Let's Stay Professional (l.h. + a.i.)

7

(unedited)

Ashton and Calum sat in Luke's office boredly, waiting for him and Michael to come back from an interview. Ashton stayed seated on the black leather couch facing the large mahogany desk while Calum walked around the large space, snooping through every knick-knack and picture the blond had lying around.

"Can you believe they trust us to be in here alone?" Calum asked but suddenly but gasped in excitement when he picked up a picture frame. "Holy shit! Look at this picture! He's with One Direction!" Ashton turned to face the raven haired man who was holding out a wooden picture frame that indeed held a picture of their boss with One Direction. Ashton shook his head in amusement.

"I want them to keep trusting us, so sit your ass down before you break something." Ashton told him. Calum just stuck his tongue out at the brunet before continuing to look through Luke's things. Ashton rolled his eyes before looking back down at his phone. After a few more minutes of snooping, Calum decided to sit down next to Ashton.

"Why do you think Mr. Hemmings chose us?" Calum asked. Ashton looked up from his phone before locking it and slipping it into his pocket. He shrugged.

"I'm not sure." Ashton lied, knowing that the blond chose unfairly. He wasn't complaining though. "Michael must've put in a really good word about us." 'probably a very good word about Calum.' Ashton shook away his thoughts.

"I just think he's being a bit weird." Calum started "He's always hanging around us more than any of the other interns." Ashton began to sweat.

"I'm sure it's just because him and Michael are best friends." Ashton let out, praying to God that Calum wasn't figuring anything out. Calum looked at him weirdly.

"You okay, mate? You look kind of nervous." Calum pointed out. Ashton nodded and gave him a weak smile.

"I'm just anxious for today. I don't wanna say the wrong things or anything." Ashton lied again and Calum gave him an uncertain nod. The door to the office suddenly bursted open to reveal Luke and Michael and Ashton thanked God that the two were finally back. Luke headed straight to his swivel chair behind his desk and Michael took a seat on one of the armchairs that was next to the small couch in front of Luke's desk (more specifically, the armchair that was on Calum's side of the couch, but who's keeping track?).

"I hope that you two weren't waiting that long." Luke said, while typing something on his computer "Are you guys ready to spend at least four hours together?" Ashton and Calum looked at each other.

"Four?" Calum asked with furrowed eyebrows "It's almost 8:30. We'll be here until after midnight." Michael nodded.

"Yeah, we go through each and every demo, take notes, choose our favorites, compare, listen to them again, then finalize who Luke's going to contact back." The teal haired man stated, grabbing two notepads from his bag and two pens from the cup on Luke's desk. He handed the items to Ashton and Calum.

"Don't worry, we're only going through about five hundred demos." Luke shrugged as if it were nothing "at least ninety five percent of it is going to be crap, so we can skip through those. It'll go by quickly."

Calum turned to face Ashton and mouthed 'five hundred' to him with horrified eyes, repeating the number that Luke had told them. They looked at Michael who had already kicked his black combat boots off and rested his feet comfortably on Luke's desk with his laptop on his lap for his notes. The teal haired man shot the two a mocking smile before leaning back on the armchair into a more comfortable position.

After the first hundred demos, the four decided to take a break, not wanting to hear any more of the bubblegum pop or terrible rapping that was coming out of the speakers from Luke's computer.

"Did you guys hear anyone worth my time? Because I certainly didn't." Luke grumbled, stretching his arms over his head. Ashton and Calum's jaw dropped in shock. The two were pretty sure that they heard a few extraordinary singers somewhere along the hundred demos they went through.

"I thought number fifty eight and seventy three were really good." Calum spoke up, looking down at the notepad. Ashton nodded in agreement.

"Wasn't seventy five's vocal range just incredible too?" Ashton added. Luke shook his head no.

"Not good enough." Luke stated "Their songs were complete garbage too."

Ashton was taken aback by the blond's harsh words. He suddenly wasn't the annoying and flirty man that bothered the brunet every chance he got. He was the head of one of the biggest record labels in Sydney, and he was serious about his job too. Ashton bit his lip, cursing to himself because god damn was Luke hot when he was all serious and professional like this.

"I agree, their voices had no passion, and their lyrics had no meaning. God, music to people these days..." Michael said, leaning his head left and right to crack it after having it stay in the same position for about an hour. Calum ripped the piece of paper out of the notepad and crumpled it in his hands before shooting it into the garbage next to Luke's desk and chuckling to himself.

"I still have so much to learn." He muttered and Ashton patted him comfortingly on the shoulder.

"Well, Hood, that's why you're here, right?" Luke stated, looking up from his computer to the raven haired man "To learn."

Calum nodded enthusiastically causing the blond to let out a soft giggle. Ashton looked at Luke with affectionate eyes who just shot him a small smile. The blond cleared his throat and looked back at his computer to start the next demo.

"Four hundred more to go." Michael spoke before adding a sarcastic "yay" and leaning even further back into the leather armchair he was sitting in.

Here's chapter 7! I hope you all liked it. I'm really excited for the next chapter, ya'll don't even understand how much i can't contain my excitement. ANYWAYS, make sure to vote this up and leave me some comments! Much love to you all!
-jessica xx

P.S. I think I might want to write a new story for the Malum side of this story, if that makes any sense. Like it would be the same, but from Calum and Michael's perspective rather than Ashton and Luke's. I'm not sure though, I'm still thinking about it haha.