Chapter Text
Luke is ten minutes late. It's really not his fault this time. There had been some fuck up with the subway schedule and he'd ended up having to get a bus, then a taxi, then had to walk, then run. The wind picks up Luke's scarf and smacks it into his face for the third time. The day's already gone to shit and it's not even half nine.
He slows his pace when he gets into the actual building, not wanting to be captured on a stealthy iPhone camera, sprinting through the lobby, and then made into an office meme like Calum was when he wore flared blue jeans one time. The picture still cracks him up every time it's forwarded to his inbox.
"Good morning Mr Hemmings," Jess, the receptionist calls as he runs by. She sounds like she's stifling a laugh at his suffering. His employees are literally heartless.
"Morning," he calls back, out of breath. He's not made for running. His legs are so long and require a lot of energy to constantly lift them.
He glances to the stairs when he reaches them but decides that enough is enough. He pushes the button for the elevator. So he's late. He hardly deserves the fucking death penalty, which is basically what taking the stairs to the eighth floor is.
As soon as he steps into the elevator, he braces his hands against his knees and starts panting, trying to regain his breath so he can stride into the board room without sounding like he's about to drop dead. Fucking subway schedules.
There's a ding and he steps out of the elevator and in his breathless state, walks right into Ashton.
"Fuck, sorry," he breathes, standing upright and running a hand through his sweaty hair that's flopped into his face. Ashton grips him by the shoulders to steady him.
"Are you going to die?" Ashton asks cautiously.
"Yeah. Had to run. Why aren't you at the meeting?"
"The better question is, why aren't you at the meeting Mr Boss Man? You're fifteen minutes late."
Luke groans. "The subway—"
"Yeah, yeah." Ashton grins, throwing a hand around Luke's shoulders and steering him into his office. "Anyway, I sent round an email saying it's been rescheduled to the afternoon."
Luke breathes a long sigh of relief. His employees already don't take him seriously (his newest intern actually calls him bro) he really doesn't need to show up late to a meeting with sweaty hair and be the subject of ridicule for a week.
"What would I do without you." Luke sighs, flopping down into his desk chair.
"Nothing. I expect a $100,000 pay rise."
Luke laughs and wiggles his computer mouse, waking it from standby. "Yeah, yeah, get back to work Irwin."
Ashton duly flips him off and walks out. He stops at the door, "Oh and the new intern's coming over to be interviewed in an hour."
Luke groans again. "As in, sixty minutes?"
"For a CEO you don't really do shit, do you? Yes in sixty minutes."
"Okay," Luke grumbles. He had been looking forward to dicking around on the Internet until the meeting started later, maybe re-forwarding that picture of Calum to everyone.
He leans back in his chair as Ashton walks out, staring out of the glass wall on opposite his desk. He's lucky, he knows he is. Dropping out of college to start up 'HiOrHey' had seemed psychotic at the time but he'd made it. It had been risky, depending totally on the general public's interest in finding out what type of underwear they are or watching his employees try increasingly ridiculous things on camera. Their highest view count on one video to date is over 200 million and it's of Calum enrolling, with all seriousness in an elementary school. It documents his first day complete with dramatic background music when he realises, during lunch time, that he forgot his Capri Sun at home.
He swivels in his chair, not even caring that he's doing that weird thing Ashton always laughs at him for, and smiling at nothing.
-*-*-*-
"Michael's here. I would've just brought him up but I figured I should check and make sure you weren't doing anything weird in here first." Calum says, gliding into his office on his fucking Hoverboard.
"Hey," Luke says, "When do I ever do weird things in here."
"You never know these days." Calum spins around with more grace than Luke ever had on the device. Luke feels a little jealous.
"Get off my fucking Hoverboard. And send him in."
Calum looks at him. Luke lets his bottom lip jut out and tacks on a "Please."
Calum just rolls his eyes and glides out with a somewhat smug smile on his face, turning his head and calling, "Alright Michael he's not jacking off it's safe to enter!"
Luke thinks about yelling profanity at him but figures he shouldn't frighten off the new intern before they've even spoken. He can at least pretend this is a highly professional working environment.
The first thing he sees is bright red hair. Then pale pale skin and green eyes, a piercing above his left one. Then lips that are so pink that Luke stares for a bit.
"Oh," Luke's mouth says without his brain's permission. His immediate instinct to to apologise and then babble about not meaning anything bad by his 'oh' but the intern's –Michael's – lips lift a little in a little smile.
"Nice to finally meet the King of the website I waste hours of my life on."
"Hours?" Luke practically squeaks, like it's news. He sees their users' stats. It's impressive, one person has literally spent a full day and a half scrolling through their app before.
"Yeah. This is probably an accomplishment. Congrats, Mr Hemmings." He smiles, and Luke's heart swells and explodes and he's legally dead for two seconds.
"I prefer Your Majesty." He manages, internally cheering himself for snapping out of his trance and giving a decent answer.
"Of course, sorry." Michael smiles again. Luke looks away.
"Uh. You can sit." He gestures vaguely to the chair opposite his own. Michael walks the short distance to it and of course he stares some more. He's wearing a cream coloured jumper that exposes his collarbones and seems to be too big for him, along with black skinny jeans and Vans.
Luke clears his throat and opens a blank Microsoft Word document, just to take a moment to focus on something else before he starts stammering, before looking at Michael.
"Have you got a résumé?" He asks, sitting back in his seat a little.
"I did. The guy that brought me in here told me you just read them together and laugh at all the bullshit, then throw them away and hire the person anyway." Michael looks like he's hiding a smile.
Fucking Calum.
"Oh. Well maybe you should tell me about yourself then?"
Michael shrugs, tugging his sweater sleeves even further over his hands.
"I did music in college. I play the guitar sometimes. I like your website a lot. I saw you had a job opening. My mom is really good at motivating me to do things I only kinda sorta want to do. So now I'm here. But. But now I'm here, I think I'd really like to work here."
"You're hired." Luke says without a second thought.
-*-*-*-
"Ooo," Ashton laughs, waltzing into Luke's office with Calum on his heels. "Luke wants to fuck the new int-"
"Shh," Luke hisses, gesturing frantically to the wide-open door behind him. "Are you crazy? He'll hear you!"
"We all know it's true,"
"You don't know anything." Luke folds his arms. Calum rolls his eyes and slams the door shut, coming round to the other side of Luke's desk and sitting down in his lap. Luke doesn't even bother trying to complain.
"How can you tell?" Luke grumbles, folding his arms.
"He's exactly your type. Pierced and dyed. I bet he's got tattoos under that sweater too." Calum practically sings, wriggling his butt so he can fit more comfortable into Luke's lap.
Luke stares at Calum's back. "That doesn't mean anything. Tattoos don't mean I want to fuck him. You've got tattoos and you're sitting on me and I've never been more flaccid."
Calum kicks his shin. "Shut up, you're only soft cause we're friends and you know I wouldn't bang you anyway," he sounds hurt, "I'm not like. Unwantable." Luke rolls his eyes because of course he's not. He knows he's not. He's lusted after by approximately three-quarters of his colleagues. Luke and Ashton made a list one time.
"Of course you're not, Cal," Ashton assures him, making him feel good in the subtle weird way he does. Luke is too tired to say anything about it. When Calum's smiling again, Ashton raises his eyebrows at Luke.
"Lust makes you so dramatic," He says. He picks up the remote next to his small fish tank and turns the TV on.
"Right?" Calum says, opening Facebook on Luke's computer. "Though Michael could be one of your better hook ups. He's really cool, adapting really well to this place. Ash told him we had to circle jerk for like, initiation and—"
"Ashton," Luke sighs, leaning back and shifting against the weight of Calum on his thighs. "I really don't have time for a lawsuit, you can't just—"
"He called my bluff right away." Ashton says, settling on an episode of SpongeBob Squarepants. "Pulled his pants right down and said 'game on'. I'm impressed."
"Ashton nearly had a stroke." Calum giggles. "His exact words were, 'I, uh, I'm, you, I.' Michael nearly choked with laughter," he sighs reminiscently, clicking into Luke's account and typing out a status update. I'm gay it reads. Alex, who works in editing, replies immediately; 'Tell us something we don't know.'
Luke shakes his head, scrubbing a hand over his face. He contemplates telling Alex to maybe go do some work, but he knows he's only get a sullen 'You go do some work' in response. "You can't just go around getting interns to pull their pants down." Luke presses because he's sure there's a violation of something in there.
"I didn't get him to. All I said was that there'd be a circle jerk in the near future." Ashton explains. Of course. That makes it all okay then.
"It's fine Luke." Calum sighs, getting tired of the subject. There's a short silence. Calum logs onto his own Facebook.
"We should bring him here tomorrow." Ashton muses during the commercial break. "Get to know him a little."
"Don't," Luke says immediately. He's just met Michael. Michael, a boy he may potentially like. He can't just launch into talking to him casually.
He pretends not to see the smirk Calum sends Ashton.
-*-*-*-
Of course they bring Michael the next day. Calum zooms in on his Hoverboard, followed by Ashton, then a mess of red hair. Michael's wearing a black tee shirt today and there are three thick black bands tattooed around his forearm. Of course there are! Luke swallows. This is already a bad idea. It was a bad idea yesterday but hell its gotten worse.
"Hey," he smiles at Luke.
Calum blows him a kiss, and Michael laughs.
"Hi," Luke replies.
"Is it me or are you the most relaxed boss there is?" Michael smiles.
"Luke actually isn't relaxed at all." Ashton says, settling into the couch. "He seems calm and all but if you pry away at that he's really screaming inside like 24/7."
Michael and Calum start to giggle. Michael's smile is so pretty. Luke shrugs his shoulders as casually as he can. "You got me there
Calum is spinning around in circles. Literally. He's so good at it Luke wants to go push him over.
"So Michael," Calum says, turning around dramatically to face him. "Tell us about you."
"Oh, well. There's nothing much to tell." Michael sits next to Ashton. He seems so comfortable. Luke wishes he could too.
"Have you ever done shots?" Ashton asks, flicking through the programmes on TV.
Michael nods, but then stops, looking at Luke, like he's remembering that the man with the power to fire him is in the room.
Luke smiles a little. "I'm not going to fire you," he says. He'd be the definition of a hypocrite if he did. Just last weekend he was lying facedown next to Calum on a sidewalk, absolutely sloshed and mumbling about shareholders.
"Thanks." Michael smiles back.
"Tell us a story then," Ashton encourages. "What's the weirdest experience you've had? Like while drunk."
"Oh," Michael chuckles quietly, "Um. Okay. So like,"
"The best stories always start with 'so like'," Calum interrupts, only sounding half sarcastic.
"Let him talk." Luke tries to sound authoritative. Calum blows a raspberry at him.
Michael laughs, sitting up and folding his legs, somehow making all six feet and probably three inches of him look so small. "Okay, so like," he repeats, running a hand through his hair. "It was about a month ago. I was in a club with my friend. His name's Josh and it was a Saturday night I think. Okay. Let me set the scene.
"The club was really dark. Keep that in mind. Like really dark. I couldn't see shit. There was strobe lighting but that's unreliable as hell when it comes to actually seeing. Anyway I'd had about five or ten shots. I was pretty gone already. And I wanted to dance, you know? I was drunk and I wanted to dance. Completely reasonable.
"So I get Josh to bring me to the dancefloor and we start dancing. For hours. And eventually I start to get turned on. Like really turned on. I don't know why vodka does this to me but it does. And so I yell to Josh that I'm going to the bathroom and he yells back that he doesn't give a fuck where I'm going. Josh is a mean drunk. So I stumble around looking for a bathroom. I find one eventually and walk into it, and it's completely empty.
"So I pull my dick out." He stops, accepting the amused groans that echo around the room at this new development. Michael laughs as Ashton smushes a pillow into his face.
"Go on," Ashton says into the pillow, laughing quietly.
"So like," he says, still laughing, "I start jerking off obviously. I'm just wandering about the club bathroom, cock in hand, very sweaty and really drunk."
Everyone is listening to Michael with rapt attention, everyone loves a good dick story. Luke has been glued to him since the start. Michael's practically lighting up the room, he doesn't see how he can concentrate on anything else.
"And so this girl walks in. My ex girlfriend, of course. Who else? And I'm like, 'Ashley, why are you in the boys' bathroom?' still whacking off. And she's like, 'Michael, this is the girls' bathroom you disgusting son of a bitch.' And then I came. Like, everywhere."
Luke starts to choke with laughter, doubling over as his body shakes with it. Calum falls off his Hoverboard to the ground, and Luke just laughs harder.
Michael takes a deep breath and waves his hand to show he isn't done. "But wait. There's more. So I got come in her hair. And she starts to scream at me that this is why she broke up with me. And I'm like 'but Ashley, I broke up with you.'" Michael's really into it now, eyes gleaming, putting on voices and using hand gestures.
"So I put my dick away and this is when it gets crazy."
"How crazy?" Luke and Calum ask at the same time. Michael grins, stretching and relaxing fully into story-telling mode.
"She starts talking a million miles per minute about every single thing I've ever done wrong. And I started to like wash my hands and wipe the come off the bathroom floor because I'm no heathen. And when I'm done I stand up and say, 'Please get Josh'. Josh said I blacked out after that." Michael shrugs. "I haven't seen her since then."
"That," Calum says, laying down on the floor, "was brilliant."
Michael smiles bashfully, and Luke tries not to stare too much. If Michael's looks didn't have him in deep enough, his personality definitely does.
-*-*-*-
Luke goes home early that day. When lunch is over, Ashton convinces Michael to star in his segment, Changing Your Face Structure With Makeup and they go off to find Bryana to help them.
Luke leaves his office, pointedly ignoring Calum's knowing looks. It takes him a whole twenty minutes to successfully hail down a taxi and that'd normally ruin his good mood but the sound of Michael's laugh is still playing on repeat in his head. He even chats with the driver on the way to the train station.
As soon as he enters his house, he runs a bath. He pulls his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans and it makes a noise as soon he sets it on the bathroom counter. He sighs, picking it up and reading at the text on the lock screen.
Michael says he loves you and wants to have your babies Calum texts him.
Luke rolls his eyes, the mental image of Michael round with child making him snort. Delete this number he replies, before switching off his phone and tugging off his shirt.
He wastes no time in sinking into the almost-too-hot bath, shutting his eyes and breathing in the scent of the bath soap his mum ships him from Australia on a monthly basis. Its vanilla and he's been using it even before HiOrHey, and it calms him down to no end, but you can't get it in New York. She's always been so good to him, being there for him even after he dropped out of college to set up the website. Even when he'd get angsty when everything didn't magically fall into place straight away and he'd trash his room like a very tall member of Oasis or something. He loves his mum.
He makes a mental note to call her later tonight.
As he lays in the water, his mind starts to wander along the lines of family. Not necessarily his real family, but Calum and Ashton and his other friends. It's been too long since he hung out with them in a place that wasn't at work. And he should get to know the new people better. They'd taken in a lot of new interns of late. And New Year's is coming up soon.
The plan is formulated in his sleepy brain before he gets up to rinse off the suds. New Year's party, New Year's Eve. Everyone's invited. He sends round the text before drying off and crawling into his bed.
-*-*-*-
"Isn't it a bit sad, having a party just so you can bone the new intern?" Ashton greets Luke the next morning.
"Michael, Ashton." Calum corrects him, actually walking for once instead of using Luke's Hoverboard. "We're friends now."
"Yeah but I'm just worried Luke'll nut off at the mention of his name."
"You're both fired." Luke hisses, his previously semi-relaxed mood quickly dissipating.
"You say that everyday. Where's this party going to be anyway?" Calum asks, coming to sit in Luke's lap. He picks up his chocolate chip muffin and proceeds to nibble all the chocolate chips out of it. Luke pushes Calum out of his lap and onto the floor.
"'M renting out a bar for the night." Luke explains, pressing his foot down on Calum's stomach when he tries to get up. "I said so in the text, if you'd have actually read it instead of making so many assumptions."
Ashton has had his eyes narrowed at Luke ever since he floored Calum. Luke decides it's in his best interest of he lets him go. Calum is starting to wheeze anyway.
"Someone call HR," Calum gasps exaggeratedly. Ashton takes the bait, of course, rushing over to Calum's side to help him up. Luke makes the whip sound and no one even looks at him.
Once Calum's back on his feet (or leaning against Ashton's chest with his face buried into his shoulder while Ashton rubs his back), Luke looks down at his fingernails, suddenly self-conscious.
"Do you... Do you think it's obvious? Do you think he knows?" He asks, voice lowered. He wants to get to know him a bit better, talk to him about more than his drunken encounters with his ex-girlfriend. But he doesn't want to, like. Reek of desperation.
"What, you want me to give you brotherly advice after you tried to murder me?" Calum's voice is sniffly and muffled by Ashton's shoulder
"I do dumb things. I'm a Cancer. Should I cancel this party?"
"No," Ashton sighs. "Look, Michael's doing a video in the afternoon. He's going to sit in a chair while someone offscreen compliments him for three minutes and twenty seconds. You should go watch. Actually talk to him, maybe."
"I do talk to him," Luke blatantly lies. "But compliments, really? I can't believe people actually watch our videos."
"No, people love Michael. He wrote an introductory article about himself and his love of memes for the website, and a picture went up with it and it got like a million shares." Ashton pats Calum's head and pulls him up gently by his hair. He raises his eyebrows at the brown boy almost imperceptibly and Calum nods. Luke assumes he's asking if he's okay. It's annoying, their wordless conversations.
"Okay," Luke says. "I'll go."
______
"Boss!" Michael greets Luke as he enters the small room, set up with a white background and a small couch, in which Michael is sitting. There's another chair facing it, and lighting and sound equipment all over the place.
"Five minutes, Michael," Alex tells him. "You ready?"
"For someone to come kiss my ass for three and a half minutes? Yes, I think I can handle it." Michael smirks.
"Don't stop sassing me and we're doing insults next." Alex threatens.
"Yeah yeah. So Luke." Michael turns to face him. "What brings you here?"
"Oh uh. Nothing. I'm just. Checking things out."
Michael nods, eyes green and sparkly. "I'm probably gonna giggle a lot, I. I get weird with compliments."
"Oh." Luke is both regretting and rejoicing in the fact that he came. "Well I just start stammering, so. Giggling's better I guess."
"Really?" Michael smiles at him, holding Luke's gaze so easily that Luke wants to punch himself for feeling the need to look away. Michael is simply Too Much, too pretty to be real.
"Yeah. 'S really bad. Like. Calum says my hair looks good and I just start dying."
"I like your lip ring," Michael says all of a sudden. It's not an unusual thing to say, Luke knows his piercing attracts a lot of interest but hearing it from Michael makes blood rush into his face.
"I told you the consequences so technically, you just tried to murder me," Luke accuses.
"Sorry, won't happen again." Michael assures him, a smirk on his lips. He fiddles with the small mic attached to his shirt and sits up straight, just as Alex picks up a bundle of papers that must contain a list of compliments. Calum rushes in, a slice of a watermelon in hand. Luke doesn't ask.
"Sorry I'm late, I'm here," he pants, taking his seat next to Alex.
"You're going to be the one complimenting him?" Luke asks. Calum nods.
"Yeah, we took a vote and I apparently have the sexiest voice or whatever. Now are you gonna come sit or just hover over Michael the whole time?" Calum smirks at Luke.
"In five," he calls, "four," Alex begins, while Calum laughs at Luke's red face, adjusting the camera. Luke comes to sit next to him, watches Michael on the tiny screen that definitely doesn't do Michael's beauty justice.
"Hi, Michael," Calum's voice is ridiculously flirty. "How are you today?"
"Great. Ready to do what I love the most. Being paid attention to." Michael smirks.
"Yeah? I like your hair. 'S a really pretty red." Calum says. "Looks really soft too."
Michael looks down, smiling at his lap. "Thanks," he says, voice a tiny bit quieter; you wouldn't even notice the change in tone of you weren't ridiculously tuned in to everything Michael does like well, Luke is.
"You look lovely today, Michael," Calum continues smoothly, and he starts to really giggle, and that's when Luke gets up and leaves.
-*-*-*-
It's the day before New Years' Eve and Luke's phone has been constantly ringing. He's laying back on his bed watching Lizzie McGuire and his friends won't leave him alone.
He would turn off the volume but seems to like torturing himself because he doesn't. He just stares at the TV screen and listens to his phone beep.
He didn't talk to Michael for the rest of the day and he bolted out of the office as soon as he could. It's not like, a thing. Michael is attractive and giggly and funny and has really nice lips and Luke is only a man. He can't help how he feels. But sometimes his fantasies stray away from the area of sucking Michael's dick to kingdom come, to like, cuddling him for hours. And it makes him think that maybe it is a thing, how he feels about Michael.
His phone beeps again and this time it's a text. Giving in, Luke sighs and picks up his phone, unlocking it instead of trying to read the mess of texts on his lockscreen.
He reads Calum's first
Pick up!!!!!!!
Pick up or I'm breaking up with you
Stop being a baby
So what was with you and your boy today followed by ten wink emojis. Luke doesn't bother rising to the bait even though the 'your boy' makes him want to type abuse like hell.
There's just one from Ashton, despite the fact that Luke has ten missed calls from him. Obviously he and Calum are collaborating.
I'm texting Michael your number is all Ashton said. Luke is frozen for two seconds before he snaps into action, calling Ashton and putting it on speakerphone. Ashton giggles on the third ring.
"Hello?"
"Why are you like this?" Luke groans. "You can't go around giving out my number."
"Actually I've never given anyone your number before. Just Michael."
"I don't need your weird matchmaking to help me." Luke grumbles, folding his arms.
"Right. Cal says Michael giggled once today and you nearly came."
"No I didn't," Luke says. "I don't know what you're talking about. Anyway, 's getting late. I'm gonna go to bed."
"It's seven."
"Yeah, bye," Luke hangs up.
He drops his phone on his bed and takes a few breaths. Fuck. Fuck!
His phone starts to vibrate. Luke rolls over and smushes his face into a pillow. Fuuuuck.
He picks it up and stares at the unsaved number. It continues vibrating in his hand and he feels like it's mocking him. He accepts the call after a few seconds, holding his phone to his ear.
"Hey," Michael says into his ear.
"Hi." Luke says, sounding more uncomfortable than he ever has in his whole life.
"So Calum texted me your number, said you needed to speak to me really really urgently."
"Did he?" Luke asks, although he knows exactly what happened.
"Yeah. But you don't... Don't sound like you're being murdered, so that's good," Michael says, sounding sleepy.
"Yeah I'm. I'm very alive." Luke mentally face palms. He feels like his whole vocabulary is just gone.
"Yeah?" Michael says, voice quiet and raspy. "So what's wrong then?"
"Nothing. Calum's just a drama queen."
There's a short silence and then Michael chuckles quietly and Luke honest to God wants to squeal at the noise.
"About your New Year's party," Michael begins. Luke shakes his head.
"It's more of a, um. An intimate get together."
"In a huge bar in the middle of town?" Michael laughs.
"Okay, I see why you might think that." Luke agrees, smiling a little too. "But I didn't invite that many people."
"Oh of course, just everyone that works for HiOrHey," Michael teases.
"Did you call to make fun of me?" Luke is definitely not grinning like an idiot.
"Yes." Michael giggles and Luke smiles even bigger. "No I wanted to ask if I need to bring anything. Or do I just show up?"
Fucking hell. "No you can just. Can just show up." He had to be generous on top of everything else. He had to be.
"Cool," Michael yawns loudly. "I swear you're not boring me. I'm just tired."
"Yeah?" Luke smiles. Michael's voice fills his brain, relaxing him. He sinks a little further into the mattress, the tense feeling in his stomach loosening a little. "Being complimented take that much out of you?"
"You have no idea. We did three takes. Raised my self esteem through the roof."
"Good," Luke says, stretching out a little. "Everything they said was true."
"How would you know?" Michael teases, "you left as soon as you could,"
Luke's skin heats a little. "I had things to do," he defends himself. "Won't happen again." He adds, very stupidly. He's being dumb now, making pointless promises he can't keep.
"Yeah?" Michael sounds like he's smiling. "You won't leave me again?"
Luke swallows. God.
"Promise."