Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Witches exist.

Not the pointy hat, long nosed womans that eat babys and brew snake oil however. They do not use pointy hats, nor are particularly known for having long noses, and they surely do not eat babys, one does have a pertinence for the scamming arts such as brewing oil snake, as we are sure to see.

Witches are, as the old tales partially got right, woman that affiliated themselves with forces from beyond and aquired magic through numerous sources, rituals, offerings, sacrifices, knowledge. The part they had gotten wrong though, was as one can suppose, that Witches are not simple evil plagues that bring forth desgrace towards their homes

Some can be, but some they hailed as saints once, adored as conquerors and governors, or lived with as their loving neighbours. Witches were unnatural by definition, but hardly one could truly discern between their unnatural abilities and a simply highly skilled individual.

Witches where by the lack of a better term, a scarce few, a select group that did not liked their existence to be made public, some claimed for the protection of the natural order, others didn’t want to share their gifts, and at least one…

“Miss Eda i HAVE to have this its a tome of flesh and bones sultured with the hairs of a dead man, with details on how to curse people, AND IT TALKS…!”

‘KIll me or read me, it all only leads to the road of the daaaaaaaanmed’

“so cool.”

The young boy with a cranium t-shirt could not be older than 12, still he held the acursed object with appreciation and a novelty in his eyes that talked of passionate admiration. 

In front of him, floated a woman, floating yes, sitting still midair hands extended and thumbs pressing the indicators, a perfect lotus mudra. Plates with diverse items floated around her, said items included a candle, a plushie and a half chewed brownie. 

At least one could not give a danm about the natural order.

The woman was of course, a witch, but unnatural abilities and the fact she was making use of them right outside of her garage apart, what called most attention about her where her signature looks, her silver mane of hair, her red dress and the gold jewlry decorating her hands and face varying from rings to earrings.

Hearing the call of the young boy, the witch calmly lifted her blackglasses…

“Hu? what? who?”

She wisely said while cleaning sleep from her eyes and clumsy getting down to her feet, almost falling in the process. 

The plates she levitated, by total acident one might note, fell to the ground and broke apart with a loud shatter.

“oh farts that was my favorite snack! urgh, whatever, who is it that… oh its you again goops”

“Hi again miss Eda! and its actually Augustus, but everyone calls me Gus, so…”

“yeah yeah yeah i know it goops, and i already told you to stop with the ‘Miss’ thing, it makes me look old. And mama here can’t have that”

The woman said while shifting her hair from one shoulder to the other. 

“Sorry Missu-uh! Eda, sorry Eda”

“Meh, better than nothing, now why you woke me up in the first place, can’t you see i was naaaaa-meditating, yes very busy meditating about… the weather.” 

‘Nailed it’ Eda mentally called before looking at the tome in the boy’s hand.

“Oh that ancient thing?”

Taking the book the Eda looked it over and around, it was of course one of the hundread or so tomes she had stolen-Aham, borrowed from her old home before leaving, most of it were child’s curses and incantations, turning a member inside out, making the person get a random but aways annoying dingle music in their head, half-death spell to make an alive burial look as realistic as possible.

all good things that were easily fixable and harmless when you had magic or lived with a family of witches that all could undo the effects with a snap of the fingers. it brought an air of nostalgia to Eda, she and her sister used it till the pages went crumbling. 

“ah the good old days… 20 bucks.”

“Deal!”

Happily receiving his new item, Gus jumped in happines.

“Yes yes yes! i can’t wait to read it all! thank you so much Miss Eda! and tell Luz i said hi!”

The boy went ahead and sprinted down the street back to his home, missing the call behind him ‘Not a miss!’ yelled by a now grumbling Eda.

“Urgh, kids, if they weren’t such an easy score i would curse them all, for sure… maybe not too much time to go one by one. Oh well, where i was? Ah yes! ready to take some midday nap while also catching the attention of dumb humans.”

And as before, Eda slowly floated into the air, her feet slowly leaving the ground, acquiring once more to the position of lotus with finges connected, this time a smile covering her face.

She sighed.

‘Finally some, well, deserved, inner peace.’

“EDAAAAAA!”

“ Aaaaand there goes my inner peace”

Putting both feet to the ground, the witch turned around right on time to hold her excitable aprentice moments before she crashed into her.

“Eda Eda Eda, i need your help!”

the girl exclaimed with that flamboyant exaggeration and drama that Eda firmly denied liking.

“What happened this time kid?”

“I need to summon a demon!”

“What? No you don't, those things are dangerous and bloodthirsty, and worse, dealmakers! They would feed on your naivety and sunshinery soul”

“But Eeeeeda it says here that all respectable witches have made a pact with at least one or more demons!”

The girl pulled up an old magazine.

“see!”

“What? give me that”

A one glance over with her eyes and Eda could already see the bullshit that dripped from the paper. ‘potions made of frog organs’, ‘the newest and bestest broom on sale!!!’ and of course a classic ‘wrinkle remover 300!’ 

*snort* “forgot i had this. still the answer is no, i can’t have my one and only apprentice losing her soul to some random demon just cause a magazine said so.”

“Well no demon will steal my soul If i make them my friend First! Or convince them of the long term advantage of a mutually beneficial agreement!”

“Ha! You Will get your face eaten off before you can get a word in, Sorry Kiddo That's too much for you and your mom already gets on my ass for the things i teach you”

“Aaaawn.”

“Wich is why i Will be helping you this time”

“Yeah Yeah YEAH!!!!!”

A moment later and both witches had prepared their ritual. Candles alligned around a circle scripted outside of a pentagram.

“Are you sure using aromatic candles and crayon to draw the Magic símbols is ok? Don't want to offend any Demon.”

“Well luz you tell me, If you were a Demon, would you like to be summoned in boring old and Magic circle made of way too expensive things, or this cool bad boy!”

Eda gestured to the candles with different sizes and the very colored drawing of ritualistic symbols.

Luz eyes sparkled

“This bad boy”

“Of course. Now be prepared luz, we don''t know which demon might answer our call beon your guard and don't approach no matter what!”

“Got It!”

“Great. So lets get started.”

Eda closed her eyes for a single moment, and when she opened them again, They shone with bright Gold.

“Whoa” 

No matter How many times she Saw Magic, luz Noceda never Got tired of It, and How could she? When the fantastical swirled around her like the most natural occurence.

Eda’s Voice echoed them, filling the Air with an unnatural language, a language that only she herself and those of hers could understand, a language luz herself could only understand words at most. 

The Voice of the mentor sung the words of old destinys and unknown places the sounds Changing the air with Magic

The girl understood a few words from the chant, ‘invite’, ‘feast’, ‘deal’, ‘demon’ 

And as quickly as It begun, the voice seized and so did the light, the whole place stood still for a time. As the thin veil of smoke was the only proof that anithing had happened at all.

Taking a deep breath, Eda Felt to one knee 

“Eda!”

Luz claimed and run to her side

“Are you ok?”

“Im fine Kiddo. Just used a bit more Power than i thought i would”

Calming her apprentice's worries, Eda Got up and looked around

“Now I think we have a Quest to receive.”

“What do you… *gasp*!”

At the center of their Magic circle, luz and Eda both Saw a lingering Shadow, Its form with a Beast’s face, a devils horns and a wolf’s fur was revealed…

“Who dares to summon me! The king of demons”

And It was in luz words.

“Que lindo!”

“Luz wait!”

Not losing Amy moment at all the girl jumped at the small creature and hugged him close like a furred toy

“Unhand me right now human! Im your king and you shall respect me!”

“Oh you're so angy, who is a wittle guy? Who is a wittle guy? Is It you? Is It you?”

“Aaaaargh no i don''t know who your little Guy is, witch take her away from me!”

“Eeeeeda he is soooo cute, can we keep him? Can we keep him??? Please please pleaaaase!”

On Eda’s Head a sudden headache formed.

“dang it”

Was all she could say

—-----------

Meanwhile

Camila found herself in the principal’s office at Gravesite high School. In front of her, the old principal sat with Stern expression in his face.

“Ms Noceda ive called you here to talk about Luz, her recent activities have been causing us a lot of trouble”

said the headmaster with his usual stern demeanor. Camila didn't flinch at the voice or the tone

“what has she done this time?”

The sound of rust came from him opening a shelve and getting a folder, opening he started citing.

“Created portals in between the classes to study more, gave a third eye to boscha and make a sentient monster to try and impress her friends.”

While reciting, the man turned the files over so the mother could see, there was also a couple of pictures of her Luz having fun with her friends in it, she held back  giggle at her silly expressions. A bit of her amusement must have escaped though as when she looked up Bump was clearly not amused. 

In a deep sigh, she answered.

“with all due respect, Mr Bump, none of this seem really bad, wanting to impress your firends, wanting to study more, those are things you should encounrage no? uh except for the Boscha situation though, luz is Really Sorry about that” 

“There is no need to be, apparently she loves the ‘new look’ It gave her, Said something about ‘having an Edge on all her sports competition and finding It rather cute too.”

he reassured.

“Oh, that's good”

“indeed and as with the other occurrences the PTA thought the same as you and laid down the teachers complaints, apparently there is no place for prejudice against witchery in this ‘inclusive’ era”

The Man sighed seemingly getting older with every breath he took. his stern demeanor immediatly leaning off to a down and pitful display.

“wich is why i’m beging you for help! Please tell her to stop doing magic at school! Please! the teachers are going crazy!”

Now that was a bit more worrisome and did give Camila some pause.

“I don’t know if i can, and honestly neither i think i should, she is very happy, her bully problems were solved, no thanks to you, and she is bonding with her mentor”

“oh how could i forget!?"

a smidge of spine returned with a fire to his eyes at the mention of Luz 'mentor'

"Yes, talking about her ‘mentor’, Ms Camila, why do you let a scammer like Eda around your kid?? Teaching her Witchcraft even!”

Camilas paused, wondering how best to answer.

“I wondered the same thing at first, but Eda was very upfront about not teaching 'scam' as part of the 'course' and she showed me she is quite competent at being a teacher, so I didn't see any danger. Still don't see It to be honest”

Camila guarded to herself the second not that important reason of allowing Eda to mentor her kid, that being, Eda is smoking hot.

“Are you really sure?”

“Yes.”

Cellphone plays.

“hello?”

“Cam! hi. So, we might have, uh, summoned a demon? And luz wants to adopt it?”

Background voice ‘You will let your king go this instant spawn! or i will tear you apart!” followed by Luz

screaming “MAMI HE IS SO CUTE! SUCH A WITTLE GUY LETS ADOPT HIM PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!”

Camila Turned the cellphone off

“Ok i might be regretting It a little, i may try to set more ground rules”

“Thank you very much"

he finally answered with a relieved sigh

Chapter Text

Getting a day off to talk with Luz principal suddenly turned into a day off to make sure Luz’s new friend didn’t have demonic plague, or demonic fleas, or whatever other horrible version of Earth’s diseases that may be contagious really.

A normal parent would be overwhelmed, to Camila Noceda it was a very good coincidence that the two events lined up and she wasn’t going to test her luck by complaining. 

Two short trips, one to get her daughter, her mentor, and the little demon, another to her clinic and here they are. The demon, who was for now, nicknamed ‘King’, sat on top of the exams table, his quest for destruction and thirst for blood momentarily quenched by the sweet human treat of a ‘lollipop’

Camila meanwhile, took his distraction probe and checked his little form all around, inside his ear, between his toes, eyes, his little but very razor teeth. damn those were some sharp teeth.

“Can you stop doing that, Human!” 

The demon, King, questioned with impatience, ‘just like a normal kid’ camila smiled at the thought,

“Um momento chiquito, mama is just making sure you’re alright.”

The little demon grumbled and took a bigger bite of his candy, probing a giggle from Luz, who stayed right by his side at the table.

“don’t laugh at me, fool human! You’re already on the top of my to destroy list!!”

“oooooh i’m sorry but you’re just so cute, i can’t help it”

“I'm not cute!”

Luz them started scratching his belly

“yes you aaaare!”

He started giggling.

“noooo!” 

He yelled, bumping his arm on the table. 

Camila had to admit, when she received a call about her daughter wanting to adopt a little demon, she wasn’t expecting the little guy to be this cute. Neither did she expect him to actually look and act anything closer to a normal child.

And while she took his pressure and checked the other data she had collected thus far, she also hadn’t expected for him to be so… normal.

‘what does that mean?’ she wondered, ‘do the lifeforms at hell look a lot like ours? or do we look a lot like them? could it be King ain’t actually from a place so far fetched as hell?’

“weh, you stop calling me cute this instant human or i… i… I will do something!”

shaking her head, Camila got her head back in place. ‘Well no time for this type of questioning right now either way’ after all, she still had one last material to acquire, the most difficult one at that.

Pulling a needle from behind herself she looked at Luz and gestured to King, already having helped with her other more ‘non-talking’ patients, Luz knew exactly what she meant.

“So pequenito, you might feel a little sting.”

camila said as she pult the gloves and prepared the needle. King immediately going ram rod straight with the eyes disheveling in panic.

“Sting!? Sting!? Sting from Wha-”

“WHO IS A CUTIE PIE!?”

“WHE!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?”

Luz tackled the king and held him at her eye level.

 “Who. is. my. Cutiepie!? Who is it? is it you? is it you??”

Camila inserted the needle as Luz pampered his skullface with kisses. He tried to bap her face away and tell her to stop but his eyes and what could only pass as a smile in his ‘lips?’ told the truth of how he really felt about the attention.

A second later, she removed the needle, a thumbs up let Luz know she was done.

“i. i am not. your cutiepie.”

“yes you aaaare.”

She gently put him down and he sighed.

“Yes i am…”

“Oh don’t be distressed pequenõ, you are a great demon.”

He looked at the older woman with gleaming eyes.

“I am? I mean, of course I am!”

“Yes, very brave too! you didn’t even flinch at the sting!”

“Weh!?”

Looking to his arm that now had a very colorful band-aid in it, King’s mind processed what just happened, and in true toddler fashion, he got to the only logical conclusion.

“YES! aha! of course, as i’ve been saying! A mighty ferocious demon like me could never be afraid of something so small as a sting!” 

Getting up on his feet, he pointed at Luz

“See mortal! I'm your rightful overlord! Bow before me!”

with another giggle Luz obliged

“oh but of course my liege”

Camila smiled at the display.

“well i will leave for an instant to deliver the data, you two behave ok?”

“Yes mami!”

“Hm a king doesn't need to be told how to act… but, uh, can i have one more of this lo-pop thing? I was very brave!”

Camila smiled and grabbed a second lollipop.

“But of course, brave boys deserve a reward”

giving him the candy made him glee in happiness, camila held back a coo before giving a kiss to luz forehead and, taking her instruments, leaving the room.

Outside. 

One Owl Lady sat herself on the waiting chairs of the corridor, Camila pretended to not see Eda changing her worried posture to a more relaxed one or how her feet stomped on the floor rhythmically. 

“Heeey cam, how is the squirm? Still alive? not that i care about it or anything, you know?”

Yes camila did know, how little Eda cared, she cared so little she only had one single album of pictures of ‘luz accomplishments’ said accomplishments of course including her record of biggest animal brought home, at the moment it was a draw between a mid sized deer and a snake who was… ‘hugging’ a possum.

“Yes he seems all right and healthy, and no, he doesn't look like he is faking his personality, he is a toddler through and through, or at least he acts and thinks like one” 

The witch sighed relieved, then tried to cover it with a whistle, she couldn’t fool Camila though, immediately pressing a hand to her temples, and with a snap in the tongue, Eda showed her real preoccupations weren’t all satisfied. 

“good, good thats…”

The woman took a long moment to complete the thought, grumbling as she looked to the side and muttered a few curses under her breath, then blew a puff of air.

“...As good as it gets.”

She finally said.

Camila would have found amusing that the ‘revered’ and aways gloating Owl lady was being annoyed and troubled by this simple furry toddler, but she herself was unsure of what to do or how to proceed in this situation. 

“Can’t you send him back?”

She asked while removing and throwing away her gloves.

Eda blew a strand of hair from her face.

“If I could, I would have done it already. Luz broke his summoning glyph and nothing happened. I made a deal and gave him a stupid candie for silence, nada, hell im half considering…! …No, forget it.”

Camila raised an eyebrow.

“What I mean to say is. No method I know to unsummon a demon has been working and if what you say is true, and we are dealing with a newborn demon or something, then I don’t know if he knows how to do it either or if it's safe. Which means that for the foreseeable future…

“...He might be stuck here, pobrecito…”

“Cam that is a demon”

“Hush Eda, he is a little kid.”

the owl lady rolled her eyes.

“Yeah i don’t buy it, even if he is a kid now, give it a week and he will try to eat the souls of the unclean. What do you think of doing to him?” 

“Well, we will have to take care of him, he can sleep back at home but we both work the afternoons so he may need to go to school with Luz, at least for a while, would bump get mad at a last minute enrollment?”

“Wait, wait a second, we?”

Camila gave her a targeted glare. 

Eda gulped, ‘ok i screwed up there somewhere.’

“Aham. Yeah, WE, miss ‘most powerful witch alive’ you summoned a demon with Mija so you bet you WILL be caring for him with us! GOT IT!?”

“Yes Ma’an.”

No one would get Eda to admit that Alive, but the way Camila went right through her bullshit was one of the most attractive things she had ever seen or heard…

-

Long calls and a night after.

“This is the most disrespectful heretic thing I have been subjected to all my life, and I have been alive for eons!”

Yelled the small tyrant wearing a him-sized bag with a t-shirt that said ‘I'm a BLOODFULL Cutie’ an attire he actually didn’t mind putting on surprisingly.

What he did mind and was the source of his contempt since the day had begun, was the bigger Human Camila sending him and Luz to this nightmarish place called ‘the school’ the descriptions seemed awful but walking the corridors with the witch apprentice was ten times worse.

dozens and dozens of teenagers run amok and unattended, talking, flirting, joking, attempting murder, it made him cringe, which was stupid! 

Grumbling and stomping hard on the floor, the King of demons seethed, this miniature version of himself was but a powerless weakling! he couldn’t scare the smallest of animals, let alone fry all this useless youth until they exploded.

That lack of independence and power got to his nerves and made him boil, he was ready to go on a rampage and try to bite down at least a few kneecaps only to feel a bit of his power back. There was only one reason he hadn’t yet attempted the deed.

“And scoop!” 

He didn’t struggle as the little witch took him from the ground and put him over her shoulders. The movement of her walk as well as a few stitches to the neck calming and soothing his nerves.

had it not been for this insolent human who didn’t know her place but at the same time was the only one to actually worship him, he would have already thrown a reckoning at this time.

“C’mon buddy don’t need to pout, school is fun you will have a nice time!” 

“I don’t want to have a ‘nice time’, I want my power back! I want to go back to my realm of destruction and my throne of skulls!”

“But do you know how to do that?”

he paused.

“No?’”

“And school is a place where you go to learn things, so doesn't it make sense that we go here to search for how to bring you back home?”

The toddler-size demon seemed to think the words in his head, before receding with a grumpy puff.

“Fine, as long as we don’t have to deal with any more human nonsense.”

“Oh that's a deal! as long as i’m around this place it will look more and more like hell!”

Luz proudly declared, in the middle of the hallway, which got the whole student corp in the hallway to move away as fast as they could. Some of the faculty passed by straight up passing out, some whimpering ‘it's Eda all over again’ and at least a few students pulling their jackets insideout to avoid having it destroyed in the splash zone, whenever that came.

“Ooooh you already got rid of the swarm of hormones! impressive!”

“Uh, weird, why does this always happen when I'm excited?”

no time to focus on trivial matters, as from behind a corner came running two people, alarmed and yelling. for her

Gasping, Luz yelled right back at them.

“Friends!’

In excitement to run ahead and hug her friends, the girl got king disbalanced, the little demon almost falling, but managing to hold on. Luz noticed his struggle and helped him to the ground after a quick hug with her peers.

“Oh whoops, I'm sorry King.”

“You should be! Caution with the king! And who are these people!?”

“Right right, so…”

She gestured to the two kids taking their breaths.

These are Willow and Gus, my best friends in the world! Willow and Gus, this is my new Friend and demon bestie, King!”

Puffing his chest, the demon expected none less than surprise and bafflement

“oh *pant* you actually *pant* summoned a demon, whoa, that's cool.”

but all he got was a few breathless acknowledgements that earned the new humans a mean glare.

“Aham and he is the best boy around”

Luz marked her words with a kiss to his temple, that got him grumbling but not reacting otherwise.

her friends Cooed at the scene, but finally regained their breaths and worry took their expressions.

“Wait that's right, Luz we came to warn you, she is coming for you, you have to run!”

said Willow as Gus shook his head frantically.

“Who 's coming?”

The question of the young witch was answered not with words, but by the lights suddenly turning off, as the sound of fingers snapping and shoes walking made their way from the same corridor Gus and Willow had come from. 

The light came back as a spotlight, showing a bunch of teens all walking in a pyramid formation, with two sat at the top, a girl with silvery hair playing a guitar, and a pink haired girl with a noticeable third eye.

“Oooh it 's Boscha haha.”

Luz nervously muttered.

“weh? who 's Boscha?”

“She was our Bully, until Luz gave her that third eye”

Gus helpfully explained

“You humans don’t naturally have third eyes?”

“uh… no?”

“Weh, that's lame.”

“Aham, look who it is Skara! The dorky nerd squad. How lucky of us”

The silvernette now named, Skara, looked confused at Boscha.

“We just chased them down the hallway?”

“Shhh, don’t ruin the mood, stairs formation B!”

The teens changed formation to a staircase so that both girls could descend quickly.

Kings eyes shone.

“Weh now that is some powerful command! how did this human even manage to enslave so many failures!”

“Hey!” called one of the ‘stairs’ components. “We are not failures, we are the Boscha fanclub! working to get our ideals atten-OW!”

Stepping on his face, Boscha jumped down to their eye level. 

“hey halfpint, four eyes, how are you two?”

“hi guys!”

Boscha said and Skara complemented waving happily. Willow felt her eye’s ticking with stress already coming up.

“You almost trampled over us with your damn lackeys a second ago!?”

Boscha turned her eyes to her nails, completely disinterested.

“Oh those were you? Sorry I thought it was just normal trash. not that there is much of a difference between normal trash and a bit less trashy trash anyway.”

Willow gripped her knuckles.

“And your ‘flashy decorated trash-ass’ wants with us?”

“Ooooh, using my insult back at me! flower has thorns, but the worldplay was bad so i give you a seven out of ten, not that bad at all

The girl in glasses growled. Sensing her patience was up, Boscha went right to the point

“Anyways i just came here to remind you guys that i’m still better than you aaaand…”

“Hi! luz…”

“he, hehe, hi… Amity.”

Boscha sighed

“And because of that.”

To the side a green haired girl, Amity, looked in Luz's general direction, but didn’t dare make eye contact, one of her hands held on to her dress for dear life while the other held her books, her face was red as a tomato.

Meanwhile Luz's eyes were droopy while facing her, as if she had never seen anything quite as beautiful, she had the same blush but wasn’t as shy, staring directly at the other girl’s face with hearts in her eyes.

King cringed and Willow almost barfed.

“Whe, what in my name is that???”

Gus and Skara both shook their heads at the same time.

“Teen romance.” 

“We have to do something about that.”

Willow and Boscha said at the same time, and they immediately panicked and went to the closest trash cans to barf out their breakfast.

“hmmm.”

King wondered. Chaos, implacable hierarchy, knowledge, scratches, death rivalries. maybe, just maybe, he could like this school thing… a little bit.