Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Luz stared back at the whiteboard that lined the wall of her home office. On it were hundreds of notes written in dry erase marker, about two dozen sticky notes, and several drawings. To anyone else, the contents of the board would look like the desperate scribbles of a mad scientist, but to Luz Noceda they were the outline to her next novel. The novel was set to be an epic tale of magic, romance, and snakes!

Sure, she lost a night of sleep because of it, but when your ADHD-riddled brain tells you that it’s time to focus and work on something, you listen to it, even if it is 2AM and you should probably sleep. Sleep, however, was no match for Luz Noceda and the overabundance of coffee she had in her system.

And it was all worth it because ten hours, 12 dry erase markers, two whiteboard erasers, and a pile of discarded sticky notes later, Luz was ready to start writing… right after she got some sleep. Even Luz knew that starting to write after missing a full night of sleep was an awful idea. But first, she had a snake to feed.

Luz walked over to her kitchen to grab the snake food from the freezer. Once retrieved, Luz went over to the cage containing her tiny little companion, Stringbean, who was currently slithering around her cage, looking absolutely adorable. Luz opened the cage and dropped her pets lunch in and watched as the snake gladly ate what was offered to her.

“Oh Bean, how can you be so perfect?” Luz mused as she stared lovingly at her little friend. It was at that moment that Luz’s doorbell rang through her apartment, causing the girl to jump back in shock (she made a mental note to talk to her landlord about installing a quieter doorbell, the current one was way too loud for her poor autistic ears). With a sigh, Luz walked over to her front door and opened it to find a tall, green-haired girl standing on the other side holding a clipboard.

“If you’re asking me to sign anything, the answer is no,” was all Luz said to the girl in front of her.

It took a few seconds for the green-haired girl to respond to her statement. Luz noticed a couple things in those few seconds. Firstly, the girl was constantly fiddling with the edge of the papers on her clipboard. Secondly, the girl was wearing a name tag on her dress that read “Amity Blight.” And lastly, she was absolutely stunning . It was enough to make Luz’s little bi heart beat even faster than it was from all the caffeine she had consumed.

After what felt like an eternity (and what Luz could have sworn was a low “wow” coming from ‘Amity’ but she figured that it was just her imagination) the girl in front of her finally spoke up, “Uh- no, I’m not here to have you sign anything. I’m actually here to talk with you about a new business opportunity!” 

“What kind of business opportunity?” Luz inquired.

“What if I told you there is a way for you to make some extra side cash while also getting to be your own boss?” Amity had an uncomfortable looking smile on her face as she read from her clipboard.

It was at this moment that Luz would usually shut the door in the person's face. This was not the first time someone pushing a pyramid scheme or various other scams had knocked on Luz’s door and she was fully aware of their tricks. Using flowery language to help scam people out of their money with promises of getting rich quick.

However, Luz couldn’t bring herself to slam the door this time. Luz could tell by the look in Amity’s eyes that she was not at all happy doing this. Some may call it foolish, but a part of Luz really wanted to see if she could break Amity away from this scam (plus she was just so pretty and Luz couldn’t bring herself to slam the door in her face).

Against Luz’s better judgment, she cleared her throat and put on a smile, “Why don’t you come inside? I’d love to hear about this.”

Amity’s eyes suddenly lit up, “Really? You’re not going to yell at me to go away?”

“No,” Luz said as she opened her door to let Amity inside. “My name is Luz Noceda, by the way.”

“And as my name tag says I’m Amity Blight,” the green-haired girl said as she happily entered Luz’s apartment. The shorter girl led Amity to the living room where she could give her presentation. Before Amity could start, Luz quickly grabbed her laptop from her home office, claiming that she, “Just want to take notes on everything,” when in reality Luz just needed an excuse to look up “How to tell someone they’re part of a pyramid scheme.” 

Once Luz had sat back down Amity nervously began her presentation and, just as Luz suspected, it was a classic pyramid scheme. The whole gist of it was that the company was selling “vacation packages” (what exactly those entailed was vague). But what the scam wanted from Luz was for Luz to pay $2,000 to buy inventory from the company and then sell it to get some money back (Amity would make a portion of any money that Luz made) or preferably, Luz would recruit up to six people to also buy stock from the company and start selling or recruiting people.

Luz would make even more money if she recruited people and, in turn, Amity would make even more money as well. Luz would make a portion of the profits from the money the people she would recruit but a portion of those profits would also go back to Amity. But Luz “got to be her own boss” so it was cool (Luz honestly had no idea what that meant and Luz was fairly sure Amity didn’t either).

Amity’s presentation was also pretty rough to watch, and not just because Luz kept getting distracted by her pretty face. Amity clearly hadn’t done this a lot as she kept forgetting details and having to go backwards in her presentation. She also stuttered a lot. Amity also wouldn’t stand still. She paced around constantly and anytime Luz made eye contact with Amity during the presentation, Amity would just look right back down at her clipboard. (Luz was beginning to suspect that Amity might be autistic as well but all this could easily just be nerves, plus that wasn’t important right now).

“So what do you say?” Amity said as she wrapped up her presentation, the same uncomfortable smile from earlier lining her face.

“Well, Amity-” 

Suddenly. Amity’s phone started ringing, causing the taller girl to jump back at the sound. Amity took the phone out from her pocket, “Ah, it’s my mom. Excuse me for one moment please,” Amity stepped backwards as she lifted her phone up to her ear, still very much within earshot of Luz.

“Hey, mom… No, I haven’t recruited anyone yet but I think I’m about to… Her name is Luz, she’s really nice… I will, love you mom,” Amity hung up her phone and walked back over to Luz,

“Sorry about that, that was just my mom,” Amity said. “We’re partners in this, and she’s actually the one who got this business opportunity for us!”

“Really?” Luz wore a curious look, “Where did she hear about this from?”

“From Facebook!” In Luz’s mind she rolled her eyes. Of course it was Facebook, it always is. She constantly got messages from people she hasn’t talked to since highschool about joining their “businesses.”

“Listen, Amity,” Luz began with a sympathetic tone, “You seem like a nice girl-”

“Really?” Amity asked with a much less uncomfortable smile on her face.

“Yes,” Luz gave the girl a worried look before going back into what she was going to say. “However, I do believe your mother has you two invested in a scam.”

“A scam,” Amity let out a nervous chuckle, “I can assure you this is a legitimate business opportunity,” Amity grabbed onto the side of her dress with the hand not carrying her clipboard.

Poor girl was all Luz could think. “Listen, I think your mother got duped and signed herself up for a thing called a pyramid scheme. It’s a scam where your primary business model is based on recruitment and not selling products. The people recruited later on in the scam get screwed over since they run out of people to recruit, thus experiencing diminishing returns. This makes it soo they end up losing money while people who joined the scheme earlier make money.”

“My mom wouldn’t scam people,” Amity looked deep in thought for a moment, “Well, actually maybe she would but that’s besides the point, this isn't a scam, we sell a product!”

“Uh huh,” Luz said sarcastically, “and that’s why you pitched me the business and not the product when you knocked on my door?”

“Yes well,” Amity’s grip on her dress was tightening, “I still don’t see the problem with this business model, as long as people recruit, they won’t lose money!”

Luz let out an exhausted sigh and put her laptop on the table in front of her coach and pulled out her phone and opened her calculator app, “Okay, so I’m going to do some quick math here,” after a few second Luz held up her phone towards Amity, “By the 11th level of this model, there will have to be 10 million people in your business which is more than the population of Connecticut! There is no conceivable way you can have that many employees in a business.”

“What? No,” Amity said as she grabbed the phone from Luz’s hand to check her math and found, to her horror, that it was indeed correct, “Oh my god, I’m apart of a scam,” a look of pure dread filled the green-haired girls eyes as she set her clipboard and Luz’s phone down on the table. Amity looked like she was about to fall over so Luz stood up and led her to the couch for her to sit down. Once sat down Amity leaned forward and started running her hand through her hair.

“You uh, you okay?” Luz asked, really unsure how to handle this situation. She expected Amity to get mad and leave when comforted with the fact she was in a scam but the girl was absolutely devastated with the knowledge that she was scamming people.

“No,” Amity continued looking downwards, “My mom promised me this was a legitimate business and we were going to make so much money. But I don’t want people to get hurt in this process.”

Luz went to rub the poor girls back, “There, there, it was an honest mistake, you didn’t know. The important thing is that you stop participating in the business and tell all the people you recruited that it’s a scam.”

“Both done,” Amity said as she looked over to Luz, their eyes meeting for a moment before they both shifted them away so they were no longer making contact, “You uh were kind of the first person to listen to my pitch,” Amity explained with a hint of sadness in her voice.

“Well that’s good at least,” Luz felt a bit relieved that the girl hadn’t duped anyone before she came across Luz, “Now the next step is to comfort your mom, maybe you can save her from the scam!”

“I hope so,” Luz heard Amity mumble before she let out a frustrated noise, “Well thank you for helping me see the light, I just can’t believe my mom was wrong about this…”

“Well parents are not infallible, they’re humans and make mistakes like all of us,” Luz said as she pulled the girl into a side hug.

“I hope she’s not wrong about anything else,” Amity said with a slight chuckle, “Next you’re going to tell me she’s wrong about vaccines being the reason I was diagnosed with autism.”

“Well…”

It had been about four hours and Luz was taking a well needed nap on her couch when she was awoken by the way-too-loud doorbell, causing her to fall off of said couch in shock. Luz let out a loud groan as she picked herself up from the floor and shuffled over to her front door. “May I help you,” Luz grumbled as she opened the door only to realize that Amity had returned, “Oh Amity you’re back-” Luz’s thoughts were cut short as she realized three things. One: Amity’s eyes were red and clearly indicated she had been crying. Two: on her shoulder there was a strap to a big black duffle bag she was carrying with her. And three: she held a pure white cat in her hands.

“Hey so uh,” Amity began weakly, “my mom didn’t take me leaving the business well and I got kicked out of the house and I don’t really have any friends to go to and you seemed really nice and…I’m sorry I’ll just go find a motel this is weird,” Amity lowered her head in shame.

“No no no!” Luz waved her hands in front of her, “It’s fine if you need to stay here for a couple days.”

“Really?” Hope beamed into Amity’s eyes.

“Really, I couldn't stand to just leave you without a place to stay,” Luz smiled warmly over at the girl. In truth, Luz felt kind of guilty since it was kind of her fault that Amity was without a home, “But uh the cat?” Luz said as she pointed towards the small creature in Amity’s hands.

“Oh this little girl is Ghost,” Amity lifted the cat up slightly and she made a small noise. “My mom never liked her so I was scared that if I left her she would take her back to the pound and I couldn’t stand the thought of it.”

“Aw that’s really sweet of you,” Luz could swear she saw a blush form on Amity’s face, “But uh, one small problem.”

“Oh no, does your building not allow pets? Are you allergic? Do you have a dog? I don’t recall seeing one here-” Amity was beginning to ramble and Luz had a feeling if she didn’t stop her she never would.

“No, my building is fine with cats, I’m not allergic, and the only pet I have is a cute little snake,” Luz drew out the s-sound in the last word for dramatic effect, “I was just curious if you had a litter box with you?”

“I uh don’t,” Amity said ashamed, “I can go pick one up along with some litter and food though.”

“No, you’ve had a hard enough day as it is, let me be your fearless champion and go get that stuff for you!” Luz said this as placed her arms on her hips like some sort of superhero, getting a chuckle out of the taller girl.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes I am,” Luz said proudly, “Now come in and make yourself at home,” Luz moved out of the way and Amity walked into the apartment for the second time that day, “Help yourself to anything in the kitchen and the bathroom is to the right of my office.”

Amity turned back around to face Luz, “Thank you so so much for this, you’re maybe the nicest person I’ve ever met.”

A blush formed on Luz’s face as she rubbed the back of her neck, “Aw thanks, now does Ghost need wet food or dry food?”

“Dry food.”

“Got it,” and with that Luz grabbed her keys and wallet and went to go get one of her new housemates some supplies.

 When Luz arrived back at her a apartment, both the box of litter and bag of cat food being carried in the litter box she bought, Amity was sitting on the couch, a sandwich on the table, ghost lying peacefully next to her, and she was laughing hysterically at a rerun of “Spongebob Squarepants.” To Luz, it was in the top ten most precious things she’s ever seen in her life. “I’m back,” Luz announced as she placed her purchases on the ground next to her door.

“Oh welcome back,” Amity gleefully called back, “I was just watching some TV and eating a mustard and cheese sandwich, I would’ve added mayo but you were out. Also no offense but this dairy free cheese sucks.”

Luz chose to ignore the sandwich part, “I can see that you really like Spogebob.” 

“I guess I do,” Amity said with a chuckle, “My mom never let me watch any cartoons when I was growing up. She said it would cause me to act out, but if she’s wrong about the business being a scam and vaccines, there’s a good chance she’s wrong about cartoons as well!”

Luz gave the girl a sympathetic look before going to sit down next to her, “You were really sheltered growing up weren’t you?”

“Yeah,” sadness had entered Amity’s voice, “Y’know my whole life I spent it just kind of blindly trusting her but after today? I’m questioning all of it. Like are chemtrails really that bad? Is the fluoride in the water really slowly killing us? Does Burger King really suck that bad? And like, now I feel like I missed out on so much stuff throughout my life.”

“Oh Amity,” Luz said as she slowly placed an arm around the taller girl. When Amity didn’t pull away Luz pulled her in closer, “I’m sure this is all very hard for you, but look at it this way, you’re finally free to do whatever you want! Your mom can’t stop you! So watch all the cartoons you want! Drink all the tap water you can! Stuff as many Whoppers into your face as humanly possible! Whatever your heart desires go ahead and do it!”

A smile returned to Amity’s face, “Yeah I guess you’re right, it’s just a bit overwhelming is all.”

“Tell you what,” Luz gave Amity a pat on the back before pulling away, “tomorrow I’ll take you to do whatever you want that your mom never let you do! We’ll make a whole day out of it!”

“That sounds like fun,” Amity had on the prettiest smile Luz had ever seen on someone.

“Yeah it does,” Luz said as she grabbed ahold of one of Amity’s hands, “So what do you want to do?”

Amity took a few moments to think things over before she spoke up again, “I think I would really like to go and get my flu vaccine.”

Chapter Text

Usually when Amity was woken up, it was to the sound of her alarm clock blaring into her ears. Today was much more pleasant however. For one she was incredibly comfortable. Luz was happy to let her use an extra weighted blanket she had lying around. Amity had never had one before and it was the most comfortable blanket she had ever used. Luz had mentioned something about weighted blankets being good for autistic people when she went to go get it for Amity so she figured that’s why she liked it so much. It was so comfortable that Amity barely had any trouble falling asleep on Luz’s couch. Ghost even seemed to enjoy it as she was currently nestled up against Amity’s shoulder.

The second pleasant thing was the smell. Someone was cooking something and it smelt absolutely fantastic. Nothing her mother ever cooked smelt like this did. Amity just had to know what was causing it so she sleepily sat up on the couch, Ghost jumping off as she did, and looked towards the kitchen to see Luz happily humming while baking some pancakes.

It wasn’t long before Luz glanced over and noticed that Amity had woken up, “Well good morning roomie!” Luz said with a smile as she flipped over a pancake. The pancake managed to go up about a foot before falling back down on the pan perfectly, “How’d you sleep?”

“Pretty good actually,” Amity said as she rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms. Ghost was also stretching on the table next to Amity, and they both managed to yawn at the same time for the exact same amount of time which managed to garner a chuckle out of Luz.

“Well that’s good to hear,” Luz scooped the pancake in the pan atop a plate with two other pancakes and began to pour syrup on it, “In other good news I called my doctor and she agreed to see you at one o’clock to give you your flu shot for the year.”

“Oh you didn’t have to do that,” Amity gave her lap a couple of rapid taps.

“Oh but I insist,” Luz grabbed a glass from her cabinet and filled it up with water from the sink, “besides you’ll love my doctor, she’s really nice.”

“Well thank you, uh, roomie,” Amity had a blush on her face now.

“Don’t mention it,” Luz said as she grabbed the plate of pancakes and walked over to the living room, “But first, eat up!” Luz placed the glass of water and plate of pancakes (which Amity now noticed were shaped like smiley faces) in front of Amity.

“Oh, this is for me?” Amity was a bit shocked that anyone would go out of their way to make breakfast for someone they met the day before. Although, Luz was letting her stay at her place after just meeting her so this shouldn’t be a surprise.

“Yep!” Luz said with a smile, “Blueberry pancakes and tap water.”

“Tap water?”

“Yeah, y’know since you you mentioned drinking water with fluoride in it yesterday and I figured now would be a good time for that,” Luz wore a nervous smile on her face, “but I have some juice if you’d rather put off the fluoride water for a bit.” 

“No no, it’s fine,” Amity said as she grabbed the glass of water and held it in front of her face and examined it for a second, “Are you sure this is safe?”

“I’m sure, if it wasn’t I wouldn't have you drink it,” Luz's smile turned from anxious to reassuring. Amity still had some reservation over the water but she was not about to disappoint Luz. So, Amity slowly brought the glass up to her mouth and took a quick gulp of water, “So, how is it?”

“It’s water,” Amity said as she placed the glass down on the table, “Not sure what I expected honestly.”

“And you’re alive!” Luz said as she gave Amity small jazz hands.

“Yeah I am,” Amity chuckled a bit before she picked up the fork and knife that were sitting on her plate and began to eat her pancakes. It took one bite for Amity to decide that this was the best breakfast that she had ever had. The pancakes were so fluffy and the blueberries added so much flavor to them that Amity could hardly keep herself from scarfing the rest of her meal down. “Wow, these are fantastic Luz.”

“Well I’m glad you think so,” Luz began to blush and she tapped her foot on the floor rapidly, “I learned how to make them from my mami.”

“Well, she taught you well,” Amity took another bite of her pancakes.

“If you think those are good then you should taste my mom’s omelets, I’ll have to make them for you some day.”

“You really don’t have to keep making me breakfast,” Amity said with a mouth full of pancakes which caused Luz to chuckle.

“I know, but I want to. I enjoy cooking,” Amity wanted to argue with her, but if the rest of Luz’s cooking was anything like this then Amity was not about to turn it down.

“Well alright then,” Amity flashed a smile over towards the shorter girl, “Also, not that the tap water is bad, but I would actually prefer some juice with my breakfast.”

“On it,” Luz said as she walked back over to her kitchen and opened her fridge, “I have apple and orange juice.”

“Does the orange juice have pulp in it?” Amity called back as she prepared to take another bite of her almost depleted pancakes.

“Of course not,” Luz said as she reached for the bottle of orange juice.

“Ugh then I’ll take the apple juice.” 

Amity’s statement caused Luz to stop in her tracks as she placed the bottle of orange juice down and glared over at the monster on her couch that not only likes pulp in their orange juice, but would actually rather drink something else then pulpless orange juice.

“You…like pulp?” Luz said, currently the most bewildered she has ever been in her entire life.

“You don’t?” was the only reply Amity granted Luz.

“It’s okay to sit down, you know,” Luz said as she watched Amity pace around the doctor's office. She had been pacing for the past five minutes and showed no sign of stopping.

“I know,” Amity replied, “I just do this when I’m nervous.”

“What are you nervous about?”

“Well what if the vaccine kills me? Or what if I lose function in my arm? Or-”

“You’re not going to die and your arm won’t stop working,” Luz chuckled softly, “Listen I know this is the first time in forever that you’re getting a vaccine and your mom filled your head with a bunch of nonsense about them, but trust me, these are completely safe. Everything your mom believes about them is wrong.”

“Are you sure?” Amity was now biting at her nails causing Luz to notice that she wore black nail polish which was so so pretty on the bright haired girl.

“I’m sure,” Luz again gave a soft smile to Amity, “I haven’t lied to you yet, have I?”

“No, no you haven’t,” Amity continued to pace but at a much slower rate so Luz took that as a sign that she helped calm Amity’s nerves some.

“Can I come in?” Luz and Amity turned their heads to see a girl with a large brown ponytail wearing a white lab coat with a lesbian flag pin in it. She also had a fishhook for an earring.

“Yes you may,” Luz said gleefully, “Amity this is my doctor, Viney.”

“Uh hi doctor Viney,” Amity said as she extended her hand to shake the doctor's hand.

Viney reached out and shook Amity’s hand, “Nice to meet you too but please, just call me Viney,” VIney let go of Amity’s hand and flipped through her clipboard, “Now then miss…” Viney paused for a moment as she read through Amity’s information, “Blight.”

“Is something wrong?” Amity asked.

“Uh no, nothing’s wrong,” Viney let out an awkward laugh, “Just making sure I pronounced your name right is all.”

“It’s not a very hard name to pronounce.”

“Well I’m very stupid,” Viney gave a big smile to Amity.

“What do you mean you're stup-”

 “Now then why don’t you take a seat there next to Luz and we can get your flu vaccine administered.” VIney clapped her hands together and went to get ready for the vaccination process. Amity slowly sat down next to Luz on the exam table.

“Don’t worry about her, she's just joking with you, she’s very smart,” Luz whispered to Amity who was now nervously sweating.

“Well alright,” Amity’s voice came out very shaky.

“Amity, if you want to hold my hand while you get this done, you can. It may-” Luz didn’t get to finish her sentence when Amity grabbed ahold of her hand, “Well alright,” Luz stared down at their conjoined hands, now noticing how much smaller Amity’s hands were to hers. Luz couldn't help but find it absolutely adorable. She also noticed just how soft they were. Clearly Amity took good care of her skin. And the grip Amity had on her hand was very tight, but not tight enough to be painful. It actually felt very nice. 

And maybe it was the former fanfiction writer in her, but Luz couldn’t get the thought out of her mind about how weirdly romantic this situation was. Here she was, in a doctor’s office, her hand being held by the pretty girl who just became her roommate, and to add to the romance, Luz decided it was a good idea to lightly squeeze Amity’s hand back.

“Why are you all red?” Amity asked Luz, breaking up Luz’s inner thoughts about how she wouldn’t mind holding Amity’s hand for a lot longer causing her to look back up at the taller girl. Their eyes met for a moment before Amity darted hers away quickly.

“Uh well-”

“Oh no, are you sick? Do you have a fever?” Viney asked as she washed her hands in the sink.

“No no no, I’m perfectly fine,” Luz lied as she let out a nervous laugh, “I’m just uh a little hot is all. Yeah, that’s it.”

“Well alright,” Viney sighed, “Anyway, miss Blight, Luz here tells me you haven’t gotten a vaccine since you were seven, is this correct?”

“Yes it is,” Amity answered, “after I got diagnosed with autism my mother read that they caused it and stopped taking me to get them. I learned just yesterday that that isn’t true.”

“You poor thing,” Viney gave Amity a sympathetic look as she put on her latex gloves, “Well it’s never too late to get your vaccines, and the flu vaccine is a good one to start with. Flu season is right around the corner after all,” Viney picked up a syringe and inserted it into a vial full of the vaccine and filled it up. She then walked over to Amity and grabbed her arm, “Now I’m going to disinfect the area where the shot is going in,” Viney grabbed an alcohol swab from a table next to the exam table and rubbed it over a small area on Amity’s arm, “Now I’m going to give you the shot-

Amity’s grip on Luz’s hand tightened.

“You might feel a pinch in your arm-”

It tightened again.

“But it will be very brief.”

Luz was blushing harder than she had ever blushed before. If anyone saw her they’d think she was about to pass out.

“And now I’m going to insert the needle-”

Pain, that was all Luz felt as the needle went into Amity’s arm. Despite their size, Amity’s hands managed a grip on Luz’s so tight that even her wrist was starting to hurt.

“Ow ow ow ow-” both girls said in unison, and within a few seconds the needle was out of Amity’s arm and Luz’s hand was free from the monster grip of Amity.

“See that wasn’t so bad now was it?” Viney had a satisfied smile as she discarded the syringe in the trash.

“Yeah it wasn’t,” Amity replied as Viney put a bandage on the injection site.

“Speak for yourself,” Luz rubbed her hand which she assumed contained a few broken bones thanks to Amity.

“Oh no, did I hurt you?” Amity covered her mouth with her hand, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Luz chuckled, “What’s important is you were very brave and got your flu vaccine.” A blush formed on Amity’s face as they both heard VIney lightly laugh.

“Now then miss Blight,” Viney threw her used gloves in the trash, “You may experience some tenderness in your arm, feel free to take some over-the-counter painkillers if it gets bad but it should be gone within two days. Now you may experience some flu-like symptoms tomorrow but that is completely normal and is just the vaccine doing its job.” Amity nodded her head along to Viney’s explanation of the side effects.

“Now here’s a reward for being so brave for me,” Viney handed Amity a small cotton candy flavored sucker with a smile, “And I hope to see you again for more vaccines.”

Amity smiled back at her doctor, “I think you will.”

Viney opened the door to her apartment and was quickly greeted by a mass of fur jumping on her in excitement.

“Puddles!” The fluffy saint bernard began to lick the young doctor's face, “I missed you two buddy.”

“Welcome back cutie,” a voice said from the couch as Viney gently guided Puddles back onto all fours.

“Hey there Em,” Viney said as she walked over to her girlfriend and kissed her before joining her on the couch. Viney leaned over on the green haired girl's shoulder as Emira pulled her in closer to snuggle.

“I ordered chinese ten minutes ago, it should be here soon.”

“Perfect,” Puddles took his place near the two girls' feet, “But before that I need to talk with you about something.”

“I said I was sorry and that I would buy you a new croissant-”

“Not that,” Viney sighed, “It’s about your sister.”

“Amity? What about her?” Emira glanced over to the shorter girl, confusion covering her face.

“Well, I think I gave her a flu shot today.”

“What?” Emira let go of her girlfriend and scooted back slightly on the couch, “That doesn’t make sense, mom would never let her get that done. Are you sure?”

“Pretty positive,” Viney responded, “Unless there’s another Amity Blight running around Gravesfield.”

“I just-” Emira was very much speechless at this revelation, “How?”

“I don’t know how exactly,” Viney began to explain, “All I know is that another one of my patients called the office and told us her new roommate needed to get a flu vaccine after not getting one for years. I agreed to see her and the next thing I know there was this green-haired girl in a purple shirt with the same name as your sister in my office.”

“She always did like purple,” Emira mused with a fond smile.

“Are you alright Em?” Viney gently caressed her girlfriend's face, whipping away a few tears of joy that were falling down Emira’s face.

“Yeah,” Emira sniffled, “I’m just trying to process the fact that my baby sister may have finally gotten free from our mother,” Viney went over and hugged Emira tightly. A few moments later Emira had managed to stop crying and there was a knock on the door, "That's probably our dinner."

"I'll go get it," Viney volunteered as she stood up.

"Alright," Emira flashed a smile over to her girlfriend as she left to go get their dinner. While she did that, Emira pulled out her phone and pressed call on a contact labeled “bro” and let it ring.

A few seconds passed and the person on the other end picked up “Hello, Em?”

“Hey Ed, I have news about Mittens.”

Chapter Text

Luz sat down at her desk and opened up her laptop. A nice, calmin g rainstorm had overtaken Gravesfield. Not so hard to where her power threatened to go out, but hard enough that the soothing sounds of the rain hitting her apartment could be heard. Adding in the fact that she had no prior engagements planned, it was the absolute perfect day for her to get started on writing her next novel.

"Luuuuuuuuz."

Well, almost perfect.

Those flu-like symptoms Viney mentioned yesterday? Turns out they decided to hit Amity like a truck. So now Luz was dealing with a very sick Amity on just day three of knowing her. With a sigh, Luz stood up from her desk and made her way over to her living room. Currently Amity was laying down on the couch under four blankets, still somehow shivering, while the tv was playing though early episodes of “SpongeBob Squarepants.'' Luz had to subscribe to another streaming service when Amity asked if there was a way to watch through the entire series and without thinking Luz immediately went and signed up to have yet another $20 taken out of her bank account monthly. Not the wisest financial investment but the smile on her new roommate’s face when Luz put on the very first episode of SpongeBob was worth any amount of money. If Vee was here, she would have found the entire series on a shady website and spent the better part of a week downloading thirty-two gigabytes of possibly virus-laden files, a technique she picked up from her partner. Luz, however, figured her sister’s process would take way too long for her sick roommate.

“Did you need something?” Luz asked as Amity tilted her head to look at her.

“I’m still cold,” whined the green-haired girl.

“Amity,” Luz poked up the circular frames of her reading glasses as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, “It’s already 75 degrees in here and you’re under four blankets, how are you still cold?”

“Because I am,” Amity pouted, “Please Luz, can’t you do anything?”

“Amity,” Luz was about to tell her roommate there wasn’t much she could realistically do for her at this point, until Amity gave her some of the most desperate puppy dog eyes she had ever seen. Luz sighed, “I’ll go get you another blanket.”

“Thanks Luz,” Amity said as Luz left to pull out yet another blanket from her closet. As she opened the closet and scanned around for a suitable blanket Luz wondered that, if Amity reacted this bad to a simple vaccine, then how bad did she get when she actually had the flu? Luz decided to save the scenario for her nightmares as she found a rather large blanket that hadn’t been used since she moved into her apartment. It wasn’t very soft but Luz figured Amity wouldn’t mind since she was under four other blankets already.

Luz returned to the living room with the blanket and proceeded to gently lay the brown piece of fabric over her sick roommate. Amity let out a small hum of contentment as Luz did this and the shorter girl's heart could barely take it. For all of Luz’s annoyance, she was more than happy to help her friend when she was feeling sick.

“Thank you,” Amity said contently, “This is the last time I ask you for help, I promise.”

“You’re welcome, but please if you need help do not hesitate to ask, I promise I don’t mind,” Luz gave her roommate a reassuring smile.

“Are you sure?” Amity asked, the guilt very obvious in her voice.

“Positive!” Luz smiled ear-to-ear, doing her best to reassure her roommate.

“In that case, could you make me some soup? I’m hungry”

“Of course!” Luz bent down so she was closer to eye level with Amity, "But first let me make sure you aren't running a fever."

"How would one 'run a fever' exactly?"

Luz chuckled, "It's an expression. Running a fever just means you have one. Now hold still," Luz slowly lowered her hand towards Amity's cheek and before too long she gently made contact with Amity's pale skin. 

As Luz rested her hand on her roommate's soft skin, noting that she felt rather cold so no fever, Amity let out a hum of contentment that almost resembled a purr and, In an instant, Amity was nuzzling into Luz's touch.

"Uh, you okay?" Luz asked while her heart was ready burst at how cute Amity was being.

"Uh, yeah," Amity's cheeks were now warming up as they turned a bright shade of red, "Your hand just feels…nice."

"Uh alright," Luz quickly removed her hand from Amity's cheek as her face began to feel warm as well, "No fever! I'll go make you your soup now," Luz awkwardly stammered out before she quickly darted over to her kitchen and opened a cabinet to find a few cans of soup sitting inside it, “What kind would you like? I have chicken noodle, tomato, and french onion.”

“Tomato!” Amity called back before quickly adding, “Please!”

“On it,” Luz quickly got out a pot and placed it on the stove. She would usually put on some music while cooking but she didn’t want to bother Amity so she just cooked, the only noise being the sound of the rain outside and the high pitched laugh of SpongBob coming from the television.

“Hey Luz,” Amity called out as Luz poured out the finished soup into a bowl and broke some crackers into it.

“What is it?” Luz responded as she walked back from the kitchen and placed the bowl in front of Amity who sat up, letting the blankets fall off her shoulders, “Also careful, it’s very hot.”

“Thanks,” Amity said with an ice-melting smile, “ But I was wondering, that pin Viney had on yesterday, that was a lesbian flag pin right?”

Oh no.

Suddenly there was a pit in Luz’s stomach, a huge, gaping pit. Amity’s mother had filled her daughter’s head with so many lies, what sort of awful things had she filled Amity’s head with about basic human rights? And how was Luz going to fight that? Luz had done her best to mentally prepare herself for this conversation over the past two days but now that it was here, she was not ready in the slightest.

“Yes it was,” Luz answered through her internal panic, “Is that okay?” 

Is that okay?

A simple question, but whatever Amity’s response was could potentially endanger their relationship. If the answer was ‘no, it isn’t a problem’ then fine, nothing changes and Luz can go back to writing while Amity finishes her soup.

But if the answer was ‘yes, it is a problem’ on the other hand then a huge fight just might follow.

Luz hadn’t mentioned to Amity yet that she was bisexual, and she was pretty sure Amity hadn’t seen the pride flag that hung over her bed. It wasn’t exactly a secret that Luz was bi but she never really had a reason to mention it around her new roommate yet, not to mention how scared she was of Amity getting angry at her due to the potential years of hate her mother had poisoned her brain with. So for that reason, Luz waited on bated breath for Amity's answer.

"Yeah it's fine," Amity answered very nonchalantly.

And Luz?

Luz breathed a huge sigh of relief. Her new roommate and also friend wasn’t homophobic!

"Well I'm glad," Luz replied, "Though I'm a bit shocked you feel that way."

"How come?" Amity blew on a spoonful of her soup before placing the spoon in her mouth. She let out a content 'mmmm' as the warmth of the soup filled her body.

"Oh y'know, since your mother seems a bit," Luz paused as she looked for the right word to describe Amity's mother, "uptight."

"Well she is but I don't see what her being controlling about how our house looks has anything to do with this," Amity gave Luz a rather puzzled expression.

"No I just meant," Luz bounced her foot up and down lightly in an attempt to keep it out of her mouth, "she seems like she wouldn't like gay people."

"Oh she doesn’t," Amity said, very matter-of-factly, "I mean she'd hardly talk about it but when she did it was clear she wasn't a fan."

"Oh well good on you for not inheriting her hate," Luz sat down next to Amity and gave her shoulder a playful hit. Amity jumped back at the contact reminding Luz that Amity is, indeed, autistic and Luz probably shouldn't do stuff like that all of a sudden, "Sorry, forgot you're autistic."

"It's fine," Amity looked down at her half eaten soup and started stirring her spoon around it, "But yeah I guess I never really bought into all her thoughts on gay stuff."

"Any particular reason?" Luz inquired.

"I'm not too sure," Amity admitted, "Her attitude just never really made sense to me. Plus, anytime I got access to the internet when she wasn’t monitoring me, which was usually when my father had custody of me, I would just look up pictures of gay people and they all looked so happy. I figured if it made people that happy then who would I be to judge."

"Oookay then," Luz chuckled lightly, "I guess it doesn't matter how you come to a conclusion as long as it's the right one."

"There’s also…" Amity words trailed off as her soup appeared to become the most interesting thing in the world.

"There's also what?" Luz's voice perked up like a dog that was just asked if they wanted a treat. Amity was what? A lesbian? Also Bisexual? Non-binary? Asexual? Transgender? Whatever they were, Luz knew when someone was about to come out to her.

"Oh uh," Amity visibly blushed, "I was just wondering if you used my body to clean stuff, my sickness would maybe go away. You know, like SpongBob in that one episode."

"Amity," Luz said sternly, "what is it? You can tell me." 

"Oh uh," Amity's eyes were darting around the room, taking a glance at everything before looking at Luz briefly then looking away, "I've never seen you in glasses before they look really cute on you."

"Oh thanks," Luz started blushing and rubbed the back of her neck, "Yeah I need them in order to read. Glad you think they-Hey don't change the subject."

"S-sorry," Amity began to tightly grip one of her blankets and Luz took this as a cue that Amity was very uncomfortable and that maybe Luz should back off a little. Luz obviously wanted Amity to trust her enough to tell her what she was going to say earlier, but she knew it was best to not force the poor person to.

"Listen," Luz lowered her tone to be much less stern and much more caring, "I won't make you tell me anything if you don't want to, sorry if I was pushing you too much."

"The thing is I want to tell you," the green-haired girl continued to look down at her lap, "I'm just scared."

"Hey I get it," Luz gave her roommate a sympathetic look, "This stuff can be scary and you're under no pressure to tell me, or anyone else anything,” Amity just continued to look down, still looking incredibly uncomfortable. Luz searched her brain for anything to tell her roomate to at least make them not so tense. Then the solution hit her.

Make them know they aren't alone.

“Would it help you if I told you I was bisexual?”

And it worked.

Amity’s eyes immediately lit up (well as much as they could, they were still sick after all) and they turned to look at Luz, “You’re bi?

“Yeah,” Luz gave a soft smile to Amity, “Now you don’t owe me anything for that information, but I just thought you should know that.”

“Well you deserve to know about me as well,” there was a newfound determination in Amity’s eyes that Luz couldn’t help but fawn over.

“I don’t deserve to know anything you’re not comfortable with sharing.”

“But I want to tell you!” Amity’s voice had risen into a shout at this point, “I want to tell you that I’m a lesbian! That I am a girl who likes girls and that’s okay!”

Luz tucked away the relief she felt that Amity did indeed like girls and decided instead to feel proud for Amity as she gave a few light claps, “Heck yeah! My new roommate is a lesbian!” A huge, goofy smile appeared on Amity’s face as she began to drum her hands in her lap at  Luz’s words.

“Yeah I am,” Amity's words came out through a large yawn.

Luz stood up from the coach, “Why don’t you get some rest, you look like you could use it.”

“I feel like I could use it,” Amity said as she laid back down, pulling all the blankets back over herself.

“I’ll leave you to rest,” Luz said with a fond smile, “Do not hesitate to call me if you need anything else, okay?”

“Hmmm,” Amity purred in affirmation as Luz left for her office to hopefully get some writing done.

As soon as she sat down, however, her phone dinged. Luz pulled it out of her pocket to see she had a new Instagram message.

Hello_Willow: Yo me and gus were wondering if youd like to have lunch at the mall tomorrow at 12

Luz wasted no time responding.

Luzura: I’d love to!

Before Luz could get a response, she got an idea. Now would be a perfect time to introduce Amity to her other friends, and she was sure they’d love her.

Luzura: Would you mind if I brought my new roommate? I think you two would like her.

Luz held her breath as the three dots appeared, indicating that her friend was typing a response.

Hello_Willow: I dont see why not

Hello_Willow: Just make sure she doesnt try and pitch us a pyramid scheme

Luzura: LOL don’t worry she won’t

Hello_Willow: Whats your roomates name btw 

Luzura: Amity

An unnaturally long pause followed as the text bubbles disappeared and reappeared countless times before a message actually came though.

Hello_Willow: Cant wait to meet her

Luz decided to shrug off the unnaturally long pause from her friend.

Luzura: And I can’t wait for you to meet her

Luz placed her phone back in her pocket, excitement growing that she would get to introduce her best friends in the whole world to her new roommate tomorrow. But before that, Luz had some writing to do. Before any writing could be done, however, Ghost jumped onto her desk and took a seat right atop Luz’s keyboard, somehow managing to close all her open tabs in the process. Luz let out a frustrated sigh and she accepted that this was her life now.

Viney wasn’t sure what she expected to see when she got home from work, but her girlfriend and her girlfriend’s brother spread across her couch with loose taco wrappers from Taco Bell everywhere was not it. Though she did expect Puddles to once again jump up to greet her.

“What have you two done to my apartment!?” Viney called out, getting the twin’s attention as they turned to look at the young doctor.

“Sorry sweetie,” Emira said in an apologetic tone.

“Sorry sweetie,” Edric mocked as Emira gave him a light shove.

“We’ll clean it up I promise,” Emira gave a big smile over to her girlfriend causing Viney to roll her eyes and head to the kitchen to prepare herself some leftover chinese food for dinner.

“So how’d your hunt for your sister go?” Viney inquired, though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.

“Not great,” Emira replied.

“Absolutely awful,” Edirc also replied, being much more blunt about it, “We checked every possible social media site to see if she made an account on anything now that she’s away from mom but we found nothing. No Twitter, no Instagram, no Tiktok, nothing.”

“How many different usernames did you check?” Viney placed a bowl filled with cold chicken into the microwave and set it for 60 seconds.

“All of them,” Emira rubbed her forehead in frustration, “We checked every combination of the words Amity Blight with various underscores and periods, along with any number that may make sense and found nothing.”

“All we came across were old Facebook posts from dad,” Edric whined.

The microwave went off and Viney pulled her dinner out as she waded her way through the trash in her apartment so she could sit next to her girlfriend. As soon as she sat down Emira practically fell over on the shorter girl's shoulder and let out a sad sigh.

“I’m sorry you didn’t find your sister today, I know it must be hard,” Viney gave a quick kiss to the top of the green haired girl's head.

“Wait a minute,” Edric injected, “You said Mittens’ new roommate is a patient of yours right? Why don’t you just give us that patient's address?

Emira gained a new burst of energy as she sat up and grabbed her girlfriend's shoulders, “Can you do that?”

“No, absolutely not!” Viney said in a stern voice as she removed Emira’s hands from her shoulders, “Not only is that a huge violation of my patient's privacy, it’s a violation of HIPAA!”

“Please,” Emira began to plead as she folded her arms as if she was praying to her girlfriend, “We promise we won’t tell anyone how we got the info.”

“Emira, sweetie,” Viney was deftly serious now, “if I get caught not only will I get fired from my job, not only would I lose my medical license, not only would I get fined a bunch of money, I could go to jail.”

“But-”

“Emira. I’m sorry but I can't do this,” Viney looked Emira straight in the eyes, giving the look she always gave her girlfriend to tell her ‘do not do this obviously stupid thing,’ “I love you but I’m not going to give you one of my patients personal information and I’m not arguing this point with you. The answer is a firm no.”

Emira let out a sigh and slumped back on the coach, “Fine. You’re so mean to me, you know that?”

“Uh huh,” Viney leaned over and gave the taller girl a kiss on the lips causing a blush to form on Emira’s face. A fake gag escaped Edric’s mouth before he swiftly took his sister’s foot to his ankle.

“Ow!” he exclaimed as he rubbed said ankle, “Well since your girlfriend is lame and won’t help us, what’s the plan now?”

“Keep looking,” Emira sighed, “That’s all we can do till we find her.”

Willow stared down at the message from Luz on her phone.

Luzura: Amity

Despite the loud noises coming from the ice rink, the world around Willow couldn’t be quieter. That name. Amity. Could it really be her? From all those years ago?

Willow searched desperately for the right thing to say, typing and retyping a message up at least ten times before deciding on something simple.

Hello_Willow: Cant wait to meet her

Willow put her phone back down on her bench before skating off into the rink with the other girls for practice. She’d get the answer to her questions soon enough

Chapter Text

“Amity you ready to go?” Luz called out as she exited her room.

“In a minute,” Amity called back, how Luz had thanked her lucky stars. Amity was back to her usual self after being confined to the couch for the entire day yesterday, “I’m finishing up my resume.”

“Resume?” Luz questioned as she  came out into the living room to find Amity typing away on her purple laptop, Ghost currently nuzzled to the side of her thigh, “Do you not already have a job?”

“I did,” Luz could see Amity’s expression drop, “but my mom forced me to quit to help her with the pyramid scheme.”

“She made you quit your job?” Luz didn’t think anything else she learned about Amity’s mother would be able to shock her, but somehow that woman always found a way.

“Yeah, I didn’t care too much since she made the ‘business’ sounds really good and I hated my old job,” Amity let out a sigh, “But now? I’m out of a job and can’t exactly go to her for money anymore. I have some saved up but it’ll run out eventually and I can’t just have you paying for everything, not to mention I probably owe you rent.”

“You don’t have to-”

“Nope, nuh uh,” Amity quickly interrupted, “You’ve done so much for me the least i can do is help you pay for rent, plus it makes me feel better about what I’m about to ask.”

“What are you about to ask,” Luz attempted to raise an eyebrow but never had that much control over her facial features to do it fully.

“Can I stay here a bit longer?” Amity had turned to Luz and gave her a look of pure desperation, “I tried looking for other apartments and all the ones available suck and this place is so nice and you’re so nice and I just don’t think I’m ready to be on my own yet.”

Luz began to lightly blush, “Of course you can, I don’t mind.”

“Really?” Amity wore a giant smile on her face and Luz could feel her heart threaten to jump out of her chest. Why was her smile that cute?

“Yes really,” Luz smiled back, “It is not a problem at all. Honestly, I kind of like the company.”

“Well that’s good to know,” Amity sighed in relief, “So how much do I owe you?”

Luz sat back in thought for a moment, “Well I don’t want to charge you for half since you don’t have your own room…how about 500 per month, that’s about a third of my rent.”

“Deal!” Amity said with a new-found resolve as she turned back to her laptop, “Now I just need to finish my resume and find a job.”

“Speaking of, did you have a job in mind?” Luz inquired.

“Uh not…really,” Amity answered honestly.

“Well I’m sure-” suddenly an alarm blared from Luz’s pocket, “Shoot we have to go meet Willow and Gus, we can talk about this later.”

“Willow…” Amity said as she closed her laptop.

“What is it,” Luz said as she shut off the alarm on her phone.

“Oh nothing, I just had a friend that really likes those.”

Amity nervously tapped her hands on the table Luz and her were sitting at. They were at a food court in the middle of a giant mall and Amity felt like she was going to die of nervousness. She wasn’t good with crowded places, she was lucky enough that the mall wasn’t packed like she expected but there were still more people here then she was comfortable with. Despite this, Amity was committed to making it through this lunch. Luz was so excited when Amity agreed to go in her sickened state and she was not about to break the heart of the person who was nice enough to let her sleep on her couch.

Amity checked her phone for the 10th time since they sat down. 12:01 PM.

“They’re late,” Amity announced to Luz.

“It just turned twelve.”

“It’s 12:01, you said noon,” Amity began tapping the table faster, “What if they’re not coming?”

“They’re coming, trust me,” Luz tried her best to reassure the poor anxious girl.

“What if they’re not.”

“They are, I guarantee you they’ll be here-” Luz’s eyes went wide, “Right now!” Luz waved her hand and Amity turned around and fixed her gaze on two people. The first one was a dark skinned man with dreadlocks who appeared to be on the shorter side and had red rimmed glasses. Next to him walked an even shorter girl with curly navy-blue hair and glasses that were round like Luz’s but way bigger. She looked very strong.

“Luz!” they both shouted in unison as they ran over to the table. Luz stood up as well and met them in a group hug.

“I missed you two so much!” Luz said as she appeared to be suffocated by her friends. Amity figured that wouldn’t be the worst way for one to die.

“We hung out last week,” the girl chuckled. Amity thought they looked vaguely familiar but she couldn’t quite place it.

“Well it was too long,” Luz said as she pulled away from the hug, “Oh yeah, guys I’d like to introduce you to my new roommate, Amity Blight!” Luz extended her hand out as if she was presenting a prize on a gameshow.

“Hi,” Amity nervously waved her hand at the two. 

“I’m Gus,” the man said with a smile as he waved back enthusiastically.

“I’m…Willow,” the girl said, as she started at Amity, causing the green haired girl to avert her eyes.

“Well I’ll go grab us a dairy-free pizza, why don’t you three get acquainted,” and with that Luz had left Amity to fend for herself among the two new people as they took seats across from her.

The three sat in silence for a good minute as Amity searched for the right words to say, “So uh nice day out today huh?”

“Yeah it is,” Gus said with a smile, Amity could tell he was also trying to avoid eye contact. Willow just continued to stare at Amity.

“You okay Willow?” Amity grabbed the side of her dress.

“Yeah,” Willow replied rather coldly as her gaze seemed to get less intense, however her expression remained in a rather neutral state.

“So Luz tells us you met when you tried to peddle her a pyramid scheme?” Gus spoke up as he seemed to fiddle around in his chair.

“Yeah,” Amity cringed, “Not my proudest moment but I can assure you my days of peddling scams are behind me thanks to Luz.”

“She’s too nice for her own good,” Willow seemed to scoff, leaving Amity rather confused.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Amity asked.

“Nothing,” Willow replied.

“I was just wondering what life was like now that you’re not scamming anymore,” Gus seemed weirded out by Willow as well, but was apparently content with carrying on his line of questioning.

“It’s uh different,” Amity rubbed the back of her neck.

“Whatcha talking about,” Amity turned her head to the familiar voice and breathed a sigh of relief. Luz had returned and was carrying a large pizza box in her hand and Amity was thankful she had someone who she was comfortable with by her side again.

“We were just discussing what Amity’s life is like now that she stopped scamming people,” Gus replied with a big smile.

“You act like I ended up scamming anyone,” Amity chuckled, “Luz was the first person to hear me out and she ended up saving me from everything.”

“You act like I saved your life,” Luz let out a cute laugh and Amity couldn’t help but smile over to her.

“You might as well have, without you I would be some unvaccinated weirdo who had never seen the wonder that is SpongBob going around signing people up for a pyramid scheme,” everyone at the table laughed at that, except for Willow who remained quiet. Each member of the group took a slice of pizza and began to eat. Amity was a bit surprised it tasted as good as it did considering the cheese was dairy free, “I am happy I’m free from that life, I really am, but everything is still a bit scary.

“Scary how?” Gus was listening very intently.

“This is the first time in my life that I haven’t been shackled to the whims of my mom and I just don’t know exactly where to go from here, it’s like there are too many possibilities,” Amity started rubbing her temple, “Like what do I do next? Probably get a job right? But like I don’t even know what job I want to do now that I’m done scamming people. And what should I do after that? Go get some clothes for myself instead of just wearing what my mom forced me to? Maybe I should dye my hair a different color? Or maybe I should just watch more cartoons, but there’s so many I used to think looked interesting that my mom never let me and that becomes overwhelming. It’s freeing for sure, being away from that life but that freedom is overwhelming and-” Amity stopped talking when she noticed the concerned looks everyone, even Willow, were giving her, “I probably shouldn’t dump this all on two people I just met.”

“No no no it’s fine-,” Gus nearly fell out of his chair before catching himself, garnering a chuckle out of Willow, “I get it, it was super scary when I first moved onto campus for college, but it becomes way less scary as you get used to it.”

“What helped make it less scary?” Amity asked, desperate for some direction for her life.

“Well…” Gus looked deep in thought for a few moments as he rubbed his chin, “I guess what really helped me was meeting my roommate for college.”

“Is that all he is?” scoffed Luz.

“The man you’ve been dating for the past two years now is just ‘your college roommate’ I see,” Willow chimed in with a sly smile.

Gus just rolled his eyes at his friends teasing, “Anyway, as I got to know him everything started to feel a lot less scary, like I was a lot less alone in the world.”

“Luz is like that for me,” Amity said as she turned to look at Luz. Amity could have sworn she saw a blush on her face but wasn’t quite sure, "If it weren't for her letting me sleep on her couch I might have just run back to my mom, heck, if it weren't for her I don’t think I would have had the guts to meet you two.”

“Aw shucks,” Luz had a very bright smile that gave Amity feelings that she couldn’t quite name.

“Sandy says that,” Amity mumbled out and that was what finally got Willow to let out a laugh and smile a bit, but only for a second as she immediately went back to the cold expression she had been wearing.

“And about the whole job thing,” Gus began again, “Start by finding something you like and getting a job that relates to it. Through that you may find out something else about yourself. Like when I first started college I had no idea what I wanted to major in, but what I did like doing was illusions. So by day I was Gus Porter, student, but by night, I was The Amazing Agustus, master of illusions and available for bookings starting at $300,” Gus waved his hands around as he brought up his magician work.

“You put on magic shows? I used to love those when I was younger!” Amity’s eyes lit up with childlike wonder.

“Yeah, you should come to one, I actually am hired by the mall quite often to put them on!” Gus wore a proud smile on his face.

“That sounds great!” Amity hit the table in excitement garnering a jump out of Luz and Gus from the noise.

“Anyway,” Gus continued, “doing magic shows made me realize I like performing for kids, so why not make a living out of it. Sort of. I’m in college working towards a teaching degree so I can be the coolest teacher ever!” Gus placed a foot on the legs of the table as he struck a pose. Luz began lightly clapping at his display.

“So find something you like to find something you love…” Amity thought about it for a second, “Sound enough advice, now I just need to figure out something I like that I can find a job in,” Amity mused.

“I’m sure you’ll find something,” Gus had sat back down and began finishing the last of his pizza before his watch went off, “Ah I have to get back to school before my next class, it was really nice meeting you Amity, and I’ll be sure to secure you a spot at my next magic show!”

“It was nice meeting you too, and I’ll look forward to it,” Amity said with a smile as she waved bye.

“Bye Gus, good luck on your classes,” Luz said as he began to leave.

“Tell Matt I said hi,” Willow added.

“I’ll make sure, bye everyone!” and with that Gus had left the group.

“I should probably go too,” Willow said as she stood up from her chair, “I’ll talk to you later Luz.”

“Goodbye Willow,” Luz replied to her friend.

“It was very nice meeting you,” Amity chimed in.

“Uh huh,” was all Willow said to Amity before taking her leave as well, leaving just Luz and Amity alone at the mall. The pair sat in silence for a few moments.

“So what did you think of Willow and Gus?” Luz asked, breaking the silence.

“Well…” Amity began, “Gus is really nice, and he gave some solid advice as well, I like him a lot.”

“That’s great, Gus is always a fun time, what about Willow?”

Amity’s face dropped into a frown, “I don’t think she likes me.”

“I noticed it too,” Luz admitted, “Willow is nice to every new person she meets, it was really weird.”

“It was weird. She just seemed so…cold, and like I felt like she was judging my every move,” Amity let out a sigh, “What did I even do to her?”

“I’m sure she’s just having a bad day or something,” Luz let out a nervous chuckle, “Give her another chance, she’s really cool when you get to know her.”

“Alright,” Amity sighed once again as she finished off the last slice of pizza, “So what do you want to do now?”

“Hmmm,” Luz thought for a moment before her eyes lit up, notifying Amity that she had an idea, “You mentioned wanting to get new clothes right? I know a place where I can get you some great deals on some clothes.”

“You do?” Amity’s curiosity was piqued.

“Yep,” Luz wore a knowing smile, “I know the store owner so she should be able to hook you up with some nice discounts.”

“How do you know her exactly?” Amity asked.

Luz gave a slight chuckle, “She’s my mom.”

Chapter Text

Emira let out a sigh as she left the exam room at her doctor’s office, “That’s the last of them, now I just need my yearly ones.” The green haired girl mumbled under her breath. It had taken a while but she was finally done with all the vaccines she skipped because of the dumb ideas her mother got from Facebook and her father’s inability to care enough to fight her mother over them.

Emira began her walk back out of the building when her eyes were drawn to a water cooler in the hallway. Standing by it was a girl who appeared to be a couple inches shorter than Emira, with long brown hair tied up into a messy bun. She wore a standard white lab coat meaning she clearly worked there, but what had truly drawn Emira’s eyes was the multi-colored pin the girl had on her shirt. The colors were a gradient that went from orange to purple. A lesbian pride pin. It was fairly familiar to Emira due to the fact that she had a sticker with the same colors on her laptop. A smile formed across Emira’s face as she looked at it. Perhaps it reminded Emira she was now in a much safer space than when she still lived with her mother or maybe Emira was just happy to see someone else that was like her.

Whatever it was, Emira didn’t have a lot of time to think about it as the girl tilted her face so Emira could get a good look at it. Emira immediately noticed that this girl had the prettiest face she had ever seen. It was a rather rounded face that looked very soft. Her nose was a cute little thing, and the way her bangs came down over her forehead was just too adorable. All of that wasn’t to mention her eyes. They were a beautiful olive color that Emira could just spend hours getting lost in.

Emira was speechless. She could barely move as a blush formed across her face. It was like she had been hit by a flashbang. A very gay flashbang. But a flashbang nevertheless. Emira was about to dash out of the building to get her gay panic under control when her brain decided it was time to have a rational thought.

Go up and talk to her, she’s clearly on a break.

Talk to her? A pretty woman like her? Just go up and talk with her, how simple? Emira was about to dismiss the idea when her brain decided to have more gay thoughts.

What if it goes well? You get to leave here with a date and a potential girlfriend. Plus you may never see her again if you don’t act now.

Emira let out a defeated sigh. And started to shuffle her feet over to the girl, hoping in vain to get her blushing under control before she reached her. Once Emira got close to the water cooler, the other girl finally noticed her and Emira had to fight every instinct to not turn and run. Regardless, Emira made it through and was now standing on the other end of the water cooler, resting her arm against it as she looked down at the much shorter girl.

“Hey there cutie-” Emira couldn’t finish her sentence as another round of panic set over her when she noticed the girl’s earring. It was rather unconventional, a fish hook earring wasn’t something one saw every day, but, wow was it the cutest thing Emira had ever seen in her life.

“Uh hey, did you need something?” The girl spoke in a raspy voice that Emira wanted to hear narrate every audiobook she ever listened to.

“Oh uh nothing,” Emira managed to stammer out, “I was just wondering Doctooooooor-” 

“Just call me Viney, I’m not a doctor yet,” the brown hair girl replied as her olive colored eyes met Emira’s amber ones, causing Emira to nearly collapse from sheer gayness, “I’m just here as part of my studies.”

“Oh, well I'm Emira and-” Emira's arm slipped off of the water color and she almost fell over before catching herself, “It’s just a shame you aren’t one because I think I’m having a heart attack-”

Viney’s eyes went wide with concern, “You’re having a heart attack!?”

“Not really!” Emira said, making sure she doesn’t get herself put on a gurney, “What I meant to say was,” Emira cleared her throat, “Do you do house calls?”

“No. Again, I’m not a doctor, and house calls are outdated anyway,” Viney just looked back at her, still very concerned.

“What I wanted-” Emira attempted to once again lean on the water cooler, unfortunately for her, it seemed like she leaned too hard, causing the water cooler and herself to fall over, spilling water on herself and the floor.

“Are you okay?” Viney asked and Emira looked up to see Viney reaching her hand out. Emira gladly took it and in an instant was lifted up off the ground by a very strong hand. Her lab coat clearly hid it but Emira could very easily tell that Viney worked out just from the grip alone, and if it wasn’t bad enough already her gay panic was now at levels she didn’t know was possible.

“I’m fine,” Emira said, looking away as the embarrassment of the situation finally caught up with her, “I’m sorry.”

“Hold on,” Viney said before disappearing down the hallway as Emira stood there, her outfit absolutely drenched. After a minute Viney returned with a mop and a bucket.

“Oh you don’t have to clean this up-” 

“I know,” Viney replied bluntly, “You’re cleaning this up, not me.”

“Hey that’s-” Emira was about to protest before she remembered that she was indeed the one responsible for causing the water cooler to fall over, “...fair.” Emira sighed as she grabbed the mop from Viney and began to clean up the mess that she made.

“Good luck, just tell someone when you get done,” Viney rubbed her temple as she began to walk away, closing Emira’s window of opportunity.

Quickly, Emira, say something, this is your one chance.

“Wait, Viney!” Emira called out to the brown haired girl as she walked away, causing Viney to turn around, appearing decently annoyed.

“What is it?” Viney sighed.

“I uh have a motorcycle!” Emira blurted out. She did not, in fact, have a motorcycle. She didn’t even have a car. But for some reason that was the only thing her gay filled brain could think of to salvage this situation. 

To some degree, it seemed to work as Viney’s eyes opened wide, “Oh, do you now?” Viney was wearing a sly smile, clearly indicating that she (rightfully) did not believe that Emira had a motorcycle.

“Yes, I do!” Emira lied, trying her best to sound proud of the motorcycle she did not own, “What if I gave you a ride around on it one day? Maybe even take you out for dinner afterwards..”

“Sounds fun. How about today?” Viney kept her sly smile as she attempted to call Emira’s bluff, “I get off at five, would you be willing to meet me back here.”

“I’d love to,” Emira quickly realized that it was probably a bad idea to agree to that, “However it’s currently being repaired, but it should be done by the end of the week.”

Did you really have to add that last part Emira?

“Uh huh,” Viney rolled her eyes as she approached Emira causing her to blush, “What I want to know is how you fit this pretty long braid in a helmet?” as she said this, Viney moved her hand and ran her hand along it. Emira felt like she was going to pass out.

Is she…flirting with me?

“I uh, just don’t braid it when I ride?” Emira’s answer was more of a question.

“That’s a shame, you’d look cute with short hair,” Viney mused as she moved away, “Now then, I’m here Monday and Wednesdays and I get off at five, why don't you come pick me up and we can go out for some dinner, if this supposed bike of yours really exists.”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Emira tried her best to fake offense despite her, indeed, being a liar.

“Maybe, feel free to prove me wrong, cutie,” Viney gave a wink before walking away, leaving Emira to once again feel like she just got hit with a gay flashbang. Emira soon got to mopping up the floor as she wondered how she was going to get a motorcycle.

Emira quickly barged through the door of her and Edric’s shared apartment, causing the latter of the two to nearly fall off his chair, “Ed, I need to borrow your razor,” Emira called off as she went straight to the bathroom of the apartment.

“Why do you need to borrow it?” Edric asked as he followed his twin to the bathroom.

“Trying to impress a girl,” Emira answered honestly as she pulled out Edric's razor.

“What?” Edric watched in pure disbelief as his sister turned on his razor and cut off her braid, the whole thing falling down to the bathroom floor.

“How do I look?” Emira turned around to face Edric.

“Terrible,” was Edric's only reply.

“What it can't-” Emira turned to see herself in the mirror, “Oh, oh no.”

Edirc let out a sigh as he slid over a stool behind his sister, “Sit down and let me fix this,” Emira did as she was told and took a seat on the stool as Edric opened a cupboard next to the mirror and pulled out a pair of scissors and a comb. 

“Thank you,” Emira said as her brother got to work with fixing the mess that she made for herself 

“You owe me,” Edric replied before raising a brow in question, “Now tell me, you decided to cut your hair on a whim because of a girl?”

“Yeah, her name is Viney and she was at the doctor's office studying for her degree,” the shame in Emira's voice was very apparent, “And in my defense she was very pretty.”

“You are never allowed to make fun of me for how I act around boys ever again,” Edric said as he snipped a couple strands of hair off.

“That's not the worst of it,” Emira began to cringe at herself, “I maybe kind of sort of told her I owned a motorcycle, and that I would pick her up from work on Monday.”

Edric sucked in a deep breath through his nose before releasing it, “Em you don't even have a license.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Emira crossed her arms as her brother continued fixing her hair, “But now I need to find a way to get a motorcycle by Monday so I can go on a date.”

Edric let out a loud groan, “Em that is not possible.”

“I know,” Emira let out a defeated sigh, “She just seems so cool and I don't want to miss this chance, but I'm going to show up on Monday with no motorcycle and make a fool of myself!I don't know what to do.”

“I mean your best option is to not show up and save yourself the embarrassment,” Edric answered bluntly.

“Ed, this is the closest I've gotten to  getting a date in months,” Emira began in a very desperate tone, “I don't want to miss this chance. So please, help me.”

Edric watched his sister's expression drop in the mirror. Edric stopped his cutting for a moment while he contemplated something, “I may have an idea.”

“You do?” Emira's face lit up as Edirc gave her some amount of hope.

“Yeah, you may not like it though.”

Emira stood impatiently outside the doctor's office, rapidly tapping her foot. She checked her watch, 5:10. Had Viney called in sick that day? Had she lied to Viney about working that day? Emira couldn’t rule out the idea that Viney set her up just for Emira to make a fool of herself. She did kind of deserve it after lying after all.

Not like she wouldn’t be making a fool out of herself anyway. Edric's plan was to just buy a regular bike and hope that Viney finds it funny enough to still go out with Emira. They also found her a motorcycle jacket. However, it was much too short for Emira’s taller than average frame and after enduring it for the bike ride there, Emira had taken to just having it draped over her shoulders. And of course, her hair was now cut way shorter. Edric had actually managed to get it looking really nice and regardless of the outcome of today, Emira planned on keeping it like it was (Not to mention it did a better job at singling to the world that she is, in fact, a lesbian than her previous haircut, not to mention the old style was one her mother had picked out for her so it felt like she was freeing herself from her mother’s control).

Just as Emira was about to cut her losses and leave, the door to the doctor’s office opened and revealed the familiar face of Viney walking out, wearing the same fish hook earring and a rather faded looking orange t-shirt with a griffin design on it and the same lesbian pride pin stuck through it. She had no lab coat on this time so Emira got a good view of her arms which revealed that Emira was indeed right about Viney working out. Emira could pass out from how beautiful she was. Instead, Emira pushed the thoughts of being carried around by Viney away and waved at the girl, “Hey there cutie.”

Viney smiled over to Emira as she began walking toward her, “So you actually showed up, I’m pleasantly surprised.”

“Of course I did,” Emira smiled through her nervousness.

“I see you cut your hair,” Viney said as she got up into Emira’s face, causing the taller girl’s face to turn a very bright red, “I really like it,” Viney mused as she ran a hand through it leaving Emira’s big gay brain with barely any function.

“Uh yeah heh heh…” despite their height difference, Emira felt as if Viney was towering over her as she removed her hand from Emira’s emerald hair. Emira also could smell that Viney was wearing perfume today, unlike last time.

Did she wear that for me?

“So where’s this motorcycle of yours?” Viney inquired as she stepped back and crossed her arms.

“Right behind me,” Emira replied as she momentarily snapped out of her gay panic. Emira stepped aside so Viney could get a good look at the bicycle Emira and her brother had found on Facebook. It wasn’t very pretty. It was pure black except for the multiple chips in paint it had everywhere. It was the cheapest one that still worked that Emira could find.

“That’s your motorcycle?” Viney chuckled.

“Yeah,” Emira said ashamedly, “Listen, the truth is I lied about having a motorcycle.”

“What? I would never have guessed that,” heavy amounts of sarcasm laced Viney’s words.

“Listen,” Emira began, “I just think you’re really cool and pretty and I am a disaster and my dumb lesbian brain decided the best way to get you to go out with me was to lie about having a motorcycle. Of course, I don’t have one so my brother thought it was a good idea to just bring a regular bicycle and pray you found it cute enough to still go out with me?” Emira raised her pitch as she said the last part.

Viney looked at Emira, then at the bike, and then back at Emira again before letting out a laugh that Emira thought was the greatest sound she had ever heard in her life, “I’ll tell you what, I’m a bit impressed. It takes serious guts to show back up here and admit to everything.”

“So you don’t think I’m sad and pathetic?” Emira’s eyes lit up at Viney’s words.

“Oh I do,” Viney corrected very matter-of-factly.

“Buuuuttttttt?” Emira said with a playful tone, leaning over slightly.

“But,” Viney sighed, “I do think you’re cute as well, and I appreciate you coming clean with me.”

“Does that mean I can take you out on a date?” Hope filled Emira for the first time since the water cooler incident.

“Sure, why not,” Viney replied with a soft smile, “You seem like a lot of fun.”

“YES!” Emira jumped up in excitement that she miraculously got a date despite being a huge gay mess, “You won’t regret it, now hop on my bike and I’ll treat you to a nice dinner at Taco Bell,” Emira walked over to her bike and grabbed the helmet off one of the handles and strapped it to her head.

“I was actually thinking we could take my bike,” Viney said with a knowing smile.

“That’s probably for the best this one kind of- '' before Emira could finish her sentence Viney pulled out a keychain, pressing a button and causing a slick black Kawasaki motorcycle to beep and light-up in the parking lot.

“You have a motorcycle?” Emira was absolutely dumbfounded at the revelation.

“That’s right,” Viney said as she once again approached the taller girl, “So I think this will look better on me,” before Emira knew it, VIney had slipped the motorcycle jacket off her shoulders and had placed it on her much shorter stature, not bothering to zip it up. And if Emira thought Viney wasn’t incredible already, the sight of the brown haired girl in the jacket caused her heart to nearly leap out of her chest, “How do I look?”

“Perfect.” was all Emira could get out. For the first time, Emira saw Viney blush as she smiled over to her before motioning her to follow. In an instant, Viney had placed a motorcycle helmet over her messy bun and Emira was sitting on her motorcycle with her arms around Viney’s waist. Somehow, this whole thing went better than Emira could ever have expected.

Chapter Text

“I told you, I'm not selling you the ring for less than $50,” Eda spat out at the blonde haired teenager in front of her.

“$50 is a rip off and you know it!” the boy argued back, “$30 or I walk away.”

“Don’t let the door hit you on your way out,” Eda said with a handwave as she turned around, placing the ring back in the container she kept it in.

“Fine, God bless you ma’am,” The boy said as he stormed out of the store.

“God hasn’t blessed me since 1995!” Eda yelled back just as the door to her shop closed. With a sigh Eda closed the lid of the ring case, the fake diamond ring put back neatly back in place. The kid was right, the ring wasn’t worth $50 but Eda wasn’t about to budge on the price, she was running a business after all.

Eda took a moment to scan the shop, very few people were there currently and Eda figured it was as good a time as ever to put out some of the new merchandise she had bought off of people, mostly clothes. Eda grabbed what she had fittingly dubbed ‘her staff’ as it matched the sort of witch aesthetic she tried to aim for with her outfits and began to walk to the storage room of her store to move the merchandise out for purchase. Before she could reach the area, she was stopped by the ring of the door.

“Welcome to The Owl Hou-oh it’s you,” Eda cut herself off when she turned around and saw who it was.

“Hi Mom!” Luz said with a huge smile as she approached Eda and wrapped her in a big hug, Eda returning said hug.

“What brings you here, kiddo?” Eda asked as she ruffled the hair of the shorter girl.

“Well my new roommate needed some clothes,” Luz giggled out as she pointed back towards her aforementioned roommate.

Eda glanced back and finally noticed the green haired girl grabbing her dress tightly with her left hand and looking very quizzically back at the older woman. Eda thought for a moment it may have been her large head of gray hair that was confusing her until she spoke, “So, this is your mom, Luz?”

Eda internally chuckled, debating if she should tell this new girl the full context or let her figure it out on her own. Eda figured the latter was funnier, “That’s right, and I’m to assume, you’re this new roommate Luz has told me about?”

Amity’s eyes widened as she seemed to figure something out, outstretched her hand for  handshake, “Oh yes, I’m Amity Blight.”

“Blight!?” Eda exclaimed as she opted to high five the girl instead of shaking her hand, “Well I’ll be damned, I went to school with your parents.”

“Oh, you did,” Amity’s expression dropped at the mention of them, “Well I’m sure you got along nicely.”

“No,” Eda replied in a flat tone.

“Oh, then I apologize for the actions of my parents,” Eda couldn't help but notice that Amity wasn't too fond of eye contact and promptly stopped trying to make it, years of being around Luz and Camila helped her hone that skill.

“Pfft It's fine, I made sure to give prissy pants hell whenever I got the chance,” Eda held up a proud smile as she looked back to her high school days in her head. She remembered the first time good old Prissy Pants tried anything with her. She still has the school yearbook with the picture of Odalia’s broken nose in it among her belongings, “Still, I never expected to see a Blight step anywhere near my store, expect maybe your dad when they release him,” Eda couldn’t help but notice Luz’s eyes perk up, clearly she wasn’t aware of Alador’s current predicament, “No offense but your family seems too up their own as-”

“MOM!” Luz shouted as she covered Amity’s ears, who was currently standing up with her back as straight as a board.

“Oh well you know what I mean,” Eda said with an eye roll, her daughter could be so dramatic sometimes.

“Well, I kind of got cut off, ma’am,” Amity answered as Luz removed her hands from the taller girl's ears, “So I don’t have much money as I’m currently in between jobs and your daughter said you would be kind enough to give us a discount on items, ma’am.”

“Did she now?” Eda glared at Luz as she just smiled awkwardly back at her, “Well business has been good the past couple of months so fine, you can get 10% off any products in The Owl House for today only, after this though you’re paying full price.”

“Yes! Thank you Mom I love you so much,” Luz jumped up before wrapping her arms around Eda once again.

“Thank you ma’am, you’re very generous,” Amity remained stiff.

“No I’m not,” Eda corrected, “And stop calling me ma’am, it’s weird, just call me Eda, or The Owl Lady if you feel inclined.”

“Yes ma-Eda,” Amity still did not move.

“Why don’t you start looking for outfits,” Luz suggested, “I’ll catch up with you, I want to speak with Mom for a moment.”

“Alright,” Amity soon left for the clothing section of The Owl House. For a split second while Amity was leaving, Eda got a good look at her daughter’s face as she watched Amity leave. It was brief but Eda instantly recognized The Look in Luz’s eyes, which could only mean one thing: Her child had a crush on someone.

“What did you need, kiddo?” Eda inquired as Luz watched Amity leave.

“What’s going on with Amity’s dad?”

“Oh that? Yeah the guy is currently in jail last I checked, has she not told you that?” Eda tilted her head at her oldest kid.

“She’s barely mentioned her dad, all I’ve heard about is her mom.”

“I’m guessing it’s a sour spot for her,” Eda glanced back at Amity and saw her very happily looking through clothes.

“Yeah, do you know what he went to jail for?”

“Can’t say I remember, sorry kiddo.”

“It’s fine,” Luz sighed, “In any case I’m going to go help her pick some stuff out, love you.”

“Love you too kiddo,” Eda watched as Luz left to go help her new roommate with a smile before dashing as fast as she could to the storage closet. Once there, Eda locked the door and quickly pulled her phone out and hit the contact labeled ‘Sugar Packet.’

“Hola,” yawned the woman on the other end of the call, “Did you forget your lunch again Eda?”

“No I-” Eda paused for a moment, “Okay yes, but that’s not what I’m calling about, our daughter came in today.”

“Okay?” Eda could hear the look of confusion on Camila’s face, “Luz comes there a lot, it’s hardly news.”

“She brought her new roommate.”

“Oh how is she?” Camila’s voice instantly perked up, “All Luz has told me is that she’s very nice and fun to be around.”

“She seems like a good kid, a bit surprising considering she’s a Blight-”

“Wait, she’s a daughter of that one couple whose car you keyed back in high school?” Camila interrupted.

“Yes,” Eda confirmed, “That’s not the point here. Our daughter has The Look ,” Eda paused for a moment, waiting for her wife’s reaction, which she never got, “Well?”

“Mi bruja, what are you talking about?” Camila finally responded.

“Y’know The Look ,” Eda began to explain, “The look someone has in their eye when they have a crush on someone.”

“And you saw this look on Luz’s face?”

“Yes, but only for a second but it was enough, our baby has a crush on her new roommate!” Eda said, very excited, “And I can also tell you from The Look that it’s very early into the crush, the kid may not even know she has a crush herself.”

Camila let out a long sigh, “You were able to tell this from a split second look at Luz?”

“Yes.”

“Edalyn, you sound absolutely ridiculous right now.”

“I do not!” Eda replied, very offended by her wife’s words, “I may not have a fancy college degree like you but I know when someone is falling in love.”

“Eda you-”

“I clocked Vee and Masha from a mile away, remember?”

Camila sighed again, “That’s fair, but I still don’t think you can tell from just a look.”

“You’ll see,” Eda scoffed, “In a few months time we’ll be getting the text from Luz announcing they’re dating.”

As Amity browsed the wares of The Owl House, Amity couldn’t help but think back to her interaction with Eda. She was… eccentric to put it mildly. Nothing about her was normal by any definition of the word. Not her unusual red dress, not her giant head of gray hair, not the staff she carried around with an owl carved on the top, not how she was maybe the one woman Amity had ever met that was taller than her, and certainly not being opened to be called ‘The Owl Lady.’ And despite all that, Amity still was determined to try her hardest to appear normal to the woman. Amity thought she made a good first impression, her mother had trained her to make sure she usually did, but she couldn't help but worry. This was her roommate's mom! She really wanted her to like her.

That was another thing Amity couldn’t believe: Luz was adopted. Amity almost said something but she was able to stop herself after she thought it might be rude to bring it up. So many unknowns: What happened to Luz’s birth parents? Was it still a sour spot for Luz? Why would a woman like Eda want to adopt a kid? Did Luz even know she was adopted? Okay Luz definitely has to know she adopted by this point, right?

“Did you find anything?” and as if on cue, Luz had made her way back to Amity.

“I found a couple things, but I’m not sure if they’ll fit me,” Amity answered honestly.

“Well there is a changing room over there,” Luz said as she pointed at a white door at the back of the clothing section, “Feel free to use it.”

“Alright,” Amity replied as she grabbed a couple outfits she had picked out and went to the changing room.

The first outfit Amity came out with was a giant fur coat with big red boots.

“Looks cute but I just don’t think it fits you,” Luz said after getting a good look at it.

“You’re probably right,” Amity said before going back inside the changing room.

The second outfit was a simple t-shirt and shorts combo, only the t-shirt was pure yellow with Spongbob’s face on it.

“I’m getting this,” Amity stated, clearly not in the mood to argue over the said point.

“Hey if it makes you happy, be my guest,” Luz replied with a smile, “I think it looks good on you.

The third outfit Amity had prepared was a pure black tunic with maroon colored tights.

“I know this is a weird outfit,” Amity began before Luz could say anything, “But this is super comfortable and I kind of love it. The shirt texture is great and it doesn’t feel too tight on my body.

“I actually really like it,” Luz said as she gave it a good look, “It suits you really well and if it’s that comfortable I say go for it.”

“I think I will.”

The fourth outfit Amity came out with was a very simple purple dress with a black stripe around the waist.

“Oh that’s really pretty,” Luz said with a slight blush.

Amity blushed as well, “I feel pretty in it as well, I think I’ll take it.”

The fifth outfit Amity had picked out was a lot more intense. She had picked out a purple shirt with a skull design on it, ripped leggings, two oversized belts, and a pink and white witch hat.

“Wow,” was all Luz could say in response.

“I know, the hat is a bit much-”

“The outfit is perfect,” and with that, Amity added the outfit to her ‘buy’ pile.

Next up was actually a pair of pajamas. Amity had managed to find a matching set that both featured various Spongebob characters all over the shirt and pants.

“Once again, I WILL be buying these,” Amity stated plainly.

Luz chuckled, “I wasn't going to argue with you over them, But you really like SpongBob, don't you, Amity?”

“It makes me happy,” was all Amity said before walking back into the changing room.

The next outfit Amity came out in was a white t-shirt, jeans, and a purple color flannel over-shirt.

“I know this is different from, like, everything else here, but I really like this,” Amity said as she spun around to show Luz her whole outfit.

“It is, but I think you look great like that!” Luz said as she gave her roommate a thumbs up, “Very lesbian in my opinion.”

“I mean I am a lesbian so I’m guessing that’s a good thing for me?”

“It is a good thing,” and Amity was sold on the flannel.

After the flannel, Amity came out in a fluffy sweater with a pure white cat face on it with the word ‘BOO!’ written under it with a pair of high waisted pants.

“Obviously this is for when it gets colder but isn’t this the cutest thing ever?” Amity inquired.

“It is!” Luz said with a wide smile, “Wait, did you pick this out because the cat looks like Ghost?”

“Yes,” Amity chuckled, “You think she’ll like it?”

“I’m sure she’ll love it,” Luz chuckled back.

“Then I’m sold.”

The last outfit Amity had picked out was a pair of dark purple overalls over a long sleeve shirt that was a much lighter shade, and a pair of dot covered leggings.

“Wow Amity,” Luz began, “This may be your cutest outfit of the day.”

“Thanks,” Amity replied with a slight blush at the compliment that for unknown reasons was causing her heart rate to increase,  "I like it too.”

“There’s just one problem,” Luz pointed towards Amity’s feet. “What’s with the boots?”

“Oh these,” Amity glanced down at the rubber boots she wore with chickens all over them, “I thought they looked fun.”

“Amity, no offense but they do not look good.”

“Well I think they look cute,” Amity said as she approached Luz, her arms wrapped around herself defiantly.

“With the overalls they make you look like a farmer,” Luz laughed, causing Amity’s face to turn a bright red, this time from embarrassment.

“They do not!” Amity shouted, very offended.

“Yes they do!” Luz continued to tease, “Ol’ Mc-Amity had a farm,” Luz began to sing out, “E-I-E-I-OOOOOOOOOO-”

Before Luz knew it, the taller girl had pushed Luz back and sent her flying towards a display of clothes, sending her and the hangers falling down and onto the ground with a huge crash.

Instantly, Amity began to panic. “LUZ I’M SO SORRY!” she shouted as she ran towards her roommate, “I didn’t mean to shove you that hard, I was just trying to be playful I didn’t-”

“Amity it’s-”

“WHAT’S GOING- LUZ!”

Oh no.

Eda was here. Eda had now seen Luz on the floor with her merchandise. Eda was definitely mad. Luz was going to be in so much trouble. Amity wasn’t going to let that happen. On pure instinct, Amity leaped in between Luz and her mom, stopping the older women from getting any closer.

“Eda please do not blame Luz, I was the one who pushed her, she was teasing me so I tried to playfully push her like I used to my siblings when they bothered me and I ended up pushing her too hard so if you’re going to punish anyone punish me, just don’t get mad at Luz!” Amity pleaded, her concern for Luz overriding the part in her brain that caused her to crumble in front of any sort of authority figure.

“Whoa! Slow down kid!” Eda put her hands up in defense, “No one is in trouble, I was just making sure my daughter was okay, accidents happen, especially when the kiddo over there is around.”

“Hey!” Luz snapped back offendedly.

“So Luz and I aren’t in trouble for ruining your store?” Amity asked, hardly believing the words coming out of Eda’s mouth.

“Please, if I punished her every time she knocked something over she had been grounded for life,” Eda snorted as she moved over to Luz and helped her daughter up off of the floor, “As for you, I’m sure it was just an accident, so don’t beat yourself up about it.”

“Yeah,” Luz chimed in, “I’m fine and I forgive you, so don’t worry about it.”

“Okay,” Amity said as she looked down on the ground, hardly believing what she was hearing. This was unlike anything she had ever experienced before, there was no yelling, no harsh punishment, no words of disappointment, just genuine concern and understanding from a parent. It was a nice feeling, but also a very unfamiliar one to Amity that she had no idea how to process.

Eda let out a sigh, “Listen, Boots, if you really feel bad about it you can set everything back up before you go.”

“Boots?” Amity looked back up quizzically at Eda.

“You know, those things on your feet,” Eda said through a laugh as she walked back towards the counter of the store, garning a chuckle from Luz and a sigh from Amity as she tossed the boots aside and went back to the changing room to put the clothes she was originally wearing back on.

It didn’t take long for Amity to get everything back to the way it was before she pushed Luz and before she knew it she was checking out the first outfits she had ever picked out for herself thanks to the help of her roommate and said roommate's mother.

“Factoring in the discount, all of this should come down to a nice $157 and 87 cents,” Eda said as she tapped the screen of her register a few times, causing the total to come up. Amity handed the older woman her debit card, “And that should do it, thank you so much for shopping at The Owl House.”

“No, thank you for everything Eda,” Amity said as she took her card back and grabbed at the hangers with her new clothes on them, “You’ve been a huge help.”

“Don’t mention it Boots, it was nice meeting you,” a smile had taken form on The Owl Lady’s face.

“It was nice meeting you too,” and before anyone knew it Amity was heading out towards Luz’s car.

“Bye Mom, I love you, tell King I said hi!” Luz said as she leaned over the counter to give her Mom a hug.

“Love ya too Kiddio and I will,” Eda responded as Luz began to follow Amity, “Oh one more thing,” Luz stopped and turned back around to face her mom, “Keep an eye on Boots for me, she’ll need all the support you can give her.”

Chapter Text

It had been a long day for Luz, one that left her with several unanswered questions. Why was Willow acting so weird earlier? What was with Amity’s reaction after she accidentally knocked Luz over? Why is Amity’s dad in jail? What’s the deal with Amity’s siblings? Will Gus ever stop being a mess and just refer to Matt as his boyfriend? Did she remember to take the chicken out so it could defrost? It was driving Luz a little insane.

“LUZ,  RED LIGHT!”

“Oh S-” Luz slammed on her brakes, and her car came to a screeching halt just before the intersection. 

Luz turned her head to look at her scared passenger currently trying to catch her breath, “Are you trying to get us killed?” Amity gasped.

“Sorry,” Luz gave an awkward laugh to hopefully ease the tension in the air. It seemed unsuccessful as Amity looked away, obviously still worried. 

Great job Luz, you scared her.

Luz let out a loud sigh as the light turned from red to green and she hit the gas pedal. Luz’s mind went back to the questions she had in her mind. She really would like some answers, and judging by the fact that they had 30 minutes before they arrived back at her apartment, perhaps now was a good chance to get the answer to at least one of her questions.

“Hey, do you remember if I took the chicken out to defrost?” Luz asked as she made a right turn though the suburbs her car's GPS app demanded they go through.

“Yeah, I remember seeing it in the sink,” Amity said, her voice still a little shaky as she peered out the window. “My mother would never be caught dead in a neighborhood like this.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“All the houses are just so small compared to the ones around where we lived. In all honesty, I like these better.”

“Oh,” Luz wasn’t too sure how to respond to someone musing that they prefer smaller houses to the big one she grew up in.

“Even my father’s house wasn’t good enough for her, she always made him pick me up so she didn’t have to be around it,” Luz perked up at the mention of Amity’s dad. Maybe now was a good time to get the answer to another of her questions.

“So this ‘father’ of yours,” Luz began, glancing over and seeing Amity’s expression remain stagnant in her mirror, “What’s his deal? Mom mentioned he was in jail.”

“Yes he is,” Amity said very matter-of-factly, not bothering to add any more information to her answer.

“What happened? Did he kill someone?” For whatever reason, Luz’s mind decided to go with the most extreme possibility for why her new roommates and my father were in jail.

“What? No.” Amity looked over to Luz, very taken aback by her question, “He’s not in jail for anything that serious.”

“Then what’s he in jail for?” 

Amity let out a large sigh, “Insider trading.”

“Huh-GAAH!” In Luz's shock she almost switched lanes into an oncoming car, swerving out of the way just in time to avoid a minivan.

“Luz, you are an awful driver,” Amity said, instantly appearing to regret what had probably been the meanest thing the emerald-haired girl had said to the brunette, though it was very justified in the moment.

“Sorry, I was just not expecting something so white-collar,” Luz confessed as she attempted to renew her focus on the road.

“Would you rather he have done something worse?”

“No, it’s just,” once again Luz was attempting to keep her foot out of her mouth, “I don’t know, you just don’t seem to talk about him that much so I was a bit worried he did something mega bad.”

“My thoughts on my father are,” Amity paused for a brief moment, “complicated to say the least.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Luz asked, “You have an open invitation to vent to me.”

Amity took a deep breath in through her nose before beginning to speak again, “So my father was head of a company that produces parts for cars and weapons.”

“Your dad is an arms manufacturer?” Now that was another thing Luz wasn’t expecting to hear.

“He just made parts, no weapons were fully put together at any of his factories,” Amity corrected as if it makes the revelation any less shocking. “Anyway, that’s how our family got rich, but the job left my father very busy most of the time, so I didn’t exactly have a close relationship with him. Our maids did more to raise me than he did,” Amity’s last statement was laced with resentment.

“I mean, he seemed less controlling than your mom at least?” Luz was trying to look on the bright side of what was clearly an awful situation.

“Not really,” Amity continued, “Anytime my mother made me do something I didn’t want to, he'd just kind of roll over and let her do it or agree with her. To him it was always ‘Mittens, listen to your mother and dye your hair.’ ‘Mittens your mom is right, you shouldn’t be friends with those people.’ ‘Mittens, for the last time Burger King is awful we will not be stopping there.’

Luz elected to not interrupt Amity as she continued to let out her frustration.

“Then, when I was 12, he lost a quarter of a million dollars investing in crypto-currency.”

“What?” Once again Amity had thrown another curveball at the shorter girl that wound up doubling as a bean ball.

“Yep,” Amity confirmed, “He got really into investing into the stuff and he lost a lot of money on a rugpull with no way to get it back. Of course, my mother was not happy at all and almost immediately filed for divorce, and that’s when they ended up with split custody of me and my siblings. My mother got me one week, my father got me the next.

“That sounds rough.”

“In all honestly it might have been the best thing to happen to me, before you of course,” Luz couldn’t help the blush that formed on her face, “Whenever I did something bad he wouldn’t start screaming his lungs out at me, and I wouldn’t have to hear him rant to me about something he read on facebook that morning, so perhaps it saved me from being even worse when you found me.”

“That’s a relief?” Luz was not really sure what to call any of that but at least Amity got some relief from her mother.

“But then he got arrested for insider trading, lost any sort of custody of me and my siblings, and is now in jail and I was left with just my mother. She just got worse in the years after, she then pulled me out of regular school right before I entered high school and had me home schooled”

“I’m really sorry to hear that,” Luz desperately wanted to grab Amity and pull her into a big hug, however not crashing was probably a better idea at the moment.

“I’m not sure if I should hate him or be thankful that he was better than my mother,” Amity began to play with the hem of her dress once again.

“I think it’s possible to do both,” Luz stated. Amity just remained quiet. “Wait, what about your siblings? Surely they gave you some support?”

“Ed and Em broke away from our mother’s control much before I did,” Amity began, “They left when I was 16 after a huge fight with our mother, I haven’t seen them since.” 

Luz was left speechless. Amity really was alone with her mom for years. Luz would never have guessed in a million years how bad it had gotten.

“I miss them,” Amity added after a brief pause.

“What?”

“Ed and Em,” Amity clarified, “They constantly got on my nerves but they did care about me, they always snuck me food when mom would send me to bed without dinner, they let me sleep in their room when I had a nightmare, and they would dye my hair.”

“Have you thought about contacting them since you left?”

“Not really,” Amity turned her attention out the window once again, “I have no idea where they are, and I doubt they’d ever want me to see me again.”

“Why would you say that? They’re your siblings, I’m sure they’d love to know you’re free!” Luz pointed out.

“Because,” Luz could hear Amity’s voice wavering as she seemed to be on the verge of crying, “The day they left, I was so convinced our mother was right about everything that I lashed out at them,” Amity paused for a moment as Luz pulled into the parking lot in front of her apartment building. “Luz, I said terrible things to them that day and I’m not sure if they could ever forgive me.”

“Amity…” Luz couldn’t help it anymore, she unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned over to pull the taller woman into a hug as Amity began to cry. After a few minutes Amity’s sobs turned into sniffles and Luz spoke up again, “I can’t make you contact them again, but if you’re ever ready I'd be happy to help you look for them. I’m sure they can’t be THAT mad at you anymore.”

“Thanks,” Amity sniffled as she pulled away from the shorter girl, “But they were really upset at me and I’m not sure I-” Amity cut herself off before looking away from Luz.

“Not sure what?” Luz attempted to inquire.

“Nothing,” Amity said, stopping the conversation. Luz figured it was best to not pick at this wound any longer and leave it be for now.

“Why don’t we go inside and you can put your new clothes away while I make dinner?” Luz suggested.

“Can we watch Spongebob while we eat?” Amity asked as she wiped away some stray tears with her sleeves.

Luz let out a soft chuckle, “Of course we can.”

SMACK

“Can you believe she didn’t even recognize me?” Willow lined herself up for another shot.

SMACK

“Like I was best friends with this girl for two years, then she broke up our friendship, and then she bullied me until the end of middle school and I don’t even get any acknowledgement from her?” Willow’s grip on her hockey stick got tighter as she somehow got more angry, The body heat from said anger completely negating the cold air of the ice rink.

“Thorns,” Skara sighed, "You are maybe the first trans person in the history of the world to be mad they successfully passed.”

“Oh come on!” Willow groaned, “She made my life miserable for years at school and I don’t even get an apology?”

“Thorns, honey,” Skara said as she skated closer to her girlfriend, “She obviously didn’t recognize you, and I think that’s a good thing. You have a chance to completely start over with someone, and maybe this time it’ll end better.”

“That implies that Amity Blight can change,” Willow snarked.

“It sounds like she has,” Skara pointed out, “I changed. I was awful to you but look at us now!” Willow just went silent as she went to line up another shot, “Listen, I know how much she hurt you, but its been years since you two have seen each other, maybe don’t be that harsh on her?”

“I just-” Willow began, “I don’t know. I want to believe she’s changed, but every time I looked at her face during lunch I kept thinking back to the 1st grade when she called me too stupid to be her friend.”

“I know it’s hard for you to see her again,” Skara conceded, “But being this angry is not good for you.”

“Why not? I can very easily channel that anger into my game, watch!” Willow took back her hockey stick and hit the puck in front of her with all the might she had, causing it to go flying towards the net, hitting it with enough force to tear right through it, leaving a hole right in the middle, “See?”

“You know we have to pay for that, right?”

“Shoot.”

“Listen,” Skara skated over to the now-broken net to begin changing it out for a new one, “Can you promise me the next time you see her you’ll at least try to be nice to her? Luz is clearly very fond of her and I think that’s proof enough she’s changed at least a little.”

“I don’t know.”

Skara moved away from the broken net before skating over to Willow and taking her hand in hers, “We are not in middle school anymore, we haven’t been for awhile now, I think it’s time you learn to move on from everything, especially if she has changed.”

Willow let out a frustrated sigh, “I guess you’re right, I’ll try to be nicer to her next time. No promises though.”

“That’s all I can ask,” Skara leaned over and gave Willow a quick kiss, earning a blush from the slightly shorter girl before moving back to the net, “Now help me with this, will you?”

“Of course.”

Chapter Text

BANG

Luz shot up from her slumber at the sudden noise coming from outside her bedroom. She turned to the alarm clock next to her bed to see it was currently 2:17 AM.

BANG

The second bang had fast-tracked the process of waking up for Luz as she was now wide awake and fully conscious. Anxiety began to fill the girl as her brain went to the worst case scenario that someone must be breaking into her apartment. Luz’s gut instinct at that moment told her to just jump into her closet and wait for the potential thief to leave. However, she wasn’t alone.

Amity was out there and potentially in danger.

Instinct took over as Luz grabbed the metal bat she kept by her bed (A habit she picked up from her mama) as she slowly approached her bedroom door. Taking a deep breath, Luz slowly and quietly began to open the door. Once there was enough space, Luz peered out of the door to scan her living room for the robber she had convinced herself was in there. However, Luz didn’t find any criminal. Instead she found Amity, awake, wearing the Spongebob pajamas they had bought earlier in the day, and hunched over a purple laptop, with a hand placed on her forehead.

“Amity?” Luz spoke into the silence as she fully opened her door. Amity turned her head to face Luz and Luz could see that the girl had been crying, “Are you okay?”

“No,” Amity answered as she turned back to her laptop, “I, like a complete idiot, forgot about my class work and now I have a bunch of stuff due in two days and I don't know if I'll be able to get it done and-” Amity brought her fist down on the table, confirming for Luz that Amtiy was the source of the noise, “Gaaaaahhhhh!”

Luz knew where Amity’s mental state was going at this rate, and it wasn’t pretty. Luz knew she had to do something to get Amity to calm down—and fast—before she ended up hurting herself. Luz searched her brain for what to do before she remembered something. One time during a bad anxiety spike, Willow had taught Luz a breathing trick that her father's taught her to help her calm down, perhaps this was a good situation to use said trick in.

“Amity,” Luz began as she took a seat down next to her distressed roommate, “Can you look at my hand?”

Amity sniffled, “Your hand?”

“Trust me on this,” Luz reassured. Amity turned her gaze towards the shorter girls closed fist, “Now, I want you to breathe in and out, following my rhythm,” Luz breathed in as she uncurled her fingers to count up to five, and then breathed out as she curled in fingers into a fist once again. Amity got the rhythm and after a few moments had appeared to calm down, at least a little. Willow’s old trick to help calm down worked! (Albeit with a slight modifications so Amity didn’t have to look at Luz currently)

“Are you feeling better?” Luz asked her roommate.

“A little,” Amity answered, “Still freaking out though.”

“Okay, okay,” Luz said in a soft tone, “Can you calmly explain to me what’s going on?”

“So I realized right before I was about to fall asleep that I forgot about my homework for law school and now I have six different assignments due in like two days that I don't know if I’ll be able to finish in time and I’m freaking out,” Amity said as she fell back into the coach.

“Okay, let's not panic, I’m sure we can figure this out,” Luz reassured.

“We?” 

“Yes, we,” Luz confirmed, “And I’m not leaving until we have this whole thing worked out! Now first, we're going to arrange the assignments to shortest to longest, if we get the shorter stuff done first, it'll make the longer stuff feel less overwhelming…”

“And submitted,” Amity announced, much more calm than she was when Luz found her, “Assignment four of six is officially done!”

“Heck yeah!” Luz cheered as she glanced at the clock on her cable box, it was currently 4:34 AM and in the past two hours Luz and Amity had managed to get through most of the taller girl’s homework, “See, this hasn’t been so bad.”

“I guess you're right,” Amity admitted, “Sorry I freaked out and woke you up.”

“It’s fine,” Luz said with a wave of her hand, “I’ve done the same thing when I was in college, so I know what it’s like to be freaking out about homework late at night.”

“I just feel kind of childish now,” Amity said as she hung her hand in shame.

“Hey, you’re not childish,” Luz said as she began to rub circles into her roommates back, “School just sucks, believe me.”

“It does,” Amity sighed, “Anyway, we should move onto the next assignment?”

“Actually,” Luz began, “I think it’s okay to take a break, you should probably get some sleep.”

“But I still have work to do,” Amity answered anxiously.

“You have only two assignments left and two days to finish them,” Luz pointed out, “You’ll be fine. Plus you don’t want to get burned out,” Amity just looked back at Luz, still very nervous about the whole thing, “Tell you what, why don’t you close your laptop, I'll go get you a snack, and we can put on some Spongebob to take your mind off of things for a little bit.”

“That sounds nice,” Amity said as she closed her laptop up and put it aside.

“Great!” Luz smiled as she grabbed her tv remote and pulled up Spongebob Squarepants to stream, “What episode do you want to watch?”

“Texas!” Amity declared as she slapped her hands on her legs in excitement, “I like the ending to the episode a lot, I think it’s really sweet Sandy has a lot of people that care about her.”

“Texas it is!” Luz scrolled through the list of episodes until she landed on the one Amity wanted, and hit play. As the episode began to play, Luz left to pour a bowl of chips, and Amity physically relaxed a little, Luz figured it was a good time to ask Amity a few questions.

“So, uh, law school, huh?” Luz called back from the kitchen.

“Yeah,” Amity called back as she had her gaze fixed on the TV.

“Never really took you as the lawyer type, if I’m being honest,” Luz mused as she returned and gave the bowl to Amity.

“Well, it wasn’t exactly my choice,” Amity admitted as she began to snack on the chips.

“Let me guess, your mother made you go into law,” Luz rolled her eyes as she once again discovered a new law for Amity’s mother.

“Yep,” Amity chuckled lightly, “She would always say ‘Amity, becoming a lawyer is good pay and good job security, you will become the pride of the family with these classes’ and I never had enough sway over her to fight back.”

“Based on everything you’ve told me about her it sounds more like she just wanted a lawyer on stand-by in case she ever got into legal trouble,” Luz half joked as she grabbed a handful of chips herself.

“You’re honestly probably right,” Amity groned, “She always complained that none of the lawyers around here ‘represented our values’ or whatever.”

“AKA, they didn’t have a brain poisoned by too much Facebook.”

“Yeah,” the emerald-haired girl sighed, “In any case, she found a good online college where I got my bachelors and then an online law school for me to go to afterwards and it’s where I’ve been studying the past few years.”

“I’m assuming your mother was scared that if you went to an in-person college you’d turn gay or something.”

Amity once again laughed, “Yeah, and look how well that turned out.”

Luz couldn’t help but laugh back as well, “So I take it you don’t really care for being a lawyer?”

“Not really,” Amity shook her head, “I find it all kind of boring and have no real interest in law.”

“So why don’t you drop out?” Luz suggested, “You're clearly miserable here and your mother isn’t around to force you to take the classes anymore.”

“I know, I just don’t really know where I’d go. Plus I don’t exactly have the money to start school all over again for a new degree, I only have one more semester left and I’m sure I can financially handle that on my own.”

“And then what? Be miserable at your job the rest of your life?” Luz argued, “Amity you’re finally free, you can do whatever you want and your mother can’t stop you. What is she going to do? Kick you out again.”

“You do have a point,” Amity relented, “I still think I should finish this semester before I make any decisions about dropping out, just in case.”

“That’s fine,” Luz reassured her roommate, “Having a back-up is a good idea but I think it’s a good idea to just take a semester off and figure stuff out.”

“Once again, you’re probably right,” Amity chuckled, “Still not sure how I’ll pay for a whole new set of classes, though.”

“Don’t worry about that right now, first, focus on finding something you like doing.”

“Hopefully I can figure it out soon,” the room went silent for a moment, say for the sound of Patrick being lassoed and the following explosion, garnering a laugh from both girls. Eventually, Amity decided to speak up again, “So what did you go to college for?”

“Creative writing,” Luz answered proudly.

“So you’re a writer?” Amity asked, seeking confirmation.

“Yep,” Luz confirmed.

“What have you written?”

“You know those little historical fiction novels you find at tourist traps? The ones usually about old colonial legends?”

“Yeah, my brother used to read those.”

“Yeah, well, I write those,” Luz said in a flat tone, “Not because I want to, but because my publisher requests that I write them.”

“Oh.”

“That’s the main reason I don’t put my real name on them, but if you ever see a book with the name Lucia López at some rest stop outside New Haven, that’s me!”

“Well, I’m sorry that you can’t write what you want,” Amity said in an empathetic tone.

“Nah, don’t worry, after my last book got good reviews and sales my publisher is letting me write whatever I want, so I’m working on a fantasy novel currently.”

“Oh, that sounds fun.”

“It's going to be super epic and queer I can’t wait,” Luz said excitedly.

“I can’t wait to read it,” Amity yawned as she put the now empty bowl on the table and Ghost leapt up to take its place. 

“I can’t wait for you to read it,” Luz yawned back. It wasn’t long until both girls fell asleep on the coach, leaning against each other as Spongebob Squarepants continued to play in the background.

Viney awoke and let out a grone. She picked up her phone to see the time. 3:29 AM. Just her luck. The young doctor flipped around with the intention to go cuddle up next to her girlfriend to help herself fall back asleep, only to then realize that she was absent. Emira usually went to bed after Viney did, sure, but she was never up this late and was always there when she woke up. Getting increasingly worried, Viney got up from her bed, stepped over Puddles, and went to search for her missing girlfriend.

It didn’t take long for Viney to find the taller girl. She was sitting at the table in the kitchen, currently asleep on the keyboard of her silver laptop that had long since run out of battery life. It’d be a cute sight if the reason Emira was currently in that situation wasn’t her desperately looking for her missing sister. With a sigh, Viney approached the taller girl to carry her back to bed.

Before she got the chance to pick her up though, Viney noticed an old picture sitting on her laptop's screen. It was of a much younger Emira, green hair and all, smiling fondly while holding a much younger brunette who had appeared to have fallen asleep in Emira’s arms. It was rather easy to deduce that the sleeping girl was Amity. A sad smile crept onto Viney’s face as she observed the photo. After a few more seconds, Viney tore her gaze away from the photo before she picked up her girlfriend in her strong arms bridal-style, and carried her back to bed.

The shorter girl gently placed Emira down on the bed and pulled the covers over her. Viney then climbed back into her side of the bed, gave her wonderful girlfriend a quick forehead kiss before wrapping her arms around her and heading back off to sleep herself.

Chapter Text

Amity slowly opened her eyes, the morning sun bathing her in light as she was soon aware of Ghost kneading at her thigh for food. “Give me a minute,” The green-haired girl groaned as she closed her eyes again. That is when she became aware of a weight on her shoulder.

Amity peered to the side to find that Luz was still soundly asleep, resting on the taller girl’s shoulder. It wasn’t long before Amity’s face turned a bright shade of red and she quickly detached herself from the couch, soliciting a yelp from Ghost and causing Luz’s head to fall where Amity was once sitting, waking the poor girl.

WIth a groan, Luz lifted her head up to see Amity worriedly looking down at her roommate, “Uh, good morning?”

“I’m sorry,” Amity said as she gripped the side of her Spongebob pajamas, “I, uh, just got surprised when I saw you on my shoulder and I-”

“It’s fine,” Luz interrupted, a blush also coloring her face as she stood up, “I’m just going to go take a shower now.” In an instant the writer had left the couch and locked herself in the bathroom. Amity swore she heard a faint yell, but figured it was just her imagination.

Emira’s eyes opened as she sat up in bed and let out a big stretch and a yawn against the backdrop of running water of the shower. She took a quick scan around the room and realized she was, indeed, in Viney and her shared bedroom, “Weird, I don’t remember coming to bed last night,” Emira spoke to herself.

“Because you didn’t,” Viney’s voice rang out as the sound of running water stopped and soon out of the bathroom walked Viney in a yellow robe with her wet hair done in a very messy bun, “I found you collapsed over your computer. I had to carry you back to bed.”

Emira groaned as she fell back down onto the bed, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, you’re not that heavy.”

“Okay, one: You’re strong as heck,” Emira began, “And second: I mean I’m sorry about getting so caught up in everything about Mittens recently.”

“Oh sweetie,” Viney said in a sympathetic tone as she took a seat next to her girlfriend, “I get it.”

“You do?”

“Yes,” Viney moved a few loose strands of hair way from Emira’s face, “I get how much you want to see your sister again, and if I could help without risking losing my job I would, but I can’t do that.”

“I miss her so much,” Emira said somberly.

“I know, and you’ll find her, just give her time,” the brunette reassured.

“You sure?”

“You’re much too stubborn to not do it,” Emira chuckled as Viney leaned down and gave her a kiss on the forehead, “Now why don’t I make my emerald some breakfast.”

Emira smiled up at her girlfriend, “I’d like that,” Viney started to get up before Emira placed a hand on her arm, “Wait. Since I was asleep the first time, could you carry me to the kitchen?” Viney sighed and rolled her eyes as she walked over to the otherside of the bed and picked the taller girl up, alleviating a cheer from Emira.

“You’re so gay,” Viney mused.

Luz stared at her reflection in the wardrobe. Her hair was done in neat curls, a pair of fancong earrings dangled from her ears, and she was in a nice little black suit. Satisfied with her appearance, Luz exited her bedroom to see Amity typing away at her laptop. 

In contrast to Luz, Amity was still in her Spongebob pajamas, choosing to mix the shirt with the titular character’s face on it with the pajama legs with all the characters on them. Her hair (which for the time being Amity had decided to dye back to her natural brown color) was a total mess, and she was currently chewing on the end of a pencil. 

Luz found it oddly cute, but decided to brush the thought aside.

“Someone’s looking fancy,” Amity spoke as she glanced over to Luz from the chair where she had sprawled.

“I have a meeting with my publisher today,” Luz said with a proud smile, “He wants to see my progress on my novel.”

“Well I can’t speak for your writing but what I do know is you look rather handsome,” Amity turned her gaze back to her laptop as Luz’s face began to heat up at the compliment.

“Thank you,” Luz replied as she walked over to the kitchen and pulled out some food for Stringbean. “Handsome is what I aim for!” Luz opened her pet snake's cage and dropped her meal inside. This is also when she noticed that Ghost was currently sitting next to the cage that housed said snake and was just staring at Stringbean. Luz gave a couple quick scratches to the cat's head before her phone rang. Luz pulled out the device and her eyes widened.

Library: Your copies of “100 Ways to Bother Your Sibling” and “Cryptozoology for Dummies” are due today. Failure to return these will result in a fine. 

“Shoot!” Luz exclaimed.

“What’s wrong?” Amity inquired as she once again glanced up from her laptop.

“I have library books I need to turn in, but the library is on the other side of town from my publisher. I don’t know if I’ll have time,” Luz answered.

“Oh,” Amity bit down on the pencil once again, “I could take the books back for you?”

“Oh I wouldn’t want to trouble you.”

“It’s no trouble,” Amity reassured, “I’m almost done with this assignment and I have nothing else to do. Plus it’ll be nice to go to the library again. Mother stopped letting me go when they started having pride nights.”

“Okay, that’s awful,” Luz said as she glanced over at the time on her phone, “But I really have to go now so I don’t have time to unpack that right now. But if you could return them for me I’d appreciate it!”

“Leave it to me!” Amity called over to Luz.

“Alright,” Luz darted back to her room and grabbed the books from her nightstand, “Here are the books!” the shorter girl announced as she placed them in front of Amity, “I’ll be back later tonight, and I’ll pick up some chinese on my way home.”

“I’ll take some egg drop soup and two spring rolls,” Amity smiled at her roommate.

“Got it, and thanks again,” and in an instant Luz had left her apartment for her publisher.

Amity stared up at the old looking building, Luz’s books nestled tightly against her chest. She had assumed this would be a simple task, yet the Brunette was beyond nervous at the moment. Amity took a deep breath as she walked through the wooden door to the library.

Once inside, she took a quick scan around. Directly in front of her was the front desk with a sign that read, “Return Books Here.” Behind the desk were rows and rows of books with signs hanging from the ceiling indicating genres. All the signs were just black text on a brown background except for the one labeled ‘Pride’ which had its colors painted to match a rainbow. Amity couldn’t help but smile at it, for whatever reason it made her feel a bit less nervous. To the left was a set of computers with a few teenagers typing away on them. To the right was a colorful section of the library labeled ‘For Kids’ that seemed spacious and populated at the moment.  

“Did you need any help?” Amity was snapped out of her trance by the words of the employee at the desk in front of her.

“Uh yes,” Amity replied as she walked over to the boy, attempting to make eye contact, “My roommate has this book she needed returned.”  

“Alright, hand them over and we’ll handle the rest,” Amity glanced down and found a nametag revealing the boy’s name to be Jerbo.

“Here you go,” Amity said with a smile as she handed the two books over. Just as she was about to leave, a small yellow sign on the desk caught her eye.

NOW HIRING PART-TIME AND FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES TO HELP AROUND THE LIBRARY. SALAIRES START AT $15 AND HOUR. APPLY NOW.

“This is perfect,” Amity thought. It was. It was a simple job she could have while she figured everything out. It paid well enough to cover her share of the rent and still have a decent amount to spend around, “Excuse me, how would I apply for a position at the library?”

“Oh that,” Jerbo said with a smile, “It’s a simple walk-in interview, just bring a resume and you can go in the back for a quick interview with the boss.”

“I don’t have a copy of my résumé with me.”

“Printing something in the computer lab only costs a quarter!” Jerbo pointed towards the rows of computers.

“Give me a second,” Amity replied as she dashed towards a computer, now determined to leave the library with a job. 

Luz sat quietly on the couch in front of her publisher's desk, bouncing her right leg rapidly as he read through what she had brought for him. He had been reading for about an hour now and there was no way to tell what he was feeling (not that Luz was particularly good at that anyway).

This was always the most nerve racking part of this, waiting for the final verdict on her draft. After the amount of time she had spent just waiting, Luz was ready for the meeting to be over, even if the band-aid gets torn off rather painfully.

Her publisher turned the stabled papers back to the front and delicately placed Luz's draft down in front of him, “You've certainly made a lot of progress.”

“Yes, I have,” Luz said, attempting to replace her nervousness with pride, “I've been really excited about this story for a while now.”

“That's wonderful,” her publisher said as if he was a teacher who was just told about the apples one of their students had for lunch, “Too bad it's awful.”

Luz felt like she had just been stabbed by a very dull knife, all that effort for something that was apparently awful? “I don’t understand Piniet, what’s so bad about it?”

Piniet took his glasses off and placed them on the table, “To put it plainly: Your main character is one of the most boring characters in any thing I’ve ever read.”

“Mary can’t be that bad, can she?”

“Miss Noceda, while I was reading this I kept hoping that she would die of a heart attack because I’m sure the doctor that would take care of her would be more interesting than she is,” the publisher let out a long sigh, “Frankly, Mary doesn’t seem like she’s learning anything in this journey. She comes in already knowing all there is to know about magic with a worldview that is never challenged. In just two encounters she’s already gained the allegiance of her rival.”

“Right,” Luz hung her head down in shame, almost ready to cry.

“Listen,” Piniet changed his tone to be a bit softer, “The basic premise seems fun and some of this lore is interesting, and if you can come back with a better vessel for the reader to experience it all though, I think we’ll have something special here, but until then, what you have is no good.”

“Yeah,” Luz replied dejectedly.

“Now if you’ll excuse me I have another writer I need to meet with,” Piniet then pressed a button on the phone at his desk to connect to his receptionist, “Please send in Tinella Nosa for me, would you?”

With a sigh, Luz got up from the couch and left the office, not bothering to grab the copy of her draft and determined to drown her sorrows in a good old fashioned dairy-free milkshake.

Amity sat down in a chair, nervously gripping the black tunic she had chosen to wear. In front of her sat an older gentleman with a large mustache and one of the most intimidating faces she had ever seen that wasn’t her mothers. On the desk in front of him sat a title tag revealing his name to be Malphas.

“So like,” Malphas began in a voice that seemed way too soft from the grizzled man in front of Amity, “you are kind of super overqualified for this position. Like, a bachelors in law is like, super good. Why does someone of your talent want to work here?”

Amity felt her shoulders untense as the grip on her tunic lightened. Somehow, the dichotomy between Malphas’s appearance and voice was enough to calm the brunette’s nerves, “Well I kind of don’t really want to go into law, and I kind of wanted a job like this while I try to figure my life out a bit.”

“But like, why the library?” Malphas inquired of the young girl in front of him.

Amity took a moment to think before speaking again, “Well in truth, this is kind of the first time I’ve set foot in a library since I was a teenager. I’ve recently left a very controlling mother and I’m currently trying to get to know the world and myself a lot better than I have. And when I walked in here and saw the pride section you have up, I realized that this may be a good place to do both of those things,” while Amity was giving her explanation, Luz’s face suddenly rushed into her mind, “Plus, my new roommate has been so nice to me and I can’t keep mooching off of her. I’ve only known her for a week but she’s maybe the most important person in my life. I owe so much to her at this point  and starting to pay for rent and my own stuff is the least I can do for her.”

“Wow,” Malphas’s face didn’t seem to change much, “That was like, a super heartwarming explanation and you’re like totally hired.”

“Really!?’ Amity’s voice raised in excitement as a big smile appeared on her face, “Thank you, thank you, thank you! You won’t regret this!” Amity stood up and grabbed Malphas’s hand to give an enthusiastic shake.

“I’m sure I totally won't,” Malphas returned Amity’s bright smile, “You seem totally awesome and like a great employee. So just like, be here Monday at 10 AM and we can totally start your training.”

“I’ll be here,” Amity let go of her new boss’s hand, “See you Monday, boss.” And with that Amity exited the office, holding her head high and with a proud smile plastered on her face. For one of the first times in Amity Blight’s life, she had made a huge life decision on her own, and it felt great. She couldn’t wait to tell Luz the good news later.

 A defeated Luz entered her apartment to find a rather happy Amity watching Spongebob on the couch. 

“Welcome back, Luz,” The taller girl turned towards her roommate and her face instantly shifted to concern, “Uh oh, what happened?”

“My publisher hated my draft,” Luz sighed as she took a seat next to Amity. As if sensing her distress, Ghost had leapt onto Luz’s lap, allowing the girl to pet her.

“I’m sorry,” Amity began to rub her hand across her roommate's back, “I’m sure he has no idea what he’s talking about.”

“No he does,” Luz sighed, “I just worked really hard on that draft and it was a huge sucker punch to hear his thoughts.”

“What did he tell you?”

“He said I need a new protagonist, apparently my current one is boring,” Luz recalled.

“Well I’m sure you can do it!” Amity reassured, “If you need any advice I’d be happy to help.”

“Thanks Amity,” Luz gave a smile over to her roommate, “I’ll consider your offer if I need it.”

“Hey, it’s the least I can do after all the homework you’ve helped me with,”  Amity flashed a reassuring smile over to Luz, “Now, uh, I kind of have something I need to tell you.”

“What is it?” Luz inquired.

“I got a job at the library!” Amity exclaimed excitedly.

“That’s awesome!” Luz’s mood instantly shifted upon hearing the news, on instinct, Luz leaned over and pulled Amity into a hug, Ghost leaving her lap in the process, “I’m so proud of you.”

 Amity didn’t exactly return the hug but she didn’t push Luz away, instead she just sat there awkwardly as a blush formed on her face. When Luz let go Amity spoke again as she averted her eyes from Luz’s gaze, “I’m proud of myself.”

“You should be,” Luz couldn’t keep the smile off her face, “And the library sounds like a fun place to work.”

“I’m really excited about it!” Amity began to rock very slightly in place, “I start Monday.”

“I’m so happy for you,” Luz beamed over to Amity, “How about we go out to dinner to celebrate? My treat.”

“That sounds like fun, I am hungry,” Amity lightly drummed her hands over her lap.

“Alright, I know a good sushi place we can go to!”

“Can we invite Gus and Willow?” Amity asked as she stood up, “I think it’ll be nice if they are there too.”

“Of course, I’ll text them to meet us there on our way to the car,” Luz got up as well, the smile she had never leaving her face. Despite the harsh words from her publisher, as Luz left the apartment with Amity, she couldn’t be happier. Amity truly was excited about her new job and it was impossible for Luz to be in any sort of bad mood after seeing it.

The fact that Amity also happened to look absolutely adorable when she was happy was also a great help in lifting her mood.

Chapter Text

Luz and Amity leaned back against the hood of Luz’s car in a comfortable silence. The cool spring air was nipping at their faces. The roommates were currently standing outside of Luz’s favorite sushi place, waiting for Gus to show up. Luz had informed Amity that Willow was busy with practice and couldn't make it to the dinner. Amity was a bit disappointed; regardless of her strange behavior, she did want to get to know Willow better. Though she could only be so disappointed. She was really fond of Gus and was really excited to tell him about her new job.

Just as her mind had wandered to Gus, she heard a truck begin to pull into the parking lot. She turned to see a run down blue pick-up truck driven by Gus pull in next to her and Luz. Both Luz and Amity gave a wave over to the boy as he parked and exited the vehicle. Opposite to him, another person exited the truck, someone Amity had never seen before. He was about the same height as Gus and had tan skin a shade darker than Luz’s with auburn hair. He also had decided it was a good idea to grow a very slight mustache that made him look rather silly.

“Hi Gus!” Amity called out with a smile, “Who's your friend?”

“Call me Matt,” the new guy said.

“He's my uh, boyfriend,” Gus said with a blush as he rubbed the back of his neck. However, Amity noticed there weren't many signs that pointed to them being a couple. Gus was standing rather stiff next to Matt, not to mention he hesitated to simply call Matt his boyfriend. Granted, Amity could be imagining things or perhaps Gus was just worried something bad might happen.

“That's right ladies,” Matt began with a sly smile, interrupting Amity's thoughts, “Sorry to disappoint but I am off the menu.”

“Oh I'm a lesbian, so there's no disappointment here,” Amity replied back bluntly.

“I'm bi, but I think I'll live,” Luz said with an eye roll.

“Owch,” Matt grimaced, “Luz, you wounded me.”

“It's not like they'd be on your menu anyway,” Gus shot back.

“I know, but still I'm hurt,” Matt grumbled.

“Anyway,” Gus sighed, “Hope you two don't mind but Matt insisted on coming.”

“It's fine,” Luz answered, “We're down Willow anyway.”

“Is that all I am? A replacement for Miss Hockey?” Matt snarked.

“Don't push your luck,” Luz glared back over at the shorter boy.

“Well, It's good to meet you Matt!” Amity smiled. For all his antics so far, as far as Amity was concerned, if he was dating Gus he must be a good person.

“Good to meet you too, Amity,” Matt gave the taller girl a pair of finger guns, “Gus had good things to say about you.”

“Oh really,”  a smile crept onto Amity’s face along with a blush.

“Of course,” Gus chimed in, “You seem super nice and I’m glad we can start to become friends.”

“D’awwwww!” Amity exclaimed as fought back the urge to flap her hands. No matter how happy she was, now was not the time for improper behavior.

“Thanks Gus, I’m glad to have you as a friend too,” Amity said, “Now, should we head in to eat?”

“Of course!” Gus replied excitedly. The group of four all filed into the sushi place.

Once inside, Amity was instantly bombarded with noise. The place was busy. So busy that Amity could barely hear her own thoughts. To get inside the group had to shuffle through several groups of people, which was not helping at all. Amity’s brain was not handling the amount of stimulation she was experiencing well. Not only was it too loud and she was too close to other people, the bright lights were beginning to hurt her eyes and even the strong smell of fish was beginning to overwhelm her. It was then that Amity became very conscious of her breathing. The noise she was making as air escaped her lungs was beginning to bother her. And her clothes, the large tunic she had been wearing suddenly felt too tight, like it was trying to strangle her.

“I’ll go see if I can get us a table,” Amity vaguely heard Luz say as the taller girl froze up. Luz's voice sounded far away, like it was coming from the bottom of a well. Amity didn’t say anything as she gazed out in front of her. Her brain was not processing any information and she almost felt like she was floating above everything.

Seconds, a minute passed before Amity’s brain let her process her roommate's soft voice, “-ity, you okay? You seem pale.”

“I’m not sure,” Amity thought she replied, but she couldn’t be sure if it came out at all. 

“-out of here,” from Gus is the next thing Amity was able to make out as she suddenly felt a large hand grab onto her and lead her out of the sushi place. Once out, her brain decided to play catch-up and she realized that who else but Luz, had been the one to lead her outside.

“You okay Amity?” Luz asked, concern lacing her every word.

“I don’t, I-” tears were now forming in Amity’s eyes, “We just got inside and everything was too much. It was too loud, too crowded, and too bright and-”

“You got overstimulated,” Gus stated bluntly, “Happens to me sometimes too.”

“You’re autistic too?” Amity said, a bit shocked.

“Yeah,” Gus replied with a comforting smile, “No shame in getting overstimulated.”

“Yeah,” Matt said, “We don’t have to eat there if you can’t handle it.”

“But you all were looking forward to it and I don’t want to ruin that,” Amity hung her head down in shame.

“Hey, this is a celebration for you,” Luz pointed out as she rubbed small circles into Amity’s back, “We want you to be able to enjoy it, and you can’t do that if you’re overstimulated. Plus there’s like an hour wait to get a table and I doubt any of us want to wait that long.”

“I don’t,” Gus confirmed.

“Me neither,” Matt added.

“I’m sorry everyone,” Amity said as she grabbed onto her tunic.

“You’re fine,” Luz stated bluntly.

“C’mon, let’s decide on a new place to go to,” Gus said with an enthusiastic smile, “Preferably one that doesn’t cause Amity to overstimulate.”

“Oh I know a good wing place,” Matt said with a raised hand, “Not to brag but my picture is up on the wall after I managed to eat 50 wings in an hour!”

“Gross,” Amity replied.

“Actually,” Luz began with a proud smile, “I think I have a good idea for a place Amity might want to try, and it’s never that busy.”

“What place?” Amity inquired.

“Here we are,” Luz announced as she parked her car next to Gus's pick-up truck. Amity exited the vehicle and peered up at the logo, the words “Burger King'' in red were the focal point of it.

“You've never had Burger King?” Gus asked as he stood beside the taller girl.

“My mother said it was irredeemable trash,” Amity answered.

“I mean it's far from fine dining but I wouldn't call it irredeemable,” Matt mused.

“Regardless, there’s a lot less people here so hopefully you don't get overstimulated,” Luz said, pointing towards Amity.

Amity didn't notice many people so she figured she'd be fine. Just two small families, a lone construction worker in the and-

“Oh no.”

“What's wrong Amity?” Luz looked over with a worried expression.

“I know that employee,” Amity would recognize that pink hair and large forehead anywhere.

“Boscha?” Gus said, “Did she bully you too?”

“Don't worry, she's mostly chill at this point,” Luz reassured.

“No not that,” Amity grabbed ahold of her tunic again, “We were friends, at least until my mother pulled me out of school.”

“Oh,” Luz paused for a moment, “Maybe now is a good time to reconnect?”

Reconnect? No. Just seeing her made Amity want to go run and jump into the nearest dumpster. Not after how awful they were to people.

“I don't know.”

“If you're not ready I'll go inside and order for all of us,” the shorter girl suggested.

“Yeah we can eat in the back of Gus's truck,” Matt added.

“I'm okay with that but I'm not sure what to order,” Amity explained.

“Don't worry, I know what to get you,” Luz said with a smile, “It's Burger King so I gotta get you a whopper. Anything you dislike on your burgers?”

“I don't like tomatoes,” Amity paused before adding, “Oh get me extra mayo.”

“Uh sure,” Luz cringed.

“I'll help you carry everything out,” Matt volunteered.

“And I'll stay with Amity,” Gus smiled, “I'll just take some nuggets.”

“Alright, we'll be back in a second,” Luz said as she entered the Burger King with Matt and Gus led Amity back to his truck.

Luz and Matt walked into the restaurant, the ding of the bell announcing their arrival inside.

“Welcome to Burger-” Boscha looked up at the duo and her eyes immediately went wide, “No. Absolutely not!”

“Come on Boscha,” Luz groaned, “I just want to order some food I'm not here to-”

“Not you Noceda!” Boscha snapped back before pointing at Matt, “Him. He's not allowed in here.” Matt immediately went into a brow-wrinkling grimace.

“Matt,” Luz began in a tone not dissimilar to how her mami when she was upset, “What did you do?”

“Last time he was in here he got into a fight with me and several employees because his chicken nuggets were late, before jumping on a counter when we tried to remove him from the premises and knocked a bunch of trash on the floor,” Boscha's glare never left Matt's direction.

“Matt, what's wrong with you!?” Luz looked at Matt with an expression not too dissimilar to Boscha's.

“That was over two years ago and I was- and I've changed?” Matt questioned more than answered.

“I don't care,” Boscha shot back, “Get out of my restaurant before I physically remove you myself.”

“Come on,” Matt began to plead, “It's been years, can't you let it go? Come on Luz, back me up!”

“Absolutely not tontito,” Luz moved to stand next to Boscha, deciding this would be a rare instance where she takes her former bully’s side.

“Traitor!” Matt grumbled.

“Get out!” Boscha yelled, near her wits end.

“Please, isn't there anything I can do to get your forgiveness, I've changed, I swear! I'll do anything!” Matt begged as he seemed to almost reflexively get on his knees.

“Anything?” Boscha raised an eyebrow as a mischievous smile crept across her face.

Amity and Gus sat across from each other in the latter’s truck, relaxing in the chilly evening air.

“So you got a job, congratulations,” Gus spoke into the silence.

“Thanks,” Amity replied, “I'll be working at the library. Honestly, I owe Luz for this too. If she didn't need some books returned I'm not sure I'd have a job right now.”

“Funny how the world works,” Gus mused.

“I owe her a lot,’ Amity sighed, “I've known her not even two weeks and my life is just better,” as Amity thought back to Luz she couldn't help the warm feeling building in her chest.

“Luz has a way of making your life better,” Gus let off a chuckle, “She was the one to convince me to ask Matt out.”

“Yeah,” Amity half mumbled half spoken.

“What's wrong?” Gus titled his head, “Do you not like him? I get he's a lot but he means well.”

“No it's not that,” Amity leaned back, “pardon my assumption but you two don't seem very coupley.”

“What do you mean?”

“You just seem a bit, I don't know, uncomfortable,” Amity began to tap her hand against her lap to fight her own discomfort, “Like you seem hesitant to call him your boyfriend. And I couldn't really tell you were a couple by how you stood. You don't seem to hold his hand or put an arm around him. Aren't couples supposed to do that?”

“I know,” Gus sighed.

“Are you scared someone's going to do something if they see you?”

“No,” Gus answered, “I mean yeah sometimes but that's not the reason. I'd love to be a bit more touchy with him. I'm just not sure if he's ready for that. And I'm a bit worried that if I try he's going to think I'm weird and clingy.”

“Haven't you two been dating for two years now?” Amity pointed out.

“I know,” Gus sighed, “I guess I feel like if he was the cuddly kind he'd have initiated something by now, y’know.”

“What if he thinks the same about you?” Gus didn't reply but Amity saw his eyes go wide, “Listen, I know I just met you so I don't have the full context of your relationship nor do I have any personal experience so disregard my advice if you want, but maybe you should try to be less stiff around him.”

“What do you suppose I do?” Gus began to bite at one of his nails.

“Maybe just put an arm around him? See how you react?” Amity suggests, “And if he's okay with that maybe just lean into him.”

“What if he doesn't want to?”

“Then he doesn't want to,” Amity said matter-of-factly, “Obviously don't force him to do something he doesn't feel comfortable with.”

Gus let out a hum of affirmation, “I'll try.”

As if on cue, Luz exited the restaurant with a very annoyed looking Matt holding a few bags of food. The two hopped onto the truck, Matt taking a seat next to Gus and Luz taking a seat next to Amity.

“Dinner is served!” Luz exclaimed as she began to pass out food.

“What's wrong?” Gus asked Matt as he sat down.

“I don't want to talk about it,” Matt pouted.

“Someone has to dress up as the Burger King himself and stand outside the establishment if he wants to not be banned anymore,” Luz said with a pleased smile. Matt let out a whine as he curled up and buried his head in his knees.

“Why,” Amity chuckled out.

“Because I was stupid a few years ago,” was all Matt left Amity with before re-burying his face.

“Aww I'm sorry, uh, honey,” Gus was able to get out through his nerves. Amity just watched as Gus slowly moved his arm up and gently wrapped it around Matt, who did nothing to stop him. Gus, still feeling bold, leaned over and planted a kiss on Matt's forehead, “I love you.”

A blush came across Matt's face, “What's gotten into you? You're never this affectionate.”

“Do you want me to stop?” Gus asked nervously.

“No, not really,” Matt said as he leaned his head against his boyfriend's shoulder, “And I love you too,” A smile crept onto Gus's face and Amity couldn't help but mirror it.

“D’awwwww,” Luz cooed before clapping her hands together excitedly, “Now then, I think it's time Amity tried her first whopper!”

“I guess it is,” Amity said, averting her gaze from the display of affection in front of her to the wrapped burger. Amity picked up the burger and unwrapped it. It was as she requested: no tomatoes and extra mayo. It smelled fine and looked substantially worse than the pictures that lined the side of the restaurant.

Amity took a deep breath in and took a bite out of the sandwich.

“Well?” Luz leaned forward in anticipation.

Amity swallowed, “I guess there's at least one thing my mother is right about.”

Boscha hummed contently to herself as she continued to clean the floors. Getting that brat to agree to wear that stupid outfit had certainly made this one of her better shifts. As she lifted the mop to once again dip in the bucket, she glanced outside to see said brat sitting in a pick-up truck with Noceda, Porter and

…That was Amity Blight. Boscha could recognize that high ponytail from anywhere. After all these years and her sudden abandonment, there was her former best friend, just sitting in a truck, eating and laughing. 

“Sarah!” Boscha yelled out, “I'm going to take my break, can you finish mopping?” Boscha didn't even register her employee’s response as she darted back to the small office in the back of the kitchen. Boscha sat down at the desk as varying emotions swirled through her head. 

Relief that she was okay.

Anger over how she just left her.

Jealousy that she somehow had more friends than she did now.

Sadness that she didn't have the courage to go out and say something.

Boscha just placed her head down on the desk, resigned to the fact that the next 15 minutes would be spent hashing out a bunch of repressed emotions from middle school.

Chapter Text

“Alright big fella, let's crash this party!” came the voice of Shrek from the TV as he rode atop the giant gingerbread man.

“You know, I used to think Shrek was hot when I was younger,” Willow admitted as she grabbed a fistful of popcorn from the bowl in between Skara and her.

“I mean, he was designed to be handsome like this, so it makes sense,” Skara replied as her favorite scene continued on. 

“No, I mean, like, regular Shrek,” Willow corrected without a hint of shame.

Dumbfounded, Skara slowly turned her head to glare at her girlfriend, “You have the absolute worst taste in men.”

Willow leaned back, offended, “Yeah, well, it's not like your taste is much better.”

“Oh, please,” Skara shot back, “what could be worse than-”

“Filbert,” Willow replied with a cocky smile.

“What-” Skara was left nearly speechless, “At least Filbert was a human, and REAL!”

“Screech,” Willow suddenly got very serious. “Be completely honest with me, would you rather date Filbert or Shrek?”

“I-” Skara, with a defeated sigh, slumped back down on the couch, “Fine, you win this time.”

“Ha,” Willow replied with a smug smile spreading across her face as she sat back down to finish up the movie. Just as she started to go back to watching the screen, her phone dinged in her pocket. She took it out to see a message from Luz in the groupchat that they shared with Gus.

Luzura: So Amity got a job today and we were going to get some sushi to celebrate, you two wanna come?

THEGREATAUGUSTUS_OFFICAL: I WOULD LOVE TO!

THEGREATAUGUSTUS_OFFICAL: Though I'm hanging out with Matt is it okay if he comes along?

Luzura: Yeah that's fine, just promise me he won't chased by a badger this time

THEGREATAUGUSTUS_OFFICAL: You know I can't do that

Luzura: Whatever, just keep an eye on him

Luzura: What about you Willow?

Willow froze as she looked at the screen. The prospect of another dinner with Amity worried her. She barely got through the last one without yelling. Plus the thought of dealing with Matt being, well, Matt while keeping a handle in the deep resentment she held for the tall brunette, she wasn't she'd make it though dinner without getting the group kicked out for fighting.

HELLOW_WILLOW: sorry i can't skara and i are stuck at practice with the rest of the team, maybe next time

Willow hit send on the message as she closed up her phone, vowing to avoid anything else that was sent till later.

“Who was that?” Skara asked as she attempted to looked for any remaining popcorn in the bowl that had long since been picked through 

“Oh, y'know,” Willow nervously began, “Just my father.”

Skara turned her head and gave her girlfriend a glare, “Thorns; you're not a great liar, you know that.”

“I'm not lying!” Willow lied.

“Uh huh,” Skara deadpanned, “Thorns, you know you can tell me anything, right?”

“I know,” Willow conceded as she looked away from the taller girl and down at her hands.

“So why can't I know who the message was from?” Skara crossed her arms.

“Because if I tell you, you'll be disappointed in me,” Willow half murmured, but it was loud enough for Skara to hear it.

“Thorns, you could never disappoint me,” Skara switched to a more sympathetic tone as she moved over and rubbed her girlfriend’s back. Willow didn't respond as she just continued to look down. Skara sighed and moved back, “Okay, right here,” the white-haired girl said as she patted her lap, ordering her girlfriend to lay her head down.

Willow, unable to resist her girlfriend, proceeded to move herself so she was laying down, face up, head in Skara's lap which gave her a great view of her pretty girlfriend’s face.

Skara rubbed her hands through the shorter girl's navy hair, making sure to give a few scratches to the sides of her head, just like how Willow liked it. Willow closed her eyes and visibly relaxed as she enjoyed the attention from Skara..

“You mind sharing with me what the message was about now?” Skara asked as she continued running her hands through Willow's hair.

Willow let out a sigh as her eyes opened again, “It was Luz. Apparently, Amity got a new job and they wanted to have dinner with Gus and I to celebrate.”

“And you said no, I presume?” Skara asked.

“Yeah,” Willow confirmed, “I don't think I'm capable of seeing her without getting angry this time.”

“Thorns, we talked about this,” Skara pointed out.

“I know,” Willow sighed, “I just, I just can't.”

“I know-” Skara attempted to get out another conversation before being cut off by Willow.

“Skara,” Willow said firmly, “This is the person who practically caused school to be a living hell for me. Even after she left, I still had to deal with Boscha and-” Willow cut herself off.

“It’s okay, I was awful,” Skara reassured, “It was wrong of all of us what we did, but continuing to be this angry about a person you haven't seen since middle school can't be healthy.”

“Oh yeah, says who?” Willow said, defensively.

“Common sense,” Skara shot back, “Life's too short to hold on to grudges this long.”

“Can I hold on to it for another 10 years?” Willow pouted, garnering an eye roll out of the taller girl.

“You can,” Skara sighed, “Or, hear me out, we try our best to put middle and high school behind us, and instead of being angry at the past we save the anger for when you have to knock a girl's teeth onto the ice.”

Willow chuckled, “That sounds hard.”

“It is,” Skara agreed, “But you have to at least try. So next time you get an opportunity like tonight, can you at least take it? Even if it doesn't go well, I promise I'll be the proudest girlfriend ever.”

Willow let out a defeated sigh, “Fine but only because you asked me to.”

“Thank you,” Skara smiled down at her girlfriend, “I know you can do it.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Willow closed her eyes again, “So uh, can we stay like this for a little while.”

“Sure,” Skara smiled, “So long as I pick the movie again.”

“Deal,” Willow smiled fondly at her girlfriend, being reminded just how beautiful she was, “saranghae.”

“I love you too,” Skara replied as she happily continued to run her hands through Willow's hair.

“This way to Burger King, where you can have it your way,” Matt said in the most dejected tone Amity had ever heard from a person. Neither her, Luz, or even Gus could help the laughter that soon enveloped them as they looked at the short man.

Two days had passed since their dinner, and Matt currently stood on the curb just left of the Burger King, dressed up with a fake beard, a dollar store crown, a faded red cape, as he held a shoddy cutout sign in the shape of an arrow with the words “Burger King” written in crayon.

“So, this is what they decided to put you in?” Luz said through laughter.

“I can’t believe they put you in something so cheap,” Amity mused as she attempted to control herself.

“They don’t exactly have the actual costume of The King in the stores so Boscha just made do with what she could find for cheap,” Matt grumbled, red with embarrassment.

“If it helps at all, you’d look ridiculous either way,” Luz said with a smirk.

“It does not,” Matt frowned.

“Well, I think you look rather dashing,” Gus said rather flirtily in an attempt to cheer up his clearly miserable boyfriend before leaning in to give him a kiss on the cheek.

“Of course you’d say that,” Matt said through his redding blush, “I’m irresistible to you.”

“Don’t push your luck,” Gus replied with an eye roll.

“So how much longer do you have out here?” Luz inquired.

“Two more hours,” Matt sighed, “After that I’ll officially be allowed back into Burger King.”

“At least you’re almost done,” Gus pointed out, “And afterwards I’ll take you for some ice cream.”

“Ice cream sounds nice,” Math mused.

“Okay Matt, time for your last break,” The group heard as they all turned their heads to see Boscha currently nose deep in a clip board, “You have 15 minutes, no more-” the pink haired women glanced up from her clipboard and almost immediately locked eyes with Amity, “no less.”

Both women froze like deer caught in headlights as they took in the sight of an old friend. After a few more seconds of uncomfortable silence, Amity decided to break the silence and awkwardly greeted the slightly shorter girl with a, “Hey there, Boscha.”

“Blight,” Boscha replied plainly, a hint of anger in her voice.

“It’s been a while,” Amity said as she grabbed hold of the flannel shirt button up she was wearing, “How have you been?”

 “What are you doing here?” Boscha asked, ignoring Amity’s attempts at a friendly conversation.

“I, uh, came to laugh at Matt,” Amity answered, her grip on her shirt only getting tighter.

“Well, you’ve laughed, now unless you’re going to order some food I suggest you stop loitering,” Boscha spat out.

“I uh-” Amity was at a loss for words.

“Hey!” Luz evidently was not, “There’s no need to be like that. No one was bothering anyone!”

“Don’t talk to my friend like that!” Gus added, “I don’t know what your guys' history is but this isn’t necessary.”

“Whatever,” Boscha said with an eye roll, “Just leave, I don’t have time for this today,” Boscha sharply turned around and headed back to the restaurant.

“Sorry about that, she’s usually much more mature than that,” Gus said apologetically.

“Why don’t we just go home and-” Luz began before a sudden impulse took over the brunette and she ran after her former friend. 

Amity shoved her way around a family as she entered the restaurant, “Boscha, wait!” She shouted to the pink haired girl before she could get back behind the counter, “Please, can we just talk.”

Boscha turned around, a mix of anger and disgust covered her face, “I have nothing to talk about with you.”

“Boscha, please,” Amity began to plead, “I know it's been awhile but-”

“But what?” Boscha's voice somehow got angrier than it had already been. “You're sorry for just abandoning me without a word? You're sorry my whole life fell apart in high school and you weren't there for me? That we should go back to being friends like nothing ever happened,” by now, the entire restaurant was staring at the two, ”Well listen here, Amity Blight: I'm not having any of it. So why don't you do us both a favor and walk out that door and leave me alone.”

“But I-” before Amity could finish her words Boscha had already left for the back of the restaurant. Amity glanced around and saw the many looks from the customers and staff and gave out a week, “Sorry,” before heading out of the Burger King. 

Once out, Amity came face to face with Luz, Gus, and Matt, all appearing rather concerned for their friend.

“You okay, Amity?” Luz asked.

“No, not really.”

The group sat down in the back of Gus’s truck, all attention currently on Amity.

“So I supposed you’re all curious about what happened between me and Boscha,” Amity said to her group of friends.

“You don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to,” Luz reassured as she placed a comforting hand on Amity’s shoulder. Just a few weeks ago Amity would've jumped at the sudden touch but for whatever reason, Luz's touch felt comforted. It was always light and delicate, like she somehow knew the right amount of pressure to keep Amity from being uncomfortable.

“I think I want to,” Amity rubbed her hand up and down her arm to soothe her nerves, “So back in middle school, Boscha and I were friends, in a sense.”

“What do you mean by in a sense?” Gus asked.

“It was never really my choice,” Amity admitted, “My parents kind of made me be friends with her since her parents are, in their words, ‘high class.’ So at a certain point, I had to break up my friendship with another kid, and Boscha and a few other girls became my friends.”

“And then what happened?” Luz asked as she listened intensely.

“Well, I’m not proud of this, we kind of became bullies,” Amity admitted ashamedly, “I’d like to blame Boscha for that, and she was the one who pushed me into it, but it doesn't rest solely on her."

“What do you mean,” Gus asked.

“ I knew it was wrong and I should've pushed back more but I felt like if I did anything to end my friendship with Boscha my mother would just get mad at me. So I let it continue,” Amity explained, “But when my mother pulled me and my siblings out of school to homeschool us, there wasn't exactly have anyone to bully and I was cut off from Boscha and everyone else so I suppose I lost my edge.”

“Wait, not only did she pull you out of school but she kept you from the friends she forced you to make? Why?” Luz was, once again, baffled by Amity's mother's actions.

“I'm not entirely sure,” Amity searched her memories for a reason, “Though I think she mentioned something about ‘homosexual tendencies’ in the group.”

“Of course she would,” Luz let out a frustrated sigh as she leaned her head back.

“Anyway,” Amity continued, “That's why Boscha's mad at me. I guess to her it was like I just disappeared one day and now she’s mad at me. Can’t say I fully blame her.”

“That’s no real excuse for how she treated you,” Luz said firmly, “It’s been years. She should’ve at least been willing to hear what you had to say.”

“I guess,” Amity conceded, “After I saw her last night, I think a part of me kind of hoped we could be friends again. We’re both older now, so perhaps we can have a healthier relationship than what we used to.”

“Well, it seems like she doesn’t share your sentiment,” Gus observed, “It’s probably best to just leave it be, if you ask me.”

“I agree with Gus,” Luz added, “If she wants to continue being mad about the past, then that’s her choice.”

“You’re probably right,” Amity sighed as she leaned her head back. Silence enveloped the group as Amity continued to think back to her days of bullying.

As if she could read her mind, Luz spoke up, “Don’t beat yourself up over the past. You’re a different person than you were in middle school.”

“People change,” Matt, who had been completely silent up to this point, finally spoke, “Look at me. I used to be a douche too until I met Gus.”

“You still are a douche,” Luz shot back at the smaller man.

“Yes but in an endearing way, not in an awful way,” Matt had a weirdly proud smile on his face.

“Is the costume supposed to be endearing?” Amity teased, causing Matt to grumble something under his breath

It was then that an alarm went off on Matt’s phone, “Shoot, I gotta get back to work,” Matt stood up, “I do hope you feel better,” Matt said to Amity before he leaned back down and gave Gus a kiss on the cheek, “And I’ll see you after work.” 

“See you later, honey,” Gus said through a blush as Matt left the group to continue his humiliation ritual, “I should probably get going too, I have to get some groceries today.”

“Yeah, we should probably head home,” Luz said as she and Amity stood up. Amity couldn’t help the slight smile that she got when Luz referred to her apartment as Amity’s home as well, “See ya later Gus.”

“Bye Gus, it’s always good to see you,” Amity said as she and Luz lept from the back of the truck.

“Oh, real quick,” Gus said, stopping the two, “Was one of the people your parents made you be friends with named Skara?”

“Yeah,” Amity said a bit surprised, “How’d you know?”

“Willow’s dating her,” Gus answered.

“Huh, small world I guess,” Amity replied, still a bit shocked

“If you want to reconnect with an old friend from middle school I think Skara would be more willing to,” Luz added, “She’s changed a lot as well.”

“I’ll think about it,” Amity said with a smile, “Skara was always nicer than Boscha to begin with.”

“I’m sure Willow would be happy to get you two in contact,” Luz couldn’t help but smile at the thought of two friends reconnecting. With that, the pair left to go back to Luz’s car, Amity took a quick look inside the Burger King, but there was still no sign of Boscha. Amity just let out a depressed sigh.

Chapter Text

Amity stared into the mirror, hyper analyzing every detail about herself. Her hair was tied up like always and her makeup was applied with enough precision to make any seasoned cosmetician jealous. 

Everything had to be perfect for today, she wasn’t about to have her first day at her job be a disaster.

“You can do this, Amity,” the girl spoke to herself, “You go in there and be the best librarian ever! Wait, am I a librarian? What would I even call my job?”

Amity’s pep talk suddenly got interrupted by a knock on the door, “Amity? Are you almost done in there? I gotta shower.”

“Yeah,” Amity sighed as she forced her gaze from the bathroom mirror and opened the door. On the other side of the door stood Luz. She still had her hair bonnet on and was dressed in a stained black t-shirt and some sweatpants. She was obviously far from how she usually looked, but Amity couldn't help but find she looked rather cute.

“Everything okay there, roomie?” Luz asked as she looked over at Amity, clearly seeing the nervousness in her body language.

“Oh y'know, nervous,” Amity admitted. “Just scared I'll mess up.”

“I know that feeling,” Luz said in an understanding tone as she walked over to the shower, “I remember when I got my first job working part time as a pizza delivery driver, I was worried I'd end up crashing on my first delivery.” Luz turned the handle to start producing hot water from the faucet.

“Yeah, I feel kind of like that,” Amity replied as the noise from the shower provided a pleasant backing sound to the conversation as Luz walked towards the sink, “Not scared of crashing or anything, but what if I knock over a whole section of books or organize everything wrong?”

Luz looked up for a moment as she appeared to reminisce over something before speaking again, “On my first day as a driver, I ended up getting the addresses for two orders mixed up. It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life,” Luz grabbed her toothbrush and squirted cinnamon flavored toothpaste on the brush.

“What happened after that? Did you get fired?” Amity watched as Luz began to quickly brush her teeth.

“No,” Luz chuckled, the brush still in her mouth. She took a few moments to finish her brushing before spitting out the paste and continuing, “I was just sent back out and delivered the right orders to the customers. They and my boss were pretty understanding of the whole thing.”

“What does this have to do with my first day?” Amity asked.

“The point is, it's okay to make mistakes. No one's expecting you to be perfect ,” Luz explained as she rinsed off her toothbrush.

“But they are!” Amity blurted out as if it was an instinctive reaction to Luz's statement.

“Who's ‘they?’” Luz turned the sink off suddenly as she turned her full focus to Amity.

“My, uh,” Amity was almost mumbling, “My parents.”

Luz just let out a sigh. “So you're worried about being perfect for the mother that kicked you out and the father that's in jail?”

“When you phrase it like that it sounds silly,” Amity couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

“It does, but I understand,” Luz chuckled, “I guess they ran a tight ship?”

“My dad didn't own a boat until after the divorce,” Amity corrected.

“No, I meant more like they were hard on you about this stuff.”

“Oooooh,” Amity replied, “Yeah. More so my mother, and father just went with it. But yeah it was always ‘A Blight doesn't make mistakes’ in our house, and that's been playing in my head all morning.” 

 “Mentalities like this are hard to break, so just take it a day at a time. If you mess up today, just take a deep breath and remind yourself that your parents aren't watching you and it's okay.”

“I'll try,” Amity said as she glanced back over to the mirror, her reflection now obscured by the fog produced by the shower. She noticed how the sharp edge of her make-up had softened and the lines of her features were smoothed out. She liked what she saw.

“You'll do great, I know you will,” Luz said with a warm smile, “Now if you'll excuse me I do have to shower now.”

“Of course,” Amity smiled back. “But, uh, should you be wearing the cap in the shower?”

“Shoot!” Luz exclaimed as she ran out of the bathroom.

Amity took a long look at the Gravesfield library. It was by no means a large building, but right now it seemed massive to the brunette. With a deep breath she walked through the doors of the old building and was greeted by Jerbo with a smile and wave. “Hello, Amity was it?”

“Yes,” Amity smiled back, “I'm here for my first day!”

“Alright,” Jerbo picked up the phone off the dock before pressing a few buttons. The phone rang for a few seconds before Amity vaguely heard a voice on the other line, “Amity is here, uh huh, I'll tell her,” Jerbo placed the phone down, “Take a seat, Malphas will be out in a moment.”

Amity took a seat at one of the desks in the room while she waited. Before long, Malphas had emerged from his office with a neutral look on his face, “So like, welcome to your first day of work at the Gravesfield library, we are, like, so totally stoked to have you.”

“I'm happy to be here,” Amity stood as straight as she possibly could in front of her boss.

“Like, can you relax a little? You're, like, kind of ruining my vibe,” Malphas said as he seemed to step back a little.

“Sorry,” Amity released the tension in her shoulder, “I'm just nervous.”

“Don't be,” Malphas reassured, “This is, like, so totally not supposed to be a super stressful job and I'm sure you're so totally going to do great.”

“My roommate said something similar,” a smile crept onto Amity's face as she thought of Luz, “In any case, to quote Spongebob: I'm ready!”

“Then let’s go over your responsibilities,” Malphas began. Before long, Amity was being shown how to work their printers, where to find returned books, and given a thorough overview of the Dewey Decimal System (Amity caught on fast, she loved how organized it made everything). Amity’s job was pretty simple: She would simply be helping around the library. She would put back books when needed, print out forms when required, and assist guests when they needed help. A simple job, and one Amity could more than handle.

“So like, do you have any questions before I give you your first task?” Malphas asked as he led Amity through the library.

“I don’t think so,” Amity answered with a smile.

“Radical, so like, what I need you to do is, like, organize these books,” Malphas pointed towards a lone cart with numerous books just waiting to be placed back in their proper homes.

“I’ll get right on it,” Amity said with a confident smile as she walked over to the cart to get started. As Amity walked towards the cart, she failed to notice a bump in the library’s carpet, that is until her foot hit it, and by then it was too late. By then, Amity found herself falling forward. She stretched her arms out in hopes of catching herself on….something. That something ended up being the very cart she was about to put away. As she caught herself on the end of it, books came falling out in front of her, scattering along the floor of the horror section.

“Amity, are you, like, okay?” Malphas said as he dashed over to his employee and gave her his hands to help Amity get her balance.

Amity did her best to quickly get steady on her feet and immediately turned towards Malphas when she realized what she had done, trying her best to avoid direct eye contact, which was proving difficult with how close they were to each other. Panic covered her face as she realized one of her fears had come to fruition, “I’m so so sorry about that. Please don’t fire me. I promise it won’t happen again,” Amity closed her eyes as she braced for Malphas to finally snap at her and yell at her about how bad of a job she’s already doing and how-

“Yo, like, take a chill pill,” Malphas said as he gave the young girl a comforting pat on her shoulder. “You just, like, tripped. Nothing is, like, broken or anything, like, just pick the books up and put them back and it’ll all be good.”

“Yes, sir,” Amity replied as she turned away and began to clean up the mess she had made. Her panic was now replaced with embarrassment.

“I’ll, like, leave you to it, totally ask Jerbo if you need help with anything.”

She was, however, getting a sense of deja vu. Just like back at The Owl House, Amity had made a mess of things and once again she was simply met with concern. No yelling. No words about how she was a disappointment. Once again, the authority figure in the room hadn’t made her feel like a failure for messing up.

It was nice. Really nice.

It also was another instance of Luz being right. 

Amity would definitely have to tell her about this when she got back. 

Until then, Amity continued to clean up the scattered books until they were all back on the cart. Once that was done, Amity began her task of putting the books back on the shelves. She started off pretty slow, as it was her first time doing this. But as she went on she got better, fast. Malphas was surprised with how fast she got the cart done, and the next three she was given were even faster! Amity was also enjoying herself. She always organized everything in her own particular way and sorting the returned books tickled that same section of her neurodivergent brain. The library itself was also a great place for her. It was naturally quiet and the workload wasn’t overwhelming. It was honestly very relaxing to the brunette.

The day seemed to go fast. One break and her lunch came and went in what felt like an instant. She only had about two hours left when Malphas came up to her, looking unusually panicked.

“Amity, we, like, totally need your help with something,” Malphas said.

“What’s wrong?” Amity asked, not sure what to make of her boss, who always seemed laid back. Right now he looked like he was the bank teller during a robbery.

“Okay so, like, we had totally hired a dude to read to children today,” Malphas began to explain, “But, like, his wife is in labor and she apparently can’t hold it so we’re so totally without anyone to read to the kids.”

“Where do I fit in?” Amity asked, confused. “I can’t exactly make his wife give birth faster.”

“No, nothing like that,” Malphas clarified, looking unamused, “So like, you put on your resume that you have, like, experience in giving presentations, and I was hoping you could read to the kids.”

“W-what?” Amity’s hand quickly went to grip the fabric of her shirt.

“Listen, I know this is, like, a lot to ask,” Malphas continued, “But reporters for the local paper are going to be here and, like, the library could totally use the exposure and I don’t, like, want to cancel it.”

“I don’t know,” Amity said, “I’ve never done anything like this before.”

“I’ll like, so totally give you a bonus if you do it,” Malphas said in an attempt to get Amity to agree, “Please, you’d be the library’s hero.”

“Listen,” Amity began. Every part of her brain was telling her to say ‘no.’ This was her first day and she did not sign up to read to anyone, let alone kids. Sure she had done presentations before but it was always her mother’s idea. Yet, there was a little voice in the back of her head telling her ‘You should say yes. The library needs your help, so go do it!’

The voice sounded a lot like Luz if Amity listened hard enough.

“I’ll do it.”

Malphas’ eyes lit up, “Thank you, follow me to the kids section and I can get you ready for it.”

“Actually, can I go use the restroom real quick,” Amity asked, desperate for a moment to herself. There was something she needed to do and it needed to be private.

“Of course,” Malphas answered and in a second Amity was dashing towards the bathroom. Once inside, Amity confirmed she was alone and quickly brought her hands close to her chest and began to flap them rapidly. 

It was her go-to stim when she was stressed out, happy, or just a bit bored. It always made her feel better. Of course, she’d never be caught dead doing it in front of others, she was more dignified with that.

After a few moments, Amity stopped herself. She felt better but she was still freaking out internally. She wasn’t sure what to do, she was nowhere near ready for this and-

She got an idea.

“Luz will know what to do,” Amity thought to herself. Quickly she pulled out her phone and navigated to her contacts to call her roommate. She pressed call and let the ringing of her phone break the silence of the bathroom.

Luz stared back at the blank white page in front of her. Hours had passed since she started writing for the day and not a single word had found itself on the page. Piniet's words had sucked all the motivation out of her. She was attempting to just power through it all but that was proving futile. Whenever she tried to write she'd always get distracted. Wheather it was scrolling through social media, getting up to have a snack, or a message from Willow or Gus, she couldn't stay focused.

Luz let out a loud groan as she lightly slammed her head on the table, the lack of progress officially getting to her. As she kept her head down she felt Ghost jump up on her desk. Ghost then decided it was a good idea to start pawing at the top of Luz's head.

Luz took this as a queue to tilt her head up to look at the cat, “Did you need something kitty?”

Ghost replied with a simple meow before licking Luz's forehead and jumping off her desk.

Luz just let out a big sigh in response, ready to just give up for the day. Before she could close her laptop, her phone began to ring. Luz took it out and found that Amity was calling her.

Luz immediately answered, her mood shifting to cheerful, “Hey Amity! How's work?”

“Bad! I'm freaking out!” came Amity's panicked voice from the phone.

“Why? What's going on?” Luz asked, concerned about growing for her roommate.

“I kind of agreed to read to some kids because the person they hired couldn't make it and I'm freaking out!” Amity explained.

“Okay,” Luz said in a calming tone, “Take a deep breath for me.” Luz heard Amity follow her command over the phone, “Feeling better?”

“A little,” Amity admitted.

“Good,” Luz smiled, “Now, let me tell you something: I have a little brother, so believe me when I say little kids are pretty easy to please. Just don’t do anything to scar them for life and you’ll do fine.”

“What if they all hate me?” 

“Why would they hate you?” Luz asked rhetorically, “You’re smart, really nice, hard working, and very pr-uh.”

“What was that last one?”

“Very proper! Yes that’s it,” Luz said awkwardly, “But in any case, I know you can nail this!”

“You really think so?”

“I know so!” Luz confirmed, “You’re awesome and are totally going to nail this!”

“Okay!” Amity’s voice sounded much more confident, “I’m going to be the best reader this library has seen! Thank you, Luz!”

“You’re welcome!” Luz replied, “I can’t wait to hear about how awesome you did when you get home.”

“I can’t wait to tell you!” Amity hung up her phone and Luz was once again left with only a blank document in front of her.

 “Okay Luz, now it’s your turn to nail your job!” Luz said to herself before Ghost once again lept onto Luz’s keyboard and managed to close everything again. Luz just sighed. She’d be mad if Ghost wasn’t super adorable.

Amity made her way from the bathroom of the library to the children section to find that kids were already beginning to arrive, and some were even playing with some blocks. Amity also found Malphas and Jerbo both looking rather nervous.

“I’m back, sorry about that,” Amity said as she approached the two, “I think I’m ready.”

“Radical,” Malphas replied, “So like, here’s the deal. You are going to sit in the chair here and, like, read a short story. It's very simple, just read what’s on the page and make sure to, like, show the pictures to the kids.”

“I think I can do that,” Amity replied. She was still nervous, but the pep talk from Luz had helped calm her down. 

“Good, because you start in 2 minutes,” Jerbo said before practically shoving a small book into her hands.

“Wha-” Amity didn’t have time to process much as she was rudely pushed towards the chair and forced to sit down. Once she was sat down, Amity took a quick scan of the area. More and more children and their families continued to arrive. In the back, Amity noticed a dark-skinned man with a camera mounted beside him, most likely a reporter for the newspaper. He almost looked a bit like Gus if she was being honest.

Once families stopped arriving, her boss walked up in front of the crowd and began to speak to them, “So like, hello everyone! I’m Malphas, the director of this library, and, like, I’m so glad to welcome you here for this. I would first like to apologize as Mr. Smith totally couldn’t make it due to personal reasons,” there was some disappointed sighs from the crowd, “However, I would like you all to give a, like, super awesome welcome to one of our friends of the library who has agreed to totally read for you, say hello to Miss Amity Blight!”

Light claps erupted from the children at Malphas' signal as he walked to the back to stand by the reporter with Jerbo, leaving Amity alone in front of the group of kids. Amity took a deep breath before starting to speak in a bright tone that masked her anxiety, “Hello everyone! As you were just told, I am Amity Blight, and I’ll be reading to you all today!”

“Hi Miss Blight,” the crowd called back. Amity cringed slightly at the use of her last name to refer to herself, it felt wrong.

“Please, feel free to call me Amity, we’re all friends here, and I want everyone to treat each other like a friend,” Amity smiled warmly at the kids.

“Yes Miss Amity,” the kids spoke back, and Amity couldn’t help but chuckle a little. The nervousness began to leave her body.

“Okay, now that that’s settled, today we will be reading,” Amity glanced at the book that was forced on her and saw a big pink anthropomorphic pink bunny holding a sewing needle on the cover, “Otabin!”

“Ooooh,” the kids called back, Amity couldn’t help but find them cute.

“Now, let’s begin,” Amity opened up the first page and began reading, facing the pages towards the kids so they could get a good luck at the illustrations, “Otabin spent his days alone amongst the many books he’d sewn. With needles and thread, the pages he’d mend. But all the while he longed for a friend.”

As Amity read along to the sweet story of Otabin befriending a tin man and a chicken witch, the crowd of children got more and more invested in the story. Amity’s fears slowly began to dwindle as she went on.  At one point she even looked up to Malphas, who gave her a big thumbs up and a smile. Amity answered with a head nod and continued reading, enthusiastically. She even made sure to give each character its own voice. And despite all her nervousness from before, she was really enjoying herself. It was fun seeing all the faces of the children in front of her light up as she read.

“Otabin couldn’t believe his luck! So bookmaker Otabin, surrounded by friends, bound a book of friendship… and that’s the end,” Amity read off before closing the book. As she did so, she got another round of applause from her audience that caused the girl to blush, she even had to fight back the urge to happily flap her hands, “I hope you all enjoyed the story!”

Malphas made his way in front of Amity once again before speaking up, “So we’re, like, done for the day.”

The crowd gave out a sad, “awwwwwww,” in response.

“Everyone give, like, a huge thanks to Amity,” Malphas said to the children.

“Thank you Miss Amity,” the crowd echoed back to Amity.

“You’re welcome,” Amity gave a warm smile to the children, “Have a good rest of your day.” Amity stood up from her chair as the kids began to disperse.

Malphas turned to face Amity, “You were, like, absolutely fantastic.”

“Thank you,” Amity ran a hand through her hair, “But I doubt I was anything special.”

“Miss Amity,” A deep voice said. Amity turned to see one of the kids who was near the front row was responsible for the surprisingly deep voice, “Thank you so much,” he said as he soon ran up to Amity and wrapped his little arms around her in a hug. Amity stood there awkwardly, unsure how to handle this situation before the kid let go of her and asked, “Will you be back next week, Miss Amity?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Amity replied, “I was just filling in.”

“Actually,” Malphas interrupted, “I wanted to, like, talk with you about that. You did, like, such a great job and, like, if you want, you can totally keep doing this. I’ll even give you a raise.”

“Well I-” Amity said dumbfounded that she managed to do well enough on her first day to have a raise ready for her.

“Please, Miss Amity,” the kid pleaded, “You’re the best reader ever.”

Amity looked at the kid, smiled, and turned back to her boss, “You have yourself a deal!”

“Hecate, I refuse to leave you here,” came the sound from Luz’s phone. Somewhere along the way, instead of writing, Luz had found herself binging clips from the Azura movies. Luz was completely engrossed in the clip when the door to her apartment opened, snapping her out of her trance. Luz quickly got up from her desk and found Amity by the door petting Ghost. Luz’s heart fluttered at the sight.

“Welcome home, Amity,” Luz said cheerily with a big smile, “How was reading to the kids?”

Amity gave a big smile back, “It went great! I apparently did well enough that Malphas wants me to continue doing it. I even got a raise out of it!”

“A raise on your first day?” Luz asked in disbelief, “That’s incredible!”

“I know,” Amity leaned forward in excitement which Luz matched, “One of the kids even said I was the best reader ever!”

“See! I told you you’d do great,” Luz said.

“You did,” Amity smiled over to the shorter girl, “Thank you so much for that talk on the phone. You really helped me be confident enough to go through with it.”

“Don’t mention it,” a blush formed on Luz’s face, “What are friends for, if not calming you down when you’re freaking out?”

“I don’t know,” Amity chuckled, “Anyway, how was your day.”

“Oh, uh,” Luz glanced back at her office which currently held her laptop still open on the blank page. “It went well, got some good words in,” Luz lied, not wanting to spoil Amity’s moment.

“That’s great to hear,” Amity removed her shoes as she walked over to the couch to sit down, “I can’t wait to read it when it’s done.”

“Yeah, same,” Luz replied awkwardly, “Anyway, I’m going to go get dinner started, how does spaghetti sound?”

“Sounds good to me,” Amity answered as she turned the TV on and navigated her way to more episodes of Spongebob, “While we eat I can tell you about how I knocked over a bunch of books!”

“I'll look forward to that,” Luz chuckled as she walked to the kitchen to get ready only to be stopped when she got a notification on her phone. She pulled it up to find a message from Gus.

THEGREATAUGUSTUS_OFFICAL: I’m doing a show at the mall Wednesday, do you and Amity want free tickets?

Luz smiled and turned back to her roommate, “Hey Amity,” Amity turned her head to look towards Luz, “You wanna see a magic show?”

Chapter Text

“Why don't you want to be friends with me anymore?”

“Because…Because you're stupid.”

Willow couldn't stop thinking about that day as she sat in the mall parking lot, mentally preparing herself to see Amity again.

The same Amity that broke up their friendship.

The same Amity that bullied her for years.

And the same Amity that disappeared before she came out.

Willow had a gigantic pit in her stomach as she finally exited the vehicle. She wished she could just text Gus she's sick and go home, but she promised Skara she'd try to give Amity a chance. And she was probably right that Amity had changed and it was worth it.

Willow hated when Skara was right.

Willow proceeded to make her way through Gravesfield Mall, slowly though she wasn't about to force herself to spend more time by Amity than she had to.

Eventually, however, Willow couldn't delay any longer and found herself in front of the security guard in the backstage area of the mall's stage.

“Yo what's up Willow,” The guard said. He had long hair, tan skin, and a birthmark on the right side of his forehead that looked like a horn.

“Not much, Steve, just here to see Gus,” Willow replied with a forced smile, “How have you been?”

“Steve's been great,” the guard said as he pointed at himself, “Just making sure no one hurts my little bro.”

“Well, I think Steve is doing a great job,” Willow jokingly replied, “Now am I free to go backstage?”

“Steve says, yes, you are!” the guard said as he moved to let Willow pass, “Luz and her roommate are already in there with Gus and bro.”

“Good to know,” Willow sighed as she walked past. She was hoping Luz and Amity would be late and she wouldn't have to talk with Amity until after Gus's show, but of course she wasn’t that lucky. 

Willow made her way backstage to see Amity and Gus in a deep conversation about magic.

“So you don't actually cut someone in half, right?” Amity asked.

“No,” Gus innocently chuckled, “I'll tell you that much.”

“But then how do you do it?” Amity looked utterly confused at the concept of the trick.

“Once again, a magician never reveals his secrets,” Gus replied before adding, “Even to a friend.”

Willow wanted to yell, to warn Gus that he did not want to make friends with this girl, that she'd only cast him aside in time.

But she didn’t. It'd just make things worse.

Regardless, she could do this. She could make it through this night.

Amity suddenly turned her head and noticed that Willow had arrived, “Oh, hi Willow!”

She couldn't do this.

Almost instantly the anger she felt when she met with Amity at lunch began to bubble up inside her.

“Fashionably late, I see,” Luz joked, who was currently helping set something up with Matt.

“Gus, could you help us out with this table?” Matt asked his boyfriend.

“Sure thing,” Gus replied as he got up and walked over to Matt, leaving an awkward silence between Willow and Amity.

“So, uh, how have you been?” Amity asked, breaking the silence between the two. Amity seemed a bit jittery and Willow didn't know if the girl was nervous or just stimming. Maybe both.

“Fine,” Willow answered quickly, hoping Amity got the message to leave her alone.

“That's, uh, good to hear,” Amity replied, “I missed you at lunch the other day, I'd like to get to know you a bit better if I can be honest.’

“That's cool,” Willow quickly replied, not sharing Amity's sentiment. 

“So, uh,” Amity continued, either not picking up on Willow’s unwillingness to talk or choosing to ignore it, “So, Gus told me that you're dating Skara Sandoval, is that right?”

Willow began to panic. The absolute last thing she wanted was Amity to meet Skara and revert her to her old ways. While the rational part of her brain knew that Skara had moved past that part of her life and they had happily been together for years now, Willow didn't want to risk anything. They had come too far together for Amity to ruin what they had.

“Stay away from my Fiancé!” Willow shouted without thinking.

“Wha-” Amity tried to get out.

“FIANCÉ!?” Luz, Gus, and Matt all shouted in confusion at the same time.

Willow froze as an awkward silence consumed the tiny room that seemed to be getting smaller by the second. Not only had she yelled at Amity, something she definitely wasn't going to get an earful from Skara from when she gets home, but she also revealed the engagement that was supposed to be kept secret for a little while longer.

“Why don't you want me to talk to Skara?” Amity asked, sounding hurt, “She's just an old friend I want to catch up with.”

“Because I don't like you,” Willow replied as her anger came back, “I don't want you in my life!”

“Willow!” Luz yelled as she made her way to Amity's side, “You're way out of line here!” 

“I'm out of line?” Willow asked rhetorically, “I'm not the one who decided to invite A random girl to live with me after she showed up at my doorstep peddling a scam.”

“That's not your decision to make, and for your information she's been an excellent roommate so far,” Luz snapped back.

“Hey, maybe we should all calm down a little bit-” Gus said in an attempt to de-escalate the situation, unfortunately for him, Willow wasn’t in the mood to.

“Yeah, she's a good roommate for now, but don't expect that to last,” Willow angrily replied, “One moment you're her friend the next moment she's cast you aside.”

“What's your problem with me?” Amity spoke up in the sassy tone Willow hated, “As far as I can tell I've been trying to be nothing but nice to you yet here you are acting like I've ruined your life, what gives?”

“You did ruin my life!” Willow shouted, at her limit with her former bully, “You pushed me aside for being stupid and then bullied me for years, of course I can't stand you.”

“What do you mean, I've never-” Amity suddenly stopped as her memories came rushing back to her, “Hey, uh, Willow, please don't mind me asking but uh…are you trans?”

“Yes, I am,” Willow answered coldly.

“Oh no,” Amity said in a panicked voice, “Listen Willow, I'm-”

“Save it,” Willow sighed, her anger at its limit, “Just get out of my life!” Willow proceeded to run out of the room, tears in her eyes.

The room went quiet as Amity felt every eye turn to her now.

“What just happened?” Luz asked, confused herself.

“It- It's- ,” Amity stammered as she began to rub her head in frustration, suppressing the urge to hit herself, “It involves me being a stupid awful person.”

“Don't say that,” Gus said in an attempt to comfort his friend, “We've already been over this, you're a changed person.”

“Please Amity, you don't need to be so hard on yourself,” Luz pleaded, “I'm sure we can work this out.”

“I just,” Amity could feel her emotions getting the better of her. She needed to go before everyone saw her blow up, “I need to go for a walk.” Amity then began to run out of the backstage room and past Steve. 

“Amity, wait!” The brunette heard Luz yell as she was running away, but Luz's voice was left behind. Amity knew Luz well enough to know that she would probably follow her, but Amity just couldn't be in front of Gus and Matt right now. She wasn't about to embarrass herself in front of them.

For the next few minutes, Amity mindlessly made her way through the mall until she eventually found the exit. It wasn't exactly private but it would have to do. Amity then began to do the one thing that would make her feel a bit better: she flapped her hands. She knew she should be better than this, but she had to flap, or things would get worse. 

Stop doing that, you’re being an embarrassment to the Blight name right now.

Amity heard her mother's voice echo through her skull as she continued to flap her hands.

It took her a few minutes, but soon Amity's head began to feel clear enough that she was able to stop. 

“Now what do I do?” Amity thought to herself, “Maybe I should just run away again before I ruin more of Luz's relationships?”

“No, don't run away!” The rational part of Amity's brain yelled at her, “You can fix this! You're a different person now, and you have to find some way to get Willow to believe you.”

Amity knew that was the correct thing to do, and she committed herself to doing just that. But first, she was going to have to find Willow and then give her the full picture about what happened that night years ago.

….Of course Amity had no idea how to find Willow. She didn't even know if she was still at the mall. For all she knew her old friend was already back at her place with Skara at this point.

“Willow! Are you out here!” Amity yelled to the parking lot in a desperate attempt to find her.

“You're not going to find her shouting like that.” Came Luz's voice from behind Amity, causing the taller girl to turn around startled.

“Luz, uh, how much did you see?” Amity asked, irrationally nervous that Luz would find her weird.

“Not a lot, I just found you,” Luz replied. Amity was unsure if she was lying or not but decided not to push it.

“Okay, good,” Amity replied awkwardly, “You know, I somehow knew you'd follow me,” Amity proceeded to chuckle.

“Am I that predictable?” Luz said as she rubbed the back of her neck, “Anyway, I think I may have an idea on where to find Willow for you.”

“Really? Where!?” Amity replied, “I really want to patch things up if at all possible.”

“I want that for you two as well,” Luz said, “I don't like my friends fighting with each other. Plus, I need to know what she ment by fiancé.”

“It means they're engaged but not married yet,” Amity answered, “Did you not know?”

“No, I know what Fiancé means,” Luz couldn't help but laugh a little, “This is just the first I've heard that Willow and Skara are engaged so I feel like they're hiding it for some reason and I want to know why.”

“Oh, I get it now,” Amity replied with an embarrassed blush, “But, uh, where do you think Willow may be?”

“There's a gym next to the mall she likes to workout at,” Luz answered, “Something tells me she may have gone there to blow off steam.”

“Blowing steam is an exercise?” Amity asked, puzzled.

“I'll explain it as we walk there,” Luz once again chuckled, "let me just message Gus and tell him we'll be late for his show.”

“Oh, right,” Amity cringed at herself, “I feel awful about doing this to Gus and Matt, this was supposed to be their day and I ruined it.”

“Don't worry too much about it,” Luz began to reassure her, “I'm sure you'll find some way to make it up to them in the future. Willow too, of course.”

“I know,” The golden eyed girl sighed, “But one apology at a time, let's go find Willow!”

It didn’t take them long to track Willow; she was indeed at the gym Luz thought she'd be at, currently punching away at a punching bag, her knuckles bleeding a little from her exercise.

Luz and Amity stood back a safe distance as they observed the girl's unrelenting assault on the poor defenseless bag.

“Now I'm kind of scared,” Amity said as she watched in horror.

“Don't be,” Luz replied, “Willow can get scary but she wouldn't hurt anyone unless she's on the ice.

“Ice?” Amity questioned as she continued to watch the navy haired girl.

“Her and Skara are on a local hockey team,” Luz answered.

“Huh,” Amity nodded her head, “My brother used to like watching hockey, but only in secret or out with our dads. Our mother found it undignified and forbade us from watching it.”

“Does your mother like anything?” Luz asked bewildered.

“She liked lacrosse,” Amity answered.

Luz sighed, “Yeah of course she did, anyway, let's go talk to Willow.”

“Alright,” Amity said nervously as the two approached Willow as she seemed to lighten up on her punches to the bag.

“You know Skara doesn't like when you make yourself bleed,” Luz remarked to get Willow's attention, which caused the short girl to stop and turn around panting. She looked over the girls who would dare interrupt her and her face immediately dropped when she saw Amity.

“I told you I didn't want to see you anymore,” Willow sighed frustratedly, “Go away. You've ruined enough of my life.”

“Willow please I just want to explain what happened-” Amity tried to get out before being stopped.

“There's nothing to explain,” Willow said as she turned around and began to punch the bag once again, “Please leave.”

“Willow, I really think you should hear her out,” Luz pleaded.

“Luz, please stay out of this,” Willow said as she delivered a hook to the bag, “This doesn't involve you.”

“Don't get mad at her, she's just trying to help,” Amity said defensively.

“You both can help by leaving,” a loud uppercut had been delivered to the bag before quickly adding, “Should be easy for you Amity, you've abandoned me once already.”

“It wasn't my choice!” Amity shouted in frustration, “I never wanted to break up our friendship!”

Willow suddenly stopped her assault on the bag as she took a deep breath as she digested Amity's words, “What do you mean by that?”

“I'd be happy to let you know if we could just talk about this like adults,” Amity sighed, thankful Willow seemed to be open to listening finally.

Willow took another deep breath, “Fine, let me dry off and I'll meet you two at the food court, I guess I owe you that much if you've really changed.”

“Thank you,” Amity said as Luz happily clapped next to her roommate.

“We'll be waiting for you,” Luz replied once she was done clapping, “Thank you Willow.”

“Thank Skara,” Willow replied as she made her way to the locker room of the gym.

Amity waited anxiously at a table at the food court, bouncing her leg up and down instinctively. Luz, for herself part, seemed a lot less nervous than Amity, at least on the outside, which was keeping Amity from going completely crazy at the moment. In the distance, Luz and Amity could faintly hear the sound of Gus and Matt's magic show as well as the wonder of the various kids that had come to see the show. Amity couldn't help but be sad she was missing it, but this couldn't wait.

“Okay, let's get this over with,” suddenly came Willow's voice as she took a seat on the other side of Amity, expressionless, “What do you mean it wasn't your choice to stop being friends with me?”

Amity took a quick glance at Luz who gave the taller girl a reassuring nod. Amity took a deep breath and grabbed ahold of her shirt before she began to recount her side of the story.

“Okay,” Amity began, “So first I need to say that my parents never liked you. They always thought you were beneath us as a family and I'm pretty sure my mom always hated that you had two dads.”

“I guess that explains why my dad's were reluctant to let me hang out with you at times,” Willow replied, “But they never told me your mom was a bigot.”

“Well I've come to accept that she is,” Amity reiterated, “She and my dad tolerated it for a bit but on that birthday I guess they finally got sick of it. If I remembered correctly after they found us playing dress-up with my sisters clothes they pulled me aside and gave me a choice. I could either have cut you off as a friend and become friends with Skara and Boscha or else they would use their connections to get you kicked out of school. My mom told me you were a bad influence on me and my dad said ‘A Blight only keeps the best of company and you are not it.’”

“Wait, could they have actually gotten me kicked out of school?” Willow asked as the anger in her eyes seemed to disappear and make way for concern.

“I don't know,” Amity admitted, “‘But it sounded real enough to me and I was 7, so I was just scared. Scared of what they would do to you. And what they may do to me.”

“So what did you do?” Luz asked, and tears trailing down her face.

“I told Willow I didn't want to be friends with her anymore,” Amity answered, “It was an awful decision I made out of fear but I didn't know what else to do,” Amity now was beginning to cry as she remembered that night? Her mother's wicked smile and her father's look of pure indifference when she agreed to cut things off with Willow were still burned into her memory, “If I could go back in time and yell at myself to call my parents bluff or to even yell at myself to just tell you the truth, I would.”

“Amity, wow, I,” Willow now looked a bit ashamed of herself, “I didn't know about all that. But that doesn't explain why you had to bully me.”

“It doesn't, I know,” Amity said as she hung her head in shame, “But I was young and stupid, and you kept trying to patch things up at the time and I needed a way to get you to stop. So I guess I resorted to bullying you along with Boscha and Skara.”

“That's a lame excuse, Blight,” Willow said through the tears on her face now, “You know that doesn't justify what you put me through before you left.”

“I know,” Amity said as she tightly closed her eyes, too ashamed of herself to even attempt to look at Willow currently, “But I’m sorry, I really am. I can apologize every day for the rest of my life over what happened if you want me to, but please believe me when I say I’ve changed a lot since those days. My mother has completely cut me off, Boscha won’t speak to me anymore, and my dad is in prison, so there’s nothing pushing me to be that person anymore.”

“Plus she’s friends with me,” Luz added with a smile, “And I wouldn’t be worthy of the name Luz Noceda if I were to let my friend become a bully once again.”

Willow went quiet for a moment as she seemed to digest what Amity had just said to her before she wiped off a few tears and began speaking again, “I just don’t know if I’m capable of trusting you after everything.”

“Oh,” Amity said as she once again hung her head low, “I understand, I don’t know if I could trust myself either.”

“If I may say something,” Luz butted in, “Willow, you were able to give Skara a second chance and look where that has led.”

“I know,” Willow sighed, “But that was different, we both ended up getting burned by Boscha. Plus she never broke up our friendship at her own birthday party.”

“I get it, really I do,” Luz said sympathetically, “But I really think you need to show a bit of grace towards Amity. I meant it when I said she’s been an excellent roommate and a great friend these past few weeks.”

Amity couldn't help but blush at Luz’s praise as her hand taped up and down on the table, “Thanks, I’ve been trying.”

Willow sat back for a moment as she looked at the two other girls sitting with her, contemplating what to do next. “You do have a point, Luz,” Willow eventually said, “And Skara did tell me it was a good idea to give you a chance.”

“Does this mean we can be friends again?” Amity asked hopefully.

“I don’t know yet,” Willow replied, “While I do believe you are sorry, I’m not sure if I can fully forgive you yet, but it’s a start. So maybe it’s best we just start over and see where this goes.”

“I’m more than okay with that,” Amity said with a smile as she outstretched her hand, “I’m the new Amity Blight, I work at the local library while I try to get back on my feet after my mother kicked me out.”

“And I’m Willow Park,” Willow outstretched her own hand and began to shake Amity’s hand, “I play in a local women's hockey league with my partner. You should come watch us when the season starts back up again.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Amity and Willow both had goofy smiles on, “And I’d love to come watch you play hockey at some point. Sounds like a fun time.”

“Yippee!” Luz exclaimed as she clapped her hands, “So glad you two can get along again!”

“I’m glad too,” Willow replied, “Believe me I don’t enjoy being angry.”

“Same here,” Amity agreed, “And thank you Luz for your help, this wouldn’t have happened without you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Luz said as she rubbed the back of her neck and blushed.

“Now let’s go try and catch what’s left of Gus’s performance,” Willow said as she stood up from the table.

“Wait a minute now,” Luz said as she motioned for Willow to sit back down, “You still have to explain what you meant by fiancé back there.”

“Oh that,” Willow let out a nervous laugh, “I just misspoke. Don’t worry about it.”

“You didn't react like you misspoke,” Luz said, obviously unimpressed by Willow's attempt to lie.

“Fine I'll tell you the truth,” Willow sighed frustratedly as she sat down, “Skara and I got engaged, kind of.”

“Oh Willow, that's wonderful!” Luz exclaimed gleefully, “Who proposed to who? I bet she proposed to you. Did she write a song for you? Was it over a romantic dinner? When's the wedding? Wait, why did you hide it from everyone? And what do you mean by "kind of"? "

“If you'll take a moment to breathe and I can explain,” Willow looked at Luz a bit concerned, “No one got on one knee and proposed and we're not holding a wedding anytime soon. Neither of us have the savings to do that and we aren't taking out a loan to do that either.”

“Then what's the deal?” Luz asked, confused.

“The deal is that we were talking a few nights ago,” Willow explained, “and we both came to the adult decision that we had been dating long enough that we both did want to get married but we didn't have the money for any big festivities. So we agreed to just apply for everything and get married at a courthouse and wait a little bit longer before we have an official wedding. It's just sort of meant to be a commitment thing to each other along with the legal benefits. After we agreed to marry each other we started jokingly calling each other fiancé in private and it slipped out when I got mad earlier.

Amity wasn't sure what to do in this situation. She really wasn't familiar with Willow and Skara's relationship and had no real opinion on it so she just sat back awkwardly and listened.

“Is there a reason you didn't tell anyone?” Luz inquired.

“Because it isn't final yet,” Willow answered, “We didn't want to tell anyone until the paperwork was done in case we decided against it because we didn't need you and Gus getting all excited and jumpy about it.”

“Hey I am not jumpy about it!” Luz said offended.

“You kind of are,” Amity pointed out, “You did ask a bunch of questions when she told you the truth.”

“That's fair,” Luz conceded with a sigh, “Well I'm happy for you two at least, I hope you two have a long and happy life.”

“Yes, congratulations!” Amity said with a smile.

“Thanks you two,” Willow said with an embarrassed blush, “I'm very happy too, trust me. Now can we please get back to watching Gus and Matt’s show? That'sthe whole reason we’re here.”

“Yes please,” Amity said as she stood up along with Willow and Amity, “I’ve been dying to see it.”

The three girls proceeded to make their way to the stage to see the magic show, the bad blood between Amity and Willow now mostly resolved and an old friendship reblooming.

Unfortunately for them, the magic show was already over by the time the three arrived at the stage. Instead Gus was talking to a couple parents who seemed to be complimenting him on a great show while Matt was back helping Steve clean up the stage. Eventually Gus noticed the trio of girls standing by awkwardly and crossed his arms as he approached them.

“Well look who it is,” Gus began in a disappointed tone, “The three deserters.”

“Hey I was just making sure Amity and Willow were okay,” Luz said in her defense, “Don’t blame me.”

“Hey, who’s side are you on!” Willow complained to Luz.

“You’re fine Luz,” Gus reassured, “It’s the other too who I have a bone to pick with.”

“Listen, we’re really sorry about the fight,” Willow said sincerely as she hung her head in shame, “Especially me, this wasn’t the best time to start a fight over this but Amity and I agreed to not fight anymore.”

“I’m sorry too,” Amity added, “I feel really bad about missing your show and if there’s anything we can do to make it up to you we will do.”

“Hmmm, anything,” Gus said with a mischievous smile.

Well Amity now knows how a lot of magic tricks work. And so does Willow.

Gus apparently wanted repayment in the form of them doing a magic show with him and now Amity and Willow had pretty much done everything. They switched places in boxes, Amity had been dropped below the stage to disappear, Willow had been locked underwater, Amity pulled a chameleon out of a hat, and now here she was, the bottom half of a box that Gus was going to pretend to cut in half and then reattach.

“Anything for my friend,” Amity sighed to herself while she waited in the uncomfortable space.

At least Luz seemed amused by it in the crowd. That was a silver lining to the whole performance.

Chapter Text

“EMIRA!” Edric shouted as he pounded on the door to his twin's apparent, “EMIRA WAKE UP I HAVE A LEAD-”

Before Edirc knew it, the apartment door had opened and Viney had grabbed ahold of the green haired boy's wrist.

“Edric. It is 8 in the morning,” Viney said sternly, “It is my day off. Emira and I are trying to sleep. For your sake, whatever you need better be important or you're not leaving here alive.”

“I uh,” Edirc gulped. He attempted to pu his wrist free, but Viney's grip was like iron and  kept him from moving it.

“Viney, let him go,” Emira yawned, Edric looking behind Viney to find his twin in her nightgown, “If anyone is going to kill my brother it's going to be me.”

Viney let out a loud sigh, “Fine, I guess that's fair,” Viney then let go of Edric's wrist, causing him to grab hold of it like he just had handcuffs taken off.

“That hurt,” Edric groaned to Viney.

“Thank you,” Viney smiled as she moved aside to let Edric into her and Viney's apartment.

“Okay, Em, we need to talk,” Edric said once he was fully inside.

“About what?” Emira said, clearly very annoyed at her brother, more so than usual.

“About this,” Edric held up a copy of The Gravesfield Times , their town's local newspaper, in front of his sister.

“A newspaper?” Emira questioned, “You woke us up for a newspaper? Who even reads the newspaper anymore?”

“Just look at the article,” Edric sighed as he rolled his eyes.

“Fine,” Emira said, “ Local Magician Stuns at Mall ,” Emira mumbled aloud as she made her way through the article, “Edric this is just an article about some magician, I don't get it.”

“Look at the picture.” Edric requested and Emira did, her eyes suddenly widening. The magician's assistant was the spitting image of Amity, same haircut and all.

“That's Mittens!” Emira exclaimed, “At least, I think so? She definitely looks like an older Amity.”

“Right,” Edirc said as he lowered the newspaper, “I think we finally found Mittens.”

“Okay, what do we do now?” Emira began to ponder.

“Seems like you two need to call this magician,” Viney suggested, who currently had a face full of some sort of pastry from the kitchen.

“I tried that,” Edric replied, “They don't like it when you ask ‘Can I have the number of the assistant girl’! and block your number.”

“Edddddd,” Emira let out a frustrated sigh.

“It's okay though! The magician is having another show at the mall later this afternoon?” Edric wore a proud smile on his face for getting this information, “I say we go to the mall before the show starts and ask this so-called ‘Great Agustus’ a few questions.

“Why’d you say his name like that?” Viney suddenly asked, mouth still full of pastry.

Edric paused for a moment, “You know, I'm not sure.”

“Whatever,” Emira said with an eye roll, “I'm going to take a shower, then we'll leave for the mall.”

“Wait a minute,” Viney said before gently grabbing Emira’s hand.

“What is it, sweetie?” Emira replied, surprised by her girlfriend.

“It's just,” Viney said before she glanced toward Edric who was watching intensely, “Give us a second, Ed.” Viney said before she quickly rushed her and Emira into their kitchen.

“Viney, what's the problem?” Emira said, getting annoyed by her girlfriend's antics.

“I know you want to try and find your sister,” Viney said as she looked up into Emira's eyes, “But we had lunch plans for today, remember?”

“Oh, shoot,” Emira said frustratedly, “Do you mind if we put it off?”

“Em, I don't have a day off for two weeks,” Viney explained.

“I know,” the green-haired girl replied, “But this might be my chance to finally find Amity.”

Viney thought for a moment, then let out a sigh, “Fine, you’re right, this is more important. Go find your sister. There will be other lunches.”

“THANK YOU!” Emira shouted before she pulled Viney in for a tight hug and kissed her, “And hey, maybe we can go out to dinner instead?”

“Yeah, maybe,” Viney smiled, “Now go take your shower.”

“I will,” Emira said as she left the kitchen, leaving Viney alone to make a lonely bowl of cereal.

Amity took in the quiet of the library as she bent down to place a book in its proper location. She was currently working on getting all the non-fiction books put back. Some of them looked interesting but Amity wasn’t super interested in reading any biographies anytime soon. Mostly because they were the only books her mother had around the house and she was very selective with those.

Amity had been working at the library for just over a week. While she continued to do what she was hired for and help around the library by doing various tasks, she also had the additional responsibility of reading to children twice a week. The kids loved her and she loved reading to the kids. They were all so sweet, and interacting with them came naturally to Amity.

“Hey, Amity,” Jerbo whispered from the end of the aisle between the bookshelves, “Malphus said you can go on your break now.”

“Thanks,” Amity whispered back as she stood up from her crouching position and left the non-fiction section. The golden-eyed girl was starving and couldn't wait to eat the sandwich she packed for lunch. She walked through the fantasy section toward the library's staff room when a flash of color caught her eye. A book was poking out from the rest on the shelf. Amity let out a sigh as she walked over to the book, figuring she might as well fix it before leaving for her break, but as she got closer she couldn't help but notice the cover. On it was a green-haired witch fighting against a two-headed red-haired witch. Amity couldn’t stop looking at the green-haired witch. She seemed familiar, but Amity couldn't quite place where she had seen the character before. Curious, Amity pulled the book out from the shelf and examined the cover in full.

“The Good Witch Azura: The First Steps,” Amity mumbled to herself as she read the title of the book. There was also a large number 1 below the title of the book making sure the reader knew that it was the first book in the series. It seemed like a decently long book but nothing too big, “If mother saw me with a book about witches I'd never hear the end of it.” Amity gently opened the book to the prologue, in what felt like a mini act of defiance to her mother.

Amity quickly read the first page; the story started in the middle of a fight between Azura and a giant snake. The more Amity read, the more she got into it. The author was incredible at writing an intense fight scene was all Amity could think of. Before Amity knew it she had finished the prologue and had to read more.

So, still standing in the middle of the fantasy section, Amity continued reading the first chapter where she was introduced to Azura two years before she would face the snake. There, Azura met her mentor who would teach her how to be a good witch. Amity was soon engrossed by the book and didn't even think to put it down, forgetting completely that she was hungry for lunch.

Soon, a half hour passed in an instant to Amity, who hadn't even thought about the time once she started reading the book.

“Uh, Amity,” the brunette suddenly heard beside her, startling her, causing her to glance up at Jerbo, “Your break ended five minutes ago, Malphus needs you to keep putting the returned books back.”

“Oh, right,” Amity sighed as she forced herself  to put the book back, right at the part where Azura first met Hecate, “Sorry, I'll get right back to work.”

“Alright,” Jerbo said as he left to go back to his job. Amity glanced back at the book she had skipped lunch just to read, and vowed to check out every book in the series they had in stock once her shift was over.

“When should we go up there?” Edric asked as he took a sip of the coke he got from one of the stands around the mall. The twins were looking on as the magician continued to practice various magic tricks.

“I don't think he's going to stop anytime soon,” Emira said, “Maybe we should just go up there.”

“Yeah,” Edric replied as he stood up and tossed his drink in a nearby trash can, “Let's just go.”

The two began to walk towards the stage but before they could get across the railing closing it off they were stopped by a voice.

“Yo, Wonder Twins.”

The pair looked over to see a large man walking towards them.

“What do you two think you're doing?” He said as he approached them.

“We were just going to talk to Augustus,” Edric answered.

“No, uh, no can do,” he said as he shook his head, “Steve is under strict orders to not let anyone bother him while he's rehearsing.”

“Who's Steve?” Emira asked, extremely confused.

“You're looking at him,” Steve replied, “Now I will ask you kindly to leave him alone before you do something stupid.”

“Oh, no,” Edric replied, “We really just need to ask him about one of his assistants the other day, the girl with the brown hair.”

“Edric please stop-”

“Oh I get it, you're that weirdo that called earlier about the assistant girl, well again, that's off limits and I suggest both of you leave now or else.”

“Or else what?” Edric said as he crossed his arms in defiance. 

The next thing the green-haired man knew, he was on the ground outside the mall as Emira was escorted out with him.

-

“This movie is really good,” Luz remarked as she snuggled closer into Amity, if it was even possible to do so.

“I know, the animation is so pretty,” Amity remarked as she tightened her grip around Luz.

“Do you know what's even prettier?” Luz asked as she looked up at the taller girl.

“What?” Amity chuckled.

“You are-”

The front door opening managed to wake Luz up from her slumber 

“I'm up,” The curly-haired girl said as she sat back up in her chair. On her desk was a ghost who seemed to be… judging her. She had a very stern-looking expression on her face before she leapt off the table and went back into the living room. Luz decided to follow the cat to greet Amity.

“Welcome back,” Luz said as she watched her roommate set down a large pile of books on the table, books that looked familiar from just the page side.

“Hey, Luz,” Amity smiled, “How was writing today?”

“Oh, just fantastic,” Luz lied, “Got plenty of work done.”

“That's great!” Amity beamed back.

“How was work?” Luz asked as she watched Amity pick up Ghost who had made her way to her owner's legs and cradled the cat.

“It was good,” Amiry replied, “But I kind of started reading this book on my break and liked it so much I checked out the whole series.”

“Oh, that's fun,” Luz let out a light chuckle, “What's the series called?”

“The Good Witch Azura, have you ever heard of it?” Amity replied.

Luz froze in place.

“Do I know Azura?” Luz said excitedly, “The Good Witch Azura is my favorite book series of all time! I keep a figure of Azura by my desk to remind me why I write!”

“It is?” Amity questioned as she jumped up and down slightly, “That's awesome.”

“Oh, I can't believe you're getting into it!” Luz squealed, “I'll go grab my copy of the books, we are going to read together right now!” 

“Sounds great,” Amity said with a big smile, one that caused Luz to also smile too before she ran to her bedroom to grab her copies of the books. Somehow this was becoming one of the most exciting days in Luz's life! She was finally about to have someone to talk with about her special interest. Luz came barreling back once she grabbed her complete Azura collection and sat down next to her roommate, “So, how far did you get?”

“Ow,” Edric winced as the ice pack touched his knee.

“You really fell on that hard,” Viney sighed. This wasn't the first time she'd had to take care of Edric after he hurt himself since meeting Emira, it was a monthly occurrence at this point. 

“Yeah, that jerk,” Edric said as he laid back on the couch.

“Next time don't come across like a creeper when asking about Amity,” Emira said as she rubbed her temples.

“So, what are you two going to do now?” Viney asked, “Are you going to try again?”

“Probably not,” Emira sighed as she sat down in a chair, “I'm pretty sure we'll get thrown out if that guy sees us again.” She glared at Edric, “Thanks to a certain someone!”

“Are you talking about me?” Edric asked.

Emira just rolled her eyes, “You're lucky we're related.”