𝑪𝑯𝑬𝑴𝑰𝑪𝑨𝑳𝑳𝒀 𝒀𝑶𝑼𝑹𝑺 (A TMF AU)

🌀Clutter

15th May, 2004.

I opened my eyes and was only met with darkness. Though, I felt something heavy on my chest. I looked down and realized that the heavy thing I felt was just Luke's head. He had his arm wrapped around me. I looked over to the side, the digital clock on his bedside table said that it was 04:12AM. I sighed. How did I end up here? Was this whole pirate thing just a dream..? But it felt so real..and that still didn't explain what I was doing in Luke's bed.

I cautiously sat up, I didn't want to wake Luke so I gently let his head rest on my thighs. He continued to sleep surprisingly, and it seemed like he was really tired. I couldn't fall back asleep, I didn't feel tired at all now. The thought of the whole fight only made me more excited. The curtains covered the windows which resulted in very dark and dim lighting. The only light illuminating was from the digital clock and the small night lamp in the corner. I sat in the darkness as I continued to ponder, I wonder if this is the work of the string theory. Luke started shifting around under me, he then opened his eyes and looked up at me. "Zander..?" He asked, his voice still raspy from his slumber. "How did you recognize me so quickly, in the dark too?" I whispered. "I've fallen asleep on your lap multiple times, I think I memorized the feeling by now." He laughed. "Wow." I chuckled.

"Weren't we just on that ship..?" He asked again, rubbing his eyes with his hand. So it wasn't a dream. "I don't know, I just woke up. I'm just as confused as you are." I quietly responded. He yawned and looked up at me again, his head was still resting on my lap. He then reached his hand up and touched my face, I cocked a brow. "What are you doing?" I gently asked as I tilted my head. "I wanna make sure you're real." He smiled. He then sat up and hugged me, it caught me quite off guard. He softly nuzzled his face against my neck. "I can't believe you're talking to me again."

I frowned, my arms wrapped around him and we both sat there in each other's embrace. "I'm sorry." I quietly apologized. I felt an overwhelming amount of guilt crush me completely. I don't even remember the last time I hugged him like this. "What are you apologizing for? I was the one that said terrible things to you." He asked. I furrowed my brows and stayed silent. The truth is, I was so afraid he was going to leave me for good, I was willing to take the blame. "I'm sorry, I should've never said that to you. You can go back to Drew if you want." He said, "No, I don't think I will." I whispered, I leaned back and placed my hands on his shoulders. For some reason, I felt nervous being this close to him. "We can still use him for this mysterious case we're uncovering. He is a detective after all." I smiled, he nodded, he was practically gleaming.

He turned his head to the digital clock and noticed the time. "You wanna go up on the rooftop?" He sweetly chuckled holding onto my arms. I smiled and enthusiastically nodded my head. I was overflowing with joy, it's been a long time since we had the chance to go on the rooftop this late. I felt the same butterflies in my stomach again, only this time they were stronger and it made me absolutely ecstatic. He quickly got up off of the bed and took me by the hand, we both laughed as we ran out of the room. Before we walked out, he grabbed his cigarettes and his lighter. We had a feeling our laughter would probably wake some of Luke's neighbors while we climbed up the stairs to the rooftop, but we simply didn't care. We were both so overjoyed to be together again that we couldn't care less about anything else.

We made it up to the rooftop, as soon as I saw the dark sky I felt a sense of nostalgia linger in the air. Luke was still holding my hand, I didn't mind. It just made me even more excited. We got closer to the railing, we sat down on the two chairs that were left up there. There was also a small white table in the shape of a circle, we had an amazing view of the starry sky. The sun was going to rise in two hours. Luke placed a cigarette between his lips and lit it up with the help of his lighter. "Here." He smiled and handed me a cigarette. "Thanks." I smiled back, feeling my face heat up at the subtle contact between our hands. I placed the cigarette between my lips and picked up the lighter on the table, I lit up the cigarette and took a puff. "Is this Lucky Strike?" I asked, turning my head to him. "Yeah, is that okay? I ran out of Marlboro." He explained, taking a puff. "It's alright, I was just curious." I answered exhaling smoke as it lingered in the air. "I forgot my Pall Mall cigarettes in my car anyway.." I said, my attention being on the view of all the tall skyscrapers and all the tall buildings of New York. It was truly a gorgeous sight at night, this is the sight 16 year old me would dream of. I finally made it come true for him.