InsaneJournal

WHO: Luke Castellan and Thalia Grace
WHAT: Luke’s failed attempt at cooking leads to awkwardness
WHEN: March 3
WHERE: Their apartment
WARNINGS: Awkward UST
STATUS: Closed/Completed Gdoc


Luke was starting to wonder if things with Thalia could ever be the way they were. Or, well, maybe that was a stupid thing to wonder. Of course they couldn’t. Too much had passed between them and he’d done too many evil things for things to ever go back to the innocent friendship they’d once had. But maybe...maybe things could go forward. Maybe they could have a different, but still satisfying friendship? Maybe she could forgive him for the things he’d done?

Only, he wasn’t sure that she could. He wasn’t sure that he could if he were in her place.

He’d decided to try to cook today. Probably not the best idea, but he wanted to do something to take a step towards friendship with her. He had a you tube video showing him what to do, but unfortunately, the quiche he was trying to make wasn’t turning out anything like the picture, and he’d whipped egg over about half the kitchen.

Apparently, he couldn’t even cook right. Shouldn’t have surprised him.

***

That, of course, when Thalia came home. She’d just finished a day at the Met where she worked as an intern, and she was feeling pretty good about herself and life in general...until she opened the door and found a frustrated Luke in the middle of what seemed to be an egg and/or batter explosion.

She stopped. Stared. Stared some more.

“Did you at least beat up the other guy?” she finally said.

***

“Um, I tried. That’s what happened. Beat it, I mean.” He blew a strand of egg-splattered hair out of his face and looked at her with an expression of utter failure. “I was trying to cook. You can tell that, right? It’s not as easy as it looks.”

He turned off the youtube video, which by now was showing something he wasn’t even close to having.

“It...was supposed to be a quiche.”

***

Thalia couldn’t help it. Her lips twitched. Standing there in the middle of splattered egg, Luke looked a far cry from the golden-eyed monster who’d tried to destroy the world. He looked, in fact, disconcertingly like the best friend he used to be.

“Well, you sure showed it who’s boss.” She dropped the bag of toiletries she’d picked up and went over to the kitchen, where she picked up a rag and started to wipe up the mess. Having something to do distracted her from the sudden pang of nostalgia and loss she felt at the thought of the old days.

“What inspired you to try?”

***

“I don’t know, I just wanted…” He paused. He’d just wanted to make her happy. To see her smile when there was something good on the table when she got home. He’d wanted to make an effort for her, although that obviously had gone to shit. “I just wanted to make you dinner,” he said, a bit pathetically. “I thought that would be…” Would be what? A way to make things up to her? Far from it. He was pretty sure he could never actually make things up to her.

“I just thought it would be nice. You know.” He shrugged.

***

It wasn’t fair. Luke shouldn’t be standing there looking little-boy cute with egg in his hair, tugging at her heartstrings and making her wish they were best friends again. He’d thrown away that right a long time ago.

But when she looked at him being all distressed over quiche, she just couldn’t find it within herself to slap him down.

“How about we try something easier?”

Without realizing it, she included herself in those efforts.

***

“This was supposed to be easy,” he said. At least that was what those cooking shows online said. They obviously had lied. “I mean, I wanted to make something more than mac and cheese or spaghetti from a bottle.”

But he’d failed. Because he always failed.

“We could order takeout,” he said, rather defeated by the whole thing.

***

Thalia threw a towel at him, not letting him get into a funk. Once Luke started spiraling down a hole of angst,it was hard to get him out. “Quiche is hard. I’d never be able to do it. Let’s get this cleaned up and go for Korean BBQ.”

Gods knew Thalia wasn’t anything close to a good cook. Or even a decent cook. While she was great at catching and roasting rabbits, anything involving an actual cooktop and oven were out of her league. Korean barbecue seemed like a good compromise between takeout and quiche, without having to resort to macaroni. Not that she’d mind mac and cheese, to be honest. Luke was actually not a bad cook. Just not with quiche, apparently.

***
The towel hit him smack in the face, and he looked at her in surprise. It did its job, though, and pulled him out of the little funk he’d been in. He grinned at her and threw the towel back.

“Think we can get this cleaned up before the Korean BBQ closes?” It didn’t close for many hours still, but looking around the kitchen he still wasn’t sure that they could make it since there was still egg dripping from the ceiling and walls.

***

Thalia caught it deftly and found herself smiling back. “Given that the alternative is White Castle or mac’n’cheese, I think we’ll make it.”

And between the two of them, they made swift work of the renegade egg mixture, until the only bits left were the ones stuck in Luke’s hair, and without thinking Thalia reached out to comb her fingers through his hair to get them out.

And froze, because she suddenly realized how soft his hair was, and how blue his eyes were, and how close she had to get to him to trail her fingers through his hair like she was doing now.

***

Luke hadn’t felt her fingers in his hair for years. He’d forgotten how good it felt...he’d forgotten how gentle and warm her hands were. More than anything, he wanted to lean into her touch, to put his hands in her hair...and maybe to do a whole lot more than that.

Then he shook his head, angry for even thinking it. No doubt she’d kick his ass if she knew what was in his mind.

“Alright. Time for barbecue.”

***

“Yeah.” Thalia hastily pulled back and turned away so he couldn’t see the confusion and conflict in her expression. What in Tartarus had just happened there? All she’d wanted to do was clean up the last of the mess, and instead she’d ended up acting like some chick in a romance novel, all breathy and helpless over a guy. And not just any guy: her first love, her ex-best friend, the one who’d poisoned her and the enemy she’d kicked down a cliff. What had she been thinking?

It was a good thing he hadn’t seemed to notice, or else Thalia would’ve had to kill herself in pure embarrassment.

“I’m going to go change,” she continued, not daring to look back at him. She obviously couldn’t be trusted with her reactions right now. “You should too - there’s egg stains on your shirt.

***

“Um, right, yeah.”

That had been awkward, he thought as he ran to his room to get away from it all. He’d never stopped loving Thalia - he knew that. He probably never would. But he thought he had it under control. Apparently he hadn’t. He needed to work on that. She’d kick his ass or kill him if she knew how he felt after everything he’d done.

And he knew he was never going to get past that. She would always see him as a terrible person who had hurt her friends and who had hurt her.

And what could he say? She was right. He’d done all those things.

***

By the time Thalia emerged from her bedroom, she was feeling better. So she’d had a moment of weakness. She was half-human, after all, and humans were messy with all their emotions and their issues and everything, and Halfbloods especially had issues out the wazoo. Given that Luke was the first - and only - boy she’d ever loved, it was a perfectly natural reaction to get a little confused when she got a bit too close to him.

Yeah, she didn’t believe any of it, but she was determined to pretend that she did.

That determination was immediately put to the test when she stepped out to see him waiting for her, wearing a shirt that perfectly matched the colour of his eyes.

“Hey!” Her greeting was overly bright. “You ready to attack some meat?”

Focus. She needed to focus on the important things.

***

“Always ready to attack some meat,” he said with a smile. He was starving, and honestly Korean barbecue sounded a lot better than his fancy little quiche, even if it had turned out the way he’d wanted it to.

He was trying not to look at her, but that was nearly impossible. There’d always been something about her that had drawn him in, ever since they were kids.

Trying to be gentlemanly, he held out his arm for her. She was just as likely to punch him as to take it, but he’d give it a try, anyway.

***

Thalia didn’t quite punch him, but she did smack his arm away, a little uncomfortable by how much she wanted to take it. What would it be like to slip her arm around his and hold hands as they went down to dinner, like normal people on a date? They’d have a great time - Luke had always been a great conversationalist and listener, and funny to boot - and then they’d come back to their apartment and curl up on the couch and watch TV, like they used to dream of doing, and then maybe after that…

She shoved her hands in her pockets in a clear indication that she wouldn’t be doing any kind of touching of his body. (Oh gods, his body.)

“I am completely healed,” she said, to trying to head off where her mind was going. “Clean bill of health and everything. I don’t need support.”

***

Well, he’d called it. He didn’t get punched, at least, but she turned him down just as brutally as if she had. Obviously he hadn’t come quite as far as he hoped he had.

“I know. You’re better. But you’re still a girl.” He winked at her teasingly. Luke didn’t actually think less of anyone or their strength because of their gender - he wasn’t stupid. He was just trying to provoke a reaction, and he was pretty sure that would do it.

***

Oh, it did it all right. This time he did get a punch. And also her launching herself at him to tackle him to the ground, where she wound her legs around his and attempted to put him in a headlock. Personal boundaries and physical attraction took a backseat to defending the honour of all women.

“A girl who can kick your ass,” she told him. “Say it.”

***

“Never!” he laughed. He knew that she had him, and he knew that he’d never get out from under her without taking some damage, but this was how they'd been when they were kids and he liked it. It made him feel for a moment like the crap they’d been through was in the past and that they could be happy together again.

***

Thalia grabbed a hold of one of his legs and pulled it up at an uncomfortable angle. He’d grown up - he was taller and more muscular now - but Thalia still knew his body well enough to inflict pain. Just like in the past, it felt like his body was an extension of hers.

“Say it,” she demanded again. But she was grinning too. She’d missed this. She’d missed everything about being friends with him.

***

“You’ll have to kill me first!” he cried dramatically. He groaned as she jerked his leg up - that was going to hurt. But still, he was stubborn as Hades and wasn’t going to give in after one or two little injuries. That wasn’t Luke.

Instead, he stealthily lifted a hand to her ribs and viciously started tickling her.

***

Thalia shrieked in both surprise and indignation and fell back, releasing his leg. “That’s fighting dirty!” Especially since he seemed to remember exactly where all her most vulnerable spots were.

But she knew where he was most ticklish too, and she managed to squirm away from his fingers just long enough to retaliate.

***
He shrieked as she started tickling him, but finally got the upper hand and flipped her over so that she was under him, pinning her hands above her head. He wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to keep her like this, but it didn’t matter. Because he’d trapped her for a little while anyway.

“Ha! Gotcha.”

***

Thalia was just bracing herself to kick him off when she realized that he was using his body weight to pin her down...which meant his entire body was stretched out along hers, from chest to legs.

She took in a deep breath, and felt her chest press into his. Oh gods, his chest.

“Let go.” She’d meant it to come out as a strong command, but instead it was a whisper. An uncertain one.

***

Luke could have held it like that for a good bit longer, but the awkwardness of the situation hit him at about the same time it hit her and he got up almost immediately. She was going to drive him crazy, he was pretty sure about that.

“Um...yeah. We should go get food.”

***

“Yeah.” Thalia scrambled up as soon as he released her. For some reason, she felt very cold.

She busied herself with straightening her clothes and smoothing her hair, all the while not looking at him. “Let’s get out of here.” Before things got even more awkward.