Me. // Lashton

twenty-seven

'If you'd follow me now Mr Irwin?'
Ashton nodded and followed the young man through the building, down a couple of hallways and past several doors.
The drummer had to pass another body check and he felt like he was entering a prison.
He didn't mind the stops on their way though, because he was quite nervous to say the least.
Unsure of how Luke was, he would see him now for the first time in two weeks.

'Okay', the young man spoke up again and wrote something down, before looking up at Ashton and pointing at a door.

'This is his room. The visiting hours are from 3pm until 6pm', he was informed and then left alone. Hesitant at first, he knocked on the door, waiting to be let in, but it stayed quiet.
With furrowed eyebrows, he decided to just go in and was met with the reason of Luke's silence.

The blonde was sound asleep on the hospital bed, his limbs uncomfortably scrawled across the bed and his mouth slightly opened, a small puddle forming underneath it.

With a fond look on his face, Ashton closed the door as quietly as possible and walked up to the bed. Before he woke his boyfriend up, he took his time to look at him.
Luke looked exhausted.
His skin was pale and he had dark circles under his eyes. His hair was still a mess and desperately needed a proper haircut. But no matter how many negative things he noticed, he still thought that Luke was the most beautiful human being he had ever laid his eyes on.

Suddenly, the urge to see the boy's blue eyes and to feel his touch again got unbearable, so he moved closer and softly caressed Luke's cheek.
The soft touch was enough to make Luke's eyes flutter open, soon widening as he realized who had woken him up.

'Ash', he exclaimed with a raspy voice and sat up on his knees, almost falling out of the bed as he threw himself in Ashton's arms.

'Careful darling', Ashton mumbled, but wrapped his arms tightly around his boyfriend, being endlessly happy to see him again.

'I missed you so much', the blonde mumbled, not even thinking about letting go yet. The past two weeks had been rough for Luke and all he had wanted was to see Ashton again.
Now the physical part of his challenging life change was almost over and the physical part started.
Soon, it was entirely on Luke to resist the urge of his addiction, at least when he would come home in a few weeks.
Until then, he had to regularly visit therapy sessions and join a group of people that all had a past as alcoholics, even though Luke really hated to think of himself as an alcoholic.
Sure, he had drowned his worries in liquor, but he could've stopped and the fact that he had suffered due to the withdrawal was pretty much erased from his mind already.

'I missed you too, how are you?'
Luke's legs were wrapped around Ashton's waist at some point and the drummer sat down on the bed, keeping Luke on his lap and holding him close the whole time.

'I'm okay, how're you?', Luke asked, immediately avoiding to talk about himself. Even though his stay in the clinic would still continue, he wanted to forget all of this as fast as possible.
He wasn't proud of himself, not at all, but now the only thing he could do was getting better and going home.

'I'm good. I missed you, but now I'm good', Ashton answered and started drawing circles with his thumb in Luke's back.

'But how are you really? I know that you suffered Lukey, but no one will tell me anything and I'm just worried.'
It was the truth.
Ashton was Luke's boyfriend, yes, but he wasn't family. That meant that Luke had to inform him about any kind of progress or change in the treatment.

'Ash', Luke whined, about to change topic again, when Ashton pecked Luke's lips and looked at him with the most vulnerable look on his face. Luke could see how much Ashton cared, his eyes held so much love and worry, he just had to finally give in and at least try to make his stay in the clinic for Ashton bearable.
It was only fair to be truthful to him, because in the end Ashton had always been there for him.

'Fine', Luke mumbled with a sigh, 'it was hard, yeah. I was freezing but sweating, I was throwing up and I couldn't sleep for two days. After those two days, I started to get better and could sleep again, I could eat a bit and didn't throw up anymore. I was still freezing, but rather due to the lack of food. That's why I dropped a few pounds and uhm, yeah. Here I am?'

'How's eating now?', Ashton questioned, leaning his head against Luke's shoulder. The blonde sat a little further away from the drummer now, making it possible to look at each other.

'It's better. I can eat breakfast, but only late. I sometimes throw up in the morning, but my doctor said that's due to stress.'

'And lunch? Dinner?'

'Uh, I prefer soup at the moment. Everything else is too much at the moment.'

'Hm okay. As long as you eat, that's fine', Ashton said and an uncomfortable silence fell over them. It was as if they had forgotten how to act around each other and how easy it used to be to talk to each other.
Maybe it was the fact that this had been the first time in weeks or even months that Luke had been sober, but when Ashton went home that day, he felt empty.