Chapter Text
“You sure you’re ready to head back kid? I mean don’t you wanna ditch for a few more days? Heats aren’t the same for every witch so I’m sure your teachers won't question why you were gone for so long.” This was the fifth time this morning Eda had asked Luz.
“Yes, Eda I’m sure. I really want to get back and I stayed home yesterday and had no symptoms of heat so it’s safe for me to go back. I miss my classes they’re actually really fun, well mostly, abominations is still really hard but I just need to find a glyph for it.” affixing the pendant Amity had given her to her bag the human walked out the door waving to King and Eda. “I’ll be ok and if I’m not I’ll go to the healer's office and ask them to send you a crow.” Luz turned to face the path ahead of her and happily set off.
“Be safe Hoot!” Hooty called out and waited until she disappeared in the trees before turning to look at the two left. “She will be safe right?”
“It’s Luz.”King sighed, “She almost gets eaten by plants all the time but she’s still alive so I guess it's fine.” The demon climbed onto the couch and curled up ready for a morning nap.
“As long as she gets to Hexside she’ll be alright. She has her friends there, and that plant girl is really powerful. I'm sure she’ll make sure nothing happens. Or you know that Blight kid.” Eda returned to some potion books she had scattered on the coffee table. The witch had been attempting to find a gentle potion to aid with Luz’s heats, it was hard trying to find things that would work for a human and not nearly kill them and this was something the owl lady wished to avoid at all costs.
“Luz! It’s good to see you back. We seriously missed having you at school with us.” Gus was the first witch she ran into after walking up the steps.
“I would have been back yesterday but Eda was worried about me and made me stay home another day.” She walked alongside the boy while they chatted.
“Oh great, the human is back.” Snide and sarcastic, must be Boscha. Looking left the pink-skinned girl could be seen leaning against a locker with Skara by her side. “Why even bother coming back?” Pushing off from the locker Boscha took steps to close the distance. Imitation games oh how fun, “It’s not like anyone important wanted you-” Boscha’s train of thought was derailed when she got close to Luz. “...You smell different.” brows knitted in confusion for a moment before the taller girl leaned in closer almost as if she didn't believe her nose at first.
“Whoa, personal space Boscha.” Luz placed a hand on the taller girl's shoulder and pushed her back lightly. Warm, earthy yet something sweet on top of that. Boscha.
“Let's go.” Gus grabbed Luz’s arm and pulled her away and off towards her locker where the others were most likely waiting.
“What was that about?” Skara had to shake the potion’s witch in front of her in order to get her to actually respond.
“Fire bee honey.” was the only explanation given before Bascha headed to class early.
“Fire bee honey?” Skara was left with more questions and concern for both her friend and Luz. After all the years she had known the potion’s witch she had never reacted like that. “What in Titan’s name is going on in that girl’s head?”
“You’re back!” Willow threw her arms around Luz before stepping back to let Amity greet her as well.
“I missed seeing you around here, you know.” Amity hugged her, holding her close for a few moments letting Luz’s comforting scent relax her.
“I missed seeing you too. Oh look I put the pendant on my bag. I really like it, you know?” Luz pulled back to show Amity.
“We’ll give you two some alone time. We can all catch up at lunch. See you later” Willow headed off pulling the beta along with her.
“Oh alright see you guys later.” Luz gave a wave their way, her free hand taken in Amity’s. “So I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go on a picnic date sometime soon? If you’re okay with that, we can do something other than that too.”
“I’d love to go on a picnic date.” Amity smiled and pulled the human into another hug. “We can talk more about it during lunch.”
“Why not now?” right on cue to ease Luz’s confusion the bell let out a scream “Oh.” a soft laugh came from the girl in front of her as she pulled away.
“I’ll see you soon.” Amity gave one of Luz’s hands a comforting squeeze before they parted to head to their classes.
Time for the most part passed quickly that was until potions class. Boscha was in potions with her and after her odd behavior that morning the omega was a tad nervous around the taller girl. Boscha herself seemed back to her usual uncaring self and simply focused on the cauldron in front of her. That was until Luz sat down at her desk. “Human,” Boscha called out
“I have a name you know.” Luz sighed and turned in her chair looking over to Boscha who had all three eyes focused on her.
“What’s that stupid thing hanging off your bag?”
“It’s not stupid and if you must know it’s a pendant that Amity got me.” Luz ran her thumb over the engraved surface to feel the grooves in the metal. “A courting gift.” She couldn’t help but smile at that fact.
“...Courting gift…”Boscha forced her gaze away from the human and back to her cauldron. “Weird that she would want to court a human. There are plenty of strong witches after all and it’s not like you can do actual magic anyway.” The words didn’t carry the usual bite or cruelty that the witch was known for.
“Boscha, can we not do this today?” Luz let out a sigh “I just want to get caught up on what I missed while I was gone.”
“Whatever human.” Boscha kept quiet for the rest of the period but seemed to keep glancing towards her. It was definitely out of character for the resident school bully but Luz did her best to just focus on the lecture and the cauldron in front of her.
“I think something is up with Boscha,” Luz sat down across from Willow and Gus with Amity to her side. The three witches gave a confused look as the human continued. “I mean this morning-”
“Oh! Yeah, this morning was weird,” Gus couldn’t help but interject.
“What happened this morning? Did she try to do something? Are you alright?” Amity’s eyes widened as she looked over Luz looking for anything out of place, gum, a scratch, hell even just a smudge of ink, but she could find nothing.
“Well, when I got here Gus and I walked inside together. Boscha was being Boscha and saying stuff about my return but then stopped in her tracks when she got close to me. Then leaned in to smell me I think? It was weird.” Luz was recounting the morning events, Amity and Willow glanced at one another then back to Luz they seemed to have come to a conclusion on their own. “We left before anything else happened but she just kind of stood there while we walked off. Then today in potions when I sat down she started to talk to me again. Totally would have been fine but then the topic of the pendant you got me came up and I mentioned it was a courting gift.”
“Luz breathe you’re going a bit fast.” Willow leaned forward resting her arms on the table.
“Right, sorry.” With a deep breath, Luz continued. “She asked about the pendant and I mentioned that it was a courting gift.” her fingers brushed over the cool metal allowing herself to feel the grooves of the engraving once again. “She just got quiet for a while, repeated ‘courting gift’ then said a few things like; ‘there are plenty of strong witches’, ‘you can’t even do real magic’, the weird part was she just sounded… I don’t know, off? I asked her to stop and she did but she was just kind of glancing at me throughout the rest of class.”
“Wow… that’s a lot.” Gus took a sip from his apple blood box.
“That definitely sounds … not like Boscha?” Amity took off her cowl and scented the fabric. “Here, wear this for the rest of the day. I think it has to do with your scent.” Part of her was worried. Boscha was clearly interested in some shape or form with Luz, and a part of her was angry for the same reason.
“What about my scent though?” Luz took off her cowl and gave it to Amity before putting the other on. Any worry present seemed to melt away. The warmth of spring and a touch of rain, comforting like a hug, it was Amity.
“Everyone likes certain smells and if that is part of your scent then it could cause them to try and follow you around a bit.” Willow explained, “I did that a few times without realizing it… it was part of the reason that Boscha bullied me so much.” The other omega explained.
“Scent glands are present on the neck and wrists.” Gus drew a circle in the air to show a diagram. “Not every scent gland is in the same place but usually it's under the ears right around the area the jaw curves up. As for the wrists, usually, it's just below the start of the palms of your hands.”
“So Amity’s scent is going to act as like what? A cover-up perfume or something?” Luz subconsciously rubbed the fabric of the cowl between her fingers. It was something that helped her concentrate her ADHD made that hard but she found fiddling with something usually helped and she didn’t want to make her friends repeat themselves on this subject.
“Well, kind of. It won’t cover your scent completely.” Willow explained further. “When you’re in a pack or when you’re dating, usually having your pack, or your partner’s, scent on you just lets others know that you have people that care about you and to not pick on you. Something leftover from the wild ages; there aren’t usually fights breaking out now but it does make it safer. Especially since you’re an omega.”
“What’s wrong with being an omega? I mean I feel like I know the answer but. I want to be sure.” Luz leaned forward, her arms crossed on the table.
“Well Omegas were seen as weaker with magic but they were supposed to be wiser. Usually, they didn’t have a lot of say in what they got to do but they were respected for the advice they gave.” Willow poked at the food on her tray. “Alphas were expected to be strong, usually not really connected to their emotions either, which was definitely bad for them. Betas were well, an in-between, they were supposed to be stronger than omegas but usually, they studied with omegas so they were more book smart along with their strength.”
“This was like stuff from before the wild ages even but some people think that the hierarchy of it should still be the standard.” Gus added on, “Omegas as teachers, healers, stuff like that, betas as maybe healers too but usually just working regular jobs, and Alphas on top with the owner of a business type of job.”
“The human world has some similar stuff but not with you know this stuff. Usually, it's about gender… and race sadly.” The human let out a sigh.
“Why though? That doesn’t make sense.” Gus pulled out a notebook and got a pen ready.
“Ugh, I don’t want to talk about it. Honestly, a lot of it is really messed up. I'll tell you some other time if you really want to know, just not now.”
“Fair enough.” The boy set his notebook down and started to eat his lunch along with the others. “Is it like… wild ages bad?”
“I don’t really know about the wild ages but. Human history is… full of a lot of bad stuff.”