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Camila and Alador falling for each other wasn't what anyone had expected, least of all Amity Blight.
She stands in the sprinkle of the boiling rain, a golden umbrella spelled above her, her hands in the pockets of her heat-proof coat. She stares unseeing across the empty street, eyes bouncing off the details of the small flower shop diagonal to her.
Nobody had expected for her barely-divorced father to fall in love with her girlfriend's mother before they could ever tell their parents they were together. And now, whether she likes it or not, that secret is going to die behind her lips. Her relationship will too, she's sure.
Luz. Luz. What she has with Luz feels sacred. It feels like life-saving medicine. It feels like the first taste of home she's ever been promised and now—
Luz is suddenly in her vision, leaving the flower shop. Willow works there on the weekends—today—and Luz likes to help for extra credit at Hexside.
That's my overachiever, Amity thinks, but the gentle song of affection is muted by fear.
Luz crosses the street. She looks adorable in her bright yellow human raincoat. Even the training wand she's using to protect herself from the rain is cute.
"Hey," Amity says. Her girlfriend and soon-to-be step-sister smiles at her thinly.
"Hey, sweet potato," she whispers. Her voice is rough. Amity can tell she's been crying.
Luz never cries. Even when she gets weepy at a book or movie, she keeps a stiff lip and wipes her tears away with shaking hands before they can fall from her eyelashes.
Concern aches in Amity's chest. "You okay?"
Luz laughs a little. "Yeah. I mean, no. Is anything about this okay?" She looks away bitterly, still smiling. "I know it's like, a thing on TV, soaps and stuff, but there's no way we can get away with it IRL."
"What do you—?"
"The step-sister thing." Luz drops her chin to her chest and shakes her head. "Sorry. It's… humans like drama. In our drama shows, step-siblings will still want each other." She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth. "And porn, I guess."
Amity blushes. "Fiction is often less complicated than reality."
"Yup."
After a moment of silence between them, Luz gestures to the path before them. "Walk you home?" she jokes. Camila has already moved herself and her children to the Boiling Isles. Like a twisted daydream, Luz is living in her house. It's not Blight Manor, at least. Blight Manor has been in her mom's family for generations now. No way was Odalia going to let her ex stay there, let alone with his new partner.
Amity makes sure her protection spell is big enough for the two of them to move comfortably before nodded. "Let's get going."
The walk, somehow, isn't awkward. It's never awkward with Luz. They avoid the topic for a while, talking about Luz's latest writing project, which turns into talking about Amity's apprenticeship with Darius, which turns into quietly confessing that she'd hopes Alador might fall in love with him and make him a part of her immediate family.
Luz reaches for her sleeve and pulls her hand out of her pocket. Amity stares in surprise as her girlfriend links their fingers together.
"What if someone sees—?"
"Let them see." Luz shrugs. "It's not like we'll be together much longer." Her voice wavers—then breaks. She sniffles before coughing to cover it up but Amity has already noticed the misery taking over her face.
She holds Luz's hand tightly. "Hey. Hey. We have now." She bites her lip as Luz begins to cry. Her chest hurts. Her heart seizes like someone is grabbing it and trying to take it from her. "Luz…"
We'll stay together, she wants to say. It's gonna be you and me against the world. We'll leave this all behind and be together somewhere else. But she can't. It's not realistic. They have to keep living with their families—family, now—and go to school and continue however their mom and dad decide to continue.
Which means Luz is right… They're going to have to break up.
Amity's eyes sting. She holds Luz's hand as they both cry.
"I love you," she says instead, her first time saying it, because she's cruel and stupid and doesn't know what else to say.
Luz buries her stricken face against Amity's shoulder. "I love you too," she whispers, as quiet as the rain. Her breathy sobs follow, tense and airy from her attempts at keeping them inside.
Desperate to provide comfort, any amount of it, anything, Amity presses a kiss to Luz's forehead. "Hey. We'll—We'll figure this out." And then, because she's terrible, because she's wicked inside, she says, "We can keep it a secret." She's always leaned on lies to make her parents happy. She's still not used to it not working.
Luz's wobbling mouth twists into a wry grimace. "No." She sniffles. "I… I can't do that to my mamá. I want to be with you so, so badly, but she—" A deep breath shivers through her body. "I don't know. I think it's been a while since she was happy."
Amity grinds her teeth. "Are you—angry?" She is. The divorce isn't even final yet, it's barely begun, and her dad is already living with another woman. "Are you…?" She trails off.
After a tense moment, Luz nods. They stand in the rain, in the empty street, and don't look at each other. "I… I know I shouldn't be. I just still miss him so much. I guess the thought of her moving on makes me feel a little betrayed on his behalf."
Amity can't imagine. Her dad kind of sucks, but at least he's alive. At least their relationship can continue to change and grow. She thinks of where they are suddenly freezing, eternal in time, two complicated people hurt by her mother, hurt by each other, and her chest hurts anew. She can't imagine what Luz is feeling.
"I'm sorry," she whispers.
Luz shrugs. "It's fine," she lies. Then, she takes another deep breath and finally meets Amity's eyes. "Okay. We need to get home before my legs give out. This is so emotionally exhausting."
Amity can't help but laugh. "Yeah. It's—it's pretty much horrible."
"The worst it can be." But she's smiling too. The sparkle is back in her beautiful brown eyes.
Even if they can't make it work, even though they can't be together… they won't be going through this alone.
Because she's sick and twisted and awful, Amity lets that sad fact comfort her. She lets the sweat between their palms soothe the ache in her heart.
They make their way home, towards their future, together, whether they like it or not.