"WAKE UP! WE HAVE TO DO THINGS!"

"Shut up, Ashton." Luke groans, dragging a pillow out from behind his head and throwing in the rough direction of Ashton's voice (but actually missing by like five meters).

"Stop being gay and get out of bed!" Kieran shouts from the other room, and the duo finally give in, sitting up.

Calum laughs from around the corner of the door. "Luke, you have sex hair. Not telling me something?" Ashton being the immature person he is, he starts to laugh uncontrollably, before high-fiving the other boy.

"We're married, we're overage, we're allowed." Cole retorts, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes before beginning to redress.

There's the usual soft silence as they prepare themselves for the day ahead (most of it is mental - they do have to be near Ashton, to be fair). This sort of silence is the kind they both revel in - their relationship has had its fair share of disquiet and anger in the air, and so being able to just live in it is blissful.

Finally, the room is back to not looking like they've been screwing around in it - literally - and the duo meet up with the others in the corridor between their rooms. They're half-expecting to have to deal with everyone for another day, but to their surprise, Michael smiles and denies their theory.

"No, you two get to go off on your own today." He presses his hands against Luke's left shoulder and Cole's right, before forcing them to move in the opposite direction to everyone else. "We are here for you two to have fun, and not to look after us."

Luke laughs softly. "Finally, you all acknowledge that you're awful and immature and I've had to babysit you for the last five years." He hugs his arms as he says it, and Cole tries to tear his eyes away from the white scars coating them. He hates the constant reminder.

Ashton waves at them as Cole throws an arm around Luke's waist and they begin to walk out, aware of the fact that every single person, even the ones who have never heard of the band, is staring intently at them.

"Remind me, what's Japan's stance on the gays?" Luke whispers with a smile, and Cole leans his head on Luke's shoulder as they turn down the street and away from the others.

"They like it. Haven't you seen Yuri on Ice? That's like the gayest anime ever."

"Tell me more." He replies in a low tone, and Cole grins, trying to remember the few things he learnt from sporadic Google searches.

"Monks used to be in open gay relationships. So did samurai. Then during the war, it was a little less accepted, but we're good now. It's completely legal, Buddhism and Shintoism don't frown upon it, and discrimination and hate crime based on it is one hundred percent illegal, but we can't adopt."

Luke raises an eyebrow, before smirking. "Who wants kids anyway? Plus, if it's legal, that means I can do this."

He leans down and presses his lips to Cole's lightly, and they both ignore the obvious gasps from literally everyone - they clearly haven't seen Yuri on Ice either.