Lockwood & Co. AU

Pranking Quill Kipps Pt. 1

George looked at him and waggled his eyebrows, smirking evilly.

Lucy rolled her eyes and deadpanned, "You realize he'll suspect something when he has to put on the goggles to see me, right?" It was silent for a moment, then Holly looked at George and chirped, "Yeah! We'll have to find a way around that!"

Lucy whipped around to look at her with a shocked expression. "You too?!" Holly shrugged and turned to look at the boys with a devious look on her face.

"Should we get Flo as well?" she asked with faux innocence. Lockwood and George both shook their heads and said, "No, no!" at the same time. Lucy snorted as Holly stood there cluelessly.

Lucy floated over to her and snickered. "They're both scared of Flo," she said with a raucous laugh, "Lockwood could beat Quill in a rapier duel, but he'd lose in an instant with her."

Holly nodded her head, clearly withholding a grin. "That's true, I suppose. Lucy will have to hide before we separate them so that Flo doesn't see right away."

Lucy, suddenly remembering what they planned on doing, whipped around to look at the three with a shocked expression. "And what say do I have in this?" she asked accusatively.

"None," George said with a shrug.

She threw her hands in the air. "Unbelievable," she announced dramatically, "Betrayed by my own friends!"

~~~

Lockwood threw the necklace in Lucy's room. He could hear her screaming various curses and threats at him as he shut the door behind him. He turned to look at the rest of the company with a devious grin on his face.

"Let's get a plan down," he said, "Someone can pull Flo aside," he cast a knowing look at George, "And we can bring Lucy down and scare the pants off Quill."

Holly chimed in, "But how do we get the goggles on him?"

Lockwood's eyes glinted with an excited look on his face. "That's the thing. He said that he could still see the skull's glow, so I think he'll be able to see Lucy when he gets here."

"Perfect," George said definitively. He put his hand in the middle of their triangle eagerly. "Let's do it!"

The others put their hands in and put a look of determination on their faces. This was the best way to bring everyone together: pranking Quill Kipps.

Lockwood smirked as the knocker slammed against the door. "Well, it was an honor working with you all. Stick to the plan," he said with fake seriousness. He could faintly hear Lucy screaming bloody murder up in her room and he almost felt bad for doing this. Almost.

They all put on their masks of solemnity, mainly because Quill and Flo still thought Lucy was gone. In that way. It hit Lockwood momentarily that Lucy had died. He hadn't let it settle in earlier, mostly because of denial, but she had actually died. He genuinely started to feel guilty, but to be frank, Quill did deserve something after all those years of teasing. George walked to the door and opened it slowly. Lockwood stepped forward and ushered Quill in while George pulled Flo outside, withholding a smile.

As George and Lockwood kept them busy, Holly backed away slowly so they wouldn't notice. After she was out of Quill's line of sight, she ran up the stairs swiftly and silently. The threw the door open quietly and snuck into Lucy's room, so quietly that Lucy didn't even notice. She stepped on a loose floorboard and Lucy whipped around with an alarmed look on her face. Her expression softened when she saw it was Holly— the one person that had the slightest bit of mercy when she was in this state.

Lucy smiled regretfully as she recounted all of her life choices before this moment. "You're actually doing this?" she asked tiredly.

Holly grinned sheepishly. "Gotta give the people what they want," she said jokingly.

As she picked up the necklace, Lucy asked curiously, "So, does Flo know?" Holly nodded and pulled the necklace from the table. Lucy hummed in agreement, obviously knowing she couldn't do anything to stop them. Holly smirked and grabbed the necklace as she started to walk away. Lucy pouted and crossed her legs as she reluctantly let herself be dragged along. She stayed silent and just tried to play along for their sake.

Lucy rolled her eyes as she heard Flo and George talking in the other room outside of Quill's earshot. She floated to the farthest she could get from the necklace and tried to listen in on their conversation. She caught bits and pieces of it, but she got a vague idea of what they were taking about. Her.

"So, she's really a ghost?" she heard Flo whisper.

"Yeah, and a Type Three!" George quietly yelled in excitement. As Holly walked away and Lucy was pulled back, they bounced ideas off each other like a never-ending loop of positivity. She smiled to herself. George and Flo were good together, whatever their relationship was. She was glad that something good came from this; even if it was just positivity, it was better than what it was before.

As Holly pulled her into the common room, she could see Quill's back turned to her as he talked with Lockwood. She could hear George snickering quietly from the other room. He did always have that air of schadenfreude around him that resonated more the longer you knew him.

Lockwood made eye contact with Holly and a small smirk played on his lips. Lucy groaned as Holly cleared her throat, gaining the attention of Quill.

As he turned, he noticed George and Flo smirking and standing in the doorway expectantly. He turned to look at Holly and froze in shock.

((A/N: Hey! Sorry about the lack of updates, I had an English project that was due and it took me forever to finish! Remember, if you want to read about something from this AU, just request it in the comments! This is also unedited, mostly because I just wanted to update after so long. Hopefully I can update routinely, but school is difficult so I'm sorry if I suspend updates occasionally. Thanks for reading!))