Devil's Backbone (Muke)

2

When Michael returns, I'm eating cookies on the bed. He walks over and presses his lips to mine.

"I missed you, baby," he tells me.

I press my lips to his again, and he crawls to hover over me.

"Mike, I'm trying to eat cookies," I complain. He groans and presses his lips into my neck. This makes me sigh and push my snack to the side.

"You look so hot right now, Luke," he whispers. I'm in a large t shirt with no pants, and lacy white panties on. Hot isn't the word I'd use for it. Lazy seems much more suitable.

His freezing hands work their way under my shirt and I shiver.

"Geez, Michael, you're freezing."

He chuckles and grabs my hips.

"Sorry, love."

His mouth connects with mine again as he works my shirt up. For just a second, he pulls away to remove the clothing. I tug at the bottom of his shirt so that he takes it off, and he removes his pants as well.

After a few minutes, both of us are stripped and he crawls back on me. We get quite carried away for the next bit of time.

Around noon, we get up so that I can make some food. We look around the kitchen before I decide to keep lunch simple with some grilled cheese. As I'm gathering the ingredients, the doorbell rings.

"I've got it," Michael says and jumps down from the counter. I hear the front door open and then the loud excitement of my best friend and his fiance. They burst into the kitchen and Calum hugs me.

"Hey, Luke!" He exclaims.

"Hey," I giggle. "What's up?"

Ashton walks in and hands me a dark blue envelope. It has mine and Michael's names written in fancy gold lettering on the front.

"An official invitation. We sent them out this morning," Ashton informs me. I grin and tear the envelope open. I pull out the thick invitation and read over the details.

"March 21? That's kind of soon," I note. It's the end of May.

"We're excited. Plus, the baby is due in October. We want some time to lose the baby weight. Five months should be good," Calum tells me. I nod. In just a couple of days, they'll know if they're having a boy or a girl. Lucky them.

Michael and Ashton head into the living room as I start cooking. Cal takes a seat in one of the tall stools at the counter and rests his head in his hand.

"There's something else I wanted to tell you!" He grins. I raise an eyebrow in curiosity.

"What's that?"

He wiggles with excitement and straightens his posture. "We want you and Michael to be the godfathers!"

A small bit of jealousy hits my chest, like a tiny rodent nibbling away at my heart. Much more than that, though, I'm flattered and almost overjoyed. Of all people, he chose my fiance and me. That means so much to me.

"Aww, Calum! We're having a little god baby," I coo. The thought makes me grin and fixes my mood despite the jealousy and sadness I feel.

When I finish making the food, everyone gets some. Ashton and Calum leave less than an hour after arriving; they have a lot of planning to finish and a very limited amount of time to do it. Especially since they're planning for both a baby and a wedding.

"Want to bake cupcakes? We haven't spent time alone in a while," Michael suggests when we find nothing of interest on TV. I jump at the idea, excited. I love to bake. Michael isn't that good at it, but he does like to help out with what he can.

It takes a few minutes to find a suitable recipe online, but we settle with a simple red velvet. Michael chooses a playlist we both like and hits play.

That's how we spend our day. Baking tons of cupcakes, blasting music, and dancing around our kitchen. He kisses me and compliments me countless times, but I'm sure it's just flattery. Still, I haven't felt this content in a long time. More than content, in fact.

After we clean and shower that night, we lay in bed with some new Disney movie playing.

"Do you think we'll have kids?" Michael questions. The invisible rodent in my chest bites again, and I try to shove the feeling away.

"Yes. If we keep trying, I'm sure we will."

He nods and kisses my cheek.

"I hope so. I want babies with you so bad," he says. The rat of despair, envy, and greed won't go away. I force a smile onto my face.

"Me, too. Maybe fate wants us to wait until we're married. God knows when that'll be," I groan. It seems that everyone around us is getting married, having kids, getting pets, everything. Michael and I aren't rushing things, but it makes me feel like we're behind.

"We'll get married, love. I promise we will someday. Let's not rush," he chuckles. I nod.

"I know. I just feel slow compared to everyone else. I mean, even Ashton is getting married," I state. Nobody ever thought Ashton would be the type to settle down, but he turned into a twisted cliche as soon as he met my best friend. They met, went on a date, and fell in love in just a couple of short months. In a year, they were engaged and just a few weeks later, they were expecting a baby.

"I know, baby. It'll happen."

I snuggle into his side and close my eyes, listening to the animation on screen. I don't want to talk about marriage anymore when there's not even a guarantee it'll happen. I do have the pink glittery promise ring he gave me two years ago, but still. Anything can change at any time. The topic is just making me upset, and that's not what I want.

I just want to lay here and enjoy this moment with my boyfriend.