Disclaimer: I don't own The Owl House

Title: Fuck the PCA

Summary: Bump, desperate for extra staff, brings a reluctant Eda into Hexside as a wild magic tutor. None of them expected just how much she'd end up loving it.

Chapter Title: Do you take requests?

...

"And don't forget to piss off your local cops!" Eda says as students file out the door. The lesson had been fairly mundane this time- just some basic traditions and history from her parents' time- but she was already feeling pooped. Teaching took a lot out of her.

Sighing heavily, Eda collapsed into her chair, rubbing her temples. She'd had to up her elixir to two a day to deal with the stress. Raine has begged her to tell Bump, let him lessen the load, but there was no telling how long she'd need once she finally sank into her nest on sick leave. But she also realizes it's not fair to Raine to keep coming home exhausted and unable to spend time with them, so it was looking more and more likely that Bump was getting a crow-phone from her before the end of the week.

"Miss Eda?"

"Ew, gross," Eda hummed reflexively. Opening her eyes, she found Emira Blight half-in her door. The girl looked borderline hesitant. "What's up, kid?"

"Emira," she said, just as reflexively. Eda wondered how often people mixed up her name with Edric's. They looked pretty different, but the names were easy to mix up. "Am I interrupting something?"

"Just me whining to myself about being old." Waving her inside, Eda was surprised to have the girl stand in front of her desk with her hands behind her back. "Aren't you supposed to be, like, a little hellion? What's all this junk?"

"I respect you waaaaay more than my other teachers. I was, uh, hoping to find out if you take requests? Of a more serious nature."

"I am not teaching you kids sex ed. The sheer amount of shit I'm already getting for telling you to fuck the government is-"

"No, no! Nothing like that." Emira held her hands up with a disgusted expression. Eda privately wondered if she was picturing a lesson from her grandma. "See, I've been doing Healing on the side with my Illusions. And I like it a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I'm thinking of dropping Illusions entirely for it. So I've been studying a lot about various illnesses, and there's nothing about curses, so-"

"Oh, here we go," she tsked, feeling thirty years of her Gwendolyn's pestering land squarely on her shoulders. "Look, Minty Fresh. I appreciate the thought, but curses aren't- you can't fix me."

"I know that," she replied sharply. "I was thinking more along the lines of stuff I can give cursed patients. Phone numbers for help lines, good elixir shops, basic pamphlets. They don't have anything about any of it out there. It's ridiculous! I'm sure there's a lot of cursed people on the Isles that just don't know where to go or who to talk to. Me and the girls really want to destigmatize it."

"Girls?" Eda heard herself say, but it felt hollow. She was struggling to process the sheer passion on the Blight's face.

"Some gal-pals I've made in the Healing classes. We're all super interested!"

Again, Eda was floored. Healing Coven kids gave a damn about her curse? But not to use her as some zany science project? Where the hell had that been all her life? The closest thing she'd gotten to genuine care from a medical professional as an adult was a suggestion to lose weight- and the healers Gwendolyn had called at the start, while helpful, had been pushed out and fired so often she rarely got anything they offered to her.

"You kids really are sumthin' else," she found herself saying without meaning to. Eda leaned back in her chair and rapped her knuckles on her desk. "Alright, Minty Fresh, here's the deal. I'm actually just about to take a break from teaching for a little bit- recharge from the stress. So if you and your little friends wanna learn, it's a great time to do it. Swing by my house day after tomorrow- and bring any adults you wanna snag too, so no one can say it's creepy."

(No one gave a fuck if a herd of somewhat unsupervised children were in her home before all of this, but now? Titan's tits. It was the end of the world to ask a kid to stay in the classroom for detention.)

(Not that she would. Eda had quite the high record of skipping detentions, and she was too proud to drop it now- even to stay for someone else's.)

"Yup," says Emira, nodding a bit too enthusiastically. "Got it. Totally chill. This'll be great."

No one told Raine it was supposed to be 'totally chill', Eda reflected. She'd hardly even settled in on the couch with a cup of tea and a blanket (like some old lady, Titan what was she turning into) before they were zipping back and forth the house.

"What do teenagers even eat?" they cried, digging through the cupboards. "We've got brownies, cookies, and pasta. Do teens like pasta?"

"In my experience, they mostly eat vodka and the disappointment of their parents," Eda supplied. "And red bull. Hey, we could do mixers!"

Raine threw up their hands. "Alright. I guess I'm making everything." Eda went to stand and help, and they shot her a glare that'd put Gwendolyn to shame. "You are teaching, not helping me stress-bake."

"It can be both."

"Rest."

Eda leaned back and took a sip of her tea, feeling the warmth of the cup around her hands. It was nice. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Raine twirled a pasta server and a smirk. "What, seeing the general populous being more open and understanding to my SO's chronic illness? Of course."

"Back in the day, all talking about it did was get me bullied. S'weird how things change."

"But good!" They vanished back around the corner. The faucet turned on, signaling water entering a pot. "I've said this before, but to me... I only knew you for a few months before you got the curse. It's been part of you for almost as long as I've known you! It's important to me that people respect my girlfriend."

Eda tried to remember the before times. It was all so blurry these days. Kid Eda had certainly never expected a time when running would get tiring, or teaching a class would have her back acting up. Feathers were fashionable. But that was all how kids felt when they grew old, wasn't it? "I never did think I was good enough for you. Maybe I never was."

"Can't hear your negative self-talk over my love!" they called back. "But, seriously. Maybe we should talk to Steve and get you set up with the Therapy Coven."

Eda's nose wrinkled. "And hear my mom yammer on about essential oils instead of more potions? Pass."

"I won't tell if you won't."

She'd considered that. But Gwendolyn had her fingers in half the Healing Coven, even after all these years. And it didn't really matter, of course. And Gwendolyn wouldn't really get all judgy about it. But it was nice to have a valid excuse, so she'd kept it up all these years just because.

"...Can we get back to that after the lesson?" she asked.

"Of course we can. Besides- I've got pasta to cook the hell out of."

Author's Note: Man, it should NOT have taken this long to finish this chapter lol. I've just been lazy. But here it is! Next chapter's gonna have some Blight shenanigans, some curse talk, and some cuddles.

-Mandaree1