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It was Friday morning as Luz rolled over in bed, stretching the kinks out of her muscles. She blinked blearily into the sunlight that was streaming into her room; blinding her.
She smacked her mouth a few times, trying to rid it of that horrible morning taste as she slowly sat herself up and scratched her head. She could feel her hair sticking up in every direction as she did and half-heartedly tried to comb her fingers through it. It was starting to get longer than she usually let it grow, which made sense. She'd had her last haircut about a month before she'd come to the Boiling Isles and it had been about two and a half months since she'd chased Owlbert through the portal.
Maybe she could get it cut in town this weekend. If she was lucky she could take Amity along and they could make a date out of it afterward.
Or she could invite Gus and Willow too and they could all hang out in town afterward, she definitely needed to spend more time with her other friends, she had been spending a lot of her free time with Amity, which her friends assured her they understood, but she was determined to make time for everyone.
Amity may not even be able to hang out this weekend, or Gus and Willow, which was a disappointing thought but she'd just talk to them at lunch.
With that thought, she quickly set about getting dressed for school.
She could smell food being cooked even before she started thundering down the stairs toward the kitchen.
"Morning!" She smiled, walking over to her seat and leaning down to kiss the top of King's head as she passed, making him giggle in his seat.
"Good morning, Luz." Lilith nodded to her as she sipped on her customary morning cup of tea.
"Hey, kid. I made pancakes!" Eda said, setting a plate in front of her.
"Oh, my favorite!" Luz wasted no time digging into her meal.
Eda wasn't the best cook, actually for the most part she was pretty bad, but she tried. She'd gotten pretty good at pancakes though; which Luz was grateful for.
They were good, and when she made them Luz always stuffed herself to bursting, no matter how miserable she would be on her way to school and through her first couple hours of class.
Today was no exception.
When her plate was all but licked clean she stood and shouldered her bag.
"You got plans for the weekend, kid?" her mentor asked her from her place at the sink, washing the pancake pan.
"I need to get a haircut, I figured I'd see if Amity or Willow and Gus wanted to come with me and hang out in town after," she said shrugging.
"Well if ya want, I can cut your hair and you can still hang out with your girlfriend and the rest of the nerd brigade after." The witch offered.
"You? Cut hair?" Lilith snorted from her place at the table and her sister shot her a glare.
"Yea, that'd be great!" She beamed at Eda and the glare faded into a soft smile as she looked down at Luz.
"Great, I'll get my shears!" She grinned and Luz wasn't sure if she was kidding or not. It was hard to tell sometimes, she laughed anyway as she started for the door.
"I gotta get to school, bye!" She turned to go but was yanked back by her bag.
"Don't forget your lunch." Eda held up a paper sack with a knowing grin.
"Oh, right." She smiled taking the bag. "Thanks, mom."
She froze, bag In hand.
Luz blinked and looked up at the older witch who was staring back at her wide-eyed and mouth ajar.
The rest of the kitchen had also gone silent. Lilith was looking at them equally shocked and King blinked, looking around at all the suddenly quiet woman. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on but the sudden oppressive silence kept him quiet.
"I mean… I gotta go!" Luz turned and ran out of the house, clutching her lunch to her chest, the door slamming shut behind her.
Eda watched her go, still not saying anything.
Lilith watched her sister quietly as she stood there, frozen, watching Luz leave the house.
"Edalyn?" she called and that seemed to jog Eda out of it.
"Huh? Oh, yeah." She turned back to the sink and started washing the pans again but there was a distinct jerkiness to her movements.
"That was… unexpected," she said testingly. Eda made an agreeing noise but nothing more as she continued to scrub at the pans.
She shared a brief look with the demon sitting at the table, who seemed to get the hint and grabbed his plate before hopping down out of his chair and trotting into the living room.
Lilith rose and walked over to the sink, stopping a few feet from her sister.
"Edalyn?"
"What?" It lacked any of its usual bite or snark.
"Are you alright?" she asked, still looking at the back of Eda's head.
"Why wouldn't I be?" she grunted.
Lilith pursed her lips, no point beating around the bramble-thorns.
"Because Luz just called you 'mom'," she said and again Eda froze at the word, not turning away from the sink.
"So?" Eda's voice was tight and Lilith blinked before stepping closer to peer around her sister's mane of hair.
"Oh"
Eda jerked, finally turning to look at her elder sister and Lilith could clearly see the water welling up in her sister's dual-colored eyes.
"What?" she snapped, glaring, but the tremble in her voice made it lose any of its bite.
"You know…," she started slowly. "It's alright to be happy she called you that," she finished and Eda turned away sharply.
"Luz doesn't need someone like me."
"Would you leave the child to fend for herself?"
"I never said I wouldn't take care of her!" Eda growled, turning a glare on her sister, but it quickly died. "Luz has a mom."
"That she may never be able to return to. We have heard not even a whisper of another portal to the human world. As far as we know yours was the only one, you may need to consider that Luz may never leave the Isles, what then?"
"I'll take care of her." Was the simple answer. "But she's not my kid," Eda managed to mumble. Lilith cocked a brow at that.
"But It's alright to think of her as yours." She pushed. "She clearly, for reasons I do not understand, thinks very highly of you." When the light jab didn't elicit the usual response she frowned. Lilith felt she had a pretty good idea of why her sister seemed so conflicted.
"What happened with the portal was… unfortunate… but Luz made that choice, to save you. You shouldn't feel so guilty about being happy that she views you that way."
Eda's grip on the panhandle tightened.
Her sister was hitting the nail on the head and she didn't like it.
She did feel guilty.
Luz was stuck here because of her, she didn't have any right to be happy about it, but she was.
She loved that kid, fiercely; like she'd never loved anyone.
Of course, Lilly could tell too.
She sighed, looking at her sister tiredly out of the corner of her gray eye.
"If Luz needs me, she's got me, she knows that, but I'm not gonna go and try to replace her mom."
"Nor should you, but there's no reason to beat yourself up over it if she views you that way, nor being happy about it," Lilith said.
Eda grunted in response, conversation over and Lilith walked away. Once she was gone Eda allowed herself to smile.
~ ~
Luz ran till she was almost to school, mind racing with complicated thoughts and feelings.
She had called Eda 'mom', and it had slipped out so naturally; too naturally.
She was frowning, still lost in thought when she arrived at school. Her friends and Amity were standing near the front steps, waiting for her.
"Hey, Luz!" Gus called and Willow waved at her as she walked up to them, stopping next to Amity
"Hey guys." she smiled but it was lackluster at best. The three of them frowned.
"Uh, you okay?" Willow asked.
"Huh, yeah, I'm fine…" she gripped the strap of her bag tightly. The three witches shared a glance.
"Are you sure?"
She looked up to see her girlfriends concerned, gold eyes trained on her. She could feel Gus and Willow's looks as well.
She nodded, not trusting her voice right now.
The bell's scream echoed through the courtyard, making her jump.
"We better get going," Gus said and Willow nodded and turned to follow him into the school, but not before she shot Amity a look over her shoulder.
The youngest Blight nodded.
The courtyard was practically empty now as students began to make their way to their classes.
"I better head to the construction track hall…," Luz mumbled, taking a step, but was stopped as Amity grabbed her hand. Luz blinked at her, waiting, both eyebrows raised questioningly. Amity took a step closer
"Hey, you know you can talk to me if somethings wrong, right?" she asked quietly.
"I know… I just…" Luz trailed off, looking at the ground.
Amity's hand wrapped around hers squeezed reassuringly and Luz couldn't help but squeeze back.
"It's just a lot right now… later?" Luz looked back up at her and Amity nodded giving another light squeeze before sliding her hand out of Luz's.
"Later" she repeated before she hurried up the steps into the building.
The day dragged for Luz.
Lunch was a little tense, her friends could tell that something was bothering her, but she was sure Amity had talked to Willow at some point because none of them tried to ask her what was wrong, though they clearly wanted to. For that she was glad. She was touched by their concern, but she still wasn't ready to talk yet. She was still trying to organize all her mixed up feelings.
Time ticked by, heedless of her inner turmoil, and before she knew it the final bell screamed and she was walking down the steps of the school, and around the building where her teleportation glyph was waiting, hidden by the foliage.
Like her illusion glyphs, it seemed to stay in place even after use, which was convenient since it was the most complicated one in her arsenal. It would have been a pain to redraw after every use.
She tapped her hands to it and thought of Amity's secret room.
Once the portal blazed to life she stepped through and appeared inside the room and the portal blinked out of existence.
The room was empty, she'd beaten Amity here, which she usually did on Fridays, abominations were farther away from the front of the school than the construction track.
She dropped her bag on the floor and flopped face-first into the cushions on the floor with a tired sigh.
It was about 5 minutes later that she heard the portal once again appear in the room, but she didn't move.
She listened to Amity's quiet shuffling as she put her school things on her desk.
A moment later the cushions shifted, but she still didn't move and neither did Amity for a few minutes.
Then there were fingers running through her hair comfortingly, but still, no words were spoken.
She hummed and turned her head, peeking out from the fabric to find Amity sitting on the floor next to her, looking concerned.
Luz hated it when anyone worried about her, but she especially hated it when she caused Amity to worry.
The witch, for her part, said nothing, just waited patiently for Luz to be ready to talk.
Luz sighed and pushed herself up, flipping around to sit on the cushions.
"I called Eda 'mom' this morning," she finally mumbled, but she knew Amity had heard her.
"Okay?" Amity said, waiting, sure that could be embarrassing, she’s called some of her teacher’s ‘mom’ before, but clearly Luz was bothered by this for some reason.
The Latina pulled her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them.
"I feel… guilty," she finally mumbled,
"Why?"
"Because she's not… because… my mom is out there, in the human world, not knowing that I'm here, that when summer is over I'm not… coming back; that I've replaced her," she choked out the last words, eyes filling with tears.
Amity wrapped an arm around Luz's back and the human leaned into the touch, seeking comfort. Amity wrapped her other arm around her trembling form.
"It's okay, Luz." Amity tried to soothe.
"I miss her a lot… and I want to see her again, but… I also don't want to leave…" she looked up at Amity, tears dripping down her cheeks. "That's awful isn't it?" she sniffled.
"I don't think it's awful." Amity wiped at the tears.
"But I've replaced her! I don't want to go back, even if I could, and I feel terrible about it, that I'd just leave her alone!" Her voice cracked with a sob, she buried her face in Amity's neck.
She ran her fingers through her hair, her heart ached for Luz.
"It's okay to want something even if it makes you feel guilty, and you're not doing it on purpose… even if you wanted to go back you can't, that's not your fault."
"I destroyed the portal…," she choked.
"To save Eda."
"It was my fault she was captured in the first place…," she hiccuped, through another choked cry.
"You were trying to help her… and maybe you were going about it the wrong way, but you were doing it for the right reasons…," Amity mumbled. "I don't know your mom, but if the way you talk about her means anything, I think she'd just be happy that you're okay, even if it's in a whole different world."
Luz didn't say anything, just cried.
They sat there quietly for a while until Luz's tears started to dry.
"I guess… I just didn't realize how much she acts like my mom… kinda." Luz couldn't help the small wet chuckle at the comparison.
Amity smiled but didn't say anything.
"She makes me breakfast and packs my lunch… always asks me how school was when I get home… it makes me feel guilty..." she trailed off still sniffling.
"Just because you love Eda doesn't mean she's going to replace your mom and she'd probably be glad to know someone is taking care of you," Amity hummed.
"Yeah…," she mumbled.
After a while, Luz finally pulled away and wiped at her eyes with the heels of her palms before finally looking at her.
"Thanks, Amity," she said quietly, a small smile pulling at the corners of her lips.
Amity smiled back, glad that she was no longer crying.
"I should probably head home…" she sighed and stood, Amity following.
"Right…"
"Meet me in town tomorrow, same place and time?" she asked.
"I'll be there." Amity smiled.
Luz quickly kissed her cheek, saying a quick bye before activating her glyph and teleporting home.
~ ~ ~
It was later that evening when Luz finally came out of her room and walked down the hall to Eda's door.
She hesitated a second before knocking on the closed door.
"What?" Came from the annoyed call from the other side.
"It's me, can I come in?"
There was a brief pause.
"Sure, Kid."
Luz peeked inside to see her mentor laying haphazardly in her nest, she sat up as Luz slipped inside, shutting the door behind her.
"Hey… can I talk to you?" She asked.
Eda patted the spot next to her.
Luz climbed in and settled herself down next to her mentor.
"What's up, Kiddo?" she asked, seeing the pensive look on her face.
"It's… about this morning…" she started.
"Ah, it's okay, Luz, I know ya didn't mean it." She waved a hand, even though it hurt a little to say that, which immediately made her feel guilty.
Luz bit her lip, shuffling around in the branches and grass.
"But… I did, I guess." She looked up at Eda, who was starting back, surprised and Luz felt her face heat up.
"I… miss my mom… but I feel like I should miss her a lot more, but I don't… because I have you," she mumbled, looking down at her hands. "I feel guilty… like I've replaced her…" she frowned.
Eda watched her quietly for a moment before wrapping an arm around her and tugging in close.
"Listen, Luz," she started, drawing the girl's eyes back up to her. "I'm not gonna replace your mom, and I wouldn't want too and trust me, I doubt I'd be a very good replacement even if I was… but, I think it's time we took a hard look at the facts here. You might be here for… a while." she said after a long pause, carefully omitting the word 'forever'.
To her surprise, Luz just nodded.
"But I'll tell you this: I love you, kid, and so long as you're here, I'm gonna take care of you, okay?" She squeezed the girl's shoulders and Luz leaned into her hold, smiling. " If the ‘M’ words slips out sometimes… we’ll just roll with it… you shouldn't feel guilty about anything."
"Amity said something similar."
"Well, you should listen to her, your girlfriend's smart," she chuckled. "All that being said, I think it's time we got you some permanent stuff."
"Like what?"
"Well, you need a scroll so your friends and I can actually get a hold of you when you're off causing trouble… heck you need a bed!" She flung out an arm.
"I would like a bed…" she admitted sheepishly.
"Then it's settled, tomorrow’s Saturday, we'll go out and get some stuff."
"Thanks, Eda." She smiled up at her.
"Sure thing, Kid." She squeezed her shoulders.