The Art Of Love / l.h ✔️

14

~Fae's POV~

After Luke and I had put up all of his clothes in the places where they belonged, I led him out of the bedroom and into the hallway. As I shut the door behind us, I turned to Luke and his eyes glanced away from my closed bedroom door to meet my gaze.

"That's my room." I explained, already knowing he'd been curious about what was in that room. His eyes sparkled with interest and my lips twitched up in amusement, grabbing his hand in mine and leading him down the hallway. "You can see my room later if you want, but I have to show you everything else first." I said, leading him to the first door we reached. "This is just a closet." I said, looking at him over my shoulder. I then continued down the hall, stopping at the guest bathroom and pushing open the door. "But this is the bathroom you'll be using." I said, leading him into the bathroom.

I let him go in first, knowing I'd need to show him how the shower worked. It had a weird handle to turn on the faucet, one that even I had to figure out the workings of when we first moved in. I was used to it now, but at that time, I hadn't used a type of handle that I had to pull and then turn and then pull again. To me, it was a weird design, but I guess it didn't matter much now that I knew how it worked.

After I showed him where we kept the towels and the workings of the shower, we left the bathroom and I began to lead him down the hall. "Do you use that bathroom, too?" He wondered, walking beside me. I glanced up at him and shook my head, running a hand through my hair. "Nope. I have my own bathroom in my room, so I use mine." I answered, entering the living room area with him. He lightly nodded and followed me through the living room and into the dining room, where my mom and dad were both sat at. They looked up as we entered and mom smiled at Luke kindly, while dad sipped on the cup of coffee he had in his hands. "Hi." Mom greeted Luke, who glanced down at me and moved closer to me just a little bit. Sometimes it slipped my mind how closed off and to himself he liked to keep.

"Hi." He greeted reluctantly, biting his cheek. "I'm Luke." He said, running a hand through his curls. My mom smiled at him and lightly nudged my dad with her elbow, silently telling him to say something instead of just sitting there quietly. My dad was really a man of few words. He didn't show much emotion, either, except to my mom. "I'm Fae's mom, obviously, but you can just call me Sofia. This is my husband, Daniel." Mom introduced, sending my dad a look when he simply nodded his head in acknowledgment to Luke. Luke didn't seem to mind, though, since he just lightly nodded his head back at them.

My mom glanced over at me and raised her brow. "I'm guessing you already showed Luke his room?" She assumed, placing her hands in her lap. I nodded my head and fiddled with the fabric of my skirt, biting my lip softly. "Yes, mom. I was just showing him around the house right now." I answered, peering over over at her. She smiled and nodded her head, silently dismissing me and Luke to continue as we'd been doing. Wanting to get out as quickly as possible, I lightly gripped his hand and led him into the kitchen, showing him where we kept everything in both the pantry and the fridge. "Your house is nice." He said as I tugged him out of the kitchen and into the laundry room. "Thanks, even though I obviously didn't buy it." I said, giggling in amusement as I let the laundry room door swing shut behind the two of us.

He chuckled softly and glanced to the left of us, raising a brow. "What the hell is that?" He asked, looking at the very large freezer we had against the wall. I smiled in amusement and stalked over, pulling open the lid of the white freezer. "Just another freezer that we have, since our other one is a little small." I answered, letting him peek inside before I shut the lid. "But anyways," I hummed, pulling him over to the washer and dryer. If he was going to be staying here for a month, he'd obviously have to do laundry, so I thought it'd be good to show him. "This is the washer and this one is the dryer." I said, gesturing to the washer and then the dryer.

Although mom had said to make him feel welcome, and of course I was doing that, that didn't mean I was going to be doing his laundry for him. He was my friend, sure, but he was more than capable of doing his own laundry. I was pretty sure he didn't need me to do it.

"We keep the laundry detergent up here," I said, glancing up at him as I pointed up to the big blue bottle we had on the shelf. I opened up the washer and pulled the little compartment out, showing him it. "The detergent goes in here." I stated, pushing it closed when I saw him nod in understanding. Then, I pointed up to the detergent beads that were beside the liquid laundry detergent I'd just showed him. "And these can just be poured into the washer with all the clothes." I finished, watching as his brows furrowed. "What are they?" He wondered, cocking his head to the side. I assumed he maybe had never used detergent beads before, which wasn't unusual. At one point, I wouldn't have known what they were either if my mom hadn't randomly started buying them.

"They're just detergent beads. You can use them as a way of making your clothes smell even nicer." I explained, shrugging. "They're not totally necessary, but I like to use them. They actually are really nice." I added, sending him a smile. He hummed and bit his lip, stepping away from me. The last thing I showed him was where we kept the dryer sheets and then we left the laundry room, heading back upstairs. I had intended on leaving him to maybe settle in or something, to do whatever he wanted, but that didn't happen.

As I went to leave, opening up my bedroom door, Luke suddenly grabbed me lightly by the wrist to stop me. I stumbled a little in surprise and felt his grip tighten on my wrist, the warmth of his body growing closer as he neared me. A squeak of surprise left me as he placed a hand on my waist and chuckled from behind me, his chest rumbling against my back. "Looks like someone's a little clumsy." He teased, the sheer amusement in his voice causing a blush to rise in my cheeks. "No, I'm not." I denied, feeling my heart racing in my chest as he softly squeezed the curve in my waist, where he held me. "Y-You just caught me off guard by grabbing me like that." I excused, my voice soft.

Luke chuckled and carefully stepped away, giving me some space. "My bad, then." He hummed, gliding his hand on my waist around to my lower back as he removed his hands from me. My cheeks warmed again as I quickly turned to face him, blushing and embarrassed. "I just wanted to hang out or something," He said softly, biting his lip as his blue eyes searched my face. "Actually, I was going to take a shower and then probably just go to bed." I admitted awkwardly, watching as his face fell in disappointment. Seeing that made me feel guilty, but I said nothing of it. "Oh." He mumbled, looking away as he stepped back once more.

It was clear that me declining to hang out had kind of wounded him and, to be fair, I could understand why. He didn't have any friends, so it was probably a big step for him to ask me to hang out, even if he was staying at my house and we'd just be watching TV or something in my room.

When I realized that, I felt even worse about rejecting his offer and scrambled for something to make him feel better. "B-But maybe tomorrow we could, if you want? I'm just...I'm pretty tired. It's been kind of a long day." I said honestly, fiddling with my fingers as I peered up at him. I had no idea what he and I would do, but I wasn't too picky. I would've been completely fine with just watching movies all day or simply getting to know one another. Anything would do, really.

Thankfully, a smile lifted up onto his lips. "I'd like that."