Chapter Text
Don't you want them all to remember our names?
Talk about our love and the trails we blaze,
'Cause the only thing that the world can't change is you and I.
- History, Olly Murs
Ashton and Luke settled down in Los Angeles in the end, although it took them nearly ten years of moving home countless times before they found somewhere that they were finally comfortable in.
Married life suited them, and being parents did even more so, despite the fears they’d had when they were younger and first starting out together.
They had two adopted daughters now who were as different from each other as Luke and Ashton were.
Maya was only four years old but she was already one of the most outgoing children at her playgroup.
She had soft, platinum blonde curls and wide cornflower blue eyes that made her look a lot more innocent than she was.
Luke often said that the little girl reminded him of Ashton when he was onstage, alive and bubbling with enthusiasm and joy, and Ashton had to admit that he could see what his husband meant – and honestly, he would never get tired of referring to Luke as that.
Maya stumbled through life clumsily with a wide-eyed gaze and a perpetual smile on her tanned face. She wore cute little beaded bracelets that Sharon had made for her the year before and she liked rolling around on the ground when she found something funny, although Ashton had never quite worked out why.
Sophie was the polar opposite to Maya.
She was seven years old and very, very quiet.
Sophie was painfully shy around anyone who wasn’t her sister, her parents, her uncles Michael and Calum, or her (great) aunts Mali and Sharon. Sophie often hid behind her long curtain of dark brown hair, regarding the world through wary eyes hidden behind glasses, but she smiled often and those soft grins made her whole face light up like Luke's did when he saw something that made him happy.
Sophie was never seen without a book in the little satchel she always insisted on carrying, and one of Ashton’s very favourite memories of being a dad was when he had walked into the living room with a sleepy Maya on his hip - clean out of the bath - only to find Luke and Sophie cuddled up with a Winnie The Pooh book as the younger man tried to teach his daughter to read.
At thirty four, Ashton had never been happier than he was now, sharing a beautiful home with his little family.
Every memory he made with Luke, Maya and Sophie was something to be treasured, and Ashton knew that all of the pain he had gone through when he was younger had been worth it if he got to have this life now.
He loved his daughters so much – more than anything in the world – but that didn’t mean he loved Luke any less.
Instead, it felt a bit like Ashton’s heart had expanded to accommodate everything he was feeling, rather than limiting everyone to just a bit of affection.
Ashton loved so much that it felt like he was going to burst sometimes but he liked it that way, liked the warmth that came with adoring Luke and Maya and Sophie, and Calum and Michael who had finally got married too.
Ashton liked how happy loving Sharon and Grace and Harry and Lauren and even the memory of George and his mother made him. He liked the smiles that spread across his face when he thought about Graham and Shelly, and Mrs. McKay and her grandson Barry, and even Aleisha.
Most of all though, Ashton loved loving his little family.
He loved how Sophie held Maya’s hand gently as she led her along the dusty pathway of the hill they were hiking up in the sunshine. He loved how Sophie carefully steadied her little sister when she stumbled and he loved hearing Maya’s animated chatter as the two girls wandered on a few metres ahead.
Ashton loved how he and Luke still held hands just as tightly as they had done when they first met.
The sun was shining high in the sky and Ashton’s hazel eyes were bright as Luke pressed a kiss to his cheek when they reached their destination: the top of the hill where they could see the Hollywood sign in all its glory.
Maya cooed and Sophie took a photograph on the Polaroid camera she’d got for her birthday, and Luke’s golden hair was soft on his forehead when he smiled over at his husband, the skin around his beautiful ocean-blue eyes crinkling like the laughter lines on his face.
Ashton kissed Luke softly and their foreheads fell to rest together after a few moments, although they were still holding hands just as tightly.
Ashton turned their hands gently, so that he could see the inside of his wrist.
The scars on his skin were fading in the sunlight.
"I love you, Lukey," Ashton said.
“I love you too, Ashy,” Luke breathed, his lips cool on Ashton’s cheek. Sophie’s arms wrapped shyly around Luke’s waist and Maya plastered herself to Ashton’s thigh, clinging to it because she couldn’t reach anywhere else.
Luke’s soft laughter sounded like music to Ashton's ears, and when Sophie let out a soft chuckle and Maya gave a gleeful giggle, the older man’s smile felt like it going to split his face in two.
Ashton never wanted this to stop and the best part of it was that it never did.
Everything was finally good.
FIN