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Full Family AU Part Two

An hour after finding the...Snake? Creature? Thing?

Regardless what it was called, Manny washed it up because it was muddy and slimy from the rain and needed to get dried so it wouldn't catch its death. Same went with Luz, who after taking a quick bath had then ran to grab all her plushies and toys and started showing them off to the creature as they sat in the living room. It was still wrapped in Manny's jacket, using it as a pseudo blanket and watched as Luz listed off each little toy she had, with Manny standing off to the side to keep an eye on both of them.

"This is Sr. Oso," Luz explained as she hold up her teddy bear. "Papi won it for me at a carnival and he became my best bear friend forever."

"Hola, snake person," Luz spoke through the teddy bear. "It's nice to meet you!"

She held the teddy bear's paw out and the creature looked at it, sniffed it a bit, and gave it a little lick. Instantly, the creature gagged at the taste of old cotton and felt.

"No!" Luz laughed. "You don't lick Sr. Oso. You hug him. Watch!"

Luz hugged the bear and held it out to the creature. Hesitantly, it reached out and held Sr. Oso. With one more curious glance to Luz, who gave the creature an encouraged nod, it gently hugged the teddy bear. Then it hugged it a little tighter, appreciating the warmth it brought as if it was the first hug the creature ever experienced.

'It probably was,' Manny thought.

Camila walked up to him with a heavy sigh. "I did a ton of Google searches," she said. "Looked up some research papers on reptiles, made some searches of what could be scaly and talk, and even went to a cryptids sub-reddit to see if anyone spotted anything remotely similar to this."

"Any results?" Manny asked.

"Just that this one guy named Jacob really needs a girlfriend." Camila groaned. "I've got nothing. I don't know what this thing is or have any idea of where it could have come from."

"Maybe we should stop calling it a thing...and an it," Manny suggested. "It--They seem intelligent. I mean, they spoke. They have to be. And that could mean they're intelligent enough to not appreciate being called an 'it.'"

"Well, what am I supposed to do? Ask its pronouns?"

"Ooh! I can do that!" Luz chirped before looking to the creature. "Are you a she? Or a he?"

"She...? He...?" The creature asked.

"Yeah. Are you like Papi?" She pointed at Manny. "Or are you like me?"

Luz pointed at herself and the creature stared at her, silent and processing. Then, much to Camila and Manny's shock and bewilderment, it shapeshifted into an identical copy of Luz. Down to the missing tooth of her bright smile and everything.

"Like you?" the creature said.

"Woah..." Luz gasped, her eyes glowing with astonishment. "Mami! Papi! Did you see!"

"We sure saw, Mija..." Manny breathed.

"I'm going to go do more research," Camila numbly said as she slowly walked out of the room, eyes still glued to the creature until she was out the door. With Camila gone, Manny slowly walked over to the creature and knelt down to it--her.

"Is this your way of saying you're a...her?" was all he could ask and the creature looked away before giving a small, barely noticeable nod. "Okay, good to know...Now do you think you could stop looking like my daughter? It's freaking me out a little."

The creature obliged, changing back to her original form.

"Sorry..." she quietly said.

"It's okay," Manny told her, his voice gentle. "I'm just trying to understand...you. Um, what's your name by the way? You said something about V?"

"It...was all...that was on cage..."

Manny's brow furrowed. "Cage?"

The creature shrank in Manny's jacket and Manny saw the tears forming at the corner of her eyes. "Bad men..." the creature whispered. "Put me in cage...Did bad things...Made me do bad things..."

"Hey, hey, it's okay..." Manny slowly reached out and put his head on the creature's head. It flinched at first, but after feeling his slow, gentle touch, she leaned into it and allowed him to soothe her. "I don't know who these bad men are, but they aren't here now. You're safe...Vee."

The creature sniffed and looked up at Manny. "Vee...safe?"

"Vee is very safe. I promise."

"And Papi always keeps his promises!" Luz said. "Like how he promised he'll get better!"

"And look at me now. Healthy as a--" Manny's words were undercut by a cough. "Sorry. A-hem! Little tickle in the throat there, it happens. I'm happy and healthy. And I'll keep you safe."

Vee began to tear up some more, but this time Manny was sure it was tears of joy.

"Thank you..."

"Of course.