Beneath A Winter Sky

"May! You're here!"

I leaped back at the sound of a rather enthusiastic shout, knocking against Leo behind me who steadied me. "Easy there," he chuckled. I almost jumped again at the touch of his hands on my waist and he noticed that, no doubt, when I stumbled away. "Thanks," I muttered stupidly, and diverted my attention to the source of the voice.

Damien, and the others were sat on a king-size bed in the middle of Leo's room. It was huge, the bed and the room that is. Big enough to fit a piano, two book shelves, a TV, fireplace and the standard desk, laptop, desktop computer and big-ass speakers. Cause that's what all rooms are made of, apparently. I didn't have enough time to admire the interior design as Damien threw himself off the bed, getting to his feet and rushed over to me before skidding to a stop. His abrupt stop surprised everyone in the room.

"Oh look, he's not smothering her yet," Amy pointed out, amused.

"You look..." Damien's eyebrows shot up as he pointed at me, his hand shaking slightly. His ears turned pink and he ran a hand through his messy hair, grinning a little stupidly, "Wow. I'm actually out of words."

"Good. I shut you up for a change," I winked at him and stepped forward to give Damien the customary hug. He seemed to hesitate before finally wrapping his arms around my waist and hugging me tightly. "You don't look so bad either," I noted, stepping back to give him a good look. "In fact, I think you're the first teenage guy who can pull off a brown plaid suit without looking like he stepped out of an '80s movie set."

"I'm going to take that as a huge compliment," Damien grinned,his green eyes lighting up in joy as he slipped his hands into his pockets. "Especially since it's coming from you, princess."

I rolled my eyes and walked past him. "I can never catch a break with you."

I sat down on the bed next to Amy whose eyes were sparkling like fireworks on the 4th of July.

"That was interesting," she whispered to me. Nick stood up with a sigh and walked over to the guys, muttering something about wanting to give us privacy. What a good boyfriend.

"What was?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at the expression she was giving me.

"That exchange with Damien."

"Yeah. He's still as smitten by me as ever," I joked, throwing my hair over my shoulder with my hand to add dramatic effect.

"Looks like he's not the only one," Amy giggled. She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at me. "He hasn't taken his eyes off you since the moment you stepped through that door."

I bit down on my lip, looking past her at Leo. He was talking with the guys but kept casually glancing over at the two of us, a smile still written on his face.

"He's just being nice," I said quietly.

By the loud snort that she let out, Amy clearly disagreed.

"You're so oblivious, it's stupid."

"What are you going on about?"

"Nothing," she said, waving the matter aside as she stood up. Then, loudly, she asked, "Has Leo given you a tour of the house yet?"

I shook my head slowly, shooting Amy a murderous side glance. She was up to something. She always was.

"I can show her around!" Damien was up for the task, with a wide grin on his face.

"I'll take her," Leo spoke up, stepping back and opening the door for me invitingly. He added, "I need to introduce her to my family anyway," which still wasn't good enough to convince Damien who looked between the two of us with puppy dog eyes. Leo, however, ignored him and opened the door wider, stepping halfway through the doorway.

"May we?" he asked, then grinned. I picked up on the pun and tried not to roll my eyes at him as I joined him. We went back down the same way we had come up to his room; through a grand marble staircase (something told me the Harpers had a thing for marble) that spiraled down to the centre of all activity. Once we reached the bottom, we were immediately immersed in the active crowd of people that were moving around, talking and drinking.

I felt Leo place his hand on the small of my back as he led us through the crowd, easily maneuvering himself him and I to his destination. Several people, mainly older women and men who were no doubt friends of the family, smiled and acknowledged him. Others stared, and not in the friendliest of ways. Maybe the reason why Leo was rushing us through the crowd was to make sure I didn't notice all that. I pretended not to.

We made our way down the wide corridor streaming with people before Leo entered, what I presumed to be, the dining hall. A long rectangular table filled with finger snacks and drinks was in the middle of the room, and also happened to be the most crowded spot. I tore my eyes away from the appetizing food and looked up at Leo with questions in my eyes.

"Where exactly are-"

He took a deep breath and grabbed my hand, not letting me finish my sentence as minutes later, the very familiar faces appeared before me.

"Mother," Leo spoke, crisp and proper with clear respect in his tone. "Andrew, Melinda," he nodded in their direction. They stood, all three of them, united as they had been the last time. It reminded me of a pack of wolves and the alpha male leading them was Mrs. Harper who was staring me down like a hawk. There was a frown on her face, and something told me she was trying to remember why I looked familiar to her. A part of me hoped she would fail.

"This is-"

"The girl from the museum," Andrew interrupted. He smirked down at me, no doubt replaying the memory of the last time we had seen each other. Leo's hand gave me a reassuring squeeze as he spoke up, defensively almost. "Her name is Makayla. Makayla Summers. And she's my friend."

"Your friend, you say?" His mother pointedly stared at our hands that remained interlaced. I hastened to let go but Leo was quick to tighten his grip. He glanced down at me and shook his head ever so slightly, no. I stopped fighting.

With a deep breath, I finally said, "I just wanted to properly introduce myself."

"Is that all?" Melinda asked, faking a yawn and checking the watch on her wrist. "Unlike her, there are some important people at the party that demand our attention, Leo. You should know better."

Wow. My anger would have flared under normal circumstances but this was Leo's family we were talking about. There was something more to this and until I heard what it was from Leo himself, I wasn't going to lash out on anyone, as annoying as they might be.

Forcing a polite smile to my lips, I stepped back to give them the way to walk by us. "It's a lovely party you have here," I said, compromising my voice to one of quiet pleasantry, "I sure wouldn't want to be in your way from enjoying it. It was nice to formally meet you all."

"The pleasure is ours," Mrs. Harper said with a stiff smile. Her eyes lingered on my face, registering every curve and inch of my skin, before she glanced at Leo if not for a millisecond and proceeded to breeze past us. Andrew didn't stop smirking like the idiot I wanted to believe he is whereas Melinda, the little shit, just pretended we didn't exist.

I hadn't realized how much tighter Leo's hand had grown in mine until the moment they had left. Looking up at him, I watched his eyes follow his family's. I saw a longing, a desire to be part of that pack but at the same time, mute anger that had built up the years. Anger he had done a good job of concealing.

"Leo."

He snapped out of his daze and finally met my gaze. Too quick to hide the pain in them but I had seen it all anyway. With a small smile, I said, "Some fresh air would be nice, don't you think?"

Leo nodded, and smiled back weakly. "Come on," he said, beginning to walk us out of the same room he had been in a rush to enter. "I'll show you the garden."

**

It was more beautiful up close than it had been from the small tour inside the car. Leo and I had taken a walk around the estate, which truth be told, was a huge garden made to accommodate a house, a tennis court, a swimming pool and a few other amenities which any human being would kill to have in their home. I had to hand it to them; as haughty and arrogant as Leo's family seemed to be, they had done a good job of home design. I was literally walking through a winter wonderland.

The snow coated the ground, shining brightly under the silver rays of moonlight. Leo hadn't let go of my hand, except for a couple seconds to take off his jacket and drape it over my shoulders without a word. We came to a stop in front of the frozen fountain and we both sat down on the wooden bench facing it.

It was quiet for a while. But we had to break the ice, eventually. Surprisingly, before I could get a chance to finish coming up with a good conversation starter, Leo spoke up first.

"I'm sorry, Makayla."

My head snapped in his direction, shock flooding into my face. Why was he apologizing? He didn't need to. Leo let go of my hand and looked away, his head turning the other direction so I couldn't see his face.

"I wanted to make it up to you.To how I treated you that day but my family, they just..."

"Leo," I put a hand on his knee and shook it to get his attention but he still wouldn't turn my way. "It's fine."

"No. It isn't."

"This isn't your fault."

"You deserve to be respected, Makayla." He refused to listen to me. I started to shake my head.

"Leo, I-"

"They've never given a shit about me, you know."

Those words hung in the air, raw and vulnerable. It came out a broken whisper and it was the first time I had ever heard Leo sound so...weak, so human. Finally, he turned to look at me and my heart clenched painfully in my chest. His eyes held a lot more emotion than he had ever risked showing to me before.

I stayed quiet, unable to think of what to say. He didn't want me to say anything. He just wanted me to hear him out, and as he went on, I made sure I did.

"I've always been the last one on their list of priorities," Leo said, his voice soft like a child's. "Mother and father, they never wanted me. They had all they wanted before I was even born. A son to become the heir to their companies once dad decided to retire, and a younger daughter who would be there to support him as a sibling - someone just as talented, and as ambitious. They had Andrew and Melinda and that was supposed to be it."

I wanted to shake my head and refuse to believe it. That Leo, as smart and talented as he is, wasn't being appreciated in his own home. But his next words were what tore that belief down and I knew, it hurt him to say it out loud. To acknowledge it.

"I was unplanned for. A mistake."

"Leo..."

He shook his head at me. "Don't say it Makayla. I don't need your sympathy or pity."

"That's not what-"

"Everyone knows it." He smiled wryly at me. "The whole school. Family friends. Strangers. Anyone who has heard of our family knows that I'm the one that's dispensable."

I gulped down the lump in my throat and retracted my hand from his knee. How do you even begin to comfort someone who has grown up thinking that they were a mistake?

"My only job is to hide the fact that I feel that way too. Like a waste of space."

"So it's all an act," I said slowly, staring at him and beginning to comprehend the Leo Harper I had known for months and the Leo I was staring at now. "You don't want people seeing how you really feel so you try to convince them that you're just as good as Andrew and Melinda by following in their footsteps."

Leo's lips turned into a thin line. "Yes. I don't want them calling me third-rate."

I shook my head at him gently, grabbing his hand. "Leo, you're so not a third-rate. And you don't have to be a student council president or class valedictorian or anything you don't want to be just so you can prove a point."

"But I do Makayla." He stood up and looked down at me, desperation starting to appear in his eyes. It scared me. It worried me. Seeing him like this, when the only front he'd ever put up with me was one of confidence. "How else do I get them to acknowledge my existence? You wouldn't know."

"You'd be surprised," I said, folding my hands in my lap as I watched him break down into a mess in front of my eyes. Maybe this was the part where I got up and hugged him and rubbed his back like a mother would a child's. But Leo and I both knew we had grown far from calling ourselves children, and I wasn't too good at comforting people. I was good at telling them the truth, regardless of whether or not it hurt to hear.

"Right, you would know," he retorted, smiling down at me with somewhat of a bitterness etched into his face. "I've seen the way you look at your dad Makayla. And I've seen how much he loves you. Trust me, you'd be the last to understand."

"Again, you're wrong Leo."

He opened his mouth, ready to jump into another argumentative point about how my job was only to listen to him and not tell him that I understood how miserable he felt. But I was quicker.

"Have you forgotten about the fact that my parents are divorced?" That did it. He stared at me, eyes widening in realization as he begun to put the pieces together in his head. "Have you forgotten what I told you that night at Nick's party? About my mother?"

His hands dropped to his sides and Leo looked away from me in what I could only place as shame. "I remember."

"Well then you should know that I know how it feels begging for someone's attention when you know you've lost it. And you feel helpless and invisible and," I took in a deep breath before repeating what he'd said, "like a waste of space. But I'll let you in on a little secret."

I stood up and walked toward him. I grabbed his hands in mine and frowned when I felt how cold they were. Interlacing our fingers together, I squeezed his hand and said, "There's more to you than what your family thinks you are." Looking up, I smiled at him. "The last thing you are is a waste of space. And you haven't got to prove yourself to anyone but to yourself. Your opinion of you is all that should matter."

"And why should I listen to you?" Leo whispered, looking down at our hands.

"Because," I said softly, squeezing his hands to get his eyes back on mine. "You told me to trust you that night, and I did. Now, I'm asking the same of you."

Leo answered me with a silence that held more meaning than anything he could have ever said. His lips pulled upward into a smile and he nodded, ever so slightly.

"Good," I chirped, smiling brightly up at him. "Because let me tell you something Leo. You don't have to be a Harper. You just have to be yourself. And you've got a bunch of people who would appreciate you no matter who you are." Glancing back down at our hands, I said with a hint of worry in my tone, "Now we should get you back inside because you're freaking freezing. Here, take your coat back."

I started to shrug it off me but he stopped me, catching my hands and pushing them back down to my sides.

"I'm used to feeling cold. Winter's my season after all," he said with a small smile. "Besides, you look good in my coat." I blinked a little stupidly at that, and for the first time since our talk had begun, started to stumble for words all over again. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him till we were chest to chest.

"Leo?" I squeaked.

"Being out here makes it easier for me to see when you blush," he whispered, leaning down and pressing his forehead against my heated one. "You've been doing that a lot lately, Makayla Summers."

"S-stop it." I started to push him away by his chest, but just like before, Leo didn't dare to let go of me. It was different this time, we weren't fighting. He seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he asked me, "Am I forgiven now?"

I stopped struggling and finally looked into his eyes. It was a genuine question and behind the smile he had on, there was a plea for forgiveness.

"Of course you are. I wasn't thinking right, Leo. I was mad at you when I had no right to be."

"Why?"

My face heated up even more, and my hands balled into fists on his chest of their own accord. Leo was quick to notice as he stopped me from trying to escape. "We should get back insid-"

"May." He held me even closer against him, which in my defense, wasn't helping at all. Leo's stare fixed me in his place and I sighed, knowing there would be no way out of this without admitting it to him.

"Because," I muttered, trying to sound indifferent but failing miserably by the way my voice shook, "I was scared you didn't care about me as much as I did about you."

I was scared to meet his eyes so I just focused on his shirt, on my palms that had flattened against his chest. It was like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. Stepping closer, I rested my forehead against his chest, burying my face away so he wouldn't see me. His body tensed for just a moment before I felt him let his breath and rest his chin on top of my head. Leo's arms wrapped around me even tighter than before, snuggling me deeper into him.

"I won't let what happened with your mother repeat itself. Not with us."

"Okay," I whispered, hanging onto his shirt like a child. Pulling back, Leo smiled at me gently and swooped down quickly, his lips pressing against my forehead ever so softly. It was only for a second but when he stepped back so I could see his face again, he had that same grin as that time at the lake. Wide, and so, so beautiful.

"We should probably get back now before Damien starts to worry."

Damien. Just the mention of that idiot helped me break out my trance.

"Right."

Leo grabbed my hand as we started to walk back. I liked it that way and didn't fight it. I thought I heard him laugh again at the sight of my tomato-red face but I didn't hide it this time.

As we walked, I noticed that his hand felt warmer in mine now. Our steps were lighter. Things were changing between us. They had started changing a long while ago but I hadn't paid notice at all because I liked the way things already were. After mom and dad's divorce, I wanted things to always be constant in my life, 'stable' in a sense. But as I got to know Leo more and more, I started to realize that maybe change was right. Looking down at our hands, I thought that maybe this was right.

I sneaked a peek up at him, tracing the features of his face. The way his hair had gotten slightly disheveled, strands of his blonde hair falling over his eyes. The perfect arch of his nose, his defined cheek bones and jaw line. And those lips that were pulled into a smile that was absolutely perfect. My heart swelled in my chest like it did every time when I knew I was the reason behind that smile. He glanced down at me, having felt my eyes on him.

"You okay?" he asked, squeezing my hand.

I nodded, biting down on my lip to hold back the stupid grin that was starting to grow. My free hand unconsciously raised to touch my forehead where he'd kissed me. Leo's eyes followed my move and I thought I saw his grin widen, just a little bit.

"I was just thinking that maybe winter isn't so bad after all."

He hummed in agreement.

"Nope, it isn't."

--------------------CHAPTER END---------------------

Seeing as its been a while since my last update, it was only fair for me to make this chapter a bit longer. Hope you all enjoyed the Layla love! :P

For those of you who are fans of romance, I would love if you could check out my other story I Promise. Its lacking reads and I would love to get more feedback on it, especially since its complete. :)

Vote Goal: 15

By the way, I've decided not to follow the vote goal strictly. At the end of the day, every reader matters so even if it is just one, I'm going to post for them. The vote goal is just a motivator to update faster.

I'll see you guys in the next chapter! :D

| Follow | Comment | Vote | Share |