Coming Up For Air

3.5

"Picture, picture, smile for the picture

Pose with your brother, won't you be a good sister?

Everyone thinks that we're perfect

Please don't let them look through the curtains."

-Melanie Martinez, 'Dollhouse'

☂Ashton☂

At three o'clock in the morning, Ashton's phone rang.

Not rang, actually--it vibrated (because, thankfully, Ashton had set it to silent) in a frantic, aggravated fashion two feet away from Ashton's left hand.

Normally this wouldn't be an issue--Ashton would check the caller ID and choose to ignore or answer based on who it was. Three a.m. calls, however, were a different story--they almost always required answering because they were usually coming from Australia, and they were usually from his younger brother or sister, and they were usually important. And, as it were, he was expecting a call from his sister.

Ashton was presented with a problem--a problem that was lovely and warm and splayed across his chest, breathing softly against his tee-shirt. He was literally wrapped in Luke. And while he was thoroughly enjoying the position he was in, there was almost no way he could wiggle out of Luke's embrace to answer his phone without waking him up.

Almost.

In a maneuver involving some light prodding, a shimmy and gentle repositioning of Luke's legs, Ashton was able to get enough of his body free to stretch out across the floor and answer his phone at the last second before it went to voicemail. It took him a minute to get it up to his ear.

"Hey." He whispered, his voice drowsy and breathy. The vibration had woken him--he slept lightly, and even the slightest noise would rouse him. This was a blessing and a curse--mostly a curse, when one was housed in a hall full of rowdy uni kids.

"Hello, Peach." Lauren's tinny scratched through the international connection and Ashton reveled in the familiar comfort of the nickname for a moment.

"You texted me yesterday and said we needed to talk. And Grandma called me the other day. We never talk this much. You guys missin' me?" Ashton asked, laughing softly and looking down at Luke's head, which had descended from his chest to his stomach. He looked peaceful and sweet when he was asleep, and Ashton felt his heart melt and stutter and stop and start again in the space of a millisecond.

"We certainly are. We miss you always." Lauren said, and her clipped, formal way of speaking never failed to make Ashton smile.

"Aw. I miss you too, Laurie. How are things? How's the weather? I miss not being freezing." Ashton said while softly stroking Luke's hair on his forehead. It was silky, like baby hair, and his blonde locks drooped out of their usual quiff adorably.

"The weather is excellent. I believe you should come home." Lauren said in her too-grown-up twelve year old voice. She talked to everybody like she was in a business meeting. It was hilarious, but sometimes Ashton wished she could just let herself be twelve.

"Oh yeah? Why's that?" Ashton asked her. Luke mumbled something in his sleep and Ashton bit his lip to stop a half-formed giggled from escaping.

"I--sorry, excuse me for a moment. Grandma is calling me. Yes, Grandma?" Ashton heard a clunk and then some mutedness, like somebody'd covered the speaker on the phone so he couldn't hear. He continued to play with Luke's hair, feeling very peaceful and at ease with life in general, even though he knew he was going to be horrendously exhausted the next morning. Luke was his--his boyfriend--officially. That was terrifying and terrifying and terrifyingly wonderful, Ashton thought, but worth it because Luke had somehow developed into his entire universe.