Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Masha wasn't sure what's happening, or what the hell they are supposed to do. Just a moment Vee was perfectly fine, laughing her heart out at Masha's story their little toddler brother being extra silly.

Now their girlfriend was writhing on the floor of her and her sister's Luz bedroom, and she was struggling to breath.

Masha didn't have any sort of medical training and very much regretting it, and Their hope that maybe it is just some sort of panic attack died when patches of skin below Vee's eyes started turning white.

They were too horrified at Vee shaking and whimpering to notice the same thing was happening to Vee's 'cloths'.

"Goddess no!" They started crying, grabbing Vee's shoulders, and desperately trying to think what to do.

Luckily, they were not alone at the Noceda household that day.

Vee's two sibling started running up the stairs the moment heard Masha first cry for help, and got there just in time to see Vee crying in pain while in her partner's arms.

She also wasn't in her human form anymore.

"Luz. Stringbean. Now!" Masha heard Hunter's voice and looked up towards the door through their teary eyes.

Vee's brother was holding a staff of all things, and pointing the end of it, that had a purple snake on it, towards Vee.

A second later a blueish beam of light came out of it and directly shown on Vee.

In their hands that were still holding their girlfriend-turned-serpent, Masha felt an awkward tingly sensation.

"Thank Titan she's stable!" Hunter remarked a second later, with his eyes cloths and his face all scrunched up.

"Luz. Move them away from her!" He barked another order.

Masha has known Hunter for two months now, and aside from their first admittedly painful meeting when he thought they might be an intruder, they never heard him like that.

Especially not to either of his little sisters.

Luz didn't seem to mind it at the moment, already moving towards them.

"No!" Masha protested, "I am not living her like this!"

"You're interrupting my spell!" He shouted back at them, opening his eyes.

They were glowing blue, and Masha noticed beads of sweat started running down his forehead.

"He's right Masha." Luz said with what Masha thought was a surprisingly calm voice given the situation. "Just slowly lay her down… exactly like that, good."

Luz kept the eye contact with them, then added "Now slightly move away, you are not leaving her, and you don't need to, you are only breaking physical contact for the moment."

The moment Masha did so, Hunter exhale with relief.

"Certain healing spells are much harder to maintain when the patient isn't isolated." Luz explained, now kneeling right next to Masha.

Masha then realized that Luz's calm voice and demeanor was a façade. Both of her hands were twitching, and she kept looking back and forth from her older brother to her little sister.

Masha hated every second of not being able to touch their love, but at thank goddess whatever Hunter was doing seemed to be working!

Vee was obviously not in pain anymore, and had they not been there for the last two minutes, Masha might even be fooled to think their girlfriend just fell asleep.

After being transformed to some sort of snake-with-arms-and-head-feathers being.

The blue light suddenly stopped, so Masha turned their head towards Hunter, just in time to see him slump all the way into his hands and knees.

The staff he previously held in his was gone, and he was very much out of breath.

"Hunter!" Luz said and was about to get up and move towards him when he put one of his hands up signaling her to stop.

"Just… Just tired…" He huffed, "focus on Vee first."

Luz stared at him for a moment before mumbling a sentence that Masha was pretty sure included the Spanish words for 'brother' and 'stupid', and then looked back at Vee.

"Help me get her on my bed." She said to Masha, who quickly complied.

Together they managed to get Vee on Luz's bed, minus the end of her tail that was adorably hanging off the end of it.

'Her tail.' Masha thought disbelievingly while crouching down over Vee and lovingly running their fingers through her hair feathers, 'Their girlfriend has a tail.'

This train of thoughts was abruptly ended by a series of hissing sounds coming from the right of them.

Masha turned that way to see a purple snake with cat ears sitting on Luz's shoulder.

"She's fine now Bean-Bean" Luz said to the snake while patting it, "You two did great."

'It is the snake from the staff' Masha realized, then their world shifted again:

'The staff Hunter did magic with."

"Magic is real and my girlfriend was turned into a snake" Masha slowly said out loud.

"Hmm, about that-" Luz started to say but Masha interrupted her.

"Is it a curse?" Masha asked, thinking about how much Vee suffered before turning.

Both siblings took a second to realize what they meant.

"No!" they then both shouted, with a force of objection Masha didn't understand.

"Okay? So why the… Snake thing?" they asked, then cringed on their choice of words.

"Because she's a B-" Luz started but stopped herself,

"A what?" Masha asked.

"We can't be the ones telling you" Hunter replied with conviction.

Luz nodded. "It is up to Vee." She added.

"Okay I don't really care what Vee is, but please, please tell me she's going to be ok." Masha said, then placed their other hand that was not ruffling through Vee's head feathers on Vee's right hand.

'Right claw actually.' Masha thought, 'That is going to take some time getting used to."

Said claw responded to their touch, but gently grabbing their fingers and giving it a squeeze.

As if Masha ever needed more proof that their girlfriend is the cutest thing on earth.

"She will." Hunter promised, staring intensely at Vee, "I know the right treatment."

Luz gave out sigh of relief, and wrapped him up in a hug. The purple (Bean-Bean?) snake floated (floated!) up and nuzzled his face.

He didn't smile at the gesture, and in fact his face was contorted by other emotions.

'Is he… Angry?' Masha wondered.

Luz likely noticed it too, because she then started telling him how None of it was his fault."

Masha didn't understand much of the argument that fallowed, nor did they quite hear it. It seemed to be realted to what they wanted Vee to decide if to tell them.

They focused back on Vee just in time to watch her slowly waking up.

She started moving around her head, slowly opening, and closing her eyes. She also shifted her lower body closer to her so she could sit up.

"Masha?" Their precious girlfriend and slightly dazed started asking, "I… Fell asleep?"

Masha smiled, feeling themself getting lost (as usual) in Vee's peculiar golden eyes.

'Peculiar because they aren't human? Another question for later.'  They thought for a moment, before reassuring Vee that everything is fine now.

"You did babe, you felt really bad for a moment, but your brother took care of it."

"Oh, that's nice of him. " Vee said sleepily, and then appeared to be searching the room for him.

"I'm right here." Hunter quickly said and moved to end of the bed.

He started tracing circles on Vee's tail, just like Masha noticed the He, Luz and Camila sometimes did for her on either of her legs.

Luz also moved forward so Vee could see her there, and put a hand on Hunter's shoulder.

"It was scary, but you know we won't let anything bad happen to our Manita."

She then started poking Vee in the very tip of her tail, to which Vee responded by flicking it towards the 'offending' finger.

"Stooop it" Vee 'protested', very much looking like she enjoyed the teasing.

But when she turned back her head towards her partner, her brain finally caught up to her body, or more specifically to what form her body was currently in and in front of whom.

"You're beautiful." Masha said with a loving smile, interrupting Vee surging panic just in time.

"I… What?" Vee asked, confusion with a hint of hope in her voice.

"Beautiful." Masha said again.

"You're my beautiful whatever-you-are girlfriend." They lifted up Vee's claw and gave it kiss.

"And I love you no matter what, you know that." Masha added, then leaned and kissed Vee's forehead.

"I… I do." Vee chocked out, but with a fanged smile on her face.

"Oh you do?" Mashed decided to tease, "Is what you reply to someone saying I love you?"

Before Masha could go on Vee placed both her hands on their cheeks.

"I love you too." Vee said, her golden eyes shining at her partner.

The kiss they then shared was just as perfect as all the kisses they had before.

Chapter Text

“I’m a Basilisk.” Vee said quietly, still in the arms of her loving partner.

They were lying together on her sister’s bed, in a tight embrace that allowed Vee to wrap her tail around both of their bodies, with the meagre amount of strength she was able to muster. 

She was tired and likely still in some sort of shock, but the sharp pain was all gone.

Replaced by the blissful warmth of Masha’s body. 

If she weren’t exhausted, she’d likely be a blushing mess right now.

Her siblings were in her room with them, a fact that would have earned her endless teasing from Luz had a scary health emergency not been the cause for it.

“Let’s give them some privacy,” Luz said as if on cue, taking Hunter’s arm and leading him out of the room.

Vee knew them both well enough to know they were too worried to take more than a single step out of her and Luz’s bedroom, and there was no chance in the Boiling Sea they would close the door.

Not that it mattered much to Vee’s tired brain, which failed to conjure another word from her half-planned, half-fantasized confession speech, that she never finished.

“You’re cute is what you are,” Masha replied when Vee couldn’t continue, and proceeded to kiss Vee again, this time on her now scaly cheek.

They then slowly maneuvered their hands upwards from where they rested on Vee’s back, and around her head until they were cupping her two cheeks.

“And your eyes are still the most beautiful thing in the world.” They swore, then chuckled.

“Worth turning to stone, I promise.”

And they punctuated that promise by using the opportunity and leaning in for a more cooperative kiss.

“They can’t do that,” Vee said when they separated, “that’s just a weird, silly human myth about us.”

“Oof, sorry,” Masha said, “I.. I should have clocked how offensive our depictions of your… species? Are.”

“Well, they're not very enjoyable for me to think about, but I guess misconceptions on being from a different realm, thought to be imaginary, are the least of humanity’s issues.”

“Different realm? You’re… You’re not from Earth?“ Masha asked, surprised. 

“No, I am from the D-” Vee stopped herself, not wanting to expand the misconceptions conversation.

“I am from a different realm, from a place in it called The Boiling Isles.” 

“That’s, that’s amazing!” Masha exclaimed, “Is a realm like a different plane of reality? And yours is the Basilisk one?”

They didn’t expect their words to bring visible pain to their girlfriend's face.

No matter what face she is wearing, that was something Masha could not contend with.

“No,” Vee said quietly but firmly after a moment, “There are many other species there and I ... I can tell you about them if you’d like.”

She took a deep breath to stabilize herself and added:

“But, but no Basilisks, not anymore.”

Not a moment had passed, and Vee was again buried in her partner’s loving embrace.

Who knew what she was, and even if they didn’t yet understand what it meant…

They more than accepted her.