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Luz was still sitting warily on the couch as a certain purple-haired witch left to go home for the night. She waved her girlfriend goodbye. She still almost let out a squeal at the word “girlfriend”. (She had a girlfriend! )
But the feeling of excitement in the pit of her stomach was slowly fading a little while after Amity headed home. She had stayed a bit to help Luz with the Echo Mouse. The new information they had recorded was written in Luz’s notebook, which was currently sitting on the coffee table in front of Luz.
Eda was currently upstairs, putting a rowdy King to bed. She had figured out how to turn out of her Harpy form.
Now, she was making her way downstairs. Luz brought her knees to her chest on the couch as Eda stretched her arms out over her head. “What a day! I have a Harpy mode? Who would have known? And King has powers? Oh boy, I’m gonna have to have a talk with him about not using those around the house. Phew, and you…wow”.
Eda sat down on the armchair across from Luz. And for a reason Luz couldn’t name, Luz couldn’t meet her eyes. Her stomach was still squirming with nervousness, like it had mere seconds before asking Amity out.
She felt like was going to be rejected all over again.
There was a moment of silence, Eda watching her with confused eyes, expecting her to say something. “So,” she said after a minute. “Why don’t you head up to bed? You could use the rest after all of today. I have a few chores to finish up down here”.
Eda started to stand, and then Luz was moving standing too. “So it’s okay?”
Eda tilted her head. “It’s okay that what?”
Luz looked down, her face burning. “It’s okay that I like girls..?”
This had been the moment Luz had been dreading all night. This was the part of coming out that sucked. You didn’t know if the person you told would support you or not. For all Luz knew, Eda could kick her out, or send her away. It was the Boiling Isles after all. It wasn’t hard to imagine some punishment you could recieve for being gay. Maybe conversion therapy, or a wilderness camp. Luz had heard of parents sending their kids there after coming out-
Eda just blinked and turned to look her apprentice in the eye. “What?”
“Do you hate me now?” Luz blurted out, sniffing. She really didn’t want to cry in front of Eda. “Because I like girls. Well, and boys. Does that make me.. weird? Is that wrong here?”
Eda just blinked again, and Luz wiped her tears with her sleeve. Eda’s silence told her everything, and Luz started crying again. “I’m sorry!” she cried out.
“For what?”
“For being.. like this . I’m sorry!”
“Whoa, whoa, Kid” Eda soothed, uncovering Luz’s hands from her face. “What is this all about? Why would I hate you?”
“Because..because of what just happened..” Luz muttered. “I asked someone out. A girl. I’m dating a girl ”.
Eda raised an eyebrow. “So?”
“Isn’t that.. bad? I’m dating another girl, someone of the same gender”.
“I don’t know why you think that would be bad”, Eda said, crossing her arms. “Is this a human thing?”
“I-I guess” Luz said shakily, wiping away the last of her tears. “So this is accepted here?”
“Of course. It’s completely normal, is it not?”
“It is normal,” Luz replied. “Is it normal here?”
“Yes. You love who you want, no problem. I thought that was how it was everywhere..” Eda tilted her head. “Are you okay, Luz?”
Luz nodded again. “I..just thought you were gonna hate me because I’m gay. Or bisexual. To be exact”.
“Bisexual?” Eda repeated.
“Right. You probably don’t know what that is. Um, I should start over with this. I’m bisexual, which means I like boys and girls”. Luz met Eda’s eyes again, then bit her lip and dropped her eyes. “It’s.. it’s a human word”.
“Huh, you humans sure love to label everything. Here you just love who you want, and there’s nothing more to it” Eda said thoughtfully.
“That sounds..nice” Luz whispered. “I guess I thought it was gonna be considered bad to be gay here, but I never really had time to think about it.. until I started liking Amity”.
Eda took a step closer to Luz. “Hey, Kid. Why are you so scared?”
“I thought you were gonna hate me..”
“Why would I hate you?” Eda scoffed. “More like how could I hate you? You’re Luz! Everyone loves you”.
Luz just looked down again, not responding. Eda narrowed her eyes. “Is this.. about the Human Realm? Is not allowed there?”
Luz let out a deep sigh. “It’s.. complicated. Some people are very accepting, others say it’s unnatural or a sin..”
Eda blinked. “But it is natural. You’re born that way”.
“A lot of people don’t think that”.
“Well, those humans are weird ”.
Luz let out a small laugh at that. “Yeah, they are”. She then frowned, regaining her seriousness. “I’ve met a few of them. At school. My first crush was on a girl in second grade. I used to give her flowers, but she rejected me. It got around the school, and people started talking about me. They called me a freak and a weirdo. One of the other kids told me I’d grow out of it, and one of the teachers told me I was too young to be thinking like that”.
“And one time one of the parents at pick up stopped me as I walked out to the bus. She was a preacher at the church, and she told me I should turn to God and be saved. She told me I would burn in Hell if I didn’t repent”.
“Geez,” Eda muttered under her breath. “Well, don’t listen to them, Kid. They’re the ones who aren’t normal”.
Luz nodded. “I knew from a young age some people accepted it, and others didn’t. That’s why I’m afraid to tell people..I don’t know how they will react. Like when I told my mom..I was so scared”.
“What did she say?”
“That she loved me, no matter what” Luz said. “She didn’t really express that she had the realization that gay people exist. I always thought she might have been a bit homophobic, but there was this one day, when I was nine, and we went to the mall. And we were walking outside, when suddenly, there were these two women laughing and spinning each other around. They had just gotten engaged. My first thought was that could be me one day, if I got a girlfriend instead of a boyfriend. My second thought was how would my mom react”.
“And I looked up at her, and she was.. smiling. She was happy for them, she thought of them as any other couple. It’s the bare minimum to accept people different from you, something everyone should do, but in that moment, it meant so much to me. I can’t even explain it. I came out to her a year later, when I was ten, and she’s known ever since”.
“That’s good,” Eda said, then narrowed her eyes again. “You know, you don’t have to be afraid of me. I don’t give a shit who you date. No one should actually. If anyone has a problem, then they can take it up with me ”.
Luz let out a tired-sounding laugh. “You’d really do that?”
“For you? Anything”, Eda smiled down at her kid. “Oh, and by the way, you and Amity are a very cute couple, if I do say so myself”.
“Eda! Stop it!”. Luz laughed and covered her crimson face with her hands.
“I’m just proud of you, Kid,” Eda said. “Thank you.. for just being you? I don’t really know what to say, just know I’ll never give a shit about who you date, as long as you’re happy”.
“Thank you, Eda. That makes me feel better. But I still will always be afraid when I tell people who I really am, no matter what.. that’s just how it goes, I guess”.
“I really am sorry you have to feel that way,” Eda said, then leaned forward to whisper in Luz’s ear. “Those people who say bad things about you are just jealous you can pull someone and they can’t”.
“ Eda!”
“What? Look at you! Your girlfriend is the powerful and beautiful daughter of multi-millionaires, not to mention the top of her school and was once the student of one of the most powerful witches in the Emperor’s Coven. That’s impressive”.
“Yeah,” Luz was blushing again. “She is pretty amazing..”
“Aww, you sap. Look at you, a blushy mess even from the mention of your little girlfriend”.
“You brought her up first!” Luz whined playfully, then she let out a sigh of relief, slumping against the couch. “Thank you, Eda”.
“For what?”
“For making this.. normal. It means a lot to me. I’m always nervous to tell someone I care about the truth, I don’t wanna lose them over it..”.
Eda blinked. “That’s because it is normal. At least in this realm. You love who you love, and that’s final”. Eda raised her brows thoughtfully. “Or you don’t. Like Lilith. She’s never been interested in anyone like that”.
“In my world, that would be called Aromantic,” Luz declared.
“Dang, you guys have a lot of labels. And you sure know a lot about this stuff”.
“Yeah,” Luz chuckled, scratching the back of her head. “After I found out I was bi, I did a lot of research on it”.
“So, you’re bi?” Eda asked again, leaning back in her chair, legs crossed.
“Yes. I’m bi”.
“And that means you like boys and girls?”
“Yes”.
“Then,” Eda said, sending Luz a golden-fanged smile. “we have something in common”.
Luz leaned forward. “Really?”
“Yep. I’ve told you about my ex-boyfriends, but I don’t think I’ve told you about my ex-girlfriends, and ex-partner” a frown crossed Eda’s face at the mention of that one particular person but she sat up again. “Though, I never labeled myself. I knew I liked both, and no one had a problem with that”.
Luz sniffed, and Eda looked at her again. “Aw, Kid, are you crying again?”
“No..?” Luz tried. “I know it’s accepted here, and it shouldn’t be a big deal to be accepted for who you are, but it is a big deal. To me. Thank you”.
Eda nodded. “Of course. I’m proud of you, Kid”.
Before she knew it, Eda was being crushed in one of Luz’s hugs. This time she didn’t stiffen or pull away. She held her kid close as she sniffed and let her last tears fall, tears of happiness and tears of fear.
“I love you, Eda,” Luz said, muffled by Eda’s dress sleeve.
“I love you too, Luz,” Eda said back. “No matter what”.