𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 ─── christmas spirit

Flatbush Ave., 20th December 2006

"𝔏uke!" Arabella threw the door open, her eyes wide as she launched herself onto the laughing blond man before she could stop herself. "It's been too long!"

"I missed you too, Ellie." Luke's voice was low, warming Arabella's soul as she clung to the man. As she had launched herself onto the man, he had been forced to drop pretty much everything in his hands to catch onto her, laughing all the same. "Really, I did."

Arabella's heart warmed at the confession, her arms tightening around his neck, before she finally let him go, pulling back and smiling up at the man.

Luke beamed at her, one of his truly handsome smile that he seemed to reserve for her, as Arabella fought the blush on her face down. "How have you been, Ellie?"

"I'm so excited for Christmas." Ellie beamed, opening her bedroom door so that Luke could dump his bag inside of the room. "I've held off doing a lot of the things I normally do so that we can do them together."

"Sorry." Luke winced.

"Why? There's no need. I'm happy to share my Christmas with you." Arabella was practically bouncing around the apartment, as Luke put the books that he'd borrowed back onto her shelf. Despite everything that was happening at the moment, being able to see Arabella grinning and vibrating with happiness made him happy. It made him feel something that he hadn't felt in a long time. "I'm so excited."

"I can see." Ellie turned, beaming at him, her laughter echoing through the halls as Luke's stomach dropped.

He had a crush.

"We've got to get a Christmas tree and lights and decorate it, and then we can go ice skating and sledging and go see all the Christmas lights and the window displays." Luke managed to force out a laugh, internally panicking at the thought of being in such close proximity with Arabella for the next few weeks. "When do you need to go?"

"I'm here until the New Year!" She cheered once more, before grabbing her shoes and a coat, tugging them on as Luke continued to panic. He was about to help start a war against all powerful immortal beings and he had a crush...A crush!

Now was not the ideal time for romantic feelings.

"Come on, let's get a tree first," Luke nodded, waiting for her to wrap herself back up in multiple layers and grab her phone, keys and wallet. "There's this place a little way from here."

Arabella gave him little chance to think, grabbing onto his hand as Luke's brain short circuited. One thought circled round his mind;

He was screwed.

∘☽༓☾∘

Luke looked at the boxes of lights and baubles that Arabella was holding, a large grin on her face. Her cheeks were still flushed red from the cold outside, just as he was sure his own were. However it might also be due to the company that he was with.

Laughing, Luke took a box off of the pile and began to follow her instructions about how to decorate the tree.

At Camp Half-Blood, Christmas time had always been sunny and there had never been a massive fanfare about it, due to them being the children of Greek gods. That didn't mean they didn't celebrate it but it wasn't the same. It wasn't like Ellie's idea of Christmas.

Shaking himself back out of his thoughts, he continued to place baubles on the tree as Arabella danced to the Christmas music, dragging him into it as well. 

"The weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful," Arabella hummed, as Luke finally obliged and span her around under his arm after she sent him one too many puppy dog eyes. She was laughing all the while and Luke felt his traitorous heart skip a beat. He knew that he was playing with fire here, but for once, he didn't care about the gods, or the war, or Kronos. "Wait, we have to get a photo."

"What?" Luke's eyebrows raised, snapping out of his thoughts, as Arabella pulled her hand back from his and ran out of the room, reappearing moments later with a camera. 

"Okay, so I'm gonna put it on a timer and you have to help me get the star on top of the tree," Arabella commanded, as Luke nodded. He watched as she fiddled around with something, before she came running over. Grabbing her, Luke pulled her up so that she was sitting on his shoulders, handing her the star. A click went off, as Arabella put the star on, before looking down at Luke with a smile. "I think that will be perfect."

Her smile softened, a flush still decorating her cheeks but neither of them knew whether it was from the cold or from their closeness.

"You can put me down now." Arabella muttered, as Luke finally shook off the serious mood, dropping her down to the floor carefully as they quickly brushed past the awkward moment.

∘☽༓☾∘

Central Park, 21st December 2006

"You look like Bambi!" Luke didn't know what she was talking about, as Arabella skated past him easily, chuckling. He huffed, as she did another loop, before finally seeming to take pity on him and coming back over. "Do you want some help?"

"Sure." Arabella held her hands out, and Luke forgot all reservations and grabbed onto his crush's hands before he could stop himself. He found himself grinning, as she pulled him upright, instructing him softly as they finally began to skate away from the wall.

"There we go!" She cheered, as Luke laughed as he slid along. "Okay, pick one foot up and push."

Luke followed along and before he knew it, he was skating around and even if he was terrible at it, it was better than clinging to the side of the rink like a fool. Plus, Arabella's hand in his was a good feeling. One that he really enjoyed.

"See, it is fun," Luke's eyes narrowed as he watched Arabella.

"You're just saying that cause you can skate," She winked at him, before letting go of one of his hands so that he could skate by her side. "But, I'll admit, it's fun."

"Knew you'd see it from my point of view." She grinned at him, and Luke almost tripped over his skates as he blushed. He managed to just catch himself, as Arabella continued to talk. "We should go sledding and window shopping. Some of the storefront displays are amazing."

"Whatever you want, Ellie," Luke agreed swiftly, hoping she didn't question why he was blushing furiously. Why did he have to go and get a crush on her? Why? "You know best."

"Don't you forget it." 

∘☽༓☾∘

Luke laughed on his back, as he lay next to Arabella in the snow at the bottom of the hill.

"That was so much fun, let's do it again." Arabella was also giggling, as Luke hauled her upright and grabbed the sled.

"I thought you said you lived in Connecticut. How haven't you been sledding before, I swear it snows up there." She called, watching as Luke shrugged.

"I never had time. Let's go." Arabella followed him up the hill, her eyes narrowing. What sort of kid didn't have time to go sledding when they had snow days off from school? She thought that was a normal thing to do, but she dismissed the thought from her mind. Maybe Luke's school was different, or that was just something only her school did.

When they reached the top, she jumped on the sledge first, as Luke sat on the back, wrapping an arm around her waist. Arabella tensed at the feeling, trying not to let it flame her emotions. They were friends. Just friends.

"Ready?" Friends, she thought, only friends. Keep it friendly.

"Absolutely," Luke pushed them off, and they went skidding down the hill again. Luke's laugh was contagious, as they fell off the sledge at the bottom. Arabella rolled, before opening her eyes to find Luke's hovering over her, laughing his head off as he rolled to the side of her. He looked positively angelic when he laughed. "Come on, let's go and see the windows. We can always go sledding afterwards."

Luke nodded, as he picked the sled up and followed after her, a large grin on his face.

"This is so much fun," He was now the one who was bouncing around on his feet in excitement. Arabella looked up at him with a grin, before snapping a photo of the snowy park ahead of them. She liked having memories of things like this. "You're the best for taking me here, you know that?"

Arabella faltered as Luke tugged her into a side hug absentmindedly, trying (and failing) to force the blush from her face.

Luke was still looking at everything in awe, from the shop front windows to the lights in the street and the cars passing him. Arabella just squeezed his hand tightly.

"Thanks for having Christmas with me." Luke looked down at her with a grin, before smiling.

"Thanks for inviting me."

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

It's our first round of Christmas fluff. There's another chapter going up in a bit with the second half as well as New Years Eve, which I'm very excited. Also can confirm that these two have very obvious feelings for each other, but are both very scared to act on it.

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx