In the end, what Luz bought for King was an otter-shaped toy, which Amity had to admit was really cute... and while she was doing so, she also bought a whole set of otter-shaped pajamas, which made her look even more cuddly and cute than she normally was. When Eda and Lilith finally stopped arguing and went to look for them, they found Amity half unconscious due to the excess sugar in her blood that the sight of Luz in her otter pajamas was causing, and they too felt their heads spinning at that sight. It should have been illegal to be so adorable.

Eventually, they too had separated and Amity had walked away with Lilith, saying goodbye to Luz and wishing her a happy return to school. Her fairy godmother had remained silent the whole time, but when they were far enough away she said to her: "I'm proud of you, Amity. Not everyone can make up with someone so quickly, especially after what happened"

Amity blushed slightly. "It's not because of me... it's Luz that is too good"

But Lilith was sure that wasn't true. The puppet surely had a heart of gold, but she certainly wouldn't forgive someone so easily after they had played such a cruel prank on her. She was sure that Amity had done something to make Luz accept her back into her life. "I'm sure you did your part too, I can clearly feel that your heart is lighter. It wouldn't be like this if you hadn't put your effort into it"

Amity again instinctively brought her hands in front of her chest, even though she knew that wouldn't stop the fairy from feeling her feelings. "I… well, I did what you told me… I just let my heart speak" she said, and then a slight smile formed on her face. "And... I must admit that it was nice to do it... even if I burst into tears like a baby"

"Amity, there's nothing wrong with crying" Lilith replied encouragingly. "Don't you feel better now?"

Amity wasn't sure of the fairy's words: after all, her mother had always told her that crying was only for the weak and small children and that mature people should be able to control their emotions perfectly, so she didn't believe at all that there was 'nothing wrong' in crying. But she had to admit that after having vented her emotions out and let the tears wash away her guilt she felt much better than she had ever felt in all the recent years: ever since she stopped crying hugging Luz in that little park she had felt like she was so light that with every step she seemed to her that she was about to leap and fly.

Thinking about all the crying she had done over the past two days reminded her of something. "Um... fairy godmother, I... I wanted to apologize to you for yesterday night. You were right and I was wrong. You were trying to help me and all I did was treat you badly. I'm sorry... and... it's not true that I think I don't need you. In fact, I think you are one of the best things in my life"

A big smile formed on Lilith's face. It was the first time that Amity had admitted something like that, and even though Lilith obviously wasn't helping her out of personal interest, she had to admit that she felt a certain satisfaction in hearing her say those words. "Don't worry, I know you weren't serious" she replied. "Why this sudden sincerity, anyway?"

Amity blushed even more. "I do not know... for some reason I can't explain, I no longer want to hide my feelings from the people I love"

Lilith was happy for her. It seemed like Amity was finally breaking out of the bubble she had created and was finally releasing her emotions. She could clearly feel the happiness emerging from her pupil's heart, far more happiness than she had ever felt her feel. Amity was really making progress. She hoped she would continue on that path.

After a short walk they reached Blight Manor. "Well, it's time to say goodbye" Amity said to Lilith as she passed the gate.

The fairy was a little annoyed. "Are you sure you don't want me to walk you inside?"

"Oh, no, don't worry. I don't want to take up any more of your time" Amity answered.

Lilith smiled at her. "Okay. See you tomorrow then" she said, then her face became serious: "Amity, you've finally decided not to hide your feelings from others and from me anymore, so... don't hesitate if you need help, okay? If you feel sick or uncomfortable, call me right away. Don't be afraid to admit you have a problem. And don't worry about what time it is or where I am. Remember, I'll always be there for you"

Amity had heard those words many times before, but strangely this time they had a different weight. She wasn't annoyed by them but grateful, and she had to admit that she didn't mind at all having someone willing to listen to her and help her through bad times instead of always trying to do everything herself. "Okay. Thank you, fairy godmother"

"I already told you to call me... oh, it's okay. It's fine" Lilith replied, then she turned and walked away down the street.

Amity watched her disappear into the alley, then she crossed the garden of Blight Manor and opened the door, finally finding herself in the house. And as soon as she was inside the first thing she heard was a continuous metallic noise. Intrigued, she looked for the source of the sound, and she found her two siblings in front of what were undoubtedly the remains of their artificial butler. "What did you do!?" she exclaimed.

Emira and Edric turned. "Oh, hi Amity" they greeted her. "It wasn't us, dad simply wanted to make some improvements and asked us to help him"

At those words Amity's heart skipped a beat; she moved slightly to be able to see behind the metallic butler, and there she finally saw him, with his back bent over the pieces of his creation and several work tools in his hands. There, dressed in a dark gray lab coat covered in purple stains, along with gray pants with black boots also covered in purple stains, accompanied by two golden glasses with purple lenses on his head, was a tall man with pale and disheveled looking, hairy arms and stubble, with long brown hair and eyes like specks of gold. A man she knew very well despite having seen him barely a dozen times in the last year and not even a hundred in her entire life. Her father, Alador Blight.

The man barely looked up, and for an instant he met his daughter's eyes. His eyebrows arched, then he lowered his head again and went back to his work, not saying a word and never looking in Amity's direction. She felt a lump in her throat at that scene; it had happened every single time in her life that she had by mistake or by necessity (almost always by mistake) crossed paths with her father. A brief exchange of glances, and then nothing: no further interaction. But despite knowing what would happen and that she would only hurt herself, she still tried to come forward: "Uh, I see you have a lot of work here! Um... do you mind if I join? I can help you"

Silence. Her father didn't say a word to her. Instead he raised his hand and said: "Emira, please give me the wrench"

Amity had already experienced that scene every time she tried to get her father's attention, and yet it hurt just as much as it did the first time. She looked at her sister, who for once had completely abandoned her mischievous and cunning look and was staring at her with sorry eyes, as if she were asking for forgiveness with her gaze as she handed the wrench to Alador. Edric was also quite annoyed. "Um... I've been studying a lot of mechanics recently!" Amity said again. She knew she was just whipping herself, but she wanted to keep trying. "Mr. Malphas let me read every book in the library that talks about this! I can be very helpful! If the four of us work together we'd be quicker, right?"

More silence. Her father didn't even look at her. It was as if she wasn't even there. As if she didn't exist. Just like he had acted as if she didn't exist for fourteen whole years. In the end Emira tried to help her sister: "Hey, dad... Can Amity help us?"

"No" was Alador's curt reply.

At that point Amity couldn't hold on any longer and lowered her head. "Well... then I'm going to my room" she said, and she rushed up the stairs until she reached her room, then she closed the door, threw herself on the bed and stifled a scream into the pillow.

It had always been like this. Her father had always ignored her. No, not ignored: he had always acted as if she wasn't there, as if she were invisible and silent... as if she had never existed. He hadn't spoken to her once since she was born, and he spent his days in his lab where Amity was absolutely forbidden to enter. He only went out when he knew he wouldn't risk meeting her, and if they accidentally bumped into each other, he walked on as if there was nothing in his path, and no matter how much Amity called him, yelled at him, or even begged him, he didn't look at her, not even once. This had been their relationship for fourteen years. Amity knew practically nothing about her father; to her he was no different from a stranger.

She didn't know why her father acted the way he did. He wasn't like that with Edric and Emira: on the contrary, the three of them had an excellent relationship. Alador let them into his lab, taught them everything he knew, experimented with them, sent them on errands for him, dined with them, talked with them, joked with them. With them... he was a father. Not a perfect father obviously, but at least a father. With Amity... no. With Amity he wasn't a father. He was a man who seemed to want to do everything to convince himself that that little girl who kept waving around him trying to get his attention and get a tiny gesture of affection or even just a sign that he had noticed her didn't exist. And Amity couldn't understand why.

She sniffed. She remembered that when she was seven years old during a reception with numerous merchants she had tried to make her father notice her more than all the other times: not only had she dressed as best as she could, but she had also studied day and night in order to appear intelligent, so much so that everyone of the guests had praised her for her knowledge and her mother had been very proud. She had spent the whole evening without moving more than two meters from her father, despite he clearly tried to outrun her, continuing to hope that he would notice her qualities; but there had been no smile of appreciation, no kind words, not even a quick glance. As usual, Alador acted as if she wasn't there. And when the young Amity, not knowing what else to do, tried to reach out to grab her father's hand, he stepped aside. At that moment Amity had finally understood that no matter what she did or said, her father didn't want to give her even a chance to be liked by him. When that realization hit her she almost started crying in front of everyone, and she didn't do it only thanks to the prompt intervention of Emira and Edric, who had kept an eye on the situation the whole time and who had intervened in the istant they noticed her shocked face and with an excuse dragged her out of the reception room so that she could let off steam without anyone seeing her. But before she left she had clearly heard some guests, who had noticed the situation, murmuring among themselves and wondering if she was in fact a bastard daughter of Odalia and that was why Alador hated her. Amity had been too young to understand at the time, but now that she was fourteen she knew exactly what they meant, and she was seriously starting to believe it too.

She didn't dare to ask her mother to confirm. Could she really be the daughter of only her mother and not her father? It was the only reason she could think of to explain her family's absurdities. According to her siblings, before she was born her father and mother had been very close, to the point that there was not a single night that they didn't sleep together; yet, after her mother became pregnant with her, Alador not only no longer approached his wife's room, but he also began to interact with her as little as possible and no longer showed a single gesture of affection towards her. He didn't even go to assist her during the birth. And Odalia didn't act very differently, as she stopped talking about Alador or going to see him unless it was necessary, and she even asked Amity to dye her hair almost as if she couldn't stand that she had it as brown as him. There were far too many oddities and they all coincided with her birth. Amity knew that it was not impossible that her mother had had a clandestine relationship with another man and that her father, once he discovered the betrayal, had become so enraged that he wanted to ignore not only his wife but even wanted to erase the daughter born from that illicit relationship from his life; therefore, the more time passed, the more inclined she was to believe that the person she had called father for fourteen years was not really father, even if he had the same eyes and hair as hers. She could find no other explanation for the fact that her father seemed to think she was the spawn of the devil.

Suddenly the door opened and Amity jumped up from her pillow, fearing that it was her mother and not wanting to show herself to her in such a pathetic state, but she relaxed when she saw that it was only Edric and Emira. "Weren't you helping our father?" she asked them.

"Did you expect us to leave you alone after he treated you like that?" Edric asked as he sat next to her on the bed. "We told him to go to hell and followed you straight away. Emira almost punched him"

"It's still not out of the question that I do so" their sister growled, clearly furious. "I can't tolerate him behaving like this. He's a complete and utter idiot"

Amity felt moved by those words. She and her two siblings didn't get along very well, especially due to the huge difference in their characters, and also because they didn't refrain from playing pranks on her at any time, but whenever Amity had a really bad time and they were there to notice it they didn't hesitate to intervene. Which lately happened less and less often, since they now almost always stayed out until late at night since they were old enough (and disobedient enough) for that, but still when things like this happened under their eyes they were always there for her. Which, even if just a little, warmed her heart. "Forget it, Emira. You know he's like that... with me"

"No, I won't forget it!" Emira exclaimed, then she grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Stop being so passive! Damn it, Amity, get pissed off! Let your anger out for once! You can't let that man treat you like that, or mom keep making you dye your hair, or..."

"Don't talk about mom like that!" Amity said, suddenly aggressive. "She doesn't impose anything on me, I'm the one who dyes them because I know she likes them, and I want to do this favor for her because I'm a good daughter!"

Emira fell silent. She knew it wasn't a good idea to criticize their mother in front of Amity, or she would start defending her and accuse them of being ungrateful. On certain points she knew she didn't beat around the bush. "Okay, you're right, I went too far. But anyway, you can't let dad act like that! Go downstairs and yell in his face, slap him if you have to!"

"It wouldn't do any good. I've learned that by now" Amity replied.

Emira's eyes flashed. "For heaven's sake, Amity! You can't just let it go like this! You have to react!"

"I don't have the energy" Amity said. And she really didn't have it: just the thought of returning to her father made her feel empty.

Emira seemed to be about to say something else, but suddenly Edric spoke up: "Emira, now stop it. That's enough". His sister glared at him, but he held that gaze without even wavering, until she finally gave up and lowered her eyes.

At that point Edric smiled again and put his arm around Amity's neck, pulling her towards him and lightly rubbing her hair: "Let's change the subject, let's talk about something nice. What did you do today?"

Amity was happy for the change of subject, and she couldn't suppress a smile at her brother's question. "Well... I had fun"

The two twins remained silent for a moment, then their eyes became interested. "Look, so Mittens can smile genuinely too?" Edric teased her. "Who is the deity who made such a miracle possible?"

Amity giggled. Even though her brother was almost always a total imbecile, when he wanted to cheer her up he was very good at his job. "No deity. I just improved my social life, and by a lot"

"Does a certain puppet have anything to do with it?" Emira asked her with a wink.

Her sister's intuition troubled Amity a little. "Um... yes, actually. We're... on very good terms now, and... her presence, well, it made my day better. Sure, there was a bit of crying, but otherwise this was one of the happiest and funniest days I remember. Luz is... I don't know, she has the ability to make others happy with just the way she speaks, moves or even just smiles"

Edric and Emira looked at each other for a moment, then they both let out a chuckle. "Look, look... our Mittens is really growing up!" they said.

Amity raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, I'm sure you'll figure it out yourself sooner or later" Emira replied. "But for now… I'm very happy that you finally seem to had really a happy day"

"Yeah. You haven't smiled like that in years, Mittens" Edric added. "Whatever happens, never leave Luz's side. If she can make you smile like that... then she's definitely a genius"

This time it was Amity's turn to laugh. "Well, I wouldn't really call her a genius... but she certainly has her own way of bringing out the best in people"

The two twins remained silent for a moment, then Edric took a pack of biscuits out of his pocket and after taking one (which was in the shape of a heart) exclaimed: "A Mittens, give this poor biscuit a Mittens!" and then he tried to put it into the mouth of Amity, who, playing along, pretended not to want to eat it, forcing both Emira and Edric to jump on her and tickle and cuddle her to force her to surrender. The three siblings continued that childish game for almost an hour, until they couldn't fight their tiredness anymore and they went to sleep with smiles on their faces.

Alador: "I really have to do this?"

Author: "Why? I don't understand why you're complaining, you have practically nothing to say in your script"

Alador: "Yes, but this could seriously damage Amity's mental health..."

Author: "So what?"

Alador: "Can't we give that poor girl a little happiness for more than five minutes?"

Author: "Pff! Of course not! We need to attract more audience here! In this franchise people only want to see three things: Lumity, moments between Eda and Luz, and of course a lot of traumatized kids! So let's traumatize those kids!"

Alador: "Yes, but practically the entire cast already has to see a therapist! Isn't that enough?"

Author: "Absolutely not! We need to do more! We need more trauma!"

Alador: "Sir, you are an exploiter"

Author: "Oh, stop it! I don't want to hear such nonsense today, I've already had enough problems with that stupid clown who decided to quit all of sudden and tell me to fuck off in front of all hell... ehm, I mean, all the audience! If you think this is exploitation, well, fuck you! It's not exploitation! Now get back to work or I'll halve your salary!"

Alador: "Ugh! Fine. By the way, sir, there were some of the assistants who wanted to talk to you, they are threatening to ask the workers' union to intervene..."

Author: "Yes, don't worry, we will get rid of them soon, I have already prepared the sharks"

Alador: "Um... what do you mean...?"

Author: "What part of 'get back to work' isn't clear to you!? Move, you cunt! Or this show will have to continue just with your stunt double from now on!"

Alador: "Ok, ok! Damn, compared to that man Odalia is a good and kind boss who cares about the needs of her employees..."

Author: "I can hear you, idiot! Move and do your job!"