A/N: This chapter is a bit different. It's more of a compilation/countdown chapter following the adventures of Lucia and Amelia over a couple of weeks. As to what, you'll just have to see.
Also, a warning, the segment labeled August 18th is another spicy section. It's also my favorite of these sections.
July 23rd
Between the monster fighting, which was becoming surprisingly common as the days wore on, Lucia and Amelia spent their days together training for the next fight. Their soft, lanky teenage bodies needed to be molded into fighting machines through a strict regimen of exercise and dieting.
Or, in today's case, batting practice.
"How is this helping, again?" Amelia asked, lazily pitching a baseball her girlfriend's way, and watching as she knocked it out of the park, just like she had all the others.
The two of them had made their way to the town's old run down baseball diamond, the very same Lucia had suggested as their excuse way back when they'd gone on their first outing together.
"It's helping with my aim," Lucia said, planting the head of the bat into the dirt and leaning against it as Amelia grabbed another ball from a sack. "And come on, stop throwing me easy ones. Try to trip me up, I can't get better if you just use the same type of throw!"
Amelia tried not to look too put off, and failed, "I'm not exactly a sporty person, Noceda. This is the best I can do."
Lucia made a face as Amelia threw another ball, in the exact same underhand style as she had been the whole time they'd been out here. Another swing, and another hit. At this rate, they'd run out of balls and have to recollect them long before either girl made any progress on their skills. Holding a hand up to stop Amelia from throwing another ball, she tossed her bat to the side, and raced over to the pitcher's mound.
"Alright, here, I'll teach you a few throws." She took a ball in her hands, and struck a pose. "Now, I'm not the best pitcher around, so pay attention to how I move, 'cause I'm not sure how else to explain it."
"Well, at least I can do that easily. You're kind of hard to look away from." Amelia flirted, making Lucia flub her first throw.
Together, the two took turns tossing the ball, Lucia commenting on Amelia's form as they practiced, giving tips on how to aim her shots better that Amelia filed away for when she needed to fling a spell at a distance. As the minutes passed by, Amelia spoke up, "So, what's the story here? You a big fan of baseball?"
She'd been in Lucia's room enough times now, but hadn't really seen any sports memorabilia. Though it might be hiding under all the mess flung around the place, from the clothes tossed haphazardly on the furniture, or the overflowing garbage bin full of scrapped paper and drawings that spilled onto the floor.
Lucia smirked at the question, "A fan? Babe, I used to be one of the single best batter's in our school's entire history."
She left out the fact that their school was only about two decades old, but the point still stood. She'd been good.
Amelia perked up on hearing this, "oh really? A star athlete? How'd I get so lucky? Maybe I can offer you a private cheer session after your next game?" She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Lucia turned her eyes downward, and fiddled with the ball in her hand for a moment before tossing it back to Amelia. "I'd like that, but I got kicked off the team last year."
Amelia caught the ball, and frowned, not bothering to throw it back, "What happened?"
Lucia kicked her feet, timidly swaying back and forth, "I, uh, chucked a ball at a guy's head."
Amelia bit her lip to keep from laughing, "let me guess, your protective older sister streak kicked in when he said something bad about Luz?"
The Latina girl rubbed her arm, feeling a little withdrawn, "Nope, not this time. The school didn't have enough players for gendered teams, so we had co-ed baseball, and a guy was mocking me behind my back about how I play. Said I was only getting favoritism because I was a girl. It pissed me off so much I threw a ball at his head, and the coach had to pull me."
She shrugged, "I guessed I proved him wrong, since with my record they would have made excuses, but they didn't. No favoritism, and I got kicked, for "not playing nice with others."" She finished, in air quotes.
She forced a smile back onto her lips, "So, in this case, I wasn't picking a fight for anyone but myself. I admit, I took it a bit too far, I could have seriously hurt him and he didn't deserve that. I can have a bit of a temper, I just usually aim it a bit better and lost my cool."
She gestured for Amelia to throw the ball now that she was finished with her story, and Amelia obliged. "I'm sorry you got kicked off the team, it seems like it was something you really enjoyed."
She waited until the ball was in the air to add, "I'm also sorry I didn't get to see you in your uniform. Your lanky body in stripes, mmm."
Lucia fumbled the catch, and scrambled after the ball as it rolled away, thankful her girlfriend couldn't see her face. "You're taller, thus lankier, than I am!" She insisted, but muttered just loud enough for Amelia to hear, "And I've got my old uniform somewhere in my closet…"
Amelia grinned from ear to ear and crossed her arms, "I'll keep that in mind"
July 30th
Lucia woke up bright and early, ready to greet the dawn. If she was going to be a badass demon hunter, she needed to be prepared to be up and moving at any hour of the day.
She also needed a healthy breakfast, one fit for a champion. Taking inspiration from all the cheesy movies she'd ever watched about an underdog rising to a challenge, she started by cracking one raw egg into a glass.
She brought it up to eye level, and wondered how she was going to comfortably swallow it with the yolk still whole. She shrugged, and went through the kitchen drawers to find a whisk, scrambling the egg before even thinking about drinking it.
Now that it was all a much smoother liquid, she wondered if she should toss anything else in there. An idea came to mind, and she raced for the supplement cabinet, where her mother stored all the vitamins and cold medicine, and after doing some digging she found a small jug of protein powder. Cracking it open, she grimaced at the smell, and took a look at the date. 2018. Ouch, that was very much expired.
Still, what could it hurt? Taking a scoop, she tossed it in with her egg, only for the mixture to look extremely clumpy.
She stirred it with the whisk again, only for the egg to start to froth up, and she decided to raid the fridge to see what else she should add to fix it. Her eyes landed on a jug of orange juice, and she grinned. It was always good to get your vitamin C!
She added a good amount of juice to her concoction, and gave it one final stir. It didn't look good, and it smelled even worse, but that just meant it had to be good for her.
Plugging her nose, she put the glass to her lips and downed the whole thing, forcing herself to chug every last drop until the glass was completely empty. She gagged, but it wasn't so bad. She could practically feel herself getting stronger, and ready to build some muscle.
She hadn't even made it out of the kitchen before she was throwing up chunks.
And that was how she found herself back in bed, exhausted from her lack of sleep after waking up three hours earlier than usual, and with a stomach ache, instead of doing the strength training she had planned. All while her girlfriend chided her through the phone. "What were you even thinking? Of course that would make you sick!"
"I was thinking that if Rocky could do it, so could I!" She argued back, only to groan as another wave of nausea overtook her. She wished the world would stop spinning sometime soon.
"I don't even know who that is!"
Lucia was aghast at the revelation, "You uncultured swine. I want a divorce."
A tired sigh and a "Why do I even date you?" Was her reply.
August 5th
"Paint me like one of your French girls."
This joking reference to a James Cameron movie that Amelia made while admiring Lucia's easel one late Summer afternoon is what led her to being stuck, sitting in the same pose for the past two hours, trying her best not to move while her girlfriend did exactly that, paint her.
Amelia sat on a stool with her hands resting in her lap, and her back straight, hoping she didn't look too stiff. Knowing her girlfriend's talent for street art, she expected it to look amazingly close to form, especially with the higher level of control a brush would give her.
She watched in amazement as Lucia gave herself over completely to her art. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail to keep her bangs out of her face, rolled up her sleeves, wrapped herself up in a painter's smock, and with a plethora of paint colors and a small army's worth of brushes, threw herself right into it. Taking a few different bottles of acrylic paint, Lucia squeezed the colors out onto her artist's pallet, chose a brush seemingly at random, and painted.
To Amelia, it was like watching her girlfriend disappear, and something else take her place. She barely spoke the entire time she worked, fully devoted to her canvas, only taking her eyes off of it to look at Amelia with piercing brown eyes as if she was seeing inside of her soul, a prospect that left the Bane girl blushing and flustered. Lucia went through brush after brush, and as she toiled paint got all over her body, a splotch on her face, and all on her bare arms.
She'd even abandon the brush at times, dipping her fingers directly into the paint and applying it to the canvas with a wide sweep of her finger. Amelia didn't know she could find someone so messy to be so sexy until this moment, but she supposed it was because she was seeing someone she cared give themselves completely to their passion.
Then Lucia blinked, and it was over, she'd returned to her previous old self, with the face of a goofball. "It's done," She announced, suddenly looking bashful. "It'll need time to fully dry, but, you can take a look if you want?"
Amelia nodded, hopping off her stool and approaching the easel, expecting to see a portrait done of her. Instead, what she saw was something more like a Jackson Pollock painting, an array of lines and scribbles of varying colors.
"It's, uh, Abstract Expressionism," Lucia explained, probably seeing the perplexed look on Amelia's face. "I just took everything I think and feel about you, whenever I looked at you sitting there, and put it on the canvas."
With that in mind, Amelia took another look at the portrait, taking in the colors used. Browns, Greens and pinks, the color of her hair and her shirt. Silver dotted about, likely from her spiked bracelets. Yellow, like her eyes, seemed to be the only fixed pigments, two splotches in the center of canvas that appeared to be watching her.
The erratic brush strokes made Amelia's heart thump for reasons she couldn't comprehend. The spirals of mixed colors. She had to stop herself from reaching out to touch them, knowing she'd ruin the still wet paint.
It all made her feel pleasantly anxious, despite the obvious contradiction the emotions had. This was what Lucia felt when she thought of her?
She sniffed, holding back a tear that threatened to drip from her eye, and turned to her girlfriend, who still seemed unsure of herself, or if she had done a good job. "I love it."
Lucia broke into a carefree grin, relief visible in every pore of her face. Amelia leaned forward and planted a sweet kiss on her cheek, then pulled back to return her attention to the painting. "I get to keep it, right? I want to hang it in my room."
August 13th
It was official, Lucia hated gargoyles.
She could have sworn that the various new statues she'd been seeing around town were watching her throughout the day, perched from the tops of buildings. She'd known that they hadn't been there the day before, and that everyone seemed to be commenting on them, thinking this was some sort of public prank, or that someone got a huge head start on the Halloween decorations.
Then night came, and stone turned to flesh, and the air was full of oversized bats, screeching and soaring through the darkened sky.
Lucia swung her bat wildly, careful not to whack Amelia, and took a few out of the air that way, sending them flying. "Hasta luego, bitches!" She cackled.
Unfortunately for her, they began to wisen up to her moves and flew out of range, causing the Noceda girl to violently curse at them when she no longer had a way to stay on the offense.
If Amelia hadn't been there to shoot them down with her spells, she might not have made it home that night. And if Lucia hadn't been there to watch her back, Amelia wouldn't have managed to take the creepy crawlers all down before they got to her either.
"I'm so glad we're a team."
August 18th
Lucia panted as she finished her set, setting the heavy weights down on the warm concrete.
Earlier that week she'd gone through their garage and dragged loads of her Dad's old workout equipment through the house and onto the back patio, intending to use them to get a solid workout in. That had ended up just being a workout in and of itself.
Her father, before he had died in a car crash when she was only eight, had been a bit of a fitness nut. If it wasn't for him being such a family man, he'd probably have been a gym rat, spending all of his free time there, but instead he saved his money and bought all kinds of barbells, a weight lifting bench, the whole shebang.
He had always claimed he wanted to be healthy and strong in his old age. Irony could be incredibly cruel, as it hadn't even been a year after he'd bought them that he had suddenly died. Camila had been so overtaken by grief that she had moved all of his things, locking them away in the garage, where they remained until Lucia went searching for them.
There hadn't been any place in the house to set up an exercise space, and the garage was so full of old things her mother could never give away that they couldn't even fit the car inside, much less turn it into a gym, so Lucia settled for the backyard, under the shade of the awning of the back patio.
That of course didn't stop the sweltering summer heat from affecting her during her workout, and now here she sat on the bench, dripping in sweat and panting like a dog. She reached for her chilled water, careful to take sips and not chug the whole thing so she wouldn't feel sick, while resisting the urge to dump it's contents over the top of her head to cool herself down.
Amelia sat not far off, watching her work. She too was training, though her focus was on her spells. After the sap spitting, man-eating plant incident, she was determined to learn a new spell. Something that could work where fire was, at best, ineffective, and at worse, a danger to her and Lucia. However, her spell training wasn't going as well as she hoped, with how distracted she was watching her girlfriend's arms pump those heavy weights.
The two were both feeling very hot, for very different reasons.
Lucia reached for her hand towel, intending to wipe the sweat from her brow, however Amelia chose that moment to pop out of her seat and scoop it up, taking a seat beside the sweaty girl. "Here, I'll take care of it. Just rest for now." She soothed, gently patting at Lucia's face with the cloth.
Lucia smiled gently, enjoying the perks of having a doting partner. "Wanna switch places? I can spin my fingers in circles all day, while you do the heavy lifting?"
Amelia rolled her eyes at the ribbing, "I know it's not as hard as your workouts, but it isn't all that easy, either. I still get sick after using too much magic. I'm improving, at least." And it was true, She'd tripled the amount of spells she could cast in a row before she had to stop, and when she over exerted herself the nausea and pains in her chest didn't last entire days anymore. The only roadblock was her lack of variety in spell types.
With the last of her sweat cleaned off her face, Lucia felt ready to begin the next set, reaching for her dumbbells, just to have her hands swatted down, "You're still all sweaty!" Amelia scolded.
Lucia laughed, "well, yeah. And I'm going to get sweaty again. Did you want to sit here all day and wipe down every inch of me?"
It was only after she'd said it that she realized how that sounded. The Bane girl smirked, a flirty line already on her tongue before Lucia could take it back "Oh, is that an invitation? I could clean every last inch of you if you wanted?"
Lucia let out a "meep," but didn't object as her girlfriend slid in closer, eyes half lidded and wrapped herself around Lucia from behind. The position didn't exactly do anything to cool Lucia down, as much as it just made her sweat all the more.
Soon she was sucking in a breath as she felt Amelia's lips press against her neck, just above where it met the shoulder. One kiss turned into two, then into three, then her mouth opened and her tongue joined the fray, dragging itself across Lucia's salty skin.
Lucia was back to being reduced to panting as Amelia began to lick and suck on her neck, digging her teeth in and gently biting with canines longer and sharper than any humans could be. Lucia never understood the deal with people who wanted to date a vampire as much as she did now.
While Amelia's mouth was at work, her hands were also busy, running the damp hand towel across Lucia's flat tummy, exposed by the halter top she'd decided to wear for today's workout. Amelia's other hand traced her fingers around, gliding over the smooth, and now dried, skin and playfully circling around Lucia's belly button.
Lucia lifted a hand to Amelia's head, placing it in her hair and weaving the braids through her fingertips, keeping the girl where she was. Amelia's hands moved farther south, rubbing along the inside of Lucia's thigh, making her gasp sharply and moan, "Amelia…"
And just like that, it ended. Amelia's eyes shot open, as if she just realized what she was doing and where her hands were taking her, and she pulled them away. Lucia also seemed to come to her senses, letting go of her girlfriend's head and clamping her hand down on the bite marks she'd placed, feeling the grooves Amelia's teeth had left. She hadn't drawn blood, but with fangs like that she could have if she wanted to. Lucia wasn't sure what to do with that information.
Neither woman could look at each other, flustered by what had just transpired. While it felt like a line had been crossed, neither had spoken up to stop it, so no apologies were given.
Finally, Amelia coughed into her fist, and stood up, "I'm- I'm just going to move back to my old seat, and practice my magic some more."
Lucia nodded wordlessly, needing another moment to herself before she could even think about going back to her exercises. She reached blindly for her cup of water, and instead of taking another sip she gave into her previous temptations and dumped the remaining water over her head, desperately trying to cool herself down after such a heated moment.
Amelia, meanwhile, was back to spinning her circles, thinking that Lucia had the right idea. After that encounter, she needed an ice cold shower.
She completed her circle with that thought in mind, and Lucia gave a sudden shriek as the water all over her body suddenly cooled and iced over, and Amelia had found a new spell.
And Finally, August 21, the day Luz was returning from camp.
Lucia felt giddy. Was it weird that she felt giddy? Didn't most teenagers hate dealing with their little siblings at her age? That didn't really matter to her, because she couldn't wait to see her dear little sister again.
She'd been oddly quiet the last two weeks, and hadn't responded to any of her texts. Her calls weren't going through either, but her dumb, probably camp mandated letters still got through, so Lucia just assumed that she lost her phone's charger, or dropped the phone on a rock or into a stream, or something. Luz could be a bit of a clutz.
Lucia couldn't wait to see Luz's face when she'd get introduced to Amelia, and the two of them could spill the beans about them dating. It'd blow Luz's mind. But not today, today was just for family. The mind blowing and bragging about her hot elf girlfriend could come tomorrow.
Today, instead, they'd be able to tell each other stories about their summers, even if Lucia would leave out a few key details. Like everything supernatural related. Those were unimportant enough to be left out. Nothing about magic, or monsters, or adventure. Those were too dangerous, and way too tempting for Luz's fantasy obsessed mind.
Luz's bus was due at noon, which was any minute. She kept peeking out through the living room curtains every few minutes just to see if it was there yet. If their mother was home, she'd be rolling her eyes and telling her to sit, and that she was making her antsy with all of her pacing.
Finally, she saw it, the bus with "Reality Check" written on the side in fun colors but painfully dull letters. It drove down the street, closer, and closer to their house. Nearer, and nearer… not slowing down… clearly going too fast to stop, aaaaand there it went, missing their house completely.
Lucia blinked, too astonished to act while her brain caught up with what just happened. Then once it clicked she sprinted for the door, "Hey, wait! My nerd is still on there!"
She pried open her door, intent on chasing the bus down and pounding on the glass if she had too to make it stop and spit out her little sister, but she'd barely taken two steps before she was met with the very same person she'd been so desperate to reunite with. It was Luz, standing at the curb, back turned to her.
That was… odd. She hadn't seen Luz get off the bus. It hadn't even stopped. Maybe her drop off had been a few houses early on accident and she walked the rest of the way?
She waved off her worry, racing down the pathway in front of the house, cutting off the sidewalk and walking barefoot on the grass, "Luz!"
Her sister barely had time to turn around before she was enveloped in a tight hug, and the two laughed, "Lucia! I'm so happy to see you!"
Lucia lifted her sister up and twirled her, "How have you been, you little rascal? You haven't been responding to my texts!"
Luz frowned slightly as her sister set her down, "Well, I must have dropped my phone during a hike, or something, because I lost it ages ago. You don't think Mom will be too mad about that, will you?"
Concealing a grimace, because yes, their mother would be more than a little upset, Lucia instead tried to wave the worries away. This wasn't the time for that, this was a joyful reunion, "Don't worry about it. You might have to settle for a cheap disposable phone for a while, but you'll be fine."
She ruffled Luz's hair, which felt so nice to be able to do. This had been the longest they'd ever been apart. "Come on, I'll make us some lunch, and you can tell me all about camp. Tell me about Willow and Amity, and all the other friends you made."
As the two walked back into the house together, Luz looked a bit confused, but it was only a momentary thing. "Oh, yeah, I'll tell you all about them! After we eat, though, it'll give me time to decide which stories I should tell first!"
Lucia grinned, knowing that must be Luz-speak for deciding which stories she shouldn't tell at all. Luz did have a habit of getting into trouble and making everyone worry, after all.
She ignored the goosebumps forming on the back of her neck as they entered the house, and shut the door softly behind them.
And here comes creepy Luz. I'll admit, I was VERY excited to write her introduction to the series.
Remember, I got the idea for this fic right after episode 4, which was the first appearance of the character we all know and love today. Back then, we feared her, but today, we love her! She's Vee, and she's a cinnamon roll. But my inspiration for this fic was the idea of Beta Luz meeting Creepy Luz in the scene where Camila is watching tv with her. Like, CL hands Camila the box of tissues, and Camila says thanks, and Lucia is standing off in the corner like, "Mom? She doesn't have a FACE!"
Now, remember that this isn't Vee from canon. This version will have a different backstory, and isn't a basilisk. I hope you like what I do with her, because I've had her character and arc planned since the day after her reveal aired and put a lot of time and effort into it.
Also, season 1 is at it's close, which means Luz will start showing up more in the fic starting next chapter! Yay!
As always, leave a comment if you'd like, I certainly adore them.