Ease [Cashton/Muke]

Chapter ninety seven

"It's a nice place." Luke's father, Sally, hums as she walks around Luke and Michael's house. "And I like how close it is to us still." She smiles as an afterthought. Luke's parents had come over the day after Michael and Luke moved in, giving Sally a chance to meet Michael and both of them the chance to see the house.
"Of course, I might be excited for this baby but I still have no idea what I'm actually doing." Luke points out.
"It'll come to you, don't worry, you can start reading books and talking to people and going to prenatal classes." Sally reassures.

"Do you have any plans for what you'll do for now? You're not even showing yet." Ed queries.
"I think I'll go back and work at the coffee shop." Luke shrugs. "And no need to remind me I'm not showing, I want to be." Luke frowns.
"Before you know it the whole thing of pregnancy will be over." Ed sighs back, a silence falling over the three of them as Michael enters the room.

"You're eight weeks this week right?" Michael asks softly as he sits down next to his sub on the couch.
"Yeah, why?" Luke furrows his eyebrows.
"That means we can get the paternity test done." Michael grins.
"Oh! We can start working to get our contract." Luke gasps happily in realisation.
"Exactly."

"Did you mention your contract?" Ed asks curiously.
"Yeah." Luke blushes.
"Crystal was as fantastic as you said but we need a paternity test and Luke should finally be far enough along this week." Michael explains.
"Of course, the slew of precedent demonstrating that only soulmates can get one another pregnant should make it relatively straightforward. Hopefully you can have a legal contract by Christmas." Ed weighs in.
"That would be perfect." Luke says happily, leaning on Michael's shoulder.

His parents don't stay much longer, having things to get home to and wanting to leave Michael and Luke in peace. Luke and Michael do a stock take of everything they still need to buy for the house and decide to dedicate Saturday afternoon to going into the city to go shopping.

"I want more kitchen appliances." Luke says decidedly as they walk hand in hand through the shopping centre.
"Well then we'll start there." Michael chuckles, only for Luke to come to a sudden halt after only a few more paces.

"Michael!" Luke squeals. "We have to get her."
"Luke- what?" Michael huffs as he turns to see exactly what Luke was pointing at. A dog. Not just any dog, a pretty large one.
"She's so gorgeous." Luke pouts, eyes fixated on the dog in question.
"Luke, we are not getting a dog." Michael says firmly.
"She's so pretty though," the younger whines.
"I said n-"
"She's a bulldog terrier, four years old, she was a stray, and her name's Petunia. That's so cute." Luke lists off the information about her.
"It's not happening." Michael shakes his head.
"But whyyyyyyyyyyy?" Luke whine childishly.

"We only just moved house." Michael deadpans.
"Which makes it the perfect time." Luke protests. "We have an actual yard and between my time and your money, we could easily look after her."
"Lu-"
"And we're not buying a dog. We're adopting. She was a stray. She deserves a loving home Michael." Luke huffs.
"She's the size of a horse."
"She is not!" Luke gasps scandalously. "Don't be so mean."

Luke stalks past his dom in defiance and straight into the pet shelter, Michael just narrows his eyes and quietly seethes.
"I'd like to meet Petunia, the bulldog terrier." Luke says to the sales assistant.
"Of course." She replies, walking with Luke to where Petunia is being held. Luke walks straight past his dom as if he doesn't have a clue who Michael is.

"Not a lot of people have showed interest in her." The assistant hums as she opens Petunia's cage.
"Really?" Luke frowns as he leans down to pat the cheerful and excited dog.
"She's older and bigger than most people want."
"She's beautiful." Luke pouts.
"Definitely a gentle giant." She chuckles. "We don't have plans to keep her much longer."
"Then what?" Luke gulps.
"The worst." Is all she says, making Luke pale.
"We'll take her. I'll be right back." Luke says quickly before walking back over to his dom.

"What did you do?" Michael narrows his eyes.
"I just adopted a dog who was about to be put down." Luke answers.
"Well then you just earned your first punishment." Michael grits into his sub's ear.
"But we-"
"For when we do have a contract. I'm keeping track." Michael clips.
"But-"
"You don't need a contract to know that this was out of line and you should not have gone behind my back like that."

Luke goes quiet. He feels immensely guilty. He obviously still wants Petunia, she doesn't deserve to be put down, but he hates how he's disappointed his dom. He's earned a punishment before he even has a contract. He just wants to cry. Michael walks back to the shop assistant and talks quietly for a minute or so before going back to Luke.
"We can go." Michael hums.
"Are we-" Luke hiccups, hating that he's crying over this.
"It is not Petunia's fault. We are adopting her but I told the worker that we'll pick her up on Monday. Right now we are going home to talk about what just happened."
"Okay." Luke whispers, following Michael out with his head hung low. He feels so impossibly ashamed.

The ride home is silent, save for the way Luke squirms a little in his seat. Luke's whole body feels numb, he feels like his body is on autopilot when he gets out of the car and goes inside and sits on the couch. A part of him wanted to kneel but he doesn't know how Michael would take that so he refrains. Michael comes into the living room a few minutes later, sitting beside Luke on the couch and taking a deep breath. He can't believe he's doing this.

A/N: I'm so :( my babies :( this is a day late because I had to fix quite a few continuity errors and editing took longer than normal, sorry! Love you all heaps

-Grace Williams xo