"So I built you a house from a

And I wrote you a song with the words you spoke

Yeah, the taste of your lips on the tip of my tongue

Is at the top of the list of the things I want

Mind is running in circles of you and me"

✰

Arlo didn't know if she'd ever been so worried in her life.

The band was finally due back to New York City to record their first single and Arlo couldn't have been any more thankful. As happy as she was to see her parents after a month or so of them being away, she wasn't ready to see the truth of their crumbling relationship.

They would be gone for another trip by the time Arlo arrived home from the city and Arlo was slightly ashamed to admit that it was for the best. She didn't know how she could possibly keep herself quiet if she saw her mother lay a hand on her dad again.

Truthfully, she didn't want to be quiet about it in the first place. Despite the fact that her parents getting a divorce after being together for nearly twenty years would flip Arlo's life upside down, she wouldn't care about the logistics as long as her dad was safe and her mother found another outlet for her anger.

But, that wasn't why Arlo was worried.

Arlo was rushing frantically around the room, helping the boys to pack all of their necessities for the day into small backpacks like a mother on the first day of school. Calum's lucky water bottle, Mikey's favorite guitar pic, Ashton's bandanna- they'd only just gotten to the hotel last night and their things were already scattered.

"Do you think the producers do drugs like on TV?" Michael wonders aloud, noisily clapping his hands together on his thighs as he drums along to some beat.

Calum smirks, rolling up the sleeves of his t-shirts proudly. "I hope so. Then we'd really be rockstars."

"Guys, please." Arlo's voice is nearly a whine but she doesn't have it in her to care. "You're going to wake up Luke." She glances over her shoulder at the boy curled into a ball on one of the queen beds.

"Fine, fine." Calum holds up his hands in surrender, worry for his best friend creeping through the arsenal of jokes he'd been firing off to deflect from his nerves.

"I won't let them do drugs, Arlo." Ashton reassures her, pulling the small girl into a hug before ushering the boys out of the door. "Are you still down to write later?" He asks, peeking his head through the crack of the door.

"It depends on how Luke is." Arlo shrugs, running a stressed hand through her hair. "If he's not any better I don't wanna leave him."

Man, she really does care about him. Ashton fights off a small smile, nodding in understanding before waving goodbye and closing the door to the hotel room.

As soon as the door closes, Arlo lets out a breath of relief. She quickly grabs a bottle of water from the mini-fridge in the hotel room and digs her latest read out of her bag. Once she's wrapped herself up in one of Luke's hoodies, the girl curls up in the chair next to the bed Luke sleeps on.

He was completely fine only the night before when the group arrived at the hotel, but her poor boy had woken up with a fever. Arlo felt like a horrible friend and girlfriend for not noticing how he felt sooner. Sure, he was quiet in the car earlier, but he didn't look sick.

Luke knew for a fact he was sick, but he wasn't willing to accept it. It annoyed him to no end not to be able to show his usual affection to Arlo, but he knew if she felt the heat on his skin there was no way the girl would let him go to the studio in the morning.

He was doing a really good job at hiding it too- until he threw up in the middle of the night.

After signing the record deal, the band's funds had raised enough for them to get two connected hotel rooms rather than shoving into one. So, luckily Luke didn't have to push past three boys in the midst of his sickness.

As soon as Arlo was asleep, he regretfully moved from the bed he laid in with her to the empty bed in the hotel room. His body ached so bad that little groans left his lips with the slightest movement and chills took over his body making him wish he had the warmth of her body, but he didn't want to get her sick.

It wasn't until Arlo woke up in the middle of the night and noticed Luke was gone that she found out why he was acting so distant earlier in the day. By the time Arlo figured out that he'd snuck out of bed, Luke was asleep on the bathroom floor. The poor boy was completely exhausted, a toothbrush still in his hand from where he'd washed the sick taste out of his mouth.

Arlo really didn't want to wake him up but she couldn't move the boy herself, so she woke up the rest of the band. They helped her get Luke back into his bed before the four of them set out for the drug store. The rest of the boys weren't too happy that she'd drug them out of bed at six in the morning, but once the morning grumpiness settled, they were too excited about the day ahead of them to sleep anyway.

That was another thing they had to talk about. There was no way Luke was getting out of bed, let alone recording a song. He was too weak to move and Arlo had a feeling his voice would be too rough to sing, which would only result in him getting mad at himself.

Luke would curse himself if his voice didn't sound right in the morning. She couldn't imagine how upset he would be if he forced himself into the studio and performed poorly.

They had an entire week in the city, Luke would be better by then. Arlo had even called the people in charge of scheduling and made sure there was space later in the week for him to record. She just hoped he wouldn't be too upset that they didn't wake him up and give him a chance to decide on his own.

Arlo is twenty pages into her book when Luke startles himself awake. Sweat coats his face and body, plastering his hair to his forehead. The thick hoodie and sweatpants on his body weren't helping either- hell, Arlo knew he was sick just by his attire. Luke never slept with a shirt on.

His blue eyes are wide as he looks frantically around the empty room, his back against the headboard as his chest heaves. Finally, Luke's eyes find hers. He finds it almost embarrassing how one glance at his girl manages to ease every ounce of panic running through his veins.

In an instant, Arlo is standing up from the chair, her book long forgotten as she worriedly brings her attention to Luke. "What's wrong? How are you feeling?" She rambles, settling on the bed beside him.

But, she's still far enough away that he can't touch her- too far. Hastily, Luke extends his arms out, gesturing for her to slot herself in the space beside him. "Luke, you need to be laying down." Arlo frowns.

"Don't look at me like that." Luke pouts, hating more than anything that she looks stressed and it's all his fault. "I just wanna hold you before I have to leave for the studio-" As realization sinks in, he cuts himself off.

Wide-eyed, Luke glances at the analog clock on the bedside table. "I'm late." He panics, trying to scramble out of bed, only to have the wind knocked out of him by his own body aches.

Arlo quickly shoots her hand out to place it on his chest. "It's okay, just lay back down." The girl watches him warily, trying to gauge how he's feeling now that he's awake. "You're sick, you're not going anywhere."

Luke groans, collapsing back into the sheets. Only this time, he takes advantage of the way Arlo had moved closer and lays his head on the bare skin of her thighs. The chills overtaking his body cause him to shiver but the warmth of her skin on his cheek soothes him.

Arlo adjusts herself against the headboard, accepting the fact that she wouldn't be moving for quite a while- not that she'd want to. Her hands hover over his body unsurely, the way his body is shaking making her nervous to touch him. She didn't want to hurt him or make it worse.

"I hate this." Luke murmurs, his face muffled by her skin.

"I know, Lu." Arlo frowns, subtly checking the temperature of his clammy forehead with the back of her hand. She tries to disguise the movement by moving his hair aside, but Luke notices.

"Stop worrying." Luke furrows his brows, removing her hand from his forehead and bringing her palm to his lips. He presses a single kiss on her skin before caging her much smaller hand between his own.

Arlo fights the urge to roll her eyes, a small smile tugging at her lips. Her boy was so, so stubborn but deep down she knew he loved the attention she gave him.

Luke rolls over, his blue eyes peeking open. With his head resting in her lap and the tired look on his face, he looks much younger and far more vulnerable than usual. Luke knew he was probably being a pain too, but he'd never had someone to care for him before. His childhood was stripped away from him far too early and it wasn't his fault that Arlo had begun to patch the hole in his heart with her affection.

Little by little, she was safety pinning all of his broken pieces back together. Luke knew he was too much to handle sometimes- he was brash and got angry too easily, but fuck, if he didn't try his best for her. If she was going to give her all to put him back together, he certainly wasn't going to tear apart all of her hard work

Fuck, I should write that down. Luke thinks mentally, his eyes searching around for his notebook. Too far away, he decides in the end.

"I'm missing the recording session." Luke complains, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He felt like he'd slept for ages but somehow he still felt fatigued.

Arlo uses her hand that's not trapped between his own to brush his hair out of his face. The dampness had caused the strands to curl, making Arlo wonder if his hair would naturally curl up if it grew out longer. She was a complete sucker for curls. "I rescheduled, don't worry."

"I wanted to do it today." Luke says, his voice slightly whiny. He curls his body tighter to hers, trying to work his body further under the covers.

He was already sweating out more fluid than he probably could afford to lose. "Luke, I think you need to take off this hoodie and pull off a few of the blankets." Arlo urges gently. "You're burning up."

"I'm fucking freezing." Luke shakes his head. "And I'm scared that if I move I might throw up again." He admits, vulnerably. Luke didn't know exactly why he was so willing to speak his mind to her, but he concluded that she made him feel safe and that was all that really mattered.

"I know, baby." Arlo hums, the tips of her nails just barely grazing over his spine. Groans leave Luke's lips at the action. His body was aching making her touch all the more welcome. "Your body is trying to sweat out the fever, though."

Baby? Fuck, Luke really liked that. He would have shown her just how much he appreciated her words too if he didn't feel like he was on the verge of death.

Laying on Arlo's lap, Luke finally manages to fall asleep again. Arlo stays deathly still the entire time, scared to even breathe in fear of accidentally waking him. She was positive he had some sort of virus and the only thing they could do was let his system work it out.

That didn't mean she didn't worry about him though. While he slept she had tried to entertain herself by reading her book, but she couldn't even focus on the words in front of her. The girl was far too concerned with the boy on her lap.

Every time his breath would be accompanied by the occasional whine or whimper, her heart would drop. After about half of an hour, she gave up reading altogether, her eyes on him instead. Arlo slipped her hand under his hoodie, his warm skin feeling burning hot against her cool one as she traces up his spine soothingly.

An hour later, Luke wakes himself up with a pained whimper coming from his lips. "My body hurts." He pouts, not even bothering to pop his eyes open.

"Do you want to take something? Do you think you can keep it down?" Arlo asks, already prepared to run over to the small desk in the corner of the room where the bag from the drug store lies.

"We don't have anything but overpriced hotel snacks." Luke shakes his head, his body twisting uncomfortably as he tries to quell the ache in his bones. Arlo was beyond comfortable, but his body wouldn't let him appreciate it.

"We went out and got some things while you were asleep." Arlo informs him, subtly sliding out from underneath him and replacing her body with a pillow. She grabs the bag and a bottle of water before settling back on the bed.

Luke lays on his side, curled up in a ball as he watches her tear open the various packaging of the medication.

The top portion of Arlo's hair is parted into two french braids, though instead of continuing the braid all the way to the bottom, she'd put her dark hair in two buns instead. Luke had never seen her hair like that before, but he decides it's one of his favorites. His eyes take in the intricate braids and he wonders to himself about how long she had to have practiced to be able to do that. From the way her baby hairs escaped from the braids, framing her face to the little space buns on either side of her head- Luke just thought she was really fucking perfect.

Luke knows that there's something off with his body just looking at Arlo's attire. She wears a worn-looking t-shirt and a very tempting pair of silk sleep shorts that he would have taken advantage of much earlier if he'd been in the right state of mind.

"Take these, please." Arlo holds her hands out, an assortment of pills in one and a bottle of water in the other.

Luke sits up with a groan, causing Arlo's frown to deepen as she sees just how weak he is. If she could switch places with him she would in a heartbeat. He takes the pills skeptically, not because he didn't trust Arlo- he just hadn't been able to keep anything in his stomach for twelve or so hours now.

Once he'd swallowed the medication, Luke lays his head back down onto the scratchy hotel comforter, wishing more than anything that he was on his twin mattress back in the bookstore. It fucking sucked having to sleep on a shitty mattress that was placed on the floor, but it was comforting- and his sheets had begun to smell more like Arlo than him, which he appreciated.

As Arlo begins picking up the trash from the packing of the medication, Luke watches her fondly. Her face is makeup-free allowing him to see her every feature perfectly as the morning sun streams into the room.

"I really want to kiss you." Luke murmurs with a frown.

A small smile appears on Arlo's face as she leans forward, bracing her elbows on the mattress as she gazes down at him fondly. Luke notices the way she holds her feet in the air as she lays down, kicking her feet in the cutest fucking way.

And as for Arlo, she really couldn't help but kick her feet in the air like a lovestruck teenager- Luke made her giddy, even as sick as he was. "So do it." She grins.

Luke fights the urge to curse under his breath, his stomach twisting in a way completely unrelated to his sickness. "You're fuckin' evil, Lo." He groans, tugging his lip ring between his teeth.

Arlo's jaw drops in offense. "How? I've been nursing you back to health all morning." She argues, though a glint of humor shines in her pretty eyes.

"Because you know I can't do what I really want to." Luke pouts, every cell in his body aching to feel her lips on his own.

"Why can't you kiss me?" Arlo muses.

I don't want to just kiss you. Luke rolls his eyes, his fingertips brushing her cheek as she lays in front of him. "Because I'm not going to get you sick, that's why."

Arlo retrieves the bag of medication from behind her and holds up an orange package. "I took Vitamin C this morning, so did the boys." She waves the packaging teasingly. "My immune system has never been stronger."

"Mhm." Luke hums, lazily gazing up at his girl. "Still not gonna risk it."

"What if I want to risk it?" Arlo takes her bottom lip between her teeth, staring down at Luke with a look in her eye that's utterly fucking seductive and he's pretty sure she's not even trying.

"Arlo." Luke narrows his eyes, clenching his jaw. She was making it so goddamn hard to think about anything but every single thing he'd wanted to do to her since they'd met and he saw the way her big brown eyes gazed up at him.

"What?" His girl grins, obviously finding the situation amusing. In reality, Arlo really didn't know what she was doing. Honestly, she was just trying to get his mind off of the sick feeling overtaking his body.

"Behave." Luke says lowly.

Arlo rolls her eyes playfully before leaning forward. Ever so gently she places her lips on his warm skin. She starts at his forehead before continuing on to the tip of his perfectly slopped nose where she places three kisses, and then five on his left cheek, four on the right one, and two very gentle kisses on her favorite freckle on his jaw.

When she pulls away, Luke's eyes have fluttered shut, fast breaths leaving his nose. "Better now?" She asks.

"Much." Luke responds, his voice strained. "Might need a few more though."

Arlo merely giggles before rolling off of the bed and beginning to straighten up the hotel room before the boys were due to arrive back from the studio. Luke lays on the bed the entire time, watching her. He decides he could watch her for the rest of his life and never get bored.

"I feel gross." Luke informs Arlo before rolling out of bed for the first time all morning. He stumbles sleepily, nearly giving the poor girl a heart attack. "'M gonna take a shower."

"Not too hot." Arlo tells him sternly, the attitude in her stance nearly making him grin. "You're dehydrated, don't make yourself pass out."

Luke smirks, his cocky behavior never failing even now. "I guess you'll have to come with me then, yeah? You know, just in case I pass out."

"Okay." Arlo shrugs simply, elating the way to the bathroom and leaving Luke frozen in place.

The boy swallows thickly, his mouth dry as he follows her to the bathroom. It would be a lie for him to say that he'd never imagined having her in the shower- her legs over his shoulders as he kneels on the shower floor with his mouth on her center, her chest pressed against the glass as he pleasures her, the showerhead held mercilessly against her clit as he fucks her from behind sending her over the edge again, and again, and again- the thoughts were honestly endless.

But, as Arlo takes a seat on the large counter, her knees tucked to her chest, it becomes clear that the two of them had two completely different ideas of what would happen in the bathroom. Snap the fuck out of it, Luke curses himself as he pushes the thoughts out of his mind.

Luke's throat feels tight as he turns on the shower, Arlo sorting through her makeup bag on the counter as she rambles on about random things to him. "I really need a new mascara."

"I'll get you one, baby." Luke says mindlessly, nearly giving himself a headache as he works to clear his mind. Do not get hard right now, he repeats over and over in his mind.

"I didn't mean it like that." Arlo rolls her eyes with a giggle. She hadn't said that to get him to buy her one, she was just rambling.