Work Text:
Amiti
The stupid, loopy writing stared up at Amity accusingly. Today it was written in hot pink sharpie, which somehow only added insult to injury. How could the barista not know how to spell Amity?
The more pressing question was: how long had the barista been butchering her name and she hadn’t even noticed?
Amity had a vague recollection of the barista asking her “how do you spell that?” approximately two months ago, when she moved to Bonesborough to begin her Masters program at the local university. It hadn’t taken her long to find the Owl House Café, an eclectic but inviting little shop located just down the street from the apartment she shared with her sister and brother. They made great lattes, the kind that had enough caffeine to power a sleep deprived college student through last minute papers and assignments.
She’d only noticed her name this past Monday, when the barista had used a different coloured marker on the cup. At first, Amity told herself it didn’t bother her. But, of course, it did. Embarrassment was the only thing that kept her from correcting the barista—after all—it had been two months before Amity even noticed. But every passing latte the misspelling niggled at her, festering until Amity worked herself into a righteous fury.
It was the principle of the thing!
At least that’s what she tried to remind herself that very Thursday evening, as she worked up the courage to enter the café. The Owl House looked like it was quiet from what Amity could tell through the café window, only a few other patrons lingered, just how she usually liked it. While other nights she would have ordered her drink to stay so she could work on her paper, for the purpose of this particular visit, Amity needed to have the to-go cup and wanted to make a speedy exit after to avoid any lingering awkwardness.
It was a decent plan, one that she almost immediately forgot as soon as she entered the café and caught sight of the barista.
Luz Noceda, barista magician (as she’d once introduced herself to Amity) perked up at the counter when Amity walked in the door.
“Hey Amity!” Luz greeted cheerfully, “can I get you your usual after five drink?”
That was one of the things Amity loved about the Owl House. The staff remembered their customers and their favourite orders. In Amity’s case, if she were here earlier in the day she’d opt for a latte (or if she had a long night of research ahead of her, maybe something a little stronger). After five, Amity preferred a London Fog. Luz always remembered Amity’s drink, which she appreciated.
“To go tonight please.” Amity requested, watching Luz carefully to calculate the exact moment she needed to act in order to correct this long running error.
“Gotcha.”
Luz rang her up quickly before moving in a thoughtless subconscious dance, plucking one of the cardboard cups and reaching for the marker—it was now or never.
“And uh—” Amity blurted awkwardly, causing Luz to pause, “it’s Amity with a Y by the way.”
“My bad! I got you.” Luz bobbed her head with an easy smile, always seemingly on the move as she wrote on the cup.
Amity all but sagged in relief. She’d been building this moment up in her head as such an awkward moment—but clearly she was the only one who thought so going by Luz’s effortlessly easygoing response.
“Any big plans for the rest of your night?” Luz asked as she steeped the tea.
Amity shrugged, feeling in much better spirits than before, “I’ve got a bio test next week I have to study for.”
“Oh! Biology? That was one of my favourite subjects before I got banned from the lab in--”
Luz had just put down Amity’s finished drink when a gaggle of university students walked in before Luz could finish her story.
“Oops, better help them.” Luz grinned, “good luck on your bio test!”
Amity gave a little wave as Luz hustled back to the till to help the new customers. She grabbed her drink and headed out into the street, relishing the warmth of the cup in the chilly fall air.
The apartment was quiet when Amity arrived home, the twins were working tonight so she would have the apartment to herself for a few more hours. She dropped her keys in the dish and removed her shoes, looking forward to the peace and quiet to get ahead on the studying for the test next week. It was when she picked her drink up again that Luz’s loopy scrawl caught her eye.
Thank goodness she’d got that all figured out now and her name was spelled correctly...
Amity frowned.
Amyti
What the?
Amity had realized she was still walking on autopilot until she almost tripped over the back of the couch.
Amyti? REALLY?
She gripped the cup and glared down at the writing that stared tauntingly at her.
That’s it. She’d clearly have to set that stupidly cute barista straight next time!
----
Amity didn’t make it back to the Owl House until the following Friday evening. The café was a bit busier than usual, and Amity had already decided that she would not be staying for her drink today, not only because of the rowdiness, but because she needed Luz to actually spell her name right on the damn cup!
Despite the lineup at the counter, Luz caught sight of Amity right away when she walked in.
“Hey Amity!” Luz called with a cheerful wave. A little startled, Amity waved back as she got in line, feeling both suddenly shy, and strangely pleased that Luz had noticed her come in.
It wasn’t too long before she was at the start of the line, Luz breezing through customers easily.
“Sorry for the wait,” Luz said in lieu of another greeting, “we’re slammed tonight! It’s good to see you, can I get you your usual?”
Amity was always off put by Luz’s easygoing, earnest conversational nature. On others she may have found it annoying at times, but with Luz she didn’t mind.
“No problem, and yes please. And uh Luz...”
Luz waited patiently for Amity to finish as she trailed off awkwardly, despite the growing line behind her.
“My name is spelled with an “i” in the middle and a “y” at the end.”
“Oh no!” Luz smacked her forehead, nearly getting marker on her cheek since she’d used the same hand she held the marker in, “sorry Amity, I’ll for sure get it right this time.”
“It’s no problem.” Amity fibbed.
Luz shot her a megawatt smile as she wrote on the cup quickly and began to put together Amity’s drink.
“How did your bio test go?” Luz asked as she moved briskly.
“My?” Amity stuttered confused, but oh! She’d mentioned her biology test to Luz last week off hand. Luz remembered that?
“Oh! It went really well, thank you.” Amity’s cheeks warmed inexplicably.
“That’s good to hear, I knew you’d crush it.” Luz smiled again before setting her drink down with a flourish.
“Thanks.” Amity smiled, grabbing her drink.
“Have a good night!” With that, Luz hurried off.
Amity started towards the door just as she heard Luz greet another customer enthusiastically (“Steve! My man! What can I get you?”) She made it as far as the doorway this time before glancing down to her cup.
Amitey :) stared up at her.
Amity whipped around; eyes narrowed at Luz, who was currently balancing four drinks as she worked hard behind the counter. Immediately, Amity felt very silly and quickly shuffled out the door, mumbling under her breath, Next time, she’d spell it out for Luz exactly.
---
Except, the next time Amity breezed into the Owl House, Luz was very rudely absent.
Instead, the owner, Eda “the Owl Lady” Clawthorne stood behind the counter instead. Amity wilted in disappointment. Apparently she didn’t hide her disappointment well at all, because Eda’s eyebrows shot up.
“Whoa, what’s got you down Boots?”
Amity was too flustered to bother being annoyed by the “boots” comment, worked up over having mentally prepared herself to confront Luz on the misspelling only to have worked herself up for nothing because Luz wasn’t even here today!
“Luz isn’t here today?” Amity stammered before she could help herself.
Eda looked at Amity, assessing, before snapping her fingers, “aha! Amity, right?”
Amity nodded dumbly, unsure what else to do and mortified she’d let that question slip.
“Luz, that adorable dumb-dumb, caught a cold. Don't you worry about her. She’ll be right as rain by next week I’m sure.” Eda said fondly.
Worry about Luz? Why would she worry about Luz? But Eda was already moving on, “Luz mentioned you only drink London Fogs after five, is that what I can get you?”
Amity nodded dumbly, now reeling that Luz had apparently shared her drink preferences with her boss. Eda wasn’t nearly as adept at remembering names as she was at giving nicknames. Amity had worn combat style boots once which is all it took for Eda to nickname her “Boots”.
Eda started the drink and finished in record time as Amity drifted around to the pickup area of the counter.
“Here ya go Boots. Luz will be back next week, and” Eda’s voice dropped as she leaned forward conspiratorially, “I’m sure she’d like it f you stopped by.” She winked.
Amity felt like she had whiplash from this visit to the Owl House. Reeling, she reached for her drink out of sheer habit and looked down at the writing. Eda’s handwriting was much sharper than Luz’s loopy script, but it unmistakably read: Amity.
Amity frowned.
“Something wrong?” Eda asked curiously. Amity jumped, she’d forgotten where she was for a second.
“Luz always spells my name wrong.” Amity blurted.
Eda’s eyebrows raised, but her lips stretched into an amused smile.
“Does she? I’ll be sure to correct her.” Eda assured.
Amity flushed, mumbling “thanks” and quickly hightailed it out of the café. She felt awful, hopefully she hadn’t gotten Luz in actual trouble with Eda. There was so much to unpack in that conversation with Eda that Amity didn’t even know where to start. She felt like she was missing something, and she hated that feeling.
---
Just as Eda said, Luz was back right as rain the following week.
“Amity, hey!” Luz greeted happily when she caught sight of Amity at the door, her eyes lighting up, “the usual? To go?”
Something in Amity warmed. Last week had thrown her off, apparently, she was so ingrained in her habits that Luz’s absence had thrown her through a loop. At least, that’s what Amity kept telling herself.
Amity nodded, and before she could lose her nerve she burst, “Luz if Eda talked to you about my name I’m sorry I—”
Luz laughed and waved away Amity’s apologetic tone. “No worries Amity! Eda did talk to me, I’m sorry I kept getting your name wrong but she straightened me out.”
“Oh. Okay.” Amity breathed a sigh. Luz hummed happily as she reached for the cup.
“How are you feeling, by the way?”
Luz fumbled a tea bag, looking at Amity in surprise.
“Eda mentioned you were sick.” Amity explained hurriedly, not wanting Luz to think she was some creep or anything.
“Oh.” Luz’s cheeks pinkened. Amity had to mentally force herself to concentrate despite thinking how cute that was.
“It was just a cold thank goodness. I get a little loopy with colds, but I’m all better now, thanks.”
“I’m glad.” Amity said quietly, suddenly unable to fight off the blush rising in her own traitorous cheeks. The sound of the door opening startled both girls from their quiet moment just as Luz finished the drink.
“Have a good day Amity,” Luz said, hesitating a little before saying, “see you around?”
“See you around Luz.” Amity smiled before Luz left to attend to the customer that had just walked in.
Amity walked towards the door and glanced down at her cup out of habit.
Ami-tea :)
All the warm, fuzzy feeling from just now evaporated instantly. Amity whipped around only to see Luz at the counter, who had the audacity to wink at her when the other customer wasn’t looking.
That!!
She was doing this on purpose!
Amity glared, almost crushing the cup in her hand as she stormed out.
That’s it! She wasn’t giving Luz the satisfaction anymore— Luz the barista was so not going to break her no matter what silly name she wrote on the cup from now on!
---
Amitie
Amiteigh
Amatie
Ameighteigh (okay that one almost broke her)
It became a game that clearly Luz nor Amity were backing down from. Over the course of the next few weeks Luz took it as a personal challenge to write outlandish spellings of Amity’s name on the cup, and when she ran out of ideas for those she progressed to names that maybe sorta sounded close.
Annuity
Amitotic (If Luz thought using a Biology word would impress Amity it didn’t—no really!)
And finally:
All Might
Complete with an (actually pretty good?) doodle of the anime character.
Amity snapped, finally venting to Emira and Edric about her woes from start to finish.
“Just— All Might? Really? How hard is it to spell Amity? A-m-i-t-y? There! Easy right?” Amity huffed before screaming into the couch pillow, totally unaware of the bemused glances her siblings exchanged.
When Amity finally came up for air, Emira patted her head soothingly.
“Oh Mittens, you useless lesbian. She’s clearly flirting with you.”
“WHAT.” Amity it came out far louder and far more voice crackingly than intended. “She’s?!”
“Flirting with you, yeah.” Edric agreed, joining Emira in patting Amity’s head. Normally Amity would have swatted them away immediately, but she was currently far too deep into a Gay Panic TM.
“She’s flirting with me.” Amity trailed off, face bright pink all the way to the tips of her ears. She subconsciously swiped at her sibling’s hands, lost in thought.
She thought of all the times she’d visit the Owl House lately, how Luz lit up when Amity walked in, the blushes, the conversations. Luz was always interested in what Amity had to say, and remembered small, thoughtful details about their short conversations.
Amity thought about the days where seeing Luz somehow made her evenings inexplicably better. Where she learned little things about Luz, like how she clearly loved Eda, and had cat who she proudly named King, how she loved fantasy novels and anime and wanted to be a writer.
“Did we fry your brain Mittens?” Emira prodded gently when Amity hadn’t said anything for a long, quiet moment.
“I have to go!” Amity startled the twins by launching herself out of her seat, the All Might cup still clutched in hand.
“Go get her Mittens!” Edric cheered as Amity slammed the door behind her.
She wasn’t quite sure what she was going to do when she got to the Owl House, but there was only about five minutes until closing so she had to get there ASAP. She felt giddy, excited and like she was going to throw up all at once with nerves. If she didn’t go and do whatever she was about to do right now—Amity wasn’t sure if she would have the courage again.
She ran to the Owl House, where with growing disappointment, Amity realized the sign was flipped to Closed—she had just missed them!
The adrenaline slowly drained from her, and Amity stood there dejectedly only now realizing how cold it was. It was early December after all, and she’d been in such a hurry to leave the apartment she hadn’t even grabbed a coat!
Amity was just about to turn around and walk home when there was the unmistakable sound of a deadbolt unlocking.
“Amity?” Luz called confusedly, her eyes widening when she noticed that Amity didn’t have a coat on. “Dios mío! It’s freezing outside, come in!” Luz all but pulled Amity inside the warmth of the Owl House without any protest.
Luz locked the door behind them and stepped back, “did you forget something here earlier? I didn’t see anything on the counter, but we can check and I’m sure we’ll—”
“Luz.” Amity cut off Luz’s rambling. Her feelings were a mess, she was so happy but so nervous to see Luz all of a sudden. An idea formed in her head, which was a miracle because she felt like she barely had two brain cells to rub together at the moment.
“All Might? Really? All Might?”
Luz looked taken aback before smiling sheepishly. “That’s the one that got you? Oh thank god, I was starting to think nothing would get you! And then it was going on for so long, how awkward would it be if I just stopped?”
“You—you’re going to learn how to spell my name—where's your marker?” Amity demanded, holding out her hand expectantly.
Luz’s face dropped, but she reached for the marker and grabbed it from behind the counter, holding it out to Amity.
“Hey, I’m sorry Amity. Maybe I took it too far. I just wasn’t sure how else to...”
Amity had been frantically writing on the All Might cup the entirety of Luz’s apology before hastily shoving it towards Luz before she could lose her courage.
“There.” Amity stated primly, turning the cup around in Luz’s outstretched hand, ignoring the way her stomach flipped when their fingers brushed.
Luz looked down at the cup and promptly did a double take.
Amity, the cup read, followed by the hastily scrawled digits of Amity’s cell number. And, just because she’d felt especially daring, she even drew a little heart beside the phone number.
Luz was silent, looking down at the phone number, back to Amity and down again while steadily growing redder and redder.
“This is the best thing anyone has ever written on a cup ever.” Luz blurted, covering her face.
Heat rushed to Amity’s cheeks.
“So I can call you?” Luz asked hopefully, peeking out from behind her fingers, face still bright red.
Amity nodded despite feeling like her face was also about to catch fire.
“Can I take you on a date sometime? If—if you’re down?”
Amity was sure she was going to have to get used to having a perma-blush around Luz.
“I would really like that, Luz.”
“Me too.” Luz couldn’t help herself, she smiled her megawatt smile at Amity, clearly almost vibrating with excitement. “I’ll text you.”
Amity nodded happily.
“I should let you get back to closing.”
“Okay, but take this with you—” Luz quickly shrugged off the sweater she was wearing and handed it to Amity. “It’s really cold out there and I’ve got another sweater I keep as my café sweater in the back.”
Amity accepted the sweater gratefully, silently wondering if she would ever want to give it back. She pulled it on as Luz walked her to the door.
“Walk home safe.” Luz grinned.
“Night Luz.”
“Night Amity.”
If Amity saw Luz fist pump through the window as she left, well, it only made Luz extra cute in her eyes.
---
A half hour later, Amity’s phone dinged. The text from an unknown number read:
Hi Amity, it’s Luz!
Followed by way too many emojis.
Amity smiled down at her phone.
Glad you finally learned how to spell my name, Looz.
---
-1 month later-
“I flirted with her for months, Hunter, months!” Luz exclaimed dramatically, regaling all their friends with the story of how Amity and Luz started dating. Willow, Hunter and Gus listened with bemused expressions, clearly they’d been subject to Luz ranting on about “the cute girl that comes to the coffee shop” before.
“But finally, I got her with my amazing name skills when I wrote All Might on her cup!”
Amity rolled her eyes as Luz snuck a kiss on the cheek, grinning at the completion of the story. It was Luz’s birthday and they were all here to celebrate. Thankfully Luz had told this story not within the earshot of her siblings, who were working late. She could never let anyone find out that...
“Hey! Our boss let us off early! Happy Birthday Luz!”
Oh no. Amity froze as Emira and Edric walked into the party.
“What did we miss?” Edric asked as he exchanged fist bumps with Luz.
“Luz was just telling us about how her and Amity met.” Gus piped up before Amity could change the subject.
She was screwed.
“Oh,” Emira laughed as she shrugged off her coat and hat, “you mean the time Mittens didn’t realize the cute barista was flirting with her until we had to tell her?”
“Emira!” Amity gasped, betrayed.
“No way!” Luz gasped, unable to stop grinning. She looked like a kid who just met Santa. “You wound me Hermosa! You didn’t even realize I, the cute barista, was practically throwing myself at you?”
Amity was going to murder the twins, who smirked at her lovingly. It wasn’t the first time she’d had the thought and undoubtedly it wouldn’t be the last.
“Stoooooop.” Amity moaned, pushing Luz’s stupid smug face away as she tried to hide her face in the pillows. Their friends laughed, but thankfully moved on to other conversation, giving them a moment of privacy.
Luz gathered Amity in her arms, drawing her in close. “I’m glad you finally realized I was flirting with you, sweet potato.” She punctuated the statement with a soft kiss to Amity’s temple.
Amity didn’t let her get away that easy, sniping a kiss on the lips before Luz could get too far.
“Me too.” Amity murmured against Luz’s lips.