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Luke and Mickey should've been back an hour ago. In turn, Ian and Carl have been flipping their shit for the past hour.
"Hey, I'm sure they're fine," Fiona says comfortingly, addressing Ian and Carl, "you know how tough those two are.”
And Carl knows that. Of course he does. But still.
“We know,” Ian bites out in response. He then begins pacing back and forth and it does absolutely jack shit to calm Carl’s nerves. “But something still isn’t right.”
Carl's had the same gut feeling, and to hear someone else voice it is enough to make his breath catch. Fiona simply hums in response.
That’s when Debbie comes downstairs, and after taking in their worried faces and the distinct lack of Luke and Mickey, she runs to Carl’s side and hugs him. He hugs back, albeit weakly, before sitting down, staring out the window and doing the only thing he really can do: keep waiting.
It’s two hours later that they hear the screeching of tires outside and the familiar sound of a horn, and Ian and Carl look at each other before practically tripping over themselves to get outside, Debbie and Fiona right behind them.
When Carl finally sees Luke, he throws himself into his arms and lets out the sob he's been holding in for the last few hours (Carl misses Luke’s wince at the impact, and Luke says nothing about it; he doesn’t need to know about the freshly bandaged bullet wound on Luke's side just yet).
Carl feels calloused hands tilting his face up, wiping away his tears. "What's the matter, sweetheart?" he asks deeply, and Carl lets out an involuntary shiver like he always does when Luke uses that tone.
"Thought you-" Carl cuts himself off, breath catching in his throat at the thought before he buries his face into Luke’s toned chest. "I thought you died."
Luke lets out a small chuckle at that, but Carl can tell that it's completely devoid of humor. "I might not have been hurt," he begins quietly before pausing, and the silence is so tense that Carl is afraid to move. After a second Luke takes a deep breath and finishes, “But that doesn’t mean nobody was.”
That's when he hears it. A yell so jarring that Carl has to fight the urge to plug his ears. Behind him he hears Veronica and Kev run outside, no doubt having heard the scream, and Veronica quietly asks Fiona what happened.
Meanwhile Carl tightens his hold on Luke, because he knows that scream. He’d recognize it anywhere.
It’s Ian’s.
He feels Luke stiffen, and when Carl looks up he sees that his eyes are hard and his jaw is clenched.
Carl can tell that Luke’s trying not to cry. That’s the expression he has whenever he's forcing his tears to stay where they are, like he’s building a barricade behind his eyelids. Carl wouldn’t even have been able to tell if he didn’t know Luke so well, but he does know him. He knows him like the back of his hand, and it's because of this that Carl tightens his hold around Luke, almost as if he can keep him there forever through force of will alone.
If only the world worked that way.
But it doesn’t, and so Luke moves to let go of him. Carl lets out a quiet noise of distress and looks up at him. Luke winces when he sees the expression on Carl’s face. "I'm not goin' far, baby, I promise. I just gotta talk to your brother, okay? Y’know, tell him about Mickey."
Before he leaves, however, Luke shrugs out of his jacket, hands it to Carl and presses a light kiss to his forehead. When Carl puts it on, the sleeves are so long he can barely see his fingertips. He snuggles deeper into it and takes a long, deep breath. It smells like leather and blood and sweat and Luke, so much so that when he closes his eyes it almost feels as if Luke is still wrapped around him.
Once he finally forces himself to open his eyes, Carl has to fight back a wince as he watches his boyfriend and his brother. Luke looks so genuinely sorry, as if he thinks that what happened—whatever it was—is his fault. Carl already knows that Luke tries so hard to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders so nobody else has to, but it still always hurts to witness.
"You promised me, Luke! You promised me that you'd make sure nothing happened to him! Where is he?"
Carl takes a step forward to stop Ian but Debbie holds him back. She shakes her head.
“I tried, Ian, I really did. We all did. But it was rough on all of us: none of us saw it coming. Lexi is the reason we got out of there as fast as we could, Iggy’s still got a bullet in his arm, and Lily had to dig a bullet outta my side on the way here, okay? Mickey’s stable, and nothing's going to happen to him. Everything is fine.”
“Bullet?” Carl asks in a weak voice, and fuck if he gives a shit about how needy and fuckin’ weak he’s being right now. Fuck it all because Carl thought Luke was dead and now he apparently had a bullet in his side on the way here and Carl is not equipped to deal with this.
“But where is he?” Ian repeats venomously. He looks this close to hitting Luke, something that Kev notices before taking a hesitant step towards Ian, prepared to grab him and hold him back if it comes to it. At that Carl can't stay back anymore; rather, he steps forward and interlocks his fingers with Luke's. Luke gives his hand a firm squeeze.
“He’s at my house with everyone else, and Lily is doin’ all she can for him right now. You can head over if you want, okay? He’s bound to wake up soon, and I know for a fact that you’re the first face he’s gonna want to see.”
Ian closes his eyes and takes a long deep breath, and when he opens his eyes his fist is lax. He just looks tired, and it hurts Carl’s heart.
Debbie steps forward and touches Ian’s arm lightly and says, “Hey, how about you, me, and Fiona go head over there?”
Ian just nods, and the three take off down the street, Fiona’s arm wrapped tightly around Ian’s shoulders.
Later, once Carl had checked Luke’s wound and rebandaged it, they move to lay in Carl’s bed. Carl nestles into Luke’s good side and pillows his head on his chest while Luke has his arm wrapped tightly around Carl, his calloused fingers rubbing soft circles on Carl’s naked torso.
“Look at me,” Luke whispers, and though he says it softly it’s in no way a request. It’s an order.
An order Carl quickly follows, turning onto his stomach to gaze into Luke’s eyes. Their only light is that of the moon, and seeing Luke basked in its glow is enough to take his breath away.
“I’m sorry for worryin’ you today,” Luke says, his voice tinged with regret. To Carl it’s like a punch to the gut.
“It’s-”
“No. Listen to me,” Luke says forcefully, and Carl shuts his mouth with an audible click. He knows well enough to not interrupt when he’s like this. Luke closes his eyes and takes a deep breath and when he opens them, they lock onto Carl’s with such intensity it takes every ounce of willpower he has not to break eye contact. “Listen to me. Carl Gallagher, you are the single best thing that has ever happened to me, and it kills me that I worry you so often. But I can’t do anything about that, you know? My gang is my family, in some cases literally. They count on me, and I can’t-”
Carl cuts him off by placing a gentle kiss to his lips. “I know.”
“I’m always going to worry you.”
“I know.”
“I’ll get hurt a lot.”
“I know.”
“I could die.”
“...I know.”
“Then why? Why are you still here?” Luke demands, disbelief coloring his voice.
Carl shrugs. “Because I love you.”
His words cause Luke to freeze completely. He just sits there blinking at Carl, and Carl lets him. He waits. However, he doesn’t have to wait long, because Luke pulls him into a bruising kiss, one so different from before yet so strikingly similar. When it’s over Carl is breathless.
Luke pulls back a little, leaving about a few mere centimeters between them before whispering into his mouth. “I love you too, baby. More than you’ll ever know.”
And right now that’s all that matters.