Work Text:
Camila was used to having a variety of witches coming in and out of her home, now. She’d grown fond of Luz’s friends during their stay, and some of them had occasionally brought their parents along with them.
This was the first time Luz had brought her other family to stay in the Human Realm for a weekend, though. And it had certainly been… interesting. King was adorable, of course, and Camila loved him. Raine was very polite and sweet, though they seemed a bit nervous around her. And Eda was amazing.
That didn’t mean a few situations still weren’t awkward, though. For example, the previous night, Luz was clearly exhausted from school. Camila had leaned over and said, “Luz, you should go up to bed now,” at the same time Eda said,
“Hey, kid, time to start thinking about getting some shut-eye.”
Eda had appeared absolutely mortified, something that didn’t suit her at all. Camila was equally embarrassed, though she did a better job at hiding it. It was understandably strange, co-parenting between realms.
This morning things had gotten off to a good start, though. Camila had woken up early, because Vee had opened all of the windows (and the blinds) in the hallway for whatever reason. She’d gone downstairs to make breakfast, Vee helping her with it. Raine had walked in to help too, though they seemed a little confused with human food. Camila considered herself fairly knowledgeable in what witches could or couldn’t stomach, now, after quite a bit of trial and error with Luz’s friends. King, though, she had no idea, she realized as Eda walked into the room, the young Titan following close behind.
“Eda, does King have any dietary restrictions?” she asked, smiling at Vee as she popped up beside her, counting silverware.
“Nope. Kid’s basically a garbage disposal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him get sick off of anything, including trash,” she lifted him up as he reached for her, King looking a little bit too proud at her statement.
“What about the time he ate those weird gummy things?” Luz asked from the table, scribbling in a notebook that was in front of her, “he threw up then.”
“That was because he ate like, seven packs, and then you held him upside down,” Eda said with a snort, ruffling Luz’s hair as she walked by on her way to help Camila. She looked down at the plates Camila had already set up, “what’s that?”
“Pancakes?” Camila said.
“Oh. We have paincakes. They scream when you eat them.”
“That’s… great,” Camila said. Honestly, she should be used to little tidbits of information like that now. She was quiet as they all sat down to eat, preferring to listen to the conversations between the others. Partway through, she felt a hand squeeze hers, and she knew it was Vee. She gave the girl beside her a fond smile. “So,” Camila finally said, interrupting a debate between King and Luz about a Mewtube video, “I was thinking we could go to the pool today? We have an indoor pool nearby, I’ve taken Vee a few times.” She was met with silence. “What?”
“That’s a great idea, Mama,” Luz said, shoving her last bit of pancake in her mouth and quickly swallowing, “there are like, three pools in the Boiling Isles, though. Cause, y’know. A lot of the water’s boiling. Especially the ocean.”
“Raine and I can swim, though,” Eda quickly said, the two exchanging an amused glance, likely remembering a previous, chaotic time. Camila looked down. She’d shared looks like that with Manny, once upon a time. “I can pop back over to the Demon Realm and get bathing suits real quick,” Eda said. She did just that a few minutes later, returning within twenty minutes.
“You’re not supposed to actually wear them until the locker rooms,” Camila said, tilting her head at King. Luz had managed to quite easily forge paperwork for him to be considered an emotional support animal and a dog in the Human Realm, something he didn’t seem to mind. He was still a child, though, and not a very big one at that. He probably needed a carseat. She should have thought about that before.
She and Vee dug through the basement, finding Luz’s old car seat wedged in between a broken microwave with kid-graffiti on it, and a box of Luz’s creepy stuffed animals from when she was a toddler. Camila quickly took it upstairs, installing it in the car while Eda and Vee watched. She’d managed to get a bigger car a month ago, which was good, because it just barely fit their current amount of people.
“What is this contraption?!” King exclaimed as Eda placed him down and buckled him in.
“It’s a carseat,” Camila said, “it’s so little guy’s like you don’t get permanent damage or thrown out the window if we crash.” She got a glare in response.
“How often do cars crash?” Raine asked as they got in. She neglected to answer that. They drove down with Luz saying,
“King, buddy, stop biting the seatbelt,” quite a few times. Camila chuckled to herself, thinking of all the times Luz had fought with their own seatbelt. Though it had been stressful at the time, it was something she could look back at and laugh now. There was a sudden pang in her heart. Luz wasn’t a little girl anymore. They were carving out their own trail, sometimes with different people. She had two families now. And Camila was so proud of her, and everything she had done. But that didn’t make the feeling any less painful.
She realized she had forgotten something quite significant when they arrived at the building the pool was located in, and they reached the locker rooms. Right. Boys to one room, girls to the other. Raine and Luz exchanged nervous eye contact.
“Is there a third option?” Raine asked, looking to Camila. They only ever took that particular anxious tone when they were in the Human Realm. Perhaps having the witches come over hadn’t been the best idea, with the way things were at the moment.
“There’s a family restroom right there for changing. Those are the only ways into the pool, though,” Camila sighed.
“Why would those be the only ways into the pool?!” Luz exclaimed.
“What about King?” Eda added, the kid in question being held by her, “he’s just nine, he shouldn’t go through there alone.” Right. Eda, Vee, and Camila all identified as girls. Raine and Luz were nonbinary. That left King on his own.
“Children can accompany their parents to opposite sex rooms. And, well, King will just appear like a pet to anyone else anyway,” Camila said. Eda passed King to Raine in response, walking right up to the teenage staff member at the front,
“Yo. My partner and my kid are nonbinary,” she paused, considering the term to make sure it was correct. Right. Luz had told Camila that there wasn’t a set word for it on the Boiling Isles. Because the Demon Realm wasn’t put into rigid boxes according to sex or gender. “Is there any way in other than the locker rooms?” She was thrown a key for the staff door in response. Cool. Eda passed it to Raine and took King back, going through the girl’s locker room with Camila and Vee. “This is a terrible system. And believe me, I know terrible systems.”
“Yep,” Camila said, “I never really thought about it before, but it is.” She mulled over the situation in her own mind as she sat down on the edge of the pool, hissing at how cold the water was as she stuck her feet in. Vee gave her a teasing look in response, a subtle way of calling her old.
The next ten minutes were spent watching Luz chase King around, in an attempt to put floaties on him.
“King, you’ll drown without them!”
“I’d rather drown than bring dishonor to my name!”
“The name can take it, kid!” Eda called, sitting down beside Camila, “put on the ding-dang floaties.” Camila let out a nervous laugh as the other people at the pool stared at what looked like a girl chasing a talking dog.
“She’s getting real good at impressions, huh?” She finally said as loudly as she could, elbowing Eda.
“What - oh, yeah.”
Luz finally caught her brother scooping him up and putting the floaties on him. She passed him to Raine once she was successful, and she quickly jumped in the pool, joining Vee. Camila smiled and watched them. She’d wanted to have a child after Luz. She almost had. But the pregnancy had been lost, and then Manny had gotten sick, and they’d put it off until he got better. Then he didn’t.
Luz had siblings now, though. A sister and a brother. And Camila had Vee, a child she considered her second daughter. Yes, things were weird, but they were good. Better than they’d been in a long time.
Raine sat down beside Eda, briefly resting their head on her shoulder.
“Hey, EDA!” Luz called from the middle of the pool, “wanna race across? Unless you want to rest your old bones, that’s understandable.”
“Who you calling old?!” Eda jumped into the water and swam over. Camila turned her gaze to Raine. They were quieter than the others (though that wasn’t hard with this crew), and she’d had very few actual conversations with them before. They were focused on King, at the moment, who was dipping his paws into the water. Their eyes were loving, and Camila knew Luz was routinely given similar gentle looks. They truly cared for Luz. Even if Camila hadn’t talked with them much, she knew that.
She looked across the pool, at Eda and Luz, who were in the middle of quite the intense race. Eda wasn’t going easy on her because she was a kid. She always managed to encourage Luz to go above and beyond, in her own weird way.
Vee swam back up to Camila, resting her chin against Camila’s knee. Camila smiled, stroking her hair, “hi, sweet girl. Are you going to join… whatever’s happening over there?”
“Nah,” Vee laughed, “I don’t think I’m fast enough for that.”
“It’s for fun,” Camila shrugged.
“Why aren’t you in the water?” Vee pulled herself up beside Camila, water dripping down her body.
“It’s freezing,” Camila said, resting a hand against her daughter’s head.
“The best way to make it not freezing is to just jump in,” she said, King slowly sliding in from Raine’s lap, scowling at the floaties keeping him from drowning. Raine smiled and slipped in after him.
“How is it not freezing for you?” Camila asked, wincing as she moved more of her body in. Raine tilted their head,
“It is freezing.”
“You don’t show it in your face.”
“Of course not.”
Right, every single one of Luz’s friends (or family, at this point), had gone through some sort of life-altering trauma within the past year. Or years. Well… if Raine could do it. And Eda. Camila fully entered the water, Vee cheering and immediately swimming up to her, gripping onto her shoulders. Camila grinned, “did you know I used to be on a swim team in college?”
“Oh, right. I saw that in the old photo albums. You were pretty good, right?”
“Yep,” Camila turned toward the other end of the pool, where Luz and Eda had finished their race and were talking together, “what’d you say we challenge them to another race. For fun, right?”
“Okay,” Vee laughed, holding onto her tighter. They swam towards the others.
“Eda, Luz, are you up for another race?” She asked. Eda and Luz exchanged a quick glance, then nodded at the same time, looking confident. Camila grinned.
She reached the finish while the other two were still halfway down the pool. It was a good day. Camila loved this family. All of them. Whether they were human or witch or titan.