Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"ℑris isn't like the rest of my family. She's super nice." Ellie looked up at Luke, who was parking the car into her cousin's driveway. "She's got a little girl called Mia, who's about a year and a half now, but her partner isn't here at the moment. Thought it would be better to give you a gradual introduction to everyone."
"Ellie, you've told me this before," Luke grinned, pressing a kiss to her head and squeezing her hand. "It's going to be okay, don't stress it."
"I'm just anxious," She groaned, as Luke hopped out of the car and then wandered over to open her door for her, still smiling at her. "Last time you met people related to me, it didn't exactly go well."
"Ethan's on speed dial if that makes you feel any better," Luke grinned, before pulling some flowers and a teddy bear from the back seat of the car and entwining his hand with hers. "But, you've told me that your cousin is a lovely person."
"She is," Arabella slammed the car door, before gently tugging her taller boyfriend towards the door. "I'm just nervous."
"Don't be," Luke squeezed her hand gently, before reaching up to knock on he door. "It's gonna go great."
"Thanks for that," The door flew open, as Iris made an appearance, a large grin on her face.
"Bella!" Arabella beamed, throwing her arms around her older cousin and squeezing tightly. "It's been too long, you have to come round more."
"It's only been a couple of months," Luke grinned at the sight, immediately finding Iris to be a lot better than Ellie's mother and sister. At least she seemed to like the girl. "Oh, Iris, this is Luke, my boyfriend."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," He smiled, before handing her the flowers and the chocolate. Iris seemed to stare at him for a moment, and Luke guessed it was because of the scar on his face. It scared everyone. A child cried from inside, as Iris finally stopped staring, and a grin formed on her face.
"It's good to meet you too. Please, come in," Iris opened the door a bit wider. Arabella stepped in first, sending Luke a glance over her shoulder as the pair kicked off their shoes. The older woman had disappeared inside, as Luke raised an eyebrow at Arabella's staring.
"I'm not sure what that was about," She smiled apologetically, as Luke shook his head. "Sorry."
"It's the scar, scares everyone. She just needs a moment to get used to it," He replied, wrapping an arm around her waist, "and I'll convince her that I'm not a part of a gang."
"Do you think that means I shouldn't bring up your job involves breaking and entering?" Arabella murmured, a small grin on his face, before both of them froze at the sound of a gasp. "Oh shit."
"Arabella Carter," Luke watched his girlfriend's face pale, as she stared up at Luke with pleading eyes. Luke couldn't do much, also paling. "You better tell me that was a joke I just heard."
"I promise you, Iris. It's not what it sounds like at all." Ellie turned, facing Iris' annoyed face. "We're joking about our friend, Ethan. Honest."
"Why don't I believe you?"
"It's actually a really funny story."
∘☽༓☾∘
It turned out that Iris and Ellie's sense of humours were incredibly different, especially when it came to breaking and entering gone wrong. Luke had spent most of his time playing with Mia, Ellie's niece, as the pair bickered with one and other in a passive aggressive way.
Ellie's niece seemed to adore the man, giggling and playing with him as Ellie and Iris bickered. Luke didn't mind though, finding her laughter adorable when he made the toys appear and disappear.
His sleight of hand was finally coming in use.
"Sorry it wasn't exactly as you thought it might be." Ellie winced in the passenger seat beside him, as he laughed.
"Well, dinner was nice once you'd got your issues out of the way." Ellie huffed, before reluctantly smiling. "Your niece is adorable."
"You're adorable with my niece." She smiled at him, as Luke felt a small blush run up his cheeks. "You're great with children, you know that?"
"Thanks, kind of had to be when I was growing up," Luke smiled down at her, as they stopped at a red light. She raised an eyebrow at him, the music humming softly in the background. "I have a lot of younger half siblings and, cause I was one of the oldest, I had to help look after them all. Ever since I was 12 at least."
"Why didn't your parents?" Ellie's eyebrows were furrowed.
"My mum's not with it at all, thinks I'm seven still." The light turned green, as Luke took off once more, "and my dad's a dick and not really around that much, so he can't take care of them."
"Sounds like a dick," Luke laughed at Ellie's words, though it was still weird to hear her even uttering a swear word. She just seemed too happy-go-lucky for that.
"Yeah, he was a bit," Luke huffed at the thought, pushing the rage down inside of him. "So I looked after them. We had everyone from 3 year olds all the way up to 19, the age I was when I left. Sometimes there would be people in our home who didn't even know who their parents were, but they were just chucked in with us."
"I'm sorry you guys had to go through that," He shook his head, reaching over to rest his hand on her leg as they drove.
"It's fine," Luke smiled. "I got out of there a year ago, that why you found me."
"I'm glad that I did," Ellie squeezed his hand, that was resting on her leg, tracing her thumb along the back of his hand, before interlacing their fingers. She kissed his hand gently, before tightening her grip on him once more. "Otherwise I would never have gotten to know you, or Ethan, and I would have called the cops on your work buddies breaking into my house."
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you," She grinned at Luke, as they came to a stop at another red life. "If something did happen, I..."
He was cut off, as Ellie leant across the centre console and pulled him into a kiss. It took him a moment to register what was going on over the surprise of it, before he kissed back, trying to tell her everything he wanted to say in that one moment.
Pulling away, he went to say something, before the light turned green and they were off once more. Luke quietened up at that once more, staying silent as he held her hand.
∘☽༓☾∘
Hiya,
This is trash, but oh well, Luke technically did meet Iris but she and Ellie were too busy arguing over the technicalities of her friends breaking and entering and Luke being part of a gang. Got to love them.
