Chapter Text
Just as Vee had suspected, she woke up the next morning to find that Masha had left their sleeping bag to come cuddle her while they slept. What she hadn’t expected was that at some point in the middle of the night, she had shifted back to her basilisk form and wrapped Masha up in her tail. She panicked for a second, before remembering how much her partner loves her true form. She supposes this is just further proof of how comfortable she feels around the goth; any fears that would have forced her to keep up her human form were gone around them. She resigned herself to being forced to stay in bed for a while longer and nuzzled her chin into her partner’s head.
“Comfy there, sis?” Vee looked over to see that Luz was up and at her desk, head resting on her arm and a shit eating grin on her face.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” Vee whispered back, trying not to wake up her partner. “...You’re not gonna tell mom, are you?!”
“What do you take me for, a nark?!” Luz responded with mock offense. “Plus I’d be a hypocrite, and we ain’t about that here in this household.”
“Being a nark or being a hypocrite?” Vee asked.
“Both,” Luz answered. “However, I would recommend you wake them up before mom finds out.”
“Yeah, good idea.” Vee started lightly shaking Masha. “Hey, babe, wake up.”
“Mmmm, five more minutes,” Masha whined.
“As much as I’d love to, we can’t risk my mom finding out you snuck into my bed to cuddle all night.” Vee smiled as Masha shot their head up.
“WHAT?!” Masha looked around, then back at Vee with a giant blush on their face. “You…changed back.”
“Yeah…” Vee replied. “Guess I’m just that comfortable with you.”
“I’m honored.” Masha smiled. “And your tail is
really
comfortable.”
"Gay," Luz teased.
"Shut up, you don't have room to talk!" Vee shouted while throwing a pillow at her sister.
Masha laughed while slowly getting off of the bed before Camila came to investigate what the commotion was. As if on cue, they all heard a knock on the door. "Luz, Vee, are you two fighting in front of our guest?"
"No, mami!" The Noceda sisters answered together as if it was a routine at this point.
Camila opened the door to see Luz at her desk, Masha sitting on their sleeping bag, and Vee laying on her stomach on her bed. She looked back and forth between the group, trying to scan for signs of any funny business. Satisfied that nothing too bad happened, she smiled. "Well breakfast is ready, come on down when you're ready! Oh and Vee?"
"Yes, mom?" Vee looked at Camila in confusion.
"I'm glad to see you're comfortable letting yourself shift in front of your partner already!" Camila flashed the girl a warm smile.
Vee blushed as Luz gave her a smirk. "Shut up."
"I didn't say anything." Luz waggled her eyebrows.
"Sometimes I regret wanting a sister," Vee glared as she slowly got up to head downstairs with Masha.
"NO YOU DON'T!" Luz shouted after them as she also slowly got up to join them.
When Luz made it downstairs, she found her mom bringing the food she made over to the table that Vee and Masha helped set. "Looks delicious, mami!"
The group sat down and ate their breakfast while chatting more about their crazy adventures the last few days. Camila asked Vee if she had much trouble posing as her while they were gone and Vee went into detail on the phone calls she had to make. She almost dropped her cover once or twice when trying to navigate around being an adult in a world she barely knew how to be a kid in. But in the end, she was able to get Camila's time off work sorted and figure out how to keep the lights on and herself fed while she was alone. She tried to keep to herself after that, and it was working until Masha showed up, but they all know how that worked out.
"Oh, also I had to hotwire your car because you had the keys," Vee added nonchalantly while taking another bite of food, while everyone else's mouth hung open.
"Where did you learn to hotwire a car?!" Camila asked in shock.
"The Internet," Vee replied like it was no big deal.
"As if I needed any more reasons to be attracted to you," Masha chimed in, while Luz was making hand motions to try to get them to be quiet.
"Vee, sweety…" Camila started, which finally made Vee realize she said something wrong. "While I appreciate you getting the car, and more importantly yourself, home safely, I would have preferred you calling a locksmith to get a new key."
"Oh!" Vee put down her food and flashed an embarrassed smile to her mom. "Sorry! I'll do that next time!"
"I really hope there won't be a next time, but I appreciate the sentiment." Camila smiled at Vee and went back to eating, allowing the girl to relax and join her.
Soon, they were all done eating and the kids helped Camila clean up the table. Once finished, they all went to the living room to watch some TV together. It didn't take much convincing to get Vee into the animal documentaries Camila and Luz watch together all the time, what with her sharing some similarities to snakes and slugs. Masha thought it was adorable and decided to share in their girlfriend's interests. And if anyone so much as implied they were doing this to take notes on potential likes and dislikes, they were crazy.
"So, do you kids have any plans today?" Camila asked during an ad break. Caring for six kids over the summer put a dent in her budget, so she had to downgrade to the ad version of Fulu.
"I was going to go see what everyone was up to oh the Isles, if that's OK?" Luz asked, knowing full well it was just a formality at this point.
"Of course, mija, have fun," Camila laughed. "What about you two lovebirds?"
"Oh! I, uh, well the past couple days have been crazy, we haven't thought a whole lot about what to do outside of the couple dates we had." Vee rubbed the back of her head.
"I need to head home for a bit," Masha chimed in. "My parents are going to start worrying I'm replacing them with you, Mrs. Noceda."
"Masha, please, call me Camila," the older woman responded. "And of course, go spend time with your parents. But don't forget you're welcome here anytime you like!"
Thank you, Camila." Masha stood up before turning back to Vee. "I'll text you later, cutie." They gave her a kiss on the cheek before walking out the door, leaving a stunned Vee holding her cheek with a blush on her face and her eyes wide open.
"Uh oh, mama, I think Masha broke her." Luz grinned at her sister, before getting a smack on the arm.
"Shut up." Vee smiled back. "Anyway, I guess I'll go see if Marcus and Abby are free to hang out. I owe them a lot of make-up time."
"Well you all have fun! I have plans of my own on the Isles, so I'll walk you over, Luz." Camila got up and grabbed her purse.
"Wait, what?" Luz whipped her head over to her mother in surprise.
"Did I forget to mention?" Camila smiled. "Eda and Raine offered to show me around town so I can see more of it without The Collector's…decorations."
"Mom…are you going on a date with my other mom and her partner?!" Luz shouted in horror.
"Am I?" Camila teased with a wink. "Come on, mija, I'll be late."
Luz stammered as she followed her mom out the door while Vee was trying to stop herself from laughing. Once they left, she fell to the floor in a fit of laughter. After calming down, she sent a text to Marcus and Abby to see if they were free to hang out. Lucky for her, they were both bored out of their minds and already heading out the door as soon as they got her texts. So she got up and shifted into her human form to go meet up with her friends at the arcade.
"Man, I missed this," Abby said as she was facing off against Vee in a round of Mortal Kombat.
"What, me kicking your butt?" Vee smirked as she punched in her combo.
"GET OVER HERE!" The sound of Scorpion performing his signature move could be heard. "FINISH HIM!" Vee punched in another combo. "FATALITY! FLAWLESS VICTORY!"
"NOT AGAIN!" Abby shouted.
"You know, it's kinda weird that a demon that's only been in our world for a few months can consistently kick your butt at video games," Marcus said between sips of his drink.
“I don’t see you trying to beat her!” Abby snapped back.
Marcus took another sip. “I never claimed to be good enough to do so. Have you checked the high scores in here? They’re all her!”
“Wait, what?” Abby went through all the arcade machines to look at the scores and sure enough, if the number one score wasn’t labeled Vee, it was labeled Lus (Vee sometimes forgot how her sister spelled her name back before she actually met her). “I…WHAT?!”
“It’s all in the wrist!” Vee rotated her hand by the wrist to showcase her point.
“You even beat Masha!” Abby shouted in surprise. “No one ever beats Masha!”
“Yeah, they’re really salty about that one still.” Vee half smirked. “That’s why I haven’t brought them on a date here yet, I want to have fun not a fight.”
“Coward,” Marcus deadpanned.
Vee glared at her friend before taking out her phone. “Speaking of, they said they’d text me later but I haven’t gotten a singl-” She was interrupted by her phone ringing. “Hey, you said you were just gonna tex-WHAT?! Where? Ugh, when will he learn to mind his own business?! I’ll be right there!” Vee hung up the phone and turned to her friends. “Sorry guys, Jacob Hopkins is causing a scene at the zoo. Masha was trying to track him down for some museum pieces he still hadn’t returned and found him there. I gotta go, this was fun, we gotta do it again sometime!”
Abby just stared dumbfounded at the door that Vee had just ran out of. “When did our lives become this weird?”
Marcus just shrugged. “Wanna see if you can beat me at Street Fighter?”
“YOU’RE ON!” Abby pointed a finger at her friend in a fiery passion.
Vee sprinted her way down to the zoo, hoping that she got there before Jacob caused too much chaos. It was just her luck that he had somehow figured out the connection between giraffes and the demon realm. She can only hope that he had some misguided explanation for it like every other thing he got partially right about the place of her creation. Once she got to the front gate, she found that there was too much of a commotion for the ticket booths to care about who was coming or going. Using this to her advantage, she ran into the gates in the middle of the crowd of people escaping in the hopes of easily finding her partner or her least favorite person in this realm.
“MASHA?” Vee shouted. “MASHA WHERE ARE YOU?!”
“OVER HERE, VEE!” Vee whipped around to find the person she was hoping to run into.
“Oh thank the Titan I found you first,” Vee ran up to her partner. “Where’s Jacob? Please don’t tell me he released the giraffes.”
“It’s worse than that,” Masha replied.
“HOW CAN IT BE WORSE?!” Vee threw her hands up in the air.
“He’s riding one!” Masha pointed behind Vee, the latter turning around to see that Jacob was, in fact, riding on the back of one of the giraffes as he led a stampede through the zoo.
“I FINALLY HAVE PROOF THAT DEMONS ARE REAL!” Vee heard the man shouting from atop the giraffe. “LOOK UPON HIS MANDIBLES AND FEAR! I WILL GET THIS CREATURE AWAY AND SAVE ALL OF YOU!”
Vee buried her hands in her head before making sure all the people had escaped from the zoo. Once she got confirmation that it was just her, Masha, and Jacob, she ran in front of the giraffe. “I’M SORRY ABOUT THIS…WELL ONLY PARTIALLY!” She began inhaling, hoping to remove all the remaining magic from the creature and make it the docile creature humans think it is.
The giraffe fought off the basilisk, while bucking Jacob off and sending him flying into the bushes in the distance. “WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME, BASILISK? WE ARE BOTH DEMONS WHO HAVE BEEN WRONGED BY WITCHES!”
“IT CAN TALK?!” Masha shouted in shock.
“I’VE ONLY BEEN WRONGED BY A WITCH HUNTER PRETENDING TO BE A WITCH!” Vee explained. “ACTUAL WITCHES ARE MY FRIENDS! AND MY HUMAN SISTER IS DATING ONE!”
“YOU ARE FRIENDS WITH THE WITCHES AND HUMANS?!” The giraffe shouted in anger.
“I’M EVEN DATING ONE!” Vee pointed to Masha. “PLEASE! Why are we still shouting?! Sorry, that’s getting rough on my voice. Look, humans aren’t all bad right, they keep you fed and clean?”
“They keep me locked in a prison!” The giraffe roared. “First witches banished me to another dimension where I had to pretend to be a mindless animal, then humans locked me in here under the assumption I needed their help for self preservation!”
“I mean, to be fair to us, you did say you were pretending to be a normal animal and you do look like one,” Masha chimed in, only to be met with the giraffe roaring at them, exposing their mandibles. Vee had seen that once before when she was here with Willow, Amity, and Gus, but it was still just as terrifying the second time. Masha, however, seemed unphased. “Wow, sick.”
The giraffe tilted their head in confusion. “You do not fear me, human. Even this demon and her witch friends were terrified of me. Do you not fear death?”
“Oh, no, I totally do,” Masha replied. “But I also think demons are super cool! And if I let every little thing people find strange terrify me, then I would never get to experience anything fun!”
The giraffe lowered their head down to stare Masha in the eyes. “I like you, human. The one who freed us seemed a little…unwell in the head.”
“You can say that again,” Vee muttered.
“You, on the other hand, don’t seem to wish harm upon us,” the giraffe continued. “Very well, we will go back into our cage and resume normal animal activities. After all, it’s not all bad. We at least get fed and cared for.”
“Believe me, I know what it’s like to be imprisoned and tortured,” Vee cut in. “When Belos created us, he kept us in small cages in a dungeon while he forced us to drain magic out of creatures to study us. You may not be fully free, but you at least have a simulation of nature to run around in and do as you please.”
“Getting meals handed to us is an improvement over having to hunt for it ourselves,” the giraffe agreed. “Don’t be a stranger, young basilisk. You, your human family, and your witch friends are the only ones I can safely talk to and it gets lonely in here.”
“Don’t worry, we live nearby, we’ll come visit you!” Vee smiled. “But for now, we’re going to have to track down the employees and let them know everything is fine.”
Vee and Masha started walking towards the front gate when the latter remembered the other reason they called their girlfriend here in the first place. “Uh, what do we do about Jacob?”
Vee stopped in her tracks for a second, before shrugging and continuing on. “They all saw him riding the giraffes, they’ll probably call the police. I say let them handle it.”
“Fair point, you did take care of the demon giraffe, we’ve done enough for today.” Masha put their arms behind their head as they walked on.
Later that night, the Nocedas returned home to meet for dinner with some guests. The Noceda children brought their partners, Alador always happily giving permission for Amity to pay a visit in return for welcoming Luz to the Blight Manor in return, and Masha’s parents giving them permission to stay as long as it was just dinner and not spending the night again. Camila also had a surprise for Luz, having brought along Eda and Raine, which has not done anything to convince the girl that they’re not all dating. Of course, Luz was always happy to hang out with her other mom and their partner, she really was. But seeing her two moms give each other puppy dog eyes was not something she was jumping at the bit to experience.
“Come on kid, I saw you and Baby Blight be insufferably cute for months and I was even there for the pining!” Eda argued. “Just think of this as payback.” Her and Raine each kissed Camila’s cheeks while the human woman giggled and her daughter gagged.
“Well I think it’s cute,” Masha cut in. “Old people need love too, after all!”
“HEY, WE’RE NOT THAT OLD!” Eda protested.
“But you’re older than us.” Vee smirked.
“I like to think of it as wiser!” Eda posed while making her point.
“Come on, Camila made a lovely dinner,” Raine interrupted. “Let’s stop arguing and enjoy it. I, for one, am excited to learn more about Vee and Masha.”
“Oh yeah!” Eda shifted her attention immediately. “My nerd-of-a-sister actually wanted me to ask some questions on her behalf. She’s super into history and not much is known about basilisks.”
“Well I’m interested in talking with Masha about their experiences,” Raine said to a confused Masha. “Luz told me the human realm has certain prejudices against people like us.”
“Yeah, it kinda sucks,” Masha answered. “Even my parents took a little bit to come around to it. My dad insisted he “lost his little girl” blegh.” Masha stuck their tongue out in disgust.
“Wow, that’s horrible,” Raine answered. “You will get nothing but full acceptance by everyone at the isles.”
“I’d love that!” Masha answered. “But I’m waiting for Vee to be comfortable visiting the Isles again before I go. I want her to be the one to show me around.”
“AhemGay” Luz faked a cough to fake hide her words before Vee elbowed her in the arm.
The rest of the table rolled their eyes at each other before enjoying the rest of the evening. Vee did the best she could to explain all she knew about her species so that Eda had something to tell Lilith later before the group moved on to normal conversations about their day. Camila almost had a heart attack when she found out Vee and Masha were involved in the incident at the zoo, while Eda congratulated them and offered official invitations to the Bad Girl Coven. Amity sighed after remembering Ed bragging about his honorary inclusion into the club and asked if the name needed to be changed with two members who weren’t actually girls. Eda shrugged it off as a symbolic name more than anything as everyone rolled their eyes at her. The conversations got more and more chaotic from there as Masha sighed at how lucky they were to be part of such a chaotic family and wondered what the future had in store for them.