Chapter Text
“Ernest.”
Lucy very deliberately set the manuscript on her friend’s writing desk.
“Is this, by any chance, based on people you know?”
She raised an eyebrow and gave a polite smile that nevertheless rang a few warning bells.
“Oh, you know how it goes!” Ernest said with an airy handwave. “Any resemblance to persons living or—”
Her eyes narrowed. Disconcertingly, the smile stayed.
“Okay. Well. Maybe just a few minor details. For some color, you know? And I haven’t written this kind of drama before, and I wanted the romance to have that special something that makes it feel real – or at least like it could be real.”
His voice turned coaxing. “And think of the material! The outlaw with a heart of gold opposite the selfless builder hiding an adventurous streak – the climactic fight, just the two of you, almost like a duet – even your first meeting! Locking eyes as the water tower fell…”
He trailed off, watching as Lucy sat slowly in her usual chair across from his desk. He’d commissioned her to build the whole set - most of the furniture in his apartment over the last year, actually – so she had teasingly declared that she got first pick of all future seating arrangements as thanks.
He fidgeted with the zipper on his jacket and glanced away.
“I’m sorry. This was actually one of the reasons I wanted to hear your thoughts on those chapters, in case it was too uncomfortable. I would never publish something that was.”
Lucy sighed and tugged her hair up into a sloppy ponytail. It was, she felt, much too hot today to bother with something neater. “I know you wouldn’t.” She gave him a quick smile, then dropped her gaze to the papers between them and bit her lip.
“That isn’t the problem, really…I doubt anyone outside you, me, and Logan himself would even think to draw comparisons.”
Ernest nodded. The broad strokes of Logan’s real motives and actions during his tenure as the local (sort of) bandit were by now common knowledge to the rest of Sandrock – hard to keep any of that secret after the trial, the spy fiasco, the Duvos invasion, and everything else – but the numerous unimportant details were still mostly on a need-to-know basis.
A silence followed. Unless he was buried in his work, Ernest hated silence: he did not do well with it. And despite his friendship with Lucy, a person on average much quieter than himself, there was still only so much of it he could take, especially when he was worried about something. He broke after about a minute.
“So…if that’s not it, then…?” he trailed off, leaving an obvious blank for her to fill in.
She took pity on him. “Okay, truthfully, I had a bit of a crush on him, all right? For a little while. Not anything dramatic, but…I don’t know, it felt a little weird reading something similar when I hadn’t ever told anyone about it.”
She noticed Ernest visibly perking up and hastened to emphasize, “I said not a dramatic crush! A small one! One I never even planned to do anything about!”
“Would you like to?”
She started. “I—what?”
“Would you like to do something about it?”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “Did you notice the past tense, Mr. Published Author? I had a thing for him.”
He ignored her tone. “A previous crush does not preclude a present one.”
She narrowed her eyes but couldn’t stop a laugh. “I guess not.”
Ernest folded his hands under his chin and fixed his light green eyes on her. “Meaning you agree with my analysis? Or meaning that you don’t have a crush on him in the present?”
Briefly it occurred to Lucy that society as a whole should really invent a more serious, grown-up word for the “crush” phenomenon. Surely there had to be a way to describe a similar feeling that didn’t make her sound like a lovestruck teenager? Not to disparage lovestruck teenagers – Light knows many people spent part of their lives as one. But she’d done her time!
She was dragged out of this line of reasoning by Ernest gently tapping the wood near her hands.
“Hello? Lucy? Did you hear me?”
She took a deep breath. This wasn’t a monumental confession by any means, but it still embarrassed her. “In the present I would say I have…a neutral kind of crush on him. I guess.”
She winced as soon as the words left her mouth. That was the only way she could think to describe it, but it sounded kind of ridiculous to her.
But Ernest only nodded seriously. “You could very easily find yourself with one, but much of it depends on his interest and how things go in your next interactions.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“Well, if you were open to that state of affairs changing…this would be a pretty good way to break the ice, if I say so myself.” He tapped the sheaf of papers between them: the first 7 chapters of a (hopefully) romantic drama between a misunderstood bandit and the young woman who took him completely by surprise – placeholder summary, of course; all resemblance to real events entirely coincidental et cetera.
“How? Logan and I have barely spent any time together since the whole bandit / invasion thing settled down! Sure, we know each other, we work well together – but we don’t really hang out, you know? Not if there isn’t a town crisis or a monster causing a lot of trouble, and I don’t think that counts. I mean, yeah, we have mutual friends – yourself included – but that’s not the same as being friends, or even friendly with each other!”
She snapped her mouth shut in an attempt to stop her uncharacteristic rambling, before summing up the problem. “What would even be the plan here? If I did agree to this, which I still am not committing to.”
“’Plan’ is a little dramatic. Your reaction to the book just made me think it could be a good way to start a conversation, if you wanted to. And to even broach the subject of a date – if you wanted to. Just to see if you’re compatible, you know?”
He grinned at her before continuing, “And just think how easy it would be! The two of you commiserating over what an embarrassing mutual friend you have whom you can’t believe has the audacity to write such trash.”
Lucy snorted, but her lips lifted slightly in answer.
“You know neither of us would do that. We give all our bad or good reviews right to your face, like decent people.”
They were both quiet for a minute, Lucy attempting to cover a yawn as she reluctantly thought about heading home.
She had just started gathering up her things when she turned back to face Ernest.
“Hold up, I just thought of something. This is very sweet of you to offer – if a little odd – but couldn’t your not-a-plan complicate any hopes you had of actually, you know, publishing the book? If we’re, like, bonding over how we’ll never let you submit it or whatever?”
Ernest shoved his hands in his pockets and laughed. “My friend, it is generous of you to worry, but I can assure you this is only one of my many, many ideas. I don’t mind giving this one to you. And besides--”
“Besides?” Her curiosity was piqued; Ernest was looking uncharacteristically self-conscious.
“Well. I thought, if a story of mine could help people connect with each other like that, even find love, it would be…pretty cool. Maybe.”
“Aw. I knew it! I just knew you were a hopeless romantic all along,” she teased.
Ernest ran a hand through his hair in an attempt at nonchalance, but Lucy suddenly realized he might be more embarrassed about it then he let on and gently elbowed him.
“No, sorry - don’t feel bad about it. It’s…really nice, actually,” she said, smiling.
He walked her out, the two of them planning to meet up next week to go over some of her notes and suggestions for the serial he was working on. His editor Eduardo wanted the next 3 chapters by the end of the month, so Ernest wanted to finish them up soon so he had plenty of time to fiddle with them before sending them off.
He always looked forward to hearing what Lucy suggested. In fact, he had repeatedly tried to pay her for her constructive criticism, insisting she was practically doing the work of another editor, but she waved him off every time. She would only stubbornly reiterate that getting to read each chapter early plus having first choice of the transcendently good Ataran sweets his family regularly sent him was plenty of reimbursement.
As he cleared away their tea mugs, he couldn’t help hoping that Lucy would consider giving a date with Logan a chance. Ernest had seen the two of them work together, and he thought he’d detected a spark – or at least the possibility of one. He looked forward to seeing what came of it.