Spider-Luz

Ch. 25: First Day

It had been a few days since the shooting at the school... obviously it had been close while the police did an investigation, and because clearly they don't want the students to come back to a place they watched many friends/family get murdered, and they needed to hire new teachers that had been killed, which is why Luz, Willow, and Gus were in the cafe working.

"I'll be right back with your order." Gus said, taking orders from tables.

Gus walked to the counter, where Willow was placing items on Luz's tray.

"Here they are." Willow said before Gus handed her a new order slip.

"More coming in, Willow." Gus said.

"This is... surprisingly not bad." Willow said.

"What did you expect? A place packed with customers?" Luz asked.

"Not exactly but it's a lot less stressful than I thought." Willow said, getting to work on making the coffee/food orders.

They heard the bell on the door ring and looked to see who came in. It was Lilith.

"Luz, should we-"

"Okay it cool." Luz quickly said.

"Hi, Aunt Lily." Luz said with a smile, "You here on business or are you on a quick break?"

"Hello, Luz, I'm just here because I wanted to check in on you. I know the... incident... at the school might have been a bit traumatic for you."

"Don't worry, I got to avoid most of the... chaos... luckily." Luz said.

"That does make me curious." Lilith said, "Where were you?"

"Oh, I... hid inside my locker." Luz said, "It was the best thing I could think of."

"Really?" Lilith asked, disbelieved. "I find that hard to believe due to you being MUCH taller than your classmates."

"Believe it or not, before coming here, I was used to people stuffing me in lockers. You never forget how to fit in there." Luz said, shrugging.

Oh if it wasn't for laws and jurisdiction, Lilith would go to Connecticut and have a field day with that statement.

"I see. Either way, I'm glad you all are safe." Lilith said before looking at the menu. "I'd like a-"

"Your usual?" Eda asked, walking up to the counter.

Before Lilith could say anything, Eda already placed the cup into Lilith's hand. Lilith gave a small smile.

"Thank you, Edalyn. How much do I owe you?"

"... How about a promise?" Eda asked, leading Lilith away from Luz, "Listen, things are getting crazy lately, and I need you to promise me... if I have to suit up in order to save Luz and get hurt or... worse in the process... make sure Luz is safe."

Lilith saw the honesty in Eda's eyes. Sure they had a bit of a rocky relationship, but they both cared about Luz, that's something that will never change.

"... You don't even have to ask me to do that... I can never repay you for actually making her give an honest smile." Lilith said, "Some people on the force, adults mind you, are still unable to smile after being put through something like that."

"Are they jealous?" Eda joked.

"No...not all of them." Lilith said, joking back, "Well, I have to get to work."

"Stop by anytime for anything other than coffee or an arrest." Eda said.

"I'll be sure to. And I'll bring mother and father to see Luz." Lilith said as she turned to leave.

And with that, Eda let out a sigh and dropped in a chair.

"That tire you out?" Luz asked.

"Ever since my arrest Lilith and I aren't that close, and conversations like that honestly fuck with me." Eda said.

"At your age you shouldn't be doing that." Willow joked.

"One more comment like that and I'll dock your pay." Eda said.

"...You're paying them?" Luz asked.

"Yeah, the difference between them and you, is I actually take care of you." Eda said.

"So I basically work for free because I'm family?" Luz asked.

"You also don't pay rent and do the grocery shopping. So yes." Eda said with a nod.

"Now back to work you three, this is a business, if this goes under, I'm homeless!" Eda said.

"What about living with Aunt Lilith or grandma and grandpa?" Luz asked, grinning a bit.

"Luz, if you were just my employee and not my niece, you'd be fired for that joke." Eda said.

"Yeah, guess there's that one major flaw in my plan." Luz joked.

'And she can kick my ass extra hard in training later.' Luz thought as she and her friends went back to work.