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Chapter Text

Luz unlocked the door to the house and headed for the kitchen, setting her school things on the dining room table. Mami had told her that she would be home late and that there were habichuelas in the fridge for her to heat up, so while she waited for them to heat up, she sat down and started some school work, but she found herself unable to focus on anything she read.

At school, one of her classmates had brought up her dad again, and it had been on her mind since her second block. She had been mulling over it all day and she couldn’t quite place why it had bothered her so much this time. She should be used to the comments by now, after all, she’d been dealing with them for 14 years. It wasn’t that her mamá wasn’t enough, she cared for Luz and supported her even when she didn’t get what she was on about. Her mamá was always there for her and dealt with Luz even when Luz couldn’t deal with herself. It shouldn’t have bothered her this much, but Luz couldn’t seem to shake the comment off this time.

She sat there lost in thought. Mami had always been very open about everything. She and Luz always shared everything with each other. Even when Luz was questioning, the first person she went to for advice was her mom. They told each other everything, but when it came to her parentage, her usually smiley and happy Mami had always gotten quiet and solemn, never answering and excusing herself looking as if Luz had just struck her. Luz had learned it was better to quit asking by the time she was around six years old, but as she sat there ruminating over it, the stove’s timer interrupted, reminding her about her food. She shut off the stove, served herself a bowl, and went back to her seat, her thoughts still lingering on her classmate’s comment.

When she finished up her food, Luz decided she would do some investigating. She knew if she asked her mamá it would just bring back the pained expression that seemed to appear anytime she asked in the past, so that wasn’t an option. She thought about where she would start her sleuthing as she cleaned up her plate.When she glanced at the clock, it read 4:13. I can get in and out of Mami’s room in an hour, she thought to herself, and so off she went.

Once in Mami’s room, Luz decided to start with the most obvious places like under the bed, in the bureau, the closet, and the bathroom. After looking and finding nothing, she looked at the clock and saw she only had about twenty minutes before her mamá got home. Looking downcast, head bowed in disappointment, she started towards the door, making sure she’d left everything in order, but as she got to the left side of the bed, she felt something move under her feet. At first she had thought it was just the yellow rug her mamá had under her bed and thought nothing of it, but remembering all the fantasy and adventure books she read, she backtracked and hastily lifted the rug to expose the worn floorboards underneath. “Ha!” she exclaimed to herself when she noticed a notch just the right size to put a finger in on a wiggly floorboard and decided to put her theory to the test.

She reached to try and move the floorboard, but she hesitated. She had been all caught up in the possibility that she could find something about her dad, she hadn’t thought about what she was looking for. For example, why would Mami even have anything about her father? Especially when the mere mention of the man left her mother a shell of herself. But on the other hand, Luz felt she was old enough to at least know what her dad looked like, what his name was, or even just what his ethnicity was. After considering both sides of the argument her mind had created, she reached out and wiggled the floorboard. When it finally gave out and she’d opened it, she saw three items: an envelope, a weird looking key, and a button that looked like it belonged on a blazer. But before she could examine any of the objects any further, she heard the familiar sound of her mamá's car door closing. She froze at the sound and after a second, Mami’s footsteps snapped her out of her stupor and she scrambled to put everything back to the way it was when she entered.

When her mamá walked in, Luz had just barely managed to sit down at the table and stage it as if she’d been doing an assignment. Her mamá entered asking, “Ey, Lucita, ¿cómo estás, mija? Did you eat yet?”

“Sí Mami, comí un plato de habichuelas,” Luz answered. “They were good, but ahora, I’m doing some…” Luz trailed off as she looked down at which textbook she’d grabbed. “Biology?” she finished. 

Her mamá gave her a puzzled look, but just shrugged and sighed, “Okay mija, voy a bañarme, let me know if you need anything. I’ll eat after.” With a kiss on Luz’s head, she went to take a shower, leaving Luz alone with her thoughts again. 

I wonder what that button was, she thinks to herself. And that key. It had a weird eye on it. The envelope had a name on it. Eda. It looked to be her mamá’s handwriting, but Luz doesn’t know any Eda, and she had never heard Mami mention one, but deciding that enough was enough, Luz got up to splash some water on her face and opened her homework to finally get started on her assignments. Her mind kept wandering, and when Mami came back out to eat and spend some time with her daughter, Luz had only finished one of her three assignments for the night. Upon hearing this, her mamá asked her if she’d taken her booster today, and Luz, although she had, pretended to get sheepish and shook her head. Mami just shook her head warily. “Ay mija, what are we gonna do with you?” she asked in a teasing tone.

When she finally finished, she joined her mamá in the living room, where she found her watching the Hispanic news anchor ramble about something going on in Bolivia. She tuned it out in favor of going back to thinking about the things she had found. The name kept swirling around her head. She couldn’t think why her mamá would go to such lengths to keep an envelope, a key, and a button hidden from her. She didn’t think it involved her dad anymore, but her mind had moved on from the comments from earlier that day, instead focusing on that name. Eda . Why had Mami never mentioned her? And the button: now that she thought about it, the button had an engraving on it. Her thoughts were going a thousand miles per hour, and eventually she came to a resolution. Tomorrow before Mami comes home, I’m going to go back and examine the stuff better.

With that in mind, she got up from the couch, said good night to Mami, and headed upstairs to sleep.

Chapter Text

Luz hadn’t been able to focus on school all day. Her thoughts just kept coming back to the items she’d found the previous day. When her mamá told her she’d be home even later than yesterday, instead of the usual disappointment, she nearly fell out of her seat in excitement as she read the message. She ignored the weird looks her classmates sent her way, more focused on the fact that she would get to do more investigating.

She got through her last two blocks of the day, and the second she heard the bell ring, she was out the door, sprinting home, wanting to make the most out of the four hours she had alone.

When she finally got home, she kicked her shoes off and swung her school bag off of her shoulder, half running, half sliding into Mami's room. She found the loose floorboard and wasted no time on opening it. Only then did she finally slow down. She realized that her hands were shaking and sweaty from running the two miles it takes to get home. In an attempt to keep the items from getting sweaty, she went into her mamá’s bathroom to grab a tissue to grab the items with. After finally getting them out, she took them to the living room, forgetting to put the floorboard and rug back how she found them.

When she finally sat down and laid the items out in front of her, she saw the envelope had a piece of tape keeping it closed, so she decided to start with the key and button while she waited for her hands to get stable enough to open it without tearing the envelope.

Luz wiped her hands with the tissue and reached for the button. It was a golden color, and it looked a little worn, but taken care of. The metal was still shiny and Luz brought it close to her face to get a closer look at the engraving. It looked like an emblem; there was what looked to be a… cauldron? It was sitting in fire and had a book with a snake biting its own tail in the shape of an infinity sign on it. Under the image, it said Hexside School on a ribbon that wrapped around the fire. That made Luz pause. She tried to remember if her mamá had ever mentioned a Hexside when talking about her education, but she couldn’t think of a moment when she had. Shrugging it off as something she could figure out later, she reached for the key, putting the button back on the coffee table. The key resembled the keys they have in medieval fantasy, but as Luz examined the strange, yellow eye on the handle, she noticed the key had started to vibrate slightly, glowing a bit as it did so. With a yelp, Luz dropped the key back on the table and scrambled backward in surprise, trying to put some distance between herself and it.

When she realized the key had stopped vibrating and glowing, she collected herself and resolved not to touch the key until she finished checking out the envelope, since she’d crumpled up the tissue from earlier and thrown it in the dustbin next to the couch. She was meticulous about taking the tape off, wanting to avoid leaving evidence that she’d opened it. When she finally got the tape off, she reached in carefully, and she felt the gloss of picture paper. This only piqued her interest even more, and as she laid her eyes on the first picture, she was surprised to see her mamá at what looked to be around 16 years old. She stood with her arm around another person. She assumed, given the name on the envelope, that this was Eda. She had the biggest, brightest head of hair Luz had ever seen. It was a bright orange, but the other thing that caught her attention was the color of Eda’s eyes. They looked almost yellow. Luz thought it was a little weird, but her eyes could be a trick of the light. Eda was admiring Mami’s face, looking at her as if she had placed the stars in the sky. Her mamá had her eyes closed and was laughing as if a joke had just been told, her glasses sliding down her nose a bit. But while her Mami was wearing 90s fashion, the girl next to her was wearing a black shawl over what looked to be a grey tunic. Her sleeves were yellow and the shawl had a button that looked just like the one on the table in front of her.

The next photo was of her mamá, again with Eda. This time, though, it was Mami looking at Eda as if she’d placed the stars in the sky. They looked a little older too. Eda was no longer wearing the shawl. She had replaced it with a weird, but more normal looking outfit consisting of a bright red shirt, yellow rimmed sunglasses, and a jean jacket. Luz saw that one of Eda’s canines had been replaced by a golden fang and noticed her hair looked as if it were going grey. Since people don’t usually start to grey in their early twenties or late teens, she moved on to the other pictures, waiving off the grey hair. But when she noticed the amount of grey hair only grew, she retracted her idea of it being a simple trick of the light. The rest of the photos were all similar: her mamá and Eda in positions that looked a little much to be platonic. She noticed Eda’s eyes stayed covered in the rest of the photos though, so it was hard to check if the golden yellow eyes from the first picture were accurate, but that escaped her mind as Luz got the final photo.

In the last photo, Mami, who looked to be in her mid twenties, was kissing Eda. Her mamá looked elated and had tears coming out of her eyes. Eda’s expression was somewhere between smug and surprised, and her golden tooth was shining in the light. Eda had a blush on her face and this time she didn’t wear anything to obstruct her eyes and her eyes were wide open, and it confirmed that Eda’s eyes were actually that golden yellow color from the other picture. Luz sat there dumbfounded, her mind stuck on the fact that not only was her mamá kissing someone, but that someone seemed to be a woman. Luz decided she’d come back to it at some later point, but she looked back at the photo, and this time, without the surprise of the kiss, she noticed her mamá had the key with the eye tied around her neck. She thought it was peculiar her mamá was wearing a key, but even more peculiar was the house in the background. The house looked oddly familiar, and after thinking for a second, she remembered where from. It was the old rundown house that was just past the edge of the woods near the end of their road. Though in the photo, it didn’t look half as bad; in fact, the house looked new. She looked back at the clock and noticed she still had two hours until Mami came home, so she carefully put the photos back in the envelope and grabbed a new tissue to retrieve the key from where it had landed earlier and the other two items in her school bag. With that, she put her shoes back on and set off toward the desolate house.

When she got to the house, she wasn’t surprised to find it in worse condition than the last time she’d visited. A banister on the front had broken in half and the roof now had a hole in it, as if a tree had fallen on it. The house had been built in the 2000s, but the owners had never moved in, so it just weathered away with time. All of the neighborhood kids told stories of how it was haunted and teens would be found partying or holding séances there from time to time. 

Her mamá had always told her to stay away from it because it was dangerous, and Luz mostly obeyed, but sometimes she let her curiosity get the best of her and she’d wander near the house, but she’d never so much as stepped on the steps that led up to the porch, not even when the neighbor's kids had dared her to go up and knock on the door. 

Mami’s warnings and the stories she’d been told about the house lingered in her head, making her stomach squirm and her palms sweaty as she stood before the foreboding house. Clenching her fists and squeezing her eyes shut, she took in a deep breath, and stepped on the first step. She paused, as she did so, as if waiting for a punishment or curse that never came. When she realized that nothing had happened, she opened her eyes and let out the breath she’d been holding, continuing quickly and cautiously into the house.

The house was covered in trash and graffiti. There wasn’t any furniture, but the original paint could still be seen in most places. Luz continued through, finding the house had three bedrooms, an incredibly rundown kitchen, two bathrooms, what looked to be a study, and a small dining room. There didn’t seem to be anything she connected to her mamá or Eda, so she went back to the living room to find the envelope to examine the photo more closely, but in the process, her hand touched the key again and the vibrating and glowing came back, but stronger this time. She hastily moved her hand back, but when she remembered the key had been around Mami’s neck in the photo in front of the house, she reached back for it. If I haven’t found anything so far, maybe the key will help , she thought to herself, There had to be a reason Mami had it around her neck in only that photo .

As she wrapped her hand around the key, it immediately started vibrating and glowing again, but this time, Luz was ready for it. She noticed the key was not only vibrating, but it seemed to pull her too, and she decided to follow the strange pull. The key led her back through the house and back into the primary bedroom. The key at this point was vibrating so violently that Luz was struggling to keep a good grip on it. The glow it was emanating kept getting brighter as well, basking everything in the room in its white light. She noticed the key was leading her to one of the closets, and when she opened it, there was an equally luminescent glow coming from the top shelf. She reached for the object emanating the light. It was some kind of suitcase with an eye matching the key’s.

In her struggle to try and keep the key from jumping out of her hand while she got the suitcase down, Luz’s thumb pressed something on the handle of the key, and suddenly, the already bright light somehow increased, blinding Luz. She stumbled, disoriented by the sudden loss of her vision. She held her arms out, looking for the door frame of the closet, but as she passed through it, she felt a rush of wind and her stomach flipped as if she were falling, but as she reoriented herself, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to bring her surroundings back into focus. When they finally adjusted, she found herself in what seemed to be some sort of storage room. She looked around and then back in the direction she had come from, and she saw the suitcase had changed into a glowing doorway. But as she was about to run back to try and go back through it, she felt a hand grab the hoodie of her shirt, pulling her backwards. “Let me go! I have to get back!” she yelled as she tried her best to escape, but as she did so, she suddenly felt her mind get fuzzy and her vision faded to black.

Chapter Text

When Luz woke up, her brain felt foggy and her eyes were unfocused. She groaned as she sat up, trying to remember when she’d fallen asleep. She forced her eyes to refocus, rubbing them with both hands. When her vision finally cleared, she took one look at her surroundings and realized that she was definitely not home. 

She hastily tried to stand, but felt herself get lightheaded and unsteady after a few seconds of standing, opting to sit back down in fear of passing out again. From her seat, she looked around in stunned surprise, trying to orient herself in her strange, new surroundings, but before she could look too closely, she heard a set of voices moving toward her from another room. Panicking as they got closer, she realized that if she tried to run, she wouldn’t make it very far in her state, but if she stayed where she was, who knew what the people approaching would do. After quickly weighing her options, she decided to go with pretending to still be unconscious, that way she could give herself some time to formulate a plan and her head some time to clear the brain fog she had woken up with.

As the door opened and two sets of footsteps entered the room, Luz heard one of the voices she’d heard say, “I dunno what to tell ya, King. The kid looks so much like her, and Cami was the only person I ever gave that key to, I couldn’t’ve just let the first person to use it in 15 years go when they had it with them.” 

Luz tried to remember why the name Cami struck a chord with her, but her head still felt as if it was filled with cotton, and before she could dwell on it further, she heard who she assumed was King speak in a high-pitched, squeaky voice, “I know, but did you really have to bring her here? She smells strange, like…” she heard what sounded like a dog sniffing at the air, “I don’t even know, but I don’t like it,” King huffed.

“It’s just temporary, King, I just need her to wake up so we can ask her some questions. She might know Cami,” the first voice said hopefully, but it deflated quickly as it continued, “or maybe not, but either way she can at least tell me where she got the key from.” Hearing the name again cleared a bit of the fog in Luz’s head, but she still couldn’t think of why the name sounded so familiar. It reminded her of someone close to her, but just as she attempted to follow that train of thought through her muddled brain, King’s voice interrupted her thoughts, snapping her attention back to the conversation going on. 

“Fine, I’ll deal with the weird smelling human,” King responded, “but only if you promise you’ll bring me some of those crackers you always get the generic brand of; I expect real Kraken Crisps, Eda, not…” Upon hearing the name, Luz stopped listening, feeling as if she’d just been drenched in ice water, the fog in her brain clearing. How did I not connect the dots? Luz thought to herself, It was right in front of me.

Cami was a nickname her mamá had mentioned going by when she was younger, and the key and portal: Where else would they lead other than the mysterious Eda from the envelope? It felt so obvious now that Luz thought of it, but it also brought new questions to the forefront of her mind. Like, why did it sound like her mamá and Eda hadn’t seen each other in 15 years? Did they have an argument? And why did Mami have the items hidden under a floorboard, unused if she and Eda seemed to be so important to each other? Why not use the portal to see each other? Luz started to spiral, her mind going a thousand miles a minute. Every question she asked herself only brought up more questions and those brought up even more. She kept this up until her thoughts were interrupted by the voice she now knew was Eda sounding a lot closer than it had been before. 

“Well, now that you mention it, the kid should be awake by now. The spell I cast wasn’t very strong, it should've worn off a while ago,” she heard Eda say. Luz felt her mouth go dry, feeling, presumably, Eda’s presence near her head. She decided to keep on with her act, but then she felt a cold finger poke her forehead, it startled her eyes open and made her yelp. Eda flinched at the sound and scrambled back a little when she saw Luz open her eyes. Luz knew this was her chance to book it, but just as she was about to make a run for it, she saw what looked like the cutest little dog with a little skull on its head and impulsively decided she just had to pet it.

Before she could think twice, she’d gotten up and ran to him, exclaiming, “¡Ay, que lindo! ” as she scooped him up.

She held out the dog to continue to coo at it, but when her brain caught up with what she had just done, Luz froze, put the little guy down, and apologized to him quietly. 

She was taken aback when he responded, her eyes wide like saucers when she realized he was speaking.

“As you should be,” he said. “Does no one in this house realize that I am the fearsome King of Demons? You should be trembling before me, not hugging me like I’m some baby,” letting out a disgruntled huff as he continued, crossing his arms as he looked up at her.

Luz slowly backed away with her hands up, amusement evident on her face as she looked down at his cute little pout and replied, “Woah, woah, woah, you can talk?!” 

King just scoffed at her. “Of course I can talk. I’m not a dog,” he answered, rolling his eyes as he turned on his heel to leave the room. Luz stood there, staring after him as he left muttering angrily under his breath, but then someone behind her cleared their throat, reminding Luz that she wasn’t alone.

She hesitantly turned around at the sound, finding Eda looking down at her with those bright, golden-yellow eyes from the photos she’d seen. 

“And now, who might you be, human?” Eda asked, her voice sharp and cold like an icicle. Luz gulped audibly as she tried to find her voice in order to answer, but instead found herself staring at the woman. 

Eda’s mouth had her golden fang Luz recognized from the photos on display and her hair had gone completely grey now. She looked older than in the photo, but judging from what she’d heard earlier, it made sense considering it’d probably been about 15 years since the picture was taken, but now, as she looked over the woman, she noticed something she hadn’t in the pictures. Eda’s ears. They looked like an elf’s, pointed and a little longer than a regular person’s. She wondered how she’d missed them in the photos, but as she looked at them again and took notice of the mane of hair that surrounded them, she realized they’d probably just been hidden under it. Luz continued staring at the woman until Eda’s voice snapped her out of her stupor. 

“I already asked once, and I won’t repeat myself more than once: who are you?” she heard Eda ask menacingly and tried harder to answer this time, 

Without the initial shock of seeing the person who had previously only existed in a picture, Luz was able to stutter out, “I’m, uh, I’m Luz, uh, Luz Noceda.” 

Upon hearing her last name, the already frighteningly pale woman, paled impossibly further and her face flashed a look somewhere between betrayal, sadness, and hopefulness. She remained like that for a moment before schooling her features back to a neutral expression and asked Luz, “Well, Miss Noceda, and what might a human like yourself be doing on the Boiling Isles?”

Luz took a moment to consider the question. She wanted to answer by asking a few questions of her own, namely, What the heck were the “Boiling Isles?” and Why does she keep referring to me as “human?", but after reconsidering, she decided against it and went for the, probably, more acceptable answer, “Uh, I’m not actually sure, I stumbled upon you guys by accident.”

Eda looked at her skeptically when Luz said this, spurring her on to continue, “I found a weird looking key hidden in my mamá’s room, along with a button and an envelope full of pictures, and one of the pictures showed my Mami in front of an old house with the key around her neck, so I decided to do some investigating and it led me to this closet where I found the weird suitcase/portal/doorway thing and I ended up here.”

Eda looked at her with an indiscernible expression on her face, processing what Luz had said, but when she was quiet for too long, Luz felt the need to fill the silence and continued talking.

“The key was all glowy and it shook when it was in my hand. It sorta, like, pulled me toward the door/portal thing, but I noticed it only did it when my hand was bare.” Luz said, clamoring around her brain to find parts of the story that didn’t require bringing up the fact that the photos showed Eda and her mamá being all gooey and starry eyed over one another. “And, uh, I felt my thumb press something like a button on the handle of the key, and there was a bright light when I walked through, and then there was you knocking me out, and then I woke up here, and boom, here we are, talking about what I’m doing here,” she finished, chuckling awkwardly and rubbing the back of her neck, aware she had been rambling.

At this point, Eda was just staring at Luz as if she were waiting for her to make a mistake, and Luz decided it might be better to just shut up rather than risk screwing up. Once Eda realized Luz wasn’t going to keep talking, she stood up straight and crossed her arms, still observing Luz, and finally said, “Who’s this Mami character you keep talking about? I forgot how confusing you humans and your languages are.”

“Why do you keep saying "humans"  as if you aren’t one?” she asks the woman, cocking her head at her. Eda scans her face for a second before laughing with her head thrown back. 

“Kid, you’ve got a lot to learn. Seems I also forgot how little you guys know,” she said, snorting as she did so. “I am not a human, I’m a witch, weren’t my eyes and ears a good enough giveaway?”

Luz regarded the woman, hoping to find signs of a joke, but didn’t find any. It seemed as if Eda was serious, so Luz answered her point blank, irritated by the woman’s attitude, “I didn’t even know witches were a thing until just now, so no, sorry to say, but your features were not a dead giveaway.” Feeling a little snarky due to the smug, amused look on Eda’s face, Luz decided to bite the bullet, “And as for the Mami ‘character’ I keep bringing up, she's my mom. I’d’ve thought you’d know at least a couple words in Spanish after having known her. Though, you might know her better as Cami.”

The smug expression on the witch’s face immediately dropped, replaced instead by one of surprise and confusion as she implored, “What did you just say?” 

Her tone was sharp, making the satisfied smirk on Luz’s lips waver a bit as she became nervous she might’ve taken it too far, but when Eda continued, the anxiousness quickly dissipated. 

“Did you just say Cami’s your mom?” Eda’s face shone with hopefulness as she asked, but as she went on her expression changed once more, this time to a look Luz couldn’t quite place. “Wait, hold on, how did you know she was the Cami I was referring to? How old are you, kid? Cami didn’t have a kid the last time I saw her.”

 Luz took a second to process the questions, but soon answered when she finally recognized the emotion on Eda’s face: betrayal . She was a little confused as to why Eda would feel betrayed, but brushed it off, deciding she’d come back to it later since she still needed to answer.

“Yeah, my Mami, she went by Cami when she was younger. It’s short for Camila.” she replied. “I knew she was the one you were talking about when I heard King say your name. The envelope with the pictures I mentioned before had your name on it and pictures of you and Mami together,” she explained, deciding she might as well be honest about the contents of the pictures. “And as for that last question, I’m 14. I was born on July 15, 2006, if that helps you with your timeline.”

The witch stayed quiet for a moment, processing the information she’d just received. It made Luz restless; she’d always hated moments where she couldn’t gauge how a person would react. She stayed still and silent though, using the moment to look around the room she still hadn’t had the chance to look at. The walls were a pale beige and they were covered in trinkets and posters. One of the posters caught her eye and she paused to examine it. It had a drawing of Eda and King under the word “Wanted”, and under the image, it said “Owl Lady” with a reward with a weird looking symbol followed by a one and an obscene amount of zeros. I wonder what she did to deserve a bounty like that, Luz thought to herself, finding it strange someone her mamá had been in a, seemingly, romantic relationship would be capable of anything warranting such a large reward and even, what seemed to be, a moniker. With that in mind, Luz turned back to the witch, remembering she had been waiting for her reply. 

Eda looked stricken. “That was eight months after I left,” she said, almost as if speaking to herself.

Luz was surprised to find that her voice sounded hollow and devoid of emotion or feeling as she continued, “That means that, if I’m remembering how long human gestation lasts correctly, either you were born earlier than you were supposed to be, you’re adopted, which I find unlikely, considering you look just like she did when she was younger, or Cami was pregnant with you when the last time I saw her.”

Luz really didn’t want to respond with the truth. The witch in front of her looked desolate and disbelieving, but she felt that lying would only make things worse.

“Um, I’m pretty sure I was actually born, like, almost a month after my due date. They had to induce Mami ‘cause the doctors were worried. I don’t really know much about the time my mamá was pregnant with me, though, or who my dad might be. Mami always gets really weird and sad whenever I ask about it.” This seemed to only deflate Eda even further, but after a moment, she seemed to realize something, the hopefulness from before coming back by tenfold.

“Aha! I dunno how it slipped my mind, kid!,” the witch exclaimed, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Instead of just asking you, why don’t we just go back to the human realm and ask Cami herself! She’s bound to know more than you seem to.”

Luz sat there stunned at how quickly the witch’s mood had changed, and as the words registered, it occurred to her that she didn’t even know how long she’d been here. She began to panic, looking towards the witch who was now in a frenzy looking around for something, shouting, “Hey King, get down here! We’re going to the human realm to talk to Cami!” as she looked.

Luz heard an annoyed groan coming from somewhere in response, but she was too busy wondering about how long it’d been since she’d come through the portal to register where or who the sound had come from. Before she could ask about either, though, she saw King come in, joining Eda, who had found what she’d been looking for in her hair. Eda then proceeded to grab her arm and pull her toward another room. Luz saw the object Eda had found and realized it was the key she’d used to get here. She noticed it was glowing and shaking in Eda’s hand and discerned what they were getting ready to do. She braced herself for the blinding light by squeezing her eyes shut, and as she felt the now familiar feeling of the portal, she grabbed Eda’s forearm, not wanting to be left lost and disoriented like before.

Chapter Text

When Luz no longer felt the effects of the portal, she opened her eyes, dropping Eda’s arm. She heard King saying something about feeling queasy as she looked around for her bag, the envelope, and the button. As she grabbed them, she noticed the sun had gone down and realized she had been right to worry back on the Boiling Isles. Her mamá was probably worried about where she was, especially since, Luz realized, she had forgotten her phone and hadn’t updated Mami on what she had been doing. She turned to Eda to tell her they had to get moving, but when she looked over, the witch was staring around the room, tears brimming in her eyes. She realized that Luz was staring at her and turned her head, wiping her eyes, saying in an unsteady voice, “So uh, since this doesn’t look like you’d live here, why don’t we get out of here so you can lead us to your house.”

Luz continued to stare at the witch for a moment, but eventually just shrugged and turned on her heel, heading toward the door. 

“Okay, we should hurry though, I forgot my phone at home, so Mami probably doesn’t know where I am,” Luz said over her shoulder at the footsteps she heard following her out into the hallway. “It’s only about a 15 minute walk from here.”

“Ugh, I didn’t volunteer for that much walking, Eda,” Luz heard King complain. She glanced back and saw King climbing on Eda and getting in her hair and Luz decided it was probably normal for them, considering Eda’s unbothered expression. She turned back around to try and remember which direction led to the front of the house, but before she could decide, Eda passed her, confidently turning left down the hallway and leading Luz out the front door. 

Once they were outside, Eda turned to Luz and put her hands out as if asking her to lead the way, so Luz obliged, quickly finding her way away from the house, leading them out of the wooded area and onto the main road that led home. She noticed that Eda had a bit of a nervousness about her. Her eyes were darting back and forth, she was fidgeting with the staff she’d brought with her, and she’d pulled her hood up over her head. Luz decided to break the silence, knowing that dealing with nerves in silence was never ideal, “Hey, Eda?”

The witch looked up when she heard her, looking surprised that Luz had decided to speak, but answered after a beat, “What’s up, kid?”

“How do you know my mamá?” Luz asked, having had the question eating at her since she’d first seen the photos with the both of them. “Like how did you two even meet? You live in different dimensions.”

Eda looked to be taken aback by the question, but after taking a moment to think, she slowly answered, “We met when Cami was in high school. I had found that portal we used and figured out how to use it to come to the human realm. I had portalled in where that house we were just at was. The lot was just a clearing at the time, and I decided to wander around. I found Cami sitting at the edge of the woods on the other side. She was reading a book for school, and I decided to approach her and ask her where I was, but I must’ve scared her or something and she tried to get away. I tried to chase after her a little and I asked her to calm down. I explained that I wasn’t looking for trouble, I just wanted to know where I was.”

Luz had fallen into step with Eda as she told the story and was looking up at her with a curious expression. Eda had stopped talking, so Luz urged her on, “And then what?”

Eda looked down at her, as if remembering she was talking to someone, and continued, “Well, she stopped when she heard me speak, and agreed to help me out. She asked me a bunch of questions, and I fired back with some of my own and we talked for a while, learning about each other. Once she realized it was getting late, though, she had to go home. We promised each other to meet up again the next day, and we did and it became routine. We eventually even started hanging out in other places too. She helped me hide my appearance and we’d go to the mall or restaurants. We’d do so much fun stuff together, I would always get us into some shenanigan or another, but she’d always be there to get me out of them. We were always up to something” She sighed with a nostalgic expression on her face. “Those were some amazing times, kid.”

Luz was a little confused why she hadn’t heard of Eda, if those times were really that “amazing,” but as they finally approached her house, and she saw that her mamás car was in the driveway, she forgot about it and told Eda, “We’re here.”

Eda was brought out of the daze she’d been in and the nervousness from before returned. She led her up the driveway to the door, and Luz tried her best to collect herself before opening the door.

As soon as she walked through, she heard her mamá’s voice, “Luz Carmen Noceda, ¿quisieras decirme donde has estado? ” Luz winced at that, freezing in the doorway; it was never good when her mamá used her full name. 

“ Hola, Mami,” was Luz's answer. “ Te prometo que no estaba haciendo nada peligroso . Well actually, depende de lo que pienses ser ‘peligroso.’ Pero mira, I brought a friend, she can help explain,” she stated as she signaled at Eda behind her.

Her mamá looked as if she’d seen a ghost. Luz turned to grab Eda’s arm, pulling her gently inside. “This is Eda,” Luz said sheepishly, “Though, I think you might already know that.”

A silence settled over the room and both women just stared at each other as Luz stood there awkwardly, waiting for a reaction from either of them. Camila was the first to react, looking down at Luz, an admonishing look in her eyes. “Luz, ¿dónde encontraste a esta mujer? ,” she asked her daughter.

Luz shrunk at the sharpness of her tone, “ Por favor no te enojes, pero I wanted to know about my dad, so I sorta, kinda, maybe went looking in your room and I found an envelope, a key, and a button and they all related to the old house in the woods, so I went investigating and this weird portal took me to her and then Eda was all like, ‘Why don’t we just go ask Cami,’ and here we are.” Luz realized she was probably going to be grounded for the rest of her life as she listed everything she’d done to get to this point, but that seemed to be the last thing on Mami’s mind. 

Just as her mamá opened her mouth to say something, King, who had been sleeping in Eda’s hair, decided to speak up and say, “Eda, why didn’t you tell me we were here?”

The little creature climbed out and onto the floor while Eda apologized for him, “Sorry, about that, this is King. King, this is Cami.” 

King took this as a sign to go up to her, saying, “Hi Cami, I’m King, the King of Demons. Now bow before me!”

This made Luz and Eda let out a small laugh, which was quickly silenced by a glance from Camila. Right as she said, “Hi King,” Eda interrupted, “King, stop that, this is the human realm, no one has to bow to you here. Now come here.”

King grumbled something about humans sucking as he walked back to Eda, indignant about being denied a bow. Eda shushed him, and Camila turned to address Luz. 

“Luz, I will deal with you later, but right now, I need you to give me and Edalyn some time to talk. You have school tomorrow and given what you told me, I doubt your homework is done.” As she glanced back at King, she added, “Take King with you. He seems tired, so let him lay down while you do your work.”

Luz opened her mouth to argue, not wanting to go just yet, but the look her mamá sent her way made her opt for a simple “ Sí, Mami , buenas noches ,” before grabbing King, asking for his permission this time, and heading to her room to do as she was told, disappointed she’d have to miss out on the conversation.

With Luz and King gone, Camila and Eda stood in silence once more, Camila staring at Eda and Eda staring at her feet. Camila was the first to break the silence. “What are you doing here, Eda?” she asked tiredly.

Eda looked up at that, a bewildered look on her face, “No ‘How are you?’ or ‘I’m sorry for leaving you stranded on the Boiling Isles,’” Eda asked in return, resentment evident in her voice. “I waited for you on the other side of that portal for years, and now all you have to say is ‘What are you doing here?’ Really, Cami?”

Camila’s eyes widened at that. “What do you mean I left you stranded? That stupid key you gave me didn’t work. I went back every day for months trying to open it, but the stupid portal wouldn’t do anything,” she said, anger starting to seep into her voice. “You left me feeling like a fool, and eventually, once Luz was born, I had to move on, for her sake as well as mine.”

“Hold on, what do you mean the key didn’t work?” Eda asked, a puzzled look on her face. “I used that portal to come and go all the time, and your kid, she used it just earlier to get to the Boiling Isles. There shouldn’t be any reason it wouldn’t work for you.”

“I don’t know, Eda, I’m not an expert on how interdimensional travel works,” Camila answered. “I don’t even know how Luz figured out how to use it, I found the floorboard where I’d hidden the key opened and the key along with some other things missing and assumed she’d gone to ‘investigate,’ as she likes to put it, but I thought she’d come home empty handed, not with you in tow.”

“From her rambling earlier, it seemed like she figured it out by accident. Maybe we can ask her what she did to get it to work later.” She paused for a moment before continuing, her voice turning melancholic, “She seems like a good kid, Cami.” 

 Camila’s expression softened a bit at the mention of her daughter, “She can be a handful sometimes, but she really is a good kid. A little too curious for her own good sometimes.”

“Who’s her dad?” Eda asked suddenly, no longer able to bite back the question she’d been dying to ask since she found out Luz was Camila’s daughter, “She mentioned she’d been trying to find out who he was. Did I know him?”

Camila’s expression hardened again, making Eda regret the question, wanting to take it back, but when Camila answered, “I don’t know,” Eda was back to being confused. 

Camila continued before Eda could ask anything else, “I genuinely have no idea. I was too busy trying to figure out the portal to do anything that would result in getting pregnant. I just started presenting the symptoms and when the doctor told me, I didn’t believe her. I was in denial for the longest time, and no one would believe me when I told them I didn’t know who the dad was. Eventually, I just came to terms with it and bought this place to settle down with her. That house brought back too much, I couldn’t raise a kid there.”

Eda nodded in understanding, “I probably would’ve burned it down if I’d been in your situation. But the thing about your kid, you really just got pregnant out of the blue?”

Camila felt exasperation creeping into her words, “Yes, Eda, I just said that. Dios mio , I’d forgotten how obtuse you can be sometimes. All I know is that she was a little slower to develop. She was born a month later than they expected, but she was the size of a baby born at 7 months, she even spent some time in the NICU because her lungs were underdeveloped. The doctors thought they got her date wrong because of how small she was.”

Eda contemplated that for a minute, taking in the information Camila had just given her, before something dawned on her. “You know, now that you mention how pregnancy works, I just realized I never told you how witches have kids,” Eda scratched the back of her neck sheepishly as she spoke, shrinking under Camila’s sharpening eyes.

“No Eda, I don’t think you ever mentioned it in the nine years we knew each other. Would you care to explain why you’re bringing it up right now?” Camila asked, her tone getting dangerous.

“Well, uh, you see, we sorta have a different reproduction system, and now that I think about it, especially with Luz being born early but coming out so small, and witches taking 14 months to develop, there could be a possibility that the kid could be mine? Isn’t it funny how that slipped my mind?” Eda tried to chuckle a bit, but it came out strained, resembling a cough more so than a laugh of any kind. Camila looked as if she were about to explode when she heard what Eda had said.

“What do you mean there’s a chance Luz might be yours? ¿ Cómo se te pudo olvidar mencionar algo tan grande, ah? We dated for five years, Edalyn! How did it not occur to you to mention something like that? You’d think witches reproducing differently would’ve been brought up at least once!” she half yelled, half whispered, not wanting Luz or King to hear from upstairs, “ Hay Dios mio, qué le voy a decir a Luz,” she muttered to herself, rubbing her forehead as she paced.

“Cami, don’t get mad, I know I probably should’ve mentioned it before now, but it’s not like I’ve really had the chance, and look, I was young and in love, I wasn’t really thinking about the differences between witch and human anatomy at the time!” Eda tried to explain, but it seemed to just bounce off of Camila, who was more preoccupied by her thoughts on what she was going to tell Luz.

“Eda, I know you didn’t mean for it to happen,” Camila said when she’d calmed down a bit. “but it did, and now, apparently, you’ve got a teenage daughter. So what we’re going to do, is come up with a plan to tell her, and a plan on how we’re going to introduce you into her life if that’s what she ends up wanting.”

The weight of the situation seemed to finally hit Eda as she heard Camila’s words. Eda had a daughter. A teenage, half-human daughter. She’d missed out on so much. What if Luz didn’t want to know her? What if Luz hated her and she never got to see her or Cami ever again? Or she messed up if she did want to know her? Eda started spiraling, tuning out whatever Camila was saying, walking over to sit on the couch and putting her head in her hands.

“Eda?” she faintly heard someone ask. “Eda, are you okay? Eda?” She felt the couch dip next to her as someone shook her and she finally snapped back to reality.

“Sorry, Cami, it just hit me that I have a kid. Might take a sec to process that before we get to planning,” Eda said when she’d gathered her thoughts.

“Yeah, it can be a bit much, finding out you’re a parent,” Camila responded sympathetically. 

They sat in silence for a while, allowing time for Eda to process the events of the evening and Camila to come up with what kind of schedule they might need if Luz decided she wanted Eda in her life. She thought about how much Luz would probably love the idea of a magic realm and the things she could do and learn there. She didn’t like the idea of her going without her though, and Luz had school the next day, and once she saw that Eda was sat up and ready to talk, she started. “We can tell her tomorrow after school, I don’t want it to distract her from her studies and for her to be asking me to stay home. She can decide if she wants to get to know you after that. If she does, since that portal of yours seems to be working, maybe we can figure out why it didn’t work for me and I can take her to visit you. Maybe eventually, since I know Luz is going to love the idea of access to a magic realm, she could start going on weekends and spending time with you. But this is all only if both of you agree to it. I don’t know how Luz will react to knowing that you're her other parent, she might need some time to process it, and right now, she’s my priority, so if she doesn’t want to see her, or you feel that this is all too much, it might be best that we part ways.” 

Camila looked Eda in the eyes, looking for any sort of sign that she wasn’t cut out for this, but Eda’s eyes showed nothing but determination as she started to speak, “I want this, Cami. I already missed so much, and the stuff I can teach her about being a witch. I think I can do it. I never really wanted kids if I’m being completely honest, but I’m willing to try if she’ll let me.”

With that, they sorted out the specifics of how they would tell Luz the next day and Camila went to check on Luz after she got Eda set up in the spare bedroom. She found Luz asleep, the little creature Eda had brought snuggled up next to her, snoring lightly. She went to kiss Luz on the forehead, whispering, “ Buenas noches, cariño, te quiero mucho.” She smiled at the scene of her sleeping daughter as she closed the door behind her, mentally preparing herself for the next day and heading to bed, hoping to get at least a couple hours of sleep before it was time to get up. 

Chapter Text

Luz woke up to the feeling of something furry on her face. She opened her eyes to find King taking up about half of her twin mattress and an arm splayed out on Luz’s face. After her mamá had sent Luz and King upstairs to allow for some privacy for her and Eda to talk, Luz had spent some time sitting against her door, straining to hear something from downstairs. She had given up pretty quickly after she realized she wasn’t going to hear anything from upstairs. When she had looked over to her bed and found that King had settled himself atop her bed and fallen asleep, she decided to make the most of the fact and set to work on her assignments. Once she’d finished her school work, she decided to take a quick shower, leaving her door open in case King woke up and couldn’t reach the door knob. Luz had come back to the room and found King whimpering in his sleep, and as soon as she had realized the whimpers seemed fearful, she had gently woken him up, telling him it was just a nightmare. She had then joined him on the bed and they had spent an hour or so just talking in an attempt to distract him until he finally fell back to sleep, followed by Luz shortly thereafter.

She carefully reached over King for her phone to check the time and saw there were about five minutes before she had to get up. She checked her alarms and turned them off to avoid scaring King awake and laid there for a moment, not wanting to get up just yet. Her thoughts wandered back to what her mamá and Eda had talked about last night. She had been dying of curiosity all last night until King and his nightmare had momentarily worked as a distraction. She understood why her mamá had wanted privacy, but that didn’t mean she liked it. She wanted to know what they needed to talk about that was so private, but eventually, she decided she’d been lying there long enough and carefully moved to wake King.

“Hey, King, buddy,” she whispered as she shook him lightly. “We should get up, my mamá and Eda are probably waiting for us.”

Instead of waking up, King just turned away from Luz, grumbling something about five more minutes. She resolved to let him be since she realized she might benefit from some time alone with Eda and her mamá. She let him know she was going downstairs in case he decided he wanted to join her. He just grumbled okay, and with that, Luz headed downstairs.

Instead of her Mami cooking, Luz was surprised to find Eda in one of Mami’s old sleep clothes, making what looked to be some kind of omelette and some toast. Her mamá was sitting at the table, coffee in hand, laughing at something Eda had said. Luz stood in the doorway, admiring the scene for a moment before interrupting.

“Buenos días, Mami. Good morning, Eda.”

They both stopped their chattering as Luz went over and gave her mamá a kiss on the cheek before sitting down. 

“Mornin’, kid,” was all Eda said, but her mamá responded with a question, “Buenos días, mija. How did you sleep?”

“I slept pretty well,” Luz answered. “King had a nightmare, though. I had to help him get back to sleep after, but other than that, we were all good.”

This seemed to pique Eda’s attention. “Is he okay? His nightmares usually leave him real tired but too scared to go back to sleep. I hope he wasn’t a bother.”

“He’s fine, I think,” Luz said. “It wasn’t a bother, he just won’t get up. He seems really tired, though. He kept grumbling about five more minutes when I tried waking him.”

This brought a smirk to Eda’s face, “Yep, that sounds like King.” Her face turned serious as she continued, “Thanks for being there for him. Real good of ya, kid.”

Luz looked down at the table at the compliment, sheepishly responding, “It was no biggie, I just did what anyone else woulda done.” 

Before Eda could respond, Luz’s stomach growled and she remembered she had completely forgotten to order dinner like her mamá had told her the day before, meaning that she hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday.Her Mami seemed to have heard her stomach and asked Luz what she had eaten for dinner. When Luz refused to meet her eyes, she lightly scolded her, “Ay Lucita, you gotta eat, cariño. It’s not good to skip meals.” Sighing, she continued, her tone softening, “Grab a plate and serve yourself some of the omelette Eda made. I can’t promise it’ll be good, but it’s better than just a bowl of cereal.”

Eda turned to make a face at Camila, who was now smiling in amusement at what Eda said. “Oh, come on, Cami, you know it’s just ‘cause you humans have all these weird ingredients. Back on the Boiling Isles I make killer food.”

Camila laughed as she spoke, “If you mean ‘killer,’ as in ‘probably lethal’, I completely agree.”

Luz snorted and Eda looked at both of them, a look of mock betrayal on her face, “I can’t believe this. You know my cooking is great, Cami, and if you really thought otherwise, you wouldn’t’ve let me cook for Luz, and eaten some yourself, so I don’t wanna hear it.” She turned back to the stove, huffing a bit as she muttered in disbelief under her breath.

Camila just continued laughing, “Eda, you know I’m just kidding. Your food is wonderful, especially considering you have to work with ‘weird human ingredients’ as you put it.”

This appeased any uncertainty Luz had about trying the food and she got up to serve herself, “Mami, ¿vas a querer algo?”

“No, thank you, mija. I already had breakfast, and you need to hurry or you’ll be late. Please don’t rush though, the Heimlich is not something I want to perform so early in the morning.”

Luz looked at the clock and realized she only had 30 minutes to eat, pack her gym bag, change, and get to the bus stop. “Oh shoot, you’re right,” she exclaimed as she went back to sit down, eating as quickly as she could while also being careful not to choke, not wanting her mamá to perform the Heimlich either. Her mamá and Eda just watched her silently as she ate, not wanting to distract Luz from eating.

When she finished, she grabbed a bottle of pills off the counter. She took one out and served herself a cup of water, chugging it with the pill. She put the cup and her plate in the sink, turning to Eda, “Thanks for breakfast. Mami’s right, you make wonderful food.” She then turned to her mamá, “Me voy a ir a cambiar. I’ll send King down if I manage to wake him up.”

“Okay, mi amor,” was all Camila said before Luz sprinted up to her room to get ready.

Her usual hoodie was dirty from yesterday, so she opted for a striped purple and white shirt with a pair of jeans. For P.E., she packed a pair of athletic shorts and an athletic shirt. Once she was all packed and ready to go, she attempted to wake King up. This time, he still rolled over, grumbling about being tired, but got up, although hesitantly. He just waved at Luz, saying, “I'm gonna go get some food, see ya later Luz,” before leaving Luz to brush her teeth and fix her hair a bit. Luz chuckled at him before responding, “Alright King, see ya later little guy.” 

She found her mamá sitting in the same spot as before when she headed back down to say goodbye, but this time Eda and King joined her, King with a bowl of Froot Loops and Eda with a cup of coffee.

“Okay, Mami, I’m gonna head out.” 

Instead of her usual goodbye, though, her mamá gestured for Luz to come to her. “Before you leave, come here one sec.” Luz was unsure about why her mamá had such a serious expression, but decided it was best to listen without interrupting. “After school today, it’ll just be you, King, and Eda. I’ll be home at around 4:30 today, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Pero, that’s not all I wanted to say. When I come home, Eda and I need to talk to you about something important, so I need your homework to be at least started by the time I get home, because I anticipate this weekend will be pretty busy. Can you do that for me, corazón?”

Luz was confused as to why whatever Eda and her mamá were going to talk to her about would be so time consuming, even into the weekend, but she just nodded, “ Sí, Mami, I can do that, but I really gotta get going now. Te quiero mucho.” 

She went to give her Mami a hug and a kiss, then went around the table to give King a small hug, saying “Bye, King, I’ll see you later, ya cutie.” 

King shook his head, insisting that he was not, in fact, a cutie, but actually a fearsome king of demons, which left Luz and the rest of the table amused at his antics. But when she got around to Eda, she suddenly didn’t know what to do. She had hugged the other two at the table and felt that if she just waved, she might come off as rude, so she wrapped Eda in a hug. She felt Eda tense up in her grasp, “Whoa, whoa, what’s this, kid, what’re you doing?”

This made Luz freeze, thinking she’d done something wrong, but before she could apologize, her mamá was the one who spoke up, “Calm down, Eda, she’s just being a good Latina, she wasn’t gonna hug the whole table and just wave at you, that’d be rude.”

“Oh, right, I guess that’s true,” was all Eda said before awkwardly patting Luz and saying bye.

“Sorry about that, Eda, I should’ve asked first,” she said as she let go of Eda, relieved her mamá had spoken up for her.

“It’s all good, I just forgot how huggy you humans are,” Eda smiled as she responded. 

Luz smiled back and waved at the table as she left the kitchen. She made one last stop at the entryway to put her shoes on before heading out. “Bye! See you guys later!” she shouted over her shoulder as she shut the door behind her. She heard a muffled Bye come from inside as she started for the bus stop.

Camila had left shortly after Luz, leaving instructions on how to not burn the house down, how to use the TV, and some of Luz’s old toys for King. Eda had gotten bored after about two hours of aimlessly flipping through channels, eventually just flipping the TV to a kid’s channel for King before letting her mind wander back to the revelations of last night. 

She had tried to distract herself from thinking about it too much, but the fact that she was going to have to spend an hour with Luz without spilling kept coming back to her. She had already struggled this morning, using Cami and King as a buffer. She had no idea how she was going to be able to keep it up until Cami got home that evening. Her mind kept endlessly looping back to the thought throughout the day, no matter how much she tried to distract herself. Only King’s demands for food or attention worked to distract her, and eventually she conceded to allowing her mind to wander. The day flew by her, her nerves making the hours feel shorter than they were, and before she realized how long it’d been, she heard the front door opening, followed by the sound of shoes being removed.

“Hi Eda!” Luz greeted as she walked into the living room, “Where’s King?”

Eda had frozen at the sound of the door opening and hadn’t realized Luz had spoken until she noticed the teen looking at her with a concerned look on her face. 

“Huh? Oh, King. He’s upstairs sleeping. Little demon loves his naps,” she said when she finally snapped out of her daze.

“Oh, ok. Are you okay though? You seem a bit frazzled. Is it about what my Mami mentioned this morning?” Luz asked, voice laced in concern.

Eda sputtered out a response, not wanting Luz to continue with this line of questioning, “Whaaaa, nooooo, of course not, don’t even worry about me, I’m fine, kid. I made a light dinner if you want something while we wait for Cami. It’s a mix of a common plate from the Boiling Isles and a recipe your mamá taught me back when we were younger.” 

Although Luz still didn’t look too convinced, she seemed to let it slide, intrigued by the notion of trying something new. “Sure, trying new foods is always fun, especially if it’s from a magical realm.”

This brought some relief to the witch’s face. “Alright, well, it’s still warm, King and I had some earlier. It should be on the stove, feel free to help yourself.”

“Okay, thanks. I’m gonna try and work on my homework when I’m done, so I’ll probably be busy until Mami gets home, so, uh, if you could, if King wakes up, could you keep him entertained until then?” 

When she saw Eda nod in agreement, Luz proceeded into the kitchen, leaving Eda alone with her thoughts again. Well, that wasn’t even half as bad as I thought it would be, I might actually make it without spilling the beans , Eda thought proudly to herself as she leaned back on the couch. She flipped through the channels, stopping when a show that seemed entertaining enough popped up and turned the volume down in consideration of the kid doing her homework in the next room. Now we just wait until Cami gets home .

Chapter Text

Luz was finishing up the last of the assignments she felt would be most time consuming and harder to accomplish when she heard her mamá come through the door. She had managed to keep her mind from straying too while she’d done her school work, but it didn’t mean her uneasiness and curiosity about what Mami and Eda had to say had dissipated. Eda had acted rather skittish when Luz had gotten home and had seemed to want to avoid her, so she knew she wasn’t the only one feeling the effects of having to wait for her mamá, but it did little to ease the pit in her stomach. Her anxiousness had thankfully not impeded her from finishing the majority of her homework, but now without the work to distract her, it came back full force as she went to pack up her stuff. She moved quickly, needing to greet her mamá and maybe say hi to King as well, shouting, “Ahí voy, Mami, I’m just putting my stuff away!”

“Okay, sounds good, mija,” she heard from the other room. Once she finished, she headed for the living room, taking a deep breath in an attempt to prepare herself for whatever her Mami and Eda had to say. When she walked in, Eda was sitting, looking even more nervous and standoffish than she had earlier, Mami was standing, messing with her glasses a bit, and King had come barreling toward her, easing some of the tension in the room she had just walked into.

“LUZ!” King shouted as he hugged her legs. “I missed you today, I didn’t think you’d come back. Eda said I had to leave you alone!” His face was animated as he spoke, and Luz grabbed him from the ground, hugging him back.

“Now why would I leave and not come back? I live here, silly.” She said, poking at King’s tummy making him giggle. “And I just asked Eda to give me some quiet time so I could work on my school assignments, but after I’m done talking to my Mami and Eda, what do ya say I play with you for a bit; I noticed my mamá brought some of my old toys out for you.”

King nodded so hard, Luz was scared she’d drop him or get an eye poked out with that horn of his. “YES! We can rule over my unruly subjects together! I’ll go get them ready for you while you talk!” With that, he squirmed out of Luz’s arms, running to grab the toys and heading upstairs to Luz’s room.

Once King was gone, Luz greeted her mamá, giving her a hug and a kiss. “Hey Mami! ¿Cómo te fue tu día? ” 

“It was alright, mi vida, thank you for asking,” Camila responded, placing a kiss on Luz’s head. “But since King seems to be entertained for now, let’s get down to business before he comes back looking for you.” Luz nodded in understanding, moving to sit down across from the loveseat where her Mami joined Eda.

There was a beat of silence before Camila took a deep breath and started speaking. “Okay, so first, I’d like to hear what you know about mine and Eda’s past. I just want to get a gauge of just how much you know before we start.”

Luz thought for a second, not really expecting a question, but rather just an explanation as to why they needed to talk. “Uhhh, well, I know you and Eda met when you were in high school, and, that, um, that you guys seemed to have a, like, romantic, or at least definitely not platonic, relationship, and eventually, Eda left around 15 years ago or so, but the key and the portal seemed as if they were on this side, so she couldn’t use it.”

Her mamá seemed to blush a bit at Luz’s words, while Eda, who’s nervousness had seemingly disappeared, smirked at her. “Yes, that’s about right. We were in a romantic relationship for give or take five years, but we had known each other for a lot longer. We met when I was a junior in high school, and started dating when I was a junior in college.”

Luz’s eyes were wide as saucers as she heard this. She had known it was probably true, but to have her suspicions confirmed and hearing that they had dated for so long blew her mind a little bit, especially since her mamá had never brought it up before. She shook it off as her mamá continued though, not wanting to miss a single word of what she had to say.

“And, you’re right about the portal being stuck on this side,” she continued, the blush from before having disappeared and Eda’s nervousness reappearing. “Eda and I discussed it for a long time last night until we came to a probable conclusion as to why I wasn’t able to use the portal to follow her all those years ago.”

Camila paused, closing her eyes and muttering something to herself before opening them back up and continuing. “Luz, we believe you were able to go through the portal because, well, there’s really no right way to put this, but we believe Eda might be your other biological parent.”

Luz sat there stunned for a good 45 seconds, processing what had just been said. Camila was concerned for what might be going through her daughter’s head, and Eda had a hopeful look on her face.

“Huh?” was all Luz said when she finally spoke up.

Camila exchanged a confused glance with Eda, who just shrugged at her, before looking back to Luz, “What do you mean, ‘huh?’, mija?”

“I mean, like what? Like, how does that even happen? And what does it have to do with me being able to go through the portal? I didn’t even know that two women could biologically have a kid together. I thought you just didn’t like talking about my dad, and now, apparently I have two moms,” Luz elaborated, rambling before she paused slightly and continued much more excitedly, interrupting her mamá as she opened her mouth to try and respond, jumping from her seat. “Hold up, I just realized! I have two moms and one of them is a whole ass witch from another dimension! DOES THIS MEAN I CAN USE MAGIC!? Mami, por favor dime que tengo poderes mágicos, or otherwise I might implode. WAIT, DOES THIS MEAN WE’RE MOVING TO THE BOILING ISLES?!” When she realized they probably were struggling to keep up with her, Luz stopped, taking a deep breath, and getting herself together.

“Lucita, what have I told you about using that language?” Camila asked sternly, referring to the word Luz had used.

“Perdón, Mami. I was just excited, won’t happen again, promise,” Luz said, trying to reign in her excitement and sitting back down.

“I hope that’s true,” she answered, a weary tone taking over her voice as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Now to start answering those questions of yours. We believe you have to be from the Boiling Isles in order to activate the portal, which is probably why you were able to use it, but I never could. I didn’t know two women could have a biological child together until yesterday, so Eda can answer that, same goes for the powers part. And as for the moving to the Boiling Isles part, I really don’t think we’re gonna do that, but if you decide that you want to get to know Eda and that side of yourself, I’m open to eventually talking about some sort of split custody agreement or something of the likes.”

Luz took in all the information, processing what her mamá had just told her. She turned to Eda to ask her about the things Mami had mentioned she couldn’t answer, and only then did she finally realize that Eda had been exceptionally silent throughout the entire encounter, and even now, she was just staring at Luz as if she were still processing the information herself.

“Hey, Eda? You good there?” Luz waved a hand at Eda as she spoke, trying to snap her out of her stupor. When Eda seemed to be brought back, she finally seemed to be looking at Luz instead of staring.

“Sorry, kid, this was just a lot to process. Not the fact that you’re apparently my kid,” she rushed to explain, not wanting Luz to believe she felt badly about the situation, “Just your reaction. I honest to Titan thought you would hate me for not being there all those years, or that you would be a whole lot more shocked, not as excited and happy about it as you seem to be.”

“That makes sense, especially since we don’t really know each other, like at all. I mean, we just met, like, yesterday,” Luz said thoughtfully, almost to herself, not noticing as Eda’s face fell a bit, “but that’s exactly why I want to get to know each other, we missed out on so much and it seems like neither of you knew I could possibly be your kid. Getting to know you and the Boiling Isles and where the other half of my family is from is honestly a dream come true.”

Luz’s words seemed to put a toothy grin on Eda’s face. “You really mean that?” she asked hopefully. Luz nodded, her mouth turning into a smile to match Eda’s.

“Heck yeah I do! And while I might need some time getting used to you and seeing you as a parental figure, I’ve always wanted to learn about my other parent, and now I get to,” Luz said simply before continuing, her smile morphing into a sillier, joking one. “And turns out, that other parent is a witch from another dimension with magical powers and a cute demon roommate, so that’s a plus,” Luz added, making all three of them laugh.

“Well, as much fun as this has been, I am starving,” Camila said when the laughter started to fade, getting up from her spot next to Eda. “Have you guys eaten yet?”

“Yeah, Eda made this really good stuff that’s like a mix of your food and Boiling Isles’ food, and I had some before I started my homework. Though that was a while ago, and I could go for some pizza right about now,” Luz said hopefully, following her mamá toward the kitchen

Camila hesitated before answering, not wanting to spend money on take-out if they had food at home, but before she could say no, Eda decided to take advantage of the pause and help Luz. “Come on, Cami,” Eda pleaded, “Human pizza is delicious, let the kid have some. Besides, I know you want some too.”

Camila looked between the now two pleading faces, and sighed, putting her hands up in defeat, “Fine, you win, pizza it is.” Luz and Eda both whooped in celebration, thanking Camila before chanting “Pizza! Pizza!” for a good five minutes. Ay Dios mio, que voy hacer ahora que hay dos, Camila thought to herself as she saw Eda send Luz a conspiratorial wink, which her daughter attempted to return, both of them bursting out in laughter when both her eyes shut instead of the one. The moment was interrupted when Luz seemed to remember something.

“Oh shoot!” she exclaimed suddenly, making both women jump. “I almost forgot I told King I would play with him! Let me know when the pizza gets here, please!” With that, she darted out of the room and ran back upstairs where King probably lay in wait for her, leaving both Camila and Eda staring after her with affectionate looks on their faces.

“Well, that went a whole lot better than I expected,” Eda said, turning back to Camila. “I thought for sure that she’d need more time to make a decision on whether or not she’d want to get to know me and stuff. She was real excited about the idea, though.”

Camila chuckled lightly before answering. “Yeah, that’s Luz for you. She’s a bundle of energy with more love and affection to give than she knows what to do with.” Her voice was laced in admiration as she spoke, and it made Eda feel a pang of sadness and jealousy in her chest. 

Instead of unpacking that right then, she decided to ignore it and change the subject. “So, how about that pizza?” she asked, forcing a smile.

“Let me go get my phone so I can order.” Camila stopped before turning, noticing that Eda seemed a bit off and asked with a playful smile on her face, “Would it be right to assume you still like that ungodly mix of pineapple, yellow peppers, olives, onions, and pepperoni?”

The joking tone in Camila’s voice made Eda perk up a bit from the dejected feelings of before. “Obviously,” she said, a real smile on her lips this time. “I don’t know what you have against it, it’s my best culinary creation, if I’m being honest. Besides, you’ve always been too scared to try it, so don’t bash it if you haven't even tried it,” Eda joked back.

“Fine, you’re right, I concede,” Camila said as she went to find her phone, smiling at herself, proud that she had been able to bring Eda’s spirits back up and pleasantly surprised that she could still read Eda, even after so long apart.

Chapter Text

“Ohhh, nooooo, my heart,” Luz said as she fell to the ground dramatically, making fake dying sounds. 

King giggled at her antics, announcing his accomplishment, “Aha, I have defeated the great Luzura! Now all shall bow before me!” He continued celebrating, but when Luz didn’t move after a while, he grew a bit concerned and approached her to check if she was okay. “Hey, Luz, are you okay?”

Just as he was about to shake her when she still didn’t respond, Luz popped up, scaring King and grabbing him. “The great Luzura refuses defeat!” she exclaimed, tickling King. 

“Ah, that tickles, Luz!” King said in between laughs, squirming in Luz’s arms.

“Does that mean the King of Demons admits the great Luzura has won?” Luz asked, making her voice deep and dramatic for effect.

“Never!” he squealed as he tried to get away.

“The King of Demons leaves me no choice then,” Luz continued as she increased the tickles, laughing along with King’s infectious laughter.

“Fine, fine, you win, Luzura!” Luz stopped when he said this, and the both of them continued laughing, but after a moment, King stopped suddenly, his expression turning ominous. “You may have won the battle, but let it be said, I, the King of Demons, shall win the war!” 

He shook his fists in the air and his tail wagged as he spoke, making it hard for Luz to take him seriously. She tried her best to keep her face as neutral as possible, but failed, giggling at the little demon, “Of course, you will, my principito .”

King huffed at her, “What does principito mean? It sounds an awful lot like ‘prince’, Luz, and we’ve established that I am a King .”

“You’re right, sorry, King,” Luz said, admitting her mistake, her voice apologetic. “Can I call you reycito , then? That means ‘little king.’ Is that better?”

King thought about it for a second, saying the word to himself quietly. After repeating it a couple times, he seemed to come to a conclusion. “I like it, it sounds nice,” he nodded at himself before smiling at Luz and repeating the word one more time. “ Reycito .”

Before Luz could respond, they were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing and Camila shouting, “Pizza’s here!” 

King gave Luz a puzzled look in response, so she explained, “My Mami ordered some pizza for dinner. It’s a type of human food. It’s really good, I think you’ll like it.” 

At the mention of food, King’s face brightened up, needing no further explanation. “What are you waiting for then? Let’s go eat!” he exclaimed as he bolted out the door.

Luz smiled to herself before calling out after him as she ran to catch up, “King, wait for me!”

“Last one there is a trash slug,” King said over his shoulder. Luz wasn’t sure what a trash slug was, but she decided it probably wasn’t something she’d ever want to be. She sped up, and she would have won, but just as she was about to beat King, she slowed down a little, letting him win.

“Ha! I reign victorious once again!” King declared as he picked a seat, oblivious to the fact that Luz had let him win. 

Eda had noticed though, and as she opened her mouth to say something, Luz quickly interrupted her, shaking her head at Eda, while trying to signal for her to cut it out “You sure did, reycito .”

When Eda noticed and realized what Luz was trying to say, she nodded in understanding, instead smirking at King as he popped up, having to stand to see over the edge of the table, and saying, “Yep, I guess you’re just too fast for any human to beat, King.”

Luz sighed in relief before mouthing a thanks to Eda as they both sat down across from each other. Their attention was quickly brought back to King when he spoke up. 

“Where’s this pizza you were talking about, Luz?” he asked impatiently, his hunger apparently trumping his need to boast any further.

“It’s right here, King,” Camila said as she entered the room, two boxes of pizza in hand. The trio at the table turned to her, hunger apparent on all three of their faces. 

“Okay, first up, Luz, here’s yours.” She handed Luz the smaller pizza box with “No cheese” written on the top. 

“Thank you, Ma,” Luz said as she received the box.

She then turned to Eda, putting their box in the middle. “And here’s for you, me and King. I got half sausage and pepperoni and half pineapple, yellow peppers, olives, onions, and pepperoni. King, you can try some from everyone and see what you like.”

King nodded at her, and reached for the pizza, but before he could open it to start eating, Camila spoke up again, “Before you start eating, did you guys wash your hands?”

King turned and looked at Camila, seemingly bewildered at her question. “Why would I need to wash my hands? I’m just eating.”

Luz and Camila looked at the little demon in slight disgust.

“Well, if you have germs on your hands, you could get sick,” Camila explained before asking. “So, could you please go wash them? Luz, le ayudas con eso, por favor, dudo que pueda alcanzar solito. ”

Luz nodded at her. “Come on, King, let’s go get those hands of yours washed,” picking King out of his chair and taking him to the bathroom to wash his hands. 

Once they’d left, Camila turned to Eda and said, “Eda, have you really never told him he needs to wash his hands?”

Eda turned a bit red at that, embarrassment obvious on her face. “I’ve been busy, Cami, I used to remind him when he was younger, but I forget,” she excused. “And besides, it builds up his immune system.”

Camila rolled her eyes at the attempt of a joke. “Well, since your memory seems to be faulty, could you please wash your hands too? Use the sink in the kitchen since they’re using the one in the bathroom.”

Eda complied, getting up to wash them, the running water the only sound interrupting the silence. 

“How do you know King?” Camila asked as Eda turned the faucet off, not wanting the silence to return.

Eda looked up at her, taken aback by the question. “I found him about eight years ago, he was still a baby. He was all alone, so I decided to take him home. I thought he was some sort of dog until he spoke, hence the collar, but I don’t know much about him. He’s pretty much a mystery, in all honesty. He doesn’t know all the details on how I found him, so maybe we can talk about it another time, 'cause right now, I don’t want to risk the kids hearing.”

Camila nodded, smiling sympathetically, “I understand, some things just aren’t meant for young ears to hear.”

Eda smiled back, grateful Camila had let her drop it as King and Luz walked in, Luz with a good amount of water on the front of her shirt and King writhing in her arms as she held him.

“What happened to the two of you?” Eda asked with an amused smile.

Luz finally dropped King and he ran back to his spot at the table. “King did not like washing his hands. He acted as if I were killing him!” Luz exclaimed as she dropped into her chair. When she caught a glimpse of her shirt, she groaned, “King, look, you got my shirt all wet.”

“It’s not my fault you made me use that slimy stuff,” King rebutted, turning to Eda, who was now laughing at the scene before her, and stage-whispering, “It was all gross, Eda. It had a smell .”

“It smelled like lemon lavender, King,” Luz huffed, annoyed at King in the moment, before asking her mamá, “Mami, was I this bad when I was little?”

Camila laughed, “I’m sorry to say, but you were worse, mijita . Mealtimes were especially a battle with you; we both needed baths afterwards.”

Luz cringed as she recalled the numerous photos of her mamá with a tired look on her face as Luz screamed or cried with food on both them and the surfaces around them.

“But that’s not important right now,” Camila interrupted her thoughts. “Go get a different shirt on while I get everyone served up. ¿Okey, mi vida? ”

She responded with an “Okay,” and with that, she went.

“King, you should really apologize to Luz when she gets back,” Eda said as soon as Luz’s footsteps were upstairs, surprising Camila with her words. “She’s only trying to keep you safe, and you acted like a little jerk, so I don’t wanna hear it,” she continued as King tried to excuse himself.

“Ugh, fine,” King surrendered, crossing his arms across his chest, visibly unhappy with the idea. “I’ll tell her when she gets back.”

Eda was happy enough with that answer and turned to Camila. “Do ya have any drinks to go with the pizza?”

Camila shook off her surprise at seeing Eda acting parental as she responded, “Yep, what would you guys like? We’ve got water, apple and orange juice, and some pera piña ,” Camila offered as she got up to grab plates and cups for everyone.

Eda perked up at the last bit. “I’ll take some of that pera piña stuff. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve had some and it’s too good to pass up on. And since you guys don’t have apple blood, King’ll have some apple juice.”

Luz, who had just entered, out her previous outfit and donning her pajamas, paused before sitting down and looked at Eda. “Apple blood? Is that some sort of Boiling Isles thing?”

“Yeah, it comes in a bunch of different kinds, the fermented kind being my favorite,” Eda responded, a mischievous grin on her face. “You’ll have to remind me to let you try some when we go.”

Upon hearing that, Luz nodded with her entire body as she sat down, not catching Eda’s joke, “I can’t wait to go back.” 

Eda smiled at her reaction, but before she was able to respond, Camila spoke, her voice admonishing, “Edalyn Clawthorne, under no circumstances do I want to hear that you have given Luz an alcoholic beverage, especially if it’s from the Boiling Isles.”

Eda shrunk under Camila’s gaze, putting her hands up in surrender, “I only meant the kiddie stuff, Cami. Promise. I wouldn't dream of giving a kid alcohol.” She put on her best innocent act, hopeful Camila would let her off the hook, not wanting to risk her chances at being able to take Luz to the Boiling Isles.

Although Camila didn’t look completely convinced, she let it go, opting to bring her attention back to getting everyone’s drinks served. Eda sighed in relief and caught King’s gaze, sending him a look that hopefully conveyed that he should apologize. She got up, hoping that leaving him alone with Luz might help.

“Hey, Cami, you need help with those drinks?” Eda asked, pointing back at King when Camila looked up with a questioning look on her face.

When she caught on, she nodded, saying, “Yeah, that’d be great, Eda, thanks!”

With no one to fill the silence, King and Luz just sat there, and King didn’t seem all that excited about it. As they watched from the kitchen, Eda was starting to get impatient with him. She cleared her throat, getting everyone’s attention, “Luz, King has something he’d like to say to you.”

Luz straightened up, looking toward King with a surprised look on her face. “Is that so?”

King looked uncomfortable, but eventually, he answered, his voice quiet, “Luz, I’m sorry for getting water all over you and being rude when you were trying to help me.”

Luz just stared for a second before getting up and scooping him into her arms. “Aw, thank you, King. That means a lot. I’ll try to give you a bit of a warning next time I use soap on you, that way you can prepare yourself. How’s that sound, mi reycito ?” Luz gave him a kiss on the head before putting him back in his chair.

“Yeah, that sounds good,” King answered, a smile on his face now as Eda and Camila moved to join them. They served the pizzas and finally got to eating.

“So, how was everyone’s day today?” Camila asked the table when they settled in.

Luz answered first, excited to fill her mami in on her day, “I had a pre-lab day in bio and we collected some of our cheek cells for a PCR lab we have coming up, so that was pretty cool. Oh, and I need you to sign a slip. We’re going to a museum in two weeks and we need a parent to sign the waiver.”

Camila nodded at that, “I loved doing PCR labs, I’m sure you’ll like it, they’re always fun. And  just get me the slip and I’ll sign it, alright?” She turned to the others after she saw Luz nod in confirmation, “Now, what did you two do while we were gone?”

“I played war with the toys you left out for me,” King responded, enthusiastic to tell everyone about what he’d done. “I made sure both sides lost, and François and I remained in power.” He proudly pointed at a little blue bunny that sat on the counter. “And then we had a victory nap in front of the TV and woke up to eat lunch and then Luz came home, and then you, and then me and Luz battled against each other. Though, the great Luzura won,” he wavered as he recanted the loss, but as he proceeded, his voice came back stronger, “But then I beat her in a race, so we’re even now.” He took in a deep breath as he finished, going back to eating his food.

“Well, that sounds like quite the day you’ve had, King,” Camila felt a bit of nostalgia, remembering the days when Luz had been that small. Finally, she, Luz, and King all looked at Eda expectantly, waiting for her to talk, “So, how about you, Eda?”

“Well, I didn’t do much,” Eda seemed hesitant to speak, but when she saw that everyone was still looking at her, she continued. “I watched TV for a good bit, then I gave King the TV so I could cook us some lunch. Then I went back to the TV and Luz showed up a bit after that.” Eda shrugged as she finished, going back to her pizza. She didn’t want them to know that, in reality, she had spent the majority of the day worrying over the conversation they were going to have, and if she kept talking, she was sure she’d slip up, so she kept it short.

“That sounds like fun, I’m glad the TV didn’t give you guys any issues,” Camila said once she realized Eda was done talking, moving on to talk about her own day. “My day was ok, though, one of our patients decided to keep pressing the emergency button when they needed something, rather than just asking someone or using the call button.”

Luz laughed at that, “They’d get along great with that patient that kept pressing the channel button instead of the volume button last week, Mami.”

Eda and King got that reference, their confusion at the previous statement dissipating as they joined in the laughter.

When it finally died down, they ate in a comfortable silence for a while before Luz spoke up, hesitance audible in her voice, “Mami, Eda, do you guys know when will I be able to visit the Boiling Isles?” 

Both of them knew the question was coming, but Eda looked at Camila. She hadn’t had the courage to ask, not wanting to be disappointed if the answer wasn’t the one she wanted. She hoped Camila would say someday soon, but prepared herself for a date further in the future.

“I was thinking, why don’t we do a trial day before I let you go somewhere I can’t reach you,” Camila looked at the both of them as she spoke.

“How will we do that, Mami?” Luz asked, her face and tone hopeful as she spoke.

“Well, since Eda has been to the human realm before, and she knows how to hide her appearance, why don’t you two have a day out tomorrow, just you and Eda. I’ll stay with King so you two will be able to have a bit of mother-daughter bonding time. I’ll have to look for that stroller your tía left last time she was in the States so King can hide while we’re out. I think I put it in the attic.” She said the last bit thoughtfully, almost to herself, but remembered she’d been talking. “So, what do you think? That way, I can make sure you can take care of Luz and we’ll see how you two get along, though I doubt that will be an issue.”

Luz and Eda looked at Camila with twin expressions of incredulousness and excitement on their faces. Luz was the first to find her words, “Are you serious, Mami? We can spend the whole day without you? Not that I don’t love spending time with you, just, it’ll be fun to spend time with Eda. I promise I’ll be on my best behavior. Scout’s honor.”

“Lucita, you were never a cub scout,” Camila shook her head at her daughter, amusement lacing her voice. “ Pero, I get what you mean. Since Eda can’t drive, and before you say you can, I know for a fact you can’t possibly have a driver’s license,” she paused as Eda clamped her mouth shut, “Just as I thought. As I was saying, I can take you guys downtown and I’ll leave you some money so you can buy lunch and pay for a cab or Uber to get around. How’s that sound?”

“That sounds awesome, Mami!” Luz exclaimed, getting up to hug her mamá. “Thank you for letting us do this.”

“Of course, mija ,” Camila replied as she hugged her back, turning toward Eda, “You haven’t spoken up much, Eda. Do you not like the idea?”

Eda looked at her wide-eyed, shaking her head, “No, no, not at all, I love the idea, I’m just surprised you're letting us do this so quickly. I was ready to have to wait up to a month.”

Camila looked at her owlishly, “Eda, we knew each other for nine years, and now we have a kid together. It’s not like I don’t trust you. You haven’t done anything for me not to,” Camila explained. “Unless there’s something I don’t know about, I don’t see why I shouldn’t let this excursion happen.”

Eda nodded slowly, taking in the information, “Huh, I guess I hadn’t thought about it that way, but I guess you’re right.” A smile grew on her face as she continued, “Guess we’re having some mother-daughter bonding time, kid. Hope you’re ready.”

Luz unwrapped her arms from around her mamá’s neck, standing up to address Eda, “Heck yeah, I’m ready. Gosh, I’m so excited, we can go to my favorite restaurant, and that art store. Oooo, and that bookstore that has all the Azura books. Maybe we can even watch a movie in the theater!” Luz continued on her tangent, naming different activities they could do tomorrow, and both women staring at her lovingly, until Camila interrupted, laughing lightly, “Alright, mija , I know you’re excited, but it’s getting late, and your pizza’s getting cold.”

Luz seemed to realize that she had been in the middle of dinner when she’d stood up to hug her mamá, and she returned to her seat. “Okay, Ma, you’re right, I just got a little hyped.”

“I know, now, finish up, ‘cause I think King is falling asleep standing over there,” Camila whispered, making Luz giggle when she saw King’s eye’s drooping.

“His tiny little body just gets drained so quickly,” Eda commented as she walked over to grab King. “I’ll take him to bed. Do you want him in your bed, or should I take him to mine, Luz?”

Luz opened her mouth to answer, but just as quickly as he’d fallen asleep, King jerked awake, “I want Luz’s bed. You always take all the blankets, Eda.” He scampered away from Eda’s grasp, climbing into Luz’s lap. “Can I please sleep with you, Luz?”

Luz hadn’t been planning on saying no, but his plea just steeled her decision. “Of course, mi reycito , you’re always welcome in my bed.” Satisfied with her answer, he curled up on her lap, letting her finish her pizza.

When she finished, she moved to put her plates in the sink, but her mamá just shook her head at her, “Don’t worry about it tonight, mi cielo , Eda and I will clean up. Que tengas buenas noches, mi niña. I love you.” Camila leaned in to kiss Luz on the cheek, rubbing her back as she did so.

“ Buenas noches, Mami. Te quiero mucho, ” Luz responded before getting up, careful to keep King in a comfortable position. She made her way around the table, wrapping her arms around Eda, best as she could with King in her arms, for the second time that day, though this time, Eda was noticeably less tense. “Good night, Eda.”

“Good night, kid,” Eda said, ruffling Luz’s hair. “Don’t let the bedbugs bite.”

Luz’s laugh turned into a yawn, and she realized how tired she was after the emotionally taxing day. With that, she headed upstairs, and put King in her bed. She left him for a moment to brush her teeth, shouted a final “Goodnight” down the stairs, and finally headed to bed, scooting King over her, and sleep overcoming her as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Chapter Text

Camila was jolted awake by the sound of something breaking followed by the sound of Luz exclaiming and a cackle from King. She figured those were not a good sign and reached for her glasses, sighing as she stood to go check on what was going on.

In the kitchen, she found Luz kneeling on the ground, cautiously picking up pieces of a ceramic mixing bowl as King sat on the counter, shaking with laughter as he watched Luz’s struggle.

“Ay mamita, ¿qué pasó aquí? ” Camila asked Luz, who paused what she was doing as she realized her mamá had joined her in the kitchen.

“Buenos días, Mami,” Luz smiled sheepishly up at Camila. “I was trying to make some pancakes for breakfast, pero se me cayó el bol cuando estaba tratando de bajarlo.”

She seemed embarrassed as she said this, her face turning red and her eyes averted. Camila sighed before smiling and getting down on the floor to help her clean up. “That’s very thoughtful of you, mi amor, pero te había dicho que usaras los tazones de plástico para que no pasara algo así .”

“I know, Mami,” came Luz's answer, “but I couldn’t remember where they were, y quería tenerlos hechos antes de que se levantaran. I wanted to show Eda my cooking skills.”

“Mija, me hubieras despertado, I could’ve helped.” Camila walked to the closet under the stairs, leaving for a moment before coming back with a vacuum in hand. “Now, let me help you pick that up, no quiero que te lastimes con las piezas más chiquitas.”

“But won’t the vacuum wake Eda up? I really don’t want to wake her up before we finish the pancakes.” Both King and Cami looked at Luz before bursting into laughter.

“Ay Lucita, don’t worry about waking Edalyn up,” Camila said, starting the vacuum and passing it a couple of times to ensure she got everything before shutting it off. “See, not even a sound from her room, she sleeps like the dead. I used to have to set my alarm 20 minutes before she had to get up so I could wake her up in the mornings, even the loudest, most obnoxious alarms did nothing to wake her up.”

“Yeah,” King agreed, standing eagerly to add to what Camila had said. “The only thing that would wake her up right now would be the promise of apple blood or a shiny new object.”

“Exactly, thank you, King,” Camila regarded the little demon. “But could you please sit down, you could fall if you’re standing on the counter, and then you wouldn’t be able to help me and Luz make the pancakes and you’d be hurt. We don’t want that, do we?”

King sat down, muttering, “No, we don’t. Fine, I’ll sit down then.” 

Camila, satisfied with his answer, turned to Luz. “I’m gonna go put the vacuum up. Los tazones de plástico están en el gabinete al lado del micro, los moví para hacer lugar para unas cositas que compré.”

“Okay, Mai,” Luz answered, going to find a plastic bowl, some flour, and some sugar for the pancakes.

She was helping King measure out some flour when Camila came back, and she stood, watching for a bit, enjoying seeing the two interact.

“Okay, so you use the knife now and level it out, and put it in the bowl.” King tried it and looked back up at Luz.

“Like that?” he asked Luz, showing her his results.

“Yep, exactly like that! Good job, King!” she congratulated him and his face morphed into a proud smile.

“Of course I did it right, I’m the King of Demons, Luz,” he rolled his eyes at her, seemingly exasperated, but it was obvious he enjoyed the praise. “What’s next?”

“It says here we need some baking powder, salt, and sugar,” Luz answered, looking at the recipe book. She looked back up to King, a slight panic in her eye. “Oh crap, I don’t think we have baking powder.”

Deciding it was best to interrupt before Luz made a mess looking for the baking powder, Camila spoke up, “Luz, calm down, mi vida, we’ve got some baking powder, I bought it the last time I went grocery shopping.”

Luz looked at her mamá and let out a sigh of relief, “Ay, gracias a Dios, I was just about ready to ransack the kitchen or go ask the neighbors for some.” She thought for a second, looking at her phone as if checking something. “Though, I doubt they’d be happy with me since it’s 6:30 on a Saturday morning, they’d probably be a tad upset, huh?”

Camila took a double take, realizing she hadn’t checked the time in her rush to check on the sounds that had awoken her that morning. “Luz, ¿ de verdad son las seis treinta? ” she asked her daughter, who just nodded.

“Yep! I wanted to get an early start today,” she explained. “I want to make the most out of today, and getting an early start is the first step.” She grinned up at her mamá. “But anyway, where’s the baking powder you bought?”

She stared at her daughter, still reeling over the fact that it was only 6:30, but when Luz repeated the question, she blinked and shook her head, “It’s in the pantry, right next to the baking soda,” she responded, gesturing towards it. “Ten cuidado, no quiero que tengamos que recoger otro tiradero, mija.”

Luz nodded and went to get the rest of the ingredients, and Camila went to help King measure out the sugar while they waited for Luz. Once Luz had collected everything, finishing the pancakes went by quickly, Camila only having to interfere when King decided he would be the one cracking the eggs. It was clear pretty quickly that he didn’t have the slightest idea how to do it when he threw one on the counter. After they got the eggs away from him, Luz finished up the batter, adding an assortment of toppings, and Camila set up the griddle to cook them on.

“Why don’t you two go wash your hands while I finish these up,” Camila said after King and Luz had both had a chance to pour a pancake. “It’ll go by quicker that way.”

After looking down at her hands, and then at King, Luz decided her mamá was probably right. “That’s probably a good idea, we can even wake Eda up while we’re at it!”

“That sounds good, cariño. Maybe King can help you wake her up, ah?” Camila smiled at King and Luz as they exited, both of them chattering with each other to figure out how they were going to wake Eda up

King thought that pouring water on her was the way to go, but Luz quickly shut that down, telling King that she wanted to make a good impression, not a “sorry for waterboarding you awake” impression. They kept discussing it, even making it through washing King off without issue, and came to the conclusion that they would try using the promise of some old, glittery Mardi Gras beads with a flashlight to wake her up.

Once they found the beads, they headed back downstairs, passing by the kitchen to let Camila know that they were going to go and try waking Eda up. Camila wished them good luck and off they went. Upon entering the room, the first thing they noticed was Eda’s snoring. She was bundled up in various blankets, despite the warm May weather, and only a couple of gray wisps of hair were visible. Luz put King down as they walked in and turned the lights on while King went and peeled the covers off of Eda. She didn’t give much of a reaction, just mumbling a bit in her sleep before settling back down, unbothered by the lack of a blanket. At first, they both just nudged her, saying her name repeatedly, but when that didn’t work, Luz looked to King and nodded, signaling for him to start Phase 3 of the plan they’d come up with. King got close to Eda’s left ear, Luz to her right, holding the beads up, and they both yelled, “Eda, we have something cool and shiny for you!”

The witch sat up almost immediately, eyes wide and searching for what the two spoke of. When she spotted them, she just about knocked Luz over in her attempt to grab the play jewelry, leaving King bent over in laughter. Luz quickly put the jewelry behind her back, glaring at King over Eda’s shoulder. The little demon paid her no mind, his laughter still carrying through the room, making Eda pause and realize what she was doing. She backed away, apologizing. “Sorry, kid, I dunno what came over me,” she sounded sincere, but her eyes were still searching for the beads Luz was hiding. “But that shiny thing you had, you guys said it was for me?”

Luz giggled at the childlike hopefulness in her voice and handed the jewelry to Eda, who sat and admired them before Luz interrupted, “Yeah, sorry about that, we just needed you to wake up ‘cause we made pancakes!” Luz smiled brightly at her. After a moment, Eda went to put on the beaded necklaces, realizing Luz was signaling for her to follow. 

“I didn’t know what you’d like so we made banana, chocolate chip, blueberry, and strawberry ones,” Luz told her as she led her out of the room, a slight bounce in her step as she explained everything that went into making them.

“I helped a lot, right, Luz?,” King asked as he scampered to catch up with them.

“You sure did, reycito.” Luz scooped him up and gave him a kiss on the cheek as they approached the kitchen where Camila could be heard listening to music as she worked. “Mai, sí la pudimos despertar, ¡mira!” Luz exclaimed, making her mamá turn to look.

“Buenos días, Eda,” she said, smirking at the obviously exhausted witch. She then looked to Luz, who was bouncing up and down in unbridled excitement as she put King on the counter to grab them some plates.

“‘Mornin’, Cami,” Eda replied flatly, the excitement over the beads having left her, replaced by tiredness and anxiety. She approached the counter where Camila stood, and Luz pushed a plate in her hands.

“So, like I mentioned, I didn’t know what to put in the pancakes, so I put a little bit of everything,” Luz explained as she served everyone. “It’s my Lita’s recipe. I think you’ll like it, everyone loves my Lita’s food.”

“Oh, I know from experience, kid,” Eda answered, her mouth now watering at the thought of the pancakes. “Cami’s mom is an awesome cook, and anytime your Mami got that recipe book out, I knew I was in for a treat.”

“I keep forgetting you knew Mami before,” Luz said thoughtfully, a slight frown playing on her lips. It disappeared just as quickly as it appeared, though, morphing into excitement as Luz continued. “But at least that means I know what I can cook for you, and you’ll love family reunions, too.”

“Mija, why don’t we go sit down and we can continue chatting at the table, hm?” Camila interrupted, not wanting the food to get cold, nor wanting King to get syrup all over the counters. “ Y pasame el plato de King. Le voy a cortar sus hotcakes para que no haga un tiradero.”

Luz did as she was told, handing her mamá King’s plate and moving to the table. Once they were seated, the conversation started back up, mostly Luz expressing her excitement for what she had planned for the day and King adding his two cents here and there.

“And then after we have lunch, we can go to the mall. It’s only two stops from the town center,” Luz told Eda, who was a little overwhelmed by the information, but nodded along anyhow. Suddenly though, Luz stopped, gasping as if she had just realized something important, before turning to look at Camila and going on a rapid fire spiel all in Spanish.

“¡Mami! ¡Me acabo de acordar de mis quinces! ¡Tenemos que invitarla! ¡Porfas Mai ! ¡Les encantaría a Tío Lonnie  y a Tita Mattie ! ¡Y si no ha conocido a todos, este podría ser su chance de conocerlos! Mai, no puedo creer que no me había acordado de esto, porfas dime que puede ir si dice que sí,” Luz was out of breath and almost falling out of her seat when she finished. 

Camila was silent for a while, allowing Eda to think back on any words she recognized. She recognized the names, Lonnie and Mattie. Lonnie was one of Cami’s closest cousins and Mattie was her aunt on her dad’s side. One of the other words also sounded familiar, but it’d been a while since Eda had heard rapid fire Spanish. Quinces was a word she’d heard, but before she could put her finger on it, Camila spoke up, in Spanish as well, but a little slower than Luz’s had been.

“Mi vida, me encantaría invitarla, pero antes de que diga que sí, voy a tener que hablar con tus tíos y con Lito y Lita,” Camila explained, her tone calm and soft, “La situación va a ser difícil de explicar, mi amor, y es mejor que lo haga sola para no tomar chances innecesarios, ¿entiendes? ”

Luz nodded, “ Sí, Mami, pero por favor trata de hacerlo pronto, a la mejor debes hacerlo cuando esté con Eda y King. Eso es, si hoy nos va bien. ” Her excitement from before had lessened but it was still there as she turned to address Eda. “Eda, are you almost done?” 

She looked around the table and realized she was the only one with food left on her plate. “I think I overestimated how many pancakes I could eat, I’m stuffed, kid,” she smiled at Luz and stood to help pick up. “They were delicious, thank you. Now, let’s get these dishes washed so we can go get ready.”

“You guys don’t worry about the dishes, King and I can do those while you guys go get ready,” Camila took the plates out of their hands and sent them on their way. “Isn’t that right, King?”

King looked less than excited at the prospect of doing the dishes, but nodded anyhow, grumbling about how he never got to have any fun.

“Thanks, Mami!” Luz called over her shoulder as she ran upstairs to get ready.

“Well, I’ll be back in a zilch, don’t want the kid on my case about how slow I am,” Eda said as walked out.

“Well, how about we get to doing those dishes, King?” Camila asked once they were alone. “I can tell you about what we’re gonna do while those two are out and about.”

“We’re gonna do stuff?” King seemed surprised at the prospect. “I thought we were just gonna stay in again.”

Camila chuckled as she put King on the counter next to her to start washing the dishes, “Did you really think I was gonna let those two have all the fun? No way, José. First, we’re gonna do some shopping, get you a booster seat for the dining room, a step stool for the kitchen and bathroom, and a carseat. After, we can go to the park, but you have to promise you’ll listen to me, it can be dangerous if you don’t.” She waited for King to answer. Satisfied when he nodded, she continued, “Then, I have to do some grocery shopping for dinner, and finally, we can pass by and get some lunch so we can come home, cook dinner, and watch some TV. How’s that sound?”

“It sounds great, Cami!” he shouted, getting a bit of water on her in his excitement. “Ope, sorry about that.”

“It’s alright,” Camila responded, turning the tap off and drying off her hands to put King back on the ground. “Luz should be back any minute now, will you stay here and tell her I’m getting changed so we can head out?”

“Yep, me and François will make sure to get the message to her,” he saluted and raised his stuffed bunny, which he’d grabbed while on the counter, in the air to show her his seriousness.

“Alright, thank you, King,” Camila chuckled, leaving King to play.

It was only a couple minutes before Luz came running down the stairs, wearing an Azura shirt tucked into a pair of jeans and some Converse. She stopped in the doorway, asking King where her mamá was, and King filled her in. Deciding there was no point in rushing her, Luz sighed and took King to the living room while they waited, and before long, both her parents joined them. Her mamá was wearing a pair of Mom jeans, a flowy, baby blue blouse, and some sandals, and had walked in with a folded up stroller. Eda, on the other hand, looked bonkers. She had on a striped short-sleeved button up, a pair of cargo shorts, a bandana, and hiking boots.

“Well, I guess we’re ready to go then,” Luz hopped up at the sight of the two women. “But, uh, Eda, you might wanna get some sunglasses, your eyes might throw some people off.”

“Damn it,” Eda said, feeling around in her pockets, freezing when she heard Camila clear her throat. “Uh, I, uh, I mean, dang it, sorry. And I knew I’d forgotten something. Cami, you got any I could borrow?”

Camila sent her a disappointed look and sighed before reaching into her purse, “Of course I have some, here, Eda. I knew you were bound to forget something. Now, since that’s resolved, is everyone ready to go?”

“YEAH!” Luz shouted as she grabbed King and ran out the door into the car, leaving Eda and Camila alone inside for a moment.

“Well that’s gonna be a whoop to keep up with,” Eda joked before turning her expression into a more serious one. “But in all seriousness, thanks for this, Cami. You could have easily said no and kept Luz to yourself, so thank you for giving me a chance.”

Camila looked at Eda, taking in her expression. She’d never doubted that she’d made the right decision in letting Luz get to know Eda, and she hated that Eda couldn’t see that she trusted her, but she settled for a nod. “Of course, Eda. She’s your daughter too. You guys are gonna have a blast today. You’ll love it,” she smiled and motioned for them to head to the car, lest Luz start it herself and drive off without them.