Archive of Our Own

At just 24 years old, Amity Blight was feeling ready to just give up on life. For starters, she hadn't had a great childhood, if one could call it a childhood. Her immediate family consisted of two obnoxious older siblings, a father who wouldn't give her the time of day, and a mother who wouldn't let her have hers. To make matters worse, they were filthy rich, so she had to maintain an upper class aesthetic at all times and was effectively turned into a spokesperson for the family company, Blight Industries.

What Amity despised most, especially going into her teen years, was the company itself. She could've lived with it if they'd made textiles, masonry, cars, something that'd actually do anyone any good. Instead, they offered a variety of military technologies-gun optics, missiles, specialized ammunition, you name it, Blight Industries made it. Even if they didn't officially make something, you could still make a... specialized order-for a price, of course.

She'd largely been complacent, seeing as she didn't get around much, save for private school, where everyone else around her was the same as her, up until she entered her teens. There, she realized that no, making and selling things made to kill people is not okay, even if mommy and daddy say it's only to the good guys. Slowly but surely, she became a power keg. So, when her parents revealed at her high school graduation party that they'd gotten her a scholarship at MIT, she exploded. All the exact details of what Amity had said and what had been done had been lost over time, but by the next day, her scholarship had been cancelled.

Instead, she got a scholarship at Gravesfield University, a school in Connecticut-immediately south of the original destination of Massachusetts, but still, it was hundreds of miles away from "home" back in Silicon Valley, California. The school was also not nearly as prestigious as MIT, meaning that her parents had no way to contact her other than directly or by flying out to see her. Amity knew they couldn't be bothered to do the latter if they wanted to talk, so on the plane ride, she blocked all their contacts. Finally, she was free to start a new life and major in Humanities in peace.

And then, she met her.

Boscha Thorne.

Even though she was on an athletic scholarship, the two found that they had more in common than they thought. Predominantly, she had also had a sheltered upbringing under controlling parents who headed a company of dubious morality: The private military company Empyrean Enterprises. Over time, they spent more and more time together and drew closer and closer. For the first time, Amity had met someone she could call a friend.

Then, she felt herself feeling closer still.

At first, she was confused. She tried to reject these feelings, and when she found she couldn't, she tried to, instead, accept and understand them. By the time she was a sophomore, she officially identified as lesbian. Unfortunately, she proved to be a very useless lesbian. She found herself getting flustered practically every time she was around Boscha-when they were talking, when they were spending time together, even when she so much as looked her way.

Come Boscha's 20th birthday, Amity found herself the only person within the clique Boscha had formed to have been invited. There, she revealed two things: One, she now identified as pansexual, and two, she had also developed a crush on Amity. The original intent was just for her to get it off her chest, as Amity deserved the right to know. Instead, lips went to faces, hands went to places, and just like that, Amity had her first girlfriend.

Things started out great. The two bought an off-campus apartment soon after, allowing Amity to finally fulfill her dream of adopting a cat, an all-white American Shorthair with blue eyes that she named Ghost. Most of their free time was spent together, as few and far in-between as that was. But, like all good things, it came to an end, and slowly, things went downhill. Boscha began cordoning her off from the other members of her friend group and demanding updates on where she was obsessively if they weren't together. One night, towards the end of their last year, Amity confronted her about it. It didn't take long for an argument to break out, culminating in Boscha raising her hand. Amity braced herself for a blow that never came. Boscha caught herself, and instead, she simply walked over to the bedroom and began packing her things.

While she got to keep the apartment and still had Ghost to keep her company, she finished college alone. To make matter worse, her Humanities degree only ended up in her current job, as a cashier at the local grocery store. She'd been trying at writing a first draft of a novel in the hope of eventually turning it into a complete book so she could quit, but she couldn't quite find an idea that stuck with her long enough to finish it. She'd tried writing a space opera similar to a classic adventure of swashbuckling pirates, a treatise on the philosophy of history, a suspense novel set in a timeline where the sinking of the Titanic was an inside job-so many ideas, and nothing to show for any of it.

Within the last year, things had turned up a little. A new cartoon, The Good Witch Azura, had pinged her radar after she heard that the lead character, the titular Azura, was canonically lesbian. She decided to give it a shot, and she adored it-the plot was simple, yet compelling, the humor was family-friendly in the sense that anyone at any age could laugh at it, and the writing was better than quite a few adult-oriented shows, movies, and even books Amity had seen and read, and that was just the start of the praises Amity had to sing of this show. Through it, though, she had discovered a safe haven: Fandom. In addition to making her feel just a little bit less lonely, the ancient art of fanfiction had given her a creative outlet when she felt the itch the write something, but not to come up with a whole new story.

Also within the last year, she met a girl who shopped their often. She looked to be the same age as Amity and the first three words that came to her mind to describe her were "funny", "kind", and "clumsy". She was also impossibly energetic, but surprisingly regimented in her visit. She shopped there every Friday, arriving at 3:00 PM and never taking anymore than 10 minutes to get in, buy all that she needed, and get out. She was never there a day earlier or later, nor did she ever arrive a minute earlier or later. Eventually, she'd learned that her name was Luz.

To her dismay, Amity found herself feeling closer to Luz, too.

There was just something about the way that she was seemingly incapable of being unhappy, her corny jokes, even her two left feet that made Amity infatuated with her. Like before, she tried to reject these feelings-for wholly different reasons, of course. The last time she'd felt this way about someone, she'd gotten hurt and been left worse off than she was before. How could she guarantee this time would be different?

But... Luz was different. She wasn't like Boscha. She wasn't attracted to her because they had the same interests. She was attracted to her because of just how sweet she was, hence why she was pretty sure she was taken. How could she not have been? She was the ideal partner, after all. Besides, she was probably straight, anyhow. That was just Amity's luck. She didn't hold it against her, of course. That'd just be petty. But it didn't stop her from being saddened at the fact that it probably could not have been.

One Friday, just like any other Friday, Luz entered the store at 3:00, grabbed a shopping cart, and quickly set about grabbing what it was she needed. By the time she got to Amity's lane, she'd nabbed two cartons of eggs, two jugs of almond milk, two loaves of bread, and of course, two party-sized bags of Cheeto Puffs. Only the essentials, naturally. There weren't many people in the store today, meaning Luz only had to wait behind one person. While Amity was checking out her groceries, she noticed that something was different about Luz's outfit: She now had an orange beanie with a pin on it. It was colored pink on the bottom and blue on the top, bisected by a thin purple line.

The bisexual pride colors.

So I guess Luz likes girls. I'm girls. This bodes well.

Once the first person was checked out, they departed and Luz moved forward, placing her items on the desk while Amity took a barcode scanner to each. Once she got to the second loaf of bread, however, she had to pick it up and inspect it to find a place to scan it. "Looks like it doesn't have a barcode," Luz joked, "Does that mean it's free?"

Looks like you don't have a barcode. Does that mean you're free tonight?

Amity turned to the terminal on the desk to add the price of the bread to the total manually. When she looked up, however, she found that Luz was blushing fiercely. "...I said that out loud, didn't I," she asked.

"Yup, that, you did."

Amity, herself, began blushing intensely. Seemingly, no one else heard her, but she was more concerned with the fact that she'd accidentally asked her crush out.

"Anyways... your total's $16.38. Would you like a receipt?"

"No, but I would like to know where to go tonight. Just name a time and place and I'll be there!"

Amity thought she couldn't blush harder. She was wrong. She printed off Luz's receipt, took out a pen, and, on its back, wrote her address and when Luz could come over. Then, she handed it to Luz, who stuffed it in her shopping bag.

"See you tonight."

"See you then!"

Amity had never really been much of a chef, but given that her crush was coming over, she figured that she'd try to cook a dinner herself. On the menu tonight was spaghetti with meatballs and marinara sauce, all of which she figured she'd try to make herself. One, she figured it'd look more impressive to her date, and two, she'd given herself two hours between when her shift ended and when Luz would arrive, so she had plenty of time. To boot, spaghetti was a simple meal and Amity had surmised that Luz was lactose intolerant, given that she always bought dairy-free versions of whatever it was she needed.

The meatballs were, by far, the easiest to make, albeit Amity did take some extra time tweaking and perfecting the blend of meats and spices. The marinara sauce was also easy, but also the most time consuming. The pasta, however, was a chore, from the forming of the dough to the kneading to cutting it into the right sized strips.

Within 10 minutes of the date, all that was left to do was wait for the pasta to finish cooking. So, Amity checked her pantry and her fridge to see what she had on hand to whip up a side dish.

Let's see, we got a baguette, some olives, some garlic, rosemary, lactose-free butter...

...I got it! Garlic bread!

Amity grabbed the baguette, garlic, and butter, as well as some other ingredients, and began by preheating her oven.

Would 350 work? Fuck it, sure, let's do it. We'll go at 350 for... 10 minutes, let's say

From there, she cut the baguette in half, then cut that half into half-inch thick slices and arranged said slices on a tray. From there, in a pan, she used butter, garlic, parsley, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and some dry white wine her siblings had sent her for her 21st birthday (which had probably been paid for by her parents, and quite possibly sent by them) and she still hadn't opened, based on a recipe she found online for some easy garlic butter sauce.

Just as she was about to start brushing down the bread slices with the sauce, she heard the doorbell ring. She set down the brush so that the bristles were lying on top of the bread and went to the door to find that Luz's outfit was largely the same as it way earlier that day-the orange beanie with the pride pin, a white T-shirt with pale purple stripes under a letterman jacket, baggy green sweatpants, and a pair of red sneakers. Amity, however, wasn't judging because one, it looked good, and two, she wasn't in any position to do so. She hadn't exactly dressed formally either-she had a pink nightgown, of all things, with black leggings and black shoes, and her large mane of emerald green hair was allowed to flow freely, instead of in its usual ponytail.

"Oh, hey," Amity greeted with crimson dusting her cheeks, "Come on in, make yourself at home. I'm just finishing up dinner." She stepped aside to let Luz in, her date choosing to sit at a table close to the door, replying, "Thanks for having me over. So what's cooking?"

"S'ghetti and meatballs. Since I had some spare time, I'm also working on some garlic bread."

Before Luz could answer, the two heard a mrrrow from the bedroom. While Amity ignored it as she entered the kitchen to plate up the spaghetti, which had just finished cooking, Luz stood.

"¿Gato?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, that's my cat, Ghost. He's a lovebug when he wants to be, but that's usually not when guests are over and he can be a bit of a pain in the ass the rest of the time, so-"

She stopped in her tracks when she saw that Ghost had arrived and not only was Luz holding him, and not only purring up a storm, but he even seemed to be falling asleep in her arms. Good with animals. That's a helluva green flag. Boscha only ever tolerated Ghost because I wanted to have him around, so-

No, no! Don't compare them! Luz is not Boscha! Forget about her!

"Crap, sorry, were you saying something? Little dude is surprisingly loud."

"Uh... nevermind. Anyways, dinner's ready!"

Luz planted a kiss on Ghost's head, then set him down while Amity made her way to the table, where she set one plate down in front of Luz and one in front of the other chair, which she then claimed. "Figured I'd try to do everything myself," Amity claimed, "The noodles were a pain in the ass, but it looks like everything turned out okay." Luz nodded, stabbed her meatball with her fork, and took a bite out of it. Amity waited anxiously for her response. Had she done well? Had she made it too spicy? Did she not use enough spices? Did it have a good meat-spice ratio?

Forget the fucking meat-spice ratio and just pay attention!

Once Luz swallowed, she exclaimed, "These are the best meatballs I think I've ever eaten in my life!" Amity breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the fruits of her labor were considered good enough to her date. And speaking of her labor...

"I just remembered, I need to finish up the garlic bread! One sec, I'll be right back."

Amity stood and speed-walked to the kitchen, where she found that the over was nearly at the requisite 350 degrees. In the meantime, she grabbed the brush and quickly set to brushing each and every slice of bread with her garlic butter sauce. By the time she was finished, the oven had finally reached the requisite temperature. She opened the door, slid the tray in, and set a timer for 10 minutes before returning to the table. There, she found that Luz had finished her meatball and was now at work devouring the noodles.

"I just realized, you know my name, but I don't think you've ever told me yours."

"Sorry about that. Name's Amity. Amity Blight."

"Don't worry about apologizing. It's my fault for never asking." An awkward silence descended as the two ate in silence while Luz thought of a good icebreaker question. "So, what's your favorite show?"

Of course that's the one she goes with.

"Uh... have you... have you heard of a show called The Good Witch Azura?"

Luz eyes lit up and she smacked both her hands on the sides of the table. "I've been hyperfixating on it since it aired! Also, wow, your table is solid, ow, fuck!"

She held her hands up and began flapping them around to alleviate the pain. Amity managed to stop herself from laughing at it-that'd just be mean.

"So what got you into the show? Honestly, for me, it was just because I heard Azura was lesbian."

"When I was a kid, from I think about fourth grade to the end of high school, the original books were being published and I was a huge fan of them. Safe to say, I was very excited when I heard it was getting turned into a cartoon."

"I don't think I ever read the books. Grew up in an upper class family, my mom decided that books like that were 'below me'. What got you into them?"

Luz visibly tensed at the question. She tugged at the collar of her shirt and cleared her throat, and Amity could have sworn she saw tears stinging at her eyes. Worried, she said, "Oh, shit. If I hit a nerve, you don't have to answer, okay?"

"No, no, it's okay. I've never told anyone about it, but I think it's time I did."

"No pressure. If you start to feel uncomfortable, feel free to stop."

"Thanks. My dad passed away when I was nine, but a few hours before he did, he gave me the first book. I still remember what he told me when he did: 'I'm sorry, mi luz guía, but papá can't take you on anymore adventures. I hope this book can.' And... and it did. The aftermath of his passing really sucked, but The Good Witch Azura helped me get through it. If Azura could go through everything she did and come out on the other side in one piece, then so could I! Of course, I bought all the other books when they came out. The second one onwards released while I was in middle school and high school, where I got bullied for being the loser with no friends, so they helped there, too. So, I guess you could say that I love them so much because, well, they saved me."

While she rambled, Luz had stared at her lap, but now that she was finished, she raised her head once more to look back at Amity, who she now saw was covering her mouth with her hands, tears in her eyes. Amity only noticed them when she saw Luz had.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just... can I hug you? I really wanna hug you right now."

"After getting all that off my chest, I think I could use a hug."

The two stood and approached each other, Amity reaching out and bear hugging Luz the moment she was close enough. To hear that a girl as kind, as funny, as adorable as Luz had gone through so much pain in her life broke Amity's heart in two. Luz, meanwhile, quickly found herself hugging Amity back, and soon after, she was crying. Her embrace allowed her to feel like she could safely let all her feelings flow out, and she wanted to waste no time taking the opportunity. Amity choked out a few sobs and a few tears fell, but she mostly kept herself composed.

"I... I'm so sorry. You're such a great person, and you didn't deserve any of that."

"It's alright now. It's all in the past."

Luz let Amity go, prompting her to do the same and the two to step back. Suddenly, Luz's phone began playing some sort of upbeat pop song Amity didn't recognize. When she checked to see what was the matter, her eyes lit up. "The new Good Witch Azura episode's live," she exclaimed, "You know, this was when I was gonna go home, but now that I know you're an Azura fan too..." "Hold on," Amity replied, "You were gonna go home to watch the new episode of The Good Witch Azura?"

"Keyword: 'Was'."

"And here I was, thinking I was a big GWA nerd. If you'll put the new episode on, I'll go get the garlic bread."

Tonight was a climactic night for any Good Witch Azura fan, perhaps the climactic night. Tonight was the season 1 finale-and, due to the uncertain future of the show, possibly the series finale. Luz and Amity had been watching the episode for the past 20-ish minutes, including ad breaks, and now, it was reaching its conclusion. Rather conveniently, around this time, they were also finished up on their plate of garlic bread.

In the show, Azura was now in front of Fortress Baskeig while Hecate was on the ground, having redeemed herself by betraying the main villain who Azura was now fighting, Mazzan'korr, a magical warlord at least three times as tall as Azura, if not larger. It was not quite certain whether she was unconscious or dead, and it didn't help that in the lore, the villain's name meant "he who death fears" in Elvish (more specifically, according to Luz, Southern Dark Elvish, distinguishable by its similarity to Orcish.)

Azura fired a final lightning bolt at Mazzan'korr, causing him to stagger and kneel down, his breathing now labored. "You... you will not kill me," the warlord laughed, "You lack the vigor. The Hellstorm will ride on, all because the Arch-Coward couldn't get her hands dirty!" Azura merely approached him and answered, "Compassion is far from cowardice. No, I will not kill you, for I am not like you." From some pocket behind her screen, where neither Luz nor Amity could see, she pulled out a small horn, pale as bone, and continued, "So you should hope that the others are more like me."

"Perfidious child! Do not dare to sound that! You know not what you will unleash!"

"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing. And so do they."

With that, Azura blew the horn. The sound enraged Mazzan'korr and caused him to rise to his feet, and as he was about to swing his great sword down on Azura, hoofbeats sounded off-screen. As the camera panned over, the Army of the Wronged charged on ghostly horses, a scene which shocked both Luz and Amity. The latter didn't think the Soul Horn, the artifact Azura had blown into, was going to be making a comeback so soon, and the former knew that this was not how the first book, which the showrunners had claimed the first season was wholly based on, had ended. Then again, in the books, the Soul Horn didn't appear until Book Three-in fact, the whole point of the book was that Azura was trying to prevent Villainous Lucy from acquiring it.

As the Army rode towards him, Mazzan'korr took up a battle stance and declared, "I have slain every last one of you rats once before! What is there to stop me from doing it again?!" The horsemen arrived, and while the warlord managed to scatter their ranks somewhat, the blade passed through a few as if they were not even there. The camera cut to a view inside his helmet, the first time such a thing occurred, and revealed that his face was colored red, as were the irises of his eyes, whereas the pupil and rest of the eye were black. It showed his expression change from one of rage to one of fear.

The hoard overwhelmed him swiftly, causing him to stumble backwards for a moment before finally, with a final yell, he stumbled into a moat of lava behind him. Of course, once he fell in, the camera had to pan away-this was still nominally a children's show, after all. Azura was kneeling next to Hecate's body when she saw one of the spirits dismount his horse and approach her. He was dressed in a great robe and wore a large crown and a scraggly, long beard. Any fan could quickly identify him as Racad, the Ghost King of Neveg himself.

"She's not moving," Azura cried. Racad did not reply and also took a knee. "My time in this world has been long," he remarked, "I have done my best to serve my people faithfully. But my time is done. Allow me this one last service." Amity realized what was about to happen and became a bit emotional. Racad had always been one of her favorite characters-for how rarely he appeared, he established himself as a good king to his people and a sort of father figure to Azura. Perhaps her attachment to the character was rooted in her own childhood, but she didn't like to dwell on such thoughts.

The Ghost King extended his hand towards Hecate's mouth, and slowly, he began to fade. With a final sigh, he was gone. Azura reacted almost immediately, grabbing hold of Hecate's body and cradling it.

"Hecate! Hecate, speak to me! Please!"

Luz decided that now was as good a time as any to wrap her arm around Amity's shoulder. She could feel her date tense at the contact at first, but she quickly relaxed. Luz didn't say anything about it, but she also made a mental note of it. Back in the show, Hecate coughed, indicating that she was still alive. She slowly opened her eyes and, with a raspy voice, said, "Azura? I feel... different." Azura stood and helped her new comrade to her feet as a voice offscreen replied, "As you should."

"Who was that? Where are you?"

"That was Racad," Azura answered, "He gave his essence to save you. He lives in you, now. But let us not dwell on that. Come!"

"Where are we going?"

"Home."

With that, the camera panned up to the night sky as the music swelled, then died before transitioning to the credits. "Santo cielo," Luz exclaimed, "what an ending! You know, sans Azura having the Soul Horn this early, I thought they were just gonna stick to the ending of Book One! Then again, this season did kinda feel like a mash-up of the first three books. Also, since this might end up being the last episode ever, that was probably a helluva lot better of a way to end things. I mean, in Book One, Azura just defeats the Gildersnake and becomes champion of Irkana, then Mazzan'korr basically tells Hecate to step up her game, and that's it, that's the book! What'd you think?" Amity had seemingly gotten lost in her own thoughts for a moment before she came to and replied, "Oh, uh, I really liked it. I like how it leaves the possibilities for more stories open while also acting as a good series finale if it needs to be. Maybe I could write a fanfic about this..."

"You write fanfiction?"

"Oh, fuck, I mean, uhh..."

"Don't worry about it, I read and write a lot of fanfiction, too! Can I see your LO3 account? You use Library of Our Own, right?"

"Fucking duh, I'm not 13 and I'm not 40. I'll show you my account-if you show me yours first, that is."

"Deal!"

Luz pulled her phone out of her pocket, turned it on, and opened it. Then, she clicked on the LO3 app and, in the app, on her profile to show Amity her username: "Hecazura4EVR". Amity blushed after she saw it, but she grabbed her phone and did the same thing Luz had done, revealing her persona to be "Witchchick128", causing Luz to blush as well and the two to look away from each other.

"I'm on a date with my biggest fan..."

"I'm on a date with my favorite fanfic writer..."

"I'm your favorite author?" In spite of the awkwardness of the whole situation, that comment made Amity feel a little proud of herself. Not only did her writings apparently make someone happy, it was the main person she wanted to make happy now.

"You kidding? Of course you are! I always leave a new comment when you upload, and I don't even comment for most people!" Before Amity could give her thanks for her generosity, Luz looked at her phone again and sighed. "Crap, I should be getting home. It's pretty late."

"Do you have to? Tonight's been so lovely, and I don't want it to end yet."

"Sadly, yes, I do need to, but..."

"But...?"

"...if you wanted to, I could bring you with me!"

Amity was still blushing from Luz's earlier revelation, but now she was even redder. Then, she remembered that Luz was already in her home and she began returning to her normal complexion.

"Sure thing. I know it's a little bit embarrassing, but I don't have my driver's permit yet, so can I ride there with you?"

"Of course you can! And don't worry, I'm not one to judge. I've only had my own car for like, a week now. In a small town like Gravesfield, you can just walk wherever you need to go, so there's not much incentive."

The two stood up and made their way to the door, with Luz in the lead. Just as she was about to step outside of her apartment, Amity called back, "G'night, Ghost! Mommy loves you!" When the cat didn't reply, apparently having gone back into the bedroom and either fallen asleep or decided he'd given enough fucks for the night, she just muttered, "Well, screw you too," to herself under her breath and left.

The inside of Luz's car was just about what Amity expected it to be, not counting how clean it was. Hanging from the rear view mirror was an air freshener that gave the car the scent of peaches and the dashboard was decorated with an assortment of stickers of all kinds. There were Good Witch Azura stickers, bi pride stickers, Girl in Red stickers (to no one's surprise), the list went on. After Luz buckled herself in, she looked to Amity and said, "Pro driving tip: A driving instructor might tell you the first thing you do once you're buckled in is start the car, but that's not true. The first thing you do is pick your playlist for the drive. With that in mind, top three music artists, go!" Amity didn't even need to think before she answered, "Sabaton, Rammstein, Iron Maiden. You?"

"Imagine Dragons, Panic! At the Disco, and Green Day, so it looks like we have very different tastes in music. Uh... I got the whole GWA season 1 OST downloaded on my phone. Wanna just listen to that?"

"Not sure how you have that downloaded already, but sure."

Luz nodded and grabbed her phone to use it once more, this time opening Dotify and setting "The Good Witch Azura: Season 1 (Original Series Soundtrack)" to shuffle. With that matter settled, only now did she insert her keys to start the car and begin driving back to her house.

"To answer your question, I had my phone set to pre-download it once it became available. Since the season 1 finale aired today, it downloaded earlier."

"Gotcha."

"Also, a word of warning: I live on the edge of town, so it might take us a little bit to get there."

"I don't mind. It's been a while since I've ridden in a car, anyway."

Luz and Amity didn't really make much conversation from then on. Not long after they began driving, though, Amity decided to recline her seat a little and felt herself getting tired. One of the things she'd forgotten about riding in cars was how relaxing it was at night, albeit she wasn't sure why-after all, she'd majored in Humanities, not Psychology. Luz took notice and clicked a button on her car's central console.

"Aurora, play 'Night Driving Playlist'."

The computer in the console beeped and answered in a robotic female voice, "Now playing: 'Night Driving Playlist'." Music began playing again, but this time, it was much slower, calmer music that made it all the more difficult to stay awake. Amity now had to consciously keep her eyes open, but when she felt that Luz had reached out her hand to scratch her head, she could resist no longer and fell asleep.

When she woke up, she wasn't sure how long she had been asleep for, but it felt like a long time. If nothing else, she knew they had reached their destination, one, and two, it was still night. As such, she unbuckled herself and opened the door to the car, the frigid air of Gravesfield in autumn waking her up quickly. She stepped onto Luz's driveway and stretched, letting out a few grunts. "Did you sleep well," Luz asked, startling Amity and causing her to realize that Luz, who now stood directly in front of her car, had seen her.

"Uh... yeah," Amity replied, trying her best to mask her embarrassment for the second time tonight, "How long was I out for?"

"30 minutes, give or take. I only live 10 minutes away from your place, but I figured I'd take the scenic route, maybe take a few detours, let you get some extra shut-eye."

Amity nodded as thanks and the two made their way to the door of the house, Luz having to fumble with her keys for a moment before she could open the door. Like her car, Luz's house was pretty much what Amity expected it to be, and that now did include its cleanliness. The living room had a large TV and a more modestly sized red couch in front of it, the two separated by a coffee table with a Karuta Swap in its charging station resting on it. Around the corner ahead, Amity assumed, was the kitchen, and off to the side were two doors which were slightly ajar. Amity wasn't sure which was which, but she guessed one was to the basement and the other was to the bedroom.

Speaking of the bedroom, Luz led Amity there and slipped off her shoes at the foot of the bed. Amity, however, stood in the doorway, crimson and motionless.

"Should I, uh, you know..."

"You don't have to undress if you don't want to. We can sleep in our clothes! If you're comfortable with that, that is."

"That's great! I mean, erm... that's fine, thank you."

Amity now willed her legs to move and followed Luz in taking her shoes off. Then, the two both climbed into the bed at almost the same time, and for a moment, they simply laid there, staring at each other, not sure of what to do. Luz, ultimately, would be the first to find her confidence.

"Do you mind if I hold you?" When she noticed Amity's blush and she still failed to answer after a moment, she added on, "You're allowed to say 'no' if you're not comfortable with anything, just so you know."

"Right, sorry. It's just... I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before. That sounds really nice."

With that, Luz wrapped her arms around Amity's midsection and pulled her close, squeezing her as tight as she could without hurting her-hopefully, anyhow. In all honestly, when Amity had said she didn't think anyone had ever asked to hold her, she'd been guessing, but now that she was in Luz's arms, she was certain she'd been right. She didn't recognize all these feelings of warmth and safety and relaxation, not from her childhood, not from Boscha, not from anywhere. It was euphoric, to the point where she felt tears of joy welling up in her eyes. All it took for the dam to burst was for Luz to notice, plant a gentle kiss on her forehead, and say, "Let it out, hermosa."

It took a few minutes of Luz soothing her, admittedly using tricks she'd pulled straight from her fics-rubbing her back in circles, cradling her head, whispering sweet nothings, and so on-but Amity calmed down enough to speak, the first thing she said being, "God, I'm... I'm sorry about this. This is just silly. We're just cuddling, and I'm over here crying!"

"Don't be. You're just a little touch starved is all. Lucky for you, physical touch is my love language. Besides, I know tonight's the first time we've really gotten to get to know each other, but I think I already care about you a lot."

"Me too."

"Good. It's important to care about yourself, after all."

Amity giggled, albeit it was a very short, wet one.

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah. I think I wanna keep seeing you."

"Agreed. Girlfriends, then?"

"Sounds good to me."

Amity could scarcely remember the last time she smiled wider than she was smiling now. She wrapped Luz in a great bear hug, her head resting rather perfectly under her chin. This was the position they would fall asleep in, Amity still wearing her dopey grin.

The next morning, Amity would wake up to find that her new girlfriend had been replaced by one of the pillows, and the genuine article was nowhere to be found. She grumbled and flopped onto her other side, revealing a note on the nightstand next to the table. She picked it up and saw that on it, it read, "Hey Amity! Sorry I'm not here. Had to go run errands. Left a bag of donuts on the kitchen table for you (just regular chocolate, hope that's fine!). You can stay if you want, but if you need to head home, that's fine, too. Borrow one of my hoodies from the closet, I have a million of them. Good morning, by the way!" Below the message, Luz had signed her name and left her phone number. Amity heaved herself out of bed and, as much as she loved spending time with Luz already, she decided she should probably head home by now. After all, she did have a cat to take care of, even if that cat seemingly couldn't care less about her.

She created a new contact for Luz in her phone, donned her shoes, and opened Luz's closet, where she located a black hoodie with a red symbol on it. Amity recognized it as begin from The Good Witch Azura, of course, but more specifically, the Mark of the Hellstorm. Above it, "THE STORM RIDES ON" was written in red lettering, and below it was the logo of the show. After putting it on, she realized that not only was it very comfortable, it also fit her perfectly. She went to the kitchen, grabbed the bag of donuts, and made her way out of the house and back to her own-with the help of her phone, of course.

It was certainly a long walk, a little over an hour, but there was something nice about it. It was just her and her thoughts-no other people, no cars, no noise whatsoever. The quiet mornings were her favorite, by far. During her walk, however, an idea began forming in her head, for a new story. By the time she was home, she'd thought of practically everything-main characters, villains, locales, a plot structure, all the bells and whistles. Once she was there, she decided to set her bag on the table and call Luz. After a few seconds of ringing, she answered, "Hello? Who is this?" "Hey Luz," Amity greeted.

"Oh, hey Ams! Sorry you had to wake up alone."

"It's fine. I've lived alone for a few years now, I'm used to it."

"So, do you wanna go on another date soon?"

"I'd love that. Does next Friday work? Same time, same place?"

"Works for me! See you then!"

"See you then. Bye."

"Bye!"

Amity clicked a button and ended the call. She sat down, ate her breakfast, and began writing the story as she had envisioned it during her walk.

A story of a young girl, not unlike her girlfriend, going to another world to escape summer camp and learn magic...