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Ashton wondered when he’d stopped finding parties fun and started wanting to be in bed by ten o’clock instead. Because, honestly, it was getting ridiculous now. He was eighteen and it was his favourite holiday and he was supposed to be having fun with his friends but instead he was hovering by the doorway, sipping lemonade from a red solo cup with an expression akin to that grumpy cat that had been all over the internet recently because this was Not Fun.
Ashton guessed maybe he was just turning into his grandpa nowadays, since that seemed to be the only option left open to him.
He’d probably just spend the rest of his days sitting in the same armchair beneath a tartan blanket, eating stale custard creams and filling in crosswords with the wrong answers while he yelled at whoever was on Jeremy Kyle that episode.
It worried Ashton deeply that that option didn’t actually sound that bad anymore.
God, I need a social life.
Ashton made a conscious effort to have fun then, even if it kind of was in vain.
He drank a cup of cheap beer and teased his friend Calum about his crush for a while, since Michael was MIA (which roughly equated to ‘He got lucky and was currently fucking somewhere’) so he wasn't around to do it.
Ashton wondered if he’d ever been like that when he was young – and worried again because that sounded like something two forty year olds might say as they nursed a pint in their local pub and discussed the same boring job they’d held for the last two decades.
Ashton shuddered at the thought and went to get some punch, pulling his Spiderman mask up a little so that his mouth was uncovered.
The music was really starting to bother him now and it was seriously not helping him get his thoughts in order so that he could make sense of his existential crisis. Ashton sighed as he took a sip of the punch and winced – someone had got a little heavy-handed when they spiked it. Ashton was pretty sure that one sip alone had contained about five bottles of damn vodka.
“This fucking sucks,” Ashton complained to no one in particular, sighing deeply and pulling his mask back down so that no one could see his scowl anymore. (And honestly, Ashton had to congratulate his past self on having the foresight to know that he would need to cover his face up at this damn party. He’d done everyone else a favour, probably.)
Ashton comforted himself that at least the night couldn’t get any worse –
And then someone slammed into him from behind, made him spill punch all over himself, and sent him flying into the drinks table as his limbs tangled with an even ganglier pair.
“What the fuck?!” Ashton spluttered, trying not to drown in the punch bowl because of course he had landed face-down in it and had probably accidentally inhaled like a whole crate of vodka. “Dude, watch where you’re going! God!”
Ashton kind of felt a bit bad. He knew whoever it was – and here he turned to look and realised it was someone dressed as fucking Batman who had ploughed into him – hadn’t actually meant to do it but that didn’t change the fact that Ashton was grouchy and tired and he had a business essay set by his tutor due in for Monday morning that he hadn’t even started yet and now he had spilt punch on his groin and it was really sticky, okay? That fucking sucked.
“I’m sorry! I’m really sorry!” an unfamiliar voice stammered, hauling Ashton bodily off of the drinks table and attempting to wipe him down which basically resulted in a stranger patting his chest and both of them realising at the same time because they started laughing somewhat hysterically.
“That was quite an entrance,” Ashton allowed when his chuckles had subsided. “How’d you even manage to trip over that spectacularly?”
Ashton smiled when a cute-sounding giggle was emitted from beneath the Batman mask and – wait, hold up, Ashton’s brain. Cute?! How was it cute?
Ashton silently berated himself for behaving like a nine year old girl with a crush because he was a man, damnit, and he wasn’t going to get all red-cheeked and smiley because a boy dressed as Batman had giggled near him.
“I think I tripped over some… some badly-placed air on my way in,” the stranger stammered and Ashton started laughing which made Batman giggle again and –
It was cute – and Ashton was officially screwed.
“It’s really awkward actually,” Batman continued, probably looking at Ashton although it was hard to tell because the eyeholes were mere slits that looked like they’d be pretty hard to see out of. (And, thinking about it, that could well have been the root of the problem.) “Like I’m pretty shy so it sucks that… that I always draw so much attention to myself, you know?”
Ashton wondered vaguely why the stranger was even still talking to him since Ashton was just a grumpy cat stinking of punch-flavoured vodka or something and this stranger was cute. (Probably.)
“Maybe it’s your subconscious trying to tell you something,” Ashton said without thinking, having to raise his voice a little to be heard over the music. “Like… Maybe you were meant to be all confident and stuff. So you make people look at you. Uh… by… by falling into the punch bowl…”
“But it was you who did that,” the stranger said and Ashton could hear the smirk in their voice.
“No need to be mean, Batman,” Ashton said and the stranger made a small noise of confusion before he suddenly laughed.
“Oh yeah. I’m wearing a mask.”
Ashton snorted with laughter at that although he had to admit that he hadn’t forgotten he was wearing one. The Spiderman one was a little bit on the snug side and he sort of permanently felt like he was vaguely suffocating.
“Yeah. Same,” Ashton said because he felt like Batman was waiting for him to say something or whatever. “Kind of want to take mine off though. Like… I think it’s restricting my breathing maybe.” Ashton laughed again when the stranger made a small, concerned sound because he hadn’t meant it.
“I want to take my mask off too but I feel like it’s maybe breaking the rules or something?”
“I don’t think there are any rules at a Halloween party, Batman, except maybe dance a lot and get drunk, and I’ve already broken both of those. Except for when you tried to drown me in vodka so… you know… maybe I’m alright after all…”
“Hey! I said I was sorry!” the stranger protested but Ashton could still hear the smile in their voice, even if he couldn’t see it. “So… masks off?”
Ashton considered the offer for a moment. He had to admit, he was interested in seeing what the other boy looked like. His giggle was pretty cute and he had a nice voice, all low and stuff, so Ashton thought he was probably game.
“Yeah, sure. Count of three, yeah? Might as well blow it even more out of proportion than we already have,” he said and Batman laughed.
“Okay then. Three… Two… One!”
Ashton peeled his Spiderman mask off easily enough and took in a breath of air that didn’t taste quite so synthetic. His curly hair was sticking to his forehead with an unpleasant combination of sweat and punch but his hazel eyes were gleaming with amusement which quickly gave way to want because, wow, okay, Batman was fucking gorgeous.
All Ashton could see were clear blue eyes and artfully styled blond hair that had somehow managed to stay quiffed despite the mask and – fuck, was that a lip ring?!
Ashton was so beyond screwed right now. (Except he wasn’t, not yet at least. Unfortunately.)
Ashton threw caution to the wind, poked the stranger in the chest – oh my god, he had muscles too, he was perfect – and said: “You didn’t tell me you were as cute as your laugh. That’s not fair. That’s cheating, that is.”
Ashton realised that probably wasn’t the most eloquent thing he’d ever said but it had the desired effect. The boy blushed prettily and smiled as he hid his mouth behind his black-gloved hand, his eyes crinkling up adorably as he grinned.
“You’re cute too,” the boy stammered suddenly and looked mortified and, okay, Ashton so hadn’t blushed like a six year old girl. (Except he had. He really, really had.)
“So we’re both cheaters then,” Ashton murmured, rolling his mask up and stuffing it into the pocket of his costume. (And really, what did Spiderman want with a pocket? Wouldn’t whatever he put in there fall out when he was swinging from building to building with his web? The designers clearly hadn’t thought that through.) “That’s cool. I can live with that.”
The stranger was still looking pretty flushed and Ashton made a decision, gesturing towards the open door behind them. “You wanna go outside and get some air? You look… hot.” (The last word totally wasn’t a squeak. No way.)
“Yeah, sure,” the boy replied in what could only be described as a bleat. Ashton felt fondness unfurling in his heart and it worried him because he really didn’t need to get a crush on a shy, nervous, really painfully cute blond boy who was a good half a head taller than him and muscular with a lip ring who thought he was cute too and – okay, maybe having a crush on him wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
“What’s your name?” the pretty blond boy asked as they let themselves out into the cool October night air – and honestly, did Ashton just think ‘pretty’? He was turning into a teenage girl, rather than his grandpa now. He guessed there was no saving him.
“I’m Ashton,” he replied after a moment, suddenly smiling slightly because it was nice to see the boy taking a turn at starting a conversation for once. “Ash for short. What about you?”
“I’m Luke,” the boy said and Ashton smiled because Luke really suited him and he had a lip ring and – god, Ashton needed therapy. “Nice to meet you.”
Oh god, he’s so fucking cute.
Ashton wondered how it was possible for someone to be so gorgeous that they completely scrambled his brain because that was what Luke had done to him. He’d turned Ashton into Lauren when she was watching Big Time Rush or something, and it just wasn’t on. There was no dignity in this.
Ashton decided he didn’t give a flying fuck about dignity when Luke patted the spot close next to him on the front steps so that Ashton would sit down next to him, which he did willingly. (Ashton didn’t even consider how ineloquent he was being this evening. At the rate he was going, he’d be lucky if he could even string a sentence together if Luke kept looking at him from under his golden eyelashes like that.)
“So… you… you had fun?” the younger boy asked softly and Ashton shrugged, glancing down at the pumpkins with their softly-burning candles resting on the steps beside them.
“It’s a really awesome house – I mean, it’s huge! – and the decorations were great and like… it was nice to see everyone but… like… I can’t say I’ve enjoyed the party all that much… I mean, it was kind of boring, at least for me… Although the end was pretty fun, eh?” Ashton jostled the boy playfully and Luke gave a timid smile as he answered.
“Yeah… So like… it’s… it’s my house and my friends persuaded me to throw this party… so…”
“So that would mean I just insulted your party then, yeah? Great.” Ashton was pretty sure the colour he had just flushed qualified as puce right now. “Brilliant, brilliant. I’ll just go dig a hole in the ground now and jump into it since I doubt the earth will do me the honour of opening up and swallowing me whole. It never has before. If you could just help me finish the job by piling all of the earth back on over me, that’d be much appreciated –”
Luke silenced Ashton with a kiss which ended abruptly when Ashton reeled back in shock with an eloquent: “You tried to drown me in punch and then you kissed me. Wait, what?!”
“You ramble worse than I do when I’m nervous,” Luke said and he gave a soft smile. “You were stressing yourself out, needlessly I might add.” The blond boy gave Ashton another little smile and added: “I haven’t exactly been having the time of my life either, I’ll admit.” He leant closer, as though he was confessing a secret, and Ashton smiled when he heard Luke’s next words. “I mean, to be honest, I’ve spent most of my time in my bedroom petting my dog so… yeah…”
“Can I meet your dog?” Ashton asked and it probably sounded weird but he didn’t much care.
Luke was adorable and dogs were awesome and maybe this party hadn’t been so bad after all.
“Yeah, sure,” Luke beamed, rising surprisingly gracefully for such a clumsy person and holding his slightly-shaking hand out for Ashton to take. The older boy accepted at once.
“Thanks,” Ashton said and he beamed right back at Luke, his dimples on full display if the way Luke gave him a dreamy look was anything to go by. “And I’m really glad my friends made me come to this party, Luke. It was awesome to meet you.”
Luke smiled like Ashton had just made his year (and honestly, Ashton was feeling exactly the same thing.)
“You’re awesome too,” Luke told him, only to blush when he realised what he’d said. Ashton smiled and pressed a very fleeting kiss to the corner of Luke’s mouth because the blond boy was perfect and the last thing Ashton wanted to do was scare him or upset him or something equally horrible.
He needn’t have worried though, because Luke gave Ashton this blindingly lovely smile as he led him up the stairs and into a room where – oh my god, Ashton had to try so hard not to laugh fondly – two people who looked like Luke’s parents were sitting watching the TV with an old dog lying curled up beside them.
“Hello, dear,” the woman on the bed said with a cheerful smile as the credits for Antiques Roadshow began to roll. “Who’s your friend?”
Ashton smiled at Luke’s embarrassment - and really, how could you forget your parents were sitting in your room watching telly? - and wiped his hand on his costume before he shook both of the hands offered. “I’m Ashton. It’s lovely to meet you both. Luke was just going to show me your dog.”
(Ashton had to supress a laugh because that definitely sounded weird… or maybe he had just drank too much and his dirty mind was running away with him… Ashton wasn’t sure anymore.)
“Aw, that was nice of you, dear,” Luke’s mum said as she smiled at her son who was currently removing the Batman gloves with difficulty. (Ashton had to help him and he couldn't help but wonder how Luke had shoved his frankly enormous - but really pretty, oh my god - hands into them in the first place.) “Your father and I were going to sneak down the back stairs and find some drinks anyway so… We’ll leave you two to it, I think!”
Luke was flushing scarlet when his mum and dad vacated the room, both of them smiling in such a silly way that Ashton started giggling and Luke blushed even redder, if that was at all possible.
“They think we’re going to kiss,” Ashton pointed out as he knelt down on the carpet beside the bed and gave the black and white dog a soft stroke between the ears, since he didn’t want to be presumptuous and get on the bed beside her.
Luke hovered behind him for a moment before his fingers carded gently through Ashton’s curly hair, like he was testing boundaries or something.
Ashton hummed softly, leaning back into the tender touch as the dog butted her head gently into Ashton’s palm, demanding more petting. Ashton was still smiling fondly at the dog when Luke sat down on the edge of the bed and patted the space next to him once more.
“Come sit?” he suggested nervously and Ashton did so at once, smiling encouragingly at Luke since the blond boy looked nervous again. “It… it’s kind of embarrassing that… that my parents were here –”
“No, it’s not,” Ashton disagreed, patting Luke’s shoulder reassuringly. “Like, they just want to make sure you’re okay and everyone stays safe. It’s cute, Luke, honestly.”
“It’s just… like I panic sometimes and they know how to calm me down properly so…”
Damnit. Just when Ashton thought he couldn’t like the boy anymore than he already did, he went and said something like that.
Ashton found himself hugging Luke without meaning to.
“You’re really, really lovely, you know that?” the older boy said and Luke blushed again, petting his dog with surprisingly steady hands as he glanced up at Ashton again.
“So are you,” Luke stammered and he closed the gap between them as his lips gently met Ashton’s once more.
They kissed for a lot longer that time and, when Ashton felt heat beginning to unfurl in his stomach, he swallowed and sat back with difficulty, aware that his pupils were dilated as he closed his eyes for a moment and attempted to catch his breath.
When he opened his eyes, Luke looked to be in much the same state as he was.
“Did… did I do something wrong?” Luke squeaked and Ashton touched his cheek gently, his eyes fond.
“Not even a little bit, Lukey,” he said, blinking in surprise suddenly because where had that nickname come from? “I just… I really do like you and I don’t wanna muck this up… Also, your dog is still here so, yeah… Just a bit awkward.”
Luke giggled and Ashton was relieved that the boy had realised he was joking.
“Hey, you wanna add my number? Then we could… we could meet up soon and… Don’t worry if you don’t want to though… because I could hardly blame you and –”
“I’d love your number,” Ashton promised and Luke’s smile at those words put everything else to shame. “And I’d love to see you again, Luke. Okay?”
“'Kay,” Luke managed with a grin and his face was shining just as brightly as the smile on Ashton’s face. Ashton gave his hand a squeeze before he handed his phone over so that Luke could add his number.
“I should probably head home now,” Ashton said unwillingly and Luke’s face fell a little. Ashton immediately felt bad. “But I’ll text you on my way, okay? Like I only live a few blocks away but I want to help mum with any late-night trick or treaters because she’ll need to make sure the kids are in bed.”
“Okay,” Luke repeated but he was smiling again now. He gave Ashton a tiny, fleeting kiss on the cheek before he sat back again and stroked his dog’s back gently. “I’ll talk to you soon then?” he proposed hesitantly. Ashton smiled and leant forwards to kiss him one more time.
“Soon,” he promised and, if Ashton texted Luke on his way downstairs, nobody had to know.
[To LUKE <3] Sent at 22:45
i had a great time tonight in the end – thank you! also the heart you added after your name? dude, i should no way be smiling so hard. my face is gonna crack or something! :D you made a really cute batman. text me when’s good to meet up again, okay? can’t wait to hear from you! love ash Xx
Ashton didn’t have to wait long for a reply.
[From LUKE <3] Received at 22:49
I had lots of fun too! I asked mum and she says we’re free next weekend so I can meet up with you then if you still want to? And it’s okay, I added the heart eyes emoji thing after your name in my phone so we’re even. (Should I have told you that? Who knows!) Thanks for being so lovely though, honestly :) Love Luke xx
Ashton was still smiling fondly at that because, seriously, Luke was without a doubt the cutest person Ashton had ever spoken to in his whole entire life before!
He was also fairly sure that this had been the best party ever but he wasn’t going to tell Luke that yet. It seemed a little soon – even if the younger boy had added a heart eyes emoji after Ashton’s name in his phone…
Ashton wondered if it was possible to be maybe a tiny bit in love with Luke and decided that, as the colourful leaves swirled around him in a sudden gust of wind and the stars shone down from the inky black blanket of a cold autumnal sky, he definitely could be.
Only time would tell, Ashton supposed, and he couldn’t help thinking that it was a good thing he wasn’t his grandpa because Ashton wanted to spend all the time in the world with Luke and he had a whole lot of time left (if no one tried to drown him in a punch bowl again.)
Ashton grinned as he thought that and replied to Luke’s message, and he was still smiling widely when he got home several minutes later and saw his mum snuggled up under a blanket on the sofa in their quiet house as she watched an old Halloween movie on telly.
Ashton clambered onto the sofa and lay down behind her, giving her a cuddle, and she smiled sleepily as she ruffled his curls.
“You have fun, Poss?” she asked softly, using the pet name she’d loved to call him so much as a baby when she’d decided that he had eyes like a possum (which, okay, rude – and it wasn’t like Ashton loved that name or anything. No way… except he really kind of did...)
“It was awesome, thanks, mum,” Ashton replied, stifling a yawn and burrowing down into the duvet she was lying under. “I met a cute boy and everything. He’s called Luke and he showed me his dog and I accidentally met his parents.”
Anne Marie Irwin made a small noise of surprise and turned to look at Ashton, poking his nose gently with her index finger and giving him a smile.
“You have been busy this evening, Poss. But that’s lovely! I’m very happy for you.” She sounded like she meant it, even if her words were marred by a yawn. “And I’m glad you had fun, love,” she added, patting his cheek as she sat up unwillingly. Anne stretched and brushed her blonde hair away from her face. “But I’m afraid you’ll have to tell me more about it in the morning, I think. I’m too tired now.”
“That’s okay,” Ashton promised, smiling softly as she kissed his cheek and headed for the stairs, still cocooned in her duvet. “I’ll be up soon, okay? Might as well just watch the end of this movie now that it’s on. Goodnight, mum.” Ashton heard her vague “g’night, Poss” and the low creak of the floorboards as she went upstairs, and Ashton smiled softly as he curled up on the sofa and cuddled a cushion to his chest.
This had been the best Halloween ever.