Hush-Hush » [lashton] √

1.4

False Prophecy had finished up touring around a month ago, and Plastic Announcement was playing one of their last shows in Tokyo. The two of them still hadn't spoken about where they stood; Ashton had hoped that when Luke had said he'd come and find him he'd meant sooner rather than later. It hadn't helped his nerves that Michael now seemed acutely aware of his behaviour, trying to tease him about his restlessness to cover his very clear concern for him.

The mention of Luke caused a pit to form in Ashton's stomach and clearly his emotions were often written all over his face because Michael's brow would furrow, and he would keep his eyes on the other. Ashton found that his lips tightened, or he conveniently found other things to talk about and other places to be when False Prophecy was mentioned. When they mentioned Luke however, he wasn't even capable of that, he never left the room though, always staying but remaining quiet and listening carefully. Ashton didn't know what he expected to hear but it never came, he never learnt anything about Luke he didn't already know.

He'd kept in contact with Calum at first but then he'd disappeared to god knows where on a song writing trip, so when they texted it was short, and Calum never mentioned Luke. Not that, that was the only reason Ashton bothered to text him, he liked Calum but at the moment he might have been a bit desperate for any news. He just wanted to know If Luke was going about business as usual, he wanted to prepare himself for what direction their conversation (if it ever happened) would go in. He desperately wanted to tell Calum, to have him tell him straight what he should expect, have a friend that knew them both well, weigh in on it all. Unfortunately, he didn't want to accidentally out Luke to him, he was almost certain Calum would have to know he was bi, but he didn't want to risk it either way.

"Do any of you know anything interesting I could do or like try today? I'm so bored," Ashton questioned said directing his question at the group lying about the patio, soaking in the mid-morning sun.

"Oh! I see you think the Asian people know good things to do in Tokyo. That's racist we're from Hong Kong," Nat said her tone mock angry from her spot next to Michael on the day sofa.

"Okay, 1. I asked you all, including Whitey McWhite over there," he gestured to Michael, " 2. We've all been here before, so I know you know at least a little about here, and 3. shut up," Ashton said looking at Nat deadpan.

"Yeah shut up Nat, there's this thing our cousins were telling us about called Nitro coffee it's pretty big here at the moment. Yes, I said cousins Nat and I have half Japanese cousins who live here, not all Asian people are from the same place, shut up." Lee said from across the patio.

"Thank you," Ashton said chuckling at their performance.

He rolled his eyes fondly before making his way back inside to get changed. Black skinny jeans, black t-shirt, black boots, and black Ray-Bans. So, Ashton was being a touch dramatic in the way he dressed, but he looked great, so maybe he should be dramatic more often.

Ashton caught an Uber to a nitro coffee 'bar' that he picked out on the internet, he went in and ordered, his eyes perused the walls as he waited, taking in the variety of art styles displayed on the cool walls. A few young girls recognised him and asked for pictures and once Ashton had his coffee, he decided he'd go for a walk, really how much trouble could he get into just walking about in Tokyo.

He went past quite a few convenience stores and found himself in a mall; he rifled through the stock spending a few minutes on each curiosity he picked up. He bought a few small things for his siblings, but he didn't bother spending too much time looking for anything big, they were spoilt as it was, half his very full suitcase had souvenirs in it for them, one collected keyrings and the other postcards but he liked to pick them up other things sometimes too.

He wandered around trying desperately to kill time, anything not to think about Luke, not that his mind hadn't trailed there today, but it was so much harder to avoid it when he was alone with nothing to distract him. He'd thought that a day without someone bringing up anything music related his mind would have a harder time making connection to Luke, but that theory had been proven wrong, over and over all day. He ended up arriving back at the hotel at 4 pm, which in hindsight wasn't terrible, it could have been longer, he'd have preferred that he'd been out so late all he'd had time to do was fall into bed but, late afternoon was better than nothing he supposed.

Nat was on him as soon as he walked through the door, "You had a shadow today,"

"Paps?" Ashton asked toeing off his shoes at the door.

"Yeah, got updates on twitter all day, haven't you checked the app?" She asked scoffing.

"Nah, I was having such a nice day I haven't even looked," Ashton lied, it wasn't that he'd been having too much fun to look, it was more that he'd been dying to see if Luke had been online and had to fight the urge all day.

"You look like an emo queen," Nat chuckled tossing Ashton her phone, Ashton made an absurd noise as he scrambled to catch it and sent a glare her way when he'd finally saved it.

He looked at the tweet that was open on her phone; it was a picture of Ashton leaving the coffee bar this morning, he seemed focused. Ashton knew why he looked so serious in the photo; he was trying to shake the thought; I wonder if Luke's ever been to Japan? Surely False Prophecy will have shows here soon.

@/AshtonPAUpdates: @/PlasticAshton seen getting a Nitro Coffee

That's all the Updates account had said, but Ashton saw the replies,

@/eatscalsass: OMG LUKE LIKED IT OMF, Congrats GUYS!

There were many more congrats on Luke liking it and people getting excited knowing Ashton and Luke were friends, as well as lot of speculation, which was normal, he tried to tell himself. Ashton's heart couldn't help but flutter a little and he started searching through Luke's likes on his profile, and sure enough, three tweets down was the update accounts tweet. Luke was keeping an eye on Ashton, he didn't know what that meant exactly, but it made him hopeful.