A/N: I just wanna take this moment to really thank everyone for their comments so far, and how much you guys seem to like my take on the Betas. I've received a few comments that say they're usually not fond of the betas, and I'll admit, the way they're written sometimes irks me, because they're Beta Luz and Amity, but a lot of people just write them both like edgy Boscha.

There is nothing wrong with that, either. These are more or less fandom OCs that don't have any set personality beyond what we give them, unlike their canon selves. Writing them that way certainly captures how teens think they're mature, and helps accentuate how immature they actually are. When it's written to be that way, at least. But, like I said, I usually find them to mostly just be Boscha 2.0 x2, and far too nasty towards each other for me to root for. If we're going the more traditional "They don't like each other" route that I avoided in my own fic, I prefer a more active rivalry over name calling and mutual bullying.

My own take on the Betas is to base them off of their canon counterparts more closely than that. Lucia is Luz, but a little more world wearer, gruff, and sarcastic, but ultimately with the same kind heart. Amelia is based off all three Blight siblings, having Amity's smarts, but the Twins' troublemaking attitude, with the added bonus of the twins' confidence and Amity's eyes for Luz(or Lucia, in this case).

The fic "Among Humans" by JustAnotherMask is a good example of the Betas designs being written this way as well, while also being based off a great set of comics by MoringMark. Both were big inspirations for my own betas, and you should check those out if you haven't.

Stay tuned for more author's notes at the end if you're interested, and have a swell day!

Lucia woke to a dull ache in her arm, remnants of what had happened the night before. The sudden sensation of pain made her bolt up to a sitting position, with the realization that the events that had happened the day before had not, in fact, been a very vivid nightmare. She rolled out of bed, nearly tripping over her sheets as she grasped for her phone, intent on calling Amela.

Only to let the phone fall from her fingers as she bitterly recalled her friend wanted some time alone. Lucia couldn't fault her for that. While they had both been attacked by a monster last night, Amelia was the one dealing with the realization she wasn't even human. That was heavy news to discover about yourself, no matter who you were.

So Lucia crossed her arms and fell back into bed. She could wait for Amelia to text or call her first. She had all day.

A week later she found herself staring wistfully at her phone, still waiting for any form of contact with her Elven friend. She'd been so focused on willing it to ring, or chime, that she hadn't heard her mother come in from her job and didn't realize her presence until she felt a hand gently grasp her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, mija." Camila spoke gently, her eyes full of sympathy. Lucia felt very confused why her mother was apologizing, until- "I know what it's like to be ditched by someone that you really liked. And you must have been so smitten, you've been staring at your phone for days on end."

Oh, right. Lucia never explained what had happened with her "date" last week. Honestly, it was a little humiliating to even try to explain. "It's okay, Mom, it's not what you think."

"No, it's not okay!" Camila insisted, "And it's okay for you not to be okay. I swear, boys can be so inconsiderate to a woman's feelings. You're really better off just forgetting about them."

Lucia chuckled at the irony of that statement. If only her mother knew. "Is this the part where you bring out the non-dairy ice cream and we eat my troubles away while watching bad television?"

Camila smiled, patting her back, "better yet, with Luz gone, I stocked up on the good, non-non-dairy stuff."

That brought a genuine grin to Lucia's lips, "Well, what are we waiting for? You get the ice cream, and I'll turn on the terrible daytime soap operas."

Together the two women made their way to the kitchen, grabbing bowls and filling them with ice cream. Lucia took note that all of it was brand new, and it was the good stuff, not the cheap kind they normally got, meaning her mother had stopped by the store specifically to stock up on ice cream to get her through this.

They journeyed to the couch, turning on the television. "Do you want Spanish, or English soap operas?" Camila asked.

"Either works, they're both terrible day time television."

"Spanish it is."

Together they lounged around on the sofa, after finishing up their dessert they changed into comfortable pajamas and continued to lay around for the rest of the day, forgetting about Lucia's own drama and focusing on the tiny, fragile egos of the people on the television and how they dealt with their lives instead.

Another week had passed, and while Lucia wasn't glued to her phone anymore, she must have still seemed mopey. She only became aware of it because her mother was sitting on the sofa beside her, casting unsubtle looks her way as they watched TV and typing on her own phone. She was clearly texting someone about her.

Lucia didn't really care, as long as it wasn't something embarrassing that would get back to anyone she actually knew. Lucia was used to being the problem child, but between her fighting and Luz's reckless pursuit of a fun time, their mother was used to an entirely different set of issues, she probably had no clue what to do with the typical teenage angst and self pity she and Luz normally lacked, and was likely in some parental group chat about how to handle this type of thing.

Lucia knew something was up when her mother suddenly stood from her seat with some urgency, but with the look of someone who was improvising and had no idea what they were about to do. "I need to… Iron the dishes." She stuttered out, making her way to the kitchen and out of the room, just in time for Lucia's phone to begin ringing.

Removing it from her pocket, she didn't even need to glance at the number or icon to know who it was. She'd had Luz's ringtone set to the first Azura movie's theme song for ages, after all. And her sister must be missing her face, since she was making a video call, too. Who knew the camp got a good enough signal to do that? Wasn't it up in the mountains? She quickly answered and held the phone up to her face, "Hey, Luz."

"Hola, Lucia!" Her sister's aggressively cheerful greeting rang out, followed by a wave that was way too close to the camera and ended up just blocking her view of her sister. Luz sat in a room that Lucia assumed was her cabin, since it looked to have wooden walls, and lots of natural lighting from a window out of frame. "How's my favorite sibling doing?"

"I'm your only sibling," Lucia reminded her, then cut right to the chase. "And Mamá put you up to this, didn't she?"

"Whaaaaat? Nooo!" Luz said unconvincingly, as terrible at acting subtle as their mother was. It might be genetic, but Lucia prayed that wasn't the case for her own sake. After a moment of awkward silence, Luz moaned disgruntledly, "What gave it away?"

"Mom just left the room in a hurry, and you've barely called me at all since you got to camp. It really wasn't hard to put together." Lucia made sure she was giving the best unimpressed look she could manage to further hammer in how obvious they'd been.

"Sorry, I've just been having so much fun lately!" Luz said quickly, looking nervous. "Oh, I made another friend! Her name is Amity. We've been rivals for a bit, but earlier, me, and Eda- She's a… uh, Camp Counselor, and Amity's older siblings, went out for a, uh… hike yesterday! And we've cleared a lot of stuff up, and are friends now."

Lucia smiled, "I'm glad you're making more friends, Luz. But why are Amity's older siblings there? Isn't this camp for kids in your age range?" She was pretty sure this was for middle schoolers, from what the brochure had said.

For whatever reason, Luz clammed up, going silent on her end. Lucia thought that the signal hadn't been as strong as she'd thought for a moment, that the audio must have been cut off and Luz hadn't heard her. When Luz did speak, she didn't sound convinced of the answer. "Oh, they're, uh, Junior counselors? Yeah, that's what they are. Anyway, enough about me, what's up with you? Mamá said you've been all down in the dumps lately?"

Lucia knew her sister was deflecting, for whatever reasons she might have, but she did choose a good topic to get Lucia ranting. She blew out a frustrated huff from her nose, "I'm fine. I just had some… problems. I'm sorting them out."

"You know, Eda, the Camp Counselor Lady, who has nothing to do with owls, likes to say "you can't kid a kidder." And you're not fooling me, Lucy!" Luz pointed at her accusingly.

Lucia suppressed a groan at that choice of nickname. "Alright, fine. I went on a date two weeks ago, and I don't think things are going well. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Despite the low video quality, Lucia could still see the sparkles forming in Luz's eyes over this new information. The girl had an unhealthy obsession with romance in Lucia's opinion, and she could already imagine the shipping charts she'd be making when this call was over. Still, Lucia couldn't regret telling Luz this, in place of the full truth about what was bothering her. It was better to leave Luz in the dark about actual monsters existing, or she might try to go and befriend one. And if she found out about Amelia having magical powers, she might try to date her in Lucia's place.

That idea of Amelia and Luz dating shouldn't bother her as much as it did. She'd normally just chalk it up to being an overprotective big sister, but after everything that happened…

Luz spared her from finishing that thought, "Oh. My. Gosh! Tell me everything! Was it romantic? What did he do to get you to go out with him? Why aren't things going well? Does he have a six pack? No, no, an eight pack?"

Lucia couldn't help but snort. Okay, point one for her mother, this phone call was making her feel better. Luz's boundless enthusiasm was absolutely contagious, and she felt a bit better about opening up, even if this next part was a bit embarrassing. "No, he doesn't have a six or an eight pack. Or, well, I don't think so? And, well, He is actually a she, by the way."

And there it was. The silence that spoke volumes, where she seriously wondered if her sister was about to pass out from sheer excitement. Just as she was getting a little worried about how long Luz had been quiet, it ended, with Lucia having to hold the phone out at arm's length as her sister's squee of joy shot out of the speaker.

Another torrent of questions from her sister soon followed, "Is she pretty? What's she like? What did she wear on your date? Oh, is she that girl from the pictures you sent, with pointy ears? I knew she was into you, just by looking at that picture! You two looked so cute together!"

Lucia desperately wanted to regain some kind of control over this conversation, and reign Luz in, already feeling even more foolish since her sister had been able to pick up on Amelia's attraction from a single photo long before she had figured it out herself. "Yes, it was Amelia. So, yeah, she's really pretty."

"As for how she asked me out, she just did it after school-" No sense in bringing up that she'd pinned Lucia to a wall to do so, "And as for what's going on? It's complicated, but, well… I hadn't realized it was a date until the end of the night. Which is one of the reasons things are so complicated."

Of course, she left out the part about Amelia being an elf, or whatever she actually was.

"Oh." Was Luz's response, realizing the unspoken meaning behind her sister's words. "So you… didn't know? That… must have been awkward."

Lucia could feel the embarrassment seeping off of her sister for jumping straight into assuming Lucia, well, wasn't straight. Not that Lucia could blame her, she hadn't really phrased any of that right, and… "Yeah, well, we said we'd still be friends and everything, but some stuff happened that I won't get into, and I haven't heard anything from her in the last two weeks."

"Yeesh, that does sound rough… But I'm sure everything will be fine!" Luz tried her best to assure her old sister, bringing out her boundless optimism and wielding it like an iron cudgel. "If you want, we could brainstorm some ideas on how to win her over if you want? Ooh, you could get a boombox and stand outside her window and play her favorite song! That'll show her you still want to be… friends."

Yeah, that was enough 80's movies for Luz. "We don't even own a boombox, Luz."

She was quick to interrupt Luz before she had a chance to speak, "And I'm not buying one, either. Who even sells them anymore?"

"… I think Eda owns one?"

"And she's all the way at your camp." Lucia reminded her. "It's not like you can just pop on in with a boombox whenever you want."

Luz fell suspiciously silent on the other end, wincing at those words, much to Lucia's confusion. What about her statement would get that reaction? Was it because Luz was feeling like she couldn't help from all the way at camp? Well, now Lucia felt bad. Not only was she keeping so much from her sister, but her being mopey had brought Luz down too when she'd just been trying to help.

Sighing to herself, Lucia decided she'd have to pull out the big guns to cheer Luz up. Feed her just a tiny bit more honesty about their situation, and what Lucia was feeling. "And besides, what if I don't want to just be a friend to her?"

There was the squealing again, and Luz's happy smile. Despite not feeling ready or even wanting to open up about this right now, if it cheered Luz up, she'd gladly walk through fire. "Alright, alright, calm down. I'm not saying I am, but… well, this is embarrassing to ask, since I'm the older one here, but how did you know you were bisexual? Because I have no idea what's going on in my head, and I could use some advice?"

Luz looked positively awed that her sister was coming to her for advice. Not to vent, or bounce ideas off of, but actual, sisterly advice that Luz would get to bestow on her. "Never in my life have I needed something so much and never known until it happened." She breathed.

"What was that, Luz?"

"Nothing!" Luz exclaimed, bringing the phone up close to her face. "Alright, so I can't help you too much, 'cause I always kinda knew I was bi?"

Lucia raised a brow, "but you didn't come out until last year?"

"Well, yeah, that's when I knew I knew! It was different when I started actually liking people romantically myself. It was like, yeah, boys are handsome, and girls are pretty, but there are also pretty boys, and handsome girls. It wasn't until I was old enough to really take an interest that it occurred to me on why should I have to choose when they both look so good? Do you get what I mean?" Luz asked, unsure if she'd explained that properly.

"Yeah, your hormones kicked in and suddenly everyone went from cute to sexy." Lucia summed up.

"Close enough!" Luz hummed, "so, really, you just have to think about how you feel, and how boys and girls make you feel. You might be straight, or bisexual like me, or maybe you just like girls?"

"I think I'd have noticed if I just liked girls, Luz."

"Well, I wouldn't be able to tell. You're seventeen, and you've never dated anyone before. I kinda always thought you might be asexual myself, but I didn't want to assume."

Lucia grimaced, not wanting to tell Luz the reason she hadn't ever dated was because of her. It was hard to find a date when you were known for throwing down whenever someone made fun of your sister. Guys tended to stay clear of her. Not that she'd been all that interested in them in the first place, they were usually a bunch of no good punks.

That internal monologue wasn't doing any favors for her thoughts about her sexuality.

"I guess the easiest way to know is how you felt after knowing it was a date," Luz continued, "Did you enjoy the date? Do you like the idea of going on more dates with her? Did you want to hold her hand?"

She winked teasingly, "And if the opportunity came up, would you want to kiss her?"

Lucia rolled her eyes at all of her sister's innocent suggestions. Well, she was a pretty sheltered kid, only fourteen, with no dating experience outside of shipping fictional characters. For both of their sakes, to keep her from being flustered, and to protect Luz's innocence, Lucia decided to leave out that she did have the opportunity, when she'd been pinned to the wall and could have had as many kisses as she liked.

Still, Luz did her best, and that's all Lucia could ask for. "Thanks for the advice. I'll keep all that in mind. Uh, you don't mind keeping this just between you and me for now, right? I don't want Mom jumping the gun and, I dunno, trying to set me up with one of her coworker's daughters while I'm still trying to figure this out."

Luz nodded, "Okay, but you better keep me posted!"

"You know, you've brought up at least three people you've met at camp. Any of them catch your eye?" Lucia decided to tease, but didn't expect the reaction she got.

Luz's cheeks were red and her expression bashful, "No, it's not like that at all! I- I don't like any of them! Especially not Amity, she's way out of my league! She's so smart, and pretty, and she dyes her hair this really cool shade of green-"

This was all starting to sound a bit familiar to Lucia.

"Luz!" A sudden shout could be heard through the phone, as someone off screen was calling her sister by her name. Probably that councilor lady, by the sound of it.

"I'll be right there! I'm sorry, Lucia, but I have to go, Eda's calling me. I'll try to call more often, okay?"

"I'll hold you to that," Lucia bid farewell, giving a little wave as her sister ended the call just as a woman with gray hair entered the frame. Huh, that Eda lady must be ancient.

Another week went by, and despite her promise to call more often, if anything Luz had become more restrained in her responses. She'd sent her an emoji of a waffle as a response earlier after Lucia had sent a text asking how she'd been.

So now her sister alongside Amelia was ignoring her. Fun times.

It had been three whole weeks since the attack, down to the day, and still not a single peep from her so-called friend. Lucia had half a mind to call her just to give her a piece of her mind. She wouldn't though. If Amelia waited until the start of the school year, absolutely, but they still had a month of summer vacation left before then. Four more weeks. Lucia never thought she'd be eager for the school year to start up again.

She'd tried everything she could to get over Amelia in that time. She'd tried painting her feelings out, taking her easel and a canvas out, only for nothing to come from it, no matter how long she waited for inspiration to strike her. She'd been avoiding the Burger Queen for the past few weeks, instead spending her time and money at the Burrito Bell on the corner of Hanna and Barbera.

Not to mention she hadn't visited her mural where the site of the attack was. She'd thought about it, but everytime she thought about going to reclaim her paint cans, or add something to the wall she'd think about the demon, or the little piece of art she and Amelia had added to the wall, and it seemed like too much for her to handle seeing at the moment.

Right now, Lucia was laying on the floor of her room, beside her bed. She knew she could easily climb up and lay there, but the floor seemed like a good option today. Or maybe she was just afraid that if she did lay in her bed, she'd fall asleep and have fitful dreams about that night.

It was funny, how quickly the dreams about the demon who had tried to kill her had faded into the background, and dreams about Amelia had replaced them. One had clearly been more impactful than the other, and yet it was what it was.

She'd done as Luz said, and asked herself daily what it was that she wanted from Amelia, and from herself. She thought about how she had felt when Amelia had grabbed and held her hand. She thought about the idea of going out on more dates. She didn't dislike these thoughts. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she'd come to the conclusion she'd really enjoy it. Did that mean she was actually a sleeper agent for the Gay Agenda this whole time? She wasn't sure.

What she did know was that she enjoyed those thoughts too much, if the dreams she was having were any indication. Sometimes they were about Amelia pinning her against that wall, only there wasn't any monster to stop them, while in others, she was the one pinning Amelia down. And sometimes, these dreams didn't stop at them kissing. Lucia had been mortified with herself after awakening from her first wet dream two nights ago, feeling incredibly unclean at the images her mind had conjured up in her sleep and needing to take a very cold shower immediately afterwards.

She shouldn't feel this way about Amelia. Not because she was a woman, but because they barely knew each other. They only met two months ago, only talked two weeks out of that, and went on one sorta-date. But ever since Lucia had started to accept this part of herself, the part interested in girls, or at least Amelia, she couldn't get herself under control.

Is this what Luz dealt with every day? Being around pretty people, and constantly dealing with her heart thumping at the thought of them? Lucia still couldn't cut onions without the smell reminding her of that moment they'd nearly kissed, and feeling sweaty.

Amelia was just looking for something casual, anyway. Someone to date so she wouldn't be bored. Lucia wasn't sure she could give her that. They weren't even officially dating yet and she already wanted more out of their relationship.

She just wanted Amelia to call her already, dammit.

If this is what dating is normally like, she's glad no one interested her until now. She could only imagine if she'd had to deal with all of this when she was Luz's age.

Her ears perked up as her phone began to ring, but she was quick to ignore it. Everyone in her contacts had been given personalized ringtones, and from the one playing, it was just a generic one picked out by the phone by default. It was either a wrong number, or a spam caller.

She resumed pouting on the floor, only for it to be interrupted again, when the same ringtone began to blare. Now Lucia was really beginning to get annoyed, but by the time she'd found the will power to sit up and answer, the phone had gone silent, the call going to voicemail, if they didn't immediately hang up instead of leaving a message.

The phone was still in her hand when it went off again. Shooting a glare at the device, wondering what she'd done to deserve this, her expression faded, leaving her blank faced as the caller ID and icon showed it was Amelia. Right. She'd never assigned her a personalized ringtone. It must have slipped her mind.

Numbly, she pressed the answer button, and brought the phone up to her ear, "Hello?"

Don't question you sexuality, instead, question if you're a sleeper agent planted by the Gay Agenda(™). It makes you sound more badass.

This was a very hard chapter for me to write, mostly because it's nearly 4K words of moping and padding. While I like the Luz section, the rest of this chapter makes this my least favorite so far, even if I feel it's necessary for the story. Stories, like fine wine, need to breathe after all, and Lucia needs time to figure herself out.

Comments are loved, and I try to respond to them when I see them in my inbox! I hope you're all enjoying this. We're two thirds of the way through season one so far, so Luz will factor into the plot a bit more soon enough. I hope you'll all enjoy it when we get to that point.