Amity Blight's 3DS Quest
"Hiya Amity!" Hooty said as the young witch approached the entrance to The Owl House.
She waved weakly at the house demon as she walked up to the door, hoping their interaction would be relatively quick and painless as the door swung open for her.
"Have you decided what you're getting Luz for her birthday?!" He exclaimed, not even trying to be discreet.
Amity went rigid as she turned and glared at the face of the owl who technically helped her get a girlfriend and was quite possibly the same owl that was going to get her dumped.
"Hooty!" She hissed.
The house demon's eyes went wide.
"You haven't have you? You better hurry!" He chided as Amity closed the door with a huff, grumbling to herself as she turned around and started walking towards the stairs. She had been deliberating about what to get Luz for her birthday for the past few weeks. Her original plan had been to get her a scroll, only for Eda to tell her that she had already done that.
Her next idea was to get her the next Azura book, but that quickly fell through when she realized that there was no way for her to get the book from the human realm now that Eda's Human Curio shop was defunct for obvious reasons.
Now with only a few days left, she was officially out of ideas.
The young witch sighed dejectedly as she picked up a note on the coffee table from Eda and King saying how they were at the market to gather supplies for the party before she headed for the stairs.
"Luz?" Amity called as she got to the top of the stairs.
"Luz?" She asked again before knocking on her door. "I got off work early today."
There was no answer and Amity felt a pit form in her stomach, worried that her girlfriend had heard Hooty chastising her. She reached down and started to turn the handle, noticing it was unlocked. She took a deep breath and opened the door.
"Look if you're mad about what you heard, I just want you to know that-"
Amity didn't finish her sentence when she saw her girlfriend, who was wearing her gym clothes and had a pair of big blue headphones on, with the volume set so high even Amity could hear the music. Luz was facing away from her door and dancing to a song that Amity didn't recognize.
Then she started to sing.
Everybody wants to be a Master
Everybody wants to show their skills
Everybody wants to get there faster
Make their way to the top of the hill
Amity put her hands over her mouth and watched her girlfriend's performance in complete silence, suppressing the urge to run over shower her in affection, and babble about how unbelievably cute she was.
Each time you try,
Gonna get just a little bit better
Each step you climb,
Is one more step up the ladder!
Luz's dance moves became more elaborate, and she was putting more and more gusto into her singing. Amity just smiled and shook her head as even Hooty tried to join in from downstairs, only managing to catch every other word of the song.
It's a whole new world we live in
It's a whole new way to see
It's a whole new place,
With a brand-new attitude
But you still gotta catch 'em all,
And be the best that you can be!
As she finished the song, Luz spun around to give up a thumbs up to the audience she didn't think she had and found herself looking right at Amity who still standing in her doorway.
"Amity!" She gasped, quickly taking off her headphones and tossing them to the side. "I didn't hear you come in."
The young witch just shook her head, stopping the apology preemptively.
"You're fine Luz." She said as she walked over and hugged her girlfriend, whose face was still bright red.
"So, how much of that did you see?"
"Uhh…"
"You saw all of it didn't you?"
"Yeah."
"Oh great, you must think I'm a total dork."
Amity shook her head as she released Luz from her embrace and kissed her on the forehead.
"Not at all. If anything, I think you and I need to go dancing again soon."
Luz smiled sheepishly at her as she picked her headphones up off the floor.
"What were you listening to?"
"It's a theme song for this show I watched at home," Luz said as she sat down on her sleeping bag before Amity joined her, extending her legs and patting her lap with her hand.
"What's it about?" She asked as her girlfriend rested her head in her lap.
"You really wanna know?" Luz asked suspiciously.
Amity nodded quickly as she started playing with her hair.
"Of course!"
"So basically it's this show that takes place in this other world, and there are these animals called Pokémon and they all have special powers like some can breathe fire and others can read minds. Pokémon live with humans either as companions or partners in battle in the Pokémon League, which hosts Pokémon battles around the world to see who the best teams of trainers and Pokémon are."
"That sounds cool!" Amity said with a smile as Luz reached over and grabbed her purse.
"It is! They even made it a game!" She said as she reached for her purse, grunting as she struggled to grab the strap with her fingertips, making Amity giggle.
"You could have asked me to get that you know." She said as Luz finally succeeded in pulling her purse over to the sleeping bag.
"Nah, I like it when you play with my hair. It's relaxing." Her girlfriend replied before opening up her purse and fishing out a small purple plastic case filled with tiny grey cartridges, all sitting in their own little sockets.
"Check this out," Luz said, holding the case up and tapping on one of the sockets with her finger. Amity leaned in and squinted seeing a grey cartridge marked Pokémon sitting in between two other cartridges, labeled Phantom Hourglass and Persona Q respectively.
"They put a game in that little thing?" Amity wondered.
"Yeah! Isn't that crazy?"
Amity nodded. Video games were not a foreign concept to the Boiling Isles, but they were usually confined to large clunky home consoles that were incredibly expensive or large arcade cabinets that were confined to restaurants. Sure, her scroll technically had games on it but they were incredibly simplistic. Nothing like what Luz described when she talked about Pokémon.
"We should play it sometime." She told her girlfriend as she sighed and put the case back in her purse.
"I wish we could."
"Well, why couldn't we?" Amity asked, tilting her head.
"I don't have a 3DS anymore. It's the machine I played those games on."
"Is it in back in the human realm?"
"Technically yes, but it's broken." Luz continued.
"What happened to it?"
Luz sighed and shut her eyes tightly.
"Do you remember how I told you kids used to pick on me a lot?"
Amity nodded somberly.
"I do."
"Well, since I had this reputation for bringing weird stuff to school, people were always trying to look in my backpack. They'd follow me through the halls and open up my bag to see what I was carrying. Whatever they saw first they usually pulled out and started making fun of me for it." Luz explained, opening her eyes to reveal the tears that were forming in them.
"One day, I was eating lunch outside, behind the gym where I thought no one would bother me." She continued, folding her hands over her chest. "I messed up when I picked that spot though. It was a Tuesday, which meant she had gym class."
"She?" Amity wondered.
"Nicole Brenneman," Luz said as if drawing the words from a sheathe.
"She had been picking on me since middle school. When she saw me by myself, she asked what I was reading lately, and I told her that it was nothing she would be interested in." She took a shaky breath, her voice filled with a mixture of sadness and anger.
"Then she just grabbed my backpack and said: there must be something in here that'll pique my interest." Luz continued, before reaching upwards with her arms as if she was holding a backpack before turning it over.
Her arms went limp and fell to her sides.
"Everything I had just fell out. My copy of the newest Azura book. The sketches I made when I was bored. Even my 3DS. It hit the blacktop and just cracked open. I was so upset I started crying. My mom was going through vet school at the time. She worked a lot of overtime as a waitress to save up enough money to buy me that thing. So, when I saw all that work just go down the drain, I think something inside me just broke." She continued, her voice cracking.
"Nicole and her friends just laughed at me. They said I was pathetic. Pathetic for getting so upset over some toy, but it was more than a toy to me. It was an escape. An escape from her. From all the teachers who always sent me to the principal's office because they didn't know how to deal with me. It let me go to a place where I was could always save the day, a place where it felt like people wanted me around. A place where people actually wanted to go out without me, and I wouldn't drive them away because of how weird I am."
Luz sniffled and covered her eyes with her arm only for Amity to grab her wrist and gently move her arm away, unwilling to let Luz spiral any further.
"Hey." She said softly gently grabbing her face with both hands. "Look at me."
"You are not pathetic, and you are not 'too weird'. You're my Luz, and I love every bit of you." She asked before bending over and kissing her on the forehead. "OK?"
Luz nodded wiping her eyes.
"I'm sorry I just dumped all that on you."
"Don't ever apologize for needing to lean on me," Amity told her.
"Tell you what, when I come to visit you in the human realm, we can try to fix your 3DS, together. Deal?"
Luz smiled up at her.
"Deal."
Amity, still absent-mindedly paying with Luz's hair, summoned her purse out of thin air and pulled out her day planner, flipping it open to her to-do list and uncapping pen.
"Hey what was the name of that girl again?"
"Ugh, Nicole Brenneman-hey wait you're not adding her to the list are you?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Amity said sweetly as she aggressively wrote something in her planner. Luz turned and noticed that on the list of names titled Marked for Retribution, a powerful counterspell from the Azura books, Nicole's name was sitting at the top and underlined several times.
Luz chuckled and shook her head.
"Am, you can't just go and beat up all of my old bullies."
Her girlfriend smirked as she decisively shut her day planner, the sound of book closing echoing through the Owl House like a judge's gavel striking the top of the bench.
"Watch me."
…
The next day, while Luz was out bounty hunting, Amity decided to spend her lunch break at The Owl House, hoping Eda would be able to guide her search for what she thought would be the perfect birthday present.
"Sorry Amity, Luz isn't back yet," Hooty said as she approached.
"That's alright, I actually needed to talk to Eda. Is she here?"
"She sure is!" Hooty replied as the door swung open. "Come on in, Eda is in the kitchen."
Amity smiled at the house demon as she entered before making a beeline for the kitchen, where Eda was in the middle of cooking.
"Luz, you're home-oh hey Boots." The Owl Lady said looking over her shoulder.
"Eda I need your help-"
"Let me guess, you're trying to find out what to give Luz for her birthday?"
Amity nodded, making Eda smile and shake her head.
"Do you have any ideas? Any at all?"
"Well actually, that's why I came here. I'm looking for a human game machine. Luz called it a, hang on-" Amity said as she took out her day planner. "-A Nintendo 3DS. The only problem is I have no idea what it looks like."
"Well, I have a ton of human game machine controllers, but they are almost always in pieces. I guess it's a tradition that if they fail you in any way, they are to be violently destroyed. Maybe as a warning to the others." Eda explained. "I can't say I ever found anything like what you're describing though. I guess you can always check the attic."
"Attic?" Amity wondered.
"Yeah, come on I'll show you," Eda said, stepping away from the stove and gesturing for Amity to follow.
After walking down the hall towards the back of the house, Eda snapped her fingers and a trapdoor sprung open before a rope ladder fell down the floor.
"There's a ton of junk up there that I never managed to sell. If I have what you're looking for, it'll be in there." She explained as Amity grabbed the first ladder rung with her hands, shuttering when she felt the cold slime that coated every inch of it.
"Just be careful while you're up there, it's kinda like Hooty central."
"Uh, what's that supposed to mean?" Amity wondered.
The front door swung open.
"Some of my vital organs are in the attic!" Hooty shouted.
Amity's eyes went wide as she took a deep breath and checked her scroll for the time.
She would have to be fast.
"The things we do for love eh Boots?" Eda asked with a wink, making Amity blush as she started climbing up the rope ladder.
The stench that filled her nostrils reminded her of the time Hooty had trapped her in an owl pellet for almost half an hour, but this, this was a thousand times worse.
Suppressing the urge to gag, she pulled herself into the attic and used her scroll as a flashlight to assess her surroundings.
The attic was a mixture of stacks of cardboard boxes and pulsating masses of…something. The floor was coated in the same slime that covered the ladder and the entire room seemed to pulsate arrhythmically like Amity had been shrunken down and placed into a defective artery.
Shaking off the wave of nausea that had overcome her, Amity summoned her staff and a pair of Abominations to assist her in search.
"Abominations!" She exclaimed. "Retrieve…uh a Nintendo 3DS?"
The two creatures exchanged confused glances.
"Right, neither of you know what that is because I don't know what it is." She muttered pinching the bridge of her nose before sighing.
"Abominations." She said, with much less gusto. "Retrieve…a game machine, I guess."
The two creatures lumbered off after a brief delay and Ghost hopped off the top of Amity's staff, landing on the slimy floor and arching his back before hopping up on Amity's shoulder, looking around in confusion.
"First Eclipse Lake now this place. Bet you're tired of creepy caves and attics huh?" She asked, scratching the top of the cat's head. "Tonight, we'll go stargazing on the lawn, just me and you ok?"
Ghost purred happily as he nuzzled her face while an Abomination shuffled up to Amity holding what looked like the head of some ancient human machine.
It had three eyes, two in the center with the last being placed on the far-left side of its rectangular face, and a thick black chord extended down from its misshapen neck. Perhaps it was some kind of bipedal automaton they used in combat exercises at school, and that was its spinal cord? Or at least what was left of it.
It had Amity carefully took it from the creature and turned it over in her hands, scrubbing away some grime to reveal silver letters that spelled out: Xbox 360.
"I don't think this is it," Amity told the Abomination, setting the device down.
"Let's keep looking."
The Abomination nodded and walked off, leaving Amity and Ghost to search on their own.
"You wouldn't happen to be a secret expert on human game machines, would you?" She asked the cat, who just tilted his head in confusion.
"Yeah, I didn't think so."
The groan of Abomination made Amity turn around to see one of her creations was pointing at a white bag with red accents sticking out of a box that was close to the quivering ceiling, which Amity had been doing her best to ignore.
She jogged over and used her scroll's camera to get a closer look, and as she zoomed in she wanted to jump for joy when she saw the words Nintendo near one of the zippers.
"That's it!" She exclaimed. "It's gotta be!"
She turned and quickly merged her two Abominations into one, but even together they were not tall enough to retrieve the device.
"Abomination, lift!" Amity commanded as her scroll chirped at her. There were only a few minutes of her break left. She had to hurry.
The Abomination placed Amity on its shoulders, bringing her within arm's reach of the device. Now that she was closer, she could see a variety of little animals that decorated the case, some were colored grey, others were white or red. Altogether, they formed the striking image of a red and white ball.
Amity was grinning from ear to ear as she snatched the bag up and had The Abomination set her down. Sure, it was covered in slime and dirt, but it was a start.
"We did it Ghost!" Amity exclaimed. "Luz is going to love this."
The palismen leaned forward and sniffed the bag before gagging and shaking his head rapidly.
Amity sighed as she dispelled her Abomination.
"Come on bud. Let's get out of this attic."
….
Eda smelled Amity before she saw her, but when the young witch trudged into the kitchen, her cheeks were green, her shoes covered in slime, and her hair covered with a thick layer of dust but she held a little white bag, which was in an even worse state than she was, over her head like it was a mighty sword.
"Found it." She breathed.
Eda gave her a thumbs up.
"Good job Boots. Does it work?"
Amity's eyes went wide.
"Does…does it work?" She asked.
"Yeah, did you try turning it on?" Eda asked, surprised that Amity hadn't thought of this.
The lilac-haired girl quickly opened up the bag to find a plain gray machine covered in dust, scratches, and small dents. Carefully she lifted it out of the bag and into her hands before flipping it open like a book. The hinges groaned and creaked like an old door, making Amity wince.
The device had two screens and a small array of buttons and switches, but no matter what she did, it would not turn on.
"It's broken," Amity said before looking to Eda. "Would you be able to help me fix it?"
"I've fixed a lot of human junk but that thing is beyond me. I do have an idea though." She replied. "You know Elias? The guy in town who does scroll repairs and sales?"
Amity nodded.
"Yeah, why?"
"Well back when I started collecting things from the human realm, he helped me with the occasional restoration project. He's probably the only one who knows more about human junk than me. He should be able to help you out. Just tell him Eda sent you."
Amity placed the machine back in its case and nodded as she pulled out her scroll and checked the time.
"Oh Titan, I'm late. I gotta go, but thank you for everything Eda!"
"Anytime Boots!" She called as the young witch literally flew out the door.
…
The last period of the day for Amity was study hall, which she normally used as personal reading time since most of her life up until that point was just one big period of study hall but today was different.
Today she sat with Luz, who was walking her through the basics of Pokémon using a handful of cards that she kept in her purse. What at first had been a lesson on the strengths and weaknesses of each elemental type had fast become a session of show and tell as Luz showed off her favorite Pokémon.
"Oh yeah, let me show you one of my favorite legendary Pokémon," Luz explained thumbing through the deck of cards before pulling one from the stack and setting it down on the table.
The shimmering art of the card made Amity grin as her eyes absorbed the image of a large beast, not unlike a cat, leaping from a breaking wave on a rocky coast as lightning split the sky.
"This is Suicune. A legendary water-type Pokémon. According to the legends, it embodies the north winds and can purify any body of water, no matter how polluted." Luz explained, setting her deck down.
"What's that one?" Amity asked, pointing to a card that was poking out from the deck. Luz looked over and smirked before pulling out the card and handing it to Amity.
"That is Espeon. It's a physic type and it's one of the possible evolutions of an Eevee. They use this red orb on their head to launch their psychic attacks and when they're tired, the orb turns grey."
Amity grinned as she admired the art on the card, which showed a lilac-colored creature sitting on a small grassy hill, eyes closed, and bathed in moonlight.
"This one might be my favorite so far."
Luz was grinning from ear to ear.
"Really?"
"Yeah, I can't explain it, but I'm just drawn to it. I think it'd be a good partner."
"I figured you'd gravitate to psychic types." Her girlfriend said with a nod.
"You should keep that one. It suits you."
"You sure?" Amity asked, tilting her head.
"Definitely. Espeon was my first card ever. It's the reason I started collecting. Maybe it'll inspire you to become a Pokémon master too." Luz explained.
Amity just smiled at her palpable excitement and pocketed the card.
"Thanks, Luz." She said before leaning in and looking over her remaining cards. "So, what type of trainer are you?"
"Well I like to use a little of everything, but if I had to choose only one, I'd be a normal type trainer."
Amity seemed surprised by this.
"Really?"
"Yeah, nowadays a lot of people try and build a Pokémon team that's 'objectively' the best rather than making a team of Pokémon they like. Which is fine, some people like having the edge in battle, but I pick my Pokémon based on who I would like to travel with."
"Can't get to sleep because you're stressed out? Send out Jigglypuff. Then there's Snorlax, always sleeping. Perfect pillow and cuddle buddy. Stumble across a small village that's in danger of being flooded? Have Bidoof build a dam. Find out the flood was caused by Team Rocket's experiments of innocent Pokémon? Have your Ditto disguise itself as Mew, sneak into their secret base under false pretenses and then bring out the big guns!"
Luz slammed down two cards onto the desk.
"Regigigas and Arceus! Two legendary normal type Pokémon. They smash the place up, free the trapped Pokémon and their skilled trainer goes on to have a riveting but borderline infuriating will they-won't they relationship with the stuffy mayor's drop-dead gorgeous cotton candy haired daughter."
Amity looked down at her desk, avoiding Luz's gaze as she brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face.
"I think you're exaggerating that last part."
Luz just smirked.
"Naw it's true. Regigigas and Arceus really are normal types." She said a wink.
"But, anyway, my point is, normal type Pokémon may not always be the coolest ones out there, and they aren't always everyone's first choice, but they can still do amazing things if they are given the chance!"
"Sounds like someone I know," Amity said scooting a little closer to her girlfriend.
Luz smiled at her only for a familiar voice to ruin the moment.
"What are those? Some knock-off human version of Hex's Hold Em?" Boscha asked.
"Let me see." The boy who was with her said snatching up Luz's cards in the blink of an eye.
Amity was already on her feet.
"Give them back Malcolm."
"What's this supposed to be?" He asked flipping the card around and holding it up to Luz.
"Chandelure. It's a ghost and fire-type Pokémon." Luz said reaching out to grab the card only for Malcolm to hold it up out of her reach before passing it to Boscha.
"It looks like a light fixture." She said, clearly unimpressed.
"Yeah, not very scary if is supposed to be a ghost," Malcolm added.
"Well, it haunts abandoned mansions," Luz said as if that should have explained everything.
"The teacher is coming!" One of Boscha's friends called out.
Amity's blood was boiling. This had been planned.
"Boscha, give my girlfriend back her cards, now."
The room went quiet.
The only ones who knew that Amity and Luz were dating were Gus, Willow, Ed, and Emira. Granted everyone had known the two had pining for one another since Grom, but now seemingly endless speculation and rumor had come to a screeching to a halt in the blink of an eye.
"Boscha." The lookout said from their desk, nervously shifting to make it look like they weren't specifically watching for the teacher's return.
Boscha ignored them, raising her finger and pointing at Amity and Luz, like a spiteful metronome moving in slow motion.
"You two, really?"
"Boscha." The lookout said, more forcefully.
"Do mommy and daddy know?"
Amity willed her bottle of Abomination goop to materialize on her waist, flicking the cork out with her thumb.
"I'm warning you."
Luz was on her feet now too, gently grabbing Amity's arm.
"Hey hey calm down, it's not a big deal."
Boscha just shrugged and turned to walk back to her desk, cards still in hand.
"I'm just really surprised, I thought you would have better taste." Then she looked at Luz over her shoulder.
"You ever stop to think she is just dating you because she feels sorry for you?" She asked as her lookout stood up, eyes flicking back and forth between the door and her friend.
"Boscha!"
"Am please let's just go I don't wanna be here right now." Luz pleaded, her voice breaking.
"Look at you, you're gonna get all worked up over these dumb things? Titan, you're pathetic."
Amity had heard enough. She willed the Abomination goop to surge out of its bottle and lash out like a whip, the first strike just grazing Boscha and making several students cry out in alarm. As Amity launched a quick follow-up attack, the tendril of goo came apart mid-flight, breaking into several pieces of dried clay that crumbled to the floor.
"Amity Blight! Principal's Office, now!" The teacher bellowed, standing in the doorway with their hand extended as the scream signaling the end of the day finally echoed through the hall. Boscha who was covering her head to defend herself dropped her guard and smirked as Amity gathered her things only for the teacher to turn and look at her.
"You too Boscha. You and your minions aren't as slick as you think you are."
"Fine." Boscha huffed before dropping Luz's cards on the floor and looking at Amity as if daring her to do something about it.
Luz walked over and started gathering up her cards as Boscha and Malcolm walked out together while Amity came over to help her girlfriend.
"I'm really sorry Am." She said quietly.
"It's not your fault Luz." There was still a scowl on her face when she shut her eyes tightly and realized her mistake. If she got detention, which was almost a certainty, she might not get to Ed's shop before it closed.
"What's wrong?" Luz asked as she put her cards in her bag and started walking with Amity to the principal's office.
"I just…I just realized I might not be able to get this important errand done now." She replied.
"Can I help?" Luz asked earnestly.
Amity quickly shook her head.
"No, it's something I have to do on my own, but thank you."
"Ok." Her girlfriend said with a frown before she tentatively took Amity's hand.
"Thank you for standing up for me in there."
"Of course, I'm sorry about your cards."
"It's ok, oh!" Luz exclaimed as they came to a stop outside the principal's office and she started digging around in her backpack. "I forgot to give you this at lunch." She said handing over a small paper bag.
"What is it?" Amity asked opening the bag to see two small pastries with an intricate white topping on them.
"Pan Dulce Concha. It's a snack my mom made for me all time back home. I made some for Eda and King last night and we had some leftovers. Thought you might like em."
Amity just smiled and gave her girlfriend a quick but firm hug.
"You're the best, seriously."
Luz chuckled softly.
"Glad you think so."
"Ms. Blight! I'm waiting." Principal Bump called from his office.
Amity squeezed her girlfriend tightly before letting her go.
"Talk to you later."
"Hasta luego hermosa," Luz replied, kissing her on the cheek before heading off in the direction they had come from, while Amity took a deep breath and walked into Bumps office and sat down next to Boscha, who was glaring daggers at her.
"First off, I think you owe Boscha an apology. No matter what happened in class, attacking a fellow student is never ok."
Amity huffed, not even looking at her former friend.
"I'm sorry." She said curtly, her tone sending another message entirely, a message that Bump didn't pick up on.
I'm sorry I missed.
…
With the first of three sessions of after-school detention over, Amity rushed to Elias' shop in the marketplace with minutes to spare. Elias himself sat in a central area of the store, surrounded by a wraparound display case that showed off the variety of scrolls he sold. Six pairs of his arms held either a squirt bottle of glass cleaner or a blue rag that he was using to wipe down the large panels of glass.
As Amity approached, one of his arms set its rag down and straightened the little white and blue polka-dotted bowtie at the top of his tree trunk-like torso while one of his eyestalks turned to look at her.
"Oh, hey Amity." He said pleasantly. "How's my favorite customer?"
The young witch smiled and waved as she set her bag down, taking care not to lean up against the display case.
"Hey, Elias. I'm doing alright. You?"
"Eh, I can't complain. Business is good. Got some new models that just came in today so of course, once school got out there was a line out the door. So, if your brother dropped his scroll again, we could upgrade him instead of a simple repair job."
"Actually Ed's scroll is fine believe it or not," Amity said as she opened her bag and pulled out the dingy 3DS case. "I'm working on a special project. Eda the Owl Lady was saying you could help me."
All three of Elias' eyestalks were focused on her now, staring expectantly as she pulled out the game machine and set it down on the counter. Elias had his free arm pick up the device and examine it before another one his other arms, done with cleaning, opened the device to reveal its two displays all while the iridescent tentacles on top of his body slowly wiggled in place.
"This will be tricky, but I should be able to do it. Most human machines are simple when you pop em open. I'll need to get creative with replacement parts but that's for me to worry about."
Amity nodded in understanding as Elias closed the device and set it back down on the counter.
"It'll cost you around 600 snails."
Amity winced, that was more than half her allowance, but she was determined to see this through.
"Alright deal."
"Great, you can pay me next week. It should be fixed by then."
Amity quickly pulled out a handful of snails and slapped them down on the counter.
"If I pay you 1000 snails now, could you have it ready by the end of the week?" She asked trying to hide the desperation in her voice
Elias's bright red eyes locked onto the pile of money and one of his hands reached out for them.
"I'll uh yeah…yeah I can get started right away."
"Great! Thank you so much. You're a lifesaver." Amity said, her voice full of relief. Something Elias noticed.
"Hey, who's this for anyway?"
Amity took a step back and crossed her arms before looking down at her feet.
"My girlfriend. Her birthday is coming is up soon."
"By the end of the week, I'm guessing?" Elias asked gently.
"Yeah."
Elias' tentacles stopped wiggling and his eyestalks looked at the money and then up at the young witch before he picked up 400 snails and handed them to her.
"Here, let's just make it six ok?"
Amity looked up at him with concern.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. Don't you worry I'll spruce this thing up in no time, It'll look as good as new. Maybe even better than new! A fresh coat of paint, new buttons. I can even engrave a design on it if you want."
"Really?"
Elias' tentacles were trembling with excitement.
"Oh yeah. It'll be easy. When I'm done with this old thing, it'll knock your girlfriend's socks off."
"Elias you are seriously the best. Are you sure there's nothing I can do for-"
The Elder Thing raised a hand.
"It's fine. You're a good kid and I wanna help you make this special." He insisted.
"Although, if you wanna help me out, you're welcome to swing by tomorrow."
Amity smiled at him
"Sure!"
"Alright, then I'll get all the parts out from storage before I lock up. Come straight here after school and we'll get started."
"Ok," Amity said before she remembered something. "Uh, one problem with that…I have detention for the rest of the week."
Elias was so surprised by this his wings started to twitch.
"Oh well just come when you can then."
"Ok, I'm really sorry about the rush," Amity told him.
"It's alright, I can close the shop a few minutes early so we can work in peace when you get here. I'll even stay late if I need to." He told her. "Now get goin', I got work to do and I know you gotta get home."
"Ok, thanks again, Elias!" Amity said picking up her bag.
"You're welcome." He replied as she started walking towards the exit before he called out to her, making her stop in the doorway.
"Yeah?"
All three of Elias's eyestalks fixated on her again.
"How'd you get detention anyway?"
"Some girl at school was picking on my girlfriend, so I lost my temper and tried to hit her with my magic." She admitted.
"You get her good?" Elias asked.
"I missed," Amity grumbled.
"Well, isn't that a shame."
Amity chuckled.
"Yeah, shame." She said before heading for home.
…
It was starting to get late, and according to Elias they had a while to go before they were done but Amity had told her parents she was working at the library, chaperoning a group of little kids who were having a movie night there, followed by a sleepover. With her coworkers in on the plan, she was free to spend as much time as needed helping Elias with restoring the 3DS to mint condition.
Her parents had agreed to it only on the conditions that the event at the library would be a good distraction from the negative press that had been created by her trying to attack Boscha. Thankfully, Ed and Emira had been quick to draw attention to that aspect of the whole study hall incident and not the fact that Amity was dating someone her parents had not done a full criminal background check on.
She was going to owe them a lot of favors when this was all over.
For now, she was focused on one thing, making sure she scrubbed every inch of the game machine's plastic shell free of all the dirt, grime, mold, and dried-up house demon goop that had accumulated in its various nooks and crannies.
Eda's words from a few days ago echoed through her head.
The things we do for love eh Boots?
Amity smiled and shook her head as she continued to scrub away with the old toothbrush she had brought while Elias hummed to himself as he worked on the game machine's internal mechanisms.
"How we lookin kid?" He asked from his workbench
"Almost got it all. This is the last piece that needs to be cleaned. Then I can start painting." Amity replied. "How are those replacements parts working out?
"Pretty good. Got a magical power source in here so there will be no need to recharge the thing. I'm sure your girlfriend will appreciate that. Now I just gotta make sure there's no chance it'll explode."
"I'm going to pretend I never heard that last part," Amity muttered, making Elias chuckle.
"Have you thought about what you want for the engraving?" He wondered as Amity set down her brush and took out her scroll.
"Actually yeah, let me show you." She told him, pulling up her photo reel and scrolling to a set of pictures that she had taken of some of Luz's favorite Pokémon cards.
"So, here's what I was thinking…" She began as she explained her idea, holding the appropriate pieces of the machine's shell as she talked. All the while, Elias listened intently only asking the occasional clarifying question. When Amity was done, he was just as pumped up as she was.
"This is gonna look amazing when we're done." He said proudly as he started working again. "What made you think to try this anyway?"
"Well, this is the first time I'm celebrating Luz's birthday with her and I wanted to get her something as cool and unique as she is. She's one of the most loving and giving people I've ever met. She's done so much for me and for the longest time I didn't know how I could repay her. Then I learned she had one of these machines a long time ago and it got broken. Once I heard that I knew this was the least I could do for her." Amity explained,
"You know, your girlfriend is a lucky lady."
Amity blushed and shrugged, scrolling back to a selfie they had taken on Grom night. Their faces were smushed together and Luz's crown was in danger of falling off her head, but her smile made her heart skip a beat. In contrast, her past self was beet red with embarrassment, but she was in the middle of laughing. The hardest she had laughed in a long time.
"I don't know, sometimes I feel like the lucky one." She said as Elias threw all his arms in the air, his bat-like wings spreading out to full length.
"I'm a genius!" He declared.
"Are the internal components all done?" Amity asked.
"They sure are! All we need to do is put everything back together." Elias told her.
"Everything all squeaky clean over there?"
"Great, let's gather the pieces we need to engrave and put em in the machine. Then we can paint. In the meantime, let me know what you feel like eating so I can order us something. I'm starving." Elias told her as her stomach growled. It hadn't occurred to her that she hadn't eaten dinner yet.
Then she remembered what was in her bag.
"Oh, we can have some pan dulce to hold us over." She told the Elder Thing as she pulled out a small brown paper bag from her backpack.
"They are these sweet rolls my girlfriend made for us. I told her I would be up late working on a group project for school." She explained as Elias reached into the bag and pulled out one of the rolls before popping it into the toothy maw that sat on the top of his torso.
"Whoa…" He said quietly as his eyestalks went rigid before he grabbed a second roll and quickly devoured it. "You know kid, I know this is probably unsolicited advice about your personal life, but I think your girlfriend is what some may call a keeper."
Amity laughed as she pulled her own pan dulce out of the bag.
"Told you I was the lucky one." She said before taking a bite.
…
The big day had finally arrived, and part of Amity couldn't wait for it to be over.
She had to beg and plead with her parents to let her go to Luz's party and knew that for the next month they could ask her to jump through a flaming hoop the size of one measly snail and she would be obligated to try.
That however was a problem for future Amity to deal with.
Right now, all she cared about was celebrating with her girlfriend, and surviving the wait until it was time to open presents. When she would find out for sure if all her efforts had paid off.
"I'm sure she's going to love it, sis," Emira said gently, putting a hand on her shoulder. The absence of Amity's nickname letting her know she was serious.
"Yeah Luz doesn't seem to be the ungrateful type," Ed added.
Deep down she knew her siblings were right, Luz would be appreciative of the gift, but the rest of her brain was bombarding her with what-ifs as Hooty greeted them all before opening the front door, revealing Gus, Willow, King, and Luz dancing in the middle of the living room.
Eda waved to them as they walked in, which made Luz turn around and smile before she rushed over, practically tackling Amity with a hug, almost making her drop the present she had spent most of the morning meticulously wrapping.
"You made it!" She exclaimed.
"Of course, I would have snuck out if I had to," Amity told her, returning the hug, surprising herself with her own words when she realized how true they were.
"We would have helped." Ed declared as Luz quickly tried to pull the twins into a hug at the same time.
"Happy birthday Luz," Emira said warmly.
"Thanks, guys!" She said as Eda walked over.
"I can take those from you guys." She said, pointing to the presents.
"Thank you, Ms. Clawthorne," Emira said, handing over a black and gold gift bag while Amity handed over the shiny purple box topped with a teal bow that she had been carrying.
"Oh please kids, this isn't Blight Manor. You can call me Eda." The Owl Lady said before pointing over towards the back of the house. "We got snacks and drinks in the kitchen, and the bathroom is the hallway just past there, first door on the right. Dinner will be ready soon."
"We're having tacos! A human delicacy with a local twist!" Gus said from the dancefloor, making Amity chuckle as Luz excitedly took her hands.
"Am, come dance with me!"
Amity smiled as Luz led her out onto their improvised dance floor while Emira followed them with a twirl and Edric went to survey the progress of the tacos that Eda was preparing. As Luz started dancing, a mischievous grin appeared on her face.
"So you gonna give me any hints about what you got me?"
Amity's eyes flicked upwards in contemplation.
"Hmmm, nope."
"Aw, what? Not even a little one?"
Amity smirked.
"You know what, I will give you a little one."
Luz seemed surprised as Amity leaned in and whispered:
"It's the last thing you'll expect."
Her girlfriend laughed and shook her head.
"Am that could be like a million different things!"
"Yup." She replied. "You asked for a hint. You got a hint."
"You're lucky you look so cute today or I'd start a tickle war with you for that," Luz said, playfully narrowing her eyes.
"I think we both remember who won the last tickle war between the two of us Luz." Her girlfriend deadpanned, making her giggle as Eda called out from the kitchen.
"Tacos are ready!"
Gus was gone in the blink of an eye followed by Emira and Willow in short order while a group of Hexside students walked into the house.
"Hey, Luz!" One of them said, waving enthusiastically as Luz gasped.
"Viney! Hey!" She said running over to greet her and the others.
Amity felt a surge of pride and happiness fill her body after recalling Luz's stories about the trio. They had been outcasts, just like her, and Luz had not been content to leave them without a place to belong. She invited them to watch Grudgby matches with them and whenever she saw them in town she made a point to chat with them, even if it was only for a few minutes. It was clear that as long as Luz was around, she was intent on making sure no one she knew felt alone or unwanted.
At that moment, she couldn't help but recall her words about the Pokémon she championed.
They may not be everyone's first picks, but they can still do amazing things if given the chance!
Looking at her, and the people she surrounded herself with, Amity couldn't begin to fathom how Luz would be anything but someone's first pick. At the same time, she thanked Titan that they had been stupid enough not to, otherwise Amity may have never gotten her chance.
…
After decimating both of the spiced mana fruit and smoked dragon heart tacos, as well as the massive chocolate cake Eda had prepared, the party guests gathered in the Owl House's living room for presents.
King had insisted he go first, practically scrambling over to Luz with his sloppily wrapped present and dropping it into her lap.
"I hope you like it!" He said as Luz tore into the wrapping paper.
"It's so floppy." She chuckled.
"King didn't want to put it in a box. He insisted that would be superfluous." Eda explained, making air quotes with her hands.
"Because it is!" The demon replied.
Luz smiled and cooed as she pulled the powder blue sweater out from the remains of the wrapping paper and showed it off to her friends. On the front of the sweater were giant white letters that spelled out: World's Best Big Sister.
"I never knew how much I needed a big sister until I met you. Now I have no idea what I'd do without you." He said sheepishly.
She responded pulling the demon into a tight hug, which was met with no resistance.
"Happy birthday sis." He said softly, returning the hug.
Luz was content to keep King in her lap after that, only letting him up for a brief moment to throw her new sweater on as Eda brought out the next present.
"This one is from me and Hooty." She said as she bent down and handed her a red box with a silver bow on top. Luz smiled up at her before taking the lid of the box and pulling away the tissue paper that kept the contents concealed, gasping when she saw what was inside.
"A scroll?!" She exclaimed, looking up at Eda in shock.
"We got you a case, but someone put it in a pellet that's somewhere around here." The owl lady explained, shooting a glance towards the front door. "So once I find it and wash it several times, it'll be all yours."
"Thank you so much, Eda," Luz said, reaching up and hugging her.
"You're very welcome." She replied, wrapping her arms around the young girl before she chuckled to herself.
"What?" Luz asked.
"Am…I uh doing this right?"
Luz nodded.
"Yeah, you're doing it just fine."
"How long is it supposed to last?"
"Long as we want."
Eda hummed happily, giving Luz one last squeeze before letting her go.
"Whelp that's enough of that for now." She said quickly, trying to play the moment off as Gus walked over, holding something behind his back.
"I'm gonna need you to close your eyes."
"Ok!" Luz said before looking down at the floor and shutting her eyes tightly.
"No peeking." Amity teased as Gus brought out his present which looked like a long scarf with alternating sections of blue and gold and a large fabric patch at its end that showed a pair of shaking hands in front of the Hexside logo.
"Luz Noceda, although most of its members could not attend your party today due to previous obligations, The Human Appreciation Club at The Hexside School of Magic and Demonics have elected to bestow upon you our highest honor," Gus said with as much bravado he could muster as he gently placed the scarf around her neck. "Honorary citizenship to the City of Bonesburrow for your dedication to your study of magic, your bravery in the face of Grom, and your kindness and compassion towards everyone you meet. We are so incredibly lucky to know you." He concluded before leaning forward and whispering: "you can open your eyes now."
Luz opened her eyes and ran her hand over the scarf's smooth fabric and the patch of the Human Appreciation Club.
"I feel even luckier that I know you, Gus. I promise that when I have a way to go back and forth from the Human Realm to the Demon Realm, I'll take you and the club on the coolest trip ever." She told him.
Gus smiled back at her.
"Luz, you could take us to a public bathroom and we wouldn't complain. As long as we're with you, it'll be an adventure."
The two shared a quick hug before Gus stepped to the side and let Willow come up. The green-haired girl was holding an old leather-bound book close to her chest.
"I didn't wrap this because I was worried it would get damaged. It's pretty old." She explained as she sat down next to Luz and handed her the book. Luz's eyes went wide as she read the title.
"A Witch's Guide to Tactical Application of The Plants of The Boiling Isles?!"
Willow nodded.
"The first hundred pages catalog all the plants in the Boiling Isles and the rest is suggested pairings for different combat scenarios. From crowd control to dueling. A lot of it is from a time when Wild Magic was more prevalent, so Emperor Belos had most copies of this book destroyed. This might be the only one left." She explained. "It belonged to my great great grandfather. Thankfully my dad was holding onto a lot of his stuff still."
Luz was stunned, her gaze shifting over to her friend.
"Willow, this…this is a priceless family heirloom. I can't accept this."
"Luz, the author talks about glyphs in here. You use glyphs. I don't. I'm usually not one that believes in destiny, but I really do think you were meant to have this."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive. Both my dads said the same thing. We all agreed that if this book helps you decide what kind of witch you want to be, even if it isn't one that uses plant magic, then you should have it."
Luz reached over and put an arm around Willow who responded by hugging her friend back.
"Happy Birthday from the Park Family." She said before letting go and motioning for Barcus, Viney, and Jerbo to step forward with a small duffel bag which they set down in front of Luz.
"When we were talking after class a few weeks ago, you were telling us how you wanted to join Grudby Club." Barcus began.
"But Boscha wouldn't let you try out because you didn't have your own gear." Jerbo continued before looking to Viney.
"So we all took on some overtime at the café and we were able to get you these!" She declared, gesturing for Barcus to unzip the bag, revealing a full set of Grudby pads. Amity smirked, Boscha would be furious when she found out about this.
"So cool!" Luz gasped. "Thanks, guys! You gonna come watch me?"
"Wouldn't miss it," Jerbo told her with a smile.
"I gotta start training," Luz muttered, zipping up the duffel bag and setting it aside as Ed and Emira walked up with their bag. Amity's heart was already hammering against her ribs. She knew there was only one person left after this.
"Luz." Emira began. "You're seriously one of the coolest people we've ever met."
"You're also the only one we trust to date our baby sister," Ed added, which made Amity and Luz blush.
"You light up every room you walk into and we wanted to give you something that would add to that in a more literal sense." Emira finished, handed her the black gift bag.
Luz reached in and pulled out a small black felt box and opened it to reveal a pair of black earrings, only a tad bigger than the ones she had now. They looked like they were made of obsidian and had a different design etched into each one.
"So pretty," Luz said as Ed took a step closer.
"You should give em a tap. See what happens." He suggested.
Luz used her index finger to poke at the earings and watched as the little designs started to glow a soft yellow, like the last traces of sunset had been pulled from the sky and trapped inside. The designs depicted the stylized head of an owl, which made Luz grin as she took out her old earrings and put the new ones in before turning to Amity.
"How do I look?"
"Lovely as always." Her girlfriend replied, mentally making a note to plan a candlelight dinner in the near future as she picked up her present and set it down in her lap while Luz thanked the twins.
The moment of truth was finally here.
Then she felt someone tapped her shoulder and looked to see that Gus was drawing a rectangle with his fingers.
Then she remembered.
The card!
She quickly opened her purse and produced a small teal-colored envelope and offered it to Luz as she turned around.
"So I heard that in the human realm it's customary that you pair your gift with a card." She said quickly, the words tumbling out of her mouth.
Luz smiled gently at her as she took the envelope.
"Thank Am." She said as her girlfriend set the present down next to her, scooting away to make room for the box.
"You can read it now or later, it's up to you. I've heard it can be done either way." Amity told her.
"I'll read the card first." She replied, opening the envelope, and pulling out a small white notecard. Amity watched her eyes traverse from left to right and back while she followed along in her head, recalling what she wrote and praying to Titan that Luz didn't notice all the eraser smudges created by her trying to find the right words.
Luz,
Every day I spend with you is another day I'm in awe of you. Your passion for learning magic is o infectious, it's gotten me through some of our longest study sessions when all I wanted to do was curl into a ball and give up. Not that you would ever let me.
The way you treat people, the way you treated me even after all the horrible things I've said and done, always surprises me even though it shouldn't by now. You're always so patient and gentle with me, even on my worst days. Something that I will be forever grateful for.
I'm not going to pretend to know what our future holds. I know that's something you've been asking yourself a lot lately since you're getting older. What do you want to do when you grow up? What kind of witch are you going to be? Who are you? It's a lot to decide right now and I don't blame you for not having it all figured out. I'd be lying if I said I did.
There's only one thing I know right now.
Firstly. no matter who you become, no matter what you do, no matter where you go. Please, never stop being you.
Never stop standing up for the quiet kid in the back of the room.
Never stop trying to learn all you can about magic.
Never stop being the amazing, loveable, goofy girl that you are.
The girl that I fell in love with.
You do that, and you can do anything.
All my love,
Amity
Luz sniffled as she looked up; wiping away a tear as she pulled her girlfriend into a long tender hug.
"I don't know what I did to deserve you, but I am glad I did it." She whispered.
"Me too," Amity replied before pulling away. "Ready to open your last present?"
Luz nodded before picking up the box and setting it in her lap, gesturing for Amity to scoot closer to her before she started ripping open the packaging while her girlfriend looked on nervously. Clearly watching for a reaction as Luz removed the lid of the box and gasped, putting her hands over her mouth.
"No way." She said quietly before slowly lifting the white case out of the box, running her thumb over the smooth exterior. Amity smiled and leaned in, pointing at a Pokémon.
"That's Mudkip right?"
Luz nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah and that's Pikachu and over here is Bulbasaur." She explained before looking at Amity.
"No way." She said, a little louder as she pulled the zipper to open the case and revealing its contents.
"No way!" She exclaimed as she lifted out a shimmering purple device with black accents. Luz was smiling as she read the golden engraving that was on the back of the console's primary display: Property of The Good Witch Luz Noceda.
As she flipped open the device, she was greeted by intricate depictions of Umbreon and Espeon, sitting on opposite sides of the bottom display while the primary screen was flanked by Regigigas and Arceus in stunning action poses. All four Pokémon glittered gold and Luz's eyes were watering once again as her fingers found the power switch.
"Aw jeez, I'm gonna cry again." She muttered making everyone coo at her as the screen turned on, revealing the words: Nintendo 3DS XL in striking red and black font.
"This is an XL!?" Luz exclaimed.
Amity's heart sank.
"Oh…is this not like the one that you had?" She asked.
Luz shook her head quickly.
"Well no, but it's fine! It's totally fine. I promise! It's better than the one I had! In more ways than one." She said quickly, sensing her girlfriend's disappointment.
"So…you like it?" She asked nervously.
"I love it!" Luz affirmed and all the tension visibly left Amity's body in an instant.
"How did you do all this?" Her girlfriend asked.
Amity grinned.
"All I had to do was call in a few favors. It was nothing."
"It definitely wasn't nothing," Luz replied before leaning over and giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. "This is officially the best birthday I've ever had."
"Alright that was all very cute, but you know what I wanna do, dance!" Emira exclaimed, jumping to her feet. The others were quick to agree as Eda looked to Luz as if waiting for the go-ahead.
In response, she stood up and offered her hand as music started to play
"Shall we?"
Amity smiled and before she could even fully extend her arm, she was on her feet.
…
Later that night, after everyone had left and the Blight twins promised their sister that they would cover for her at home, Amity and Luz were sitting on the couch, while King slept at the opposite end of the couch and Eda had retired to her room for the night.
Luz sat between Amity's legs, tapping away at the screen with her stylus and teaching her girlfriend all she could about her team. Amity, tired from all the dancing, rested her chin on top of Luz's head with her arms wrapped around her torso, keeping her close.
She was only processing about seventy percent of what her girlfriend was saying, partly because she was exhausted but also partly because Luz was at her most adorable when she was dumping out massive amounts of information at once, particularly when it pertained to something she was passionate or just plain excited about.
So cute. Amity thought as Luz looked up at her and cooed.
"Am, you look so tired. You know you don't have to stay here with me all night, right?
"I don't want to go home yet." Her girlfriend replied quietly, realizing that only now had the anxious voice in the back of her head fallen silent.
She officially didn't want this day to end.
"Ok, well let me know if you need to go, ok?"
Amity nodded wordlessly before pointing at the screen of the 3DS.
"Can you go back up?"
"See a Pokémon you like?" Luz asked.
Amity nodded as her eyes fixated on the small sprite of something that looked like Pikachu.
"Aw, you like Mimikyu?" Her girlfriend asked.
"He's cute," Amity said.
"You should build a team and do a couple of battles," Luz suggested, offering her the 3DS.
"You sure? I won't mess anything up?" Amity asked as she carefully took the device into her hands.
"Yeah, it'll be fine. I have like twelve late-game hard saves. There's nothing you could do that would mess me up too bad." Luz assured her as she folded her hands and laid them on her chest.
Amity started scrolling through Luz's massive Pokémon collection, searching for Pokémon that she was familiar with to start things off. Mimikyu, Espeon, and Chandelure were all ones that came to mind. Then she stumbled upon Cofagrigus who reminded her of her Abominations and Torracart, who made her think of Ghost.
"One more spot left to fill and a very ghost-heavy team with a dash of fire and psychic," Luz observed.
"Is that bad?" Amity asked before her girlfriend just shook her head.
"Not at all." She said as Amity scrolled farther down before coming to a stop on a great white bird with blue accents across its body.
"Disturb not the harmony of fire, ice, or lightning." Luz began. "Lest these titans wreak destruction upon the world in which they clash. Though the water's Great Guardian shall arise to quell the fighting, alone its song will fail. Thus, the Earth shall turn to Ash."
Amity seemed concerned.
"So you're saying I shouldn't pick this one?"
Luz chuckled.
"No you can, I was just making a reference to this old Pokémon movie I watched as a kid. We'll watch it one day, promise." She said. "Lugia is a good pick though. He was one of my favorites when I was little. Take care of him ok?"
Amity nodded and confirmed her selection before exiting to the overworld and began walking around.
"Mind what you have learned young padawan, and soon you will be Pokémon master just like me!" Luz declared as the first battle started.
Espeon was the first of Amity's Pokémon to take the field, but when her opponent's first Pokémon was a Scizor, she was quick to send Torracart out in Espeon's place.
"Good thinkin Am," Luz said, her voice full of pride.
The cotton candy-haired girl grinned as she instructed Torracart to use fire fang against its opponent, landing a critical hit and knocking out the Scizor in one strike.
"Nice!" Luz said, practically bouncing with excitement as Amity's opponent sent out a Hitmontop. Acting quickly, she recalled Torracart and sent Espeon back out.
Although Hitmontop was able to get an attack in, Espeon was able to easily dodge it and fire off Psybeam, taking it down in one shot.
"You're doing great!" Luz exclaimed.
"Well, I do have an excellent teacher," Amity replied as she prepared to counter her opponents next Pokémon. She was completely hooked and it didn't take long for a couple of battles to turn into a dozen or more. The pair ended up changing positions, with Luz curled up against Amity's side, their legs intertwined as Amity took down a gym leader in short order, only losing Chandelure to a critical hit at the last second.
"Having fun?" Luz asked her girlfriend, her eyelids only half-open.
Amity nodded, hardly looking away from the screen, making Luz giggle.
"Oh no…I've created a monster."
"I can stop whenever I want to." Amity countered, playfully rolling her eyes.
"Do you think you can stop long enough to give the birthday girl some lovin before she falls asleep?" Luz asked.
Amity blushed and closed the 3DS, setting it down on the nearby table before she laid down next to Luz.
"How could I say no to that face?" She asked before she started running her hands through her hair.
"Did you have a good birthday?"
Luz nodded, eyes already closed.
"It's nice to have a place to belong." She said putting her arms around Amity.
"It is." She replied. "Any last-minute birthday wishes I can help with?"
"Well, there is one," Luz replied with a sly grin.
Amity raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah well what-"
Luz's answered with a kiss.
It was super effective.
As their lips parted, Amity's heart was going a mile a minute, but she couldn't bring herself to stop smiling.
"Love you Am," Luz whispered as she finally drifted off to sleep.
"Love you too," Amity replied before letting herself follow her girlfriend into the realm of sleep.
The next morning, she woke up to see she had thirty-seven messages on her scroll. Thirty of them were from her parents who were all but promising she was going to be grounded for a month for not coming home last night. The others were from her siblings who were apologizing for the fact they weren't ready to handle her first act of rebellion and insisted they would be better prepared next time while also praising her boldness since she was already on thin ice for the fight with Boscha.
She sighed and set the scroll down before she looked at the sleeping Pokémon master that was lying on top of her and smiled as she started playing with her hair absentmindedly.
Totally worth it.
…
With a new school week came new opportunities to settle old scores, and the best opportunity Amity could ask for came with the morning announcements from Principal Bump.
"Students, today we'll be conducting a school-wide combat exercise. You will each be paired off into teams of two and matched against another pair chosen at random. Your opponents will not be disclosed to you, so be ready for anything! You will fight until either I declare your opponents incapacitated, or they yield of their own accord." He explained as Amity's homeroom teacher walked around distributing strips of paper that revealed who their partners were to be.
Amity smiled at the name on her slip.
This was just who she was hoping for.
She turned around in her chair, fishing her scroll out of her bag as she did so and opening her messenger app.
"Say, Gus?" She said, not even looking up as she typed.
"Yeah?" He asked.
"How do you feel about revenge?"
Gus sighed.
"Amity, we don't even know if we're fighting Boscha yet."
"Oh, we're fighting Boscha. I've made sure of that." She told him as she set her scroll down, making him raise an eyebrow.
"Now all I need is a plan, and I have part of one, but I'll need your help to make it work."
Gus shifted nervously in his seat.
"Look Luz is my friend too and I wanna help but I also don't want to be used as bait for a grudge match between you and Boscha."
Amity shook her head.
"You wouldn't be the bait. I would."
"Wait really?" Gus asked tilting his head.
Amity nodded
"All I need you to do is cast a few illusions."
"Illusions of what exactly?"
Amity held up her scroll.
"This."
Gus blinked.
Once.
Twice.
"That?" He asked, sounding surprised,
Amity nodded as Gus scratched his head.
"Well, I think I can make that work. It's pretty different from my normal stuff. Alright Amity, I'll follow your lead." He told her with a nod as their teacher called for quiet.
"Amity Blight and Gus Porter report to the combat arena please." He announced.
The pair exchanged glances before getting up and walking down the hall to a large set of red doors that led to a large rectangular room with stadium seating, in the center of which was a large arena filled with sand. Near the doors was Principal Bump and six different coven leaders who all had clipboards at the ready. Behind them was a large blackboard with various names scribbled out, names that her siblings were in the process of changing while the false pair of Ed and Emira chatted up Bump and his colleagues.
As Amity and Gus walked down to the arena, the pair of illusions walked over to meet them, merging with the real Ed and Emira who willed them to dissipate at just the right moment.
"Two rebellious acts in three days? Who are you and what have you done with my sister?" Ed asked, making her laugh.
"Knock em dead Mittens, we'll be rooting for you," Emira added before they both turned to leave as Bump pulled out his scroll and sent out a message for the next pair of students to be sent in as Gus and Amity took their places on the opposite side of the arena and waited for their opponents to arrive while Bump erected a small stone divider to keep the two teams from seeing one another until it was time to start.
A few minutes later, Boscha jumped down into the arena with Malcolm at her side. After they landed, her boyfriend cracked his knuckles.
"Wonder who we're fighting." He mused as Boscha looked at her bandolier, trying to plan out which potions to use first once the fight began.
"I could think of few people I'd like to sling this puppy at right now." She replied, pulling one bottle filled with neon orange liquid from her bandolier, tossing it up and down like a ball.
"Fight well students!" Bump said from the bleachers as the rock divider dropped.
"Begin!"
In the blink of an eye, a cloud of mist exploded outward from the other side of the arena, greatly reducing visibility for both sides in the opening seconds of the battle, but Boscha was able to get a glimpse of her opponent's lilac-colored hair before the mist was able to swallow her and Malcolm.
"It's Amity. Be ready." She told Malcolm, who was quick to create a suit of rock of armor around himself before scanning his surroundings.
"Think the human is with her?"
Boscha shook her head.
"They would have attacked by now." She said as she felt something brush past her at speed, making her whip around.
"What was that?" Malcolm wondered as a mournful wail echoed through the arena.
"Back to back!" Boscha said as something flew overhead, making them both flinch and duck.
"Come on Blight, all this sneaking around is beneath you," Malcolm grumbled as Boscha noticed a strange figure looming in the mist before it moved back into the thicker parts of the mist.
"Don't tell me dating that human-made you go soft." Her boyfriend continued before a pair of curved black arms reached out from the mist, wrapped around his ankles, and dragged him away screaming.
"Malcolm!" Boscha cried out, running after him and throwing a potion, only for it to fall short. As the young witch ran deeper into the mist, she quickly became disoriented.
"Malcolm! Where are you?" She called as something bumped into her from behind.
"Amity!" She snarled. "I know you're out there!"
Another mournful wail echoed through the arena, much louder than the first.
Then Boscha saw it, less than 10 feet from her, the mist only barely obscuring its terrible form.
A yellowed eyed creature floating above the ground, ghostly purple flames sitting atop its many arms and its bulbous head.
"W-what is that?!" The witch exclaimed as Amity's voice cut through the air like thunder.
"Chandelure, use incinerate!"
The Pokémon howled like a winter gale, turned itself on its side, and spun like a demented pinwheel, shooting a jet of fire several feet wide straight at Boscha, who panicked and dropped into a crouch, covering her head with her arms.
"We yield!" She shouted.
The flames dissipated seconds before they would have struck, and all was quiet;
"Chandelure, return!" Amity commanded as her abomination broke into several bands of goop and flew back into the bottle she had strapped to her hip as the mist that had filled the stadium finally dissipated. Boscha saw her boyfriend standing several feet away, still in his armor, and shaking like a leaf.
The coven heads were politely clapping as was Principal Bump who was on his feet.
"An unusual form for an Abomination Ms. Blight, certainly not what's expected by the curriculum, but even I cannot deny its effectiveness when paired with the elements of psychological warfare provided by Mr. Porter. I suppose this must be a way of challenging yourself now that you've mastered the basics. Keep up the good work, hm?"
"Yes sir," Amity said with a nod before she and Gus walked past Boscha, who was still on the ground in shock. "Better luck next time."
"Whoa whoa wait a minute!" Boscha protested. "That's not fair!"
"Not fair?" Bump asked from the bleachers.
"Yeah, not fair! I thought she was going to kill me! No student should be fearing for their life in combat exercise!" The young woman protested.
"Boscha if you're walking into a fight expecting fairness, then you have already made a fatal error. Combat exercises are about testing your decision-making and resourcefulness in high-stress situations because, in a real fight, particularly one against a determined opponent, you may not have the chance to yield. I recommend you think on that as part of your preparation to repeat this lesson next week." Bump said firmly as Amity and Gus walked past him and back into the hallway so they could return to class.
"Amity!" Luz exclaimed as she ran over and picked her girlfriend up, spinning her around. "That was amazing!
"You saw?" She asked as Luz set her down.
"Yeah, Ed and Em told me what you guys were planning so I ran over here to watch you before lunch!"
Amity tried to act nonchalant as they started walking.
"Well, I did tell you I was going to beat up all your bullies."
Luz chuckled and nodded.
"Yes, you did."
Amity scowled playfully as Luz linked arms with her.
"Watch out Nicole Brenneman."
Her girlfriend shook her head.
"What if you can't use magic in the human realm?"
Amity scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"Who says I'll need magic to deal with her."
Luz smiled bashfully before looking behind her.
"That was great illusion work, by the way, Gus!"
The illusionist just waved his hand dismissively.
"It was all Amity's idea, I just followed her instructions."
Luz shook her head.
"You underestimate yourself, Gus. It's not easy to make a ghostly chandelier look scary enough to make someone want to surrender on the spot. I'm sure that will turn some heads in your future coven."
"We never would have thought of it if you hadn't introduced me to Pokémon. You do have a way of bringing out the best of us." Amity replied, suddenly gaining a new appreciation for the song that Luz had been singing when she first told her about Pokémon.
It's a whole new world we live in
It's a whole new way to see
It's a whole new place,
With a brand-new attitude
But you still gotta catch 'em all,
And be the best that you can be!
…
A.N- Yeah so I saw a cute little piece of fan art on Instagram that this artist named Raspbi made that shows Luz and Amity cuddling and playing on a 3DS and this entire fic popped into my head and would not let me rest until I wrote it all down over the weekend. I hope you all enjoyed this big fluffy fic as much as I enjoyed writing it!
If you liked this story and happen to be a Kingdom Hearts fan you should go check out one of my larger ongoing fic called Starbound. Amity and Luz have made appearances already and there are plenty more worlds that I plan on exploring through the course of that story.
Thank you for reading and until next time,
See yah!