Forget the Past, Stay With the Present
Finally, it's done ☠️ This took way longer than I said it would, but I wanted it to be good, so I let it cook more.
This fic is a whopping 2,925 words ☠️, which is most likely too long for this type of thing, but what's done is done.
This is a tickle fic, so if that isn't your jam you probably shouldn't read this. Anyways, enjoy :)
*Sigh*
The low hum of endless small talk could be heard throughout the Owl House as Luz opened the door to her room. It was only a few weeks after the defeat of Belos, and everyone was currently working together to rebuild the Boiling Isles.
It was safe to say that after everything she has been through, Luz was exhausted inside and out. Normally, when she was this tired, Luz would flop face first onto her new bed and pass out.
But today she couldn’t bring herself to.
Luz felt cold. Like she wasn’t fully present in her warm blooded body, and was just watching herself from behind.
Watching herself pretend she was happy.
Like nothing was affecting her.
Like she did everything perfectly.
Everything seemed dark around her, reflecting her feelings of emptiness and regret. Not everything went perfectly after all.
King’s dad died. Eda lost her arm. So many buildings were destroyed all over the place. All Luz could think about was how she could have stopped it. Whether she avoided showing Philip the light spell or didn't try to fight Belos alone; if she did things differently maybe things could have been better.
“I mean, I almost got petrified for crying out loud.”
“Luz!”
“If Belos decided not to spare me, I wouldn’t have been able to save anyone at all.”
“Luz!”
“Maybe if the Titan chose someone else to show the glyphs to, he wouldn’t-”
“LUZ!”
“WEH!?”
Luz looked towards her bed in shock; upon it sat a very concerned Amity Blight.
Ah. Right, she told her to wait for her in her room while she finished helping Eda resort her junk in their newly refurbished home. And now her hermosa just saw her stare at nothing for at least a good two minutes.
“Great job Luzer. Now your girlfriend is going to think you are out of your mind.”
Over on the bed, the last thing Amity cared about was if Luz had a few screws loose(which of course she didn’t, Luz was one of the brightest people she ever met, in more ways than one).
She just was worried that her batata was not okay.
That she was hurting inside just like before, and hiding it despite how much Amity has begged her not to.
“Luz what's wrong? Why are you just standing over there?”
Luz looked into Amity’s eyes. Amity looked just as concerned as she did countless times before when Luz did stupid and/or reckless things. She had the same expression from when Luz told her about her dad being dead.
Luz opened her mouth and tried to morph her own expression to something more palatable, but then Amity’s eyebrows furrowed. Luz deflated and looked away, her resolve to try to fake happiness sliced down to nothing by her carino’s gaze.
Amity was relieved that Luz didn’t attempt to lie straight to her face again, since she would have become very aggravated if she did. Both with Luz for refusing to be vulnerable with her, and for Luz since she just wanted to help her heal.
Amity decided a while back that she would not let anyone hurt the heart she wants to love and protect anymore, not even its owner. She knows Luz has a habit of blaming herself for problems she didn’t cause and oftentimes fixed, and she needed to find a way to show her the truth. She was going to help Luz, even if her batata didn’t think she was worth the care.
“Could you come here please?”
Luz still wouldn’t look at her, but Amity could see that her frown grew at that.
This just made Amity’s heart ache even more for her light. She knew that Luz was probably feeling guilty for worrying her, so she decided to try speaking in a more lighthearted tone and joking around to coax her over.
“*sigh* Oh woe is me! I have no one to cuddle with! If this is not fixed soon, I will end up snuggle deficient and depressed!”
Amity saw Luz’s expression shift a bit to one of curiosity. The abomination master smiled at that, then fell backwards onto the bed and put an arm over her eyes.
“What will become of me now? Am I destined to be lonely forever? Oh, if only someone would come to my aid!”
Luz rolled her eyes, a small smile forcing its way onto her face. Her girlfriend could be so dramatic at times, but she loved that about her, just like she adored every other aspect of her cotton candy haired goddess.
Amity peeked out discreetly from under her arm. Her smile grew when she realized her plan was working. Amity kept her eyes covered and rolled around a bit.
“I’m fading away! I’m doomed!”
Luz started giggling at that, her girlfriend’s goofy antics being too extra to ignore.
Amity beamed beneath her arm. She missed Luz’s laugh so much.
“Wait, was that a giggle I heard?! I’m saved! Please dear hero, come over here and help me. I can’t bear to be alone anymore!”
Luz sighed and giggled a bit more.
After she heard footsteps come her way, Amity moved her arm so that she could get a good look at her girlfriend. Luz was smiling, and though it was definitely not the brightest one she’s worn, it was a start. Amity sat up and grabbed Luz’s hands.
“Thank you for coming over, I feel so much better now.”
Luz frowned again, causing her girlfriend to do the same. No matter what happened, she couldn’t seem to shake the negative thoughts from her mind.
Amity suddenly pulled Luz straight onto her lap, causing her to let out a squeak and put her hands on the bed to keep herself from knocking them both over.
“Sweet potato what-!?”
“Shhh, relax batata.”
Amity hugged her Luz close.
“You know you can tell me anything right? You promised me no more hiding, and I just want you to feel safe.”
Luz bit her lip as her eyes watered slightly. She remembered her promise.
As tears welled up in her eyes, Luz shifted so that her legs were crossed around Amity on the bed and hugged her back. She was only wearing socks, so she didn’t have to worry about getting the bed dirty.
“I know, I didn’t forget mi amor. It’s just hard, ya know?”
Amity grimaced and hugged Luz tighter.
“I know baby, and you can take all the time you need. What’s most important is that you ask for help when you need it ok? You are always worth it to me, no matter what you think.”
Tears came to Luz’s eyes and she sniffled a bit. Amity always knew how to make her feel loved.
“O-Ok, I think I can talk about it now.”
Amity pulled back to look into Luz’s eyes and waited expectantly.
Luz sighed and tightly gripped the edges of her shorts with her hands as she pulled herself together. She needed to be fully honest about this.
“I just can’t seem to stop thinking about how I could have done everything better. I didn’t have to show Philip the light spell, but I did. I didn’t have to fight Belos alone, but I did. And if I was just a little bit faster when I saved the Collector, I wouldn’t have died. Maybe the titan could have been saved.”
Although she let Luz speak without interruption, Amity desperately wanted to cut her off once she brought up the Collector. When Amity first heard that Luz died she was heart broken, and she didn’t want to think about it again.
However, if her batata needed to, she would let her talk about it forever.
“Luz, you did the best you could, and no one could ask for more than that. If you hadn’t fought Belos, everyone would have been dead. When you gave him the light spell, you did thinking you were being kind to someone who was not evil. It is not your fault he took advantage of your kindness. Even if you didn’t give it to him, he would have found it anyway. Nothing could have prevented the Day of Unity from occurring, but you kept it from completion.”
“But-”
“I’m not done yet.”
Amity cupped Luz’s face with one hand, while she used her other arm to keep Luz secure in her lap. She directed Luz’s gaze to her own, driven by a need to have Luz understand just how serious she was about this.
“From what you said when you told us about meeting the Titan, he was already dying before you he talked to you. Luz, I would never want you to die, and I was beyond upset when I found out you did, but there is nothing we could do to change the past. You are alive now, and you are still with us in a peaceful world. No one can ask for more than that, and no one would.”
Amity pecked Luz on the lips and then leaned her forehead against hers.
“We love you Luz. I love you. You did an amazing job, and everyone will always appreciate you for that.”
“*Sniff* You mean that?”
Luz started crying once Amity finished, not able to hold back any longer. This had been bothering her for so long, and hearing Amity say all that took a huge load off of her heart.
Amity gave Luz a soft smile.
“Always and forever, mi dulce batata. Now let it all out, I’m here for you.”
Luz cried for a bit, and Amity kept their foreheads together as she wiped away her tears and ran her hand up and down her back. This was a long time coming, and Amity was happy that Luz was opening up to her and showing her how she felt. Eventually, Luz stopped crying, and they looked into each other's eyes as Amity did her best to comfort her.
Suddenly, Luz had a shaky grin on her face. Amity continued looking into her eyes, expecting Luz to pull out a dumb joke to try to make them both feel better, but it never came.
That means there was a different cause for the goofy grin.
Amity turned her head to see where she placed her hand, and found that it had ended up curled around Luz’s knee. Curiously, she gave it a gentle squeeze, then quickly looked back up to gauge her batata’s reaction.
“EHEHEHE!”
Luz’s expression quickly turned from a sad one to one of shock. She didn’t remember her knees being so sensitive.
Amity smiled in surprise at her girlfriend’s adorable outburst, which quickly turned into smirking as a plan developed in her mind. It had been far too long since she heard her precious light laugh freely, plus she was still pretty upset that she had almost lost her favorite person forever. Amity wanted revenge for her heartache, and to see Luz truly happy again, so what better to do than to kill two birds with one stone by tickling a smile onto her face!
Amity already knew that Luz liked being tickled from the tickle fights they had after becoming girlfriends, so she wasn’t worried about upsetting her. She would definitely stop if asked, but she had a feeling Luz wouldn’t want her to.
“My, my, batata, I knew you were ticklish, but not that ticklish! Maybe humans are more sensitive than I thought~”
Luz blushed a bright red once again as she gripped onto Amity’s wrists.
“Well I didn’t know I was that bad there either! I- EEK! HEHEHEY!”
Amity squeezed Luz’s knees again. She had an insufferable smirk on her face as she began to tickle all over Luz’s legs.
“Ehehe, less talking, more laughing. I haven’t seen you truly laugh in Titan knows how long, so there is no way I’m passing this opportunity up.
Luz blushed as she laughed. She didn’t realize it till now, but Amity was right; it was rare for her to laugh these days. Maybe this would be good for her.
Amity then switched to kneading into Luz’s hips, and Luz couldn’t help but grab onto her and hug her tightly to ground herself. The tingly feeling from it shot all the way down her legs, causing her to squirm uncontrollably as she laughed her head off.
“WAHAIT AHAHAMIHITY! WAHAHAHA IHIT’S SOHOHO BAHAHAD!”
Amity blushed as Luz held onto her and basked in her laughter. She was happy this seemed to be working, but she did think it was a bit strange that Luz seemed so much more sensitive in certain spots than she was before.
“Hey Luz, earlier I was kind of just joking, but were you actually always this ticklish here? You seem way more sensitive than you used to be when I’ve tickled you before.”
Amity stopped tickling Luz so she could answer and wrapped her arms around her, rubbing a hand up and down her back.
It took a while for Luz to properly comprehend the question, as she was out of breath, but once she did she realized she had no clue why this was the case.
“I…. I don’t know, honestly. It certainly seems like my hips are more sensitive than before, and my knees too. I couldn’t imagine why though.”
Both of them sat there and pondered over the question for a moment. If something happened to those areas they may need to be checked out.
After all, Amity refused to let anything happen to her light again.
Luz recalled everything that happened to her between the last time she was tickled and now.
The last time was a few days before they left the human realm, when Gus and Hunter jumped her thinking she ate the last cookie, when it was actually Vee disguised as Luz. This meant it had to have happened after then.
“Hey Amity?”
Amity snapped out of her thoughts and met her batata’s gaze.
“Yes carino?”
“I think I might have found a correlation between the spots, but I am going to need you to test something for me for more evidence.”
Amity tilted her head, confusion evident on her face.
“What do you need me to do batata?”
Luz blushed a deep red, embarrassed due to what she was about to ask.
“C-Can you tickle my ribs?”
Amity squealed internally; her batata was just too cute.
“Of course. It would be my pleasure~”
Before Luz could even react, Amity quickly spidered her fingers up and down her ribs. Luz immediately broke into hysterics once more.
“OHOHOK THAHAT’S GOHOHOOD! STOHOHOP!”
Amity immediately stopped and rubbed the ghost tickles away, her smirk already fully developed.
“Aw, had enough already?”
Luz blushed again and responded once she could breathe normally.
“Now to compare, ……I’m going to need you to tickle me everywhere besides my ribs, hips, and legs. Is that ok?”
Amity was surprised at that.
“Ok, if that’s what you want…”
Amity happily spent the next few minutes tickling Luz everywhere she could reach. She ran her fingers up and down her sides, scribbled over her belly, scritched under her arms, scratched at her neck, glided her nails over her back, caressed her ears, and even gently tickled her on top of her head.
Throughout the attack, Luz reacted the way she always had to the tickles; at least until Amity reached her scalp.
Now Luz had nothing to compare this to, since it was her first time being tickled there, but she was pretty sure it was not supposed to tickle quite that badly. Especially when Amity tickled on both sides of her head, right where her horns were during the titan transformation….
Yeah, Luz was pretty sure her theory was correct.
“OHOHOK OHOHOK AHAHAMIHIHI! YOUHOHO CAHAHAN STOHOHOP NOHOHOW!”
Amity pulled her hands away and smiled at the giggly mess beneath her.
“Ok giggles, I’ll stop. Did that help at all?”
“Ha.. ha.. yeah. It helped more than I thought it would actually.”
Amity smiled at that, happy to help her batata any way she could.
“That’s great! So, what do you think happened?”
“I think I somehow became more sensitive in the bony areas that are more prominent during my titan transformation, like my knees and ribs.”
“Wow, really? You would think that the titan transformation would make you more resistant, not more sensitive.”
“I know right? I guess I should talk to Eda about it later so we can make sure it’s nothing bad. …I don’t really feel like leaving right now though.”
Luz’s childish behavior caused Amity to break down into giggles, and before long they were both laughing together. Once they calmed down, Amity gingerly dragged a finger up and down Luz’s ribs.
“I’m absolutely going to take advantage of this for as long as possible. You better be prepared to laugh more often, batata!”
Luz started giggling again, even though the touch was incredibly light and over her clothes.
“Ahaha ohohok! Juhust behehe gehentle, ahahalrihight?”
“Of course~ At least for most of the time. Right now though…”
Amity rolled up Luz’s shirt to expose her ribs as Luz giggled nervously.
“I feel like having some ribs. That would make for a good afternoon snack, don’t you think?”
Luz’s hysterics could be heard throughout the whole house, and possibly all of Bonesburough, as Amity nibbled all over her ribs. No one was bothered by this however, since it was a sign that their Luz was alive, well, and finally happy again.
