#of the 5sos members ashton is the one who should be least likely to be put in that role

[daydadahlias]

what would ur stance be on ashton being the quote unquote spoiled rich kid

I would say my stance would be strongly opposed. At it's core, I just think it's inaccurate considering he came from a lower middle class family w/ a single mom and three kids and had to get a multitude of jobs quite young to help her take care of his own siblings. like, from what Ash has talked abt w/ his family, growing up was hard for him. so, like, in a fictional world, I think you can do anything you want but, at the end of the day, one of the reasons Ash is the way he is, is because of how he grew up. his drive and passion and tenderness all stem from that.

[sergantbarnesbitch]

5SOS Take My Hand Tour - Hamburg

Alright, I was at the koncert in Hamburg (25/4/2022). And I just wanted to write all my thoughts down.

First of all... I fucking met Ashton! By pure dumb luck, and I'm so happy. I almost can't believe it happened.

Please ignore how extremely awkward I look in this picture, I was freaking out internally, and didn't know what the fuck to do with myself.

Kinda wish I had asked for a hug, but I also don't wanna impose on a stangers (as I don't personally know him, yes we are strangers) personal space. I also didn't have anything to write with, or on.. so no autograph. But I got a picture, and I met him. So I'm real happy.

Basically what happened was:

The friend I was there with and myself, took the bus to Hamburg, and then walked to the venue (long walk.. my feet, and legs, and knees, and back hurt). When we got there, he was like; the cue didn't look too bad, so maybe we should just take a walk around the building. I remembered that we never got around to buying a bottle of water for him, so we went off around the building to find a store.

We walked by the side of the building, to the back so we could get around that way. And almost at the end of the building, by one of the doors, twp men were standing; talking. One of them was a crew member, and the other was Ashton.

I could almost recognize him from the back, but wasn't completely sure, until he turned more our way as we got closer. And then he talked to us.. this is almost the most exciting part, as he was actually the first one ro say anything.

Ash: Hey, nice shirt!

Me: Thanks! *With a big smile*

As you can see in the picture, I had a 5SOS shirt on. After this little exchange, my friend and I walked on, despite me recognizing Ash. When we got to the end of the building, I turned the corner so I couldn't be seen, and quietly freaked out.

Btw, my friend is a fan of the music, but he didn't really have their faces and stuff memorized like I do. So he didn't know we just walked by the drummer from the band.

After my little freak out, I decided that I couldn't waln away without a picture. Or at the very least asking for one. Proff ot ot didn't happen, you know.

So I tell my friend that (who is still clueless btw), and after I tell him that it's Ash, he agrees to take a picture. So I turn back around the corner, and walk up to the two of them again.

Me: Could I get a picture with you?

Ash: Yeah, sure. As long as you don't tell anyone. I'm not supposed to be out here.

Me: I promise I wont. We're heading for a store anyways.

So we pose for the picture, and he's really sweet, putting his hand out in a thumbs up. While I'm standing beside him, unsure of what to do with myself.

After my friend take the picture, we stop 'posing'.

Me: I'm excited for the show tonight.

Ash: Yeah? I'll see you then.

Me: You probably won't, but I'll see you!

Ash: You never know. I might!

And then I just gave him a big smile, and a little laugh, as my friend and I walked away.

Afterwards, I'm just thinking back, and you know coming up with thousands of thing I could have said, or done. Something to keep the conversation going. But at the same time, he was put there for some fresh air, not to be bombed with fans. So I'm just really glad I met him. And hope I'll meet him again, or maybe one of the others sometime.

[karajaynetoday]

It’s not the pain they’re getting over, it’s the love | ashton irwin

Well, well, well. It’s really only been about six months since I became active on Tumblr again, but inspired by all of the delightful 5sos blogs and writers I’ve connected with in the last little while, here we have it. A little Ash blurb inspired by this quote from On The Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta (one of my absolute favourite books, would recommend reading!). All of the italics in this piece are additional quotes from the same book. This is the first fic I’ve written in about 6 years, and the first time I’ve ever written for 5sos, so any feedback would be appreciated x

Read part two here, part three here 

Small trigger warning for mention of illness and implied death of a family member towards the end.

Word count: 1.3k

(This is a fem reader insert)

I crave someone knowing me so well that they can tell what I’m thinking.

When you’re a kid, you think being a teenager is going to be the best thing that ever happens to you. You’re going to be so grown up, and it’s going to make everything better. And then you become a teenager, and you think you’re basically an adult when you aren’t, but somehow you yearn for the innocence and carefree state of mind you had as a kid. And then you become an adult, but you never feel like one – each birthday comes and goes but you still don’t quite feel like this should be your life.

The one saving grace through childhood and your teenage years was Ashton. Born mere months apart to two women who considered each other sisters, you were inseparable. Teachers tried to get you to make more friends by putting you in separate classes, and you did make a few here and  there, but at the end of each day you’d reunite with Ashton on the bus home.

Your mothers tried to get their nursing shifts on opposite schedules, so one or the other would be there when you got home to the houses across the street from one another, but as the years went on it became harder and harder and often you were by yourselves, charged with looking after your siblings. But you and Ash made a good team, so it never felt too much like a chore.

Then came the rebellion, and the sneaking out after dark, and the drinking in random hideaways, and running away when your lives felt like too much. Then the days where you both got your drivers’ licenses at seventeen, and all of a sudden you felt like the grown up era that you’d been waiting your whole life for had begun. You could drive, and you had jobs, and you could start to see yourselves as yourselves, rather than defined by your families or your circumstances or what anyone else thought of you.

But as you grew, your desires changed. You wanted to grow beyond where you were, and achieve something outside of the middle of nowhere suburb you’d called home for so long. Ash wanted this too, for the both of you. But then it only happened for him.

At first when he left it was exciting, because at least one of you got to escape and go on an adventure and make something of the world, but then slowly the distance built the emptiness. Ash would message or call often, and then less, and less, and then not at all. He’d visit at Christmas, or while touring, but understandably he spent time with his family or always seemed to be busy with press or one thing or the other, or he’d be staying in the city, far enough away that you could never bring yourself to go there. You felt close to him in the moments you spent with his family, watching his siblings graduate high school alongside yours, or celebrating your mothers’ milestone birthdays in his absence, but it was more of a longing for the Ash you knew, rather than a relationship with his current self. Because in all honesty, you didn’t know him anymore. And that fucking hurt, but at some point you had to move on.

At the end of the day it's about heart beats and blood flow.  People's spirits don't keep them alive.

So you threw yourself into study. You fell in love, and out of it, and then back in, only to have your heart broken more than a few times. You moved a little further from your family, but close enough that you could still be there when they needed you. One day, your mother came by, her eyes sparkling with tears as she told you the news. Three months, the doctors had said. After dedicating her life to caring for others, three months was all the universe gave her to prepare for the end. So once again, your journey took a turn back into being intertwined with your family’s, and you took charge of caring for your siblings in between driving your mum to her appointments and everything else that needing doing in between.

It seemed grim somehow, but she wanted a birthday party. Even though it would be cloaked in a veil of sadness, she wanted to be celebrated while she was still here to see it. So you organised it one weekend, and the weather came good despite it being the middle of winter, and the sun shone as bright as your mother’s soul. You were in the kitchen cutting up some fruit for dessert, when you heard shouts of surprise and scattered applause from where everyone had gathered in the backyard. Glancing out the window, you almost dropped the knife in your hands. Ash was standing in your backyard alongside his mother, giving your own mother a gentle hug. You pinched your arm, hard, and closed your eyes, but then when you opened them again he was still there. Just when you’d finally pushed him out of your mind and your heart and your soul, he was standing right there in your fucking backyard.

Maybe memories should be left the way they are.

No matter how much you wanted to stay put in the kitchen and literally disappear into the floor, you knew you had to face him eventually. What you didn’t anticipate was the door opening quietly behind you, and the sound of a throat being cleared.

“I’m so sorry it took me this long to come home to you.” The American twang in his voice was less pronounced than you remembered from a recent video your mum showed you, but it still made your shoulders tense from the unfamiliarity. You ignored him, and braced your hands against the bench as you squeezed your eyes shut, willing the tears not to fall.

“I’m sorry you’re going through this, love. I can’t even imagine –“ He tried again, before you spun around and glared.

“Don’t.”

You want it to sound harsh and cold, but your voice wavers and you can’t meet his gaze. Because you know, even after all this time, he knows you so well that he can tell what you’re thinking by just looking at you. The tension in the air is  thick, until Ash lets out a breath he didn’t realise he was holding, and pulls you into his arms and presses his chin on top of your head and breathes you in.

His hold is stronger, and his shoulders are broader, and his scent is different than you remember, but the warmth is the same. The feeling of safety and security and wholeness is the same. Before you can comprehend it, you’re crying, and he’s crying, and you’re holding on so tightly it feels like you’ll never be able to let go. And for a moment you’re the kids on the bus, and the teenagers in a hideaway spot, and everything hurts but also nothing hurts and you just are. Together. And although you know soon your heart will be torn into pieces because of more loss than you’ve ever felt before, and that this moment in Ashton’s arms will end, and he’ll have to leave again, for right now the love in your heart is bursting. And all you need is this moment.

It’s funny how you can forget everything except people loving you. Maybe that’s why humans find it so hard getting over love affairs. It’s not the pain they’re getting over, it’s the love.

More writing here | send feedback/thoughts/suggestions here 

Read part two here, part three here

[oyesmendes]

wildflower pt 6 - calum hood

a/n: spanish things, karla’s home town and moving in love. 

summary: after a nasty breakup, Karla Rivera finds herself working as one of the new producers/songwriter for 5SOS. She had no intention to fall in love right now, but one conversation struck a chord with her. In between producing a smashing album and writing hit singles, Karla finds herself entangled in the arms of a man who she never thought she’d end up with.

The sweltering heat of Miami didn’t stop the both of them from being wrapped up in each other’s arms. They were in the middle of a family party in Karla’s childhood home, and it seemed like every single Rivera was at this party to welcome their little girl home. It was full of music and dance, food was present on almost every table, and the booze never seemed to stop flowing. Calum had been attacked by every tío and tía that recognised Karla, and he had long passed the stages of meeting Karla’s parents and grandparents. The pair was finally able to sit in a quiet corner, accompanied by two cool beers and an overflowing plate of food. Just when she thinks she could relax, Karla spots an aunt from far away who also seems to have spotted her in the corner. She groans softly then nudges Calum, who was already half asleep, and they both sit up from their deck chairs. The older lady makes her way to them, hands full with plates of food and the pair make room for her.

“Oh mi hija, como estas? (How are you?)” The older lady hugs Karla and takes a good look at her. She squishes her face and kisses each side, which Calum comes to realise its the norm, at least in this family.

“Buenas, gracias.” Karla replies fluently, she gestures to Calum, which he takes as his cue to get up and greet the older lady as well, “Este es mi novio, Calum. (This is my boyfriend, Calum)”

“This is my tía Mariah.” Karla introduces the both of them to each other, and Mariah takes Calum into a hug as well. She takes a good look at him too, squeezing his biceps and arms which makes him blush. Karla just shakes her head and laughs at him as he gets felt up by her relative. Mariah leans to Karla, a smirk forming on her face as she speaks, “el es guapo (he is handsome)” The older lady leaves the couple and Karla has a smile on her face as she sips on her beer. They relax back into the deck chairs, Karla snuggling under Calum’s arm.

“What she say? Got you smiley and all.” Calum asks.

“Nothing, just girl talk.” She smirks at Calum who raises his eyebrows. He leaves the matter and they sit, watching Karla’s nieces and nephews play in the pool, the elders in the family dancing and rocking it out to the Latin music. Calum notices that all around them, Karla was surrounded by love. There was so much going on at once, but love always seemed to remain constant in this family. He sees himself as being part of the family already, though barely being able to understand half the things they say in a conversation. Every family member made the effort to welcome him into their home, and in this moment, he knows that he wants to be able to create that with Karla. To be her forever. He pecks the top of her head, which makes her look up at him, her honey brown eyes always making his heart flutter.

“I wanna marry you some day y’know?” There’s a sweet smile and blush that forms on Karla’s face. She gestures to the people all around her.

“Think about how you gonna get past the fifty Riveras before you say that.”

-

Calum had been acting weird all night, knees bouncing, pushing his food around the plate more than he should during dinner. He seemed excited yet nervous, and Karla couldn’t quite put her finger on it. As they were loading the dishwasher, Calum seemed the most distracted and Karla’s had enough of the unknown. She closes the dishwasher and wipes her hands down before folding her arms.

“Alright, spill it.” Calum looked like a deer caught in headlights.

“Spill what?” Karla rolls her eyes and he takes this chance to wrap his hand around her waist, pulling her towards him. For a moment Karla thinks he’s going to get down on one knee and propose when they were barely past a year into their relationship. So when Calum pulls out a second set of keys to his house, she’s breathes an unnoticeable sigh of relief.

“Move in with me?” He grins at her but as soon as she shakes her head, his smile falters. Karla rests her hand on his chest, a chuckle escaping from her lips.

“You have a roommate, sweet pea. Move in with me?” Calum sighs in relief and nods eagerly, tossing his spare key somewhere across the table.

It takes a solid week for Calum to move all his stuff into Karla’s place. Ashton helps with his move, bringing over all his recording stuff as well as instruments. Karla emptied out what used to be her office, and lets Calum move all his work stuff into it despite his protests saying how he could leave his stuff back in his place. She rolled her eyes and moved another box of her stuff out of the room and shoves him into the room to unpack. They laugh and banter over the small things, and for a period of time they spent more energy on the bed than actually unpacking.  

“We’re living together.” Karla says as they both slump on the bed, only dressed in sweats and old t-shirts.

“We are, we’re going to do life together.”

“I can’t wait.”

[writingfortoomanyfandoms]

Courtney’s 4K/Quarantine Writing Challenge!!

So, not only did I hit 4,000 followers a little while ago (thank you all so much again for that!) but we’re also all stuck inside for the foreseeable future and I know we’re all bored out of our minds (or at least I am) and I don’t read anywhere near enough fics as I should (and as I want to) so I figured since I’m going a Write Fest on my own blog to celebrate 4K (I’ll link it here if you want to check it out) I thought I could extend that to all of you guys as well!

So yeah, writing challenge, premise is pretty simple, I’ve hosted a couple before (lowkey flops but we move), you read the rules, abide by them, pick a prompt and a character and you write!

As always with me, I’m a nerd and so the prompts are split into categories - there are song lyrics, book quotes, comedy quotes and film quotes to choose from!

I hope you guys want to join in with this! I love reading what you guys write and this could be a really fun way to just keep us all moving and inspired over the next few months :)

The Rules

1) You don’t have to be following me but it would be nice because I’m lonely and want friends plz

2) If your piece of writing is over 500 words, please use the ‘read more’ feature

3) Reblog this post to get the word out (and tag anyone who may be interested!)

4) It’s going to be one person per prompt but if needed I can add more prompts

5) Smut is fine but please leave warnings as appropriate (THOUGH NO UNDERAGE CHARACTER SMUT THANKS)

6) On the back of that one, no inappropriate pairings pleaseeeeee

7) Also please make sure you leave appropriate warnings at the beginnings of fics if any sensitive subjects are brought up (e.g. mental health etc)

8) Ships and OC’s are welcome

9) Tag me in your writing!

10) Use the hashtag #Courts4KWritingChallenge

11) If you want to enter send me an ask with the prompt you want and the pairing you’ll be writing it with

12) The deadline for this is 15th July (this can be extended if y’all need it)

Characters/People/Pairings

1) Any of the BoRhap dudes and their characters 

2) (BoRhap!)Queen members (Freddie only platonically)

3) The Hargreeves Children (older!Five only)

4) Richard Madden (+ his characters)

5) Taron Egerton (+ his characters)

6) Rocketman!Bernie Taupin and Ray Williams

7) Smosh Members

8) Jake Gyllenhaal (+ all his various characters)

9) Chris Evans (+ his characters)

10) Sebastian Stan (+ his characters)

11) Any of the 5sos guys (poly!5sos fics also both welcomed and encouraged)

12) Stranger Things peeps (Steve, Billy + Robin/their cast counterparts)

13) One Direction guys (Niall, Harry + Louis)

14) Pevensie children

15) Sex Education (cast + characters)

Prompts

Song Lyrics

“Wake up sunshine, somebody loves you” - Wake Up, Sunshine by All Time Low

“When I take a look at my life and all of my crimes you're the only thing that I think I got right” - Lover of Mine by 5 Seconds of Summer ( @angiefangirlworld-2 w/ Ashton)

“Kiss in the kitchen like it’s a dance floor” - Sunflower Vol.6 by Harry Styles

“There'll never be another, I promise that I'll love you for the rest of my life” - Black and White by Niall Horan ( @unn--known​ w/ someone from 1D)

“Let's keep each other safe from the world” - Lucky People by Waterparks

“Never wanted to be the boy next door, always thought I'd be something more” - Drowse by Queen

“And when I touch you I feel happy inside, it's such a feeling that my love I can't hide” - Hold Your Hand by The Beatles ( @flick-ofthe-wrist​ w/ Roger Taylor)

“It’s hard to think you could ever hate me, but everything's feeling different now” - Too Young by Louis Tomlinson

“All I can do is say that these arms were made for holding you” - 18 by One Direction

“I waited for her call - she always kept me waiting” - The Girl at the Rock Show by Blink-182

Book Quotes

“I am so busy keeping my head above water that I scarcely know who I am, much less who anyone else is” - The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do you start missing everybody” - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger 

“Sometimes, I feel the past and the future pressing so hard on either side that there’s no room for the present at all.” - Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

“I have measured out my life in coffee spoons” - The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot

“As far as I’m concerned, I came out of the womb spouting cynicism and wishing for rain.” - Solitaire by Alice Oseman

“We cross our bridges as we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and the presumption that once our eyes watered.” - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard

“Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.” I Am The Messenger by Marcus Zusak

“I love her, and that’s the beginning and end of everything” - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Flitzgerald

“I just want you to know that you’re very special and the only reason I’m telling you is that I don’t know if anyone else ever has” - The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chebowsky ( @coupscarat w/ Damien Haas)

“Was there some kind of rule against drop kicking arseholes in the face? Probably. They always had rules against things that needed to be done” - Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Comedy Quotes

“You have to treat everybody’s views, no matter what they believe, with respect” “What, even idiots?” Outnumbered

“Well you shouldn’t be prejudiced against fat people, thin people… men who have turned into women, women who have turned into men, gay people, ginger people… people from Liverpool” Outnumbered 

“Stand back kids, this school’s insurance policy doesn’t cover blown minds” Bad Education

“Do you think you could stop being so cheeky?” “Do you think you could stop asking stupid questions?” Outnumbered

“I spend my entire life around people. As much as I would like to, it’s almost impossible to avoid them” The Inbetweeners ( @queen-bunnyears​ w/ Ben Hardy or Sebastian Stan)

“We’re very hufflepuff here, wouldn’t you be happier in slytherin?” Fresh Meat ( @adrenaline-roulette​ w/ Ben Hardy)

“What’s the best way to make friends?” “Tell a woman you love her, and she says ‘I think we’re just friends’” Jimmy Carr, Jon Richardson

“There’s four things you can be in life: sober, tipsy, drunk and hungover. Tipsy is the only one that you’re not crying” James Acaster

“What’s that on your shorts?” “Oh - it’s called excitement” Smosh

“Full disclosure - I could just be an arsehole” Smosh

Film Quotes

“To me, you are perfect” - Love, Actually

“I wish I knew how to quit you” - Brokeback Mountain

“If you start crying, I’m gonna have to pretend to start crying” - Gifted ( @beysenpai​ w/ Chris Evans)

“I’m with you ‘til the end of the line” - Captain America: The Winter Soldier ( @mamaskillerqueen​ w/ Steve Harrington)

“Most of the time I just want to staple things to her head” - Bridget Jones’ Diary ( @hardforbenhardy​ w/ Ben Hardy)

“We’re family. We believe in each other. That’s everything” - Bohemian Rhapsody

“Look around: this guy basically lives in a clue board” - Knives Out

“Too many guys think I'm a concept, or I complete them, or I'm gonna make them alive. But I'm just a fucked-up girl who's lookin' for my own peace of mind; don't assign me yours.” - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

"What I'm saying is--and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form--is that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way." - When Harry Met Sally ( @acdeaky​ w/ Ben Hardy)

“You’re loved and have been loved. You’re one of the lucky ones” - Irreplaceable You

[softforcal]

Rivals : Hogwarts!Lashton

Summary: was going to be an HC but it was too good to pass up. basically You’re a Slytherin Quidditch Captain rivals with Quidditch Luke and Ashton and you all hate each other, angst ensues but you start to realize under the anger is another feeling, a more dangerous one ;)

Original Request: “ Have you done like a Slytherin reader x Gryffindor Luke or Gryffindor Ashton (or both together?????) If you haven’t I have a few words for you, hate sex, house rivalry, and a lot of playful calling the other house lame (also the rest of Hogwarts would be shook at the relationship)”  - anon

Word Count: 7k

Warnings: no condoms (but ya’ll should know by now that in my hogwarts!5sos stuff i just say they have an anti-cum spell because i’m lazy) smut, angst, rivalry, the good shit. 

----

at first, it had been just you and Ashton. as team captains of Slytherin and Gryffindor, it was only natural. but after a while, Luke, the co captain, joined in on the fighting. teachers knew to keep your teams away from each other in classes, and most classes were assigned with the rivalry in mind, keeping the snakes away from the lions.

So when Luke and Ashton walked into ‘History of Magic’ class and immediately heard your laugh, they both froze. Ashton’s skin prickled as his hands formed into fists. Luke groaned audibly which drew your attention. 

“who let the fucking snakes in this class?” Luke sneered as they glared at you, walking past your table while you met their gaze with narrowed eyes.

the entire class held their breath, wondering what would happen. as soon as Luke and Ashton reached the Gryffindors in the back everyone let out a sigh of relief. class continued but every time you leaned over to whisper something to your co captain, Luke and Ashton felt their blood boiling.

they could barely stand to be in the room with you and it was driving them both wild. as soon as class ended you left and at least that eased the tensions.

it was all over the school. you hadn’t had a class with them since second year when the rivalry began so this was uncharted territory. the only time you were ever in the same vicinity was when you were playing against each other but during that situation, the rage was always obvious.

Ashton was known for focusing all his bludgers at you, something that had probably started the rivalry in the first place. 

it was like the whole school was on the edge of their seats waiting to see what would happen during the second class. the teachers even had a staff meeting to discuss repercussions for bad behaviour, eventually deciding on detention and possibly game suspensions.

the two of them entered the class, eyes landing on you in a predatory manner. your grip was tight on your table as you met their gazes, not about to back down if anything happened. 

then Luke said it. loud and clear. “fucking snakes.”

you were on your feet before you could stop yourself, “you wanna say that to my face Hemmings?”

“yeah. i do.” he said, turning and squaring his shoulders as he looked down at you from his staggering height, “you’re a fucking snake.”

“well you’re an arrogant asshole.” you stated. 

Ashton stepped in, his usual hazel eyes a shade darker than normal as he gritted his jaw, “Better than being  a selfish deatheater.”

“oh so just because i’m in Slytherin that makes me a death eater?!”

“if the snake tattoo fits.” Ashton growled.

the entire room was quiet and just watched the interaction, no one knowing whether or not to step in. you were holding your own, which was saying something. 

Hemmings and Irwin were known for being aggressive which, when paired with their height, usually intimidated anyone who they set their gaze on. but not you. yes you were shorter but you were a credit to your house as you stared them down.

before it could go any further your teacher arrived. she instantly realized what was going on, “Hemmings. Irwin. Y/L/N. you all better get to your seats.”

you stared at Ashton and he stared at you, a muscle in his jaw feathered. none of you ready to back down. “she started it.” Luke growled.

“fine. have it your way Hemmings, detention at 3:00 for all of you, if any of you are late, you won’t be playing the match this weekend.” your teacher stated and from her tone it was obvious she was not messing around.

“great job Hemmings.” you said between clenched teeth.

“it’s your fault you fucking snake.”

“name calling? how fucking juvenile!” 

your teams jumped in before it could go any further. two Slytherins grabbing you and pulling while the entire Gryffindor team in the room had to drag away two of their biggest, strongest members.

Luke shoved the hands away, muttering a curse before walking to his table in the back, shoulders hunched with anger. Ashton followed as they sat at their table, eyes glaring into the back of your head.

they stayed that way the entire class. 

As soon as class ended you left the room and they both snickered, feeling as if, in some odd way, they had won.

but the anger was still there, bubbling just under the surface. word spread across the entire school and at lunch, all eyes were on the three of you. they glared from the Gryffindor table but you seemed oddly unaffected, although it was obvious you were trash talking the two of them.

Ashton’s knuckles turned white as his grip on his knife tightened, teeth clenched so hard he was worried they would shatter. 

Luke watched your lips, trying to make out what you were saying. 

You knew that they were on edge and you felt Luke’s gaze on you so you did what any mischievous, angry Slytherin would do. you bated him. making sure Luke could see your mouth you turned to a classmate and said: “i bet they’re just such assholes because their dicks are small.”

Luke was on his feet before he could stop himself and the entire great hall turned to look at him. two Gryffindors grabbed him and Ashton had his hand on Luke’s shoulder, “what?” he asked.

Luke tore his gaze from you, turning to Ashton, “she said our dicks are small.”

as soon as the Gryffindors in the vicinity heard that, four more jumped in to grab at Ashton. it took the entire team to drag the two boys out of the great hall while your table grinned at them. 

the teachers watched from the head table nervously. they’d all heard of the detention and already they were staring to think putting the three of you in one room may not be the best idea. but how else were they supposed to solve the debacle? they couldn’t just let you fight each other.

the next few classes seemed to last hours. Luke and Ashton couldn’t focus. their brains were too distracted on you and the rage they both felt. and bringing their dick size into it was the last straw.

Ashton’s foot bobbed up and down while he stared at his desk, fingers tapping some random rhythm while he tried to steady his breathing. but every time he got calm, he’d think of you again and he’d go spiralling back into that pit of anger that he’d found himself in more and more often. 

for some reason his brain kept going to the dick comment. it was a low blow. something he must have known you, a Slytherin, were capable of. but for some reason it still shocked him that you’d go to that low of a level.

Luke sat next to Ashton, arms crossed over his broad chest. he couldn’t even think straight he was so mad. he wished in that moment that he was a beater like Ash so he could hit things at you during the next match. 

class ended and the two stood. “so the plan is we get there,” Ashton began, “and we sit as far away from her as we can. no fighting.”

Luke rolled his eyes.

“no name calling.” Ashton stated firmly this time.

the two arrived at detention and the teacher looked up as the two lions sat down at the very back of the class. “if she’s fucking late i swear to god-” Luke began but you entered the room and he shut his mouth.

the teacher stood up, and looked at the three of you, “you all know why you’re here. i suppose there’s no use talking about it so just do your homework, i’m sure thats punishment enough.”

she sat down and you all pulled out paper to write. and of course, being a Slytherin you weren’t about to give them any satisfaction of anything so you began to tap your pencil on the desk, making an audible noise.

you heard a crack behind you and you grinned, assuming one of the blondes had just snapped their pencil. 

“Can... can you get her to stop making noise?” Luke asked from behind you.

your teacher looked at you then at the boys behind you, “Y/N is it necessary for you to tap your pencil?” 

“it helps me think.” you said sweetly.

“I’m sorry Mr. Hemmings, she’s not being very disruptive you’ll just have to ignore it.”

“how long do we have to be here?” Ashton asked after a few minutes.

“an hour should suffice.”

the air was thick. with tension. with silence. 

everyone in the room was on edge and it was obvious. the hour lasted forever but when it was done your teacher sighed, “there will be no more fighting in my class room, if you must let out anger at each other, do it on the pitch, am i understood?”

you all agreed and disbursed, the same thing on all of your minds: the match between Gryffindor and Slytherin that would take place a few days later.

-----

the week passed agonizingly slowly. your teams were on edge and it was the most you and Ashton could do to keep everyone calm, even if it meant ignoring each other and putting your rivalry to the side.

Luke was raging every day and that much was obvious but he wasn’t about to second guess a direction from his captain. Luke watched you like a lion watching his prey and although Ashton tried not to, whenever his gaze landed on you, it was full of anger as well.

as your teams walked onto the pitch, the ref decided to skip the initial handshake, tensions were too high.

everyone in the stands were on the edge of their seats. it would be the game of a lifetime and they all knew it.

----

Luke and Ashton paced at the end of the infirmary bed. Pomfrey had assured them that their seeker would be fine, just unconscious. 

you stood in the doorway looking at the two anxious men. not angry. just anxious. not cocky or arrogant. just scared.

“is she going to be okay?” you asked, voice drawing both of their attention.

Luke’s fists clenched at his sides as he began to walk towards you but Ashton cut him off by grabbing his arm, “this is not the place.” he stated.

“then where?!” Luke growled, eyes on you.

“i know a place.” you sighed.

it was about time you all sat down and discussed everything. your rivalry had gotten worse and worse and it had to reach a breaking point sometime. the two of them followed you out of the infirmary and down the halls that were fairly deserted. the door appeared and the three of you entered the room of requirement. 

it looked like a therapist office and part of you wanted to laugh at the rooms choice in set up but you knew it was not the right time.

you sat across from the two guys. Luke leaning back and crossing his arms while Ashton opted to sit forward elbows on his legs, “our seeker will be fine.” he stated finally,

“no thanks to your house.” Luke glared.

“i play to win Hemmings.” you stated, “besides, Ashton was the one trying to knock me off my broom all night-”

“but he didn’t.” 

“he could have!”

“he didnt!” Luke repeated moving forward and uncrossing his arms.

“your team was going to loose anyways!” you growled.

Luke was on his feet in seconds as were you as you tilted your head up to meet the angry blondes eyes. he was practically growling, a true lion.

Ashton stood, the most collected of the three of you but he was on the edge of anger, one more thing out of your mouth and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to stop himself from joining the fight.

“we’re all angry-” he began.

“fucking right we are!” Luke screamed.

“you two call me a snake every day and you both glare at me all the time and say i’m a death eater-”

“well you make the most annoying fucking sounds with your pencil and you’re always trying to fight us and you told everyone you think we have small dicks-”

“oh did that make you insecure Hemmings?!” You said, making yourself sound empathetic, “is it because you have a small dick?”

suddenly his lips were on yours and you were shocked at first but his teeth sinking into your bottom lip drew you back into the moment. he grabbed your hand, moving it down to the front of his pants, “does that feel small to you snake?!” he growled against your lips.

you looked up at him with wide eyes, words caught in your throat.

“i think he’s expecting an answer.” Ashton said, voice a low rumble. 

then you remembered: i’m a fucking Slytherin.

you remembered your allegiance to your house. you looked up at Luke, narrowing your eyes, “i’ve felt bigger.” 

Luke scoffed, pulling away from you and rolling his eyes, “you are such a bitch!”

Ashton grabbed you, spinning your body so your back pressed to his chest as his hands on your hips kept you firmly placed against him. his breath on your neck sent electricity through your body as you grinded back against him. 

“you going to call me small too, Snake?” Ashton asked, teeth nipping at your ear.

your hands covered his on your hips and you looked directly at Luke as you said: “feels average.”

Ashton’s laugh vibrated through your body.

“so you wont mind taking us both then? seeing as we’re average?” Ashton said, finally pressing his lips against the sensitive skin of your neck. you bit your lip to contain a moan and Luke smirked at you as he approached your front again. 

you thought about it. could you take both of them at once? Luke’s gaze was a challenge, as was Ashton’s question... and you weren’t about to back down now. 

“i could take both of you on in my sleep.”

Luke’s lips were on yours, hands cupping at your face as his fingers went into your hair, pulling slightly and eliciting a small moan from your lips. Ashton worked you out of your pants, pushing them down before his hands reached to the front of your button up school shirt and he just tore it open.

buttons scattered across the floor and you pulled away from Luke, about to turn and yell at Ashton but Luke grabbed your chin, forcing your eyes to his again, “not a fucking word.” he growled.

once again you were conflicted. but as you looked into the blonde’s eyes you made a choice then and there. you’d never backed down from them before but... in this situation it was acceptable. 

and the way the Gryffindor was standing in front of you screamed ‘Dom’ and it was the sexiest thing you’d ever seen. Luke grinned as it became clear you would follow his instructions. his hands helped Ashton slip your shirt to the floor. Ashton’s lips pressed to your neck, teeth grazing the skin.

Luke toyed with one of your bra straps, pulling it away from the skin and letting it smack back down when he released it. he watched your reaction, waiting for a flinch that never came. 

you’d play the sub part but you were still a fucking Slytherin. 

his lips pressed against yours again, biting down on you lip and sucking while Ashton slipped his hand down the front of your panties.

you began to try to take off Luke’s shirt and he allowed you to but as soon as you went for his pants he smacked your hands away, “should I add impatient to your list of shit traits?” he sneered, hand wrapping around your neck as he looked down at you. 

you narrowed your eyes at him but kept your mouth shut as he grinned, “lion got your tongue snake?”

Ashton giggled from behind you and your fists clenched at your sides, “don’t press your luck.” Ashton warned from behind you, unclasping your bra. 

Luke’s eyes darted to his Captain behind you and he backed off a little, removing his hand from around your neck. “so how are we doing this?” he asked, question directed at Ashton.

“I’d say skip the foreplay, she’s wet as fuck already.” his lips pressed against your neck and a shiver ran through your body, his hand moved from between your legs up to your mouth and you sucked on his fingers, eyes on Luke who groaned loudly “fuck.”

Luke undid his belt and Ashton pulled his hand away, you could hear him doing the same behind you as you stood and waited for instruction. As soon as Luke was naked he approached you, grabbing your face and pulling you into a kiss while he led you to the couch. He sat down and you immediately straddled him. he moved himself to your entrance as one of his hands wrapped around your throat again.

you slid down onto him, resisting the urge to moan and give him the satisfaction of noise. his hands moved to your waist as he begin to guide you to start moving. as soon as you began going up and down you couldn’t help the sounds that started to leave your mouth as you buried your face in his neck to try to muffle them.

a hand in your hair roughly pulled your head back as Luke made you look him in the eyes, “still think i’m small?”

you considered your options and realized, if you said yes, he’d probably stop. and god, you didn’t want him to stop.

you shook your head.

he grinned, “i think i’m going to need you to say it.” 

“you’re not small.” you said quietly.

his grip on your hair tightened, “don’t play dumb, you know what i want.”

he let go of your hair and began moving his hips up to meet yours and was hitting a spot so deep it made your toes curl as whimpers left your mouth, “you’re so big Luke.”

“do you love it?”

“yes.”

“what do you love?”

you groaned in frustration an he stopped, hands settling on your waist and forcing you to be still. you could have died right there as you met his challenging gaze, “i love your big dick.” you said, choking back on your pride as the words left your mouth.

you waited for him to move but he didn’t, instead he smacked your bum lightly, “get up and on all fours, gonna suck Ashton for me.”

you slid off of him, body mourning the loss of him as you moved on the couch so you had your hands on the armrest, bent over so you were in the perfect position for Ashton who was waiting for you while Luke got ready behind you. 

“gonna show me your mouth is good for things other than talking back?” Ashton asked as you grabbed his dick, opening your mouth as you took his tip.

“make her tell you you’re big.” Luke suggested from behind you as he teased your entrance.

“i don’t need her to tell me, she’ll be choking soon enough.” Ashton said, running a hand through your hair before his grip tightened. 

Luke slammed into you with no warning and your body jolted forward on Ashton, making him hit the back of your throat. you let out a small sound that made Ashton groan. as Luke pulled back so did you, and as he thrust, you moved forward again, matching his pace on Ashton.

a hand came down on your ass and you moaned loudly around Ashton and he began to thrust towards you, dick going deeper and hitting the back of your throat again, you gagged a little and heard a laugh, “told you.” 

Luke’s hands were firm on your hips and you hoped knew there would be bruises the next day. another smack, another chorus of groans. 

“fuck mate, she’s so tight.” Luke said, voice low, another smack. he continued to pound into you while you worked on Ashton but Luke was hitting this spot that was driving you wild.

you clenched around him and a flurry of curse words left his mouth, “fuck it, i’m cumming.” he announced, pace somehow going even faster. his groans were low and angelic as he came, giving a few final thrusts before stopping, chest heaving before he pulled out. 

Ashton pulled out of your mouth as Luke went to collapse on the other couch, finding his wand in his discarded pants he muttered a quick spell (the anti cum spell fam, told ya’ll im lazy) and then he pulled on his pants, watching lazily.

unlike Luke, Ashton didn’t bother teasing as he pushed into you, hands brushing along your bum, “you did a number on her Luke.” he mused.

for a moment you thought he would be gentle.

you were wrong.

a loud smack echoed through the room and the sound you made was down right sinful. it was the hardest hit, by far. 

and you had loved it.

his hands went to your waist and he easily moved your body back and forth to meet every snap of his hips. Luke may have been longer, but Ashton was thicker and both of them had your body going insane.

“you like this don’t you?” Ashton asked as he continued to pound into you.

“Yes.”

“yes what?”

you thought about it for a moment, “yes... captain?”

it was more of a question and both Luke and Ashton burst out laughing, “fuck that was kinda hot.” Luke mused.

it was odd since you were, in your own right, a captain. but in this situation it was obvious who was in charge.

“still hate me?” Ashton asked, a hand coming down on your ass.

“fuck! yes. i fucking hate you!” you moaned, hands gripping the arm of the couch. 

there was just something about the whole situation. the anger, the rage, that made your body feel electric. you could feel yourself rushing towards your high and Ashton could too, “don’t fucking cum until i say so.” he growled, hand coming down on your ass again which only made you closer.

he thrust harder into you, making your body jolt forward each time as you focused on the feeling of him filling you. your moans got louder until you were at the edge and so was Ashton, “fuck, cum.” he instructed, pumping into you while your body fluttered around him, convulsing from your high. 

his fingers dug unto your hips as he came as well, letting out a low groan. after a few more thrusts he pulled out and you collapsed onto the couch, pulling your legs to your chest as you tried to catch your breath.

you heard Ashton mutter a spell but you didn’t open your eyes.

a few minutes passed.

“she looks fucked.” Luke’s voice said, sounding close. 

“sit up.” Ashton instructed, a hand going under your arm as he helped you into a sitting position. he knelt on the ground in front of you, helping put your feet in your pant legs and then he pulled them up, “gotta stand for me sweetheart.”

Luke held out his hands for you to grab as he helped you to your feet while Ashton pulled your pants up the rest of the way. Luke had your bra and helped you slip it on.

Ashton looked at your ruined shirt, buttons still on the ground. he took out his want and said a spell, the buttons lifted and flew back to the fabric, strings attaching again. you’d heard that the Gryffindor Quidditch captain was also a pretty great wizard but you’d never seen it for yourself until that moment.

thats probably why he’d been so nonchalant about ripping it off, because he knew he could fix it. he handed it to you and you slipped it on.

you noticed your panties peaking out of Luke’s pocket and you groaned, “seriously?”

the tall blonde grinned, “finders keepers.”

at least none of you seemed to be angry anymore which was... a different dynamic than you were used to, to say the least. 

“we should head out.” Ashton stated, “gotta check the infirmary again.”

you’d almost forgotten about their unconscious seeker but you nodded, “okay.”

Ashton gave you one more once over before turning and walking to the door Luke, following. they said nothing as they left. but it’s not like you had something magical to say either.

you sat down on the couch, wondering what the fuck had just happened.

------

“where’ve you been?!” one of your friends asked as you sat down at the Slytherin table for dinner.

“haven’t seen you since after the game.” another Slytherin stated.

you sighed, “had a nap. i was exhausted.”

it was partly true. after Luke and Ashton had left, you’d passed out.

your friends stared at you and you sighed again, “what?”

“well... you have a hickey.” 

your hand flew to your neck. you hadn’t had a chance to look in a mirror. thats when you remembered that while Luke had been playing with your bra straps and Ashton had his hand down your panties, his lips had been on your neck. 

“so who’s the guy?” you friends smirked.

you groaned, “i don’t want to talk about it.”

your eyes drifted over your friends shoulder to the front of the great hall. Ashton, Luke and their seeker had entered. the seeker looked fine but she was leaning on Ashton.

you felt heat run through your body as your fist clenched on the table. it took you a moment to realize what you were feeling: jealousy. 

“at least their seeker looks fine.” one of your friends mused.

your other friend tilted her head, watching the trio, “you know, if Luke Hemmings wasn’t such an asshole, he’d be cute.” 

----

you’d managed to avoid Ashton and Luke the rest of the weekend but you couldn’t avoid them on Monday as you went to class. you hoped they would ignore you.

you hoped they were going to be chill about the whole thing. you hoped they’d just forget about it.

but part of you, a part that you really didn’t want to think about, hoped that maybe they had been thinking about you all weekend like you had been thinking about them.

you were talking with a friend when Luke and Ashton entered the classroom. they were almost past you when Luke stated “nice neck.”

you turned, brain immediately trying to come up with a sassy response but all that could come out of your mouth was “nice face!”

it was not your shining moment that’s for sure.

Luke laughed and the two continued to their place in the back of the class. you looked down at your desk, feeling a blush rise through your body as your friend stared at you slack jawed, “what the fuck was that?!” she whispered.

“i really don’t want to even talk about it.” you groaned.

the class went by excruciatingly slowly. all you could think about was the way it had felt to have both of them. it was the most distracting thing.

when class ended you stood to leave, hoping to get out of there before either boy could come after you. as you walked down the hall you let out a sigh of relief, thinking you were safe.

thats when a hand grabbed yours and suddenly you were being pushed against a wall in a small, deserted off shoot hallway. Luke grinned down at you, “think you could avoid us all day?”

Ashton leaned against the wall next to you, “sorry about your neck.”

it took you a moment to process the fact that he’d just apologized to you. sure, he’d been sort of sweet after he’d literally fucked your brains out but you had assumed that was a post orgasm sign of weakness. 

“its fine.” you breathed. and now you were being soft and not getting mad at him? 

“why’ve you been avoiding us?” Ashton asked. 

he actually looked concerned.

Luke looked like his usual asshole self but Ashton... well, this was a different side to him. he was almost caring... understanding. 

“sorry i didn’t get a memo saying we all gave up our rivalry.” you said, sass in your voice.

Luke grinned, “aw you still hate me?” he leaned down, lips inches from yours.

“definitely.” you breathe, voice not mustering the amount of confidence you wished it had. 

“fucking hate you too.” he said, almost kissing you before pulling away and leaving you wanting more.

“come to the room of requirement later. after dinner.” Ashton stated.

“I don’t think thats a good idea.” you answered. 

Luke rolled his eyes as the two of them began walking away,  “something tells me you’ll show up anyways.”

“fuck you Hemmings.”

he looked over his shoulder at you, “you have.”

-----

it had been three weeks since the first time. 

three weeks of avoiding them both during the day and then sneaking off to the room of requirement at night. 

marks were kept in places no one else could see. 

but they were toeing the line. especially Luke. he was the one who truly played with fire. 

you and Ashton, as captains, were more able to keep a level head but Luke wouldn’t know was self control was if it smacked him in the face and said “hey, tall boy, i’m self control, ever heard of me?!”

he had a thing for still causing altercations in class that would get you both fired up. hate sex was definitely his sex of choice. 

Ashton had frequently shown his softer side, even going so far as to say you played really well in a quidditch game against Hufflepuff. of course he had said it while he had thought you were sleeping after he’d just made you orgasm five times in a row but it was the thought that counted. 

you had a match against Ravenclaw and you were ready for it. as your team got ready for the whistle to blow, signifying the start of the game, you focused on the snitch, ignoring the Gryffindor seating area where you knew Luke and Ashton were sitting. 

it was a particularly windy day and part of you had wondered if the game would be canceled but there you were, wind whipping at your robes as you bolted after the snitch. 

about forty minutes into the game a bludger came out of nowhere and before you knew what was happening you were falling. 

----

Ashton leaned against the wall outside the infirmary while Luke paced back and forth in front of him. “how much fucking longer do you think the Slytherins will be in there?” he asked finally.

“until she wakes up probably.” Ashton shrugged.

Luke glared at Ashton before peaking through the door, “she’s still unconscious.” he stated.

“you gotta calm down mate.” 

“i am calm.” Luke snapped, “you calm down.”

Luke was conflicted. when it had started, the hate sex had been great. but as the weeks had gone on he’d started to feel things... things he’d never ever thought he’d feel for a Slytherin.

but he’d always been able to brush them off, pretend they weren’t there.

and now they were front and centre.

his mind was spinning and the only thing he cared about was if you were alright. it scared the shit out of him, but not as much as the thought of loosing you. which was insane, after all you were just unconscious, he knew you would be fine. and yet, that knowledge didn’t calm him down. it didn’t make him feel better.

a few voices drew Luke’s attention back to the infirmary door and when he looked in, it was obvious that you’d woken up.

Luke made a split second decision, muttering “fuck it.” as he pushed open the infirmary doors, Ashton groaning and following.

your friends were all fussing over you and none of them noticed the two Gryffindors until your gaze landed on them standing behind your friends.

“what do you two want?” one of your friends glared immediately.

“are you okay?” Luke asked, ignoring your friends and trying to sound nonchalant but his worry seeped through the cracks, visible all over his face. 

“i’m fine.” you stated.

“you.” Luke said, turning to one of your friends, “you’re the beater aren’t you? where the fuck were you when that bludger went for Y/N?”

your friend let out a little squeaking noise in shock, crumbling under the obviously angry Gryffindors gaze, “I-”

“Luke, i’m fine.” you stated again, “calm down.”

“i am calm!” Luke yelled.

Ashton’s hand went to Luke’s shoulder, “keep your voice down mate.”

Luke’s frantic eyes went to you. the only thing he wanted to do was wrap you in his arms and kiss you but there was a wall of Slytherins in front of him and Ashton’s hand on his shoulder would definitely have stopped him. “fuck!” Luke shouted, turning and leaving the room.

“sorry about him.” Ashton apologized before turning and following his friend.

all your friends turned to you, “okay, now you have to explain what the fuck is going on.”

-----

word had gotten out about Luke and Ashton’s visit to the infirmary.

you were fine and you were even able to make it to dinner that night. as you walked into the great hall, eyes went to you. people began whispering.

everyone had guessed that Luke had a thing for you but people weren’t sure if you had a thing for him or not. 

you’d told your small group of Slytherin friends and they had been shocked, unsurprisingly. appalled would be another choice word because “Luke Hemmings is an asshole!” but they generally agreed that “Ashton isn’t the worst Gryffindor ever.”

but... they all had to admit: Luke being worried about you was cute.

but it was confusing as fuck for you. because until that moment he’d never been soft. never.

Ashton was always the one who cuddled after sex. Ashton was the one who would toss you your clothes and kiss you before they left.

Luke was the one always asking if you still hated him. the one who, when finished, would go sit across the room and watch. he’s the one who would leave without saying another word.

you had considered dating Ashton. and Luke was a great fuck but you hadn’t really thought of him as a relationship type. which had made things simple. but now... not so much.

Luke and Ashton approached the Great Hall, “are you calm yet?” Ashton asked.

Luke rolled his eyes, “no.”

“well maybe we shouldn’t go in there.” Ashton suggested, “you might do something stupid.”

it was a legitimate concern.

“is it really the worst thing in the world for me to be nice to her?” Luke asked.

Ashton shrugged, “i’m not the one who said you couldn’t be. you did that to yourself.”

Luke groaned, it was true, “i... I like her. fuck. i like her a lot.”

“yeah. me too.”

“shit. what do we do?” Luke ran a hand through his hair.

“we’ll have to talk to her about it. but obviously you need to go see if she’s okay, so,” Ashton put a hand on Luke’s shoulder, “you’re a Gryffindor Luke. Be a lion-”

“and not a pussy.”  Luke finished the saying for him. he took a deep breath, mustering up all the courage he could, he stepped towards the Great Hall then stopped and groaned, “fuck, all the Slytherins are going to be staring at me though.”

“do you want to know if she’s okay or not?”

Luke took a deep breath, squaring his large shoulders. then he walked into the Great Hall.

all the snakes turned to Luke as he walked towards you and your friends where you sat near the end of one of the long tables. he stopped in front of you, eyes looking you over, “you’re not in the infirmary.” he stated.

“yeah.” you said awkwardly, trying to ignore your table mates who were all gawking at him.

“you’re okay.” he stated.

“uh huh.” you bit at your lip, “Luke do you want to sit down?” 

Ashton walked up behind Luke who was staring at you with an open mouth, “that’s probably a good idea.” Ashton said.

you looked at your friends, “make some room.”

they all gawked at you, “seriously?!” one of your friends hissed, a girl who hadn’t been in the infirmary and probably had no fucking clue what was going on.

you rolled your eyes at them as the girls hesitantly made room for you on either side as Luke and Ashton sat down. Luke turned sideways to look at you, straddling the bench, “i was worried.” he stated.

“i can see that.” you almost laughed. this boy really had no idea what the fuck he was doing, “like i said earlier, i’m fine. now what’s this all about?”

you looked between Luke and Ashton. 

“this isn’t the place-” Ashton began to say.

“i want to get to know your friends.” Luke interrupted.

everyone in the vicinity, including you and Ashton stopped and stared at him. he was the self proclaimed Slytherin hater. and now here he was. at the table. saying he wanted to make friends.

he turned abruptly, looking at a girl across the table, “i’m Luke.”

“Harmony.” The girl said her name.

Luke nodded, looking at the next girl, “I’m-”

“Luke. yes. we all know who you are.” she glared but when you gave her a warning look she sighed, “i’m Winnona.” 

the girls all went around and introduced themselves, Luke paid close attention to each name, repeating the tough ones to himself. it was obvious he was making an effort. and it was shocking. 

Ashton had a natural charisma and within minutes he had your Slytherin friends laughing. he was telling an elaborate story about his first tattoo with a muggle artist when Luke grabbed your hand under the table, his thumbs brushing over your palm as he turned it facing up.

his eyes watched his own movements and you’d never seen him so soft before in your life. “who knew all it would take was me getting hurt for you to realize you actually like me.” you teased quietly.

he smiled, laughing slightly as he continued to look at your palm.

Ashton carried most of the conversation but Luke tried to get involved. when dinner ended the three of you stood and the entire Great Hall watched the three of you leave in confusion. 

the mystery of which one of them you were dating remained #unsolved.

as soon as you were away from prying ears and eyes you said: “so what is this? a week ago i would have said we were all just fuck buddies but it feels like that’s changed.”

“we both really like you.” Ashton said, “so if you’re up for it, i think Luke and i would both be down to give this a try as something more.”

------

the school was obviously waiting for answers about your dating life which meant keeping it a secret was difficult at first. 

it had only been a week and you were at one of their games, Slytherin vs Hufflepuff. they both played brilliantly and Gryffindor won.

you couldn’t help yourself, running onto the pitch. Luke was closest and you ran into his arms, he lifted you up and your legs wrapped around his waist as you pressed your lips to his, smiling into the kiss.

as he set you down, you were both aware that everyone was staring.

you heard someone mumble, “i told you it was Luke not Ashton.”

but then Ashton walked towards you with a smile as Luke let you go and you went into Ashton’s arms, grabbing his face and kissing him as his arms wrapped around you.

audible gasps erupted around the three of you.

Luke approached, wrapping his arms around you and Ashton. you all enjoyed each other, ignoring the stares and the whispers. after all, they were courageous Gryffindors and you were a bad ass Slytherin, if anyone could take this shit, it was you three.

----

to say that people were shocked would be an understatement. they would have been shocked at you being friends with Luke or Ashton, let alone dating, and definitely at the fact that you were dating both. 

oddly enough, the two lions were able to win over the Slytherins. it was obvious how soft they both were for you. 

the Gryffindors were harder but one harsh look from Ashton or Luke would get them to fall in line.

besides, Gryffindors had to get used to you because you were around a lot. Luke and Ashton had very high sex drives and once you were all out as a couple, they preferred the safety and comfort of their own room. luckily enough they had a shared room but the noises still kept most people up late.

Luke had become soft as fuck for you but they were still down for angry, kinky sex. somehow it worked. you all pushed each other to be the best.

there was still friendly house competition but nothing like it had been. 

you usually didn’t have to play Quidditch against each other but you all promised not to let game outcomes affect anything... except the sex. angry post quidditch match sex was always something to look forward too.

Luke and Ashton would come sit at the Slytherin table most of the time, your friends having warmed up to Luke with his awkward and weird introduction that first day he’d sat down. 

you could all still be absolute assholes, but at least you were assholes together. 

[sleepy--cal]

hitched pt.1 | ashton

word count | 7.6k  →  fake dating, tinder, romcom au

synopsis | Ashton lies about having a plus-one for Michael’s wedding, sending his friends into an excited frenzy, and him? Scrambling to make those lies come true.

a/n | i’ve never written anything for the 5sos community before so here is my hello :3 Warning: excessive swearing bc the author has a potty mouth

★

When Ashton thought about it way back when, he really thought he’d be the first to settle down. To tie the knot. To get hitched.

But the first 5SOS wedding is coming up in August and it’s not his. It’s Michael’s - as in feet-on-the-table, milk-mustache-wearing, fortnite-until-dawn-playin’, doesn’t-wake-up-until-2pm, stray-cat-lookin’ ass Michael.

Luke has his plus-one. Sierra. Even Calum’s weekends have been spent chasing after this girl that Ashton has yet to be introduced to. Yet here he himself is at 2 months shy of 25 years of age, and he’s so fucking single he’s pretty sure he and Virgin Mary could be featured side-by-side on an expert level of a spot-the-difference game.

In fact, the last time a female even stepped foot into his mancave of an apartment was before he’d broken it off with his ex-girlfriend over a year ago. And when his ex had moved out, she’d brought all of her stuff with her and when Ashton says ‘all of her stuff’, he means all of her stuff. There’s no longer a toaster oven in his kitchen, only a microwave that he uses to heat up pizza pockets and poptarts. There are no bowls to eat from because he eats his food straight off his only pot like an 18th century caveman. There’s a lacy bra hanging off the doorknob to his bathroom but even that was a gag gift from Calum for Christmas two years ago. It’s fucking sad.

So Ashton doesn’t think it’s his fault, okay, when his phone pings and he comes face to face with the link to RSVP to Michael and Crystal’s destination wedding and the first question that comes up is “Do you have a plus one?”

Ashton scoffs.

He doesn’t know what it is - either the internalized compulsive need to one-up his friends or you know, casual demonic possession but he physically cannot control his goddamn thumb as he checkmarks the little “yes!” next to the question from hell. The panic doesn’t settle in for a little bit, even when he’s staring blankly at the ‘thank you for your response!’ message that pops up after he submits the form.

It’s only when he picks up the phone to an ecstatic Michael less than a full minute since he indicated he wanted steak instead of fish for the wedding dinner that he well and truly has his ‘oh shit’ moment.

And of course, when one person in the band knows something, everyone fucking knows. Which is how he finds himself stuck in a 4-way facetime call with every single 5SOS member and their dogs.

He can see all of Luke’s pores from how close his face is to the screen.

Everyone speaks all at once.

“Ash you’re what?!”

“Mate, why the hell didn’t you tell us?”

“I seriously had to find out from you RSVP-ing to my fucking wedding?!”

Ashton winces as he pulls his phone further from his face. “Guys it’s not that big of a deal.”

Michael scoffs at the same time Calum screams. “Not that big of a deal?! Dude!”

“What’s her name?” Luke demands like he’s asking for tonight’s weather forecast and not the name of Ashton’s fake fucking girlfriend.

“Chernobyl,” Ashton says. What the fuck.

“Chernobyl?” Luke repeats, his nose scrunching up in deep thought.

“Isn’t that the name of the nuclear power plant that-”

“It was a joke!” Ashton snaps, cutting Michael off. “I was kidding. It’s an inside joke between us.” He bullshits. “Um-”

“Aw, you two have inside jokes already!” Luke coos instead. Calum falls for it immediately, cooing alongside Luke and if Ashton’s ego wasn’t so big, he would’ve hung up the call already.

“So what is her name then?” Michael probes curiously. Ashton wants to kill Michael.

“Uh,” Ashton says intellectually. Favourite cartoon character. His grandmother’s name. The name of his childhood stuffie. The street he used to live on?? Ah, his neighbour’s cat! “April! I- yeah, it’s April.”

“Aww! Ashton!” Calum says dreamily like he’s Ashton’s mom finding out about his girlfriend and not his punk rock band member.

“She’s twenty-two,” Ashton’s fat mouth adds unnecessarily, because apparently, Ashton Fletcher Irwin is a closeted masochist and likes his grave deeper than most.

★

When management had approved of the band’s 6-month hiatus in preparation for Mikey’s wedding, Ashton never imagined he’d be spending it alone on his living room floor downloading Tinder.

But as he watches the progress bar slowly fill with green, it dawns on him that this is probably the worst decision he’s ever made in his entire life and that he should probably get psychologically evaluated for compulsive lying.

He isn’t even sure if Tinder is the right app for this, because he’s not looking for a hookup. He’s looking for a very specific 22-year old April who happens to live in Los Angeles, is open to sharing a fake inside joke with him about the tragic 1986 Chernobyl disaster, and won’t think he’s a serial killer when he asks on the first date if they want to accompany him on an 11-hour flight to Bora Bora as his plus one for his best friend’s destination wedding.

Ashton groans, falling backwards onto the carpeted floor. “Fuuuuuuck.”

The only thing that answers him is the mocking ping from his phone telling him the download is complete.

The carpet is rough under his cheek as he turns to grab at his phone, the ‘Let’s get started!’ page of the app staring innocently back at him.

It’s afternoons like these that makes Ashton wish he wasn’t such an insufferable idiot.

In no time at all, Ashton has his profile set up - his name (just Fletcher), age (24), and a couple of long-distance unrecognizable shots of himself because there’s no way in hell the tabloids are about to catch him on Tinder.

He spends the next 30 seconds swiping right furiously on every single girl that pops up because Michael’s wedding is in four months and the fitting for the groomsmen suits are tomorrow and he seriously has no time to be picky right now. He literally needs his 22-year old April yesterday.

He’s about to max out on his swiping limit for the day when a loud knock on his door startles him out of his thoughts. From his spot on the floor, he peers around the corner at the front door and when the lock doesn’t jiggle after another ten seconds, he groans and gets up to see which one of his not-bandmates have decided to show up unannounced.

When the door swings open, Lauren is staring at him from the other side with a giant luggage behind her and a raised eyebrow.

“Lauren!” He greets enthusiastically without missing a beat.

She rolls her eyes at him anyway and pushes her way past him and into the apartment. “You forgot, didn’t you?”

“I did not. I even have a poptart in the microwave for you.” He insists as the front door swings shut with a bang.

Yeah... he should really get tested for compulsive lying.

“Here, let me grab that for you,” Ashton says, hauling the gigantic suitcase Lauren had brought with her, ignoring her sarcastic as you should! as he goes off to dump it somewhere in his room. While there, he shoves his dirty clothes underneath the bed and smooths out the bed sheets so Ashton can at least pretend that he’s somewhat gotten his act together since Lauren had last visited.

When he reemerges, Lauren is relaxing on the couch with a poptart in one hand and his phone in the other.

“Lauren!” He roars as he does a running dive over the back of the couch. Lauren shrieks as she drops the poptart and stumbles to the floor, carrying the weight of her brother on her back as she tries to keep the phone out of his reach. “What did I tell you about touching my things?!”

“I see Tinder, Ash!” She screams back, knocking the cushions off the couch as she shoves a sharp elbow into his cheek. “I have to tell mom!”

“Like hell you will!” He shouts as he makes a grab for the wrist holding his phone hostage. “Give me my phone back!”

“Screw off!”

“I made you a poptart!”

“So?!” Lauren retorts. “I-”

They both freeze at the sound of a loud ping. Ashton can only watch helplessly as Lauren’s eyes dart to the phone in her hands, her expression going from angry cat to sparkly eyed in two seconds flat. “You have a match!” She squeals.

“What?”

Ashton takes advantage of the distraction to snatch his phone back. Immediately, Lauren is peering over his shoulder as he swipes on the notification, watching as the words ‘It’s a Match!’ displays itself on the screen.

Underneath the words are two circular pictures - one is of the blurry ass photo of himself that he’d chosen and the other is a photo of a pretty brunette beaming shyly at the camera from behind a teacup.

‘You and Luna have liked each other!’ Tinder informs him.

Lauren shrieking into his ear is probably the single loudest thing he’s ever heard in his life, and as the drummer of a band, that’s saying something.

“She’s pretty!” Lauren squeals. Two seconds later, she mellows down as she clears her throat and punches him hard in the shoulder. “I guess you have pretty good taste. Proud of ya, Ash.” She grins.

Ashton doesn’t know how to tell her about his blind and desperate swiping spree that he went on seconds before she showed up at his doorstep, or about why he’s even on Tinder in the first place so he doesn’t and just lets CompulsiveLiar!Ashton strike again. “Thanks Laurie. Her bio’s what really got me.” He says.

He has no freaking idea what Luna’s bio says.

“Let me stalk!” Lauren exclaims and snatches his phone back before he can say anything and because Ashton can’t help but admit he’s a little curious too, the pair of them huddle on the couch together, looking at Ashton’s phone like it holds the answers to the future, which, for Ashton, it seriously might, just not in the way his sister might be thinking.

“Luna, twenty-two years old,” Lauren reads aloud. Ashton’s eyebrows shoot up at her perfect age. She scrolls further down. “Hey, she went to UCLA! I wonder if I’ve passed her on campus before.”

“Majored in developmental psychology,” Ashton reads next. “Holy shit.”

Lauren glances at him suspiciously. “I thought you’ve read all of this before.”

“I have!” Ashton says defensively. “I’m just doing a dramatic reading for your sake.”

“God, please don’t.”

They spend the next half hour combing through every bit of Luna’s bio, from the three photos she has of herself and one of her dalmatian to her biography that simply reads ‘wine and pizza and I’m all yours! Protip: +25 bonus points if you have a dog. +75 bonus points if I get to meet ‘em.’

“Borrow Luke’s dog! You have to!” Lauren begs.

“I can’t borrow Petunia!”

“Why not?”

“I just can’t! Luke might ask questions.”

Lauren squints at him. “Are you embarrassed that you’re pimping yourself out on Tinder?”

Ashton snorts and crosses his arms. “First of all, I’m not pimping myself out. Second of all, no.”

“Just tell him it’s for me then,” Lauren urges, nudging his shoulder. “Tell him I’m trying to impress my Tinder date with a cute puppy and that I’d feel safer going if Petunia was with me.”

Ashton thinks about it for a moment. Luke does have a soft spot for Lauren after all, considering the fact that Luke had always wanted a younger sibling but ended up being the baby himself in both his own family and the band, which, in Ashton’s opinion, fucking hilarious but Lauren did have a point. There’s no way Luke would say no to Lauren and her safety on a random ass Tinder date in the middle of downtown Los Angeles.

Plus, he really needs this whole Tinder shit to work out. For Mikey’s wedding. And if he gets +100 bonus points for showing off a dog that isn’t even his? Sign him the hell up.

“Okay, well, I can see your thinking face.” Lauren says nonchalantly. “So while you text Luke about Petunia, I did you the favour of sending your first message to Luna.”

Ashton chokes on his spit. “You what?!”

The sound that Lauren makes when Ashton throws himself on top of her to grab his phone back is inhuman. But the sound that Ashton makes when he sees the message is worse.

I’m told I remind people of a puppy. If you get to meet both me and my dog over pizza and wine, do I get double the bonus points? 🐶

★

His neighbour’s goddamn cat is staring at him when he wakes up to drink coffee on the balcony the next morning.

“April,” Ashton greets slowly as a warning. Previous first-hand experience has told him that the stupid orange cat did not give two shits about piping hot coffee and would lunge at him for the cup if Ashton so much as blows the steam in her general direction.

As a safety precaution, he moves a little farther away because he’s not sure if his sore neck can take a hit from the crazy cat if she lunges, especially since he was forced to fit his 6 foot long body on his two-seater couch last night, Lauren having taken over his bedroom for her beauty sleep as soon as it hit 10 o’clock.

That, and, uh, the fact that Luna had messaged him back less than five minutes after Lauren had ditched his ass in the living room and left him to his own devices. How was he supposed to continue a conversation he didn’t even start?

And seriously? If anyone in the band was the most puppy, it was Calum. What’s he supposed to do? Bring Calum too and get triple the bonus points?

Thankfully, Luna seemed to think Lauren’s bullshit was cute, replying with a “oh, definitely! 😂 guess I’ll have to double the amount of puppy treats on me”, teasingly followed a minute later by a “what breed of doggos will Oreo and I have the honour of meeting?”

And that was precisely what had kept Ashton up all night.

If you look at Ashton’s most recent search history, you’d find the following: Most popular breed of dog Most popular dog breed in Bora Bora Best looking dog breeds Most popular breed of dog for girls Golden retrievers German shepherds Golden retrievers vs German shepherds

Ashton sighs as he sips on his coffee. In the end, he’d narrowed himself down to either a golden retriever or a german shepherd, not because he thought he resembled either of those two breeds at all but more the fact that both seemed to be the most popular dogs with the ladies (in general, not in Bora Bora because that one yielded zero search results when he tried). But before he could decide which one, he’d finally passed out on the couch last night close to 4am in the morning.

A loud meow comes from his right.

“What?” Ashton asks grumpily as he looks over at April. She’s staring back at him with a stinky look on her face.

Then, he gets an idea.

“Hey April,” He calls out. “Meow once for golden retriever and twice for german shepherd.”

The bitch meows three times.

★

Lauren is laughing so hard, she has to bang her fist on the kitchen table multiple times to control herself. “Golden retriever german shepherd mix?!”

“Stop laughing!” Ashton hisses. “Eat your pancakes!”

“You mean the pancakes that I made?”

Ashton pauses. “Drink your coffee!”

Lauren’s still laughing. “I can’t believe you said a mix! Now she definitely knows you spent all night thinking about it.”

You left me out to die last night!” Ashton accuses, pointing a finger at her. “What was I supposed to do?”

“You replied this morning anyway! You could’ve waited for me to wake up.”

Ashton’s mouth opens and closes a couple times but nothing comes out. So he changes the subject because he’s mature like that. “I have to get ready for the fitting.”

Lauren snickers. “Sure.”

Calum and Luke swings his front door open right as Ashton emerges from his bedroom shamelessly in a 5sos tour hoodie and black jeans. They both give him a once-over, both looking confused.

“I thought we were going to get fitted for suits?” Luke says, eyebrows scrunched together. “Or is there a band gig tonight that I don’t know about?”

“A band gig,” Calum replies seriously. “At the wedding boutique. I thought you knew! If we perform for the boutique staff, Mikey gets a 30% discount.”

“Budgetsos,” Ashton butts in.

They finally notice Lauren when she snorts from the kitchen counter.

“Laurie!” Luke beams as the both of them go over to bear hug her and inspect what she’s eating. They don’t question why she’s eating pancakes out of a pot. Lauren offers some of her food and Calum takes it immediately, chomping over her fork for the bite. Luke takes her coffee instead.

“So you arrived here last night and you didn’t even ask us to come hang out? I thought we were friends,” Calum pouts, helping Lauren clean out her plate even though she didn’t ask. He looks like a puppy begging for scraps. “And I’m like 300% sure we make better company than Ash.”

“Hey!”

Before Ashton can say anything else, Lauren is looking over at him mischievously. “Sorry,” She snickers. “I couldn’t. Ashton and I were too busy last night setting up a daaaaaate for him.” She drags out.

Ashton chokes on his coffee. Holy fucking shit.

Luke turns to her immediately with a gleam in his eyes. “So you’ve met April?!”

“Yes!” Ashton interrupts loudly between coughs, voice raspy from the coffee in his goddamn airway. He ignores Lauren’s face that goes from evil to confused in two seconds flat. “Lauren’s met April! They both, uh, seriously love dogs and that’s all they could talk about I couldn’t get them to shut up, like at all.”

“No fucking way! Is she here?!” Calum asks, eyes wide and head whipping around in both directions so fast his curly hair looks like it’s taking flight. “Where?! Is she in your room? I want to meet her!” He asks, already sprinting into Ashton’s bedroom before he’s even finished his sentence.

“She’s not there!” Ashton hisses, running after him. “She left this morning! She had, like, you know... work! It’s a Tuesday.”

Calum visibly deflates and Ashton almost feels bad for a minute before he remembers that he can’t introduce Calum to anyone anyway, because he doesn’t actually have anyone.

Luke bounds over next, immediately taking notice of the odd state of his room - Lauren’s open suitcase at the foot of his bed, a fuzzy purple towel thrown over his bathroom door. Luke picks up a random bottle of face cream out of the many that are lying on his bed covers. “This looks like Lauren’s stuff. Didn’t your girl stay over last night?”

“Uh,” Ashton stutters, pulling an excuse out of his ass. “Yeah, they ended up having like… a girls night?”

Calum snickers. “So you got banished to the sofa?”

“Chicks before dicks!” Lauren shouts from somewhere in the kitchen.

Luke pats Ashton on the shoulder sympathetically but Ashton doesn’t feel any less shitty. There’s absolutely no way Lauren doesn’t know he’s lying now. He sighs. “Come on, guys, I have to change into better clothes. Can’t let you guys one-up me.”

“We’ll wait for you outside!” Luke waves as Calum shuts the bedroom door behind him.

When Ashton reemerges from his bedroom in a button-up and slacks this time, Luke and Calum are listening intently at whatever’s coming out of Lauren’s mouth. Ashton manages to catch the tail end of what she’s saying, something to do with hawaiian pizza and rosé wine.

“Yeah, they’re totally in love,” Lauren smiles. Luke’s smile is even wider than Lauren’s. Calum looks like he’s ready to take notes. “Kind of weird to watch my brother act all lovey-dovey in front of me, but I guess it’s kind of sweet. I can really tell she’s the one, you know?”

On their way out, Lauren pulls Ashton aside with a smile that’s way too wide and whispers, “You owe me an explanation when you get back and also your life.”

★

They make it to Rosie’s Bridal Boutique after 45 minutes stuck in traffic. It’s located in a cute little yellow brick building in the middle of the suburbs surrounded by more greenery than Ashton’s ever seen in his life. On the way there, he manages to evade Luke and Calum’s curiosity by blasting All Time Low at a ridiculous volume with the windows rolled down, letting the violent wind and the voice of Alex Gaskarth constantly try and outdo each other.

Unfortunately, Ashton knows he can’t evade shit for long as they pull up to the boutique and see Michael’s beaming face plastered to the window from the second story of the building.

“Mikey!” Calum greets as soon as the elevator door opens, bounding in like a puppy (Ashton will never stop saying that because it’s true goddammit) to drape himself all over the husband-to-be.

Michael’s already in a little bow tie and a black suit that’s getting wrinklier by the second, no thanks to Calum. He does a little wave despite the weight on his arm, “Hey guys!”

“Shut up,” Luke says as he pulls Michael in almost violently for a hug. “You’re gonna pull a ‘hey guys’ on us when we’re about to be your groomsmen?”

“Best man!” Calum shouts.

“Shut the fuck up,” Luke threatens again, voice muffled from where its pressed into Michael’s shoulder. “Get in here,” He complains to Ashton who willingly obliges and throws himself into the man pile.

The boutique staff giggle at them from where they’re standing around the room holding various pieces of Michael’s suit.

Ashton’s about to crack a joke about how Crystal’s going to be blown away by seeing Michael go from boxers filled with holes to a 4-piece suit when he swears his phone pings louder than the combined pings from the phones of Lauren and all her friends during a girls sleepover.

It’s suddenly awkward. For Ashton. Just Ashton.

Ashton knows it’s coming, but he still flinches when Michael asks, “Is that April?!”

“According to Lauren, they were being lovey-dovey last night,” Calum swoons teasingly.

“And she staaaaaayed the night,” Luke drags out.

Ashton wants to murder all of them.

Michael whistles. “You know it’s serious when the sister and the girlfriend meet.”

“Can we not talk about this right now?” Ashton complains. “We’re getting suits fitted for Michael’s wedding, guys. Be a little respectful.”

“Michael literally started this conversation,” Luke points out.

“Can I just try on my suit now please?” He says unnecessarily loudly.

Immediately, the boutique staff jump into action, pulling suits protected by plastic bags seemingly out of nowhere and ushering Ashton into an open changing room where a lady comes over with bright green measuring tape. The other boys grumble at the change in topic but oblige, spreading out and opening their arms to let the staff take their measurements.

“So I was thinking either a classic all-black colour scheme for the boys,” Michael says, tapping his chin. “Or a fancy navy blue instead. My handsome self in a full suit and you guys in suspenders. That would be hot. What do you guys think?”

“Did Crystal say anything about what she wanted?” Luke asks as he’s examining the suit they’d brought over to him.

“Nope,” Michael replies, pulling on his bowtie. “Said you guys were all mine.”

“Awww,” Calum says jokingly, grinning over the shoulder of the staff person attending to him. “That’s so sweet, Mikey. I love you too.”

Ashton snorts. “Don’t go cheating on your girl with Michael, you homewrecker.”

“Oh, yeah!” Calum exclaims, suddenly perking up. Ashton has a bad feeling in his stomach. “You haven’t met my girl yet, have you?”

“Uh, no,” Ashton replies, unsure. “Not yet.”

The smile that grows instantaneously on Calum’s face almost blinds him. “And I haven’t met April yet! So you, me, our girls! Double date, tomorrow night! You can’t say no Ash, I know you don’t have anything to do tomorrow and you’re the only one that hasn’t met her yet.”

Fuck. “Fuck!” Ashton says, laughing nervously. “I wish I could man, but I have to take care of Lauren.”

Michael snorts from where he’s lounging on the couch. “Lauren’s an adult now. Stop being overprotective. You’re probably smothering her with your axe body spray and protein shakes anyway. I bet she’s gonna go on a date herself as soon as you’re gone.”

“If you’re so worried, she can always come over and hang with me and Sierra,” Luke shrugs. “Sierra’s been talking non-stop about those sugar cookies Lauren gave us last time. And Petunia loves her, seriously.”

Ashton panics. “Well definitely not tomorrow!” Because who the fuck is he gonna show up with? Their PR manager? “Uh, what about like, next week? Or next next next next week?”

Calum ignores the second part of his sentence entirely. “Next week then!” He exclaims excitedly.

Fuck!

“I’m going to try this thing on,” Ashton says quickly, grabbing the suit closest to him before he’s all but throwing the curtain closed. As soon as he’s alone, he throws the suit aside and then can’t dig his phone out of his pocket fast enough. When he presses the home button, it shows he has one message from Tinder, from Luna. He opens it hastily.

So according to Google, you’re intelligent, athletic, playful, affectionate, and loyal? 🐶😂 Sounds almost too good to be true.

‘So let me prove it to you! May Petunia and I take you and Oreo out on a brunch date this weekend, my lady?’ He types back quickly, adding ‘my lady’ to hopefully charm the pants off her. He hopes it isn’t too soon for that. Petunia isn’t even his freaking dog.

He’s so busy chanting please say yes over and over again in his head while clutching onto his phone that it startles him when his phone pings loudly again.

Luke, Michael, and Calum start hollering from outside.

Sounds great! 😊 I’m free Saturday. Where to?

★

As soon as Luke drops him off back home, he runs up six flights of stairs back up to his apartment because if he has to wait more than ten seconds for the slow ass elevator, he’s going to lose his mind.

He scares Lauren off the couch when he barges through the front door screaming her name.

“I have a date on Saturday!” Ashton whispers through his heavy breathing, wide-eyed and sounding both smug and scared at the same time because fuck yeah, I scored this date myself but also fuck! I scored this date myself.

“What? With Luna?” Lauren asks, equally as wide-eyed from where she’d fallen to the floor. “How? You were only gone for like 3 hours!” Then her tone switches from surprised to demanding so fast, Ashton gets whiplash. “And who the heck is April?!”

Ashton straightens up immediately and clears his throat. “Yeah, so, uh, long story.”

“I’m on summer vacation right now. Cough it up.”

Ashton goes to the fridge instead where he pulls out a beer because there’s no way he’s about to tell Lauren what’s probably the most embarrassing story of his life while sober.

And then they sit on the couch like they had yesterday when he matched with Luna on Tinder except this time, Lauren’s face gets less and less impressed the more he talks.

“So what you’re telling me,” Lauren starts slowly. “Is that you’re standing in a grave that’s 10 feet deep right now because your pride and ego are bigger than your brain?”

Ashton winces. “Can’t you sugarcoat it a little bit?”

“No!” Lauren explodes, almost knocking the beer out of his hands. “Are you even interested in Luna? What if you guys go on your date on Saturday and she’s completely into you and you’re just using her so you can one-up your friends and feed your male ego?” Ashton opens his mouth to say something but Lauren doesn’t let him. “And also!” She snaps. “What if she recognizes you when she sees you? Your face isn’t exactly clear in your Tinder photos. Your face is going to be all over the news Sunday morning, I swear to God!”

“Hey, just because I’m famous doesn’t mean I can’t date.” Ashton defends.

“Yeah, but does she know? What if she doesn’t know who you are and you two get caught on your date and suddenly, her face is all over the internet too?”

Ashton winces. ”Okay, you’re right.” He pauses. “You’re also right about me leading her on.”

“Thank you,” Lauren says grumpily, crossing her arms.

“But I mean,” Ashton says in a small voice. “I’m also not opposed to finding someone new?”

Lauren sighs. “How about you and Luna go on that date on Saturday, and if it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t work out. You both wish each other well and both go on your merry ways.”

“...And if it does?”

“Then don’t get mad when I say I told you so!”

★

The days that lead up to Saturday are almost too slow.

On Wednesday, Luna had finally asked for Ashton’s number, texting him a cute puppy emoji to let him know the text was from her. On the same day, Luna had gone from calling him Fletcher to Fletch with no explanation, causing his heart rate to spike for a good twenty minutes before Lauren slapped him back to present-day reality.

On Wednesday afternoon, Ashton found himself frantically googling pet-friendly restaurants that served both pizza and alcohol. For bougie ass downtown Los Angeles, it was fucking difficult. But he’d managed to find one thirty minutes out of the city centre that had a nice outdoor patio and a menu for dogs. When he texted her the address, he got a ‘thank you for finding a place!’ back from Luna and it made his heart skip a goddamn beat because his ex had never thanked him for something like that.

On Thursday morning before the sun had even risen, Ashton had startled himself awake when he remembered he needed Petunia for Saturday. Squinting at his phone in the dark, he’d sent Luke a frantic text, reading: ‘Michael was fucking right Lauren’s going on a date on Saturday!!!!! Can you do me a huge favour and let her borrow Petunia for the day I don’t trust her SKETCHY ASS TINDER DATE’. And then Luke had texted him back not two minutes later, not even about Ashton texting him at ass o’clock, but about who Lauren was going on a date with, if Ashton knew him, why he was sketchy, and if he needed to kick anyone’s ass. He spent the next hour trying to convince Luke that they didn’t need to follow her on her date. In the end, it had turned into a she just needs Petunia goddammit Hemmings go back to bed.

By the time Saturday finally rolls around, Ashton is fucking winded.

Lauren’s still in bed (still in his bed, mind you), half asleep and bleary eyed and watching him dig around head first in the closet, mumbling to himself.

“Dude,” Lauren groans, breaking the silence for the first time since Ashton had barged in with no explanation. “This is too much action for eight in the morning,”

“Brunch is at ten and I still need to pick up Petunia!” He hisses, head popping out of a pile of clothing a moment later with two shirts in hand. “The black button-up or the blue polo?”

Lauren groans again. “What colour pants are you wearing?”

“Grey.”

“Black button-up.”

Ashton flings the blue polo back into the closet before Lauren can even finish her sentence, pulling his sleeping shirt off immediately afterwards.

“Ash, ew!” Lauren grumbles, flopping backwards onto the bed and throwing the covers over her head. Her head pops back out a moment later. “Just make sure to roll up the sleeves so you don’t look like you’re coming from a freaking business conference. And don’t button up all the way!”

“Got it!” He says hastily as he’s running out the door. “Thanks Laurie, love you, see you, bye!”

He’s already sweating by the time he gets into his car, the summer heat already at a sweltering 25 degrees celsius and rising despite it being so early in the morning. But even though it feels like Satan’s armpit, he pulls on a hoodie anyway because he’d rather die than have Luke see him dressed up in a button-up for supposedly no goddamn reason. It’s a little past 9am by the time he pulls into Luke’s driveway, Luke already standing there with an excited Petunia pulling on the leash.

He throws open the car door. “Petunia!” He greets, out of breath for no reason.

Petunia yips, panting happily and immediately trying to clamber all over Ashton’s lap as he bends down to pat at her head.

“I don’t know how useful Petunia’s going to be if Lauren’s date turns out to be a creep,” Luke says worriedly, still tugging on the leash to get Petunia to calm down. “Are you sure you don’t want us to follow her?”

“Mate, we’re both over six feet tall.” Ashton retorts. “If we follow her around, we’re both going to look creepier than her date.”

Luke squints. “How are you not worried?”

“I am!” Ashton insists. He’s lying out of his ass. “But Petunia’s a bulldog. No offense but her reputation is already scarier than any face we could ever pull.”

“Just make sure Lauren picks up the phone if you call!” Luke’s voice trails as Ashton opens the car’s passenger door and ushers Petunia inside. She settles nicely into the seat, looking up at Ashton with more love and adoration in her eyes than her owner ever did. “And take this bag!” He says, shoving a plastic bag that’s almost overflowing with the amount of shit that’s in it. “It’s Petunia’s food and toys. Tell Lauren to feed her and make sure she’s hydrated and-”

Ashton climbs into the driver’s seat and shuts the door on him.

“-And don’t forget to bring Petunia back by dinner! I swear to god, Irwin!” Luke screams through the glass. “Love you Petunia!”

The entire ride to the brunch place, Petunia just sticks her head out the window, tongue flying in the wind as she bops her head to the classical music Ashton had put on to calm himself the fuck down. The closer he gets to the restaurant, the more he feels himself getting a stomach ache. He doesn’t even remember the last time he’d felt this nervous for a date but if this doesn’t work out and he ends up going to Mikey’s wedding by himself, Calum might cry on his behalf and Luke might force him to be his and Sierra’s plus-two and as the oldest in the goddamn band, he’s not sure if he can handle that kind of humiliation.

But if this actually does work out with Luna, then he’ll just tell her the truth after Mikey’s wedding. That would be fine, right? Assuming nobody asks why the names Luna and April don’t match up.

Ashton groans. This is an entire goddamn mess.

The brunch place is packed by the time he pulls into a spot fifteen minutes before his reservation. There are dogs everywhere and Petunia’s so excited to see other beings of her kind that she’s resorted to pacing in circles impatiently in the passenger seat.

“Hold on Petunia,” Ashton groans, cutting the engine and throwing a hand over his eyes. “I’m nervous. Give me a minute.”

And because she’s the most perfect dog to ever exist (don’t tell Calum he said that), she stops pacing and starts licking gently at his hand. For once, Ashton doesn’t mind the slobber. He grins, looking down at her. “Okay, fine. Out we go then, baby.”

Before he slides out of the car, he pulls off his hoodie and puts on his sunglasses, thankfully fitting right in with all the other bougie people in their sundresses and designer purses who have time to wake up early on a Saturday for a brunch date with their dogs. He and Petunia bypass the ridiculous line, ignoring all the people who start cooing at Petunia. Thank fuck he’d made a reservation.

“Fletcher for two?” He says, trying to make his voice sound more like Fletcher Nobody Irwin and less like Ashton from 5SOS.

He tenses for a moment when the hostess pauses mid-greeting to eye him up and down. To throw her off, he gestures at Petunia who’s busy sniffing at a dandelion. “This is Monster Truck.” He introduces.

It’s then that the hostess looks at him again, decides that anybody who names their dog Monster Truck probably isn’t anybody famous and gestures behind her. “Follow me, sir. Your table is right by the water.”

Ashton lets out the breath he’d been holding when he and the hostess round the corner and he sees the only empty table on the patio, meaning Luna had yet to arrive. He picks the seat with his back facing the majority of the restaurant’s patrons. The hostess plucks the ‘reserved’ sign off the table, hands him the menu, wishes him a good time and then leaves him alone which Ashton is thankful for because he’d rather be left alone to have his panic attack by himself.

Petunia sits dutifully by his feet, drinking the water that the hostess had generously poured into a clear glass bowl for her.

Ashton is so busy trying to calm the hell down that he doesn’t notice the giant dalmatian sniffing at him from behind until its nose bumps right into where he’s most ticklish. He jumps at the same time a voice behind him squeaks, “Sorry!”

His heart has time to throw itself wildly against his chest bone exactly 1 time before he’s whipping around in his chair and coming face to face with stunning pale blue eyes. “Luna?” He breathes out, his eyes catching hers just as the words leave his mouth. Wow, okay. Jesus fuck, her Tinder photos had not done the colour of her eyes any justice.

Her unsure face transforms suddenly into a smile. “And you must be Fletcher?”

He almost does a double-take at the name before he remembers that oh yeah, he’s supposed to be Fletcher I-Eat-Brunch-With-Sunglasses-On Irwin and making a good impression right now because Mikey’s wedding. “Yeah, yes! That’s me.” His palms are sweaty and he can’t tell if it’s because they’re sitting on an outdoor patio is 30 degree weather or if it’s just his pretty date making him more nervous than his ex had ever made him.

It’s at this moment that Petunia (god bless her soul) decides to come lumbering over from her water bowl, her panting, drooly, smiling face looking up at Luna like she hung the stars (which, in Ashton’s opinion, is very fitting for her name).

“And this must be Petunia!” Luna exclaims, bending down to pat the bulldog’s head. Luna’s hand is so small it’s practically dwarfed by Petunia’s giant head. “It’s nice to meet you.” She says to Petunia and oh my god, Ashton could melt right then and there.

Instead, Oreo decides to try and sniff his crotch as Ashton tries to stand. He makes a strangled sound as Oreo’s nose digs into the front of his pants. “Holy crap,” He blurts, because he apparently has no brain-to-mouth filter. “Petunia has never reached that high before.”

“I am so sorry,” Luna squeaks again, blushing up to her ears. “Oreo, behave please! This is my first date with such a handsome guy,” She jokes shyly, pulling the dalmatian back by the leash.

It’s Ashton’s turn to turn bright fucking red. Holy shit. He feels like a 15-year old virgin all over again.

“He must smell the golden retriever german shepherd mix in me,” Ashton jokes back.

She pauses and then looks up at him for a moment before she bursts into laughter. “Oh, that’s right!” She says as she reaches into her purse and pulls out a cookie shaped like a bone. It’s wrapped in plastic and tied together with a pink ribbon. She holds it out to him shyly. “I did promise you a treat. I hope you like gingerbread?” Oh, wow.

“Is this for me or for Petunia?” He teases as he takes it, because he wants to see her blush again.

She giggles and Ashton feels like his heart might fall out of his chest. “For you.”

Ashton can feel the heat creeping up his neck. He stands again, without Oreo all up in his crotch this time, and for a second he has to pause because holy shit, Luna is tiny, the top of her head just reaching his shoulders. And then she looks up at him, smiling, which kicks him back into gear, stumbling around the table to pull her chair out of her.

“Thank you,” She mumbles, cheeks still red. Oreo follows her as she sits down, folding his legs underneath him right next to Petunia who he sniffs a couple times before turning to Petunia’s water bowl to stick his face into. Petunia doesn’t look like she minds.

“So,” Ashton starts as soon as he’s settled back down. It’s when he pulls up the menu to his face that he realizes he can’t see the tiny font through the dark tint of his sunglasses. Shit. “Uh.” Luna’s looking at him expectantly from over the top of her menu. “You studied psych in school?” He asks, diverting the conversation by pulling the topic straight out of his asshole.

She smiles so much that her eyes disappear into little moons. “You remember that from my bio?”

“That, and the dogs and the pizza and the wine,” He lists off, grinning on autopilot when she does and trying not to make it obvious he’s trying to find the right time to take off his sunglasses. What the hell kind of expensive ass sunglasses are these anyway? “Psych’s very cool.”

Oreo yips.

“Yeah, Oreo’s pretty cool with me studying psych too,” Luna jokes, reaching down to rub at Oreo’s head. “What about you? What do you do?”

Ashton freezes. Lauren’s words from yesterday start ringing in his head. It’s now or never. Now or never.

His heart is hammering in his chest as he slowly, inconspicuously slides the sunglasses off his face, getting ready to launch himself over the table and towards the car park if she starts screaming.

When nothing happens, he looks back up at her. She’s still staring politely at him even though his sunglasses are completely off now and his bare face is exposed for the world to see and lit up from the glaring sun. Those pale blue eyes blink back at him.

Nothing. Ashton inhales sharply. She… doesn’t recognize him?

“I’m a drum teacher,” Ashton blurts, the words flying out of his mouth before his brain even knows what he’s saying. Okay, too close! Too close to real life, Jesus Christ. Fortunately, she doesn’t seem to make any connections.

“No way! Drums?” She says, looking surprised. Her expression melts into a wide smile. “That’s really cool! I don’t think I’ve ever gotten my hands on a drum kit before. Maybe you could teach me sometime.” She compliments genuinely, looking at him shyly. She reaches up to tuck her hair behind her ear and for moment, Ashton’s fucking smitten. He forgets all about the fact that he’s the drummer of the band that released Youngblood, multi-platinum certified and #1 on the Billboard Top 200. For today, he’s just a regular fucking guy out for brunch and Luna’s attention is all on him. He feels like a sponge, trying to absorb as much of it as he can.

Thankfully, the waiter that’s serving them chooses that moment to swing by and introduce himself with too much enthusiasm for this early in the morning, looking like serving brunch to people with too much money is his life calling.

“And what would this lovely couple like to order today?” The waiter sings eagerly.

Luna stutters. “O-Oh, we’re not...”

Ashton doesn’t even bother denying the waiter. “The blueberry pupcakes for Petunia and just the steak and eggs for me, please,” He says, smiling before glancing up at his date. The waiter pretends to swoon at his charm. “And for you, my lady?”

Luna laughs at the subtle reference to their tinder conversation, a rosy blush decorating her cheeks. “The Poochini for Oreo, please, and I’ll take the prosciutto flatbread. Thank you.”

The waiter leaves with promises of their food soon.

“So, the prosciutto flatbread?” Ashton jokes. The look on her face says she already knows where this is going.

“It’s the closest thing I can get to pizza here,” She says with a serious face before she bursts into giggles not two seconds later.

Fuck, Ashton’s in love.

★   

| TBC |

[calpalirwin]

Evil Author Day #5

My parts of the (really long) brain child with @baldcalum. Maybe one day we’ll finish it. Who knows.

~Shay 

March 2020~

“Hey, Raz, turn on the radio station that’s downstairs,” I said, peeking my head in her office at 8:55 on the dot, just like I did every morning. 

“Why?” my business partner, roommate, and best friend asked me. I knew she had gotten here at 8 am on the dot, liking having the office to herself before the day started. I kept telling her to start coming in with me- New York was full of creeps and weirdos- but she was stubborn. And I couldn’t exactly argue with her, as I too, traveled to and from work by myself. No, we could handle ourselves just fine, thanks.

“5SOS interview today,” I told her simply as I shrugged off my jacket and draped it over my arm

“Oh, that’s today?” she asked, her eyes going wide in excitement. 

“Yep,” I grinned, before heading to my own office. We had been hoping to snag 5SOS as a client when we started our business 2 years ago. We had our- less than pleasant- opinions about their current management and thought we could be the change they needed in order for their band to go from punk kids out of Sydney to the talented rock band of grown men they actually were. After all, who better to understand the struggle to be taken seriously than 2 women with their own management company in the Big Apple?

As I leaned back in my desk chair, I let my mind take me back in time to when I had first met the woman in the office next door to mine.

~~~

~June 2015~

“Alright, so your big project for this class is a business plan. You will work in pairs of 2. There is a rubric online for you to follow, but the better thought out the plan, the better the grade. Any questions?”

I rolled my eyes and put up my hand. There was no way I wasn’t going to at least try and see if I could do this project myself. Anything to get out of dreaded partner/group work. “Yes?” The professor asked, and I couldn’t tell if she was looking at me or the girl next me to me, who also had her hand up. 

“Can we work alone?” we both asked at the same time. 

The professor looked at us both and smiled one of those smiles that made me curl my hand into a fist. I knew what was coming. “If you’re both so inclined to work alone, maybe you should partner up.”

I suppressed the sigh and accompanying eye roll as I turned in my seat to get a better look at my partner. If I had to guess I would’ve pegged her as a bright-eyed freshman straight out of high school, probably a fashion major from the way she was dressed. I suppressed yet another eye roll. Could you die from rolling your eyes too much? Eh, whatever. A business plan was child’s play to my own plans. If little fashionista wanted to prove herself with yet another clothing line, I’m sure I had some old shit lying around we could tweak up.

“Raz,” the girl whispered, a terra-cotta hand reaching out to shake my tawny one. 

“Shay,” I whispered back, shaking the offered hand, before turning back to pay attention to the same old first day lecture I’ve heard a thousand times before. 

“Hey, wait up!”

“What?” I said, my hand pushing my way out of the building, my foot sticking out to hold the door open for the voice behind me. 

“We should probably arrange something so we can meet and do this project,” Raz demanded, hands going to her hips. 

I made a face before gesturing at the building behind us. “It’s not like I’m hard to find.” Seriously, a 3 hour class that met 4 days a week? Why was I doing this to myself again? Because you broke up with your boyfriend and have nothing better to do? Shut up!

“Still though. I want a good grade on this assignment.”

“You and me both, kid. Relax, it’ll get done.”

“Kid?”

“Yeah. You’re like what? 12?”

“I’m 18, asshole.”

“My point exactly. Look, this isn’t my first business plan, alright? I know what they’re looking for on these assignments. Just tell me what you want so I can show you what I have next class, alright? Enjoy your day, kid,” I smirked before walking off. 

“Hey, where are you going?!”

I stopped in my tracks, wheeling to face the younger girl once more. “Work. God damn…” Then, I started walking again, calling out to her as I did so, “walk and talk, kid, walk and talk.”

“You work?” She fell into pace with me. 

“Yeah cuz that’s what adults do!” I said in an obnoxiously cheery voice. 

“Would you cut the crap, already? We’re like the same age.”

“False,” I corrected. “I’m a 21 year old with a minor in business. You’re an 18 year old freshman who’s about to get your world rocked when you finally realize that you're not special. You’re just a regular fish in the same boring ass pond as the rest of us.”

“So, what are you doing taking a business course if you already graduated?”

“Killing time until law school,” I shrugged.

“Oh, that’s cool. What do you do for work?”

“I’m an assistant at a law firm downtown. They offered me a job after my internship with them. Pays well and they work around my schooling.”

“And they let you dress like that?” she asked, eyeing my outfit of sneakers, jeans, a t-shirt, and a hat covering up my short hair.

“No, I’m going home to change first.”

“Oh, cool, I’m going to the dorms, too.”

“I don’t live in the dorms. I have an apartment. Law student, remember?”

“Oh, cool we can work there instead.”

This kid would not quit! I liked it. “Alright,” I said, pulling out my phone. “Put in your number. I’ll text you when I’m off work. And please, just put your name. No weird shit with emojis.”

“You better text me,” she muttered, putting in her number and handing me back my phone.

“I will, relax,” I told her, allowing myself to smile at her.

~~~

“Yeah, you know, we’re in our twenties now. Mike’s getting married. We’re growing up and we want our music to show that,” Ashton’s voice said through the radio. “We just want to be true to who we are both individually and as a band.”

I shut off my radio. This was it. My moment. “I’m going down there,” I said, poking my head in Raz’s office. 

“Relax, Shay. At least wait for the interview to be done.”

“Are you coming or not?” I asked, already making my way out of the office. 

“Alright, alright,” she said, getting up from her own desk and following me. “Shit, business cards!” she said, once we were in the elevator, a hand clapping around her pockets. 

“I got it,” I said, pulling a few out of my own pocket. 

“What would I do without you?” she smiled. 

“Playing ‘What If’ is a fool’s game,” I smiled back as the elevator doors opened.

“You ladies going down?” Luke Hemmings asked with a heavy accent. 

I shared a look with Raz before thanking whatever forces were behind this perfect timing. 

“Yeah,” I answered, keeping my voice steady as I stuck out my arm to hold the elevator. “C’mon,” I said as the 4 members of 5SOS crowded in around us. Small, one syllable words. Don’t fuck this up.

“Lobby or parking garage?” Raz asked them, a small squeak in her voice that was undetectable to the untrained ear. She was nervous. I was nervous. This was crazy! But we had learned to keep our wits about us long ago. Our nerves were undetectable to anybody but each other.

“Parking garage,” Calum Hood said, reaching a tanned and tattooed arm across her shoulder to hit the button. “Thanks, loves.”

“How was the interview?” I asked, trying not to freak out that I was in an elevator with my favorite band and that my arm was touching the arm of my favorite drummer from my favorite band.

“Good,” Calum, Luke, and Mike all answered.

“God, it sucked!” Ashton said, giving voice to what I imagined was closer to the truth than his bandmates polite response.. 

“What do you mean?” Raz pressed, while the men sucked their air through their teeth at their friend’s admission of the truth. 

“It’s the same old shit every time. We’re in our twenties. We’re not those high school dropouts anymore, and I wish they’d realize that.”

“You alluded to that,” I commented, glancing up at him.

“Yeah, and they blew past it to talk with Mike about his engagement.”

“Oh. Congrats, by the way,” I said over my shoulder to the shorter of the two tall blondes. 

“Thank you!” Mike smiled as the elevator dinged and opened. 

They all stepped out, and I followed on instinct. This was my chance. I was going to take it. “So, you’re tired of not being taken seriously?” I asked. 

“So tired,” Ashton said, his hazel-eyed gaze locking with my brown-eyed one.

“Well, here,” I said, pulling out the business cards and handing them each one. “If you’re serious about being taken seriously, give us a call,” I said, giving his arm a quick pat before stepping back on the elevator. “Enjoy New York!” I waved as the elevators closed. 

“That was your plan?!” Raz rounded on me. “Give us a call?! Shay!”

I tsked, holding up a finger. “Do you trust me?”

“Always, but Shay, we really should’ve planned this better.”

“Then trust me. When have I ever let you down?”

“Never.”

“Exactly. Trust the process, kid.”

We were stepping back into the office when the phone rang. 

The receptionist, a cute young thing named Maya, moved to answer, but I waved her off, moving to answer it myself. I picked up on the third ring. “C. S. Management, this is Shay.”

“Hey, I think we were just in the elevator together. You gave us your card?” Ashton’s voice said over the line. 

“May I ask who’s calling?” I asked, playing coy and professional as I switched the phone to speaker mode so Raz could listen in.

“Uh, it’s Ash. Look, we’re gonna go talk this over, but we wanna hear what you and your company has to say. Can we arrange something?”

I looked at Raz, raising an eyebrow. 

She raised 2 fingers at me. 

“We have an opening at 2 if that works for you gentlemen,” I said, putting power behind the word “gentlemen” purposefully.

“2… 2 sounds perfect. We’ll be there.”

“We’ll be here,” I told him back.

~Ashton

March 2020~

~Before the meeting~

I looked at the business card in my hand the woman with shining brown eyes behind large glasses had given me, watching her slink off back into the elevator, her heels clicking with purpose. I swear I saw her wink at me as she waved and called out “Enjoy New York!”

“Ash? Ash! ASHTON!”

“What?”

“What the fuck are we gonna do with this?” Calum asked, looking at the business card in his own hand.

I shrugged. “I dunno. We’re still in a contract. But…” But, what? But the way her voice had sounded when she said the word “serious”, almost like she knew we were sick of being jerked around, like she was offering us a way out, not a way to promote her own business.

“He’s gonna call her. Oh, God, he’s gonna call her!” Calum said, his hands going to his head as he spun in a circle.

“Hey!” I snapped. “Are you happy with our management still trying to pass us off as the teenage boy band? Cuz I’m not. That wasn’t the image we wanted.”

“Mate, maybe slow down?” Luke said.

“Luke, you hate this band more than anybody,” Mike laughed. “I’m with Ash. We can at least see what they gotta say, right?”

“Thanks, Mike,” I grinned at him, pulling out my phone and dialing the number on the card.

It rang once, twice, three times. “C.S Management, this is Shay,” her voice chirped professionally over the line. Oh, I bet she was feeling pretty damn proud of herself right about now.

“Hey, I think we were just in the elevator together. You gave us your card?” I answered.

“May I ask who’s calling?” she asked.

I held back a giggle. Damn, she was good. “Uh, it’s Ash. Look, we’re gonna go talk this over, but we wanna hear what you and your company has to say. Can we arrange something?”

There was a short pause, then “We have an opening at 2 if that works for you gentlemen.”

I smirked at the way she said “gentlemen” rather than “boys” like everyone else usually referred to us as. “2…” I looked around at the other 3 who all shrugged, “2 sounds perfect. We’ll be there.”

“We’ll be here,” she chirped back before hanging up the line.

~After the meeting~

I twirled the business card between my fingers. Back and forth and back again, I twirled the card, their logo spinning with my movements. “Oh, just call her!” Luke said, giving me a shove.

“What?” I asked, snapping to attention.

“Shay! Just call her, mate.”

“No. That’s unprofessional, Luke. Her company just offered us a new start. She might be our boss. I can’t just call her.”

“I’m with Ash. Don’t call her. Just drop the whole thing, please?” Calum put in. “Don’t let this stupid crush fuck this up for us.”

“Hey, Ash, can I see your phone?” Mike asked suddenly.

“Why?” I asked skeptically.

“Mine’s dead. Gotta call Crystal.”

“Oh. Yeah, sure.” I dug my phone out, unlocking it for him before handing it over.

“Sweet, thanks,” he said before typing something. “And send. Thanks, mate!” he said again, tossing me my phone.

“Mike, what did you just do?” I asked.

“What you were too scared to do yourself.”

“Michael!” my voice thundered as I got up to get in his face. “That was unprofessional on so many levels!”

“No, you said calling would be unprofessional. I texted. Big difference.”

“That’s not any better!”

My phone pinged in my hand.

“A ‘thank you’ would be fine, mate,” Mike winked as he put a hand on my shoulder.

“How about you’re lucky I don’t kick your ass?” I muttered, looking down at the notification. I clicked it open as I walked to my bedroom in our suite.

Hey, it’s Ash. Coffee?

Little late for coffee isn’t it?

Ha-ha, sorry. That was Mike.

Oh… so that’s a no on coffee then?

Didn’t you just say it was too late for coffee?

Oh, I meant for me. But… if you’re getting coffee… I can keep you company? NY's a dangerous place for a man to be out by himself.

I laughed as my phone pinged again with an address and the simple instruction of: Meet me here in 30 minutes.

I’ll be there.

~~~

I did a double-take when I walked in the small cafe and saw Shay. She was dressed completely different from her black slacks, black heels, and white blouse she had been wearing at our meeting. In their place were blue jeans, a plain navy blue t-shirt underneath a thin cardigan, sneakers, and a hat- that she was wearing backwards- covered up her short and chic half bob. Professional woman to 90s skater chick in the blink of an eye. Damn, was there anything she couldn’t do?

“Hey,” she greeted, patting the empty seat next to her.

“Hey,” I greeted back, taking the offered seat. “You look… comfy.”

She laughed. It was both light and full of life, much like the owner. “Gotta blend in, y’know?” she laughed again. “Should we?” she asked, her gaze shifting.

I followed her gaze to the counter. Right. Coffee. Focus, Ash. “Yeah,” I smiled.

We approached the counter. “Hey, Ty,” she said to the barista.

“Shay, finally gonna order?” he teased her.

“I was waiting for a friend,” she joked back with him.

The man eyed me before giving her a look. “Hot or cold today, babes?”

She brought a finger to her lips in thought, her gaze flickering out the window. “Let’s do cold today.”

“And for your friend?” he asked with a pointed glance at me.

“Uh, I’ll have a medium iced caramel macchiato, please,” I said.

“Coming right up,” he said before giving us the total.

Both of us reached for our wallets. “Oh, I got it,” Shay told me, waving her hand at me.

“Nah, I asked. My treat,” I told her, inserting my card into the chip reader before she could protest.

“Technically Mike asked,” she giggled. “But, thank you.”

“Here ya go, Shay,” a different barista said, placing two identical drinks on the counter.

“Thanks, Maddie,” she smiled, grabbing the cups and handing me one. She gave her cup a swirl before taking a sip, eyes closing in a state of bliss.

“I thought you said it was too late for coffee,” I teased her as we made our way back to our seats.

“Feeling a little wild today,” she responded.

Good. I was too. She gave her drink another swirl, and I caught a glimpse of the tattoo on her wrist I had noticed earlier on at the meeting. I hadn’t wanted to ask her about it then, but now seemed like a good time to ask. “What’s that on your wrist?”

“Oh, it’s a dreamcatcher,” she told me, offering me her arm so I could take a better look.

It was simple line work etched into her slightly sun-kissed skin. “Wow, that’s nice. Is it your only one?”

She gave a shake of her head. “Nope, I got some birds on my shoulder. Another simple linework piece. I like the minimalistic look of it.” She tapped her shoulder to show where the other tattoo was hiding. “Then I have another tattoo on my ankle,” she added with a giggle.

My hand went up to rub at my own bird tattoo on my neck. “That’s cool,” I smiled at her. “Do they mean anything, or are they just because?”

“Bit of both. They were both graduation presents to myself. The dreamcatcher’s a heritage piece. The birds are just symbolic in a way.”

“Shannon’s an Irish name though, isn’t it?”

“It is. I’m only half-Irish, though. Then part Native American, hence the dreamcatcher. And a bunch of other things thrown in for good measure.”

Half-Irish girl meets half-Irish boy, both with bird tattoos and a liking for caramel macchiatos. What were the odds? “And the one on your ankle?” I pressed, curious about the giggle she had associated with it.

“A newer piece,” she giggled with a blush. “It’s… uh… well, let’s just say I’ve been a fan of your band for a while,” she concluded, reaching out to tap my tally tattoo on my wrist. 

My teeth bit into my lower lip. Bird tattoos and actual matching tally tattoos? Damn… “A fan, huh?”

“I’m into drummers,” she shrugged with a playful smirk. “But yeah. Been a fan for a while. Still a little starstruck if I’m being totally honest.”

I would have never guessed that I made her nervous. She was so… level-headed. “You saying that I make you nervous?” I asked, a flirting edge in my voice. 

She gave a small chuckle. “Nobody makes me nervous. But yes. A little. You’re well-spoken. You’re talented. You’re cute…” her voice trailed off as she ticked away my traits on her fingers. 

“Cute, huh?” I asked, leaning forward and biting my lip again. 

“Just an observation,” she shrugged. Then, “So, did you have questions about the meeting? I know it was a lot thrown at you all at once. I always think of my questions after the fact, too.”

“What?” I asked, blinking slowly and sitting back in my seat, wondering how she had switched from flirty to professional so quick. “Oh! No, I just… wanted to take you out for coffee.”

“Oh?” Her eyebrows quirked up as she took a sip of her drink.

“Yeah, as a thank you.”

“Sure…” she said.

“Alright,” I giggled. “So, I might also think you’re cute. And I might like you a little bit.”

“I might like you a little bit, back.”

I leaned forward towards her. “Oh, do you?”

She leaned forward herself, the light bouncing off her glasses, making her brown eyes shine a billion different shades of melted chocolate. “It’s unprofessional,” she whispered, leaning back and crossing her arms, closing herself off to the idea.

“It is,” I agreed with a huff.

“I mean, you might be my client. I might be your boss.”

“But, I’m not your client yet. We haven’t agreed to anything,” I countered.

“Are you saying you won’t be taking us on our more than generous offer?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Shouldn’t you talk with your bandmates about this? I should really be consulting with Raz… This is…”

“Unprofessional. I know.”

“Very,” she agreed with a nod.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Start dating me before I become your client.”

“What? Fletch, I can’t just… people will… I hardly know you!”

“Bullshit!” I giggled, my head reeling at her calling me “Fletch” as no one had ever called me that before. I liked the way it sounded coming off her lips, the way her front teeth nipped at her lower lip and her tongue poked out of her mouth. “You’re gonna sit there and tell me you being in the elevator at the same time our interview ended was pure coincidence? Little Miss Fan?”

She ducked her head, a blush forming on her cheeks. “No… and I’m not little. I’m 7 months older than you, actually.”

“We both just admitted to liking each other. What’s the problem?”

“People will talk.”

“People do little else.”

“You don’t know me!”

“You do know how dating works, right?” I giggled.

“This is insane…”

“Look, there’s no real moral issue here. I’m not your client yet. And when I am, it’s really my band that’s your client, not me individually.”

“Why do you want to date me anyway?”

“Because you’re the first one to take me seriously. Because of a million reasons I can’t wait to discover.”

“This is insane…” she repeated.

“Definitely,” I agreed. Then, I leaned forward and kissed her. It was soft, then it grew as she kissed me back. Her hands came up to cup my face as one of mine came to rest at the base of her neck, pulling her closer to me. All I knew in that moment was that I would never again be able to kiss a woman and not wish it was her. It was animalistic, the way I needed her. I didn’t know why. I just knew I needed more. And something in the way she kissed me back let me know she was feeling the same way.

~Shay~

“There you are,” Raz said with an eye roll when I finally breezed into our apartment. 

I glanced down at my phone. 9:17 pm. Whoops… “Must’ve lost track of time,” I shrugged. 

Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. “Oh, for fucks sake, Shay! You kissed hi,m didn’t you?!”

I brought a finger gingerly to my lips. I could still feel his on mine, the way his teeth had nipped at my lip, the way his breathing had caught in his throat. “Maybe…” I grinned. 

“God damn it, Shay!” she started. 

I held up a finger. “I know! Okay? I know. Unprofessional. 100 percent. But damn, can you blame me?”

She rolled her eyes, but “He is a babe. They all are.”

“Oh yeah,” I agreed. “And we figured it out.”

“We? Figured out? Oh, God, Shay. What did you do?”

“Remember how you’re always telling me to get a boyfriend or a girlfriend? Well, let’s just say I finally listened.”

“Shay!”

“I know! I know how this looks. We both do. But, look, there’s no real issue here. He’s not actually our client yet. And even when he does become our client, it’s his band, not him. And people are gonna talk their shit anyway. And need I remind you, it’s Ashton fuckin Irwin!”

Her eyes narrowed again as she thought it over. Then, “I hate you. This is a bad idea.”

I rolled my eyes. Maybe the bubble of anger I felt rising up inside of me was because she was giving voice to the own doubts I had in my head. Maybe I found her “holier than thou” act a little off putting because I know she had a thing for one of our actual clients. Maybe, because for the first time in 5 fucking years I had put myself out there to go on a date, with a hell of a guy who actually liked me back, and now my best fucking friend was shitting all over that happiness just because it may or not be a conflict of interest. I didn’t need her on the side of the critics and the skeptics. I needed her on my side. Maybe it was a combination of all of the above. But either way, my temper flared and I was going to let it fly. “You know what? Fuck you,” I said, keeping my voice level but throwing as much venom in my words as I could. 

Her eyes widened for a bit at my sharp words, but then they narrowed and I knew she was about to fight back. “Fuck me? Really Shay? This is unprofessional and you know it. People are going to think you’re using him to get the band.”

“I’m not you, Raz!” I shouted, knowing I was hitting low, but too pissed off to stop myself from doing it. “I don’t flirt with everything that’s got a fuckin’ pulse!”

“Fuck you!” she practically spat at me, her own words fierce, but I saw the quiver in her lip. 

I laughed. A harsh, humorless sound. “Yeah. Fuck me,” I said with an eye roll before heading down the hall to my room. 

“Where the fuck are you going?!” her voice called out. 

“The fuck do you care?” I asked, reappearing with a thicker jacket and a beanie in replacement for my hat. 

“Shay! SHAY!” she yelled as I slammed the door behind me. 

I jogged my way down the stairs, praying she wouldn’t follow me, and ignoring the nagging voice that taunted me. Shay, how long are you gonna run from your problems? Shut up! I don’t run from anything! And just what the hell are you doing right now, Shay? I said shut up!

The phone was ringing by the time I hit the ground floor. The line picked up by the time I pushed my way out of the building. Funnily enough, I couldn’t even remember taking my phone out of my pocket. “Hey, Shay,” he answered, and I could hear his smile. God, how I found security in him so fast was fucking mind-blowing. 

“Hey,” I replied, my voice sounding tired and on the verge of a breakdown. 

“Uh-oh, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I’m fine,” I lied. 

“Where are you? Are you home?” I could hear him moving around in his room, his voice holding a slight trace of panic. 

I smiled despite the hurricane of emotions raging in my chest. He was worried about me. I didn’t realize how much I had missed having a potentially romantic partner being able to read me so well. And so soon? Add intuitive to the growing list of things that made me adore that man. God, he was sweet. Why couldn’t Raz see that? Why couldn’t she be happy I found a nice guy? “No,” I answered. “I… uh…” Where was I going? “I need to clear my head.”

“Shay, it’s dark out. Go home, please. Or tell me where you are so I can come get you.”

“Central Park, 5 minutes,” I told him. 

“Central Park, 5 minutes,” he repeated. “I’ll see you soon.”

“See you soon, Fletch.”

I hung up and let my mind wander as I walked, my hands burrowing into the pockets of my jacket. Back home wearing a leather jacket in March, even at night, would have made me sweat. I would never get used to the biting New York cold. But I’d be damned if I went back to LA looking like this. Me this morning? Sure. Shay from this morning could roll up to LA and brag about how great her life had become. But Shay right now? No, I couldn’t go home the same insecure wreck I was when I left. I needed to pull it together.

~~~

~December 2017~

A knock sounded on my apartment. “It’s open,” I called out, too lazy to get up and actually answer. I didn’t know why Raz was knocking. She had a key. 

“Honestly, Shay, you shouldn’t leave your door unlocked like that,” Raz tsked as the door shut behind her and she flopped down next to me on the couch. 

“Honestly, Raz,” I joked back, “you should just ditch your dorm room and move in with me already. You’re here all the time anyway.” At two and a half years of knowing each other Raz had become my very best friend. She made the ache of missing home a lot more bearable. 

“What and give up my freedom?” she scoffed. “Yeah, right.”

I shrugged. “We’re graduating next semester. Where you gonna go, Raz?”

“Where are you gonna go?” she countered, referring to my career options, not my living situation. 

“Somewhere we can both be free,” I answered, spreading my arms across the back of my couch. 

~~~

“Shay?” Ashton’s voice laced with concern startled me out of my thoughts. 

“Hey, Fletch,” I answered with a small smile. 

“Are you okay?”

I shrugged.

“Shay, what’s wrong?”

“Everything,” I breathed, scared if I said anymore I would shatter. I didn’t want to shatter in front of him. I didn’t want him to see me vulnerable. But something in his voice made me think it would be okay if I did.

He wrapped me tightly into a hug and I breathed in him in. I wasn’t the biggest fan of cologne, but I could get used to liking his citrusy scent. Just like I could get used to the way his strong arms held me tight, his heartbeat hammering in my ear, his breaths as steady and solid as he was. “C’mon,” he murmured, leading us to a nearby bench. “What’s wrong?”

“Something’s gotta be wrong for me to enjoy Central Park at night with a cute boy?” I added with a small chuckle.

He frowned.

“Sorry. Not boy. Man,” I amended with another chuckle.

The frown deepened. “You just said everything was wrong. And now nothing’s wrong? Shay… what’s going on?”

I sighed. “I really don’t want to be vulnerable with you right now.”

“What do you want?”

“For this to be easy. To just be able to like someone without people thinking there are bigger things at play.”

“Who’s thinking bigger things are at play? Shay, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I like you. Not as lawyer Shay trying to close a deal. But as Shay Shay. Just a woman with a hopeless crush on a man that the rest of the world is going to blow way out of proportion.”

“It’s not hopeless,” he said, his eyes a pool of swirling honey underneath the streetlights, his breath hot against my face as he pulled me in for a kiss. I wished for time to stop as I melted into him, letting his kiss glue all the pieces together before they could fall.

~~~

“Morning, Maya,” I greeted as I strolled into the office the next morning.

“Morning, Shay.”

“Did you manage to hunt down 5SOS’ current contract agreement?” I asked. I had asked her yesterday before the meeting, but I wasn’t sure if she had gotten around to it as she got busy pleasing her other boss.

“No, Shay,” she fumbled. “Sorry…”

“Don’t worry about it,” I smiled at her. I’d have my assistant Alejandro track it down when he got in.

“Raz, ready to rock the world?” I greeted, poking my head in her office. I was back to being my chipper self, ready to put our lover’s quarrel behind me if she was. Neither one of us had apologized. But that was the beauty of our friendship. At the end of the day it didn’t matter what was said, because we had each others backs no matter what. But does she Shay? The nagging voice asked. What if is a fool’s game, I answered back fiercely.

“Yep! I’m working with Waterparks today. Can you send me the schedule you worked out for them?”

“Check your email, Raz,” I winked. I was damn good at my job. The schedule was already on there. “I’ll be working on drafting a contract for 5SOS. So, I’ll hold down the fort. Keep a good eye on those Waterpark guys, and try not to drool over the green-haired one so much,” I smirked.

“Awsten is a babe, Mrs. Irwin,” she teased me back.

“Oh, hush!” I laughed, walking to my office, smiling to myself. Good, if she was teasing it meant she was being civil about the idea, if not completely accepting. That was fine. I didn’t need acceptance. Well… No, civil was fine. Civil was good. Acceptance could and would come later, I was sure of it. “Oh, Ale,” I said, my eyes locking in on the tall law student striding my way.

“Morning, Shay,” Alejandro greeted me. Alejandro Juarez was a Puerto Rican lad in his first year of law school. The law firm I worked at in my college days had him as an intern and contacted me when they said the young man was interested in working more directly with a lawyer, rather than doing the equivalent of paper pushing. That had been 3 months into Raz and I starting our business and I was desperate for help. And one look at the ambitious man and I was hooked. I had even written his recommendation for his law school application and attended his graduation from his undergrad program last May. His drive and positive attitude had made him essential and I had come to think of him as a little brother.

“How long do I have you today?”

“I have class at 2:30. So 1?”

“That’s fine. I remember the rigor very well myself. I have a small task for you. Think you can handle it?”

“I can do my best.”

“I need you to track down 5SOS’s current contract for me.”

“Shay, they’re not in our system.”

“I know. They have an LA team managing them right now. I need to see what it entails. And I need you to get it for me.”

“How?”

“Mmm… lie. Say it’s for school, Ale,” I told him, placing my hand on his chest. “You’re a smart man, I believe in you.”

“I’ll do my best,” he told me, swallowing.

“You always do,” I smiled brightly at him. I loved how being a powerful woman felt. “I’ll be in the office if you need me. And don’t bother Raz, she’ll be with a client until further notice.”

“Should I let Eloise know?” he asked, referring to Raz’s assistant.

“Eloise should already know, Ale. Contract, please and thank you.”

“Coming right up.”

I turned to go into my office when my phone rang. “This is Shay,” I answered, stepping into my office and shutting my door.

“Hey, babes,” Ashton’s voice sounded over the line.

My heart fluttered at the pet name. I could definitely get used to that.“Oh, hey Fletch. What’s up?”

“Nothing, just wanted to hear your voice.”

I smiled as I sat down at my desk and pulled up a blank document. “Aw, you’re sweet.” But there was something in his voice that seemed… off? “Is something wrong?”

“No.”

“Fletch,” I started. “I know we have our walls. I’m extremely appreciative that you’re patient with me while I figure out what is too much to share with you too soon. I’m extending you that same respect. But, please. I can hear in your voice that something’s off.”

“You can?” came the incredulous reply.

“You’re very expressive,” I admitted. “Please. Talk to me. That’s the only way we’re gonna figure this whole mess out.”

“Something’s gotta be wrong with me to enjoy a phone call with my girlfriend?” came the teasing tone as he used my own words against me.

I smiled. “What’s going on Fletch? You don’t have to be vulnerable and lay out your life story just yet. But c’mon, give me a little something.”

He chuckled, then sighed. I could picture his brows furrowing together and his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. “It’s Cal. I don’t think he’s on board with the whole us dating thing. I think he thinks you’re seducing me to get us as a client. You know, like you said everyone would think. I think I was too swept up in the moment to realize the deeper implications of what you were trying to get me to understand. But, I see it now. And from Cal, it’s… Fuck, I dunno what to do here.”

“Neither do I,” I confessed.

“Can I ask you a question without you getting offended?”

“Of course,” I nodded.

“Are you using me to get my band to sign with your company?”

“No,” I promised. “Look, this is nothing but a huge coincidence. I’m just as afraid of this going badly as you probably are. I’ve been hurt before, and I certainly don’t want to re-experience that pain. But, I’m also a professional. Whatever happens between me and you is between me and you. It has no effect on my company’s desire to take your band on as a client, I can promise you that much now. It’s two totally separate things that just look related.” As I spoke I became less sure of who I was reassuring: him, Cal, Raz, or myself. “Shay the lawyer would love to sign your band, yes. But, Shay the woman just wants you.”

He let out a small chuckle and I could picture his dimples. Man, my boyfriend was such a babe. And damn that sounded good. Ashton Irwin, my boyfriend. Shay Gibson, Ashton Irwin’s girlfriend. I got chills just thinking about it. “Alright. So, what is my gorgeous girlfriend up to?”

“She is smart, not gorgeous. And she is working, so she needs to go. I’ll text when I go for lunch, okay?”

“She is smart and gorgeous. And I hope she doesn’t work too hard.”

“Me? Never,” I laughed. Working hard was the only way I knew how to work. “Bye, Fletch.”

“Bye, babes.”

We hung up and I stretched my hands out in front of me, cracking them as I did so. Then, I set to work, outlining a foolproof contract for our potential new client. My intent was to ensure that they would have full creative control of what they did and how, the same we promised every client we had. It was part of why we were so successful. Our motto was after all “Let art speak for itself, because to tamper is to diminish.” But, I still needed my hands on their current contract to see what they were currently being offered. We didn’t want to give them what they already had. We wanted better.

When I had a basic draft, I moved on to checking schedules. I knew 5SOS’s current management had a North American tour planned for the band to go on after their sad 2 month stint in Europe that was 1.) not long enough and 2.) had upset a lot of fans by the reckless skipping around. I needed to have something in the works to help sweeten the deal. And thankfully, I already had a rock band that we were sending off on a world tour of their that was set to start next March and carrying them into November, both for their benefit and to the benefit of one of our up-and-coming duos- a sweet brother-sister act with the voice of angels and attitude to boot. “Eloise?” I asked after I hit the button on my phone to buzz Raz’s assistant.

“Yes, Shay?”

“Is Raz busy currently?”

“Uh… yes. She’s in with Waterparks in the conference room.”

“Thank you, El,” I said. Perfect. Both of them in the same spot.

“Oh! Shay, they just sent over the contract. Would you prefer a hard copy?” Alejandro asked as I walked out of my office.

“Ale, you’re the best!” Today was going fan-fuckin-tastic and I loved it. “Can I get 6 copies, please?”

“Sure thing, Shay.”

“And email the pdf of it anyway,” I added as an afterthought. Better to have too many copies than not enough.

“Already did.”

“Thank you, Ale. Get me those copies, and you can cut out early if you like,” I told him. I knew he would appreciate the time to relax or get in some last minute studying before dashing off to the crazy world that was first year law school.

“Thanks Shay!”

I rapped on the conference room door before I entered. “And here’s Miss Gibson now,” Raz said, glancing up at me. “Impeccable timing.”

“Hey,” I greeted. “I take it Raz showed you gentlemen your tour schedule?” While Raz liked to up her professionality by referring to everyone as Miss or Mr in the office, I brought in the friendlier side by opting to stick with first names or nicknames. It was a perfect balance; the way we liked to run our business. The only time Raz slipped from that professional demeanor in the office was one-on-one. The only time I slipped into that formality myself was when I was mad. It was a simple unspoken norm in the office that “Miss Toliver referring to you by your first name is fine, but if Shay uses your last name, you better run.”

“Yeah, we’re looking it over now. 8 months, huh?”

“Make sure those passports are up to date,” I told them, then “It’s what you wanted, right? To be as accessible as possible? There’s no interviews scheduled during that time. Just shows and meet and greets.”

“This is perfect!” they told me.

“Did Raz also show you the interview schedule. It’s a little less than a year away so we got plenty of prep time. It’ll be a very busy week, but short so you can rest up before the tour.”

“Yeah, it all looks so great.”

“Awesome. And I actually had a question for you all.”

“Uh-oh, you have that look,” Raz said, crossing her arms. “What crazy idea do you have now?”

“How would you feel if you co-headlined with 5SOS?” I asked, a smile on my lips.

“5SOS? Hell yeah! Is that one band still opening for us?”

“Yes, Lucky Mess will still be opening,” I assured them.

“But, don’t get your hopes up about 5SOS,” Raz warned them, and me. “We’re optimistic. But no promises.”

“Nah, this is great. Can we make the tour name Punk Rarities Tour?”

“I like where your mind’s at,” I smiled again.

Raz rolled her eyes, “Anyway!”

I chuckled to myself as I walked back to my office. Time to focus my attention on the contract. Everything was lining up perfectly, now I just needed to stick the landing.

“Everything’s on your desk, Shay. It’s still early, though. Are you sure you don’t need me to stay?” Alejandro told me.

“Is your test today?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. I knew everything about my staff. It was a habit I picked up in my years at the law firm. If you knew everything going on, nothing snuck up on you. And I wasn’t in the business of unexpected surprises. I may have created a reputation of being impulsive, but that was because everybody only heard what flew from my lips. What they missed was how my brain was already 3 steps ahead of the game.

“It is!” he smiled, pleased I remembered.

“Then, I’ll manage.”

“Thank you!”

“Give ‘em hell, kid,” I smiled before shutting myself in my office once more. Alright. Let’s see what type of shithole mess 5SOS is in, I thought to myself as I took in the stack of contracts neatly piled on my desk, an email notification on my browser showing the message from Alejandro that held a pdf version of the papers in front of me.

I took a quick glance at the time. 10:30. Wow, it was early. Perfect.

I picked up one of the contracts, giving it a quick glance. Looked pretty standard. Creative control, plenty of touring and promos before tours. I clicked my tongue. Damn, c’mon, I needed to strike gold here. Aha! My eyes glanced at a section titled: Relationships. “Oh this is great,” I said out loud as I learned that while they were free to flirt and sleep around, girlfriends-emphasis on girl, oof fuckin’ homophobes in LA? Alright- needed to be “approved.” I snorted. “Good, God. That certainly explains a lot…”

I was about to continue my digging when my desk phone buzzed. “Yes Maya?” I asked, hitting the button to connect me with the front desk.

“Shay, a Calum Hood is here to see you?”

I pulled a face. Of fucking course he was. First Raz, now Calum. I was beginning to wonder what our best friends were more concerned with- protecting Ashton and I from potential heartache, or protecting their own image. Frankly, I didn’t care. Ashton and I were grown ups capable of making our own decisions and we didn’t need anyone’s approval. So why was I letting this cut deep the way it was? Because all you ever wanted was to be accepted, my brain supplied. I let out a breath to steady myself. “I’ll be right there,” I answered, getting up.

“Calum,” I greeted, opting for the middle ground by not calling him by the nickname I had picked out for him, but also keeping my temper in check. For now. “Glad of you to drop by. Can I get you anything to drink?”

“No, this’ll be quick,” he told me, his brown eyed gaze heavy as it locked on mine.

“Please, right this way,” I said, leading him back to my office. “So, what can I help you with?” I asked him, gesturing to one of the chairs I had in my office.

“You need to stop,” he told me. It was direct and simple. A demand. He remained standing, rather than taking a seat. A power move. Time to show Calum Hood just who the fuck he thought he was fucking with.

“I’m sorry?” I blinked, meeting his gaze and holding it steady. Keep it cool. Play it dumb.

“With Ash. Stop it. Whatever this thing is. End it. Now.” Again, the words were direct. No malice. No begging. As simple as asking someone to pass him the salt.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re getting at.”

“What’s your angle here?” he demanded, his brown eyes hardening, his arms crossing. Now came the malice. Game on.

“I don’t have an angle, Mr. Hood,” I told him, keeping my arms down at my side, our eyes still locked.

He scoffed, dropping his gaze. “Bullshit.”

“Is that so?” I asked, continuing to remain cool and level-headed. No way I was going to get lectured by Calum “love is a scam” Hood. I turned my computer screen and thrust a copy of his current contract in his hand. “I take my job very seriously, Mr. Hood. When we said we could do better, we meant it.”

“This is my current contract,” he scoffed again, shaking the document in his hand at me.

“And this,” I gestured at the computer, “is my offer. Giving your band total control in every aspect of your lives. We want to represent 5SOS, Mr. Hood, not the other way around. There’s no ulterior motive here at play. This is my offer. Take it or walk, I don’t really care. But this ‘thing’ as you so lovingly called it I have with Ashton? That’s personal, and frankly none of your concern.”

His eyes squinted as he stepped forward to look at my computer screen.

“Oh, and I already have a tour lined up for 5SOS with Waterparks. Co-headliners with a small opening act. You each get a 75 minute set. Better get started on that setlist,” I told him, dual-screening my computer so he could see the tour dates. “There’s also a week long press tour of sorts. Just interviews around here to generate buzz.”

“These are a year out. What if you and Ash break up?” he asked, finally getting to the point. His eyes still had a hard edge to them, when they locked back on mine, but it wasn’t as stoney as before. This was worry. He cared about his friend, that much was obvious. I would admire it more if it wasn’t at my expense.

“What if we don’t?” I countered. Then, “Don’t answer that. The answer is the same either way. Nothing happens. I’m a professional. If my company represents your band, then my company represents your band. Plain and simple. Your account will most likely get passed to an associate anyhow. There’s no real conflict in interest, here, only the imagined one you, and I assume the rest of the world, want to see.”

While his eyes showed him weakening in his stoic stance, he still had fight left in him. “You’d rather risk losing us as a potential client, than break things off with Ash.”

I shrugged. “I have other clients, Calum. Waterparks is already preparing to headline the Punk Rarities Tour by themselves. The only loss here is your band’s. Seems a bit selfish of you to keep them from what is an amazing offer just because you have your own reservations. But, that’s neither here nor there. Point is, I’m not walking away from my relationship with Ashton. I’m serious about your band, and I’m serious about him.”

“You barely know him!”

His temper flare, brought out my irritated professionalism again. Damn, just as I was back to the middle ground. What a shame. “Yes, I do believe that’s why they call it ‘dating,’ Mr. Hood. You should try it sometime. Too bad your current contract is a bit… hmm, let’s use the term  ‘restrictive’ in that area. If only there was a management company that didn’t give a damn who you choose to associate yourself with. Oh… wait, that would be this company, now wouldn’t it?”

“This is stupid, you know that right? The rumors this is gonna cause when your relationship gets outted? It’s gonna be a total shitshow. Are you prepared for that?”

I narrowed my eyes at him with his nasty snarl that seemed out of place on a man so pretty. “Nobody’s holding a gun to your head, Mr. Hood. You and your band are free to walk away from my offer. So what are you really scared of here? Scared that I might break your friend’s heart? Or scared that my company can and will do better for you and your band?”

“I’m not scared of anything,” was the cold reply.

“Could’ve fooled me,” I replied, just as cooly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Hood, I have work to do.”

“This isn’t over,” he huffed, stalking out of my office.

“Merely the beginning,” I said to his retreating back.

~Ashton~

“Cal, how could you?!” I rounded on my friend when he came back to the hotel from his morning “walk.” “I really like her! You could’ve fucked everything up for me!”

“More than you could’ve fucked this up for all of us over a stupid crush?!” he yelled back.

“She’s not like that!”

“How do you know?! You’ve known her for what? 24 hours?! How do you know she’s not seducing you to sign us?!”

“I just do, okay?!” His sullenness was already making my stomach churn, but his outright hostility was taking it too far. If he wanted to blame someone, he should be blaming Mike for sending the text in the first place. But no. Instead he stormed into my girlfriend’s office and raised hell. But yeah, me and her were the unprofessional ones. Sure. That was fair… I was about to continue tearing into him, but all our phones pinging had me stopping in my tracks.

I opened the email on my phone. It had 3 attachments and a simple message: 

Dear 5SOS,

Meet me at 2pm today to discuss the attached files. No excuses. I know you’re still in town.

Shay Gibson

Head of Legal Department

C.S Management

~~~

“Shay, 5SOS is here to see you,” the receptionist said into the phone.

“Thank you, Maya, I’ll be right there,” Shay’s voice said through the speaker. Then, she was in front of us, the epitome of professional in a grey blazer covering a flowery blouse, fitted skinny black slacks showing off her small curves, her black heels clicking along the floor. “Ashton, Luke, Mike, Mr. Hood, good to see you all again,” she greeted, her voice holding a small edge to it. “If you’ll follow me, please,” she continued, turning and leading us into the same conference room we were in yesterday, where 2 folders were placed in front of each of the 5 seats. “So, blue folder is your current contract with your current management system. Red is C. S. Management’s contract. I’ve taken the liberty of highlighting key differences in each contract so you know exactly what’s different. Basically, I’m keeping what I liked and tweaking what should have been tweaked the day you stopped touring with One Direction. Also in red folder you’ll find the Punk Rarities Tour which you will have a 75 minute set as co-headliners with Waterparks and Lucky Mess as your opening act. I highly suggest you make sure your passports are up to date, and that you don’t lose them, Mike.” Her eyes danced playfully behind her black frames as her gaze shifted to the shorter of the blondes who looked down sheepishly. 

“How did she know?” Mike whispered. 

“I know everything,” she whispered back with a wink. “Now, as I was telling Mr. Hood this morning, there is also a week long interview press tour of sorts before the actual world tour takes place.” It was the second time she had referred to Calum as “Mr. Hood” and I knew she was doing it on purpose. Being friendly with us and cold with him. I smirked to myself. It wasn’t like he didn’t deserve it.

“This is great and all but 1.) we’re still in a contract and 2.) where’s Miss Toliver?” Luke asked. 

“Oh, see you are smart! Luke, your contract with C. S. Management takes effect the second your current contract ends. You and your bandmates just need to sign it of course, and not sign a new one with your current company. That leaves plenty of time for any amendments and revisions to make sure this contract is exactly what every single one of you wants. As for my business partner, she‘ll take a more hands-on approach once 5SOS becomes a client. I just handle contracts and scheduling.”

“This tour looks long…” Mike said. 

“It is,” Shay agreed. “Waterparks wanted to make themselves as accessible as possible to their fanbase, so I did what I could to make that happen. If a conflict of interest arises, we’re more than prepared to handle it. We’re very… flexible here at C.S. Management.”

“Look, no jumping all over the place other,” I said, looking at the cities tied to the tour dates. “Just a simple zigzag, up and down.”

“Yeah, I was never fond of the idea of jumping recklessly all over the map,” she said, with a small smug look. “I like order.”

“Do we have to make a decision now?” Luke asked, his blue eyes scared. I didn’t blame him. This was all happening so fast. Much faster than our first contract when we became a band. That’s because you’re established now, my brain told me, you’re no longer those punk high school dropouts from Sydney. Hey! I didn’t drop out... These are your thoughts. Focus!

Shay shook her head. “No, not at all. Please feel free to take the time to look everything over. Let me know if you have any questions, or need me to adjust certain aspects. I don’t need a decision from 5SOS until the end of November. And even then, I’ll tell you the same thing I told Mr. Hood, I don’t really care if you take the offer or not.”

“Wow, you sure are confident in yourself,” Calum scoffed. 

“I know what my company is capable of Mr. Hood. I know we can do better for your band than what you’ve been getting. Which isn’t bad, by the way, it’s just child’s play, and you’re men now. You have been for a while. I’m open to working with 5SOS to ensure the band gets the best management possible. Whether or not you choose to take me as seriously as I’m willing to take your band, that’s on you.”

“And this isn’t some ploy? Cal said that you might be using Ash to get at us,” Luke put in.

Shay rolled her eyes, clearly sick of the back and forth she was having both with herself and with the rest of the world about our forming relationship. “Could you excuse me for a minute?” she asked, a smile on her face that I didn’t like the look of. She didn’t wait for an answer as she turned on her heel. We watched her go and I watched as another worker’s eyes went wide as she nodded her head wildly. Some words were exchanged and then Raz came out of her office looking frazzled for a brief second before following Shay back to us.

Shay didn’t say a word as she quickly gathered up the red folders and promptly shredded them. “I am good at my job. I earned everything I have with my brain, not with what’s between my legs,” she spoke, her tone sharp as she continued shredding folder after folder while we watched her in horror. She looked down at the shredder as she pushed the last folder through it with a blank expression. “Pity. That was some of my best work, too. I’ll leave you in the hands of the professional, now, gentlemen,” she said with a look towards Calum and Raz specifically. It was a terrifying look, eerily calm with a cutting look. “Enjoy the rest of your stay,” she added before strolling back out of the office.

Again, I watched her go, completely stunned. What was that quote? Though she be but little, she is fierce? Yeah, that was it. Quotes like that were made about women like Shay.

~~~

“So, is it safe to assume you like rock music?” I asked, leaning my arms on the table as I looked at her. 

She smiled over her cup at me. “Yeah, that’s a pretty safe assumption.”

I giggled. “Well, do you only listen to rock, or do you listen to other music?”

“I listen to other music. I enjoy rock music, obviously. I manage rock bands so of course I like rock music. But given the choice, I listen to country.”

“Country?” I asked my eyes going wide. 

She laughed. “Yeah. Makes me feel close to my dad.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“Why?” she laughed again. “My dad’s alive, Fletch. But, my parents are divorced. So, mom raised us on 80s rock and 90s grunge. And dad raised us on country.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” I said again, not sure what else to say. 

She smiled and reached for my hand. “Don’t be. My parents split when I was too young to understand.”

“That still sucks, Shay…” With my own dad not being in the picture and a slew of stepdads in his wake, father issues were not something I was blind to. 

She squeezed my hand and continued to smile. “No, it doesn’t. It would suck more if they had stayed unhappy together. My mom had primary custody, but we saw my dad plenty. I have healthy relationships with both my parents, and they have a healthy relationship with each other.”

“You keep saying ‘we.’ Do you have siblings?”

She nodded. “I have one. Well 3, actually, I guess. My older brother. And then a stepbrother and stepsister. Also both older.”

“And the step siblings?”

“One from each stepmom.”

“You have 2 stepmoms?”

She laughed. “Yeah, Mom’s a lesbian. Probably why she was so unhappy with my dad. That, and they were young when they had my brother and me.”

I laughed with her. “Your family dynamics are weird.”

She continued to laugh. “Oh, it gets weirder, trust me. But, there’s plenty of love, which is the important part.”

“So, you’re the baby, huh?”

“Guilty as charged. But, I act older. Or, at least I’ve been asked if I was the older sibling before.”

I chuckled, “I don’t really buy into that birth order nonsense.”

“Neither do I, Fletch, neither do I.”

“You know, you keep calling me that, and it’s really not fair. I don’t even know your middle name.”

“Oh, you do.”

“I do?”

She nodded, a devilish smile on her lips. “Shannon’s my middle name.”

“Well, what’s your first name?”

“Bridget.”

“Oh, so you’re like Irish-Irish,” I teased. 

She just laughed. “Yeah, my name’s an Irish trainwreck.”

“So, when did you start going by your middle name?”

“When I moved to New York.”

“Oh shit, really? Where are you from originally?”

“LA,” she smiled. 

“You gave up LA for New York? Why?”

“Change of pace. Job opportunity. Law school. Take your pick,” she shrugged, leaning way back in her seat and crossing her arms. 

“Did I say something to upset you?”

“No. You’re just asking a lot of questions.”

“I’m trying to get to know you,” I laughed. How did a woman as smart as her not know how dating worked?

“Oh,” she said, uncrossing her arms. “Sorry. I’m not used to talking about myself much.”

“I can tell,” I smiled. She had alluded in our phone call this morning to have been hurt in the past. I wondered if this, along with her hesitation to ask me to slow down last night, was part of that hurt. It both broke my heart and angered me that someone would make her make her doubt herself in any way. But if someone loved her right, she wouldn’t be on a date with you, my brain told me. True. Their loss. My gain. “Must’ve been a hell of a job offer to trade one coast for the other.”

She shrugged, but it was less closed off than her first shrug. “I spent the summer before my last year of college interning at a law firm here in Manhattan. I liked it. They liked me. They offered me a job. I said I live in LA and have a year of school left. They said that was what computers were for. So, when I applied to law schools, I applied out here because that’s where my job was.”

“What caused you to take an internship in New York, anyway? I’m assuming you grew up in LA, went to school there and whatnot. I mean, New York is great and all. But LA is… well it’s LA. That was home, right?”

She nodded. “Yeah. But, uh, I was ready to expand my horizons a bit. And I had a boyfriend who supported it. Or so I thought.”

There is was. The damaging ex-boyfriend “What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, my ex was a sweetheart. He was the one who encouraged me to take the internship in the first place. I’ve always loved New York, but never had the chance to go. So, he was like ‘well here’s your chance, take it.’ So, I did. And it was great. And then I realized he said ‘your chance’ not ‘our chance.’” She shrugged again. 

I frowned. That didn’t sound damaging. He sounded… well to steal her words, like a sweetheart. “That’s rough, but, at least he didn’t hold you back.”

She offered me a sad smile as her mind took her backwards through the years. “Yeah, he was always good about that. Part of what made it all so hard, if I’m being honest. We were both making plans for a better life. I just thought it was for us together, not individually.”

“Jesus, I’m sorry,” I said, covering her hands in mine. Who wouldn’t want a life with her?

The sadness left her smile. “That’s the third time you apologized for something that 1.) isn’t your fault and 2.) I moved on from long ago.”

“It’s called sympathy, babes.”

~Shay

May 2020~

“Fletch!” I greeted happily, pulling him in for a hug.

His arms wrapped around me and his head dipped down to burrow into my neck. “Missed you,” he mumbled against my skin.

“Missed you too,” I smiled, running my fingers through his ink-black hair. “How long do I get you?”

“All week. The guys fly in Thursday, and then we all fly out Friday afternoon,” he told me, lifting up his head.

“I get you all to myself for a whole week? Wow, lucky me.”

“Lucky you? Lucky me. Now, get in here,” he said, tugging me into his hotel room.

~~~

Tag List (Leave a message at the beep)

@goeatsomelife @flameraine @cashtonasff5sos @here-for-the-uproars @cxddlyash @1-irwin-94 @baldcalum @sparkling-chaos @tea4sykes @youngblood199456 @5-seconds-of-obsession

[gloss-glass-ash]

Better Man

Request: 

Summary: Luke's a better man with her. 

A/N: So this refers to a certain problematic past relationship for our golden boy, I don't use her name but if you see she or her in italics that's who it is.

Tags: @cal-pal-cuddles 

Spiraling was second nature to Luke. He'd get going, do alright for a bit, then crash. Crashing was a frequent occurrence lately. All he could do since she came into his life was crash. The drinks and drugs could only work for so long before the fights started. Once one of them started to scream it all spiraled from there.

Typically, it was just the couple who fought. The rest of the band would stay out of it, the crew would ignore it, and the venues hopefully wouldn't notice any damage. Only, this night of tour was different. The opening act, Good Intentions Only, were around. Their lead singer was front and center in the fight.

Blame it on midnight, or the moon, but she had enough of the couple fighting. She'd had enough of the couple period, but that was unrelated and strictly platonic. "For fuck's sake, shut up!"

She was a quiet one, a little bit awkward. No one really understood how she went from wallflower to front man in a second. Michael and her guitarist think it's the leather pants. Luke likes when he sees those leather pants. Her outburst silenced the green room.

"Y'all are toxic." Her boots clicked across the concrete floor. "There's two months left on this tour and if I have to hear either one of you bitch about the other one more time, I'm pulling us out." Ashton snorted a laugh and instantly regretted it. Despite a chubby, cherub face her side eye was strong.

"This doesn't involve you." Her voice snapped. "Besides, you can't afford to leave."

"Oh because I'm not a trust fund baby, leeching of my boyfriend?" The rest of her band inched closer to Y/N. Solidarity, sure, but they didn't really know what would happen and a view of the action would be nice.

Maybe Luke should have anticipated her punching Y/N, but he didn't. He didn't anticipate any of this. The high was wearing off; he was getting scared. Before he could intervene, Y/N's nose startled to bleed.

Y/N laughed as the blood trickled down her face. "I hope we sell all our merch tonight, it'll be a bitch to get back to L.A."

With no fucks left to give, Good Intentions Only performed their best show. Y/N wore the leather pants that drove the fans crazy and cried during the last song. Rumors swirled that she was dating another member (fan theory said the drummer because she saw Y/N's ass every night) or that the band was breaking up. 5sos didn't know what to do, they had signed her band to their label.

Maybe Y/N was under the impression that Luke felt something between them. Or maybe she was just stupid. She wasn't really sure which resulted in another drink and another sad song. Not hearing from, not even a "are you okay?" hurt. It hurt more than she would care to admit.

She didn't see any of the 5sos boys until it came time to record the next album. Ashton was sent as the designated dad. Y/N ignored him and any suggestion he made. This was her band, not his and certainly not Luke Hemmimgs'.

"He's in a better place." Ashton watched her shuffle through lyrics. "Not like that, but, you know, he's healthy."

Y/N shrugged. "Okay?" Yeah, okay. She didn't care. She cared too much. "Good for him."

"He wanted to come but he wasn't sure. "

"Wasn't sure about what? I stood up for him because I love him and what did that get me?" Ashton remained silent staring at the lyrics so clearly about Luke and so desperate for his attention. "I had to get fillers in my nose. He deserves so much more than her and I'm not enough."

The session ended early when Luke showed up. His hair was longer, he had a beard, but at least his eyes were clear. He couldn't get out a greeting in time, Y/N had already left. That pattern of almost saying hello and confessing undying love continued until it came time to start touring again. Fan feedback demanded a joint tour.

Feeding the fandom proved more difficult than originally thought. Every where Y/N turned Luke was there. Bus? His bunk was a fingertip away. Dressing room? They shared. Soundcheck? He was entertaining VIP. It was heart wrenching.

Y/N wasn't one to let it go, though. She kept on. Luke couldn't, however. Luke thrived off attention and assurance, maybe that's why he spent so much time with Ashton or maybe he just couldn't be alone.

"Give her time, mate."

"Who? Y/N, that doesn't bother me."

"You're such a fucking liar." Calum laughed, settling into the couch. "All she wants is for you to love her. Can't you do that?"

"What do you know about love?" Luke hissed leaving the room with a dramatic flare. He headed to his bunk, collapsing with a howl of frustration.

The curtain from her bunk peeked open. Y/N stuck her head out, eyes red, cheeks shallow. "Can you not? Some of us are trying to sleep."

Luke knew when someone was spiraling. He was an expert at it. "You can't sleep." He swung his feet out, leaning over. His broad body took up most of the aisle even when he sat down. "It won't let you. It's an upper. Your heart races and you crash. You think you're losing it when you have it and even worse when you don't."

Y/N went to close the curtain, but Luke yanked it further back. He searched the bedding for the stash, watching as Y/N curled into the corner and cried. "I don't have anything."

"Where are you hiding it? Tell me, I'll help you."

"I'm not on anything!" It was as close to a scream as she could get, it was a pitiful sound that choked Luke. "It just hurts!"

Blue eyes softened as Luke squeezed himself in beside her. His long legs scrambled around until he held her to his chest. "You're okay, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere."

Y/N sobbed something in his chest that he didn't understand and he wasn't sure he wanted to. Her fingers curled around his worn shirt, her legs wrapping around his waist, squeezing his hips. They stayed like that until they arrived at the venue.

With more grace than he typically had, Luke managed to get them both out of the bunk and to the tiny bathroom. He wet a cloth and pressed it under her eyes. "Didn't think you'd want pictures getting out."

"World's seen my bloody nose." She shrugged. "Can't get much worse than that." Luke paused, his hands on a bottle of concealer.

"I never apologized for that." Luke cleared his throat as he softly blended concealer to her under eyes, trying to liven her face. He had gotten good at it, now he just did it because he liked the feeling of the makeup on his skin.

"You weren't the one who punched me, Luke."

"But still, you shouldn't have gotten hurt because of-"

"It was worth it. She hurt you. No one deserves to be treated like that, but especially not you. You're a better man, better person than anyone I know."

Better man, huh, Luke never really thought he'd ever reach that point and yet here he was.  Something about those words stuck with him, the lyrics suddenly there. "Babe, I gotta go real quick."

So he went and hid away, writing throughout sound check and after. His heart was full of a new love that he was ready to explore, ready to share. Minutes before Good Intentions Only was set to perform, he pulled Y/N aside, a sappy smile on his face. "Break a leg, not a nose."

Y/N laughed, eyes sparkling just a bit more. "Shut up!"

Luke laughed, a nice belly laugh and pulled her closer. "When you get done, come find me. I want to try those leather pants of yours."

"Yeah?" Warm cheeks seemed to glow in the darkness backstage.

"Yeah, babe."

[ashtonsunshine]

Search for : 5 Seconds of Summer Ashton: 'chicks don't judge my drumming' it's from an interview for Rhythm magazine. You can also watch the interview : Ashton Irwin at NAMM 2016 . My intention is not to hate on him , but he does sound a bit condescending in those, and i hope as of now he appreciates his female audience, because we do support them with love for their music.

The first one you talk about, I could only find this very low quality pic of the article from Ashton’s twitter, and then I found these articles about it: PressPlay and AltPress. The PressPlay article just transcripts what he says and gives no other insight on the matter. The Altpress one is more important and I’ll get to it in a bit. 

The picture isn’t easy to read so I’m gonna transcript what’s said: 

“Rhythm: Ashton, are you comfortable in the spotlight?

Ashton: Chicks don’t judge your drumming., let’s be honest. Fourteen-year-olds aren’t going to be like, “Man, that guy sucks!”. They just like to see a drummer. My stepdad drums, my uncle is a drummer, I’m surrounded by a drumming family and I just want to learn to be the best drummer I can be. 

Karl: That’s a great thing you just said that chicks don’t judge your drumming. There’s a song in that. I would say you’ve probably influenced a lot of girls to be drummers. 

Ashton: I hope we get some people playing guitar and drums again, I thinks that’s a great thing our band could do for people.”

This interview is from August 2015, but since Karl talks about a rehearsal in Portugal and that after it they’ll go straight into the shows, this interview was held in May 2015, right before the ROWYSO tour, so Ashton as 20 years old then. 

From a first read, yeah, it doesn’t sound good, but, just for the sake of it, let’s put ourselves in his shoes for a sec.

A 20-year-old man who wants to be a great drummer and appreciated for his drumming skills being reduced to daddy material by young teenage girls isn’t exactly ideal. The sexualization of band members isn’t news to anyone and we all know that teenagers can be over the top and very vocal about it to the artist’s face (and by face I both mean live in concert and on the artist’s social media), so, and although not exactly politically correct of Ashton, he’s not wrong in his words, in my opinion. 

Being sexually attracted to a drummer and appreciating their skill isn’t something that’s mutually exclusive, that’s a fact. However, young teenagers, and I’m including myself in here because I’m not imune to this phenomenon, can and will focus on the sex appeal of their idols before being able to appreciate their skills. I did that. I was one of those people who “just like to see the drummer”, so I can see where Ashton is coming from when he said that. Should he have said it, probably not. Did he say it and meant it the evil way people try to portray it, most likely not. 

As the Altpress article reads “What they are is good dudes, and good dudes sometimes say bullshit.” because nobody is born perfect. Then the article goes on saying: 

“It became something of a hot topic on 5SOSFam internet, girls attempting to dissect what the drummer meant. Some thought it was indirect commentary on their young, female fanbase’s obsession with their personal life over music. Others were offended, tweeting at the musician that though they might not be able to label the anatomy of a drum kit, they still appreciate his musicianship. Whatever the reasoning, the use of “chicks” here is concerning as is the statement. Why don’t they judge your drumming? Is “judge” here used more like “criticizing”? Because a girl isn’t going to scream “You suck” at a 5 Seconds Of Summer gig, she doesn’t know about the mechanics of drumming? It might be misguided language in the way their recent single, “Good Girls,” was, with a chorus of “Good girls are bad girls that haven’t been caught” meant to symbolize independence and an exploration in identity that, to the unknowing person (aka someone who doesn’t worship at the altar of this band) kind of reads like sexual objectification.”

I’d like to bring your focus to that last part about misguided language, because that’s important. Sometimes people say things without meaning harm that end up being harmful. We can try to dissect it all we want, but we’ll never know for sure. I would say he didn’t mean to be sexist, but I also agree that it did come out a bit condescending. 

The second one you mention is this interview for Altpress at NAMM 2016 when he was 21 years old:

undefined

They are talking about the event and how there are a lot of people there who are older and more experienced music people and the interviewer says that he thought it would be easier to get a hold of Ashton because there were more important musicians there than him, to which Ashton responds that he’s just chilling and that there isn’t anyone in the 5SOS’s fanbase demographics there and finishes it off with “I don’t think any of the chicks or anything would come to check out some gear or some moog boards or anything like that so”. 

I wasn’t sure about it so I had to check it on a dictionary, that many women find “chick” an offensive term, so we can ask: why is he using it? Maybe he is just as unaware as I am and was using it simply to refer to young teenage girls; maybe he isn’t and was being rude, which is, in all honesty, not likely. Ashton is known for spitting out words without giving two thoughts about them and we all know that, but I also think he has grown out of it, at least a bit, by now. But, back to the full statement. 

“I don’t think any of the chicks would come to check out some gear...” can be interpreted as sexist and condescending, and I’m not going to deny that, but you have to look at the full conversation to understand what he meant. Context is important. They’re talking about the people who are attending the event, who are, as I understood it, experienced music people who’ve been in the field for a while and their fans, who, by extension, are also older people who have an interest in the drumming world. So, Ashton saying that can’t, in my view, be shoved into a corner and interpreted as it is being interpreted by so many people. 

Firstly, I, personally, don’t believe he’s using “chicks” as a derogatory term and is simply using it to refer to the majority of the 5SOS fanbase demographic, which was (and still is) young girls and young women. But you guys can think that all I’m saying is a bunch of bullshit and say that it doesn’t matter what he meant and how he meant it, what matters is what he said, and I’m sorry but I disagree. He’s human and human beings often say shit without meaning it in a certain way that then other people come along and twist their words to paint them as the incarnation of Satan itself. I have said things that come off rude and not politically or morally correct in my life without meaning them that way, and I’m absolutely certain that so have you.

Then, there’s the possible interpretation that young girls, being only interested in seeing the drummer, aren’t judging the drumming skills and don’t know or aren’t interested about drumming gear hence not being there at the event, which is, in a way, true. Is it a bold and somewhat sexist generalisation? Yes. Is he wrong, though? No. Many teenagers aren’t interested in the gear band members use. 

I remember when that interview with Ashton talking about his drum kit came out and I was fascinated. I wasn’t fascinated about the gear or fascinated about how many things he had on his kit or what they did; I was fascinated about his love for it. I didn’t understand shit of what he was talking about but he was speaking with such passion that I didn’t care. Same thing happened when Michael’s video with Gibson talking about his guitar dropped. I don’t know anything about guitars or how they work, but I know Michael was happy as hell to have that guitar out and I’m here for it. 

I think what Ashton missed when he said those things was that we may not understand anything about how to make music or how good of a drummer he is or about drumming gear but we do know he worked hard to get where he is right now and we value and respect that, and I think that’s why people went crazy about this. They felt betrayed in a way and that’s completely understandable. They felt like their respect was disregarded. That their love was minimised. 

But he does know how important a female audience is. The band has mentioned it several times. Here’s one from Billboard last year when talking about Youngblood:

“Being a band of all guys, what have you learned over the years from having a fanbase that’s largely female?

Irwin: A couple of delicate things, but most of it is just sensitivity. Lyrics are important to younger women who are trying to understand relationships, or just feelings in general. I grew up without a dad. I just have a mom. A lot of my lyrical process is based on seeing my mom suffer, which makes me quite sensitive towards how younger women feel. I think that’s an important thing. That took me a long time to realize as to why I feel almost asexual at times towards… I don’t really get along with men that well. It’s all because of my upbringing. In lyrics I wrote when I was younger, there’s a lot deeper meaning than I actually thought. I didn’t understand it when I was younger. When I was writing with you guys [I'd think], why do women like these lyrics? Then you get older and look at your lyrics and go, “This makes a lot of sense, why people would have liked that.”

I think where a lot of young male bands go wrong is they get caught up in women liking their band. There’s a bunch of women hanging around who might sexually desire you. That can be confusing to a young man, but it’s all just about respect. 

Hood: You never want to [be patronizing towards] younger fans, in particular female, because that’s what our demographic was, and still is in large part. So in lyrics, we always overestimate our fans. The lyrics on this album are very deep. 

Irwin: We don’t actually focus on who likes us that much… I really enjoy meeting male fans as well. To all my favorite bands, the Rolling Stones and stuff, the younger female fans always come first because they know what's good.”

They know how important we, the female fanbase, are. They know we put them where they are now, that we gave them the platform to thrive in the music industry. They know we love their work and support them in whatever music path they choose to take. They see us like people with brains and not sex objects. They write lyrics for our brains and our hearts. 

Ashton has grown so much as a person and I think we shouldn’t keep him back on a sentence he said four years ago without looking at ourselves first and thinking about all the dodgy things we did and said when we were four years younger. I have a few I’m not proud of, and I would like people not to use them to define who I am today because I am a completely different person than I was in 2015 and nobody is judging me harder than myself.

[pagesuponstpages]

one for the road

ofc: celeste morgan

inspo: “Let’s make snow angels!” “Are you nine?”

word count: +1.8k

synopsis: celeste is the tour manager for 5sos, (and regrettably stuck on the boys’ bus, thus being the unofficial parent over them. despite being the same age as ashton) and they are running late to the concert venue due to snow and traffic, making her more and more grumpy (the other manager of the tour is on her ass for every nit picky thing and blames her for it as well) and ash continues to be a pain in her ass (lbr all of them are, but underneath all that hard-ass-tour-manager-skin, she loves these boys to the ends of the earth maybe ashton a little more than necessary)

a/n: i’m kinda terrified posting this, cause 1. it’s been ages since i’ve posted any fanfic and 2. this is a completely different fandom that i’m writing for… but here goes. hope you enjoy.

“Macie, we’re on our way, with about two hours left.”

“Hope so, cause soundcheck starts in three hours.” Celeste sighed, looking out the window ahead of her. The snowflakes were flying down from the skies, growing thicker and thicker in the past hour, with the windshield wipers going almost at top speed.

“We’re trying with the best we’ve got Macie,” she grumbled into her phone.

“Well try a little harder. Jacob is on my ass if they don’t get here on time.” Celeste frowned. Jacob, the tour coordinator, was on both Celeste and Macie’s asses about everything, from how the boys would not arrive on time (Celeste’s “fault”) or how the venue wouldn’t be available to the crew until the day before or the day of the show (Macie’s “fault”). Much to say that Celeste and Macie shared hatred (even initially bonded over it) for Jacob throughout the entire tour.

“We’ll get there when we get there, and work from there. Plus, the boys don’t technically need to be there for the soundcheck.”

“Babes, you forgot that we sell tickets for soundcheck privileges.” Oh. Right.

“Dammit,” Celeste groaned, “traffic does not look good with the snow accumulating on the highway.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with Jackass when the time comes. Safe travels.”

“Thanks, Macie. See you soon.” Celeste clicked the phone call off, placing her phone next to the clipboard with the seemingly unending lists of things to do. She glanced out the window, bracing herself at the door frame before walking closer to the front of the bus.

“Hey Danny, how we doing?”

“Well Ms. Morgan, it looks like we may be behind schedule with the way the snow keeps coming down.” He didn’t even bat an eye when Celeste sat next to him, as he continued driving, bobbing his head slightly to the music playing in the front. She sighed deeply, rubbing her temples.

“Well, I guess we’ll get there when we get there?” She stood up, wanting to update the boys in the back.

“Yes ma’am, when we’ll get there.”

“Thanks, Danny.” He nodded, while Celeste walked away.

She heard a couple shouts followed by laughter, the closer she got to the end of the tour bus. Once she opened the door, all four boys froze where they were: Michael sat on the couch with his head nearly squashed by Luke’s arm; Calum flopped on top of Luke, their faces inches apart; Ashton was balanced standing on the arm of the couch, leaning forward with his arms spread out wide, about to belly flop onto the other three band members. Celeste rolled her eyes, then walked up to Ash, pulling him back down to the floor, shoving Luke off of Michael and sitting in between them, and then pushed Calum off of Luke to the point of him careening to the floor.

“Ow,” Calum yelped.

“You are all acting like children,” she said, whilst unlocking her phone to pull up the ever-updating schedule.

“So if we’re the children, then you’re our mom!” Luke grinned, perching his chin on her shoulder.

“And if you’re our mom, Ash’s our dad!” Calum said, laying on hers and Luke’s laps. She caught the eye of Ashton, who was sitting on top of the makeshift coffee table in front of them.

“What do you say, wifey?” he said with a smirk plastered on his face.

“I say that there’s a change in schedule, and we’re gonna get to the venue late with the rate that the snow is falling.”

“Oooh, it’s snowing?” Then the curtains in the back, flew open, followed by the oohs and ahhs of the white fluff falling down, slowly piling up on the road.

“So,” she continued, pulling two boys back into their seats, “with the snow and pending traffic, we’ll be late, if not completely miss soundcheck.”

“What do you mean miss soundcheck? We can’t do that-”

“If we’re lucky, we’ll arrive at the venue two hours before the show starts, maybe even an hour,” Celeste said, cutting off Luke, “which barely give you guys enough time to change and warm up before the openers start.” The four boys looked at her, their expressions turning solemn.

“Are we doing anything in exchange for the fans that bought soundcheck tickets?” Calum said, shifting his head in her lap. Celeste nodded, checking her phone to see if Macie got back to her with any updates.

“That is what we and management are planning if traffic does get so bad. But, I’m hoping that will just be the worst case scenario.”

“Well then, if we’re gonna be stuck on this bus for at least three more hours, are we up for a Mario Kart tournament?” Michael said, handing two controls towards Luke and Celeste.

“As much as I would love to kick your asses, I have more work to do,” Celeste said, handing Calum the control.

“C’mon mom, is there really anything that you can do on the bus?” Luke said, raising his brows. She chewed her lip, debating for a few seconds.

“I guess not, other than Jacob’s work, which should technically be done by him,” she trailed.

“Yeah, let the asshole do his own work,” Ashton muttered, picking up a controller from the table. Celeste raised her eyebrows.

“You know?” was all she said, which then Ashton turned around, facing her with a small smile.

“We’ve all witnessed Jacob treat you and Macie like shit,” Calum confessed.

“Jacob Andrews is bloody brilliant in his work, but also a fucking prick.” Ashton nodded.

“Well I’m glad to be only dealing with his bullshit for you guys,” Celeste finally said after moments of silence. “Now, I’m gonna kick your asses on the track.”

“Did the bus just stop?”

Celeste blinked, squinting to see the time.

“What time is it,” she croaked. Her legs were tangled with someone’s and someone else’s blonde curly hair was tickling her cheeks (she wasn’t so sure if it was Luke or Ashton). After their Mario Kart tournament (Celeste got second while Ashton got first, to her disappointment), taking a little over an hour, they all fell asleep, one by one, all curled up in the back of the bus on the couch that they all managed to squeeze onto.

“Around 5 o'clock, I think,” the blonde curls said in front of her (Celeste is pretty sure that’s Ashton).

“How long did we sleep?” Luke grumbled, shifting his legs to sit up, which also prompted her legs to the ground. The next thing she knew was that she was falling, and Ashton was going down with her.

“Oof!”

“Ow!”

There were thudding steps coming to the door.

“The bus stopped.”

Celeste blinked, her eyes coming into focus, realizing that she was on top of someone (Ashton) and that their faces were millimeters apart.

“What do you mean the bus stopped?”

Ashton looked at her, his eyes drinking her face in, and Celeste only now realized that he had flecks of green in his hazel-y brown eyes.

“Hi,” he whispered, whilst the boys around them continued to talk.

“If we don’t move, can we just pretend that we’ve fallen asleep until they leave?” she whispered back while closing her eyes and snuggling closer to him.

“Shh, I think they fell asleep,” she heard Mikey said.

“Let’s go out, I’ve never stepped in this much snow before.” Celeste heard some more shuffling and whispering before the door clicked shut behind them.

“Are they gone?” she whispered to Ashton, right up to his ear. He snored softly, his breaths tickling her neck.

“Are you fucking kidding me, you actually fell asleep?” she said, turning her head to face him. Then she heard his giggle.

“Had to play the part wifey.” She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t force the smile on her face to go away. They both stood up; Celeste picked up her phone to see if she had any text updates from Macie or hell Jacob. But alas, none, which may be contributed to the no signal that she was receiving.

“Where are you going?” Ashton had been walking towards the front of the bus, sliding on a beanie and a jacket from near his bunk.

“The bus stopped. Better take the chance to see the snow,” he said, grinning. Celeste didn’t answer him, but she did grab her coat and bobble hat, following him out the bus.

Once Celeste reached outside, it felt like a whole new world. They were out in the countryside, the ground stretching for miles and miles, all covered in white powdery snow. The sun graciously peeked out from the clouds, and there was a light breeze to bring more snowflakes down.

“Wow,” she breathed.

“It truly is something.” She glanced at Ashton, looking at the winter wonderland ahead of them with the same awe that she had (and still has) moments ago.

“Why did we stop?” she turned to see Danny hop out of the bus, shutting the door behind them.

“Traffic was backed up on the highway for another couple hours, putting us to arrive at the venue by 8 or so,” he replied. Celeste frowned, but nodded for him to continue.

“So I made the executive decision to take the country back roads for a shortcut, which was going rather well for the past hour until we ran out of gas. And the brakes seem to be freezing up a little. It was safest to stop.”

“Did you call management to let them know? And we need to call a tow truck or something the way-”

“Don’t worry about it Celeste, I got it covered. You just relax with the boys in this weather for once,” he said, with a knowing look.

“Are you sure Danny, cause I should technically be doing that since it’s in my job description an-”

“Celeste,” Ashton said, holding her shoulders with his hazel eyes staring into hers, “calm down. Danny’s got it.” She sighed, but nodded while watching Danny walk to the front of the bus, making some phone calls.

“Plus, you need the break. You’ve been running yourself ragged since the tour started.” She focused back on Ashton, who was now walking further into the snow, ignoring that the white powder was coating his dark jeans the further he walked.

“Fine,” she huffed.

“Yay! Now let’s make snow angels!” The three other boys were ahead of them, flopped in the snow in the empty pasture, tens of feet ahead of them.

“Are you nine?” Celeste said, staring at him.

“Maybe so, but c’mon!” And so she did, letting Ashton pull her along to the other boys and wiggle in the snow to make extremely tall snow angels.

And she secretly loved it.

© 2019 pagesuponstpages All Rights Reserved

[musicalmukebox]

Let’s Get (Back) Together | l.h. (6)

Ctto of the gifs used!

AU: Parent Trap Dad!Luke

Summary: A strong love which led to a strong marriage and twin daughters. Yet in the end, it didn’t turn out so well. You strongly refuse to encounter him ever again. But what happens when both of you coincidentally send your twin daughters to the same summer camp in Florida after 10 years?

Word Count: 3.8k

Warnings: swearing, mention of sex, hate comments 

A/N: Ahh, this was really hits home to write. Enjoy! 

I don’t own Parent Trap and its ideas. It’s only used as inspiration.

1 / 2A / 2B / 2C / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15

Feedback/Questions/Others? Here.

-

2020, New York

“(Y/N) (Y/L/N): From Music Video Extra to Real Life Girlfriend Real Quick”

“More than 5 seconds: Luke Hemmings shows off new girlfriend in santa monica”

“(Y/N) (Y/L/N): To Amuse or Use Luke Hemmings?”

Those were some of the many headlines of different articles talking about your relationship with Luke. Yes, they were showing negativity, and they hurt you because they weren’t at all true. Why not speak up, right? But you chose not to. You shielded your actual feelings because you didn’t want to stress anyone else out, especially Luke. Having him as a boyfriend has its cons, commonly with the media and paparazzi. You knew that this was bound to happen, so you just braved the media with a fake smile. 

One cold afternoon, you and Luke decided to act touristy in New York before he has a show that same night, alongside the boys and Eleanor. You needed a getaway from Los Angeles, and you thanked the heavens that you had a 2 week break before you go back. Much to your luck, that day was a very happy one. Eating pizza in different pizza places with the boys, taking a lot of photos courtesy of Eleanor and strolling around Times Square and Central Park with all good vibes?

Shit, things were going right for once.

When you guys were headed to enter at the back exit of the venue, the boys decided to meet some fans and take some pictures with them too first. For sure, Eleanor was down since she’s in charge of making the tour videos. You joined it because why the heck not? You want to see your boyfriend happy and maybe help take pictures of him and the fans anyways. 

Walking towards the long lines, fans were instantly screaming excitedly, their idols right within their vicinity. Just thinking about how hardworking the boys have been with their music and their fans loving it so much because it’s relatable and well-written warms your heart so much. Not just that, the fans were so orderly; no mobbing nor grabbing of the boys’ hair or clothing while they await their turns. Seeing their genuine smiles is a quick happy pill. 

“(Y/N), can you take our photo?” Luke handed you a fan’s phone for you to capture their cute moment, which was the girl was being piggybacked by Luke. As you did such, Luke gave you a hug before you handed him back the phone.

“Thanks, babe. You’re the best!” He thanked, kissing your temple and getting aww’s from the fans. 

“(Y/N)! (Y/N)!” You are called out by a group of different fans who just finished taking their photos by the boys, which naturally urged you to approach them. They didn’t expect that you’d respond, making them squeal.

“Hi girls! How are you doing?” You greeted. 

“We’re doing great! Super excited for the show later!” One girl shared.

“Same! I’ve been waiting for this day for 2 months.

“Hyped and ready to cry.” 

That last response made you laugh. You asked other questions while those fans did the same with you. Pretty much, it was a back and forth interview. Your responses are in bold.

“Are you all from New York?” 

“Born and raised.”

“I’m studying here, but originally from Maine.”

“Any of you bring posters or anything else?”

“I have a mini poster that says “let’s take shots!” in all caps!”

“I have two roses, in case the other one gets lost.”

“What songs are you ready to hear live?”

“Valentine! This is my first 5SOS concert, and I really love that song.”

“Lie to Me. Gives so much goosebumps.”

“Vapor. Pretty old but it’s really beautiful to listen.”

 Switch sides. 

“What’s Luke like when you’re hanging out alone in his house?”

“Always chill, really. To be honest, he’s into cuddles. But one main thing that makes me come back more is Petunia, so shh.” You joked, putting your pointer finger against your lips.

“What’s your most favorite thing about Luke?”

“He makes me laugh over small things, like sending me random boomerangs when I’m in class.”

 “How about your least favorite?”

“One would be when I’m studying, he tries to distract me a whole lot with almost anything his mind can think. Another is hoarding my instant ramen noodles.”

 “How did you guys confess your feelings?” 

“New Years Eve. We were really drunk and just admitted it. You now what they say, drunk words are sober thoughts.” You half-lied.

 “So is the sex great?” One fan fired at you, getting everyone’s attention. You were put on the spot, getting giggly and slightly pressured.

“Best sex ever.” You whispered away, getting them to squeal more. Another fan asked you if she could have a selfie with you, which you happily accepted and then smiled at the camera.

 “Thanks a bunch, (Y/N). Let me just say this, you are so talented and screw the haters! I can’t wait what you’ll do next.” She compliments, your heart feeling warm once more as you gave her a hug as a sign of thankfulness. “Thank you, love. I appreciate it very much.” 

 “(Y/N) (Y/L/N) is a user!” You suddenly heard someone shout. 

“(Y/N), you can fuck off!”

“(Y/N), leave Luke alone! You don’t deserve him!” 

 These phrases were attacks on you, and you froze in fright and anger. You turn to where those fans were and bound to speak your mind, but was stopped by Eleanor, whose hand gripped on your arm.

“Not worth it, (Y/N). Now come on, the boys are entering inside and we should too.” Following orders, you bid goodbye to the fans and finally entered the venue, which was a lot warmer than the chilly weather outside.

-

“Thinking 'bout you lots lately, have you been eating breakfast alone like me?”

The show was in full swing. The lighting was on point, good vibes and music too. You were at the balcony area, jamming to Moving Along and swaying your hips alongside Eleanor, who just finished filming excerpts for the video. As the boys played the last chords of the song, the next part would be talking of some sort, which could be a giving thanks one or a roasting session, pretty much anything.

“New York, how are you feeling?!” Luke hyped, the screams of the fans getting louder. 

“You guys have been awesome so far, and wow, I love my job so much!” 

“God, Luke, how many times have you said that on this tour?” Calum asks humorously.

“Too much! But shit, thanks for all the support you’ve given Youngblood!” He raised his mic stand, having some lights flash behind him as he did. As he put the stand down, he looked over at Michael, about to speak again but chiller.

“Let’s get a bit serious for a moment, guys. Hey, Michael. I have a question for you.”

“What’s on your mind, Luke?”

“So, you and Crystal are going 4 years strong now, right?” Luke starts, getting some cheers from the audience.

“Yup, 4 happy years yeah!” More cheers erupted.

“Nice one, buddy! Moving on, did you or Crystal get any hate about that? I’m pretty curious.” Yup, Luke just did that. 

“We did, but it was mostly on her. It made me sad when she’s sad whenever she comes across tweets towards her. There have been times where she was crying to me because it got too much.” Michael’s happy expression turned sour. 

“Sending hate is really low of someone, honestly. When you support the band, you shouldn’t judge whoever they want to date.” Ashton speaks up.

“I have another thing I want to say if you guys don’t mind. So awhile ago, I was taking pictures with a bunch of you guys, then I overheard some fans bashing on my girlfriend. That’s really uncool and hurts a lot to hear.” Luke confronts, disappointed. The crowd grew silent, so intensely it could be cut with as a knife.

“I heard the same with Eleanor actually. Really, guys? How would you feel if you hear when someone says bad things to your friends or family when you’re around?” Calum adds, looking down at his shoes afterwards and adjusting his bass guitar strings.

“To be honest, it’s better to send positivity than negativity, it’s what we need today. If you don’t like them, fine go ahead. Just don’t be vocal about it especially online because we see everything. And to (Y/N), I know it’s a pretty public way to proclaim it, but I truly love you.” Your heart jumped. This is the first time he’s said the big “L” word towards you, full-heartedly and romantically. Not counting the platonic ones from when you were still just friends.

“Aww, too much feels tonight! Fuck hate, love love love! Now, the next song is Talk Fast! Let’s go!” Ashton beamed before hitting the first beats of the song on his drum kit.  You continued to watch Luke from above, his purple glittery eyeshadow sparkling in the light and gripping on the microphone as he sings those lyrics. He noticed, giving you a cheeky wink which made you shake your head in flattery and the crowd go wild again.

-

“Nice show, fellas!” You hear some crew members say to the boys from outside. They just finished, and you and Eleanor were by the dressing room, opening up the bottle of Jack Daniels and a liter bottle of rootbeer. Trust me, this is good shit. Mixing the concoction on a pitcher, you could hear the door creak open, signaling you that the boys are going inside. Turning around, you see 4 sweaty boys, still on a high after performing and holding red cups already.

“Fuck, never gets old!” Michael cheers, lying down on the couch. “What you making over there, babe?” Calum approaches Eleanor from behind, hugging her waist and nuzzling his head on her shoulder. 

“Rootbeer and Jack Daniels. Figured we should try something new, something that isn’t Corona.” Eleanor keeps mixing before removing the spoon to take a sip. Her face puckers up a bit.“This is good! Get your red cups, guys!” You were first in line, pouring the mix on your cup, sipping it. It was strong but sweet.

“I love it!” You continued drinking, but as you stopped, your eyes focused on Luke, sitting on the couch and scrolling through phone. Making your way to him, you sat beside him, putting your head on his shoulder. “Whatcha looking at?” 

“Twitter. A lot of fans took videos of that band speech awhile ago, and it’s getting popular.” He answered in monotone, eyes still glued on his phone. In order to get his full attention, you stood up and got his phone from his grasp

“What the fuck, babe?” He complained, arms crossed before standing up. You forgot for a second that he was really tall, urging your head to tilt upwards.

“Can we talk outside first, Luke?” You bluntly ask. When he nods, you discreetly exited the room, but you hear someone say “oh shit” before you close the door. Walking to find a hidden spot where no one is around quietly, Luke momentarily felt he was in trouble. Was it because he confronted his fans like that or suddenly putting you on the spot with the big “L”? Finally, you found a spot which was near an exit, then Luke broke the silence, nervous.

“Okay, I don’t know for sure what I did to make you annoyed or whatever, so please te-“ You cut him off by softly planting your lips on his, tiptoeing to reach his height. Well, slightly.

One hand was on his shoulder and the other was on his cheek. His hand went under your shirt, feeling his fingers linger on my skin. His vacant hand went to your waist. He wanted more by tugging on your shirt, but you let go before he did could remove it, your forehead resting on his so you could breathe for a bit. His blue eyes opened slowly to yours eyes, giving him a loving smile. 

“Luke, I love you so much too.” Pretty cheesy you thought, but it made the butterflies in your stomach go away. He was everything you wanted in this life. Luke was on cloud nine, lifting you up, your legs entangled on his waist and his hands under your thighs for support.

“You are worth more that the haters, alright? They’ll go through me if they attack again.”

“You know I can defend myself, right?” You played.

“But let me help you, it helps me with my self-esteem.” He wiggled his eyebrows. 

“Whatever, babe. Shut up and kiss me again.” He did as told, his lips crashing your alcohol dripped lips. Tilting your head a bit, his mouth opened up a bit so you could get more access. He bit your lower lip in between, making you moan.

“That never gets old.” He says in between kissing. 

“That’s what makes me love you more.”

-

2034, Los Angeles

“Oh yay! Thank you very much, goodbye.” You hung up the phone call. It was the designer in charge of finalizing the details on your gown that will be worn in your Australian premiere of Take Me or Leave Me.

As you did such, Stella walks in the room, holding on her fuzzy bunny Kira. You couldn’t decipher what she was feeling as she kept a straight face, but you can see her sleepy eyes blinking slowly.

“Morning, bub. Come stay in bed with me, let’s have breakfast in bed.” You insisted, patting the vacant side of your bed. She comes closer and tugged on the bedsheets, entering herself inside but still with a frown.

“How was your day yesterday with Mark? He told you that you watched numerous films and ate a lot pizza.”

“I did, and it was really fun. How was last night for you?”

“Really fun. Date nights with uncle Tim are filled with jokes, awkwardness and really good food.” She smiles, then frowns again.

“Are you okay, Stella? You’ve been frowning since you lied in bed with me.”

“Well, I need to meet up someone tomorrow, but I don’t know what to do next.” She squirms, instantly hid herself in the blankets.

“Stella, come on, talk to me.” You try to pull down the sheets, but Stella’s grip was stronger.

“Stella! I need to meet up with Stella. She’ll be here tomorrow.”

“O-kay, but where could she be right now?” You squint your brows at her nonsense.

“Sydney, Australia with her dad Luke Hemmings.” You froze. Your grip of the blanket softened, lifting it.

“You’re not Stella?” You were in disbelief, thinking this is a nightmare and very eager to wake up. You pinched your side, wincing. Sadly, you’re awake.

“Hello, mum.” Rebecca crawled out from the covers, hearing the strong Australian accent just like his.

“Oh my god, you’re Rebecca?” She nods slowly. You put your hand on your mouth, trying to comprehend the situation.

“Stella and I, we switched places. She wanted to see dad and I wanted to see you. I’ve been waiting for this moment to happen, and I wanted you to love me as me, not as Stella.” Rebecca explained in full in order for you to catch on why she is here. You wanted to cry, but first you gave her a heartfelt hug. “Oh poppet, I have loved you all this time. I missed you.”

“You called me poppet. Dad still calls me that.”

“That was always our nickname for you because you laughed at the sound of Stella’s mouth bubbles when they pop a lot, which is also why we called Stella bub.”

“I missed you so much too, mum.” As you were a having a moment, it was cut as you hear Mark crying a bit as he held your breakfast tray. “I’m so sorry, miss. This just made me happy.” He put it down and exits quietly, also closing the door. “So what happens now? Will you switch us back?” Her blue eyes she inherited from her father looked nervous.

“Well, technically, you belong with your dad and Stella belongs with me.”

“Wow. This set-up is such a bummer, mom.”

“I know, poppet. I’m sorry that’s what we planned.” You remained silent, letting some tears out.

“They’ll be in Los Angeles tomorrow. Dad has a few shows here, working in the studio all week with the band and attending the VMAs too. Don’t you get invited to go to the VMAs every year?”

“I do, but I stopped because-”

“Dad was there.” She finishes your sentence, disheartened.

“Yes.” You frowned at the fact. Just imagine you going right after that divorce and the years after, it would cause tension and a topic different media outlets would use to their advantage. Just no.

“Well then. You better tell Gina that you’re going and get the show on the road!” Stella cheers, getting up from the bed and raising her arms in celebration. “Yeah, let’s get it.” You say, anxiously dreading with what’s to come.

-

“I fucking can’t with this.” You kept going in and out of your walk-in closet, breathing out the smoke from your e-cigarette which you haven’t used since the divorce out of stress. Mark was also there, holding some outfit choices you picked earlier. Gina just arrived 10 minutes, being oriented by Mark that you know about the situation. She was also in the room, contacting the organizers of the VMAs of the last minute changes to your acceptance of invitation and arrival.

“I haven’t seen Luke Hemmings in 10 years, although hearing about him and his personal and band life wasn’t easy to swerve away. And to see him tomorrow already? I’m not mature enough for this!” You ranted, brushing away some hair because it was messed up. Pacing the room back in fort, breathing through the e-cigarette and letting out more smoke, you spoke up again.

“If he didn’t drive me crazy and angry all the time, we would still be married.” You made your way to Mark, comparing out the different outfits. “Gina, dear, which do you like better?”

Gina, who just finished texting the final details, looked up from her phone and examined closely what you chose. One outfit was a red plunging neckline, spaghetti strap dress with a slit up until your whole leg with red ensembles, and the other was a black dress also with a plunging neckline with a much shorter slit on the side with black heels.

“Nice to see you you like plunging necklines.” She chuckles. “The red one. You can wear the black one in the afterparty.”

“Afterparty? I don’t think it’s appropriate since Rebecca’s with me.” You implied. “Well, the organizers insist you’d come! It’s been a long time they said, and they would want you to have a comeback. Besides, they want to meet Rebecca too.” You pondered for a minute. You were just concerned on how Rebecca would react to the paparazzi in LA, the flashing lights on her. But then again, she was probably used to it with having Luke as her father in the first place. “Okay, I’ll go. In one condition.”

“What is it, miss?”

“Well firstly, Gina, I have known you for all these years and I don’t know what I’d do without you getting through my hectic schedule and career, so I was wondering if -”

“I’d go with you to both the events, take care of her and make things easier?” She said the words straight out of your mouth. You gripped her shoulders, nuzzling your head.

“Oh would you please! Thank you so much, and you don’t have to go as my assistant, just as a close family friend, which is a fact too.”

“No worries, miss! And as a friend, when I am seeing my ex after 10 years and had your looks,” Her hands this time gripped on your shoulders and brought you to the vanity mirror and chair, sitting you down. She opens one drawer and brings out a silver choker and assorted rings, then puts some hair on one side. “I would have this getup on. You will slay it! Whatcha think, Mark?”

“You’re gonna kill it, and him too!” He exclaimed.

As this occurred, Rebecca was behind the door, giggling at your frantic self. She liked that you really wanted to make a bold entrance to your crazy man of an ex-husband and to the media as well. Entering the room, you were lying on the bed, still vaping out smoke.

“Mom, stop that! It’s not healthy!” She came to your side, grabbing the e-cigarette, giving it to Mark. “Hey, I need it!”

“Hide this wherever, I don’t want her to die just yet.”

“No problem, bub.” Mark leaves the room, sneakily smoking a bit of it. Luckily, you didn’t see it because you would grow even madder. “That thing costs a lot, you know?” You told the blonde girl, now drinking out of your flask, tasting the familiar taste of vodka. “I know, aunt Eleanor has one just like it.” She answers, also saying a name you haven’t heard in so long.

“Aunt Eleanor? How is she?” You chimed in, focused the whereabouts and state of your once close friend in your twenties. It’s been ages since you’ve heard about her, the last being when you told her about the finalization of the divorce.

“Great, she and uncle Calum are great and also happy. You know her?”

“She was one of my closest friends, who is your godmother. Dad didn’t tell you, huh?” She shakes her head. “Well, I miss her very much. She was one of the people I cut off ties with because I was too hurt after I separated with your dad.”

“That’s awful! You should reconnect when they come here tomorrow or something when you talk to dad.” Rebecca reacted. You regret cutting off ties, but talking to her will remind her of Luke because it was the tour life that bonded you with her a lot and it will be so painful. You got to do what you have to do in order to be sane once more.

“Speaking of your dad, does he know about the switch-up?” You question, sitting up from your previous position in order to look at her properly. “Yes, Stella just messaged me a while ago that she told dad.” She makes up, trying to comfort you so you wouldn’t worry anymore. But you weren’t aware of such.

“Yikes, I’m going to have to mentally prepare for that.” You say, putting your palm on your face. But from your peripheral view, you watched how Rebecca pouted, full of sadness and fright. This isn’t normal for an 11 year old to handle, and this is a nightmare as well for you to deal with an ex-husband when things didn’t work out like it used to.

“Oh poppet, your dad and I will work this out, okay? I got this under control.” You reassured her, her saddened eyes brightened, feeling hopeful as she hugs you, falling on your back. You tried not to cry or tear up yet despite the temptation.

Truly, the guilt pangs your heart for leaving but glad that you are reunited. How dearly you missed this girl.

[music-my-angel]

An issue of jealousy

Prompt - Hey my birthday is on Oct 31 😋 and I was wondering if you could do a 5sos one? Where all the boys hates on Luke because he gets all the attention and they just say mean things about him and then Luke runs away and after that the boys feels a lot of guilt especially Michael cuz he’s Luke’s boyfriend (muke 💕) and then they boys go out and search for him and saw him in an alley being ganged up by a bunch of gangsters and they save him and all fluff esp. with Mikey ❤️

 ------

Lately, Luke noticed how the boys had started changing. Their behavior had changed but what was most surprising was that their behavior had actually only changed towards Luke. They started being rude and mean to Luke. And all this was because they felt that Luke was getting more attention than them. Suddenly it wasn’t any more about the band, it had become an issue of jealousy; a jealousy towards Luke that had his own bandmates start hating him. But the thing that hurt Luke the most was seeing the doubts in his boyfriend, Michael’s, eyes.

------

When the 5sos band was formed, the boys had agreed on one thing that it didn’t matter who was the most famous of all of them, all what mattered was the band. But now that the attention had suddenly turned to Luke, they had all gotten jealous.

If they had thought carefully, they would have realized that it was just a phase. For a certain period of time, fans turn to gravitate towards one band member and after a certain time, they find the other one cuter. It was especially the case with the younger fans.

But right now, watching Luke get all the attention, especially from the female fans had his bandmates and his boyfriend all a bit on the edge.

------

Luke had tried to clear out this jealousy issue but it turned out really bad.

“Guys, it’s not that I asked the girls to make me their favorite” Luke chuckled, intending to lighten the mood with a joke. But this did not go down well.

“You just had to rub it in our faces, huh?” Calum snorted.

Luke raised an eyebrow at Calum’s tone but chose not to say anything and turned to his boyfriend instead.

“You jealous too babe?” Luke sighed.

“You could at least act a little considerate, you know. It feels like you’re enjoying all this” Michael huffed.

“Of course, he is enjoying it. Why wouldn’t he? He’s got the girls all over him wherever he goes! Tell you what Mikey, he is very much enjoying it” Ashton accused the boy.

“Ashton” Luke exclaimed.

“Ashy’s right. You don’t care about the band. You care only about yourself” Calum added.

Luke turned to Michael but his boyfriend didn’t look like he’d side by him.

Hurt, Luke left from there, silently.

------

After Luke had ran away, the boys started feeling guilty.

“It’s not really his fault you know. I know he really isn’t enjoying all the attention on him” Michael said.

“We shouldn’t have spoken to him like that” Calum sighed.

“I’m his boyfriend man. I should have known better…” Michael trailed off.

“It won’t do us any good sitting here and blaming ourselves. Let’s go find Luke” Ashton suggested.

The boys nodded hurrying out but they never imagined how and where they were going to find Luke.

------

Luke didn’t go too far from their apartment. He had been walking away from the house, in tears, when a few gangsters approached him.

“Hey, hand over the money kid” One of the guys asked, right in his face.

“Don’t try to act smart” the other guy said as they dragged Luke in an alley.

“I don’t have money on me…” Luke trailed off, trying to struggle.

There were four men in total. While two of them were trying to look into his pockets and hold him back, one was keeping watch on anybody approaching them and the other was keeping an eye on Luke.

“He’s got a pretty face” the creepy looking guy mumbled as he walked over to Luke and grabbed him by the jaws.

Luke tried to block out the chuckles around him as the man in front of him started pressing against him. He could only hope that this doesn’t turn into a nightmare for him.

------

The boys had been looking for Luke around when Calum noticed a guy looking at him in a quite creepy way. He was about to move away when he spotted Luke.

“Guys! Luke!” Calum explained.

There was no stopping Michael when he saw the guy about to molest Luke. He charged over, pulling and pushing the gangsters around to get to the man who dared to lay a hand over his boyfriend.

As soon as he saw Michael, Luke let out a sob of relief.

Ashton had to pull Michael off the guy as the gangsters scrambled away while Calum went to Luke. Once his anger had calmed down slightly, Michael looked over at Luke.

“Lukey” Michael sighed as he pulled the boy in a hug.

“I was so scared” Luke admitted, wrapping his own arms around the man.

“I know. I’m so sorry. I’m here now” Michael mumbled over and over again.

A proper apology would have to wait. Right now, they were happy to have intervened before something terrible could have happened to Luke.

------

Once they got back home, Michael was yet to let go of Luke. He had the boy in his arms, pressed to his side.

“Luke, I’m so sorry man. I’m your boyfriend, I should have sided by you. I should have understood you” Michael sighed.

“This whole thing shouldn’t have happened. I guess we got jealous of you” Calum admitted.

“And there is no place for jealousy in a band of brothers. We’re so sorry brother” Ashton apologized.

“It’s okay. I’m just glad you all found me” Luke mumbled.

They all sighed at how easily Luke was ready to put these things behind them.

But that’s what brothers do, right?

------

It was very easy to get jealous of your bandmate but it was never healthy for the ban. In order for the band to be successful, they have to let go of the jealousy thing. And especially when it was a band of brothers, you just cannot be jealous of your brother. Whereas Michael, he learnt to be more trustful of his boyfriend in his times of needs.

------

A/N

Hope you all like it.

[cashtonwoah-blog]

Michael Clifford !SMUT

Note: This our first smut with 5sos hope you enjoy.

Warning: SMUT, swearing, !Daddy Kink, rough sex.

Based on Milk and Honey poem by Rupi Kaur.

You talk to much

He whispers into my ear

I can think of better ways to use that mouth

My producer Colin handed me my radio set list for today’s show, my eyes scanned the sheet of paper looking for my time slot.

________________________________________________________________

Y/N          4pm-4:30pm         Afternoons with Y/N            5 Seconds of Summer

________________________________________________________________

“Fucksake!” I cussed, seeing the the band’s name. “Another boyband?” I asked, looking at Colin for a response. 

He chuckled at my misery. “Their new album isn’t that bad, Y/N” He smiled, reassuring me.

“Okay, but if they’re as dull as Impulse you owe my a drink” i sighed, trying to forget the awful interview with the preteen boyband.

“Deal” Colin laughed, shaking my hand.

“Also, don’t ask them about London” Colin warned me.

“Okay boss” 

*******************************************************************************************

“Joining us today is 5 Seconds of Summer!” I falsely cheered enthusiastically clapping into the microphone.

The band mimicked my actions clapping into the microphone too, causing me to roll my eyes. Sheep, I thought.

I gazed down at questions Collin had prepped for my interview. I groaned at the first question.

“How are you finding Paris so far?” I asked, focusing my attention on the curly haired blonde boy.

He smiled. “We love being here, our french fans are amazing, they’re so dedicated, they always wait outside our hotel” .

I plastered a fake smile on my face and turned to the dark haired boy know for his quietness. “Are you happy Calum, that the album finally out?” I asked, using Colin’s questions once again.

“Yeah, We put so much hard work into it and we’re excited for people to finally hear it” Calum explained, excitedly.

“You guys are nominated for a billboard award, correct?” I asked, unsure if I read my notes right to the guy with the quiff.

“Yes! We are very honoured to have been nominated for such a cool award” Ashton explained “I was talking to the boys earlier and I was saying how the award could do great things for our new sound” Ashton continued.

I cast my eyes over to the blonde hair boy sitting in the back, who was being eerily quiet. I noticed that he had been almost mute throughout the whole interview.

I decided to go against Colin’s request and ask about the elephant in the room.

“Soo Michael do I dare ask about pills?” 

Michael paused, finally becoming alert in this interview. He looked at his band mates, before looking at his management team for support. He thought this questioned had been banned.

“I’m sorry?” he asked, squinting his eyes confusedly.

“You were caught in Nightclub in London with possession of class B illegal substance, is that not correct?” I probed, hoping to get a reaction out of the band mate.

Before he could answer I heard a knock at the glass window beside me and turn to witness an angry looking Colin mouthing “what the fuck?!”

Michael sighed in frustration, sending me a look of disgust. “Excuse me,what are you suggesting?!” He asked in questionable tone.

“I’m not suggestion anything, it’s been all over the news, i’m just stating facts. Were you not caught in a nightclub with an illegal substance?” I could hear myself raising my voice.

He looked at his management team once again.”I thought they weren’t allowed to ask this question?” Michael asked,before turning to face me. “I’ve already released a public statement about this, and I don’t wish to comment on this any further” he said sternly. 

“I understand that you-” I said, before being interrupted.

“NO, you don’t understand. All you’re after is a headline” he said basically shouting. I rolled my eyes at this accusation.

“All i’m trying to do is find out the truth Michael, that’s all that the fans want after all”.

“Don’t you dare bring the fans into this, it’s got nothing to do with them” he hissed.

“Well as a fact it does Michael, as you were apparently spotted with a fan when the incident took pla-”

Suddenly, Michael stormed out of the interview room, leaving his fellow band mates shocked. I paused for a second, trying to fully comprehend what had just happened. I thought I could at least get a few more probing questions in. I then continued with my questions.

“So anyway, are you missing home?”

                                                ***************************

“Are you fucking kidding, Y/N?!” Colin shouted as he dragged me into his office. “You’ve gotta start listening to me and following my questions that i’ve prepared for you specially!”. I groaned. 

“I’m sorry, but the interview was dreadful and was trying to perk it up and any way, shape or form”.

“You have to apologise to them. Their management is threatening to not ever use us for press release”. 

I walked over to the the break room, finding the three band mates, with Michael being absent. Calum was eating a Chrunchie bar, whilst Luke was strumming on his guitar. Ashton was the first one to notice me walk in. 

“Hey guys, I just wanted to apologise for how I came across earlier in the interview.” I said.

“It’s not us you should be apologising to” Luke stated. 

I sighed, wondering where the blonde hair boy had got to. I wandered around the canteen area, unable to find him. I decided to walk to the dressing room, when suddenly I was pulled tightly by my arm into a spare cupboard.

“You got me fucked, thinking that you could get away with what you said in there?” Michael growled in my ear, not releasing the tight grip he had on my forearm. 

My lip quivered. “I-i’m sor-sorry” I whispered.

“You’re sor-sorry?” he mocked me. “Well that’s not good enough”. He let go of my forearm, but I could still feel the weight of his fingers pressed against my skin. He pushed me roughly, my body smacking against the wall. 

“I’ve never dealt with such a rude bitch before” he spat at me. I could feel the level of anger in his voice, as his warm breath slapped me in the face. I could feel myself getting aroused. 

“Wha-what do you wan-want me to do?”I shuddered.  Michael brushed my hair away as he nibbled on my ear. “I think baby girl needs to be punished” His husky voice sent shivers down my spine.

He lifted up my black skirt spanking me, the loud smack echoing across cupboard. He gripped my cheeks tightly spreading them apart, before manoeuvring his hand south to trace my thong. My breathing hitch, unsure of what he was going to do next.

“You okay?” He whispered. I froze still stunned from his previous touch.

“I asked you a questioned” Michael spat, spanking once again. “Answer” Spank.

“The”  He spank me once more. “question” spank.

My cheeks were bright pink from his rough grip. “Yesss” I uttered, my body feeling weak as I wrapped my arms around his shoulders embracing him.

Michael’s finger hooked my thong sliding it aside as his index finger faintly teased me. “Yes what?” He asked, his finger gently dancing along my entrance.

My eyes widen confused by the question. “Yes??” Michael repeated, but before I had time to answer his finger plunged inside of me.

“Uhh” I moaned, his action taking me off guard and leaving my legs trembling. “Keep going” I ordered.

 His finger twitched inside me.“Don’t tell me what to do baby girl” He spat. “and I think you mean Daddy” He stated, before swiftly removing his finger causing me to groan. “Who am I?” He ordered.

“D-D-Daddy” I stuttered.  Michael twisted me around flattening my chest against the wall. He grabbed my arm pushing it against my back as if he was arresting me. My panties were stripped from my body leaving me exposed as he hammered his throbbing cock inside me. “Did you hear me?” He asked as he pushed into me forcefully.

“Yes” I whimpered.

“Yes what?!” He asked as his cock roughly forced its way into me.

“Yes Daddy” My lip quivered, as he gripped my hair and pushed my head against the wall.

Michael thrust into me a few more times before he removed himself and looked at me. “On your knees, now” he demanded. 

“Yes Daddy” I smiled, happily getting on my knees and pleasing him. I took his cock in my hands, playing with his member. He groaned as I licked the tip. I then put his whole cock inside my mouth, moving my head in circles. I begin my movements slow to tease him, before then bobbing my head up and down, fastening my pace. I could feel Michael twitch in my mouth, before feeling him fill my mouth with his come. 

‘That was fast’ I commented, grinning at him still on my knees. 

“Shut up Y/N” he smirked, picking me up. He then placed me onto a pile of boxes in the corner of the room. He quickly removed my top and bra, before my skirt. He threw them on the floor, as I helped undress him. Without warning, he started to eat me out, diving his snake-like tongue into me. I moaned, grabbing hold of his hair and shoving him deeper. I could feel my insides erupting, I wasn’t going to last much longer.

“Dad-daddy” I whimpered.

“Yes baby girl?” he replied. 

“I’m gon-gonna come”.

“Come for me baby”. 

After Michael said those words, I hit my climax, and it was the wildest and longest climax i’d ever had. I laid on the boxes for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what had just happened. 

“Next time, I suggest you stick to the script” Michael said, before putting on his clothes and exiting the room, leaving me naked. I quickly put on my clothes and exited the cupboard. I walked back up to the studio and walked past a happy looking Colin. 

“Thank you for apologising to Michael, I just spoke to him and said you were very apologetic, 5SOS have agreed to do more interviews with us for the future" Colin said, walking off. 

I smiled, whilst struggling to walk. Boy he had fucked me hard. 

“So I don’t owe you that drink Y/N?” Colin shouted back to you, giving you a cheeky smirk. Your eyes became wide as he let out a chuckle, walking off. 

‘Well fuck me” I whispered to myself.  

Masterlist

[druigseurydice]

Soulmate!Ashton au

Summary: When Ashton's soulmate tattoo shows up on his arm, he wonders for weeks when he'll meet her, and he finds out in a....unique way. A/N: So this is my first time ever posting my writing on tumblr, so feedback would be appreciated! Sorry that it's kinda long but I hope you guys like it! ************** Ashton traced the words on his arm again for the millionth time in the past 3 weeks. "You and me up against the great unknown." The words were familiar to him, of course. They were from a song the band had released not too long ago with One OK Rock, Take What You Want. These words were the first words his soulmate would say to him when they finally met. It's said that the words appear on some part of your body when you're going to meet your soulmate soon, but Ashton had a hard time believing he'd find her on tour. They met millions of people on tour, how would he know when he found the right one? What if he walked past her without speaking to her, letting her slip away? He'd been worrying since the words had shown up on his forearm 3 weeks ago and the rest of the boys could tell. Ashton thought they were lucky, none of them had their Soul Tattoos yet, so it looked like they'd have a while before having to think about it. Why'd he have to get the words this early in life? Why couldn't it wait until the band took a break? After another week of thinking and obsessing over the words, the worry became something he didn't think about as often. It was still there, just less prominent once the tour started. He started to worry less and think more about what she's like. Where is she from? Would he meet her at one of their shows, or would he find her while the band was exploring a city on a day off? He figured she was a fan, considering the first thing she would say to him would be lyrics from a song his band was featured in. Almost exactly a month after the words appeared, a month of creating questions in his mind, he finally got some answers. He was relaxing in his bunk on the tour bus, watching some covers of the band's songs on YouTube. He did this every now and then, when he had the time. He loved watching how talented some of the fans were and how much of an impact their music had. After watching a few, he came across one he hadn't seen before. The title of the video was simply "Take What You Want- One OK Rock ft. 5SOS Cover." He clicked on the video since this song didn't have many covers and found that it was a band covering the song, not just one person. As he listened, he noted that they were pretty good, especially the lead singer. She was the only girl in the band and her voice was amazing, almost mesmerizing. He paused the video after the first chorus and walked to the back of the bus where the rest of the boys were. "Guys, I found a cover of Take What You Want and it's really good," Ashton announced, making the other boys pause the FIFA game they'd been playing. "Well," Michael said, "Quit standing there and show us!" He wouldn't admit it, but Michael liked watching covers of their music almost as much as Ashton did. Ashton sat on the couch between Luke and Calum, eager to show them what he'd found. He backed the video up to the beginning and hit play. The girl in the video was beautiful and had a voice to match. Ashton could tell the guys agreed with him as they grew more and more emersed in the video as it went on. It looked like someone was holding the camera and smoothly moving around the band as they played, getting different angles of all 4 of the band members, but mostly the lead girl. At first, the girl didn't look into the camera. Through the first verse and chorus, she sang to herself, squeezing her eyes closed as she sang. The boys could tell she was nervous by the way she kept her eyes shut and they each laughed a little. All but Ashton. He couldn't laugh because he was captivated by the emotion in her voice as she sang. The song was a breakup song and he could hear it in her voice that she was hurting. He didn't recognize it the first time he watched the video, but now it was evident, at least to him. It almost physically hurt him to see this girl, no more than 18, he was sure, singing with so much anger and pain. By the second verse, the part Luke had sang in the song, her eyes were open but she still hasn't looked into the camera. "Still remember a time when you felt like home. You and me up against the great unknown." As she sang that second line, the line that had originally belonged to Michael, the unknown girl stared straight into the camera for the first time and Ashton felt his world flip. He was 22 years old, and yet he had never felt an emotion as strong as the one he felt when he looked into her eyes. He let out a slight gasp, just loud enough for the other boys to hear. They all already knew about the words on the oldest boy's arm, so they could guess fairly easily what was going on. Luke, Michael, and Calum all tried to get Ashton to talk, to pull him out of the little trance he was in, but he couldn't stop watching the video. He watched every little movement the beautiful girl made, listened intently to every single word that left her mouth. The pain in her voice was more obvious now as she sang the bridge and it cut Ashton, cut him deep to hear how bad his soulmate was hurting. It was then that he decided he would find her as soon as he could and make her forget what was causing her so much pain. ************* Two months. It had been two months since he watched the video of his soulmate and he was still no closer to finding her as the day he started looking. He tried to find her online, but the cover video had nothing in the description. No social media links, no names for the band or for the individuals. Nothing. He'd been keeping his eyes open at shows, looking everywhere he could for her. He looked into the crowds as much as he could, though it was harder for him than for the rest of the boys since he was at the back of the stage. His band members tried to calm his as best as they could and he appreciated their efforts, but it wasn't really helping. "Ashton, man," Calum said one night, "you're going to find her. She's your soulmate, you'll probably bump into her when you least expect it." "Yeah, maybe you haven't found her yet because you're looking too hard." Luke agreed. Ashton has been telling them about his idea of just posting a link to the video on twitter and asking the fans if they knew who it was in the video. Surely someone would know her. But he knew the guys were right, the perfect time would come. He was just so ready to see her in person, to hold her and hear her laugh and to learn all there was to learn about her. He knew it would come soon, but he was just so damn excited. The next day, they were in the dressing room after sound check, waiting for their time to go onstage. Of course, without the music to distract him, Ashton was over thinking again. Would she be here tonight? What if one of the other guys was her favorite and she was disappointed that he was her soulmate? How much longer would he have to wait? He was getting anxious and he couldn't sit still anymore. He excused himself from the room and walked around for a while, not caring if any fans saw him. The questions swirled around in his mind until he thought he was going insane. 'This search is going to be the death of me,' he thought bitterly. He was so distracted that he didn't see the girl turning around the corner, going the opposite direction as him. He bumped into her, sending her to the ground before he could catch her. He didn't even think to apologize, more scared of the fact that he had hurt her. When he could tell she was fine, he sighed a breath of relief, offering her a hand to help her up. "I'm so sorry," she apologized as she grasped his and and pulled herself up. She looked at him for the first time and smiled widely once she realized who she had ran into. She opened her mouth to say something, but Ashton beat her to the punch. "I know you," he blurted out, that being the only thing his mind could come up with at the moment. Because it was true. He did know her, she was the girl from the YouTube video, his soulmate. As she processed the drummer's words, her eyes widened slightly in shock and looked at the inside of her wrist. There, in a small font, the words 'I know you' were looking back at her. She turned her wrist to show Ashton, a blush spreading across her cheeks as she understood what this meant. He traced the words on her wrist for a moment before smiling at her and showing her the words on his forearm. She carefully examined the words on his arm before whispering in disappointment, "Those aren't the first words I said to you though." She looked down, not wanting the gorgeous boy she'd loved forever to see her cry. He tilted her chin up anyway and smiled a breathtaking smile. "I know you. I saw your cover on YouTube, I've been trying to find you for weeks." He smiled at her brightly again, happy for two reasons. One was that he had found her. She was there, in person with him. And two, as she smiled the biggest, most adorable grin he had ever seen, he realized that she was happy about being his soulmate. All his worries disappeared as he took her face in his hands. He leaned towards her slowly, running his thumb across her lips. "What's your name?" He asked her quietly, suddenly aware that even though he knew her face, he didn't know her name. She closed her eyes, afraid that this was all a dream and that she'd wake up any second. "Y/N," she whispered, afraid to talk any louder with him being so close. "Y/N," he whispered back before closing the distance between them and kissing her softly, adoringly. He'd been waiting for this for so long. He pulled away slowly and grabbed her hand, smiling at her yet again as he lead her down the hall. "Well Y/N," he began, "since you're my soulmate, you should meet the rest of the band. You guys will be seeing a lot of each other, so you better get used to them." He turned around to wink at her, continuing to lead them to the dressing room. Butterflies errupted in her stomach when he winked at her and she knew she'd never been happier than in this moment.

[softforcal]

Omg could you please do a poly!5sos where reader gets pregnant and they tell the fans and everyone’s reaction and how they act around reader. You can choose who like got reader pregnant lol

-i just want to start by saying i’m in love with this

-so you’ve been in this poly relationship for a while

-it was a huge shock when you all came out to the fandom as being in a five person poly group? like, shook. hard core

-people were skeptic at first

-you all had to deal with your fair share of disrespectful radio hosts saying shit like “okay, but how long is it going to last? i mean don’t you all get jealous?” or “how exactly does that work? you know, in the bedroom.”

-but those questions died down after a while because the boys made it clear that they were not about to take that shit

-anyways, you’ve been together for a while and people are used to the idea

-all of you had just come back from their tour, it had been wild to say the least

-we’re talking all kinds of exhibitionism sex and quickies and all the good stuff

-condoms of course, because safety first kids

-and you’re all finally back in LA and you’re all cuddling and watching a show and there are kids in the show being so cute and kid like and you’re all kind of melting at how adorable the kids are

-”i want kids so badly.”

-everyone kinda looks at Ashton because everyone knows he wants a lot of kids but its not something you’ve ever talked about as a group before

-you turn off the tv and begin talking

-”i mean, if we even consider it, who would be the father?”

-”we could do surrogates for each of us.”

-”and then just have like four children all at once?”

-”wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

-you all talk for hours about it because there are so many possibilities and there are so many things to consider in a poly group that regular two people couples don’t have to worry about

-”i’m just worried that if we do this, the three who aren’t the dad will be kinda sad about it.”

-”have you guys heard about that thing where a woman gets pregnant by two different guys and then has twins but they have different fathers?”

-you all look it up and someone’s just like “apparently you can have triplets with three different fathers.”

-”can you imagine?”

-so much laughter

-”do we think we’re ready for a baby?”

-all of you deciding to sit and think on it for a week

-Michael and Ashton are the first to break and a day later are both just like, yeah, we want kids

-Luke and Cal agree too and then it’s up to you

-”if i get pregnant, what if we don’t do a dna test to see who the father is?”

-i mean, there would probably be signs and you all know that, but yeah, not doing a dna test is a thing. because that way, its all of theirs. its all of yours

-going out clubbing together and being a huge clump of hands and lips as you make it back to the house, all managing to get to the bedroom and Ash goes to get the condom box when you’re just like “no. no condoms.”

-wild, raunchy sex fam, i know it, you know it, we all know it

-and the thing about pregnancy is it doesn’t always happen the first time you try so lets say a full week of high frequency sex and they’re all so loving

-like, because you’re actually trying to create something, it’s this entirely different level of intimacy and love and commitment

-and they are so doting on you

-you look it up and find out you probably wont get an accurate pregnancy test until after the first day of your missed period

-waiting is so excruciating because you all want to know so badly

-”hey, should you have had your period by now?” Calum asks one day

-”i don’t know, let me check my calendar.” you do the math and you realize Calum is right, if your cycle happened exactly as it was supposed to, you should have had your period the day before

-you and Cal rushing to the store for a pregnancy test while you call all the guys to tell them that you’re grabbing it

-showing up home and the other three have raced there and are waiting for you and Cal

-”wait, i don’t really have to pee.”

-they all run to the kitchen and fill up glasses with water for you to drink

-sitting in the living room waiting for you to drink

-”okay… i think i could pee.” “then pee woman! pee!”

-they can’t all fit in your bathroom so they all pace outside while you pee on the stick

-you set it down in the sink facing up before it has a result and go back outside, “we should wait a few minutes then we can all go in together and see what it says.”

-so much pacing

-especially Ashton, he is freaking out

-and him freaking out is making Luke freak out, he’s standing too, shifting on his feet

-Michael’s knee is bobbing anxiously

-Cal has his head in his hands

-a timer goes off and you all stop and look at the bathroom

-”okay, we all go in and don’t look down, then look down together, agreed?”

-you all file in, it’s a bit squishy but Michael counts down from three and you all look down

-”holy fuck!”

-they all want to hug you but there’s no space so you all go into the living room to celebrate

-but they’re all so worried about your tummy

-the softest kisses

-Calum is the first to go down to his knees and kiss your tummy even though there is not even a slight bump at all

-”thats our baby in there.”

-”lets throw a fucking rager!” this is classic Ashton celebrating

-but they don’t want to tell anyone why they’re celebrating yet? they want to be the ones to break the news to the fandom and don’t want any possibility of it getting out

-so a bunch of people come and your guys are just so sweet to you

-Luke making you a non-alcoholic cocktail

-Michael freaking out when he sees you drinking what looks like an alcoholic beverage and you have to explain to him that its virgin, he even has a sip

-and thus begins the great non-alcoholic cocktail competition on who can make the best cocktail for you

-people at the party are so confused

-your guys are protective of shit now though

-going outside while Cal is smoking and Cal throws the cigarette away and is just like “baby, you can’t be near smoke right now!”

-as soon as Luke sees you yawn for the first time he’s just like “thats it! party is over!”

-between the four of them they somehow get everyone out in under ten minutes?

-Ashton carries you to upstairs bridal style and he sets you in bed but you’re like “guys i need a shower, and you’re all sweaty and-”

-before you can even finish Ashton is carrying you to the bathroom

-but they can’t all fit in the shower, Ashton gets in because he’s the one who’s carrying you around, and before anyone can stop him, Michael is getting in too

-they both wash you and Michael’s like “is that a bump already?” and you’re just like “yeah, that’s my non-alcoholic cocktail baby.”

-sleeping in a huge mass between all your boys but they all are somehow touching your belly

-you would think that they’d calm down with the whole ‘treating our woman like a fucking queen while pregnant’ but they dont

-finding time to sit down and call all their families

-its kinda confusing because they’re fam’s dont really want to ask the question on who is really the father

-their fams for the most part being super accepting

-(imma be real here, i dont know jack shit about their families yo)

-you’re able to hide the small beginning of the bump with loose shirts but it gets to the point where you can’t hide it

-plus, the boys are being super protective of you and everyone has noticed

-”are we going to be that couple group that does a whole pregnancy photoshoot?” you joke

-”why do you not want that?” Ashton asks, “because i can cancel the photo shoot if you don’t want it.”

-a week later you’re at a super hush hush photoshoot with a hella professional pregnancy photographer but even they have to take some time to work out how they’re going to include all four guys

-but they’re all hella photogenic? so it don’t matter

-it being actually super fun? and they’re all so giddy and excited

-spending an entire day choosing the perfect photo to use to announce the pregnancy

-spending two more days coming up with the perfect caption

-spending another whole day working up the courage for you to post it

-you all have the post open on your phones on insta just waiting to hit the post button

-finally Michael says “fuck it” and just hits all the post buttons

-fans flip their shit

-like it actually practically breaks the internet

-trending on twitter

-people posting reaction videos on youtube

-the instagram picture posted showing up in so many articles that are up within 24 hours about it

-so many congratulations from people on twitter

-an official 5sos post about welcoming a new member to the 5sos family

-they want to just stay with you all day and take care of you but they have to go to work things

-going to the first interview since the announcement and the interviewer is an asshole and asks “who is the father?” and Ashton straight up leaves and Cal has to follow to make sure he doesn’t punch a hole in a wall somewhere

-they make it very clear that shit like that won’t fly

-making a twitter post about how people shouldn’t be ignorant and that you all made a choice to not know the DNA and that no matter who’s the baby ‘actually’ is (whether that be Luke, Or Calum, Or Michael, or Ashton) that its all of their baby

-Cal getting worried about the pregnancy being so public

-like… celebrity babies aren’t respected by people and internet trolls will come after anyone, even children

-they all get kinda worried about it tbh

-Michael really pushes you all forward and focuses on the positives

-like baby names

-your group chat consisting of entirely baby names and polls on names and screenshots of name meanings

-Luke probably snuggles against your tummy the most

-but Cal loves the way his tattooed hands look on your growing tummy

-they definitely all go out on a group shop one day and come back with baby things

-Michael finding the cutest onesies that are gamer related, seriously, look them up, they’re so funny

-Luke trying to set up the baby crib but Ashton ends up doing most of the work while Calum hands him things

-you get food cravings like a motherfucker and one of them is always down to go to the store to grab you things

-usually its you, Cal and Duke going to a corner store at three in the morning

-and Luke is not allowed to cook for you

-i can see Ash especially trying to do stuff to make you laugh

-half the time he has a hoodie with a basketball in the tummy area and pretends to be pregnant with you

-so many bubble baths with your guys

-you are legit being treated like a Queen

-they look it up to see at what point research says maybe the baby can hear things

-and then they take turns playing their favourite songs they’ve made

-”can’t we play something not 5sos?” “and make the baby prefer some other musician? i think not Y/N!”

-Ashton tapping little beats onto your stomach

-the baby kicking for the first time while Ashton is drumming and he screams

-everyone comes running and when Luke says “what’s happening?” the baby moves again

-four pairs of hands on your tummy

-so much cooing

-realizing the baby likes certain voices and certain songs

-so if its moving around a lot and you can’t sleep you play a slow song like “ghost of you” and the baby settles down a bit, or when Michael sings for the baby

-ya’ll have no idea if the music or Michael actually helps but whatever

-this is such a soft concept

-the request was only for pregnancy not birth or toddler so here’s this, also i never really understood baby fever or anything but jesus fuck if this is what i’d get? i’d be down fam