The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

Amity practically kicked down the door of the Owl House and rushed into the living room. At first, she'd been annoyed when Lilith had shown up to her place unannounced. She was... Trying to forgive her ex-mentor, but it was hard. But then she saw that King was with her and... Had two horns now. He'd explained that something had happened with Luz and that's all Amity had needed to hear.

Of course, Amity couldn't just go straight to comfort and support her beloved girlfriend. No, they had to go around town to collect Gus and Willow as well and... Well, this had been the first time Amity had seen Harvy and Gilbert Park since she broke off her friendship with Willow as children, and while they didn't say anything it was clear to Amity that they weren't as forgiving as Willow was and, honestly Amity couldn't blame them.

But having that unpleasant revelation when she was already anxious about Luz did very little to soothe said nerves, so once the party ended up at the Owl House Amity's only concern was Luz. Once she knew her girlfriend was okay, then she could deal with her own feelings.

The door was kicked open and Amity ignored Hooty's indignant hoot as she rushed in to find Luz in her pajamas sitting on the couch talking on her phone. So at least she was okay physically.

"Mom," Luz said, "my friends just came in so... I'll uh, put you on speaker."

Luz then fiddled with the human device and set it down on the table. Meanwhile, King scurried past Amity while grunting and lept into Luz's side with a "Nyeh!"

"Oh hey, your horn's back on," Luz acknowledged.

"Yeah, Eda glued it back on for me after Tiny Nose checked you over and made sure you were okay."

"Luz, who is this Tiny Nose? You mentioned her before," came Camila's voice from the human device.

"Uh... I guess she's my doctor here," Luz answered awkwardly. "Eda called her to run some tests when my powers first kicked in, and... I guess called her again after I... Um..."

"...Is she accredited?"

"...She graduated medical school," was Luz's answer.

"Luz, what happened?"

"Well, um, the portal key broke when I was um... Which I did not do on purpose," Luz finished far too quickly.

"I didn't think you did," Camila replied reassuringly.

"Mom, I heard the conversation with Eda," Luz said shakily. "I know you think that... I know you mentioned that..."

"...You heard that?"

"Mom, I'm so—"

"Luz! I... I shouldn't have said that. It popped into my head that you might just have not felt... Up to coming home after all and asked Eda to give me an excuse and... And that it was like... In that cartoon, you showed me a few years ago. When the little girl is afraid to tell her parents that her new friend doesn't come from a traditional family so the boy gives the phone to the tall magic lady he lives with and she panics and gives a bad excuse?"

"Then why did you bring up that I..." Amity could feel that Luz was feeling guilty.

"Mija, I know you feel safer in the demon realm. I... Wish I knew how much you had to deal with here. I just thought that maybe...? I was going to say that I'd understand—"

"No!" Luz shoued. "No, I... I wanted to come home. I wanted to spend time with you but... The portal key, and it broke, and... I'm sorry!"

"Luz!" Camila shouted herself. "I believe you. This is not your fault. Just... Mistakes happen. Accidents happen. I'm just glad that I know, and that if you have to be stranded somewhere it's somewhere where you're safe with people who love you. We'll figure this out," Camila reassured. "I'm on the Avengers website right now, there's a hotline I can call to get into touch with Doctor Strange and... Oh, they have testimonials from people he's helped before... Grateful parents whose daughter he rescued from a cult, an endorsement from the mayor of a town called Gravity Falls, some girl named Anne Boonchuy who says he helped her prove she still had the same soul after she died and got brought back." Camila paused again. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"I think that was one of those kids who was stranded in that frog dimension that invaded California a little bit back," Luz said as if she was guessing... "Huh, I wonder if it's the same dimension Ford got stranded in?"

"Anyway, the key broke, and then what?"

"So turns out there was Titan Blood in the key and some leaked out and got sucked up by my symbiote side and... So the good news is, I might have magic of my own," Luz began, "the bad news is that uh, remember the Coven Sigil thingy? Yeah um... Turns out those hurt. Really badly. At least if you're human, so..."

"How bad?" Amity interrupted.

"Um, I passed out," Luz admitted. "Until um..." Luz checked the clock. "About ten minutes ago. Apparently, I screamed. Um..."

Amity's blood froze and her heart sank. Everything she'd thought of to make Luz stronger, make her safer, would have, would have...

Amity felt as if she'd be sick.

"Anyway," Luz said and Amity realized that she'd blanked out the conversation for a moment, "Lilith thinks that we can burn out the sigil by giving me even more magic, but... It's gonna hurt each time."

"Coven sigil activation normally only lasts a few seconds," Lillith added, "and as, to my shame, I am the former head of the Emperor's Coven, few people know more about how the coven sigils work than I: Luz's sigil activation taking as long as it did and having such an extreme reaction, even accounting for the fact that sigils were never designed for human use, can only mean that it was struggling to properly contain and regulate the magic she absorbed from the Titan blood."

"Lilith is it?" Camila asked over the phone. "Eda's sister? Now, when you say you were the head of this... Emperor's Coven... Did you know about the experiments on the basilisks?"

"I can assure you I did not," Lilith said. "And If I had known I would have... No, I'm sorry. I can't truthfully say that I would have done something about it. I..."

Camila hummed but didn't say anything further to Lilith. "But Luz, you're alright now?"

"I feel kind of eh, but yeah, I'm alright."

"The healer that Edalyn knows said there's nothing physically wrong with Luz," Lilith added, "but that the sigil reaction put a lot of stress on her system and that she should take the next few days easy, make sure she stays well fed and hydrated, and make note of any lingering pain."

"Luz, you follow your doctor's orders," Camila insisted.

"Yeah, yeah," Luz dismissed good-naturedly.

"So you said your friends were there," Camila continued. "Which ones? You have so many now. I heard Amity a minute ago..."

"Well in addition to my golden-eyed goddess," Luz began, "we're being joined by King, the bestest widdle guy in the world," Luz then tickled King causing the small demon to giggle. "And my best friends Willow and Gus... Say hi everyone."

"Hey."

"Hi!"

"Hello, Ma'am."

"Hola, Señora Noceda."

"So, everything... Fine now here," Luz said hesitantly. "How are things over there."

"They'd be better if you were here, Mija, but... Things are going well. The lawyer Mr. Howlett put me in contact with was able to put a rush on the paperwork, as of last night Vee has official refugee status and I'm her legal guardian. She'll have to reapply in two years, but in one year she can apply for citizenship, and if she gets that... Um... Question," Camila suddenly turned nervous. "How would you feel if I were to... Adopt Vee?"

Luz blinked. "I thought that was the plan all along?"

"I mean for real. With paperwork and everything."

"Again, I thought that was the plan," Luz continued. "It's not like she's a tenant or a squatter or something. You're already the closest thing she has to a mom and, well, I kind of like the idea of having a little sister. And like dad used to say, a Noceda doesn't do anything by halves." Luz laughed. "Once you said we were keeping her I just assumed..."

"Oh, gracias a Dios," Camila said, "The lawyer says that chances are good that Vee's citizenship application would go through since she has a strong case, but that someone who might be a... Burro, about things, might try to make it hard on her since she did technically commit identity fraud when she entered the country. Given her circumstances that can't legally be held against her but... Anyway, he said that her chances would go from good to guaranteed if I adopted her and—"

"Mom, you don't have to justify it to me," Luz interrupted. "I'm surprised that this wasn't the plan all along."

"Aye, you're such a good girl. I was just worried that, you might get... Jealous? Or feel like I was trying to replace you, or—"

"Mom!" Luz shouted. "It's... It's like you said when you found out about Eda: You know I have enough love for two moms, I know you have enough love for two daughters... Heck, you could have six kids and I know you'd do your best to make sure we were all loved and taken care of. Even when, even when I felt like you didn't understand me, or wanted me to be different, I... I never doubted for a second that you loved me."

This prompted a loud "awww!" from both Willow and Gus and a small spark of jealousy that Amity tried to bury.

"So, if Eda is your second mother does that make me your aunt?" Lilith asked suddenly

"It does now, Aunt Lilith," Luz quipped.

"That was a rhetorical question!" Lilith shouted, which prompted laughter from everyone in the room.

"Okay, that's taken care of," Camila said, "I wanted to hear your opinion before I broached the subject with Vee and... Oh, she just came in. Vee, cariño, I've got Luz on the line."

There was a bit of commotion on the other end of the call and then Vee's voice called out "Hello Luz. Are you alright? Ma—Camila was pretty worried when you didn't come over."

"I'm mostly okay," Luz answered, "but... Well, the portal key got broken last night," Luz said while once more feeling guilty. "So I'm stuck in the demon realm for the time being but... There are solutions to this problem, so..."

Luz clearly felt bad about being stuck here which... Amity couldn't help but feel somewhat relieved that Luz was safe from the existential horrors of the human realm for the time being, even as she hated herself for feeling it.

"Okay, that..." Vee didn't seem to know how to respond to that.

"How are things over there? Are you settling in okay?" Luz asked.

"Yeah. Everything's taken care of paperwork-wise so I can stay here and my friends took the fact that I'm not you pretty well. I was looking forward to introducing them to the real you, since now they know the real me, but..."

"Stuff happens," Luz finished. "Well, hopefully, I can meet them soon and I can introduce you to the rest of my friends... Most of whom are here right now." Luz then prompted everyone to introduce themselves to the basilisk. "Now when you say you introduced them to the real you..."

"We were hanging out at Masha's place. I went over looking like you since that's how they know me, I hope that's okay?"

"It's fine."

"But then I told them the truth and... At first, I was just gonna show them the human form I settled on but Masha insisted they'd be cool about it and Sam wanted to see what I really look like and... Yeah," Vee explained. "They took it pretty well. So did Masha's family. Then Masha told everyone that we're, you know, together and... Their parents like me, so that's good, and Kevin was chill about it but Sam seemed to think it was a little weird, she wasn't mean about it but when Masha said they like my true form over my human disguise Sam had questions."

"... Awkward questions?"

"A little. She was polite about it and kept checking to make sure I wasn't offended, then got bright red when Masha said they were..."

"They were what?" Luz asked.

"...Attracted to monsters," Vee finished. "They described me as a shapeshifting, magic-eating snake demon and then said that the thing everyone had to understand was that they were 'totally into that stuff.'"

"Ahh," Luz said in understanding. "Did that get awkward?"

"No, not really," Vee continued. "Masha said that they mostly like me for my personality and would still like me if I was human, but... They said my true form is like when you found out Amity purrs."

"You purr?" Lilith asked head turning toward Amity.

"Luz knows you purr?" Willow said at the same time. "I remember when we were little you'd get so embarrassed when I heard you and make me promise not to tell anyone and... Oh, I just broke that promise."

"My Mom hates it," Amity said as her face heated up "She wanted me to suppress it but... Luz likes it. She says it just makes me more perfect, so... I'm done being ashamed of it.." Amity tried to purr, but... "Okay I was going to try and purr there but I can't do it on cue."

Luz sat King beside her on the couch, stood up, and quickly kissed Amity right on the tip of her nose. Amity's face heated up even more, but it did the trick when it came to getting the purring started. Luz then pulled Amity down to sit next to her on the couch.

"Okay, so your theyfriend likes you for you but they also openly admit that they find you attractive, got it," Luz finished to the phone. Then she yawned. "Why am I so tired all of a sudden? I slept for like... Fourteen hours."

"Mija," Camila's voice said through the phone, "you're tired because of what happened last night, and... Have you eaten since you got up?"

"Not yet," Luz admitted.

"Rest, eat up. Make sure you drink plenty of water. Call us back later when you feel up to it, I'll let you go. I have more calls to make and something important to talk about with Vee."

"Wait, what?" The basilisk added before a click announced that the call had ended.

Luz yawned again and Gus and Willow joined her, King, and Amity on the couch, the children forming a cocoon of hugs to support the human girl and assorted expressions of relief that had been bottled up while she was on the phone spilled out in a loving, gentle cacophony.

Lilith for her part seemed to realize something. "Where's Edalyn?"

As if summoned, Eda wandered in from the kitchen carrying a large, steaming bowl. "Hot soup!" she declared as she set it down in front of Luz and then produced a spoon. "sorry that took so long. Turns out the canned cockatrice soup I had has an additive that isn't human-safe so I had to whip some up from scratch. The flavor might be a little off, I had to make a few substitutions and if it's a little salty or earthy that's because I added some stuff to fortify it, you know. Keep your electrolytes up and make sure you're getting your vitamins since some of the normal veggies had to go."

Luz tried a spoonful and then smiled. "It tastes great, Eda."

The Owl lady took on a look of relief. "Good, now eat up. It's important to keep up your strength." She then turned around and noticed that Lilith was giving her a bewildered look. "And what's up with you?"

"I'm sorry," Lilth said, "but it's just so... Baffling to see you of all people acting so motherly."

Eda responded by summoning her palisman. "You take that back."

Lilith held up her hands defensively. "Okay, okay." Lith then sprouted a mischievous smirk. "It's not bizarre at all."

Eda's body language shifted, and it became clear that she was plotting violence. "Hooty!" she called out. "Prepare the grudgby court."

"Oh boy!" the house demon shouted.