A little bit over a week ago, Luz had walked up the path to the Owl House under the dark of night, using a Light Spell to see her way, surrounded by once vibrantly coloured leaves turned to charcoal-black, turning it into an eerie, almost cold environment. There hadn't even been any wind, any rustling of leaves, or anything along those lines.
That had been the day that she had first learned about Valeween.
Back then, it had been easy to think of everything that surrounded it as something of an exaggeration. That everyone was overreacting to whatever was coming. Luz had barely had a full comprehension of what it meant, even though Willow had explained the event to her in a fairly straightforward manner. Knowing what would happen, and experiencing it - These were two extremely different things, to the point that Luz wasn't even sure if she could claim to have had any idea what Valeween really was back then. It was the difference between knowing what happened when a doctor had to reset a broken arm, and having your own arm reset.
Walking up the path in the dark again - A small, Magical ball of light hovering between her hands again, but this time, the plants back in their normal vibrant colours, the sounds of leaves and grass brushing against one another filling the air, and this time it was later in the night that she was heading back up the path - reminded Luz of that day.
It made her reflect, though -So much had changed since then. Back then, she didn't know what to expect, and her mind had been filled to the brim of question after question, and the desire to see them answered, to put her curiosity to rest. So many of those questions had been answered since then, but now there were other, much larger ones that had been asked in their place.
The way that Amity had acted around her - How Amity had always acted around her... Being one of the biggest questions answered. But now, what she felt towards Amity replaced it. One question answered, another one asked, this one far, far harder to answer.
Sometimes, Luz had to wonder if everyone else's lives were as complicated as hers, or if the universe just liked to mess with her specifically.
As she made her way down the path, she paused for a second, at a low hanging branch. It was the same one that she had torn a turned charcoal-black leaf from a week and a half ago, and found the leaf indestructible, reinforced by the Magic that the Cherubim had exerted, to watch the Witches of the Isles, to open the portal from their realm into the Isles, and to help them in their hunts. Perhaps out of paranoia, Luz reached out, and tore another leaf from the branch, and tried to crumple it, just to see if there were any lingering signs of Cherubim within it.
This time, it bent and broke without resistance at all. Just like a regular leaf normally did. A small breath that Luz didn't realize that she had been holding escaped her, and she continued on.
After a short while, Luz found herself in front of the Owl House again. Since the invasion had passed, the fortifications that they had put up around the place had been taken down, leaving the exterior of the house open, free and uncluttered again. The Human made her way to the front door, opened it carefully so she didn't wake up the already asleep Hooty, closed it behind her, leaned against it, and then sighed.
Today had been... An emotionally exhausting day, just like every other day had been for the last week now. It was starting to become something that Luz was used to, though that didn't ever make her feel less tired. She'd never been an academically inclined person, but the idea of studying for a thousand tests felt less daunting than this. Less exhausting, too.
Tilting her head up to look around the living room, her eyes fell on the couch - Lilith and King both sleeping. Lilith had fallen asleep lengthways on the couch, and at some point, Eda probably put a blanket over her. King had fallen asleep next to her. Seeing that made Luz smile, and quietly made her way past the pair of them, tip-toeing upstairs, and trying not to wake them up.
"That you, Luz?" Once at the top of the steps, Eda's voice came from behind the slightly ajar door to her room. She spoke a bit quieter than usual, so as not to wake the three other members of the household.
"Yep." Luz answered, voice adjusted for the same reason. "Sorry for taking so long, I was with Amity for a while."
"Don't worry about it, kid. You get those packages delivered?"
"Uh - huh." Reaching into her bag, Luz produced a large pouch, about half the size of the bag in and of itself. As she pulled it out, the inside contents jingled. "I've got the money here. Do you want me to bring it in there, or are you not decent?"
"I'm fine, bring it in. I've got something I could use your eye on, actually."
Pushing the door open with her free hand, Luz entered the room - Eda was on the other side of it, and on the corner of her nest, there were a series of actually really nice clothes - Dresses, suits, jackets, pretty much any type of formal wear hat Luz could recognise, and others that she was fairly sure were unique to the Boiling Isles.
They seemed to be separated into groups - One pile having roughly ten outfits, and the other 'pile' having just one. Eda herself was holding two others, and was looking at one of them in front of a mirror. She paused for a second, before throwing a formal dress-suit hybrid into the larger pile.
Evidentially, she was picking something out for the Festivus.
Things with Yeven were clearly going well.
"I didn't even know you owned this many nice clothes." Luz said, flatly, and surprised, dropping the bag of money on the bed. For the longest time, she had thought that the only 'formal wear' she owned was one of her old high school dresses, and the suit she wore for Grom months ago.
"I don't exactly go out to a lot of nice things." Eda reminded her, a smirk on her face. "Can't imagine why I don't get invited anywhere. Anyway. -" She turned around, and picked up the article of clothing from the pile-of-one, shook some of the twigs that had gotten caught on it from her nest, and then held the two up next to one another. " - Which d'you think?"
Of the two options, one was a sort of dark red suit that had a series of interconnecting sequins along the arms and the waistline - It was a Boiling Isles article of clothing, one that back on Earth, Luz wouldn't be able to properly describe. It was like a suit and a waist jacket tied into one. The second option was a dress - A black-and-grey feathery one - Like the one that had belonged to Eda years ago. Like the one she had offered to let Luz wear for Grom if she had wanted.
"The dress." Luz said, without even a second's hesitation. It wasn't even a choice as far as she was concerned.
Eda looked at the dress, and then back at Luz. "You're sure?"
"It'll be like you're back in Hexside again - I'll bet you anything Yeven will love it." The Human smirked.
Luz could count the number of times she'd seen Eda actually blush on one hand up until this point. Now, she was going to need two hands to do it.
"...Well, that's that then." Eda nodded, throwing the suit onto what Luz figured was the 'discarded' pile of clothes. She held the dress in front of her, and looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes squinted, and she muttered, "Twenty years later, and I'm gonna be wearing close enough the exact same sort of thing I did back then... You're certain that's not too on the nose?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." Luz couldn't stop the smirk on her face from spreading. "It's weird seeing you this nervous, Eda."
"This coming from you, of all people, kid?"
Both parties laughed, good naturedly. Between the two of them and their similar situations, and their normal dynamic, it was difficult not to at least laugh about it together.
"...How did it go today, anyway?" Once her laugh subsided, Eda asked, her tone far more serious and sincere. "Did something happen? You look tired."
Honestly, at this point, Luz would be more surprised when she didn't look or feel like she was tired. For a second, she hesitated to answer, out of habit more than anything. "Well, er... Willow told me about the Passover Festivus."
"...Did I not?"
"Er... No."
"...Damn." Eda blinked, her shoulders slumping slightly. "First I forgot to tell you about Valeween, and now I forgot the Festivus. I'm two for two on that front, huh. Sorry."
Another smile. It was weird - For Valeween, Eda had said that the reason she had forgotten to even explain anything to her had come down to the fact that Luz was now such a prominent part in her life, and had adapted so well, that it was like she had always been there, and the Festivus was apparently more of the same. In an odd way, it made Luz feel happy to know that that was why Eda forgot. It made her feel more accepted. Like she truly belonged here.
"It's fine." Luz assured her. If there was ever one reason that she was happy to not be informed about something, it was the fact that people were so used to her being around that they forgot she wasn't even from here.
"...So?" An eyebrow raised above Eda's right eye. "If you even didn't know what the Festivus was until today, I'm gonna guess green-top hadn't asked. Have they asked today?"
"...We... Sort of asked each other." Luz admitted after a brief silence. "We're er, we're gonna go together."
Eda smirked, her golden fang showing. "About damn time something happened there." As she spoke, she began to clear up all the clothes she had left thrown on the side of her nest. "So, you figured out the whole 'How you feel' thing yet, then?"
To that, Luz just shook her head. "I just... I want to go to the Festivus with her. But I don't... Know, yet."
For some reason, saying that felt less accurate now.
This time, Eda didn't say anything, but she nodded her head in understanding, and began to pack all the clothes away. After a few seconds, as she was hanging up the clothes, she glanced over her shoulder, "Anything I can do to help?"
"I... I don't think so. I think I'll be okay." In all honesty, Luz didn't know if there was anything that Eda could do to help. So much of this was her own internal strife and convoluted feelings that she struggled to think of a way that anyone could help her. She smiled though. "Thanks anyway, Eda."
"Alright." Eda nodded again. She turned around, to grab a few more clothes to hang up. "You know the drill - Food's in stasis for you, if you wanna grab that whenever you're ready." Another wry smirk. "Be nice if you actually showed up for dinner once in a while though. I might have to give Lilith your seat before much longer."
"I'll make a note of it." Luz smiled, and began to leave the room. Her hand grabbed hold of the door handle. "Night, Eda."
"Night, kiddo. Try not to wake those two downstairs, alright?"
"Right." Luz said, slowly shutting the door, to make sure it didn't creak. Once shut, she let out a small sigh, and made her way back downstairs.
Tip-toeing around Lilith and King again, she found where her food had been left for her, used her Magic to bring it out of stasis, tip-toed past Lilith and King a third time, made her way back upstairs, and finally, to her room. Once again, she sighed, put the food on her desk, sat down, and took a bite of her meal. It was good, actually.
She retrieved her Scroll from her pocket, and opened it up - She had promised that she would let Amity know when she had gotten back to the Owl House, and now, she had a moment to herself.
Once she opened it up though, she noticed that on the home screen, she had a notification telling her that Willow had messaged her, at least four separate times. Her eyebrow raised, and she would quickly check those - Once she let Amity know she was fine.
It was a very simple, quick message. 'Hey, Amity, I'm at the Owl House now. I got back okay.' She hit send, and it was away. Then, she tapped the notifications that Willow had sent her, and scrolled through those.
The earliest one had been sent on it's own, and the other three had been sent in rapid succession, a couple of hours after the first one. The first one was a photo, not of Willow, but of Boscha - In it, Boscha was holding up the single most feminine dress Luz had ever seen in her life. It was an almost absurdly pink, sparkling, and frilly dress that looked like it belonged at a combination formal-party-disco-rave. Boscha was holding it in front of her, for the camera, so it looked like she was wearing it.
Luz had never seen Boscha look so embarrassed before - It was hard not to laugh. Clearly, Willow had been the one to push Boscha for a photo like this, because there was no way Boscha would ever willingly even touch something like that. The contrast between the dress, and the way Boscha acted was hilarious. She had handled her forced confession to Willow with more grace than she was showing here.
Whatever their relationship ended up being, the fact Boscha was willing to entertain this for Willows sake was a sort of proof that they were on the mend.
Two photos and a text message came afterwards - The images being this time of Willow, comparing two different dresses to one another. On one of them, there was a finger on the screen, coming off from the side, from the person who was holding the Scroll to take the photo - It looked like it belonged to Gus, so it looked like that was where Willow had gone after she and Boscha had split off from each other.
'Which one do you think looks better? - It's for the Festivus!"' The text message read. Luz blinked, wondering why the heck everyone seemed to be asking her for fashion advice today. The choices were between the same dress that the Plant Witch had worn to Grom, and another, dark blue one, that had a single flower pattern that was worn above where the heart would be. It went with Willow's hair.
'The blue one.' Luz typed a reply, and then put her Scroll down, to eat her food before it went cold. As she chewed, she allowed her thoughts to wander a little, and as they did, her eyes fell on her phone.
In all the hectic busyness that had surrounded Valeween and everything that came after, and all the thought consuming feelings that had been eating away at Luz for the last week now, she hadn't even thought about Earth. Not even briefly. It made her feel guilty, and made her wonder how her mother was doing back there.
Reaching out, she picked up her phone, and looked at the device, though she didn't turn it on. In the reflection of her turned-off screen she could see herself - Eda hadn't been wrong. She looked absolutely exhausted. She put the phone down, and took another bite from her food.
She wanted to be able to go back to Earth, to let her mother know that she was alright. To tell her all about the Boiling Isles. To show her what this place was like, and the Magic she could do now. To tell her about the friends that she had made.
To tell her about Amity.
And... Hope that she would have some idea about what to do right now. Some advice or... Something. Maybe it wouldn't be more useful, or more in depth, or clear anything up for her more than anyone else's so far, but... It would be a comfort, if nothing else. Even when Luz hadn't known what to do, and when her mother hadn't known what to do either, when her mother tried to help, there was a feeling of comfort there. She missed that, sometimes.
Once all of this was over, she was going to go back to trying to find a way back to Earth. She hadn't just abandoned that plan. But for now, she had to figure this all out herself.
Another bite, and her Scroll lit up. The notification informed the Human that it was a message from Amity. Quickly, Luz tapped on the device to open the message.
'Thank you for letting me know, Luz.' Extremely formal. A smile prepared on Luz's lips. Amity always wrote messages in a formal manner. She had gotten used to it by now. 'I just wanted to make sure - Are you positive you're comfortable going to the Festivus together? I just don't want to be the cause of you being uncomfortable in any way.'
The formality didn't hide the fact that Amity was obviously nervous, and Luz could imagine the Witch hesitating before hitting the send button. It just made her smile more. It was sweet of her to be this concerned. And Luz knew the source of that concern...
Which was a weird, but... Really warm feeling.
'It's totally fine, Amity!' She responded, typing it out as quickly as her thumbs would let her. 'I want to go with you. I'm looking forward to it!' She hit send, and the message was away.
Luz hadn't lied a bit, either. She had meant every word of that. She did want to go with her, and she was looking forward to it.
Even with these feelings uncertain as they were.
More mouthfuls of food later, and Luz's plate was clean. She leaned back in her seat for a moment, and just stared at the ceiling, with no real purpose or thought whatsoever.
Sometimes, being here didn't feel real. Like it was all some sort of massive hallucination, or maybe the bus to Summer Camp had crashed, and she was in a coma or something. She would have to bite the inside of her lip occasionally to remind her that all of this - All the wonders of this Realm, all the Magic she had seen and done, and all the people she had met - All the weird, wonderful friends that she had made here - That they were all real. That this was all real.
That these feelings were real. Both the ones directed to her, and the ones that she felt herself. Even if she didn't know what they meant, they were real.
This was all real.
The day after tomorrow, she would be going to a festival with Amity. And she knew Amity was... In love with her.
It was real. Even if sometimes, Luz was certain that it couldn't be.
Her mind wandered for a moment, until she blinked. She then reached for her Scroll, and opened the chat box with Willow.
'Hey, Willow - I think I might need your help with something, if you've got time tomorrow.'
"Yknow, what? I'm gonna be honest - This is the absolute literal last thing that I thought I'd be doing today."
"...Didn't you do this yesterday?" Gus's eyebrow raised, and he didn't bother to hide the smirk. "We all saw the pictures."
"Willow dragged me out there!" Boscha defended, firmly, and while trying her hardest to not go red-in-the-face. "A - And if I'd known she was gonna send those pictures to you two, I wouldn't have gone."
"You would have gone anywhere if it meant Willow was happy." Luz said, a smirk of her own showing up. "We've all seen how you act with her these days."
"Human, I swear to the Titan -"
"Okay! Luz, I found these" Emerging from around one of the many convoluted twists and fabric-draped turns of the store, Willow returned to the group, four separate, more feminine articles of clothing in hand. As soon as she showed up, Boscha stopped speaking, and instead turned to pick up one of the articles from Willow, and held it open so Luz and Gus could see it. "Did anything here work?"
"I liked the waistcoat." Luz said, gesturing at a purple-and-grey waistcoat that sat atop a pile of other tried-on clothes. "I just need something for it to go with now."
From what Luz had been told, and from what she had been able to put together on her own, the Festivus was a sort of formal-informal hybrid type of event. From what few outfits she had seen, there was variety - Some people were going in formal attire, while others were going in a more casual manner. What the metric was for that, and what informed their choice of clothing, Luz couldn't know.
What she did know though, was that she didn't have anything to wear for the Festivus. There was her Grom outfit, but that felt... Lazy, almost. It just didn't seem right to wear that to the Festivus again. If there was anything that she didn't want to do, it was to come across like she wasn't taking Amity's feelings seriously. Maybe that only made sense to her, but it mattered a lot either way. She needed something new.
That was why she asked Willow if she was willing to help her find an outfit for the Festivus last night. Willow of course agreed, and had gotten hold of Gus to see if he was available - His Illusion Magic would save the Human a massive amount of time.
The reason that Boscha had been asked to come along by Willow and by Luz had been for the sake of an unbiased perspective - Gus had next to no fashion sense, Luz was the one who wanted the perspectives of others, and while Willow probably had the best fashion sense of the three of them, Luz easily knew she was far, far too nice to actually be blunt about her perspective. Boscha on the other hand wouldn't hesitate. So, here she was.
It was an... Odd feeling, voluntarily spending... Any time around Boscha, Luz felt. But Willow seemed comfortable around her, and she was giving her honest opinion, which Luz had wanted, so she couldn't complain.
Gus looked at the clothing that Boscha held up - A frilly, green dress, with black sleeves. With a spin of his fingers, he cast an Illusion Spell on Luz, so that it looked like the girl was now wearing it, along with the waistcoat that she had approved of on top of it.
"...Yeah, no." Luz said, flatly. Not only did it not feel right, looking at it in the mirror, it looked nothing short of a contradictory mess. With the waistcoat, it simply didn't work.
"Definitely not." Boscha agreed. Both Gus and Willow also vocalised their disapproval, and with the flick of Gus's wrist, the Illusion was broken.
This process repeated itself quickly as they went down the pile of clothes that Willow had sought out, though approval and disapproval varied from article to article. When the pile of clothes had been gone through, the group would seek out other clothes throughout the store they were in, to see if there was anything that would suit Luz. Sometimes Willow would go on her own, and sometimes Gus or Boscha would go along with her, to see if their tastes would lead to something that worked well. They then brought them back to her, Gus would do his Magic, and the process would begin over again.
Given what all of this was for, Luz found herself being a whole lot more particular with the style of clothing that she was going to accept than she normally would be - And a part of her knew that she was being difficult and pedantic, but she couldn't help it. This mattered to her. A lot.
And she was glad that she had friends who were willing to help her with this.
After a few cycles of clothing options being rejected though, Willow and Gus went off, hunting for anything that might go well with the waistcoat. Once out of sight, Luz just allowed herself to sigh, and lean back against the nearest wall. Her own eye for fashion had never been exactly great, and nor had her patience for this sort of clothes shopping, either. There had been next to nothing more boring back on Earth. Again, the only reason she was putting in so much effort now was because of Amity.
Though, she would admit, a part of her wondered if she could get away with just putting the waistcoat over her suit back at the Owl House, and seeing if that would work.
"So." Boscha said suddenly, pulling Luz's attention away from her thoughts. The three-eyed girl was leaning against a wall, just like Luz was, though her Scroll was now in hand. "You and Amity, huh? How's that going?"
Luz blinked a couple of times, before she raised an eyebrow. Without really thinking about it, she deflected the question. "...How's things with you and Willow going?"
Boscha paused for a second, and glanced out over the store floor. She must have caught sight of Willow, because after a moment, she stopped her scanning, and just kept her focus on one particular spot. She then smiled, before she returned back to face the Human.
"...Better than I could have imagined it would." She answered, evidentially very honestly. There was a deep fondness in the way she spoke that Luz couldn't help but feel she hadn't ever seen in Boscha before. She then let her face fall back into its usual scowl, though. "You didn't answer me though."
Again, Luz just blinked. "...It's, uh... It's going okay, I guess."
For all the progress that Boscha had made, Luz wasn't certain just how comfortable she was talking about this with her. It wasn't even so much the fact that their history hadn't exactly been pleasant, or that Luz didn't trust her - They had fought alongside one another on Valeween. That had been pretty conducive to at least helping to ease that prior tension. It was more down to the fact that she barely even knew how to talk about it with Willow or Gus or Eda or Amity herself, never mind Boscha. She didn't even know entirely what to say at the best of times.
What was she supposed to say to Boscha, of all people?
"You're worried." Boscha then stated. It wasn't a question, or a judgement - The way she said it, it was more like an objective observation that she was pointing out.
"O... Of course I am." Luz nodded, plainly. "Isn't that normal?"
"Why?"
"What -" Luz blinked, and felt her face turn into an incredulous scowl. "What do you mean, 'Why?'" Was that not painfully obvious?
"You know how Amity feels about you." Boscha pointed out, pushing herself up from leaning against the wall. Her hands shovelled into her pockets once she stood upright. "You know exactly how she feels. It's not like you have to worry about being rejected if you're planning on telling her you like her."
"It... I don't know how I feel. That's... Thats the problem."
"And that's why you're bothering with all of this clothes shopping?" An eyebrow raised over Boscha's left eye.
"I can't just - I don't want her to think I'm not taking her seriously!"
"Bullshit."
All Luz could do was blink, before Boscha spoke again.
"I've known Amity a lot longer than you have, Human -"
All three of Boscha's eyes fell onto Luz - And maybe it was the fact it was three eyes and not two, but it made the Human feel incredibly... Exposed, for lack of a better word.
"- Do you honestly think that Amity would care if you showed up in your Grom outfit or not?" A pause. "Better question - Do you think she'd care if you showed up wearing what you've got on now?"
The question didn't really need answering. It was almost self evident -
Amity wouldn't care. She wasn't that vain, or interested in stuff like that - Hell, half the time that Luz ever saw her out of school, her clothes are as simplistic as it got. It wasn't like she was going to be disappointed with the outfit Luz ended up wearing - She was out here because it felt like it made sense to her.
Boscha didn't wait for an answer. "So, this is more for your sake than anything else. Which is fine, but that tells me that you're bothered about this - I'm asking you why it's bothering you so much if you know how she feels about you."
"I - I don't -"
"You know exactly how you feel about her, don't you." Again, it wasn't a question. It was stated as though it were a fact. "I've put up with this for the past week, just barely get on with either of you, and even I know that you're as into her as she is into you. You asked her to the Festivus, and she asked you. Maybe you didn't know back on Valeween, but you do now."
Luz's mouth opened, to say... Something. But no noise came out.
"I can get not saying anything to me." Boscha said, flatly. "That goes without saying. And not saying anything to Gus, yeah, I wouldn't trust him to keep a secret either. But you're keeping this up around Willow?"
"It's not a bit!" This time, Luz almost shouted, but she forced herself to keep her voice down. Was Boscha accusing her of lying - What else could she possibly mean, if not that? "I don't - I can't tell how I feel! Amity is incredible! She's such a fun and cool person to be around - Of course I like her! But that's not - "
She bit down on her lip, and paused.
"... I - It doesn't make any sense. Amity is like, this... Everything she does, she does well. She always tries her hardest. But she's not willing to just... Throw people aside anymore. Not like she used to. I admire all of that, but... That doesn't mean I... I like her like her."
Her eyes looked down towards the ground.
"I... I don't know why she likes me the way she does. I don't... I don't get it. I don't know what she even sees in me. But there's... There... Something there, and I don't know what! It's not a bit, Boscha - I don't know!"
"...You think she made a mistake."
Silence.
A pause.
And all Luz did was blink.
"...W... What?" Her voice was far, far, far quieter than she realised, or intended.
"You think that Amity made a mistake by falling for you, don't you." Boscha repeated, her agro vanishing, and the more relaxed, calm Boscha that had been emerging over the last fortnight came back. "That there's something wrong with you, and that Amity's messed up somehow in feeling the way she does about you."
"That..." Words didn't leave Luz's mouth once again, and now, they were starting not to properly form in her head. All that really came to her mind was memories.
Her schoolmates on Earth didn't like her. She was the screw up. The weirdo. The freak. No one wanted to be around her. No one wanted to be her friend. And certainly no one liked her the way Amity did - That was a joke to them. They had taunted her when she fell for the joke.
It didn't happen back on Earth.
People did not like Luz Noceda.
That wasn't how it worked.
That was never how any of this had worked.
That just - That didn't happen.
...What other course of action did the Human have other than to internalise that? To realize that that was the way the world around her saw her? To hide into her own little corner of the world, and imagine a world that was nothing like the one she was born into.
And now she was here. And she had friends. And that was already bizarre to her but...
To think anyone even here would...
Or that anyone like Amity would...
"...How do you think I feel?" Boscha asked, pulling Luz out of her memories.
Once again, the Grudgby Captain scanned over the store floor. This time, Willow was in Luz's line of sight too, when Boscha located the Plant Witch.
"You know what I thought when Willow asked me to help with this mess today?"
It was a rhetorical question. And a few seconds later, Boscha answered it herself.
"I thought 'This is it. This is how I fuck this all up.'
Luz's eyes returned to Boscha.
"And that's how I feel every single time I see her. Every... Single time, I think that I'm going to mess something up, or say the wrong thing, or she's going to see through me, realize I'm the same... Stupid, fucking bitch that ruined her life for years, that was stupid enough to catch feelings for her after she stopped. And every time, that's not what happens. And then I have to think... How? How doesn't she see through it? That doing this is just some... Mistake."
"...Why do you care?"
Boscha turned around, back to Luz.
"About me and Amity. About what happens between us?" It was the only thing that Luz could even think to ask - The rest of her was... Overwhelmed. But she wanted to know either way though. "...Why do you care?"
For a moment, Boscha looked like she was considering the question carefully, all three of her eyes looking up at the ceiling as she processed the reasons throughout her brain, before they returned to looking at the confused Human. "A few reasons, I guess. Willow cares about what happens between the two of you - She talks about it a lot. I'm tired of seeing you two skirt around one another..."
Another pause. A slight blush appeared on the Witch's cheeks.
"...And, well, I guess I feel like I owe you. Because Willow is willing to put up with me because of you. Because you could have told her to steer clear of me, and she probably would have but... You gave me a chance as much as she did. So, I guess I want to see you figure things out with Amity. That and, well... I don't like seeing myself in you like this."
"...Boscha, you don't owe me - "
"We found this!"
From behind the pair of them, Gus's loud voice broke up their conversation - Behind him, Willow was holding up a sort of red, black sleeved short-dress. It had enough of a skirt to be, well, a skirt, while remaining decent, while also, if Luz wanted to, could let her combine it with a set of suit-pants if she so chose. Like they had seen the thought coming already, Willow and Gus had brought a set along with them too.
The pattern on the short dress was haphazard and sporadic, with blotches of black in random locations, but the sleeves went from a gradient of black and red, being solid black at the ends, and turning more and more red the closer to the body it got. There were no frills, either.
It practically looked like a perfect fit for the sort of style Luz liked.
There was no word of warning - Gus just cast the Illusion Spell, and the outfit, waistcoat, and suit pants, appeared on Luz's body. When Luz inspected it, her eyes fell on herself in the mirror.
She looked good.
"Oh, that," Boscha said, giving a thumbs-up, "That I like."
'You think Amity made a mistake.'
That repeated in Luz's head as she laid awake that night. They kept her awake.
For a while, she thought that it might have been because she was looking forward to the Festivus - And she was looking forward to it. She was excited, even - Everything that surrounded the Festivus had captured her attention and she was looking forward to tomorrow, to seeing this whole thing take place - But that wasn't what kept her awake that night.
It was Boscha's voice that kept her awake. The words that she had said to the Human.
How alarmingly they resonated.
That Amity made a mistake.
A mistake in falling in love with her.
A mistake...
Luz stared up at the ceiling above her. King was curled up to the side of her, and had been sleeping for hours now. She didn't even know what time it was. She'd been like this for a while, long before she had gotten back to the Owl House, and it hadn't died down in the time since returning. Just repeating the phrase in her head.
A mistake.
On Earth, there weren't mistakes like this - People didn't accidentally fall for someone like Luz. It just - It didn't happen. And Luz had gotten used to that. She'd accepted that that was the way things were. She...
...She'd put her heart into a box. The same box that let her block out how Amity felt about her to begin with.
Only this time, it was directed towards herself.
Because no one could like her - Be in love with her - like that. Because she had been stung so many times now, that that was easier to do than entertain the idea of someone liking her like that. Because it made sense - Because -
Because what other reason would there be for everything that happened Earthside?
Because... Everyone else that Luz could think of outshone her in a thousand ways. Willow was a stronger Witch. Boscha was a more talented Witch. There had to be thousands of other Witches on the Isles that outshone Luz - It didn't make sense for her to be the person Amity liked in the end. It just - It didn't make sense to her.
It was easier to acknowledge that. To acknowledge where she stood in relation to everyone else. Because as much as she had tried to reinvent herself here, to be someone different, to really... Be someone here... It was easier to acknowledge this fact. To know where the boundaries would lay. To know what was within the realm of possibility, and what wasn't.
But the Cherubim... The Cherubim made it impossible to lie. And Luz just... Didn't understand.
She didn't know how she felt about Amity - Because she never gave herself the chance to figure it out. It was the same hurdle that had stopped her from knowing how Amity felt to begin with.
...Was Boscha right? Did she know how she felt about Amity, deep down, but was just... Not able to figure it out because of the box she'd put her heart into?
...Had Amity made a mistake, in falling for her?
...It was hard not to feel like that was the case right now.
Luz didn't sleep that night.
ALRIGHT YA'LL - We're entering the final stretch - Valeween will be coming to a close on Chapter 20 - And I really think that what I have will be really nice for ya'll!
Honestly, I don't think there's much for me to say here - But there is one thing - I'm taking part in a huge multi-media project with the (On Ao3) in the form of the story - I'll be helping write, organize, and do the occasional drawing for. Everyone there is solid, so do be sure to give it a check out - I'll remind ya'll by the end of this story - As well as revealing my next project, so stay tunes for that.
Until then - I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll be seeing you next time - See ya!