if i believe you ✓

→ THIRTY-SEVEN

"MY NAILS NEED REDOING."

Cole turns to look at Luke as he picks at and inspects the neon-red gel, frowning slightly.

"They look fine... Well, they would if you stop picking at them." Cole rolls his eyes and returns to his katsu curry, still trying and failing to pick up the sauce with a pair of chopsticks in an attempt to not seem like a sell-out.

"Are there any nail places around here?" Luke turns to Ashton, completely ignoring his husband.

"No. Eat." Ashton stabs his fork towards Luke's barely-touched bowl, and the younger boy sighs and obliges.

None of the group talk to each other for a while, and it feels a little unsettling - somehow, the distance from home has increased the tension between them all. The Japan trip was supposed to be good for them all; where the hell has it all gone wrong?

———

Cole can't tell if he's overreacting, since walking back to the hotel, everything seems perfectly normal. Luke is joking around with Nico and Ashton, and the rest of them just seem totally... fine.

He brushes it off as just nerves about how the rest of it is going to go: after all, the last time Cole travelled abroad was years ago, and Luke is only ever out of the country for concerts and tours.

"You OK?" Luke asks softly, and Cole realises that he zoned out completely.

"Yeah. What were you talking about with Ash and Nico?" The air starts to bite a little as time ticks on, and Luke instinctively wraps his arm around Cole's shoulders.

"Nothing much, just show stuff." Luke shrugs as they turn the corner and re-enter the hotel, watching as everyone splits off to various sections of the place. "Whether we're amending the set list or not... I'm seriously thinking about throwing Midnight on there, but not making it public? So it's a surprise?"

Cole smiles. "Yeah, you should definitely do that! It'd make sense for over here as well." He nods multiple times as they round the corner and enter the elevator up to their floor.

All of a sudden, Luke stops, and stares across the foyer, focused on something.

"What?" Cole asks, as he taps the button and waits for the doors to close on them. Luke reaches out and grips Cole's arm tightly, still staring at the same point in the distance.

"Someone's watching me." He whispers, nearly inaudible. Despite this, the tension in his voice is clear, and it scares Cole a little.

"No, they're not." The dark-haired boy replies, maybe a little more forceful than he should be. Truth is, he's more than a little sick of Luke's constant fear and paranoia at this point: it was bad enough having to sneak around and act as platonic as possible, but having to tell him nobody's out to get him when there are definitely people who are?

Cole doesn't want to lie to him, not at all, but sometimes he has to, and that's what's worse than any extent of minor terror or traumatic stress.

That's what he knows will tear them apart.