Chapter Text
A grunt had parted Luz as she opened her eyes, staring up at the ceiling above her. Willow, Amity and Vee all shared a room with the human, to the kindness of Camila, Luz's mother.
There was the sound of the kettle boiling that could be heard from downstairs, which made Luz fully open her eyes and rub one with her knuckle.
Sleep had become hard for her. She had been rather wracked with guilt. Every time she had tried to sleep all she could remember…
But I can keep you safe.
Luz. I'm so happy I had you as a big sister.
Then she was sent flying through the door. The last moments she saw of the small Titan was him being pulled toward The Collectors arms before the door had shut and in a panic she jiggled with the door knob before it swung open, only to reveal the abandoned area of the home.
And then her eyes opened and she was sleeping on her bed, her eyes snapping open and sweat dripping down her face. Titan.
She had finally stepped out of bed, grasping her cracked phone that was resting at her bedside and slipping it in her pocket before moving toward the bathroom to wash her face. She splashed the cold water on her cheeks with her palms.
She then dried her facial with her towel, before quietly heading down the stairs.
'No, no, you need to just pour it into the bowl.' Camila was telling Gus, whom seemed to be attempting to make cereal.
'But why?' Gus asked simply. 'It'd make the stuff inside soggy!'
'It's meant to be eaten with the milk.' Camila advised with a small sigh. '..But you can eat it how you like, hijo, it was just a suggestion.'
'Do all humans like it with the milk?' Gus then asked. The two hadn't even noticed that Luz had sat down on the table in the kitchen. Hunter was already sitting down, Flapjack resting on his ash-blonde hair.
Luz reached up, gently using her fingertip to pat Flapjack, making the cardinal chirp and Hunter's magenta eyes glance over at her. '…Morning, Luz,' he greeted curtly, before turning back at whatever he was looking at, which simply seemed to be an empty mug before him.
'Good-morning.' Luz responded.
Ghost had leapt up from where she had been sitting, landing on the back of Luz's chair with a purr and leaning over to nuzzle Luz's head. The girl chuckled, raising her arm and stroking Ghost. 'Amity will be up soon, 'kay?' Luz remarked, which made Ghost meow albeit Luz couldn't understand.
Camila had turned her attention to Luz when Gus headed over to sit next to Hunter, a bowl of cereal with no milk in his hands. 'Do you humans always eat it with milk?' Gus asked.
'Well, that's how it's intended…' Luz trailed off as Gus took a spoonful into his mouth, only to blink and raise an eyebrow with a rather sour look upon his mouth. 'As it's pretty dry without,' she added with a small chuckle as Gus stood up to return to the carton of milk.
It wasn't actually milk. It was lactose-free as Luz was lactose intolerant and Camila didn't mind the taste of it.
After a few moments, Amity and Willow had wandered into the room. Willow looked very tired, squinting at everyone despite having her glasses on and a tired expression upon her facial. She combed her hands through her head before taking Gus' seat next to Hunter.
Gus however, didn't seem to mind, seeming incredibly occupied on making a bowl of cereal.
Amity sat down beside Luz, looking a bit more awake than Willow. Ghost jumped from behind Luz's head to on-top of Amity's shoulder, lying across her shoulders and nuzzling into her cheek. 'Good-morning, Ghost,' Amity smiled, before looking over at Luz. 'You too, batata.'
Luz grinned, albeit it almost seemed half-hearted in the mingle of her thoughts. She was stirring on quite a lot of it, not allowing her thoughts to cook for very long before they moved to other thoughts, albeit they all seemed rather insignificant.
Amity seemed to notice this, too, but didn't say anything as she adjusted her hands, fiddling with them in her lap.
It had been a few days since they had first arrived. While things weren't nearly as tense, a lot of things were still brewing for all of them. They had only just started their research on how in the name of Titan they were going to build a portal.
They had spent most of their time cleaning out the abandoned house, which ended up working in their favor. They had secured old furniture and other kinds of things to help spruce it up, which made it easier for what they wanted to do.
It gave them a place to sit and think. While Camila's house was preferred, as it was warm and comfortable, they were aware that they couldn't sit there forever as no progress would be made.
Flapjack chirped at Hunter, and Hunter nodded at the cardinal. 'Flapjack is asking to return to the abandoned house.' He translated to Luz, and the girl huffed in response.
'We don't really have a plan yet, though,' she offered. '…But, uh, sure. We can go.' She stood up, glancing at Amity expectantly. The witch gave a small nod, standing up with Luz.
'Just come to the house when you're done,' Amity told Gus, whom simply held a thumbs-up toward her before continuing whatever in the name of Titan he was up to.
Willow stood up, too. She wrapped an arm around Hunter's and shot him a smile despite how tired she was, and the boy returned it.
And so the four traveled in a unit toward the abandoned home, which wasn't too far, thankfully. There was an old couch, and while incredibly worn (as they had picked it up off the side of the road) it was still decent enough. Willow sat down on it while Hunter leaned against one of the tables.
Flapjack flew off of his shoulder, landing on the floor and beginning to peck furiously at the wood. Hunter raised an eyebrow, crouching down to look at the cardinal. 'Flapjack?' He prompted. 'What are you.. Pecking at?'
There was no reply. Not even a chirp from the bird and Hunter frowned. '…Uhm. Okay, you can… Do that.'
Willow looked toward Hunter, before waving a hand. 'It's alright,' she soothed. 'I'm sure he's just trying to get comfortable, like we are.'
Hunter seemed a bit more reassured, giving a grateful blink toward Willow before moving toward Luz, whom was already beginning to draw ideas and plans on some loose bits of paper.
'Do we even know where to start?' Hunter asked.
'Well, we've already gotten a start by cleaning up this place.' Amity responded. Her hand was wrapped around Luz's shoulder. '…We just need a better idea on the how, not the where.'
'The best 'how', is Titan's blood,' Willow replied from the couch, her chin against the back of it as she gazed ahead. 'But, we don't know where to get any. We'll need a strong alternate source if we even want to get close.'
The two witches (and Hunter) looked to Luz expectantly, and the human blinked, placing a perplexed hand upon her chin and raising an eyebrow. 'I uh.. Dunno. Car battery? Something like that.' She replied simply, before shrugging.
Amity then wrote 'car battery' down on a piece of paper, raising an eyebrow. 'Okay, it's a start.'
Start isn't good enough.