The thing about Luke was that he was a secret snarky jerk. Elliot was not sure how Luke kept that a secret: possibly it was a secret from Luke himself. His shoulders looked a little bit less tense, though, and Serene looked a little bit less like a bodyguard standing in front of the bunkbed.
“I’m terrible at feelings, it’s like they’re knives, I don’t really know what to do with them and I end up throwing them with too much force,” said Elliot, advancing. “But I have strong views on having a more accepting society, and everyone getting to be who they really are, and so it’s excellent that you made your class announcement, and if anyone else had been insensitive about it I would have been extremely vexed and plotted vengeance.” He paused. “I don’t suppose anyone was insensitive about it later?” he asked hopefully.
Luke shrugged, the last of the tension going out of his shoulders. Serene looked relieved. Elliot knew that she lived in the constant fear that one of them was going to go off into hysterics.
“Just the one guy at first,” said Luke, and smirked. Such a secret jerk: it was unbelievable that nobody else had caught on.
“I can’t plot vengeance against myself, you must see that,” said Elliot. “But I can plot something else! I love plots, you know that.”
Luke, grinning a little, looked up at Serene: she looked fondly down at him, and smiled. “How many times have the words ‘I love plots’ been followed by good consequences?”
“Statistically it has to be very few,” said Serene.
“So little faith,” Elliot said mournfully.
He closed the distance between himself and them. Serene subsided onto the bunk beside Luke with a little sigh of satisfaction, and Elliot sat at her feet, leaned an elbow against her knee, and looked up at Luke expectantly.
“So,” said Elliot. “Is there a boy you like? Tell me.”
Luke choked on air and spluttered.
“Elliot, that’s inappropriate,” said Serene. “Luke has his maiden purity to think of. To be modest and discreet is to be much desired. Although I am not quite sure how it works when two gentlemen desire each other.”
“Serene,” said Luke.
“Presumably it is a very tactful courtship, and no doubt most chaste—”
“Serene, you’re not helping me!” said Luke. “Neither of you is helping me.”
“No, I know,” said Elliot, leaning toward him. “But I want to help you! I can help you! Tell me who it is.”
“Drop it,” said Luke, and squirmed across the mattress, away from both of them. His shoulders were hunched again.
This was a clear sign of guilt.
“The fact that you’re not answering me makes me believe that there is a boy you like. You can’t fool me, because I’m extremely intelligent. Now tell me or I’ll keep pestering you to tell me.”
“You’re supposed to be supportive of me!” said Luke.
Serene nodded. “That’s what the pamphlets said. We studied them carefully.”
Elliot’s pamphlets had been taken from him and used against him, and he couldn’t even be angry because this was more important.
“I’m trying to be supportive of you!” he told Luke.
“Then stop yelling at me!” said Luke.
“I will stop yelling at you if you let me support you,” Elliot proposed. “Do we have a bargain?”
Luke’s shoulders were still hunched in, but he glanced over and down at Elliot: there was a deep flush running along his cheekbones. “You’ll laugh at me.”
“I won’t,” Elliot promised. “I’ll be supportive. We’re going to be supportive, aren’t we, Serene?”
“If you wish to tell me, I will be happy to hear your secret,” said Serene. “I vow not to mock at you and never to tell anyone the object of your tender maidenly affections, not even if they torture me. A true gentleman’s heart is as sacred as a temple, and as easily crushed as a flower.”
Elliot and Luke absorbed that in a brief moment of silence.
“See?” Elliot said. “We’re being supportive. I promise not to laugh.”
“You promise?” Luke asked warily.
“Yes. Trust me,” said Elliot. “Tell me.”
“Okay.” Luke took a deep breath. “Dale Wavechaser.”
“Uh,” said Elliot, and broke into a grin.
“Elliot, you promised!”
“No, no,” said Elliot hastily. “I’m not laughing at you. But that’s pretty convenient, isn’t it?”
“How do you mean?” Luke’s eyes narrowed. “Just because he’s into guys doesn’t mean he’s into me.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean? Why did you smirk?”
Elliot had smiled because that was so typical of Luke’s life, that everything would go smoothly for him. Confessing to a crush on someone who clearly had a crush on you back was a bit like saying you were hungry with breakfast already laid out before you: expressing a wish that was already granted.
But Luke looked upset, and Luke’s life was not quite as easy as Elliot had always supposed—not as easy as Elliot had thought it was when he first saw Luke, not even as easy as Elliot had thought it was this morning—and Elliot had promised to be supportive.
“I didn’t mean to smirk,” said Elliot. “That’s great. You should ask him out!”
“Are you trying to make fun of me?”
“Usually yes, today no,” said Elliot.
It was ridiculous, how uncomfortable and upsetting this was. Elliot glanced at Serene, but she was looking to Elliot, clearly expecting him to make things right: not only because she thought men were the ones who talked about feelings, but because Elliot was the one making Luke so tense and unhappy. Luke had trusted Serene with his secret, and that had obviously gone well. It was Elliot messing everything up. It was Elliot who always did.
It was clear, from the elves and the council of war and Adam Sunborn, that Elliot needed to learn how to tact, both personally and professionally. Being more tactful was the only possible tactical decision.
Elliot cleared his throat and tried again. “I mean, I like Dale.”
“Yeah?” Luke brightened. “He’s nice, right?”
“Sure!” said Elliot. “Also super handsome. You should definitely ask him out!”
Serene and Luke both spoke at once, Serene vehemently on the subject of modesty and chastity and Luke even more vehemently on the subject of not being pushed or teased and also it being a little soon.
“I only just decided,” Luke finished, as Serene said: “—a gentleman’s most private treasure!”
“Oh, you only just decided?” Elliot inquired. “Like, you decided today? Luke.”
Well done Dale Wavechaser for putting his hand up, he supposed. He could not help laughing.
“You promised not to laugh at me!” said Luke, but he was laughing a little too, even though he didn’t seem sure why.
“I’m trying!” said Elliot. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do it.”
He wasn’t just laughing. He was plotting. And he was thinking, as well, about something that perhaps should have occurred to him earlier: if Luke liked guys, he didn’t like Serene, not in that way. Elliot had got it all wrong. Elliot might not have any real competition: Elliot might really, truly have a chance with her.
The next day was bright and clear. The sky was blue, trainees wandering over the grass between classes, luxuriously slow as the wisps of cloud moving across the sky, and Elliot was not in a love triangle.