Chapter Text
"Are you walking there?" Niall asked, as Ashton stood in the kitchen, staring at his reflection in the microwave as he wrapped his red bandana around his head. It was 9:26 according to the clock on the microwave, and Ashton had arranged to meet with Luke at ten. "'Cos if you are, you should be like gone,"
"Nah," Ashton replied, shifting his bandana, and fixing his curls. "Seth's giving me a lift on his way to work," He stood up from the microwave, and made his way out of the kitchen.
Niall laughed. "You are so fucking vain,"
"That's coming from someone who almost didn't take a job because the hats there would make his hair 'go all weird',"
Niall laughed again. "Speaking of jobs, you need to get one," he said seriously. "Rent's due next week and we're twenty dollars short,"
"Fuck," Ashton muttered. "I'll see what I can do, yeah?" Niall nodded, before heading into their bedroom to get dressed, and go do whatever it was he did when Ashton wasn't around.
"Ash, you ready?" Came a voice from outside the door, along with a knock. Ashton slipped his feet into his worn fake vans, and headed out the door, shouting a bye to Niall who replied with an incomprehensible mumbling, due to his mouth being full of toothpaste.
After the first few usual pleasantries, Seth and Ashton fell into silence, and it remained this way as they walked down to Seth's car. Ashton had known Seth since he was like ten; Seth had been the one who taught him how to play the drums. They lived just across the hall from each other, and they talked occasionally, usually about music and stuff, but they weren't exactly what you'd call friends. Seth's partner, Dean, was kind of antisocial, and preferred to stick with just himself and Seth, so Ashton didn't really see much of either of them.
Seth's car was an extremely old, and equally beat-up Honda, which didn't look nor sound roadworthy in the slightest. Only one of the four doors worked anymore, and one of them was missing a window. Ashton used to worry it might get stolen, but Seth had assured him that 'anyone desperate enough to steal this fucker obviously needs it more than me'. It was a miracle that it even ran anymore, and Ashton found himself thanking God when it started.
Seth turned on the radio as soon as they got in the car, blasting out some heavy metal song that Ashton didn't know the name of. Seth had the best music taste of anyone Ashton had ever discussed music with, which wasn't really saying much since he'd only really talked about it with Seth and Niall. He worked at a music store down town, which Ashton assumed payed alright, because the interior of Seth and Dean's apartment was certainly nicer than his and Niall's.
Apart from a couple of brief sentences about how they were getting on and the music that was playing, they rode in silence, which was fine with Ashton, because he wasn't very good at talking to people he liked. He only really managed to do it with Niall, and that was only because he'd known him for so long, their friendship dating all the way back to elementary school.
Seth dropped him outside the office building, telling him it was 9:47, before driving away. His shift started at ten, and since only like three people worked there, he couldn't afford to be late. Ashton took a deep breath, and pinched his wrist lightly, as he stared up at the huge building in front of him. Growing up in Chicago, he was used to skyscrapers, but he'd never actually been inside one until two days ago, and that whole experience still seemed a bit surreal to him.
He headed inside, trying to figure out why he couldn't stop being so damn nervous. He was never nervous. Ever. But, goddamnit, he couldn't stop the fucking butterflies fluttering around his stomach. A million situations flooded through his head as he climbed the stairs (he hated elevators with a passion more burning than the sun), each one worse than the last. What if the lawyer had forgotten about him? What if he couldn't find the right office? What if he'd come to the wrong building? What if the lawyer decided he didn't want to defend him after all? What if this had all been an elaborate ruse by fucking Liam Payne to try and get him to spill his guts and then use it against him?
He adjusted his bandana slightly and took a deep breath as he reached the third floor. Third floor, fifth door on the left, he reminded himself as he started down the hallway. There was no clock in the hall, and the lawyer didn't have a waiting room, so Ashton decided his best option was to just wait outside until the lawyer came out or whatever.
In and out. Deep breaths. Don't let the lawyer see how nervous you are right now. Don't show any signs of weakness. Don't show him how fucking scared you are. You're not nervous. You're not scared. You're fine. It's just a lawyer; you've been dealing with thousands of them. You're fine, you're fine, you're fine, you're absolutely fine.
The door opened, and a small blonde girl with obvious tear tracks on her face came out. She couldn't have been more than twenty, and she wore jeans and a jumper. She looked like the type of person who was very good at blending in, in becoming invisible.
"Em, do I go in?" She looked up at him, almost surprised he was there. Her eyes were grey and kind of blue, and they contained a kind of emptiness that gave the feel that she was just completely and utterly done. With everything.
"Yeah, I think so," her voice was thick, almost like she was choking.
"Right, uh, thanks," she nodded at him, and walked down the hallway, leaving him alone.
Taking a deep breath in a useless attempt to compose himself, Ashton pushed open the door. Luke was sitting at his desk, writing something. "Um, hi,"
"Oh, hey, take a seat, I'll be done this in a second,"
Ashton walked the few steps and sank into the faux-leather chair, absent-mindedly picking at one of the cracks in the black material. The chair was soft, and if it wasn't for the fact that he was having trouble fucking breathing right now, Ashton may have been comfortable.
"Who was that?" Ashton asked.
"Hmm?" Was all Luke replied, not even looking up from whatever the fuck he was writing.
"The girl who just came out before me?"
"Can't say. Client confidentiality and all that shit." Luke finished writing, and began reading through it quickly, skimming through the information.
"She looked sad. Kind of empty," Luke looked up at Ashton for the first time then, staring him right in the eyes.
"Her name's Emma. Her dad abused her. But I didn't tell you that,"
"She doesn't have a dad," Ashton blurted out, before Luke had barely had a chance to finish talking.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't either. I mean, I have a father, obviously, but not a dad. Neither does she. Dads don't do that to their kids. Ever. No excuses." Ashton's eyes stayed fixed on an imaginary spot on the floor, and Luke's eyes stayed fixed on Ashton.
Neither of them talked for a couple of seconds. Luke wanted to know more about Ashton's past, but he didn't know how to ask, and he couldn't help but remember how Phil had specifically told him not to ask Ashton about anything to do with his childhood. But still. How could he not be curious?
"No, my father didn't hit me. No, I won't answer any of your questions. Now can we talk about something else?"
It wasn't a question, not really, but Luke still answered it. "Uh, yeah, sure. Um, what do you wanna talk about?"
Ashton laughed, a dry almost-forced sound. "God, I'm beginning to think I hired the dumbest lawyer in all of Illinois. Maybe, just maybe, we should talk about the case, you know that's the reason I'm here, right?"
Luke failed to remember why he'd ever decided to defend Ashton in the first place. He should've listened to Michael and Calum. "Okay, first off, you haven't hired me, I'm doing this for free, you asshole, and not a lot of people would do that. Not a lot of people want anything to do with you, let alone defend you in a case that I'm more than likely gonna lose because I'm going up against fucking Liam Payne who is arguably the best prosecutor of the 21st century. Stop being such a dick or get the fuck out of my office,"
And for a second Ashton was quiet. And Luke regained his breath.
And Ashton stared at Luke. And Luke stared at Ashton.
It was Ashton who finally broke the silence, speaking in a small, tiny voice and sounding for all the world like a ten year old kid. "Sorry. I'm not so good at the whole human contact kind of thing,"
"Yeah, well, neither am I, but you don't see me going around being a dick to everyone. Christ, have some decency." No fucking way was he going to stop being angry just because Ashton was being (and looking, not that Luke noticed or anything) nice.
"Not so good at the whole 'having decency' either," Ashton replied, half his mouth almost curled up into a smirk, and Luke's lips betrayed him and twitched upwards into a smile.
"Right so, uh, back to the case, um, I know what you told me but what have you told the court?" Luke asked, trying desperately to restore a bit of formality to their meeting. So what if Ashton was a (kind of cute) asshole. Luke was a professional, he could handle it.
"Nothing," Ashton said simply.
"What? Why?"
"Well, why should I?" Ashton said with a shrug.
Luke resisted the urge to sigh. "Because you're innocent," he said, and Ashton smiled with his eyes, but not his mouth. "Because maybe if you tell them the whole story they'll realise that and you won't go to jail for the rest of your life,"
"You think they'd send me to jail?" Ashton asked. "Or would I get the chair?"
"I'm not sure," Luke replied. "They might let you pick,"
"That'd be a hard choice," Ashton muttered, and Luke detected an ounce of sarcasm.
"What would you pick?" Luke asked.
"Chair, obviously," Ashton said, looking Luke straight in the eye. "Let's be honest, I'm a small blonde boy, do you think I'd last long in jail?"
"Okay, yeah, whatever, when are you next due in court?"
"June 17th. Twelve days time,"
"Well, let's get you ready for it,"
••••••
Two and a half hours later, with Luke's hand aching like crazy, they finally finished. Luke had questioned Ashton about everything from that night, about the time he'd spent with the girl, about everything he knew about her new guy, about pretty much everything and Ashton had answered as best as he could. Luke had quizzed him on every single little detail, desperate to find something that clearly proved Ashton innocent.
But he couldn't, and it drove him crazy. Nothing to prove him guilty, nothing to prove him innocent. It would be Ashton's word against the fact that he had a motive. He could get Niall to testify, sure, but it would be incredibly easy to poke holes in his argument since Ashton had said he'd been sleeping the majority of the night. And, besides, someone could quite easily claim Niall was lying.
"So, where are you going now?" Luke asked, the words spilling out of his mouth before he had even had a chance to process the thoughts.
"Hmm?" Ashton said, turning back from the door.
"I mean, like, um, do you need a lift or anything?" Luke asked, cursing himself for opening his mouth in the first place. Awkward, awkward, why was he so fucking awkward?
"Nah, I'm fine," Ashton replied with a smile. When he wasn't so busy being an asshole, Luke had discovered, he wasn't actually an asshole at all. "I'm walking down to where my friend works and he's giving me a lift home. He gets off for lunch at one,"
"Oh cool. Where does he work?" Luke said, desperately trying to change the topic. Anything but him being an awkward fucker.
"This music shop near the river. It's called SING,"
"No way! My friend Calum works there,"
"Calum.... Is he that Asian kid?"
"He's not- yeah," Luke said. It was easier just to let people think Calum was Asian.
"Oh, he seems, uh, nice," Ashton said, almost shyly, before ducking out the door. "Bye,"
"See ya,"