the bucket list | lrh

35 - surprises

"Luke?" Valentine finally questioned once the front doors of Mariam's home were pushed open. The blonde hadn't spoken a single word as he kept his distance from the girl, walking back to the house in peace. Well, that's how it appeared anyways. From afar, it looked like he was just tired. But deep down inside the poor boys troubled mind, he was panicking. He didn't know why he wanted to get the girl back so badly, but he knew that the lack of clothing did it in for him.

"Yeah?" Luke finally turned back to face her. Immediately, he was overwhelmed by a dull pain in his head. The sight of her like that while they were alone was even worse than it was on the beach.

"What's going on?" The little brunette asked, feeling cornered by the intense stares she was receiving. Though there was not another soul around her, she felt enough pressure from Luke's eyes alone.

The way she asked was what got Luke. She sounded so innocent, like she had no guilt whatsoever. She just wanted to understand the situation, and he could tell.

"Nothing I just... can you put this on?" Luke asked, not really pointing at anything specific. He had retrieved the girls suitcase from the car after they had breakfast, and he was thankful for that. As he glanced back and fourth between the little girl herself and her suitcase, she got the idea. She kept her head down in shame, making her way across the room to stand next to him.

"You didn't like it?" Luke could've sworn that his heart was beating much faster than humanly possible. Maybe because it was, though he wasn't letting it show. He kept a straight face as the girl unzipped her suitcase slowly.

"No, it's not that. I just..." Luke didn't know how to explain himself out of this one, though. He had no idea how to make it less obvious how much it bothered him to see her so exposed.

"I don't know, you just—"

"Are you telling me what to wear?" Valentine gaped, catching the boy off guard with a sudden rush of confidence oozing out of her.

"What? N—what?" Luke couldnt really wrap his head around the words coming out of the little girl in front of him. She looked so painfully pure, yet she was speaking so cool—so powerfully.

"That's what it sounds like," she shrugged, testing the boys reaction to such words. He looked puzzled at first, but quickly recovered his usual stone cold expression. She noticed he did this most when he was frustrated.

"What do you mean?" Luke questioned, having already forgotten the topic at hand. It wasn't that he didn't care, he was just too focused on the sudden attitude Valentine had somehow possessed. It fascinated him for some reason, and he wanted to know the origin beneath each and every word she spoke.

"Well, I didn't expect you to be happy about it... sure. But now you're asking me to take it off?" She asked, so matter of fact Luke could feel himself shrink inside. "Fine, keep it on," Luke shrugged, trying to play off his immediate reaction to the girl wearing Mariams bikini. It shouldn't have been a big deal, but Luke felt it was earth shattering.

"No, I don't want to," Valentine huffed, grabbing an oversized tee shirt from her suitcase and zipping it closed. She didn't seem angry, but Luke caught on to the little glances she helplessly threw in his direction.

"What? Why?" The blonde asked, furrowing his eyebrows at the girl. In that moment, he couldn't have been any less concerned with what she was wearing. He wanted to know the reason behind that pout.

"Because you don't like it," she huffed again, extending her arms and sliding them through the sleeves. The shirt she grabbed was loose, and would cover her like a dress if she wished. She was feeling rather bold—and she knew what she was doing. As she retrieved a pair of sweatpants from the suitcase and steps into them, and keeps her eyes drilled on Luke's. The contact was too much for either of them to handle, yet they refused to look away.