Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hey mum, I’m back.”

Camila let out a gasp as she saw her daughter, with cuts and bruises painting her skin, standing with a group of four other teenagers. She could barely believe her eyes. Her daughter was back! She was actually back! Instantly, Camila pulled Luz into a deep hug, revelling in the warmth of Luz’s actual body; it was so much better than her reflection before. 

“Mija, you’re here!” she exclaimed, relief seeping into her voice. Then, her eyes widened as she considered the teens and their injuries in front of her. “How are you? Why are you all here?”

Luz looked down, pain replacing the usual enthusiastic glimmer in her eyes. 

Camila shook her head, “It doesn’t matter at the moment. What does matter is looking after all of you.” She beckoned the group in, and led them to the living room. “I’ll make you all hot chocolate,” she said before turning to Vee, “can you get the medical box please cariño?” Camila didn’t wait for Vee’s response and she grabbed some lactose-free milk from the fridge and added it to a large saucepan to heat it up. 

While waiting for it to heat up, she peered at the teens. Luz had sat on the edge seat with the purple haired girl on top of her, clinging tightly as if she’d disappear if she let go. Beside her, the third girl was close to her, while holding hands with the smaller boy, who was between her and the older boy, who had his arm around his shoulders. They all had tense expressions on their faces. Camila felt a pang of sympathy towards them all. She had no idea what had happened, but it was clear that it was something major. 

Soon, Vee came back holding the medical box. Camila gave her a grateful smile, finishing up on making the hot chocolates. She poured it into seven mugs, and placed plenty of marshmallows on the top of each one. She asked Vee to help her carry them into the living room, to hand them to the teens. Their smiles were faint when they took the drinks.

Camila sat on the floor facing them, and Vee joined her. 

The air was thick with tension and anticipation. Camila stayed silent, hoping at least one person would speak. It soon became clear that nobody would.

“So, who are your friends?” Camila asked, deciding she would need to spark the conversation or nobody would ever say anything. Luz jolted when she heard the voice, but a small smile formed on her face.

“This is Amity, she’s my, um, girlfriend,” she said nervously, pointing to the purple haired girl. Camila couldn’t stop her eyes widening in surprise. “Then this is Willow, Gus, and Hunter,” she added, pointing to each one respectively. 

“Wow, mija, that’s a nice group you’ve got there,” she praised, causing Luz to smile with genuine pride. 

“They’re the best friends ever!” she exclaimed, tapping her feet against the floor. Almost instantly, her expression went back to sadness mixed with awkwardness. “They also need a place to stay, we have no way home- uh, to the Boiling Isles.” Camila decided to ignore the slip-up to ask a more important question.

“How come you can’t get back, didn’t you make a portal?” Camila asked. Tears sprung in Luz’s eyes.

“No, I didn’t make it, and I don’t know how to go back,” she whispered. Amity started hugging Luz, whispering soothingly to her. 

“It’s okay, mija, they’re welcome here as long as they need.” Luz smiled gratefully at her. “And you can wait until you’re ready before telling me what happened - I can see it’s not the best thing for you right now.”

“Thanks mamá.”

There was more silence for a little while, but the atmosphere felt more comfortable now. 

Once everyone had finished their hot chocolates, Camila and Vee (who had learnt first aid at camp) started tending to their wounds. The older woman winced when she saw the deep cut on Luz’s eyebrow - that was sure to scar. Though she wouldn’t be surprised if her daughter found it to be a cool ‘battlescar’. 

By the time they were done, it was clear that everyone was exhausted. Camila would have liked to set up proper beds and make them all have showers then give them new clothes, but it looked like that would be impossible. They’d all pretty much fallen asleep already, now sitting on the floor. 

Instead, she just went to get some blankets for them to wrap around themselves. 

When Camila got back downstairs, she let out a chuckle. Vee had joined the group and fallen asleep too, still holding the medical box. She was leaning on Amity, who had her arms wrapped around one of Luz’s. Camila let out a sigh when she saw Luz was still awake, a face of thunder on her. Beside her, Hunter had his arm wrapped around Gus’s shoulders. The blond had a stony face. Camila could have put it down to annoyance, but there was something else there. Camila felt a pang of pain in her chest as she noticed the pained expression on Gus’s face, even in slumber. He looked a couple of years younger than the rest of the group. Willow was also holding his hands so it seemed that they were more protective of him, presumably due to his younger age.

Camila wrapped the blankets around the group, then crouched down to make eye contact with Luz. Luz started when she realised her mother was there, her facial expression shifting to something sadder and her eyes glazing over slightly. Camila said nothing as she just caressed Luz’s face softly. Her daughter sunk into the touch, her eyes fluttering closed. 

Camila kept the contact until she saw her daughter’s breaths steadying. 

“Te quiero, mija,” she whispered. Then, she turned to Hunter. “Are you doing okay?” she asked him gently. He jumped and his eyes darted around, looking anywhere but at her. “Shh, it’s okay,” she said softly, reaching out to him slowly. His breaths shortened and he looked even more panicky as she did, so she redacted her arm. “I know it’s a lot to handle, but I’m here for you, and so are the rest of your friends, okay? Please try to get to sleep.” Hunter gulped but nodded his head. She gave him a gentle smile. “Good night.” 

Camila stood up and gave one more glance towards the group before going to bed. As she left the room, she could have sworn she heard Hunter say: ‘good night’, but she couldn’t be sure.

Halfway through the night, Camila was awoken by a loud screaming from downstairs. She immediately jumped up and ran down the stairs, ready to help them.

By the time she got to the living room, the screaming had subsided. Camila was met with the most wondrous yet adorable view:

Luz was sitting on the ground, sweat pooled on her forehead, and distress shining in her eyes. Her breaths were shaky and she looked like she was in so much mental pain. But, Amity was beside her, holding her hands and stroking them gently, whispering comforting things to her. The other side, Willow was breathing while counting down on her fingers, encouraging Luz to do the same. Vee had taken Gus and Hunter to the kitchen to get her a drink of water, and the two boys waited for Luz’s breathing to steady before giving it to her. None of the group had noticed Camila there, as they focused completely on Luz to make sure she was okay.

Camila couldn’t help it, but she started crying. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to control herself so as not to draw attention to herself. It didn’t work, as Luz looked up and noticed her.

“Mami, what’s up?” she asked, panic in her tone. 

“This!” she replied, gesturing to the group, who all glanced at each other in confusion. Realising she wasn’t making any sense, Camila sat down on the floor in front of Luz, taking her hands in her own (while Amity moved to hold onto Luz’s arm). “All I’ve wanted for you is to have real friends who will help you when you need it, and now- now you finally have it!” Luz cracked a small grin at that.

“Yeah, I suppose I got lucky, didn’t I?” she said, giving loving smiles towards her friends. 

“I’m not sure if I’ll ever feel overly happy about you running away to the Boiling Isles, but… if it allowed you to have true friends like this, then I am glad you went.” Luz’s expression melted and she too started crying. 

“¡Muchas gracias!” she exclaimed, jumping up to give Camila a hug. They stayed in the embrace for a short while. 

Even though Camila knew she would feel guilty for a while about driving Luz to leave the whole realm because she didn’t want to go to camp, she had to admit, she was glad that it allowed Luz to be happy in her friendships. 

The next day, the group were clearly still exhausted, but did seem much more refreshed. Camila decided to make them all breakfast. As she cooked, she saw the young one - Gus - tentatively standing and watching her. She gave him a small smile. 

“How are you doing?” she asked. He looked down for a moment then back up. 

“I miss my dad but… I’m kinda excited to finally be in the human realm!” Camila grinned at his enthusiasm. 

“Well, any questions you have, I’m happy to answer.”

Camila did not know what she was opening when she said that. For the rest of the time making breakfast, and through breakfast as well, Gus didn’t stop asking questions, barely taking a break to eat or even breathe. He seemed so enthusiastic about everything, and wanted to know everything. Camila tried her hardest to answer them all, but she soon started feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of them.

In the end, Luz silenced him by promising to take him to a museum to let him look at past and present artefacts. Gus looked so enthused by that that he immediately quietened, though he did look like he was going to burst from the sheer excitement.

Camila decided to talk about something else, so directed her attention to Luz and Amity.

“So, how long have you two been dating?” she asked. 

“A few weeks,” Amity replied politely.

“Long enough for me to be able to show you Luz’s baby pictures?” she said with a wink. Instantly, Luz’s face went bright red. 

“You don’t need to do that!” she said hastily.

“Oh, but we want to see them too,” Willow quipped, a smirk prominent on her face. Luz’s face somehow got redder.

“Maybe we should do that today~” Camila spoke as if she was thinking out loud, a mischievous sparkle in her eye. 

“Please, mum, I don’t need any more tortureee,” Luz moaned, sliding dramatically off her chair. Camila let out a chuckle.

“I suppose I can wait a little longer,” she said, then got closer to Amity to loudly whisper to her, “though you’ll absolutely love the one where she spilt spaghetti bolognese all down her.”

“Noo mum,” Luz pretended to cry. The rest of her friends started laughing hard. Amity reached down to help Luz back up, though it was kind of difficult for her through her laughter. 

When they’d all finished eating, Camila started grabbing the plates.

“Anybody want to help me wash up?” she asked, expecting everyone to say no. To her surprise, Gus instantly jumped up.

“Me!” he exclaimed, putting his hand up as if he was in class. 

“I’ll help too Ms. Noceda, it’s the least I can do for your generosity,” Amity added. 

“Me too,” Willow said. Camila’s eyes widened. 

“I only need a couple of you,” she stated unhelpfully.

“Me! Me! Me!” Gus said, almost desperately. “Ooh, Hunter, I could give you a tour of human kitchen stuff!” He turned to the older boy. “You’ve missed out on learning about them by not being at Hexside,” he stated, grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him to the kitchen. Hunter turned towards the rest of the group.

“Should I be worried about this?” he asked. The rest of the group simply shrugged. 

Gus watched eagerly as Camila poured washing up liquid into the sink. 

“Washing up liquid?” he said with a curious look. “Interesting…” Then he stood up and looked at Hunter. “Did you know that humans have a small monster in their sink to eat all of their garbage?” Hunter’s eyes widened and he stared warily at the sink. 

Camila let out a light chuckle, “Don’t worry, it’s not an actual monster. And it only ‘eats’ things if I click a switch, it’s perfectly safe,” she explained, watching Hunter visibility relax at that. On the other hand, Gus frowned and pulled a notebook from his pocket to write something in it. 

Camila washed up the items then handed the boys a tea towel each to dry up. Gus expertly dried each one - it seemed that this was something consistent between the two realms. Hunter, however, looked quite confused as he watched Gus and tried to copy. His hands were shaking as he focused wholly on the plate he was holding.

Unfortunately, Hunter managed to drop the plate. A loud crashing sound boomed through the air as the plate smashed into the ground. Panic instantly shone in Hunter’s eyes and he looked around in fear. 

“I’m so- I-” he started, but Camila interrupted him in a soft voice.

“It’s okay, accidents happen,” she stated. “Just stay back and let me clean it up.” 

Camila sweeped up the shards of the plate and placed them in the bin. She inspected the floor to make sure there were no more tiny pieces left. When she was satisfied, she stood back up and gave the boys a smile.

“There we go, all okay.” Hunter still looked confused. 

“But I broke a plate, I should- I should be punished, or-” Camila felt her breath hitch in her throat, what had these poor teens been through?

“Hunter,” she said gently, letting his attention be drawn to her, “it’s okay! It was an accident. I’m not mad, it’s not your fault.” Hunter looked towards the ground. 

“I won’t do it again, Ms. Human, I promise!” 

“Please, call me Camila,” she said, pushing down the laugh rumbling in her throat, “and it doesn’t matter if you do it again, as long as it’s not on purpose.” Hunter nodded, but Camila could tell he was still berating himself on the inside. She internally sighed, hoping she would be able to help him defeat this negative mindset. 

Once everything was cleaned up, Camila gathered the group into the kitchen.

“Right, I think now you all need to get dressed and ready. I think you all need showers” - she paused for a moment - “do you have showers in the Boiling Isles?” she asked. Everyone nodded in response. “Okay, good, so you all need showers, and I’ll find some clothes for you before we go shopping. Amity and Willow, you can borrow some of Luz’s clothes, and Gus and Hunter…” she trailed off. She was sure she’d kept some of her husband’s clothes which may be able to fit them. They’d probably be too large for Gus, but it would hopefully only be for one day. 

After a couple of hours, everyone was ready for the day. They still looked worse for wear, but at least they were cleaner and their clothes weren’t ripped. 

“Are we going to go shopping today, mamá?” Luz asked. 

Camila hummed in thought, “We will, but first, we need to teach everyone how to pretend to be human,” she stated, “and I know exactly who will be able to help us…” 

Chapter Text

Vee set up her chalkboard in front of the TV, facing the sofa. It had been a small chalkboard of Luz’s when she was younger to play ‘teachers’ with, but Gus had put a spell on it to make it much larger. Vee wrote ‘How To Pretend To Be A Human 101’ at the top, and Luz couldn’t help but adorn the top corners with doodles of the witches pretending to be human. She was to be Vee's personal assistant to help more with human advice. 

Gus sat on the floor, holding a large notebook, excitement filling his chest. He was actually going to be learning how to be a human, so he can actually act like a human! This felt like a dream come true. He’d dragged Hunter down to sit beside him, while Willow, Amity, and Camila (who was interested in what Vee had to say) sat on the sofa. Nobody shared Gus’s enthusiasm so nobody else had a notebook, ready to write down absolutely everything. Gus was sure they would regret that later on when they’ve forgotten what Vee said. They’d all be grateful for his note taking then!

Vee stood at the front, waiting for everyone to stop talking amongst themselves. Once they had, she let out an awkward cough. 

“Welcome to How To Pretend To Be A Human 101,” she started, pointing to the title. “Today, we will be going through the basics, then you’ll be getting plenty of real-life experience.” Luz nodded along behind her, writing down ‘real-life experience’ on the board with a huge grin. “Our first part is looking like a human!” Vee exclaimed, gesturing to Luz to write that on the chalkboard. “You all look like humans other than your ears, but if Gus can put an illusion on them then you’ll be fine.”

Gus nodded along, “I have Adrian’s magic enhancer to help me,” he stated, brandishing the small mirror. Luz gave him a thumbs up. 

Vee then went on to explain the differences between the human and demon realms. She told them the common laws of the Human Realm, and some foods that she knew they could eat. Then, she spoke of human technology. She talked of cars, and buses, and phones. She emphasised the point that not everything was out there to eat them. In fact, there was a very little chance of anything attempting to eat them. Gus put his hand up at that, waiting for her to let him speak. 

“But, you said buses are these big, loud vehicles, surely they must be trying to eat us?” he asked with a frown. Vee let out a light chuckle.

“Actually, they’re just like metal boxes, controlled by humans. The only way they could hurt you is if you step out in front of them when they’re going at full speed. And that’s only because there’s no time for the driver to slow down before it hits you, not because the bus wants to eat you.” Gus was still frowning as he wrote it down, barely able to fathom the idea that it wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose.

A little way through the talk, Luz had gotten bored and was sitting with something called a ‘laptop’. She was concentrating hard on it, barely paying attention to what was happening around her. Occasionally, she would look up to smile and wink at Amity, before looking back down. Gus tried to ignore that. 

After a while (and three pages worth of notes), Camila decided it was time for a lunch break and started making them all sandwiches. She made them all pb&j sandwiches since she knew from Luz that they were something witches could eat. Luz put her laptop down to go sit between Amity and Willow on the sofa. 

“Are you enjoying the presentation?!” Gus asked his friends with sparkles in his eyes.

“It’s certainly… interesting,” Hunter responded. 

“I think it’s very interesting,” Amity said, shooting a look at Hunter, “I love seeing what it’s like to live in Luz’s realm.” She took Luz’s hands in her and pecked her on the lips. Gus rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I’m enjoying it,” Willow agreed. “There’s so much though, I’m not sure I’ll be able to remember everything.” 

Gus patted his notebook, “That’s what this bad boy is for,” he stated. Willow looked at it and let out a chuckle. 

“What would we do without you?” she grinned.

Soon, the group went back to Vee’s talk. Except this time, Luz was at the front, a huge smile on her lips as she held her laptop.

“I made a PowerPoint!” she exclaimed. Then, she spent a few minutes connecting the laptop to the TV. Gus watched with wide eyes as the image from the laptop appeared on the larger screen. All of the witches were surprised at how she was able to do that with no magic.

“Humans are so impressive!” Gus praised. “You have no magic, so you adapt. You’re truly a wonderful species.” 

“Uh, thanks Gus,” Luz replied with a wide yet awkward smile. Then, she diverted her attention back to the group. “Anyway, I thought I would show you images of things so you would be able to recognise them.” 

Gus was enamoured by the PowerPoint. There were so many cool effects as every sentence came onto the TV, and even cooler effects as the slides changed. He got to see images of things like buses and all different types of buildings, like the mall and the grocery store (because humans where Luz lived didn’t usually shop at markets like in the Boiling Isles). It was also like a recap of everything they had learnt beforehand, so it was easier for everyone else to remember. 

Once the PowerPoint was completed, Luz took a bow as she encouraged everyone to applaud her. Then, she gestured towards Vee again, so she could take over. 

“Step three is the most important step, and that’s how to act like a teenager,” she started. “Each age range acts differently, so it’s important you can act our age.”

So then Vee spent some time teaching them how to behave. It wasn’t all that different to how they were in the Demon Realm, which was helpful, but didn’t stop Gus from writing way too many notes on it. What if he forgot that staying past curfew would get him in trouble, even though that was a well-established rule in his own house already? 

Vee also did a talk about the dangers of drugs and alcohol, as encouraged by Camila.

“Not only is it really illegal at our age here, but their chemistry is different here than in the Demon Realm, so could affect you greatly,” Vee warned. 

“Sounds like it’s not illegal at our age in the Boiling Isles,” Luz laughed. She paused when she realised nobody else was laughing along with her.

“Uh, some alcohol is legal at our age in the Boiling Isles,” Amity stated. Luz’s eyes bulged out of her face.

“What?!” Then she gasped. “Is the apple blood you drink at school actually alcoholic like Eda’s?” she asked, her mouth staying wide open even after she spoke.

Willow giggled, “No, alcohol isn’t allowed in school - that is actually alcohol-free. But there are other drinks we can have.”

“And that’s just… okay?!” The rest of the teens just shrugged in response.

“We have plenty of potions to counter the effects,” Amity stated. Luz still looked completely shocked, and tried to open her mouth to speak, but nothing except splutters came out. Her friends all laughed at her behaviour.

Eventually Luz found the words to speak, “Well, it’s not the same here! No alcohol allowed!” she lectured.

“Clearly,” Willow replied dryly. Luz glared at her for a moment, narrowing her eyes.

“At this age, some teenagers will try to drink and take drugs, but as long as you don’t follow them then we’ll all be fine!” Everyone nodded along in understanding, and Gus noticed that Camila was smiling proudly at Luz. 

Vee carried on talking about how to adapt when teenagers do something you can’t quite understand, and how to pretend you know exactly what they’re doing. 

Then she paused.

“I need help from Luz on this fourth part,” she admitted. “There’s many phrases here that I just don’t understand. Some things that mum knows and some that she doesn’t. I think Luz will know better.” Instantly, Luz’s eyes widened and shone, as an excited smile formed quickly on her face. 

“Yes! My turn to present and tell you everything!” She gasped again, “I can teach you all swear words!” Then, she faltered. “Well, except for Gus, he’s way too young.” Gus couldn’t help but feel indignant at her words - he’d already been through the first stage of witch puberty, that was basically being old enough for swears! Sure, he didn’t know any yet in the Demon Realm, but here was different. 

“Luz…” Camila said in a warning tone.

“Oh right. But, at the moment, let’s just talk through human phrases.”

It turned out that humans loved to say things that meant something completely different. And they were just expected to know them. Luz admitted that she too often struggled with understanding phrases like that too, but she had to learn to adapt so nobody would make fun of her. Amity shot her a sympathetic look from across the room.

After learning a few, Gus decided that ‘apple of their eye’ was his favourite phrase. He didn’t really know of any situation where he would be able to use it, but he still liked it regardless.

“Now, let’s move onto slang!” Luz exclaimed. She erased the board out of the phrases. “This changes all the time, so it doesn’t overly matter if you don’t know a slang word, or if yours is slightly outdated.” 

Luz described the classic slang which seemed to always be in use. She admitted that she wasn’t quite sure of what temporary ones were used at that point, considering she’d just gotten back from the Boiling Isles and hadn’t had time to properly go on her phone. 

“I’ll find out eventually,” she said with a shrug.

Then, Luz forced them to watch something called ‘vine compilations’. 

“These are super important! They’re quite old but people quote them constantly. It’ll do you good to be able to recall a load too. And if you randomly quote them, then people will join in. You’ll be uncool if you don’t know them.” Gus gasped at that - he did not want to be seen as uncool in the Human Realm!

“Let’s watch them now!” he exclaimed, leaning forward to emphasise how much he wanted to see them. Luz let out a chuckle as she searched up ‘YouTube’ in the search bar and selected a fifteen minute long video. 

Two hours later, the crew were still watching them. Many turned up in multiple videos, but the group were still completely invested in them all. They only stopped watching because Camila reminded them that they still needed to go food and clothes shopping, and they didn’t want to run out of time. Gus let out a whine at that. 

“It’s okay, we can watch more later,” Luz told him with a wink. 

“Is that all then, mija?” Camila asked once Luz had turned off the laptop.

“Oh, I’ve got one more thing we can learn,” she replied with a smirk. Everyone waited for her to elaborate with bated breaths. “Swears!” 

Camila let out a deep sigh, “Is that really appropriate?” she asked.

“Absolutely! It’s all the rage with high schoolers these days,” Luz said, completely seriously. 

“My favourite one is f-” Vee started, but was interrupted with Camila’s hand over her mouth. 

“Didn’t you mention Gus is too young for swears?” she asked Luz with a pointed look. “How old is he?”

“Twelve,” Luz mumbled sheepishly. “But what about everyone else? Can’t Gus just wait outside or something?” she asked. 

Camila let out another sigh, “Gus, wanna see a hosepipe in action?” she asked. Gus’s face lit up.

“What’s a hosepipe?” he asked. 

“It’s a cool contraption that allows water to travel from the house to any part of the garden.” Gus’s eyes shone even brighter.

“Yes please!” he exclaimed, forgetting about the cruel injustice against him due to his age. 

“We’ll be ten to fifteen minutes,” Camila told Luz as she ushered Gus out of the door. 

Gus was enamoured by the hosepipe. There was some sort of small pipe and lever connected to the house, which the hosepipe was then attached to. A long rubber tube that could be moved in any way and somehow the water travelled through it. The water even came out when the hosepipe was facing towards the sky, even though it seemed to go against gravity!

Camila let Gus water the plants in the garden so he could use the hosepipe to his heart’s desire. 

“Willow would enjoy this,” he stated as he moved the hosepipe wildly to make the most of its weird mechanism. 

“Well, I’ll certainly let her use it another day,” Camila said. 

After Gus had watered all of the plants and used the hosepipe long enough, Camila let him turn the lever so the water would stop. It took a moment from turning the lever off and the water to stop coming out of the end, much to his surprise. 

Then, she led him back inside, going first to make sure Luz had finished her talk. Thankfully she had, so Gus could join his friends again. 

“How was the hosepipe?” Willow asked.

“Great! I bet you’ll really like it!” he replied enthusiastically. “How was betraying me?” he asked, pretending to wipe a tear away from his eye.

“It was great, thanks for asking,” Willow quipped, causing Gus to stick his tongue out at her.

“Luz told me swearing is a great way to release frustrations,” Hunter said, “so she’s encouraging me to do it when I get annoyed and am not around you.” 

“That’s fun, though maybe I get frustrated too?” Gus increased in his volume at the last part and peered around hoping that would allow him to learn swear words too. Unfortunately, Luz just shook her head at him, a smile on her lips. He deadpanned at her.

“Right, now are we ready to go shopping?” Camila asked. 

“Yess!” Luz exclaimed, jumping up. “Let’s go, everyone!” she yelled as she ran towards the door. Camila let out a chuckle and gestured for everyone to follow her. 

Chapter Text

Hunter followed the rest of the group outside. Camila ushered the group into the seven-seater car. Hunter knew it was technically safe, but he was still apprehensive to get into the metal monster. Not that his feelings seemed to matter as he was practically shoved into the car. He ended up sitting next to Willow. The car was small enough that they had to be tight against each other. Hunter could feel his cheeks heating up as he considered how close the Captain was to his face. 

Willow gave him a smile and grabbed his hand to squeeze it. He smiled warmly back, feeling his cheeks heat up slightly. 

“Everyone ready?” Camila asked. Everyone nodded in response, so she started the car, letting it roar and growl. Hunter’s eyes widened. 

“Are we sure this isn’t alive?” Gus asked, a hint of fear in his tone.

“I guarantee you it is not,” Camila said gently.

Hunter watched out of the window as the car rolled through the streets. The human world was so much different to the Boiling Isles. The houses, the streets, the demons, all so different. He used to feel on top of the world, being the Golden Guard and knowing everything about the Demon Realm. Now he felt like nothing. A speck of sand amongst one of the Boiling Isle’s many beaches. And he knew little about this realm to even attempt to feel powerful again. 

Eventually they arrived at a large building, with a myriad of different shaped cars outside it. Hunter vaguely remembered the building as the ‘mall’.

They were again led out of the car and into the mall. Luz instantly rushed forward, grabbing onto Amity’s hand to pull her with her. It was then when Hunter realised Willow hadn’t let go of his hand yet. He glanced down at it then back up to Willow.

“So we don’t get lost,” she whispered, pink dusting on her cheeks. Hunter nodded in response, not knowing what to say.

“Let’s go to Hot Topic!” Luz exclaimed as soon as they got into the building.

“Hot Topic?” Amity questioned. Luz turned to her with a big grin on her face.

“You’ll love it, batata,” she said with a wink.

“Did- did Luz just call Amity a batata?” Camila questioned.

“Yep, it’s their pet name,” Willow replied. Camila frowned.

“Interesting…” she said, seemingly in thought. 

“Come on mami,” Luz yelled from in front of them, pointing at Hot Topic while tapping her feet quickly against the floor. Camila let out a chuckle and started walking forward, the rest of the teens following her. 

Hunter really liked it in Hot Topic. There was something about the dark lighting and ‘goth clothing’ (as Luz called it) that he really liked. He was given a small budget and went around the shop trying to get as many things as he could. Luz tried to tell him a couple of times that she wasn’t sure the clothes would match but he ignored her - he could totally work something out when he got home. 

He noticed that Amity had just as much excitement as he had. She too was enamoured by the outfits and tried to get as many black and red items of clothing as possible. She seemed to be taking the actual clothes into consideration though, as if making sure they all worked together. Hunter was sure they would be absolutely easy to style, so she was probably doing that for nothing. 

Somehow both Hunter and Amity reached their budget limit in Hot Topic. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to look at other shops too?” Camila asked them wearily. 

“No way!” they both exclaimed at the same time. Camila raised her eyebrows, slightly taken aback.

“O-kay, well don’t complain if we find something you want and can’t have,” she said, before paying for all of their clothes. 

“Looks like we’re Hot Topic buddies,” Hunter said to Amity with a grin. To his surprise, Amity just deadpanned at him.

“Sure,” she replied dryly. Hunter frowned. He thought they’d become friends after the fight at Eclipse Lake. He’d basically apologised. Pretty much. It was an apology enough for the upper-class. Surely Amity understood that. And also saw him as a friend…

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring different shops. Camila picked up the basic necessities for everyone like toothbrushes and underwear while they were there. None of the other shops had things to Hunter’s taste, so he was glad he spent it all at Hot Topic instead. 

At some point Willow found a ‘save the bees’ shirt which gave money to a charity to save bees if you bought it. She immediately grabbed three. Hunter couldn’t stop himself from smiling adoringly as she grabbed them in excitement. 

“Do you like bees then, Willow?” Camila asked.

“I love them! They’re vital for plant health, and I’ve also got one as my palisman.”

“Palisman?” 

“They’re like little animal companions who turn into staff to help witches,” Luz said, startling her mother who didn’t realise she was behind her. “We’ll have to show you when we get home,” she added, glaring at Hunter who had started summoning Flapjack. He laughed sheepishly and unsummoned him. 

“Speaking of flapjacks…” Hunter started.

“Were we?” Camila whispered to Luz.

“It’s the name of his palisman,” she responded. 

“What is a flapjack?” Hunter asked. “I tried to do research but I couldn’t find anything.”

“Do you know what a pancake is?” Camila asked.

“No.”

Camila opened her mouth and kept it open for a moment before replying, “Well, a flapjack is another word for a pancake, I’ll show you what they are tomorrow.”

“Cool, thanks!” Hunter exclaimed with a grin.

“Look, look, Hunter!” Gus yelled, running through the shop to them. 

“What?” he asked with a grin. Gus instantly held up two black t-shirts, one with ‘best’ on it, and the other with ‘buds’ with a fist on each, facing in opposite directions. “I… don’t get it,” Hunter admitted.

“They’re matching t-shirts! We have to get them!” he said, with a bright smile.

“Uh, hate to break it to you but I’ve run out of money,” Hunter replied.

“We’ll use some of mine! We just have to have matching shirts!” Gus declared, almost desperately. Hunter let out a light chuckle.

“Okay, okay, if you’re sure?”

“Absolutely!”

“Ooh Amity, I wonder if there are any couple matching t-shirts for us!” Luz exclaimed. Instantly, Amity started blushing. 

“I hope so,” she whispered. Luz grabbed her hand and pulled her towards where Gus came from. Hunter looked at Willow who rolled her eyes. 

“Did you get any pyjamas, Hunter?” Willow asked. Hunter froze, and his eyes widened. 

“I can… sleep in my everyday clothes?” 

“Dios mío,” Camila said, placing her head in her hands. “Please tell me Amity didn’t do the same…” Hunter shrugged in response. Camila shook her head and made her way to where Luz and Amity were. 

Five minutes later, Luz and Amity came back with Camila. Luz was holding a couple of t-shirts while Amity had a sheepish look on her face. 

Camila let out a sigh, “I guess pyjamas will now be counted as necessities,” she said, glaring between Amity and Hunter who both looked away in shame. 

“Sorry,” they both muttered at the same time. Hunter felt disappointment washing over him. He was just waiting for punishment for not thinking before he acted. It seemed like Amity was as well. 

After a few moments, Camila spoke up again, in a more confused tone. 

“Are you two okay?” she asked. Hunter glanced up, met her eyes, and instantly looked down. 

There was more silence, until Luz started talking excitedly.

“Me and Amity got matching t-shirts!” She held up two shirts, one orange and one green, with ‘she’s my sweet potato’ and ‘I yam’ written on them respectively. Amity barely looked up from the floor, but her face went bright red. 

“I- I went over budget, we can’t get them, I’m sorry,” Amity whispered, causing Luz to frown.

“Nonsense!” she exclaimed, her frown turning to a bright grin. “I don’t need to buy anything, so this can be the one thing I do buy!” 

“Oh, thanks…” 

After a moment, Camila spoke up, her eyes narrowed.

“We’re going to go back to this whole… situation,” she said, gesturing to Amity and Hunter, “but for now, let’s pay for these clothes and find some pyjamas for everyone.” She started walking to the tills. The rest of the teens followed her, albeit Amity and Hunter looked extremely sheepish as they did. 

Before Hunter had even realised Willow was anywhere near him, she’d slipped her hand into his with a grin. 

“It’ll be okay,” she said softly. “You made an honest mistake, it’s bound to happen.”

“But it shouldn’t have happened.” Hunter stated, more sharply than intended. Willow didn’t look taken aback though, she just sighed. 

“It’s okay Caleb, you just had a lot on your mind and was excited. It’s okay, I promise.” Hunter cracked a small smile at the use of the pet name, feeling more at ease even just due to that.

“Thanks, Captain,” he replied. Willow gave him a ghost of a smirk before turning to face where she was walking. Hunter could feel his cheeks heating up for some reason. Maybe he needed to look into that…

Since everyone had all the clothes they needed for now, Camila led them out of the mall and back into the car. She furrowed her brows slightly when she noticed the time said 6pm. 

“It’s getting later than I hoped…” she mumbled to herself. “Hopefully we won’t be here long so we won’t have to have dinner too late.”

Hunter held onto Willow again as the car roared into motion. He didn’t think he would ever get used to the fast motions and weird vibrations. Thank Titan Willow was there to help him. 

Luckily it was only a short journey to the ‘grocery store’ for them to be rescued from the stomach of the car. 

“It’s so weird that humans have all their food in one building rather than in market stalls,” Gus commented. 

Luz shrugged, “There are markets in some places, but it’s more common for these shops. Makes it easier I suppose.”

“I’ve never bought anything from a market before,” Hunter admitted, “I’d only go to markets on a mission, all my food was given to me in the Castle.”

“Castle?” Vee and Camila asked at the same time. Vee looked afraid while Camila just looked curious.

“Yeah…” Hunter trailed off, not wanting to get into it, especially not out in the open in the Human Realm.

“I think that’s also something for another time,” Luz said hastily with an awkward laugh.

“Right…” Camila replied, narrowing her eyes slightly.

“Anyway, let’s go shopping!” Luz yelled, running to the store. 

“She… runs a lot, doesn’t she?” Hunter asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“Just one of Luz’s quirks,” Willow replied, as they watched Amity run after Luz. 

Luz stood tapping her feet quickly against the floor beside a chain of weird open-topped metal cages. As soon as Camila got there, she handed Luz a coin, and Luz inserted it into the entrance of the chain. That allowed her to pull a cage on wheels out.

“This is called a shopping cart,” she said, pointing to the cage. “It makes shopping easier as you can just push it and put what you want in there.” Then a mischievous expression formed on her face as she walked into the shop. As soon as she fully entered, she turned back to look at everyone. “It’s also really fun to ride on…” 

Before anyone could question what she meant, she started running with the cart then lifted her feet off the ground so she was hanging onto the handle. Everyone stared with wide eyes. “Can we get one too, please?!” Gus asked, excitement glimmering in his eyes.

“Only if you promise not to ride it like that,” Camila replied, glaring at Luz who had come back. 

“Not even once?” Gus asked with puppy-dog eyes. Camila let out a sigh.

“You can all do it once and that’s it!” she declared.

And that’s how six teenagers ended up running through aisles, riding on the carts, while Camila went around the shop by herself. Laughs of glee filled the air, alongside squeals as they lifted their feet off the ground. Hunter was slightly apprehensive to do it, but he reluctantly decided to with some mild encouragement from Willow. 

Once they had all done it once, Luz turned to Amity.

“Wanna ride in my metal chariot, mi amor?” she asked. Amity’s face instantly went bright red. 

“O-okay,” she replied. Then, Luz lifted Amity up with ease and placed her inside the cart.

“Does this mean you’re buying her?” Willow asked with a smirk. This made Amity’s face somehow go even more red. Luz put her hand to her chin and hummed in thought for a moment. 

“Sure!” she replied with a grin. Willow let out a chuckle while Amity planted her face into her hands. 

“Gus, you want a ride in this one?” Willow asked.

“Do I?!” Gus exclaimed, practically jumping into it. 

They tried to stay as a group, but Luz’s eagerness meant she zoomed around the aisles while Gus, Willow, and Hunter opted to go slowly to really explore the human food. Vee had tried to stick with Luz and Amity, but at one point, they saw she was with Camila, so must have lost the couple as well (or left them on purpose to stop third-wheeling). 

The trio ended up getting into a guessing game of what random items they picked were for. At this point, they were deciding what ‘pop tarts’ were. 

“Maybe they’re abominalloons shaped as tarts which make a loud pop when bursting?” Gus suggested.

“Do you think humans have the technology for that? Besides they don’t have abominations here to make abominalloons,” Willow said. Gus frowned.

“Oh yeah.” 

Hunter grabbed the box to look at them better. 

“What’s a toaster?” he asked. Willow and Gus looked at each other then back at Hunter before shrugging. 

“Maybe something that makes these go pop?” Gus said in a hopeful voice. 

“Well I’m too curious now to not take a box to see when we get home,” Hunter said, putting the box in the cart, alongside a myriad of other items, including a packet of ‘carrots’ and a bottle of ‘vodka’. Everytime they selected an item, curiosity took over them, resulting in them instantly placing them in the cart. It was starting to get really full, especially with Gus still sitting in it. 

Eventually they managed to meet up with Camila and Vee, though Luz and Amity still seemed to be missing. Camila gave them a smile before noticing their trolley.

She blinked, “Woah, that’s a lot, are you sure you want all of this?” The trio glanced sheepishly at each other.

“Actually, we don’t know what any of this is…” Willow admitted. “We were hoping you’d be able to tell us.” 

Camila stared at them in disbelief for a moment before laughing. She seemed almost hysterical as she just stood there laughing, leaving the teens in confusion.

Eventually her laughter subsided, and she wiped away a tear.

“Of course I can tell you what everything is,” she said warmly. Camila picked up each item individually, explaining what they were, and letting them decide if they wanted to keep them or not. At the vodka, Camila immediately put it in the ‘not keep’ pile, explaining that it was alcohol so they absolutely could not have it. 

“I’m not sure how you even managed to get away with being in that section, I’ll be honest,” she said with a grim smile. 

Eventually she got to the poptarts. 

“These are like thin pieces of pastry. Two are attached to each other with some sort of sweet filling in them. They can be eaten cold, but are much nicer heated up. I think these can be a keep,” she said, an almost longing smile on her face. 

“They sound so tasty!” Gus exclaimed, licking his lips, causing Camila to laugh.

“They definitely are,” she replied. 

Soon, they had a small pile of things they were going to buy, with a much bigger pile of things to put back. Camila placed the things to buy in her cart, then instructed the trio to put everything else back.

“Vee and I will wait here for Luz and Amity to find us, so just come back here when you’re finished,” she explained. The trio nodded, and made their way back through the aisles of the shop, trying to remember where everything came from. 

Thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult, since they just went the same route as they did the first time. It seemed to jog their memory as they walked through the aisles. They chatted mindlessly as they did, making sure to keep their focus on their items and location.

When the trio got back to Camila and Vee, Luz and Amity were also there. 

“Grocery stores are so fun when you have a girlfriend!” Luz exclaimed. Hunter narrowed his eyes as he realised both Luz and Amity’s hair and outfits seemed more messy than usual. It wasn’t his business, of course, but it certainly seemed suspicious. Especially considering Amity was now wearing a dopey grin with a wash of pink over her usually pale face. 

Camila clapped her hands which broke the atmosphere, which was previously static with excitement. 

“Right, let’s go pay then!” 

The teens all gathered to watch the items go through the till. They were all enamoured by the machine that made them move over a counter with no help and no magic. Hunter couldn’t work out what made it move - it seemed to be doing it all by itself. He could hear Luz giggling behind him and suddenly felt insecure that it was about him and his lack of knowledge about the Human Realm. He tried to convince himself that it wasn’t - especially considering the other witches were just as confused - but he still felt weirdly worried about it. 

After everything had been bought, they had to pack the food into large bags. Then, they each had to carry a bag to the car. He had had the heaviest bag, but Willow took it from him, claiming she’d be able to carry it easier (then winked at him, which only made his face and ears heat up). 

Hunter couldn’t help but scowl when he noticed Luz and Amity carrying one bag between them, each holding onto one handle each - they could be too cutesy for their own good sometimes. 

Once the bags were in the car, the witches and humans got in afterwards, ready to go back home. Like a regular occurrence, Willow instantly grabbed his arm with a comforting smile, helping him to brace for the journey. 

“So, did everyone enjoy shopping today?” Camila asked. 

“I loved it!” Gus replied in excitement.

“It was… fun to see the differences in the Human Realm,” Hunter said. 

“Shopping with Luz was amazing,” Amity added, giving Luz a loving smile. Hunter noticed Willow rolling her eyes with an adoring grin. 

As everyone chatted about the day, Hunter turned to Willow.

“Uh, thanks, Captain,” he said somewhat awkwardly, looking down at their intertwined hands. Her face flushed a pale pink.

“No problem, Caleb,” she replied softly, snuggling against him slightly. Hunter made the most of this warmth, wrapping his arm around her shoulder to pull her in tighter, revelling in the comfort it gave him.

Chapter Text

Amity awoke the next day to the most gorgeous view: Luz. Since the teens couldn’t just sleep on the floor of the living room every night, they had to do some brainstorming to figure out where to sleep. It resulted in Amity sleeping cuddled with Luz on the bottom bunk, while Vee was on the top bunk and Willow was on the floor. Whilst Gus and Hunter had to sleep on the sofas downstairs. They weren’t the most ideal sleeping places, but they were better than nothing. Besides, Amity definitely got the best deal with getting to cuddle with Luz. 

Amity just laid there, staring at Luz, until the other girl woke up. She smiled sleepily at Amity. 

“Good morning, batata,” Amity said softly to Luz, before giving her a kiss on her forehead. Luz burrowed into the kiss slightly. 

“You do realise there are other people in the room, right?” Willow said from a little across the room. Both Luz and Amity’s eyes widened, then they looked at Willow with awkward chuckles. Willow simply rolled her eyes.

“Vee’s already downstairs, and I’m going now so you can carry on doing your cringe-fest,” she said, though there was a grin on her lips. 

“Byee!” Luz said, bringing one of her arms out of the blankets to wave at her. 

Once Willow had left, the two girls rolled back to face each other. 

“Where were we~” Luz asked, trying to sound sultry. It didn’t really work considering her voice was dry from lack of water while sleeping.

Amity let out a light laugh, “I was just saying good morning,” she said. 

“Oh,” Luz replied, subdued. Only for a moment though, then she grinned brightly. 

“Well good morning to you too!” She kissed Amity lightly on the lips. Amity melted into the touch, desperate for more. So, she moved closer so they could deepen the kiss. 

“I am so glad we can do that now,” she said with a gasp when they finally split apart. 

“Good job you had the confidence,” Luz commented. 

“I’m glad I got to share a bed with you,” Amity murmured, “you’re so warm during the night.”

“I’m surprised mum let me,” Luz said with a chuckle. “Though I suppose she doesn’t think we’ll do anything ‘funny’ if we’re sharing a room with Vee and Willow.”

“Funny?”

Luz waved her hand to brush it off. “I’ll explain later, it’s just one of those things.” Amity raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything further. 

After a few moments, Luz sat up. 

“Anyway, I think we should go downstairs and see everyone else!” she declared. Amity whined at the loss of warmth, but ultimately followed Luz down the stairs where everyone was already eating breakfast. Luz bounded over to everybody to say hello, while Amity just awkwardly sat at the table with a small smile. 

“What would you like for breakfast, Amity?” Camila asked. “We have cereal, toast, poptarts... ” Gus and Hunter started looking at Amity while waggling their eyebrows and pointing to their plates when Camila said the last one which slightly confused Amity. 

“Umm, I’m not sure,” she replied. “What’s everyone else got?”

“Pop tarts!” Gus and Hunter exclaimed at the same time before high-fiving.
“I’ve got fruit loops,” Willow said. Vee had her mouth full but nodded while gesturing to her bowl which contained the same colourful hoops as Willow’s. 

“I’ll probably have some toast and nutella,” Luz added, looking for something through the kitchen cupboards. 

“Umm, can I have fruit loops please,” she asked. 

“Sure cariño,” Camila said, placing a bowl and spoon in front of her, then gesturing to the box of cereal and carton of milk already on the table. 

“Thank you, Camila,” she said, slightly embarrassed. It still felt odd to her to call the older woman by her first name, but she had insisted so Amity knew it would be ruder to disrespect her wishes. 

Amity delicately poured in the milk, unsure of how much to put in. She glanced at Willow and Vee’s bowls to help gauge a measurement, but she also didn’t know how much they’d had already. 

Suddenly, Luz let out a gasp. 

“Amity, you pour the milk first?!” she exclaimed. Instantly, Amity’s face went red and she glanced between the bowl and Luz.

“I’m sorry, was I not supposed to? I’ve never had cereal before.”

“No, no, it’s okay! It’s just a big debate online about which to put first, with the majority saying cereal. I agree, you put in the amount of cereal you want then add the milk depending on how soggy you want it.”

“How soggy?” 

“Mmhmm,” Luz nodded with a wide smile. 

Amity frowned and stared at her bowl.

“Can I start over?” she asked. 

Luz let out a light laugh, “Sure.” She grabbed another bowl, and handed it to Amity along with the cereal. 

“Oh, I don’t want to waste your bowls-” Amity started, but was interrupted by Luz holding her hand up.

“It’s completely fine, just take it.” Luz practically shoved the bowl into Amity’s hand, so she had no choice but to. 

Amity then had to decide how much cereal she should have. As she poured, she kept looking at Luz as if expecting her to help, but the human just watched with a smile.

In the end, she decided to fill the bowl just under halfway, knowing (or hoping) she could just have more if needed. Then, she grabbed her other bowl and started pouring the milk in. She still didn’t know how much to add in, so went until she could see some milk coming through the loops. 

Amity started chewing tentatively, as if expecting them to eat her back. Which, if they were in the Boiling Isles, they probably would have. After she started, Luz left to sort out her own breakfast. 

A couple of minutes later, Luz came back with toasted bread and some sort of brown topping. 

“What’s that?” Amity asked.

“Nutella, it’s a nutty chocolate spread.” Upon Amity’s raised eyebrow, Luz let out a laugh. “Wanna try?” Amity nodded in response, so Luz held it to her mouth to take a bite. Amity let the flavour explode on her tongue and gave an approving hum.

“That’s so good! Wanna swap?” 

Luz let out a laugh then deadpanned when she saw Amity's face. “Oh, you were serious?” Amity nodded. “Have your fruit loops, you looked like you liked them. Then you can have this tomorrow.” Amity pouted, but after seeing Luz wasn’t going to back down, she finally finished her own breakfast.

The fruit loops weren’t bad, but they also weren’t as good as Luz’s nutella. At least they were tasty enough for Amity to finish them, and even have seconds. 

After breakfast, the crew all went and got ready for the day. Amity put on a simple black dress, which had lace patterning at the top of the chest, and down the long sleeves. She then put on a new pair of red leggings she’d bought the day before, since her other ones were destroyed. Luz herself put on a different, pale green, cat hoodie with a pair of shorts, with black leggings underneath. 

“Ooh, you’re so cute!” Luz said, pulling Amity into a deep hug. 

“You two have really gotta stop,” Willow said in a deadpan voice, but was still wearing a smile on her face. She was wearing one of her ‘save the bees’ t-shirts alongside a pair of baggy jeans. 

“You’re just jealous,” Luz replied, sticking her tongue out. 

Willow rolled her eyes, still grinning. “I don’t think so.” 

Before anyone could reply, Hunter came crashing through the door. 

“Hunter! We could be getting changed!” Amity shrieked, taken by surprise by the sudden noise. 

“Sorry, sorry, I just wanted to show you all my outfit!” He said, grinning as he widened his arms to show the full outfit.

Immediately, the three girls’ eyes widened, and Luz was visibly holding back a snicker. 

Hunter was wearing navy blue ripped jeans, with a black ‘punk rock’ graphic tee. He had then put a bright red hoodie over the top, with a blue denim jacket over the top of that. To top it off, he had put on a khaki green fishing hat.

He stood there for a few moments, even doing jazz hands at one point, waiting for someone to say something. 

Eventually, Luz burst out in laughter, almost doubling-over as she cackled. Every time she tried to speak, she would look up, spot Hunter again, and start laughing even harder. 

Hunter scowled. “It’s not that bad, is it?” Even Willow started chuckling slightly.

“I’m sorry Hunter, but it’s really… awful.” she admitted. Hunter furrowed his brows.

“I thought I did quite well,” he said, sounding quite hurt. 

“I just don’t think black’s your colour,” Amity finally said. “Navy works, but I think you’re suited to more paler colours. Beige and yellow and the sort.” This seemed to make something snap in Hunter as he yelled back.

“Well I like black! I like the gothic style. Just because you seem to want to be the only goth here!”

“I’m not trying to be the only goth!” Amity countered. “I’m just saying what I’ve observed.”

“Oh, like you’re the fashion genius,” Hunter said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. 

“Well I’m certainly better than you!” 

The two witches stared at each other, pure anger filling both of their eyes as their breaths remained heavy. At some point, Luz had recovered from laughing, and stood between them, looking slightly anxious. 

“Hey, calm it down you two,” she said softly. “I don’t doubt either of your abilities, but also Hunter, that isn’t really practical for the summer weather. Maybe Willow can help you decide on something else?” Hunter grumbled at that, but didn’t physically protest. So, the two left the room, leaving Luz and Amity. 

“You okay?” Luz asked.

Amity nodded. “Yeah, I just don’t know why he got so mad. I suppose I shouldn’t have shouted back either though…” she trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. 

“I get it, you don’t overly like him, but we all should really work together to stop any major conflict.”

Amity let out a sigh. “I know Luz. And he is growing on me. I can relate to him a lot, you know? I feel that’s a good base level for bonding.”

“Sure,” Luz replied, somewhat awkwardly. “Anyway, let’s go downstairs, I wanna show you all some fun music!” 

Downstairs, Hunter had been changed into a plain maroon t-shirt to go along with his navy jeans. 

“There, you look amazing!” Luz admired as she walked him. 

“Thanks,” he replied with a bashful grin. 

Gus was wearing a blue polo shirt with a white pair of shorts, while Vee wore a yellow summer dress. Something Luz realised wasn’t hers, and was actually something Vee had chosen since coming here.

“So, wanna hear some human music?” Luz asked, as she sat in the circle on the floor that the other four teens had started. 

“Haven’t you already showed us some during HAS?” Gus asked.

“That was only the start of it! Now I have WiFi, I can show you some more that I haven’t downloaded.” There was a round of murmurs of agreement from the rest of the teens, so Luz grabbed her phone to find what to play first. 

Luz glanced back up at the group, before a mischievous grin formed on her face. Amity was suddenly both curious and anxious about what her girlfriend was thinking. 

A few moments later, loud heavy metal rock music blared out of her phone speakers. Amity clasped her hands to her ears, as did most of the group, feeling pain thumping in her head. Luz let out an awkward chuckle at that and turned down the volume - she’d forgotten witch’s ears were more sensitive than humans. 

One person who didn’t look hurt was Hunter. Instead, he was shaking his head to the music and completely feeling the rhythm. His eyes were shut and he seemed to block out everyone else as he listened to it. Luz found it so adorable that she played a few more songs so he could have some time to just relax into the music. Amity agreed with that action - Titan knew he needed it. 

When Luz turned off the music, Hunter opened his eyes in slight surprise mixed with disappointment. 

“Sorry Hunter, I wanna listen to some other music,” Luz admitted. 

After a few more moments of Luz scrolling through her phone, her eyes brightened. 

“Now this is something you’ll probably definitely relate to!” she exclaimed, facing Amity, who felt slightly embarrassed at being singled out. Luz put it on and told Amity to wait and listen to the lyrics. 

Amity sat there waiting, thinking Luz was making it up, until the second verse came on. 

High achiever, don’t you see? Baby, nothing comes for free.

Amity’s eyes widened and she felt her face heating up as she realised what this was relating to. Back when Amity first met Luz, she was definitely a high achiever, who worked way too hard for little rewards. She had even written multiple times in her diary that she did so because nothing came for free. 

Amity carried on listening to the song, enjoying the melody, though feeling slightly called out by the lyrics.

“ ‘Are You Satisfied?’ by Marina ,” Luz said when the song finished, “I think you’ll relate to a few of her songs.” With that, Luz played a couple more songs which Amity recognised as the same singer. Again, she related to all of the lyrics, to an embarrassingly high extent. 

“I’ll let you explore her music properly later on,” Luz said, giving her a peck on her cheeks. “Now, let’s see, what else might you all like…”

A few hours later (including a lunch break), it felt like Luz had played all the music there was to exist. Yet she insisted that there were still so many more genres to play. Everyone else seemed invested (though Hunter kept asking when she was going to play heavy metal rock again), but Amity could feel boredom seeping through her brain. She glanced around, and noticed Camila in the kitchen, getting a few pans and food items out. Amity didn’t want to disturb her girlfriend, but she also wanted to see what Camila was making.

Luckily she didn’t have to worry, as Luz noticed her peering around.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I was just wondering what your mum’s doing,” Amity admitted sheepishly. 

“I think she’s cooking dinner.” Amity nodded slowly in response. “Do you want to help her?” Luz asked.

“Oh, I don’t wanna disturb your music,”

“It’s totally fine!” Luz exclaimed. “Besides, this will help improve your cooking.”

“Thank- wait.” Amity narrowed her eyes. “Do you think my cooking needs improving?” 

Luz’s eyes widened at that. “O-of course not, now, uh, go have fun cooking!” 

“Sure…” Amity said slowly, before getting up, still glaring at Luz. Of course, she didn’t really think that Luz hated her cooking (she’d told her she loved her fairy pie after all), but it was funny to tease her. 

“Hello cariño, you enjoyed listening to the music?” Camila asked when she noticed Amity hovering near her. 

“Yes, it’s been interesting, thank you,” Amity replied politely. 

“What can I do for you?”

“I was, um, I was wondering if I could join you with cooking?” 

Camila’s face instantly brightened. “Of course you can! I’m making some homemade burgers and sweet potato fries. I’m in the middle of making the patties” - she gestured to the bowl full of mincemeat and spices her hands were in - “but you could cut up the sweet potato into fries for me.” Amity nodded in response and went to move before pausing.

“Wait, sweet potato is a food?” 

Camila’s eyes widened as she looked completely shocked. “Your pet name for Luz is literally sweet potato, did you not know what it was?!”

“No, the human language book was… difficult to figure out to say the least.”

“Human language book?” 

“Gus gave it to me. It contains the same phrases in both of Luz’s human languages. I wanted to learn it for Luz…” Amity felt her face heat up slightly as she admitted this to her girlfriend’s mother. Thankfully, Camila looked at her adoringly. 

“That is so sweet! You seem like such a cute girlfriend for my daughter.”

“Thanks,” Amity replied in a bashful whisper. 

“Anyway,” Camila walked across the room to pick up an odd-shaped, orange vegetable, “this is a sweet potato.” 

Amity stared at it for a moment. “This is a lot less… exciting than I thought.”

“But very tasty,” Camila said with a wink. “Now, cut the ends off, then cut into thin strips - you have fries in the Boiling Isles don’t you?” Amity shook her head. “Oh, well, about this long and this wide.” Camila gestured with her hands to show the size.

“Okay!” Amity replied with a determined glint in her eyes. 

For the next twenty minutes, Amity focused on the sweet potatoes to meticulously cut them into perfect sized fries. She needed them to be perfect to show off to Camila that she could do it.

Once she had cut many fries - enough to feed the whole crew - she presented them to Camila with a nervous smile. 

“Perfect, Amity. Next we season them.”

Camila showed Amity how to season them, with herbs and spices that Amity didn’t recognise. 

“Normally I make them more spicy, but I’m not sure how accustomed you all are to spice and I don’t want to make them too hard for you all to eat.”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine, there’s a lot of tough food in the Boiling Isles,” Amity tried to brush it off, but Camila just gave her a knowing smile. 

Once the fries were ready, Camila put them into the ‘oven’ along with the burger patties, before clapping her hands.

“Last step to being a great cook is always cleaning the workplace,” Camila said. “You wanna wash or dry?”

“Wash?” 

“Amazing.”

So, the pair washed and dried everything together, then Amity helped Camila put things away (which was mostly Camila telling Amity where to put everything). Once that was done, Amity went and sat with her friends again (who were now listening to something called ‘jazz music’) until it was ready. Upon arrival, Luz grabbed one of her hands and gave it a squeeze before holding it for the rest of the time before dinner was ready. 

Chapter Text

Willow was thoroughly enjoying listening to the human music. Luz showed her ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ which was a quick-paced piece of classical music that she absolutely adored. She also really liked the jazz music.

The highlight of the day had to be the meal though. Amity had left to help Camila with the cooking, and after it had started cooking, it smelt really good. Willow couldn’t wait to find out what proper human food tasted like. 

When it was ready, Camila called everyone over to have the meal. 

“We have burgers and sweet potato fries,” Camila explained to everyone as she served up.

Luz gasped, “Cannibalism!” she whispered facing Amity, who let out a giggle. 

“If they taste as good as they sound then I won’t even mind it,” she replied, causing Luz to put on a faux offended expression. 

“They are really good though,” she admitted quite sheepishly. 

Willow sat next to Hunter at the table and gave him a small smile. 

“You think you’re going to like this?” she asked him. 

“I hope so,” he replied simply. 

“What food did they eat in the Emperor’s Coven?” Gus asked. Willow could have face palmed then and there - that was not the sort of question you were supposed to ask Hunter! Thankfully, Hunter took it in his stride.

“Ration foods while on missions, then just different foods on a day to day basis. I think I remember a scout comparing it to ‘school dinner food’,” he explained with a shrug. Willow let out a giggle at that.

“I can imagine,” she said.

The crew dug into the food. Willow let out a loud gasp at the explosion of flavours from the burger. 

“Wow! This is so good!” she exclaimed, greedily taking another bite as soon as she could. There were murmurs of agreement from everyone else. 

Amity tried the sweet potato fries first.

“So this is what love tastes like?” she said, a glint of wonder in her eyes. Luz let out a giggle.

“Considering you’re my sweet potato, I would say so,” she said with a wink. Willow resisted rolling her eyes at the cutesy flirting. 

There was little chatter at the table whilst they ate. The air was filled with loud chewing and sounds of enjoyment at the meal. All plates were clear by the time they were finished.

“Wow, who knew such a simple meal would be so loved,” Camila chuckled, as she started clearing up the plates.

“It’s one of your best meals to be fair, mami,” Luz said.

“Gracias, cariño,” Camila replied, giving her a kiss on her cheek as she walked past. 

“Here, let me help with the washing up,” Willow offered, starting to collect the plates on her side of the table.

“Me too,” Hunter hastily added. Camila looked between Hunter and Willow with a look of amusement. 

“Sure, but we’ll have dessert first,” she replied.

“Ooh, can I help?” Amity asked.

“Well, sure you can,” Camila replied. 

While Camila and Amity were serving up the dessert, conversation broke out on the table. 

“Human food is so tasty!” Gus exclaimed, waving his hands around with excitement. 

“Woah, careful,” Luz said with a giggle, “but I do agree. Especially mum’s food, she’s an excellent cook.”

“I’ve learnt that in the past few weeks,” Vee agreed. “She makes amazing soup!”

Luz chuckled. “Very true. That soup is such a saviour when you’re ill.”

“I haven’t gotten ill yet.”

“Don’t worry, you will, and you’ll be treated to the soup.”

“Ooh!” 

“Maybe she should have given us soup when we got here the other day,” Willow said with a lighthearted grin.

“You’re so right, how disappointing,” Luz replied with a dramatic sigh. 

“Desserts up!” Amity said, walking to the table, holding a couple of bowls, which she placed in front of Vee and Gus, before going back to the kitchen. Camila placed the bowls she was holding down in front of Hunter and Willow, then sat back in her seat as Amity brought in three bowls, which she put in front of Camila, Luz, and then herself. 

“What’s this?” Gus asked with curiosity. 

“It’s called a ‘banana’ split,” Amity explained, “a banana cut in half with ice cream in the middle and some chocolate sauce on top.”

“Correct, Amity,” Camila beamed. 

“It needs some sprinkles,” Luz decided. 

Camila rolled her eyes adoringly. “Fine, go get some sprinkles.”

“Woohoo!” Luz exclaimed, running to a kitchen cupboard to get a small tub of tiny, multi-coloured balls. She poured them on top of everyone’s (except Camila’s) dessert. 

Willow noticed Hunter prodding his dessert. 

“You okay?” she asked. 

“This is a banana?” Hunter looked up at Luz. 

“What? Yeah?” she replied, confusion etched on her face.

“How does this have anything to do with going into the Emperor’s mind?!”

The rest of the group looked between Hunter and Luz, perplexion filling the atmosphere. 

“What?” Luz asked in bewilderment, then she realised and let out a laugh. “Ohh, no, that’s a phrase, it means it’s crazy.” Hunter looked at the banana, then at Luz, then back at the fruit, and back to the human.
“How does that have anything to do with this?!” He asked, stabbing his banana.

“I don’t know,” Luz shrugged. “It’s just one of those phrases. I can’t believe we didn’t explain it in our human lesson, honestly…” she muttered. Then she looked up at everyone and raised her volume. “Okay everyone, saying something is bananas means that it’s crazy, okay?”

“Okay,” everyone chorused at the same time. 

Once Luz put the sprinkles away, and sat back at the table, everyone started eating their desserts. Willow found it tasty, but also extremely sweet. That would be expected from Luz, but it still meant she couldn’t actually finish the meal. In fact, the only witch who did was Gus, the rest found it too much.

“Wow, that was so good!” Gus exclaimed at the end. “Human’s really do have the best cuisine.”

“Well, this is only American cuisine,” Luz said. “Mami can make killer Dominican cuisine too. And there are so many different countries, you’ve gotta try them all!”

“Them all?!” 

“Well, maybe not them all,” Luz said sheepishly, “that might be difficult. But the majority.”

“I bet they’ll all be great,” Gus decided firmly, eliciting a chuckle from Camila. 

Luz turned her conversation to Amity.

“How was it, sweet potato?” she asked. 

“Like you,” Amity said. Upon Luz’s confused expression, she said, “Too sweet for its own good.”

“Aww,” Luz crooned, before narrowing her eyes and taking on a serious tone. “Wait, that’s a compliment, right?”

Amity giggled. “It’s a compliment for you,” she said, “but I couldn’t deal with how sweet this dessert was.”

“That’s fair, I do have a really sweet tooth,” she admitted sheepishly.

Hunter and Willow went and helped Camila with the washing up. Willow washed while Hunter dried and Camila put away. The two teens conversed while doing so, smiling almost the whole time.

After the kitchen was clean, the three went and joined everyone else watching TV. There was no space on the sofa, so Hunter and Willow sat on the floor in front of it. In a bold move, Willow grabbed Hunter’s hand, not daring to look at Hunter for a reaction in fear of embarrassment. Thankfully, he didn’t let go of the handhold, which caused a light flushing on Willow’s face. 

They stayed holding hands for the rest of the evening, revelling in each other’s warmth. 

Chapter Text

The next day, the crew didn’t have much planned to do. So, during breakfast, Luz proposed an idea.

“How about tonight we have a ‘girlie night’ sleepover?” she asked, looking at Amity, Willow, and Vee. 

“Yeah, sounds good,” Willow said. 

“What’s a sleepover?” Vee asked. 

“We do fun activities together, like painting each other’s nails, gossiping, and watching movies. Then we try to stay up for as long as possible, but will eventually end up falling asleep at 3am in a big heap on the ground!” Luz exclaimed, then faltered. “I presume… I, uh, never actually had sleepovers before going to the Demon Realm.” The rest of the table glanced at each other worriedly. “But that doesn’t matter!” - Luz’s tone picked up again - “Because now I can!”

“Sounds good!” Vee said warmly. 

“Yeah, I’m down for it. It’ll definitely be better than the sleepovers I had in the Demon Realm,” Amity added.

“Great, I’m super excited!” Luz said, excitement filling her tone. 

“What about us?” Gus asked with puppy dog eyes, a moment later. 

“We can have our own sleepover,” Hunter replied, glaring at Luz. “A ‘boys only ’ sleepover.”

“Ooh cool! Wait, what makes it a boy sleepover?"

“Well for one, we won’t be painting each other’s nails like girls. Oh no, we’ll be doing masculine activities.” Hunter flexed his muscles making everyone else on the table laugh.

“Ohh, I get it,” Gus said in a tone that suggested he didn’t understand at all. 

“That sounds fun,” Camila said warmly. “But what are you going to do during the day? I don’t want you to get bored and start wreaking havoc around the house.” Camila said in a tone, shuddering slightly, as Luz gave her a sheepish smile. 

“I was actually wondering if you have any dumbbells for me to borrow. I haven’t worked out in a while and I usually do every day.” Willow asked politely. 

“I don’t, sorry, cariño,” Camila said apologetically, “but you could join a gym?”

“What’s a gym?” Willow asked. 

Camila blinked. “You don’t have gyms in the Boiling Isles?”

“No,” Willow replied with a shake of her head. 

“Oh. Well they’re buildings full of different workout machines for you to do whatever you want. In fact, I think I still have memberships from when me and Luz joined one a few months ago, and went once but never again.” Camila said, getting up from the table and searching through a drawer until she found them. “Here you go, I’ll drive you there later.”

“Cool, thanks!” Willow exclaimed. 

“C-can I go too?” Hunter asked nervously. 

“Of course, I do have two memberships after all.”

“Oh nice!” Willow exclaimed. “It’ll be so fun to be able to work out with you!” 

“I’m looking forward to it,” Hunter said, a blush forming on her face. 

Willow and Hunter had to borrow some gym clothes considering they didn’t have any with them, and didn’t think to buy any when they were shopping. They didn’t quite fit, but it didn’t matter that much. 

Camila drove the two to the gym. 

“How long do you think you’ll need?” she asked when she parked up.

“A couple of hours?” Willow suggested, looking at Hunter who nodded.

“Okay, see you then!” Camila said, giving them a wave as they got out of the car and went into the gym. 

“This will be fun!” Willow said.

“Yeah, just don’t be too sad when I do better than you,” Hunter said with a wink, eliciting a chuckle from Willow.

“Yeah, right, I saw your ‘muscles’ at the breakfast table. There’s no way!” 

“We’ll see about that!” Hunter decided. 

As soon as the pair walked into the gym, Willow’s eyes lit up and she let out a loud gasp. She had never seen anything as beautiful as what she was seeing there. So many machines to target different parts of the body and workouts a person might want to do. She wandered around the room, checking everything out, and seeing which ones would be best for her. Hunter followed behind her, clearly not knowing what was going on, but wanting to be with her anyway.

“What do you want to target?” Willow asked. Hunter frowned.

“Why am I targeting someone?” 

Willow laughed. “No, I mean what part of your body do you want to focus on in your workouts?”

“Oh, I don’t know. What are you doing?”

“I thought I’d do some cardio then focus on arms.”

“Sounds good, I’ll do the same.”

Willow led the way to something called a ‘treadmill’. It was used to be able to adjust speed and incline to walk or run on it. Willow loved running outside to look at nature while she went, but she wanted to try out this fun human invention. She picked one, and started fiddling around with the settings to see what she wanted. Hunter took the one next to her, and just looked at her helplessly, lost on what to do. Willow giggled as she noticed him staring. 

“Do you want to run or walk?”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m running to help with my cardio.”

“I’ll do that then.”

Willow giggled again. “Okay, they have different workouts set on here, I’m choosing the ‘cardio’ one, you can choose your own difficulty.”

“Okay.”

A moment later, Hunter spoke up again.

“What difficulty are you choosing?”

Willow giggled for the third time. “Hunter, you can’t keep doing the same thing as me, we might need different difficulties. If you’re unsure, choose medium and if it’s too hard then go down to ‘easy’ and if it’s too easy, go to ‘hard’.”

“Okay.”

Willow decided to choose ‘medium’, going by her own logic. She didn’t know what human difficulties were like, and didn’t want to act too confident by choosing something harder. 

It turned out that ‘medium’ was exactly the right level to push her enough without absolutely killing her. By the end, she was sweating hard and she was sure her face was bright red. Thankfully, she had a damp towel with her (Camila’s idea) to be able to wipe some of the sweat away. But not before making eye contact with Hunter. The sweat glistened beautifully on his body, and made his hair look messy in the best way. Willow’s eyes widened and she thanked the fact that her face was already red so he couldn’t see her blushing hard. He too was looking at her, unmoving, for a moment, until Willow spoke up and startled him slightly.

“So, did you enjoy that?” she asked him.

“‘Medium’ was slightly too low for me, so I turned it up to ‘hard’, which was much better for me. Great advice though, I probably would have gone for the hardest and died.”

Willow giggled (wow, she was doing that a lot). “See, I know what I’m talking about,” she said with a wink before strutting off to the weight machines. She could feel her heart racing - and it wasn’t because of the workout. 

Willow at least knew how much weight she could lift, which would make this easier for her. She went over to the bar, and grabbed weights from the rack, making it so there was 55kg each side, totally to 110kg. 

“Woah, you’re going to lift all that?” Hunter said with awe in his voice. 

“Of course, this is easy.” she replied. 

Willow went to lay down on the seat so she would be able to lift the weights above her, but before she could even lift them, she heard a man scoff from beside her.

“You’re never going to be able to lift all that. A little girl like you shouldn’t go above 30kg.” 

Willow instantly sat up, raising an eyebrow. A man with large muscles and an arrogant face was looking at her in disgust. 

“What did you say?” she asked.

“Hey, I’m just looking out for you,” he said, raising his arms in mock surrender. “Don’t want you hurting anything.”

Willow didn’t say anything further. She just rolled her eyes and went back to doing her workout. She easily did 15 reps, barely breaking a sweat. She waited 30 seconds to repeat it, then had another 30 second break to repeat a third time.

It wasn’t until after then that she sat back up and gave the man a look. He sneered back at her. 

“Yess! That’s my girl!” Hunter exclaimed, rushing over to hug her. He didn’t seem to mind her sweat-covered body, and she certainly didn’t mind his. She hugged him back, her eyes shining with exhilaration.

“I sure showed him, didn’t I?” she said with a light chuckle. 

“It’s his own fault for doubting my Willow!” Hunter exclaimed. He apparently didn’t notice the use of ‘my’, but Willow certainly did. Her face went even more red, and it took all her energy to not kiss him then and there. It would have been an iconic moment (as humans say) but she also didn’t know if he liked her back and didn’t want to embarrass herself. 

Instead, she just grinned back.

“I’m certainly inclined to agree,” another man said. He too was extremely muscular, but he instead had a soft and proud look on his face. “You showed him up, and in an impressive way too! You pack a lot of strength in that small body of yours.”

“Thanks,” Willow replied bashfully. “I’ve been working out with my parents for a lot of my life, so I’ve been able to work my way up.”

“Well, keep going, and never let jerks like him bring you down.” The man then leant forward. “Oh, and this boyfriend of yours is definitely a keeper,” he said with a wink before going back to what he was doing. 

Instantly, both Willow and Hunter’s eyes widened and they quickly split apart, avoiding eye contact. 

There was a moment of silence before Hunter let out an awkward cough.

“Well, I should go and find an arm workout to do,” he said, standing up and walking backwards well awkwardly waving. He ended up tripping over a dumbbell behind him and chuckled before turning around and practically running away. Willow just watched him go, not knowing what to say. 

She blinked a couple of times then stood up with a laugh directed towards anyone who was paying attention to what happened. She went over to the dumbbells and focused all of her attention onto that. That meant she did slightly more than she normally would have done, but she needed to deter seeing Hunter for a while.

It’s not that Willow didn’t like Hunter like that, no, it was actually the opposite. She had a huge crush on him. Had done since he’d rescued her from Darius. Sure, it was a quickly developed crush which, technically, should have quickly gone away. Except it didn’t. It only got worse every time she saw him. And now they’re in the Human Realm together, spending all their time together, and Willow was getting more and more flustered around him. She just wished she could find out what he thought of her. Did he have a crush on her too? She really hoped so.

Of course, Willow could just ask Luz or Gus to figure it out, but she was also afraid of that. And if Luz managed to figure out Amity had a crush on her after ages, then Willow surely stood a chance too? 

Eventually Willow had to put down the dumbbells so as not to exert herself. She wandered through the gym trying to figure out where Hunter was. She finally found him struggling to use a leg weight machine on his arms.

“That’s not how you use that,” she said with a chuckle.

“Oh, how do I, then?” he asked.

“Well, first, it’s for your legs,” she explained, sitting him up so he could put the bar over his ankles. She tried to ignore the contact she was having with him, reminding herself that this was strictly professional. “Then, you just lift your legs up. Make sure to bring them down at the same speed as bringing them up, don’t speed up.”

“Okay,” he whispered, his face tinged with red, presumably due to embarrassment. 

Willow watched as Hunter did the workout. He was struggling much less, and actually seemed proud of himself when he succeeded. 

“Hey, I did it!” he exclaimed. 

“Yeah, that’s great!” Willow replied. 

“What shall we do now?” Hunter asked, full of joy and excitement. Willow glanced up at the clock.

“Actually, Camila’s gonna be here in a few minutes, let’s just do some stretches to cool down instead.”

So, Willow led Hunter through some stretches, making sure to target all where they worked out. Hunter seemed to get confused over this as well, though Willow wasn’t sure how - they weren’t exactly difficult. But she just accepted it as one of his quirks. 

As Hunter and Willow sat in the backseat of Camila’s car, there was slight awkwardness residing in the air. Both teens remembered what that man had said about them, but neither wanted to accept that the other person had a crush on them. But they both wanted to confess their love to each other. So, they were stuck in the middle, both waiting for the other to make a move.

Willow hoped that this sleepover would help her gain the confidence to do it instead.

Chapter Text

After Willow and Hunter got back from the gym, the group ate and separated for their respective sleepovers. 

The girls headed upstairs. 

“So, how is this going to be any different than normal?” Vee asked. “We all share a room anyway.”

“It’s the principle,” Luz said. “Besides, we can do fun activities. Like painting each other’s nails!”

Luz rushed across the room and opened one of the drawers and pulled out a bundle of nail polish bottles. 

“Here!” She placed them all on the floor in a messy heap. All three girls stared at her blankly. Luz stared back for a moment, waiting for them to say something. “...what?”

“What are these?” Vee asked. 

“Nail polish!”

“What’s nail polish?” Amity asked. 

“To… paint our nails with?” The witches kept staring at her, but Vee looked like she was understanding. “What do you use?”

“Magic, why do you think my nail polish never chips?” Amity said, showing off her black nail polish to Luz, as if she’d never seen it before. 

“Ohh, I thought you just had really good nail polish, or repainted all the time.”

“No, it’s magic!”

“Well, humans don’t have magic, so what do you expect?” Luz said. Amity and Willow looked down.

“Yeah, fair enough,” Willow said. 

“Painting nails with friends is sooo fun anyway, you’re missing out,” Luz said, before faltering. “...Probably. I’ve never actually done it,” she said with an awkward chuckle. “Anyway, Willow lemme paint your nails! What colours?” 

Willow looked through the nail polish pile, deciding what she wanted. 

“Can I alternate between yellow and black?” she asked. 

“Of course!” Luz exclaimed, taking them up and gently grabbing one of Willow’s hands. “The black is kinda bad, but I’ll just do a few layers.”

Luz shuffled forward so she was closer to Willow to properly see her nails. 

“Oh, and Amity, you could paint Vee’s?” she suggested. 

“Of course, what colour do you want Vee?” Vee settled on green, so the room quickly filled with the bitter smell of nail polish. 

The four girls chatted to each other, and the conversation soon turned to discussing Hunter. Specifically, Willow’s feelings about him.

“So, how was going to the gym with Hunter~?” Luz asked, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“Great! He’s a really good gym partner.”

“How about without the gym?” Luz asked with a chuckle.

“What do you mean?” Willow asked. 

“She means as just a partner,” Amity explained with a roll of her eyes. 

“Oh,” Willow replied, her face blushing red. “I- I’m not sure he likes me.”

“Are you kidding?!” Luz exclaimed. “Everyone can see you’re both head over heels for each other!” 

“Is it really that obvious?” she asked. 

“Absolutely! You should really ask him out.”

“But I don’t wanna embarrass myself.”

Luz scoffed, carefully placed the nail polish on the floor, and grabbed Willow by the shoulders.

“You are Willow Park! The most badass witch I know who is afraid of nothing! I’ve seen you annihilate people on the Flyer Derby field, there is no way you’ll embarrass yourself asking out someone who clearly has a crush on you!” Willow went bright red and looked away bashfully.

“Thank you, Luz,” she whispered.

“No problem!” Luz said in the same motivating tone, causing Willow to giggle. “Now let me finish painting your nails so you look cute!”

Once Luz finished with Willow’s nails, Amity painted hers bright purple. 

“My favourite colour,” Luz said proudly, waggling her fingers, much to Amity’s annoyance. 

“Okay, what’s next?” Vee asked.

“Shall we get in our pyjamas then watch a movie? Mum got us some popcorn.”

“Sure,” Willow replied. 

So, the group got changed and put their blankets on the floor so they could snuggle against each other. They were a messy heap on the floor, with their limbs tangled that you could barely distinguish who’s were who’s. 

They decided to put on Good Witch Azura: Field of Deadly Fates since it was one of the only movies Luz actually had. She and Amity were able to quote the whole thing off by heart, whereas Vee and Willow just had to watch with no clue. 

As the movie went by, Willow started realising what it was.

“Ohh, so this is where you got the idea of the Thorn Vault,” she said, giving Luz a smirk.

“Duhh,” Luz said, “I told you that.”

“Oh, I couldn’t remember the name of the film,” Willow brushed her off. “Besides, I didn’t realise just how tropey and cheesy this movie was. No wonder you acted how you did.”

“Don’t remind me,” Luz said with a shadow of a grin; she hated how selfish was when she was supposed to be helping Willow. She was just glad Willow forgave her for it. 

After the movie ended, it had gotten quite late, and none of the group could be bothered to get up. Instead, they just laid in their weird pile, letting the end credits roll on.

“Would you guys still love me if I was a worm?” Luz suddenly asked, almost sounding sad, as if there was a possibility of it happening (which, to be fair, if they were on the Boiling Isles, it probably would have a high chance of happening). Her friends simply laughed at her, until they realised she was wearing a super serious expression.

“I would always love you, even if you were a worm,” Amity said, giving Luz a peck on her lips.

“Ew, get a room,” Willow protested, shoving the closest arm to her (which ended up being Luz’s). 

“I did have one, but it got infiltrated by some weirdos,” Luz whined. 

“Good job the weirdos are the best, right?” Amity grinned. Luz deadpanned for a moment.

“I guess!” she exclaimed. 

“I’m not sure,” Willow said.

“About what?”

“If I would still love you if you were a worm,” she explained, a smirk creeping up on her face. “I mean, you might eat my plants, or get eaten by a bird. That’s a lot to cope with, might be too much hard work.” She finished her sentence off with a wink, but Luz still let out a loud gasp.

“Ami, she said she won’t love me when I’m a worm!” she moaned, pouting at Amity, who took her in a hug and stroked her back.

“There, there, I’ve got you. I’ll always love you, even if others won’t,” she said, glaring at Willow who held her hands up in mock surrender.

“You’re welcome to the hard work,” she said to Amity. 

“Better than dating an ex-coven member,” Amity countered. 

It was like all the air had been sucked out of the room. Luz sat up and stared at Amity with wide eyes, while Willow clenched her jaw.

“What do you mean?” she asked through gritted teeth.

“Sure, he’s on our side now, but he didn’t used to be. Remember, he tried to get you to join the Emperor’s Coven against your choice.”

“He thought joining it would be the best thing! And when he realised we didn’t want it, he tried to rescue us! He’s a good friend and a good person, he was just manipulated.”

Amity scoffed. “Yeah, well I still don’t fully trust him, and I don’t want you to get hurt.” Amity’s tone went soft and she held her hand out to grab Willow’s in comfort.

Willow simply slapped her hand away.

“I don’t think you get to decide that,” she said firmly, crossing her arms.

“I’m just looking out for you!”

“Only took you five years of constant bullying to finally care about me again!” Willow yelled in response. Luz lightly gasped, and Vee simply glanced between Willow and Amity, slightly confused.

“Willow, I- that was because…”

“Your parents, right?” Willow said coolly. “They manipulated you, didn’t they?”

Amity looked down. “Yeah…” she mumbled. 

“Just like how Belos manipulated Hunter.”

“Yeah, Ams, I saw it all in Belos’s mind… he’s not a bad person.”

“But he did bad things! He hurt you, Luz!”

“And you did bad things, considering you used to hurt me for years,” Willow countered with an eyebrow raised. “You were mean to Luz when she first came, but you’ve changed - a lot. So why do you get to say Hunter won’t? That’s hypocritical.” Amity widened her eyes and gasped, then looked down.

“You’re right,” she said. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. 

“It’s okay, it’s just… it’s my life and I trust and like Hunter. I didn’t stop Luz dating you despite everything, so you can’t do the same with Hunter. And maybe you should open your eyes to him. He’s not a bad person nor friend, and he does like you.” Willow said.

“Okay, I- I’ll try,” Amity replied.

“Thanks,” Willow said with a smile. 

There was a moment of silence where Amity and Willow just smiled at each other, before Luz broke it with a loud cough.

“Anyway, now that’s done, Vee, what’s your answer?”

“Huh, to what?”

“Would you still love me if I were a worm?”

“Oh, sure, I’m pretty similar to a worm myself anyway.”

“Wow, look Willow! Everyone except you would love me!” Willow simply shrugged in response, causing Luz to throw a pillow at her in protest. 

That sparked a whole pillow fight, and soon the four girls were throwing pillows at each other with screams filling the air. Amity and Luz ended up teaming up, so Vee and Willow joined together to defeat them two. It got quite intense, with barriers made opposite ends of the room so they could plan proper attacks. 

They spent half an hour pillow fighting until they all finally collapsed to the floor, laughing together, bundled on the floor. 

“That was so fun!” Luz squealed. “I’ve always wanted to have a pillow fight,” she whispered to herself. 

Willow yawned. “I’m getting quite tired now,” she said. 

“Me too,” Amity agreed, placing her head on the crook of Luz’s neck so she could use her as a pillow. Vee had already fallen asleep. 

“What do you think the boys are doing right now?” Luz asked, still wide awake and wanting to continue the conversation. Willow mumbled a reply, but Amity simply let out a quiet snore. Luz chuckled lightly and tried to get to sleep herself, thinking about what Gus and Hunter had been doing at their ‘boys only’ sleepover.

____________________________________

Hunter and Gus set up camp in the living room. They already had to sleep in there, so their beds were easy enough to set up. 

“So, what do we do at ‘boys only’ sleepovers?” Hunter asked.

“I thought you knew!” Gus exclaimed.

“No, I only said that so as not to embarrass myself in front of the girls.”

Gus rolled his eyes and lightly punched Hunter’s arm. “You goof,” he said. 

“You must have had sleepovers before,” Hunter said, “what did you do then?” 

Gus shrugged. “We animated the Owl House once.”

Hunter’s eyes bulged out of his face. “The whole house?!” 

“Yeah, it was quite fun,” Gus grinned. 

“I don’t think we’ll be able to do that here,” Hunter said with a frown. “What do boys do?” 

“Play sports?”

“Considering the Captain’s a girl, I don’t think that’s overly true.”

“Excrete testosterone?”

“That sounds kinda gross.”

Gus frowned in thought. 

“Me and Matt would always discuss humans when we hung out, I don’t think that really applies here either.”

“Shall we make up another, more elaborate, handshake?” Hunter suggested. Gus immediately jumped up in excitement. 

“Yes!”

So, the two spent about an hour making up and learning an insanely difficult handshake. Neither of them minded though; they were both excited to show it off the next day to the girls. 

But, after they’d finished, they were back to their original predicament. 

“Okay, okay, why don’t we look on the TV and see what sort of shows are on?” Gus suggested. Hunter nodded, so they turned it on and started scrolling through the guide.

Eventually they managed to stumble onto something called the ‘History Channel’ which had a lineup of interesting looking shows. 

“That looks good!” Hunter exclaimed, pointing at the channel. 

“You read my mind,” Gus agreed, instantly clicking on it.

The two boys were enamoured by the show. It was the greatest thing they had ever watched. They decided this channel was absolutely the right choice and let it roll over to watch the next show, which was just as good as the first.

They spent the whole evening watching the channel, each show just as good as the previous. Until, eventually, they both fell asleep, leaning against each other with the TV still playing. 

*****

“So, how were your sleepovers?” Camila asked the next day.

“Amazing!” Luz exclaimed. “I’ve really been missing out all these years! I really hope I can have more now my friends are here!” she said, looking hopefully at her mum.

“I’m sure you can,” Camila replied. “Boys?”

“So good!” Hunter said, leaning backwards on his chair in an attempt to look cool. “Me and Gus came up with another great handshake.”

“Really? Let’s see!” Luz exclaimed, leaning forward with a glimmer of excited interest in her eyes. So, Hunter and Gus showed the rest of the table, who were all, admittedly, in awe of just how complicated it was. 

“What else did you do?” Camila asked.

“We watched something called the ‘History Channel’,” Gus enthused. Both Camila and Luz looked at them with raised eyebrows, while the rest just looked in interest, not knowing what that was. 

“Really?” Luz asked, trying to stifle a laugh.

“Yes! Got a problem?” Hunter asked.

“Nope! I think it’s cute that you two found a channel you both like,” Luz said, which everyone else nodded along to.

“Good.” Hunter said firmly. 

“We’re watching more tonight!” Gus exclaimed. This caused Luz to actually burst out laughing as much as she tried not to. She placed a hand over her mouth and collapsed into Amity, who patted her on the back with a giggle. 

Chapter Text

“So, when are we going on a date?” Amity asked innocently one dinner time, a couple of days after the sleepovers. Luz managed to give her a bewildered look before she promptly fell off her chair. “Oh, Luz, I’m so sorry!” Amity exclaimed, jumping out of her chair to make sure her girlfriend was okay. Luz let out an awkward chuckle. 

“It’s okay, that’s my fault, I just wasn’t expecting that.” 

“Oh, sorry, it’s just… you said you would take me on a date when ‘all this’ was over. I’m not sure what ‘all this’ is, but I want to go on a date with you.” Amity replied, taking a huge breath after speaking, having forgotten to do so during her rant. 

“Oh! Right! I- I did.” Luz sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. Amity’s face fell at that, which caused Luz to scramble to explain her stuff. “Not that I don’t want to go on one with you! I just don’t know what we could do… in the human realm! Or at all, honestly. You’re just so amazing and deserve perfection and-”

“Luz,” Amity interrupted with a warm voice. “As long as it’s with you, I don’t care what we do.” Luz gave her a soft smile at that. 

“Then I guess I can think of something.”

It didn’t take long for Luz to decide on a date idea - something casual, but also something she knew Amity would love!

So, a few days later, the two girls went on their date. Amity was wearing a long-sleeved, dark red t-shirt, with a pair of black dungarees over the top, with a red bandana to cover her ears. Luz decided to wear a white t-shirt with a floral, purple skirt. 

Amity looked incredibly excited as Luz walked into the kitchen, delighted to see her awesome girlfriend. Amity instantly ran forward to grasp Luz’s hand with a grin. 

“I’m so excited! Will you tell me where we’re going yet?” she asked, her eyes gleaming brightly. 

Luz giggled. “Chill, hermosa, you’ll find out.” Amity pouted, but she didn’t let go of Luz. 

With Amity still on her arm, Luz got some money from her mum, then the couple said goodbye to the rest of the Hexside crew, who were looking suspiciously innocent, perched on the sofa watching TV. They all said goodbye in response before grinning at each other, as Luz and Amity turned around to leave. The couple glanced at each other in loving disbelief at their friends, shaking their heads. 

Luz took the scenic route, letting Amity glance at the flowers and take in the human scenery. Luz watched lovingly at every cute yet quirky action she did, keeping ahold of one of her hands at all times. Every so often, she was startled by a car, or became anxious around other humans who randomly came onto the path, but she was getting better. Occasionally, the couple heard a rustle behind them, but they blatantly ignored any and all of them. 

Eventually, the couple got to the main town. Luz couldn’t help but clench up, afraid of what could greet her. From her old bullies from her middle school, to Vee’s new friends Luz wouldn’t know how to socialise with, she was deathly afraid of any teenagers she knew appearing. Amity seemed to notice her anxiety, so squeezed her hand tightly and gave her a gentle smile. Luz managed to relax slightly at that, but she was still on high alert.

Thankfully, she made it to the museum unscathed and unnoticed by town residents. 

“Um Luz…” Amity started nervously. Luz simply waved her hand in response.

“Wait a moment, Amity,” she said, needing a moment to calm down. 

“But, Luz,” 

“Wa-” Luz started, but heard giggling from an inconspicuous place around her. She narrowed her eyes and glared around. She couldn’t see anything but she still felt wary, in case anyone she knew (or didn’t know) came out. 

“Luz,” Amity insisted, tugging Luz’s arm.

“What is it, Amity?” Luz asked.

“Isn’t the museum where you said Vee got kidnapped?”

Luz’s eyes instantly bulged out of her face. How could she forget that?! 

“Amity!” she exclaimed. 

“Yes?” Amity replied, looking slightly bewildered. 

“I can’t believe I forgot that! What am I gonna do?!”

“Umm-” Amity started, but was interrupted by a voice behind them.

“How can I help you two young ladies today?” it asked. Amity let out a squeak, her face going red. 

“Is that him?” she whispered in a scared tone to Luz, who frowned in response.

“Doesn’t sound like him.” She took a deep breath before spinning around on the spot. 

She was met with an older man in his fifties, with short white hair and the start of a white beard. 

“Sorry for scaring you two, I was just wondering why you were standing outside the museum for so long?” 

“Um, who are you?” Luz asked, putting on a brave face. 

“Oh, of course, I forgot to introduce myself! I do apologise. You can call me Mr Eels, I’m the curator of this museum.”

“Oh, what happened to the last one?” Luz asked, trying to keep her tone light.

“Got fired. I’m not sure what happened but oh well. Apparently he moved out of town and that’s all I know about that. Anyway, are you two wanting to come in?”

“Of course!” Luz exclaimed, before practically dragging Amity into the museum with her.

Instantly, Amity was enamoured by the museum. Luz revelled in seeing Amity staring in delight at all of the exhibits. She watched with love as Amity gasped and ran to each exhibit. 

“Look, look, look!” she exclaimed, pointing at a collection of fossils. “The creatures on Earth are just so different to the Boiling Isles!”  

“I’m not so sure about that,” Luz said with a grin, remembering the Stonesleeper from the Hecktacious period.

“I find fossils so fascinating - the way they just keep a dead creature locked in time, which makes it easier for us to imagine what life was like back then,” Amity said, almost in admiration. 

“Yeah… quite beautiful when you put it like that,” Luz said gently, eliciting a soft giggle from Amity.

“You’re such a dork,” she said with a grin, grabbing Luz’s hands to take her to the next display. 

The two kept wandering around the museum, mostly with Amity practically running to displays with cute little gasps, while Luz told her the little information she knew about each thing. Admittedly, she was just trying to impress Amity, but the way her girlfriend was giving her knowing smirks, it seemed she wasn’t doing very well. Luz didn’t overly mind though, much preferring to just watch Amity enjoying herself. 

There were also giggles in the background and a suspiciously high amount of things nearly being knocked off shelves. Luz and Amity ignored those though.

Eventually, the couple had gone around all the displays, so they decided to head out.

“I was thinking about getting some ice cream?” Luz suggested, squeezing Amity’s hand as she did so.

“What a great idea! But, uh, aren’t you lactose intolerant?” 

“I’ll take us to the shop that sells lactose free ice cream,” Luz explained with a wink, which caused her to trip over a rock and stumble to the ground. Amity let out a giggle and held out her hand to help Luz up. They ignored the stifled laughs behind them and carried on to the ice cream shop. 

Luz went for mint chocolate chip ice cream whereas Amity had vanilla. She hadn’t had any other flavour and admitted she was too afraid to try any other flavours in case she didn’t like them. Luz was confused about why she wouldn’t just try them, but Amity promptly closed up after that, and Luz didn’t want to pressure her. 

The couple walked to the nearby park and sat on a bench, facing a small river, watching ducks swim by. Amity seemed to enjoy the peace of just sitting with her girlfriend while staring at the waterfowl. 

“So, did you enjoy the date?” Luz asked after a while, breaking Amity out of her daze. “I know it wasn’t the gre-” 

Luz was interrupted by Amity taking her lips into her own for a deep kiss. She wrapped her hands around Luz, pulling her closer to her. Neither commented on the cheers and whoops from behind them. 

Eventually they broke apart, but Amity kept Luz close to keep their foreheads connected. 

“Of course I loved it Luz, I love you, anything you give me, I’ll always love,” she whispered. 

“Really?” Luz asked, almost in disbelief. 

“Always,” Amity replied, giving Luz a shorter kiss. Luz missed Amity’s lips almost as soon as they were gone.

Amity turned to face the river again with a sigh. 

“But if there was one thing I could have changed…” she started.

“Oh yeah, the one thing that was a little too much…” Luz joined in, unable to keep the huge grin from creeping onto her face. 

“Was if Willow, Gus, Hunter, and Vee didn’t follow us on our whole date thinking we couldn’t see them.” 

____________________________________

As soon as Luz told Amity about having an idea for a date, the rest of the group instantly glanced at each with smirks. And as soon as the two left the room, Willow spoke up:

“So, we’re definitely gonna watch them on their date aren’t we?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Absolutely.” Hunter and Gus spoke at the same time, while nodding. 

“Is that a thing people do?” Vee asked almost excitedly. Willow walked slowly to her before wrapping an arm around her shoulders. 

“Oh, absolutely,” she said with a smirk. 

So, after Luz and Amity left for their date a few days later, the four smirked at each other, ready to formulate their plan. 

First, they got changed into appropriate outfits. Which were, of course, a mix between their regular human clothes, and ‘spy outfits’ according to Gus. Which included newspapers with eye holes cut into them, magnifying glasses that barely worked, and fake moustaches for the whole group. 

“Now we look the part!” Gus exclaimed as they all glanced at themselves in the mirror with apprehension. 

“Are you sure?” Willow asked.

“Trust me, I’ve read it in all the human spy books, these are fool-proof!” he said proudly. 

“If you say so…” Hunter said, inspecting his outfit with doubt. Willow stared at him with a grin and caught his eye, causing the two to look away, blushing.

Gus either didn’t notice this, or ignored it, as he excitedly said: “Let’s go!” before quickly running off, Vee hot on his heels. Willow waited for Hunter so they could walk together, their hands occasionally brushing against each other’s, causing a tingling to go up each of their arms. 

The couple first decided to walk through the forest, which made it difficult for the four. Not only did they need to keep hidden, but they also had to try and avoid making as much noise as possible. Gus decided that they had to hide behind trees and wait until Luz and Amity were far enough away for them to run across the path, to hide behind more trees. Gus and Vee instantly had great fun trying to be as quiet as possible, while Hunter got into his ‘Golden Guard’ mode, which was quite worrying to Willow, who was pretending to try hard, for the sake of Gus. She wanted him to be happy and distracted from thoughts about the Demon Realm and what could be happening there.

At one point, Vee tripped over, but Gus simply scooped her up and carried her to hide as quickly as possible.

“That could have been close,” he whispered firmly, while placing her back down. “We gotta be more careful.”

“Always,” Hunter promised, holding his hand to his heart.

Once they got to the town, the four could hide behind a wall by the museum. Gus pointed towards his newspapers, then towards a bench near the front of the museum. Confused, Willow and Hunter glanced at each other, seeing if the other had more of a clue than them. Gus face palmed, eliciting a giggle from Vee, which caused Willow and Hunter to laugh too. Gus just deadpanned at them. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Willow whispered a gentle apology. “Anyway, looks like they’re inside,” she pointed out, seeing them not on the steps anymore. 

“Okay, here’s the plan…” Gus said, pulling them into a circle so he could whisper to them.

Willow and Hunter held the magnifying glasses, under the firm instruction to keep them pointed towards Luz and Amity the whole time. On the other hand, Gus and Vee held the newspapers in front of them, using the circles as eye holes. Willow and Hunter could barely stifle their laughter at the two of them. 

Going through the museum was… interesting, to say the least. With the magnifying glasses to their eyes, Hunter and Willow could barely see where they were going.

“We should probably hold hands,” Willow suggested to Hunter, “to make sure neither of us go astray.” He nodded back, a blush forming on his face. 

So, the pair took each other's hands, and only paid half-attention to Luz and Amity. Instead, they kept glancing at each other, their faces heating up. Willow kept smiling and nudging Hunter, who would grin back. 

On the other hand, Gus and Vee were trying to navigate through the museum while holding newspapers to their face, which was much harder than it sounded (and it already sounded hard!). The pair kept walking into each other, and into the artefacts. The person closest would have to panickedly drop the newspaper to catch them, so they wouldn’t smash to the ground. Despite this, they both refused to stop holding the newspapers. They needed to commit. Even though they were barely paying attention because they were too busy making sure not to destroy the building. Still, it was funny, and they could barely stop laughing each time it happened. They tried to do it as silently as possible, but that was almost as difficult as holding the newspaper in front of their eyes.

The four had to continue following the pair to wherever they went next, from the museum. There wasn’t anywhere to hide, and the newspapers just looked ridiculous when they were outside, so they had to hope the moustaches were enough of a disguise. It seemed to be, as neither Luz nor Amity turned around in suspicion, not even when Luz tripped over a rock and none of them could hold back their laughter.

Finally, the pair walked to the park and sat on a bench. Unfortunately, there were no other benches nearby, so the group had to hide behind a bush.

Just watching them talk wasn’t exciting, so Hunter and Willow sat down and started whispering between them, letting Vee and Gus continue looking at Luz and Amity through the magnifying glasses. The pair were aware of how close they were in this small space, and Hunter was practically sitting on Willow’s lap. She just wanted to wrap an arm around his waist and pull him fully on her lap. But she couldn’t. It didn’t stop her from slowly getting closer to him. She looked into his eyes, then down at his lips, then back in his eyes. He seemed to have noticed that, as his face went red. Willow started leaning, and noticed Hunter do the same. They were so close, and Willow was so ready, but-

“Look! Look!” Gus dragged their attention away from each other and towards Luz and Amity, who were kissing deeply. This was the first time they’d properly seen them kiss each other, so none of them could resist cheering.

Somehow, still neither of them noticed they were there. Or so it seemed. Until…

“Was if Willow, Gus, Hunter, and Vee didn’t follow us on our whole date thinking we couldn’t see them.” 

Instantly, the four glanced at each other, giggling slightly at being busted. 

“We were that obvious, huh?” Gus asked, sheepishly. 

“Incredibly.” Amity deadpanned.

“Why’d you even wanna follow us? We’re not that interesting,” Luz asked.

Willow shrugged. “We thought it could be funny.”

“And was it?”

“I think our own shenanigans were funnier than actually following you,” Vee giggled, causing Gus to smirk. 

“Oh, and possibly more romantic,” he added, glaring smugly at Willow and Hunter, who instantly blushed and looked away.

“More romantic than Luz? No way!” Amity scoffed.

Gus shrugged. “I think we have a budding romance though…”

Luz and Amity glared at each other.

“Obviously!” they said at the same time.

The six walked home together.

“So, is the ice cream good?” Willow asked Amity as they walked.

“Sure. Was having a mini-date with Hunter good?” 

Willow felt her face heating up. “It wasn’t a mini-date!”

“It totally was.”

“Shut up,” Willow mumbled.

“Hey,” Amity said softly. “It doesn’t have to be, but it’s clear you two like each other. You may as well ask him on a date.”

“But, what if-”

“Uh, no ‘but’s. It is as clear as day, so please don’t doubt yourself.” Amity grabbed Willow’s hand gently. “Trust me.” Then, the lavender haired girl let go, and rushed over to her girlfriend, leaving Willow to mull over her thoughts. She didn’t get much alone time, before Hunter joined her. Neither said much, they just smiled at each other and held hands. Somehow this felt comfortable, it felt safe. Willow could get used to this.

Maybe Amity really was correct…