Promise » [cashton] √

5.3

[July 5th]

Calum

"What are we doing here?" Ashton asked quietly, eyes coasting over the townhouse exterior. Calum couldn't tell from the look on his face whether it was exactly what he'd expected or the complete opposite.

He just shrugged, "I mean, in all this time, you've never been here, so thought you might as well come and have a look before Luke and I pack it all up," he explained, "Not that I was hiding it from you or anything, but once you see you'll get an idea of why I was happy for us just to stay at yours," He turned his key and dropped his shoulder into the door, it had a habit of sticking these days, something about moisture in the air Roy told him.

Leading Ashton through the door, straight into the living room. It looked better now than it had when Luke had first seen it, which was sad, considering there was no furniture left. Even the few pieces that had been Calum's he'd let Roy take, Ashton's place was already wholly furnished. The only things that were left were Calum's bedroom and his junk in the bathroom, which he planned to just throw out.

He dropped his bag by the kitchen, watching Ashton look over the stained living room carpet, where the furniture had been for years. Without the frames on the wall, you could see the dodgy patch jobs they'd done after parties. It felt somehow smaller without the furniture. The last time he'd been here, he'd realised that his office at Ashton's was bigger than his bedroom here. He swallowed any embarrassment down and led Ashton toward his room.

"The lounge room isn't all that interesting, not without furniture," he tried to explain, "there used to be a sofa and an armchair in here," he laughed, "and we had the TV on this old metal like I don't know shed? shelf, like it was meant to be for gardening equipment or something, and it was rusty. Roy always said we were going to get tetanus from it, but he never offered to replace it and neither did I."

Ashton was smiling to himself, eyes thoughtfully taking in the room as he let himself be led, "sounds like you have a lot of good memories in this place,"

"Yeah, I do, I'll tell you about Luke and I's sleepover one day; it mostly involved us being shit-faced," another laugh leaving him as he thought about Luke rifling through the clothes in his wardrobe.

He pushed the door open, and Ashton moved past him into the room. The street light was flooding through the sheer curtains again; the hazy LA night looked almost inviting through his window. But Ashton's eyes were drawn elsewhere, looking to the pinboard on his wall. Calum flicked the switch on his lamp, and warm light flooded the room. Ashton moved to the pinboard, taking the opportunity to look more closely at each thing pinned there. Wristbands from shows, setlists, polaroids of him and people backstage, a messy timeline of all his years as a photographer.

"There's nothing from my shows up there," Ashton said teasingly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought the two full hard drives in my office would have been enough to placate you," Calum had gotten much better at knowing when Ashton was tormenting him.

The younger man grinned at him, "You'll have me thinking I'm your favourite," he twisted, both of them moving into one another's space, his arms snaking around Calum's waist, pulling Calum into a sweet press of lips before letting him go.

"So, is this where you used to work?" he asked, turning back to the awkwardly empty space under the pinboard.

"Yeah, I used to do all my editing here, was kind of depressing, but I couldn't make the bed and desk fit if I put the bed by the window. I mean, I suppose I could have had a single bed, but-"

"Bit embarrassing to bring people back to your single bed?" Ashton asked.

Calum flushed, grinning stupidly, "Yeah, pretty much. It'll be Luke and Sierra's bed soon,"