Notes:
I'll admit I'm not super invested in these two as a pair. They're not bad. They're just not that interesting. However, the Quetzalcoatl tag on this site is atrocious and I'll not gonna let y'all nasties do my girl Lucoa dirty like that. She is kind and nice not defined by her humongous hungolomghnonoloughongous. So here's three chapters of non-gross chill times where they're just vibing
It was a chilly Spring afternoon in Koshigaya. The weather had started to warm up as the season shifted away from Winter, the morning walk to school grew more tolerable. However, it was still best to wear a sweater around the house or curl up in a warm blanket. The beginning of the school year was slow and manageable for the elementary students, leaving Shouta Magatsuchi with enough free time to do whatever he wanted. That, of course, meant he was pouring over the mystical tomes and volumes he'd borrowed from his father's library. If he wanted to be a powerful mage someday, then he would have to read up and study very hard. However, today his practice wasn't going particularly well.
After creating a summoning circle, he moved onto other powerful kinds of magic to prove his worth as a magic-user. He'd settled on divination. It was potentially a very useful skill to have, with a high ceiling of mastery, but a relatively low entrance point. It should be very friendly for beginners, but as he sat at his desk, reading and rereading the same passages over and over, he couldn't say he found it to be very friendly at all. No matter how many times he tried looking into his bowl of clear water, he just couldn't get anything to show up. Eventually, he fell back into his chair, sighing in defeat. He looked absentmindedly around his bedroom, still trying to work things out in his mind.
He saw the posters decorating his wall, his backpack splayed out on the ground, his bed made from the morning, and Lucoa, lounging casually in the corner. As tempting as it was to intrude upon everything her Shouta got up to, she did know better than to disturb him while he was practicing magic. Instead, she was sinking into a small hill of pillows, scrolling through social media on her phone. Shouta wasn't entirely sure where she procured it, but she was a fairly mature woman with resources at her disposal, so he didn't find it too outlandish. When she came home with it, he'd made her apologize for acting without his permission as his familiar, but let her keep it so long as it wasn't acquired illegally. She probably just paid for a plan, to be honest. Regardless, she posted top tier selfies.
The little boy watched her curiously for a moment. He'd gotten more accustomed to Lucoa's presence, but it was still odd to see a demon, or dragon, or whatever she was just hanging out in his house. They never had worked out an arrangement for Lucoa to earn her keep, but he supposed she didn't really need to. He just liked to have her around. Still, he thought back for a moment. Lucoa had once offered him great magical abilities. Maybe she'd be able to help him
"Hey, um, Lucoa?" he started nervously. He was used to her being here, but it could still be scary to talk to her sometimes. "You know about magic stuff, right?"
The dragoness peeked over at him inquisitively. "Of course, Shouta baby. Why? Did you decide to take me up on those magical abilities?"
"No, I still want to earn the powers on my own, but I'm having some trouble with this spell…" he pointed to his book and looked away, kind of embarrassed to admit his failure to his own familiar.
"Oh yeah? Let me take a look." Thankfully, Lucoa was always warm and encouraging. She slipped her phone into the pocket of her jean shorts and popped up out of her seat with a little bounce. Looking over Shouta's shoulder, the ex-goddess's vibrant eyes quickly skimmed over the incantation. "Ah yes, a country I used to visit used divination a lot. Although they had different ways of seeing visions. My brother taught it to them."
"You have a brother?"
"I have a few siblings. They can be a handful." She trailed off sheepishly, before refocusing on Shouta's problem. "He always said that to divine the future, you had to completely clear your mind, like poof!" She swiped her hands horizontally to the sides to emphasize the point, "Nothing. Having an expectation for the future or trying to see what you want won't let you see what is truly there." She then wiggled her fingers and added a mystical edge to her voice near the end. Shouta didn't seem very amused, but it wasn't bad advice.
He turned back to the bowl of water he'd been using to divine and once again repeated the spell. As he completed forms with his hands over the bowl, an image started to form, but in his excitement, he lost his concentration and the picture began to fade. He tried his best to call it back, but it was too far gone to be restored. The child slumped into his chair, disappointed. His new tutor put a hand on his shoulder. "You almost had it! Let's give it one more try."
Only at the behest of Lucoa did he sigh and sit upright. Having practically memorized the incantation at this point, he set to work once again. Slowly but surely a form once again came into view as Lucoa gave quiet encouragements from behind him, "That's it. You're doing great. Just try to ease your mind. Don't reach for it, let it come to you." Doing his best to keep his emotions in check, he held a peaceful poker face as the image cleared and came into focus. He wasn't able to preserve it for very long, but he was able to look into the bowl and see what he'd been looking for. After the water cleared, he turned to Lucoa with a smile and declared, "It's going to rain tomorrow!"
With her dominion over the gales, Lucoa easily could have predicted the weather for the coming days, but she was incredibly proud nevertheless! "Yay, Shouta! You did a great job!"
The little boy ducked his head bashfully away from the praise, but still looked up to her and asked, "Do you think it'll come true?"
Lucoa dropped a hand on the top of his head with a pat. "Well, we better send you out with an umbrella just in case."
Embarrassed, he ducked out of her reach. He was a great mage, clearly, and great mages didn't get pats on the head from their big sisters. To establish his machismo, he puffed out his bony chest and tried to act like a big adult in the way only kids imagine them. "Thank you for your help, uh. G-Good familiar!" It was clear he still didn't know how exactly to treat Lucoa. He didn't make the most commanding leader, but she liked to play along anyway. It was very cute.
The ex-goddess curtsied ironically, not that the child could tell. "Your praise honors me, Master Shouta. Would you like to take a break for a snack?"
"Yeah." Great mages still liked glasses of juice and apples cut into slices by their familiar — at least, he did.
