AN: Thanks for getting this story to 5K votes ^^ I appreciate it very much x Oh, and this chapter was kind of weird to me? XD I don't know, I had to write something.

The book cover on top is also made by pin_head_LARRY.

Why do I always write about the guys being in restaurants? There are other places, too! XD Come on, Max! Be more creative!

Dedication: Mukeaf1357

Michael was rambling on and on about my schedule for the next day and he didn't seem to be the least bit aware of Luke's emotional situation. Then again, my manager was always oblivious to how others around him felt.

I kind of felt bad (very rare that I do) for asking about the plane ticket. I had Luke sit next to me when we were at the restaurant so I could make sure he was okay and I would pat his knee when he seemed down.

The gesture didn't give him much comfort, so I held his hand instead, our fingers lacing and we haven't parted them since.

"So tomorrow evening," Michael continued, "you'll be attending a meeting regarding your tour that's starting next year in July and we'll need to go through what songs you are going to perform. Oh, and speaking of songs, you're gonna have to finish up the one that you and Calum were working on on your own by tomorrow night."

"Great," I said. "I can do that."

"You also have to go to a radio talk show the day after and then a Q&A session where you'll be meeting some of your fans. Oh, and the day after that..."

I tuned my manager out, not in the mood in hearing him go on about my schedule. I'll just have him remind me of when stuff happens. He always does anyway.

I stole a quick glance at Luke and noticed that he was still wearing a blank expression on his face. I didn't know how else I can brighten his mood. I've never comforted anyone in my entire life, not even when Michael ran into a bike rack and fell on his face. Calum was the one that came to Michael's aide in the end.

My eyes traveled down to our hands and I just stared at them, squeezing Luke's hand a bit. He responded by doing the same and I looked back up at him, seeing he was looking at me and giving a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"What's with the staring into the other's eyes moment that you two are having?" Michael asked and I broke eye contact with my bodyguard to look at my manager. "It's making me uncomfortable."

"Why?" Luke asked. "It has nothing to do with you."

"But I feel like a third wheel."

"Well, when Calum's out of the hospital, you two can stare at each other as long as you want."

Michael gave us a blank expression. "Why would I want to stare at Calum?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't you?"

"Unlike you two that like each other, I don't have feelings for Calum. He's a friend and that's it."

Even after the moment they had this morning with the cuddling and kiss, Michael still doesn't see Calum's feelings. He's the most oblivious person ever.

"Don't deny it," Luke said, laughing.

"Like how you two didn't?" Michael asked.

"Deny what?"

"I said you two like each other, and you two didn't deny anything."

I laughed at Michael's words as I pulled my hand from Luke's.

"What? Me like Luke?" I repeated. "Please, I don't like Luke. I'm not gay. I like girls all the way. No dicks for me."

"That's nice, princess," Luke said. "You didn't have to sound defensive, you know."

"I-I was just stating a fact."

Michael gave me a weird look as he said, "Okaaaaay then. Well, let's just discuss more about you schedule and-"

"Excuse me," Luke told us, standing up. "I'm going to the restroom." Then he started walking away from the table.

"I-I need to go, too," I said to Michael once Luke was gone, standing from my spot. "I'll be back. Will you be all right by yourself?"

"You don't have to worry about me, Ash. I'll be fine," Michael assured me. I nodded and started making my way over to the restroom.

When I entered the restroom, I saw Luke standing at a urinal on the other side of the restroom, his back to me. I went over to the only sink in the restroom and began washing my hands.

"Came here to see me, huh?" I heard Luke tease and I blushed, though I didn't want to.

"N-No," I answered. "Just went to wash my hands, that's all."

"You wanted a sneak at my friend in pants, didn't you?"

I snapped my head in his direction and he was looking over his shoulder at me. "No! I'm only washing my hands! Don't get so full of yourself."

Luke shrugged before he turned his head back. "That's funny to hear coming from a conceited guy like you."

I looked away from him, staring straight at a wall since this restroom didn't have any mirrors. Seriously, how am I supposed to make sure that I look good if there aren't any mirrors in here?

I heard some footsteps and I guessed Luke was done with his business, but I still didn't bother turning around to see him. The lights went out again and I groaned, pulling my hands away from the water as it automatically shut off.

"Ha, ha. Very funny, Lucifer," I said. "You're not getting me this time. Turn the lights back on."

"What?" Luke asked, his voice sounding as if he was still on the other side of the restroom. "I thought it was a power outage."

My entire body tensed and I laughed nervously. "Please tell me you're joking with me right now."

"I'm trying to pee here."

I could sense someone behind me and I was becoming genuinely scared. I gulped, "L-Luke?"

He shouted, "Let a guy piss in peace!"

I felt a hot breath by my ear as a low voice, not Luke's, whispered, "You're coming with me."

Without thinking anything else, I blindly tried running away from the person, running into an open stall door. I began attempting to find my way to Luke and I kept running until I felt myself collide with someone's back, immediately wrapping my arms around the person when I recognized it as Luke despite everything being dark.

"Princess, what's wrong?" Luke asked as I heard him zipping up his trousers. "Afraid of the dark?"

"Luke, we're not alone!" I hissed. "Do your fighting stuff!" Some light shined up at us and it got brighter as it got closer. I tried to push Luke in between the light and me, but I wasn't quick enough as I felt a hand grab at my shirt and harshly pull me away from my bodyguard. "Luke!"

Luke shouted back, "Princess!"

Feet were pounding against the floor until I was suddenly shoved aside, my front hitting the wall. I heard some grunting from two different voices, one being Luke's, and I glanced over in the direction of the sound, seeing that the light that came from a smartphone had fallen to the ground, illuminating a little bit of the restroom.

I could see two silhouettes fighting until the figures moved deeper into the darkness. Then something that sounded like the two fell echoed throughout the restroom.

"Ashton, get out!" I heard Luke yell. "Shit! Go!"

Guessing where the restroom door was, I ran straight in the direction but was stopped when something grabbed my ankle and kept me in place. I nearly fell and I tried kicking the hand off of me.

"Luke!" I screamed as I was being tugged away from the exit. The hand immediately soon released my ankle and instead of leaving like Luke told me to, I searched around the wall for some kind of light switch. Once finding it, I flipped it on and the restroom lights lit the entire place.

On the ground, Luke was sitting with his legs crossed right on top of the guy's back, his hands holding the man's wrists while pulling them behind him in a way that it seemed painful.

The stranger was continuously shouting "Ow!" from when Luke kept tugging his arms farther upward.

"Who are you and what do you want with Ashton?!" Luke shouted.

"Like hell I'd tell you," snapped the guy as he began pushing Luke off. That only angered my bodyguard more as he started pulling the wrists together. "Fuck! Why can't I get you off me?!"

"Princess," Luke said, looking up and smiling at me, "hold this bastard's wrists together for me, please?"

I hesitantly walked over and did as Luke told me, my hands brushing against his slightly. Luke removed his hands from the stranger's wrists before he placed his hand on the back of the guy's head, slamming the guy's face down hard against the ground and making the guy pass out immediately.

"Luke, chill!" I gasped, pulling away immediately and watching the passed out man's arms fall to the side. "Was that necessary?!"

"He wouldn't answer me." Luke shrugged casually. "Plus I was getting tired of holding him down." He stood up and I started to approach him, but he took a step back, keeping his hands away from me. "Whoa! Don't come near me, princess."

Feeling a tiny bit of hurt, I asked, "Why?"

Luke waved his hands in the air. "I need to wash my hands."

I stared at him for a moment before the realization that he hadn't washed his hands after using the restroom hit me.

"Ew, gross!" I shouted, rushing first to the sink and applying soap on my hands. "I touched your dirty hands!"

From my peripheral view, I saw Luke dragging the man's body into the handicapped stall. He shut the stall door, locked it, and crawled out from underneath the door. I felt shivers go up and down my spine as Luke started getting closer to me.

"Move over, princess," he said. "I need to wash my hands."

"Wait your turn, Hemmings!" I shouted. Luke waved his unwashed hands dangerously close to my face and I turned away, leaning away from him. "Keep your yucky hands away!"

"Your hands are clean now!" Luke laughed. "It's my turn!"

For a while, Luke and I fought over the sink and he kept threatening me by saying he'll poke my face with his dirty hands. Once I felt my hands were completely clean, I threw some excess water at Luke before I grabbed a paper towel and rushed towards the door, leaning by the wall and waiting for Luke to wash his hands while I dried mine.

"Jeez, took you long enough," my bodyguard said as he went over to the sink and began cleaning his hands. I laughed as I tossed the paper towel into the trash bin. Then I left the restroom, waiting just outside the door for him.

He walked out, not seeming to have noticed that I was right next to the entrance, so I crept up behind him and waited for the right moment.

"Boo!" I yelled, throwing my arms around his waist from behind. However, my plan backfired when he elbowed me right at the mouth and I was sent to the ground, crying out in pain as my hands went straight to where Luke had hit me.

"Princess!" Luke shouted, kneeling beside me as my lips throbbed. I was even starting to taste some of the blood. "Are you okay?!"

"It hurts!" I complained, trying to lick away the blood from my lips, but more kept coming out. "Luke, my lips are bleeding."

"Let me see." He grabbed my wrists and pulled my hands away from my face. "Shit, you're right. Let's clean your lips up, okay?"

I nodded and he helped me off of the ground before leading me back to the restroom. I went to the sink while Luke got a paper towel. He walked over to me, placing the paper towel under the faucet before letting the water run over the paper towel.

"Hold this to your lips and press down on it," he told me. I took the wet paper towel from his possession and did as he instructed. I pulled the wet towel away from my lips, seeing the blood on it. I whimpered, but Luke soothingly hushed me as he brought the paper towel back to my lips. "Don't look at it, okay? I'll tell you when you can stop."

I stepped closer to Luke until our bodies were touching and I rested the side of my head against his shoulder, the wet paper towel still pressed to my lips. His arms encircled me and he leaned his head against mine.

"Sorry 'bout elbowing you in the face," he apologized. "I thought you'd figure out by now how I react to sudden actions towards me. You know, I'm physically defensive."

"It's okay," I said, but since the towel was to my lips, my words sounded more muffled.

My lips were still hurting, but I tried to take my mind off of the pain by focusing on how close Luke and I were. I relaxed in his arms and rubbed my cheek in the smallest way I could against his shoulder. One of his hands went to rest on the back of my head, and my heart skipped a beat.

After a while of us just standing by the sink in the same position, Luke went to check if my lips were still bleeding.

"It's stopped now," he said, taking the paper towel from me and tossing it into the trash bin. "Ready to go back out?"

"Y-Yeah," I mumbled. He went towards the restroom door, but I stayed where I was.

Luke glanced back at me, quirking his eyebrow up. "What's the matter?"

"Um, my lips are throbbing still." I shifted back and forth from one foot to the other, my eyes fixed on the ground.

"Well, I can't really do much now, can I? It'll heal on its own, princess. Come on, your manager's waiting for us."

I glared at him, storming up towards him and grabbing him by the jacket. His eyes widened in surprise as they looked into mine.

"Okay, calm down, princess," he said. "I'm not a magical doctor that can take away your pain."

"You took away the pain from my eyes when I was blinded for a bit from the paparazzi," I said.

"L-Look, that's different. Th-They were your eyes, a-and-"

"Just shut up and kiss my lips better." Then I pulled him closer to me as I drew my face closer to his.

"Pr-Princess, wait-"

I heard someone groaning inside the bathroom and then I remembered that it was the guy Luke was fighting with earlier. My bodyguard was quick to draw away from me as he hurried me out of the restroom and back to our table where Michael was looking down at his phone that was lying on top of the table, his arms holding his head up.

There were some words on the screen, but the font wasn't large enough for me to see from where I was. Then he highlighted something on the phone, picked up his device, and started typing something down.

"Whatcha doin' there?" I asked Michael as my bodyguard and I took our seats.

"Just checking through stuff for work," he answered. "There are a lot of errors in here and I'm just pointing them out to the person that wrote this out. Oh, and what took you so long?"

"I'm sorry. We got held up," Luke said, shrugging. "It won't happen again hopefully." He picked up the menu on the table, opened it up, and looked through the food options.

He never looked at me once after he and I ran out of the restroom. It was sort of bothering me. Or did I weird him out?

I decided to ask, "Lu-"

"Oh, princess?" Luke said, but he was still not looking at me. "You know that little action that you tried to pull back there? The one that supposedly took your pain away?"

I nodded hesitantly.

"Yeah, um... d-don't do that again."

My heart actually sank to the pit of my stomach when he said that. Did I weird him out? Most likely, since he's avoiding eye contact from me.

I searched for words in my head to say so it'd make things less awkward hopefully.

"I was just... joking around," I finally said. "I didn't really mean it. Just messing with you, that's all."

"Oh. Okay, then." Luke set the menu down and finally looked at me as he smiled. "You really got me there, princess."

I laughed weakly. "Yeah. I did."

Did I seriously get hurt by that? I mean, come on. Kisses don't actually heal or take away the pain. It's just something only kids believe.

That would mean when my eyes hurt earlier, Luke didn't heal them. They just got stopped hurting during the time I was complaining about how they hurt, that's all. I'm sure of that.

"Anyway," I said, "let's just, um, get something to eat already. I'm kind of hungry."

"Don't eat too much or else you'll gain some fat over here," Luke said, poking my stomach.

I scooted away from him and he laughed. Well, now he's being annoying again, but at least he's not ignoring me.

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During our time at the restaurant, it started sprinkling and then it started raining. Hard. Frederick was late to pick us up, so we hung out at the restaurant, pretending that we were still eating when really we finished our food and were now only drinking our drinks that we ordered.

We didn't bring an umbrella since we didn't expect it to start raining, so we all got soaked from the rain. We weren't too badly wet, but it was enough to make us cold.

Once Michael, Luke, and I made our way up to our floor, my manager went off to his room and Luke and I went to my hotel suite. I entered the room first and turned on the light while Luke shut the door behind him.

"Man, my clothes got wet," I groaned, looking down at myself.

"My hair's messed up now," I heard Luke say and I looked over at him. His fingers combed his wet hair back and I couldn't help but notice how see through his dress shirt was. His blazer was left with Calum, since it was used to keep the blood in, and I was strangely glad that Luke didn't have his jacket.

He started to unbutton his shirt and I shouted, "You're stripping now?!"

"Huh?" Luke glanced over at me since he wasn't exactly facing me. "Why not? If I don't change into something warm, I might get sick, and that's something I wouldn't want."

"But-"

"You should change out of your clothes as well, princess. If you get sick tomorrow, who knows how long you'll be sick. Besides, you got places to go to the day after, so you need to be healthy by then."

"Tr-True..." I went over to where my clean clothes were and grabbed myself some shorts and white T-shirt. I was still feeling cold and my fingers were basically numb and shaking. However, I still managed to pull my shirt up and throw it in the laundry basket. I put my clean shirt on and then started to unbutton my jeans. Or tried to, since I couldn't seem to keep my fingers from shaking.

"Here, let me help you," Luke said as he stood behind me, his chest pressed against my back as his fingers made their way to the button of my jeans, popping them open and tugging the zipper down.

My face flushed as I stared down with wide eyes as Luke's hands slipped into the sides of my pants and tugged them down.

"W-Wait, Luke," I stuttered once he pulled my jeans down to my thighs.

"Yeah?" he said as he stopped.

"I-I can do the rest."

I felt him shrug behind me. "All right." When I felt his presence leave and the lack of his warmth near me, I turned around and saw that he was basically half naked. He was walking back to his couch and getting it sorted. I couldn't peel my eyes away from him no matter how hard I tried.

Luke's eyes looked up at me and I froze under his stare. He smirked and said, "Like what you see?"

"Sh-Shut up," I muttered, tugging my jeans off completely and grabbing the shorts from the bed. I sat down on the bed so I was looking away from Luke and began pulling the shorts on. I threw my wet jeans towards the laundry basket, but I missed as it fell beside the basket.

"Don't join any basketball team," Luke said jokingly. I glared at him as he went over to the basket and put my pants in the basket for me. Then he started walking in the direction of the bathroom and closing the door.

"Whatever," I mumbled to myself. "I have music anyway." I sat right in the middle of my bed, grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around myself. I stayed in that position for a while, just emptying out my mind and relaxing for a bit.

After a while of just complete emptiness in my mind, I slowly closed my eyes and began thinking back to the events that happened today. I was supposed to go to the studio, but then Calum got shot and we had to change plans since I had to write with him. Then, for some odd reason, I had gotten a little bit closer to Luke, even though he still bothers me at times. We hung out in the city we were in after taking Calum to the hospital and I genuinely enjoyed my time with him. But during our time together there he cried, though I wish I knew why, and he just looked like a lost kid. I usually didn't care for others, but Luke just had this weird effect on me.

Then there was that guy back in the restroom at the restaurant we ate at not too long ago. I was glad that Luke was there to handle the situation (though I don't think it was necessary to knock the guy out like he did). I guess I'm a little bit glad that I have someone to look out for me and keep me safe from any danger.

My mind drifted to when he accidentally elbowed me in the lips and they started hurting. They felt better afterwards and I nearly kissed Luke, although he made it clear afterwards that he didn't want it. Oddly enough, the thought of kissing him didn't weird me out the slightest bit. Maybe I even wanted to try it out.

A smile went on my face as I thought back to when he kissed my eyelids and I silently laughed to myself. I nuzzled my face into the blanket, feeling my face grow heated. I didn't laugh or smile all that much prior to meeting Luke, even after meeting him since our first encounter wasn't all that great. But now... just the mere thought of him made it impossible for me to not smile.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

I looked over at Luke and saw that he was sitting on the couch, his elbows rested on his knees and his hands clasped together. I didn't even hear him go over to the couch. He's really quiet, almost like a ninja. Is that some kind of skill that he earned from being a black belt?

"Just thinking like I always do every night," I told him.

"What even goes through your mind at night?"

"It varies. It could be anything."

"Well, tell me one thing you were thinking about."

I thought for a moment, wondering which I should tell Luke. I didn't want to bring up the incident with Calum, but the other thoughts involved Luke and I didn't really want to tell him those either. It's not like they were anything inappropriate, but it was still embarrassing to me to tell him anyway.

"I can't come up with one at the moment," I answered.

"There's gotta be something," Luke said, but I shook my head. He sighed. "All right then. I'll just mind my own business." He began to lie down on the couch, covering himself with the blanket and turning his back to me. "I'm off to sleep now. Night, princess."

I remained quiet, just staring at his motionless form while the only sound heard was the rain hitting the window. I covered the bottom half of my face with the blanket, my eyes still fixed on only Luke.

After a while, I got up from my spot and went to the restroom to brush my teeth. My hair was already close to dry by the time I had finished getting ready for bed, so I assumed it was okay for me to sleep.

I turned the lights off and then blindly and slowly walked over to my bed. Once my knees hit the edge, I climbed on top of it, snuggling under the sheets and curling myself into a ball.

The room was so dark I could barely see in front of me, but that didn't stop me from facing the direction I guessed Luke was in. Then I said, my voice barely above a whisper, "Good night, Lukey."

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AN: Okay, remember when I said I would appreciate my chapters more? I'm trying so hard to do that right now, but... ugh. But what does it matter what I think if you guys like it? (:

As much as I'd like to make Lashton happen already, I think it's too early >n< They'll get together eventually; i'll just take a while.

So, thoughts? Comments? Predictions?

I hope this chapter was worth your time (: Until next time, my lovelies! x