"DO YOU WANT TO GO OUT?"

Kieran does a double-take and Michael realises the implications, before laughing awkwardly and picking at his nail.

"I mean tomorrow, as... friends, do you want to go out and get..."

"Pizza?" Kieran laughs, shuffling across on the sofa-bed and gesturing for Michael to sit down next to him.

"I was waiting for you to say that." He smiles, and Kieran very nearly lets himself slip into the trap of 'oh-my-god-his-smile-who-needs-the-sun-when-you-have-Michael-Clifford', but catching himself before that can happen.

He will not at all allow himself to fall any goddamn further in love with this impossibly adorable, definitely not punk rock boy.

---

"Calum?" Kieran mutters, clicking the home button on his phone as hard as he can repeatedly.

"What?" Calum looks up from the conundrum of his guitar not playing through the amp (Kieran doesn't have the heart to tell him it isn't plugged in).

"Mikey asked me if I want to get pizza tomorrow. But I thought he meant like a date, and then he freaked out and said he meant just as friends. Am I really that repulsive?"

Calum raises an eyebrow. "Just because I'm the local bisexual, you ask me for your opinion?"

"Well, if I ask Luke, he'll be all 'but I'm not into guys but oh no wait, I have a boyfriend', and Ashton hates me ever since I played his drum set while drunk and did it better than him."

Kieran throws his phone backwards, where it hits the cushion behind him with an alarming cracking noise.

"Well, I don't have an opinion, but Michael still thinks you're the greatest thing to ever happen to anyone ever." Calum smirks. "But you didn't hear that from me."

"Not from you. Got it. I understand."

Kieran stands up, retrieves his surprisingly uncracked phone, and walks out the main section of the house to his bedroom, trying not to focus on the intense swirling of fear whenever he considers the not-date with Michael.