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Luz had been feeling down for a while, that much was clear.
She tried not to show it, but everyone had noticed. The first ones had been King and Eda, who had tried not to worry about it too much (thinking it was normal for her to be sad after having to destroy her only way home), but it had been weeks and Luz showed no sign of feeling better.
It hadn’t taken Willow and Gus long to notice as well. They had tried everything to cheer her up, from practising new spells to showing her the crazy parts of the Boiling Isles she had yet to explore, but to no avail.
So they had sent their last available resort: Amity.
That’s how she finds herself currently talking to the ‘very obviously upset but trying to hide it’ human girl.
Luz is rambling about something—Amity can’t quite catch what she’s saying. Something about human customs she doesn’t really get. But this gives her an idea.
Everyone else had already tried the direct approach: asking Luz how she was feeling, which had very clearly not worked. She had assured them she was okay every time. Someone needs to tell Luz she isn’t a good liar, though, because every single time they had been able to tell she wasn't telling the truth.
But maybe talking about how she was feeling isn’t really what Luz needs.
“Tell me more about those human customs of yours,” Amity says, inviting.
Luz’s face lights up instantly, and that’s how she knows she said the right thing. Maybe all Luz needs is to talk about her home, to make it feel real even when she can’t reach it.
“We have so many celebrations, Amity!” Luz says. She starts excitedly explaining to her the different weird parties humans throw for the most ridiculous reasons (in Amity’s opinion, at least) all while waving her hands around. “Halloween is so fun! I love dressing up, but mom always says I overdo my costumes and scare my peers and that I should try to tone it down. Which is stupid, because scaring other people is the very spirit of Halloween.”
“What do you dress up as?” Amity asks.
“Anything scary, really,” she explains. “Werewolves, mummies, witches…”
“Witches?” Amity asks, amused.
Luz shrugs. “I don’t think witches are scary, but it’s one of the classic Halloween costumes. I mean, I guess Eda can be scary when she wants to…?”
Amity snorts. “I’m guessing Halloween is your favourite celebration?” she asks, in an attempt to keep the conversation going and prevent Luz from getting sad again.
The human shakes her head. “Surprisingly, it isn’t,” she says. “I’ve always loved Christmas the most… I don’t know. My mom’s always working a lot, but we always spend it together watching cheesy Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate. It means a lot to me.”
She starts getting an idea. “Sounds interesting. Mind telling me more about this Christmas thing?”
For the next half an hour, Luz gives her a detailed explanation about the human Christmas traditions: gifts, mistletoe, hot chocolate… it even sounded kind of fun.
When Amity leaves the Owl House this time, she does so with a purpose in mind.
The difficult part is getting everyone to cooperate together. That is not to say they don’t want to help, but a team formed by three Hexside students, a talking owl house, the self-proclaimed demon king and Eda the Owl Lady isn’t exactly the most organised bunch. The most dependable of the group is Lilith, whom she isn’t even counting as part of the team because she isn’t trusting her old teacher just yet.
In the end, she settles by getting Gus and Willow to keep Luz busy, send Eda and King to get the supplies and herself staying at the house tidying everything up to decorate it afterwards. She isn’t particularly eager to stay with the stupid talking owl and Lilith, but sacrifices have to be made in order to ensure this plan works as it should.
Eventually, Eda and King come back with what looks like the descriptions Luz had given her of Christmas decorations. She doesn’t know if they’re the same, but they’ll have to do.
“Here,” says Eda. “I got you the lights and the, uh, ornaments you had asked for.”
“Thanks,” she answers.
She had asked Willow to grow a tree inside the house, who had complied even though she looked very confused. In truth, she’s as confused as her as to why humans would put a tree inside of a house. Amity, on her part, had done the best she could to make it snow a bit around the area. It’s not a spell she had ever bothered to learn, so it had taken a few tries to get it right.
Around an hour later, when they have finished putting everything together, Hooty warns them that Luz is coming.
“Well, here goes nothing,” Eda says.
The front door opens, revealing a very surprised Luz.
“Merry Christmas!” they all yell.
Amity expects a lot of reactions. Happiness, maybe Luz tearing up because she’s so moved by their actions. She does not expect her to burst into a fit of laughter.
“Did… did we do something wrong?” she asks, confused.
Luz immediately stops laughing. “Oh, no! Nonono,” she rushes to say. “I love it! It’s just… It’s technically summer , so Christmas is still a few months away.”
Amity should have seen that one coming, actually.
Despite the small mishap in the date of the event, they all manage to have a great time. Their attempt at recreating what Luz had called hot chocolate had ended up tasting nothing like the original, according to her, but it was good anyway.
It’s a lot later in the day when Amity gets to be alone with Luz again. They’re still inside the house, in a different room than the others.
“Did you organize this?” Luz asks.
Amity nods. “I did, but everyone helped. We just wanted to make you feel better.”
Luz looks like she’s about to talk when she notices something above their heads. “What’s that supposed to be?” she asks, referring to the little plant hanging from the doorframe.
“Oh, I think you called it mistletoe? That plant doesn’t exist here so we just used whatever grew around here,” Amity explains.
The other girl smirks. “Do you know what this means?” she asks. Amity shakes her head.
That’s when Luz leans in and kisses her. Her lips are soft, softer than Amity had ever imagined in her countless fantasies about kissing Luz, and they feel heavenly against her own. It’s a brief kiss, but it’s enough to make Amity’s whole face turn red.
“When you stand under the mistletoe with someone, you have to kiss them,” Luz explains.
Amity can hear her own frantic heartbeat, but she manages to calm down enough to reply.
“We might just have to stand under some more, then.”