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Hunter didn’t think about it at first, how his hair was getting a bit longer, how his little curl had started to hang in front of his face instead of bounce up. There were so many other things to think about it, things to learn about, wolves and sci-fi TV shows to get obsessed with. The human world was full of new things and new people. His hair didn’t matter.
Until one night, when he caught a look at himself for just a glance while getting ready for bed.
It wasn’t him looking back in the mirror. It was Belos.
Hunter yelped, throwing himself back, away from the villain --
But he wasn’t there. It was just Hunter. Alone in the bathroom, with his blond hair spilling down either side of his face, suddenly a terrible reminder of who he was. Just like that, he couldn’t stand it, couldn’t confront the fact that he looked just like the one who’d deceived him all his life, made him do and think terrible things for no reason other than the fact that he was evil. Hunter couldn’t bear to share his likeness anymore.
So he dug through the drawers until he found a pair of scissors, and began cutting. His hands were shaking. If he had less sense, he would have liked to just burn it all away, really get rid of it. He didn’t want to deal with what was left over, both on his head and on the floor. He just wanted it gone.
Once he started, Hunter found he couldn’t stop. He kept cutting, long after it was short enough to no longer resemble his uncle. Even when he’d calmed a bit, Hunter didn’t want to stop, just wanted to make it shorter and shorter until he cut into his head and his skull and dug the scissors into his brain and killed the awful thing he was --
The door opened, and Hunter turned to see who it was, who’d caught him cutting his own hair well after bedtime. His body relaxed when he realized it was just Willow.
She didn’t even seem fazed, just gently guided him to sit on the stool, took the scissors from him swiftly, and began fixing the mess he’d made on his head. Hunter took a breath in and let it out slowly, forcing himself to calm down the rest of the way. It was just Willow. Willow was safe. Willow was helping him.
And when she held the mirror up to show him what she’d done, Hunter realized he liked what he saw.