Work Text:
Luke comes in late, opening Michael's door quietly so he doesn't disturb his parents, who are asleep just down the hall.
Michael's sat up on his childhood bed with his earphones in, a notebook on his lap and a pen in his hand, songwriting. When Michael remains expressionless, Luke gives him a huge, exaggerated smile, showing both rows of teeth. Michael rolls his eyes, taking out his earbuds.
"You're in my house." Michael says, raising an eyebrow.
"You're so observant, I love it." Luke starts to kick off his shoes.
"How'd you get in here?" Michael asks him, setting his pen and notepad on the desk next to his bed and moving over a little to make room for Luke.
"Uh, the front door?" Luke chuckles, pulling his shirt off over his head and tugging his jeans off so he's just in his boxers.
"You have a key?" Michael asks, pulling open the top drawer by his bed and throwing him a t-shirt.
Luke catches it and pulls it on. "You gave me one during the break, forgetful."
Michael's lips lift in a smile. "You kept it?"
"God, you're easy to please." Luke laughs, lifting the blankets and climbing in next to Michael. He lays his neck on Michael's shoulder and sighs contentedly. "Yes, I kept it. How else would I sneak into your house at night if I didn't?"
"Mm, true." Michael rests his cheek on the top of Luke's head. "Where were you?" He wonders after a few seconds of comfortable silence.
"A club. Apparently I'd been out of the public eye for too long. Don't want the fans losing interest!" Luke says, false enthusiasm in his voice.
Michael laughs softly. "Management tell you to get off your ass and do something?"
"Yeah. It wasn't all that bad. Calum got absolutely sloshed. He's asleep on your sofa." Luke yawns suddenly, mouth opening wide as he huffs out a long breath. He presses his lips to Michael's neck after. "I'd rather be here with you."
"You'd rather be home with your recluse of a boyfriend?"
"I'd rather be home with the love of my life." Luke amends, blowing a raspberry against Michael's neck. Luke would never stand for Michael putting himself down and it's just one of the many reasons Michael loves him so much. "You're not a recluse, you just prefer being inside."
"Do you like," Michael shrugs the shoulder Luke is leaning on so he looks up and pays attention to him, "make people feel good about themselves on default or?"
"Everyone is beautiful." Luke says after a few seconds of staring blatantly at Michael's lips. "Especially you." Michael snorts and Luke shakes his head determinedly. "I'm serious. I know I've already hit that and all but ten out of ten would bang."
"How much did you drink tonight?" Michael asks.
"Three glasses of orange juice." Luke grins proudly. Michael nods, impressed. There was never a lack of people that wanted to buy Luke a drink. Michael knows how hard it is to turn down free shots.
"Why?"
"Wanted to be sober when I came home. Wanted to spend some time with you. I've missed you."
"We've literally spent every waking moment together for the last 6 years."
"Still."
"Aw, baby." Michael grins. "Are you gonna keep staring at my lips or are you gonna kiss me?"
Luke puckers his lips and shuts his eyes and Michael shakes his head fondly before leaning in to kiss him. Neither of them move to deepen it, after Luke parts his lips and Michael lets his tongue enter his mouth. Their tongues slide against each other's and they kiss lazily for a few minutes, pulling apart when their lips are kiss-swollen and their breathing is just a little heavier.
It's enough, for the both of them, and they're glad of the fact that they don't always need sex and orgasms to show their love for one another. Although there's a time for that too, tonight isn't it.
"And Ash and Cal say we can't go two days without fucking." Luke giggles.
Michael laughs. "They don't get us."
"Remember the sex ban?"
"God that was a mess."
"You ate me out on Ashton's bed just to spite him." Luke sighs nostalgically.
"It was real funny till he found come on his sheets."
"I honestly thought he was going to kill us."
Michael laughs at the memory of Luke hiding in a broom closet for an hour, refusing to come out no matter how much Michael assured him that Ashton was, in fact, not going to injure him. Ashton wasn't the physically violent type. He'd maybe give him a stern talking to at most.
"I love you." Michael says after a short silence. Luke's looking up at his ceiling, at the glow in the dark stars that they stuck up there together before they left to properly start the band all those years ago.
"I love you too." Luke says softly. His hand fumbles around looking for Michael's in the dark. When he finds it, he interlocks their fingers, squeezing tight, like he's anchoring himself to this moment, with Michael. It's the biggest comfort in the word for him, knowing that no matter what changes and how many countries they go to in a year, Michael will always have Luke and Luke will always have Michael; something constant amidst what can sometimes be chaos.
"Are you holding my hand? Nerd." Is what Michael says instead.
"You ruin everything." Luke mutters.
Michael just laughs and holds Luke hand tighter as he tries to pull away.
"No, come back, I didn't mean it," he whines, eyes widening with pretend hurt.
Wordlessly, Luke extends his hand towards him again and Michael takes it eagerly.
"You know what's weird?" Michael says.
"What?"
"We've literally been together for five years. And I'm still not sick of you yet."
"And they said we wouldn't last." Luke grins.
"I was always scared that we were just... That the only reason we were dating was because it was the easiest thing to do." Michael shrugs.
Luke looks up at Michael and nods. "Me too. For the longest time I thought you might only be with me because there was no one else to be with."
"Wanna know a secret?" Michael says quietly after a second.
"What is it?" Luke raises an eyebrow.
"I've been in love with you since year 9."
"No fucking way." Luke gasps, although it's clear in his eyes that he kind of guessed that already.
"No really. I really wanted to kiss you and I didn't know what to do with that so I just channeled all that emotion into hate."
"Huh." Luke blinks, taking it in. "I just hated you because you hated me. You used to yell at me for no reason. Then one day you just kissed me."
"Yeah." Michael smiles at the memory. "The beginning of an era."
"We should sleep. It's three a.m. and I need to wake up early enough to sneak both myself and Calum out before your mom wakes up and yells at us."
Michael laughs quietly, and settles down to go to sleep. "Goodnight Lukey."
Luke raises their hands, fingers still intertwined, and kisses the back of Michael's hand. "'Night, Mikey."