The walk back to the portal was a quiet one. It wasn’t that Amity didn’t have things to discuss with her children but she found not getting caught to be a higher priority at the moment. After all, Cluz wasn’t the only unexpected visitor to have seen the younger Amity’s fireball, or felt the older witch’s momentary loss of control over the energies inside of her. They were just lucky that the people of the Isles were slow to be concerned for others much of the time and that the emperor’s guard were even slower to doing their job, something Amity was still trying to fix in her time.

It wasn’t hard though. Between Amity’s stealth sigils and Cam’s assortment of potions they either simply slipped past anyone who stood in their way or made sure they wouldn’t wake up for a few hours, when all trace of the portal that had brought them would be gone. There was one more reason for them having gone slow though as all three of them were constantly watching Bright. It had started with Amity stopping to check on the young girl but her worry infected the other two. Her siblings didn’t even have a clue as to why she had run like their mother did, but that didn’t stop them from trying to make sure their sunspot felt safe.

Once they got to the portal, Dalia spent a moment imagining seeing everyone around her that were close enough to possibly disturb her before letting out a magical sonar pulse. She then nodded back to her mother who had spent a moment making sure that her familiar was with her in its entirety rather than having tried to make a break for her younger self again. Once she was satisfied, Amity reached to where the sigil she’d left on the portal was and peeled it off. Instantly, the portal back home came back to life.

Amity waited for her children to cross before passing through herself. Once on the other end she looked at the portal. “Kids, step back.”

Dalia’s eyes widened as she booked it away from her mother. Bright merely sat down, as she didn’t need to worry about any of her mother’s loose magic possibly hurting her since she was immune to fear magic. Cam, as he had been for a few years now, actually stepped closer as he scrambled for pen and paper. Once he’d finally found them after checking twenty of his pockets, he looked to Amity and said, “Ready.”

He could at least pretend to be scared. There were reasons why Amity left her casting to sigil cards or the ones that her abomination cast through its own energies. After all, much like Dalia feared would happen to her, the head of the Blights had so much magic that she didn’t cast ‘small’ spells.

She barely moved her finger to summon a circle aimed at the portal. Cam stared at it before pulling himself back. Siphoning magic apparently hadn’t found an emotional counter to itself so no sigil appeared within the circle. Instead, even Dalia got to enjoy as it looked like their mother was keeping things low key.

What they didn’t know was that she was simply absorbing the energy. Consuming the immense power that this rift had. The circle was simply a funnel to push the energy into her hand. The only one who caught onto this was Cam as he watched the woman’s fingers turning black. Then they began to bubble and her familiar rumbled under her feet.

That got him to be concerned as he came down to Bright and grabbed her by the shoulders. “We should back up.”

Bright frowned for a second but between Cam’s concern and how him showing worry about the spell made Dalia afraid, she couldn’t say no. The two ran to join their sister before looking back to their mother. The last dregs of the portal were disappearing as they all saw how violently her familiar was moving around her. It often got this was when Amity let her emotions run rampant or charged her magic but it was almost twice as tall as the woman now and three times as wide.

She then casually lifted her hand up and slowly made a circle that had intertwining beams of red and white together. Once the circle was made she lifted her other hand up and almost hummed to herself as she drew a light sigil and then a fire sigil within the circle. Then, with a tap of her staff, she finished the spell and looked to her children with a smile. “And that’s that.”

Bright was jumping excitedly next to Cam and Dalia, both of whom kept their eyes up towards the sky. They could catch the sparks hundreds of feet above them. They looked tiny from down her, like small stars that flitted in and out of existence. They then covered their ears before a kicking from Cam reminded Bright to do the same. After all-

BOOM!

A multicolored explosion ripped through the sky in a shower of sparks and fire. Only another second passed before two more went off, each larger than what the past Amity had managed to use against their mother. They were all too familiar with the show though. Luz called the spell fireworks and had worked many different versions of the spell with Amity for different colors and sizes of blasts to supposedly mimic what she had at home. It wasn’t until the two actually watched fireworks together though that they finally figured out how to get the spell working.

The pattern heavily featured white, red, and green in its streaks of light. It was the one Amity would cast when she returned home from an especially long trip for her job to let everyone else know that she was back, along with whoever she had taken with her. That was usually Bright seeing as she was homeschooled by Amity for the most part and so had the most freedom to go across the Isles when the Emperor’s Coven demanded it of her. It was enough to calm the three kids as they walked backwards down the path back home, even if they still had to cover their ears because of how massive the chain of explosions was and the thunderous roars that came with them.

Amity knew what she was doing though and by the time they got close the show had finally ended. She only hoped Bonesborough wasn’t on fire since she’d accidentally did that last time she decided to add a little oomph to the show. It felt right after tonight though. A celebration after so much stress. Stress that wasn’t done.

She turned to her kids before saying, “Cam, Dalia, head inside. I need to talk to Bright.”

The two younger siblings glanced at each other before Cam patted his older sister on the shoulder. “It’ll be okay.”

Dalia followed up quickly and pecked the short girl on the cheek. Anytime the youngest of them did that, Bright whined a little at the reminder that, in spite of being three years older than her sister, she was still the shortest of the kids. But she did smile as the shy girl whispered, “It’s good to have you back.”

Dalia then paused as she looked at Cam, who was stalling at the door himself. They both were looking back at Amity like they were asking if they could please stay out here until they all could go in. Unfortunately, they got their answer as Boscha’s rougher voice said through the door, “Come inside before I rip Hooty off of his hinges.”

Cam groaned before his eye twitched at the enchanted door lettng out a small bit of laughter. He had been born after his parents moved into the Owl House, in fact all of the kids had, but that didn’t make the stupid owl any easier to deal with. However, the aggravation was quickly replaced as he heard B say, “Three.”

Cam and Dalia looked at Bright and Amity before saying, “Good luck,” and racing inside.

Amity giggled a little as she watched the two disappear before wishing she wasn’t so emotionally vulnerable right now. Most days she was the serious woman that her younger self had fought. Imposing, strong, calm. There were cracks but she kept herself together. Nights like tonight were commonly what she lived for though. Nights where she got to really live with her family instead of having to hold herself just because she was so scared constantly.

But it also meant that it was next to impossible for her to get mad at anyone. She normally just got furious at herself for not having done something sooner. Or that if she said anything then they would run away. All of the thoughts that had been screaming in her mind the night she got her familiar. She was Bright’s mother though and, more importantly, what she had been focusing on when Amity glimpsed into her daughter’s brain.

So, as her familiar took the form of her wives who each gripped one of her shoulders to support her, she turned to Bright. She kept it simple though. A single whispered word. “Why?”

The girl looked down. Seventeen years old and this was the first time the two of them had had to talk like this. She was too sweet to purposefully cause trouble so usually there was a better understanding between her and her mothers. Even Boscha was usually fairly kind to her because she got that Bright had this weird instinct to help people. To be like Luz rather than Amity’s familiar. When she was younger it had let Luz be relieved that the night hadn’t caused any problems and she was ecstatic about how weird her child was going to be.

But then she tried going to school. And people looked at her like she was still some sort of monster. She would panic in crowds because her focus would be torn in all directions for who was worrying about what and what to do about it. Amity kept having to protect her when the two went on official business. Dalia wasn’t getting examined for whether or not Amity’s familiar had infected her too and was part of why she had such ridiculous magical ability and effectively knew any spell she could think of all because of the years people constantly hounded Bright about wanting her hair, or probing her brain while she watched someone panic. She was always having to be taken care of. Watched.

And they would keep smiling but she could see the cracks. The moments when her parents got tired and looked at her for what she was. A little monster whose existence had led to the one who had carried her to be irreversibly damaged. But she could also feel that same woman’s current fear that Bright would simply run away again without a word. That she wouldn’t know why her daughter was hurt.

So, with trembling hands, she finally signed, “I want to stop hurting you.”

Amity shook her head as she knelt down and held onto Bright like she had her younger self. “Bright, you of all people should know how painful life can be. How scary it can be. What we think of each other at our darkest,” her mind flashing to those moments of weakness and frustration she saw in her daughter’s head, “isn’t what we think of them. It’s when we’re calm that matters. If I still had those fears, whatever fears you’re seeing, when I travelled the roads with you, even if they were only in the back of my mind, then I would say you have reason to believe that. None of us have those though. We all came to help you after all. I had to hold back Luz and Boscha by convincing them that we’d only triple our chances to damage things if we all went and my abilities would make it easiest for me to find you all.”

Bright shuffled a little bit before glancing away. “But your normal is in pain. In pain because of me. I know it because that’s what you’re thinking when you shut your mind off from me. When you won’t let me feel your fears so I can’t try to help you with them.”

Amity shook her head as she shushed her daughter. “You should know that I can only muddle your sight, just as anyone can. If you wanted in, and I was afraid, you would see it. But you’re my light. The Bright glimmer that reminds me that my world isn’t just darkness. You know that.”

Bright only fidgeted more before holding her hands in front of her face. Her fingers quickly got to work to speak for her which made it hard to hide that she was crying. “But what about when I make darkness? When I’ve made Luz scream at people who look at me like I’m a freak? Or when you have to cast a spell because Grom is busy fighting other things and someone goes for me? And Boscha won’t even touch me most of the time because of how awful I am.”

Amity wished she could tell her daughter the reason for that last one. Boscha didn’t even touch the two children she was directly related to after all. But those were her ingrained fears. The things that Bright missed only because they had rooted themselves to an unconscious level in Boscha. At least, usually as both of them turned to see Boscha running from the house like she was going for her morning jog.

Amity’s eyes widened and Bright’s hair glowed enough to make her mother wince before the two looked at each other. Bright’s eyes were going crazy as her body shook. Luz, Boscha, and Amity were normally good at keeping their deeper stuff inside. The stuff that they knew affected how they were as parents. The stuff they could never quite let ago. The closest any of them had come to doing so took Luz corrupting a form of magic so badly that she broke half of the rules for it and had part of her mind ripped away from her in the process.

But that also meant they must have looked so strong. Like nothing really bothered them. That while they had their quirks, they were just them. And for a girl who thought she knew fear, developing those thoughts that tortured her parents… Amity let a trail of tears run down her cheeks before looking back to Bright. “Sunspot, we aren’t perfect. Our fears aren’t just in the moment or always the fault of whoever triggered us to freak out. I… I’ll see about getting Luz to talk to you sometimes about her thoughts. She had to go through some of what you’re thinking about when she was yonger. That who she was was to be hated. That she should be alone because of how weird she was. How much people didn’t like her. And… And I’ll try to open up sometime about why you running away like you did is one of the six most terrifying things I can imagine ever happening.”

Bright looked behind her to where Boscha had run into the treeline and moved like she obviously wanted to go after her. She then looked back at Amity and signed, “And Boscha? I only saw bruises. Will she tell me hers?”

Amity shook her head at the question. “I fear lots of things.” Grom made sure of that. But her familiar made sure she was never alone either, no matter how scared she got. “But I can talk about it. When we found out what haunted Boscha, well, it took us a while but all three of us agreed to just try and forget it. It’s not healthy but B isn’t always healthy about how she treats herself. None of us are. It’s part of being a person.”

Bright was quiet for almost a minute before moving her hands. “Can I sleep with you and I tonight?”

Amity nodded before she stood up. “I think I can manage that.” She then looked to the house and hoped that Luz was managing having to be the serious parent without Boscha there to support her. She was spent after all but that might have been for the best. This night could end so much faster if they all simply agreed to talk tomorrow.

======+++++======

Boscha slammed the door behind Cam and Dalia and got both of the girls to jump at the gesture. She was in her normal day clothes still despite how late it was which meant a tough girl t-shirt, shorts, and even a bit of make up, though the last part seemed rather faded. Luz had her arms crossed and a furrowed brow as she leaned back against one of the walls of the living room. She would have helped back Boscha up in presenting an intimidating air if not for the fact that it was past midnight, she had counseling work to do in the morning, and so still had her toothbrush in her mouth because she’d been too excited at them getting back to finish. That only made her glare all the harder when the two kids gave her a confused look.

Boscha smacked herself at seeing Luz trying to act all tough before she pointed to the middle of the room. “Stand there and we’ll start with what the fuck were you two thinking?”

Cam and Dalia glanced at each other as they paled. Supposedly, Boscha had used to curse constantly but she tried her best to not do so in front of the kids. It was where Cam got his improvisations. They knew when she cursed to listen and pay attention. It was almost comforting, especially for Dalia, as they had both been expecting this. How soft Amity had been comparatively had been bewildering.

Dalia fidgeted and glanced at Cam and the boy sighed as he accepted that he would have to take the lead. He was two years older than her after all and had inherited a bit more of Boscha’s backbone than his sister. His mind flashbacked to past Boscha and decided brevity would be best. “I know all too well how you all feel whenever one of us goes missing, especially without permission, and so sought to make you all not have to worry as we tried to make Bright not get in trouble.”

Luz hunched over as she stepped closer to them. Her night clothes made it extra hard for her to look intimidating as she wore a tank top with three otters on the front, baggy sleep pants, and mismatched slippers where one was a dog and the other was a cat. She was doing her best though as she said, “Ish ‘at a-”

Boscha yanked the toothbrush out of Luz’s mouth and sent the poor woman to the floor in a faceplant before the triclops threw the toothbrush into the fireplace. Luz let out a groan from the ground as her long hair covered her face but Bosha simply shook her head as slipped a hand through her hair, which had stayed mostly the same over the years. She looked good as a teen so why mess up perfection. “Is that all?”

Cam let out a slow breath, thankful that Luz gave them a chance to go deeper into it. “We could excuse our presence as transfer students, friends, strangers. No one would recognize us. At best, we’d have a passing familiarity to any of the students at Hexide and if we had to go seek out Eda and Lilith for help we could play to what we knew about them. We also know all of Bright’s haunts so we could be more efficient. So, when we weren’t trying to talk and get help from your past selves, we were checking those places to find her without you.”

Boscha paled a little as she shifted her weight to the side. “Why did you think you needed help if you know Bright so well?”

Luz actually helped as she pushed herself up. “You do remember how impossible it was to find my clone right? It took almost all of us looking at every nook and cranny I could think I would go to and still only found her by pure luck.”

Boscha glared at her wife. They were supposed to be on the same side. They had gone over this. Not specifically for tonight, but they had tried to make a plan for when the kids got home. Of course, Boscha had hoped she didn’t have to worry about her younger self. “How did trying to talk to us go?”

Dalia finally spoke up as she said, “A-Actually, it went fairly okay with me. If class hadn’t happened, I’d have been able to get Luz to help us a day before we convinced Amity or, uh,” Dalia’s face turned bright red before waving her hands in front of her face. “I-I was always going to fail trying to impress you back then though.”

Boscha frowned a little as Luz looked the one of them she technically wasn’t related to up and down. She then blinked a few times, looked over at Boscha and finally gave the angry woman a huge smirk. Boscha looked over, stared at that stupid face that she wished she still hated and then finally hissed out, “What?”

Luz grinned like the tired dumbass she was right now as she said, “You hit on your own daughter.”

Cam turned bright red before looking at Dalia. “What? You just said that you weren’t tough enough for her!” He got no answer from his sister though as she covered her face and wanted to die. The thought of having to tell her mom that she didn’t hit on her back was mortifying.

Boscha internally sighed in relief as she merely said, “Well, duh. I had good taste back then after all.”

Luz blinked a few times before she heard Cam ask, “Smelling salts?” The energetic woman nodded slowly before catching his potion vial without even looking at it. She then took a sniff at the same time that the potions master was waving it underneath his sister’s nose.

Both Luz and Dalia jumped as their brains got the restart before saying, “What?”

Boscha rolled her eyes. It was becoming obvious to her pretty quickly that nothing was going to get done tonight. Luz kept glancing at the kids and her eyes shined each time. They’d been away from the three for longer than this in the past when they had camp to go to or the like, but this was the first time they’d just tried vanishing on them. Boscha was even relieved at seeing them and she was theoretically getting used to it since she had to deal with everytime Cam was caught sneaking back towards Hexide to get work done.

So, with a defeated sigh, Boscha walked over and gave Dalia a side hug. “Sorry I put you through that. You get a month off mother daughter selfies, alright?”

Dalia turned bright red before mumbling, “I thought I was in trouble.”

Boscha raised her eyebrows at her before whispering, “You are. I just want the rest of the night to figure out what I can do that will scare you more than my past self did.”

Dalia turned white as a sheet while Luz came over. “Ah, you know she’s a big softie.” She then wrapped her arms tightly around the teenage girl. “Just like you are!”

Boscha just looked over as her daughter’s head steamed at the compliment. If it was anyone else, she’d punch them for being so tone deaf. Actually, she’d probably still try to render Luz’s arm useless with a love tap, but it was weird to think about someone hitting on Dalia. She was at the age for it to start happening and if she actually went to school instead of hiding in the forests around Hexide she probably would have someone ask her out pretty soon.

Boscha considered the idea for about five seconds before knowing that anyone who did was going to lose their spine if they hurt her little Blight. However, she had her troublemaker to deal with. She turned herself around and narrowed her eyes at Cam. “So, what about you?”

Cam sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Luz called me a creep because I was telling off some Lumity fans about giving you two a chance-”

He was cut off by both Boscha and Luz saying, “We didn’t until maybe a month before our wedding.” The rougher woman then flinched as Cam looked to the side. Why did jokes like that always make him annoyed? They were just being honest with him. What was wrong with that?

“Anyways. Amity got protective about me and told me to get to class hard enough that I would have sworn that A had taken a youth potion.”

Boscha nodded as she crossed her arms and prepared herself for what might come. It… It would be fine. She was ready for it. It would be okay. However, Luz noticed how her rough bride had broken into a cold sweat. So instead of leaving things to chance, Amity clapped her hands over Boscha’s ears. “Why don’t you give me a test run with it?”

Cam’s shoulders slumped a bit as he wondered what they expected to hear. For all of his nerves about past Boscha, there’d been a reason he knew how to behave with her. Everything he knew about her made it seem like she’d be happy with a lot of the choices he’d made as of late. Would even like his self imposed nickname. But there was no reason to really stall with questions about how back then he might actually get along with his mom. “She tried blowing me off but showing her my improved berserk potion convinced her that I wasn’t just some random person asking for help. Don’t worry though. I got the vial back without her being able to analyze it and her trying to act tough meant not asking too many questions if she was going to help some nobody.”

Boscha couldn’t have asked for better if you asked her. Dalia had a memory that would stick with her and maybe prepare her for dating and Cam had handled it like an adult it sounded like. The closest thing to a mistake she could think of was having had to use that dumb potion to get her to help. But that had also been the first potion that her and Cam had worked on together so it was oddly fitting? Just another moment to make it easier to use the potion during Grudgby matches.

She sighed as she thought to herself that she might just go easy on them? She then stepped over to Cam and wrapped an arm around him for a side hug. “Alright. We’ll talk tomorrow mo-”

He flinched. Why did he flinch? They were on bad terms nowadays but that shouldn’t make him flinch physically. She had done so much to avoid that. Boscha shut her eyes for a second as she moved her hand off of Cam’s arm. She was overreacting. He probably just fell or something. Him and Boscha had worked together after all.

Luz wasn’t about to let that be a probably though. Not when she knew how important it was for Boscha to know for a fact it wasn’t her. “Did you get hurt? Can I see it?”

Cam fidgeted a little as his eyes darted to Boscha before he nodded. After all, why would it be a big deal? He knew his mom didn’t like touching and it wasn’t her. He was ready to dismiss it but both Luz and Boscha’s eyes widened at the signs of hands twisting his arm. And those were bruises Luz knew all too well when her and Boscha got too rough in their screaming matches. Luz had been her best friend and rival back then.

This was Boscha’s son. He genuinely treated it as nothing though as he said, “I wrapped my arm around her neck to get a sleep potion close enough to her to make it effective and she made it clear how touchy she was.” He then even smirked a little to try and make sure they understood he didn’t mind. He had done his job after all. Maybe they’d even be better to him and Dalia knowing that he had been instrumental in getting them out without letting on too much about who they were.

Instead, Luz let go of him and rushed over to Boscha. The worried woman tried to say something but Boscha merely grabbed her shoulders and pushed her to the side. She then walked right past her son as she said, “I’m taking a lap.” The back door then slammed shut as all three of the people in the living room stared at where Boscha had been just a second ago.

Adalia managed to say something as she placed her hands on her brother’s shoulders. “I bet she’s just wanting some time to try and find the portal to get back at herself!”

Luz laughed nervously as she continued to look at the backdoor for a second before finally giving her son a tight hug. “I’ll talk to her, like I always do. I think it was really brave of you to take her though, even in the past.”

Brave shouldn’t need to have been the word there. But Cam tried not to show the pain as he hugged his mom back. “Eh, compared to B, she was nothing.”

Luz forced herself not to pale at the thought that crossed her mind for what could be compared but there was no reason to let it haunt her. The three of them had crossed the bridge of getting Boscha to even be willing to hold one of theirs kids a long time ago. She still was the one who could scare them but she never went too far. If she did…

Luz didn’t want to think about it but it made her pause long enough for Cam’s smile to fade before he turned away. “I’m heading to bed.”

Luz’s head snapped back to him before she shouted up the steps, “Do you want me to make cookies or anything? I doubt you had much sweet while you were over there!”

The answer came with a slam at the top of the stairs as Luz’s shoulders slumped. It was so much easier with Dalia and Bright. They understood when she got distracted or overly worried about some dumb, small thing. It wasn’t even a small thing for once, but it still made Cam so angry for some reason. Amity had even talked to her about needing to focus more on him and not just for when he needed help. And that was without going into all of the times that he made Luz’s brain spin from him trying to tell her whatever his new project was supposed to do.

Still, she thought as she straightened herself, she was Luz Noceda! She wasn’t about to let a door slamming on her to make her not get her son something sweet to take to bed.

She then turned around and smiled nervously at Dalia as the two looked at each other. She then sighed and said, “Sorry. Between Boscha and Cam I lose focus.” She then squatted some to look the girl in the eyes better. “ You didn’t bring up Amity though? How’d it go talking to her?”

Dalia blushed a bit as she glanced away. She’d have actually been happy to use the drama that had been permeating the house for the past year as a chance to slip away to her room. It wasn’t helped that she really didn’t want to have to admit losing focus on her abilities. “Oh, um, we talked. She took sympathy on me. Nothing too spec-” She stopped as Luz placed a finger on the girl’s lips before the energetic woman leaned in.

“So, what were you casting?”

Dalia’s shoulders dropped a bit before feeling the warmth from Luz’s smile. She sometimes wondered why she hadn’t been born to her. She, and the other two, ended up feeling their mother’s pressure on them more than whoever was just kind of their mom. Step mom? Aunt? That question was why the nickname system had been made. It was hard to make someone understand which mom you were talking about when it was a choice between three of them. A for Amity, B for Boscha, and I for idiot. Supposedly Luz had been tricked into agreeing to that one but Dalia didn’t mind. She liked the fact that Luz didn’t take things seriously. Gave her a chance to breathe that she never got under Boscha’s serious gaze and Amity’s desire for her to put her potential to use.

The fact that Luz smiled at the idea of her wanting to avoid talking about her magic was a reminder of all of that. “I was juggling fireballs while thinking about how much mom wants me to use magic more.”

Luz’s eyes shone for a second before smirking. “I guess there was another reason besides your looks that Boscha found you ‘hot’.” She then almost immediately clapped her hands over her ears because she knew that the girl was part bat. Not literally but she had been able to shriek like this even as a baby and none of them had any clue why. Fortunately, last gasps of a teenager who just wanted to die already before she faced any more of this didn’t stop said young girl from shaking her head no.

Luz finally did get her to stop by rubbing the top of her head. “Sorry. I guess it’s nice to finally have someone else who knows my pain because B made me a mess more times than I want to share. Did you know you can blush enough to light your hair on fire? I do!”

Dalia let out another, smaller squeak before opening one of her eyes. “Yeah, but you two were at least dating when she did that, right?”

Luz opened her mouth to disagree before for once thinking before she spoke. After all, telling Dalia that one of her moms had her sexuality on full blast from go with her was maybe not the best example to put forward. “Right. Totally right. Yeah, Boscha only gave a little teasing before then.” She then paused as Dalia stared at her with totally innocent eyes. She could just imagine Cam staring at her like she was an idiot for thinking that that would work but that wasn’t the case now. “Anyways, you said no to on the Grudgby field so where were you casting?”

Dalia sucked in her lips before she patted her legs a few times. She expected there was no way out of this though unless Amity saved her and she had no idea when Bright and her might be done. As such, she sighed and said, “Well, um, I was thinking about her because, well, we thought A had study hall in the library so I was, you know, waiting outside it…”

Luz blinked down a few times as images of fire sigil experiments gone wrong filled her mind. She then focused back on Dalia as she said, “Please tell me you didn’t burn the school down.”

The poor girl whimpered before saying, “No, but that’s because mom stopped me.” She then saw Luz open her mouth but even she could see where the energetic woman was going. “I mean A. Amity. Why didn’t you ask me this the first time I said it?”

Luz grinned at the girl before wrapping her arms around her. “Because I needed to make sure how tight I could make this for you letting yourself play like that!”

Dalia sighed contently while in Luz’s arms before both of them looked up as the door opened. Bright charged in and tackled her mother and sister. A small squeal left the human’s mouth as she managed to get an arm around her sunspot. Dalia then tried to get away but Luz didn’t let go as she said, “No. Punishment hugs!”

Amity sighed as she figured out that no, Luz had not done well at trying to be the serious parent after Boscha booked it. Then again, she assumed they might have pulled her out of bed since she was in her sleep clothes. However, she did like the thought of her love’s unique form of torture and one of her eyes glowed briefly. It was only a couple seconds later that Grom, in the form of Boscha, was marching Cam down the stairs. “What?”

Amity opened her arms to the boy as she said, “Your mom declared punishment hugs.”

Cam immediately chuckled at the concept before shaking his head as he raced down the stairs. It was totally just because he wanted to get this over with as quickly as he could so he could get back to his room. He totally didn’t need a hug after seeming to have hurt B. Amity didn’t linger on their hug though before turning him towards the other three so the two could join the hug pile.

Luz hummed with all of them around her before looking up. She missed this. Not just over the last few days but in general. It felt like someone always had an excuse or was gone so they couldn’t do a big family hug like this, awkward as it could be. “Okay Amity, time to chain us together until Boscha gets home.”

Dalia and Cam immediately leapt back before they could be stuck there. They liked the hug after all but they were still teenagers. Bright only nuzzled her mom and clung to her tighter, especially since she now had room to get comfortable in the hug. Amity even came away from her love as she said, “I think it’s a little late to force them to stay up for that.”

Luz frowned before being the one to open wide for a giant yawn. She hadn’t gotten much sleep since the kids had left but, unlike Boscha who had used the fact that it wasn’t Grudgby season to tell her coach to go fuck himself while she waited for her kids, she’d also kept going in for work. The witches of Hexide weren’t going to be endlessly optimistic without her! Her eyes couldn’t help but drift to where she’d last had her poor toothbrush before sighing. “Fine. But I’m making pancakes in the morning.”

Amity and Cam glanced at each other as they watched Luz’s exhaustion slowly begin consuming her and the poor human leaned harder against her small daughter to keep herself upright. They’d take care of the pancakes in the morning. Amity then moved over and gave Dalia and Cam one more hug before whispering, “Head on up. We’ll talk in the morning but,” she said with a smile, “I want to make sure you know how much it means to me that you would go so far for us. Not just Bright, but any of us.”

The two teenagers blushed at the compliment before hugging Amity together and saying goodnight. Bright was next after she got another affirmation that she was allowed to head to her and Luz’s room. Seventeen years old and still such a child. Finally, the emotional woman turned to see Luz staring at her wistfully. “I still wish I knew how you did that.”

Amity blushed at the words before wrapping her arms around her love. The two just stood there at first, close and tight as they both let the stress of having had none of them come home finally shed away. They were all back. All safe. That’s what mattered and Amity could feel Luz’s tears on the top of her head as she buried her face into her love’s neck to try and hide her tears. Right where she would have them fall everytime if she could help it. She was away too often though and she couldn’t always be simply forgiven for her to get over whatever made her sad.

Which reminded her why this had all happened. She slowly separated from Luz, even as the two kept a loose grip on the other’s sides. Amity blinked a few times as she tried and failed to clear her eyes before looking down. “Bright ran away from me. Because she thought I hated her. Because she thought I thought of her as a burden. That she was only making everyone’s lives worse. I… I should be the one who caught her thinking about that before now. I spend the most time with her. But, but, but I…”

A cold arm slipped around Amity before a trembling second one squeezed the scared woman. Boscha’s voice then whispered into her ear, “If that’s all it took, then this stuff would be easy. I would just need to spend more time with Cam, or Dalia, and maybe then I could hold them like this.”

Luz slipped around Amity to wrap her arms around both her and Boscha. The athlete was soaked in sweat which meant she must have not just been going full tilt physically, but also magically. Trying to destroy herself in the only way that wouldn’t get Amity and Luz furious at her. Not that it didn’t still make them scared as Amity turned around and now spent a moment nuzzling into the strong chest of her oldest friend. Of the one who got it more often than Luz. Who could ground her better when her mind couldn’t soar into the stars. “I know. I just wish I was around more so I could relax with them. So I didn’t have to lose it like this just to be able to talk to them like I want to.”

Neither Boscha or Luz decided to remind her of what a blubbering mess Amity often became if she was away for a week, let alone if she was even late to an awards ceremony or the like. The girl wasn’t nearly as much of a steel wall as she thought of herself as but they also knew the thought comforted her. It had when she was younger and that want to be in control of her emotions had only grown with time and trauma.

And that last, pleasant thought got Luz to vigorously scratch Amity’s head hard enough to make the emotional woman’s eyes spin. The human didn’t seem to really notice though as she said, “I mean, if them relaxing with you made you a good parent, I’d be parent of the year!”

Boscha took in a tight breath before lifting a fist up and going to bonk her idiot. Luz didn’t even flinch as she waited for the playful bonk but it never came. Instead, Boscha’s grip on Amity’s back simply tightened as she whispered, “Is it any wonder they keep seeming to come up with some new problem if we’re like this?”

Luz sighed before rubbing Boscha’s back. “I would argue that Odalia and Alador would say the exact same thing about you and Amity.”

Amity blushed a little as Boscha sighed, both thankful and hurt by the fact that Luz had remembered to mention those two as who to think of with her parents. Amity then stood straight and looked between the two as she said, “They’re safe, they’re fed, and they’re usually happy. I think if we can say we’re doing something right somehow, it’s that.”

Boscha smiled a little to herself as she remembered all the times she found Cam sleeping at his desk with a dozen papers scattered everywhere while she needed to turn off whatever he’d been working on before it burned. Luz smiled at the images of Dalia displaying galaxies from her imagination and looking as confident as either of her mothers as she described what ran through her mind. And Amity could only think of all the times her and Bright looked out from the carriage they rode on official business, both smiling as they played dumb games like I Spy and laughed at Uncle Steve whenever they lost him completely in their sign language.

After three nights of the three only being able to think of the worst, of all the reasons their kids may have run away, it was good for them all to spend a moment remembering that they normally were fine. Maybe even good. If they let themselves not be dominated by their fears. But the night had stretched on long enough and they all needed sleep. They still made the time to say goodnight one more time as Boscha gave her son a peck on the head but said nothing more as she left him to his work, Amity told her prodigy that she hoped she didn’t push herself too hard and got the rest she needed, and Luz bounced onto the bed hard enough to pop Bright up. The sunspot’s laugh was the last thing to fill the house before they all laid down and let the darkness come.

Time had to keep going after all and what mattered was that they were together once again.

======+++++======

Amity groaned as she struggled to lift her book bag high enough to get it onto her desk. Pretending she was okay over the past couple days had been exhausting. Luckily, most people were willing to just let her sleep once they found out that she’d gone almost three nights without sleep but they weren’t letting her get away with it more and more. Fortunately, she did seem to be recovering but whatever she had done that night had left her fried.

Or, most specifically, her arms and her stamina felt like they were dead. She could barely run for more than five minutes before feeling like her chest might explode and spells had been having a similar effect for some reason. Her arms had been numb for the first day after she’d fought… herself. It was still weird to think about but no matter what excuses she gave herself, she couldn’t forget that face. Couldn’t dismiss it as anyone else.

In fact, there was a lot from that night she couldn’t dismiss. Well, scratch that. She could easily dismiss both Dalia and Cam. After all, they reminded her a little too much of two certain people and even if she’d met a version of herself who was in her thirties, and they couldn’t have been older than eighteen, and she had scolded them like a mom-

What the fuck did that goo did to her? Fortunately, the three of them did feel like they were fading from her memory. She supposed it was what she had done that she couldn’t forget. Getting so angry. Casting spells more powerful than almost any she’d seen. That black goo that had covered one of her hands when she casted. In fact, that arm in general felt better than the other one.

What spells she had cast was harder though. She’d been so focused at the time on what she wanted them to do that she was casting anything she could. That hadn’t seemed to be so hard for her harder self. Amity paused briefly as she thought about how controlled Cluz was before dismissing it. Cluz couldn’t use the simplest levels of magic, let alone have a familiar that large.

Her eyes glanced to her side where her familiar was waddling around. He had been skittish the first day after she’d been debugged and she wished she could do something to calm him down. Something to make him feel like she wasn’t going to just throw him away. There was always the Everlasting Oath but to say that was dangerous to do with an abomination, let alone familiar, was an understatement. Still…

She shook her head to clear it. She had others to think about. Amity slowly pulled the heaviest of the books she’d checked out of the library and dropped it onto the table. She didn’t want to get through any of her books, even if she ended up staying up all night studying it. Hopefully it helped her mind stop buzzing. She then looked at her highlighter and groaned. She had hated math already let alone hours of note taking.

And then she heard a wet smack against paper. Amity looked down and saw her familiar smear some abomination good across the page before seeming to focus for a second before pulling away and leaving no excess. It was an almost perfect solution if the abomination could keep up with her. Or, she’d accept half as fast if it meant not moving her arms. “You know you’re the best, right?”

She just got a gooey smile back from it before it moved and turned the page for her.

Amity giggled for a second before whispering, “Love you,” and placing her hands in her lap. Amity didn’t notice something she kept doing as she read the book. Her hands flick left, right, down left, down right, and then adding a head to the top. Over and over again, unconsciously. She wanted to focus on her book though.

After all, she could only figure out one possibility for what had infected her and her older self and she wasn’t interested. She had a familiar so Grom would just be redundant. She just needed to know about him for if she ever had to deal with him, or her older self.