It was nearly impossible to properly describe what exactly the music that filled the plaza sounded like for Luz. The instruments used were ones that she had never even seen before.

From what she could tell from the distance that she was at from them, one of them looked like a weird hybrid combination of a harp and a drum-set. Another seemed like a trombone, but with cords on one side, and piano-keys on the other, which extended and retracted like an accordion did. One seemed to be plant-like, almost - As in, one of the band members was just holding a plant, and that was making some sort of music, and Luz wouldn't even pretend to even begin to understand how that one worked.

In true Boiling Isles fashion, one of the instruments seemed like it was alive, armed with a pair of wings and fangs, and made noises by the scratching of what looked like fur in certain places. It was hard to know if the instrument was just an object or an actual living creature. Or, again, in true Boiling Isles fashion, if it was both. Luz had never seen an instrument quite like it before.

She'd never seen any of these instruments in Bard Classes, for that matter. She had to assume they were some sort of antique type of instrument - Maybe Valeween-specific traditional instruments that only got brought out for the Festivus and the Passover Chorus. It wasn't like that would be out of character for the Isles.

The sounds they made sounded like metal - That was the closest thing that Luz could describe them as. Like when someone struck a piece of sheet metal, and the sound reverberated as the substance wobbled in hand. But it was so much more refined than that, like it was carefully given purpose over hours of crafting and testing, like a guitar that had been perfectly tuned. The music was slow and precise, careful, and deliberate. It was music, but it wasn't anything that Luz could begin to describe by comparing it to Earth genres or instruments.

Classical music lessons - Or at least the Bard Track's equivalent - had taught Luz to recognise at least some, though not all, of the techniques present in the music. The patterns, the way it sped up and slowed down in small, isolated parts, and the way the music almost led those around it from one move into another. It's rhythms were designed to be for people to dance with each other. It made it easier for her to realize where the beats were, where the rhythm was taking her, and when to move her feet and hands.

And this wasn't the first time she had danced with Amity.

But it was the first time that things were this slow. This… The only real word for it was intimate, no matter what feelings that word sparked within Luz's chest.

This was an intimate dance, and the way that she and Amity held one another felt just as intimate too.

Neither of them held the other as closely as they had held one another at Grom - One hand held one another, while Luz's left hand rested on Amity's waist. Amity's right hand on Luz's left shoulder. They were about as far away from one another as they could physically be while still maintaining this position, mostly out of the lack of certainty as to how close the other wanted them to be.

Dancing itself was easy - It was the feelings that were being ignited that made the whole process more difficult.

Their movements were slow. Simple, basic, and deliberate. Nowhere near as energetic, complex, and improvised as Grom.

But it was nice.

"...It's weird." Luz eventually said, after they had danced for a few moments in near complete silence. Everything else was almost silent around her - No one else was speaking, and the only sound came from the music. A part of her wanted to speak just to break the monotony of the silence, though she did actually have an observation to make.

"Huh? What is?" Amity asked. There was a slight hitch in her voice, like she was trying, very intentionally, to focus on the dance, and nothing else, and Luz speaking had thrown her off that focus.

"The way you guys dance here." A brief pause followed. "Well, this kind of dance, I mean. You have similar dances to what we do on Earth."

"We do?" An eyebrow raised on the Witch's face. The slight hitch seemed to be gone now.

"Uh huh." Luz looked at their joint hands, and nodded. Like she was leading Amity to look as well. "It's kind of a… Dance you're just expected to learn how to do, for like, certain kinds of weddings, and formal parties and that kind of stuff. We call it a waltz."

"It's…. Kind of the same thing here. Only we call it a vals" Amity blinked, and looked at the joined hands herself. "They even sound kind of similar. Weird."

"Isn't it?"

"Yeah… It… Must be one of those things that travelled between Earth and the Demon Realm." Amity suggested. "Like Azura did. That's something both the Human world and the Isles share. Maybe a Witch in the past went to your world, learned this dance, and then brought it back."

"Or vice versa." Luz proposed. "Maybe a Human visited the Isles a long time ago, and you guys taught them how to waltz? It's not like I'm literally the first Human to ever visit the Isles, right?"

"I don't know of any others, and I don't think any of the history books I've read ever mentioned another Human visiting the Isles…"

Amity mulled it over for a few seconds, like she was trying to remember if she had ever seen anything to the contradictory. Given as much time as she had spent reading books, it was a lot of information to cover, though she went over it very quickly.

Instead, she wound up shaking her head when she realized she didn't recall anything like that. "...But I doubt you're the very first Human to set foot on the Boiling Isles. The first one to learn Magic, maybe, but to actually come here?... I don't know."

A few seconds passed. They both continued to move in sync with one another. Honestly, by this point, Luz would have expected one of them to have stepped on the others toes - Not even out of a lack of skill, but because of nerves, more than anything.

"...I wonder which side came up with this dance?" Amity pondered aloud after a short while. "The Human side, or the Witches side?"

"...Maybe it was both."

As they spoke to one another, their movements became more and more fluid, and they synced up almost perfectly with one another. The way that they spoke to one another only assisted them in getting more and more comfortable like this, learning one another's pace, setting a rhythm, and responding to small, subtle movements - Kind of like how when two people walked and spoke alongside one another, their footsteps would sync up - Like they knew the way that their partner would move almost the moment their partner knew themselves.

Whatever nerves they had, or thoughts were spinning through their heads, it didn't translate to poor performance. They were both matching each other steps one-for-one. Almost perfectly.

In the centre of the plaza, Bump and the orchestra still stood, watching it all unfold, amidst dozens of other dancers. Luz could just see their outlines over Amity's shoulder, but barely paid them any mind. The music changed slightly, and began to play a slightly different tune. A bit higher in pitch and in note, but was still slow, and methodical all the same.

"Huh?" Amity blinked, confused. "How could it be both sides?"

Luz turned her eyes back towards Amity's face. She was almost certain that they were closer than they had been before. "Well, I mean… Back on Earth, there's a lot of old stories about Witches who used to live in cabins in the woods, who made potions for people who were willing to make deals with them, or would curse people, or… Just do Witch-y stuff, I guess."

Admittedly, that thought was only just occurring to her now, but now that Luz thought about it, it was possible that the Witches of the Boiling Isles could explain a lot of the old stories about Witchcraft on Earth. There had to be thousands of them throughout thousands of cultures and regions of the planet. Maybe the Isles was a common thread.

The smallest laugh escaped Amity's lips. "Should I be worried about the way my people are represented in your world?"

A slightly awkward expression made its way onto Luz's face as she remembered the many, many, many horror stories about Witches she had heard of growing up. "Er… Don't worry about it?"

"...I wasn't before, but now I kind of am." Amity blinked a couple of times, and an eyebrow raised again.

As they danced, they switched their standing positions - Luz now had her back towards Bump and the orchestra, while Amity could now see them fairly clearly if she chose to focus on them. Naturally though, she didn't. She focused entirely on Luz.

"A - Anyway!" The Human said quickly. "My - My point was… I don't know. Maybe a Witch came to Earth, and met a Human, and they became friends, and came up with a dance together? And when the Witch came back here, they taught it to everyone?"

Amity's golden eyes - Luz was not sure why she took note of the colour right now, of all times - darted outwards for a few seconds, before they returned to looking at Luz's. "It's… Possible, I guess." She slowly said, like she was seeing how the words sounded coming out of her mouth. "I don't know how likely it is, but… Maybe."

A small smile appeared, and it made Luz feel things again.

"It's a nice thought."

"It - It's… It's kinda like a fairy tale, huh?"

"...A what?"

"Just - They're a Human thing." Luz told her, though she had to pause for a moment to figure out how exactly to explain the concept of a fairy tale. "Er…. They're like… They're like folk stories, I guess? Only they usually had Magic in them? Or Magic creatures or… Stuff like that."

"I thought the Human Realm didn't have any Magic?"

"It doesn't, but people used to believe that it existed on Earth. It made explaining all the weird things that happened to them easier, I guess." A lightbulb went off in her head as she realised a point of comparison, "They're kinda like those stories that you read to kids in the library."

Amity hummed and nodded her understanding, not saying anything more. The point had been illustrated for her fairly clearly.

Both of them continued to dance, keeping in rhythm with the music. It changed again after a short while, and became something a little bit faster, and Luz realized that she had no idea if when the music changed, if it was the start of a new song, or if it was just another section of one long, collective song. She could recognise that this was the Boiling Isles equivalent of classical music, but that didn't mean she could identify if the new sounds indicated a new song or not. Bard Magic wasn't her best subject.

A few seconds passed, and then Luz realized that it hadn't been a figment of her imagination - She and Amity were closer than they had been before.

How and when it had happened, she couldn't say for sure. She hadn't intentionally stepped closer to Amity, and if Amity had intentionally stepped closer to her, she hadn't seen it. Her arms no longer had to reach out as far as they could go before they reached Amity's waist - Now her arms were able to bend slightly, not needing to extend as far.

The realisation that she was this bit closer to Amity made her go red in the face, but Luz didn't mind at all. Not really.

It felt nice to be this close to Amity. It felt right. It felt…

"...Sorry I didn't tell you what the Chorus was." Amity said after a short while. Luz felt the grip on her shoulder tighten slightly. The Witch looked away slightly.

"H - Hey, it's okay." Luz told her. Her hand on the other girl's waist guided Amity away from bumping into two other dancers that had come too close, and in doing so, pulled them that bit closer to one another again. "It - You said that it was bad luck to talk about it before now. It was like how Gus and Willow didn't want to talk about the Cherubim that one time."

"Yeah… But that only really works if you believe in the Chorus superstition."

Luz blinked, and Amity looked at her face.

"...I don't."

Oh. Oh.

"...Oh." Luz blushed, and felt her cheeks warm up. Suddenly, Amity's specificity regarding the Chorus on their walk to the Festivus made much more sense. It took the Human a short while to find her words again. "…You er… You did say this was… The one thing you knew you wanted to do here…"

"...Yeah.."

She had wanted to dance with Luz. That was what she had wanted, more than anything at the Festivus.

"Were - " Involuntarily, Luz gulped. "...Were you afraid I'd say no?"

"I… I wanted it to be a surprise? I thought it would be…" Amity stopped talking for a solid ten seconds. "...I don't know. I just wanted it to be a surprise. I thought it would be… I guess special?"

It had to have been one of those things where, in Amity's head, it made sense, but when she had to actually say it out loud, she didn't know how to explain it. That described a… Surprisingly large amount of Luz's life in general, honestly.

"Well… You got the surprise part down." Luz said, allowing herself a single laugh. Maybe it was just her nerves flaring up, but there was humor to be had in this whole mess.

Another few seconds passed in relative silence. Once again, Luz had to guide Amity away from crashing into other dancers - It seemed like whoever the heck had ended up surrounding them, they weren't super aware of their surroundings. But Luz barely paid that fact any more attention than she needed to.

Something about getting to guide Amity like this was... Exhilarating. There wasn't another word for it. It just sent a rush throughout her.

A rush she wanted more of.

"...I think I was afraid, a little." Amity eventually said. "That… That you wouldn't want to. And that's… That wasn't fair to you. You said that you don't know how you feel about me, and I…" She trailed off again.

She wanted to be selfish. Just for this one thing. Luz understood.

"...Well, hey, don't worry about it." She told the Witch, smiling as she spoke. "I'm… I'm having fun here." There was no lie, either. That was the honest truth. "I… I like this."

Once again, Amity looked up to face Luz. For a moment, she looked at Luz's eyes - Really looked at them. Like she was searching for something - But whatever it was that she was looking for, she evidently wasn't able to find it.

So when she saw the smile, one appeared on her own lips.

"...How do you keep doing that?"

"Doing what?" Luz blinked.

"Every time I feel like I've screwed up, you always make me feel better. But you… You don't ever lie to me to spare my feelings either." That must have been what she had been looking for. A sign that Luz was lying. "Every time you make me feel better, you're being genuine at the same time..."

Again, Amity looked into Luz's eyes, and Luz could swear that she felt the moment like it was tangible.

"...It's one of the… Reasons I… Love you."

'You think that Amity made a mistake by falling for you.'

It was… Hard not to feel like it was.

The vision of her that Amity had of her.

...She wasn't sure she could live up to that.

And was afraid that Amity had made a mistake in thinking that she could.

'You know exactly how you feel about her, don't you.'

Don't you.

Luz's heart beat. Hard. And her breathing quickened. Her face felt red, but her gut felt like ice.

She understood it now.

That box in her mind. It wasn't that she needed a key to unlock it. It wasn't even that she was the one who had locked it.

It was that she was the one who was locked inside it.

She knew how she felt - But she couldn't face it.

Couldn't even say it. Even think it. Couldn't even find the words because she had hidden them so well.

Because she was terrified of what she would do.

How she would fail.

How she would screw this all up.

How often could she pretend that the way she was treated at school wasn't, in some way, her fault? How could she look at every interaction there, see how they always ended with her being the one on her own, and not realizing that she was the one common thread in all those interactions?

How long until that happened again? And if she even let herself acknowledge how she felt…

...How long until she did that to Amity?

And Amity deserved so… So… So much better than that.

She couldn't do this to Amity.

She… She couldn't bear it herself.

She. Couldn't do this.

"...I can't…"

Her hands let go of Amity, and she took a single step away from her. The look that Amity gave her broke her heart. But when the tears started to fall from her own face, the look Amity had changed, instantly.

Like she knew. Like she could see straight through the Human.

She couldn't be here. She couldn't.

All Luz could do was run.

It was like she went blind for a few moments - She barely even realized when she had turned and run, as quickly as she was physically capable of doing, away from Amity. Away from the plaza. Away from the eyes that she could feel turning on her as she left.

As she ran, she barely even remembered running past people - All she could figure was that she either completely blacked out everyone around her as she ran, or they moved aside as she came shooting towards them.

Red hot tears filled what little of her vision she had, though she tried everything in her power to hold them back - She wanted to just stop, and scream, and let them all out, but she couldn't - She couldn't! She needed to be away from here. Away from Amity.

Before she shattered what little illusion of her would be left after this.

If Amity called after her, she didn't hear it.

She just ran.


How exactly Luz managed to find her way onto the path to the Owl House, she wasn't entirely sure. She hadn't even been trying to get there - She just wanted to be somewhere that was away from people.

Maybe she had spent so long on the Isles that she could just navigate the place while she was practically blind, and had subconsciously just tried to get back to the wooden shack she called her home in this realm.

Or maybe it was just blind luck.

Honestly, she didn't know, and she didn't even care to know at this point. She had just run - Run until she couldn't run anymore, and until her legs ached and she ran out of breath.

From then on, she just walked. Slowly, and honestly, aimlessly. She had no particular direction in mind. Her walking speed had slowed down to a crawl ever since she stopped running, and she had no idea how long she had been running for. Her feet dragged along the ground, kicking up dirt with every step. That was all that she watched as she walked along, and her head hung low as well. There was no one around her though, thank God, so one could see her like this.

For a reason that was completely beyond her, she was trying to hold back the tears.

Behind her, she could hear the sounds of the Festivus still ongoing. Music and conversation, but it was all distant now, becoming one big, indistinguishable blur. People who had themselves together more than she did, who weren't going to screw everything up for themselves, or hurt or disappoint the people they cared about.

She wanted to take solace in the fact that she'd made the right choice - Or at least, what she thought was the right choice - That she knew that Amity, whatever she saw in her, was mistaken. Was wrong. That Amity would realize that before long. That she had made the right choice.

That this was for the best, for Amity. For herself.

Even if it were true though, it didn't make Luz feel even remotely better. In fact, it just made her feel worse -

Keeping the tears held in ended up being a bad decision - Luz's vision had been blurred, and because of how she was hanging her head, her peripheral vision was already far more limited than it otherwise normally was. These factors combined, and meant that she didn't spot the dip in the path, and tripped on it, falling face first into the ground. There was an unceremonious thud as she hit the floor.

Compared to only just last week getting her leg chewed up and permanently scarred by a Cherubim, this didn't hurt in the slightest. It just stung for a few seconds.

That was all she needed for the floodgates to open though.

Tears flowed freely now, and she just remained on the ground, in a quiet, sobbing mess for a short while, wanting to scream at herself for all of this - For burying all of this so deep in the first place. For not being able to understand what it was she was feeling because she had buried these feelings so deep. For not being able to figure them out sooner, so that she could process them and figure out how to hold them back before now.

Before all of this.

And even now, she couldn't bring herself to just say it - To just even think it - Even though she knew what it was, and even though a part of her knew now - Just knew - that really, she had known for a while now.

Picking herself up, she decided that she didn't want to go to the Owl House right now - The last thing she wanted right now was to deal with Hooty, or King and Lilith if they had gotten back or go somewhere Amity might find her or - Just, anyone. She didn't want to be around anyone right now.

Instead, still trying to wipe tears out of her eyes, she made her way off the path, and into the tree line, hoping that said trees and the accompanying plant life would make it impossible to spot from the path.

After just a short while, she found a spot that she decided was as good as any other, slumped against the nearest tree, and held her head in her hands, and buried both between her knees. Her outfit was dirty now, and there might have been a tear in it, but that was the absolute last thing that was on her mind right now.

Finally, she allowed herself to just cry.

None of it had been a lie. None of it had been an act. Luz had meant every word that she had said after Valeween, and during the Festivus, and she knew that Amity had meant every word that she had said too. Luz had enjoyed her time with Amity - It felt just so… Right. So universally, unrestrictedly right that it genuinely shook her. Every look, every laugh, every smile that Amity had done, the feelings that they sparked in the Human - Those were real.

They were so real. So real that for a short while, Luz thought that it would be okay to feel like this. That everything would work itself out.

And she had wanted it to. She wanted it to work out. To be able to stay with Amity. To dance with her. To be able to hold her. To….

...She had wanted that more than she'd wanted anything else in her entire life.

She wanted it to.

But it wouldn't be fair. It wouldn't be right. She couldn't -

"L - Luz! There you are!"

It felt both like a jolt of electricity to the heart, and like a dagger made of ice cutting straight into the soul when Luz heard Amity's voice.

When Luz looked up at Amity and saw her face, she saw an expression that was a mixture of apprehension, hurt, concern, and confusion. She leaned against the nearest tree to Luz, relying on it for support. She was out of breath too - Her face was red, she was sweating slightly, and taking short, shallow breaths. She had run, evidentially, just like Luz had.

Fully realising that she was there filled Luz with dread.

"A - Amity?" As quickly as she could, Luz tried to wipe the tears and sweat and dirt and whatever else was there away from her eyes, even though it was completely pointless to do so - Amity had seen them back at the Festivus, and there was no way that she hadn't seen them now.

If she had the energy to, she would have gotten up and tried to put distance between her and the other girl, but she didn't. Her legs felt weak. She genuinely felt if she got onto her feet, she'd just fall over immediately and slam straight into the ground again.

So instead, she stumbled over her words. "What - Where did - How did you - "

For a moment, Amity just looked at Luz, like she barely knew what to say, or how to respond to… Any of what had just happened. Maybe that was why she opted to actually explain the question she knew Luz was trying to ask.

"It's… It's not hard to track down a Human running and… Crying, through the middle of the Festivus. When I lost sight of you, I just… Asked people if they saw where you went."

A particular strain on her voice was noticeable when she said 'Crying.' Like the word itself hurt her.

"...And… Then I heard you when I came this way…"

"Amity, I - " What was she supposed to say? Luz didn't even know where to start - Amity deserved an answer, yes, and Luz was angry at herself for running away rather than explaining herself, but she didn't know if she was strong enough to give one. The tears that kept rolling down her cheeks made it even harder to speak even small sentences. "I - I'm sorry, I - "

"It's okay." Amity told her almost immediately. Her voice was quiet.

She walked across the gap between the two of them, and knelt in front of Luz. When Luz eventually brought herself to look up at her, there was a smile on her face, but it was so obviously fake that Luz could hardly stand it, and wanted to yell at herself for being the reason it was there in the first place.

The expression on Amity' face betrayed how she really felt. Luz's head buried itself in her hands again.

"I… I get it." The Witch tried to assure the Human, but her voice wavered as she tried. "You… You... " The words wouldn't come for her, either. She stammered, and they got caught in her throat. She was trying to be far stronger about this than she was. "...You did more than I… Ever thought you would for me, Luz. You - You don't need to apologize for not feeling the way I do."

Her voice continued to waver, more and more as she spoke. She was trying to hide how hurt she was, but was trying to comfort her hurt friend anyway.

Because that was just the sort of person that she was.

"You… You didn't have to do any of this. You didn't need to go to the Festivus with me, and you didn't need to spend so much time trying to figure it out… But you did."

Luz couldn't stand it.

Couldn't stand hearing Amity's voice like this. Couldn't stand her thinking this was because she didn't -

"You did and you didn't need to, and I - "

"It's not that!"

It hadn't meant to be as sudden as it was, nor as loud as it was, but Luz's voice was sharp and loud all the same. She looked up at Amity again, no longer even attempting to hide her face or her expression. Her eyes stung though, so she needed to wipe them anyway, and try to at least get a grip on herself, just a little bit.

For her part though, Amity's expression had changed from one of poorly concealed heartbreak and worry, to surprise, and extreme confusion. For a few seconds, her mind was blank, but when she finally registered what Luz had said, and the implications of it - She found herself far more confused than anything else.

All she could do was sit there, and wait while Luz tried to calm herself down so that she could speak.

Just under a minute passed in relative silence, before Luz managed to find her voice again, shaky as it was, and interrupted by lumps in her throat, and the need for short, sharp breaths. "It… It's not that, Amity. It's not… I - "

She bit her lip. No matter how much she wanted to, she just couldn't say it.

"A - Amity you - You can't - You… This doesn't happen to me, Amity. It can't happen - People don't - They don't - Don't like me like you do! It doesn't happen because - Because there are reasons not to! I'm a weirdo! A freak! I - I do stupid things and I get the people I care about into dangerous messes because I don't think things through!"

The more she spoke, the louder her voice got, and the more blunt she got. She began to speak quicker, taking shorter and shorter breaths.

"Everyone back on Earth - They saw that! They all saw what kind of person I was - I can't - " Her voice hitched, briefly. " - How many times can that happen without it being my fault?! But here - Here everything is different! I - I have friends here, people go along with all my stuff and I - I get to learn stuff that I want to learn about and I -"

A gulp.

" - And somehow I haven't screwed it all up yet!" It was a constant fear that Luz had - That she was going to ruin everything one day. That everything that had come to make this place her home would fall apart because of the way that she was.

That was why she had been so lonely on Earth. It wasn't anyone else's actions. It was hers. She was the one who made a big display of everything - She was the one who freaked people out with her antics - She was the one who unleashed snakes on everyone for God's sake!

How wasn't it her fault?

"I - I try, Amity, I try so hard to keep myself from screwing it up but it's going to happen eventually and -"

For just a few seconds, Luz stopped herself and her rambling, just long enough to see the way that Amity was looking at her.

It was so hard to describe.

She was listening, and she wasn't interrupting at all, but she looked like she was one part horrified by what she was hearing, and the other part was ready to burst into tears of her own.

Luz looked away again.

"...A - And I don't… I don't know what you see in me, Amity, but you… You…"

Her teeth bit against her inner lip.

"...You're wrong about me."

For the first time in a while, Amity spoke. Her voice was quiet, and soft. "What do you mean, Luz? I don't understand what you're talking about."

"I… I - I don't know what you even see in me, Amity - I don't - I don't get it! I - I'm not smart, I'm not some sort of prodigy, I'm not - I'm not special! I don't get what it is you even like about me, what you even see in me and I - I can't - I can't be what you think I am and you - "

The words choked in her throat - Almost literally this time. It felt like they had all come up at once and made her unable to speak. She needed to take a few seconds.

"...And you're going to see that soon and I can't handle watching you realize what a screw up I am…. How much I'm going to disappoint you - And I don't want to but that's going to happen! And I don't…"

A slight pause followed. And when she spoke again, it was in a whisper that was barely audible.

"...I don't want to hurt you."

In a way, that was what all of this had come down to. Why she wanted to hide these feelings she had away. Because she knew - She knew - that even with Amity feeling the way that she did, Luz was going to hurt her some day. And she didn't want to do that. She couldn't bear that.

And it would hurt her too, and she… Didn't think she could handle that either.

Amity didn't deserve that.

"You… You deserve better than that, Amity. You…" The words nearly made Luz choke, but she forced them out of a dry throat. "...You deserve better than me. You - "

"I don't want better than you!"

For the first time in this conversation, Amity raised her voice. She had listened to all of this, listened to Luz tearing into herself for no good reason, listened to Luz just not understanding what it was that made Amity feel the way that she did about the Human - Listening to her not even refuting those feelings or say she couldn't return them, but instead talking about how she didn't feel worthy of them - Didn't feel like she could accept them because of some bizarre -

In all honesty, Amity barely even understood what Luz was trying to say - Her mind and her words were a jumbled mess right now, which in of itself made sense since she was upset - But Amity couldn't listen to any more of it.

She needed to speak - She couldn't stand seeing Luz like this.

"What… What do you even mean by 'Better'?" She asked, mostly rhetorically. Luz just looked back at her, like she'd been asked a trick question. "Smarter? Better at Magic? I don't even know what you mean, and… And I don't want that!"

Luz just blinked.

"I don't want someone who's - Who's smarter than you are, or better at Magic than you are, or someone who - Who's special, whatever you mean by that! You're all of those things, Luz! And even if you weren't - "

For a second, Amity hesitated - Then she took Luz's hands into her own.

" - None of that is even why I like you."

That made Luz look at her again.

"...I told you why I liked you, didn't I?" Amity managed to get hold of her voice again, and toned it down. Her voice became soft and gentle again. Her thumbs ran over Luz's hands. "Back by our Grom Tree. I told you back there."

A lot of things had been said there. Luz didn't know which she -

"That you're the most authentic person I've ever met." She offered a gentle smile to the Human again. Her hand squeezed Luz's as she spoke. "You're the kindest person I know, and everything about it all is so, so genuine. Every time you say something to me, I know that you mean it. Everything you said back when you encouraged me to change, everything that you said by the Grom Tree, everything you said at the Festivus…"

The smile faded briefly.

"...Everything you said here…"

It returned.

"It's all so… Authentic, in a way no one else is. You don't hide anything about who you are, what you like, how you want to be or what you want to do and I adore that about you. You… You inspire me. You make me want to be authentic in the same way that you are..."

Again, her hands squeezed Luz's hands, but now, Amity brought their hands together, so she could hold both of Luz's hands between her own - Like they were precious gems to be protected from the cold.

To Amity's mind, they were.

"I told you… There isn't a single part of you I didn't fall in love with. And I meant it, Luz. 'Better' wasn't there trying to comfort me after our Witches Duel. 'Better' wasn't there when I was terrified of facing Grom. 'Better' didn't fight through hordes of Cherubim just to make sure I was okay, even after I yelled at them, because I was afraid they wanted to leave me on my own… That was you."

The smile that was on Amity's face spread, and her eyes conveyed such a fondness that it made Luz shiver.

"You… You're not perfect - I won't pretend that you are. No one is. And… I know what it feels like when you're expected to be perfect. You're the person who made me realize how much that hurt the people around me… And… And you're the person that made me realize how unhappy trying to live up to that made me. You don't have to be perfect - I don't want you to be perfect."

For some reason, in her mind, Luz could see the box now. The locked, sealed away box that she had found herself trapped within, where she hid all the words, all these feelings, all this… Everything that made this whole situation so complicated and painful.

"I didn't fall in love with perfect. I fell in love with Luz Noceda."

That box now unlocked.

"I don't want 'better', Luz. I want you."

Something about hearing that - Hearing that from Amity - Hearing all of that from Amity - It just clicked in Luz's head. Made her…. She wasn't sure what it did to her, really. Because all those fears, those anxieties, all those feelings that she wasn't good enough, that beneath it all, she was basically just a huge mess, and that she was going to screw up at some point - All of that was still there. It didn't vanish.

But something about it spurred her. It was difficult to explain. Maybe it was because she knew how Amity felt about her. Maybe it was because the box in her mind was finally unlocked.

Maybe it was just the fact it was Amity who was saying it.

Either way though, the box finally spilled open - And all the feelings that Luz had kept inside, everything that she had tried to repress, to hide, to make sure never saw the light of day - It all came tumbling out.

She moved without thinking - Which was for the best, because if she did think for even a tenth of a nanosecond, she would have stopped herself.

Practically pushing herself up from against the tree she had been leaned against, so that she was now on her knees, her hands clasped onto Amity's shoulders. And without thinking about it, and only slowing down so she didn't end up injuring the other girl, Luz leaned in, and before even Amity realised what was happening either, pressed her lips against Amity's.

All of the fears and anxieties, they all still existed - But in that one moment, that one single moment, Luz didn't pay them even the slightest bit of attention.

Because that moment, right then, for just that one moment, everything felt so overwhelmingly right that nothing else mattered, and her mind became clear.

She loved Amity.

That was what the box hid from her. That was where the words were. That was where all the feelings had been stored, where she had tried to hide them. That was why she didn't feel the same way about Willow, or Gus, or anyone else - Because it was different. It was so extraordinarily different that it felt silly to even compare the two emotions.

She loved Amity - For so many reasons - Because she was kind. Because she was smart. Because she always tried to be better than she was before. Because she learned from her mistakes, because she was always there to help when Luz needed her. And at that exact moment, she was kissing the person she loved.

And the rush, the excitement, the feeling of finally knowing what all of the complicated, contradictory, battling emotions in her heart were, being able to finally put a word to it, and finally acting on it - Her heart felt like it had been sparked with electricity, and she couldn't be happier.

For her part, Amity had been caught completely off guard by the sudden action - Luz's eyes had closed the moment that their lips joined, so she didn't know what her reaction was. For a few seconds, there wasn't any sort of movement on Amity's part whatsoever.

A few seconds passed though, and eventually, her hand gently reached up, and held onto the Human's wrist - Not to push her away, but simply to enjoy the contact. She began to return the kiss.

And that physical response snapped Luz back into reality, and made her fully realize exactly what she had just done.

Her eyes shot open, and she pulled away from the kiss - Her face boiling red, and her heart hammering against the inside of her chest like it was trying to escape. Amity just stared back at her, her face now being one more of surprise and confusion again.

"I - I - I - I - I'm - I'm sorry!" Luz quickly said, holding her hands up in front of her. "I - I - I just - With everything you said, and - And trying to figure out how I felt, it - It all just sort of came together at one and I - I -"

"Please never apologise for doing that, Luz." Amity's voice was quiet and soft, like she was still registering what had just happened. Her fingers touched her lips, and as soon as they did, Amity's face exploded into a deep crimson blush.

"I - " Luz could have sworn that any sweat or tears or any of the other liquids that now covered her absolute mess of a face had evaporated at how hot it felt. "I - I didn't mean for the… K - Kiss."

Amity's own face seemed to go darker when the word 'kiss' left Luz's lips. She blinked twice, and then asked, "Wait, then - then what did you - "

"Y - You're… You're supposed to ask if it's okay before you k - kiss someone, right?"

They both looked at one another for a moment, in near complete silence.

Luz looked at Amity, and Amity looked at Luz. Neither of them moved so much as a centimetre.

And then Amity burst out laughing - After all of this! After everything that they had said and everything that had just happened - That was what she was freaking out about?

This was so, so, so much funnier than 'You look very wow' from earlier!

It took her a few seconds to truly appreciate the absurdity of what she had just said, but Luz started laughing as well - Her face had ached - Ached from the crying and the tears, and felt wet and dry all at once, and Amity's infectious laughter and the absurdity of the situation made the Human just erupt into laughter along with the Witch in front of her. Her hands reached up to grab hold of Amity's shoulders, needing them to support so she didn't slam face first into the mud from all the laughing!

Relief, adrenaline, excitement, fear, joy - All of those emotions mixed in with one another as the pair of them laughed and laughed. It had never felt so good to laugh like they did. But eventually, they did manage to calm down, at least enough to speak to one another.

"I like you, Amity." Luz finally managed to say, and saying that felt like she had just been released from prison. She said it again, just so she could feel it again. "I like you a lot."

"I like you too." Amity told her, her shoulders slumped like she had just had a huge weight lifted off them. Luz already knew how she felt - Saying it was superfluous, but it felt incredibly good to be able to just say it anyway. "I… I was afraid that you did after you ran."

"I'm… Sorry, about that. I sort of ruined the Festivus for you, huh?"

"Luz… You've done the opposite of ruin the Festivus for me right now." Amity laughed again. "Seriously. Don't - Don't worry about it. It's okay."

"What…" The Human asked, a smile still on her face, and while still chucking slightly as she looked at Amity. It was hard to know if it was a chuckle at the hilarity of the situation, or one of relief and euphoria. "...What do we do now?"

In response, Amity's hand reached up, and placed her hand over her opposite shoulder, and on top of Luz's hand. She smiled just as much, watching Luz's eyes follow her hand. "..What do you want us to do?"

"I… I don't know. I've… I told you. None of this ever happened to me before. I.. I don't know the first thing I'm doing."

"I… Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

Almost like a switch had been pulled, Luz's head snapped towards Amity. She had heard that right, right?

"I - I don't know what I'm doing either!" Whatever image there had been of Amity having some kind of collected or had-any-idea-what-she-was-doing attitude about this entire situation evaporated as soon as Luz's eyes met hers again. "I - I just - That - That seems like a thing you're supposed to ask, right? A - And I - I mean, I'd like it if we were but I don't want to sound like I'm trying to rush you into anything, I just - "

"Yes." Luz's voice was tiny, and more like a squeak than anything else, but it was just as loud as it needed to be.

"Y - Yes?"

"Yes!" Luz repeated, far more certainly and confidentially. "Yes I - I would - I would love to be your girlfriend - I - If you want to be mine, I mean!"

"O - Of course I do! I'm the one who asked you!" It was impossible to keep the massive smirks off of either of their faces.

There weren't words to describe how happy Luz felt in that moment. Awkwardly though, she stumbled with her words, not sure how to react to all of this. "I - I… I guess that's that then."

"...Is it okay if I kiss you again?"

The suddenness of the question made Luz jump slightly. Her face reddened even more, but she nodded, awkwardly. Instead of saying that it was okay, or saying yes, or even just nodding, Luz instead opted for somehow, an even more embarrassing option.

"Y - Yes, please." She answered, red in the face.

Smiling as she placed a hand on Luz's cheek and another around her wait, Amity pulled Luz into another kiss - It was different to their first one, which had been in the heat of the moment, and spontaneous. This time both of them knew it was coming, and reacted accordingly.

The truth was, inside her, Luz still held all those fears that had caused her to hide her feelings away. Somehow, she had a feeling that she would never be truly rid of them. That they were going to be something that she would have to learn to deal with rather than be rid of.

But these feelings were what led to this moment. They were the reason that right now, she knew how she felt about Amity. They were the reason that this moment could exist.

And now, she had Amity with her. She could face that.

She could face anything.


Aaaaaaaand there it is! The moment this entire fic has been building up towards! I really hope that it was worth the wait!

Honestly is there anything more that needs to be said other than "fucking finally"?

I hope to see you next time - For the final chapter of Valeween!