Chapter Text
Luz, Willow and Gus exit their classroom, chatting about homework and wanting to punch stupid Boscha in her stupid third eye, but Luz interrupts the conversation as she spots Amity across the hall.
“Hey, Amity. Amity!” she shouts, waving her hands around to get her attention. And she does, but as soon as Amity spots her, she turns on her heel and all but sprints in the opposite direction.
For a second, Luz considers running after her, but Willow’s hand on her arm stops her. So, instead, Luz faces her friends and asks a question that has been haunting her thoughts for a week now.
“Amity has been behaving weird recently, right? It’s not just my imagination? I feel like she’s distancing herself but I can’t figure out why!” She slumps against the wall, slowly and very dramatically sliding to the floor with a defeated expression on her face.
Willow and Gus exchange a look before sitting down on either side of her. Willow gently pats her arm.
“Amity is…” Willow pauses for a moment, looking into the air as if the right words will magically appear there. Luz had never seen anything like that happening, but anything is possible at Hexside, right? “Amity doesn’t handle feelings very well,” she finally says. “Any kind of feelings.”
Luz sighs.
“But we’ve been friends for weeks! Why is she being like this now?” she asks.
Willow and Gus exchange yet another look Luz can’t decipher but decides to let go. There are bigger problems to be dealt with right now.
Suddenly she gasps, her eyes widening, as a new thought enters her mind.
“What if it’s my fault? What if I said something wrong or was too pushy or ugh!”
She pulls her knees to her chest and buries her head in her arms. She was faintly aware of her friends having a heated discussion entirely in aggressive hand gestures and pointed looks but she really couldn’t care less at the moment. What if it really was her fault? I don’t think I can handle Amity not liking me. Even just imagining that makes her heart sting in an odd way. Oh god, what if—
She is pulled out of her almost-spiral by Gus tapping her shoulder and Willow saying “Luz? Luz! Hellooo, earth to Luz!” until she reacts.
When they finally have her attention, Willow gently suggests just talking to Amity.
“It’s the easiest way to handle this,” she says, “and way healthier than just worrying for no reason.”
“Or doing something Luz-like!” Gus chimes in, although he immediacy cringes at his choice of words. Willow shoots him an angry glance.
“I didn’t mean it like that!” he hurries to explain himself, “I just meant that you should try normal talking before doing anything else. Not that your plans don’t work! There are just…easier ways.”
As Luz looks into the faces of her new but closest friends, she feels something other than worry about Amity for a moment. Joy. Gratefulness. Love. Despite everything, she smiles.
“Thanks, guys! You’re the best!”
They both laugh and Luz could swear she sees Willow blush before pulling both of them in for a hug.
“Alright,” she says, after releasing them, “I better go and find Amity then.”
And with her friends’ shouts of good luck from behind, she runs in the direction she saw Amity walk towards.
…..
Luz finally finds Amity in an empty classroom, hunched over some open books and papers. Luz walks around to the other side of the desk and puts her hands down.
“Amity, hey,” she starts, “I was wondering if we could talk for a sec?”
Amity sits up so suddenly that she almost falls from her chair. By the time she straightened herself and frantically tried to put away one of the books on the table, a blush appeared on her cheeks. And maybe it’s only Luz’s paranoid mind, but with the way Amity’s eyes are glancing at the door, it looks like she is looking for a way to escape.
“Luz! Hi! What—what are you doing here? I mean here, with me, in this classroom. Not here as in ‘here in this school’ because you go here now! Ha!” She laughs awkwardly. Her blush deepens. “Oh god, I’m talking too much. Sorry.”
“No, it’s alright, no need to apologize,” Luz assures her, “I actually followed you here because I wanted to hear you talk,” she says again.
The redness in Amity’s face creeps towards her neck as she blinks a few times, suddenly at a loss for words.
“You… you wanted to talk to me?” she finally asks.
“Of course,” Luz answers, “I noticed you were acting kind of weird and distant and I wanted to know what’s up with that.”
“Oh,” Amity exclaims, “oH that’s what you mean. Uh I—don’t worry about it! It’s fine.”
Luz frowns. “It’s really not. You’re my friend and I care about you.”
At this, Amity did a strange kind of yelp/squeal. Aww, it’s so cute that she’s still not used to having caring friends!!, Luz thinks.
“So how about after school?” Luz proposes. “Lessons start again in a few minutes and I’d rather not rush this conversation.”
Amity widens her eyes and stammers out something like “oh yeah um great idea buuuuut uhh…oh! Right! I have this… family thing after school. So, I can’t. Talk to you. About me. Sorry.” She shrugs and nervously laughs in a ‘well, what can you do?’- kind of way.
“Is it something serious?” Luz asks, unconsciously reaching out to the girl across and covering her hand with her own. Amity’s face turns tomato red quicker than an illusion-student could have managed with magic, and she yanks her hand away.
The odd sting in Luz’s heart returns. Does she really have that much of a problem with me?, she asks herself before shaking her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts. This isn’t helping.
“Yes!” Amity blurts. She starts putting the rest of her books back in her bag. “I mean no! I mean yes, it’s serious enough that I absolutely can’t bail but not like ‘life-or-death-serious’! Ha ha… okay anyway gotta go!! Bye.”
And with that, she leaves in a flurry of green hair and nervous energy.
Luz stays back, too stunned to do anything but think about her friend’s strange behavior. And blame herself.
I’m going to get to the bottom of this, she thinks.
…..
Two days pass and no matter how much effort Luz puts into trying to talk to Amity, the latter always manages to get out or avoid her altogether. Luz genuinely doesn’t know how much more of this she can take. Yes, she is patient and yes, she understands that some people deal with their friends and feelings and problems in a different way than she does, but this getting ridiculous.
Even Willow and Gus agree with this when Luz shares it with them.
“That’s it!” Luz says, “I’ve had it! I tried talking to her and it didn’t work, so now I’m going to do it the Luz-way.”
Willow looks concerned. “What are you planning?”
“I’m not going to give her the option of running away,” Luz answers, the gears in her head already turning in an attempt to make the perfect plan.
“Are you sure this is the right way?” Gus hesitantly asks.
“Yes,” she says, “this is going to be good for her. She looks miserable now, bottling up all those emotions.” She lets out a gasp. “I can’t even remember the last time she laughed!! That’s a problem. Everyone should experience Amity-Blight-Laughter at least once a day. It sounds so sweet and her eyes get all crinkly and—” Luz stops herself.
When she looks up at her friends, she sees Gus’ eyebrows have gone almost all the way up to his hairline and the knowing smile on Willow’s lips.
“What?” Luz asks.
Her friends try to relax their faces in an instant.
“Nothing,” they answer together, barely containing their grins.
“Anything else you want to get off your chest?” Willow prompts.
Luz lets out a sigh. “I don’t know, I just… I miss her.”
“She misses you too,” Willow says.
Hope lights up in Luz’s heart. “You really think so?”
“I know so.”
And that is all the extra encouragement Luz needs to start planning for operation ‘make Amity talk about her feelings’.