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the boys of 5 seconds of summer have always been a touchy-feely bunch. they aren’t exactly sure when it started or when it became such a commonplace thing for them, but it’s how their friendship works. it was normal for calum to hold michael’s hand or for ash to hug luke from behind or say flirty and suggestive things to each other; even back when they were in school, it wasn’t uncommon to see them walk through the halls with their arms around each other or even holding hands, and as much as it raised people’s eyebrows and rumors of their sexuality started to swirl it didn’t matter to them, because that’s how their dynamic operated.
and when they met the boys from one direction, who cross the boundaries of best friend touching on a daily basis (on the first day that they met the boys, niall was lying on top of liam and harry while louis was sitting on zayn’s lap and they acted like it was the most natural thing in the world) and who didn’t hesitate to break that same boundary with them (after the first week michael had three love bites on his neck, two from harry and one from louis, and calum can count on his fingers and toes the amount of time that zayn has kissed him or anyone else in the band on the cheek), they were glad to see other people who personally understood their closeness and familiarity and didn’t judge them.
but out of all the touchy things the boys did, the one thing that the loved the most to do was cuddling.
it was something about the security of being surrounded by one another that made cuddling such a valued feature for them, they loved doing it and they did it all the time. if one of the boys were sick, all of them would cuddle around them on the couch until they felt better. if someone felt sleepy or upset or homesick or just lonely, they’d crawl into someone’s bunk and stay with them until the morning.
which is exactly why when ash left cal alone in their room to go hang out with niall and harry, he found himself outside of michael and luke’s hotel room door, wanting to hang out with them and cuddle for the rest of the day. he had their spare key card with him and opened the door, and he wasn’t at all surprised when he saw luke and michael snuggling under the cover of one of the two full-sized beds in the room.
“oi, you two started without me!” cal says, kicking off his shoes at the door and striding over to the bed. luke, who head was currently on michael’s chest said, “well if someone didn’t take his sweet time coming over here, maybe we would’ve waited.” cal rolled his eyes fondly and flopped onto the bed, moving his way between the two teenagers and sitting against the headboard. michael says, “must you do that to every bed? you’re gonna break one one of these days”, and cal smirks and jokes, “maybe you and i can break a bed one of these days, mikey” and michael giggles and wiggles his eyebrows in calum’s direction.
luke groans, “are you two done flirting yet?” michael laughs and says, “aw, is little lukey jealous? cal, show luke some love so he can stop pouting over there”. cal grins and hugs luke to his chest and kisses his forehead, “see lukey, i love you just as much as i love mike. no more pouting.” luke rolls his eyes and says grumpily, “shut up, i’m not pouting” and he shuffles down the bed so he’s lying on cal’s stomach, still pouting while michael and cal laugh.
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“is there anything else on TV? i feel like we’ve been watching “girl code” for the past three hours,” luke says, to michael, who’s holding the remote. he flips through the channels until he lands on a kids movie channel and when cal and luke see what’s on TV, they laugh.
“’peter pan?’ really mike?” luke pipes up from under the mound of blankets.
michael says, “what? it’s a great movie! and nothing else is on so deal with it.”
they’ve watched the movie for a while and it’s towards the end where peter brings wendy back home, and that’s when calum speaks up. “do you guys think that we’ll ever forget about each other?” he asks, causing michael and luke to look at him confused. cal says, “i mean, not anytime soon, but one day when we aren’t a band anymore…d’ya think we’ll forget about everything? like touring and making music and being together…we won’t forget that, will we?”
michael says, “i thought the plan was for us to make music together until we were old men? we couldn’t possibly forget about each other if we’re still playing shows and making albums”, and luke says, “yeah. and even if that doesn’t end up happening, i could never forget about any of you. you’re my best friends, i love you guys more than anything. that won’t change, and even though ash isn’t here, i know he feels the same.” michael nods, “it seems like it’s been the four of us for so long, i couldn’t even think about there being a day when i didn’t think about you guys or talk to you. that won’t happen”, then he looks up from his place on calum’s shoulder and asks, “what’s this all about, cal?”
cal says softly, “i don’t want all of us to be like wendy and peter. remember in ‘return to neverland’? wendy grew up and barely remembered peter until she saw him again but when they talked, everything was different and strange. i don’t want that for us.” michael and luke share a look before they start laughing, and cal frowns, “i was being serious guys! i don’t want that to happen. don’t laugh at me!”
luke says, “we’re sorry man, but that was hilarious. and i thought i was the sap of the group.” and michael says, “yeah, i expect the mushy stuff from luke or even ash, not from you cal”, and he says seriously, “we’re never going to forget about each other. we’re always going to be together and we’re always going to be best friends and the most important people in each other’s lives. that’s never going to change.”
cal asks, “never? but never is an awfully long time…” luke says softly, “it is, but that’s how long it’ll be. so stop worrying about it, okay?” and he kisses cal's forehead. cal nods and says, “i love you guys”, and michael leans up to peck cal’s cheek and says, “and we love you too.”
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by the time ash comes back it’s later in the afternoon, and when he comes in the room, the others are still cuddled in bed watching disney movies.
ash smiles at the sight of michael and luke wrapped around cal and he says, “aw, you guys are so cute”, and he runs and jumps on the bed on top of them which makes them all yell and groan. michael says, “christ ash, you’re worse than cal!” and ash just giggles and cuddles into luke’s side.
luke asks him, “hey ash, we’re taking a poll here and we wanna know your answer. do you think that we’ll ever forget about each other when we’re older?”
ash immediately shakes his head, “no, never.”
they all smile.
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never is an awfully long time, indeed.