Take My Hand - Lashton

Chapter Thirty-eight

Chapter Thirty-eight

-

Stella words still rang in Luke's head five days after she had held his hands tightly and told him to meet with Ashton alone. Luke wanted nothing more. He just didn't know how he was going to do it. For the first day, he had stayed in bed much to Aaron's complaint and saw no way of it happening. The impossibility of the situation drained all energy from him.

By the second day, he was bored and ached even more than he did the day before. He decided that what he was doing was getting him nowhere. The only way he would get to see Ashton was if he actively tried. He rose from bed earlier than Aaron, washed and ate breakfast alone. By the time Aaron had awakened and found that the bed was empty, Luke was already sat at his desk. A desk that had been abandoned for three months. It wasn't dusty, Aaron had made sure he cleaned it. Preserved the previous memories.

When Aaron entered the office in nothing but his pyjama shorts he was shocked. Not only was his boyfriend typing away passionately at his keyboard, but the desk had also been rearranged. The contents of the long piece of wood had been sparse anyway, but what had been on the desk in the same position for over a year had been allocated a new position.

Leaning against the door frame, Aaron watched for a while. He had wiped his eyes sleepily a couple of times to check he wasn't dreaming. The day prior, even the month prior, his boyfriend would barely lift a finger. He couldn't understand the sudden burst of motivation. Nothing had changed and there could only be one catalyst. A certain man he had seen two nights prior. Aaron found it strange. The pair barely looked at each other. Didn't speak a single word. So he assumed it must have been Stella who put ideas into his head.

"Luke?" Aaron finally said after five minutes of contemplation. His voice was loud and firm. Luke didn't jump. He had seen his boyfriend enter the room from the reflection of his screen. "What are you doing?"

Luke didn't turn around. He stopped typing and stared at his cursor. "I thought I'd try and start working again — I think it's about time and I have quite a lot of emails—"

Aaron cut him off. He didn't like the idea. "Come and have breakfast with me, we can talk about it then."

"I've already had breakfast," Luke informed him, letting his fingers rest of the keyboard and he gently began tapping at the keys again.

"Well come and sit with me," Aaron insisted.

"I'd rather continue writing, I have some ideas." Luke wasn't going to move from his seat unless Aaron moved him, and Luke didn't think Aaron would do that. He assumed he would just give up and either eat alone on the sofa or join him.

Aaron sighed. He was still groggy with sleep and wasn't awake enough to be angry. He walked closer to Luke and placed his arms around his neck, kissing his freshly washed hair. Resting his chin on his head, Aaron stared at the screen blankly. He felt a weird sense of nostalgia. It was like when they first moved in together. Luke would be up before him and would already be working when he was waking. He wondered if that was what Luke was trying to return to. A time where their relationship wasn't fractured. Chancing it, Aaron asked, "Do you remember when you used to walk me to work in the mornings?"

Luke hummed in response and looked up at Aaron. "Of course. And we used to get coffee."

Aaron nodded in confirmation. "Do you want to do that today?"

"Sure," Luke agreed, reaching up and kissing Aaron sweetly. Aaron's head was swirling. He didn't know what was going on but he liked it. The air felt calm and gentle and he wondered if harmony had been restored to his life again.