Red String of Fate

February 2014

Luke jumps onto his bed, stretching his long body out on the mattress while he lay on his stomach. His laptop's open and being booted up and the grin that's on his lips is huge and cheesy for two main reasons. The first one being the band's first proper music video was finally out and people seemed to like it so thank fuck for that. Reason number two being he's going to Skype with Kara again, something that's become routine and done once every two or three days, simply because they could and Luke was all for another constant thing in his life – since the only other constant thing he's got is his boys, music, and his family.

The fans, too, but that only applied to those who were genuinely there for the boys (and the music, duh), and not just because they thought Luke was good-looking and decided that that made them massive fans of 5 Seconds of Summer.

Kara, though he'd only known her for, what? As long as 5 Seconds of Summer had been a proper band with Ashton? She felt as constant as the other boys did in his life, if that made any sense. She was always there. Not in person, obviously, since they still hadn't met yet, but she was still always there for him to rant to, to let go of everything on. Times when he felt like he was alone and not good enough to be in a band with his three best mates (even though they were his best mates), Kara was the one to tell him that it was just him having a bad day – in which he told himself he wasn't good enough when he knew damn well he was good enough for this, that he deserved this.

She really is his best friend. That's it. He's totally not having weird feelings about her. He totally doesn't occasionally stare at her selfies that she happens to post on Twitter or Instagram whilst he's got either apps running. He totally doesn't get into a dazed state and takes in her very pretty face while they're on Skype and she's got something to do so she just leaves the camera on. He totally doesn't go to her Tumblr to stalk her sometimes.

Okay, apart from the last one, the rest of it... He totally doesn't do those things.

He does go onto her Tumblr, though. Mostly because she's got nice posts. Pretty views, pretty things, band stuff, funny things. It's a good blog she's got. Makes him smile, too, because sometimes he sees his face on her blog and he has to bite down on his lip (because he's usually in public when he's on her Tumblr) to contain the large grin that wants to come out onto his face because her tags could make anyone smile.

Come to think of it, the tags that people put on photos of him and the boys could make any of them smile, honestly. There could be cute ones like '#aw look at my bae #10ft tall child' and then there were the other ones that would make him blush like '#fuCK mE IN TJE AS S'.

He's a 17 year old kid. He will not fuck that person in the ass. Because they're not in close vicinity but if they were near then hey, who's he to deny them that request?

The Skype tone starts ringing out then and Luke snaps out of his reverie, grinning again as he accepts the request for a video call. His face pops up in the corner first, then Kara's face is filling up his screen and his smile gets even bigger.

"Hey!" Kara greets with a grin. "You alri'?"

"I'm great, thanks," Luke beams. "How are you?"

"Awesome," she responds, "Well. Tired as fuck, but awesome," then her grin widens, lighting up her entire face, "Watched the video today."

"And?" Luke questions eagerly, nibbling on his bottom lip.

"I reckon more girls would've liked it if you four were the ones to start getting naked," Kara teases and Luke chuckles, shaking his head. "But it's amazing. You're all amazing."

"Oh come on. You're my best friend," he pouts his bottom lip. "Can't you be just a little bit more biased towards me?"

"Your hair game was really fucking strong in the video," she offers and Luke drops his head, shoulders shaking as he laughs before he's angling his head so that he's looking at her (or, well, on-the-screen her) and flashing a toothy grin in her direction. "Hair game's weak now, though."

Luke pouts again, hands going up to his flat hair that's damp because he's basically just gotten out of the shower and hasn't been done up to it's full height because he's still got a half hour till they've to go to wherever they need to be. "When we hang up and when I've done my hair, I'll take a picture and show you that my hair game is still very, very strong."

Kara nods her head solemnly, the corner of her lips fighting to twitch into a smile, "I don't doubt that at all, Hemmo."

He chortles quietly, folding his arms across each other and then resting his chin on them, after tilting the computer screen so that she can still him. "So what're you up to, Princess?"

She shrugs, "Not much, really, just, y'know, the usual," she says casually, biting on her bottom lip as she fiddles with something out of his view.

Luke narrows his eyes over at her, "You're hiding something from me. Stop hiding things from me."

"I'm not!"

"You are!" He lifts his head from it's rested position, pointing a finger at the screen in what was assumed to be a threatening manner. "Tell me!"

"I'm not hiding anything from you!" She laughs.

"You are! Tell meeeeee," he whines, pouting his bottom lip in an over exaggerated manner.

"Literally there is nothing to tell you, oh my, God,"

Luke scoffs, "That is such a lie. I know we've only just started the video calls but I know you, okay. So tell meeeee. I thought we were friends," he whines even more, pouting even more – didn't even know he could pout so much.

"Okay, okay," Kara relents. "Fine. You ready?"

"Hell yeah."

"I met this guy," she starts, a grin on her face even when the corner of her lip is pulled into her mouth. Luke has to stop his face from falling. Has to school his features so that it remains the same – neutral. He should be happy for her. She met a guy. Why is he feeling... upset? This isn't supposed to be what he's supposed to be feeling.

"He's really fucking cute, yeah? With, like, blonde hair, really pretty blue eyes, he's like eight feet tall, I reckon, and he's got a lip piercing, – " she carries on talking and Luke feels himself start to smile, shaking his head in amusement. And he's absolutely not blushing. "– and I met him through his covers on YouTube. And now... Now his band's proper famous," Kara looks at him, smiling at him and his smile back is instantaneous. "– and they've finally got their first proper music video out and I feel so fucking proud of him that all I really want to do is just... Just fucking grab him and hug him and tell him how proud I am of him."

Luke smiles shyly, scratching at the side of his nose. His lips pull into a wide smile that reveals his teeth and then he's looking back at her, "So you think I'm cute?"

She laughs, shaking her head, "And of course that's the only bit you got from what I said."

He chuckles, flashing another toothy grin in her direction, "S'not everyday a cute girl calls you cute."

Kara rolls her eyes in response, "Yes, it is. Mostly because you're, oh, I don't know? In a famous band? And you've got millions of fans who, also, think you're really fucking attractive?"

"Maybe so but do you think I'm really fucking attractive?"

"Ehhh,"

"Rude," he gasps over dramatically, bringing a hand to where his heart would be.

She laughs and Luke can't help but smile and chuckle along, because she's got one of those laughs that instantly make you want to smile and/or laugh along. "Only to you, babe," she winks and Luke snickers quietly.

"Babe. You're so mean to me," he sniffles dramatically.

Kara bites down on her bottom lip, fiddling with the silver lip ring, "It's because we're special, babe."

Luke opens his mouth to respond with something incredibly cheesy, only to shut it as the door to the room he's staying is pushed open. Luke raises a brow at the elder standing in the doorway, who is also raising an eyebrow at him.

"Are you talking to yourself?" Ashton asks, blinking his eyes over at the younger who's still on the bed on his stomach. It's understandable he's asking that, really, because the volume for Kara's voice is loud enough for only him to hear, since he didn't fancy using headphones over his damp hair and he was too lazy to walk all the way over to the dressing table to pick up his normal earbuds and plug them in.

"No?" Luke scoffs. "I'm on Skype."

"Yeah?" Ashton smiles, dimples making an appearance. "With who?"

".... A friend...."

Ashton smirks then, "Like... A friend-friend or a friend-friend?"

Luke blushes, darting his eyes to the laptop screen only to see Kara with a hand over her mouth and a raised eyebrow on her forehead, eyes glinting with amusement. He rolls his eyes, turning back to Ashton who's still smirking. "Piss off."

Ashton laughs then, running his fingers through his hair. "Totally not just a friend," he mumbles and Luke's sure that he wasn't meant to hear it but he does and his cheeks flush with more colour and he wants to jump into a hole and bury himself because Kara is watching him get all red, too, and Ashton is most definitely going to be telling Michael and Calum about the Skype call and he's going to have to deal with them being assholes for the rest of the day.

"Alright, whatever, talk to your friend and put on some pants and do whatever you need to. We're leaving in, like, ten minutes,"

All Luke does in response is nod, shooting him a thumbs-up before groaning and burying his face in his palms. "That was embarrassing," he mumbles under his breath, shaking his head.

"S'like you got caught watching porn by your dad, or something," Kara's voice come out of his laptop speakers and Luke's snapping his gaze up to look at her, cheeks flushing with even more colour because, well, it really was embarrassing, okay? "And 'put on some pants'?" She quotes, raising an eyebrow, making him shoot her a sheepish grin. "Are you seriously not wearing any trousers now?"

He shrugs, "Fits with the band's image, don't you think?"

"... Touché," she allows after a short moment, shrugging a shoulder and offering him a half-grin. "I should go... Let you do your hair and put on some trousers and thing."

Luke's quick to shake his head, "No, don't go," he blurts out and she startles, looking at him weirdly. He bites down on his bottom lip, "I mean, I've only got to put on trousers and then do my hair. That's it, really. We can still talk."

"Well... yeah, but, I mean, you still have to get ready. Having me on the line would delay that because we both know that you can't multi-task for shit,"

"That's offensive," he gasps, bringing a hand to his heart as he slides off of his bed, making sure that his boxers aren't seen on camera, and then picking up the (seemingly only) pair of skinny jeans he owns, pulling them on with little grunts here and there. "I'll have you know that I – oh God,"

"Luke?" Kara's voice is heard through the speakers on his laptop and she sounds worried. Amused, too, but he's disregarding that. "I heard a crash. You okay?"

He heaves a breath, going onto his knees and then propping his chin up on the bed, jeans still halfway pulled up his legs as he turns the laptop so that he can see her face again. "M'fine. The chair came out of nowhere."

"Sure it did,"

"Yes. It did," Luke insists stubbornly. "What was I talking about?"

Kara grins, raising an eyebrow, "How great of a multi-tasker you are?"

"Oh, yeah, duh," he scoffs. He wags a finger in her direction, "I play the guitar and sing at the same time. So HAH."

"Yeah, but you do realise that you just fell because you couldn't fully concentrate on putting on your jeans whilst talking to me?"

"... Shut up, Kara."

Kara only laughs in response and the smile that comes to his lips is instantaneous. Bit worrying to him, really. He just tells himself it's because she's got a nice laugh. That's why his heart may or may not have fluttered a bit and then his lips are instantly curling up at the corners. Yeah. That's it. She's got a cute laugh.

Luke picks up the laptop, placing it on the dressing table and then positioning the lid so that she can still see him – even if she's probably going to do other things on her laptop while he continues to get ready. "I'm using the hairdryer now so sorry for the noise pollution," he says and she looks at him, laughing again, and the blonde only grins back before he turns on the hairdryer and brush, making sure his hair game is on-point so that he can rub it in her face that yes, his hair game is still really fucking strong.

Luke's done with his hair after two minutes or just a tad longer than that – mostly because he still wants to talk to Kara while he still can, before he has to go and being his very long and busy day ahead. Only, when he turns back to look at the laptop screen, she's still there, but she's not in front of the webcam. Rather, she's sitting cross-legged on her chair and her body's angled to the side, as is the laptop slightly, and she's got a paintbrush in hand. The camera on the laptop is tilted just enough for him to see part of the piece she's working on and he's mesmerised because it's an amazing piece and she's working on it right now – so there was no doubt that Kara was the talented human being behind the painting.

He opens his mouth to say something but he decides against it, because she looks so in concentration, nibbling on her bottom lip, eyebrows slightly crinkled together as she does whatever she's doing to the piece she's got in front of her. He doesn't know – he's never been good at art. And Luke kind of wishes that he was there in person because he wants to just watch her as she works. Sounds creepier than he thinks, but it's really all he wants to do because there's something about watching someone with a passion for something work on the thing they're passionate about.

There's a sound of a camera click from her end of the Skype call and she turns, smiling as she takes in the sight of whoever's there and just taken a photo of her.

"S'looking good," a man's voice says, and it's English, too, so Luke's assuming that it's her father or brother, or someone of blood relation, probably.

"Thanks, Dad,"

"I'll send that to you – the photo I just took. And you should get some rest. It's almost three a.m.,"

"Yeah, in a few minutes," she says and smiling at him, and her father comes up to her, giving her a kiss at the top of her head before he's walking away with a goodnight called over his shoulder. Kara turns to him then, smile still present, "Hair game strong."

"Thanks," Luke laughs. "And I totally forgot about the time difference. Why didn't you remind me?" He whines, pouting his bottom lip adorably.

She shrugs, grinning, "I've got nothing on tomorrow so I reckon I'll be sleeping in, anyways. My body clock's fucked."

"Still," he huffs. "Go to bed."

Kara rolls her eyes, setting down the paintbrush and palette she's got balanced on her other palm, "So bossy," she mumbles under her breath playfully and he chuckles.

"The thing you're working on is amazing, by the way," he says, smiling genuinely. "It's so cool-looking."

"Thanks, Hemmo," she smiles again, offering him a two-fingered salute. "I should go to bed, or something. And you should go start your day. Famous rockstar and things."

Luke chortles, rolling his eyes in an over exaggerated manner. "Whatever," he scoffs and she only grins at him again in response. "Oh wait, one question before you go though?"

"Yeah?"

"Send me that picture that your dad took of you."

"... Why?"

Luke shrugs a shoulder, "Bet it looks cool."

Kara chuckles quietly, shaking her head in amusement, "Yeah, sure. I mean – if you want it. S'whatever." And Luke wants to say that he sees her blushing but then he's telling himself that he's imagining things that he (subconsciously) wants to see. "I'll talk to you whenever, then. Bye, Hemmo."

"Bye, Princess," Luke smiles back, waving at her once before the call's cut and he's left staring at his own reflection before he escapes the full screen option and things.

"Lucas!" Calum's voice calls from outside before he's opening the door and giving the younger boy a look. "You ready? Car's here."

"Yeah," he nods, shutting the lid of his laptop, picking up his phone and whatever other necessities he's got, slipping on bracelets and his pinky ring as he walks out the door, following Calum.

Luke goes into the car, sliding into the seat, simultaneously pulling out his phone and his earbuds because they've got a drive ahead of them – they're not even sure where they're going – and the boys usually each have their own music playing. His phone lights up with a text just as he hits the play button on a Foo Fighters track, and he's instantly biting down on his bottom lip to contain the smile that wants to show itself at the name on his phone screen.

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to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
- image -

to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
you're still weird for wanting that picture btw.

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to Kara ♕
you look beautiful

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to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
???? that's just my side and the back of my head??? u ok luke

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to Kara ♕
oh my god I'm trying to be cutesy and shit and you ruined it

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to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
sorry. not sorry.

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to Kara ♕
AND IM SO SORRY FOR MYSELF GOT ME TIED LIKE A KNOT TWISTED UP IN MY THOUGHTSSSS

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to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
AND IM SO SORRY FOR MYSELF NO I CANT BREAK IT DOWN NOT AROUND THIS TOWN NO MOREEEEEE

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to Kara ♕
go to bed

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to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
go be famous and shit.

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