Work Text:
Amity twirled the pen in her hand as she reclined on the couch, notebook open in her hand. The apartment was empty save for herself and the sound of music playing over her phone as she scribbled notes from her morning lecture.
She finished her thought and looked up, seemingly only then realizing just how quiet it was, which was strange because she knew Luz should have been home by now; she didn’t work on Sundays and she didn’t have classes.
Gus and Willow were at work and wouldn't be home till late but she had no idea where her girlfriend had gone. They’d had breakfast and while Amity was in the shower, she had vanished. That was hours ago. She’d left a note on the fridge saying she would be back later but there had been no word since.
She had been so engrossed in her classwork that she hadn’t even really noticed till she realized it was much too quiet for Luz to be home. Luz was a lot of things and Amity adored most of them but quiet, she was not. She was either making a racket in the kitchen or playing music at ear bursting volume in their bedroom while she studied. The fact that it was silent meant Amity was completely alone.
She picked up her phone and saw no messages or missed calls from Luz, though she did have a couple messages from her sister that she would look at later. She opened her ongoing chat with Luz but before she could even begin to start typing a message, she heard a car door slam and looked up. Sure enough, a moment later, the front door opened and Luz came strutting in.
Amity’s jaw dropped open as she blinked at her.
“Hey, Amity,” Luz grinned as she walked through the living room, making a beeline for their bedroom without another word.
Amity managed to pick her jaw up off the floor and scrambled off the couch, following her immediately.
“Luz… uh… what are you wearing?… What happened to you?” she asked, standing in the doorway to their bedroom. Luz was standing in the middle of the room pulling off weird armored clothes, splattered with splotches of bright green and red. Even her hair was matted with dry paint.
Luz looked up, blinking.
“I just got back from practice.”
“What practice?” Amity asked. This was the first time she had ever heard anything about it.
“Paintball practice,” she said, still looking at Amity as though it was obvious. Then, the light bulb seemed to go off in her head, realization lighting up behind her eyes, and her mouth morphed into an ‘O’.
“Did I forget to tell you I joined the school paintball team?” she asked and Amity jerked her head in a nod.
“Uh, yeah, ya did!”
“Oh, sorry!” she laughed, scratching the back of her head. “Yeah, last week. We have to do partner work, critiquing each other's stuff in my creative writing class and my partner is on the team. I wrote about paintballing in one of my short stories and we got to talking about it so they asked me to join and I had my first practice today,” she said as she pulled off the shirt along with the paint-splattered chest plate.
“I didn’t even know you liked paintball…” Amity sat on the bed as Luz disappeared into the bathroom, turning on the shower.
“Oh yeah! I played all the time as a kid, you didn’t really need friends, you could show up to the course and the referees would just sort you into teams. Mami loved it cause it got me ‘out of my fantasy world and interacting with other people’,” she took on that accent she always did when she was imitating her mother and Amity snorted.
“I’ve never seen you play,” Amity frowned as Luz appeared again, setting the paint stained clothes in the empty hamper.
“Well, remember when we met?” she asked Amity. “My arm was broken?”
Amity nodded, leaning back on her hands, watching Luz move about the room. They had met junior year of high school, at orientation. She had turned a corner and Luz ran right into her, toppling both to the ground and while normally, Amity would have been annoyed, the sixteen-year-old in question had her right arm in a cast and was hissing in pain even as she apologized over and over.
“Well, I broke it while playing the weekend before and then… Well, by the time it was healed I was spending most of my weekends with you, Gus, and Willow and just kinda fell out of it.” she shrugged. “Today was great though!” She grinned and Amity smiled back.
“I’m glad you're having fun and getting back into something, though it would have been nice to know,” she snorted and Luz chuckled leaning down to kiss her.
“Sorry, it totally slipped my mind that I forgot to tell you. But there's a game next weekend, you should come watch!” She beamed and Amity could do nothing but nod.
“Sure, Luz, now go shower, you're covered in paint,” she laughed.
“Right!” Luz turned and bolted into the bathroom.
~ ~ ~
“This is so exciting.” Gus bounced in his seat, looking around the full stands, little blue flags gripped in both hands as they waited for the match to start.
“I never imagined Luz to be the sporty type,” Willow admitted, sipping on her drink as they watched the players getting ready down on the field.
“Me neither, last week was the first time she’d ever mentioned it,” Amity hummed, watching the field. Hexside University was playing their rivals, Glandis State. Their helmets were painted in the white and indigo of the school’s colors while Hexside's team sported their school’s blue and gold.
“Do you think she’s any good?” Willow glanced at her and Amity shrugged.
“She made it onto the team…,” she trailed off, unsure if that was really a good indicator or not, she hadn’t known that the school even had a competitive paintball team until Luz had mentioned it.
“Which one is she?” Gus held a hand over his eyes to block the glare of the sun as he peered down at the large dirt field covered in barricades and walls.
“Number nine,” she said, scanning the player's backs before falling on said number. Luz was standing, mask pulled up over her face, and talking to one of her teammates. A tall, lanky guy she didn’t recognize.
“Hi, Mittens,” was suddenly breathed in her ear and Amity nearly came out of her skin with a screech. She whipped around, scowling.
Sure enough, her siblings had plopped themselves down onto the bleacher seats behind them, both grinning devilishly.
“Ed, Em, what are you two doing here?” she asked, looking between her brother and sister, who grinned.
“Em has a friend on the team,” Ed said, jerking a thumb down to the field but Amity didn’t miss the sly look he sent his twin, who huffed.
“She’s the team captain,” she corrected.
“Oh, excuse me! I do beg your pardon for forgetting the wonderful girl’s rank and title!” Ed grinned, holding a hand to his chest, though it only lasted for the half-second it took Emira to elbow him in the ribs.
“What are you three doing here?” she asked, looking between her sister and her friends.
“Luz is on the team,” Gus grinned, waving his flags and grinning.
“Oh, she must be the new player Viney was talking about.” Emira hummed, looking down at the field.
“Is that your friend?” Amity asked and caught her sister's eye for a moment. Maybe she was imagining it but it seemed like there was an abnormally long pause as her sister stared back at her before nodding and returning her attention to the field where they were getting ready to start.
There was a signal down on the field and the players scattered, running deeper into the far ends of the field, ducking behind barriers and setting themselves up out of sight from the other team but not the spectators above.
The horn sounded and then they were moving, skulking and running through the field, staying low, behind the barriers, paintball guns raised and ready.
Amity watched Luz move quickly through the area with another of her teammates. Her attention immediately moved to another area of the game as opposing players caught sight of each other and the stands erupted into cheers as shots started to fly, splattering walls with globs of red and green paint.
“Hit!” A Glandis player shouted before laying on the ground and a point ticked up on the board for Hexside.
“Go, Luz!” Gus shouted, jumping up and waving his flags. Amity eyes scanned the area in time to see Luz jump behind a wall, narrowly avoiding a hailfire of green paint only to pop up and fire off several rounds of her own, tagging the Glandis player.
“Whoo, Luz!” Edric whooped, pumping a fist.
Amity watched, captivated as Luz jumped and slid and moved with a grace that surprised her. She loved Luz but graceful was not a word she would use to describe her girlfriend.
Till now.
Three minutes later the timer had ticked down to zero and the first round went to Hexside, four to two.
They cheered in the stands as they moved off the field.
“I think I love college paintball!” Gus laughed, waving his flags and Amity chuckled, lifting her drink to her lips as she looked down at the team, moving to take a break. They were crowding around the cooler when Amity’s eyes landed on Luz and she sucked in a sharp breath, choking on her drink.
“Are you okay?” Willow whipped to her as she hacked and coughed, Emira reached down and patted her back.
“Did you see that?!” she sputtered the moment she could breathe again.
“What?” Willow asked and Gus blinked at her owlishly.
“Number thirty-four, they just…!” Amity sputtered, red-faced. Behind her, Edric was cackling wildly and Emira looked at him curiously, obviously having missed it.
“Thirty-four just…” he wheezed, sucking in a sharp breath, “slapped Luz’s ass!” he started to cackle all over again. Emira snorted and Amity turned even redder. It was less shock and more anger now. Willow chuckled and amber eyes turned to her.
“Amity, have you even been watching? I’ve seen like four other people do that to each other. No one’s hitting on Luz or something.”
“It… that...!” She couldn't even articulate and Willow only smiled knowingly at her.
“It’s just a sports thing, you know that. Have you never seen our football team out on the field?” she laughed. “They slap each other's butts so often you’d think it was part of the game,” Willow snickered.
“I mean, she’s right,” Emira smirked at her. “It’s some weird team thing, I don't understand it but yeah.”
“Luz didn’t seem bothered by it,” Edric shrugged.
“And you know if she was, they would know it,” Gus reminded, shaking his head, remembering an incident he had witnessed at prom between Luz and a handsy dude.
Amity frowned as she ignored her snickering siblings and turned back around to watch the team on the sidelines. Luz didn’t seem at all bothered and sure enough, she wasn't the only one it was happening to. Amity had also been on the rugby team in high school. It was a thing that happened. Not to her, because the team was all too scared of her, but still.
Just…
Something about watching someone else do that to Luz , bugged her immensely.
Willow gently nudged her in the side and she glanced at her friend's grin and her frown deepened.
“I never pegged you as the jealous type, Amity,” she laughed quietly and Amity scowled.
“I am not jealous,” she huffed but Willow didn’t look the least bit convinced even as she hummed in answer, turning back to the game as the players started to make their way back onto the field.
She sat and watched the rest of the game, annoyed and insisting to herself that she wasn’t jealous. She had no reason to be. It was just a sports thing, she knew that.
So, why did this bother her so damn much?
When the game ended in a Hexside win, they met the team as they were leaving the stands.
“Luz, that was great!” Gus cheered, holding up a hand as Luz strolled up to them, grinning from ear to ear.
“Hey, thanks!” she laughed, high-fiving him.
Amity glanced at the tall guy wearing the number thirty-four as he passed, doing her best not to frown at him as he waved goodbye to the rest of the team and headed toward the parking lot.
“Whaddya think?”
She whipped around to find Luz standing in front of her, beaming. The annoyance she’d been feeling for the last half hour quickly melted away in the face of her girlfriend’s palpable joy, even covered in splotches of green paint from her final match.
“You played great, Luz. It was fun to watch.” She smiled and if possible, Luz’s smile only widened in answer.
“Gracias, mi amor,” she leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to Amity’s lips, snuffing out whatever embers of annoyance had remained.
“You did great out there, Luz!” She turned and grinned as a shorter woman with dark hair and a wide grin walked up to them, followed by the tall string bean of a guy that she had seen Luz talking to earlier down on the field.
“Ah, thanks, Viney.” Luz smiled at her. “Amity, this is Viney, the team captain, and Jerbo, he’s my critiquing partner from creative writing.”
“Oh, the famous Amity .” Viney grinned and Amity blinked, glancing at her girlfriend from the corner of her eye. Luz was carefully avoiding her eyes and she returned her attention to Viney, taking first her outstretched hand, and then Jerbo’s.
“I didn’t know I was famous,” she said and Viney chuckled.
“Oh, yeah. Luz talks about you all the time!” She grinned, crossing her arms. Amity glanced at Luz and her pink cheeks and smirked.
“I see,” she laughed.
Viney’s gaze flickered over their heads and she smiled.
“Hey, Em.” She moved and wrapped the taller woman in a tight hug.
“Hey yourself, short-stuff.” Emira smiled. “Good match today,”
“Thanks, I think our chances at regionals are better than ever this year with the freshman,” she hooked a thumb over at Luz, who beamed in response. “She’s a sharpshooter, that one.”
They chatted for a while before heading their separate ways, with Viney calling to Luz that she would see her on Tuesday for practice.
~ ~ ~
Three weeks.
That was how long it had taken for Amity to grow worried.
Luz had gotten really involved with her teammates lately. Not just going to practice but they had started to invite her to hang out with them and eat and Amity felt like she barely saw the other woman anymore.
She knew that wasn’t exactly true, Luz still came home at pretty average times in the evening to plop next to her on the couch for a while. They were usually both studying or doing work for class. Both their courses were heavy in essays and reading assignments and that, and work, really sucked up their time.
She sorta…. maybe… missed her .
While she and Luz had never been particularly clingy with each other, they shared the same friend group and had spent most of their time together for a little over two years now. It was jarring and strange to only see her for a few hours in the evening or all of twenty minutes in the morning before they rushed off to class or work. Luz had invited her out twice or so to come with her and she had gone. Luz’s teammates were all very nice and cool but she still missed having the taller woman all to herself at times.
She was being ridiculous, she knew that.
Luz hadn’t had many - or any - friends, before she had met Gus and Willow, then herself shortly after. She wanted Luz to have more friends, she knew that socializing wasn’t the easiest thing in the world for her. People perceived her as… well, weird.
She was super into occult and fantasy stuff, on top of being a very forward and touchy person. It was a lot for most people and Amity adored her all the more for it. Luz was unapologetically herself and that was something Amity greatly admired; she never compromised herself.
Amity was thrilled that Luz was making new, close friends in her teammates but that didn’t change the fact that she missed her.
That and maybe she was still a little annoyed with ‘number thirty-four’.
Just a little.
She sighed and closed her textbook. Luz was out with them now, a practice that had run a bit late and she’d texted to let Amity know they were going to grab dinner before heading home. That had been about an hour ago. She needed to eat herself, something her stomach dutifully reminded her of with a low grumbling.
She stood from the desk with a stretch and walked into the kitchen. The living room was empty of their other two roommates; she knew Gus was at some kind of meeting for a club he had joined and Willow was still at work, so the house was quiet.
She rummaged through the fridge, finding the leftover pollo guisado that Camila had sent home with them last week when they had stopped by to visit her and grabbed it, kicking the fridge door closed behind her.
It was nearly done heating up when she heard the jingle of keys in the front door. She peeked out of the kitchen, eyes landing on Luz, covered in a rainbow of paint splatters and humming to herself.
“You’re back sooner than I thought you’d be,” she called, making Luz jump and whip around to look at her, eyes lighting up.
“Hey!” She smiled. “Yeah, we just went through the drive-through at McDonalds since we’re… you know...” she gestured to herself, looking like a rainbow had thrown up on her and Amity snorted.
“Right.”
“I’m gonna go take a shower,” she called as she moved down the hall.
“Alright.” Amity nodded, watching her disappear into their room before turning back to her dinner and sitting at the table, eating as she flicked through her phone.
She must have lost track of the time, mindlessly scrolling because the next thing she knew Luz was leaning over her to kiss her cheek.
“Whatcha doin?”
“Oh, nothing.” She set her phone down. “How was practice?’ she asked.
“Great! We have a tournament at the end of the month and Viney is pretty confident in our chances of winning it.” She grinned and Amity smiled back at her.
“That’s great, Luz.”
“Mhm, how was work?” she asked, reaching over and picking at a strand of chicken on Amity’s plate, popping it in her mouth.
“Fine, it's a library,” she shrugged.
“I thought you loved working at the library?” Luz cocked her head and frowned.
“I do, it’s just not exactly exciting stuff some of the time, ya know?” she asked and Luz nodded.
“Yeah, the store isn’t exactly hopping most of the time either.” Luz nodded in agreement. “Paintball’s really helped with a lot of my extra energy though. I forgot how much I loved it and hanging out with other people who like it too.” Luz grinned. Amity reached over and grabbed her hand, squeezing it.
“I’m glad you’re meeting new people,” she said and she meant it with every fiber of her being. Luz was a ray of sunshine and she’d had to watch her try to befriend people in high school only to get turned away and made fun of and it hurt Amity as much then as it did now, so no matter how much she kinda missed Luz as of late, she wouldn’t even think of trying to insert herself into the time she was spending with them.
Luz squeezed back, giving her that soft adoring smile that made Amity’s stomach flip every time, no matter how often she saw it.
“Oh, I have an idea!” Luz said suddenly. “We don’t have practice this weekend, so why don't you, Gus, and Willow come along and we can play? I think you guys would have a lot of fun with it.”
Amity blinked at her, she hadn’t been expecting that at all.
“You want to take us to play?” she asked and Luz nodded.
“Yeah, you like sports and stuff, and Willow and Gus would love it, I’m sure.” She nodded.
“I thought that was just something you did with your team...” she said and Luz frowned, looking back at her, confused.
“I joined the team so I could play and meet new people but it’s just something I love to do, so why wouldn’t I wanna share it with the people I love?” she asked.
Amity felt the smile pulling at her lips and the heat of Luz’s thumb, sweeping gently back and forth across her knuckles as Luz stared back at her, waiting for an answer.
She knew she was being silly but now she felt it too.
Sometimes, she couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have been run over in that hallway by a stumbling, awkward teenager with her arm in a bright purple cast.
“That sounds great, Luz.”