2"So how is this gonna work?" Amity asked, ever the worrier. looking at all the supplies spread out on the table. A laptop in front of Luz, some paper and pencils for Amity.
Luz shrugged casually, Luz was never much one for forethought. "I'd just thought we'd brainstorm the things we want!" Luz said chipper as usual.
Amity sighed, of course Luz was laid-back about this. Her flexibility is part of what made them work together so well. "Well I don't know much of human marriage customs" Amity said sort of defeatedly. Though she had tried for the past 6 years to learn as much of human culture as possible it was a difficult process. Books were often contradictory, or out of date, or sometimes they didn't go into as much detail as she'd like. Amity had given up reading about culture and customs a couple years ago when she attempted to eat pizza with a fork and knife at Gus's weekly DnD Night. Since it had been planned weeks in advance she thought the occasion was classified as a formal dinner. The memory still kept her up at night sometimes. Since then she'd just gone with the flow and done what others were doing. That had worked out pretty well for the most part since then. In hindsight she probably should've just started there. But copying others only worked so well when you were hanging out with Luz and other banished witches for the most part.
Amity was familiar with one part of the human marriage custom though. Luz had proposed to her at Disneyworld a week ago. Amity had known she was going to do it, but she wasn't familiar with the custom so the fore-knowledge didn't do her much good. Luz went all out, rigging fireworks to go off at the exact right time, playing the exact right song, matching that silly dance they'd done so many years ago footstep for footstep, including the incredibly seductive dip and catch, sliding a matching set of rings on their fingers. Just the memory of the night made Amity fall in love with Luz all over again.
"Customs Shmustoms" Luz responded absentmindedly. Luz had little respect for tradition even in adulthood. According to most of her extended family she shouldn't be marrying Amity at all. "This is just supposed to be fun! The only requirement is a declaration of undying love!" Luz looked at Amity's still worried face. "You do still love me right?" Luz asked with mock worry.
Amity rolled her eyes, how would she know she were engaged if Luz didn't remind her multiple times a day. As long as they'd been dating Luz would ask if Amity still loved her. The answer hadn't changed in 6 years. "Of course I love you, Luz" Amity said automatically. Amity never got tired of saying that. Never.
"Love you too babe" Luz chirped back immediately, her trick having worked. Amity looked a lot more comfortable. "Anyways fun stuff first" Luz decided on the spot. "Let's decide on what we're wearing!" Luz turned her laptop towards Amity to show a mock-up of a half-tuxedo half-wedding dress she'd been designing. "What do you think of that for me?" Luz said and looked to her bride-to-be expectantly.
Amity nodded, the design was reminiscent of what she wore on their first dance, back when they were still just kids.
Luz decided Amity wasn't sufficiently excited. "Or I can wear that old otter costume," Luz said contemplatively.
Amity scoffed. "I'm not marrying an otter"
Luz smiled and laughed. "Darn right you're not" she responded.
Amity thought for a second "well if you're gonna wear a tux on the top and a skirt on the bottom i'll wear Slacks on the bottom and the top of a wedding dress" Amity said testing the waters.
Luz's eyes grew wide and Amity was satisfied with the reaction.
"That'd Be perfect!" she practically screamed.
Amity smiled but covered her ears.
"Sorry" Luz said sheepishly.
Luz noticed the genuine smile had slipped on Amity's face. It had slipped to the polite smile Amity wore when she was thinking about something else. Something not in the room. Luz took the opportunity to slide her chair right beside Amity's. After a sufficiently long period of time in Luz's opinion she interrupted Amity's spacing-out. "Whatchya thinkin about?" Luz probed gently.
Amity looked at the small Latina she was planning on spending her life with. "So I have a… delicate question," amity said, slightly nervous at coming across rude. She knew intellectually Luz wouldn't care but old habits die hard.
Luz said quickly "shoot"
Amity was grateful for Luz's decisiveness. "Well I was wondering how names worked. I know how they work on the boiling isles I mean but marriage is so different here…" Amity said beginning to ramble slightly
Luz thought about it and then responded with a question of her own. "Well how did they work on the boiling isles?" Luz asked thinking it'd be easier to explain if they had some common ground to work with.
Amity shrugged. "Pretty simple, Since marriage is arranged between families so typically the more powerful families' names are used." Amity said automatically as if she were reading from an encyclopedia.
Luz thought again "so in my mother's culture typically the names are hyphenated, we'd both use our father's last names but-" Luz didn't have to continue. Amity knew Luz didn't have a father. Also Amity didn't have one either anymore really. "In America typically the bride takes the name of the groom but-" Luz didn't have to continue. Amity knew there would be no grooms at this wedding.
That was another thing Amity couldn't grasp about human culture. The labels and the stigma, it was just weird. In the boiling isles there was no such thing as bisexual or lesbian or gay. People were just people and people loved who they loved, if they were allowed to love at all.
"So i guess-" luz faltered. "I dunno we could just keep our names? It'd be less paperwork that way." Less paperwork for her she meant, Amity never let a little paperwork or bureaucracy get in her way.
Amity cleared her throat. "I don't much like my last name" Amity said in a very quiet voice. Amity hadn't ever been very open when it came to talking about her family.
Luz wanted to slap her face. "Of course!" Luz said quickly "you could take my name if you're comfortable with it" after a seconds pause "or we could make up our own last name, that could be fun!" Luz suggested.
"You can do that?" Amity asked, shocked.
Luz shrugged again "like i said customs shmustoms, my mom probably would be disappointed that it wouldn't be 'traditional'" Luz put finger quotes around traditional "but she gave up on me being traditional a long time ago. I'm pretty sure she'll be over the moon I'm getting married at all"
Amity blushed slightly "I think i want us to choose new last names for ourselves" Amity said quietly. "I think it'd be romantic.
Luz perked up. "Alright! That's the spirit Amity! Let's do this thing then!"
"Well how do you choose names?" Amity asked.
Luz shrugged again at a loss of concrete answers for what seemed like the fiftieth time in the past hour. "Typically last names come from what that family did in olden times. Names like Smith mean they worked with metal, or last name's like Will means you have a lot of willpower." Luz explained. "But those are really boring."
Amity nodded in agreement.
Luz continued "a lot of last names have to do with your lineage too. Like Johnson means son of john. Or Hernández means son of Hernán"
"Son?" Amity asked, already suspecting the answer.
"Blame the patriarchy" Luz said dismissively "making our life more difficult every single step of the way"
Amity chuckled in agreement. "So probably if we want to pick a surname we should stay away from those sorts of names."
Luz nodded. "We could be Bloceda!" She suggested, simply combining their two last names. "Or Night" she added.
Amity stuck her tongue out "nah i'm done with blight in all forms" she said not even bothering to capitalize it in her dialogue.
"What does your name mean?" Amity asked.
"Noceda?" Luz looked up and tried to remember something. "Uhh it's like a river on the other side of the world."
"So you can be named after a place?" Amity asked.
"Yeah i guess" Luz responded. "Though i can't think of a place good enough to name myself it"
Amity agreed "me neither" she said.
"Except!" Luz said with dramatic flair. "Your arms."
Amity blushed slightly "that's not really a place."
Luz waved her hand "I know, I know i'm done joking around for now." Luz put on a straight face. "It's serious time" Luz said.
Amity placed her head in her hand. She could hardly believe her luck in falling in love with this amazing dummy.
"Right," Luz said, Completely oblivious as usual. "Hmmm we don't work the same job or we could be like Artist or Business Lady." Luz said as she sheepishly looked towards Amity. "What do you do again?"
Amity sighed, she'd explained her job what seemed like thousands of times, no matter what the description never stuck to Luz. "don't worry about it, business lady is good enough," Amity said.
Luz continued talking trying to brainstorm ideas. "We could be the Revolutionaries! Or the Bad Girls!" she suggested. "You know they didn't kick us off your home isles for nothing"
Amity chuckled. "I'm not sure that'd be very subtle" she said chuckling, studying her hands, an idea forming.
Amity glanced at her watch. "We should probably wrap it up soon, DnD night is tonight and we've got to tell everyone the news."
Luz perked up. "That's right! We haven't told them yet!" they had agreed to keep the engagement a secret for a while.
That was it! Amity's head snapped to attention. "I've got it!" she said as she completed a spell circle absentmindedly, summoning a small ball of light.
"You do?" Luz said excitedly.
"Prestidigitator!" Amity said, matching Luz's excitement. "Amity and Luz Prestigidator"
Luz had to stifle a laugh. She still couldn't believe Amity was such a nerd. "Like the spell?" Luz asked.
Amity tossed her hair "yes like the spell! It also means 'one who does magic' , something we can both do unless I'm mistaken." Amity said more than a little sassily.
"Alright I'm game," Luz said. "I've had people mispronounce my name all my life, why stop now."
Notes: howdy! leave a Review please! i'd love to know what you thought of the story! i'd love to know any tips you have for improving! If you want a change of pace i'd reccomend checking out my other story titled "A Haunted Past"! It didn't get quite the attention i hoped it would and it would mean a lot if you checked it out! fair warning it's much less fluffy and more angsty but there's going to be a plot! and also consequences! and most importantly Lumity*! *Plus spice
