Ease [Cashton/Muke]

Chapter seventy eight

[translations at the end]

"How's it going? How was the show last night?" Michael asks over the phone, relaxing into his deep couch and feeling content as he stares out at the Sydney skyline. It was 9pm in Sydney on Sunday but only 7am in New York, where Calum and Ashton were getting ready to leave their hotel and head to the airport for Tokyo.
"Yeah, really well. Ashton did amazing in his final show last night. He loves it now, my little model." Calum grins, making Ashton blush and bury his head in his dom's chest.
"That's great, congratulations Ashton. Well done."
"Thank you." Ashton mumbles quietly.

"How are you doing?" Calum asks after a moment.
"Fantastic. I'm going to buy a house in the suburbs for Luke and I, he'll finish school in a month and then we'll move in together. His parents took it pretty well, were pleased when they discovered I'm financially stable. We're trying to not think too far ahead and plan much baby things before for now, so he can focus on school while he's there." Michael rambles excitedly.
"That's good as, I'm really happy for you." Calum smiles, honestly ecstatic everything worked out between Michael and Luke.
"Thanks." Michael grins, even if his previously never lonely apartment now feels different without Luke's presence.

"Sorry to cut short but we'd best get going, gotta pack and head to the airport. Thanks for the chat, see you soon." Calum sighs.
"Bye, enjoy Tokyo." Michael bids farewell as the call ends, throwing his phone across the couch and letting out a big breath. He's had a lot on his mind this week.

After a stressful morning and time in the airport in New York, which Calum believes to have been inevitable anyway, they touch down in Tokyo in what is Monday afternoon local time. Ashton is immediately enamoured by it all. Before this trip Ashton had never left Australia so he follows Calum particularly closely through the airport, but they're soon meeting someone that Calum seems to be familiar with by the baggage carousel.

"こんにちわ、フッドさん" The man smiles warmly.
"こんにちわ、たかはしさん. Ashton, this is Akira Takahashi, he's my driver when I'm in Tokyo. たかはしさん、これわおれのネコだ , 「Ashton Irwin」." Calum's Japanese is completely fluent, though Ashton wouldn't actually know if it wasn't. Nonetheless, Ashton is very caught off guard by it.
"You speak Japanese?" Ashton splutters.
"Yes sweets." Calum chuckles, staring at the line of bags along the conveyor belt.
"I can't believe I didn't know." Ashton mumbles.
"We haven't been in Japan, there'd be no way for you to know." Calum shrugs.

They collect their bags and follow Akira out to the car, a sleek silver thing.
"Are you tired darling?" Calum asks softly.
"A little," Ashton yawns. "I've never dealt with jet lag before, it's hard."
"That's alright." Calum kisses the younger's temple. "We're going back to the hotel now and you can stay and sleep while I visit the office for a few hours."
"So... I'll be alone... in a foreign city..." Ashton says quietly.
"Takahashi-san can stay if you want, and I promise the building has good security. I'm only a phone call or a text away at anytime, I promise."
"Okay." Ashton frowns.
"I'm so sorry sweetheart, I wish it didn't have to be like this. Unfortunately I have to work. I know you didn't sleep much on the plane so rest now, then we'll walk the streets of Tokyo and have dinner, then tomorrow you can come with me to the office." Calum apologises, hugging Ashton a little tighter.

"It's okay sir. I understand. And, uh, Takash- Taka- he doesn't have to stay."
"Are you sure?" Calum furrows his brows.
"I promise. I think I'd feel more comfortable alone, I can always call you if I need?"
"Of course sweets. And all the hotel staff will speak English, most people do. I just speak Japanese while I'm here so I stay in practice." Calum reassures as they pull up in front of the lavish hotel, though Ashton shouldn't be surprised considering how nice their place in New York was.

Calum stays at the hotel until Ashton is well and truly settled into their room, before regretfully saying goodbye and hopping back in the car to be able to head to work. Calum likes working from the Tokyo office when he does, provides a good breath of fresh air. It allows him to work with more of his employees, see more of his company. Japan was where just about all of the manufacturing was done and where they also had the Asia head office, which was their most popular continent in terms of numbers of sales.

Ashton unpacks a little, though they'll only be here a day and a half. He's worried he'll have trouble sleeping at 4pm local time but as soon as his head hits the pillow, he's out like a light. He had about four hours of sleep on the fourteen hour flight here.

"Hi darling." Calum softly strokes Ashton's hair. He got back from the office a little before 7pm and knew he needed to wake Ashton up, both for dinner and the sake of Ashton sleeping well tonight.
"Hey." Ashton mumbles, slowly stirring awake.
"We should go out for dinner, explore a little bit. You shouldn't sleep too much now or you won't sleep tonight."
"Okay," Ashton yawns as he slowly sits up. He and Calum instinctively go in for a kiss.

When they're walking the busy streets of Tokyo Ashton can't help but stare as if he's never seen in colour before. Everything is so bright and captivating. They stop at a small hole-in-the-wall sort of restaurant that Calum frequents whenever he's town for business. Every time they're tasked with communicating to the locals Ashton freezes a little with nervousness and Calum just soothingly rubs the back of his hand while effortlessly speaking Japanese. Every single time, without fail, that Calum slips into Japanese, Ashton stares fondly at his dominant. On the one hand he feels incredibly stupid and uncultured and on the other hand it inspires him to want to learn another language. He could learn Japanese and practice with Calum or learn something completely different to add more diversity to their household.

They fall back into their suite close to 10pm, much later than anticipated considering how tired they were. Ashton definitely wants to come back -fortunate for him, Calum visits every two to three months for work- and he can't wait to see the factories and Tokyo offices tomorrow.

A/N: I am fully aware this is a whole week late I am so sorry. I had trouble getting Japanese in. I have an incredible Japanese translator, Kie, love you, but whenever I copied Japanese characters in Wattpad wouldn't recognise them. Anyway it was a whole fiasco. I'll be posting a whole week's worth of updates that I missed today and tomorrow if I don't get it all done now.

I added an extra scene to the end of chapter seventy seven so check that out if you haven't already AND has a reward for hitting 15k reads in doing a character ask, info in the previous part.

Lots of love and thank you for the endless patience.

-Grace Williams xo

Translation:

"Hello, Mr. Hood " The man smiles warmly.
"Hello, Mr Takahashi. Ashton, this is Akira Takahashi, he's my driver when I'm in Tokyo. Mr. Takahashi, this is my «kitten»,「Ashton Irwin」."

(T/n note: in Japanese, the word I used here, for cat, also represents a submissive person in a relationship).