Chapter Text
Luz was completely baffled to see a certain green-haired figure in front of her. “Hi Luz.” Her voice was soft, kind of similar and unlike her usual chill demeanor at the same time. Amity was rubbing her arm with her other hand and glancing at the ground. “Amity?” She murmured, sleepily rubbing her eyes with a light yawn. “Wait, what are you doing here at this time?” She lazily questioned, feeling dazed and not processing the downhearted expression on the witch’s face. “I just-” Amity started to say but was startled by a loud crash.
“Luz, kid it’s midnight. Why are you busy frolicking around at this time?” A sort of tired and grumpy Eda proceeded towards the door with a frown. A really sleepy King was perched on top of her shoulders. “Bow before me.. you peasants.” He muttered, long lost in his own dreamworld as he snored lightly. The scene made Luz smile but her happiness faded to worry as she turned to look back at Amity. Eda noticed the young prodigy witch too and then pinched the bridge of her nose. “Luz what did I say about sneaky sleepovers?” She sighed. “No, Eda this is not-” Luz tried to persuade her but was cut off by Amity herself.
“I’m sorry.” She told Luz and the Owl lady with a sad look. “But could I possibly spend the rest of the night here?” Her question sounded desperate to Luz who looked back at her mentor. “Please?” The human girl added, sounding as pleading as she could. Eda’s lips curled into a straight line as if she was thinking as she glanced back and forth between the two teenagers.
“No loud noises. I don’t want to crash into the cabinets again to see what’s going on because even a witch like me needs her beauty sleep.” Eda folded her arms, causing Amity to be relieved and Luz to have a grateful smile on her face. “Don’t worry. We’ll go to my room and stay super duper quiet!” The Latina grinned before blinking at Eda who was staring at Amity- with confusion. “Dang kid you really got yourself a mark there.” She gestured to Amity’s right cheek which was red for some reason.
“Oh, uh, that’s nothing.” Amity quickly placed her hand on top of her cheek to hide it. She wasn’t meeting anyone’s eyes, not even Luz’s. Luz furrowed her eyebrows. Something was clearly wrong. Something that Amity wasn’t telling her. “But thank you.” She told Eda. “Well, okay.” The Owl Lady shrugged, before taking King off her shoulder. “I’m heading in for the night. Don’t stay up too long or you’ll end up way too cranky when we have a splendid weekend to look forward to.”
“I’ll make sure King’s with me Luz. So you two- can catch up in a way.” With that being said, Edalyn Clawthorne vanished into the house as quietly and ironically as she had come into the living room. The Latina girl only nodded upon hearing these words as she turned over to Amity who was leaning against some crutches and had a cast around one of her feet. ‘Oh right.’ Luz thought, remembering their Grudgby match against Boscha and the other popular kids of their school. It had surprisingly ended well other than the fact that Amity had gotten hurt.
“So,” Luz looked over at Amity who had a panicked expression on her face although she was trying her best to cover it with a calmer look. “What brings you here?” She didn’t immediately want to question the mark on Amity’s cheek which looked new- she hadn’t had it earlier this afternoon when they had their very first Azura book club meeting. Honestly, Luz had loved it. She had even convinced Amity to cosplay as Hecate while she was Azura! And she could’ve sworn that Amity was as happy about it as she was.
She heard no answer from the Blight. Maybe Amity hadn’t heard her. “Let’s just go to my room first. Then you can tell me what’s up.” Luz told her and Amity finally took her presence into mind and nodded. “Do you need me to pick you up again?” The human girl asked as the witch’s face flared up. Amity didn’t need a repeat of what happened the other day. Being carried in Luz’s arms had made her feel safe but it had almost blown her cover with how much flushed her face looked. “No it’s okay. My leg is better than what it was but thank you.” She smiled lightly.
“I should tell you this.” Luz told her once they started walking. “My room is actually an attic. I know it’s not much but it’s actually pretty comfy!” Amity only shook her head as she continued to follow her friend. “I don’t mind.” She replied, silently yet strong enough to not make it seem like her voice was cracking. The atmosphere between them was tense and Luz could tell already. But she knew she had to make Amity feel comfortable enough to tell her the truth.
“Ta-da!” Luz exclaimed towards Amity once they arrived in the attic. Amity’s lips curled up into a surprise expression. “This is nice.” She said. “Strange but nice!” It was the same compliment she gave Luz during Grom. But that’s just how Luz was. Peculiarly wonderful. “And hold on, I’ll get you another mattress.” Luz started rummaging through a lot of things. “You must be happy here.” Amity said, suddenly catching Luz off guard who almost had a bunch of boxes and weird voodoo stuff topple over her. “Huh?” She murmured, trying to regain her balance.
“I am.” Luz added, once she processed the green-haired witch’s words. “That’s good to know.” Amity sat down on the sleeping bag Luz just brought out carefully and kept her crutches against the wall. “Sorry I couldn’t find a mattress. At least not without weird monsters and charms going crazy on me. I still can’t get a hang of this place sometimes.” Luz dusted off her pajamas. She wasn’t embarrassed for some reason. In fact, she wanted Amity to see this side of her. She only hoped her friend wouldn’t judge her for it. On the other hand, Amity did find Luz’s behavior odd at times but what could she do? She secretly adored it.
So, no wonder she ended up here after what happened.
“Amity you should sleep on the mattress. I’ll take the sleeping bag.” Luz said, determined before pumping her fist into the air. “Wait what? No, Luz it’s okay.” Amity told her only to find the girl she secretly liked pout. “You’re my honored guest. It would only be my pleasure to do so.” She joked, making Amity laugh lightly. It was strange. The way she could easily be herself around Luz and Luz looked like she trusted Amity enough too. “You’re such a goof.” The green-haired girl whispered as Luz raised an eyebrow. “Did you say something?” She asked, causing Amity to clear her throat. “Uhm, I asked if you could help me move.” Amity lied quickly, feeling relieved once Luz reached over to help her. “So I can, you know, sleep on the mattress.”
The truth would’ve only made her more open to rejection. And after what happened earlier tonight, she didn’t need any more of that.
The Latina plopped down on the sleeping bag besides Amity who moved over to the mattress. “You didn’t answer my question from earlier Amity.” Luz stated firmly, which was really unlike her. “What brought you here in the middle of the night?” The lingering main question remained in the air. What happened to your face? Amity only swat her hand in the air with a fake chuckle. “Isn’t it good that your bird outside was sleeping and snoring loudly? I wouldn’t have wanted to break his other eye this time. At least not on purpose.”
Changing the topic huh? Two could play at this game.
“Let me guess.” Luz smirked. “You came to my house at midnight or so because you missed me.” It was hard for her to stifle a laugh after saying that. To imagine Amity out of all people to just show up on someone’s doorstep because she missed them. “What?!” Amity’s face flared up. “I didn’t miss you.” She gritted her teeth. Well, kind of ouch? Luz frowned. This wasn’t meant to hurt her. She already knew that would be Amity’s answer. She just wanted the truth out of the witch so why did she care about this?
No, she had to stay on point.
“I did miss you Luz.” Amity muttered a few seconds later, making Luz tilt her head slightly. Aha, the embarrassment made its way back to Amity’s face as she blushed. Well at least the agonizing feeling Luz was feeling slowly disappeared. “But that’s not a reason anyone would end up at someone else’s place like this.” Amity sighed. “So late at night.”
“Then why?” Luz asked as Amity glanced at the floor. “Amity come on.” She grabbed her pale hand. “You can tell me anything.” Upon hearing that, Amity gazed down at their interlocked hands and then back at Luz. “It’s.. nothing.” She exhaled. The witch hugged her knees and faced her back towards Luz, hiding how she truly felt. The human girl knew there was no doubt something had happened that had caused Amity to land on her doorstep. Was it her parents?
Luz couldn’t help but recall the incident that had taken place all those days ago in Willow’s mind when she learnt the truth about why Amity had stopped being Willow’s friend. There was so much more to Amity and Luz had finally seen it. Her parents had left her no choice and young Amity could only do so much when she had to push her best childhood friend away. “Willow you were never too weak to be my friend.” Amity had said at that time. “I was too weak to be yours.”
Luz promptly glanced over at Amity. They were sitting besides each other with only a few meters of a gap in between them. The green-haired girl had nestled herself onto this sleeping bag she had been provided and Luz was on top of the mattress besides her. Her brown eyes made contact with the mark on Amity’s cheek. And suddenly it all made sense.
“Amity, did something happen with your parents?” Luz whispered as softly as she could, causing the other teen’s eyes to widen. “Did they hurt you?” She started reaching out towards Amity who only backed up in defense. “No!” Amity protested, shaking her head as fast as she could. “Amity it’s okay. It’s just me.” Luz stated, a bit confused as to why she was reacting this way. “Which is exactly why!” The witch raised her voice, sounding agitated but stopped upon realizing how tense and angry she sounded.
“I’m sorry Luz. Maybe we should just go to sleep.”
Luz stared at her as Amity laid herself down on the mattress, slightly curled up to make sure her injured leg would be in a comfortable position. The Latina frowned before lying down herself once she turned off the light. Amity promptly bit her lip as the silence filled the air. Did she hurt Luz’s feelings? That was one thing she strived not to do. Great. The one person who made an effort to actually care about her even though she pushed her away had been hurt by her. Was this really all she was good at? Perhaps she deserved the mark on her cheek.
“When I was back on Earth, it wasn’t as fun as this.” Her ears perked up once she heard Luz speaking even though she was certain the girl had fallen asleep. “I mean look at this place. There’s magic everywhere.” Luz sighed blissfully with a smile on her face. Her imagination had taken her to places so different than reality except now it was actually true. She really was happy here. “I guess you could say, other kids didn’t agree with me on a lot of things.” She blew at her hair causing Amity to turn around and look at her.
Her staring ensured Luz that she was okay with her continuing. “I haven’t told this before to anyone.” Luz shrugged, now facing Amity as well. Their faces were close, not that close but Amity was really thankful that it was dark now. She would have hated for Luz to see the red blush on her cheeks (however, it did cover the mark). “I guess this will be our secret okay?” The brunette grinned sheepishly. “Okay.” Amity replied. She was eager to know more about Luz, not that she would admit it openly. Luz’s optimism and straight up determination about things fascinated her so how could she not want to know more about the world she came from?
“I wasn’t always this cheerful you could say.” Amity was surprised to hear that. Luz? Not being cheerful? “I guess it was because all the kids in my class thought I was strange. And well, who would want to be friends with someone strange?” Luz placed her arm on her forehead as she glanced up at the ceiling once again. ‘I would.’ Amity thought. She knew Luz was strange sometimes and overly stupidly marching into plans that could definitely result in her death but that’s why she lo- cared about Luz. “Boscha reminded me of them the other day before the Grudgby game.” Luz added in the softest tone. “I really was determined to make her stop picking on Willow because I didn’t want her to go through what I did.”
“My mom sent me to a summer camp to make sure I stopped acting so strange. That’s how I ended up in the Boiling Isles. Grom showed me that I was afraid of her finding out about this life of mine. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to tell her.”
Amity clenched her fists as she gazed at Luz. Naive. That’s what she had regarded Luz as. But maybe, they were a bit alike. Luz had gone through the students at her school tormenting her and having her mom act ignorantly towards her. And Amity? The witch swallowed the lump in her throat before she grabbed one of Luz’s hands. The human girl looked at her with a soft smile. “Luz.” Amity breathed out. “I’m so sorry.” She said. “I will say this. You are strange. But that’s the best part about you. And maybe, one day you’ll mom will understand that too.”
“Thanks Amity.” Luz squeezed her hand, causing Amity to exhale a deep breath of air.
“I was with the twins today.” The prodigy witch started to say. Of course, such a story would only start off with the pranksters of siblings she had: Emira and Edric Blight. “They were joking around as per usual and messing with me. I don’t really remember what happened but I got knocked against a family heirloom. And it broke.” Amity shut her eyes, remembering the disappointing and angry words from her parents. “Emira and Edric tried to defend me but my dad ignored all of it and-” She trailed off, placing a hand on her cheek.
Amity hadn’t expected Luz to say anything much really. Letting that out had felt relieving but it did make her feel weak. Ha, her parents would be even more disappointed now. Blights being weak? Shame on her. But what scared her was that Luz was dead silent. Had she fallen asleep for real? Maybe that was good. Amity shouldn’t have said anything anyways.
A moment later the green-haired witch felt Luz’s hand slip out of hers before settling against her cheek. Oh no no no, Amity wanted to curl up under a blanket and hide her face.
Luz’s touch was tender and warm. Amity was taken aback at the sign of affection. “Does it hurt?” Luz questioned slowly, still cupping Amity’s face. Clearly the human world was different. Perhaps everyone was so touchy-feely. A feeling of uneasiness flashed in Amity at the thought of Luz being so close to someone else.
But after hearing Luz's secret. Perhaps she was the first person. Yet it reminded her of all the times her parents would shun her away. The Blights knew nothing of physical affection. It was disgusting and unethical to say the least. But here at this very moment, Amity felt peculiar. Luz cared. She knew that.
Luz cared.
Amity couldn’t help the tears that brimmed her eyes. “Woah, hey are you crying?” Luz sat up straight quickly, pulling away from her friend. “Did I do something wrong?” Oh Luz. As oblivious as ever. Luz on the other hand was actually concerned for Amity’s welfare. She really shouldn’t have invaded the witch’s personal space. “Amity I’m sorry.” She apologized, awkwardly.
“I- It’s okay Luz.” Amity sat up as well, making sure her leg didn’t feel any sudden impact. “It’s just, I haven’t had anyone actually care about me. Well, not since I stopped being friends with Willow.” She couldn’t see Luz’s face. But she could feel the Latina beaming up at her. “You’ll always have someone who’ll care. I’ll make sure of that.” Luz tackled her into a hug.
Amity would’ve given anything to tell Luz how she actually felt.
But for now, this was enough.
“Ow my leg!” Amity shrieked, gasping out as Luz jumped up. “Amity I’m so sorry!” She blurted out. “I didn’t mean to put pressure on your leg.” She guiltily added. “I know.” The witch stared at her. If old Amity could have heard what Luz would mean to her in the next few weeks, she would’ve rolled her eyes and laughed. But this was more than Amity could’ve wanted.
“Hello? Earth to Amity?”
“Oh maybe you guys say Boiling Isles instead of Earth. Boiling Isles to Amity? Wait no that sounds weird.” Luz’s rambles made Amity snap out of her thoughts. “Oh, uh, sorry.” Amity stated. The two of them talked for a while about Azura, Hecate, and the stories of their favorite book stories. Amity noticed the way Luz’s face would light up as she talked about her favorite tale. And Luz noticed the fact that the sad gleam in Amity’s eyes had been replaced with something happier.
“Thank you for letting me in the Owl House Luz.” Amity murmured once both of them were sleepy enough. Luz responded with a dazed “anytime.”
The youngest Blight closed her eyes with content. Deep thoughts ran through her head but were shut out by the thought of her. Funny how Luz would never know about this. It was hard for Amity to fall asleep. If she hadn’t been distracted by the harsh thought of her parents, she wouldn’t even have been able to survive being within 20 meters of Luz today (as she definitely hadn’t forgotten what happened before, during, and after their Grudgby match).
She hadn’t expected Luz to start talking again.
Especially about her .
Luz really had expected Amity to have fallen asleep by now. She looked so calm. There was no feeling of hurt on her face. “Oh Amity.” Luz whispered. “I really wish I could do something. You don’t deserve any of this.” When she heard the truth out of Amity, she was furious. And no one wanted to see a furious Luz! For her friend’s sake, she kept her calm.
It was definitely upsetting to know someone as talented and amazing like Amity could have such a tough life. Luz had her first glance at that when Amity revealed why she stopped being friends with Willow the other day.
“You’re literally the most amazing witch I’ve ever met.” The girl sighed, still watching Amity “asleep.” Her heart seemed as if it was hammering. And Luz couldn’t tell why. This was different than fangirling about Azura or even being around any other person in general. Plus even though she was an open book, Amity was the first person to know the most about Luz’s social life.
“Sometimes, I don’t know Amity. Sometimes, I wish I could stay here with you forever. But that’s such a funny thought, isn’t it?”
Amity could hear all of it. But she wasn’t going to blow her cover. What did Luz mean? Little did Luz know, the green-haired witch’s heart was thundering in her chest just as fast.
“I really wanted to be your friend from the start. I just admired you. And now I wonder, what if it’s more?” Luz turned her back towards Amity and nestled herself into her sleeping bag which was on Amity’s left side. “I know you like someone else Blight. And that’s okay. I just hope they make you happy.”
Hang on.
What?
“I’m a hopeless romantic living in the world of fanfiction and the first human witch person. What do I have to offer to you?” Luz muttered. She sounded.. off. And frankly speaking, Amity wanted to correct her. She just chose not to.
What if?
“You deserve love too Amity. I hope you know that.” Luz lightly laughed but was quiet enough as to not wake Amity up. She shifted back one more time to look at Amity. “I think I love you Amity Blight. And I’m okay with it. And that’s another secret I’m willing to keep.” With that being said, Luz finally closed her eyes peacefully and fell asleep.
Amity was tense.
Luz Noceda loved her.
She had said it herself. Longing filled Amity. This girl who she had despised at first somehow made her way into Amity’s heart. And now, she felt the same way? From being Willow’s weird abomination to being the girl she danced at grom with, Luz was still the same person whereas Amity had changed so much in a short span of time. Because of her.
There was no way Luz felt the same way. This was just sleep talk. But for once, it didn’t matter what Amity’s parents or anyone else said. She was happy. And she’d do anything to keep it. She decided to not make a huge fuss of it now. She’d have it while it lasted.
She definitely didn’t mind subconsciously sleeping in Luz’s embrace either.