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Luz was walking on clouds. The bounce in her step hadn’t stopped ever since Amity had picked her up from the Owl House earlier that day.
Some of Luz’s favorite books featured first dates—she’d read and written fanfic about them, too—but nothing compared to the real deal.
Today was everything she’d hoped it would be and so much more.
She’d been afraid of the date being awkward because she’d been so nervous... but, as it turned out, Amity had been just as nervous, and they’d had tons of fun regardless.
Their conversations hadn’t been all that different from the ones they usually had about school, their shared interests and just life in general.
What had changed was how they acted around one another—now they held hands and awkwardly flirted in between conversations.
Luz had spent ages agonizing over what to wear, before finally settling on a black and gold suit that Eda had then bought for her—or maybe not ‘bought’, Luz knew better than to question that by now.
She also might have gone a bit overboard with the witch hat, but then again, how often did one have the chance to wear a witch hat on a date? There was no way she could pass up that kind of opportunity.
Was it unreasonably large?
Maybe.
Probably.
But Amity had laughed when she’d seen Luz wearing it—genuinely, in a way that made Luz’s heart soar because she could count on her hands the number of times she’d gotten Amity to open up like that. So, Luz had promptly decided it was now her favorite piece of clothing.
The date so far was amazing. They’d shared the Boiling Isles’ equivalent of ice cream, which was fortunately lactose-free, but also screamed way more than the one on Earth did. Even so, it tasted pretty good so Luz couldn’t find it in herself to complain.
Afterwards, they’d gone dancing. Apparently that was their thing now. Luz loved it.
Her date—Amity was her date, Luz still hadn’t quite grasped that—held her hand the entire walk back to the Owl House.
On the way, they shuffled their feet a little, and occasionally stopped to launch into another debate about whether or not Hecate’s betrayal of Azura in book three of the series was justified, because neither of them were ready for the date to end quite yet.
By the time they reached the Owl House, it was close to sunset.
As she took in their surroundings, Luz’s face lit up with an idea that would be fun and put off their goodbye for a little longer.
“Be right back!”
She disappeared into the Owl House and emerged with Owlbert in hand a couple of minutes later—with Eda’s permission, this time.
Once they were above the clouds, Luz brought Owlbert to a stop and took in the view.
“I thought this would be a nice way to end the amazing day we’ve had,” she whispered, her eyes glued to the horizon as she nervously awaited Amity’s reaction. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
“It’s breathtaking,” Amity replied.
The sunset painted the clouds a soft yellow, the sky slowly turning from red to black as the sun disappeared beneath the horizon and the stars began to come out. When Luz managed to draw her gaze away from the sight, too curious about Amity’s expression to not look at her, she noticed that her date wasn't looking at the sky at all.
“You aren’t looking in the right...” Luz trailed off mid-sentence, the words stuck in her throat as she realized Amity was staring at her. Heat rose to her cheeks and she stammered out a response, “Oh. Oh, wow.”
Luz couldn’t believe it. Out of all the things around them to look at, somehow Amity‘s gaze was drawn to Luz.
“Was that too much?” Amity asked, a small smile pulling at the corner of her lips.
Luz smiled back at her, eyes softening.
“No, I just- I’m not used to anyone talking about me like that. It’s... really nice, though.”
Before she came to the Boiling Isles, Luz had faced so much trouble making friends that she’d barely been able to imagine having them at all—let alone anyone seeing her as something more than that.
And yet... here she was.
“Well, then maybe you’ve been hanging out with the wrong people.”
“Yeah, maybe I have.”
She couldn’t have estimated just how much her life would change when she’d first stepped through the portal at the beginning of summer.
She was a witch now, for God’s sake! And not only that. She had not one, but two amazing best friends in Gus and Willow, and most of her classmates actually liked her now.
She’d found a second family at the Owl House, and something of a weird, criminal mom in Eda—who understood her like no one ever had. Luz loved her mom dearly, but they were incredibly different, and sometimes Luz felt like she was disappointing her by being herself… while the only way she could disappoint Eda was by being anything other than that.
And then there was Amity, the most incredible girl Luz had ever met… who looked back at someone like her and somehow saw everything she’d ever wanted.
For the first time in her life, Luz being weird was actually considered good, and she’d never been happier.
She was living her dream, and a tiny, selfish part of her hoped she would never wake up.
Luz nudged Amity on the shoulder, and inclined her head towards the sky in front of them.
“Now come on, you should actually try enjoying the other view before the sun sets.”
Luz reached for Amity’s hand and intertwined their fingers together. Amity squeezed her hand lightly and placed her head on Luz’s shoulder, redirecting her gaze towards the evening sky.
“Wow...” Amity breathed. “I mean, it doesn’t beat the other view,” she clarified, “but it is really pretty.”
“I’m glad you like it. There’s... a reason why this view is so special to me, aside from it just being incredible.” Luz smiled, noting how warm Amity’s hand felt in hers as she recalled the last time she’d been up here. “I know it might not seem quite as special to you, since you live here, but seeing this view was part of what convinced me to stay in the Boiling Isles.”
“Really?”
“Mhm. I really wanted to be the kind of hero Azura is. A chosen one with a special destiny. And when I realized that I wasn’t, and that the Boiling Isles were... Well, they are magical, but they’re also way more terrifying than I’d expected... I was scared. So I thought about going home, but Eda helped me see things from a different perspective.” She gestured at the view. “I... just wanted to share this with you. After all, if that hadn’t happened, I never would have met you.”
Maybe that was corny... but Luz didn’t care. This was her first date, she was allowed to be corny.
“Thank you,” Amity said. “For sharing this with me, for today, and for... everything else. I know you had trouble fitting in and making friends back at home, but your ability to be unapologetically yourself is something I’m really glad you never lost. You’re brave, and you’re kind, and you have a big heart. Yes, you’re reckless, and you get in trouble a lot.”
“At least...” Luz thought for a moment before adding, “three times yesterday. And that was one of my better Saturdays.”
Amity chuckled.
“You live your life the way you want to. I… envy you for that.” She bit her lip. “No matter how many times the world pushes you down, you always get back up. And you believe in others, in their ability to be better—even when they don’t deserve it. Even… when I didn’t deserve it.”
“I-” Luz’s throat closed up, and she felt her eyes water..
“Did-did I say something wrong? Was that too much?” Amity asked anxiously, immediately noticing the shift in Luz’s mood.
“No! Nonono, not at all. It’s just… I think I really needed to hear that. I had a hard time grasping why you’d like me back.” Amity opened her mouth to interrupt but Luz continued before she could. “Not because of you, because of me. Back at- in the human realm, if anyone paid attention to me at all, it was to make fun of me. To comment on what was wrong with me, with the way I behaved. And, well, if you’ve spent half your life being a laughingstock, it gets hard to find reasons why anyone would look at you and see something they like.”
“Oh Luz…” Amity moved closer to her date and put an arm around her. “Those idiots don’t know what they’re missing.”
“Thank you for saying all of that. I know you talked about how I believe in people… but for a long time it was hard to believe in myself.”
“Tell me whenever you need to hear it again.” Amity gave her an encouraging smile. “I don’t mind repeating this every day for the rest of my life if it helps.”
“The rest of your life, huh?” Luz raised an eyebrow. “Someone’s getting ahead of herself.”
“I mean, I did rope you into this date, didn’t I?” Amity joked. “My evil plan seems to be working out well so far.”
They both burst out laughing.
Then, Amity moved even closer to Luz, fidgeting a bit on the broom. She looked very nervous all of a sudden.
The sky was darker now that the sun had set, the moon bright above their heads, the soft grayish blue around them making the atmosphere seem colder, but also a little calmer.
“Now it’s just us and the moon up here,” Amity observed, and there was something in her voice that made Luz almost certain she knew what her date was thinking of.
“Yeah... just the two of us...”
A subtle glance at Amity’s lips, then Luz leaned forward, one hand raising to cup Amity’s cheek. Just as her eyes closed, Luz was stopped mid-motion by the brim of her hat hitting Amity’s forehead, because of course she was.
As much as Luz loved the hat, she was starting to have regrets about wearing it today.
‘Wow, way to totally ruin the mood,’ she thought, but Amity only looked amused, and Luz was determined to not let that stupid hat get in the way of kissing her, so she firmly readjusted it with other hand... completely forgetting that she actually needed to hold onto the broom.
She let out a small yelp as she lost her balance, almost falling sideways off the broom, but thankfully, Amity’s reflexes kicked in.
“Luz!” Amity pulled her into her chest with one arm, the other keeping a firm grip on the broom to steady them both. “You okay?”
Luz let out a sigh of relief, her hands shaking from where they were clinging to Amity’s back. With her arms wrapped around Amity, Luz could feel the other girl’s breath ghost across her neck.
“F-fine.”
After she’d gotten her heart rate to settle, she reached down to grip the broom again, the other hand clinging to Amity’s shoulder.
“Thank Titan.” Amity ran a hand through her hair. “That could’ve been really bad.”
They were sitting so close to each other that their noses were almost touching. Amity’s eyes widened.
“Uh, so…” Luz faked a cough, “where was I, prior to making a fool of myself?”
Amity huffed out a laugh, nudging Luz on the shoulder.
“Hey, if today had gone by without at least a small mishap, it wouldn’t have been us, right?”
Luz snorted.
“I guess.” She traced a finger against Amity’s cheek, brushing a few strands of loose hair behind her ear, and felt her earlier confidence return. The hat was above both of their heads now, so it wouldn’t be getting in the way again. “Amity, would it be alright if I-”
Amity leaned forward and closed the gap between them with her lips.
Luz’s eyes widened in surprise, but after recovering from the initial shock that Amity was actually kissing her, this was really happening, she leaned into the motion and relaxed. She moved the hand on Amity’s cheek to lift her chin a little, and closed her eyes.
“I... wow,” Amity breathed when they broke apart.
They beamed at each other, neither willing to move apart even a little.
“Wow yourself,” Luz cheerfully replied, before realizing what she’d said made zero sense. “Sorry, I meant- I just-” she stuttered, scrambling for the right words.
Amity seemed at a loss for words as well, still reeling from the kiss herself. Then the two of them looked at each other and laughed again, because gosh, they were both so awkward about this, but maybe that was what made it perfect.
The Boiling Isles was a terrifying place to live in 99 percent of the time, but it sure had its moments.
