Allurement || A Ghostbird Fanfic

Chapter 9 || When Darkness Comes

Luke and I ended up at Uncle's Diner a few minutes later. He gave us an odd expression but gestured us to a secluded room at the back instead of in the actual diner.

"You two here on a date?" He asked Luke with a proud gleam in his eyes.

"Something like that." Luke grinned, and I felt my face heat with the idea of this being a date.

"Hi, Uncle." I smiled and greeted him, my face still a bit red.

"Hello little bird." He sent me a little wave and then left the room, leaving me and Luke by ourselves.

"I can't believe you told him this was a date..." I shook my head at the blonde devil sitting next to me.

He grinned. "Is this not a date?" His eyebrow raised.

"Well- I've never... um, I don't exactly have err..." I flushed. I've never been on a date before. Would he think differently of me if I had?

"Relax, Sang. This doesn't have to be a date if you don't want it to." He smiled reassuringly at me, as if sensing my anxiety. I simply nodded my head. "Do you know what you want?"

"Pancakes!" I exclaimed, probably a little too loudly as he just laughed and stood up.

"Pancakes it is, then." He winked and walked to the door. But not the door that led back to the main diner. The door that led to the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" I blurted when his hand touched the knob. He looked back at me and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm gonna go make us our pancakes." Oh.

"You're going to make them?" I asked.

"Want to help?" Suddenly a hand reached out in front of me and I found myself bubbling inside. Why am I feeling like this? All he wants is to make pancakes with me. I smiled and gently placed my hand inside of his. I let him pull me to the kitchen with one of the biggest grins on my face.

~x~

Half an hour later, we were covered in grease, melted chocolate and flour. At least we had a decent stack of pancakes at our table, so that was a win-win.

"So, Uncle's your Uncle, Uncle?" I stupidly asked. Luke just grinned down at me with an amused glint in his eye.

"Yep. Uncle's my Uncle, Uncle." I bite my cheek and scrunch my nose up at him. He laughed and put another chocolate pancake on my plate.

"Stop making fun of me, I was curious." I shake my head softly.

"I know, Sang. But yeah, Uncle's legitimately North and I's Uncle. Our Dad's brother and everything." He confirmed.

"Doesn't that make him royalty too then?" I tilted my head.

"Not... really, our Mother was the original royal Taylor. The heiress to the bloodline to one of the original Charleston Founders, like Vic and Mr. Blackbourne. The Blackbournes, The Morgans and the Taylors- The trifecta of founders." He explained. "My mother decided to keep her last name when she had me, mostly because her relationship with my father was essentially one sided- they met at a ball and had a wild night. She adored him. Yet, he left and a few months later I popped out. He never came back."

Luke smiled sadly, his eyes glazing over with a dark emotion I've never seen on him before. It was unlike his usual cheerful self I've come to like these past few days.

"What happened to your mother?" I quietly asked. Luke drew a breath and sighed. He knew what I was asking, but I didn't want to trigger him with specific wording.