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Luz had never had siblings. Her parents had joked that she was enough for three kids and, no matter how many times she begged for a little sibling, her parents laughed it off and changed the conversation. After her father died, it was safe to say the subject was dropped entirely.
It was weird, hearing about people who called their friends "brother" or "sister". How could someone be so close with another without being related, but feeling like they were? Luz couldn't even get anyone to say "hi" kindly to her, let alone have such a deep bond with someone who wasn't her mom. It hurt, to wonder if she would've been less lonely, less upset, if she had had a sibling. Sometimes, she even got upset at her mom for never having another kid. It never lasted, though. Luz was too much for her anyways.
The Boiling Isles had changed everything, though. It had made Luz's wildest dreams come true. A world where magic was real and witches were commonplace? Fairies, demons, witches duels, the whole nine miles. And, not to mention, she had met two people who had immediately spoken to her, without even one remark about her weirdness. They were eccentric themselves, though, and definitely not her age, but nevertheless it was new and exciting!
Even then, it had only taken a few days for her to meet other kids her age. A whole magic school of them! Only two were kind to her, though. Willow and Gus, people who were also ostracized.
Willow was sweet and shy, but she opened up pretty quickly. Luz was scared at first, what happened if Willow saw her weirdness and stopped talking to her? Yet, her worries were dissuaded when Willow laughed at her jokes and agreed to read Good Witch Azura at some point. It was amazing, to finally have somebody else who enjoyed similar things as her.
Gus was no different. He was small, about two years younger than them, and very talkative. His father was a reporter, and Luz wouldn't be surprised if Gus was going to be one, too. Luz, at first, had thought Willow was an exception. Certainly, everyone else had to be judgmental. Quickly, she learned she was very wrong. If anything, he was weirder than her. A human-fanatic who asked Luz a million questions a minute about the human realm. She tried to answer most of them, but some made her giggle too much to take them seriously.
"Why do you put barbed wire on your teeth? Do you hide valuables in it?"
"Do you really make pie out of shepherds?"
"Are giraffes real?"
The three were quick friends, and Luz also learned that some people were simply good. Willow wasn't just being nice to her because she pitied her, she genuinely liked Luz. Gus wasn't asking her all of these questions to mock her, he was curious and enjoyed hearing about her home. It was startling, and it scared her somewhat. She wasn't used to the kindness, the feeling of having actual friends. It was new, and most things were unknown to her.
One of the first things she noticed was how touchy they were. It wasn't bad touchy, but Willow and Gus were almost always inches away from each other or had some sort of contact. She could tell they didn't think about it, as if it was just a habit or instinct to be close to the other. They also were very in tune. If Luz said something unusual to them, all it took was one glance at each other and suddenly Luz was getting an explanation from both of them. It was creepy at first, but she quickly got used to it.
It reminded Luz of the way the couples at her school were, except without the kissing and the "I love you". Briefly, she wondered if they were dating. Of course, Gus was two years younger, but she had seen worse gaps, and maybe it was normal on the Boiling Isles. Summoning her courage, she caught Willow on the way to school and asked her.
-
"Willow?"
The girl looked around confusedly before her eyes landed on Luz. Willow's face lit up in recognition.
"Luz! Good morning." Willow smiled brightly, momentarily blinding Luz before she had a chance to notice Gus' absence. When she did, though, her eyebrows furrowed.
"Where's Gustoban?" The brunette asked, planting her hands on her hips and looking around as if the boy would jump out and scare her. It was rare that Gus and Willow wouldn't walk to school together, and even then the two always met up at some point.
Willow raised an eyebrow at the nickname before realizing who she was talking about. "Oh, Gus! He's sick today, but he should be back tomorrow." She looked slightly upset but it quickly went away.
Luz shifted from foot to foot, wondering how you asked someone if they were dating another. Exhaling all her anxious air, Luz decided to just cut it plain and simple.
"Speaking of Gus..." She wrung her hands, feeling her face warm. "I've been wondering... are you two dating?"
Willow froze. She seemed to take a moment to process what Luz had said, but when she did, she laughed and gave Luz a goofy grin. "No, no! We're just really close friends. I met him when we were way young and we've been friends ever since. If anything, he's more like my little brother. Besides, he's too young."
Luz felt her heart stutter. So, Willow too had someone so close they felt related. Her and Gus shared that bond. Luz felt slightly relieved that they weren't dating, because at least she wasn't a third wheel, but this felt almost worse. How could she ever measure up to that, to their friendship? She wasn't a third wheel to a romantic relationship, but she was a third wheel to basically siblings. Luz didn't know how she could ever get that close with either of them.
Hiding her feelings like she had always done, Luz let out a nervous laugh, scratching the back of her neck. "Yeah, I just thought because of how touchy you two were..." She trailed off, not knowing where to go from there. "My mistake." She settled on, hoping Willow wouldn't change her mind about liking Luz after this.
Instead, the other girl merely smiled, shrugging. "I guess it could look like that. We're just friends though."
Suddenly, the school bell rung out, making both girls flinch as Willow grabbed Luz's arm, pulling her along until the brunette started running for herself.
"We're gonna be late!"
-
It had been mystifying, to say the least, to see how real friends interacted. They joked and teased at each others expense, but never meant to hurt or anger. It was so different to what Luz was used to. She spent many nights staring at the stars and wondering if she would ever be close enough with someone to call them her sibling. Would she ever have friends like that? Willow and Gus were her friends, sure, but she didn't want to call them that close yet. Maybe they were, but it felt much too soon.
Luz silently wondered if she was too much for them, too.
-
8 months. It had taken 8 months to get back to the human realm and, in that time, she had accrued many more friends.
Amity, her now girlfriend, was the one she was closest to. The girl had the same passion for Good Witch Azura, almost more than Luz. Most times, though, she was calmer than Luz, evening out their relationship in the best way. Luz loved her more than she could ever express.
Luz would say Hunter was a close second, though. Their relationship had been rocky at best in the beginning, but they had gone through so much together. Every revelation, every panic attack and breakdown was shared with the other. Luz felt like he was a mirror image of her, somebody who she could relate to. She spent late nights reading Cosmic Frontier with a dead-asleep Amity draped across her, and Luz felt warm when she caught Hunter, bleary-eyed and groggy, reading Good Witch Azura before anyone else had woken up. In everything except blood, Hunter was her brother.
Vee, too, had become a member of their little group. It had been weird, seeing a look alike of herself in her home when Luz should've been missing. Yet, Vee and her had quickly became close. They cooked together quite often, learning Camila's recipes and struggling to recreate them.
It almost always ended up in something inedible, but they did it anyways. Although they may not have shared many interests, Vee was her sister, and Luz wouldn't change a thing.
Luz, Willow, and Gus had become closer, of course. Going through the Day of Unity would do that to anybody. They had become more touchy with her, too. If Willow was walking near her, Luz now expected to feel Willow's hand graze her back or shoulders, as if the girl needed to feel her to know she was really there. Gus was similar, but Luz had caught him staring at her more often than physically touching her. He always watched her, making sure she was okay and present. It made her feel guilty about trying to stay in the Isles, but she was happy they cared. Her best friends, truly.
The line of thought brought her to King and Eda. Before she had arrived back in the Human Realm, King had called her his sister. It hadn't even occurred to her that they were that close, that their relationship had progressed that far. The more she thought about it though, the more it became clear that he was so cruelly her little brother. Her shadow, her second pair of footsteps through every path she walked. Oh, how she missed him.
Eda. The name brought her so much heartache and pain. Luz couldn't escape the guilt and heaviness she felt when she thought of the old lady. If King was Luz's shadow, than Luz was most definitely Eda's. Just like she had tried to follow in Camila's footsteps, Luz had unsurely placed her small, clumsy feet into the large, imposing prints of her mentor's, the person who had become like a second mother to her. She tripped and fell through the cracks in the dirt, though, and now she had lost Eda, and she couldn't help her.
These people, everyone she knew and loved, they were her family. It had taken 8 months, and Luz had gotten everything she wanted. But at what cost? In doing so, Luz had ruined peoples lives, almost surely killed hundreds and stranded some of her family in a new realm. It was her fault that that were hurting, and she didn't know what to do. Luz had to fix it, but how? There were no more footsteps to walk in, just an unknown, undiscovered path to trail. A path that could get her and everyone she loved killed.
But that wasn't going to happen. Luz was going to do everything in her power to stop that from happening, to stop them from getting hurt. Even if... even if...
-
The clock displayed 2:45 am, flashing red lights boring into Luz's eyes. It mocked her for being awake, and she scowled. She could be awake if she wanted to... or didn't want to.
Sighing, Luz got up and carefully walked out of her room, trying not to wake Vee and Amity. The former was on the top bunk of her bed, and the latter was curled up on the bottom, oblivious to her lover's absence.
As if it was instinct, Luz made her way towards a window at the back of the house, opening it slowly and climbing out. From there it was easy to make it to the roof, and even easier to sit back and stare at the stars. They comforted her.
Everything returned to the sky and became a part of the stars.
It was something Camila had told her after Manny had died. Her dad was in the stars, always watching out for her. Luz wondered if he had followed her into the Boiling Isles, or if he, too, had agonized over her disappearance.
"Luz?" A familiar voice came, startling the girl. She jumped, looking over and breathing a sigh of relief at Hunter's appearance.
"What are you doing up here?" Luz asked, watching the boy clumsily climb towards her.
He swallowed, plopping down next to her. "I've seen you come out here a few times, and I wondered what you were doing." Hunter paused, looking around. He had never really paid attention to the nighttime in the human realm, but the moonlight glinted off of every little thing, creating a beautiful kaleidoscope of grays and blues that reached his eyes.
Luz watched him marvel over the colors for a minute, nervously rubbing her arm. She sighed. "I'm just thinking about..." Luz trailed off, not knowing what to say.
Hunter nodded knowingly. "Yeah, I get it." He looked away from her, a pained look on his face. Luz knew her own expression mirrored it, thinking back to being in Belos' mind and the Day of Unity. Luz nudged towards Hinter absentmindedly, feeling the fall air nip at her exposed limbs. She could tell Hinter felt it, too, as he curled closer into himself.
"Does it always get this cold everywhere?" He asked, still not meeting her eyes. The Boiling Isles had little change in temperature until you went onto the Knee or another mountainous are.
Luz gave a soft smile. "Yeah, it's just seasonal, man. Happens every year." She paused, leaning back on her palms. "It'll only get colder."
Hunter made a noise, shifting and pull his shirt tighter against him. "Never got this cold on the Isles." He froze as he said it, his head turning ever so slightly to glance at Luz.
Luz swallowed heavily, wringing her hands and pulling her knees up to her chest. It was silent for a long moment, both listening to the rustling trees in the wind.
"We'll get back home." Hunter said suddenly, placing a tentative hand on Luz's leg. "I know we will." His voice shook and Luz knew he was barely keeping it together.
"You think so?" Luz replied, leaning forward and looking at him hopefully. Two years her senior, Hunter was the closest thing she had to an older sibling. Knowing this, he gave her his strongest smile.
"I know so." He replied, determination in his voice. He moved his hand from her leg to her shoulder, squeezing it assuredly.
For a second, sitting under the stars with one of her closest friends, everything was okay.