The sun had already set by the time I began making my way to my professor's office. The halls were mostly empty, aside from the occasional student running to catch the bus or to a late class. At least this time, the lights were still turned on in the halls.

Part of me still couldn't believe that it hadn't been Liam who'd sold me out two hundred years ago. I'd believed it for so long that I didn't know what to do now that I knew it wasn't true. It was comforting in a way to know that Liam wouldn't do that to me. I could have always trusted him.

I entered the office, glancing around. Immediately, my eyes landed on Liam, leaning against the professor's desk. The professor was nowhere to be seen.

The office was quite mediocre, with one bookshelf leaning against the wall, with a few textbooks on it, while the rest sat on the desk. His desk was a mess, with files, papers and books scattered all around.

My nose crinkled. It seemed completely preposterous that a professor could be so disorganized.

"You're late," Liam pushed himself off the desk, approaching me. He held a mischievous smirk on his face, his eyes never leaving mine.

"You're early," I shot back, shrugging as he stopped in front of me. "You'll take the bookshelf and I'll take the cabinets?"

"I think I have a better idea on how to spend this time," he grinned, his eyes trailing down to my lips.

I bit down on my lip, preventing a smile from creeping onto my face, "We should get started on the organizing."

I brushed past him to get to the desk, my arm grazing over his shoulder. I began sifting through the files and textbooks, trying to find a common theme to sort them by.

"Or, we could... not," Liam said, tucking a few strands of my hair over my shoulder. His touch sent shivers running up my spine.

His presence was strong as he stood directly behind me, his cologne drifting up my nose. I swallowed hard and picked up the first file in my hand.

"I don't even know anything about you," I turned around to face him, my lips curled up and my eyebrows raised. His dark eyes seemed glazed over as they watched me. They darted quickly between my eyes and my lips and my cheeks began to grow warm.

"Please, we've known each other for like two centuries," Liam rolled his eyes, reaching behind me to grab one of the files on the desk, his arm skimming over mine.

"And we were dead for most of it," I pointed out, turning back around as I picked up more of the files, filling my arms. "Besides, everything is different now."

"Well, at least we got tons of time," he gave me a crooked smile as he followed my lead, grabbing a box as he began stuffing textbooks into it.

"Yes we do," I chuckled under my breath.

I looked through the files, sorting them by date into the boxes. Liam and I worked in silence for a few minutes, the ruffling of paper were the only sounds that echoed through the room.

"Anything interesting?" Liam asked from beside me, as he scribbled something down onto a box with a sharpie. He grinned mischievously, "Say... some answer keys?"

"No, we wish. All old lesson plans and case studies," I snorted. Then, my brows shot up in surprise. "You'd actually cheat?"

"Unfortunately, I doubt the professor is dumb enough to leave answer keys lying around with us here," Liam glanced over at me, with an amused expression, biting back his laugh.

I nodded in agreement, turning back to shove more files into the cardboard box.

"Ah shit," Liam cursed under his breath. Immediately, I snapped my head over in his direction. He studied his hand intently, his jaw clenched.

"What's wrong?" I walked over to him with a quick stride, my brows furrowed.

"Nothing, I'm fine," he answered as he began stacking textbooks again.

I eyed him skeptically, grabbing ahold of his hand. His protests were easy to ignore as I scrutinized it.

My lips pressed into a thin line at the sight of Liam's bruised hand. Yesterday night, it was only his knuckles that were blue and purple, now the back of his hand was too.

I glanced back up at him, frowning, "Liam..."

"I'm fine," his lips twitched up into a soft smile. "It barely hurts."

A pang of guilt weighed down my chest when my eyes landed on his hand again. It looked painful, and even touching it lightly like how Liam did was enough to get him to curse.

"I'm sorry," I sighed, my thumb lightly stroking over his bruised knuckles. "I probably should have been smarter last night and called someone to pick me up."

"Or, those men could have just chosen not to be perverts," Liam tilted his head, smiling at me. "Their faces probably hurt more than my hand."

I chuckled, remembering how Liam had knocked the one guy out cold, "Yeah, probably."

"You know what would make it feel better?" Liam asked, teasingly. His smile broadened.

"What?" my eyebrow cocked up and the corners of my mouth curled up from the sight of Liam's dimpled smile and ruffled hair.

"A kiss," he smirked.

"A kiss?" I repeated, my nose crinkling.

Liam nodded, "A kiss."

I only stared at him as he pressed his eyes shut, leaning in with puckered lips. My unimpressed expression morphed into a mischievous one, a slow smirk spreading over my lips.

I bent over, pressing my lips softly on Liam's knuckle, and then again on the back of his hand where the newer bruise was.

Liam's eyes shot open and I bit back a giggle, letting go of his hand. Two pink dots appeared on his cheeks.

"Does it feel any better?" I asked, giving him a cheeky grin.

"Loads," Liam rolled his eyes, though a smile spread across his face. His cheeks grew into an even deeper shade of pink.

I turned around, shutting the cardboard box. Even I couldn't help the warmth that spread over my cheeks, all the way to the tip of my ears. Then, I moved on to the next box.

I perked up when pop music began playing, sounding through the boring room, bringing life to it again. Liam's grin widened when my eyes met his and he tucked his phone back into the pocket of his dark jeans.

Together, we worked in a comfortable silence. I filled the boxes with old files full of the professor's old lesson plans and Liam stacked textbooks on the desk, or in boxes.

When I shoved the last file into the box and shut it, I took a peek over at Liam. He taped the last box shut, pushing it aside.

"We should move these to the shelf over there," Liam said, looking up at me. "Boxes at the top and textbooks at the bottom?"

I nodded, picking up a couple textbooks that Liam had sorted before making my way over to the shelf just a couple meters away. Liam had organized them by which book it was, the edition numbers in chronological order. One by one, I placed them onto the shelf and Liam followed my lead.

A sharp pain shot up from my foot and I retracted it immediately, hissing under my breath, "Ow!"

I glanced down, irritated to see a thick Law textbook sitting where my foot had been on the floor.

"Oh shit," he cringed, glancing at the book and then back at me. "Sorry."

I rolled my eyes, my lips twitching up. I placed my hands on his chest to give him a hard shove. He only took a step back from the momentum, a smirk spreading across his face.

"Hey! I said sorry," he laughed, his dancing with amusement. "Your foot okay?"

"It's fine," I told him, heading back to the desk. I grabbed the first box my eyes landed on, grunting from the weight of it. Pride stopped me from giving it to Liam to handle it. If he could do it, so could I.

Liam brushed past me to the desk, picking some more things up as I stopped in front of the shelf. I took a deep breath before getting onto my tiptoes, lifting the box up to the top shelf.

The weight of the box felt much heavier as I reached towards the top shelf. Much to my dismay, my grip on the box loosened and began to tip backwards, taking me with it.

I grunted, taking a few steps back to balance myself when suddenly, the weight was taken off of me.

Liam grabbed the box from my hands, shoving it into the top shelf over my head.

"Careful, you're not as strong as you think," Liam teased, a playful smile spreading over his lips.

My eyebrow shot up as I held up my fist, "Wanna try it again?"

Liam smirked, placing his hand over my fist. He stepped towards me, "I wouldn't want you to hurt your hand."

I leaned in close to him, until I was just a few inches from his face, staring into his twinkling eyes.

"Try me," I whispered. My lips were just a touch away from his, brushing over his lightly.

Liam swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he stood rooted in his spot. His eyes moved away from mine, stopping on my lips.

I smirked, turning my head as I stepped away from him.

"Thanks for helping me with that," I gave him a wide, Cheshire grin, brushing past him to grab a couple textbooks from the desk.

"Yeah," Liam cleared his throat, his voice sounding much deeper than usual. He swiftly picked up a box, holding it over his crotch. He stayed where he was, leaning against the table with the box.

I eyed him, brows knitting in confusion as I stuffed a couple textbooks onto the lower shelves. His cheeks sported two bright pink dots over his cheeks and he pursed his lips.

I kept working for the next few minutes, shooting Liam confused glances every few moments as he stood unmoving by the desk, clutching the box just below his torso.

"You good?" I asked him, turning around to look at him.

"Yes, great," he replied quickly. I shrugged, I guess he seemed fine. Finally, Liam got moving, placing the last few boxes on the top shelf.

I sighed, glancing around the office. It was much neater now, and we could see the desk that had been below all that mess. I took a glimpse at the clock on the wall, not surprised to see that it was a little over seven in the evening.

"I should get home," I told Liam, to which he nodded.

"Come, I'll drive you," Liam said as we picked our backpacks up from the floor. I must have seemed confused because a crooked smile spread over his lips, "Unless you have a ride?"

I shook my head, my cheeks growing hot, "No, I don't."

"Good, come on," he nodded over at the door and we began making our way to the parking lot.

The halls were empty now, the lights turned off. With Liam next to me it seemed much less eerie than when I had been alone. Even with the dark, vacant parking lot, I wasn't afraid like I had been before.

"Do you know when your motorcycle will be fixed?" Liam asked as we stepped into the lot, heading straight for his car.

"In a few days. I called in this morning to also get a new paint job," I answered as I opened the door to Liam's car.

"What for?" his brows furrowed in curiosity as we hopped in.

I gave him a flat look, "You scratched my bike remember?"

He chuckled, scratching the back of his head as he started the car, "Right, whoops."

Liam backed out of his parking spot, his one hand sliding around the steering wheel and drove off.

A comfortable silence had settled between us and he flipped on the radio. I gazed out the window, watching the trees that passed by, and the large, round moon that lit up the dark sky. Only, it seemed to be outshone by all the streetlights and buildings. The traffic was a little lighter since it was late in the evening.

"Home sweet home," he said jokingly as he pulled up on my driveway, parking his car. I smiled, turning my body towards him. My eyes unintentionally admired him.

The moonlight casted shadows along his face. He ran a hand through his tousled hair, his dark eyes meeting mine. There hadn't been a day where I wasn't captivated by the stars in his eyes. I wanted to memorize every part of his handsome face, from his thick eyebrows all the way to his soft lips.

Just from the sight of him, the same giddy feeling spread over my body. My stomach began to swarm with butterflies as my smile broadened.

Without thinking, I leaned into him, pressing a soft kiss onto his cheek.

"Thank you for the ride," I whispered, my lips brushing against his cheek. I tore myself apart from him, grabbing my bag from the floor. "Goodnight Liam."

His lips curved up, "Goodnight Ophelia."

★★★

𝐻𝑒𝑦 𝑔𝑢𝑦𝑠! 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑢𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔! 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒, 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑖𝑑!

~ 𝑆𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠𝐼𝑛𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑆𝑎𝑙𝑡