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diorsdahlia · 4 days ago

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THIS IS SOOOOO PEAKKKKK NANA COOKING AS ALWAYSS

Please, please listen...

Installment of the Mine series

warnings: fluff + angst, playboy!Luke, fem!reader, daughter of Athena!reader, swearing (also, 4.5k+ words)

Because it's been so long since your hands touched, because of the way he bears his soul to you, because you can't seem to forget.

˗ˏˋ ♡ ˎˊ˗

It had been what, two weeks, now ?

Luke must've eventually gotten the hint, because nowadays you hardly ever saw him, barely catching sight of him, sometimes when cleaning up after a young campers’ training session and he came out to prepare the sword rack for the session he supervised.

As time passed, so did you anger. It was really feeling like the stages of grief, somehow; you'd denied the situation for weeks before finally hitting that wall of truth, lashing out at Luke and shutting him out altogether.

But now, you felt stuck in an endless loop of mourning what had been.

You knew it had been for the best, a fact Clarisse couldn't help but bring up at any given occasion, but it was in no way making it easier for you to get over it. Sure, you'd grown less attached —or so you tried to convince yourself—, but there was always something gnawing at you when you caught a glimpse of him, whenever you got a whiff of his smell you could recognize anywhere, one you'd started to associate with comfort that know left a bitter taste of unfinished when he passed by.

Lets be fully honest: you didn’t want what had been back, the last strings of your pride and self respect still held you back from it, but you couldn’t stop feeling that pull, that irrepressible yearning that seemed to spread throughout your whole being, like a heavy feeling you couldn't get rid of.

But it had been weeks, now, and as much as it pained you in a twisted part of your mind, you knew no contact was for the best. Right.

So there you were, minding your own business as you walked to the armory, admiring the way the light hit the side of the arena with an orange ray of sunset that resembled the color of your own camp-issued shirt so much. You were supposed to pick up a repaired spear tip for Clarisse, since she was apparently ‘way too busy to take care of it ’ and had offered to give you two days’ worth of dessert if you went to get it for her. So you did, of course, not that she had to push too much when dessert was involved.

Your footsteps were leading you straight to the armory, on that small, unfrequented path that weaved through trees, but all of a sudden it wasn’t just as unfrequented; a flashy camp shirt could be seen through the gaps in the trees before a small turn, probably still shielding you from their view. You didn’t falter in your steps until the camper’s face came into view: brown locks that you knew to be as soft as they looked; hazelnut orbs that instantly bore through yours with an intensity you couldn’t help but crave; chapped lips you couldn’t help your eyes from straying to.

Luke halted abruptly on the other end of the trail, starring wide-eyed for a couple of seconds. There was something unreadable written on his face, like his eyes tried to convey a message that was blocked halfway.

There was a moment, right then —you couldn’t decide whether it had been an hour or a mere two seconds—, where neither of you moved, just starring into each other’s eyes from what felt like a thousand feet apart in your heart, and you could feel that tightening in your chest-

Shit.

‘It has no business being this hard’, you thought, forgetting someone shouldn’t be this hard. It should be like deleting a picture, no look back. He was just a boy you knew from camp, there were dozens like him, boys in orange shirts eating marshmallows around a campfire that could drape an arm around your shoulders like the heat of the fire wasn’t enough to keep you warm.

But it wasn’t just like deleting a picture, and you knew in this deep, twisted part of your mind, as much as it hurt to even admit it —you didn’t want another boy in orange shirt. You wanted to keep every memory of laughter with him and treasure it like a framed picture, you wanted to remember all the times sparks shot up your spine at the mere graze of his fingers against yours —the pristine memories , the ones still left untouched by the anger that had submerged you mere weeks ago.

You were feeling tears prickling at the corner of your eyes, memories crowding your mind and blurring your vision, when you saw his eyes shy away from yours, his face harboring an expression that could only be described as cowardice. There was a crease between his eyebrows, his nose scrunched slightly like you knew he did everytime he was annoyed, this time maybe by himself—, and you didn’t know whether to do like him and look away, or come forward and pray him to take you back.

But the moment broke in a way you absolutely didn’t expect. Luke had started turning away from you, probably hoping to escape whatever confrontation could’ve next taken place except, as he did, the boy stepped onto his own shoelace, tripping over himself in a rush and landing forward on the ground.

You were stunned from incredulity for a moment, taking in the absurdity of the scene, a snort the only reaction you could muster as you watched from afar his form laying on the ground, yet you quickly got worried when he didn’t get up right away. Acting on instinct , forgetting how much you should’ve been resenting him, ignoring him, you almost sprinted Luke’s way until you reached his side, crouching next to him.

“Shoot, you okay ?” Your voice carried a softness you didn’t want to hear as you spoke to him, with the irrepressible urge to tend to whatever was wrong you felt creeping up your back. “Luke ?”

Fuck, it rolled off your tongue so easily it could’ve been made just for you.

Still lying on the ground, a hand shielding his face from harm and the tip of his ears burning red under dark curls of hair, Luke was trying, really trying, not to cringe at his own behavior. Face-planting like an expert ? Really smooth. You had been awfully clear about your current aversion towards him, and Luke had taken it upon himself to avoid you for days now, weeks. ‘Nothing more than stolen glances’ he’d swore to himself, though his heart had been wanting to cry out ever since; ‘it’s easier like that’ he’d told himself, though it seemed like you plagued his every thought even more than before, losing his focus, losing his appetite, looking at you from afar longingly like he knew you were this special thing he wanted but could never have, too afraid to have it permanently taken away.

And now that. What a good second-first-impression.

Luke groaned in his hand, refusing to gather himself in fear of the sheer embarrassment that would rush through him at the mere sight of you. “I’m fine, just go.”

“Hey, I’m not joking, I wanna make sure you’re fine.”

The evident worry in your voice soothed his soul, a softness he thought could heal any wound. If only he could get a larger dose.

“Yeah, yeah…” he mumbled, slowly rolling on his back before sitting up with his arms behind him to support his weight. “I told you, I’m fine- ouch!”

As soon as you saw his face, his pretty face, adorned with a slightly bleeding scratch on the chin, you felt your heart thrum harder in your chest, the feeling one would get seeing a harmed pet. For a second you couldn’t shake the resemblance he bore to a cat, a black cat, nose scrunched in embarrassment and eyes averting from yours, his face barely in your direction like shying away, and his hair that always seemed so soft glinting in the faint orange light. You took his jaw in your hand to tug him closer, wanting a better look at the small gash, and made him slightly wince in the process.

The boy might’ve wanted to act all mighty in the moment, but the way his eyes bore right into yours while you took a closer look at his chin, your breath fanning on his skin in a warm breeze…it was saying everything his lips couldn’t mouth. You looked distracted, the way he knew you did when you were thinking hard —and he was right, your eyes were searching the empty air like a map to the memory of a book you’d read years ago, about first aid in isolated territories—, and he knew he wanted to use that time to his own benefice, his selfish desire to take you in over and over until your image was ironed on his eyelids.

Luke’s eyes bore longing, the way you look at a person that once was the center of your world but escaped it; they conveyed sadness, the one he felt seeing your face and remembering the anger that had taken over you at the mere thought of him; they ran over your every feature to ink them in his mind, noticing the silver flecks in your irises and the slight movement of your eyes in the void; they eventually glanced down to your lips when you wet them absentmindedly, their soft curve he knew like the back of his hand, the rose-y color that painted them when you nervously bit them all day long.

You tilted his head slightly, cocking it to the side for a better angle, and the moment Luke’s face went putty in your hand was the same moment he sat up righter to close the distance that had shortened over the last dozens of seconds between you, his lips landing on yours with practiced ease. It was like discovering a known territory all over for him, savoring the short instant it lasted with his mouth locked with yours like a perfectly matching puzzle piece.

But it wasn’t long before you pulled away, immediately raising to your feet and stumbling back a little from the rushed movement. Your eyes locked with Luke’s, taking in the look of outright yearning and desperation he didn’t even care to hide anymore, his brows shooting up in this pitiful expression that gnawed at your resolve.

“Please…”

Your heart was beating against your temples, feeling lightheaded all of a sudden —overwhelmed by the utter weight of his gaze as it fell upon you. Your fingers were twitching by your sides, urging to do something, anything, other than standing still, dumbfounded, and you brought one of your hands to your lips, softly pressing where his mouth had slotted against yours a couple seconds before.

“I…” Fuck. “It’s not… we shouldn’t- I…” You could barely string words together, like they flew around and you couldn’t catch a single coherent thought. You felt whatever control you had slip from your hands, the feeling of the pebbles on the ground barely enough to keep you grounded as they scratched under your shoes. It was all…too much. Simply too much for you to even try to comprehend whatever storm was raging inside you. You didn’t want the answer anyway.

Luke’s hand was loosely reaching out for you, his eyes scanning yours in hope of finding anything that could be a push in his direction, any trace of sympathy that still lingered…

On your side, the only decipherable thing in your mind, though, was ‘Fuck Clarisse, she’ll get her spear herself’ before your steps lead you back on the track you’d just came from, turning around running away from the problem, hoping the tears threatening to spill from your eyes were just from the harsh wind.

Dear gods, that interaction alone had shook you more than anything should have. You couldn’t stop yourself from zoning out for two days, replaying it all, over and over. The way Luke's lips had felt so soft against yours, warm and welcoming in their sudden movement, so much so you’d debated whether or not pulling away was the good decision when knowing it was the one thing you'd swore not to fall back into. The way his eyes had bore into yours —what in memory felt like a window to his soul—, conveying all the things you didn’t want to see him feel. Because the path you’d chosen was antagonizing Luke, all along: he'd played you, he'd broken your heart, he'd never care because he was soulless, in the end. But how could you antagonize someone who’s spirit seemed at the mere thought of you turning your back on him ?

“Yo, bae, you listening ?”

Silena snapped right in front of your unfocused eyes, effectively bringing you back in the second. You lightly shook your daze away —dissipating the clouds that shaped Luke's heavy gaze in your mind— before looking back at her, an expectant expression painting her face. But of course, you didn’t know what she was expecting.

“What ?” you hesitated.

The daughter of Aphrodite sighed dramatically, jutting out her hip with her arms crossed over her chest. “I was saying,” she stressed, eyeing you anything but subtly, “most of the things are set up for the picnic, but I gotta go get something at the arts and crafts-”

“At the arts and crafts ? You wanna make bracelets or something ?”

She purposefully ignored your interruption, simply carrying on her weirdly rehearsed-looking speech. “- so I'll be a few minutes behind. Oh and Clarisse has to pick up the spear head since you… well…”

This time, the pointed look came from your eyes. After all, you were not a really good liar —except maybe when lying to yourself, you thought—, so coming back empty handed had necessitated an explanation. Clarisse hadn't loved it, she’d made it clear, but Silena…. Silena looked intrigued. All things in the mind of a daughter of Aphrodite’s mind, right ?

“Anyway, we’ll just be a few minutes behind, you go first.”

“It’s okay, I'll just wait for you in there,” you dismissed with a nonchalant flick of your wrist.

You were slightly surprised when a flash of uncertainty showed in Selina’s eyes, just for a quarter of a second, before being quickly being replaced by challenge. “What, you’re too scared to get to the lake by yourself ?”

You narrowed your eyes, made slightly suspicious from her odd behavior, all of a sudden. “You’re weird..” you finally let out, dragging the last sound in uncertainty.

“You’re weird,” the girl simply shot bag with a face of incredulity. “Just go, we’ll join you in just a few minutes.”

You eventually surrendered, mumbling to yourself half the way there about how ‘stupid’ it was, that you ‘could’ve just accompanied her, could’ve managed a 3 minutes walk’ and all sort of mindless thoughts just to keep you entertained as you walked through the fields of strawberries under the blaring sun.

And just as planned, as you turned a corner to go to the place Silena had chosen —‘right from the third field, then left towards the shore of the lake until you see the big rocks, the stuff are there’—, you could see the red and milky white edge clashing with the grey rock and its green mossy side. But surprisingly, you could also distinguish the tip of a… shoe?

The closer you got, the less you understood the situation. From your angle, the person was almost hidden whole behind a large tree, sitting on the picnic cloth, but you could clearly see all the delicacies placed right in front of them, and that definitely drew you in. But when close enough, you could start to hear some mumbling, nothing you could really make out, and you could tell the person, whoever they were, was awfully nervous, leg stimming, foot repetitively hitting the blanket while they mumbled whatever.

Then the back of their head came into view. Fuck.

It was stupid, really, to reminisce from just the back of a head, undefined dark curls and tan nape, the brown string of a necklace right over the collar of an orange t-shirt. But damnit, had you looked at the back of this head for minutes, longing for it to twist and reveal that smile directed to you and you only, brown eyes creasing with a movement with a golden aura that your mind would make up on the spot.

Damn Luke. Luke, Luke, always Luke. Too much Luke. So much Luke you felt pathetic.

“Why are you here ?” Your two feet were firmly planted on the ground, and the calm that suddenly reigned inside your mind surprised you.

Luke seemingly got out of his reverie, the words leaving him for a second as his mouth opened and close like that of a fish underwater. ”I…”

You sighed, slowly shaking your head in realization. “Silena, right ? Fuck, I should’ve known, she was acting so weird…”

You stood at the foot of the high boulders the picnic was set up on —large enough for four people, just overlooking the lake and still hidden from view by all the trees nearby. It would’ve been the perfect setting for a picnic, picturing the shadows of the tree shielding you and your two friends from the harsh sun. Now you just stood at the foot of the boulders, looking up at Luke with an indescribable look.

The silence was heavy, like stilling the air between you two, and seconds felt like minutes. Or were they really minutes ? Neither of you moved, just blankly starring at each other, and by that time, you’d abandoned all idea of Selina or Clarisse ever showing up to what could now only be described as an ambush.

And in an epitome of an anti-cathartic moment fashion, your stomach grumbled, and you remembered that you had been saving your appetite for that picnic after your friend had absolutely hyped you up about it. Nothing to be really hyped about anymore.

‘Okay, body, what the actual fuck ?’

“You…wanna get up here ?” Luke asked, after an excruciatingly awkward silence. “I’ve got- um…” There was a second where his head disappeared, bent over to look into the cliché woven basket that sat next to him, before coming back up and showing you a glass bowl of berries. “Blackberries, I got blackberries,” he started, marking a small pause like pondering whether or not to continue. “I know you really like those.”

You scoffed, crossing your arms over your chest. “No you don’t. Silena just happened to pack them and you got lucky saying that.”

“Uh, no. Actually, I asked her to pack them when she first told me about…well, this, rather than just strawberries.”

“Oh.”

For a second, or maybe just a little more, that shut you up. That was rather thoughtful, coming from the guy who supposedly didn’t care. But you didn’t want to think about this, or about anything that could make the idea of Luke feel any sympathetic to you: however redundant this might have been, echoing in your mind over and over again, this was not an option —anything that had to do with Luke wasn’t an option.

“So this was planned? All of this? That’s what you mean ?”

“Oh by the gods, is that-” The guy’s eyes would’ve rolled to the back of his skull if that had been a possibility. Was that really all you had chosen to remember from this ? “Just- just shut up and come eat, yeah ?”

“You’re really patronizing.”

“You’re really hungry.”

You sighed, softly shaking your head, before eventually looking back up to him. “Just so you know, I’m not coming up there because you told me to.”

Luke couldn’t suppress a small smile as he saw you walking forward, swiftly climbing up the rocks. “I assure you, that didn’t even cross my mind.”

You made your way up to sit on the picnic blanket, leaning on a rock and as far away from Luke as you physically could. Obviously. The awkward silence had come back, and this close it felt like tenfold, so you focused your gaze on the plate of blackberries he was handing you. You carefully took it from his hands, careful not to even graze his skin, though your mind seemed to play tricks on you as your fingertips softly brushed over the area where his hand had been, the glass still a littl warm from his hold.

“So…are we gonna talk ?”

You popped a berry past your lips, trying to seem nonchalent, yet your tense shoulders gave you away in a glance your way. “I’d rather we don’t. Honestly, I’m just here for the food Silena promised me, and I take it as mere compensation for the emotional damage you’re causing me just being here.”

The boy’s eyebrows shot up as he looked down at a plate of pancakes, mumbling to himself. “She sure talks a lot for someone who doesn’t want to…”

“What was that?”

“Nothing you want to talk about, apparently.” His lips were stretched in a tight smile as he looked up at you, holding in a chuckle at the sight of you, curled up against a rock with blackberry stains all over your fingers. Luke pushed the plate of pancakes your way along with a can of mapple syrup, gently as he was affraid you’d flee like a stray animal at the first warning sign. “Take those, I made them this morning so they’re pretty fresh.”

You eyed him suspiciously, alternating between his face and the plate of golden pancakes. “Since when do you cook?” you asked, munching on another berry.

“Not long, actually, maybe a week or two.”

“I bet they taste like you burnt them.”

Your deadpan actually got a laugh out of the curly haired boy, cracking a real smile, as wry as it might’ve been. “Yeah, I bet they do…”

A small smile crept up your own face without realizing, and you caught yourself almost enjoying the moment. You remembered those small times, just stolen moments between the two of you, weeks ago —how you’d lay in the grass on Half-Blood hill, pointing at clouds with weird shapes and laughing at whatever stupid thought Luke shared without any filter, or how you’d share those playfull banters when sitting next to each other at the bonfire, his hands tickling your waist until you fell backwards from laughter.

Could you allow yourself just a second to miss it ?

Luke took a long breath in, softly exhaling before speaking up. Unbeknownst to you, it might’ve been taking every inch of courage inside him to do. “You know, I’ve been thinking a lot, those past few weeks..”

“Luke, stop, it-”

“No, please. Please just..listen, okay ? Think of it as background noise for your meal or something.” The crease between his eyebrows was deepening, and you had to refrain yourself from reaching over to smooth it. “I just… I need to get it off my chest, or else it feels like it’s just gonna eat me alive. Please.”

You fell silent for a second. A second only. “I’ve never heard you say ‘please’ as much times as in the last 5 weeks,” you said with a dry chuckle, and he winced at the hostile noise.

“Yeah, well, I don’t really have anything to reply to that…”

There was calm in your mind again, in that instant, like you suddenly felt at peace for a reason you couldn’t quite figure out. But what surprised you more were your next words. “Sure, go on. Speak your truth, or whatever.”

It was like you’d spoken before the idea had fully bloomed in your brain, or maybe like your past emotions had taken over for a moment, but you felt this sympathy growing in your chest, a warmth you didn’t want, but could only accept now that it was out. But it meant nothing, right ? He was gonna try and talk you back into his arms like you’d seen him do with tons of girls, and you’d just eat while acting like you paid attention. That was the plan.

Definitely was going to do this.

“So, look. I know what I seem like, from the outside, and i earned that reputation: I seem distrustful, I even heard I was ‘cheater material’ once, which is totally unfair when I did nothing to deserve that stigma, and I’m not reliable unless it’s camp-related. Yet, people eagerly overlook it to fit me in this box of the ‘perfect little soldier’, here to help, here to teach, here to explain, here. But, you and I, we both know it’s not true.”

It sounded more like a question as Luke ran a hand through his hair, separating the soft curls in a mess of dark strands, and you itched to fix them.

“I can’t cook, obviously, I can’t remember birthdays, I can’t stay focused on one thing at once if it’s not with a sword between my hands, I got the nasty habit of stealing people’s stuff for absolutely no reason, just for the rush, and honestly ? I’m just fucking scared all the time.”

You sighed, with a face of where-is-this-going, but he quickly stopped you with a move of his hand.

“But if there’s one thing you should really know, that I should’ve told you so much better than I did the first time, that I should’ve told you the first moment it popped inside my stupid fucking brain,” he strained, voice hoarse like the words were actually costing him. And maybe they were, it was an unusual setting for him, sharing. The boy took a deep breath in, trying to calm his erratic heart, but to no avail.

“Fuck, this is like… way harder than I thought.. You know I’m not big on emotions, yeah?”

Though it was clearly rethorical, you couldn’t help but aggressively nod, to which he scoffed.

“Didn’t need confirmation, but well.. So I’m not good at sharing what I feel, okay ? Or think, for that matter, so it’s not really coming off easy, right now… I think it’s what I was trying to say, the other day, when I kissed you ?” His eyebrows rose at the memory. “Which, by the way, I’m sorry about, that was… I shouldn’t have done that, I’m sorry. But I guess what I’m trying to say is…”

There was a long silence after that, emotion after emotion succeeding one another on his face —confusion, and anxiety, and conflict, and…fear ? Suddenly, he left his head fall into his head, shoulders slouching, defeated.

“Shit, I can’t even say it, it’s so pathetic…”

That really drew you to care, to be concerned: the desperation laced in his voice, the one you’d seen written in his eyes just a few days ago when you’d pulled away and left him back in the cold. I tugged at your heart the way you never wanted it to again, the way that meant he still meant so much to you even now, even after having felt used, and betrayed, and tricked. But you couldn’t stop yourself, as much as you tried to.

“Hey, are you okay ?” you hesitated, pushing away from the rock you laid your back onto, kneeling a little closer to the boy that was still hunched over, face hidden in his hands.

“No!” he suddenly exclaimed, taking you slightly aback. “No, it’s not fucking okay! I tried, so much, all the fucking stupid ways that my godforsaken brain could come up with, to make this easier for me. I’ve tried to get into what you liked, to spend time with you, to help you out… I just-”

Luke swallowed down the lump forming in his throat hardly. “It probably just worsened my case? Because I doubted using my only fucking skill would even work, and then it failed miserably because, well, obviously you’d need a little more than those mediocre attempts at flirting to take me back, since you’re- I don’t even know… you’re you-”

“Luke, slow down, I’m not sure I’m following.”

But that attempt at calming his nerves proved ineffective, the words flowing from his mouth in an uninterrupted flow.

“And now I know what I gotta do —I have to be truthful, transparent—, but I can’t do it because what if I bare my fucking heart to you and you just crush it to pieces? What if I discover all of this only ever existed in my head ? Or that I fucked up so badly you don’t ever want to have to see my face again ? Then what ? I’m supposed to just act like it never happened I-”

You scooted closer, placing a steady hand on his forearm, concern lacing your confused expression. “Woah, shh, please, I can’t catch half the things you say,” you tried to reason with him, and there was a short moment during which he didn’t speak, before you heard a small ‘fuck it’, and the boy turned to look right in your eyes, one of his hands softly resting upon yours. And as little as it seemed, this small gesture, the intimacy it created, you realized you had been yearning for it.

“I like you, so fucking much I might even love you, for all I know.”

Oh.

It was like your heart stopped beating, right there and then, your breath hitching and body stilling.

“And it just happened so quickly I- I didn’t know how to act. I mean, there’s no handbook for that, and I can’t remember ever feeling with someone what I feel when I’m with you, when I think of you. I wanna see you every second of every day, I want your voice to be the only sound in my ears, your perfume to be around me at all times,” he sighed, taking a short break to breath in and calm down. “It probably sounds obsessive, i know, but since that argument, it’s only worsened… Fuck, I don’t even know what that was about, I just know I felt like an elephant had stomped over my heart, over and over again…”

There was a beat before you could form anything over a sound.

“You…”

Another.

“You’re kidding?”

Incomprehension, in your eyes, in his.

“You’re just gonna overlook the way you ripped my heart out so violently? Because I can't put myself back in a situation like that, and you're a source of them.” You searched his gaze for a dishonesty you couldn’t find, when he seemed genuinely unaware of what it was you were talking about. You shook your head in disbelief. “You don't even have a faint idea of what I'm saying, do you ?”

“I… Is it because of Elaine ?”

“Don't give her a name, I wanna still be able to antagonize her, and a name won't help,” you shot quickly, and Luke couldn't contain a small chuckle.

His eyes squinted from the smile growing on his face, and he knew it was childish, but getting back this side of you made him almost feel like he'd won, like his efforts weren't in vain. “Your heart was shredded to pieces because of…jealousy ?”

“Jealous- Jealousy ?” you scoffed, looking at him with pure astonishment. “I thought there was something between us, something more than just you being you, and I see you leaning against a tree, making ou-”

“Not making out,” Luke didn’t hesitate to cut you off, looking at you in earnest, though the corner of his mouth was twitching up in slight amusement. “She literally jumped me, and I had like a minute of shock before I pushed her off.”

“I don't…”

“You don’t remember it? Well, didn’t realize you’d seen it, but do you think maybe you immediately jumped to conclusions?”

Your gaze turned wry for a second. “I don’t do jumping to conclusions, Castellan, I do logical and rational and thought through. And it just makes sense that you’d-”

Luke cut you off again, looking almost offended. “What do you mean it would make sense ?”

“Stop interrupting me!” you eventually snapped, your voice turning almost shrill from frustration, and the boy in front of you didn’t even bother hold in the fit of laughter that burst from his lips.

It was weird, how it sounded like warmth, like summer, like a pure waterfall diving into a calm lake. It was just a sound, yet it felt like everything for a moment. His laugh was reckless sunshine, the kind that slipped through cracks you thought you'd sealed. It didn’t ask permission —it just filled you up, stupid and soft, like nothing had ever broken.

Luke leaned forward over the plates that separated you both, reaching over to gently smooth a hand through your hair, tucking a stray strand behind your ear in the process. “Sorry, bunny, I didn’t mean to.”

You didn’t correct him this time. You felt your brain fall back so easily into it, the pattern of what was, what you unknowingly wanted back, and you didn’t want to fight it. So you clung to that thin glimmer of hope, of trust, the remnants you knew you should have swept away long ago but couldn’t seem to get rid of. Luke didn’t remove his hand, and you barely resisted the urge to lean into it.

“I feel like nothing makes sense,” you sighed, eyes looking down at your hands. They rested on your knees, palms facing up and open, and you just felt submerged by this feeling of helplessness, like everything was out of your control. “It’s not fair…”

Not fair that you still feel like home.

Luke was on his knees, inching hesitantly towards you as time seemed to stretch in this small space that, for an instant, belonged to the both of you only. “Then make them make sense.”

“Yeah, easy to say,” you scoffed, and his hand ventured to the edge of you jaw, almost cupping it.

“You can go bits by bits,” he said, quiet, in the way he had to make his most mundane words sound so intimate. “For starter, one thing makes sense to me: I like you.”

This time it wasn’t rushed, or in a spur of the moment; it was soft like the look in his eyes, soft like his hold on you as he leaned just a tad closer, soft like the leaves-filtered light that hit the side of his face and cast it in a warm glow; most of all, it was honest, it made you want to trust him, nevermind what had happened or might have.

Your gaze shied away from his quickly, cheeks dusted in a light blush. “You’re being really demonstrative for someone who said they struggled with emotion-transparency,” you mumbled, pursing your lips to make that a smile disappear.

“What can I say ?” A melodious chuckle escaped his lips. “You make me wanna be a better man…Because I like you, bunny.”

You could practically hear the smug smirk in his voice, his ego indeed inflating each time your ears turned a deeper red. “Shut up…” you protested in a sheepish voice, bringing a hand up to shield your face from Luke’s gaze.

He was quick to catch you wrist and softly tug your hand away, his eyes glinting with mischief like the smile that tugged at his lips. “You’re not gonna say it back? I said I like you, it’s pretty rude to not answer when I say I like you-”

You were torn between hopping the ground would swallow you whole, and bursting in a fit of laughter. “Oh my gods, stop saying that…”

“Make me, then.”

You didn’t need more incentive, an arm wrapping around his neck to pull him down until your lips collided with his. It wasn’t perfect, but it was everything you needed; the reassurance, the honesty, the comfort and the familiar: it was all you sought and even more, all that would make you stay as the boys lips guided yours in a slow dance you couldn’t think to refuse.

Luke pulled away for just a second, taking in your face for a second with a smile before leaning back in, only you stopped him.

“You know,” you whispered, like a secret you shared, “you’re gonna have to wash your mouth with water blessed by Aphrodite herself if you want more than this, though. I don’t do sloppy seconds.”

“You’re actually disgusting,” he replied with a stern face, one he couldn’t hold on for too long before it cracked into a smile again. “I don’t get how I can still like you so much.”

“Oh my gods ewwww,” you protested, two hands on his chest to push him away.

“Is that even a thing though? The blessed water.”

You thought for a second, eyes to the sky. “I don’t know, but don’t Christians do something like th- hey!”

Luke had take advantage of your loss of focus to practically tackle you in a hug, the hand behind your head to protect you almost making you melt on the spot. His arm quickly found their rightful place around your waist, his body inching up so you could be the one to lay your head on his chest.

“You’re awfully touchy…” you mumbled, your face buried in his orange tshirt, finding the smell that clung to his clothes weirdly comforting —not that you would ever admit it.

“Figured I’d change a few things if you ever wanted you back-”

“Who says I want you back ?” you asked with a raised eyebrow, lifting your head from him with a hand tightly clutching his shirt.

Luke looked down at you with a confused smile and perplex eyes, his head tilting lightly to the side. “You…don’t ?”

“I do, but you shouldn’t assume.”

He scoffed, rolling his eyes while a hand came behind your hand to push you back down with a small groan. “As I was saying, I thought changing a few things wouldn’t do any harm. Oh and, your beloved Clarisse also threatened me, and she’s usually pretty efficient with her convincing, so…” You couldn’t hold in a small chuckle at his words. “You don’t want me to be touchy ?”

“Nah, I like it…” you sighed, your eyes fluttering close as soon as his fingers started to mindlessly comb through your hair.

And just like that, it was back to the quiet comfort you longed for. The sun had moved by now, laying it’s warm rays on your cheeks, Luke putting a hand up to shield them from your eyes as your breathe evened out. If anyone asked you, you’d say all of this was crazy, and the you from a week ago would’ve probably screamed at you for going back, but you were a girl of logic and strategy; if the strategy meant putting your trust in this one boy no one else believed so easily, you’d do it again in a heartbeat. This was what you craved, what your heart longed for, and the only right logic was to listen to it.

You laid a soft kiss on Luke’s stomach over the shirt. “I like you too, just in case it’s not painfully obvious.”

Just imagining silena and clarisse fist-bumping behind a bush or smth, and clarisse going to traumatize that (poor) elaine girl <3

Now you can trash me about the ending if you want, I get it, I still fear i've rushed the writing too much every gods-given second, but I still feel like it's write ~

So sorry it took me this fudging long to finish it all up, school is hectic..

Hope you cherished those two as much as I did when I wrote them for hours on end and they basically HAUNTED MY SLEEP thinking of what to write... anyway..

- Love, Nana <3

taglist. @cas-planet @spider-ghoul @smileysunshinesworld @mlbmarichat13 @makinbananapancakes @imafuckinstar @emotiandon @mgg55lovr @kisscastellan

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