We are nearing the ending of this book here folks, although there are some chapters left. Like I have said before, I have several books planned (maybe 4 or 5, but def more than 3) and I only have to write them, which is the hard part. Writing this fic has saved me from a bad period in my life and I am thankful for all the support I've been getting over the year of writing this. I wanted to say that it's likely that I will take a huge hiatus after the end of book 1, def more than a month but less than a year. I think I pour too much energy into this so I wanna focus more on irl stuff, and maybe write some of the chapters so I can be ahead when I start book 2.
I made a second set of fanmade glyphs here: r/TheOwlHouse/comments/122aemj/version_2_of_my_fanmade_glyphs/
These are the improved versions of the ones I drew last time. Luz sometimes uses them to fight alongside the original four.
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).
-Eda-
The Owl house, east Gravesfield / Thursday november 2nd 10:00 hs
Eda was doing something she hadn't done since she met Luz for the first time: Cleaning blood from clothing. Granted, most of the stuff was torn to shreds or burned (and she had no idea how that happened) but some of it was still salvageable so she did her best to clean it.
It was the only thing she could do right now, and not doing anything was going to drive her insane.
"Come on, faster damn it" She urged herself as she worked.
Yesterday Luz appeared in the house all bloody and bruised and collapsed into the ground once she saw her. She had a black eye, several open wounds, and a broken leg. She quickly gave her first aid care and patched her up, but her wounds were serious this time and way beyond her capabilities. Eda treated the best she could but she hadn't shown any signs of waking up since then. The injury that worried her the most was her burned back, the entirety of it was singed flesh with no trace of skin on it. If this was a normal person they would have permanent damage with a lot of leftover scars.
"I really want to take Luz to the hospital now, but there's no way we could keep the secret if we do. They'd immediately see her ears because she is not conscious to use her illusion and even if I manage to cover them somehow they'll notice something weird with her blood or something. Fuck, I don't even know what her bloodtype is!" She let out her frustration by slamming her hands against the wall.
At least Lilith wasn't around. She had snuck a little bit of liquor on her sister's drink the night before as a little halloween prank, so she passed out after a couple rounds and was too far asleep to hear anything when Luz came in the middle of the night. Then when she woke up the next day she had been called to an emergency from her job, she left without eating breakfast or noticing anything strange luckily.
Luz didn't have school yesterday and Lilith called saying that she was going to sleep in the office because this emergency required her to be nearby. So Eda relaxed and tended Luz's wounds the best she could, fully believing that the girl was going to wake up and heal herself. More than a day passed since then and she hasn't shown any sign of waking up, today she had to call her school saying that she couldn't go because she was running a fever and Lilith texted to tell her that she was finally coming back home tonight. They were running out of time and there was nothing she could do.
"Maybe I could take her to my friends from outside town? There's a few places that I went before I could go to real hospitals and they still owe me, but taking an unconscious girl outside of town might be risky, especially with Lily around. Not to mention that I would be exposing Luz's secret without her consent. Agh! What do I do?!" Just when she was about to make a decision, a sharp pain sensation on her arm distracted her from her inner turmoil.
"Au! What the heck!?" She looked and in her arm there was a small brown owl pecking at her elbow "Owlbert?"
The small bird had been in Luz's arms when she arrived home and had turned back into a wooden statue. She tried to remember Luz's explanation and she recalled her saying that it could happen if she used a lot of Owlbert's magic, which meant that the two of them must've had a hell of a fight. She also remembered that the charging stones she had in her room could be used to restore him, so she hooked him up to one as soon as she was done tending Luz's wounds, hoping it'd work.
"Oh. Well you are here, so it means it worked, you're welcome" the owl just flapped it's wings quickly and tried to push her with it's small head "What do you want? I don't have any paper with me for you to munch on"
The bird pecked her a bit more and hooted angrily. Then he flew outside of the laundry room and waved one of his wings at her, as if he was asking to follow.
"Alright, I guess we are doing this"
She followed the winged creature throughout the house, every once in a while he stopped and turned around to make sure she was following him. Eventually they arrived to Luz's bedroom door and he started pecking at the lock.
"What, do you want me to go in there? Are you crazy? It's a common rule to never enter a teenager's bedroom, you'll never know what you can find in there… and yeah also invading privacy is bad or whatever" But it seemed that he wasn't going to take a no for an answer so he started pulling her hair with his beak "Ouch! Fine, but if she gets mad for this I'll blame you"
She unlocked the door and entered, Luz's room hadn't changed much since the last time she had been in here: A small pyramidal space with a large window made out of stained glass, the floors and walls were made out of wood and she could smell the dust in the air. Eda used this room as a storage room before Luz came to live here, it wasn't the best place but they literally didn't have any more room in the house; She didn't gave her Lilith's guest room at first because at the beginning she thought that she was going to stay for a little bit, and she doubted that the girl would want to sleep in the basement. But to her surprise the young witch never complained about her sleeping arrangements, and something told Eda this wasn't the worst room she had.
Walking inside she looked at how her presence here changed the place. There were several photos with her and her friends hung up in the walls, there were even some of her and King. The desk was with textbooks and notes (eww, yuck), but there were also a large amount of her drawings there and Eda could see that she had improved. She also could see one of those cheesy romance novels on top of the bed that Lilith bought for her (don't blame her, the girl never complained about it so she literally forgot she had been sleeping in a mattress for months).
Looking at all of those things just reminded her of Luz and the state she was in, which put her in a grumpier mood. So she just turned to the bird that had brought her here.
"Alright, we arrived. What now?"
Owlbert didn't respond. He simply flew towards Luz's desk and entered inside one of the open drawers. He came out after a while, holding a light brown purse that was bigger than him with his beak. He dropped it on her hands.
"What is this?" It felt surprisingly light. She opened up to see what was inside and she was met with an inky void, as if there was a night sky inside that purse "Wait… This is Luz's bag of infinite or whatever, this is where she puts all of the magic things she finds! What do you want with this?"
The tiny Owl opened it with its claws and pointed inside of it with its beak.
"Do you want me to get something inside of it?" A nod "But why? Luz put a bunch of dangerous stuff in there, and she always tells me to not take them" He nudged her arm with his head "Agh, is this really important?" A more enthusiastic nod "Fine, but if this is an elaborate prank I'm selling you in my shop. Now let's see"
She put her hand inside of it but couldn't feel anything. She kept going until all of her arm was inside, even though it looked like it shouldn't fit from the outside, and all she could grasp was nothingness. She searched her brain for an answer and she vaguely recalled the night Luz presented this object to her, she remembered how her apprentice said that you needed to imagine what you were looking for and it will appear in your hand
"Alright, this isn't going to work" She looked at the brown owl "What am I looking for, exactly?"
Owlbert scratched his chin with his talon, thinking about something. After a while he emitted an excited hoot and flew towards Luz's desk, there he grabbed a pencil with his beak and started doodling something on one of the open pages. At first Eda thought that he was trying to write but she quickly discarded that idea when she noticed it was a sketch, she wasn't sure if he knew how to write anyway. The drawing was messy but it was expected, the pencil was larger than his body after all, but she could distinguish a familiar shape.
"Is that… a hand?" The fingers were too thick and gross, but she could see it "So I am looking for a hand?" The tiny owl nodded "Oh god, please tell me it isn't a real one" To her delight, the palisman shook his head.
Then he made some noises to get her attention and tapped on the paper. The part of the drawing he was pointing at was weird: The middle of the hand was covered in something that went outside of it, think lines that traveled around the palm.
"Is that… Blood?" She didn't know why Luz would need a fake bloody hand but it wouldn't be the weirdest thing she ever did.
Owlbert calmed her nerves by shaking his head.
"Fire?" The lines kinda looked like the ones some artists would represent flames.
Again, the palisman shaked his head.
"Water?" Owlbert seemed offended by that guess and screeched "What? I don't want to insult your artistic skills, I am really trying my best. Noodles? Leaves? Snakes?"
Several shakes and more tapping in the drawing. She really paid attention now.
"Cloth?" She said hopefully.
This time Owlbert waved his wing from side to side. Like a human trying to say 'more or less'.
"Cloth covering a hand, are those bandages?" There was a squeal of excitement from him, she was right.
"Dang, you need to take drawing classes from Luz"
"Oh, ok. Let's try again" She put her hand in the magical void inside the bag and concentrated.
Eda knew it wasn't a real hand so instead she imagined a mannequin's hand covered in bandages. After a few seconds she felt the bag gain weight and something pressing against her palm, she pulled it out and was surprised by what she saw. In her hand there was a statue of a cyan hand decorated with dark blue lines that simulated bandages, the base of the palm had a light brown handle which she was using to grab the whole thing, it looked like she was holding a trophy for a manicure championship. The handle was wooden but she couldn't tell what material the hand itself was made out of, it looked more rigid than plastic but lighter than metal.
"So this is what you wanted?" Owlbert chirped happily so she assumed she was right "Great, now if you excuse me, I have to prepare soup in case Luz wakes up, you can go play with your trophy hand or whatever"
She put the hand on Luz's bed and turned to go to the kitchen but a sharp sensation of pain in her arm interrupted her. It turned out that Owlbert pecked her again, this time with enough force to leave the area red.
"Augh! You little shit!" She swatted her arm and actually managed to catch him "Listen up you feathery twerp, I've tolerated it until now but if you do that again I will glue you to the ground and give you to king so he can use you as his personal scratching post" Her cat had tried that several times and that had created resentment among them.
The threat had no effect on him and he kept pointing with his beak towards the blue hand.
"Ok fine. I'll play along, but no more pecking!" She released him and grabbed the hand.
Owlbert went flying outside of the room and gestured her to follow. She just went along with it. After a while, it was clear where he was going.
"Wait no, Owlbert that's" She tried to stop him but the bird didn't listen and entered Eda's bedroom, the exact place where Luz was resting.
She had put Luz here instead of her room because her bed was way conifer and she didn't want to carry her up to the stairs (And it's not like she was going to get much sleep either way). At least this way it was easy to check on her.
"Hey Luz" She said with a quiet voice "How is it going?"
The girl covered in bandages obviously didn't answer, but something else did. From a point within the covers King emerged and meowed at her. Eda smiled at this; Her cat always pretended to hate Luz but the truth was that he has a soft spot for her, because he had been at her side ever since yesterday.
"So… we are here" She turned to look at Owlbert who was perched on top of her bed frame, looking at Luz with worried eyes "What now?"
He just looked at her and pointed at the hand with one of his talons, then he pointed at Luz.
"Do you want me to slap her?" She asked incredulously and the bird facepalmed with its wings.
It took a lot of time -she was bad with charades, okey?- but she finally got the idea that the hand could be used to heal Luz and now she felt stupid for not getting that sooner, the imagery of bandages should have given it away. She also found a jewel encrusted in the handle that could function as a button, so she guessed that was how you activated this thing.
"Alright, let's test it out!" She pressed the jewel and she could feel a small buzz coming from inside her. It felt like all of her tiredness was washed away, her joints weren't even sore anymore! "Holy shit, this thing is amazing. Ok, now for the real test"
She turned to look at Luz. The poor girl was covered in bandages from head to toe, she was sleeping on her side because of the giant scorch mark she had on her back, and she had many broken bones. Eda focused and put the hand over Luz's back, because that was the most damaged part, and activated the magic item. She felt the buzz again but this time it came alongside a sensation of electricity leaving her body, the hand shone and she watched marveled as her wounds started closing. But it didn't last, after a while it stopped and she felt tired, as if she just ran a marathon.
"Ugh, why doesn't it work anymore?" She looked at Owlbert for an explanation but the owl just shrugged with worried eyes "Is it… is it because I don't have magic?"
It would make sense, Luz often mentioned how relics worked like electronic devices with magic instead of electricity, if all the magic it had stored inside was used, then there was no way it could be activated by a normal human. Owlbert scratched his chin to think and then emitted a happy chirp, as if he just came up with an idea. He flew towards her and turned in the same staff Luz used to fly.
"Ohh, wow" She held the magical staff with her left hand "Are you sure about this?" The Owlbert at the too nodded and she turned on the item.
She felt that buzz again and the magical hand started shining, the palisman started shining as well. Eda could feel the torrent of energy coursing through her and flowing towards Luz. The light emitting from Owlbert and the hand increased and she could see Luz's burn marks healing and her breathing became more regular. However, that didn't last; It seemed that the healing worked too well because Luz started stirring and moving and that disrupted the healing.
"Luz?" She asked and only got a grumble in return "I'm trying to heal you but I need you to stay still, can you do that?"
Luz did not stay still, in fact she started moving erratically and mumbling. Eda put the magical items away and tried to hold her but she just swatted her away while speaking incoherent words. She finally managed to grab her arms but she was surprised at how hot they were.
"What the heck? She's burning up with fever! But how? She was fine before… is this a side effect of using the healing item?"
She decided to stop the healing session until she managed to stabilize Luz. She put a wet towel over her forehead and tried to soothe her with calming words but it didn't work. She just kept going in and out of consciousness, whispering stuff with half opened eyes.
"Aaaa-" She spoke with a tired voice "Maaa"
"Luz? Luz, I'm right here"
"Mom?" She heard her mumble and froze.
"She must be delusional because of the fever"
"Mom? Where are you?" She called again.
"Luz I'm Eda, remember? You are in the owl house, you are not in the demon realm anymore"
"Mooom?" She called once again, this time with sadness in her voice "Where are you?"
Eda gulped. Luz barely talked about her mother, with the exception of that one time she mentioned her name. She Never pressured her on the subject, she just assumed that she doesn't talk about her because she has issues with her like Eda. However, seeing her like this made her realize that there was a lot more than she didn't know.
"Luz…" She called one more time while rubbing the girl's shoulder "I have to keep healing you, you are in a really bad state and Lilith is going to come home soon, we are running out of time"
Luz kept mumbling about her mother with half-opened eyes and saying other incoherent words. She could see that this wasn't getting her anywhere so she grabbed the relic and started healing her again. Luz kept moving however, and that made things really harder for her. It seemed that the healing process was disturbing for the person.
"Mom? Where are you?" She kept calling.
"Oh for fuck's sake. Fine, let's do this"
"I'm… I'm right here" She said with the most reassuring voice she could manage given her situation "I'm here Luz"
"Mom?" She turned to face her with half-closed eyes "Iz dat you?" She slurred the words.
This was a very risky plan, she had no idea how Luz's mother sounded nor did she know what words she used to address her daughter. If Luz failed to recognize her at all she might think that she was an enemy trying to hurt her and she might attack her. Her only hope was that praying she may be too lost in her fever to see through her deception.
"Yes, it's me honey" She used the pet name her mother used for her.
"Moooom!" She gave her the fiercest bear hug ever and nuzzled against her neck "I missed you so much!"
She felt sick with her touch. Luz clearly missed her mother, who was in another dimension, and now Eda was trying to impersonate her. She felt like she was intruding in a personal part of her life, a place where she wasn't supposed to be. Still, this had to be done, so she sighed and hugged her back.
"...I missed you too"
"Mom… They got me… I tried to fight them off but they got me…" Luz dragged her words out like a drunk person.
"I know and it's ok, you are safe now. Besides… I'm willing to bet that you made it hard for them" She comforted her while rubbing her back.
"Hehe, I did! I beat them up and managed to get away!" She then fully closed her eyes and leaned on her "Are you mad? That I ran away instead of fighting?"
"What? No! Of course not. It's always better to survive and fight another day" Luz gave a happy squeal and kept holding her "Luz… I need to heal you, but you need to stay still for it, okey?"
"Mmm'kay"
With her affirmation Eda proceeded to use the hand. Luz tried to sit still but she squirmed sometimes, it seemed that the accelerated healing produced an uncomfortable sensation. Eda tried to soothe her by whispering calming words and rocking her. When she eventually finished Luz fell back into the bed mumbling nonsense again.
"Wow I feel tired. It's like I just ran a marathon" She supposed it was the magic, Luz was always telling her that casting spells consumed her stamina and that was why she was hungry all the time.
She turned around to let her sleep but she felt a hand grabbing her.
"Don't gooooo" Luz said groggily in an almost asleep state.
"I'm going to get you some food ok?" She tried to reassure her.
"I-I'm sorry mom" She sounded really sad.
"Sorry for what?"
"I… I couldn't save them" Her voice was shaky and her gaze was unfocused.
"Save who?"
"I couldn't save them. I couldn't save them. I couldn't save them… I'm sorry" She kept rambling on and on about it.
"I… it's ok Luz" She had no idea what she was talking about but she played along "I'm sure you tried your best either way"
Luz looked at her with her eyes filled with emotion and smiled.
"Do you mean that?"
"Sure" She might not know what was happening but she was certain that she really did try her best to save whoever she was talking about "That's what you always do, you try your best for other people"
"Awww, thanks mom! You are like… the best mom ever. Have I ever told you that?"
Eda refused to acknowledge the feeling of warmth she felt in the pit of her stomach upon hearing those words.
"Hey mom, did I always have snakes for hands?" Luz was looking at her arms as if they were the most fascinating thing in the world.
"God I hope this passes before Lily arrives"
"Alright you doofus, enough of that. I'm gonna make Lunch but you need to sleep, ok?"
"Ok!" She giggled like a little girl "Bye mom! I love you"
Eda turned around so that she wouldn't see her smile. She grabbed the hand relic and closed the door. Once she was outside she could see Owlbert perched on a desk looking at her with his head tilted, as if he wanted to ask her something. She quickly snatched him and pinned him down against the wall, then she grabbed her old lighter and lit it up in front of his face.
"You tell her about anything that just happened there and I'll use you as a torch, got that?" The terrified bird could only nod in response "Good, also don't peck me anymore" She released him and he went flying as far as he could.
*Sigh*"One more thing" He turned back to see her full of fear "Thank you. If it wasn't for you I don't think Luz could've made it" Owlbert seemed surprised by this, but then he hooted happily and went back to his master.
Hours later when Luz woke up she was lucid but not strong enough to leave the bed yet, she quickly devoured most of Eda's food and she was still hungry after it, Luz told her the story of how she got injured in between slurps of food. She also did not remember the conversation that she had with Eda in her fever dream and she thought it was better this way, even if a part of her felt bad for it. Eda managed to get rid of all her bloody clothes so when Lillith arrived at night she didn't suspect a thing, they told her that she just had a fever and her sister volunteered to nurse her. The next morning she was able to go to school like nothing happened, even if Eda could tell that the news of the staff really disturbed her.
-Gus-
Cliffside's main entrance / Friday november 10th 16:30 hs
Today was a calm day in Cliffside. No bullies shoving people around, no teachers dropping surprise exams on unsuspecting students, no jocks fighting over the dumbest stuff, and no one created any drama on twitter. Even the weather seemed to be nice, with clear skies and warm temperatures (Well, warm for autumn). Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and there were two main reasons for that: One, the exams week was over and two, the sports season was at its peak and it really raised the school spirit.
It was really funny actually. Jocks were the ones responsible for causing a lot of damage to the school and they made all of the other student's lives miserable, but everyone forgot about that once they started to win some games. It got to a point where even those who were constantly bullied supported the team, it was pure hypocrisy. Although he supposed it was fair, this was the highest achievement those people were ever going to get in their lives, so it was nice they got to enjoy it now, because they were going downhill once highschool ended.
Anyway, putting his aggressive thoughts about the members of the sports clubs aside, this was a really nice day to go home and enjoy the fact that the winter break was getting closer. Everyone was happily exiting the school.
Everyone but Gus.
"You are going to lose this one" Matt mocked him.
"I will if you keep breathing down my neck!" Gus roared back "We agreed on no interferences, remember?
He and Matt were playing a videogame while he waited for his friends and he had been trying to beat Gus' high score for a while. Usually he wouldn't give the brunette boy the time of the day but today had been different, mainly because he was alone this time. Willow and Jerbo were trying to recruit members for their newly formed botany club (they asked him to participate but he declined, plants weren't really his thing), Viney and Markus were in detention again (something about a spray can incident, he didn't want to ask), and only god knew where Luz was. Since he was alone he just sat on the stairs at the front of the school and started playing to kill time, just in time for Matt to walk in and see what he was playing. He then proceeded to brag that he was better than Gus at it, one thing led to the other and they ended up having a competition.
"Uh-oh, you're running out of mana" Matt pointed out at his decreasing blue bar on the top left of the screen "Tsk tsk, should've bought more potions"
"I needed to save gold in order to buy a new sword!" His character finally cleared the last couple of enemies and managed to get into a safe zone. He knew that the next room was a boss battle and if he could beat it he would complete this level, but trying to beat the final boss with no mana was impossible. With a sigh, he saved his progress and exited.
"Ok before you start mocking me I'm going to remind you that I managed to get eighty percent of progress on the seventh floor with no deaths. I'd like to see you do better" He crossed his arms in an air of defiance.
"Heh, fine. It's time for me to school you" he turned on his phone and started the game "Come closer and watch the master work"
Gus had a hard time admitting it but Matt was actually good at the game. However, that didn't stop him from mocking the other teen.
"Man, what is that build? Are you using a hammer? Lame"
"You should've been able to dodge that attack"
"It took me less time to clear this room"
It was obvious that his taunts were taking a toll on the brunette because he started making more mistakes. Finally he arrived at the floor that Gus was stuck in and started clearing it. He ended up saving enough mana by buying potions, but his health was low because of that he didn't have enough gold to buy better gear.
"Well, it looks like I'm gonna win" He looked at how Matt only had a quarter of health left and he only had fifty percent of progress in the floor.
"It's not over yet, Augustus," Matt said with determination on his face.
And weirdly enough it wasn't. He had to spend all of the mana he saved but he managed to get to the same room Gus was in.
"Dang, ok it's a tie. Wanna run a different dungeon to see who wins?" Gus was starting to enjoy this competition.
"Nah, there's no need" Matt smiled slyly and went to the boss room.
"What? Are you crazy? You are going to…" Gus interrupted himself once he noticed something on the screen.
Matt's health and mana bars -which had been almost empty a minute ago- were now half each. His character didn't have any potions nor healing spells so that should've been impossible.
"How in the world?" He asked.
"I bought a recovery pack" Matt said shamelessly as he started the fight.
"A recovery pack?" He repeated.
"Microtransactions baby!" The boy yelled happily while he played "I memorized my mom's credit card number a while ago, no big deal"
"Wait what? You used a pay to win item? That's cheating!"
"It's not cheating, the item is a part of the game after all"
"Yeah, they put it there to gain money from jerks like you. I can't believe you even stole from your mother!"
"She is not going to find out, chill"
"Do you even know how credit cards work?"
After a while, the boss fell. It was a tough battle but totally doable with the health and mana boost that Matt had.
"Ohhh, yeah. Floor seven one hundred percent complete with zero deaths!" He turned to face him "Guess I'm better than you. In your face!"
"Everyone knows that using pay to win doesn't count. How do you know that you are actually better than me if you use something that's only available to you? It's like hacking" Gus attempted to explain.
"Uhh, what's that?" He smiled and put his hands around his ears "Did you say something? Because I only heard the sound of jealousy"
"Ughhh, I won and you know it! I arrived at the final boss with more HP and items than you!" This was getting to his nerves.
"Well then if you think that you are better than me go ahead and beat the boss. You don't have mana so it will be entertaining to watch you try to do it with basic attacks" He gave him a sly smile "Or you could do what I did"
"No. I'm sorry to break it to you but not all of us have rich parents" He also wanted to add that not everyone would be willing to steal from theirs "And I am not going to use a pay to win strategy and then say I'm better, that just means that your parents have a bigger bank account"
"Hey don't blame the player, blame the game" he crossed his arms "Now… Do you want a rematch? I still have a few lessons to give" Gus gave him a passive glare.
"Nah, I'm good" With that he got up and left.
He walked away from him before he could launch another barrage of jokes. Looking around he could see he was one of the few people left around, most of the students left after the last bell rang a few minutes ago. He was wondering on what he should do when he felt his phone vibrate, he grabbed it to see it was a message from Willow.
Got in trouble with the chemistry professor
I might be late so don't wait
Gus sighed. He knew that Herminuculus liked to make everyone's life a living hell and for some reason he liked to pick on Willow especially, he just hoped that his friend would be ok.
"Now what do I do? Do I wait until Markus gets out of detention? I wanted to share my newest theories about the wild witch with him but I don't know when he'll get out"
He kept walking towards the side of the school's main building as he pondered over this. Before he could reach a conclusion he heard a familiar voice around the corner.
"Luz! Oh finally, she loves my theories on magical beings" He went forward expecting to see his friend but found something else.
Amity Blight and Luz Noceda were chatting together happily, which was odd considering that as far as he knew the rich girl hated her friend. The two of them were leaning against a wall of the school's main building and they were laughing. Luz had her face in a darker tone than usual and looked quite embarrassed but happy nonetheless, meanwhile Amity had a huge smile on her face and tugged a strand of her hair behind her ear. Despite the weirdness of the situation they looked cute and comfortable with each other, almost if…
"Oh wow…" he couldn't avoid speaking out loud once he figured out what was happening.
Feeling a bit foolish, he snuck up closer to them to hear what they were saying. It felt bad but this was too much to just pass it up. He kneeled behind a bush to hear them.
"No way you liked that speech Azura gave at the end of chapter seven! It was so cheesy" Amity said between laughs.
"Hey it had some good lines in there!" Luz jokingly shoved her "It does a great job at cementing the team as a whole"
"They are talking about the good witch Azura?" Luz had shown him the books but those weren't his thing.
"Luz that's probably the cringiest thing I've ever read. I love Azura and because of that I have to recognize when it has it's low points, every franchise has those and this is one of them"
"You are allowed to think that, but you are objectively wrong" She puffed her chest in annoyance "Well this has been fun but I have to go, my friends are probably worried about me"
Something shifted in Amity's expression, making her look sadder
"Right… See you later?"
"Sure! We still need to talk about the movie, and you still owe me some snacks for being mean to me before!" She added with a smile.
"Haha, if snacks are all I need to give you to atone for that then consider it done" She then blushed and looked to the ground "Luz, I've been thinking… These days I'm really busy with my basketball matches and the robotics club, but in a few weeks those tend to calm down right before the winter holidays. Sooo I thought that, in order to make it up to you, I could take you to have dinner somewhere"
"Huh?"
"I have a lot of fancy restaurants that would want to give me everything free because they want to be on my parent's good grades" She started looking really nervous "I don't take the girls there anymore and it's kind of a bummer to go alone. I thought it would be a good idea since we are both free, but it's ok if you don't want to…"
"Amity, I'd love to go!" Gus choked upon hearing those words.
"Really?" Amity's face brightened.
"Yeah! It's not always I get to go to a fancy places, so I'd totally go" Gus could not believe what he was hearing
"Great! Then I'll contact you once the sports season is over, see you later!"
Her friend waved goodbye and they parted ways. Amity went towards the gym, probably to team practice, and Luz went towards Gus' direction. The brunette had a radiant smile on her face and gave little happy jumps while walking.
Gus couldn't resist himself.
"BOO!" He yelled and jumped out when she was close enough.
The girl's reaction was pretty funny. She yelled and jumped back, then rolled into the ground and landed in what seemed to be a combat position. He already knew she had good fighting reflexes from watching her fight with Boscha, so he wasn't surprised by that. What did surprise him was that instead of raising her fist to face a potential threat she extended her index finger and pointed it at him, it looked kinda silly in his opinion.
"La puta madre!" Luz cursed in spanish and Gus had the feeling that he did not want to know what that meant "Gus, Why… I-I I could've attacked you!"
"Meh, still worth it" He laughed and fist bumped her.
"I'm serious!" She said with a small smile in her face "My friends back home tended to do that and that made me a little bit jumpy, I was about to punch you"
"I could've taken it. Not to offend you but I've been punched by stronger people than you and ended up fine"
"Weird flex but ok"
They started walking towards the school's main entrance. They had time to kill, and since they didn't know when their friends might be free, Gus decided to have a little bit of fun.
"Soooo, what were you doing over here? So far away from your classes and all on your own" He asked her with a smirk.
"Ohhh I just… went and saw if I could enter the track team, you two are always telling me that I should try a sport" It was believable but Gus knew it wasn't the case.
"Uh-huh. And tell me, since when is Amity a part of the track team?" He watched with delight as her face paled.
"You were spying on me?!"
"You can't call it spying when you guys were out in an open area, anyone who walked by could've seen it" In fact, he was sure that the entire football team saw them.
"Oh right, yeah" She looked very uncomfortable and started fiddling with her fingers "Could we… not talk about that? Please"
"Oh we are definitely going to talk about that" She groaned "Luz, I'm not going to tell you who you should hang out with, I'm not your dad, but you are aware of the things Amity did to Willow right?"
"I knooooow, and that's why I wanted to get to know her in the first place"
"Huh?" The girl wasn't making any sense.
"Just, listen to me ok? I saw Willow and Amity interact back in the summer and she told me all the mean stuff she did to her, so I just assumed she was a regular bully. Then she saved me from Boscha and her group when I made her angry at the mall, that seemed so out of character for her that I grew curious. When I enrolled in Cliffside she was my tour guide and she was quite nice with me, up to the point that we texted each other regularly afterwards, but later…"
"Oh, I see" Gus interrupted her "So once she figured out that you had friends below her social status she decided to distance herself, right?"
"No! It's not like that. She… I can't say exactly why because it's not my story to tell, but she had no choice in that and she was under a lot of pressure. Later she explained and apologized to me, something about her situation changed and now she wanted to make amends" Luz sounded really genuine.
"Hmmmm" Gus took this into consideration. He figured that it would not be fair to judge Amity since he didn't know everything going on her life "I guess, she isn't nearly as bad as Boscha and her friends"
"Yeah and she is planning to leave that group!" Those words actually relieved him.
"Oh wow, that's a relief. For I second I thought that you were going to join them" It had been one of the insecurities once he saw them together.
"Why would I do that? I fought Boscha, remember?" She was genuinely concerned.
"I don't know but it wouldn't be the first time that it happened. Several people in the past found out that being with us was being against Boscha, so they took the easy way out"
"Well I'm not gonna do that" She lightly punched his shoulder with a smile "You guys are stuck with me forever"
"Ouch, but aww" He said as he rubbed his shoulder "Well if that's the case you have my approval, not that you needed it in the first place. I think that you two look adorable as a couple to be honest" He kept walking as he talked, but when he didn't hear an answer from Luz he turned around to face her. His friend was frozen in one place with her eyes opened like plates.
"Did you just… said couple?" She asked with a shocked expression.
"Uhh yeah. It's gonna be a bit awkward to try to explain to Willow and Viney that you two are dating but I think they'll accept it eventually" He smiled and nodged her elbow "Honestly I have to congratulate you, Luz. Being able to attract one of the most popular, richest, and prettiest persons in the whole school is something else. You must have some game-"
"Nononono! No estamos saliendo, me and Amity aren't dating!" She said while moving her arms around.
"You are not?" The hands touching, the blushing, the longing smiles, the banter, the giggles, not to mention the fact that Amity just asked her out. The two of them looked like a textbook definition of a couple to him "Then what was that?"
"Two friends hanging out together?" She offered with a nervous smile "Gosh, did we look like a couple to you?"
"Luz, Amity just asked you to a date and you said yes" He could not believe how dumb his friend could be sometimes
"Was that what she meant? A date?" She looked to the ground with her eyes open like plates "A date… a date…"
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Yes! I mean no! I-I… I don't know!" She let herself fall face first into the grass and let out a frustrating groan.
"Ok, there there" He crouched and started rubbing her back to comfort her "Just… tell me about it and we can figure it out. I might not know much about this but maybe letting it out of your chest might help"
"Mfmhhmm" Luz tried to speak but she still had her face in the ground so the words came muffled.
"Luz, turn around"
"I don't think I can say it" She got up and replied.
"Why not? There's no one around" All of the students already left and they were outside so there wasn't any teacher nearby "I swear I won't spill it"
"No it's not that, it's more personal. I trust you Gus but I made a promise to not to tell anyone"
"Hmmm, does this has to do with your country?" She nodded.
"Did her mother forbid her to date anyone? That would make sense, considering she sent her to just study here"
"Okey you might not be able to tell me why but I can still help. However, there is something I don't understand, do you want to date Amity?" Luz emitted a squeal a rat would make.
"Well, I'm not supposed to…" Gus cut her off by raising his hand.
"I'm not asking if you can, I'm asking if you want"
"Honestly I'm not sure of that" She sounded sincere "But it doesn't matter. Regardless of my feelings I can't date her, I just can't" Luz seemed sad but determined.
"Are you certain? I mean… Your feelings always matter and I feel like whatever is happening in your home shouldn't interfere with what's happening here" He offered her a recomforting smile.
"I'm certain. Thank you for caring but this is personal stuff you don't need to get involved with. I'm not going to date anyone"
"Well then, if that's the case then you should make that clear for Amity. Just tell her you don't like her if you are sure about it"
"Huh? Why?" She tilted her head in confusion.
"Because I think that Amity really does like you and if you keep going like this you'll break her heart"
"Because you are giving Amity the wrong idea. If you don't tell her to stop flirting with you then she is going to think you're into it, then you are just giving her false hope"
"Oh no, you are right! Then what do I do?"
"I don't know, just tell her" He shrugged "I don't have much experience on this but the characters in the comics I read always say that you just need to be clear and soft at the same time"
"That… is easier said than done" Luz stroke her chin to think "I need to think of a way but I believe I can pull this off"
"Or you know, you could go on that date. Who knows, it might change your mind" He pointed finger guns at her.
"We already established that I'm not doing that" She said in a stern tone "But thank you. Gus you were surprisingly helpful with this"
"Meh, it's no big deal. I'm always willing to share my wisdom" He closed his eyes and did a cool pose. Then he realized what Luz just said "Hey! What do you mean by 'surprisingly'?"
"No offense but you aren't the first person I have on my mind when I think of romantic advices" She said while laughing.
*Hmph* "I'll have you know that I'm an expert on the subject" He crossed his arms in defiance.
"Ok ok, I'll believe you" She playfully shoved him "Now let's go, I'm pretty sure that our friends must be done with detention by now" With that they went outside the school grounds as they laughed.
-Willow-
The Park's shop, central gravesfield / Sunday november 12th 16:00 hs
"Thanks for your purchase! See you later!" Willow happily waved to the customer after they left the shop with their order "Next one please!"
Today was a relatively slow day in her parent's shop: A small little brick building near the center of the town that functioned as both a flower shop and a bakery, it wasn't fancy but it was loved by the community. She was helping, even though this wasn't her usual shift, because today her dads had business out of town so they were busy, which left her and a couple more employees attending the store.
Working here was a good way of keeping her focused, lately she has been distracted by some particular thoughts regarding her friend: Luz was hiding something from her and she was being very obvious about it. It started during Gus' party, she called her to see if she was coming and she ended up hearing something weird through her cellphone. Willow wasn't sure what it was-nor did she want to find out-but it sounded like Luz was getting attacked right before she ended the call. Then she didn't text them and missed school for the next few days. Willow had been beyond worried at that point and was about to storm into the owl house, but luckily her guardian contacted them and informed them that she was just ill with fever and that she would come back soon. Still there was something that happened there and both of them weren't telling her.
"The times when she tried to skip class or leave school for no apparent reason, all of those excuses she gives us when she suddenly has to go, the amount of scars and bruises she shows up with and she just says it's because of her clumsiness. I don't buy it, there's something else going on" At first she had thought that the owl lady might be abusive, but then she discarded the idea when she watched them interact. Not to mention that Luz definitely seemed quite capable of handling herself in that aspect.
A ring of the doorbell disturbed her thoughts.
"Ahh, Willow" Mr Perez, an old man who was familiar in the shop, came towards her "Good to see you darling. Are your parents around? I wanted to ask them something"
"Good to see you too Mr. Perez!" She beamed at him "And no, Dad and Pops had to attend something urgent elsewhere"
"Hmm, what a pity. Then I'll just grab the usual"
He attended him and heard a commotion at the back of the shop. She excused herself and went to see what was happening, only to find her employee Dani on the floor with a bag of merchandise over her.
Dani was a weird woman that her parents hired. She was a Mexican girl in her early twenties with clear skin and long, black hair. She only worked part-time here and Willow didn't know much about her, besides the fact that she was saving money to go to an art school and that she always said what went through her mind.
"Dani! Are you ok?" She rushed to help her coworker.
"Mierda. Yeah I'm fine, just slipped" She got up and dusted her clothes.
"Dani, I've seen you do all of these chores with no problem. You'd never just slip
… Unless you were distracted" She eyed the girl suspiciously.
"Me, distracted? Pshh, nah" She kept eyeing her until she cowered "Ok fine. There's this really cute guy outside the shop, and I think he wants to enter" She pointed to the window.
She followed her gaze and saw that there was a blonde guy with a brown coat and black pants outside the shop's entrance. He was too far away and wasn't facing their way right now,so she couldn't see if he looked cute but he definitely looked sketchy.
"Oh! I think he's gonna enter. Can I be at the front desk now?" She pleaded with big, puppy eyes.
"No chance. Pops gave you this task and he'll kill us both if you don't finish before he comes back" She turned around and looked at the store. All of the other customers were already attended by the other employees and there were no other people around, just the sketchy guy "I'll take care of him and then tell you how it goes" Dani nodded and went back to do her job reclutlantly.
Willow went to the front part of the shop but she couldn't find the guy to her surprise. Looking at the window she saw that he was outside and seemed to be talking with someone, but there was no one around. Growing more curious, and against her better judgment, she exited the shop to see what this was all about.
"Just a quick check, I don't want any trouble before dad and pops come back"
Once she approached, she could notice more details about the stranger. Like the fact that he was wearing a yellow vest below his coat and he had a scar in his right cheek, he also had . He looked to be about her age, maybe a bit older.
"...And I swear that if you bother me again I will go and tell Wrath to use you as his pillow!" As she got closer she could hear his rambling easier.
"Who are you talking to?" She couldn't help but to wonder out loud.
"Eep!" He let out a squeak an octave too high and it sounded way too girly for a guy like him so she laughed a little bit.
Then he turned around and she was startled for a second. Now that she could see them clearly his eyes had an unusual color, they were red- no, more like magenta- with a strange hue on them. She also could see that he had massive eye bags under them, as if he hasn't had any decent sleep in days.
"Don't do that! Haven't they taught you that it's not ok to sneak up on people?"
"I'm sorry" She said, even though she wasn't trying to be sneaky "But I was just curious, who are you talking to? There's no one around" She pointed to the empty street.
"I-it's none of your business!" He yelled at her like a child.
Then something weird happened. A flash of red appeared for a second and it flew around the boy, who tried to swat it away with his arms. Whatever this was, it was too fast for Willow to distinguish, even if the sounds it was making were very familiar.
After a while, the red thing calmed down and landed on top of a nearby tree branch. Then Willow could see that it was a red bird of considerable size. From her basic knowledge of birds, she could deduce it was a cardinal (even if it was way bigger than many other birds she saw) and it had a scar covering its left eye.
"Ugh, enough of this!" The blonde boy pointed a threatening finger at it.
"Is that who you were talking with?" Willow asked, amused.
"Oh, yeah. This… Foul beast has been bothering me this whole afternoon" He explained with a scowl.
"Foul beast? Does he have ornithophobia?"
"Did you feed it by any chance? Maybe he liked it and now just wants more food" it happened to her with a goose once, the bird then proceeded to chase her and her parents for a while.
"Huh? No I didn't feed it, it just wants to bother me"
"Well then, why don't you come inside? I saw you looking at the shop but you didn't enter" She offered him a smile.
"The shop?" He looked around and widened his eyes "You work there?"
"Yup! And I could tell by the way you were standing in the entrance that you wanted to buy something before" She realized that she was wrong in judging him, this guy looked pretty harmless.
"Oh, how did you know that?"
"Everyone could see you through the glass silly. Now come in, at least inside you will be safe from your feathery bully" He still looked indecisive "Oh come on, I promise we don't have any scary birds inside"
"I'm not scared of it!"
"Are you entering or not?"
He grumbled a response that she didn't catch and followed her inside, before they entered she caught him doing some rude gestures to the cardinal. Once they were inside she could see how they were the only people here, all of the other clients already left and her coworkers were in their various posts. She casted a quick glance to see if Dani was still looking at him- luckily she wasn't- and then she went to the front desk.
"Right, what can I get you?"
"Oh, right" he pulled out a piece of paper from his coat and cleared his throat "I've prepared a list of materials that I require to purchase from your fine establishment. Here, do not worry about the price" He passed the note to her.
"Why is he talking like that? Does he come from the 1800s?"
She eyed him curiously but grabbed the paper anyway. Reading the list she found out that most of these flowers were quite unique and exotic, not to mention that most of them were written in their scientific terms. In fact she was sure that they didn't have most of them in their shop.
"Wow, so… Oh, I'm sorry but I never got your name"
"Hunter"
"Right. Hunter I'm sorry but all of these flowers are pretty rare so I only got some of them. In fact, I'm not sure some of these exist" There were some names on this list that she has never heard of.
"That is not true! I've checked the internet and I verified that all of these flowers do exist" He pointed to an item of the list "For example the Phalaenopsis amabilis grows from the eastern coast of indonesia" He said with an air of superiority.
"Right, and what made you think that I'd have a flower from Indonesia here?" She asked
"Because this is a flower shop? I don't see your point" Willow rubbed her temples out of frustration.
"Ok, fair enough. I'm sorry buddy but I can only get you some of those" she began to point at certain items of the list.
"Hmph, so you only have a few? What a waste of my time. I should've gone to a place with more class" He had a sour expression on his face when he pulled his wallet to pay.
"Excuse me!" Willow usually let other people push her around but this was different. This was her parents' shop and she wasn't going to let this stranger say bad things about it "I have been civil so far but if you say anything else about this shop then you'll need somewhere else to buy your flowers from, and I can assure you that they will all say the same to you!"
She finished her rant with a huff and awaited for a response. Usually clients would respond by elevating their tone and escalating the situation, she could only maintain a brave front for so long so usually it ended up with her calling her parents for back up. This case was different however, Hunter stopped scowling and just looked at her for a while.
"I'm sorry. I will take this"
He finished his purchase with no more arguments and apologized one more time before going.
"You should take the exit on the side of the building, that way the bird won't see you"
"Oh thanks"
He exited the shop and Willow shook her head.
"What a weirdo"
If you guys couldn't tell, that hand was the symbol of the healing coven. I don't know anything about medicine, but I don't have to bc everything here is magical.
Honestly I'm not sure why I included that gaming part with Gus, I didn't even plan on doing it until I started writing and I just kept going. I do kinda hate games with pay to win mechanics, so I used it to vent.
I started putting some more spanish lines in for Luz. Idk why I didn't do that before.
Ornithophobia is the fear of birds, in case you are wondering.