Flatmates

Are we having fun yet?

          Luke was back in the living room having to sneak his way between dancing bodies. He searched the crowd to find Ashton. He felt like his whole face fell down when his eyes focus on his flatmate. Ashton was giggling drunkenly, one hand on the waist of a girl, the other holding a cup of what was most likely not water.

He was pretty sure you could have seen the deception, the betrayal and the hurt on his face. It wouldn't have been worst if Ashton had punched him. At the same time, he was mad at himself. He had sensed it all along, he had known since the beginning, he was certain the second they stepped in this house, something was going to go wrong. It should have been predictable that Ashton would fall back in his old and terrible ways. They weren't that old, actually. And Alcohol was all over the place. Luke should have known better; he shouldn't have left him alone.

In the wave of emotion that crashed upon him, he didn't take the time to evaluated his decisions wisely. And took a cup that was standing abandoned on a coffee table against the wall and drank several deep gulps until the cup was empty. End of the party.

It wasn't that easy to get out of the packed house with Ashton clumsily walking behind him, but Luke managed to reach the fresh air of the outside. Thankfully the drunken man was pretty cooperative and compliant. Luke had almost forgotten how warm and friendly Ashton was when he was intoxicated. It made it harder for Luke to be upset after him. But he was even angrier at himself, in the need to place his resentment somewhere.

It was past 2AM according to the taxi's clock. Luke was staring at the blurry outside, his hand under his chin. Ashton was leaning against him, his head dropped on the blonde's broad shoulder.

"Lukey" Ashton muttered, poking Luke's side. The said man looked down to him questioningly. At first Ashton only giggled before he explained. "That's how your friend called you. It's cute. It suits you."

Luke blushed despite himself, it was really hard to stay mad at him. He still noticed that Ashton's drunken behaviour had shifted a bit. He had always been more tactile and friendly but never flirty.

"Did you have fun tonight?" Ashton asked looking up to Luke.

The blonde thought for a moment but grinned warmly and answered in a whisper "Yeah. I had fun tonight."

Ashton flashed a huge, genuine, toothy and happy smile. "I had fun as well. I liked to dance with you. Will you dance with me again?"

"Sure." And Luke wasn't mad the slightest anymore. He was caught up with Ashton's goofy ad silly attitude. Maybe it was due to the alcohol running in his own veins, but he was contaminated by the light mood.

"Will you sing to me like you did before?"

"Okay." Luke nodded. He didn't notice in his reflection on the window that he had glints of playfulness and fond in the eyes.

Luke didn't expect the alcohol to affect him that much but he had big troubles to get Ashton out of the car and to half drag, half carry him in to their building. They were not walking straight, almost crashing in any object they could. Once inside the building Ashton started to sing, out of nowhere, out of rhythm and out of tune. "I've been wrong...! I've been down...!"

Luke tried to shush him down as the building was dead silent. He called the elevator, as it was totally out of question to use the staircase.

"Into the bottom of every bottle!"

"Ashton!" Luke whisper-shouted "Keep your voice down."

But obviously the drunken man didn't listen a word.

"This five word in my head....!"

Obviously, he ended up waking someone up. This someone being Mr. Sana, the concierge. Luke learned at the occasion that he was the one living in the ground floor flat, as his sleepy head got through the door. His questioning and scolding look scanned the hall and landed on a mortified Luke and a shameless Ashton.