Notes – Set sometime after the third game, with heavy spoilers for both the third and fourth games.

One of the things that Arianna had been forced to accept about Luke was that since leaving Misthallery his life had become that of Layton's apprentice.

He rarely remembered to call home and when he did it was to relay stories of the many adventures he'd had alongside Layton and Emmy, then alongside Layton and Flora. It sounded like he had a lot of fun, solving mysteries and defeating the villains. But part of her wished that maybe, for once, he could stop running around with Layton and remember her.

For the first part of that at least, she got her wish.

It hadn't made her situation better, however.

Luke was moving to America. At long last Clark had managed to set up a new career there and wanted to transfer his whole family overseas. So that meant no more running around with the Professor for Luke. She imagined that he would be devastated about that.

But even as he left, all of Luke's farewell thoughts were on Layton. He barely spent a moment saying goodbye to his old friends from Misthallery and Arianna quite resented that. She reasoned with herself, though, that she was his childhood sweetheart, so perhaps when he was older and wiser he'd come back, having realised how much he'd missed her.

Or at least… she assumed she was his childhood sweetheart anyway. She had kissed him on the cheek that one time, which must have counted for something, right?

It was reason enough to keep Arianna going. And a blind hope that maybe she would see him again was what caused her to make brief visits to Layton's home whenever she was travelling into London anyway. After all, if anyone was going to get news of Luke coming back to England first it would be Layton.

During one of these visits she had rung the doorbell but for once was not greeted by Layton answering it.

"Oh, I'm very sorry but the Professor isn't here right now."

Arianna found herself being regarded by the puzzled face of Flora Reinhold. The two of them had met briefly in the past when Layton and Luke had visited Misthallery along with the girl. Arianna knew Flora's name and that she was Layton's adopted daughter, but that was about the limit of her knowledge on her.

"It's no matter, I'd just popped by to see if he'd had any word about Luke, but if he's not here then I'll try another time," Arianna replied.

"No, please do come in," Flora insisted, stepping aside, "He's only got just more than an hour left at the university, so he shouldn't be too long."

In the face of such a forward plea, Arianna found that she couldn't refuse. So she followed Flora through to the living room, looking around in polite interest.

"If you take a seat I'll have some scones through in a moment," said Flora.

Sitting down on one of the chairs, Arianna said, "You really don't have to trouble yourself."

"Nonsense, I had a batch of scones fresh out the oven anyway," assured Flora, disappearing off into the kitchen for a moment before returning with a tray that had been haphazardly stacked with scones. She might have met it literally about them being fresh out of the oven, judging by the thick cloud of steam that was radiating off them.

"Take however many you like," said Flora, placing the tray on the table then taking a seat between them, "I always make lots but the Professor rarely eats them these days."

"That's odd, I can't imagine an English gentleman like him refusing a good scone," mused Arianna, picking the closest one off the tray and taking a bite out of it.

She then understood his refusal entirely.

Maybe a gentleman couldn't refuse a good scone, but it might be more polite to decline something that tasted as foul as this. Her body instantly demanded that she spit out this offending invader and start coughing like a loon, but she was in enough control to not do that – instead chewing as quickly as she possibly could in order to swallow and get the taste out of her mouth. Sadly, that taste seemed to linger long after the swallowing part.

"Is everything all right, Miss Barde?" Flora asked.

"F-fine, everything is just fine," spluttered Arianna, trying to ignore the thought that she still had the rest of the scone to go, "And please, just call me Arianna, it seems too formal otherwise."

"Very well, Arianna. And you can just call me Flora," chimed the other girl. Arianna didn't have the heart to tell her that she'd intended to do that anyway, so she just let Flora go on talking in the hope that she wouldn't notice the scones weren't being eaten; "It is very nice to have some female company," Flora was saying, "Or… any company at all, for that matter."

"Don't you have the Professor here with you most of the time?" enquired Arianna.

"You'd think that wouldn't you?" answered Flora, her expression suddenly turning into one of annoyance, "But he often goes off to solve mysteries and leaves me behind. It was even worse when Luke was around."

"I understand exactly what you mean," agreed Arianna, finding that she did, "Back when we were younger, Luke and I used to be as close as two people could be, but after he became the Professor's apprentice it was as if he forgot that I existed…"

She left out the part about how she'd shut herself off from Luke for a long time after her father died, that was neither here nor there in her argument right now as far as she was concerned.

"Really?" Flora said, blinking over at her.

"Of course! He and I, we were… um… we were, well… ch-childhood sw- …um, he was my boyfriend. Almost…" Arianna mumbled.

"A girlfriend? Luke?" Flora replied, trying not to laugh.

"What's so funny?" demanded Arianna.

"I'm sorry, really I am, but it's very hard to picture Luke having a girlfriend. The only things her cares about are adventures and puzzles. If it wasn't for the Professor teaching him how to be a gentleman I imagine that he'd still think girls have cooties," said Flora.

"Then he… never mentioned me…?" Arianna murmured.

"Oh, he certainly mentioned you!" Flora said quickly, noting the disheartened look on Arianna's face, "When we visited Misthallery he told me a lot about you and your brother Tony, as well as how you helped the Professor save the Golden Garden from that wicked Descole."

"But that's just it… He always just thinks about the Professor now," Arianna sniffed, "And I'm only there as part of a story about how the Professor saved the day again…"

"Don't let it get you down," Flora soothed, leaning over to pat Arianna's hand, "Sometimes the boys do tend to forget we're there, but you just have to make sure that you're always with them so that they can't ignore you. It worked for me."

"Luke's in another country though," reminded Arianna.

"Oh… um, in that case, if he really is your boyfriend then you've got to believe that he'll come back for you," Flora tried.

"Well, about that… You see, he's not exactly my boyfriend, we just-"

Thankfully, Arianna was saved from that awkward conversation by the sound of the front door opening.

"I'm home, Flora," called the pleasant voice of Hershel Layton.

"It's good to see you, Professor. We have a guest here," said Flora, getting up from her seat to greet him.

Layton looked around the door, smiling when he caught sight of Arianna; "What a nice surprise, Arianna. Though I think I know why you're here and sadly I can tell you that there's no news of Luke coming back. I hope you didn't wait too long for that disappointment."

"Not at all, it was very nice to be able to talk with Flora," replied Arianna.

"That's good to hear. She wasn't making you eat those scones, was she?" asked Layton, eying the plate with caution.

"Professor! Arianna told me something rather shocking," Flora cut in, not giving them a chance to talk further about the food.

"What's that, my dear?" said Layton.

The pit of Arianna's stomach dropped as she thought of Flora telling Layton about what she'd just said regarding being Luke's girlfriend. It would be so embarrassing if Layton, who had witnessed the cheek kiss, denied that in front of one of Luke's London friends.

"That Luke has not been a true gentleman," Flora finished.

"What? Did I… say that?" Arianna said, confused.

"You said that he's been ignoring you and that is simply not what a gentleman does. Leaving a lady behind is the height of bad manners," confirmed Flora, looking at Layton pointedly. This was probably more personal than just Arianna's situation with Luke.

Layton laughed; "Well, that is most rude of Luke. I'll be sure to mention it in my next letter to him."

Whether he did or didn't do that was something that Arianna never found out, as the Professor didn't mention the matter again. However, this would be far from the last time she'd turn up at the Layton residence, though in future perhaps not just to check upon the whereabouts of Luke. Because as she was leaving that day, she made a promise.

"I hope that Luke comes back to see you soon," Flora said, walking Arianna to the door after a few more hours of conversation (but thankfully no scones) between the two of them and the Professor.

"Yes, well I think that I should come here more to check," Arianna replied.

"Will you really?" Flora squeaked, taking hold of Arianna's hands. As a person, Flora was certainly more cheerful and forward than Arianna, but she found that she didn't mind that.

"I'll come here often for news about Luke and to see you," Arianna promised her.

Flora nodded; "That would be wonderful! I really don't get much company, so it would be nice to talk with another girl from time to time."

And that was how it started.

Arianna would visit their home once a week, then more frequently as time went on, to talk with Flora. At first mostly about Luke, but once they'd gotten to know each other the subjects changed to many different topics. Her visits became just part of Arianna's routine and something she looked forward to.

Eventually, Layton told the girls that he'd been offered to go on a trip to America to visit Luke and the first thing on Arianna's mind hadn't been to ask if she could go with him, but instead to ask if Flora could stay with her while he was gone.

Layton had agreed to this, of course, and Arianna took great delight in showing Flora around her own house. She wasn't one to brag, but the Barde estate was quite large and in a much better condition now that it wasn't overgrown with the thorn bushes that had sprouted from neglect, like it was a few years ago. Secretly, she hoped that Flora would be impressed.

And Flora was impressed, though not for the same reasons that Arianna had expected. Indeed Flora thought that the estate was grand, but more because it reminded her of her old home back in St. Mystere than because she had never experienced anything like it before.

This got Arianna curious, as she'd never thought much about where Flora must have lived before coming to stay with Layton. So the two girls agreed that sometime after the Professor returned from America that they would go to St. Mystere, so that Arianna could see the Reinhold manor and talk with the curious robotic citizens there firsthand.

First, however, they had a week in Misthallery to spend, and spend it they did. There was plenty to show Flora, from the market where the Black Ravens ran their business, to Bucky's sometimes unbelievable boat service, to the Golden Garden and the monument that had been made in honour of Loosha. Flora was the perfect audience, reacting with delight to everything that she was shown.

As the week went on, Tony would tease Arianna a little about how close she was to Flora and the two girls would spit their tongues out at him, telling him that he wouldn't get any of Flora's homemade cooking if he kept that attitude up.

After Tony had tasted Flora's homemade cooking he kept the charade up mostly out of self defence.

But all good things must come to an end, as did Flora's visit to Misthallery. Not that it would be the last time they'd go there or even the end of the travels the two girls had together. They did indeed go to St. Mystere too and many more places as the years went on. Once they were older they didn't even need Layton to drive them around anymore, independence had settled in enough for them to go visit places on their own.

It was a lot longer down the road, sometime after Arianna's sixteenth birthday, that she received the most surprising news of all.

During one of her regular visits to Layton's house, Flora had run outside and hugged her tightly. This wasn't so much an unusual greeting, but something about the joy of the hug was even more so than usual.

"Oh, Arianna, I've got some simply wonderful news!" Flora chimed, pulling away to take her by the hand and tug her towards the door.

"What is it?" Arianna asked, trying to keep pace with her.

"It's Luke! He's come back!" Flora said, looking back at her and smiling.

"Luke…"

"'ey, Arianna, long time no see," Luke called, watching them from the door.

The years had certainly transformed Luke from a somewhat stocky young boy into a gangly, but not at all unpleasant to look at, teenager. His smile was warm and approachable, just like it had been when they were kids. Unlike when they were kids, however, Arianna didn't feel butterflies dancing in her stomach when she looked at him. This surprised her more than anyone.

"Nice to see you again," she agreed, nodding politely as her and Flora reached the door.

Shifting where he stood, Luke said, "The Professah tells me that you an' Flora 'ave become good friends while I've been away."

"Yes, we have," answered Arianna.

This was harder than Luke had expected it to be. He'd honestly only brought up the topic to make conversation, but Arianna wasn't giving him much to go.

"I'm goin' out t' 'elp the Professah with this new mystery that's been troublin' 'im soon, but if you 'ave some free time later-"

"That's all right; Flora and I have already made plans for later. We won't keep you," said Arianna, holding Flora's hand tightly and pushing the two of them past Luke and into the house. If Flora had any queries about these imaginary plans she did not mention them and Luke was smart enough not to follow them up to Flora's room.

He made do with gawking after the closed door.

"I don't get it, I thought she'd be 'appy t' see me…" he mumbled.

Chuckling a little, Layton, who had witnessed the conversation from the living room door, answered, "Perhaps if you'd made a better effort to keep in contact with her over the years you wouldn't have drifted so much. Ladies are a very complicated matter, by boy, you cannot just choose to give them attention only when you see fit."

"But 'er and me… we… weren't we, um, weren't we… somethin'?" Luke stammered, staring up at him in almost a plea for help.

"Perhaps at one time you were," agreed Layton, who had been present to watch the whole situation between Arianna and Flora unfold over the years, "But people do change as time goes on. Not everyone stays with their childhood sweethearts for the rest of their lives."

"We weren't anythin' mushy like that!" Luke gasped, horrified, "But I guess we 'ave probably both changed a lot… Don't 'ave much to talk with her about, you know? Mostly I just want t' talk about puzzles an' mysteries an' stuff like that."

"All of which seem like fine subjects to me," Layton laughed, messing up his apprentice's hair, "But some ladies just aren't all that interested in puzzles. Why not remains a mystery even to me, I must admit."

"Girls are strange, Professah," Luke commented.

"That's not how a gentleman would phrase that sentence, Luke," replied Layton, though he didn't openly disagree with him.

Up in Flora's room, an explanation was being demanded out of Arianna.

"I thought Luke was your beloved and that you really wanted to see him," Flora said, as Arianna wiped tears from her cheek.

"Th-that's what I thought too… But I was just so… so cross with him! How dare he come back after so many years of not a word!" Arianna coughed.

"Luke may have… lacked tact in his approach, but I'm sure that he'll be more attentive to you now that he's back in England," Flora tried, "You've waited so long for him, after all."

"And waiting so long has just proved that I've really not been waiting after all," scoffed Arianna. When Flora looked confused about that, she continued, "I haven't been coming here just for news about Luke all this time. I've been coming here because of you! Because we're friends and I want to spend time going places with you, not waiting around for Luke. Maybe… maybe I could go places with Luke too, but I don't want to spend all day everyday playing second fiddle to the Professor while they solve mysteries. You don't deserve to either! We can… spend time with each other, like we have been doing. Do you see?"

She clutched Flora's hands, begging that the other girl would understand.

"I do see," answered Flora, with a nod, "And you're right… Living your life to the fullest is better than waiting around for them to come back to you. I… always wanted them to accept me, to not leave me behind when they go on adventures, but maybe I don't need to run after them."

"You don't, you're a great person," Arianna said, smiling across at her through the tears, still clutching her hand, "And maybe they'll see that when you're gone. But if not then it isn't your loss. You've got… you've got me to appreciate what a charming individual you are, Flora."

"Arianna…"

She watched Flora's cheeks colour a slightly deeper shade of pink. There was a sudden sort of feeling between them that had never been there before. It was a mixture of awkward embarrassment and those same butterflies that Arianna once had when she looked at Luke. Apparently they were finding a new target to flutter in her stomach for.

The two let go of their hands, trying to dispel the tension by giggling.

"Well…" Arianna sighed.

"Well," echoed Flora, "We should probably go talk to the boys now, shouldn't we?"

"If we have the time," replied Arianna, who wasn't ready to forgive Luke's negligence just yet, "But I wasn't lying about having plans later. If you'd do me the honour, Miss Reinhold, I'd like for us to have lunch together."

"Miss Barde, how very kind of you to offer," Flora laughed, "Very well, I'll clear up my schedule and give you the whole afternoon."

They linked hands again, this time feeling more comfortable about it, despite the nerves. Then the two of them left the room together. For they were no longer two little girls, but two young ladies who wanted to live life to the fullest.

And neither of them was going to wait around for any man anymore.