Work Text:
It was a cool autumn morning as the breeze wisped over the trees. The delicate calm, so fragile, so pristine, so-
“Luz!”
A worried call cried out from a house that was not nearly as calm as the surroundings, as the Owl House had begun the day in a ruckus. Just as Eda had walked downstairs to get a soothing glass of apple blood for the morning, she saw Luz, with bags under her eyes, adorning the kitchen with plans and drawings, a mismatched confusion across her face as she wrote down notes like “Why was Phillip so mean?” “Is there another owl lady?” And “Is the moon-head-shaped student from the Oracle track up to something?”
The notes adorned the fridge and many of the cabinets, with some of them even being shoddily taped to Hooty. Additionally, there seemed to be some vegetables on the stove, but they were crisped and clearly cooked too long. Eda let out a sigh upon the sight, and quickly became a mix of concerned and annoyed.
“Kid, what are you doing to the kitchen?” The owl lady demanded, gently grabbing at Luz’s hand as she tiredly tried to place another note on the fridge.
Luz then turned to Eda, her eyes half-open, and smiled, “Oh, I was just- just-“ she yawned for a moment before slapping herself to stay awake. “Just doing some cooking for you and King and Hooty but then I got thinking about Belos and Phillip’s journal and the portal and my-“ she silenced herself for a second before continuing, “my uh, Amity.”
Eda let out another sigh and put a hand on Luz’s shoulder “Kiddo, did you get any sleep?” She gently posed, glancing towards Hooty, who looked just as tired due to the notes placed on his face and tube body.
“She’s been up past bedtime for eight hours, hoot hoot…” Hooty grimaced, turning himself around and trying to use his beak to pick off some of the absentmindedly placed sticky notes.
“Eight hours? Luz!” Eda bellowed, looking back to Luz with worry. “Listen, you are going straight to bed, right now,”
Luz whimpered in response, “but I have so much work to do, I need to get Amity gifts and fight Belos and figure out his plans and be friends with Hunter and make a new portal door-“
“Nonono, no if’s, and’s or but’s. Straight. To. Bed.” Eda insisted, leading a begrudging Luz upstairs to her room. Luz tried to fight back and go back downstairs but was so tired that she had little to no energy.
Eda then sat Luz down on her sleeping bag, and Luz whimpered again. “Come on, please…” she begged, but Eda didn’t flinch.
“Look, kid, you need rest, you’ll feel better after that, I’m sure of it.” Eda finalised before shutting the door.
Luz then quickly got up and slapped at the door, forgetting it had a handle, and whined when it wouldn’t open. “Mmm… dangit, I can’t do all my plans if I go to sleep!” She then sat back down on the sleeping bag, pondering, and after several minutes of sitting there, barely awake as her eyelids fluttered, an idea smacked her in the face. At the same time, she smacked herself in the face to stay awake. “Ooh! That could work!” She declared before hastily getting up. She tried the handle of the door and it slowly creaked open. She peered outside, seeing Hooty scanning the perimeter of the hallway. Upon seeing him watching, Luz went back inside, looking for a solution. She then saw a tiny thing in the corner and a smile creeped on her face as she made a plan.
“Sorry little buddy,” she murmured as she picked up a tiny bug from the corner, bringing it over to the door and quickly tossing it through the hallway in the opposite direction of Eda’s room.
Suddenly, a shrill voice bellowed “Is that a bug!?” Before Hooty shot off to chase after the tiny animal. Luz then seized the opportunity to do a haphazard sneaking roll over to Eda’s room, where she quickly went inside.
She scanned the room after congratulating herself quietly with a “whoo-hoo!”, and quickly found what she was looking for. In the corner of the room was Owlbert, who was calmly sleeping in Eda’s nest. Luz then quickly cooed at the adorable sight and quietly awoke Owlbert with a soft pet. “Hey little guy, do you mind if we go flying? Owlbert’s tiny eyes fluttered awake and he made a small cooing noise as he brushed his head against Luz’s hand, agreeing to the offer.
Luz then smiled as Owlbert poofed into his staff form and she hopped aboard, pushing open the giant eye-window to make her fly out to get some work done. But, just as she was ready to make some progress and fly, a voice interrupted.
“Where are you going?” A tired voice mumbled as Luz turned back to see King, who was groggily rubbing his eyes while holding Francois.
“Oh, just a little trip, would you wanna come along?” Luz explained, but King caught on to the fact that this wasn’t what she was supposed to be doing.
“Hold on, didn’t Eda say you’re supposed to be asleep?”
Luz then stammered before an idea came to her. “Um… what if I told you we’re gonna go out to get you a new plushie?”
King then beamed “a friend for Francois!?”
Luz giddily nodded, picking up King and putting him on the staff. “Of course, bud, let’s go!”
The duo then flew off on Owlbert, soaring over the tree line as Eda had just happened to come upstairs.
Eda had just finished cleaning up the kitchen and had gotten to the top of the stairs when she saw Hooty in a mono-e-mono duel with the bug, with him swiping at the bug who fluttered away at every bite. Hooty was making little progress on eating the bug.
Eda smirked at the sight before remembering something. “Hooty, aren’t you supposed to be watching to make sure Luz doesn’t sneak out?”
The bug was distracted by the sudden noise, and Hooty quickly shot at the bug, snarfing it down before turning to Eda. “Yes!” He confirmed.
Eda then had a deadpan expression as she remarked, “Then why were you spending several minutes trying to eat a bug?”
Hooty’s smile then dropped. “Oh, oh, hoot, I’m sorry, I got distracted by the elegance that are bugs- how sweet they are-“
Eda then tiredly pushed Hooty’s face aside as she went down the hallway, checking Luz’s room to see her gone. She grumbled and mumbled before yelling to Hooty, “Well, looks like we have to go find her now!”
Meanwhile, Luz and King were speeding over the forest towards Bonesborough, with the wind whipping past them as they made their journey. At first, King was gleeful to be going so fast and adventurously, but began to have second thoughts. “Luz, aren’t we going a little fast?” he murmured, gripping onto Luz’s shirt as they kept speeding across. “It’s fine, King, I’ve got a lot to do today and I don’t wanna keep us waiting!” she declared, pushing off the thoughts that presided in the back of her head as they kept speeding along. The flying kept her focused, calm and ready for anything, the harsh wind making sure she stayed alert as they dashed through it.
King looked down to the ground below as it whizzed past in a blur, shivering as he took it all in. But, just as they were riding at such a high speed, Luz suddenly pulled back and they came to a sudden stop, with King’s face slamming against Luz’s back at the jolt. “Ow! Hey, why’d we stop?” he barked, looking up to Luz, who seemed to be absentmindedly glancing at something. The duo had just arrived in Bonesborough and Luz stopped as soon as she saw that there was a toy store right next to her. She gazed towards it with an odd fascination, but before long was snapped out of her trance as King followed her gaze. “Oh! Is it time to get Francois an evil sister and partner in crime?”
Luz snapped out of it and then nodded, “Oh, yeah, for sure bud!” she chuckled as she got off the staff, picking up King and setting him down on the ground. “Now, you can pick out one plushie, ok? And try not to get anything too big,” she stated, to which King nodded before giddily scampering into the store. Luz then happily followed, glancing across the store, and specifically, the plushies.
There was more than one reason why she had come here, since it wasn’t simply to keep King from ratting her out. She had been thinking of getting Amity a present, and a new toy for her little self sounded like a spectacular idea!
After everything that had been going on lately, be it the Coven Day Parade, the Bonesborough Brawl, and even more issues that had been occurring, Luz wanted to make it up to Amity. She’d felt bad about lying to her girlfriend, and Amity hadn’t been little much lately due to the issues they kept running into with the Emperor’s Coven and whatnot. So, Luz concluded that a gift might make everything better! She had to hope so, at least.
She then proceeded to glance across the plushies, her gaze falling across many plushies before settling on an adorable one she couldn’t resist taking a look at. She went over to the plush, which was an adorable little abomination which you could squish and stretch a tiny bit like a fidget toy, and decided it would be perfect for Amity. She scooped it up and was just about to check on King and see if he settled on something before another plush caught her gaze. Across the room, she saw a delicate plushie that seemed to nearly speak to her, (thankfully not literally, the Boiling Isles weren’t that strange), and she approached it. The stuffed animal in question was that of an otter, being made of a gentle purple fabric that immediately stood out, with her having the urge to just give it a big hug then and there. The temptation to buy the plushie overwhelmed her, and she then quickly went into her pocket to see how many snails she had, to see if she could afford it.
Unfortunately enough for her, as she pulled out her pockets, she found just enough snails to buy two plushies, and she already had promised King one, so she had to make a choice. At first, the compulsion to get herself the otter plushie overwhelmed her, but her instinctive caregiver nature overpowered it. ‘No, hold on, I don’t need plushies, Amity does,’ she declared inwardly, putting down the otter with some hesitance before going over to King.
At this point, King had already picked out a plush, being a wolf, and he quickly waddled over to Luz. “Hey! I found who’ll be Francois’ partner in crime!” he declared, proudly holding up the plush.
“Aww, alrighty little guy, have you come up with a name for them yet?” she gently pondered, to which King shook his head. He needed time to come up with a great title for his new ally.
“Okie, well, come on, let’s buy these guys,” she smiled, going over to the checkout as she paid for the two stuffed animals.
“Wait, what’s that other one for?” King quizzed, “Is it gonna be yours?”
Luz blushed at the suggestion and shook her head, “No, not for me, it’s a gift for someone.” she answered, her eyes faintly looking away.
“Oh, ok,” King murmured as Luz finished paying for the two plushes. Luz then handed King back the new wolf he’d gotten and began to exit the store. But, just as King scampered over to where Owlbert was waiting, she hung back for a second. Her gaze again fell to the otter, but she quickly shook her head. ‘No, remember, she’s the little,’
With that, she left it there, hiding a frown as she got back on the staff. “Alrighty King,” she declared, pushing down her feelings, “We’ve got a couple quick errands to run.”
She then pulled out the list of plans she had, not knowing where to start, and as she felt tiredness creep over her again, her eyes shot open as she gazed over the word ‘portal’. Not wanting to open that can of worms, she put the list back and declared: “Alright, let’s go then!”
“Wait, where are we even go-” King tried to question Luz, but before he could the two were zooming off again, flying above and through the town as she made a bee-line for any solution to the issues she was having. Potions shop? No, she couldn’t get anything to make a portal with just potions. Home redecorating? No, don’t think about home-
She blurred to a stop again as she saw something that caught her eye. “Wait, this sign says portal!” she remarked, looking to a sign over a small construction shop in a secluded corner of the city. King nearly fell off the staff due to the sudden motion as she stopped and hopped to the ground, taking a closer look at the store. “Portal.. Portal… Port-... oh,” she finally fully read the sign and a wave of disappointment hit her. It wasn’t a shop that specialised in portals. It was a portal-potty shop, where you can buy a teleporting bathroom. “I forgot how specific covens can be around here,” she murmured as she hopped back on the staff.
King then pulled on the back of Luz’s shirt, trying to get her attention, but her focus was centred and unwavering. “Come on, slow down, where are we go-” before he could finish, they were sent zooming off again, a blur across the horizon. Luz’s eyes darted across the skyline, looking for something, anything, but all she found were disappointments. She stopped again when seeing the name “Phillip”, but it was only for a dry cleaning place named after a man named Phillip. She stopped at each piece of Emperor’s Coven propaganda, trying to find any information from any of them.
Each stop she made caused her spiral of tiredness to get worse and worse, and after not long King was nauseous and she was running out of ideas of how to fix her problems. She tried flying off again to another store, going back to Phillip’s Dry Cleaning to see if Phillip Wittebane founded it, but found her eyes fluttering closed. “I’m… I’m gonna quickly take a nap…” she murmured as King started to squeak in horror at Luz nearly falling asleep while directing Owlbert, but thankfully for her the palisman noticed her grogginess and slowed down just enough for them not to crash into anything.
The trio was then gently hovering over the city as Luz’s tired body clung to the staff, and King tried to shake her awake. “Luz, hey, come on, wake up!” He tried to prod at her, but rather than waking up, her limp arms slipped off the staff and she was just about to fall, but a figure blurred past and in a heartbeat, Luz was caught.
Luz awoke after a handful of minutes to find herself down in a park, sitting on a bench, with her head groggily leaning against someone. She rubbed her eyes and stretched, catching the attention of the one next to her.
“Hey batata,” a familiar voice hummed, “feel better, now that you got a bit more sleep?”
Luz nodded, not realising her situation before her eyes blinked open and she looked over at Amity, whose shoulder her head was resting on. “Oh, Amity? When’d you get here?” she groggily mumbled, suddenly aware of the fact that she was no longer in the sky. “What happened…?”
Amity then smiled at how adorable Luz was as she was groggy, nuzzling her head against her girlfriend’s. “Well, you almost fell off your staff but I caught you, so you’re all safe now.” she assured, which helped Luz calm down. But, before long, Amity had a question of her own.
“Luz?”
“Mmhmm?” the tired girl mumbled in her sleepy stupor,
Amity, trying to be calm, though she was worried about Luz, thought over the perfect way to ask the question without worrying the tired girl too much or making it seem like she was mad at her, a perfect way to conclude that she was worried and find an answer-
“Kid, why’d you run off?” Eda suddenly hollered, snapping Luz awake as she arrived on the scene in her harpy form.
Luz then jolted up, sweat covering her as she nervously looked between a worried Amity, frustrated Eda and King, who was over playing on a nearby swing set. “Oh, I uh, well, needed to get some errands done,” she explained, but Eda quickly became more frustrated.
“That doesn’t mean you should hold off sleeping, kid!” she pointed out, to which Luz whimpered at the loud noise. Amity caught on to the girl’s anxiety and spoke with a softer tone than Eda.
“Look, Luz, we were just really worried because when Eda came to see you you were gone and when I came to visit she was frantically looking for you, King and Owlbert.” she explained, trying to not worry Luz too much. “You don’t need to run errands when you should be getting sleep.”
Luz then looked down shamefully, her gaze shifting away. “I know… I just, I don’t wanna disappoint either of you, and I feel like I haven’t been making any progress since the portal door broke.” she admitted, tears pricking the corners of her eyes.
“Oh, Luz,” Eda then quickly gave Luz a gentle hug, with Amity doing likewise. “You have been making great progress, and even if you weren’t, that’s not a problem for either of us. We care about you, not what you can do for us.”
Luz calmed down as she was wrapped in the two’s embraces and before long, ceased her crying. Eda then pulled away from the hug, smiling at Luz as she did so. “Alright, now, shouldn’t we get you home so we can get you some sleep, kid?”
Said kid then hesitantly nodded, “Yeah, but can I stay behind with Amity for a minute?”
Eda nodded and then went over to King, having to almost pry him off of the swingset as she went ahead on the way home. Amity then looked over to Luz, for now they were the only ones left in the quiet park. “So, why did you want me to stay behind, Luz?”
Luz then smiled, “Well, I got you a gift!” she declared, searching through her bag, revealing the plush she’d gotten for Amity, who blushed upon receiving the plush.
“Oh, thanks!” she beamed, giving Luz another hug, “You didn’t have to get me anything,”
Luz shook her head, “No, I should, since you haven’t been really… well, little, much lately due to how busy we’ve been.” She’d worried so much over how her pequeño was doing, to the point that it had piled upon every other worry that circled her mind. She felt disappointed that she couldn’t be there for her little one enough, and felt ashamed for all the trouble she kept causing.
But, Amity pushed away those worries, as Luz had done for her before. “Hey, you don’t have to worry about me, I haven’t been little because I’ve been feeling better about myself because of you.” she assured, “Honestly, the only thing I’ve been really worried about is whether you’re ok,”
Luz then looked down hesitantly, putting on a faux smile. “What? I’m fine, really…”
“Batata, you haven’t gotten sleep, you’ve been frantically going around trying to fix everything and all while doing that you’ve been worrying over me.” Amity explained, “please, don’t lie,” she then gently wrapped her hands around Luz’s, holding them delicately, trying her best to ease Luz’s worries. “I want to help you, really, sincerely, I don’t like being lied to and I want to help you however I can, so if there’s something you can think of that might help you relax, please tell me.”
Luz calmed down and nodded, beginning to ponder some way Amity could help her calm down… and suddenly, a thought came to her which caused her to blush. She let out a tiny squeak of realisation as a thought came to her, which peaked Amity’s interest.
“Hm? What’s that noise mean, batata?” she pondered, catching on partly and trying to mimic the soothing voice Luz had for when Amity was stressed, and trying to use a pet name to calm her.
Luz blushed more and more and made another soft whimper, shaking her head and looking away. “Luz, can you use your words, please?” Amity gently pushed, trying to help the girl to open up, but suddenly, the same conclusion came to her as well. “Or… are you having trouble with your words?”
With that, Luz’s heart nearly stopped. She’d tried to keep this down, for the most part, but it seems her plan had finally failed. Just as soon as she’d figured out Amity was a little, she promised she’d keep this under wraps, so as to not cause Amity to fret, but now it was laid plainly on the table.
The blushing over pet names,
The trouble talking,
The ways Luz always knew how to make a little feel safe,
The fact that she knew about age regression before Amity explained it.
The way she always knew how to help Amity, because, well…
It took a little to know a little.
Just as soon as the pieces fit together, Amity’s view of Luz shifted. Had Luz known, how long had she known this? How many nights had she spent in harrowing danger without a peep of the way she would be able to relax? How did she keep up with her adventuring and danger, being thrust into a world with no way home, without any moment of relief?
And, suddenly, another thought occurred to Amity.
Was she holding back her little space because of what was happening with her mom?
The poor girl, she’d not had any plushes from her home, any comfort items to help her through frightful nights, and all the while her promise to her mother was weighing on her. Not only that, Luz did this while caring for another little, taking the weight of another’s problems onto her shoulders without a word. Luz took care of Amity without being taken care of as she should be. As soon as all of this occurred to her, Amity wrapped Luz in a hug tighter than any she’d had before.
“Batata, I’m so sorry…” she soothed, rubbing Luz’s back. ”I never knew before now, I wish I would’ve known before…”
Luz merely shivered now that her secret was revealed. What if Amity held off her little space as Luz did? Would Luz cause Amity all the guilt and worry she barely managed to hold back?
So, all Luz did in response was cry.
“Oh, little one, shhh, it’s ok…” Amity soothed, gently guiding Luz’s head over to her shoulder, where Luz gently cried, with Amity trying to gently ease the girl’s worries. “I’m here, I’m here, just let it out, sweetheart,” she continued, hoping she could mimic Luz’s style of soothing worries, since Amity wasn’t used to this.
Still, thankfully enough, it worked, and the little one calmed down, having slipped due to her stress over her regression being revealed. So, as Amity pulled away from the hug, Luz looked at her with adorable eyes, still slightly glossy from crying. “Aww, there, feeling better?”
Luz hesitantly nodded, trying to fight off being little, but Amity cooed at her and gently held Luz’s hand, and thus the girl couldn’t keep from slipping. Amity then gladly said “Well, batata, do you wanna go home now?”
Luz let out a tiny whimper, trying to communicate but all she could say was tiny babbles. Amity beamed at Luz’s adorableness and then said “Aww, now you know what it’s like to be oh so little, don’t you, baby?” she soothed, to which Luz blushed and frustratedly tried to find a way to communicate. She then pointed to the plushie Luz had given Amity, and Amity went to hand the plush to Luz, but Luz shook her head. “Oh? What do you want, baby?”
Luz struggled with her words, but eventually managed to mumble the word “store”, (though, with a heart-melting lisp), and Amity understood.
“Of course, baby, we can get you a plushie, come along,” she smiled, holding Luz’s hand as she went around Bonesborough, eventually leading Luz to the same toy store that Luz had gotten Amity the abomination plush at.
As soon as Luz saw the store, her face beamed with a smile and she walked in front of Amity, excitedly kicking her feet as she arrived inside. “Alright, calm down baby, now, which one would you like?”
Luz then calmed herself a bit and went with Amity through the store, holding her hand the whole time, and eventually found the Otter plush, picking it up and gladly hugging it, to which Amity smiled. “Aww, that’ll fit nicely with your otter onesie, you’ll look so cute!” she remarked, gently ruffling Luz’s hair as she went to pay for it.
Luz looked down at the price tag on the plush with a whimper, seeming to get disappointed, but Amity quickly put a finger to Luz’s lips, “Don’t worry over it for a second, my little sweet potato, mama’s gonna get you this, mmkay?” she whispered, to which Luz blushed and happily nodded.
At that, Amity then happily bought the blush for her little, but before long, as they were walking home, Luz’s legs began to drag and she let out a tiny, high-pitched yawn. “Oh? Is my baby tired?” Amity mused, to which Luz tried to mumble a reply, but before she could, Amity scooped her up and began carrying her home. “Don’t worry, little one, I’ll carry you, just get some sleep with your new little otter buddy, okay?”
Luz tried to stay awake but, as she was carried, and felt just oh so little, she couldn’t worry over trying to stay awake. Right now, she didn’t have to meet up to any standards, defeat any momentous foe or deal with dangerous odds. All she needed to do was relax. And Amity was glad to help that along. So, as Luz’s eyes fluttered closed, she let all her worries slip away. Just as she’d done for Amity, she was given a chance to rest and be the little she needed to be right now.
And, as Amity noticed Luz beginning to fall asleep, she said one last soothing sentence.
“Goodnight, mi nena,”