Chapter Text
Luke messily scribbles notes down on his notebook of staff paper, his fountain pen gliding across the paper and never missing a single thing that Luke's brain was thinking. Luke pulls his hand back and reads over the notes, humming the melody he wrote as he reads it. He's satisfied as to how it sounds in his brain, but he's not quite sure if it'll sound good on his expensive violin. He sets down the fountain pen and picks up the wooden instrument and bow, playing through what he had written on the paper. The beautiful sounds just flow from his violin, almost effortlessly, and he's happy with how it sounds.
It'll only be a few days at the most before he'll be playing his new songs on stage in front of hundreds of people, he has concerts quite often. It's his favourite thing to do, play his violin for people who care about his favourite genre of music, classical. To Luke, it's almost like hip hop and pop and rock and all of those other genres don't exist; he only listens to classical music.
Luke is so wrapped up in his music that he doesn't notice the doorbell ringing, and when he does, he's frowning in annoyance and setting down his expensive instrument to go look through the little hole in his apartment door. It's his stupid neighbour, Michael, who he hates just because Michael wears those stupid band t-shirts and he blasts their stupid music. Even Luke can hear the way too heavy sounds of rock a few doors down.
Luke opens the door and stares expectantly at Michael, his face unamused and annoyed.
"Hi, Luke," Michael says with an annoyingly happy smile. Luke doesn't respond, he doesn't say much anyways. "I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my place for dinner tonight, you've been really successful lately and I thought we could celebrate a bit," Michael says, leaning on the doorframe.
"Do you even listen to my music?" Luke asks, his voice sharp. Michael shakes his head.
"No, but you've been in the paper a lot."
"Do you even read the paper?" Luke asks, still not amused.
"No, but my mom does and she called me this morning saying that I should go talk to you," Michael explains, and Luke rolls his eyes.
"Go away, Michael, I'm not going with you," Luke says, and proceeds to shut the door in the boy's face. He can hear Michael's protests through the door, but he locks it and goes back to his spot in the living room with his violin. He picks it up and starts playing whatever comes to mind; he's not quite sure what it is but it seems a little familiar to him. It sounds like something that his dad would've played in the garage when Luke was a kid, before his dad left. Luke pulls the bow away from the strings and furrows his eyebrows, he's so confused as to what he's playing and why he remembers it. There's lyrics, he knows, but he only knows a few words.
Where are you? And I'm so sorry.
That's all Luke knows, and he puts the bow to the strings again and plays that line over and over again until the next line comes.
I cannot sleep, cannot dream tonight.
Luke can't think anymore. He doesn't know what song it is and he has no idea why he knows it. It sounds like something that could be either rock or pop, he's not quite sure, but he recognises it and it's driving him crazy.
Maybe Michael knows the song...
Luke sets the violin down and rushes back to his door, opening it up and seeing Michael close his own door behind him, and Luke grabs his keys before walking to Michael's apartment and ringing the bell.
"Oh, so you've decided to join me?" Michael asks with a smile. Luke shakes his head, frowning in confusion at the stupid lyrics replaying in his head.
"There's this song, I don't know what it is, but I can't get it out of my head and I thought you might know it," Luke says quietly, avoiding eye contact.
"Sing it," Michael says, and Luke shakes his head quickly. He hates singing in front of people, he's only ever sung with his dad before, but he was little and he hasn't seen his dad in over 20 years now. "Okay, then play it on the viola," Michael suggests, and Luke glares at him.
"It's not a fucking viola," he mutters as he turns and motions for Michael to follow him. He unlocks his apartment and lets the boy inside, rolling his eyes as Michael studies everything inside. Luke picks up his violin and starts playing the short little part of the song that he knows, and he watches Michael's eyes light up.
"Oh, that's I Miss You by Blink-182!" Michael exclaims, and Luke frowns again. He's seen Michael with a Blink-182 shirt before, and if that band is anything like the ones he hears coming from Michael's apartment, then that's not right at all. Luke remembers the song being sad and kind of soft.
"That's- that's not it," Luke shakes his head, looking over at Michael. "It wasn't heavy, it was sad and quieter," Luke tells him. "It's not anything like what you listen to."
"That's Blink," Michael insists. "They have a few slower songs, that's one of them."
"But I swear it's not, it's not anything like what I hear from your apartment all the time," Luke tells him, and Michael laughs.
"How about I play the song for you and you see if it's the same one," Michael says, and Luke's kind of confused. It's not like he has a CD and a CD player on him, and he certainly does not have a record and record player with him. "On my phone, Luke, I have the song on my phone."
"How do you have songs on your phone?" Luke asks, surprised.
"Jesus, you really have no idea how iTunes works?" Michael asks, and Luke doesn't even know what iTunes is. His cellphone is super old, it's one of the ones with a keyboard on the part that slides out from forever ago. Luke's had that phone since he was just barely a teenager. Michael pulls out his iPhone and taps the screen a few times before tilting it so Luke can see. It's a picture of three guys with a bunch of tattoos (Luke would be scared of them if he met them) and it has a bunch of names of songs and albums underneath. Michael clicks 'I Miss You' and turns up the volume.
Luke kind of feels like he's going to be sick, he really does know this song and it reminds him so much of his dad. Michael's singing along to the song, and Luke sets his violin and bow down, rubbing his face. He's feeling like everything is crashing down on him at once, he's thinking of his dad working on a car in the garage and singing along with this song like Michael is, all into it and sometimes singing the guitar part, and Luke's crying as the song finishes.
"Get out," Luke says quietly, pushing Michael towards the door.
"Wait, what's wrong?" Michael's starting to ask, but Luke interrupts him.
"Just go, leave me alone," he says, pushing Michael out and closing and locking the door. Luke slides down the door and just cries into his hands, it's really hitting him hard that he hasn't seen his dad in over 20 years. He remembers being eight years old and waiting on the front porch for his dad to come home after school, he had just waited there until his mum called him inside for dinner, and he would go back outside and wait. When he was older, about 12 or 13, his mum had told him that his dad left and was never coming back.
Luke's sobbing still, it really hurts and all he can do is remember everything, he wants to stop remembering everything because all it's doing is making him hurt even more. He hears the doorbell ringing, and Luke just wants to scream because he's not in the mood to talk to Michael anymore, he doesn't want to see his stupid face ever again.
"Luke, please," Michael says from outside, and Luke lets out an especially loud sob, and then covers his mouth with his hand. He bites down on his palm, he just can't stop remembering the pain of waiting every day for a year after his dad left for him to come home, he wants to forget everything about his dad. "Luke, please let me in."
Luke gives in and stands up, shakily unlocking the door and opening it just a little bit. Michael comes in and closes the door behind him, pulling Luke into a warm hug. Luke just cries into Michael's shoulder, he doesn't know what else to do and everything just hurts.
"It's okay, Luke, it's okay," Michael whispers, his hands gently rubbing Luke's back, and Luke has to admit that it's comforting and he's calming down a whole lot more. Soon, he's just hiding his face in Michael's neck and taking deep breaths. "What's wrong? What happened?" Michael asks gently, and Luke sniffles before answering.
"My dad, he loved that song, and I just remember listening to it with him when I was little before he-" Luke cuts himself off, it was hard enough to choke that much out. "Before he left," he whispers, trembling.
"I'm so sorry, Luke, I wouldn't have played it if I knew, I'm so sorry," Michael murmurs, pulling back just enough to look Luke in the eye. Luke hates it, he hates the way that Michael's staring at him, he doesn't trust Michael enough to continue talking about his dad. He's already shared too much. A tear rolls down his face, and Michael leans forwards and kisses his cheek, wiping the tear slightly.
"Go," Luke whispers, looking down to avoid Michael's eyes. It scares him that Michael looks so comforting and trusting, Luke is scared of having relationships and friendships. Everyone he's known except for his mum left him heartbroken, he doesn't have friends because the ones he had left and he's too scared to make new ones.
"Please, Luke, you should come over for dinner tonight," Michael offers, and Luke has to try really hard to shake his head. "It's already almost 7, you shouldn't have to cook for yourself tonight."
"I'm fine, Michael, I'm fine," he mumbles. Luke thinks he's had enough human interaction for three days.
"Just dinner, that's all I'm asking, Luke," Michael says, and Luke feels horrible for denying, so he reluctantly agrees with a slow nod of his head. "I made this new pizza recipe, it's so good," Michael tells him happily, and Luke finds himself smiling just a little because it's just kind of cute how Michael got so excited about Luke coming over and having pizza.
"Good thing I like pizza," Luke says as he stuffs his keys into the pocket of his skinny jeans and adjusts his white shirt and leather jacket on his shoulders. He follows Michael back to his apartment and takes his black shoes off at the mat inside.
"The oven's still warm, I'm gonna heat up a pizza for us," Michael says. "Make yourself comfortable, sit on the couch or something," Michael waves his arm towards the living room. Luke sits down on the couch and smiles a little when Michael joins him not too long after. "So, what else do you like besides music?" Michael asks.
"I... I'm not really that interesting, I kinda like art, I guess," Luke says shyly, playing with his fingers nervously. He's only nervous because of his bad experiences with getting close to people only for them to leave him and forget about him. Luke hasn't had that happen in a few years, he's not ready for it to happen again.
"I'm not really into art or classical music, I love rock and alternative and punk and stuff like that," Michael says, and Luke's pretty much already figured that out. He has a bunch of band posters framed and hung on the walls, and there's a bunch of records and CDs hanging on a different wall.
"I see," Luke says after a little bit of staring at the walls. Michael chuckles, patting Luke's thigh and making him blush.
"You don't really like that kinda music, do you?" He asks, and Luke shakes his head.
"All I hear from your apartment all the time is just noise, I don't hear a lot of music, it's just sound," Luke explains softly.
"That's just because of the shitty walls distorting the sounds, it really fucks up the screams of Pierce The Veil," Michael laughs, and Luke tries to smile, he really does, but he can't. Screaming, why would someone scream in music? Music isn't a screaming thing, it's a beautiful thing and there shouldn't be screams in it.
"Why screaming?" Luke asks, still confused and kind of cringing.
"Vic Fuentes, the lead singer, screams because it shows so much emotion and power, he has a meaning behind screaming. In one song, he screams this one part instead of singing it because of how angry he is. So he's singing about his girlfriend dying of cancer and he's talking to God in some of it, yelling at him for trying to kill her. She's mine, you stay away from her it's not her time, he's saying that it's not her time to die, and that wouldn't be as emotional for him if he doesn't scream it. It's kind of just his way of being more emotional," Michael says, and Luke's taken by surprise at Michael's explanation. He's still not willing to listen to it, but he understands it a bit more now. "Do you wanna hear the song about his girlfriend's cancer?"
"Not, um, not really, I just like classical," Luke says, but he feels kind of bad. Michael is obviously passionate about this band, and Luke's not wanting to hear the music. He feels stubborn and like he should try listening to something else now. "Not anything screaming, but I could try listening to something different maybe," Luke says slowly, biting his bottom lip.
"How about some All Time Low?" Michael offers, and Luke shrugs. "The lead singer, Alex, is so hot." Luke assumes that Alex is some hot girl with big boobs, probably something like that. Luke just assumes that Michael is into dirty stuff and girls with huge boobs. Michael tilts his phone towards Luke so he can see the profile picture of the band, and Luke's confused, because where's the girl? It's just four boys, none of them are girls.
"Which one is Alex?" Luke asks, and Michael points to the one with the brown hair in a fringe, and Luke is surprised. Michael's into guys? "He's kinda cute, I guess," Luke says, but he doesn't really think that. He's not really into guys that much, but then again, he's not into girls at all, so.
"Oh, you'd probably like Sleeping With Sirens!" Michael exclaims before he even plays any of All Time Low's music, and Luke cringes at the name. He's read Greek mythology, sirens are creepy and that would be horrible to sleep with one. "They have an acoustic album, it's so amazing!"
"Yeah, okay," Luke agrees, just because Michael is so passionate about the acoustic album, and Luke might like acoustic guitars a little bit. He's dropped a few dollars into guitar cases on street corners when someone's playing, he likes the sound and he knows what it's like to play on the streets for money, trying to make it as a musician.
"The lead singer kind of sounds like a girl, but his voice is really pretty," Michael tells him, and Luke just nods.
"What's his name?" Luke asks.
"Kellin Quinn, he looks really pretty, too. He has a daughter who's so adorable, her name's Copeland and his wife is pretty, her name's Katelynne." And wow, that was a lot more information than Luke asked for, but he just nods because of how cute Michael looks talking about something he loves. He shows Luke a picture of them, and Luke's staring at the guy with the long hair and tattoos, he's so pretty, even with the tattoos. He's got music notes and a treble clef, Luke feels like he should respect him, because he has a treble clef tattoo, too. Luke's hidden, though, and it's hidden well so nobody can see it. It's on the back of his left thigh, and it's kind of small, only a few inches long.
"He's really pretty," Luke says, pointing to the guy in the middle. Michael nods.
"That's Kellin. So do you want to hear my favourite acoustic song?" Michael asks, and Luke nods. "This is Scene Five."
Luke likes the sound of the acoustic guitar, it's pretty, and the chords in the beginning of the song are simple, but they sound amazing. The singer's voice is very feminine, Michael was right, and Luke loves it. He just loves everything about the song; the lyrics are creative, the chords are pretty, his voice is stunning, everything fits together perfectly.
"I like this one," Luke says softly once the song is over. Michael grins from ear to ear and plays another song. The guitar is still acoustic, but it's specific notes rather than chords. Michael tells him that it's called Scene Two, and Luke likes this one, too. He specifically likes where the bass comes in during the second verse, it's a cool bass line that fits well with the guitar, and the singer's voice is still so pretty.
"So how do you like them?" Michael asks once the song is over.
"They're really good, I might listen to them again sometime," Luke says honestly, and he really likes that Michael seems genuinely happy when he says that. The smile on the older boy's face makes Luke smile, too. Luke doesn't really hate him anymore, Michael's passion for music really makes Luke realise that the genre doesn't matter; it's the passion for music that they share that made Luke finally listen and pay attention to Michael.
~
Three hours and two pizzas later, Luke's falling asleep in Michael's lap while listening to something that Michael put on, Luke's not quite sure what it is, but it's soothing. He likes the way they're sitting together, Michael's arm around his waist and Luke leaning against Michael's chest. Luke feels the older boy's hand in his hair calmingly just as he drifts off completely.
~
Luke wakes up laying on top of Michael with his face buried in his chest, Michael's still fast asleep and it's around 11 in the morning. Luke figures that it's normal for Michel to sleep in this late, but Luke hates sleeping in because that means he misses all of that time in the morning that he could be songwriting or practicing.
Luke glances down at Michael one more time before slipping out of his arms and quietly leaving his apartment to go back to his own. He didn't mean to stay the night at Michael's, he was only invited for dinner. What if Michael just felt bad for him and let him stay the night? Luke cringes as he lets himself inside of his apartment, he hates the thought of Michael only feeling bad for him. He actually thought that they were getting along pretty well, Luke was even giving other genres of music a try because of how much he realised that he didn't hate Michael.
Luke sighs and puts his violin in it's case, he's too tired for that right now. He slowly sulks to the kitchen and brews an almost decent cup of coffee, drinking it with very little creamer. He's so disappointed in himself, he should've known better than to start to get to know somebody. Luke knows he gets too stressed about if he's being good enough of a friend, he shouldn't have even talked to Michael to ask about that stupid song.
A few hours later, Luke's halfway through a Beethoven piece when he hears a knock at his door. Luke reluctantly pulls the bow from the strings and sets it down, but keeps the violin in his hand. He opens the door and is greeted with a smiling, messy haired Michael humming a song. Luke swallows and glances down, running a hand through his hair self consciously. Maybe it was a bad decision to leave Michael alone when he woke up, maybe he should've stayed and talked for a while.
"Hey, Luke," Michael greets, and Luke gives kind of a half-smile in return. "Why'd you leave this morning?"
"Sorry," Luke mumbles. "I have a bunch of stuff to practice, I have a concert tonight and I just wanna review everything once more," he explains quietly.
"Can I come?"
"What, to the concert?" Luke asks, looking up to see if Michael's just messing with him. Michael nods with a smile. "Yeah, sure, of course," Luke stutters slightly, a blush on his face.
"I'd love to come. Where is it and what time is it?"
Luke invites Michael all the way inside his apartment and gives him the information, and Michael ends up staying for a while and watching Luke practice. When there's only five hours until they have to leave for the concert, Luke's frantically practicing his new music, occasionally glancing up to see Michael's face. Michael's just studying him, making him nervous for no reason, and Luke's just mildly freaking out. Michael just looks so attractive the way he's looking at Luke, his green eyes concentrated on looking him up and down repeatedly.
Luke pulls the bow from the strings, a deep red colour rising to his cheeks as he speaks, "Would you please stop looking at me like that?"
"Like what?" Michael smirks, making Luke blush harder and avoid his gaze. "I can't help it, babe, you're so innocent and sexy, you have no idea." Luke sets his violin down and glances back over at Michael, who stands up and cups Luke's face and stares into his eyes for a bit before pressing their lips together. Luke gasps, but shyly moves his lips against the older boy's. He's always had an attraction to Michael, ever since he moved in a few weeks after Luke did, and hating his music only distracted him from seeing him for so long. Luke lets out a soft moan into the kiss when Michael bites at his lower lip, and Luke wraps his arms around his waist. Michael pulls back a little, catching his breath.
"Michael," Luke whispers, his blue eyes staring right back at Michael's green ones.
"You like that, hmm?" Michael teases softly, and Luke whimpers quietly and bashfully nods. "You wanna keep going with me?"
"What do you mean, keep going?" Luke asks shyly, his hands playing with the hem of Michael's Green Day t-shirt.
"Like, keep making out," Michael says, and Luke nods and presses his lips to Michael's for a second before pulling back again. Michael slides one hand into the blonde's hair and tugs him back towards him, bringing him into a hot kiss full of tongue and moans from both of them. Luke's gasping and whining and just letting Michael take the lead and manipulate him, Luke's so compliant and he just lets Michael tug at his hair and rough handle him. When they both pull back, Luke's whining slightly and trying to kiss him again, but Michael uses his hair to pull him away. "Not yet, babe, be patient."
"Why?" Luke asks, desperate for the older boy to do just about anything.
"Because, you have to earn it. I'm not gonna let just anybody have it," Michael says with a smirk. Luke whines quietly and presses himself closer to the older boy so their chests and hips are touching, but then gasps at the accidental friction on his hardening length. "You dirty boy, trying to grind on me to get me to kiss you," Michael taunts in a somehow sexy way, and Luke didn't actually mean to grind on him, but now that he started it, he doesn't know how to continue it. "You wanna keep doing that? It felt good, babe," Michael encourages softly, seeing that Luke looks a bit hesitant.
"I don't know how," Luke whispers, his cheeks flushing red in embarrassment. It's only embarrassing because Michael's probably a lot more experienced in dirty things, and Luke has no experience at all. He's never even masturbated, he doesn't really know how and he's never looked up how because that's dirty, and what if someone sees his internet history?
"You ever touch yourself before?" Michael asks, and Luke shakes his head. "Is it okay if I touch you? I wanna be sure that you're okay with this," Michael says, his eyes carefully searching Luke's face for any sign that he doesn't want to do it.
"Yeah, touch me," Luke breathes, leaning more into Michael and letting out a breathy moan when Michael's hips snapped forwards and pressed the front of their jeans together for a second. Luke lets out a small gasp when Michael grabs his arm and drags him to the closest wall, pinning him against it with his body and making the younger boy moan a bit more because the pressure of Michael's weight against him feels good.
"You look so good right now, Luke, with your hair all messed up and your moaning when I've hardly done anything with you yet," Michael says before leaning forwards and kissing him roughly and grinding his hips into Luke's. The blonde just melts like a puddle beneath him, it feels so good and he can't focus on anything anymore. "Yeah? Feels good, doesn't it?" Michael teases, pulling back from their kiss which was mostly just Michael taking control and Luke letting him.
Michael continues grinding his hips roughly to Luke's, and Luke lets out a loud moan and throws his head back against the door. He reaches up and grips onto Michael's shoulders as he feels his stomach clench, and suddenly he comes in his pants with another loud moan. Michael keeps grinding for a few minutes until Luke hears him let out a deep groan and relax against Luke.
"Did you come in your jeans?" Michael asks, and Luke nods, still breathless. Michael smiles, leaning forwards and kissing him gently. "Get ready, I'm taking you out before your concert tonight," Michael tells him, and Luke grins before pecking his lips and rushing upstairs to his room to change his clothes.
Luke really wishes that he would've given Michael a chance a whole lot earlier, because wow, that felt so much better than good.
(Also, Luke thinks that Michael has an obsession with pizza, because they went to a pizza place for dinner before the concert.)