Chapter Text
2031
Luz Noceda had gone through many firsts in her life. Firsts she was pretty sure were unique to her and her alone.
There were also the normal firsts, of course, like her first words, her first steps, her first job, her first, and if the both of them had anything to say about it, only girlfriend—wife now!—her first time cycling down the street going ‘look mamá, papá! No hands!’
…her first emergency visit to the doctor.
Her first childhood photo with an adorable tooth gap!
Around her, dark-green waves frothed and splashed against the island of slick, oiled rock, a jagged holdout against a raging sea that stretched out beyond the horizon.
Despite all her unique firsts though, her current situation was not a ‘first’ in any way, surprisingly.
Off to the side, far in the distance, an imposing cliff wall of equally jagged rock, natural yet oddly perfect spirals crystallized into any flat surfaces they could find, rose into the sky, as tall and insurmountable as the sea was wide. Even if the dark, nearly black storm clouds churning high above her had been absent, the other, equally large sea that used to look like an ankle-deep puddle had stretched so far up it’d look only like a starless night sky from below, details of its equally violent torrents and vortexes invisible at this distance.
So, for example, this was not her first time spending an extended period of time in the In-Between, even if it had begun to look wildly different from what it normally looked like. Emphasis on the wild.
That might just be because of the other current occupants though.
A small whipping sound coming from the looming storm clouds and a tug on her person got Luz into readying Stringbean, flashing off to the side in a stream of Arcane Purple and sparks of Thaumic Gold, narrowly dodging the stray black hole lobbed in her direction, which consumed a good chunk of the island and sea on its way through, leaving an Old Testament-like Red Sea in its wake that violently disappeared as water slammed against itself.
She thought it was water anyway. She wasn’t sure.
Anyway, it also wasn’t her first time working together with a godlike being to take down genocidal egomaniac tyrants!
“That better not have been a stray from you!” she shouted indignantly into the void—or wherever he was—as she steadied herself on the remaining crag of stone, preparing for the battle of a lifetime. They’d gun for her anytime now.
After eleven years of relative peace and quiet, ‘relative’ being important when it came to the Boiling Isles, chaos and mayhem once more found themselves attracted to the Demon Realm.
And it had all begun right on her birthday.
~~~
“Alright everyone, the Collector’s about to pass by!” Ever since her ‘King-ceañera’, which was so many years ago by now—geez, the time!—a spectacle in the sky to finish up Luz’s birthday had become tradition. The woman herself couldn’t feel more honored with the gesture.
Sure, plenty of things had changed in those years—the size of the gathering had shrunk to what was a small, tightly-knit, sociable group—but this was one thing that had—and would—remain the same.
Luz grinned up at the sky, now filled with the Collector’s signature waves of Celestial Blue and sparks of Manic Pink. “There! On the count of three! One-”
Except the count stopped as soon as it started.
“…Is the magic getting closer?” King asked cautiously, the past few years having lowered his voice by several pitches, though in height he had yet to beat any of them.
“Uh…I’m not sure-”
“They’re coming!” the voice that could only be the Collector’s, just as it had been all those years ago, rent the air with magical amplification.
The next second, a body slammed into the ground, shaking the table decked with plastic cups and a partly eaten cake.
Immediately, several of the crowd ran over to the new crater to check on their sudden arrival, their magical colors dissipating.
“Collector?” Luz asked worriedly, spotting the small figure dressed in pajama-like robes, looking like he’d been plucked straight from the time they’d last seen him in person. “Are you-”
“They’re coming!” he repeated frantically, shooting up from where he’d left a silhouette imprinted in the solid rock. “My siblings!”
At the proclamation, it was like a freezing spell had been cast on everyone in the clearing.
“They’re on their way here, right now!” he continued, voice high-pitched.
Luz was the closest one to notice the incoming freak-out, and hastily crossed the distance.
“Collector, Collector,” she began, coming to a stop and getting down on her haunches. “It’s alright, okay? Just tell us slowly.” Despite her slow speech, her mind was racing in barely subdued panic.
The Collector, breathed heavily, vibrant red eyes meeting hers. “The- The Archivists. I tried to stay around here and away from them, but they definitely noticed I’m not trapped anymore. And- And-”
He swallowed forcefully.
“Did you see them? Did they talk to you?” Luz asked worriedly. From the barest of information she had on them, both from Eda’s recollection of her Curse’s memories and the Collector’s own exposition, they sounded like terrible people for him to be around again.
The Collector shook his head, before turning and pointing up at the night sky. “Do you see that star? And that one? And those two?” Luz’s eyes flitted across the heavens to follow his finger. “They’re- They’re all moving here now.”
All she could do was take his word for it, realizing what those stars were, as his shoulders slumped.
“I didn’t want them to know,” he said, worryingly quiet. “But they do, and they know a titan has to be alive for me to be free again, so they’re coming back.”
Luz shivered at the thought. She paused, unsure of what to do, and glanced over her shoulder at Amity, standing a few feet away from them.
Her fiance nodded and turned to the crowd gathered at the edge of the crater.
“Everyone, out! Party’s over! Forget what you heard and wait until we have more information, or I’ll make you.”
Aw, her sweet potato made the best threats.
What was left of the gathering—herself and Amity, King, Eda, mom and Vee, and the Collector obviously—had moved to the living room of the Owl House, where they nervously waited for the Collector to speak up again.
The struggle to not try and pry and let him speak up on his own had led some to performing idle tasks, or wandering off into the kitchen, but Luz remained firmly on the couch, sitting next to the Collector at arm’s length, waiting for-
“Alright kiddo, time to spill. How screwed are we?”
“Eda!” Luz scowled at her mentor slash chosen parent, who returned it unapologetically.
Okay, so maybe she was just as impatient and would’ve cracked and spoken up in a minute too, but still!
Her focus returned to the small immortal sitting beside her, knees brought up and hiding his face. To her, it was obvious the state of mind he was currently in.
“Hey,” she began softly, scooting closer. Sure, most people who heard ‘Luz Noceda’ would probably not associate the name with ‘good with kids,’ not with how she was more likely to ‘act the kid’ rather than ‘act the adult,’ but she helped Amity out at the library a lot. She’d gotten to know her way around young kids very well in all that time.
“Something my papá used to tell me, is that when there’s a lot of bad on your mind, try and match one good thing for each bad one to clear things out.” She paused for a moment, before adding, “No matter how small.” Because, y’know, potentially genocidal omnipotent space gods coming right for them was definitely hard to balance out with positivity.
Thankfully her partly botched delivery—hey, the original was in Spanish!—came through, as the Collector quietly shifted his head, his eyes no longer shielded by his knees.
“Okay, so…” he began slowly, still not meeting anyone’s eyes. “When they get here, they won’t care about witches, demons, humans, or the Isles?”
“They’ll leave them alone?” Amity asked. Oh, yeah, there was a big difference between ‘leaving alone’ not caring and ‘flatten insects under their sparkly—probably?—boots’ not caring.
To everyone’s immense relief, the Collector nodded confidently, which was big, really. After all, the Collector would know the Archivists best, and if he said they wouldn’t even bother with anyone…
Well, barring the one person in the room not included on the list.
King stepped forward from the corner of the room with unease, looking extra awkward with the classic lanky, spindly limbs of mid-puberty. “Would they go away if they couldn’t find me?”
The Collector gave him a nod, before immediately dashing any newfound hopes by following that up with, “After a few centuries of searching they’ll get impatient.” Yikes. Immortal timescales, geez. “But they can travel faster than any of you, and they can always figure out where I am. And they know the properties of Titan’s Blood, so they’ll look through the Human Realm and other nearby ones too.” Double yikes. After all, if the Collector could make a portal door, the others definitely could. And while the Isles was familiar with godlike beings, places like Earth…
Wait, other- No, not important.
There was only one thing left to conclude. Luz gave the others one last glance, seeing grim, understanding looks, before meeting eyes with the Collector again.
“So we have to fight.”
The Collector nodded at her, a jerking gesture, before his eyes widened dramatically.
“But! But!” he began as he jumped up on the couch, suddenly looking impossibly excited. “Good thing! We have the one person in existence more powerful than them to fight them off!”
“You?”
The Collector giggled at Vee’s question. “No, silly! They’re definitely better at magic than me. And that’s four against one. Super unfair!”
Suddenly, Luz understood, and couldn’t help but give him a chiding look. “We’re not having King fight the Archivists, Collector.” That was the exact opposite of what they should do! Besides, “His powers are still growing in.” His wings had only just started developing, their only sign for now being a stiffness in his back, which he’d been complaining about at every conceivable moment. And his glyph magic was at a scale of power only a magnitude greater than regular witch spells.
“Yeah, duh!” the Collector answered. “A full-grown titan is more powerful than anything. King’s nowhere near his prime!”
“Hey, I’m almost an adult!” King objected.
The Collector blinked at him, apparently not having known that. “Yeah, in normal years, but titans grow up slower and slower super fast the older they get. You’re like- uh, a human of fourteen.” So like dog years, except King wasn’t the dog. “And it’ll take two centuries at least before you start entering your prime!”
Oh, that was a long puberty.
The entire group winced in solidarity.
“But Collector,” Luz started again, regaining his attention. “Then who are you talking…”
Oh.
“Collector,” she tried again, trying to ease him into disappointment. “I can’t repeat what I did with Belos; the Titan’s passed on for good now. And even if I could, I’m only a few years older than King.”
And yet, the Collector remained as excited as ever as he stared her down. “Sure you can! It’s all still there. You still have the same body King’s dad made after you- uh…when-”
“When I turned to light,” she completed softly, the Collector nodding as he hastily moved on.
“Yeah! And he made your new body exactly so all of his power could be stuffed into it without hurting you. It even changed for you when it couldn’t hold it all as your normal shape!”
Luz blinked, taken aback. “Me turning fluffy and badass wasn’t just for aesthetic and fan service?” she mumbled, not having expected to ever have that revelation.
“So yeah, you still have that body, so it can still do that! And all of King’s dad’s power is still lying around here, so all you need is to have King jumpstart you with his own and then figure out how to draw his dad’s power in by yourself!”
That sounded awesome! But-
“Will I- Would I really be powerful enough to fight them off?” she couldn’t help but ask.
The Collector’s smile stretched from ear to ear. “Definitely! Last time when you took his power you could do all the things titans could when they were the human equivalent of fourteen.” And that tracked, because King’s powers were currently just like hers had been.
So if whatever happened back then—becoming some kind of warlock?—turned her into the titan equivalent of her own age, and she was currently right in what people considered the prime of their life…
“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Amity voiced Luz’s thoughts as she came up next to her. “But they might be right. If it works out, you’ll be the only one who has a chance at fighting them off.”
In the background, Luz could see her mamá and Eda exchanging weary looks.
“All on her own?”
“I’m sticking around too!” the Collector said loudly—perhaps a bit too loudly, as Luz and a few others winced at the sudden volume.
He didn’t seem to notice though, only satisfied to have become the center of attention again.
“There’s a bunch of titan stuff you and King don’t know about. And King’s dad isn’t around anymore to help out, so…”
Right, the Collector had actually been around in Titan society for some time, before it all ended. He would know things others couldn’t even dream of knowing.
It was clear King had the realization at the same time, his eyes widening and gaining an excited glint.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” he began urgently, the room gearing up to explode in a flurry of activity. “They could get here any moment!”
The Collector nodded rapidly. “Yeah, we only have three years!”
And just like that, the room collectively came to a screeching halt, Luz halting halfway through getting off the couch.
“I’m sorry,” mom said. “Three years?”
“Mhm! They’re coming here as fast as possible. Barely enough time to train up!”
Luz ignored mom’s exasperated. “Ay dios mío,” in favor of sitting back down.
“Collector, we thought we only had hours or days to prepare, not years.” It was an easy assumption to make. Really, when confronted with the existence of all-powerful space deities—the ‘youngest’ of which could move a moon like it was an app on a touch screen—it was hard to imagine they couldn’t cross the known universe in two to three business days.
Then again, it was also easy to forget that someone who looked like an eight-year-old had been around for millions of years at the bare minimum. His sense of time had to be super screwed up.
The Collector gave her an innocent, confused stare. “But then you’d all definitely be screw-”
“Okay!” Eda suddenly spoke up, clapping her hands together. “That’s enough for tonight. Let’s leave the rational thinking for tomorrow.”
“I’m getting back to Masha,” Vee agreed, heading for the front door and turning the knob the wrong way, allowing it to open to the old shack in Gravesfield.
The rest of the small group murmured with each other, the pressure of limited time slipping away, and Luz couldn’t exactly say she wasn’t feeling that same sort of relief.
The only one who didn’t was the Collector, who was scanning the room with confused, uncertain glances as the group headed out for the night.
Luz cast a glance at Amity and her mom, who both looked like they’d be having at least one conversation with her before she could turn in for bed, and decided she needed a very quick conversation with the Collector first.
“Hey, Collector?” she said, putting a hand on his shoulder, ignoring just how soft and silky his pajamas were. The confused, uncertain look was now directed at her. “Don’t worry too much, okay? We managed to take out Belos when he possessed the Heart with no preparation at all.” She held out and clenched her fist with a grin. “We’re gonna be so ready to kick some Archivist butt by the time they get here in three years.”
He nodded, the tension broken by a giggle, because ‘butt’ was hilarious to every kid, no exceptions.
And much to her surprise, Luz actually found herself believing her own words as well.
After all, they had the Collector, and she’d have three years to train her awesome anime-esque power-up she thought had been just a one-off with King. There was no world where they wouldn’t kick Archivist butt and settle things back to normal. Or a new normal, at least.
They had to.
~~~
2031
Back in the In-Between, shaking herself out of her memories, Luz’s bony claws tightened around Stringbean’s staff. Her wings twitched in agitation behind her as dark silhouettes coalesced within the blanket of storm clouds, two heading straight for her.
No more reminiscing
Her magic flared around her as she lowered herself and spread her wings. The remains of the stony crag were vaporized as she launched herself up with a magic-aided flap of her wings, flying off into the fight of a lifetime.
Hopefully the new normal they were fighting for wouldn’t be too different from what they had now, both for Earth and the Demon Realm.
2194
Today was a quiet summer day for Midoriya Izuku.
That didn’t actually mean much. Every summer day was a quiet one for him, if he was lucky.
When he wasn’t lucky, he either ran into Kacchan and his entourage, or Kacchan had decided to pay him a visit instead, which never ended well.
Though that counted for every day of the year, even if it was way more likely to happen during schooldays. But the more than a month period without school was, in a way, far worse than the rest of the year, and just a few days in, Izuku was feeling the full brunt of it.
Without the constant presence of school, homework and studying, it became painfully obvious just how alone he was. Where others met up with friends and went on vacations with their families, Izuku could only try to entertain himself with his toys, the home computer, heading out for Tatooin shopping district, or what he was currently doing, sitting at a quiet part of the lakeside of the local park, in the shade provided by a large cluster of trees, quietly sketching his view of the lake in a notebook.
Even his birthdays, falling in summer break, supposed to be the highlight of his summer, were a reminder of his life. Ever since his official diagnosis the day after his fifth birthday, the celebration had turned into a two people event, the perfect representation of his summers since then.
He wouldn’t have thought of doing this kind of sketching normally, but he already had sketches for every entry in his latest Hero Analysis for the Future volume, had used up his computer time for the day, and stores had closed. His mom still had her own things to do, and he didn’t want to take up all her time for every hour of every day, especially not when she was doing all the household chores and preparing dinner, so there was nothing else he could think of doing this afternoon. And maybe he’d get better at detailing if he tried something other than people. Or that was the excuse he was using to try this and forget about his troubles anyway.
Izuku didn’t think finishing elementary school and starting at Aldera Junior High next year was going to change anything for him either. While it was a bleak prospect, he’d come to terms with these lonely summers a long time ago. Maybe high school would change things around, if his dreams managed to come true, but…
Sketching his surroundings was pretty relaxing, actually. Even if he doubted he’d do this again.
Putting down his pencil, Izuku sighed as he took in the shaky lines and his attempts at replicating the trees beyond the lake. It was very obvious drawing people in hero costumes was completely different from this, and he sucked at it, something he couldn’t help but mutter out loud.
“Aw, chin up, buddy. Practice makes perfect. You’ll be cranking out Starry Nights in no time!”
Izuku startled at the voice. Had someone snuck up on him and overheard? That was way too close!
A hasty, jerky scan of his surroundings revealed nobody in peeking distance.
Movement caught his attention, and without realizing it, Izuku’s eyes focused in on the lake beyond his feet, where-
“Whoa, d’you hear me?” the person in the lake asked.
In the-
Izuku jolted forward, plunging his arms into the cool lake on instinct.
“Ma’am?” he shouted worriedly as his hand flailed wildly through the water, trying to grasp the submerged woman. Instead of a person though, his hand only brushed past the dirt and pebbles of the shallow lake bed beneath.
He blinked, panic turning to confusion, and slowly pulled his arm out of the lake. Despite the ripples distorting the surface, the tan-skinned woman was still visible below.
“You can see me?” the woman asked, her eyes boring into him with an almost intimidating, supernatural intensity.
“Yes?” he squeaked out, trying to break contact with the golden irises. It didn’t help that she looked about the same age as his mom.
The woman’s eyes widened, and Izuku’s natural curiosity took that moment to kick in, unable to be curbed any longer by nerves.
He lowered his head to the water, looking at the woman from the side, cheek nearly touching the surface.
His eyes bugged out at what he saw.
“You’re projected on the water’s surface?” he asked excitedly, shooting back up to look at her straight-on, forgetting about nerves altogether. “Is that your quirk?”
“Hm?” the woman returned, sounding dazed and distant for a moment, before seeming to return to reality. “Oh! Uh- yeah! It’s my power, yep.” She looked on sheepishly, a far cry from her first stare. “It’s like scrying. If I say someone’s name, any reflective surface turns into a window for me to see them through.” She frowned, pulling at a lock of her curly brown hair. “Nobody but my brother’s ever seen or heard me like this though.”
That was such a cool quirk! But also… “You were watching me?” he asked, apprehensive, wondering how he hadn’t noticed her earlier. He’d always noticed when Kacchan or his hangers-on had their eyes on him. A necessary skill to have acquired over the years.
“Only for a few seconds,” she answered, shrugging. “I was looking through the lake, just hanging around when I heard you. Can’t control where I can see through, only when I stop, and I’ve not appeared in a lake in a while, so I was enjoying the views. The one time I saw through the Pacific during a storm though.” She shuddered. “But yeah, I don’t wanna be a creep, but where I am there’s nothing to do, so I mostly just check up on some famous people I know and see what they’re up to in public, like personal TV channels.”
She abruptly perked up, grinning. “Hey, wanna know production secrets about the upcoming All Might movie? Those actors are killing it on set.”
Yes! “Uh…no?” Izuku managed to say instead, morality just barely squeaking out the win. “Why are you telling me?” Any fear or shock he’d started out with had long been replaced with confusion and a dash of interest.
The woman in the lake paused, before turning sheepish.
“Ah, whoops. Sorry, I get overeager really quickly when I’m excited. Don’t really have anyone to—well, except my brother, but he’s super busy with his family, so…”
Izuku frowned, feeling a pang in his heart at the nonchalant admission and the following mumble.
“Where are you from?” he asked. What place had nobody to talk to? Or was it something else?
The woman seemed to have recovered from her brief dip, eyes shining.
“I’m all American, baby!” she proclaimed, bumping her fist against her chest, before pausing. “Well, Dominican-American. I bet you didn’t even realize,” she added with a grin.
“Your Japanese is- It’s really good,” Izuku admitted. He indeed hadn’t even realized, with how fluent she’d sounded. But thinking back on it, her first sentence, the one that had caught him off-guard, had been in English, hadn’t it? And her appearance, despite how diverse quirks had made those, didn’t look Japanese at all.
Besides the eyes, she actually looked very plain, even compared to him.
“Thank you!” She beamed at him. “Learned it all on my own. I love anime, manga, and light novels, and there’s always translator hoopla and drama in the way, so what better way to avoid that than by going straight to the source and learning the language, right?”
Despite the strange situation, Izuku felt his lips tug up at her infectious enthusiasm.
That enthusiasm abruptly cut off though when she shook her head. “Sorry, keep getting distracted. You won’t have to worry about me creeping around, alright? Without your name I can’t even pop up near you, and we probably won’t stumble into each other again.” She smiled again, though it seemed lesser than before. “I’ll move to the other side of the lake if you want. That way you can get your alone time back. You looked really in the zone there.”
Izuku found himself nodding along automatically, unsure of what to say. He only stopped when he noticed the woman’s eyes dimmed ever so slightly.
It…didn’t sound like she wanted to.
Did he want his alone time back? He had so much of it anyway. And, much to his surprise, despite the shock and strangeness of the encounter, talking to the woman so far had been much better than anyone else he’d interacted with, besides his mom and a kind elderly couple from the apartment complex.
But most importantly, the look in her eyes. She looked…
Before she could do as she’d promised and move away, Izuku spoke up again.
“You don’t appear in lakes a lot?” he asked.
The woman huffed. “Famous people rarely walk past lakes apparently.” She smiled “Got lucky this time though. Lots of ducks to watch, and the trees here are beautiful.”
Izuku pushed aside the question of which famous person had walked past this lake not too long ago, wondering how he’d completely missed that.
“What…What if I sit here again tomorrow?” he finally suggested, fighting off the nerves.
She blinked at him, looking genuinely surprised.
“You sure?” she asked, cocking a brow. “I’m a lot older than I look, y’know. Definitely not ‘hip with the kids.’ I’m sure you have friends to spend the time with instead of hanging out with an odd otter lady.”
Wasn’t it ‘crazy cat’ lady?
Strangely, while she did look like his mom’s age, and if she was telling the truth, even older than that. Yet, to Izuku, it didn’t feel like talking to an adult. Only a little. Mostly right now.
And the look in her eyes…
Izuku realized he’d already made up his mind.
“My name’s Midoriya Izuku,” he greeted, bowing briefly. “It’s nice to meet you.”
He then immediately remembered she was American, and stuck out his hand for a handshake.
And because he completely forgot in the moment she was only on the lake’s surface, his hand just went into the water.
His cheeks heated up, but it’d be even more embarrassing to retract his hand now. Rather than laugh, however, the woman instead goggled at the halfway-submerged hand instead.
“Oh wow, that looks really weird from here. Like an anatomy cross-section.”
She smiled up at him and extended her own hand, which obviously resulted in a failed handshake.
“I’m Luz,” the now named woman returned cheerfully, pretending the handshake went through anyway. “Nice to meet you too!”
Izuku nodded and retracted his hand, before realizing, “No last name?”
“Oh, I have one,” she answered cryptically, before pointing a dramatically accusatory finger at him. “But I know you guys! The moment I give my last name it’s the only thing you’ll ever call me.” She crossed her arms with a playful huff. “Heard enough of that one back in school, thank you.”
Maybe the most surprising thing of all in this situation was the way Izuku couldn’t fight back a giggle.
He’d never actually spoken to foreigners before, nevermind speaking to someone who was literally across the globe right now, but only using last names, even with friends, had to sound strange from an American’s perspective.
Of course, Izuku normally wouldn’t be found dead being so familiar with someone he’d barely met, but maybe this could be an exception? It’s not like she had the same expectations as anyone from Japan.
“Aw, your giggle’s adorable,” the woman- Luz cooed, her hands twitching like they wanted to pinch his cheeks.
Which were heating up again, something he didn’t want to put attention on any longer. Now she definitely felt like an adult.
“So- So I can sit here again at the same time tomorrow?” he suggested.
“You don’t have to,” Luz said, still looking like she wanted to coo at him. “Heck, you could just tell me you’ll sit here once a week and get busy drawing while I pop up and move away or something. Knowing me I’ll probably get sick of lakes soon enough anyway, or I might even forget to show up altogether.”
“Uh, I don’t actually know if I’ll draw again…” He didn’t want to give that impression. And he had no idea what else to do in this place besides sit…and talk?
“Hey, don’t put yourself down if this is your first try,” she said, reminding him of what she’d said to start this entire conversation. “Can I see? I used to draw and paint a lot.”
Izuku’s eyes flitted to the notebook sitting innocently on the grass next to him. From her viewing angle she probably couldn’t actually see anything beyond his face and upper body.
He felt a little self-conscious at the thought of sharing his shoddy sketch, but then he saw the puppy dog eyes Luz was making.
With some reluctance, he picked up his notebook and turned it so she could see his double-spread sketch, taking care not to drop it into the lake.
Down below, Luz’s face lit up. “Oh wow! If that’s your first attempt you really are gonna crank out Starry Nights in no time.”
“The trees are all wrong,” Izuku pointed out, feeling the need to defend…his inner critic?
“They still look like trees,” she rebutted. “And it’s not like you have to replicate what you’re looking at. Heck, why draw real trees at all? Go nuts!” She seemed to adjust herself with…something—Izuku couldn’t actually see her surroundings, wherever she was. “I bet you could do a lot more if you started working with color, or practiced making a black-white gradient with your pencil, that way you can work with more details and give your sketches more depth and shading!”
As Luz happily continued giving him what sounded like- well, sound advice, Izuku couldn’t help but feel like maybe this summer wouldn’t be as lonely as he’d been preparing himself for.