Archive of Our Own

“Luz! What are you doing here?!” The Blight exclaimed, as she looked around the grounds of the manor, making sure there was nobody close.

The other girl laughed at her girlfriend’s stress and climbed the wall with ease, every cavity and mound of the fancy wall craved on her mind thanks to the dozens of times she had done this exact same thing.

“Hello to you too, princesa” she said as she got to the balcony. “can’t a thief come visit her princess?” She cheekily asked, taking Amity’s hand on her own and bending herself to kiss the top of it gallantry.

Amity giggled as her face became red, still, she was confused about her girlfriend’s presence, she wasn’t mad about it, just confused.

“Of course you can, you petty criminal.” She said, kissing the other girl’s cheek “but really, what are you doing here? Both your house and Eda’s coffee shop are a little far from here”

“It’s nothing, I just wanted to be around you” the latina tried to lie, avoiding her girlfriend’s golden eyes.

“Luz…” she said with a bit of worry.

Amity always tried to dismiss her girlfriend’s less than legal jobs, because she knew the other girl needed the money she got from them, even if uncountable times she offered lending some of her family’s stupid money as they were millionaires, but Luz always refused, claiming that she couldn’t do that to her. Sometimes the girl would go to school with suspicious bruises in her face or arms, bags under her eyes and way too much caffeine in her system, so yeah, she was worried about why her girlfriend was on the richer side of the city looking like if she had run a marathon, sue her.

“I’m fine Ames, you don’t need to worry, really” Luz said, trying to calm her down, giving a small twirl so Amity could see how she was indeed fine.

“Ugh, okay.” She groaned, still a bit worried and mad at her reckless girlfriend “but tell me, what was this time?”

Luz awkwardly chuckled and looked away again “promise me you won’t get mad…”

“Just tell me” she replied

The girl sighed “well, you see…” she started scratching her neck nervously “there is this weird experimental medicine that could help Eda with her… uhm… curse?… and I thought it would be a nice gesture for me to get some, but it is way too expensive so I couldn’t buy it on the lab they sell it, so I got in contact with this shady dude called ‘The Grimmhammer’ or something, he was supposed to have some of the medicine but when I tried to buy it he tried to scam me, and as the petty criminal I am I decided to take the pills without paying for them, I then started running away and got lost, that is until I saw your parents factory so I ran here as fast as I could, luckily the guy didn’t got the chance to do anything to me, let me tell you, he was small as heck” she rapidly explained, trying to confuse the Blight with how fast she was talking, it didn’t worked, but she tried

“Luz, you know you can always ask for money, my parents won’t even notice I took some, you don’t need to put yourself in danger” she reasoned, caressing the Noceda's face with her hands, passing her fingers through some of the scars she had.

“I know, I know, but you shouldn’t worry about my financial situation or anything, you're my girlfriend, not a bank. They are my problems, not yours” she said, putting her own hand over one of her “I promise you someday I’ll get enough money for you and I together, okay?”

“I won’t let you do it alone” Amity replied, sighing at her girlfriend’s claims “it’s getting late, stay here for the night, my parents aren’t home and we can go to school together” she said, dragging her inside.

Luz wrapped her arms around the smaller frame of her girlfriend and closed the balcony’s door on her way in.

Amity remembers how they met, it was Luz’s first day on Hexside and everyone was avoiding her, rumors said that she only got into the prestigious school thanks to a new scholarship system for the less than lucky on the financial side, she stayed alone almost all day until Boscha and her clique decided to mock her, they cornered her on the rugby field and heated her up, the other girl somehow got away and ran to the forest behind the school, Amity went after her and saw her crying at the small lake that was on that side of the forest. The Blight didn’t say a thing at the time but she felt guilty about the whole ordeal, before she could leave the girl saw her and squealed in fear, almost jumping to the pond to escape from her. Since then Amity always tries to be by her side, still it seems Luz doesn’t want to.

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It’s been a month since the medicine thing and out of nowhere Luz’s jobs have become more risky, to the point of showing at school with her nose broken and a black eye, her friends and family all seem to notice this change and all of them have try to talk to her about it but no one, not even her girlfriend, have got any more information than “it was an accident, you know how clumsy I am”. The girl knows everyone is worried but she can’t really speak to them about this, what would they say?
She always wanted to be seen by others, but not in this way, not like a dangerous criminal or evildoer, she isn’t bad, she knows she isn’t.

It’s also worth saying that she had been randomly showing in her girlfriend’s house more often, always late at night, hoping to sleep in the same bed as her and this night wasn’t that different.

“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair so that I may climb thy golden stair!” She exclaimed to the balcony

“Shush! My parents are here!” She whispered yelled to her girlfriend as she opened the crystal doors

“I’m sorry!” Luz said, climbing the wall to the room, she got up and tried to kiss her girlfriend’s hand as she always did when she visited at night, the other girl didn’t gave her the time though, she just turned around to the room and went back inside, she sat in her desk’s chair and continued studying like she was doing before she was interrupted

“What are you doing, princesa?” She asked, looking over the girl’s shoulder to see the book she was reading, noticing it was from their maths class

“Studying for tomorrow’s test” she curtly replied, not looking up from the book

“Ugh, that” Luz groaned, throwing herself over her girlfriend’s back “let’s go to sleep! Maths are boring!” She exclaimed

“Luz! I need to study! I know this things come easy for you but I still need to be on top” she told her, still not looking up

“But Ameeees! I want to cuddle” she pouted, pulling Amity by her pajamas sleeve.

“Please, Luz. Just this time” she tried to negotiate with stubborn girl

“Can’t you study tomorrow morning? Or in a free period?” She kept pulling her girlfriend, now with more force than before.

Amity wasn’t really in a good position, that’s why when Luz pulled harder she almost fell out of the chair, her quick response was the thing that saved her, but sadly, all of her notes went flying across the room as she had to hold the desk to not fall.

In that moment she saw red, she knew her girlfriend wanted to cuddle and sleep, but damn, was she blind? Amity was breaking her back everyday so she could keep up her parents expectations, she was breaking her back everyday so they could keep dating.

She turned around to finally look at Luz, noticing the new bruise on the left side of her jaw and the dried blood on her knuckles, but she didn’t care. Enough was enough.

“Luz! Just for once, have you ever stopped to think about someone else besides you?! People still have lifes, you know? You can’t just come to someone else’s house to sleep whenever you want to! Be thankful I let you in! But what if someday I don’t? What would you do then? Sleep on a bench?” She lashed out, standing up and walking over to her girlfriend with a frown.

Luz backed as Amity walked to her, she cowered and turned her face down with shame, knowing that everything that her girlfriend said was true, her eyes watered a bit but she quickly dried the upcoming tears with her sleeve.

“You are such an inconsiderate person. You need to start thinking ahead!”

“I… um… I’m sorry, I can leave if you want to, I didn’t want to bother you” she admitted.

Amity sighed and pinched her nose, still mad at the other girl. She knew it was a little too late for Luz to go out without being in some kind of danger, so she just picked up the papers that were on the floor and walked to her bed, not without turning off the light.

“Come to bed, Luz. It’s late and I don’t want you wander around town at this hour” she said, holding up the blanket with her hand as an invitation for Luz to lay down beside her

“Thank you.” Was all she muttered as she took off her green jacket and her shoes. When she finally lay in bed she turned to the left side making sure to be as far from her girlfriend as she could without falling off.

“Sweet dreams” she whispered.

Amity went to sleep without answering, ignoring Luz, still, something on the back of her mind didn’t let her rest.

Luz, on her side, couldn’t sleep at all. A feeling of regret and sadness kept her awake, the anxiety of thinking that maybe her cotton candy-haired goddess would leave her because of her terrible habits. Amity deserve the world and more, she deserved the stars and the seas, she deserved everything, and Luz couldn’t even give her space, she was sure the Blight was doubting the worthiness of their relationship by now, Amity was a high class lady and a awesome girlfriend and Luz was just a worthless delinquent.

It was five in the morning when Luz decided that she should go, not wanting to be a burden to Amity anymore. She silently left the bed doing her best to not wake up the other girl, who, at some point of the night, turned around to cuddle her.

The Latina, put on her shoes and jacket back and went to the desk, she ripped a sheet of paper out of one of her girlfriend’s notebooks and swiftly wrote with the luminous pen she always carried around.

“I’m sorry for bothering you yesterday, it won’t happen again. I’m going out before you so you don’t need to worry about me, see you later, Mi amor.”
-Luz

She left the note on the desk and turned back to the balcony. The sun hadn’t risen yet, the city was still engulfed in the darkness of the night, she was about to start climbing down when she heard some grumbling from the bed.
She quickly went to check up on Amity to see if she was still asleep, her face was contorted in some kind of weird sadness, probably from whichever dream she was having, her arm was moving as she was looking for something or most likely someone. Luz noticed this and took Amity’s hand, caressing it with love, trying to calm her sleeping girlfriend down. Upon contact, the girl’s whole arm tried to reach out for more trying to hold close whatever she was touching.

Luz panicked not wanting for Amity to wake up, she quickly took the pillow she used that night and carefully put it under her arm, hoping that that would be enough to calm her down, Amity accepted the pillow and held it tightly, digging her face in it and going back to sleep.

Luz saw the scene with adoration but quickly dismissed it, still she bent down and kissed her girlfriend’s forehead and whispered.

“I love you”

She once again took out her jacket and put it on Amity as a second blanket, trying to keep her warm without her around. She climbed down the wall of the Blight manor and snuck away into the woods that surrounded the house.

It was 7:30 AM when Amity’s alarm went off. The girl woke up to the lemony smell of her girlfriend all around her, she smiled and tightened the grip she had on what she thought was Luz’s abdomen, she noticed how it was softer than usual but didn’t care.

“Good morning, Luz” she groggily whispered into the pillow, expecting an answer, when nothing came back she frowned, still with her eyes closed.

“I… I’m sorry, about how I treated you yesterday” she started, still holding her ‘girlfriend’ “I was really stressed about school and my parents finding out you sneak here at night, and I just lashed out at you, I’m really really sorry, and I didn’t mean what I said about leaving you out, you know you will always have a place to stay here.” Amity sincerely said, releasing the ‘other girl’ from her embrace, she stood up from the bed without paying much attention to the ‘body’ she was cuddling with or the jacket that fell out of her shoulders and stretched her muscles, satisfyingly popping her bones in the process.

Again, no response came, she sighed. “Don’t be mad…” she finally turned around to try and look at her girlfriend’s eyes. What was her surprise when she didn’t see Luz's body but the pillow she used at night.

The girl panicked, what had happened? Why wasn’t Luz there?

Amity quickly went on looking for the girl in her room, maybe she woke up a little before her to go to the bathroom, or maybe to make her breakfast. When she found nothing she looked around the second floor of her house doing her best not to wake up neither her siblings nor her parents. She spent maybe 7 minutes looking for the girl, it didn’t sound much but for just looking in the second floor it was quite the time. She finally went back to her room to get change to be ready for school because even if her girlfriend was missing she still needed to go to class, it was then when she noticed the neatly folded paper that rested on her desk.

She read the note and sighed, not that worried about Luz anymore. After changing into a fresh set of clothes she decided to send a text to her girlfriend, apologizing and asking to hang out at lunch so they could talk. She frowned in confusion when none of her texts seemed to reach Luz.

She dismissed it thinking that maybe Luz’s phone was turned off or maybe it didn’t have any battery. It was 7:25 when she went to the first floor to have breakfast, both Edric and Emira were on the dinner table already eating their breakfast, as usual their parents weren’t there, it was a miracle to see them eating with their children on any day that wasn’t a holiday or weekend. She sat on her place by Emira’s right and ate the avocado and egg toasts that the twins made for her, both her siblings were talking about some big project they had for class and how they were going to crush it, Amity blocked out their voices as she drifted away, thinking about Luz and how to apologize for blowing up yesterday.

“…right, Mittens?” Edric asked, looking intensely at his younger sister.

“Uh?” Amity said, as she didn’t understand what he was talking about “what?”

“We were talking about how Em should ask Viney out” he explained “and I asked you about how Luz knocked your socks off with her weird DIY poster and serenade she did two years ago to ask you”

Amity turned red, remembering the cute but kind of cringy way Luz decided to ask her out, still she didn’t understand what Edric was talking about so she just dismissed the whole thing with a “yeah, sure” and kept eating, still Emira, perceptive as ever took notice in her sister’s behavior.

“Hey, Mittens, where’s Luz?” She asked, knowing that the other girl probably spent the night with her sister as she usually did these days.

“Why do you care?” She asked in return, suspicious about her sister’s intentions.

“Gee, Mittens, can’t a good older sibling worry about her wittle baby sister?” Edric said with mockery, also noticing Amity’s behavior.

“Shut it, Ed” The older sibling said, pushing him from across the table

“Hey!”

“Anyways, it’s just that you look a little bit mad and I wanted to know if you were good” Emira said, ignoring her brother’s complaint and putting all her attention to Amity.

“It’s nothing, guys, really” she tried to dismiss it, but the knowing look on Emira’s eyes didn’t let her “Ugh… we had some kind of a fight yesterday about her terrible habit of sneaking here at night without telling me first and I lashed out at her but let her stay, today I woke up and didn’t found her in bed, turns out she left the house some time before my alarm went off and didn’t say a thing.” Amity said to her siblings as she frown “I’m just thinking of a way to apologize about me blowing up but still ask her to send me a text or something before coming”

“That’s why I’m still single, girls problems, boys problems, folks problems, that’s not my thing” Edric said as he shook his head in denial

“Hunter” both Emira and Amity said in unison looking at the boy with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“He is different!” He exclaimed as he blushed and turned red like a tomato, Blight trait you could say.

The girls laughed at their brother.

“Leaving Edric’s gayness aside,” Emira started, still giggling a little “I don’t think you should worry about her, she probably just felt bad about it and left, she is a good person but she usually doesn’t thinks ahead, just talk to her at school”

“Yeah, that’s probably the best” Amity said, finishing her toast and standing up from the table “let’s go, I can drive you guys there if you want to” she offered

“Nah, we are fine” Emira said, Edric still in his gay panic mode just because he thought about his crush “Tell cutie we say hi!”

“And that next time she spends the night here she should make some magical pancakes!” He quickly exclaimed, his gluttony easily overcoming his embarrassment

“Sure!”

Amity left the house and headed over to Hexside, now a little bit more determined about talking with Luz. She arrived at school without any setbacks, she parked in her usual spot just outside the main entrance and noted the lack of the usual motorcycle that parked at her left, AKA Luz motorbike.

She got out of the car and closed it, a bit confused about the motorcycle thing but didn’t bother too much, maybe her mother took her to school or she came walking, it was a weird occurrence but it happened sometimes.

At the front doors she saw Willow and Gus, her best friends, but, again, Luz wasn’t with them, okay, maybe she was just late, that could also explain the lack of her usual transport.

“Hey guys!” She greeted.

“Good morning” Willow answered.

“Hi!” Gus said.

“How are you doing?” She asked them, periodically looking back to see when Luz was coming

“Fine thanks for asking” the bespectacled girl said “and you?”

“A little worried” she replied, her friend looked at her with confusion, silently asking the reason “I haven’t seen Luz since yesterday’s night and I’m worried about her whereabouts, I know it’s probably nothing but I can’t help it”

“I haven’t heard from her since yesterday either, but she is probably fine. She is just running late or something” she reassuringly said to the lilac haired girl.

“Heh, I bet she overslept, again” Gus said, laughing a little.

“You are probably right” Amity sighed but smiled.

Before anyone else could talk the bell went off, signaling the beginning of classes, all of them quickly said goodbye and ran to their lockers to take out their books of the period.

The first three periods passed away with Amity’s mind worrying with anxiety and confusion, she hadn’t seen Luz in their shared History period but she kept telling herself that the other girl was just running late, nothing really important.

She walked back to her locker, not really looking where she was going, meaning that she collided with someone else.

“Watch it!” She exclaimed out of habit.

“Good to see you too, shorty” a tired voice said, picking up the books Amity made fall.

“Oh, Hunter! Sorry about that” she quickly said, helping him “I wasn’t paying attention”

“I noticed” he said, his usual tired frown adorned his face “but, now that I’m here, do you know where my sister is?” He asked, a bit of concern sneaked to his eyes

“I- no” she replied, her worry slowly rising “I thought she went back to her house” she explained.

“Nah, she left at night like normal but we haven’t talked since and Vale says she hasn’t seen her either, I assumed she went to spend the night with you, but it seems like she didn’t” he said.

“No no, she did spend the night at the manor but she left at early morning way before I could wake up, she even left her jacket at my house” she explained

“The green one?”

“Yeah…”

“Weird, she doesn’t go anywhere without it, it’s a pain to take it away from her on laundry day” Hunter said as his face turned a bit more awake, also worrying about his sister, of course, he was adopted but he still saw Luz and Valentina as his little sisters. “She is probably at Eda’s, maybe she is taking a free day” he tried to understand the lack of Luz.

“I don’t know, Hunter, she hasn’t been receiving my texts either” she worriedly expressed.

“She probably turned off her phone, I mean, where else could she be?” he said, shrugging “anyway, go to lunch I still have stuff to do, if Vee or I hear something from her I will let you know, ok?” Hunter told Amity as he walked away to wherever he was going.

“Thank you” she waved the boy and continued walking to her locker, now a bit more concerned but still not really panicking.

The day passed as usual with the slight difference of not having Luz Noceda there, somehow everyone noticed, everything was a bit quieter and calm, almost all the teachers gave their classes without any witty comeback or a curious question meaning that they finished one or two minutes earlier, even Boscha noticed! The bully decided not to bother Willow, Gus or Amity all day, claiming that the three of them look miserable enough for the day and that she preferred to play around with the taller missing girl not with the ‘extras that hang out with her’, either way the redhead also looked a bit worried about the whole ordeal saying that she would go stalk her on social media to keep a track on her favorite prey.

“I’m going to Eda’s to look for Luz, are you guys coming?” Amity asked at the end of the day to her friends already planning on a route to go look for Luz if she wasn’t at the caffe.

“Yeah, I’m a bit worried too” Willow said as she packed her books in her backpack, taking out the key of her own car, an old and worn out pick up truck her fathers used to use for their store.

“I can’t, I’m sorry, I have stuff to do back at home and then in the theater for my part time job” Gus sadly explained to his friend “but please tell me when you find her, I want to know”

“Sure thing, Gus” Amity said “let’s get going then”

As the trio parted ways and Willow and Amity walked to their respective cars a familiar face interrupted them.

“Hey, nerds!” Boscha exclaimed as she ran to their side, her backpack barely hanging from her shoulder “I heard you are going to go look for Luzer, I'm coming with ya’” she said, leaving no room for discussion.

“What? Why?” Willow asked as she doubtfully looked at the redhead.

“Because I can” she said “I call shotgun!”

Willow and Amity shared a confused glance but shrugged, they knew Boscha was worried about Luz too, their ‘friendship’ was a weird one, almost a rivals kind of thing but they were part of each other's world nonetheless.

The girls got into their cars, their first stop was Eda’s caffe, The Owl House, when they got there the first thing they saw was the rapid flow of clientele, at first glance they couldn’t see Luz, it was when they got the chance to talk to Eda about the missing girl when they started to worry. The woman told them that she hadn’t seen the girl since yesterday, she explained to them that Luz sometimes did that, running away for a couple of hours to blow some steam off but she did get a little confused about the fair share of hours that passed.

The older woman quickly took a napkin and a pen and scribbled some directions, pointing to a place in the outskirts of the town insisting that that was the place Luz was in.

The girls thanked her and went back to their cars.

Amity was a bit confused and hurt, why hadn’t Luz told her about this place? How often did she do that? Was she herself the reason Luz left?

So many questions came to her mind, every single one a little more hurtful than the last, she shook her head, turned on her car, a 2015 blue Subaru (yeah she fell into the stereotypes sue her), and started driving to the place in question.

The trip there wasn't suppose to be a long one nor a short one, for the matter, but, for the lilac haired girl it was a torture, how dare Luz scare her like that?! She was going to hug her, then slap her and then hug her/kiss her again.

Willow's truck was in front of her with Boscha on the back of it, when they asked her why she wanted to go in the back she answered it was because she couldn't bear with Willow, they all knew it was because she could look for Luz easier that way.

As they were arriving at the old junkyard the late summer sky was slowly going gray with heavy rainy clouds.

First thing they all noticed was the terribly parked red motorcycle and the loud foreign music that came bursting from the inside of the place.

Yeah, Luz was there.

Willow and Amity carefully walked in avoiding any broken shards or potentially dangerous things while Boscha just barged in, kicking some stuff out of fun.

“LUZER!” The redhead yelled.

The music came to a sudden stop (Amity was sure it was something called cumbia but she couldn’t understand the lyrics)

“Boscha!” The voice exclaimed with childish happiness, confusing the newcomers “come dance with me, dude!” She said as she turned the music back on.

All the girls shared an unimpressed look, Amity sighing, Willow shaking her head while snickering and Boscha barking a loud laugh.

“She is drunk.” Willow declared.

“Yup” Amity answered.

“I’m coming, babe!” Boscha answered still laughing, she ran to where the voice last came and whooped hoping to get as wasted as Luz was.

“Boscha wai-” Amity tried to stop her but the rugby captain was faster and a bit stronger than her (she once was the captain but quit the team almost two years ago, also leaving her sporty lifestyle)

Resigned Willow followed, a bit worried about her drunk friend, knowing that she didn’t liked alcohol that much, meaning that she drank that much for a specific reason, usually emotionally related

The spot Luz was in was the only ‘free’ space left, everything on a 10 feet radio was broken, bumped or burned (the destructive three B’s), just an old folding chair and a small but powerful speaker where left standing, some cans of beer and bottles of other drinks scattered around the floor.

Boscha was already by her side, the young Latina pulling her around as she skillfully danced (skillfully for someone who was drunk, that is), leading her and spinning her.

“Luz?” Amity asked, trying to get a hold of her girlfriend’s attention.

“Ames?” She answered, releasing her grip on Boscha’s waist and hand, her face turning white. “W-what are you doing here?”

“I came to look for you, dummy” she answered, looking at her as a disappointed parent.

“I- uhm… well…” she stammered, slowly sobering up.

Boscha quickly left Luz’s side, terrified to be on that side of Amity’s glare.

“Why?” Amity asked, a bit of sadness linked in her voice, still not understanding why Luz was here.

“I can explain!” She sputtered, a little afraid of angering her girlfriend more than she already did the day before, but, before she could give her totally acceptable explanation, heavy drops of water started falling from the sky, the rain jumping directly to a downpour instead of beginning with the usual drizzle.

All of them quickly ran to a small ceiling that was barely standing in it’s fragile looking wood legs, it was such a small space that when the three un-intoxicated girls released their breath they were hit with the disgusting smell of alcohol and whatever else Luz had been in contact with while she was here.

Funny enough Luz’s speaker was still playing her Spotify list, and whatever song that was playing was something embarrassing for the only girl that could understand the lyrics.

~Lluvia (lluvia) tus besos frios como la lluvia
(lluvia) ~
~Que gota a gota fueron enfriando
(lluvia) ~
~Mi alma mi cuerpo y mi ser ~
~Lluvia (lluvia) tus manos frias como la lluvia
(lluvia) ~
~Que dia a dia fueron enfriando
(lluvia) ~
~Mi ardiente deseo y mi piel ~

“Heh… sorry, I just-” she said as she frantically looked for her phone, when she did she turned down the music almost in panic.

She laughed and packed her phone back in her back pocket, avoiding all eye contact with the girls.

The atmosphere between them quickly turned heavy, Amity, Willow and Boscha (even if she wouldn’t admit it) were relieved to see their friend was mostly fine, just a bit drunk and filthy but they were also confused and mad at her, they were eager to drown her in questions and lectures about never doing that without letting anyone know, but the time and place weren’t the best ones.

The rain kept going and neither of them talked, the only sound was the faint sipping from Boscha that actually got the time to steal one of the few unopened beer cans. It was seven and something when they understood that the downpour wasn’t stopping any time soon, that’s when they all silently decided it was time to go. One by one they ran to their respective vehicles.

Amity was in her car, soaked to the socks when she remembered that Luz’s transport was a freaking motorcycle, so even if she didn’t want her in the car she knew it was the safest option both because of the rain and the fact that the girl was pretty much not sober. She rolled down her window and yelled in the direction where the blurred figure of her girlfriend was standing.

“Luz! Come here right now!” She demanded, really not in the mood to argue. “I am taking you home!”

“N-no! Don’t worry!” She exclaimed, getting on the motorbike and trying to make the old thing start with kicks on the exhaust and hits on the motor.

Amity groaned in desperation, knowing that the other girl was way too stubborn sometimes. She quickly took off the safety belt and opened the car’s door so she could go and drag her girlfriend to the car.

Just as she got out of the car a dangerous roar came from the motorcycle, meaning that Luz somehow got it to start, Amity ran back to the car, starting it as fast as she could, ignoring how Willow’s truck also came to live at her right.

The motorcycle was painfully faster than the cars, so when she saw a red blur on the highway her heart began beating faster, anxiousness crawling all over her body.

Both of the cars tried to reach the safety threat that was the intoxicated girl but neither of them could without putting themselves in danger too.

Whatever Luz was doing was almost suicidal, even if she didn’t mean to.

The drunk girl drove as fast as she could, escaping once again from the people she didn’t want to hurt, she knew she had to eventually face them, face her but she just needed more time, she needed to rearrange her sad little life a little bit, that would be enough, and then she could go back to stealing one thing or two at night but get the best grades she could at school.

She kept driving, even if her hurting head plead her to stop, and even when everything seemed more blurry that it should be because of the rain, she knew it was a bit of a safety hazard not using a helmet, but she didn’t thought about that when she decided to go to the abandoned junkyard.

The night lights blinded her and made her dizzy.

She took one of her hands off of the motorcycle handlebars to massage her head a bit.

She closed one of her eyes in slight pain.

She didn’t see the car joining the road to her left.

She got thrown away from her motorcycle.

She did her best to cover her head with her arms.

She fell into a ditch, hitting her head in the process.

She lost consciousness.

The car quickly sided, thankfully it didn’t suffer a terrible hit, just the front but anyone who was inside was safe. The driver came running out of the car as they yelled to the co-driver to call 911, everything was happening so fast.

Another pair of cars sided behind, and the trio of girls ran to the ditch not caring about getting soaked anymore.

Blood, there was way too much blood, or maybe it wasn’t that much but the water made it seem like it, Amity didn’t care, she went to Luz’s side as fast as she could, Willow and Boscha stayed behind talking to the people from the other car.

She kneeled as close as she could without disturbing the girl, terrified of touching her in a wrong way, her hands were shaking, desperate to hold the girl close and keep her warm, hot tears combined with the rain ran down her face. She couldn’t talk, she couldn’t yowl, her mind still in shock but with one specific thought on loop.

“Was it something I said to make you feel like you're a burden?”

It kept repeating again and again, even when the ambulance and the police got there, even when a cop tried talking to her, even when Boscha carefully walked her to the backseats of her car and even when they got to the hospital just before all of Luz’s family could barge into the place.

Everyone was there, her mami, her brother and her sister, her auntie, her auncle and her other brother, even Eda's mailman/roommate was there! The final people that got to the hospital were Amity’s siblings with her sister’s girlfriend and Gus, but even with all of the family, blood related or not, reunited she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

It was when a nurse slowly walked to the cluster of anxious people when she came out of the spiral.

“H-how is she?!” She desperately asked, looking at the frowning nurse.

“Are Luz Noceda’s parents or legal caretaker here?” He asked, not looking at Amity, it wasn’t out of rudeness but it was preferable to talk to the patient’s parents, for a bunch of ethical reasons.

“I’m her mother, Camila Noceda” The woman said, releasing Kingsley from her hold and handing him to Eda who was at her right.

“Okay, she suffered various injuries, in their majority are broken bones and slightly deep cuts, but nothing really dangerous except for the hit that her head took.” He explained, reading the board he was carrying “The frontal bone took almost all the impact breaking in the process, and before she could get here she had already had a serious internal bleeding. She is being taken to the operating room while we talk”

“Is she going to be alright?” Camila carefully asked, already knowing the answer as she too worked in the medical field (she didn’t worked with humans but she knew the drill)

“We are doing everything we can but the blood loss was obscene when she arrived” the nurse said, looking back at the woman.

“Thank you so much, please keep us informed” The older woman said, trying her best to keep her calm so she could ground everyone else.

Amity heard all of it and started crying as almost everyone else, the only exception being Hunter and Viney, the boy because he was alway a guarded one and the girl because she was comforting Emira the best she could.

Willow, Gus and Boscha came running to her, hugging her as tight as they could, her emotions slowly coming afloat, some sobs and loud apologizing came out of her.

Some minutes passed and she couldn’t calm down, the pair of friends and the weird bully kept hugging her, protecting her from the outside, at some point even the twins joined the embrace, Emira soothingly combing her hair with her hand and Edric whispering reassurances to her deaf ears.

The rain came to a stop at twelve and everyone was a bit calmer, with no tears left to shed and tiredness kicking in.

Willow, Gus and Boscha left almost half an hour ago, the first two due their fathers request and the last one because Willow was her transport.

Kingsley, or King as he preferred to be referred to, was asleep on Hugh’s (‘Hooty’ the mailman) lap, hugging tightly his stuffed bunny

Edric was fast asleep on a chair in an uncomfortable position that would probably hurt when he eventually got up and Emira was slowly dozing off over her girlfriend, who was hugging her and closing her eyes herself.

The only people still completely awake were Camila, Eda, Hunter, Valentina (or Vee as she liked to be called) and Amity, all of them used to sleepless nights. Eda’s partner also left some time ago to sort out all of the legal things they needed, doing their best to avoid a lawsuit or something related.

The next time anything happened was at three in the morning, the same nurse came walking back, the same frown of last time on his face.

“Mrs. Noceda” he started.

“Miss” she corrected

“Sorry.” He cleared his throat “Miss Noceda, the operation was a success, the doctors saved your daughter” he said, washing everyone with relief “she is asleep right now and she would probably stay like that for a couple of days as her state is still critical and in observation but you can visit her if you want to, just be aware that she doesn’t looks good”

The nurse left again, going back to wherever his usual position was.

The awake people looked between themselves and came into an agreement, Camila, Hunter and Vee would be the first once to visit the young Noceda, being the closest to the girl, next would be Eda, a groggy King and Hooty and finally Amity and her siblings (if they wanted)

The Nocedas went to the front desk and asked for directions, walking to Luz’s room. Amity was too in need of sleep, her body was begging for her to rest but her mind kept running a hundred miles per second not letting her close her eyes for more than a minute, still she needed some kind of caffeine in her body so she wouldn’t pass out, she quickly excuse herself and went to the hospital cafeteria.

The food court was closed but there were a couple of vending machines still working. She went to them and bought some weird looking cookies and prepared herself a coffee, with no sugar, for obvious reasons.

She went back to the waiting room and ate in silence, sadly she couldn’t finish more than half of the cookies, her stomach still in a knot. As the time passed and Luz’s family didn’t come back she decided to start a conversation with Eda, hoping this would calm her nerves.

The Blight explained with a bit more detail what had happened, as neither Boscha, Willow or her could do it minutes after the accident. She also asked about Luz’s apparent usual escapades and why would she keep it secret, Eda told her how the junkyard was technically her property, something about a bet she won while playing poker on a shady bar, and how she and Luz would go there to collect valuable stuff and to break things, explaining how Luz would go there by herself when she was feeling down.

With all of the new information Amity finally understood some things but she still couldn’t get why Luz hadn’t told her or why seemed to be doing it out of guilt.

In the middle of her thinking Camila, Hunter and Vee came back looking relieved but down all three of them with red tear paths on their cheeks. The woman went to Edalyn’s side and told her where the room was, she took King in her arms and walked there Hugh not so far behind, mumbling something in his annoyingly high pitched voice.

Hunter and Vee looked shattered and terrified after seeing their sister, the usual bags under Hunter’s eyes were more pronounced and Vee’s glasses were fogged, both of them also looked extremely tired, one step away from sleeping. Camila knew her children and knew that even if they would deny it they both needed to go back home. The family talked between them in their mother tongue and in hushed voices, ending with Hunter talking out his phone and calling any Uber that was still on duty at this hour, it didn’t passed that much time when the Noceda children sluggishly left the hospital saying their goodbyes to everyone and leaving their mother.

The Clawthorne family came back, King now walking by the hand of his mother, plushy-less and sporting a new, and most likely Azura themed, band-aid in his right ear.

Eda went to discuss something with Camila, something that Amity could make out as she was a little far from them, she didn’t know what they ended up saying but Eda and her family left the hospital not much later, patting Amity and her siblings shoulders.

Camila finally explained to her where Luz’s room was so she could wake up the twins and Viney, still she ended up deciding against it as she needed some time alone with Luz, she told Camila to wake them up in five minutes or so and tell them to go back home.

It took a while for her to find the room as she was still a bit on edge after everything that happened, but when she finally reached it she realized she was scared, scare or seeing her girlfriend connected to a machine and all bandaged up, she froze the moment her hand touched the cold knob, she couldn’t do it, she was a coward.

She jumped when a hand touched her shoulder, she turned around and saw her brother who looked as terrible as she felt. Amity was a tiny bit confused, she told Camila to send them away, why was he still here, before she could question Edric he talked.

“How are you doin’, Mittens?” He asked with a hoarse voice, a product of his recent awakening.

“Not good” She sincerely answered, she didn’t have the energy nor was in the mood to argue with him. “I’m afraid, Ed” she expressed.

“I know, I know, but you want to see her, don’t you?” He asked again

“Of course! But… I don’t think I deserve it, it’s my fault she is in here”

“What do you mean is your fault?” He asked, a bit more awake.

“I-I… I yelled at her two days ago and said some hurtful stuff, I think she got mad at me too and went away sometime in the early morning before I could wake up, then I decided to go to school instead of looking for her and when we finally found her I was too afraid to talk sincerely to her. I could have prevented all of this if I wasn’t such an intolerant idiot” she explained, eyes watering again.

“No, Mittens, this isn’t your fault, you didn’t know this could happen” he tried to reassure, carefully putting one of his arms on her shoulder and the other holding her face.

“But it is!” She exclaimed, a sob escaping from her sore throat. “I’m such an awful girlfriend, I don’t understand why Luz thought I was worthy something”

“No no no, Luz loves you for a reason, I see how she looks at you. Her eyes shine whenever she glances your way.” He said, drying her sister’s eyes.

“B-but—“ she tried to talk but her brother interrupted her again.

“No but-s, you are worthy loving and she knows it, for all I know I think she was afraid of disappointing you” he explained “you know, before you guys started dating she came to us for advice, terrified of making you uncomfortable with her feelings and thinking she wasn’t enough for you”

“She’s everything I ever wanted” she murmured

“Oh, I know. That’s actually what we told her but she didn’t believe us one bit.” He laughed “but that’s not what it matters. What I’m trying to say is, she was probably just as afraid as you are now, thinking that you didn’t love her anymore, or some angsty stuff, but she needs you know.”

“I still believe it’s my fault, but thanks” she said “you can be quite smart when you want to, Ed” she mocked.

“Oh, shut it. You know you wove me wittle baby sister” he said, messing with her already disheveled hair. “Me and the girls are going home, please rest, okay?” He said as he turned away.

Edric walked away, leaving Amity alone in the cold hospital hall, just outside her injured girlfriend’s room. She took a deep breath and went inside.

The room was what she expected, white, cold and clean, the beeping of the machine connected to Luz was a terrifying melody.

Beep-beep-beep

A constant reminder of her mistakes.

She walked to her girlfriend’s side and gasped, both her left leg and right arm were broken and caged in blue casts, for what she could see her chest was also bandaged up too, meaning that at least one of her ribs was broken too. The girl was impossibly pale but breathing, and for the time being, that was enough.

She sat down and took her unbroken hand on hers, it was a bit cold, unlike her usual warmth that she always used to exceed. She kissed the hand and caressed it with extreme care.

“I’m sorry” she whispered, “You know I’m a wreck when I’m without you, I need you here to stay” softly kissing her bruised cheek with utter sadness.

“Please, come back, Luz” she pleaded to her sleeping girlfriend.

She cried, in the loneliness of the room for minutes that she felt were hours. At some point Camila went to the room, saying that she should go, and that she would stay here with Luz. Amity turned the option down and told her that she would stay, never releasing Luz’s hand.

The grownup woman sighed and told her goodbyes, she hugged her daughter one last time and left.

In the course of an hour Amity fell asleep on the chair she was sitting in, once again without releasing Luz.
.
.
.

Three months passed since the accident and Luz didn’t wake up, her coma lasting more than what the doctors predicted. Her friends and some other caring classmates or teachers make sure to visit the girl every day, expecting to see any kind of change. Obviously Amity was one of the people that visited her the most, Camila and her siblings being the only ones that surpassed her.

The Blight’s grades went down, not dangerously so but enough for her parents and teachers to notice, she was always sad and moodier than she used to be, either snapping at everyone or crying on Willow’s shoulders. She had bags under her eyes, almost as pronounced as Hunter’s and looked miserable, blaming herself even after everyone told her it wasn’t her fault, her only comfort being the jacket that Luz left in her room before everything happened, she hadn’t washed the jacket in all three months, her excuse being that it was the only thing that still smelled like her girlfriend.

It was finally autumn, Luz’s favorite season. She always loved the warm colors that painted the trees and the longer nights that the ‘winter time’ had.

It was Wednesday and Amity planned to go visit Luz, sadly school wasn’t that considerate and she needed to stay to solve something from the student council, but for what she understood Boscha and her clique (Skara, Kat and Amelia) were going to pay Luz a quick visit.

Everyday Amity hoped would be the day when her girlfriend would finally wake up, but everyday she went back to bed sadder than before, still she didn’t expect dozens of texts blowing up her phone in the middle of a meeting. It was when Boscha called her three times in a row when she answered.

“She is awake!” Boscha exclaimed from the other side of the line as soon as she answered, leaving Amity in shock.

“W-what?” She asked with disbelief.

“Luzer, she is awake!” She said again, in the background she heard movement and more voices and some shuffling “damn” the redhead whispered “I need to go, but please come as soon as possible” she hung up.

Amity stood up from where she was seated and ran out of the classroom she was in, on her way out she saw another pair of siblings running out of the school, one of them poorly dressed of what she is sure is some sort of prince costume and the other with Hexside’s Soccer uniform. The three of them crossed glances and kept running.

The girl got in her car and started it, driving as fast as she could to the hospital, the siblings not far behind her in their own car.

When she arrived the first person she saw was Skara passing around the waiting room, she ran to her as she frantically looked at the surroundings searching for someone.

“Skara!” She said when she was close enough.

“Amity, Hunter, Vee!” She answered as she turned around, spotting Amity and the Noceda siblings.

“Where’s everyone?” she asked as she huffed, catching her breath.

“Kat and Amelia are calling everyone to let them know, Boscha is with Luz and I’m here, guarding” she explained “good costume, by the way” she said.

“Uh… thanks…” Vee sheepishly said.

“Ugh” Amity groaned “why did she have to stay with Luz?” She asked.

“I think they are fighting” Skara answered.

“What?!” She exclaimed

“It doesn’t matter, shortie, I’m going in” Hunter said, ignoring Skara and walking to where the room was.

“Wait, Hunter!” Vee said, running after him.

Amity was about to follow them but was stopped by the silver haired girl.

“What?” She asked, a little frustrated.

“Just to warn you… she seemed a little bit mad when Boscha mentioned you, like, upset” she said.

She felt her heart hurt, of course Luz was mad at her, it was her fault after all, probably she wouldn’t want to see her, and she would broke up with her the moment she got the chance, still, Amity was selfish and she needed to see that she was alright, just that and then she would leave, heartbroken but knowing her beloved was alive.

“Thanks, Skara.” She mumbled, walking to Luz’s room.

“Of course…”

She slowly walked to the room, her vision slowly fading with anxiety and self hatred. Luz’s room was a little far from the waiting room, and every second was a torture, every step felt like if she was walking barefoot over crystals shards, it was painful.

She reached the doors and heard the people talking inside.

“You are an idiot, you know how much you make mom worry?” That was Hunter’s voice.

“And us!” Vee exclaimed.

“Told ya’, Luzer.” Boscha said.

“Now come here, you little bastard.” Hunter said.

Amity heard some shuffling, it was probably the siblings sharing a hug.

“I’m sorry guys, but I’m fine now!”

The Blight’s heartbeat increased, that was Luz’s voice, hoarse and tired, but it was undeniably her, she was awake, she was alive! Her eyes watered, she really wanted to barge in and throw herself in her girlfriend’s arms, but she couldn’t, she didn’t deserve it.

“That’s enough.” Hunter said again with fake disgust. “I don’t want your girlfriend to see me all mushy with you”

“That’s right! She is taking too much time, she would be here by now.” Vee exclaimed, remembering that they all arrived at the same time.

“Amity is here?” Luz asked, her voice going down with an emotion Amity couldn’t recognize.

“Of course your ‘awesome girlfriend’ is here.” He answered.

“Oh…” Was her response.

“Are you alright, Luz? Don’t you want to see her?” Vee asked with evident worry.

“I’m fine, don’t worry. I just… I don’t think she wants to see me.” She answered.

“What do you mean by that, brick head?” Boscha asked.

“I look like crap, and I’m pretty sure she is mad at me.” Luz explained.

“What?” The three of them ask in confusion

Luz sighed “I made her mad last time we saw each other and then left without properly apologizing, also, I’m always being a burden to her, I would completely understand if she didn’t want me around her anymore.”

“That hit in the head made you more of an idiot” The redhead confirmed.

“I’m serious, Boscha, she probably hates me now.” Luz exclaimed with obvious anger.

“Chill out dude, she isn’t mad at you.”

“Liar!”

“Ugh, you are unbearable”

Amity thought that was enough, no one was going to insult her girlfriend anymore, she softly knocked the door, waiting for a response.

Knock, knock

Everyone inside turned silent, expecting to hear another knock.

Knock, knock

“Uh… come in?” Luz said.

Amity opened the door slowly, still a bit terrified of what she was going to see. Hunter and Vee were on both their sister’s sides, Vee holding her hand and Hunter with his arms crossed, Boscha was sitting on a chair a little far from them to not overwhelm Luz.

The moment their eyes met Amity gasped, Luz indeed looked like crap, but her eyes… they were shining with life, just as she remembered, her skin was back to her natural brown color and she was sitting! By herself!

“A-Amity?” She asked, her voice sweet as the last time she heard it.

“I think we should leave…” Vee whispered, slowly backing away, Hunter and Boscha doing the same, getting out of the room.

Amity didn’t think, her body acted independently and ran to Luz's side.

“You are back!” She exclaimed, hugging her with all of the strength she could muster without hurting her, she laughed.

“Amity!” Luz threw her arms to her girlfriend’s back, digging her nose into her hair.

Amity’s laugh quickly shifted to sobs, partially worrying Luz.

“I’m sorry, Luz. I’m so sorry” she said into Luz’s neck. “I didn’t mean anything that I said that night, and if I could take it all back I swear that I would, please believe me when I said that I love you.”

Luz was dumbfounded, everything that happened was her fault, not Amity’s. It didn’t make any sense.

“No no, don’t cry, mi amor. Everything that happened was my fault, you were right, I’m inconsiderate and selfish, I don’t think about your feelings. I am the one that should be apologizing.” She admitted

“No it wasn’t! I was the one that snapped at you!” She exclaimed as she separated herself from the embrace, tears still rolling down her face.

“But you have all the right to! I just barged into your home!”

“But I shouldn’t have yelled at you when you just wanted company!”

“Stop it, Amity. It wasn’t your fault!”

“It wasn’t yours either!”

They both looked at each other’s eyes, frowns evident in their faces. They were silent, the only noise was the machines Luz was connected to.

Beep-beep-beep

The atmosphere was heavy, none of them moved.

The first one to break was Luz, she let escape a soft chuckle, which prompted Amity to do the same. Before they could notice they were laughing.

“I’m sorry…” Luz said.

“Me too…” Amity replied.

Their laughter slowly died down, both of them more calm than before, they locked eyes again, now with a smile on their faces.

“Hey, Amity” Luz whispered, not wanting to disturb the new peace they successfully created.

“Hmm” Amity hummed in response.

“Can I kiss you?” She asked.

“Of course, dear”

They lock lips. The kiss was full of sentiment and love, both girls trying to pass their message through it, it was passionate but soft, it was perfect for them, even if one of them almost died.

They were both so into it that they didn’t hear the repetitive knocks on the door nor the squeaky voice of Luz’s brother.

“Luz!”

The moment King entered the room they separated as fast as they could, Amity almost falling back.

“King!” Luz awkwardly but happily exclaimed, slightly opening her sore arms for the little boy.

“My most important knight is finally awake! We can go back to conquer kingdoms and overthrow governments” He said, climbing her bed.

Luz laughed and hugged him.

“Sorry to interrupt your mushy-mushy time but this little rascal was way too excited to see his ‘boo-boo buddy” Eda explained entering the room

The girls blushed at the old woman’s bluntness, Amity going red as a tomato and doing her best to avoid everyone’s eyes.

“Anyway, your mom is in the middle of an operation so she can’t come right now, she’ll be here as soon as possible though. So enjoy your time left lovergirls ‘cause Lightbulb here is going to be grounded for life”

The girls looked at each other and laughed. It didn’t matter to them, Luz was alive and happy, they finally talked about everything they needed to talk and loved each other endlessly. Yeah, they were now going to get over all of the new insecurities they developed and trauma that a car accident can cause but they were together, and that was enough.