"'Cause I can't stop myself

I just love being a fool for you

'Cause I'm a fool for you and the things you do

I'm a fool for you and the things, the things you do"

✰

By the time both Luke and Arlo had showered, the rain had stopped and the rest of the house was dead asleep. Neither of them had gotten more than an hour's worth of sleep and they had to be up at the crack of dawn again the next morning to film, but Luke didn't care.

Arlo is curled up at the dining table, her knees tucked to her chest as she watches through the large glass windows as the excess rainwater spills from the gutters. Her hair is just barely still damp from her shower, causing a natural wave to make itself known.

"Arlo, baby." Luke hums, a towel wrapped low on his hips as he approaches her from behind, his arms draping around her shoulders, hands clasping together to rest on her chest.

Arlo lays one of her hands over his own, resting her cheek against their hands as she hesitantly turns away from the captivating scene in front of her to look at him.

Luke watches as his girl's eyes go wide as she takes in the sight of him with so little clothing. Water drips down his chest, following the grooves of his muscles and her nose is mere inches away from brushing his lower stomach due to their height difference.

"Yeah?" Arlo swallows thickly, craning her neck up in order to meet his eyes. Luke takes note of the way her hair falls in her face at the movement and doesn't hesitate to lace his fingers in the strands, brushing them back.

"Do you want to go on a date with me, Arlo?" A shy grin tugs at Luke's lips making him look more boyish than he usually does. "Things are going to get busy soon and I want to make the most out of our free time."

Arlo smiles, her teeth just barely peeking through her lips as her cheeks heat. As much as she wants to say yes, her inner manager is urging her that it's not a good idea. "You're supposed to be catching up on sleep right now, Luke."

Her boy pouts, his lip ring jutting out at the movement. As her eyes instinctively follow the movement of his lips, Arlo can't help but notice the way the lower muscles of Luke's abdomen flex, on full display due to his lack of clothing.

"Only for a few hours." He pleads. "I'll make it worth your while, I promise."

Arlo exhales, glancing at the clock before looking back to an expectant Luke. "Only for a few hours-"The girl is cut off as Luke swiftly leans down to claim her lips, muffling her words. "And-" Another kiss. "Then you-" Two more kisses. "Will come back and take a-" One last kiss. "Nap." She finishes, slightly out of breath.

"We'll take a nap." Luke corrects, revealing in the flush of her cheeks and the way he can see the rapid rise and fall of her chest, all because of him.

Once Arlo promises to join him for an afternoon nap after their date, Luke drags Arlo back into the room they'd claimed as their own to get ready. Due to the limited amount of time they had, it's a rush of hastily blow-drying blonde hair and frantically smudged eyeliner.

Less than an hour later the giggly couple finds themselves walking along the streets of LA, the air ridiculously humid from the rainstorm earlier, though neither of them seems to care.

Arlo has on a blush pink colored floral dress that brushes the tops of her thighs and cuts low on her chest. The little outfit she had on combined with the dainty white ribbon she used to pull back her hair had him utterly weak for her.

Arlo finds herself feeling the same as Luke's hand is intertwined with her own- a welcome contrast to earlier in the day in the airport. He wears a simple black and red striped shirt and his signature black skinny jeans that make his thighs look unfairly good.

Luke keeps his girl close to his side as they walk through the busy streets. They aren't in the heart of LA, they'd gone to a little strip of shops a short walk away from the rental flat, so it's not too terribly packed. Still, Luke didn't have a habit of trusting strangers, especially not around her.

"Where are we going?" Arlo asks, the sun reflecting off of her wide brown eyes and turning them a honey color.

"Patience, baby." Luke hums, snaking his arm around her waist. "We're almost there."

Arlo's tote bag hangs from Luke's shoulder rather than her own after she claimed that it was tugging at the sleeve of her dress. Quite frankly, Luke wasn't sure how much of a rockstar he looked like with a floral tote bag hanging from his shoulder, but if his girl was uncomfortable he didn't give a fuck what he looked like.

Besides, she let him put his tattered moleskin notebook in the bag rather than shoving it in his back pocket like he normally did. Luke appreciated that she never asked to look through it either, almost as if she could sense how personal the words inside were to him.

Luke stops them in front of a bookstore, much nicer than his own but not big enough to be considered a chain. As a wide smile breaks out on his girl's face at the sight of the cozy little store, Luke can't even deny the way his stomach drops.

She was so fucking perfect it hurt- Arlo made his chest ache due to how much pure adoration he held for her in his heart.

"I figured this would be a peaceful place to spend the afternoon." Luke explains as he opens the door of the bookstore causing a small bell to ring above them. "No meetings or fans- nothing but you and me."

Arlo looks around the store, her eyes wide in awe as she takes in the real plants hanging from the ceiling and the white wooden tables scattered about encouraging customers to stay and read. "This is perfect, Lu." She turns to him with a giddy smile, pushing herself up on her tiptoes to place a kiss on his cheek.

Before she can pull away, he claims her lips as well- Luke was a needy bastard, and feeling her lips on just his cheek would simply not suffice. Not when the sight of her pretty little dress brushing her thighs had been teasing him for close to an hour.

"Mhm." Luke hums, waving her off. "Go pick out as many books as you want, pretty girl."

Arlo rolls her eyes playfully before taking his hand, beginning to lead both of them through the aisles of the store. "I'm getting one." She declares, her eyes already scanning the spines of any books she was close enough to make out. "I can't cheat on my favorite bookstore too badly."

Luke tugs his lip ring between his teeth, suppressing a wide smile. "I don't think the owner would mind as long as his girl is happy."

"I'll consider it." Arlo purses her lips adorably, reluctantly letting go of his hand in order to run her fingertips along the spines of the books. She picks one that looks interesting and pulls it from the shelf, her eyes scanning the back of the cover.

As Arlo begins her thorough search for the perfect book, a certain title catches Luke's eye. HER by Pierre Alex Jeanty. It's a book Luke had read countless times before, it was his favorite so he'd probably scanned the same page close to a hundred times.

Arlo continues on down the aisle in her own little world, sifting through the books as she hums to herself. Luke stays rooted in his spot, a strange feeling of nostalgia he can't pinpoint the cause of bleeding into his veins the longer he stares at the title. Why did it catch his eye?

And then he realizes.

A sense of deja vu washes over the blonde rockstar as he realizes that although he had been scribbling in his notebook when Arlo walked into his bookstore for the first time- that book had been on the desk in front of him. He'd just gotten done reading it again when she walked in.

Maybe it was fate and somehow he'd brought her soul to his own after years of reading the same love poems over and over even though his heart seemingly had no room for love. It's at that moment that Luke realizes he'd never read a love poem while being in love- or whatever otherworldly feeling he felt for Arlo.

Luke slides a copy of the book off of the shelf and makes sure his girl is occupied before he makes his way to the register up front. A bored-looking teenager works the front desk, quickly ringing up his total. Once Luke pays, he slides the book of poems into Arlo's tote bag that still rests on his shoulder and sets out to find her again.

When Luke finds her, she's standing in the middle of one of the aisles, her feet crossed cutely over one another as she gently sways in place, her eyes laser-focused on the book in front of her. She looks like a fucking angel and the boy can't help but snap a picture on his phone before approaching her.

"You like that one, Lo?" Luke's hand finds the small of her back and he has to fight back the urge to smile when she leans her body instinctively closer to his.

"Mhm." She hums, nothing but pure bliss shining in her eyes. "I wanted to read this a while back but it was on backorder so I couldn't find a copy anywhere."

Luke feels a sense of pride for himself bloom in his chest. She looked so goddamn happy, so purely content and he had done that. He'd made her feel good and not by doing something physical.

"We'll go pay for it and then we can sit and read for a while?" Luke asks, his smile mirroring her own as his girl's eyes light up with excitement.

"What are you going to read?" Arlo asks as they approach the register.

Luke pays for her book quickly, ignoring the small pout on her face as she tries to peek over his shoulder to see the total. His hands stay firmly on her waist, making sure the girl can't see the numbers displayed considering when he took her to that diner all of those weeks ago she'd attempted to slip a twenty in the pocket of his jeans over the following days.

Once the book is paid for, he leads them to one of the tables in a more secluded part of the shop. Luke didn't think he was nearly enough famous to be recognized, but then again he had been bombarded in the airport earlier that day. So, he chooses a table towards the back but still in view of the window in the front of the shop- he knew Arlo liked to people watch.

"I'm going to write." Luke answers her earlier question, gently setting her tote bag down on the table between them. He retrieves his tattered notebook from inside as well as the new poetry book before handing Arlo her own book and digging out the collection of sticky notes and pens she had.

"How'd you know?" His girl asks, referring to the stationary supplies he'd set in front of her.

"I've seen your books, Lo. You've probably got more words of your own than anything in them." Luke looks at her incredulously before reaching down to pull her chair closer. Once she's close enough he pats his thighs, signaling for her to lay her pretty tan legs across his lap. She does so, her cheeks tinted pink.

Luke picks up one of her extra pens and opens up the first page of the poetry book, scrawling down a few words in his messy handwriting. "For Arlo..."

"I guess my habits have worn off on you." She points out, a small smirk on her lips as she watches Luke begin writing.

Luke merely rolls his eyes playfully, biting his tongue to prevent what he really wanted to say from slipping. Really, Luke was annotating the poetry book, just not in the same way she did her own reads. The blond was writing down his thoughts about her, his deepest feelings, and how he connected every single poem back to her.

When it's done he'd give it to her one day- it just had to be an important enough event.

Arlo loses herself in her new book, reading the words with an entirely new focus because well, it wasn't just any book, it was a book Luke bought for her. As silly as it sounded, it was special and she was taking her time to cherish it. It was easy to fully immerse herself either with the way her legs were comfortably laid across Luke's lap, his fingertips tracing shapes on her calf.

The next time she tears her attention away from the book, the sun had begun to set and Luke slides one of her sticky notes across the table. The boy nervously chews on his lips as he awaits her reaction.

Arlo nearly gasps as she looks down to find the sticky note doodled on- a charming drawing of a flower bouquet shakily drawn on the sticky note. Luke shyly watches as his girl picks it up with a smile, examining the piece of paper and lousy drawing like it was worth millions.

"I noticed you didn't have a bookmark." Luke shrugs, suddenly nervous with her eyes on him.

Arlo grins, leaning across the table to place a kiss on his cheek in gratitude. "Thank you, Lu." She's nearly giddy now, so much happiness running through her veins that she doesn't quite know what to do with herself. "I'm gonna use it forever."

"It might fall apart by then." Luke points out, his eyes watching her curiously as she picks up a blank sticky note and begins doodling on it.

"Nope." Arlo pops her lips as she draws. "Because I'm gonna take care of it." In a matter of minutes, her drawing is done and she slides the small piece of paper back over to Luke.

He takes in her much neater lines, the drawing brings a smile to her lips. It's of a broken heart, two shattered halves safety-pinned together. If Luke ever got a tattoo he decides that this would be the first, but until then, he makes a mental note to have her little drawing printed onto his guitar pics and in-ear pieces.

Luke smiles at the thought of having a piece of her on stage with him.

"Thank you, sweet girl." Luke sends her a heart-stopping smirk, his blue eyes taking in the sight of her practically glowing with happiness.

As much as he was enjoying their time, he was tired from their early morning and more than eager to get her back to the house and spend the rest of the afternoon sleeping with her in his arms. So, the two of them quickly clean up their things, exhaustion hitting them like a semi-truck.

They walk hand in hand out of the small bookstore just as the sun begins to sink over the horizon. There are still tons of people out, families getting dinner, and teenagers with skateboards and guitars hanging on the street corners.

Arlo swings their hands slightly as they walk, enjoying the sight of Luke with her tote bag still on his arm. She just thought he was so, so pretty despite the rough exterior he showed to everyone else. As badly as she wished the rest of the world could see how beautiful Luke truly was, she was all selfish enough to secretly love that only she knew him that way.

A pair of young kids- two boys looking to be twins- run across the path in front of Luke and Arlo, ice cream in their hands. They can't be any older than five causing Arlo to pout her lips. "Kids are so pure." She thinks aloud, seeing how carefree they look running about.

Luke scrunches his nose up in a way that was borderline adorable. "They look sticky." He grumbles. "Look, that one has ice cream all over his face."

Arlo laughs, the sound floating beautifully through the air as she throws her head back, eyes pinched shut. "What, you don't like kids? You never had to babysit when you were younger?"

"I was the youngest so I was the one needing a babysitter" Luke explains, doing his best to ignore the nasty feeling that comes with the thought of his biological family. Arlo and the boys were his real family, he knew that. "Kids are annoying. They say whatever they want, no filter at all."

Arlo shrugs, her tone laced with humor. "You might feel different when you're a daddy one day." She giggles, thinking nothing of it. She wasn't serious and frankly, she didn't even want kids in the future but she doesn't miss the way Luke's hand had tightened its grip around her own.

Luke's heartbeat was pounding in his ears, all of the blood in his body rushing straight to the one place it shouldn't be going as his mouth goes dry. His jaw flexes almost painfully. "What did you just call me?"

"Huh?" Arlo furrows her brows, his low tone catching her attention.

Instantly, Luke does his best to relax his body. Of course, his girl hadn't meant her words that way- he'd just heard her wrong. Regardless, the word daddy rolling off of her lips was enough to make Luke want to kick the rest of the band out of the house just so he could have her alone.

Instead of acting on his less than innocent thoughts, he merely pulls her closer and places a sweet kiss on her forehead. "Nothing, baby."