Work Text:
Michael Clifford got grounded for sneaking out at night, and as punishment, he got his car keys taken away. His dad said he could have them back once he brings his grades up, which Michael thinks is really stupid. Plus, he has to take the subway to school now, and anybody who takes the subway to school is an automatic loser.
Michael frowned at the crowded subway car, people were packed in every direction, and there wasn’t even any cute girls. He sat down in an empty seat next to a boy with dirty blonde hair and Michael recognizes his uniform as his own school’s. The boy’s got an earbud in, and Michael nudges him slightly.
“What’re you listening to?” Michael asks.
“Um, blink-182,” the blonde replies.
The boy’s got milky skin and dull pink lips, and his eyelashes curl against his soft peony cheeks. His eyes are the color of the veins spreading through his pale wrists, and Michael quickly decides that this boy is either a model or a gift thrusted upon this Earth from the Gods above.
“I’m Michael,” Michael blurts out, “Michael Clifford. I go to Sydney Prep too.”
The pretty boy smiles slightly and says, “I know,” and then returns to listening to his music. The rest of the ride to school is the most agonizingly longest thing Michael has ever experienced, that is, with birth preceding that.
So later on when the pretty subway boy walks into Michael’s geometry class, Michael nearly falls out of his seat after knocking his notebook off the desk. How did he not know that this angelic creature was in his math class? How did he never notice the celestial being that is this boy?
The next day, Michael got to the tube a bit early. He only waited a few minutes or so, but when he finally stepped on, the pretty boy was sitting in the same spot as yesterday. So, Michael sits next to him again. But this time, Michael puts an earbud in as well.
People flood into the subway car, taking seats and standing in awkward positions, and when they finally start moving, the pretty boy asks “What are you listening to?”
Michael waits a few seconds before casually saying “Oh, Joy Division.” He doesn’t want to sound too eager, but he also doesn’t want the pretty boy to think he’s uninterested, so he asks “You?”
“Sum 41,” pretty boy says.
Michael nods and looks straight ahead, though he desperately wants to commence a deeper conversation with the pretty boy. After all, Sum 41 is one of Michael’s favorite bands.
At lunch, Michael sits across from his best mate, Calum. Michael’s already scanned the cafeteria twice, and he’s got a lot on his mind.
“You okay, bro? You haven’t touched your lunch. Are you feeling ill?” Calum asks.
“No,” Michael sighs, pushing his lunch tray away from him. Calum’s slender fingers begin picking at the food on the abandoned tray.
“If you say so,” Calum shrugs, taking a bite of a fry.
“Hey, Cal? You know everybody, right?” Michael asks, looking around the lunchroom once again.
“Pretty much, yeah,” Calum replies, “Why?”
“Do you know a boy with, like, blonde hair and blue eyes?”
“You’re gonna have to be more specific, Michael.”
“He’s got a nose that kinda looks like one of those people from The Grinch, you know?”
“Oh, a Who from Whoville? That’s Luke Hemmings,” Calum tells Michael.
That day when Michael takes the tube home, he doesn’t see Luke Hemmings, but he thinks about him quite a lot.
The next morning, Michael woke up late. He cursed himself mentally and rushed to get ready, and begged his dad to let him take the car, but no. No. Michael had to fucking run to the subway, and he barely even made it. Someone was sitting next to pretty boy, so Michael had to stand near the door, which frustrated him deeply. He pulled his iPod out and shoved the stupid earbuds in, running his fingers through his messy hair. He should’ve just stayed home today. As he stares at the ground with a pure hatred for the world burning in his green eyes, he sees a pair of dirty Vans shuffle towards the tips of his worn out Converse.
Michael looks up to see pretty boy standing in front of him, a casual smile on his face. “Hey,” he says loosely.
“Hi,” Michael replies nervously. He’s glad he remembered to brush his teeth. “What are you listening to?”
Pretty boy smiles and looks at the tips of their shoes, nearly touching with how crowded the subway was. “Fall Out Boy. And you?” he replies.
“Nirvana,” Michael tells him.
Before Michael had barely finished his reply, someone bumped into pretty boy, and he nearly fell onto Michael. Thankfully, Michael was leaning against a little bit of wall and didn’t topple over. He mumbles an apology and straightens himself up, and Michael can’t help but notice that pretty boy doesn’t move away from him, even though he has room to do so.
In geometry, pretty boy smiles at Michael. Michael just smiles back.
“What are you listening to?” pretty boy asks almost as soon as Michael sits down.
“I don’t even have my iPod out yet,” Michael laughs, pulling said electronic out of his bag. Pretty boy watches him intently, and waits until Michael’s got an earbud in one ear to repeat, “What are you listening to?”
“Blink,” Michael tells him, for some reason, he can’t stop smiling.
“Really? Me too,” pretty boy replies.
“What song?” Michael asks.
“I Miss You,” pretty boy says, then adding “I’m Luke, by the way. I don’t know if I ever told you that, but yeah, I’m Luke.”
Michael smiles, “Luke Hemmings, I know.”
Luke blushes and ducks his head, fumbling with the cord to his headphones. The pretty boy looks small in his seat, and Michael’s organs are doing some weird tingly thing.
Michael wonders how him and Luke Hemmings can have the shortest conversations, but they stick with Michael for the rest of the day.
On Friday morning, Michael took his seat next to Luke Hemmings like usual, and begins to pull his iPod out, when Luke holds out an earbud.
Michael gives Luke a confused look, but Luke is busy putting the other earbud in his own ear. Michael does the same, and he has to lean in close to Luke so that they can share the earphones. Luke slouches against Michael’s side, with his cheek squished against his shoulder. Michael pretended it was like Luke has his head on his shoulder. Luke has a great taste in music, but Michael already knew that.
“Michael?” Luke asks softly. Michael almost doesn’t hear the quiet boy over the buzz of the subway and the chatter of the people inside.
“Hmm?” Michael hums.
“What are you listening to?”
Michael thought that this was the worst weekend in the entire world because he doesn’t get to see his pretty boy from the subway. He should really talk to Luke more. He only knows, like, two things about him. Michael wants to know more about Luke, he wants to know everything about him.
On Monday morning, Michael wakes up with a sore throat and a fever of 99.6, so he ends up out of school for two days. He hasn’t seen Luke in four days, and he hasn’t talked to Calum in six.
When Wednesday arrives, Michael eagerly hurried down to the subway, even after his mum’s given him permission to drive his car for the day.
Luke’s face lights up when he sees Michael, and Michael can’t sit down fast enough.
“Hi,” Michael says first.
“Hey,” he grins. There’s something new about him.
“When did you get your lip pierced?” Michael asks, staring at the black ring piercing through Luke’s lip.
“Oh, Saturday. It didn’t hurt, like, at all,” Luke replies.
Michael’s heart swells up in worry and concern, because Luke is probably most definitely lying, and it did hurt. Michael knows because it hurt when he got his ears pierced. Michael doesn’t want to think about Luke in any form of pain.
“Oh,” Michael says.
“Does it look bad?” Luke asks, his big blue eyes widening to the size of the moon.
“What? No, no it looks great, it looks really, really great,” Michael said, his attention being drawn to Luke’s lips.
Michael wanted to kiss Luke, kiss the cool metal of his new lip ring, right here on the subway. He wanted to kiss Luke so that everybody on the tube would see, he wanted to kiss Luke while the whole world was watching, he just wants to kiss the pretty boy, but he stops himself.
“Anyway, where have you been for like, fourteen decades?” Luke asked, flicking his tongue over his lip ring.
“Um, it was two days, you idiot,” Michael corrected him, only for Luke to roll his eyes in response, and says, “I had a fever, but whatever.”
“Oh, are you okay? Are you still sick?” Luke asks, voice filled with panic.
“I’m fine,” Michael shrugs, taking his iPod out. He puts an earbud in Luke’s ear, and an earbud in his own ear, and then putting his iPod on shuffle. Luke pouts for a few more seconds, that damn lip ring jutting out, and then relaxes and actually rests his head on Michael’s shoulder. Michael gets the courage to wrap his arm around Luke.
Sometimes, Michael wishes he never had to get off the subway. He wishes he and Luke could just ride it endlessly, going nowhere in particular. Michael hated that they had to go to school.
Thursday afternoon, Michael closed his locker and slung his bag over his shoulder. Before he could walk away, a very breathless Luke Hemmings shouted, “Michael! Wait up!” from down the hall. Michael turned and watched his pretty boy nearly jog towards him, and the closer Luke got, the bigger Michael smiles.
“Uh, hey,” Michael says bashfully, tightening his grip on the strap of his bookbag.
“Hi,” Luke breaths out.
“Why are you so sweaty?” Michael asked. The hallway is almost empty now; everybody was eager to get home. It was just him and Luke now.
“I ran,” Luke stops to take a deep breath, “all the way from the other side of the school.”
“Oh,” Michael says. He unwillingly smiled at Luke’s actions.
“So, um, do you wanna come home with me? Or whatever?” Luke asks, finally regaining his composure.
“Right now?” Michael asked for clarification.
Luke nods.
Michael gets on the train with Luke, and the entire thing is empty. The sun was setting, a bit early in Michael’s opinion, and he couldn’t help but stare at Luke with affection. Luke looked beautiful when the sun was setting, when the world was covered in pink and orange, kind of like everyone was drowning in warm colors. Michael would be willing to drown if it meant he got to go down with Luke. Michael thought he’d do anything for Luke.
Michael’s hand rested on Luke’s knee, and at first, Luke doesn’t do anything but stare at Michael’s hand. Then, he softly puts his own hand over Michael’s, and he continues looking out the train window.
On Saturday, Luke told Michael he was gay at 11:48 PM. Michael was eating a slice of pizza while sitting cross-legged on Luke’s bedroom floor when Luke came out and said it. Michael, who hasn’t put much thought into his own sexuality, nearly choked and had to chug down an entire glass of water. “Is that okay?” Luke had asked, his perfect pretty face looking on the verge of being hurt and upset.
“Yeah, that’s fine, why wouldn’t it be? That’s fine. That’s fine,” Michael stuttered out. He was thinking about Luke in a gay way now. He was thinking about Luke making out with boys. He was thinking about Luke undressing for boys. He was thinking about Luke fucking and-
“Are you sure?” Luke asks, interrupting Michael’s string of inappropriate thoughts.
Michael nods, taking another bite of pizza so he doesn’t have to talk.
Michael had brought almost all of his grades up except for one. He’s failing geometry, and that may be because a certain pretty boy sits one row over and two seats ahead of him. So, it’s not Michael’s fault he’s failing, it’s Luke’s fault.
“Come on, let me tutor you,” Luke says on the train ride home. Michael had started riding with Luke just to make sure he gets home safely.
“Would your parents mind if I came over?” Michael asks.
“They’re not in town,” Luke says.
Luke ended up giving Michael a handjob in his bedroom. They’re laying on Luke’s bed now, Luke was facing Michael, and Michael was staring at the ceiling.
“So does this mean we’re dating now?” Luke asked. He started tracing little shapes on Michael’s arm, his fingertips soft against Michael’s pale skin.
“I don’t know,” Michael says. He’s confused right now, maybe even a little afraid.
“I mean, I’d like to, Michael. I’d like to be your boyfriend,” Luke says in a small voice. Michael is silent for a long time, and then eventually, his pretty boy falls asleep on his shoulder.
When Michael gathers all of his things scattered around Luke’s bedroom, he slowly puts on his coat and laces up his shoes. He leaves and catches the tube back home before Luke can wake up and see the empty bed.
On Monday, Michael walked to school. He was still grounded and he didn't really feel like dealing with the subway today, since it’s such a hassle. Calum greets him like usual, and Michael wonders if Calum would still say hey to him if he knew Luke gave Michael a handjob. Michael told himself to make a lot of jokes about faggots and queer boys today.
In geometry, Michael was expecting Luke to walk in the room with sad lovesick heart eyes, and he expected Luke to throw himself at Michael, begging for forgiveness for being too forward and being a totally big homo. Instead, Luke walked in with redness surrounding his puffy eyes, like he hadn’t slept in a week. His hair is messy and his uniform’s disheveled, he didn’t even bother putting on his tie correctly. Michael feels guilty, thinking that he did that to Luke. He did that to his pretty boy.
Luke glanced at Michael, and Michael can swear he can see the world drowning in the blue eyes. Except this time, there was no orange and pink or Michael and Luke, there was only the worse case of abandonment.
After class, Michael hurries to catch up with Luke, and even finds himself calling out the boy’s name in the middle of the hallway. Luke turned around slowly, tears swelling up in the corner of his eyes already.
“Hey,” Michael says, reaching out for Luke. Luke doesn’t flinch away.
Pretty boy doesn’t say anything, instead he’s staring off to the side so he doesn’t have to look at Michael.
Michael’s steady fingers properly fix Luke’s tie, and he even smooths it out against Luke’s trembling chest. Michael ignores the fact that Luke definitely just shed a tear. “There,” Michael says, taking a few steps away from Luke, and then turning away completely. Michael’s starting to feel a little sad too.
“Calum, I’m gay,” Michael says.
“Agreed,” Calum laughs, rolling over on his bed.
“No, Calum, I think I’m really fucking gay.”
Calum sits up and looks at Michael on the floor. Calum’s phone is still in his hand, and Michael can’t read the expression on his face. “Oh,” Calum says.
“I’m sorry? I don’t know, I just… I like boys, yeah,” Michael stutters. The tips of his ears are turning hot.
“Do you… um… do you, you know, like me?” Calum asked nervously.
“What? No, that’s weird. I like a boy I met on the subway,” Michael shrugs, looking away from Calum.
“Oh. Well… is he, uh, do you know if he’s… is he too?” Calum asks.
“Gay? Yeah, he is,” Michael replies. He was a little angry that Calum couldn't just say the fucking word queer.
“Okay,” Calum says, laying back down.
“Okay?” Michael asks.
“Okay,” Calum repeats.
“You’re not… weirded out?” Michael questions.
“No, why would I? You’re my best mate, do what makes you happy, you dig? I’d only be weirded out if you wanted to suck my dick or something,” Calum said. Michael can hear the smile in his voice.
When Michael told his parents, he received an even worse reaction. His mother instantly began to cry, sobbing incoherent words along the lines of, “We wanted grandchildren, Michael!”
Michael wrapped his arms around himself, a lump rising in the boy’s throat. He wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole, he wanted the whole universe to close in on itself.
“Cut him some slack, honey,” Michael’s dad said. “I can only imagine that this is stressful on him too, it’s not easy making a big discovery about yourself at his age. Let him be, he’s been through enough.”
Michael quickly looks at his dad, who gives him a small, accepting smile. His mother wipes at her eyes in a pathetic fashion, then says. “Yeah, okay. It’s okay, sweetie, I’m sorry I got upset. We’ll love you no matter what, I promise.”
Michael smiled and hugged his parents goodnight before going upstairs. He called Luke to tell him the good news, but Luke doesn’t answer, so Michael takes a quick shower and goes to sleep.
Wednesday morning, Michael sits down next to Luke. Luke still looks tired, but he looks better than before.
“Hi,” Michael says.
“...Hey,” Luke replies.
“Why didn’t you answer your phone last night?” Michael asks.
“Because I’m mad at you, Michael Clifford.”
“Why?”
Luke didn’t reply.
“I’m gay,” Michael blurts out. The man sitting across from them scrunches his face up at Michael.
“Don’t make fun of me,” Luke whispers.
“I’m not,” Michael insists. “I’m not making fun of you.”
“Yes you are,” Luke whines. He refuses to look Michael in the eye.
“Go on a date with me,” Michael asks. When he reaches for Luke’s hand, Luke pulls away from him.
“What?” Luke asks disbelievingly.
“Go on a date with me, Luke Hemmings. On Friday, I’ll take you to the cinema or we can go get something to eat or I’ll even take you shopping, I don’t care, I’ll do anything. Just go on a date with me,” Michael persists.
Luke stares at Michael, and Michael stares right back. Michael wouldn't look away, because he had to prove to Luke that he was completely serious. Luke’s entire face flushed pink, and then he says, “Let me think about it.”
Neither Michael nor Luke listen to anything on the way to school. They simply sat with each other in silence.
When Michael rides home with Luke on Thursday, the tube is empty again. When Michael goes to sit down across from his pretty boy, Luke makes Michael sit next to him, and nuzzles his way under Michael’s arm. Michael presses a little kiss to the top of Luke’s head, and Luke looks up at him with a lazy smile.
Luke reaches up just enough so his nose bumps against Michael’s, and both boys giggle at that.
“You’re cute,” Michael tells Luke.
“Shut up, you idiot,” Luke laughs.
“No, no, really. You really are cute,” Michael insists. “Thank you for forgiving me.”
“Oh, yeah, I wasn’t really mad, just kinda upset,” Luke replies.
“I didn’t mean to upset you, I was just overwhelmed. I’ve never fallen for a guy before, Luke,” Michael tells his pretty boy.
“You’ve fallen for me?” Luke giggles, batting his beautiful blue eyes at the older boy.
“Maaaaybe,” Michael says flirtatiously. Luke bumps their noses together again, but Michael leans forward so that his lips press against Luke’s.
And Luke begins to kiss back.
On Friday, it begins to rain so hard that Michael has no choice but to cancel his date with Luke, but Luke comprises by saying Michael can come over and they can watch movies.
This was the first time that Michael’s ever met Luke’s parents, and he was really nervous. Literally two seconds before Michael met them, Luke whispered the words, “They don’t know I’m homosexual, so don’t say anything too gay, okay?” into Michael’s ear. Michael nodded and bit the inside of his cheek to keep his nerves down.
Luke’s parents were friendly folks, and they may have been acting a bit too sweet on Michael. It took Luke well over ten minutes to get his mum to stop pinching Michael’s cheek. Luke already has movies picked out, sitting by the DVD player under his small TV. “Which one d’you wanna watch first?” Luke asks.
Michael picked The Aristocats, and Luke giggled at his childish choice. The two boys pressed close under the pillow fort they’d made, a fuzzy blue blanket wrapped around both of their shoulders. Michael noticed that Luke scrunches closer to Michael whenever a loud clap of thunder strikes outside. They got through The Aristocats, Fight Club, The Breakfast Club, and halfway through Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World when Michael and Luke started making out. It was weird for Michael, because it was the first time he’d ever made out with anybody, and he never thought it’d be with a boy. Luke seems to know what he’s doing though, so Michael didn’t really care.
Michael pulled away slightly, mostly to catch his breath, and rested his forehead against Luke’s. Luke’s delicate fingers were playing with Michael’s hair, and it took Michael a long time to ask, “Do you, um, still wanna be my boyfriend?”
“Yeah,” Luke said, without even thinking about it.
“Good,” Michael breaths out, pressing a light kiss to his new boyfriend’s lips.
At dinner, Michael politely spoke with Luke’s mother, and cracked jokes with his father, and even bonds with Jack, Luke’s older brother who was home from college. Michael’s favorite part of dinner was holding Luke’s hand under the table the whole time.
Four months, an entire winter, a lot of movie dates, a lot of make out sessions, a lot of fucking, and a lot of cuddling later, Michael got on the subway at 7:30 AM precisely. Luke was already waiting for him, a small smile on his perfect little lips.
Michael sat down next to Luke, their hands instantly finding each other’s. Michael put in his earbuds, and Luke did the same. Michael looked over at Luke, and Luke looked at Michael. They both broke into disgustingly lovesick grins, and Michael did everything he could to stop himself from giving Luke a good morning kiss.
Instead, he looked at the pretty boy affectionately, and said, “Hey, what are you listening to?”