Luca’s POV
Armani blurted out of the blue and I watched as Sofia bursted into a little fit of laughter, as she lifted one of her hands up to shield her mouth. I sneaked a glance at Armani to see him still staring down at Sofia, with a smile still spread out on his face.
“Uh, thank you.” Sofia finally responded, still smiling a little with a little bit of color staining her cheeks.
“I’m Sofia.” Sofia started to speak after a couple of moments, taking the lead once again, and I felt something that felt so much like pride start to tingle and expand in the middle of my chest as I watched as she offered her hand to Armani who had finally managed to shake himself a little to be able to get more words out or himself.
“Forgive my manners, My name’s Armani.” He finally started to speak as he accepted Sofia’s hand into his bigger one, and before I could blink, he was moving forward and closing the distance between them to take her into his arms. I watched as Sofia went into his embrace willingly, the slime still dancing around the corners of her lips as she leaned into him.
It pleased me so much as I watched the two people that meant the whole world to me hug each other this way, it was something I hadn’t known I needed to see until this very moment, which was why I couldn’t take my eyes off turn until they finally started to slowly pull out of the hug. I’d have leaned into them to envelop both people into my arms some moments ago, as soon as that thought popped into my head. But, I refrained from doing that and made sure to hold myself back because I know that they might both find it weird for me to suddenly be doing that when they least expected it. And so I hummed a little and moved my weight around my feet a little as I watched them place a little bit of space between each other as they began to talk to each other once again.
Armani was speaking more this time, which pleased me a whole lot. Armani has always been a really shy person, which was why it hasn’t really shocked me when he admitted to being scared of women– it has just caught me unexpectedly because when we had both been growing up together, we had never had that particular conversation for once. It was also why I had thought he was into the same gender when we had both talked on the phone, some days ago.
I clapped my hands against each other a little and watched as both heads turned around to stare at me at the same time. It looked like they had almost – if not completely, forgotten that I was right here, some feet away from where they were both currently standing. As if Sofia could now perfectly read my thoughts, a small bashful look crossed her face and she bit at the inside of her cheeks before starting to dudk her head, breaking eye contact with me. I breathed out a small laugh and turned around a little, right before I started to speak. “Let’s all sit down, shall we? It’s going to do your legs good… and I bet you’re still feeling jet lagged, Armani?”
I was moving towards the couches as I spoke, and I turned around to stare at my brother as I said those lose words.
“I am, a whole lot. I can’t wait to take a freaking bath and sleep for days.” Armani responded after a moment since he had chosen that same moment to sink into one chair, the one at the left side of where I was standing in, and where I had been about to sink into.
“Perhaps, after you have dinner, you’d be able to go do all what you want to do as fast as possible, so you can be able to fall asleep really fast.” I said to Armani after a moment, sinking into the chair which I had been standing right in front of for long minutes. I watched as Sofia glanced from where I was sitting in, to where Armani was sitting, clearly torn between what to choose and go for. I chuckled a little, remaining silent and just watching her and it took a few long moments for her to finally start to move towards where Armani was sitting.
I snorted a little when Armani instantly sat up and started to speak.
“Oh, no. You can sit with Luca if you want to, don’t feel obligated to sit beside me, because I’m like a visitor here or because you feel like you have to, when you really don’t.” Armani said to Sofia in a single breath as he looked up at Sofia who was still standing a few feet away from him. I rolled my eyes a little in the next moment, because I knew that he was going to be really pleased if Sofia would end up sitting beside him, but was just currently feeling like he had to act matured or something.
“Oh, it’s not about that, and no, I’m not choosing to sit here because I have to. I don’t do things because I have to, Luca doesn’t force me to do anything.” She started to speak and it hit me all over again in that particular moment.
It wasn’t like I sometimes forget about all of this, it was more like because Sofia had never Mentioned it out in the open like this before, it has never been like this, it was always just ke thinking about it. Scratch that, it wasn’t me always thinking about it. I rarely think about it, and each time I do, it’s always to ask myself if I’m forcing her to do something she doesn’t want to do, or not– and nothing more, that’s it. I dragged a deep breath into my longs in the next moment, instantly clearing my head out for any unnecessary things, in order for me to be able to listen in on what else it was that Sofia had started to say.
“I just wanted to sit beside you, because I want to still talk to you, I guess?” She continued to speak and I felt my insides turn into a soft pile or gooey goe, due to how cute she was currently being.
“Really?” Armani asked in the next moment, staring up at her as his face brightened up. So much for trying to act matured, my foot.
“Yeah, you see… I was really excited about you coming back here.” She continued once again, shrugging her shoulders a little as she admitted softly. Armani face was currently filled with awe as GW stared up at her in that moment,
“Whoa, me too. I was, you know, excited about coming back here, and also…” Armani trailed off and shrugged his shoulders a little, and I noticed a little bit of color making its way into his face as it moved across his reddened ear. He turned his head around to stare at me for a fleeting second before turning back around and focusing on Sofia, right before he continued to speak. “I was also excited to meet you, and stuff.”
“Oh.” Sofia whispered as soon as Armani’s words has sank into her ears, and I watched as Armani nodded his head slowly, the flushed hue still visible on his face as he was still staring up at Sofia.
As if just realizing that she has been standing on her feet all these while, he instantly parted a spot beside him and urged her to come forward in the next moment.
“Oou, come sit down already, you’ve been standing for a while now.”
Sofia giggled a little and turned her head around a little until she was staring at me. I nodded my head at her and gestured for her to go take a seat, and it was as if that was all the push and reassurance she needed because she was sinking into the spot beside Armani in the next moment, leaving a little bit of space between their bodies.
Feeling so much like I needed to give them a little bit of privacy at least, I pushed myself to my feet and sauced my hands into my pocket, and I noticed Sofia’s eyes widening almost instantly, as if she had been suddenly shocked by something really unexpected.
I glanced at her face for a moment longer, recognizing a look of instant panic on her face – and that emotion lasted for a few seconds, before it disappeared, leaving a slightly excited and curious one behind.
“I’m going to go check to see if dinner is already, ok?” I said audibly, moving my eyes off my brother to focus it on Sofia almost immediately. It was obvious that she was a little bit nervous about me leaving her on her own, but then she didn’t really have a thing to be scared about. Armani would never be able to hurt her– he was just like her when it comes to violence, he can’t be able to do a thing and neither can she.
“Uh, okay.” Sofia finally responded after a few moments, and I watched as she shifted a little in her seat, clearly unsettled and almost restless.
“Would you like to say something to me?” I asked after a couple of seconds and I watched as she started to shake her head in response, teeth starting to worry her bottom lip.
She was definitely unsettled.
“Bunny?” I called out in a low voice after a fleeting second, completely forgetting about the fact that Armani was right there beside her. Like my voice was directly connected to something in Sofia’s body with a wire or something, she visibly jolted as soon as I had rumbled out her name and her bottom lip which she had been previously worrying slip from her now slackened teeth grip.