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“Oh…my gosh! Wow…yeah! Extra credit for everyone!”
That was all Luz said before casually tossing over some gold star stickers, which Lilith gladly took and…nuzzled?
Then Luz winced, stretched her back and headed upstairs, saying she needed to go lie down.
…
About five minutes passed before Eda realized something.
The kid was less energetic than she was this morning, when she was teaching glyphs. And when she came back, it wasn’t hard to see how banged up she was. Clearly, something was wrong.
Shit.
Eda got up, cracking her back before passing her sister (who had stuck her sticker to her shirt, the darn people pleaser) and going towards the stairs.
“See ya Lily, I gotta check up on our teacher.”
~
Luz had only just laid down on her sleeping bag with an arm draped over her face when a knock came at her door. (Even though it was open just a crack.)
“Luz?” Eda. “You uh…you alright in there? Can I come in?”
“Um…sure,” Luz mumbles out. “It's open!”
Eda slowly pushes the door open to see Luz flat on her cocoon, all worn out. When she gets closer, she could see that Luz is scrunching her face in discomfort. That and…her uniform is torn. And…is that a bruise?
As for Luz, she is only just starting to feel the aches of what just transpired not too long ago.
“Shit, kid, what happened?” Eda says, kneeling on the floor next to her.
“Nothing?” Luz attempts.
“I’m not stupid, Luz. You’re hurt.”
“It's nothing too bad!” Luz says nervously and nonchalantly, covering her aching cheek and side. She can dress her wounds later! “I swear!”
But Eda cocks her head with a skeptical look. “You sure, Luz?”
“Yeeess?” Lies.
“Then, do you think you can let me see you?” Eda crosses her arms, raising an eyebrow.
Luz gives in and slowly moves her hand away. Sure enough, there are some big red scratches on her face, and she still grips herself in mild discomfort. There might be more. And she wants to know who or what caused this.
“Jeez, that must smart,” Eda inhales through her teeth. “You sure you're alright?”
“It…it does.” Luz admits, shifting a little. “It does hurt. A little.”
No. Not ‘a little.’
“Does it hurt anywhere else?” Eda asks, gesturing to where the girl is gripping herself. She can see her hesitating. “You gotta tell me.”
“I…” Luz starts to see that there isn’t a way out of this. “My legs and back…and my head hurts a bit.”
Eda nods. “Alright, let’s get you patched up, shall we?”
At first, the witch gets up and turns to leave to the bathroom, intending to get the first aid kit from the bathroom. But then she hears Luz moving behind her.
“No, wait…!” Luz grunts. “I-I can…get it… myself!”
“No, kid, you-”
“I can get up!” Luz closes her eyes and tries her best to sit up. It takes a lot of effort, and hurts a lot. A sharp pain goes up her spine as she pushes herself up.
“Ah- ow, ow, ow-!” Luz yelps. Her back isn’t broken , but it sure feels like it is!
“Oh, Titan-”
Thankfully, Eda gets behind her and hooks her hands under her shoulders.
“Here, I’m gonna help you up,” Eda says. “On three, ‘kay?” Her hands begin to lift her. “One, two, three!”
And with the witch’s support, Luz is able to get two feet firmly on the ground, as sore as they are. Eda then circles back around to be in front of her and firmly holds her shoulders.
“Good?”
Luz’s back still hurts like hell, and her legs ache, and her head is spinning from standing up, but other than that, she supposes she can walk. So she shrugs.
“Guess so,” she grunts.
Eda nods, then wraps an arm around her shoulders, beginning to walk her to the bathroom.
“You can lean on me if you need to,” Eda offers her other arm. So Luz takes it and does her best to ignore the pain in her legs as she is taken to the (thankfully not far) bathroom.
~
When they both enter the bathroom, Luz lets go and is immediately sat down on the edge of the bathtub, and Eda goes to rummage around in the cabinets next to her.
“It’s really not that bad-” Luz tries to say while scratching at her back. Although part of her knows it’s bad.
“-I still want to take a look, okay? I don’t like seeing you in pain.” Eda insists, pulling out a large white container with a white cross over a red stripe. Luz slumps in her seat as the witch comes over and sets the kit down.
It’s not that Luz fears stuff like visiting the doctor or getting examined! It’s more like she doesn’t look forward to whatever Eda’s reaction might be when she hears what she did that night. She hasn't forgotten what transpired with Amity either.
“Can you turn around for me?” Eda says after kneeling in front of the girl. She hesitates, but swings her legs over the tub’s rim, turning her back to the witch.
“Think you’re able to lift up your shirt a little bit?” Eda says. “I just need to see how bad it is.”
Luz takes off her uniform cowl and then very carefully tries to reach back and see if she can pull the back of her shirt. (Underneath, she happened to be wearing an undershirt to help with the cold weather, so she decided to just take the uniform shirt off as well.) To her dismay, lifting her arms over her head causes her to feel an uncomfortable pulsing in her upper back as well as her head. Screwing her eyes shut, she recoils immediately.
“Ouch, nope!” The girl whimpers out. “I might need help…”
Eda winces at Luz’s pained voice and carefully helps remove the uniform top and then moves the undershirt’s hem up herself. She notices Luz shiver and tense up when the fabric is pulled up to her shoulder blades.
The witch inhales sharply through her teeth. Sure enough, there is a light mosaic of bruises forming around the kid’s middle back, and a few scrapes, too. They can be seen on her back and shoulders.
Shit, kid, what happened to you?
It…almost reminds her of the morning after she was saved from being executed. Hopefully some ice packs will help later.
“Is it…is it bad?” Luz dares to ask. She definitely felt her clothes brush against a few scrapes she definitely has. She hears the sound of a faucet, likely Eda washing her hands.
“Well, I can’t lie to you, kid. You have a lot of scrapes on here and a hell of a bruise forming.” Eda sits back down and clicks open the first aid kit. “You sure went through somethin’.”
Or someone.
“Yeah. Sure did.” Luz admits. “And uh…I think there's more on my arms and legs.”
Eda nods in acknowledgement and moves to sit on the edge of the tub next to Luz, bringing the box with her. “Okay, let’s fix you up. Can you just move one leg over so I can work?”
The girl nods, swinging one of her still aching limbs over the tub’s rim so that she’s practically straddling it. Behind her she can hear Eda fishing around for the right materials.
“It’s not bleeding, is it?” Luz asks.
“Nope, thank Titan, but it could if you irritate it more.” Eda advises, taking a cotton ball and wet washcloth, and dipping the cotton ball in a healing substance before raising the rag to one of Luz’s abrasions. “Try to hold still for me, this might hurt.”
When the cloth is pressed against her skin, Luz tenses a bit again. But when the cotton ball is pressed against her wound, she feels the cold sting and flinches, hissing through her teeth. “Ah-!”
“Sorry sorry, I know it stings, just- try to relax, okay?” Eda says, pressing more gently this time. She steadies Luz with a light hand on her shoulder. “You’ll be okay, I promise.” Luz replies with a shaky nod.
“And, uh…lemme guess,” Luz says as she feels Eda applying more ointment. “This heals faster than human medicine because ‘magic’, right?”
“Eh, if you wanna put it that way, sure. But you should still take it easy.”
“Hah, wasn’t planning on doing otherwise,” Luz chuckles tiredly. She’s not that kind of idiot.
“Riiight.” Eda teases.
Luz grits her teeth as Eda continues treating the spots on her back. She had planned to patch herself up, and let Eda and her sister have fun with whatever they learned, but now that she thinks about it, it’s much easier right now to just let someone else, someone she trusts, heal her instead.
That…and she's worried about how Eda will react to how this happened to her.
“Okay, I think we’re done with this side…” Eda mutters. Inside the box, she pulls out a small pack of healing patches. On Luz’s upper back, the healing ointment had already started to spread and slowly heal her abrasions. And after gently sticking the patches on, she applies some “Vicks Vapor Rub” (Owlbert found it in the human realm a while back) to the bruises, and the shirt is pulled back down.
“So? My back’s done?” Luz asks.
“Yup. I gave you some healing patches and “Vapor rub”, so it will heal faster for you.” Eda reassures with a soft pat on the back. “And uh…we should get to your arms now.”
Luz winces at the reminder. She can feel aches in her arms that are hopefully not as bad as they feel.
“I-I guess…” is all she can come up with as an answer.
“Yes. Now come on, think you can turn around one more time for me?”
“A-actually-” Luz pipes up. “Maybe I can sit on the floor on a towel? My butt’s startin’ to get a little tired…”
“You know what, good idea! I should’ve thought of that earlier,” Eda chuckles, folding up a towel and placing it on the floor. “Here, let’s sit you down…” She takes Luz’s hand and shoulder, carefully helping her to the floor with a grunt. “Better?”
Luz nods and rolls her shoulders.
Next, Eda is on her knees next to the girl, examining her arms. Like her back, they are bruised and there are light scrapes. So, again she begins pressing the cold rag on where the scrapes are, cleaning the dirt and grime.
Luz inhales a gasp. The wounds on her arms feel worse than her back…
“ Oh jeez-”
“I know it hurts, kid, just take a deep breath, okay?” The witch says, trying her best to reassure. “I promise it’s not as bad as it feels.”
“If you say so,” the girl murmurs. “Sooo, um…”
“Yeah?”
“I’m guessing you wanna know what happened?”
“Well, yes, actually.” Eda confirms with a chuckle. “I’d love to know what happened for you to come back late all banged up like this.” As she says this, she’s started wrapping gauze around the kid’s arms.
“It’s kind of a long story…” Luz mutters.
“Well we have all the time in the world right now. I ain’t going anywhere.” Eda smiles as she finishes wrapping the bandage. “There, that should do it, is it too tight?” Luz shakes her head. “Good. Maybe we can ice it later. Can you give me your other arm?”
As Eda repeats the cleaning process on her other arm, Luz takes a deep breath, trying to think of the best way to tell her mentor/guardian that she basically almost died to the Blights.
“Hey,” the witch puts a hand on her bandaged shoulder. “Don’t force yourself to talk, alright? Like I said, I’m not leaving, so try to relax, take your time.”
“You won't get mad?”
“Ha! Luz, you're talking to the formerly most wanted witch in the Isles. Whatever mess you got into, I'll understand.” Eda swears.
“Okay,” Luz takes a breath and starts her tale. “So…remember Amity?”
“The Blight kid?”
“Yeah. Uh…I didn't exactly get to be in school today because…her parents expelled us. Me and Gus and Willow, I mean.”
Eda stops abruptly. “I'm sorry, they did what? After everything I did to get you in there?”
“I-I think it was my fault? We were all called to Principal Bump’s office, and they said stuff like ‘the rampage of Grom’ and the detention monsters a while back? And that we 'endangered’ Amity. Then Mr. Blight forced Bump to expel us.” Luz says, hanging her head in shame.
Eda's eyes remain wide in shock. “Those bastards.” She mutters.
“D-did you know them, Eda?”
“ Ohh yeah , I knew them. Odalia and Alador loved to push me and Lily around as kids. Mostly Odalia. They are the fucking worst.” Eda growls. “Did they do this to you? Did they start something with you?”
Need me to finish it?
“What happened next was- well, Gus and Willow were both so devastated and sad, and I couldn't just stand by, so I kinda…confronted Amity's mom.”
“Oh boy…” Eda doesn't like where this is going.
“Yeah…she agreed to let them back in if I agreed to go to their weapons showcase.” The girl scrunches her eyes shut. "Though I'm surprised she didn't make me do an 'Everlasting Oath.'"
“What?! You agreed to be their target practice?!” Eda whisper-shouts. “Great Titan, Luz, what were you thinking?”
“I know! I know it was stupid! But it was my fault Gus and Willow were in that situation and I didn't know what else to do!”
“Aw, kid…” Eda pinches the bridge of her nose. It's a well-known fact that Luz would do literally anything to protect her friends. So…
“You said you wouldn't be mad!” The girl protests, nearly jostling her sore arm from Eda's hold, which is pulled back.
“Oh, I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at them. Those two are still big bullies.” Looks like old habits die hard. "And knowing Odalia, she wasn't being fair. I just know that to her, it wasn't even a 'deal'!"
“No kidding! Not to freak you out but the weapons they used were ridiculous, but that was nothing compared to the giant Abomination thing, which was more of a Terminator knock-off to me.”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“I think it was called the ‘Abomaton’? It was covered in this armor, and oh god , they made it chase after me! It was pretty scary.” Luz still remembers how her heart nearly stopped when the thing lifted its hammer. She trembles at the memory.
Eda finishes wrapping her other arm and clenches her fists. “You mean they actually tried to kill you with it?! Titan, that's just…!” The witch lets out a snarl.
Those pricks better regret it if I see them again.
“Eda?”
“Sorry, it's just…they tried to kill you. I don't like that.”
“They wouldn't even listen to me when I tried to bail.” Luz recalls. “But uh…the important thing is my friends were let back in.”
“ And that you got out in one piece.” Eda moves in front of the girl. “Keep talking, I'm gonna work on your legs. Can you roll up your pants?”
With a little bit of assistance, she's able to roll up the pant legs to her knees, revealing a few more bruises.
“I can stitch these later…” Eda mutters.
“Ah…the reason I made it out, is that…” Luz blushes bright red when she remembers. “Amity saved me.”
“Stay away from my Luz!”
Did she imagine it? Hopefully not.
Someone as cool as Amity Blight couldn't feel like that towards her, right?
“She did?” Eda raises an eyebrow. “Damn!”
“I think Willow and Gus were there too. Guess they snuck in somehow. Anyway, Amity just showed up in this cloak and her hands were glowing and gosh, she looked so cool and pretty…” she must be smiling like a dork right now.
Looking up, she sees Eda with a knowing smirk on her face.
“What?”
“Ohh, nothing,” She smirks. “Continue.” Eda knows a crush when she sees one. She knows from experience.
They’ll talk about that later.
“Uhh…so she like, stood up to her mom, and threatened to tear apart the Abomaton, which I really wanted to see- and holy crap, that woman gave in!"
Now Eda almost wishes she was there. “Trust me, Odalia cares about nothing but her status as a rich bitch. You said they let you back in?”
“Yeah! I don't think she wanted to, but she ended up holding up her end of the deal and let my friends go back! Sooo it was worth it!”
Eda doesn't miss how Luz keeps referring to Willow and Gus and excluding herself from the issue. Even though it affected her just as much.
“Worth it…even though all I feel is pins and needles.” Though the healing patches and ointment are working wonders right now.
The important thing is her friends are happy again. If they're happy, she’s happy.
“Anyways. Kid, you were gripping your side earlier, can you let me take a look?”
Complying, Luz lifts her shirt a little, and there is indeed a light bruise on her right side along the bottom of her ribs, and a smaller one on her stomach.
“I-I think I can put the Vapor Rub on myself this time.” Luz insists. And she does (despite her sore muscles) and it is only a little soothing. It doesn't ache as much when she moves. She'll just have to try not to slouch from now on.
“We're almost done, kiddo, let's see that scratch on your face again,” Eda reminds the kid, who looks lost in thought. She wets another washcloth, and lifts it to Luz’s face to clean it. At first, she jumps a little. “It's alright, I'm just cleaning your cheek.”
“Right, right,” Luz nods, and allows Eda to gently wipe away the dirt and dab the scratch.
“I'm really sorry I worried you, Eda. I didn't mean to.”
“Don't be. You clearly didn't know how rough it was gonna be. Odalia and Alador pushed you, and you tried to stop them. But I really wish you'd think these things through!” Eda says while sticking a small bandage to her cheek.
The girl looks down. “I know.” But I couldn't stand by.
Standing back, Eda looks a tired Luz over and gets an idea. Hopefully one that will cheer her kid up.
“Hey,” She puts her hand on the kid’s head. “I'm gonna go get some ice packs for you. Stay put and don't move.”
Soon Eda comes back with a few plastic zip-lock bags and what looks like ice glyphs.
“I know you saw it earlier, but I want you to check this out up close.” Eda smiles excitedly.
In her hand is a bunch of ice glyphs. Only on the paper, these were three ice glyphs connected by a drawn circle. When Eda taps it, they glow and the paper swiftly turns into an ice ball like earlier.
“Ta-da!” Eda exclaims.
“You…you followed the lesson details from this morning?” Luz says with a small smile as Eda placed the ball into a bag.
“Yup! I know it's not as big and fancy as Lily’s, but heyyy, at least we learned something, right?”
“Sure did.” Luz answers as the witch ties the makeshift ice pack to her arm. The coolness is soothing. “I'm proud of you, Eda,”
“Ha! No, I'm proud of you for figuring this out in the first place. I'm sorry I didn't listen earlier. I kinda wrecked the house a little bit before you came home.”
Especially since it almost hurt King.
Luz waves a hand dismissively. “Nah, don't be. Pretty sure I was acting the same way when you were teaching me.”
“Ehh, you're not wrong… ” Eda chuckles after managing to get an ice pack tucked against Luz’s back. It makes her heart swell when Luz laughs back.
“You know what they say, practice makes perfect.” The kid remarks.
Eda holds the third ice pack towards Luz. “How's your head?”
“Mm, it hurts. I'm just tired, I guess.” Most likely from exhaustion. She did overexert herself. A lot.
“Well, how about you hold this to your head for a while then?” The ice pack is placed in the girl’s hand and Luz gladly holds it against her head and relaxes.
When Luz is ready, Eda helps her to stand again, and they head to Luz's room after getting a glass of ice water.
“Do you want to try a healing potion to help with your pain, or do you wanna take those pill things this time?” Eda offers.
(Sometimes, on the not-so-rare occasion Luz would get hurt, she would decide between taking a healing potion, which usually helped faster, or take the painkillers she packed with her for camp, just in case.)
“I think I'll take my pain pills this time,” Luz says. Eda nods in agreement and takes the bottle out of her bag, handing it to her, who gladly swallows them. “I'll warn ya though, these will make me loopy later!”
For a moment there is peaceful silence.
“Luz?”
“Yeah?”
“You know you didn't have to go and do all that for your friends right? Look what happened to you.”
Luz frowns and stares at her lap. “Well, um…you know, they were being treated unfairly,”
“So were you!” Eda leans into the kid’s view, getting at her eye level. “You were expelled too!”
Luz fidgets with her fingers. “Yeah, but it was my fault anyway! I'm the one that kept dragging them into my stupid adventures, so I had to make up for it! They don't deserve this!”
“Hey, don't do that.” Eda cups Luz’s cheek, gently turning her head to look at her, placing the other hand on her shoulder. “Listen to me. We talked about this. Don't act like your problems don't matter, Luz, because they do. You don’t owe them a damn thing. It wasn't your fault, got it? Those prudes pushed you.”
Slowly Luz nods. “Th-they did push me.”
“Yes. They pushed you too far, even when you tried to bail out. I said it before. You didn't know how rough it was really gonna be.”
“Th-that’s true, I didn’t,”
“Right! So don’t downplay yourself.” Eda playfully pinches Luz’s cheek and she giggles. “Get that into your head!”
“Stoooop!” The girl laughs. Then her face is overtaken by a yawn.
“S-sorry if I made you waste your time, but…thank you for helping me.” She says.
“It was absolutely not a waste of time, and I’m glad you’re feeling better. But now you should rest up before dinner, knucklehead.”
“My spaghetti noodle arms agree.” Luz leans against her pillow against the wall. Then she takes the opportunity to lean her head against Eda’s chest.
“Thank you for helping me,” She mumbles as her eyes get heavy. “Wha…what are you going to do with Odalia and Alador?”
Eda lightly scratches her kid’s head. “Oh, I might just send them potions that’ll give them boils for months. Like the old days.” There’s a mischievous grin on her face.
“Ha, nice…”
"Well why wouldn't I? For Titan's sake they messed with my fucking kid!"
Wonder what Odalia would've done if I was there. She must know I'm her guardian. And Alador, he probably barely even tried to stop it, if I ever see them again…
Eda presses the ice pack back against Luz’s head. “You just relax, take a little nap, I’ll come get you when food’s ready, ‘kay?”
“Aight…” and within a few seconds Luz is nodding off.
Eda knows this won’t be the first time Luz’s self-esteem reared its head, causing her to do reckless things even to protect her dear loved ones. Obviously, as noble as it is, it’s not doing Luz any good.
But Eda will keep reminding the kid of how much she matters until it’s drilled into her head.
Because she does. She matters so fucking much and she hurts herself.
For the time being, she needs to let her kid rest her battered body, get everybody some grub, and write down her new glyph knowledge.
Eda takes one last look at Luz before standing up.
“Oh, kiddo, I wish you’d realize you’re a person, too.”