I'll follow where I'm lead by hukelashton
Found on Archiveofourown.org
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Luke was late for his flight.
Now, Luke being late for things wasn't an unusual occurrence. He'd always been late for school, when he turned up anyway (it was never really his forte). When he first started his job he was always late, but soon enough he figured out that people get fired for that kind of thing, so he tried to make a little more effort with his time keeping. A lad's gotta make money after all.
He didn't want to go to to the pointless meetings in another city miles and miles away, but he'd already been pushing his luck with his boss that week. So when Luke was asked to take a flight from Sydney to Adelaide and sit in on meetings all day with the deputy general manager, he didn't really get a say. Luke kept himself fuelled on coffee and he just about made it through the day alive, corporate meetings were so boring, but this was all so he could get experience. He didn't go to college for four years getting a business degree for nothing.
Luke even wore a shirt and tie, but kept on the black skinny jeans and black converse. It may not have been professional to someone else's standards but Luke thought he looked pretty fucking awesome regardless. But the disapproving look his boss gave him every time he saw him wearing them was an added bonus.
So Luke powered through it like the good boy he was, however the last meeting had run over, and he was practically sprinting through the airport to get to the gate before it closed. Conveniently his manager didn't have a flight until the next day, so he got to stay in a fancy hotel while Luke got spend the rest of his night stuck on an plane for hours . Luke really wanted to strangle the guy. When Luke finally got to the gate, red in the face and about to fall over from the cramp he was feeling in his right leg, he's relieved to discover he had about ten minutes left until boarding.
Still wheezing, Luke shuffled over to a row of empty chairs in the waiting area, dropped his bag on the floor and collapsed onto the seats, his long body stretching across them easily. Despite all the coffee he'd consumed that day Luke was really exhausted. Luke remained there face down for those ten minutes, and when his flight was called to board, he forced himself up with a groan. Thankfully the cramp in his leg had gone.
He's lead through the gate quickly, he doesn't spend too much attention on his surrounds as he's still way too tired. Once in his seat Luke lets out a relieved breath and leans his head back, closing his eyes for a moment, revelling in the feeling that this long ass day soon going to be over.
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Luke was confused when he found himself leaning on something soft. Had he fallen asleep? Did someone bring him a pillow? Did they do that sort of thing nowadays? Concentrating a little more Luke discovers that whatever he was laying on was a little too hard to be a pillow. It takes Luke another five seconds to remember where he was, and realising what he was doing, he jerks upright suddenly with a gasp, making the person whose shoulder he'd apparently been napping on swear loudly.
"Jesus fucking christ, warn a guy when you do that, would you?" a voice says irritably, a very nice voice, Luke thought, and he finally looks to his right.
The first thing Luke noticed was the impressive tan, then the wild mop of curls held back by a red bandana. He wore black skinny jeans like Luke did, but instead of a band shirt this guy was wearing a black vest that showed off ridiculously toned arms. But mostly he just looked really reallycool. Luke doesn't know whether he wants to be jealous of the guy or jump him.
"Sorry?" Luke says, not quite sure why it came out sounding like a question.
"It's okay," bandana guy says, smiling at Luke, who doesn't know what to say because wow, that's a nice smile.
"Well," Luke says, nearly losing his train of thought, "Sorry about, you know..."
"Sleeping on my shoulder? No problem, happens all the time," Bandana guy grins.
"Okay?" Luke says, not quite sure what to say, and he's a little taken aback about how laid back this guy seems to be, considering the situation. "You could've woken me up though, I wouldn't have minded."
"Nah man, it's fine, besides you looked pretty peaceful, didn't wanna wake ya."
"Right," Luke smiles, not being able to hold back his laugh. "I'm Luke," he says, holding out his hand and bandana guy swiftly shakes it. Luke notices how big this guys hands are, they practically engulf his own.
"Hi, Luke," bandana guy says, and Luke frowns when he doesn't say anything else.
"So...what's your name? I'm assuming you have one," Luke asks, giving bandana guy a funny look, wondering all of a sudden if he was on something.
"Sure," bandana guy nods.
"Are you going to tell me it?"
"Maybe, but what do I get in return?" Bandana guy winks and Luke stares at him, dumbfounded. Bandana guy continues to stare at Luke suggestively, his mouth turns up in a smirk, he even bites his lip a little, but a few seconds later he loses composure and bursts out laughing, slapping his thighs and throwing his head back hysterically. "Sorry," he breathes out on another fit of giggles. "I'm only joking, but your face waspriceless. You have to admit that was kinda funny."
Not being able to help it, Luke laughs anyway, even though he feels a bit awkward. What the hell is wrong with this guy? "Yeah it was," Luke says, biting his lip unsurely.
"Anyway," Bandana guy says, a small amused smirk still on his face, "I'm Ashton."
Luke's relieved that he can finally stop referring to Ashton as 'Bandana Boy' in his head now.
"What brought you to Adelaide, Ashton?" Luke asks.
"This and that," Ashton answers, and Luke gets the feeling that Ashton likes to be annoyingly vague about everything. Luke was used to people always being straight forward, the fact that Ashton wasn't intrigues Luke a little. Luke wonders if he should give up trying to converse with Ashton all together, he was only going to be on this plane for a short time, was it really worth befriending a guy he'd never see again?
"Sounds fun," Luke comments dryly.
"It is," Ashton grins, and Luke watches as he reaches up to adjust his bandana which had slipped down ever so slightly. Luke swallows heavily in his throat when Ashton's bicep tensed at the movement. If Ashton noticed he didn't show it, and instead began tapping on his legs excitedly. "I really love planes."
"That's nice," Luke comments, not really sharing that opinion, but he smiles politely anyway.
"They're just so fun, you know?"
"Uh, sure," If you think sitting in the same position for hours until you can't feel your legs anymore is fun, or when there's a screaming baby from hell that won't shut up and you feel like your ears are going to fall off. Sure, fun. Luke doesn't say this out loud though.
"So, Lukey," Ashton says, and turns in his seat slightly so he was facing Luke, giving him a dimpled grin, and what the fuck, Lukey? "What brings you to Adelaide? Sorry, brought." he corrects himself.
Luke decides to be forthcoming and shrugs. "Boring work stuff, I've been in business meetings all day."
"I see you're dressed for the job," Ashton comments with another smirk. Luke can't help but do the same.
"Yeah, well I like to make my bosses life harder." Every day Luke would come into work wearing an outfit more outrageous than the last, at least it was outrageous to his bosses eyes. But his boss was an uptight dick. Luke was sure he had a stick rammed up his ass or something.
"Admirable," Ashton says, "I can never hold a job for longer than two weeks at most, myself."
"Really? Only that long?" Luke asks, reaching down to grab his water bottle, where he'd dumped it on the floor in his haste to get to his seat. He takes a sip as he waits for an answer.
"Yeah, I just couldn't ever keep my hands to myself, it got me into a lot of trouble," Ashton says with soft sigh, turning to look at Luke wistfully and Luke chokes, dribbling a little water down his chin as he does so.
"I'm sorry, what?" Luke asks, wiping at his mouth with his sleeve, because he honestly doesn't know what to say to that.
"You know,"Ashton says, looking at Luke like he was being silly, "Because I kept drumming on everything." But when Luke takes a closer look at Ashton's face, seeing the mischievous glint in those hazel eyes, he knew Ashton was messing with him again. "You have a sick mind, Luke." Ashton chooses then to roll his shoulders, definitely for show, Luke thinks, and he tilts his head to the side in a stretch, exposing his neck and strong jaw. Luke sort of wants to lean over and run his tongue along the skin there. But he doesn't, thank god. That doesn't stop him from involuntarily licking his lips though.
"No, I don't" Luke mumbles, his cheeks flushing, but he'd waited too long to respond and Ashton's smirking at him again.
"If you say so."
"Yeah, I do," Luke says, folding his arms across his chest like a child, and stubbornly turns his back towards Ashton slightly. Luke pulls his phone out of his pocket, and scrolls until he finds a random game, and tries to become engrossed in playing it, ignoring the feel of Ashtons eyes on his back. Luke doesn't know what Ashton's reaction was to Luke's brush off, he's not sure he really wants to know. But eventually the curiosity in him is just dying to know, and he takes a sneaky peak over his shoulder, but it's not sneaky at all as Ashton's still looking at him.
The expression on Ashton's face surprises him. He's not angry at all like Luke expected him to be, in fact Ashton looks downright amused, along with something else Luke can't quite place, and with a scoff Luke stubbornly turns back around again, almost curling up into a ball to hide himself from Ashton's eyes, but of course he's way too tall and only manages to hunch over his phone slightly. It'll do, Luke thinks, and manages to ignore Ashton for at least half an hour.
Eventually Ashton's snickering is too much for Luke to take, and he turns back around with a glare. "What?" Luke snaps.
"You're cute," Ashton says and that's the last thing Luke expects him to say, and if he didn't resemble a tomato before he certainly does now.
"I-uh, w-what? No I'm not, shut up," Luke stutters and he swears to god he can feel his cheeks actually warming up. "You don't know me," he mumbles.
"I know enough to think you're cute," Ashton says, so blunt about it again that Luke doesn't know how to process it.
"Oh my god."
"Aw, you're embarrassed," Ashton giggles, lifting his hand over his mouth to stifle it. "That's so adorable, I could just eat you up." Luke gulps so hard at that he has to reach for his water. Luke's never felt so flustered in his life. He's never had this much attention from anyone. Girls or guys, ever. Yet here this guy was outrageously flirting with him like Luke was the kind of guy that people flocked to in bars or clubs. But Luke just wasn't.This guy had to be on something, he had to be.
"In fact," Ashton says softly, lowering his voice, and leans over to whisper in Luke's ear, "Why don't we go back there so I can do just that."
"W-what?" Luke watches Ashtons face to see if there's any sign of him playing jokes like he was before, but there's nothing. Ashton's actually being serious right now. Luke can't believe the nerve of this guy, but again at the same time, although he's actually ashamed to admit it, he's a little turned on.
"I'll go to the bathroom, and if I don't hear a knock on the door after two minutes I'll just come back out and forget this whole thing ever happened, no big deal."
"You're joking, right?" Luke asks, eyes wide, trying to make his voice sound disgusted, not hopeful.
"I'm really not," Ashton says, and just like that he stands up.
Luke's still staring at him when he turns around and winks before walking towards the back of the plane. Quickly, Luke looks around him to see if anyone had noticed their exchange but fortunately they hadn't. In fact most of the passengers seemed to be asleep or otherwise preoccupied. No one looked like they were going be getting up anytime soon.
Now, Luke should think about this reasonably, weigh out the options. He could get caught, for one thing, he wasn't sure if this was something you got arrested for, but he knew he'd get in a fair amount of trouble. Two, Ashton could have been joking, and he was probably waiting to open the door and laugh at Luke the second he knocked on it, and three, well there wasn't a three. Those were the only two bad things that he could think of besides the whole mile high club situation he's seemed to have found himself in. Luke always thought that was the kind of thing people did in movies, apparently not.
But on the other hand, this was something that would never happen again, and if Luke passed it up, well he'd certainly regret it for the rest of his life probably, and if it ended badly he'd never see Ashton again, problem solved. Plus, Ashton was really, really hot. With that his decision is made, and Luke glances around him nervously once again. When he still finds that no one was paying any attention, and making sure that staff were no where in sight, he stands up and walks the short distance to the back of the plane.
Once he reaches the bathroom he hesitates for only a second before knocking on the door as quietly as possible. Ashton opens it a moment later, looking pleasantly surprised and steps aside to let Luke in.
"Hi," Ashton says with a soft smile, and takes a step forward so Luke's backed up against the door. Ashton reaches his arm around Luke to reach for the lock, however he doesn't move his arm back after unlocking it, instead placing it on the wall behind Luke so he's more or less trapped there.
"Hi," Luke says quietly, unable to look away from Ashtons face, which was now inching closer and closer to him by the second.
"So I guess we'd better..." Ashton trails off, glancing down at Lukes lips hungrily, and places his other hand on Luke's hip.
(A/N UUUHH cliffhanger!!)