Chapter Text
As the bright sun lights the room, Gus rises from the couch in the basement from the smell of Camila’s cooking. Seeing Hunter still fast asleep, he makes the executive decision to not wake him, noting that the “sleeping bag must be really comfy” whispered Gus to himself.
As Gus looked around the dusty basement full of knick-knacks, and other ‘human junk.’ While looking around the basement, Gus looks at the nearby snowglobe and remembers the crystal balls he’d watch his dad on. Tears start to fill Gus’ eyes as he reminisces about his dad and what they would do together, but then wiping them away trying to think of the good things.
His nostrils fill with the smell of eggs and bacon, and he follows the scent down to the kitchen in the house.
“You’re finally awake dormilón.” Camila says as she sees Gus in the kitchen.
“Where is everyone else?” Gus replies.
“I think they’re still asleep,” Camila suggests. “They should be down soon though, if the food brought you down.”
Gus laughs at her comment, and tries to keep himself in the moment, instead of worrying about everything that keeps pressing him down.
Vee walks out the bathroom to hear the floor in the other room creak. Lately Vee has been questioning what to do when she has to go outside, as she still uses Luz’s body, but after days of her being back, people are definitely going to ask some questions about why there are two different Luzs.
When Vee walks downstairs she greets Camila and Gus, who was already enjoying breakfast.
“I’m sorry, you know I can’t wake you guys when you are asleep.” Camila says to Vee when she sees Gus eating.
“It’s fine.” Vee notes back. “Do you want me to wake the others? I know Luz and Amity are still asleep, but I don’t know about Willow.”
“Oh and Hunter is sleeping like a baby.” Gus notes only when his mouth is half full of food.
“You’re good, you can wake them up if you want to.” Camila says while cooking and serving Gus a pancake.
“So Camila… I’ve been thinking about the whole shapeshifting ordeal–” says Vee
“Don’t worry about it, I have a few errands to do today, but one of those is taking you guys to the thrift store to get new outfits.” Camila interjects.
“What is an ‘errand’?” asks Gus.
“What's a ‘thrift’ store?” adds Vee.
“Oh Dios mío, I still have to explain so much to you kids.” exclaims Camila.
“Well I’m going to wake up the girls. Should I let Hunter sleep longer?” asks Vee.
“Yeah. I think he could really use it. He hasn’t been able to sleep lately but Flapjack whistled him this lullaby last night. Knocked him right out.” Gus chuckles.
“Aww, it's nice to see ani- I mean palisman acting so nice and cute.” says Camila.
With a loud creak, Luz startles awake, dripping with sweat and tears. She was having THAT dream again. She would have this dream multiple times a week.
“I better get up'n at ‘em.” Luz yawns while walking out of the room.
Vee stares off at Luz, thinking about how she has been impersonating her for a few months, and thinking about how she could’ve messed up her life, before she continues up the stairs.
When Lus walks down the stairs, she accidentally bumps into Vee, making them both fall to the bottom.
“I am so sorry Vee, here let me help you.” Luz reaches out to grab Vee’s hand, feeling the scales in her palm.
“Thank you, I was going to wake Willow, is she awake?” asks Vee while grunting from getting up.
“No, I don’t think so, you know how she gets when she gets woken though, be careful.” Luz instructs whilst Vee was climbing the stairs with her tail-like limb.
“Good morning mama.” Luz says to Camila while taking a seat at the table. “How was your sleep Gus?”
“It was…meh. Lucky I don’t roll in my sleep like Hunter, but the couch is very comfy.” Gus notes while replying to Luz, who is now being served a plate of pancakes with butter and syrup.
Right before Luz takes her first bite, she hears a loud crash from upstairs “I guess Vee wasn’t being careful enough.” Luz says under her breath.
Vee slithers down the stairs, bruised with thorns, but with Amity and Willow by her side. “¿Estás bien Vee?” asks Camila, rushing to check Vee’s bruises.
“I’m ok Camila, only a few scratches.” Vee says, trying to brush Camila away.
“Again Vee, I am so sorry.” notes Willow, while frowning with a sad voice.
“Please Willow, if you think this hurts, you should’ve seen what Warden Wrath would always do.” Vee quickly adds while laughing, trying to comfort Willow more, “I should’ve known what I was getting myself into by waking you up.”
“Warden what?!” asks Camila with a loud but quivering voice, “oh my, you were put through so much.” Before Vee can reply, she is cut off.
“Is anyone hurt?!” cries a voice from the basement.
“We’re ok Hunter, I was just waking Willow!” Vee yells, in response you could hear a quiet chuckle coming from the stairs.
“Ok kids, I need y’all to eat, cause we got places to be!” declares Camila.
After an hour or two, they pull into a spot, they see a big sign that says ‘PENNYWILL THRIFT STORE’. Everyone stares at the big sign oohing and aahing. They all get out after Camila parks the car.
They enter the building and everyone began to look around.
“Oh my Titan, there are so many pieces of clothes everywhere.” Hunter notes in excitement.
After Camila tells the gang to run wild, Luz instantly grabs Amity’s hand and runs to a certain part of the store with her. Vee and Gus run to another part, and Willow and Hunter both go their separate ways to different parts of the store. Camila sees them run off and smiles, excited to see what they will end up picking out.
After around 15 minutes, Gus comes out of the dressing room in a sleazy pair of jeans, with kneecaps, a nice black and blue beanie, a winter-like jacket with a button-up shirt. He is also seen rocking a pair of glasses.
“Oh my Titan, Gus. That looks so good!” says Vee when he came out of the changing room, “is that what you want to wear?”
“I am the pinnacle of human fashion!” Gus declares, posing.
“Luz, slow down.” Amity says with a laugh as Luz keeps throwing clothes over the door for her to try on. There were several dresses, snazzy shoes, and strange-looking hats. Human Realm clothing was…odd, but Amity loved so many aspects of it.
Finally, after what feels like forever, Amity comes out of the dressing room in a matching purple fit of tight, ripped jeans, purple laced shoes, tank-top liked shirt with a skull branding the midsection, and to finish off she has a really big witch-pointed hat.
“Tan linda, you look so good!” Luz practically shouts when she walks out of the changing room.
Camila is behind them with tired eyes but a nice smile. One could easily see the bags under her eyes, indicating that she isn’t getting nearly enough sleep. Granted, she became the sole caretaker of six children overnight. Even with one kid, a mother can lose sleep sometimes. It’s worth it to Camila, though. These niños deserve to be taken care of.
As Vee and Gus come to meet up with them, they talk about going over to Willow and seeing what she is picking out.
“Aren’t you going to get any new clothes Vee?” Camila asks with a sudden glance in her direction.
“Um- heh, I want to show you guys mine last, like a big reveal type thing” Vee says, practically stuttering. She doesn’t know what to get for clothes, but hoping she can buy enough time to think of something.
Abruptly, Hunter is heard yelling, “I FOUND THE PERFECT OUTFIT!”
When the crew runs over to Hunter, they see him in a full body chicken suit. Lighthearted laughter is heard from Luz and Amity, especially when Flapjack lands on Hunter and almost seems to strike a pose on his shoulder.
Camila tells him he has to put it back, with sympathy but a bit of laughter in her voice. The teenager slouches, walking back to the changing room. He then selects his second pick, a more average outfit with a yellow V-neck and some sweatpants. Embarrassed, he walks with them over to the room where Willow is changing into her own outfit.
Willow bursts out, donning roller skates and a spiked helmet. She poses in front of Hunter, and makes no indicator to whether or not she can see Hunter blushing.
“That looks…awesome!” Hunter stammers. Willow smiles and winks.
“I love your outfit too, Hunter! Looks so comfy!” she exclaims.
“It looks great Willow, but, uhh, people normally don’t just wear roller skates.” Camila says to the girl with an apologetic expression.
Willow shrugs at Hunter, then slowly walks back into the changing room and puts something else on, making sure it’s something better for more daily, casual wear.
While Willow is changing, Vee tries to engage in a conversation with Luz. “Psst, hey Luz!” whispers Vee from behind Camila. “I wanna talk to you.”
Hey Vee, what's up?” asks Luz after they backed away from the group enough to get out of earshot.
“I want to talk to you about my little ‘human’ form. I don’t feel comfortable keeping this disguise. I need help thinking of another one.” says Vee with a sad intonation.
“Oh, Vee! I’m sure you can figure out an amazing choice. And I don’t really know how this whole thing works, so I don’t think I would be the person to ask.” Luz informs Vee with a warm grin on her face, “just when the time comes, I think you will be able to find whatever you want to look like in your mind and your heart.”
“Ok, I guess I’ll try, thanks for talking to me.” Vee tells Luz, grateful but still full of worry. How is she going to decide what she wants to look like? She feels comfortable as her basilisk self thanks to Camila, but she can’t exactly go around the Human Realm like that. If only…
“Wait a second…” Vee mutters to herself. Her eyes light up. She has an idea!
As Camila brings their clothes up to the register Vee grabs their attention. “Umm… Camila, I think I’m ready to show you my new outfit.” she says, directing it towards Camila and Luz.
As she side-steps behind a shelf, making sure no other people around the store are looking, she quickly transforms into more of a pale-skinned human, with blue and light-yellowed coloured hair, managing to use her hair to make her more natural, blue and yellow, ears to blend in so she wouldn’t need to change them or hide them. Oddly enough she chose to have her pupils inverted, having a yellow pupil with a dark black iris.
Vee doesn’t look like Luz, or anyone else she has ever seen. She looks like herself…a human version. And she feels like herself in this form, too.
Camila looks at Vee with wide eyes. “Oh my goodness, you look so good, hija!” Camila exclaims, rushing forward to give her a hug.
Vee beams and leans into Camila’s embrace, content with her appearance.
After a few moments, Camila leaves to check out and buy the other kids’ clothes.
Luz walks up to her sister. “Vee, you look amazing! I knew you’d figure out a great way to look how you wanted to, and you did!” She hugs Vee.
While getting in the car after they left the store, Vee listens to Hunter and Gus talking quickly about something called “Cosmic Frontier”. She knew what she was getting into when she decided to sit with them, after all. She is focusing on her own thoughts instead of their words, though. She feels her new orange sweater, and smiles.
Before long, Vee falls asleep, and dreams about basilisks attacking Warden Wrath with giant pumpkin cannons.
She suddenly wakes up to jerking and swerving of the car. She sees a deer or something jump off the road, and Camila yelling in surprise.
“Are you okay, Camila?” Hunter asks with alarm.
“I’m okay, hijo. I’m just glad I didn’t hit whatever that was.”
They pull into the driveway at the end of the day, after all their errands and Camila checking in at the vet. Vee bursts out of the car and runs to the front door. She enjoys the company of Gus and Hunter, but that was enough Cosmic Frontier infodumping for one day. She gets a cup of water from the kitchen sink and drinks deeply, before morphing into her basilisk form.
“Hey Vee?” Luz enters the house and starts up a flight of stairs, motioning Vee up. “I want to talk to you about something that's been on my mind for a while.”
“Yeah, what's up?” Vee asks when she finally reached the top of the stairs.
“I know that living in the Boiling Isles… like that really sucked, and I want to let you know that I am here for you and whatever you need, and Camila and I will let you stay for as long as you want.” Luz explains to Vee with an almost saddened look on her face and her eyes wet.
“And I don’t know if me coming back made you feel uncomfortable, but I look and think of you as my own sister, and I would do anything for my family, I just want to let you know that, well, you’re safe here.”
“W…ow, that was a lot.” Vee says with a surprised expression.
“When…when I first got here and started impersonating you, I thought eventually I’d get discovered. But that one night months ago, when you first saw me, you weren’t mad or sad, you were quite happy actually. And even though I shooed you away when Jacob trapped me, you decided to try to help me in my darkest hours when I thought there was no hope. You and your mom are the nicest people I have ever met, and I’m so happy that you consider me to be your sister. I never had any family growing up, but I am happy that I can call you my family.” Vee finishes with a sob and a really happy look.
As Vee and Luz embrace in a hug, Hunter interrupts, “Are- are you guys ok?” he says in a concerned voice.
“Yeah Hunter, we’re ok.” Luz responds holding back tears as the two girls move around him. They walk back downstairs to get the clothes and help Amity and Willow put theirs away.
“Man these ‘coat hangers’ or whatever you humans call them are confusing.” Willow says after they bring all their clothes in their room. She’s trying to hang a shirt onto a rack from the bottom of a coat hanger, rather than the hook on the top.
Luz laughs when the hanger falls to the ground and picks it up. She adjusts Willow’s hanger and shows her how to hang it up properly.
Once all the clothes are put away, it’s already pretty late. The four girls go to bed early, Willow starts snoring almost right away, while Amity and Luz are talking quietly to each other about fixing up the old abandoned shack tomorrow.
Vee soon falls fast asleep, comfortable and with the knowledge that she is loved and cared for by her amazing family.