When Luz and Hunter made it back out safely into the mall, he told her wryly,

"You know we just look more suspicious sneaking out like this."

"Shhh," she hushed, making sure they were well away from the arcade before releasing his wrist. Then she straightened up, crossing her arms, looking at him appraisingly and saying,

"All right, next objective for the day: get you some proper human fashion!"

He raised a brow.

"How do I know you're not going to get me something stupid and tell me it's fashionable?"

She made a "tsk" sound.

"I wouldn't do that!"

"You literally tried to do that earlier."

She scoffed, turning to walk.

"Pffft, yeah, but, I wouldn't try that two times in a row. C'mon, keep your eyes peeled for clothes stores."

They wandered the mall for some time, passing by multiple clothing stores. They really weren't hard to find, considering that seemed to be what mostly made up a mall. They were all a little bland, though, and didn't seem to interest Hunter much.

However, at some point they passed by a store that caught his eye. The front of the store was framed with a rusted steel girder archway, almost like a portal, and the room within was rather dimly lit and packed with t-shirts. Luz noticed Hunter had stopped walking to look at it. She said,

"Oh, that's a good idea. Let's go in there!"

He looked a little hesitant, peering into the store and wincing at the loud music blasting from within.

"It seems kind of different from the other human stores?"

Luz nodded,

"Yeah, they're just trying to be cool. It's worth checking out though, they have some neat stuff."

Hunter allowed himself to be herded into the store, and they made their way through the racks of t-shirts. Luz was briefly distracted by their collection of figurines, but managed to get back on track before being swayed by the temptation to buy. Toward the back of the store, she discovered a small section of pants, and nabbed one that looked promising. She held it out to Hunter, saying,

"We were talking about your lack of pockets earlier, right? Lookit this, it has a billion pockets!"

Hunter examined the pair of cargo pants, looking intrigued.

"Hm. That actually is pretty cool."

Luz grinned, pleased they'd found something.

"What size are you? Although I guess clothing sizes from the demon realm might work differently, hm. Well, we can estimate."

She held the pants up against him to check.

"A little too long and big, hold on, lemme see if they have it smaller."

After going down a size and checking, she confirmed it looked perfect and handed him the pants.

"Awesome, let's see if we can find you a shirt now!"

The store was packed with graphic tees, filling the racks, with framed examples crowding the walls. They spent a long time picking through them, and Luz provided commentary about all the different things the shirts were referencing. Despite an exhaustive search, none of the shirts seemed to really appeal to Hunter.

Sticking a Spider-man t-shirt back onto the racks, he told her,

"I dunno. It's kind of weird trying to get one of these when I don't know anything about the shows or bands or whatever they're about."

Luz sighed, pondering.

"Yeah, I didn't think of that, but that makes sense. Ehh, well, do any of them just look cool, regardless of where they're from?"

He went back to shifting through shirts on the racks.

"... not really? I know we were trying to find me 'human fashion,' but ..."

He paused, pulling out a shirt and looking surprised.

"Huh. I actually recognize this."

It was a black tee with a heavily stylized character on it, which looked like a little pink frog. Luz commented,

"Ooh yeah, I've seen some of that show! It's really good. You've seen it too?"

He nodded.

"There's a station that sometimes airs media and other oddities that've been scavenged from the Human Realm ... I saw it a few years ago. I actually liked it a lot."

Luz enthused,

"Great! Looks like we found your shirt then."

He seemed tempted, but a little unsure.

"I guess? But it, um, wouldn't it seem kind of childish?"

Luz chuckled.

"Hey, if I can still be into Azura, you can wear a shirt from a cartoon. You can definitely pull it off."

He considered it for a little longer but ultimately caved.

"All right, all right."

Luz was pumped with their success, and it was made even better when they came across a display of hats and she realized they could swap out Luz's old beat-up beanie too. Hunter admitted he actually kind of liked the beanie, so they selected for him a brand-new beanie, a slouchy knitted one that was gray and very soft. When they headed to the cash registers to make their purchases, the clerk told Hunter,

"Whoa, your bird is awesome."

He thanked them, and they asked if the bird's wings were clipped or if it was just trained really well. He seemed horrified at the suggestion that some people clipped bird's wings and said Rascal was very loyal. When they'd finished and headed out of the store with bags in hand, Luz was bouncing with glee.

"Mission was a complete success!! We should go find a bathroom or something, then you can get changed!"

Hunter gave her a skeptical look.

"Now?"

Luz laughed.

"Of course. We don't know how long we're gonna be in the Human Realm, so you might as well flaunt it now, right?"

He frowned, but seemed unable to come up with a counter argument. He admitted,

"I guess that's true."

Taking advantage of the moment before Hunter changed his mind, Luz found a mall directory and steered them to the nearest set of restrooms. In front of the entrance to the men's room, Luz was telling him,

"Here, you can put your regular clothes in the bag. Also you'll need to make sure to pull all the tags off. Don't miss the little plastic thingies."

He seemed mildly embarrassed about all of this but grabbed the bag and said,

"Yeah okay okay, I'll be back."

Luz sat on one of the benches while she waited, talking to Rascal. She couldn't understand what the bird said, but she tried to communicate nevertheless.

"You have a very stubborn witch, you know that?"

The bird twittered and bobbed its head. Luz laughed.

"I'm glad you two look out for each other, though."

She pet the cardinal's little crest. Her thoughts drifted for a while. Quietly, she mused outloud.

"There may come a point when ... you guys get into some pretty difficult situations."

She looked into the bird's calm brown gaze and sighed.

"Just keep taking care of each other, ok?"

The bird chirped and she smiled. She glanced up to see Hunter had returned, looking a little self-conscious and almost shy. She leapt to her feet, beaming at him.

"Oh my gosh. You look so great!"

He rubbed at his undercut, glancing down at himself.

"Yeah? The mirror in there's pretty small, I wasn't sure."

Luz reassured him,

"No, it's perfect. Shirt looks great. Pants look great, I was a little worried it might drag but your boots make it the perfect height. And I love the beanie. It's such a shame you always gotta hide your hair and ears with a hat, but at least the beanie looks really nice."

He looked at her for a moment, and his brows lifted a little, looking curious.

"Why?"

Confused, Luz asked,

"Why what?"

He asked her,

"Why is it such a shame I have to hide my hair and ears?"

Luz blinked.

"Uhhh. Well ... it ... y'know ... it's. Probably kind of a pain and, uh ..."

His expression grew skeptical. Luz cleared her throat, feeling her face warm. She admitted in one rapid string,

"And your hair's really cool and your ears are kinda cute, ok?!"

Then she immediately tried to shift topics,

"C'mon, we should head for the food court, I'm getting hungry."

He had a silly little smile.

"I mean, we could keep talking about how I look, if you want–"

"C'MON."

Hunter tucked Rascal away in one of the many spacious pockets he now had, and they began to work their way towards the food court. Thankfully, it seemed Hunter was too distracted to keep teasing Luz; he found the tiny kiosks in the center of the mall walkways to be more interesting than even the stores themselves. They passed by a wide range of booths dedicated to various things– sunglasses, cell phone cases, snacks, massages, beauty products, kid's toys, and other random goods or services. A big, colorful display of bath bombs caught Hunter's eye and at first he thought they were some kind of human food, but Luz explained that eating one would be very bad. When they reached a kiosk that was displaying high-tech gadgets, there was someone piloting a mini-drone as a demonstration. Hunter was fascinated with the little device and the employee allowed him to try out the controls for himself. Luz laughed as the drone took an erratic, drunken flight path around her. He practiced for a long time, until he was able to land the little drone on top of her outreached palm.

They were still talking about drones when a jewelry kiosk caught Luz's eye. It was stuffed with a huge, eclectic collection of rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and other pieces. She leaned down to check out some chunky bracelets made with colorful clay beads, interspaced with little seashells.

"Heh, these are pretty cool. Hey, do you even have seashells in the Demon Realm? Or does everything sort of just boil to death?"

When she looked up, she saw Hunter was distracted, gazing intently at a little pendant on display. She peeked over his shoulder to find that it was a stainless steel charm in the shape of a little bird, wings outspread, embedded with bright red gemstones all along the design.

"Whoa," Luz said, admiring how intricately detailed it was. Hunter carefully picked up the necklace, which was strung on a chunky silver chain. He let the pendant dangle, watching the light shift and dance across the gemstone facets in the wings and crest.

Luz commented,

"It looks just like Rascal, huh?"

He nodded, looking quite captivated with it. Luz glanced back to the display to check the price, and found that fortunately, it was pretty affordable. The gemstones must have been glass or some kind of diamond imitation. She smiled, telling him,

"We should definitely get it for you!"

He blinked, looking at her.

"Wh-what? No."

"Why not?"

He hastily placed the necklace back on the display.

"Because! You've spent all this money on me already, I don't need anything more. I already feel bad you got me anything at all."

Luz answered in an easygoing tone,

"There's no reason to feel bad, mamá gave us that money so we could entertain ourselves, and we did a good job doing that."

He crossed his arms, saying,

"Well I think we've spent plenty of it on me already. This doesn't look cheap, anyway."

Luz gestured to the price-tag.

"Actually, the price isn't that bad. What if I use my own money? I kinda brought some extra along, just in case."

She knew he had no concept of human currency and how it compared to snails, so she hoped that would work in her favor. He sighed, rubbing his face, looking a little flustered.

"Why, though?"

Luz chuckled.

"C'mon man, you got me my adorable little hedgehog, lemme get you something too."

Ah-ha, that seemed to get to him. He gave her a hesitant glance.

"I ..."

Luz grinned and took the necklace off the display.

"That settles it, I'm getting you the bird necklace."

He sighed and grumbled but offered no further resistance, so Luz took the opportunity to make her purchase quickly. Once she'd finished the purchase, she undid the clasp and eagerly turned to place it around Hunter's neck. He seemed to be thrown off guard by her actions, emitting an awkward stammer,

"Wh-what-are you-"

She leaned in close to him, explaining as she fiddled with the clasp,

"It has a clasp, it's easier if I do it."

He fell quiet as she struggled with the slippery little clasp around his neck, and after several moments of fumbling she finally secured the necklace in place. She straightened up and took a step back so she wasn't hanging directly in his space, but she noticed he wasn't meeting her eyes and his cheeks were definitely flushed. She felt a sudden, happy little jolt– hah, so it wasn't just her then, hm?

"Uhm, thanks," he murmured quietly, gazing down at the pendent. She smiled playfully at him.

"No problem. It looks great."

It did look great—the little flash of silver and red about his neck seemed to really add a lot. As he finally looked up at her, she added,

"Now that you have your drip I think we better get some food for real before I starve to death."

He gave a little snort at her hyperbole but agreed to pursue the food court.

Fortunately they were already very close to the food court, so it didn't take them long. However, once they reached the large, chaotic section of the mall, they had to analyze their options and decide what they wanted to go for. Hunter had a lot of questions about the different kinds of human food. Basically everything looked good to Luz, even the trashy fast food options, although that was probably the hunger talking. Eventually they decided to get tacos, because it was hard to go wrong with those, and so they loaded up on a bunch of tiny crunchy street tacos and some sodas. Once they got their food, Luz directed them to a bench right smack in the middle of the mall.

"Here, this is perfect. We can people-watch while we eat."

Hunter sat down beside her, commenting,

"It's not exactly a discrete spot, though."

She chuckled as she peeled back the wrapping on a taco.

"Pssh, people won't care, they're too lost in their own worlds to even notice."

They munched on tacos and, true to Luz's word, the large numbers of people streaming past them paid them no heed.

"These are actually really good," Hunter said, in the middle of his second taco.

"Yeah, I told you. Hey, you wanna play a game? I like to do this sometimes, I try to imagine what the life stories are for people who walk by."

He raised a brow at her.

"You mean make sweeping assumptions and generalizations based on superficial details?"

Luz shrugged, answering,

"Ehhh, I guess, but everybody does it. Sometimes you can make some pretty solid deductions based on little details, though. Like Sherlock!"

"Who?"

She answered,

"Famous detective guy. I'll have to show you some books later. Oh, oh, here comes somebody interesting, hold on, I'll show you what I mean."

She fell quiet, scrutinizing as a boy around her age shuffled past. He was decked out in all black, dangling with wallet chains, covered in studded leather bracelets and sporting tattoo sleeves full of skulls. She leaned towards Hunter a little and said quietly,

"Ok so, this guy really wants to be goth but I'm guessing his parents are really against it, but he's really motivated to try and do it anyway, probably wants to impress some friends? Because he's bought some fake tattoo sleeves and didn't exactly apply them super well, so he obviously didn't have help from anyone."

Hunter stared, looking confused.

"Wait, how can you tell that?"

She gave a subtle nod.

"I can see where the tattoo smeared in a few spots, it's easy to do when you're peeling the back off. Not that, uhh. I know this from experience or anything."

Hunter gave her a look that suggested he did not believe her. Luz coughed.

"Anyway, here comes somebody else, hold on ..."

She took some time to study a couple that was walking by. The woman had her arms crossed and was turned away, mouth in a narrow line, while the guy was smiling and talking in a relaxed way and kept looking at the girl and touching her shoulder. Luz commented quietly;

"Hmmm, the girl's mad at her boyfriend, she's trying to communicate it telepathically but he's either really oblivious or is ignoring it and pretending everything is fine."

Hunter watched as the couple moved past them.

"Ok, so you're just looking at body language and all that, I get it."

"Yeah, stuff like that. You wanna try?"

He frowned, saying,

"I dunno, I feel like you have the advantage, knowing the Human Realm."

Luz waved dismissively,

"Nahhh. In some ways, sure, but you still can make guesses anyway. Here, how about this group of girls over here?"

They watched the gaggle of teenage girls as they wandered by at a leisurely pace, all talking and laughing loudly, most with sodas or a soft pretzel or other snacks. Hunter crinkled his brow, thinking.

"Ummm, well ... I guess ... they sort of look like they've been here for a while now? But just to hang out. They don't have any shopping bags or anything. So ... maybe they just come here on a regular basis just to mess around?"

Luz beamed, saying,

"Ooh, very good! I award you ten points."

He chuckled.

"All right. You next. The old man."

She spotted the person he meant, an elderly man with white hair and a sweater vest. She hummed, rubbing her chin.

"Ok, let's seeeee ... he came here because he needs to get his son a birthday present, but he doesn't have any ideas so he's wandering around stores until he finds something he likes."

Hunter gave her a skeptical look.

"How exactly did you conclude that?"

"Look at 'em looking around, trying to decide what store to go into, it's obvious."

"Yeah but—"

"OK you go, lady with a baby stroller for her tiny dog!"

They watched the well-dressed lady passing by with her fluffy dog.

"Uhh. I dunno. Maybe she wanted a kid but ... couldn't for some reason so she got a dog instead?"

Luz nodded.

"Yes, of course, the dog parent. See? Some things are universal no matter what realm you're in."

Hunter spotted a new challenge and told her,

"How about the couple holding hands."

Luz glanced the couple over briefly, smiled, and stated with full confidence,

"They've only been together for two weeks and they're already talking about moving in together and they're shopping for really corny matching couples shirts."

"... that's really specific."

A guy in a business suit walked by and she said,

"Oh! This guy works in a cubicle 9-5 writing code but on the weekends he pursues his secret dream of becoming a goat farmer."

"Luz."

"What."

"You're just making crap up now."

"No I'm not."

"What even is a goat, anyway?"

Luz gasped.

"You don't have goats in the Demon Realm??"

He looked thoughtful.

"I don't think so?"

Luz finished munching down her last taco and hummed,

"How do I describe goats, hmm ..."

Something occurred to her, and she smacked her face.

"Silly Luz! I have a phone, of COURSE. Man, I got so used to not being able to use the internet in the Demon Realm, I keep forgetting I can use it now."

She pulled her phone out, running a quick search for 'goats.' A wiki article popped up first but that was kind of dry, so she skipped down to a video of goats screaming and played that. Hunter was very disturbed by the fact they sounded like human screams and then Luz had to search for baby goat videos to convince him that goats were not horrifying, although he found the baby goats' screaming even more disturbing.

"Come on, look at this one, it's wearing a little sweater! How could that not be cute??"

"I mean ... a demon in a sweater is still a demon."

"They aren't demons!"

She tried several more videos but eventually abandoned her efforts to convince Hunter that goats were cute, instead deciding they needed to take a selfie.

"I haven't been taking enough pictures, here, put your soda down."

He looked reluctant, but set his soda down anyway, saying,

"Ehh, all right ..."

Luz leaned against him and aimed her phone at them, grinning and saying,

"Smile!"

Hunter ignored her directions and blepped his tongue out instead as Luz's camera went off.

"That is not a smile."

"Close enough."

Luz was about to try again, but a shot in her camera roll caught her eye and she suddenly melted into giggles,

"Oh god I forgot about that picture."

Curious, Hunter leaned in to look, saying,

"What?"

Luz automatically moved back from him, grinning and warning,

"Wait wait I dunno if you're gonna like it."

He slid closer, complaining,

"You can't just say that and then not show me, what is it?"

The smile hurting her face, she accepted the fact she might be murdered on the spot and turned the phone around to show Hunter. It was one of the shots she took of him while he was sleeping peacefully that morning, hugging a pink bunny plushie tight against his chest.

Hunter's expression shifted immediately into a look of shock and horror. He lunged for the phone, shouting,

"GIVE ME THAT!"

Luz squealed and pulled away from him, and without any hesitation he launched himself at her and grabbed for the phone. She squirmed and laughed, desperately trying to keep it from him. He demanded,

"Give it to me you spying weirdo I swear I'm gonna kill you–"

"No, no, wait, c'mon!"

Luz managed to slip away from him and she climbed to her feet and ran, but a quick glance back proved Hunter was in hot pursuit. She yelped,

"No, it's mine!"

He was terrifyingly fast and Luz dodged around several people, hoping to shake him, but unfortunately she was chased into a corner. She gasped as Hunter grabbed hold of her from behind, his arms lifting her up under her armpits, leaving her feet dangling off the floor. She dissolved into helpless laughter, struggling to force out,

"Mine, it's mine!"

Undaunted, Hunter wrestled with her until the phone finally slipped out of her grip and clattered to the floor, which he immediately seized upon. As Luz sat there, panting for breath, he flicked through the phone wildly, trying to figure out how it worked. It quickly became apparent he had no idea how to operate the phone, to his growing frustration.

"How do you erase stuff?!"

She was still giggling and trying to catch her breath.

"Don't delete it, please, I promise I won't post it online or anything."

"Why do I have a hard time believing that?"

"I swear, I promise! I'll just keep it for my own personal reasons!"

"What does that mean?!"

She melted back into helpless laughter at the sight of his flustered expression. He stood there, glowering at her as she giggled, or at least attempting to– but he seemed unable to muster a glare with any real heat to it.

"You're insane," he told her, fighting off the smile that was threatening to overtake him.

"I've never seen you move that fast for anything," she sniggered. He crossed his arms.

"Are you gonna spend the rest of the day laughing on the floor?"

"I'm cool, I'm cool now," she said, stamping down on her laughter, reaching out a hand with the expectation he would help her up. For a moment, she thought he wouldn't, but then he released a sigh and grabbed her hand, hauling her to her feet.

"You really are freakishly strong," she said, grinning, mind flashing over how he lifted her straight into the air to wrestle with her.

"You keep saying that," he answered, face flushed from either all the exertion or something else. Luz gave him a beseeching look and clasped her hands together.

"Pleeeeease can I have my phone back and let me keep the picture?"

He grunted in disgust, but pushed the phone back into her hands anyway.

"On one condition," he told her, looking at her seriously. She nodded eagerly.

He made a quick motion with his hand, and a glowing scroll appeared floating in the air. He grabbed it and unwound it. Eyes boggling, Luz demanded,

"How'd you do that?!"

He stared at her like she was crazy.

"Uhhm . . . magic?"

She started to answer loudly and then checked herself, dropping her voice lower;

"Yeah but you ... you don't use magic like other witches."

He took a moment to figure out what she meant and then said,

"Oh. No, that's not how scrolls work. The magic is present in the scroll itself, so anyone can use them. You know, like a crystal ball?"

"Oh," Luz said, trying to absorb that.

"I didn't realize. I thought– wait a minute! Does that mean I could have had one this entire time and nobody told me?!"

Hunter glanced around them, holding a finger to his face.

"Shhh, Luz, seriously."

She held a hand to her face.

"Sorry. It's just, sheesh. I've been left out of the social media loop here!"

He rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure you can get one when you get back."

Luz grinned at the thought.

"Ooh, that'll be fun. Are you on Pentsagram? We could be buddies! Wait, weren't you gonna tell me what your condition was?"

He answered quickly,

"If you'll stop getting off track, yes!"

She grinned,

"Sorry!"

He lifted his glowing scroll up, pointing it at her.

"My one condition is I get a picture of you that's just as stupid."

Luz was immediately filled with glee.

"What do you want me to do? Make stupid faces? Should I run around on my hands knees and pretend I'm a goat? Oh, did you know I can turn my eyelids inside-out??"

He waved his hand for her to stop, saying,

"Wait, wait, hold it. It's ... it's not any fun if you're that eager to do it."

Luz gave him an apologetic smile.

"I don't have any shame, it's true."

He sighed and vanished his scroll.

"Well in that case, I reserve the right to take the picture at any time. No limits."

Luz laughed, brash and confident.

"It's a deal! You'll never catch me regretting anything!"

The fond smile that he had been suppressing for so long finally managed to sneak onto his face. Luz felt a strange, electric tingle at the way he was looking at her.

"You are the most ridiculous person I have ever met," he told her, desperately trying to sound neutral, but the pure affection in his voice betrayed him. Her heart fluttered and she glanced away shyly a moment, feeling like somehow it was the best compliment she'd ever been given. Ignoring the way her heart was skipping, she answered playfully,

"Thanks, I try my best."

He huffed a short laugh. Reaching out, he grabbed her wrist, the way she'd done earlier with him.

"C'mon, I think we spilled my soda when we were screwing around, we should probably clean it up."

They returned to their bench and mopped up the mess with napkins, and then decided to keep trawling the mall.

Hunter grabbed her wrist again as they walked. It wasn't quite holding hands, but Luz felt like she was walking on air. The stores they passed by escaped her notice, because she was far too distracted. It actually took her a few moments to realize when they'd stopped and Hunter asked her something.

"Uh. What? Sorry, I didn't catch that."

Looking amused, he repeated,

"Is this another bath bomb sort of thing or are those things actual food?"

She looked to where he was indicating and saw it was a chocolate shop, boxes of candy on display.

"Oh, that is definitely food. Actually, I'm surprised you don't recognize it. They don't have chocolate in the Demon Realm?"

He shook his head.

"Not that I know of."

Luz's eyes widened as she realized how major this was.

"Seriously? Dang ... you are in for something special. They usually give out free samples if you ask, let's go in."

They entered the brightly-lit shop, walking across the checkered floor and approaching the large glass cases displaying all the different flavors. Luz stuck her face to the glass and admired all the candies.

"Oooh. This is gonna be hard to decide."

Hunter leaned down to inspect the candy as well. He read the little labels.

"Maple ... peppermint ... strawberry ... butterscotch ... mocha ... peanutbutter ... ah, crap, there's too many. I don't even know what half of these are. Which should I pick?"

Luz stared at the huge selection and pondered.

"Hmmmm ... well, this will be your very first taste of chocolate, so maybe you should start with something basic. How about that one? A dark chocolate truffle."

He looked at where she pointed and nodded.

"Ok. I'll trust your judgment."

Luz ultimately decided on a raspberry bonbon and asked the employee if they could have a free sample. They each received a fancy-looking little chocolate in a tiny paper wrapper. Luz grinned wide, excited to see Hunter's reaction.

"You're staring at me, it's making me worried this might be a prank."

Luz giggled.

"I just wanna see your reaction."

"Yeah, because it tastes like dirt or something?"

"Noooo! You said you trusted my judgment, didn't you?"

He raised a brow and answered,

"Yeah, I'm second-guessing that now."

"Oh my god you big baby."

He suddenly thrust the little wrapped candy in her direction, smirking.

"Here, you try it first, then I'll trust it."

Luz took the chocolate from him and snorted.

"You really think I'm trying to poison you with chocolate?"

She took a bite, the truffle intensely rich and delicious, but she started making choking and gagging noises, waving wildly.

"Aughgugh it's killing meeee, my hubris has doomed me to die of chocolate poisoning, noooo!"

"Luz."

She grabbed her neck, sputtering,

"Akkkkkckkk the paaainn!"

"Luz."

She sunk to her knees, gasping,

"I'm fading fast ... tell mom I love her . . ."

"All right, just give it back, you dork."

He took the partly-bitten chocolate truffle from her and popped the whole thing in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. Luz watched as his expression shifted into surprise and then slipped into a look of pure bliss. He breathed quietly,

"Holy shit, that's good."

Luz gave a scandalous gasp, giggling.

"Hunter! Watch that mouth."

He looked at her eagerly– or rather, at the remaining candy she had.

"Do you still want yours?"

She backed away, holding her candy away from him.

"Yes, absolutely, you can't have it!"

His expression fell, and he gazed at her candy sadly. Luz giggled.

"Are you actually trying to use puppydog eyes on me?"

Still looking forlorn, he said,

"What? No."

She turned back to look at the display case full of candies and told him,

"Ok, look, there's an easy solution here. Let's buy a box and then we can have more."

He seemed very much on-board with this idea, so together they went to pick out a variety of flavors to fill a custom box. They spent a fairly long time debating which flavors to include, but thankfully the employee didn't seem to mind their antics, probably because there wasn't a line of customers waiting behind them. When they'd finally completed their selections, Luz paid for the box, which was admittedly kind of on the pricey side. Still, it was totally worth it.

"Thanks for being patient with us," she told the nice woman who had rung them up. Hunter had already seized the box of chocolates and bounced eagerly out of the store to eat them. Luz hollered after him,

"HUNTER SOME OF THOSE ARE MINE."

She turned back to the employee and smiled apologetically as she was handed her receipt. The woman chuckled and told her kindly,

"It's no problem. I hope you and your boyfriend enjoy them. Make sure he shares."

Luz smiled politely and answered automatically,

"Thanks, I uhhhhhh–" Mid-sentence, her mind caught up with what was said to her and she balked,

"Ahaha, that's not– we're not–"

She glanced around anxiously, but nobody else was around to witness her stumbling. With that in mind, she quickly decided that she'd just make her exit.

"T-thanks! Have a good day!"

Luz found Hunter sitting on a bench close by, staring at their collection of little chocolates like a hawk trying to select its prey. She was actually surprised he hadn't inhaled half the box by now.

"You actually waited for me?" she asked as she sat down beside him. He looked at her like she was being silly.

"Of course. I do have some self-control, you know."

Luz chuckled, taking one of the little chocolates from the box.

"That's true, you do seem like somebody who does. Probably a little too much self-control, actually."

He raised a brow.

"Too much? There's no such thing, that doesn't make sense."

Luz popped the butterscotch truffle in her mouth.

"Yeah there is. Sometimes you gotta cut loose, you know?"

He selected a chocolate with pretty white stripes. Before chomping into it, he said,

"You do seem pretty Looze."

Luz paused, giving him a suspicious look.

"Did you just. Make a pun. With my name."

He glanced away as if caught, looking genuinely embarrassed with himself.

"It wasn't even good. I'm sorry, I think being around you is making me say weird stuff."

Luz laughed delightedly.

"No, no, don't apologize, I loved it. I'm clearly a good influence."

He looked at her with a crooked little smile.

"I'm not so sure."

Luz scoffed and told him confidently,

"If it weren't for me, you would not be sitting here right now eating amazing human delicacies, right?"

His smile increased.

"You know what, I can't argue with that."

Luz grinned, grabbing another chocolate and biting into it.

"Oh god, the raspberry ones really are the best."

He scanned their box quickly and said,

"Hold it, which ones are the raspberry ones? I wanna try."

Luz gazed at all the little wrappers and answered,

"Hmmm, I think we only got one of those ..."

He looked dismayed.

"What?? Can I have the rest of that then?"

Luz felt a funny little flip in her stomach at how willing he seemed to be to just eat whatever candy she'd been biting into.

"Uhh, y-yeah, of course."

She handed it over and he ate it slowly, taking the time to savor the dark chocolate that contrasted with the taste of the tart berry. He seemed to be in heaven.

"You're definitely right, this is the best so far. Unnngh, damn, how have I never had this stuff until now."

Luz couldn't stop smiling.

"Honestly I'm enjoying watching you as much as I am eating these myself."

He chuckled, sliding the box away from her and giving a sly look.

"In that case, you wouldn't mind if I finished the rest of these?"

Luz laughed and protested,

"Wait, wait, I didn't say that."

He'd already started on another, and his eyes lit with delight.

"I don't know what this is but it's even better then the raspberry mmmnuhhhh ..."

Luz tried to identify it by sight, but a lot of the candies looked the same.

"Dang, I wish I knew what it was."

He refrained from just gulping the rest of it down, which seemed to take considerable self-control. Passing the half-eaten truffle to Luz, he said,

"Here, maybe you can tell."

Luz looked at the filling, which was offwhite and yellowish.

"Hmmm I'm not sure, there's a few like that, some cream ones, some lemon ... marshmallow ..."

"Just taste it, you can have it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

She ate the rest while he watched expectantly for her verdict. Immediately, she reported,

"Oh yeah that's lemon."

"Well then I love lemon. We need to get more of those next time."

Luz giggled at his enthusiasm, and then realized exactly what he'd said. It was possibly just a slip of the tongue, but hearing him say 'next time' was incredibly nice.

She gave him a grin, saying,

"If you love lemon, I know a few other things you might like. Lemon bars, lemon meringue, lemonade ..."

"Yes. I don't know what those are but yes, I will eat those."

Luz laughed again– god, she was so giggly around him, but she couldn't seem to help it. She didn't realize she'd become a little lost in his pretty magenta eyes until he asked in an amused voice,

"What?"

She opened her mouth to reply, but a strange little chime noise made her stop. Uhhh, noise, what was that noise?

Oh, right, phone.

Luz pulled the phone from her pocket, realizing it was a text from her mom.

On my way home now– I'll see you soon mija <3

Luz blinked at her phone for a few moments and finally noticed the time.

"Oh. Oh, crap. I didn't, uh, realize it was so late. Wait, really? It's almost 5 already?"

Hunter looked at her, and she noticed the joy seemed to quickly drain from his face– as if he was being hit with reality again. He answered in a sober tone,

"Ah. Yeah. I guess ... it has been a while."

Luz tucked her phone back in her pocket, feeling a strange sense of disappointment. She wanted to see her mom, of course, but she also ... kinda hadn't wanted her day with Hunter to end.

Awkwardly, she said,

"Guess we better start heading home, huh?"

Silently, he nodded. He gathered up the little paper wrappers they'd strewn about and put them in the box, closing the lid, and fell into step behind Luz.