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"𝔒f course I am Iris." Arabella held the phone under her shoulder, rifling through her notebook to try and find her list of presents that she was planning to give to others. "I'm going home for Thanksgiving but I'm staying in New York for Christmas."
The doorbell rang as Iris began to ask questions, causing Arabella to stand up and throw the door open. Her eyes went wide and a smile broke out onto her face at the sight of Luke, despite trying not to let herself beam at the man. Luke was paler than when she last saw him, his eyes tired but he was grinning in a sweet sort of way. He held up a pizza box as Arabella nodded and let him in.
"Yes, yes, sorry, I can hear you. No, I'm not going for Christmas as well and you know why, Iris!" Arabella shook her head, walking away from the door. "I'm not going to play mediator for their arguments, or let myself stay in that house for too long. They're grown adults! They can deal with their own problems without me there."
She pulled a face, before meeting Luke's eyes.
"You alright, Ellie?" The use of the new nickname had heat flushing to her cheeks. Luke wasn't looking at her, putting the Chamber of Secrets back onto the shelf and trying to locate the next one. Arabella leant back onto the countertop, admiring the back of the man before bringing herself back to the conversation with her cousin.
"Yes, someone is here with me." Arabella nodded, as Luke glanced back at her. "Oh, it's a friend of mine. Luke. You don't know him."
Luke left her to it, sitting down beside the coffee table and putting the pizza onto the table. Turning around, he watched as Arabella threw two coke cans at him. Catching them, he placed it down onto the table before starting to read through the notes on Arabella's nursing degree.
"Sorry about that." Arabella appeared from the kitchen, causing Luke to stand up. He quickly leant down, throwing his arms around the smaller girl and pressing a slight kiss to her cheek. "How are you?"
"Tired, and very excited for our film night." Luke smiled, before rubbing at his eyes. "It's been the only thing keeping me sane during work."
Arabella snorted, crouching in front of her DVD box to pull out her favourite Disney movies. Luke knew of Disney, of course he did, but he'd been on the run since he was 9 and couldn't watch things due to technology attracting monsters. He was kind of excited to watch whatever Arabella decided to make his watch.
"Have you had a thought about Christmas?" Luke looked at her, as he opened the food in front of them.
"Yeah." He nodded, before smiling. "I should definitely be able to come round. I can get time off."
"Luke, you're saving me from a painful Christmas and I thank you for that," Luke laughed, as Arabella jumped onto the couch next to him and grabbed a slice of the food. "You allergic to anything?"
"Nope," The title screen came up, as Luke's eyes widened and he became totally invested in the movie. Arabella laughed through her mouthful of food. Every time they watched anything, Luke always became completely invested in it. It was cute.
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Snow White came to an end, and Luke and Arabella were both laying on the couch, wrapped in blankets to combat the winter night, which was steadily growing colder. Arabella felt, and probably looked, like a burrito but she was warm.
"Are you staying over?" Luke glanced down her.
"Is that okay?" She nodded, before Luke shot her a thumbs up from the other end of the sofa. "Who was that on the phone, earlier?"
"My cousin, Iris." Luke hummed. "She's just got married and had a kid and she likes to call and mother me."
Luke laughed.
"What about you? Do you have any close family?" Luke paused for a moment, thinking of what to say. Eventually, he sighed and tensed up.
"I did, in a way, but we weren't blood family." Luke shrugged, as Arabella hummed and waited for him to continue. Luke paused, trying to think of how best to say it. "I didn't have a great childhood, but in it I met these two girls who I helped out. Thalia and Annabeth. Annabeth was like a younger sister to me, and Thalia was..."
He stopped, his eyes growing unfocused as Arabella watched him. Neither of them spoke for a moment, waiting slowly for Luke to come to terms.
"Thalia's dead now." Arabella paused, before making a split second decision to wiggle out of the blanket and crawling up the sofa to wrap her arms around the blond man. "What are you doing?"
She tightened her arms around his body, squeezing gently.
"I'm giving you a hug." Arabella smiled, though Luke found himself unsure of what to do. He hadn't had a hug from someone in a long time, not one that wasn't a comforting one for him. "Accept my love and sympathy."
Luke let out a small chuckle, blowing Arabella's curly hair from his mouth. He poked her in the side, laughing lightly as the girl spasmed and then fell onto the floor. She groaned, causing Luke to laugh more. Growing annoyed with the man, Arabella reached up to yank him off of the couch as well.
His laughter grew pained as the air got knocked out of him. Struggling out of her blanket, Arabella managed to sit on top of the man, batting his hands away from her.
"Why won't you accept my love and affection?" Luke was still laughing, trying to get her off of him but was failing miserably as the smaller girl grinned.
"Your face when you fell on the floor..." Luke mocked her face as he escaped the grip, and began to tickle the clear sighted mortal.
"Luke!" He laughed even more as she spasmed, still wrapped up in the blanket from the movie. "My god, if I get out of here, I'm going to kill you. I invite you into my home and you throw me on the floor after I give you love and affection. How rude!"
Luke just laughed, before picking Arabella up by her waist and sitting her back on the sofa, still swaddled in the blanket from the movie. They both calmed down, finding themselves face to face and breathless. Arabella's eyes went wide, before the sound of someone knocking on her door had the pair pulling away.
"Arabella Carter!" The sound of her downstairs neighbour's voice caused the girl to wince. "It's half two in the morning. Some of us have work and need sleep! Keep it down!"
"Sorry!" The man stomped away as Luke and Arabella shared a sheepish look before giggling once more.
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Hiya,
So this is just soft Arabella and Luke hours and I love the both of them very much. They're serious cuties.
Anyhow, thanks for reading and let me know what you think.
