A/N: The last chapter was actually part 30 by the way, I just wanted to mention that because I named it Twenty One and it's not actually twenty one...

Luke had never been invited to dinner with Ashton's family, definitely not by Ashton's mother. Sure, she didn't mind having him over but Luke wasn't Ann's favourite person in the world.

He was fretting a half hour before he was scheduled to knock on the door. He'd gotten out of the shower and had been standing in front of his closet for at least ten minutes. He had no idea what to wear.

It's not like he spent hours trying on outfits, it's just that he wanted to look fine enough that even Overdramatic Owen would take another look. He hadn't met the guy yet, but homophobic people tended to be slightly over the top when wording their opinions. You don't like man on man, got it, keep it to yourself.

He chose a simple outfit, black skinnies with a black tank top that spelt out YOU COMPLETE MEss in large white lettering. He topped it off with a simple dark denim jacket that he'd decorated with a few small pins. He went all out on his hair though, no use hiding it under a toque today. He probably spent the most time trying to make his hair stay up but this was essential in the ensemble he'd thought up. When he'd finally sprayed himself with a small amount of cologne it was just about time for him to leave.

The hardest part about getting to Ashton's house was actually the trip, he didn't have a ride there so he would have to break out his longboard from the garage.

The trip was slightly chilly, and rather dark but Luke didn't mind, the fact that he barely had to move his legs allowed him time to have a smoke and think.

He had a hard time exhaling the toxic gas after its circulation in his lungs because of his speed but that didn't stop him from smoking until the white of the cigarette was mostly gone. He knelt down and swiped the smouldering end against the asphalt as he whizzed by. He left a blackened trail of ash in his wake until the road threatened to scrape up the tips of his fingers if he held on any longer.

Luke let the sole of his shoe drag him to a stop before his board had the chance to kick up against the curb, he dropped the board in Ashton's porch on the way to the front door.

Luke finally worked up the courage to know on the familiar oak door and hoped to hell that Ashton's mom wouldn't be able to smell the smoke that clung to his clothes.

She knew he smoked, it was too hard to hide when he was over so often. She'd already lectured Luke on the long term effects of smoking but it obviously didn't stop him and she obviously didn't like him to begin with.

Surprisingly, Ashton's mom wasn't the one to greet him, a tall stalky man with curly brown hair and hazel eyes greeted him with narrowed eyes.

He was maybe an inch or two shorter than Luke which he didn't seem to enjoy, he stood up straighter before addressing him, "Odd, Ashton didn't mention that he was going somewhere..."

Luke smiled, finally standing up to his full height and he was way taller than Owen. "I'm actually here for dinner."

Owen quickly apologized but you could tell he was looking at Luke more thoroughly. He allowed Luke access to the house after a quick introduction. Apparently Luke had gotten the A-OK, which he read off as couldn't possibly be gay in his mind. That was probably the only thing stopping Owen from letting him in. Imagine if he'd worn pink.

"Luke you're here!" Ashton greeted, pulling Luke into a tight hug and resting his head in the crook of Luke's neck. But Owen paused beside them and Ashton let out a manly cough and shoved Luke away with a smile. "Good to see you."

Luke felt like Ashton had brought him to a Dinner with the Shmucks type thing and Owen and him were the shmucks. Whoever fucked up the worst won. Ashton's mom actually looked slightly pleased to see him but he couldn't tell because Harry kind of shone a light in his eyes at the time.

When they were all finally seated and digging into the rather dry steak with a side of mashed potatoes and a meager helping of peas and corn. It tasted like prison food, not that Luke had ever had the pleasure of landing in prison just yet. Owen asked Luke a question, it seemed just to break the silence and Luke probably seemed like an alright topic considering he was the only one Owen wasn't familiar with.

"Luke, what do you want to be when you get out of high school?" Luke wished Owen had swallowed those words along with the peas he was shovelling into his mouth, tattoo artist didn't exactly scream a great first impression especially with someone as clean cut as Owen, the guy probably lives half his life in the church.

"I don't know, I haven't thought that much about it." Luke replied, already feeling tired of light conversation.

The questions kept coming, Luke kept up with his vague replies or dodging the subject entirely. It was basically only Owen and Luke talking with Ashton and his mom adding in every once and a while. The questions were like rapid fire and Luke could hardly take a break to eat the food that was just above freezing by now. Owen had an unusual interest in Luke that Ashton didn't like to much.

Even though Owen was getting a lot more comfortable and the pair were cracking jokes, Luke was having a hard time keeping up.

He could hardly stop to catch his breath, Owen's questions switched topic every few seconds, very few were related in subject. What's your favourite car model? What do your parents do for a living? Ever thought of skydiving? Is Luke short for anything?

The questions were relentless, Luke was surprised he could even think of questions by now, at least ten minutes had passed with nonstop questions. Luke answered, and answered, and answered.

Owen would not stop.

Luke was having a hard time breathing by now, the oxygen in his lungs was leaving too quickly to even be considered an exhale, he felt like he was suffocating. Owen's questions were piling up around him and he couldn't breathe. Everything was making it harder to breathe. Luke needed to get out before he really suffocated.

"I'm going to the bathroom." It came out rude and abrupt but Luke really didn't care at this point, his lungs felt like they were engulfed in flames or maybe he'd just inhaled molten rock or something that could be considered extremely acidic and harmful, long story short his lungs were hurting and Luke felt like he was physically in pain by now. He marched into the bathroom and closed the door with a little more force than necessary, he still didn't care.

He didn't bother splashing water on his heated skin, he went straight to the window and opened it up. With his his elbows resting on the sill and his heels pressed firmly in the flower bed directly below the window, he lit a cigarette without difficulty. He could finally breathe, smoke filled his lungs and he happily exhaled.

Finally, he thought as he inhaled the cold late night air that cooled down the burning sensation in his chest.

He couldn't even take another drag before Ashton was rounding the corner of the house. Clearly, he knew that Luke didn't need to actually go to the bathroom. He leaned up against the brick right next to look and let out a content sigh.

"Shouldn't you be inside?" Ashton teased, smiling brightly at Luke under the full moon.

"Shouldn't you?" Luke countered with a chuckle. Now this, was what Luke really came for, not the well lit dining room crowded around the table with Ashton's family. He came to this dinner for the after, the half hour where Luke and Ashton just kind of hung out in his room and talked and joked. He really liked this.

"Owen seems to like you," Ashton observed, not in a rude tone but in the kind that made Luke roll his eyes but laugh.

"Hey," Ashton spoke up sometime later, a grin curling onto his lips. "The faster you eat, the faster we get to make out."

Luke immediately threw his cigarette into the damp grass and crossed his arms innocently like he hadn't even been smoking in the first place. Ashton let out a laugh and started walking away.

"Wait, what did you even tell your mom?" Luke asked, realizing that Ashton can't just walk out the front door in the middle of dinner without suspicion.

"Told her I forgot to take out the trash, she kinda yelled at me for being irresponsible but whatever."

"One more thing, help me in the window." Luke instructed, arms already through the opening but not much else. Ashton rolled his eyes but walked back to where Luke stood.

He leaned against the cool brick once again and looked at the blond expectantly, "What do you want me to do?"

"Just-" Luke began, actually thinking about how Ashton could help now. "Just give me a step up."

It didn't work, Ashton wouldn't be able to help Luke through the window unless he wanted Luke to hit his head against the toilet. The main problem being that if Ashton were to give the boy a leg up, it would send his straight through the window too quickly for him to catch himself and, although Ashton didn't care what happened as long as the boy made it through the window, Luke had quickly decided that he most definitely did not want to smash his 'pretty little head' against the porcelain bowl. Ashton responded by calling Luke a shithead and arguing that the toilet was the perfect place for his head, after all, it was called a throne for a reason. Luke punched him in the arm for that.

"Just help me."

So Ashton climbed through the window with ease--which Luke called luck--and pulled Luke through by his jacket. Basically, Luke was on the floor and Ashton had the edge of the sink digging into his back, the window had closed with a bang and Ashton's mom was wondering if everything was alright in there.

"Yeah!" Ashton yelled, cursing himself immediately for saying anything. He bit his lip anxiously as he looked to Luke.

"Ashton?"

"No, it's Luke, I'll be out in a sec!" Luke replied, attempting to match Ashton's voice a little more so it was convincing.

"Oh, okay." And she was gone, thankfully.

Luke sat up, careful to avoid knocking the toiletries off the edge of the bathtub. Ashton was already on the way to the window.

"Hurry up and get out so we can make out." Luke scowled, trying to fix his hair in the mirror.

"First of all, that doesn't even make sense and second of all, I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?" Luke frowned finally looking at the window to find Ashton couldn't reopen it. It was jammed, which meant that things could only get worse.

"Okay, I'm going to go out first and then you come out ten seconds later." Luke decided, hand on the doorknob. Ashton was quick to agree, they had no other option. The knob moved about a centimetre to the right before it stopped altogether, Luke jiggled the knob. Stuck. He tried pulling open the door instead, maybe the knob was just stuck. The door didn't budge.

"Fuck."

"Really?" Ashton groaned, obviously being used to it. He fiddled with the knob for a bit until he was entirely fed up, "We really need a new doorknob, oh my god."

"Hop in the shower and close the curtain, I'm going to call your mum." Luke said finally, huffing out a sigh as he leaned on the sink. This dinner was pretty shit, and maybe Luke hadn't made up some excuse in order to get out of there because he just really wanted to kiss Ashton. It appeared to be the only upside to this whole thing.

"Hey Luke?" Ashton asked, Luke turned to him mouth slightly open with a reply waiting on his tongue when Ashton's lips intercepted the message. The kiss was short and soft with a hint of a promise for more.

Luke was a little flustered after that, Ashton was already behind the curtain and completely out of sight. He took a breath to try and hide his stunned expression.

"Ann! The door's jammed!"

x o x o

"So Luke, you got a girlfriend?" Owen asked eventually, even though Luke was expecting it, he still couldn't help the blush that coated his cheeks.

"N-No." The answer came out funny and maybe Luke was just blushing because everyone at school knew he was gay and nobody even entertained the idea of Luke even holding hands with a girl.

Or maybe Luke was blushing because his hand was on Ashton's knee and that was a pretty couple-y thing to do. He was imagining Owen saying boyfriend instead, that was definitely blush worthy.

Owen spotted the blush easily and jumped on it, "So there is a girl!"

"What? No!" Luke said, which only seemed to seal the idea in Owen's mind. Luke wanted to die, he was embarrassed and Ashton was laughing a little and there was a possibility that he'd have to hear about it for the rest of his life.

"I don't really think about girls like that." Luke admitted finally, bringing him onto neutral ground without implying that he was either straight or gay. His response seemed reasonable to him, it was possible to like nobody at all. It's not like you absolute had to like--

"What are you? Gay?" Owen said it as a joke but Luke nearly choked on his steak. He let out a chuckle but nobody joined in, Ashton's mom choose this time to start clearing the table.

Ashton snorted, "Probably."

In any other scenario, Luke would have died of laughter, Ashton usually didn't really join into conversation like that. A rare moment, a gay joke. In any other scenario, Luke might follow up with a, "Probably, because I'm dating you." but that wouldn't work because then Owen would know and that would only make things worse.

He would have to laugh about it later.

Owen looked like he was about to defend Luke but Ashton caught on just in time. "It's a joke we have, some boy kissed Luke one time and it caught him off guard and he hasn't really had a chance to ask out a girl since so our friends joke that he's secretly gay."

That wasn't exactly a lie, considering Luke had been kissed by a boy and hadn't dated a girl since, but that was in third grade and he hadn't dated any girls before then either.

Owen laughed at that, a rather loud laugh even though it wasn't all that funny to Luke or Ashton.

Ann walked in to pick up the last of the empty glasses just as Luke and Ashton shoved the last bits of food into their mouths, perfect timing.

"Hey, next time we have a dinner together we'll all eat at my house--Luke you're invited too--and you'll be able to meet my son, I think he's your age." Owen sounded excited, even though he hadn't even finished this meal yet.

"Really? What's his name? Maybe we've seen him around school." Luke asked, somehow thinking of Charlie who looked almost nothing like Owen. He wasn't all that interested in actually seeing if he knew Owen's son, he just wanted to speed this up so him and Ashton could make out upstairs.

"Rory."