Luke was gone for 11 days.

He looked tired, but he was somehow still glowing. I didn't care, it was nice to have him happy and physically back in my arms.

"It's so nice to see you." I sighed, squeezing his torso tighter as we stood in the doorway of our apartment. His bag laid by his feet since he had dropped it to hug me.

"It hasn't even been two weeks." He chuckled, running his hands up and down my back and through my hair, basically taking advantage of the fact that he hadn't seen me in almost two weeks.

He pulled back a bit and left a chaste kiss to my lips. It was nice to see him looking so bright.

"How was home?" I asked, as he bent down to pick up his bag.

He left out a long breath as he grabbed my hand, "It was nice. I think school just got the best of me and I needed some time with my family you know?" He said, leading us back into our living room. He set down his things by the couch as I listened. "Maybe I was homesick or something, I don't know." He shrugged. He fell onto the couch, kicking his feet up "I feel better." He gave me a gentle smile, opening his arms wide to tell me to come sit with him.

"I'm glad." I told him as I sat right down next to him. He wrapped his arms tightly around me as I threw my legs across his lap. I sighed, "Really really glad." He let me curl up to him and he figured squishing me would be the most comfortable thing to do.

"How was life without me?" He asked, letting his grip loosen on me.

"Life? You mean the whole week and a half?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow up at him.

"Something like that." He replied, not bothering to hide his smile as he bit down gently on his bottom lip.

I returned an easy smile as his arms fell from around me and fell into my lap. "I hung out with Ashton a lot." I told him, his expression falling.

"That's definitely not what I wanted to hear," he said, squeezing my thighs once.

I giggled at the touch, "It's alright, he's dating Cianna now." I informed him and he raised his eyebrows at me.

"Are you serious?" He asked. I nodded, it was just as hard to believe for me. I had warned him about what she had done, but I still told him that if he wants to risk it then it's alright. Ashton says she's had a change of heart and knows that she's messed up a lot and I guess I'll just have to let this happen.

"Yeah, a lot happened while you were gone," I vaguely said. Nothing really much happened, I just felt like joking around with him.

"And you didn't think to tell me this over the phone?" He asked, as if I as supposed to know that he wanted me to do this.

"Well, it wasn't really that important." I replied, picking his hands up out of my lap and intertwining my fingers with his.

"Yeah, but you're still required to gossip with me," he said. I snickered at his response, it was so strange to hear the words 'gossip with me' come out of his mouth. I guess a week and a half at home really changed him.

"Don't use the word gossip, Luke. Who are you?" I teased, which he rolled his eyes at like I expected.

He let go of my hands and pushed my shoulders so I fell onto my back, I let out a quiet yelp as I did this since I wasn't expecting him to fall right on top of me. His hands supported his weight with one on either side of me. He kicked his shoes off and let them fall of the couch and he let his legs tangle with mine, something that would never get old.

"You know, Autumn. Sometimes you're still the annoying girl with white ribbon in her hair in my 2nd grade class," he said, one of his hands moving down to my side and settling comfortably as he lowered his head.

"And sometimes you're still the birdbrain boy who decided to live with me." I teased, hooking a finger into the collar of his shirt to close more space between us.

"I still am." He smirked, oddly. Usually he would reply with something witty, but it seemed he was too focused on his hand moving to my back and finally brought me up to his lips. We both relaxed and I could feel him smiling a little, it was genuinely nice to kiss him after a few days.

He pulled back an inch, but still kept his chest pressed to mine. His eyes flicked up to mine and he sighed, his breath lightly hitting my lips. "I love you," he said the words rolling off his tongue so easily.

"I love you too," I quietly replied as he pulled me to him again for another short kiss.

"Please don't ever leave me," he mumbled between kisses. His tone told me that this was an in the moment type of thing, but I still felt the need to reassure him.

"You know I won't." I sighed, tugging on his hair a little more.

He smiled, letting the time pass with gentle touches of his fingertips on my body and flushed cheeks. I enjoyed this, I enjoyed him. Him being in my presence, it was all I really loved. We could be doing anything or nothing and I would still love it. It sort of scares me how quickly I oddly fell in love with him.

I like being tangled to him and his words and his lips, it was something I've always wanted. He was home. He was my person and I was his and he was my home. His sheets and his body, were my place of rest. Tomorrow I'll wake up and fight the sun, but not his grip around me.

Everything seemed so right, as non-chick flicky as it sounds. If you would've told me a year ago that things would be the way they are now, I wouldn't believe you. I would probably laugh and say something that would insult Luke then he'd probably insult me right back, but despite the whole finding love in each other thing, nothing has changed.

"Autumn," Luke whispered, breaking apart from me. My eyes slowly opened, gazing up at him. His thin eyelashes fluttered as his eyes opened to meet mine.

I moved my hands to his shoulders and waited for him to talk again. The sound of his voice was more soothing than anything right now.

"Primrose," He said, a little smile breaking out on his face. I lightly shook my head at him just because the name he knew I wasn't fond off just rolled off his tongue so well.

"Luke," I sing-songed his name back at him which he claimed he hated, but I knew he liked it just because I was the only person to do it.

"I want to ask you something." He slowly climbed off of me and off of the couch. As he went towards his bag I already disliked how cold I was since he was my only source of heat for the past few minutes.

"What is it?" I lazily asked, watching him dig through his bag. He glanced up at me fore a second then went bag to searching. He found was he was looking for and held it tightly in his hand so I couldn't see.

Luke got up and sat on the opposite side of the couch of me. I gave him a confused look and all he did was hold out a hand to me.

"Come on," he said, gesturing for me to grab his hand. I did just as he asked and he pulled me up. We were now sitting across from each other, our legs crossed and tucked under ourselves.

Luke held out his clasped hand, opening it and revealing a little black box. My heart seemed to have stopped right there and he waited until he saw the somewhat frantic look in my eyes to explain himself.

"Don't freak out." He laughed. "I'm not proposing to you yet," he said, opening the box and revealing to silver rings side by side. "I wasn't really sure if I wanted to do this, but then I decided to because I think you'd like it." He explained, pulling the thinnest the band out. It had some type on intricate design as a pattern, swirling and looping around the ring.

"I wanted to get something for the both of us and something that was kind of a reminder like 'Hey, I'm always here,' you know? It's not exactly a promise ring, because even if things don't exactly work out then there's still the reminder." He further explained. He held the ring out to me and I took it in my hand, picking it up with two fingers and examining it.

I glanced at him then back to the jewelry in my hand, "They're really pretty." I commented, getting a smile from him. He pulled the other one out and we both slipped them on our right ring fingers. "Thank you." I beamed, stretching out my arms to hug him. He simply pulled my arms and wrapped them around his own neck, causing me to practically topple over onto him.

"But," he said. "It would be cool if we got married. Not now, because that's kind of terrifying, but yeah. We'd just lay in bed all day with puppies running around everywhere." He chuckled, pulling me even closer to him.

"Is that your dream marriage?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow at him, or ore his explanation.

He laughed again, "Yeah, isn't it great?" He asked, a gentle smile on his face. I had to agree with him, it did sound pretty great. With whoever it was that I'd marry, but I'd really only want it with Luke. When I was about 16 I didn't even enjoy the thought or basic idea of marriage, but it's grown. It's still a little scary, but I think it'll grow on me again.

I nodded, "Of course."

"So you'll do it?" Luke's head tilted to the side, a comforting smile on his face.

"Do what?" I asked.

He gently nudged my sides, "You'd totally marry me," he said.

I snickered, "I would." I admitted, letting my hands find their way to the back of his neck again. His eyes shut as I played with the hair on the back of his head, obviously pleased with my actions. He pretty much resembled a cat at this moment.

"That's nice to know." He replied, lazily running his finger tips over my sides in the most random shapes.

"So do you?" He asked, his words mostly mumbled, the same toothless smile on his face.

"Do I..." I trailed off, letting it sound more like a question since I wasn't sure what he was asking what I do. He put up a finger, sort of making a circle in the air and I'm not quite sure what he was asking from me. "I do?" I hesitantly said, unsure if he wanted me to switch my words. He gave me a small nod, his eyes still barely shut and that's when I understood.

"I do." I smiled, still lightly playing with his hair that I noticed was a little longer than usual.

He leaned into me again, and for the rest of the night we sat on that couch, doing the same things we've done for the past few months.

Falling in love with Luke was not easy and it wasn't expected. It was messy and confusing, but if Luke hadn't stepped into the deep end the day he first kissed me, I wouldn't have realized such a massive amount of things. Things about Luke, my parents, my friends, even Luke himself. You would think 12 years of friendship would be enough time to get to know each other, but it really wasn't.

I never learned how his lips felt on my neck or how it felt to wake up in the same bed as him and have the first words said to me that day be 'I love you'. Even his fingers tied in my hair or the way his sweaty chest would stick to mine.

It was all quick and cliche, but in so many ways so different. I wanted a place to be myself, to be happy. A place where I could yell or cry or sit in silence. All I ever really wanted was a home.

Luke was home.

-

A/N:

AND THAT'S IT, FINAL CHAPTER

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