"I don't wanna see you smile

I want you in the morning

Before you go performing

You know you're beautiful

But that ain't half the gold treasure in your soul what you got 'cause I want it all

With your fingers in my mouth, I fail to see your faults

So please don't let me fall"

✰

Luke was shaking with pure, unadulterated anger.

He wanted to track down the people responsible for vandalizing the shop and make them hurt the way his chest was hurting. He wanted to quit the band out of spite and never let the world know him again. He wanted to throw his fist through the half-shattered glass of the front door of the shop.

Luke wasn't angry because his shop was vandalized. Hell, before Arlo he hated the fucking place. Luke was angry because in the process of his rising fame, Arlo had gotten hurt one too many times and this was the final nail in the coffin.

She didn't cry, but her bottom lip trembled and he saw the crestfallen look on her face as she stepped around the glass and began trying to salvage the potted plants she'd put outside of the shop before they left for LA.

Luke curses under his breath as he remembers how happy she was to add the flowers to the front of the shop. "To keep it company while we're gone." She'd said, personifying the shop as if it had a heartbeat and feelings.

If it were anyone else, he would have found it ridiculous. But, it was Arlo and to her, the shop wasn't a lump of wood and bricks and plaster. She'd planted her heart in the midst of the shop, letting it live among the books. It wasn't just a shop to her, and it no longer was just a shop to Luke either.

They'd taken away her safe place and Luke wanted to burn the world for it.

"Arlo..." Luke approaches her hesitantly where she's crouched in front of the shop, trying to pick up the trashed flowers. "Just leave it." He says gently, knowing it's a lost cause.

Arlo doesn't answer him, her eyes on the destruction in front of her. In fact, Luke's not even sure she can hear him until he places a hand on her waist. She startles, whipping her head around to face him. "I can fix it." She sniffles. "Just let me fix it, Lu."

"We'll fix it together." He promises, an ache in his chest as he physically feels his heart split in two. "We need to get back in the car for now so we can call the label for security. Anyone could be watching right now and my first priority is keeping you safe, baby."

"But-" Arlo parts her lips to argue, though she's quickly cut off as Luke uses his grip on her waist to tug her away from the mess in front of the shop. She bites her tongue, looking longingly over her shoulder at the mess behind her.

Luke helps her into the car and as he rounds the front of the car on the way to the driver's side, she watches his body still. Arlo can't hear what he says, nor can she see his face but his body language is absolutely rigid as he points a harsh finger in the direction of the street corner.

She cranes her neck, squinting her eyes to see through her blurry vision, but Luke is throwing himself into the driver's seat, curses leaving his lips before she can make anything out. "There's a whole fuckin' group out of them watching us." Luke scoffs. "What the fuck does my music have to due with my shop. What's the goddamn point?"

Arlo swallows thickly. "They saw all of that? How many of them?" She asks nervously. Arlo didn't want to be plastered on the front page of some website and described as the unstable girlfriend of a rockstar having a meltdown over a pile of ruined flowers.

Luke immediately tears his eyes away from the street corner and directs his attention to her. He places a gentle hand on her bare thigh, his thumb drawing soothing circles. "Don't worry about it, baby." Luke reassures her. "I'm going to call the label and we're going to get security set up at the end of the street and then we can call the boys and fix this together."

Luke knew Arlo well enough to know better than to suggest hiring a cleaning company. He knew she'd want to fix it herself. Besides, she'd been begging him to let her redecorate the shop and now that he had an influx of money, he could finally allow her to do so.

"They're getting ready for the party." Arlo points out, guilt flooding her system.

Now that their fame had gotten out of hand, Calum knew he wouldn't be home much anymore, especially with touring. Additionally, he couldn't have his house parties like he used to without them ending up flooded with the wrong people or posted all over the internet.

Calum was arranging one last party to happen tonight considering they left for London the next morning. It was his way of bidding farewell to his old life, so no one really faulted him for it.

"They'll be here, Lo." Luke reassures her, taking a moment to press a kiss on her cheek before holding his phone to his ear.

Luke is on the phone with the label for quite a while and the conversation mostly consists of him holding the phone between them on speaker phone while he'd muted his end of the call to groan and curse all he wanted without being scolded.

Eventually, they're reassured that security is on the way and that they'd work on getting footage from the neighboring shop's security cameras. Luke calls the boys immediately after and just like he knew they would, they promise to be there within minutes. It would take a bit longer than usual considering Luke had stolen Calum's car and Ashton had to pick all of them up, but they'd be there nonetheless.

A thick silence settles in the car as Luke hangs up the final call. Arlo is completely silent, her head resting against the car door as she has her legs hugged to her chest. She looks unbelievably vulnerable and Luke wants nothing more to have her close.

"Arlo, baby." Luke drums his fingertips on her bare thigh in order to catch her attention. When her brown eyes meet his, he slides his fingers into the belt loop of her jean shorts. "C'mere."

"Lu..." Her eyes go wide and she begins looking around nervously, aware that they're sitting in a car right on the street corner.

"Tinted windows." Luke reassures her. "Nobody can see inside."

That seems to be enough reassurance and Arlo allows him to pull her over the center console. As her legs straddle his waist Luke reclines the seat ever so slightly, causing her cheeks to flush. Her hands brace themselves on the headrest on either side of his head, her long hair curtaining around them both as she hovers over him.

Luke's hands dance soothingly up and down her spine and with her this close he can tell just how tried his girl is. She'd been holding back so much emotion, scared for whatever reason to let him in. As much as he didn't want her to be in pain, he knew it would hurt more in the end if she kept it inside.

"Talk to me, sweetheart." Luke's voice is soft as he cups her face with his much larger hand, his thumb ghosting over her parted bottom lip. "Tell me what's going in that pretty head of yours. Don't censor yourself either, I want it all."

Arlo sinks her teeth harshly into her bottom lip. "I can't." She whispers hoarsely.

Luke furrows his brows at her response, his head spinning as he tries to place himself inside her mind. "Why not, Lo? What will it take for you to open up to me?" He swallows thickly, insecurity suddenly shining in his blue eyes. "Have I ever done anything to make you feel like you can't trust me?"

Arlo frowns, her face instantly falling as guilt settles in her bones. "Never." She says instantly, nothing but honestly in her tone. "I'm just used to dealing with these things on my own. It's not easy for me to let other people see me like that."

"So let me be the first." Luke's tone is pleading, begging almost. "Let me in, Lo."

Arlo inhales shakily, already feeling her emotions rise to the surface. Her hands tremble against the headrest and her body goes rigid in Luke's hold, her chest feeling uncomfortably tight. "If I do, then I'll break."

"And I'll put you back together." Luke says sincerely, his hands drawing her impossibly closer until they're practically breathing each other. "I swear it."

"You won't leave?" Arlo's voice wavers with emotion. Was she seriously considering this? She never imagined being so vulnerable in front of anyone, not even Luke. It made her skin hot with anxiousness just thinking about it.

"You'd have to slam a door in my face and throw away the key." A small smile stretches across his face as Luke tries to ease the tension in her shoulders with his touch. "Even then, I'd break it down just to get to you."

Her teeth sink into her bottom lip and she pinches her eyes shut. "I'm tired." Arlo's voice cracks, sending a pang of hurt through Luke's chest as the sound echoes throughout the small space of the car. "I'm so tired of my life being dictated by things I can't control. I'm tired of everything changing just when I feel safe again."

Luke toys with his lip ring, his eyes refusing to stray from hers as the first tear rolls down her cheek. "I know, baby. I know you are." He reassures her, his hands finding her waist to pull her impossibly closer.

With every tear that falls from Arlo's pretty eyes Luke feels like he's being punched in the stomach. He loves her so recklessly, so helplessly, that he feels her pain a thousand times more intensely. As much as his fingers tremble, his lips begging to part and comfort her until the tears fall no more, he knows she needs to let it out.

Arlo finally gives in, collapsing on his chest, her damp cheeks on the skin of his neck as her hand fists the fabric of his shirt. Her chest heaves as the tears she'd been holding back for months, years even, finally flow freely.

Luke places a kiss to her hair. "I'm so proud of you, Lo. So fuckin' proud of you my sweet girl." He repeats words of comfort over and over- whether it be to shield his heart from the pained sound leaving her lips or to keep or from falling too deep in her own mind, he's not sure.

"It hurts." Arlo's voice is so defeated sounding that Luke's breath is nearly knocked from his chest. His girl wasn't used to feeling her emotions at all and it was clear.

Lukes' at a loss. He doesn't know how else to comfort her, but she'd just told him she was hurting. Luke's methods may be unconventional, but he was trying the best he knew how. So, he gently tilts her chin up, bringing his lips to her own.

A relived sigh leaves both of them as Arlo repositions herself with the help of Luke's strong hands so she's hovering over him once more. Her cheeks are damp with tears as is Luke's shirt but none of that seems to matter as he kisses her with everything he has.

And as it begins to pour, washing away some of the spray paint from the building and soaking the world around them, they both decide that they'll be alright. Although it hurt to let go of that emotion, Arlo was healing already. With every touch of his lips, with every rain drop that slid down the car window, she was healing.

"Arlo." Luke breathes her name against her lips, pulling back with hazy blue eyes. She always managed to do that, put him in a daze that he never wanted to come down from.

"Mhm." The girl hums, her fingertips bushing his messy blonde hair away from his face.

"I love the rain." Luke says quietly, his chest heaving.

I love you. You're my own rainstorm of the most beautiful severity. I love you, I love you, I love you. I'm obsessed with loving you. I don't want to love if I'm not loving you.

I'm tired of loving you in silence.

A small smile tugs at Arlo's lips and she ducks down, placing a kiss on the tip of his nose as she so often did. "I love the rain too." She says softly, her eyes reluctantly drawing away from him in order to glance at the water drops rolling down the car window. "It's pretty, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Luke's voice is shaky as he tries to steady his breathing. "Really fucking pretty."