Chapter Text
Amity and Luz's footsteps echoed through the empty halls of Hexside Academy. Amity wanted to say something, but she had no idea where to start. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, and she was still trying to make sense of it all. Absentmindedly, she rubbed the blemishless spot on her left arm where her wound had been.
"It doesn't still hurt, does it?" Luz asked with concern, looking down at where Amity was massaging her arm.
Amity nearly jumped at the break in the silence. "No," she hurriedly answered, pulling her hand away self consciously. After taking a breath to recover, she explained, "It's just… weird. Whenever I've received healing before, there was always a mark left and it was still sore after. This is like it never happened."
Luz shrugged and folded her hands behind her neck. "That's Eda for you. She is the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles."
"You really look up to her, don't you?" Amity asked softly, deciding it was best to avoid a debate on the subject of who the most powerful witch on the Isles was.
"Well, yeah," Luz said, her voice full of admiration. "She's crazy powerful and doesn't care what anyone thinks about her. I know she likes to act like an old grump, but she actually really cares. She's saved me a ton of times, and she got us away from the gym, didn't she?"
Amity couldn't keep a small smile from her face. She loved seeing Luz so animated and optimistic. Luz getting into all kinds of trouble was also somehow cute, and not at all hard to imagine. Amity still had her doubts about The Owl Lady, but had to admit that Luz was at least right about earlier.
After performing her weirdly effective healing magic, the older witch had managed to shepherd Amity and Luz out of the gym and away from their swarming classmates, winking and telling them that they should go share some "quality time" together. Just thinking about it made Amity blush.
Realizing that Luz was probably waiting for an answer to her question, Amity quickly agreed, "Yeah, she definitely saved us. I really don't feel like being around anyone right now, especially Willow or Ed and Em."
"Oh," Luz said, sounding slightly dejected as she dropped her arms to her sides. "Did you want me to go, because I can—"
"No!" Amity interjected, quicker and louder than she'd intended. Fighting the urge to latch onto Luz so she couldn't get away, she continued in a quieter voice, "No. I… I want you here. I don't want to be alone."
"Then I'm not going anywhere," Luz assured her, one of the corners of her mouth rising to form a lopsided smile.
They returned to a companionable, if slightly awkward, silence as Amity led Luz around a corner and toward one of the side entrances of the school. She really needed to be in an open space after fighting in that claustrophobic pit, and the front entrance was likely to have students milling about.
Pushing through the double doors, the crisp night air and open sky washed over Amity like a cleansing shower. Unfortunately, what would have otherwise been a refreshing breeze chilled her through her tattered dress. Shivering, she took a seat on the stairs to huddle for warmth, only to feel a comfortable weight settle on her shoulders and shield her from the cold.
Before she could try to figure out what it was, Luz sat down next to her, sans jacket. Smiling, her date said, "You looked cold."
"I must look ridiculous," Amity said, blushing as she pulled Luz's jacket around her, trying to cover as much of the dress that Grom's imitation of Willow had shredded as possible.
"I think you look cute," Luz responded, blushing herself as she looked at Amity.
"Um, thanks," Amity replied, feeling even more blood rush to her cheeks. Unable to look Luz in the eye, she said, "You, um, look good too."
There was a pause that couldn't have possibly been as long as it felt, then Luz asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"
Amity bit her lip and stared down at her lap for a minute. Deciding she could trust Luz, she took a moment to gather herself and said, "I just feel so… violated. It's not just about everyone knowing my fears, although that's definitely not something I'm looking forward to. That thing was rooting around in my head. It saw everything and brought the worst of it to life."
"Yeah," Luz said absently, turning her head toward the lawn in front of them and staring off into the middle distance.
Amity's stomach dropped as she realized that Luz knew exactly what she was talking about, because she'd made the other girl go through it. Putting a hand on Luz's arm, Amity turned to her and said, "I'm so sorry, Luz."
Blinking a few times as she came back from whatever she'd been thinking about, Luz turned to Amity with a confused look on her face and asked, "What? What do you have to be sorry about?"
"I… You wouldn't have had to face Grom if I could have just faced my fears myself," Amity explained, letting her hand drop from Luz's arm to the ground between them and shifting her gaze back down to her lap.
Amity felt Luz's warm hand cover her own. "Amity, you faced two of your biggest fears, literally, with a sword. You totally could have beaten the third one too. I jumped down there because I wanted to. I would have no matter what; I couldn't sit still when I saw something that looked like me hurting you."
Amity didn't know what to say. Without thinking, she blurted out, "So, you meant it when you said yes?"
Luz reached the hand that wasn't covering Amity's out and lifted Amity's chin until they were starting into each other's eyes. With one of her characteristic quirky smiles, the human asked, "Have I ever lied to you?"
Amity tried to think of a time that she had, made difficult by Luz's large brown eyes drawing her in. In the end, she couldn't. Luz was straightforward to a fault; it was one of things that had made Amity fall for her. In a small voice, the young witch replied, "No."
Luz let go of Amity's chin, but maintained eye contact. Still smiling her quirky smile, she said, "Well, there you go."
Amity found herself blushing again, and tore her gaze away from Luz's to look forward. Playing with the hem of Luz's jacket, she said, "Okay, so, what do we do now? I—if you tell this to anyone I'll kill you—I've never really been on a date before."
Luz laughed, and said, "I think we're just supposed to get to know each other and find out what we have in common, like the fact that neither of us has been on a date before."
"Wait, you've never been on a date?" Amity asked incredulously. "I just figured with you being so friendly and outgoing…" the young witch trailed off, deciding to keep 'kind, cute, and adorably dorky' to herself for the time being.
Heaving a sigh, Luz stood up and started pacing, her hand leaving Amity's cold and alone as she did. Letting out an uncharacteristically bitter chuckle, she said, "Believe it or not, I don't exactly fit in back in the human realm. Everyone there thinks I'm a weirdo who needs to be fixed. That's why I like it here, everything's weird."
She stopped talking for a moment, pacing the length of the stairs. It seemed like she was considering whether or not to keep going. Amity waited patiently, not wanting to push what was clearly a sore subject. Eventually, Luz continued, "I haven't told anyone this, but I don't really have any friends back home, much less anyone who would want to go out with me. There was one girl I got along with and kind of liked in middle school, but I was afraid to ask her out."
"You were afraid?" Amity asked, unable to stop herself. Luz was the most confident person Amity knew; she didn't care what anyone thought of her. Amity had a hard time imagining her having trouble asking someone out.
Luz sighed and stopped pacing to stare at the ground. "Yeah, I was scared," Luz said dejectedly, kicking a pebble into the grass. "From what I've seen here, everyone's pretty cool about people liking whoever they like," Luz explained, "but in the human realm, things aren't like that. A lot of people don't approve of a girl liking another girl."
"Your fear," Amity gasped in realization, the words of the Grom copy of Luz's mom suddenly taking on a new meaning.
"Yeah, that was part of it," Luz admitted, scratching the back of her head and turning to face Amity with a weak smile. "See, my mom's real religious—oh, right, you guys don't really have that here. It's kind of like tradition, and part of that tradition is not really liking same sex relationships. All my mom and I have is each other, and if I started going out with a girl, I don't know what would happen."
"So, what about us?" Amity asked hesitantly, not sure she wanted to know the answer.
"I don't want to be afraid anymore," Luz replied, sitting back down, closer to Amity than before. Taking Amity's hand and intertwining their fingers, she added, "You gave me the courage to face that fear. After everything you said and did, how could I not want to be with you?"
"I– No, I didn't– I mean–" Amity stammered, blushing furiously.
Luz's serious expression gave way to a grin, quickly followed by her snorting and failing miserably at holding back a laugh.
"What's so funny?" Amity snapped reflexively, regretting the words as soon as they came out of her mouth.
Wiping amused tears from her eyes, Luz's smile turned playful, and she said, "Sorry, you're just so cute when you're flustered."
"I'm… cute?" Amity asked, blushing furiously.
"Very," Luz replied. The briefest shadow of anxiety crossed her face, then she closed her eyes and started leaning toward Amity.
Amity felt the blush on her cheeks creep all the way up to her ears as she mirrored Luz, closing her eyes as she closed the gap between her and the girl she'd been crushing on for the past few weeks.
The kiss was more than she'd dreamed it would be. There was the gentle sensation of Luz's lips brushing against hers of course, but it was so much more than that. There was a spark, a connection between them that she couldn't explain. It was a feeling, one she'd never experienced before, but very much wanted to experience again.
All too soon, they parted, Amity's fingers going to her lips, while Luz whispered, "Wow."
"Yeah," Amity agreed in the same hushed tone, suddenly feeling very nervous for some reason.
Luz gave the hand intertwined with hers a gentle squeeze. "You okay?" she asked, sounding nearly as anxious as Amity felt.
Amity returned Luz's squeeze, finding comfort in the warmth of the other girl's hand. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in and felt a smile form on her face. Leaning over, she closed the gap between her and Luz again, this time resting her head and shoulder against her date. "Perfect," she answered, contentedly closing her eyes as she felt Luz relax and lean against her.