Sex Metal Barbie // lashton

chapter twenty-five

"You haven't talked to me all day..." Luke brought up after a long period of silence as they ate their Chinese takeout. "- are you okay?"

He nodded.

"I don't think you are."

"Well I didn't ask." Ashton nearly snapped as he used his chopsticks to push around his food.

Luke nodded as if he understood his rude reply, and then looked down at his hands. "If this is about punching your ex, I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have, and I know it wasn't my place, but -"

"- It's not about that." He cut him off sharply, not wanting to think about how the man now dragged Luke's name through the dirt. "Although, you should control your anger better."

"I'm sorry. After hearing about what he did and seeing he had the audacity to show up where you were, it made me upset. You're such a good person." Luke apologized and Ashton shrugged. What was he supposed to say? He nearly put hands so him too, he was just as bad.

Luke set his hand on his bicep and Ashton ignored the tender touch, deciding that he already knew he appreciated the gesture, why say anything?

He raised his chopsticks to his lips and Luke huffed. "If this is about last week again, I didn't mean to ignore you. I was busy -"

"- Why is everything about you?" Ashton asked and then set his food back into the box. "Why does it have to be your fault?"

Luke seemed taken back. "I thought I messed up. It was so sudden, I just thought -"

"- It's not always about you." Ashton grumbled as he looked at the carton in his hands. "Maybe I'm just fucked up and it isn't your fault because I didn't even know you existed like two months ago! And maybe, just maybe, I don't want to talk about it right now because I'm going to get worked up and we both don't need that!"

Ashton's heart was racing. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins as he stabbed his food, his attitude clearly turned on despite the exhaust that flooded his body. He couldn't help the fact he was irritated, and it was all because he was used to being alone during all of his lowest points and since Luke was here, he didn't know what to do. He could feel the rush of emotions, the anxiety of breaking down in front of someone who he'a barely known. He's known the same chipped nail polish on his fingers longer than he's known Luke.

"This argument feels familiar." Luke practically sneered as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"This is not the same. You ignored me for a week, it's been like three hours." Ashton defended himself as he set his food down on the coffee table. "Don't start that."

"I want to help -"

"- You can help by leaving it alone." Ashton cut him off as he looked at him.

"I can help you -"

"- How?" He snapped as he stood up. "By talking to me? By giving me some stupid hug and letting me just cry in my own silence? I don't need to vent, Luke. I don't need to talk. What I need is a day to calm down from everything that happened yesterday!"

"You're isolating yourself when you have people to help you." Luke explained and Ashtons scoffed.

"Who told you that? Your professor of what? A semester?" The drummer rolled his eyes and Luke looked away from him. "Did he even teach you anything or did you take his class for a week before deciding it was too hard?"

Luke looked at him with burning eyes. "That's rich — especially coming from someone who didn't even try to go to college."

Ashton narrowed his eyes at him. "You don't get to talk about what you don't know. You don't know me."

Luke's eyes widened almost sarcastically. "Wow, really? Who would have guessed when all we do is fight, drink, and have sex!" He shouted, jumping from his own seat. "I bet you can't even tell me my own last name."

Ashton was silent.

"That's how you are though." Luke poked him in his chest. "You think just because I can moan prettily for you and bend myself in half that you know me and who I am. All you care about is being and feeling like this big, bad alpha and getting your rocks off."

"You know what I think?" Ashton sneered as he set a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back. "I think for someone who seems so fed up with me, you beg so beautifully and willingly for me to make a mess out of you. If I remember correctly, Hemmings, you're the one who wanted to know what it was like to, 'get fucked by a rockstar' and came on to me like some cheap little band whore."

Luke backed away from him, clearly backing down from him, but Ashton wasn't finished. It was sickening, but he liked Luke so much better when he was quiet and tucked beneath him. He liked when he made the hot-headed blond shiver and shake from just his words.

"I know you crave to feel pathetic, like all you are is my bitch. It says enough about you to let me know that you'll come crawling back even when you think you won't." Ashton continued, watching as Luke's back hit a wall. "You love me, but you don't want to admit it. You want me to feel lucky to have you, but am I really?"

He set his hand on the wall and Luke tried to push him away. "F-Fuck off." He stammered and Ashton chuckled. "Don't you fucking touch me."

"You like this." He pointed out. "I know you do. That's why you pick fights, because you know you get to indulge yourself in this fucked up kink of your's where I call you names and you get hard in your pants."

Luke looked up at him, his lip between his teeth and his eyes darkened with God know's what. Was he turned on? Was he angry? He looked both if Ashton was being honest. Which was bigger he didn't know or care because he knew the younger blond was hard against his thigh. No way was that his wallet, it wasn't big enough to make such an impression and he never carried it anyways.

"Get off me." His boyfriend told him and Ashton had half the right mind to back off. He didn't though. He knew this game. "I mean it."

This was Luke's yes and no game. This was the messed up kink of his where he verbally said no but he really meant yes. This was his mouth saying no, but every other aspect of his body begging for him to touch him. He knew his body language already, memorized the freckles on his shoulders and the muscles beneath his skin, embedded the looseness off his joints and the bob of his head inside his own head. That's what hours and hours of talking in bodies did, and that's how he knew Luke didn't mean the words he was saying.

"You can't win." Ashton tsk'ed as he shook his head. "You just don't know me well enough like I know you."

"Let me go." He breathed out, yet became putty in his hands as he grabbed his hips and pulled him close. "Ashton, really. Get off."

That's not what the curl of his long leg around his and the tone of his voice was saying. Not when his eyes were half lidded and his hips pushed harder against him at the pressure of body against body.

"You play a dangerous game, Luke." Ashton tsk'ed. "You're a dangerous man. You almost had me, but not quite because unlike what you believe, there's a lot to know in body language."

He was silent.

"But anyways, as tempting as it is to prove you wrong, I can't. Not like this." He let him go and Luke's eyebrows furrowed. "Red."

"What?" Luke asked and Ashton backed away from him. As willing and compliant as his body was, he couldn't indulge him in this. Not again. It's too much too soon.

"Red." He stated, and Luke looked both confused and disappointed. He didn't look angry anymore, just denied.

"N-No, you can't... you can't do this -"

"- I just did. It's not just your safe word." Ashton replied and then walked to the front door so he could leave to clear his mind.

Worst case scenario? Luke's still there when he gets back. But the best case scenario? Luks's still there.