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goldenglitzer · 4 years

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Roots of the Isles

Chapter 1: The One Where Willow Accepts

~ Storm. Thunder sounded around her, and lightning illuminated the sky, giving her surroundings a greenish glow. Before her, an impossibly high cliff -- no, a leg. The leg connected to a charcoal body, towering past the clouds, and somewhere up there, glowing green eyes looked down upon her. And she felt anger, her fury rising and rising and rising- ~

Willow generally considered herself to be an observant person. Whether this stemmed from a caring nature or an analytic ability, she wasn’t sure. What she did know was that she noticed things that the average person wouldn’t, such as how Luz simultaneously tensed up with nervousness and filled with energy when meeting new people, how Gus would hum a pop song under his breath while he was working on a new spell, or how some of the Beast Keeping students’ hoods shifted whenever they were trying to smuggle the cuter animals of the Bestiary out.

Lately, she was noticing how Amity wasn’t being as mean to her anymore.

At first, Willow had attributed it to a lack of contact. After all, with Willow being placed in the Plant track, she didn’t have any classes with Amity anymore (and good riddance, in her opinion). The only times they ever saw each other were passing in the halls, or occasionally encountering each other in town (usually with the popular girls surrounding her at all sides, sometimes even making biting remarks towards Willow).

However, starting after the most recent Covention, Willow noticed that even the existing contact had started to lose it’s hostility. Amity’s glares at her whenever they crossed paths in school began to lose their usual anger, until it was entirely gone (and was then replaced by something resembling sadness? Willow didn’t like to think about that too much). As much as Willow nearly lost it when Amity made the remark towards her while prepping for the Moonlight Conjuring, she had to admit that a secondary purpose of it was to get her posse away from Willow (even if she would have much preferred Amity simply say nothing). And even those sorts of situations had started to disappear, as, after a certain point, Willow saw Amity in town with her friends less, and more with older green-haired individuals that she assumed were her siblings (she vaguely remembers seeing them with Gus sometimes).

And when Amity gives her the slightest of nods as they pass each other in Hexide’s hallways, it takes all of Willow’s self-control to keep her from looking back to see if Amity had suffered a traumatic head injury.

So there it is; while Amity might not necessarily be trying to be nicer, she is certainly trying to be less mean towards Willow. Change that Willow had never expected in a million years, all happening over the span of a few weeks. And Willow only knew one force of chaos and change strong enough to cause this.

In retrospect, she should’ve known that Luz was somehow involved with Amity. It was clear that there was more going on at the Covention between the two than simple opposition and rivalry, even if Luz never talked much about what happened after she followed Amity offstage (Unfortunately, Willow’s was too distracted by the incredibly awesome witches duel between their mentors to follow Luz.) and on the rare occasion that Amity was brought up in conversation, Luz was almost imperceptibly withdrawn and nervous. It only requires Willow to put two and two together, and she has a rough idea of what’s been happening.

And her first reaction is rage. After all, this is a betrayal, isn’t it? One of her best friends, hanging out with her worst enemy (although, a traitorous part of her mind reminds her, that wasn’t always the case). And the possibility that Luz could do the same thing Amity did, leave her behind, and maybe even rub it in her face, fills her with primal anger. She lets the rage fester in her body throughout the school day, feeling it coil and spread as magical power just under the surface of her skin, before storming out of Hexide and immediately into the woods.

And she unleashes it all. She almost feels the rage explode out of her, tendrils of her wrath becoming actual vines and roots that lash out at anything within the relative vicinity. She doesn’t care much; nobody’s around, and right now she wants to rampage, to tear the world apart because how dare it. She feels her consciousness slip, and falls back into the world in her dreams, the primordial green glow and the towering titan and the eyes and the fury-

She snaps back to her senses and almost immediately feels guilt. While she’s certain there are trained witches out there that could cause more destruction, she’s created a small wasteland in under a minute, with broken trees strewn across the ground and caught up in a mess of thorny vines. Had any creature or person been in the vicinity, they would've been killed, and the thought of that makes Willow sick to her stomach. She hopes she’ll never have to use her magic for that purpose.

As Willow tries to repair some of the damage she caused (the area is healthier by the end of it, but it’s not really the same as before), she reasons out her revelation. Yes, there’s still anger there, and a bit of insecurity (only a smidge, she tells herself), but she’s not as overwhelmingly wrathful as before. She knows that Luz isn’t really like any of them; she’s a dreamer, passion and energy incarnate that has arrived in a new world and is determined to make it work for her. She likes to see the best in others, and it’s not unreasonable to think that she’s found some qualities in Amity that she’s found redeeming (what those could possibly be, Willow has no clue). Willow also knows that Luz cares deeply about her too, and as such, it’s unlikely that she would simply abandon her like that (despite what certain parts of her mind keep thinking).

Ultimately, Willow is confused, and decides that the only way she’s going to figure it out is to get the truth out of Luz. Once home, she sends a letter to Luz, asking her to meet in the marketplace tomorrow, finishes her schoolwork, and tucks in for another day. The same dream as the last few nights happens again, and Willow begins to wonder if this is going to be a thing for a while. The next day, school is fairly uneventful, although Principal Bump does pull her aside at the beginning. Apparently having become aware of her outburst, he lets her off with a light scolding, but he does say he will be talking to her later, which leaves Willow slightly scared and intrigued.

When she and Gus pass Amity in the hallways, Amity offers her a subtle nod again. Willow does not grant her a response, and when Gus turns to her and asks “What was that about?” she simply shrugs (it’s nice to know that he noticed too, though).

Finally, school is out and, after bidding Gus goodbye (they would be practicing combo spells later in the day, of course), she heads to the marketplace. Soon enough, Luz arrives there, shouting out her usual energetic greetings with the world’s brightest smile on her face (later, when Willow learns that Luz’s first name means “light” in the human language of Spanish, she can’t say she’s entirely surprised). Still, Willow came here for a purpose, and she interrupts Luz’s happy march towards her with a simple “We need to talk.”

“Oh! Um, okay!” Luz manages to get out, and Willow can tell that, behind the bubbly exterior, there is a hint of panic in her eyes (perhaps she’s been expecting this conversation, Willow muses).

“You and Amity have been hanging out together.”

And there was the full panic.

Luz fumbles with her answer, uttering a series of “ums” and “errs” and “wells”. Willow adores Luz, and finds that she has so many traits that make her a good friend and a great person; however, Willow knows that, when Luz is introduced to an uncomfortable situation that she isn’t used to, she can be dishonest in an attempt to please the people around her. Willow hopes to Belos that she isn’t this time.

With a hallowed breath, Luz admits “Yes, I have.” Confirmation. For some reason, it doesn’t mean as much to Willow as she thought it would. “I didn’t mean to, though! We just kept bumping into each other, and running into danger together, and I kept learning things about her, and-” she pauses, with a defeated sigh. “I’m sorry, Willow. I saw how she’s treated you, and that isn’t right. It wasn’t right of me to betray your trust either. I can stop talking with her, if you want. Or if it’s too much already, you don’t have to be friends with me anymore.”

It hadn’t occurred to Willow that those were options, but now that she thought about it, she was within her rights to decide on at least the last one (and the first one was still understandable, if also very unethical), and from Luz’s body language and the way she had offered the choices, she would genuinely swear to both. However, she could also tell that Luz’s heart would absolutely shatter if Willow accepted either of those options, and when she tried to visualize herself accepting them, all she could think of was the cold fall day when she realized her and Amity were no longer friends. She knew that pain. Did she want Luz to know that pain too?

“No,” she decides. “You haven’t betrayed me, Luz.” She sees Luz visibly untense, and almost feels an aura of gratitude radiating off of her. “I’m just curious about it.”

She’s able to get Luz to talk about her various encounters with Amity, the most significant of which involving life-or-death situations. While at this point Willow has accepted that Luz was cursed to have danger follow her almost anywhere, she was still fairly certain her bubbly friend was going to give her grey hairs by the time she was twenty. She listened as Luz told her about Amity’s more hidden traits; her volunteer work at the Library, her love of the Azura series (Willow always considered the books a bit too unrealistic for her tastes), her older siblings who kinda bullied her (but also don’t, sometimes. “It’s complicated,” Luz says, and Willow lets it be at that for now), and even her bravery when protecting Luz or rescuing her siblings. It occurs to Willow that she never really noticed many of these things about Amity, even before they drifted apart. It somewhat disturbed Willow to consider that, while she knew Amity for almost her whole life, she didn’t “know” her.

“And yeah, now we’re setting up a Secret Azura Book Club together, and we’re going to have our first meetings once the next semester begins!” Luz declares, and Willow can tell from the far-away look on her face and her subtle blush that Luz’s draw towards Amity isn’t exactly the desire for platonic friendship. But that’s a whole other can of worms to get into that Willow barely understands as is, so she doesn’t make a comment. Yet.

Besides, Willow has one more question to ask. “So, did you say anything to her about treating me better?”

Luz’s eyebrows twitch up a bit in surprise. “No, I haven’t. I should totally do that though! It’s been a conversation I’ve been avoiding since, y’know, awkward horrible history and all that, but I know it’s something we can’t avoid-”

“No, don’t.” Willow cuts in. While there’s not a lot that she knows for sure right now, she does know that she’s not ready for that conversation. “I’ve just been… noticing some things.”

Willow then proceeds to describe to Luz what she’s noticed of Amity’s recent behavior. Luz’s eyes practically glow with something akin to pride when she hears that the insults have stopped and Amity has acknowledged Willow’s presence in a non-antagonistic way, but she ultimately says “I know that, when I first got here, I expected things to be very simple, and for transformations to be very easy. I was wrong on both fronts.” Luz pauses to chuckle and sigh to herself, and then continues “I guess, just take it at your own pace. I’m glad Amity’s improving, but no one’s saying you have to make any sort of decision about this.”

From there, the conversation switches back to more comfortable topics, as Willow talks about school and her improvement with Gus, and Luz talks about some of her (mis)adventures with Eda and King (from which Willow gathers two things: that she should be worried about Boscha potentially targeting Luz, and that Luz knows a lot about the writing process). Luz even shows off her new ice glyph, which Willow finds very cool, pun totally intended. Once it’s time to depart, Willow gives Luz an extra warm hug and assures her that she is indeed a good friend, and then she heads off to train with Gus.

Inevitably, Willow’s mind is drawn back to the subject of Amity. Was she willing to admit that the green-haired-witch wasn’t a nightmare-spawn of evil? Maybe. Was she willing to admit that Amity was improving? Yes. Was she ready to forgive her?

...No. There was too much to sort through right now, too many bad memories and good (lukewarm? Willow was still unsure) revelations, too much confusion and hurt and fury-

So yeah, things were still confusing in the Mysterious Case of Amity Blight, and Willow had a feeling that answers weren’t going to come easily (especially with whatever has been going on with her dreams). But still, if Amity was willing to work on turning herself around, then Willow was willing to keep thinking about this too.

And the next time she and Amity encountered each other in the hallway, and Amity nodded to her again (the nods were getting less and less subtle, as if Amity was getting more and more comfortable with the idea of giving them), Willow graced her with a subtle nod of her own.

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Check it out on my ao3 for more info!

#toh #the owl house #willow #luz noceda #amity blight #gus #willow character study #lumity #but is very light rn #it'll appear more later #same as gus

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