A/N: THANK YOU FOR ALL THE REVIEWS! They mean so much to me, you guys are the best Ok, and I know I kinda drove everyone crazy with the last update, but… *pauses, thinks hard* Yeah, I got nothing. But seriously, just stay with me here XD. OH, I realized that I completely messed up the dates from the last chapter, so I went back and fixed them, SO sorry about that! Ok, NOW we're done XD. ENJOY!

September 16th

"This is a terrible idea."

"I know."

"Do you know how many things can go wrong?"

As Emmet sprayed a sticky, absorbent Systar System liquid across his cast, Unikitty watched in contemplative, jittery, motherly silence. The material bulged quickly, paused, wavered and seemed to liquefy in midair, bubbled, before shrinking, sticking to his leg, and melding to a navy blue. Emmet smiled and peered up at his best friend, in the way someone who is too high up in the clouds not to laugh at everything. "Uh, I'd say about fifty-six."

With no mirth, Unikitty replied, "I counted sixty-two. What if Lucy finds out?"

"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it."

Unikitty curled up in a protective balloon Emmet's couch, recently upgraded to double-decker status. "Will it help anything if I ask you not to do this?"

Standing up, Emmet shook his leg, stretched it, and planted it firm on the ground. He smiled at Unikitty. She saw stubble dots, marker as cheek bones, and every Rex-feature painted on in thick marker. She curled tighter as Emmet replied, "Probably not, but you're welcome to try!"

"You know Lucy. What is she going to say when you tell her?"

"I'm not going to tell her," Emmet replied. Unikitty grimaced at the firm determination in his voice. That was the same determination of someone who would stick with a plan until it ruined everything beyond repair, and Emmet had just enough persistence to be that person. She hopped off the couch as he mumbled, as though he needed her to hear but couldn't stand if she did, "She doesn't need to know, and it would only hurt both of us if she did."

"Well," Unikitty forced as much venom as her sweet voice would allow. "Won't it be a fun wedding day when you two stand up at the altar and she finds out you're a completely different person."

The look in Emmet's eyes as he turned to her, while he held back animosity and anger with her lack of trust, still bit down at Unikitty heart. He stared at her like he hated her. Of course he didn't. Emmet didn't hate anyone.

Unikitty had to be calm. Though the question burned in her heart and left scalding scratches on her throat, begging in wailing screams to be let out, she let it simmer until she could ask, calmly, "Emmet, why did you say no when Wyldstyle asked you to meet up with her?"

No response.

Was he trying to play hard-to-get? Because now wasn't the time. Was he falling out of love with her? Because that wasn't possible. Was the idea of her falling in love with Rex more stable than falling for him? Because that was ridiculous.

"Emmet?"

"I was scared."

Oh.

"Of?" Unikitty stepped closer to her best friend, carefully and with pause, as if he could explode any moment.

"Her. Messing up. Ruining everything. When I'm Rex, if I mess up, I don't get the consequences."

Finally, he turned away from her in favor of the window. Droplets of foggy rain raced each other for the windowsill, and he followed each one.

"Emmet, do you know what love is?"

She thinks I'm stupid.

Maybe he should have just left all together. Maybe he should have stolen any chance of replying, walked out, and ignored his best friend existed. How could she ask him that?

Unikitty breathed in the musky rain that seeped through the window. Her eyes fluttered along with her lungs, yet her stomach refused to release the butterflies that she knew were there, and she couldn't feel nervous even though she knew she was supposed to, and she knew Emmet was just waiting to holler at her.

If two people had ever discussed what love was, if two people had ever discussed the sappiest of things, it was Emmet and Unikitty.

"You know, so say it."

Emmet shot her a pained look. She returned it and stood still.

"…to love is to will the good of another. Thomas Aquinas."

Unikitty smiled. "Thank you."

"But…but I love…I want to be with her." Light, trickling tears stained the corners of Emmet's eyes.

"I know," Unikitty made her words delicate and gentle, and she approached Emmet carefully, like walking up to a villain clutching a rifle in his hand who had just started to show a sliver of doubt. "And I'm not saying this is awful, or even a terrible plan, but we're not living in a soap opera. You have to think about Lucy's feelings down the road."

Empty yet choked sobs ran up his throat. "I…I love her…"

Beep…Beep…

Though Unikitty hated the moment the phone chose to interrupt, she peeked at the screen, and Lucy's number flashed across the screen.

"I got it."

"You sound like you've been crying. And why is she calling on a different phone?"

Emmet gave no response, and he picked up the phone, took a deep breath, answered with such a faked greeting that Unikitty nearly gagged. "Yeah?"

"Uh, Rex?"

Dang it.

Unikitty stared at Emmet, and for a moment her panic took over, gripped the reins, and jolted him back in control. He made a 'don't worry' motion to Unikitty, lowered his voice, and replied, "Yeah, it's me, what's up?"

"Not much, and I'm really sorry, but I can't make it tonight."

"Don't give me that look," Emmet mouthed silently as his best friend smirked triumphantly.

"Oh, uh, that's fine, are you alright?"

There was a pause.

"...yeah, I'm ok, something just came up. Can we move this to next Friday?"

If Lucy could hear the whizzing of Unikitty's arms and head as she desperately flailed around, shaking her head and whisper-yelling 'NO!" over and over again, they were in big trouble. "Yeah, that's fine. See ya, Wyldstyle."

"Bye."

The moment he hung up, Emmet had to deal with a consequence he had gotten to know very well in recent months, more commonly known as Unikitty's Enraged Disappointment. He held up a hand before she could begin, collapsed down in a chair, and sat patiently.

"Can I go?"

Emmet nodded.

"YOU'RE INSANE!"

This went on for some time, and Emmet continued listening with one ear to his best friend's lecture, as she spoke of things like 'Are you insane?' and 'you must want her to hate you!'. She reprimanded him for going back on their whole talk, she hollered her frustration, and at the end, her words were hardly an exhausted mumble.

"Sometimes, Emmet, I really wonder about you."

"You done?"

"...yes."

Emmet's face hardly lifted, and he forced a weak smile before rubbing the top of his best friend's head. "Thanks for trying, Unikitty."

She purred despite herself.

"You're too nice, has anyone ever told you that?"

"All the time."

#

Maybe she was just stupid.

Only stupid people, people who didn't think about consequences of their actions, would do something like this. She had told him, herself, and everyone around them that they were nothing. They were supposed to be more than nothing. She had practically shouted from the rooftop that she hated him.

And now, outside his door and getting some very odd looks in the hallway, as Lucy recalled mentioning how they were 'just friends' every other minute, it seemed a little harsh.

It had to be guilt. She was guilty, through no fault of her own, because this was a man she had known and loved in another life whose entire world had been ripped out from under his feet. She was a good person, so this guilt was what made her want to spend time with him.

Maybe I like spending–

NO.

Maybe he could be a nice fri–

STOP.

Lucy winced.

She wouldn't let the thought, the idea, that she enjoyed spending time with him so much that she broke a date to go see him enter her mind. It was too absurd. It was guilt. She felt guilty, and that's why she was here, with a stomach shuddering and a mind-frame of someone who desperately needed to take a nap.

What's the game plan, Lucy? Go in there and ask him to hang out even though he already said no?

Yes?

Curse that stupid, sarcastic voice inside her head.

This wouldn't be a date. She really, again, because of guilt, just wanted to know if he was alright. Unikitty had said she was going to hang out with him, but she didn't hear anything in the apartment, so maybe he was in such a terrible mood that she had given up. Maybe Lucy would be the one to make him feel better. That would be nice.

She just had to do it. That was the only way anything would ever happen.

Though half of her mind raged against the other half, though everything in her told her not to, though she knew with her whole heart something bad was about to happen, Lucy knocked firmly on the door. A tidal wave of nauseating anxiety ripped through her stomach. She counted to ten as Emmet, presumably, made his way to the door.

The door pulled back.

"Wyldstyle?" Unikitty's typical, sunshine greeting smile was replaced by a cocked brow and tilted head. "What are you doing here?"

As she heard shuffling, clunking, and general havoc behind her best friend, Lucy replied, "Uh, I just… I wanted to…"

It was no use.

Unikitty smiled wider than a middle schooler told she didn't have to get braces.

"You came to see Emmet?!" The end of her sentence crashed through the ceiling, and Lucy trembled back. This was a stupid idea. Now Unikitty was going to be all over her for the rest of eternity, Emmet would get the wrong idea, and she would be more confused than ever.

"Uh, yeah. I just wanted to see–"

If he wanted to go out for ice cream.

If he wanted to hang out.

If they could get to know each other – again.

If they could be friends.

Lucy bit her tongue, huffed, and finished, "–if he was alright."

"Oh, hi, Lucy!" Emmet's chipper voice and cute smile poked out from behind Unikitty, and moved in front of his friend, who was all too happy to let the two get closer. "Uh, what are you doing here? Not that it's a bad thing, I just don't think you've been here…ever." As Emmet's mind shrugged its shoulders, told him it had no idea what to do, and left him and his biting stomach to fend for themselves, Unikitty fueled the fire and stepped into the kitchen. At an eavesdropping distance, of course.

Were her palms sweaty? They had to be, because Lucy couldn't get a grip on the doorframe she desperately needed to clutch. "Yeah, I was just…I wanted to see…I was wondering…."

Her gaze escalated from the floor to meet his, and in a fraction of a second, their stares were locked.

No.

Lucy broke her gaze away and mumbled out, "…I wanted to make sure you were ok."

Never before had Lucy seen a man lose all hope in his heart in one instant.

"Oh, uh, thanks. Yeah, I'm fine, right, Unikitty?" No reply came from the princess who was, at the moment, extremely angry at her female best friend. Emmet turned back to Lucy, rubbing the back of his neck, and looking anywhere but her eyes, even as she shifted and tilted her head to capture his gaze once more.

"Ah, ok, well, I'm glad." On a whim, an odd, fantastical whim, Lucy reached out and grabbed Emmet's forearm. "So, I'll see you around?"

Finally, that cute smile shone, for her and her alone. "Uh, yeah. Thanks…" Emmet swallowed hard. "…Lucy."

Lucy smiled.

"Bye."

"Bye."

The door shut.

Unikitty looked at her best friend, whose eyes had yet to return to their natural size and heart had yet to stop using his ribcage as a punching bag. She moved from the kitchen to his side, each step deliberately silent and padded, until kneeling down at his side. No words were said for the first moments, and she waited for the victim – or hero – to voice the thoughts she could not, and did not want to, imagine.

"She likes me," Emmet murmured, a smile crossing his lips.

"Agreed."

The smile faded. "I think she likes Rex more."

"Disagreed."

Silence permeated the conversation once more, and Emmet stood up, his lips upturning and falling as thoughts, memories, and ideas rolled across his mind. Unikitty watched in agony as his hands fingered the Rex costume, as if Emmet held their world's fate in his hands. She swallowed a thick boulder down her throat. "Well?"

Something like mischievous boyhood crossed Emmet's face, but for some reason, he looked more like a strange man than her best friend. "Goodnight, Unikitty." With that, and a smile, Emmet walked into the bedroom and shut the door.