And here we go again folks! I am on a streak with these. Forget what I said about monthly uploads, I'll just keep posting these as fast as I can.
Hey I have a question, have you guys seen Luz's witch attire from Mark's comic? What do you call the part that covers the lower part of her face? The thing that looks like Sasuke's shirt. Do you just call it cowl or mask? Bc I don't know what to call it when I'm describing it, and I tried looking it up but I can't find an answer. Thank you in advance!
The usual crap:
If you could send me a review that would be great! All feedback is appreciated! As long as you don't yell at me XD
English isn't my first language, please tell me if you spot any mistakes!.
Disclaimer: I don't own the owl house, all the characters except my OCs belong to Disney and Danna Terrace. This AU idea belongs to moringmark (Plz go read his comics, I beg you).
-Lilith-
The owl house's living room / Monday october 10th 18:00 hs
Lilith typed furiously on her laptop as she answered an email sent by her superiors. Apparently someone there wasn't happy that she came back unannounced and declared herself the boss (of her own god damn department!) and now they wanted her to step down and let the other officials present in the area. Of course Kikimora jumped to this opportunity to proclaim that she was letting her emotions cloud her judgment and because of that, things would become worse if she assumed command, it did not help that she injured so many of their own agents during her arrival.
At the end, Marcus came to her rescue. Her old mentor proposed the idea that they could find a middle ground: She and her assistant Steve could stay and help with the situation (they needed all of the manpower they could get) but Lilith would not have a final say in everything, she would co-lead with the other two. The higher ups said that they needed time to consider Marcus' proposal and whether or not Lilith deserved to be punished, they told her to be on stand-by for a week at least, meanwhile things would continue as they were.
"A week is too much time. During the week Kikimora has more than enough time to make plans for me. In that time there could be another magical incident and I'm supposed to do nothing? Yeah right" she took a sip of her tea and looked around. The owl house's living room was as dirty and disorganized as the last time she stayed there, despite her sister claiming that they cleaned before she came(she was willing to bet that they just stuffed everything in the basement). Despite being in the busy part of the city, this place was really silent, the only noise were the purrs coming out of her sister's cat called King, who was sitting on her lap. She smiled and started petting the feline and he rubbed her hand with his head in appreciation. "I can't just stay put, especially since I have another thing to protect now"
As on cue she heard the sound of the main door opening and footsteps following it.
"Hi guys, I'm back!" Luz poked her head around the corner and saw her "oh, hi Lilith! Is Eda here?"
She smiled upon seeing her sister's protegee "She said she had some errands to do in the city, she was feeling well so I let her, although I'm sure that was a lie and she is actually doing something illegal" she closed her laptop and patted the seat next to her "would you mind joining me? There's something I wanted to discuss with the two of us alone"
"Sure" she shrugged and sat on her side, king went over and started rubbing against Luz and she started to scratch him below his chin "What is it?"
"Luz I want to tell you two things, and it's actually a good thing that Edalyn isn't here… first of all I wanted to thank you for being here for Eda. I know that you didn't exactly choose to come here but you have improved her life in several ways. I know she won't admit it, but you have become someone really precious to her and I cannot thank you enough to be there for her" she had seen the way how she and her sister interacted, like a family. She had her suspicions when she saw this random girl wearing her sister's favourite beanie from her teenage years, but it wasn't until she saw how this girl was so worried about her sister during her attack that she was certain about it.
"Oh wow, thank you? I don't believe I've done that much to be honest. I've just repaid the kindness Eda has shown me. I mean I just… showed up with a letter from my mom, she had every right to close the door on me but she didn't, or she could've just fed me one night and handed me to the police or someone else. Not only that but she kept me fed for months and gave me a job, she even went and did all of that stuff to get me to school even if she didn't like it! So, taking care of her is the least I could do"
Lilith smiled as she heard these words, it was clear that the girl had a good heart. Honestly when she first heard that her sister had a daughter she wasn't aware that she had been really angry at her. Then when it turned out that she was living with a (possibly illegal) immigrant teenager she became worried, now she didn't have the issues that several of her colleagues had towards immigration, but she could have been taking advantage of her sister's kindness. But when she got to meet Luz it was clear that all of those worries were for nothing, that girl was incapable of hurting a fly.
"I'm happy to hear it" she took a deep breath and steadied herself "the second thing that I wanted to talk to you about is… well it's complicated. Luz, what do you want to do in your future?"
"Huh?" Judging by the girl's expression, she wasn't expecting this question "what do you mean by that?"
"What do you want to do once you graduate? Now that you have convinced my sister to put you in school I imagine that you are going to graduate, right?" When she nodded, Lilith continued "and what's next then? Are you going to go to college? What do you imagine yourself working as?"
Luz just sat there in silence looking ahead for a while "You know what? This is the first time someone asks me something like that" she stood up and started walking around the room, Lilith guessed this was a thing she did to order her thoughts.
"I never expected to be able to graduate from school, I always thought that I was going to be homeschooled until I was the right age to help… in my town back home. I always expected to have a simple job in my community, something that was needed but I didn't particularly like. Or maybe I would help mom in her job"
"What did your mother do back there?"
"She… rescued wild animals, she was like a vet"
"You could do the same thing here, get a degree for it and everything"
"Yeah I guess. It's just that my prospects for the future back home were so simple and… limited. Now that I'm here and I can actually choose what to be, I find myself undecided. I don't know what I'm going to do with my future"
"And that's perfectly fine at your age, you don't have to know everything yet. But what I wanted to know was if you would want to remain here, in the owl house, even after you graduated"
"Ummm, yeah? I mean, of course I'm going to go back home sometime, and I wanted to explore more places about this wo- I mean this country. But I think I'll always come back here, this place is my home now. Why do you ask?"
"Ok, this is the hard part"
"Luz, you are aware of Eda's true business here, right?" She saw the teen widen her eyes and start making excuses "don't try to deny it, I know most of the stuff she sells here is illegal. And I know what kind of 'errands' she runs in town. So answer me honestly, do you know what she does?"
The teen slowly nodded.
"And has she involved you with those activities?"
"Kinda? Most of the time I work at the shop, but there has been some instances where she would ask me for help with some… things"
*sigh* "Just as I feared. Luz I won't blame you for wanting to help my sister, but there are some things you need to know; Eda's situation is complicated because by all means she should be in prison" Luz started to protest but Lilith stopped her by raising her hand "I know, I know. Nothing that she does here harms anyone and her business is just some minor things. However, that's not counting her past. I don't know how much she told you and it's not my place to tell, but she did some bad things when she was younger, really bad stuff. The only reason why she doesn't have to live on the run is because of me, I used my job position to cover for her"
"Yeah Eda told me you work for the government, but I don't know what that has to do with me, or why are you telling me this" Luz looked uncomfortable having this discussion and she couldn't blame her.
"I'm getting there. I tried to reform my sister and it worked, to some extent. I spent my whole life trying to change her and I only managed to push her away from me. At the end I realized that I had to let her be, and our relationship flourished after that, but it still pained me that she chose to have this life" She looked at the latina with seriousness "Eda might be a lost case, but I'm not going to let the same happen to you"
"Huh? What are you talking about"
"I mean this with no offense, but my sister is not the best role model to have, especially to a young girl. I have no doubt that she has good intentions but if she drags you to a life of crime-"
"EDA WOULDN'T DO THAT!" Luz got up from her seat and looked at her angrily. Lilith just looked at her with a raised eyebrow until she calmed down "Sorry, I don't know where that came from…"
"It's okay. This just shows how loyal you are, and maybe I said it wrong, my apologies" Luz sat down again "But still, my point stands. What were those 'things' she asked you to do?"
"She asked me to burn some evidence the other day" Luz started counting with her fingers and Lilith facepalmed "There were some bribes that I had to handle, then some fake papers needed to be done, I have to sell illegal goods from her shop from time to time, and there was that one time when she drove me to the edge of the forest to dig something in the middle of the night, I don't know what it was but it seemed important"
"See! And you are not even concerned with doing those crimes! Luz, what do you think is going to happen if you keep doing these things? You may be a minor now, but I won't be able to protect you when you turn eighteen! You'll go to prison if you keep doing that stuff"
"Yeah I didn't think of that" She had an embarassed tone in her voice.
"And that's why I have come with an alternative. Eda might be a lost case, but I won't let the same happen to you! So Luz, what would you think if I made you my ward?"
"Say wha?" Luz was astonished.
"It would be a temporary thing. I could talk to your mother to put you under my care, it wouldn't be the first time I do that to be honest, and I will provide for you. After I'm done with my work here I will go back to my house in New Hampshire, it's not that far away. I could take you with me if you wanted and there you will have acsess to everything you need: You won't have to work at Eda's shop anymore, or go to that outdated school, or sleep in that bedroom full of bugs'' Seriously, she couldn't even conceive how she could sleep in there, Eda needed to clean this place more often "Above all, you wouldn't need to get involved in Edalyn's schemes to pay your debt"
"But what about Eda? And my friends? What about the owl house?"
"Well I'm not going to take you away. You could visit them anytime you want, it's just a few hours ride. I know that Eda won't like it and maybe I am doing something wrong by separating you two, but I am merely suggesting this because I care about you and your future. Eda might be my sister but it doesn't take away the fact that she is a criminal, a fraud, and a…"
"A mentor, and a good friend" Luz was looking at her with a serious expression "I'm sorry Lilith but no. I'm not going to go anywhere. And before you say it this isn't because I 'owe' Eda anything, she has let that much clear. I like living here despite the bugs in the bed, the bullies in the school, the hard chores in the house, and your grumpy sister. Because grumpy or not she gave me the best place to live, a place where for the first time in my life I can be myself. She may be all of those things that you said about her, but she is also wise, tender, caring, and compasionate"
Lilith looked at this teenage girl and smiled. She was able to see something about her sister that she didn't and that was an achievement on its own.
"Alright I get it, I was just trying to look out for you"
"Well you don't need to, I am not the gullible innocent girl you think Lilith. I'm totally capable of choosing by myself and discerning if something is good for me or not" She got up and stretched "Alright, can we change the subject? Because I'm trying really hard to not be offended by your proposition and I don't think you'll like me when I'm angry, sorry"
"It's okey, don't worry" Then a banging on the door distracted them.
"Hey! Is someone going to help me carry all of this inside? This stuff is heavy!"
"Oh, I'm coming Eda!" Luz hopped towards the door with enthusiasm, as if the conversation they just had didn't happen.
Lilith chuckled and went back to her computer "This is what the higher ups don't understand, this is why I need to be on the field" She looked at her sister and her protegee bringing in the groceries "I will protect you Eda, you and your daughter. I will chase down those magical creatures to make sure you both live happy lives"
-Luz-Gravesfield public library / Saturday November the 15th 10:00
Luz walked up towards the receptionist with a huge pile of books in her hands. Eda had asked her to return those to the library as part of her daily chores, usually she disliked the idea of having to spend her days off work and school doing chores, but she wasn't complaining. Luz loved libraries and really missed going to one, even if humans had mastered the use of free, unlimited information exchange with the internet, it wasn't the same as getting lost in a sea of books.
"Hi, excuse me!" She called towards the middle-aged man behind the reception counter who was looking at a book "I'm here to return some books!"
The man sighed and put his book down, then he looked at her tiredly. Without saying a word he started taking the books from her and scanning them with his machine one by one.
"Late, late, late" he stopped and looked at a particular book "Coffee, blood, and grass stains? These are Eda's, aren't they?"
"Heh-heh, that was a wild night" Luz admitted sheepishly. Now that she was paying attention she could see that there was a photo of Eda on the counter with the word 'BANNED' on it.
"I probably should have noticed that sooner"
"I'll just put all of these in her tab" he just dropped the pile to his side and resumed his lecture "We are closing early today by the way, the owner of the library likes meteor showers and today is going to be a big one. So he is going to close the entire thing so he can watch it without distractions"
"Whoooa, a meteor shower?" Luz had never heard of those in the human realm. Of course she knew the term from the boiling isles but she doubted those two would mean the same thing "what does it do?"
"You are in a library. Read. A. Book" he stated as if it was the most obvious thing ever.
"I am in a library. I will read a book!" She twirled in sheer happiness and started jogging towards the book sections with excitement.
After a couple of minutes of getting lost in the pages she arrived at the fiction section of the library. A part of har was reluctant to go there, because she was sure she wasn't going to find her favourite book: The good witch Azura number five. Ever since she saw that book in the store across her street she has been saving her money to buy it, despite Eda telling her to just steal it. Back home she might have, but things were different now.
"Hmmm, let's see what can I read? It is good to know that human meteor showers don't involve huge chunks of rock falling from the sky… but I'm bored after a while of reading a science book, I need something a little more exciting"
"Hey! You!" She felt someone tug at her jacket. She turned around to see a blonde girl dressed with a purple dress, she couldn't be older than seven.
"Hello, do you need help with something?" She kneeled to be at her level.
*hmph* "So you don't remember me?" The little girl seemed annoyed.
Something about her voice triggered Luz's memories. She remembered the plant incident in the summer, how she saved a lot of people from it, including…
"Oh it's you! You are the girl that was in the car when the plant appeared! Hi, sorry I… forgot your name"
"You forgot my name?" She sounded really offended by that.
"Sorry it's been a couple months since that. I've been busy"
"Why didn't you come back? Remember that you told me you'd come back and you didn't? My mommy had to get me!" She crossed her arms and looked to the side, determined to not to gaze at her.
"Uhhh, sorry about that, it was a really hard day for me and I was knocked out by the plant you saw. I woke up the day after and it was too late to go looking for you" it was all technically the truth "after I while I just kinda forgot about it, I'm sorry-"
"Cassie" Luz looked at her and she didn't seem to be that mad at her anymore "my name in Cassie"
"Alright Cassie, let's start over" she offered her hand to shake "hi, my name is Luz and I like the good witch Azura"
She giggled and took her hand "you have a silly name…"
"So… are you alright after the issue with the plant? Did you manage to get home safely?"
"Yes but… my mommy didn't believe me when I told her what happened"
"She… doesn't believe you about that? Didn't she see it when it happened?"
"No… she was inside her work and the police didn't let her come near, so when she picked me up everything had already happened" then she looked at her and smiled for a strange reason "but if you are here then you can come and tell her I was telling the truth! Then she'll stop calling me a liar and she'll start believing me about the witch!"
"The… witch?" Luz didn't like where this conversation was heading.
"Yeah, the one in the news. Adults say that she is a fake, but I know she is real! I saw her fight the plant when we met!" At this point she was jumping up and down in excitement.
"You saw her fight the plant!" This was the last thing she needed, an elementary student blowing her cover.
"Only for a bit, and she was really far away, did you see her too that day?" Her eyes were filled with wonder.
"Ehhh… I think I did? But she was flying really high so-"
"Excellent!" Cassie interrupted her and grabbed Luz's arm "my mum is in the entrance, you can come and tell her what you saw! That way she will stop saying I make things up, and she'll stop believing everything the news says!"
"Uhh wait Cassie I, uhh…" she struggled to say something as the little girl started to drag her across the library's ailes. She didn't want to talk about giant plants and witches with an adult, that would only expose her secret, but she also didn't want to disappoint Cassie. She started looking for something that might give her an excuse around them and her eyes found something coming out of her backpack "hold on, is that the Azura book number six?"
"Yes, what about it?" She turned to look at her.
"I-I only thought that there were only five of them!" She was so astonished by this revelation that she forgot about her current predicament.
"WHAT!" She screamed so loudly that everyone around told them to sush "everyone knows that there are six azura books and the author is planning on releasing the seventh next spring!" She said in a hushed tone.
"Huh?" Her head started spinning, this was too much information for Luz "Seven?" She only had read four!
"Uh-huh and she plans on keeping updating the series, do you even follow her blog?"
Luz was familiar with the internet and social media (after all, they had a similar thing back home) but she never thought of searching the writer of Azura on it. In fact it had never occurred to her that the author was human, although it did make a lot of sense.
"Oh my gosh!" Before she could compose herself Cassie stepped away from her and pointed at her "you are a fake Azura fan!"
"What?"
"Don't touch me, fake Azura fan!" Then she started running full speed in her opposite direction screaming 'fake Azura fan'. People made hushing notions and looked at her as if she just committed a crime.
"What in the titan's name just happened?" She just stood there awkwardly for a while "Well, that was a weird way to start a day"
A few minutes later
Luz kept wandering the library but just in case she moved to a different section. It turns out that making a child run away from you screaming was a bad impression and, judging by the looks the staff was giving her, if she did anything else they might kick her out, or call security. So now she kept wandering aimlessly looking for something to entertain herself, she considered looking for information on magical artifacts but decided against it, humans were really bad with that stuff.
"What do you think you are doing?" An accusing voice snapped from her thoughts.
"Ah! I've been caught, pretend to be a book!" She then proceeded to put herself against a bookshelf and cover her face with her arms "Wait…" Something did not make sense, she wasn't doing anything wrong… now.
"We are your friends and we wanna help' said the tin boy with a yelp" The voice continued speaking and Luz realized that it was really familiar so she came closer.
The voice came from the kid's section. Luz looked around and saw a place decorated with colorful characters encouraging kids to read and shelves filled with books directed at small children. There, in a corner surrounded by kids sitting on the carpet, was Amity freaking Blight reading a book to them. She looked nothing like when she was in school: her eyes were shining with excitement, she had a smile from ear to ear, and she was dressed in a casual way, with a grey t-shirt and some long-sleeved dark pants. Even her hair was different than usual, instead of being loose it was tied up in a bun.
"Otabin smiled and paced the floor 'I've never had real friends before'" Amity kept reading and Luz snuck closer to her. The colored book's pages were showing a rabbit holding a sewing needle and a ball of yarn "'then we'll be your first' the chicken witch clucked. Otabin could not believe his luck. So, bookmaker Otabin surrounded by friends, bound a book of friendship and that's the end"
"Oh my titan, she's even making the voices and faces. That's so cute" Amity closed the book and the children erupted in cheers "Amity seems so… nice and smiley. Maybe I could talk to her now and clarify whatever happened in school"
However, that thought had to wait. It seemed that the reading was over so Amity pulled the pile of books aside and waved the kids goodbye, they started to leave the section one by one. Luz, being the non-confrontational person that she was, decided to duck under a shelf to remain hidden.
"Thank you so much"
"Goodbye!"
"That was fun"
The kids ran past her and she saw Amity coming near, so she grabbed a book from the shelf to pretend to be reading.
"Goodbye, Miss Amity. Thank you!" A kid hugged Amity by her leg.
"Thank you, Brayan. See you next time" she patted him on the head.
"Yaay!" After that he ran along to catch up with his peers.
Amity watched him go with a smile on her lips. She then turned to put a book back on the shelf and she did a double take when she saw Luz sitting there. Then it was as if someone flipped a switch inside her: Her gaze darkened, her brows furrowed, her smile turned upside down, and her posture changed.
"Ohh, it's you" even her tone was different. She started to order some things in the kid's corner without looking at her.
"Amity" she stood up and leaned on a book on top of the shelf, only to make it fall to the floor, which earned a grunt from the human "whoop, sorry"
"Just leave it" she kept organizing books without paying attention to her.
"Sooooo, reading to kids huh? I uh, wasn't expecting that-"
"It's for extra credit, don't get your leggings in a bunch"
"Does she even need extra credit? Isn't she like the best student?"
"Hey, I could help with the kids. We could take turns reading. And doing voices. I do the best monster voices" her dragon voice was a solid 9/10 if she said so herself.
"Luz!" Amity slammed her palm against a table, that shut her up "I get that this is a public space and you have every right to be here. But could you just… leave me alone? You don't see me going to the owl house and bothering you while you traffic owls?"
"We… don't do that there" although it did sound like something Eda might do.
"I don't care what you do there!" She pulled a rectangular badge that was for some reason attached to a string that went around her neck "see this? This is my ID, it means that I work here and right now you are getting in the way of my job. Just leave me alone" she sounded really angry and sad when she said it, so Luz wondered what she did to get her in that state.
"Fine. I'm sorry" she sighed in a sign of defeat and backed away. When she was a good distance from her she groaned and bumped her forehead with her fist.
"I just wanted some answers man, why does this have to be so hard?"
"You gonna let her get to you like that?"
"Huh?"
She turned around and saw two teenagers who looked a bit older than her, a boy and a girl. Judging by their appearance they had to be twins, or close siblings at least. Both of them had dark blonde hair, light brown eyes, and pale skin. The boy was wearing a red and white university jacket with jeans, while the girl was wearing a dark pink vest over a long-sleeved t-shirt and a purple skirt.
"Excuse me?" Luz was confused about why they were talking to her. She has no idea who they are, but something seemed familiar about them "Who are you?"
"Well-wishers on a mission" the boy answered.
"A noble quest" the girl grabbed something from her backpack and passed it to her brother. It looked like a small bag themed after a rabbit.
"Watch this. Hey, mittens!" He yelled at Amity and the girl turned around. She immediately grunted and turned red "mom says stop forgetting your lunch"
Amity marched over and snatched the bad from him "Did you really have to yell that here? This is a library! And why did you pick the bunny bag to deliver it?"
"Because that's your favorite bag, baby sis" the girl, who now she knew was Amity's sister, walked over to her and wrapped her in a hug "I remember how you used to carry that around everywhere and-"
"That was back when I was seven!" Luz had seen Amity get mad before, but not like this! Her whole face looked like a tomato! "Where did you even get this from anyway? Have you been looking through my stuff?"
"That's a mystery you'll never solve" the brother joined the other two and wrapped his arm around a very frustrated Amity "Don't worry, we didn't read your diary this time. Also, stop being a jerk to your friend! They didn't do anything"
Amity managed to push both of them away "She is not my friend" Those words should not have hurt her as much as they did.
"Huh, makes sense" the grabbed Luz by her shoulders "she seems too cool to hung out with you"
"I am?" That was an unforeseen development.
"What is even happening? This is a lot to process"
"You can leave now. All of you" Amity grabbed her lunch and went back to the kid's corner. The girl chuckled and went the opposite way, her brother followed but not before winking at Luz, which made her blush.
"I… got nothing better to do, so why not follow them?" She just wanted to get to know them and maybe gain some insight on why Amity hated her, that's all. The fact that both of them were pretty hot had nothing to do with it.
"Hey wait!" She ran after them and the siblings turned to face her "Hi I'm Luz, I just wanted to uh, introduce myself! I go to the same school Amity goes"
"Oh you must be the girl that took her place in chemistry class!" The sister got near her and Luz tried to not to freak out about how close she was "I'm Emira. And this is Edric. We're Amity's older siblings. We heard how you embarrassed her in school"
"I know. But, uh, I didn't mean any of it. I tried to make amends with her, but she doesn't want to know anything about me"
"Don't waste your time with Mittens. Me and Ed, we're way more fun. Follow us" she and her brother started walking towards the library's exit. Luz, with the feeling that she might regret this in the future, followed them.
Three hours later
Luz didn't regret this at all, the twins were amazing! It had been a while since she had this much fun.
First they went skating in the park. Luz had seen teens her age use these boards with wheels in the street, but she always had been too scared to try. Now with the twins' encouragement, she managed to travel a good distance, only to crash into a tree and fall on her butt once she realized she didn't know how to stop. The three of them just laughed it off and kept going, she got a bunch of bruises from that.
Then they used some kind of weird cans to paint on some brick walls outside of the library. Luz assumed that they were allowed to do this in this space, considering the amount of other pieces of art that were adorning this place (some of it was really obscene, but Luz didn't want to judge) . Edric and Emira wrote their names alongside other misspelled words like 'rulez'. Luz however, felt inspired. She ended up drawing a scaled down version of the elemental guardian she had to fight last week, her new friends were impressed.
Finally all three of them decided to eat in a nearby food court, Luz had some spare money with her but her new friends offered to pay. While they were eating Edric excused himself to the bathroom, a few minutes later he returned with a mischievous expression. Apparently he had exchanged the positions of the signs for the men and women's bathrooms, which had caused several people to go to the wrong place. It seemed like a perfectly executed prank… until an employee recognized him, they ended up being chased down by some angry customers.
*Puff* "Okey, I think we are safe now" Edric said after some minutes of running. Now they were back outside of the library "wow, that was fun"
"Sure it was" It had been a while since Luz was able to let loose like this. Usually she does what she wants without a care for the rules, but disobeying the human society's norms would mean exposing her secret and endangering Eda, so she kept a low profile and became more compliant. It wasn't as bad as she would've thought because some of the rules in earth made actual sense, unlike most of the stuff that came
from Belos' mouth "weird question: Why did we do that?"
"Because it's fun, and because we can" Emira answered as if it was the most obvious thing.
"Truth is, we can't do any of this stuff anymore, or at least we shouldn't" Edric shrugged and picked up a pebble from the ground "we used to pull all sorts of pranks on this town ever since we were in kindergarten, we were known by everyone because of it. But now that we moved out of state and went to college we can't do any of this stuff"
"Why not?"
"Well in part it was because we are adults now, we don't want to get in trouble or get arrested" Emira explained with a sheepish smile.
"Huh? You guys can be arrested for the stuff we just did?" All of the things they did today seemed like harmless fun to her.
"Nah, we did break a few rules, but those things are mild compared to the stuff we used to do. Right Ed?"
"Yup. So far we've got in our list of crimes: shoplifting, vandalism, larceny, truancy, trespassing private property, destruction of private property, possession of illegal goods, petty theft, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't think I should name" Ed numbered their list of crimes with his fingers "Mom always used her influence to pull us out of trouble, but now that we are in college she told us we are on our own… So yeah, we can't do that anymore" he admitted.
"But since we are just visiting for the weekend we thought it would be nice to have some fun like old times. Thanks for coming with us by the way, you are pretty cool" Emira flashed her a smile and she blushed again.
She liked hanging out with Edric and Emira, they reminded her of the things she used to do with her rebel friends from the BATs but in a different way. Luz and her friends pulled pranks and wreaked havoc as a way to protest against Belos' regime: Every time they vandalized property, stole something, or broke any law in general it was to undermine his authority. Em and Ed just did it for a means to express themselves, it was nice.
"Well that was nice and all but we have to go. If we don't show up to the gravesfield's high society tea party like we promised mom we'd do she is going to gut us" Ed's tone did not sound sarcastic or exaggerated at all.
"Thank you uh. Do you guys think that you could tell me something before you guys go?"
"What is it?" Emira sounded intrigued.
"I know that you guys said not to worry about it but I need to know, why is Amity so mad at me?"
The twins looked at each other and grimanced. After a few seconds of consideration they looked at her.
"Well, you shouldn't take it to heart. Mittens tends to be really snappy if you find her at work" Emira started.
"Yeah, she was even mad at us just for bringing her lunch" Edric continued "My guess is that she feels comfortable here we are invading her safe space, so try not to encounter her at work"
"And I don't think she cares that much about the chemistry grades, it's just that the teacher made such a show out of it"
"Yeah, Hermununculus is such an idiot. I'm glad that we can say that now without repercussions…"
"Other than that we are not sure-"
"-why she is mad at you in particular, mainly because-"
"-we are not in school to see what happens. One thing is certain tho, Amity-"
"-is under a lot of pressure, both in and out of school, so maybe-"
"-when she was talking to you she was just letting some stress out"
"Ok you guys are finishing each other's sentences again and it's honestly creeping me out, could you please stop?" The twins had done that several times this afternoon and it honestly amazed her. Luz had no idea how they were able to do that without magic.
"Why? Does it bother you?" This time both of them spoke at the same time in perfect sync with a smug smile on their faces.
"Agh, stop it!" She laughed and shoved them jokingly.
"Anyway, we have to go. Don't forget to keep in touch with us! You have our instas" Edric bowed and started leaving.
"Yup! We might come to visit another day, see you around cutie!" When Emira called her that, Luz's brain stopped working for a while. She just stood there, waving like an idiot.
"I just had the best day ever. Cool teens like me! Call me a library book 'cause they were checking me out" she did a silly dance in the middle of the street, people looked at her weird but she didn't care. She started jumping happily back towards the owl house, she was so distracted in her bliss that she didn't notice someone walking near her direction until it was too late.
"Eep!" She crashed against a person, knocking them, and everything they had into the floor.
"What's wrong with you?" That voice sounded femenine, and strangely similar. The person who she had knocked over was a white-skinned girl her same age, she was wearing a black hoodie and some dark grey jeans, she even had black eyeliner. Her dark green hair covered most of her face, so Luz could only see one of her angry, red eyes.
"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry" she hurried to get her up but she refused to take her hand.
"Whatever" she grunted and started to gather her things from the floor. Luz crouched to help her, but the girl didn't seem to like it.
"I'm sorry about what happened, I should have been paying more attention. You are Eileen, right? We go together to history class"
"Huh" that seemed to get her attention. She looked her over for the first time "you are the strange new girl who kicked Boscha's ass the other day"
"Ok I guess this is my title now"
"Yep! That's me, I'm Luz. Pleased to meet you" she extended her hand, which she shook tentatively. They picked everything up until there was only one of her possessions left in the floor: A chain necklace with a big star-shaped pink jewel "oh, let me get that for you"
"Wait no!"
Luz grabbed it and she felt an electric sensation coming out of it and going into her whole body. It was like a static shock but a little bit more intense, and weirdly familiar.
"Don't touch it!" Eileen snapped it from her hands and stood up "sorry it's… personal. Thank you but I gotta go"
"Wait, Eileen" but the teen paid her no mind and entered the library with a hurried step.
"Huh, that was weird" she resumed walking but she felt a gentle tug in her sleeve "huh?"
Owlbert, who had been in her bag on statue mode this whole time, was awake again and pecking her arm. She quickly put him back inside and looked around, luckily no one was near to see that. She then went to a corner and released him.
"Owlbert! What were you thinking? You know you can't wake up on your own!" She whispered.
Her owl companion just hooted at her angrily.
"You didn't wake up on your own? But that only happens whenever you are infused with magic and… ohh nooo" she remembered the electrifying shock she just felt "the necklace! It's a magic relic!"
Owlbert emitted a couple of sounds that told her that was exactly what he wanted to tell her. Luz just grabbed her friend and rushed back inside.
-Amity-Amity read the twins' message and smiled, finally they were on their way to that fancy meeting her mother wanted her to go to. For once, she was thankful for her work hours, since it gave her an excuse for not going, she was going to savior the image of her siblings' faces when their mom told them they had to spend their first weekend in Gravesfield since college started in a dumb elite party for the rest of her life. She always has to go to those, so it's only fair if they go now and give her a free night. Their mother never takes them because of their chaotic tendencies, but now they seemed to (finally) grown up, so she decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.
"I really hope they give mother a bad time. Even if they are not planning on pulling a prank Edric is clumsy enough to destroy a whole room if he trips once, one time he accidentally threw our entire christmas dinner out of the window because he stepped on his lace. And Emira doesn't have the patience to deal with rich old fools, I'm pretty sure that after an hour in she is going to punch someone"
She sighed and forced herself to refocus on her task. Technically her work here wasn't entirely necessary and she could've made it to the party, but she didn't feel like it. Right now she was categorizing some books in the employees lounge. She really wanted to be done with this so she could go to her private room in the library. She was thankful that the head librarian Malphas allowed her to have a small secret space here for her, not even the employees knew about this place: It was a medium sized room that was used as a storage a long time ago, but it had been abandoned when they expanded the library a few years ago. Amity found it when she was in middle school and, after getting permission from Malphas, she renovated it to be her own safe space. She needed one after she found out that the twins checked her stuff and her mother monitored her room.
The best part about her secret room was just that: It was a secret. The only key to opening the door was in her possesion and the only way to access it was through a place where only the personal was allowed to enter, even then most of the other employees thought that this was a closet for Malphas' personal stuff, so no one dared to enter. If no one saw Amity enter, no one would know where she is. In fact that was what she was planning for tonight: Staying here even after the library was closed. Technically she could go home and she would be alone there (minus the cleaning staff, but they didn't mind her), her mother and the twins were in that dumb party, and her father was working himself to death again, even her cat ghost wasn't home, the poor girl had to be in the vet today after she ate something she shouldn't. But honestly she didn't want to, this small space felt more like home than the Blight manor, mainly because it was hers.
Finally she was done with her task, she put all of the books she categorized back on the shelves and waved goodbye to her colleagues. She then proceeded to cautiously walk towards her hideout while making sure no one saw her, but as she neared her door something strange happened: She heard noises coming from inside.
"This is weird, I'm the only one that has the key. Malphas told me he had a spare but he is not here. Maybe someone snuck into his office?" but that didn't matter to her right now. There was someone in her private room and she was going to find who it was.
She opened the door fully and entered. She was expecting to see a burglar but instead she encountered a goth girl, looking through her stuff.
"Excuse me, what the fuck are doing here?" She usually didn't swear, but this was pretty serious.
"YOU!" the girl sounded angry, she charged at her but Amity merely side stepped and made her trip. When she fell her face crashed into a wall "...ouch"
"I'll ask again" she grabbed her by the collar of her hoodie and pulled her up "Who are you and what are you doing here? Were you looking through my stuff? You creep"
"What? So you don't remember me now? Is that how this is?" She pulled her hoodie to reveal her face, she had a bruise under her left eye from the hit earlier, but Amity was able to recognize her despite that.
"Wait, Eileen?"
The girl had been her best friend in middle school, they got along really well. Back then she thought she could hide their friendship from her mother, but it turns out that she couldn't. Odalia forced her to separate because she did not consider her worthy. To make it worse when they both started highschool Amity wanted to enter the banshees basketball team, back then the first years had to pass a trial to get in and the captain of that time told her that she needed to help them asses their social status by humiliating any loser she picked, of course she ended up picking Eileen.
"Honestly I don't know what I was thinking at that time. I should've learned my lesson from Willow"
"Uhh hi, how is it going?" Suddenly she felt really awkward.
"Ugh, seriously? You ignored me for two years and this is the first thing you have to say?" She pushed Amity away from her and stood up "you wanna know something? I thought of all the things that I was going to say to you today, but I don't care about that anymore… now I just want you to suffer!" She pulled out a star shaped necklace from her pocket and held it in the air, the jewel on it seemed to shine for a moment.
A couple of seconds passed and nothing happened. Amity could not stand the awkward silence so she closed the door and turned to face her.
"Was something supposed to happen? That is a cute necklace, but how did you get here?"
"Huh?" Eileen looked at her piece of jewelry with confusion "why isn't it working?"
"Ok, can we talk for a minute? I'm not sure what-" before she could finish speaking something caught her eye: She could see a book poking out of her backpack, it had a
familiar pink cover "Eileen… is that my diary?"
The goth girl's eyes widened and covered her backpack with her arms while shaking her head. Amity was furious, what she did to her previous friend was bad, but nothing excused taking her diary. She tried to get away but Amity was blocking her only route of escape so she tried to tackle her, emphasis on tried. Amity was taller and way more muscular than her, so she easily won that struggle.
"Give it back!" Amity pinned her down and was trying to open her backpack.
"Ugh, fine, fine. Get off me!" Eileen grabbed her diary and threw it to the side. Amity dove to catch it as the goth girl opened the door to flee.
Amity felt relief once her fingers closed around that book. Her diary was her most prized possession and she might go crazy if something happened to it. She inspected to see if it was damaged, since she didn't see a single scratch on the cover she opened it and-"
"Wait, there are pages missing!" Specifically, the entire middle section of the book had been torn out. She looked around to see if the pages were tossed to the floor in the struggle, but she didn't see anything "Eileen!"
She dashed quickly outside of her room to catch her former friend. Several of her coworkers looked at her weird for running inside, but she did not care.
Amity was fearing the worst when she could not find her after five minutes but then she heard a commotion at the entrance. Once she arrived there she could see a group of curious people surrounding Eileen and another girl, it seemed that they were trying to see what was going on with those two. For some reason both of them were on the floor and she could see that the two girls had pages of her journal. Without giving much thought she made her way amongst the crowd and grabbed the papers that were in the girl's hands before they noticed her.
"Hey!" Eileen seemed mad, but Amity's focus was on the other girl.
"Amity…" Luz Noceda, the person that has been changing everything in her life lately (for the better AND the worse) was standing there, looking extremely guilty.
"You? She managed to rope you in as well?" She knew that she hadn't been nice or fair with the new girl in the past, but she'd never thought that she could join in a prank against her.
"Alright, what is going on?" A booming voice echoed and the people gathered around dispersed to let her boss walk in. Malphias was an old man full of gray hairs that seemed nice, but he could have a big temper once in a while "Amity? What's happening here?"
Amity looked at the people around them. Several of them were gossiping about it in hushed tones. She was sure if they made a scene Odalia would hear about this.
"Can't we do this without a public?" She whispered to him "it's kinda private"
"Alright" he turned around to address the audience "well, what are you looking at? Hmmm? If you don't have anything else to do then scram" people were aware that he was the owner of the place, so the crowd dispersed in less than ten seconds "You two are coming with us to my office, and come here quietly. Don't make me call security"
The two of them made protest sounds but complied nevertheless. As they walked Eileen glared daggers at her… and at Luz for some reason, perhaps she was the one responsible for their prank going wrong. For her part the dark skinned girl was looking at her trying to say something, but Amity gave her no opportunity to talk.
When they reached Malphias' Office he sat on his chair and gave the three of them a stern look.
"What happened?"
"These two tried to pull a prank on me, that one" She pointed at Eileen "Managed to enter my office and steal something private, luckily I caught her before that. Also I'm willing to bet that the other helped from outside"
"Wait…" Luz seemed distraught.
"LIES!" Eileen roared.
"Ok, that's enough" Malphias stood up "I don't think anyone here wants to make a scandal about this, so I'm going to just ban you two from the library forever, or until we see it fit"
"What?"
"Y-y-you can't! This is the only place my friends and I gather for our sunday meetings!" Eileen's tone really shifted, she was really worried.
"Would you rather have me call your parents?" Malphias raised a challenging eyebrow "stealing something is a crime, young lady. You also entered an off-limits area for customers, that is really serious"
She stopped protesting.
"That's what I thought. Now, I don't know why you guys were after Miss Blight and I don't wanna know! What you did was wrong and you are lucky that you are only getting out of this with a ban and a warning, now go away"
"Wait no! You aren't even gonna listen to us?" Her former friend stamped her hands on Malphias' desk.
"Oh for the love of… Security!" Two security guards, who had been waiting outside just in case something went wrong, entered the office and grabbed the two girls.
"Wait wait wait wait" Eileen struggled against them and for some reason started touching her necklace's jewel.
"Hold on" Amity stopped the guards and walked forward "How did you enter? I am the only one that knows about that place and I have the only key"
"I-I'm not telling you that!"
*sigh* "Just take her" With that she was escorted out of the room.
"Check if she has a key somehow!" Malphias called to the security guards.
"Amity wait! I can explain!"
"I understand why she would be mad at me, but you... I've been trying to figure out what your deal is. Are you a poser? A nerd? I know. You're a bully, Luz. I know I haven't been the nicest person with you, but that's no excuse" She watched as security took her.
"Oh. My. Gosh. I am so glad that this is over" Malphias went back to his usual voice and temper, the other one was a mask he used to scare off troublesome customers "I mean… Do you have any idea how hard it is to pretend that way? And that voice! If I keep doing that my throat is going to have issues, let me tell ya"
Ta da! There you go!
Something I've been struggling with in this fic is the characterization of Luz and Amity. I think I've gotten the other character's personalities nailed down, but those two seem to be inconsistent in my writing.
I made Luz a little bit ooc by making her a bit more shy and introvert-like, she doesn't have the overbearing enthusiasm and extroverted personality of the show. I also didn't give her the personality the fandom uses for her beta version. I'm not sure why my version is like this (maybe I poured a little bit of my own personality into it?) but I kinda like it. Besides, it's not that far off from the source material: The beta Luz in 'witches among humans' seems to be less smiley and extroverted than the og version, and not as rebellious and badass as the beta.
With Amity though it's a different story. The comic kinda uses the same beta version as the community: Tsundere, bitchy, bossy, a bit of a flirt, loves provoking Luz, that kinda stuff. But the story and character development that I have planned for her do not go well with that personality, so I decided to change it a little bit. Here that personality is a mask she uses for several reasons while her true self is completely different, but that makes her feel like she has inconsistent traits sometimes. Idk, what do you guys think?
Also I changed the twins here. I was going to have them do the same shit than the show but I decided against it. I want them to have a nice relationship with Amity and that won't happen if they try to expose her diary to the whole school. Seriously Idk how Amity forgave them for that, I would've never talked to them again. And yes, if you have read well you'd notice that the twins don't have green hair here, mainly because that's not a normal human colour and I don't think Odalia wouldn't have let them, instead they and their mother are dirty blondes in this version.
Eileen isn't an OC I made, she is actually the cyclops student that appears in the background of s1.