✔︎Baby | OT4

010

   "Okay, there's a couple different brushes and water, there's loads of colors just there." Phil pointed out the nearest selection of paints; there were huge selections in color and types, spread out across the large wall. As the ebony haired uni student was directing Luke and Ashton, a sudden splatter of hot pink paint was tossed at him, staining the albino pale boy's skin. "Dan!" He yelped, jogging away.

   Ashton giggled, glancing after the attractive pair. "Off to join a different polyamorous relationship?" Luke joked, though he hugged his best friend protectively.

   "Never," Ashton reassured, cuddling into the blonde's broad shoulder. "I love you guys," he added, pecking the eighteen-year-old's slightly chapped lips quickly, before linking their hands and walking excitedly to the plastic containers of paint. He dipped his biggest brush in a blue, mixing it with a gray to give it a faded look. He then proceeded to smear it across his entire section, following quickly with scarily realistic white clouds across the bottom. While he continued, with a wide array of colors, Luke looked thoughtfully at his own section.

As he planned to major in something writing related, the blonde painted an artfully messy collage of quotes in large, blocky letters. There was a beautiful mix of serious—you don't get lucky twice, and that's the truth—and funny; friendship is like peeing yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling it brings. Once multiple sections of words were spread throughout the large space, he added thick black lines, and sloppy little sketches. He painted things that related to him and his three best mates; four somehow artful stickmen with their respective hairstyles, and the group on a roller coaster from their trip to Blackpool. The blonde scrawled random arrows and dogs, a few X's, and a skull with heart eyes.

   He looked somewhat proudly over his section of the mural; it was good by his standards, considering Luke left the art to Ashton. It was then that he glanced over at what Ashton was painting, and gasped softly. The eighteen-year-old couldn't quite believe the younger teenager had painted what was on his part of the mural in the same time as Luke's sloppy writing. An impossibly intricate house floated through the fluffy clouds, held up by hundreds of multicolored balloons.

   Though it wasn't as detailed as some of his others, there was just so many three dimensional balloons, it had multiple university students staring in awe. Ashton made small, expert strokes with a tiny paintbrush on the house adding small details that put the painting over the top. "You're amazing, baby," Luke commented. Ash glanced up with a giggle and blush, tugging Luke to his side.

   "Want to paint with me?" He offered, offering his best friend a brush.

   "I don't think I'm quite as good as you," the blonde chuckled, gesturing at his area of the mural.

   "I'll help you," Ashton said with a smile, and Luke took the paintbrush. Ash, being smaller, stood with the older boys arms wrapped around him, and lead his arms from there. Luke watched in shock as beautiful strokes of beige paint followed the brush in his hands, and he got to see close up just how incredibly talented his best friend was. He'd seen the finished product, and he'd watched Ashton sketch from afar, but he'd never actually seen the colors as they appeared on the page. It was ineffable.

   "You're really good at art," the blonde gasped, and Ashton giggled, carefully tugging their intertwined hands away from the wall. The smaller boy ducked his head bashfully, and washed off the brushes expertly. He added his artists signature, an intertwined A and I, within the outline of a heart. "Ready to go?"

Ashton nodded, and the pair linked hands, the blue and pink haired lad cuddled against Luke's side. "Thank you for this." Ash smiled sweetly, ducking his head slightly and glancing up at the older blonde. Luke kissed his tan forehead adoringly, before starting the rainbow painted car.

—

"I will go down as your lover, your friend," Luke murmured sleepily, laid on Ashton's bed. The younger boy was cuddled against him, both shirtless.

"Give me your lips and with one kiss we begin," the curly haired lad responded, voice heavy with drowsiness. The boys had a tradition of cuddling near the ends of the day, and murmur song lyrics to one another. Luke and Ashton were too tired to form proper conversation, but loved the sounds of each other's voices.

"Are you afraid of being alone," Luke said, tracing absentminded patterns across his best friends exposed lower back, his other hand wrapped around Ashton's thin shoulders.

"'Cause I am, I'm lost without you." The younger boy had his head rested on Luke's pale chest, one hand on his flat stomach, the other on his waist. Their feet were tangled together under a fluffy peach colored blanket, bodies pressed flush with one another. They shared the same air, smelling of Luke's minty, boyish scent, and Ashton's cinnamon.

   "Are you afraid of leaving tonight." Though it was late, the blonde had no plans to leave, despite his plans to look at a few more schools the next day. The boys all had clothes at one another's houses, and spent quite a few of their nights with each other.

   "'Cause I am, I'm lost without you," Ashton murmured, before falling asleep.

A/N
such homework, very torture, much kill me.
also: i wrote this book a really long time ago & it's kinda terrible soz