if i believe you ✓

→ THIRTY-SIX

LUKE FALLS STRAIGHT ONTO THE PLUSH HOTEL BED WHEN he enters the room, mostly from exhaustion. Granted, he's flown longer than that for shows before, but a combination of excitement and anticipation caught up to him, and he nearly falls asleep straight away.

"Are you alright down there?" Cole laughs as Luke reaches out again for him, and the other boy obliges by collapsing down next to him.

"Yeah. Also, I love you." Luke adds, seemingly as an afterthought, but Cole doesn't over-think it.

The other boy laughs as he leans forwards to press his lips to Luke's, but the moment is ruined by Ashton sharply punching the door (he insists he was knocking) and telling them that they're meeting in the foyer to head out to eat.

Cole sighs and stands up with a laugh, before pulling Luke to his feet and dragging him after his bandmate.

---

They assemble in the foyer as agreed, looking like a ragtag bunch of superheroes; Nicola is dressed in a flowery cardigan and black skinny jeans, looking the complete opposite of happy, smiley sunshine Ashton.

"Food, food, food." Luke chants under his breath as he looks over Pippa's shoulder at the list of restaurants nearby.

"I will literally eat anything you guys want right now, so..." Calum shrugs, toying with a loose thread on his shirt collar.

"Hold on, we're in Japan, so maybe Japanese...?" Ashton waves his hands around, half-smiling. "It makes sense."

"We've been here... six times? I've eaten enough raw fish to last a lifetime."

"Four times, Cal. Stop trying to create content." Luke laughs to himself under his breath, eyes flying side-to-side wildly as he reads across the screen. "There! Waffles, waffles, they do waffles, I want waffles..."

"Cole?" Pippa looks up and raises an eyebrow. "Keep Luke out of the hotel bar next time."

He rolls his eyes, before casually hooking an arm around Luke's and following the others out of the hotel: apparently, in the short time Pippa was chiding Cole, they found somewhere to go. Considering how hungry he is, Cole would very happily go to a skip to eat right now.

They fall to the back, and Cole notices how disturbingly quiet Luke is at the moment. Even his usual facial expression that indicates there's probably elevator music playing in his head is missing. He knows the boy, and he'd be talking a mile a minute right now.

Maybe this was where it all started to fall apart for them again.