"What the hell happened?!"
Yeah, Edric had pretty much figured that would be Emira's reaction.
I was close to morning when he returned, meaning he had been out almost all night. That was a lot longer than he thought I'd been. Maybe it was just the blood loss finally catching up to him.
Suffice to say that Emira wasn't all too happy when he arrived on their doorstep with his suit beyond dirty and with a bleeding leg, wrapped up in a piece of fabric.
Before Edric could crank out a proper answer, Emira had Started dragging him inside by his hand. Edric had to jump on one foot to be able to keep up with her without further injuring himself.
He was promptly shoved on the couch, as Emira made her way to the bathroom to grab a first aid kit.
Sitting there all alone, he glanced down at his injured leg, a piece of The Golden Guard's cape still wrapped around it.
No. A piece of Hunter's cape.
The other boy had left in quite a hurry. Edric was lucky to have caught just a name.
And on that note, how would he tell his sister that he had a nice 'not a date,' with the right hand man of emperor Belos himself without Emira thinking he was playing a prank on her.
He recalled when they were 9, and Edric had done his hardest to try to convince Emira that he was actually dating a fictional character that they both liked. Of course, she'd never bought his bluff, but he'd kept it up for a week straight.
But this time it was real. He really had met the Golden Guard.
And he'd technically asked him out.
Edric hadn't caught Hunter's number, so the choice whether to actually go on that date was all on him. To say it was nerve wracking would be an understatement.
But he had full faith that Hunter would call him back! The question was when. Edric was half-tempted to run upstairs to get his crystal ball, but the pain in his leg stopped him. And besides, Hunter was probably not even home yet.
"What... happened to you?"
Spinning his head around, Edric caught a glimpse of a sleepy-eyed Amity, standing by the doorway of the living room, eyeing him with a mix of concern and curiosity.
"Oh, the usual." he said, forming a mischievous smirk. Amity's face contorted in worry and she opened her mouth to speak, but before she could get a word out, Emira jogged back into the room, carrying a first aid kit, grabbing onto Amity's arm to motion her to follow.
"Okay, you're telling me everything." Emira said with a glare as she motioned to undo Hunters makeshift bandaging job,
"What? Just me? What happened to the law of equivalent exchange?" He asked, noticing how the pain in his leg immediately flared up as Emira removed the cape, and in turn, the healing coven sticker.
Emira's eyes widened as she noticed the scope of the injury, the three slash marks still being fresh, "Oh, titan..." she mused as her hands dug through the kit,
"Actually Edric," she spoke, directing all her attention to his wound, the boy wincing slightly as he saw her thread a needle, "I think that rule doesn't really apply when you come home critically injured!"
"I wouldn't say, critically ..." Edric shrugged, but even he could admit that the situation looked less than ideal.
Emira sighed, "This will hurt. Amity, can you fetch a washcloth for me."
The younger sister running off, Emira took a moment to glare at Edric, "Ed. Tell me what happened?"
"So... I may have been a bit bummed out over the whole being stood up thing, so I decided to walk back through the woods," he said as casually as he could, "And, well, I ran into this real nasty beast demon and..." he trailed off when he noticed the look of disbelief that Emira was giving him.
"Have you finally lost all your brain cells? It was the middle of the night, you idiot!" she scolded, "I left for a few hours and this happened." To most, that would sound like a joke, but Edric detected a smidge of bitterness. Like she truly feels like she can't leave Edric alone without him getting himself into trouble.
He tried not to let it bother him too much.
The next 20 or so minutes were spent in silence, as Emira carefully stitched up his wound, with the only sound being Edric's hisses of pain, every few seconds. Amity had plopped herself down on the couch next to them and had watched intently for the first few minutes, before her eyes grazed off, clearly thinking of something else.
Edric wished he wasn't in such pain. He would have loved to accuse her of thinking about a certain brown eyed human.
The whole time, he was clutching the dirty, bloody piece of Hunter's cloak for support. His hands were red by the end of it, and he was sure some blood had spilled over on both the couch and floor, but he didn't particularly care.
The piece of fabric got him thinking about the aforementioned boy.
Did Edric fall for him? Perhaps. But was there anything he could do about it at the moment? Not really.
At least he knew where he lived, but he doubted strolling up to the emperor's castle and announcing that you wished to date one of the highest ranking members of the coven would go over all too well.
He really wished that he'd gotten Hunter's number.
When Emira finally finished, she let out a huge sigh of relief, as she placed a new healing coven sticker over the bandiging. "Wow, Edric. Three slash marks. Three. Couldn't you have gotten a simpler injury?" she half-laughed, clearly to calm her own nerves, "Let's hope I didn't screw up your leg too badly."
"Sorry Em. I unfortunately have a knack for complicating things for you."
Emira lightly chuckled as she plopped down between Edric and Amity on the couch.
Amity, on the other hand, was looking at Edric with questioning eyes. The boy met her gaze and raised an eyebrow, prompting Amity to clear her throat, before speaking, "I was just wondering... Who patched you up beforehand?"
"Oh yeah... " Emira said, "That fabric is clearly not from your suit. And the way it was wrapped was a lot neater than you could ever pull off."
"Are you doubting my first aid skills? I for one think I could have done a fantastic job alone!" he feigned offence.
"Edric, there is a muddy footprint on your chest. Who were you with?" Amity asked.
Ah yes. The muddy footprint Hunter had left after stepping on him upon their first meeting. Memories.
"Okay, I'll bite," Edric shrugged, "I did indeed meet someone while out on my nightly stroll."
Emira raised an eyebrow, "Did your date come back."
The reminder of his absentee Grom date wasn't all too pleasant. When he met him again he was sure to get a stern talking to. Well, he'd probably make Emira do it, while he nodded along with it in the background.
"No. Even better! It was, drumroll please, The Golden Guard!"
"The... Golden Guard?"
"Yeah! Met him out in the woods. He was really annoyed at me first, but I eventually won him over with my wits and charm."
"No you didn't. I refuse to believe that." Emira said as she and Amity looked at him with doubt clearly written over their faces.
"On which part," Edric asked, "That I met The Golden Guard or that I managed to woo him?"
"Both, honestly."
"Well, suit yourselves. If you're not going to believe me then I won't tell you about it!" He said, dramatically crossing his arms. Truth be told, their skepticism didn't bother him. He knew they'd react that way, especially because... well... Edric almost couldn't believe it either.
Out on the walk, at least the second half of it, Hunter hadn't felt like a soldier. He had acted more awkward after the fight and after Edric got hurt. And his face being visible definitely helped with that.
He'd had a tooth gap, for crying out loud. Would anyone have expected The Golden Guard to have a tooth gap? And an absolutely adorable one at that?
Emira just rolled her eyes, "Fine then. Tell me about your misadventures with 'The Golden Guard' later," she made air quotes as she said his name, "All of us need at least a little sleep before our parents come back. And when they do," Emira looked him dead in the eye, "I guarantee you that they'll be calling a member of the healing coven asap. So you better have your story straight by then."
Edric chuckled as Emira put her hand under his for support, helping him walk to their shared room.
When they arrived, Edric's eyes flickered over to the crystal ball by his nightstand. There were no alerts for missed calls, so he didn't have to worry about that.
All he could really do now was wait. And with the state of his leg, there was a good chance that he'd have plenty of time for it.
***
"I will say, I am glad that the mission wasn't a failure. I realized that shortly after the night began. So why, I ponder, did it take you so long to return? You didn't get... distracted, did you?"
The emperor's voice was calm, like it most often was when addressing him in front of the guards, but Hunter could still feel his body going rigid at the accusation.
What could he even say to that? Because yes, Hunter technically had gotten distracted and walked the wrong way.
"Yes," he settled on, "I was attacked by a particularly troubling beast and lost hold of my staff for a bit. I truly apologize for my late arrival."
He wasn't lying. He had been attacked and he had lost hold of his staff for a moment. He didn't lie.
Belos lowered his head slowly, keeping his gaze firmly on Hunter, who was in a bowing position on the floor, and for a second Hunter feared that he was going to be reprimanded. But after a few seconds of silence, Belos simply sighed, "I suppose I can excuse your incompetence, since you were attacked. But you will make sure it doesn't happen again. You know what will happen if you do." He said, tone cold as ice.
"Thank you emperor. It won't happen again." Hunter responded, almost automatically, lifting himself from his position and trudging out of the room, feeling the empopros gaze on him the whole time.
A breath he didn't know he was holding, escaped his lips as he closed the door behind him.
It's not like his uncle had specifically asked him for the details. No, he'd just left it out because it didn't matter. Edric Blight didn't matter.
...His hand felt strangely heavy.
The boy had scribbled down his number there before Hunter could even say anything. The handwriting was messy in a neat sort of way. He suspected that Edric's actual handwriting was much nicer.
Whatever, it didn't matter anyway.
Hunter started making his way back to his room, trying, and failing miserably, to ignore anything and everything that had to do with the word 'Blight'.
Edric had said they were friends, or at least wanted to be his friend. To think Hunter had actually considered it at the time was stupid. He was The Golden Guard. He didn't need friends. And he most certainly didn't need anyone to date.
But for some reason, his brain simply refused to cooperate with him, as his thoughts stayed transfixed on the green haired boy.
Though he would never truly admit it to himself, a friend sounded... nice. Hunter's life was just work and work and work and then more work. Of course, it was all worth it to help the emperor, but he sometimes allowed himself to think.
What would it be like if he attended a normal magical school? He'd of course only be able to go in the potion track or get permission to use his artificial staff, and he'd also be the most skilled person in the entire institution, that was for certain.
But having someone his own age to talk to was just... appealing, he supposes. That was probably why he'd indulged Edric for as long as he did.
Yeah, he just found the idea appealing. That's it. And besides, he already had one of the best positions in the entire boiling isles. He should be perfectly content with what he had. He didn't need Edric.
He entered the first bathroom he stumbled across, closing the door perhaps a little too roughly.
He turned to the sink, bringing his wrist up to the water.
And then he hesitated.
Despite all his reasoning, Edric was the first person to ever want to know him for him. No business formalities related. He had people in the coven who were willing to talk to him, but that was only because he was their superior. Edric had no reason to talk to him.
And yet he did.
Would calling him once or twice really be so bad.
...his uncle always told him never to rely on others.
And that thought was all it took. Hunter put his hand under the water, scrubbing away Edric's number.
***
If Edric thought knew what boredom felt like, he'd been wrong.
Being confined to his bed for days with nothing but cheap entertainment while his sisters went to school? Now that's boredom.
With the added bonus of Edric's newfound interest in his crystal ball, the days felt like they were going by at a snail's pace.
His parents had indeed called a member of the healing coven when they returned from a business meeting the morning after, but they didn't seem to particularly care what had happened to Edric. Only that he'd be healed up soon. All the attention had been on Amity that morning, since she had defeated Grom and claimed her title as Grom queen.
So, the usual. Edric didn't particularly mind.
The coven member had told him that he'd be confined to his bed for just under a week, and after that he'd be able to walk again.
At first, he'd been moderately excited. A whole week without school? Sign Edric up any day for that! But his hopes had been crushed quite quickly the first day, when he realized that he was hungry, but had no way to go down into the kitchen to get food. And every day, Emira was so kind as to bring him all the schoolwork he'd missed that day, with a smile so fake that the most gullible people would see through it.
Edric begged her to just do his work for him while at school, but she adamantly refused, claiming that his education was important. They both knew that was a lie. Edric wasn't too upset though, he'd probably have done the same thing if she was in his situation.
But during the day, when there was no schoolwork to be done, Edric spent most of his time staring at his crystal ball. He usually didn't have it on his nightstand, after all, it was a real safety hazard when you slept, but at this point, he didn't care.
It had been four days, and nothing. Not even a message from Hunter.
Now, the rational part of his brain told him that Hunter was probably just busy. He was The Golden Guard. He probably had many duties to attend to.
But the other part of his brain was screaming at him that Hunter hated him and wanted nothing to do with him.
Edric, being a rational and logical person, obviously focused on the latter.
He'd kept the piece of Hunter's cape next to the ball (He'd washed it, of course. The alternative would have been quite gross,) mostly to assure to himself that the night had indeed happened.
It felt like something straight out of a fairytale. One he recounted to Emira multiple times, in detail until she believed that it actually happened.
He wouldn't allow himself to fully lose hope. The thought of stealing a palisman to fly over to the emperor's castle and demand to talk to the guard himself was looking all the more appealing.
Edric looked up from the crystal ball as he noticed Emira entering the room, carrying a stack of books and dropping them by his bedside.
"Be thankful I'm carrying these for you at all. My back is killing me." She said, as she unceremoniously flopped herself onto her bed, letting out an exaggerated yawn, "History was a pain today. Good luck figuring out what half the words written in the text are."
"Yeah," Edric said, biting his lip in frustration. History was the last thing on his mind right now.
Emira raised an eyebrow, "Still nothing?"
"Still nothing."
She let out a huff of air as she pushed herself up into a sitting position, "I don't know what to tell you. You've been enamored with some guy for days now and he doesn't even have the decency to call you."
"He's probably just busy..." Edric mumbled.
"So busy that he can't spare five minutes in his day to say hi?"
Edric ignored her, trailing his eyes back to his nightstand. He didn't really want to talk to Emira at the moment.
The girl sighed, pushing moving over to Edric's bed and lightly patting his injured leg, making the other boy wince slightly, "What is this really about Edric? Are you telling me that you really fell head over heels over a boy you spent a single night taking to? Or are you just salty that your date didn't show up? "
Oh yeah. His date.
He hadn't spared that guy too much thought, besides the occasional mental scoff. Most of his thoughts had been about Hunter. Was that really the reason why?
No. Most definitely not.
"That's bold of you to say, considering you've had Viney on your mind ever since Grom." Edric shot back, a smug look crossing his face.
"That's different," Emira looked away, presumably blushing, "We were actually on a date. You just happened to stumble across this guy."
"I wouldn't call The Golden Guard, 'some guy.' He was far too cute for that title to stick!"
Emira raised an eyebrow, "A tooth gap is your definition of cute?"
"Yes!"
"The only people I ever imagined having tooth gaps were homeless people or toddlers."
"Are you implying I have bad taste?"
"So what if I am? It's not like you can do anything about it." Emira grinned and Edric cursed his current bedridden state.
To him, it didn't really matter what she thought, which surprised Edric quite a bit because it always mattered what Emira thought.
Not in a sense that he couldn't make his own choices but more that he liked running things by her before making any major decision. They were twins, after all. They came as a pair.
But for the first time, Edric wanted to do something on his own. It was a weird feeling, like his whole life had been leading up to this moment, but it was also something so mundane. He was starting to understand Emira's point of view a little more. Not that he'd ever tell her that. But he suspected that she'd pick up on it sooner or later.
But when Edric Blight makes a plan, he intends to follow through with it. He'd talk to Hunter at least once more in his life even if it's the last thing does.
Emira's words be damned.
***
Suffice to say, Hunter was not having a good time.
He'd been more distracted over the last four days than he had been the entire time he'd been in the emperors coven.
And it was all the fault of one Edric Blight.
It was so stupid. So utterly ridiculous. But he found himself thinking about the boy near daily. It wasn't as if Edric had pulled off any fiasco when they met. All he had done was ask questions, get himself injured and... flirt?
Yeah, looking back on it, Edric had most definitely been flirting with him.
Is that why the boy had such a big impact on Hunter?
No.
Hunter refused to have a crush on someone. Nothing but bad things could come from that. All and every one of his thoughts should be focused on his missions as The Golden Guard and the titans will, with the vocational wild magic research on the side.
That's it.
So for the green haired boy to be constantly invading his thoughts was one of the most inconvenient things to have ever happened to him.
Hunter thought that anything that had to do with Edric would leave his mind as soon as he scrubbed the number of his hands. But things couldn't be that easy, could they. No, he just had to have memorized the number.
He most certainly didn't do it on purpose. He just found himself reciting it in his head when he was on guard duty and nothing particularly interesting had happened.
The number was pretty much glued into his head now.
Instead of sleeping during his free times and risking being alone with his thoughts, Hunter dove headfirst into his wild magic research. Or, at least, that's what he tried to do.
He really did try, but it was like the pages just stopped working. Hunter had never been the best at reading, tending to get distracted easily, but when he got into a book it took a lot to get him out of it.
Now, he couldn't even start reading, no matter how hard he tried.
Maybe it wasn't the book that was broken, but his brain.
It had reached a breaking point when he'd been on a particularly casual mission with a few other coven scouts and one of them had innocently asked what his opinion on Blight industries was.
And he blurted out 'Green.'
Really? Green? The mention of the name Blight had pulled his thoughts right back over to Edric and his stupidly soft green hair. The scout had of course shown confusion at that reply, so Hunter just brushed it off by saying that he didn't have much of an opinion of it.
Back in his room after the mission and back in his semi-casual attire, Hunter finally decided to do something.
He pulled out his rarely used Crystal ball, and in a moment of frustration, called the blasted number.
After only a few short moments someone picked up.
The surprise face of Edric Blight, sitting on his bed, greeted him.
Hunter's heart dropped all the way down into his stomach and he almost ended the call before seeing Edric's enormous grin spread across his face.
"Hunt-"
"Did you curse me?" Hunter cut him off.
Edric's eyes widened with confusion at the accusation before his grin doubled, "Sure didn't. And why do you ask? What kind of curse do you think I put on you?" he asked smugly.
Hunter immediately regretted his decision. Why in the titans name did he think that calling the boy would make his feelings go away.
He had been frustrated and wasn't thinking straight. His uncle said to never let his emotions get the better of him. And what was he doing right now? Pathetic.
"Forget it," Hunter said again, reacting to turn off the call, "This was a mistake. Please forget I ever-"
"WAIT!"
The sheer urgency in Edric's voice made Hunter hesitate. The boy looked borderline panicked, his hands in the air as if he was trying to push Hunter away from the ball to prevent him from ending the call.
All attempts of such would of course be futile, as they were nowhere near each other.
"You're not going to dip out on me as soon as you call. No, I refuse to let you do that. Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you to call!"
The confession caught Hunter off guard. He had been... waiting for him to call?
Hunter didn't really know how to feel about that. Should he be flattered? Should he feel angry? Embarrassed? Flustered?
Somehow, he found himself feeling all at once.
Edric Blight was an oddity to Hunter. He couldn't figure him out. He couldn't understand the other boy's interest in him. And he also had the audacity to invade Hunter's thoughts every day since he'd met him a whole week ago.
"Why were you waiting?" Hunter asked, narrowing his eyes at the boy.
Edric rolled his eyes, "When someone gives you their number they obviously want you to call them. And since my leg injury forced me to be home for hours at a time it would have been nice to have someone to talk to."
"Couldn't you have talked to your twin?" Hunter asked, recalling the boy talking to her. He'd said that he sometimes felt like they were drifting apart, so there was a perfect opportunity to spend more time with her. But Edric simply shook his head.
"Emira talked to me when she was home, but she was mostly at school. And when she was around, I was usually doing homework." he said, with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
Ah yes. School. He forgot that kids his age spend the vast majority of their time there.
Hunter sighed, "Good to know that you're doing something of note. How's your leg healing?"
"Oh! I managed to walk up and down the stairs today! Real progress, if I say so myself! I'll be walking fine in less than a week!"
Hunter felt relief flood over him, and then he immediately questioned why. It's not like he cared.
Correction; It's not like he wanted to care.
But he did. He was genuinely glad to know that Edric was okay. And that scared Hunter.
He was The Golden Guard. His only priorities were his duties and missions and the only person he cared about was the emperor. That's how it was and how it was supposed to be.
But looking at Edric's enthusiastic face as he explained at great length how he almost fell down the stairs the day prior, Hunter came to the concussion that had been staring him in the face.
He liked Edric. And if he had a choice in the matter, he'd be with him right now.
Crushes were a completely unfamiliar concept to Hunter. Sure, he understood them, but he'd never had the misfortune of experiencing them.
But now that he did, he wasn't so sure if he wanted to rid himself of it, or embrace it.
An idea started circulating in his head.
"-so luckily, the only one who came out of that incident with any more major injuries was my mom's vase. ...and my ego." Edric finished speaking, quietly whispering the last part. Hunter hadn't exactly been listening, but he got the general gist of what Edric had been saying.
"Interesting," Hunter replied, disregarding the topic in the process, "Actually, I was meaning to ask you something." That was kind of a lie. He technically decided to ask him this, right this very moment, "You mentioned last time that you were going to convince me to go on a date with you."
Hunter couldn't explain it, but it was as if Edric's face suddenly became brighter to look at. His eyes widened and his ever-growing smug grin stretched even farther across his face. Any more and it would have looked a bit disturbing.
"I did that, didn't I? Why do you ask?"
"Well, are you going to do it?"
"Do you want me to?"
"I am simply asking. You can do what you want. " Hunter said, his expression remaining neutral.
No way in hell was he going to ask him out on his own. If he wanted this, he'd have to nudge Edric in the right direction.
The boy seemed to not have a problem with that in the slightest, resting his chin on top of his intertwined hands as he leaned forward, his wide grin being replaced with a smug smile, "Sure then. Hunter... uh... what's your second name?" he asked curiously.
"Don't have one."
"Huh," Edric said, mildly surprised, "Okay then. Hunter, would you be so lucky to go on a date with me?"
Despite this being exactly his plan, Hunter felt surprised. Edric had said what he'd planned for him to say, and he was surprised. And it was also clear that Edric was feigning confidence, his eyes gleaming nervously, as he looked at Hunter. And Hunter couldn't believe it.
The fact that the only boy he'd ever developed any sort of interest in, liked him back.
Probably.
He still couldn't fully let his guard down.
"I suppose." he answered, "Sometime soon?"
"Yes! Definitely!" Hunter got the sense that Edric was holding himself back from jumping up and down in celebration. "When were you thinking? As soon as my leg is healed up I'll be good to go."
"I'm very busy, so I honestly can't say." Hunter sighed, "My moments of free time are very sporadic, so... I'll let you know if I ever have any timing in advance. If not, well..." he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, "I guess you'll have to be prepared for me showing up at any moment."
Edric laughed, "Oh, trust me, I will! Every day! On guard! I'll be ready!"
"Great," Hunter nodded, "I best be going now. The emperor needs me, and I have duties to attend to."
Edric's smile dropped slightly, "Can't you stay and chat a bit longer?"
"Unfortunately, no." Hunter replied, feeling a sharp pang in his chest as he did. Annoyingly, he didn't want to make Edric upset. Seeing the boy's disappointed face wasn't a pleasant sensation, but it was one he'd have to deal with.
The emperor's coven came first, above all else. Whatever his heart had decided for him and Edric came second to his duties as The Golden Guard.
"You'll promise to call me back soon, right?"
"No promises, but... I'll try."
Edric seemed satisfied with that answer as he bid Hunter farewell. He hadn't even turned off the call before letting out a victory squeal. And then his face disappeared from the ball.
Hunter stared at it for a few seconds.
He and Edric were going out on a date sometime in the future.
In no variation of his life had Hunter ever imagined dating someone. But it seemed that was exactly where it was leading to.
Would his uncle approve of it? Was Hunter even allowed to see people?
It didn't really matter at the moment. The emperor didn't need to know unless he and Edric actually did start going out. Hunter just hoped that this date would sort out his feelings properly.
But he'd done what he had intended to do.
Kind of...
He'd called the other boy to rid his mind of the constant possibility of seeing him, which would have worked.
It was only when Hunter had put on his mask and made his way over to the emperor's throne room that he realized the fatal flaw in his plan.
Now he wouldn't be able to get his thoughts away from that damn date.