Coming Up For Air

the second ends

On Promising:

This isn't exactly something I can write a scene for, so I'll just explain it to you.

Both Ashton and Luke come into the relationship with severe trust issues that branch from very different things. Luke's, obviously, are from his family's desertion of him, and also from Calum's alcoholism, which has affected him a lot more deeply than he understands at the time. Luke's are very based in the physical world, I think; Calum almost dies, which would mean he would physically no longer with him, and the absence of his family is a very physical thing, too.

Ashton's trust issues are a little harder to pick up on, I think, but they're just as important. He refuses to promise things to Luke because he has issues trusting himself. Due to his confusing sexuality and his past with his family in regard to his sexuality, he tends to think of himself as morally not right, which you can see later when he's afraid of what the people in public will think of him and Luke.

Luke has issues trusting others, and Ashton has issues trusting himself and trusting how he appears to others, which leads me to the promising thing.

Luke wants people to promise him things because he doesn't trust them. Ashton never makes those promises because he doesn't think he can. At the end, in the very last chapter, Ashton asks Luke to promise him something (the marriage thing), which I think shows how they've both confronted their trust issues with the other's help. They've switched roles, but now they're making promises for the right reasons; because they do trust each other and themselves.

On Luke and his mother:

They're healing things, but Luke tends to treat her more as an acquaintance or old friend than as parent, which I think is fair.

On Luke and Louis:

I imagine they still talk. Louis is graduating uni soon, though, and he's planning to move to somewhere in America because he's been offered an internship at a newspaper to write play reviews. I think the contact will drop off.

On Harry and Louis:

See, I don't want to answer this because someday I might actually finish Chasing Sunsets and then you'll know.

On Zayn:

Zayn lives with his sister and works at a tattoo parlor. He's very successful, and he's also bisexual, so eventually he meets a nice girl and they've been together ever since.

On Luke and Ashton's Future Jobs:

Ashton eventually becomes a music teacher at a secondary school in London. Luke has a hard time finding something he's really passionate about, but eventually he becomes a social worker for foster kids.

On Malum:

In this story, Malum is not a thing. I find it highly unlikely that out of 4 guys who originally thought they were straight, all 4 of them would end up bisexual or gay. And tracking that many relationships would be too hard for me. 1 is hard enough to manage. So no, in this story, Malum is not real. However, you're free to imagine whatever you like.

On Ashton's family:

I imagine that Lauren and Harry continued to live with Ashton's grandmother after Ashton's mother passed.

On Luke's family:

His father lives in America, but they eventually mend their relationship and he visits Luke and Ashton occasionally.

Ben lives in Manchester, and after he gets back on his feet (he and girlfriend were going through a rocky time during Luke's time if need), he and Luke meet up for lunch and talk it out.

Jack moved back to Australia before CUFA even began. He and Luke had a big fight before he left, and they're never very close again. They see each other at Christmas 2016, but they never really rekindle the close brotherly relationship they had before.