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Luz laughed as King twirled a flag in his hand, showing off his auxiliary skills as Willow clapped in time. Amity snorted softly and clapped along at the display, blushing as she watched Luz cheer him on with full support.
“Wow King, you’d make such a good flag boy for our marching band!” Willow cooed as she patted Gus on the back soothingly, a look of concern over his precious school spirit flags permanently marking his face.
“As king of demons, it’s important to demonstrate dominance in agility and strength!” King proclaimed with a toss of the flag. He caught it smoothly as he dipped for a bow, and everyone in the Owl House clapped politely in applause, along with Hooty’s screeches of encore (“Again! Do it again! I’ve never felt more alive than while watching this!”)
Luz politely ignored him and picked King up by the underarms, setting him in her lap. “Alright, I think that’s enough for now, cheerleader. Hooty’s getting riled up, and the last thing we need is random pellet carcasses on the carpet again.”
Hooty, mid-screech, began to start hacking and coughing as if on cue. Eda groaned and picked up her staff, walking toward the door in a huff.
“Hey, hey! We’ve talked about this, you weirdo; out on the porch, not the carpet.”
Luz sighed, smiling at Amity and rolling her eyes, to which the girl simply shrugged, returning the smile timidly.
“These crazy kids, what are you gonna do?” Luz whispered, putting her hand on her hip comically, as if expecting to be followed by a 90’s sitcom laugh track. Amity snorted, flushing at the sound of her awkward laugh, and giggled quietly soon after.
“Okay, now you just sound like an old grandmother. It’s weird.”
“What’s weird about motherhood? My grand-kids are my greatest joy! ” She said with a raspy, aged voice, causing Amity to cover her mouth with her free hand, attempting to stifle her laughter.
Luz smiled and looked back at the little demon, who was currently scrambling to leave her grip. “What do you say to helping me grab some little sandwiches for our guests?”
King huffed, tossing the flags onto the floor in protest. Gus gasped dramatically as he crossed his arms with a scowl. “How dare you interrupt the performance of a lifetime for tea sandwiches! Put me back down on the table, mortal, or face the consequences.”
“Aww, what would the conseqwuences be, wittle guy?” Luz babytalked, shaking King slightly in adoration.
King huffed and smacked her nose. “This!”
Luz yelped, dropping him in surprise. “Wh-! King! ”
The demon in question stomped directly on top of the flags he was twirling just minutes earlier, breaking them in half. Gus’ previous gasp was overshadowed by an even bigger one, the horror on his face evident.
“No! How could you put them through that trauma again!” He wailed, lunging after King in a tear-filled rage. Willow wrapped him in a hug, interrupting his warpath.
“Ah, Gus-! Okay, King, can you please say you’re--ow--sorry and that you’ll--Gus, stop!--fix them?” Willow managed to get out as Gus wrestled against her grip, eyes watering in grief over the loss of his twirlers. King stuck out his tongue at her and pushed past them.
“King apologizes to nobody!” He yelled, waddling away in a hurry as Gus scrambled out of Willow’s grip, clambering after him. Willow swiftly followed in mild panic, and they both pushed at Eda on their way out, who was still trying to keep Hooty from barfing before the abrupt interruption.
“Hey excuse me, why are these small infants jostling me around in my own-?” She started in annoyance, before hearing Hooty retch, followed by an inevitable splat behind her. She pinched the bridge of her nose in a resigned sigh.
“-House. Well, at least they’re not causing property damage on my behalf. Let them rough each other up outside, kids learn better when they can beat the stuffing out of each other anyways, right Luz?” She called out to her ward, waving her hand in a glowing circle to clean up the mess. “I’m betting on the dweebus; he’s got the right amount of sob story to fuel that squeaky rage.”
“I have never agreed with that kind of sentiment,” Luz says, shaking her head in confusion as the mess was swiftly magicked away. Standing up with a tsk on her tongue, she didn’t notice Amity paying a close eye to her figure as she reached up above her head in an exaggerated stretch.
“Well, since our friends are busy destroying each other’s prized possessions, do you wanna be my helper with the sandwiches, Amity?” Luz offered after swinging her arms down in satisfaction. Amity spluttered, swiftly looking away and putting her chin in her hand.
“Who, Amity? I mean, who, me? I mean, I guess I could--I mean, I can! I--Yeah, let’s-! Let’s go do that,” She ended abruptly, standing up with a sheepish smile.
Luz’s smile fell just for a second, looking away in a barely noticeable perplexion before returning back to her chipper grin, bright as ever. “Okay! Let’s head to the kitchen then, we should have everything we need in there.”
While Amity tried to make light conversation as they gathered the ingredients for the tea time snack, Luz pondered over the loaf of bread in her hands, accidentally tuning her out as she became lost in her thoughts.
Amity didn’t talk to her easily anymore. When it came down to it, they were able to put aside their differences that stemmed from a general misunderstanding of each other, and become friends after they were there for each other time and time again. It'd seemed like they would have each other's backs for sure ever since Luz finally learned the ice rune, and she was glad to have Amity's trust despite the library incident, where she definitely wouldn't have faulted her for never wanting to talk to her again.
However, it seemed that ever since Grom night, Amity may have been her friend, but at the cost of her being seemingly uneasy every time they interacted. She tried to shrug it off at first as an adjustment period for the both of them, but now had this pit in her stomach at the idea of Amity not feeling comfortable around her silently swarmed with all sorts of confusing commotion, and it just didn't seem to want to go away.
"...Well, you know, not us in particular, b-but talking about two people in general, you know, like, with our dynamic and all, they would make great partners! Uh, partners like in a dynamic duo, of course. A bro-ship, gal pals, uh, amigos…” Amity stammered, mentally dragging her hands down her face in absolute despair from the sheer embarrassment she was causing herself. It had started out with a compliment on how well Luz worked with her, and then spiraled into this. She just couldn’t seem to get a grip around her lately.
She’d told herself that just because Luz was going to school with her after having worked together to save each other from the shenanigans her twin siblings had caused just a while before, that it didn’t mean she needed to lose her mind over it. Sure, she was starting to feel something new and warm every time Luz acted goofy in an effort to get her to laugh, but that was something to be expected. Or at least, that’s what she had reasoned in an effort to ignore the realization that was slowly dawning on her. Making friends was never Amity’s first priority, staying on top of whatever she put her mind to was; so it seemed natural that she wasn’t used to making friends. She wasn’t completely foreign to the concept, however; she’d made friends with Willow when she was younger after all, and wormed her way into her not-so-great ex-friends’ group. What she was feeling was something that she was not familiar with, and was even scared of, because it became much more intense every time she interacted with Luz.
It became clear that she couldn’t ignore the inevitable when Luz helped her fix her mistake regarding destroying Willow’s memories. A mistake with one person she used to hold dear with someone she was learning to hold just as close, and when she was pulled into a hug or thrown a smile from her, she realized with a panic that she wasn’t feeling what she would for a friend; she was feeling the way she’d always hoped she’d be able to feel for the imaginary Emperor’s coven witch man that her parents had constantly reminded her to find, to form a union with and become an ultimate power couple that could continue their family with their beliefs in mind; that the Blight family would only allow the strongest.
And then she had to go and fall in love with Luz. So much for that, she supposed.
Luz looked at her friend in worry, who hadn’t realized she’d fallen silent in contrast to her previous ramblings. She thought back to how much Amity had struggled to open up to her while in Willow’s mind, and realized that was probably the last time she’d seen her comfortable; to a certain extent, at least. Comfortable enough in her presence, not really comfortable with purposefully trying to give her best friend amnesia.
Was the issue somehow something she’d done then that she couldn’t remember? Luz bit her lip and turned to the counter, absent-mindedly sweeping off the beetles skittering on it as she began to cut the bread.
What had she done?
“Amity?” Luz faltered. She set the bread knife down. “Can I ask you something?”
Sweat beaded on Amity’s forehead, her mouth seemingly glued shut as her mind raced with every single possible question Luz could ask, and obsessing over the one that would seemingly end her life on the spot.
“Uh, yeah, sure? What’s wrong?” Amity asked, cringing at her inquiring on if she’d done something wrong rather than just generally asking what was happening.
“Do you...Did I do something to make you feel uncomfortable with me? Like, did I mess up?” Luz said finally, wincing at the vulnerability in her voice. She gulped at the sight of Amity’s eyes widening to the size of dinner plates, and suddenly the words were rushing out of her.
“Because I feel like I’ve messed up ever since Grom, or maybe back when I took the training wand from you? Because I keep taking things on on my own, and it’s just me biting off more than I can chew; and now it seems like I keep intruding on your personal space, or like I make you uncomfortable or that I make things awkward, and I know sometimes I’m stubborn and can be a bit overbearing because when I try to help my friends or even just try and do things for myself, I always seem to do it in a way where others get hurt, and I-”
“No, no, Luz-” Amity interjected, clearing the kitchen floor in just a few steps, worry on her face. “That’s not it at all. You’re not doing anything wrong, I promise.”
“Then what is it?” Luz pleaded, looking her in the eye. “Because I don’t want you to feel that way. I don’t ever want to make you feel that way.”
Amity flushed, pulling her hands back from her shoulders like she’d touched a hot pan at the intense sincerity from her crush, and looked down at the floor in quiet frustration.
“It’s--I don’t know exactly how to explain it yet,” She hesitated, shutting her eyes slowly.
“Was it...was it something about that day in the library?”
“No-”
“Or maybe it was about Grom? When I took your place? When I asked about your crush from your worst fear?”
Amity winced, opening one eye as she muttered a lie. “N-no, Luz-”
“Was it when we fixed Willow’s memories together? Was it…” Luz trailed off, a slow realization dawning on her face. Amity braced herself.
“Is it because you can’t be friends with us? Because your family wanted you to toss out Willow, and now you’re okay with her again and are now friends with...some random human who can’t even do magic the right way?” Amity snapped her gaze up to Luz, who was rubbing her arm in embarrassment. “Sorry, ignore I said that-”
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Amity confessed. She walked over to the counter, turned her back to it, and slid down to the warped rock that was the kitchen floor, sighing as she tried to collect her thoughts. Luz delicately followed, sitting arm to arm to her, then thought twice as Amity jumped and scooted away in resignation.
To her surprise, Amity closed the space between them again, looking away intently.
“My parents have a very specific idea of what I should be. A straight-A student, a powerful witch, in possession of an even more powerful position in the Emperor’s coven; everything the perfect daughter should be. Then, once I do that, I find an equally powerful...witch to marry, and continue our elite dynasty as the most revered witch family in the Boiling Isles.”
Luz’s gut feeling latched onto the hesitation she heard from Amity when mentioning marriage. A strange sensation welled up in her that she worked to keep down, and instead nodded for her to continue.
Amity pursed her lips. “It isn’t that I can’t be all of those things, because I can. Or--Or at least I think I can, and I’m just holding myself back with a lot of weird and sentimental thoughts that keep pulling me back to people that my parents don’t want me associating with. And then I realized...maybe my parents are wrong. Maybe it isn’t that I’m weak that I keep going back to people they don’t approve of. I think...it’s because I’m learning what it’s like to actually care about people again, and at the same time, I’m learning what it feels like to be cared about. Like, genuinely cared about. Unconditionally.”
“So...you’re afraid about learning that your parents have been wrong about this the entire time?” Luz queried, trying to understand.
“I know they’re wrong about a lot of these things. What I’m afraid of, and I guess what I’m still trying to get over, is the fact that I’ll still disappoint them despite knowing I’m not bad for being who I am,” Amity answered. She fidgeted, taking a deep breath before continuing. “You know how you asked if I was upset about who I wanted to ask out to Grom?”
“Yeah?” Luz replied softly.
“I’m not upset at you. Please don’t think that; but it’s one of those things that I know would have disappointed my parents. Because they have this idea that I have to marry an equally powerful man so I can have powerful babies with-”
Luz snorted. “Ew, that’s outdated-”
“-And it seems like I can’t give that to them.”
The kitchen was very quiet as Luz processed what this meant, flitting through what it could mean, and gently settled on what finally clicked. Amity beat her to the punch.
“I like a girl. I wanted to ask her out to Grom. But I was afraid she’d reject me, and that following that I’d be the laughingstock of the school, and that eventually the news would reach my parents, and then I’d really never be able to live up to their standards after that. I just wish I--I wish that I could just--”
Luz rested a hand on her shoulder as Amity teared up, her voice cracking.
“I just don’t know what to do.”
They sat like that for a short while as Amity chastised herself silently, unable to keep herself from letting the tears that were growing threateningly close to ready finally fell. Luz could feel her own throat closing up, and she subconsciously let go of Amity and crossed her arms over her chest like a hug.
“I didn’t know what to do either,” Luz said, breaking the silence. “When I told my mom that I was bi.”
Amity quickly wiped a tear away. “Bi? Is that a human term?”
Luz looked at her in surprise, before laughing softly, the croak in her voice evident. “I guess it would be. It means that if I like someone, they could be any gender, boy or girl or anyone else.”
Amity looked at her intently. “Is...there a human term for a girl that just doesn’t like boys? A-and happens to like girls?”
“Yeah, a lesbian!” Luz smiled tenderly. Amity flushed, laughing in somewhat relief. Luz pushed on, setting her head on Amity’s shoulder. Amity froze, unknowingly to her, but relaxed soon after the gesture was made. It was easier when Luz didn’t have to see just how much of a mess she made her, after all.
“I told her just a year ago, actually. I realized it after I started relating to some cartoon characters that were girls that fell in love with each other, and I thought ‘Huh, so that’s what it looks like for a girl to like another girl? Because that’s exactly what I’ve been feeling!’ And suddenly so much confusion over crushes was a little bit easier. I finally figured out through some online forums for Azura debating on who she should be shipped with the most, where someone made this like, extensive post on why Hecate of all people should be the perfect person she ends up with at the end of the books, and then people were like ‘But she’s seen being attracted to her male love interests!! She’s not a lesbian!!’, that’s when I first saw someone talking about being bi for the first time. I didn’t know other people like me existed, where you happen to just be into whoever your crush is because they’re cute or hot or funny or smart, and that I wasn’t just some weirdo who couldn’t make up their mind.”
Luz let out a shaky breath, instinctively grabbing Amity’s arm seeking comfort. It took everything in Amity to stay focused on what Luz was trying to say in order to keep herself from having a full on panic right then and there.
“My mom said that I’d betrayed her when I first told her. She didn’t really understand what it meant when she found out I was bi. She didn’t grow up knowing it wasn’t a bad thing, that there were hundreds of thousands of people in the world that were just living their lives that loved like me. It...it hurt more than you could believe to hear her say that.”
Luz closed her eyes. “I know my mom loves me. She loved me then too, even though she said that. She just needed to learn to accept that it wasn’t just some phase or rebellion; it was just me growing up and realizing who I was, and that she hadn’t messed me up or something. I just...was bi. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.”
She sighed contently, giving a small smile. “My mom has grown a lot, right along with me. She isn’t always perfect, but before I went off to camp--Uh, I mean, witch training, she’d told me that she hoped I had the summer I was always daydreaming about; one full of the 'normal and safe amount' of adventure and shenanigans and fun, and even romance. Whoever it may be with.”
Luz suddenly realized she was pulling Amity close to her as tightly as she could, and looked up to see Amity looking at her with a soft gaze that she’d never seen before.
The strange feeling from before solidified in Luz’s chest, blossoming into an intense rush of heat and embarrassment. She hurriedly backed up, spluttering apologies.
“I’m so sorry, I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable or-or make things weird-!”
“Luz!” Amity laughed in surprise, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her back into a tear-filled hug. Luz’s brain seemed to short out at the sudden embrace, and a whirlwind of emotions seemed to tear through her at the speed of sound before she had the chance to process what was happening. Her guts felt mushy and her face felt hot when Amity finally spoke, and she could feel the bass of her voice right on her back, where her chin rested.
“I’m sorry I’ve been acting so weird. I’m trying to figure things out and I’ve got a lot of weird, confusing, conflicting feelings,” She said before pulling away, holding a dumbfounded Luz by the shoulders. “But I’m really glad I’m not confused about you anymore. I’m really glad we’re friends, Luz. I-I care about you a lot.” Amity finished, sheepishly tucking a strand behind her ear.
Luz blinked. Had Amity always been so pretty when her face was all red like that?
“Luz?”
She shook her head quickly, snapping out of her sudden trance. “I-I care about you, too, Amity!”
Amity’s sudden look of worry was replaced with a relieved smile, and Luz’s stomach lurched at the sight, suddenly very warm at the idea that such a smile was just inches away from her face earlier. She smiled back, a bit dazed, but dazzling all the same.
Amity stood up, extending a hand out to Luz to help her up. With a quick motion, she was back up on her feet, and the moment had passed, leaving her with a comfortable feeling that she hadn’t felt in weeks, with something new and exhilarating to add onto it. She had a creeping feeling that she’d need to unpack that later in the day, but simply sighed in resignation.
“Oh jeez, the sandwiches,” Luz groaned, getting right back to work. “Amity, let’s make sure Gus and King have something to snack on once they’re back from fighting to the death or for honor or whatever!”
She nodded intently with a smile, walking up to the counter next to her and grabbing the pieces already cut, and grabbing the slabs of meat that were too much of a mystery to worry about being edible. “Shouldn’t we have cut the sandwiches after we’d made regular ones, though?”
Luz paused, processing the suggestion, before groaning dramatically for comedic effect. Amity laughed, a belly laugh escaping her as Luz conked her head on the counter in defeat.
“Yeah, let’s do it that way instead.”
The front door crashed open, Gus holding King over his head like a victor from a strenuous battle, followed by a panicked Willow.
“Gus, do not throw him down like a football!”
“No no, this was the agreement upon the rare possibility that I lost,” King sighed out dramatically, putting a claw above his forehead like a fainted damsel. “I am no coward to the consequences of my actions.”
Eda snorted, cackling as she doubled over in laughter. “Aren’t you the same King who tried to make a paper mache Owlbert because you locked him in my room and thought he would die in there?”
King sniffed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Luz laughed affectionately as she carried out the platter of small sandwiches, shaking her head in faux reproach. “These darn kids.”
Amity giggled, and Luz’s heart tugged against her will, making it beat with a rushed rhythm. She grinned as she smiled back, and Amity responded,
“What’re you gonna do?”