• The Next Day •
"WHAT?!"
Amity, despite this being a phone call, waved her hand down in a shushing manner. Rushing her words out with a harsh whisper.
"Emira! Quiet, it's—"
Emira was rambling by now. Her words, which were slurred together, indicated a daze preventing her from hearing what her sister was saying.
Amity herself needed a few minutes to actually discern what was being said.
"... I get you guys liked being unconventional and stuff but eight months?! Especially after what happened last time?! What if she does something and—?"
Amity's eyes went wide and she spat out a reply to cut her off. "Emira!"
She took a deep breath, trying to slow down after finally being given the silence she was hoping for.
If this was any indication of how Edric would react...
"It's soon, I get it. But mom's got me—" She glanced upstairs where Sially hopefully couldn't hear. Still quieting her voice more to be safe. "—In the same situation you were in before you left. Only now, the only way I can really leave and override it is if I elope with Luz. That's the best option for us, anyway."
Emira, since before and especially after the breakup, had been rather wary of Luz. To the point where it was noticeable that she was placing distance.
It started when Emira had noticed a scar on Amity's hairline.
While fighting the Collector, Amity had been struck in the back of the head by a stray boulder. And there were several minutes of Luz panicking and sobbing while she held a limp and bleeding Amity and tried every healing spell she could.
One of them worked, and Amity was okay.
But, Luz lost consciousness completely when she saw her girlfriend wince in pain from her sister touching the scar.
Emira didn't have the time to back away before an ice spike flew from the ground and hit her hand. Trapping one half of it and cutting the other half badly.
That was the first of the fights.
After the breakup, Emira had only grown more distant with Luz, mostly after seeing how badly her little sister was affected by it.
Just now, Emira was going to imply that Luz would be the reason why they had issues going forward.
So, Amity was quick to shut it down.
"Look, you don't have to be enthusiastic about it. You don't have to say congratulations, help with the planning, or anything if you aren't comfortable. I'd just really appreciate it if you went." She paused to emphasize her next words. "I know the circumstances are bad. We both do. But I still want to see my sister on my wedding day. Even if you're only there for a few minutes."
The other side of the call was quiet for a moment, but, there was eventually an acceptance. Followed by a profuse: "Thank you" from Amity.
She leaned back against the counter once the call ended. Tilting her head back and groaning.
One sibling down.
One to go.
Edric was more understanding of the circumstances surrounding the breakup. So, hopefully, this meant that he wouldn't react as badly.
Maybe...
She was already exhausted just from explaining the whole "eight months to elopement" thing. Even though it had only been done twice already.
On top of having to explain the issue with her arranged marriage. Even to Camila and Vee.
... And explain that they did get back together roughly an hour after Amity found out about said marriage... Knowing the possibility that her "first" fiancé was in it because he genuinely liked her...
This would be fun...
She took a deep breath, bracing herself for that call.
Darius said we're in the clear... Darius said we're in the clear... Darius said we're in the clear...
Regardless of how many times she repeated it in her head, it didn't ease her anxiety.
So, she just went for it. Knowing that if she didn't, Emira would tell Edric, first.
Which would bring about their own set of long-term issues.
Edric wound up being busy, so they planned to call later.
Amity laid the palm side of her hand on half of her face and took a second deep breath.
Why did this have to happen to begin with?
Why did Odalia have to do this?
Why did they have to get back together under such circumstances?
Why didn't they just rip the metaphorical bandaid off and tell everyone sooner?
Amity glanced down towards her chest and shook her head. Pushing those thoughts away and relaxing a bit.
She resented the situation.
She resented their choices.
But she would absolutely never resent the witchling.
They didn't ask for this.
They didn't ask to be involved in this.
They were an innocent party in this situation.
Not to mention, an innocent party that both she and Luz loved with every ounce of their beings.
She could never resent them.
It wasn't warranted.
It wasn't necessary.
It wasn't helpful.
And, on top of that, it would have been downright cruel.
Amity used that thread of thoughts to calm herself down.
Of all things, Amity was confident in this.
She was not going to be like Odalia.
This situation didn't affect that. In fact, it only reinforced it.
What she had gone through was a level of torture that she wouldn't have wished on her worst enemy.
Let alone her own child.
She finally shook the thoughts away. Simply taking a breath and looking out the window.
Her mouth was watering a little. Though she couldn't tell if it was because she was hungry, or about to vomit.
She hoped it wasn't the latter.
For one thing, because it was unpleasant.
For another, Sially was still right upstairs near the bathroom.
If she was sick, there was no doubt that they would hear it crystal clear.
Edric had been more laid back than Emira in the past. And was the reason why Amity could openly talk about living with Luz between him and Emira.
• • •
"Oh, that's a smart idea."
Amity blinked.
Seeing as how contact was low for the most part, Emira and Edric could only see Amity at the library while she was on her break.
"You think?"
Edric nodded. "Yeah! Staying with a friend will make it way easier for you when you leave! Why didn't we think of that?"
Emira laughed under her breath. "Because we left at the last minute, maybe? But, how is it there? I guess you and Willow had time to get used to sharing a space before, huh?"
Amity blinked. "Oh, um..."
Both twins looked at her.
Emira had a more worrying assumption. "Did, something happen?"
Edric had the obvious one. "Oh! Are you staying with another friend?"
Amity nodded after Edric's question. Smiling nervously as she couldn't meet their eyes. "So, I'm actually staying with Luz...?"
"No way!"
"No way!"
Despite the fact that both statements were shouted, and were practically the same, the tones were so different that it gave Amity whiplash.
Edric's was more of a casual question, just with a louder volume attached. Kind of like an: "Oh, cool!"
Emira on the other hand...
Amity threw her hands in front.
"Holdonholdonholdon! It's okay! Luz and I are okay now!"
Emira narrowed her eyes. "You sure? What about that incident a couple months ago?"
Amity grimaced. "Hey, I was the one who offered to help with that fairy nest! Don't pin that on Luz. You've known her since we were fourteen! You know she means well!"
Edric spoke with a nervous smile before Emira could reply. Putting a hand on his older sister's shoulder to try and calm her. "She was the one who probably offered, right? Have you even told any of your other friends what's been going on?"
Amity shook her head. "I haven't. Luz is the only one I trust with that until I can find a way out. I swear that everything's okay, now. The breakup was bad, but we're over it, I mean it!"
Emira raised an eyebrow. "Over what part, Mittens?"
Edric directed his gaze towards her. "Oh, come on, Em. Stop being such a stick in the mud. I'm glad you have a friend who wants to help you get out safely. We didn't have that, and I didn't want you to go through the same thing we did."
That made Emira calm a bit.
It was hard to say which twin understood how helpful Luz was being better.
Edric had the time to pack, but it took a while before he could contact Jerbo and get any help. Before that, Eda tried to help him stay with her. But even that stopped when Alador inevitably looked for Edric there.
After all that, he and Jerbo still struggled financially for the next year and a half. Not wanting to keep asking for help.
Emira left at the last minute with next to no time to pack. However, she was with Viney from the start. She wasn't that well off, either. But they had plenty to be semi-comfortable with a few rough areas in-between. Especially after Viney and Emira started helping with sick creatures whenever possible.
But, she had to stay completely hidden until their wedding. And even then said wedding was ruined by the incident.
They knew better than anyone else that Luz's insistence on helping Amity was a miracle for their sister.
Despite the relief, Emira still found a whisper of: "Why Luz, of all people?" in the back of her mind.
She sighed.
"You only trust Luz?" Amity nodded. "And you're being honest with us when you say you guys are over what happened before?"
Amity nodded again.
Emira took a deep breath.
A part of her wondered if the amount of protectiveness she felt towards both her younger siblings was normal. But, she had no evidence to suspect anything out of the ordinary with the family. So she brushed it off as normal.
"Okay, I trust you."
Both Edric and Amity lit up. The latter hugging her older sister tightly.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"
"Just—Promise me you won't impulsively try the relationship thing again?"
Amity nodded immediately. Only recognizing how hard it would be to keep that promise after she had already broken said promise.
The day after she had, actually.
She was sure it had startled Luz.
One moment, Amity had been sleeping peacefully, laying on Luz's bare chest with tiny purple spots around her neck and collarbone. Both feeling each other's steady heartbeats.
And then, with no warning at all, her eyes had opened wide and she had let out a short shriek. Scaring Ghost, Owlbert, and Stringbean out of the room. Well, Ghost rushed back in and jumped on the bed since he thought Amity was hurt.
... So came the reinforcement for them to keep the relationship a secret until "the time was right". Luz only showing enthusiasm upon seeing how stressed Amity was about it. The fact that she'd betrayed her sister's trust having driven her to tears as she rushed the explanation out.
• • •
Ugh... Why did we do that to ourselves...?
Emira was going to be upset either way.
But, the fact that she didn't know until they announced their engagement made it at least a thousand times worse.
"Oh, who was that?"
Amity glanced Sially's way. "My sister. Just talking about Final Duels Day."
Sially nodded with a drawn out: "Okay".
Sially went closer, a cute but still sad frown on their face. "Please forgive me for getting so distracted with your housemate, Ms Blight. She has so many questions, and I'm always eager to answer. And she's always so eager to teach me things about the human world. I haven't been able to have those conversations with another person in a while."
Amity smiled a bit.
No use being hostile.
"That's okay, Sially. Luz has had a curiosity for this stuff for a long time."
She likely should have said a quick: "I don't need so much help" first.
But on one hand, she didn't want Sially to accidentally give Odalia the impression she was hiding something.
Because she was.
On the other, she didn't want to hurt Sially's feelings. As much as the other was annoying to be around with her day sickness.
But, that was a mistake.
Sially smiled. "Not to worry! I'll be much more diligent from now on! I promise!"
Before Amity could protest, the promise was made.
Now, it would likely take a lot more than questions in order to keep Sially from finding out about Amity's day sickness. And, by extension, the witchling.
Greeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaat...
While they had given themselves a couple breaks from Sially, they had underestimated how bad it would actually be for the both of them.
And she had just made it worse.
Amity had to do her best to hold down the burning substance in her throat.
Luz tried to make something that would be okay for her.
But, the list of things Amity could eat was only getting smaller.
She needed the food.
But, she couldn't properly digest it.
Even plain water tasted weird.
Luz could only do so much without attracting suspicion. Swallowing back the majority of her concern with the knowledge that letting the truth leak out to Sially would only garner worse results.
Act like we're still just friends... Act like we're still just friends... Act like we're still just friends...
Luz repeated that in her head constantly when she did intervene. But it was hard. And it hurt to do so.
It hurt to see her fiancé so sick when there was little to nothing that could be done about it. Not even medicine helped as much as they wanted it to.
It hurt to see her fiancé not even be able to go through it semi-comfortably in her own home. All because Sially was there.
It hurt to treat the woman she loved like she was just a friend, and not her fiancé.
But...
Luz steadied herself with a long, silent breath.
There were a lot of things that frustrated her about their current situation.
Their witchling was not—and never would be—one of them.
Luz wouldn't have forgiven herself if the thought even crossed her mind.
Every thought of them escalated into a bout of excitement.
... Even if they both knew that telling everyone else about them would be a nightmare.
"I know, Mamí. And I'm sorry for not saying anything sooner. I'll—I'll give you details when it's—We're safe! Don't worry! It's just a bit over complicated... Yeah, but I know you're busy today, so... Okay, we'll do that... Te amo Mamá."
Amity looked over, both of them having had to leave the house in order to call the rest of their families in peace.
Public spaces weren't ideal. But, for all intents and purposes, their home had become something of a public area.
Well... That was at least the idea.
Until Sially started going outside with them, as well.
Now, Luz had to step away in order to take the call.
After that, Luz would have to find a way to distract Sially so Amity could call Edric.
"That fast?"
Luz shrugged. "I'm probably gonna get at least a half hour call from Vee when she gets out of school and mom tells her. But, yeah. She took it really well, actually..."
Amity hummed, smiling a bit and looking at the ground.
Sially was far enough not to hear Amity's next remark, simply scribbling on a clipboard.
"Lucky you. I got an earful from Emira because she still doesn't trust you."
Luz winced. "That's... Makes sense..."
Amity frowned. Leaning forward and looking at Luz's face. At least, the part that wasn't hidden by her hair.
"Hey, that's Em's problem. You've done more than enough to make up for your half of what happened. She's just being petty."
Luz looked to the side to make eye contact. ""Protective"? She's your big sister, you can't blame her for being nervous."
Amity sighed. "I guess not. But she shouldn't be taking it out on you."
Luz shrugged. "Hey, maybe that'll change?"
Eventually.
"Maybe."
She looked at her scroll and whispered. "Speaking of which..."
Luz lit up.
An illusion!
Of course!
Luz quickly drew the glyph and gave Amity a cue.
She had to be a decent distance away in order to take the call and not be heard by Sially. "Hey, Ed."
Edric, given the way his voice sounded, was either doing something with his plants or cooking.
"Hey, Mittens! How's it—AA—Hanging...?"
He likely almost dropped his scroll.
Amity winced.
"Bad time? Or...?"
"No no no. I got it," There was a clacking sound and Amity could now hear a slight echo. "Okay, we're good! What's up?"
Amity's mouth was dry and sealed shut all of a sudden. "Um, I—I got some news."
"Uh, you're on speaker. So are you sure you're...?"
"It's okay. It's just—Luz and I, we got back together a while ago—"
"Awesome! I was wondering if you guys were gonna make up or not! But it's okay, right?"
Amity blinked. "Oh—W—Yeah! Yeah! It's great, actually. In fact, the main thing is that we're... Kinda, getting married...? A week after Final Duels Day...?"
That, had to be the most un-graceful way to go about saying it. And she recognized it just after she had already said it.
The other side was quiet for a moment.
"Uh, how long was that relationship, again?"
Amity sighed, bracing herself for a lecture. "Eight months..."
"OH THANK—I thought you were gonna say like two months! You guys think you're ready?"
Amity was completely gobsmacked by the response. "Uh—Y—Yeah! We're totally ready, it's just... Y—It's going kinda fast because..." She looked down and lowered her voice. "Mom is kinda..."
"Oh, really...?"
"Yeah."
There was a sound indicating that the scroll was being moved.
"I'm sorry, Mittens. I know that can't be easy for either of you. Do you want any help?"
Amity shook her head. "No, I'm just—I'm doing date-setting soon. And I wanted you and Em to have a good heads up."
"Okay. Let me know if you need anything! See ya!"
Amity returned the goodbye quietly. Completely still from surprise.
Sure, Edric had been more casual about Amity and Luz's relationship. But she hadn't expected him to be so immediately supportive.
Still, it was nice.
... Even though she had to immediately rush back before Luz's illusion fell.
Luz giggled and whispered to her. "That was fast?"
Amity could only shrug. "Yeah. He's—He's totally okay with it."
As expected, Luz got a call from Vee in the early evening. Which wound up dragging for a while.
• Highlights! •
"Mom said you guys got engaged! Who proposed?"
"I did."
"Ooh! What does Amity's ring look like?! Or are you both getting rings?"
"Uh. We're doing a thread spell, and at the moment her "ring" is kinda... Dental floss—?"
"WHAT?! You were asking her to marry you! You can't use dental floss! What were you thinking?!"
"It was a spur of the moment thing! We weren't expecting to get engaged that morning!"
"How'd it start then? Were you gonna pass the floss to her because you thought her breath stunk and then you thought: "Hey! Why don't I kill two birds with one stone and just use this?!""
"I mean she said yes, didn't she?!"
• • •
"Okay, mom just asked because she's on the other side of the kitchen and just thought about it... You guys planning on having kids later?"
*Luz proceeds to regret taking a drink of water and spends the next fifteen seconds coughing*
• • •
"Okay, seriously, what was going through your head to propose out of the blue with dental floss?"
*Panic ensues in trying to come up with a decent reason that doesn't involve the witchling*
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh—We were getting ready together and—and we were both tired and our hair was messy and she was still really pretty and it suddenly hit that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her!"
"...
Are you messing with me?"
"NO!"
• • •
"Also did the kids question make you uncomfortable cuz you haven't talked about it? Mom was just asking because she wants an idea for wedding gifts and stuff."
"Oh, we have. But maybe... I dunno. We're thinking about how to time it."
*~five seconds of silence later~*
"You know how to do it, right?"
"Yes... We both know how to do it..."
"Just checking! No shame if you didn't! I mean you did use denta—"
"I GET IT!!!"
• Back to Sially and Amity •
"I didn't know Luz had a history with your sister?"
Amity looked over. "Uh, yeah. They were fairly close when she was younger, but a little while after the Collector thing, there was an incident or two, and it just went downhill from there."
Sially tilted their head. "I've actually been meaning to ask, but I didn't want to be too invasive. How did you both meet?"
The image that immediately came to mind made her face go beet red.
Sially was about to backtrack before Amity answered. "She was..."
She couldn't help but let out a laugh of embarrassment.
"She was pretending to be an abomination to help another friend of ours get better grades. She wound up being so convincing that it got that friend to the top of our class after I held the spot all year. And, at lunch, I found out that she wasn't an abomination because I saw another friend give her a sandwich—I still have no idea how she was able to stand being crammed in a cauldron all day. But..." She hid her face behind her hands. Rushing out the rest. "I got angry, went over to their table, yanked her out of the cauldron, shook her and yelled at her in front of everyone..."
Sially's eyes went wide. "Oh..."
Amity laughed a bit again. "Thing was, she actually kept up the act until the abominations teacher got involved. Actually I think she kept up the act for the rest of the day after I got in trouble, but I don't remember."
Sially glanced away. "So, I'm guessing you didn't start out as friends?"
Amity shook her head. "Not at all. It took weeks to get to the point where we considered each other friends."
Although, in her mind, it didn't feel like it took so long due to how soon that friendship escalated to Amity having a crush on Luz. And then having said crush become mutual.
She wasn't sure what she and Sially talked about before they went to bed.
In fact, Amity didn't even remember getting sick.
Then again, she didn't make anything that would potentially trigger it.
All she remembered was letting Sially know that she could just call her: "Amity".
• Two Days Later •
"Well, one week left before our duels. You still nervous?"
Luz shrugged, Amity laying on her chest as the pair was in bed together.
They'd needed to lie and say that Amity would be up all night training, so Sially didn't need to be there.
In reality...
"A little. But not as much as you probably are. How are you feeling?"
Amity smiled, laying her head under her future spouse's chin.
If Amity was honest with herself, she had no clue how her mother was still falling for it. Whatever Sially was telling her had to be suspicious by now.
Or, was Sially leaving details out...?
"I'm fine, just tired from the training, really. I've also gotten some advice from Emira that should help me. I feel alright about it. I just want to relax for now."
Luz blushed and smirked slightly as she spoke up, her hand gently tracing her fiancé's thigh, resulting in a chill of pleasure. "What do you mean by relax? Something like this?—Or something different...?"
Amity giggled and pressed a kiss to Luz's lips to cut the sudden nervousness.
As they found out—rather quickly, as well—Amity's heightened emotions and urges while carrying involved her wanting to be closer to Luz.
Very frequently.
Which was hard to do with the whole Sially situation.
This was a perfect opportunity, all things considered.
But, better to ask than assume.
"Well, yeah actually... I like what you're suggesting.~"
The pair leaned in again, kissing each other passionately, Amity cueing her fiancé to keep going. Luz responded, moving further up, until it wasn't just tracing anymore, and Amity let out a soft moan.
"Hey, have I told you how beautiful your voice is?~"
Amity's face went bright red. She pressed her face harder against Luz's neck in embarrassment. "Mm—Yes... Almost every time we do this..."
"I mean in general, too. It's so smooth and mellow. It's not really a surprise that the kids at the library feel so comfortable around you. It's the type of voice that could make a person feel safe no matter what you're actually saying."
Amity moved up so the couple locked eyes. "Really? It's just how I sound when I talk."
Luz's face had a pink tint to it, curling her arms over Amity's back. "I mean, in fairness, I can make a case for any trait of yours being beautiful."
Amity's heart raced upon hearing that, and flipped the pair over so Luz was on top. "Don't think I can't do the same for you, Noceda. But, you were saying...?~"
Luz's face heated up dramatically, and she nodded. Leaning down and kissing Amity on the neck. Holding Amity closer and eventually drawing a small moan from her by laying rough, open-mouthed kisses on it. Especially as Luz once again trailed her hand up her inner thigh and—
It didn't last long, as Amity and Luz both had their tasks to do. As much as they would have loved to keep going.
But, they finally had the house to themselves, why wouldn't they take advantage of it?
... Especially since the rest of that evening lived up to—exceeded, really—the dread leading up to it.
• Later •
Luz had redone several of the invitations, recognizing that either she hadn't worded them exactly the same like she was supposed to, she messed up her handwriting, or that the ink had dried too much.
She was exhausted by this point. Her hands sore from constantly remaking the ink.
Amity wasn't better off.
Okay, let's do the dance and dinner next week...
Wrote down the date for that.
Just in time to catch the cauldron bubbling too much.
"AH—Stopstopstopstopstop!"
Amity held back a shriek.
In her panic to run over and get the temperature under control, she had braced one of her hands on the hotter part of the cauldron and burned it.
They had set aside healing glyphs and potions for that exact scenario. But Amity had to wait until she was all done before she could use them.
She was nodding off from exhaustion, so this was only expected.
Then... Two days after that let's do the walk and light exchange...
She wrote it down messily. The only thing keeping her up now was her stinging hand.
Already know when the wedding will be...
She glanced out the window for the fifth time.
Come on, last thing. Then I can focus on the potion.
Which needed the next ingredient immediately.
Amity rushed over again, making sure she had the measurement right and pouring it in with a soft: "Shit!"
Just as what she was waiting for came in.
She quickly wrote down the confirmations and sent them back. Now simply watching the potion and finally finishing it.
... And having absolutely no rest before going to work again the next day. The same going for Luz.
Hopefully Sially wouldn't notice...
(A/N: Translations:
•Te amo—I love you)