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It was a rainy afternoon and the Hexsquad were snuggled up in the Noceda’s cosy living room. They had been mesmerised by the movie Luz had chosen for them all to watch. Vee was hanging out at Masha’s house and Camilia was somewhere in the Noceda residence, probably reading.
“Her hair GLOWED?!?! AND HEALED PEOPLE???!!?! BUT REALLY THE MAGIC CAME FROM WITHIN THE WHOLE TIME?!” Amity gulped for precious air after blurting that all out in one breath, as if she’d been waiting for the movie to reach the end credits to speak. (Except the first part of the end credits was the song ‘Something That I Want’ and Luz sang along word for word the whole time, which Amity knew meant that she’d been holding back on singing all the songs throughout the rest of the movie.)
“MAYBE SHE HAD A MAGIC BILE SAC AND WAS ACTUALLY A WITCH ALL ALONG?!?!” Hunter added loudly, flapping his hands about in excitement and brushing Willow’s arm as he did so. A blush appeared on his face when he realised, and he turned away to face Amity and Luz who were sitting nearby on the other green sofa.
Oblivious to Hunter’s blushing next to her, Willow sat twirling her left braid around her index finger thoughtfully. “I loved when Rapunzel finally got to go outside her tower for the first time. She was finally free…”
Gus nodded along to his friends’ observations. He was so excited to share his own thoughts about the movie that he jumped up out of the beanbag chair he was lounging in, and with a deadly serious expression said, “Have you all considered that PERHAPS the magic flower came from… the Demon Realm?!”
A collective gasp sounded around the room as everyone thought about this theory. Gus sat back in the beanbag chair. With an amused grin, Luz looked around her group of friends before saying “I take it you all enjoyed Tangled, then?”
This was followed by a series of nods and a chorus of yeses, to which Luz smiled widely and happily. She loved showing her friends all her favourite movies. She loved her friends. She was still sometimes in awe about the fact that she had friends now, proper friends who loved her as much as she loved them, and an awesome girlfriend too of course!
The group of teens settled back into contented silence, Luz scrolling through her phone and the others scrolling through their, well… scrolls…
Suddenly a loud bang caused everyone to jump in surprise. The bang was followed by an “oops” and an awkward giggle, and Luz recognised that “oops” anywhere, especially after hearing it so often at school. Human realm school, not Hexside. Her Mami must’ve let her in, Luz hadn’t heard the doorbell ring. Luz stood up from her seat next to Amity. She started walking towards the doorway that led from the living room to the hallway as a teen, who had black shoulder-length hair with a green hairclip on the left side, entered the room awkwardly.
The Hexsquad watched on in silence as this teen they hadn’t met before (but had seen pictures of, as Luz had shown them all her new friend who had also travelled to another realm before) put her hands on each of Luz’s shoulders, her expression growing serious. “Marcy, h…hi!” Luz stuttered out in surprise, having not expected her school friend to appear in her house on a random Saturday afternoon.
Marcy met Luz’s eyes in a display of unusually intense eye contact, “I am AWARE of you. I ACCEPT you,” she said seriously, ending her sentence with a warm smile.
Luz stared at Marcy in confusion for a moment before it clicked. Today was Autism Awareness/Acceptance Day! Luz laughed out an “ohhhhhh shit! I forgot that was today!” and maintained her eye contact with Marcy. She placed her own hands onto Marcy’s shoulders, repeating the mantra back at her friend. “I am AWARE of you. I ACCEPT you.”
They both let go of each other’s shoulders and fell into a fit of giggles, Marcy wiping her eyes as tears of laughter began to form. During all this the Hexsquad had watched on in confusion, not understanding any of what was happening but amused all the same, happy that Luz had a human friend who could be there for her when they were in the Boiling Isles.
Marcy seemed to realise that she and Luz weren’t alone a moment later, as she blushed and stammered out an “oh, hi! I didn’t see you all there… I’m Marcy” and gave the Hexsquad an awkward little wave, which they all returned with waves of their own.
Luz smiled at her human friend, grabbing her hand and bringing her over to the group. “Marcy, these are my friends from the Boiling Isles! Willow, Gus, Hunter and my awesome girlfriend Amity.” She pointed out each person to Marcy as she introduced them, each member of Hexsquad raising their hand when Luz said their name and giving yet another little wave.
Or in Gus’ case, holding out their hand to Marcy for a high five and responding with “Oh boy, what a rush!” as he still absolutely loved a high five. This made Luz and Marcy chuckle, Marcy feeling her anxiety begin to lessen.
Willow was the first of the Hexsquad to speak, directing her question at both Luz and Marcy, “what was that all about?” she asked, gesturing at them both in relation to their earlier serious moment.
The human girls looked at each other for a moment as if deciding who would speak, then Luz answered with, “Oh! So… today is April second, which in the human realm means it’s Autism Awareness/Acceptance Day.” She looked at the blank and questioning expressions on her friends’ faces, realising that she’d never explained to them about being autistic or ADHD. It had never really come up in conversation, yet with Marcy it was one of the deciding factors in their friendship.
Marcy had started at Luz’s school and within minutes of being seated next to each other and Marcy stimming anxiously, Luz had whispered to her “are you neurodivergent like me?”
She had immediately regretted blurting this question out, however luckily Marcy smiled at her in response and whispered back, “wow. That is the fastest I have ever been noticed by another ND.”
After that there was no going back, and they became great friends. Even more so when Luz talked about the Demon Realm and Marcy talked about Amphibia, they had yet another thing in common! This had come about completely randomly, when Marcy mentioned her friends Anne and Sasha, and Luz had remembered her Mami talking about a teen girl called Anne who had gotten lost in a frog world. Marcy then decided she could trust Luz with the secret of Amphibia, and in turn Luz had opened up to Marcy about the Boiling Isles. They had even started to talk about trying to find a way to open a portal back to Amphibia at some point.
Luz shook the memories away with a smile, beginning to answer the unspoken question her non-human friends were asking. “If someone is autistic, it means their brain works differently to others. I am autistic, I was diagnosed as that and as ADHD when I was a kid. If you’re as weird as I am, there’s gonna usually be a reason… Marcy is also autistic, you got diagnosed as a kid too, right Marce?” Luz directed this line of thought to her human friend.
Marcy nodded, adding “like Luz said, when you’re as weird as we are there’s no mistaking it. The doctors will usually figure it out, or if they don’t then the other kids at school will often know something before you do yourself…which can sometimes be a good thing. But sometimes kids can be mean…”
Luz continued, “Autism is not a bad thing either, it’s not an illness and it’s not something that needs to be cured. It’s not a curse. Being autistic makes some things hard, like social situations. I am so lucky I have you guys as friends, as I never really had any growing up. It also makes sensory things more difficult too. So, sometimes the lights are too loud and the sounds around me are too bright, and I know that sounds like I should be saying that the other way around but that’s how it can feel at times.”
Luz noticed Hunter on the edge of his seat, literally almost falling to the floor, his face had gone as white as Ghost, Amity’s palisman. Which wasn’t saying much as he (Hunter) was almost as pale as Amity at the best of times (and Amity is almost as pale as Ghost herself). He stuttered out a “I know EXACTLY what you mean about the lights and the sounds as that is also how I feel a lot of the time…”
Willow gently grasped Hunter’s right pinkie finger with her left pinkie in a silent gesture of support. He took comfort in this gesture and flashed a quick smile to Willow before continuing.
“For such a long time I hated the texture of most things touching my hands, I mean the Boiling Isles was quite a disgusting place most of the time anyway. So many slimy things…” Hunter shuddered slightly in disgust at the memories. The rest of the Hexsquad murmured their agreement, the Boiling Isles really could be gross as well as being beautiful in it’s own way.
“So, I wore gloves all the time. It became part of my Golden Guard uniform...” Hunter paused for a moment, glancing at Amity briefly. He wasn’t sure why the purple-haired girl was who he felt compelled to seek reassurance from, as out of the Hexsquad Amity was the one Hunter was the least close to. She smiled at him in understanding, as if she was going through similar realisations of her own.
“I kept wearing them even when I wasn’t in my Golden Guard uniform. A small part was so the scars on my hands wouldn’t be noticeable, but for the most part it was because the gloves were a constant material I was used to and expecting. The human realm had less unexpected textures in a weird way. It also had more sounds and smells than I was used to though, as they were all new. It was… Willow, what’s that word you told me? When everything gets a bit too much and I feel too much of everything at once?” Hunter turned to face Willow, his brownish-red eyes meeting her own green ones.
The intensity in which Hunter was looking at her caused a blush to form on her cheeks, mostly unnoticeable to those around them although Amity noticed amidst her current state of internal panic and smirked at her childhood friend in a knowing way. Willow stuttered for a moment before redirecting her train of thought, “Over…overwhelmed?”
Hunter nodded and said with a smile, “Yeah that’s it! Thanks Willow.”
She returned his smile with one of her own, shifting her hand so she could grasp his instead of just intertwining pinkies.
“Luz?” Hunter mumbled nervously. Luz smiled at him encouragingly to continue.
“Do you think that I could be autistic, like you and Marcy?”
Luz had to fight her impulsiveness to not blurt out the thought of ‘100% yes my dude’ that had materialized immediately after he’d finished his question. She had to handle this situation more carefully and sensitively than she would’ve done had it been Marcy or one of the other Hexsquad asking her. Marcy of course already knew when Luz had blurted out asking her all those months ago. She thought carefully about what to say in response to Hunter.
“Yes, I think there is a strong possibility my dude,” Luz said with a comforting smile and a finger guns point.
Hunter nodded, going silent in his way that meant he was deep in thought.
Gus looked up at Luz from his spot on the beanbag chair and asked, “Luz, do you think anyone else in this room might be autistic? Can you and Marcy just tell that kind of thing, like a Spidey-sense?”
Gus still absolutely loved Cosmic Frontier, nothing would overtake his love for that franchise, however he had recently discovered the MCU and loved the new Spiderman movies.
Luz and Marcy exchanged a look, smiling at each other. “Umm kinda, yeah. We call it our autism radar,” Marcy told the group. “Since I found out about myself, it was as if I was noticing other autistic people around me that I hadn’t before. Like my best friends Anne and Sasha. It is highly likely they’re both neurodivergent themselves, although I haven’t actually spoken to them about that yet…” Marcy trailed off, suddenly deep in thought. She wandered off into the kitchen to give Luz time with her demon realm friends.
Luz continued, considering her answer to the other part of Gus’s question for a moment. “To be honest with you guys, I think most, if not all, people in this room are probably autistic. When I met each of you guys, but especially you Hunter – no offence intended here – my autism radar went off. I wasn’t entirely sure whether to trust it at first though, as I didn’t know if perhaps all witches were the same. Eda definitely is – wait I shouldn’t have said that as I haven’t spoken to her about that yet! Umm pretend I didn’t say that… sorry… I’m rambling now…” Luz took a moment to take a slow, calming deep breath before continuing, using the few seconds it brought her to think of how to word the rest of what she wanted to say.
Luz looked at Gus, deciding to start with him.
“Gus, when you like something, it becomes part of your personality. It’s called a ‘special interest’. Like with Cosmic Frontier, and before that the HAS. I’m the same with the Good Witch Azura. The level in which we both love our interests is to the level of an autistic person. I know you also find social situations hard too, like reading social cues and knowing when people are being genuine. That’s just the things that come to my head immediately, there are other things too. As soon as I met you, I knew we’d be great friends.”
Gus stared intensely at Luz for a second, as if to make sure she was being serious and not joking with him, not that Luz would do that of course but many people have done in the past. When he realised that she was being truthful with her answer to his question, he let himself really think about what she’d just said. He always felt so strongly about his interests, he found social situations with anyone but the Hexsquad really uncomfortable. He didn’t know exactly what Hunter and Luz meant about the sounds being too bright and the lights being too loud, as that never majorly bothered him, but he was very sensitive to what foods he would eat and about the textures of things.
Luz looked at Gus once more and said calmly and slowly so he fully understood, “I wouldn’t mess with you, I promise.”
Whilst Gus was now lost in thought himself (remembering a similar thing Hunter had said to him back before the Day of Unity events had happened), Luz brought her attention to Willow, who had been busying herself with fidgeting with a braid in one hand and holding Hunter’s hand in an almost death-grip in the other. Luz crouched down so she was eye-level with Willow and gently took the hand fidgeting with the braid. Willow glanced up at Luz, anxiously chewing at her bottom lip.
“Willow. When I first met you, well…first of all, I thought you were super cool – the first witch my age I’d met, and you were super powerful with your plant magic too! Except I could tell that you were often misunderstood. That’s one of the main things an autistic person unfortunately has to deal with quite often. People don’t understand us, well most neurotypical people don’t anyway! You were treated as if you were different for a long time, and you are different… but that’s not a bad thing! I knew you also found social situations confusing at times and uncomfortable, I mean I think all of us in this room do.” Luz paused, looking around at each of her friends. In turn they each nodded back at her in agreement, including Amity who had been fidgeting with her hands in her lap throughout everything, picking her nails against each other as a stim.
Luz met Willow’s green eyes with her own brown ones. “I think there is a chance you could also be autistic, Willow, but I might be wrong. Either way, you will always be understood by me. Always.”
Willow squeezed Luz’s hand in response before letting go and resuming twirling her braid as Luz stood up again, wobbling slightly as she tried to regain her balance.
Luz moved over to where Amity was sitting on the green sofa facing the tv and sat beside her. She took both of Amity’s hands in her own, gently stroking them with her thumbs. Amity looked at her girlfriend through her amber eyes, already suspecting what the human girl would say.
Luz cleared her throat before speaking. “Amity. When we first met, I was pretending to be an abomination to help Willow. I wanted to be your friend pretty much from the beginning, especially since the library incident with the Wailing Star… like Willow, you were misunderstood. You also grew up with parents who didn’t really understand you and you developed a mask of sorts – not a literal mask like Hunter did, a metaphorical mask – and that’s what a lot of autistic people do to try and ‘fit in’. When we first became friends, I started to see parts of you separate from the mask you put on in front of pretty much everyone else. When we were in Willow’s mindscape, I could see that you also were able to be more of yourself with her when you were kids. Neurodivergents tend to find each other. We flock together. As Eda once said, well…more than once – ‘Us weirdos have to stick together!’ You also struggle with physical contact, mostly from people you don’t know or when it’s unexpected. You also stim a lot, especially with your hands. I do the same.”
Amity sat silently for a moment, processing Luz’s words. “Yeah” she said with a sigh of relief, “I see all that within myself too. I always felt different. Like if I showed the world who I really was, no one would understand me. This makes so much sense.”
Luz took in the room, her friends all in various states of realisation about their own neurodivergence. Hunter and Amity both looked relieved, Gus had stood up again and was pacing around the living room whilst processing everything and Willow had her eyebrows raised as if in surprise.
“Ummm… so do any of you guys have questions or anything?” Luz nervously asked the group.
Gus stopped pacing and looked at Willow. She got up from the sofa, pulling Hunter along with her. Amity pulled Luz to standing too, joining the rest of the Hexsquad in the middle of the room and forming a wonky circle. Willow spoke first.
“Thank you, Luz. Not just for helping us all discover this new lore about ourselves, but also for just being YOU. You’re amazing, inspiring, so unbelievably kind, I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we love you so much and couldn’t imagine our lives without you.” Willow reached across the circle to where Luz was standing opposite her and took the hand that wasn’t holding Amity’s.
Gus nodded his agreement with Willow’s words, also joining his hand to Willow and Luz’s.
Hunter awkwardly said “this feels like it’s time for one of those group hugs, maybe?”
Luz squealed in happiness and put her arms around everyone she could reach, all of them hugging each other. Marcy had peeked her head round the doorway, wondering what the commotion was. Luz caught her out of the corner of her eye, releasing one of her arms and motioning for Marcy to join the huddle. Suddenly shy, Marcy tip-toed over to the group. Luz pulled her into the hug, feeling almost giddy with the joy she felt in that moment. She never thought she would have friends like this, never in a million years. Friends that understood her. Friends that loved her as much as she loved them. Friends that were family now. She smiled into the group hug, not wanting to let go anytime soon.