It Started With a Spinny

Time to Cry

Vee is laying on the sofa, one arm extended with the tv remote, flicking channels with a periodic:

Phlick.

"-for just twenty easy payments of 99.99 plus postage and handling and processing and-"

Phlick.

"-thought he was safe, he thought dropbears were nocturnal, but little did he know-"

Phlick.

"-turning the frogs gay, and now the gay frogs are marching their frog robots-"

Phlick.

"-you lied to me!"

She flinches.

"But Rebecca, I can explain!"

"Oh?! You can explain how you've been lying to me and my sister and my mother and-"

Phlick.

"-slithering, secretive, seductive and scary, the serpent has claimed a prominent place in our literature, art and even our religion. Join me on the journey of how the legendary basilisk went from frightening snake to a metaphor for pure evi-"

Phssss - the tv winks off, leaving Vee staring at her own reflection on the sofa, from her pudgy tail all the way to her tear stained face. Her rounded muzzle creases as she sneers at the serpent, the monster, the metaphor for pure evil.

At herself.

She drops the remote as she brings her tail up to her body, holds it tight, and cries again.

"Luz!" Amity cries from the doorway, rushing around to the front of the sofa to see Luz laying there, hugging her knees to her chest, looking up with eyes red from crying.

Her voice is hoarse: "Luz isn't here right now."

"Oh Luz!" Amity drops the basket she'd been holding and rushes to the sofa, moving Luz's unresisting legs and then laying down before her and pulling her into a hug!

She's staring over Amity's shoulder at her own reflection, at Luz's reflection, being held by her wonderful girlfriend! Her eyes water, the hazel colour visibly lightening. "Amity, I'm, I-"

"Shhhh," Amity soothes, stroking her hair, holding her close, "everything will be okay Luz!"

Her brown hands grip Amity's back, claws digging into the denim. She's so low on magic; if she lets herself cry, she'll change!

She makes herself take a deep, shaking breath against Amity's shoulder, and another, each breath pushing down the tears and the heavy ache below her hearts. Her claws shrink, her eyes becoming hazel again. Becoming Luz again.

Amity lifts her chin to look up into her pleading golden eyes. "Luz, please talk to me!"

She smiles awkwardly, her voice squeaking: "What, what do you want to talk about?"

Amity's eyes are as pained as her voice: "About what's wrong Luz! I've tried giving you space, but that isn't helping because there's clearly something wrong and you're clearly not okay!"

She feels the tears as a pressure rising from her chest, ready to burst if she lets go for even a moment. She holds it back with deep breathes, speaks carefully to avoid breaking completely. "I'm fine, really, I'm-"

"Luz!" Amity looks exasperated. "Luz you're not fine, you're clearly not fine! I was already worried when I thought you were sending me all these messages from school, but here you are curled up on the sofa and-"

"Messages?"

"These meams: the little captioned pictures I still don't - here!" She reaches for her back pocket, brings up the violet second hand phone Camila had given her. She taps and swipes with her thumb before turning the screen around accusingly: "These!"

She tries to blink her eyes clear, sees the flurry of sent memes. She reaches out a brown finger, flinches at the shadow of scales, takes a steadying breath to hide them before she starts scrolling down, narrating under her breath:

"Hello There

I Baked You a Hug But I Ated It

Baby Yoda is Glad You Exist

No Talk Only Memes!

Shut Up And Take My Hugs!

I Brought You a Shiny Please Respond"

She looks up, "I guess she - I, missed you today?"

Amity blinks, "Luz you sent me nineteen meams today!" Her phone vibrates and she turns it to see, "Twenty! That one must have been delayed, but twenty meams, just to let me know you missed me?!"

She looks down guiltily, or tries to, Amity dropping her phone between them and grabbing her shoulders, "And now I come over to prepare a picnic for when you get home so you can talk to me and you're-"

"A picnic? Is that what the basket was for?"

"I, yes I found it a the clubhouse and-"

"A picnic where?"

"At the hill in the forest you showed me, where you go to think."

"Oh that'd be really ni-"

"LUZ!"

She flinches, and Amity recoils, hurt filling her eyes: "I'm, I'm sorry, I, I just-"

"Found me here on the sofa crying my eyes out and apparently sending you memes all day instead of just coming and talking to you?"

"... Yeah Luz!"

She nods morosely, "That doesn't make much sense does it."

Amity holds her shoulders: "It makes perfect sense! You've been avoiding talking to me since we got back from the Boiling Isles and it's only getting worse!"

She shrugs, "What do you want me to say?"

Amity grips her shoulders as if she's about to shake: "Luz just talk to me! Tell me what's wrong! I thought it was me, that I was going too fast, but it's clearly more than that! It's about," she takes a deep breath, "it's about what you're not talking about, isn't it? About what happened to you in the Boiling Isles?"

Her eyes widen. The dark and frigid cell, chain bars on the front and back, no corner to hide in so she's curled into a ball as - she shakes her head frantically, feels the pressure of tears rising again, closing her eyes tightly and feeling them change back to cyan with gold irises. No no not yet!

Amity places a steadying hand on her cheek. "It's okay, I'm sorry, it's okay, just breathe!"

She can't breathe! If she breathes she'll break!

"Just breathe Luz! Please!"

She can hear the begging tone in Amity's voice, feel her hand shaking. She has to say something, anything!

"I'm sorry?"

"Luz no I'm sorry I shouldn't have pushed I-"

"No you were right I'm not talking to you because I can't! Because if I tell you the truth you'll hate me and-" her hearts skip a beat, "that's it."

She opes her hazel eyes, sees Amity holding her cheek, staring at her, so much worried love in her eyes that she absolutely does not deserve. That Luz feels she does not deserve. "That's it!"

Amity's hand is still shaking, "Luz please, you're scaring me!"

She blinks, brings up her brown hands to hold Amity's between the two of them, squeezing reassuringly. "It's okay, I know what to say now."

Amity sniffs, "You do?"

She nods. But Luz has to be the one to tell her. The real Luz this time.