The alarm on her phone goes off, signaling the start of a new day. Luz had fallen asleep late the night before and could barely muster the strength to roll over and turn off the screeching alarm. Relenting any hope of getting more sleep, Luz rubs the tiredness from her eyes and slowly rises out of bed. After her morning routine and getting dressed in her school uniform she makes her way downstairs for breakfast. Walking into the kitchen she notices Eda and King sitting at the table.
"You guys aren't usually up this early," Luz says while gathering the things she needs for cereal. With her hands now full Luz makes her way over to the table, sits down next to King, and pours herself a bowl of Mini Witch Flakes.
King jumps up and down a few times, clearly excited about something. "I had to see you before you left for school. You must tell me all about your plans."
"Settle down, King. I'm only up because this goof ball was making too much noise, way too early in the morning," Eda says before taking another sip of her apple-blood flavored coffee.
"What plans?" Luz asks with a mouth full of cereal.
"Your plans for, oh how do you humans say it, Valentine's Day. I saw something about it last week on your magic screen thingy. You know where you give the people you love gifts to show how much you love them. You say you love us all the time. Sooo, where's my gifts?"
What Kings says seems to peek Eda's interest. "I don't know what he's talking about but free stuff is free stuff."
Luz's jaw drops, allowing her food to fall back into the bowl. She lets go of her spoon, letting it make a loud clank as it hits the table. "You can't be serious! Are you serious? There is no way I forgot about possibly the most important holiday ever."
"How could you forget? Don't you love us?" King lowers his head.
"Of course I love you guys, but you misunderstand. On Valentine's Day you might give your family and friends a card, or maybe candy, but the day is really a celebration for people that fall in love. You are supposed to be romantic and sweet with that special someone. And with everything going on I completely forgot about it. Back in the human realm I would be called cheesy, but here I have the chance to really show Amity how special she is. The bad thig is since I forgot about it I have no plans, and what could I possibly come up with in one day?"
"Hold on, Luz. You need to relax. If this is a human thing and Amity doesn't know about it, then why worry?"
"Because, Eda! I'd know. I can't be around Amity and not think about it. She is very special to me and I won't miss a perfectly good opportunity to show her that. My mind is made up. I will do all I can to guarantee Amity has the best Valentine's Day possible." Luz quickly gets up, grabs her stuff and heads for the door.
Eda and King both call after her. "Luz, wait."
"Sorry, no time. Gotta hurry. Oh, I'm taking Albert. See you guys later."
Luz hurries out the door, gets on the staff, and takes off in the direction of BonesBorough. She has to hurry if she hopes to have any chance to get to the shops and still have time to get to school. Good thing she remembers where that flower shop is specifically. A few minutes pass before she comes to a near crash landing outside the store. She waste no time getting inside and heading over to the cashier.
"Do you have any pink roses?"
"Why yes we do. Freshly picked today. It'll be thirty snails for a bouquet."
"Thirty snails, really? Fine." Luz hands the cashier the money. It's nearly all she has but it will be worth it. The cashier leaves the counter to get the flowers and returns shortly after. Luz takes the flowers and hurries out the door.
Luz makes it to school with a few minutes to spare. She decides to check for Amity at her locker. When she finds her there she hides the flowers behind her back, sneaks up, and taps her on the shoulder. Amity turns to see who touched her and instantly smiles when she realizes who it was.
"Hey, Luz. What's up?"
"Nothing much. I just got you a little something," Luz says while revealing the flowers and handing them to Amity.
Amity takes the flowers from Luz. "Wow, thank you. These are really beautiful." Amity is blushing a bright red at this point. She leans in towards Luz and gives her a quick kiss on the cheek. Now they are both blushing. "Is there a specific reason for this wonderful gift?"
"No, none at all. Just felt like giving my gorgeous girlfriend some beautiful flowers." Luz doesn't have the heart to explain the whole situation to Amity. What if the flowers aren't enough, or what if she can't find something else to do for her? Better to just let Amity enjoy the flowers for now.
"Aww. Well, thank you none the less. These certainly look like they would smell great." Amity brings the flowers closer to her face and takes a big sniff. Almost immediately she begins to sneeze. Five quick sneezes in a row. They only stop when she removes the flowers from her face.
Luz now concerned asks, "What's wrong? Are you allergic?"
"Maybe? I don't really know. I've never had this problem before." Apparently Luz's worries were more obvious than she thought because Amity noticed the look on her face. "I love the flowers. I just need to resist the urge to sniff them."
"It's okay. You shouldn't keep them if they make you sneeze. Maybe you can find someone else who likes them." Luz would never admit it but this really disappointed her. Instead of giving Amity something sweet she gave her a sneezing attack. Amity does seem to really like the flowers, so it could have gone worse.
"Why don't you keep them then? That way we can still enjoy having them around but I don't have to get close to them."
"I guess that could work." Amity hands back the flowers. "Sorry about these."
"Don't be. It was a great gift. Come on, we should get to class."
Luz puts the flowers in her locker and follows Amity to their first class of the day. Usually, Luz would be excited about going class to class. Learning as much as she can in any given day. Not today though. Each class she sits through all she can concentrate on is how embarrassed she feels. Giving Amity, of all people, a cruddy gift that she turns out to be allergic to.
When it is time for lunch Luz goes to where her group normally sits. What is strange is that Amity is the only person sitting there. Luz takes the spot across from Amity.
"Where are Gus and Willow?" Luz asks.
"They are working on some kind of project. Guess it's just us today."
When Luz is about to respond Boscha walks up to their table.
"Is it just you two losers today? The other two nobodies ditch you? You know, Amity, all you have to do to be cool again is leave the human and come join us."
Luz clenches her fist. Normally, she would just ignore Boscha, but today she can't. "Go away, Boscha. Amity and I were talking and we didn't ask for you to bother us."
"It's okay, Luz. We can just ignore her."
"You will not ignore me and this human will not talk to me like that. You want to associate with trash then you are trash." Boscha takes her tray of food and dumps it on Amity.
Amity starts freaking out trying to get all the food off of her. After clearing some of the food from her eyes, Amity turns towards Boscha and gives her a nasty look. "What the heck, Boscha. That was so uncalled for."
Boscha just laughs. "I warned you before that hanging out with the human would only lead to you getting hurt."
Luz slams her hand down on the table. "Okay, now you have really messed up." Luz climbs onto the table and jumps off towards Boscha, sending both of them crashing to the floor. They start rolling around on the floor, hitting each other like crazy.
"Luz, what are you doing? You both are going to get into trouble!" Amity's pleas fall on deaf ears as they continue to fight like small children. It's doubtful either one will actually get hurt.
It takes two teachers to separate them. By the time they are separated and everything calms down Amity has made her way out of the cafeteria. Luz looks around but can't see her. Amity must have left to get herself cleaned up, or maybe it was just too embarrassing for her to stay around. Boscha and Luz are escorted to the principal's office. They both end up getting a three day suspension and must scrub the cafeteria clean when they return to school.
After learning of her punishment Luz has really no choice but to head home. She chooses to walk home instead of flying. On the way she reflects on everything that happened. How she failed to give Amity a good gift. How she overreacted to Boshca. How mad and embarrassed Amity must feel after being exposed to the events in the cafeteria. Worst yet, how she ruined Valentine's Day for the best girl she has ever met. Lost in her thoughts, Luz misses Amity as she walks right past her.
"Are you going to just pass by me and not say anything?"
This startles Luz forcing her to stop and turns around. "Sorry, Amity. I didn't see you there. I was distracted."
"I'd say. You have been acting weird all day. Can you sit with me and tell me why?"
"I guess I owe you that much." Amity motions towards the nearby tree and they both take a seat under said tree, next to each other, with their backs against the bark. "Before I tell you what's going on I have to ask. Are you mad at me for earlier?" Luz lowers her head to hide her fear of the potential answer.
This doesn't evade Amity's attention. "No. I'm not mad. I am very confused though. I've never seen you act like that."
"I kind of surprised myself. I was just so emotional that when I saw Boscha dump her food on you I just snapped."
"Luz, you really need to tell me what's going on. Why were you emotional? Did someone do something to you?"
"No, no, nothing like that." Luz leans her head down laying it on Amity's shoulder. "Today was just another example of how I screw everything up."
"You know that's not true."
"Yes, it is. I screwed up with Belos, I screwed up things with the portal, and I screwed up things for everybody we know." Tears start to form in Luz's eyes.
"You know that's not true. No one ever blamed you for anything. Plus you are always the first one to offer help."
"Usually at the cost of more mistakes. Now my latest blunder is messing up Valentine's Day."
"Messing up what? What's that?"
"It's a human holiday in which couples usually exchange gifts and act extra cute and loveable toward each other. I totally forgot about it and when I finally realized what day it was I knew I messed up." Tears begin to roll down Luz's face, most falling off onto Amity's shirt. "I didn't have a plan, no gifts, not even an extra special hello. Nada, nothing. Then when I try to get you a gift I mess that up too."
"Why didn't you just come and explain that to me this morning?"
"I didn't want you to know I forgot or think that I didn't care. Today should've been special because you are special."
"I could never think that." Amity moves in a manner that allows her to reach over and plant a kiss on Luz's lips. "Is that enough to get you to calm down?"
A surprised Luz nods. "Uh-huh."
"Good because you listen to me, Luz. I don't care if you forgot some holiday. I don't need you to worry about making me feel special, today or any day. Why? Because you already do that. You make me feel loved and cherished all the time. I wish you'd realize how much joy you bring to others. Nothing you do or don't do could ever make me love you less. I know that's hard for you to believe with everything you've gone through in your past but I promise you that I'm not going anywhere. Even if you mess up everything. I'd rather have a messy sweet potato than no sweet potato."
With all the tears gone all that remains is a blushing, smiling Luz. "How is it you always know what to say?"
"It's my job as your extra amazing girlfriend."
"Happy Valentine's Day!"
"Happy Valentine's Day!"
They both sit under that tree silent and still. Gazing into each other's eyes. The blushes and smiles that adorn both their faces go unnoticed as they lean in for a hug and eventually a meeting of their lips. From an outside viewers perspective they could be seen as the definition of true love. Something magical that can be given, taken, built, even destroyed, but never truly ended.