Chapter Text
Emira Blight refused to cry, especially over the fact that some random stood her up. She was a Blight, even if she didn’t take it as seriously as her sister did. But she still had a reputation; star student, cool to a fault, and most of all a certified ringleader of all things mischief. But even still she felt tears burn her eyes, begging to roll down her cheeks. She despised it.
Edric wasn’t fairing much better, moping dejectedly beside her on Hexside’s gym bleachers. They were both ditched, by their Grom dates, on the same night. Em couldn’t help but wonder if bad luck affected twins equally.
“Do you think it was our fault?” she finally asked. Ed looked over at her sadly and sighed.
“You want the optimistic answer or the realistic answer?” he said quietly. She shrugged at him, mustering a downcast smile, “Give me both and I’ll take my pick.” Her brother chuckled bitterly.
“Well it’s on them, we’re obviously the catches,” he rolled his eyes. “But it probably is, our bad I mean.” Emira couldn’t stop the dark, humorless laughter that poured from her lips to only end up catching in the back of her throat.
“We’re Blights, all we do is poison anything good that comes our way,” she remarked spitefully. Ed glanced back to the dance floor, and the softest look he had all night crossed his features, he turned to her and gestured over his shoulder.
“If that was true then Mittens would be here with us,” he said with a small smile. Emira and Edric looked over at the adorable scene unfolding.
Their sister was being dragged by the excitable human girl, with Amity’s childhood friend and the young illusion track boy in tow. They stood in front of the camera, Luz had an arm around their sisters neck and a fist pumped in the air. Willow threw up peace signs, and Augustus, much like Luz, had a fist thrown in the air and the other hand clutched around a microphone. And Amity was sporting a delicate blush, and, like the rest of them a bright smile, albeit a lot shyer than her peers.
Both twins couldn’t help but grin, they’re perfect sister was finally cutting loose and being a happy kid, Emira couldn’t be more proud of her.
“Good for her,” she said softly. Edric nodded with a twinkle of pure mischief in his eyes.
“We’re so teasing her about her crush on the human right?” he smirked. Em laughed, the prospect itself would provide them practically endless entertainment.
“Give her a night to enjoy it, we don’t want to ruin her Grom as well,” she said. A look of understanding passed between them, they weren’t going to even mention their lackluster experience to their sister, not wanting to risk damping her newfound happiness.
They sat in comfortable silence, watching their sister and her friends dance together. The night was wrapping up as is, students slowly started to trickle out of the gymnasium. Waving goodbye to her friends, Amity finally made her way over to them, a lingering smile flickering across her lips.
“Hey Grom Queen, as bad as you expected?” Emira said knowingly. Her younger sister scrutinized her, trying to pick up any veiled sarcasm or teasing.
“No it was actually much better than I thought it would be,” she responded when she was satisfied that there was no hidden meaning.
“Well obviously you have a sick tiara, that’s always a win in my book,” Ed said excitedly. Amity’s gaze flicked between the two of them suspiciously.
“You two are acting really strange right now? What’s actually going on?” she said. Ed and Em exchanged a small smile.
“Nothing Mittens, we’re just happy for you,” Em said as honestly as she could, Edric nodding beside her. A spark of regret ignited in her chest when she saw the look of complete shock on her sister’s face. Emira silently debated on saying anything further but Ed cut her off.
“C’mon curfew is soon, you know how mother and father get, if they're even home,” he said resentfully. Just the mention of their parents was enough to somber the siblings, it was crushing, suffocating even. It was as if they were holding up the weight of the sky on their shoulders.
“Plus I think I have enough snails to buy us all not-dogs, if you want?” her brother asked Amity, shaking off his stupor. Mittens gave him a small smile, “I think I’d like that.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emira regretted not bringing a coat immensely as the siblings walked back to the family manor. True to his word, Ed had bought them all food and drinks, and was happily slurping. Amity was eating her not-dog as gracefully as possible while walking, taking great care to not drop anything on her dress. Em had declined her brother’s offer, her stomach felt heavy as it was from quiet rejection and embarrassment.
She couldn’t help but mull over the feeling and reflectively tense her jaw and shoulders. She despised her emotions and the person who dumped her. She didn’t even have feelings for them but she was still unreasonably hurt. Who were they to stand her up?
Before her mood could sour any further an unholy shriek forcibly shook her from her rumination. A dark blur plummeted against the stars at a surprising speed. All three of the Blight siblings watched in awed shock as the figure finally crash landed into the nearby tree line. The siblings all stood, wide eyed and open mouth, in the middle of the street, trying to figure out what had just happened.
“Ed get Mittens home,” she finally said firmly, sending him a stern look when he was about to object.
“We’ll cover for you,” Amity said determinedly. Emira sent her a grateful and proud smile over her shoulder as she took off to investigate.
Emira wasn’t sure what she expected to find when she wandered upon the disturbance, but what she found was definitely not it. A brunette was fussing over an injured griffin, drawing a dark blue circle around it’s wing. The creature caught sight of her immediately and warbled to the girl. She whirled around sharply, hands at the ready to draw upon her magic at any moment. Emira put her hands up placatingly and the girl relaxed slightly but still looked at her distrustfully.
Emira couldn’t help but admire the brunette; her hair was tied back in a bun, a spiky red band holding it in place, with her bangs framing her face, she had a silver fish hook earring in one ear with nothing on the other, distressed dark wash jeans, black combat books, a faded red t-shirt with blocky black letters reading ‘Griffins are a Girl’s Best Friend’, and to top it off she wore an old brown leather jacket. But what was most striking about her were her eyes, they were a soft emerald but held an unmistakable intelligence.
Emira cleared her throat, “I saw you crash, I just wanted to make sure everything was all right. I’m-” the girl cut her off.
“Emira Blight. I know who you are,” she said cooly. Em smiled crookedly.
“My reputation precedes me I guess? You have a name cutie?” the other girl raised an eyebrow but otherwise seemed unimpressed.
“I’m Viney, and this is Puddles,” the griffin cooed at her from behind Viney. Emira smiled, ignoring the slight hostility coming from the shorter witch.
“Pleasure to meet you Viney. Can I ask what happened?” she asked gently, not wanting to overstep her bounds, still intrigued by the girl.
“We were just going for an evening flight, to stargaze, but Puddles was more tired than she let on,” Viney said, throwing a playfully, scolding look at her griffin.
“Wait! You didn’t go to Grom?” she asked, completely shocked. Grom was the social event of the season, not going was almost unthinkable to the majority of the Hexside student body.
“Hell no! Do I look like I have a princess complex?” Viney blanched. “Grom is just ritualized teenage fun that sets an unrealistic expectation for romance and all that garbage.” Emira blinked at the girl dumbfounded, slack jawed.
“Yeah, it wasn’t all it cracked up to be,” she finally said, shooting Viney a dejected smile. The other girl had gone back to healing Puddles but stopped mid-spell to send her a disbelieving look.
“Emira Blight, the most popular girl in our grade didn’t have a good time at Grom? Can’t say I expected that,” Viney offered her a small smile, the first one she had given Em the entire night. A warm feeling spread through her chest as she smiled back.
“Don’t tell anyone, but I got stood up,” Viney raised an eyebrow. Emira took a seat next to her and shivered.
“Why are you telling me this?” Viney asked her skeptically. Em smiled at her softly.
“I don’t really know, I guess you made a good first impression,” Viney smiled at her and quickly looked away.
Emira watched Viney silently as she healed Puddles’ remaining scratches and bruises, shivering all the while. Viney finally looked over at her and worried at her bottom lip for a moment, then shrugged off her jacket and held it out to her. Em took it from her gently, but felt immensely guilty.
“Are you sure?” she asked quietly. Viney smiled at her and nodded.
“I only have a quick fly back home, I have a feeling you’ll need it more than me,” she said kindly. Emira slipped it on and was not surprised to find that it was small on her, but cherished the warmth it provided anyways.
Viney climbed onto Puddles’s back and sent her a wave as the griffin took off. Emira returned the wave and watched the girl until she could only see the silhouette of the pair. She turned back to the road and began her walk to the Blight manor.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Emira slipped through the front doors quietly and padded upstairs to her bedroom, unsurprised to see that both Edric and Amity had their lights still on. She knocked on both their doors quietly stepping back into the hallway. Amity opened her door first and Ed was quick to follow. Both sent her a relieved smile, but she could tell they were both curious, Ed especially could barely contain himself.
“So what’d you find?” he said excitedly. She smiled to herself, replaying the night's events back in her mind.
“Oh nothing too exciting, it was just a griffin that was too tired to keep flying,” she said as nonchalantly as possible. Neither of her siblings seemed to buy it.
“Really then where did you get that jacket?” Amity asked.
“Oh yeah! And why did it take you so long?” Ed followed.
“You’re terrible with animals, no way a griffin would let you anywhere near it!”
“True! Also why do you have that weird smile on your face?”
“GOODNIGHT!” she quickly retreated to her room, closing the door behind her. She looked down at the small leather jacket and smiled, forgetting all about her sibling’s interrogation. Emira would have to give it back to Viney at school next week, the prospect unleashed a fleet of tiny griffins in her stomach, but her smile widened, and for the first time in a really long while, she was excited for school.