the bucket list | lrh

06 - help me

"Luke? Long time no see." Scout was surprised to say the least. Luke was the last person the man had expected to show up on his doorstep tonight.

"Yeah..." Luke muttered, unsure what exactly his next move should or even could be. He didn't know why he was beating on the door in the first place, let alone what to say now that Scout had opened it for him. As the black haired mans hand ushered Luke inside, a million thoughts ran through his mind.

Both of the men were horribly confused. Scout because he didn't totally understand the meaning behind Luke's presence. To Scout's knowledge, Luke hadn't even spoken to Valentine in months—he couldn't possibly consider the blonde being there for his little girl that had stormed inside and into her room just a little while ago.

Luke was confused because he was just as unsure about his attendance as the man was. He knew what he wanted, he just didn't know how absolutely insensitive he had to be to actually get it.

"How have you been?" The man spoke up, filling the tension with small talk—a skill he had acquired over the last month or so since Adeline passed away.

"I'm... I don't know, I guess I'm alright," the blonde answered brutally honestly as he stepped inside the familiar home of Adeline Leonard. It hadn't been too long since he'd been there, just a little longer than he liked to think about. Without Adeline, there was no reason for him to show up unannounced anymore. There were no more late night pick ups to go spontaneously crash a party.

"I'm glad you're not falling apart, son. Is there anything you need?"

Scout was way too nice in Luke's eyes. The boy had rudely barged up the steps to the porch just to pound on the front door with not a single explanation as to why. Luke was positive that he didn't deserve the kindness buried beneath the pain in Scout's eyes. "I uh..." Luke didn't stutter or struggle to speak often, he was just at a loss of words in his current predicament.

"I came to talk to Valentine, actually." When the words finally escaped his hesitant lips, Luke found himself regretting the decision to come here in the first place. He knew he fucked up when he snapped at Valentine earlier, but it was too late to back out and he had to find more information about the list. Anything to keep him holding onto Adeline's spirit, he'd take it and he would run with it.

Scout was shocked to hear the seemingly simple sentence. But alas, he swallowed his fatherly pride and called out to his daughter who was sure to be hidden underneath a grave amount of blankets by now.

"Yes?" The girl called back, her body still glued to the bed she'd grown accustomed to the idea of living in.

"You have company!"

Valentine had an inkling of suspicion, but other than that she was only confused. People didn't usually come to visit, and after the day she'd had—she didn't really want to talk to anyone else.

Regardless of her reluctance, she climbed out from beneath her covers and slipped into her house shoes before slowly creaking her door open and finding her way down the hallway.

"Luke?" Her voice was small. Too small for Luke to ignore, in fact. Far too small for it to go unnoticed by Scout, too.

"Hi..." the boy mumbled, keeping his eyes anywhere but near her own.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," he explained, taking a cautious step towards her.

Scout took this as his cue to leave the pair alone, and he quietly retracted himself from the conversation. As he wandered back into the kitchen—where he had been cleaning up for the last hour, he tried his best not to eavesdrop on his daughters personal conversation.