Chapter Twenty-Six: A Kiss To Build A Dream On
As it turned out, no one else particularly wanted to break up their group just yet either, so Metalbeard dropped anchor for them to stay the night. Though the phonograph was one of the salvaged items, and Sirius obligingly played some music for them, their celebration was a rather subdued affair. It hung over them like a heavy cloud, the thought that they would all have to split up and return to their humdrum lives the next day. Bricksburg was less than a day's sailing away.
Emmet stood at the railing, watching the sun as it slowly sank beneath the water, painting the sky vibrant orange and deep blue. Lucy stepped up beside him, laying one of her hands over his wordlessly. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" Emmet said. "You don't see sunsets like this in the city, all the buildings get in the way. But out here, you get such a perfect view."
Lucy smiled and squeezed his hand. "It's lovely," she agreed. "Hey, Emmet…"
"Hm?" he asked, not looking away from the horizon.
"I've been meaning to ask, for a while now…" He finally turned to look at her, gaze questioning. "Do you ever regret being dragged into our fight? I mean, you nearly died like three times, and got hurt so many others… Not to mention, we probably didn't make a great first impression…"
"That's a bit of an understatement," Emmet teased. "But… no. I don't regret it. How could I? I made some of the best friends I've ever had, met the most amazing woman…" Lucy blushed. "And I learned some very valuable lessons, about myself, and the world. All the scary, painful things I went through in those three days? Totally worth the family I finally found in you all."
Lucy smiled at him, wiping her eyes. "I really don't understand how so many people could just overlook you the way they did. They really need to take another look, cause you are such a remarkable person, Emmet. And I'm so glad I met you." She leaned in, gently pressing her lips to his. Emmet's face turned bright red, and he kissed her back enthusiastically.
"I love you too," he told her when they finally pulled apart, and she smiled. A shriek startled the pair, and they turned to see Unikitty with an impossibly wide grin.
"OHMYGOSH YOU GUYS!" she gushed, bouncing. Lucy's face turned crimson with embarrassment, and Emmet gave a shy grin, pulling her close. "That was soooo cute!"
"It's about time," Benny teased, snickering.
"Oh, leave the kids alone, ye two," Metalbeard scolded. "They don't need ye bein' all up in their business." Unikitty giggled and bounced away, and Benny gave them a wink before moving back to Bad Cop's side. Lucy grumbled, burying her face in Emmet's shoulder.
"Didn't know we had an audience…"
Emmet smiled and held her close. "They're just happy for us. They mean well." Lucy closed her eyes, relaxing in his hold.
After the sun set and the stars came out, they rejoined their friends, sitting on the deck and staring up at the night sky, another sight so rarely seen in Bricksburg. Almost predictably, Metalbeard started in with stories about the constellations and how they were formed. Lucy smiled when Emmet's head dropped to her shoulder, the construction worker snoring softly, and wrapped her arms around him, holding him close as he dozed.
Business had a limo waiting for them when they arrived at the docks, ready to drive everyone back to their apartments. They said their goodbyes to Metalbeard and Unikitty before the captain and the princess went their separate ways. Emmet bounced excitedly in his seat, trying very hard not to press face and hands against the windows as he craned his neck to see. "This is my first time riding in a limo," he enthused, grinning.
Business chuckled. "Well I'm glad you're enjoying it."
Lucy giggled and took Emmet's hand as he continued to bounce. "Calm down, you silly thing."
"You know," Business said as he watched the young couple, "trying to teach you two to dance has made me realize how much I miss it. Don't know who I could convince to go with me now, though."
"Aww Busy," Benny cooed. "We need to find you a girlfriend!" Bad Cop choked and started coughing, and Business simply raised an eyebrow at the astronaut.
"While I appreciate the thought, no one in their right mind is going to want to date the guy that tried to end the world."
"Geez, B, breathe," Benny said as he patted the cop's back.
The limo slowed to a stop, still a few blocks away from Emmet's apartment. They glanced out the windows to see the streets crowded with people fighting. "What in the world…?" Emmet was unbuckled and out the door before Lucy could grab him, Bad Cop not far behind. The remaining three glanced at each other.
"Might as well," Lucy said with a shrug, and unstrapped herself to get out.
Emmet froze as he looked around. There was a number of new buildings that had been constructed in their absence, and partially torn back down, along with a number of other buildings he did recognize. From the architecture, the new ones looked to be of Master Builder make. Emmet winced as he recognized some of the people in the crowd as Master Builders, and they seemed at odds with the citizens of Bricksburg.
Bad Cop sighed, put two fingers to his mouth, and whistled.
Loudly.
The fighting came to an abrupt end as everyone turned to find the source of the noise. Bad Cop loomed behind Emmet, arms folded across his chest as he gave the crowd a very disapproving frown. "Aw, crap," someone muttered.
"Guys, what the heck happened?!" Emmet asked as he pulled his hands away from his ears.
"Dude, I think that's the loudest I've ever heard you get," Benny giggled.
"They started it!" someone shouted. Emmet identified her as Janet, one of the employees at the dry cleaners down the street from him. "They came into our city like they own the place and started making 'improvements' that no one asked for or even wanted!"
"They were falling apart! We were trying to help!"
"They were under renovation and already had a new design planned, now they have to tear it all down and start over again! And as if that wasn't enough, you can see all these buildings they just crammed in wherever they felt like! If they're not in the way, they're creating a hazard!"
"Not to mention the attitudes," Larry deadpanned. "Acting like you're such heroes. In case you all forgot, we fought on Taco Tuesday too. We don't owe you anything, we saved our own lives."
"You only fought the last battle, we've been fighting for the entire war!"
"Oh, for crying out loud…" Emmet groaned.
"I'm with you on that," Benny agreed, rolling his eyes. "It's like watching a bunch of little kids arguing over who won the game. We're all adults here, can we please act like it?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, can we talk this out and solve our differences like grown-ups. Which we were expecting you to do while we were gone, but apparently no one here is mature enough to referee themselves. It's time to drop the egos, guys, if we don't want to wind up right back where we were. I've been saying it for five years- being Master Builders doesn't make us any better than anyone else. You all treated Emmet like trash, yet guess who was the one to even come close to stopping the Kragle? Did you forget Lucy's speech already, or did you just not listen?"
The Master Builders looked somewhat shamefaced at that, and Lucy rolled her eyes. "Probably didn't listen. I hate to admit it, but I probably wouldn't have either, if I hadn't been a part of the raid myself."
"And as for everyone else- believe me, I know how hard Master Builders are to deal with. I wasn't always one myself, and I had such a hard time trying to fit in that I eventually just gave up ever having any real hope of that. But Master Builders are amazingly creative people, and I can tell you from first-hand experience how sometimes the itch to just make something is impossible to ignore. Kinda comes with the territory. So I ask that you please have patience with us. And if we're going to make things work now, it's going to take concessions from both sides."
"Have you been taking speechifying lessons from Emmet?" Sirius teased. Benny feigned wide-eyed surprise.
"There's lessons?"
Lucy started giggling. "Dork."
"Nah, it's just a matter of having the experience from both sides of the coin. I get everyone's complaints, I really do. But I also see a lot of it comes just from sheer bull-headedness. If everyone could just set aside their pride and try understanding things from the other person's point of view, then we'd really make some progress."
They seemed to be thinking about it, all sense of hostility fading away. "I just wanna know one thing," Emmet said. "Why didn't Ellen put a stop to this before it got so bad?"
"Because she decided to go on 'permanent vacation' about a week after you left," Larry explained. "And the Bricksburg police are really only good at directing traffic- seems you guys did your job a little too well," he directed at Bad Cop, who seemed only mildly surprised that the truth about their job had finally come out. "So we've been left largely to our own devices."
"There's seriously nobody in charge here?" Sirius gaped.
"Not unless Emmet takes the job."
"Guys," Emmet sighed. "Look, I appreciate you think I'm capable, but I never wanted that much power. I just really don't think it's for me, I like the job I have now! So, again, that's a no."
Larry then turned to Business, giving him a contemplative look. "What about you?" he asked after a long moment. Sirius startled.
"You're seriously asking me to be President again? You were all trying to get me out of office when we left!"
"Well aside from the whole Kragling thing and making it ridiculously difficult to get coffee, of all things, imported, you actually did a pretty good job. Things never got crazy here. It just… took us a while to remember that."
"Well then." Sirius looked up at Bad Cop. "Looks like we've got our work cut out for us."
"Certainly seems that way, Sir."
Emmet had moved over to speak with the Master Builders. "Maybe you guys should return to Cloud Cuckooland again, just until things settle back down. I'm sure Unikitty will be happy to see everyone again, anyway!"
"I think you're right," Carrie agreed. "We did kinda muff this up, didn't we? But you and your friends gave us a lot to think about, so who knows? Maybe next time will go better."
"I certainly hope so!" Emmet smiled. "And we'll work on getting everyone else here to relax about having you guys around. We didn't exactly give them enough time to adjust to the idea of it before we left, we were in a bit of a hurry."
Carrie smiled back at him. "Well now that you're back, I'm sure we can make it work. Bye, Emmet!" He waved as they left.
"Where are they going?" Lucy asked, walking up and taking his hand.
"Back to Cloud Cuckooland for a while. Maybe the third time will be the charm?"
She smiled and kissed his cheek. "Maybe. You know, it's not so far. Why don't we just walk the rest of the way back home? It'll save Sirius' driver the trouble of trying to get through the crowd."
Emmet beamed at her, swinging their arms. "Let's!"
"Well that's those two taken care of," Bad Cop observed, watching the couple walk down the street hand in hand. Sirius allowed himself a shaky sigh once all eyes were off them. "You alright?"
"I think so? I just really wasn't expecting that. Not for a million years. I can't believe they actually asked me to come back as President!"
"Will you be staying at Octan Tower?" Benny asked, and he winced.
"To be honest, I really don't want to. I really don't like having such an obvious reminder of all the terrible things I did before, and… it's really lonely. I don't think I ever realized how much I like having people around. But Octan's… pretty much bankrupt right now. I checked in with Velma while everyone else was sleeping last night, profits have pretty much flatlined while we've been gone. As much as I'd like to move here and be closer to you all, I doubt I can afford it at this point. At least I own the island and the tower, and I had it built to be self-sufficient since there's obviously no way I was going to run power or water lines that far across the sea."
"Why don't you stay with me for a while, then?" Benny offered. "I promise it won't be any trouble. I have the space, and that way you'll be close and won't have to commute so far to get to work." He grinned. "Mister President."
Sirius perked up a bit at that, giving him a sheepish smile. "Is it bad that I'm really happy to hear that again?"
"Nah. Come on guys, let's go home."