Chereads / Boiling Gems (The Owl House x Steven Universe) / Chapter 5 - Chapter 5: Now We Flock Together

Chapter 5 - Chapter 5: Now We Flock Together

Summary: The first meeting of a girl and a boy from opposite worlds.

"You have your escape routes memorized?" Eda asked. Every few months she sent her son on a special mission that he and only he could do. A mission that she could never in a million years ever hope to accomplish herself.

"I have a small fort set up in the tree from the last time I was there and that little burrow you made when you were my age."

"Snacks so you have something to eat other than whatever tonic she wants you to taste test?" Something so diabolical that no living thing could ever hope to come out unscathed, an evil older than witches themselves.

"I got manticore jerky to last me until dinner and four packs of Lion Lickers."

"And finally, do you have that protective ward?" She confirmed his last line of defense.

"It's for a day, not a weekend. I don't need to sic Hooty on her." Lucci rolled his eyes. "I know Grandma is pushy, but she's not outright lethal."

"Easy for you to say, kid. You got the spoiled grandchild status, you get the tame version of what she's usually like." Every now and again, Eda agreed to have Lucci visit Gwendolyn for the day. It was the only thing that prevented her mother from coming around so often with faux cures.

"You know you say that, but she is half convinced the rock in my belly is going to give me 'nasty side effects' in my late twenties." Lucci grumbled. "I'd rather not cut out …" He paused. "Did we ever get an inside-view to figure out how deep into my organs it actually goes?"

"That would be the healing coven's department, and we're not exactly welcomed around any members since the parade incident." Making an arch enemy at the age of four, she was proud to call Lucci her kid. "Either way, don't listen to the old bat on medical advice. She's entering that certain age where she doesn't know what she's talking about."

"I won't." He rolled his eyes, about to walk away, but paused. "Um … Grandpa said he'd like to see you soon."

Eda found herself freezing in place. Of course her dad would've met Lucci by now. "Oh yeah…did he say anything else?"

"No…just that he's not angry..never said what about but it seemed private." Lucci sighed and Eda felt some internal doubt well up in her. 

She still never told her kid about the curse, and by proxy, never told Lucci about his healing spit either, which Eda found out over the years acted erratically at best. Some days it held back the curse for almost half a week, others it was just normal drool. 

Eda thought about having him heal her dad hundreds of times…but she always held back. Maybe she was worried it wouldn't work. Maybe she was just too selfish to let Lucci heal anyone else. Or maybe she was worried her kid might be a target to higher ups if it was ever found out. Either way, she was never going to say a word.

"I know what he's talking about …" Eda gripped her hand tight. "Don't worry about it, I'll try and send a message … sometime." She ruffled his hair. "Now try and have fun, and remember what I told you to do if you meet a sucker on the way."

"It's not a main priority, but a side benefit of spending money."

"Aughta boy." She smirked. "Off ya go, good luck dealing with the crazy broad."

"Bye mom!" He waved as he ran away. Eda kinda missed it when he called her mama.

She took a few moments of silence, breathing in deeply. "How come I never hang with Grandma?" And exhaled at King's question.

"Because I can't run this shack alone you know." She wasn't against seeing King as her son, Lucci most certainly saw him as a little brother, but he tended to try and act more like an adult half the time, especially with his 'king of demons' power hungry rants. "And we gotta hatch a plan to get back your crown, remember?" She wanted to keep the little guy happy, so she obliged with his make-believe, if only for the chaos that came along with it.

"Easy. If the door can't be entered by witches, then we just need to destroy the door." He responded. "So let's burn down the conformetorium."

"King, you know how I am about arson." A favorite pastime, especially when its the Emperor's Coven. "But the conformetorium is home to weirdos just like us. Wouldn't be right to take them out too." She could cash in so many favors if she started a prison break.

"Aw, but flesh makes good kindling." It was harder to know who the bigger sadist was between her and King.

"Anyways, there's an easy option to take. It can't be entered by witches, so we just have to take someone who's not a witch and have them enter." There was a chance that Lucci could do it, but that was precisely why she had him visit her mom today of all days.

"So me then?" King asked. "Since I'm a demon, and not a witch." 

"No, No, they'll expect you …" She tapped her foot. Plus she had no idea what King was, aside from adorable. "We need someone with no sentimental value, an unexpected X factor …"

"Hoot." She looked over at her returning palismin …

"Give it back!" Fighting with a human girl. Guess Owlbert left the door open…again. Why did she keep forgetting birds had no thumbs?

On the plus side … that answered all her problems. "Hello there, little lady." Eda grinned. "May I ask what you're doing with my merchandise?"

"Taking back what he stole from me! I'm not going to leave this cabin…this wide space cabin with a sky and buildings and…people with pointy ears….huh?"

Using the girl's confusion, she pressed onto the key she kept on her neck, the door folding up and flying straight into her hands. "'Yep, you're not on your planet anymore." She grinned. 

"Not on my planet anymore … did I die!?" The girl screamed. "Is this..the bad place?"

"You wish." Eda snorted. "Welcome to the Boiling isles." She waved her hand, sparkles coming off the air. "Home to witches and magic."

"Witches and magic…Magic's real..,Magic's actually real!?" The girl shrieked in excitement. "An entire dimension full of magic, adventure, and terrifying demons!?"

"Yes, and I am the most terrifying demon of them all!" King jumped out of her hair and began going into adorable tyrant mode. "I am king of all demons, you shall show your gratitude with offerings of sweets and compliments about my complexion!"

The girl looked at the little guy for two seconds before squeezing in delight. "You are sooooo CUTE!!!" She grabbed King and nuzzled her found face across his boney head.

"Unhand me!" The little tyke shouted. "Do not call me cute!"

"Aww, your angry shouts are like a mean little kitten! Who's my widdle guy, you are, yes you are!"

"No! Not me! I don't know your widdle guy!!" King tried to slip out of the grip. "Eda, incinerate this monster before her affection kills me!"

"Now King, why would I incinerate the answer to our problems?" She smirked. "After all, the little human here is gonna be our ticket inside."

"Ticket, inside? These words intrigue me yet I feel mildly afraid." The human looked at her curiously. Looks like she had another sucker hook, line, and sinker.

"Eda the Owl Lady, you're hereby under arrest by the decree of Emperor Belos!" Turning her head, she saw a coven goon make his way over to her stand.

"Looks like I'll have to fly and explain, come on!" Eda grabbed the human by the arm and hopped them both on her staff. "Basically I'm an outlaw and we need you to help us steal something."

"Witch Criminal, just like in Azura three!" The girl said with wide eyes and an all too gleeful look.

"Yep. And if you don't help, I'm not gonna let you back into the human realm." Eda smirked. "And if you get the job done right, you can have your stuff back."

"Wait … are you blackmailing me!?"

"Witch Criminal, remember?" She snickered. "That's sort of my whole deal…but don't say I'm kidnapping you, there's rumors about me as it is."

"You just made it feel more like a kidnapping by explaining it." The human raised an eyebrow. This was gonna be a long heist, wasn't it?

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Lucci may have found it difficult to make friends, but he had no trouble accepting family. Mom was the best teacher, teaching him the best life skills one need, like the right amount of oil to cover yourself in while crawling through a tight space. King was the best hype man and had boundless confidence, and Hooty was funny and always put a smile on his face.

Aunt Lilly… was a small pain to be honest. She was always trying to tell him that what he was doing was wrong, and that he should focus on having a normal life, and join the Emperor's Coven. But Mom said deep down she cared, and technically she could have brought Cuttie straight to them … so he trusted his Aunt enough.

Grandpa was quiet and simple. A lot of the time he spent with Grandpa Dell was planting trees and enjoying the small moments of quiet gentleness that the isles rarely had most of the time. Lucci didn't mind though, every know and again it was fun to not have to run all the time. Grandpa didn't even mind when Lucci stared a little too much at the nasty scar all over his arm, jovially saying it was from a carving incident.

As for Grandma Gwen…she was a mixed bag that sort of baffled him. He could tell from the look in her eyes that she clearly loved and cared for her family…though her entire focus half the time seemed to be solely on talking about Mom. "Did you know your mother used to be top of her class back in Hexide?" Like right now, in fact.

She had a tendency to ramble and hyper focus on Mom, not even mentioning Aunt Lilly. Sure he wasn't a huge fan of the woman, but it wasn't like Mom forgot King existed … Hooty sometimes, but not King. "Really? From what mom told me, she spent most of the time making the classrooms explode."

"She did do that, about thirty three times to be precise, but she was always so curious about how magic worked when she was younger, and very eager to learn." Grandma smiled fondly as she directed a swarm of fire bees. "A lot of her incidents were because she was always experimenting with different types of magic."

"Right, school is evil and tells you to only focus on one type of magic." He nodded.

"Just because you're only allowed to study one type of magic in school, it doesn't automatically mean it'll be the one you'll use for your whole life." Grandma explained. "There are multiple chances to change tracks and experience other types of magic. The problem was your mother wasn't as … patient as that and tended to take things too far."

"Was it the stealing from her classmates or the graffiti?" Lucci asked, feeling curious about what she was detailing.

"More like pulling out the teacher's teeth and creating indoor painbows in the gymnasium." Grandma sighed. "Experimenting is fine and good, but you shouldn't have to put bystanders in danger."

"True, I wanted to be seen as a criminal, not a monster." It was like the difference between heroes and pirates.

"And you don't have to join a coven automatically once you graduate, for some people it takes years to finally decide." Grandma continued. "I was actually covenless for over twenty years before I joined beast keeping."

"Really?" He never knew that. Grandma didn't seem like the rebellious type to him. "Why so long?"

"I just never thought too seriously before I guess. I had my Dell and my children, so I didn't crave much more than that." She sighed. "Although I hear the maximum age to choose is getting shorter and shorter these days." That just seemed like more of a reason to not join school or a coven, but he wouldn't argue with her about it too much. "Anyways, I take it you're interested in more than one type of magic yourself?"

"Yeah, I've been practicing bard with an acquaintance for a while now, she makes it really fun to learn." Skara always called him her friend, and it always had him feel split. She was nice and hadn't abandoned him like Willow and Amity…but he's seen too many long cons to let his guard down again.

"Ooh, and is this 'acquaintance' someone special?" His grandma sent a teasing grin.

"Nah." He waved it off. "My type of woman is someone who commands absolute authority and earns everything with nothing but smarts and power." Lucci gave himself a dopey smile as he envisioned his three eyed goddess from the carnival. "A ruthless streak that will send all her enemies to the grave, while she cackles over their corpses with flaming passion."

Grandma looked at him for a second before laughing. "Your grandfather said similar words before we started dating."

Lucci blushed before shaking his head. "Anyways, I also thought about getting into potions a little. It's basically cooking bottles of magic, and that seems pretty fun."

Grandma's face seemed to twist in disgust after hearing him. "I wouldn't suggest it, too many chemicals and concoctions that a person could drink. So many side effects and not enough of a result." She said darkly. "The people who make them are the lowest of the low money sucking parasites that parade the streets and give good honest witches false hope for something better."

"You do realize mom sells potions on the side, right?" Lucci asked his grandmother.

"And how many of them are just cons?" Grandma Gwen countered.

Lucci lifted up a finger to protest, but slowly brought it down. "I just assumed mom's entire career was being a professional liar." It was good when someone deserved it, but he didn't want to intentionally sell poison to neutral people.

"Now beast keeping on the other hand is essentially the same process but completely all natural, you become one with nature and get to work with so many fascinating creatures." She whistled and summoned a Snorse (snake horse, a bit on nose name wise but appropriate), and bowed to grandma like she was royalty.

"Wow." Lucci looked at the beast with wide eyes. "I always wanted animal friends, but everything either tries to eat me or run away." He said. "Except that 'cat' Mom brought home once, it was friendly … then a wolf snagglebeast ate it."

She smiled, patting his head. "The Boiling isles has a very different structure compared to the Human World, it needs an authority to command beasts." Wow, mom must have been an ultra god of lying to convince grandma of the human realm. "I assumed most of my command through brutally maiming my victims."

"Now you sound like my mom's mama." He laughed, gently rubbing the snorse's head, which for once didn't try to bite his hand off. "And you work with these little guys all the time?"

"That's right kiddo. Do it right and you can have a entire city's worth of loyal companions that'll help you till the day you die." The fire bees landed on her arm, not stinging or burning her. "And they keep you in tremendous shape trying to keep up with them."

Well he technically already could keep up with them, having a life on the run and all… but animal companions DID sound really fun. "Alright, I think i'll give it a try." When he had a chance at least.

"That's all I ask." She nodded. "Now come on, you can't have spicy honey cake flambé without extracting the fire honey. It was your mom's favorite as a kid."

"Oh really?" Lucci thought about something for a second, wanting to see how far the mama love hole went down. "What was Aunt Lilly's?"

"A special scream cream recipe she made all on her own." The woman smiled fondly. "She's always so independent …" So grandma did love aunt Lilly. For a second, Lucci was starting to worry. "Reminds me of the time your mother mixed boom shrooms into her recipe. The house smelled like poison berry all week, and the bathroom was the worst.."

And it was back to Mom. No wonder Aunt Lilly had so many issues. He should get her something nice next time she tries to arrest mom.

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King thought the break in was going pretty well. A whole ten minutes and nobody tried to arrest them yet. That was a new record in the Clawthorne book. He even got his crown back, and with all the power it held inside, he would rule the world!

And it was all thanks to the human girl that they befriended and/or kidnapped, Luz, he thought her name was. Her noodly arms were weird and the smell of lemons and naive confidence flowed all over her body, but she proved to be an effective soldier for his army, and the belly rubs were greatly effective, even if King had to endure being called 'cute'.

So now all they had to do was leave, problem solved. At least, until Eda's head was chopped off by Warden Wrath. "Oh my god!" The human shouted one of their weird phrases. "You killed her!"

"Bleeeeh…" Eda followed through on the bit she always followed in this situation.

"Oh come on, it's not the first time someone's tried to decapitate her." The Warden groaned under his mask.

"Aww, learn to keep a bit will ya?" The Owl Lady rolled her eyes. "She was out of the loop."

"You're alive!?!?" Luz shouted in shock. It was just like when Lucci accidently knocked her head off. The fear was amusing but the screaming was annoying.

"Yeah, don't worry about it kid. This is just what happens when people become adults." Eda reassured.

"When my jaw is able to pop off, I'm gonna eat so many screaming people!" King shouted.

"I have so many questions, but none of them feel more appropriate than 'what now?'" The girl asked.

"Enough!" The warned commanded gruffly, grabbing Eda by the hair and plucking her decapitated head off. "Eda the Owl Lady, I finally have you in my grasp."

"Yeah, what exactly is that about? I never broke any of your dumb laws…none that anyone could personally attest to." The owl woman stated.

"You mean aside from being a Wild Witch?" The masked man raised a figurative eyebrow. "You've always evaded the law at every turn, being the one who always got away, until now." The man put his arm behind his back. "So that's why I must ask…" Everyone prepared for the killing blow. "Will you go out with me?" And brought out a boquet of roses.

There was a tense silence. "Is …" Luz started. "Is this natural here?"

"Like you wouldn't believe." King sighed. It was even worse when Lucci was trying to narrow down that dad list.

"Why in the name of the titan would I ever even consider that!? You just chopped off my head!" Eda shouted.

"Some animals in nature eat the head of those they love, I'd like to think I've been pretty reasonable so far." Warden Wrath justified. "And like I said earlier, you've survived worse."

"Oh sure, punching a girl you like is just as romantic as swaying her off her feet. Great logic there." Eda groaned. "Besides, I don't date Emperor goons with slimy tentacles for arms…never again." She shivered.

"Come on, dating me wouldn't be so bad. I can be a great role model for all the children you kidnap." The man begged.

"Wait, I thought I was the only one!" The human gasped. "Do you eat kids!?"

"Oh for the love of-I don't kidnap children!" The owl lady shouted indignantly. "And if one more person assumes that, I'm going to eat THEM instead!"

"You're really not helping your case here. If you hadn't noticed, you're all trapped right now and can't really do anything other than say yes." The warden justify. "So either agree, or you all go.." He grabbed Kings crown of power, and crumbled it to pieces.

"My power, my respect! Noooooooooo!" King shouted in defeat, already feeling his power and sense of importance fading away.

"Don't you ruin his adorable fantasy!" Luz jumped forward, punching his mask where the eye should be.

"..you really SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT!" The Warden shouted, flailing tentacles.

"Does this make thirty eight ex boyfriends?" King asked as Eda managed to grab her own head.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Eda shouted as she grabbed him and the kid. 

"This is seriously not how I imagined my first isekai adventure." Luz grumbled as they were flying out. "It's less fantastical and more medieval horror than what I was expecting."

"Life isn't a fantasy kid, it's everything at once!" Eda laughed as she got Owlbert to her side, jumping onto the staff. "Get on you two, we're riding out of here!"

"But what about everyone else still in prison?! They're just weirdos like me who did nothing wrong!" Luz shouted.

"Unless you packed some dynamite in that hoodie of yours, I don't think we'll be able to do much about it!" Eda shouted back.

"… Well the crown wasn't the only thing inside of that human only vault …" The kid laughed a bit nervously as she pulled out some rather large fireworks. "… You guys feeling decorative?"

"Wow, and here I thought humans were fragile sacks of meat that didn't have a backbone." King nodded, being very impressed.

"She'd fit right in with the rest of us misfits." Eda grinned. "Alright kids, buckle up, today is a festival of chaos!" A fun day indeed.

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Steve took a bite of his screamwitch. "Did you hear about the Coven Con rumors this year?" He asked his buddy. Technically it was only Lucci's mom that was wanted, as she was the only one with a wanted poster. Sure Lucci did participate from time to time, but he didn't want to give the kid too much grief. Wasn't his fault Eda kidnapped him.

"Eh, I don't really keep up with those kinds of news. My family's pretty isolated from town, so word's hard to come by." The kid answered as he took a bite of some spicy honey cakes with just a little bit of golden flame."

"Well, we in the Coven know Lilith is gonna show up." He answered. "But the surprising part is that people are saying she's bringing her 'pupil' to show off in the ceremony." Steve turned to the boy. "I didn't even know she had one."

"Amity's going to be there?" The kid's eyes widened for a second, before shaking it. "Wow, she actually survived being around Aunt Lilly for this long. Almost makes me want to see the end result."

"Oh, a Blight kid?" Steve asked in suprise. "I heard those guys are talented … if a bit jerky."

"Emphasis on jerk." Lucci grumbled. "Well it's not like I'm heading to Coven Con anyway … otherthantosnagfreemerch so, what's going on in your life?"

"Same old routine. Waking up at six am, spend the next four hours patrolling bones burrow before taking my post at the conformatorium." He nodded. "Though between you and me, Warden Wrath's a bit of a pain in the behind. Keeps stealing everyone's lunches too."

"Yeowch. There's being a bad boss and then there's just being a petty one." The boy nodded. "How about you start poisoning your lunches so whenever he steals it, the dude's stuck suffering?"

"No way. I mean, he probably deserves it, but I don't want him to suffer too much. I gotta be an example wearing this suit, you know?" Steve reaffirmed. "I got a little bro around your age and I want him to be on the right path."

The boy tilted his head. "But revenge is always a right path. It means punishing someone who deserves it." The guard almost forgot he was talking to the son (supposedly) of a criminal. The innocent face was far too misleading.

"Are you certain that you aren't kidnapped?" Steve asked. "I can get you somewhere safe if you ever need it."

"Nah, I'm my mom's son. It would be too weird to change anything about my life even if that was the case." The kid shrugged. 

"I get it. There's times where I think being in the emperors coven is just a little too hard, but then I imagine what life would be like if i hadn't joined. It's hard to picture, and my routines pretty set and stone by now." Steve nodded. "Plus I got to meet a lot of new people and explore the isles. I say I have a good life."

"You seem like such a well adjusted individual, why do you hang out in the Emperor's coven?" The boy asked.

"Well, because ever since I was young, Lilith's always been my idol." He responded. "Her perseverance and growth is astounding and inspiring … I wanna reach that one day, you know? See what I can grow into without giving up."

"I understand what you're saying, but if you ever said that in front of my mom, she'd assume you'd have a crush on her sister and punch you in the face."

"Doesn't she do that already?" Steve asked. "Like, every time she just shouts 'rocket fist' and shoots off her hand with fire."

"True, but she'd make it personal and actually try to knock your head off." Lucci explained. "And I know heads reattach, but it still looks painful."

"…Heads don't reattach, at least not normally."

"Right, and there really is a portal to the human realm and I have a giraffe living under my bed." The boy laughed.

"I'm serious man, the whole detaching thing isn't normal … I mean, you never detached, have you?"

"Not yet. My arms stretch and my neck extends, so I'm getting there, see?" With a little pink glow coming from the kid's stomach, his neck extended to a little above Steve's height before resetting itself. "It's hard to do it for long, but someday it'll come off."

He had so many questions, and he wasn't sure which ones were relevant. "… Just be careful." Steve asked of the child. "Kids like you should be in school and making friends, not constantly going off on the run."

"Why would I do something as terrible as making friends?" The boy grumbled. "All friends do is stab you in the back when they feel like you've done enough."

"… Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No." The boy responded in a tone that almost made him feel like Belos was present. "I got family and sociable aquantacenes like you to fill the void in my lonely heart."

Wow, way to make a guy feel special. "Mmm … so, are you gonna let us go?" Steve asked as he finished his sandwich, looking at the bubbles he and the rest of his coven were trapped in.

"I have to leave it around just long enough to head back to the Owl House, sorry." Lucci sighed as he hurled a giant sack four times the kid's side over his shoulder. "Don't worry, it'll fade away after an hour..probably." The kid turned around. "See yah at the same time next week."

"Probably …" He sighed. "This is not Steve's day."

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Luz looked down at the crumpled hat King was wearing. "It may not contain my powers, but a memento from my ancestors is still a memento." … So cute! This world may have not been everything she was hoping for, but there was real magic here! Have the fantastical isekai experience was better than nothing.

"You're an agent of chaos. I like that in a person." The Owl Lady cackled. "Alright, here's your bag of human treasure." She handed Luz back her trash bag. "Can I keep the tiny box that reflects only sadness?" She gestured to a broken tv.

"That's one way to describe a television." She laughed as she looked at her own reflection on the tv. Luz had fun today, more fun than she's ever had back home. Here her weirdness could assimilate easily with everyone else's. If she went back home, it would just be going to summer camp, where the kids and/or councilors would make fun of her for believing in this wonderful world. The world that genuinely existed and held every adventure and room for growth she craved.

In the midst of her internal ramble, the front door opened. "Mom, I'm back. I got us some loot from an ambush too and …" The slightly taller boy with curly brown hair and pointy ears paused, looking at her. He wore a raggedly burgundy/magenta shirt covered in yellow stars. "... Mom, just because people keep assuming you found me in the woods doesn't give you the excuse to kidnap others."

"And just because I praise you for lying doesn't mean I'm above grounding you for sass." Eda groaned with an eyeroll. "If you weren't my kid I'd be flambéing your skin right now for that."

"Fireproof." The boy chucked, turning to her with a small smile. . "I'm Lucci. Child of the Owl Lady … currently without an epithet of my own." He sighed. "Even 'Bubble Boy' would be acceptable at this point."

"..You actually have a kid?" Luz looked curiously at the witch criminal. "You don't look like the motherly type, no offense."

"Some taken." She rolled her eyes and ruffled the boy's head. "This is Luz, the human."

"… How many people are you gonna drag into the 'human world' con?" The boy asked. "Even getting Grandma Gwen seemed like a massive hurdle." Eda had parents?! How much backstory was she behind on?!

"Oh right, you still think it's a myth. Could've sworn I've clarified it before." Eda tapped her chin for a second before shrugging. "Eh, guess now's as good enough of a time as any." Taking out that portal key, she pressed on the eye and the doorway opened up.

"Is … is that a door to nowhere?" Lucci asked with wide eyes.

"Close, it's a doorway that leads to earth, which some people consider the middle of nowhere." Eda explained.

"I should really take offense to that …" But she didn't, earth sucked, and so did people.

"Wow.." The boy's eyes widened. "Wait, does this mean giraffes are real?! Are they gonna devour our souls!?"

 "Quick question, are humans still the dominant species in your realm?" The owl lady asked.

"Yeah."

"Then our souls should be fine." So many questions, so SO many. "Anyway, we had a deal. She gets King's crown back, she goes home."

"... That sounds a lot like kidnapping." The boy stated.

"NO! It's just blackmail, no kidnapping involved!" Eda shouted before sighing. This must happen a lot. "Like I said, deal's a deal. Your free to go kid." Eda waved to the door.

Luz looked at the door, it led back home, back to her mom, back to the world that only knew her as that 'snake girl' or the girl that dressed up like an otter for prom. Just the weirdo being sent to camp to be un-weirdoed. "Actually I've been thinking, I just have summer camp waiting for me back home, and I really, really don't want to go."

"Looks like she already has Stockholm." King chuckled. "Next she'll be asking to move in with us."

"I'll take you if you promise to never mention any form of kidnapping around me, ever." The woman groaned.

"Deal!" Luz nodded. "I want to be able to learn magic and become a super powerful witch! I swear I'll do whatever it takes, no questions asked!"

"Desperation, I like it." Eda smirked. "Fine, I'll show you the ways of the witch, but in return you'll have to help me with my odd jobs whenever I ask. Lucci over here will show you the ropes."

"Wait, what?" The boy blinked.

"You made one too many kidnapping jokes today, it's either this or a week in your room." Eda affirmed sternly.

"Fine." He grumbled. "So on a topic that's slightly related, how flexible morally are you with pushing authority figures into ravines?"

"... Like, shallow ravines?" She asked. "Where they definitely won't drown and die?"

"Duh, I'm a criminal, not a monster. Huge difference." The boy responded.

"She blew up Warden Wrath by shoving fireworks down his throat, it was awesome!" King rejoiced.The creep was a slimeball, but she didn't want him dead…not too much at least. "And we caused a prison break!"

"Nice! Alright, now I don't feel like I need to keep you constantly on a leash." The boy grinned. "Welcome to the Owl house, Roomie."

"I humbly accept this opportunity with open arms." She did a mock bow before laughing. "We're going to be amazing friends!"

"Whoa, we don't use the F word around here." Lucci halted her. "In this house it's either family or Roomie."

"Ah, I see." Luz smirked. "You're the strong emo type. No worries, I'll break through that shell and show you the value of the light."

A few seconds passed before King and Eda started to laugh. "Lucci as an Emo!" The little cutie cackled as he banged his wittle hands against the ground.

"I can't unsee it, it's too priceless!" Eda's head literally rolled onto the floor. "With the black eyeliner and everything, he already has a guitar for his mood swings!"

The boy looked at them, and then at her. "Definitely keep it at roomie for now." Ah, it was just a tough guy act … right?