Chapter Text
After more than two and a half years of living in the human realm, Vee Noceda’s sentiment about her newfound home hadn’t changed in the slightest, for her, Earth was still her shelter, her place in the universe, the home she would always come back to.
And as such, she had a need to help that place and all the people living in it. She was so thankful for this new world that welcomed her and its inhabitants, that she strived each and every day to be as useful as she could be, as a way to repay Earth.
Well, perhaps not the entirety of Earth, but being around to help the people of Gravesfield was good too, right?
And one of the best ways to help people she could think of, was being there for any emergency.
Like that time Camila cut her finger while she was making dinner and the basilisk in her human form, rushed to her side to put a band aid around her index finger.
Back then, Camila was still worried about Luz not coming back to the human realm, so she and Vee didn’t spend that much time together, in that moment, the basilisk wasn’t sure why, it was something she had seen in a cartoon a few days ago and like an instinct, after tending to Camila’s wound, she gave it a little quick kiss to it.
She looked back and, unable to decipher the expression in Camila’s face, her whole body wobbled, changing between human and basilisk form, to her shock, the woman smiled at her warmly and muttered:
“Thank you Vee, that was very kind of you”
She then patted her head and Vee wobbled again, this time, not out of nervousness, but because she felt extremely happy.
Weeks later, Amity and Luz were playing (more like dangerously experimenting with abominations) in the forest near the portal to the Owl House, Vee watching them from a prudent distance.
When she saw her adopted sister fall to the floor and complain about a gash on her knee, Vee shrieked, Amity ran to the portal to get a healing potion…
However, when she came back, the witch saw Vee tending to Luz’s wound softly, a bandage perfectly wrapped around her sister’s knee as her claws tickled her sister’s nose softly, the basilisk kept asking if she was okay over and over again, while Luz couldn’t do any other thing except nodding and chuckling at how over panicked she acted.
“It was just a fall, sis!” she shouted.
Vee’s tail shook left and right and she smiled at Amity before whispering:
“I think Luz is going to make it” she said, transforming into Camila while adopting a serious expression.
Amity chuckled at her silly attitude and as soon as she heard Luz’s laughter behind her, Vee transformed into her original form and started to laugh, too.
More often than not, Vee used her shapeshifting abilities to gain a better control of the situation around her, it was known to those around her she could transform into a whole variety of creatures, from the cute and warm Fire Rabbit, to the astoundingly fast Speed Devil or the little and highly sensible Empathy Imp.
Among the very few humans that knew the truth about vee was Jamie, her young and over-excited neighbor from across the street, a day like any other while she and her girlfriend were babysitting him, Jamie complained about a sharp pain on one of his teeth. Vee took a long look at his mouth and as soon as she identified the problem, she gave an ever so slight push to a specific tooth, realizing it was very loose.
The scream the little boy let out rang in hers and Clara’s ears so much that she shapeshifted a couple of headphones over her own head. She tried to test Jamie again, but her friend shook his head and covered his mouth.
“I need to check this Jamie, I promise I’ll take your tooth out in a flash, okay?”
“Is this going to hurt?” Jamie asked, shivering when he saw the expression on the basilisk’s face.
“Maybe… I mean, probably… Most definitely…” Vee confessed to the kid.
Clara, looking at the scene from behind, huffed when she saw how afraid the young boy was, especially considering her girlfriend was the one taking care of him.
“Vee, you’re not helping him” she chastised her.
“You’re right” the basilisk said, before looking at Jamie and continuing “Don’t worry buddy, I have an idea!”
She knew about the kid’s fascination with dinosaurs ever since the first time she took care of him, so she decided to take advantage of that and swiftly transformed into a miniature version of a raptor. Jamie’s eyes shone with delight at the sight and he started clapping and laughing, giving Vee her chance.
With a swift movement of her claws, Vee grabbed the loose tooth and snatched it out of the boy’s mouth.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”
Both girls covered her ears once again and sighed in relief with the screaming ended, but then Jamie complained to his basilisk babysitter:
“You promised it wouldn’t hurt!”
“Does it hurt now?” Vee countered.
Vee waited for the kid to realize the pain had stopped while she searched for something in her pockets, but frowned when she realized what was looking for wasn’t there, luckily for her, Clara offered Jamie one of his favorite sweets as she asked:
“Lollipop?”
Jamie gave the couple an open mouth smile, minus a tooth, of course.
Some other problems, Vee admitted, required a more delicate touch, an approach that was different from anything else she was used to.
This was one of those cases, as she saw her brother Hunter sulking on his bed, muttering curses to himself, around three weeks ago, he had made a questionable decision, at best and a very stupid thing, at most.
He tried to paint it as a great victory thanks to his dominion of magic and its effects on humans, but it basically could be boiled down to this:
She enchanted Linus’ Mom, Karen, to be make her the most loving, caring and thoughtful mother that was possible, esentiatilly erasing years of abuse over her son, of course, no spell of such magnitude was possible and when time passed, Hunter found himself to be less and less capable of maintaining the effect.
Until one day, roday, when Linus told him he wanted his mother back, with flaws and all, he was cold and distant when he said that and Hunter simply obeyed, not saying a word after the whole thing was done, simply running back to the Noceda household and burrowing his head on the nearest pillow, with his little red cardinal crying softly atop of his head.
“Talk to Linus” Vee ordered him as soon as she saw him in that state.
“No”
“Why not?”
“Because he hates me”
Vee rolled her eyes, she expected an answer like this, still, she insisted. She knew her friend better than anyone, possibly even Hunter, his eccentricities, his ability to get into trouble at least twice a week, his constant need to use the same blue and white striped shirt every day, but above all, she knew he was a good guy.
“Talk to him” she insisted, as Flapjack pecked Hunter’s ear to drive the point home.
“To what end?” Hunter huffed, his voice sounding gloomier than usual, not looking at any of the two magical creatures that were trying to help him “He hates me, Vee”
“Hunter, he doesn’t hate you, you can’t be sure of that”
“And how can you be sure he doesn’t” her brother practically sneered at her but instead of recoiling, of running away and leaving him drowning in his misery, Vee did something completely different.
Granted, she wasn’t much of a fan of doing this, this was probably one of her least favorite transformations, but…
A few seconds passed and when Hunter heard a woosh behind him, he turned around and faced the mighty, tall and powerful Sapphire Dragon.
“You will talk with Linus” the ancient being said “You will call him, invite him to your place between the woods and have a conversation with him and whatever it is that happens next, you will both work through this together, do you understand me, Hunter Noceda?”
The former Golden guard raised an eyebrow at that, sure, the creature in front of him looked imposing, determined and quite scary, but he had faced worst in the past, so he crossed his arms and whispered:
“Or…?”
“Or… this” the dragon growled, raising to her full height, irises focused on her brother and…
And then, much to his shock, started to cry, a long, sorrowful lament that shook Hunter to the core, the Grimwalker, shook his hands and started to babble and apology, but the dragon interrupted him:
“Oh Hunter, you don’t know how much it pains me when you’re so stubborn!”
“Vee, I…”
“All you have to do is open up your heart, reconnect with one of the most wonderful humans you’ve ever met, but you’re too focused on your fears to do that!”
“I fear nothing, Dragon!” Hunter claimed, a hand tightly grasping his chest.
“I don’t believe you!” the dragon countered “All you do is refuse your feelings, deny them, every single chance your heart has to flourish, you simply stomp on it and…”
“Okay, fine, I get it, okay! I’ll talk to Linus, Vee!”
He exited the room with a grump, decided to call his (friend? boyfriend? at this point, not even himself was sure), muttering about how dramatic and manipulative the Sapphire Dragon was.
Behind him, Vee returned to her original form and smirked.
She could have transformed into all sorts of creatures to spy on her brother, but she simply watched him and linus talk from afar, the Grimwalker bowing in that stupid way of his (Camila tried everything to make him stop doing that, but at this point, she had given up), Linus taking his hands, both of them smiling at each other, hugging and holding with bittersweet expressions on their faces.
Once everything was done and Hunter started to walk back home, Vee tried to flee the scene, but her brother noticed her. She looked down, a little bit ashamed, but above all, worried about him. Without saying a word, Hunter walked by her side and lifted her up in a tight hug.
When he returned her to the ground, he muttered:
“You were right, I had to talk about my feelings”
“The Sapphire Dragon was right!” she corrected.
“ You are the Sapphire Dragon, silly” he said with a smile.
“Will you two be okay?” Vee asked and Hunter smiled when he saw the concern in her eyes, patting her back as he explained:
“We might have to put our relationship on hold, after all, I basically brainwashed his mother, luckily, she doesn’t remember a thing, so…”
“Do I have to choose between my brother and one of my best buddies?” the basilisk asked genuinely.
Hunter laughed wholeheartedly at that.
“No Vee, we are still friends, we won’t make you choose or anything, all in all, I think this ended better than I expected, so, thanks again”
To Hunter’s surprise, his sister transformed into the dragon again and twirling her tail around his body, dragged him all the way back to their home as she shouted excitedly:
“Another victory for therapist Vee!”
Behind them, Flapjack let out several squeaks of indignation, unable to keep up with their speed as his Grimwalker protector laughed louder and louder.
However, Vee couldn’t always help, sometimes, she just… couldn’t.
One day, Willow crossed the portal that divided the realms crying inconsolably, Luz was right by her side, asking her what was wrong, apparently, Boscha’s latest prank had gone too far and one of her favorite plants had been consumed by a giant fireball.
Amity joined her girlfriend, promising they would help her in any way they could and to Vee’s surprise, Clara offered her help too, so off they went with the basilisk unable to follow them.
She blushed intensely when her girlfriend held her hands and whispered:
“I know you don’t really like to cross over to the demon realm”
“I…”
“And don’t worry, I’m not asking you to” the cheerleader interrupted her quickly “But…”
“But?” the basilisk muttered, unable to follow.
“Well, it might be a dangerous mission, so, I was hoping for one of your extra protective and caring good luck kisses?”
Yet again, Vee blushed and twirling her tail around her girlfriend, said:
“You’re incorrigible, Clara Heartfield”
“And your scales are impossibly soft, Vee Noceda” the other girl replied, kissing her as hard as she could.
Well, that was one way to help, Vee considered, as she saw her friends disappearing into the portal.
And of course, she had to help too as soon as all of them were back, their bodies covered by literally hundreds of thorns, Hunter exploded into laughter, a laughter that continued even when Amity threatened to pulverize him, while Camila just shook her head and trying very hard to not lose her composure, said:
“Get inside, I’ll get some tweezers while you explain exactly what happened”
Luz, who up until that point had remain silent and had no trace of wounds on her body, squeezed Willow’s cheeks and explained:
“Believe it or not, Mama, this silly girl decided to get revenge on Boscha for being a bully”
“And these other two” the human added with a sigh, pointing at Amity and Clara “being former bullies, decided to join her. They ended up putting a bunch of traps on Boscha’s house and when they we to escape, well…”
“You asked for something soft to land on!” Willow shouted.
Amity and Clara glared at the plant witch before she added:
“And cacti are soft!”
“Except for the thorns… Ouch, Ms. Noceda!”
“Stay still, Clara” the older woman said “You’re next Amity” she added and Hunter chuckled when he saw her shivering.
“Mom, step back, I can help and all of you, close your eyes” Vee intervened.
“Why?” her siblings asked at unison.
“Just… Close your eyes”
Everyone present obeyed and the basilisk concentrated on her own shape, little by little, her body changed, her claws became longer, dividing into multiple pincers, her long tail transformed into four pairs of hairy legs and more and more little arms came out of her body, all of them grabbing each and every thorn her brand new nine eyes could see.
Behind her, her sister let an audible gasp.
“I told you to not look…” Vee warned and she couldn’t help but notice how Clara shivered under the sound of her nightmarish voice.
“You look cool as hell, tho” Luz said, giving her two thumbs up.
Vee didn’t pay much attention to the comment, although she was grateful her grotesque appearance hadn’t scared her adoptive sibling to death, while her multiple hairy, dark limbs prickling out each and every thorn in her sight as quickly as she could.
“You feel weird…” Amity suddenly said when the basilisk/giant spider-like creature brushed against one of her arms.
“Done!” Vee finally said, returning to her original form and rubbing her face with her claws, her extra eyes disappearing one by one.
“Well, that saves a lot of time, thanks cariño ” Camila said, patting Vee on her back.
The basilisk gave her a big smile…
“Do you want me to tell you what she transformed into?” Luz said suddenly “That shit will give you nightmares for weeks!”
And Vee’s grin turned into a deadpan look as Hunter, Camila, Clara, Amity and Willow said a what had become Rule Number One of the Noceda household at the same time:
“No bad words when the basilisk baby is around!”
Vee huffed at the use of the word ‘baby’ but as soon as she made sure no one needed anymore help, she grabbed Clara by the wrist and said:
“Now if you excuse me, Clara and I have a date at the animal shelter”
“You two have the worst ideas for a date” Hunter said, with no real malice.
For all response, the couple stuck their tongue out to the Grimwalker and Vee transformed into a Speed Devil, dashing out of the house as the sound of her girlfriend’s chuckles filled the air…