A/N: YAY! I'm SO glad everyone liked the last chapter! XD, I was pretty glad to see them hold hands, and honestly, I was not planning for them to hold hands this soon. ANYWAY, back to what everyone really cares about, the chapter! THANKS SO MUCH!

August 21st

Their breath froze like the temperature had dropped twenty degrees. No one moved.

Even as he knew the consequences, the pain, the ruins of their relationship, Emmet nearly laughed at how hard it was to bite back a smile. She was holding his hand! Accident or not, he didn't care. Mistake or not, he couldn't care less. Whether it meant something to her or not, he didn't need to know. For one moment, for one instant, her hand interlocked with his, and he would remember that instant for the rest of his life if he had to.

Lucy lowered her hand, and gently, carefully, like stealing a precious diamond, removed her hand from Emmet's. "Uh, I don't…I…"

"It's ok, Wyldstyle," Emmet whispered, tucking the hand she had held into his pocket. He smiled through his words, "Don't worry about it."

Had the world just flipped on its skull? Wasn't this the part where Emmet started blushing, maybe crying, and they acted awkward with each other for three weeks until Unikitty made them forget the whole thing? Wasn't that how that was supposed to work? Lucy was tempted to ask him why he wasn't totally heartbroken, though when she opened her mouth, a different set of words came out, ones she though she had buried to the back of her mind.

"We should do this again."

"Huh?"

The pitch his voice touched the stars. She began to ramble, and as she did, she wondered if she had accidentally traded away for a new mind. "Yeah, this was…I mean, we could do another friend-thing like this. I don't know. Maybe ice cream? Do you like ice cream? Ugh, that sounds weird, I don't know, another play? I just–"

"You would want to do this again?" His mind had yet to reach where the conversation had led, if anyone could even call this a conversation.

Lucy nodded quickly.

Something, be it his heart, mind, or frazzled soul, settled inside him, like he was a boy who had confessed a wrongdoing after weeks of hiding it. "Thank you, Lucy."

She wasn't supposed to smile. "Your welcome. You…you ready to go?"

Though he struggled getting up with his crutches, he still offered her a hand, and she accepted it as she rose to meet his eyes, ones she wasn't supposed to get lost in. "Yeah, if we stay out too late, Unikitty…"

"…will probably start planning our wedding."

They both weren't supposed to laugh like that.

The entire neighborhood, perhaps even their entire section of the city, could hear their whole journey home. They heard Lucy's laughter when Emmet said Unikitty probably had a book of names for their future children. They saw Emmet blush when Lucy said he had a nice smile. They heard them both giggle as they got to the door, stealing glances they shouldn't have.

Lucy smiled at Emmet as they stopped at her porch. Even though she had told him, something still nagged at her about his smile. It was the nicest smile she had ever seen, and she had to quickly dispel the idea of getting a picture with him just so she could see it whenever she pleased. "I had a really nice time, Emmet."

"Really?" Despite everything, he still questioned her. "You're not just saying that?"

Her next words were a mistake, and somehow, she knew that before they even hit the air, "Nope. This was one of the best just-friend-dates I've ever had." A sense of responsibility, an evil, sabotaging sense of responsibility told her to keep that nasty phrase in her reply. Just friend. She was Emmet's friend. Given the circumstances, he should have been happy she considered him a friend, and she should have felt righteous for letting him become a friend.

So why didn't they feel that way?

"Well, I should go in, Unikitty's waiting for me," Lucy mumbled. A weight had dropped in her chest. It felt like a punishment.

"Oh, yeah, sure." Emmet nodded quickly, and he grimaced, his eyes locked down at his feet once more. "Goodnight, Wyldstyle."

Quickly, and before losing the delicate, time-sensitive nerve, Lucy reached forward, grabbed Emmet by the shoulders, and hugged him.

She released just as quickly. "Goodnight Emmet it was a really fun time bye!" The door shut in his face before she got her last words out.

Emmet's head was reeling.

Awkward. Friends. Fun. Laughter. Holding hands. Friends. Just friends. Hug.

What was next?

Lucy, from inside, collapsed against the door like she had gotten home from a war. It felt like she had.

"WYLDSTYLE!" A blur of pink sprinted to her side, but the blur's words were faster than its movements. "How was it? Did you guys have fun? Tell me Emmet took you to a movie and not a play. Did you have fun? Are you in love? Just kidding…but not really. How was it?"

A sigh passed over Lucy's lips, and she stood up. "It was alright." Her eyes hung low, and she gently shoved Unikitty out of the way, thoughts Unikitty couldn't read hanging over her expression. "I'm going to bed. Night."

With those words, Lucy disappeared up the steps, and Unikitty hardly heard the door click shut.

Mutters, enraged mutters about Emmet passed over her breath as she dialed his number. Honestly, she got everything set up, she put those two on a date, she pulled a thousand strings in a thousand different directions to push them in the right direction, and Emmet couldn't finish it off? She was going to give that guy a piece of her mind.

The selfie they had taken a few years back at an amusement park, no matter how cheerful and adorable, failed to quiet her scalding anger as he picked up. "EMMET!"

His sheepish, gentle voice peeped on the other end, "Uh, hi, Unikitty, how are things?"

If anyone had every mastered the art of whisper-yelling, Unikitty would have made them cry with her talent. "Emmet, I am going to kill you! What happened on that date–"

"Friend date."

"I. Don't. CARE. Why is Lucy all depressed and silent, or confused and angry, whatever, she's not happy!" Unikitty's words jumbled together ad tripped over themselves, slurring together and sticking to each other, though she knew Emmet heard every single one.

"She…she didn't?"

With a snap of his voice, Unikitty's flaming red tint melted.

Could a person hear tears over the phone?

"I…I thought she had fun. She seemed like she did. I mean, she was laughing. She smiled! She made jokes, we were falling into each other when we laughed. She loved the play…I thought she did." Emmet's voice dropped, and Unikitty's protests, backtracks, apologies and fixes all halted at the tip of her tongue. "Unikitty just…just tell Wyldstyle that I'm sorry she didn't have fun, and we don't have to do it again. Love you, Unikitty."

The phone clicked off.

Unikitty marched all the way to the kitchen. "Chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate."

#

September 9th

"You haven't spoken in how long?"

Emmet elbowed the fridge shut and joined his friends at the poker table. It was Batman's philosophy that you're not a man until learning how to play poker, and since he no longer had Lucy to tell him she didn't like the idea of him playing poker, he had no excuse not to.

"About three weeks," Emmet replied. He offered Batman, Benny, and MetalBeard drinks, and went back to eyeing his maybe-adequate cards. Couldn't they have just played battleship, or maybe had a nerf gun war? He was good at those. He had even beat Lucy once–

Thinking was too hard.

A click came from Batman's corner of the table. "That's a terrible idea."

"Why?" Benny asked, as if challenging a wildly impossible scientific claim. "Why would it be a bad thing?"

Emmet watched, mildly interested, halfway amused, and mostly disinterested, as his friends debated his love life.

"Look, Wyldstyle isn't exactly into him right now, so he's gotta be in there all the time making it better!" Batman shot a look down at his cards. "Who's the dealer?"

"Argh, how many?" MetalBeard raised a metal hand.

"Two. Anyway," Batman muttered, taking a sip of his drink. "He's gotta take his chance while he still has it, otherwise it'll be too late."

Unfortunately for Batman, Benny had other ideas. "Yeah, but he shouldn't crowd her, that'll just make her run in the other direction!" Benny turned to Emmet, who could not have looked more bored with the conversation and company he was partaking in. Benny paid this no mind. "Play hard to get, that's what makes girls like you!"

MetalBeard snorted. "Like ye do with General Mayhem?"

It seemed the whole glittering city groaned as Benny launched into his babbling, memorized, routine speech.

"Sweet and I are just friends and we'll only ever be friends I feel nothing but platonic feelings for her and that's the end of it!"

"We can see that," Batman snorted. "Honestly, you'd think Emmet would be the most awkward guy in the world when it comes to girls, but nope, you somehow managed to top the master."

Emmet grinned. "Thank you!"

Hyperventilating to a degree, Benny stood up at the table. "I…I need to get some air!" He pushed past the chair and rushed out the room, but Emmet caught, just barely, that Benny's phone was exploding with a call from Sweet.

If he couldn't help his own pathetic love life, Emmet decided he could at least help a friend. "I'm going to go help him. Here, MetalBeard, you can bet with my cards." After shoving his set of cards into MetalBeard's elated face, Emmet ran out the door on Benny's tail.

By the time Emmet hit the open, autumn air, with all its leaves fluttering past the frosted, chilled wind running over his hands, Benny was already saying his goodbyes to Sweet, "O-ok, bye, Sweet. I'll see you in a few? Ok. Bye." Emmet recognized the smile on his face all too well.

"You look just like I did when I talked to Lucy." The use of her real name, no matter how rarely he was permitted to use it, tasted like chocolate after medicine. A palate cleanse.

"She'll hate me," Benny muttered. The wind was louder than his voice as he mumbled, kicking a rock into the street, "If I tell her I like her she's just going to think I'm a big dork."

A quick laugh fell over Emmet's voice. "What's wrong with that?"

"Sweet isn't a dork. She's cool."

"Benny, can I give you some advice?" Emmet hardly needed an answer. People who used The Unikitty Advice Method hardly needed permission to share their thoughts, that was one of the staples of helping people like Unikitty did.

Benny nodded, and the two sat on the frosted, burning-cold stone steps of the building. "Sweet is a total dork. A lot of girls are. Sweet and I have had eating competitions, built whole amusement parks out of dominos, and ridden the kiddie rides at the mall. Trust me, you don't have to worry about Sweet being cooler than you are."

"But she doesn't like me. She wants someone funnier, cooler, smarter."

"And you think I'm Lucy's type?" Emmet laughed. He wiped a tear, be it from too much emotion, too much cold, or too much laughter, from his eyes. "When I met Lucy, she was dating Batman! BATMAN! She was dating a superhero, and somehow, she liked me better. Benny, that was the day I learned that anything is possible."

"But what if she doesn't?" Benny threw his arms out to the side, eyes bloodshot and holding back fear Emmet had hardly seen, but knew he had felt. "What if I ruin everything?"

Emmet's voice grew harsh. Cold and unfeeling. His jaw set and his shoulders dropped. "Benny, I lost the love of my life. She doesn't remember who I am, the memories we shared, she doesn't remember how she would kiss me awake if I was tired, or how every Saturday morning we would play a kiddie board game I bought at the store. She doesn't remember how much I love her. She doesn't know that I would die for her. She doesn't remember anything about me. It's all gone, and I may never get it back."

The speech had stricken Benny silent. "I don't think I'd make it if I lost Sweet like that. She's my best friend."

"I thought I was done with love. With friendship." Emmet's hands fell to the steps, he blew a soft puff of air, and he watched it freeze in the air until it dispelled. "If it wasn't for you guys, I don't think I ever would have gotten off that couch."

"That bad?" Benny sounded like a child asking a camp counselor if ghosts were real, huddling with his friends in a tent.

"That bad. But…I have Unikitty. And she wasn't going to let us get away with it. Even without our permission, she got us in the same room. I knew I couldn't give up on her. Not yet."

A car, neon-pink and as shiny as a pearl, slowed to a stop at the side of the rode. The sleek-ebony window rolled down, and Sweet popped her smiling face out. "Hey Benny, you ready to go? Oh, hi, Emmet!"

"Hi Sweet!" Emmet waved, chipper in voice and smiling. He turned to Benny, whose face seemed to hold a battle of the ages between brave, New-Year's-resolution ambitiousness, and sheepish vulnerability. Emmet lowered his voice, "Benny, tell her. It won't always be this easy."

Before Emmet's ego could get a swift intake of air, an idea flashed across Benny's face, and Emmet wasn't a fan. He pulled Emmet side to the entrance of the building, waved for Sweet to give them a minute, and muttered to Emmet, "I'll tell Sweet how I feel if you start talking to Wyldstyle again."

No.

Emmet felt the hundred-pound weight drop into his stomach. Talk to Lucy? That was about as good of an idea as putting raisins in Unikitty's birthday breakfast. Running into the middle of a raged battle would give him better odds of survival than either Unikitty's wrath or Lucy's displeasure with him. "Nuh-uh, no way, I can't talk to her."

"Just like I couldn't talk to Sweet?" Benny crossed his arms over his chest. No way was Emmet getting away with this. "Didn't you say that it was because of your friends that you guys started talking again?"

No response beside Emmet's shuffling feet.

"Besides, I'm not going to tell Sweet I like her unless you have some form of contact with Wyldstyle."

Emmet paused. He didn't have any choice. If he believed he did, it was an illusion. A prank, really. Besides, if Unikitty ever heard that he passed up the chance to get her second-favorite couple together, his chances of survival would diminish to almost nothing.

"Fine, but I might go through Unikitty first, ok?" Though a rush of terror, regret, anxiety, and sickness rolled and bounced in Emmet's stomach, Benny smiled at the decision.

"Thanks." Benny patted him on the shoulder, then ran off towards the car, smiling with the giddy, young-and-in-love energy Emmet felt too old to have again. "Bye Emmet, have fun!"

As the car drove off, two people who had their whole life to love and live together inside it, Emmet had the worst idea he had ever had. It was terrible, really. It would ruin everything, and possibly snap his chances with Lucy in half. It was a stupid idea, one that any sane man would have told him to abandon it immediately.

But in Emmet's mind, it was the greatest idea ever conceived.