"None of this is a problem," Amity insists. "It's just a sleepover. Like friends. Because we're friends. Nothing else. This isn't weird."
The abomination groans quietly and she scowls.
"Not helpful. Just breathe. Nothing's ever going to happen, because Luz is an idiot, and my parents don't like humans, and Ed and Em will never let me hear the end of it."
"Marry me, Luzura," is the abomination's only response.
"Even less helpful. Come on, you're full of my own blood; you can't be this dysfunctional whenever I say Luz's name!"
The fact that she blushed whenever Edric and Emira brought up Luz during their conversation that seemed to involve the human girl far too much is not important. And that time she thought she saw Luz and walked into a wall, but it turned out to be some witch who got very concerned about her potential concussion, is also not important.
Amity is not the kind of person who goes all flighty and confused and blushy just thinking about a human girl. Absolutely not.
"This is the happiest day of my life, dearest Luzura," the abomination groans. She reduces it back to its component parts and starts mopping up the blood. One awkward gay participant per conversation is enough.
"I can talk to Emira. She's the sane one. Or not."
Emira looks surprised when Amity rushes down demanding to borrow some of her blood, but acquiesces.
"Okay, slightly better abomination. You tell me what I should do."
The abomination groans.
"Shut up, Edric."
"No, I'm Amity. Tell me what I should do about the human girl."
"Don't worry. I have a plan."
"What does that even mean? Does that mean I should make a plan, or Emira has a plan, or she's just telling me that to reassure me and she doesn't have any idea what I should do, or what?"
The abomination remains stubbornly silent.
"Okay. This is just going to be a sleepover, between friends. Because Luz is an idiot. And if Emira has some kind of prank planned, I will kill her."
…
"Hi, Amity!" Hooty warbles. "How was your day? I found a fly, but then it stung Luz and she squashed my friend."
Amity is strongly tempted to beat up the frustrating owl/house and go find Luz, but she composes herself. Time to make friends.
"I'm sorry about your friend," she says, trying not to sound sarcastic.
"That's okay! We can be friends instead!" Hooty declares.
"Sure. We can be friends."
"I have more friends! Yay!"
"Could you let me in, now?"
The door swings open and she enters. The Owl House always smells like mothballs and the human junk Eda sells, and the living room is dusty and cluttered with broken furniture, but it feels lived in. Her own house is always perfect. A perfect backdrop for a perfect family and their perfect life. And no room for a friend who is anything less than perfect.
"Oh, it's you," Eda comments from her place on a red sofa with half the stuffing missing. The room's light gleams off her gold fang and eyes. "You're early; Luz and King are finishing up a delivery run."
Amity had set off two hours early to make sure she'd get there on time, spent an hour pacing back and forth panicking again, and finally arrived after a journey that took three times as long as usual.
"How is your business?" she asks. She already prepared lists of polite topics of conversation for everyone she could expect to see.
"Business is better, ever since Lilith got the Emperor's Coven off my back," Eda says, making no move to offer Amity a seat. "They tend to scare off my customers. Luz is pretty helpful too; kid can find a lot of human curios. Interested in buying some human couture?"
"No, I have no interest in human fashion," Amity says, frowning slightly. Eda is apparently a born saleswoman. The mark of an avaricious lower-class brute, according to her parents.
"You sure?" Eda asks. "I see you looking at Luz a lot; maybe you want to look like her." She very deliberately winks at Amity.
Does everyone see it?
It can't be that obvious. She can't be displaying her feelings that blatantly. Eda used some of her magic to work it out, or is just teasing her. If her feelings were remotely obvious, Luz would have noticed by now. Obviously.
"We're back!" Luz shouts. Amity turns, unwittingly creating a small tornado in the vortices her rotation sheds.
"Hi Amity!" Luz squeals, grabbing Amity around the neck in what she assumes is a hug.
Too close. No. Not happening. She can feel how warm Luz is through her hoodie. Her laughing face is far too close to Amity's.
Amity escapes the hug.
"Hi Luz," she says. "How are you?"
"We just made it in out of the rain," Luz pants. Eda nods and traces a golden circle in the air. Shielding the house from the rain, probably. Pretty sensible for a sentient house.
Then the fact that she is stuck here until the rain stops, and Gus and Willow are not going to venture out in this kind of weather, and she is more or less alone with Luz, hits her.
This is bad. Luz is going to want to do friend things, like sleep in the same room and play games together and talk about crushes. And Amity will look like a terrible person if she insists on staying thirty feet away from Luz at all times. All of this is bad. Why did she come here?
"Did you make me food?" King demands. Okay. She's not completely alone with Luz.
"Who do I look like?" Eda demands. "I cook every Tuesday. That's it. You want food, you get it for yourself."
"Let's go cook!" Luz exclaims. "Amity, come on!"
Amity can cook. She's been experimenting in a kitchen since she was five. This won't be a problem. She can impress Luz with her culinary abilities. Then Luz grabs her hand to tow her into the kitchen and she forgets the difference between a casserole and a brick wall.
The kitchen of the Owl House looks more or less the way she expected it to look. The majority of the butcherblock table is covered in human junk and potion supplies, with a few sad vegetables huddling at one corner.
"Do you think we can cut most of the mold off of this?" Luz asks, waving what might be bread in front of her face.
"There won't be anything left if we cut off the mold," she comments. "We can probably make vegetable soup with the ingredients we have, but that's it."
She sets to work cutting up what she can find, while Luz rummages through the cabinets and talks.
"Soup is good with cauliflower and marshmallows, right?" Luz asks, waving the ingredients in her face.
No, that would be terrible, her brain says.
"Sure," her mouth answers. Luz grins and dumps the ingredients into the pot.
She'll eat the soup, because she can already picture Luz frowning at her and saying that she's too skinny and sounding like the caring mother figure Amity wishes she had. There's probably a spell that will make it palatable, and now she's regretting neglecting frivolities like that in her training.
"Amity, is your sister single?" Luz asks. Out of nowhere. She has no understanding of tact.
She's interested in Emira? Of all people, why her sibling? Now she has to make up something, and pretend that nothing's wrong, and that she's not miserable, and she hates rain and siblings and idiot human girls so much right now.
"I'm joking!" Luz says, laughing. "What happened to your hand?"
Of course she cut her hand, because she's inexplicably clumsy around Luz. She's currently feeling a rare combination of relief and mortification.
"I can heal it!" Luz says, and now she's holding Amity's hand and why is she so confusing?
Luz traces one finger across the injury, creating a purple circle that slowly begins to knit the wound shut.
Her hands are so warm. And this is not good. Amity tries to pull away.
"No, I have to hold it until it heals," Luz says, grabbing her hand more tightly.
And she's blushing again. This is going to be an interesting evening.
…
"Em, you covered the supplies, right?" Edric asks, eyebrows knitting together. "The bats might be escaping, and the rain won't be good for the rubber, so –"
"I thought you were going to cover everything up right before we caused the rainstorm," Emira says, frowning.
"We might be able to salvage some of the salad if we go out and get it now," Edric says hopefully.
"Looks like phase two is a wash," Emira replies. "Some of the potato salad isn't going to do us any good now."
"We have been brought down by our own hubris," Edric comments.
"No, we haven't. We could probably just redo phase two next weekend."
"Where are we going to find three more taxidermy platypuses?"
Emira sighs.
"Yeah, I guess phase two is a failure. Poor Mittens."