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Ashton was disrupted by the large body suddenly flopping on top of him, covering his lap with his heavy yet bony frame.
"Ashhhhy, I'm bored," Luke cried, reaching up to play with Ashton's loose hair.
Trying to wrestle his phone out from underneath Luke, Ashton focused back on it. "I don't know, but I'm trying to do something."
"What are you doing?"
"Important stuff."
"Like what?"
"Stuff, Luke, okay?"
"Fine." Without saying anything else, Luke crawled off from the couch and retreated to the empty bunk area in the back of the tour bus, his arms hugging his stomach the whole time.
Dammit, Ashton thought as he locked his phone, setting it down. In the many years he'd known Luke, he had picked up on his gestures. When he was nervous, he chewed on the inside of his cheeks and twisted the lip ring with his tongue. When he was scared, his shoulders buckled in and he scratched his arms like no tomorrow. When he was happy to see Ashton, he'd grip his own fingers and tended to be attached to Ashton's hips. When he was self-conscious, he would try to curl up and keep his eyes cast down from even Ashton.
The others had learned just as quickly as Ashton that he would only unfurl for the older boy-and even then it took a lot of coaxing on Ashton's part.
Standing, he slowly walked to the bunk area, seeing the curtain drawn across Luke's bunk. He sat down with his back pressed against the frame, drawing his knees in.
A moment passed before Ashton got out the words, "I'm sorry, Luke." He waited a minute for a response but none followed. "I'm not mad at you, you know. I didn't mean to snap at you like that." He blew a strand of curly hair out of his face and said quietly, "You're mad at me."
"No," immediately came the muffled response from behind the curtain.
Ashton looked over his shoulder as Luke stirred in his bunk, lightly pushing back the curtain some. It was slight, but Ashton took it as an invitation. He pulled himself into the bunk, moving forward to press against Luke and wrap an arm around him. He nosed his warm shoulder before pressing a soft kiss to the skin. "I'm stupid, you're stupid, we're both stupid. That wasn't even a fight, okay?"
Luke pushed back against Ashton, only.nodding. They laid silently for a while before he asked, "Ash?"
"Hmm?"
"Am I still your everything?"
Ashton's body never tensed so quickly. That was-what a year ago? He had sworn Luke had been asleep, but- "You remember that?"
Luke rolled over, now facing the older boy, a sneaky smirk across his face. "Am I?"
Ashton couldn't help the heat rising in his cheeks. He'd said that before they'd even started dating, before he was confident enough to even tell Luke that he'd had a crush on him for forever. The only reason he'd gotten those words out was because he thought Luke could never hear him, thought he was already in some state of sleep. He didn’t want him to remember, didn’t want him to realize how long he had secretly loved the boy.
“No, you’re not,” Ashton said, starting to unravel his arm from underneath Luke.
The blonde boy laughed and asked again, “Am I your everything, Ashton?” They struggled back-and-forth, the older boy trying to escape while Luke kept him trapped in his arms.
“Stop.”
“Am I your everything?”
“No, asshole.”
“Am I your everything?”
“Michael was telling me the other day that-”
“Am I your everything?”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
“Am I your everything?”
“Dammit, Luke! You are okay, you are you are you are! Now leave me-"
His voice was cut off by Luke’s lips pressing against him, forcing him to stop squirming around. Falling into the kiss, Ashton sighed in his mouth, wishing they could stay like this forever. He loved Luke (honestly, he did), and every time they kissed it was like the first time they had. He wasn’t sure if he’d ever get used to the wonderful taste.
Luke pulled away after a minute, covering Ashton's warmed cheeks. "Why are you embarrassed?"
He nervously twisted around on the bunk before saying, "I loved you so much for so long, Luke, so long before I told you. I-I always thought you'd think it was...weird."
"Weird? I'm plenty used to weird. God, Ash, you are like the definition of weird. Why do you think I love you?" Luke kissed him again, humming into his mouth.
"You're too much for me sometimes, you know that."
"I love you," he whispered against his lips. Pulling back, he shouted, "I love you, Ashton Fletcher Irwin!"
"Shhh, stop," Ashton whined.
Raising his voice even louder, Luke practically screamed to all of California, "I fucking love you, Ashy!" He started making all these fake moaning sounds (sounds Ashton was very familiar with by now), and yelled a few dirty obscenities before Ashton covered his mouth with his hand. Luke was smiling under his fingers, but the older boy just rolled his eyes.
"I hate you," Ashton told him.
"Love you too, honey buns."
(Just outside the tour bus stood two boys, one blue haired, the other dark with a streak of blonde, their hands roving across each other as they pressed their lips closer and closer together. Upon hearing Luke's loud declaration of love for Ashton, they paused, laughed, and met again to continue their kiss, quickly dismissing the usual antics of their lovesick friends.)