"Little Blue, I know it's hard, but you've gotta take your mind off it, okay?"

Luke kept bouncing his leg, picking at the sparkly purple nail polish on his fingers, standing up and looking out the window, then sitting back down and repeating the fidgeting process again. It was starting to make Ashton a little anxious, but he knew Luke was upset, understandably so.

"Hemmings?" A nurse popped her head out the door. Luke shot up and rushed over to her. "Your dad is stable for the moment, he wants you back in."

Luke and Ashton had gotten to the hospital around 6 that morning when the nurse called and informed them that his dad wasn't doing well that day and they didn't know what was going to happen. It had been an hour since the nurse asked them to leave the room and they sat outside until they could see him again. Liz was allowed to stay, but there were too many people with her, both boys and the nurses and doctors.

Luke rushed in the moment she finished speaking and only relaxing marginally once he saw his dad sitting up in bed.

He looked significantly worse than yesterday. The pink hue that had been on his cheeks the last two days was gone, instead replaced with a pale grey, sickly-looking skin. He looked exhausted, and there were even more tubes and wires attached to him now.

"Dad," Luke started tearing up as he looked at the shell of the man he'd grown up with.

"Hey, it's okay, bud," He lifted his arm to have Luke go sit with him but started coughing. Liz fussed around, adjusting his pillows and making sure he was comfortable when he was able to stop. "I'm all right, thank you, hon." he looked and smiled adoringly at his wife. Ashton stood behind Luke with a comforting arm on his shoulder.

"Are you sure you're fine? You don't look great," Luke knelt at his bedside, hearing whispers behind him from his mum and boyfriend.

"I feel tired," he shrugged. "Cancer sucks,"

"Yeah," Luke choked out, unable to stop the tears from falling. Andrew lifted a shaky hand to wipe them away.

"Hey, there's no need for that," he lifted his face into a small smile. "It'll be okay, Lukey, I'm ready."

"Dad, no!" Luke gasped, gripping the hand clasped in his infinitely tighter.

"Hey, not right now, all right? But I'm so proud of who you are, I can go knowing you can take care of yourself if you need, but that you also have people with you."

Luke narrowed his tear-stained eyes.

"None of that, okay? I don't want you to go,"

"I will be here with you no matter what, yeah?" With a cheesy half-smile, he pointed to Luke's heart.

He sniffled, nodding.

"Hey, Lukey, I called your brothers. They should be coming today to spend a bit of time here," Liz said quietly from behind him.

"Oh, I haven't seen them in so long," Luke muttered as he stood up and looked around the room, mind reeling as he processed this information. She and Ashton had matching looks of concern on their faces as they observed the distraught blonde wobbling unsteadily in front of them.

Luke knew if his brothers were coming, it probably wasn't good. That meant his dad was really dying. And soon.

"I need to use the bathroom," he whispered,  smiling brokenly in no ones direction before rushing out of the room. Once he'd stepped away he started running down the hall, not knowing or caring where he was going. He stopped once he came across a small waiting area and threw himself into a chair, bursting into tears as soon as he sat down.

Moments later, he felt someone pull him into their arms and begin rocking back and forth, but he couldn't open his eyes long enough to figure out who it was. Judging by the faint smell of cologne he would recognize anywhere and how peaceful he felt wrapped up in them, he assumed it was Ashton. Once the person began pressing kisses to his hair and whispering little encouragements, he was sure.

"A-A-Ash,"

"Hey, take your time," Ashton urged at his gasping. He needed to take some breaths and calm down before he could talk. Gently, Ashton ran his fingers through Luke's hair, the blonde leaning into the comforting touch. "It'll be all right, Sweetheart, I promise, okay? You've endured some tough times recently, but we'll get through this together, yeah?"

"Yeah," he managed after a couple of moments. "Together,"

Ashton asked if he'd like to go back to the room, and they made their way back hand in hand. Thankfully Ashton knew where they'd gone because Luke had not been paying attention. It's hard to look for directions when you're crying your eyes out.

"Lu," Liz gasped when he came back, rushing over to hold her son.

"I'm sorry,"

"It's okay, honey, I know it's a lot to take in, hmm?"

He nodded. He felt like a baby, he should be strong for his family, not force them to comfort him. As the thought passed through his brain, he instantly knew what Caity would say if he told her that.

"The reason you have friends and family is to rely on them. If you keep everything in and don't share it, it'll destroy you."

Luke hugged his mom tightly.

"I'm scared."

"Me too, love, me too." She pulled away and they shared a look.

It was almost comforting to know that someone else knew exactly how he was feeling. Having someone to share his pain with made it easier somehow.

"We're a family," Andrew looked at the three people standing in his room in turn. "It's not going to be easy, but we all will help each other."

"That's right, hon." Liz smiled.

Luke nodded, sitting on the side of his dad's bed and taking his hand.

"I love you,"

"I love you more,"

Luke smiled at the phrase his parents always used to quote when he was a kid. He and Ashton had their "forever and always" saying, but as a child whenever Luke would tell his parents he loved them, they'd say they loved him more and it would go back and forth. He'd sort of forgotten about that until now.

"Hey, Lukey?" Ashton hated to interrupt his cute moment with his dad, but he knew it was necessary. He nodded his head for Luke to come over, and he did, walking over to the window where Ashton was standing. "I think that since we're in Florida, we need to take some time to explore the area. What would you say to going on a little date with me this afternoon?"

Luke smiled happily, that would be fun. But then he looked over and saw his dad sitting in the hospital bed.

"I would love to, but I don't think I can leave, it's just—"

Ashton opened his mouth to protest, but Andrew was quicker.

"Oh Lucas, you don't need to stay here on my account, all right? You're young, go have fun. Why be sad sitting here when you can go to the aquarium!"

"You want to go to the aquarium?" Luke looked at his boyfriend skeptically.

"I did some research before we got here, and there's an aquarium nearby here, as well as a zoo and a beach."

"You hate fish," Luke accused. Ashton thought aquariums were boring and a waste of time. 'Why pay for a ticket to go to a place to look at fish when you can do the same thing at a pet store or online for free? The experience is practically the same," He always said.

"But you don't. And," he paused for dramatic effect, "There's penguins there."

Luke bit his lip to contain a squeal of excitement. It felt wrong being so giddy while his dad was literally dying next to him, but he saw how happy his dad looked at his expression, and figured it was okay.

"Go, Lukey. We'll be okay here," Liz walked over and hugged him. "It'll be fine for an afternoon."

"Okay," he agreed reluctantly. "But I want updates if anything happens,"

"Okay, if something major happens we will call," Liz nodded.

"But nothing is going to," Andrew told him. "So try to forget about me for a bit and enjoy yourselves."

"I'll tell you all about it when we get back, dad."

"I've got all sorts of surprises planned today," Ashton told him, sharing a grin with Andrew. They'd discussed this earlier, Ashton ran their game plan by him, first to make sure it was okay that he did that, and second because he wanted to make sure Luke really would enjoy the day.

"Okay, let's go then, Sweets. We've got a full day planned."

Luke kissed his mom on the cheek, and then sat down on his dad's bed. He heard Ashton saying something to his mom but again ignored them. His dad hugged him, and reminded him again to enjoy himself and not worry about him.

"I do love you, dad,"

"I love you, Lukey. Now go. Your handsome guy is waiting impatiently for you. He's very excited to spend this day with you,"

Luke grinned, watching Ashton bounce in place by the door. He didn't want to rush Luke's goodbye, but he also was very excited.

"Bye Lukey,"

He shook his head.

"Not goodbye. See you later, dad, I'll be back tonight." He looked at Ashton. "Maybe we could pick up something for dinner?" Ashton nodded and he turned back to his dad with a smile.

"Sounds great. See you later, son,"

Luke headed out the door, taking one last glance before pushing thoughts of his parents away and focusing on Ashton.

"Let's go, Ashy!"

***

"Where are we going first?" Luke was bouncing in the passenger seat of his mum's car like a child, impatiently waiting for Ashton to give him the itinerary for the day.

He was determined to make this date day the best day ever. They were out in Florida, they had the time to do whatever they wanted, and not even his dad's condition was going to make him worry too much. He had permission to do this which made him feel better. He wasn't being selfish by taking some time for himself and Ashton.

"It's a surprise, Cupcake," Ashton smirked from the driver seat as he weaved in and out of the downtown Tampa traffic. Luke groaned, sliding down in his seat.

"I just wanna know," he whined.

Ashton chuckled, shaking his head good-naturedly at Luke's childish antics.

"You will when we get there. And your dad already ruined most of the surprise, so you know all my plans already,"

"I don't even remember what he said,"

"Yes!" Ashton cheered. "Then I'm definitely not telling you anymore," Luke gasped but settled into his seat properly.

"Thank you for doing all this, babe. It's kind of a nice way to keep my mind off things,"

"All I want is for you to be happy,"

Luke took Ashton's hand that was resting on the gear shift and took it to his lips pressing kisses to the rings on his knuckles.

"Being with you makes me happy,"

"Cute," Ashton winked at him, taking his hand back so he could turn into a parking lot. "You make me happy too, darling. Now, are you ready for the first stop?"

Luke looked up and saw the sign for the Tampa Aquarium and squealed.

"PENGUINS!" He didn't even wait for Ashton to fully stop the car before slipping out and dancing around while he waited for Ashton to get out.

"Can you calm down, love?" Ashton couldn't contain his smile at the excitement Luke was exhibiting, but there were quite a few people looking at them and he didn't think Luke would like that.

"How can I calm down when I get to see penguins?" He grabbed Ashton's hand and started running through the parking lot.

"Two tickets, please," Ashton said to the teller once they got to the booth separating Luke from the penguins.

"58.72," the girl told him, sliding two tickets under the plastic that separated them. Ashton handed over his card and she rang them up, giving it back and telling them to have a good day.

"Where are the penguins," Luke couldn't hold it in any longer, he'd waited the whole time they were in line and they had to go there first, they just had to. He ignored Ashton's snickering behind him.

"They're toward the back, if you go outside, take the door on the left and follow the signs," she said in a bored voice. She was used to customers' overexcited questions, but usually they came from children under ten, not grown men.

"Thanks!" he grabbed his ticket and his boyfriend and they set off for the exhibit.

"Slow down, Luke, you almost took down that four-year-old," Ashton scolded, keeping up with Luke's fast pace just so he could stop him from wreaking havoc on small children.

"Move, bitch," Luke whispered, keeping his eyes focused on where he was going.

"Luke!" Ashton chastised, unable to his the surprise (and amusement) from his voice.

The penguin-loving boy groaned unhappily, but slowed his pace marginally, letting Ashton catch up with him, and finally they made it to the penguin exhibit.

There was a huge outdoor area set up with all sorts of rocks for the penguins to walk over and huge pools with waterfalls. Luke gasped as he walked over to the glass and pressed his nose to it so he could watch them.

He laughed as they waddled around, his eyes wide and not missing a single detail. Ashton stepped back and admired the way Luke's entire body relaxed, he exuded happiness and purity. It was moments like this Ashton knew he was in love.

"Look! Look at that one!" Luke pointed at one of the penguins with yellow by his beak who was getting ready to jump into the water. Luke giggled when he did, his head popping back up from the water moments later. "He's coming over here!"

The penguin swam right over, perching himself right by the glass that let people see into the water. Luke was in awe as he watched, then the penguin swam away as other people came over.

"They really seem to like you," a new voice proclaimed. Luke reluctantly drew his attention away from the penguins to focus on another boring human. It was one of the workers, she was dressed in a black polo shirt with the Tampa Aquarium logo on it, but she wore tan overalls over it with knee-high brown galoshes.

"Well, he really likes them, too." Ashton rolled his eyes, putting his arm around Luke.

"They're my favorite," Luke told her.

"I get what you mean. They're so cute to watch as they waddle and swim," she pointed at one of the little ones swimming in front of them. "They can swim up to ten miles an hour, fast little buggers," she chuckled.

"Well, Gentoos, the fastest penguin can top speeds over 20," he said as he looked over at two penguins who were knocking into each other on a rock. "But most of the time the average penguin will swim around 4-7 mph,"

The girl looked at him impressed, even Ashton wasn't sure where this was all coming from. She wiggled her eyebrows at Ashton before going to stand next to Luke. She wanted to see just how much he knew.

"Did you know they can dive about 500 feet?" she said casually. That wasn't right, but she wanted to see if he would correct her.

"I think it's actually 800, and there's been an Emperor Penguin recorded at 1,850 feet. Those huge depths require a great lung capacity; the longest-known dives have lasted up to 22 minutes." Luke told her, keeping his eyes inside the exhibit.

The girl and Ashton looked at each other in shock at the tall blonde's knowledge.

"Ash, did you know that scientists can locate penguins from space using their poop? They excrete so much, it's actually able to be seen all the way in space,"

"You sure know a lot," the girl said. She'd even learned something from this kid.

He shrugged, still watching the penguins.

"They're cool birds, who wouldn't want to learn a lot about them?"

"Since you know so much, how would you feel about helping me with a demonstration in an hour?"

Luke tore his gaze from the little babies and looked at her.

"Really?"

"Yeah, you know so much, I would be a fool not to let you help out."

"Can you do that?" Ashton asked her, though he knew if she was asking, it probably was.

"Of course, my boss won't mind. Let's get you two fitted up in some coveralls and boots, then you can come in the back and help feed them, and we'll go over the demo."

Ashton for sure thought Luke would be like a kid on a sugar high at this news, but he just nodded cooly and followed her toward a secret gate at the back of the penguin house.

"My name's Trixie, by the way," She said as she scanned her employee badge and let them through.

"I'm Ashton, this apparent penguin expert is Luke."

"Nice to meet you both."

Trixie led them through a locker room and started rummaging through the pairs of stained brown pants.

"Geez, you both are so tall, I hope we've got something that'll fit you," she muttered after sizing them up to see what she'd need. Thankfully one of their part-time summer workers was over 6 feet tall, so they had extras of his outfits lying around. She found two and tossed them over.

"Shoe size?"

She got them boots once they told her their size and then grinned as she looked over at them.

It was funny seeing them wearing the overalls, they didn't quite look like they fit that look; the both of them, though they were wearing nice shirts, looked more like ripped skinny jeans and band shirts kind of people. They gave off that causal vibe.

"Perfect! Ready to go meet some penguins?"

Luke nodded his head so quickly Ashton thought it was going to fly off, but they followed Trixie out the door and suddenly, there were penguins.

Luke laughed gleefully as penguins started swarming him.

"Do you want to feed them?" Trixie asked, appearing behind him with a bucket of fish. He nodded, accepting the bucket and handing out fish to the slippery birds.

Ashton smiled, taking his phone from the pocket of the overalls and recording his precious boyfriend's time with the penguins.

He'd taken a couple of pictures from before and sent that, along with the video to Luke's dad. He thought the older man would like that.

"How much do you know about king penguins?" Trixie asked Luke as she took a couple of fish from the bucket he was holding.

"All sorts of things, like they don't build nests but keep the eggs under their skin to protect them, they walk slowly and don't hop, they hatch naked and grow feathers later on..."

He stalled at Trixie's impressed look.

"What?"

"Want to teach the kids about the penguins when the show starts? I'll take care of the training, but if you want to talk about the penguins, you're more than welcome to."

"That's allowed?"

"I think my boss would be more upset if I let a penguin expert walk away without teaching about them," they laughed together, and Luke agreed.

Trixie showed Ashton where he could sit during the show and be able to record Luke. Ashton sat in a plastic chair, nearby the front of the exhibit. It was a perfect view.

He sat down and got comfortable when a little blue penguin came over and walked into his foot.

"Sorry, little guy," Ashton moved his foot so he could get through, but the penguin continued to walk around him, circling his chair and knocking into his legs. "Lu, why is this happening?"

Luke looked over at Ashton's distraught face and giggled.

"I think he likes you, babe!" Luke called.

"Help me,"

Luke shrugged.

"Nah, I think you're good, you would do well making new friends,"

"Gah!" Ashton squealed when it flapped its little wings at him. He tried getting up and walking away, but the penguin followed him.

"Ashton, it's fine, just let him be!" Luke told him.

"Yeah, Ashton, let him be," Ashton mocked to himself. "Because penguins are cute and nice, not vengeful little demons," he hissed to the little water bird by his feet.

He quickly got over his distaste when he saw Luke hit his stride during the show. He could barely keep his eyes off his boyfriend as he walked around, throwing a random fish to a bird, pointing out facts about the penguin as Trixie showed them off. It really was fun to watch him so passionate about something.

"Ash!" Luke ran over to him once the show ended. Ashton had moved to the corner so he could record, and answer a phone call in the semi-quiet (although that one penguin who kept harassing him followed him and gaked at him, so it was a bit hard to hear, but he managed.)

"Hey, Sweetheart," he wrapped Luke in a huge hug, but Luke wriggled out of his hold, bouncing in front of him.

"That was so cool, Ashton! Did you see me?"

"Of course, Sweetheart, I could hardly keep my eyes off of you,"

Luke's eyes were shining brightly, his face flushed as he looked at his boyfriend.

"This was the best ever!"

"I'm so glad you thought so," he smiled.

"You okay?"

"Hm? Yeah," he shook his head. "I was just thinking. Can't get the image out of my head of you with a penguin on your back,"

"That was so cool, right?" Trixie had Luke sit down and then called a couple of penguins over to climb on him. It was a new trick they'd recently learned and the penguin trainer knew the animals liked Luke enough to try it out. It went over well with the crowd and was pretty cool.

"It was,"

Luke went over to watch a couple of penguins up close, and then Trixie told them it was probably time for them to go. She led them to the room so they could change out of their penguin clothes.

Ashton was more than glad to get rid of that mean little bird. Luke affectionately named him "Little Ash" during the show. "Big Ash" was not pleased.

"This was so much fun, Ashy," Luke told him as they were leaving the locker room.

"I'm so glad, Princess."

"Did you plan that?"

"What do you mean?"

Luke stopped and looked at him.

"Did you organize that with the aquarium or did we really just happen upon an employee who thought I was an amateur penguinist?"

"Is 'penguinist' even a real thing?" Ashton raised an eyebrow.

Luke rolled his eyes, smiling fondly at his super thoughtful boyfriend.

"I love you, so so much. Thank you for knowing exactly what I need."

"I do my best," Ashton tipped his head.

"You do better than that,"

They walked around the aquarium for a couple of minutes, looking quickly at some of the fish. Ashton found a squid he thought was cool but otherwise was unimpressed with the aquarium. Luke told him they could leave if he wanted.

"It's up to you, Angel, this is your day." Ashton watched the sharks as he spoke. "I do have other things planned, but it's nothing time-sensitive if you're having fun here."

"Naw, let's go to the next thing. I'm sure it's going to be just as awesome as here,"

***

Fluffy Lashton fluffy Lashton fluffy Lashton supremacyyyyyy

My FBI agent: wtf is she googling penguin facts for now? The other day it was bank robberies and how to hack into computers, now she's looking at penguins?

Sorry to confuse you mate ❤️ that's the way of a writer lmao

Hope you're all having a good day! I had a pretty rough shift tonight at the hospital, so I wanted to publish this tonight. It was nice to get back into it. 

~ashtonfortherwin