Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Amity

            “I’m just going to the Owl House to do homework!” I complained, as Emira and Edric stared at me in the foyer, arms crossed.

            Ever since the Grom, both of them were giving me weird looks and teasing me whenever I went to the Owl House. I tried to convince myself that they were just patronizing me for the fun of it, but I just knew they were trying to get under my skin about Luz.

            “Sure Mittens, ‘homework.” Emira replied sarcastically, “Not because of a little somebody?”

            Edric raised his eyebrow, “Your friend…Luz?”

            I could feel the blush creeping onto my face, but there was nothing I could do to fight it.

            “NO!” I blurted, my blush deepening, “I mean that I am going out to hang with my friends and do homework. Just homework, okay? Willow and Gus will be there too.” I made a point of smoothing out my cloak and feigning nonchalance.

            The twins gave each other knowing looks, and I knew they weren’t fooled. I was barely convincing myself as it was.

            “Alright then, wouldn’t want to take up any of your ‘homework’ time.” Emira said, uncrossing her hands and walking over to give me a teasing pat on the shoulder.

            “Yeah, don't get into any trouble.” Edric winked, and the blush that had dissipated, returned.

            Not wasting a second, I rushed from the house, hugging my satchel to my chest. It didn’t matter what they were saying. I was just going over to study and do homework, not because of Luz. Definitely not because of her cute short hair, and the way her eyes sparkled when she got a spell right, and definitely, definitely not because when she looked at me, I could tell she could really see me, making sure I was okay even when nothing was wrong.

            Shit. I was thinking about her again. I think part of me was always sort of thinking about Luz, especially since the duel at the Covention. I don't know if it was the way she came after me to make sure I was okay, or just her stubbornness that had sucked me in, but now I was living in a world of Luz Noceda, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find a way to get her out of my head.

            Suddenly I realized I was standing outside of the Owl House.

Had I really spent my whole walk thinking about Luz?

I don't think I’ll ever really get used to the Owl House in person. It was one of the strangest looking houses I had ever seen, a mixture of magic and cottage core, but in a way that kept you confused and somewhat interested. There was also that whole living owl thing, Hooty I think, that haunted the house like an annoying sibling. Nothing about the place made sense to me. The house was just so different from what mine looked like, all sleek and clean, not an ounce of personality to the whole place.

            The blush that had finally vanished from my face returned tenfold as Luz came bounding out of the house with that stupid smile on her face.

            “You’re here!” she exclaimed, rushing over and squeezing me into a hug.

            My heart skipped a beat, and I focused all of my energy on trying to hide my emotions while she held me tightly.

            “Yeah idiot, I wasn’t just going to bail.” I muttered in response when she stepped away.

            I hoped that my hair was hanging over my face in just the right way so that she wouldn’t notice my red cheeks. To my relief, her gaze didn’t linger on, drifting back to the house with a hand beckoning to follow her inside.

            It was always weird walking into the house. Sure, the whole place was a fever dream of random knickknacks and miscellaneous human junk, but it was more than that. This was the place Luz escaped to when school was over, where she laughed, sung, and slept in. It shouldn’t have mattered much, but being in the space felt so intimate, almost like I was invading her world.

            Willow and Gus were already sitting at the front table with their books open to different pages. None of us shared classes besides with Luz, but it was still fun to study with friends. For the longest time I didn’t do work with other people, Boscha and her crew weren’t fun buddies to study with, but now that she had Luz, Willow, and Gus, somehow the work felt more fun.

            I mean, not that it wasn’t fun before.

            “Hi Amity!” Gus said with a smile, looking up from his illusions textbook and giving me a little wave.

            “Hey Gus, Willow.” I gave them both a wave.

Willow looked up and gave me a small smile.

            Even though our relationship was…strenuous in the past, since Luz and I had put her memories back together, Willow was warming back up to me, and I was glad to finally be her friend again.

            Setting my bag down on the table, I plopped down on the old carpet, crossing my legs underneath me. Luz was sitting on a stool above, and Willow and Gus shared the couch.

            “I can grab you a stool if you would like.”

            I looked up to see Luz glancing at me with a curious expression, and I had to turn away.

            “I—um I actually like it on the floor…but thanks.” I busied myself in removing the books from my bag, opening my Abominations textbook with a sigh.

            “Suit yourself.” She replied, turning away from me. “Hey, King! Do you think you could get me a glass of water? I’m parched.”

            A familiar, cranky voice came from the kitchen, “Why me? Get one of your minions to do it for you!”

            “King, they’re not minions, they’re my friends, and you should do it because you love me.”

            I made the mistake of looking up at Luz. She was turning back to yell towards the kitchen, but she was giving King puppy dog eyes. Even though they weren’t directed at me, I felt myself melt. I couldn’t even imagine what I might do if she decided to turn those eyes on me. Die probably. Definitely die.

            “Ugh, fine.” King wined, “But next time you want someone to do your bidding, ask the green haired one. She looks...eager.”

            Panic stirred in my chest while my vision flickered between where King was giving me a weird look to where Luz was also giving me a weird look, and then finally down to my lap.

            Do you think there might be a spell to permanently get rid of this stupid blush on my face, or better yet, this hopeless…hopeless whatever it was I had about Luz? If so, I needed to find it.

            Luz was still looking at me, but I decided that I just wouldn’t notice. So what if she's looking at me? I’m good to look at, aren’t I? Why won’t she just stop looking at me? My brain wouldn’t process any of the homework, but I pretended to be utterly enthralled anyway. Anything to forget about her eyes on me.

            Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to have come here. I would never get anything done with Luz sitting next to me, and I couldn’t just not get work done.

            Finally Luz’s attention turned back to her homework, and the room fell into silence. For while everyone threw themselves into work. After Luz stopped paying attention to me, I started to get stuff done, and the rest of the world disappeared into nothingness.

            For the next hour the group was mostly silent. Occasionally someone would bring something up and we would all talk for a minute or two, but we would all fall back into silence once more. The studying together was less about helping each other, but more about just keeping each other company. It was nice to just sit in silence and do work sometimes.

            Eventually the sun started to hang lower and lower in the sky, and by the time dusk was settling in, Luz had had enough.

“I’m bored.” She announced, “Anyone want a break? Dinner?”

            “I am not feeding three more parasites dinner! They can go out and scavenge their own food out in the wild!” Eda screamed from her room upstairs.

            Luz rolled her eyes and walked closer to the steps to reply.

“Eda I’m not going to let them go hungry! You wouldn’t want to starve children!”

            A pause and then, “You don't know that!” another pause, “But fine, none of the good stuff though.”

            From the kitchen King muttered, “There is no good stuff.” And I stifled a chuckle.

            Imagine a conversation like that happening in my house? Absolutely not. My parents were sticklers for being ‘proper’ and ‘dignified’; neither of them would be caught dead yelling anything to anyone.

            Luz looked down to where I was giggling and flashed me a smile. Needless to say, I stopped immediately.

            “What do people want?” she asked.

            Willow looked down and closed her book politely.

“Sorry Luz, my dads want me home for dinner tonight. Maybe some other time?” she looked sorry.

            “Oh, don't worry about it! Tell your dads I say hi, will you?”

            Willow flashed her a grateful smile, “Of course.”

            “Gus?” Luz asked.

            Gus looked between Willow and Luz rapidly, “Um, Willow is kind of my ride.” He said finally, giving Luz the same regretful look.

            “Oh! No totally, you’re both good.”

            “But I imagine whatever you cook up would be great!”

            Willow and Gus both stood, collecting their things. For a split second I swear that Gus winked at Luz, but as soon as I thought I had seen it, he was halfway out the door.  

            I swallowed dryly. Alone? Alone in the house with Luz? This has got to be some way of the universe punishing me for feeling this way!

            Luz plopped down onto the floor next to me, “Well what do you want?”

            Multiple things came to mind, one of them involving just us two and the couch, but I quickly pushed them all away.

            “Uh, um, I’m just going to finish this page and then maybe we can figure something out?” my voice had turned to a squeak towards the end, and I was fighting to keep myself together.

            “Okay! I’m done with work, so I’ll just chill.” She put her head on my shoulder and looked down at my work.

            My whole body tensed up, and I squeezed my eyes shut to try and dispel the feeling from my mind. Unfortunately, my ability to work vanished as soon as her head hit my shoulder, and now all of the words seemed to swirl on the page.

            My mind couldn’t help but wander, what with her head so close to me, her mouth so close to mine.

            I slammed my book abruptly, “Actually, I think I’m done for the night too!”

            Luz pulled her head from my shoulder.

            “Sure, um, what do you want to eat?”

            We both got up and wandered to the kitchen. King had passed out on the counter, a stuffed bunny in his little paws, snoring loudly. Luz make a gesture to be quiet, and I giggled slightly as she scooped him up and placed him gently on a nearby pile of junk, not in the way.

            She caught my eye giving me a gleeful smile, and my heart jumped in my chest.

            Dinner consisted mostly out of random things Luz could find in the kitchen which was, to say the least, not a lot. Eventually she opened a cabinet and pulled out a bag of untouched chips.

            “Voila!” she exclaimed, reaching out for my hand and dragging me back into the living room, “Something to eat that isn’t trash.”

            I might have made some snarky comment about it if not for her hand in mine. Luz and I had held hands before, a few times actually, but something about this time, alone without Willow or Gus, made feeling her hand in mine electrifying.

            She pulled me onto the couch next to her and let the bag of chips fall into her lap.

            “Here.” She held the chips out to me, “Have some while I grab something.”

            I opened the chips while Luz stood up and walked over to a nearby pile of random human things. She had picked up a small rectangular device from a nearby windowsill, but there was still something more she couldn’t find. After half a minute of searching, she seemed to find what she was looking for.

“Ha! Found you.” She said to a dangling wire with weird rubber thing on the two ends.

I couldn’t tell what it was and gave her a confused look for a moment, waiting for her to explain.

“Oh, yeah these are human, I forgot that you wouldn’t know what they were. Actually I’ve been looking for these for a while, my other pair broke.” And she failed to elaborate further.

 From far away it looked like another piece of human junk. The rectangular device that I had seen her holding a few times before was her phone, I knew that at least, but my curiosity peaked when she plugged the wires into her phone with a click. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out what they were used for. Cleaning? Charging?

            She settled back down next to me, pressing her side into mine, and I tried to ignore my brain telling me that my whole side was on fire.

           “What’s that?” I asked, wrapping the wire up in my finger.

            “A human thing. We use it to contact people, and,” she looked like she finally realized I wasn’t talking about her phone, “Oh! I thought you were confused about the phone, sorry. But yeah, these are earbuds. You put them in your ear like this.” She put the top of the wire into her ear and I did too.

            The rubber felt weird in my ear at first, and I wondered what type of human torture device this had to be.

           “But what does this do? Is it going to go into my brain?!” I asked with my eyes wide, and she flashed me a mischievous look.

           “I’ll show you.” She clicked a button on her phone screen and I almost fell backwards in surprise.

           Music blasted in my ear. It was rich and beautiful music from another dimension, pouring through the wire and directly into my brain. I had never experienced anything quite like it, the music, nor the sensation in my ear, and I was quickly falling in love with it. It was nothing like the ‘music’ my parents would listen to back home, no, this was more aggressive and fun. Before I knew it, my head was bopping along to the beat.

           “Wow.” I voiced, eyes wide in amazement, “Wow.”

           Luz was looking at me again with an unreadable look, and against my better judgement, I looked back.

           Our faces were inches apart, forced together by the earbuds and their short length. Her eyes were sparkling, and I was caught in them. While the music swelled in my ear, my heart matched the beat, pounding so loudly that if we hadn’t been listening to music, I swear Luz would have heard it.

           I wanted to jerk away but doing so would mean losing an earbud and the music, so I stayed put, holding Luz’s gaze. I was blushing, I was sure of it, but that wasn’t new, what was new was Luz, her cheeks matching mine in the most perfect shade of pink.

           “So beautiful.” I whispered, eyes flickering to her lips that were inches from mine, her breath grazing my face.

           Luz’s eyes went wide in surprise, and I realized what I had said. My mouth had betrayed me; my world was crashing down.

           Tearing the earbud out of my ear, I scooped up all of my books in a panic. There was no time to think, I needed to get out of here.

           An idiot! I was an idiot!

           “Imsorryihavetogo!” I rushed out, refusing to look back at the surprised expression on Luz’s face.

           Then, bolting out the door, I hugged my satchel to my chest and ran as far away from the house as possible.

           “Shit, shit, shit!” Why can't anything with Luz just be normal?

           But now I knew if for sure, I had a crush on Luz, and there was no spell to get rid of that.

Chapter Text

Luz

“Well that was weird.” King said casually, jumping into my lap to grab some chips from the bag.

“Wha—what?” I stuttered, not realizing that he had woken up.

“Yeah,” he said, munching on a chip, crumbs falling into my lap, “You two were sitting like right next to each other. I didn’t know that human faces could go that red!” he shrugged, reaching for another paw-full of chips.

“I…Wait my face was red?” I asked.

“As a tomato, whatever that is.” King said, half paying attention.

A billion thoughts raced through my head. If I was red, then Amity was sure to have seen it. But then Amity was also blushing, and she had said that stupid thing about being beautiful. But then of course she had immediately run away, so there was that too.

King’s attention had shifted from me, and he grabbed a final handful of chips, jumping off of my lap to return to the kitchen. I was still frozen in my spot, the whole ordeal replaying endlessly in my head.

All I could think about for the rest of the night was Amity.

Lately all of my thoughts had been about Amity, but I had just thought that maybe I just wanted to be her friend. Ever since I had first seen her, that was all I could think about. Maybe I should have realized it then, but only now was it dawning on me that I might like her. Like her, like her.

Back on earth I had figured out that just liking guys wasn’t all my thing. My thing was cute anime girls and stupid idiot men with skinny arms and black hair. My thing was the soft boys with freckles and cute girls(all girls), and I was totally aware and okay with that. I had even come out to my mom a few months ago, but I’m pretty sure that she already knew—she must have caught me crushing over everyone in my favorite T.V. shows.

But this thing with Amity was different. It had started when we were still enemies, before the whole fight at the Covention, when I kept catching her looking at me funny. Back then I thought it was just because I was human, but it didn’t stop my mind from replaying her face over and over when I was trying to go to sleep. Could she possibly be thinking the same things about me that I was about her? The thought alone seemed impossible.

I didn’t even consider what I was feeling to be a crush until this evening, sitting on the couch while her face hung a few inches from mine. The whole time I couldn’t help but stare at her, the way her head was subconsciously bopping to the music, the way her eyes lit up, and then the way she was looking right back at me, almost like we were both thinking the same thing.

And then she called me beautiful and I forgot how to breathe.

I literally couldn’t stop replaying the moment over and over in my head since it had happened. Rather she didn’t directly call me beautiful, but between the way she was looking at me and the way she had said it, I was sure she had meant the compliment.

As much as I wanted to keep thinking about how I had been this close to sweeping in and kissing her, I needed to go to sleep. School was fun, but only on a few good hours of sleep, and I had just been wasting them overthinking.

Still I couldn’t help but wonder if she was up late too, thinking about me.

……………

For the rest of the week I couldn’t focus on anything but Amity. I had tried everything at this point, but no amount of distractions could stop me from fantasizing about her green hair and how much I wanted to feel its softness in my hands. It didn’t help that Amity kept shooting me looks when she thought I wasn’t watching, and at this point the whole avoiding each other thing was driving me crazy.

Neither of us made any move either, that was the issue. Every time we would sit next to each other during the one shared class we had together, Abominations, the closest we would get to talking was me asking for the homework and other stupid things.

Even Willow and Gus had picked up that something was wrong, and us decided to bring it up while we were eating lunch later that week.

“Okay, I’ve had enough. Why are we avoiding Amity now? Did something happen at your house when we left?” he asked, and I dropped my sandwich in alarm.

“Um, no, what??? Nothing is up with Amity and I, no, totally good!” I squealed out.

“Yeah,” Gus said, “I believe that.”

Willow put her hand on Gus’s arm.

“Don't pressure her! When she's ready to tell us, she will.”

“Yeah,” Gus continued, “But she's our best friend, and best friends tell other best friends why they’re avoiding the girl who seems to have a crush on her.”

“Wait, what?” I half screamed, and quite a few eyes shot up to me in the cafeteria. “Oops, I meant wait what?” my voice lowered.

Gus and Willow exchanged looks.

“You mean, you didn’t notice?” Willow asked in a calm tone.

“That Amity likes me? I mean I, maybe, but I thought I might be making it up in my head!”

Gus sighed, “You know Luz, for such a smart person, I thought that maybe you’d be more perceptive.”

“Hey!” I protested, “I am plenty perceptive!”

“So, you didn’t suspect anything at Grom?” he pressed.

“You mean how we defeated Grom together or?”

“I mean how Amity acted around you before it, and how she kept carrying around that note whenever you were around.”

“I just thought she was always holding that!”

“She wasn’t.” Willow interjected, “And I agree with Gus on this one, Amity definitely has a thing for you. So then why are you avoiding her?”

“Hey, I thought we weren’t going to pressure Luz to tell us anything!” Gus protested, and Willow gave him a small push.

“Well that was back when I wasn’t totally invested, but now I kind of want to know!”

They both turned to look at me with expectant faces and I swallowed dryly.

I hadn’t actually said it out loud yet, and somehow, I felt that if I did, then I might have to act on those feelings. But now that I knew that there was at least a 60% chance of her liking me back, some of that fear dissipated.

“I—I think I might have a crush on Amity.” I confessed in a whispered tone, making sure that no one else could hear.

While Willow and Gus processed the information, I watched as Amity walked into the cafeteria with principal Bump, deep in conversation. For a moment she looked up and scanned the cafeteria for something. When her eyes landed on me, her face got red and her eyes went really wide.

How had I not noticed any of this before? Was she always looking at me this way?

“You…You like Amity…” Gus said slowly, the gears in his head still turning. “Do you know what this means?”

“Um, no.” I replied, tearing my eyes away from the girl with green hair.

“It means,” Gus said, getting excited, “that you totally need to ask her out!”

A series of emotions flashed though me, and I felt my face go red hot.

“I—I can't just do that!” I protested.

“Why not?” Willow asked.

“Because, because she bullied you! And because we only just became friends and what if I ruin it? And, and I don't know, I’ve never asked someone out before!”

Willow gave me a tired look.

“Look Luz, I am going to be okay if you ask Amity out, what happened between us is in the past. Plus, you’re Luz Noceda, human learning magic, the only person to learn all types of magic! What’s the worst that could happen, she says no?!”

“Exactly! Yes, she could say no!”

“True,” Willow said, “But you wouldn’t know unless you asked her.”

Gus gave Willow an impressed look.

“You’re really good at pressuring people for someone who told me not to pressure someone.” He said, and Willow rolled her eyes.

“Alright Gus, next time we can both harass Luz.”

“Yes!” he pumped his fist in the air, and I let out a sigh.

“You two are impossible.”

“But you love us!” Gus replied in a sing-song voice.

“Yeah, I love you.” I smiled, “And I guess I have a girl to ask out then.”

“You got this Luz!” Willow exclaimed, and a little more of my anxiety melted away.

What could go wrong?

……………..

I didn’t get to talk to Amity during lunch, and not even later that day at Abominations. She had become a master of evasion, and every time I went to try and talk to her, she was busy doing work or halfway across the room already.

I had just about given up, but then, almost like an act of god, she walked right into me on her way to her locker.

“Watch where you’re—” she started, reminding me of a few weeks ago when almost the exact same thing had happened, “Oh! Luz, I’m so sorry. I’ll just be going now!”

“Wait,” I reached out an arm and held her hand for a moment.

She didn’t pull away.

“Yeah?” her expression was unreadable, but I think that might have just been the obnoxious thumping in my chest.

“I, um,” my mouth had gone dry, “I was wondering if you wanted to come over after school today? I, uh, Eda and King are out running errands and I wanted to show you some more music.”

My heart was beating about a billion miles an hour, and I watched as Amity became flustered.

“Also, um, you look really pretty today.” I said, then immediately ducked my head when a blush took over my cheeks.

From somewhere behind us I heard Emira yell out “Just kiss already!” and Amity’s blush deepened.

“I…I would like that very much.” She finally said, smiling like I had just made her day.

“Cool!” I flashed her finger guns, then mentally face palmed for doing the finger guns.

She giggled which made the whole thing worth it.

“Um, meet me at the Owl House in like an hour?” I asked, still feeling like she could say no at any moment.

“Sure.” She replied brightly, and I couldn’t help but look back up into her eyes.

She caught my gaze and I got the intense urge to kiss her. But I wasn’t about to make my first kiss happen in the school hallway, so I ducked my head and started to walk out the door.

“Bye Amity!” I yelled, ducking as an upperclassman walked by, hand almost hitting my head. “See you soon!”

Then before I could look back and get flustered, I ran out the door and tried not to think about how fast my heart was beating. She had said yes! Amity was coming over to my house, alone, to listen to music with me.

AMITY WAS COMING OVER TO MY HOUSE TO LISTEN TO MUSIC WITH ME! Oh, no! I needed to clean, and get ready, and oh my god there’s so much to do!

I needed to get home, and I needed to get ready soon. I only had an hour.

Chapter Text

Amity

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t blink. I was afraid that if I closed my eyes, I would wake up from this dream, back in my bed without this ever happening. Except, when I did finally close my eyes, the world didn’t change when I opened them back up. I was still standing in the school foyer, books in hand, with a fresh blush creeping down from my face.

She had really asked me out! Or, well, she could have just been nice. It could not be a date at all, but two friends hanging out and listening to music. Hanging out and listening to music alone, no one else in the house, just the two of us side by side while our faces hung inches apart.

Before I could fully lose myself in a daydream I totally didn’t want to be having in school, I was interrupted. Boscha.

“Hey Amy.” She said in a bored tone. “It's been a while since we’ve hung out.”

It had been a while, ever since the grudge ball game I had been avoiding her, and she spared no expense at harassing me in the hallways whenever she saw me talking to people like Willow or Gus.

“Boscha.” I said, matching her tone, all joy from my previous exchange with Luz dissipating.

“I saw you were just talking to Luz, what was that all about?”

I felt a little bit of heat rise in my cheeks, but I shook the memories of her away. I didn’t want to explain anything to Boscha, especially with the way she had been acting towards me lately.

“Yeah, what about it?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

“Oh, well I just hope you weren’t making plans since, you know, today I’m throwing that party. My parents are out on a work trip and whatever.” She gave me a challenging look, “Unless you’d rather hang out with a loser like Luz than go to the party with me?”

A series of rude words came to mind, and I wanted to throw them all in her face. How dare she call Luz a loser! How dare she try and still pretend to be my friend even though we all knew she just cared about the title of being ‘in’ with the Blight family.

“Actually Boscha, I am going to hang out with Luz today. We made plans before, sorry.” I didn’t sound very sorry at all, but she still gave me a fake smile.

“Oh, that’s too bad.” She said, “Well then, I guess we’ll talk later.” She didn’t give me time to reply before she had waltzed away, leaving me alone in the now near-empty hallway.

I was fuming. There was just so much I was coming to hate about that girl; I couldn’t believe that I was once friends with her. Disgusting.

Eventually I collected myself enough to make the walk home. I had to change, and I wanted to look cute for Luz. I still didn’t know if this were a date or not, and I wasn’t about to mess up by not looking at least nice.

………………..

Nerves squirmed in my stomach as I stood outside of the Owl House.

I was wearing a dress my mother had bought for me last year. It was a deep green color that matched my hair nicely, and just slightly too low to be considered proper. It was perfect. I had also taken the nice necklace she had given me for my birthday, gold with a small green stone in the center, and placed it over my chest. Part of me was worried that I was over-dressed, but that relief melted when Luz walked out in a nice blazer.

I watched as her eyes drifted up and down me, and I felt my heart flutter when she made my gaze and began to blush.

“You look really nice.” I said, swallowing my anxieties.

“You too.” She replied, sounding just about as nervous as I felt.

For a moment we both stood in silence, neither of us knowing what to do.

“weLL IT's NIce tO SeE yoU TOo AmItY.” Hooty said in his obnoxious voice, and I stumbled back, not having noticed him.

“Hi.” I said meekly, and Hooty just stared.

“Um, want to come inside?” Luz asked, wringing her hands.

“Sure.” I said, and followed her inside.

For a moment all I could do was stare at the living room. For once the room looked…decent. There were no longer big piles of random junk all over, and I smiled when I noticed much of it stuffed into a closet on the other side of the room.

“We can hang in here, or we can go to my room?” Luz said, sounding questioning.

“Um, whatever you’re cool with.” I replied.

“Well I left my phone upstairs, so I can go and get that, and um we can sit on the couch. Or if you don't want to sit on the couch then we can go somewhere else, or I could, or whatever!”

I bit back a chuckle, maybe I wasn’t the only nervous one in this situation.

“It's okay Luz, we can sit on the couch.”

She smiled, nervousness melting for a moment, and then her eyes grew wide again.

“The phone!” she announced, then bounded up the stairs faster than I thought possible.

In the meanwhile, I walked over to the couch and opened Penstagram. Sure enough the top post was of Boscha and few people at her house enjoying her party. I was so caught up in looking through the posts that I didn’t notice when Luz settled into the seat beside me and peered over at the open posts.

“Oh, there’s a party tonight.” She said, no longer chipper like before. “Did I take you away from going to that?”

Alarm rose in my chest. She thought that I was looking at the posts because I wanted to be there and not here.

“No! I mean, no,” I composed myself, “I was invited, but I would much rather hang out with you than Boscha.” I tried to look her in the eyes so she knew I wasn’t lying, but she wouldn’t meet my gaze.

“Seriously though, if you wanted to go there instead, that would be cool.”

My face contorted in disgust, and she finally looked over.

“I would rather be here with you, serious.” I held her gaze and she began to smile again. “Plus I wouldn’t miss listening to your music for the world.” I wouldn’t miss getting to sit so close to you for the world.

“Well then you’re in luck. I happen to be the only person on the Boiling Isles that has access to music like this!” she gave me a wink, and I melted. “Here.” She held out the other earbud, and I put it into my ear.

Soon enough there was music pouring through the tiny speaker, and I felt my head begin to bop again. This time there were lyrics, but not in any language I knew.

“What are they saying?” I whispered to Luz.

She blushed, “Um, it's a love song. In Spanish. My mom and I used to jam out to it in the car.”

“It's really pretty.” I said, looking right at Luz’s lips which hovered mere inches from mine.

I heard her breath catch in her throat, and I looked up to see her staring down at mine too. The urge to lean in and close the distance between us was overwhelming and I watched as she subconsciously licked her lips. I had never kissed anyone before, and part of me was worried I would get something wrong.

I looked down for a moment, but my eyes flickered right back to Luz when she put her hand on my cheek. The music blared, my heart pounded, my cheek was on fire, and yet I still didn’t have the courage to kiss her.

“Hey Amity?” she asked, and I stopped breathing. “Do you think that maybe I could—” but before she could finish her sentence, I leaned over and pressed her lips to mine.

Instead of flinching away from the touch, she deepened the kiss, meting into me. For a moment the music took over my whole brain while my heart stopped beating. Her hands had moved to my waist and before I knew it, she was pulling me onto her, my arms falling to either side of her face.

When I pulled away, her mouth leaned upward like she didn’t want it to end.

We were staring at each other, me on top, and her below. We were both breathing really hard, and I couldn’t help but stare at how beautiful she was like this. How beautiful she always was.

“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that for.” I breathed, and her lips turned upwards in a smirk.

“Yeah? How long?” she challenged.

I stiffened as her hands dragged down my back slightly, making my entire body tingle.

“Since the Covention.” I breathed, leaning into the touch. “When you made that light with the piece of paper my brain just told me to kiss you, and that’s when it all started.”

“You could have.” She said, “I mean, like if you had kissed me, I would have kissed you back.”

My heart swelled just knowing that she would have, and I leaned in and kissed her again, hard.

“Hmm…” she hummed into my mouth, lips parting slightly.

Even though I had never really kissed anyone before, I knew that this is how it should feel, electrifying. The way that we melted into each other was perfect, how my body slotted perfectly between hers, my hands finding her hair, and her sighing at the touch.

And I loved how her hair felt. All the times I imagined running my hands through it, only to now hold fistfuls of it in my hands. I knew that when we got up it would be all messed up, but somehow just knowing that it would look messed up because of me sent a shiver down my body.

Suddenly we heard the sound of someone at the door, and I pushed off of her, pulling myself off the couch with record breaking speeds.

Surely enough Eda and King came walking in holding bags full of junk and other human objects. They definitely noticed the disheveled looks on both of us, and I let out a small eek. Luckily though, Eda only raised one eyebrow and King looked totally oblivious, muttering something about Hooty under his breath.

“Hi Eda!” Luz squeaked, and I made the mistake of looking over at her.

Her lips were slightly swollen red, blazer bunched up in weird places, with her hair sticking off in crazy random directions. Her eyes flashed with embarrassment and when she caught my eye, we both blushed deeply. I couldn’t imagine what I looked like, but it couldn’t be much better.

“Well, I was just going!” I exclaimed loudly, giving Luz one last regretful look. “See you at school Luz!”

And with that I rushed out the door, making today the second time I ran away from Luz in a week.

Chapter Text

Luz

“So…what was that?” Eda asked, setting her bags on the counter with a thud.

“Um,” my mind raced for some explanation that she would believe. “We were listening to music.” Not a lie, but not the complete truth either.

“Sure.” She replied, giving me a once over.

I attempted to tame my wild hair, and Eda shook her head with a laugh.

“What? We were!” I complained, but it was no use, she definitely knew.

“You know,” Eda began, walking over to the couch and taking a seat, “I got around in school too. There wasn’t a guy who could resist me.” She flipped her hair, and I grew mortified.

“Uhh…”

“You take after me in that regard.” She said with a wink, “I mean I’m sure you fight off plenty of guys, but come on, even I see the way that green haired girl looks at you. And you seem to be looking right back at her.”

I was beyond embarrassed at this point.

“We—we’re just friends!” I squeaked, but Eda rolled her eyes.

“Friends don't make out on the couch.” She pointed out, and a froze in my seat.

“How do you—”

“Hooty was spying.” She explained, waving me off with her hand. “There isn’t anything that goes on in the house that I don't know.”

My mouth was dry, but this time for different reasons.

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to—” I began, but she cut me off again.

“Oh, I’m not mad, I’m proud. You’re becoming more and more like me every day, and I couldn’t be happier about it.” She ruffled my hair. “Just next time maybe pick a less public spot to have your…rendezvous.”

Before I could get even more horrified, Eda stood from the couch and walked over the kitchen, leaving me to calm down.

After a moment I noticed that my heart hadn’t stopped beating a million miles an hour, and I took a few deep breaths. Sure, the whole situation wasn’t ideal, and maybe Amity would never talk to me ever again, but at least I knew she liked me back. At least I had memorized how her lips had felt on mine.

I couldn’t even wrap my mind around the whole kiss. I mean I had never kissed anyone before, but I think I was good at it? It couldn’t be worse than any other kiss Amity might have had; she had sure seemed to enjoy it. And we were full on making out for a few solid minutes there, so that was also something, I guess.

Maybe I should stop thinking about it. I decided, pulling myself off of the couch. Off of the couch that Amity and I had been sharing just minutes before.

I definitely need to stop thinking about it.

But I didn’t.

……………………………………..

A few hours later, after the sun had fully gone down, I was sitting in my room and re-reading my book: The Good Witch Azura book 5. It had taken me the better half of the evening to calm down about the whole Amity thing, and I was finally back to reading my book.

“You got a letter.” King yelled, barging into my room.

I dropped my book from my hands in surprise. Scrambling to pick it back up, I reached over to next to my bed and placed a bookmark between the pages I was reading. Then, looked back up at King who was wearing a gleeful expression with his paw pressed towards me with one nice looking letter.

“Oh?” I said, holding out my hand to grab it from his little paws.

He handed the envelope over, and I turned it around in my hands. The paper it was made of was much nicer than most envelopes, with that rich texture that made sure you knew that that letter was important. Written across the front in the most elegant handwriting was my name in full, shining slightly in the green glittery ink.

“Who is it from?” King asked impatiently, scrambling on top of my lap to see.

“I don't know, but I have an idea.” I replied.

The envelope wasn’t marked with any sort of return address, but the letter screamed Amity. It could have been the green ink that had given it away, or the expensive paper, but I wasn’t about to share my secrets with King.

“Open it! Open it!” he begged, tugging on my shirt sleeve.

“Fine, fine, calm down!”

I turned the paper over and beginning to open it up carefully. I didn’t want to tear the envelope because even if it wasn’t from Amity, it felt like such a waste to destroy something so pretty looking. When I had finally gotten the thing open, I pulled out an equally expensive feeling piece of paper, and I got confirmation that the letter was from her.

Dear Luz,

I’m sorry that I had to rush out, but there was no way I was going to be able to spend another minute in that house with Eda looking at me like that.

I really, really, really like you, and I want to make it up to you for bailing. If you don't want to, I wouldn’t blame you, but I was wondering if you would like to come over for a sleepover tomorrow night? If you can't come because of Eda or if you just can't, that’s okay! Really that’s fine, but also it would be pretty amazing if you came.

Just let me know,

Amity

And then right next to her name was a tiny heart.

Knowing that Amity, wherever she was, had decided to spend the time writing me a letter made my heart flutter. It was confirmation that she too was thinking about me all night, and that she was just as worried as it had been. I held the piece of paper to my chest for a moment and let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding.

Amity liked me. She “really, really, really” liked me, and she wanted me to come over to her house for a sleepover.

King snatched the paper from my hands as soon as I released it from my chest and read the whole thing slowly. When he finished, he was giving me a stupid look, and I averted my eyes so I wouldn’t blush. I had enough of blushing.

“So,” King wiggled his eyebrows, “A sleepover?”

Was this day only going to be endless antagonizing about Amity? Would I ever not get flustered when people brought her up like that?

“It's not like that!” I protested, reaching for the letter, but he hopped away before I could snatch it.

“Luz has a girlfriend! Luz has a girlfriend!” he sang, jumping around me in a circle

“King! I don't even know what we are!” I explained, but he didn’t care.

“You are going, right? Going to see your little girlfriend.” He stopped jumping and was now just giving me a teasing look.

I sighed, “Little? You’re one to talk.”

It was his turn to protest, and while he was distracted, I tore the letter from his hands. Victorious, I held the piece of paper above my head while he tried to jump up to get it, but instead he just looked cute.

“Eh, ahem?”

When I looked up, Eda was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. King and I froze, and she narrowed her eyes.

“Why are you two making such a racket?” she complained, dressed in her pajamas.

“Luz was invited to Amity’s house for a sleepover!” King blurted, and I sighed loudly.

“I was going to ask you about it tomorrow, but someone didn’t give me the chance.” I gave King a look, but he only smiled smugly.

For a moment all three of us were silent, and I was afraid that Eda would say no, but then she relaxed and walked into the room.

“Oh,” Eda said, “That’s fine.”

“Wait, really?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah, why not kid? You’re allowed to make your own choices and I doubt anything R rated is going to happen, you’re 15.”

I blushed deeply, “Nothing like that will be happening.” I assured her, and she just rolled her eyes.

“Good.” She said, sounding really tired, “Now will you two shut it so I can get some sleep?”

King groaned, and I gave Eda my best smile.

“Of course Eda, goodnight!”

“Night.” She grumbled, walking out of the room.

“Luz has a girlfriend!” King whispered one last time.

“Ugh.” I groaned, and he made his way out of my room too.

When I was finally alone, I rushed over to my drawers where I pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. Then, in my best handwriting, wrote back to Amity.

Tomorrow at this time I would be with Amity. Tomorrow I would be in her house, sleeping in her bed. I couldn’t wait!

I could barely fall asleep, too excited to think about anything but Amity.

Chapter Text

Amity

When I first got back home, the twins bombarded me with teasing.

“Aww Mittens, you look so happy! What happened, finally get the courage to kiss the girl?” Emira asked, giving me a smirk.

“Or did you two just ‘listen to music’ the whole time?” Edric added.

“Music is a real thing Edric, why did you put it in quotes? And for your information Emira, I did finally get the courage to kiss the girl.

Their mouths gaped, and I walked through them and up to my room. Maybe it was a little bit of fun to get the final word for once. And the looks on their faces was totally worth telling them about the kiss.

The kiss. The only thing my mind would replay. I didn’t think I could even think about Luz this much, but now I was going mad with images of her below me with her hair all in disarray, eyes still closed from when we were kissing.

“Ugh!” I said to no one in particular, jumping into my bed face down.

I sunk into the piles of blankets and turned over, rubbing my eyes with both of my hands. The whole thing was unbelievable, yet it had happened. Maybe this really was a dream. I pinched my arm to wake up, but all that did was leave a small red mark on my arm.

A knock sounded at my door, and I shot out of the bed. There was only two people who knocked in my house, and they were my parents.

“Amity?” my mom asked from behind the door, “Can I come in?”

“Uh,” I started, smoothing my dress down and trying to look decent.

“Please don't say ‘um’ darling,” she said, opening the door and walking into my room, “It's not polite or concise.”

I watched as she looked around at the mess on the floor. On my way to look cute for Amity, I had gone through almost every outfit I owned, leaving the carnage on the floor to my mom’s disgust.

“You really need to clean up in here.” She complained, shoving a shirt out of her way with her foot.

“Yes mom, I’ll clean it after dinner.”

She gave me a leveled look before sweeping the room again.

“Sure, sure, now there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

My heart raced. Had the twins told her about Luz? Did she already know? Was I in trouble, or worse, was I not allowed to see her anymore? Questions raced through my head and I tried to keep a neutral face.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Oh, it's nothing about you, but more about us. Your father and I have been invited to a weekend getaway and we leave tonight. I just wanted to make sure that you would be okay with us gone. The twins would be in charge.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief, “Um, no that’s totally fine mom.”

Her lips pursed at my ‘um’, but she refrained from commenting.

“Alright sweetie. I expect this to be all cleaned up when we return.” She kicked another piece of clothing with her heel.

“I will mom.” I replied.

She gave the room one finally once over and then walked out without another word, closing the door behind her.

For a moment my thoughts continued to race, but then I had an epiphany. Luz. I could invite Luz over to my house without my parents judging her, and maybe even we would kiss again. Although the whole thing could have been a fluke and she could want to have nothing to do with me.

I fought my anxieties, rushing over to my desk where I pulled out a letter a stylus. Quickly I wrote out a letter, and then rushing downstairs before anyone could see, placed it in the mailbox where it would magically send to Luz.

Then, before I could worry about it anymore, I headed inside and went to dinner, my mind still replaying the scene from earlier over in my head.

………………..

Early the next morning I summoned an Abomination to help me clean up my room. I had decided that morning when I woke up that I wouldn’t check the mailbox until later so that I wouldn’t be disappointed if she hadn’t responded.

Luckily, I didn’t have to wait for very long at all because before I knew it, Edric barged into my room with a letter in his hand.

“Looks like Mittens got a letter!” he said, holding the envelope out teasingly.

“Oh!” I jumped up from where I was working and sprang forward to grab the letter.

“Hey, hey, hey.” He said, pulling it above his head, “I wanna know who it’s from.”

“Um, no.” I said, jumping for the envelope.

“Um, yes.” He replied in a mocking tone.

Before I could do anything to stop him, he had torn open the top flap and pulled out the hastily scrawled letter, starting to read it.

“Dear Amity,” he began to read out loud in a squeaky voice I assumed was supposed to be Luz. “Stop overthinking. Of course I still like you, I kissed you, didn’t I? what was it you said, ‘I really, really, really like you’ or something? That’s how I feel about you too.

 I talked to Eda and she said that me coming over was fine, so I’ll be at your house around 7.

I can't stop thinking about you, and I just wanted you to know that when you blush, my heart skips a beat. (they call me a romantic back home) Anyway I can't wait, and know I’ll be thinking about it all day.

Okay, that’s all I think,

*wink*

Luz.”

When he had finished, my face was bright red and I was frozen to my spot. He had kept up the obnoxious Luz impression for the entirety of the letter, and only now when he had finished reading did, he return to talking normal.

“Wow Amity.” Was all he said, giving me a wink.

I wilted further in embarrassment.

“Did you really have to do that?” I squeaked, and he just shrugged.

“I mean, as an older sibling, yes.”

I groaned, looking up at the celling to try and cool off.

“Can I have the letter now?” I asked, and he just shrugged.

“I don't know, can you?” his hand had fallen slightly, and I knew I could grab the envelope.

Rolling my eyes, I reached over and pulled the piece of paper from his lowered hand.

“I can't wait to see her later.” He said in a voice that made me question whether I should I should have done this at all.

I hadn’t even thought about the twins. They were friends with Luz before, but now that I was dating her…or well I might not be dating her. More like now that we had kissed and we knew we both liked each other…anyways whatever we were, we were bound to endure ceaseless teasing.

When I didn’t reply, Edric walked out the door, making sure not to close it on the way back out.

Now that I was finally alone, I closed the door and inspected the letter for myself. The envelope was covered in little doodles she had drawn, and I smiled just thinking about her in her room drawing them for me.

The letter itself was the same as Edric had read it, but he had failed to mention the tiny heart drawn next to her name, and my heart fluttered.

She had been thinking about me.

Then it hit me. Luz. Here. Luz here in my room, in my bed, in my house. Luz eating my food with my siblings. Luz with her stupid short hair and irresistible smile was going to be in my house in half a day, and I had no idea what to do.

I threw myself into getting ready. All of my clothes were folded and stacked, put back into my dresser like they had never been out in the first place. My bed was made, sheets pulled taught, blankets folded perfectly, creaseless. The room was dusted and spritzed, and yes, I even cleaned the windows. By mid-day my whole body was exhausted, and I collapsed onto the floor with a huff.

Outside I heard giggling and I stood up and walked to the window to see Emira and Edric out in the backyard with their friends. They were all laughing and hanging around, Emira flirting with some guy from Glandus High, and Edric showing off some spell to another senior I didn’t recognize. Hopefully they would stick around all day so that I wouldn’t have to deal with the twins while Luz was over.

I slid down the wall again, collapsing back onto the floor in an exaggerated position right below my bed. There was no way that I was going to mess with those sheets, not since I had spent 30 minutes making them look perfect, but I was starting to feel drowsy. Eventually I gave into the urge and grabbed one tiny throw pillow from the bed to use, then, fell asleep curled up on the floor.

………………

When I woke up, the sun was a lot lower in the sky. It took me a few minutes to collect myself, but when I did, I realized that it had to be close to 7 by now, which meant that Luz would be coming soon.

Shooting up from where I had fallen asleep on the floor, I rubbed my neck. Maybe I should have been less stubborn and slept on the bed because now my neck felt all funny, and I was sore in places I didn’t want to be sore in.

From downstairs I heard some commotion, and then the doorbell rang.

It couldn’t be 7 already, right?

But when I looked over at the clock on my wall, the little hand was pointed to 7 and then large one to 1. I had slept all afternoon!! And Luz was already here!

Racing down the stairs, I catapulted myself towards the door before one of the twins could get to it. I didn’t want to endure the endless teasing right at the beginning of the night, but I knew that if they were the ones to greet her, Luz would be chased away by their jokes.

Luckily when I got down there, no one was waiting to open the door. Breathing a sigh of relief, I gave myself one final pep talk and opened it.

And there was Luz, dressed in her classic hoody, carrying a duffle bag over her shoulder with an expression mixed between excitement and anxiety. Perfect.

“Hi Amity.” She said, her voice warm and smooth.

“Hey Luz, come in.” I opened the door with a big smile on my face.

I didn’t bring many people over, or, I didn’t bring many people who weren’t Boscha and her crew over, people my parents had approved to spend time with their daughter, and it was weird to see someone else in my house. Luz looked around in awe at the intricate marble and detailed gold leaf that covered the walls.

My parents had spared no expense when they had built their house, making sure it was one of the most beautiful and expensive homes on the Isles. It was no wonder that Luz couldn’t stop looking around; I would have too if I had never seen this place before.

“It's beautiful.” She breathed out, setting her bag on the marble floor.

“Yeah, it's really something.” I replied, watching her as she looked around.

I spent a lot of time looking at Luz when I was first trying to figure out why I was drawn to her. I had memorized her silhouette, the way her hair usually fell, even the expressions she used in class, but I hadn’t ever seen her like this. The curiosity in her eyes was charged as she tore the room open with her eyes. It looked as though she might be trying to memorize the place, while I was set on memorizing how she looked right in that moment.

When she realized I had been looking at her, she met my gaze. I smiled shyly having been caught, and she rushed over and pulled me into a big hug.

For a moment I didn’t move, but eventually I relaxed my muscles and wrapped my arms around her in return, burying my face in the crook of her neck. We stood like that for almost a minute without saying anything, just breathing each other in, and I had a realization. Sure, kissing was amazing, and I planned to do it plenty more in my future, but hugging felt more intimate. With a hug you could really tell if the person doing it cared about you, and when I was in Luz’s arms, I knew that she did.

When we finally broke away, we were both grinning.

“You hug good.” Luz said, grabbing her bag again.

I rolled my eyes, “Yeah, but only because you’re so huggable.” I retorted.

She snorted, “Alright cutie, where can I put my stuff?”

I grinned broadly at the nickname, “Follow me.”

And we made our way up to my room.

Chapter Text

Luz

Amity’s room was enormous. Her whole house was enormous. It seemed that wherever I turned, there was something new worth commenting on. On the way up the grand staircase (yes, a grand fucking staircase) I had seen multiple works of art that looked eerily like famous ones back home. I couldn’t help but wonder who copied who.

I dropped my duffle bag down on the beautiful wood floor and took it all in. I could tell that she hadn’t had full say in the decoration of her room because of all the pink and purple items scattered all over the place, and it made me chuckle to think about her arguing with her parents about it.

But there were still distinctly Amity things too. For one the bookcases. It was like the whole room was covered in them, books piled in all the empty corners and filling up the gigantic bookcases quite literally until there was no room left. I traced the spines for familiar names but didn’t seem to find any. Maybe now that we were…we were doing this whole kissing thing, that she might let me borrow some of her favorites.

No wonder she liked the library so much, her whole room was one, she probably felt at home there.

“It's not all that much.” Amity said, looking around the room with me.

I gaped at her, “What do you mean ‘not much’?! This place is crazy! Your whole house is like out of some rich person fairytale.”

She gave me a look and leaned against her bed frame. There was pink tulle fabric draped in a canopy above her bed, and I was in love with it.

“There are rich person fairytales?” she questioned, looking obnoxiously cool, her eyes challenging me slightly.

“Sure.” I replied, walking a little closer to her, “Haven’t you heard of them?”

Her eyes flickered down to my lips as I got closer, and I watched as she became a little less cool looking, and a little more flustered.

“No, give me an example.”

I was walking closer so that we were only a foot or so apart, and she couldn’t stop looking at me.

“Uh,” I lamented, “You know what the name seems to be slipping my mind.” I was getting distracted by her eyes flickering back and forth between my eyes and my lips.

She definitely knew what she was doing, but I didn’t care. I liked it.

“Then there aren’t any.” She replied, placing a hand against my chest endearingly.

“You know what,” I began, pushing myself a little closer, “I think I forgot what we were talking about.”

I leaned in and closed the distance between us, pressing Amity’s back against the bed and drawing her in closer with my hands.

I felt her smile into my mouth, and her lips parted slightly. I had read enough books about kissing to know what I was doing in theory, but I didn’t know if putting my tongue in her mouth was appropriate. Honestly whenever I was reading about it, the descriptions weren’t all that appetizing, but when Amity slipped her tongue slightly into my mouth, tracing the edge of my lips, I decided that maybe it wasn’t too bad after all.

I would have stayed there kissing Amity for the entire night, but I pulled away when I heard snickering from behind me.

“Oh wow, she wasn’t joking about the kissing thing.” I heard Emira say, and I turned around, ears going beet red.

The twins were both standing in the doorway, leaning on opposite sides and giving us teasing looks.

I glanced back at Amity who was almost as red as me. I think she might have stopped breathing out of fury.

“Can't you two literally go anywhere else in the house!” she asked in a shrill voice.

Edric made a show of looking both of us and turned back to Emira.

“Yikes Mittens, it kind of looks like you two might need some adult supervision.”

Emira snickered, and I swear that smoke was pouring out of Amity’s ears. It was actually super cute, her all riled up like that, and I bit back a smile.

Unfortunately Amity noticed me starting to grin and she flashed me an annoyed look which only ended up and making her look cuter.

“Can everyone stop looking at me?” she complained, voice still squeaky.

I turned back to her with a serious expression.

“Absolutely not.” I replied, making a show of looking her up and down.

She opened her mouth slightly, unsure whether to be mad or turned on, and I flashed her a flirtatious smile.

“Ohh!” Emira said, turning Amity’s attention back to her twin, “She’s flirting!”

Amity sighed and rubbed her face with her hands.

“I need everyone who isn’t Luz to leave.”

“Um, actually we were just coming up to tell you that dinner’s here, but sure, go back to making out and whatever.” Edric said, leaning off of the doorframe and starting to walk away.

Emira followed, and Amity’s whole body relaxed.

“You know Ames,” I began, testing out a new nickname, “We can go get dinner. And afterward we can go right back to…” I didn’t have to finish my sentence for her to know what I meant.

She bit her lower lip and then reached out, pulling my hand into hers.

“Fine, we can get dinner, but if you’re going to flirt the entire time while they’re there, then I’m not kissing you again.” She turned her head upward as if to try and convince me she was serious.

“Oh really?” I teased, “You’re not going to kiss me if I flirt a little bit during dinner?”

“Correct.”

“Well then I guess the rest of the evening is going to be a little awkward without all the kissing I had planned.” I tilted her face towards mine with my open hand, “Because I don't plan on stopping with this whole flirting thing. I think it's cute when you get all flustered.”

As if to prove my point, Amity blushed, and I dropped my hand with a sly smile.

“You’re…ugh!” she complained, throwing her hand up in frustration.

“I know.” I replied, and we walked out the door.

………………

“And that’s why Mittens is no longer welcome back at the petting zoo!” Edric finished with a laugh, “I guess they don't like it when kids accidentally open the pen and let all the animals out!”

I was laughing along with Edric and Emira while Amity just gave us bored stares, rolling her eyes at how much fun I was having at dinner.

We had been downstairs for the better half of an hour now, and the twins wouldn’t stop telling embarrassing stories about Amity. Even though she complained against them, I couldn’t help but give in to the twins, loving how red Amity’s face was getting.

Through the majority of dinner we had been sitting next to each other, and I found my hands wandering to her waist and other places, loving how she kept getting flustered at the touch. I also had kept my promise to keep flirting, and I could tell that she was starting to get to the point where she might just lean over and smush our faces together in frustration.

“Wow Amity, I didn’t know that you had such an entertaining childhood.” I said, leaning over so our faces were inches from each other.

Her eyes flickered up and down me, and I leaned back, looking smug.

“Oh get a room already.” Emira teased, and Amity brightened.

“You know what Emira, I think that we will.” She stared at her across the table then grabbed my hand, standing up abruptly.

I stood up as well, and Amity pressed her body close to mine, leaning in to whisper in my ear.

“Let’s go upstairs.”

It was my turn to get flustered. The whole night Amity had let me flirt and push her around slightly, but I think that reaching her breaking point might have been worth it by the way she was talking to me.

I gaped at her, and Edric wolf whistled.

“Thank you two for an…entertaining dinner, but you must excuse us.” She gave the twins one final challenging look and then pulled me right out the door.

“You,” she began as soon as we got out of the dining room, “You are insufferable.”

“Yeah, I am.” I replied, my courage returning. “And you love it.”

She rolled her eyes and let out a slight laugh, “Yeah, yeah Luz I do.”

I smiled widely as she pulled me up the stairs and back to her room. When we got to her door she stopped abruptly and pushed me up against the piece of wood.

“But I also think you could have saved some of the flirting for the bedroom, and not dinner where my siblings were watching us.” Her entire body was pressed up against mine, and I felt a shiver go down my entire body.

I had seen this same move in television shows and things, but I didn’t know that a girl pressing me into the wall would be so…hot.

“Really,” I said, heart racing, “Because I thought it was a lot of fun.”

Her eyelids fluttered slightly, and she licked her lips.

For a moment we just stood there, breathing heavily against the door, but finally she caved and pressed her lips to mine.

Her hands were dancing all over me, and I breathed into the kiss. It was the most riled up I had ever seen her, and I could feel it in her lips, all the frustration from dinner pressed into them. It was really, really hot.

“What?” I asked when she pulled away, “I thought you said you wouldn’t kiss me if I flirted with you at dinner?”

She laughed, “Yeah Luz, we both knew I wasn’t going to keep that promise.”

“I know, I’m irresistible.” I replied, and she pulled her body from mine.

“Yeah.”

I peeled myself off of the wall and opened the door, holding my hand out for her to enter.

“Ladies first.”

She rolled her eyes but walked into the room.

I snuck a look at the clock. It was about 8:15 already, but I felt so electric that it was hard to imagine that it was even getting close to nighttime.

When I looked back over, I latched eyes with Amity, and she made a show of looking me up and down. She had done it before, but now it looked as though she were picking apart every piece of me, undressing me with her eyes.

“What happened to the anxious Amity who avoided me in school for a week after calling me beautiful?” I asked, but my mouth had gone dry, and I was feeling less confident. If only she would stop looking at me like that!

“She realized that there was nothing to fear about the second time you put your hand on her thigh during dinner, so.”

My jaw dropped and she gave me a fake sympathetic smile.

“What, did you think you were the only one who could have fun?”

I might have said yes if not for, well, the way she was looking at me. No one had ever looked at me like that.

I failed to answer, and she took it as a yes.

“Oh just get over here!” she complained, and I rushed over and pulled her into a hug.

She was surprised again. Last time she was surprised when I hugged her, but I pulled away and began to kiss her slowly.

It was almost like out first kiss. Soft, gentle, and slightly teasing like we were both right on the edge, afraid of jumping into the deep end. She wrapped her arms around me, and I pushed one up into her hair. She sighed at the touch, and I smiled, opening my eyes for a moment to just look at her.

I think we should normalize opening our eyes while kissing occasionally because when we were that close, I could count every freckle, trace her face with my eyes, and just look at how breathtaking beautiful she was.

Her eyes flickered open and she pulled away.

“What?” she whispered.

A billion things came to mind in that moment. I wanted to tell her that I couldn’t believe that this was real. I wanted to tell her how cute she was when she was flustered, or how much I loved when she rolled her eyes at me, but all of those things fell short of the phrase that came to mind.

“So beautiful.” I whispered, looking at her like how she had looked at me when we were on the couch all those days ago.

Her whole face lit up and she shoved me slightly in the arm.

“You sap!”

“What?” I complained, and Amity just laughed and pulled me down onto the bed with her.

We settled together, wrecking the picture-perfect sheets, and I wrapped my arms around her, feeling her body relax against me.

“You stole my line.” She said, not looking like she cared.

“But my delivery was impeccable.”

She rolled her eyes and pulled herself on top of me.

“Maybe,” she replied, and when she leaned down to kiss me, the whole world dissolved.

And it was all so beautiful.