#hilray

Mod Note: THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE REQUEST BBY. glad it finally went through. I tried to impose some realistic and fictional aspects of witchcraft here. From someone who practices, this was cute to write. I appreciate the prompt!!!

When thinking about the kind of witch Hilary would be, I imagine her working with greenery and crystals and primarily using her abilities to help others. Her spells seldom revolve around herself. She doesn’t ask for love, or pray for money, and neither does she wish to improve her own skills as a blader. She would rather construct small spell jars for those having a hard time. She often leaves them in places where she knows that person will be or gifts them under the guise of them being a “cute art project” (because she doesn’t want people to freak out or question her when she says what the jar really is and how it works). In other words, Hilary takes all of her good intentions and kind wishes and places that energy into things in order to make someone else’s desire come to life. Her magic is very subtle, but extremely pure and bright. So long as she remains selfless, the power behind her magic remains strong.

Hilary has always used her magic to help Ray out to the best of her ability. Whenever she wants to cast a spell for him, she has to distance herself from other people (aka the rest of the team) in order to begin chanting the first few lines of her spell. She always covers her mouth in some way to make sure no one can see her talking to herself. In the few instances when Ray has looked up to see where Hilary has went, he has caught her mumbling to herself a few times and ended up slightly concerned. He always assumed that her actions were out of worry or she had a lot on her mind, so he gave it his all to win quickly so she could relax. Funny enough, he always seems to win effortlessly when he sees Hilary “worrying” about him, but part of it is due to her magic. Her magic doesn’t increase his skills by any means. Ray still wins on his own. The magic just makes things more favorable around him (like the reduction of noise, the calming of winds, less antagonism from his opponent, if a blade explodes in the match then no pieces end up hitting him, etc.). Ray silently thinks of Hilary as his good luck charm, so he encourages her to watch him whenever she can.

The first time Ray found out that Hilary was a witch was completely by accident. At first, Hilary thought she was alone. She was making her way over to Tyson’s house when she saw a dry and drooping flower hanging out of its basket. Under the impression that no one was around, Hilary flicked her wrist and watched as the flower became rejuvenated again in order to perk up alongside the rest of the floral bunch. The magic was small and simple; even she didn’t think much about it. Well, that is, until she heard Ray call her name from behind. When she turned around to see him, he had a completely dumbfounded expression. He was under the impression that he was just exhausted from training and what he saw was a simple illusion. Hand collides with forehead and he feels the need to sit down. Hilary runs to his side and laughs nervously, trying to focus on his condition instead of giving attention to her previous actions. She hoped that her attentiveness could serve as some kind of distraction. Hilary always carries healing crystals and although she wanted to use one on Ray, she knew it would only make things worse so she simply sat by his side and anxiously talked his ear off.

Upon calming down, Ray was finally able to tell Hilary about what he saw. In fact, he urged her to do it again, just to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. Hilary tried to laugh it off by saying “magic isn’t real” but Ray replied with, “but yours is.” Hilary had never seen Ray so serious and invested in something like her craft. She thought it was dangerous at first to expose him to her abilities (because who knows how he’d react), but upon repeating her previous spell, his grin only grew. Ray was actually extremely excited to find that Hilary was a witch. When he realized how she used her magic and what it was usually for, he was impressed with her desire to impose good on the world. Ray had always known Hilary was generous and selfless, but he never really realized to what extent. Suddenly, everything started to make sense, but only good things seemed to happen when she was around.

At some point, Ray ended up doing the most unintentional, but cheesiest thing ever. After spending more time with Hilary and seeing how comfortable she got with using her abilities around him, Ray interrupted her with a question. He asked if she had ever put a love spell on someone and when she said “no” he breathed a sigh of relief and revealed that he was glad that the feelings he developed for her were of his own free will. Neither of them anticipated hearing a confession in that moment, so they were both red in the face and quiet. How do you even recover from something so unexpected? Ray ended up laughing it off. Suddenly, he felt his confidence restored and asked, “so, cat’s out of the bag. What do you say? Think a witch like you could settle for a normal guy like me?” Hilary had to snap herself out of that sudden daze, but she instantly accepted, thus starting the beautiful beginnings of their relationship.