Michael curses, standing alone in the living room. Michael’s fucked up again. He’s half-tempted to just stay at home, wait until Ashton and Calum come back and tell them that Luke’s split. But he’s pretty sure they’d have his head if he let Luke just leave without any sign of where he went. Hell, Luke’s tall, but he’s still somehow so small, he could get kidnapped, and it would be Michael’s fault.
Plus, if Michael doesn’t get along with Luke, he’ll probably be out of the band. And as little as Michael wants to force down his pride and go after Luke, he wants to go back to Perth even less.
And so that’s how Michael ends up running around the streets of Sydney, looking for a blond boy with a ripped black skinny jeans and worn-out old Vans. Well, running is an overstatement. Michael’s never been known for his physical prowess.
The wind blows in Michael’s face like it wants to send him home again. He continues on, not that he really wants to, more out of obligation and fear of being kicked from the band and--
Okay, maybe Michael’s feeling a little guilty. He let his anger get the best of him. And that’s not to say that Michael hasn’t lost it worse before, because March 2010 was an outstanding occurrence, but he’s supposed to be controlling it, and he probably should have taken his pills this morning in all honesty.
Michael’s been outside for maybe five minutes when the cold atmosphere turns into icy air and the wind turns into rain. And Michael can only think, fuck, it’s actually raining. And his hair better not wash out, because he’s only had galaxy hair for maybe a week, and it’s probably his best dye-job yet.
Maybe Michael’s overreacted to the whole thing. Yeah, Luke’s fucking irritating when he ignores Michael, but at the same time, Michael has also been brash and, well, a little bit of a dick. And thinking about it reasonably, it was unnecessary to go off at Luke. And Ashton told him to be nice. And now Michael definitely feels shit.
Michael has never claimed to be a saint, anyway, if it even matters.
Michael doesn’t catch sight of Luke in the half an hour of soaked searching, so he goes back to the house, because at least he’s tried, and he doesn’t want to get lost. He isn’t doing any much good by looking, anyhow, so he might as well just pray Ashton and Calum take a really long time at lunch so Michael has the chance to smooth things over with Luke.
He hopes, as he heads home, that Luke isn’t the kind of kid who takes ages-long walks around, or the kind who will climb into strange white vans. Michael really wouldn’t like to see the kind of mood the rest of the band would be in if that happened.
As it turns out, Michael has little to worry about. Or, at least, less to worry about than he did; he finds Luke hunched over on the porch, still getting rather unfortunately rained at thanks to the slant of the wind, which has been steadily picking up. Which leaves Michael with the worry of actually dealing with Luke.
Michael approaches Luke hesitantly. What does he even say?
Luke’s sitting with his knees up at his chest, his arms resting across the tops of his knees, and he’s staring at the ground by his Vans in the normal Luke fashion. Michael’s pretty sure he can actually hear Luke’s teeth chattering. Luke looks even smaller and sadder in the rain.
“Hey,” Michael says gruffly.
Luke, as definitely anticipated by now, doesn’t say anything, probably for fear of inciting another argument from Michael.
“We should go inside,” Michael says abruptly. “And then we need to talk. Or I do. You don’t have to talk.”
Okay, that’s a good start. Michael feels like maybe he’s doing okay so far. He’s never been much for talking, but he’s doing okay.
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Give Me Love (Muke)
FanfictionMichael is looking for a new start and a way to manage his anger issues when he moves back to Sydney, leaving his mum behind, and moves in with his former best friend, Ashton. Unfortunately, Michael finds that starting over is much more difficult th...
