A/N: Here's the follow up for Lucia and Amelia.
Hope you enjoy the chapter!
The early morning sun peeked through the curtains, shining into a room inside of a house in a little town in Connecticut called Gravesfield. This small sunbeam bore down upon the face of a bronze skinned young woman, and with bleary eyes, she awoke.
Sniffing, Lucia rolled over, in an attempt to ward off the light and get back to sleep, only for her arm to make contact with something warm and soft. Lucia's first instinct was to ignore it, it was probably just something she, or Vee had left on her bed, and could be ignored. She breathed in softly, inhaling the morning air, only to realize her pillow smelled differently. It wasn't the same detergent scent she was used to in her laundry. With that in mind, it also brought forth the sensation of the blanket, which was heavier than the one she was used to.
Then she realized she was butt naked, and everything from last night came flashing back to her all at once.
A cocktail of hormones and adrenaline intoxicating her mind, her slipping into her girlfriend's house at the invitation to stay a while, being pressed into the hottest, sloppiest kiss they'd ever shared as they tore off their clothes mere moments after the door had been shut behind them.
Pinning Amelia to her bed. Amelia pinning her to the bed. Lots of kissing and touching unlike anything they had done before. Fingernails raking against her back, the grinding of hips, and the intoxicating sound of moans.
Lucia pulled the sheets up to her face, past her nose, as her face was consumed by the single most violent rush of blood she'd ever had, the blush to end all blushes as she came to the realization she was no longer a virgin.
She glanced over next to her, and could see Amelia's body laying next to her. Her blankets covered her lower half, but everything above her belly button was exposed to the morning air. Despite seeing plenty of her nakedness last night, Lucia couldn't tear her eyes away, and slowly slid further under the sheets until her entire head was covered.
The movement seemed to stir Amelia, who blinked and rubbed at her eyes, before the same look of confusion appeared on her face that had been on Lucia's only a moment before. At the movement, Lucia poked her head back out, startling Amelia who looked ready to cast a spell, only for her to freeze halfway through drawing up a circle, her mouth agape when she too remembered what had happened in all of it's details.
The two teenagers looked at each other for a moment, unsure of what to say. The irony of having been laid bare to each other a few hours before, and now clamming up wasn't entirely lost on either of them, as the pause lingered to the point of becoming awkward. Amelia, realizing she was exposed, pulled her blanket over her chest, and crossed her arms over it, avoiding Lucia's gaze.
Lucia wasn't a mind reader, but if she could hazard a guess as to what was going through Amelia's mind, it was the same thing she was feeling.
That they'd been moving too fast, and now it had caught up with them. That Last night had been a mistake, the adrenaline clouding their judgement like it always did.
Embarrassment, guilt, regret. Those clouded Lucia's mind, pushing past any of the passion and euphoria she'd felt the previous night. She'd just been so happy to be alive, and in the moment, she hadn't stopped to think if she was ready for this big of a step, and leapt for it, and now she was here, half mortified, half sticky, entirely uncomfortable, and unsure of what to do.
Lucia never ran away from anything, and that never seemed more apparent now, with her feeling like she was a deer caught in the headlights.
The silence between them was broken by Amelia's alarm going off, startling the two. Lucia cursed, "Shit, I need to get back home, before my Mom finds out I snuck out."
Amelia nodded, lips pursed, and Lucia started to climb out of the bed, only to realize that would mean exposing her body again to her girlfriend. She frowned, but Amelia seemed to know of her discomfort and looked away, allowing Lucia to slip out from under the covers and scramble around the bedroom to collect her frantically tossed about clothing.
She slid into her bottoms, mostly dressed, minus a sock, but she decided to give up the search so she could get out of there more quickly. She had plenty of socks at home. Instead, she threw on her shoes, feeling incredibly uneven, sitting back down on the bed as she tied the laces up.
She was finally ready to go, but she couldn't just leave yet. Amelia hadn't even said a word since she woke up. Turning back to her girlfriend, Lucia reached out and tenderly took her hand, happy that it wasn't immediately pulled away.
"I… I know that we'll need to talk. We don't have the time. But I promise we will later. We'll make time." She leaned in and placed a chaste kiss on Amelia's cheek, it was all the affection she could stomach right now, but it seemed to cheer the Bane girl up a little.
"Okay. I'll hold you to that." Was all she said.
Lucia opened her mouth, three little words on the tip of her tongue, but she bit it down. Instead she backed up, walking to the door, and left without another word.
She walked down the empty hallway, and out the front door, closing it quietly behind it. Her breath and body felt heavy, and she shuffled on the patio towards the railing, leaning against it, holding it tightly like a lifeline as a wetness overtook her eyes and blurred her vision.
How could something that was supposed to be so perfect end up making her feel so shitty?
Luz glanced between the three desks, From Eda's surly expression, to Hunter's moody attitude, and then back to Amity in the middle, who just looked happy to be there.
Luz wasn't sure what was going on with her two older students. Eda had been like this all day yesterday, after getting back from her shopping. She hadn't thought to ask King about it, thinking if he knew he'd tell her, but he'd been tight lipped so far.
Then there was Hunter, who Luz had even less of a clue about. Sure, he was always a little moody, he was a teenager after all and that always seemed to be the default. Today though was even worse, and he seemed to be making an active effort to avoid any of their gazes, keep his eyes, bags under them and all, on his desk or on the horizon.
Frowning, Luz leaned in close to Amity, "Is it just me or are things feeling a little tense today?"
Amity blushed at how near Luz was, but didn't shy away, instead leaning in even closer. "I feel it too, I'm not sure what's going on, maybe we should talk to them?"
Luz beamed at the suggestion. It wasn't a "you should talk to them," but a "we." Her awesome girlfriend wanted to help out by butting into other people's business, and Luz couldn't be any more proud.
Pressing a quick kiss to Amity's cheek, Luz shot her a wink, "I'll take care of it for now, but be prepared if we need to throw them a party to cheer these two grumpy Gus's up… not that Gus is ever a grump." She clarified.
"You know, we can hear you." Hunter growled, his attempts to sound intimidating floundering when his little cardinal companion was happily perched on his head, tweeting cheerfully now that they were reunited like they were every lesson.
"Luz, it's really sweet that you want to help everyone you meet out… wait, did I say sweet? I mean irritating, but we love you for it anyway. I'm fine, just a bit of grown up stuff happened in the market you shouldn't worry your little head about." To accentuate her comment, Eda reached out with her pale, spidery hand and ruffled Luz's hair, a gesture Luz always appreciated as she leaned into like a kitten given the attention it desired.
Amity made a mental note to give Luz all the hair ruffles she could stand when they were alone, tickled pink by the joyful expression on Luz's face.
"And you know how high my uncle's expectations can be, human. I'm just a bit stressed living up to them." Hunter didn't elaborate any further, which Luz understood, so his cover as the Golden Guard wasn't blown. He learned forward tiredly and muttered, "Can we just get this lesson over with?"
Luz frowned at his attitude, but didn't push or pry, instead perking up when she remembered what she had in her lesson plan. "Ooh, today we're having a pop quiz! Whoever gets the best score-"
Amity shot up, hand raised, "Gets a top student badge?!"
Luz grimaced, but forced a strained smile, "No, we don't do that here. Instead, whoever gets the best score gets this!" She lifted up an ordinary cupcake, with a heart on it with the words "Da best!" Written in frosting.
She looked incredibly pleased with herself, despite the lack of fanfare for the reveal, "Do you guys have any idea how hard it is to bake cupcakes while living in the same house as King and Hooty? This is the only one of the batch to survive out of a dozen!"
Luz then quickly distributed the quiz to each of her prized students, doing a little twirl in between each desk as she placed them down. "Don't forget to sign your names at the top, so I know who did what!"
So began the first test of Luz's Glyph class, and it was going surprisingly well for how low her standards were. Eda hadn't even set fire to her work yet! Instead, she was clearly scribbling a sketch on the corner of her paper, ignoring the test until Amity had done enough of her own that she could cheat off of it.
Amity herself was fully absorbed in her work. This meant a lot to her girlfriend, so she was going to treat it as seriously as she would any official school test at Hexside. If she did really well, she might not get a badge, but maybe Luz would kiss her again, the kind that made her toes curl up from the euphoria, and that was good enough for her. Even if the thought was a very distracting one to have during a test.
Hunter breezed through the test, in such a way it distracted him from his troubles enough that he almost forgot about them completely. Rascal seemed irritated about having attention stolen away, and plucked at Hunter's hair like worms, pulling bits out until Hunter took the Palisman off his head and set him beside his test, where Rascal then tried to fight Hunter's pencil for the honor of basking in their owner's love. Rascal was unfortunately losing, until his opponent forfeited, Hunter setting the pencil down and handing his finished test in to Luz for grading.
Luz took the paper, sending Hunter a big smile as she looked it over. Hunter, feeling pleased with himself over beating the others, stuck his tongue out at Amity as she glared at him, as if to tell her "Maybe if you paid more attention to the coursework rather than daydream about the teacher, you'd have finished first."
His cockiness didn't last long, as Luz looked over his paper, her brow furrowed and she re-read a certain portion over and over again. She bit her lips, her head shaking back and forth as if she didn't understand what she was looking at. Hunter swallowed, wondering what he'd done wrong, how any of his answers could have got this kind of reaction. Did he use a phrase that was offensive in human culture?
Whatever it was was obviously causing the human child distress, as she gave Hunter his paper back and began to retreat into the Owl House, her breaths shallow and panicky, "I need to go." Was all the announcement she gave before slamming the door behind her, the sound of racing feet clattering against the floor as she ran deeper into the house.
Hunter grabbed the paper, looking it over for anything that might have been there, but found nothing wrong with his answers. Beside him, Amity rose from her seat, ready to give chase, but Eda stopped her, "Wait a moment, Boots. I'll go. She's my kid, and my responsibility, I'll see what this is about."
Amity wasn't having that, though, and slammed her palm against her desk, "But I'm her girlfriend! I should be there for her!"
Hunter silenced them both, standing up and crumpling the paper in his hands and tossing it aside. He normally wouldn't litter, but he was sure that Hooty would get around to eating his trash anyway, "Don't bother. I messed this up… somehow, I'll go fix it. Finish your tests, once she's cheered up she'll be giddy to grade them for you."
He didn't bother listening to them try and argue why he should stay behind and let them go, instead taking his tentative first steps inside the Owl House. Despite having lessons three to four times a week, he'd never gone further than their front yard, all too happy to keep his distance, but right now his frie- Luz needed his help.
He closed the door behind him, glancing around at the cluttered and disorganized living room. He flinched and went on his guard when he heard the creaking of stressed wood, but glancing at the ceiling he was a mix of relieved and horrified to see that the house was simply breathing. He shivered as he realized this meant he was technically inside of Hooty, but continued on his way.
He glanced into the kitchen, but it lacked a human. As did all the doors he opened on the ground floor, all of them leading to closets(surprisingly lacking in skeletons), or in one case a staircase into an abyss he could only assume was the basement. He wasn't going down there.
Climbing the stairs, he continued his search, and his luck struck true as one of the first doors he ran into was left ajar, a bit of light streaming out into the hallway through the crack. Pushing it open, he stepped into what he assumed to be Luz's room. It was sparsely decorated, instead crammed with a variety of objects that he assumed belonged to Eda. A chest, pictures in frames stacked against each other, a few boxes shoved into a corner. The only thing that really indicated that this was Luz's room was an Azura poster hanging on the wall, and the sleeping bag laid out on the floor as a makeshift bed.
And, of course, the fact that Luz was in here, face pressed against a glass case that seemed to house some sort of pet. Hunter approached slowly, hearing Luz speak to whatever was inside, urging it to do something, though he couldn't make out the words. "Luz? What are you doing?"
She jumped, nearly knocking over the case as her arms flailed wildly and she let out a yelp. Clutching at her heart, she glared at him like he was a terrible villain, and if she still wasn't frazzled by whatever she'd seen during their lesson she might have scolded him. Instead, her shoulders slumped, and she turned away and back to her pet, who Hunter could now see was an Echo Mouse.
Tight lipped, Hunter decided to wait her out, taking a seat at the edge of her sleeping bag and blanket, as she tried to urge the Echo Mouse to show her whatever it was she wanted it to, but it refused her at every turn.
Growling loudly, she set the glass cage up on it's table, and curled into the fetal position, arms wrapped tightly around her knees as she laid there. Hunter waited patiently, and was rewarded when Luz realized he wasn't leaving and decided to open up.
"You know, I was building a portal back to the human realm." She muttered quietly, her back to him.
Hunter cocked his head. Normally this would be information he'd report back to Belos, but his promise to keep the Golden Guard away from their lessons reared its head, as well as how he would even explain how he got the info, and he decided against it unless absolutely necessary. "And something about what I wrote has to do with that, or something?"
He expected her to tell him he was wrong, because frankly, nothing on his test had anything remotely to do with portals. But instead she nodded. "I've been going over this journal to help me make my own door back home. But it got eaten by Echo over here, so I only get bits and pieces when he feels like showing me the entries. The journal was written by a guy named Philip Wittlesbane."
Hunter's ears perked at the name. He didn't recognize who it belonged to, but he did recognize it. He had to. Wittlesbane was his last name. He'd never told Luz that, but… he had written it on the test, like she had asked. He still didn't know why this had any reason to upset the human though. "Alright, so a guy with the same last name as me wrote this journal, what, a few hundred years ago? What's that got to do with anything?"
Luz shifted, crawling out of her little ball and twisting so she could look him in the face, "Hunter, Philip was human, like me. He got stuck here, like me, and if he had you, or, well, your family… it means he must have never finished his door. He never got home."
Hunter felt like a bolt of electricity had run through him, as if a puzzle piece had been inserted directly into his brain. If one of his ancestors was a human, and couldn't do magic… It explained a whole lot about himself. This answered a lot of his questions about why he couldn't do magic. About the odd last name that seemed to be the only one like it on the Isles. Outside of his deceased family, he didn't know anyone of the Wittelsbane line.
Had he learned this a few weeks ago, he'd have felt discouraged. Almost disgusted to find that he shared anything with a human being, to be less than a full witch. Right now, however, in this moment, he was just happy he had some answers, and knowing a human personally had softened the blow, at least enough for him to file away any identity crises for later. Right now he had to deal with Luz and her conundrum.
"So?" He challenged, crossing his arms, "I have no clue how him having a few kids means he didn't finish his portal."
Luz stretched her arms out, "What do you mean? It means he had a family! So he gave up trying, and stayed here forever!"
Hunter scoffed at her innocent naivety, "Or, and let me just put this out here, he had a bunch of bastard children he didn't care about, with a bunch of people he didn't care about, and left them all behind with nothing but his name when he took off back to the human realm."
Luz stared at him, mouth agape, "No, he wouldn't have! Who could do something like that?!"
Hunter rolled his eyes, "Fine, let's say he didn't. He had a loving family, whatever. A wife, a few kids, and a little house with a picket fence. How does that still invalidate him making a portal? Maybe he finished it, but never moved back fully to the human realm? Because he had a family?I mean, what were you exactly planning to do when you got home, never see your own girlfriend ever again?"
Luz bit her lip, pondering the idea. Standing, Hunter rolled his shoulders in a shrug, "Look, I don't have all the answers, but neither do you. From the sound of it, you haven't even got to the end of his journal, which seems like a pretty massive oversight to me. Shouldn't you have all of the instructions before you begin a project? Nothing is stopping you from just writing this stuff down again for later, after all."
He smirked to himself, "But I'm still gonna go with the bastard theory, it would explain way too much about my family's history."
Luz frowned, suddenly feeling very silly for having worried everyone, including herself over this. "You're right, I'm giving up too soon, I've got to keep working so I can get back home to my Mami and my hermana!" She stood on her own two feet, and quickly embraced her sometimes rival tightly around the waist.
Hunter stood awkwardly, letting it happen. "I'm glad we worked this out. Not that I know what a 'hermana' is, though. Is that another pet? How many do you have?"
Luz grinned up at him, "That's my big sister, Lucia! You know, you sorta remind me of her sometimes."
Seeing his confused look, she elaborated, "You both get grumpy a lot!"
That didn't make Hunter feel any better, and he now officially had enough of her hugging, so began to pry her off of him. Luz however was now thinking about her sister, and Hunter, mentally going over how well they might get along. Now that she thought about it, she never did get to learn which way her sister swung, maybe she did like guys after all, and she could play matchmaker-
"Stop. I can practically hear you thinking. Don't try to pair me up with your sister, I don't want anything to do with your gross family." Hunter groaned, finally getting himself free of Luz's grip.
Luz laughed, "Fine, I won't try to set you two up. But you can't stop me from thinking about it!"
The two headed back downstairs together, Luz now in a better mood and ready to grade Eda and Amity's papers, only to discover that in her absence, King had stolen the cupcake and deprived any of her students from earning their reward.
Lucia stumbled through her bedroom window, glad she'd forgotten to latch it closed the previous night. It wasn't too late in the morning that it was unusual for her to not be up, but her mother could come knocking any minute, so she stripped out of yesterday's clothes and quickly slid into something new.
She tried not to think about the previous night, putting it out of her mind as she dressed. She stuffed her old clothes in the closet, and grabbed a bottle of scented lotion she kept beside her bed, rubbing it onto her skin to cover up the smell of old sweat from the fight, and the last lingering scent of sex that clung to her. She'd have to take a shower as soon as possible, but felt she should make an appearance at breakfast before then, to give the illusion she wanted.
Slipping out of her room, Lucia tiredly made her way down the hall, all too aware of the aches and pains that lingered and echoed throughout her body. Shuffling into the kitchen, she could see Vee already there with a half devoured bowl of cereal in front of her, and her mother washing her own dish. Lucia greeted them gruffly, and settled in to help herself to some food, despite not having much of an appetite.
She poured a bowl of cereal, but left it untouched until it was a soggy mess floating in her bowl. Beside her, Vee gave a worried glance, but didn't break her guise of the innocent little sister and just kept eating her own breakfast. Done with the dishes, Camila dried her hands, and smiled fondly at her children.
"I'll be heading to work for a bit today. When I get home, I was thinking we could all watch a nature documentary together. I think I saw a new one about otters, Luz, I know how much you love them."
Vee smiled brightly, not really caring about the otters like Luz did, but relishing any time she could spend with their mother. "Sure thing, Mami, I can't wait!"
Camila pressed a kiss to the top of Vee's head, the Changeling leaning into it with a blissful expression on her face. Camila repeated the gesture to her eldest daughter as well, who rolled her eyes childishly at the motherly display of affection.
Camila's nose scrunched up after she pulled away, "You stink, mija," she said plainly, placing her hands on her hips.
"Have you been making sure to shower after your workouts? Your father was just as terrible about his hygiene as you're turning out to be. Make sure you wash up straight away." She scolded lightly, then got a better look at her oldest little girl.
"Maybe you should take today to rest, too. You don't look so good. Are you sick?" Camila placed a hand up to Lucia's forehead, trying to feel her temperature, but she didn't feel like she was running warm.
"I'm fine, Ma," Lucia insisted, lightly pushing her mother away with tired limbs. "I just didn't sleep well, is all."
"Because she stinks," Vee added teasingly, in an attempt to help cover for the girl.
Lucia kicked her under the table, "No, not because I stink. I smell like a goddamn rose garden, and you know it, you little booger."
"Play nice, you two," Camila chuckled, before bidding them farewell. As soon as the door was shut behind her, Vee let her playful expression drop.
"Are you sure you're okay? You didn't hurt yourself last night, did you?"
Lucia finally took a bite of her cereal, mentally wincing at how soggy and gross it felt in her mouth, but she needed something to occupy her mouth while she came up with a response. She settled with "I'm fine," And left it at that, pushing the bowl away and heading for the showers.
Vee watched her go, making it her mission to keep an eye on her, just in case.
It was a Saturday, so at least Lucia had the day off of school. As much as she wanted to spend her day lying about her room, it became incredibly apparent that she needed something to fill the silence or her thoughts would get the best of her. She tried stewing in her emotions, which predictably didn't go well. Staring at the wall just led to her thinking about it.
She tried reading a book, but couldn't focus long enough to get past a few pages, and ended up rereading the same handful of paragraphs over and over again. She tried painting, thinking that maybe getting her thoughts out on the canvas would help. It didn't, and only made her feel worse. The painting turned out nice, though, art always improved with suffering.
Lucia also considered leaving the house, but at this point all her usual hang out spots had been turned into make out spots, and would only serve to remind her of Amelia anyway, so what was even the point?
So, instead, she did the one thing every American did to shut their brains off and stop thinking. She went to the living room and turned on the TV, flopping down on the couch. She wasn't sure exactly what she was watching, some sitcom she'd never heard of, but it served its function and gave her a bit of peace of mind.
This brainless rot continued for a few hours, until Vee decided to join her, switching it over to some cartoon about a rich duck that went on adventures with his nephews. Lucia paid about as much attention to that as she did the previous show, until finally Vee switched the television off.
"Do you… want to talk about what's upsetting you so much?" Vee asked cautiously.
"Not particularly," Lucia muttered darkly, "At least not any more than you like to talk about what your deal is, Victor."
Vee winced, physically recoiling, folding in on herself and tugging on her ears at that name, and Lucia immediately regretted lashing out. "Sorry, I'm in a crappy mood, but I shouldn't be taking it out on you." She shifted from her lying position, sitting up to give the changeling an apology hug.
Vee leaned against her, but didn't say anything, clearly still a little upset, and Lucia didn't blame her. She didn't get it, but she knew she crossed a line. "You know, you're always offering a shoulder for everyone else, but you never seem to take any support yourself. Is that a Changeling thing? Or did you guys have like, a Changeling support group back in your home world?"
Vee fidgeted, but decided to answer anyway, "Something like that. We'd have an entire secret club at school where we could all hang out together, and get used to any changes in our new lives. We'd probably have met whoever one of us was impersonating, so we could also offer advice on how better to blend in as them."
Lucia leaned back in her seat, draping her arms across the headrest as she smirked, "Let me guess, drama club? A bunch of theater kids that are actually shapeshifters?"
Vee giggled, but shook her head no, "You'd think, huh? It was actually the Chess club, though. We already had roles to perform in our daily lives, drama club would have just added to it and not been any fun."
"How many other Changelings were around?"
Vee shrugged, "Depended on the year. I'm pretty sure the population of changelings has always been the same. We're basically immortal, and we almost never reach a point in our lives where we'd have a relationship where we could have kids of our own. At that point we're old enough to go on with our lives without parents, and need to find a new set, or starve."
"You may never get to the age where you'd want to have kids, but you certainly seem to want to date." Lucia observed, giving Vee the eye. She'd seen how infatuated the Changeling could be around Clara.
Vee shifted uncomfortably in her seat, a blush on her cheeks. "Clara is pretty cute… And she seems nice whenever we bump into each other."
Vee continued her previous thought, "As far as I know, the same batch of Changelings have always existed since time immemorial. There were about a dozen of us at Hexside a decade ago, with a few others at various other schools, and we'd switch places depending on who was needed where. We don't have individual names, though, so it's hard to keep track of who was who and when they were who, so I don't have a solid number of how many of us existed at once." She finished.
Lucia nodded slowly, then opened her mouth to speak, careful about what words she chose next, "And… did you ever talk to these other Changelings about things that upset you from your past lives?"
Vee clammed up again, letting a tense silence overtake them. After a few moments, she quietly stammered out a "No." as her answer.
Lucia reached out, and placed what she hoped was a comforting hand on the other girl's shoulder, "Why not?"
Vee curled in on herself again, wrapping her arms around her pulled in knees, "it hurts."
"Then maybe talking about it will help?" Lucia supplied, fully aware of her own hypocrisy on the matter, and that this entire conversation only started because of her own avoidance of a subject that was hurting her.
Vee shook her head, sniffling as tears began to form in her eyes. Despite the fact she still looked identical to Luz, she looked so much smaller in that moment, and Lucia was quick to wrap her arms around Vee's frame, whispering gently, "You don't have to say anything."
Vee's breathing became ragged, and Lucia feared she was going to start hyperventilating. She hugged the Changeling close, brushing a hand through her hair as Vee's tears streamed down her face. "I miss them so much."
Lucia had almost missed it, it had come out so quietly, masked by the sound of restrained sobs. "Who do you miss?" She asked gently.
"Mom and Dad."
Lucia tensed, and realized too late that there was a reason that Vee was so reluctant to talk about her past lives. Because it meant she'd had to leave another family behind, not just an identity. It had never really occurred to her that "Victor" had a mother and father of his own, and that Vee had loved them as dearly as she did Camila and Lucia.
The floodgates were open now, though, and through her tears Vee told her story. "I was still new to Earth when I took Victor's place. I don't know what happened to him, but he was gone, and his family didn't know yet. He was only four."
Lucia gulped, and closed her eyes. Four years old. She couldn't imagine what fate had befallen the boy, and didn't want to, instead focusing on Vee. "I took his place, and they raised me. They loved me, and I loved them. Momma would read me stories, and I'd lay my head on her lap. And Dad took me all sorts of places. That helped me learn so much about this world, through Victor's eyes."
Vee's body was shaking in Lucia's arms from her restrained sobs, trying to keep her blubbering under control enough to remain coherent. She tried not to think about how that explained some of Vee's behavior when she'd first started impersonating Luz, from the laying on Lucia's lap, to her tears at Crane's biting words about their absent mother.
"W-we were going on a drive, to visit Grandma, but someone ran a stoplight." Vee closed her eyes, trying to shake the images coming back to her, ones she tried so hard not to think about every time she went to sleep. "They hit us. And we didn't survive."
Vee's words about being nearly immortal from a few minutes ago rang in Lucia's ear, and she realized it meant more than just age. "I had to pretend to be dead, too. I had to sit there, and be dead in that smashed up car until they got us out, and then I had to lay there in a morgue by their bodies, and then lay there in the box they were going to bury me in until I could sneak away."
Vee was rapidly beginning to break down, clinging tightly to Lucia's shirt. "And then I was alone again. I had to wait, and find a new family, and just be nobody. No name, no form, wandering alone and trying to forget, but I couldn't because I didn't have any way to push it out of my mind. Then Luz disappeared, and I still had to wait months to be able to come home. I was so alone, and hungry, Lucia, I don't want to be alone again!"
She devolved into a sobbing fit, screaming and crying. Lucia's heart broke for her sister's stand in, and she clung to her, wrapping her arms around her and pressing kisses to her face and the top of her head, silently willing any love she had for the Changeling to be felt, to be consumed so that Vee knew she wasn't alone or unloved here anymore.
She didn't know what they were going to do with Vee when Luz came back. They didn't have a plan in place. The deal had always been that Vee would leave as soon as Luz didn't need someone to keep her cover up, but holding this crying child in her arms, Lucia didn't know what to do anymore. They couldn't keep Vee, and yet, she couldn't just send her away either.
So instead she just held her, "I'll be here for you," She choked out, her own eyes watering as she ran her hands through Vee's hair.
"I'll be here if you ever want to talk, or cry. I'll read you any stories you want, and you can lay on my lap. I promise." She whispered, pressing another kiss to Vee's temple, and squeezing her tight. She wasn't going to leave her little sister to wallow in her misery, without a mother or father to confide in.
Lucia didn't know what she was going to do. She still had her own problems to deal with. But she still had a mother, unlike Vee, and she could really use some advice.
A/N: I've been building up to the "waking up beside each other and regretting it" bit for a while. Ever notice the two of them get really handsy after a monster fight? Their first kiss was a full blown make out session on Lucia's bed, where both girls would have let the other do anything to them in the moment. They've always been moving so fast, and now they have a speeding ticket.
And we finally get this version of Vee's tragic backstory. When I think about it, I made the Changeling species pretty tragic. They need love to survive on the BOILING ISLES, a place where love isn't as freely given. They live their lives knowing they're nothing but a replacement goldfish. Their bodies, and as such, their brains, form to be the same age as the people they replace, so they're constantly growing and then having to devolve in maturity. Not to mention puberty over and over and over again.
Romantic relationships are difficult to sustain for any period of time, leaving them feeling lonely and not making meaningful attachments.
And then they lose their families, and have to start over from scratch again. No names, no identity to call their own, always on the move and always weighed down by the grief of the people they've lost to the point that as a species, they have to bury it and pretend those lives never happened just to cope.
This was another hard chapter for me to write. It's just sad, all the way around. At least Luz has some hope about her portal, though, and has bonded more with Hunter. I like to think the fact Luz and Eda didn't bother waiting to go through all of Philly's journal shows how they don't think things through enough. Maybe the portal Luz built in canon didn't work right because it was a prototype, and they just didn't get past that point in the diary yet? They wouldn't know because they only seem to take the info one entry at a time, instead of getting the full picture first.
What are your theories on why the portal in canon didn't work right? Tell me in a comment, I wanna hear!