The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

After taking a few moments to hug it out, calm down, and breathe after... Well, everything, Amity, and Luz slowly walked back up to the front of the historical society.

"You know it's funny," Luz said, "the thing I was worried about ended up being the best part of today."

...Wow. It'd only been a few hours since they stepped through the portal door into the human realm, and yet from where Amity was sitting it felt like weeks.

Arriving at the front, the first thing they noticed was Stan and Eda standing together, looking at Eda's scroll and Stan's phone.

"So here's Mable. She just graduated from Julliard..." Stan slid a finger across his screen. "Here's Dipper at his wedding. When I agreed to take in the pipsqueaks for the summer, I never expected that he'd end up with the Northwest girl. Or that he'd ask his crusty old Grunkle Stan to be the best man when they got married."

"Are you crying?" Eda asked incredulously.

"No!" Stan denied quickly.

"Whatever. Here's my little gremlin the time he got stuck in the sleeve of one of my old sweaters," Eda gestured to her scroll.

"Oh, that's just precious... I'm assuming he's adopted?" Stan asked.

"Ehe..." Eda waved a hand noncommittally. "I'm gonna be honest with you, I thought he was a dog for the first week I had him. Oh, here's Luz getting in over her head at an eating contest..."

"Huh," Luz commented. "Old people showing off photos of the young people they care about. Must be a universal constant."

"I heard that!" Eda exclaimed in mock outrage,

Amity couldn't help but giggle. Then she noticed Masha and Vee off to the side, Masha filling out some kind of form. Seeing that Luz was occupied with friendly bickering with the Owl Lady, Amity walked over.

"What have you got there?" She asked.

"Job application," Masha replied. "They're hiring and, well, a position just opened up. Don't think I'll actually get it, but no harm in trying, right? Most places these days have you apply online but the historical society is kind of old school."

"Is this something you... Want to do?" Amity asked. "Work at a place like this?"

"I mean, define want? I'm interested in history but this place is kinda... Eh," They admitted. "But I could use the extra cash, could do with getting out of the house, and it'll look good on a college application. I do want to be a historian when I grow up. Expose the dark, morbid secrets of our forgotten past and reveal to the public that which has been covered up by those who prioritize their agendas over the truth."

"That's a thing that happens?" Amity asked. Then she smacked herself on the forehead. "Of course, that's a thing that happens." Amity was starting to realize that a lot of what the Emperor did and was doing were known problems in the human realm.

"Yeah," Masha acknowledged. "There's a famous painting of Sappho of Lesbos, who is—"

"Luz told me about her," Amity interrupted. Then she smiled. "She even recited me some of her poetry."

"Ahh, that's sweet," Masha beamed. "Anyway, there's this well-known painting of her in the throws of passion with another woman... And it's been referred to, repeatedly, as 'Sappho and her friend.' At some point, people like... Well, us. People who love the same gender, or both genders, who don't identify with the gender that matches the bits they were born with, were decided to be 'wrong' and 'bad' by a decent chunk of the world despite stuff like this occurring in nature and historical evidence of it being a thing tends to get covered up so people can point at us and say we're something new and freakish." Masha seemed indignant. "Didn't really work with Sappho, but... There was a Roman Emperor, Elagabalus, who is mostly remembered as 'the boy who invented the whoopee cushion and got killed by his own guards at eighteen for stirring up controversy' but records from Elagabalus's time refer to her as a woman, state she identified as such, and make a record of her scouring the Roman empire for a physician who could give her a female body but you're not gonna find much evidence of that unless you actively go looking for it and I have a problem with that."

"I want to dig up the truth and expose it raw for all the world to see. Every dirty little secret. Every uncomfortable fact. Especially the stuff that would really help a lot of people for it to be more well known," Masha finished passionately.

Vee looked at Masha with sparkling eyes and a blush on her face and it suddenly clicked for Amity why Vee kept giving her deja vu. She tried to focus on whether or not she should try and help the basilisk avoid the sort of pain and confusion she went through or not but... She didn't know about the situation to judge, and her mind kept turning back to what Masa had said.

"Masha, I'm going to be honest," she began, "I'm very nervous about Luz staying here, after everything that's happened, and... What I've learned about the human realm. Things like that are... Aren't helping."

"Ah, shoot," Masha admitted. "Probably making Earth sound a lot more dangerous than it is, aren't I? Look, for all the bad stuff in the past it's a lot better now and heroes like the Avengers and the X-Men always stop the super crazy stuff before it's too late. For all my grousing, the world is all kinds of awesome and even though humanity is bad at being nice to each other, most people are fundamentally good."

"Huh," came the gruff voice of the man named Logan, "Chuck would love you, too."

It seemed that Camila's conversation with the two mutants had concluded and not long after the group went their separate ways: Camila, Eda, and the kids into Camila's van, Stan and Ford to canvas part of the forest they'd been planning to stake out before Jaccob had called them, and the mutants to call the local police to deal with said lunatic.

The rain had cleared up by the time they were finished, and Luz had been disappointed to realize that she'd missed "cold, human rain that won't kill me if I stand out in it" but a quick hug had brightened her spirits back up.

Amity kept close to Luz the whole drive home, at least in so far as the "seat belt" protective devices would let her, and made sure their arms were intertwined.

"So, Luz," Eda asked from the front seat, "can't go one afternoon without getting into trouble, can you?"

Luz laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, uh... You know, it's pretty surreal to see you of all people riding in a car."

"I know what a car is, Luz. I told you the day we met, I've been coming here for thirty years," Eda replied.

"Eda, you sold stick deodorant as candy and one claimed that fishnet stockings were proof that humans shed their skin," Luz quipped back.

"Luz, there's a reason why I tell you to double-check with me before buying any demon realm candy," Eda deadpanned while looking back.

Luz was confused for a moment and then took on the most disgusted expression Amity had ever seen on her face. A moment later, Eda started laughing.

Luz responded by reaching up and batting at the Owl Lady's head. "Jerk."

"Admit it, I got you," the wild which quipped back.

"Yeah, yeah..." Luz admitted. "It's a bit weird seeing you and my Mom just sitting next to each other, too."

"Really?" Camila asked. "Most kids would think it's normal to see their parents sitting together."

Luz made a choking noise and started stuttering for a moment before. "Uh, uh, I did let that slip, didn't I... Uh, Mom, I..."

"It's fine Mijah," Camila reassured. "I mean, I would have been upset if you had just sprung that on me when you first got back but... I know you're not trying to replace me. Anyone with eyes can see that Eda cares for you very much, and I know for a fact that you have enough love in your heart for two mothers."

"Oh thank Titan," Luz muttered in obvious relief.

"Speaking of the Titan," Eda noted, "I hear you got your hands on some Titan Blood?"

"Yeah, we found it in the old graveyard," Luz mentioned. "I think that whoever had your portal before you hid it here for some reason. It makes the ambient magic in the area more like what's on the Boiling Isles and lets the glyphs work."

"They don't work with the human realm without it?" Eda asked.

"No," Luz admitted sadly.

"Uh... Camila," Eda asked turning back to the driver. "Do you have a safe?"

"Yes."

"If Luz doesn't have the Titan blood on her, it goes in the safe. That stuff is the rarest and most valuable substance in the demon realm," Eda lectured, "if she loses it, it can't be easily replaced."

Amity was tempted to bring up her plan but decided against it. She needed to talk it over with Luz first, and then run it by whoever it was Luz wanted to loop in, and the Titan Blood would be perfectly safe in the human realm until then.

Finally, they got to the Noceda residence and piled out of the car. "Eda, would you care to stay for dinner?" Camila asked.

"Nah, I got another gremlin back home I need to feed," Eda dismissed, "and my sister's probably wondering where I disappeared to. The kids are safe, I'll get out of your hair."

"Um, Eda," Luz interrupted. "I um... Forgot my bag back at the Owl House. Do you think you could grab it for me and bring it to the portal in a little bit?"

"Actually, I was going to ask," Camila interrupted, "but... Is tonight a school night?"

"Yeah," Luz admitted.

"Then I wouldn't want you to be late in the morning," Camila replied. "If Eda's willing to—"

"The Owl House is Luz's home, too, she doesn't need my permission to live there," Eda replied back maybe a little too quickly.

"Well, that's settled then. I'll send her back over after dinner," Camila finished.

Amity didn't need her empath abilities to feel the joy radiating from Luz at that moment.

Eda tussled Luz's hair. "Alright, I'll make sure King and Lilly know she's coming back. Luz, make sure you're prepared, King's probably gonna get clingy."

"Will do," Luz replied cheerfully.

Eda then went down along the path to the old shack where the portal let out, while the rest of them went inside.

Camila said that it would take her a little bit to finish dinner so the teens went up to Luz's room to help Vee settle in and make some room for her.

"So, Vee? You want top or bottom bunk?" Luz asked.

"Um, at camp I sort of got used to the top bunk but," Vee said hesitantly while looking at the stuffed animals on the bottom bunk. "I, I don't want to take your bed away from you."

"It's fine," Luz dismissed, "I switch which one I sleep on all the time. Besides, I'll be in the demon realm at least a little bit longer so it won't matter right away so if you want the top bunk you can have the top bunk."

Hesitantly, Vee climbed the ladder and sat on the bed. She bounced slightly and then shifted back into her true form. Once it seemed certain that the structure could support her weight she slithered down.

Masha looked at Vee with intent. "Can I hug you?" They asked.

"Huh?"

"You have a very huggable look to you," Masha clarified. "Like, you could probably make giant stuffed animals in your likeness and sell them for like, two or three hundred a pop and turn a profit that's how huggable you look. I would like to hug you."

"Oh, okay," Vee said awkwardly and was suddenly enveloped in Masha's arms.

"You're very warm," Masha said after a moment. "And your scales are so soft."

Masha's statements seemed to trigger a reaction in Vee, whose face became almost as tomato-like as Amity's sometimes got. The teen did not seem to notice.

"Was I that oblivious?" Luz whispered to her. "I feel like I should apologize for not noticing sooner and—"

"It's fine," Amity whispered back. "It was my nerves that were the problem. I should have worked up the courage to say something sooner."

"Should we—"

"Would you like to go out with me!?" Vee exclaimed-slash-asked suddenly.

Masha paused for a moment and then replied "Okay."

Amity blinked for a moment as it occurred to her that her situation with Luz was not as similar to Vee's with Masha as she had thought.

"Well," Luz declared. "That happened."

After that, while Amity admired Luz's Azura posters and figurings (and made note of how accurate her griffin mockup was considering it was made months before she saw a real griffin) Luz claimed to have noticed that there was a layer of dust on a lot of her possessions.

"Yeah, I'm lucky to have a Mom who respects my boundaries like this, but it does come with a trade-off," she admitted with an awkward grin. "I'll be right back."

"Uh, Amity?" Vee asked. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah."

"Luz said that she beat up the 'evil emperor of a magic dimension' earlier, um..." Vee began. "Is that...?"

"Eda got arrested and sentenced to petrification. There was a protest, Luz snuck into the conformatorium to rescue her, and well... To save face the Emperor had to spin a tale about how the Titan commanded him to pardon Eda and declared that Luz had been blessed by the Titan." Amity smiled. "There have been a lot more scouts and guards around Bonesborrogh since then, but at the same time, they seem reluctant to actually do anything."

"Luz is amazing," Vee said.

"Yeah," Amity replied with a smile, "she is."

Luz returned after that with a duster and started cleaning things off, awkwardly apologizing for the state of her room once again. This lasted all of a minute before Camila called them down for dinner.

Said dinner was... Well, Amity had no idea what it was but it was delicious.

"Is this okay?" Camila asked. "Amity? Vee? I had to improvise a little to make sure it was safe on such short notice."

"It's perfect, Mrs. Noceda," Amity replied. "I'd ask for the recipe but I doubt I'd be able to make it at home."

"I don't really have the same um, digestion issues that witches have," Vee admitted awkwardly. "Basilisks are basically nature's garbage disposals. Anything can have magic in it and sometimes it's more efficient to chew it up and swallow it than it is to suck the magic out. We can stomach basically anything."

Amity was briefly reminded that she was sitting down to dinner with an apex predator that evolved to hunt her kind but thankfully resisted the urge to shudder.

"The only weird thing about Vee when it comes to food is she put the milk in the bowl before the cereal back at camp," Masha quipped.

"Regular milk?" Luz asked.

"What they had at the camp," Vee confirmed. "Is there more than one kind?"

"Oh yeah," Luz replied. "Mom and I are both lactose intolerant so we can't have regular cow milk... Or most of the milk on the Isles," Luz mentioned as an asside. "And it's pretty severe, too. The 'will have upset stomach, nausea, and probably vomiting' within ten to twenty minutes kind, not the kind where it'll stay down but it's gonna be a problem for you later that night. We normally have soy milk. Sometimes we get almond milk which isn't so good to drink straight but is great on cereal, and cheese we pretty much have to go with whatever vegan options we can get."

"If you like regular milk," Camila added, "I can get you some."

Vee looked away. "Oh, it's fine. I don't want to be a burden."

"Vee, this is going to be your home and you deserve to be comfortable in your own home," Camila insisted. "And buying a gallon of milk every so often is not much of a burden besides."

Things got quiet for a bit after that before Camila turned to Amity. "So, Amity, could you tell me about yourself? You mentioned cooking, do you cook at home?"

"Yeah, a little," Amity confirmed. "My uh... Let's just say my Mom and I disagree on the topic of food and it became easier for me to figure out how to do it myself... I do not know what she has against pizza bagels." Her Mom had just banned them out of hand as a hard rule when she finally conceded that Amity could otherwise eat what she wanted if she made it herself. The bagel she'd gotten after getting back from the knee was the first one she'd eaten in years.

"So the demon realm has pizza bagels," Camila acknowledged slowly.

"I asked the same thing," Luz added. "It's a little weird what they have in common with us and what they don't. Anyway, Amity's being too modest. She does more than a little, she's a great cook."

"I do what I can" Amity deflected.

"She baked me a little personal-sized apple pie, just because," Luz explained. "They don't bake apples into pies in the demon realm, she got a human cookbook, figured out what was human-safe that she could substitute for the ingredients they don't have there, and made a perfect pie all in one night," she continued. "Such an aptitude for baking," Luz continued, "is a sign of a skilled cook."

Amity felt the heat rise to her face. "I'm not that good."

"She's like that all the time," Luz continued, "if I call her cool she says she's not that cool, if I call her smart she says that smart. She's too modest. It's her only flaw."

"I'm far from perfect," Amity insisted. "I was so awful when we met."

"You weren't that bad," Luz defended.

"I tried to have you dissected!" Amity insisted. "I stomped on King's cupcake just to be petty. I was..."

"And you changed for the better," Luz insisted. "That means something. If you were really bad you would have stayed bad."

Amity didn't answer. Instead, she continued eating.

"She's an amazing dancer," Luz continued. "When we're together it's like we just know, you know. No need for words, no one leading, we just dance. And she's so glamorous and classy and sophisticated... She reads to the children at the library—"

"That reminds me, Braxas wants to know why his dad is afraid of you now."

Luz paused for a minute. "Warden Wrath's probably afraid of me because I beat him and a whole squad of coven guards up in less than a minute," Luz replied matter-of-factly.

Vee meanwhile choked on her beverage. "I'm okay," she muttered.

And she likes Azura as much as I do!" Luz finished cheerfully as if the topic hadn't been changed.

"Did you introduce the books to her?" Camila asked, clearly choosing to focus on this rather than Luz getting into fights from her tone.

"No," Luz denied. "They have it in the demon realm, too. We're still trying to figure out how."

Amity thought the answer was pretty obvious, but didn't voice it at this time. "Azura is... Honestly my current favorite. I used to identify with Azura herself... But now I feel like I'm more of a Hecate." A villain who changed sides after receiving undeserved kindness from a shining paragon and who is burdened by the guilt of her past actions.

"Yeah," Luz admitted, "I can see that. Hecate started out as Azura's rival but changed for the better all on their own and all it took for her to motivate herself to do it was a little bit of kindness and forgiveness," Luz started. "She quickly proves herself to be a valuable, trustworthy, and affectionate friend to Azura even though she's much too hard too herself because of her mistakes in the past, and I have literally written a thesis on how the narrative arc of Azura and Hecate realizing their feelings for each other and working out where they want to go from there is one of the best-written romance arcs, and overall healthiest romances in general, in all of fiction." Luz blinked a moment after she finished. "Sorry, kind of got off topic a little at the end."

"You're too good to me, Luz," Amity replied.

"Hey now, I'm just paying you back for earlier," Luz teased, "if I'm not allowed to dump on myself then you aren't allowed to put yourself down either."

"I'll do my best," Amity replied.

"Uhuhuh," Luz said playfully, "I won't be satisfied until my Cotton Candy-Haired Goddess gives me a smile."

Amity couldn't help but laugh and smile. "Alright, my Cuddly Little Otter."

This resulted in an exchange of pet names in both English and Spanish that quickly dissolved into total gibberish that was interrupted only when Camila, eyes sparkling, said "Manny, nuestra Lucecita encontró una alma gemela."

That seemed to mean something significant to Luz but Amity's Spanish wasn't quite good enough to make it out. "I'm sorry, I don't know what that means."

"It means marry my daughter," Camila replied and Amity felt her heart skip a beat.

"Oh, okay... Is that legal in the human realm at our age?" She asked. "I... It might be back home, but if it is we'd have to jump through a lot of hoops, and... Even then the only venues likely to officiate a ceremony between people our age would be in Las Pancreas and Luz deserves better than—"

"Amity, cariño, that was a joke," Camily interrupted. "Please calm down. What I really mean is that I approve of your relationship with Luz, unconditionally, and hope that it's long and happy. You very clearly care for each other a lot and you seem to be very good for each other"

"Oh," Amity said in awkwardly. "Yeah. Okay. Uh... That means a lot. Thank you." The heat in her face from her overreaction was nearly unbearable but they managed to get through the rest of dinner without too much awkwardness.

After dinner, Masha received a text confirming that their parents were home and left, though not before planting a kiss on Vee's cheek and making the demon blush exactly as red as Amity was sure her own face was.

Meanwhile, Luz went back to her room to finish dusting and also to grab a few things and Vee went with her and that left Amity in the incredibly awkward position of being alone with Camila.

"Do, do you need some help cleaning up?" Amity offered.

"No, it can wait a moment," Camila answered.

Tick, tock, tick, tock... Amity was kicking herself for taking that joke literally. After what felt like an eternity Luz came back with some sort of rectangle thing under her arm and Amity felt immediate relief.

"Hey, just wanted to make sure Vee was all settled in," she declared. She then gestured to the device she was carrying. "I'm gonna take my laptop."

"Before you go," Camila began, "I want to ask you something, and I want a truthful answer. Luz... Do you feel safer in the demon realm?"

Luz's face scrunched up. "Why?"

"Luz, you were home for less than three hours and got into a confrontation with bullies that got you kidnapped and locked in a cage by a lunatic," Camilla said as calmly as a loving parent could manage to say such things, which wasn't particularly calmly. "Is that... Is that normal here? You were talking earlier about how comfortable and accepted you felt there, but... Are you safer there?"

Luz took a deep breath. "Yeah," she finally admitted. "I think so."

Camila hugged Luz, and said "Okay." She held her daughter for a moment. "Stay there as long as you need to. Just... Promise me that you'll call. And come back when you can, if only just for a few hours. And I want to meet all of your new friends."

"I promise, Mami. Te quiero."

"Te quiero, Mija."

After that, Luz took Amity's hand and the two young witches returned to the demon realm. Eda greeted them at the portal, of course, and was happy to know how well everything had gone. Amity had ended up crashing at the Owl House that night. She was too emotionally exhausted to walk all the way home, so she messaged Ed and Em on Pensta to let them know where she was and that everything had gone well.

And it had gone well. Despite the awkwardness and the kidnapping, as Amity dressed in a pair of the animal-themed pajamas Luz had on hand and laid next to her girlfriend, the self-proclaimed King of Demons starfished on top of them, she was happy.