Chapter Text
Pink snakes swirled round and round, their little spider legs kicking around helplessly. One of them, the longest one with big wings and even bigger glasses shook Luz.
"Luz?... Luz!" the snake sounded familiar. The human blinked a few times. The snakes face faded into Willow's. "Luz, wake up!"
She stammered and sat up in the cafeteria with a yelp. A few students glanced her way but dismissed her behaviour as normal, at least by Luz's standards.
Gus used his magic to summon a big golden gong, ready to wake their friend up.
"I'm awake! I'm awake!" Luz stuttered out, glancing at her younger friend.
"Aww, dang" the gong disappeared. "I really wanted to hit it"
"Well if things go on like this" Willow gave her human friend a sharp glare. "I'm sure you'll get a chance to, Gus"
She wasn't wrong. For the past two weeks Luz was more than sleep deprived. All tracks added up made it impossible to end classes early. It wouldn't normally be an issue, she enjoyed being in Hexide from morning till dawn. The problems started when she actually came back home. It was hard to balance all the chores and nine times the homework others got. All that was made worse when you added King, very clingy and very starved for attention. He spent his day sleeping and was rested and ready to bother her all night. At first Luz felt proud to be the big cool sister to the demon pup. it soon became apparent it was more responsibility than she could carry. But it felt wrong to just abandon him, he was quite lonely before.
"It won't" Luz was self assured. "Because today I will talk to him and finally say 'no'"
"Just like you did yesterday? And a week ago? And-" Willow sassed, packing her notes back, glancing at the clock.
Their younger friend stiffened. A light bulb popped over his head.
"What is it, Gus?" Willow's attention turned to the light bulb.
"What if..." he leaned over the table dramatically. "Luz didn't have to communicate with him at all? What if she just made him go to sleep, if you know what I mean... Not like that Luz! I meant by magic"
The human sighed in relief, putting her head back in her arms. Only her pupils glued to Gus indicated that she was indeed interested in what he had to say.
"You could use the Bard's Lullaby. It's a higher-level spell but any bard can perform it. The problem is that you need to write it well" Gus explained.
"In this state, if Luz attempts to write the lyrics to that spell she won't put anyone to sleep. Unless you mean permanently" Willow rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"She doesn't have to write it. She could ask Red. Remember when Skara paid them to write that weather spell to ruin Glandus's grugby training for a week before the game? A Lullaby should be no problem"
"Who's Red?" asked Luz, wiping drool off of her chin. She totally didn't fall asleep five times during the discussion. Definitely.
"That's Red" Gus pointed.
It was a stereotypical scene where the awkward weird girl meets the bad guy in a coming of age indie movie.
A few tables ahead sat a loud group of witches, a few of them were even dressed in cheer uniforms. The human expected a distinct soundtrack and a witty voiceover that would tell her that those were the meanest witches in school. But instead of something out of Mean Girls she got a distinct "But I'm a cheerleader" feeling.
The older kids just chatted not paying attention to the set of eyes scanning their group. and there wasn't only one pair doing that either.
Next to their table sat Matholomule, also watching. Following his gaze Luz spotted one of the students, with deep red hair and divination track colours underneath the Hexide cheer uniform.
"Cassandra Hemera, the one to the right. Everybody calls them Red. They are in a... You humans call it something funny, a garbage band?"
"Garage band" she muttered. Gus looked as if he wanted to write that down but he didn't. Luz was thankful he stopped doing that.
Garage or garbage, it didn't matter as long as the presented solution was enough to provide her sweet sweet rest. If King slept through the night so could she. All it took was one performance, right?
Gus got up and grabbed her hand, he started leading her towards the table. In the background Willow said something smart, probably a warning. But Luz didn't have time to worry about warnings. Not when she was already standing in front of the table.
"I didn't do anything i swear!" a yellow manticore with a few piercings in one ear exclaimed. A small bat girl sitting across from him crossed her arms. Despite their tones they all were smliling, enjoying the banter.
"Oh, I'm sorry it surely wasn't you who i had to clean up after! My whole bathroom was demolished, my cat - traumatized!" she responded dramatically. The table laughed.
"What's the matter, you don't even like that cat-" snickered Red. Gus tapped them gingerly on the shoulder. The witch turned only to be greeted by a wide smile.
"Hi, Red!" he greeted.
"Hello...?"
"Gus. It's a human nickname" he gloated. A shadow ran across their face, as if they smelled something funny. Luz wondered if it could be because Gus mentioned humans. That wouldn't be good...
"What do you need, Gus?" they accentuated his name. Luz couldn't tell if they were being mean or geniuine. Back home she naturally assumed people like Red were going to be mean to her. However, though she didn't know why, she kind of wanted to believe the older teen wasn't like that.
"Can you write us something? It's really important! We'll pay" pay? Luz didn't really think about that part...
"Pfft, just don't start another band you three" chuckled the manticore, butting in. "we kind of need them in ours"
"Perhaps my fame is outgrowing our humble band" closing their eyes Red puffed out their chest and declared, putting their hand on their chest.
"Your own band" commented (a very pretty) demon with an eyeball for a face.
"Anyways" Red's attention snapped right back to the duo. "I can do that, I suppose. But, what would you want me to do?"
"A lullaby" Gus piped up. He pointed to Luz. "She really needs it"
The human felt really uncomfortable under the gaze of the group. The pair of dark purple eyes scanned heer face. Maybe she could have washed her face in the morning? Or brushed her hair at least? In the morning it just felt like too much work, she was too tired for that. But now she started to regret her decision to skip her routine.
"I think I heard about you" Red hummed, their eyes pausing for a second on Luz's ears. There was a pause when they seemed to contemplated something. Finally their face brightened up. "Sure, we have a deal!"
From then on it went smoothly. When the pair returned to Willow they informed her that by the end of the day Luz would have all she needed for a spell. Red even agreed to borrow her sister's old ukulele and accompany (supervise) Luz. That declaration earned a sideglance from the eyeball demon girl but Luz didn't think too hard about it. She didn't think about a lot of things, it was way too much effort. And so she drowned out Willow's warning and let the day pass, motivated by the perspective of sleep.
When she walked out of the building Red was already there. It seemed like they were talking to Matholomule but he was definitely not trying to talk to them. The shorter teen was already gone when Luz approached. Red didn't acknowledge her questioning look.
"Do you have a way to get to the Owl Lady's house?" they asked. Once again Luz noticet them shift uncomfortably, this time when talking about Eda.
"Don't you have a staff already?"
The crimson haired witch made a sour face.
"I don't use it a lot, I totally don't need the thing" it was Luz's turn to frown. Palismans were friends, your dearest familiars who stood by your side. It felt so wrong to hear someone call one 'a thing'. It was a living, breathing creature, not just a piece of wood.
"Uhh" it was more important to get sleep than to judge, Luz decided. "you can ride with me then, I'm sure Owlbert won't mind"
"Owlbert? The Owl Lady's staff? Isn't she like, a criminal?" Luz shot her a warning glance. "Look I'm just worried, aren't you two concerned with someone following her staff and catching her?"
"Well, nobody ratted us out yet" she responded sharply, cutting the conversation short. The atmosphere got heavy and they spent the rest of the time waiting in silence.
The next time either of them spoke up they were high up, flying over the town.
"We'll need to stop by my place to get Kat's ukulele" Red pointed at a house in the distance. "It's this one!"
Soon enough they were standing on the ground, in front of the old wooden doors. Before opening them Red turned to the younger girl.
"We need to be super quiet if my mom is home, you should actually put on your hood, thank you; if my cousins try to bother you please ignore them; in case Katya's in her room just say we need her ukulele for a school project; avoid my aunt if you can" they listed off quickly, almost running out of breath, not even letting the information get to Luz's brain before opening the door. "Oh and my younger brother will freak out if he find's out what you are, get ready for questions"
The house was old, but pretty and elegant. It felt as if you took a picture of a home-y place from Pinterest and stripped all the warm feeling from it. It was all bare bones, everything a home was supposed to be but stripped off its soul. To Luz it felt like one of those pictures where you can recognize the shapes but not the objects.
They passed rooms, some of which definitely weren't empty. Luckily nobody stopped them and they soon stood before four doors. Red reached out to open the nearest ones on the right, but the door at the end of the corridor creaked. They swiftly pushed Luz into the opposite room, closing the door behind themselves.
"Titan, what?" someone yelped from behind. Luz turned to see a witch around her age. He had a round face and skinny limbs, dangling off of the side of his bed. That must have been Red's younger sibling. Unlike the older Hemera, he had dark hair, similar to Willow's but darker, with the underpart of his mullet dyed light blue (or maybe just bleached).
"We're in... a situation here, Castorr" sticking their ear to the door they listened for whoever was on the other side to pass. Luz stepped into the room, looking at movie posters. Most of them looked like they were cartoons.
"They're old" grumbled Castorr noticing Luz gawking at the posters. He walked up to her. The human noticed that they had to be around the same height. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his baggy trousers. Inspecting the girl closely his face lit up. "The ears! Are you-"
Red hushed him, still listening for something on the other side of the door.
"-are you a human? Or are you like Red?"
In that moment his older sister interrupted, swinging the doors open.
"Let's hurry up, I can't spend the whole day on this"
They grabbed the instrument from a room full of unfamiliar anime posters and a weird amount of vegan cookbooks. The human hardly realized they had left the house already. Soon they were flying again, heading towards the Owl House.
Luz wondered what the boy could have meant. This time Red sat first, which gave the human an opportunity to study them. After a second her eyes wandered towards the ears of the older teen.
She gasped.
"Your ears!"
They were round, the pointy tips were made out of metal, they weren't a part of their body but more like jewellery.
"Yeah" the young Hemera shrugged.
"Is that what Castorr meant? What are you?" it was hard for her to hide the excitement. For Red on the other hand it was hard not to sound displeased.
"Dad's a human. It's a whatever, no big deal" they shrugged nonchalantly.
"No big deal!? I thought I was the only human here currently"
"Yeah, not really. He's just... Not an anomaly anymore, so you want hear any hot goss. It's been ages since he came here. I mean, literally, he's like 60"
They dismissed the rest of the questions, only grunting and shrugging until they landed.
Edna was nowhere to be seen. Luz could tell Red was searching for her mentor. She was glad they couldn't find her, though she had no reason to believe that anything bad would happen.
They both headed inside. It wasn't hard to find King, watching something on a crystal ball. Red held out the ukulele in one, and the lyrics in other hand. Luz leaned in, her lips touching Red's ears, feeling the warm metal around them.
"I can't do it" a panic was visible in her eyes. "He's so innocent and having fun"
Red paused but respected the girl's wishes, ready to hide the ukulele and head back, ready to take on the long road.
Surprisingly in the last second acting on the few drops of courage (or stupid recklessness) she had left, Luz grabbed the instrument.
Redswiftly held the lyrics to her face, a little bit too close for the girl's liking. She stepped back nevertheless focused on playing.
The ukulele wasn't professional, Red told her when they rummaged through their sister's room. 'Just artificial magic' the cheerleader explained 'can you imagine using it casually'. They humoured the idea, it was training equipment after all. As much as they tried to make it clear they didn't judge Luz for using it, it still made the girl a bit hurt and insecure.
Artificial magic or not, soon the melody flowed endlessly. At first, King flinched and started to turn towards them.
"Huh? What's that baby music?" he clearly felt superior and like he knew better than to listen to lullabies, though Luz recalled him listening to some on sleepless nights. In a few chords, his tone changed "this sweet, alluring baby music..."
In a matter of a second, he was out.
Up to that point, Luz didn't feel how tired she truly was. Adrenaline poured out of her body through all pores and holes. Or maybe it was sweat? But why would she be sweating-
"Are you all good there, Mozart? You look like you're about to pass out" Red put their hand at the back of Luz's head and the other one was rubbing her shoulder.
Luz yawned obnoxiously.
"I'm all good, Reddie" she tried to sound smooth but cringed at the nickname. Red chuckled, grinning at her.
"So, where's your bedroom, Bard-ie?" they led Luz up towards the attic "you are so getting into bed right now"
When Luz woke up she could vaguely remember Red tucking her in but not much else. It was dark out but there was a lamp on somewhere near her. She turned groggily only to find Red sitting on the attic floor, scribbling something.
"W-what time is this?" she questioned.
"Not sure, somewhere near the evening I'd say" Red shrugged.
"Woah, what?!" she sat straight up "you've been here all the time?"
"Cant exactly head back without a ride. I mean I could, but.., your friend might be doing her stuff around the house and I won't interrupt"
Luz knew it wasn't about interrupting but said nothing. Instead, she got up and stretched.
"I'll give you a ride" she offered. "What is that though?"
The girl pointed at the papers and books lingering the floor. There was lot of them spread out around the light orb.
"Homework"
Luz couldn't understand why Red was so adamant about completing their homework as to do it in a strangers attic under a singular light orb. But there were more important things.
She decided to go check if Eda was around and get the older teen back home.
When she walked back up she informed her guest that it was all clear.
"And how do I wake him up?" she cringed realizing she forgot to ask about that. They were walking down the stairs, Red's papers packed back inside their bag. Luz was certain it had to be bigger inside for all the notes to fit, like in Harry Potter.
"Just perform the lullaby again. You might want to record it, I need to get the ukulele back as soon as I can" they threw over the shoulder, monitoring the room carefully. "Could you do it, like, now or...?"
Luz nodded, taking the ukulele and rumaging for a decent recorder. It was easy to find human devices around the house. Most of them were useless, but the girl managed to fix some of them. Conviniently a simple recorder was one of them.
The issues started when the witches started to look around for the lyrics.
"I swear they were somewhere here" Luz scratched the back of her neck nervously. "But it's not all lost, right? You'll just write some and-"
"I can't! I can't!" Red was becoming more frantic. "I didn't memorize the lyrics, they have to be the same ones we used earlier"
Luz's eyes widened and she sprinted to the door, meanwhile Red was rumaging through Eda's living room. They heard Luz come back in, without turning they muttered.
"I hope you have some good news because if the Owl Lady finds out you put down her beloved pet-"
"King is not a pet" Luz huffed. "King is my and Eda's family"
"...Like that makes it any better"
Luz sat down next to King, petting his fur. Upon seeing that her panicked state had turned into a resigned one Red sat down next to her. Luz didn't comment on the disgusted face the older teen made when touching Eda's couch.
"Hooty ate it" Luz muttered, not looking at her companion.
"Who did what?"
"Hooty, that Owl on the door decided to 'do some cleaning'. He was able to cought up my sketchbook" she pulled out a slimy looking notebook. "But not the song"
"Oh" Red let out softly.
"I knew it, I should have listened to Willow... Now I hurt King and we can't reverse it. If only Eda was here"
"Are you joking? Don't you think she'll get like, super mad? She took you in, you're basically her kid now. I'd rather run away and live life incognito than tell my mom that I made Katya sleep forever" There was immense worry in their voice, but soon their face lit up. "Maybe you can fix it without her finding out? We'll go to a healer in the morning or ask my sister if she can help. And until then, just try to distract the Owl Lady"
"I don't think I like that idea..." Luz grimaced, glancing at the sleeping demon.
"Come on. Try to get a good grade, do something that would make her like you more. Meanwhile we fix things on our own! I don't know what makes criminals happy... Steal something perhaps?"
"And how would that be any better?"
"You don't put your bond on the line. Your reputation as her sort-of-family. If they catch you, you'll get hurt in the worst case" They shrugged. Luz did not like that at all. Getting hurt just not to lose in Eda's eyes was ridiculous. There were more important things than making Eda proud. Besides, she wouldn't stop liking her over a mistake. Right?
That helped Luz to make up her mind. She grabbed Red's wrist and dragged them out of the house.
"Hooty! Where's Eda?" they shouted.
"Still over at the market. Hoot, hoot!" the worm demon responded confused. "And what is your issue? Hoot, hoot? Maybe I could help you, Luz and Luz's friend? Dealing with issues together helps build familial bonds and-"
But Luz was already dragging Red towards the town.
They ran as fast as they could, which meant that after some time Red was dragging her, though they didn't know what was about to happen.
"Edaaa!" Luz yelled out, entering the market. It was well into the evening which meant that all the shady sort was out, crowding the streets. Red squeezed her hand, making Luz realize that they have been holding hands for God knows how long.
Over the crowd Red noticed a fluffy mess that without a doubt was the Owl Lady's hair. They haistated, but nudged Luz to point towards it.
Pulling their hair to the front they let Luz drag them towards the stand.
"Eda!" the younger girl leaped towards her mother figure. Red let go of her hand, putting some distance between them. Every time a witch or a demon pushed through, touching them, they fixed the hair around their ears.
"Can't you be any louder kid?" the Owl Lady chuckled ruffling Luz's hair. "I'm kind of trying to lay low here"
"Can't exactly be incognito with a sign like that" the human girl pointed above their heads towards a neon sign.
"The nights are safer here, the guards leave us alone for the most part. If we don't draw attention to ourselves that is" the woman shrugged. "And what is up with you two?"
Luz took a deep breath, quickly letting out words that fully made sense only to her. When she finished, Eda was frowning.
"...and that's why me and Red had to get to you. I'm so sorry! I know I should have talked it out. But now I know and that's why I'm ready to face any concequences of my actions. I didn't mean to hurt King or you" Luz shut her eyes, waiting for the outcome Red had predicted. When nothing of that kind came, she looked back up. Eda ran her hand over her face, eyeing first her and then Red. As soon as her golden eyes landed on the other teen the redheaded witch squealed.
"Look kid, I'm not exactly thrilled about you trying to put King to sleep like that" Luz gulped. "But I apprecieate that you came here to tell me. I was the younger sibling in my house, I know how siblings are. A few stupid failed charms isn't going to ruin our lives"
Luz sighed deeply.
With a few swift hand motions the whole stand was gone. Eda reached her hand out and called for her palisman.
"Can't believe your smarty pants friend didn't try to reach into your memories" Eda joked glancing at Red. She turned to the younger girl "You have some experience with that too, huh?"
Luz smiled, hopping onto the staff. She was happy to have Eda's help.
Red shuffled their feet.
"I, uhm" they cleared their throat. "I'll get going, no need for me to be there. My house is not too far away so... And I'll get the ukulele back tommorow"
Eda raised her eyebrows at them but ultimately let it go.
"Sure thing, golden ears! But you'll be missing a heartfelt sibling talk and my magnificent dinner" she winked. Red flushed, their nickname matching the hue of their cheeks.
"Sure... Good night, Owl Lady" they smiled at the human teen. "Good night, Luz"
"Good night, Red" Luz waved at their shrinking sillouette. Finally, she turned to face the direction in witch they flew, preparing herself for her talk with King.