Playing Favorites

Content warning: this fic references to child abuse in the form of emotional manipulation.

Amity was... in an alright mood when she got home that morning. She was tired, but she also kept thinking back to Luz and the Good Witch Azura book in her bag. She was excited to finally read the fifth part—it had been a while since the last one came out, and she'd been waiting for this one with bated breath after the cliffhanger ending in part four.

She thought about how Luz had made her laugh, and the stupid drawing she'd left in Amity's diary (it was on an otherwise blank page, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to tear it out before she'd hidden the diary in a safer spot).

Then she thought about how mean she'd been to Luz, and a squirming pit opened up in her stomach. Sure, Luz hadn't been great to her, either, but considering who she hung out with, it wasn't surprising that her opinion of Amity wasn't the greatest. And despite that, Luz had made an effort to form her own opinion, given Amity a chance, tried to befriend her... and had even lent her a book.

All of these thoughts kept running circles in her mind, and Amity focused on them as hard as she could so she didn't have to think about being home, or facing-

"Hey Mittens, we missed you at breakfast!"

As per usual, her siblings seemingly popped up out of nowhere the second she set foot inside Blight Manor. Sneaking up on people like that was a nasty habit of theirs, and they seemed to really enjoy scaring the crap out of Amity, something she didn't react well to even on a good day. Today was not a good day, and the gleeful grin on her sister's face was enough to bring back everything she'd tried so hard to forget all night.

Edric and Emira had found her diary. They'd read at least a part of it. They'd been planning to post it all over school, and if Luz hadn't stopped them, they would have.

"Get out of my sight," she growled, desperately trying to mask her sadness and shock with anger.

This wasn't the first time the twins had hurt her. They'd gone too far in the past, overstepped lines Amity would have thought visible from any distance. This most recent act had broken even those bounds. Her secret hideaway had always been her little safe place. The one place she felt comfortable, untouchable, and that she'd always considered completely private. That feeling was gone now, because she couldn't stop imagining them breaking in again, and thinking of the other embarrassing secrets they might find if they tried. The poorly sewn Azura costume she'd attempted to make last year. Her Otabin plushie, safely stowed away there because while her parents were right about her being too old for it, Amity wasn't quite ready to let go. The titan-forsaken pajama shirt she'd borrowed from W- when she was five and that she'd tried to discard a million times, but had never quite managed to.

"Did you have fun with Luz?" As per usual, her siblings ignored her wishes, and Edric was standing even closer to her than before. "She seemed very eager to get back to you."

Amity pushed her brother back. He flinched in pain, an act. She ignored him.

"Ed's right! I still can't believe she would ditch people as cool as us to hang out with our lame younger sister."

"You two are hilarious, truly," Amity hissed and attempted to rush past them.

Emira blocked her path.

"C'mon, you're not actually mad at us, right?"

"For your information, your 'fun' little idea of drawing into books almost got Luz and me sewed into a book by a monster version of Otabin." Her siblings exchanged a glance. Her brother looked at her in a way that would almost have seemed worried if it hadn't been Edric she was talking about. "And that's not even mentioning any of the other crap you pulled, or were planning to. So yes, you could say I'm a tiny bit pissed off! Now let me go to my room in peace. I don't want to see either of you for the rest of my life."