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It was a hot day at the little cottage in the woods. All the windows were open, everyone was trying to cool off in some way or another, Ellory was sat outside with Ashten, sheltering in the shade of a tree, cloud gazing. Falmouth was in a bucket of ice water and Lukas was tending to breakfast, wich they planned to eat outside, together, under the tree. Breakfast included a few different fruits, some breads, cheese and little bowls of yogurt. Picnic style.
Lukas carried a tray outside to the gathering under the tree,
“breakfast is served!” he announced and he placed the tray down, almost knocking over the bowl of strawberries in the process, before Asthen caught them and pushed the bowl back upright.
“nice one!” Asthen said sarcastically, smiling at Lukas
“Thanks for making it sweetheart!” Asthen continued, Lukas smiled down at him and sat to his left.
“yogurt! :D” Falmouth blubbered, sticking his head up out of the bucket and extending a tentacle to grab a bowl.
They sat and enjoyed their breakfast in perfect silence for a few minutes, before Lukas broke the silence, to suggest a beach trip
“hell yea, it’s too hot here” Ashten enthusiastically replied
Ellory excitedly put down her slice of melon, before hopping up to go pack her things
“hold on, finish your breakfast first” Lukas called after her, she either didn’t hear, or ignored him as she ran through the already open door.
“i’ll pack the rest of this up to bring with us. Everyone finished?” Lukas signed, looking downwards towards the remains of the food, Asthen nodded, Falmouth grabbed one final spoonful of yogurt and agreed with Ashten.
They were all ready for a beach day, Lukas had packed everything neatly into a travel box, Ashten packed the car with everything, everything being; 4 towels, a small bag of beach essentials [suncream, wet wipes, buckets, and spades], the lunch bag, an extra family pack of crisps, Ellorys little bag, a picnic blanket and a parasol. It was a bit of a squeeze with the parasol, but they made it.
Ashten got in the drivers seat, Lukas sitting next to him, Ellory and Falmouth were sat in the back.
“Sweetheart, can you hand me my driving gloves from the glove compartment please?” asked Lukas,
“god, not those again, i’m starting to regret buying you them” Lukas replied, exasperated, Lukas had bought him a pair of driving gloves for Christmas the last year, slightly ironically, but Ashten had taken it seriously and took massive pride in wearing them. Lukas hated them, he opened the glove box, in it there was the car manual (2002 toyota, red, manual, pretty cheap, first ‘proper’ purchase the sweethearts made together), a few pennies, a spare bottle of water, and, the dreaded, driving gloves. They were bright red and faux leather, fingerless with holes on the knuckles. They were the (in Lukas’ opinion) ugliest pair of gloves ever.
Asthen only wore them to annoy Lukas, but he was starting to take a bit of pride in them, they were almost symbolic of his and Lukas’ relationship. Lukas passed him the gloves
“don’t put them-“ Lukas said, too late, they were already on. Ashten was gripping the wheel and starting the car, the old engine grumbled and sputtered to life.
“take them off before someone sees us” Lukas protested
“nope! they’re never coming off! you’ll have to leave me before they do!” Ashten responded, smiling at nothing but the road.
Lukas looked out the window at the trees going by, he smiled and turned to ashten,
“you know what?” Lukas laid his head on Ashtens shoulder “maybe i will…” they both started giggling and then went back to staring out the window.
The car pulled into the parking lot, it was about 20 meters from the start of the beach.
“out we get!” Lukas called to Falmouth and Ellory, she woke up with a jump and practically ran out of the car to get her bag and the picnic blanket. She ran halfway down the beach, there were probably 10 other people here, she found a spot near a some cliffs, shaded and cosy, perfect to climb up the rocks and close enough to the sea, but not too close that the tide would reach them. She lay down the picnic blanket and tried sprinting to the sea,
“HOLD ON!” Lukas yelled, he was approaching the spot she picked out.
“SUNCREAM, COME BACK HERE!” he pulled the spray bottle out of the bag and quickly sprayed her down,
“now rub that in and wait a few minutes, the rest of us will come with you too” he said as she speedily rubbed it into her legs and arms.
“aw, cmon,” she said, blowing on her arms to try speed drying up.
“you too” Lukas said, turning to Ashten and spraying the cold suncream onto his arm.
“that was mean :(“ Ashten said, pulling his arm away from the cold and rubbing it in.
Falmouth didn’t need suncream, he was a squid.
“can you get my back, please sweetheart?” Ashten called over to Lukas, who was sitting with Ellory and doing his own suncream
“only if you do mine” he responded, pulling himself up and walking over to Asthen,
he took the suncream bottle and sprayed some in his hands to warm it up, then he gently rubbed it across Asthens back and front, being careful around the old stab wound, his top surgery scars, and where his appendix was removed.
“there.” Lukas said, kissing the back of Ashtens head, not quite tall enough to reach the top of it.
“now do mine” he demanded, spinning around and chucking the suncream over.
Ashten did the same, this time spraying it directly onto his back, without warming it.
“god that’s cold” Lukas exclaimed
“see how it feels?” Ashten responded, drawing a smiley face in the center of his back with some of the remaining suncream.
Lukas turned back around and pecked Ashten on the lips, after parting, Ashten must’ve decided that wasn’t enough, so he grabbed him back around and tipped Lukas in his arms, kissing him deeply,
“eugh” Ellory said from a few meters away
“yea, get a room you too!” Falmouth blubbered, before they both ran off to the sea. Lukas blushed as they drew apart, Ashten just smiled down at him.
Lukas thought of the ring box sitting, hidden, in his bag, not now, not now but soon.
They both ran excitedly towards the sea, although, the second their feet touched the waves, they considered going back. The cool ocean was a bit too cold, but they soon got over it as Ellory yelled, knee deep,
“cmon, it’s not THAT cold!” she shivered
“ok, maybe it’s A BIT cold, but that’s no excuse, the suns hot enough.” she pointed up in the sky, the blazing sun was staring down at them, no clouds in sight, she was right, the rest of their bodies were boiling, they could do with the cool down.
They both took a few steps forward, before Lukas tried pushing Ashten in, only to result in him getting scooped up and dunked in, now Lukas was soaked and in Ashtens arms, they laughed and yelled, Lukas tried again and succeeded when they were stomach deep, Ashten toppled in to join Lukas and Ellory in the ‘soaking wet with sea water’ club. Falmouth was already underwater, exploring the depths, he would occasionally pop up to tell them of a cool fish, accompanied by its name in latin and a fun fact.
Ellory splashed Lukas as a way to show her allegiance to Ashten, Lukas splashed back and before they knew it they were splashing where ever they could, barley aiming or opening their eyes in an attempt to keep sea water out their eyes.
Soon they were swimming around, Falmouth under them, exploring the depths, they were all giggling and splashing at each other.
After 45 minutes in the sea, they were all exhausted and decided to go in, onto the beach.
Ellory laid the food out while the rest of them dried off, Ashten pulled on a hawaiian shirt that matched his trunks, Lukas pulled on a t-shirt, and Falmouth just shook off. Ellory pulled a light dress on, she was dry enough at that point.
As they sat and munched on their lunch, they watched the clouds and spoke about more trivial matters; what they were going to do the rest of the day, nice walks around here, when sunset was, simple things.
After lunch Lukas decided to spend some time tanning, using a 15spf suncream rather than a 50, an oversized pair of sunglasses he fell in love with at a flea market, and his favourite book, pride and prejudice, it was a copy Asthen had bought him from a charity shop after bullying him relentlessly for years. The spine was broken and some of the pages were dog eared from when Ashten had read it, he only got through 1/3 before giving up and leaving it on the kitchen counter for 3 weeks. His review was ‘pretty boring, why read some story about random people in war or smth’ Lukas was slightly offended, but, oh well.
Lukas made it 2 chapters before a shadow fell on him, he squinted up at the figure, only to see Falmouth, holding a crab,
“look! i made a friend at the rock pools!” Falmouth started, the crab was latched onto his tentacle, he didn’t seem harmed by it, “come join us!”
Lukas looked over to where the rock pools were, Ellory was holding a bucket out, and Ashten was trying to catch something from the pool, he seemed to be failing.
“yea sure!” Lukas responded, he didn’t realise what they were up to, he was so engrossed in his book. He put his book down and wandered over.
“HEYYY!” Ashten called when he saw Lukas, he was trying to catch a tiny little fish, said fish kept evading capture. The bucket Ellory was holding had 3 hermit crabs and a sea snail. Ashten kept missing the fish.
“Let me try, then” Lukas said, holding out his hand for the net,
“bet you i’ll catch it,”
Neither of them caught the fish in the end, neither did Ellory, Falmouth didn’t want to try, he was too busy blubbering at his crab friend. They spent a while at the rock pools, after they threw gray rocks into Ashtens shoe, out of the four of them, Falmouth had the best throw, his tentacles gave him an advantage, he was also the best at skipping stones, and digging holes.
They had a competition for who could dig the biggest hole, Falmouth and Ellory teamed up against Lukas and Ashten.
Falmouth and Ellory won in the end, so Ashten was buried in the hole, he only had his shoulders and head sticking out.
By the time he got out, the sun was about to set, the cliffs and beach were bathed in golden light, so they went on a walk.
As they approached a little nook, the sun set turned a pink and golden shade, with speckles of purple littered throughout. There was a nook by a cliff, it was the end of the walk, the dirt path was coming to an end. Lukas felt the ring box in his pocket, he was nervous, he took Ashtens hand as they had stopped to admire it. He turned to him, reaching into his pocket, getting down onto one knee,
“Ashten,” Lukas asked, a look of realisation dawned on Ashtens face, this is why we went to the beach, on this day, the day that they had met, 6 years after,
“will you…” Lukas stuttered, what if he said no? what if they were going too fast?
“will you marry me?” Lukas finished, holding out the silver ring, it had a small sapphire stone on it, with little swirls along the band, he saw it and immediately thought it was for Ashten, he would love it. He looked up at Ashten.
There was a deafening silence, it couldn’t of been more than 2 seconds, but it felt like years. Lukas stared at him, staring, almost begging, looking up at him.
“yes!” Ashten replied and held out his hand, Lukas slid the ring onto his left ring finger, it was a perfect fit. Ashten jumped onto Lukas, before pulling him back up and lifting him into the air, spinning his round, before kissing him, tipped downward like earlier.
Ellory and Falmouth watched from a few meters away, also holding hands.
By the time they got back to the car, it was dark. They had spent a while sitting on the ground, talking, hugging, crying, Lukas and Ashten hadn’t broken contact with each other since, they were so happy together.
They couldn’t wait to be married.