this was such a delight to read. dunk treating him and lyonels weeklong (if even that) friendship falling out like a breakup without even realizing that’s how he’s approaching it. “I suppose I never really promised Lyonel anything. So I never broke any promise, either.” said every situationship turned sour ever. the implication that while the guards might not know who ser duncan is they know lyonel would still want to meet a Big Guy is hilarious. also when lyonel was trying to gaslight dunk about their fight never having happened in the first place i could just picture the manically big eyes as he was pretending he had no idea what dunk was talking about.
dunk being so worried lyonel would be angry at him for their fight and then upset at the idea that maybe lyonel really didn’t remember or just didn’t care to is such an interesting way to tackle his inner turmoil cause i do think even in the show dunk was shown so lost at times because he didn’t actually know what he wanted or what he was feeling. he was just kinda skating by on the idea he wanted to “prove himself as a knight” but then never got the chance to figure out how he’d even go about it. i love how expressive you made lyonel with dunk being a man of few words without it taking away weight from the other. the great thing is how this could 100% be read as platonic if not for the audience already knowing lyonel has a big fat crush on dunk lol. also the very small crumbs from dunk here and there not necessarily saying there Are feelings but moreso implying it wouldn’t take much for feelings to come later. don’t know if that was intentional or just my internal shipper bias but either way i really enjoyed it and hope you end up writing more for them!
Thank you so much!! And you absolutely picked up on all the right signs from Dunk, I was definitely going for a "guy who hasn't yet figured out why he's assigning so much meaning to this ~friendship~" vibe. The shipper bias in me is shaking the hand of the shipper bias in you. If this story was written from Lyonel's perspective it would be very different, as you say he's the one who has figured out that he's got a giant crush :3 I definitely want to write more of them and see how they can get themselves on the same page, so I'm so happy that you enjoyed reading this!
Comment on I'll make you maybe next time around
mrdebbie Mon 02 Mar 2026 06:13PM UTC
Last Edited Mon 02 Mar 2026 06:16PM UTC
Comment Actions
saltstreets Tue 03 Mar 2026 12:51PM UTC
Comment Actions