Arabella || Luke Hemmings

japan

May 22, 1984 - Tokyo, Japan

"I'm not quite sure if Loch likes us." Michael sat in a hotel room. His feet were propped up on a coffee table. He chugged bottles of water to feel hydrated as jetlag made him feel so shitty.

The room was filled with smoke that came from Arabella's cigarette. It masked the room in a perfect cloud that made Luke want to remember the moment forever. He loved how it danced around her face and either dissolved into the air or found its way to linger into Luke's nostrils. God, he was being creepy again by staring at her.

"What do you mean?" Jax looked up from a crossword puzzle he was working on. One he had plucked from a newspaper somewhere faraway from Japan. Who knew how long he had had the item? He nervously scratched the back of his neck. No one knew what to say when it came to Loch. No one had ever brought it up. Not even Loch gave a clear reasoning as to why. But the other four knew they'd bring it up sooner or later. They couldn't get around it.

Loch was on the streets of Tokyo somewhere with his girlfriend, experiencing life instead staying in a stuffy hotel room with a bunch of people he saw too often now.

"I don't know how to dumb that down anymore." Michael groaned once he realized he had finished all the water he was given from the front desk. He was too embarrassed to ask for more.

"He feels...indifferent towards you guys?" That was one way Haze could put it. She had no problem being straightforward. The truth was the truth, and there was no reason to hide it away. She sat a few feet away from everyone else on a bed with Ashton. She strummed her acoustic guitar lowly, plucking whatever sparked her taste for the moment.

"Indifferent?" Michael cocked an eyebrow, but Haze couldn't see. She wasn't focused on his reaction.

"We don't know where it came from." Arabella was now fiddling with the bracelets that were on her wrist. A few ashes from her cigarette falling to the floor. "Just came out of the blue."

"When did it start?" Calum was sitting on the window ledge, watching the Tokyo life below. He felt like a king so high up with everyone else below him.

"We aren't sure..." Jax rubbed his face with hands, frustrated with something in the puzzle he couldn't figure out. He had accidentally thrown out the page with the answers, so he was fucked. Thank god for pencils. "He'll warm up to you guys eventually."

"That's completely bullshit and the four of us know that." Ricky mentioned towards his bandmates. He was never one to be blunt like Haze, so when he was honest it almost made his friends flinch. "We're been on tour for almost two months and we've the guys for at least five. He's not coming around. Hell, Arabella's warmed up to these guys quicker than expected."

Kosmic stayed silent. Everyone knew he was right.

"He's always written off to be such a nice person, we're yet to see that. And he always looks so happy on stage and when he's with you guys. It's just odd."

"Pretty damn odd." Ashton nodded.

"Anyway, do you guys ever consider hooking up with each other?" Michael asked with too much curiosity. "Like, I'm sure it's come up before or you guys have considered it when you're on the road or far off from your significant others."

"Sure, it's probably come up a few times but the bond we have as a band is too strong to allow us to experience each other in a sexual way. Besides, we're like siblings so it would feel like incest." Ricky felt his cheeks flush, he was so embarrassed by this topic.

"Then how do you guys survive? Don't you feel like you're gonna go crazy? Say, Ricky is just dying to shove Arabella up against the wall and just fuck her senseless, what happens?" Michael continued with the questions, noticing Luke shift into an uneasy mood.