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The temperature outside is a perfect cool, breezy but not windy and chilly but not cold. Their matching costumes are cute and classic and suit their relationship wonderfully: Morticia and Gomez, a weird girl and the freak who loves her. Mamá was even willing to let them go to the next town over on their own after hearing their pleas about the bigger haul of candy they could get.
Judging by the sympathetic look that had been in her eyes, Luz thinks Mamá had an inkling of what was really going on.
Despite everything going in their favor, Luz and Hunter haven't gotten out of his car. They're just parked, looking out into the dark of night, pretending they don't both see the echo of glowing blue eyes staring back.
"So…" Hunter's fingers drum restlessly against the steering wheel. "Where do you want to go first?"
An awkward laugh bubbles out of Luz' chest before she can stop it. "You tell me," she teases blandly. "You're the one who comes here."
"Not that often." Hunter's laugh is forced. Empty. He's still staring into the darkness, even while the laughter of kids and teens surrounds them.
Luz is staring too. The rumble of the old car makes the darkness look like it's trembling. Like it's waiting for her.
Shivering, Luz finally breaks her eyes away to look at her boyfriend, decked out in his goofy suit and slicked-back hair and drawn on Family Values mustache. He's still entranced by the void staring back at him, his hands now gripped tight around the wheel. She looks down his sleeve, down at the hand that had been cut last year, where Belos had… No, don't think about that! She wonders if he's thinking about it too. If he can feel it.
"Do you still want to trick-or-treat?"
A beat passes where Luz isn't sure she was heard. Then Hunter finally jerks his head towards her and gives the uneven, wobbly smile he sometimes gives her that means please get me the fuck out of here . "Sure! I want what you want, nena."
Eyebrows pushed together, Luz stares at him knowingly. "...What if we just stay here and make out and buy cheap candy tomorrow? That could be nice."
Hunter's face falls. "I'll be fine," he says. The words would be more convincing if he were saying them to literally anyone else. "And anyways, I know it sucks that Amity can't be here with us tonight. I wish she was too. Still, we should try to have fun—"
Luz interrupts him with a kiss. It's the only reliable way to get him to shut up, especially when he gets like this, all excuse-ridden and dumb. She feels him try to pull away, so she cups the back of his neck and licks delicately at his bottom lip. It's better to distract him before it starts to spiral, after all. It definitely has nothing to do with her own tendency to lean towards distraction when she's scared or sad or feeling any negative emotion at all.
Though he can't quite hide the moan held in his chest, Hunter still turns his head away. Their lips separate with a wet little sound that always makes her heart flutter. "Luz…"
"You don't want to?"
Another laugh, this one just as empty as the first. "I don't know…" He looks around at the kids walking by, some even younger than King. A tiny cowboy looks over and waves at them through the windshield and they both wave back. "Maybe we should go somewhere else."
"That's probably a good idea."
It takes a little while for the crowd of children and parents to thin out a bit, but when it does, they pull out and drive until they find somewhere that looks suitably hidden away: an empty park with an ill-lit parking lot. It's much creepier than the last, but Luz puts the thought out of her mind. As soon as the car is parked, she's kicking her shoes off and crawling towards the back seat, hitting the car light above just so they aren't stuck in the dark.
"Come on, loverboy," Luz teases. "Or I'll have fun without you."
Hunter looks backwards at her, biting his lip like he's debating letting her do just that and enjoying the show. Then he shakes his head. "Luz, someone is going to see us."
"And they should be grateful we're not charging admission."
"Luz!"
"What? That's funny…"
Sighing, Hunter climbs awkwardly into the backseat as well, tripping and falling upside-down into the seat next to her. "Ouch…"
Luz can't help but laugh. She manages to pat his butt before he gets himself upright, but he doesn't bother to glare at her or even swat her hand away like he normally would. His face is serious when he finally meets her eyes.
"Luz…" He looks down at their laps, then back at her. "I know things have been really hard this past year. Last Halloween was…"
"Bad."
"Yeah. Very bad." The hairspray and gel holding Hunter's hair back cracks as he scratches his scalp. "Possession. Loss. And then all that came after… Fuck, Luz, you died . But I don't think I've ever heard you talk about it."
Luz blinks at him in shock. Then she grimaces. "You didn't bring me here to have semi-public teenage buttsex! You brought me here for therapy!" She crosses her arms and leans back against the seat. "Worst boyfriend ever."
Hunter laughs at her. "We can still do… that ." She can hear the blush in his voice, but refuses to look at him—even if it is super cute how pink his stupid face gets! "I just… I want to talk about it? It's the anniversary after all." He shifts closer, grazing her thigh with his knuckles. "It was scary for me too, Luz. It scares me now that I almost lost you for good."
Luz does look over at that. In the cheap car light and with that smudged pencil mustache, Hunter looks small. She can only sigh. "I know. It must have been so horrible for you…" She can feel tears start to prickle her eyes and hurries to blink them away. "I don't want you to hurt."
Quiet and gentle, Hunter pulls one of her arms away from her body to tangle their fingers together. When they're interlocked with his, he kisses the back of her hand…then the back of her wrist. Then the back of her arm, again and again, moving up to her shoulder—
Luz laughs and pushes him away before he can reach her neck. His grin is blinding. "Goober," she says, but she leans forward and kisses him again through their smiles.
"I'm okay, you know," Hunter says. "And I mean that. My life has been a dream in a lot of ways since he died. Belos, I mean. It's not always easy, but I love the life I have and I love the lives we and our friends are building together."
Luz pulls her hand away to lean against his chest, cuddling up in his lap like a cat. "I do too. Usually, that's all I can think about! My life used to be so lonely. Now I have a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a sister, and a little brother. I have Eda. My mom and I actually talk now…"
"But sometimes you still see him there. Like he's waiting."
Luz presses her forehead against the side of Hunter's neck. It's still disorienting how good they are at reading each other's minds. She didn't think anyone would ever get her like that again after her dad died. She thought she'd be trapped in a friendless life with nobody but a mother that didn't understand her. Yet here is Hunter, his arms wrapped around her like it's the easiest thing in the world, knowing her better than she wants to know herself.
"You suck," she tells him heatlessly.
Hunter laughs. "I'm just going through the same shit. Don't bully me because you're mad you have feelings."
"I know," Luz sighs. "I'm sorry. It's just hard for me, I guess."
"I know it is." Hunter kisses the top of her head. "And that's okay. Just take your time."
Luz does. She takes a long, deep breath, then a few more, while she tries to formulate how she's feeling. His car smells like old french fries, probably from a fast food date they had or something.
The memory of their last one makes her smile.
Finally, she leans back just enough to see his face and says, "It was scary to see him hurt you. I knew—I knew —that he'd spent basically your whole life hurting you, but something about watching it happen was different than just seeing scars. I know he's gone. I made sure he's gone. But I still get scared sometimes that he's going to take you from me." Then she sighs. "I guess I feel like that about everything. …Life was really lonely before I met Eda. He was going to take it all away from me."
Hunter squeezes her tightly enough that she feels her back pop. When he lets her go, his eyes look a little wet. "But he didn't. Because you're so, so strong, and you protected everybody. Because you're amazing."
Luz feels her face grow hot. "I guess I am pretty cool," she jokes. Though he's warm and comfortable to lean on, she sits back and puts her hands on his face. "Your turn. Tell Momma Luz what ails ya."
"You're a dork. And I'm not calling you 'momma'." He gives her a stern look, which just makes her giggle, especially paired with how gently he grabs hold of her hands. "It might seem hard to believe, but…I think I'm okay? As okay as I could be, all things considered. I do still get scared sometimes that he's going to come out of the shadows and laugh at me for believing I could ever have a good life before killing me and using parts of my body to try to bring his brother back from the dead again only to torment a kid who looks just like me in some terrible, inescapable cycle of—" Hunter stops. Then he blinks, mirroring Luz' own surprise. "Okay, maybe I'm not doing all that great."
Unsure of what to say to soothe him, Luz kisses him gently.
That works; Hunter smiles at her with nothing but love in his eyes. "At least I've got you. And Amity. And Gus. And Willow. And Skara. And Viney. And Eda. Snd King. And Steve. And Darius. And Camila. And Raine. And everybody else."
Luz smiles. "You have so many people who love you. Even if something does happen—which it won't—we'll protect you."
Hunter presses his forehead against hers and closes his eyes tight. Luz follows suit, sighing shakily through a smile as they breathe together. It's peaceful. All of that fear from earlier feels silly here in Hunter's arms, safe in his junker of a car. It's over now. Belos is gone, dead, and they're still here. How could anything possibly happen to them when they're together—
A knock on the window makes them both scream.
"You kids can't be out here!" The voice is muffled through the glass. "You can either trick-or-treat like the rest of your peers or do that mess at home!"
Luz meets eyes with the police officer and shrinks. Hunter puts on his best Golden Boy smile and assures the officer that they'll head home right away, ma'am, sorry about that, laughing politely at their teenage foolishness, really, we'll do better, until the officer finally steps away and gets back into her car. Despite his bright smile, Luz can feel how tight his hands are around her arms, like he's ready to do his gold flash teleporting with her at a moment's notice. Even with the officer walking away, he still holds her protectively.
The cop car doesn't drive away. She's waiting on them.
"Are you kidding?" Luz mumbles. Then she sighs, trying to hide how shaken she is. "How's that for scary?"
Hunter huffs out a not-laugh. "I think we're alright. At least we had our clothes on?"
"No kidding."
Luz climbs into the front seat carefully while Hunter gets out and walks around, giving one last faux-cheerful wave to the police officer. Luz doesn't bother to check whether the officer waves back. As soon as he's seated, Luz tugs his seatbelt over him in record time.
"Let's just go back home," she sighs. "I'm definitely not in the mood to trick-or-treat after that."
"Okay, nena," Hunter says gently. "Want to see if there's anywhere we can pick up ice cream too? You did do feelings with me. Feelings always deserves ice cream."
Despite the heart beating overtime in her chest, Luz smiles. "Okay. I'd like that."