Luke swings his feet, humming quietly and smiling bigger than he's ever smiled before. He tugs at his rainbow genderflux shirt, rolling up the sleeves before adjusting the skirts its tucked into.

Calum tosses an arm around his shoulders carelessly, tugging Luke close and grinning just as much as Luke is, if not more. "Fuck, I love New York!" He yells, leaning over to bump his nose and lips against Luke's cheek. Luke laughs and tugs him closer, swaying slightly on the float they've managed to take residence on top of.

Luke had been invited to the pride parade by a few fans when he'd gone shopping a few days prior. He hadn't really thought about it much until Calum had huffed in annoyance, because he didn't know how to get involved in a pride. Luke suggested New York, Calum had bought plane tickets, and here they are.

Luke supposes they probably should have told Michael and Ashton they were leaving. It wasn't like they were sneaking around, per say, but Luke didn't think they'd want to go. Ashton's not too keen on the queer scene, and Michael's all about protecting him, lately. Besides, Ashton would have just lectured them about how irresponsible and unsafe it is to go to a pride without security measures. So, they left early in the morning, subdued Ashton and Michael via phone on the plane, and landed just in time to register.

The fans Luke had met were thrilled by their presence and put them on a front ledge of their extravagant, cloud shaped float. They were on the top, so Luke couldn't see what they were doing, but he could hear some pretty good music playing from behind them somewhere.

Luke winds his arm around Calum's waist and laughs a little, waving his rainbow flag around with his free hand. His cheeks are flushed and his hair is a mess, but he doesn't even care.

"Hey!" Calum protests, when Luke overextends his flag waving and smacks him in the face. Luke giggles again, while Calum's too happy to even muster up a reprimanding look.

"Be gay!" Luke shouts, smacking him in the face again. Calum starts laughing and Luke starts laughing and they're probably going to fall off their cloud ledge pretty soon.

The pride ends at eight, but the sun is still shining in the sky and adrenaline is pumping through Luke's veins. He doesn't want the night to end, and he knows by the grin on Calum's face that he doesn't either. They accept an invitation to go clubbing with a few of the fans that had offered up their float, stumbling along the busy streets to get to whatever club they were going to. Luke's still got his arm around Calum's waist, and Calum doesn't seem to mind.

The club is filled with people, packed wall to wall, and jumping with heavy music. The bass line thrums through Luke's bones, shaking his core and making his eardrums bounce. His cheeks are instantly flushed with warmth as he snatches up Calum's hand and allows himself to be dragged to the bar. Calum elbows his way through the faces Luke recognizes from pride, trying to get up to the bar without upsetting too many people.

Luke can't hear what he orders, but he trusts Calum not to roofie him, or anything. Calum manages to pull Luke up, pressing against his chest and slipping his fingers under the hem of Luke's skirt easily, making sure to grab his attention. He spreads his fingers out over the back of Luke's thighs and smiles, numbing his nose against Luke's left cheekbone. He cranes his neck, pressing a chaste kiss to Luke's cheek as he goes, until his lips are brushing against Luke's ear.

"Don't get lost, alright?" Calum yells, digging his short fingernails into the skin on Luke's legs. "Stay close!"

Luke nods in agreement. He doesn't even bother trying to reply, his voice would just get lost in the noise, anyway. Calum pulls away, locking his eyes with Luke's for a second, before darting forward and pressing a kiss to his mouth. He pulls back and turns to grab the shots he'd ordered off the bar before Luke can respond. Calum hands the shot over to Luke, making sure not to spill it, then knocks his own small glass against it. He says something that Luke can't hear, grinning wildly, and then downs the shot.

Luke follows eagerly, downing his own shot by throwing his head back. The alcohol burns down his throat and makes his tongue feel heavy and tingly. He shakes his head, squeezing his eyes shut and sticking out his tongue, then grins when he heard Calum laugh.

Luke likes dancing. He especially likes dancing amongst drunk people, because they're not going to remember how shit he is. He grabs Calum's hand, tugging him forward until Calum gets the hint and follows him to the dance floor.

****

Luke wakes up to a dead weight on his chest, something sticky in his hair, and a massive fucking headache. He winces when his eyes flutter open, then groans when he realizes they never closed the hotel room's curtains, allowing sun to beat in.

Calum's not anywhere close to being awake yet. He's drooling on Luke's bare chest. Luke huffs and shoves him off, making Calum flop over onto his back on the other side of the bed, laying limp and asleep, still. As an afterthought, Luke shoves two pillows under his head, just in case he throws up, or something.

There's a few missed calls from both Michael and Ashton, along with a couple texts (a string of emojis from Ashton and "dude, check Twitter," "bro, wake up," "I can't believe you went drinking without me, you prick," and "pay attention to me" from Michael). It's too early to answer them, so Luke tosses his phone next to him on the bed and sits up.

His head is still fucking pounding and the room is spinning, bright lights flashing in the corners of his vision. He whines quietly, pressing his hands to his head and dropping his mouth open like that's going to help. His tongue feels heavy and dry, which makes him whine even more. After the wave of intense pain passes and Luke's left with just a dull thudding in the middle of his brain, he crawls out of bed and lops to the bathroom. He takes some Advil and brushes his teeth before hopping in the shower to rub all the glitter and shit off his skin and the come (Probably? Hopefully Calum's?) out of his hair.

He remembers most of the night prior, with only a few pieces missing. Like how they got back to the hotel and what was in his hair. He wonders if Calum knows or if it's also in Calum's hair. As far as Luke can remember, there was a lot of dancing last night. And his thighs hurt.

After drying off and dressing in some pink sweats and a white shirt, Luke crawls back into bed with some pills and a glass of water for Calum and dials room service to order a full English. They have no idea what he's talking about, even going as far as explaining that they're in America, so Luke has to tell them exactly what he's trying to order. Down to the butter.

As soon as he hangs up with the impatient waitstaff, he dials Ashton. It rings once before he's picking up with a rushed, "Hey, are you dead?"

"Not dead," Luke says triumphantly.

"Thought the alcohol poisoning would have taken you out," Ashton explains, which makes Luke smile a little. He loves Ashton and his irrational death scenarios, honestly.

"We weren't that drunk," Luke says, trying for spiteful but ending up fond.

Ashton snorts on the other end. "Yeah, sure," he laughs a bit. There's a knock on the door, probably room service, so Luke gets up to answer it while Ashton continues. "Whatever, are you alright now? Have you had some water and a shower? Did you eat breakfast?"

"Getting there, mom," Luke swings the door open and smiles at the man in a white shirt and black tie, pushing a small cart full of food. He steps back to let him in. Ashton stays quiet while Luke thanks him and locks the deadbolt in place when he leaves again. Calum starts stirring at the smell of food.

"Your fathers been a wreck since you left," Ashton says. "He's practically pulling out his hair, he's so stressed about his babies."

There's a muffled thump, followed by Ashton giggling and Michael yelling, "Shut the fuck up!" from somewhere in the distance. Luke smiles a bit, searching through the food for something. Everything looks appetizing and he wishes Ashton would hang up so he could pick up a fork.

Calum groans lowly from the bed, giving Luke a good excuse. "Cal just woke up so I have to take care of him, I'll text you later, yeah?"

"Coming back today?" Ashton asks hopefully.

Luke rolls his eyes. "Tomorrow, probably." Ashton makes a soft, disappointed noise before bidding his farewell and hanging up.

"Was that mom and dad?" Calum mumbles from the bed, already laying on his stomach and pressing his cheek into the pillow. Luke giggles and nods, before crawling back into bed and offering Calum the pills and water off the bedside table. "Oh god, you're actually Jesus," Calum practically moans, swallowing them down before pressing his face into the pillow again.

"I know," Luke hums, then smacks Calum's ass sharply. "Now sit up, I ordered breakfast." Calum sits up obediently, grabbing at his head and groaning in pain. He opens his mouth too, Luke notices. As soon as Calum's able, he leans forward and presses his mouth to Luke's clumsily. Luke scrunches up his nose and pulls back to wipe his lips against the back of his wrist. "Morning breath. Gross."

"Too bad, so sad," Calum gives him another, chaste kiss, before leaning against the headboard and sighing. "I just love you, Lukey. You bring me breakfast and pills and water, you're incredible."

"I know," Luke agrees. "Love you too, Cally."

Calum grimaces at the nickname, but pushes though and smiles at Luke's grin.

****

They spend the day (after Calum's showered) watching stupid reality television shows and mumbling about how weird America is. Michael call, obviously, and tells Calum he sounds cute, which makes Luke throw up in his mouth a little.

Luke buys their plane tickets home, then decides to check Twitter like Michael's been pestering him to all day. There's pictures of the two of them at pride, obviously, along with a few blurry ones of them at the club, but nothing too major. He's not sure what Michael's been whining about, until he checks his account and notices he's been hacked.

There's a picture of Ashton as his icon, along with some stupid artsy graffiti picture as his header. The last twenty tweets are either pictures of Ashton and Michael or really, really bad pictures of Luke.

Luke changes everything back, then deletes all the bad pictures of him (he keeps the ones of Michael and Ashton up, because they are pretty cute). He tweets out a selfie with Calum, along with the caption "My new fav #UnstanMashton".

Michael instantly texts him the unimpressed emoji and Calum giggles in delight.

((I can't end chapters, in case you couldn't tell.

Question: where do you live?? (THIS ISNT MEANT TO BE CREEPY IM JUST GENUINELY CURIOUS?????)

Answer: Wisconsin, USofA

-M(ASHTON AF)el))