Hello and welcome to On the Rooftops!

This is a gift for my friend tomatofox-ship on Tumblr! She's super cool and great and awesome and you should totally check her out! She's been feeling down lately and I was working on this before, so this is dedicated to her!

This story was beta'ed by zoozoocala on Tumblr! Thanks so much!

This story was inspired by some lyrics from the song Arabella by the Arctic Monkeys! I have them down at the bottom.

At that, I'll leave you to the story! Hope you enjoy!

~anipwrites

Lila had a mean adventure streak.

Nathanael knew it better than anyone else in class. Nathanael knew her better than anyone else in class. Since her first day sitting beside him, they'd become rather close friends-she was the new kid, he was the shy one, somehow it had worked. The closer they'd gotten, the more he realized that Lila could be batshit crazy when it came to dares and escapades.

Such as now. Somehow he had found himself in the middle of this mess, and now he and Lila were running up the stairs to the roof. They'd slipped past security guards and janitors and cameras just to get to this. Hell, he was pretty sure one of the guards was after them even now-he heard something banging around behind and below them. But it would be a while. If anything, all it did was fuel his friend's exhilaration with all of this.

"Come on, Nathanael, keep up!" Lila grinned, snagging his hand and dragging him up the stairs at her speed. Nathanael barely avoided slamming into another wall as he was pulled after her.

When they finally crashed through the doors to the roof, they were greeted with quite the sight. Their chosen building of the week had quite the view of the horizon, and the sun was an orange fireball as it began its descent, turning the sky a beautiful display of coral and pink. It was a simply beautiful sight, and Nathanael was about to pull out his phone and take a picture before he noticed another addition to the skyline.

Lila Rossi stood before him, hands on her hips, spinning as she looked at the view. She finally turned to him, absolutely beaming.

"Look at this view, tomato-boy! We almost missed it because you wanted to chicken out!" she teased. His heart stopped in his chest.

He wasn't sure what it was. If it was the way the light was hitting her, or more-so not hitting her. If it had always been there, and he'd yet to realize until this very moment. But right then, his heart swelled and he realized… he was in love with one Lila Rossi.

His fingers tapped the photo button without him thinking about it, and he snapped a picture. This was a moment he wanted to have. The lighting, the cityscape around them, and his best friend's smile lighting up his whole world. Time seemed to slow as he caught his breath and calmed his beating heart, taking the time to admire the colors and everything. He'd want to paint this when he got home. But he couldn't help but steal glances at Lila. She really was beautiful, it'd take a fool to not see it. He'd been so blind.

The moment was ruined when the rooftop door flew open with a bang. The two teen turned to see the security guard huffing and puffing, glaring at them.

"And what do you two think you're doing up here?!" he wheezed.

"Uh-oh," Lila winced, eyes widening.

"You're coming with me," the guard said, recovering and approaching to grab them. Nathanael grinned as the adrenaline started pumping through his system again. If this half-formed plan in his mind worked, he and Lila were home free-if it didn't they were definitely screwed.

For maybe the first time in his life, he decided to take a chance.

Before the guard could reach them, he snagged Lila's wrist and ran. Ran past the security guard and back through the door, hearing a satisfying slam as the door closed once more. But they didn't have much time-unless that door was locked from the outside, that guard would be back after them within the instant.

"Let's go," he grinned, motioning to the stairs. Lila smirked and sat on the railing, letting the slickness of the poles let her slide her way down to the bottom, and he ran after her. They were out the stairwell in no time, and the only task left was to blend into the remaining crowd left downstairs.

Through some strange stroke of luck, it all worked! Before they knew it, they were back outside the building in an alley, and no guards had suspected a thing! Lila smirked and gave him a quick hug.

"That was amazing, Nathanael! You got us out of there so fast-and who says you aren't up to these dares?" she grinned.

"I didn't know I had it in me," he said, his voice still shaking as the last of the adrenaline left his system.

"Who knows? Maybe next time I'll have to drag you along to the next challenge. Train surfing, sneaking through the Notre Dame, we'll see. That is, if you're up to it. You'd get some pretty neat pictures for your blog," she sing-songed, nudging him playfully.

"Can't do anything too dangerous, y'know. But I'll keep it in mind,"

"Okay, tomato-boy. I'll catch you later!" Lila said before turning and walking off, to wherever her adventuring spirit called her to be next. Nathanael looked up at the darkening sky, the first few stars trying to peek their way through the Parisian air, and smiled.

It didn't matter where Lila lead them next. He'd follow that girl anywhere.

My days end best when the sunset gets itself

Behind that little lady sitting on the passenger side

It's much less picturesque without her catching the light

The horizon tries but it's just not as kind on the eyes

Arabella, Arctic Monkeys

Hope you guys enjoyed the story! Have a nice day!

Follow tomatofox-ship at tomatofox-ship. tumblr. com

Follow zoozoocala at zoozoocala. tumblr. com