shine in your eyes

[Emmeline Vance]

* note: this is set right before the christmas holidays, on the train ride home, so I'm not going to time-turner it yet. I hope that's alright.

Last night had been insane. And not just for her; for everybody, it seemed. As if it wasn’t enough that she’d been overwhelmed with a lot of crazy stuff—including winning Yule Princess, something that she’d dreamed about ever since she enrolled at Hogwarts, basically, and kissing Luke (she’d actually kissed him; it was the first time she’d kissed the boy first) and then Vanessa losing her mind in the bathroom and saying stuff about how she was in love with her, which was not only all sorts of disturbing, but wildly shocking and completely out of the blue—it seemed that all of her friends had gotten themselves into messes as well. Gabby was still freaking out over having kissed Jayden; Emme had spent the entire morning as they finished packing up the last of their things so they could go home for the holidays trying to cheer her up, saying Jayden wasn’t worth it, and that she was beautiful and perfect and any boy should consider himself the luckiest guy in the world to have her, but it hadn’t been very effective. Gabby had smiled, of course; Gabby always smiled—it was why Emme loved her so much, but she knew it wasn’t okay. She wasn’t okay, and it made Emme want to bash Jayden’s head in against a wall for making her best friend feel crappy like that. Emme had been so preoccupied with Gabby the entire morning, for once, in her almost-New Year’s resolution to become a better person and think more of others before herself, she hadn’t spared a second of thought to her own drama. Gabby and her had boarded the train after making sure they had everything with them, pets included, and had managed to find a compartment of their own to share, since Vanessa, whom they usually also sat with, had disappeared last night (Emme wasn’t worried that something had happened, Vanessa surely was okay, and besides, she was almost certain she’d glimpsed the back of their head at breakfast), and were sitting, talking about whatever, quietly, when Jayden popped up. And asked if he could talk to Gabby alone.

Emme literally had to bite down on her tongue to prevent herself from getting up and slapping him or something, glaring at him accusingly instead—she hoped he felt terrible; he should, but he mentioned Luke and her own flurry of butterflies swept up in her stomach immediately. Gosh, Luke. She hadn’t seen him again after the kiss last night. She actually couldn’t quite believe it, but she’d been so distraught and upset after what happened with Vanessa that she’d all but dragged Gabby away from Fabian off to their dorm so they could sleep it off, and she’d tried finding Luke to say goodbye or something but she hadn’t been able to, with the craze everybody seemed to be in, and also trying to dodge the damned mistletoe that had caught Gabby unawares. The last thing she’d needed was to get caught under it with some other guy and having to cheat on Luke. Would it be cheating, anyway? They hadn’t exactly…talked about their relationship. Or what it meant. Well, clearly he liked her, right? If he’d kissed her back and everything else—he’d asked her to the ball. He had to like her, right? And, she’d discovered lately, she couldn’t deny that she felt the same way about him. After all those years of Luke being her friend; that guy who was always there with his goofy smile and his ridiculous plans, and now her heart beat a little faster when he smiled at her, she walked a little quicker in the hall so she could catch up with him, and spent a second too long staring at the back of his head in class. And they’d kissed. The thought of talking about it; of not knowing what to expect and what would happen made her stomach clench in nerves, and heat spread through her cheeks, but she finally nodded at Jayden, figuring it’d be best if he talked it out with Gabby, anyway, and reached over to squeeze Gabby’s hand reassuringly before standing up and leaving the compartment.

Her heart was racing in her chest even as she stepped down the corridor of the train, peering into the compartments nervously, biting at her lip and reaching down to smooth down her soft beige sundress, under the pink cardigan she was wearing for the cold, as she looked around for Luke. She still wasn’t sure what she was going to say, but she needed somewhere to be, and she needed to talk to him, and she wanted to talk to him but she was still nervous. Very much so. It made her feel a little excited; she’d missed this. The beginning of something, maybe. The building up of romance and crushes and first kisses with a new boy. And Luke was… Luke was wonderful. He was everything she needed right now, and she wanted it. Stopping suddenly when she spotted the familiar mop of blonde hair through the small window of a compartment door, Emme took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Okay, nothing to worry about. He liked her back. They’d kissed. Nothing to be nervous or awkward about. Opening them again, she nodded a little to herself and knocked lightly on the door before sliding it open and smiling shyly at him. “Hi,” she greeted him quietly, stepping inside and closing the door behind her, wringing her hands in front of her waist a little before taking a seat in front of him. She bit her lip a little. Okay; she should explain. “I um…I’m sorry we didn’t meet again at the ball after I—after I left to go find Gabby,

[/color]” she told him softly, catching his eye. “Some stuff happened and I got upset and I tried to find you but you weren’t at the dance floor anymore. I’m really sorry, Luke. I did have a lot of fun with you…[/color]” she paused, fiddling with the hem of her cardigan. “Probably the best ball I’ve been to, and I wanted to spend the rest of the night with—you know, dancing with you and…and stuff. But I—couldn’t. So…so I’m sorry. Are you…you’re not mad, are you?[/color]” she asked, the thought suddenly striking her as she glanced at him, biting at her lower lip again, pleading a little with eager eyes. Honestly, she hadn’t considered that he might be more than upset about that; she just really hoped they were okay.
[/color][/blockquote]

tagged: luke neeson

[Luke Neeson]

It was one of those mornings where Luke was so tired he was only functioning because his body was on auto pilot. He had stayed up really late after the Yule Ball. Definitely not waiting up for Emme or tying to find her in the common room. He was just... sitting in front of the fireplace with his head nodding back against the couch because... he liked staring at dying embers. Anyways, she hadn't showed up which either meant she didn't go back to the common room, or the more likely option that she probably headed back from the ball early and he had missed her. When he finally gone to bed, he only had a couple hours of sleep before he had to wake up because he hadn't doing any packing yet. Partly because Luke Neeson loathed packing (specifically, folding clothes) and also because he hated going home in general. He had been stuffing tshirts and pants into his trunk for a full half an hour before Jayden walked in, stared in horror at Luke's attempt at packing, and then with a prompt flick of his wand, Jayden got all of his clothes to properly fold themselves and line his trunk in neat piles. Oh, yah. Magic. Right. Luke laughed and mumble a groggy word of thanks. With that done, Luke had no time left to grab breakfast, so he followed Jayden through the long trek to the train station. He didn't spot Emme along the way, but he was also spending a lot of effort making sure he didn't trip over his own feet. Luke couldn't stop himself from yawning every few minutes and his eyebrows kept lifting in an attempt to keep his eyelids from slipping completely shut. The only good thing about being so thoroughly exhausted was that he didn't have enough energy to stress out about what happened last night. Or, okay, not as much because he was still anxious and his knees started bouncing as soon as he took a seat in the train car Jayden found. His mind was already fuzzy with lack of sleep, and thinking about what happened with Emme and Ambrosia wasn't helping matters. Jayden apparently didn't have the best night either and while he filled Luke in, he was still a bit confused and wasn't really in the state to be handing out decent advice. Jayden, however, decided to go find Gabby which left Luke to himself.

He leaned his head back against his seat and almost immediately started to drift off. There was only one thing to do to fix this. A sugar high. Luke poked his head out of the compartment and, luckily, the witch was the tea trolley was right next door. With a warm smile and greeting, Luke piled his pockets and arms with Cauldron Cakes, Chocolate Frogs, Pumpkin Pasties and some pumpkin juice. The breakfast of champions. Digging out some money, he paid the witch before returned back to the train car and dumping his purchase on the seat next to him. He immediately went for a Pumpkin Pastie and was feeling more awake by the time he finished it. He had just taken a bite out of a Cauldron Cake when the door slid open. Luke had been expecting it to be Jayden and was about to over him a Chocolate Frog when he looked up and saw that it was Emme. The Cauldron Cake felt dry in his mouth and Luke pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, wiping off any traces of sugary pastries that may have been on them. He swallowed the mouthful and cleared his throat. "Hi,"

[/color] he said, his lips immediately forming a smile though he was paranoid to show his teeth in case anything was stuck to them now. Immediately he became nervous and rubbed his palms against his jeans, but she sat across from him and started explaining what had happened last night.

Luke nodded along as she spoke, trying to take everything in and figure out if she was mad at him, or had regretting kissing him or maybe she'd heard about what happened with Ambrosia and now she was mad at him about that. "It's okay,"[/color] Luke said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. Jayden was always telling him that he said that too much. "Jayden sort of filled me in on what happened with Gabby... kind of."[/color] He frowned slightly. "I don't... really get it, but if Gabby was upset -- I mean -- It's not a problem, I don't mind!"[/color] That was true, he didn't mind, even though it would've been nice to have been... filled in. Or at least having Emme find him afterwards would've saved him a lot of panicking. But the important part was that they were fine, and Emme said she had had a good time. And that brought a toothy smile to his face. Cocky wasn't something Luke ever was, but he did feel a surge of satisfaction when she said that last night was probably the best time she had been to. "I had a really good time too, really,"[/color] he said quickly to assure her. Luke was quickly forgetting about his anxiety and nerves about last night. The Ambrosia thing he would just need to deal with later. "I'm not mad!"[/color] He smiled to reinforce the statement. He leaned toward her in his seat, propping his elbows on his knees. He kept thinking about the kiss last night and there were a lot of things he wanted to say and wanted to ask, but he didn't know how to go about it. Luke sucked at words. He wanted to know how she felt... about him because they had been friends for years and Luke had been put through the torture of seeing her with other guys. He thought he had been permanently friend-zoned, but then last night happened. Luke pressed his lips together (one of his nervous habits) and rubbed his palms together. "So... Am I going to be able to see you during winter break?"[/color] He was trying to sound casual but the hopeful tilt of his eyebrows were probably giving him away. He cleared his throat. "Because I would really like to see you."[/color]

[/blockquote]

[Emmeline Vance]

To hear that Luke was okay, that he wasn’t mad, that he didn’t mind about what had happened at the ball sent Emme’s spirits soaring, and she let out a sigh of relief. The tension at her shoulders relaxed somewhat, and she allowed herself to shift a little on the seat of the compartment, folding the skirt of her dress under her thighs somewhat and looking around at all the candy Luke seemed to have bought. There was a packet of Cauldron Cakes—one of her absolute favorites—off to her right that made her stomach grumble a little; she hadn’t really had any breakfast today, what with worrying about everything, aside from some pumpkin juice, and she was hungry. But the cakes were almost taunting her. Chocolate, and rich in sugar and fat and carbohydrates and calories and what was she thinking. She was gorgeous right now, as she was. She felt gorgeous most of the time and last night had been amazing because she’d had the body to fit in the dress. She wasn’t about to screw that up because of a stupid cake. Not when so much was on the line now. Shaking herself out of her thoughts, Emme picked her face up to keep smiling at Luke softly, with his blonde hair swept slightly across his forehead in a manner so endearing that she just wanted to give in and brush it off with her fingers like she’d done before. And he was grinning at her as he propped himself up on his elbows, on his knees, looking slightly nervous, which only fueled the tingly butterflies in her own stomach as she watched him. Was this the moment when they talked about what had happened last night between them? About the kiss? After all, she’d kissed him for the first time and she was pretty sure they both liked each other that way and that usually meant things, at least in her world.

But then Luke rubbed his palms together and asked whether they’d be seeing each other over the winter break. She was almost disappointed for a second, before the thought of what that meant got to her, and a blush colored her cheeks immediately. Their eyes were still locked together, his eyebrows raised, and he said he’d really like to see her. He wanted to see her! That definitely meant something, right? Emme bit her lower lip through a smile and giggled quietly, nodding. “If you’d like that,” she quickly replied, scratching her nails along the palm of her hand nervously, shrugging her shoulders a little bit. “I mean, I’d—I’d like that, too.

[/color]” The question was how they were going to see each other and when and where? They did have a couple of weeks to do so, but was it wrong that she wanted to see him more than once? Luke didn’t live in London, like her, so that was going to be a bit harder to arrange than, say, were she meeting with Gabby or something. But they’d figure it out, right? Humming a little, Emme glanced at him again. “Would you like to come over?[/color]” she asked, suddenly, if a little hopefully, and she could feel her cheeks hot even as she spoke. “I mean, I know you don’t live very close by to me, so maybe you could stay for a weekend or—or something. My parents would be totally okay with that, I’ve had other friends over before, and there’s a lot of extra rooms in my house, so that would be okay as well and it’s really totally up to you, but I figured it could be…nice.[/color]” The words died a little in her throat and she held her breath for a moment.

Was she taking things too far? Did Luke—no, he definitely saw her that way, and he had said he really wanted to see her over the holidays. She was just providing an opportunity for him to do so. Besides, it was Luke! Why was she freaking out over this so much? He’d been one of her best friends for ages, and suddenly she got all tongue-tied and flushed around him? Where did the cool, calm exterior disappear to? Like even only a couple of months ago, when she’d been practicing routines for cheerleading and he’d come with his guitar to sing for her? Back then, she would have laughed at his jokes and called him adorable and ruffle his hair without a second thought as to what he’d think about it. It was kind of silly, when she thought about it, that feeling something more than friendship for another person could turn your entire personality inside out with them. She shouldn’t be second-guessing her every word with Luke; they’d been best friends for years! He knew her probably better than almost everybody at school, except for Gabby and Gideon and maybe Nessa—whom she certainly did not want to think about right now because that just brought on a whole lot of other feelings she didn’t need to deal with at the moment—and Luke wasn’t going to judge her, was he? He liked her. He’d always liked her. And now that she liked him back, things should be easier between them, not harder. Maybe she was just making a huge deal out of nothing. Taking a deep breath, Emme smiled at him, as easily as she could manage. “And maybe you could tell me what you thought about…last night,[/color]” she prompted quietly, still smiling at him, half-teasingly, half-hopefully, and with a look in her eyes that she hoped made it very clear what exactly she was referring to.
[/color][/blockquote]

[Emmeline Vance]

Note: So, Ry and I have decided to just archive this since it's all the way back in December, but for anybody who cares, this is what went on.

Basically Luke agreed to go spend a weekend at her house, and was super awkward and then essentially, somehow, quite long and painfully, got to the point that he wanted to BE with her.

And then they spent the rest of the train ride tossing chocolates up in the air and attempting to catch it in their mouths. See: attempting.

Then he spent the weekend in her house which was also very awkward for Luke and he was freaking out a little but it was fun and yeah okay back to school.

The end.

[/color]