Let's be Cliché || Lashton

Pool Nerdles

I really hope you appreciate the chapter name, because I do.

The truth was, Ashton never really went down to this area of the school so he had no idea what to expect when Luke unlocked the door. He wanted to believe that Luke wouldn't break into the school just to show Ashton some shitty hideout in the boiler room, but the reality of the situation was that Luke would do all that just to laugh at Ashton's reaction.

And maybe Ashton was still a tad flustered from the completely uncalled for pet name Luke had breathed against his skin moments earlier.

"I'm going to be honest," Luke began in a slow voice as the lock clicked. "I got these keys off a mate and I really don't know what to expect so bear with me."

He stuffed the keys into his jacket pocket and squeezed the tan boy's hand.

The pool was considered restricted, probably the most pristine area in the school because only the swim team was allowed in. How Trick managed to get ahold of a spare key was beyond Luke but he didn't complain when his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting.

The pool, took up most of the wide expanse as expected but what Luke didn't expect was the open glass wall, revealing a perfect view of the starry sky. This room was entirely out of place if you looked at the school as a whole, it seemed more like a pool at some high class hotel.

The pool had lights that brought a bluing glow to its surrounding with waves reflecting light onto the plain walls making them appear more textured.

"Luke, pools are fun but I don't have trunks." Ashton dead panned, although already walking towards the edge.

"Oh, I didn't tell you?" Luke smirked, slowly edging toward Ashton with his hands placed in his back pockets. He leaned forward slightly as he walked, like he was about to tell Ashton a joke. "We're swimming in the nude."

Maybe Ashton's face became the same shade of pink as Luke's lips but in this lighting, no one could tell, hopefully. Ashton didn't reply, too worried that if he opened his mouths his words would come out stumbling over one another like an overflowing closet.

"I'm joking, why would I bring a backpack if we were going to swim in our birthday suits?" Luke retorted and Ashton let out the breath he was holding.

"These are yours." Luke stated, throwing some shorts at him carelessly as he got his own out. The pool light revealed that the shorts Ashton now held had small crocodiles hidden into the green pattern and Ashton looked at Luke wide eyed.

"These are my brother's."

They were both visibly embarrassed, Luke mostly. He was the one that had grabbed them from the clean laundry hamper the other day. How could he not see the size difference? Luke kind of wanted to crawl over to the pool and drown at this point.

"Oh man," Luke whispered awkwardly, not knowing where to go from here. Luke would offer up his trunks but he happened to be sporting Power Rangers boxers today, plus Ashton's hips were much more narrow than his and the trunks he brought didn't have drawstrings.

"Fuck, I'm sorry." Luke added finally, drawing a blank on how he could somehow fix this.

There was an extraordinarily long silence that just gradually became even more awkward as time passed.

Until Ashton started nodding suddenly, although an apparent frown was etched on his lips. He tied off his shoes without a word. Ashton removed his shirt, still nodding slightly and went on to unbutton his pants.

"Hold on," Luke interrupted, biting his lower lip nervously. He couldn't help feeling completely out of place, Ashton was stripping right in front of him and he had absolutely no clue what to do. "What are you doing?"

"I'm wearing boxers, idiot." Ashton said matter of factly, rolling his eyes at the blond. When Luke didn't comment further, he continued by unzipping his pants and shimmying out of them with a little less grace.

Ashton folded his pants neatly and placed them on top of his shirt, he removed his socks shortly after and dropped them next to his shoes.

With all distractions aside, Luke was hit with the sudden image of Ashton in his boxers. The thing was, boxers didn't really work well with skinny jeans so whenever someone said boxers they really meant boxer briefs and Luke couldn't help but choke slightly. Ashton's were plain black, at the moment the boy was adjusting his underpants to accommodate for going in the water, which mainly consisted of adjusting the placement of the waistband on his hips.

Luke associated Ashton with being clean cut, which meant clean clothes and rather neat hair, and clean shaved too. Primarily, Luke never saw Ashton with any sort of facial hair unless they'd spent the weekend practically on the couch. Since he couldn't picture Ashton with a beard, he assumed that Ashton was pretty clean with body hair either than the routine arms and leg hair. So when Ashton scratched his naval just underneath the band he was surprised to see a thin line of darker hair starting up.

It was safe to say, Luke wasn't prepared.

"Are you going to change?" Ashton asked finally, looking to the blond curiously and was surprised to find the other boy already looking at him.

"Y-Yeah, just turn around." Luke blushed, gesturing for Ashton to do as he said. The tanned boy thought it was a little odd but didn't question it.

He kept glancing up at Ashton to see if the boy was looking, he felt exposed in a room with no where to hide. Every time he looked up to check on the curly haired boy though, his eyes got stuck else where for a while. Maybe it was the shoulder blades one time, maybe the lower back just above the boxers, maybe even the boxers themselves. Either way, Luke took longer than expected to complete a task as simple as changing into his trunks.

"Done." Luke said in a light tone, as if to say TA-DA with a little less enthusiasm.

"Do you think the waters cold?" The other boy asked, looking Luke over once or twice before turning to the pool.

Luke couldn't help it when a grin slowly crawled onto his lips, "Only one way to find out."

It was far too late for Ashton to properly react to Luke's words even though he knew what was to come next. Luke's arms wrapped around his torso tightly as the two boys' bodies connected, the force knocked both of them over the edge and into the crystal clear water.

The cold consumed both of them, water greedily swallowing them up like a wave would a ship on a stormy night.

They sunk until little air remained in their lungs, at which point they kicked off and crashed through the surface. The collective gasp for air bounced off the walls and Ashton feverish tried to push his sopping wet hair out of his face.

"Well it's cold," Luke replied in a tone that would make you think he'd simply stuck his hand in the water to check the temperature. He tried to wipe water off his face with wet hands, noticing the irony seconds later.

"Colder than I thought it would be." Ashton agreed, teeth chattering slightly.

"We just need to adjust," Luke reasoned, but wadded closer to Ashton. "C'mere baby."

"Are you going to splash me?" Ashton muttered angrily, already picturing the devious grin on Luke's face afterwards.

"No," Luke replied with furrowed brows, slicking his wet hair back as he swam small circles around Ashton.

Reluctantly, Ashton came forward and Luke opened his arms. When Ashton was safely locked in his arms and the two drifted around the pool aimlessly tangled in each other, Luke smiled. "Penguins huddle together to keep warm."

He kissed the top of Ashton's head and let them settle into a comfortable silence until the adjusted to the temperature, although they were very reluctant to let go of one another.