Chapter Text
Willow was fourteen when she met Hunter and everything had changed from that moment, of course she hadn’t know his known his name was Hunter rather he had said it was something like.. Caleb? But still everything made sense with him, the world was no longer unbearably loud, she had someone that would listen to her ramble on and on about her famous plant facts and he had never once doubted her capability. He made her feel.. special.
Everyone always treated her like she was made of glass. She was the poor bullied half-a-witch willow who never stood up for herself so everyone was always afraid they’d upset her or make her feel uncomfortable.
He never saw her like that.
Hunter always treated her like a strong warrior when they were sparring rather than the feeble princess, and when he would sneak of duty they would race around the tops of the titan’s ribs with their palismen and Willow could feel he would never hold back.
He understood her and took the time to know her more than others at her school. And she couldn’t help but love knowing more and him too.
He liked sewing, cooking (though he admitted he was not good as he had once set fire to water he was trying to prepare for spaghetti which they had both laughed about) and sparring, which Willow never complained about. She loved sparring and training with Hunter who’s the golden guard and has lots of experience always helped her improve.
So yeah Willow liked him. A lot.
After being friends with him so long and going through all these smaller adventures with each other, Willow can’t help but finally acknowledge the way her cheeks blushed when he was around or the flowers the grew in her hair and Willow and Hunters fingers gently brush each others.
In the human realm, everything had got really depressive with Luz blaming herself about the events back on the titan (even though she keeps trying to convince others she wasn’t), Hunter coming to grips with the years of manipulation and abuse due to his uncle and everyone missing their home. Yet Hunter was always there for them all despite them knowing he was struggling too.
He brought them hot chocolates (he had burnt them somehow but it was the thought that counts), would give them small meaningful little pats on the back if they got emotional and put on their favourite shoes to distract them.
It only made Willow fall for him more.
The human realm made her gain some sense whilst she was there and she realised how much she had grown to care for this boy. This hardworking, socially awkward yet loving boy.
One night on the human tradition named ‘fire work night’ Camilla had taken them to a large bonfire to watch the sky light up with bright bursts of colour. Luz and Amity snuggled next to one another hands wrapped tight and with a light purple blanket arounf their shoulders. Ver and Gus were wrapped in blankets and sat either side of Camilla looking up in wonder at the sky. That left her and Hunter.
Hunter who was sat right next to her and so close she could see the bright colours in the sky reflect off his eyes. He was wearing noise cancelling headphones as Camilla knew he hated loud sudden noises but that didn’t stop him from wanting to come and spend time with the others.
This was her chance.
Slowly, she tried to subtly move a little closer to him but he turned quickly at the noise and gave a little awkward smile before he moved in close too and put his head on her shoulder.
Her face went bright red and life’s of flowers bloomed in her hair. She could almost feel Hunters face getting warmer too as if he’d realised what he had done, but when he tried to pull away Willow just gently reacted his head and pulled him back done smiling.
Hunters ears twitched and reddened as he looked up at the sky. Willow on the other hand couldn’t take her eyes off him for the rest of the night. The way he sighed at certain colours and pointed to green ones and said they were ones for Willow made her feel so giddy like a child opening a present.
They went home that night and she dreamt of those moments on repeat.
It was only the next day when everything had to go wrong. Flapjack died and they were once again thrown into another world of chaos back on the titan. Poor Hunter now had a new set of scars for his already plentiful collection and just looked utterly lost. She would never give up on him though.
She liked him. More than she could admit