"Mommy?" Mari asks. "What was daddy like?"
———————————
Months passed with little luck finding a way back to the demon realm. They'd attempted to restart the portal by hooking up hamster wheels to the shack door, but that only gave them false hope. The door seemed to work for a split second before bursting into flames.
They'd been in the human realm for so long, that Hunter's hair grew to his shoulders. (Y/n) liked to braid it whenever he got out of the shower and his hair was wet.
Dating in the human realm was relatively the same as dating in the Boiling Isles. The humans also went by days and months and years (Although, the years still confused them. How were there only 2000?). But it was still difficult to keep track of how many months had passed since they'd arrived in the human realm.
After settling into the human realm, they'd become accustom to the city of Gravesfield.
Since they knew their way around the town, Hunter decided to visit the library by himself. He wanted to know more about Caleb—more about who he was supposed to be. So he left the house in search of a book about witch hunters.
Hunter didn't want anyone knowing that he was going to look for a book on witch hunters, not even (Y/n). He felt as if it was his mission to find out who Caleb and Philip were, and that involving anyone else would harm or burden them.
And deep down, he felt as if everyone would resent him if they knew that the original him was a witch hunter, even (Y/n).
Sure, they were both grimwalkers, but she was a clone of a witch and he was a clone of a witch hunter. He was a clone of someone who wanted to kill her kind.
He kept asking himself, does she know? As he walked down the sidewalk. He let it fester his mind, does she know what Caleb was? No, definitely not. If she did, she'd hate me! She knows Philip was a witch hunter, so has she connected the dots? She's certainly smart enough to. So why didn't she hate me?! Does that mean she hasn't found out??!
He began to sweat from worry.
But Hunter kept walking. He walked until he came across the familiar building of the library. "El... biblioteca..?" He guessed in vain. "No.. no. La biblioteca..." He muttered under his breath.
He'd picked up certain words of Spanish from Luz and Camila. He figured it would be a good idea to learn the human realm's language while he lived there.
He walked up to the door, "La puerta." He muttered to himself before opening it.
The biblioteca was smaller than the ones they had in the Boiling Isles, but he'd still find what he needed. He searched through the history section and ran his fingertips over the spines of the books, scanning for anything about witch hunters. He stopped once he spotted the word 'witch'
The Witch Hunters of Gravesfield, the book was titled. "Ah!" He exclaimed, grabbing the book. "La bruja... hunters.. de Gravesfield.." He said with the limited Spanish he knew.
His trip to the library was brief as he quickly checked out the book and headed back to the Nocedas' house. By the time he returned, the sun was already meeting the horizon.
Hunter opened the door to see Amity walking past the entrance holding a laundry basket. "Hunter, where've you been?" She asked with a slightly concerned face.
"I went on a walk." He half lied to her and hid the book.
"Why didn't you tell anyone? We all thought you got abducted by aliens or something." She said with a chuckle. "Help me fold the laundry."
Hunter nodded and sat with her in the living room, turning on the tv so they wouldn't be sitting in an awkward silence.
"How are you liking the human realm?" Hunter asked as he took shirts from the basket and folded them into a pile.
"It's.. interesting to say the least." Amity replied, "How're things with you and (Y/n)?" She asked, making the boy look up from the shirt. "Have you made any moves?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" He replied, confused.
Amity stared at him until she realized he wasn't playing dumb, he actually was dumb. "Have you two gone out on a date yet? It's been months since we got here."
"A date? Fuck, I wish." He muttered with a flustered face.
Amity smiled with half lidded eyes, "Well, what do you guys like to do? What do you guys do a lot?"
"Uh, well back at the castle, we went out on missions together, we liked to read about wild magic and after we'd sleep together-"
"Woah! I did not need to hear about your sex life. TMI." Amity interrupted, genuinely surprised.
(Y/n) told me they were 'just friends' and that Hunter didn't reciprocate feelings and Hunter says they've slept together?!
"Sex?! Who said anything about sex?!" Hunter exclaimed, his cheeks now flushed red. "We haven't- why would you think that?!"
"Because you said you did!!" Amity argued back.
"I did not!!" Hunter said, starting to raise his tone, unconsciously. His cheeks and ears grew more and more flushed the longer the conversation went on.
"You said you slept together??" Amity shouted, her volume matching Hunter's.
"Yeah? And that has literally nothing to do with sex???"
"What do you mean?!!" She shouted back to the cherry faced boy. "It- it's fine, Hunter. I mean, it's normal for people your guys' age to-"
"BUT WE DIDN'T!!!-"
"Uhh, what's going on..?" Asked a voice that made Hunter and Amity's faces drop simultaneously.
"(Y/n)!!" They both exclaimed, dropping the clothes they were folding.
"We're just folding clothes, help us out?" Amity asked, changing the subject rather level headed compared to Hunter.
"Yes! Yeah! Um." Hunter stuttered, "Clothes!"
(Y/n) raised an eyebrow but took a seat between Amity and Hunter and began to fold clothes.
~~~~~~
"Goodnight, Gus." Hunter said, slipping in his sleeping bag.
"Night, Hunter." The boy replied, turning on his side and facing away from Hunter.
Hunter quietly slipped back out of his sleeping bag and tip-toed upstairs.
The basement was too dark to read in since Gus was asleep, and Hunter didn't want to wake Gus up. Reading in the living room or dining room would've essentially invited someone to find out he was a grimwalker.
So the only place left that was private enough for him to read something so sensitive was the bathroom, where if anyone asked why he was in there for so long, he could just say he was taking a shit!
Hunter walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He looked down at the witch hunter book before looking into the mirror above the sink.
It must've been a smudge or a scratch on the mirror because he swore he saw.. a man who wasn't him looking at him in his reflection.. Caleb.
Caleb looked just like him—same nose and hair color and he had a similar hair noodle—but Caleb looked older and had sunken, sallow cheeks and brown eyes.
But despite the differences, the eerie similarities scared Hunter. It reminded him that he was just Caleb, remade.
He blinked and Caleb was gone, replaced with Belos. Belos stared at him through his reflection. Hunter stumbled back and tripped onto his ass, his long hair falling onto his face. No, I'm not him. I'm not either of them. He thought frantically to himself.
He stood up, only catching a glimpse of Belos staring at him through his reflection.
I'm not him. He thought as he left the bathroom to retrieve scissors. I'll show him.
Snip,
Snip,
Snip,
Went the scissors. His hair fell to the ground.
He didn't care how shitty it looked. He just needed it to be different from Belos' hair.
"..Hunter?" A quiet voice asked as the door to the bathroom opened.
Hunter snapped his head to look at (Y/n). The way she looked at him made him feel butterflies in his stomach. Did he eat butterflies earlier that day?
"Um..." he muttered.
(Y/n) smiled warmly at his janky haircut, "You need some help with that?" She asked him.
"Y-yes, please." He said with a stutter. He handed her the scissors and took a seat on the toilet behind him.
"Alright, sit still for me." She asked him. And he did exactly what he was told.
He looked up at her with his eyes. He saw her caring face and how much effort she was putting into making little old him look nice. A blush ran across his face as he let a small, bashful smile appear on his lips.
"So what made you want to cut your hair at one in the morning?" (Y/n) asked.
"I..." He hesitated. Should he tell her? Tell her that his reflection reminded him too much of the people he never wanted to become? "Taking care of long hair was too difficult. Too much work for me. I liked my short hair better." He said.
"Do you want your little hair noodle?" She asked.
"No." He said. The hair noodle reminded him of Caleb. He didn't want it anymore.
The girl nodded and grabbed his chin to make him look up at her. Hunter felt the butterflies in his stomach grow infinitely and the blush on his cheeks grow ten times hotter.
My face feels as hot as (Y/n). For fuck's sake. He cursed in his head.
"Aaand, done!" She finally said.
Hunter got up from the toilet and looked in the mirror. He no longer saw Caleb or Belos. He only saw himself. His nose stung as tears began to well in his eyes.
Hunter turned around to face (Y/n) as his head went crashing down, into her shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, tightly and smiled, "Thank you, (Y/n)."
(Y/n) wrapped her arms around him as her cheeks began to redden, "O-of course, Goldilocks."
Hunter smiled with a dark blush resting on his cheeks and ears. He picked his head up from her shoulder and took her head into his hands. Without much thought, he pressed his lips to her cheek and kissed her.
(Y/n) let out a surprised squeak which brought Hunter back to his senses. "I'm so sorry." He gasped, "I- I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry. Thank you for the haircut, I'm sorry." He frantically blurted as he ran back to the basement, leaving (Y/n) red faced in the bathroom.
(A/n): the urge to write Huntlow but then remembering this is a reader x Hunter fic...
Then the urge to make it reader x Hunter x Willow.