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“Mittens, you have a guest! I'll tell them to come up to you, okay? Mum and Dad would be so mad if I let you fall down the stairs and break your other leg too.”
Amity scowled at her closed door as if her sister would be able to feel her annoyance from the other side. She was still in a bad mood from missing the school trip to the Emperor's castle the day before, and the last thing she needed right now was to be made fun of by her siblings. To her surprise, though, Emira didn't make any further jokey comments. In fact, her sister sounded almost... serious for once.
A few moments passed, and Amity wondered who would possibly have come to see her. She really hoped it wasn't Boscha or any of her gang. She highly doubted that Willow had reached the stage of wanting to hang out again yet, and Amity didn't blame her at all. Maybe it was Luz— Amity felt her heart rate pick up at the thought, and if her leg wasn't in a cast she would have kicked herself for being so dumb. She needed to get this stupid crush under control before she embarrassed herself any more than she already had.
There was a knock on the door of her room, presumably whoever the mystery guest was, and Amity shook her head to clear her thoughts. “Come in!”
After a brief pause the door opened, and Luz stepped into the room. But while mere seconds ago the thought of seeing her had made Amity giddy with excitement, now she found her heart dropping like a lead weight as she took in the expression on Luz's face. In the month since they'd first met, Amity had only seen Luz look upset a handful of times. And none of them had come even remotely close to this.
Luz didn't just look sad, she looked... broken. Like she'd been stripped of all the radiant optimism—the boundless energy—that made her who she was. All Amity knew was that whoever or whatever was responsible, she was going to make them pay. Or she would have tried if it wasn't for her stupid leg. As it was, she was forced to stay sitting on her bed, feeling the pain on Luz's face like an ache in her own chest.
Amity had never been very good at the whole comforting thing. Possibly because it wasn't exactly something that her family did, and since Willow she'd hardly had any genuine friends— until now. But that didn't matter. Luz clearly needed support, and Amity was going to do her best to give it to her. She patted the bed, inviting Luz to sit, and Luz slowly moved to perch on the edge of the mattress near the end, like she wasn't quite sure if she was allowed to be there.
“Are you okay?” Amity asked, making sure to keep her voice soft.
For almost a minute Luz didn't respond, the only sound in the room the faint tapping of her foot against the floor. Eventually she looked up at Amity, eyes shining with tears, and shook her head. That simple gesture was enough to break Amity's heart, but she ignored the lump in her throat. Her feelings weren't what was important here. Luz had chosen to come here for a reason—because she trusted Amity to be there for her—and Amity wasn't going to let her down.
“Do you want a hug?”
It was the first thing Amity could think of to offer, since she was far from the best at talking about feelings or anything like that, and to her surprise Luz just nodded. Amity shifted down the bed, being careful not to move her injured leg at an awkward angle, and she'd barely opened her arms before Luz was clinging to her tightly, nearly knocking Amity over as she buried her face in her shoulder.
Amity wrapped her arms around Luz in return, rubbing her back in what she hoped was a soothing motion. It was an incredibly uncomfortable position, and she was sure her ribs wouldn't appreciate how hard Luz was holding onto her later, but Amity didn't care. She could feel Luz shaking, her tears dampening the fabric of her shirt, so Amity let her cry for as long as she needed.
She thought of all the times she'd cried herself to sleep on this same bed— when her parents reminded her that her performance at school was subpar at best, when Lilith told her she was disappointed with her progress, when her siblings' teasing got too much, when she remembered that she was alone and it was all her own fault. Amity had always wished she'd had someone to comfort her then, and she might not be able to fix whatever it was that had hurt Luz so deeply, but she could at least do this.
“I've got you,” she said quietly. “It's going to be okay. I promise.”
It was probably no more than ten minutes later when Luz finally pulled away from her a little, though it felt like an eternity, and Amity just hoped that she'd been able to provide at least some small measure of reassurance. “Do you want to talk about it?” she asked, not wanting to push but thinking that she should at least offer to listen if Luz wanted to share some of her burden.
“I—” Luz froze, attention caught by something across the room. Amity followed her gaze to the Emperor's Coven poster on the wall, and when she looked back Luz had a strange expression on her face. She was usually such an open book that Amity could easily tell what she was feeling, but right now Luz was unreadable. “S-Sorry. I have to go.”
“Luz, wait—” It was too late. Luz had stood from the bed before she could even finish her sentence, and Amity watched as the door closed behind her, worry forming a pit in her stomach. “Please don't do anything stupid.”