𝙨𝒕𝙖𝒓𝙙𝒐𝙢'𝙨 𝙨𝒆𝙘𝒓𝙚𝒕 - 𝐥𝐲𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐱 𝐟em! 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

chapter 10 - morning's glow

"Ah—um," Freminet sputtered, startled that y/n seemingly teleported into his house, "good morning!" He greeted her, but it sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Good morning, Freminet!" y/n exclaimed happily, despite the dark circles underneath her eyes. She didn't get much sleep, as she went to bed way later than usual, with the added disadvantage of being at somebody else's house.

He hesitated for a moment before replying, "I didn't know you stayed the night."

"Ah—right! Me and Lyney were out late, and it started snowing. We were a far distance away from my house, so Lyney invited me to spend the night here."

For a reason unknown to y/n, Freminet's face seemed to relax at her reasoning. "I see. Well, I'm making some coffee right now, would you like some?"

"Oh, sure! Thanks, Freminet!"

He smiled softly and turned back to the coffee machine, retrieving creams and sugars.

The large windows of the Hearths' house allowed sunlight from the early morning to shine and illuminate pieces of (expensive) furniture. The days were close to the beginning of winter, meaning later sunrises and earlier sunsets. Unfair, but that's how winters always were. Even more unfair, actually—considering that it was technically
still fall.

An instrument on a high, secured shelf caught y/n's attention. "How's the oboe going, Freminet?"

"Pretty good," he answered as he seemingly drowned his coffee in milk. Ah, right, he was still young, so he couldn't have concentrated coffee. "I've gotten to grade three and a half in music."

"That's amazing, Freminet! You've come so far since we first met a few years ago, I'm proud of you!"

His cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "Ah, um... Thank you." He was silent for a couple of moments, regaining his composure. "How do you like your coffee?"

"Oh, just with a sugar and a little milk. Thank you, Freminet!"

"No problem."

*~

Y/n sat across from Freminet at the elongated dinner table.

"Lyney and Lynette are out running errands for Mother, if you were wondering," Freminet spoke. "Mother herself is at work."

"Oh, okay. Thanks, Freminet," she said, taking a sip of her coffee and taking a small bite of a chocolate chip cookie.

"High school was a little... surprising," Freminet said after a few moments of silence. "It's better than middle school, though," he added.

Y/n chuckled as Smokey hopped on the table with a jingle of his collar. The black cat purred as y/n pet him. He tried to drink out of y/n's coffee, but she picked him up and put him in her lap before he could.

She noticed a pile of papers halfway down the long dining table, sticking out against the otherwise bare piece of furniture. "Hm? What are those?"

"Ah—those are um...I think it's just Lynette's international language homework. She's trying to learn the ancient language from Snezhnaya, I think."

"Oh, how cool! I'm learning ancient Inazuman, so I probably wouldn't understand a word of that."

Freminet laughed lightly, his face flushed as if he had just gotten away with a sloppily put together lie. Weird. 

The pair continued talking for a while, until the front door eventually burst open.

"We're back!" Lyney exclaimed with an exaggerated entrance. Lynette rolled her eyes.

"Ah, I see that you're up," Lynette said once she made eye contact with y/n. She waved, "good morning."

"Good morning, Lyney, Lynette!"

"A good morning it is, indeed!" He said with a bow, before Lynette bopped him on the back of the head. "Ow!"

"I hardly even made contact with your hair," Lynette deadpanned, rolling her eyes. Y/n laughed.

*~

Lyney walked over to the stack of papers on the dining table.

Y/n and Lynette were watching some Inazuman show upstairs, which gave Lyney some free time to overlook the lyrics to the song. Luckily, the papers on the table seemed undisturbed, meaning Freminet had done his job well in protecting them. Though, Lyney would admit, it was foolish for him to leave the song in the open in the first place.

Annotations covered the words, hot pinks and bright blues highlighting verses that needed improvement.

He had decided to dedicate a song to... someone, and he wanted it to be his absolute best. He didn't know why he had to make things more complicated by writing his own song instead of just going with their usual set list, but Navia seemed infatuated with the idea and insisted that they do it.

It didn't help that Aether, their lyric writer, wanted Lyney to write the song completely on his own for some reason, the only advice given being synonyms to words.

He let out a defeated sigh. How will this even turn out? We have two weeks until the concert and we're only halfway through instrumentals. Why didn't they talk me out of this?

He sighed again, frustrated, clicking the pen against his chin repeatedly.

Y/n said she wrote in her free time—but he couldn't ask her without being found out completely. Both his feelings and his career.

He was on his third cup of coffee at this point, determined to make a decent amount of progress on his song. Better yet, finish it.

Reluctantly, he dialed a certain somebody's phone number.

"Why, hello, Lyney!"

"Hey, Navia uhm..."

"What's the matter, dear? You sound stressed."

"How do I..." he hesitated for a moment, "literally write a song?"

A laugh was barked on the other side of the phone. "Ha! You're just dense, Lyney."

"Hey! What does me needing help have with me being dense?"

"Relax, I'm just jesting. Have you tried putting raw feelings into it?"

"Raw feelings? As opposed to cooked feelings?"

"Don't be a smartass with your boss, Lyney. You haven't accepted your feelings for y/n—density—and, therefore, you don't understand how to put your feelings into a song!"

"Uh...huh? What do you mean?"

She sighed. "Maybe just brainstorm what you like about y/n. Once you're there, put what you genuinely feel into words."

"I think I understand...Thanks, Navia."

"Of course! Do try to be rather quick with it, though. We need to finish this song quickly."