waitress // lrh

09 // vanilla

// cate //

She woke up to the sounds of birds whistling loudly around her.

And the feeling of Luke's hot breath on her cheek.

Her eyes flew open when she realized where she was, and who she was with.

Luke's arms were wrapped around her torso securely, her smaller frame nearly fully enveloped by his. Both of her hands were resting lightly on his chest, one on his flannel and the other on his bare skin where the buttons were undone. His lips were hovering beside her cheek, gentle murmurs of hot breath fanning her face softly. His eyelids were closed, hiding away his blue eyes that she knew would've been piercing into her if they weren't. Black eyelashes fluttered gently, but his eyes stayed shut.

Cate's first reaction was to yelp and pull away, nearly forgetting how she had asked him to stay the night with her. But when she remembered, she relaxed again, her tense shoulders letting go. Over time, he had started to seem less and less intimidating to her, to the point where it was like he had never been. The tattoos that covered his arms, the small silver hoop in his bottom lip, his normally clenched jaw... they didn't scare her as much. It was a lot more meaningful up close.

The ink that had seemed to pointlessly litter his body all had some sort of thought behind it, though she figured a few were probably just as pointless and drunk as Calum's. And the small hoop that he so often toyed with in his teeth probably he'd probably gotten with her brother, remembering the night he'd come home with the piercing and their mother had just about had an aneurysm. 

Cate felt she was reading too much into the man next to her. She sighed, watching as his chest rose and fell under her hands. It was odd to be literally feeling his breathing, but she didn't want to move her hands away either. Strands of blonde hair were in his eyes, and a part of her wanted to reach out and brush it away with her fingertips, but she couldn't. That was too much.

"Luke," she mumbled, painfully aware of the itch starting to form on her face that she couldn't reach. If she moved a hand to scratch it, she'd disrupt his sleep. And he looked so calm, so at peace when he slept. Besides, his chin was blocking right where she needed to itch. So instead, she laid there, hoping it would subside.

He went to roll over, nearly crushing her.

"Luke!" she yelled, her voice cracking from sleep.

His eyes fluttered open to see Cate covering her face with her hands, his body almost nearly on top of her much smaller one. His lips were parted in shock, and he took a moment to realize what had just happened.

"Oh- oh, fuck, I'm sorry," he rasped, edging off of her. She slowly pulled her hands away from her face to reveal her soft brown eyes staring up at him.

His blonde hair was incredibly, yet almost heavenly mussed, and his lips were chapped. But he was staring down at her very gently, with some type of... admiration, almost. There was no trace of the irritation he usually held.

"You okay?" Luke asked thickly, his voice deep and rasping in the confines of his throat.

She just nodded, still a little entranced by how someone could look so good first thing in the morning.

"Catie," he started off with a mumble, "what- what time is it?"

"I- uh," she glanced around, thinking to dig her hand into her pocket for her phone, "ten forty."

His eyes shot wide open. "Fuck."

She seemed to wince at his volume.

"Oh, sorry, Catie," he apologized, hoping the pet name that tumbled off of his lips had gone by unnoticed. "I have to call Ashton." Cate just nodded, giving him enough space to crawl out of the hammock. She watched as Luke stood up a bit gingerly, blushing a bit when she realized he had unbuttoned his shirt fully under the blankets.