Matt had rolled into the water as soon as Luz had run away; the sudden movement was so powerful that even his strong claws had lost their grip. Luckily the puppet had gotten out of the water as soon as possible, which was quite understandable given the panic attack she had just had, so she had left a trail of tracks and wet grass that was quite easy to follow. "Mh. This time Gus is going to kill me for real" Matt muttered to himself. He wasn't too worried about that possibility, after all he was much bigger and stronger than the spider, but he didn't like the idea of having to face her wrath. And he also knew that the responsibility for what had happened had been partly his.

Since arriving at the Owl House, Mattholomule had mostly not cared about others except Gus; he had no interest in improving his personal relationships with the people inside the house, because he was sure that it would be a transitory coexistence. Gus was the only one with whom he had a real relationship since the spider didn't seem willing to leave him alone at all, and in fact seemed to have decided to turn becoming his friend as his personal mission, and Matt had to admit that deep down he didn't mind his company even if he often found it a nuisance. However, the fact that he only had a real relationship with Gus was no excuse for ignoring the needs of the other inhabitants of the house, who had always behaved well towards him, including Luz.

Matt should have convinced Luz to go to school instead of not caring and letting her make a mistake. She had brought him with her for that reason after all. Furthermore, as a further note of demerit, Matt knew well what had happened to Luz in the ocean... and he of all people should have understood what this could have entailed. He had seen how she had been reduced by the horrible experience she had had, he had heard her screams while she was in her den; it should have foreseen certain potential events. He should never have let her get close to a beach.

But Matt wasn't someone to cry over spilled milk, so he hurriedly followed the puppet's trail. Unfortunately his tiny legs were much slower than Luz's legs, but despite this he didn't give up and continued to follow her, and the few times that a curious seagull approached he simply clicked his claws to send it away. Finally he reached a large cliff near the beach, and there, sitting between two large stones with her head buried between her legs, he found the puppet sobbing. "Luz!"

The puppet looked up, showing a tear-stained face. "M-Matt? Sorry... I made you fall..."

"We'll think about that later" Matt said. "Look... I need you to calm down now. Can you?"

"C-Calm down!? How can I calm down!?" Luz asked crying even more. She put her hands in front of her face and appeared to bite her lip in frustration. "Why? Why is there something so wrong with me? Why does everyone I'm close to either get hurt or turn out to be an asshole? Why can't I..."

"Hey, hey! Don't try to blame yourself for what happened today, you understand?" Matt stopped her with a firm and resolute voice. "It's only those three idiots who are to blame, and don't worry about Amity. She's not the one who matters now"

Luz was surprised by the crab's serious tone. It was the first time she had heard him speak like that. But despite that she couldn't stop sobbing, and as soon as Amity's fainted body reappeared in her mind she felt her heart torn by a thousand blades. "But... what if she got hurt? What if I hurt her...?"

"Don't worry: if there's one thing I've learned in my life it's that all kids have hard heads. You'll see, by tomorrow that little bully will be back on her feet healthy as usual" Matt replied to her. "I told you not to think about her, now I just need you to think about you. Gus told me that Willow taught you a method to calm your anxiety and agitation, is that true?"

"Y-Yes..." Luz nodded.

"Good, then do it now. And don't stop until I tell you to" Matt dissed by jumping on her chest and positioning himself near her heart, so he can control its beating. "What are you waiting for? Do it!"

Luz hesitated for a moment, then she did as she was told and repeated the method Willow had taught her; since neither she nor Gus were present and Matt didn't know what to do, instead of using their paws Luz used her fingers to count the duration of her breathing. She repeated that process over and over, and finally her mind began to relax, her limbs were no longer tense like a violin string, and her breathing rate and heart rate returned to normal levels. Matt remained motionless on her chest the entire time, listening carefully to the sound of the puppet's wooden heart, and every time she tried to stop he clicked his claws to tell her to continue. Only when he was finally very sure that there was no longer any difference compared to a normal heartbeat he signed her that she could stop and got off her chest, jumping onto a nearby rock. "Do you feel better now?"

Luz wiped away her tears and sniffed. "Yes... thank you" she whispered, and then she lowered her voice even more: "I... I don't know what happened to me. I think I've gone crazy"

"You're not crazy. You just saw and suffered things that a girl your age should never see and suffer. Not that I would wish that on an adult, of course" Matt told her. He didn't know exactly how to behave with her, so he first decided to find out about her mental condition, and not knowing how else to do it he asked her: "How intense were the hallucinations?"

The puppet was surprised. She hadn't expected the crab to understand that she'd seen things that weren't real... even though it felt like it was real to her at the time. "How do you know it...?"

"I heard you scream 'monster', and I seriously doubt you were referring to Amity. And besides, your eyes were so wide it looked like you were staring death itself in the face" Matt answered. "I'm not an expert of these things, but I know how to recognize certain signals. So, how intense were they?"

Luz bit her lip. Even she wasn't certain to be able to give a precise answer. "I... I'm not sure. Initially they were just brief flashes, but then they became more concrete, and sounds and smells were also added... I felt like I was in a nightmare". Her entire body trembled for fear; as much as she tried to think of something else, Belos' hideous face didn't seem to want to leave her mind. She could still feel his cruel gaze on her. "I don't know why it happened... it's never happened to me before"

"This has never happened to you before because Belos has... um... because the tragedy you witnessed happened in the sea. That's probably why you panicked as soon as you entered the water" Matt said. He was mostly guessing, as he certainly wasn't a psychiatrist, but given the situation he had just witnessed he was pretty sure that what he was saying was right.

Luz looked at him for a moment, as if she was weighing his words, then she stood up and before Matt could stop her she walked to the shore and stared at the horizon. Looking at the sea had no effect on her... but as soon as she knelt down and tried to put a single finger in the water, she immediately withdrew it as if she had just touched boiling oil. The moment the salty liquid touched the wood she was made of, her blood seemed to freeze and her heart immediately began to pound. "Luz! Stop it right now!" Matt ordered her. "Get away from the water! NOW!"

Luz didn't have the strength to oppose the crab's command and she returned to take refuge among the rocks, trembling like a leaf. "I think... you're right" she whispered while she hugged her knees again as if she was trying to protect herself as much as possible. "Sorry... you are probably thinking that I'm pathetic..."

"Luz, having a trauma is not synonymous with weakness. You've seen die... er, you've seen terrible things at sea, things that would break the psyche of an adult, let alone a girl of your age. You don't have to be ashamed of this" Matt told her.

Luz let out a whimper. "Thank you. You're... very kind" she murmured, then she gestured to the rest of the beach. "Matt, I know you followed me because you felt guilty, but don't worry, I don't begrudge you for not stopping me from making my mistakes. You can go... you wanted to go back to the beach after all, right? You don't have to stay here with me, you can return to your home"

Matt sighed. He carefully considered what to say, then he replied: "Luz, I... I don't think I'm going to leave. I wouldn't be able to look Gus in the face again if I left you alone, and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm interested in his opinion" he said. "And then... I don't want to leave you alone. I know with absolute certainty that even if you would like to have no one around now, it is much better for someone to stay by your side, at least until you feel better"

"Do you know this with absolute certainty?" Luz let out a sad laugh. "Are you a telepath now? Can you read my mind?"

The crab was silent for a long time. Luz thought he didn't have a suitable answer, but when she was already thinking of changing the subject Matt said: "I know this with absolute certainty because I would have really wanted someone close to me when it was my turn to lose someone"

Luz opened her eyes wide. "What?"

Matt snapped his claws. "His name was Steve. He was my brother. One day he went out to sea as usual to catch something to eat and he never came back. I waited for him on that beach for days, weeks, months... years actually. I knew that he would never return; we sea creatures have a saying after all... when the ocean takes something, it never gives it back. But I waited anyway, hoping that one day I would see his big carapace come out of the water, and come to say hello to me while he was carrying a big fish in his claws and making some idiotic joke as usual". He made a strange sound with his mouth. "This just to let you know that I know what you're feeling, and I know for sure that you mustn't stay alone now"

"Oh, I... I'm sorry. I didn't know" Luz said mortified. She felt guilty for having forced the crab to tell her about that bad experience which clearly still caused him a lot of pain.

But Matt shrugged, and pretending not to care about it he said: "It doesn't matter now, it's in the past. What I mean is that maybe I would have stayed there on that beach waiting forever if I hadn't found a... friend, I can't believe I'm actually calling him that. When you and that spider and that cricket showed up on my beach, that was the first real interaction I'd had with anyone in a long time. Just think I realized that I don't I didn't even remember how to be polite to others anymore! That's when I started to change, to abandon my hole and move around a bit... which is also the reason why I got caught by those petty thieves, but then Gus saved me, and you took me to the Owl House... and despite everything, I felt comfortable there. That's why I was so reluctant to leave... for me, staying at the Owl House was an opportunity to finally move forward, to stop coming out of my den every day and sit on a rock looking at the sea hoping for a miracle. And the one who gave me the strength to go on was Gus, that annoying little spider who does nothing but come to my terrarium to talk to me and disturb me while I sleep, but who at least forces me to interact with someone and think about something else. It's in these moments... that you need a friend, or at least someone to support you". Even though he knew it was stupid, he climbed onto her shoulder and put a claw on her cheek as if to caress her. "That's why I'm not leaving. You need someone to be close to you, especially at this precise moment. So... now let's get some rest, and then we'll go home, okay? And whatever happens, don't think about what you saw during those hallucinations. If you for some reasons will start doing that, let out a scream and I'll start dancing in front of your eyes: I'll be so ridiculous that it will be impossible for you to concentrate on anything but me"

Luz sniffed and smiled a little; finally she was starting to feel better. Although she wanted to be angry at the crab for not stopping her from making a mistake, she felt only grateful for the care he was giving her. After all, she couldn't blame him too much: it was true, Matt hadn't acted, but she was the one who had made the wrong choice. "Thank you" she whispered, and then she stood up on her legs, although they were still a little trembling. "Come, let's go home. I don't know how I'll be able to tell Eda that I've made another mess..."

"Technically those three bullies deceived you, it's not your fault" Matt tried to reassure her. And technically it was true, at least from his point of view.

But Luz shook her head. "Yes, instead, it is my fault! I knew that skipping school was wrong, I shouldn't have done it. And more at all... I had the advantage of experience, it's not the first time someone deceives me... but obviously I continue to fall for it". She punched herself lightly on the forehead. "The truth is that I'm just a silly stupid girl with bad judgment! Oh, how I wish I'd made the right choice! I wish I'd gone to school today, I wish I'd never believed Amity and the others, and I wish I'd never heard of that stupid Titan!"

"You have a lot of nerve insulting someone else in their absence" said a booming voice behind her.

Luz and Matt whirled around and their bodies froze: a huge black shadow had appeared behind the cliff. The shadow of a very tall creature, with long claws, an elongated head from which sharp teeth protruded, and two long horns on the back of the skull.

In the original book there is actually a crab at this moment in the story: during the fight between Pinocchio and his friends, in fact, an asthmatic crab comes out of the sand advising them to stop, having foreseen that something bad would happen, but Pinocchio chases it away in in a bad way and so the fight continues. In this AU the role of the crab is more expanded and is played by Matt, who in addition to simply advising Luz to stop when he realizes that she is about to hit Amity, also acts as moral support to her after she has her attack of PTSD. And yes, Matt finally admits that he considers Gus a friend and a support anchor; tsundere like in canon, exactly. As for Steve, in canon he and Matt are actually brothers for those who don't know, so I used that as justification for the fact that Matt knows, even if only to a small extent, how to deal with a person who has lost someone