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Luke is pouting.
He is straight-up pouting and Ashton doesn’t know why.
One minute, Luke is playing Uno with Carlotta and Ana, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the girls’ dressing room with a smile too big for the number of cards he’s holding in his hands, and the next, he’s glancing at Ashton across the room and pouting, his pink chapped lip sticking out and an adorably tiny furrow between his brows, mostly hidden behind the curls that fall over his forehead. At first, Ashton thinks Luke lost the game and that he’s glancing at Ashton like he wants him to walk over there and defend his honor or something. But Carlotta and Ana are still playing and they keep nudging Luke so he plays his turn, too. And his pout isn’t directed at them, it’s directed at Ashton.
And he doesn’t know why.
Ashton wants to ask. He wants to walk over to Luke, crouch in front of him and smooth the wrinkles between his eyebrows with his thumb, kiss the pout off his face, and convince Luke to tell him what’s bothering him. Hopefully, Ashton can do something to fix it.
But Ade told him to sit tight while she rummages through her make-up bag for a lighter shade of blue eyeshadow to use on him. Hers is a deep blue, almost black, and it goes nicely with her brown eyes, but she thinks it might be a bit too dark for Ashton’s own hazel eyes, and Ashton can only trust her judgment. It’s not like he knows anything about make-up, after all.
Luke does, Ashton thinks, glancing across the room at him again, out of instinct. Luke is already looking his way and the pout is still there.
“Found it!” Ade says, holding a different eyeshadow palette and a brush, and brandishing both at Ashton. “Ready?”
“Born ready, rockstar,” Ashton says with a grin directed at her after tearing his eyes from Luke.
Ade grins back and moves to stand right in front of Ashton, forcing him to look up at her. “Okay, close your eyes.”
Ashton does, and even if he’s expecting it, he flinches a little at the first touch of the brush against his eyelid. Once it starts moving slowly over it in soft, repetitive movements, he relaxes.
“Has anyone ever done your make-up before?” Ade asks, and on instinct, Ashton’s eyes flutter open, so used to looking at the person that he’s talking to in the eye to show them that he’s listening, that they have his undivided attention. Ade tsks at him and Ashton closes them again.
“I’ve used eyeliner a couple of times. Did it myself and also poked myself in the eye more than once,” Ashton says, rolling his tongue over his lips. “I think Sierra put some make-up on me for Halloween a few years ago.”
“Not Luke?”
“Um no, actually,” Ashton says, drawing his eyebrows together in a frown. Ade taps his temple and he relaxes his features again, trying to keep still, but it’s hard. “He’s never done my make-up, surprisingly.”
And it is surprising. Ashton wonders why Luke has never asked to do it before. Probably because he’s never shown any interest in wearing make-up for a show. He knows that by the end of the set, he’s gonna have sweated it all off, and what little is left, he’s gonna have to wipe off after, on top of stretching and showering. And it’s not like people will actually be able to see it with his drums being in the back. It’s just more trouble than it’s worth.
If Luke asked him though, Ashton wouldn’t say no. He rarely ever does.
“Oh, that’s a shame,” Ade continues, and Ashton agrees, once again getting chastised for moving. “His eyeshadow always looks insane. I’m so jealous.”
She grips his chin with her fingers and delicately tilts his head in different directions, humming softly. Ashton can feel her eyes on him, studying her work. After a few finishing touches to his left eye, she makes a pleased noise and switches to his right one, repeating the process.
Ashton thinks of what she said about Luke and can’t help but smile, trying to keep it small so it won’t disrupt her. He might not know anything about make-up, but he knows that he loves Luke’s. He loves how he looks in it —impossibly gorgeous and ethereal— and he loves how wearing it makes Luke feel —confident and happy. He loves that other people love it, too. The boys, the fans, Ade. It deserves to be admired. Luke deserves to be admired.
He wonders which eyeshadow Luke will wear tonight, which color he will choose or if he’ll go for some glitter instead. Ashton thinks he might ask him to go with blue tonight, so they can match. Right after he asks him what was making him pout.
Ashton wonders if he’s still pouting. He wishes he could look at him and find out.
“Okay, you’re done. You can look,” Ade says. Ashton’s eyes flutter open and immediately he turns his head to the side, his eyes searching for Luke. That pulls a laugh from Ade’s chest. “At your face, Ash! Not your boyfriend’s!”
When he whips his head back around, he finds Ade looking at him, bemusement in her eyes. It makes Ashton blush and he lets out a soft chuckle. “Oh.”
“You can look at him after, now I need you to admire my work,” she says with a little grin, tapping his shoulder so he turns and faces the mirror.
Ashton lets out a soft gasp when he meets his own eyes in the reflection and finds them highlighted by an iridescent blue. He has to admit that Ade was right, the shade compliments his eyes beautifully, making them pop and shimmering when Ashton tilts his head left, then right, admiring how pretty it looks. How pretty he looks.
With a smile tugging at his lips, Ashton moves closer to the mirror, wanting to get a better look. Ade stands behind him, and after staring at himself some more, Ashton meets her eyes, shadowed by a darker shade of blue, but shining all the same. She’s smiling, too. “Do you like it?”
“Fuck yeah, I do,” Ashton says, lowering his eyes to his own face again. He almost doesn’t recognize himself. “I look good ! Great job . ”
“Like you need any help in that department,” she says with a fond eye roll.
“Thank you,” Ashton says anyway. He can admit to himself that he was a little hesitant when he accepted Ade’s offer to do his make-up after he complimented hers, but he’s glad he did. He wonders if she’ll be up to give it a touch-up before Ashton has to go on stage.
She gives him a wink. “Anytime, Ash.”
From behind them, Ashton hears Carlotta say, “you two are done? Oh, I wanna see!” Then he hears Ana agree, as well as Amber, who’s sitting on the couch with a book.
Ashton doesn’t hear Luke say anything and it makes his stomach twist a little. Maybe Luke doesn’t like the idea of Ashton wearing make-up. Maybe that’s why he was pouting before.
As soon as the intrusive thought makes its way into Ashton’s head, he’s brushing it off. It’s plain stupid. There has to be another reason.
“Amber, drumroll, please,” Ade says, and Ashton hears the girl scramble to find her drumsticks before she’s tapping them against the cover of her book. He whirls the chair around for the dramatic reveal, batting his eyelashes, and showing off his shine. Right away, there are gasps and compliments thrown his way, Carlotta even claps excitedly, but Ashton keeps his eyes on Luke.
The first thing he notices is that Luke is no longer pouting. Instead, his mouth is parted, hanging open in the shape of a little “o” and his brows are no longer furrowed, they’re arched, hidden behind his curls. He’s looking at Ashton with something that can’t be described as anything but awe, and it makes Ashton’s heart thunder in his chest in a way that everyone else’s compliments can’t. He appreciates them, of course. Their words warm his heart and his cheeks, but they don’t make him feel like a thousand butterflies are fluttering in his stomach the way a single look from Luke can.
There’s a knock on the door and then, someone from their team pops their head in to tell Luke and Ashton that they need to start getting ready for soundcheck. Their eye contact breaks, but Ashton keeps stealing glances at him while thanking Ade one more time, taking a photo with her, and letting her take a photo of him. He hears Luke apologize to Ana and Carlotta for ending their game short, to which they respond by teasing him for ducking out because he knows he’s going to lose. He promises them a rematch and comes to stand next to Ashton, lacing their fingers together without a word.
With a final wave and several good luck on the show! thrown both ways, Luke and Ashton leave the dressing room.
Ashton keeps holding Luke’s hand as they make their way through the corridors, heading for the stage. With his other hand, he uploads both the photo with Ade and the one that’s just him. As soon as he hits Post, he hears Luke’s phone go ping! in his pocket and when he pulls it out, Ashton sees that it’s a notification for his own story.
“You have your notifications on for me? Dude, that’s so cheesy!” Ashton can’t help but tease, even if the knowledge makes his heart swell.
Luke scoffs, bumping his shoulder against Ashton’s. “Shut up, I just like keeping tabs on you.”
“Tabs on me? We’re always together, I do everything with you.”
“Not everything,” Luke mumbles and Ashton sees the beginning of a pout, the beginning of a frown, both teasing his face. Before he can ask what that was about, Luke shakes his head and when he looks at Ashton, bringing them to a stop in the middle of the hallway, there’s not a trace of whatever went through his head just then, all of it replaced by that look of love and awe and adoration that makes Ashton choke on air. “I didn’t feel like blurting it out with all the girls listening but,” he pauses, bringing his hand, the one that’s not hanging between them, interlocked with Ashton’s, to cup his cheek. “You look beautiful. You always do, but the eyeshadow brings out the blues and greens in your eyes. It’s pretty.”
Ashton blinks at him, unintentionally bringing more attention to his eyes, the movement being followed by Luke’s own baby blues. “You really like it?”
“Of course,” Luke says without hesitation, running his thumb over his cheek. “I love it. I love you and your eyes, eyeshadow or not, and your shiny forehead.” The last one is said with a teasing smile and it’s Ashton’s turn to scoff, pushing at his shoulder lightly. But Luke doesn’t let him push him away, shuffling closer instead, so he can press a quick kiss against Ashton’s lips, kissing away his pout, much like Ashton wanted to do earlier. He still doesn’t know what the pout was about, but before he can ask, Luke is trying to get them moving again. “Come on, before Cal and Mike think we’re hiding in a closet somewhere, making out.”
Ashton rolls his eyes, “just because we did it one time!”
Luke laughs, eyes flickering over Ashton’s face one last time before he starts tugging at his hand, following the sign that leads to the stage.
Ashton’s eyeshadow earns him a few more compliments throughout the day. From Michael and Calum once they finally make it on stage for their private soundcheck, from a couple of crewmembers, and later, from fans when they’re allowed inside the venue.
It makes Ashton feel good about himself, and it gives his confidence a boost through both soundchecks and the show. His mind keeps circling back to Luke’s words, the look in his eyes when he saw Ashton’s eyeshadow, when he stopped them in the hallway to stare at him some more. He keeps glancing at Ashton a lot more than he usually does, too. During soundcheck, during the show, while they’re hanging out in the dressing room between both. All in all, the attention feels nice and Ashton’s happy he agreed to put on make-up tonight.
That is, until he has to take it off after the show.
He was right about sweating some of it off on stage, but what little is left after the set is done is smudged and makes him look like Robert Pattinson’s Batman as Michael kindly pointed out. He tries to get all of it during his shower, scrubbing at his face probably a lot harder than he should, but he only manages to smear the eyeshadow even more around his eyes. Calum starts laughing when Ashton runs into him on his way back to the dressing room, pointing at his face and saying he looks like one of the raccoons from the Twitter accounts he follows. Ashton flips him off, entering the dressing room and going straight to Luke, currently sitting in front of the mirror carefully taking off his own eyeshadow with a make-up remover wipe.
“Can I have one of those?” Ashton asks, prompting Luke to look up at him and bite his lip, trying not to laugh in his face at how he looks.
“Of course, help yourself,” Luke says, eyes shining with bemusement and some of the glitter he hasn’t quite managed to wipe off.
Ashton grabs one and sits down in the mirror adjacent to his, dragging the wipe over his eyelids. It comes off blue, but his eyes are still smudged and he still looks like a pre-teen going through an emo phase. He huffs in annoyance. “How do you do this every night?” He asks Luke, who is still working carefully on his own face and, unlike Ashton, actually looks like he’s making progress.
Luke shrugs, making eye contact with him in the mirror. “You get used to it, it’s like you with your stretching and your ice baths.”
“It’s not. I do that to look after my body. This,” he pauses to run the wipe over his eyelid again and when he lowers it, there’s still make-up on his eyelid. “Is pointless. Can I just leave it like this?”
“No, you’ll get wrinkles and make your skin act up.”
“I don’t care.”
Luke sighs, like Ashton is being unreasonable. Which he isn’t. He just wants to leave the venue and get the carbonara pasta he was promised. It doesn’t matter if he looks like a raccoon while he eats it.
But it matters to Luke, apparently, because he says, “let me finish here and I’ll help you, yeah?”
It’s Ashton’s turn to sigh because there’s no need , he’s not gonna get wrinkles after one night of sleeping with make-up, but he won’t say no to Luke, so he sits back and watches him scrub his face clean, his delicate fingers wiping off every last bit of make-up.
He could watch Luke for hours on end, regardless of what he’s doing. It’s one of Ashton’s favorite things to do, which is why, when Luke stands next to him and tilts Ashton’s head back with a finger under his chin, telling him to close his eyes, Ashton doesn’t appreciate it. He can’t watch Luke if his eyes are closed.
He really wants his eyeshadow off though so he reluctantly closes them, and then, he feels Luke’s fingers using the make-up wipe to run off the eyeshadow, using his other hand to hold Ashton’s face in place. Luke’s movements are soft, delicate and familiar, and Ashton relaxes under his touch. Luke takes his sweet time and Ashton knows he should be impatient, but it actually makes him smile that, even if they’re in a hurry, Luke is nothing but sweet and gentle with him.
“What are you smiling about?” Luke asks, voice laced with amusement.
"This, you, it’s not so bad," Ashton says, eyelids fluttering when Luke runs his finger over them. "I still think it’s too much work-”
“Of which you’re doing none.”
Ashton chuckles softly. “That’s what I got you for, honey.”
“So you won’t let me put make-up on you but you’re making me take it off?” Luke says and Ashton flinches a little in surprise, frowning, which makes Luke tsk at him.
But he ignores it, opening his eyes and blinking up at him a couple of times. “What?”
“I’m not done, Ash—”
He doesn’t care. “No, what do you mean I won’t let you put make-up on me?”
Luke sucks his bottom lip between his teeth, lowering his eyes. Ashton gets the impression that Luke didn’t want him to hear that. But he did, and now he’s gonna have to explain.
“Well, you’ve never let me put make-up on you and you let Ade do it—”
“She offered! You’ve never—” Ashton pauses when something clicks and he gets the answer to the question he’s been meaning to ask all day. “Is that why you were pouting earlier? Because Ade was doing my make-up? You were jealous?”
“I wasn’t jealous,” Luke says, but Ashton arches an eyebrow at him, making him sigh. “Okay, maybe a little, I just. I’ve always wanted to do your make-up, but you’ve never let me.”
“Luke, honey,” Ashton says, shaking his head in disbelief, “you’ve never asked.”
And Luke opens his mouth to protest, but closes it right away, realizing he can’t refute that. Once again, his lips purse in a pout and it drags a soft laugh from Ashton.
“I can’t believe that’s what put you in a mood before, for a moment I thought you didn’t want me wearing any make-up.”
It’s Luke’s turn to gasp in disbelief. “What? Of course, I did, I do. You look so good. I just wished it was me putting it on you.”
“Well, you could’ve told me.”
“I know, I know,” Luke says, cheeks starting to look a little pink.
Ashton could tease him a bit more, part of him wants to. Instead, he gives Luke a sweet smile and says, “you can do it next time.”
Luke narrows his eyes at him. “Next time? I thought you didn’t like it.”
“I never said that. I do like it, I like the way I looked and I like the way it made you look at me, and if you promise to take it off afterward, I wouldn’t say no to doing it again. This time with you putting it on.”
An excited grin teases at Luke’s lips. “Really? You don’t think Ade will mind?”
“I think she’ll live. She said I move and squirm too much anyway.”
The grin finally cracks Luke’s face, eyes sparkling. “Okay, yeah, I can do your make-up next time.”
“Fantastic, now can you finish this so we can go eat? I’m starving.”
Luke nods, tapping Ashton’s cheek so that he closes his eyes and he can go back to work. Not long after, Ashton is allowed to open them again, and when he looks at himself in the mirror he can’t see any trace of eyeshadow, and he sighs in relief.
“Thanks, honey,” Ashton says, smiling up at him. “I thought I’d never see my eyelids again.”
A laugh tumbles over Luke’s lips. “You’re so dramatic.”
“You threw a fit because you wanted to do my make-up even though you never asked, you can’t call me dramatic,” Ashton deadpans and sees Luke’s cheeks take on a nice pink tint again. He stands up, cups Luke’s face in his hands, and says, “next time, just ask, there’s hardly anything I wouldn’t let you do.”
“Okay,” Luke says in a small voice and Ashton can’t help but press a kiss to his lips, erasing any trace of a pout from his face, replacing it with a smile.
Not long after, Calum and Michael come to find them, ready to go get dinner. All through it, Luke keeps glancing at Ashton, his stare lingering on his eyes, even if the eyeshadow isn’t there anymore. His expression is thoughtful and Ashton wonders if he’s thinking about what he’ll do when he gets to do Ashton’s make-up next time. Whenever that may be.
***
And Ashton should’ve known. He should’ve seen it coming.
The very next day, Luke flops down on his lap with an eyeshadow palette and a brush in his hands, and with an excited smile, asks Ashton if he can do his make-up.
And true to his word, Ashton says yes.