Author Note: I was working on an outline for a longer Emira/Viney piece when this idea came to me. Writing from Luz's pov in this one, trying to get a feel for her voice still.
Luz wasn't completely dense; she could tell that something was going on with Amity lately.
They'd been friends for a few weeks now, so Luz had gotten pretty good at reading Amity. She noticed the way Amity's eyes lit up while talking about Azura, the way her eyebrows scrunched together while she worked through a problem, and the way her whole form seemed to shrink when she had to leave the Owl House to go home.
Recently though, Amity's face often held a bright pink flush. The first few times Luz saw it, she didn't think anything of it. It could be normal to sometimes turn bright red. But after multiple days she started to worry.
What if Amity was sick? A red face like that could come from a high fever, Luz had seen it before when she had the flu. A fever like that could be really serious too, even deadly in humans.
This led Luz to worry during school, staring into space and wondering if witches could even get sick. Luz hadn't seen any sign of sickness in her classmates yet, so she wasn't sure. Perhaps witches had far more advanced diseases than humans, ones that could magically wipe out whole cities in just days.
Willow had lost her memories to fire burning the photos, were there witch diseases that worked the same way? It would explain the red face, but would mean Amity could be burning from the inside out.
That was a terrifying thought that did not in any way alleviate Luz's worries.
After school that day, Luz told Gus and Willow that she would spend time with them tomorrow and went looking for Amity. She knew where her friend's locker was, so it wasn't hard to find her.
"Amity!" Luz called out as she approached her locker. She walked slightly faster than she normally would to close the gap. Amity was putting books into her locker, but tensed when Luz called to her.
"Oh, hi Luz." Amity still had a book in her hand as she turned to Luz, that worrisome pink present on her cheeks. Her eyes looked up and down over Luz, expression shifting to a slight frown. "Is something wrong?" She asked in a lower tone.
Why was she asking that when she was sick? There was clearly something wrong. "Yeah," Luz nodded, which drew Amity a step closer. "I'm worried about you."
Now Amity just looked confused. "Why's that?" She asked, another question Luz thought she should already know the answer to. Behind Amity, her locker closed its mouth.
"Because your face has been all red this week." Luz started to explain, moving her hands for emphasis as she did. "And I know being red like that can come from a fever, so I thought you might be sick." She stopped her hands near her chest, not wanting to mention the different witch diseases she thought of earlier. "Are you sick?"
"No, I'm not sick." Amity said, but the red on her cheeks told a different story. Luz didn't believe it. Amity was totally the type to lie so that others wouldn't worry about her, so it was possible she was doing it here too.
"Are you sure?" Luz stepped towards Amity, reaching out to place the back of her hand against her forehead. "Let me check." This was how her mother used to check Luz for a fever. Yup, she was warm, far too warm. The redness had only spread in the last few seconds and was now covering Amity's neck and ears too.
After a moment, in which Luz reached up to put her other hand against her own forehead to try and see what a normal temperature should feel like, Amity lurched back away from her touch. Unluckily, she bashed right into her locker, staggering to regain her balance.
"Amity!" Luz reached out to steady her with a firm hand on one shoulder. "Are you okay?"
Amity looked even less well now, with wide eyes and quick breaths. "I'm fine." She insisted quietly, but didn't shake off Luz's support.
"You should see the nurse." Luz said, and despite phrasing it as a suggestion she took the book out of Amity's hands and gave her arm a gentle tug in the direction of the nurse's office.
Amity shook her head. "There's nothing wrong Luz." Her breathing had almost returned to normal.
"Then why is your face so warm?" Luz wasn't going to take no for an answer. When someone had a fever, they needed to see the doctor. The nurse would do as a substitute in this case.
"I-it's nothing." Amity stuttered, her shade of red darkening.
"The nurse will know for sure."
Amity muttered another protest, but Luz was persistent. Within a minute and with a promise that it wouldn't be that bad, they were walking towards the office. To get her to move, Luz had to take Amity's hand in her own. She wasn't dragging her friend, but instead was guiding her to seek needed medical attention.
It wasn't a far walk and they soon arrived. Luz let go of Amity's hand, but kept an eye on her so she couldn't escape.
The nurse usually stayed for an hour or so after school, so they were able to get right in and see her. Well, Amity was. Luz was told to sit in the chairs outside the office while Amity was looked at.
That was fine, Luz could handle sitting and waiting for a while. She still had one of Amity's textbooks, which she had stowed in her bag while they walked. Maybe she could read that while she waited. That lasted all of two minutes, since the book was about complex abomination summoning that was way beyond what Luz could do or understand.
She couldn't help but think about Amity, in there with the nurse. She hoped Amity was okay, that she really was fine and would recover from this. Luz wasn't sure what life in the Boiling Isles would be like without her, and she didn't want to find out.
About ten minutes later, the nurse's door opened, snapping Luz out of her thoughts. Amity came out alone and Luz jumped up out of her seat, dropping the book on the chair.
"What did she say?" Luz asked eagerly, unable to contain her nerves.
"I don't have a fever." Amity replied evenly.
Well, that proved Luz wrong. Maybe witchlings had higher regular temperatures than humans. "That's great." Luz couldn't help but smile in relief.
Amity didn't look so thrilled. She took a deep breath, glancing down at her hands. "There's more." She said lowly, reaching forward to take Luz's left hand with both of hers. This sent a jolt through Luz's body, like a shock straight to her brain. "She said I'm suffering… from love." Amity's golden eyes drifted up slowly after the last word, making direct eye contact with Luz.
Luz felt like her mouth had been hanging open forever. That made so much sense. Sure, being flushed was a symptom of being sick, but it was also a symptom of having a crush.
Luz smiled and placed her other hand on top of Amity's. "That's totally manageable! I'll help, just tell me what you need. You don't have to deal with it alone, that's what friends are for!"
Amity nodded and returned a soft smile. "Thanks Luz."
They remained like that for a moment before Amity cleared her throat and stepped back, pulling their hands apart. Luz's hand felt cold without hers.
Amity picked her book up off the chair, then suggested they go back to the lockers.
As Luz followed Amity back, she couldn't help but say. "I was so worried, I thought it might be some magic disease that burns you from the inside out. There isn't anything like that, is there?"
Amity chuckled darkly, "You don't want to know."
End Note: This is the kind of Lumity content you can expect from me, I guess.