take it slow

“i hope you don’t mind coming with me to the shelter.” he smiled at bella, as she slid into the passenger seat of his car. “but we’re going to have to make a pit stop... i realized i don’t actually own anything for a dog, and i should probably get some supplies before i have the little guy suffering in my apartment.” luther smiled sheepishly, starting the car up again and pulling out, driving towards the pet store. “besides, i know you haven’t left your apartment much, and i figured that the only way to lure you out was by dangling a cute dog in your face.”

“Thank God.” She muttered, opening the container and digging into it. “Okay, so like Harvey is back in town and Bebe’s going all love struck again. She even wrote a song about him.” Dani huffed, putting a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. “I need Johnathan to come here and sass her out of her little love induced headspace.”

closed / @lutherwu

   while he wasn’t ever close to the men behind electro future, both he and the duo had been around in the industry for long enough to be mutually aware of each other. but although simon and travis had spoken a few times, simon had never exchanged more than a polite greeting with the other half of electro future, luther. at least he wasn’t until he was tasked with babysitting his niece for the day, who was apparently obsessed with electro future’s music despite being only four. ❝ hi, luther, right ? ❞ simon asked, though he was well-aware of the other man’s name. ❝ i’m really sorry to be bothering you during your coffee break, but could i get a picture with you and michelle ? ❞ 

Queer Eye → @lutherwu​

Dani walked into Luther’s apartment, a tub of ice cream in one hand and a twelve pack of Doctor Pepper in the other. “Luther! Queue up Queer Eye please!” She shouted into the apartment as she set the stuff down in the kitchen, grabbing two spoons for the ice cream and two soda’s for them.

“I’m stressed, so welcome to my stress eating.” She said in an over dramatic tone as she plopped down on the couch and looked at him, a frown on her face.

“Oh!” He wasn’t caught off that Dani was here, she texted him that she was on her way, but he didn’t expect it to be a stress-eating kind of night. He eyed the tub of ice cream she had and he did a mental check, wondering when the last time he ate something sweet was. He hadn’t had anything sugary in the past few days, so he thought it would be okay if he let himself indulge in the ice cream. “Queuing it up right now.” He set everything up on his phone but started casting it onto the tv, sitting down next to her. “What’s going on? What’s got you stress eating?” He took a soda from her and grabbed his spoon, getting ready to dig in.

    she takes half a step back once they’ve returned to the line, both to take in his outfit and to put a fraction more distance between them so she didn’t do something silly like lean into his playful touches nor flinch away from them. she has no desire to embarrass herself more than she has already this morning. “ i think you still look considerably more well dressed than most people, ” rini allows the compliment, figuring it safe since he’s the one who drew her attention to his attire. “ and you’re not wearing sunglasses inside like some of us, ” slender fingers fiddle with the arm of the eyewear in question, “ so i had to ask. ” rini even flashes a brief smile before folding her hands primly in front of her, dropping her gaze momentarily down to her feet as he delivers his own kind of compliment and praise. “ i think you’re giving me too much credit for being a decent person. ” she half laughs before daring to peek back up at him. “ where is it that you’re from? surely, wherever it is, there are more people as nice as you? where else would you learn it! ” certainly not in LA, she thinks to herself. ‘ pixie ‘ isn’t even nice and she’s supposed to be an extension of rini’s personality. 

he always felt awkward when other people offered to buy him things, even if it was something like a coffee and, really, if he just put a new top on it, it’d be fine and really wasn’t a big deal. “really? i mean, the lemony flavored gatorades are my favorites,” he said, considering for a second before, “yeah, that sounds really good.”

“great! i’m personally a big fan of the red gatorade, mostly because i’m a little kid and love anything fruit punch flavored.” luther smiled wide at the other, relieved that there was something he could do to pay back the coffee mishap. also, he hadn’t really had much to eat this whole day and thought that maybe a smoothie would actually stay down instead of an actual meal.

                upon instinct, zan had glanced around to make sure there were no waiting cameras before taking luther up on his offer. the last thing zan needed was for someone to get a picture of her running into someone she knew and thinking she was cheating on danny, a boy she wasn’t even dating. “ yeah, sure. ” almost as soon as she spoke the words, zan collapsed onto the chair, taking a long swig of the coffee, savoring the bitter flavor. “ i’ve decided parties aren’t really my thing. ” 

Though he’d cleaned up his act in recent years, there was a time when Lucky’s struggles had led him to a similar state most every morning. He knew exactly how rough the other must have been feeling from just a glance Though his own way of dealing with it was inevitably to turn back to the bottle, he knew a few better (And considerably less problematic ways) of purging a hangover. “Need to replace the salts in your body. And taking a fucking tonne of painkillers helps. Or so I’ve heard.” He said flatly, pushing the sunglasses back up his nose to hide his tired eyes once more. Returning to his phone whilst his replacement drink was being prepared, he shot another glance from the corner of his eye at the others statement. Whereas most people would have bitten back at his attitude, or at the very least folded beneath it, Luther seemed to be trying a different tact. Or perhaps he was just wilfully oblivious. “No. You shouldn’t have.” He answered shortly and sharply, attention more focused on tapping back at the keys on his phone screen until his cup was finally placed on the counter. Swiping it up and taking a long sip, he locked the device again before speaking. “Between dealing with the fucking parasites that call themselves press and this it’s been a long morning. So yeah, I’m done.”

Luther made a mental note of Lucky’s tips, storing them away for later. He was grateful to the other for the advice, considering it was nice to hear it from someone who looked like they knew what they were talking about as opposed to strangers on the internet on a forum. “Thanks, I’ll use that. Think I have some gatorades tucked away in my refrigerator.” Luther knew it was wrong to stare at people, but he couldn’t help but watch the way Lucky interacted with his phone. The other man did look busy, and for a moment Luther felt bad, as if he too should be typing rapidly away on his phone or at least doing something productive instead of taking people’s drinks by accident. “I’m sorry, I didn’t really mean to make your day any worse. Is there any other way I could make it up to you?” He felt as if his offer might be perceived as going overboard with his apology, but Luther did genuinely feel bad for adding on to Lucky’s bad day.

*               LUTHER  .               /              CLOSED STARTER               !

          after lifting the last bag into the trunk of the car, axel moved towards the driver’s seat where he sat down. luther soon enough joined him at his side.   “   are you absolutely sure we’ve got everything   ?   ”   both wishing for some surroundings that did not move as fast as los angeles seemed to do, the two of them had decided to head out of the city for just a few days   —   as if it would help them gather their thoughts, escape the intensity of their professional lives altogether. axel figured it was worth a shot, at least.   @lutherwu.

andrea laughed at luther’s response to the meme. “i feel like memes are really what could heal us,” she joked. “in a time when we’re so divided, what really brings us together is memes and we should embrace that.” she jokingly slammed her fist on the table, as if making an impassioned speech. “i know what you mean, but if you ever decide to talk about it…i’m here.” she reached over to squeeze his hand lightly. “keeping it all bottled up might seem good in the moment but it comes out eventually, and in my experience, it’s never too pretty.”

“oh, well i’ll be sure to keep you company at the next one.” bebe replied with a sympathetic smile, her hand reaching across the table to briefly squeeze his. she felt sorry that her own fears had kept her from having a fun time with a friend. “oh, i’ve been alright. you know how it is once people are expecting new music. it’s….a lot of pressure.” she laughed nervously, pausing for a sip of her coffee, “what about you, are you working on anything new? maybe i could be your sounding board or something.”

“seriously dude, don’t worry about it, it’s totally okay,” he said with a wave of his hand. “long night last night and this shit’s got more caffeine in it than the stuff i normally get,” he shrugged. “yeah, honestly, same here. i’d much rather have a nice, cold, caramel flavored drink, especially on a day as hot as today.”

luther frowned, unsure of what to do. usually he’d be able to convince someone to agree to this, in a non-forceful way, but it seemed like the other person was set on not having luther buy him a coffee. it made him uneasy, knowing he wasn’t going to be able to fix this particular situation. “well, i know of a smoothie place a block down from here, they have something called an energy booster, it takes like a lemony energy drink. it’s not as bad as it sounds, and it will definitely give you that kick you need to get through the day... could i interest you in that?”

    “aren’t you sweet?” she speaks the words aloud by accident though, luckily, in a voice barely above a whisper. the claim was entirely true, too. it was like every word he uttered was softening her resolve in some way. he’s just so painfully nice it nearly makes her heart actually physically hurt to say no. it’s why, despite the way it makes her heart quicken ( and not in an enamored, fluttery way this time ), she finds herself nodding instead of dismissing his offer. “ we can split it, ” she hurries to add. “ unless you’re in a hurry to get somewhere? ” she wrings her fingers together, fidgeting to work up some of her nervous energy. rini wouldn’t even have suggested it if he hadn’t first said he’d wait around for her coffee. making presumptions isn’t in her nature and even though luther is the one who had made the mistake in the first place, she still feels guilty or like she’s imposing somehow. they seem to be of the same frame of mind in that sense. “ i wouldn’t want you to have a bad day, ” she adds earnestly with a tiny hint of a smile curling up the corners of her lips. 

      it wasn’t hard to guess what he’d want to talk about, but still, georgia wished he’d wanted to ask anything else at all. ‘ uh, okay, ‘ georgia sighed, following him and slipping into a seat. she could only hope no one was listening to this conversation - she really didn’t need this sort of thing getting out. as if her life wasn’t trouble enough. georgia looked away from him at the blunt question  - she was surprised he could be so open about it, that he’d even want to ask. it made her pause, unsure how to answer. ‘ i…i don’t know, ‘ she answered, sounding just a little helpless. what could she say? she hadn’t chosen him because it would’ve been a disaster. she was a mess, nowhere near capable of being in any kind of real relationship. but that was what he wanted - a proper relationship, something real. ‘ it’s not…, ‘ she stumbled through the words, not sure how to answer. it was easy to be blunt about things that didn’t affect her, but this was different. it was personal. ‘ it wasn’t about you, ‘ she said eventually, the closest to the truth she could manage to choke out. ‘ i’m the one with the problem. ‘

“are you sure? i’m here now and i’ll listen, i promise,” she assured luther. she felt genuinely awful that she was ignoring him and wanted him to know that if he really needed someone to listen, she would be that person. “the meme was something about like listening to sad songs when you’re sad.” she handed the phone over to him and showed him this meme.

he had left the party the night before only after an hour of being there, nowhere near enough time for him to have drank enough to feel the effects the next day, and had ended up in his home studio, working most of the night away and now needed something to keep him awake for the meetings he had throughout the day. normally he would order something like a frappuccino, he wasn’t really one for the taste of coffee without a lot of mixings to disguise it, but he needed something more, something stronger that morning and had ordered a black coffee, figuring he could add a little creamer in it before he left the shop. he had just barely picked up the cup when luther came up, “no worries,” he said with a shrug, taking the coffee as he handed the other his tea, “really, don’t worry about it, it’s just one less sip i have to suffer through.”

“i still feel bad about it.” luther raised his eyebrow at the last comment from the other. “if you don’t like it, why are you drinking it?” not that he could judge, considering he’s never had ginger tea before and yet, here he was drinking it just to get rid of a splitting headache he’s had. “honestly, i’m not a big fan of any of these drinks. i prefer something sugary and cold, thanks.”