Two. Damn. Hours.

[{grayy !]

Tasks that needed to be done on laptop while without internet access:
- Prepare Graypaw post for Fire.
- Write up Nightlily’s biography.
- Work on posts for other sites.

Tasks done on laptop:
- None of the above.

Did I fail or did I fail!?

...

Put up with my soppy Luke/Maria fanfiction from the show ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ that took me two hours. Oh come on! I needed some serious fluff between these two and after watching ‘The Mark of the Berserker’ last night, because having Maria and Alan hack into UNIT from the other side of the world to help Luke and Rani through the webcam made me have an attack. Webcam’s are fun. :3

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Bleep, Bleep, Bleep.

A groan escaped through Maria’s lips as she moved the arm that was splayed across her eyes, blinking sleepily as she looked over toward her alarm. Wait, it was a Saturday! Glancing over toward the desk, she gave another, louder groan, pulling herself into a sitting position. It didn’t take much to figure out that the irritating sound was coming from her laptop, which was sitting open on her desk. After the first time it had scared her father when he went to have a coffee, it had been moved permanently into her bedroom, which wasn’t the best thing for someone to wake up to. After a small stretch, she figured out it was probably Luke, as he was the only person she could think of that didn’t know the time difference, or if he did (cause the chances of that were high) he always forgot when he decided to talk to her in the middle of his day.

Reaching over for a hair tie, Maria stumbled across her room as the sounds of her Dad’s restless sleep echoed through the walls. Better shut the noise up before he woke up fully. Quickly tying up her long, fuzzy black hair into a ponytail, she turned on the laptop, as it was only asleep, like she had been. “If I didn’t know better Luke, I’d think you liked waking me up at...” She paused to look at the clock not far from the desk. “...Six thirty on a Saturday morning.” Looking at the webcam, she gave a small smile, shaking her head. Her old friend, from back in London, looked disturbed, but that was probably his guilt problems coming out. “Oh, Sorry Maria, I’ll call back later... If you want...” He was sitting in Sarah Jane’s attic, his hands linked together with his elbows resting on his knees. Really, this wasn’t a position Luke ever sat in. “No, no!” She said quickly, and a little too loudly as a groan from her father’s room, reminded her that she needed to keep her voice down.

“No, its fine Luke, I’m awake now, I needed to get up soon anyways.” She said, this time softly, pulling out the chair from the desk and sitting down, adjusting the screen slightly. “How are things?” She watched him give a light sigh, adjusting himself so he was sitting closer to the screen and properly, with his hands actually on the desk. “Pretty good, it’s a quiet day, Clyde is spending the day with his mum and Rani has gone off with Mum to practice some journalism technique. Or something like that.” This really did mean something was wrong, Luke never said anything like that. Either Clyde’s lessons on teenage slang and jokes were getting through, something was bothering him. It was probably the reason he’d wanted to call her through the webcams. They had always had a close bond, one that not even Sarah Jane shared with him, even if she’d adopted him.

That day, in the Bubble Shock factory, she’d run straight into him, and if it hadn’t been for her idea of hiding in the female toilets and dragging him with her, the whole world would have been a mess of walking Bane zombies, as they both would have been found, Luke would have never escaped and found out how to stop the aliens. They understood each other, that was all, even if some things were both foreign to each of them, like Luke not understanding about humour and going shopping, or how she didn’t understand his intelligence or his world entirely. “So you’re there with Mr Smith then? What are you up to? Revising chemistry?” she said, still trying to figure out what might be bothering him. Usually, when he was there with Mr Smith, he was studying, so why was he calling her instead?

It was times like this she wished she was still there, then he wouldn’t be sitting around doing nothing while Sarah Jane was off with her replacement. She tried not to think of Rani that way, but it never worked, she couldn’t help but feel jealous that, while she was in a different country, the new girl had simply stepped into the world she’d been in first. If it hadn’t been for her insistence on helping Sarah Jane, for finding out about the aliens, saving Luke, and helping save the world that very first time, Rani wouldn’t even know anything was going on across the road, Clyde wouldn’t even be involved, because it was only because he’d followed her and Luke that he’d come across seeing the Slitheen. She wanted to be there with Luke, Sarah Jane and Clyde, just joking about like old times, back to saving the Earth and learning all about the stars, but these days, her only luck was if they needed help hacking into something or finding viruses to crash systems like Mr Smith.

“No. No we’re not,” he said rather softly, and Maria couldn’t help but give a crooked frown, sighing softly as the sudden desire to hug him and try to comfort him washed over her. They had never been, “just friends” even if that’s how some saw it, but, their relationship, although it was more than friends, it wasn’t anything more than that really, they didn’t act like family, even if Maria sometimes daydreamed that Sarah Jane was her mother, not Chrissie who, even though she loved her mother, she never really related to. “What’s wrong Luke?” She asked softly, giving up completely trying to figure it out herself. Crossing her arms over the desk, her light blue t-shirt hanging loosely across her shoulders, she watched his exasperated sigh as he looked down for a moment. “I miss you.” Of course, she didn’t expect him not to be straight forward, he never tried to lie when she was around, for some reason, but it still stunned her slightly.

Giving a crooked smile, she let him continue with a small nod. “Things here just... aren’t the same. I mean, Rani’s great and all, and Clyde is just...” “Clyde.” Maria finished as they both gave a soft laugh, before Luke continued again. “Just, everything that we do just isn’t the same, doesn’t feel right without you here. I know that I’m not the only one who feels that. Mum seems to realise that too, she’s not as close to Rani as she is to you. Nothing feels right without you being here.” They both were quiet for a moment, before Maria realised a few tears had slipped down her cheek. Wiping them away quickly, ignoring Luke’s worried glances, she gave a soft smile. “I... I don’t think you’d believe how much I miss you, and Sarah Jane.” She started softly, listening in silence for a few minutes in case her dad was awake, but his muffled, soft snores gave her the all clear. “Things here, they’re great ‘nd all, but I miss all of it, the adventure, the mystery...” She took a deep breath, feeling her whole chest constrict.

She had been trying to ignore how strong all her feelings were, of loss, of grief, of need, but she just couldn’t anymore, looking at Luke’s worried, upset face, at the familiar warm attic she’d spent almost a year running through, she knew she couldn’t remain optimistic and just brush it all off cleanly like she had been, it was all too strong. “Luke, I... I just wanted to say that... that you’re the best friend I could ever have, or want, and I’ll always, always be here to do everything I can. I... I hate being this far away... I really do. You... you mean so much to me and...” She was cut off as Luke put his hand on the screen, seeming about to cry, like she was. “Maria... After you left... Clyde said that I must have fancied you, because we were so close... but... but it’s so much more that that...”

How had a morning wake-up call escalated so quickly to such a heart-felt, heartbreaking conversation? Giving a muffled sob, Maria looked down at the keyboard. “Maria... I think... I love you... and I don’t care that you’re so far away, you’ll always...always mean more to me than anyone else.” Looking up at Luke, it took her a moment, with a soft smile, tears streaming from her eyes to remember that it was a screen, that he was so far away and she wouldn’t be able to really see him, really touch him till they actually went back. “I know... I know I love you back, just as much,” She whispered, knowing he heard as a small smile broke across his face as he too, gave a muffled sniff.

It was only then, that it came to her attention that Sarah Jane was leaning against the doorway over in the attic. She didn’t know how long the older woman had been there, but she couldn’t help but look away. “Oh Maria, Luke...” That was when Luke realised his adopted mother was there and Maria didn’t have the heart to look up at her old mentor in the strange and wonderful. “Mum...” Maria looked up to see Sarah Jane leaning down next to Luke, her arm wrapped around him as she gave Maria a soft look, the same look she remember from their upsetting goodbye in the attic. “I’m sorry...” Maria mumbled, but was quickly stopped in her tracks. “Don’t be, either of you,” Sarah Jane said softly, before Luke could say anything. “I’d guessed that was the case, even more so with how moody you were after she’d moved away.”

Either of the two teenagers said anything, but Sarah Jane continued, rubbing Luke’s arm in a comforting fashion, the type of comfort Maria missed from her days there. “I think it’s time we organised a trip Luke, I believe you wanted us to come visit Maria?” Surprised, Maria couldn’t help but grin, wiping her tears away with her arm. “Yeah, yeah that’d be great,” she said lightly, still smiling as Luke matched her grin. “Well, if I’m right, it’s rather early there isn’t it? What if Luke gives you a call later to talk about it?” Nodding fiercely, Maria gave a small laugh, a new wave of happiness flooding through her. “That’d be good,” she replied softly. Sarah Jane gave Luke a small shake, before standing up. “C’mon, we’ve got to go look at a bit of a strange problem at a fast food shop.” Sarah Jane said to Luke, who nodded. “Okay then, well, I’ll talk to you later,” He said, still smiling. Maria grinned right back. “Yeah, okay then.” They watched Sarah Jane walk out of the attic before Luke gave her a softer smile.

“I love you, and miss you.” He said softly, ad, unable to stop the wave of happiness that bubbled through her veins, she started sobbing again. At once he was concerned again. “Maria...?” Giving a small laugh, Maria wiped her eyes, smiling. “Don’t worry, I’m just...happy.” Luke shook his head in disbelief. “Even tears are confusing!” Laughing softly, Maria grinned at him. “I love you too, and miss you just as much,” she said softly, before Luke exited out of the window. Maria leant back in her chair, looking up to her roof, a stupid smile now glued on her face. Well, she could get used to waking up like this.