Melting His Jet Black Heart [cake au] ✔

20.

Chapter 20

Luke slid into the court room unnoticed, finding a seat at the back where hopefully he wouldn't stand out too much. He thought about taking the sunglasses off but ended up keeping them on to stay on the safe side. After a few minutes of impatient waiting, the judge finally started the hearing and Calum entered the room with his lawyer.

"Good morning," the judge began, her hands firmly held together in front of her. "Today we will be investigating the case of Mr Calum Hood, who allegedly murdered his own parents seven years ago at the age of ten. Mr Hood, do you plead guilty or innocent?"

"Innocent."

She pursed her lips, continuing. "At the last hearing there was insufficient evidence and they were not able to come to a conclusion. To begin, I hope that the prosecutor will provide us with some more evidence."

The prosecutor stood, the same one as last time, and cleared her throat. Luke listened to the bullshit she was spewing from her thin red lips, shaking his head as he attempted to understand the nonsense. Finally, her speech ended.

"There's no hard evidence that he didn't do it, but there's plenty to say he did."

"Thank you. Defender?"

"Let's all take a moment to think about this from a different perspective. Imagine you're ten years old; vulnerable, weak, young; and your house has been raided by some enemies of your parents. You hide in a kitchen cupboard whilst you hear the screams and yells of your parents being murdered. When you're sure they're gone, you open the cupboard door and sneak out, looking around at the blood and bodies on the floor – the bodies that gave birth to you, that brought you up, that hugged you when you were sad, that punished you when you were naughty. The bodies that taught you how to live. You pick up the knife they used to kill them – the knife your mother would use to make your dinner every day, now half inside her chest. As for your dad, the baseball bat he taught you baseball with is now lying by his head, having been used to hit him thrice on the skull. I now ask you all; could you have killed your parents? Could you really have had the audacity, the courage to do such an outrageous thing?"

An agreeing murmur spread across the room as people realised the truth. Luke nodded with a smile, knowing how powerful of an argument that was, and dug his fingernails into his palms as he awaited the next argument. The prosecutor pouted, sighing and standing up.

"You can't win this case with sympathy. That's not how the law works."

"The law also doesn't work by accusing children of killing their parents when clearly, the evidence you're given is all assumed and not solid proof. We shouldn't be having this discussion in the first place... Judge, can we call back the real offenders, the people who killed Mr Hood's parents? There is no reason for us to accuse Calum when the actual murderers aren't present."

The judge leant back in her armchair, evidently tired out by the constant dragging, but agreed. This led the prosecutor to storm out of the room unprofessionally, at which Luke grinned. After dismissing everyone, the judge and her assistants left, and Luke slid out of the court room finding a bench to sit on.

Ten minutes later he heard a familiar voice behind him. He turned and smiled at Calum who at the beginning looked angry and surprised – his frown then turning into a small smile. "Oh hey Luke. You came?"

"I... I know you told me not to come but I felt I had to."

Luke felt his teeth grinding inside his clenched jaw, knowing that he'll probably get a death glare from the brunette, keeping his head down. To his surprise, Calum chuckled.

He fucking chuckled.

"Why do you look so ridiculous? You're practically orange."

Mali, who had arrived near the end of the hearing, laughed too, lifting up Luke's chin to get a proper look of his get up. He stood up and turned away, somewhat embarrassed, and takes off the wig in annoyance. "Aw Luke... you didn't need to go to such lengths to dress up! We probably wouldn't have noticed you anyway."

"I did," Calum announced, making Luke choking on the bit of saliva he just swallowed.

"W-what?!"

"Yeah. What about it? Who could mistake those features for anyone else but you, Luke?"

Luke's legs felt weak. He wanted to slide down onto the concrete and melt into a puddle of warmth. Blushing, he turned back around, staring idly at Calum's smile.

"Now, will you or will you join us for lunch, Luke?" Mali asked, linking arms with him. Calum kept his smile there, despite a small group of news reporters having gathered around them like wasps, shouting questions at him that were, to no avail, scattered by the wind, unable to reach the perked ears of Calum and Luke.

"Of course I will."

~

"This is Calum's favourite restaurant," Mali said, eyes panning the room as if she hadn't been in a long time. "The last time we came must've been... two years ago?" Calum nodded curtly. "Ah yes, that was when we came to celebrate your birthday with Aunt Naomi from Scotland. That day... she flew all the way over and looked after us for a few days, didn't she? That was a nice time."

A waiter came and took their order, pouring cold water in each glass. Luke quickly took a sip, still flustered from earlier.

"Can I propose a toast?" Luke asked, awaiting their affirmation. When he was given the consent, he cleared his throat. "Here's to a successful ending to your case. I genuinely hope that they catch the bad guys and let you go, because this has been going on for too long! I want Calum back at school so he can listen to me sing at lunchtime."

Mali whooped, earning herself a few looks, and Calum clinked his glass against Luke's. He felt happy for once. Although the case hadn't entirely been cleared, the path ahead didn't seem so thorny anyway.

And it was probably all thanks to Luke.

Luke's smile.

***

Naw :)

Hope you liked that!

Kimmy xx