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“You doing alright?” Luz asked, keeping her voice low as she tiptoed down the stairs into the basement. “It looks like you’ve been having a hard time adjusting.”
They had been in the Human Realm for three days and Hunter was still keeping his distance from everyone and hiding in the basement where he could be alone with Flapjack.
“I am,” he admitted quietly. He was curled up on the couch and snuggling into one of the many blankets Camila had provided him and Gus with.
Luz’s expression softened and she took a seat on the other side of the sofa. “Is there anything I can do to make this easier on you?” She asked, doing everything she could to be gentle with him.
Hunter looked down at his knees and pulled himself in closer. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “I can’t stand having to look Amity, Gus, and Willow in the eye when I know I’m hiding so much from them.”
Silence washed over the two of them. It sent a chill up Hunter’s spine. He hadn’t been able to verbalize his feelings yet. Putting them out in the world made him feel so much worse about the situation.
“Yeah,” Luz sighed, crossing her legs in front of her and squeezing her arches. “I’ve been having a hard time with that, too.”
When she looked back up at Hunter, his eyes were misty and he had tears on his waterline. “I don’t want to keep secrets,” he said, his words bisected with a hairline crack.
“You’re okay,” Luz assured him.
“I feel like Belos when I have to keep secrets!” He cried.
“Can you take touch right now?”
Hunter bit his tongue and let out a whine under his breath. “I can take touch,” he responded.
He was expecting a soft hand atop his, but when Luz scooted over and wrapped him up in a big hug, he was pleasantly surprised. “Too tight?” Luz asked, her voice quiet and caring. Hunter didn’t speak a response. Instead, he let his arms swallow her up in return, snuggling right into the crook of her neck comfortably. Luz took that as her sign to pull him in tighter and let him lay heavy in her arms. “Yeah. You’re okay. I understand. If you need to talk about it, you can talk to me. I know your deepest secrets. You know mine. I trust you, Hunter. I hope you can trust me, too.”
She rubbed her hand up and down his back, but his silence was worrying her. When she pulled away from him, his slumping forward answered any questions she could have had regarding his silence.
“Oh. I should have known,” she chuckled. He had completely fallen asleep in her embrace. “Get some rest, buddy. I know you need it.” She guided him down and rested his head on a throw pillow. “You’re going to be alright. We’ll tell them when we’re ready. I promise.” She tucked him in under the blanket he was clutching and let Flapjack snuggle up to him. “There, there. You’ll be fine.”