Ease [Cashton/Muke]

Chapter eighty nine

Michael is lazily getting ready for his day the following morning when his phone starts ringing at 6:30am. It's Jeanette and that confuses him even more, what couldn't wait another half an hour?
"H-"
"We have a code black, or whatever colour is the worst." She rushes, clearly stressed. Michael still isn't, though Jeanette rarely got too stressed so perhaps he should be.
"Why..?" Michael asks skeptically.
"You and Luke are a Today's Mail headline."
"What?" Michael's mouth falls open and he can suddenly barely string a coherent sentence together.

"I just got a call from the publicist who was doing this morning's daily headline check and now I'm looking at it myself."
"How?" He gasps, air all of a sudden being hard to come by.
"Photos from lunch yesterday. There's you kissing, hugging; then some photos of Luke and Sierra walking. And not just photos, they've done digging on Luke. The full works." Jeanette grimaces as she speaks, not liking a single bit of this situation.
"Fuck!" Michael yells after a couple of beats of silence, to no one in particular.
"Do-"
"I'm going to call Luke and I'll be at the office as soon as I can." Michael cuts his assistant off, rushing around his apartment to get ready in a hurry. "I need a meeting with publicity ASAP and if Luke can't make it then we'll need another meeting with him, I can't believe I haven't given him PR training yet." Michael groans.

"Okay, call Luke. I'll have breakfast here ready and waiting so don't worry about that. Remember, there's nothing we can't fix." Jeanette says calmly and while normally Michael admires her level-headedness, right now it's a little infuriating. He wants to scream for about a hundred different reasons so he just hangs up the phone and does exactly that into the void of his empty apartment.

Luke normally wakes up for school at 7am but Michael's hoping that he'll hear his phone ring 25 minutes earlier and not be too mad to pick it up.
"Pick up, pick up, pick up." Michael mumbles as he paces his apartment.
"Morning." Luke eventually answers, voice groggy and thick with sleep.
"Hi baby, I'm so sorry to wake you but we have a bit of a crisis." Michael starts, trying to be gentle. Stress isn't good for the baby. He's starting to regret this phone call entirely.
"Oh?" Luke yawns, blinking his eyes rapidly and trying to wake himself up more.
"Some paparazzi got photos of us at lunch, or rather out the front of the restaurant just after lunch, and two of us are now a Today's Mail headline."
"What?" Luke says, voice almost shaking with fear and his heart beating fast.

"I don't want to stress out you and the baby but I thought it would be best if you heard it from me." Michael sighs.
"Thanks," Luke gulps, looking down to stare at his flat stomach and rub it a little.
"I'm going to have a meeting with my public relations team as soon as I can, like in the next half hour, and hopefully we'll have decided some ways to move forward. You're welcome to come to that, when's your exam today?" Michael explains.
"Not till 1:30. I was going to study this morning but I don't think I'll be able to focus. I wanna see you." Luke mumbles.
"If you're sure."
"I am. I'll be there in half an hour, tops. Your office?" Luke says decidedly.
"Yeah, I can't wait to see you baby. Don't worry, it'll all be okay." Michael tries to reassure his sub, but maybe it's more for himself.

Michael walks to work and his entire body feels tense the whole time, Luke barely fares any better from home. Thankfully his mother is going into work early, and doesn't ask too many questions, so he can get a lift into the city. Jeanette is standing in front of the lift when the doors open, the breakfast she knows that Michael needs in tow.

Whenever he's hungover or stressed, Michael's favourite breakfast is a bacon and egg roll with a thick layer of tomato relish and a fresh green juice. Considering this is possibly the most stressed he's been in his entire life, he takes the breakfast with a thankful sigh.

"Luke will be here as soon as he can so we'll start the meeting then."
"Sounds good, now I don't think there's anything you can do until then, so just eat up and try to relax. Maybe call Calum and do whatever that weird bonding thing you two do is." Jeanette shrugs as she walks out of Michael's office and back to her own.

"This is early." Calum furrows his brows when he picks up the call, he and Ashton were in the middle of breakfast but he figured that Michael wouldn't call for no reason at a time like this.
"I'm so stressed." Michael says flatly around a mouthful of food.
"Oh my god, you're having a bacon and egg roll with relish at 6:53 on a Thursday. What happened?" Calum gasps in realisation.
"The paps. The paps came. They've done digging and they know who Luke is. They know I'm dating a seventeen year old. Is this the end of my company? At least they don't know he's pregnant yet." Michael's voice is blank, like he's already lost hope completely.
"What? Who? When? Are you okay?" Calum asks rushedly, concern laced through his tone.
"Today's Mail. My publicists found it this morning. We went out for lunch yesterday and they managed to get a heap of photos. Sneaky fuckers." Michael gripes.

"When are you seeing Luke? Have you told him yet?" Calum queries, afraid to poke the bear.
"Yeah I called and woke him up just before. Feel guilty about it. But he's coming in now and then we'll have a meeting with my PR and also I'm gonna make sure he gets some PR training. Didn't have the heart to tell him that over the phone." The older informs his best friend.
"That's good, it'll be good for you to have each other," Calum pauses as he looks over at Ashton. Ashton was staring back at him, wondering what the hell was going on. "Ashton should have some too, I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner." Ashton frowns a little, significantly more disheartened about being left out of the loop now that they were talking about him. 'I'll tell you later' Calum mouths, putting Ashton at ease just a little.

"If he's free this morning he and Luke can do it together?" Michael suggests.
"I'll talk to him. Text me a time, yeah?"
"Will do. Maybe bring one of your publicists too, incase there's anything specific to you. Teamwork makes the dream work."
"That's it. Stay positive. Let me know if you need anything. This is gonna be stressful as hell but I'm here for you." Calum reassures his best friend before they end the call.

"Should I be worried Sir?" Ashton gulps once Calum throws his phone on the kitchen counter.
"No, of course not sweetheart." Calum soothes his submissive, wrapping his arms around him.
"Michael and Luke have just had a bit of public relations crisis, it's not good but we'll all find a way out of it."
"What happened?" Ashton tilts his head to the side.
"Some paparazzi got photos of them and did their research on Luke." Calum sighs regretfully.
"Oh." Ashton says quietly. "Will that happen to us?"

"That's why we talked about you." Calum replies carefully. "We don't know for certain if it will happen, or when, but I feel it would be best if you did some PR and media training."
"Some what?" Ashton furrows his eyebrows.
"It's just some tips and advice on what might happen in the future and ways we might cope with it. I promise it won't be hard or stressful. You and Luke can do it together." Calum tries to keep his voice relaxed, wanting Ashton to stay calm.
"Will you be there?"
"I- you know what?" Calum cuts himself off. "I will. I think it'd be good to do it again, and do it from the perspective of now being in a relationship."
"Okay sir." Ashton says finally, leaning in for a kiss before he stands up and they're both on their way to getting ready for work.

A/N: well wasn't that a dramatic mess but this is only just getting started, consider this Saturday's update and I'll be back with today's regular update later. It's a day late purely because I forgot last night. Love you all :)

-Grace Williams xo