thief → lashton {short story} ✓

two

Ashton's POV

The alleyway in which I lived was also home to a few other people who were homeless, them more through their own fault due to their alcoholism and being drug addicts. All the money they collected went towards that whilst mine went towards food and drink, it wasn't a nice place to be and it wasn't safe most of the time given they'd try and steal my food from me. Fights often occurred but whichever alleyway I moved to, the situation was the same so I just stopped moving.

Given the nasty nature of where I lived, I was surprised to see Luke walking down it one night. It was self-explanatory to not go down alleyways in the dark but I guess it must have been pretty urgent for him to turn down here; he really shouldn't have though.

Whistling by some of the drunks down the alley caught my attention, more so when one of them called out, "What's a pretty little thing like you coming down here?"

Intrigued and concerned, I poked my head out from my resting spot only to watch as Damian backed a boy up against the wall.

"P-please, I just want to get home." The boy said and I caught a glimpse of his face. Luke.

"Oh but you're just so cute." Damian laughed and I felt my fists clench, not because it was Luke but because he was threatening a scared teenage boy.

"Can't I just give you my money or something? Please, I just want to go home."

"Oh, but I want something that'll be much better than that." The man said and trailed his hands down Luke's chest, down to his jeans. That was when I stood up to put a stop the what this man was doing.

"Hey! Leave him alone!" I shouted as I walked up to the pair of them, when Damian didn't move I decided to force him to.

Grabbing him, I shoved him away from Luke as I spat, "I told you to leave him alone." Luke edged his way behind me, obviously afraid of the man in front of me.

"No one comes down here, Ash, I'm bored. Let me have a little fun." Damian begged and I punched him when he tried to reach for Luke again, just because he was lonely doesn't mean he could try and sexual harass someone.

"Stay away from him, go get help for your damn alcohol problem and you may get your life back on track so you don't have to be bored." I spat before taking Luke's hand and leading him the rest of the way through the alleyway, to make sure he was safe.

Once we got out, I stopped him and noticed he was shaking. "Hey, you're ok." I said and Luke nodded.

"T-thank you for helping me, I'm not good at dealing with stuff like that." Luke admitted and I frowned because it sounded as though he was implying he's dealt with it before, which wasn't very pleasant to think about.

"You've had this before?" I questioned, wanting to clarify.

"M-my boyfriend." Was all he said and I frowned once again, for more than one reason this time. "That's why I was in such a rush to get home, my boyfriend and I got in a fight because he doesn't really have a switch off when I've said no to him when he wants to, you know..." Luke trailed off and I shot him a sympathetic smile to supress the anger I felt, Luke had been kind to me over the past few days and so I apparently felt a connection with him that wasn't evident until now.

"Come on, I'll walk you home." I said and tugged him to start walking so I could follow him home, to make sure he got there ok.

"Thank you." Luke said once again before we started walking and it was embarrassing at how fast Luke was managing to chip away at my bitter exterior.

"It's the least I could after you've been so nice to me this week, I don't usually get such kindness and most people don't chip away at me exterior as fast as you have so I'm only repaying a kindness." I said, smiling over at the blonde.

"Well, I'm glad. I don't have a lot of friends and so it'll be nice to have one." Luke replied and I frowned for the third time that evening.

"Why don't you have many friends?"

"Boyfriend." Was all he said and I nodded once again, feeling annoyed at the man I'd never met for making Luke feel as he did. I may be a thief and I made be tough but that didn't mean I didn't have a heart which right now was aching for Luke because I felt so bad for him.

Maybe I could put my bitterness to use for Luke's sake, be a badass for a good cause. It was something to think about anyway.

"Do you live alone?" I asked as we neared to his home, he lived in a nice neighbourhood and I was assuming that his job didn't pay him enough to be able to live here on his own.

"No, I'm living with my brother and his girlfriend because my parents are away a lot and it's better for me to live with them when they're away. It took them ages to get a place round here and so don't have a lot of spare cash, my wages go to them so they can afford to let me live with them." Luke explained and I felt a little bad at having made him pay for my food now out of his wages, since he really didn't have a lot.

Luke abruptly stopped walking and I turned to face him outside of what presumably was his house. "So, you got home safely, I should probably go back now." I said and began to try and walk back the way I came but Luke stopped me.

"Hey, do you want to stay the night? You can shower, have some of my clothes and obviously some food." He offered and I smiled at his kindness.

"Ok." Was all I said for him to quickly pull me into his house, wasn't going to turn down free stuff now was I?

(Word Count: 1060)