Lethe

New Home

Summary: Luke brings Ashton to their, once, shared apartment, to let Ashton pick up his stuff.
Note: I'm pretty sure I cried writing this one, but mostly because of the end. So. Oops.
***
Luke unlocks the apartment door, with an awkward Ashton trailing behind him. He offered to let Ashton pick up anything he might need to move into his new place. His new place away from Luke, or, at least, across town.

"It's nice," Ashton commented, "So we lived together?" Ashton asked.

"Yeah," Luke said, humming. "For two and a half years," Luke added, ignoring the pain in his heart, the pain that wanted him to admit that they dated, for more than three years, and were engaged for barely a month.

"Sounds nice," Ashton said. "So, where's all my stuff."

"It's in the guest room." Luke said, pointing towards the room across from his - and Ashton's - room.

"Why isn't it in my room?" Ashton asked, almost regretting it when he saw Luke's sad expression. "Why are you always sad when I ask those kind of questions?" Ashton said, instead.

"It's difficult." Luke replied, walking to the end of the hallway, opening the door, only to see all the boxes with Ashton's stuff. It gave him something to do, packing the stuff for Ashton. "I packed a lot of it, but some of it isn't in boxes or anything." Luke added.

"Oh," Ashton mumbled, "Thanks." Ashton added.

"No problem, if you want help, just ask me. I'll be in my room." Luke mumbled, pointing towards his room, in case Ashton needed to know where he was going to be.

It wasn't that Ashton needed help, nearly two hours later, but he was amazed at how beautiful Luke's guitar playing was, and how nice his voice was too.

"You sound nice," Ashton complimented. "Is that an original?" Ashton added.

"Um," Luke mumbled, "I guess... I kind of wrote a song a few years ago..." Luke mumbled. Luke didn't want to say he wrote it about Ashton, because it was obviously a love song.

"Sounds nice, they must be a lucky person." Ashton said, smiling fondly. Of course they are, because they're you.

"Yeah, they were." Luke mumbled, playing with his guitar strings quietly.

"Oh, are you not together anymore?" Ashton asked.

"Um," Luke stammered, "They kind of...left?" Luke hesitated.

"They..." Ashton mumbled, mainly to himself, "You use gender neutral terms, was it a guy?" Ashton asked.

"Yeah." Luke admitted, he wasn't blushing like Ashton thought he would, but, he was frowning. "We were engaged..."

"Aww," Ashton mumbled, "That's horrible." Ashton said.

More horrible than ever.

"He is nice," Luke mumbled, "He just...he had to leave." Luke added. Luke wasn't ready to tell Ashton, his heart was, but he couldn't form the right sentence to explain it. "I didn't do anything wrong...he just...had to."

"Did he die?" Ashton asked, almost quietly.

"No," Luke shook his head, "But it feels like he did."

After that, Ashton didn't say anything, and went back to packing the boxes into his truck, packing whatever was left into new boxes.

It wasn't until Ashton left, that Luke finally heard Ashton say something to him.

"He probably misses you, your fiancé."

And Luke hoped he did, even if he didn't remember anything about him.

"I hope so."