Chapter Text
There was something bothering Luz, ever since their triumphant return to the shattered hold of the Owl House.
Amity could see it, in the set of her shoulders and the length of her lingering gaze, the microfractures in the girl’s composure that only someone standing by her side, day after day, would know. She’d learned nearly every one of her ticks, over the course of countless weeks, the unique quirks that made up everything that was Luz Noceda – human and foreign, apprentice and witch, savior and victor…
Loving partner, and best friend.
She did have to admit, at least to herself, that the symptoms had originally escaped Amity’s notice. They’d been buried, lost in the wake of that final rush to save the entirety of the Isles and beyond, the signs of stress they all knew existed but could do nothing about with the threat of Belos and the Collector looming over them like a swinging guillotine. With all of their lives on the line, the lives of everyone they knew and loved, there had been no time for one last reassurance, before the consequences caught up with them all.
The freed members of the Hexsquad had had a front row seat to the finale of the Emperor’s rotten reign, even as they fought to prevent the Collector’s archives from giving into ruin, the fluttering silhouettes of dashing figures and burning magic wheeling across the breathless skyline as the horror that Belos had become lashed out in rage. There had been no mistaking the trio that had brought those fateful blows to the corpulent witch-hunter, a whirling windstorm of feathers and fur and shining glyphs, their flashing spells disappearing into the distance as the necrotic titan birthed by their most hated enemy finally fell.
The creeping corruption had burned away, releasing its stranglehold on the Titan’s carcass with a rattling sigh, and they knew that Luz and the others had won.
They descended upon the Owl House in clumps of twos and threes, hours after releasing as many imprisoned souls from the archives as they could, sat atop whatever staffs were still available. Their unspoken rallying point had been left dark and unwelcoming by the plundering visited upon it over the course of months. Within, they found their remaining friends and family; warm embraces and teary eyes were shared by all as they collided.
Luz’s mother finally met the woman and boy who’d taken in her child as their own, catching them all in an embrace that spoke more soundly than anything she could’ve said; the petrified form of Hooty was returned to his greatest friend, coiling about Lilith’s sobbing form as the two reunited; and the Hexside students jostled for space as they laughed and cried, Hunter and Gus and Willow taking turns swapping hugs with the relieved forms of Eda and an exhausted Raine Whispers.
Amity ended up at the rear of the pack, jostled to the back as everyone flooded into the first floor, cheering and tearing up in turn. When she finally broke through the miniature crowd, shuffling past friend and family alike, the youngest Blight called out, “Luz?”
And her girlfriend answered, victorious relief suffusing her voice.
“Right here, Amity.”
The Owl Lady and the elder Noceda broke apart from their whispered conversation, making way for their daughter, and –
“…Guh.”
She’d deny the fact vehemently in the future, when the witnesses to their reunion began to tease her mercilessly for it, but the sound Amity made in that moment was far from anything one might’ve called ‘dignified.’ Even without a mirror in sight, she was certain her cheeks were practically scorched by the blush growing across them.
Her girlfriend openly giggled at the look on her partner’s face, lips curling with mirth to reveal the fang she now sported, while the golden glow of her gaze was eclipsed by the amused crinkle of her eyes.
“Yeah, I got a little bit of a makeover from the Titan,” The witch’s apprentice stated, as if that were a very normal thing to say. “Who knew he had great fashion sense? I bet he would’ve made a killer cosplay designer…”
Amity would have been lying if she’d claimed that she had ever found the other girl truly unattractive; while it might have been the soft smiles and persistent friendship that drew her to Luz Noceda like a bug demon to a flame, she’d always appreciated the tomboy aesthetic that the human had proudly sported. Now, though, the Titan’s influence had stripped that away from her, leaving something frighteningly new and dangerously familiar in its place – and where her girlfriend had once been on the right side of gawky, sleek fur and bleached bones lent her an air of power and grace that drew the eye of every person in the room. Once, she’d been able to claim the slightest advantage of height between them; now, even without the zigzag curl of horns poking from Luz’s bristling hair, she threatened to tower over her partner. Light clacks of claws on boards echoed through the room, her very stride seeming to carry the weight of a departed deity with each step, made meaningful by the surety with which the ascended human moved.
The witch found her mouth feeling as if it had been stuffed with cotton, barely able to push past the awed lump in her throat to say the only thing that came to mind at the sight:
“F-Fluffy girlfriend.”
After the insane rush of everything that had slammed into them all over the course of the last few days, Amity’s fried mind was having a bit of a time stringing together anything overly coherent. The shock of finding the target of her affections looking like a vision of a descending god(dess) really wasn’t helping that numbed mindset.
Their friends burst into guffaws at her dumbstruck response – which very quickly turned to cheers when Amity’s laughing partner swept her into a short kiss that threatened to knock her out with the force of mingled relief and joy that it brought, as the two leaned into their embrace.
Somewhere in the background, she heard the Collector cry out in protest as somebody covered his eyes from the sight.
And, as suddenly as the adrenaline-fueled tide of rushing fear had appeared to strike at their group, it fled just as quickly, and peace descended upon the Boiling Isles once more.
The sun that shone down upon the shifted landscapes of the Boiling Isles seemed to chase the shadows that had dominated its corners for far too long, snapping at their heels as they ran for cover, leaving only brilliant light and buoyed spirits in their wake.
They quickly found themselves busy with the necessities of reconstruction, hours whiled away as the rejuvenation of the Emperor’s former holdings fell upon the shoulders of those that yet remained. Their economy, and any lines of supply, were in shambles – the same as whatever fragments remained of the fading governance over their lands; people had been displaced from their homes, the survivors forced to scavenge what they could out of desperate need, leaving ruin and theft in their collective wake; and an entire fifth of the Isles now rested miles high in the sky, leaving it all but impossible to resettle without serious modifications to the townships that dotted the heaven-bound arm.
In the end, the witches and demons of the Boiling Isles did the only thing they could – they persevered, they banded together, and they thrived amongst the untamed dangers of their harsh homelands.
There was a massive call for the able-bodied and hale to aid the ongoing civil and architectural efforts, especially in regards to skilled labor. Even then, bodies were still needed to haul stone and chop lumber – and, with the reunited members of their family now at the head of the largest remaining Abomination forges on the entire chain, it fell upon House Blight to provide the manpower so desperately needed.
Of course, there was the hellephant in the room – that of her mother, still lingering on the edge of Amity and her family’s perception like a rotten taste at the back of her throat. The damnable woman did try to interfere with their volunteering of time and materials, at first… until her father stepped in, with an air of determination about him that was uncharacteristic of the exhausted Blight patriarch. She and her siblings heard little of the conversation that occurred between their arguing parents, kept at bay by privacy charms and closed doors.
Hours later on that first day, Alador stepped out from the depths of their shared study, his wife remaining in the room as the door swung shut behind him. He spoke nothing of the discussion, only taking a moment to compose the dour expression that had lengthened with Odalia’s interruption into something kinder, before taking his children by the shoulders and asking them how – in their honest opinions – they thought that the Blight family might be able to aid their neighbors and friends.
Between shifts on construction teams, directing hordes of oozing golems into place with waves of her hands – and, later, once the Collector forged a new portal for travel between the Human and Demon Realms – Amity would snatch any moment away from the dance of projects and planning that she could, if only to see her girlfriend for a few spare moments.
The once-human girl’s new appearance never fully faded, in spite of the doubtful words they’d shared in the aftermath of their reunion. Oh, she could certainly hide it, and Luz did so regularly, her uncertainty at the reaction of Bonesborough and beyond leaving her anxious partner to hide away from the eyes of those she feared. It was a larger concern on her own world, Amity knew, and told her as much – only to have her statement validated by the ripples of gossip, one warm afternoon, where Luz’s boundless energy faltered in the wake of a nap and left her exposed to the prying gaze of their fellow construction teams.
It made the youngest Blight happier than she could admit seeing the gentle blush across her girlfriend’s cheeks as she spoke of the encounter, twirling a band of dark curls around a finger while she told Amity of the compliments that had been leveled in her direction after the initial shock had worn off of her colleagues.
“Of course they’d think you look great,” She told her flushed partner. “It’s true.”
Seeing as she was rewarded with a kiss for that comment, Amity was rather satisfied, herself.
When they weren’t enwrapped in the complexities of repairing months of alterations by the Collector, or the years of societal degradation pushed by the late Emperor, the two made certain to steal as many little touches as they could in the space between tasks. Some days they’d spend lunch together, chatting and chuckling as each relayed the day’s events in the shade of a raggedy repurposed market tent, while others they’d find only enough time for a brief embrace or greeting before departure, headed off into the alleys and thoroughfares of Bonesborough at the behest of the few remaining Construction Coven leaders that headed rebuilding the city.
More rarely, they’d find time for actual dates, occurrences made all the more difficult by the devastation that had sundered most available venues.
Their first night out wasn’t even really a private moment, more a stolen stretch of peace as night descended and the wandering crowds of workers and displaced citizens settled in for the evening. A bold few, understanding the importance of maintaining morale in the face of their shared ills, had put their mixed magical talents to good use, and so nighttime shows of homemade plays and social games began to take hold in the sea of tents and shanties that composed their temporary quarters.
That night, Luz and Amity huddled beneath an oversized cloak lent to them by Eda at some point in the days before, arms and knees brushing against one another as they giggled along with the crowd at the gathering’s central act, a roughshod comedy gig put together by a handful of illusionists who’d once starred in bland daytime shows. They shared a motley collection of snacks under their voluminous blanket while the show went on, swapping chuckles and little grins all the while, basking in the presence of each other’s company even as the crowd gave a round of heartfelt applause for the scruffy actors up on the makeshift stage.
It was good to hear her girlfriend laugh so freely, her stature unburdened by the omnipresent fear for their friends and family that had plagued them all for months.
The fanged smile Luz now wore, open and gleeful, was more beautiful than even the blanket of stars far above, in Amity’s humble opinion.
And for a while, all seemed right with the world once more. Her family – or at least, the important parts of it – were together once more, her friends from Hexside and beyond were settling back into their lives without the burden of Belos’ wrath looming over them all, and the best girlfriend between two realms was smiling like she once had, before the doom and gloom and terror of their situation had grabbed hold of their lives.
Even then, though, Amity could see some of the cracks starting to form.
They were present in the long hours Luz worked, doggedly determined to not let a day or week pass without being there on the front lines, hauling walls into place and spelling new stones into shape. She saw it in the way her partner’s generosity remained unflagging, even as her energy became scarcer and her meager funds even more so, handing out her time and food to those in need. It showed behind distant gazes and too-short grins, the expressions that slipped in when the former human thought nobody could see, before shaking herself of the affectations once more.
For a short time, she even believed they had solved the nagging and unspoken questions that burned Luz’s lips, when they sat down for an evening rendezvous… and her beloved girlfriend admitted, in spurts and stops, of how she had once planned to abandon her dreams of returning to the lands of the Demon Realm.
It hurt. Plainly and simply, it hurt Amity to listen as the girl she had pledged her affections to confessed to a plan that could have seen them separated for the rest of their lives, the call of familial responsibilities too powerful for Luz to resist. In a way, though, the fact that her partner had confided in her such a thing was healthy by some definition; an airing of fears and grievances, an admittance to her thoughts and priorities that could have come between them, given with an unhesitating apology.
In a way, it was their first true argument in their relationship, something Amity knew was bound to happen more than once in their time together. And in its aftermath, their worries shared and their hurts worked through in as mature a way as they could manage, she was willing to allow the balm of time to sooth the burdens she still saw weighing upon her girlfriend’s shoulders.
But… as the days grew long, and the shadow of some dire concern clung persistently to the otherwise cheerful form of Luz Noceda…
Amity had watched - the benefits of hindsight adding context - as the girl she cared most for in her life had spiraled into a fear and depression that not even her beloved friends and family could fully pull her from during those wonderful, painful months spent trapped and worrying in the Human Realm.
She was determined to not let such a thing happen again.
Enough courage had found its way to her to finally broach the topic by the time the pair found themselves atop the Bonesborough library one starry night, a cluster of hovering fire glyphs warding the encroaching chill off with a haze of comforting heat. They’d packed a late dinner, spread out across an old picnic blanket that the Owl Lady had thoughtfully provided where the tiled roof flattened out of its sharp slope, a handful of anchored glyph lights bathing them in a soft, ethereal glow.
The ambiance was beautiful, and the food was great. But, for all that she had enjoyed their evening stolen away from the pulls of their worries down below, Amity could not help but think of the concerns that had still managed to chase them into the midnight sky.
When the duo sat side by side, pressed against one another against the chilly air flowing about their perch, the young witch finally struck.
“Anything you wanted to talk about, Luz?” Her slim fingers, calloused by hours of hauling bricks and workshopping abominations, gently skimmed over the bones of her partner’s own. “You’ve looked like you have something on your mind for a while, now.”
“Aw, man…” Her girlfriend slumped, the melodramatic despair not fully covering the true tension that belayed her embarrassed grin. “Am I really being that obvious of a downer?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Amity hummed, resting her head atop the boney angle of Luz’s shoulder. “I know I saw it, at least.” A brief pause, as some of her warm concern smudged her neutral tone. “And you know I’m always willing to listen.”
The once-human girl… paused at that, seeming to genuinely ponder the offer before speaking. The witch watched her girlfriend shift, losing herself in the thoughts that had chased the normally flighty Luz for weeks now, her gaze growing distant.
Her empty hand flexed, and Amity wondered if she might worry at the bone that had replaced the flesh of her digits, or the weight of horns that jutted from her skull, or how her feet clacked when she walked.
Luz flexed her shoulders, rolling them to exorcise the aches of the day, and Amity pondered if she might remark on how she now needed assistance in caring for her mass of curls and shaggy fur, or all the ways that horns and claws made dressing oneself difficult.
A chill breeze picked up, flaring the fire wards at the edge of their shared seat, and Amity thought that her partner might comment on the power that she now wielded, the might that left none but a fledgling god her equal, where once the girl had struggled for even the barest iota of understanding and control.
Luminous eyes flicked to the lights dancing around them, and Amity braced herself for the possibility that Luz might finally speak on those horrific moments before Belos’ banishment, when every member of their little Hexsquad had staggered and choked, watching the bubbling flight of glyph lights flowing about the Collector’s archives and knowing, without word or action, that something awful had befallen their distant friend, loss gaping in Amity’s gut as she stared, transfixed…
Instead, the newest child of the Titan managed to find the one thing her girlfriend hadn’t really considered ever leaving her mouth.
“D’you think I’ll ever get as tall as King’s dad?”
Amity’s tension snapped like a band, her posture slumping with the unexpected bout of levity, as she gave a breathy, half-disbelieving laugh.
“Wait, what?”
“It’s a genuine concern!” Luz chuckled, perhaps a little weakly. “If I ever get that tall, there’s no way I’ll be able to sleep indoors again. And mama needs her beauty rest, you hear?”
Her partner giggled with her, a bit of relieved confusion still marking her expression, as they leaned into one another.
“I mean, I don’t know,” The youngest Blight spoke, smiling. “Don’t you think that’d probably be pretty… pretty far off in the…?”
Her grin slipped, even as Luz’s turned bittersweet, the taller girl pulling away from their embrace. Glowing irises focused on the night sky, steadfastly refusing to turn towards Amity once more as mirth turned to taut regret.
Oh.
Oh.
And suddenly, the pieces fell painfully together.
Their hands remained linked, even as the distance between them grew, frigid wind filling the gap. The witch sat, her features left frozen in surprise and self-recrimination, unable to find the words she needed.
That was until her gaze turned to the skies as her girlfriend’s had – and far above, twinkling as it soared across the heavens, a sparkling comet of the Collector’s making raced through their view, a mark of both his presence and departure scarring the atmosphere above.
Squaring her posture once more, a look of resolve in place, Amity squeezed their clasped hands and spoke firmly.
“I have no idea how large you could grow, eventually,” She stated honestly, drawing her sulking partner’s eye back to her. “We don’t even know if the Titan himself ever actually reached full maturity, let alone the rest of his people. But I guess we’re going to find out.”
“Amity…” Luz began, her expression falling, only to be cut off by her girlfriend’s commanding tone.
“Frankly, though, you’ve probably got much bigger concerns on your plate before any of that. King’s going to need help with his own glyphs, even if yours still work.”
“Amity.”
“Plus, we don’t even have a provisional government right now…” The witch sighed.
“Amity!” Her love cut in, pained frustration leaking through. “C’mon, I know what you’re trying to do. It doesn’t change the fact that…” Luz’s eyes dimmed, literally, pulling at the witch’s heart with the downcast look she now bore where her usual mirth had so quickly departed. “That someday, I… that King and I will…”
“What?” Amity interrupted again, and this time she demanded the melancholy girl’s attention, pivoting in place on her knees to draw both of their hands together across their laps. “You’re going to outlive me? And everybody else?” The defiant witch snorted. “Fat chance of that.”
“Wha… hey, wait a sec…” Luz weakly replied, bemusement warring with hurt in her tone, but her partner wasn’t finished.
“Luz. I want you to listen to me carefully.” She leaned in, head tilting conspiratorially, and her recalcitrant girlfriend finally met her in the middle, their foreheads gently colliding. “You have access to everything the Titan ever knew about his magic, even if there’s still things for you to find yourself. Belos lived for centuries by eating palismans, which…” She shuddered. “Just, gross. Then, let’s see – there’s demons with naturally long lifespans, like house demons, and you live with one – I’m pretty sure your world still has a few banished enclaves of vampires living there, if your people's books are any indicator. Principal Bump originally had a good few hundred years left before the schoolboard would even think of letting him retire. And didn’t we just defeat the Collector, who’s practically immortal and way too lonely, with the 'power of friendship?'”
The other girl… didn’t really have a response, to that concise list of the variously long-lived beings that Amity could name off the top of her head. Speaking into the shocked silence of the night, as comfortingly as she could, the witch continued.
“I know that… that letting go can hurt so, so much.”
She thought of that waning sunset months long past, just the two of them on the edge of a cliff in the wake of a grand tournament, as they launched a bundle of wilting flowers into the setting sunlight for a father taken too soon.
“But you still have plenty of time with everybody here before that’s even a real concern.” She paused, consideringly, before continuing in a slow, thoughtful tone. “Plus, I’m sure at least some of our friends aren’t exactly keen on the idea of icky things like mortality, anyway. If Eda doesn’t figure out a way to turn herself into a literal goddess before she hits sixty, I’d be pretty shocked, honestly.”
The watery chuckle she received encouraged Amity’s flagging speech, and she soldiered on, petite fingers entwined in claws of bone.
“And I have no plans to let my awesome girlfriend go on without me, no matter what it takes.”
A painful handful of seconds dragged on, before Luz’s wobbling whisper came.
“You really mean that? You’d… do that for me?”
“If that’s what you want,” The witch replied earnestly. “But, uh… I think I might actually draw the line at the palisman thing. Sorry. If I’m going to turn into any kind of mud monster, it’s going to be abomination goop, not whatever Belos’ whole… deal was.”
Luz gave a much heartier laugh at that, her palms wiping away her unshed tears, as they fell against each other in a tight embrace. Amity spoke once more, her voice muffled but not obscured by the crook of her girlfriend’s neck, words ringing loudly in the companionable quiet.
“I can’t promise everything’s going to be perfect. I’m sure we’ll have lots to fight about, in the future.”
She thought of the growing cracks that had sundered the burgeoning empire of Blight Industries, and of the forms buried amongst her father’s paperwork that he thought unknown to his trio of children, the arcing guillotine that would annul his ties to the darkest part of their family and split the remnants of their financial stability in twain.
Odalia was never one to let go without a fight.
“And the Titan knows we’ll always have something else to worry about...”
The devastation of Bonesborough played out in her mind, the ruin rippling out into the surrounding countryside, consuming so much of their time and efforts.
“But there’s no one I’d rather be with to see it all than the best girlfriend in the entirety of the Boiling Isles.”
She could feel the grin that stole across the other girl’s mouth by the way her throat tensed, chin pressed lightly into the young witch’s scalp. The movement calmed her, soothed both of their aching hearts, until a teasing voice left rough by grief asked –
“Don’t you think I should be the best wife then, if I’m so awesome?”
They shot apart as if electrocuted, Amity’s eyes blown wide and left tripping over words at the sudden suggestion.
“Um, you know, that’s uh – I don’t think we – wait, I mean I want to, but - but, um…”
Only to trail off, her burning blush growing, at the quiet giggles being stifled by Luz’s palm.
“Sorry, sorry.” The furred demoness laughed off her pouting girlfriend. “I’m still just thinking about the future, y’know? I have long-term plans on the brain tonight. I figured you’d want to hear them!”
Huffing in good-natured embarrassment, Amity let her hackles fall, relaxing back into her seat once again with an aggrieved grin.
“How is it you’re always able to leave me looking like my cheeks are sunburned, no matter what you do?” The flustered witch groused, seated beside her girlfriend as the tension finally, finally seemed able to escape Luz.
“Not really sure,” The smirking girl stated, her golden eyes full of gently fading glee. “But hey, you know what they say – for everything that changes…”
“There’s always something that stays the same, right?” Amity supplied quietly, her heart skipping a beat at the megawatt smile she received.
“Yup. And you know what else will never change?”
Luz was looming in close, now, giving the witch an exaggeratedly sultry look even as her brows wiggled enticingly. In spite of the silliness, her partner couldn’t help but ask with a pip of nervous anticipation –
“What would that be?”
“How much I enjoy kissing the best girlfriend in the world,” Came the reply.
And as their lips met once more, chasing any cogent thoughts from Amity’s head while the night closed in to encompass them and only them, the world narrowed to that very moment –
The youngest Blight daughter found herself more than inclined to agree.