Bonfire hearts
“Ashton, come on, you have to go outside sometime”, Michael says and Ashton shakes his head stubbornly.
“You know I didn’t want to come on this stupid holiday.”
“Ash, you know this whole protest action has zero effect, right?”
Ashton shrugs. “I can try.”
“Ashton, come on. Hawaii is beautiful, if only you’d come out of your room and see it for yourself.”
“Mikey, leave me alone. I don’t wanna go outside.”
“Do I really have to get your Mum to get you to come and get ice cream with me?” Michael threatens.
“Seriously Michael? You’d go that far?”
“I would”, Michael says with a completely straight face.
“God, I hate you”, Ashton groans but he knows he doesn’t.
Michael knows it too and he grins. “I knew that would get you convinced. Come on, they have good ice cream just around the corner.”
Ashton never wanted to come on this holiday in the first place. He hates going away from home, even if it’s with his family and Michael and Michael’s family.
“Locking yourself up in here all day is only gonna make it worse”, Michael tells him when Ashton sighs deeply and gets up from his bed.
“No, I actually like hanging around in my room and sleeping all day”, Ashton says thoughtfully and he sees Michael clearly has to refrain from slapping him. “Calm your tits, Mikey, I’m coming to get ice cream with you. Why are you so insistent anyway?”
“Because we’re on Hawaii and it’s 35 degrees outside. Stop complaining. I’m paying for your ice cream, for God’s sake.”
“Such a miracle”, Ashton mumbles sarcastically. Michael slaps him around the head and throws him a pair of flip-flops and a pair of sunglasses. With a lot of complaining on Ashton’s side (“is this really necessary? We could also just order room service.”) and some cursing on Michael’s side (“stop fucking complaining, you wanker.”) they leave the hotel. Ashton shields his eyes from the sun, shoving on his sunglasses. “It’s too bright”, he whines.
“I swear to God”, Michael starts. “If you complain one more fucking time-”
“Yeah, I’ll stop. Happy?”
Michael glares at him. “This way.”
“How far is that shop, seriously. We’ve been walking for-”
“Five minutes, so shut up.”
“Ten minutes”, Ashton corrects him, looking at his watch.
“Stop that. You’ve been checking your watch obsessively for the past five minutes.”
“Ten.”
And Michael slaps him around the head. “Stop.” Once they reach the shop, Ashton passes it on accident because he’s frowning deeply. Michael has to drag him back and inside. “What do you want?”
“Isn’t it supposed to be ‘what would you like?’” Ashton muses.
“I don’t care”, Michael sighs. “Vanilla, chocolate and strawberry for me, please”, he says politely to the girl behind the counter.
“That’s a crime, Michael. You can’t just put vanilla, chocolate and strawberry together in one cup!”
Michael merely rolls his eyes. “Choose, Ashton.” The girl doesn’t look too patient either and suddenly, Ashton feels a little home sick. Back home, no one would be this rude to customers.
“Just three lemon for me, please”, he says quietly.
“Was that all?” the girl says in a bored tone, snapping her gum. She throws Ashton’s cup on the counter and it slides all the way down. It’s about to fall off when someone catches it and hands it to Ashton.
“Here”, the person says. “It would be a shame to see the ice cream go to waste.” Ashton turns around to thank them but when he faces the stranger, he has to look up. Which isn’t a very usual thing as Ashton himself is already pretty tall. But with this boy he doesn’t mind feeling smaller. He’s pretty handsome and he's at least a few years younger than Ashton.
“Thanks”, he says and his voice cracks. How embarrassing. He feels his cheeks burn.
“I’m Luke and this is Calum”, the blond boy introduces himself and the guy behind him.
“I’m Ashton and this smurf is Michael.” Maybe this holiday won’t be too bad after all.
“Not a smurf”, Michael says dryly, running a hand through his blue hair and he swallows a spoonful of his ice cream.
“It looks great”, Luke says.
You look great, Ashton thinks. “We should go on a date”, he blurts out. Michael is snickering behind him and Calum looks mildly amused.
“We should”, Luke says thoughtfully without batting an eye. Ashton stares at him in surprise. “Unless you were kidding, of course”, he stutters. “In that case, forget I said anything.”
“No, I was serious, actually”, Ashton says quickly because why the hell not.
☯
“See, I told you it was a good thing I dragged you out of that dusky hotel room”, Michael says when Luke and Ashton have exchanged numbers and Calum and Luke leave.
“Don’t look so smug, you dick”, Ashton mutters, shoving ice cream into his mouth.
“You weren’t exactly subtle”, Michael laughs.
“Stop laughing.” It doesn’t work. Michael only laughs harder until he’s practically snorting and sitting there, clapping like a retarded seal. “You’re an idiot.”
(Michael keeps teasing and laughing until Ashton says “at least I have a date.” That shuts him up nicely.)
☯
After a few (a lot) texts back and forth, Ashton and Luke decide to visit the bonfire at the beach that evening. Ashton doesn’t tell Michael because that means he’ll want to tag along and if there’s something Ashton doesn’t need on his first date with a handsome stranger, it’s Michael being a cockblock.
“I’m going out tonight”, Ashton announces at dinner. His mum looks at him with this knowing glint in her eyes and his brother and sister giggle to each other. “Michael, please don’t tell me you told them.”
“I could tell you I didn’t but I’d be lying”, Michael says innocently.
Ashton wants to punch him in the face but he settles for punching him in the arm. “I hate you”, he mumbles. “I’m going.”
“Shall I join you?” Michael grins but when Ashton glares at him, he backs off. “Okay, I’ll stop. Say hi to lover boy from me.”
“Fuck you.” And Ashton leaves the hotel. He and Luke had decided to meet each other on the beach. When he gets there, Luke is already waiting for him.
“Hey”, he says.
“Hey”, Ashton greets him. After that, it’s pretty much silent but not as uncomfortable as you’d think. They chat about their lives and Ashton finds out they have a lot in common and also that they get along really well. It’s good. Very good. It gets even better when Luke kisses him before walking him back (and kissing him again in the lobby of the hotel).
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that Michael dragged him outside.
[decided to post Lashton one shots on here as well because why the hell not. let me know what you think?]
