The bell screamed, signaling the end of class. With a relieved sigh, Nero got up from his desk and stretched his arms and legs, walking out of the classroom with graded test in hand. Just behind him, he heard the Blight twins moan and groan, Edric muttering, "Man, that test almost killed me."
"Don't be so dramatic, Ed," Emira grunted as the twins got side-by-side with Nero, the three of them taking the fastest route to the cafeteria for lunch. Daylight was burning and they were starving after the test.
"Don't act like it didn't almost kill you too…" Edric said as Nero only half-listened to the full conversation, too caught up in his own thoughts to give it total attention.
"I mean, it did, but don't be a drama queen about it," Emira snorted and smirked, "That's my job."
Edric's own smile became far more teasing, "Oh really? Then tell me, dear sister, which one of us got the star roles in last year's school play for drama class, and which of us was a background character?"
Nero chuckled and rolled his eyes, knowing exactly where this was going.
Emira's expression turned sour, "Oh please, you didn't get the lead role either. Nero got the lead role, and he didn't even audition for it!"
"Yes, but I wasn't a background extra."
There it is, Nero remembered that old play they all did, it being a production of Rotten that the whole class had to participate in. He auditioned for being a background extra while the twins were both vying for the role of main lead. Somehow, he got the lead role while Edric was a minor supporting cast member and Emira was a background extra. Nero was at least 99.9% sure that there was either a mix up or the Blight twins tried to cheat the system and got found out, with the given roles as punishments.
Not that Nero minded, since it turned out to be a lot of fun and helped get his mind off the troubles he'd been having back then, if temporarily.
"I… you… ugh, you're impossible."
"My greatest skill and achievement," Edric said with smug satisfaction before asking, "That was a fun play though. Right Nero?"
"Yeah, sure…" Nero halfheartedly replied, still trying to figure something out about-
"Nero, you there?" Emira poked his shoulder a few times, turning his attention to the twins, both of whom had a worried look. "You're not relapsing into Brood Mode again, are you?"
Nero blinked, "You did not just call it that."
"What else would you call it?"
Nero opened his mouth to retort, only to close it. He opened it again, and closed it again, finding that he had no retort to give. "Touche," He huffed and kept walking, maintaining the same speed as the twins, "And don't worry, I'm not falling back into old habits," at least, he hoped he wasn't, "I was just thinking about some of the research me, my mom, my aunt, King, and Luz did last night about-"
"Wait a minute, you actually spent time with your mom?"
"You actually needed to study stuff for once?"
"Okay, how is that such a shock to you guys!?" Nero angrily responded to Emira and Edric's respective questions, both of them just looking to each other without flinching in the least to his outburst.
Upon the two of them shrugging, Edric was the first to reply, "It's just that it feels like you've been pretty distant from your mom the past few years. You kinda just went through the motions with her. So, pretty odd by your standards to be hanging out with her again," Edric then gave a much warmer smile and asked, "Was studying with her any fun?"
"Ed, since when is studying ever fun?"
"Well, Mittens thinks it's fun, and I mean more the spending time with Miss Lilith part."
Nero thought back to last night and the many nights before. They'd all spent many long hours trying to uncover what they learned on King's Island, both to learn about King's currently nameless father and Nero's own grandfather: Sparda.
They started off by building up a few theories based on what little they knew beforehand, then tries to decipher the meaning of the iconography and murals in the tower to see which held water and which ones would be debunked. So far, the most they could piece together was that Sparda and King's father were war buddies of some kind, the two of them fighting… actually, none of them could figure out what exactly they'd been fighting. Their first assumption was that they were fighting against the Titans, given that Mom's previous research into the Emperor's personal library told her, but Nero wasn't so sure. If they'd fought the Titans together, Belos's book probably would've mentioned that, and there weren't any signs that the information had been redacted from it. Not to mention that, given Belos's penchant for lies, Mom was admitting to how she wasn't sure if the book was accurate or not.
The more they tried to figure out, the more questions they had. But was any of this actually fun?
There was the way Luz's eyes lit up, the way Eda playfully rolled her eyes at how everyone was in "absolute dweeb mode", the way Nero's… uncle? Cousin? He was still unused to that, but regardless, the way King always excitedly came up with as many theories about his parents as possible, never wavering even when what little they decipher started to disprove them. It always tuckered him out early, with Eda always carrying him affectionately to bed. Even Nero couldn't help but admit that the sight was adorable, and Mom always teased Eda about it, welcoming her sister to the wonderful world of motherhood.
Nero snickered upon remembering Eda's embarrassed reactions, though she never seemed averse to it either.
Speaking of moms, his own was practically having a non-stop thrill ride the whole way through each late night research marathon. Nero often sat next to her during them, and whenever he was trying to decipher ancient symbols and runes, she'd always be at the ready with several textbooks of matching symbols from both times gone by and more modern eras. And throughout all the researching that Nero would've found boring at any other time, he never stopped smiling.
"Honestly? Yeah, it actually was," Nero admitted, still smiling even now.
"DAW! Look at you, spending time with your mom! That's so sweet!" Emira cooed in what Nero could only describe as a teasing manner, to which he rolled his eyes.
"Stop."
"Come on, it's kind of adorable," Edric added, his tone equally teasing as Nero's face started going red.
"Seriously, quit it."
"Please, there's nothing embarrassing about it. Really, we're happy you guys are patching things up," Emira said, her tone more honest before it gained a sad cadence, "Besides, it sounds… nice, having a parent that wants to be around when it matters."
Nero raised a concerned eyebrow, remembering all the complaints the twins had about their folks that they'd shared since the three of them made up. "Let me guess. The usual issues with Odicklia and Aladouche?"
Edric and Emira started snickering for a few seconds, the latter being the first to regain herself as she wiped a stray tear from her eyes. "HA! Good one." Emira said, opening her locker's maw and pulling out a… lunchbox?
"You brought lunch from home?" Nero asked, pulling out his own lunchbox from his locker.
"Yeah, both of us did," Edric started, lunchbox in hand, "Dad made it for us. Our parents kinda suck, but they're not all bad. They have their moments every now and then."
"You still have Miss Lilith make stuff for you?" Emira asked, looking down at Nero's lunchbox.
"Yeah? That a problem?" Nero grunted, expecting another round of teasing as he looked down at it. Even after all these years, he still used the same one his mom got him for the first day at Hexside. Call it sentimentality, but he honestly couldn't bring himself to part with the simple red carrier.
"Nope," Emira shook her head and gave a more genuine, non-teasing smile, "Like I said, I think it's sweet."
Nero's eyes went a bit wide for a second, but just as quickly returned to normal as he smiled and walked ahead of them.
"Thanks."
The three of them arrived at the school cafeteria, lunch rush in full swing with students of all grades finding and taking seats. As Nero expected, they divided themselves into the usual Hexside cliques: Grudgby team, book club, gamer geeks, etc. His eyes scanned the room for an empty table to sit at, ignoring the ever present "fans" begging for him to sit at their tables. Sure, it wasn't as bad as it had been in the aftermath of the whole Petrification Ceremony or what it was like before even that, but…
Still annoying, Nero grimaced as he took his seat, waiting for the Blight twins to take their usual spots side-by-side with him. He hadn't liked it at first, but over the years, he'd come to accept that they'd sit wherever they damn well pleased, and next to him was just that. In recent times, he'd even come to welcome it, especially after they'd decided to start their friendship over. Much to his surprise, they didn't immediately sit down. Instead, their eyes started darting around the cafeteria, as if looking for someone, so he asked, "What's up?"
"We're trying to find Mittens," Edric answered.
"… why?" Better not be slipping back into old habits either.
"Oh, no reason. Perfectly innocent and not the least bit teasing, we can assure you," Emira said in a tone that wasn't the least bit believable, "Now, if you'll excuse us, we must find our dear sister so that we can follow through on said perfectly innocent reasoning."
The twins very quickly power-walked away, making Nero roll his eyes and rub at his forehead with his palm. He stood up and grabbed his lunch.
"Titan fucking… ugh!" Nero pulled out an Invisibility Glyph, grateful to his mother for making a surplus of extra glyphs alongside Luz, and took a deep breath. Now invisible, he cast a spell with his left hand and placed an illusion of himself eating lunch at the table before taking off after the twins, running to catch up and following closely behind them. The three weaved past tables left and right, the twins periodically looking behind themselves in ways that made Nero tense up, until Amity's was in sight, Nero seeing that she was sitting alongside Luz and her two friends, the first of whom had her scroll out while the latter had a large beige bag sitting behind him. What were their names again? Willow and… Goops?
"Hey Mittens!" The twins said simultaneously as they hugged their little sister, both of them pulling back as Emira jostled her hair, much to her annoyance.
"Edric. Emira." Amity greeted, her tone even, but with an underlying affection.
"Hello, Luz and the other two whose names escape me!" Edric waved to the rest of the group. Luz and Willow giggled, the latter taking Edric's humor in stride. Goops, however, took it a lot more personal and seemed a bit morose that Edric didn't remember his name, judging by how he slumped over.
Sorry about that, kid, Nero wasn't really sure about him, only remembering their brief interaction where he acted like one of the typical fans who tended to bug him. It didn't really make for a good impression, but he still felt bad for the little guy.
"So, where's Nero?" Willow asked the twins, who looked to each other and sighed reluctantly.
"Back at the table," Emira pointed in the sea of tables to their old one, where his illusion was still sitting and eating, before turning to Luz, "It didn't work."
Wait, what?
"Drat! I thought it would," Luz huffed, looking a little down in the dumps before she brushed it off and smiled, "In that case, it's time for Plan B!"
What!?
Amity gently put a hand to Luz's shoulder, a placating look in her eye, "Luz, maybe we should just leave it be? If he wants to be by himself, there's no use trying to trick him to come over. Besides, he's not gonna take it well and-"
"WHAT!?" Nero yelled, everyone turning to him as his invisibility wore off.
"I rest my case," Amity raised her hands, "For the record, I was completely against the idea."
Ignoring for now that his invisibility was gone, Nero shifted his gaze from Amity to Luz and the twins, lightly seething, "You three, talk. Now."
"Ugh, fine. Whatever you say, Claw Boy. Luz, why don't you handle this one?" Edric groaned, not the least bit intimidated by Nero's angry expression, nor was Emira for that matter. Even Luz merely raised an eyebrow at his glare, not taking it seriously.
"Weeeeeellll," Luz started, drumming her fingers on the table, which Nero now noticed had a pair of Good Witch Azura books on it alongside lunch, "We all noticed that you kinda kept sitting alone and I figured that it must get pretty, uh, lonely." She beamed and pointed to the twins, "So, I talked with them about it, and we all came up with a plan to bring you over to sit with us!"
Nero's eye twitch as he ran his right hand down his face. "And you didn't think to just, oh I don't know," He threw his hands into the air, "Ask me to sit with you!?"
"Because we know you," Emira cut in before Luz could say a word, sounding almost fed up, "You'd come up with every excuse imaginable to avoid having to sit next to anyone else. Sure, made sense after Grom and maybe even before that, but it can get kinda depressing to see after almost ten years."
"I don't come up with excuses all the time."
"Remember drama class? We all sat together for lunch to practice our lines for the play of Rotten?" Edric drawled out with a sass that would make Eda proud, "We invited you and your excuse was that you had food poisoning. While eating lunch."
Nero turned red at that memory. Honestly, he just went with the first thing he could think of at the time. But that was still only one time, and he opened his mouth to explain as such-
"Uh, I also actually kinda sorta did invite you to sit with us somewhere after Grom, but you turned us down. Something about it being 'too soon after Grom' or something?" Luz raised her hand and interrupted before quickly lowering it and hastily adding, "Which I totally get, by the way. I mean, you've got your whole lone wolf thing going on, but still."
"No, I… huh…" That made Nero go quiet. He remembered that moment, but he never gave it much thought. It was all just second nature to him.
"Or the time we invited you to sit with some new friends we made recently? You went all dodgy and said you were, and I quote, 'Too busy'," Emira added, sounding equally as snarky as her twin's statement from before.
"… wait, you guys made new friends recently?" Nero blinked, As in, actual friends and not rich kiss asses?
"… now that just plain hurts," Edric huffed.
"We have a life outside of you, Claw Boy," Emira added in just as low and huffy a tone that caused a swell of guilt to bubble up in Nero's stomach. He didn't mean it like that.
And I didn't know it bothered them this much, Nero resisted the urge to drag his hand down his face to hide his shame away.
"So, what do you say, Nero?" Luz hastily said, noticing that the conversation was going downward as she tried to get things back on track. She twiddled her index fingers together as she pleaded, "Want to sit with us? Come ooooon!Pleeeeeaaaaase?"
"I-I don't know," Despite all the pleading looks everyone at the table was giving, Nero still wasn't sure. It was uncharted waters for him and honestly, that guilty bubble was making him feel less inclined to do so. All he could do was stand there, rub at the back of his head and try to look away from them until he heard Amity clear her throat.
"Look, Nero, you don't have to hang out with us if you don't want to, but..." Amity sighed, a guilty look in her own eyes as she looked between Luz and Willow, "I have... experience with this sort of thing. With pushing people away when they try to reach out to you. Maybe you're scared that you're setting yourself up for disappointment, or that they won't understand you. Maybe you're scared of hurting them, or scared they'll get hurt because of you, so you push and shove and lock yourself up to stop that from happening. But all that does is make it happen, and way worse than what you were scared of."
Nero scoffed, "I'm not scared of-"
"Yes, you are. Trust me, I know what that's like." Amity's defiant glare actually shut Nero up. He could only nod slowly as she pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just... just stop trying shove everyone away and come sit with us. We're not trying to be annoying or anything," She looked up at him with, a challenging smirk slowly appearing on her face, "We want to spend time with you because it's you. We're trying to hang out with someone who we're proud to call our friend, even if he's too stubborn to see it. We want you to be a part of our lives, so just do yourself a favor join us already."
"Please, just let me be part of it."
His mom's words rung in his head as he stared at the group, all of them earnestly trying to let him in despite his best efforts. He had no problems opening up to Luz, Amity, and the twins, so why was this different? Why did he find it so difficult to just accept an invitation to join a group?
Guess I'm still a work in progress, And he was probably gonna stay one for a while, but at least he was getting better at the "progress" part. Sighing, he smiled and finally relented, "Alright, you guys win." As Luz applauded, he took a seat next to Willow while Edric sat at his left, Emira sitting across from her twin while Nero sat across from the Illusionist track kid who. Speaking of which, "So, kid, could you remind me what your name is? Because I'm pretty sure it isn't Goops."
Groaning for a moment, his expression picked up and he held his hand out, "Augustus Freeman Porter! But my friends call me Gus!"
Nero shook the hand, "Nice to meet you, Gus. I'd introduce myself, but... you already know."
"Yeah, and uh, sorry if I made you uncomfortable when we first met," Gus looked down, a bit ashamed, "Luz told me you really hated that kind of stuff."
"Eh, water under bridge," Nero shrugged, finding himself surprisingly at ease. He opened his lunch and began digging into it. After a few bites, he swallowed and turned to the spectacled wearing, blue haired witch next to him, "And you're Willow, right?"
She let her scroll float to the side and waved, "Yep. The name's Willow Park."
Nero nodded, but fell into an awkward silence, not really knowing where to start conversing with Luz's friends. He didn't know anything about them or what they liked, leaving him stumped. Looking over to Willow's scroll he saw it was playing a muted video in the background and tried starting there, "What are you watching?"
"Oh, just some Flyer Derby games," Willow showed him the video and unmuted it, letting him watch a minute of one such game.
"Huh, I've heard of it, but don't really know shit about it," Nero admitted and asked, "Is it any fun?"
Willow nodded and looked over to Luz and Amity, "I've never played it officially, but I've been looking into it and practicing a lot at home ever since we played Grudgby together."
"You guys joined the Banshees?" Nero looked at Luz and Willow. He knew Amity used to be part of the Banshees as their team captain, just like his mom used to be, but he hadn't heard anything about Luz joining. If she joined, Nero didn't doubt that she would've mentioned it back at the Owl House.
"No, it was part of a bet to try and get Boscha to leave me alone," Willow answered.
"We lost, but she did leave us alone after that, so... technically we won?" Luz shrugged, sounding happy, but something Willow said distracted Nero.
Boscha, why does that name sound familiar? Nero tried to remember where he'd heard that name before. He recalled plenty of his talks with the twins over the years, as well as how they often gossiped about their little sister's social life. Somewhere in one of those conversations, the name "Boscha" cropped up a few times, and Nero remembered them saying something about Amity hanging out with her and someone named Skara. But if Amity was trying to get her to leave Willow alone... Looking over to the youngest Blight, he asked, "Amity, isn't Boscha a friend of yours? Why was she bugging Willow?"
Amity grimaced and crossed her arms, "We're not friends and never were. I only ever hung out with her because my parents are business rivals with hers and they forced me to."
"Speaking of Boscha, she's glaring at us again," Gus pointed over to another table, where all of them looked to see a group of students laughing and chatting among themselves. All but a light-skinned, three-eyed witch in a Potion Track uniform with magenta hair that was tied into a bun, who glared daggers at their table, and more specifically seemed to be glaring at Amity and Luz. Amity glared back, as if daring Boscha to make a move. Boscha never made one, but she never stopped glaring, even after Edric and Emira joined in and glared back at the Potion student for glaring at their sister.
Nero found himself joining in, not liking the look the brat was giving his friends. While he liked to think he'd gotten pretty good at replicating the terrifying death glare his mom seemed to manage as easily as breathing back when she was with the Coven, Boscha only flinched slightly before shaking it off and continuing her own glare without a hint of fear.
She's got guts, I'll give her that.
But then Nero saw Willow level her own glare at Boscha, and behind those glasses was a blistering rage that actually made him sweat a bit, especially when her eyes flashed green. And it was apparently enough for Boscha, as she finally relented and focused on her meal, stabbing her food with a fork without a word.
"Finally. What the heck's her deal?" Luz groaned, having spent less time glaring and more time just looking bored. Clearly, she'd put up with Boscha enough times that it barely phased her beyond annoyance anymore. It made Nero idly wonder if she'd ever dealt with people like Boscha back on Earth.
"I don't know. She's been like that since the day I met her," Willow seethed ever so slightly before sighing, rubbing at her temple while Luz reached over and gave her a pat on the back, all while Amity looked down in shame for reasons he couldn't understand, though Luz flashed her a look that helped console the youngest Blight. But then his mind went back to Willow and the look she had.
That anger... It reminded Nero of his own, how he often seethed to himself over all the headaches, big and small, whether they be over how he was put on a pedestal, how his mother coddled him, how the Blight twins got on his nerves, how he was expected to go along with Bellhop's bullshit system. All that anger, but nowhere to put it, not knowing if putting it anywhere would hurt anyone. If Willow had been holding onto that anger for a while, then he kinda got where she was coming from.
And if Amity had been forced to befriend Boscha in the past, Nero could understand that too. Sure, they were on good terms right now and working to get better, but he'd pretty much been all but forced to befriend the twins by the twins themselves attaching to him. He was also pretty damn sure that they were forced to befriend him by their parents because of social climbing bullshit. They never said anything, but from what he knew of the Blight family's parents, it was a surefire bet to be the case. Either way, he didn't think the reasons for their friendship mattered anymore compared to where they were at the moment.
But between the twins and how they struggled with phonies who only sought them for their family name, Amity struggling with being forced to have "friends" she didn't want, Willow having all that anger built up... maybe he could open up a little bit more?
Maybe he'd find more people he could connect with here?
"I know Boscha's leaving you alone right now, but if she tries anything later on, I think I can set her straight," Nero cracked a few knuckles. Friends offered to beat up people bothering them, right? And either way, he didn't like bullies.
Weirdly, Willow shook her head, "Thanks, and I'm glad to have people in my corner, but I think I can handle Boscha on my own now."
"Trust me, I think a lot of students know better than to get on Willow's bad side at this point," Gus added, Nero remembering something that came up when he first met these two.
"Oh right," He pointed to Willow, "You unleashed vines all over the school." Honestly, that was so long ago he'd almost forgotten about it, "You're pretty good with plant magic. Way better than I am, anyway."
"Really? From what I heard, aren't you kind of a magic prodigy?" Gus asked, genuinely confused, and judging by the look on Willow's face, he wasn't the only one.
"Yeah, I mean, I know I'm good with plant magic now, but I don't think I'm that good."
"Plus, I see you do all kinda of crazy magic combos when we go bounty hunting," Luz added, eyebrow raised and sounding unsure, "Kinda surprised you don't know a lot more than us about magic."
"Knowing and being able to do are completely different," Nero shrugged. Sure, he could understand everythingabout how all the different types of magic worked, but that didn't mean he could pull off what Willow did with plant magic. Granted, he didn't know if it was intentional or not, but he could tell that she had way more potential for it than he did.
"Nero's always been pretty lazy about that sort of thing anyway," Edric joked, earning a snicker from Emira.
"I'm not lazy, I just prefer to do shit my way," Nero defended, cheeks red as he glared at the twins.
"Yeah, like how you almost never study for any exams," Emira snarked, though Nero couldn't help but sense a tinge of bitterness. He just didn't know why it was there.
"Not seeing why I need to do that anyway," Nero pulled out the exam from the previous class and showed off the grade to prove a point, "See? Made a 92. Been making these kinds of grades since I started here." Without saying a word, Edric and Emira pulled out their own exams and put them side by side with Nero's. Much to his surprise, both of their grades were much higher than his, being a 97 and 99 respectively. "Huh..." Nero blinked. He and the twins did share each other's tests every now and then (okay, back then, it was more like they yoinked the tests from him while he wasn't looking and just showed him theirs), and he couldn't recall a time when they scored higher than him. Looking at them, he asked, "Okay, what the hell's your point?"
"That wasn't us coasting by on luck and talent, Nero. We had to work for those grades," Emira rolled her eyes and put her test away.
"You guys have to work for your grades?" Amity asked, raising an eyebrow at her older siblings, "I didn't know that. Whenever I see you, you're are always goofing off. It's not like I ever saw mom or dad get on your case for it."
"Oh, trust us sis, it takes a lot of effort to make it look easy and please those two. It especially takes a lot of effort to look smarter than you," Edric affectionately rubbed at the top of Amity's head, stealing her ponytail and eliciting a huff from her as she turned red-faced. Everyone barring Nero and Luz chuckled at the sight, the latter of whom too busy blushing at the sight of Amity with her hair let down. In Nero's case, he was thinking too much on the twins' words about him "coasting by", looking down at his right hand.
Am I really just lucky or some shit? Ever since his first day at Hexside, he barely paid any attention to what was being said in class beyond the bare minimum, since at home, his mother always gave far more thorough lessons that went beyond Hexside's curriculum. Even that was never too difficult for him, and he took to those lessons very quickly, though he increasingly found them boring after a while, especially when Mom started running out of new things to teach him. Still, sitting down every day for a couple hours just to teach him something always made Mom happy, and Nero was genuinely happy spending time with her.
He just wished he was better at showing it earlier.
Nero didn't want to think he was lazy, since there were things that he sincerely worked hard at and found rewarding, like hunting and engineering. But looking back, he never considered himself lazy in his schoolwork and studies because of how easy it came to him.
The more today went on, the more he realized that there were a lot of things he didn't consider before.
Looks like I have a lot to think about, Nero sighed and looked back at the large beige bag sitting behind Gus, "Hey, what's in there?"
Gus looked back and smiled, "Oh, this? Luz helped me find a lot of new artifacts from the human world, and I'm gonna be showing it off for the Human Appreciation Society later today!"
"Hexside actually has that?" Nero asked, curiosity piqued. He'd never heard of it, but at this point, he was willing to assume that was because of his whole loner habit.
"Yup! And you're looking at the founder and leader!" Gus blinked and rubbed the back of his head, "I mean, I used to be the leader, but I kinda lost it after I snuck Luz back in when she got banned."
"Sorry about that, Gus," Luz apologized, looking down with clear guilt as Amity gently patted her back.
"It's fine. I'm the one who lied that you were unbanned, so... kind of deserved. Besides, I still have plenty of fun there, even if Mattholomule's in charge now," Gus said the name with clear disdain before muttering a few things.
Nero would've tried to listen in, but he was still too focused on this little club and asked, "So, what exactly do you guys do at this... Human Appreciation Society?"
"We try to understand human culture and customs through whatever artifacts we find," Gus pointed to Luz, "Like I said, Luz helps me out a lot with getting new artifacts."
"By that, he means Eda sells stuff from her shop to him and I gotta keep him from getting swindled," Luz teased, causing Gus to blush a little.
"PFFT! I don't need you to do that for me. It's not like Eda's ever swindled me. Except for that one time, and the other time, and uh... every time I went there, actually." Gus began to sweat a little while the entire table, Nero included, giggled at his realization. The human enthusiast shook his head and got back on track as he looked over to Luz and Willow, "Anyway, you guys wanna come to the meeting? I'm pretty proud of the haul I'm bringing today. Plus, I might need Luz to help me out with identifying these things."
"Sure, I'd be happy to help!" Luz cheerfully answered before looking over to Amity and asking, "You want to come with? We can mix clubs up." She picked up her book, "It'll be the Azura Book Club meets the Human Appreciation Society!"
Amity blushed, but smiled, "I mean, this whole Human Appreciation Society isn't really my thing-"
"It totally is," Emira joked, Edric quickly joining in.
"Well, one human in particu-" He quickly went silent when Amity, entire face crimson, glared bloody murder at him with purple glowing eyes. She manifested Abomination substance around her right arm, forming a gauntlet with spiked knuckles.
"Please, do finish that sentence."
"... I'll shut up."
"Thank you," Amity calmed down and dissolved the gauntlet, "Anyway, I'll join." She smiled at Luz, "We doneed to finish that chart detailing why Azura and Hecate are statistically perfect for each other."
"They're not the only ones who are perfect for-OW!" Emira's snarky comment was cut off when a (thankfully) not spiked Abomination fist flew at her like a rocket, knocking her to the floor. Nero and Edric looked down at her now bruised face with concern as she wobbled back up, hand on the table to balance herself, "Okay... I deserved that."
"Yes, you did," Amity looked over at the rest of the table (barring Luz) and glared, "Anyone else?" Everyone else rapidly shook their heads as Emira started applying healing magic to her face while Amity sighed, "Good."
Luz, on the other hand, blinked a few times and asked, "What was that about?"
Amity blushed and stuttered, "N-Nothing! A-Anyway, about that chart we were working on-"
The table quickly fell back into what Nero assumed was old routine: Luz and Amity chatting away about everything from Good Witch Azura to different types of magic (glyph or otherwise), Willow occasionally chiming into their conversations while chatting with Gus about if he's heard of any human plants in his work for the Human Appreciation Society, and the twins talking the latest gossip while Emira was busy healing herself. All of this went down while Nero wasn't sure whether to join in, or how to join in the first place. Eventually, the twins noticed his silence and Edric elbowed him in the side, gesturing for him to try and join in, but he was still caught between whether or not he really wanted to.
He didn't want to get between Luz and Amity's bonding session, especially given their mutual crushes on each other. As far as he knew about Willow, her interests were in plants and Flyer Derby, and talking about those things would die too quickly when it came to him. At the same time, it sounded more like he was making excuses to avoid having to actually enter any conversations with them, just like he'd spent his whole life until now doing.
Titan dammit, they're right. I really am lazy and scared about this shit, Nero heard a rummaging sound and looked over to Gus, who was trying to find something in his sack full of human "artifacts" and pulled out a series of potted plants. Wondering about them, Nero managed to ask, "Hey, Gus, what are those?"
"Hmm? Oh, these?" Gus gestured to the red, green, and blue plants with a flourish, "These, my friend, are plants from the human world. I got them from Eda."
"Eda said that she found them while exploring the Arklay Mountains years back. It's a place near Racoon City, which..." Luz started explaining before she stopped herself and shook her head. "Never mind, it's really not all that important. Anyway, since then, she's been growing them in her backyard to use for potions she can sell," Luz picked one up and helped show it off to the rest of the table, "They're honestly pretty effective. They've definitely helped me out a few times when I got hurt or sick." Her smile faltered just a tad, "No good against curses though."
Nero felt a pang in his heart and Valknut for a second, knowing that his aunt and now his mother were suffering the effects of that damned curse. There wasn't much he could do about it no matter how much he wanted to, aside from helping them find a cure. Not wanting to dwell too much on that now, he looked at the human plants and let his mind wander to the human world.
He still remembered that day at the Conformatorium when the portal door was briefly active, letting him see into the human realm for the first time in his life. The pristine green forests and clear blue skies framed by that rickety old porch were a sight to behold, no matter how brief it was. More than that, just thinking of the human world, he couldn't help but feel this odd sense of longing. It was like that world was calling out to him, but he didn't know how to put into words.
There were a lot of things he didn't know how to put into words, the more he thought of it. But he at least knew how to put this into words.
"Gus, can I ask you something?" When the young illusionist looked toward him, Nero sighed and asked, "The Human Appreciation Society... is it accepting new members right now?"
He practically heard a pin drop when the question left his mouth, as now everyone at the table was looking at him. Their expressions ranged from shock (Amity and the twins) to confusion (Willow) to excitement (Luz and Gus).
"Say that again," Gus practically had stars in his eyes, his excitement matching Luz's in a way that Nero just couldn't say no to.
And he honestly didn't want to say no anyway.
"I'm saying..." Nero managed a smile, "That I want to join the Human Appreciation Society."