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Luz wandered down the busy streets of Bonesburough aimlessly. It was Saturday so she didn’t really have anywhere to be and Eda had gone off to who knew where with King as backup. She needed the walk anyway. Some time away from the house and school and even her friends.
Everything had just felt like a lot lately.
Curses, destroyed portals, her mom was probably worried sick about her at this point, her up in the air relationship with Amity, the entire palisman ordeal, and just what she was going to carve out of the palistrum wood Eda and King had gotten her!
Everything seemed to be happening at once lately and it was all she could do to avoid being drowned in it all. She felt like a duck: floating on a serene glass lake, but below the surface, she was flailing frantically.
She had at least managed to deal with a few of those things, kind of. Eda’s curse had become more manageable with the aid of elixirs again. She had the echo mouse with all the information she needed from Philip’s diary and…
Her attention sputtered and she dug her hands further into her pockets at that thought.
Or rather, at the thought of what happened after she learned about the echo mouse.
She could still feel the phantom brush of Amity’s lips on her cheeks and the shock that had followed. Except for a single, sharp, inhale, her breathing had all but stopped as she watched Amity turn crimson before stammering out a quick goodbye and all but running into her house.
She’d read about it before, in storybooks, things that made you go weak in the knees but she’d never experienced it; not until the full weight of what had just happened settled on her shoulders and her limbs gave out beneath her. She slid into the dirt, still staring at the front door of Blight Manor. Her brain was a mass of white noise as she tried to process what had just happened.
It had happened right? She hadn’t imagined it? Amity Blight, her strong, smart, cute friend…
Crush…
…had just kissed her on the cheek and then run inside, her whole face a bright red?
With one hand she’d reached up to numbly cup her cheek, replaying the moment in her head on an endless loop.
‘Don’t worry, you always have a way of sneaking into people’s hearts…’
The warmth and affection followed by the gentle press on her cheek made Luz’s heartbeat double-time in her chest like it was trying to break out of her ribcage.
The twins up above had been chuckling to themselves and Emira called down to ask if she was alright.
That had jolted her from her stupor and she had jumped up, shouting out a half mumbled and jumbled excuse before taking off at a run away from the house. The twin’s chuckling followed her to the end of the path before fading away into the sound of the woods.
She had made a beeline straight for home, never breaking stride until she was back in her bedroom, having only grunted an acknowledgment to Eda as she passed. Her mind was a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts… or rather no thoughts at all. Just a bunch of formless feelings and half words adrift in a maelstrom of static.
She’d worked on autopilot, stowing the echo mouse in a tall jar for the time being. Then she had just sunk onto her sleeping bag and flopped onto her back to stare unblinkingly up at the ceiling for who knew how long. Finally, a fully formed thought managed to pierce the hazy fog of her mind.
“Amity kissed me…,” she finally mumbled aloud, like saying it aloud would make it any more believable.
It didn’t.
“Amity… kissed me?” She could feel her mouth forming the words but it was like her brain refused to process them even as they left her own lips.
It was at least another half hour before it seemed to finally sink into her skin.
What she had said outside the library after Malphas had kicked them out, then at her house, and then the kiss .
Did Amity… like her back?
That was the only solid conclusion that Luz was coming to here.
Maybe she could be very excitable and that caused her to miss things that were obvious to others sometimes but Luz was no dummy!
Amity liked her, she actually liked her back!
Luz was grinning so hard to herself that her cheeks hurt as she stared up at the ceiling. Her hands knotted in the fabric of her hoodie and she was doing her damndest not to squirm in place as all the happy and anxious energy started to buzz along her limbs with no place to go.
She wanted to jump up and run straight back to Blight Manor but she knew that wasn’t an option now that it was well and truly dark. The last thing she needed was to run into Amity’s parents.
She would find her first thing tomorrow at school!
But she didn’t see Amity at all the next day, or the three that followed and Luz was pretty sure the witch was avoiding her.
She’d been sure that Amity would come to school for palisman adoption the day before yesterday but, of course, she was curiously absent then as well.
Luz sighed to herself and kicked at a pebble in her path as she walked down the sidewalk.
She didn’t understand.
If Amity didn’t like her she never would have kissed her, right? So why was she just avoiding her?
It was so frustrating. She couldn't get answers because the only person who could provide them was avoiding Luz like she had the plague!
She pulled her hands out of her pockets and dragged them through her hair, feeling a familiar heat trying to build in the corners of her eyes.
“No, no . You are not going to cry in the middle of town!” she scolded herself quietly. They could work this out, they would!
It would just take a little time. Amity had obviously been embarrassed. She needed time and Luz would be patient!
She sighed, taking a breath, and looked up to see where she had actually wandered to and found herself standing outside the Bonesburough public library.
It was Saturday and she didn’t have anything else she needed to be doing. Maybe she could do some more research at least.
She jogged up the steps, carefully avoiding the large goat demon squeezing out the library doors. It was fairly quiet inside as the library usually was but it was also Saturday and it was fuller than usual, adding a low hum of voices to the quiet background. She wandered over to the crystal balls and managed to find one that wasn’t being used and even though the glass was dirty and had a few scratches, it was perfectly serviceable, so she plopped herself down in front of it.
She spent a good twenty minutes trying to find any more information about Philip or other portals. Anything until she could get the echo mouse to do what she wanted.
It quickly spiraled into random searching of anything she could think of, killing time and letting her thoughts drift. She let her idle hands take the wheel and the next thing she knew, she had typed.
‘What to do when your crush ignores you.’
She glanced around as if anyone would actually be watching her.
A surprising amount of results popped up but all of the decidedly more, Boiling Isle, variety.
Things like ‘throw them in the boiling sea’ or ‘slip them a love potion’ were the top two results and Luz made a face.
“Yeesh, feelings are hard in every world, I guess,” she grumbled to herself. She swiped away the results with one hand and plopped her chin into the palm of the other, staring blankly at the glass, and sighed.
She glanced up and her eyes roved over the people moving about the library. People watching had been one of her favorite pastimes in the human world when she hadn’t been able to shove her nose in a book or lose herself in one fantasy world or another. Now she was literally sitting in the middle of a fantasy world and the people watching was a heck of a lot more interesting.
Back home she watched people drop their phones or eat food off the ground. Normal, human behavior. Here, she would watch an ogre reading a book look up and a lizard tongue would shoot out and snatch up a nearby pixie, followed by muffled screams and an audible gulp as he swallowed it.
Normally, she was fascinated by it all but today she was merely staring off into space, lost in her thoughts when a flash of lilac made her eyes focus.
Amity.
Standing on the other side of the room, waving to a few kids as they walked off, was Amity. Luz’s heart sped up at the sight of her. There she was, right in front of her but Luz sat, frozen and unable to do so much as twitch, much less get up and walk over to her.
She had been ruminating for days about what she was finally going to say to Amity when she saw her again but how quickly all those thoughts disappeared the moment the girl was actually standing in front of her. All Luz could feel was the fizzy, froth of panic rising to the surface, followed by the vague, mumbled thought in the back of her mind telling her how pretty Amity looked, especially with her new hair.
Her panic and pining was cut short when Amity turned and their eyes locked across the room.
Her mind blanked out completely as they stared at each other, their faces mirror looks of shock and uncertainty.
Before Luz could even think to form a coherent thought, Amity turned and bolted, jolting Luz to her feet on instinct.
“Amity!” she yelled, only for several people to turn and shush her. “Sorry!” she whisper-shouted before taking off after the other girl, not toward the doors but deeper into the building. Luz lost track of her but she knew exactly where Amity was going, the only place she would go.
She skidded around the corner to the romance section just in time to see the secret entrance to Amity’s hideout click shut and she dashed forward.
“Amity!” she hissed through the bookcase but had no idea if Amity could even hear her or not. Luz fidgeted, staring at the books for a long moment. Amity had literally run away at the sight of her… not a great sign.
But Luz was tired of being left in the dark by Amity avoiding her at every turn the last few days. She was going to have an answer, one way or the other!
She reached up but stopped, not seeing the familiar book that denoted the entrance. ‘The Lone Witch & Secret Room’ was gone.
“Where…?” Luz’s eyes flickered over all the romance titles before she grunted and started pulling at random books, one of them had to be it!
Inside the room Amity was, for lack of a better word, panicking.
She hadn’t meant to avoid Luz for so long per se, she had been biding her time, trying to decide what she was going to say to Luz when she saw her next to explain the… the kiss. She hadn’t managed to muster up the courage the next day, or the one after that. She felt worse with every passing day that she avoided Luz, lost in her own self-doubts and fears.
She still hadn’t worked it out and she hadn’t meant to run into Luz here today either but she had and she knew by the clattering of books being thrown around outside that Luz had followed her and was trying to claw her way inside the room.
She wasn’t ready!
With a shaky finger, she spelled her scroll into existence and found her sister’s contact. It rang twice before Emira picked up.
“Hey, Mittens….”
“She’s here!” Amity hissed into her scroll, eyes cutting to the door every now and then. She could hear Luz outside still and it was only going to be a matter of time before she found the right book and let herself in.
“Huh, who’s there, where are you, are you okay?” Em’s voice came through, suddenly more worried than when she had answered.
“I’m at the library, and Luz, Luz is here!” she hissed into the device as she moved around the darkened room. The lit candle and hanging lights flickered overhead as she paced nervously.
“So, why don’t you talk to her?” Emira suggested and Amity could practically hear her rolling her eyes.
“How can I… I don’t know what I would even say!” She yelped, doing her best to keep her voice low, lest Luz hear her. “She’s probably upset after what happened the other day and the fact that I’ve been avoiding her!” she bit out, throwing up an arm, even though her sister wasn’t there to see.
“Amity,” Her sister’s voice was low and almost calming in her ear. “You didn’t stick around to see her reaction after you went inside. I really don’t think she is upset with you… well, maybe for the avoiding her thing after you kissed her and ran away,” Emira chuckled.
“You’re not helping,” Amity growled into her scroll and heard her sister huff.
“Just talk to her, Amity. You can’t avoid her forever and you’ll finally know one way or the other,” was Em’s advice.
Advice Amity did not particularly want to hear or abide by but her sister - annoyingly - had a point. She sighed, twisting her free hand into her black tunic. What was she even going to say? What was Luz going to say? Would she even wanna talk to her after this? She was still trying to decide what Luz had meant by what she said outside the library after Malphas had fired her.
“That’s okay, I - I do stupid things around you too, Amity.”
She knew what it sounded like and she knew what she wanted it to mean but what she wanted and what reality was were two very different things. That was one of many things she had been wrestling with the last few days as she tried to puzzle out all her confusing thoughts and feelings. A human girl had just fallen into her life out of the blue one day and turned Amity's entire, comfortable and predictable world upside down with her optimism and ever cheery nature. Luz’s sincerity and infectious attitude had a way of making her heart stutter and burn in her chest.
Everything about Luz was so bright but confusing, upbeat, and terrifying. She always felt like a jumbled mess whenever Luz was near.
“Hey,” Em’s voice broke through the haze of nervous worry. “Just take a breath and relax. It’s going to be okay, Amity,” Emira promised in a soft, soothing voice and Amity did just that, taking a long breath and bringing her erratic breath back under some semblance of control.
“Now, go get her,” Emira laughed and Amity choked.
Outside, Luz had pulled half the shelf from its place, eyes frantically zipping over all the books before they fell on one in particular that seemed to call out to her. It was a deep magenta with a hunter-green spine, the title emblazoned in gold.
Breaking Free
She reached out and gave it a gentle tug. There was a quiet click and the bookshelf pulled away, revealing the dim room and Amity.
She was standing in the middle of the room looking very nervous and Luz couldn’t blame her. She looked just as nervous as she herself felt. Like a deer caught in headlights, though she didn’t appear to want to try and bolt past her, back out into the library.
“Amity…,” she started and the low timbre of her voice surprised even herself as she stepped inside. Letting the door close behind her with a quiet hiss. “We need to talk,” she said without preamble. She was tired of running from it and tired of chasing Amity. Luz was going to approach this the same way she did everything; head on.
Amity swallowed thickly and gave a jerky nod as Luz approached, stopping a scant few feet away.
Luz took a deep breath through her nose, not really sure how to start this but determined to finally say something!
“About… what happened the other night…,” she started, reaching up to scratch the back of her head nervously, eyes drifting to the side. “I…”
“I’m sorry!” Amity suddenly cut off anything she might have been about to say, making Luz jerk as she swirled her gaze back to Amity, whose eyes were cast down at the floor, her pale lilac locks hanging over her eyes, shading them from Luz.
“What happened the other night, that shouldn’t have happened and I’m sorry,” she said, and Luz could hear the slight tremble in her words.
“Amity, I…” Luz hadn’t expected that and now she really didn’t know what to say. “Why…” she managed to get out, not even sure what she wanted to ask but Amity seemed to think she was asking why she had kissed her.
“I’m… not used to all these thoughts and feelings I get when I’m with you,” she finally admitted quietly. Luz sucked in a sharp, silent breath at the admission. “They’re new and disorienting. I didn't use to feel all these confusing and strange things before you came here! Things were so much simpler before we met…,”
A shot like lightning ripped through Luz’s chest at that. It was sharp and hot like someone had touched her with a glowing red coal and it made her eyes start to burn almost immediately.
She was not going to cry!
“They were… worse though, too,” she mumbled, sighing and finally looking up to meet Luz’s eyes. “I wasn’t happy before I met you,” she said so quietly that, had Luz not been holding her breath, she might have missed it. “I’m not sorry for how I feel but I shouldn't have just… kissed you,” she murmured under her breath. Eyes again looking anywhere but at Luz.
Luz stared back at her for a long moment, trying to gather her thoughts into some semblance of coherency. If ever there was something she didn't want to screw up, it was this.
Yet, the words that came out of her mouth were: "How do you feel?"
Amity's eyes shot back to her. Luz was staring at her with wide, dark eyes, looking at her almost the same way she had after Amity had kissed her.
She hesitated long enough that Luz clarified.
"You said you weren't sorry for how you feel, how do you feel? About me?" She managed to get it out despite her tongue feeling like lead in her mouth.
Amity's fingers twisted into her clothes. She needed to get this out, to say it out loud for the first time, and finally deal with whatever came next. Her sister was right, she just needed to do it!
"I…," she hesitated, trying to look anywhere but at Luz, but Amity's eyes always strayed back to hers. "Like you," she finally breathed. It was low and breathy yet it may as well have been a shout from the way it echoed in Luz’s head. Her heart skipped a beat, causing a flutter in her chest.
She stared back at Amity, awestruck and speechless, trying to absorb the words that had just come out of her mouth.
She must have been silent a little too long though as Amity began to fidget, mouth drawing up in a frown and her eyes starting to glaze over.
“I understand if you don’t want to be friends anymore or…”
That broke Luz out of her bewitched stupor.
“What? No!” She jerked forward, closing what little distance had been between them, making Amity lean back as Luz was suddenly so close she could feel her body heat and the rush of air as she came to a stop. Luz seemed to realize just how close she was and took a half step back, her face darkening noticeably even in the dim room.
“No… Well, I mean… I’m not sure that I want to stay friends anymore… I want… more,” she said and Amity was sure her breathing must have stopped when Luz said that.
“W-what?” eloquently squeezed past her lips.
If Amity could do it, so could she.
“I like you too…,” she said. “For a little bit now and I didn’t know what to say or do… cause… you’re… you and I’m… just me,” she shrugged. Frowning, eyes downcast to the floor and suddenly, very interested in the blue-green rug beneath her feet.
“What do you mean, ‘just you’?” It was Amity's turn to take a half step forward, shrinking the small space between them once again. The words ‘just me’ coming out of Luz’s mouth had triggered something fierce and defensive inside her.
“I mean, I’m happy with myself… but, people back home… Let’s just say that even though I kind of stick out here, I still fit in way better than I ever did back home and people were never shy about letting me know it,” she chuckled mirthlessly and something hot curled up in Amity’s gut in response.
“They didn’t know what they had,” she said sharply and it caused a jolt to go up Luz’s spine as she looked back up at her. “You…” Amity took a moment, trying to compose her thoughts and calm the fire in her belly. She had grown to know Luz well, as well as that familiar mask she tried to put on when she spoke of the people back in the human world. Amity had worn it enough times herself to know better, to see the hurt there.
“You’re wonderful, Luz,” she said, staring straight into the other girl’s eyes, watching as her dark cheeks grew even darker. In the back of her mind, she vaguely thought how nice it was for that shoe to be on the other foot for once. “You make everyone’s lives better just by being in them! I can’t speak for Eda or Gus or Willow but my life has been crazy ever since you showed up and I started to think and… feel all these things I didn’t use to but… I wasn’t happy either! You made me look at everything I was comfortable and familiar with, even if I hated it, and you made me question it. You made me want to try and do better, to be... myself… like you always are…” She reached up and rubbed her arm, doing her best to keep eye contact with Luz, something that was becoming increasingly difficult as she stared at her with such open wonder on her face.
“That’s something I really admire about you, Luz. You’re always unapologetically yourself, even when it’s hard, even when other people try to make it hard. You never compromise yourself and I want to be like that… you inspire me and I just… I like you a lot,” she said quietly and felt her own cheeks turning red as Luz continued to stare wordlessly at her.
“Oh… wow,” Luz finally mumbled lamely. She had no other words. What was she supposed to say to all that!? She felt overwhelmed by everything Amity had just said. She had no idea where to even begin. Amity just nodded, eyes turned back to the floor as she waited for Luz to say more.
“I… uh…,” she sniffled, glancing at something over Amity’s shoulder, if for no other reason than to avoid her eyes as she tried to think of what to say. Tears started to gather in the corners of her eyes. A tsunami of emotion had risen up in the blink of an eye, threatening to drown her with its intensity.
Amity’s head whipped back up, face turning horrified as she watched the first few tears drip from Luz’s eyes and roll down her cheeks.
“I… I’m sorry..!” she started but Luz shook her head violently and reached up to wipe them away with a fist.
“No, no, don’t be sorry, I just… that’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me…,” she sniffled. “I uh… my confession doesn't seem nearly as good now,” she chuckled wetly and Amity’s entire face turned red at that. “I’d like to give it a go anyway… if that’s okay?” she asked, wiping away the last of her tears and Amity nodded mutely.
Luz cleared her throat and, feeling brave, reached out to take one of her hands, interlacing their fingers together. She wasn’t sure if it was her hand or Amity’s that was sweaty but it didn’t matter.
“Ever since I got here, things have been all over the place, something crazy happening every day and lately… it’s not all been great,” she admitted. “All I wanted was to learn magic and go on cool fantasy adventures… but things have been… well, a lot, and I’ve just been trying to sort things out and then you…” she held up her free hand to Amity, who was looking back at her, the overhead fairy lights of blue, pink and yellow were reflecting off Amity’s bright golden eyes and Luz’s mouth went dry.
Even already knowing the answer, she couldn’t help but feel nervous.
“You’ve… You’ve been more than helpful with everything and I… I’m just… really grateful for it all…” She swallowed, speeches under emotional duress were not Luz’s forte. “Mierda, this is hard,” she mumbled. She locked eyes with Amity, still looking at her with hopeful wonder and Luz straightened, squeezing her hand gently. Head on!
“You’re amazing, Amity,” she finally said. “You’re the smartest, prettiest, bravest witch I know!” she declared, making the witch’s face turn three shades darker. “And I like you a lot too,” she mumbled. She felt Amity’s hand squeeze hers back.
“So… now what?” Luz asked, cocking her head.
“I guess that depends on what you want…,” Amity said quietly.
“All on me, huh?” Luz asked.
“I know what I want…,”
“Probably the same thing I want…,”
“So…,” Amity hedged, both of them wondering which one of them was going to ask first.
Luz broke first.
“Go out with me?” she asked without preamble and Amity didn’t need one.
“Yes,” she answered with no hesitation, then they were both grinning at each other before they burst into laughter.
When it finally quieted, Luz was grinning at her. The light from one of the blue overhead lights shining down on Amity reminded her of….
“I’m an idiot!” she suddenly shouted, making Amity jump.
“Wha- ?”
“Grom!” Luz suddenly declared, pulling her hand out of Amity’s so she could dig both into her hair. “It was me you wanted to invite to Grom, wasn’t it?” she asked and Amity blinked, still trying to catch up to Luz’s train of thought.
“Oh… yeah,” she nodded. Luz groaned, dragging a hand down her face.
“And I said ‘that’s what friends do’,” she grumbled, making Amity laugh under her breath as she pulled Luz’s hand away from her face.
“It’s okay, Luz.,” she smiled. “We’re here now.”
Luz pursed her lips, eyes flickering around the darkened room and its glowing lights. It had a quiet, dare she say it, romantic feeling to it. Her shipping and fantasy-loving heart just couldn’t help it.
“What if we had a little do-over?” she asked suddenly.
“What do you mean?” Amity asked.
“I mean, like, what if we had another dance but definitely not as friends this time… and without the giant fear monster and the threat of imminent death?” she asked.
That sounded… really nice to Amity and she nodded.
“Yeah..., I’d like that,” she smiled and Luz's face broke out into a bright smile as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her human scroll. She tapped on it for a minute before seeming to find what she was looking for and a moment later, soft, lilting music began to trickle into the room from the device. She set it on Amity’s desk and turned to her with an outstretched hand.
“May I have this dance?” she asked and Amity couldn't keep the grin off her face if she tried as she slid her hand into Luz’s.
“You may.”
Luz's hands were warm and soft as they moved in slow, measured steps around the room, nothing like the last time they had danced together. The light from the lone candle on her desk and the star-themed ones she had overhead cast various glows across the room, throwing shadows across the bookshelves and their faces.
Amity stared at Luz from beneath her lashes, still trying to come to terms with the fact that this was actually happening.
“I didn’t think you meant right this moment,” she mumbled and Luz smiled that blinding smile that always made warmth flood Amity’s chest.
“Well, no time like the present, right?” she asked and Amity chuckled.
“Right,” she mumbled, pulling her one hand free from Luz’s to set both on her shoulders, and Luz’s settled on her hips. They fell into a comfortable silence, swaying gently together beneath the flickering lights. Amity’s head eventually found its place on her shoulder.
Warm contentment bubbled up as heated excitement simmered back down now that things had calmed.
Luz felt light as air on her feet. She couldn’t help but stare. She meant what she said, Amity really was the prettiest witch she knew, heck, she was the prettiest person Luz knew period and to think that someone like Amity, liked her, just for her… it made her heart swell near to bursting in her chest. She didn’t have the words to describe the happy feeling thrumming under her skin.
As they moved though, her gaze kept falling onto Amity’s lips. She did have words for that. She just wasn’t sure how to say them.
“Amity?” she said quietly, making her hum in response. “I… um… can I…?” she stuttered until Amity’s head rose to look at her curiously. “Can I kiss you?” she finally asked and Amity’s face flared back to life.
She wasn’t sure she could get her mouth to form words even if she wanted to, so she settled for a jerky nod of her head.
She had fully expected a reciprocated kiss to the cheek but instead, Luz leaned forward, too quick for her to realize what was happening until it already was.
It was a featherlight press of lips against her own and was over almost as quickly as it began, leaving her staring speechlessly at Luz’s bright red face.
“I thought you meant on the cheek,” she managed to squeak and Luz’s face turned even redder, eyes widening as panic seemed to sink in.
“I’m sorry!” she jerked back, out of Amity's gentle hold. “I…”
“No, no, it's okay!” Amity rushed to assure her. “I just… wasn't ready,” she mumbled. Her lips still tingled. “I… am now if you…,” she trailed off but Luz quickly took the hint and with a hesitant step forward, reached up to press a hand to Amity’s cheek as she leaned in.
Amity’s breath hitched in her chest when Luz’s lips pressed against hers once more. Just as soft as before but not quite as brief.
She was warm.
When they parted, neither moved far, foreheads pressed together as their eyes opened, gold and mahogany, staring back into each other as their faces almost glowed red in the low lights.
That did nothing to dampen the bright grins on their faces though.
