Happy belated anniversary to the Lunter episode of all time, Thanks to Them. In honor of Flapjack here's a 6.7k fic that's my personal take on the Harpy Hunter concept. With lots of Lunter fluff because you know me. This is a pretty cozy one, so I hope you enjoy!
"I think Belos is possessing me again."
He said it in such a collected and matter-of-fact way, as though he were giving a formal report on the results of a mission. But even through the darkness and her own exhaustion, Luz could see the terror in Hunter's slightly retroreflective eyes and feel the way his hand trembled against her side as he prodded her awake.
She sat up to face him, doing her best to remain calm and not add to his panic. She reached out and cupped his cheek with her hand, tenderly rubbing her thumb across his lower eyelid as she gazed into his blood-red irises. "Well," she whispered, "Your eyes aren't blue, so that's a good sign. What makes you think something's wrong?"
She noted that despite his anxious state, Hunter couldn't help but melt into her touch, his eyes slipping closed as he leaned into her hand. "I just feel...off," he mumbled. "And my skin feels weird, like there's something crawling beneath it trying to get out, and I don't know what it is and..."
"Okay," Luz cut in gently, trying to stop him before he started hyperventilating. "Does it feel like that everywhere, or somewhere specific?"
He paused for a moment to think, then squirmed and rolled his shoulders a bit. "My back."
Luz hummed sympathetically. "Mamá said she thinks you might have some eczema there, remember?" she said. She tried to disguise her relief at having come up with such a plausible explanation so Hunter wouldn't know how concerned she had been. Sure, she had been there to witness Belos's death, but she had originally thought she'd witnessed it on the Day of Unity, and they both knew how that had turned out. "It's been getting kinda chilly lately, so it might be flaring up because of that. But if you want, I could take a look and make sure that's all it is if it would make you feel better."
"If you don't mind," Hunter whispered, scratching at the scar on his right cheek self-consciously. Luz reached over to turn on her lamp while Hunter unbuttoned his pajama shirt a bit so he could slide it down to reveal his upper back.
A gasp escaped from Luz before she could stifle it.
"What?!" Hunter whipped back around to face her, his eyes darting frantically over her face as he tried to read her expression.
Luz was speechless for a moment, her hands reflexively covering her mouth as she stared at what was currently protruding from Hunter's back.
Feathers.
Vibrant scarlet feathers were blooming outwards from his spine and extending across his shoulder blades. They were thin, Hunter's pale skin still visible beneath them, but feather follicles and sheaths dotted the rest of his back, suggesting that more feathers were yet to grow.
"What is it?!" Hunter cried, jolting Luz out of her thoughts.
"It's not Belos," she reassured him quickly, running her fingers through his undercut to soothe him. "Actually, I think it's...Flapjack?"
"Flapjack?" Hunter repeated, now sounding more confused than distressed.
"Here." Luz grabbed her phone off her nightstand and snapped a quick photo. She then passed the phone to Hunter so he could see.
Hunter stared at the screen, his mouth slightly agape. After a long moment's silence, his hand moved to clutch his chest and his lip quivered as tears began to well up in his eyes.
Luz let him cry, making sure to give him space and not overwhelm him as his body was wracked with choking sobs. When he had calmed down a little and managed to catch his breath, she placed a supportive hand on his right shoulder, and he immediately turned back to her and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. "He's still here," he sobbed into the crook of her neck, his voice cracking. "He's...he's here with me. I mean, I knew he was, but..."
"Yeah," Luz whispered, hugging him back. "I get it."
Hunter sniffled and let out a weak laugh. "I don't think I'm gonna be able to go back to sleep tonight."
Luz handed him a tissue, which he accepted gratefully. "You wanna come snuggle with me?" she offered, shuffling to one side of her bed to give him room to lie next to her.
Hunter hesitated for a moment, but nodded bashfully. Luz noticed him wince as he began to readjust his shirt back up onto his shoulders, and he let out a hiss under his breath. "Does it hurt?" she asked.
"A little," he admitted. "It kind of stings where the feathers are coming through. And my back muscles feel really sore too for some reason."
Luz was at a loss for how to help. The only other person she could think of who had grown feathers like this was Eda, but her transformation had been instantaneous, and the circumstances were a lot different. Not to mention that despite their closeness, Luz knew Eda's curse was a subject she wasn't always open to talking about.
"I have some painkillers you can take," she said. "Why don't you try to get some rest for now and in the morning we can have Mamá take a look? She's worked with birds before at the vet clinic, and she definitely knows more about this stuff than I do. I'm sure she'll have some advice."
Hunter took the painkillers as instructed and slowly eased himself into bed beside her. "We shouldn't bother her with something like this," he murmured, pulling the covers over himself and nestling into his pillow as Luz reached over to turn her lamp off again. "She has more important things to take care of than whatever's happening to me."
Luz frowned and booped his nose with her finger, giggling at the disgruntled face he pulled. "We weren't gonna put ourselves down like that anymore," she reminded him gently. "Your safety and happiness is something very important. Plus, she, uh, does kinda love you like her own son. You realize that, right? She's been calling you 'mijo' for years now, dude. And even if that weren't already the case..." Luz's face broke into a grin. "You have boyfriend privileges now! She's gotta help her future son-in-law."
Hunter let out a squeak and and pulled the covers up over his face, but his blush was still plainly visible on the tips of his ears. Luz couldn't help the awww that escaped her lips at how adorable he was. He always flustered so easily.
Hunter peeked out from under the covers at the sound of her voice. Upon seeing Luz smirking at him, he scowled and pointedly turned over to face the other way, wincing a bit as he moved his shoulders. "Good night, Luz," he said stiffly. Luz noted that his ears, though flushed, were wiggling up and down slightly, betraying his happiness. "Good night, Hunter," she replied cheerfully.
***
Luz awoke to something tickling her nose. She blinked wearily, a blurry red shape slowly coming into view. She smiled as the events of the previous night began to come back to her. Hunter's feathers!
She rubbed her eyes and let out a yawn, turning to squint at the clock on her nightstand. 8:05. From the soft whistling of Hunter's snores, she could tell he was still sound asleep. He had gradually been getting better about not waking up at 6 AM all the time, but he would still typically only let himself sleep in until 7 at the absolute latest. She was glad he was finally managing to get a decent amount of rest. She wondered if lying next to her had helped him sleep better. She smirked as she imagined the flustered expression he'd make if she suggested that to his face. She glanced back at Hunter and froze as she suddenly got a better look at him now that her brain was awake enough to process what she was seeing.
It seemed that her assumption that the presence of more sheaths on his back meant he would be growing more feathers soon had turned out to be true. What she had not managed to predict, however, were the set of small wings that now extended from Hunter's shoulder blades.
Luz's breath caught in her throat as she gazed at him in awe. True to the wings of a cardinal, they began at their base a brilliant, deep scarlet, fanning out to become almost translucent at the tips. She didn't dare reach out a hand to feel his delicate feathers for herself, lest she wake him from his peaceful slumber, or worse yet, find herself to be the one in a dream.
She at last managed to tear her eyes away and nestled back under the covers beside him. She tended to just get out of bed whenever she woke up, but she didn't want Hunter to awaken to his new transformation alone and start panicking. She scrolled absentmindedly on her phone while she waited for him to wake up, browsing some webpages about birds and feather growth. While interesting, she wasn't really sure how much would apply to Hunter's situation.
Around half an hour had passed before she felt Hunter begin to stir gently beside her. She climbed out of bed as silently as she could and walked around to kneel on the floor in front of his side of the bed so he wouldn't have to roll over onto his wings to look at her. His eyes slowly fluttered open to meet hers, and his face broke into a warm smile at the sight of his girlfriend.
"Goooood morning, Hunter!" Luz chirped in a singsong tone, playfully ruffling his hair.
Hunter chuckled. "Morning," he mumbled in reply, rubbing at his eyes. His voice was raspy from having just woken up. "You're in a good mood."
"I have some exciting news when you're awake enough for it," Luz said, bouncing slightly in place. "How are you feeling?"
"Hmm. I'm not quite sure yet," Hunter said through a yawn. "I don't think the feathers sting anymore, but I'm still pretty sore." He sat up to stretch, lifting his arms to the ceiling as far as they would go. As he did so, the wings on his back stretched in turn, arching into a fiery halo behind his head. Luz must've let out a gasp, as he suddenly froze and gave her a quizzical look. "What?"
"You have wings!" she blurted out, unable to contain herself any longer.
***
Luz hurried on her way home from school, a skip in her step. Hunter had opted to sleep in this morning, so she hadn't gotten to have breakfast with him before she went to school and she couldn't wait to get back and see him.
It had been about a week since Hunter's wings had sprouted. They were small, barely bigger than his head, certainly unable to be used for flying. He had also not figured out how to control the muscles yet, assuming he could, and they tended to get in his way, repeatedly bumping into things whenever he turned around and making it uncomfortable for him to lie on his back or really change his position at all once he lay down.
But Luz had not seen Hunter so effortlessly happy in years. While he had certainly come to terms with his grief over Flapjack and had been doing a lot better for a long time now, in just this past week he'd had an energy and spark to him he had not displayed since his beloved Palisman's death. It seemed like every day Luz would be stopped around five or six times with an insistent "Look, look!" from Hunter as he spun around to show off his new feathers again, his wings bobbing merrily behind him.
It had given him inspiration for a new sewing project, too. The wings were cumbersome when it came to wearing a shirt, so he had taken to wearing his button-downs backward for the time being, but he had been excitedly rambling to Luz all week about his plans to modify his shirts to have snaps at the back. He had even shown some of his designs to Camila for review, and Luz felt a swell of affection in her chest when she saw how much more comfortable he was around her now.
He had not experienced any other transformations as of yet, though his feathers had at this point grown in so thick she could not even see the skin beneath them anymore. He looked so incredibly fluffy and soft, and whenever she was around him it took all of Luz's restraint to not shove her hand or her entire face between his wings to feel his beautiful scarlet down for herself.
Luz hummed to herself as she rounded the corner to her backyard, eager to see her boyfriend. A flash of scarlet caught her eye, and she turned, expecting to find him. What she instead discovered was a clump of red feathers stuck in the bark of a tree she had just passed. She frowned in confusion, glancing at the other trees nearby, and found them in a similar state. "Hunter?" she called out. There was no response.
She tore through her backyard, following the trail of befeathered trees. She could feel panic starting to set in. Had there been a struggle? Was he hurt? She stopped in the center of the clearing, looking around wildly, tears starting to cloud her vision.
She suddenly heard Hunter swear loudly, and she immediately rushed toward the sound of his voice. At last, she found him, and she was relieved to see that he did not appear to be injured. The main thing that caught her attention, however, was the fact that Hunter was currently rubbing his back against one of the trees with desperate urgency.
Luz couldn't help but stare. He had pulled his wings forward over his shoulders, clutching the tip of each wing in each hand, and was grinding the bark into the space between them. His face was contorted in a grimace, his nose scrunched up and his eyes screwed firmly shut. He huffed repeatedly in aggravation, letting out the occasional curse as he adjusted his stance to get a better angle. Autumn leaves crunched audibly beneath Luz's feet as she hesitantly approached him, but Hunter made no indication that he had noticed her at all.
"Uh, Hunter?"
He jumped and froze, finally realizing she was there. His face quickly began to resemble his feathers in color. "Luz," he squeaked. "You're home." He leaned back against the tree nonchalantly, clinging to his last shred of dignity as he acted as though that was all he had been doing. "S-So, how was school?" he asked with a strained grin. As he did so, he continued to squirm slightly against the bark, trying to make it look like he was just shifting his posture.
Now that she was getting a better look at his face, Luz noticed that he looked utterly drained, his lips chapped and his cheeks displaying a sallow tint that was visible even through his blush. And despite how long he had slept in that morning, his dark circles had returned almost to their Golden Guard severity, and his eyes themselves looked glassy and unfocused.
"Hunter, are you okay?" she asked worriedly. "Are you sick?"
He shifted his weight from foot to foot, clearly anxious to end the conversation. "I'm good! Don't worry about me. Hey, why don't you go tell Camila you're home?" His voice was shaky and weak.
Luz hummed, unimpressed with his attempt to deflect her concerns. "Why don't we both go see her, and she can take a look at you and figure out why you're so exhausted and itchy all of a sudden?" she said pointedly, coming closer to him.
To her dismay, her boyfriend shrank away from her, fear evident in his eyes. "Please don't tell Camila about this," he begged. "She's been working at the vet clinic all day. I'm not going to disturb her when she should be taking a break."
Luz held back a sigh at how frequently they had to have this conversation. As frustrating as it was that Hunter simply could not get it in his head that she and her mom didn't see him as a burden, Luz knew his fear of being seen as such was deep-seated from his years in the Emperor's Coven, and she imagined his experiences with Belos made that fear even stronger when it pertained to someone he saw as an authority figure.
"It's not going to bother her to make sure you're okay," Luz said patiently. "It'd make her way more worried if you didn't tell her. And she's been pretty excited to study your wings. I mean, she's dedicated her entire life to being a vet. This is the sort of thing she enjoys and takes pride in doing!"
Hunter frowned, clearly unconvinced but unable to think of a good counterargument. Luz took this opportunity to gently extend her hand for him to take. "Come on."
His eyes locked onto her nails, his ears perking up in sudden interest. He fidgeted slightly, a light flush creeping back onto his cheeks.
"Luz," Hunter burst out, not bothering to hide the desperation in his voice. "Could you scratch my back?" As he said this, he finally abandoned his position against the tree and turned his back to her expectantly.
Luz gasped as she saw the state his wings were in. A matted tangle of dull and broken feathers sat at the bases of his wings, and prominent, crumbling feather sheaths stuck out across his back. His plumage had thinned out considerably, revealing his inflamed skin beneath, and his wings themselves looked ragged.
As much as it pained her to turn him down when this was the first time he'd ever managed to ask her for help, she didn't know what was wrong with his wings and was terrified of making matters worse and causing any further damage to his feathers. "Sorry, but I'm taking you to see Mamá," she said firmly, taking his hand and starting to pull him toward the house. Her heart broke as Hunter visibly wilted, a crushed expression on his face as he reluctantly trudged after her.
Camila turned out to have been out at the grocery store, but she was hurrying back home after Luz had called her to explain what was going on. As they waited for her to return, Luz had sat Hunter in a chair at the dining table, having turned the chair backwards to make it easier for Camila to inspect his wings. He had pointedly refused to speak or even look at Luz since she'd brought him in, opting to spend his time sulking with his back to her. Luz knew how miserable he must be, so she felt slightly bad for finding it adorable how grumpy he was.
"Mamá says she should be home in a minute," she informed him. His ears flattened irritably but he otherwise ignored her.
He groaned suddenly, reaching his hand to his back. Luz opened her mouth to tell him not to scratch, but she needn't have worried. It appeared as though Hunter had still not managed to gain total control over his wings, as they simply copied the movements of his arms and seemed to get directly in his way no matter what angle he tried to reach from. Luz couldn't help the snort of amusement that escaped her at this endearing predicament of his.
He shot her a resentful glare and she grinned sheepishly. "Sorry."
Hunter fidgeted with his hands. "No, I'm sorry," he sighed. "I know you're trying to help. I shouldn't take it out on you."
Luz walked over and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, taking care not to touch his sensitive feathers. "Aww, it's okay," she whispered, resting her chin on his head. "I know it's really uncomfortable. I don't blame you for being a little on edge." Hunter hugged her back, gripping the back of her shirt with shaking fingers.
"I love you, Luz," he mumbled. She could hear the tears in his voice, a mixture of frustration at his itching wings and guilt from being cold to her.
"I love you too," she said, planting a kiss atop his head.
"Hijos, I'm home!" Camila's voice called out, muffled through the closed door. She had taken to announcing her presence before coming in so as to not startle Hunter by opening the door unexpectedly.
"Mamá!" Luz rushed to greet her and practically dragged her over to where Hunter was sitting. "Can you figure out what's wrong with Hunter? Please? His feathers look like they're falling out and they're all itchy and he's super exhausted and sick-looking and..."
"Mija," Camila interrupted gently upon seeing Hunter's wings. "I think he is just molting. Cardinals molt when it starts getting colder so they have thicker plumage for the winter."
Luz suddenly felt very silly. "Oh." That did explain a lot. She looked at Hunter to gauge his reaction, and he seemed quite relieved, too.
Camila smiled at the two of them. She took Hunter's temperature just to be sure, and he did not appear to have a fever. "Growing a whole new set of feathers is a lot of work for your body," she told him kindly. "You'll probably feel very tired for a while. Make sure you get lots of sleep tonight, okay, mijo?"
"Yes, ma'am--er, Camila," Hunter murmured shyly.
Camila beckoned Luz over to take a closer look at his feathers. "These are pin feathers," she explained. "The sheaths covering them will eventually break apart, and they'll unfurl into Hunter's new feathers. Pin feathers are very itchy, but it's important they don't get damaged by scratching them when they're black like these ones." She pointed out a particular patch of sheaths between Hunter's shoulder blades which indeed were much darker than the ones on the majority of his back. "They're this color because they are so new that blood is still flowing to them. If you break them before the blood recedes, they will bleed."
Her forehead creased in concern as she parted his feathers to reveal a section that appeared to have met such a fate. She clucked her tongue in sympathy. "This looks like it hurts," she said. "I will need to disinfect this just in case. It looks like he has some plant material stuck in his feathers here, too. Maybe tree bark?"
Luz noticed Hunter's ears suddenly grow very red. "We were sitting against a tree earlier," she quickly cut in, trying to save him from the embarrassment of having to explain to her mom that he'd been using her backyard as a scratching post. "That's probably where he got that. So, how long 'til the sheaths don't have blood anymore?" She received a grateful look from Hunter, who was clearly glad to change the subject.
Camila hummed pensively. "Well, cardinals generally take around a month to finish molting--"
"A month?!" Hunter cried.
Luz and Camila jumped a little in surprise at his sudden outburst. He shrank in on himself, his ears drooping. "My apologies," he said, eyes fixed on the ground.
"Oh, mijo, it's okay," Camila reassured him. "A lot of your sheaths are already white, which means there's no more blood flow and they're ready to come off. That happens at the end of the molting period, so it looks like your molt is going to go a lot faster. You will probably have all your new feathers in a day or so."
Luz took one of Hunter's hands in her own and began stroking her thumb across the back of it to calm him. "Is there anything we can do for him?" she asked her mom. "It's really bothering him."
Camila nodded. "Adding more protein to his diet should make his feathers healthier. And the sheaths will come off more easily and be less itchy if they're not so dry." She began to head out of the room. "I will be right back. I'm going to prepare a spray bottle so we can mist his wings." She turned back and spoke to Hunter. "You won't be able to tell which feathers have blood flow without being able to see them, so make sure you do not scratch at them while I'm gone, okay, mijo? I don't want you hurting yourself." She caught Luz's eye. "Vigílalo."
Luz nodded in agreement to watch him, and Camila exited the room.
The instant she was gone, Luz turned back to Hunter. "So, where do you want me to scratch?"
Hunter gaped at her. "Huh?"
"Tell me where it itches, and I'll scratch it for you," Luz repeated, trying to disguise her excitement. Now that she knew nothing was wrong with him and she wouldn't be hurting him, her desire to touch his feathers had come back to her in full force. While another person might have been put off by the raggedness of his matted plumage, Luz's fascination with the gross and macabre just made his ratty, bloodied feathers all the more irresistible.
"Th-Th--" Hunter stammered, his eyes wide. "Th-That would be in direct opposition to Camila's orders." Despite the disapproving tone of his words, Luz noticed that his ears had perked up and were wiggling slightly. She decided to tease him a bit.
"Well," she said with a melodramatic shrug, drawing out her words, "I suppose if you don't want me to--"
"No!" Hunter said, a little too loudly.
"I mean, I wouldn't want to pressure you or anything," she continued. "I'm sure you can tolerate it just fine. It's not like it itches so bad you can't stand it, right?"
"Luz!" he whined.
"What?" she asked innocently. "Did you want something, cardenalito?"
She was delighted to find that the nickname earned exactly the flustered squeak from Hunter she was expecting. If he didn't want to be called her cute little cardinal, then maybe he should've thought about that before being such a cute little cardinal.
Hunter took a moment to reply. "You don't...think she'll be upset...?" he mumbled under his breath.
"Nope, not really," Luz said with an easy smile. "Plus, she only said you couldn't scratch. She didn't say anything about me doing it for you." She made a show of tapping the side of her head wisely and managed to get a small chuckle out of Hunter. "Besides," she added, "She showed me what feathers to avoid, so I know I won't hurt you."
Hunter let out a deep breath. "Then...yes. Please. Please, help me." He reached up and pulled his wings over his shoulders again to give her access to his newfound acnestis.
Luz's hands hovered over his feathers in anticipation. She decided to start by running her fingers through the thicker sections of his plumage, avoiding the sheaths for now so she could just experience the feel of the feathers themselves. Upon making contact with them she found them to be even softer than she'd imagined, from his silky outer feathers to his fluffy downy feathers. "Wow," she breathed, dragging her fingers through his plumage haphazardly as she relished the sensation on her skin.
Hunter, on the other hand, did not appear to be enjoying it as much. He leaned forward with a shudder, trying to escape her fingers. "Ugh, Luz!" he complained. "That tickles! You're making it worse."
Luz started. "Whoops, sorry. Got distracted." She finally moved her hands to the center of his back where the molting was most severe and began parting his feathers to reach his skin, gently removing some of the old feathers and picking out bits of crumbling sheaths and tree bark as she did so. She spotted a fully white sheath that was still attached to his skin, and she couldn't help but give it an experimental tug.
The sheath did not budge, but Hunter gasped and immediately leaned into her touch, practically shoving his back against her hand. "Do that again," he begged.
Happy to have gotten a positive reaction, Luz obliged him, trying once again to remove the stubborn sheath. When it still did not come off, she opted to try picking at it with one of her nails, and it at last began to flake apart, revealing a stunningly vibrant feather beneath. She stared for a moment, captivated, though admittedly more so by the loud purr that erupted from Hunter, who had absolutely melted into the chair he was sitting on the instant she started scratching.
"Does that feel better now?" she asked with a grin.
He nodded. "Could you go a little to the left?" he asked, his voice muffled against the back of the chair.
"You bet!" Luz replied brightly. She followed his instruction, slowly moving her hand across his other feathers and gently prodding each one she passed to find which was bothering him.
She stopped when she heard a gasp from Hunter. "That one, that one," he said desperately. Luz briskly scratched off the offending feather sheath, her smile widening at the audible sigh of relief she received from him in response.
She quickly got into a rhythm, and before she knew it she had removed a significant number of sheaths. He was already looking much better with so many more of his feathers unfurled, and the color of his fresh plumage was simply breathtaking.
"Are you good for now?" Luz asked. "Mamá should be back any time now with more stuff to help."
Hunter rolled his shoulders. "Would you mind getting one more? It's near the middle."
"Sure," Luz responded, parting his feathers to look for it. She frowned as she failed to find any more of the white sheaths she'd been removing in that area. She was about to ask him for more specific directions when she suddenly caught sight of a sheath that was black in color, difficult to see among the dark red bases of his other feathers. Hoping she was wrong, she poked it gently. "This one?"
He nodded eagerly. "Yes, please."
"Hunter, that one's got blood flow."
"What?!" He craned his neck in an unsuccessful attempt to look at his back, his brow furrowed in dismay and a pout on his lips. "But it's itchy."
Luz sighed. She couldn't help but take pity on him when he was this unintentionally cute. "I'll try to scratch it without pulling it off, okay? Just let me know if I'm hurting you." She gently dragged a single nail against his skin in a circular motion around the base of that feather, and she felt Hunter relax immediately beneath her hand. Relieved that this seemed to be enough for him, she tentatively began to scratch a bit harder, which was met with an appreciative hum from Hunter.
Luz heard a sudden cooing behind her that was not drowned out even by the loud rumble of Hunter's purring. She turned to find her mom standing in the doorway, holding a spray bottle in one hand and rubbing alcohol in the other and looking at the young couple with an amused fondness. She was leaning against the doorframe slightly, as though she had been standing there for a while.
"Mamá!" Luz protested, feeling her face grow hot. "Why didn't you say anything?" She'd gotten so wrapped up in helping Hunter molt that she hadn't realized how long it had been. A glance at the clock told her she'd been preening his feathers for almost fifteen minutes now.
Camila laughed, cupping her cheek with her hand. "Ay, but you two looked so adorable I couldn't bear to interrupt. You have been doing a very good job handling his feathers correctly."
She walked over to where Hunter was sitting and poured a bit of rubbing alcohol onto a cotton ball. "It will sting a little, but I need to disinfect where your feathers got hurt, okay, mijo?" she told him gently. He nodded silently and held still as she quickly cleaned out his injury.
"There we go." Camila said, setting the cotton ball aside. She passed Luz the spray bottle she had brought. "Removing the sheaths will be a lot less work once they're slightly damp," Camila explained to her. "You should try to make sure the mist reaches his skin, too, since that will help soothe the irritation."
"All right," Luz responded. She chose a section of Hunter's feathers at random and, after parting them, gave the area a quick spritz.
Hunter jumped slightly as the cool water hit his skin. "Oh!" he squeaked. "That is a lot better." His wings suddenly began flapping of their own accord, his feathers ruffling instinctively to move the droplets around his plumage.
Luz gasped in delight. "You're like a little bird taking a bath!" she exclaimed, her hands flapping excitedly.
Hunter let out a laugh. "Flapjack always liked bathing," he said brightly. "Sometimes, I would sneak him into the bathrooms at the castle, and I would cup my hands as I ran the tap so he could sit there and splash around. He looked so cute with his feathers fluffed up!" Hunter gestured animatedly as he spoke, and he rocked back and forth in his seat as though overwhelmed by his own enthusiasm.
Affection rose in Luz's chest as she listened to more of his rambling while she continued her work with the spray bottle. She always loved it when he shared his interests with her like this, and she was glad that he was at the point where he could talk about his late Palisman so readily and with such happiness.
After a few minutes, she had at last misted all of Hunter's feathers. She set the spray bottle down on the table and ran her fingers through his hair. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
He let out a comfortable sigh and nuzzled into her arm. "Much better," he said. "Thank you, Luz. You really didn't have to do all this for me."
Luz messed up his hair good-naturedly. "Hey, don't worry about it. I wasn't just gonna leave you to suffer! You want me to see if I can get more of the sheaths off now? There were a few that wouldn't come off before."
"That would be great," he said shyly.
Luz began picking at his remaining white pin feathers and was pleased to find that their coatings did indeed come off much more easily now they weren't so dry. Hunter nestled back down in the chair as she worked, his eyes slipping closed.
"Did Flapjack go through molting, too?" Luz asked him curiously.
Hunter hummed in contemplation. "I don't think so. Not to this extent, at least. Palismen do for the most part reflect the animal in whose image they're made, but since the Palistrom wood takes the place of keratin for them, I wouldn't be surprised if their skin and feathers work a bit different. Flap did have me preen him a few times, though." A fond chuckle escaped his lips at the memory. "I think he was glad to have someone with fingers to help him. He was always really bossy about what feathers he wanted scratched. He would--Oh! Wait, wait, go back, that was a good spot." Hunter squirmed, trying to chase her fingers. "No, up a little. Down a little. Yeah, right there." Luz rolled her eyes.
"That was very kind of you to help Flapjack preen, Hunter," Camila said to him as Luz continued to scratch his back a bit. "Birds can't reach all of their feathers by themselves, so if there's not another bird to preen them, they will need their owner to help them. In the wild, most birds will get preened by their mates if they have them."
"Huh. Good thing he's got one of those, eh?" Luz said, nudging Hunter.
He blinked at her, taking a minute to digest her words. His eyes suddenly widened and an intense blush spread across his entire face. "Luz!" he choked.
Luz clasped his hands in hers and looked him intently in the eye. "Hunter," she said, putting on a dramatic air. "From this day forward, I, Luz Noceda, hereby vow to preen your feathers for you whenever you need, and to aid you in every molt you have, in all our years to come."
By this point, Hunter looked like he was going to absolutely pass out from embarrassment, so she elected to spare him from more of her teasing, but not before giving him a chivalrous kiss on the hand for good measure. He whined and buried his head in her shoulder, unable to help the bashful grin that had made its way to his face.
"Thank you," he laughed, lifting his head to place a soft kiss on her lips.
***
Luz groaned, staring at the ceiling. It felt like every time she tried to go back to sleep, thousands of glowing blue eyes would flood her vision and her ears would ring with cacophonous, overlapping voices and the sickening crunch of bones. She sighed, giving up, and went to find Hunter.
Years ago, when they had gotten stuck in the Human Realm after the Day of Unity, they'd made an agreement that if one of them couldn't sleep, they would wake the other up for support. It certainly happened a lot less frequently now, but every once in a while they would both still have nights where the memories of Belos were too much to face alone.
Luz shivered as she walked across the basement floor, her socks not stopping the winter chill from reaching her feet. She paused a few steps from his bed and called out to him softly, hoping she wouldn't startle him. "Hunter?"
One of his ears swiveled in her direction, and soon a pair of red eyes were glowing at her through the darkness. "Luz?" he said groggily. "What's wrong?"
"Can't sleep," she replied.
He yawned and shifted to one side of the bed to make room for her, silently holding his arms out to invite her to cuddle with him. She accepted gratefully, nestling against his chest as he wrapped his arms around her.
"Do you want to talk about it?" he murmured.
She shrugged with a dismissive shake of her head. "Just...Belos. Again." Her fists clenched. "I don't know why I still let him affect me like this. He's been dead for years and I still see him every day. I don't know what's wrong with me."
She yelped in surprise as one of Hunter's wings darted out to tickle the side of her neck. Her face unintentionally broke into a smile and laughter began to bubble out of her as his feathers brushed against her skin. He had been an absolute menace since he'd figured out how to control his wings. "Hey!" she protested through a fit of giggles, giving him a playful shove.
Hunter smirked and withdrew his wing. "There is nothing wrong with you," he told her firmly, his voice taking a more serious tone. "It...it doesn't really go away. No matter how long it's been. There's nothing that can make up for what he did." His hand moved to clutch his chest. "But...we have a chance now to live on. For all those before us who didn't get that chance. Even if it feels hard sometimes, I think it's worth doing. For them and for us."
Luz laid her hand next to his to feel his heart beating steadily beneath his chest. "Yeah," she whispered. "It is."
They lay in comfortable silence for a while. Luz noticed that Hunter's inhales and exhales felt a bit more intentional than normal, as though he were concentrating on breathing deeply in hopes that she would synchronize her breathing with his. She did so, and a feeling of calm began to wash over her.
"Hunter?" she murmured. "Can I pet you?"
He snorted. "You never have to ask to do that."
She smiled and draped an arm over him so she could lazily drag her fingers through his feathers. His winter plumage was so thick her fingers were almost completely buried in his fluffy down before they reached his skin. The softness of his feathers against her hand was instantly soothing and she could feel her eyes struggling to stay open.
The gentle trill of Hunter's purring began to fill the room, and the two of them quickly drifted off to sleep.
