Second Chances
This is my first time not writing fluff but I had this idea and I didn’t know how to make it not sad so sorry if its bad or cringe or whatever but here ya go. Also loosely based on this by @ellimation because it made me emotional.
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The group had divided to search the land for any survivors or recognizable debris that could prove ushering. The Isles was in utter disaster, a barren wasteland where life once flourished. A heartbreaking sight. Hunter has been unusually quiet as he and Willow ventured farther than they intended to. Willow noticed he had been quiet for a while and turned to see he had stopped and was staring at something on the ground.
“What is it?” Willow asked, running over to his side.
“A time pool.” Hunter said softly, his eyes wide as though he was hypnotized.
“A time pool?” She repeated, carefully looking closer. “Aren’t those-.”
“Rare.” he said thoughtfully. “They’re really rare. And they never appeared in the same place twice. They’re unpredictable.”
“Well be careful,” she said with a nervous chuckle, placing her hand on his shoulder. “I don’t want you to fall in.”
Hunter did not return her chuckle and did not move away from the pool. His arms were locked to his side, and his hands balled into fists. She could see the thoughts dancing in his mind.
“They’re really rare,” he continued, still entranced. “The odds of finding one without looking… without a power source are… unthinkable.”
“Hunter?”
“I... look the most like him.”
“What?”
“This pool... I can tell when it’s from. It’s a little before they got here. I’d...be about his age when they did...”
“Hunter I don’t like-.”
“I can take Caleb’s place,” he said as though he was still realizing it, not looking at her. “I can go back in time and stop Philip from staying here. I know where the portals are, I-I can make him go back to the human realm and keep him there, keep him away.”
“What?”
“I can take his place” he said. “Caleb can still come here and marry Evelyn and be happy and the Clawthornes will be fine but this way... he’ll never know. We can stop Belos before he can do any harm.”
“No, no,” said Willow, shaking her head. “What are you saying? Hunter, that's crazy. If you do that then you’ll be stuck with him, you’ll be stuck there... you... you won’t exist.”
“But neither will the coven system,” said Hunter, turning to face her, and taking her hands in his. “Neither will any of terror and injustice he created. All the people he hurt, all the families, all those palisman will be safe. You’ll all be safe. I’m a small price to pay for that.”
“No!” she said, grabbing his arm to pull him away, worried he really had been hypnotized. “No, we’ll figure out another way! We have to! We can’t-.”
“Willow, what are the odds that I not only stumble upon a time pool but one that can… it’s got to be a sign,” he insisted. “This is a once in a lifetime chance. I’ll keep him away from the Isles. Everything can be the way it’s supposed to be and everyone can be happy.”
“Everyone but you,” she said quietly, and he did not deny it. “What about you?” She squeezed his hands and traced his scars lightly with the tip of her fingers, knowing that if she looked at his face she would be inconsistent. She needed to stay calm, make him hear her. She knew he was scared. She knew this wasn’t fair. This was too soon, too fast. Things were supposed to be getting better, that was supposed to mean for everyone.
“I’m not supposed to exist,” he said, not with his usual pity but as though for once it was finally a positive thing. “It took me a long time to come to terms with that and be fine with existing anyway. But how could I live with myself knowing I could’ve saved so many people?”
“But what if it doesn’t work? What if he hurts you? What if h-he figures it out and he-.”
“Then at least I’ll know I did everything I could,” he said eerily calm as he tried to keep his voice steady. “I think I can handle him in his human form and the demon realm would be better without him, that’s all I know for sure. This is the only way things can truly be fixed and I’m the only one who can do it.”
“But I... but...”
“I don’t have much time,” he said, running his thumb over her knuckle. “I can tell the pool is closing. I won’t get to say a proper goodbye, but tell the others... hm... well I guess it doesn’t matter does it? They won’t remember me anyway.”
She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist and buried her face in his chest. “I will.”
“Willow, that’s really sweet of you to say but it’s impossible.” He whispered, resting his chin on her head and returning her warm embrace, holding her like it was the only thing he knew how to do. What a fool he was to not have done this more often.
“I don’t care. I’m stubborn. I’ll remember you.” She insisted as the floods broke free and her grip on him tightened, unable to fathom how she would ever let go. “And you’ll remember me. You’ll remember all of us, okay? Captain’s orders.”
“I could never forget you.” He said, as his own tears began to stream down his face.
“What if I-?”
“You can’t go with me,” he said, reading her mind, hating that it was the truth. “I can’t ask that of you.”
“You don’t have to ask me,” she said quickly. “I want to. Time travel is weird so I’ll be okay later on or whatever. If it’ll all get fixed anyway like you said then at least we can-.”
“I don’t know everything that'll happen, but I know I could never deny the world of Willow Park.” he said, taking her face in his hands as she struggled to look at him through foggy glasses.
“But you’ll be all alone,” she said, her voice breaking. He had been alone for too much of his life. How was this fair?
“But you’ll be safe,” he said simply, wiping a tear from her eye. She could tell by the look in his eyes that there was no talking him out of it. There was pain and fear but most of all there was love. Her heart sank, knowing this was the way he always looked at her, knowing she could do nothing to prolong it. Knowing he’d never look at her this way again.
“Oh my Titan, I don’t want you to remember me like this,” she said, taking a deep breath and brushing her tears away with the palm of her hand. “My hair is a mess and my eyes are all puffy, and I can’t-.”
“You’re beautiful,” he assured, softly placing a kiss on her forehead. “You’ve always been beautiful, and you’ll always be beautiful.”
“Stop it,” she said sniffling, her voice hoarse and weak. “Stop being so wonderful. I wanna be mad at you so I’ll miss you less.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, brushing a loose strand of hair from her face.
“Let me give you something,” she said, trying to catch her breath, feeling like she wanted to throw up and pass out and punch something all at once. “Hold on... where is it? Oh, I should’ve brought my photo album, I should’ve.. I wish I…here.”
With shaking hands, she handed him a single photo she had been keeping safe in her pocket. She placed it in his hands and covered them in hers like she was sealing a prayer. They were supposed to have filled albums and albums with photos together; silly, blurry, bright photos and they had only gotten one summer.
“It’s my only copy so you better take good care of it, okay?”
She was talking about so much more than just a photo.
“I promise.” He tried to smile but his eyes betrayed him. She took one hand and placed it to his cheek and he covered it with his own, his hands cold against her warmth. Her mind raced with a million reasons he should stay, but she knew he was as smart as he was determined. He had a gift for starting over, he was resourceful.
“Are you sure you can’t wait for-?”
Knowing he had few answers and even less time, he did the only thing he was certain about and pulled her to him and brought her into a clumsy, desperate kiss. The timing, the setting, the circumstance were nothing like he envisioned but when had time ever been on his side? He heard her inhale sharply, as she steadied herself to return the kiss, angling her face to bring him closer. She had too much to say to him and words simply weren’t enough. He lifted her feet off the ground, and his heart or whatever beat inside his chest for her spun as she cupped his jaw and let out a bittersweet, elated gasp. If by some miracle, some trick of fate she did end up remembering him, he didn’t want to leave her with any uncertainty about how much he felt for her.
When he pulled away, the world was dull again. She pressed her forehead to his and knew by the sadness in his hazel eyes that he did not have it in him to utter the words ‘goodbye.’ She would not make him. She would not truly say goodbye to this kind, weird, wonderful boy who deserved the best of every realm. Instead, she clung to his scarred and blistered hands, and memorized the way their fingers intertwined so perfectly together. When he finally let go for the last time she wondered if her hands would feel empty forever.
He kept her in his sights until the very last moment as she tried with all her might to hold back her tears, lest her watery eyes construct her last view of him. The seconds felt like hours, the world around them so silent Willow could feel her heart beating in her ears. She waited to wake up, she needed to wake up.
“Take care of him, Flapjack.” she whispered.
Then, the whole world went black.
---
“Wow, you really did it huh?” a familiar voice marveled. Hunter didn’t need to question where it was, he knew the Collector existed on a plain and level all his own. Time was an illusion, a mere game to him. Surely, he had seen things more surprising than Hunter’s sacrifice. Yet he seemed genuinely unable to comprehend it all.
“Yeah, I guess I did.” Hunter sighed, looking at his reflection in the water. How ironic would be fulfilling Belos’ wishes after all, becoming Caleb and allowing his betrayal to go unnoticed.
“You’re really staying?” the star child continued, his voice echoing off the clouds overhead. “Even though you’re never gonna see them again? Never ever! You know that right?”
“I know.”
“Even the plant girl!” he said, becoming more and more flabbergasted. “And you liked her a lot.”
“I did.” said Hunter as he began to walk, knowing he had much to do to make sure it wasn’t all for naught. “I still do.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“I guess... because she have me a second chance,” he said, taking the photograph Willow had given him carefully from his sleeve. He remembered the day well:
Willow had become obsessed with roller-skating, instantly great at it and she had found him a pair of his won at the thrift store and offered to teach him He was less gifted, but still determined to impress her. She had taken his hands in hers, guiding him down the hill by the house, taking delight in any amount of progress he made. The mere fact he didn’t fall filled her face with pride and made Hunter a blushing mess.
He had gone a whole five feet without holding Willow’s had for support and she was bursting with excitement called for Luz to bring out her camera to capture the moment. At the mention of more spectators, he lost his focus and his balance followed suit as he struggled to stay upright. Willow rushed to his rescue, reaching out to catch him but he took her down with him. Of course, this was the moment Luz snapped the photo: Hunter, utterly terrified, clung to Willow as they hurdled toward the pavement. He had knocked off her glasses in the process, preserved floating over her head. In the moment, Hunter had been mortified as she had ended taking a majority of the blow hitting the ground first to protect him. But despite knowing what was about to happen, she looked elated, her head thrown back as she laughed wildly.
Hunter remembered begging them to throw away the photo, but Willow adored it. She promised it would stay out of the album, but she would keep it with her always. “As blackmail,” she had decreed, scrunching her nose. How could he have ever wanted such a treasure destroyed? He lovingly tucked in into his sleeve, the same place Willow had kept it, careful not to bend it.
”And... I wanted to give her one.”
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