Amity Blight prides herself on never being late to school. Whereas others might be excused for taking a lie-in after defeating an ancient, fear-bringing monster in the dead of night, she's up at her usual time, digging through her closet to find her textbooks for the day ahead. Clothes, hastily thrown in after her rush to find the perfect dress the night before, are moved aside and carefully folded. She has plenty of spare time, built into her mornings for last-minute homework or other emergencies (not that she ever needs it, but it's nice to be prepared), and so she works in a slow, leisurely routine, broken only when she goes to take out another article of clothing and finds the cool smoothness of metal instead of fabric.
Her eyes focus on the interruption and she quickly identifies it as her lockbox. As always, she'd buried it under a layer of clothes for fear of her parents - or worse, the twins - finding it. Or is it the other way round? Her siblings have been a lot nicer to her since the library incident. Absent-mindedly, her hand pulls the key from within her school uniform and reaches down to unlock the box so she can take out the crown-
-the crown on Luz's head, nestled in her raven hair, that spark glistening in her eyes as she crosses them adorably, trying to catch a glimpse-
-she jerks her hand back suddenly, almost jumping away from the dresser. Emotions are coursing through her head, emotions she's never felt before, changing and evolving so quickly that she struggles to get them back under control and reassert the walls she's worked so hard to build. Her breath comes hard and fast and she concentrates on that first, using the exercises her father had taught her ("A Blight must always have full control of herself"). Gradually, it slows, and her thoughts and her heart slow with it.
'What in Belos' name?', she thinks to herself, confused and somewhat afraid. Gingerly, she reaches out and prods the box. When nothing happens, she prods it again, a bit more confidently, using her ring finger to move it off to the side. Underneath, she finally finds her abomination textbook, and she wastes no time stuffing it into her bag, throwing her neatly folded clothes back into the dresser and speed-walking out of the room, trying to get to school and away from the source of whatever had happened a few moments ago as quickly as possible.
Downstairs, she hunts through the coolbox in the Blight Manor's vast kitchen, pulling out a freezing bottle of apple blood and an accompanying package of assorted fruit, her usual breakfast meat, while muttering a quiet thanks to the kitchen staff. It had never rubbed her quite right that the low-paid servants and butlers hired by her parents are considered so beneath the Blights that they aren't even allowed to sleep in a separate building on the estate, but are nevertheless expected to wake hours before even Amity, travel all the way from Bonesborough to the manor, on their own dime, just to re-cast the ice spell on the coolbox and partition out their food for the day. Her daily thanks are a way to make up for a small part of that injustice.
Head lost in thought, she almost misses the sound of the kitchen door opening behind her as she settles down at the table. Moments later, a quiet 'Eeep!' of surprise comes from the doorway, and from the tone and pitch she identifies it as belonging to Emira. She takes a moment to collect herself before announcing herself properly, her tone somewhat teasing but good-natured.
"Wow Mittens, you're down early! Give me a bit of a fright, to say the least. Normally you stick to that routine of yours like clockwork. You know teachers don't tend to hand out extra credit for showing up earlier, right?"
Emira had memorised her daily routine? That was interesting. And also a bit weird. Or was that just standard sibling behaviour? Once she might have put it down to her sister wanting to know when and where she'd be available for pranks and jibes, but maybe that's being a bit unfair on her. Maybe Emira does care about her, enough to pay attention to her habits and notice when something is off, and she and Ed simply took it too far. Maybe...
"Ooooh, I know, you just want to be there early to meet a special someone-"
-someone like Luz, compassionate and kind and too brave for their own good and so weird but in a good way, a fun way-
"You OK Amity? Did I go too far? For a second there you looked like you'd completely blanked out-"
-but she doesn't feel blank she feels red like a tomato and oh titan when had she started running-
This time it takes 5 minutes to calm down fully, leaning against a tree in the forest around Blight Manor. She'd sprinted for a few hundred meters before her thoughts had caught up with her, leaving Emira and her untouched breakfast well behind. At least she has her schoolbag, which she'd kept slung over her shoulder while eating. That means she won't have to confront her sister's smug grin until the afternoon.
Gah! What was I thinking, letting my guard down like that. As if Emira would ever change. She even tried to rub it in afterwards!
Amity hadn't heard exactly what Emira had said in between her original panic attack and her sprinting from the manor, but it had sounded like a tease over how embarrassed such a simple jibe had made her. Which had, of course, made her even more embarrassed, to the point where her brain had turned to mush and she'd fled on autopilot.
I need to get myself back under control; I can't keep doing this!
Ideas about what could be causing her to react so strongly, and how to deal with it in future, swirl around her head as she begins walking to school. She considers speaking to her parents about it, but immediately dismisses the idea. They'd just see it as a weakness to shame her for, or perhaps to exploit her with. Maybe Emira would tone it down a bit if she asked really nicely and promised to do her chores for a few months? Could be worth a shot.
Before long, Amity finds herself wandering out of the forest and into the clearing outside Hexside. She spots Boscha and their usual group, loitering by the stairs leading up to the entrance of the school, but veers away from them, deciding that she is not in that mood to deal with their immaturity today. Instead, she waits on the outside of the clearing until a steady stream of students heading into Hexside forms, and then mingles with them to avoid being seen. At some point, she catches a glimpse of Willow and Gus, and her heart gives a flutter, but Luz isn't with them.
Must be late to school. That's not like her, she's normally way too excited to learn about magic to be late.
Amity's first two lessons of the day were pretty normal, by her standards. Sure, she was showered with praise for her role in defeating Grom the night before, but that was nothing particularly new. Now, it's her morning break, and she stands in front of the gaping maw of her locker, stacking up her abominations textbooks on top of its tongue. So preoccupied is she with her task that she almost doesn't notice when Luz's voice rings out in a cheerful greeting from behind her.
"Hey Ams! How you doing? Willow told me you came in on time today, did you not want to take Bump up on the offer of a lie in?"
"Oh! Luz, hi, I'm doing alri-" Amity turns to face Luz in the middle of her sentence, and suddenly finds herself struggling to breath.
How is she so beautiful she's literally just standing there with her head cocked slightly that has no right to look so sassy and cute and why does her uniform go so well with her eyes and her face and her nose and just everything it's literally a rainbow and titan her lips are the same colour as her crown was how did I not notice before they're such a lovely shade of pink I wish I could kiss them right now-
"Amity? Are you OK? You've been staring at me silently for like 30 seconds now, it's kinda creeping me out. You're looking a bit red, do you have a fever?"
Oh Titan save me she saw me she noticed me staring my crush noticed me staring while blushing and phasing out oh no oh shit Luz caught me staring-
And with that disturbing thought, Amity promptly faints.
Authors Note: This is my first time publishing a fanfic online, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated!