The kitchen was a mess. Not that this was anything new, the kitchen was almost always a mess. Broken vials and bottles were strewn over the countertops and the high shelves, cracks in the floor, and walls and table were commonplace.
It wasn't much, but it did give a bit of leeway to any soul brave enough to try and cook in it. Any accident or even purposeful addition to the squalor could be figuratively swept under the rug, just like countless physical items had been. That rug had to be an inch higher off the ground than it should be by now.
Amity wouldn't be surprised if the piles of filth found in opposite corners of the room were actually sentient, and just waiting for everyone to go to bed before they resumed their turf war. As she looked closer they did have some similarities to her own abominations.
"Heads up!" flew into her left ear just as a griffin egg soared past her right, moving with the speed and precision of a fired projectile, maybe it had been fired? Wouldn't be the most chaotic thing to happen today.
The egg landed with a resounding thud inside of a bowl on the opposite countertop, having been launched from near the fridge. This was not an insubstantial distance, and the precision was commendable.
Amity returned to her post, gazing at the small colourful half-arch window near the ceiling in the corner. It was Hooty's favourite, anytime he wanted to converse with anyone and the door was locked, he would use his master key of brute force to break through. It must have been replaced a dozen times by now, and that just counted the times that Amity had witnessed it.
As she stared out of the window, she also routinely found herself cleaning up ingredients from the countertops, trying to keep them as clear as possible, while that level of cleanliness was not in fact very high, it still felt like a difference was being made. Eggs, flour and sugar mostly, among other things.
Oh right, that's what they were doing, baking a cake for Hooty's birthday. Despite her own grievances with the tube creature, Amity had volunteered to be on lookout duty while Luz baked, as that monster simply couldn't be trusted not to break through the window and spoil the surprise.
In the midst of whisking a strangely coloured yet tasty-looking batter, with matching blobs adorning the nearby walls, Luz made sure to tell Amity her assistance was appreciated.
"Thanks again for doing this Ams," the Head Chef acknowledged the tension between her girlfriend and the bird worm now pressing his face up against the stained glass window, knowing he can't enter for fear of Amity's wrath, "I know how much Hooty gives you the heebie-jeebies, so I really appreciate it."
"Don't mention it, I would do anything for my awesome girlfriend." Crossing her arms and leaning towards Luz, making sure to put far more emphasis on the end of that sentence than needed. It was enough to procure a blush from the human, and a muffled cry of cuteness from the demon beyond the door.
"Besides," the bodyguard continued nonchalantly, making her way through a minefield of discarded baking goods, flour on every surface, globs of butter hanging from the ceiling like the world's fastest eroding stalactites, and eggshells on the ground so dense she had to avoid them by placing one hand on the counter top and another on the nearby table, and swinging forward like a gymnast to reach their designated cake making station. "I was looking forward to seeing what kind of human food you could make using the stuff we have here. I know it won't be the same, but it's the thought that counts right?"
Luz pointed a couple of finger guns in the Blight's direction, she agreed, despite the need to use eggs from griffins, and flour that had to be physically tamed before it was usable, it was still a human cake, made by a human. She also made a mental note to get plain flour next time as self-raising clearly meant something much more ominous in the Boiling Isles, which she had completely overlooked while at the market. Maybe those piles in the corner were sentient?
"Yeah, I really wanted Hooty to have something new. He's been around so long he's pretty much experienced everything the Isles has to offer," This was true, after thousands of years of being alive, Hooty had seen the sights, done the dares and lived the life that not everyone had the time to do. The only new thing he ever got was a conversation with someone, no wonder he was so desperate. "Making something he's never seen before is sure to make his day!"
Stopping briefly, looking at the bowl in front of her with a whisk and odd-coloured batter inside, before briefly scanning the countertop for something she was sure she had remembered to buy. A scowl grew on her face as she spun around to ask Amity a question, before seemingly having the answer provided before she could.
She gestured broadly to a shelf adorned with more bags of white powder than there were acceptable reasons to own. "Could you please grab the icing sugar? This cake needs to be as sweet as the birthday birdy boy himself."
Rolling her eyes so far back they dared to retreat into her skull at the thought of Hooty being deserving of terms of endearment, Amity retraced her steps back over to the worst of the disorganised ingredients, making sure to avoid the slippery patches, and stood in front of the display of various supplies, overwhelmed by the choices before her, both with everything at her fingertips and nothing at all, due to the lack of labels consistent with the rest of the disarray.
She picked a large brown paper bag with 'Iceng Sugur' scrawled on the side in red crayon, with a crudely drawn smiley face accompanying it. This must have been King's contribution to the celebrations. It was nice to know he cared.
"This it?" Holding up the bag for Luz to see, and upon receiving a nod of confirmation, Amity re-retraced her steps over the eggshells and clumps of batter, reaching the impassable spot on the ground again where she would have vaulted, had one of her hands not been filled. "Heads up!" mimicking Luz's actions earlier, and expecting the executive chef to turn around and catch it, Amity tossed the bag towards Luz in a lazy arc, making sure that it had the longest possible time in the air.
The longer it glided, the more Amity realised her girlfriend was in a world of her own, and hadn't heard the warning. Before she could call out again the bag landed square on Luz's head, bellowing a good portion of its contents into the air, before falling on the floor.
Luz reacted by entering what could only be described as a crab state, with her legs bent outwards and her arms raised above her head as an explosion second only to Krakatoa erupted towards the ceiling, leaving a fine mist at the top of the room, not yet ready to sink to the floor.
Vaulting over the mess again, this time with a much higher urgency, Amity apologised profusely, using words that didn't exist in order to be as comprehensive and specific as possible in her regret.
"Hermosa, shhh shh, it's okay." putting her index finger right over Amity's mouth to stop her rambling, Luz picked the bag up off of the floor, "See, there's still plenty left for the cake." Shooting her a beaming smile that meant all was good in the world, Luz reassured her that this was nothing and that she had come closer to injury than that several times today already by her own accord.
The fine cloud of icing sugar that had plumed upwards only now fell and settled on every available surface, like a heavily processed winter wonderland. The ground-up crystals added a soft white hue to the room.
Looking up and around, Luz couldn't help but exhale sharply, thinking about how all of this would get cleaned up, or if maybe she could leave it and hope Eda wouldn't notice. It wouldn't be the first time a drastic change to the house went unappreciated for days or weeks, and this time it wasn't even permanent.
Looking up at the new experimental art piece on the ceiling, she squinted and blinked rapidly, tears forming as the sugar settled on her eyes in an effort to keep them clear. Amity was still beside herself, jittering and rambling uncontrollably. It was cute in a way, she truly did care so much.
While she attempted to comfort her girl, Luz started to swipe at the air and the countertops in an effort to stop the icing sugar from bonding with any miscellaneous liquids or indeterminate sticky piles; they had most likely created at least half of them today.
Having averted the worst of the disaster, and keeping any kind of sustenance away from the suspicious corner piles, Luz returned her attention to the golden-eyed girl still fretting about her mistake, although most of the worried energy had been transferred to helping Luz keep the tables clear.
She placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and gazed at her with the kindest face imaginable, "Ams, really, don't wor-" Her words were cut short as the first of the fine dust made its way into her system. Her eyes widened, and her smile more so, earning a confused look from Amity.
"What? What's wrong?", it could only be something wrong, right? But if that was the case, why was she smiling?
"Amity, look at me, and take a deep breath." Visibly excited and barely able to stand still, Luz wanted to keep the surprise for as long as possible, and waited for the unbridled joy to be shared between them with great anticipation.
"Uh, okay, I'm not hyperventilating though so I don't see what good thi-" Just like the human before her, Amity caught a taste of what she meant.
The air was sweet. The fine dust fell like snowflakes. "Catch it on your tongue! It's like we're breathing candy!" Luz was clearly having the time of her life, inhaling so much that Amity could only think to prepare herself for the sugar rush to come. Not to question the concept of breathing candy as a whole, as that would never be good for you.
It had probably already begun, as with every breath she took, Luz looked like she could jump higher and higher, possibly rivalling Hooty for the 'who could break the most windows and be the most talkative' championship.
Luz on the other hand may have been having the time of her life, but noticed that there was less visible enthusiasm from her girlfriend. She was in a world of her own, admiring and smiling, but interacting in a limited capacity, she would probably have been perfectly content to just watch this happen, as admiring Luz was one of her favourite pastimes these days.
"I can't be the only one enjoying this," Luz beckoned the lavender witch to join her, outstretching an arm with a hand upturned as if it were an invitation to dance. "No way I can eat all of this." An overdramatic wave gestured to the whole room, "Will you please help me?" A large grin plastered on her face as the plight of a damsel in distress was sure to get Amity moving.
Her gaze was met, and the invitation was accepted, Amity outstretched her own arm to take Luz's hand, and as soon as she had, was shocked to find herself pulled much closer than expected, and a cloud of sugar blown directly into her face.
"I guess the air is only the second sweetest thing in the room." Luz expertly wooed. If a love glyph existed, this would be what it felt like. Amity's face instantly turned several shades redder, and if it didn't slow down she wouldn't have any blood left for anything else. The heat that emanated from her would have boiled the sugar in the air to caramel given half a chance.
Amity melted, she lost all semblance of trying to hold herself upright, as this ambush left her incapacitated. She fell forward into Luz's arms and was met with a quick retort of faked offence, something to the effect of how it wasn't that bad of a line.
"Would you care to dance with me, out here in the cold and snow?" Luz constructed a scene that would have been right at home in any number of romance novels. A couple out together on the streets in winter, holding each other for warmth as they walked, breaking out into dance on an empty street under a single lit street lamp.
There may not have been a streetlamp, and Amity was anything but cold, but enough of the criteria were met for her to make the offer.
Feeling no resistance to the prospect, Luz took hold and began to gently guide her girl around the kitchen in a slow, clumsy waltz. She had never taken any dancing lessons, and improvised now from what she had seen on telenovelas back home, which included a rather nice acapella rendition of some generalised waltz music.
Hearing Luz's voice again, Amity returned to her senses. She enjoyed the situation she found herself in, and stepped in time with the girl to whatever tune they could throw together. "This is nice." She looked away for a brief moment, and a smile crept across her face as it returned to a more standard colour. She returned her eyes to Luz and realised that the brown-haired witch had never looked away.
Each step in time, each sweeping glide and dip, it was nice. Not a care in the world for the messes on the floor now, they stepped through cake mix and eggshells, it was all white noise and drowned out by their focus on each other. They each closed their eyes and just enjoyed the moment.
In this perfect place and at this perfect time, in a sweet snowstorm with the one she loved, everything was right in the world. Except for that itching feeling on her left shoulder. It crawled and slithered, with more weight to it than anything in this room should have.
Amity opened her eyes and was met with the beady black voids of Hooty's own, which she was certain could reflect only sadness. A quick turn confirmed her suspicions that the window was shattered, and a long, eerily slimy bird tube snaked its way through it towards the pair.
"Heeeeeey guuuuuuys." A voice so shrill and horrid The Emperor himself could have used it as torture, if only he had been strong enough to tame it… and he wasn't dead. "I just wanted to see what all the hubbub was about, hoot hoot." He pushed himself up against Amity's face, as he had done so often before, each time surprised when the same fate befell him.
One eye twitch and ruined birthday surprise later, Hooty found himself in mortal peril for a multitude of reasons, however, none of them were as important as the fact he had ruined this perfect moment.
If Amity hadn't resorted to violence against this demon today, it wouldn't have felt like a true trip to the Owl House.