It Must Be (A) Love (Potion)

I Want

It wasn't clear how long Luz had actually spent crying both her heart and eyes out. Amity hadn't kept track, and neither had Luz. To both of them, time seemed to just melt into itself while sobs and tears escaped Luz, while Amity tried to do what little was possible for her to do to offer some kind of reassurance. Any kind really. All she could offer was her embrace, the only bit of physical comfort that she could think to offer her.

To them, it felt like hours.

Amity had never heard anyone cry like Luz had. There was... So much... Maybe the best word to describe it was 'visceral'. There weren't a whole lot of other words that she could think of that were fitting. The grip that she had on Amity was tight, and her sobs were all but choked out. Her cries sounded raw after a while, like it hurt her throat to even keep crying, but she couldn't stop.. She was shaking.

The only word for all of that was... Heartbreaking .

Listening to it all was heartbreaking.

Had she ever cried about this in the first place, or had she kept this all pent up ever since it happened? Let it eat away at her? Let it take an ugly form of its own, and mess with the way she saw herself?

Somehow, Amity already knew it was the second option.

If literally anyone had cried the way Luz had been, Amity would have done what she could do to help them in some way. Even if it had been a complete stranger. That was how bad it was.

The fact that it was Luz just made it sting so much more.

Because of everyone that Amity knew, Luz was always the brightest, the kindest, and the person with the biggest smile on their faces. The person who cared the most, who put themselves out there for others the most.

She didn't deserve to feel like this. And she certainly didn't deserve the treatment that she had gotten back in her Realm.

Eventually though, Luz seemed to be able to get it out of her system, somehow. There weren't any more tears to cry. Her face was a mess, her eyes were red and swollen, and when she blinked, the stinging made her want to clamp them shut for the next twenty-four hours. Amity didn't say a word about it. The only thing she did was go towards the counter, and got Luz a cloth and some water, and let her do whatever she needed to do with both.

After that, she and Amity sat on the sofa in the living room, and after a gentle prompting, Luz began to tell Amity about her experiences in further detail. Amity only ever spoke when Luz stopped, letting her vent whatever she needed to vent.

Whatever she needed.

For as long as she needed.

"...So then he just... Walked off. The next time I saw him, he just... Acted like nothing had happened. And I didn't know what to do so I just.... Had to go along with it..." Luz had been able to get through the full recounting of the third time she experienced rejection, though it was a lot more difficult for her than the first two and the fourth one, but it clearly was the one that still affected her the most. "I just sorta had to pretend everything was fine."

"You couldn't... Talk to anyone about it?"

"I didn't have anyone to talk about it with." Luz told her, sighing. "...I don't have friends back home. I'm too 'weird' for that." She made little finger quotes at the word 'weird'. "And I couldn't tell my mom about it. I... I didn't want to worry her with it. She was... Worried enough about me as it was. I couldn't..."

Somehow, Amity had always imagined that Luz had had plenty of friends back in the Human Realm. No end of people to talk to. It would have made sense. She just had that effect on people, especially here. Sometimes it took a bit, but Luz could talk to just about anyone.