Hey! Uh, it's still November... Right?

I'm sorry I haven't been able to update this recently, but I've been busy with stuff irl that's been going on. But I've finally got around to finishing this chapter! So enjoy!

Finding places for everyone to sleep was surprisingly a lot easier than Camila thought it would be.

Luz and Vee were sleeping where they usually were in their room, with Amity and Willow joining them. Gus and Hunter were in the basement. The Collector was sleeping on the pull-out couch with King. (the former holding the latter liked a stuffed animal). Lilith had set up a sleeping bag on the dining room floor, Hooty curled up in a coil next to her.

Eda and Raine had set up a sleeping bag of their own in Camila's bedroom ("How is this less comfy than my nest is?" Eda had complained).

Speaking of the Noceda mother, she had (reluctantly) given up her bed for Miranda to sleep in. Of course, doing this meant that Camila no longer had a place to sleep for the night. She didn't tell Luz that. Her daughter had been helping her so much all day, that she didn't want to trouble her with something else... Until tomorrow at least.

Right now, Camila was content with sitting out on the porch, listening to the sound of the occasional car drive by the road, and the faint gobbling of the turkey in the backyard.

The temptation she had to go back inside and crack open her stash in the ceiling (that's right, she knew Eda wouldn't be able to find it. They never check the ceiling), drown her bad mood in booze so it would go away... But she couldn't afford getting drunk, god forbid in front of Miranda; or in front of the kids for that matter.

Besides, tomorrow was a big day anyways: Thanksgiving day, specifically. All she had to do was keep herself together for a few more days, make sure dinner went well tomorrow, and make sure everyone was happy... Even if that meant costing her own happiness. Camila was fine with that, she was happy enough with making sure everyone else was happy after all.

Course, Thanksgivings had never been really too happy ever since-

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the front door opened nearby, and soon after Eda walked out through it.

"Hey, sorry to barge in on that little conversation you were having with yourself..." Eda greeted with a small smirk, closing the door behind her.

Camila blushed slightly. Had she been saying all her thoughts out loud for the last few minutes? It would explain why those two squirrels were looking at her weirdly a while ago.

Eda sat down in a chair next to Camila, showing off a few bottles in her hands. "But I figure seeing as the kids are asleep, it'd be more fun to drink with others rather than alone."

She cracked open one of the bottles, and took a swig as Camila looked at her.

"What? It's way past four..." Eda pointed out defensively after she saw her look.

"Still, you have to be in a good head space for tomorrow..." Camila reminded the owl lady. God, Miranda would have a fit if she saw Eda drunk in front of the young ones.

"Come on! Take at least a sip!" Eda pushed, holding out one of the bottles.

The Noceda mother contemplated it for a few seconds, thinking about how the day had been, and how the rest of the week was going to go...

"Fine. I'll take a couple sips." Camila decided, to which Eda chuckled.

"Finally! Knew you'd give into the drink eventually." She grinned, which made Camila roll her eyes.

"I'm not giving in... Just a couple shots, and that's all I'm having." Camila said in response. "Got the niños to think about, after all."

"Yeah, yeah... Sure." Eda said, half listening as she poured out a couple glasses for Camila.

Luz wasn't sleeping. Scratch that, she couldn't sleep. Not with all the stuff that was on her mind.

The day had been hard to manage. But she had done it, she had kept her mamá from snapping, and (mostly) kept her abuela from criticizing much about the decor and state of the family.

Course, that didn't mean much and she criticized a lot anyways... But at least it was a good start compared to previous visits.

Luz exhaled as she rolled over in bed, gazing into the closed eyes of her witch girlfriend sleeping a foot or so away from her. She usually couldn't help but smile whenever she looked at her sweet potato, but right now, she couldn't do anything but frown as her mind wandered.

Her abuela didn't know a thing about the relationship she and Amity had, and Luz wanted to keep it that way for a LONG while. Miranda had never really been too... "Accepting" of people with her kind of romantic interests. It was part of the reason why she was both happy yet nervous to see her abuela again after so long.

The main plan Luz had was to keep her relationship with Amity a secret. It was just another thing to add to the list of things Miranda couldn't know, really no harm done (sorta). She purposefully didn't worry her mamá with her fears of coming out to abuela, she had enough to stress about as it was.

As Luz was thinking to herself, she smacked her dry lips a bit. The urge of thirst was beginning to (ironically) drown out her thoughts. She shuffled her way out of bed, being careful not to wake up any of the others in the room as she did. She then made her way out the open bedroom door, and tiptoed down the hallway towards the kitchen.

After she made it there, Luz quietly opened a cabinet, and took a glass out to fill with water from the fridge. She slunk over to said fridge, and opened it. The light of the fridge beamed out into the room, illuminating Luz and the nearby area with a yellow light amongst the dark kitchen. She smiled to herself as she took the jug out, and tilted it to pour some water into her cup...

"Hey Luz!" The Collector piped up from out of nowhere, smiling as he did.

Luz yelped, her hands flinching as she did... Which caused the water jug she was holding to somewhat dump onto her PJs, drenching them with cold water.

"Oops... Sorry." The Collector grinned sheepishly, "Here, let me fix that!"

He snapped his fingers, and Luz's PJs glowed for a few moments, as she felt them slowly dry back to their fluffy state.

"Thanks Collin..." Luz patted her now dry PJs (Taking a small cautious glance around to make sure her abuela didn't see any of that by chance).

"No problem!" He smiled, beaming at himself fixing his slight mistake.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Luz curiously asked after recovering from the surprise appearance of the star child, closing the fridge as she did.

The Collector shrugged, "Eh, couldn't sleep... I'm really excited for tomorrow!" he grinned.

Luz smiled a bit. At least someone else in the house was having the same problem as her, just for a far different reason of course.

"I can't wait to give thanks to everyone and everything!" He claimed, "I'm gonna thank you, our friends, your mom, Miranda-"

"Y-You can just call her abuela, Collin..." Luz assured the star child, with a faint stutter as she did.

"Oh, okay! I will..." The Collector replied with a nod, keeping his smile as he did.

It was silent for a few moments (apart from the sound of Luz pouring water into her cup), when the Collector finally decided to break it with a simple question that changed the tone of the conversation near instantly.

"Luz... Who's Manny?" The Collector randomly asked, an innocent smile on his face.

Luz nearly dropped the water jug from shock at the question. "What did you just say?" She questioned, not sure she heard the star child right.

"I asked who Manny is? I heard Mir- abuela and your mom talk about him earlier... I'm just curious who he is!" He explained, confirming what Luz heard was right.

"Uh, well... He's my dad, and abuela's son..." Luz mumbled awkwardly in response, hoping that the Collector would accept that simple answer and hop off back to bed.

He didn't.

"Oh! Well, where is he then?" The Collector questioned, tilting his head. "Shouldn't he be here for Thanksgiving?"

It was an innocent question coming from the star child, but to Luz, it was like he had unintentionally slashed open her chest, and strangled her beating heart.

"He... Can't, Collin. My dad isn't with us anymore..." Luz exhaled, avoiding the d-word for her own mind's sake.

"He isn't? Why doesn't he come back? Is he really far away?" The star child questioned again, raising an eyebrow curiously.

"No he-" Luz tried to explain, but she was cut off.

"Oh! I can go get him if you need me to!" The Collector suggested with a smile.

"Collin, he's not-" Luz tried again, but was cut off once more.

"Just tell me where he is and I can take a star to-" The star child was about to snap his fingers to summon a star, when his hands were grabbed by Luz.

"HE'S DEAD! OKAY?!" Luz shouted much louder than she intended, nearly choking on her tongue from the force of her shout mixed with her attempt to keep her voice down. "He's not here... Because he's dead..."

The Collector was taken aback, and seemed confused. "Dead...?" He asked, his voice much quieter now, slightly intimidated from how loud Luz had been in answering.

Luz exhaled heavily, she glanced around to make sure nobody had woken up from her outburst. Thankfully, everything still seemed quiet. She glanced back at the star child.

"Yes... He's... He's dead..." Luz repeated, her voice now quieter as well. She hated saying it out loud. It was like poking a sharp stick at a scar, if she did it enough, it'd eventually reopen the wound.

"B-But why, and how? What happened to him...?" The Collector asked, still confused and frowning.

"It's just... It's just a long story, Collin..." Luz answered with a heavy sigh. God, this was a conversation she was both too tired, and too emotion-prone to have.

"L-Look, I'll see you in the morning... Goodnight." Luz awkwardly tried to end the conversation, walking out of the kitchen with her water glass.

But she was stopped at the kitchen doorway when the Collector spoke up.

"Is that why abuela hasn't come more?" He asked, looking at Luz from his spot in the kitchen. "Because he isn't here..?"

"...I-It's a bit more complicated than that, Collector." Luz hesitantly replied without even looking back at him. "Just... Go back to bed, okay?"

The Collector frowned slightly, but decided to listen to her. "Okay... I'll see you in the morning, Luz..." He sighed.

The star child floated back to where he had been sleeping with King, as Luz returned to her bedroom, sliding back into her spot in bed snuggled next to Amity. She tried her best to push out the thoughts that were trying to form about her dad, replacing them instead with thoughts about how nice it would be to get more than 2 hours of sleep tonight.

Luz exhaled deeply through her nose as she laid back against the pillow, closing her eyes in an attempt to finally welcome sleep.

Tomorrow was going to either go surprisingly well, or horribly wrong. Luz tried to think positive... Maybe it would only go moderately wrong.

I'm gonna finish this, VERY soon. Just need the time to do it.

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