Can I Hold You Now? ~Luberto~

~9~

Luca was cold.

Luca was sad.

But most of all, Luca was missing Alberto.

He should be there right now! Nobody had told him or Giulia why the train was stopped, causing some worry around the passengers. Luca sighed and looked out the window, watching the white blurs fly past. Suddenly, a loud gust of wind swept by the train, making everything shudder and shake. Giulia and Luca both screamed, along with everybody else on the train.

Luca looked around, then back out of the window. The train was still shaking slightly, but not as extreme as before. He still couldn't see anything.

Luca opened his bag and took out the one picture of Alberto he had; a photo of him smiling in a Lifeguard uniform while standing in knee-high water. Luca admired the picture for a few more minutes, then put it back in his bag.

"Is it getting cold in here, or is it just me?" Giulia asked, rubbing her hands together.

"Yeah, I guess it is," Luca wrapped his arms around himself.

"I'm going to see what's going on," Giulia said, standing up, "we should be in Portorosso by now," she walked down the aisle and disappeared into another cart.

Luca shuddered and looked out of the window again, then gasped as another howling wind blew past. The cart shook violently, and Luca grasped onto the sides of his chair.

He blinked and curled into a ball again, conserving the little warmth he had left.

"Hey, Luci was it?" A boy around his age walked up to him and sat down on Giulia's seat.

Why does everyone think that's my name? He thought, "It's Luca, actually,"

"Okay, Lulu," the boy continued, "I'm Enzo, and I'm bored, so I decided to come to talk to you,"

"Okay-" Luca said slowly, inching back toward the window, "is there anything you wanted to talk about?"

"Yeah, actually," Enzo cut him off, "you got something fishy going on, other than the whole sea monster thing,"

"Like wha-"

"I got it! Something fruity," Enzo said triumphantly, as if solving an equation, "Can I see that photo again?"

"What photo?"

"Oh c'mon! I know you have it!" Enzo reached for Luca's bag, but Giulia came back at the nick of time.

"Hey! Get away!" She showed him away and took her seat back, "my friend doesn't need to show you anything!" She crossed her arms and scoffed at Enzo as he walked away.

"Is it wrong to have a photo of someone?" Luca asked sadly.

Giulia glared at Enzo again, "Absolutely not! Enzo's just jealous because he can't catch a boy or a girl,"

Luca thought for a moment, "I haven't heard of any other boys with boyfriends or boys wearing skirts, is there something wrong with me?" He twiddle his thumbs and looked out of the window again.

"Luca! There's NOTHING wrong with that! Don't you DARE let anybody make you feel that way. Under-"

The train gave another violent shake and Luca crashed into Giulia.

"I- I think it's getting worse," Luca said, grasping onto Giulia's arm for dear life, "we need to start moving soon!"

"Don't worry," Giulia said, patting Luca's head, "When I went up there they said we'd be moving within ten minutes," she glanced out of the window.

"Go-" Luca was suddenly launched out of his seat and flung into the back of the one in front of him. He yelped and held his head.

"Luca! Are you okay?" Giulia began helping him back onto his seat.

"Yeah, I'm fi- AHH!" He yelled again as the train jolted forward, slamming him to the back of his seat. Giulia slid to the back of her seat, too. The train was moving again.

"Woohoo!" Giulia exclaimed, her hands in the air, "We're moving again Luca! Only, like, thirty minutes until we see Aberto and Papa!"

"Cool," Luca said, holding his head, "I think I have a headache-" he blinked a couple of times and leaned on the window, "wake me up when we get there."

"Okay," Giulia smiled.

After Luca had fallen asleep, Giulia carefully reached into his bag and pulled out the photo of Alberto. Only a true shipper would notice this, but Alberto had put little hearts around his message for Luca; Giulia had yet to explain the meaning of hearts like that to Luca.

•••

"Luca! Wake up wake up!!!" She shoved him awake, "We're here! We're here!"

"Huh?" Luca looked up, still sick to the stomach after being thrown around.

"You're gonna see Alberto!"

"What!?" Luca jumped up suddenly, then lost his vision after moving too fast. He groaned and touched his head again.

"Remember the daaare..." Giulia said, holding up the camera.

"Uh- right," Luca grabbed the camera and put it around his neck, then looked out of the window hopefully.

"Let's go!" Giulia squealed, grabbing her bags and beginning to stand up.

"Hold up everybody!" A police officer walked down the aisle, "the weather conditions are far too intense for anyone to leave this train,"

"But-" Luca held up his finger, the lowered it down as the officer glared at him.

"I know, you're tired and hungry, and want to see your family. But leaving this train would freeze you almost instantly, then you wouldn't see them ever again. Your choice,"

"Sorry," Luca mumbled timidly, then looked at the photo of Alberto again, "stay there," he whispered to the photo, "I'm coming for you,"

~

Okaaay! Sorry for missing yesterday's chapter, but I had company over and I have some relatives over until Monday, so I might forget to update here or there.

Also, if you'd like to help, on the Luca Pixar amino, someone is putting together a fan-made Luca sequel, and they need some help! So hop over there if you'd like to support them!