Secretary | muke [c]

Sixteen

"Ouch, don't poke it!" Michael whined, pouting as he cowered away from Luke. "It's sore."

"I can't believe you actually did it." Luke chuckled lightly.

Michael turned on his side, propping his elbow up as he rested his head on the palm of his hands. Luke was staring back at him, neither of them feeling the need to say anything as the sound of waves crashing against the shore echoed around the empty beach. the wind rustled Luke's hair, but the blond didn't mind at that exact moment, all that mattered to him was the way Michael was smiling down at him, the new piercing on his eyebrow glinting in the semidarkness. The street lamps were the only thing that lit up the beach, making it hard for Luke to really take in Michael's features, except for his bright green irises.

"Why not?" Michael shrugged slightly. He sucked in a sharp breath as Luke's bony hand reached up to brush some of the black strands of hair away from his face, allowing his fingertips to stroke Michael's forehead in the process. The black haired man's eyes fluttered closed and a smile spread across his pink lips, indicating he liked the gentle contact.

"Is this some sort of midlife crisis? Dying your hair, piercing the brow?" Luke teased, laughing as he saw Michael's dark eyebrows furrow together before his free arm snaked around Luke's waist, pulling the blond closer to his body on the beach towel.

"Do you think I've reached my midlife or something? Jesus, Luke, I'm only thirty six, I'm not that old. Plus, my hair was already dyed before. I just dyed it a different colour."

Luke allowed himself to snuggle closer into Michael, taking in the scent of his cologne mixed with the smell of grease from the fish and chips they had eaten only a few minutes prior. If Luke had been told that he would spend his afternoon watching his boss get his eyebrow pierced, and then have fish and chips at the beach while watching the sunset with said boss, Luke would have laughed. He would have laughed hard. But in the back of his mind, he knew that was exactly the afternoon he needed after the last few weeks he had. And before the weeks to come. There was all the stress with finding his dress for Naomi's wedding, convincing Calum to see a psychiatrist and still hoping to get to work one day and hear from Michael that he was now divorced.

"What's on your mind?" Michael pulled Luke back from his thoughts, his tone more concerned than curious. The pad of his thumb rubbed over the space between Luke's eyebrows, right where the crease was.

"You." Luke whispered in response, his voice almost being drowned by the sound of the ocean.

"I make you frown?" Michael spoke after a long silence, lying on his back right next to Luke. Both of them had their eyes glued to the sky illuminated by stars, a crescent moon shining brightly above them.

"Sometimes." Luke answered, feeling like he shouldn't bring it up, but not being able to control himself. "When I remember you have a wife."

Michael sighed heavily. Luke instantly regretted opening his mouth, and just as he was about to speak again to apologise, Michael beat him to it. "I'm so sorry, Luke." He shook his head. "Believe me, I want to do it, and I should have done it ages ago, but I've been with Jane for years. I have known her since we were sixteen, and it's hard to let go of all of that like that, you know? I have no more feelings towards her, but it's just sad. That is twenty years of my life."

"I understand." Luke said softly, honestly understanding where Michael was coming from. "I don't want to pressure you into doing it and neither do I think you're obliged to do it to be with me or something. It just... hits close to home. If you know what I mean."

"I get it, and I'm sorry that it happened to your parents. I'll leave her, Luke, I just need time." Luke didn't respond. Instead, he scooted closer to Michael, resting his head on his boss's shoulder as Michael hesitantly wrapped his arms around the blond. He could tell Luke was cold, even in his dress pants and button down shirt, so he slowly rubbed his arm, feeling the goosebumps underneath the palm of his hand. "Do you... want to talk about it? Your parents?"