Red String of Fate

May 2014

The door to Luke's bedroom is pushed open and he startles slightly, propping his body up from it's previously horizontal position. He blinks, and his mum blinks back at him, raising an eyebrow.

"What?" He eventually asks, because Liz is just looking at him with that look on her face and he doesn't know what she knows, or what she wants, and he hates when he's at a disadvantage. Doesn't matter if it's his mum, or either of his brothers, or even just a mate. As long as he's in the dark about something, he hates it and temporarily hates that person that knows what he doesn't.

"You're flying to Ireland in three days," Liz says from the doorway of his bedroom.

Luke blinks, "Yes. I know that," he nods slowly. "And?"

"And," Liz emphasises, taking a step into his bedroom, eyes darting to the dirty clothes on the floor. Her nose scrunches up, "Jesus Christ, would it kill you to pick up your clothes every once in a while?" She huffs, bending down to pick up the pair of skinnies that were turned inside-out from how he'd just pulled them off, and the (probably dirty) pair of boxers next to the t-shirt also on the ground.

Luke huffs, letting his head fall back so that he's laying horizontally down on the bed again, "Is that it? Going back on tour so you want me to do my laundry? I'll do 'em tomorrow," he mumbles mindlessly. He won't do them tomorrow. Would probably give them to his mum tomorrow, though. That seemed like a more true statement.

"No, that's not what I came to say," Liz huffs, gently tossing the clothes she's just sort of folded for him onto the bed, by his feet. "What I came to say was..." she trails off and Luke turns his head to look at her, raising an eyebrow. "I want to meet your girlfriend. Invite her over for dinner." And really, it's probably supposed to be a suggestion but it's kind of phrased like an order so Luke's spluttering with wide eyes as he pushes himself up onto his elbows to look at his mother.

"What?"

Liz shrugs a shoulder, "You heard me. I know you've got a girlfriend so don't bother denying it – " he's not going to deny it because he's proud to be able to call Kara his girlfriend but. "– and you're going back on tour soon, so soon, and I want to at least meet this girl before you go."

Luke blinks, tongue darting out to dampen his dry lips, "... Why?"

"Because," Liz starts with a little sigh. Then she's shaking her head lightly, walking over to him and sitting her bum down on his bed, looking at him with that look in her eyes. That look that obviously equates to him getting a serious talk that he won't be able to run away from because he's still half-laying down in bed and Liz is sat on his bed, too.

Luke sighs softly, "What is it, mum?"

"It's just – " she cuts herself off, shaking her head. "I'm happy for you, yeah? I really am. You deserve a nice girl, and it seems like this girl's making you really happy, and I really like that. But you're my baby boy and I don't want to see you go through what you went through when you and Aleisha broke up – you know, because of the tour and all. And it seems like you've just met this girl and you've already asked her to be your girlfriend and now you're going back on tour and, well. Is she alright with that? Is she okay with you going on tour for months on end, because honey, I love you, but you shouldn't have rushed into things if you're just going to end up breaking her heart, or your own."

Luke sighs again, finally letting go of his phone that his fingers had been wrapped around the whole time. The phone's on the bed now and the blonde's full attention is on his mother. "I really like her, mum," he says softly, a light hue of pink coming to his cheeks, surely. "I really, really do. And like, she likes me, too, not because I'm Luke from 5 Seconds of Summer. She likes me as the normal Luke because she's known me for years, and I've known her for years, and she's my best friend and I just, I dunno," he shrugs.

"I just really like her, and I don't want to break her heart. I wouldn't have asked her to be my girlfriend or even, like, made a move if I wasn't sure. But I am, and this is what I want, and she understands the touring thing and, like, I probably would've never forgiven myself if I went on tour without asking her out or something and, you know, came back to see that she's got a boyfriend, or summat," Luke finishes with another small shrug. His cheeks are probably a light pink by now because, come on. It's kind of weird to be talking about things like that with his mum but his mum's the only other person who would understand (besides the boys) so sometimes he's just got to suck it up and stick through a bit of embarrassment and tell his mum these things because in the end, his mum would be able to help with top notch advice and things.

Liz is silent, just looking at him thoughtfully with a little smile on her face. Then she breathes a soft chuckle, shaking her head once and looking at him again, "You really like this girl, don't you?"

Luke shrugs a shoulder casually, but he nods. Might even be bloody in love with her but we've only been official for, like, two weeks so I'm not going to tell her yet, he wants to add, but he doesn't. Some things he should keep to himself and not tell anyone – not even the boys because he knows that there'll try to sabotage him (in a total loving way, of course) the day Luke eventually lets them meet Kara.

"And she understands the touring? The gone for months thing?"

"Yeah," Luke nods again. "We're best friends, mum. 'S how we kept in contact since 5SOS started going on tour," he says and it's not the total truth, but it's not a massive lie, either. He just, you know. Didn't mention that they'd met online and sort of only recently started the video calls. He'd get a lengthy lecture if he ever mentions how he'd met her through the internet.

"Okay," Liz finally says, nodding and smiling at Luke fondly. "Okay," she repeats, getting to her feet. She pats the top of his head (and messes up his hair a bit) in the most loving manner and he whines, pulling his head back. Liz smiles, "M'happy for you,"

Luke smiles shyly, "Thanks, mum,"

Liz only nods in response. There's still a smile present on her face as she makes a move to exit his bedroom. Before she takes a step out of the bedroom, though, she pokes her head back 'round the doorway, giving him a look, "That doesn't mean I don't want to meet her, though. I still do. Invite her to dinner."

"Mum," Luke whines again, throwing his body back down onto the mattress.

"Invite your girlfriend over for dinner, Lucas. No arguments."

---

July 2014

The boys of 5 Seconds of Summer are in the dressing room. They've got an hour or so before they're due to go on and they just got done with their interviews and press and meeting the fans and things, so now they're all just very, very happy to get a bit of down time before the show. There are other people in the dressing room, all doing other things, but the four teenagers in the band are all sprawled out in weird positions on the lounges. Michael's currently cuddled laying down on Luke's back on the three-seater lounge, Calum's on the other lounge, the smaller one, legs hanging off of the arm rest, and Ashton's on the same lounge as Calum, the younger's head in his lap as he texts on his phone. Gemma, probably. Fuck knows what's going on between those two.

Luke whines when Michael moves on his back, pressing into him too hard and probably crushing his lungs a bit.

"Oops, sorry, mate," Michael's got the decency to apologise, but then he's moving around again to get comfortable, still on Luke's back. He could get off the younger and just, like, sit on the floor but noo. Of course he's not going to do that.

Luke only whines again, burying his face in his arms. All he really wants to do right now is call Kara and talk to her and stuff but he doesn't know what time is it back home and he knows that if he sees her face he's going to want to try his damn best to reach through the laptop screen (because his phone's charging somewhere in the dressing room) to grab her and kiss her till they've both got red lips and they're trying to catch their breaths before they're kissing again. He just really fucking misses her and it sucks so much because he thought he'd be used to the whole 'communication by Skype and FaceTimes' by now (since he's been doing it with her for ages almost) but he's not because he knows what it's like to be with her in person and he knows what it's like to kiss her and cuddle her because she is his girlfriend now.

And it's just not the same. Not after he knows what it's like to be with her in person.

"Michael, get off him," Ashton speaks up then, but he sounds kind of distracted. Kind of sounds like he's a parent asking his older son to stop bullying his youngest son and that's exactly what it is. Really.

"M'not hurting him!" Michael protests, wiggling his body a bit more to get himself more comfortable on Luke's back. The younger is feeling the wind get knocked out of his lungs. "He's fine! Look!"

"If you cut off his oxygen supply, even by accident, and he dies, I'm going to kill you," Calum chimes in then, and he sounds so sleepy that it's as endearing as it is adorable. He yawns then, slowly sitting up and rubbing at his eyes, "He looks like he can't breathe,"

"He's right here. He can speak if he can't breathe," Michael scoffs, propping his chin on the back of Luke's neck.

"He can't breathe," Luke wheezes out because fuck, Michael's really not that heavy but he's just putting so much weight on his back that it's actually pressing him too hard into the seat of the lounge that it's properly pressing into his lungs and cutting off his oxygen supply.

"Oh," Michael says before finally getting off of the younger.

"Thank you," Luke exhales out in relief, turning around so that he's on his back now. "Hey, Mikey, can you pass me my laptop?"

Michael reaches out to grab the boy's laptop and then he's handing it to the blonde with a curious look on his face. "What'd you need it for?"

"Wanna see if Kara's online," Luke mumbles mindlessly, booting up the laptop as he shifts up on the lounge so that he's not fully horizontal but he's not properly sat up, either. The laptop's placed on his stomach and now he's just waiting to see if – like he's told Michael – Kara's online.

"Yeah, hey, are we ever going to get to meet her?" Ashton asks, and Luke looks up to see that the other three members of the band are looking at him expectantly.

"I mean," the blonde shrugs. "If she's online and she's, like, up for it then you could meet her now?" He proposes, silently adding 'and if she's not just in a t-shirt and her underwear because there's no fucking way I'm letting you guys see that' in his mind. Even when they were just friends and hadn't met in person yet, she'd picked up the call one too many times whilst only in a t-shirt and underwear. It wasn't that she was purposely dressed like that just to talk to him, or whatever. Most of those times, she'd just woken up and she made sure to keep the camera no where near her bottom half, but she usually ended up accidentally setting the laptop down and stretching over it, giving him a view of her bare legs and just wow. Doesn't really help with his morning situation, especially when he decides to Skype her in the morning, whilst still in bed.

Ashton beams then, "Seriously?"

"You're finally letting us meet your girlfriend that you've been hiding away for fuck knows how long?" Michael adds in with an over exaggerated gasp.

"Come off it," Luke rolls his eyes but the corners of his lips are betraying what he's hoping is an annoyed look by curling up into a smile.

The first thing his eyes look for when his laptop's finally connected to the shitty wi-fi is the little logo that'll tell him if Kara's online. She's online but she's got that busy symbol thingy and Luke's pretty sure that she's probably just signed into Skype on her mobile but isn't using it at all. He goes to FaceTime her instead (thank you MacBooks and iPhones and FaceTime) and as he waits, he plugs in his earbuds. He's letting the boys meet her (through Skype/FaceTime, but whatever) but he still wants to have a bit of a private conversation with her first. It's not fully private because they'll be able to hear whatever he's saying and he really can't be arsed to move, but eh, it's the thought that counts.

Kara's picking up within a couple of rings and then her face is popping up on his screen, in the rectangle, and he can't help the grin the comes unto his lips. "Hello, my princess," Luke greets with a cheesy grin plastered on his face.

Kara laughs lightly, "Hey Hemmo," she smiles. "What's up?"

"Nothing," he shrugs, still smiling. "Miss you, is all," he says and he's talking straight into the microphone because although he knows the boys (and anyone else in close vicinity) are trying to give the two privacy, they can probably still hear what he's saying. Then Luke's brows furrow together lightly in the middle of his forehead, "Wait, what time is it right now?"

"'Bout half three in the morning?"

"Why are you still up?" Luke frowns deeper. "Wait, better question: why the fuck aren't you even at home?"

Kara breathes a laugh, shrugging a shoulder. "Ace and I were bored," she says by explanation and Luke just fixes her with a flat look telling her that he's not satisfied with just that reason. She rolls her eyes playfully, "Grabbed our boards and just... skated. Ended up finding this cheesy horror movie-screening thing. Made friends with a bunch of hippies and that's all to it, really,"

"So you're just... hanging out... with strangers...?" Luke's not amused. Not at all. And he might smack Ace the next time he sees the bloke in person because those damn hippies or whoever might be rapists and kidnappers and sex worker traffickers, or something, and Ace and Kara could be victims to something because they're hanging out with those strangers.

"Made friends with them," she emphasises. "They're cool,"

"But still."

"I promise they're cool. I also promise that we're both okay, and aren't going to die. Relax, Hemmo, stop worrying so much, yeah?"

Luke sighs, shaking his head. "So the boys wanna meet you," he says instead, veering the subject away from how he wants to strangle her and warn her about stranger danger and things but. He's her boyfriend, not her dad or older brother. He's allowed to want to protect her, to feel like he has to protect her, but really his main 'job' is just to be there for Kara and love her, whilst she does the same for him.

Kara raises a brow, "Yeah?"

"Yeah," he nods. "Like, right now. You okay with that?"

"Sure,"

Luke plucks the earbuds out of his ears and unplugs it from his laptop. "Boys," he calls and three faces are instantly looking back at him and their faces are identical mixes of excitement and mischief that he's kind of scared now. He nods over at the laptop and the next thing he knows, they're crowding around him. "Right. Boys, this is Kara. Kara, this is... boys."

"Boys," she smiles, clearly amused by Luke's vague introduction, earning a roll of the eyes from the blue-eyed blonde. "You alright?"

"We're great, thanks," Ashton beams, hooking his chin over Luke's shoulder. "How are you?"

"Amazing, thanks," Kara smiles back.

"Wait, wait, before we continue on with our interrogation – ow!" Michael hisses when Luke pinches him in the side with a blush creeping up his cheeks. "Okay, before we continue on with getting to know you," he emphasises this time, shooting Luke a look that basically tells the younger if he attacks him again, he's going to get punched in the face or something. Michael darts his eyes back to the laptop screen and opens his mouth to say something, only to have a hand cover his mouth next.

"You're taking too long," Calum says by explanation, hand still over Michael's mouth. "Anyway," he says, turning to look at the laptop's screen. "We've two important questions."

Kara blinks, eyebrows raised slightly on her forehead, "Alright. Hit me with your best shot?"

"One: you're from Sydney, too, right? So why the fuck haven't we met you yet?" Michael asks once he's pried Calum's hand off of his mouth. "Wait, don't answer that," he turns to Luke with narrowed eyes. The blonde's blushing – like proper blushing now. "Why the fuck are we only meeting your girlfriend now? We were in Sydney for, like, a month!"

"Please stop," Luke mumbles, shaking his head.

The three boys snicker, just looking at the youngest amongst them with amused looks on their faces. Ashton finally giggles, "Okay, leave him alone," Ashton says through his giggles. He nudges Michael then, "What was the second question?"

"This is, quite possibly, the most important question of them all," Calum starts solemnly, staring at on-screen her. Kara's still got a little smile on her lips and she's just blinking, nodding for him to go on. "You're from Australia, right?"

"You would be correct," Kara nods once.

"So!" Ashton claps his hands together.

"What's your favourite Australian band?"

Kara smiles, the corner of her bottom lip going into her mouth as she fiddles with the silver lip ring in her lip, "This is a trick question, 'innit?"

The three boys scoff in unison, shaking their heads. "Of course not,"

"Okay," she nods once. "So... Favourite Australian band?"

"Yup."

"Simple. It's Hands Like Houses."

---

August 2014

Luke's having an off day. Like, a literally day off, and also a day where he's so homesick and all he wants to do is cuddle and watch movies, and not move. That's kind of what he's already doing, anyway, just that no one's cuddling him because although he does want to cuddle, he wants to cuddle someone specific.

Sometimes he wishes that he'd never met Kara. Not in a sense that it's a bad thing. In a sense that, like, if he'd never met her in person, he would've never known what it was like to hang out with her in person, which meant he would've never figured out what it felt like to kiss her and hug her and all those little things that he'd normally take for granted.

All he wants is to have Kara there with him, and he wants to hold her in his arms and fall asleep like that, and then when they wake up, he wants to kiss her till their lips are red and bruised and then he wants to cuddle her some more.

Luke sighs, pulling out his mobile and dialling her. It's probably like, after dinner time back home. It's an appropriate time for him to call.

"Hello?"

"I miss you," Luke sighs in greeting. "I miss you so much that it's almost starting to hurt because all I wanna do is hold you and kiss you and do dumb things with you. But I can't because I'm here and you're there and I thought this would be easier because most of our friendship was based off of phone calls and texts and then Skype calls, but it's not easier because I know what it's like to have you in my arms and I know what it's like to kiss you, and I don't get to do those things so I'm not okay and it's not easier, and – " he sighs again.

"Sorry. Hello my princess," Luke says once he's finished his little ramble. "How are you?"

Kara breathes a laugh on the other end of the line, "I reckon I should be asking you that. I'm alright, though. Not good, not bad. Just alright,"

"How come?"

"How come what?"

"How come you're alright? Not good, not bad?" Luke clarifies, concern in his question. "Did something happen?"

"No, no," she trails off. "S'just... Exactly what you were talking about, really. I thought this would be easier, too, but I really do bloody miss you, too, and, I dunno,"

Luke sighs, "I'm sorry. Being with me isn't easy, I know that. And I know that you know that, because you were the one being an amazing human being when things with Aleisha got rough and yeah." Kara doesn't say anything. Just hums. Luke sighs again, "Thing is... Now should probably be the time where I give you this speech about how you should just break up with me because you're an amazing, amazing girl and you're so beautiful and like, so many other guys would be better for you, but I don't want to give you that speech that I've already got planned out in my head because I'm selfish and I don't want to let you go and I want you to myself and, I dunno,"

"I'm not gonna break up with you, you know," she says and Luke can hear the smile in her voice, and it's instantly making him smile. "You were my best friend before you became my boyfriend and, like, I've been around since things took off so I know what I was getting myself into. I really fucking like you and I really don't wanna let you go, either,"

"S'good," Luke mumbles. "Really don't wanna fucking let you go, either," he mutters shyly.

"Kinda dislike you now, though,"

"What, why?" Luke laughs.

"Was supposed to go out with a few mates and now I'm almost crying because you made me realise how much I miss you. Idiot,"

"Sorry," Luke laughs again, a hand going to rub at his eyes because he may or may not have shed a tear or two. "Where are you going?"

She hums, "Don't know. Club, maybe. Said I've got to do something now that I'm eighteen,"

Luke freezes. Then he's sitting up with his back as straight and stiff as a board on his hotel bed. His eyes are wide as he stares at the black tele screen where his reflection's seen in. "Oh my God," he breathes out.

"What?" She asks, and she sounds worried.

"Oh. My. God."

"What?!"

"I forgot your fucking birthday, oh my, God,"

Kara laughs on the other end of the line, "Jesus Christ, I thought someone broke into your hotel room, or something,"

Luke's eyes are still wide as he splutters to himself. "This is as bad?! I forgot my girlfriend's birthday. What kind of shit boyfriend forgets their girl's birthday? Oh my God I'm a terrible person – "

"Luke," Kara interrupts with a soft laugh. "Your girlfriend also does not really give a shit about birthdays. So you're not a shit boyfriend, and plus; you're on tour. You know – different timezones and things,"

"Different timezones don't validate shit, oh my God, I forgot your birthday, I'm so, so, so, so sorry, baby. I swear, I remembered it, but then so many things' been happening and then, like, I had a bad day today and, I – "

"I'm going to hang up if you don't stop talking about forgetting my birthday,"

"But I forgot your birthday like Jesus Christ, how could I forget something important like this? I'm such a fucking idiot, oh God, and I'm so – hello? Kara?" Luke blinks, pulling the phone away from his ear to see that the call had, in fact, been ended. "Fucking dick head," he mumbles to himself, shaking his head. Despite himself, he can't help but smile because of course she'd hang up whilst he's trying to be guilty about forgetting one of the most important days. (It's very important because she was born on this day and if she wasn't born then he wouldn't have ever met her and things just wouldn't be the same.)

-

to Kara ♕
okay firstly: fuck u for hanging up on me???

to Kara ♕
secondly: i'm still v v v sorry that i forgot your birthday. i'm gonna make it up to you, i swear

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to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
you don't have to make it up to me bc i rly don't care about my birthday like it's /just a birthday/ and yeah ok leave it alone bby

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to Kara ♕
i'm still gonna make it up to you idk how but i will

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to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
bye

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to Kara ♕
i'm srs

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to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
B

to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
Y

to Hemmo ♪ ♫ ♪
E

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