Chapter Text
Ashton was watching the world fall in around him. The band that had been his lifeline for so long was crumbling right in front of his eyes and there was nothing he could do about it. Luke and Michael had crash landed into a field of fucked up after Luke finally admitted what everyone except Michael knew. Now they weren’t speaking, wouldn’t even come within ten feet of each other. Now Calum was being pulled between the two, struggling in choosing sides between his two best friends and it was really wearing the poor kid down. And Ashton, Ashton couldn’t help fix it this time. This mess was too big, too painful. And with only a few weeks until they had to all go back to the house in LA to begin Sounds Good Feels Good tour promotions, the guys really needed to get their shit together
This was like the end of the world for them all. Every semblance of their old, soulmate free life, had been blown into a million little pieces and the boys no longer only had themselves to think about. Ashton was hanging on by one little thread. One red thread tied tightly around his ring finger keeping him from falling off the deep end. And on the other end, holding him up, was his soulmate. Bryana.
Things with Bry hadn’t always been easy like they were now. He had his troubles in the beginning, just like Calum, Luke and Michael did. Bry had made some not so smart choices in her younger years, had said and done some things that she now regretted. The fans didn’t take so nicely to that, and made it very known just how they felt about her. Bryana got it, she really did, she hated her younger self just as much. But it hurt her. And it broke Ashton’s heart to see her crying behind closed doors, scared him to death that it just might not work out.
But everyone makes mistakes when they’re young. Hell, fifteen year old Michael was no saint either, none of the boys were. And Ashton thought the fans were finally realizing it. It was getting better every day, and Ashton had never been more thankful for anything. Because for him, she was it.
She loved him in a way no one else did, no one else could. It wasn’t that she loved him more than his mates did, just differently than they did. For so long he had only had the band. The band was his home, his safe place, the only place he every really fit. Now Bry had become a part of that home, had added to the family, and Ashton’s heart felt full.
He had got his soulmate touch one night after a show. It had been a particularly bad one, with more than one of the boys being sick. Ashton had fucked up several of the songs and his tension was riding high. He had stormed backstage, locked himself in a dark room, and sunk to the floor. That’s when the slight rubbing pressure at his temples started.
Ash had been extremely lucky. He had met her the very next night, at a party Michael and Calum had wanted to go to. He had seen her across the room and thought that she was the most stunning person he had ever seen. And when one of her friends hugged her, he felt it. She looked up from the hug and their eyes locked and they both just knew.
Calum teased him endlessly about how cheesy it had been. How incredibly cliche it was to lock eyes across a crowded room. But Ash couldn’t think of it as anything but perfect. And he had told Calum so, which had resulted from Michael making fake gagging noises from across the room.
Ashton didn’t know what he would do if he didn’t have her to help him through this. Didn’t know how he would get along without being able to crawl into bed with her, shut the door, close the curtains, and pretend like nothing existed outside of Ashton’s tiny bedroom. Didn’t know what he would do without early Sunday mornings, making her breakfast in bed and then going on a run together.
In his younger years Ashton never believed he would have a soulmate. How could someone love him anyway? What with his stupid giggle and his scarred arms and thighs. The scars on his arms had all but faded now. But that first night they had made love she saw the ones on his thighs. Dread had started low in his stomach. But she had just smiled sadly and kissed each raised line. She had told him how proud she was of him for coming so far. And Ashton was so fucking in love.
Ashton could sympathize with Luke, he really could. But he wanted to smack him upside the head and scream at him how in love Michael was with him, had always been with him. Hell, Ashton had known from the first band practice. How Luke had smiled shyly, head ducking down towards his guitar when he had hit a really solid note. And Michael would fucking beam at him so brightly that Ashton thought that Luke would surely go blind. Later that night Ashton had asked Michael how long the two had been dating. Michael looked at Ashton like he had just run over Michael’s kitten and then just shook his head.
He also wanted to smack Michael upside the head and scream at him to just kiss and make up already. It was really getting ridiculous. Those two just might be the most perfect soulmates to ever exist. They would work this out, they had to. They were Luke and Michael. If they couldn’t work this out, Ashton didn’t know how much faith he would have left in this whole soulmate thing.
But until they did, he had Bryana. And for now, that was still enough.