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Ashton wakes up half an hour late, with a pounding headache.
He pops a couple of ibuprofen and jumps in the shower, he only has an hour before they have to leave for an interview.
When he gets out, the steam clouding around him as he wraps a towel around his waist and walks to his room.
He pulls a tank top and jeans out of his dresser, and fumbles at the back of his drawer for his boxers. He's sure he had another pair of clean underwear in his drawer.
He walks to Luke's room wearing the towel and opens the door without knocking.
He's about to yell at Luke when he sees that Luke is indeed wearing his blue American Apparel underwear, but he stops when he sees that Luke is standing sideways in front of the mirror, prodding the thin layer of baby fat on his tummy with his index finger.
"Hey Lukey. What's up?"
"Oh. Hi. Do you think I should work out more?" He looks at Ashton.
"If you want to." Ashton replies.
He knows that Luke has had previous struggles with insecurities with his body, even if he doesn't understand why.
"I mean, you all are so fit, and I just look so-"
"Perfect." Ashton cuts him off, and wraps his arms around Luke's waist. "You look perfect."
"Ash-"
"Shhh." He presses his lips to the spot just behind Luke's ear.
And then he goes to kiss Luke's cheek, just as Luke turns to face him. And his lips ended up against half of Luke's mouth, and he pulled away blushing like crazy.
"Sorry, I didn't- I mean, I didn't mean to-" he unwraps his arms from Luke's waist and steps back.
"I know." And Ashton doesn't understand, yet, why Luke starts to cry then, but he pulls Luke into his arms again.
"Lukey? What's wrong? What can I do?" He feels helpless, just letting the other boy sob into his shoulder. He rubs Luke's back.
Luke sniffs. "I'm s-sorry. I-I don't- I d-don't-"
"Shh. Breathe. It's okay, babe."
And then Luke starts sobbing even harder and clutching Ashton's back. And Ashton is supporting nearly all of Luke's weight. He has to pick Luke up to sit them both in the bed.
After a few minutes Luke stops crying.
"Luke. Please tell me what's wrong? What did I do?" Ashton begs.
Luke looks at him, his eyes red and puffy.
"N-nothing. Sorry. For wasting your time." Luke says hoarsely.
"Luke. Don't give me that shit. And you're never a waste of my time. Ever."
"Ash, I'm fine. I promise. Just leave it."
"Well you're obviously not fine. Why can't you just tell me what's going on?" Ashton demands.
"You wanna know? You really wanna know?"
He doesn't give Ashton a chance to reply before he puts his hand on the back of Ashton's neck and pushes their mouths together.
"Now you fucking know." He's crying again, and Ashton doesn't know how one boy can have that many tears inside of him.
"Hey. Stop crying. Babe." Ashton whispers into Luke's hair.
Ashton can taste Luke's tears when he kisses him. His lips are wet and they taste of salt and it's the best kiss Ashton's ever had. He tongues Luke's lip piercing before slipping his tongue into the other boys mouth.
Ashton lets out a little whimper when Luke pulls away.
"Lukey-"
"Ash. I need to know if you're just doing this to make me feel better. Cuz if you are-"
"I'm not, babe. I'm really not."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
Luke leans his lips back to Ashton's. and soon Ashton's pulling Luke into his lap, and his lips are kissing down Luke's neck, the hollow of his throat, his chest and back up to his lips.
And then the door opens to reveal Calum.
"Mate, we have an inter- oh." He stops in surprise.
Luke looks up from his position straddling Ashton's hips and quickly climbs off, face red.
"This isn't- I mean we weren't like-" but really there was no denying the scene in front of him. Luke, wearing Ashton's underwear, on top of him with their lips connected. Ashton's towel had slipped off his waist and wasn't actually covering up much anymore.
"So are you two like together now?" Calum comes to sit on the bed.
"Er, nah." Luke says, at the same time Ashton says "Yeah."
Luke looks at him, wide eyed, mouth open in surprise.
"Er. Would you, would you be my boyfriend? If you want? You can say no." Ashton fumbles over his words a bit.
"Yeah." Luke Luke's down shyly. "Yes."
Ashton leans forward and pecks Luke's lips.
"Awww. So cute." Calum interjects. "But we got an interview starts in half an hour. You two should get dressed."
"Oh yeah. Luke? You took my last pair of clean underwear."
"Yeah? Whatcha gonna do about it?" He smiles slightly at the look on Ashton's face.
Ashton grins back and hooks his thumb into the waistband of Luke's- his- underwear.
"You two are disgusting." Calum says. "Get dressed. Bye."
Ashton sticks his tongue out at Calum as he leaves.
Ashton spends a few more minutes snuggled up to Luke, kissing lazily with their fingers twined together.
"I should go get dressed."
"Yeah."
Ashton untangles himself from Luke's limbs and walked to the door.
"I'll see you in a minute. And Lukey?"
"Yeah?"
"I like your tummy."