The Hand I'll Hold // AI

Chapter 19: Like Mike

Luke's POV 

 "Yo mate! Anyone home?" I heard a familiar voice call from outside the apartment door call out. That annoying voice brought me back to reality and I felt a huge grin spread across my face.

"Mikey?!" I ran to the door and swung it open to find the now white/blond haired Aussie standing with a smug look on his face.

"The one and only." He clapped me on the back and took a step inside, "So, who was that girl I just walked past? She looked like she came back from the zoo. Mate, did you two just-"

"Oh no, no, no. She's a friend of ours, her and Ash went out to the Bamboo Forest and was basically attacked." Michael stared at me for a moment before saying anything else.

"You like her." Those three words hit me like a truck. I know this seems really dramatic, but just hearing someone else say it was enough to make my knees buckle. I do like her, but so does Ashton and that causes a lot of problems. And with everything that's going on with the band, we can't risk a girl getting between us. "Thought so."

"Well, yeah I like her, but-"

"Ash likes her, too?" I nodded in agreement. "Mate, you know what will happen if he finds out."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I learned from the last time not to tell him anything like that."

   Michael and I talked for a couple more hours, catching up on things that's been going on in our lives so far. He had met this girl Kayla from Florida and by the way he would light up when he said her name, he had really fell for her. She's apparently an intern for a zoo vet clinic and she lets him join her as a helping hand with the tiger cubs. He continued to talk about the dates they've went on, but not in a relationship way which I could tell was frustrating for him. The more he talked, the more I yearned to have Zaria beside me. She would have loved hearing about this girl and her internship, Zaria has a deep love for anything related to the feline species. She probably would've asked if they had pandas at that zoo.

"Luke. Earth to Luke!" Michael was waving his hand in front of my face.

"What?" I shook off my daze and looked at him.

"Stop thinking about that girl while I'm talking, it's rude!" He laughed and punched my arm. "You're suppose to be the 'uke' to our Muke!"

"Haha, Mikey, you know I love you!" I pulled his beanie down to cover half of his face, and pushed him down, "You're the one who's been cheating in this relationship!"

"For pity's sake, Luke! I'M TICKLISH! GET OFF!" Michael busted out laughing as I held him down and pinched his sides. I missed us being together again and having fun, he'll more than likely prank me after this. After Michael claimed he couldn't breath, we calmed down and tried slowing our breaths.

"How long will you be in Kyoto?"

"Probably about 3 days."

"Just three?" He fixed his beanie and propped his feet up on the coffee table.

"I mean, I could stay for longer, but it all depends on when Dave wants me to come back to practice. He's been teaching me new rifts, but he's dragging it out."

"Oh, I see." We were quiet for a little bit until a crash was heard from the hall to the left of us.

"Ashton?"

Zaria's POV

Tired, exhausted, and really wanting to watch anime.

   Today has been way too crazy for me to fully process, I just need to catch up on Yuri on Ice!!! and just forget everything. We nearly died... We could've been killed if it weren't for me acting like a complete fool. Not only was it embarrassing, it was unbelievably reckless on my part. I could've made the entire situation worse for us.

  I'm still concerned about Ash, though. I can't get over the awkward... tension? That we went through on the way back. It bugs me, but I don't habe time to think about little things like that. I have more important things to handle, like sleeping...

Author's Note

Hiya guys~ long time no... update? Haha
  Well, I've been on a writing strike and having to deal with some mental health issues during this (school) year. As it is my last year in high school, things are very stressful and it's surfacing some things.
  I promised myself that if I got back on Wattpad, I would try my best to update and finish this fanfiction so that I can continue on to another that I'm planning.
  I know I apologize a lot on here for me going missing, but things happen and now I think writing is going to do me some good.
  Definitely seeing how many views I've gotten on this fanfiction really motivated me to continue it for everyone who has stuck through it until now.

I do plan on ending this fanfiction, but we haven't even gotten to the middle of it yet ;3 please look forward to some exciting content~