Merlot Park
September 25xx
10:46 AM
“You know what I’ve noticed recently, Lu?”
“What?” Lucian cast Choi a weary look.
Humming, the other merely shrugged his shoulders and took a drink from his
bottled water before answering him. “You and Am haven’t really been hanging out
as of late. Did something happen?”
“Oh. No, actually,” he admitted. The two of
them had just taken a break from their run; they were only a kilometer or two
away from finishing. “Nothing happened between us. Both of just have just been really
busy lately. When I’ve got missions, Am’s home. When she’s got missions, I’m
home. It’s almost a little hard to meet halfway.” Choi cocked a brow at him and
Lucian sighed, running a hand through his messy blond hair. “Conflicts and
all.”
“Then why not, you know—take missions together or take missions that don’t
interfere with your free times?”
“It’s not that easy.” Lucian stretched and
Choi visibly flinched at the sound of joints popping. “Most of the time,
they’re assigned so we can’t exactly back out. That’s a downside to becoming
full-time, unlike you and Az.”
“Though you can’t blame Az, she’s got her
family’s company. And I’m still waiting for the reapplication for full-time
employees.” The other merely gave a hum at that. “Seriously? So you two can’t
even get some quality time together?”
“Not as often as we want.”
“And to think I wanted you guys to stop
being so goddamn affectionate a year or two back,” Choi complained. Lucian
barely held back a smile. That was true—before any of them had really started taking
the whole title seriously, Lucian and Amaris spent almost all of their time
together. It eventually reached a point wherein Choi would consciously leave
the apartment at specific times so that the couple could spend their ‘quality
time’ in peace.
“We don’t really have that much time to do
anything anymore.” Choi watched as Lucian bent down to retie his shoelaces,
“Not even hang out.”
“Why aren’t you pushing for anything to
happen?”
“I—sorry?” Lucian blinked as he straightened
back up, Choi regarding him with an unreadable expression.
“You heard me,” the Korean insisted. “Why
are you just letting fate run its course? You know that it won’t end well,
right?”
“I’m not doing it because I want to avoid
her,” he argued. “We really just can’t find the time for each other. At least
not now, not when there’s so much work to be done.” And especially when Amaris
wanted to improve herself, Lucian remembered. The entire Thalassa ordeal had
knocked her out of the game for a few months; it had taken her a while until
she and her stones were able to fully recover from what had happened.
(And if anything, he didn’t want to see her
as despondent as she was during those months.)
A beat. Lucian wanted to start running
again and hopefully get back to the apartment before lunch, but Choi looked
like that he didn’t want to let the topic go. He felt annoyed for a moment
until feeling bad right after; all Choi wanted was for both of them to be
happy. They were a team, after all, pretty much family at this point.
To sate the other male and to hopefully get
back to running, he reassured: “I’ll do my best to make time. And go on a date
with her.”
“Thank God,” Choi sighed. He shot Lucian a
small grin, “Let’s get back.”
And they did, eventually. Lucian and Choi
stumbled back into the apartment, panting and sweating with Azzarra sending
them the most judging of looks upon seeing them. “You look like shit,” she told
them, plucking a flyer from the fridge. “You two want takeout?”
Choi, who had just collapsed on the floor,
gave a garbled please. Lucian merely
nodded at Azzarra’s suggestion, opting to take the less dramatic route and
instead head upstairs to his room to take a cold shower. Struggling to get up,
Choi sat on the living room floor and grimaced at the ache starting to settle
in his legs. Azzarra watched with an amused smirk.
“Enjoy running with our Golden Boy?”
“Shut up.”
--
Lucian let the water wash over his face.
Amaris wasn’t there—she was sent out on
another mission, this time with Hyun-ae and Zack. It was something that was
supposed to last for a week; he remembered her telling him this. He also
remembered giving her his ‘kicked puppy’ expression, only for her to smile
sweetly at him and pinch his cheek.
“Don’t
look so upset,” she had told him. “You know that it’s part of the job.”
“That
doesn’t make it any better,” he complained. Amaris
could only shake her head at him and pinch his cheek yet again.
The feeling twisted his stomach. He missed
her. And as much as he didn’t want to admit it, Choi was right. It had been too long since they had been
together, what more on an actual date.
It made him feel a little bad. He wished
she knew that he wasn’t avoiding her—granted, Lucian was ridiculously touchy
with Amaris, but somehow he wondered if it was enough reassurance for her.
He turned off the shower.
--
She returned eventually—she always did.
Amaris got back to them a day late; she
explained that there were some issues with arriving back, none with the mission
itself. She explained this while Azzarra made her tea, while Choi listened, and
while Lucian ran his fingers through her hair while resting his chin on her
shoulder. He was touchy with her whenever she came back from a mission; the
others were used to seeing their leader revert to ‘that’ state. “Ae and Zack
are okay,” she told them. “Just bickered a lot.”
“Well, we’re glad you’re back.” Choi’s eyes
fell to Lucian and he smirked, “Especially Golden Boy over here.” Lucian merely
muttered a shut up and pressed a kiss
to the juncture of her shoulder, making Amaris smile a little more. He
eventually left them to join Azzarra, the two shifting to cuddle.
His arm wrapped around her. “You were gone
a long time.”
“Can’t blame me.” She leaned against him,
savoring his warmth. “Do you have any
upcoming missions, though? It feels like we barely see each other anymore.”
“Not that I know of.” Amaris peeked up at
him, seeing him smile down at her. “Not for a few days, maybe.” She nodded and
it was silent between them until he casually brought up, “Would you like to go
out soon?”
“Out as in buy food for the rest of them?”
Lucian pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
“Out as in date.” Amaris gaped for a split second before nodding and breaking
out into a bigger smile while a blush dusted her cheeks.
“I—yes. I’d love that.”
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