Chapter Text
“Okay, everybody down!” Says Eda, once the staff was at a reasonable height off the ground.
Luz is the first to obey, leaving Owlbert in a leap and turning to catch King as he springs from the witch's shoulder to her arms. The owl woman then follows her own command, and Owlbert transforms back into his sentient bird form.
As the three approach the Owl House, the human feels a rhythmic vibration in her shoulder and peeks at the status of the little demon. He had fallen asleep.
“Aww, he is so cute!” She murmurs with shining eyes.
After the busy afternoon and a quiet flight home, he simply passed out as he snuggled into her warm hoodie. In response, Luz buries the fingers of the hand that held him against her body in the soft, gray fur, pressing the side of her face gently against his skull to feel the vibrations better.
The steady, comfortable rhythm was almost making her drowsy as well.
“Hoot, hoot! You're back early! Did you have fun?” Hooty greets them in the same cheerful tone as always. Then he watches the witch carefully. “Eda, what happened to you? You look like you've been in a witch's duel! Hoot!”
Eda grimaces. His high-pitched voice with worry was annoying.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm just happy that the nightmare is finally over.” The witch's selective bad mood made the Latina hold back, laughing softly.
“I think it was exciting, but I don't want another adventure in the next few days preferably,” Luz says in a low tone, pulling down her mask with a small smile and her eyes reflecting some fatigue. “And Hooty, keep your voice down if you don't want to face the wrath of a demon that has been awakened against his will.”
The guardian creature widens his eyes exaggeratedly in a terrified expression, much to the Clawthorne woman's disgust.
“Oh, okay!” He has really lowered the volume of his voice.
So the tube bird lets them in and continues his vigil outside the house.
“Kid, why don't you leave King on the couch and come with me to the kitchen?”
Luz nods, placing the furry, horned bundle on a couch cushion and following Eda into the largest room in the house. The witch points to the table as she walks to the fridge, conjuring up her favorite mug while picking up the half-full jar of apple blood. The human, on the other hand, felt more comfortable leaning her body on the windowsill, her eyes always following Eda.
The owl woman decides not to question the girl's decision and then sits down on the table and rests the mug full of apple blood on the wooden base.
An awkward silence settled between them, and suddenly Luz thought it was more interesting to look at the irregular patterns on the stone floor.
Eda mentally scolded herself. She had wanted to talk to the girl since the beginning of the day and had taken some time to settle with her mind about the right moment. And it was high time. So why did it now seem so difficult to find the words?
Ŏ̶̧͖̣̦͓̳̯̯͇̾ͅw̴̦͚͕̮͌͒̇̽͗̅l̶̢̢̢̜͙̺̳͉̇̈́̋͌͛̉̚͠ ̵̡̨̰̬͈̞̩̦̮͂̀̄Ļ̶͚̯̲̲̝̮̞̯̎a̷̘̙̱͇̭͔̮̮̽̎́̂̍̎͆͒͠ͅd̵͉͇̠͉͇̺̫̖̥̈́̐̀̒̏̑̇͐ÿ̴͉̘͈̼͍͇͕́̍́̀̓̈́̊?̸̡̛̪̺͕̫͉̋͆̂̆̚̕ͅ
Ą̸̣̖̄́͋̚͠r̷͍͔̭̘̣͒͘͠͝ͅè̸̠̳́̈́̉̏̇̇͂́ ̵̫̤̯̞̅́̿ c̶̺̱͒̈́̆ǫ̴̡̨̪̯̓̂̾̚͝w̸͙̝͐͝e̷̩̗̳͍̜͓̻͑̋́̈́̑́r̵̛̟͈̭͔̝̟͂̐̈́͆̿̒̆̄̚ĩ̸̧͕̞͚͔̦̼̫̙̤̏͛̈́n̶͉̬̣̙̠̊̔̄̈́̌̌͂g̸͇͚͌͛͑,̴͉̣͈̝͓̱͙̻̄̏
ỹ̷̹̯̥͚̲̠̥͙̰̜̈́͝o̸̬̻͖͚̐̉̊̿͆̑͌̕ũ̶̢̃̍̓̌͆͘͘
She shakes her head slightly to keep that damned voice at bay. After so many stress peaks during the day, her mental defenses had weakened.
All she did NOT need now was her curse to get in the way.
And she would not back down.
So if she couldn't find the right words, to begin with, why not let Luz get started? It just seemed right.
“Hey, Luz,” she called cautiously. When the younger girl faced her again, Eda studied her expression before speaking again, “Listen, I have no experience with this and I've never been in a similar situation before, so I don't know how to start this conversation. But I know that it's about trust and how we move on from here. Do you want to say something?”
The heterochromatic eyes became dim spheres briefly, and the witch hoped she had said the right things as she watched the girl thoughtfully and momentarily distant.
After a few minutes of a new awkward silence, Luz finally opened her mouth. “I've never been in this sort of conversation with my mom or anyone else before, so I'm not sure how to go about it either,” she said truthfully. She brings her hands to the knot of her mask and unties it, beginning to twist the fabric between her fingers to keep her hands busy.
Putting her hands on the backpack strap would be a terrible idea right now. That kind of nervousness was completely different from social situations.
Eda almost wanted to laugh. A powerful witch who can handle criminals, tricksters, and liars but who has avoided all the ramifications of the "emotional talk" category her entire life, and a 15-year-old with a lack of social skills, possible suppression of emotions, and clear difficulty in trusting people.
Heck, she was pretty sure the girl didn't show her scar to her new friends because she didn't fully trust them.
"What did your mother do to you, kiddo?"
“But I know how I want to start.” When the Latina spoke again, the owl woman quickly turned her full attention back to her, “And Eda, I dunno much mind now about how or why I have natural magic, but part of our deal was that you would teach me. If I hadn't insisted yesterday, maybe you wouldn't have fainted, but I was beginning to wonder if you weren't just using me and that upset me a lot. I know I'm a little slow and naive, and I usually do everything on my own, but I also stop to ponder, you know?”
The owl woman blinks a few times, her mug floating halfway between the table and her mouth as she takes in the girl's words. A surprised sigh escaped from her lips. Wow.
Luz had certainly had those words stuck inside her for much longer. Maybe they were slightly different situations and feelings, but she seemed to need to pour this all out with some urgency.
The colorful eyes glistening with tears accumulating at the corners only reinforced her theory.
When she felt her vision blur minimally, the Noceda soon wiped the corners of her eyes, and her cheeks took on a soft blush. The twisting in the fabric was getting stronger. She was beginning to back down in shame.
“Kiddo, I...” Eda hesitated for a few seconds to choose the best words, “I owe you an apology.”
"It's a start," she thought with a degree of optimism.
“As a witch who has word, I should have started with your lessons earlier. But when you weren't making deliveries or helping me in the tent, you stayed inside the room and seemed fine with it, so I didn't mind calling you to teach magic or anything like that. You are an independent girl, and that is very clear. Heck, King pointed that out to me on the day of the mess at Hexside!”
Ugh, her skin was tingling with all that unplanned sentimentality. It was an instinctive reaction from her body.
She was not the type to be emotionally open about her own feelings. It sounded strange for a cunning criminal.
Yet, there she was.
Luz sniffled with a weak laugh, and the blush on her cheeks was no longer so much embarrassment as some shyness at the compliment.
“So, I'm sorry, Luz. I got carried away by your apparent self-sufficiency and ignored my end of our bargain, but you still fooled me with your studies alone,” the witch said, indirectly asking for understanding.
“I grew up being home-schooled, and my mother spends more time working than at home during the week, even though she helps me a lot when she can. But I had to learn to study on my own,” she explained, looking at the cloth in hand that suddenly looked very worthy of getting her full attention.
Dealing with her feelings was never a simple matter. It was easier to bottle up the most critical ones and ignore the unimportant ones.
“That's a habit I've had since I was little, and habits like that are very hard to overcome. Do you know how it is?” She asked, staring at the older woman long enough for her to answer.
“I do. Why do you think King only found out about my curse with you here?”
They both gave small smiles, and the remnants of tension and awkwardness between them began to fade.
“I know I'm still going to be doing a lot of this, and I have to warn you that sometimes I might be a little uncomfortable if I ask for help with something or when we start with the real lessons. But as I said, I've been learning on my own for the past few years, and I really want to learn magic from an expert in the field.”
Eda raised her eyebrow and smiled with amusement at the cheeky compliment, but did not ignore the human's previous words.
“We can take our time with the magic lessons. But I'm telling you, if you want to learn a specific spell at any free time, all you have to do is ask me, okay? And don't worry, as you could see yesterday my teaching methods are quite unique.” She winks with amusement, and a new glow reappears in her two-color eyes.
Luz can't wait to learn more spells.
“Now, do we still have any other questions to solve?”
The girl frowns. “How about the fact that you got me into the middle of a witch's duel because of a stupid bet with Lilith?”
“Ah, crap. You're right, I'm sorry about that too.”
“What started this? I realized that the rivalry between you sounds like something very intimate and old, and you really seemed determined to make me cheat so that we would win.”
“I know, and your peaceful intervention was a good way to spare you and the goldie girl from getting into the middle of a conflict that has lasted for years.”
“You mean, Amity?”
“That's what I said.” The persistence made Luz laugh again, rolling her eyes playfully.
“But yeah, my relationship with my sister is not the best. It used to be a childhood rivalry, but after I was cursed it looks like our bonds were lost.”
Eda tried not to give too many details now, that conversation could go in another direction and honestly she didn't want to think much more about Lilith. But she felt she would come back to it at some point.
“Anyway, I ended up not resisting and approached her using Owlbert. Then we talked and the tension between us grew to the point that I believe my curse could take over. Lilith then suggested the bet and even under unfair conditions it sounded like a good chance to get rid of her for a while, so I agreed. But I knew what I was doing, and I wasn't going to let you get hurt.”
“But you couldn't be sure of that, and it hurt me a little to be used as a pawn,” Luz said with some seriousness in her voice.
“And I promise I won't do it again, at least not without taking your opinion into consideration.” The witch gestures between words to emphasize them, finishing with her fingers crossing her heart. The girl immediately remembered the gesture as a kind of 'human everlasting oath'. “Anything else now?”
“No, but it doesn't mean that I trust you right now. I don't want to be mad or that you have to walk on eggshells around me...” Luz noticed the older one's confused face at her expression and tried to explain, “I mean that I don't want you to be cautious around me. I want to trust you, Eda, but you must continue to be honest with me and keep your promises. I just want to be able to explore this realm knowing that someone will save me from future troubles.”
"I want to have at least one adult I can lean on and help me deal with my emotions." That's what Luz wanted to say actually, but she felt that would be throwing a too big responsibility on the witch.
It wasn't just her who needed that bond of trust.
Eda laughed at her choice of words but understood their meaning and nodded in silent understanding.
She was developing a new affection for this girl, genuine respect mixed with those melancholy emotions from her past.
For a brief moment, she wondered if the course of things would be something like this if some past events had never happened.
"Would they be as mature as this girl in front of me?"
Maybe Eda would never have an accurate answer to that question.
“Anything else you want to say, kiddo?” The owl woman asks, seeing that the two had fallen silent. At least it was no longer uncomfortable.
“I don't think so... But this conversation has sucked me in a bit and I feel like I need a bath. After that I think I'll do some of my human lessons. I've already learned a new spell today and had enough contact with how this realm works.”
The Owl Lady forges a grimace. “You may not be human but you definitely act like one in everything. I still don't understand about taking more than one bath a day and every day.”
“It's called hygiene, Owl Lady, and in the human realm we don't use quick-cleaning or odor-disguising spells. You should try it, especially with your appearance right now,” the girl teases with an amused and cheeky smile.
After all that time in the kitchen, Luz is the first to move out. The witch remains at the dinner table, her now empty mug dancing in the air as she watches the young girl move away and out of sight as she turns into the hallway. And before she was too far away, the owl woman still heard her begin an exciting talk with the little pink demon.
When she's sure was alone, a bittersweet smile appears on Eda's lips.
It would still take her some time to get used to being in the presence of a child like Luz, and the secrets that remained buried slowly seemed to get harder to keep in the shadows.
But she would do it. She was still able to handle it.
For her.