of the woods, and there was no chance of him being seen there. It was comforting.
"There's gotta be some way to make it up to her.." he mumbles, to nobody but himself. And then he's startled as a voice comes from just above him.
"HOOT, HOOT! MAKE WHAT UP TO WHOOO?" Comes the shrill voice of the house demon. If it was anyone but Hunter sitting there they'd have groaned in annoyance and told the owl to leave them alone. But the former-Golden Guard found his presence oddly comforting.
"Hooty, voice control, remember?" He starts, teasingly.
"Ope! Sorry, Hunter, hoot!" Hooty chirps, stretching himself from the door and down next to the witchlet. "What's on your miiiind, fri-end?"
"Ah, just.. Amity. You know." Hunter says, peering up to look at his feathered friend. "I want to t' be friends with her, but... I really messed up back when we first met. I can't get her to forgive me, no matter how hard I've been trying."
Hooty nods sympathetically, "Hmmmm.. well, when I want someone to like me, I write a song about them! Or a play, orrrr~ I just tell them! Have you told Amity you wanna be friends?"
"Well.. no, I guess I haven't."
"Then do it! Be careful, though, she attacks! Trust me, I know, hoot hoot!"
Hunter chuckles, and reaches up to scratch Hooty's head. "Thanks, buddy.." he mumbles. The owl demon coos, and then reels himself back to his usual spot on the door.
Hunter thinks on his friend's words, briefly. Maybe just telling her he wanted to put it behind them would help.. but maybe she'd get mad, too. How could he guess what would happen? She doesn't seem the type to be violent in reaction to a plea for friendship, she's taken time to rebuild an old fallen relationship of her own in the last few months.
Oh, yeah. He feels his face heat up ever so briefly. Willow. He wonders how she is today..
He thinks about one of the first notes he put in his book, 'don't bring up Willow? ' and he recalls so clearly why he'd written it. The incident was so odd, and he thinks about it still, even if it was months ago.
-
After being shot down already earlier in the day, Hunter figures it foolish to try again, but he's never been the best at stopping himself from doing stupid things. And so, while him , Amity, and Luz are watching some random show on Luz's phone and sitting on the couch, he tries to strike up conversation again.
Luz gets up to go to the bathroom, and when she moves it leaves an empty gap in between Hunter and Amity.
"Hey, Amity," she starts, and she barely looks over to him. He feels an odd emotion pang in his chest for a moment at the coldness, but goes in. "So, uh-.. I was visiting Hexside with Luz yesterday, and I ran into Willow, Willow park, you know her?"
He can tell from the way her shoulders tense and her fists ball slightly that she does, and perhaps not in a good way.
"S-so, yesterday there was this big exam, and she got so frustrated during it that she- heh- she got so mad she blew up, and the whole classroom was covered in vines. They had to move the exam to clean it all up!" He giggles at the remembrance of his friend's story, and he thinks he sees Amity smile a little, and thinks he's finally getting somewhere.
But, after he laughs , he mumbles a quiet, "that girl's got some real anger issues.." and he thinks nothing of it , because during his frequent meetings with Willow they often joke around like this.
"What?" Is all Amity says, though, and her voice is quiet and serious. Hunter feels himself freeze immediately, and begins sputtering. "I- uhm, I just- I mean-"
" Don't talk about her like that." The girl sneers, "Don't talk about her at all . You don't know her ."
Before Hunter can respond with some defense of himself, Luz is back and sitting down again, and Amity's attention is turned completely to her in an instant.
Hunter wilts and returns to watching the human show, and remains silent until later in the night. When he returns to his room, he adds the note to his book, and goes to bed to forget his mess-up.
-
The boy is pulled from his thoughts by footsteps approaching, and he watches as Luz passes by him quickly, patting his head slightly as she walks into the house. She has a shopping bag in her hand, and Hunter assumes it's the ice-pops.
Where's..?
When he looks back, he's met with Amity standing in front of him. She isn't looking at him, though, instead she's staring at the ground just in front of him. For the first time ever, she initiates the conversation with him.
"..hey." is all that comes, and its quiet, and awkward. But Hunter has never been more grateful for awkward.
"Hi!- h-hey, hi." He says back, a little too enthusiastically.
Amity shuffles on her feet for a moment, and takes a deep breath. She moves quickly to sit down next to him on the stone slab that is the front step.
They sit in silence for a moment, and Hunter can't read if it's awkward or not.
"Luz and I.. had a talk." She begins, "and I think I realize now that I've been... a little too stubborn, and hard on you."
Hunter opens his mouth to respond, but his mind goes blank, and he closes it again.
"I know you've been trying. What happened at Eclipse Lake just makes it... hard. For me to trust you, at all. I know you and Luz are practically siblings now, but what you said.."
She sighs
"I can't help but think you may still try to hurt her. And I can't let that happen, Hunter. She's everything to me."
Hunter nods, and looks down to the ground now as well.
"I know, and you're right, you've got no reason to trust me. But- I would never hurt my sister, Amity. I swear to you, everything I said is behind me now, and I want us to put Eclipse Lake behind us, too."
He hears Amity hum, and they fall silent again for a few minutes. Hunter is sitting with his head resting on his knees, hugging them as well. Amity is leaning her head back on the door, hands folded neatly in her lap.
Hunter is the first to break the silence, "I just want to be friends, Amity. Really."
She doesn't respond for a good long while, and they fall into the silence again. It isn't as tense as it usually is, though. There's room to breathe, room for more.
"We can be friends." Comes the reply, finally, "I'm sorry for.. how I've been. You're trying. I see that you're trying, and I.."
She sighs. "I should give you a chance. I've held this grudge long enough, yeah?"
And then Hunter sees her smile, and he can't help but smile back. It's the first time she's smiled at him genuinely since Eclipse Lake, he thinks. It's nice, to see her smile, after so much time, after all she's shown him is scowls and slanted eyes.
"Yeah.. y'know, I think we're the same with this whole wanting to be friends super bad thing.. I've uh-" he inhales and contemplates his next words, and then he breaks one of his first rules. "I've talked with Willow, a lot. She says you spent so long trying to make things up to her, and maybe you just don't realize I'm doing the same. I know what happened, too, she.. trusts me with a lot. But I don't hold that against you."
He reaches out to put a hand on her shoulder, "I'm glad you've changed. Now let me do the same, please."
Amity nods, and breathes out a laugh, briefly. "Okay. I can do that."