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Camila knows that this is her biggest challenge yet. The ultimate task of being a parent. An endeavor so great that not many make it out alive. Their children scorn them for the rest of their lives and use their failure as a bargaining chip. She must not falter, for now there is added difficulty with this errand with the additional kids in her wake. Camila grips her purse and steels her resolve as she stares at the Elder Indigo sign.
Clothes shopping.
The bane of her existence.
She loves her daughter to the moon and back. Bless her heart, but she does not have any fashion sense. Perhaps Camila just can’t see the vision because Luz’s new friends seem to be the same way. She turns around to face the group and count heads.
Today is much better for morale than yesterday. There is genuine excitement instead of utter fear and disposition. Gus seems to be vibrating from it, pointing at all the different cars in the parking lot and asking Luz a series of questions like: ‘Does everyone have a car?’ ‘Why don’t humans walk everywhere?’ ‘What's a highway? Some sort of mountain?’. Beside Luz, Amity listens intently, her hand is intertwined with Luz’s. She’s soaking up the information like a sponge as Luz answers each of Gus’ questions.
Willow and Hunter are also doing their own interrogation with Vee, who’s tagged along with them to help.
“Elder Indigo…” Hunter murmurs. He reaches up to rub his brow, wincing as a gloved hand places too much pressure on the bandage placed on his forehead. “Is this some kind of reagent shop?” he asks Vee.
Vee snorts from beside Willow and shakes her head. “I can see by the name how you would get that. I thought the same at first too! But no, it’s a place where you can buy clothes.” Vee points to one of the many advertised posters adorning the storefront. Willow sucks her teeth and her eyes narrow behind her glasses.
“Those humans look way too skinny, are they advertising themselves as prey?” she states.
Camila is having second thoughts about this.
She clears her throat and all conversation ceases. Attentive eyes stare at her as she begins to explain the plan to them. “Alright, we’re here to get you all a new set of clothes. We'll walk by each area and if something stands out to anyone, don’t be afraid to go grab it if you want to try it on. Luz?” Camila gives a look to her daughter to cue her in on explaining the next part.
“Right!” Luz nods her head and continues. “Obviously you guys don’t look like you’re from here at all.” she gestures to their clothes and points at their ears. “Luckily the big ren faire in Lebanon is going on this weekend!” As she states this, a passerby decked out in leather archer gear, tennis shoes, and obviously fake elf ears stops to give the group a compliment.
“Woah! Nice get up guys! Your ears look so realistic!” They give a thumbs up directed at Amity and she sputters. The strain in her brow tells Camila the girl is doing everything in her power to not make her ears move as she stammers out a ‘thank you’.
The passerby leaves and Luz points behind herself. “See? An easy cover!”
Hunter scoffs and crosses his arms. “Their ears were not even anatomically correct!”
“Yeah…you’d fit right in with the crowd Hunter.” Luz side eyes Hunter and snickers.
Before a round of bickering can start, Camila ushers them to start following her inside. Of course, it can’t be that easy.
The first obstacle is the sliding doors. When they open, Camila can hear an indignant squawk from Hunter and another endless bout of questions coming from Gus. Willow has her fists raised, glaring at the opening.Vee is patting her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. “No no Willow! It's fine, see! It's just a door.”
“What if it bisects us as soon as we step through?!” Amity hisses in horror as she pulls back Luz by the collar of her jacket.
“ Hermosa, that’s not how this thing works!”
Maybe Camila should’ve ordered some clothes online. She gave a strained smile at one of the attendants and reassured that everything was fine. The kids were just excited for their next day at the faire. Camila eases them in and once they’re all finally in the store, she releases a breath. Now they can get to work.
“Okay,” Camila starts, looking at the section of the store filled with copious amounts of jeans. “Let’s start over here and we can get pants out of-”
Turning back around, she sighs.
The kids are gone, of course. Everyone else except Hunter went about their own ways. She pinches the bridge of her nose, glasses sliding up her face at the action.
“Um, Ms. Noceda…you were saying?”
Right, at least one child is sticking to the plan, hopefully they can all meet up in the dressing room area. Taking a deep breath, Camila smiles softly at Hunter and she guides both of them to the jeans and t-shirt section of the store.
Hunter seems overwhelmed. His eyes are wide as he looks over the different pictures of the different cuts and colors. He fidgets with his hands nervously and bites his lip, looking back at Camila.
“Why don’t we start small, pick a color you like.” Camila says encouragingly.
The teen gives Camila a small smile and nods. Focused, his eyes scan the shelves for something that stands out to him. Camila notes how his gaze lingers on mostly black jeans, and she makes her way over to help pick out some options. Humming softly to herself, she picks a gray washed set and a black pair with ripped holes in them (how this became a fashion statement, Camila will never know). She mentally thanks her daughter’s foresight for getting everyone’s approximate measurements before leaving the house. It will make shopping go a little bit faster for them.
“What about these?” She holds up the pants for Hunter to get a look at and he hums approvingly.
“They look nice…” he trails off warily, but Camila sees the confirmation in his eyes. She folds the jeans over her arm and cants her head over to the shirts.
“You can try them on once we pick out a shirt for you, hm? There’s a lot to choose from! Take all the time you need mijo .”
Hunter blushes at the term of endearment and scurries off to look at the graphic tees. Camila has to laugh, of course the loud pieces of art on regular attire would attract a witch whose style is something out of the 17th century.
Being ever vigilant, she looks around to see if she can spot the other children. She has no plans to get kicked out before these kids can get some fresh clothes on their back. Camila startles when she hears Gus talking animatedly to Hunter, looks like he’s returned from his own adventure with the others to find their astray friend.
“Woah dude! That looks sick!” Gus exclaims.
Camila approaches the two. Gus has some button up shirts of different patterns thrown over his shoulders with some casual looking slacks. Distinguished , Camila thinks. It seems the youngest has an eye for these sorts of things. Noticing her approaching, Gus grins and holds up one of the shirts he’s chosen.
“Hi, Ms. Noceda! Look at this shirt I found, it has these weird looking pink giraffe birds!” Gus giggles as he points to the pink flamingos scattered upon the navy blue base of the shirt.
“Ah! Those are called flamingos, Agustus. Very gorgeous birds.”
“Ohhh,” Gus nods. “Fla-min-gos.” He enunciates the word carefully, testing it on his tongue. After repeating the word a few times, he looks back up to Camila, gray eyes alight with curiosity. “Do these flamingos fly in contecut?”
“Connecticut.” Hunter corrects Gus kindly.
“Yeah, here!” Gus waves his hand around, not bothering to pronounce the state name.
Camila chuckles and shakes her head. “They’re tropical birds, we would have to go to the zoo to see any. Maybe we can take a trip there soon, once you all get settled.”
Gus grins, the action causing one of his fangs to peek through his upper lip. It was rather adorable. Camila turns her attention back to Hunter, who now has his own collection of shirts gathered in his arms. “Looks like you two are ready to try on some of your choices, hm?” she states.
Another sheepish smile from Hunter and an enthusiastic nod from Gus. They make their way to the changing area. There were a multitude of booths, each enclosed to ensure privacy. Camila hands the jeans she was holding for Hunter over to him. She goes to sit on one of the benches placed outside the booth and explains the process to both of them.
“You can go and try on the clothes you like in there.” She points to a booth. “There are mirrors inside so you can see yourselves. If you want each other's opinion, once changed, you two can step outside and take a look at eachother. Understand?”
Both Hunter and Gus nod. Before either of them go inside their respective booth, Camila watches as one of Gus’ ears flick as he recalls something. “Oh Hunter wait! I got you these!”
Gus rummages under the pants folded across his arm and takes out something made of leather. Upon closer inspection Camila realizes that they are fingerless gloves. Hunter looks touched at the thoughtfulness and laughs softly. He gathers his own set of clothes in one arm and with his free one, wraps Gus up in a quick side hug.
“Thanks Gus.” He says quietly as they pull back. Gus smiles sadly as he places the gloves on top of Hunter’s pile. Camila stays silent. She’s only seen the prominent scars on Hunter–the one on his face and the clipped ear, but she can gather there are a lot more. The newest one being the faint lightning-like scar that runs up his arm to his neck. If the light hits it a certain way, Camila swears there is a faint glow that accompanies it. The eldest teen is self-conscious, especially when it comes to his hands. Hunter would only let Luz patch up his hands when they arrived on her doorstep two nights ago.
So this gesture, no matter how small it may seem, was huge for this child. Just as she did that fateful night of Luz’s return, she vows to herself that these children would have a chance to be themselves. Camila would protect them as best as she could before they would have to inevitably return to save their (and Luz’s) world.
The boys went off into both of their respective booths, Camila took her time to scroll through her phone, idly searching for zoo ticket prices and calculating groceries for the week. Six children in her house. A watery laugh escaped her lips at the thought. Her late husband had always wanted a big family.
“¿ Mami?”
Camila startles and quickly wipes her eyes. Looking up she sees Luz, Amity, Willow, and Vee. Luz is looking at her in concern, but she waves her daughter off, convincing her not to worry. Luz narrows her eyes at her mother’s action, but lets it go for now.
Luz is empty handed, as she still had clothes back at home that she could share with Vee. Amity and Willow carry their own set of garments in hand. Both of them seem excited to discover human fashion trends.
Amity and Willow beelined to their own respective changing rooms whilst Luz and Vee sat next to Camila on the waiting bench.
Luz squeals in excitement as she gives a friendly nudge to Vee with her shoulder. “Oh I’m so excited to see how they look! You picked out some good choices for them, Vee.”
“Oh I don’t know, I just went with a gut feeling mostly.” Vee laughs sheepishly and rubs the back of her head. Uncanny as it is for Camila to see two Luz’s, there are differences between them. Of course, when out in public Vee shrouds herself in her disguise. An exact copy of Luz, except there are a few changes. The freckles on her cheek stand out and most days Vee is wearing a beanie of some sort to cover her fins when she doesn’t feel like using too much of her residual magic.
Luz’s and Vee’s already established bond had only grown stronger since the last time they met when Luz was still on the Boiling Isles. The two slid into easy conversation like they had known each other for years and Camila felt her heart warm at the sight.
“Woah Gus! Looking snazzy!” Luz exclaims.
Camila looks up from her phone and agrees with her daughter. Gus had stepped out of his dressing booth wearing the flamingo button up shirt he picked out. It was tucked into a nice set of casual gray slacks tied together with a black belt.
Gus grins at Luz and Vee and spins around. “Thanks Luz! The pants look fancy, but they’re super stretchy!” To demonstrate, Gus jogs in place and does some squats. As Luz and Vee 'oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ Camila can see Hunter shuffle out of his own booth.
Hunter looks comfortable in this attire. The ripped black jeans Camila chose suited him well and the shirt he wore was an oversized black tee with the national space agency logo plastered on the front. His arms are crossed, but Camila can see that he’s wearing the leather gloves that Gus handed him earlier.
The others haven’t noticed him. Camila smiles and gives him the compliment he deserves. “You look handsome Hunter.”
He blushes to the tip of his ears and mutters out a sheepish thank you. Camila speaking out loud brought the attention off of Gus and onto Hunter, who became even more red at the attention.
“Dude! That shirt is so cool!”
“Oooo an emo look! It suits you Hunter!”
“Luz, what does that even mean? ”
“I think it means you’re very emotional.”
“We’re all very emotional! Why am I different?”
Willow steps out next while the others are fawning (and arguing) over Hunter. She’s wearing a pretty sundress with strawberries patterned throughout the garment. She steps side to side, causing the bottom hem of the dress to swish around her calves. The motion catches Hunter’s attention and he pauses mid argument with Luz. His jaw is dropped and Camila is afraid if anymore blood rushes to his head he’ll pass out.
Luz and Vee turn around to see what Hunter is staring at. Vee lets out a cute squeal and strides over to Willow. “Oh this looks so cute on you! I didn’t think you would like it.”
Willow’s gaze flickers from Hunter to Vee and there is a remnant of her own blush lightly dusting her cheeks as she grins. “Yeah no, I love what you picked out Vee! It's pretty and-” Willow cuts herself off as her hands glide down the sides of her dress. One of her hands caught against an odd fold of fabric. Willow’s eyes widen in recognition. “No way….” she breathes. “It has pockets?!” Willow sticks both hands in the dress pockets and laughs. “Oh yes, this is the dress for me!”
Luz whistles as she appraises her friends. “Dang! Y'all are looking good!” She turns to give finger guns to Hunter and Gus, then spins back around to give them to Willow and freezes.
Amity is the last of them to step out and oh, how Camila wants to record her daughter’s expression.
Luz, similar to Hunter’s earlier reaction, is slack jawed. There is a blush slowly taking over her face as she takes in Amity’s outfit. It's simple, but it suits her. She wears a pink hoodie underneath a pair of dark blue overalls. Amity is fidgeting nervously and her ears are pinned back as she gauges her girlfriend’s expression.
“I-is it bad?” Amity stammers out.
This snaps Luz out of her daze and she shakes her head frantically. “Bad?! Heck no Amity! You look amazing!”
As Luz rambles positive affirmations at Amity, Camila turns back to the others. “If you all like your outfits, go ahead and change back and we can go and purchase them.” She smiles at the excited expressions of the teens realizing they’ll own something foreign and new. As they all go back to their respective booths, Camila mentally checks off ‘clothes shopping’ off her list. Next hurdle will be grocery shopping. What do witches even eat?
Chris has had enough of this boring summer job. He can’t believe this, but he’s actually looking forward to school starting up again. Anything to get him away from the constant blasting of discounted clothing and crying children.
The group in front of him however, is making him reconsider waiting until summer's end and just quitting right this instant.
Today was already weird; there were already some nerds coming in here to buy last minute clothes to modify for the fantasy ren faire happening. He’s seen fake orcs, trolls, kings and queens. These elvish looking children though, they top the cake of nerdiness.
The four of them had pointed ears that looked way too realistic. Chris could’ve sworn he saw them move a time or two as he scanned the items of clothing. When the pink haired one laughed at some joke one of her friends made, Chris was impressed at the implanted fangs he caught a glimpse of. These kids had to be really rich nerds to get such life-like props. Even the clipped ear of the blonde one was crafted well.
Everyone, except the obvious mom and twin of the girl with the varsity jacket, looked pretty beat up. Then again, it could’ve been from the ren fair. He hears they have pretty intense fake fights to the death or something. The fake elf boy with grey eyes and ebony skin watched his every movement as he scanned the items. His gaze would flicker back and forth from the tags he was scanning to the computer that kept adding the total. With each added item the number got bigger and so did his eyes.
The boy walked over to the lady paying for all this and rummaged in the pockets of his…tunic? They all even dressed the part too, weird. Chris watches as he pulls out a coin purse and tugs on the lady’s sleeve. She looks up from her wallet and looks at the kid. She gives him a sad looking smile and shakes her head. “Oh no Gus, it's fine. I got it.”
“But-!”
“Aht! No! This is nothing, go pick out a snack with the others.”
The kid, Gus, listens to the lady and goes back to join his friends. Chris calculates the total and relays it to the lady. There's a glint in her eyes as she pulls out a copious amount of coupons and places them on the counter.
There’s probably a good fifty coupons in that stack, Chris holds back a groan of annoyance.
“Wait! Hunter! Don't shake the soda like-!”
‘Pop!’
“Agh!”
Chris sighs and turns on the speaker.
“Clean up at register five.”
Yeah, he’s quitting today.