Work Text:
Amity made one of her biggest mistakes on an unassuming October evening.
She had been away at her essay on Opinions of the Supreme Court, the life slowly draining from her as several ready make pumpkin spice lattes made with Monster instead of water kept her barely awake. There was only one thing stopping her from saying fuck it and jumping in front of a Uni bus for a free pass.
“Amity, pick my sandwich for me.”
Luz Noceda. The Afro-Dominican girl that she had somehow become friends with. A word that was starting to feel somewhat unrepresentative of their relationship. She was pretty sure friends didn’t fall asleep on call with each other.
Although Luz had fallen asleep on vc one night and woken up to Hunter singing to Caramalldansen, so maybe it did.
Anyway, Luz was currently attempting to make conversation with Amity, who was genuinely trying her best. However, she now had two brain cells left, fueled by monster pumpkin spice lattes. One focused on her essay, and the other was imagining scenarios of her and Luz together. Therefore, she wasn’t paying attention to the conversation.
“Subway.”
There was a few seconds of silence on the other side of the call. “...what?”
“Subway.”
“Ok, Amity. Subway. What sandwich from Subway..”
Amity processed Luz’s words for a few seconds and finally came up with something coherent. “Spicy Italian.”
“Ight.”
Amity continued to half-heartedly (not at all) listen to Luz as she placed her order and continued to talk to (at) Amity as she continued her essay, wondering if monarchy really was a better form of government, as then the essay might be interesting at the least.
As Luz got her sandwich and left, something made her gasp. “OMG, AMITY. Halloween is coming up, isn’t it?” Amity gave a confirming hum as she sipped her drink-
“We should do paired costumes!”
-and spat it out.
“W-what? You mean like a couple’s costume?” There was a beat of silence after Amity’s somewhat (incredibly) flustered response.
“I mean, kinda? Hang on, lemme make a list and send it to you.”
A few minutes later, Amity got a message with a list of different names. Too sleep-deprived to fully process what was happening, she picked two at random.
“Uuuuuh… Amara and Maya?”
“Yeah, ok, that should work. I’ll text you the details once I have it worked out!”
They talked for a bit longer until Luz got home and had her sandwich, promptly falling asleep still on call. Amity continued to work until, eventually, her mind finally won over the caffeine, and she got the first bit of sleep she’d had in 47 hours.
~ ~ ~
Amity woke up to a horribly bitter taste in her mouth and dimmed sunlight streaming into her eyes. Having no idea when she slept, she checked the time.
4.57 p.m.
Ok, she’d definitely slept long enough.
Stretching, she noticed she was still in a discord call by herself. Remembering having been calling Luz last night, she quickly left and began to check her notification.
Junk from the twins.
Boscha sending random memes.
Luz sending costume info.
Willow-
Wait, what was that last one?
Scrolling back up and clicking on the message. Amity felt her pulse raise as she read through and remembered just what she’d gotten herself into.
Couple costumes.
With Luz.
Amity had never run faster in her life as she quickly got dressed, running out of her dingy apartment in hastily put on clothes as she called a friend.
Thirty minutes later, she was in a small local cafe frantically downing a caramel tea as Willow looked at her with a raised eyebrow. She finished the cup with a sigh, placing it back down on its plate. “You good?” Amity nodded warily. “Ok, explain to me again?”
“Well, I kind of agreed with Luz at like 3 am to do joint costumes. But I don’t actually know who the characters are. At all.”
“Ok, what were their names again?”
“Uuuuh. Hang on lemme check.
…
Ok, Amara and Maya.”
“Hmmm,” Willow began typing on their phone, and a few seconds later, they had an answer. “Ok, they’re from Borderlands 2 and 3. Games. So-”
“If I play them, I can know them!”
“Wait, no-”
“Thanks, Willow!” As quickly as she’d gotten up earlier that morning (early evening, more like), Amity got up and left, leaving Willow just to sigh and shake their head. “It’s not the kind of game you can just complete quickly.”
Amity practically skipped back to her apartment, riding on her newfound confidence and her new caffeine buzz. Turning on the ps4 Luz had given her, she navigated to the games, adding them to her account and installing them.
This would be easy.
~ ~ ~
Willow sighed as they slowly made their way up the stairs, dim apartment lighting showing the way. Luz slowly trailed behind her, chomping into a sausage roll as the two made their way to Amity’s apartment. Willow hadn’t heard from her since that Monday, and she was growing concerned. Soon enough, they came across the right door and, hesitantly, Willow knocked. The pair heard the sound of shuffling from inside, followed by footsteps and the door unlocking. Then, it opened.
Before them was a walking horror show.
Amity stood in baggy trackies and a hoodie, hair an unkempt mess and bags for days under her eyes. Both could smell the unmistakable scent of monster wafting from her, especially as she yawned. “Hey, guys. You need something?”
Willow looked over Amity hesitantly as Luz just stood shocked at her appearance. “We… came to check up on you.”
“Oh, ok, come in.”
The two walked behind Amity into the apartment, noticing the lights were all off. Then, they entered the bedroom.
Junk food, monster, coffee packs and blankets were strewn all across the place. On TV, Borderlands sat paused, and a controller lay to the side of the screen. Luz looked at it with a raised eyebrow. “You’re playing Borderlands?” Amity chuckled lightly. “Oh, yeah, ya know, just playing for a little bit.”
Willow was unconvinced. “Amity, when did you last sleep?” Amity lightly tapped her chin as she sat back down on her bed, opposite the TV. “Um, well, dunno exactly how long, but just after the Northern Ireland - Germany game.”
Luz hummed in acknowledgement as Willow tapped the game into Google. A grimace lit their face, and she showed the screen to Luz. The match was on Monday.
It was Thursday.
“Ok, I think you should lay down,” Luz said to Amity. Handing the controller to Willow before Amity had a chance to get up and grab it. Amity whined at that as Luz sat down next to her. “What, but why? I’m not tired.”
“No, come on. I’ll do it with you.”
“...ok.”
It took the pair of them two hours of laying, idle chitchatting, wrestling and many fake drinks (milk with cinnamon, apparently Amity’s taste buds were so burnt out that she couldn't tell the difference) but, eventually, they got the girl to sleep. Slowly, as not to wake her, Luz eased herself from the bed. She made sure to check Amity’s calendar before they both left to make sure she had nothing she had to be awake for, then gingerly shut the door. Finally, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Wow.. that was not what I was expecting.”
“Mmm.”
The two began to walk off, Willow glad to leave the mess behind. Luz, however, was still confused. “So, why do you think she did that then?”
“Oh, you.” Luz stopped dead in her tracks at that. “Wait, what?”
“Ya know, the list you sent her? She hadn’t ever played Borderlands, so probably did that to not upset you.”
“Oh, wow. Welp, guess it shows she wants to be a good friend, even if it didn’t manifest well. We should probably talk about that, to be honest.” Willow just stared at her for a second. “Yeah, friends don’t do that.” Willow walked past Luz and continued down the stairs. “Wait, what do you mean?” Willow stopped and looked back towards her.
“Simple. That dedication takes more than just ‘being friends’.” They said the last two words with air quotes, then simply walked off, leaving Luz to sit with that thought.
~ ~ ~
Amity groaned as she got out of the car.
After waking up from a 19-hour sleep, she’d been immediately bombarded with a call from Luz, about 5 minutes into checking her phone, and soon enough, they’d had a long talk about her health and honesty.
One in which she had been clearly not looking Amity in the eye.
But, Amity had shrugged it off as her still being worried somewhat. Later, they talked about sorting out the costume properly, Luz taking charge whilst Amity and Edric helped make it (Emira was still useless at anything crafty). That had led to her now, standing at a loud Halloween party dressed up with blue hair and a strange costume, fake tattoos along her left arm, blue-grey combat trousers and a yellow top with only one sleeve on her right arm. She took a slow si[p from her drink, what she was pretty sure was orange juice in a clear plastic cup, and sighed. Sure, these parties were fun… for a few minutes.
But, the sound was beginning to get to her, and she sat down with a sigh, leaning back on the chair. As she did, she heard footsteps nearby and turned to see Boscha walking over, a grin on her face. The Ukrainian-Canadian grabbed herself a drink and leaned on the counter in front of Amity. “You enjoying yourself, Blight?” She snarked.
Amity just rolled her eyes, taking another sip. “As much as I can be.” Boscha chuckled, flipping some of the dyed green hair of her joker costume from her face. “I bet that isn’t much considering those late nights you took.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Wel-” before she could answer, there was a tap on her shoulder, and she looked back to see Luz, arms crossed, and many fake arms sprouting from her back. Once upon a time, she might not have been scared of the small girl.
After what had happened to her bike, not so much.
“Everything ok?” Luz asked, eyebrow raised. Boscha stared her down before looking away. “Yeah, just getting a drink.” With that, she was off, leaving Luz and Amity alone. Rolling her eyes and muttering various profanities Amity was thankful were in Spanish (which she WOULD learn if the green owl would stop being a bitch), Luz came over and sat by her. “You ok?”
“Yeah, fine. Just all… this is getting to me. I'll be fine.”
“Hey, no. It’s ok if you want to leave. This party kinda sucks anyway.” Amity chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it does.”
“Ok, you wanna leave then?”
“Sure.. but, isn’t it kinda lame to finish the night this early?”
“Eh, I guess,” Luz had a thoughtful look for a second before her face lit up. “Oh! We could go to McDonald's.” Amity giggled at the girl and stood up, stretching. “Sounds like a date.”
…
…
SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST SAY!?
Amity;’s face blew up red as her mind processed what she had just said, and she turned to Luz who’s face seemed equally red. Unlike Amity, however, who was now frozen in complete abject fear, her face softened into a small smile, and she linked her arm in Amity’s. “Yeah, it does.”
…
“Oh.”
THAT’S ALL I CAN COME UP WITH!?
Amity let herself be led out by Luz, her mind still reeling from the situation as they left. However, it would eventually catch up, and she soon found herself in what was complete bliss, sitting inside a McDonald's at half-past one in the morning. WIth Luz.
Her girlfriend.