Ghost ⇔ Cake ✓

Fifteen: Lips On Lips

In retrospect, Luke probably should have reacted more. Jumped up and down or gasped or raised his hands to the sky in praise, but he didn't. He just stared at Calum in an unblinking gaze, his entire body numb. His heart was frozen. He couldn't feel anything.

It was like someone had dumped ice water on his head, except instead of it washing away and pooling at at his feet, it froze as soon as it touched his skin, encasing him in an icy tomb that shielded him from anything external. Nothing could get to him. The words buzzed right through his ear and out the other as though they didn't mean a thing.

Calum repeated, "I think I'm your Calum. I-- It's the only logical explanation, and I'm remembering things differently, and I look at both of you differently, and I just--"

Michael interrupted him, turning to Luke. "Luke. Say something. What do you think? Could it be true?"

Luke said it before: he didn't believe in the supernatural. And if this really was Calum, then it would have to be something supernatural. He tightened his jaw as he stared at Calum. Black, curly hair in a mess on his head, soft brown skin. Long, curled eyelashes and full, pouty lips. There were bags underneath his eyes, and a certain slump to his posture that made it clear he hadn't slept in a while. That things were whirling around in his head and he couldn't shut it off in time to get some rest. Luke was familiar with all of it. He thought he was unfamiliar with this particular Calum, but now everything had been turned upside down.

It was so easy to imagine that this boy sitting in front of him was his Calum. It looked just like him. It acted just like him. It talked just like him. Everything about this Calum was him. Luke remembered pressing his lips against his, feeling the smoothness of his skin, the softness of his touch. Their hearts pumped as one, intertwined with spiraled veins and arteries that pushed the same blood. And Luke saw all that in the boy in front of him.

But Luke was ice. He forced himself not to think about it.

"Luke, dude," Michael said, and snapped his fingers irritably in front of his face. "Snap out of it."

Luke set his jaw and looked at Calum. Calum looked pleadingly back at him. "Tell me something only Calum would know," Luke said. "Prove it to me that you're him."

Calum looked uncomfortable. "I don't-- I don't think I have anything to prove it, I just feel--"

"What was the memory, then?" Luke interrupted. "Tell me what the memory was, and I'll believe you."

Calum looked away from Luke suddenly. His eyes are dark and guarded, extremely unlike him."I told you. Grocery shopping."

Luke said, softer this time, "No, it wasn't." For a moment, the entire world fell away. The walls broke down, crumbling into ashes at their feet. Michael slipped away and it was just the two of them there, brown eyes meeting blue, silk against sandpaper, two beating hearts in unison. Something slipped from Calum's face and in it, Luke saw the truth even before Calum spoke the words.

"It was you and me," said Calum. "In my kitchen. We were washing dishes, and we got in a brief disagreement about Ashton and his dad. And then we were throwing soap and water at each other, and then we--" He broke off. He wouldn't meet Luke's eyes. "We-- uh."

"Kissed." Luke finished it for him. Calum looked up and they locked gazes, and in that moment Luke knew. Nobody else would have known that story, nobody. That was early in their relationship. Too early for anyone to have known about. "We kissed. It was the first time we did anything like that."

Calum didn't say anything, but Luke could practically hear his heart racing. Then Calum let out a small breath and said, quietly, "Yes."

Luke could remember that day clear in his mind. He couldn't help but kiss Calum then, his body fitting perfectly against his, soap dripping from his hair and running down his arms and legs. Calum's back was pressed against the island, Luke's hands on his waist, only the sound of their lungs filling with air.