Divorced For A Reason
Pairing: Y/N/Luke
Rating: PG-All
Request: Yes
Words: 3.000+
Summary: Being famous and going through a divorce after marrying young isn’t the easy life of Luke. But he’s never afraid to tell at interviews how much he loves you even though you aren’t together anymore.
“Ten minutes boys.” Ten fingers were lifted in the air from the massive crowd of crew people.
Luke, with his tall hovering height, nodded his head in agreement and looked back at the boys.
“Ten minutes,” Luke repeated, his mouth finding the straw of his Joe & The Juice shake, his long fingers wrapped around the large cup.
He used the other hand to make sure he hadn’t dropped a bit of the liquid on his denim jacket. He knew there would be taken pictures during the interview and it wouldn’t give the best impression if he had strawberry shake all over his clothes.
“You look great pretty boy,” Michael commented, noticing the glares Luke was giving his body, “Don’t you worry about that.”
Luke scolded away from Michael’s tattoed hand when he tried to ruffle through his curls. One of the cons about suddenly having long hair. It was like there was a sign hovering over his head stating “Come and touch, it won’t bother.”.
It did, in fact, get annoying at times but with the boys, he had grown used to it. Imagine how Ashton had been feeling the past few years.
They were walking down the hallway, having just arrived from the makeup. They could see crew lining up at the end of the hallway where there was a large room with floor to ceiling windows. The interview place was placed at one of Sydney’s highest buildings.
“What do you think they’ll talk about today?” Calum asked, still smelling like cigarettes from just having a smoke, “I mean, it’s been a while since we’ve been at an interview. The break has been going on for months. What’s interesting to ask about?”
“I think it’s just an update, you know?” Ashton replied, “Wanting to catch up with us, needing to know what’s going on. Not just for the magazine in general but also for the fans. They’re probably dying to know what we’re up to besides the updates from social media.”
Luke nodded his head in agreement, it was indeed true. They weren’t even close to finishing the new album they had coming up. It was like writing Youngblood. It took time, and time was needed to make perfection.
“I’d bet they’ll ask us about the same tattoos as they usually do.” Michael commented with a smirk and Calum leaned over to grab his hand, “That’s a bet I’d like to be in.”
Luke rolled his head silently and stopped when the others did, not wanting to walk into the room before everything was ready. He was looking at the three with their backs facing the end of the hallway.
“You know maybe I should get a tattoo, just to actually be a part of the conversation.” He knew it sounded weird when it was said out loud.
Michael and Calum couldn’t help but laugh by the sudden words.
“You know man, it’s okay you’re the naked one of us.” Michael smiled with a wink and Calum nodded his head in agreement. Ashton continued to be passive in the conversation.
“What interview are we set up for? I’m referring to the magazine.” Ashton changed the subject.
“I think it’s Vogue, for sure.” Calum laughed and Ashton rolled his eyes.
“The seriousness is as dry as your dick, Cal.” Ashton mumbled but smiled at Luke as he caught up with the insult.
Ashton shook his head in disbelief, his curls bouncing and he took a sip of his own juice. They continued to goof while Luke looked down at his feet.
“You think they’ll ask the usual question?”
Ashton looked at Luke with soft eyes, shaking his head. “I hope not so. I mean, it’s been over a year… It isn’t like it’s a headline anymore.”
Luke nodded his head in agreement but he wasn’t convinced. But he trusted Ashton because that was what kept him going but when Ashton’s face fell, he furrowed his eyebrows.
“What?” Luke asked in confusion, looking between the boys since Calum and Michael weren’t goofing around anymore.
They all looked at the same direction, not really knowing what was the proper thing to say so Luke turned around wanting an explanation to his curiosity.
His eyes widened in surprise and he almost whined out loud when you nearly knocked yourself into him, coming from his behind.
His juice was nearly forced into your chest but you were quick to react. You grabbed onto the juice and the head of it falling off. Just a bit of shake smeared on your fingers and you looked up at him pretty surprised.
You looked at each other as you had been stung. Luke’s mouth closed from being open agape, looking at you with soft eyes and he could feel his cheeks become a dark shade of red.
Your finger came up to remove the liquid, your mouth twisting when you noticed the taste. He was still drinking the same juice from Joe as he did back in the days. The classic Powershake with strawberry and banana.
He sighed carefully when he looked at you. You didn’t need to say anything to understand what was going on in each other’s minds.
Leaning down to embrace you in his arms, he held you tight and leaned his head into your neck. He knew the smell hadn’t changed, it was still a mix of your favourite shampoo and your fragrance.
You looked over his shoulder since he had kneeled down for you, looking at the boys with a small smile.
They didn’t say anything, simply nodding. They understood, they always had and respected your difficulties.
“What are you doing here?” Luke asked when you finally broke free from each other.
He took a look down your body, you were still wearing the same denim jacket he had bought for you a few Christmas years back. Together with your black thighs and your boots, it was like he had never left in the first place.
You gently ran a hand through your hair and looked down at your feet, “I’m supposed to be interviewed right after you.”
Luke’s eyebrows lifted and he could faintly hear Ashton coughing, “What a coincidence.”, from his behind.
“Missed your sarcasm, Ash.” You looked over Luke to smile at Ashton, watching him blush a little bit and he smiled back at you. “Missed your face too, Y/N.”
You looked at Luke who still didn’t seem to put the pieces together.
“I didn’t know anything.” You shrugged your shoulder, being honest.
Luke sighed with a nod, looking down at you for long he didn’t want to remove his gaze. But he had to because he knew the ten minutes were up and they had to sit in the four white chairs within seconds.
You nodded your head understanding they had to leave and Luke turned around with almost a white face.
“You swear you didn’t know anything?” He looked between the boys and they all raised their hands in surrender.
“No clue at all.” Ashton swore under his breath, putting on a smiling face once they arrived in front of the chairs.
It was time for the game face.
“Hello boys, I’ve been looking forward to this. I’m Veronica James.” She introduced after shaking each of their hands, nodding for them to sit down.
“Pleasure to be here,” Ashton commented, already having the microphone in his hand. “I’m sure fans are excited to hear a little bit about us.”
“Oh yes, trust me they have,” She nodded her head in agreement, “They’ve been spamming our Instagram since they heard you were supposed to do an interview with us.”
They nodded their head in agreement in a row.
Luke looked down at his fiddled fingers. He knew it was going to be one of those really boring interviews. Where there was no content to ask about, it was just done for their reputation and to get some money in the business.
He loved those interviews where he could just laugh. It was the ones that were funny, where they could it in between and have intern jokes because the interviewer was actually great at their job.
He wouldn’t say that she was bad. He was just prepared for the basic questions and those were the ones asked.
It was mostly Ashton running the interview which was pretty nice. Luke didn’t like answering if he didn’t feel like it, and happily enough Michael was also on the road, wanting to answer something here and there.
Sometimes he would grab himself from zoning out completely. Looking at some sort of random object in the room and focusing on that.
His thoughts were somewhere else. They were focused on Petunia, what he was going to have for dinner tonight and the most obvious - the meeting with you.
It was the last thing he had expected and predicted. But of course, since you were a musician in the same industry like him, it wasn’t rare that they would take multiple people a day to interview.
He just couldn’t help but feel gutted. He knew the questions would be the same for you, you could basically just sit right next to him and answer the same thing as Ashton.
“How’s it going with you, Luke?”
It was like he faintly heard his name being called because it took him a few seconds before he even registered it was for him.
He looked between the others who had already asked the question. He had heard nothing, he didn’t even know what she was referring to.
He looked down at his fingers again, his mouth open hesitantly trying to come with an answer.
“I uh-,” He looked over at her desperate eyes, “It’s going well.”
He nodded his head in agreement and made a small sound in confirm that what was he wanted to answer. His dimple was showing because he knew it was the worst answer to a question. So pointless and without content.
“Going well?” She repeated his answer, wanting him to continue.
“Yeah, I’ve just bought a new couch. Creme color. Hopefully, I won’t spill food in it.” Luke didn’t know what else to say and he knew it sounded so weird.
This was what it felt like being empty for words.
"Well, that's definitely something the fans will want to know." She shrugged her shoulder, not wanting to sound pissed at him but he could tell that she was.
After being in the industry for so long, they knew how to read the interviewers. Tell when they were starting to get annoyed, when they were actually happy about the content they were giving and how much they aspired for the interview to be great. They weren't great at keeping secrets and were open like books. Ready to be read.
Well, the most common question then," She smiled a bit, wanting to seem sweet, "I know you've probably heard this a couple of times before."
"Shoot." Luke nodded her head, wanting her to continue. He couldn't just roll his eyes in front of her.
"You recently announced your divorcement with Y/N Y/L/N, as far as I've understood."
There it was. Luke could feel that the other boys tensed in the chairs and he wanted to lean back and disappear. It was his most HATED topic.
"Yes, that is indeed correct." Luke folded his hands together, "We've been divorced for over a year, starting out with being separated for three months. Recently just wanted to announce it because... We wanted to be respected for going each our ways."
"And I totally respect that." She looked at him sincerely, not wanting to get on his nerves or make him feel uncomfortable in any sort of way.
"Was it a sad or a happy ending?" She tried to slip the question in without sounding rude.
"It was a mutual decision if that's what your hinting towards. I'd never say a failed marriage is sad or happy." He shook his head in disagreement."
Out of a coincidence he looked towards the entrance for a second. He watched as you suddenly came in and stood with the crew, watching him with a worried but soft expression. You could tell he was feeling uncomfortable.
You could always read him like a book. Knew when something wrong was up because he would continue to lick his lips even though he had already done it five times. It wasn't like the interviewer could catch up with it because she didn't seem as the questions were disturbing.
No one would ever want to talk about their marriage that had suddenly ended.
"That's only amazing that you both wanted to end it on great terms." She said impressed, "So you're still friends today?"
"Of course." Luke was quick to answer without hesitation.
"That's great." She was scrippling it down onto her paper as well, probably wanting to come up with more questions.
"Would you like to share the reason why you broke up?"
By this question, Luke could start to feel his cheeks burn. He settled with just shaking his head, not feeling that he needed to answer that question with words. She continued from his body language and looked over at the crew shortly.
“Would you ever feel regret marrying young? I mean, I think we can agree when society says it takes away freedom.”
“I uh,” Luke couldn’t help but let out a dry laugh innocently. What a question to ask from someone who aspired to be professional.
He looked down at his fingers fiddling with the fabric of his black jeans. His mouth was curving over the microphone with lips parted.
“I think we’d like the next question, please.” Ashton broke into the conversation. He didn’t want to sound rude, but the question was indeed something that made Luke uncomfortable.
“No, I’d actually like to answer that,” Luke said honestly, surprising the others.
At every other moment, he would want them to have his back, tell off the interviewers when a question like this wasn’t okay. Ashton would always have his back, and so would he if Calum needed the help or Michael.
Ashton nodded his head with a small smile playing on his lips. It was a hint of being proud but Luke had to shrug it off with his serious expression.
“Marrying young was never the end of my freedom. It meant that I could travel the world with her by my side. It meant I could enjoy drinking at bars and dancing at clubs, but stumbling home at 2 AM and eating pizza with her in our underwear.”
He licked his lips because of his fast pace, noticing your expression in the background but he wasn’t glancing towards your direction.
“It meant that I got the chance to kiss those soft lips every single morning and before I went to sleep. If you see a young marriage as the end of your freedom, you’re doing it wrong.”
The interviewer looked at Luke with wide eyes. When she had prepared the questions, she didn’t expect the tables to be turned.
“And I know,” Luke wasn’t finished, “The question is easy. The question is the most common and if I had to pay a cent for every time I asked, I could feed entire Australia.”
The interviewer’s mouth twisted, looking between the boys instead by Luke’s sudden defense.
Ashton sat with a satisfied smile on his face. It wasn’t often the boys told an interviewer off but when they did, it felt so good. Calum was having a secret smile on his face, enjoying this.
“Y/N and I divorced for a reason. You assume it’s because of us marrying young.”
Michael cracked a smile by this, his hands rubbing together. He knew how much Luke hated that question because people assumed everything and nothing. It was just never the right answer.
“Let me tell you, Veronica James.” He leaned forward in his seat, “Our divorced marriage is our privacy. So why don’t you just respect that just like I don’t ask you why you just got a child with your third ex.”
Luke sat in silence for a moment, he knew she was too stunned to say a thing.
“It wasn’t because we suddenly stopped liking each other. Do you know just how amazing Y/N is?” His tone had calmed down and he looked over at you with a small smile. “Because I do.”
I’ve been living with her for many years and just because we aren’t together anymore, it doesn’t mean she lets go of that personality I love.” He glanced towards your direction, watching you look at him with soft eyes.
“And before you twist my words into something it’s not. Yes, I do love Y/N and I always will. I didn’t spend many years for her if she wasn’t lovable. I love her as my ex-wife, and I love her as a friend.”
You looked at him with shiny eyes, blinking them to try not to look like you were about to break down.
“She’s amazing, she’s caring and she’s respectful. Not only towards me but what we have had together.”
He looked at you with his lips in a line, taking one large breath and smiled carefully at you.
“Thank you…” You mouthed and leaned your head to the side, clutching your papers closer to your body.
He nodded his head by your words and looked back at the interviewer. She looked pretty confused, to the point where she was lost for words.
“Commercial breaks?” She looked pleading towards the crew behind the camera, “I mean this is only for a magazine… Can we get some water?”
The boys only nodded their heads in agreement and watched the crew put their equipment down, wanting to take a needed break.
Luke stood up from his chair and placed his hands into his pockets, looking over at you again who had gotten blushed cheeks.
You smiled carefully at him and he smiled back. He always had your back and you had his.
You continued to look at each other until your name was yelled, wanting you to meet at the makeup before it was your turn to be interviewed.
You looked back at Luke who gave you a nod confirming, his dimple showing before he headed with the boys towards the small buffet of mini snacks.
Always.
