Salty Skin ☾cake au

5

Luke stood in front of Calum with a sparkle in his eyes and a grin on his face that Calum couldn't help but to return with a smile. Calum walked closer to Luke, "what are you doing here? I thought you didn't want legs."

Luke looked at Calum with big eyes that could make Calum's heart melt, "you were sad when I told you I didn't want to be on land and I didn't want you to be sad so I found you."

"but... how-"

"whenever I want them, they appear and they only turn back if I make them," Luke answered the question Calum was thinking of, how Luke got his legs.

"How do you keep doing that?!" Calum finally asked. It freaked him out how Luke always knew what he was thinking.

Luke smiled, "I can hear what you're thinking."

Calum's eyes widened as he ran a hand through his hair and sat down on his bed.

Luke can hear his thoughts.

Well, that's embarrassing, Calum thought and then remembered Luke probably heard that and felt even more embarrassed.

Luke sat down next to Calum, "you don't need to be embarrassed, Calum." The tanner boy looked at him with a look of disbelief. "Okay, maybe you can be a little embarrassed," Luke admitted which made Calum cover his face with his hands and Luke laugh.

The red-faced boy took his hands from over his face and looked down at Luke's groan, "I'm gonna get you some pants."

Calum went to look through his dresser of clothes before pulling out a pair of sweatpants and a plain black t-shirt. "Here," he said, handing the clothes to Luke, "I'll start you off with something comfortable since I don't think you'd like skinny jeans," Calum laughed.

Luke stood and began stripping himself of the shirt Calum gave him and Calum blushed, turning around to give Luke some privacy. Calum breathed in and a certain scent hit his nose, making him turn around to look at Luke who luckily had pants on already, "Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"You smell like fish."

Luke lifted his hand to his face and sniffed it and sure enough, Luke really did stink of the ocean. "What do I do?" Luke asked.

"Take a shower, or a bath, for now. You might slip and fall in the shower. Come on," Luke followed Calum into the bathroom attached to his bedroom. The merman watch as Calum reached his hand into, what looked to him like a giant bowl, until water started falling from the spout. The tanner boy poured loads of bubblebath into the tub before getting a towel from the closet and handing it to Luke who was giving him a questioning look.

"Just take all your clothes off and sit in there. I'll be right in the room when you finish," Calum assured and then left the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Luke touched the water. It was hot which was strange to him but he did as Calum said and removed his clothes and got in.

Luke just sat in the warm bath, and moved the bubbles around with his hands. He picked up a colorful bottle and moved it from hand to hand as he looked at it, his eye brows furrowed. "Calum!"

Calum immediately bursted into the bathroom, "what happened?"

"What do I do, now?"

Calum laughed and mentally face palmed. Of course Luke didn't know what to do, he'd never even had legs before that day. "Okay..." Calum held his hand out for the bottle in Luke's hand and he gave it to him.

"This is shampoo," Calum explained, "you use it to wash your hair," he pointed to a bar of soap on the side of the tub, "that's soap, it's for the rest of your body," he said then handed the bottle to Luke.

Luke looked down at the bath product in his hand and then back up at Calum with innocent eyes, "can you help me?"

Calum nervously moved around with his feet, "I ca- I- um- okay."

The dark haired boy pulled a stool beside the tub and sat on it before gently taking the bottle of shampoo from Luke's hand and squeezing some onto his hand. "Turn around," Calum instructed and Luke did as told. Careful not to hurt the boy, Calum ran his shampoo covered fingers through Luke's damp hair. Luke leaned into his touch and closed his eyes as Calum massaged the shampoo into Luke's head, sending a shiver down the blonde's spine.

Calum suddenly began pouring water on Luke's head to wash all the shampoo out and Luke let his head fall at the feeling of the warm water running down his skin.

"Is it too hot," Calum asked, concerned from how quiet Luke was being. Luke hummed in response and Calum took that as a no. "Face me," Calum mumbled.

Luke shifted in the bathtub to face him and closed his eyes as Calum continued to pour water over Luke.

He watched the water trickle down Luke's gentle features and shoulders as it flattened his golden hair down against his forehead and Calum couldn't hold back a smile as Luke scrunched up his face to avoid getting any water or soap in his eyes.

Luke slowly opened his eyes and a glowing, golden- yellow color had already taken over his irises, "are you okay?" he asked the boy showering him. Calum hadn't even noticed he stopped his actions of pouring the water and had just been staring at Luke in admiration for probably half of a minute.

Calum examined the enticing color of Luke's eyes. It was interesting to him; he could easily drown in Luke's color spectrum eyes but Luke didn't even know when they changed. Calum smiled adoringly, "yeah, i'm fine."

-•-•-
i originally wanted this to be kind of a short story so, overall, it's gonna go pretty fast.

-cee :)