A/N: Once more with feeling! Another chapter is here!
And now the reason why I only stuck with canon up to the end of season 2, episode 8…
Hunter wasn't sure exactly what to expect when he arrived at the Owl House in the early morning hours. An ambush, maybe? For the Owl Lady or her House Demon to tear through the woods just past the clearing and chase him off, or worse, eat him? Instead, he was met with the sight of a blackboard parked in front of the house, with three school desks, probably stolen from Hexside, two of them already occupied.
The Human was busy writing on the blackboard, splitting her attention between drawing a diagram with notes and speaking to some girl with purple hair who was in the center of the three desks. To the girl's left was the Owl Lady, looking like she'd kill to be anywhere else, as long as she didn't have to listen to the other two.
Hunter stilled, and clutched the staff in his hands tightly. He felt exposed and naked without his mask around people he should be considering his enemies, and especially without his usual Tech-staff. In his promise to leave the Golden Guard behind, he'd instead opted to bring along his new Palisman, Rascal, who took the opportunity to glance down at his new owner from atop his staff and chirp encouragingly.
Hunter tried to shush the bird, but that only served to make more noise, and soon enough Luz had noticed his presence, waving with a ridiculous amount of energy for how early in the morning this was.
"Hunter!" She called out, beckoning to him, "I can't believe it, you actually came!"
The other two turned to face him, and he was surprised to recognize the purple haired one as the youngest Blight girl. She'd had a green mop like her mother's the last he'd seen her, when he'd been asked to confiscate the Abomitons from Blight Industries. She sent him an unimpressed glare, and stuck her nose in the air at the sight of him before turning away.
The Owl Lady, on the other hand, just looked tired, and annoyed to see another person added to their group. "So, you're the new dweebus who'll be joining us?"
"Doesn't that imply you're also a dweebus?" He shot back automatically, then clamped his mouth shut.
Eda blinked, like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Then she smirked mischievously, "You might actually stand a chance here, kid. I like you."
"Don't just stand there," Luz grinned, gesturing to the only empty spot left, "Take a seat! Introduce yourself and then we'll start the lesson."
Hunter did so, sliding into one of the desks, only to be startled by a gasp from the human, "Oh my gosh! Is that Lil Rascal?!" Oh, she'd only gotten excited to see the palisman again. That made sense, she'd had no way of knowing it had decided to stick around with Hunter after all.
The Palisman flew off the end of the staff, nuzzling the human mid-flight as she cooed over him. "Yeah, he, uh, decided to stick around with me for a bit." Hunter explained lamely, unsure why Rascal had even chosen him in the first place.
"Well, I think he made a good choice." Luz said firmly, holding out a finger for Rascal to land upon. Hunter wasn't sure why, but it made him happy to hear that, and gain a bit of the human's approval.
He could feel the burn of eyes on him and realized they weren't alone, "oh, right, introductions…"
He turned to his fellow students, and said curtly, "Hello. I'm Hunter. I'm, uh, here to study glyphs, I guess."
The Blight girl held out her hand to shake, which he took. Her grip was surprisingly tight. "Amity. I'm Luz's girlfriend, and recently started taking her lessons as well. It's nice to be the kind of girlfriend who is supportive of my girlfriend's passions, and after we do them I get to fly my girlfriend to school."
From her grip on his hand to the look in her eye, to the fact that she had uttered the word girlfriend so many times it had lost meaning, Hunter was pretty sure Amity was making sure he knew to keep his hands to himself.
"It's a pleasure, I'm sure." He said, then leaned in, "And chill out, you guys are like, ten. I'm not here to steal your girl."
"We're fourteen!" Both Amity and Luz said defensively.
"All right, enough of that. Let's just get this over with." Eda spoke over them, stopping any fight before it could get started, then focused on her own introduction. "You probably already know who I am, so I'll make it quick, I'm Eda the Owl Lady, most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, and the raddest chicka here. I've also been Luz's student the longest, so if you need any help tutoring… go bother someone else."
Bragging and being unhelpful, that's about what Hunter had expected from the Owl Lady. Deciding not to stir up the waters, he didn't comment on how she wasn't the most powerful witch anymore, nor had she ever been. Not compared to Belos. But Luz might consider that propaganda no matter how true it was, and a violation of their deal, so he kept his mouth shut.
"Alright, so, since Eda and Amity are already pretty good at making glyphs, I thought I'd take this time to get you caught up from the start." Luz said, placing a handful of sheets of paper on Hunter's desk. "First, we'll start with a light glyph, since that was the first one I learned…"
The lesson went by surprisingly fast. In that hour, Hunter managed to learn three glyphs, with enough mastery over how to operate the plant and ice glyph that Luz thought they should begin their next lesson with fire. While Hunter experimented with his new abilities, his fellow students brushed up on making glyphs from memory, and especially focused on making perfect circles without the help of an outside tool.
At one point, the palismans must have got curious about the new arrival, since Hunter had not only Rascal perched on his shoulder, but a wooden owl he learned was named Owlbert resting on his head like it was a nest, and a cat named Ghost weaving around his ankles, purring for his attention.
"Daw, you're just a magnet for adorable animal buddies, aren't you?" Luz cooed, as she snapped a picture with her phone.
Hunter tried to pretend to be annoyed, secretly pleased to have so many magical beings flock to him for attention. "I'd study better if you could call the paw patrol off. Also, what's a magnet?"
"The better question is how do they work!?" Luz answered with a grin, obviously some sort of joke that Hunter didn't understand. Probably a human thing.
The lesson came to an end when Luz's phone started making a loud ringing noise, "Oops, that's the alarm. Gotta start heading for Hexside. Anyone have any closing questions?"
Eda and Amity, who hadn't learned anything new, shook their heads, with Amity in particular excusing herself, and calling Ghost to her side. "I'm going to use the… little witch's room, I'll be right back and then we'll fly, okay Luz?"
Luz laughed for reasons that escaped Hunter, "Sure, but be quick! If I'm late again, Bump will have my hide!"
Hunter was very glad he didn't attend the public school system if the Principal could skin their students for something like being late. Meanwhile, Eda also made a reason to be scarce. "I'm all for learning, but my sweet, sweet Appleblood is calling for me. You know I hate any morning that doesn't start with a sip. Or a bottle or two."
"It's barely 7 in the morning!" Hunter exclaimed, astounded that this was what the dreaded Owl Lady acted like when she wasn't worried about being arrested.
"Kid- Er, Big Kid, The humans have this wonderful saying that I've dedicated my life to following. 'It's five o'clock somewhere.' Hell if I know what it means, but they say it before they start their day drinking, so it's a lesson I've taken to heart! Byyye!" Eda waltzed past the black board, and followed Amity into her home, closing the door behind her with her hip.
"So, Hunter, any questions?" Luz asked hopefully, a glimmer in her eye now that his first lesson was over.
"Yeah, I guess I have one." Hunter started, and Luz gestured for him to go ahead. "Okay, why is everyone so calm while I'm here? I know I said we'd leave the Golden Guard stuff out of this, but I'd assume there would still be some level of mistrust. Instead they're acting like they have no idea who I am."
Luz blinked, "That's because they don't know who you are."
"You… didn't tell them?" Hunter asked in a small voice.
"No! When I said to leave the whole Double G thing outside of lessons, I meant it. As far as Eda and Amity know, you're just a normal witch, who wants to learn some glyphs. That's all." Luz assured him.
Hunter wasn't sure how to feel about that. This was… a lot more trust than he was used to from people he'd once threatened to jail or kill. "Well, uh, thanks. I appreciate it, Hu- Luz. It means a lot that you didn't say anything."
Luz smiled at the rare use of her name, "You're welcome. I know I can be a blabber mouth sometimes, but who you are under the mask is your business. You deserved to get a chance to win over my friends without them judging you before you even sat down."
Hunter didn't get a chance to respond to her kindness before the door was thrown back open, and the Blight girl returned, "Alright, Luz, ready to ride together to school?" She waved her staff, now with Ghost affixed to the top of it, back and forth, a bright grin on her face.
"Sure am!" Luz smiled, then gave Hunter a farewell pat on the back. She waltzed on over to her girlfriend, both girls boarding the staff, Amity flushed a deep crimson when the human wrapped her arms around her waist.
Hunter, without any other reason to linger around, whistled for Rascal to come to him. The cardinal palisman reattached to the end of Hunter's own staff, and together they lifted in the air. He'd try to make these lessons a habit.
If he was right, something he might learn here could help him save his Uncle.
Lucia awoke to the sound of her alarm blaring. Blindly, she reached out, intending to let it snooze and get another precious few minutes of sleep, only to accidentally knock it off her nightstand, where it continued to screech on her floor.
Today was the first day of the new school semester.
Groggily, she climbed out of bed and started her day. After finishing her morning routine, she headed down to breakfast, to the sound of her mother rushing around the kitchen, and her sister pouring herself a bowl of sugar coated cereal. It brought her a warm feeling of familiarity after the weird dread that clung to her all weekend, instead replaced with the usual dread a high schooler dealt with on the prospect of being locked up for half the day and forced to learn.
"Buenos días mis hijas," Camila greeted, giving Lucia a half hug and pressing a kiss to the top of Luz's messy bed head ridden hair as she passed by the two girls, preparing herself a lunch to take to work today. "I'll have to leave around the same time you do, so I thought we'd all ride together, if that's okay?"
Luz gave a half hearted cheer, more in line with how Lucia would respond. Summer must have messed up Luz's usual sleep schedule, she was usually much more of a morning person. Lucia was too tired herself to give two shits, and poured her own bowl of cereal, picking at it moodily until it was too soggy for her to enjoy eating.
After breakfast, the three rode to school in relative silence. Luz started to perk up about halfway there, singing along to the radio with their mother. The school was of course busy, being a K-12th grade school in a small town, it meant basically everyone was there all at once, dropping their own kids off on their way to work.
Knowing she'd never find a parking spot, Camila instead stopped in front of the building right dead in the middle of the street, much to the irritation of the drivers behind her. "I'll see you two after school. You'll have to walk home, but I should be home in time for dinner, so expect me. I want to hear all about your first day back. Especially you, Luz. Your first year of High school, it's so exciting!"
Lucia and Luz bid their mother farewell, stepping out of the car and ignoring the honks of the others on the road, jogging across the street to get inside. "You'll be fine, right Hermanita? You've got your class schedules?" Lucia asked before they could part.
Luz nodded, "Right here in my bag. Will I see you at lunch?"
The elder Noceda nodded, "I'm sure you'll catch me then. If not-"
"You're probably behind the bleachers with your girlfriend?" Luz suggested innocently.
Lucia made a face, "You get caught swapping spit one time and suddenly someone can't let it go. Get out of here, idiota!" She waved her sister off, Luz sticking out her tongue as she left.
What was she going to do with that girl?
Walking hand in hand with Amelia Bane during school hours was an entirely different experience than walking down the street, or the mall, Lucia concluded.
Amelia was amazingly popular, despite only having attended Summer classes and being around a little more than a dozen of her peers the entire time. She already seemed to be on a first name basis with half the student body, and the two could hardly walk down the hall between classes without someone stopping to talk to them.
It wasn't unpleasant, exactly. A few compliments on their relationship, some expressing their surprise that Lucia was even into women. A bubbly blonde cheerleader that Lucia was pretty sure was named Stacy had approached them, squeeing and going on about a double date Amelia had apparently promised her, though it seems she had a different boyfriend since they last spoke, or something? A knowing glance followed by an eye roll from Wionna as they passed her, with a mutual flipping of the bird between her and Lucia.
Despite the kind words, Lucia wasn't particularly fond of all this attention. She was used to people avoiding her, stepping out of the way, or outright ignoring her existence. She'd been the girl who punched idiots in the head if they picked on her sister since the sixth grade, and those were the kinds of looks she was used to. That was the kind of gossip she'd hear in the halls. Who her next target was.
It was almost a little off putting to be the positive conversation in peoples mouths.
The two made their way to the lunchroom, where for the first time in three years Lucia could sit down and enjoy whatever shlop they decided to serve up with her sister, since the High Schooler's ate half an hour later than the younger grades. It kept rough housing to a minimum, or so they say.
Luz already had a seat saved, waving the two older girls over after they'd filled their lunch trays. Lucia sat down across from her sister with a grin, "So, how's it feel to be able to sit with the big kids now?"
"I feel all grown up!" Luz replied, her own sunshine personality blinding everyone within ten feet.
"It's really not all that great," Amelia grumbled, picking at her tray with disinterest. Was the food supposed to be grey? Because it was grey.
Lucia leaned over and loudly whispered to Luz, "She's just grumpy because we didn't go behind the bleachers to make out today."
That earned a hard shove from Amelia, and unrestrained laughter from Luz. They continued to chatter for a bit, talking about their day, and how Luz liked her new teachers. Before long, the food was finished, and the three lapsed into a comfortable silence.
Lucia was about to break it, when she noticed her sister was staring at someone behind her. Lucia knew that stare, she'd seen it plenty of times before. Twisting in her seat and craning her neck, she tried to follow Luz's line of sight, her eyes landing on a somewhat familiar face.
Frowning, Lucia turned back to her sister, "Clara again? You're still carrying a torch for that chick?"
Luz finally broke line of sight, back to her sister. "I mean, why not?"
"I just think that maybe you should go after someone who hasn't shot you down in front of half the school, Hermanita."
Amelia leaned in, not wanting to be left out, "Hello, new girl here. Anyone want to fill me in?"
Lucia gave Luz a questioning look, wondering if this was something her sister even wanted brought up, but Luz gave a small nod as the go ahead. Lucia began, "Well, Clara, the brunette back there with the bad blonde dye job, is a cheerleader Luz had a crush on last semester. So, during one of the Cheerleading practices, Luz asked the school band to play a little number for her, since they were already out on the field anyway, and did a big song and dance show, then pulled out a sign asking Clara to go out with her."
Amelia let out an impressed huff of air, "And here I thought I used rumors to make myself look ballsy. Does anything scare you, Luz?"
Luz nodded sheepishly, "All sorts of stuff! Go on, sis."
"Luz got turned down in front of a lot of people, is all." Lucia shrugged, finishing the story.
Amelia raised a brow, "and you didn't go on a manhunt?"
Lucia's face fell, "Oh, come on, I know I'm protective, but I'm not going to hit a cheerleader for not dating my sister. She at least had the courtesy to be kind, if a bit blunt with her rejection. Which made Luz cry. No, it was her friends I went after, for mocking Luz while she was crying." She crossed her arms smugly at the memory.
Amelia reached across the table and took Luz's hand, giving it a gentle pat, "Sorry you had to go through that, Luz. Cheerleader's can be nasty. I should know, I was one."
"Thanks, but I'm over it, really!" Luz insisted, but squeezed the offered hand anyway. "Besides, we ran into each other in the hallway in between classes, and she seemed cool, so I think she's over it too."
Lucia nodded, "Good. If that changes, let me know."
"I'm not made of glass, sis." Luz responded with a frown. "I'm a high schooler now, I don't need you to beat people up for me."
Lucia sighed, "Yeah, I know. But I'll still do it if you ever need me to."
They three lapsed back into silence, and Luz's longing eyes drifted back to the cheerleader a few rows away.
Luz hummed excitedly as she strode through the halls of Hexside, on her way to meet her best friends in the world, and her girlfriend. It'd been a few days now since Hunter had started joining their morning lessons, and slowly Amity was coming around to enjoying the young man's company.
It helped that Eda liked to pick on "the new kid" a lot, all in good fun. After his second lesson, she'd held Hunter down and pulled a Bad Girl Coven T-shirt over his head, and made him wear it the entire lesson. He'd promptly used his newly learned fire glyph to burn it off of him before leaving.
Amity had looked really cute laughing at him during that episode. Luz still couldn't believe she got to date someone so adorable! She got to kiss her face, and hold her hand, it was all so much!
They still hadn't kissed on the lips yet, though. Luz was working up the courage to ask, but just thinking about it made her sweaty.
Luz skipped and jumped when she made it to their meeting spot, seeing her friends already there and waiting for her. "There's my three most favorite people!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around Gus, Willow and Amity all at once, and pulling them into a tight four person embrace.
"Luz… Can't- breathe!" Gus choked out, fighting uselessly against the human's superior strength.
"Amity, can't you control your girlfriend?" Willow groaned, pretty sure her spine was cracking.
Amity seemed perfectly content, and did her best to nuzzle Luz back.
Finally they were released, gasping for air. "Gus, Willow, it's so great to see you guys. It feels like it's been forever since we all got to hang out as the Best Friend Squad!"
"Is that our name? Is that what they call us?" Gus asked, glancing at the others for conformation, but they just shrugged as well.
"I'm sorry we haven't hung out more, but I was so busy helping my Dads set up their new bookstore that I just didn't have the time." Willow said apologetically, straightening her glasses that were still askew from the group hug.
"I'm sorry too," Gus added, though he didn't look too apologetic, "Ever since me and Mattholomule patched things up between us, and I've been allowed back into the Human Appreciation Society, my schedule's been booked!"
Luz pat them both on the shoulder in understanding, "Neither of you have anything to apologize for. You both had valid reasons to be with other people. Especially you, Gus! I'm glad you and Matty have buried the hatchet."
"We… went on an adventure together, actually." Gus scratched his head in confusion, "Why would we bury a hatchet?"
"It's a human expression, Gus."
"Oh, in that case-" He took out a notepad, "Tell me exactly what it means, and is it purposefully terrible as an expression?"
Luz ignored him for now, "We should go do something fun while we can! Quick, is there a Boiling Isles equivalent to Laser tag?"
"I'm sure there is, but just one quick question before that? What's a laser?" Willow asked innocently, and Luz knew she had an entire new world of wonder to introduce them to.
"Actually, before we do that, I did want to talk to you about something, Luz." Amity spoke, reaching out to take her girlfriend's hand. "I was thinking about the offer Darius gave me-"
"Wait, Darius, as in the Abomination Coven leader, Darius?" Willow interrupted, having met the man before when she'd been very young and she and Amity were best friends.
"The same," Amity nodded, then decided to catch them up to speed, "He showed up at dinner the other night, and asked if I'd like to be his new apprentice."
Gus whistled, eyes wide in at that revelation, "First Lilith, the Head of the Emperor's Coven, and now Darius, Head of the Abomination Coven? You Blight's don't mess around, do you?"
"Not in the slightest," Amity smirked, before turning her attention back to the Latina girl, "I've decided I'm going to accept the offer."
Luz squeezed her girlfriend's hand tightly, and sent her a bright smile, "I'm so happy for you, Ams! I'm sure you'll learn so much from him."
"I thought about what you said," Amity said, playing with Luz's fingers, "And I've decided that I'm going to take what he has to teach me, and use it to shape my own future. Mine. Not his, not Belos', and not my parents."
Amity spoke with so much passion and conviction, Luz couldn't help but throw her arms around her neck again. "I have complete and total faith in you, Amity. Te quiero."
"Te quiero, Luz." Amity repeated back, while Gus and Willow just glanced at each other, not understanding the dialect, and shrugging. They'd ask later.
Before they could part, and find something fun to do together as a group, the school intercom fizzled to life, and Principal Bump's voice rang though. "Attention all students. A swarm of Gromseeds has been spotted nearby, Please, stay on campus until they have been eliminated, or leave at your own risk. Therapy for any mental scarring induced will not be covered by the school if you choose to leave."
Ah, Gromseeds. After Luz and Amity managed to mix magic and turn Grom into a beautiful tree, it had flowered and started to pollinate. Unfortunately, from that sprang what the magical community had dubbed Gromseeds. Unlike Grom, they could only manage to personify the little fears people felt. Phobias like bugs, holes in things that shouldn't have holes, and in Eda's case, a letter demanding she pay her taxes.
"Aw, did you hear that, Amity? Our wittle crimes against nature are out and about again. Think they want to see their mamas?" Luz cooed, having seen them in their cute and tiny blob forms before they had transformed into cats with human heads and freaked her out.
"Please don't talk about them like they're our children, Luz." Amity protested, despite the faint blush on her cheeks over the idea of having a family with Luz some day.
Gus sighed, "I'll go get the rat poison, just in case." And he headed off without another word, desperate to not have to relive that nightmare all over again.
"Ew, ew, ew, EW!" Lucia whined, bringing her bat down on top of the giant cockroaches, squishing them back into inky blobs that splattered like a popped water balloon, staining the legs of her jeans black.
A handful of blobs off in the distance came to replace their fallen brothers, morphing into giant spiders the size of Lucia's head. She gripped her bat tightly, shivering at the sight of them, and wished she could burn them like Amelia was doing to whatever it was she was afraid of.
After they had walked Luz home from school, the two had decided to go pick up a few snacks from a convenience store just a few blocks from the Noceda household. Back and forth, twenty minute trip, no plans for demon hunting after their first day of classes. They'd arrived to find the cashier comatose, and surrounded by shapeless blobs that were tearing up the store, eating into bags of chips, candies, and getting caught in between the bars of the hotdog spinner.
They soon found out exactly why the cashier was out, he'd probably fainted after being overwhelmed by these little fear demons.
Lucia did her best to make quick work of her batch, then turned to see Amelia standing in front of a growing fire, unmoving. "Amelia? Bane? Hey, you okay over there?"
"They're all ashes now." Amelia spoke hollowly, still not moving even to face her girlfriend. "All turned to ashes…"
Realizing Amelia was in some sort of state of shock, Lucia hopped over the counter, moving past the register to where she could see a fire extinguisher. She'd never used one, and felt ridiculous trying to stay calm to read the instructions while a blazing fire was beginning to consume an entire corner of the store.
Finally she figured it out, and sprayed it down with the extinguisher. When the fire finally died down, she tossed it aside, and approached Amelia, snapping her fingers in front of the girl's face, "come on, Amelia, snap out of it."
The green haired girl blinked, as if realizing Lucia was there for the first time. "Oh. Is it over?" She asked, voice a little shaky.
Lucia nodded, placing her hands on her girlfriend's shoulders to keep her steady. "You good to walk home?" She received a quiet nod, and together they made for the door. Knowing she couldn't come back empty handed without seeming suspicious, Lucia grabbed a handful of snacks and threw a few bills onto the counter for the cashier to find whenever they woke up, and ushered Amelia out the door.
"Do I even want to know what you saw in there?"
"Giraffes. Tiny, evil giraffes." Amelia uttered in horror.
Yeah, Lucia didn't even know where to begin on how to unpack that.
"So yeah, when I was about six, my Mom took me to the zoo, and when we got to the giraffes, I let out this blood curdling scream at the sight of them. I've just always been like that, I guess?" Amelia finished, just as they'd arrived back to the Noceda household, snacks in hand.
In the short time they'd been gone, it seemed Camila had arrived, far earlier than Lucia had expected. Her car was parked out in the driveway, at least. Heading inside, they spotted both Camila and Luz sitting together at the dinner table, Luz drawing with her colored pencil set and chatting with her Mami.
"Oh, Mija, you're back!" Camila stood, offering her eldest a hug, which Lucia took, feeling a bit childish doing it in front of her girlfriend, at least until Amelia too was dragged into her mother's embrace. Stepping back, Camila took a look at the state of her daughter's pants, "¿Qué diablos le pasó a tu ropa?"
Lucia grimaced, hoping it would wash out, but she highly doubted you could get demon stains out of jeans. "A pen leaked some ink on me, is all. You're home early, though. I was expecting you closer to dinner."
Camila smiled, "oh, I was just telling Luz the good news, come, sit."
Together they all gathered around the table, and Camila continued, "So, I don't know if you noticed, being so busy with your little girlfriend," Camila smiled pleasantly at Amelia, who gave her a look in return that could only be described as "oh, you~" then she continued, "But I took a few extra shifts at work while Luz was away for the Summer."
Lucia felt guilty for not really noticing, but it did explain why her Mom always seemed so tired the past few months. She gestured for her mother to continue, "Well, I did that so I could request shorter days for a few weeks. Starting today, I'll be home more often until December. Isn't that exciting?"
Luz was the first to respond to the news, springing from her seat and hugging her Mom tightly, "We'll have so much more time to do stuff together!"
Lucia grinned, reaching out to put a hand on her mother's shoulder, since she was otherwise occupied. Finally, it seemed her mother was taking some time to actually be with her family, instead of constantly putting her nose to the grind.
Camila broke from Luz's embrace, "I missed you so much while you were at camp, Mija, so I wanted to be able to spend some good, quality time with you and your sister to make up for lost time. I hope you two don't get sick of me with me being around the house all the time."
"Nope, never!" Luz insisted, earning a kiss on the forehead from her mother. "Oh, come on Mom, I'm not five!"
"You'll always be my baby girl," Camila insisted, now clinging to Luz and pressing another kiss to her face, while Luz fought to get away, the two dissolving into a laughing fit.
Despite how she should be just as ecstatic as Luz, and she was happy, Lucia couldn't find it in her to celebrate when she caught Amelia's eye. If her mother was home during the evenings, it limited just how often they could go out to fight against monsters. And while they still didn't know exactly how effective they were, or how many incidents they hadn't made it to, the idea of having to leave someone else to fend for themself didn't sit well with Lucia.
The two girls locked eyes, and at once they excused themselves, standing by the kitchen door, still in sight of Camila and Luz, but far enough away they wouldn't be heard if they lowered their voices.
"I can keep up the patrols by myself, if I have to." Amelia whispered, low enough Lucia had to strain her ears to hear it.
She gave a subtle shake of her head, "It's too dangerous, what if you meet something you can't handle?"
"I'll call you if that happens. I'm sure you can come up with some excuse to leave the house if my life is on the line." Amelia insisted, making an effort not to cross her arms or look cross, in fear that the other Noceda's would think she was upset with her girlfriend.
Lucia couldn't see a way to win this argument, and didn't want to draw any more attention to it than they already were by having it in the house, "Fine. Call me as often as you can with status updates. Speakerphone me the whole patrol if you have to."
Amelia covered up a gentle laugh, fighting not to smile too much over Lucia's worry. She reached out and offered her hand, which Lucia took in her larger ones. "I'm glad you're looking out for me."
Lucia smirked back, "Always."
That one word was enough to make Amelia burn red, and she subtly tried to hide her face by pretending to have an itch on her nose she needed to scratch with her free hand. Once she recomposed herself, she gave a tug on Lucia's hand, "Hey? Can you meet me at Burger Queen this Saturday? My treat?"
The Beanie clad teen nodded, a little taken aback by the sudden shift in conversation "Sure, it's a date."
That seemed to make Amelia happy, as she pulled Lucia in for a chaste kiss, or at least one that passed for chaste in comparison to their usual fair, they still had an audience that included her girlfriend's mother, after all.
The two girls rejoined the table at Camila's behest, "Come here, I want to hear all about your first day back at school. Yes, including you, Amelia. Now, Luz, why don't you start, since it was your first official day as a high schooler?"
Before Luz had a chance to speak, Camila stopped and sniffed at the air, then leveled her gaze at her eldest, "Lucia, have you been smoking?!"
A/N: Gromseeds are one of my favorite original creations I've made ever. They're a very fun type of monster to write, without having all the pomp and circumstance that Grom does. I imagine them as almost being akin to Flubber when they aren't in fear mode. Too bad they don't get fleshed out much here, but I'll shelve the idea for a future fic.
Hunter starts his glyph lessons, Creepy Luz develops a crush, and Amelia is rightfully afraid of giraffes. What a chapter! As I stated at the beginning, the reason I didn't include canon beyond episode 8 is because Hunter needed to not be known as the Golden Guard by Eda and Amity for this chapter. Then episode 10 happened, and I knew 100% that I couldn't make that canon, either, or else this fic would later collapse on itself and I had a good chunk of it written by then.
Choosing a name for the Blonde Cheerleader was tough. I didn't originally want to use Clara, because I have no idea how that came up as a name for her. I've always liked Zoey(ends with Y like Amity, but begins with a Z, opposite of A) or even Charity(just because its a very Cheerleader name that ends with a Y), but the fandom usually clings to the name Clara for whatever reason.
Spoiler alert, she's not going to be a huge character in this fic. So it doesn't matter anyway and the entire previous paragraph was a waste of time.
Here's a question for you guys: Blonde Cheerleader, or Camp Goth Girl as a romantic option for Vee? Nothing to do with the fic, this version of Creepy Luz didn't go to camp, just pretended to, so Goth girl isn't going to make an appearance either. I just am curious what you guys think, since I'm thinking of writing a fanfic about Vee in the future. Leave a comment!