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There weren’t a lot of things that could wake Luz from her sleep, it was part of the reason she had a small habit of occasionally being late to school during her younger years. Despite being woken by her mother several times, she’d always find a way to roll over and drift right off back to sleep.
So suffice it to say, when Luz found several different factors that broke her out of her sleep before she was ready, she was the tiniest bit annoyed. The first thing that pulled her back to the waking world was the tantalizing smell that had invaded her dreams and led her out of them. While the smell was pleasant, it wasn’t tempting enough to make her abandon the soft comfort of her bed.
The second thing that kept her out of her sleep was when she realized how the smell had wafted through the house and into her bedroom. As she turned over, she raised her arm up and let it fall, expecting to feel it softly collide with Hunter so she could pull herself into him and fall asleep against him. Unfortunately for Luz, the boy in question was responsible for the smell, as he had clearly departed the bed earlier to cook breakfast, and so her hand instead collided with the hard wood of the bedside counter, making her hiss in pain as she yanked her hand back to herself.
Groaning at the pain, Luz refused to let the jolt of pain in her fingers disturb her sleep, so she roughly tugged the duvet over herself, cocooned herself in it, and let out a content sigh at the feeling. Until the third and final nail in the coffin of her sleep was struck as the high-pitched beeping of the fire alarm made her eyes snap open.
Hearing Hunter’s muffled voice through the house and the chirps of Flapjack and Blueberry downstairs, Luz untangled herself from the mess of her duvet and tiredly got to her feet. Airily moving through the house and down the stairs, the voices slowly got louder, as did the beeping. Finally reaching the kitchen doorway, Luz lazily leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms, too tired to have them hang limp at her side and yawned as she watched the chaotic scene in front of her.
Flapjack and Blueberry frantically flapped around Hunter’s head, tweeting their panic and instructions of what to do. Luz giggled as she listened to her palisman slipping in sarcastic remarks as she tweeted, at one time suggesting throwing the now on fire pan out the window she perched on to Hunter.
“I know what I’m doing Flapjack, and for Titan’s sake Blueberry, I’m not throwing it out the window!” Darting between the kitchen counter and the hob, Hunter flicked the dials to turn off the heat, trying not to burn himself in the process as he tried to clear the surrounding area to avoid the fire spreading.
Tiredly rubbing her eyes, Luz pushed away from the door and gently grabbed Hunter’s hand. Feeling the sudden grip made the boy jump as he swiftly snapped to whoever was grabbing him, only relaxing briefly when he saw Luz. Pulling Hunter towards her, Luz grabbed the towel that hung on his shoulder and wrapped it around her hand and wrist. Grabbing the pan handle, much to Hunter and the palismens’ protests, Luz quickly shoved it into the nearby sink and turned the cold water tap on full blast.
The sudden deluge of cold water swiftly doused the flame and oil as the smoke continued to billow up from the pan. Now with the immediate worry of the imminent danger of the fire dealt with, Hunter finally pushed the remaining windows in the kitchen open and fanned at the smoke with a spare towel, hoping to get it out of the kitchen to stop the incessant alarm.
As casually as she had dealt with the pan, Luz grabbed a nearby chair from the nearby table and dragged it across the ground, the high-pitched screeching against the floor matching the fire alarm’s beeping. Placing it under the alarm, Luz stepped onto the chair and gripped the alarm’s plastic cover, with a swift tug, the case came loose, dangling by some connecting wire, and pulled free the batteries, shutting off the alarm.
With a tired sigh, the kitchen finally went quiet again, as Luz could feel the eyes of her boyfriend and palisman on her as she slowly stepped down from the chair, let the batteries roll out of her hands and slumped back with groggy exhaustion.
Hunter scrambled to grab the rolling batteries, slightly fumbling with them before standing awkwardly, leaning back and forth on his feet, as if waiting for something as he quietly watched Luz.
“Good morning.” Luz’s exhaustion slightly slurred her words as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
Snapping to attention, as if he had forgotten it was in fact morning, Hunter leaned down and kissed Luz's cheek softly before pulling away to fix the mess he made. Before he could get a single step away though, Luz caught his wrist and tugged him back, pulling him down to her level to press her lips to his. Briefly going stiff at the kiss, Hunter soon melted into it, crouching slightly to relax as he returned Luz’s affection.
Pulling away, Hunter brushed away some of the tresses of dark brown hair that strayed and spilled over Luz’s eyes and cheeks, gently tucking the strands behind her ears as he cupped her cheeks and caressed her soft skin that complimented her hair and the eyes he lost himself in so wonderfully.
Savoring the sensation of the kiss for a few moments, Luz peered at Hunter through bleary eyes, smiling at the simple way he stared at her, longingly, lovingly. It made her hearts do knots no matter how many times she caught him staring, so she simply stared back at him. His magenta eyes were the first thing most people noticed, which is why she liked to focus on the parts of his face that went unnoticed, like his awkward tooth gap, he had mentioned his own dislike of it, but she found it endearingly cute, and loved to reassure him of that fact. Leaning forward, her tiredness having still not left her, Luz enjoyed the softness of his pale straw blonde hair as much as she did her pillow as she rested her head on it.
“So, you gonna tell me what was so important that I had to get out of bed for it?” Luz teasingly questioned Hunter as she gently nuzzled into his hair.
Luz could feel the reverberations of his chuckles through his hair as he brought a hand up to her cheek. “I was making you breakfast in bed. Now I guess it’s just breakfast.” Hunter teased the words out as he slowly stood to his feet.
Grumbling at the loss of the comfortable hair, Luz peered up at the boy. “I wouldn’t exactly call that breakfast Hunter.” Pointing to where she had discarded the pan, Luz still saw gentle wisps of white smoke waft up from the pan and out the window.
“That’s cause you’ve never spent a month on coven ration packs before.” Hunter murmured back to the girl who shared his amusement as he began cleaning the pan, scraping out the burned food and washing out the remnants of oil.
“What happened anyway? You’ve cooked before.” Luz wondered aloud as she recalled the various meals Hunter had made after the two had begun to settle into a post Belos world.
“This… this was different.” The vague answer made Luz finally stand from her chair.
Not being denied her own morning greeting, Luz’s blue jay palisman, Blueberry, fluttered over to the girl and flew around her head before nesting in her hair, peering down at the girl upside down as she tweeted at Luz.
“Good morning to you too, Blueberry, were you helping Hunter cook?” Cooing at her bird palisman, Luz stroked the jay’s sapphire crest as the bird chirped in delight at the affection.
While Luz couldn’t decipher the bird calls as words, like translating a language, she could understand the specific intent behind them. As Blueberry mentioned her attempts to help the boy and jokingly called him a lost cause, Flapjack piped up and tweeted his own protest at the jay’s words, the two birds going back and forth.
“They kind of remind me of us.” Luz put her hand to her head, and Blueberry hopped off her head as Luz placed her beside Flapjack as the two continued their pseudo argument.
“You think so?” Using the scourer to scrub and scrape off the last of the burned food, Hunter placed the cleaned pan to the side as he turned to Luz.
“Well, yeah, at least a little bit.” As Luz watched the two palisman slowly getting closer as they continued their faux argument, the two birds went silent before letting out small trills with each other.
“I guess I can see it. A little bit.” Hunter smiled at Luz as he turned to the scene of the fire.
“So, what were you cooking up, golden boy?” Hopping beside Hunter, Luz peered at the counter and saw a familiar book pushed to the side.
Hunter’s hand flew out to snatch the book from Luz’s sight, but she was much faster, and her smaller hands easily slipped through Hunter’s grasp. Giggling as Hunter stretched out to grab the book from her, Luz used her free hand to push against Hunter’s face as she confirmed her suspicions about the book.
It was old and worn, to the point that the cover’s title was illegible, but there was no mistaking it. It was a book of old Dominican recipes. The same one her mother often used and, if the Noceda matriarch was to be believed, had been used by her family for a long time.
“Were you trying to cook from this?” Luz gently patted the book against Hunter’s chest as he flushed a light pink as he looked away. “Oh come on, Hunter, I think it’s sweet, what’s got my bad but sad boy all embarrassed, huh?” Leaning toward Hunter, Luz tilted her head at him slightly as she giggled.
“Nothing, I- I know it’s nothing it’s just…” Rubbing the back of his head, Hunter’s blush subsided slightly as he relaxed and idly scratched his cheek. “I just thought that- that maybe, I could show you that I… that I want to learn more about you?” Hunter said it as both a question and a statement as he shuffled slightly.
Humming at his words, Luz looked down at the book before poking Hunter with it and letting it fall into his hands. “You could always just ask me, you big softie.” Luz stuck her tongue out teasingly at Hunter as he laughed, partly at her and partly at himself.
“I know, but…” Rolling his hand, Hunter left the sentence unfinished as he simply shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, I did teach you everything you know about wild magic and glyphs, so why don’t I teach you how to cook, Dominican style?” Luz had her hands behind her back as she rocked back and forth on her feet, a knowingly teasing look in her eyes as she met Hunter’s glare, knowing it held no anger.
Scoffing at her, Hunter crossed his arms as he stared at her incredulously. “Let’s get something clear first, you didn’t teach me everything I know about wild magic, I was learning it just fine before I bumped into you in Latissa.”
“You mean, before you kidnapped me and crashed us both into Latissa?” Stepping forward to meet Hunter’s words, Luz crossed her own arms to mirror Hunter as she smiled up at the boy who smiled back at her.
Not backing down, Hunter stepped forward as well, his chest close to hers. “I mean, before you distracted me, got us both attacked by Kikimora, and dragged me into Latissa after you stole my staff.”
“I gave it back, so technically I just borrowed it.”
“You sound like Eda.”
“I take that as a compliment.”
The small, playful glares the two shot each other wavered before they both snickered, their grimaces breaking into grins as they devolved into laughter.
Settling from his laughter, Hunter’s gaze drifted to the ground before meeting Luz’s eyes again. “I just thought… you helped me a lot in the Boiling Isles, I just wanted to show you how much it meant to me. I thought that making something for you from your life here on Earth would be a good way to do that.”
Luz’s gaze and smile softened as she heard Hunter’s words and wrapped him in a hug. Sighing into his chest, Luz rubbed her face into him as she felt him settle into the hug, resting his head in her hair. The two stood there, and Luz’s near endless energy soon told her to move, while the blissful moment told her to stay put. As a middle ground between the two, Luz shifted slightly, and began gently rocking against Hunter. Feeling the subtle movements, Hunter joined her, and the two settled into a movement akin to slow dancing in the kitchen, gently rocking each other back and forth while barely moving from their spots as the low light from the early morning sun spilled in through the blinds that hung over the kitchen windows and their palisman curiously watched them.
Slowly parting, Luz smiled up at Hunter before nodding back towards the counter. “So, what were you trying to make?”
Humming in thought, Hunter flipped back and forth through the book before stopping. “Here it is, tostones, am I saying that right?” Luz nodded to the boy’s small enquiry as he continued. “I couldn’t get them to cook properly for some reason.”
Peering at the page, Luz hummed in fond memory of the snack food and peered across the counter before spotting the food Hunter had prepared, her smile falling before turning to an amused smirk as she let out barely contained snickers.
“Well no wonder. You’ve been using bananas, Hunter.” Picking up the fruit, Luz eyed it as if judging it before putting it away in the fruit bowl.
“And… I can tell from your tone that… that’s wrong?” Though he wasn’t questioning her on her own native dishes, Hunter’s confusion was palpable as he stared down at the book.
“No, you need to use plantains.” Stating matter of factly, Luz dusted off the counter as she began readying it to cook again.
“I… admittedly didn’t know what those were- but I did look it up.” Pointing through the other door, Luz peered over his shoulder to see he had accessed the computer in the other room. “They… looked the same?”
Chuckling at his confusion, Luz stretched up on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek. “Yes. Yes they do.” Stepping away from Hunter, Luz began going back and forth between the various cupboards in the kitchen before letting out a small, triumphant “ah-ha”, and brandished what Hunter assumed were genuine plantains. Looking between the two fruits, along with the similarities, Hunter immediately saw the differences. The plantains were far larger, and the skin was clearly thicker and tougher, as Luz placed them down, the heavy thud that emanated from the counter spoke of their weight.
“These are plantains. If you were cooking bananas the same way, I’m not surprised you set fire to that pan.” Quickly noticing Hunter’s face turn down, Luz waved her hands as she corrected herself. “I mean that as in, anyone would end up in the same situation. It’s fine, Hunter, really.” Reassuringly squeezing Hunter’s arm, the boy nodded as he perked up slightly. Just as quickly pulling her hand away, Luz clapped gleefully as she burst into a grin. “Now come on, get cooking.”
“What, me?” Flummoxed by Luz’s words, Hunter stared at her, clearly surprised.
“Who else? Flapjack?” Nodding towards the cardinal, the palisman tweeted back in response. “You’ll be fine, besides, you’ve made me hungry for Dominican food, I’ll be just over here.”
Stepping over to the plantains, Hunter curiously watched Luz as she began preparing another pan of her own with oil as well, and smiled as she quickly measured out the oil for his own pan. Thankfully nodding at her, she chuckled as she began pulling out some ingredients of her own, amongst them; flour, baking soda and baking powder.
"Luz, are you sure I should use these? They don't look ripe." Handling the plantains, Hunter cautiously peered at the pale green fruit, knowing that unripe food could cause an upset stomach at best and sickness at worst.
"Be glad I'm not my mom, you never question her in the kitchen, believe me." Though Luz chuckled at her own words, Hunter made sure to make a mental note of her advice for future reference. "But yeah, tostones are normally savory, they can be ripe but then they're much softer and more likely to melt in the pan."
Nodding along with Luz's reasoning, Hunter focused on his own attempt at Dominican food, tentatively handling the plantains before deciding to simply follow the book again, knowing Luz would be there to help him if he needed. Swiftly peeling the skin of plantains, Hunter disposed of the ends and bagan chopping them into fine, thin slices. Slowly lowering each of the slices into the oil, Hunter kept a close eye on the slices, the oil and the heat, dreading a repeat of before.
As he watched the plantains beginning to fry, he peered over to Luz as she had already mixed the ingredients together into a dough and had begun to knead it. Watching as Luz pushed and pressed into the dough, Hunter stepped behind her, one eye still on the oil as he entwined his fingers with hers and began helping her knead the dough.
Cooing at him joining her, Luz leaned back and pressed a kiss to Hunter’s jaw as she slowed her kneading as Hunter fell into her rhythm. As Luz made the minute adjustments of adding small amounts of flour to stop the dough from becoming too sticky, and then adding small drops of water to avoid it becoming too dry, Hunter stepped away to check on his second attempt at tostones.
Pulling the boiling hot, oil-soaked, fried tostones slices free with a pair of tongs, Hunter poured over the book, narrowed his eyes at the word ‘tostonera’ and peered around the kitchen. A small clunk pulled his attention as Luz placed a small bamboo press on the counter, smiling at him as she moved back to her dough and wrapped it up to let it sit.
Fiddling with the wooden piece of equipment briefly, Hunter began slotting in the tostones one by one and pressing them flat with the bamboo board. This time, Luz wrapped her arms around Hunter and entwined their fingers as she joined him in flattening the snack food. The two chuckled against each other as the quiet of the kitchen was slightly disturbed by Luz's slight instructions to Hunter of pressing down softer for one of the tostones, then telling him to press harder for the next, trying to help him find the sweet spot she instinctively knew.
Placing the pressed slices back into the pan for a second round of frying, Hunter wiped at his brow and huffed slightly as he and Luz began to wait. “So, how often did you and your mom make this kind of thing?” Breaking the small silence, Hunter turned to Luz.
Humming in thought, Luz let her head move back and forth. “Dunno, once a month at least, once a week at most, that kind of thing.” Nodding along with her, Hunter saw a nostalgic look overtake Luz’s face as she leaned against him. “You know, I remember this one time, my mom booked us a holiday to the Dominican Republic.”
“Sounds nice.” Hunter smiled down at her as Luz nodded rapidly at her.
“It really was, mom seemed to immediately just… come to life when we finally stepped off the plane. Not surprising, going home does that to you. At least, it usually does…” Hunter grimaced as he saw a dark cloud briefly pollute Luz’s nostalgia.
Hunter still recalled when they stepped through the door back to the Human Realm for the first time since Luz had stepped onto the Isles, it was years ago now, but he could still recall it like it was yesterday, and he could still remember the look on her face that day and how he had never seen her so defeated before or after. Wrapping her in a side hug, Hunter pulled her head to his chest and the closeness seemed to chase the cloud in her thoughts away as Luz’s smile returned. Running her hands up his chest, Luz slowly reached up to his jaw and idly scratched at the patches of scruff that had started to come out awkwardly, giggling at the sensation.
Wiping at her eyes, Luz leaned further into Hunter as she began to murmur the story of her memory. “It was so much fun to see my abuelita again. She would always say ‘Luz, you need to speak more Spanish mija, that English won’t do you any good here.’ The entire time I was there. Only, you know, it was all in Spanish and she’d yell because she had a hearing aid that didn’t work.”
Hunter joined Luz in her laughter at the mental image of the old spanish woman he’d heard brief stories of. “So what’s it like there?”
“Beautiful, like, the Boiling Isles are beautiful, for a place that’s on top of a massive skeleton and in a terrifying, ugly sort of way. But Boco Chica ?” Hunter could tell from the way Luz spoke the name with an almost reverent tone and the breathless sigh she let out after how much of an impression it had left on her. “I always thought sand was supposed to be yellow but…” Luz shook her head as she closed her eyes to focus on the memory. “The beaches there? Clean white sand in every direction, clear water, massive trees for the perfect shade. Thinking about it, I have to take you there now.”
“You mean like, now now? Cause I’m up for it, but the stuff might burn.” Hunter smirked down at Luz as she elbowed him playfully and stuck her tongue out at him.
“No, not now you big dork. But some time. We’d just need the money for the plane tickets.” Luz narrowed her eyes as she scratched at her chin in thought.
“Or we could fly there.” Whistling slightly, Flapjack responded to the call as he fluttered away from Blueberry to sit on Hunter’s shoulder.
Hearing the timer go off, Hunter stepped over to the pan and began pulling the tostones on to a plate. Spotting a small hand slipping slowly towards the snack, Hunter gently smacked it away as he finished serving up the last of the food and began cleaning.
Yelping in protest, Luz shook her hand to relieve some of the sensation from her hand. “Hey! Come on Hunter, just one.”
“Don’t ‘Hey!’ me Luz. Those literally just came out of boiling hot oil.” Rolling his eyes at the girl, Hunter continued to keep one eye on the food as he cleaned his pan.
“But it’s tradition to scald the roof of your mouth on the first tostone.” Luz’s tone became overly dramatic as she kneeled in front of the food, making Hunter roll his eyes again.
“Tradition for you maybe.” Muttering to himself, Hunter placed the pan away as Luz moved back to her own dish. “What are you making anyway? You never told me.”
“If the name of this dish, you want me to say, a small price there is to pay.” As Luz’s tone became more whimsical, she held out a hand and wiggled her brows at Hunter.
Sighing softly at her, but unable to resist smiling, Hunter quickly grabbed one of the tostones and placed it in Luz’s hand. Smiling as he could feel the heat coming from it in the brief second he held it.
“So this is- AH- HOT!” Luz’s explanation was cut off as she bit into the tostones and immediately regretted it, coughing and fanning her mouth to quell the heat.
Quickly stuffing the rest of the food into her mouth, Hunter’s eyes widened as he saw her react to the overwhelming heat and quickly chewed and swallowed the small snack.
“You know, you could have warned me they’d be boiling hot, Hunter.” Luz winked at Hunter as he simply clicked his tongue in response, making her laugh. “But no, seriously, these are yaniqueques ~” Unwrapping the dough, Luz began dividing them into portions before she pulled out two rolling pins. “Come on, help me cut them.”
Placing one of the portions by Hunter, Luz took her own and smoothly cut it into a perfect circle. As Hunter tried to copy her movement, the thickness of the dough made it only come out in a near perfect circle. Briefly looking over to Luz she waved off the slightly off cut before she began rolling her portion.
“Honestly Hunter, yours is probably gonna look more authentic than mine, so don’t worry about the cut.” As Luz saw him quirk a brow at her, she chuckled before continuing. “Yaniqueques are sold by street vendors a lot, so they normally don’t do perfect circles either. Mine are only like this because of my practice on glyphs.” Nodding at her words, Hunter continued rolling the dough, following Luz’s lead, and glanced back and forth between the two, trying to gauge if he was doing it right. Seeing his eyes drifting between the two doughs as they continued to roll, Luz spoke again. ”You’ve got to make them thin, Hunter, and I mean thin. At least that’s what mom always says.”
Nodding along with her, Hunter continued rolling, slowly thinning out the dough more and more. Checking with Luz, she gave it an okay before he moved onto the next portion. The two enjoyed the quiet serenity of the kitchen, the silence only disturbed by the sound of hard wooden rolling pins against the kitchen counter.
When the final portion was done, Luz nodded at the sight and beamed at Hunter before pulling him into a hug, happily returning the hug, Hunter proudly looked over the small dishes they had made. As Luz pulled away from the hug, she began cutting slits into the dough circles before gently lifting them into the pan to fry them.
“Alright, that’s just about it. Unless…” The tone Luz used as she teased out the word was very familiar to Hunter as he crossed his arms and smiled at her. Seeing him waiting to hear what she had to say, Luz giggled. “Well, you see, tostones normally get served with like, a garlic dip sort of thing, and yaniqueques, especially in the morning, like now, get served with chocolate de agua, so…” Luz giggled as she saw Hunter roll his eyes again, though she knew he was enjoying this as much as her from the smile that never left his face.
Stepping over to the book, he flipped it open again and simply asked. “What page?”
The two slowly went about finishing off what had been planned as a small meal for breakfast that had slowly expanded into what they had now. As Hunter pulsed the garlic and various herbs together for the dip, Luz skillfully multi-tasked as she watched the cooking of the yaniqueques and prepared the chocolate morning drink to go with it, showing her experience.
As the two laid out all the food and drink onto the dining table at last they stared out at their work, before shooting a grimace over their shoulder at everything that needed to be washed.
Deciding to forget about the task, and leaving it to their future selves, the two finally sat down at the table, only to be interrupted by the sound of the door swinging opening.
“Morning freeloaders! We have arrived!” The familiar sound of Eda’s voice carried through the house, making Luz burst into a smile and grab Hunter’s hand as she rushed to greet her mentor.
“Eda, I told you, they’re not freeloading when they’re staying here.” The more motherly tone of Luz’s mother Camila filled the house as well, along with her groaning at the door slamming into the wall.
“Well, sure, Luz isn’t, but Hunter, technically.” Shrugging at the shorter woman, Eda gave her a gold toothed grin as Luz came around the corner dragging Hunter with her.
Running to her mother, Luz quickly wrapped her in a hug, nearly throwing the woman off her feet as she laughed affectionately at the girl before wrapping her in a hug of her own.
“Good morning mija.” Camila smiled down at her daughter before sniffing at the air. “Do I smell tostones? And is that yaniqueques!? ” Camila’s voice took on a tone of surprise and excitement as she questioned Luz.
“Yep, me and Hunter cooked while you guys were out.” Indicating to Hunter, he waved awkwardly at the woman, still slightly nervous around his girlfriend’s mom, especially after Camila had learned that Hunter used to technically be Luz’s enemy.
“Perfect timing, coming through that door really works up an appetite, I could go for some breakfast.” Eda tiredly stretched out her limbs, clearly not used to being up at the hour she had woken to travel through the door with Camila to arrive in the Human Realm.
“Breakfast is just what I need right now, and if it’s Dominican… well then, prepare to be judged, Hunter.” Despite the innocent, teasing tone, Hunter still briefly braced himself at the words.
“She’s kidding, come on, let’s go sit dow-”
“Now wait a minute, where’s my hug?” With raised brows and a look of mock offense on her face, Eda opened her arms to Luz and chuckled as the human girl dived into the hug, affectionate as ever.
As Eda rubbed the girls back the embrace was abruptly broken by a third voice calling out. “So, is anyone gonna help me with these bags?”
“Rainstorm!” As if remembering her partner still outside, Eda pulled away from the embrace and raced back outside, quickly returning with a bag slung over her back, while carrying one half of a much bigger bag, the other side being carried by the previous Bard Coven Head, Raine Whispers.
With a grunt, the two witches let the bag crash to the ground before stretching out. As Eda gave the bard an apologetic look, the spectacled witch chuckled before cupping Eda’s cheek and bringing her in for a swift kiss.
“So, I heard someone say something about food?” As the bard witch questioned the group, the three adults were happily led by Hunter and Luz into the kitchen, where the small spread of food was still laid out.
Quickly seating themselves around the table, the two teens, now a group of five, not including the three palismen, began digging into the spread out food. Camila talked about the food, complimenting the authenticity of it, which Luz deflected to Hunter, causing the boy to blush slightly as Eda and Raine nodded in agreement.
As Luz recounted her brief stories from her and Camila’s holiday to the Dominican Republic to Eda, Raine and Hunter, Camila added her own stories as she could. “It’s been way too long since we’ve had this food. We need to go back there for a holiday again.” Nodding in agreement with her mom, Luz was interrupted as Eda hummed.
“Why don’t we just go by palisman?” Hunter chuckled as he heard Eda repeat his own question.
“Eda, remember, this isn’t the Titan, we can’t just go everywhere by Owlbert, he’d get too exhausted.” As the owl in question hooted at the bard they scoffed and raised their hand in mock surrender. “I meant no offense, if you want to try flying across continents, be my guest.”
The teasing tone of the witch made small chuckles go through the table. As Luz and Hunter fed small bits of their food to their palisman, they soon began trading their food with each other.
“Hunter, you should try dipping the yaniqueques into the chocolate, it tastes great.” As if to prove her point, Luz drenched a large chunk of the fritter totally into the chocolate and ate it in one.
“I’ve actually been trying it in the garlic dip.” Joining the boy in combining the two foods into the various side bits, Luz could only laugh as she saw Camila chuckle and shake her head, amused at the sight.
“Speaking of chocolate, you’ve got a little somethin’ Raine.” Vaguely indicating to the bard’s face, Eda chuckled as the witch tried and failed several times to wipe away the chocolate that stained their cheek. “Riiiiight there.” Bringing her own finger to the bard’s cheek, Eda happily wiped away the chocolate and sucked it from her finger, making the bard blush and the rest of the table laugh at the sight.
“Hey, Hunter.” Pulling the boy’s attention, Luz took a deep drink of the chocolate before leaning towards him with a smirk. “Do I have something on my face?”
“Yep," smirking back at the girl, Hunter wiped a napkin across the chocolate stain, "right there."
As the two devolved into small laughter, Luz leaned forward and pecked his cheek. “Thanks corazón.”
“Seriously though, if-”
“When!” Happily cutting off her mother, Luz turned her attention to Camila as she chuckled.
“When we go back to the Dominican Republic for a holiday, I’d love for some of you to join us, nothing but nothing beats sancocho or even better some authentic la bandera.” Luz let out a sound of nostalgic remembrance as her mother spoke, nodding along through her mouthful of food.
“Those certainly sound interesting at least.” Joining in the conversation, Raine sat slightly forward as they pushed what remained on their dish towards Eda, who happily ate the rest of her partner’s food.
“It’s great, sancocho is this stew with like, seven different meats. It’s incredible.” Eda hummed in clear interest at Luz's description of the dish, briefly lifting her head away from the food as she did.
“And la bandera you said? That’s… that just means ‘The Flag’ doesn’t it?” Hunter spoke, slightly uncertain of his tenuous grasp of Luz’s native language.
Kissing Hunter’s cheek as a reward she hummed with a small nod. “That’s right. But it’s more than the name, it’s like, the national dish over there, you’d love it.” Hunter nodded along with Luz as the group soon devolved into smaller, idle chatter as they began to finish off their meal.
"Well if we want some authentic food, I'm sure you could cook it up Camila." Nodding along with Eda, Hunter and Raine hummed in agreement, though Hunter spotted Luz and her mother sharing a look with each other he couldn't decipher.
Letting out a groan that turned into a chuckle, Camila leaned an elbow against the table as she absentmindedly ate at another yaniqueque. "Do you think you could tell my mother that? That woman says I'm losing my touch everytime we go back there."
Hugging her mother to try and reassure her, the Noceda matriarch happily returned Luz's embrace as Eda chuckled to herself. "Don't even get me started on mothers Camila, we'll be here all day."
"We're gonna be here for a few weeks dear, I doubt one day will make much difference." Smiling at their partner, Raine let out a small sigh as they looked around the kitchen, familiarizing themself with the new environment.
"When's King gonna get here? Or is he all tuckered out in one of your bags?" Giggling at the thought of the nap loving dog demon, Luz peered through the doorway, hoping to see a bulge waking up in one of them.
"Nah, he knew you two wouldn't resist going back to the Isles so he's still napping at home for you to pick him up." Eda leaned back as she sighed from the filling breakfast.
"I don't remember signing up to babysit your son Eda." Hunter chuckled as Luz playfully nudged his side with her elbow.
"You signed up as soon as you started dating me, you just didn't read the fine print." Giggling at the boy, Luz leaned into his side as she still felt exhaustion from the early morning clinging to her as she settled into him.
“So, where’s that basilisk girl? Vee, was it?” Raine asked as she turned to Camila and peered around the room, as if expecting the shapeshifter to appear.
“She’s staying at a friend’s house.” Camila simply responded before she perked up and turned to Luz. “Oh that reminds me, Luz, when she comes back, she actually wants to visit the Boiling Isles again soon. If she comes back early enough, maybe you can take her when you go to see your friends and King.” Pulling at the string necklace that had hung from her neck, Camila handed the key back to Luz who happily put it around her neck again.
“No problem, mom, me and Hunter can wait a few more hours to go.” Her mother nodded in slight relief before Luz smirked slightly and waved the key at her mother. “How’d it feel to open the door all by yourself for once?”
Camila nervously chuckled, slightly embarrassed at remembering all the times she felt uneasy about going near the door without her daughter. “It was fine, like you said, no big deal, just the click of a button and then a door appeared. Dios mio, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to all this magic, mija.” Despite the words, the smile on Camila’s face told Luz that, despite her unease around magic, she enjoyed it, at least to some extent.