Chapter Text
The sky was golden and the leaves on the trees were shades of amber, emerald and ruby. It was like walking through a treasure chest almost. The trunks of the trees were the colour of coffee and the conkers littering the leaf debris on the ground were gleaming like they’d been polished to a shine.
All of it dimmed in comparison to Luke though.
He was wandering along beside Michael with a beanie pulled down over his fluffy blond hair and a soft smile playing across his pale lips as he sucked at his lip-ring. It made Michael’s heart flutter pathetically in his chest and he just knew he was watching Luke with great big doe eyes again but it wasn’t like he could exactly help it and -
Michael caught his foot and tripped over, face-first onto the pavement. Luke’s hands were cold in his fingerless gloves as he hauled Michael back up to his feet again and, yeah, Michael probably needed to watch where he was going when he was walking around because tripping over was definitely not a cool thing to do.
Luke was distracting though, with his pretty blue eyes and pale skin and gentle cheeky smiles lighting up his face.
A (probably enormous) positive was that Luke felt the same way.
He got butterflies sometimes when he looked up and caught Michael watching him with this tiny little smile twisting his cherry-red lips. Luke liked Michael’s soft brightly coloured hair and his glitter-soft emerald green eyes.
Luke was aware he was definitely pining over Michael though because it wasn’t just the currently black-haired boy who tripped over flat surfaces at the slightest provocation. Luke did too, rather frequently when his fawning proved too distracting and he forgot how to lift his feet up properly.
It was a little embarrassing but, you know, at least they were being subtle about it.
*
Luke and Michael were not being subtle about it.
Calum and Ashton were starting to get pissed off now. Michael and Luke had been dancing around each other for months, both of them too scared to make the first move and, honestly, it was getting to be a bit ridiculous now.
Calum just wanted to focus on wooing his boyfriend further but that was proving really fucking difficult when Michael and Luke were busy gazing at each other like lovestruck idiots from across whatever room they happened to be in at the time.
When Michael face-planted the ground and Luke practically threw himself forwards to help the older boy up, Calum turned to Ashton who rolled his hazel eyes so hard that they looked like they were about to fall out of his head.
“When are they going to make out?” Calum asked bluntly and, nearby, Luke made a spluttering sound and leapt away from Michael so quickly that the blond boy almost stumbled into the road.
“Stop teasing them,” Ashton said reprovingly but he was frowning a little bit and the tanned boy knew his boyfriend agreed with him. Ashton’s full lips twitched and he giggled softly into his gloved hands and, when he lowered them, his expression was smug. “They could be like us but they’re playing.”
“You’re so fucking lame,” Calum said but his eyes were shining.
Ashton was his favourite person in the world.
And, judging by the Bambi eyes that the blond boy was shooting at an unknowing Michael right now, Luke had a favourite person too.
Calum sighed deeply, nudging Ashton and gesturing in their two best friends’ direction.
He just wished they’d get their shit together honestly.
Calum got his chance to complain about it soon too.
The four of them left the tree-lined road that Michael lived on and started the short walk into town, heading for the arcades beside the bowling alley which was their destination. They wanted to get burgers and fries, and waste their pocket money on the penny machines, and Ashton had his heart set on lilac-coloured candy floss too so the arcade had seemed like a good place to start.
The very moment they entered the arcade, Michael (predictably) headed straight for the Alien game by the back wall. He’d barely picked up the plastic shotgun before Calum was beside him though, leaning against the wall as casually as he could while he waited for Michael to pay.
“So…” Calum said leadingly, sniggering to himself when Michael jerked the gun round to shoot at one of the aliens. “When are you going to ask our dear sweet Lukey boy out on a date?”
Michael spluttered, missing the alien by about ten miles and fixing Calum with a very pissed off look as he frantically scrabbled for an eloquent answer that went somewhere along the lines of: “I… I d-don’t - w-what?! Shut up, Cal. Just s-shut up.”
“Right,” Calum said, nodding his head slowly like he was wise or something. “Very convincing, Mikey. I see that I was mistaken after all and that you don’t like Luke at all.”
“I didn’t say that,” Michael muttered darkly and Calum grinned at the black-haired boy like the little shit he was.
“Better ask him out then,” he said, shrugging easily as he turned to lope away. Glancing back over his shoulder, Calum smirked a little at Michael’s outraged expression. “The alien just killed you by the way, Mike. You should really have paid more attention.”
“Fuck you, you little shit,” Michael said grumpily, pushing more coins into the slot and shooting at the aliens with venom. He kept pausing to look over his shoulder at Luke though and it wasn’t long before he’d lost the game again, much to his extreme annoyance (and Calum’s glee because, like Michael said, Calum was a little shit).
Across the arcade, Luke and Ashton were having a similar conversation.
“- but, Ash, I can’t!” They were standing beside the penny machines. Luke was wasting all of his change and Ashton was eating his candy floss with a content expression on his face.
“You can,” Ashton said firmly, waving his treat in a menacing manner and fixing Luke with the sort of expression their old history teacher had worn often whenever someone got an answer wrong. “You need to tell Mikey how you feel. Then you two can date and hold hands and kiss and stuff. It’ll be cute.”
Luke’s cheeks flushed red and he looked down, biting at his bottom lip and nibbling on his lip-ring again. At last the blond boy looked up and sighed pitifully, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.
“Why’ve you gotta keep telling me the damn truth, Ashy?” Luke demanded at long last.
Ashton smiled.
His best friends would be dating before long.
*
Luke and Michael were decidedly not dating.
They were too shy and, according to Calum, too “emotionally constipated” to actually get any real words out (because, if Ashton was telling the truth, awkwardly stammering at each other and blushing before one - or both - of them scampered away to hide didn’t count as a real conversation about their feelings).
Michael and Luke were starting to spend more time alone together though which was definitely something (and if Calum had fallen off his bed in excitement when Ashton had texted him this update then no one else had to know).
Calum and Ashton were on a date - which probably equated to pancakes and sex if they were being honest - so Luke had suggested meeting Michael in a little coffee shop in town that Calum’s older sister Mali had praised once. It was cute in there, small and comfortably furnished with flowers in vases and pretty pictures hanging in frames on the wall.
They bought hot chocolates with whipped cream and flakes adorning the sugar-sweetened liquid and, since they were bundled up in scarves and hats and gloves, they decided to sit on one of the little tables tucked away on the decking outside.
It was a cool windy day but their drinks were hot and their cheeks were flaming at their proximity and… and really, even they had to admit that their friends had a point because it was shockingly blatant how obvious the pair were being about their feelings when they looked at each other and had to fight down identical goofy smiles.
“I want this to be the best autumn ever,” Luke said as they sipped their drinks. Michael looked up with a whipped cream moustache on his upper lip and Luke’s heart kind of melted.
“I think we can do that for you,” Michael said and his expression was so hopeful and he was clearly blushing so hot that Luke could have fried eggs on his cheeks and - and really, that was a weird saying anyway because why would you want to fry food on someone’s face? Like, that just seemed really grossly unhygienic and Luke didn’t want to eat face eggs and -
He was getting distracted.
“That sounds really fun,” he said, several seconds too late, and the amount of fond on Michael’s face hurt to look at. “We can decorate pumpkins and go on tractor rides and stuff. Doesn’t that sound fun, Mikey?”
“It does sound fun,” Michael allowed but his lips were threatening to tug up into what might be considered a beam so he quickly hid his smile behind the rim of his mug. “We could do baking and stuff too if you like. That can be fun.”
“Yes!” Luke exclaimed excitedly, his face kind of glowing now which definitely wasn’t giving Michael heart palpitations or anything. “We can make toffee apples and cookies and apple crumble and casseroles and -”
“You’re so cute when you’re excited.”
Michael blurted the words without thinking and they surprised Luke so much that he made a little hiccuping sound, staring at Michael in shock with his cheeks flaming and his mouth open in a small surprised O -
And then Luke started to smile, slow and soft and very, very beautiful, and Michael knew he was completely and utterly screwed.
“We… I… um… I should probably get going…” Michael mumbled, lurching to his feet and knocking into the table so that the dregs of his hot chocolate spilt onto the wood. Luke pushed his chair back so that he was out of harm’s way but his cornflower blue eyes were still soft when they settled on Michael’s face. “Uh… my… my mum needs me to… um… make dinner for her…”
“Mike, it’s ten in the morning,” Luke pointed out with amusement but he shook his head softly, fighting a grin as he got to his feet too. “It doesn’t matter. We can all meet up later, make some plans for the best autumn we’ve ever had.”
Luke gave Michael a goodbye hug and neither of them commented when it went on for far too long to be strictly platonic. Michael’s arms wrapped around Luke’s waist of their own accord and the blond boy tucked his face away safely into Michael’s shoulder, trying to be sneaky when he warmed his cold little nose on the older boy’s neck.
Luke’s blond hair was soft against Michael’s cheek and the black-haired boy inhaled without thinking, sighing contentedly like he thought Luke smelt good.
The blond boy’s cheeks were flushed scarlet when he pulled away and Michael stared at him in panic.
“Um… your laundry detergent! You smell of laundry detergent! Uh… it… it’s r-really smelly! I… I mean g-good! It smells really good! Um… Bye, Lukey! Luke! Goodbye, Luke!”
Luke’s expression was so, so fond when the older boy stumbled away.
“By the way,” Luke called out after Michael as the older boy hurried away. “I think you’re cute too!”
Luke pretended not to notice when Michael tripped over his own feet again.