Chapter Text
“You can tell me, Jules.” As she sat at her vanity on the Liberty, Luka hugged his sister from behind. “What’s wrong?”
Juleka mumbled an answer, but fortunately Luka spoke Julekaese. “I’ve been going through some stuff.”
“Cutting again?”
Luka had to admit it: he was worried about his sister. She suffered from frequent attacks of low self-esteem, and nothing he said would be able to dissuade her from thinking she was the lowest of the low.
But in response to his question, she shook her head. “I’ve had help.”
That… was interesting. Luka smoothed her bangs out of her eyes and pinned them up. “Who’s been helping you? How?”
Juleka shifted on the seat, her discomfort as apparent to Luka as if he’d felt it himself. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Jules.”
Juleka glanced away from his reflection in the mirror. “You’ll be surprised.”
Luka smiled. “Surprise me.”
Juleka turned in the chair only to take his hands in her own smaller ones. Her fingers were cold in his warmer ones, and he chafed hers to warm them up. “Chloé Bourgeois has been helping me do my makeup in the mornings.”
What?
After her disastrous confession a few months prior, Luka had vowed never to see Chloé ever again. Her very presence was odious to him; to hear that she’d been helping Juleka floored him.
“What do you mean?” Luka placed his hands on Juleka’s shoulders, searching her eyelids to see if he could tell who’d applied her makeup. “Chloé Bourgeois is helping you?”
Juleka tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Uh, yeah, Chloé’s been helping me a lot. She understands absent parents, and we’ve been, um, talking.”
In a weird, bewildering sort of way, that checked out. Chloé doing something to actually help his sister made him see the Bourgeois girl in a new light.
But why would she help Juleka after being the source of her misery for so many years?
Luka wrapped his sister up in a hug. “I’m sorry you’ve been going through some stuff. I’m glad she’s been helping you.”
“You’re not mad?”
Luka’s lips curved into a soft smile. “Why would I be mad, Jules?”
Juleka cast her gaze to her feet. “Because she asked you out and you turned her down.”
Luka ran a hand through his blue-tipped hair. “Just because I didn’t want to date Chloé at that time doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate that she’s been making you feel good.”
The corners of Juleka’s lips quirked briefly. “At that time?”
“Let’s just say the possibility isn’t off the table.”
***
“Tell me once for all, are you dating her?”
Luka didn’t want to answer that question. He’d been cornered near the Liberty by Audrey Bourgeois herself, a vile woman, and she’d primly informed him that Chloé was slated to date a distant relative.
Luka couldn’t say anything but the truth. “I am not.”
Audrey seemed pleased. “And will you promise me never to date her?”
Luka hunched his shoulders. “I can’t promise that.”
“Mr. Couffaine, I am shocked.” Audrey fanned herself in the summer heat. “I expected to find a more reasonable young man. But make no mistake: I won’t leave you alone until you assure me that you won’t date her.”
“Which I won’t do.” Luka’s lip curled. He wasn’t quite baring his teeth, but only just. “You underestimate me. I can’t tell if Chloé approves of you messing with her life, but you certainly won’t mess with mine.”
Audrey snarled, snapping her fan in half. “You don’t care about Chloé’s honor? You’re a pirate’s child. Haven’t you considered that Chloé just can’t date someone beneath her?”
“Mrs. Bourgeois, I have nothing further to say.”
“You are planning to date her?”
Luka furrowed his brow. “I have said no such thing. I will only act in a manner that makes me happy without worrying about your opinion.”
Audrey gasped. “Fine. I’ll leave. I send no compliments to your mother. You deserve no such attention. I am most certainly displeased.”
As soon as Audrey left, Luka begged for Chloé’s phone number from Juleka, who gladly gave it to him. He called Chloé, asking her to meet at Fleetwood Macchiato, his favorite coffee shop.
After arriving, Luka paced outside the double doors, waiting for her. By the time she approached, his stomach was in knots. “Chloé. Hi.”
Chloé smiled nervously at him. Her gum was nowhere to be found. “Luka. What’s this about?”
Now was the moment he needed to thank her, and while his courage was high, he immediately said:
“Miss Bourgeois, I am a very selfish creature; when I try to help myself, I don’t care how much I hurt your feelings. I have to thank you for helping Juleka. I appreciate that so much, and if my mother knew, I’d thank you on her behalf.”
“Thank me for yourself.” Chloé’s smile was affectionately gentle. “Your mother owes me nothing. Must as I respect her, I thought only of you.”
Luka was much too embarrassed to say a word. After a short pause, Chloé added, “If your feelings are still what they were last April, let me know now. My desire to date you is unchanged, but one word from you and I’ll shut up forever.”
“My feelings have changed so much,” Luka said, drawing closer to her, so close he could smell the chocolate on her breath, “that if you were to ask me out right now, I would say yes.”
Chloé didn’t say another word. She leapt upon him, her mouth crashing onto his. Luka caught her, pressing her flush against him and smoothing his hands down to the small of her back. He kissed her back with all the fiery passion he had in him, showing her that she’d gained his affections.
And they lived happily ever after.