LUKE

Feeling stupid, Luke purposely dressed nice. He glared at himself in the mirror, debating if it was more pathetic to change or not. Changing would mean he cared. He wore his converse, knowing they'd be walking with beige pants rolled up and a tucked in white shirt. Over that, he wore his blue striped shirt. What was he even going for?

"This isn't a date," Luke mumbled and rolled up his sleeve.

The Magic Mirror chuckled. "Sure, Luke."

Luke dropped his hands. "I wasn't asking for your opinion."

"I don't give opinions. I give facts."

"Well," Luke grumbled and ran his fingers through his blonde hair to resemble any solace of style. "I still didn't ask."

"Wait until you see Lord Alwyn, then tell me this isn't a date."

Luke pointed at his own reflection. "I'm beginning to think you were made with evil intentions..." Taking a step back, Luke couldn't help but make an uncomfortable grimace. He looked up as if the mirror was really there. "So, you think I look okay?"

After a pause, the mirror said, "I think you look magnificent... and remember, I don't give opinions."

Luke smiled. "Thanks, Mirror."

"Luke? Are you ready?" Cassian asked and Luke really wished the mirror was a real man so he might punch him for not properly warning Luke. Luke's knees almost gave out and then, he'd ruin their day by crumbling into a silly little gooey puddle on the ground. Cassian wore worn out jeans, a brown leather jacket, and another shirt he avoided buttoning all the way.

While Luke's heart punched a hole in the wall of his chest, Cassian sighed. "You're really not going to wear a coat?"

Luke rolled his eyes. "We can't keep doing this."

He walked by Cassian, forced to slip by him in the doorway and he caught a whiff of Cassian's cologne. Luke's toes curled secretly inside his shoes and soon, strapped with one of Iris's canvas bags, the boys were on the streets of Paris. They travelled to the Rue Mouffetard Market, joining the lively narrowed streets. Luke's mouth water and his stomach ached like he never ate anything in his life. Ever.

Pushing Cassian, Luke pointed to what he wanted, and Cassian did all the talking. The best Luke could say was "Merci" for "Thank you", but he also knew how to apologize and excuse himself for all the times he bumped into people while he was busy being starry eyed and slack jawed at everything he saw.

"Watch out," Cassian said at some point and grabbed Luke's hand. Luke was puddy in this man's hand. Not even looking before he crossed the street, he just stared at Cassian and let Cassian drag him to the other side of the bricked road.

Luke couldn't stop buying something from every stall from cheeses, fruits, breads, and desserts. Cassian would just smile and do as Luke asked, adding to the bag. "You're going to eat all of this?" Cassian posed.

"Don't pretend you're not going to help me." Luke rolled his eyes. "As if you don't eat twice as me."

This accidently took them to the Luxembourg gardens for a picnic, but it took ages to finally settle and eat. Luke couldn't soak up enough of the flowers, fountains, the statues, and even the palace that the beauty surrounded. They found an expansive patch of grass, surrounded by larger-than-life trees cut like hedges with the greyish sky above them. Luke ate until he thought he might explode and laid in the grass. Cassian joined him, completely relaxing into the ground.

Luke was never going to be able to come back here.

This city was suddenly painted in Cassian.

He'd never think of Paris without thinking of Cassian Alwyn.

"What are other Dragons like?" Luke asked, turning onto his side, and holding his head up. He looked down at Cassian whose brow flicked up his forehead.

"I don't understand the question," Cassian said and crossed his arms. "You're making an assumption that all dragons aren't just like me."

Luke shook his head, not being fooled for a second. "I doubt they are. Or you might have a better reputation." He remembered the way everyone at Iris's reception trembled and screamed at the idea of a dragon landing on the lawn, without even knowing the dragon personally. Unconsciously, he moved closer to Cassian and away from everyone and everything else in the grass.

"Well..." Cassian smirked. "Don't go spreading that around. I happen to like my bad reputation."

"Ohhhh. I didn't realize Lord Cassian Alwyn was a bad boy."

With a withering look, Cassian looked up at Luke. "I don't want to open that Pandora's box. I would never be foolish enough to ask you what you thought of me."

"You can ask. It'd be a fair question. I mean, I already know how you think of me, right? You think I'm special."

Cassian tilted his head and it'd be so easy for Luke to lean down just a little and press a kiss to Cassian's forehead. He'd never admit it to Cassian, who would assume Luke was teasing, but Luke thought he might be the cutest person in the world and Luke adored him.

Cassian corrected Luke, "I think there's nobody else in the world like you."

"We'll you haven't met everybody in the world, so how can you even say that?"

"Because I've met enough people, and no one has ever..." Cassian's voice lingered as his brows knitted together. This look always made Luke nervous, like he disappeared, and Cassian was trying to decipher a puzzle.

"Has ever what?"

The sky rumbled, but Cassian's silence was louder. When he didn't answer, Luke's mind filled the quiet with guesses of his own. In what possible way could Cassian finish that sentence?

No one has ever been the reason he got stabbed before?

No one has ever forced him out of the country before?

No one has ever teased him so much before?

No one has ever made him feel this way?

The waiting was so painful. Luke's chest twisted tighter and tighter, even tighter to the point he thought his chest was going to rip in half. Cassian got up a little and mirrored Luke, facing him the same way. He asked, "I've told you that my family kicked me out as soon as they could, right?"

Luke nodded. "You said it was tradition for dragons."

"By nature, dragons are selfish and unloving creatures..." He said one thing, but the way Cassian's hand reached out told a different story. The way Cassian barely grazed Luke's cheek and softly brushed his hair back. It was the opposite of his words and the grimace on his mouth that Luke couldn't stop staring at. "But that's not entirely true because I believe my parents are still together and they kept my brother much longer than they kept me..."

The sky above them rumbled. The sun was long gone, the wind sweeping through the trees and rattling the leaves. It even caused quite a few people and their blankets to get blown away and they were forced to run for cover, but Luke couldn't move. Cassian said, "So, it could just be that I'm the selfish and unloveable one."

Immediately, Luke took offense to that as if their lives had just been threatened. He sat up, his face twisted in a scowl. "You've made it this far on your own. Without them. And I happen to like you..." The words came pouring out and once Luke got going, not even the rain falling from the sky could stop him. "I don't think you're selfish and I don't think you're unloveable. You've proved that to me over these months..."

Blinking through the raindrops, Luke didn't mind the cold droplets. If anything, he welcomed it. He said, "I enjoy every minute with you, so if that does make you different and if that does make you special than that makes me the luckiest guy in the world that I got to meet the strangest dragon that exists." A nervous laugh fluttered out of Luke because he was still talking, Cassian wasn't saying anything, and people were fleeing the lawn without them.

It was like they were the only two people who existed.

Luke let out a breath. "You can choose your family, Cass. You don't have to settle for people who didn't love you the way they should. Choose people that will love you back. Love you the way you need them to love you."

Straightening his arm, Cassian's face was suddenly dangerously close to Luke's and his silver eyes flitted from Luke's eyes to his lips. Cassian's hot breath tickled Luke's skin. In all of Paris, this patch of garden was the only one sweltering. Luke made the decision not to move like he was standing on the beach, waiting for the tide to come in and crash into him. Luke wanted to get swept away.

No words.

But Luke's heart was screaming.

Lightning ripped through the sky and thunder crackled, making both men jolt up. Luke finally looked up, his breathing labored as goosebumps scattered across the edges of his body. "We gotta get out of here," Luke whispered, but before he moved to get up, Cassian took his hand and stood. Their eyes lingered a beat before Cassian was hauling Luke out of the gardens and into the street.

The rain was coming down twice as hard and as thick as blankets, relentlessly drowning Luke like a stray cat on these streets. When he already felt like he could hardly breathe. Cursing, Cassian tugged Luke's arm and suddenly, Luke found his back pressed against a creaking wooden door. He blinked up at the tall archway above him and just under that, just hovering over him was Cassian and despite being just as soaked, he was shielding Luke from the rain. Luke swallowed nervously, unsure where to put his hands or even where to look. He was paper and Cassian was the match, slowly burning him into a spec of nothing.

Cassian let out a long sigh and his whole body shuddered before he glared daggers at Luke. "I told you to bring a coat."

Bracing himself, Luke wondered if Cassian's voice was always that deep, if it was always such a low growl. Luke shook his head, meaning to tease him. "Shut up. It doesn't matter now."

"It matters," Cassian snapped, and Luke ate his words. Cassian was doing that ting again where he was talking, but he was looking at Luke's mouth and Luke's heart was thrumming faster than any tempo he could keep up with. Cassian said, "If it comes to you, it matters."

Luke couldn't take it anymore.

He had been falling endlessly and Luke finally decided to reach for the ledge.

Grabbing Cassian's face, Luke raised himself and kissed Cassian. Tilting his head, Luke kissed him over and over again and in a split second, one of Cassian's arms dropped to wrap itself around Luke's back. There was hunger in this kiss. There was a starvation that could only be curved by filling their bellies with each other.

Luke dipped his head forward, breaking the kiss with a gasp. He shook his head, rubbing the middle of Cassian's forehead. Despite his words, he was holding onto Cassian's soaked collar for dear life. Still touching the scruff of his chin. Cassian. Cassian. Luke had his name stuck in his head like a song. Cassian.

This was brining Luke back home. He hadn't even realized he was lost or looking for something, until this moment. When this, this, this, this is exactly what he wanted more than anything in the whole wide world. He found it.

"We-we can't," Luke insisted, trying to bring them back to reality, but the smell of Cassian's cologne was making his head fuzzy and his warmth prickled Luke's cheeks like he was too close to a blazing bonfire, but couldn't walk away. "We can't. We can't. We can't."

"But we already did," Cassian argued because there was always a fight to be had, even after a kiss. He grabbed Luke's chin and lifted his face back up. Cassian's lips swooped back down, pressing himself against Luke, walking him back and his leg was between Luke's. A jolt went through Luke and his gasp was an opportunity for Cassian to taste the inside of his mouth.

Luke never felt like this.

Absolutely electric like he was the tip of a freshly lit sparkler. Cassian's leg pressed further, and Luke thought his spine was going to dissemble, like he was going to come part in the middle of the streets of Paris. He broke the kiss again. "This isn't a good idea—"

Cassian buried his face into Luke's neck and everywhere his lips touch, Luke's heart shuddered, and warmth returned to every patch like Cassian was quilting together a person again. It was overwhelming. Being buried underneath the earth for so long, to be reached for and for someone to take his hand and pull him from the grave. Fresh breath spilling into his lungs. Sunshine touching Luke's skin for the first time in months.

"We can pretend this didn't happen—" Luke whispered nearly against Cassian's lips. He had to close his eyes. He couldn't look at Cassian in this moment and just lie to him in this state.

"Luke," Cassian said his name and something deep inside Luke trembled. "Look at me." The deepness of Cassian's voice had Luke falling through the floor. It was one of the greatest rushes of his life. He was back on the first day they met, getting thrashed around by the rush of Cassian's wings and the heat blooming through the air. He was pressed against a door then too.

And a part of Luke was just as scared and he knew he couldn't keep these feelings off his face. He looked into Cassian's eyes, his heart pounding bruises into his chest. Cassian already said it. Already warned Luke. Cassian's eyes ripped right through Luke and he needed the wall to keep standing.

"I promised a lot of people, including you that I'd never hurt you... but I can't promise you that I'll pretend this never happened. I would never forget that I kissed you. I've been wanting to kiss you for quite some time and for it to have happened..." Cassian shook his head. "That's something I don't think I'll ever recover from."

Luke licked his lips, suddenly starving and having to swallow so he wouldn't drool. The side of Cassian's mouth pinched. He had a smirk more mischievous than a kid about to swipe all the cookies from the cookie jar. "I might be greedy. A greedy dragon that wants more and more and more and if I could have you, even if just for tonight, I wouldn't be able to keep my eyes or my hands off someone so beautiful. You won't regret it. If you gave me the permission to hold you in my arms, I wouldn't let you regret it."

Pulling himself forward by Cassian's clothes, Luke crushed his lips against Cassian's and he devoured this man's lips as if someone was going to take his food away. Luke hasn't let himself want anything for so long. Not for himself. He didn't like being selfish. He hated thinking people weren't taken care of if this could be his last day on earth.

But he just wanted Cass. Just for a little. Just for this moment. He forgave himself. He allowed himself to want something: Cassian's lips, his warmth, his hands, and those eyes. He wanted Cassian's promise to come true, but more importantly, Luke wanted this for himself. Luke thought, don't stop looking at me.

Pushing Cassian's shoulders back, Luke told him, "Then you better get us a cab."

And Cassian smiled wider than Luke had ever seen, and he wished time would stop. The future was a horrifying place, but here and now was perfect. 

#

AUTHOR'S NOTE

*Alexa play Paris in the Rain by Lauv*

Man. I wonder what the next chapter is about. 

See you next week! Also, here's a cute little mood board I did for this book!