Lucy's seduction training continued on to the following day where an anticipating had collected her at the entrance of his penthouse home upon hearing a consistent triune-tap rapped on his large mahogany doors. Perfectly on beat, the door was tucked into the building and scarlet eyes met smoldered silver irises belonging to a gorgeous creamy model witg golden hair. He was an enticing meal and a delectable sight for the eyes with his left elbow pressed against the door while his left hand combed through his tendrils. Whilst doing so, his chin was slightly tilted and a half-grin emerged on his lips. With his honeyed baritone voice, he greeted her with Garden's covert exchange: "Good day to you, heartfelia Princess."
"Good day to you, Lucy-senpai," the blonde-haired assassin returned the exchange with a polite smile.
"Did you sleep well last night?"
"I have, thank you. And you, senpai?"
"Very much so," Klaus replied kindly, then he created space for his junior to enter his home with a few backsteps and an extended open palm presented to her, "My lady."
"Thank you."
Lucy reached for his outstretched hand and entered his home. The former assassin pair exchanged information and updates regarding their previous assignments as Klaus guided her back to the entrance of their work zone-his bedroom. Klaus led the pair in but instructed Lucy to close the door behind them. After obeying his command, she turned to her senior who had his arms outstretched towards her with a gentle smile on his delicate lips.
"Show me how to be seduced."
Here it goes, Lucy thought to herself as she walked into his embrace, face-planting onto his white-shirt while her feet are planted outside of his.
"Good," she heard him whisper approvingly. "You can use this to turn your head towards me slowly."
Taking his advice, heartfelia Princess slowly tilted her head to build anticipation and locked his gaze.
"Beautiful," he praised her once more and he meant it in two ways. Lucy -heartfelia Princess-IS beautiful and always had been both in her disposition and in her blossomed physique. Although Klaus promised-and intends to maintain his promise with-his junior, he could not help his own excited thoughts in the embrace of an alluring woman.
A woman who is capable of killing him with her brute strength, he reminded himself.
Betwixt his responsibility as her coach and his heightened testosterone thoughts, Lucy willed himself into shoving his emotions into a fictitious jar and reprogrammed his mind to hyperfixate on his evaluations and criticism of the heartfelia Princess's performance.
Just as they had practiced, Lucy took the lead and guided them both towards the round mauve ottoman. Her performance thus far reflected her inexperience through the stiffness of her body but was made passable by her adorable gaze, and he could easily imagine her clients eating up this presentation; and he was no exception. There was a certain charm that came with awkward innocence, and for a moment, Lucy considered it as a feature of her seductress identity. Almost. But the art of seduction required a character that exuded and radiated confidence to ensure the kill in most cases than not. He would rather not coalesce Lucy with seductress heartfelia Princess.
With a glance over his broad shoulder, his peripheral vision caught the dollying view of the mauve ottoman. heartfelia Princess's steady progress resulted in a small smile tugging at the corner of Lucy's lips. Lucy's leadership skills demonstrated confidence, albeit ungraceful, forceful, and inconsistent in rhythm-he made a mental note to revisit her leading skills and fine-tune her seductive gait afterward-but he took great pride in Lucy's adept abilities in replicating expectations.
When he felt his leg connect with the velvet seat, Lucy's hands detached from their embraced hold and carefully made their way between their disconnected sternums. Then, she gingerly planted each of them onto Lucy's broad shoulders with some added pressure to communicate her control. Demonstrating his submission, Lucy sat down with Lucy descending alongside him. As his weight sank into the velvet seat, Lucy's hands lifted from his shoulders and planted themselves onto either side of his thighs before leaning towards the unfazed and alluring assassin.
The edge of Lucy's lips twitched as he held back an abortive chuckle. His female junior's scarlet eyes held a fierce determination to them, but the scrunching of her eyebrows, the dimple it formed from the creases, the blooming petals found in her soft alabaster cheeks, and the thin line created from folding her luscious lips reflected her nervous and cautious nature. The amusement was short-lived when the proximity between Garden's youngest assassins quickly became the center of attention. heartfelia Princess was just two centimeters away from him, her breath tickled his chin, and he felt a strong urge to kiss her. Lucy felt the blood rush south and pool at his thighs the longer he gazed into Lucy's chocolate irises and her slowly blossoming rouge lips. His testosterone-fueled thoughts urged him to submit to his impulsive carnal desires, and for that moment, he did.
For that moment, he secured another centimeter, and along with it, the undeniable tension grew between them. An invisible force of electrifying aphrodisiac chemistry was set in motion and ravaged hungrily-undeniably-in the ticking seconds that passed between them at just a centimeter apart, just enough to brush their lips. He could take her then and there while her guard was down… while her crimson eyes were slightly glazed and intoxicated… while her flustered outburst lagged… while her lips were close enough to brush against his.
Lucy secured another half a centimeter, his heartbeat erratic and boisterous to the point of stealing his hearing. He noticed Lucy's quivering lips and recognized the motions of her exhaling an unstable breathy sigh. His eyes traveled between her smoldered ruby irises back to her seductive lips, and he made the decision to cave into the aphrodisiac. He leaned in to connect their lips, but found purchase on the soft bed of her feverish cheek.
The gesture seemed to restart Lucy's flustered meltdown instantaneously and her face immediately became flushed in crimson. In her panicked state, Klaus's right hand took advantage of the situation and situated itself at the top of her head, and gently ruffled her soft blonde locks before an appendage was projected at him.
"G-great work seducing me!" the senior assassin managed to vocalize a coherent and confident praise to his junior. This was accompanied with a dazzling grin; a Lucy created to hold her gaze while buying time to extinguish the fire that had arisen within them-within him; the fire that still raged on just below his torso-and thank God she wasn't looking at the suffocated tenting that took place at the center of his pants.
When his palm had finished nuzzling heartfelia Princess's blonde locks, his svelte fingers gently trailed down the locks that clung out of their coifed binding. Each slender finger gathered several wisps of her long tresses, where they were fluidly brought to Klaus's full lips.
The gesture resulted in an explosion of rubies blooming across the female assassin's forehead and cheeks down to her neck and exposed slender shoulders, to the peaking cleavage found between the strap and bodice of her form-fitting halter-style black dress and into the obsidian fabric.
The sight of it all reminded him of a maraschino being poured into a black-stem wine glass that he had once witnessed from a former female customer. He remembered the taste of her delectable lips being strongly bitter with hints of sweetness found in cherries. For a moment, he found himself craving the taste again with a growing desire to revel in the euphoric entanglement. His eyelids fluttered together and pulled apart to readjust his focus on the flustered heartfelia Princess. He decided that Lucy and her close-to-explosive reaction were cute at best.
Lucy wore a cheeky grin while his hands clasped onto his junior's shoulders. With gentle pressure, he created space between them and suggested a bit hurriedly-perhaps much too hurriedly for his liking-some time to air out the heat, because God knows how much he needed something cold.
Lucy was suddenly dragged back to the present when she noticed a large hand, that was enveloped in black leather, wriggled in her line of sight. Registering the unfamiliar limb as a sign of danger, Lucy had instinctively dropped the phone and leaped backwards with her knees tucked into her chest. As soon as her vision fell into the darkness behind a pair of thin epidermic veils, her lips folded into a thin line as if to brace herself for the impending flurry of discombobulating laundry lists that fought to take over her mind and leak her weaknesses to her enemy. Her facial expressions tensed slightly, a sign of concealing and restraining the overwhelming emotions, with each passing thought.
Had I forgotten to lock the door properly when we arrived? She was sure that she had prior to making dinner that evening. Maybe Bond wanted to become an escape artist again. No… he was at the foot of Asuka's bed when she had closed the door. Maybe… she recalled the time when she had failed to eliminate an armed militant from the Red Circus which resulted with a shot to her butt. Her blood ran cold. Had I missed serving a customer last night?! Oh Lucy, you need to quadruple-check that they've all been served!
After reluctantly accepting the possible outcome of her current predicament, heartfelia Princess had decided that the moment her feet touched the wooden floor, she had vowed to wipe the intruder off from the face of existence. That had been the plan when her feet had found the ground and her eyelids would reveal a chilling pair of narrowed blood-lust eyes. But what she had failed to account for was her husband's dutiful nature in maintaining the role of the nuclear patriarch in the Leo heartfelia family. She hadn't considered that her dutiful husband would resort to any means necessary to return home from an exhausting mission that evening rather than the following morning that he had originally communicated with Lucy.
After the final had disclosed his observations of his assignment in the operation, a hush fell upon WISE's underground safe house. The silence was so profoundly deafening that the mere clacking produced from a pair of 3-inch black heels against the glass floors mimicked the fired rounds .
The owner of these commanding steps belonged to a slim, pale woman with icy cyan eyes that hid behind a pair of large, round silver frames and strawberry-blonde hair that stopped shy at the center of her back. She wore an elegant black dress that had a low-cut square neckline over a white collared shirt and a large black bow that secured the collar in place. The skirt of her dress varied in length with the back of her dress reaching shy a few inches above her ankles while the front of her dress stopped at mid-thigh. To complete the ensemble, she wore black stockings and a black wide-brimmed hat with a sangria ribbon.
With each detailed account still fresh in her mind, Fullmetal Lady sauntered in the direction of her blue desk. Each step she took caused the ends of her hair to bounce and tremble which mirrored the startled reactions and anxious expressions of the exhausted s that she had passed by. She took note of their mental state but chose not to acknowledge it; instead, it was silently shrugged off like excess fabric that swayed behind her in her wake.
Her steps came to a complete halt when she stood before her desk and planted her hands on either side of her petite waistline. She kept her back facing her s while she analyzed the notes that she had left on the blue bulletin board, cross-referencing each tip and detailed accounts she had received during their briefing.
The room remained silent as the Fullmetal Lady's cognitive cogs began to set in motion. Amidst the silence, the s swore they could visualize and hear gear pieces move but not one wanted to vocalize their tacit imagination fearing that even the slightest movement, rustle, snicker, or cough would break the Handler's astute analysis. After all, it had already been an exhausting mission, and the last thing anyone wanted to witness was an unhinged Handler.
Fortunately, their silence had been rewarded with closed eyes and a relaxed clandestine smile from a satisfied Handler. Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing tired eyes, marking the completion of Operation Pen. She turned to face her s with her arms crossed over one another above her chest whilst still bearing her thin smile, although it was smaller now and it never reached her eyes. She announced their victory with a commanding mezzo-soprano voice, "Excellent work today, s. You are dismissed."
As each collectively released a sigh of relief, Handler's head snapped in the direction where Loke stood. When their gazes locked, Handler's smile is no longer present but her features appeared to be soft when she imparted words to him. "Rest well, Loke."
In one fluid motion, Loke's gloved thumb and index fingers found purchase on a frontal rim of his taupe jazz bowler hat. Without breaking contact with his superior, his fingers lowered the rim. When she closed her eyes, Loke took this cue to trail behind his colleagues out of Handler's office, down a flight of stairs, and squeezed with two other s through the faux picture booth elevator.
When Loke entered their flat complex, his thoughts were filled with guilt as he reflected on his inability to attend what had originally been his family date to the Ostanian Zoo. Had Loke Leo heartfelia been present with his family rather than be summoned for a last-minute mission, where he assumed the identity of an elderly scientist named Montgomery at the same location, he believed that the Leo heartfelia family would have shared a normal familial outing-Correction: somewhat normal outing, he brooded-taking into consideration of Asuka's mercurial and unpredictable antics.
It appeared that Loke's accumulative experiences and repertoire in cipher decoding and tactical strategies were completely useless before the presence of a mere 6-year-old child. Despite sustaining damages for his inability to comprehend the child in their early interactions, Asuka still never failed to intrigue him and keep him on his toes with her sudden perceptive commentaries. He pondered if Lucy had sustained any other injuries from Asuka's sharp tongue other than her cooking skills. Or perhaps, it was just him who suffered from having useless, untransferable skills and a growing crippling anxiety.
It seemed that there was another way in which Asuka Leo heartfelia could instill anxiety into Lucy Leo heartfelia. He recalled the passing glances he had afforded during a hot pursuit of an escaping terrorist. He had witnessed Lucy's thoughtful expression shift to panic with her mouth slackened as she chased manically after the little girl. It had only taken a split second for Loke to identify their hyperactive adopted child when he had spotted a bobbing patch of bronze hair paired with large emerald eyes and a huge grin-it was the worst time for Asuka to play hooky. Or perhaps, in hindsight, it was a fortunate stroke of serendipity that Asuka had behaved capriciously if the worst were to happen-of course the worst wouldn't happen under his watch. In any case, he made a mental note to apologize to Lucy for the trouble Asuka had caused. She had been such a good sport at adapting to the whims of the boisterous child, and it was about time that he aligned himself with his fake wife's grievances.
Operation Pen had come to a surreptitious close when Loke had successfully subdued the escaping terrorist while another special operation officer had successfully disarmed the BCP-62. Another , donning a civilian uniform with a similar inconspicuous bronze WISE pin clipped to his breast pocket, approached Loke and the unconscious extremist.
"I can take him from here, Loke."
"Thanks," the elderly scientists murmured accompanied with a single nod. Turning his sights towards the direction where his supposed daughter had led his legal wife, Loke thought to himself that it wouldn't hurt to check on his family from a safe distance. After all, what awaited him next would be a lengthy debrief before he got to see his family again the next day.
When Loke spotted the Leo heartfelia family, he was rewarded with a heartwarming sight of his precious girls who were wrapped in each other's warm embrace. He assumed this exchange was the resolution to Lucy's lecture, as indicated by the glistening transparent trails that coated Asuka's red cheeks and the audible sniffles that emanated from her direction. He definitely needed to have a talk with Asuka regarding her disappearing behavior-he presumed the subject matter had been relating to her most frequent, and most concerning, delinquent habit. Perhaps he could negotiate with her good behavior over a slice of caramel nut cake. He glanced over at Lucy's hunched figure and thought about throwing in a bouquet or lavish gift as well. He really ought to take her out on another date to show appreciation for her efforts. Maybe he could stop by a shop tomorrow afternoon.
Loke's thoughts came to a halt when he arrived at the front of his apartment door. He intended to slip into his bedroom without raising suspicions nor waking up his possibly exhausted fake wife and hyperactive adopted daughter after having spent a long day at the Ostanian Zoo. But as he quietly unlocked the door and entered the Leo heartfelia's residence, the last thing he had expected was seeing his fake wife awake at this late hour, most especially on a Sunday evening.
He observed Lucy's frozen silhouette with her head hung forward and staring intently at the landline base while she cradled the phone handset between her left hand and her left ear. Whatever conversation she seemed to be occupied with must have been quite serious considering that Lucy Leo heartfelia was normally the attentive type and the first to greet her husband home.
Well acquainted with his fake wife's explosive startled behaviors, Loke raised the decibel of his voice to announce his presence, "I-I'm home, Lucy."
To his surprise, Lucy appeared unresponsive. Not even a movement was made to acknowledge that she had heard him. Loke grew concerned but his thoughts were also equally interested in the conversation that had consumed her attention.
Ignoring his usual routine to hang his trench coat and hat, Loke strode towards his fake wife. As he approached her, he could hear the service line beeping from the handset, but Lucy seemed to be lost in reverie almost as if she was hypnotized. Loke's strides began to widen until he stood just a foot away from her, unaware that he had donned a justifiably alarmed expression.
"Lucy?" her name rolled out of his lips softly, eclipsing into a whisper.
But just as before, Lucy remained unfazed and his anxiety seemed to grow with the passing seconds. He decided to try again, this time raising his right hand in front of her line of sight and waving his limb vertically.
The movement seemed to break whatever spell Lucy was under, and her gaze had snapped from the phone base to his hand. Everything seemed to happen in a blink of an eye that had he been distracted for a moment, he would have missed the turn of events.
Lucy had abandoned the handset to dangle by a thread of rubber and elastic string as she leaped backwards. Her legs were tucked to her chest as she whizzed through the air before her feet landed several feet away from him and a good handful of inches away from their dining room table.
Loke would have approached her had he not been so discombobulated by her mere behavior that it had severed temporary access to his lower appendages. Loke was so sure that nothing about Lucy Leo heartfelia could have surprised him anymore. He had forgotten that when it came to Lucy, he was unable to parse anything about her. Fortuitously, his dumbfounded moment is what ultimately saved him from experiencing a similar incident as Gray or worse. Instead, Loke's jaw slackened while some degree of vocal impediment prevented him from formulating his thoughts into words. Only one coherent phrase managed to escape his lips in a stammering manner.
"Lucy?"
She snapped up at the sound of her name while uttering a surprised, "Oh!" before bringing both of her dainty hands over her lips and nose. The gesture highlighted her wild and lively-animated wide rouge eyes-a gesture paired with an expression that Loke Leo heartfelia had come to grow extremely fond of. When the blonde-haired woman spoke again, her hands were outstretched and trembling slightly towards him, "It's not what you think, Loke-san! I-I was startled and reacted with something I learned from my yoga routine!"
Under normal circumstances, Lucy's answer would have raised suspicions from him. But Lucy was anything but parsable from his emotional analysis of her down to her motivation-everything about her was a box of chocolate, and the only times he understood her was when she communicated with him.
Gathering her hands and cupping them between his gloved ones, he gave them a gentle squeeze which earned a reserved smile from his flustered partner. "I'm sorry for startling you. I know I told you that I would arrive tomorrow morning but the meeting had ended early and I decided to catch the last train for this evening."
"I see," Lucy responded softly, her ruby eyes reflecting the same gentleness of her voice. "You could have stayed the night and gotten yourself rest at the very least."
I could have but-
"A devoted husband shouldn't leave his wife and child unattended for too long."
Lucy felt the blood rush to her cheeks and, simultaneously, her heart skipped a beat. Then, her attention briefly shifted to her enclosed hands where she noticed the growing heat emanating from them. She had quickly deduced the rising heat had been due to her husband's black leather gloves and nothing more. Although, the latter extended into a silent prayer where she prayed that Loke's gloves were too thick to notice the change in temperature.
"O-of course!" Lucy replied hurriedly.
This is for the sake of keeping up appearances!
"But still…" Lucy's eyes shifted back to their hands and gently pulled her hands from his grasp and gently slid them both over each of his hands. She gave them a gentle squeeze while mustering conviction in her voice. Her eyes dollied back to his gaze, where she caught a glimpse of his eyes shifting from their hands back to locking gazes with her. "You should take care of your health when you can. I know you're very busy with work."
"Lucy…" Loke responded softly, his voice laced with a mixture of reverence, surprise, and pleasurable contemplation.
"Ah! Um!" her voice trembled from the sudden wave of bashfulness that accompanied the sound of her name. "Being the mother and wife of the Leo heartfelia joint family, I have faith in my abilities."
At her response, the blonde-haired man's surprised contemplation melted in the form of his softened sky-blue eyes and the upturned corners of his lips. His expression could only be described as an ephemeric endearment. It was a subconscious expression that Loke Leo heartfelia only ever reserved for Lucy Leo heartfelia.
For Lucy Leo heartfelia, the endearing sight of her exhausted psychiatrist of a husband had left her breathless. With her masterfully-honed and scrupulous attention to detail, she singed every minute wrinkle that graced his features from the light ridges that formed from the subtle arch of his eyebrows to the crinkles found at the corners of his eyes, to the gathered lines, borne of countless sleepless nights spent on his medical breakthrough, that formed beneath his gentle light blue eyes. In the dimly lit living room, the color of his irises took on a radiant aquamarine hue, and for a moment she felt like she had been gazing into a vast horizon in the clearest shades of azure. For Lucy Leo heartfelia, it was a sight that was forever ingrained into her heart and mind whenever Loke Leo heartfelia came to mind.
The tender ephemeral, true to its fleeting duration, had eventually waned and was shortly replaced by the couple's sudden self-consciousness of their over-welcomed gawking and clasping hands. The pair had simultaneously pulled their hands away from each other accompanied with severed stares. Lucy's gaze fell to her folded hands which rested against her lower torso while Loke's gaze found interest in their ceiling while his right hand massaged the heat that emerged from the back of his neck in an effort to extinguish it.
After a few seconds of shaking off their bashful exchange, Lucy had been the first to find composure when her eyes caught sight of her husband's taupe jazz bowler hat and his matching long coat. The sight triggered her housewife nature and Lucy instinctively offered her hands to collect the articles. "Loke, I think you forgot to take off your hat and coat."
"Oh," the blond-haired man uttered, cerulean eyes traveling to his fake wife's outstretched hands. He had completely forgotten to hang his coat and hat due to what had transpired. His concern for Lucy had taken priority that he forgot that he was still wearing his outerwear.
"Would you like me to help you remove your coat?"
"Yes, thank you," he answered politely.
As he began unbuttoning his coat, Lucy made her way behind him and waited until he had fully unbuttoned the article and shrugged them off his shoulders before assisting in the removal. She had gathered the coat over her arm and gently folded it over.
While Lucy had been occupied with his coat, Loke's attention caught the dangling phone handset. The mere object sparked a question in Loke's thoughts as he returned the object to its base.
As Loke followed his fake wife into the small office room located to the left of the front entrance, Loke asked, "Is everything okay, Lucy? I've never seen you quite absorbed like that."
"O-oh!" the covert assassin stammered whilst her shoulders stiffened slightly. She hadn't meant to react the way that she had, and she felt even more embarrassed that Loke had not only seen her so lost in deep thought but she had also contemplated and almost assassinated him. Lucy wanted to bury her face in her hands.
Loke noticed Lucy's shoulders became rigid after vocalizing his concern. He deduced from her reaction that his curiosity had breached a sensitive topic and Lucy felt uncomfortable with disclosing the information with him. His thoughts traveled back to the time when he had planted a bug on Lucy to clear herself of his suspicions. He recalled the gnawing knot that formed at the pit of his stomach when his suspicions had only impeded and added to Lucy's grievances. He felt guilty that his actions had genuinely hurt Lucy. But this time, he decided to trust and respect her privacy. After all, Lucy had nothing to hide and she had always been the type to uphold her end of the communication. In the end, he decided to retract his curiosity.
Just as he and Lucy hung the articles of his outwear, Loke stated, "I won't pry if the topic is sensitive to you."
His announcement resulted with her surprised gaze.
"I want to respect your privacy, Lucy-san. But just know that if you need anything, I am happy to offer an ear and support you."
"Loke-san…" Lucy's rosy eyes expanded after hearing his considerate words. Her lips merged into a thin line as she contemplated about sharing a partial truth of the news after recognizing the concern-her ruby eyes flickered to the hanging coat and hat as her lips unconsciously curved into a small pout-she had inflicted upon him.
Loke is so understanding even after the trouble I had caused him. Since he says it's okay then…
She decided to withhold the details until she had met with the Shopkeeper and Lucy before making her decision afterward. After all, it wouldn't look good if she were to disclose her reunion with Klaus if it was a furtive assignment, but if their interaction were to affect Lucy Leo heartfelia's schedule or role in the family in any way then Loke would definitely need to be communicated and consulted. Still, she felt the need to give him an answer.
"I'll think about it tonight," Lucy answered slowly, "I'll let you know after dinner."
"Okay," Loke offered a comforting smile.
It was the type of smile that reflected a child-like innocence, one that was akin to the pleasant grin of a younger Gray after receiving praises from his sister on another perfect test score. Her chest suddenly felt tight. She wondered to herself if she would be able to protect this innocence-this relationship-that they had formed with one another. Even as she continued to get her hands dirtied to protect her little family, would it be enough to preserve the bond she had with her legal spouse?
Lucy responded with a reserved smile before proposing, "Let's get some sleep, Loke-san. You must be exhausted."
The blond gentleman nodded and led the pair back to their sleeping quarters. As they walked he added, "I would imagine you must be feeling tired too. Has Asuka been on her best behavior with you?"
He already knew the answer after coming across their tearful embrace. Yet, he still needed to ask for appearances.
"I think Asuka was just excited and couldn't help her curiosity, but I did give her a stern talk afterwards."
"I'm so sorry about her behavior. I'll definitely have a talk with Asuka about it."
"No, not at all! She is still a child after all!"
Lucy thought about her brother when he was a toddler and how she lacked the experience of having to pursue a curious Gray during their small family trips. Gray had always been by her side but his ambitions had been reflected in his did-you-know monologues. Gray had always been a motivated and studious child, and he seemed to always perform well after she had praised him-or as Loke had once observed. Perhaps Asuka just needed some motivation too.
"Perhaps you can talk this over with her and a slice of caramel nut cake?" she suggested thoughtfully.
Loke's steps fell to a halt when the two had just arrived at the crossroad between their bedroom doors. Surprised by his action, it had only taken a second when Lucy had brought her hands over her mouth once again along with a gaping realization.
Shoot, have I overstepped my boundaries again!? Maybe desserts aren't the healthiest tools for encouraging good behavior. It could probably lead to bad health. Maybe-
To the woman's surprise, her comment did not cause any trouble to the former single parent. Instead, what had silenced Lucy's chagrin was a radiant beaming grin followed by an aborted chuckle. Lucy was not aware that her suggestion had just validated a passing parental thought. But what she was aware of was the fact that she couldn't get enough of seeing Loke Leo heartfelia's charming smile.
Lucy couldn't help but join in with a stifled giggle due to its infectious sound.
"I was just thinking about the same thing!" he finally responded after catching his breath, "It amazes me how you and seem to read my mind."
"I'm glad that we were thinking the same thing," Lucy agreed followed by a big yawn that was accompanied by her right hand.
"I won't hold you back any further," Loke observed, "Good night, Lucy."
"Good night, Loke."
Out of courtesy, Loke waited for Lucy to open her door and close it behind her before he followed suit upon his own bedroom door. Nothing comforted him more than seeing his family safe.