Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Human rain wasn’t that bad, once they got used to it.

The light from a nearby street lamp bounced off of the water puddles on the street. The reflections twisted and rippled every time a set of boots hit the water, splashing it. Gus was the main offender when it came to these splashes, with Luz joining him most of the time. It was dark out, faint constellations could be made out if one looked close enough. Amity, Vee, and Camila sat inside and watched the others’ antics through the windows. They had placed some towels and warm drinks on the coffee table for the kids outside to have once they went in for the night. 

Hunter was in the front garden with Willow, watching her grow pretty human flowers just for the fun of it, reveling in the boost of magic the rain brought her. They had discovered that her magic was boosted when it rained, which was a welcome notion after the witches realized that their magic was solely pulled out of their bile sacs, causing them to become fatigued if too many spells were cast. Neither of them minded the mud staining their clothes too much, they were preoccupied by excitedly talking about plant magic. Every once and a while Gus or Luz would pull them out of the mud and bring them under the streetlamp to run or dance or laugh with them. Sometimes Gus would sit in the mud with the duo to join in on the conversation. 

Their situation wasn't great, but they all allowed themselves to pretend like the roaring of the rain was drowning it out, leaving the memories and nightmares to return when the rain wasn’t pounding on their heads. It felt like the rain was dancing with them at times, maybe it was.

Hunter picked himself up from the sodden earth below him, brushing the dirt off of his knees. So that was how it was going to be, huh? He picked up his weapon of choice, and ran over to the current source of his distress, poised to strike. His blow was interrupted by Luz walking out of the front door.

“Hunter! Lunch is ready!” She cupped a hand around her mouth, although it wasn’t really necessary, he was standing in the driveway. She looked over towards the driveway in question to see Hunter holding a mop over his head, aimed at her mom’s car. “Uhm, whatttt are you doing?” She was holding a glass of brown liquid with cubes of frozen water in one hand, she used the other for gesturing towards the mop in Hunter’s hands.

“I’ve given myself the task of cleaning Mrs. Camila’s car, although it has been putting up quite the fight,” Hunter lowered the mop but didn’t completely relax out of his combative stance. Luz walked down the steps of her house and stopped in front of the hood of the car. She knocked on the car twice and looked over at Hunter with a confused smile, “The car can’t hurt you Hunter, it’s not alive and it’s also been turned off.” 

Hunter’s cheeks began to heat up, “I knew that! I-I was just making sure!” Luz gave a small laugh and took the mop from his hand. “Also, you don’t clean cars with mops, I can help you get a towel and a bucket of soapy water after lunch,” Luz walked over to the garage door and leaned the mop against it. Both Hunter’s face and ears were burning hot now, which he was expertly hiding with his hand to his face.

“I saw Mrs. Camila using this to clean the kitchen floors, so I just assumed that it would also clean the car,” he mumbled. Luz grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from the driveway and towards the back of the house. “It’s fine, I wouldn’t expect you to know how to clean a car since this is the first one you’ve seen. Besides, my Mom will definitely appreciate the gesture.” She peeked around the side of the house to see Willow working in the garden.

 “You need to let Willow know that it’s time for lunch, kay?” She half-whispered to Hunter, wrapping her free arm around his shoulders. “Why me? You came out here to tell me, why can’t you do the same for her?” He whispered, confused. Luz didn’t reply, instead giving him a smile that he couldn’t decipher and a shove out from their hiding spot towards where Willow was sitting. Hunter stumbled a bit from the unexpected push, and turned around to see that Luz was already gone. Oh he was so going to confront her about this later.

Hunter walked slowly towards where Willow was crouching, not wanting to distract her from the garden when she was so focused on her work. Willow had mentioned wanting to work on the garden behind the house so that it would match the front, and Mrs. Camila granted her creative freedom to do whatever she wanted to the neglected plants yesterday. Since then, it had become her pet project.

He placed a hand on Willow’s shoulder, not knowing how else to get her attention. Her head whirled around and she created half a spell circle before realizing who it was that placed their hand on her shoulder. “Oh, Hunter! You surprised me.” She lowered her hand to her knees to brush off any dirt that had accumulated on her overalls while she was on the ground, standing up to meet his gaze. “Sorry Will, Luz brought me to help her tell you lunch was ready and then ditched me at the last minute. I didn’t really know any other way to get your attention.” He brought a hand up to scratch the back of his head awkwardly. “No, it’s fine. I was just about to wrap up and check in on how lunch was going anyways. Amity’s helping Camila with making it today, isn’t she?” Willow began the walk over to the backdoor but stopped and looked back at where Hunter was standing. She held out a hooked arm for him, and he ran over to hook his with hers. “So I’ve heard, she’d only mentioned it twenty times at breakfast this morning.”

Hooking arms, they continued the short journey to the Noceda’s backdoor. This was one of the many ways Willow and Gus accommodated Hunter’s sensitivity in his hands. They had both noticed it a while back and asked him what they could do to make sure that they didn’t harm him. Hunter still felt warm whenever one of them extended an arm rather than a hand, he had never really had someone make active efforts to ensure that he was being accommodated before he met those two. 

A smile tugged on his lips as he entered the busy kitchen with one of his best friends at his side. 

“Is everyone alright?” A woman’s voice shouted, muffled by the fact it was coming from a strange cube. A chorus of unfamiliar and familiar voices replied, or maybe they didn’t, it was hard to tell.

King watched the strange colors swirl around the cube, the dim light it emitted lit everything in close proximity to it. He vaguely remembered Luz mentioning seeing them somewhere, but remembering that wouldn’t do him any good now.

He didn’t recognize where he was anymore, the Head had been turned into a labyrinth of starry-themed hallways. The Collector was somewhere in the maze with him, but they had left down a dark hallway with only the explanation that he was making sure that they had everything needed to play ‘owl house’. King didn’t know where the door went, but he was pretty sure that it was somewhere in the heart of the newly-made labyrinth.

King was unsure what scared him more, the loneliness of his sister and friends all stranded in the Human Realm, or the Collector’s promise that he wouldn’t be entirely alone for long.

Gus was having what might be the most fun he’s ever had, well, at least compared to the events of the past few weeks. 

After lunch, Luz had offered to take him with her to the library while she dropped off some overdue books. She had told him that there would be a lot of books on giraffes and that the library would also have resources to help him gain a better understanding of human culture. After borrowing Camila’s library card (Luz had apparently had hers revoked after something called “The Snake Incident” last summer) they both walked to the library. 

It was hot out, the pavement outside burned Gus’ heels every time one of his feet fell out of the “flip-flops” that Luz had handed to him. They were flimsy, but they kept his feet safe from the burning sidewalks well enough. Luz was a few steps in front of him, pointing out certain things on other people’s properties and answering all of Gus’ questions about them. 

Once they had finally reached the building, Luz pulled Gus over to a section of the many shelves that had a large sign reading “non-fiction” overhead. “Books on giraffes should be in this general area, you can look for them while I go return these books,” she gestured to the bag she had placed all of her books into at home and taken with her, “to the book baskets. You’ll be fine as long as you keep your headphones on your ears and pretend to not be able to hear anyone else. But if you do need me I’ll be over by the entrance.” 

Gus nodded and watched as Luz snuck over to the basket labeled “children’s books”, careful to not be spotted by the human over by the counters. He assumed that the librarian must still have a grudge against her for “The Snake Incident”. 

Eventually, he found the section of the shelves with books about giraffes and other creatures of the Human Realm. Gus went to reach for a promising-looking book titled “All About Giraffes” but realized that he was too short to get ahold of the book’s spine. 

Maybe I should ask Luz to help me, Gus thought, but looking back at the front of the library he saw that both Luz and the librarian were gone. He stood on the tips of his toes, jumped as high as he could, and even tried to climb on the shelves (he quickly stopped when another librarian glared at him) but nothing worked. 

“Do you need any help bud?” Gus turned around to see a human behind him, a man with brown hair, glasses, and quite possibly the ugliest soul patch he had ever seen (he wasn’t going to mention it though). 

“Oh, uhm, yes. I can’t reach the book I want,” the man chuckled a bit and easily swiped the book that Gus was trying to grab from the shelf. “This is the one you wanted, right?” Gus nodded and the man handed him the book which he eagerly took. It was then that Gus remembered that Luz had told him not to interact with anyone else if he could help it. Well, it was too late to do anything now.

“Do you work here? You don’t have a name tag,” Gus asked him. The man looked down at the left of his jacket where a name tag would have been placed, and smiled at Gus. “Nope, I’m just the friendly guy who works at the Gravesfield Historical Society, the name’s Jacob. Jacob Hopkins,” he stuck out his hand and Gus switched the book between his hands in order to shake it with his own. 

“My name is Augustus Porter, but most people call me Gus,” Jacob shook his hand for a few more seconds than necessary, only letting go when a voice shouted “GUS LET’S GET OUT OF HERE” from the front of the library. “I guess that’s my cue, thanks for your help Jacob!” he began to jog over to where Luz was nervously jogging in place by the entrance. Jacob shouted from behind him, “Don’t mention it, you and your friends can always stop by the historical society if you need anything!”

Luz grabbed Gus’s free hand and started to run out of the library. “So! Looks like you made a friend,” Luz said breathily. “Yeah! He seems pretty nice.” Gus looked behind him to see a very upset librarian standing outside of the library entrance. “Wait a second Luz, I never got to check out my book, where’s the library card?”

Luz’s running came to a screeching halt and she looked at Gus with a face that could mean only one thing. Fuck.

Yeah, with a possibly stolen library book tucked under one arm, one of his best friends holding onto his hand as they reluctantly walked back to the library, and possibly a new friend at the historical society (maybe he should take Hunter there sometime), Gus was having a very fun day.

Something strange happened when the Day of Unity became the night. 

Eda was sitting on a cot in a large tent, observing the commotion around her. Tensions were still high, but most (save for a few coven heads and firm loyalists to Belos who fled the scene shortly after everyone snapped back into reality) people agreed that it would be best to set aside their differences and focus on taking care of those who were badly hurt by their sigils or who were harmed by the stampede that had formed near the gates. From what she could see up above, many people had attempted to run during the draining spell and the large crowd was stuck in the enclosed space due to the abomatons at the exits. This led to some unfortunate people being trampled by others.

Eda watched as those who felt well enough to use their magic did their best to help others. She had shown some people who were more trusting how to use glyphs, and had left a pile of premade ones for those who were less trusting of her to use if they wanted. A thick blanket was wrapped around her, courtesy of a kind stranger. Despite her protest Raine had insisted that she was grouped with those who had suffered major injuries, citing her arm (or rather her lack of one) and the curse as their justification. They and the other coven heads were also put into that group due to their sigils being drawn on more that most other witches’. Raine was sitting next to her, with their branded arm wrapped around her. Whether the support was for her or them, she didn’t know. 

When the day had become night, it began to rain. They all frantically brought everything under sturdy cover as best they could, but were surprised. The rain wasn’t boiling. When some more daring witches stuck their hands under the downpour, they found that it was cold. And so, everyone slowly returned to the tents that had been set up a few hours earlier. The roaring fires that were previously outside had to be removed and were replaced by light glyphs and candles inside tents.

As Eda sat on the cot watching the non-boiling rainfall, with the entire world as she had known it upturned, she began to think. It was more of a musing to both her and Raine really, they both had agreed to be more open with one another after she and her kids had joined the CATTS. And so, she whispered. And they listened.

Maybe Belos, for all his manipulation and lies, was somewhat correct about them all becoming closer with the Titan. Because it seemed like he was determined to protect his children, if only for that terrible, terrible night. 

Chapter Text

Thunder and lightning had a tendency of inciting two different reactions. The first being a state of panic, the loud noises and rattling winds from a thunderstorm can make even the most strong-willed person shake. There is no reasoning with the downpour, with the howls of the wind and the crackling of thunder. The second being calm, there is a sense of calm that can be brought from witnessing a force so violent from nature. It serves as a reminder that no matter how evil and powerful sentient beings may be, the forces of nature will always prevail.

It seemed that the Human Realm and the Demon Realm weren’t too different, because the rain still incited these reactions in the teens sleeping in the living room. Gus, Hunter, and Willow were packed together in the window seat, watching the rivulets of water travel down the glass. Gus was curled up between Hunter and Willow, his face buried into the plush hippo that Willow had won for him at the fair. Willow rubbed his back soothingly, sometimes drumming her fingers to the rhythm of the storm. Hunter held one of each of their hands. 

Luz and Amity were sleeping on the couch together, limbs tangled together under their shared blanket. Every once and a while Luz would fade back into consciousness and peek over at the trio by the window to check if they were safe. Eventually, she looked down and kissed the forehead of the witch sleeping in her arms, sinking back into sleep. Gus fell asleep once the storm became calmer, and Hunter joined him not too long after. Willow looked at the boys beside her and over at the girls on the couch, they were all somewhat soundly asleep. She sighed and watched another bolt of lightning light up the sky, falling asleep last.

The old door creaked as a hand turned the knob and opened it slowly.

There was no portal behind it, no fantasy world. Just rotting wood and deteriorating furniture. She knew that was what she would find when she opened it, but she still went to that house every single day. Sometimes someone would join her, but not as much as they used to. Sometimes it felt like Luz was the only one trying anymore. Which wasn't fair to her friends at all, they were still trying to adjust to this new world that they had been violently thrust into. But it often felt like that was all they had time for these days. Vee couldn’t come with her, she had school and homework and her friends from summer camp to hang out with. Amity couldn’t come either, she was learning recipes from Camila or was binging movies with Willow. Hunter couldn’t come with her, he was out learning how to drive, or he was at the library with Gus. Gus couldn’t come with her, he was reading or was learning how to ride a bike. Willow couldn’t come, she was working on the back garden or was exercising.

Luz knew that they were trying to make time for trying to get back to the Boiling Isles, back home, but she still had a pit of some uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. Luz closed the door and jumped over the hole on the second step, just like she did everyday. As she walked back to her house, she saw Camila and Gus in the driveway, with her old bike in Gus’s hands. Oh, right, Gus had a bike-riding lesson today (why did he need multiple lessons Luz didn’t know), Luz had forgotten that a lesson was today. He had said that he wanted to be able to get around town quickly, for what reason Luz didn’t know. But it was a good skill for him to have nonetheless. Luz climbed the front steps just as Gus fell off of the bike and onto the wet driveway pavement. She winced in sympathy and opened the house door.

Inside, Amity and Willow were watching a movie that Luz had recommended. They were sharing a bowl of popcorn with both sets of eyes glued to the TV screen. Luz smiled at their enjoyment of the movie (it was one of her favorites) and walked to her- no, her and Vee’s room. She was surprised to see that Hunter was sitting in there. Rather, he was sprawled on Vee’s bed with a Nintendo Swap in his hands and his feet resting on top of the headboard. “What’re you doing?” Luz asked, walking over to the bed. “Vee introduced me to this game called Animal Crossing, I’m trying to catch a fish,” Ah “She was helping me, but left to get iced tea.” 

Luz sat with her legs crisscrossed next to Hunter on the bed, watching him play the game. “I’m supposed to get some fish for this Blathers guy, but they run- swim away from me before I can get them.” He moved the screen closer to her face so that she could better see his predicament. “Oh, I see what’s going on. You actually need to.…” Luz took the device from his hands and began to demonstrate how to play, her thoughts of the abandoned house fading away.

Camila walked inside and took off her shoes, greeting the two girls watching a movie on the TV as she walked past the living room. Gus had assured her that he had gotten the hang of bike riding, and so she went back inside to fold the rest of the laundry she had started that morning. Camila went to walk past Luz and Vee’s room, but heard someone else’s voice in there. Curious, she opened the door to see Luz and Hunter excitedly talking about something while Hunter was playing a game on her Swap. Camila smiled at the pair, and went back to her room. It was nice to see that her daughter was keeping her mind off of things for a while. If only she could do the same.

The blue bike shined in the afternoon sun, quickly speeding past house after house. 

It had taken him time, but eventually Gus had gotten the hang of riding Luz’s old bike (without the need for training wheels!). His destination was the park, Camila had given him some money for helping with chores and he was determined to visit the ice cream truck that Luz and Vee had mentioned. Its most frequent location was the park, at least according to the two girls. It would also be a good opportunity to explore the town more, he figured that the park would be a great place to take Willow for a run or a picnic. She seemed to be a bit tired of being cooped up in the same garden every day. Maybe he could also take Luz with them for a picnic, it felt like forever ago since it had just been them as a trio.

The cold wind hitting his face and the occasional shadow from a tree’s branches passing over him were the only things cooling him down. It was getting later in the afternoon, Gus estimated that he would arrive back at the house an hour or so before dinner. He had been hoping to perfect learning how to ride a bike sooner so that he wouldn’t be too full for dinner (he would never pass up the chance to try a new human dish), but settled on ending Camila’s lesson early instead.

The trip to the park was made relatively short thanks to the bike, but Gus was prevented from fully enjoying the end of it when he realized that he cut the lesson right before Camila could show him how to stop the bike. He ended up with a scrape on his knee and a few scrapes on his hands from catching himself on the asphalt. He winced, seeing the raw skin after he brushed the small rocks off of him. But, he still made it to the park all by himself, so he was considering it a success! 

There was a surprisingly large amount of people out, Gus could see a few kids that were maybe the same ages as Luz and Willow. They were sitting under a tree playing with what looked like… Hexes Hold’em cards? Maybe he was just imagining it. There were some families having late-afternoon picnics with their kids, a playground where children were running around, and a white van! When he looked up what ice cream trucks look like, pictures of white vans were some of the first results. And so, Gus walked with his bike over to the truck.

Instead of seeing a menu of cold treats on the other side, he just saw large wording that read: Gravesfield Historical Society.

Gus remembered the guy that he had met at the library, who was a bit weird but had seemed nice enough. Gus noticed some metal bars that were in a squiggle, and saw that there were many bikes like his placed there. Gus walked the blue bike over to it and took off his helmet, since he couldn’t take it everywhere with him while he looked for the ice cream truck. While he was placing the bike down, he started thinking. This definitely wasn’t the first time he had seen the truck, was it? It looked too familiar for him to have not. His ruminating was interrupted by the melodic sound of an ice cream truck. Gus left the bike area and jogged over to the correct truck.

When he returned to the bike with a popsicle poorly made in the likeness of a yellow TV show character, he noticed that the bike was in a different position than when he had left it. Looking over it, nothing seemed out of place. The plastic tassels and teal zip-up pouch were intact as well. Maybe someone had mistaken his bike for theirs and returned it to the rack once they realized their mistake? Gus finished the popsicle and threw the wooden stick into a nearby trash can. He then put on his helmet and hopped onto the bike, riding back home to treat his scrapes and have dinner.

King observed as The Collector threw another cube at the wall in frustration. They hadn’t brought anyone with them when they returned, instead they told him that they were as bound to him as he was to them. This meant that King couldn’t go anywhere that they didn’t want to go and vice versa. He explained it to King with the metaphor that their pinky swear created an invisible string that was tied to both of their fingers, they were both connected and had to go where the other went. But, neither of them could force the other to go anywhere without serious pain or even ripping off the pinky in serious cases. 

And so, King watched the child of the stars who once thought that they had all the freedom in the world throw a tantrum over the realization that they had just been placed into a bigger cage. When he had asked him why they didn’t just force King to go with them, despite the consequences, The Collector told him that it was no fun to play with a broken toy. King suspected that there was more to it than that, but he didn’t mention it again. He hoped that Eda and Luz were doing better than him.

Amity ran from one part of the kitchen to the other, quickly following the tasks that Camila had asked of her. 

They were making pizza that night, by request of Luz. She had mentioned missing the food and Camila offered to make it for her child. Normally Camila would enlist the help of one of the kids when making dinner, with Amity being the main one to offer help. This time was no different, Amity of course volunteered first to help make it. She wanted to be able to make human dishes for Luz once (it was always once, never if. That was the first new household rule they had all decided on) they returned to the Demon Realm. She didn’t know how Luz’s home situation would work out in the end, but she still wanted to be prepared.

It was also nice to be able to talk to Camila. Amity’s mother had never been the most maternal towards her or her siblings, but Camila gave affection like it was nothing. She would praise Amity for doing well with tasks and gave her so many pet names it was hard to remember them all. It was nice. That particular night, Amity had been tasked with getting the ingredients and placing them on the premade crusts Camila bought from the store, with Camila’s guidance of course. Camila normally was the one to handle the stove and oven, but occasionally she would show Amity how to use them. 

After watching the pizzas be placed in the oven, Amity dutifully washed and dried her hands and walked into the living room in time to be met with Willow and Vee giving Gus bandages on the couch. “What happened to you?” She rested both arms on the back of the couch looking down at the box of bandaids that featured a white cat with a bow. “I fell while riding Luz’s bike at the park.” Amity winced in sympathy and sat down near the edge of the couch where Ghost was curled up. The palisman stretched and moved to sit on her lap while Amity used the remote to put something on the TV. “Any ideas for what to watch?” She asked no one in particular. “How do you feel about a Pixar movie? Fair warning though, you’ll probably cry during it.” A voice came from the hall. Amity turned to see Luz and Hunter walk into the living room, Hunter’s gaze fixed on a device with red and blue sticks attached to it. 

“Sure, but we’ll have to watch the majority of it after dinner, the oven just beeped in the kitchen” Vee said. Sure enough, Camila called for the kids to come and set the table. As everyone walked to the kitchen, Amity fell back to fall into rhythm with Luz. “Hey, if you ever need to talk, I’m right here. You know that right?” She intertwined her fingers with Luz’s and smiled. “You’ve been going to the abandoned house every day now, why don’t you take a break for just tomorrow. We could go on that slice-of-life date that you promised me.” Luz’s lips pressed together in a tight line, but Amity squeezed her hand and it slowly turned into a small smile mirroring Amity’s. “Sure Ams.”

And so, the two girlfriends walked into the kitchen with each other, hand in hand.

A bunny hopped in front of the door of what most thought to be an abandoned building. It was a small, brown little thing, the kind that you would see a small child caring for. That was, until a grotesque claw made of mud and flesh appeared and left nothing but a puddle of crimson on the old, rotting wood. 

With every passing day, he grew stronger. In both worlds. And he had already found the perfect new host for this one. He just had to wait.

The clouds in the sky rumbled and water droplets, not boiling- but cold, fell. The blood began to be washed away. In a few days time, anyone who came to the house would be none the wiser. They wouldn't suspect a thing.

Yes, the thunder and lightning may be a force of nature not to be trifled with, but perhaps the real force to fear is the pure malice that sentience can bring. Because there is always a way for the malicious to bounce back, you just have to wait.

Phillip certainly was.