Amity sighed internally as she put down one of the cookies that her mom had made for her book club meeting today. Luz had taken one look at how nice of a day was and declared that today’s meeting was going to be on the roof so the two were enjoying the peace there. With the warm sun on her face and a gentle breeze against her skin… There was only one thing that Amity could have asked for to make this better and that was right next to her.

Her eyes darted to that thing and her cheeks turned red as she thought Luz had only just now looked over too. The serious girl gave her crush a nervous giggle before lifting up her book and saying, “Um, Azura just did her little ‘jump in a pool of lava’ stunt and I couldn’t help but think about you.”

Luz let out a short bark of laughter that made Amity’s heart flutter before looking up at the sky and saying, “I mean, if I had a fire protection spell like Azura, you know I would.”

Amity took in a slow breath as she simply stared at the girl before sighing out, “Yeah.” She then watched as Luz went back to reading but with how it felt on the roof, well, Amity was finding it hard to focus. They were even reading her favorite part of the series today but, well, with how the sunlight shined off of Luz’s unwashed hair, the bits of dirt on her cheek and chin from a stunt that went wrong earlier today, and how content her idiot looked made it almost impossible for her to look away.

It was moments like this where it felt like her tunnel wasn’t leading to her future but instead was a telescope directly pointed at Luz. Then again, if she was honest with what she wanted for her future…

Amity swallowed hard before slowly letting herself lean over. Just something nice and chill. Casual and what not. After all, she could just claim that she was tired and trying to get comfortable if Luz objected. Now if her heart didn’t stop hammering in her chest at just the idea of leaning against the other girl, that’d be great. It was so loud even that it made it hard to think. At least that drowned out the second with which she’d used to consider actually saying something real to Luz.

Amity’s head did make it right where she wanted it to be, propped against Luz’s shoulder as it was. The serious girl had even pivoted slightly so that her back was against her crush’s side, just like in some of the less childish books that Amity read in secret. And then burned whenever Edric and Emira found them. But that was beside the point. She’d gotten to recreate one of the scenes she liked the most from those romance books and no one could spoil it. Now if only this was enough to let her know how she felt.

For a second though, Amity wondered if it in fact was as Luz looked to her side. The human then pretended to yawn and stretch before extending her arm over to her side and directly over Amity. Both of their faces were bright red the second the arm was around the serious girl but neither could see the others as they tried to play it cool. It was fine though. Just a small, cute gesture between friends in a secluded, secret space where no one would be able to see what they were up to.

Or so they thought as a voice stopped their hearts. “Oh, good, you appear like you’ll be more receptive this time.”

Both girls slowly turned to find Kikimore standing over them. They both went from looking like their heads had been replaced with cherries to losing all color in their faces. They then looked at each other, looked at Luz’s arm, and shrieked as they separated. Amity almost flung herself off the roof right there and then but she was too smart to ignore the fact that they were four stories up. Still, she could do something about that while acting like she was reacting to the threat, which she supposed she still was, just for the wrong reasons, by summoning an abomination where they were.

Kiki watched this and merely pinched the bridge of her nose. She had been so hopeful for a second that they were going to be done with this stuff. Her annoyance only grew when Luz pointed at the demon and shouted, “If Belos thinks we’re joining with him then he’s even crazier than I thought!”

Kiki glared at the human for a second before making sure to keep her voice calm as she said, “You would be wise to not casually commit treason like that.” She then lowered her claw from her face. “Besides, his liege doesn’t desire conversion from those who are obeying his laws. He merely, as I said before, desires unification. Especially between you two. Though he is curious if you liked the cake.”

Luz turned away with her arms folded but just the memory of the cake softened the human as she confidently said, “It was delicious. Thank you for asking.”

Kiki’s coven guard turned the corner from the stairwell, whose wall Amity and Luz had been leaning against before now, before pumping his fist back. The baking lessons were paying off!

The demon wasn’t nearly as amused by all of this as the other three were though, especially as she watched the Blight girl continue to work on empowering her creation to make it larger, but such things didn’t matter. She was here peacefully after all. She didn’t want to be, but she was. “So, before I deliver the emperor’s message to you, I must ask; are you two a couple yet?”

Both girls froze but Kiki stopped them before they could get out their objectives. “I wasn’t expecting a yes so please don’t waste my time.” She then sighed and pulled out the piece of paper in her pocket. Emperor Belos had claimed that this message had more weight than it appeared to and that it was crucial for her to give it to them while they were outside. There was only one reason she could come up for either of those being true but that was impossible. Such effort would not be wasted upon these two fools.

It was still her job though. She unfurled the small piece of paper, frowned for a second, and then finally said, “May Titan himself send a sign if he believes that you two should be together.”

Amity stood up as she dusted her hands off. She was quite pleased with her abomination today. She normally only got a bit larger than herself with such little time but she’d almost managed to make it double her height. She’d considered that to probably be the minimum size she needed it to be though. Not for whatever the message meant of course. I mean, it’d be great if something happened, but Amity knew better. The wording was ‘should’ after all and her and Luz was, like, the worst idea ever. Just awful. Never would work out. Nope, never.

And then the wind picked up. And then it whipped up enough to cause specs of Amity’s abomination to fly off as the young girls braced themselves by grabbing the railings around the rooftop. The sky didn’t darken though or show any real sign for where the wind came from. Though, the clouds were moving as what slight touches of white there had been to the sky began to converge before the girls.

Both of their brains then turned off as the wind died down. They could hear the student’s below them sharing the same thought they were having which didn’t make any of this better. After all, the clouds had… Had…

Kikimora blinked a few times before asking, “Is that you two kissing?”

Amity blinked a few times before looking over the edge of the railing. She then, while her abomination threw itself over the edge, climbed onto the edge of the roof. Luz looked over and screamed for a second at the sight before rushing over as she yelled, “Amity!” The serious girl had already crossed her arms over her chest though and done a small hop to get out of there as fast as possible.

The students at the bottom of the school got to be almost as surprised as Luz was as they first watched an abomination crash into a puddle amongst all of them, reform while they heard Luz’s scream, before then something dive straight into the now reshaped abomination. Amity didn’t give them time to answer any questions though as she stayed in her abomination while it walked towards home. It did weirdly bubble around her though as the girl’s face was weirdly dark, even for being inside an abomination.

Luz, for her part, decided to look back at Kikimora. The demon tilted her head while folding her arms before growling slightly. “You’re not blind, are you?”

Luz looked down at the ground, back at the demon, back at the ground, and then yelled, “I’ll never fall for you and Belos’s tricks,” before slapping an ice sigil on the side of the building and creating a much larger bridge down than she’d meant to. She flinched before yelling, “Sorry,” and leaping onto her escape. She then stuck her tongue out at Kikimora until she got down to the bottom and took off at a full sprint.

Kiki looked at it all before looking at her guard. “Steve.”

“Yes?”

“I’m going to kill them next time.”