"I can't believe you two got yourselves sick." Ashton says ruefully as he hands Luke and I each some medicine and tea.

"How did you even manage to get caught in the rain?" Mason asks us and hands me one of his sweatshirts.

I turn to Luke, nearly laughing at his guilty expression. "Someone thought it would be a good idea to take a 'shortcut' through the park. We got caught in the rain, and now we're sick."

Mason just shakes his head for a moment. "Well, I'm going to take the others to the studio. Do me a favor, Andy. Don't give Luke a hard time. I remember how rambunctious and different you can be on cold medicine."

"Shut up, Mason." I roll my eyes at him as I wrap myself in the blanket and his sweatshirt. The cold medicine only takes a few minutes to kick in after they leave, and my mind starts becoming fuzzy around the edges.

"Wanna watch a movie?" Luke asks after a few minutes of silence. I quickly reply, and we both start laughing at how ridiculous we sound.

"What are we watching?" I ask him as he grabs the remote, flipping through Netflix.

"Ever seen How I Met Your Mother?" He asks me, pausing over the title of the show.

"Nope."

"What? It's one of my favorites." He tells me as he looks at me with mock terror. "It's decided then. I'm making you watch it."

"Fine with me." I shrug in reply and lean into the couch cushions--simultaneously leaning into Luke.

I giggle--something I would never do without the stupid, cold medicine--when Luke tenses up. "Andy, w-what are you doing? Are you feeling okay?" He stutters clearly nervous and wondering why I'm being so cuddly and out of character.

"Cuddling with you, obviously." I tell him, falling into another fit of giggles.

"Is this part of what happens when you're on cold medicine?" I just shrug in reply as I continue to giggle. Luke just laughs along with me, shaking his head as he gently wraps an arm around my waist.

A few episodes in, Luke and I are talking and laughing about the show. My head is resting on Luke's chest, with my arm draped over his torso. I keep catching myself almost drifting off to sleep as his hand rests over mine, gently tracing patterns into my hand.

"That tickles." I make the mistake of telling him as his fingertips gently brush my hand.

"Oh. So you're ticklish, huh?" Luke asks with a devious smirk on his face. I shout as I try to run away, but he quickly catches up to me, picking me up with ease as he puts me on the couch and starts tickling my sides.

"Stop! Please, I can't breathe!" I manage to yell at him in between laughter, but he just continues to laugh and tickle my sides.

"Only if you admit defeat." He teases.

"Never give up, never surrender." I shout back with the obscure movie reference. When he stops for a moment to give me another chance to give up, I take the opportunity to enact my revenge on the blond giant.

"Nooo." He shouts, as he tries to stop me, but I just laugh maniacally as I run away. "You can't hide forever." Luke calls as he tries to chase after me, which starts the three-hour game of hide and seek. Each time one of us finds the other we run around chasing the other until we manage to hide once again. I giggle to myself as I bury myself under the massive lump of blankets and pillows on the couch to hide from Luke. I can barely see him through a tiny gap of the blankets as he rushes in, clearly out of breath as he looks around for me. "Dang, she's fast." He laughs to himself as he shakes his head.

Luke looks around for a couple minutes, but still doesn't manage to find my hiding spot--or he never acknowledges where I am to say the least. I bite back a giggle as I throw a pillow at the back of his head. He looks around frantically and laughs when he sees me. He grabs the pillow off the floor and tosses it back at me. "I have an idea."

"Which is what exactly?"

"We make a pillow fort." I tell him like a little kid. Luke just shakes his head at me, his eyes lit up with amusement as he nods and helps me use the couch's many cushions and pillows to create a large fort. When we're done, I climb inside, piling up the pillows and blankets perfectly. "Are you coming or not?" I ask Luke, peaking my head out to look at him. "There's plenty of room in here."

"Don't worry, I'm coming, love." He chuckles, pausing for a second when he realized what he just called me. "S-sorry, it just kind of--."

"Don't be. I actually don't mind it." I smile at him as he awkwardly enters our little fort. "We didn't do too bad. Maybe we should become architects instead of musicians."

"Maybe." Luke jokes as he once again pulls me into his chest. We start the show back up, and I continually look up at Luke. "What are you looking at me for?"

"Nothing." I pause, looking away. "You just look really cute when you smile."

"Well, you look really cute no matter what." He compliments back, making my heartbeat quicken as I shake my head at him. "I'm serious, you know. I think you're beautiful."

I mumble back a quiet 'thank you,' as I pretend to focus on the show again. Instead though, my mind drifts to the gentle sound of his heartbeat and the way his fingers are running through my hair. I find it oddly soothing and smile to myself as I pretend to laugh at something from the show. "Hey, Andy." Luke says quietly, and I hum a reply as I look up at him. "Do you think this could count as a second date?" I just smile at him and nod my head. "Good." He whispers and leans in, placing a soft kiss on my lips.

"Did you want this to be a date so you had an excuse to kiss me?" I ask him smugly, not that I'll argue with his logic.

"Maybe. Do you have a problem with that?"

I bite my lip as I think it over for a second. Normal Andy would probably be uncomfortable in this situation and say 'yes,' but sick, cuddly Andy is too euphoric and lost in the moment to complain. "No, I don't." I reply, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before leaning back on his chest.

"Awww. They look so adorable." I hear Mason coo, and I mentally sigh at how much of a hopeless romantic he can be. "I wouldn't do that--" Mason warns, and I wake up with a shout when I feel someone land on top of me.

"Sometimes I really want to kill you." Luke groans shoving Michael off of us, and I try to pull the mass amount of blankets off of us.

"Why on earth did you think that was a good idea?" I complain, using a pillow to smack him upside the head. "Great. Now I'm going to feel even more achy and miserable." I stand up, sitting down on the couch next to Ashton, putting my head on his shoulder to shield my eyes from the bright lighting.

"I'm sorry, Andy." Michael pouts, opening his arms up wide as he motions for me to hug him.

"No. You don't deserve a hug." I tell him, sticking my tongue out at him.

"Can I have a hug?" Ashton asks, to which I nod and give him a hug. This sends Michael into a pout, which only worsens as I go around hugging everyone--except for Calum, who quickly joins Michael. "Cal, what did you expect? You keep ruining every moment between her and Luke."

"I can't help that I have a special talent." He jokes rolling his eyes.

"No, you just have terrible timing. Plus, it doesn't help that you gloat about it." I tell him as I walk into the kitchen to get some food. "Mason, please, tell me you brought me food."

"I didn't think about it. What do you want?" He asks as he follows me in the kitchen.

"Ummm... Chinese sounds good right now." I tell him with a smile.

"I should have assumed as much. Every time you get sick, you would always make Mom get you chinese."

"It makes me feel better. Plus, it's kind of became a tradition now."

"I'll go get you chinese." He tells me with a chuckle as he shakes his head and grabs his keys to leave.

I walk back into the living room to join the guys, but stop when I hear my name mentioned in the conversation. "So, have you asked her yet?" I hear Michael ask, and I lean against the wall to stay out of sight.

"Not quite yet. I mean, we just started going out." Luke responds sounding unsure of himself.

"Dude, it's obvious you two really like each other. Why not just take the chance and ask her? Is there really any harm in making it official?"

"Exactly. Plus, it's not like you two have to go public right away, if that's what you're worried about." I hear Ashton agreeing with Calum, and Luke sighs as the silence settles over the group. I give them a second before walking into the room, pretending as if I hadn't heard a thing. "Where did Mason go?"

"He's being an amazing twin and getting me food." I tell him with a smile as I lay down on the bundle of pillows and blankets from the fort. "I'm still mad at you for destroying our epic fort, Michael."

"I'm sorry, Andy, but you know you still love me." He teases as he winks at me.

"The jury's still out on that one." I reply, causing a chorus of 'oohs' to rise from the guys. Michael just crosses his arms, as he continues to pout. "I'm just kidding, Mikey. You know you're still my friend."

"But I'm your best friend." Luke laughs as he winks at me with a confident smile. I just return the smile, ignoring the flood of emotions running through my dizzy head.

Luke and I spent the next few days watching netflix, joking, teasing each other, running around like idiots, and yes, going on mini-dates as we started referring to them. "Calum, how many times do I have to tell you to put on a shirt!" I shout covering my eyes as I walk into the kitchen.

"What, you don't like what you see?" He teases as he walks out of the room.

"No, Calum. I do not. Especially now that I've been mentally scarred by you these past three days." I shout back at him, and Ashton laughs at me.

"Hey, at least he had on actual pants this morning."

"Ew. Don't remind me." I shudder at the thought of what happened two mornings ago. I walked into the kitchen to get myself my morning cup of 'let's not murder anyone today,' when I saw Calum in his boxers. "I swear, he's going to be the reason I end up in the loony bin."

"Hey, love. Are you feeling any better this morning?" Luke asks as he kisses my temple. I smile at the nickname, even though I said goodbye to cold medicine Andy late yesterday afternoon.

"I was--until Calum decided to not wear a shirt this morning." I shout over my shoulder and hear his laugh echoing from the other side of the house. "What about you?"

"Definitely feeling better. Plus, my voice is finally back to normal." He tells me with a smile as he grabs some cereal from the cupboard. "I think I'll join the guys at the studio today."

"That's fine with me, Mason said he'll take you. I'm taking an extra day to make sure I'm finally recovered."

"That's fine. Don't forget to let us know if you need anything." Luke tells me with a smile as he sits down at the table with his breakfast.

"Dude, those songs you wrote on the trip are turning out really great." Ashton comments to Luke with a cheerful smile, but Luke just makes a motion for him to be quiet.

"You wrote more songs on the trip? Why didn't you tell me?" I ask, slightly hurt seeing as how I've been giving the guys my opinions on most of the album. Ashton just looks at me and Luke repeatedly, obviously realizing some mistake he must have made. "Okay. Spill, what are you not telling me?" I ask glaring at the two of them.

"What are we not telling who?" Michael asks groggily as he pours himself a coffee.

"Michael, do you know anything about the songs Luke wrote while we were on the trip?" I ask him, crossing my arms and watching him closely.

"Oh, yeah, but we're not supposed to tell you about those yet."

"Yet?" I continue to question, but Michael ignores me as he drags Ashton out of the kitchen. "Luke, seriously, what's going on?"

"Well." He stutters, rubbing the back of his neck as he avoids looking at me. "I may or may not have written some songs about you?"

"Okay. Why is everyone so freaked out about me knowing? I mean, are they bad or something?"

"No. No, they're definitely not." Luke assures me. "I just wanted it to be a surprise? Plus, they're mostly about us. My crush on you, how I felt about you, and how we finally admitted to liking each other."

I bite my lip to keep from smiling like an idiot. Gosh, what is this boy doing to me? Before this summer, I would never have been like this. "When can I hear them?"

"You're not mad?" Luke asks with his classic, dorky smile and blue eyes lit up with happiness.

"Why would I be? Now, tell me. When can I hear them?" I pester him.

"How about I take you out on Friday? We can go on another date, and I can let you listen to them then." He offers, and I nod excitedly. "On one condition though--" I wait for him to continue, slightly panicked as to what he's thinking. "--you show me more of your music."

I roll my eyes and smile up at him. "I think I can handle that."

"Perfect." Luke smiles taking a step towards me. "It's a date then." He quickly kisses my cheek before walking away to get ready with the rest of the guys.

After they all leave, I get myself comfortable with bundles of blankets, my guitar, and Netflix. I decide to start writing some new songs, and include a couple concepts with a decidedly lighter tone. I strum out random chords on my guitar as I rewatch Friends, occasionally stopping to write down a good set of chords or lyrics that popped into my head.

When I get enough of a song put together, I run to my room as I text my band to get on Skype. It takes about twenty minutes for everyone to get online and us to get a group call going. Each of us sits in silence for a moment, just staring at the other faces on the screen. "Sorry, I haven't called sooner, guys."

"Oh, you have a lot more than just that to be sorry for, honey." Luke--who for the sake of my own sanity, I'm going to start calling by his nickname--sasses me. "You told Skylar and Danny that you had a crush before you told your best friend?"

I laugh, sighing in relief when I realize it was nothing serious. "I only talked to them about it because I didn't realize I liked him at that point. Plus, I needed a girl's advice, and as much as I love you, Skywalker, you're not a girl."

"It still hurts that you didn't tell us he asked you out." Damian complains, and the rest of them nod in agreement. "Speaking of which, I'm assuming it went well."

"Why would you assume that?" I ask him, but Danny interjects before he can get a word out.

"You look too happy for it to not have." She tells me with a cheeky smile. "So spill, I can't wait any longer. Plus, having to listen to them complain about not hearing from you is torture."

I tell them the whole story of our first date, including Calum's interrupting us but Luke still kissing me. By the time I move on to what's been going on the past few days, I'm completely uninterrupted as they all listen--practically enthralled. Skylar ends up squealing multiple times throughout the story, Damian and Danny quietly share knowing looks, Skywalker makes sarcastic comments, and Matt saves his reaction until I'm finished. "Andy's got a boyfriend. Andy's got a boyfriend." He sings through laughs, and the rest of the group quickly joins in.

"I do not have a boyfriend!" I argue. "I mean, we've gone out, but we haven't put any labels on it yet."

"Be prepared. From what it sounds like, he's bound to ask you soon." Skywalker teases. "I'm just so happy for you, Andy. You finally found someone that makes you blush, giggle like a girl, and treats you well. Who knew, your jerk of a dad would lead you to finding happiness?"

"What are you talking about? I was happy before this summer started." I snap, feeling a bit defensive.

The group stays silent, but Matt speaks up, shaking his head at me. "Not like this. You were happy, but this is different. You're more you. You're smiling bigger, you don't look so exhausted and weighed down. No matter how much you don't want to believe it, but Luke's making you happy, Andy. In a way that we've never seen you before." Matt lectures me, and I know--no matter how much I wish to deny it-- he's right. Luke makes me happier than I can ever remember being. "You love Luke Hemmings." Matt states.

"Wow, Matt. I don't think she's quite there yet. I mean they just started dating." Damian tells him for me, since apparently I'm frozen.

"Maybe." He says casually and shrugs, but we all know Matt has a talent for realizing people's feelings and relationship outcomes long before anyone else. Although, I think this is one time that he's wrong. I mean, he has to be. Right?

We quickly moved past Matt's comment, and ended up talking for hours about our plans for the rest of the summer, music, and what's been going on since we last hung out as a group. I stop when I hear the front door unlock. "Oh, I think the guys are back from the studio. I'll talk to you guys later." I tell the group.

"Okay. Bye, Bandy." Skywalker calls with a cheerful smile as he logs off.

"Bye, babe." Danny and Damian wave as they too, log off.

"Don't forget to tell Michael 'thanks for the shoutout.' Also, let Luke know him and I are going to have a serious conversation soon. I need to get to know this guy, if he's going to be your boyfriend."

"Sure thing, Skye." I tell her, logging off before heading into the living room. "I wasn't expecting you guys to be done so--." I start to say to who I expected to be the guys, but my voice tapers off when I see who it is. My eyes start watering up, my throat feels tight, and I have to keep myself from shaking as I run into his arms.

He just chuckles at me, picking me up like I'm nothing and holding me tight. "Hi, Ducky. I missed you." My big brother, Nico, laughs as I practically sob into his shoulder.

//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\

A/N: Yes, this is another Landy chapter. (Thank you to Lady_Hwinnien for casually slipping that into a comment and making me have a mini freak-out; and to Reallygoodbadwriter for the comments that made my day).

I just wanted to say, I absolutely love each and every one of you, and I can't believe this story has 700+ reads... It's completely mind-blowing to me. So THANK YOU all so much for taking the time to read this story. You're all so amazing, and I love each and every one of you.

Stay beautiful. -xx