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Luz Noceda liked Amity Blight.
And she liked her a lot. There was no question about it, not even need for hesitation. Whether she’d shouted it from the rooftops once, or maybe twice, how much exactly did she like her? that was up to interpretation.
But, like many absolutes in the universe, it was the truth. Plain and simple.
After years of the same dynamic, everybody grew used to their constant bickering. They also were familiar with their begrudging make-ups. They were just little talks, that were always followed by a not-so-public make-out session. At the end of it all, they would either end up fighting again, or making out again. Time after time, the cycle continued.
It was simple, comfortable… familiar .
That was why, after all that time dancing around each other, bantering with one another and just plain hitting with each other, in their little cycle of banter and recompense, the whole school—even Principal Bump—was surprised to see Amity showing up to class with a huge bouquet of roses in her hands. A beautiful display, one for none other than a shocked—she had another word in mind, but it was too early to swear that bad—Luz. She stood next to the girl’s desk, smiling sweetly enough to outdo even the sugariest of candies.
“Wha- Amity? What are these?” Luz asked, looking at the flowers and then to her kind-of-not, but-at the same time kind-of-girlfriend.
Amity tilted her head to the side, her brown locks of hair falling into her face. She swept them out of her eyes and smiled again, this time even more sweetly.
“Isn’t it obvious? Flowers, Noceda.”
“I know what they are, Blight,” Luz replied with a groan, “I’m asking why in hell you’d want to bring me flowers. What’s the occasion?”
Luz expected Amity to grimace at her, to take the bouquet and dump it into the trash can, or to throw them at her face, make a snide remark, maybe tell her to find out how many thorns each flower had.
To be fair, she did forget some things when it came down to dates and anniversaries. Was today their first fight?
No, that was at the beginning of the school year.
Maybe their first ‘date’?
No, they played in the snow that time.
Luz wondered, idly tapping at her chin. Maybe today was the day where Luz threw a milkshake at Odalia. She fondly remembered Amity’s smile. It was near-impossible to hear so much as a ‘thank you’ out of her mouth, and Luz had never expected Amity to call anyone her ‘fearless champion.’
But that day, she heard both of those things, and there was no way in hell that she’d ever forget the anniversary for that .
So again, that was nowhere near today. She distinctly remembered that it had been in April, and they were just barely starting February.
“Oh,” Amity giggled—she fucking giggled—before leaning closer and tapping Luz’s nose with her finger. “I just thought I’d remind you. You know, that I like you and all.”
If Luz was confused before, she was now at a complete loss.
She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Before she could form some semblance of a response, the bell rang and Amity’s smile grew. She blew a kiss at Luz, walking out of the classroom and leaving her completely paralyzed. She looked to the roses on her desk, wondering if this was some kind of sick joke.
“What the hell…?” Luz whispered.
As it turned out, Amity’s little stunt had only just begun.
Luz’s first period was a living hell, she could feel everyone’s eyes burning into the back of her head. Normally, it wouldn’t have mattered that most of her homeroom and first period were the same. Today, though, it seemed that every person in the class was more interested in her than the entire English lecture.
Even after the bell rang, she couldn’t catch a break.
Amity, as fate had it, was waiting for her outside the classroom. With a book in hand and a chocolate bar on her lips, the girl smiled at Luz before locking their arms together.
“Took you long enough,” Amity said, pulling Luz closer to her side, “We’ve both got history in a few, so pick up the pace.”
Luz gaped. “...You, Amity Blight, are taking me to class?”
“Yeah.”
“You have literally never done that before.”
“Yes, I have,” Amity replied, taking another bite out of her chocolate bar, “I did, just last week.”
Luz remembered, she had sprained her ankle and she could barely walk. Willow, Gus, and Amity had helped her around the school that entire week—granted, Amity did so with far less motivation than the others—until she was able to put enough weight on her ankle to get around.
“Yeah, but even then, I’d hurt myself.”
“Yeah, for trying to use a skateboard on ice.”
“It sounded cool, okay?” Luz blushed, looking away hastily. She collected herself and ran a hand through her hair, asking again, “Still, why’d you decide to pick me up today? I can walk fine, you know”
Amity didn’t immediately reply, and Luz threw a glance her way, reaching for the Blight girl’s hand. She was surprisingly calm and composed, far from the bundle of nerves she always was whenever Luz tried to be affectionate. She looked at ease, and unusually relaxed.
Definitely not anything like the flustered mess that Luz was as she stood next to her.
“I just wanted to spend more time with you, I guess,” Amity finally said and Luz bit her tongue. “We are dating , after all.”
Luz’s brain halted at that statement. Out of all of the things she had expected from this conversation, she felt like she had been thrown ten curveballs at once. Three things, in particular, stood out to her.
First, Luz wasn’t even sure what they were. Sure, they made out a lot. Sure, Luz’s feelings for her were far more deep-rooted than anything remotely platonic. And sure, Luz may or may not have beaten the shit out the unlucky souls who dared to look at Amity in a way less than respectful. Even through all of that, they had never—not even once —called each other anything even remotely similar to ‘girlfriends’.
Second, Amity had never been the kind of person to label anything. Even her friendship with Willow was so ambiguous that both of them could deny any kind of relationship whatsoever, and nobody would so much as bat an eye. Amity was just that kind of person. To her, actions spoke louder than words.
Third, and the most jarring of all of them, Amity had never been able to say out loud that she liked Luz, and now—in front of everybody —she says that they’re dating ?
There was no way in hell that this was the same Amity Blight.
“Amity, are you sure you’re feeling alright?” Luz asked under her breath, looking around to make sure that nobody had heard anything.
Nothing so far.
“I’m fine, Luz. Why do you ask?” Amity replied, looking hesitantly over her shoulder.
Luz stared at her with wide eyes, then gestured with her free hand to their linked arms. Amity followed her movements and quirked her brow, looking back at Luz as if she was the one acting strangely.
“Amity,” Luz whispered slowly, “What’s gotten into you? Why are we… What’s going on?”
Amity replied immediately, and the lack of hesitation was the most surprising part of it all. “Because we are dating , and I want to spend time with you. I told you that, Noceda.”
Luz didn’t faint, but she’d be lying if she said that the feeling hadn’t come over her.
As if it couldn’t get any more bizarre, though, things just escalated from there. After the day that she’d had, between Amity’s strange behavior and the slough of unwanted attention from her classmates, Luz was already at her limit.
But as if on cue, Amity seated herself right next to Luz and made painfully clear that she wasn’t moving. Even After the girl that usually sat next to Luz during History Class tried to tell her to move, Amity just sneered and stayed right where she was.
And as if the day couldn’t get any weirder…
Amity told Luz that she had forgotten her textbook. First of all, Amity Blight never forgot anything related to her classes— never! —and even then, she would never admit her flaws to anyone . Despite all of that, Amity didn’t have any problem swallowing her pride today, and just smiled at Luz while she asked—no demanded, she asked! —if they could share.
Now, Luz couldn’t have said no… well, she could have.
Sure, if she had, maybe things would have gone back to normal. Maybe Amity would roll her eyes, and they’d start bickering in the middle of class. Maybe Little Miss Perfect would finally not have everything handed to her on a silver platter.
But she couldn’t.
Mainly because she knew that the contents of this lecture would show up on the midterms, and no matter how much she’d love to outperform Amity in the class, she didn’t want it to happen because of a lost textbook.
And Luz knew that if she had forgotten, Amity would offer to share, too.
And so, Luz was now smashed together with Amity in her little desk, trying not to stare as the other girl ran her hand through her mane of brown hair for the hundredth time today. She’d never been this flustered before. Maybe it was the combination of the mere inches between them, or the fact that Amity brushed her hand up against Luz’s far too often for it to be an accident, but she could just feel every inch of her face burning. Above it all, though, the other girl was just idly taking notes in her near- perfect handwriting, as if the most amazing thing in the world wasn’t happening right before her eyes.
“What in the world is going on with her, today?” Luz thought, trying her absolute best to focus on the lecture.
She had somehow survived the day so far. She wasn’t going to let Amity Blight be the death of her just yet.
...
After the hell—paradise—had taken place during her history class, Luz was thankfully able to catch a break from Amity, as they didn’t share a schedule for the remainder of the day. She relished in her alone time, hunched over her table in the lunchroom and enjoying her hamburger with extra sauce. Even in her absence, Luz just couldn’t get the brunette out of her mind. She was still trying to figure out what in the name of Azura could have pushed the Blight to be that—well—corny, and clingy, and...
Like Luz.
The thought made her shiver. “ This is what being the Amity in the relationship feels like? Titan, help me,” she thought with a grimace, shaking her head and going back to her food. She tried her best to ignore the possible repercussions that her new fixation on Amity would have on her long-term solving problem capacity.
And, she just realized that her introspection and precious alone time, was interrupted by another thought about Amity Blight.
Luz groaned, closing her eyes.
If she had the mental capacity to consider how ironic that was, it was being wasted thinking about that damn girl.
She was about halfway done with her food when the door to the lunchroom creaked open, and she was faced with Amity again. The girl had her—absolutely not childish and definitely not cute—bunny-themed lunch bag in hand as her eyes scanned the crowd. At this point, Luz was surprised that just seeing the girl didn’t send her into a fit of flustered blushing.
Amity rarely came anywhere near her during lunchtime, unless of course it was to pick a fight. Sure, they were sort-of, not-really dating and all, but the girl preferred to eat her lunch closest to the location of her next class. Luz, of course, thought that the maybe thirty seconds of extra time to get to class was laughable, and not even worth a second thought.
Naturally, Amity took that as an opportunity to stay even further away from her kind-of, kind-of-not rival. Not that Luz minded, it wasn’t like she particularly enjoyed the times that Amity would correct her table manners.
So she looked up at Amity as she walked into the lunchroom, and silently went back to her food. It wasn’t like Amity would come any closer, they had an unspoken agreement to eat separately for the majority of the week. Minus, of course, the petty fights followed by hasty make-out sessions during lunch on Fridays,
So she went back to her food, considering that the world would allow her a bit of time to collect herself, and maybe build up a somewhat plausible response to the new boldness that Amity was showing.
… And then the shadow of her doom—girlfriend, sort of—appeared in front of her.
“Noceda,” Amity said as Luz reluctantly looked up, finding golden eyes staring her down. There was a sense of curtness to her voice, but not the usual passive aggression—the thought of which made Luz shudder—she usually had when hell was about to break free.
“Huh?” Luz thought. “Are we back to nor-?”
“Lean back,” Amity ordered.
“…Guess not.” Luz mentally finished with a sigh. “What for?”
“Just do it.”
Luz wanted to object, but then again, Amity did have her lighter, and Luz still liked having eyebrows.
So she did as she was told, leaning back and staring at Amity with an expression that she hoped would come off as intimidating. Amity didn’t seem bothered by it, though, meeting Luz’s gaze with a smile. She reached her hand over, resting it on Luz’s shoulder.
And then dropped herself right into Luz's lap.
She gaped as Amity shifted a few times, she hummed contentedly, and set her lunch bag next to Luz’s tray of food. Nonchalantly, she reached for her bag and pulled out a tupperware full of pasta. Luz just looked to Amity, to the lunch bag, and back to Amity. Absolutely bewildered.
“…Amity, reina ?” Luz said, using the last strand of patience she had to control her growing temper.
Because this? This was crossing a fucking —yeah, it wasn’t early anymore—line!
“Yeah?”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“... It’s lunch, so I’m sitting in the lunchroom,” Amity replied, taking another bite. “Shocker, right?”
“Glad to see you’ve got a sense of humor, but- er- aren’t you supposed to sit by your Spanish Class today?” She rubbed the bridge of her nose with a sigh, she was running out of patience. “What happened to those extra thirty seconds of travel time?”
“Didn’t feel like eating alone today.”
“So you chose to come here… Of all places?”
“Yeah.”
“To eat with me… Of all people?”
“We are dating, so that’s pretty normal, isn’t it?”
“Not normal for us, no!” Luz’s mind replied and she took a shaky breath. “And this- um- seating situation we’ve got going on. What’s the deal with that?”
Amity blinked and looked at her before looking down, her face surprisingly as calm and collected as it had been before. Somehow, the fact she just refused to acknowledge something was different bothered Luz more than anything else.
She’s not supposed to be the flustered one in this kind-of, sort-of relationship—that’s Amity’s job. Luz scowled, “ Why in the hell won’t she give me a break?”
“It’s comfy,” Amity finally replied and shrugged, “You’re a comfy chair, did you know that?”
Luz’s patience ran dry in that moment.
She wasn’t. A fucking. Chair!
Luz opened her mouth, ready to shout out a stream of curses, enough to make her mother wash her mouth with acetone, just for a portion of pasta to be shoved between her lips. She closed her mouth in reaction and started to chew.
“Is it good?” Amity asked, a smug smile flawlessly playing across her lips.
Luz wanted to scream, but gods did that pasta taste good. The knowing smile on Amity’s face was enraging, though at the same time, charming. Soothing, almost.
Suddenly, she didn’t feel like making a scene anymore.
“…Delicious,” she muttered, sighing contentedly. “ There’s no point in arguing , is it-?”
“Excuse me?”
Luz looked up to find that a pair of blue eyes were set on her, glaring pointedly towards… her lap?
“What do you want, Zoey?” Amity bristled, but deadpanned as she asked the question. Luz looked at her.
Luz flinched at that tone. “ I don’t think I’ve heard her use that tone all day, ” she thought and looked at Zoey, “oh, poor soul, what did you do?! ”
Her kind-of, but-totally-not-serious girlfriend was frowning. Not a sad frown, though, but more like a disgusted scowl. Her eyes were on her food, and despite the tension in the air, she offered Luz another bite.
It was good, so she took it before looking at the other girl—Zoey, Noceda, remember the deceased with respect—again.
Was she madder than before? Luz wasn’t sure.
“What are you doing?” Zoey asked.
“Having lunch,” Amity replied as she took another bite of her food, “You?”
Luz looked to Amity with anticipation, not entirely sure if it was more because of the tension, or because she wanted another bite of pasta to ignore the tension.
The low growling of her stomach gave her enough of an answer.
But her eyes darted back to Zoey, and then back to Amity.
She was using that ‘ I’m a Blight ’ tone that once got them into an exclusive room at the local cinema. Luz didn’t like it, how Amity switched personalities at the drop of a hat. One second, she was the laid-back perfectionist who seemed to have a thing for arson, and the next she was the snobby bitch with a ‘ My dad could buy you and drop you in a ditch ’ aura. It was kind of exhausting to be around.
“Why are you sitting there, Blight?”
“Because I can , Williams,” Amity replied. “Do you have a problem with me eating lunch with my girlfriend?”
Luz was glad she wasn’t eating, drinking, or simply breathing too hard, because she would’ve choked.
“ Did Amity Blight just call me her girlfriend?” Luz thought, feeling her mind grow dizzy.
“Luz,” Zoey called and when their eyes met, she hesitated, eyes downcast. “Are… Are you really her girlfriend?”
Luz blinked a few times before taking a better look at Zoey.
She was pretty. Like, really, really pretty. Her blonde hair fell to her shoulders, and that strand of pink was simply enchanting. Luz, very easily, could have been ogling her if not for her brain currently malfunctioning.
Luz would have dated her, really… but that wasn’t the point, which was it? Oh! Right, right, Amity and the 'be or not to be' question.
Luz considered it all, suddenly aware of the girl she had sitting in her lap. Aware of the memories of fire, of hot kisses. Aware of the long nights spent driving through the city after a day’s worth of bickering. Aware of the tender hands that she held in her own, hands that could either passionately hurt, or passionately heal.
She sighed, knowing that the question had a single answer.
“Yeah,” she said and smiled at the girl, “I am, why?”
Zoey’s face turned beet-red, and the frown on her face depended to the point Luz felt like the girl was about to stab her. She scoffed, turning around.
“No reason in particular,” she muttered and walked away, throwing something in the trash can before exiting the cafeteria.
Luz noticed the silence for the first time.
She looked around, catching more than twenty pairs of eyes on both Amity and her. The moment she met anyone’s eyes, they just looked away and acted as if nothing had happened. As the lunchroom erupted into its usual noise level, Luz sighed, trying to wrap her mind around what just happened.
She couldn’t even believe it.
“That’ll teach her,” Amity scoffed quietly, quietly enough that Luz almost missed it.
She looked at the brunette in her lap, who was smiling triumphantly, as if everything had gone according to the plan, and Zoey walking away extremely mad—Luz still didn’t understand that —was just what she wanted.
And then? It clicked.
The whole day made sense. Luz finally felt like the universe wasn’t flipped on its head, and like she wasn’t breathing laughing gas the entire time. She smirked and leaned closer to Amity, tilting the girl’s chin up enough to meet her own gaze.
“What is it, Noceda?” Amity asked, swatting Luz’s hand away and getting another bite to her mouth. Luz’s smirk grew.
“Nothing, nothing… well, it’s just,” she said, “I didn’t take you as the jealous type.”
Amity choked on her bite of food and glared at her, cheeks beet red. Whatever semblance of smugness that the girl could muster was long gone, and she looked in a daze.
Yeah, the universe was back in order.
“I’m not!” Amity squeaked.
Luz laughed and hugged her, rubbing their cheeks together. “My girlfriend is a keeper, what a territorial lioness, rawr !”
“Noceda, stop it!” Amity cried.
“No can do, mi reina merece amor! ” Luz sang and pulled her even closer. “You are just too cute!”
“Luz!”