Words (Muke)

Sixteen: Beholder

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Proverb; beauty cannot be judged objectively, for what one person finds beautiful or admirable may not appeal to another.

"Oh! Michael! Are you...you're not okay. You most definitely are not-"

"Mum," Luke cut off Liz's ramblings. "Can you please open the door before you fire off your questions?"

Liz nodded and quickly opened the door Ashton and Luke carried Michael in and Calum trailed nervously after them.

"Cal?" Michael asked.

"Y-yeah?"

"Can you start talking? Just talking. It's a good distraction you know?" Michael mused.

"'Course, um. Did Luke ever tell you about when my shirt got stuck on a tree branch and I was just dangling until the police came?"

Michael shook his head and Luke smiled brushing his fingers across Michael's cheek.

"Luke dared me to climb this old tree for five bucks. So of course I did, but on my way down I got snagged and ended up slipping. Because I was caught I didn't fall, but like, I was hanging like some giant spider or something,"

Calum's a good story teller, Michael thought. His face was so animate and he was moving his hands around to imitate what was happening. He was reliving every moment of the story with Calum even though he had not been there.

"After Luke and Ashton were done taking pictures and laughing their asses of at me, Ash finally called the police and the fire department had to come get me down. My mum grounded me for two weeks because of that,"

"Poor, Calum. Two weeks," Ashton teased.

"Hey!" Calum defended. "You missed me,"

The three boys bounced stories around as Liz cleaned Michael. After nearly an hour the five of them were simply crying on the floor together because they couldn't stop laughing.

Liz was first to regain control. She wiped her eyes and sighed. "I'll make dinner. Ashton, Calum, tell your mum's you're staying here for dinner," and with that she disappeared.

Michael sobered up next and watched the boys struggling to calm down in amusement. Ashton finally got up and left the room still snorting and giggling as he went. Calum kept stopping before looking at Luke and laughing again so Michael grabbed Luke's hand and pulled him from the room.

"I bet you he's still laughing," Luke said managing to quiet in seclusion.

Michael breathed out a laugh, but his eyes were on Luke's lips. They quirked up in a smile when Luke caught onto Michael's stare.

"See something you like?" Luke asked.

Michael knew it was supposed to make him blush so he ignored Luke's smirk and responded. "Hell yes," and Michael pressed his lips onto Luke's.

Their lips moved together in a dance that could never be replicated and Michael wove his hands into Luke's hair pulling him impossibly closer and deepening the kiss. Tongues were battling, but Michael let Luke take control eventually. He was new to this after all.

Luke started walking Michael against the wall when the door to the small hall they were in opened and Ashton walked in.

Michael moved to jump away from Luke, but he was trapped in his embrace and simply hid his nose in Luke's neck effectively hiding his ruby tinged cheeks. Luke's chest rumbled with laughter as Michael did this and laughed even harder at Ashton's red cheeks.