LUKE
You had heard the rumors and you didn’t mind them. Even the ridiculous ones about you being his half-sister once removed did nothing, but cause a tiny smile to creep up on your face. All that mattered was that you and Luke were in agreement with one another, the rest of the world could talk about what they didn’t know and you wouldn’t bat an eye.
The first chance you had to see him since he took off for the next tour with One Direction was when he had a day off in Toronto. The idea of being followed by any paparazzi didn’t even occur to you. You were staying in downtown Toronto, not on Rodeo Drive in Hollywood. However, you had overlooked the fact that some fans would be skipping school to wait outside of the King Edward Hotel where Five Seconds of Summer were staying.
With fear just beginning to surface in your eyes, you sat with your legs crossed at the ankles in a cushioned lobby chair, waiting for Luke to collect directions on how to get to Kensington Market. The girls all looked, in a word, ‘nice’, but excited and willing. You remembered mentally bullying yourself when you and Luke first spoke to one another, he approaching you at a house party while you were sitting in a lawn chair, keeping warm by a well built bonfire in the backyard. You kept staring at the sleeves of your autumn coat, playing with the ends of it with your bitten fingernails. Any time you two locked eyes, you felt your stomach tighten and it was terrifying. You couldn’t even remember your cell phone number when he asked for it. These girls looked like they could just walk right up to him and have no qualms about giving him anything he wanted right then and there. You almost admired their confidence while being a bit overwhelmed by it.
"Alright. I think I got it now." Luke nodded affirmatively, coming up from behind and standing right in front of you with a printed page from Google Maps. "Ken says we could take the subway, but I want to walk. You up for a walk?"
You were still watching the waiting row of mostly females outside behind him, but eventually you clued into his voice and started to stand up onto your feet.
"Ken? What?" Squinting, you narrowed in on his sleepy blue eyes.
"That’s the guy at the desk. Ken." Luke nodded over your head, waving at the man who had just helped him out. The myth about guys not asking for directions was debunked by Luke. He liked to know where he was going, organization was a turn on. "Let’s walk. I wanna see the city." Luke shrugged as he started to fold the printer paper into fours until it was a square that fit in the pocket of his extra tight jeans.
"Let’s." Pulling the strap of your bag over your shoulder, you smiled and began to walk ahead of him. He had barely been able to read out for your hand to hold in his by the time you had bustled out the door, telling yourself to just be cool.
No one paid any attention to you as you left, but once Luke came out of the heavy gold glass door, you were both just krill to whales. You glanced over your shoulder as girls approached Luke with pep in their step and arms in the air, but that was where you made your biggest mistake.
Locking eyes with a girl about your age, she gasped and approached you as if you were Luke, “Are you, [Y/N]?” She peeled her eyes wide and pointed directly at your neck; making you glance down over yourself. Luke was standing for pictures graciously while your tongue tied itself into a sailor’s knot. “Are you and Luke a thing?” She asked right away.
"Um…I…I am no and I is…what?" You felt your mouth go dry as a string of nonsense fell from it, so you turned around and started to head left, just assuming it was the right way.
After one more picture, Luke excused himself cordially and bustled by their hands and screams to catch up to you. Once more, he reached for your hand, but you denied it by keeping your own fingers locked together in front of your baggy sweater.
"Jig is up, huh?" Quietly, right under your breath, you asked him as you two crossed the street to the next block.
"I don’t think that’s such a bad thing." Lackadaisically, Luke stated clearly without a single care in his voice. He knew that eventually it was going to be too obvious to question and he didn’t really care if people knew. He wanted people to know. He was proud to be the one you called your other half.
CALUM
It was your grandma’s fault.
Without meaning to, she sent the Five Seconds of Summer fandom into a frenzy with just a few strokes of her iPad’s keys. You completely regretted telling your parents to buy her one for Christmas now.
She was only on Facebook to connect with her family that had grown substantially over the last ten years. Everyone had moved around the globe and started their own families, it was hard for someone of her age and health to get around to visit, so you set up a Facebook account for her and very slowly explained how it all worked. You were also regretting that now too.
You had brought Calum over after a night of hanging out on the beach together since your grandmother lived close by. You knew that he would find her absolutely fascinating with her stories of decades past and secret baking weapons. She was a class act after all. While he was terribly nervous to meet the woman who had an important hand in raising you, you knew that he would charm her as quickly, if not quicker than he swept you off your feet six months ago.
"Are you two twerking?" Slowly moving along with her walker, your grandmother asked from where the living room became the kitchen. She had sent you two to put on the kettle to make some hot chocolate, but all she could hear was giggling and stomping, not a lot of actual drink making. She didn’t have her glasses on, but she could tell you two were dancing around. Her concept of what twerking was was vague at best.
"No, Grandma, I’m trying to teach him how to dance!" Laughing, his hands in yours with your arms raised upwards, you shouted to her.
"No, I’m teaching her how to dance.” Calum called right back, holding your hands up above and making you stretch onto the tips of your coral painted toes.
As you two laughed, you were oblivious that your grandmother took a candid shot of the two of you barefoot and being silly in her kitchen. It wasn’t until a day later when she uploaded it onto Facebook with the caption, [Y/N] and her boyfriend Calum. He was lovely, then all Hell broke loose. One of your cousins of distant relation was a 5SOS fan and showed the picture to his best friend out of excitement and, after that, the world saw it and harassed your grandmother until she figured out how to adjust her privacy settings.
MICHAEL
His surprise visit for your graduation party had been the highlight of your whole day. It was better than actually graduating, it was better than the actual graduation party. It was almost better than the giant Tia Marie Torte that was at the graduation party. You hadn’t even told him about it, he just talked to your friend without your knowledge and was waiting outside of your lecture hall after you came out looking exhausted from your last exam.
"Oh my God!" You screamed at the sight of him with his hands in his pockets and back to the wall, a bulletin board of volunteer opportunities behind him. Instantly, you perked up as someone on the floor studying shushed you.
Michael met you halfway, hugging you close to his body as your arms wrapped around his neck. You didn’t even smile at him or say ‘hello’, you just stood up on the tips of your toes, the backs of your shoes popping off, and kissed him as hard as he had kissed you when he left to tour two months ago.
"You’re supposed to be in Germany." You spoke into his chest, resting the side of your face into his black t-shirt for a moment and smiling completely beside yourself. "You said you would have a German beer and pack of gummy bears for me."
"I tricked ya." Laughed Michael. He pulled away from you just enough to put his hand down the back pocket of your blue jeans and walk along with you to the door. "It was worth it for that crazy look on your face."
"I actually can’t feel my brain. That exam plus you surprising me…I’m speechless." You babbled as you two walked outside where the sun poured down from you.
"We’re done!" Rushing over, your best friend ran across the parking lot to you with a animated grin on her face. "Ah, you must be Michael, nice to actually meet you." She reached out to shake his hand that wasn’t comfortably holding your butt cheek. "We’ve been texting to make this happen. He’s the guy under my phone as ‘Destiny’."
"That’s him!?" It all made sense now. "I thought you were ditching me for a stripper best friend." Holding Michael’s arm, you pressed your face into it and laughed. It was only quarter after one in the afternoon and already the day was better than most before.
In the midst of all the excitement, your friend took a picture of you and Michael, kind of, as she walked toward her car, talking about her exam. You didn’t think anything when she uploaded it to her Twitter because you didn’t really care if anyone had something to say about it. You were so happy.
ASHTON
"Who had the bright idea to film in December!?" Behind the camera, waiting for when they wanted to shoot his solo shots, Ashton shivered and shouted to any crew member willing to listen. It was one thing to shoot a music video in the winter, but why couldn’t they be inside plying their instruments and drinking tea? If they had to be outside, Ashton wished someone had pitched the idea of the video being staged around a large burning bonfire. Instead, they were in an open winter field, freezing as they were criminally under-dressed, and walking around like solemn lost boys. He was pretty sure someone called the theme ‘Neverland meets Ice Age’ and he didn’t know how he felt about it.
You tagged along only because Ashton swore up and down that video sets came with the promise of a lot of downtime. Walking back over to him, you waved back as he lit up. You had a feeling he was more excited about the blanket from the backseat of your car folded in your hands than he was at actually seeing you.
"Hey, good timing." Ashton chuckled between his chattering teeth as you neared him. He held you close for the purpose of warmth, kissing your forehead and breathing in your sweet scent as it combined with the winter breeze. "Warm me up, baby." Pouting against you, he whined.
"I brought a blanket. Should I go get you a hot chocolate?" You asked, stepping away to unwrap the blanket.
Ashton teared it away from you and opened it up, draping it over himself like he was Jasmine going to the Agrabah market place for the first time.
"Way to share." You laughed, prompting him to open up his arms and let you back into his embrace.
"There’s coffee and cocoa at craft services. I just need to wait here." They had told him he would be needed in ten minutes about twenty minutes ago, so he knew better than to wander off. "Thanks for coming and freezing your ass off with me." He smiled, shaking against you, but running his hands up and down your backside to try and keep you warm as well.
"It’s cool. I’ve always wanted to see a film crew before."
"Isn’t it glamorous?" As his breath visibly lingered out of his mouth, he chuckled and nodded at the scene of people hard at work around him, large lights being built right in front of you both.
Almost in unison with Ashton’s, your phone began to buzz in the pocket of your dark wash jeans and you pulled it out to see a string of Twitter mentions come up on the screen one right after the other.
"Check your phone." You told your boyfriend as you watched your screen closely, trying to count the notifications as they came in.
"I can’t feel my hands." Ashton said, watching in the distance and hoping to catch the attention of the director. He just wanted to get the show on the road.
You pulled your other hand off of Ashton’s back and pulled up your Twitter app, looking it over and seeing a picture of you and Ashton all over the place, most of them retweets from Calum. He had taken one from across the field with a caption that read: Ashton is working real hard on set as you cann see.
"Well, I guess I’m now public enemy number one…" You showed him your screen, watching his usual saucer eyes shrink to gaze at your feed. Both you and Ashton didn’t want to be a flashy couple. You just wanted to stay private and fly under the radar, but the picture had only been posted a minute ago and you already had three messages that said you were an ugly whore and many more that said they wanted to die because Ashton wasn’t single.
"Maybe, we’ll get hypothermia and die. Look on the bright side." Ashton tried, bringing his shoulders up to his blanketed ears. "Don’t be sad." He nipped at your nose like Jack Frost and then slowly went down to your lips, his blue. "It’ll all be fine. It doesn’t mean a damn thing." To him, it really didn’t.