Wanted- Luke Hemmings AU

Chapter Four

        I woke up the next morning to a dull pain in my neck and back. Cracking my eyes open, I realized that the pain was probably the result of sleeping in a sitting position on the hard floor all night. I jumped slightly when I heard a soft snore, but soon remembered that it was just Luke, who was asleep right next to me, with his arms loosely crossed over his chest and his head tilted down. Suddenly, the quiet of the room was broken by the muffled sound of someone crying, and I looked over to the couch to see Gracie curled into the jacket, tears soaking the material. I quickly got up and from the floor, wincing at the kink in my back as I went over the to couch and sat next to the little girl.

        "Gracie, what's wrong?" I asked, gathering her up into my arms.

        "I wanna go home, and my tummy keeps making these weird noises," she sniffled, and sure enough, her stomach let out a low growl. I felt awful; I had no food to give her, and also no reassurance that we would be out of here soon, because even I had no idea when someone would rescue us.

        "Everything okay?" Luke's voice came from the opposite side of the room. It was deep and raspy from sleep, and I could feel the color rise to my cheeks at the sound of it. I glanced over and saw him stretching his arms while he yawned, giving me a quizzical look.

        I sighed. "Gracie's just hungry, and I don't have any--" My eyes widened with realization. "Wait, I do have some food!"

        I dug around in my bag for a bit before triumphantly holding up the chocolate bunny I had bought for Gracie the previous day. It was just a bit bigger than my palm, and hardly nutritious at all, but it would do. Gracie looked at me with wide eyes.

        "Candy for breakfast?" She asked incredulously, and I chuckled as I broke off a small piece for her.

        "Just for today, Grace," I handed some to her and held out a piece for Luke, who instantly shook his head. "C'mon, Luke. just take some." Again, he refused, and I ended up actually shoving the piece into his mouth. Luke's eyebrows rose in surprise as he chewed thoughtfully, a smirk slipping onto his face when he swallowed.

        "Well, thanks, Juliette."

        I rolled my eyes, not even bothering to correct him as I broke off another piece for him and Gracie. He smirked at me again, looking at me with those piercing blue eyes.

        "You know, I'd much rather have you feed me again," He said with a wink, and I was laughing as I lightly pushed his shoulder.

----

        A few hours passed, and we were still stuck in the subway. Luke had made a small "fort" for Gracie out of some empty boxes he found, and she was currently in there playing with a Barbie doll I just so happened to find at the bottom of my bag. Luke and I were (as usual) sitting next to each other, but we had decided to get off of the hard ground, and were instead on the couch. Luke was idly strumming his guitar, a far-off look on his face, and I had pulled out the foster home's copy of John Green's Paper Towns and was reading that. About halfway through the first chapter, Luke's voice pulled me out of the story.

        "What are you reading?"

        I carefully folded down the corner of the page I was on before closing the book and facing him. "It's called Paper Towns by John Green."

        "Read to me?" Luke asked softly, a small smile on his face. I blushed slightly, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear before I flipped back to the beginning of the chapter.

        "'The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle. Like, I will probably never be struck by lightning, or win a Nobel Prize, or become the dictator of a small nation in the Pacific Islands, or contract terminal ear cancer, or spontaneously combust..."