Chapter Text
Luke never liked the rain.
It stuck to his bones and soaked the world in silence. Something about it was always so oppressing, like it could steal his senses from him slowly and envelop him in a blanket of dreariness.
But you did.
You, with your annoying habit of making anyone like you, you with this stupid insistence that no, I’m sure that very cute and very rabbit-like animal isn’t a monster, and yes, this definitely won’t make him regret relenting to you later. You, with the kind of personality that felt like sunshine incarnate, liked the rain.
Luke never understood it. How someone like you, so happy and brilliant and good could like something so dark and gloomy. Or why you would always insist that they run outside to check no one was lost, or to make sure everyone had a blanket or jacket with them to keep them from getting cold, when they themselves never ended up with one. All things that eluded him. All things that he loved about you.
“C’mon this is the last area!” You had called out, sprinting ahead of him as if slipping in the mud wasn’t a hazard for you. He would know, he’d already had to catch you once.
“Slow down, sunshine,” Luke called after you, “I don’t wanna have to catch you again.”
You gasped, a smile curling at your lips as you paused, just long enough for him to catch up. “Okay, Casanova. Tell me how you really feel I guess.”
Luke huffed, rolling his eyes and batting at your hand in protest.
“Shut up,” He said, “you know I’ll always catch you.”
“Yeah, yeah, lover boy.” It was your turn to roll your eyes. You grabbed his hand, yanking him forward until you were running side by side, giving him a full-chested cackle when he had yelped and almost slipped. “I think I see Harley by that tree over there. Better make sure he doesn’t get drenched.”
“Fine, fall over for all I care!” Luke shouted over the din of the rain. He was freezing, shivering and almost definitely about to catch a cold. But the hand connecting you to him was burning. He turned his head away, feeling his cheeks heat up against the cold torrents of water. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Still, when you next tripped over a tree root, he caught you, yanking you back up with the ease years of sword training had given him. You were flat against his chest, laughing breathily at your slip up and looking up at him with these eyes that made him want to melt.
“Guess you were lying about letting me fall.” You said with soft grin, patting his cheek and pushing off of him. He pretended he didn’t miss your warmth.
He watched as you ran off to Harley, tackling him into a bear hug, one that the nine year old pretended to hate but still melted into. You messed up his hair, chuckling as he protested, all the while carrying him toward Luke.
“Look who I caught!” You said, beaming as the kid squirmed around and complained. Eventually, Harley manage to get out of your hold and ran toward Luke, wriggling behind him and climbing him like a monkey.
Luke chuckled at the feeling of Harley finally coming to a stop on his shoulder, hands grabbing at his head to stay stable. “Gods, Harley, who’s been teaching you to climb people like they’re trees?”
Harvey harrumphed, smacking his head (lightly) and definitely rolling his eyes. “Just take me back to Bunker Nine before someone else tries to tackle me.”
He was glaring at you, while you beamed back, stepping closer to Luke and looking up at the boy on his head. You leaned closer, close enough for Luke to smell that floral shampoo he knew you used, close enough to feel your body heat and count every single smudge of dirt on your face. You tilted your head teasingly. “Aww Harley, love ya too.”
You chuckled at the face Harley was undoubtedly pulling, throwing the last of their blankets high enough to land on his face. Harley let out an indignant cry as you waved to him sweetly, grabbing Luke’s arm and dragging them toward Bunker Nine.
”I think we’re all done today.”
Luke sighed, partly disappointed that his time with you was coming to an end, partly glad to be out of the rain. He focused more on the being out of the rain part.
“Finally.” He said, holding you a little bit tighter. “I don’t know why you always make me come with you - you know I hate the rain.”
“Yeah, I take you because you hate the rain, dummy.” You responded, yanking him just enough to make him stumble and Harley screech. “Gotta make good memories out of it somehow.”
“And,” you tacked on a second later catching sight of the child of Hephaestus who looked more like a disgruntled koala than a nine year old genius. “how else can I make sure you little ones don’t stay out in the rain. I mean, I still don’t know why Beckendorf allowed you out for this long.”
Luke didn’t see it, but he was sure Harley was sticking his tongue out, a fact confirmed by you doing it in response.
“Beckendorf doesn’t get to control when I go out. I’m nine, not useless.” Harley said with the kind of sass that had him thinking he’d been spending too much time around Percy and Leo. “Anyway, he always knows you two are gonna come get me for him. Everyone does.”
And, in all fairness, that was true. Ever since you had come to camp with those pretty eyes and that pretty smile of yours, you’d dragged Luke around with you whenever it rained. And he let you, gods everyone other than you knew why, always following you, at first, like a good best friend, and now, like a lovesick puppy.
He would follow you anywhere. Always.
But this time, Luke didn’t follow you as you split off from them, chattering about going back to the Big House and bugging Annabeth. Instead, he shrugged off his own jacket - still careful of Harley, who he suspected was falling asleep on his shoulders - and wrapped it around you tight enough to make you look at him again. He sighed, admiring the way you looked in his clothes before turning away and walking briskly to stop you from seeing him blush. Without turning around, he waved goodbye, calling, “I’ll see you later, sunshine.”
“Love you too, Casanova!” You had called back, laughing as you pulled his jacket tighter around you.
The walk to Bunker Nine was silent for the most part. Harley was nodding off, or at least in some state of hazy sleepiness and boredom. That’s why it was so jarring to finally hear him speak again.
”You’re so in love.” He said in a voice that was obviously meant to be teasing, but he was too sleep-addled to do it. “Like pathetically in love.”
“Shut up.” Luke said, glad Harley couldn’t see his face.
”You should confess.” Harley urged on, leaning more onto Luke’s head and resting his own head against his curls. “Everyone knows you two should be together. Piper’s been cooking up a storm for you.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
And he did know. Gods he knew how screwed he was. How utterly, pathetically screwed he was because, gods, he was hopeless. He would spend eternity just looking at you, he dreamed of every time you’d ever graced him with your touch. He would do anything for you, for you to just be with him, and like having him around.
So yeah, he was hopelessly in love. And everyone at camp knew it. Chris had teased him for it endlessly, Beckendorf had always urged him to confess, and even Clarisse had threatened him into telling you how he felt.
But gods, he was a coward.
And he was okay with that.
And as he looked back at the direction you had gone in, mind lingering on the memory of you holding his arm and wearing his jacket, it felt like nothing else really mattered.
Maybe he did like the rain. Or at least, maybe he liked the rain if it meant being with you.