Chapter Text
Unlike many boys his age, Gregory Bridgerton was excited to meet his soulmate.
His mates whinged about the unfairness of it all; how were they meant to live their lives and have their fun when they had a soulmate to consider? It was difficult to do all the things a typical sixteen year old boy wanted to do when anyone (any girl , Greg hoped desperately) could be the one made for you. Other boys lamented this, constantly, but Gregory did not.
At this point, he had too many examples of how wonderful the concept of a soulmate could be. His parents’ love story was nearly famous, for they were soulmates and lovers in the truest of definitions. Daphne met Simon years ago, and they lived in a nauseating wedded bliss now with two toddlers. Anthony found his soulmate not long ago, in Gregory’s art teacher Kate Sharma (Greg was a bit peeved about this one). Even Benedict and Colin, both romantics at heart but slightly scornful of the entire soulmate concept, had found their soulmates several months before in slightly less-than-ideal circumstances.
Gregory had happy examples of what soulmates could be in his family, and at sixteen years old, he was raging to find his own.
And he thought he had, in Miss Hermione Watson.
Hermione Watson was gorgeous . She was a year younger than Gregory in school, but they shared a music class where they both played their respective instruments horribly. Hermione was all gold-spun blonde hair, piercing green eyes, and perfect face. Greg knew without a doubt that she was the one meant for him.
The only problem was Hermione Watson had no idea who he was. Not for a lack of trying, though.
Truthfully, Gregory made a fool out of himself in front of Hermione as often as he could to try and get her attention. Her head, though, was forever turned. She never acknowledged anything he did, even when he was directly addressing her.
He wrote her cute notes and put them in her locker, he bought her drinks at lunch, and he once (several times) even dragged Hyacinth to school early so that he could wait and attempt to walk her to her first class.
None of these actions had any effect.
A blessing, though, after weeks of his awkward attempts, came in the form of an angel named Lucinda Abernathy.
Lucy was Hermione’s best friend since infancy, and no one knew Hermione like she did. She knew what Hermione liked, and what she disliked, and how exactly to get her attention (and keep it).
According to Lucy, Hermione believed her soulmate was someone entirely unsuitable. Hermione thought that she was completely in love with him, and Lucy had made it her life’s mission to show Hermione that he was not her soulmate.
So, for this reason, Greg and Lucy had formed a kind of partnership. Well, it began as a partnership; now, Greg could truly say Lucy was his best friend.
What began as texts conspiring on how to show Hermione that Greg existed turned into near-constant debates and inside jokes. Lucy spent most evenings at his home, and weekends as well, and soon their odd companionship turned into a real friendship.
The first indication that something was odd was the time that they went an entire day without once mentioning Hermione. Greg shrugged it off, though. They would make up for lost time later.
Per usual, Saturday found Lucy splayed out on Greg’s bed with their school books surrounding her, scrolling through her phone and watching Greg, who was thoroughly distracted by a game on his phone.
“Aren’t we supposed to be studying?” Lucy asked him through a yawn. His bed was truly far too comfortable; Lucy had begun to associate it with late night cuddles and afternoon naps. It was almost second nature at this point to fall asleep lying where she was.
“Do you want to?” Greg joked without looking up from his phone. “I thought we were having a nice break.”
“It isn’t a break if we never started in the first place, Greg,” Lucy pointed out. Greg sat on the floor, with his back against the bed, in the perfect position for Lucy to look over his shoulder and see what he was playing. “Flappy Bird, really, Gregory?” she asked, unamused. “Put your phone down and come up here.”
As she spoke, Greg’s bird hit a pipe and he sighed. “As the lady commands,” he grumbled. Lucy made no move to make space for him, so he squeezed himself onto the bed in the only way he could: he crawled over her until he reached the wall, then splayed himself half over the empty space and half over Lucy herself. “Are you comfy now?”
“Very,” Lucy mumbled under his weight. Then she sighed. “What is your new plan about Hermione?”
“New plan?” Greg asked, turning his head so it rested next to her shoulder and looking into her eyes. “I didn’t know I needed a new plan. I thought Plan Daisy was going to go wonderfully.”
Lucy shook her head. “I think you need a more concrete action. We need something that proves you’re serious. Or that you can be serious, at least.”
Greg swatted at her. “I am perfectly serious, thank you. We’ve been making and executing plans for months . Surely you know how much I like Hermione.”
“I know, I know,” Lucy told him dismissively. “You think you’re in love with Hermione, but she doesn’t know that. We have to come up with some way to show her that.”
Greg nearly rolled his eyes at Lucy’s speculation about his feelings. He knew he was in love with Hermione Watson, thank you. Or at least he knew he could be.
As surely as the sky was blue, and as Kate and Anthony were soulmates, and as Lucy’s eyes were the most shocking green, Greg knew that Hermione Watson was his soulmate. He just had to figure out how to show her that.
“What about your soulmate, Luce?” Greg asked her quietly, trying to divert the attention off himself. Lucy very rarely spoke about her soulmate; she knew who they were, but as far as Greg knew, her soulmate did not know her and seemingly had no desire to.
“What about him?” Lucy asked in an annoyed tone. “We were talking about you, Greg. Don’t deflect.”
“No,” Greg said as he adjusted himself until he was propped on his elbows, looking down at Lucy. “Don’t you deflect. Do you ever want to get to know your soulmate?”
“I know him perfectly well,” she answered with a frown. “He doesn’t know we’re soulmates, and he doesn’t want to. I’ve told you this. Why are you asking?”
“I don’t know,” he told her truthfully. Greg wasn’t entirely sure why he asked, but it suddenly seemed necessary. “I just… I know that we became friends because of this whole Hermione thing, but you’re my best friend, Luce. I hate that so many of our conversations revolve around me and my love life. I couldn’t do this without you, but I want to help you too, Lucy.”
It wasn’t his intention, but Lucy smiled the softest of smiles and made Gregory’s heart flutter. He liked that he was able to put these kinds of smiles on her face, especially when he knew that she didn’t want to smile.
“I don’t think our friendship works like that, Greg,” she said softly, raising her hand to push his hair off his forehead, just for a moment. “You help me, even when you don’t realize you do. Our friendship doesn’t revolve around Hermione, not anymore at least.” That put a soft smile on Greg’s face. “And as for my soulmate, I really don’t put that much stock into it. If we’re meant to be together, we’ll find our way to each other. If not, I have my eye on a couple other boys, too.”
“Wait,” Greg froze, “who do you have your eye on?”
“I’ll let you know when it’s important,” Lucy answered vaguely. “Now, back to you. What are you going to do about Hermione to prove you’re serious?”
“Prom,” Greg blurted. “I should ask her to prom. That would seem serious enough, wouldn’t it? Public event, people would see us, and I could pull out all the stops.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t ask her to prom,” Lucy said with a snort. “I would hate to see what all your romantic moves are. From what I’ve seen, they aren’t much to comment on.”
Greg tried to plaster a frown on his face and shoved at Lucy’s shoulder, but he quickly broke into laughter. “I think I have the moves!” he protested. “I can be romantic!”
“You can be obsessed, Greg. I don’t know about romantic,” Lucy pointed out.
He rolled back onto his back, mirroring Lucy’s position on the bed, and huffed. “I’ll just have to learn how to woo her, then. How should I ask her to prom? Some grand promposal?”
“Hermione would love a grand promposal,” she answered him quietly. Greg heard her barely-there sigh, even if he wasn’t meant to. For a moment, he let himself wonder what kind of person Lucy’s soulmate was, and why he ignored her so, leaving her to do momentous milestones like prom alone.
“What kind of promposal would you like, Luce?” he asked her. The words escaped before Gregory could capture them, but he found that he really did what to know.
Lucy’s mouth fell open just a bit in shock at his question. “I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it. I don’t figure I’ll be asked.”
“Why do you think you won’t be asked?” Greg frowned. “You’re a catch, Luce. Don’t put yourself down.”
“I don’t think I’m putting myself down. Just being realistic. There’s no one to ask me.”
“Maybe your soulmate will come to his senses and ask you.”
Lucy let out a bitter laugh. “He won’t. But that’s alright. I don’t need that kind of relationship with him. I can find happiness outside my soulmate, Greg. I’ll be okay.”
“But how?” This was not how Greg planned on this conversation going, but plans rarely mattered with Lucy. Oftentimes, they charted their own course together. They started at Point A and quickly moved to Point 7 before realizing that they had completely bypassed the intended result. It was marvelous. “How do you find happiness outside your soulmate? It’s such an amazing thing. I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want that.”
Lucy turned to look at Greg, likely observing the confusion in his eyes. “It isn’t that I don’t want that happiness with my soulmate. It’s more about… charting your own course. Sure, this is the person my life is tied to, whatever. But just because some odd higher power decided that doesn’t mean that I actually have to follow it. We’re our own people outside our soulmates, Greg. I can find happiness in myself, and in other people. It’s not as difficult as it sounds.”
“That makes sense,” he nodded. “I just see my siblings and their soulmates, and I can’t imagine not having a partnership like that. They just seem to get each other. I want someone to get me like that. I want someone to get you like that.”
“You’ll find that someone, Greg,” Lucy reassured him with a pat on his cheek. “Whether it be Hermione or someone else, you’re too good to pass up. And hopefully I’ll find my person, too. It’s all in good time.”
Together, they sighed. Unable to stop himself, Greg reached out and curled his pinky around Lucy’s. He wanted that bit of comfort for a moment, for himself and her.
“I didn’t mean to make things depressing,” Greg whispered into the silence. Lucy snorted out a laugh, the one she did when she was trying to hold it in but couldn’t quite manage.
“You didn’t,” she promised. “Let’s go back to prom.”
“Right, then.” Gregory let out a breath. “What kind of promposal do you think Hermione would like? Something big?”
And so, on a crisp Saturday afternoon, Gregory Bridgerton and Lucy Abernathy laid in his bed, clutching pinkies and devising plans for one Hermione Watson, unaware of how things were slowly changing.