(Wholesome content to follow))
"So, good news and bad news," Calum falls onto the couch next to Luke, who glances over at him curiously. Whatever is on the laptop in his hands is probably more interesting than watching Michael and Ashton on the floor. Michael had somehow conned Ashton into buying the newest Fifa game, so Ashton demanded to know how to play, and they've been fighting over it for roughly two hours. Ashton's not good.
"Okay," Luke replies. At his feet, Ashton lurches forward, controller clutched in one hand, and attempts to grab wildly at Michael's face with the other, so Luke curls a hand around his shoulder to hold him in place.
Calum glances down, but seems uninterested with the fight. He shows Luke the laptop screen and says, "I found Luke. The other Luke. And shit, dude, he looks like you."
"That's great!" Luke makes the mistake of releasing Ashton, who lunges again and manages to catch Michael off guard enough to tackle him. He raises the controller over his head like he's going to smash Michael's skull in, only for the ghost to disappear from beneath him. Ashton makes a frustrated noise and starts looking around wildly for him, while Luke does his best to ignore them. "How did you find him?"
"Facebook," Calum shrugs. Michael appears behind him on the couch and curls close to his back to hide from Ashton. "His interests are "Girls, guns, and g's," and it says he works at "the drug lord's palace." Also, his name is Luke Hemmings, he looks just fucking like you- like seriously. It's creepy.- and he's from Sydney. Also, according to his time line, he posted a selfie with the caption "Thankful af for little bitches with my name" the night you were murdered. Look at him."
He moves the laptop closer to give Luke a good look at the selfie. The guy does look really similar to him, except he's squinting at the camera and throwing up the peace sign. Luke scrunches his nose in disgust. "That's- how has this guy not been caught?"
"Beats me," Calum shrugs. Ashton makes a leap towards Michael again, only to go straight through him and land on the couch with a startled shriek. Michael disappears again, but Ashton looks freaked out enough to calm down a bit. He drops to the floor and crawls over to Luke, then fits himself snugly between Luke's legs, back against the bottom of the couch, to rest his cheek against Luke's left knee.
Luke manages to get a hand through his curls one time before Ashton's punching him in the foot and hissing, "Touch me again and I'll fucking- I don't know, be sad and mopey for three days."
"Clever," Luke admits before turning back to Calum. "Is that the good news? What's the bad news?"
"He's in Melbourne, now," Calum sighs. "Bit away, right?"
"Right," Luke frowns. "We'll- I don't know, figure something out. Ash, will you mom let you go to Melbourne?"
Ashton snorts. "She barely let's me go to school." Michael appears in front of him and darts forward to press an apologetic kiss to Ashton's nose before he's disappearing again, leaving Ashton scowling and even more annoyed. "New rule! Don't kiss Ashton!" He shouts.
Michael, of course, reappears to press a few speedy kisses to Ashton's cheeks, then darts behind Calum again before Ashton can punch him.
"Leave him alone," Calum chastises.
"He's just so soft," Michael disappears again and reappears at Ashton's side to press another kiss to his cheek. Ashton swings his fists out wildly, but Michael's gone before he can get any punches in.
Ashton makes a frustrated noise and announces, "I fucking hate ghosts! I'd move out if I could! The sooner you're all out of my hair, the better!"
"Sorry, kid," Michael appears in Ashton's lap and makes him shriek and scramble away. The only way he can go is up, so he climbs up and settles in Luke's lap, gripping at his shirt tightly while Michael hangs in the air with a grin on his face. "Cal and I are suicide buddies. Our unfinished business is our own deaths, you're stuck with us forever."
Ashton makes a frustrated noise, then scowls when Michael and Calum high-five. "I hate this," he mutters.
"Shut up, you fucking love us," Calum rolls his eyes and continues clicking around on the laptop. "Also, I have good news. Luke Two's girlfriend is coming to town. Is he really Luke Two, actually? He's older than you."
"No, he's not allowed to be Luke One, I'm Luke One," Luke decides. "I died for this title. Anyway, how is that good news?"
"You and Ash can get some info out of her," Calum shrugs. "I don't know, she's on Tinder." He holds up Ashton's phone and how's them a photo of a hot blonde on the app. Michael swoops up onto the couch, wedging himself in between Luke and Calum, to get a look at the screen. Calum punches him in the shoulder for his troubles, but Michael seems unbothered.
"Luke, you still like girls, don't you?" Michael smirks at him.
Luke shrugs and Ashton makes a protesting noise. "Why aren't you asking me that? I like girls plenty!"
"Women don't want to date you, Ashton," Michael informs him, drawing a pout out of him. "Women want to pinch your soft cheeks and adopt you. Luke, on the other hand, could probably bat his long, dumb eyelashes and have women dropping at his feet."
Ashton turns to scowl at him, so Luke shrugs. Calum starts talking before Ashton can punch him or make a new rule against Luke's eyelashes. "No, he's right. Okay, Luke, I'll have this chick meet you somewhere- I have your picture as my Tinder profile picture, anyway- and you can flirt some information out of her. Ashton, you stay close so Luke doesn't die. Again."
"You- why do you have my picture-" Luke starts.
"Why are you on that damn app?" Michael interrupts. "We've literally bonded through death. You can't pick up a new partner. Where would they meet you, anyway? Dude, you can't leave this house. You're dead."
"I'm dead but I have needs," Calum shrugs. "Let me get my tit pics in peace."
"You're the worst and I hate you," Michael tells him. Calum shrugs.
*****
Luke leans back on the sun chair, legs spread out in front of him, and stretches a hand up and behind his head. After readjusting his sunglasses and relaxing slightly, he glances up to his friends in the green grass. Luke's relaxing because Calum had hit a dead end in hitting on Luke Two's girlfriend and Ashton is completely ready to tap further into his King of Highshool potential by joining a sports team. They're all in the backyard, Calum and Michael are desperately trying to teach Ashton how to play football, but the blonde keeps getting distracted by literally any and everything.
Luke figures they should take him for a hike or something so he can properly enjoy nature. Whatever, he seems thrilled to be in the fenced in backyard, and the ghosts are thrilled to be there as well, visible, this time.
"Okay, ready?" Calum asks. "I'm just going to pass you the ball, you kick it back. Got it?" Ashton nods enthusiastically, curls flopping into his face, and beams at Calum and Michael in anticipation.
Luke watches as Calum gently kicks the ball over with the side of his foot. It rolls through the grass and, before it can get within a meter of Ashton, the seventeen year old pounces on top of it. He slips in the mud underneath the grass, scrambling to grab something to hold onto, and slides until he's laying on top of he ball. Immediately, he rolls over and holds the ball up in triumph, grinning at Calum and Michael again.
"No hands, Ashton!" Calum sighs in exasperation. Ashton seems thrilled, despite, and hugs the ball to his chest.
He glances at the muddy brown stains on his blue jeans with a small pout before sitting up straight. "Luke!" He calls. "What's this?"
"Mud," Luke replies. Ashton swears the mud from his knees to his hands, then gasps in delight. He notices the squishy ground beneath him and falls flat onto his back, flapping his limbs around to get as dirty as possible. Luke sighs at him but it's half fond and holds no heat.
Luckily, Ashton's attention is drawn away from the mud soon enough. His eyes land on a butterfly in the grass next to him, making his mouth drop open in surprise. It flaps it's wings, much to Ashton's amusement, and then sails over him. Ashton scrambles, splattering mud all over Michael and Calum, and leaps after it.
Michael glances over and shakes a few thick drops of mud from his hair and onto Calum, then smiles at his unimpressed glare.
The screen door slides open behind Luke, then closes again. There's a soft sigh from Ashton's mom as she catches sight of him leaping across the yard after a butterfly, covered from head to toe in mud. She stands next to Luke and watches him for a second, before Ashton jumps straight into the fence. He makes a muffled pained noise and falls back into the grass and mud, where he lays like he's been fatally wounded.
They all lean forward nervously, until he wails, "Luke!"
Luke sighs softly and stands up, then gestures to his empty sun lounger for Ashton's mom to take. She laughs at him, but takes the seat, regardless. Ashton's still wailing miserably on the ground when Luke gets to him, but Luke hadn't felt any physical pain in his own body. He crouches down next to Ashton, anyway, and shoves his glasses back onto his head.
"What's wrong?" Luke reaches down and gently strokes the mud flattened curls off his forehead, while Ashton pouts up at him miserably.
"I broke my body," Ashton informs him. Luke rolls his eyes again as he offers Ashton his hand. The smaller boy takes it and allows himself to be pulled back to his feet.
"See?" Luke pulls a hand through Ashton's dirty hair, struggling to get through all the tangles. "Look at you, you're fine. Good?"
"Good," Ashton confirms, beaming up at Luke happily. "Why won't you come play football with us?"
Luke laughs and shakes his head. "Because you've been playing in the mud and chasing butterflies for ten minutes."
Ashton smiles like Luke just handed him the sun, all warm and delighted, and mumbles, "That was a butterfly?"
"Butterfly," Luke confirms. Ashton looks more thrilled than Luke thought an insect could make a moody teenager. He feels Ashton's happiness bubbling up into his own chest and has to refrain from pulling the smaller boy into a hug and holding him tight for a while. Luke's fingers itch to grab him and pull him in.
"Look," he says instead, nodding his head towards the grass next to them. Ashton scrambles into a sitting position, completely covered in mud at this point, and follows Luke's eyes. He gasps softly when he sees the gray grasshopper and reaches towards it. It leaps away, so Ashton rips his hand back and cradles it against his chest instantly.
"What is that?" He demands as he leans forward slightly.
"Grasshopper," Luke lunges forward and snatches up the bug, then locks his hands together to keep it inside. Ashton looks shocked beyond belief as he stares at Luke's hands.
Luke opens up his fingers and allows the bug to hop through, landing right on Ashton's leg. Predictably, Ashton shrieks and jumps up, grabbing onto Luke's shoulder like that'll protect him. Luke rolls his eyes as the grasshopper jumps off in a different direction and Ashton's heart sinks.
"Oh no," he mumbles softly. "Did I- I didn't hurt him, did I?"
"No," Luke points to the grasshopper, who's hurrying away by jumping wildly towards the house.
"Good!" Ashton's heart feels light and airy in Luke's chest again as he shits around and digs his fingers into Luke's shoulder. "Thanks, love you."
Before Luke can even process that, Ashton's running full boar towards Calum, who's holding the ball and (probably) arguing with Michael flippantly. I'm his moment of weakness, Ashton manages to crash into him and scramble for the ball while they both fall into the mud.
"Ashton, no!" Calum cries. Michael seems to find the entire situation far too amusing, because Calum's quick to reel him in and send him tumbling to the ground as well, somehow still maintaining possession of the ball.
"Is this rugby?" Ashton asks. "This feels like rugby!"
Calum knees him in the stomach and tries to make a break for it, only to fall back when Michael grabs the back of his shirt and yanks.
Luke can't focus on their shouts and Ashton's giggles and the happiness he feels. Because he's starting to feel something else, something that's not Ashton's, warming low in his gut and making his heart jump into his collarbones. Ashton loves him. Luke likes how it feels.