Chapter Text
“Are you ready?” Luz asked her group of friends standing in front of her. Amity’s next to her, holding her hand, Willow and Hunter are holding hands to their left, and Gus is standing to their right.
“It’s not like we haven’t seen it, we toured it last month,” Gus pointed out.
“Yeah, but it’s still exciting,” Willow pointed out.
“Open the door!” Hunter said excitedly.
Luz put the key in the lock to the door of the apartment the HexSquad is sharing for their junior year of college. Over the summer they had all agreed that none of them wanted to live in the dorms any longer, so the group of five decided to rent a three bedroom apartment off-campus to have a much more enjoyable year.
The five entered their new apartment, the families of all the kids in tow. Camila, Ed, Em, Willow’s dads, Gus’s dad, and Darius (it turns out he’s Hunter’s uncle and life-long father figure when his dad passed away. Small world, huh) all came to help the group move in. They have quite a lot of things to move in and need all the help they can get.
The entire time the group is moving their belongings in, Luz felt the weight of the ring box with Amity’s promise ring in her pocket. She spent all summer picking out the perfect ring for Amity. The one that she ended up going with is a pretty gold band with a small, moon shaped blue sandstone gem. Luz picked blue sandstone because it looks a lot like a starry night. It’s beautiful, and she really hopes Amity loves it as much as she does. She’s decided she’s going to give it to her after their families leave tonight and they’re settled in. Well, as settled in as they can be on their first night in a new place.
Needless to say, Luz is a huge ball of anxiety. She has been for days, but today has been especially bad. Both Amity and Camila can tell.
Amity’s been giving her funny looks and asking her if she’s okay all day. Luz has been insisting she’s fine and that she’s just stressed about the school year starting soon, but she can tell Amity isn’t buying it.
Camila, however, isn’t letting it go. She at one point pulled Luz off to the side and asked, “Mija, what’s wrong? You don’t seem like yourself.”
“I’m just nervous,” Luz admitted. She hasn’t told her mom about her plans yet, but now seems like a good of a time as ever.
“About what?” She asked.
“Well,” Luz started, taking a breath. “I got Amity a promise ring, and I plan on giving it to her today, and I’m just nervous.”
“Have you talked to her about it?” Camila asked.
“Kind of?” Luz replied.
“Kind of?” Camila echoed.
“I’ve talked to her about the future and stuff, but not specifically the promise ring,” Luz explained.
From across the room, Alador and Amity called for the two of them to help move a piece of furniture. Camila quickly turns to Luz and says, “No matter what happens, everything is going to be okay.” She gave Luz a quick hug and kiss on the forehead, then turned to go help Alador and Amity.
“I’ll be there in a second!” Luz called to them, distracted.
Not really gaining more confidence from her mom, Luz knows who she needs to talk to. While Amity is busy helping her dad and Camila, Luz grabs Willow’s arm and drags her into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind them.
“I can’t do it!” Luz exclaimed, throwing her hands up in air.
“Do what?” Willow asked, playing dumb. She’s singlehandedly been dealing with Luz’s anxiety about the promise ring all summer, since Luz has refused to tell anyone else about her plans for fear of it getting back to Amity. As excited as she is for Luz to finally give it to Amity, she just wants it to be over.
“Give Amity this!” Luz whisper yelled, pulling the blue velvet ring box out of her pocket.
“Okay, I’m done with this,” Willow walked towards Luz. “All summer you’ve been freaking out about this. You know Amity wants a future with you. You know she’s going to love the ring-“
“But what if-“ Luz started.
“Listen,” Willow cut her off. “You know that this is going to go well. You just need to get out of your own head. If I can get married in a church of Elvis in Vegas while I’m still in college, you can give your girlfriend a promise ring.”
Luz thought back to Willow and Hunter’s wedding. Well, what she could remember of it. They whole group got fake ID’s over the summer and took a weekend trip to Vegas to test them out. They worked. Oh, how they worked. They got drunk as shit on the strip and gambled away more money then they care to admit. After almost getting kicked out of a casino for being too rowdy, they somehow ended up at an Elvis church with a short and pudgy Elvis impersonator doing an absolutely dreadful impression marrying Hunter and Willow. They woke up the next morning to a marriage certificate in their hotel room and decided to just go with it instead of waiting and spending thousands of dollars on a huge wedding that’s just going to stress them both out anyway. Their families thought they planned to elope during the weekend. As much as they swore they didn’t, they’re pretty sure no one believes them. Hunter pointed out that they didn’t even have wedding bands at the time (they went and bought them after coming home), but Daruis insists they didn’t get rings so no one would think that they planned on getting married on the trip, but it didn’t work, because they all think they planned it. Darius, as Luz has learned, has a very large ego and it’s not easy to change his mind. She’s just glad he likes Luz, because he might be her future father-in-law since him and Alador started dating after the divorce. Which, in a way, makes Amity and Hunter family, which is just a little weird. Luz tries not to think about it.
“You were drunk,” Luz pointed out, coming out of her mind and back to the conversation at hand. “Are you saying I should get drunk? Maybe I should get drunk.”
“You don’t need to get drunk,” Willow shook Luz’s shoulders slightly, bringing her the rest of the way back to reality. “Once our families all go home, just bring her into your room and tell her how much you love her and want to spend the future with her and give her the ring.”
“You’re right,” Luz agreed. “You’re right.”
“You just have to do it,” Willow said.
“I just have to do it,” Luz repeated.
“You got this,” Willow said, and Luz nodded. “Say it. You got this.”
“I got this,” Luz said unconvincingly.
“Again,” Willow insisted.
“I got this,” Luz said, a little louder this time.
“One more time,” Willow smiled.
“I got this!” Luz exclaimed.
“Yeah, you do!” Willow agreed.
They hugged and walked back out to the rest of the apartment to help finish unpacking.
After their families left, the HexSquad all flopped down on their couch to watch a movie and enjoy their new apartment.
“This is so much better than all squeezing into a tiny dorm room,” Gus pointed out.
“It really is,” Willow agreed, nuzzling her head into Hunter’s chest.
Amity yawned.
“Are you tired?” Luz asked her girlfriend, only loud enough for the two of them to hear.
“Yeah, kind of,” Amity said with a sleepy voice.
“Do you want to go to bed?” Luz asked.
“Sure,” Amity smiled.
“We’re going to bed,” Luz announced, grabbing Amity’s hand and guiding her to their room.
Once they got there, Amity started changing into pajamas and said, “I am so excited to sleep in the same bed every night again.”
“Yeah?” Luz asked, a smile on her face.
“Yeah,” Amity replied. “I have a hard time sleeping alone now.”
“Me too,” Luz agreed.
“I just love rolling over and feeling you there and knowing you’re safe,” Amity smiled. Luz crossed the room to kiss her girlfriend. They both smiled.
“Aren’t you going to change?” Amity asked, gesturing to the clothes Luz is wearing that she’s had on all day. “That doesn’t look comfortable to sleep in.”
“Uh, yeah, in a minute,” Luz said, slipping her hand into her pocket and wrapping her fingers around the ring box, slowly pulling it out of her pocket. “I have something I want to give you first.”
“Baby, you didn’t need to get me anything,” Amity pointed out.
“I know, but I wanted to,” Luz smiled nervously, bringing the ring box out into the open. Amity gasped.
“Luz, you better not be-“ Amity started.
“I’m not, I’m not, I promise,” Luz assured. She opened the box. She thought about getting down on one knee, but this isn’t a proposal, so she decided against it. “Amity Blight, I love you so so much. And I want to promise I’m going to spend my future with you. This isn’t a proposal, I know neither of us are ready for that yet. It’s a promise ring. I do want to promise myself to you. I want you to know that no matter what, I will be here for you. I want you to know that no matter what, you are loved.”
Amity’s eyes watered as she smiled. She took Luz’s face in her hands and pulled her into a passionate kiss. When they pulled away, they’re both smiling.
“So is that a yes?” Luz asked.
“Yes, definitely!” Amity exclaimed. Luz grinned even wider and opened the ring box to show Amity the ring.
“Do you like it?” She asked.
“I love it,” Amity replied, a grin even larger than Luz’s on her face. Luz took the ring out of the box and slipped it onto Amity’s ring finger.
They heard talking and shushing from the hallway, and Luz walked over and pulled the door open. Willow, Hunter and Gus all looked at Amity and Luz with shocked and embarrassed looks on their faces.
“Congratulations?” Gus said hesitantly.
“Willow told you?” Luz laughed, rolling her eyes.
“Yeah,” Both boys admitted.
“Do you love the ring?” Willow asked Amity, who had walked up to stand next to Luz.
“I love it so much,” Amity smiled. “It’s so beautiful.”
“See, I told you,” Willow said to Luz, shoving her in the arm.
“Yeah, yeah, you were right and I was wrong, as always,” Luz rolled her eyes. Willow laughed in response.
After a few more minutes of conversation, the group decided to head to bed. Luz and Amity got settled into bed, cuddled up close together, almost like they’re trying to make up for all the time they didn’t get to share a bed over the summer. Amity spent the rest of the time until she fell asleep admiring her new promise ring.
The next day is Luz’s first day back at work after being away all summer. Raine decided she needed a training day, despite the fact this will be Luz’s third year working at the coffee shop. Amity’s the one “training” her, though, so it’s all okay.
When the girls walked in the next day, hand in hand, Raine and Eda are behind the counter, and King, Hooty and Lilith are sitting at a table. The chalkboard next to the menu says “Welcome back, Luz!” in big, block lettering.
“What’s all this?” Luz asked.
“We’re all just excited you’re finally back!” King said, running across the room and enveloping Luz in a hug.
“I was only gone like two months,” Luz laughed.
“It was closer to three!” Hooty exclaimed, hugging both her and King. Luz laughed and wrapped her arms around the boys. Lilith, Raine, and Eda all ran and joined in, and Amity ended up getting crushed into the hug as well, not that Luz thinks she’d mind.
Once they all pulled away, Eda ruffled Luz’s hair and said, “Welcome back, kid.”
“We missed you,” Lilith added.
“I missed you guys, too,” Luz replied, happy she’s getting to see her second family again after a couple months. She didn’t get a chance to come and see them this summer, which she hated, but she’s glad to be back.
“Is that what I think it is?” Raine asked, pointing to Amity’s ring. Amity held up her hand and everyone turned their attention to it, various looks of shock and excitement on their faces. “You didn’t have that last time you worked.”
“It’s a promise ring,” Amity smiled proudly. “Luz gave it to me last night.”
“It’s beautiful,” Lilith smiled, grabbing Amity’s hand to get a closer look.
“How did you give it to her?” Hooty asked Luz, a huge smile on his face and as close as a person can get to having stars in their eyes.
“When we were getting ready for bed last night I just pulled it out of my pocket and told her I want to promise to spend our futures together and to always love her,” Luz explained, and there was a chorus of “awwwws” from everyone in the room.
Suddenly, a group of teenagers walked in, talking and laughing, and they walked up to the counter.
“Alright, let’s get to work,” Luz said, grabbing Amity’s hand and pulling her behind the counter.
Luz clocked in a put an apron on, running to the register to take the kids’ orders. Amity jumped in at the bar to make their drinks.
After they helped the teenagers, they worked their way through a mini rush. Once they got through all the customers and got them their drinks, they took a few minutes to talk and clean up.
“Good to be back?” Amity asked.
“Yeah, it kind of is,” Luz replied. “I missed the rush. And I missed getting to work next to my favorite person.”
“Really?” Amity asked.
“Really,” Luz smiled.
After a few minutes of cleaning in comfortable silence, Amity said “Isn’t it so weird that we met here?”
“What do you mean?” Luz asked.
“Like, this place had such a huge impact on our lives. When we met, you were just a barista to me and I was just a customer to you, and now we’re so much more.”
“You’re everything to me,” Luz replied matter-of-factly.
“And you’re everything to me,” Amity smiled, putting her hand on top of Luz’s on the bar. Luz smiled back.
“No matter where we end up, this place will always be special,” Luz said, looking around the coffee shop, then at her beautiful girlfriend. She turned to Amity and wrapped her hands around her waist, turning her towards her. Amity put her hands on her face and holds it on her hands, pulling her towards her. The girls shared a sweet kiss then rested their foreheads together, their eyes closed.
“I love you, Luz Noceda,” Amity said. “More than anything in this world.”
“I love you, too, Amity Blight,” Luz smiled. “More than anything in this world.”