The term agnst comes from the word against both Hunter and luz are against each other being unhappy therefore minor angst
Luz bolted upright in bed. Her memories were fuzzy but she was pretty sure she had been sick. Her mouth tasted funny but that didn’t seem particularly important right now. What had happened? Hunter had been here.
She got fuzzy glimpses and she addressed them in order. He had either left and come back or stayed the entire time.
Probably because he was worried she would be hurt if she was sick and couldn’t defend herself. She wished she hadn’t kept him here but she was still relieved he was here. She went over memories in damage evaluation.
She was pretty sure she remembered something about being mentally younger or at least seeming that way.
She didn’t like the idea of that and was pretty sure she was back to normal. It would also be pretty bad if Hunter teased her about it but she doubted he would.
She hoped he didn’t lose respect for her because of it but she reminded herself Hunter wasn’t the type to do that. Even if he had been, she caused him far more trouble than she had today earlier in their acquaintance. She didn’t know if he cared for her much but she thought he did at least a little bit and even that little bit he cared for her would be enough to put up with a little bit of nonsense.
If he cared for someone she was pretty sure he cared for them for life, as little as they might deserve it. She used his leg as a pillow that wasn’t very bad at all even though he would be a tad annoyed, he would probably only grumble about it once and it would be out of his system, though she had been wrong about his annoyance levels before she was fairly confident that would be fine. She had mumbled something to him in Spanish.
She couldn’t remember what but whatever it was it was most likely nothing. She usually said things in Spanish when she was sick. It could have gone much worse. She was a little surprised nothing worse had happened. Suddenly the strongest memory so far struck her. “I want one day, 24 hours”
She had made him promise to stay! She wanted to be sick again but that wouldn’t help anybody.
Nevertheless, she still felt it. She had seen many things about him; she knew the long hours and sleepless nights and eyebags and all of the things he believed about his work in the emperor's coven. All the things all the adults told him before she managed to get to him.
She had promised she would never use anything against him. Not out loud to him of course but she had promised it silently she had promised she would never be like them and take advantage of his faith. She promised she would never trick him or do him harm and she had.
She had used her sick state and the obvious fact that his guard was down more than usual to trick him into staying. She wanted him to stay so badly and now he would. At his own expense.
The owl house was paradise to her but to him, it might be terrible. To Hunter, rule-following, careful, logical Hunter this place might be terrible. It was almost ruleless at least compared to the coven it was messy, and loud and sometimes made no sense at all to her. That was beautiful to her but this place might make him miserable, and no matter how miserable he might end up being he would stay because he didn’t break promises.
She knew he didn’t and she had still made him promise her. “The time I spend around you is some of the highest quality time I have.” The line hit her like a blow to the gut. He would either hate her and she’d never see him again when he realized how she tricked him or he wouldn’t see it as a trick at all he wouldn’t hate her and it would be worse.
She tried to remind herself if she managed to succeed that never seeing him again might happen anyway. She didn’t know what would happen if she managed to get him to leave. Maybe he could stay on the isles but she might have to call a human government agency she didn’t know what they would do.
It still hurt so much she could barely breathe but she had to breathe, for Hunter at least. She would just have to think positively and pull out all the stops to get him to leave the emperor.
Then she would explain to him that she violated his trust. That it wasn’t on purpose but it was subconscious and that might be worse. She’d explain that she was sorry. It hurt but this would be worth it if she could convince Hunter to leave Belos.
She had thought he had her. That at least he had her in a world where people either hurt or manipulated him but she had done it too. She would simply have to try even harder for it to never happen again. She had just not wanted him to get hurt.
Nope. She tried to delete that thought. She was making excuses for herself and she knew it. She was rationalizing and that wasn’t going to fly in her brain. Thoughts like that might be able to happen in the head of someone else but not hers.
She needed her head especially clear of rationalizing today when she would have to convince Hunter of things while trying to get him to not rationalize Belos’s behavior. She stood up and brushed off her pants she had work to do.
A day to make fun, friends to call, and a life of a... friend to make better. Hunter had her and she would do her best to be the friend he deserved. She didn’t know what she would do if he went back. Then suddenly, she did.
Hunter
“Guys, what’s going on?” Hunter heard Luz's voice and snapped towards her. He wasn’t sure he wanted little Luz down here. As much as he wanted to trust her she had been ready to use garden shears as a pencil around a half hour ago. But when he saw her something about her was different than a couple of minutes ago.
The mildly manic light wasn’t in her eyes anymore. There had been something slightly off about her that he hadn’t noticed until it was gone.
The sense that it was a different Luz. It was confirmed when she combed a hand through her hair. She had told him once when she was little that she put her hair in braids every night before she went to sleep. If she had been her little self she wouldn't be combing her hands through her braided hair.
“Luz you're 14 again!” he blurted out before darting his eyes to Eda without turning his head. No serious reaction that was good. He returned his gaze to Luz.
“That's good. I feel fourteen but I wasn’t sure. What gave it away?” He would have to explain the aura difference when they had more time. He had promised her 24 hours and whiling them away explaining things wasn’t very sporting of him.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Let me tell you this is a good–” She pauses and her eyes narrow at him. It is a very small narrowing but it doesn’t bode well. “you guys weren’t-”
This wasn’t good at all. It was already bad enough that Luz would be upset they were fighting but he had promised the owl lady and especially had to fix this now.
“I just finished telling her about what I promised. We just started talking. It wasn't going great and I think we were just about to start arguing, then you came in.” He managed not to grimace; he didn't want to lie to Luz but he had to.
Either that or admit he was already fighting with some Luz cared about and he didn’t want to do that.
“It’s good you didn’t fight” Her shoulders untensed before he realized they were tense that was a relief, “but Hunter we need to talk” He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. When the owl lady tried to follow them Luz said “Alone,”
Hunter resisted gulping. Had she recognized his lie? He didn’t know what grave error he committed but he needed to know. He reminds himself that even if Luz wanted to fight him she most likely couldn’t beat him as she closed the door.
Luz turned to him and for a second he could read her face then, it dissolved into devastation “Hunter!” She cried. She made a move like she was about to surprise- hug him but she stopped mid-way and her arms went around herself instead.
Hunter took part of a step before returning his leg to its original position. It might not be best to presume a hug was the right next step in this situation. He should listen to a bit of what she had to say before that happened. “Luz” he questioned he only had a second to ponder what he would say next because the floodgates had opened.
“I’m so sorry. I’m sorry Hunter, I'm the worst friend, the worst family adjacent person.
I made the stupidest decision and now you have to suffer because I’m so selfish. I didn’t mean to do it but that doesn’t matter because I still did it and I'm taking responsibility for my actions and my actions say I sucked.”
Hunter was so confused he had no idea what Luz thought she did. Had she told the owl lady his weak spots? Had she– well he couldn’t think of any other ideas of things that she would feel constituted a betrayal.
Luz was still going “I’m the worst, I used what I knew would work against you so you would stay here.” Oh, he finally knew what was wrong and that was a step in the right direction. He needed to figure out what to say fast.
She was distressed right now and he needed to fix it quickly or she might run away and do something rash. A similar thing happened one time when she blamed herself for a pet of one of the bonesburrow citizens getting loose getting loose; he had just barely managed to catch her before she had walked into a place where she would have broken many bones.
He did not doubt that Luz's brain could conjure up a scenario where doing something dangerous and reckless could fix this and he did not want that to happen. He did not know how to soothe emotional distress but he bet the owl lady had comforted her many times here and he could do better than her. “I’m sure It's a lot better than you think if you just look at it the right way.” he wanted to smack his forehead.
That was not comforting enough! It sounds optimistic but if you looked at it, it didn’t have any substance he needed to address how all the issues she said weren’t true. Should he ask her to repeat herself slower so he could explain how she wasn’t any of the traits she was calling herself?
“It isn’t better. You'll hate it here" What was wrong with this place? He mentally shook it off he could learn if he kept listening, and "It's all my fault you're stuck here because I used my weakened state against you. You should have had a choice on whether or not you wanted to stay but I made you promise. I made you promise to make myself feel better.”
He was very confused about why she came to this conclusion. She seemed to blame herself for this but he didn’t want to do that. She always had good intentions and even if she wasn’t trying to help him at the moment it simply meant she needed help. Was the owl lady dangerous and Luz worried?
He didn’t want that to be the case but if it was he could help Luz recover at the palace. Was it that Luz wasn’t getting enough contact? That was never good. She was sadder when that happened. Luz needed contact with beings no matter which type he didn’t think that was it since she said she spent more time with her friends than with him but it had been her younger self so maybe things were different now.
He was pretty sure he could fix this. Luz was still going. He paused to hear her speak for a second
“This place is amazing but you might hate it since you like order and It's chaotic here. It's my fault, you agreed to 24 hours and you have to stay even if you don’t like it here. You agreed to stay while I try to convince you” He knew this was the moment
“I didn’t just agree because of that I also want to try and convince you to come to the coven.” Some relief seems to hit her. Not enough but a good first step.
“That's good but still not fair.”
“What would be fair” he knows the words are wrong as they exit his mouth and she opens her mouth. He lunges at her as the wrong words fall out of her mouth.
“I Luz Noceda agree to stay at the emperor's castle if I can’t convince you to stay for seven days or more. I’ll stay equal time or two weeks minimum depending on the circumstance. If I wish to stay or enjoy it there I’ll stay permanently.”
She starts at regular speed but as she sees him dive for her, she speeds out the last words. Even with all the extra words he still doesn’t get to her in time.
It's suddenly hard to breathe. He doesn't want her to have promised that. He desperately wants her to stay near him more often than she does, but he never wanted this, the castle is a place she’d hate unless this was set up right. she’d be stifled she'd feel trapped despite the wiggle room in the rules.
She’d hate it there. He can already imagine that it’ll be hard for her to breathe there. Either that or she’ll fight the wrong people and get injured, or help the wrong people and get worse. It'll make her very very sad no matter what. This couldn’t happen.
He knew if she stayed at the castle she wouldn't but he was pretty sure she’d want to stay. He knew she cared somewhat about him and if he was her friend some part of her would want to stay.
What bodes even worse was that she was almost always cheerful so there was almost no chance of either happening. His hands were on her shoulders and he was shaking them slightly. They also might be shaking slightly he couldn’t tell.
“Luz, what did you do?”
“Nothing I wouldn’t do again” she declared but she looked paler than normal.
“Why Luz? Why would you say that.”
“I wanted to make it even” he considered yelling at her but she didn’t deserve that
”This is incredibly uneven in my favor. I will easily be able to convince you the coven is better and if you change sides you could never change my mind.”
“I will.” The certainty in her eyes is layered on top of something he can’t make out. This place is infinitely better. He doesn’t want to argue with her when she just did something so selfless for him.
“You have people here” he coaxed something flashed in her eyes before the determination was back.
“You should have equal ground. Anyway, I won’t leave you "I can’t do that no matter what. If you don’t choose to stay I'll follow you back to the coven. You can’t stop me “
“I’ll find a way out of this” he declares there had to be a way it didn’t count.
“I won’t take the way out. No matter what you’ll always have me on your side now. Everything will be different.” He reminded himself those words were not foreboding. Luz looked up at him in a way she clearly thought disguised the fact she was trying to read his expression.
Once she had gauged he was not mad she carefully extracted himself from his shoulder grip. He noticed that the move was surprisingly agile but he didn’t tell her that since the last time he made a similar comment, she teased him for a month.
“You have me alright?”. She looked at his expression and added “And I have you.” She turned back to him shapely, an expression he could read on her face.
“No, I won’t try and find a loophole in my promise.” Her shoulder slumped but this thing she would deal with. A minute passed typing on her phone and Hunter was a tad confused. He had thought she would plan something every second to try and show off all the ‘amazing’ things about the owl house.
“What are you doing” A few seconds later she looked up at him and grinned a grin that he didn’t want to see. He didn't know it too well but it seemed to spell trouble.
“Just texting my friends,” she announced with a grin.
Amity
Amity received a hext. 💜Luz💜: Hey Amity, would you want to come over later, Amity’s tummy butterflies flutter until she read on 💜Luz💜: I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. I’ve known him for a pretty long time and there’s a bit of a complicated situation but I want to introduce him to you Willow and Gus.
I want to help him and meeting all of you might do that. Anyway, if you say yes I can't wait to see you and I can’t wait for you two to meet.💜💜💜
The gears in her head to a second to turn and she shoved down the realization threatening to rear its ugly head she was just imagining things and she didn’t have to worry about anything.
Luz thought she could make something better! Sure she thought that about Gus and Willow too but it was still good. She would see Luz in a short time. She typed back: be there soon.
Gus
Gus heard a ding. He had gotten texts back from both Willow and Amity so he was feeling better but he still felt bad he was trying to cheer himself up with room decorating but it was just getting worse since he was struggling with where to place his newest photo. He placed the photo down and then dived for the scroll
luzahuman: he frowned at the contact name as he always frowned at similar problems he had no idea what to change it to.
Hi Gus, sorry I wasn’t at school today. I was sick. I'm looking forward to seeing your project tomorrow. Anyway, a friend is staying with me for a really short time and I’d like you, Amity, and Willow to meet him.
Gus’s stomach sank it couldn’t be… he hoped it wasn’t because if he was tricking Luz she didn’t know he had gone to school in her place!
I think you like him and he’d like you both like magic and I hope you’ll like each other!
If you want to come I'll see you soon- Luz.
He smiled she always signed her texts in their own little inside joke. He hoped her friend wasn’t that coven lover but if he was he had a lot of explaining to do.
Willow
Willow's scroll dinged and she finished doing one last proper situp before grabbing it.
Luz: Hiya Willow There is a friend of mine staying with me and I wanted you, Amity, and Gus to meet him. Do you want to come? It would be nice to have you there. You might like him. I hope you two will click. I’m gonna show him sudoku puzzles. He's gonna be thrilled.
She laughs she had been a tiny bit obsessed with the human brain like sudoku mahjong and solitaire. She still brought along a non- boiling isles set of cards to play sometimes when she thought she might get bored.
It was a way to keep yourself entertained. It made her happy that someone else was about to fall in love with the game then she paused and added up the factors stranger + knows Luz + nerd = the mysterious person from today.
Of course, she could be wrong but it would be interesting if it was and she’d like to hear why he did what he did. She didn’t know if that person had been good but she’d hoped they were- since she didn’t know if Luz’s mysterious male friend and the person from school were the same.
“Dad, papa I’m heading to Luz’s “ she woke her pailsmen up for a flight. Clover agreed and they were off after she grabbed her scroll. This was the third most likely time for Caleb to text after all.
King
King rolled over, yawned, and looked around. Nothing interesting seemed to be happening so he rolled back over. They'd wake him up when something happened he fell asleep to that thought
Unknown
A form leaks in the shadows that's the only place they can be. He is never comfortable. He is always restless yet they can never get rid of the energy. He doesn't like it here but he will be free soon. free and then things will be different and then- they don't know exactly they suppose but they bet it will be more comfortable than this. They curl up best they can and smile. Free soon to the stars and moon. They fall asleep ( or at least close enough) to that thought.