Chapter Text
Amity Blight crouched at the edge of the treeline, the early morning rays of sun casting dancing shadows as they passed through the foliage overhead. She knew what she was about to do would be dangerous. Grom, there were several life threatening things that seemed far more appealing at the moment than what she was about to attempt.
She closed her eyes, steadying her nerves as she took a long inhale then slowly let it out.
She knew she wasn’t going to back out now. She couldn’t. She had already sent Ghost home, knowing that if things went south, she wanted to protect her palisman from the inevitable fate she herself would face. Plus, there were all the preparations that had gone into today. She couldn't just let all of that go to waste because of…
She shuddered at the thought.
"Come on, Blight." Amity said to herself, as quietly as she dared. "You've faced this before. You're strong, talented, and you're doing this for Luz. It's just one demon…one simple house demon. What's the worst it could do to you?"
Amity knew very well the worst that the Owl tube could do to her, but refused to let those thoughts rise to the fore as she quickly took a deep breath and slapped an invisibility glyph that Luz had made for her a long time ago 'in case of emergencies' to her chest, disappearing from sight.
The purple haired witch dashed across the clearing, keeping a safe distance from the front door, and around to the back of the house. As promised, Eda had left a window on the second floor open for her, and all it took to get through it was a quick spell circle as she was vaulted up through the air by an abomination hand.
Amity stuck the landing, barely making any noise as she paused, ensuring that she had not alerted the house demon, before letting out her breath and gathering her bearings. She wasn't far from Luz's room, just a few doors down.
As Amity started heading down the hall, she noticed a small piece of paper taped to the wall near where she had entered. In messy writing that she recognized to be Eda's she read:
"Have fun you two. Remember to have her back by curfew, Yada Yada, all that other parental mush.
PS. Make sure you don't short circuit too hard around her, Boots."
"I don't 'short circuit' around her…" Amity grumbled under her breath. "...anymore."
That was a lie. Amity knew that was a lie, but it was a lie she told herself none the less as she made her way toward Luz's room.
Amity slowly opened the door, meriting only minor creaking from the old hinges, and quickly popped inside, closing the door behind her.
Glancing around the room, the small motes of dust danced off the early morning rays of sunlight, lending an ethereal atmosphere to what was most certainly once only used as a storage closet for clothes, relics, or various human knick knacks. Now the room was arranged in an almost organized chaos, objects haphazardly placed on shelves or side tables, each item telling its own story of memories from the last year and a half. Some of them Amity had been a part of, some she hadn’t, but she allowed herself a brief moment to lightly smile at the memories.
It had been nearly a year and three months since the moment Amity’s life had changed irrevocably. When Luz had confessed her feelings in front of the Owl house, amidst the chaos invoked by an inconsolable house demon, Amity knew that her life was finally taking a turn for the better for the first time. Well, she supposed it hadn’t been Luz that had confessed…they had both sort of confessed their feelings, simultaneously.
A shiver ran up Amity’s spine as she remembered the moment, the awkwardness of it, but also the electricity that ran through her as she held her girlfriend's hand for the first time, and she felt a blush rise to her cheeks once again. Even after all this time, Amity couldn’t help but feel the “butterflies” in her stomach whenever she thought of that moment. Not that she had ever seen a butterfly, but it was a common expression Luz used to use when they had started dating.
Since then, her siblings had both found out, and, after teasing her relentlessly and making her contemplate the repercussions of double fratricide, they had promised to keep the information on the downlow so that their parents would never find out. The only other two people who knew were Willow and Gus, who had also sworn to Amity that they would keep the information a closely guarded secret. She was sure other people had suspicions, especially with how much time they spent together, but as far as she knew, no one had bothered to prove anything. Plus, with the events that had happened during the “Day of Unity” a year ago, everyone on the isles had bigger things to deal with.
A shuffling followed by a low hum drew Amity’s attention to the mattress haphazardly placed in the middle of the room. The most beautiful girl lay there, sprawled across the mattress, deep asleep and with a dopey grin on her face. Amity couldn’t help but smile at the paradox that was Luz fast asleep. Her limbs splayed around her in every which way, one hand under her head for support, and the other, apparently thrown during her sleep, now hanging off the bed in a position Amity could not imagine could be comfortable. Both her feet poked out from the bottom of her blanket, one leg exposed, up to the knee, and the other foot apparently still wearing a sock. And yet there was a sense of serenity on Luz’s face, and a comfort to the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she slept.
“How does she even fall asleep like that?” Amity wondered to herself. “She must toss around a lot in her sleep to end up like this.”
Lightly chuckling to herself and shaking her head, Amity silently tiptoed across the room to kneel beside the mattress on the floor.
“How did I ever get this lucky?” Amity thought letting out a small sigh, then reached over to gently shake Luz’s shoulder.
Luz’s face scrunched up, as the motion gently stole her from her slumber.
“Mmmm” Luz mumbled, barely audible. “Cinco minutos más, mami.”
Amity giggled lightly, looking away from the girl and trying to hide her blush. “But Luz,” she said, “it’s a big day. And, although I must admit that I didn’t understand all that, I know that you guessed the wrong person…”
At that, Luz’s face took on a look of confusion, then realization as she slowly opened one eye, and looked up at the girl kneeling beside her. Amity felt her heart flutter as she finally got to look into those deep brown eyes, before being essentially dragged on top of her girlfriend from where she had been kneeling as Luz threw her arms around her shoulders.
“Batata!” Luz yelled, going from the image of serene perfection Amity had been looking down at moments ago, to her usual energetic and bubbly self. “Wait, but why are you in my room? And why is it so early?” she said, looking out the window at the still low position of the sun in the sky.
“Like I said, it’s a big day!” said Amity, repositioning herself so that she could look into Luz’s eyes. “And I know that I forgot last year, well I guess “forgot” is the wrong word, more like I didn't know, but this year I wanted to be the very first to wish you…Happy birthday.” As she said it, she leaned down and lightly pressed a kiss to Luz’s forehead, causing a blush to tinge Luz’s cheeks light pink.
Pulling away, Amity took in the shocked expression on Luz’s face as she registered what Amity had said. A myriad of emotions seemed to race across Luz’s face, as she quickly averted her gaze to the floor, her hand unconsciously raising to rub the back of her neck. “Yeah,” she said “thanks.” A moment of awkward silence passed before Luz’s eyes moved back up to meet her girlfriend’s concerned gaze. Luz gave a small smile, as though trying to reassure Amity that everything was alright, but there was a slight sheen to her eyes as though tears were trying to fight their way free.
Not quite sure what she had said wrong, and worried about the emotion that seemed to be hiding behind Luz’s eyes, Amity went to put a consoling hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder. Before she could think of anything to say though, Luz continued on. “I mean it.” she said, a smile on face still not quite reaching her eyes. “I mean, there was no way that you could have known when my birthday was last year, because I didn’t even tell anyone. Plus, I mean, I was kind of in a coma. AND…” she said, dragging out the word, “I didn’t even know if birthdays were a thing on the Isles!”
Filing her worry about Luz’s initial reaction safely in her brain for later, Amity decided to focus on the latter part of her girlfriend’s statement.
“Of course we have birthdays on the Isles! And people celebrate them all the time. Well…most people do, I think… Regardless, they normally involve the normal things, like getting all your friends and family together for a party, the exchanging of gifts and dark forbidden secrets, and the vanquishing of a cake demon in order to serve bits of its lifeless carcass to guests as a celebration for surviving another year. You know, just the normal things.”
Luz’s eyes had gone wide with amazement while listening to the traditional birthday events that Amity described, but she quickly shook her head to clear it and muttered “Yeah, I guess that would be the normal here,” while she chuckled to herself. “Wait, does this mean that I have to fight a cake demon today?! Will I have to prove myself the same way that Azura did in The Good Witch Azura Volume 4 during the battle of Unicorn Hold?” Luz jumped up from her seated position, taking up a valiant stance in the middle of her mattress. “‘Begone possessed pastries! Plague these poor towns folk no longer!” she quoted from one of the familiar chapters.
Amity just laughed, taking in the absurdity that was her adorable girlfriend standing heroically in her PJs in the early morning sunlight.
“Alright there Azura, I have decided to forgo the vanquishing and subsequent consumption of any demons - mostly because I wasn't really sure if cake demon guts were digestible by humans - but I did plan a lot of other things for the day!”
As she said it, a faint screaming echoed through the room, originating from somewhere around Amity’s head. Summoning her scroll into her hand, the screaming became slightly louder as Amity silenced the alarm that was going off.
“Speaking of which, we should hurry if we want to be on time for the first thing on my list… Also, I might have intentionally snuck in this early in order to avoid having to interact with Hooty, and would really like to leave before he wakes up,” she said sheepishly, shooting a quick look at the door and window almost expecting the Owl Tube to burst through at any moment. “You can never un-experience getting owl pelleted...” she shuddered.
“Right…good point.” Luz said in a voice that clearly conveyed the horror she could only imagine that experience would leave someone with. “On that note, does Eda or King know that you're here? If not, I should leave them a note letting them know that we will be out for the day doing…stuff?” Not waiting for a response from Amity, Luz sprang up once more, quickly gathering her clothes for the day, her notebook, and her writing implement and yelling “I’ll shower and change quick, then I will meet you outside and we can get going!” over her shoulder as she darted out of the room.
Amity was left sitting on the floor of the room, left in the wake of the whirlwind of energy that was Luz Noceda. Now, she just had to figure out how to wait outside the house without alerting the house demon to her presence until Luz was ready to go.
The day passed in a flurry of activity. All according to Amity’s finely tuned schedule of course. Upon leaving the Owl House that morning, Amity had taken Luz to a new café that had opened up in Bonesborough. Amity had heard they had the best void juice in town, and, with how popular the place had quickly become, had to reserve it months in advance. It turns out that void juice was very similar to something known as ‘coffee’ in the human realm, and after discovering how much Luz had loved the stuff before she came to the Isles, she had made sure to have this be their first stop for the day.
After a filling breakfast of paincakes and some local fruit, all certified human friendly, they had made their way to the market. Amity had told Luz that she could pick out anything she wanted from the stalls as a birthday present. When Luz shot her a concerned look and brought up that Amity shouldn’t be spending so many snails on her, Amity only laughed and mentioned that it was being charged to “The Blight Account’’. It was the least that Amity’s parents could do for her girlfriend, considering they didn’t even know she had a girlfriend and would probably lose their mind if they found out it was the Boiling Isles’ resident human.
After an hour of Luz bouncing excitedly from stall to stall, she settled on a beanie and an obnoxiously large plush of a Slitherbeast. It took some convincing, but after a couple minutes Luz managed to persuade the stand owner to let her pick up the plush next time she was in town delivering potions for Eda. The thing was probably twice the size of King, so neither girl felt too fondly about the idea of having to haul the giant thing around with them all day. With that taken care of, they headed off towards Hexside.
Their third stop of the day involved an afternoon grudgby tournament hosted at the Hexside field. Luckily, this year’s end of semester grudgby tournament between the three schools happened to fall on Luz’s birthday, which meant that most of lunch and the afternoon was taken up by Luz excitedly cheering on Hexside from the bleachers, celebrating enthusiastically whenever Hexside scored a point, and sighing loudly when the other team scored. Amity had been to, and participated in, enough of these games for the excitement of the match to come second to her enjoyment of watching Luz’s reactions. Ever since her first day at Hexside, Luz had loved everything to do with magic or school, and, lucky for her, grudgby involved both. So, it was no surprise to Amity that Luz was always one of the most energetic and enthusiastic fans in the stands. Plus, in between goals, when she didn’t think it too risky for any one to be looking, she could hold Luz’s hand or lean her head against her shoulder. Yeah, this was by far the best way to enjoy a grudgby game.
After the game ended, the two girls walked back through the town, stopping only quickly by a market stand on the way so that Amity could pick up what looked like a pre-packaged basket and blanket, and then continued their walk out of town. The walk wasn’t far, probably only 20 minutes on a good day, but Luz and Amity took their time as they walked along the path through the forest, just enjoying each other’s company and getting to spend time together.
“Sooooooo…where are we going, Ams? And what’s with the basket!!!” Luz said, nearly bouncing up and down while they walked.
“You’ll see soon enough.” Amity replied, with a knowing grin on her face.
As promised, Luz quickly realized where they were heading as she saw the top of a giant tree, pink leaves gently blowing in the faint breeze. Amity could swear that she felt the energy and excitement radiating off the girl beside her moments before Luz took off running towards the tree. Not trying to contain her smile, Amity did her best to chase after her, basket and blanket still in hand.
When Amity finally caught up to Luz, she was standing, leaning against the tree, looking out across the boiling sea towards the setting sun. Not wanting to say anything that could break the moment, Amity slowly walked over to her, placed the basket down, and took Luz’s hand in her own as she too leaned against their tree. After a couple moments, the two of them watching the late afternoon sun reflect beautiful colours off the sea’s surface, Luz broke the silence.
“Hey Ams, thank you. For today, but also just for everything.”
Luz still hadn’t taken her eyes off the horizon, but Amity could swear that she could feel a palpable shift of the girl’s emotions, from one of typical Luz excitement and barely contained energy, to something more resigned…almost…sadness?
Concern filling her at the sudden shift in the atmosphere, she quickly turned her gaze over to Luz.
Luz was still looking out at the sunset, but in the fading light, Amity could see a single tear run down Luz’s cheek. Worry flooded her as her thoughts raced. Had she done something wrong? Was she supposed to have said something and didn’t? Was this not the place Luz wanted to be right now? Did it bring back bad memories from Grom? Had she forgotten something about human birthdays and now Luz was mad at her? What if she…
A sudden look of shock seemed to dart across Luz’s face, but just as quickly disappeared. She turned her head to face Amity, their eyes meeting, and despite the tears rolling down her cheeks, Amity could tell that Luz did her best to give her brightest, most genuine smile.
“Is everything alright Ams? I could swear I could feel you starting to panic?”
The shock at Luz trying to console her, when the tears on Luz’s face were still visible, was too much for Amity. She launched herself at her girlfriend and gave her the biggest hug she possibly could. Even though she’d only learned what a hug was from Luz a year and a half ago, and she was never really great with physical affection before they started dating, she quickly caught on to how much they had meant to Luz, and had therefore become incredibly important to her as well.
“I just…I saw you crying, and…I’m sorry. Whatever I did wrong, I’m sorry. I thought that I had made sure everything was perfect, but I must have missed something, or said something, or…”
Amity trailed off, as they both stood there holding each other. After a while, Luz pulled away, and holding Amity’s hands, brought them both to a sitting position at the base of the tree. She took a second, looking at the ground, to collect herself, before once again meeting Amity’s golden eyes.
“Amity, mi novia hermosa, you didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, this has been one of the best days I have had since coming to the Isles. In fact, I think this has been one of the best days I have ever had, period.” Luz said, the last part under her breath as she got distracted, obviously thinking about the past.
“I don’t understand.” Amity said. “You started crying, and…”
Luz chuckled under her breath, quickly interrupting her. “Ami, it isn’t anything that you did, it’s just…” She was obviously trying to gather her thoughts, and, from what Amity could tell, work up the courage to say…something? Finally, Luz let out a heavy exhale and her shoulders slumped down in what could only be described as a look of exhaustion. Then she continued.
“It's just, it has been over a year since I saw my home, since I got to hug my mama. I know that she knows I am alive, and doing the best that I can, but I can’t help thinking about how sad she must be on my birthday. Thinking she lost her daughter to some realm of demons and danger…I just want to see her again…to hug her again. Plus, last year was my quinceañera. I was unconscious for it and I never got to celebrate with her. Now, it's been a whole other year, and…I just miss her so much.” The last part was barely a whisper, as the tears began to roll down Luz’s face in steady streams.
Amity quickly leaned over, holding Luz in another tight hug as her girlfriend cried into her shoulder and she herself tried not to cry. She had never realized how hard all this must be for Luz. Sure, she had tried her best to help Luz decipher Philip Wittebane's journal and find a way home, but after the echo mouse recordings ended, and they were no closer to finding a way to stabilize the portal, it had just seemed to be pushed to the back of everyone’s mind. Plus, with all the events of the Day of Unity having just transpired, and life on the isles continuing onto a new normal, and with the new school year quickly picking up, she…
“I'm such an awful girlfriend.”
The thought quickly sparked through her mind before she could stop it. Her girlfriend needed her, and she had just overlooked how important all this was. She had just carried on as though Luz would be here forever, wanted to be here forever, and, honestly, as though she had always been here. She didn’t even think about how much she must miss home, her mom, or her life.
It was in that moment that Amity vowed not to get distracted again. To do everything in her power to make sure that Luz could go home and see her mom again, and soon. Even though she never wanted to see Luz leave the Isles, leave her, she would always be able to come back. Of course she would, she still had to finish school, finish learning magic, there was no way that she was going to be leaving the Isles for any extended period of time.
With that decision made, Amity directed all of her focus to consoling Luz.
“Luz, it will be okay. I’ve got you. We will find a way to get you home. I’m here for you.” She whispered these things over and over, holding Luz tightly until Luz stopped shaking. Eventually, Luz’s breathing seemed to even out. Still, Amity didn’t let go. She continued to hold Luz, until, eventually, Luz started pulling away, wiping away the remaining tears on her cheeks and under her eyes with her sleeve.
“Thanks Ami.” She said, “I am so lucky to have such an awesome girlfriend. And I know you will do everything you can to make sure I can get back home.” The last part was punctuated by an, albeit probably forced, but also sincere smile. “Plus, I still need to hold up my end of the deal and show you around the human world for helping me find the diary!”
At that, Amity blushed, having never forgotten the promise made on that fateful day.
“Oh!!” Luz exclaimed, seemingly regaining her regular enthusiasm, and also quickly jolting Amity back to the present. “What’s in that basket you picked up at the market?”
“Right! The basket!” Amity had almost forgotten, with everything that had just happened. “Uh, well, I did some reading not long ago into traditions from the human realm, and I found one that I wanted to try for your birthday. It probably isn’t perfect…” Amity trailed off as she got up, spreading the blanket out on the ground and casting small light spells to illuminate the area she was setting up in the fading sunlight. “But I wanted to try…what was it called…a pick-niche?”
“A picnic!!!!” Luz exclaimed, jumping up in excitement, the only sign that she had just been crying being her red eyes. “Oh my Titan Amity, you planned a picnic for my birthday!” Luz ran over quickly pulling Amity into another hug and nuzzling her head into her shoulder. “What food did you pack?!” She said letting go, and dashing over to the still closed basket.
“Well, I wasn’t sure what people normally brought on a…picnic” she said, trying to get the word right. “So, I asked Eda, and she gave me some human recipe books from a place called ‘The Americas’ and I just kind of…did my best. I had to find some substitutes of course, and figure out what the closest thing to a ‘beef’ was on the Isles, but…”
“Oh, Dios mío, no es cierto!!!” Luz cried, somehow getting even more excited. She turned around and in her hands was the magically sealed self-heating bowl of stew that Amity had made and dropped off at the market stall very, very, early that morning. “You made Sancocho!!!”
Amity looked embarrassed, rubbing her neck and blushing. “Well, I tried my best, but I don’t know if it will even be any…”
For the third time in 10 minutes, Amity was tackled by another hug. “You’re the best! You’re the best! You’re the best!” Luz exclaimed, as Amity thought her bones might be crushed.
Despite the worry for her own spinal column, Amity couldn’t help but smile. Yeah, this meant everything to her, and she would make sure that Luz could make it home again. No matter what it takes.
There was a sharp knock on Odalia Blight’s door, forcing her to look up from the recent “scrying” reports from the various Oracle Coven branches around the Isle. There really wasn’t anything interesting in any of them, the event of most note being a fairly high certainty of a gorenado in the coming days close to the Foot.
A coven courier stood at the door to her study, presumably having been let in by one of the abomatons that manned the front door. He looked absolutely panicked as he stood at the door at full attention, waiting to be addressed.
“What is it?” Odalia said sharply, not able to remember the courier’s name off the top of her head.
“Uh…yes, ma’am. I…uh…have the new coven applications for you, Deputy Coven Head ma’am.” The young man was very clearly sweating, and was doing his best to keep his gaze directly to the far wall.
Odalia let out a sigh, which only seemed to make the courier tense up even further. She had known that this position was a necessary step to becoming Coven Head, but hadn’t anticipated all the inane paperwork and administration that she would have to do.
“Very well, bring them over and leave them on my desk.” She said, motioning to the empty corner of her desk where the courier quickly placed the large stack of applications. “Now, is there any update on the recent task I assigned you with?”
The young man appeared to visibly flinch at the question. “Uh…nothing of note ma’am. Your daughter seems to be very focused on her school work and on her studies, and is very talented.” He said, hoping that the compliment would appease Odalia slightly. Odalia just nodded as he gave his report, her steely glare still cutting through him. “There was really only one time since your orders that she seemed not to be doing one of those things, which is truly impressive considering her age.” he said, apparently feeling as though this information was also some kind of praise.
Odalia, however, needed more information on this one instance. She had suspicions on what she might learn.
“Tell me, I imagine this one time that Amity was not tending to her usual responsibilities; it was spent with another child roughly her age?”
“Uh…yes, ma’am. She was…uh…spending time with another student it seemed. It looked like they were…um…having fun.” The courier said with a hopeful smile, thinking this might improve the Deputy Coven Head’s mood. Instead, he saw her right hand had curled into a fist, knuckles turning white, before she gave him the most unnerving smile he had ever received in his life.
“That is all, you are dismissed. Now, leave my house.”
The Oracle Courier did not need to be told twice and left the room as quickly as he possibly could. Odalia heard the door close behind him as he left the manor. She got up, walking over to the apple blood rack she kept in the corner of her study. Finding a vintage, she opened the bottle and poured a glass.
“Well, it seems that our precious Mittens has been getting distracted. I suppose I will have to remind her what she is working towards, and get rid of any distractions that may be deviating her attention from what is important.” Thought Odalia. Taking a sip of her apple blood, she looked over at the stack of coven applications that awaited her on her desk. “The first step is to gather some information on this ‘friend’ she has been spending time with.”