"I don't understand why this matters to you so much."
"Because," Luz mumbles, concentration wrinkling her forehead, "it's Halloween, which means everyone has to wear a fun costume. It's human law."
Hunter opened an eye to glare at her. "I really don't believe that it's human law."
"Well, it is, so suck it." She flicks his forehead. "Close your eyes."
He huffs, but does as she says, closing his eyes so she can get to work painting his eyelids. He's dressed as a skeleton, or at least Luz's rough approximation of one; the bones are nowhere near anatomically correct, but Luz has stated more than once that it's not about accuracy, it's about fun. Hunter isn't sure which part of this is supposed to be fun, but it seems to be making Luz happy, so he's willing to shut his eyes and let her get on with her work, even if having his eyes closed for so long makes him feel vulnerable to attack. He's working on being more open and normal, even if his friends keep telling him that he is normal. Luz is helping him. She uses words like healing and recovery but mostly it feels something like repenting, and a little bit like learning things everyone else seems to already know.
He tries not to pull away when he feels Luz's brush sweep against his eye, but the reaction is involuntary. She gives him a second to take a few breaths and he nods, letting her know it's okay to try again.
He's trying. They're working on it.
She hums gently as she paints, moving over from his eyelid to underneath his eye, creating big black circles that she assured him will look just like eye sockets.
The eyes are almost finished when he hears the Blight girl's footsteps enter the room. She pauses next to Luz, and he can practically feel her eyes on him, assessing the human's handiwork. It makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, knowing that they're both looking at him. He misses his mask, really. At times like this, it reminds him how safe he used to feel, issuing commands from behind the safety of a facade.
No, he reminds himself, clenching and unclenching his fists. Not safe. He was never safe before. He spent every day scared out of his mind, knowing every single witch in that castle was out to get him. Now he spends his days being domestic and having fun and spending time with friends who don't want him dead. He'd be unrecognisable to his previous coworkers.
He thinks that's probably a good thing.
"Something to say, Blight?"
He opens the eye that Luz isn't working on to look at her, and she looks startled, blush spreading over her cheeks (though he doubts that's a result of him). She had been leaning down to look at him over Luz’s shoulder, and from the look of the matching blush on the human's face, they had just been very close.
The Blight girl just looks at him, gaze unwavering, but it’s the human who speaks first. “It always freaks me out how you do that.”
“What? Know things with his eyes closed?” She tosses her hair over her shoulder, scoffing. “It’s not that hard.”
He sticks his tongue out at her and she matches the gesture, though there's no malice in it from either of them.
Luz groans and pokes him in the shoulder. “Keep still! It’s teeth time.”
Hunter opens both his eyes, and his hands fly up to grab at her wrists, pushing her little paintbrush away in panic. “What?!”
“Time for teeth.” She says, chirpily, looking at him like he's a freak for being concerned.
“What are you gonna do to my teeth?!” He hears his voice break a second too late, but he's too on edge to care.
Luz just laughs. “No, dude! I’m not doing anything to your teeth. I'm gonna paint some teeth. On your face. Like a skull!”
He nods, feeling suddenly awkward. “Oh. Right.”
Luz is still giggling at him, and it makes him feel stupid. He can feel the tips of his ears turning red, and he's thankful for the pigmented layer of white paint over his face, since otherwise his embarrassment would be evident.
Amity smiles at him, draping herself over Luz’s back. “The first time she made me do costumes, she tried to tell me that in the human realm it’s normal to dress up as a witch and carry a broom as a palisman.Trust me, it just seems like she's making fun of you.”
Hunter nods. The sentiment makes him feel better, even if he knows the Blight girl still doesn't trust him. “The human realm is weird.”
“The human realm is not weird!” Luz gasps. “This place is weird! I mean, no trick or treating? What's up with that?”
Amity nods solemnly, her chin hitting Luz’s shoulder with every movement. “I have to admit, trick or die is not really the same. Your human traditions are cute, though.”
A moment passes between the two, where Amity kisses her girlfriend on the cheek and Luz giggles and blushes, so Hunter takes a second to breathe. It's still... difficult for him, trying to fit in with a world where he doesn't have the seemingly universal experiences everybody else does. The first half of his life he was busy being an orphan; the rest of it he was busy being a soldier. He’s never had the chance to learn things everyone learned when they were kids. All he learned as a kid was how to survive.
Luz boops him on the nose and it reminds him that he’s here, in reality, living a life where he deserves things. He’s not stuck in the past. She smiles at him, knowingly, and even though he knows she can't see into his head she gets it, and it feels something like being loved. She starts painting over his lips, vaguely in the shape of teeth, and she's looking at him and Amity is looking at him and the attention burns through his veins until it’s so overwhelming that he has to close his eyes.
He hears Rascal fluttering around before he feels the soft weight of him landing on his head, making himself at home in a nest of his hair. It makes him feel better, having Rascal around. The little bird can tell when he’s getting overwhelmed, and always finds him.
“Okay!” Luz sing-songs, and his eyes open without meaning to. “All done!” She throws the brush off to the side, unbothered where it lands, and reaches around to search through the heaping pile of stuff by her side.
She eventually finds what she's looking for- a slightly cracked hand mirror with some kind of animal print on the back- and holds it up to Hunter’s face, squealing as she does.
“What do you think?” Luz’s excitement is tangible, and Amity won’t stop smiling at her as she waits for Hunter to tell her he loves it.
He watches his face in the mirror. He does look sort of like a skull, if he stretches his imagination; the wide black circles around his eyes and nose stand out against the harsh white his face is covered with, and the teeth painted around his mouth add to the look, even if they are a little bit wonky. He’s never worn any face paint before, not even the girly kind that Blight uses to make her eyes stand out. It's strange. He’s used to seeing himself in a mask, it was the only way he could look at himself for years, but he's never seen his face while it looks so much not like his face. It’s jarring, but also kind of fun. He feels like a kid, getting to wear a costume and enjoy himself. It's nice, and he knows he's smiling too much, but he feels great.
“It’s pretty good.” He says, even though he knows his goofy smile gives away that he likes it way more than that.
Luz beams, accidentally dislodging Amity and scaring Rascal with her cheer, but it startles a laugh out of Hunter, loud and genuine and happy. He’s surrounded by people who care about him, and they're having fun, and it’s everything he never thought he could have.
“Okay!” Luz squeals, and leaps up from her spot. “Next up- eating candy!”