5 Seconds of Summer BoyXBoy one-shots

Last Night Of The Kings // CALM

“It has begun.” the flickering lights from the fire makes him look older than he is, but there’s no faking the authority in the young man’s voice as he lets his eyes sweep over the other three. They’re all watching him in silence and he allows himself to really take in their appearance. This might be the last night they spent together, after all. The one directly to his left has his hair tied back with a piece of his shirt, much like the girl that was there a moment ago, and he’s patiently watching his friend, waiting for him to speak. To his right, the dark haired boys with eyes so dark they seem black in the faint light from the fire, so dark and yet so alive, watches him, waiting as well. And ahead of him, across the fire, is the boy with the greenest eyes he’s ever seen. It’s impossible to tell if he’s watching him or the fire, but he knows he has his attention.

“Luke?” annoyed he turns around, but he forgets about his anger when he sees who’s standing there. His younger brother is standing there, hugging the wooden horse Luke made for him on his birthday. Ben is too old for the horse by now, he has turned thirteen and if things had been like they once were he would have been home now, exhausted after a whole day of learning how to fight with swords and ride horses. But it’s not like that anymore, and that’s Luke’s fault. He was the one getting caught with another boy, with the boy sitting next to him, and he was the one getting banished for it, but his whole family came to suffer from it, no longer being welcome to the balls and events being held by the group of people they once belonged to. “Luke I’m scared.”

“Don’t be, it’ll be alright.” he says, trying his best to calm the younger boy. Luke wanted Ben to stay home, wanted him to stay with their mother and younger brother, but the boy refused, saying that if Luke was going to do this he was going to be there to make sure he had everything when he left. “go sit with Gerard over there, I have to talk to the others.” Ben nods and Luke turns back to his friends.

“Do we know what to do?” Ashton, the one to his left, asks. “do we have the number? can we take them?” Calum, sitting to Luke’s right, shifts uncomfortably and Luke doesn’t know what to answer. The boys in front of him are covered in layers of dirt, with scars and cuts littered over their hands, arms and faces, all of them shivering slightly from the cold. He had a good life growing up, he was trained for combats, for tournaments and war, and he’s built for this. Ashton will probably do well too, he’s been working for the blacksmith since he was twelve and is strong, but the other two only have their talents, what they’ve learned over the past couple of months, to rely on. He knows they’ve both really good at handling the sword, he’s seen them go from insecure newbies to confident killers, but it’ll be different in there. And they’re both so skinny. While Luke, and Ashton to some extent, always had food on the table growing up, they’ve grown up expecting nothing and sometimes going days without eating.

“yeah, we can do it.” Luke says, his eyes locking with the green pair across from him. Michael nods and gets up, pulling his sword from its scabbard and walking over to an empty corner of the clearing. He’s nervous, they all are, and he’s always been one to leave the groups to calm down. “we will.” the others nod and he stands up, immediately getting everyone’s attention. He watches out of the corner of his eye how Michael comes closer again, still holding his sword. “by now they’ve started dancing, they’re busy enjoying themselves and the guards will be too busy flirting with the maids and trying to sneak some food to pay any attention to us, so this is our moment. We are the folks! We are the ones making this kingdom work, keeping it safe. I am no better than any of you just because I grew up in a house with stone walls, with food on the table. I am human, you are humans, and we are the ones who should rule here, not the ones inside that castle now. They’re the ones who banished us for LOVING SOMEONE! They banished us for something so human we can’t not question their humanity. We are humans, we’ll always be humans, and we have hope. We have hope that things will change for the better and we have the RIGHT to stand up and to fight for an independent life. we are the FORCE, we are the MIGHT and without us they’re nothing. that’s why we’re here, to stand up for an INDEPENDENT LIFE!” he pauses and looks around, his eyes sweeping over the many faces turned to him. “We’re leaving now and some of us might not come back. We’ll either find death or glory, but I want you all to know that if we die it won’t be for nothing. No matter how things go tonight, things will change. We are heroes, heroes of the night, and people might not remember us a hundred years from now because it’s people like them who writes the history books, but we are ready to live forevermore, and that’s what we’re going to do. We are one!”

“WE ARE ONE!” he didn’t expect the mass surrounding him to say anything, but their words gives him a feeling of being invincible.

“Death or glory, we are one and on our way!” And with that they take off, leaving the ones that are too young or too old behind to wait for them to return.

~

Things did change that night. The ones in the castle didn’t expect an attack and even though they had a bigger number, they didn’t stand a chance. Blood was spilled on both sides, but as the dawn broke they had won.

Although, Luke didn’t feel it as if they had. When he left the castle, tired and with blood on his face and sword, he felt empty. He followed the path back to the clearing, walking through the crowd wanting to congratulate him and over to the woman sitting alone on a rock by the fire, the woman who now had lost both her husband and her son in less than six months. He sat with her, le let her cry into his shoulder, and he wished he hadn’t done it. He wished he hadn’t brought an attack up, he wished he hadn’t heard the green eyed boy’s last words before they were separated.

If I die in battle, tell them I stood and never kneeled. And tell them I did it for the ones I loved, tell them I did it for you, for Ashton and Calum and for my mum. Tell her I’m sorry. Tell her my soul is saved, that I did what was right and that I’ll wait for you in heaven.

And even though he wished he hadn’t heard, he told her what he had said, and he lived the rest of his life knowing he had his friends waiting for him on the other side, watching over him.