t w e n t y f o u r ; 

It was well past midnight when they arrived at Logan's house and the neighborhood was dead silent. The moon was high above in the sky, dimly illuminating the street and there was a light chill of autumn in the air. Everyone was in their bed's sleeping at that hour. It was a neighborhood with many families, which was what Logan specifically looked for when he bought the house. The realtor who had met with him offered to get him an apartment in the university area because she thought he might want to go to the many frat parties that would take place. But he had declined the apartments she showed him. He wanted somewhere calm, somewhere quiet. Somewhere a teacher at a private Catholic school for girls would live at. And he had gotten just that in his permanent residence. It was full of the typical American families. 

Most people would either be getting up early the next morning to go to work like Logan, or to go to school like Louise. With her trauma of the past hour long forgotten, now she was overjoyed thinking that she had made it a whole two and a half days without being caught. By the next morning she would finally know if she was in the clear.

She and Logan entered the empty house together and he switched on the lights in the living room. With a sigh, he slipped his jacket off his shoulders and dropped it on the coffee table. Then he tiredly plopped down on the couch and laid down on it. He had already claimed it as his bed for the night, since Louise would probably take the bed in his room anyway. He wasn't about to fight over it now. Especially not after what almost happened to her. The least he could do was to let her take the bed. He also wanted to avoid fighting because it was only about five hours left in the night, before his alarm would ring the next morning. He wanted to get as much sleep as possible.

He had already set up one of the couch cushions as his pillow for the night and closed his eyes, quickly drifting off to sleep. 

But Louise had other ideas. She was still too worked up to sleep. Grabbing a cushion off the other couch, she chucked it at him to get his attention. "Hey genius." She called sarcastically. The cushion landed right on his face and he removed it slowly to show her a look of annoyance. When he didn't say anything back to her, she continued. "Where will I be sleeping tonight?"

As though it weren't already painfully obvious. But still, he pointed it out to her. "You can sleep in my room tonight, and I'll just sleep here on the couch. Now please go so I can get some sleep."

The seventeen year old rolled her eyes at him. "You're back to being your annoying self."

"You're back to being your annoying self." He mimicked her and closed his eyes once more. Now that he knew she was safe--with him--he could sleep peacefully. He did not want to concern himself with anything else until the next morning. Even Louise could wait until then. Her and her insufferable self.

She scoffed and shot him a look, but he was already snoring lightly on the couch, and not paying her any more attention. It had been an exhausting day of him having to deal with Maria Valentina clinging to him like a leech. Then he had successfully gotten rid of her so that he could go in search of Louise because he knew her well and he knew that she was probably out on the streets by herself. She was so prideful that she would not accept anyone's help, at least not his or Dieter's. Instead, seeing that she would no longer get to mess with him, she turned and walked down the hallway to his bedroom. 

As she entered the room, she gasped at what she saw there waiting for her. Her dark green school uniform was laid out on his bed, with her green knee high socks there too. There was a strong scent of laundry detergent coming from it and as she got closer, she realized her uniform was still damp. As though he had just washed it before going out to look for her. Which was exactly what had happened. But it smelled nice, and at least it was going to be clean for her classes the next morning. Louise normally did her laundry for the week, along with the twins Annie and Aimee, on Sunday nights. She almost thought she would have to wear an unwashed uniform to school the next morning. 

On top of her uniform was a post it note that was now blurry and wet from being on top of her uniform.

I tried. The note read in a messy scribble of handwriting that she knew was Logan's because--one, it was obvious, and two, she had seen his writing plenty when he was teaching at school. Next to the message was a little face, sticking its tongue out at her. Logan knew that she would judge him for his sub par laundry skills, but he wanted to do something nice in order to make up for having made her mad in the first place. It was his fault that she ran away from his home after all.

Louise felt a smile tugging at her lips at the gesture, but she quickly scolded herself internally and gave a quick shake of her head to clear her thoughts. She crumpled up the note and tossed it across the room. She then grabbed her uniform and placed it over a chair that was in the room. It would likely need to dry the entire rest of the night. Then she started getting ready for bed.

-

He woke up the next morning when it was still dark, as his alarm went off at six in the morning. Classes started for the day at seven forty five, which meant he had an hour and forty five minutes to get ready, have breakfast, and drive down to the school. 

The very first thing he did that morning was to check on Louise. Normally, he went to take a shower first, but since she was in the house with him, he had to check on her. If she wasn't awake, he would have to wake her up and ask her to get ready. As he opened the door slowly and peeked inside, he found her small body in his bed, half covered vertically by the sheets. She had one leg sticking out and she was holding the pillow in her arms. Logan gulped, going red in the face when he noticed she was no longer wearing the green dress from the thrift shop, nor was she wearing her green school uniform. She was dressed in one of his button up shirts. The one he had been thinking to wear to work that morning, no less. 

Logan cleared his throat and called out to her, hoping his voice alone would be enough to wake her up. "Louise, its time to wake up."

The seventeen year old groaned in her sleep and now pulled the covers around herself tightly. 

He decided to try again, this time a bit louder. "Louise, you have to get ready for school."

When that still didn't work, he slowly walked into the room and stood over her at the side of the bed. This time, he put a hand on her shoulder and gently tried to shake her awake. 

She grabbed his hand and pushed it awake. "Alright, Logan. I'm up."

She sounded so tired and Logan almost felt bad for her. But he knew that she couldn't miss class that day or else someone from the staff would probably look for her. Then they would know she wasn't in her room and she would get into trouble. He would also be a part of it if anyone found out that she had been with him all weekend. People would think the worst of him.

He tapped her on the shoulder to wake her up further as he informed her, "I'm going to shower and then I'm getting started on breakfast."

Louise normally had breakfast at school before starting her classes for the day. But she didn't at all mind having breakfast with Logan. It was probably better than the school breakfast she was getting as a scholarship student. And it also gave her the opportunity to save her meal ticket for another time. That meant that she would have an extra one in case Andy and Ollie were to visit her again. 

Louise laid in his bed, eyes trained on the ceiling as she heard the shower turn on and she waited for him to get out of the shower. She got in the shower right after him, and he had passed her to change in his bedroom with a towel around his waist. She quickly got in the shower and changed into her uniform there. When she left the bathroom, the smell of food overpowered her senses, coming from the kitchen. Her stomach growled and her mouth started to water at the smell of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. 

She was almost hypnotized as she made her way to the kitchen where a plate of food was waiting for her. Logan was already eating, whilst reading something on his phone. He looked like a full blown adult with his blonde hair neatly combed off to the side, black rimmed glasses adorning his blue eyes, and his dress clothes ready for work. He barely glanced at her as she sat at the small round table across from him. She felt like a little girl with her green school uniform, knee high socks, and black church shoes. Her long black hair was damp from her shower and her uniform was surprisingly still damp as well.

"Eat your breakfast quick, its almost time to go." He told her, gesturing with his head towards the food on the table. The food on his plate was half eaten already and there was a cup of hot coffee in front of him--in a navy blue mug with a gold colored puma on it. Underneath the puma was the acronym UNAM. His alma mater.

Louise picked up her fork and started gobbling up her food without question. It smelled good, and it tasted even better. Louise was surprised that he was smart enough not to ruin breakfast, which was pretty much the most straight forward meals to make.

She had been lost in her thoughts, until his voice brought her back to reality. "Why are you staring at me like that?" He asked her with real curiosity.

Louise coughed awkwardly. She hadn't even realized that she was staring. She had been so surprised with his cooking skills that she didn't think that she might have been looking at him for too long, or even at all.

It took her a half a second to think of something to say. But when she finally did, it was something worthy of her. Something she, Louise Belcher, would be proud of. "I'm just staring at your ugly face. I can't understand how someone can be so ugly."

He rolled his eyes at her, not amused by her come back. "Just finish your breakfast so we can go."

In a few more minutes, she finished up her food and she gathered her belongings which were not many. They went out to his car and she climbed into the passenger side. But he stopped her with a shake of his head before she could close the door. 

"You can't sit in the front." He told her.

"Why not?" She challenged.

"If you sit in the front, the security guards will see you and know you weren't here all weekend. They will also know that you were with me and then we will both be in trouble." He pointed out, and her face dropped. She knew that he was right and she hadn't thought about it before. 

With a glare, she begrudgingly climbed into the back seat. 

He climbed into the driver side door and looked at her in his rear view mirror. 

"Once we get close to the school, you need to lay down on the floor of my car." He instructed her, a satisfied smirk on his face. He was far more amused by making her do that than she thought. Now it was his turn to annoy her that morning. She had her turn when she called him ugly that morning.

She flipped him off.

-

another semi filler ish chapter for you all.

i hope you like it. i have to go to sleep now because i have to wake up for work tomorrow. thank you all loads for reading and supporting this story. it has honestly made me so happy to see people still read and comment.

have a great night, everyone!

-clary