Ease [Cashton/Muke]

Chapter ninety

Luke walks into the Scorpion building and through the foyer, looking over his shoulder the whole time. The thought that paparazzi could be around at any and every moment is sickening. He gets increasingly nervous as the lift moves up the building, even if he can't discern exactly why.

Michael looks up when the elevator doors ding open and instantly rushes over to his sub, Luke was pale and shaking like a leaf.
"Luke, baby, are you okay?" Michael panics.
"I don't know." Luke's voice cracks and he falls into his dom's arms and starts to cry. He genuinely doesn't know why he's so upset. Maybe it's the stress this is causing Michael, or the stress it's putting on his body and thus the baby. Or, more likely, it's the vile thoughts about the kind of world he's bringing this child into.

"Fuck." Michael hisses, letting Luke lean on him as he shuffles back into his office. Jeanette rushes to help but she does nothing more than shut the door to give them privacy and quietly tell Michael that they can be as long as they need to be.
"I just," Luke sniffles, "I don't wanna bring up our child in a world like this. I don't want them to live their whole life not knowing what privacy and anonymity is."
"I know baby but don't worry, it'll all be okay. I promise I'm not usually papped, clearly you're just interesting. They'll calm down, they always do, and there are things we can do to prevent it and manage it. And we'll learn about it in PR training, where I'll be right by your side." Michael sits down and let's Luke flop into his lap, rubbing the younger's back soothingly as he speaks.

"But I don't wanna do PR training. I shouldn't have to do PR training just to be with my soulmate. And what about our child? Will they have to do PR training?" Luke protests coldly.
"Of course not." Michael is quick to clarify. "They just- it'll be fine."
"What were you gonna say?" Luke narrows his eyes.
"Nothing baby-"
"Don't you fucking dare lie to me then call me baby in the same sentence." Luke snaps.
"I was gonna say that they'll just grow up knowing about these sort of things." Michael hangs his head low and ashamedly.
"And they shouldn't have to!" Luke yells, nearly screams, in frustration.

Michael flinches a little but stays quiet, he can't say he blames Luke for his outburst at all.
"I know-"
"It's not fair." Luke protests, noticeably more deflated than ten seconds ago. He puts his forehead against Michael's shoulder and lets himself start crying. "It's not fair." He hiccups through sobs, voice and body weaker than Michael has ever seen it.
"I know. I know." Michael mumbles sadly, putting his forehead to Luke's shoulder blade so they're both curled in on one another.

They sit there, holding each other impossibly close, for a long time. Both their phones go off on many occasions but neither of them care enough to move. Jeanette approaches the door at one point, Michael sees it out of her peripherals, and she hesitates a moment before turning around and pretending she never considered pulling them from one another. Michael glances at the clock to see that it's nearly 8 o'clock. He and Luke had been here for nearly an hour and silent for at least 35 minutes. The loudest thing since Luke's sobbing gradually quietened was their deep, shallow and shaky breaths.

"My body feels like I couldn't move it if I tried." Luke says, his voice numb and flat. It wasn't loud but it felt it considering how long it had been since anyone talked.
"That's the anxiety talking. There are times that this is gonna be scary and I wish with everything in me that I could fix that but even all the money in the world can't stop people's curiosity. Their insatiable desire to understand and get close to us, just because they think we're something different." Michael speaks as levelly as he can, he wants Luke calm and reassured. "Even though it's easy to forget it because of how this all started, we're soulmates Luke. It was always going to be you and me against the world. The two of us, being together and working together. It's not about you. It's not about me. It's not even about this beautiful baby you're carrying, it's about all three of us."

"I love you." Luke looks up through his tears and wet lashes, staring into the eyes of the love of his life.
"I love you too. More than you could ever know." They lean in for a kiss and it's so loaded. It's loaded with everything inside them that they couldn't possibly articulate even at the best of times; about their love for one another and the strength they find in each other, mostly.

They fall back into their silence but this time their heads are up. Luke's resting sideways against Michael and Michael has his chin on Luke's shoulder. They both allow their fingers to draw soft patterns across their soulmate, sometimes words or hearts and sometimes random patterns. It's all representative of the mess of thoughts in their heads.

The next time Michael's phone goes off he sighs regretfully but shuffles around a little to access it. Unsurprisingly, there's a barrage of messages. Some from Calum, which he'll get to later, some from his parents who have now seen the article, which he will happily ignore for the time being, and some from Jeanette. Jeanette is mostly just asking how she can help and reassuring Michael that everyone is willing to wait as long as they have to.

"We can go." Luke mumbles, having caught sight of Michael's phone.
"What?" Michael mutters quietly.
"We can go out there." Luke says, pushing out a breath he didn't realise he was holding. "Go to the meeting, find out how to manage this. Go to the training, find out how to prevent it. Let's do this. Together. For us."

A/N: got real sappy at the end but hopefully you liked it, more will happen and move in the next chapter. Love you all heaps :)

-Grace Williams xo