This story pretains to [unexpected pregnancy] and involves many references to body insecurity, depression and post-partum. There will be sexual references and implications as well. Darling Fate is not a happy, sunshine, and rainbows story about Lumity having a baby. Please do not assume that it is.
"Watch out!"
Amity's body crashes into the ground, rendering her unconscious for no more than a millisecond. As the shock subsides, she barely sees the massive vine withdrawing back to its caster. Her gaze flitters up to the yellow sky, trying to make sense of what just happened. The world is spinning, signaling that she had hit her head somewhat hard when the vine slammed her down.
She could hear voices all around her, some sounding like cheer, others high-pitched screams, and a few shouting her name in the midst of the chaos.
A blurry figure appears over her, followed by a pair of hands grabbing her wrists to pull her upright. She recognizes the person as one of her teammates, their mouths shape her name and it barely reaches her ears. Amity looks to her side, noticing their remaining teammate attempting to hold his own in defense of the other two.
Something golden catches her attention before it buries itself back into the ground, presumably unnoticed.
That's it.
Amity shakes her head and pulls herself to stand up, only for one knee to buckle beneath her and hit the ground.
'That's great, that's really great.'
Her attention drifts to the scoreboard, noticing how the opposing team's score hangs over their own. At this rate, her team would lose their chances of hitting the big leagues in the coming months. Amity clears her throat, pushing herself upward, stumbling momentarily. "Timeout!"
The game is paused and all eyes are turned to her. The referee blows their whistle. Their enemy team retreats and the trio groups together, the team leader holding the ball.
Amity's teammates return to her side, just as beaten up as she was.
Amity speaks slowly, tentatively. "I'm not going to lie. They'll win unless we manage to obtain the Rusty Smidge. So, that's what we're going to do."
"How?" The boy on the team asks, baffled. "It could be anywhere."
The brunette witch smiles a little. "Trust me…" She lifts her head, glancing at the other team. Her vision is still slightly blurry. "I'll need you two to hold them off. I'll get the beetle. I know it's a lot to ask, but this is our only option."
Oh, how Luz would tease her for this.
"Rusty Smidge it is, then." The other girl murmurs in agreement.
The boy nods, silent.
The horn blares through the courtyard, putting their timeout to an end. Amity looks to the audience, her gaze locking with a curious pair of dark brown. The referee stands between both teams as they get back into position.
The whistle is blown and the ball goes up into the air. Amity withdraws a slip of paper from her pocket when a dark-haired witch from the opposing team manages to snag the ball moments after it begins its descent, breaking into a run and drawing a spell circle beneath their feet. A large chunk of earth lifts from the ground and the witch aims toward the goal.
A thick vine slams into their body, causing the ball to drop from their hands and into Amity's teammates.
With the audience and the opposing team distracted, Amity applies the glyph to her chest and holds her breath, keeping her footsteps light and evading the other leader when they're violently slammed into the ground just in front of her.
She barely manages to dodge a fireball when she notices the golden scarab poking itself out of the ground, disturbed by the commotion.
"You!" The other leader shouts, noticing footprints in the soft dirt. She's been caught.
Her lungs tighten and her throat constricts, she lets out a breath and the glyph dissolves as she regains the air in her lungs. The other girl charges at her, fury in their eyes, only for a thick wall of ice to rise in front of them and cause them to crash face-first into it.
Amity's hand closes around the rusty smidge and she holds it up, the scoreboard instantly changing and declaring her team as the winner. She usually didn't resort to cheating, but her team had worked so hard to get into the finals, and she was not going to let that be taken away from them.
A loud horn sounds symbolizing the catch of the smidge and a loud wave of cheers erupts from the audience.
She looks up into the bleachers and Amity's heart skips several beats when she sees the excitement in her girlfriend's eyes. She loved making her proud, even though she did technically cheat…
Luz wasn't going to let her live that one down.
Amity discards her gear at the front of the bleachers, stretching her arms high above her head and grunting when a muscle in her back strains and pops, relieving some of the aggravating tension around her shoulders. She flexed her arm and rolled her shoulder to ease the tightness away, however, the forming ache in the center of her back would bother her for the next week.
This was around the time she would regret getting back into Grudgby. She loved how physically relaxed her body would be after a long day of exercise and burning adrenaline, but she did not miss the aches and pains that occasionally came with the sport.
"Blight!"
A sense of dread and irritation pricks at her chest. Amity sees Boscha approaching from the bleachers with two of her friends behind her, the taller of the trio wearing a very punchable smirk.
Even now, after Highschool, the pink-haired witch was still quite cocky.
"Boscha!" Amity greets with a falsely cheerful voice. "I saw your team made it to the finals."
Boscha stops in front of her, folding her hands into the pockets of her brand-new sports jacket. "It appears that you have too," Amity grins, knowing that it irked the other girl, "I overheard them discussing the finals, sounds like they will pinning my team," Boscha emphasizes this with a proud smile, "against yours."
"That sounds accurate." Amity stretches her arm, locking one beneath her elbow and grunting audibly. "Well, may the best team win."
"Oh, we will." Boscha sidesteps her, lifting her head and passing Amity with a dismissive wave of her hand. Cat pauses for a moment to send the lavender-haired witch a thumbs up before scurrying to catch up with her friends.
Once the other team was out of earshot, Amity's shoulders sagged with exhaustion and her arms fall limply to her side. "Ugh, when I get home, I'm collapsing on the bed and not waking up until next Tuesday…"
"Aw, well that's unfortunate…" Amity's attention snaps up to look at the tanned human leaning against the light pole. Luz smiles at her as Amity walks over, she drapes her arms around the brunette's shoulders, giggling. "Boscha doesn't know how to give up, does she?"
"Has she ever?" Amity inquiries.
Luz hums, "True."
"Woo-hoo!"
Amity looks over Luz's shoulder as Gus runs over to the couple, carrying blue flags in his hands. Willow and Hunter are right behind him, dressed in Flyer Derby attire. Judging by the dirt on their clothes and the sweat on their brow, they had just completed their own competition not too long ago.
"That was a-ma-zing!" Gus exclaimed, excited. "I thought only Luz used glyphs in stuff like that!"
Amity sighs, "They are Luz's glyphs…" She turns her attention to Willow, allowing Luz to move out of her embrace as Gus begins to bombard her with questions regarding whether or not she'll be stepping back into sports. "So, did you win?"
Willow shrugs, "No." She doesn't sound disappointed at all. "But, it was a good game. That's all that matters."
"I still say we should have won, but of course, the other team was more in the referee's favor…" Hunter grumbles, annoyed.
"We won the last game. Let another team win for a chance, it does well to boost their ego once in a while." Willow reminds him, sitting down and placing her staff down to allow Clover to shift back into her regular form.
"I think it's better to crush their spirits." Amity declares dramatically from the bleacher above Willow. "Most of them would not hesitate to squash you like a bug."
Willow lifts a brow, unamused. "Or send their abomination after you because you supposedly stole their badge."
Amity's soul sinks and she clears her throat, humiliated and a bit hurt by the comment. "That was three years ago…"
"I know," Willow says softly, "don't worry, I don't hold it against you."
"Totally," Gus agrees with a wave of his hand, "water under the bridge, girl!"
Doesn't feel like it sometimes.
"Besides…" Luz takes her place on the ground next to Amity as Gus sits down across from Willow on the bleachers. "You're way prettier now than you were then."
Amity swears her heart ascended to the heavens as Luz curls into her side. She scoffs, willing away the red blush creeping up on her face. "Oh?"
"Yeah," Luz grins, affection sparkling in her eyes, with a side of mischief, "you were my mint-haired goddess, and now you're my cotton-candy-haired goddess! Sweet and soft as cotton candy too."
Gus speaks up, "I have to admit, you literally look like a different person."
As if for reference, Luz twirls a strand of fading purple hair around her finger.
"Yeah, well," Amity averts the attention to Hunter, who stiffens in surprise when all eyes turn to him, "I'm not the only one."
Willow leans back, propping herself up with her arms and sighing heavily. "None of us do. We're not kids anymore… A lot has changed."
"Remember when we were scared we wouldn't be all together anymore?" She laughs a little, but it sounds strained. "The end of the world was upon us… And, uhm…"
She runs her hand over her chest and opens her mouth to continue. No sound comes out. Luz seems to curl into a smaller ball, pressing herself into Amity's embrace in an attempt to hide and shield the tears forming in her eyes.
Amity can read the fear in her expression. It was one of the worst days of her life. Luz had almost died. There was a circular scar across the center of her chest, burned into her flesh by the use of the Titan's magic.
The air becomes awkward and tense, each one of them recognizing the situation and not daring to speak. Willow moves to say something, but Hunter beats her to it, "Well, I…" He smiles, trying to appear positive, "You have a cool scar now, though! Girls love scars!" Hunter rubs the back of his neck, "I think… It's what Darius always said about mine… before all of this."
"I hate to agree with him." Amity rests her hand on Luz's knee, "It does look pretty cool… It's the scar of a survivor."
Luz chuckles brokenly, wiping the wet tears from her eyes. "At least I don't look like I walked through fire and escaped with only half my body intact."
Hunter scoffs, pretending to be offended by his sister's comment. "These are the scars of a survivor!"
Willow makes a noise of mock astonishment, cupping her cheeks for extra effect. "Oh my gosh… Amity and Hunter agreeing on something?"
"Nah," Amity smirks, Luz moves again to curl into Amity's side and the brunette gently drapes her arm around the human's midsection, "Hunter and I, we tolerate each other."
"What she said." Hunter agrees, gesturing at her for emphasis.
"Don't think I haven't forgotten what you threatened to do to my Luz…" Amity says, her voice is sweet yet menacing.
Luz giggles, "Or when you ran off to save your own butt and let Kikimora try to kill my girlfriend."
Gus joins in, earning a glare of disapproval from the dusty blond boy. "Nah, nah! How about when he almost took us to Belos?"
Amity's jaw drops, "He did what?"
"Oh! What about when he said was gonna toss the last living Titan into the Boiling Sea?" Luz throws in.
Gus sits up a little, "Isn't he the one who tried to take all of those poor palismen to Belos? Emmiline visited her friends after that happened, and the Bat Queen was infuriated!"
Amity was quite thankful she wasn't in class that day.
"Oh yeah, he almost dropped Eda and me into the Boiling Sea as well. And laughed about it." Luz adds.
"Remind me…" Gus murmurs after a moment, his dark brows furrowing together in confusion and realization, "Exactly why are you one of us, again?"
Hunter groans in exasperation, "Why is it every time I hang out with you guys, I end up getting reminded of when I was the Golden Guard?!"
Gus waves his hand dismissively, "Don't worry, we aggravate Amity, too! You two were hard to get along with."
Willow giggles a little in agreement, "He's right. Hunter has made up for his past actions," Amity opens her mouth to protest and Willow cuts her off, "And you have as well Amity, but that doesn't mean you're any better."
"I didn't -!"
"Okay!" Luz interrupts loudly, "That's enough of that! So, uhm," she clears her throat, changing the subject before things become too heated, "how did the Derby game go? I know you lost, but what happened, exactly?"
That seems to spark something in the trio's eyes. Luz pulls her knees into an arch, relaxing again now that the tension has dispersed.
"Oh yeah," Willow rolls with the subject change easily, happy to explain what had happened, "one of the other players decided to be a real jerk and knocked Skara off of her staff."
Amity's shoulders deflate in relaxation, thankful for the distraction. She vaguely feels Luz's fingers intertwining with hers, turning her wrist slightly to caress her palm with her thumb. It's like a thousand butterflies have erupted inside Amity's heart, and every little touch sends warm sensations rolling through her being.
Hunter pitches in, "So Gus and Viney fell back and-"
Luz's soft touch runs up between two fingers and Amity's attention drifts to her, the other three's conversation fading into the background. Golden eyes observe keenly as the human fiddles with Amity's fingers, appearing to be half-listening to her friends' sudden laughter.
The witch's heartbeat quickens when Luz tenderly kisses the tip of her index finger. She's seemingly lost in thought.
Amity hums, angling her chin down to kiss just above Luz's ear, holding it there for a moment. Appearing to snap out of her trance, Luz's eyes glance back to meet Amity's. A slight smirk tugs at her lips, mischief flashing across her expression. "Stinky."
"-and then I told them about..."
Hunter is suddenly cut off by a squeal-like shriek of laughter. Dust flies up around them when Luz's body hits the ground, her attacker remaining above her with her arms tight around the human's upper body to prevent her from fighting back.
"Nonono!" Luz laughs, managing to hold her hands between Amity's arms, struggling to push her off. She's half-breathless from consistent giggling. "Offoffoff! No!" Her hands are pinned down by her head, Amity smirks down at her, and Luz huffs. "Okay okay, I'm down! You win! Lemme go! Willow, help!"
Willow remains silent, watching the couple with an amused smile.
"That's what happens when you grow up with two siblings, especially a brother," Amity informs her playfully, kissing the girl's nose before releasing Luz from her grasp and pulling herself onto the bleachers to dust herself off leaving the giggling human on the ground in front of her.
"You still stink," Luz announces, her hands over her stomach as she regains her breath.
"Sooo… Anyway." Gus claps excitedly, returning to their prior conversation. "The final competition is tomorrow! We still get a chance!"
Luz pumps a fist in the air. "Woo!"
She sits up crossing her legs beneath her in the shape of an X and resting her hands in her lap. Amity withdraws her scroll, barely listening as the other four of them dive into another discussion. She glances at the time in the upper right corner of her scroll and lets out a heavy sigh.
It was time for her to head home. Now that her father has his own place in Bonesborough, not too far from the Library, he has begun to create a routine to follow. Around 5, he would be cooking supper (Amity prays it's edible) and expects her to be home just before it was finished. She was allowed to be a little late, but he had become rather strict with her after the events of the last few years.
She was to be home by five and help him in the shop he'd created out of the basement. She was training to take over his business, which had dramatically fallen apart in her parents' divorce (she got her own aircraft out of it, though) with the building almost completely destroyed.
She kind of appreciated it, in a way. It meant he was really trying to be her father.
"Luz." She catches the girl's attention, "I gotta get home soon, okay?" Amity grabs her gear from next to the bleachers, rising to her feet and stepping over Gus. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Wait!" Luz calls after her, rushing between Hunter and Willow and ignoring her brother's yelp of surprise. "Eda's not gonna be home tonight," a glint flickers through the human's eyes, "wanna come over?"
"Uh…"
Gus scoffs in mock offense from behind them. "Just Amity?" He turns his head away from her, feigning hurt. "I guess we're not your friends anymore…"
Willow jumps in, "Shame… Thought we were the 'bestest of friends'..."
Luz clears her throat, her voice cracking a little. "I mean, you guys can come too!" There was a silent, almost unreadable plea on her face, begging them to remain home. "Invitation's for all of you!"
"Hmm…" Willow taps her chin, smirking a little. "Nah," she shrugs, "I'm gonna help my Dads prepare supper tonight."
"Dad and I are heading out to see a movie! In the human realm !" Gus announces, excited.
Hunter coughs a little, "And… Uh…" A blush rises to his cheeks, "Darius is gonna teach me how to… Makemyownclothes."
Luz's shoulders relax, relieved. "Amity?"
Amity shrugs, "I'll ask my Dad and let you know. He probably won't mind."
Her eyes brighten. "Okay!"
'That's cute. You're cute.'