The Academy In My Head

Planning a Day with Luke

"Cupcake... are you here?"

I smiled as Luke's voice floated upstairs to where I was hanging out in Kota's room. "Yeah, Sugar. Hang on, I'll be right down."

"Okay."

I heard him walk past the stairs, probably headed for the kitchen and if I knew my sweet boyfriend at all, he was heading straight for Erica's cookie jar and the chocolate chip cookies Jessica and I had baked yesterday. I pulled a sweater on over my tank top and skirt and headed downstairs. "Hey." I grinned, finding him with one hand in the cookie jar, two cookies in his other hand and one hanging precariously from his lips as he was already chewing on it. "Impatient for cookies?"

He handed me a cookie and replaced the lid on the cookie jar before rescuing the cookie from his mouth. "I love chocolate chip cookies." He said with a shrug and a slow grin.

I took a bite of my cookie and chewed it, thoughtfully. "See, Luke... I knew that." I said, smiling and calmly taking another bite.

"You did?" He asked. "Of course, you did. That makes me happy to hear that you know things about me." He said.

I chuckled. "Of course, I did." I teased. "Just who do you think told Jessica we should bake chocolate chip cookies yesterday? North?"

Luke busted up laughing. "Yeah, as if the old grumpy one would tell you to bake my favorite cookies." He said. "Good one."

"Uh, huh." I nodded, still chewing on my cookie as he devoured the first one and moved on to one of the other two that he still had in his hand. "But what if he did?" I asked. "I mean, somewhere, deep down that grouch loves you."

"Don't push it. Love would be stretching it a lot, Cupcake."

"Fine, he may actually like you, deep down." I corrected myself. "Is that better, Sugar?"

He nodded, finishing the cookie. "I can go with that. Somehow, some way, he likes me... he really likes me."

I laughed. "That's right." I said, leaning over to kiss his cheek before stealing half of his third cookie.

"Hey!" He frowned.

"Hey what? I baked them, you gave me one. Like you have the right to not share chocolate chip cookies equally with me? What if Jessica was here? You'd give her more than just one, right?" I arched an eyebrow at him.

He flushed slightly. "Yeah, I would. I've always given cookies to Jessie. I used to climb up on top of the counters to reach the cookie jar to grab some and she'd always find me in here doing it. Luckily, Kota had usually just been mean to her so giving up cookies was a small price to pay for getting her to stop crying."

"Poor baby." I soothed. "And then you couldn't just take more?"

"Oh, probably but she was usually attached to following me around at that point and it didn't work out very well to sneak cookies at that stage. Erica usually wasn't that far behind."

"I see. So, it was self-preservation?" He nodded. "All right. So, you're here... I'm here. What are we going to do today?" I asked.

"I don't know. I wasn't sure I had today free until Kota sent me a text." Luke said, running his hands through his hair as he finished his last cookie – hands free. His shirt flopped open, exposing the tank top he was wearing underneath it and as he raised his hands, the hem of the tank inched upwards, starting to expose some of the well-defined, despite the cookie consumption habit he had, abs under his shirt.

My breath caught slightly as my attention waned from whatever he was talking about and focused in with amazing clarity on the hint of muscles in front of me.

Have I mentioned before how well defined and lovely to look at my guys are?

No?

Well, they are. Like... totally stop traffic gorgeous.

And they wear it well. Every last one of them, even if Mr. Blackbourne insisted on hiding his ... perfect... frame, beneath suits.

I blinked at Luke, finding him staring at me in amusement. "I'm sorry." I mumbled, feeling my cheeks heat with a sudden rush of color. "I wasn't paying attention." I admitted.

"Oh, Cupcake." He laughed, tapping me on the nose before dropping a kiss on the tip of it. He brushed his lips gently against mine. "I was just going over possible options for today that didn't involve calling anyone else or letting anyone crash our time together."

"Well, of course they won't. I've had excellent date days with everyone else so far and no one is allowed to crash the date, or I'll be mad."

He chuckled. "You, mad? You're adorable when you're mad." He pointed out.

"Try to crash my date day with North and you'll see how adorable I can be." I said, dryly.

"I think I'd be just as worried about North being adorable." He stated. "You don't need to worry about me, I won't be crashing your date with anyone."

I smiled. "Good. So, what are we going to do?" I asked.

He thought for a moment. "Well, we could go climb a tree." He suggested.

"Shimmy up the side of a building to retrieve a camera?" I asked.

"I'd love that, but others would be upset with me so let's save that one for now." He said.

"Absolutely. I'll make a note for a future outing." I said before we both dissolved into laughter.

"You have spent far too much time with Mr. B. lately." Luke said.

"Job hazard." I said, with a straight face.

He laughed. "Perhaps. Anyway, climb a tree, go have lunch at the diner and make sure we get a pie from Uncle to take home with us and then we can spend the rest of the day, spending time with Sprinkles because he misses you... cuddling and other such lovely things that we come up with."

"Maybe we should order Chinese food for dinner. And actually eat it this time, together. I need to master chopsticks and you're awesome at using them."

"I'd be honored to teach you all my chopstick skills, up to and including how to use them to keep your hair out of your place."

"You can do that?"

"Sure can."

"Gabriel just steals them though, right?" I pouted.

"Oh no." He shook his head. "Strangely enough, he doesn't mind chopsticks as hair accessories. We'll make sure to pick up plenty with dinner."

"I think this sounds like a great day for us." I said, wrapping my arms around him and leaning into him to steal a kiss. "But I should go put on some shorts or pants... I don't like to climb trees in skirts."

He laughed, pulling me in closer as he sank his fingers into the hair at the back of my head and lowered his head to mine, our lips crashing together in a heated kiss. "Whatever you want." He murmured against my lips before pulling away so that we could each draw in a deep breath.

"I'll be right back, Sugar." I reassured him as I stretched up on my tip toes to brush my lips against his.

"I'll be right here, Cupcake."

~Fade~