Now playing: Kill the Director by the Wombats
"I'm gonna loose my mind if I have to be around you any longer." Hunter sighs as you continue to explain My Little Pony FIM lore.
"But then she took their cutie marks. Rude, right?" You ignore him. "And the worst part is that she gets a whole redemption arc! Eight year old me was horrified of these episodes."
"I hope you realize how much I do not care about Starlight Glimmer's redemption arc." He looks at you with the most emotionless expression he's ever given you. A record, nice.
"Maybe you should get yourself a redemption arc." You huff, crossing your arms across your chest as you turn around, looking at him as you walk backwards through the woods.
"Maybe I should." He shrugs. "Or maybe you could explain the lore of something interesting?"
"Like the ow-" What did we talk about breaking the fourth wall, Y/N? "Like the hunger games!" You correct yourself (strike one, two more and I'm killing off your love interest), and Hunter looks at you in disbelief.
"How do you go from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, to the freaking Hunger Games?" He laughs, and you shrug in response.
"Same thing." You wave a hand in the air dismissively. "Twilight Sparkle, Katniss Everdeen, no difference. Both series gave me equal amounts of emotional damage."
"My Little Pony gave you emotional damage?"
"The ending felt like my whole childhood finally deciding to leave me, okay?" You protest, your voice cracking slightly.
"No, you're literally a six year old."
"A sentimental six year old."
"L/N, you're a weirdo."
"And you haven't tried to kill me since I explained season one! You're becoming soft, Blondie." You tease, turning back around so you don't run into a tree while walking backwards.
"This way!"
The unfamiliar voice causes the two of you to immediately rush in another direction, hiding behind a large bolder.
"I could've sworn I heard them."
"Hunter, I have an idea. But it's highly illegal." You whisper, and his eyes are filled with concern. "You'll live. I just need you to follow my lead." With a sigh, you draw a spell circle and begin singing the first song that comes to mind for this kind of situation.
"Come little children, I'll take thee away. Into a land of enchantment." You close your eyes, hoping to the dear Titan this would work. "Come little children, the time's come to pla-"
"You're giving away our spo-" Hunter cuts you off, before you give him an 'I know what I'm doing' look.
"The time's come to play. Here in my garden of shadows." Hunter might've just ruined your whole plan with his interruption. "Follow sweet children, I'll show thee the way. Through all the pain and the sorrows." You can still hear the footsteps of the people trying to find you, but they're fading away. You might have to use up a lot of strength to get them far enough for you to run. "Weep not poor children, for life is this way. Murdering beauty and passions. Hush now dear children, it must be this way. Too weary of life and deceptions. Rest now my children, for soon we'll away. Into the calm and the quiet." You can't seem to concentrate the spell anymore, so they must be far enough away. You open your eyes to see your spell circle fully faded, and Hunter is staring at you in pure amazement. Or maybe thats fear.
"What?" You laugh. "I'm a bard. Now c'mon." You stand up, grabbing his hand and practically dragging him up with you.
"You- WHAT WAS THAT?" He yells, not following you.
"I can explain when we get farther away from here. They'll know where we were sitting when they come back." You start running, Hunter beside you. "By the way, congrats on committing your first crime!"
After you run for a few minutes, you pause, catching your breath as you lean against a tree.
"Okay-" Hunter begins speaking through shaky breath. "What the hell was that?"
"Come little children from Hocus Pocus!" You exclaim. "I uh- I love Halloween. Especially the human movies. It felt right for a controlling spell, you know? Considering the context the song is used in in the mov-"
"So that was a controlling spell?" Hunter cuts you off, horror written all over his face. You avoid eye contact, taking a deep breath.
"..Yeah."
"You made them run the other direction? Like a reverse siren?" You nod, and his face looks even more horrified. "You realize the emperor's coven knows when illegal magic like that is used? They'll find us! Er- you."
"I know. But I kinda realllly wanted to try it out. Plus, if I didn't, we'd have been kidnapped!" You protest, starting to walk away. Hunter chases after you.
"There wasn't anything else you could've done?"
"I'm already wanted, what's one more crime?" Tears start forming in your eyes. Not now, not in front of him. It was easy to make you cry, so you hoped he wasn't about to say anything that would make it worse.
"You.. regret it, don't you?" His voice softens, and at the word 'regret' your eyes sting. "Running away?" He confirms.
"I don't regret running away from the L/N's. They didn't treat me right. I wasn't fed for a week when I mentioned wishing I could try the other tracks at school." You sigh as you stop walking and choke up a bit. "But I do regret when I started.. everything. Stealing, using illegal spells, messing with the coven. It was a joke at first. Like I was playing a game. Then it became normal.. and now.." You're not sure what words to use, but you try to be careful with them. "Now I don't know, it's not right. But I'm numb to it, you know?"
"No, I don't know. I've.. never done anything besides what Belos wants." Hunter confesses, and you're almost surprised. But not much.
"I don't know why I'm even trying to explain how it feels, I met you like a day ago." You wipe a tear from your cheek, smiling sadly at the ground as you start walking again.
"How old were you when you ran away?"
"How old were you when you started training to become a child soldier?" You reply with a question, not wanting to spill your heart out to someone you barely know. And all that you do know about him is that you don't like him. His voice is soft, and his eyes are filled with something that's hard to lie to. He probably wanted you to open up, so he could use your weaknesses against you.
Little did he know, someday your weakness would be him.
"I don't know." He mutters. "I'm sorry I even asked if you regretted it in the first place. You seemed fine and I made you upset-"
"Why does it matter? We got away, let's just get you to the damn castle so we can stop pretending to be friends." Your words surprise you, and you try being careful choosing your next ones. "I can already tell this is gonna hurt. So can we stop pretending before it's real?" Hunter looks like he doesn't understand what you meant, and you're glad. If he did, he'd be weirded out. You were done with letting your attachment issues letting people grow on you so fast.
"Fine, let's go, criminal." He walks at equal pace with you, and you stare at your shoes while you walk beside him. You just didn't want to need him. Sure, you relied on people. Ophelia, her dads, P/N.
But you couldn't let yourself rely on someone who would surely stab you in the back.
======================
Night had fallen as you arrived in a small town and decided to stay in an inn. Luckily, you had enough snails for a two bed room. No one-bed tropes for Y/N yet.
"Goodnight, Hunter." You say as you get comfortable.
"Whatever." He was obviously mad at what you had said earlier, though you weren't sure why. Shouldn't you be mad? You weren't sure either of you should be mad. You could just stay normal acquaintances throughout your journey to Bonesburough. But apparently going on life changing field trips with people makes it hard not to become friends.
You really wished you were back in Opehlia's bunk bed, petting P/N while she rants to you about how you can't just go around buying hex mix from grocery stores like a normal witch. Before you knew Hunter. And on all levels but physical, you were. Just a teenage criminal and their best friend. without a care in the world.
Maybe if you hadn't slept in the other day, or if you had taken P/N on your 'leisurely stroll' with you. (Leisurely stroll meaning start to your unexpected life changing adventure with the cute person you should hate)
You don't let any of this make you cry. It only made you more determined to get back home. To leave this whole adventure behind you. Especially Hunter, Maybe in the future, or in another universe, you two could be friends. But not now. Not here.
"Goodnight, Ophelia." You whisper, and her voice is clear in your mind.
"Night, N/N."
A/N: Uhhhh lmk if you have good filler ideas, I'm fresh out of creativity /j
Btw ty to everyone who's been voting, it means a lot /gen
A/N: Seriously, filler ideas are needed- I'm gonna slow this book down a whole lot from here lol