Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It started with a laugh. 

Luz had said some joke that seemed only Gus could understand. Of course her human humor would rightfully amuse the former president of the Human Appreciation Society. The younger witchling had his head thrown back cackling at Luz’s humor when she noticed it. One of Gus’ teeth was missing. Where his canine tooth would reside, blank space was present. It didn’t make sense, Luz knows for a fact that one has all their adult teeth grown in at their age. Except for wisdom teeth, her mami told her the horrors of wisdom teeth and she was NOT looking forward to those.

So, worried for her friend’s health she reaches over the lunch table she, Willow, and Gus had been gathered at, and takes Gus’ face in her hands and prying his mouth open.

“Gus, did you have an accident? You’ve lost a tooth!”

“Nah I’ove hust losh ‘my aey ‘angs.” He replied with the best of his ability and realizing that Luz could not understand a word he said, she released her hold and sat back. Her eyes were wide and filled with concern and confusion as Willow giggled beside her and Gus rubbed his cheeks with a smile.

“Don’t worry Luz! I’m not hurt! My adult fangs are finally coming in!” Gus stated proudly with his chest puffed out. 

The human blinked. “Adult fangs?!” Her hands flapped excitedly. “You guys have fangs?!” She looked between Willow and Gus, opening her own mouth and pointing to her own set of teeth. “Are they like these?” She points to where her own canines are and Willow leaned in. Luz could see her raise an eyebrow under her spectacles as she hummed. 

“Do humans not lose their baby fangs until they're older?” Willow questioned. At this question, Luz closed her mouth and shook her head. 

“Humans don’t have fangs!” She states. “We do have baby teeth, but we lose them when we’re around six to eight years old.”

“So that's as big as your fangs are going to get?!” Gus asked in horror, hand pressed against his chest. “How are you going to intimidate your enemies and impress your crush?”

At this, Luz’s confusion sky rockets as she hears Willow sigh before her. “You’ve been eavesdropping on the older boys to get cool points again haven’t you Gus?”

Gus’ dark skin flushes in embarrassment. “Maybeeee.” He averts his eyes from Willow’s look. “But am I wrong?”

Sensing her friend’s confusion, Willow hums and turns to face Luz to give her an explanation. “Luz, have you ever noticed that when we smile at you, we don’t show our teeth?”

Luz thinks long and hard at the interactions she’s had with her friends. Other than pictures, when talking with each other, Willow, Gus, and even Amity never outright gave a cheesy smile to show off their pearly whites. She answers Willow’s question with a nod of realization and a snap of her fingers. “Yeah! In fact the only time I can think someone has done that was Boscha, when she was being mean, and when I first met Eda.”

“Right.” Willow responds. “Well, it's considered rude or a threat if you bare your fangs at someone. It’s an old intimidation tactic when witches wanted to start duels over petty reasons a long time ago. Unless you’re really close to someone we keep our pointed teeth to ourselves!” 

Intimidation? Luz is now going over all the times she’s shown off her impeccable flossing routine to her friends. Oh crammity, is that why Amity gets flustered around her all the time?! Because she’s a dolt who doesn’t understand how anything works on this Isle?

“ Dios ,” she mutters in horror. “Have I been insulting you guys this whole time?!” Her hands grab onto her hair in worry as her gaze flickers back and forth between her two friends. Both Gus and Willow laugh and the younger boy shakes his head.

“No Luz! You’re perfectly fine! You still have your baby fangs, so your smile is considered more cute than threatening!” Gus reassures her.

Although learning all this, Luz doesn’t know if she should be insulted or flattered at that notion. At least that's one small comfort, now she won’t have to focus on keeping her mouth closed when she shows a sliver of joy. Maybe the next time she sees Amity, she’ll make sure to give her the biggest non-intimidating grin she’s ever seen!

Chapter Text

“Eda are you sure this is edible?”

The wayward occupants of the Owl House were gathered around the table eating their evening meal. Lilith releases this comment as she watches Luz poke at her portion of food adorned on her plate. Her tongue was stuck out in concentration as she stuck her fork in what seems to be some fried fish that hisses whenever the girl poked it.

Eda glances over at her sister, who’s eyeing her hard work with distaste. “Hm?” Eda hums and swallows her food before responding. “You’ve had demonic trout before, could’ve sworn it was your favorite when we were kids.”

“Yes, when it's boiled . It keeps all of its nutritional value when properly prepared.” Lilith quips, her own utensil flakes a piece off and small little screams release into the air as the white meat is exposed to the air.

Eda snorts and points her fork at her sister. “Aw please Lil, learn to live a little! Fish is still fish fried or boiled! Besides!” Her head cants over to her young apprentice. “Luz seems to appreciate my cooking more than you do.” 

Lilith’s heterochromatic gaze catches the human who’s now stuffing her face in glee, giggling with her mouth full as hisses and screams emit from her plate. The former coven witch sighs in reluctance and takes what she can get, no use in starving herself. As she takes a bite her eyes light up in surprise. The fish was surprisingly flavorful, whatever spice Eda used it gave the entre quite a pleasant kick.

When Eda’s wry grin reaches her sight, Lilith huffs and looks away. “It’s good.” she utters. “But next time, I will make sure you cook vegetables with this meal. You have a growing witchling in the house.”

That seemed to be Luz’s cue to speak. She was sitting back in her chair patting her tummy in content bliss. “It was great Eda! It tasted like chicken!” Her eyes glance to the clock in the kitchen and her eyes then brighten in excitement. “Oh! Amity is coming over in an hour for our Azura book club-sleepover!” The human gets up quickly, grabbing her plate and rushing to the sink to wash it. 

“Woah woah, slow down kid.” Eda stands up and walks over to Luz, ruffling her hair affectionately. “I got this, you go get your room ready for this book club thing. There’s extra blankets and pillows in the storage closet.”

Eda is quickly encompassed by Luz who’s rapidly saying ‘thank you’ into her stomach. She quickly lets go and runs to rush upstairs. Lilith’s and Eda’s ears pull back when they hear the expected crash and yell “I’m okay!” a few seconds after.

The two sisters lapse into a somewhat comfortable if albeit awkward silence and routine as they clean the kitchen. Lilith put on a kettle of water for her post meal tea and some human concoction called hot cocoa for the two children who will be occupied in Luz’s room. She also placed a small pot of apple blood on boil for Eda, who gave her a grin in appreciation.

“How you drink that stuff everyday is beyond me sister.” Lilith huffs.

“Bah, you’re too stiff! Apple blood is the secret that keeps me buzzing and beautiful.” The owl lady bats her eyelashes and fluffs her hair dramatically. 

“You sure it's not because of the alcohol?” Lilth raises a brow.

Eda chuckles and waves her hand in a dismissive manner. Her reply was interrupted by the last voice anyone in the house wanted to hear.

“Hey! Scary green haired girl is here! OOOOoooo leftovers” 

The demonic house tube stuck his head through the archway leading to the living room. Eda squawks and quickly grabs a nearby broom to shoo Hooty away. “Hooty how many times do I have to tell you, you are not allowed in the kitchen!”

“Toooooooo many! Hoot!”

“Out!”

“Ow! Okay! Jeez! Hoot!”

Green hair peeks around the corner after Hooty has been chased out. Amity Blight stands before the two older witches with a small hesitant smile on her face. A purple bag was slung over her shoulder as she waved to Eda.

“Hi Miss Eda.”

“Kid, I told you not to call me that. Luz is upstairs waiting for you, hot chocolate should be done for you two in a few minutes.” Eda says as she leans on the broom stick. Her grin seems to widen as a small blush appears on Amity’s face at the mention of Luz’s name. Amity’s blush darkens at the grin as she quickly stammers her thanks and runs upstairs.

Lilith feels her ears droop once her former protégé is gone. She releases a drawn out sigh. “She still won’t speak to me.” She feels Eda’s arm wrapped around her shoulders. In her other hand the broom is gone and her mug of warm apple blood is in hand. A soothing rumble seems to come from Eda’s throat, it was short and as soon as it started it stopped. The noise was enough to calm Lilith from her increasing anxiety. 

“Relax Lilith.” Eda takes a sip of her drink. “She’ll come around eventually, you did almost kill the little witch’s human crush. And used her to cheat. Honestly you cheating still makes me shed a tear in joy.” 

Lilith buries her head in her hands. “We agreed to never speak of it.” she hisses. 

Laughter erupts from her sister raspy and harsh but filled with fondness. It was cut short when the other resident demon in the house called out for Eda from upstairs.

“Eda! Something’s wrong with Luz!”

Lilith feels Eda’s entire aura shift from carefree to instant worry. She follows her sister quickly up the stairs to Luz’s room, standing by the doorway as Eda rushes in. As Lilith looks in she sees the human curled up into a ball groaning softly. She was clutching her stomach and bronze skin was tinted with green. She noted how Luz’s head was placed in Amity’s lap and Lilith also to note how this was the first time she’s seen Amity not blushing furiously for being in such close contact with Luz. All that was present on her face was worry as Eda approached the two and kneeled down, placing a hand on Luz’s forehead.

“What happened?” Eda asked.

Amity bit her lip and shook her head. “I’m not sure, when I came up here she was like this.”

King was beside Eda, clutching a stuffed bear that had one eye missing. “Maybe Luz isn’t appeased with her lack of subjects! Here! Sir Reginald has displeased me and needs a new master!” The little demon shuffles near Luz and places it near Luz, hoping to cheer her up. It does cause Luz to look and give King a shy smile. As she opened her mouth to say thank you, Lilith watches as the color drains from her face and she slaps a hand over her mouth. Eda’s eyes widen as she guesses what’s about to happen. Along the wall of Luz’s rooms were human oddities that she pushed to the side to make space for her things. Eda luckily found a metal bucket in the pile and placed it in front of Luz, who scrambled off Amity's lap to heave into it.

Lilith did not expect the flames.

As soon as Luz was finished releasing the contents of her stomach into the bucket, smoke started billowing out of the container, it was the only warning they all had before flames erupted vertically out of the bucket. Both Amity and Luz screamed as Amity grabbed Luz from behind to pull her away. Eda quickly grabbed some glyph paper scattered on the floor of Luz’s room and hastily scribbled a water glyph, tapping and aiming it at the flames. 

Silence gathered between the five of them as they stared at the smoldering hunk of metal. Glancing at Luz, it seemed to be that she looked a little bit better but was still clutching at her stomach and sadness adorned her face.

“I’m sorry.” Luz uttered, and Lilith’s heart clenched at the tone. Her voice was still raw from her earlier exertion and was tinged with sadness.

“No need to apologize kiddo.” Eda responded softly. “Is your stomach still upset?”

Luz grimaces and nods, and Lilith hums from the doorway, gathering the attention of the others. “Which stomach?”

It takes a moment for Luz to realize that everyone in the room is expecting her to answer. “ Que? I-I’m sorry did you say which stomach?” The human glances around at everyone, Eda is blinking owlishly in confusion, Lilith has her eyes narrowed and glancing up to see Amity, her lips are in the shape of an ‘o’ and noting that Luz is still technically in her lap and staring at her, red quickly blooms across her face to the tips of her ears.

“Huma-I mean Luz, do you not have a second stomach for detoxifying demonic impurities you consume?” Lilith asks. She has to have something, since Lilith has lived here with Eda she has seen Luz eat a variety of Boiling Isle delicacies, although this is the first time they’ve had a meal of demonic origin. 

“No??? Isn’t that what your liver is supposed to do?!” 

After calming Luz down and assuring her she was not going to be possessed or die from eating a demon fish, Eda and Lilith watched from the kitchen as Amity read aloud to Luz on the couch. She was wrapped in a fluffy blanket and surrounded by King’s loyal subjects with a mug of stomach soother potion held in her hands.

“Well,” Eda quips. “Guess we’ll have to cut demon food from our diet.”

Lilith laughs and sits back with her own mug of tea. “That’s a good thing, I could lose a couple pounds.”

Chapter Text

Luz was always fascinated about learning new things on the Boiling Isles, especially magic! Each day something was added to her ever expanding new world she was in. Even if there were some ups and downs. Sure, she had the best witch mentor ever, but there was the fact that she was the most wanted witch on the Isle and a habit for conning (which adds to her ever increasing bounty). And yeah, the food was amazing even though it still moved, but after puking flames, Luz was a bit hesitant to eat anything with more than six eyes or whispered demonic tongues in your mouth while you chewed. 

Besides the little things, the one thing Luz loved was the culture, and her lack of knowing anything about it. She had so many questions! Scenarios and theories of her day by day interactions added to the other quirks in her brain. Of course there was the occasional disconnect and miscommunications between her friends, but that was easy to rectify! The most glaring thing on her mind though were the shiny embedded rocks that adorned the chest of most of the adult witches. 

They were so pretty, each one was different and unique it seemed. The gems vaguely reminded her of a cartoon she watched back on earth, something about intergalactic sapphic geodes or something. At first, Luz believed Eda was the only one who had one. Then, when she met Lilith at the Convention for the first time and saw her own diamond gem on her chest, she got more curious. Luz thought it was some fancy fashion statement, but seeing Eda in her sleepwear with her gem peeking out of her bad girl coven shirt put a stop to that theory. 

That’s when Luz started to pay attention to more of the older witches. Some had them and some didn’t, though the ones with the lack of jewel seemed to be younger than the ones that did. At some points, she also saw couples in a tender embrace, all almost in the same position. Foreheads were touched against one another and if one partner had a gem, their lover’s hand would be placed upon it, almost as if protecting it from outside elements. It was quite romantic and Luz was a sap for it, it gave her plenty of ideas for her next Azura fanfiction…

Regardless, Luz let the little node of curious information and questioning fall into the back of her mind until the topic became the most interesting thing that’s happened at Hexside.

Lunch was one of the only times that she and her friends could all gather in one spot during school. Willow, Gus, and even Amity were gathered at their table today, disgruntled looks all adorned their face and Luz was immediately curious. 

“Hey guys!” Luz sat down next to Willow, with Amity and Gus facing in front of her. “What’s with the long faces?” She heard Amity huff and a soft growl emitted from her lips before she spoke.

“Atticus had his gem embedded and now he’s walking around school think he’s the best thing since sliced dread.”

Although the metaphor of ‘sliced dread’ threw Luz off for just a moment, she put that in the ‘questions to ask later’ compartment in her mind and brought forth the ‘pretty gems’ to the forefront. “Gem? Like what Eda and Lilith have on their chest? What are they anyway?”

Amity quirks a brow, and at Luz’s excited look to learn something new, she clears her throat and looks away with a blush as she explains. “When a witch's magic matures, or if their bile sac can’t contain the amount of magic they have, they have a gem embedded in their chest. Each gem is different and depending on the witch's connection to it, it can help stabilize or increase their magical output.” The green haired witchling reaches under her uniform shirt to pull out a necklace that Luz has seen before. A teardrop shaped amethyst is held in the outstretched palm of Amity’s hand. “Sometimes if a young witch finds a gem she’s synced with, they can cut a small piece and wear it to help out with their magic.”

“Woah…” Luz breathes out in awe. One of her hands reaches over to Amity’s open palm. Her fingers brush against Amity’s fingers before touching the gem. “It’s warm!” the Latina gasps. She looks up quickly and sees Amity red in the face, lips pressed together. “Oh no! Was I not supposed to touch it? ¡ Lo siento Amity!”

Luz hears Willow snicker beside her and there's a pat on her shoulder. “It’s fine Luz, the reason it’s warm is because Amity’s magic is in it!” she states.

The human turns her attention to Willow as realization dawns on her face. “When Eda....saved me from Lilith.” She trails off before picking her voice back up. “Her gem, I noticed that it turned pitch black when she ran out of magic.”

This time it’s Gus who helpfully speaks up. “Oh, that could be part of Eda’s curse.” His voice is more quiet than usual, knowing the topic they speak of is sensitive. “There’s some witches that believe once you have a gem, it's an open gateway to your soul or emotions.”

Luz thinks back on the couples she’s seen in Bonesbourgh and suddenly, a lot of their actions make sense. “Wow, that’s deep.” she says brow furrowed, and as her thoughts drift to Eda and her predicament, causing Luz to frown.

Willow nods. “It is a lot to take in. You can always ask Eda more about it too!”

Luz smiles widely, be it a tad bit forced and agrees with Willow, soon the topic moves on to classes and the next grudgby match, with Luz’s mind buzzing with new information.

When Luz returned home, she found Eda lounging on the couch, reading some old tome. She was in her usual attire indicating that she had to have gone out somewhere today. Luz’s eyes couldn’t help but hone in on the dark abyss located on Eda’s chest and a sense of guilt suddenly overcame her. She squeezed her eyes shut feeling the familiar burn of oncoming tears blur her vision and her backpack, still adorned on her, was held in a vice grip in her hands. 

“Luz! How was school? You won’t believe what I-Luz? What’s wrong?”

Although her sight was obscured, she could hear Eda get up and fell her hands on her shoulders. Opening her eyes and seeing her mentor’s concerned face was all Luz needed for her to turn on the waterworks.

“Luz?!” Eda grunts as a bawling human wraps around her waist, the backpack straps digging into her stomach and her apprentice babbling incoherent apologies and blame.

“Imsorry! Itsmyfaultthatyoucan’tdomagicanymoreandyourgemisdark!” 

It took a moment for Eda to decipher Luz, but as soon as she understood she gently pried Luz away from her and crouched down. “Luz, look at me.” Luz took a few seconds for her to calm down, tears still gathered at her eyes as she stared eye level with Eda. Eda carefully takes Luz’s hand and guides it to her gem, and in an instant Luz’s eyes widen in disbelief. It thrums with subdued energy, but underneath her palm Luz could feel a steady rhythm, similar to a heartbeat, spreading throughout her hand.

“I-it’s warm.”

Eda hums and quirks her lips. She reaches up to affectionately ruffle Luz’s hair. “Yup kiddo, there’s still some magic left in me.” Eda stands up once more and this time she is the one who initiates the hug. “And we have to work on your hero complex, how many times do I have to tell you it wasn’t your fault?”

Luz releases a watery laugh. “I know...thanks Eda.” she squeezes her tight.

“Any time Kid.”

Chapter Text

Luz is an anomaly.

Amity still cannot understand the reason how Luz burrowed her way into her heart, keeping it aflutter and alive with new feelings. Each day at Hexside, Amity looked forward to seeing the resident human. Luz would always give her a dazzling baby-fanged smile (that was way too cute, but she would never admit that), an enthusiastic wave, and her voice alerting the hallways that she was present. 

The young Blight could feel her cheeks heating up at the thought, her Azura book clutched tightly within her arms as she made her way to the library. ‘ It’s just a small crush, Luz is your friend! Your weird, adorable, pretty-’ 

“Amityyyyy!”

The voice that brightened her days reached Amity’s ears as she reached the entrance of the library. She could feel them perk at Luz’s call, and startled out of her intrusive thoughts, she nearly tripped on her own two feet.

“Woah there!”

Warmth seeps through the long sleeves of her dress as Luz steadies her. The human’s grip is strong but not hurtful and Amity looks up, sputtering a thank you as she attempts to regain her composure. She laughs softly as she sees Luz’s bright grin, her eyes are closed with how hard she’s smiling and open when she hears Amity’s embarrassed amusement. 

“Thanks Luz, are you ready for our meeting today?”

Luz nods enthusiastically, Amity fears that her head will roll off with how vigorous her head is moving back and forth. “Yeah!” she exclaims. “We’re gonna be reading my favorite chapter from book 2!” Luz points to the book Amity still has in her hands. 

Amity hums in acknowledgment as they walk side by side into the library. “Well, it is your turn to read, honestly now I’m thinking you rigged our system when you offered to read twice in a row last week.” she quirks a brow in question.

Seeing Luz chuckle sheepishly and rubbing the back of her head does something to her heart, she swears it skips a beat at such a simple action, but Amity refuses to acknowledge it. They chat about classes and Luz’s crazy schemes with Eda on the way to their hideaway. The sheer thought of calling it theirs has Amity wanting to curl up in a ball and scream for hours on end, but she likes to think that she is poised and nonchalant in front of Luz.

Of course that all disappears in a matter of minutes. 

Amity is enraptured as Luz reenacts the reveal of the true villain in the end of Azura’s quest in Book two. Her voice changes to match the characters and she expertly maneuvers around the room emulating the fight scenes with adept accuracy. Amity thinks it's wonderful, Luz had placed light glyphs in numerous places throughout the room beforehand. Spheres of lumination set the room into comfortable lighting and Amity knows right then that she is in trouble.

“ Ack! Drat, paper cut!” Luz hisses out. She places the book on the table, sits down, and sticks her index finger in her mouth.

The green-haired witch balks for a moment, and impulse dictates her actions before she’s aware. “Luz that’s unsanitary!” She quickly takes Luz’s hand within both of her own to take a look at the wound. 

Amity instantly knows something is different.

First, Luz’s hand is warm as if she’s always holding a ball of light in her hand. Secondly, Amity is pretty sure she’s feeling some leftover saliva from Luz’s attempt to ‘heal ’ herself, gross. Thirdly, the most important and pressing concern, was the rough patches she felt along Luz’s palm, some where the crease of her fingers and palm met, others at the tip of her finger tips. Amity couldn’t help herself, her own unmarked fingers traced over the strange patches, she could feel her brow furrowed in confusion. 

“Luz, are these boils on your hands?” Amity looks up at her friend as she asks and is surprised to see a light blush on Luz’s face. At Amity’s question, Luz blinks and looks down at their joined hands. A soft giggle releases from her lips and Amity squeaks as Luz takes her uninjured hand to guide Amity’s to the rough marks on her palm.

“Boils? No! Their callouses! It means I’m a hardworking gal! We don’t have healing spells to instantly cure all things, so our bodies adapt naturally to some injuries!” 

Amity is slightly amazed, and Luz continues her explanation by pointing to the different patches on her hand. “Most of these I earned, climbing trees a lot back home, but I started getting them when me and my Mami would garden! I could never keep a plant alive but I loved digging holes! So Mami let me use the shovel. This one was from-”

As Luz trailed off Amity found herself lost in the feeling of Luz’s hand, it was soft yet strong at the same time and Amity was content to die here in this secluded room in the library as long as Luz held her hand in hers explaining the resilience of humans. 

“Amity? Amity!”

Luz’s slightly panicked voice snapped Amity out of her musings. “What? What’s wrong!?”

“There’s ah, blood all over the table.”

Oh right the paper cut, Amity sighs. “Well let’s make sure we clean it up, you never leave spilled blood unsupervised.”

“Oh yeah! That was on the Oracle quiz yesterday!”

Yes, Amity can still not find out how Luz burrowed her way into her heart, but as she bandages Luz’s wound and listens to her friend info-dump to her about reading the future in different types of blood, she finds that she can be comfortable in the uncertainty of it all.

Chapter Text

“You can do this!”

“I can do this!”

“You’re fierce!”

“Yeah!”

“Tough!”

“Yeah!”

“Handsome!”

“YEAH!”

“They’ve been hyping themselves up for the past ten minutes.” Amity drawled. 

Luz hummed as she nibbled on something that tasted like pretzel sticks. She, Willow, Emira, and  Amity were out in the grudgby field. The girls were sitting on the bleachers watching Gus and Edric screaming positive vibes at each other after school. Luz still didn’t know why, but it was quite entertaining. 

“Ah, you know boys Mittens! Yelling at each other seems to be the only way they can convey their feelings.”

From the corner of her eye, Luz sees Amity’s older sister wrap her arm around the younger’s shoulders. Amity bared her fangs at Emria in annoyance and a short hiss was released between her teeth. Emira simply returned the action with a far more friendly grin on her own and stuck her tongue out at Amity.

“Alright my young student! You’re ready!” Edric’s voice caused the girls to turn their attention back to the field. Gus looked determined, a serious look on the younger boy’s face. Edric stepped up to Gus and placed his hands on his shoulders. “Take a deep breath. Feel your magic flow in time with the rhythm of your heart, that’s it, now build up your voice in your throat-don’t release! Aaaaaand go!”

“Grrrrreeeek-ack!”

What Luz could only assume would be a low growl at first emitted from Gus’ lips, she gasped. It was low and guttural, almost animalistic in nature and loud . It was cut off as soon as it started as the low almost euphonious tone shifted into a voice crack then hacking coughs.

Willow giggled beside her and shook her head fondly at their friend. “Well, we know bard magic won’t be his strong suit at least.” 

“Wait, we came out here to hear Gus growl? I thought him and Edric were gonna practice some cool illusion spell.” Luz scratched her head as she watched Amity’s brother pat Gus on the shoulder, muttering to him advice as he gestures to his chest.

Willow turned to face Luz, her head tilted and a patient grin upon her face. “Well that was the plan at first, but when Gus’ voice cracked in the middle of lunch I think his priorities changed.”

At this comment Amity snickered, but Luz just found herself more confused, brow furrowing in thought. “Is this a guy thing or a witch thing I don’t know about?” She watches Willow push up her glasses in thought. A hum reaching Luz’s ears.

"Both, I guess?” Willow shrugs. “I kind of don’t get it either to be honest with you.”

Suddenly a weight settled on Luz’s shoulders and Emria’s voice was beside her head. “Allow me to explain, oh oblivious freshies!” Luz squeaked at the sudden intrusion and turned quickly to see Amity frowning behind her sister and Emria giving both Willow and Luz a rather mischievous grin. “Willow, you already know this, but our resident human here doesn’t.”

Emira once again brings Amity close (much to her annoyance), slinging her arm around her shoulders. “You see Luz there’s many ways to show affection here on the boiling isles, be it pranks, sacrifices, or the occasional summoning of a demon to ask one out to grom. Buuuuut, there’s also another way and that’s by sound!” 

Luz watched as Amity attempted to be released from Emria’s grip, but soon stopped as a soothing rumble was released from her older sister. The human watched in fascination as Amity stiffened but then slowly relaxed in Emira’s embrace, eyes slightly drooping as if a sleep spell suddenly took hold of her. With a sudden realization, Luz became aware that Emira was purring . In a rare display of public affection from the siblings, Emira leaned down and nuzzled Amity’s hair, causing it to become loose from her usual style.

It was sweet and heartwarming and Luz found her own heart aching at such a familial gesture.

When Emira ceased her purring, and Amity became aware once more, she was blushing furiously and quickly attempted to put her hair back up. “Emira! I am not five anymore!” Amity snapped, her own low sounding rumble of a snarl gracing her words.

 Emria just smiled, her own eyes slightly drooped as if the action was calming for her as well. “Because we can pick up more noises than most,” Emira continued as if nothing happened, “Sounds are ways to express ourselves! They're are whole theories on how we can incorporate it into our magic when you get into advanced bard classes. As for our boys down there, I think little Gus might just be excited he can properly growl now.”

Indeed, Gus seemed to be preening at Edric as he made his second attempt, this one more solid and consistent. “I am the growl master!” He whooped, pumping his fists in the air. Edric laughed alongside him and scooped Gus up to place him atop of his shoulders as they ran around the field. 

Luz could never seem to catch up with the never ending differences in the Isles, regardless she went with the flow anyways. If Gus was happy of the newfound noise he could make, she was happy! A hand was placed on her head and Luz looked up to see Emira giving Luz a smirk and spoke once more. “Make sure you give the little illusionist lots of praise, yeah?” The eldest Blight sister gives her a wink and Luz can feel a small blush forming on her cheeks. 

As Emira leaves, Luz decisively ignores Amity’s own impressive growl at her sister and Willow’s seemingly all-knowing look.

Chapter Text

“Thanks for getting me out of that Mercury Witchtrap Willow! I thought I was a goner today in class!”

Willow giggled as Luz walked backwards in front of her. Her uniform was torn in some places as they recount the events at school today.

“Of course Luz!” Willow replied. “I couldn’t let one of my best friends get eaten could I?” She watched as Luz released her own laugh and nodded. The action caused more coordination that Luz couldn’t contain, thus resulting in her tripping from her rearward walk.

“Gah!”

Luz fell on her back with a huff and Willow quickly closed the distance between them, offering her friend a hand. 

“Are you okay Luz?”

Luz’s own calloused hands made contact with Willow’s own as she helped her friend up. The human smiled all the while as if nothing was wrong.

“Yup! Sorry!  I’m just excited for our study session at your house today! I’m all over the place worrying about our test tomorrow.”

Willow nodded and hummed in agreement. Luz had told her that she absolutely sucked at taking care of plants. Other than her glyphs that brought forth an agalmanation of plant life, Luz’s physical green thumb was more black than verdant. Thus, when their teacher for plant magic announced a sudden test, Luz seemed to be resided in her fate to fail.

“Don’t worry Luz! We’ll have you taking care of even the simplest weed by tonight!” They continued their walk to Willow’s place and Willow herself could hardly contain her own excitement. It was going to be the first time she’s had a friend over in a long time! She was positive her dads were excited too. Her papa was probably cooking every meal known on the Boiling Isles as they reached closer to her home.

“Yeah I hope so! The last time I tried to be a nurturing mother, I killed Spiky.” Luz sniffed and placed a hand over her heart with a bowed head. “Rest in peace my thorny son.”

Willow laughed and shook her head fondly. “To this day I still don’t know how you killed a cactus.”

“He was very needy!”

The two made friendly banter back and forth and the closer they got to Willow’s house, the quieter Luz seemed to become. In fact she seemed nervous of all things. Her hands fidgeted with the hem of her school uniform, and Willow was grateful that Luz didn’t have any fangs, there would probably be a decent hole in her lip by the way she was worrying it.

She placed a hand on Luz’s shoulder as they stood in front of her door, Willow could feel her brow furrow in concern as she look up slightly to catch Luz’s eye.

“Are you okay?”

This seemed to startle Luz out of whatever she was thinking and Willow watched as she quickly regained her baring. 

“W-what? Oh yeah! Everything’s fine! Perfectly peachy.”

The witchling knew her friend was lying by the inflection of her voice and her eyes looking at anything except her, but Willow decided to let it go for now. Her ears perked at the sound of one of her parent’s voices approaching the door and the sound of the lock unlatching. 

“Ah, are my ears deceiving me or do I hear a guest at our home?”

Warm light and comfort food surrounded Luz’s and Willow’s senses and seeing her papa’s smiling face, eyes crinkled behind his spectacles had Willow breaking out her own grin and laugh as she ran up to embrace him. 

Papa’s hugs were warm and encompassing, he smelled like flour and vegetables telling Willow of his recent task of cooking. The steady welcoming vibration of his purr seeped through Willow’s bones and made her feel safe. She responded with one of her own before letting go and having him place her back down on the ground.

“Welcome home little flower.”

“Thanks papa,” Willow turns back to Luz, who’s standing awkwardly at the doorway, not sure what to do with herself. The plant witch takes hold of Luz’s arm and brings the human back beside her. “This is Luz! She’s the friend I’ve been telling you and dad about!”

Papa gives Luz a warm smile and gestures them inside. “Ah, so this is the spitfire that help Willow show us her true potential hm?”

Luz stammers a bit, nodding vigorously “Ah y-yes sir! I’m glad I was able to help Willow transfer! She’s really good at plant magic!”

The three of them walk to the kitchen and this is where Willow sees her dad trying (and failing) to not catch whatever food was on the stove on fire. A nervous sweat broke out on his brown skin and a uncharastically high-pitched yelp came from the large man as a stay ember landed on his beard.  

She hears her papa sigh fondly as he quickly walks over to the stove and looks inside the pot. Dad coughs awkwardly, clearing his throat as he attempts to give his husband a charming smile. He then notices his daughter and friend, giving him a feeble excuse to step away from the stove.

Willow giggles as her father crouches down, ruffles her hair, and stage-whispers to both her and Luz. “How does take out sound tonight you two? Your old man may have been good at potions, but when it comes to actual food, I am no chef.”

“As long if its okay with papa, dad.”

Papa, who’s pouring out smoking black sludge in the trash, nods. “Take out it is, honestly Gideon I leave you at the stove for ten seconds.” he huffs in amusement.

Gideon winks at the two girls as he replies. “You know me Braccus, my love, I’ve only survived this long because of you and our little flower’s amazing cooking skills.” He stands up and turns his attention to Luz. “So this is the ‘amazing best friend’ that I’ve been hearing about!”

“Dad!”

“What?”

Throughout the entire exchange, Luz’s eyes had been wide in awe at the interactions. When the attention was brought upon her she gave Gideon an excited smile and a nod. “Yeah! Willow’s abomination-turned-best friend, Luz Noceda at your service! It’s nice to meet you Mr. Willow’s dads.”

Gideon barks out a laugh, deep and kind. “Please, you can call me Gideon if you’d like! And our resident chef and loving husband is Braccus.”

Willow’s papa waves to Luz as he scrubs the burnt gunk out the pan. “You girls can go ahead and study for a bit while we order the take-out. Luz, is there anything you can’t eat?”

“Uh, I’m demonic-intolerant?”

Papa blinks in surprise and laughs. “Well I am too! I think you’ll like what I’ll have then. We’ll call you down when the food gets here.”

Willow and Luz thank the two adults, and with buzzing excitement that Willow has expertly kept contained until this point, leads Luz to her room. 

To say Luz is amazed is an understatement. Willow’s room is almost entirely covered in plants, skylights that allow the setting sun in, cast a seldom golden glow in the space. Green foliage creeps up the walls of the room, and the variety of different colors from the various blooms makes even the blankest space seem alive. Willow gives Luz a tour, pointing out every single plant, vine, and flower that adorns her windowsills and open floor. 

They build a study nest, as Luz calls it. A collection of pillows and blankets in the middle of the floor to give them some sense of comfort. In between them Willow has a simple potted plant with a can of water next to them.

“Okay Luz, now when you water the plant make sure you don’t over do it. Just because it looks thirsty doesn’t mean it always is!”

“Mhm.”

The non-enthusiastic response breaks Willow out of her monologue and looking at her notes. Glancing up she can see, Luz’s frown and downward indent of her brow. Her head was rested in one hand while the other hand was tapping a random rhythm on her knee.

Willow closes her book, making a sharp thud at the action. She leans in, getting closer to Luz’s face and ceremoniously pokes her forehead. “Alright, what's wrong? You’ve been out of it more than usual since we’ve got here!”

Getting Luz out of her own head was a feat in itself, usually her thoughts consisted of some crazy scheme to find out a new glyph or something else magic related. This time though, instead of inquisitive excitement, there was forlorn hesitance. Luz rubbed her palms on her knees struggling to find words for a moment before she spoke.

“I know I don’t know a lot of things about the Isles, and the things I do learn always surprise me.” 

Willow nods at this, but doesn’t reply, letting her friend get out her thoughts.

“There are things that are just so normal here , that aren’t at home. Some scary, but some relieving.” Luz pulls her knees up to her chin, seemingly making herself smaller as she embraces herself. “Like your dads.”

If it wasn’t for Willow’s keen hearing, Luz’s whisper would’ve been lost. At this statement, Willow became confused. What was so different in the human realm regarding her parents? 

Luz looked up, and Willow realized that she voiced her thoughts out loud. For a while Luz didn’t respond, her grip tensing on the fabric of her pants. However, slowly but surely her brown eyes steeled in sudden determination. She vents a harsh breath through her nose and with confidence breaks the silence in the room with a statement. 

“I like girls.”

Willow tilts her head. “Me too?”

It seems to surprise Luz that Willow isn’t phased and that she agrees in her sentiment. Suddenly flustered, Luz begins to stammer.

“A-and that's okay here right? To like either girls or guys, or both?”

Willow feels herself frowning, and worry creeps into her mind.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” 

That simple inquiry is all that Luz seemed to need, and the tension that had been bothering her friend for the past few hours fell away in an instant. The human seems to sag in relief. “Ah, well, nevermind!”

Willow would not let her best friend escape that easily and with naive, albeit mischievous, intention, a smirk finds a way to her face. 

“Is this about Amity?”

“W-what? No! Wait, what do you mean is it about Amity?”

Willow couldn’t quite see the blush on Luz’s skin, but the awkward laughter and averting eyes told all. Before Willow could get another teasing word in her Dad’s voice called from downstairs.

“Girls! Food is here!”

“Ahaha! Well whadya know! Dinner time! Best not keep your dads waiting yeah?”

Willow cackled in laughter as Luz stood up quickly and rushed to the door to avoid any more topics of romance. 

Chapter Text

“Alright kid! Chop chop! You have school tomorrow, and as much as I want to deny the educational institution the presence of my apprentice, you’d find a way to make me feel bad. So!” Eda clapped her hands and a small smile graced her lips. “Off to your nest!”

Luz groaned in discontent. “Aw come on Eda! Ten more minutes! I’m almost done with my masterpiece!” 

Said masterpiece was King standing upon a stool dressed up as some sort of monarch. He was attempting to keep still in a regal pose, fast food crown and all. Luz was behind her easel, her body covered more in paint than the canvas itself. To Eda’s pride, the painting was quite accurate, in her opinion at least. As much as the older witch wanted to indulge her young student, she recalled the tongue lashing Lilith gave her last time she let Luz pull an all nighter.

“Nope!” Eda quipped in response. “If you want your friends over tomorrow, you have to be awake! Bed!”

The human groaned as she began to pack up her art supplies. King screeched in relief and ripped the outfit binding him. “Freedom!” He exclaimed, stomping on his outfit as he held the crown on his head. “Begone foul confines! You make my fur itch no longer!”

Eda snickered at the demon’s antics and her ears perked at the somewhat more forceful than necessary clean up Luz was doing.”

“ Other witches get to stay up all night, why can’t I?”

Obviously the comment was uttered at such a low tone that Eda wasn’t supposed to hear it. When Luz had gathered all her things, Eda walked up to her and affectionately ruffled Luz’s hair. “Other witches are nocturnal and are supposed to be up at night. You, little human, need all the rest you can get. Besides, we don’t want Lilith in our case like last time do we?”

A faint blush bloomed on Luz’s cheeks as Eda replied to her snark. “You heard that?!” she squeaked out. 

“IIIIII allllways here you Luz!!”

Eda’s ears pulled back at the grating house demon’s voice. “Can it Hooty!” She looks back down at Luz, who’s now giggling at the interaction. “Kid I hear everything! How do ya think I know the best places to set up shop and not get caught?”

“Blind luck?” Luz inquired. 

“Well that too,” Eda snorted. “Now, we’ve stalled long enough upstairs missy.”

“Alright, alright I’m going!”

Eda wasn’t surprised that Luz woke up late the next morning. As Luz scrambled to get ready for school, Eda caught Lilith’s “Look of Disapproval” (™) aimed at her. Being the cooler sister, Eda responded to Lilith’s stare with a stuck out tongue. The following squawk of indignation was worth it. 

“I’m ready!” Luz exclaimed, catching the owl lady’s attention.

Eda looked at her young apprentice, she was pretty sure that her uniform was inside out, eh, good enough. “Alright kid,” she said. “Lets hop on Owlbert and we’ll be on our way, yeah?” 

“Mhm!”

Luz was only thirty minutes late, in Eda’s school days,  that was on time for her! She made sure to give an affection pat to Luz’s head before she left and told the child she’d see her and her friends after school.

Work at her pop up shop was slow today, it was a given since her endless supply of human wares was now limited. A new face brought in a few new people today though. Eda snickered as her sister attempted to haggle some poor old sap for one of those large human earrings (Luz said they were wire hangers to put clothes on, but Eda thought otherwise). 

When the customer left, their wallet lighter a few snails, she watched Lilith sit down in a huff. “How you con people so easily, I’ll never know.” Lilith states.

The Owl Lady grins in response as she begins to pack up the shop, school is over and Luz should almost be home by now with the others in tow. “Well its definitely not hereditary, I’ll tell you that much.”

“Eda!”

“I know, I know. You’re trying and I appreciate that Lils, really.” They finish packing and locking up. Lilith had to run a few more errands in the market, so Eda and Owlbert made their way home. 

As the Owl House came into Eda’s view, she couldn’t help but feel tension release from her shoulders, an appreciative chirp from Owlbert  graces her ears as her grip slackens. She utters out an apology to her companion when they land. Her palisman flying off his perch and settling on her shoulder. The smooth wood rubs against her cheek as Owlbert attempts to comfort her, and even seeing Hooty causes her to release a soft breath of relief.

Eda Clawthorne may be successful at avoiding the Emperor Coven’s gaze, but the rest of her parliament was not. Lilith with her being the former poster-child of the Coven. Then Luz, her sheer will to defy the Emperor, fight and outsmart him to save her . Her hand stops on the handle of the front door, Eda is thankful for once that Hooty is quiet, his vigil calming and face seemingly melded to the door being only an accessory, movement non-existent.

She is not sure how much longer they can hide. Nor how long they can keep a sense of normalcy. Eda is afraid and she feels overwhelming emotion as her ears pin back to her head and a low keening whine escapes her throat. No, she has to steel herself before walking through this door. She cannot project her worries when Luz has her own. Eda loathes that she has to pretend that she hasn’t been hearing the quiet sobs coming from Luz’s room at night, the quiet hopeful promise in her voice as she speaks into her human scroll, wishing her mother was on the other side.

Eda is also selfish.

Through the door she can hear Luz as she laughs with her friends, such a noise that she has grown used to in the house along with King’s own cackles. Eda also knows that when they find a way to get Luz home, there is a large possibility that she would stay in the human realm. The elder witch refuses to dwell on the thought. Yet, the affectionate hugs, eager excitement, the hushed accidently slips of the word ‘mom’...

Yes Eda was selfish, she may have put off days of research to help discover a new portal and distract Luz with ideas to find new glyphs for spells. The simple thought of having one less soul in the house was crippling to her. She was just so tired.

“Eda?”

Ah, Hooty was awake now. The concern on his face didn’t suit him. Eda huffed out a hollow laugh and patted his head. “I’m alright Hoots, the kids okay?”

Hooty narrowed his eyes at Eda’s response, but responses in his usual tone. “Yeeeeuuup! No danger either! Oh! Other than that rat I ate and the strange man with all the envelopes.”

Great, Hooty ate the mailman again, gah she’ll deal with that later. She asked him to open up and when she entered the house she was in for quite a sight.

Her hearing was assaulted by the laughter of Willow and Gus who were seated on the floor in front of the couch. It seemed the children’s homework was long forgotten and Eda felt herself nod in approval at the procrastination. However, she was more curious at the reason why Willow and Gus were near tears on the ground. As her two-toned gaze looked at her apprentice sitting on the couch, she herself could start to feel a genuine chuckle release from her.

“Alright kid, what did you do to little Blight this time?”

Luz gives an impressive squawk as she looks up from a passed out Amity. “I-I don’t know!” She seems to be fanning the poor witchling with some pieces of paper. “We were studying and Amity was reeeealllly focused! She was reading and I kept seeing something move out of the corner of my eyes and realized it was her ears! I couldn’t help myself, it was just so cute and cool! I just reached over and touched them and Amity got super red and passed out! Oh gosh I killed her didn’t I?!!”

At this point Willow was wheezing and Gus was in the phase where there was no noise emitting from him, just tears.

Oh, bless her student. Perhaps Eda should take Lilith’s advice and have Luz enroll in biology class in the Healer’s track next semester. 

Chapter Text

Luz refused to dwell on the fact that she’s been on the Boiling Isles almost three months longer than what she’s planned. Her mind would wander, conjuring images of her Mami , most likely worried sick and wondering why her daughter hadn't returned from summer camp. 

“Or perhaps she believes you’ve run away. How selfish of you to leave her alone.”

NOPE. Luz vented a harsh breath of air and squeezed her eyes closed really tight until the dark abyss behind her eyelids became a kaleidoscope of colors. Her intrusive thoughts became a whisper in the back of her mind, rather than a foreboding and constant hum that she couldn’t ignore. She had more important things to worry about today! She straightens herself out to look at her form in the mirror. This time a real witch's hat (not a dirty traffic cone) adorned her head, and in her hand was a makeshift staff she spent most of the night making out a large stick and cardboard.

Luz poses, thumb and forefinger underneath her chin as she grins, knock-off Azura is a success! Eda’s voice echoes throughout the house, letting her know that breakfast was ready. She squeals in excitement, boundless energy seemingly to come forth out of nowhere as she rushes down the stairs.

“Edaaaaaa! Look!”

Luz practically leaps into the kitchen, startling Lilith who starts choking on her tea. Eda holds a frying pan in one hand as she turns to look at her apprentice. Luz giggles at the ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron becoming Eda’s choice of decorative attire whenever she’s cooking. The Owl Lady raises an inquisitive brow giving Luz a once-over look and hums. “Uh-huh,” she drawls, ears twitching as she absent-mindedly listens to her sister hack at the table. “It’s a good look for you kid! Though you’ll have to replace that staff of yours when you’re ready for your palisman.” Her face breaks out into a grin as she gestures Luz to sit.

Luz feels her brow furrow but obliges to her mentor's instructions. “It’s not a new look Eda, it's a costume! For Halloween!” She sits next to King, placed in a high chair for today and face buried in his oatmeal. Luz is pretty sure he fell asleep in there if the snores were anything to go by.

Eda releases an impressive squawk. Placing the pan of eggs down on the table as her eyes widen. “Geez! Already? Bah, this is my favorite time of the year. It was the only day I was able to walk around in the human world and not look like a weirdo.” 

Luz stuffs her face as she listens to Eda talk about her shenanigans in the past years of the human holiday. Across from her Lilith seems to have recovered from her misplaced sip of tea. There is that ever-present frown on her lips and she’s staring at Eda as she explains her last and final year escape to the human realm.

“Sister, you better not be telling me you celebrated Samhain last year, it's forbidden!” Lilith quips, ire laced between disapproval as she speaks.

For once, Eda seems affected by her sibling’s words. A scowl replaces her enthusiastic grin and a low rumble of a warning growl threatens to release from her chest. “And, you , better not spout that nonsense about how the old traditions are barbaric at my table in my house.”

Luz looks back and forth between the two, now she was more curious than ever. “Uh,” she begins hesitantly and raises her hand like a small child in a classroom. “What’s Samhain?”

Eda turns her head to give her attention back to her apprentice. She places her hands on her hips, her form once more exuding confidence. “Only one of the best holidays ever!” She walks over to a drawer in the kitchen, opening it up and rummaging through the confines of recipes and glyph paper. “Aha!” she exclaims. “Here it is!” Eda takes out a flooded and pressed down cloth that looks similar to a folded blanket and places it on the table. 

Luz releases an enthusiastic ‘ooo’ at the sight before her as Eda unfolds it. She hears Lilith intake a sharp breath of air as the cloth reveals itself to be a tapestry. A stark golden thread embroidered circle contrasts against the scarlet textile. Within the circle an eight-pointed star reaches out, each end directing to a different word and rune. Luz quickly found Samhain; it was placed at the top left, just before Yule, which was perfectly inline with the top-center of the circle.

“This,” Eda explains. “Is the Wheel of the Year. Before that crackpot of an emperor placed all his suffocating rules, all the witches and other species alike celebrated the eight cyclical days.” Luz’s eyes widen as she listens to Eda, her mentor's voice is shaking in unbridled excitement, as if she’s relieved to finally be talking about this. 

“Wild Magic,” she continues. “Was just simply ALL magic, and Witches celebrated the cycle of life to death, dark and light to these days.” Her finger points to Samhain and her voice softens. “This tapestry was our grandmother’s. We were young, but I remember her telling us stories about it.” Her voice trails off, Eda’s usual bravado non-existent as she stares at the Witches calendar. A noncommittal hum releases from her as she speaks up once more. “Samhain may be forbidden to celebrate now,” Her suddenly flash mischievously and a wry grin slowly makes itself known on Eda’s face. “But Halloween isn’t.”

“Eda,” Lilith chides. “The only ones who know of Halloween are yourself, Luz, and maybe some other human-obsessed witch on th-Luz, why are you laughing?”

Luz is bouncing up and down in her seat, near squealing in laughter. “You’re right Eda! We can start Halloween on the Boiling Isles! Oh, Gus and the others would love it!” Luz gives the courtesy of explaining Halloween in the human realm to Lilith, by this point King has awoken from his oat slumber and is listening aptly to Luz with interest.

"So let me get this straight,” King begins when Luz is finished giving the details, “You go around in fake skin, knock in strangers doors, and demand them to hand you sweets or be retaliated against?"

"Yeah!"

"I'm in!"

Chapter Text

Chapter 9: Assembly Not Required

Luz really should learn to read the fine print of things before diving head first into them. Obviously, Luz is more fragile than her witch friends. A given considering the world they reside in. She’s gotten used to some of the social cues! Toothy smile means mad, flicking ears means happy (she thinks, only because Amity does it a lot around her), and so far she’s pretty sure that the language everyone is speaking isn’t English, but she’ll worry about that later.

Luz believed she might have seen it all on her first adventure with Eda. Scary as it was to face the Warden, nothing was more terrifying than holding Eda’s decapitated head in her arms. She was positive nothing could top that experience.

Of course she was wrong.

So here she was, on a weekend afternoon with the sun warming the patch of grass she sits upon, with Willow’s leg casually laying in her lap. 

Luz is pretty sure that she’s been staring at it in horror and awe for the past five minutes. One moment she was watching her friends play in a small grudgby scrimmage, in the next Luz had heard an audible Pop  and the wind knocked out of her as she fell back from a sudden impact to her chest. When she regained her senses Luz was positive her eyes were wide and felt her mouth drop. She looked down at the limb and back up to the field, a repeated motion that made her rather dizzy as she tried to comprehend what she was seeing.

The game continued as if nothing life-threatening just happened. Willow didn’t even bat an eye as she casually conjured a spell circle mid-play. The amalgamation of plant life taking place of what was missing. 

The lone human was at a loss. Her hands were hovering over her friends leg, afraid to make contact as if the very thing would combust if she did. The game finished up very quickly afterwards. Exchanges of good sportsmanship and laughter die out as Luz’s companions approach her spot on the ground.

“Oh Luz! Thanks for holding that for me! I was worried I would have to grow a new leg from scratch, I’d be out for a week!”

Willow’s kind face shows itself into her field of vision and breaks the trance Luz has staring at the detached limb. Luz blinks once and studies her friend's face. She sees no pain nor discomfort on Willow’s features. An easy going smile causes her eyes to crinkle behind her glasses and the witchling is close enough for Luz to see the dimples making themselves known on her cheeks.

Luz sputters incoherently, absorbing the small amount of new information given to her like a sponge. A shaking hand points down to the leg resting in her lap and then back to normal. Her voice is high pitched, cracking slightly as her inquiry makes itself known. “This is normal?!”

Willow’s verdant gaze reveals amusement as she nods and shoots a glance over at Amity standing beside her. She hesitates her nod briefly, then raises a hand to emit a ‘so-so’ motion. “Well somewhat! I mean it depends on the situation! It’s nothing serious Luz! We can go to the healer's office and I’ll be right as boiling rain!”

Luz has to make sure she counts to three before responding to her friend. Affirmations repeating themselves in her mind reassuring her that this is not earth and losing limbs is normal in this realm. Judging by Amity’s soft laughter, she knows she probably looks ridiculous with her flared nostrils and eyes clenched shut. Regardless it helps her regain some sense of control when she opens her eyes again. Amity is looking at her with concern when she meets her gaze, Luz makes sure she gives the youngest Blight a small smile to ease her worries. Amity’s reaction to this is to blush and look away quickly, her focus changing to the other end of the rugby field.

Willow extends her hand towards Luz to help her up from the ground. She makes sure to tuck the leg underneath one arm as Willow pulls her up with ease. Luz notes as Willow grounds herself, the makeshift plant limp sinks itself slightly into the ground, taking root within the field turf to stabilize her friend. Luz is gaping once more, now in awe, impressed once again at the innovation magic can bring. Once standing, Luz hands over Willow’s leg with care. 

When the plant witch simply grabs her own limb by the ankle and slings it over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, Luz laughs at the action and shakes her head fondly. As they make their way to the nurses office and Willow explains the intricacies of Witch physiology of limb regeneration, Luz can’t help but marvel at the trail of new life blooming behind each step Willow takes. Leaving some of the barren patches of the field replaced with vibrant growth in their wake.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10: Lost in Translation

The litany of words that released from Luz’s lips were not familiar to Amity. They flowed quickly with a melodic cadence that had the young witch confused and mesmerized at the same time. Here they were, sitting in the living room of the owl house along with Willow and Gus, attempting to complete their homework with minimal distractions. Silence enraptured them for a time, the only noise being the turning of pages from textbooks and the harsh scratches of the granite of a pencil abusing parchment. Questions would emerge from Luz from time to time when she moved on from one magic track to another. Either it being asking Willow about the life cycle of a certain plant or inquiring Gus about the rules of disillusionment.

However, as the group's study session droned on, Amity noticed the increased fervor of flipping pages came from Luz’s side of the couch. Pointed ears flicked at the change of noise and Amity’s eyes glanced to her right to look at Luz’s motions. 

The human had finished her Abomination, Illusion, and Plant track homework, indicating that help from her surrounding friends were no longer viable. Now, she had moved on to Construction, and given by the thick tome in her lap and furrowed brow she was not having the best time looking for an answer. Amity couldn’t help but to stare as a small scowl made its way onto Luz features, the added scrunch in her nose made the Latina look more adorable than frustrated. The youngest Blight felt her cheeks heat up slightly at the sudden thought and quickly looked back down at her own book, deciding to distract herself on the other valuable uses of abomination goo.

It wasn’t until an annoyed huff and a sudden mumbling emerged that caught Amity’s attention again. This time instead of glancing, her entire gaze settled on Luz. She leaned over her own textbook, leg bouncing up and down in rhythm as her eyes scanned back and forth over the words and diagrams upon the page. The rapid mumbling under her breath increased in volume and Amity was able to catch a few words of familiarity before Luz’s voice shifted and so did the language. 

“ Ugh! ¡Y este porqueria! ¿Las brujas usan magia para todo o que? Where's the satisfaction of finishing hard work with your own two hands? ”

With each foreign word, Amity felt her eyes widen. Out of her peripheral vision she could see Willow and Gus look at their friend in confusion as well. The foreign tongue was certainly something that Amity did not recognize. Was it a new spell incantation? It certainly wasn’t the guttural Demonic, nor the soothing Common that everyone else on the isles speak as the primary language. This was something else entirely and Amity was enthralled.

At the end of her rant, Luz slammed her book shut and leaned back against the couch, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead with a groan. She catches Willow’s and Gus’ gaze from the floor in front of the couch, they are just as curious as she is at the sudden outburst their friend had. Hesitantly, Amity set aside her own books and shifted closer to her friend. Her hand finds itself placed upon the human’s knee to get her attention. Luz jumps slightly at the sudden contact, and opens her eyes to look at Amity.

Amity knows she has a look of concern that's settled on her features. With this look that Luz receives, she gives the green-haired witch a sheepish smile and rubs the back of her neck.

“Are you okay?” Amity begins, her amber gaze flickers down to the construction book still laid upon Luz’s lap and then back up to her face. “I didn’t know concrete and bricks could get you so upset.” she states with amusement.

Luz releases an airy laugh at the comment and nods. “Yeah,” she states. “Sorry, it's just sometimes I wonder how witches would survive if they ever set foot in my world. You guys use magic for everything !” She throws up her hands at this exclamation, then settles back into the couch with her arms crossed, glaring at her book all the same.

Gus’ laugh emerges from Luz’s statement and attention turns to him as he responds to his friend. “Well, we think the same thing Luz! A world without magic is just as difficult for us to believe.” He then tilts his head. “By the way, what language was that you spoke earlier? It wasn’t Common!”

Luz blinks at the inquiry and once again furrows her brows in confusion. “What do you mean it's not common? It’s pretty standard from where I’m from.”

Willow shakes her head and emphasizes Gus’ question. “No Luz, Common , the language we’re speaking right now.”

“You mean English?” Luz says.

“What’s eenglesh?” Amity sounds out the foreign word to the best of her ability, but finds herself stumbling over the pronunciation. She can see the gears turning in Luz’s head as her eyes dart to each of her friends, lips parted in an ‘o’.

“Okay pause.” Luz puts up a hand and then points to each of them. “How many languages do the people in the Boiling Isles speak or have?”

Amity hums and holds up two fingers, she puts down one as she responds. “There’s Common, which is what we’re speaking,” pointing between herself and Luz. “And then there’s Demonic.” Her now lone index finger points to King, who's laying on the coffee table having fun with a coloring book. With newfound attention upon him and with the slight awareness that King has of the conversation, his maw opens up the sounds that encompass the room and have all the witchlings' ears pull back at the volume.

ψ F̸̬̪͙̱̄̑̒͘e̵̜̞̯͚̿̔̈t̷̬͍̂ć̷̡̣̗̯͗h̵̛̦͒̅͋͜ ̴̨̯̥͆́̄̆m̶̢̘̺͗ě̷̺̠̇ ̷̱̉͗ċ̸͖̦̋̍o̵̥̮̍ǫ̸̏̃̐k̶͍̺̈́̆̾͘͠ĩ̴̡̤̰̓̈́̓͠e̶͍̱͔̒͋̓͂s̸͕̍ ̷̼͉͖̪̤̈́́̀̏̈́f̶̫̾̆͑̊̓ȯ̶̜̋̃o̵͇̰̠̹̞͛̓l̴̨͚̳̱̐i̵͓̯͊̈ͅs̶̛̗̤͊͛̒h̴̘̼̬̒̑̓͑ ̵͇̓m̵̧̬̫̀̾o̷̩̲̠͝r̷̖̗̅̑͋t̵̯̆̄͆̚͠ā̷͎̘̲̹͒͊͘l̵̛̳̟̙̱̤̿́ ⛥

King’s mouth does not move as he speaks the words and Amity swears she can hear faint sounds of tortured souls come forth with each syllable the small demon utters. His mouth closes and attention turns back to his crayons. 

Her gaze returns to Luz, who’s slightly pale after that demonstration. She shakes her head and runs a hand through her hair, making it even more mussed than usual. “Okay so, barring that .” She gestures wildly to King, who's now humming happily. “You guys only have two languages? Total?”

“Yes?” Amity replies. “Why? How many do humans have?”

Luz barks out a disbelieving chuckle and gestures widely around herself. “We have thousands of languages back on Earth! Where I’m from, English and Spanish are our primary languages! But we also have others! Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, the list goes on!”

“Thousands?!” Gus squawks. “How do you all communicate? Or trade? Or anything?!” 

Amity had to agree with Gus here, thousands of languages? What was the need for that many? How did a group of humans thrive together if they couldn’t speak the same language! She watches as the grin on Luz’s face becomes wider and her shoulders shake from the start of a laugh rattling her body. 

“Humans on Earth are spread out everywhere!” Luz explains. “We’re not confined to one floating Titan like we are here! Think about it like, instead of having one Titan, there are multiple ones spread throughout the Boiling Sea! We call them continents.” As Luz details her own world and its quirks, the human takes out a blank piece of paper and draws out the example she’s dictating. “With each different continent, there are smaller areas within them called countries and some even smaller areas called states! Each country or state can have their own language!”

The young Blight’s mind goes blank at the implications of this. With thousands of languages that means there had to be at least a hundred thousands of humans to even speak that many! Putting that tidbit in the back of her mind for later, Amity pipes up with her own follow up question.

“What was the language you were speaking earlier?” Amity wants to at least learn the name of the language Luz speaks, maybe she can find a book about it somewhere in the library, and if not there she’s sure Miss Eda has some human book about it lying around.

“Ah, that was Español or Spanish! It’s me and my Mom's first language.”

“ First Language? What other languages can you speak Luz?!” 

“Well, there’s Spanish, English, Elvish from one of my favorite fantasy novels...oh! I dabbled in Klingon and-”

By now, homework is forgotten and Gus looks ready to pull his hair out in exasperation and Amity can’t blame him. Luz laughs once more and begins listing the dialects she can speak on one hand. Throwing in words and sentences that have the four of them exchanging weird phrases that Luz has taught them, and promises to hear these languages in action when they all visit the human world.

Chapter Text

When Luz awoke with the tell-tale sign of an annoying itch in the back of her throat and a mild headache, she groaned. She turns over in her makeshift bed and throws the pillow over her face, muffling her annoyed scream.

Luz refused to acknowledge it, nope, no way, she was not getting sick,

The notion of chugging an entire gallon of orange juice crossed her mind, but the only thing similar to an orange on the Boiling Isles was a fruit that was so acidic it burned through concrete.

Yeah, definitely not something she wants to put in her stomach of all things.

Luz pushes the pillow away and squints her eyes as daylight encompasses her vision once more. She hisses at the intrusion of the bright light searing into her eyelids and huffs. She’s already experienced the common mold a couple weeks prior and she barely remembers what even happened then. She does vaguely recall having alot of mushroom dishes made by Eda that following week though. 

A human cold though. This was something that was more than a nuisance. Luz is pretty sure a human cold is entirely different from a witch cold. Suddenly, her chest is tight and the tickling in her throat becomes an unbearable itch as a rattling cough forces its way through her lips. She buries her head back into her pillow as her body shakes with rumbling coughs and the feeling of her lungs being on fire. 

When the round passes Luz sits up and rubs her chest, sighing. There’s no way she can miss school today, she’s already overdue on some of her assignments and she’s positive that she has an Illusion test today. Grimacing, Luz runs a hand through her hair and starts to get ready,. she’s positive she can get through school for the day. Her symptoms only just began and it was the end of the week here on the Boiling Isles. Just get through today and she can sleep this cold off all day tomorrow. 

Brushing her teeth made Luz feel a little bit better. The minty freshness barring the nasty cotton mouth she usually gets when she's sick. Making her way downstairs she could hear Eda and King talking in the kitchen, Rounding the hallway with her schoolbag in hand she watches as Eda fries a griffin egg on the stove listening to King regale his dream from last night. Luz sees one of Eda’s flicks in her direction and the Owl Lady turns to Luz to wave at her with a spatula in hand.

“Morning squirt! Sleep well?”

Not trusting her voice at the moment, Luz hums and gives a shrug whilst making her way to the table to sit down next to King. His fur was already covered in some kind of oatmeal as he munched away happily at his breakfast. There was a muffled mouth full of food and an incomprehensible ‘Good morning’ from King as Luz giggled at the baby demon. Eda shook her head fondly as she brought Luz’s plate over to her and with the apron she was wearing, wiped King’s face. His suffocated ‘Weh!’ was ignored as Eda continued to speak to her resident human.

“You didn’t stay up late texting your girlfriend again did you?” Eda asked with a raised brow. The knowing smirk on her face exposed her golden fang more so than usual and Luz felt even more heat rush to her face not caused by her current sick status. 

Luz’s voice cracks “W-what? Of course not E-da!” 

Two sets of eyes stared at her. King points a clawed digit at her and laughs. “Your voice sounds funny Luz! Oh! Hooty told me about this sort of thing! When your voice cracks it means you’re ready to start mating rituals now!”

Luz feels her eyes grow as wide as the moon and blinks rapidly. The WHAT rituals? She sees Eda pinch the bridge of her nose and mutter under her breath ‘Titan help me.’ 

“Okay, amended house rule! We only listen to Hooty sometimes ! And King, honey, you are not allowed to ask Hooty questions unless there is an adult present.” Eda states and claps her hands together with a smile.

“I am an adult!” King exclaims, he puffs up his chest to make himself seem bigger and Luz shakes her head fondly.

“You’re eight..” Eda deadpans.

“That's an adult in demon years!”

Eda snorts as she laughs at the notion. “You’re not pulling the giraffe wool over my eyes squirt!”

As Eda and King playfully bicker back and forth, Luz pushes around her food on her plate. She gives a small frown at the thought of eating. Knowing her sore throat would only make things worse and uncomfortable.

“You okay kid?” 

Luz is startled out of her thoughts to see Eda looking at her with concern. The Owl Lady points at her plate. “You’ve barely touched your food.” 

“Oh, yeah I’m fine! Just nervous about today’s Illusion test!” The lie passes easily through her lips, she doesn’t need Eda to worry about her, she already has a lot on her plate. Eda seems to accept this, albeit without a suspicious look given to Luz. She nods, picking up Liz’s plate to trade it with her lunch bag. 

“Ah, I gotcha, trust me kid I understand, Illusion Exams are the worst! Geometry is involved and I hate geometry!” 

Luz genuinely laughs at Eda’s disgusted look and thanks her for the lunch as she gets up from the table. She affectionately rubs King’s head on her way out the door, promising Eda she’ll be home right after classes end.

The walk to Hexside was bearable, and seeing her friends and girlfriend sitting on the steps waiting for her made Luz feel ten times better as well. Gus spots her first and waves her over. When she reaches them, she sees Gus hunched over a set of notes for their upcoming test. Willow and Amity seem to be in an in-depth conversation about Flyer Derby stats. Luz sits down next to Gus to skim over the notes with him.

“Hey Gus! Ready for our test?”

In response Gus nods rapidly, eyes quickly running back and forth over the sheets of paper written in runic. “You bet Luz!” He points to one sheet that looks to have a geometric equation  drawn out. “I bet you this question is going to be on the exam, do you think there'll be a different outcome for the Deathagorean Theorem depending on the size of the-woah, are you okay? You look…off.”

In truth, Luz barely registered what Gus was telling her. The headache she’s had this morning has steadily gotten worse. The pressure now in her sinuse, she could feel the beginnings of a stuffy nose as well. Luz waves it off and nods to reassure her friend. “Yeah I'm fine! Just nervous, this test is like 20% of out grade right?” 

“And I’m sure you and Gus will ace it, Luz.” Amity states. She and Willow seemed to have finished geeking out about sports and joined in the conversation between her and Gus. Luz gives a blinding smile to Amity and a thumbs up.

“Right!” She replies. “Thank goodness it's right before lunch too! I think I would have puked out of stress.”

Willow laughs and Amity scrunches her nose at the thought. As the bell screams, Luz helps Guz pick up his papers and waves to Amity and Gus, vowing to see them later. She keeps a steady stride with Willow as they walk to their Plant class. Luckily today’s class is simple. An hour of repotting all the plants in the greenhouse that have grown too large in their old homes. Luz almost feels relatively normal as she partners up with Willow and they crack jokes as they work together in the dirt. Willow does, however, voice her concern when Luz seems to be sweating more than usual and loses a bit of color in her face. Once again Luz waves it off as nothing to be concerned about and tells her friend she just didn’t have a lot to eat this morning, which was true. 

Being the kind friend she is, Willow gives her a piece of fruit at the end of class and pointedly watches Luz as she eats it. Luckily for her the fruit had a banana like consistency so it was easy to swallow and keep down with her increasingly worsened sore throat. Luz thought she hid her facial expressions well, but after eating and Willow vocalizing that she now looked more green than pale put that thought to rest.

“Luz, are you sure you’re okay? Why don’t you go to the Healers office?” Willow asks as they walk to their next class. 

Luz gives an exasperated groan and waves her hand. “Willow, I’m fine! The fruit probably just didn’t sit right with me, I’ll sip on some water to settle my stomach.” Inwardly, Luz winced, the thought of drinking anything right now was no bueno, 

“Hmmm.”

“ Willow .”

“All right, all right. Fine, but if you think I’m bad, Amity is gonna be a mother hellhen with you.” Willow pokes Luz’s shoulder as they stop in front of the Abomination classroom. Luz glances in and sees the said girl already sitting in their designated spot in the classroom. The human sighs and sucks her teeth. 

“Eh, like I said, I’m alright. Tell you what, if I start feeling worse I’ll go to the Healers Office, okay.?”

Luz watches Willow's eyes narrow behind her spectacles as the young witch crosses her arms. Luz held her own stance, smiling all the while against Willow's scrutinizing gaze.The warning scream rings throughout the school and Willow has to give up her silent interrogation with a sigh. “Fine.” she grumbles before poking Luz’s chest. “But straight to the Healers Office if you feel worse, got it?”

Luz grins as she rubs her chest from Willow’s poke “Yes mom .” 

Willow rolls her eyes and turns on her heel to head to her own class with a wave. “See you at lunch!”

Luz’s shoulders sag in relief as she enters the Abomination classroom. It's much cooler here than it was in the greenhouses. That is a given due to the nature of the ingredients needed for the magical constructs. As she slides into her seat next to Amity she gives her girlfriend an affectionate nudge as the Professor starts speaking. From the corner of her eye, Luz can see Amity’s light blush that dusts over the bridge of her nose and reaches her ears. Luz holds back a giggle as she reaches into her bag to pull out her notebook and a pencil.

As the class goes on, Luz begins to feel unbearably warm again and her throat is horribly dry from the lack of water she’s had today. She’s leaning against the table, one hand holding the side of her head while the other is languidly copying notes. Luz doesn’t realize that her brows are furrowed as her own increasingly annoying headache was only getting worse. She was tired. So, so tired, her thoughts started spiraling. Eclipse Lake, the failed portal, her Mom, the promise…her Mom. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes before she could will them away and the hand holding the pencil forms a tight grip as she squeezes her eyes shut. She takes a deep breath through her nose and hisses softly as a sharp bout of pain hits just behind her eyelids. 

Luz startles at the sudden contact that grazes the back of her head. Cool fingers settle onto the nape of her neck and the human sighs quietly in relief as small circles pinpoint and relieve some of the annoying pressure that's been steadily brewing in her head. Opening her eyes, Luz shoots a glance to her right. Amity was simply acting like nothing was amiss. Her right hand still meticulously taking notes being droned out by their professor while her left attempted to soothe Luz. It was comfortable and sweet, before long Luz could feel her eyes getting heavy from the ministrations and the slight ease up of her headache. She looked up at the clock and then at the board in the front of the classroom. A ten minute nap wouldn’t hurt anybody, she just needed to rest her eyes for a bit and then she’ll be right as rain! Just ten minutes…..

“L…., Lu-z!, Luz!”

Luz jumps up suddenly ,adrenaline racing through her system as she groggily remembers where she is. She raises her hand and yells out a random answer. “The goo to sludge ratio is 5:1!” 

Silence is her response and as her mind clears and Luz gathers her wits, she realizes the classroom is empty. It's just her and Amity. Luz looks down at her place and her heart clenches as she see’s Amity’s own handwriting in her notebook, she took notes for her. Looking back up, she sees her girlfriend's ears pinned back and Amity is biting her lip, looking at Luz with concern. “Oh gosh Amity, I’m so sorry!” Luz babbles, she notes how her voice has dropped an octave and now sounds like chalk on gravel. She winces at this revelation and Amity blinks owlishly at the sound of her voice.

“Are you okay Luz? You slept through the whole class! Is this some type of human hibernation?”

Luz wants to laugh, but she can feel the tell tale signs of another bout of coughs if she does. As she shakes her head, she glances at the clock, five minutes before her Illusion class. “I’m fine hermosa ,” she replies with a wry grin. “Just out of it today!” Her grin grows wider as she watches Amity’s blush grow at the pet name. Luz packs up her things and gives Amity a tight hug. She gives a quick peck on her cheek and utters. “Thank you for taking notes for me, sorry I wasn’t a good study partner today.” As she pulls back she feels Amity give her one last reassuring squeeze around her waist.

“It's okay,” Amity replied. “You looked exhausted and needed a nap anyway. See you at lunch?”

Grabbing her bag Luz nods and waves goodbye to Amity as she walks out the classroom and heads towards her last class before lunch, Illusions. She feels sluggish, sore, and mentally drained all at once, but all she has to do is get through today’s test! She can do this! She had a minute to spare as she walked into the classroom with Gus waiting for her in the back of the room by the window. He waves her over and Luz meanders her way to take a seat. She’s slightly out of breath, chest tightening with each rotation of breathing. 

“Woah there, slow down Luz! You’re not late!” Gus says from beside her.

“Y-yeah!” Luz shakily gives Gus a thumbs up as she settles into her seat. 

“Man this test really has you riled up! You look worse than before!” Gus pokes the side of her arm with a frown. Before Luz can reply to him, saying for the umpteeth time that she’s fine (maybe if she says it enough it'll begin to be true) their teacher calls their class to attention to get everything off their desk except for a spare piece of paper and a pencil. When the tests are placed on her and Gus’ table Luz takes a look at the first question and suddenly she wants to cry.

When first coming to the Isles Luz was shocked to see that not all reading material was in english. Honestly she should’ve expected it. Luckily Eda taught her how to read runes relatively quickly and with a sound mind and determination Luz can translate pretty easily. Today however, is not that day. She could hardly focus with her pounding headache and blurry vision. The room was spinning, her breath ragged and suddenly she felt like she was trapped. No! She’s fine, she’s fine, everything is fine! Focus! First question, her lips moved as she quietly sounded out the phonetics. Okay first one is easy, finding the common denominator of an Illusion using the base formula of the average witch. She can do that, just have to ignore those annoying black spots at the corner of her vision so she can read.

The second question is the problem, it's longer, more detailed and the more Luz stares at the runes the more her head throbs. It feels as if she’s reaching a crescendo, the final limit in one of her JRPGs she has at home. Water, Luz thinks. She just needs a sip of water and she’ll be right as rain. Luz shifts to the side to bend over to reach her bag, and suddenly everything goes dark.

Luz’s awareness comes and goes from then on. The first bout of vague attentiveness is when she feels like she’s being carried. There's a soft cushion that's keeping her head warm. Strong arms are hooked under her legs and back, she can vaguely catch a few words of conversation going on around her.

“I told her to go to the Healers!”

“Miss Eda, I don’t know what happened, she just passed out and started shaking!”

“Is she going to be okay?”

Luz tries to open her eyes, but it feels as if their glued shut. Each inhale she takes she can hear the wheezing that's settled deep into her chest and a few painful wet coughs force their way out of her body. The arms carrying her tighten their hold and the conversation becomes hushed whispers.

‘ Hoo! ’ 

There is a warm nudge against her forehead, smooth and soft feeling wood settles on top of her head and a beak picks at her hair affectionately.

‘ Thanks Owlbert ’ Luz attempts to project her thoughts to the palisman before she falls back into a peaceful sleep.

She’s entirely too hot the next time she stirs. Even though she can feel the ice pack that’s laid across her forehead. Her chest still hurts. She wants her mom.

“Take her to the Healing Coven!”

“You don’t think I’ve done that already Lily? Every one of them has said the same thing! This is a human sickness we’re dealing with!”

There’s yelling outside the room and as Luz shifts, she realizes she’s been placed on the couch in the living room of the Owl House. With the small amount of awareness she has, she can see multiple books strewn out all over the place, many of them looking to be human medical textbooks. There’s also a copious amount of potions, some empty, some not. With the little sense of smell she has Luz can see a trashcan by her feet and can take a guess at where most of the potions Eda and Lilith have tried to give her probably ended up.

When she sees a blurry figure of gray and red come in from the kitchen, she tries to call out to Eda. She’s terribly thirsty and even though her stomach feels awful, she needs something to soothe her dry mouth and sore throat. Eda must have noticed her awake because in an instant she can see Eda’s face close to her own.

Eda had been crying, Luz sees the path her tears had taken down her face. It also seemed like she's aged another ten years and hasn’t slept for days

“Luz,” she breathes out. She removes the ice pack for a moment to feel Luz’s forehead with the back of her hand. “How are you feeling kiddo?” Her voice is soft, gentle, and it makes Luz want to cry, she sounds like her mom.

“I’m tired.” She croaks. 

“I know, kid I know. You can go back to sleep soon, but you need to try and eat something for me, ‘kay?” 

Eda helps her sit up against the couch, Luz hardly noticing the copious amount of stuffed animals that fall off her in the process. She feels disgusting, all sweaty and stale at the same time. Eda is still kneeling beside her when Lilith walks in with a tray of food and water. The eldest Clawthorne sister also looks worse for wear but relief is seen on her face when she sees Luz sitting up.

Looking at the tray Lilith placed on the coffee table, it was a simple meal consisting of some type of broth, crackers, and a glass of water. Eda helped her consume each item bit by bit. Luz could hardly eat the whole bowl and only had a half glass of water, but Eda seemed pleased by the progress. Once she was done, Eda eased her back to lay down on the couch. The Owl Lady stayed kneeling by Luz’s head for a while, running her hand through the human’s hair until she fell back asleep.

Third time's the charm as they say. When Luz roused from another long bout of rest, she felt significantly better. Her throat didn’t hurt anymore, but she still had some wheezing when she breathed. Her head also only mildly hurt when she had a particularly hard cough. Her eyes adjusted to darkness. It was nighttime now, and the only light in the living room was a burning candelabra in the corner near the entrance to the hallway that led upstairs. Luz sits up, removing the multitude of blankets that had been piled on her. Looking down at herself, she notices she had been changed into a fresh pair of PJs and doesn’t feel nearly as icky as the last time she woke up and was aware. 

A loud rumbling noise in the opposite corner of the room startles her out of her thoughts, and as she turns her head to the source she can see Lilith in one of the armchairs fast asleep. A book reading ‘Medical Maladies of Man’ was strewn across her chest. There’s a churning in Luz’s stomach that has nothing to do with food as she reads the title of the book. She grips the fabric of her pajama top. She had caused them to worry over a stupid cold. 

Outside the wind blows and Luz can vaguely hear the hissing of boiling rain hitting the ground and patterning against the windows. She looks up to the ceiling of the living room, biting her lip as a selfish thought comes to mind. Steeling herself, she grabs one of her discarded blankets and a pillow and makes her way upstairs. Soft coughs and sniffles rack her from every so often as she traverses the house, making her way to her destination. She stops in front of the double doors that lead to Eda’s room, her free hand hesitating to reach out and knock.

‘ This is stupid’ Luz thinks. ‘I’m 14! Not a baby!’ Her hand falls back down to her side and as she turns to walk the opposite way back to her room, she freezes as she hears the door creak open.

“Luz?”

It’s King, he is standing in the doorway to Eda’s room, Sir Reginald in his arms and eyes seemingly glowing in the dark as he looks up at her in relief. She quickly braces for impact as he launches himself at her legs to wrap around her. Squeezing Luz as if she would disappear any moment. They are both quiet as they cry, silently reassuring themselves that Luz is here, up and walking instead of wasting away on the couch downstairs. When King pulls back he tugs Luz into Eda’s room with him.

Like her sister, Eda snores as loud as a freight train and Luz cannot help but smile at the thought. The older witch is sprawled out in her nest, dead to the world. King lets go of Luz’s hand and crawls back in the nest, flopping over before poking his head back up to look over the edge expectantly at Luz. She follows her little brother, careful not to wake their guardian as she settles in. King lays down by her side as she covers the both of them with the extra blanket she brought. Surrounded by her family and with the soothing sounds of the storm being nature’s white noise, for the first time since she got sick Luz rested peacefully.

“Edaaaa!!!”

“No!”

“But-!”

“Nu-uh!”

“I-”

“Nnnnnnoooo!”

Luz huffs as she crosses her arms in the waiting room of the Bonesborough Healing Office. Eda was reading some old Witch Weekly magazine as they waited.

“It was just a cold.” Luz grumbled.

Eda snaps her magazine close and gives Luz a look. “Correction,” she states. “It was the flu and it almost killed you! Titan only knows if you caught the Boiling Isles equivalent! Which is why,” She pokes Luz’s forehead. “We are getting all of your witch inoculations today. No more surprises missy.”

Luz scowls as she rubs her forehead. “I hate shots.”

“Who said this had anything to do with shots?”

“Huh??!”

“Miss Clawthorne, Healer Withenhand will see you and your charge now.”

Eda laughs as they stand up, she looks down at Luz. “Why do you think I told you to bring your toothbrush kid, you’re gonna be drinking all kinds of nasty potions!”

“Eda!”

Chapter Text

“H-he knows we were in there! He’s gonna find out! I-I can’t-”

The Dirty Owlet is in distress, help him!

You don’t think I see that bird brain? Eda thinks back to the other mind residing in her brain. Emotions were high, Luz and Hunter had just returned from their impromptu trip into Belos’ mind. Both were looking worse for wear, Luz still sat on the floor, looking at Hunter with wide eyes as he experienced his panic attack. Her apprentice looks at her, pleading for her to do something to calm him down. The air is charged with volatile tension, Eda’s hand is still held out in a pacifying gesture out to the Golden Guard. She watches him stand quickly and practically tears the cloak off himself as if the garment was choking him. The Owlbeast within her can smell his fear and watching the teen’s body language, Eda barks out to Hooty as he sees him starting to run.

“Hooty! Keep him in!”

The House demon quickly retracts back into his position at the door and slams shut. A ‘click!’ was heard as the entrance locks and Hunter slams into the door, banging onto it with his fists. “Let me out!” He wails, voice broken and eyes distant. “Please let me out!”

Eda closes her eyes for a brief moment and counts to three. She feels a peck on her cheek and the chirp of Hunter’s palisman as she regains her sight. The small cardinal was beating his wings rapidly as one eye looked at her. She glances back at Hunter, who is now hugging himself, back against the door and head face down on top of his knees. She can see his shoulders shaking, everything shaking really. 

Help Dirty and Bright owlets!

I’m getting to that! She mentally snarls at the Owlbeast. “Hey,” she whispers to Flapjack. “Can you help calm him down a bit for me? He needs some reassurance before I approach him, yeah?”

Flapjack chirps in agreement, flies over to Hunter, and proceeds to sit on his head. Musical trills emit from his beak as he grasps a strand of blonde hair to tug gently, trying to get his witch’s attention.

Okay, one child was temporarily taken care of. She turns her attention briefly to Luz, who’s honestly no better than Hunter at the moment. Luz is quiet (unheard of) and of course she’s more worried about Hunter than herself right now. Eda scans over Luz’s form, she notes how she’s wincing at every inhale and the skinned knees and hands. The metallic scent of blood comes from both children and Eda wishes nothing more than to go down there to that Titan-Forsaken castle and wipe it off the face of the Isles. No, she can’t succumb to her rightfully placed rage at the moment. Her kids need her. 

King has been beside her this entire time, holding on to the hem of her dress with one hand. His bright colored eyes were darting back and forth between Luz and Hunter. No doubt he was scared to death as well by seeing all this. Eda kneels down and places a hand on her adoptive son’s head. Rubbing her thumb along the smooth grooves of his skull, she softens her voice and gives King some instructions to follow. “King,” she starts. “I need you to go upstairs to the bathroom and get the healing kit. If you can’t reach it, call for Hooty and he can help you through the window.” Eda pauses for a moment and furrows her brow. “Hmm, and maybe bring some of you soldiers down here for Luz and Hunter, I think they need some loyal guards to protect them.” She says this with conviction and watches as King nods vigorously at her instructions. She watches him mutter what he told her, claws quickly tapping on the floor as her scurries upstairs.

“Healing kit, loyal guards, healing kit, loyal guards, healing kit…”

With King gone for a moment, she stands up and makes her way over to Luz. She squats down again, wincing and ignoring the pops her joints make at the knees from the action. Now having a closer look at her charge, she feels a tug in her chest at the sight of her. She’s lost some color in her face and her hands tremble as she grips onto the leggings under her shorts. There are unshed tears that threaten to spill out of the corner of her eyes. And when Luz’s brown gaze meets Eda’s own, she vows to do everything in her power to make things right. No child has any right to carry the burden that presently weighs on Luz’s shoulders. It’s as if whatever revelation Luz and Hunter saw in Belos’ mind has become a physical manifestation-it haunts the both of them, Luz in her silence and Hunter in his need to escape.

“Luz, what happened in there?” Eda asks quietly. Luz presses her lips together and squeezes her eyes shut. She shakes her head back and forth rapidly.

“I-I messed up…so bad Eda. I can’t do anything right!” Luz’s clenched fists raise up to her head, and a singular self-inflicted blow makes contact before Eda can firmly grasp the child's wrists.

“Hey now,” Eda sternly quips. “We talked about this, hm? No hurting yourself, especially in the state you’re in.” She watches closely as Luz weakly nods and Eda leads her hands back down to her legs where she grabs at her leggings again. Eda feels her ears perk at the sound of King running back downstairs. He comes into their field of vision and holds up the healing kit for Eda. As she grabs the box, Eda notices a rope tied around King’s waist-a perfect bowline, she muses proudly as she sees about five stuffed animals tied together dragging behind him. She opens the kit and sorts through the multitude of bandages and glowing blue and red potion vials. Taking out one blue vial, alcohol, and swabs for Luz, she puts the box to the side for use later. No doubt she would probably need the whole thing for the other teen that's curled up by her front door.

With a gentle hand, Eda lifts Luz’s head up by her chin and holds up one of the healing potion vials. Recognizing the color, Luz’s face turns into a grimace-her nose is scrunched and Eda notes how her tongue brushes over her teeth-no doubt being reminded of the nasty glaze that stays in your mouth after this particular brew is consumed.

Luz reluctantly grabs the vial and glares at it as if it could naturally combust at any moment. “Do I have to?” she grumbles. Eda dabs at the cuts on her knees and hums in confirmation.

“Yeah kid, you got some bruised ribs there and we haven’t figured out healing glyphs yet. Down the hatch it goes. I’ll give you something sweet after it settles to get the taste out your mouth.”

She hears Luz whine in defeat and take a deep breath. Glancing up Eda watches as the human pinches her nose and downs the potion in one fell swoop.

“Eugh!” 

“‘Atta girl,” Eda praises as she finishes wrapping up a particular nasty cut on Luz’s leg. She helps her stand and leads her protégé to the couch. Setting her down gently she ruffles Luz’s hair affectionately. “You don’t have to tell us what happened now, okay? Rest for a bit, I’m going to help out the other brooding teen in this house.” Eda’s attempt at cracking a light joke worked as she watches Luz break into a discordant giggle and give Eda a small smile.

Eda turns to head over to Hunter only to pause. He’s been staring at them, being caught he quickly looks away. Flapjack had moved from his nest of hair to sit on top of his knees. The palisman was looking back and forth from Hunter to Eda, and once Eda turned her attention to Hunter he let out a chirp.

She walks slowly towards Hunter picking up the first aid kit from the floor along the way. With a free hand she raises up her palm, fingers spread to show that she means no harm. As an extra measure she tilts her head up, exposing her neck for guaranteed reassurance. There is a moment of silence as the two stare at each other. Waiting for one to make the first move. Flapjack does it for them, flying away from Hunter to perch upon Eda’s shoulder. The Palisman trills at Hunter and Eda knows at that moment Flapjack is trying to convince Hunter to let them help.

Hunter winces in pain as he raises his head slightly in acknowledgement, an invitation. Eda certainly doesn’t squander it as she calmly approaches him. Now closer, Eda can see the chips of wood surrounding Hunter. Scratch marks are present in the grain and she silently reminds herself to give Hooty a nice rewarding bath after this. Similar to how she confronted Luz, Eda kneels down to his level, she does not yet touch him but instead begins to speak. “I know you’re scared right now,” she begins. “I sure as heck don’t know what happened in there, but it can’t be good if you two are coming back like this.” She waves her hand around the older teen and frowns. Hunter’s hands are trembling, through his coarse leather gloves Eda can see darker stains that are bleeding mainly from his fingers. 

“What’s important now though, is to know that you are safe here.” Eda states.

She hears his breath hitch as he responds. “No!” Hunter snaps back harshly and bares his fangs at her. “T-there’s no place safe for me now! He knows, he knows, he knows-”

“Kid!” Eda barks back, a small hiss escapes her and her teeth gnash with a loud click in instinctual retaliation at Hunter’s show of aggression. The noise jolts Hunter out of another spiral he was about to tumble down-his ears pin back against his head, and he bites his lip hard. Eda inwardly scolds herself at such a baseborn reaction but presses on. “You are safe here.” She says firmly. “Repeat it.”

“I-I am safe here.”

“Again.”

“I am safe here.”

“Again.”

Hunter repeats it three more times, each with less waver in his voice than the last. When Eda is satisfied with the last affirmation, she knocks on the healing kit placed beside her. “Now,” she starts. “You’re hurt. Let's get you patched up, yeah?”

“I’m fine, Owl Lady.”

Ah, titles! She was making progress. Eda hums and raises a brow at Hunter, gaze disbelieving. 

“I am!” Hunter retorts.

“Can’t fool me kid,” Eda replies and taps her nose once. “Cause of this darn curse I have a better sense of smell than you do, and I can tell you're bleeding.”

Hunter shuffles awkwardly and looks down in shame. Eda knows that look, the need to hide away your own well-being to convince others that everything is okay when it's not. Musical laughter, bright smile, and calloused hands flash in the forefront of her mind for a brief moment.

You must save Trilling Mate. Save them from Malicious Parliament!

Hold on! We have to help the Dirty Owlet, remember? She thinks back. She can feel the Owlbeast nod in agreement as it replies. 

Yes, Dirty Owlet hurt, have him preen his feathers with his nestmate.

Eda holds back a snort at the suggestion and returns her focus to Hunter and the current situation. “How about this, I think you beat up your hands more than anything else. Let me just look at them and I’ll leave everything else to yourself. Sounds good?”

She can see a thousand thoughts race take up Hunter's current mental capacity as his face exposes a range of emotions, flashing too quickly for Eda to decipher. In the end, his face settles in resignation and he nods, holding out his hands. His palms are faced upwards, with slow deliberate movements, Eda grasps onto the left hand first. She peels back the glove with some difficulty, the leather is stiff and cracking. Eventually, she gets the garment off and frowns at the sight.

Among the most recent lacerations that are still steadily bleeding, Hunter's hand is covered in scar tissue. There is one continuous long stripe that wraps around his palms and weaves in and out between his fingers like a twisted snake. Eda’s eyes narrow at the past injury not liking what she’s seeing. Filing that information in the back of her mind for later, Eda begins to clean the newer cuts on Hunter’s hand. He’s a trooper for sure-he doesn’t wince at all when the alcohol hits the open wounds, but there is a slight tremble in his hands and it is not from pain. Once the left hand is bandaged Eda moves onto the right to repeat the meticulous care. Hunter’s right hand is just as badly scarred and Eda can see more that crawls up this arm. It looked like he'd been attacked by a large blade and attempted to protect himself with this arm alone. More dread settled into a pit in Eda’s stomach as she made these discoveries. One thing was for certain, Hunter will not be returning to the place that did this to him.

Per her word Eda only takes care of Hunter’s hands. Just in case she also hands Hunter the same potion that she handed Luz and another smaller vial that almost looks like a shot glass. In the smaller vial is a glowing red potion, a mild pain reduction. Judging by the look on Hunter’s face he knows what she’s giving him and seems relieved. She also hands him extra gauze and bandage rolls before she stands up.

“There’s a bathroom upstairs at the end of the hall to your left.” Eda states as gestures to the archway leading to the stairs. “You can patch up any other injuries you don’t want me to see up there, you can take a bath if you’d like. Hooty can bring you a change of clothes and if you do need help don’t be afraid to holler.”

Hunter hugs the supplies to his chest as he stands up. Eda takes a few steps back to give him some space, but she’s close enough for her to catch him just in case he falls over. Once he was on his own two feet, Hunter wearingly shuffled to the archway and made it there before he paused and turned around.

“Thank you…” 

The thanks is quick as it is quiet, as the next thing Eda sees and hears is him rushing up the stairs, Flapjack trailing behind. She sighs and cleans up the rest of the healing kit. Eda places it on the coffee table in front of the couch and glances at Luz. King is in her lap giving her a bear hug, all five of his ‘loyal soldiers’ are perches around the couch positioned as if they’re on sentry orders to watch out for intruders. Luz is distracted, sniffling at random intervals and is returning King’s hug with a fierce embrace of her own. Satisfied that Luz is in comforting and capable hands for a few moments, Eda makes her way to the kitchen to fix something for Luz and Hunter.

She begins the process of making some hot chocolate, turning the oven on to warm up the kettle and taking out the ingredients she needs. Eda ponders for a brief moment playing around with the thought of making dinner as well. Cracking open the fridge, Eda sucks her teeth in frustration. She totally forgot to pick up the groceries she left behind after the whole mind teleportation fiasco. Eda looks at the clock above the stove, its not late. She’s sure to find some take-out to order later.

The kettle screams indicating the water is ready and Eda goes and collects four mugs. She takes great care for the first two dedicated for Luz and Hunter. For Luz she puts two ice cubes in her mug to cool down the beverage and adds exactly seven ghostmallows, as according to her apprentice its the perfect marsh to chocolate ratio. She doesn’t add too much for Hunter’s cup, as she doesn’t even know what he prefers. Eda leaves her and King’s own empty mugs on the counter, she’ll get their own drinks a little bit later. 

Walking back into the living room Eda sees that neither Luz nor King has moved from their previous positions. She places Luz’s cup down in front of her on the table and Hunter’s on the other side. Eda sits down in the middle seat of the couch and instantly she feels Luz’s head on her shoulder. There is a warm dampness seeping through the sleeve of her dress, Eda deflates seeing Luz in such a state. She pulls King off Luz’s lap and into her own whilst wrap an arm around Luz’s shoulders.

“Oh Luz…it’s alright honey.” 

That statement seems to make Luz feel worse as silent sobs shake her form and the dam breaks. Eda momentarily freaks out at the reaction before composing herself. The action she takes starts instantly before she’s even fully aware of it herself. The tonal fluttering emits from Eda with ease, attempting to calm her scared witchlet. The purring affects King instantly-still young and way up past his bedtime, he falls asleep rather quickly. For Luz, her rattling form slows to a stop, breathing evening out with an occasional hiccup here and there, and tears momentarily cease all together. Eda doesn’t let up until a different hitched breath alerts her. Looking up she sees Hunter standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, cheeks tinged red with embarrassment for interrupting.

Hunter looks to be freshly showered. He’s wearing one of the spare Bad Girl Coven T-shirts, it's one of the bigger sizes as its a bit large for him and hangs down to mid-thigh. He also adorns some yellow and purple shorts that are used for the human sport, basketball. Eda lets a small smile as she sees the socks he’s wearing, they’re socks oddly reminiscent to his palisman and Eda has to wonder if he made them himself. 

“S-sorry,” he mumbles, gripping the hem of his shirt. “I didn’t mean to intru-ack! Flapjack!”

Flapjack seemed to have had enough of his Witch’s hesitancy. Atop of Hunter’s head he chirps irritably and pokes his dome once before flying off and tugging him to the couch by his notable blonde strand. Hunter reluctantly sits down, giving himself some space between him and the mini-dogpile that Eda and her kids are occupying on the other side of the couch. With her free arm, Eda gestures to the still steaming mug in front of him.

“I made y’all something to soothe your nerves and wash that nasty potion aftertaste out of your mouth.” Eda states quietly, she tries not to jostle Luz or King as she moves. 

Hunter eyes the drink with suspicion as he picks it up. Eda watches in disbelief as he sniffs the darn thing and glares at the mug like it might kill him. “Kid,” she starts. “Don’t tell me you’ve never had hot chocolate before? Or any chocolate?”

Hunter’s glare shifts from his mug to Eda in defiance.

“I have!” He says petulantly. “But not with these…things floating around in it, and it smells too sweet! Not bitter like the ones I’ve had.”

Eda blinks owlishly at the revelation and processes what Hunter just said to her. “Uhh, yeah kiddo, I think you’re describing coffee, not chocolate.”

“Kikimora told me its elite chocolate is only reserved for the best of the Emperor's Coven…” Hunter looks dejected as he says this, voice trailing off as he speaks. There's a silent mutter as he brings the mug to his lips. “Then again, who am I to believe in anything anymore.” 

At the first sip Hunter’s eyes light up in shock and he pulls the mug away and stares at it. He looks to Eda, back to his mug, then Eda again. She responds with a soft chuckle and raised brow. “Good huh?” she inquires.

Hunter takes another sip, he closes his eyes as if to savor it and remember this moment for a lifetime. He nods in response. “Y-yeah.”

“Better than your ‘Elite Chocolate’?”

The teen blushes to the tip of his ears and says nothing, continuing to nurse his drink. There is a comfortable silence between them for a while. An occasional snore emitted from King every so often. Eventually the silence is broken by Hunter’s voice.

“Owl Lady?”

“Call me Eda kid.”

“Eda…I am safe here right?” 

Hunter sounds small and scared, the complete opposite of when she and Luz met him during the whole Silkiedomus incident. No bravado in sight, even if Hunter is only two years older than Luz he is still a child. Forced into a bad situation and a life that holds no love for him, just false affections and affirmations. Eda turns her head to stare at Hunter directly in the eyes. With fierce conviction and determination she states her piece.

“Hunter,” he jumps slightly at the use of his name. “While you are in my home and are warmed beside my hearth, no harm shall ever come to you.” It is a butcher of ancient words and the remnants of her magic ring true as she states her guest rites to the teen. She is not sure if he knows the weight of the words she just spoke, but the shudder that runs through hum and the slight taste of magic in the air must tell him that it is serious.

Eda softens her tone and gaze, she places a hand on Hunters knee. “You have a place here with Luz and I. You. Are. Safe. Okay?”

Flapjack has moved to Hunter’s shoulder and he nudges against his cheek in comfort as Hunter takes a shaky breath and nods.

“Okay.”