Work Text:
"happy birthday, sweetheart!" luke's aunt, alice, says while she squeezes his cheek. the boy smiles but quickly moves out of her grip. "look what i bought for you. i'm sure you'll love it." she hands him a box and luke opens it excitedly.
it's a stuffed bear.
"thank you! i like it." he says politely, clutching it strongly between his arm and chest.
"you're welcome." alice says before smiling at his nephew and then leaving to the living room with the rest of the family.
luke goes out and sits at the front door, impatiently waiting for his friends. he doesn't want to sound rude but he's especially waiting for michael, sure, he wants calum to be there too but with michael, things are just so much different.
he waits, and waits - and calum finally arrives along with his sister and his parents. the little boy makes a comment about luke's teddy bear and then gives him his present. it's a blue race car.
they go to play with luke's cousins, just because liz insists luke to but he thinks about michael all the time and he's constantly asking his mom if karen called or something. it went like that for hours, until everybody was leaving and michael didn't came.
it's 10 pm, he's sitting on his bed, watching tv with a frown on his face. he's mad at michael for not coming and at karen for not telling him they wouldn't come. he decides that tomorrow at school he will ignore -
"luke?"
the door of his bedroom is slowly opening, luke stares at it until he sees michael's shy smile coming in. he wants to act indifferent but he can't, automatically his lips curve into a wide, big smile.
"hi, mikey!"
michael comes up and sits next to him. "hi, luke, happy birthday."
"thanks. i thought you wouldn't come."
"sorry. yesterday i went with my family to my grandma's house and we got home just today. my mom's phone is broken so she couldn't call. sorry, luke."
"but you're here now, it's okay. i just missed you." luke admits.
"i missed you too." michael smiles. "i didn't bring you a present."
"don't be silly, don't worry."
"but i want to give you something."
"what is it?"
"a kiss." michael proposes in a tiny voice, almost insecure.
"in the lips?"
"not if you don't want to."
"i want to," luke nods, his blue eyes shining at the thought. "i liked it when we kissed that day." he confesses. "i like to kiss you, if it were someone else it'd be disgusting."
"i like to kiss you too." michael chuckles, nervously. "now i will kiss you, luke."
luke nods and leans in, and just like the first time, they peck their lips for less than two seconds and pull away.
michael blushes, and luke holds his hand. it's a thing they do, they hold hands most of the time just because it's comfortable (though sometimes it gets too sweaty and it feels weird so they have to release each other's hand.)
"when we are older," michael starts, a shaky tone on his voice. "will we kiss?"
michael's seen lots of couples in the streets holding hands and kissing and showing each other affection, even his parents and luke's, and he wants to be with luke like that when they grow up. it intrigues him, to know if luke wants that too.
"of course, michael. we will also live together and we'll have dogs and babies." luke says, as if it was already obvious.
michael wants to say he'd like a cat better but he doesn't say anything because luke starts to talk about what kind of dog he'd like to have. dogs aren't that bad anyway.