Imagine That: Multifandom Part Two

just another admirer【two】| lucy gray baird

Y/S/N's smile grew into a hopeful one and I glanced at Lucy Gray, wondering what she meant by that.

"We're headin' down to the lake to cool off," she said, this time to me. "You wanna join?"

I opened my mouth, not sure what my answer would've been, but Y/S/N jumped up and down excitedly.

"Yes! Yes! Oh, Y/N, please let's go!"

I blinked. "Erm–"

"Oh, please, please, please," she continued to beg, shaking my arm.

"You gon' say no to that little face, darlin'?" Lucy Gray teased, putting me on the spot.

I gave her a disapproving look, before sighing and giving in to Y/S/N. "I guess we're going to the lake."

Y/S/N grinned and hugged me quickly before looking to Lucy Gray. "Let me just say bye to my friends."

Lucy Gray laughed and nodded, watching her run off to her friends.

"You know you're gonna have to sing for her now, right?" I asked Lucy Gray with amusement, putting the skipping rope back in my bag and grabbing it.

"I'm well aware," she answered. "Though, it'll have to be after a dip in the lake. I could just about melt right now."

And if that statement wasn't accurate then, it was on the walk down to the lake. A much longer walk than I thought, I was already sweating through my shirt, but it didn't seem to bother Y/S/N who was chatting and giggling excitedly with Maude Ivory and Clerk Carmine up ahead. It was a heartwarming sight, though it made me wonder why we were here at all.

Yes, Maude Ivory and Y/S/N were friends, but never close enough that Y/S/N had been invited to hang out with her and the rest of the Covey. And all the same, I'd worked with the lot of them, but had never gotten close enough to them that they'd invite me out also. Lucy Gray invited me, and I hated that it might have just been because of the fact that I'd looked out for her recently. An obligatory friendship, if you will.

"Someone's stuck in their head."

A testament to that statement, I failed to notice Lucy Gray slowing down her walking so she fell into step with me as we walked through the woods.

I smiled a little, though I was definitely still overthinking. And then I decided to just come out with it. "You don't need to do this, y'know."

"And what is it that I'm doin'?" she asked with a stifled smile.

I couldn't look at her as I said, "Feel like you owe me for the past few weeks. Hanging out because of it."

"Are we not friends?" she asked, and when I looked to her, I saw the teasing glint in her eyes. "Can friends not hang out?"

I swallowed hard the longer she held my stare, brown eyes glistening golden in the sunlight. "Well, I– before everything, I just thought– we weren't–"

Oh, gosh, why did she always have me flustered?

She started to laugh, eyes squinting as she did. "I'm only teasin'. But to answer your concerns, I'm not doin' this because I think I owe you. I just always found you interesting, and I suppose it was finally time to see why."