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#they bond over beating up Luz’s enemies
strawberri-draws · 1 year
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Cannot wait for the Mom Team Up
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drabbles-of-writing · 3 years
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Adopted AU
Same anon as before, let us see that post of Hunter and King as brothers
Eda pops in with a very traumatized child who may have left Belos at 11, but was still covered in physical and mental scars, and puts him in the same general area as a three year old demon with a napoleon complex. cue Hunter occasionally sneaking up behind King and curiously poking him until the demon gets annoyed and starts trying to grab him and Hunter scurries back to the corner to hiss at him, meanwhile King just wants to know Who The Weird Witch Is. its like trying to introduce cats but you forgot they gotta smell each other through the door first.
more under the cut
Hunter was very much Not on board with King calling him a minion or a subject, because you know, Belos trauma with him feeling like a lesser pawn in his plan, and after yelling at the itty bitty boy a few times and King feeling kind of bad when Eda scolded Hunter for doing so since King is Young and Hunter has no other idea how to express his emotions since he had no real healthy outlets at that point, King settled on calling him "the vagrant witch who remains in my kingdom but at a Price" and that price is the two of them teaming up to steal cookies, stuffed animals for King's kingdom, and hiding in small impossible spots around the Owl House which ends up in Eda whacking them with a broom to get 'em out. Hunter may have used King as a stuffed animal to sleep with in random spots around the house before he realized he had an actual bed now and King may have been forced to put up with it. kids went from mortal enemies to best partners in crime in the span of like 6 months. Hunter I imagine also would've felt he and King could bond over the fact they both have scars, Hunter's being literal and King's being his broken horn. he assumed King never brought it up because it was hard for him like how Belos was a tough topic for Belos but by the time he was like 13 he realized King just. didn't know
King also grew up with Hunter having night terrors and some ptsd. kids messed up as all hell and has had moments where he wakes up freaked out or starts suddenly shaking and falling to the floor seemingly out of the blue. took him a few years until he stopped getting terrified if someones voice raised even a little at him but even at 16 he still gets visibly nervous and his hands can shake sometimes. King didn't understand what was happening when those happened or why Eda looked so scared for him. first few times were a nightmare, and Hunter would curl up in the furthest corner where nobody could reach him and shrink away from everyone. King could almost always get to the same places as Hunter, so eventually he just started. crawling up to Hunter. wouldn't touch him, but he'd sit there quietly until Hunter calmed down or decided he Did actually want to hug the fluffy demon. King never really completely understood it because he only ever asked when he was like 4-5 and Eda has no idea how to explain to him that Hunter went through a lot of shit. so she best explained it as that certain things scare Hunter more than others because he had a bad experience with them, and thus he needed some help with it. worked enough for King. its also due to this and Hunter's aversion to any topics on Belos that King doesn't know Eda or Hunter's backstory. He grew up believing that most witches were like Hunter (not all, but a good few) and would go out of his way to not do certain things in public or to other witches he knew that upset Hunter. he thought that Hunter's scars were normal and that they were the coolest thing, because they meant he'd been in a lot of battles and he had to be really powerful to get that many scars. and he told Hunter as such, and it helped, just a bit.
Hunter and Luz have a 'god you annoy the hell out of me but unfortunately we also bond over similar things and I love you' sibling bond whereas Hunter and King is a 'we don't understand a thing about each other but we work well in crime and doing our best. also mildly bullying each others failures' sibling bond. King was more than a little shocked to learn that Emperor Belos was Hunter's uncle, and was 100% ready to dethrone him on the spot when he realized Belos was the cause of his trauma. he absolutely claimed that Hunter clearly must've beat Belos hard to come out alive after getting all those scars and Hunter wasn't going to dispute him. Hunter also didn't much get why King was so insistent on finding his father, what with Hunter having a pretty iffy bio family, but it was important to King, so he added research on demons like King to his never ending list of things to study for hours on in the dead of night. don't even get me STARTED on when King legally changed his last name to Clawthorne.
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sergeantsporks · 3 years
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Do You Want the Knife You Left In My Back, or Can I Keep It?
Rating: Teen and up, Gen
An injured Hunter wanders into Hexside. What was Luz supposed to do, just let him bleed out on the floor?
Ch1/?: Backstabber
Ao3
“The human must be truly formidable if the Emperor sent both of us to capture her.”
Hunter glanced back at Kikimora. “Nah, he was probably just worried that you’d mess it up, so he sent me to make sure it went smoothly.”
Kikimora studied her claws. “I know it was you that attacked me when I tried to bring the palisman to the Emperor. You and the human.”
Hunter whipped around. “Oh, do you want to talk about that now? Because I know that you knocked my airship out of the sky and tried to have me killed. So you have nothing on me. You tell the Emperor what I did, I tell him what you did.”
“The human really must be formidable if she managed to get the palisman from you.”
Hunter rolled his eyes behind his mask. “She’s really not. I was a little bit busy fighting you to worry about her.”
“Truly a strong foe,” Kikimora continued, “So strong she was able to overcome you.”
“What are you talking ab—”
A blast of magic hit him, and magical bonds snaked around his hands and feet, yanking on him and sending him to his knees. Hunter struggled and tugged against the ties, but they held firm. “HEY! Kikimora, what—”
Something sharp touched his back, right between his shoulder blades, and he froze. “She attacked us from behind,” Kikimora hissed in his ear, “She went for you, first.” Something slammed into his back, like she’d punched him. “She was brutal. Merciless.”
Kikimora twisted her hand, and Hunter felt a tingling shock, and then—
His world exploded. Heat flooded out from the wound, and Hunter heard a guttural, choking scream.
Oh, wait.
That was him.
Kikimora pushed him facedown to the ground, knife still in his back. “I killed her, of course. It was a tough fight, but to avenge a fellow coven member? Of course I didn’t give up until I succeeded.”
Hunter coughed, blood coating the inside of his mouth. “Kiiii…”
“That’s what happens,” Kikimora hissed, “when people try to replace me.”
She walked off, and Hunter just lay there on the ground, his mind fuzzy with pain.
He had to…
Ugh—
Hunter pulled out his staff, and inch by agonizing inch, used it to pull himself up, shaking. He twisted, reaching for the knife, but the movement just tore more, and the world blacked out for a second. He gripped his staff tightly, his knuckles white.
Kikimora could easily kill him in this state, if the wound itself didn’t kill him.
That meant the only thing standing between her and total control over the coven and Uncle Belos’ complete trust was… Luz.
Kikimora would probably go to the owl house first.
That gave Hunter the advantage.
Xxx
“Thorn vault!” Luz called, slamming her hand down on her glyph. The plant erupted outward, pushing her over Skara’s head to the goal. Skara jumped, but missed her by inches. “Ah! Not again!”
Luz touched down. “You’ll get it someday.”
“Unlikely!” Gus called from the bleachers, “I predict never!”
“Zip it, twerp!” Skara yelled back, “Just wave your flags!” She dusted herself off. “One more try?”
“One more try,” Luz agreed, “Amity, you ready?”
“Always!”
Gus screeched, pointing. “Luz!”
Luz whipped around in the direction he was pointing to see an awfully familiar staff moving slowly towards her.
And the person clutching it like a lifeline.
Amity raced towards Luz, skidding in front of her, an abomination already rising out of the dirt. “Stay back!” she warned Hunter, “I beat you once, I can do it again!”
Luz put a hand on her arm. “Wait! There’s something wrong!” She moved cautiously towards Hunter—he looked awful. Residue magic swirled around his wrists and ankles, and…
“Is that blood?!” Luz rushed forward to him, taking his arm. She stifled a scream at the jagged blade sticking out of his back, blood staining his white cape red. “Ohmygosh, what happened to you?!”
His chest heaved with ragged breaths. “Kikimora—never thought—this open—” He slumped against her. “After… you…”
“Find Viney!” Luz yelled to Skara, “Amity—”
“I’m not leaving you alone with him!”
“Okay, fine, Gus, get Eda!”
Luz lowered Hunter to the ground, holding him up so that the knife wouldn’t go further in. “Don’t die!”
Amity hovered over them. “What did you mean, ‘after you?’ Were you coming to hurt Luz?!”
Hunter coughed, blood flecking his lips. “I…”
“Amity, he’s in really bad shape! You can’t interrogate him right now!”
Hunter pawed weakly at her hand. “Kikimora… want… to kill… you… exposed…”
“Okay, okay, I get it. Big bad coven leader wants me dead. Now shhhhhh, stop moving around, you’re going to make it worse!”
Puddles landed next to her, Viney sliding off of his back. “Whoa! You must have been having the most intense grudgeby match of all time!” She knelt next to them, gently turning Hunter onto his stomach. “Oooo, that’s bad. You should have gotten the healing teacher, I don’t know if—”
Luz grabbed her arm. “No! No teachers! Please.”
Viney hissed, examining the knife. “This isn’t just a regular knife—there are some kinds of objects that are enchanted to be resilient to healing magic—in case you really, really want to make sure your enemy bites it.” She drew a circle with her finger, and the knife glowed golden. “This one isn’t too powerful—I can stop the bleeding and put a patch on all of the internal problems, but I can’t seal it up. He’ll have to heal on his own. Where did you even get this knife?!”
Hunter whimpered, and Luz grabbed Viney’s hand. “It doesn’t matter! Just do it, before he dies!”
“Okay.” Viney snapped her fingers, and Puddles shooed Luz to the side, offering Hunter a cloth to bite down on and gently holding him still with his talons. Viney took a deep breath, and the knife glowed again, floating out of Hunter’s back, the cloak floating away, too. Hunter let out a muffled scream into the cloth, and tensed, which just made the blood spurt harder out of the wound. Viney drew a circle over his back, and the bleeding abruptly stopped. Puddles coughed up bandages, and a needle and thread, and Viney nodded to Luz and Amity. “This isn’t going to be pretty. You might want to look away.”
Amity pulled Luz away. “Luz, what exactly are you planning to do now? Just dump him on the doorstep of the conformatorium and run away?”
“No way! What if Kikimora finds him first? We can’t just send him back, she is literally trying to kill him!”
“And he’s trying to catch you!”
“That doesn’t mean I’m going to let him die!” Luz took Amity’s hands. “Amity, you fought him too. You didn’t feel even a little bit bad for him?”
Amity looked away. “Maybe a little bit,” she admitted, “But… if you’re not going to leave him with his coven, what is your plan?”
Luz bit her lip, staring at the ground. “Iwasthinkingmaybehecouldstayattheowlhouse,” she mumbled.
“What?”
“I was thinking he could stay with me,” she said louder, “At the owl house.”
“What?! No way! Luz, are you crazy?!”
“Ooo, hehe, jury’s still out on that one, Amity, you know that.”
“I’m serious, Luz, you can’t let him into the owl house!”
“Look at him, Amity, does he look dangerous to you?”
Amity looked back to where he was lying limp on the grudgeby field, Puddles nuzzling his face. “… I guess not… but still, he doesn’t have to attack you, all he has to do is put a trap, or let someone else into the owl house to bump you off!”
“The only people out for me right now are him and Kikimora. And Kikimora is also trying to kill him. Sooooooo I’m not overly worried about it.” Luz gave Amity’s hands a squeeze. “C’mon. I think I can handle one stabbed guy in a fight, give me that much credit at least.”
“… Fine. But good luck convincing Eda, she doesn’t exactly have the most… friendly of feelings towards him.”
Speak of the devil, Eda flew over the fence on her staff, Gus hanging onto the end. “I heard a kid got stabbed! Luz, you didn’t tell me it was knife day at school, I would have come to watch!”
“Kni—okay, sure, that’s a thing. It’s not knife day, Eda. None of the students got stabbed.”
“What? So what happened?”
Luz pointed across the field. “Uhhhhhhhm, soooooooo?”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Eeeeedaaaaaa, I haven’t even asked anything yet!”
“Okay, let me set parameters for your next few sentences, then. If you are about to ask me if we can, in any way, shape, or form, take care of the Golden Guard and his lovely new piercing, the answer is no.”
“But Eda—”
“No. Nada. Nein. You speak Spanish, right? No. Any other ways I can say it?”
“Eda, he needs help!”
“Dump him on his coven’s doorstep, ring the doorbell, and run away. We’re not taking care of him.”
“Eda, listen—”
“No, you listen, Luz. That kid is trouble—and not the fun kind. You try to be nice to him, and he’ll stab you in the back. He’s been Belos-ified through and through.”
“I thought the same thing about Lilith!”
“Yeah? Well, I didn’t. My sister’s too much of a nerdy dork to ever be really horrible. This kid’s a nerd, sure, but he’s not Lili. He’s dangerous, he’s desperate, and unlike Lilith, he’s working completely for Belos, not himself.”
“Eda, Kikimora’s trying to kill him!”
“Well, I hope they succeed at murdering each other, and maybe take Belos down with them while they’re at it.”
“It would be murder to leave him at the coven!”
“Guess I’m going to be a murderer, then. Add it to the list of crimes.”
“Wouldn’t you want him to help me if I was in his place? If you were stuck in the owl beast form, and King was trying to kill me, wouldn’t you want him to help me?”
“I sincerely doubt King’s murdering skills, and NO, I think I wouldn’t want you anywhere close to Belos.”
Luz gave Eda big puppy-dog eyes, and her mentor sighed.
“Buuuuut I guess I see your point. Gah. Fiiiiiiiineee. You can take him home.” Eda leveled a finger at Luz. “But you have to feed him, and water him, and clean up after his messes, and keep him entertained, understood?”
“He’s not a pet, Eda.”
“I said, understood?”
“Understood.” Luz hugged Eda. “Thank you!”
“Oh, and if he tries to hurt you, if he tries to sell us out to Belos? I will do Kookymora a solid and finish the job.”
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Popular!Luz AU concept post
This au concept is something me, @crispyclown , and @molotov-does-stuff worked out together on @pastatiger ‘s TOH discord.
The basic concept is “what if Luz never did become friends with Willow and actually did become popular” based on an offhanded comment from boscha in ‘Understanding Willow’ that went to the effect of “that human could have been popular if she wasn’t hanging out with Willow”.
Here’s all the headcanons we’ve all put together:
Timeline:
1) 'teenage abomination' never happens. Luz just has a boring day and becomes vaguely aware of Hexside.
2) during ’Covention’, Amity and Luz meet for the first time. They don’t hit it off but they don’t not hit it off either. After the Lilith speech, Amity still steps on King’s cupcake, but it’s completely by accident. Amity tries to ‘keep up appearances as a Blight’ and ends up accidentally insulting Luz and King while attempting to apologize. Luz ultimately still has the “Bog of Immediate Regret” line, but Amity doesn’t really care one way or the other, so she nearly says ‘you read Azura too?!’ Before instead accepting. Amity and Luz’s bet is pretty low stakes — Amity apologizes to king if she loses, Luz apologizes to Amity if she loses, maybe? But Eda and Lillith get waaaay into the bet and both sides cheat as canon. Amity still breaks down when the construction glyph is revealed, but Luz formally concedes anyways (with low stakes she doesn’t have any serious need to win, and she still would rather be this girl’s friend than her enemy), citing their own relative skill levels, before going and talking to Amity. Amity is still DISTRAUGHT about the whole ordeal, but she and Luz have a much more in-depth heart-to-heart, where Luz explains what she did, tells Amity how cool Luz thinks she is, and manages to tell her the “I’m not a witch, but… I’m training to be one“ line. Amity leaves Luz with the line, ‘they say humans can't learn any magic. But... I don't think that's going to stop you.' And… they’re, maybe friends? Unclear friends? Probably just acquaintances but the point is its nonnegative relationship development.
3) ‘Hooty's Moving Hassle' is removed.
4) in ‘Lost in Language’, Luz is still a little over-friendly with Amity (Amity respects her for serious but also She Has A Reputation, Luz) when they meet in the library. Luz still gets sucked in to the twins’ chaotic energy, and Luz still thinks hanging out with them will somehow translate to brownie points with Amity. When Amity walks in on them in the secret room, she’s much more visibly and viscerally betrayed by (what she thinks) Luz did. However after saving themselves from evil Otabin, Luz does convince her the twins tricked her, they book trade as canon, Amity actually clearly thinks of Luz as a friend at the end of it all.
5) the moonlight conjuration incident happens after the library incident. Amity spins a BS story about Luz being a skilled witch to her parents and invites her to the conjuring. While initially their conjuring goes as canon (ie nowhere), Luz turns it to a regular party with Boscha, Skara, Amity, and herself. (and Cat, i think? Whoever their canon fourth was, she’s still here.) Eventually they try again, and since (in this au) the conjuring's power == your conjuring group's friendship's strength, and everyone here is at least somewhat friends with luz now, they do manage to animate a few things.
6) at some point here, Luz, Boscha, and Skara team up for a pickup game of grudgeby, and Luz learns the fireball glyph.
7) During ‘Once Upon a Swap', both Skara and Boscha notice how out of character King!Luz is acting. They can admit King!Luz is being cool, if a lil dorky, but they have an out-of-character moment where Boscha tries to ask 'Luz' if she's okay. King doesn't get it, but the others walk in on it so Boscha resumes acting like a challenged alpha bitch. (Luz eventually explains to Skara what was goin on that day. Luz ‘conveniently’ never got the chance to clue Boscha in.)
8) at some point around here, Luz manages to get Eda to enroll her in Hexside.
9) 'adventures in the elements' is changed bc Luz does know two glyphs. However, She and Amity want to hang out some more and Amity thought Luz's fire glyph could help her learn the fireball spell, so they still go to the knee together (with Eda, Emira, and Edric as terrible excuses for chaperones.) Luz learns the ice spell under Eda’s somewhat hands-off tutelage, possibly after accidentally angering the Slitherbeast as in canon.
10) In ‘First Day', Boscha is looking forward to finally getting a read on this girl who wormed her way straight into Amity's heart. (she's not jealous. nuhuh. not even a little. YOU’RE jealous!) Luz still immediately gets Detention'd, tho, but this time Amity and Boscha show up to bust her out unprompted, leading to a VERY awkward moment where Viney (and Jerbo and Barcus) refuse to trust Luz on the basis that Boscha and Amity are her friends, and both of them are notorious jerks who would ABSOLUTELY bully the DT kids. Amity has to duck out for her performance tho. the episode concludes as canon.
11) we get an extended time where we see how Luz easily makes friends with almost everyone at Hexside. She's friend-shaped and she gets a HUGE popularity boost for being honest friends with Skara and Amity. (she gets rancid vibes from Boscha when they’re at school together, but she can't put her finger on *why*. and besides, Boscha calls Luz her friend too, so that probably counts.) during this time Luz meets Gus, who is one of E&E's classmates. Gus can have an episode, as a treat.
12) Luz finally meets Willow, and gets slapped in the face HARD with confirmation that Amity and Boscha are kind of massive assholes. Luz tries to befriend Willow, but Willow refuses to trust her due to how often Boscha, Amity, and the rest of the popular girls who make up most of Luz’s closer friend group have bullied her.
13) Luz tries to get Boscha to take it down a notch. Boscha takes it up a notch. Luz tries to get Amity to help, Amity asks why it matters — it’s just ‘half a witch willow’, no one cares. Luz realizes, awkwardly (and probably with the assistance of Jerbo and/or Barcus), that while she currently has a lot a friends and is popular, if she defends Willow from Boscha’s bullying she’ll lose a lot of her popularity. Luz kind of has a small breakdown over this, because she doesn’t want to risk friends here when in the human world she has so few, but at the same time, she has Principles! She can’t just ignore this! As one of her schemes to help Willow without going against Boscha directly, Luz manages to get Willow transferred out of Abominations, although Willow is kinda annoyed by this since even though she’s in plant track she feels a stranger. (This alienation eventually goes away, but not before…)

14) Luz snaps and punches Boscha in the face one day for bullying Willow once too many times. Boscha gets PISSED and Luz is NOT BACKING DOWN, even though she’s scared. Boscha basically exiles Luz from the friend group, which has the added effect of making almost all of Luz’s friends stop talking to her, most painfully Skara and Amity. Willow starts to tolerate her, but only barely. (Gus is still Luz’s friend tho. In fact, Gus, the DT kids, and E&E Are the only Hexside students at this point who’ll be caught dead with Luz.)

15) ‘Understanding Willow’ Is changed; Luz catches Amity burning up Willow’s memories. However, since Amity, Luz, and Willow are distinctly *not* talking to each other, the quest to save Willow’s mind is *much* more tense. Luz keeps taking potshots at Amity for abandoning the both of them, Inner Willow hates both of them, and Amity is trying desperately not to have fun with people who hate her and also trying desperately to defend her actions. Amity still reveals the same secret of the day she stopped being Willow’s friend; Luz, meanwhile, reveals some bad memories of her own human school that make it very obvious how much the chance to be popular meant to her and how she genuinely empathizes with Willow’s whole situation. Ultimately ends with a bit of a tense moment between the three where they admit they’re not friends yet… but at the very least they’re all willing to be friends, now.
16) We get some time watching Luz slowly re-making her friends throughout the school, as people decide they really do like Willow and Luz as people and they’re kinda tired of Boscha been an alpha bitch. Maybe spliced with Willow & Luz & Amity hangin out, being friendly, or with Boscha been salty and Skara et al. being here by obligation even though they *clearly* wanna hang out with Luz some more.
17) ‘Wing It Like Witches’ happens largely beat for beat here. Boscha attempts to re-assert social dominance, Luz invokes the sacred rites of a game of grubby with a bet, Luz tries to get Willow and Gus in for it but Gus can’t and Willow won’t; Amity talks Willow into forming a 3 person team with her. Extra angst from the fact that Boscha and Luz did actually have some bonding over being on the same team on an earlier grubby game.
18) Grom happens now, largely as canon. When preparing Luz for the main fight, Amity theorizes (incorrectly) that Luz’s greatest fear is losing her friends on the boiling isles; Luz goes along with it, because ‘I already faced that fear once this year, it’ll be a cinch’. Grom tries it but it doesn’t work, but then from turns into her mom. (We see Amity nearly cry from Grom turning into her, but realizes what’s going on, and then has a massive blush from being called ‘her’ Amity. Skara rolls her eyes, bc she’s been clued in. Boscha is deliberately not caring.)
.
20) Boscha eventually gets to the point where she decides to apologize to Willow. She starts with a BS ‘lol sry’ approach, ends with a record-scratch-sudden rant where Boscha really does break it — and herself — down in honest apology. Some of the bad attempts are played for comedy, this one played completely straight.
Miscellanious other elements:
Unrequited Boschamity / exes Boschamity, boscha has cool banter with her friends (mildly platonic boschluz banter, snarky boschamity banter, member boschkara banter, etc), Boscha being really jealous of Luz, Everyone — EVERYONE — pines at Skara, Luz also pines at willow eventually, BOSCHA ACTUALLY GETS A REDEMPTION ARC AND ITS WELL WRITTEN AND NO ITS NOT IN SERVICE OF A SHIP, Boscha::Azula Amity::Zuko wrt redemption arcs, Boscha joins the inevitable rebellion as one of those ‘everyone in public thinks I’m an enemy of the rebellion so I can help them out real nice in the DL’ people, and yes we ARE overthrowing the government at some point in this au just not right now, right now we’re having ANGST and LUMITY, boscha is actually very nice to her friends when she wants to be she just usually doesn’t feel like she Should Be Vulnerable, any episode that’s just ‘Luz With Willow And/or Gus doing Hijinks’ (ex ‘Really Small Problems’, ‘Something Ventured, Someone Framed’) that hasn’t already been mapped to an event in this timeline is skipped completely, yes that means Mathholomule successfully becomes president of the human club, none of this aus cast is actually friends with him tho don’t worry, Edric has been quietly dating Jerbo for a while now but his sisters don’t know, Emira is a disaster lesbian for Viney and the teasing is relentless, Emira is a terminal prankster with a maladapted sense of boundaries as a result of her parents, this is a point of contention for her courtship of Viney who can and will go OFF on her for crossing the line and not feeling guilty, Edric is very aware of boundaries but he also finds looking to her for direction gets him in trouble the least at home so he just feels terrible afterwards and tries to get Emira to tone it down and/or apologize, basically the library incident was her idea in this au and he went along with it because of blight child optics stuff, Luz’s memory may out Luz to Willow and Amity, Willow and Amity absolutely say ‘gay rights’, in fact the entire isle says ‘gay rights’, this au tricks you into thinking ‘oh easy lumity’ but then Willow comes in like a wrecking ball, during that murky period when Luz’s friends all hate her bc she punched boscha all the people still willing to talk to her get friendly REAL fast, yes that includes willow and amity once they all stop hating each other, nobody lets Amity live down “Oh, wow,,, sports” except Luz who didn’t get it, Everyone has a song assigned to them at the sleepover, Luz’s is Bad Reputation, Skara’s is Caramelldansen, Boscha’s is Money Machine, Amity’s is Eminence Front because I say so
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softliebgott · 4 years
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HONEY DRIPPING OVER SUGARED TONGUES
PROMPT: You are a nurse at a regimental aid station in an abandoned cathedral some miles from the forest outside Bastogne, Belgium. You frequently interact with E Company’s medic, Eugene Roe, and have developed a strong bond with him. He has seen so much pain and death among his friends. It has only made him more kind, a little more haunted, and a little needy for affection.
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The muffled, drum beats of bombs outside of the cathedral walls kindled your anxiety like a sparkler. At first, your anxiety was a torturous, slow burn, but as the bombing dissipated, so did your worries. Momentarily. The cathedral could be hit at any time, and the last thing you and your patients would hear would be the shrill cry of a bomb.
You dipped your tweezers into the bloody rabbit hole the bullet had made for itself in your new patient’s shoulder. His face, cobweb white, had fresh tear trails slicing through the dirt on his skin, and his Adam’s apple bobbed nervously.
The bullet had missed the subclavian artery, and with low medical supplies, the soldier requested the morphine be saved for someone who needed it more. As you pinched the tweezers on the bullet, he pursed his lips. 
“I need you to stay still,” you murmured. When you had first started treating soldiers, their agonized sounds and gnarled faces were often sprinkled into your dreams. There was one scream that held a tonality nature did not compare with any other that had been cemented into your brain. You had no idea a human could produce such an outlandish noise. It partially reminded you of a fox’s wail. Although it had happened two years prior, you could still remember it as the most prominent moment.
As you pulled out the bullet, your patient’s Adam’s apple stood out like an arrowhead buried in his throat, and he tried to stifle pained noises. Once the bullet was out, he sighed in relief and closed his eyes.
The bullet looked as if it had been dipped in red punch. You dropped it into a tin bowl, and then started to clean the wound. From the steady rise and fall of the soldier’s chest, you figured he had taken sleep’s hand. Good. He needed rest.
After you had stitched and patched the wound, you craved fresh air. Stepping outside, winter breathed on you, leaching your body heat as if to try to keep itself warm. Surrounding you was a white canvas smeared with smoke and congested with debris and rubble from demolished buildings. You settled down on a chair, nuzzling your face into the collar of your wool coat, and listened to the crackling of lone fires.
A small burst of color in the glum sight, a red cross embroidered on an armband, caught your eye. He had seen you first, your Eugene Roe, a man whose price of a tender heart was feeling the war’s pain. The cold had paled his skin like that of a corpse, and reddened his nose and ears. His expression, as soft and warm as the sunlight’s morning rays, swept away your anxieties and ignited a fever in your heart. Each beat fanned out the heat in your chest. You were always so happy to see him. He made the war a little more bearable.
He picked up a chair, set it next to you, and sat down, his arm touching yours. The wooden seat creaked in surprise against his weight. He removed his helmet and put it on the ground. His black hair reminded you of a cat you saw some days ago, and you noticed that stubble had started to grow along his jawline.
You felt in your pocket and remembered the chocolate ration. Hunger had evaded you most of the day, but the thought of a sweet treat beckoned it back. You pulled the ration out. “Hungry?” You asked Eugene.
He glanced to it. “Sure,” he said, his Louisiana Cajun accent heavy yet boyish. Tired.
You began to tear at the wrapper, your fingers trembling from the cold and the sudden onslaught of hunger.
He noticed this. “Your hands...are you not eating again?”
“It’s hard sometimes...” you said softly. “I want to do as much as I can for the wounded.” Which not only meant scarce moments to eat, but to sleep. Exhaustion weighed your limbs down like wet rags and tempted your eyes to close. You broke off half of the chocolate and offered it to Eugene.
“No, you take it. You need it more.”
You bit down on the candy, hardened by the cold, grateful to have something in your stomach. 
“How much sleep have you gotten?” Eugene asked.
“The past two days...a little over four hours.”
His eyebrows squished together, concerned. “Why don’t you take some time to sleep now?” He murmured, gently bumping your arm with his. “You need it just as much as they do. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
Your body was already in agreement, growing heavier and more drowsy. You leaned against Eugene, resting your head on his shoulder, and lazily nibbled on your chocolate. He tangled his fingers with yours and squeezed. Both of you were unfazed by each other’s cold touch, because your hearts were warm. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Gene...” 
He was too shy to say it aloud, always so fearful of your response, but he thought, I may never find the words beautiful enough to describe all that you mean to me, but I will spend the rest of the war finding them...and finding the courage to tell you.
You were ripped from your sleep by the frantic calls of a soldier from a truck. “Nurse! Nurse, we need your help!”
You unraveled your fingers from Eugene’s, your hand immediately missing his warmth, and jogged toward the truck. Adrenaline gave new life to you, an energy you hadn’t felt for days. 
As you talked with the soldier, Eugene had gathered his helmet and walked over. 
You moved to the back of a truck where a man lay, still alive, with his torso riddled with bullet holes.
Eugene leaned to you and said, “I’ll see you when I can.”
Anxiety made its dreaded return. You grasped his arm, blood caking your hand like caramel over an apple. “Be safe,” you told him.
He nodded, his smile as soft as rose petals. He glanced to the wounded man and then left, your bloody hand print still grabbing his sleeve. 
Some days passed, all without the presence of Eugene. Your anxiety turned cruel, parasitic. It force fed you thoughts that made you tremble as if on low blood sugar, and your nose and eyes sting with the threat of tears. The anxiety robbed you of any potential sliver of an appetite, and ruthlessly burdened your bones with exhaustion. How terrible was it to love something that death could touch.
But.
Your friend, another nurse, approached you and said a medic was waiting for you in a room isolated from the patients.
Heart drumming, you hurried to the area, wiping your hands dry on your uniform. When you rounded the corner, Eugene was there, holding his helmet against his abdomen. Something felt different. His face looked more hardened, but as always his eyes were as soft as melted chocolate. Had he unintentionally welcomed more ghosts into his mind? Ghosts of comrades, and even the enemy? New memories to lash out at him in quiet moments and in sleep?
Yes, it was true. But it didn’t strip him of his softness. In fact, it had only made him more kind, and determined. In those few days, it made him come to reason with death and tragedy. It could happen at any time, and that he should not wait to say what he wanted to those he loved. Otherwise, he would lose them before he could.
He set down his helmet on the ground and approached you.
Befuddled, you whispered, “Gene...?”
Before you could begin to process, his cold hands were on either side of your face. His mouth swooped down to catch yours, and everything went oddly quiet, like the moment of silence between lightning and thunder. It stole your breath and gave it back. It let you know that every other kiss you’ve had in your life had been wrong, and that your anxiety was indeed love for him, too.
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