Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Luz is sitting at her desk, working on her homework from her plant track class.

She has a pretty easy time in plants, it’s a lot like gardening most of the time, though the plants have a lot more eyes… or teeth...but she digresses. She has Willow too, who is at the top of the track and is always willing to repeat spells for her so she can try to glean glyphs from them. She’s managed a couple, she’s still working on perfecting them so it always does what she wants, the part that makes plant magic so hard is plants are living things, and the ones on the Isles sometimes have wills of their own if you don’t exert the right kind of control. She’s had a few go haywire and nearly strangled herself with vines last week trying to get them to form a net.

That one still needed work…

All part of living in the Isles though. With every week that goes by in the Boiling Isles, she finds herself more and more acclimated to it, sometimes it feels like she's lived here all her life.

Her bedroom, which once was just a spare room where she slept on the floor in a sleeping bag, now looks like she's been there for years.

All of Eda's junk is gone, replaced with a bed and a desk, covered in framed photos of Gus, Willow, King, and Eda; even Lilith. Her photo of her and her mom sits on the bedside table, close by, along with the photo of her and Amity she took on their first date and a new one of all of them on the beach at Amity’s birthday a couple of weeks ago.

A dresser sits in the corner, filled with new clothes because she could only keep wearing the same ones she brought for 'summer camp' for so long, especially now that fall is here. She's pretty sure she's having a growth spurt too. She realized last week she now has no problem reaching the cabinets in the kitchen, unlike almost five months ago when she first arrived.

For the foreseeable future, she is a permanent denizen of the Isles, so it only makes sense to pick up on her home's history too.

She’s started taking extra lessons with Lilith about the general history and culture of the Isles while they all learn glyph magic together. Lilith will lecture about the history of things and Luz is enthralled by it, which is probably the only reason Eda only rolls her eyes and lets her go on. Though she does throw in her own brand of commentary often. Usually saying why something Lilith is saying is dumb or outdated, much to the older’s annoyance, but they very rarely get into anything truly heated so it's become a kind of Sunday night routine at the owl house. King usually joins them too. Adding in his own two snails whenever he sees fit.

Much to her delight, when she can, Amity has started to join them. She's started practicing some of Luz's glyphs; the portals are especially useful.

Things are still very tense between her and Lilith, who keeps trying, and Amity mildly accepts the efforts, she's still very terse and short with the older witch much of the time, which makes Luz frown, but she keeps it to herself.

She and Amity have had this talk. Amity will try, but by no means has forgiveness been given, which Lilith seems to understand and accept.

They had a private talk after Amity's birthday weekend, she doesn't ask Amity about it, much as she wants to, and Amity doesn't offer an explanation.

Sometimes she wants to talk, and sometimes she doesn't, that's fine. She and Amity have come to that understanding well over the last two and a half months they've been dating.

They know the other is there and will come if they need them.

It's weird to Luz sometimes, having someone she knows is always in her corner, that she can come to without question.

Before she came to the Isles, she had her mom, even though she never really understood her and was gone a lot, and now she has Eda, but that's different. She knows Eda will always back her up, protect her, but it's different from Amity. She looks up to Eda, and while it's not that she doesn't admire Amity, she does, it’s just in a different way.

She would try to protect Eda just as much as she does for her, but it's just a different dynamic, she's not sure how to put it into words other then Eda is like her mom, while she and Amity are equals, they depend on each other, Eda, as much as she loves her, doesn't depend on Luz.

She has Gus and Willow too, and that’s a lot closer but still different. She can’t really explain why. Eda says it’s because she doesn’t make out with her other friends, which makes her make a face. While that’s true, she’s pretty sure that’s not it either. As much as she trusts Gus and Willow, which is a lot, sometimes she just doesn’t feel comfortable sharing some things with them, or anyone, except her girlfriend.

Something she’ll have to puzzle out another day.

“Hey Luz, Amity’s here!” Eda yells up the stairs and Luz grins, jumping up.

“Coming!” she yells back as she pulls on her shoes and grabs her new Hexside hoodie off the hanger on the back of the door before she runs out. Her jeans make loud scratching noises as she runs down the stairs, not that her loud thumping wasn’t going to alert everyone in the house she was coming already.

She hops over the last few steps to land on the floor and smiles at Amity who is standing in the living room with her arms crossed but smiling at her in black pants and a matching black hoodie with a bright purple pentagram on the front surrounded by runes.

“Hey, cutie.” She grins, trotting over to kiss Amity hello before she pulls her hoodie on.

“Ready to go?” she asks, her blush at the complement tempered by watching Luz struggle to put her head through the right hole. She rolled her eyes and grabbed the hem, helping right the blue hoodie till Luz’s head popped out with a grin.

“Yup!”

“You two have fun, don’t do anything I would do, and if ya do, don’t get caught!” Eda smirked and the two grin.

“Bye, Mom.” she only pauses slightly when the word comes out of her mouth but Eda just smiles and gives them a little two-finger wave from the couch.

“See ya later, Kids.”

They leave the owl house, walking away quickly before Hooty can really get going about the squirrel he ate that morning.

Luz takes hold of one of Amity’s hands and shoves the other in her hoodie pocket, it’s chilly today and the leaves are falling from the trees more and more every day.

“So…, do you want to talk about that?” Amity asks after a few seconds, that’s the first time she’s seen Luz make that slip in person, though she knows it's happened several other times. Luz just shrugs. She still feels selfish for it, thinking of Eda as a parent, for never wanting to go back to the world of her birth, regardless of whether or not it's actually possible at the moment, but she's working more and more every day to come to terms with her feelings about never wanting to leave the Isles; about considering this her real home.

“I mean, I still feel a little bad when I do it, but it’s been happening more and more lately… and I dunno, I guess I’m just starting to get used to it? Seeing Eda like an adopted mom. She is a lot like my mom… I mean, you know, kinda,” she laughs.

“Your personality would make more sense if Eda was your mom.” Amity smirks.

“And what does that mean?” Luz grins, nudging her playfully.

“Your general disregard for rules and danger are very ‘Eda’," she says matter of factly with a grin.

"I don't know what you're referring to," she says with mock haughtiness, sticking her nose in the air.

"Oh? I have a list prepared then." Amity clears her throat dramatically and holds up her free hand and begins counting off on her fingers.

"You broke into the conformatorium to steal a paper crown when we first met you snuck into Hexside pretending to be an abomination…"

"You're the one who almost got me dissected that day, otherwise it would have been fine." Luz cocked a brow at her. Amity pursed her lips.

"Okay, I'll give you a by on that one, but then you animated the entire owl house and took it on a joyride, you tried to fight Odabin as 'Luzura'." She smirked, glancing at her out of the side of her eye, and Luz pinked. "You tried to steal from the Emperor, then fought him and Lilith, challenged Boscha to a grudgby match when you didn't even know how to play the game, you stole…"

"Borrowed!" Luz corrected.

"...my training wand and shot a Slitherbeast with a fire spell…," Amity continued as though she hadn't been interrupted. "Speaking of Slitherbeasts, you almost got yourself eaten picking thornberries for my birthday cake!"

Luz chuckled, guess she was still mad about that one.

"Then you deliberately put yourself in danger by taking my place as grom queen…"

"You let me!" Luz accused.

"I didn't want everyone to see my worst fear was getting rejected by you and know I had a crush on you!" she argued while Luz just grinned at her.

"Aw, you had a crush on me."

"We are literally dating…" Amity gives her a deadpan look and holds up their intertwined hands.

"Yeah, but still…!" she laughed as Amity rolled her eyes, but she's smiling too.

"So, yes, you have a tendency to ignore danger and rules, just like Eda."

"Well, I guess I picked the right teacher and adoptive mom then." She grins. Amity just shakes her head as they walk through the woods toward town.

"Where’s Ed and Em?" She asks as they get closer to town.

"They said they'd meet us there." She shrugs. She tries not to worry about all the trouble her siblings have a tendency to get into when left to their own devices.

When they're just outside of town Amity reluctantly pulls her hand out of Luz's and misses the warmth immediately. Luz pouts and shoves her hand into her pocket with the other.

They meet Ed and Em just outside town on the main road.

"Hey, Luz," the twins call in unison as they approach and Luz grins sticking up a hand to high five both of them.

The twins view Luz like another little sister, she’s good to Amity and means a lot to her, which means she means a lot to them.

They also like to privately tease Amity that they may as well start now since she's gonna be their sister-in-law someday. They delight at how impossibly red she turns when they say it, but say nothing about how happy the idea seems to make her simultaneously even as she yells at them that they haven’t even been dating a year yet.

It's a chilly Saturday as they follow along behind the twins through the market. It's not their first choice, their first choice would be of course, to be able to go anywhere they want and be an obvious couple, impossible as that is right now, but they wanted to go to the market, and they'd been to town alone together several times this week already and the twins needed some stuff anyway, so it makes a good cover.

They decide to stop and eat lunch at the Redstone bakery, which also sells a variety of sandwiches. Luz still doesn't know what's in it exactly, but she's had it several times and knows she can eat it, and it's tasty; so it really doesn't matter to her. Amity still stands by, watching her carefully anytime she tries something new in case she has some kind of reaction, which really, has only happened three times but it is a possibility, and Amity is nothing if not prepared, and one has to be extra prepared when it comes to Luz.

Both Clawthorne sisters think she might grow more tolerant the longer she lives here and her body grows accustomed to it.

She hopes so, for all the weird foods, there are just as many tasty looking ones she wants to try. It's not like she didn't have allergies in the human world, being lactose intolerant.

They eat and talk, Ed and Em talking animatedly about a prank they played on two other upperclassmen earlier in the week.

Apparently they embarrassed them in front of the entire illusion track during a presentation that had them running from the room to the entire classes laughter.

Amity rolls her eyes at that and Luz nods along, half-listening, distracted by her food and her girlfriend, who's holding her hand under the table, slowly running her thumb back and forth across her knuckles.

Luz is stuffed by the time her sandwich is gone, as well as the second half of Amity's, she'd slid to her when she was done. Where Luz ate like a horse, Amity did not, but she still has the thornberry muffin sitting in front of her, and as much as she wants to eat it, she might pop if she does. It won't go to waste though.

She slides it across the table to Amity, who looks at it before smiling at her and takes it. They must be looking at each other in what Eda calls 'that gross gooey way' because Emira pipes up.

"You two need more couple friends," she says, rolling her eyes at them.

Amity frowns at her.

"Ignoring the fact that we literally can't tell people we're a couple, why do we need more couple friends?" she looks at her sister skeptically. Before she can say anything Edric jumps in with a witty remark, or at least what he thinks is witty.

"Because you're on a double date with us," he teased.

Amity scowls at that and Luz smirks. Normally, she stays clear of these back and forths between the Blight siblings, she's not as quick-witted as the twins or Amity, but today she can't help herself.

"Well, if this is a double date, you're the only one here on a date with their sister," she shoots back.

Edric's face drops, while Amity and Emira burst into peals of laughter.

They laugh at him for a solid minute before they can even speak.

"Oh, that was a good one. You walked right into that," Emira cackled, wiping at a tear. Edric crossed his arms and pouts.

Amity is still snickering when she glances back at Luz, who winks and Amity's hand squeezes hers under the table.

"Anyway, I was going to say, so Ed and I don't have to watch you two be so sickeningly romantic, but now I think I just need to meet someone so I don't have to be Ed's date," she snickers and Ed scowls at her.

When lunch is finished they wander back out into the market. It's crowded the way it usually is on Saturday.

Just as they cross a street Edric stops and smirks, looking at something across the street.

“See those guys over there?” He points across the market at two guys standing at a stall looking at something. One is tall and blonde, the other a little shorter but he has a bright green mohawk that Luz doesn’t know how she missed, but then again, this is the Boiling Isles. Just ten minutes ago she saw a guy with wings and a briefcase shopping for pet demons, so…

“What about them?” Amity asks.

“Those are the guys we embarrassed Friday,” Emira laughs.

“Oh boys!” Edric yells waving and the two look up and see them. The twins just grin and wave as the other two scowl darkly at them and walk off into the crowded market. The twins snicker and Amity shakes her head. Someday her brother and sister are going to give themselves problems with their tricks and mean pranks.

They continue browsing for a while, looking over the different wares offered at the stalls, there are a lot of regular merchants in the same spots every day but there are always a bunch of new ones too, selling all manner of weird and exotic things that some days Luz can’t even guess at. It's become a game for her and Amity to wander around and Luz to guess at the uses for things and Amity to affirm or correct her. Just something fun they like to do together at the market.

Some large guy with horns and two mouths is shouting across the market, advertising his wares for something that makes light with no magic.

“Pfft, I have glyphs for that.”

“That’s still magic, Luz.” Amity glances at her.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t take energy like when you cast spells. I can make glyphs all day long so long as I have paper.” She goes to emphasize this by pulling out her pad, but as she pats her pockets, she realizes she doesn’t have it.

“What’s wrong?

“I guess I left my glyphs and pad at home, didn’t think I’d need them for our date,” she says with a shrug and then grins. “I know you’d protect me.” She nudges Amity who rolls her eyes even as she smiles and nudges back as the four walk along the street.

There are few people in this section of the market, so they don’t have to whisper to each other.

“I thought you were MY fearless champion?” she teases, and then snorts as Luz stops suddenly to pose, one fist on her chest and the other on her hip, chest puffed out.

“Amity Blight, I will always be your fearless champion!” she declares and Amity giggles at her even as her heart flutters in her chest.

“I guess we’ll just have to protect each other.” She smiles adoringly at her and Luz grins back.

“Congratulations,” Edric says suddenly, crossing his arms. “You two are officially, that couple.”

“What couple?” Luz looks at Ed over her shoulder.

“That nauseatingly, romantic couple who are always doing cute things,” Emira explained, hand on her hip.

“At least I have a girlfriend…,” Amity huffed at them, arms crossed and nose in the air. Luz stuck her tongue out at them.

The twins frowned before smirking and simultaneously twirled their fingers.

Both their hoods suddenly pulled down over their heads, drawstrings pulling tightly closed, making Luz yelp and Amity snarl as the twins laughed.

Amity yanked the hood off and glared at the two as Luz’s head popped out of her hood.

“We’re going to the bookstore…," she growled, grabbing Luz’s arm and turning them in the right direction before having to drop it again.

“We’ll meet you there in a little bit!” Edric called after them, still grinning.

Amity grumbled to herself, fixing her hair before looking at Luz, whose dark brown locks had been mussed as well.

They were nearly alone now, and she reached up and carefully smoothed it out, making Luz grin as Amity fussed over her. She was fine if it was a little messy, but it was easier to just let Amity do her thing. Besides, she very much liked the feeling of her fingers running through her hair, and the warm affection it made tingle across her skin when Amity fretted over her.

She wanted so badly to take her hand but held back.

“I heard the bookstore got the newest Azura book in just yesterday,” Amity says after a minute and Luz brightens.

“I’ll race you there!” Luz suddenly shouts, taking off down the sidewalk, laughing. Amity grins, taking off after her. Luz turned the corner up ahead and Amity pushed herself to go faster but when she turned the corner her girlfriend was nowhere in sight. She stops, looking around.

Luz is fast, she knows, but not that fast.

“Luz?” She walks a few more feet, passing an alley as she looks around.

Suddenly a hand on her shoulder drags her roughly into the alley and she yelps.

Amity grimaces as she falls to the ground on her backside. She looks up and finds herself staring back at the snarling face of the upperclassmen with the green mohawk her brother had pointed out earlier.

“Amity!”

She turns toward the call and her face pales.

Luz is pressed back against the alley's stone wall, while the other student, the blonde, holds her there, a hand fisted into the front of her hoodie, but Luz is looking at her.

She looks like she starts to move over toward her but the blonde, draws a spell circle with his free hand and flames erupts from it, which he shoves next to her face, making Luz flinch back against the stone.

“Don’t even try,” he snaps, and Luz glares defiantly at him.

“Luz!” She jumps up but stops short of dashing over when Mohawk steps right in front of her, blocking her view of Luz and the blonde witch.

“If it isn’t the twin's precious baby sister and her little human friend, what a coincidence," he hissed, quite literally as a serpentine tongue flicked out between his lips.

Amity glared right back. Her arm starts to shoot up, index finger extended but stops short as she catches sight of Luz, back up against the wall, helpless against the other student without her glyphs as he teasingly shoves the fire closer to her face. Slowly, she lowered her arm and swallowed; If she fought back Luz would pay for it. She clenched her fists.

“What do you two want?” she growled.

“To get back at your rotten shit siblings!” he snarled, stalking closer to Amity, who takes a step back for each of his, till they've stalked past Luz and the blonde toward the back of the alley until she had no place left to go.

"It's not enough they're top of the class, they have to harp on the rest of us all the damn time too with their stupid jokes and pranks!"

His arm shot out and he grabbed Amity's wrist, tight, and she cried out in pain as he yanked her forward and she slammed to the hard ground, it bit into her palms as she tried to cushion the fall. Her knees still knocked hard against it and Amity glared up at him.

"They think they're so funny and clever?" he spat, standing over her. He spins a finger and a dark blue spell circle appears before fire crackles in his palm. "We'll see how clever they are when we send their little sister home fried!" He kicks her for good measure making her yelp.

"Amity!" Luz jerks forward but the fire crackling near her face is shoved closer and she can feel the heat licking at her cheeks and swallows thickly.

"Don't even try human, or I'll cook you!" The guy barks. She stiffens, but she’s focussed on Amity, lying on the ground. They've both turned to look back at her and blondie, and Amity's pained expression turns scared as she stares back at her, and it's like ice water running down Luz’s spine when she realizes that Amity isn't scared for herself, she's scared for her. Scared to fight back because Luz might get hurt; she knows Luz doesn’t have her glyphs.

Her fists clench, white knuckled.

Maybe she doesn't have her magic right now, but if they think she's going to stand by and let them beat up her girlfriend, she's going to introduce them to the good 'ol human version of a ‘witch’s duel’. She takes a deep breath and too fast for blondie to react, her fist flies upward and she connects, fist cracking against the underside of his jaw.

Blondie reels backward, stunned, the fire in his hand dissipating but Luz doesn’t wait for an invitation, and jolts forward, swinging again, ignoring the pain in her hand and nails him in the nose.

“Argghh!” She must have gotten Mohawks attention again because despite her heart pounding in her ears she hears Amity’s voice somewhere behind her,

“Abomination rise!”

She wants to go to her, but Luz knows damn well that so long as she has her magic, Amity can defend herself; and she has her own hands full already.

The guy looks up at her, eyes filled with rage and suddenly Luz’s world is awash in pain as his fist connects with her face and she stumbles backward. She rights herself quick enough to see him coming, but not to stop the next punch that topples her to the ground, and then he's on top of her, a hand fisted into the front of her shirt.

Adrenaline is coursing through her veins and Luz kicks him in the gut.

He doubles over and she kicks him again, sending him sprawling to the ground before she turns toward Amity, who has an abomination shielding her from the fire spells the other upperclassman is firing at her while she rapidly draws spell circles, flinging back spikes of ice.

She runs forward but only gets two steps before she's yanked back roughly by her hood.

Blondie swings her by the hood into the alley's stone wall. Her face and hands scrape against the stone, but she manages to cushion most of the blow with her arms. His hand grabs the back of her head and grinds her face into the wall and Luz winces under the pressure, crying out.

“Get away from her!”

A spear of ice fires down the alley out toward the street, and Blondie lets her go, jumping out of the way before he's impaled. Luz has to capitalize on the opening.

She turns and flings herself at him, toppling them to the ground, and she just starts swinging, he raises his arms to fend off the wild, rapid punches. She knows she needs to keep his hands busy because she isn't going to be any match for his spells without her glyphs, though in a fistfight she can, apparently, hold her own.

A few of her hits connect, but then he hits back, getting in another punch that sends Luz reeling and her head spinning as he throws her off and she thumps to the ground.

She only just managed to scramble to her feet, still a little dazed, her face is throbbing and she can taste blood. He grabs the front of her shirt in both hands and lifts her off the ground, feet dangling.

“You shoulda just kept quiet you stupid, little bit-”

Anything he was going to say is cut off as Luz flings one of her legs up, hard as she can, nailing him where the sun doesn't shine and he groans, dropping her instantly and falling to his knees. He’s curled up in the fetal position, cursing.

She spins around, looking down the alley where Amity is still fending off the upperclassman, but he’s backed her into a corner. The sleeve of her hoodie is burned away and she’s favoring her left arm; she’s hurt.

With a strangled scream of rage and fueled by adrenaline, Luz sprints down the alley and throws herself onto his back.

“Leave her alone!” She wraps her arms around his neck and he chokes staggering backward.

“Luz!” Amity yells as he thrashes around, clawing at her, trying to get a hold of the human as she squeezed her arms tightly around his windpipe. He finally gets hold of her hood and hauls her over his shoulder, back smacking the ground with a sickening smack. She groans, rolling onto her side.

Blondie is back, his face is covered in bruises and blood is dripping from a bloody nose and a gash over his eyebrow as he runs toward them, but before he can get there a blast of magic shoots him in the back sending him to the ground, followed by several more as Edric and Emira appear in the alley’s entrance, scowling and drawing spell circles furiously.

The twins heard Amity’s yell as they were passing by on their way to meet them at the bookstore. The twins move down the alley against the wall, firing spells so as to maneuver themselves between the two younger teens and their classmates. The two battered witches turn tail and run, outnumbered. The twins give chase.

Amity lets her abomination fall as the twins continue to fire off spells at their attackers retreating backs as they race toward the alley's exit, and quickly turns, looking wildly at her girlfriend.

"Luz!" She shouts the second her eyes land on her.

Luz groaned, blood is coming from somewhere, she's not sure where, but she's watching it drop to the ground, in blotches on the dirt, staining it crimson beneath her as she tries to right herself, stumbling to her shaky feet. The adrenaline has begun to fade and the pain in her entire body makes itself known in throbs, in sync with the quick beat of her heart, but especially her face.

Amity races over to her, eyes wide with fear, hands raised in the air but she's still lost in an adrenaline-filled haze that makes it hard to think straight, and she doesn't even know where to start with Luz's injuries as she looks at her.

Her left eye and the skin around it is starting to turn a deep, ugly purple as it starts to swell shut. Her bottom lip is split open and blood is running freely from her nose.

Luz's legs begin to tremble as the fight induced adrenaline leaves her and she lets them give, dropping back to her knees in a heap. Amity's hands shoot out to grab her arms, trying to slow the fall as she kneels next to her. She shakily digs through her pocket and pulls out a handkerchief and starts gently wiping at the blood still coming out of Luz's nose, but it just keeps coming and soon the thin white material is stained crimson.

The twins run over once they're sure the other witches are gone.

"What happened?!" Emira shouts.

"Why were they attacking you?!" Edric looks wildly between the two.

Anger flares up in Amity like demon fire as she turns to glare at her siblings, lips pulled back in a snarl.

"They were attacking us for what you two did to them at school!" Amity practically screams at them. "They were after me and they were trying to use Luz so I couldn't fight back!" She spits and the twins' recoil, complete surprise, and horror are painted across their faces. Amity wants to yell at them more but she has more important things to do. 'Take care of Luz.' is her prevailing thought.

She turns back to Luz who seems to finally be responsive after hearing Amity scream at the twins.

She reaches up to grab the hand dabbing at her face, her one still open eye on her. Amity glimpses the bloody knuckles as she does.

"I'm okay…," she says, squeezing it.

"You are not okay, Luz, you're hurt!" She chokes as the rest of her emotions start catching up to her, drowning out her anger with a sea of fear and Pain.

Fear for herself and for Luz, and pain, in her arm and in her chest as she looks at her beaten bloody girlfriend.

"I know… but I'll be okay. Are you okay?" Her one open eye roams over Amity and lands on the burn on her arm. The skin is red and looks raw with dried blood and soot around the edges from where the left sleeve of her hoodie had been burned away to create the injury when a fire spell had struck home.

"Forget about, me! You're bleeding everywhere!" She holds the crimson handkerchief to Luz's nose and pinches it shut. Luz winces.

"We need to get her home…," Edric says quietly as he walks up and kneels down to help pick up Luz but Amity snarls and shoves him away. He falls back, looking at her with wide, surprised eyes.

"Don't touch her! This is your fault, both of you!" Tears are dripping down her angry face.

"Amity…" she hears Emira's pained voice.

Luz grabs her hands, forcing her attention back to her.

"Shhh, mi amor…," she soothes, which only makes Amity cry harder as Luz tries to comfort her with blood still running down her lips and angry purple bruises blooming across her face.

"Please, Amity, we need to get Luz home, and you're hurt too." Emira's voice is tight, sounding on the verge of tears as she kneels next to her sister.

Edric bites his lip turning over onto his knees.

"Please, Amity…," he begs.

The hands wrapped around hers squeeze and Amity looks at Luz who nods tiredly.

"Let them help."

Amity jerks a nod and Luz let's go as Edric wraps an arm around her back and holds her arm over his shoulder to help her stand.

Emira moves to help Amity but she flinches away from the touch and stands on her own. That stabs at Emira's chest.

Luz winces with every step. It's a long thirty-minute walk to the owl house, made all the worse by the intense stifling quiet, as no one says anything.

Amity's burnt arm hurts, badly, but it's overshadowed by her intense worry, watching Luz wince. It looks like her nose has stopped bleeding but her face is a bloody, black, and blue mess and though she makes no sound, tears are still dripping down her face. Emira trails behind her, watching her carefully but says nothing.

When they finally arrive Hooty sees them coming and stretches quickly around the house, sticking his head in one of the windows for a minute before pulling back and a few seconds later the door slams open and Eda and Lilith come running out.

"What happened!?" Lilith yells first.

Eda meets them in the yard, but other than the panicked expression on her face, says nothing as she takes Luz from Edric, gathering the beaten girl in her arms and hurrying back into the house. Lillith takes one look and Amity and ushers her toward the house as well.

The twins move to follow but Amity stops.

"Go home," she sniffles, barely looking at them over her shoulder.

Ed and Em just stand there, they say nothing, just looking at their sister sadly as Lilith looks between Amity and the twins, before turning to them.

"I will tend to her injuries," she says, before continuing to lead Amity into the house. The door shuts on the twins still standing in the yard.

Luz is sitting on the couch when they walk in just as Eda hurries up the stairs, still not saying anything. Lilith leads Amity to sit next to her and looks over her burnt arm and the bruise forming around her wrist in a distinct hand-print shape before she also hurries to the kitchen, leaving the two teenagers alone in the living room.

The front of Luz's new hoodie is spattered with blood, the hood is ripped and theirs some small tears in other places, as well as on her jeans, while Amity's is singed, the whole left arm burned away to reveal her burnt arm. Ash and soot cling to the skin around it and the front left side is blackened.

They don't say anything, and soon enough both sisters return and Eda, face tight with anger and worry, begins gently cleaning Luz's face.

Lilith helps Amity gently pull off the ruined hoodie and starts cleaning her arm, making her tears start anew as she wipes at the tender and raw, burnt skin.

Luz's hand finds hers on the couch and holds it. Amity sniffles and runs her thumb over bruised knuckles.

When they're finally cleaned up and bandaged Eda leans back and lets out a long, tense sigh.

"Someone tell us what happened, now." She finally speaks, looking between the two teens.

They spend the next fifteen minutes explaining the events of the afternoon to the sisters. Eda looking, angrier and angrier with every word as Lilith's frown deepens and her brows pull together between her eyes.

"Those stupid little…!" Eda growls

"Edalyn" Lilith stops her with a word, drawing her sister's angry gaze but she's looking at Luz and Amity. "Why don't you two go upstairs and we'll call you when dinner is ready?" They nod and head for the stairs, the sisters watching them go.

Luz plops on her bed tiredly, back against the headboard. Her whole body hurts, but not nearly as much as her head, she's got a headache.

Amity sits next to her, leaning her head on her shoulder and they sit there quietly for a while.

Luz never could stand the quiet.

"Aren't you glad now I have that general disregard for danger?" Luz smiles weakly, trying to lighten the oppressively, heavy mood. Amity looks at her sadly, glassy eyes roaming over her face. Her left eye has finished swelling shut and it's an ugly black color. Her split lip has stopped bleeding but it's swollen too, closed with dark, dried blood. She has a rash of scrapes on the right side of her face from being slammed into the wall and several dark bruises dot her face, and Amity's lip trembles.

"I'm sorry…," she mumbles thickly, tucking her face into Luz's neck.

"Hey, it's okay. This wasn't your fault," she says, wrapping her arms around her and holding her tight.

At that Amity's anger returns stronger than ever, and she pulls away, scowling.

"No… it was my stupid brother and sisters fault!" she spat through fresh tears, looking away.

Luz wants to argue with that, she really does, but can't, because it's true. If the twins hadn't needlessly pranked and then provoked those two upperclassmen in the market, this wouldn't have happened.

"They didn't mean to," she tries weakly, but it sounds feeble even to her own ears.

"That doesn't make it any less their fault, them and their stupid pranks!" she rages. "They're always provoking someone, and now you're hurt because of it!"

"So are you," Luz reminds, her one eye flickering to the bandage wrapped around Amity's left arm from wrist to elbow.

"That doesn't matt-"

"It matters to me," Luz cuts her off sharply. "I'm supposed to be your fearless champion… and you still got hurt… you had to save me," she mumbled, looking down. She hears Amity sigh, and the bed shifts and Amity's head tucks back into her neck, arm around her tightening.

"You were my fearless champion," she mumbles, snuggling into her and Luz squeezes back, burying her nose in mint hair.

"And you were mine."

Chapter Text

It's a long weekend for the twins.

They don't talk for a long while after they get home after Amity turned them away at the owl house. They both feel guilty. They're all kinds of furious at their classmates for attacking their sister and Luz, but guilt is at the forefront of both their minds, and they are wrapped up in their own thoughts most of the night.

Their parents are out, so Amity doesn't come home till very late Saturday night, bandaged and wearing one of her girlfriend's hoodies when Eda and Luz drop her off outside the gates.

She walked right past them sitting in the living room and didn’t say a word to them, didn’t so much as look at them as she walked by and up the stairs to her room.

They share a look after they hear the door shut.

"We… gotta talk to her right?" Edric looks at his twin.

"I really think we're the last two people she wants to talk to right now, Ed." Emira reclined on the couch, sighing and covering her eyes with her arm.

"How are we supposed to fix this if we don't talk to her?" He throws up his arm, exasperated.

"I don't think we can fix this… did you even see her arm? Or Luz's face!?" she hissed at him, lifting her head to glare at him.

"Of course I saw it!" he barked, fists clenched. Alabaster and Cyran were dead men the next time he saw them, he swore it. No one was going to get away with hurting their sister or her girlfriend! He sighed heavily out his nose. “We have to try,” he said much quieter. Emira looked up at the ceiling, where Amity’s room was on the second floor and sighed, nodding as she stood from the couch.

They padded quietly up the stairs and down the hall to Amity’s closed door.

Amity sat on her bed with a tired sigh, after she changed into her nightwear, her arm still hurt, but not as bad as it had earlier. They'd applied some ointments Luz had learned in her healing classes that really took some of the pain out of her burn, and she'd rubbed some on the new bruises that were forming on Luz's back from when she'd been slammed to the ground. She had them everywhere.

She changed into her pajama pants but left the hoodie on. Her room is plenty warm, but her own hoodie was all but destroyed, leaving her in a plain white shirt. So, Luz had lent her one of her other hoodies to wear on the chilly ride home.

She flopped back on the bed and smiled softly to herself, holding the front of the hoodie up to her nose, inhaling deeply.

It wasn't as warm as Luz, but it certainly had that earthy, summer smell that made her think of her girlfriend.

A knock on her door made her frown, dropping the fabric back to her chest.

She knows who it is. It couldn't be anyone else. Amity glared at the door, Luz had made an excellent point earlier in the evening.

While the twins were at least, partially at fault for this, that didn't mean they ever would have wanted it to happen and should at least be given the chance to apologize and make things right.

Sighing, she sits up. "What?" she calls.

"Can we come in?" Emira's voice filters through the door.

"Please?" Edric's voice followed it.

"If you must…," she sighs.

The door opens and both of their green-colored heads pop in.

"Hey… are you okay?" Edric asks as they walk into the room.

"I'm fine," she says tersely.

"Is Luz okay?" Emira tries. The human had been a bloody mess last they saw.

"She'll be alright." Amity gives a curt nod but offers nothing else, and the twins glance at each other, unsure what else to do.

"If anything happens Monday, with Alabaster or Cyran, come find us, ok?" Emira tries, not sure what else to say. She can see how angry their sister is and that she was right, Amity really doesn't want to talk.

"Yeah," Edric jumps in. "If they thought what we did to them before was bad, just wait till this time." Edric scowled, crossing his arms. Amity blinks at them, surprised before her face curled up in a snarl.

"No, just leave it alone!" She bit out and the twins blink at her in surprise.

"But they attacked you, hurt you both!" Emira argues.

"Over a prank!" Edric finishes.

"That's the problem, Ed!" She suddenly jumped up from the bed. "You two's stupid pranks is why this happened!"

“They're just jokes.” Edric frowns.

“They're not just jokes!” Amity yelled. “You embarrass and humiliate people, hurt their feelings, and then you’re surprised when something like this happens? That people don’t like being made a laughing stock in front of their entire track? Then you called them out in the market!" She shouts.

"So, what, this all our fault? What about them!?" Emira yelled back. "They're the ones that took this too far!"

"Yeah, why are you mad at us?" Edric makes a face.

“Of course I'm angry at them! Did you see what they did to Luz!?” she snarled. "They did this, but they weren’t some strangers that just decided to beat us up because they could, they came after us because of what you two did to them!” she stomps a foot and the twins flinch.

"I'm furious at you two because you don't understand that the things you do affect other people!" she yells, and it looks like she's gearing up for more but then looks at the twin's bewildered faces and sighs, seeming to lose steam. "This is the library incident all over again, but worse…, I don't know why I thought you two could be better…," she mumbles, and that stings the twins more than any of her yelling ever could.

"Amity…," Edric starts.

"Just… go away." She turns away from them tiredly, crawling back onto her bed.

They stand there a moment before, and when it looks like Amity isn't going to further acknowledge them, they finally turn to go, but pause in the doorway, looking at each other.

"We're sorry," they say quietly before shutting the door behind them.

The Blight siblings don't speak the rest of the weekend.

~ ~

On Monday Luz decided to go to school despite both sisters and King wanting her to stay home.

A little black eye wasn't going to keep her from her education!

Or a busted lip, or all the bruises on her face, or back… or arms...

She could definitely see where they were coming from...

She would be fine though, and she really wanted to check on Amity, despite the fact that they had messaged each other almost constantly on Sunday.

She arrived early to find Amity already waiting for her outside the steps of the school, she sees her right away, with both eyes. They kept ice on it all weekend and the swelling has gone down, letting her eye open, though it was still very much a giant black and blue bruise

"Hõla, mi amor." She smiled as she stopped in front of Amity. She really wished she could reach out and kiss her good morning or hold her hand, but as much as she wanted to, she doesn't; she knows better.

“Hey, how do you feel, today?”

“I’ve been better.” She shrugs. “I can open my left eye again!” She grinned pointing at it, and Amity smiled, and for once, couldn't resist the urge to reach out and touch her. They are standing partially concealed by the side of the stairs, and there are very few students around at this time of the morning, and the ones that are, pay them no mind.

Her fingertips brush gently over the bruises and scabbing scrapes across her left cheek, touch feather-light as not to cause any pain.

Luz's eyes widen and dart around to see no one is nearby, let alone even looking in their general direction. Amity's face has turned melancholy, and Luz can't have that.

She reaches up to cover Amity's hand with her own and turns her head into the hand and lays a kiss to her palm, lips lingering for a moment as they stare back at each other.

Amity flushes but smiles at her before pulling her hand back. In their secret room at the library or the owl house is one thing, but they are technically standing out in the open in front of the school. This is a dangerous game they're playing, and they both know it.

"Hey, guys!" Gus's voice breaks them from the intense staring.

Luz turns to face their two approaching friends. "Hey!"

"Hi, Lu- OH MY GOSH! What happened to your face?!" Willow yelps the second she really sees her friend and Gus is staring at her with wide eyes, mouth hanging slack.

"Well…," Luz chuckles nervously.

"We got into a fight with some upperclassmen Saturday…" Amity frowns, and they explain what happened to their friends who look angry and concerned.

"What were you thinking, Luz!? They could’ve killed you without your magic.

"I wasn't just going to stand by and be the reason Amity got hurt!" she defends her choice vehemently.

Saturday night after they’d dropped Amity off she and Eda had taken the long way home on her staff.

~

The cold night air felt good on her… well, everything. Even her tongue hurt from biting it when she’d been slammed against the wall. Her left eye was still swollen shut but at least all the bleeding had stopped.

Eda hadn’t said much of anything since she and Amity had gotten back from town. She’d been very quiet during dinner, but based off some muffling they had heard from her room, Eda had been yelling, but she's quiet now.

“Eda…?” Luz finally called, and her mentor turned to look at her curiously as they flew back toward home.

“What is it, Kid?”

“Are you… mad?” she asked.

“You bet I’m mad!” she growled.

Luz hunkered down, shoulders up around her ears as she clenched the staff in her bruised hands, but then Eda keeps going.

“I'm mad at the look-alikes for antagonizing those two and those two for what they did to you and Amity!” Eda continued to grouch. Luz blinked as they landed in the front yard of the owl house, well away from a sleeping Hooty. They climb off and Eda leans the staff across her shoulder.

“You’re not mad at me?” She asked quietly, and Eda turned all the way around to look at her with wide eyes.

“You? Why would I be mad at you?”

“For getting in a fight, for getting hurt?” She shrugged. Eda looked down at her for a long minute before sighing.

“What you did was stupid, Luz, running headfirst into a fight with two witches and no magic." she finally says after a few moments, and Luz winced, frowning and looking down at the ground, till Eda goes on. “But I’m proud of you,” she says, looking down at her with a smile.

“You are?” Luz's head whipped back up to look at a now grinning Eda with one wide eye.

“Heck yeah, I am! Now, I’m not saying you should go around punching everyone you see." She mimes a punch. "You’re not near big enough for that…, yet, but they didn’t leave you any choice, you two could have been hurt much worse if you hadn’t done anything. You were backed into a corner, and you came out fightin’ like a werewolf!" She grinned. "So, yeah, I’m pretty damn proud,” she said, reaching out to gently ruffle Luz's hair.

Luz grinned, puffing up under the praise.

“Now let’s get inside so we can put some more ice on that doozy of a shiner you got, champ.” Eda chuckled.

~

Despite how ugly she knows it is, she wears her black eye and busted lip like a badge of pride. Yeah, she kinda lost, It's hard to say since the twins showed up and beat them back, but she defended herself and Amity tooth and nail, without her magic, and she thinks that's something worth being proud of.

"¡No te metas con mi novia!" She puffs up her chest and holds up her clenched fist, showing off her bruised knuckles to their friends.

Amity, who's been very diligent in her practice with Luz, and studying her dictionary, actually catches what she's saying and rolls her eyes, even as her cheeks turn pink and the edges of her lips curl upward.

"Huh? Gus blinks.

"Don't mess with my girlfriend," Amity mumbles out a translation before Luz can speak and her head whips to look at her, eyes lit up with excitement.

"Eso es perfecto, mi amor!" Luz’s smile is almost blinding, and Amity chuckles.

“Gracias, querida.” she grins back with a wink and despite the still dull ache all over her body Luz is filled with a searing warmth and can't stop herself from squeezing Amity in a hug, making her giggle.

“They’re being sappy again…," Gus mumbles and Willow nods, smiling ruefully.

"Yup"

"There you are!"

They all jump, Luz, and Amity practically fling each other away as they turn to the intruder.

"Viney!" Luz grins

"What's up?" The upperclassman grins, walking over to throw an arm around Luz's shoulder. Amity glares at the older girl.

"What are you doing here?" Luz asks her fellow multi-tracker.

"Looking for you two, duh," she said with a grin.

"Why?" Amity's cuts in, frowning.

"Yeah, not that I'm not glad to see you," Luz said, glancing between the two, trying to decide why her girlfriend looks so annoyed all of a sudden, and she has an idea.

"Em sent me." She shrugs.

"My sister?" Amity blinks, surprised.

"I didn't know you knew, Emira," Luz says.

"Yeah, we talk or hang on occasion," she says vaguely. "Sent me a message last night, said you two got into it with Alabaster and Cyran this weekend, and boy did you ever," she whistles, leaning back to look at Luz's face. "She asked if I could fix Amity’s burn and spruce up that face of yours, so how bout it, want me to fix the black eye?" she asks.

"Hmm…," Luz hums, frowning.

"What's wrong, Luz?" Willow frowns at her hesitation.

"I dunno, I'm just kinda… proud of it, I guess," she mumbles, embarrassed.

The three look surprised by that, but Viney laughs.

"You oughta be! I saw Alabaster this morning, looked like he stuck his face in a dragon-hornets nest! Your work, I take it?" she asks, picking up one of Luz's hands to look at her bruised knuckles. "You sure you don't want me to fix up that eye and lip though?" She cocks her head.

Luz pursed her lips.

Amity hesitates a second before stepping closer and tugging Luz closer to whisper in her ear.

"You don't need to carry around a black eye to know you protected us. They know it, and I know it, querida." Her breath tickles Luz"s ear before she pulls away and they lock eyes briefly before Luz nods.

"Yeah, if you could, that'd be great, Viney."

The older girl just smiles and takes a step forward to lay a hand on Luz's cheek and draws a spell circle with the other.

A faint blue glow surrounds her hand and Luz's face, and slowly, the bruises begin to fade and the split lip closes up like it had never been.

She pulls away to hold out her hand to Amity, who gently holds out her burned arm, and the process is repeated.

Viney pulls her hand away and steps back

"Good as new." She smiles at them.

"Thanks, Viney!" Luz grins, patting her eye, and Amity nods in agreement, running a hand up and down the bandages on her arm and feels no pain.

"No prob," she says with a wave. She looks between Luz and Amity with a knowing grin that makes both of them tense, but all she says is: "See ya in class, Luz. Oh, and don't forget about our test in beast keeping today," she reminds as she turns and leaves with a wave.

"Oh, crud! I forgot all about that!" she yells.

The sound of the bell means it's time for class and Willow and Gus bid the two farewell before hurrying up the stairs. Amity and Luz linger behind.

"Do you think Emira told Viney about us?" Luz asks once they're alone. "She sure did look like she knew something…"

Amity frowns. She can't even begin to guess at her siblings half the time, and she has enough to be angry at them for at the moment. She’ll sort that out later.

"I don't know," she shrugs. "Should we be worried about her?"

"Aw, naw, Viney's cool." Luz waves a hand. "I didn't know she knew Em, though."

"Me neither…"

"Or that you got jealous so easy…" Luz can’t help herself and smirks at her. Amity flushes.

"Jealous, jealous of what?!" She glares and Luz just grins wickedly at her.

"I dunno, but you sure didn't look happy when Viney put her arm on my shoulder," Luz teased.

"Should I be happy when some girl I don't know throws her arm over you?" Amity grumbles, crossing her arms and glancing away. Luz chuckles, stepping closer.

The tardy bell is about to go off so the courtyard is deserted and they’re standing mostly hidden on the sides of the steps.

"You should know I only look at you…," Luz says quietly, wrapping her arms around her waist and pulling them further behind the bushes, out of sight, her forehead pressed against Amity's. She turns red, but she rests her hands on Luz’s shoulders anyway.

“We’re going to be late…,” she mumbles.

“You can go anytime you want, mi amor,” Luz hums, loosening her grip so Amity can easily pull away if she chooses.

“I hate you…,” Amity grumbles squeezing her back in closer and making Luz laugh.

“No, you don’t.” she grins cheekily.

“No, I don’t,” Amity agrees, kissing her.

They’re both late to their first class.

~ ~

The day drags by for the twins.

Alabaster and Cyran have been sending them dirty looks, and it doesn't even make them feel a little better to see Alabaster's swollen and bruised face from all of Luz's punches he ate.

They know Amity is still mad at them and Emira tries to make up for it by sending Viney to fix her girlfriend's face but when they pass Amity in the halls after lunch she is still cold and says nothing to them.

They just don't want Amity to be so furious with them, but they can't even begin to figure out how to fix it. Apologizing doesn't work and she doesn't want them to even get back at the two boys; so what does she want from them?

They don't even have the energy for pranks today. Their classmates wait on the edge of their seats every period, but still, nothing happens.

The day ends and the entire illusion track is left in a state of anxiousness and confusion by the peacefulness of the day. Most of them anyway.

Alabaster and Cyran make sure to give them a good hard shove into the lockers as they pass and Ed bows up, scowling, hand already raised and starting a circle at their retreating backs when Emira grabs his hand to stop him.

“Don’t, Amity said to leave it alone.” she reminded him, but she looked just as angry as he felt and after a few tense seconds, sighs and lowers his arm.

They are surprised at the end of the day when it's Luz that approaches them.

"Hey, guys." she waves.

"You're talking to us?" Edric looks surprised.

"Yeah? Should I not be?" She glances around warily "Are there more angry upperclassmen around?" she asks quietly, and the twins grimace at that.

"No, just the two…," he mumbles.

"Amity hasn't spoken to us since Saturday…," Emira informs her and Luz frowns at that.

"Oh, yeah, she's pretty mad at you guys…," she trails off, which makes the twins slump further.

"Aren't you?" Edric asks morosely.

Luz shrugs

"I mean… I know you didn't mean for what happened to happen…," she starts. "But, Amity's right… if you guys didn't make people so mad at you all the time with your pranks I wouldn't be eating as many knuckle sandwiches…," she admits, scratching the back of her head. Her words definitely make the twins feel worse.

"They're just jokes…," Emira mumbles, crossing her arms.

"It's only a joke if everyone thinks it's funny." Luz frowns at them and they both hunker down at that.

"We just want Amity to stop being mad at us…" Emira frowns sadly.

"You know her better than anyone, how do we fix this?" Edric pleads.

Luz hums. She also doesn't like Amity being angry at the twins, because she knows Amity loves them, but she has every right to be, and so does she, but she finds it much easier to let go of things better than most people. Why expend all that time and energy being mad about something that can be changed or fixed?

She loves Amity, heaven only knows, how much, but the girl knows how to hold a grudge about these kinds of things better than anyone else Luz knows, which given her history makes sense, it's a self-defense mechanism born from her parents, so she doesn't begrudge her for it, she just wished she could learn to let go for herself.

A problem for another day.

"I think I know who you guys need to talk to…," Luz finally says after thinking for a long minute.

The twins blink at her.

~ ~

After school they find themselves standing in front of the owl house.

"Are we really going to do this?" Ed asks.

"Do you want Mittens to be mad at us forever?" Emira eyes her twin.

"It probably wouldn't be forever…," he mumbles. Emira rolls her eyes and jabbed him with her elbow, making him grunt painfully. "Come on."

"Oh, We have guests!" Hooty's shrill voice greets them as he twists out of the door towards them. They share a look before she knocks on the door.

A minute later it opens and the owl lady is staring at them.

"Hey, can-" Eda slams the door in their faces.

"I guess not…," she mumbles. A minute later the door opens and Lilith is looking down at them.

"Luz told me to expect you," she says. "You'll have to excuse my sister, she is still… aggravated, after this weekend."

The twins seem to shrink at that.

"Come, I just made tea." She turns and walks away, leaving the door open and the twins reluctantly follow her to the kitchen. Eda and King watch them through narrowed eyes from the couch as they pass through the living room. They try not to look at her.

They sit, and Lilith pours them both a cup.

"What can I do for the two of you? Luz didn't say much other than that the two of you needed to speak with me," she says before taking a sip of her tea, looking questioningly at the twins over the rim of her cup.

Ed and Em glance at each other and squirm in their chairs under the former coven leaders' gaze.

"Amity won't speak to us… she's still mad about what happened Saturday," Emira says.

"Understandable." Lilith hums, which does nothing to help the twins.

“We apologized, but she still won’t talk to us.” Edric frowns

“What are we supposed to do?” Emira asks the older witch.

“'Sorry', can’t fix some things,” Lilith says simply.

“Well, how did you get Mittens to forgive you?” Edric asks.

“Your sister has not forgiven me.”

“Huh?” the twins echo.

“By no means has your sister forgiven me for the things I did to her, or to Luz. I’m still working to make my amends for that,” she tells them.

“But it’s been months since then!”

“You helped make her birthday cake, gave her that amulet, and patched her up the other day!”

“None of those things mean Amity has to forgive me. Only she can decide when, if ever, she will, all I can do is make it known that I won’t break her trust again by working towards it.”

“We don’t want her to be mad at us anymore…”

“We feel bad…”

“As you should. What happened Saturday was, no matter how unintentionally, your fault.”

“We didn’t mean for it to happen! We can’t control our classmates.” Emira argues with a frown.

“No, everyone is responsible for their own actions and the consequences that follow, those two boys are to blame for injuring the girls, but you two are to blame for causing that by playing whatever trick on them you did, and then antagonizing them in the market, while the girls were with you no less. You're supposed to protect her, not cause her harm.” Lilith frowns angrily at them. “You have to accept that you made a mistake and there were consequences, ones that now you have to accept."

“They’re just jokes!” Edric yells frustrated, and Lilith turns her sharp gaze to him and he flinches back into his chair.

"It's only a joke if both parties are laughing after, you two are the only ones laughing after your jokes,” she says icily.

Both twins recoil at the bite in the words, shoulders up to their ears.

The room sits in oppressively heavy silence for a long while, the twins stewing in their thoughts and Lilith, calmly sipping her tea.

“How do we fix this?” Emira finally mumbles after she can’t stand the silence any longer.

“I’m afraid there is no easy fix for this. It’s not something a simple gesture and apology can fix. If you want to earn your sister’s trust back you need to prove you are sorry by changing your actions, it’s those that will speak louder than your apologies.”

The twins look at each other.

They leave the owl house that afternoon feeling worse than when they arrived, but they also have a lot to think about and think they do.

~ ~ ~

Amity doesn’t know what to think anymore.

It’s been over a week since the incident at the market and she is at least, tersely, talking to her siblings again, some of her anger has faded over the week, and the dulling of Luz’s remaining bruises and the scabbing of her arm. Luz has also been prodding her, reminding her how much her siblings love her and would never intentionally let something like this happen.

Luz is too forgiving sometimes, she was the one who was hurt worse and she’s already put it behind her, it drives Amity crazy sometimes, even as it’s simultaneously one of Luz’s most endearing features; her propensity to forgive.

That aside, she’s noticed that something is off with her brother and sister over the week.

There have been no pranks, at home or at school and no teasing, they’ve been perfectly nice when she has spoken to them, they haven't even been calling her 'Mittens', which she'll never admit, she kind of misses. The rest of the time they seem to keep their distance.

Life has never been more peaceful, but also never felt so wrong.

The twins don’t smile nearly as much as they used to, in fact, she’s seen them frown more over the last week then maybe in the last year. Their playful demeanor all but disappeared.

It’s concerning.

She tells Luz as much when they’re hanging out in her room Sunday afternoon studying. Rather than use the desk chair or sit on the bed where Amity is laying on her stomach, head in her hands, she sits on the floor with her back against the bed, and her book sitting open against her knees in front of Amity. She doesn’t need to say why, the way she leans back and hums contently as Amity runs her fingers through her hair says it all.

She tilts her head back to look up at Amity.

“Well, they did seem pretty upset last week because you were mad at them… you’re still mad at them.” she frowns.

“I'm not as mad as I was…,” she sighs. “Fixing your face helped some.” she smiled, tapping the tip of her nose, making Luz go cross-eyed and grin.

“Well, they’ve been really good all week, I haven’t heard any screaming coming from the illusion track hall at all!”

“Yeah, they’ve been nothing but nice at home…” She frowns, she should be glad for that, but it makes dreary Blight Manor, even drearier without the twins constant laughing and snickering, even if it is often directed at her. The place feels even more lifeless than it did before.

"Well, I sent them to talk to Lilith, and she said they had a long talk, so…" Luz shrugged. "I think they're trying to do better, you know they didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“Yeah, I know, I just…” she frowned, eyes glancing off to the side. Luz blinked up at her before reaching up to push a loose strand of green hair back behind a pointed ear, drawing Amity's gaze back to her

“What?” Luz prompted.

“I just want them to think about how what they do affects other people and not just themselves,” she mumbled with a frown.

“I think they know now, mi amor.”

Amity hums in reply,

Another week goes by and the twins only continue to be perfectly nice and civil, with no pranks or jokes on anyone. The illusion track doesn’t know what to think, and neither does she.

They mope around the house or stay locked in their rooms when they aren’t at school; they look miserable.

They’re out with Gus and Willow in the market on the next Saturday.

“Have you ever eaten at Rock Gut?” Gus askes excitedly as they walk down the street. The other three shake their heads and they make their way there.

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask, Amity. What’s up with Ed and Em? The class has been so dull the last two weeks, there’s never any pranks anymore… and then they just let Alabaster and Cyran pick on them!”

That got Amity’s attention.

“They’re picking on them?” Luz blinked, frowning.

“Yeah, ever since last week, after you guys got into it with them, they just shove them around and they don’t even fight back!” Gus threw up his arms. “Some other students saw it too and by the end of the day the rumors were that Ed and Em were just weak pushovers and now they're the ones having all the mean jokes and pranks pulled on them."

“What?” Amity suddenly spoke, eyes wide.

"Yeah, some guys spelled their chairs so every time they went to sit down it would pull out from beneath them, someone put a spell on them so they could only talk backward during a presentation… Oh, and their lunches exploded in their faces Friday…" Gus began to list the pranks that the illusion track had been playing on the twins all week and Amity's face dropped more with each one.

“They’d never let people just walk all over them…,” she argued.

"Well, if they're really trying to change for the better and cut out all the mean pranks, it doesn't surprise me that all their past victims would try and take advantage of that." Willow hums.

“Hey, I’m sure Ed and Em are fine, they can take care of themselves.” Luz sat a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder comfortingly.

“Yesterday I overheard Alabaster and Cyran telling the twins to meet them today at noon in the place you guys fought before,” Gus supplied.

“Why didn’t you say that before, Gus!?” Willow turns to him suddenly and he jerks.

“Sorry, I forgot till we started talking about it!” He held up his hands in defense.

“That's fifteen minutes from now…” Luz looked at the clock on her scroll. “If we leave now, we can make it.” She turns to Amity, who nods, turning, and the four take off toward the alley near the bookstore.

~ ~

Edric's back slammed against the wall with a hard thud. He could taste blood from the first smack he'd taken and a bruise was already forming on Emira's cheek as she stood next to him, and ran her tongue over her split lip. She reached a hand out to grab her brother's arm, steadying him.

"You just gonna take it Blight?" Cyran sneered.

The twins didn't say anything, just glared darkly at the other two illusion track students standing in front of them, which only made them angrier.

"They really are all talk and no bite." Alabaster spat onto the ground at the twin's feet.

"This isn't even any fun." Cyran scoffed, taking a step forward toward Edric, who gently pushed Emira away from him as the other boy grabbed the front of his shirt in both hands and yanked him forward almost off his feet. "It's just sad," he hissed, forked tongue darting out from between his lips.

"The human and your little sister put up more fight than this." Alabaster glared at Edric.

"yeah, Luz really did kick the shit out you, didn't she?" He grinned cheekily, earning himself a brutal headbutt from the boy holding his shirt. His nose made a crunching sound.

Edric hissed, stars erupting from behind his tightly shut eyes, blood beginning to drip from his nose and down his lips.

"Ed!" Emira shoved the other boy away and Cyran stumbled back. Edric hissed as he wiped at the blood with the back of his hand, though it didn't do much to staunch the blood flowing out of his nose.

"I'm fine…," he mumbled behind his sleeve.

He was just itching to start drawing spell circles and wipe the floor with these two jerks, they both were but thinking about their sister stayed their hands.

If nothing else, beating up on them meant they weren't bothering Amity.

"You're pathetic," Cyran sneered. He took one step forward before spikes of ice erupted across the ground and a line in front of them, separating them from the twins.

"Amity?" Ed and Em blinked at the four younger teens standing in the alley entrance.

Luz pulled her hand away from the used glyph paper as it crumbled to dust.

"Ed, Em!" Amity looked at the two, her sister's cheek was bruised and blood was dripping down her brother's face.

The two boys hesitated a second, seeing the four before whipping up their hands and drawing spell circles.

Two blasts of fire hurled toward them only to be met with a wall of glyph conjured ice, blocking the four from view before thorny vines whipped around the wall straight at them.

Cyran managed to get off another blast of fire, warding off the vine, but Alabaster was caught in its tight grip, pinning his arms to his sides, which distracted him long enough for a Gus clone to ram right into him, followed by a blast of glyph fire. He stumbled backward and then an abomination was on him, knocking him to the ground with a punch and letting another vine wrap around him with tight squeeze before rearing back and flinging both boys clear of the alley and the street.

"What is wrong with you two!?" Amity shouted at the twins as the four ran up to them.

Ed and Em flinched.

"We we're just trying to do better." Edric's voice came out muffled as he pressed his sleeve to his still bleeding nose.

"That doesn't mean don't defend yourself or let the entire illusion track walk all over you!" Amity stressed, flinging out her arms.

"It's just one extreme or the other with you guys…" Luz shook her head and summoned a small chunk of ice and hands it to Emira, who pressed it to her bruised cheek.

"I never wanted you to get hurt." She frowned, lip trembling as she dug her handkerchief out of her pocket and pressed it to her brother's nose, making him wince.

"I just wanted you to realize how much some of your pranks hurt other people…" she frowned, cleaning up her brother's face.

The twins shared a long look.

"You were right, though," Emira tells her with a frown.

"It's not so fun being on the other side all the time," Edric mumbled as she pressed the cloth to his nose.

"So we stopped the pranks..."

"You guys don't have to stop all your pranks," Willow said, and Gus nodded, crossing his arms.

"You just need to think about how people might feel about it. It's supposed to be funny for everyone." Luz agreed.

The twins glanced at Amity who hesitated a second before nodding.

"It's not the same at home or at school when you two aren't being yourselves…," she mumbled, cheeks pink. "I want you two to be yourselves, but think about what you're doing beyond just you two getting a laugh…that's why the whole illusion track has been getting back at you." She looked at them sternly.

The twins shared another look before grinning at each other, the first one in two weeks.

"We can do that…," they promised.

"Let's get back to the owl house so we can patch these two up." Luz jerked a thumb over her shoulder.

"Hey, we can be nose bleed buddies." Edric grinned at Luz, holding up a hand. She laughed, slapping his hand.

"Yeah!"

Everyone else rolled their eyes.

On the walk back Amity walked beside her sister, still nursing her cheek with the melting piece of ice Luz had given her.

She looks ahead of them, where the others are walking, and her brother is telling Luz how impressed he is with her ability to take a punch now that he's had a taste.

She glanced at Emira, she'd been wondering something for a while, and now that the Blight siblings are back on good speaking terms, she figures now is as good a time as any to ask.

"Who is Viney?" She asks quietly so only Emira hears the question.

A gold iris slides to regard her out of the corner of her eye.

"A friend…," she says after a long moment.

"I've met all your other friends, but never her…" Amity lets the statement hang.

"We don't hang out that often…" Emira just shrugs, not looking at her now and Amity swears theirs a hint of color on her cheeks, but it may just be flushed from the ice pressed against it.

Amity blinks at her. Could her sister…?

Before she could even complete the thought their standing in front of the owl house, and the door slams open, mercifully cutting off Hooty' shrill greeting and the owl lady is standing there, eyes narrowed as she looks at them, eyes carefully roaming over Luz before landing on Amity, and then the two other younger witches before going to the twins and scowling.

"Is this gonna be a regular thing?" She huffs, stepping aside to let them all in

"Maybe" Luz shrugs.

"No!" Amity and Willow both shoot back and Luz chuckles.