Trigger warning: This fanfic features bullying and homophobic language towards LGBTQI+ people. Reader discretion is advised if you find homophobic language triggering. I'm an ally of the LGBTQI+ community and don't condone the slurs used in this story.
I wrote this instead of sleeping. I saw Chapelle Roan's music video for Red Wine Supernova for the first time. Then the second time and the third time and the fourth time. I just couldn't get the image of Luz's cotton candy-haired goddess as a magician out of my head.
Luz let out a forelorn sigh as she read Chapter 13 of The Good Witch Azura volume five for the millionth time. It was her favourite chapter: the one where Azura and Hecate finally confessed their feelings for each other and shared passionate kisses under the amber sky of the Fields of Forever. Luz longed for someone she could hold the way her hero did. Instead, she sat alone beneath a pale blue sky on her slightly dried up front lawn.
"Hey, Luzer," called a snide voice across the street. Luz shoved her face into her book to ignore the calls of her latest tormentor. But then the sounds of dried grass crunching under footfalls approached her and a shadow loomed over the Latina girl. Luz slowly looked up to meet the icy gaze of her school's head cheerleader, Tiffany.
"Still reading your kid's books?" said Tiffany with a smile, flashing her stupid, whitened teeth that Luz often felt tempted to knock out.
"Leave me alone, Tiffany."
"Or what, you'll put a spell on me like your Good Witch Slutzura?"
Luz threw her book to the ground and sprang to her feet, ready for a fight.
"Pick on me all you want, but I draw the line at you besmirching Azura!"
Tiffany put up her hands in an obviously false show of politeness. "Woah, take it easy. No need to get your lesbo hormones in a bunch."
Luz's resolve wavered as a lump crept up into her throat and her cheeks burned.
"I'm not a lesbian," she said, hating how her voice cracked. "I'm bisexual."
"That's just another word for sluts, like your 'good witch'."
"I am not a slut!" Luz raised a fist and nearly brought it to Tiffany's face but stopped herself at the last second. Her mami may not have been there, but she would have torn Luz to shreds if she found out her daughter was starting fights. All those trips to the principal's office for 'disrupting classes' had gotten Luz enough flack as is.
"You're right," said Tiffany. " 'Slut' would imply that you've actually gotten to first base with anyone. And we all know that's never gonna happen."
Tiffany spun on her heel and sauntered off with her nose in the ear, seemingly satisfied with her daily dose of torment. Luz angrily swiped at her eyes with a forearm to brush away the tears that managed to leak out. She was trembling with sadness and anger. She needed to let it out right then, but it couldn't be on major bitch Tiffany.
So, she ran across the street towards the first thing she could see: the Sold sign sticking out of the right lawn across from hers. Luz gave the sign a hard kick, knocking it over.
"Hey," came a new feminine voice.
Luz whipped her head up to face whoever had decided to bother her now. The person she saw made her anger evaporate completely.
It was a girl about her age dressed in an absolutely stunning magician's costume. She had sparkling golden eyes and chin length hair coloured a mesmerising shade of lavender. The top hat perched on her head framed her face with shadows that complemented her beauty an air of mystery. The violet coloured jacket she wore was buttoned up, perfectly hugging her figure. She wore fishnets that-
Luz stopped her eyes from wandering any lower and shook her head to try and get herself thinking like a functioning person instead of a bisexual disaster. She opened her mouth.
"Hi..."
Real smooth, she thought.
"Are you okay?", asked the beautiful magician girl. She was standing on the house's veranda, looking down at Luz with, Luz couldn't believe it, concern in her eyes.
"I-I think," stammered Luz.
"I saw that girl picking on you. I'm really sorry that happened to you."
"Oh, that," said Luz, mustering a smile. "It was nothing. Just a little disagreement."
There was no sense burdening a complete stranger with her problems. Luz was used to dealing with bullying by herself (badly).
The cotton-candy-haired goddess of a magician smiled. "You wanna know what the best cure is for a bad day?"
The girl's smile made Luz feel a little more at ease. The goddess – girl! – twirled a wand between her fingers. She then passed her free hand over the one twirling the wand, and the wand was replaced with a colourful bouquet.
"A chance to stop and smell the roses."
The magician tossed the bouquet to Luz, who caught it despite some fumbling. The bouquet was huge, bigger than anything a magician could hide under their sleeves. The thought of this magician keeping a whole bouquet in her jacket was enough to make Luz crack a brief smile.
The magician's sweet smile grew into a confident smirk as she pulled a purple handkerchief from her right cuff. She waved it a bit, as if beckoning her viewer to come closer, before tucking it into a closed fist. As Luz expected, there was no handkerchief when the girl opened her hands. One of the oldest tricks in the book. Still, the confidence this girl displayed in every gesture made Luz's face flush.
Her flushed face came dangerously close to breaking out into full-on sweating when the girl bent down to reach her high-heeled shoes. She pulled the handkerchief out of one heel agonisingly slow, one tug at a time, like she was daring Luz to think about how her legs looked in those fishnets. Luz hugged the bouquet tightly as she tried to keep from exploding, but the magician girl made it harder when she tucked the handkerchief into the collar of her shirt.
The magician let her top hat roll down her extended arm like Luz had seen some of those Broadway dancers do. She dipped her hand into the hat and pulled out a whole chain of handkerchiefs.
"Hmm, where'd my lucky hanky go?"
The girl pulled and pulled, exposing a chain of hankies in all the colours of the rainbow, with the notable exception any purple. Until she lifted the last of the hankies. The purple hanky, but it had a small white cat hanging onto it.
"Ghost," the magician girl said with a laugh, "how did you get in there?"
She scooped up the cat in her free arm. She flicked hanky chain like a whip, then the purple hanky burst into flames. The flame rushed up the hanky chain, leaving behind a trail of white smoke. Luz had definitely never seen this at a magic show before.
The magician's impish smile now looked playful. "This is why you should feed your pets."
Then Luz started laughing; sadness, anger and crippling bisexual lust forgotten.
"Do you feel better now, madam?"
"Yeah," Luz said. "That was just…wow. I mean, wow- I mean, thank you!"
"It was no problem. You helped me practice in front of an audience."
"How did you make the handkerchiefs go 'poof' like that? I-I-I mean, if you don't mind revealing your secrets, just this once."
"Sorry, but it's a family secret," said the girl.
Suddenly, the front door opened (making Luz stupidly jump and yelp in surprise in front of the hot magician). A man with chestnut brown hair and the same golden eyes as the magician girl walked out.
"Amity, the twins have gone out again. Can you help me unpack the last of the-"
He trailed off when his eyes landed on Luz. The Latina girl straightened up and did her best to make eye contact with someone who must be the hot magician's father.
"Hi, I'm Luz Noceda. I live across the street."
"Alador Blight," the man replied. "We just moved in."
"Ah, guess that makes us new neighbors. Lucky me. I mean lucky you! Lucky you for having someone your pretty daughter can practice with."
Luz dropped the bouquet and buried her face in her hands at her sheer lack of cool. Amity's dad stared at her flatly and Luz was feeling exposed all over again.
Fortunately, the man gave a small smile.
"Pleased to see my Amity has already found a fan."
He put a hand on Amity's shoulder.
"I'm proud of you, Mittens."
"Dad!", Amity wailed.
Her face had broken out into a blush that made her look even cuter than her confident façade earlier.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Luz Noceda," the father said. "If you enjoyed Amity's impromptu performance, perhaps you'd like to come over sometime? We're always happy to entertain."
Luz couldn't believe her luck. First, a gorgeous magician was giving her the time of day, doing everything she could to cheer up someone she didn't even know, and now she was being invited into said gorgeous magician's house, by her dad.
"Yeah, sure," said Luz, managing (somehow) to keep her voice steady. "I'll tell my mom when she gets home from work. She can bring you some of her famous maduros."
"We'll be looking forward to it."
He turned around and went back in the house, but Amity stayed on the deck just a bit longer. Her impish look was back on, making Luz's knees buckle a bit.
"Hopefully, we'll see each other soon, cutie. She winked and then she too went into the house, graceful confidence in every step.
Luz waited until she had crossed the street, picked up her book, climbed the stairs to her room and flopped onto her bed before letting out the biggest scream she ever had. Somehow, Luz 'the Luzer' Noceda had been invited into a hot, talented, classy magician's house. This wasn't quite kissing a powerful witch beneath an amber sky, but Luz was certain things couldn't get more exciting than this.
I'll write one more chapter later in the week to wrap up this little story. Hope you enjoyed. See you soon.
