A/N: CALUMS HAIR. SO CURLY
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Michael hated pretty much everybody he came across. There really weren't many people he genuinely liked. He was a body filled to the brim with fire and rage, and nothing he had ever done had been able to simmer that down.

He supposed, if he were to talk to some psychiatrist about it, they would say it had to do with his home life. Or, lack thereof. His parents didn't hate everybody, like Michael, but they certainly didn't love everybody. They never wanted a son, so Michael knew he was an accident. They made that quite clear to him through their ignorance throughout his childhood. Michael raised himself on the streets, picking fights and learning the hard way how to deal with people in the real world.

In fact, looking back, he definitely hated Luke. He was some asshole blonde guy in his class that kept smart mouthing the teacher and thinking he was all that simply because he had good looks on his side. Michael thought it was ridiculous. The sight of him made his skin crawl. So he told Luke so, after one of their classes, expecting Luke to get all offended and flip him the bird or something.

Instead, Luke laughed, which may well have been worse. He laughed, very unbothered, and then said, "I like you, rich kid. Let's hang out sometime."

Michael sat for days with Luke's cell number scrawled on a sticky note in his pocket. He was going to ignore it, considering Michael was rich and had a house to himself and had no friends, and nobody needed friends if you were rich. But Michael got lonely sitting in his giant mansion all the time with nobody to talk to. So he called Luke.

Michael didn't even really like Luke even when they started hanging out. Luke still was wearing his mask of charm and elegance, and he pretended like he was some happy go lucky guy who didn't have a care in the world. The type of guy that could get slapped in the face and would just laugh at the pain.

Luke didn't let down his guard until they were "friends" for about two months. Then he saw Luke crack, just for a moment, when he was talking to his brother on the phone. Luke never had a good relationship with his brother, and Michael saw that disguise slip, and he saw raw, course pain underneath.

That's when Michael decided Luke would be his exception.

And then Calum came along, and he became an exception too. Then came Ashton, and he did as well.

Michael hadn't found an exception since. It was just the four of them, tight as friends could be, and those were the only three people Michael didn't hate. Michael didn't really know why, considering all of them were kind of assholes, but maybe that was why. Fire meets fire.

Michael met up with Luke and Ashton after school, duly shocked that Luke had managed the entire day. Ashton had his hands stuffed in his pockets, head down. The hoodie cast a shadow over his face, hiding his bruising.

God. All Michael wanted was to go to Ashton's house and beat the shit out of his dad the same way his dad does to Ashton. Get a taste of his own medicine. But then he would probably lose Ashton as a friend, and Michael didn't have many to begin with. Especially now that Calum--

Don't think about it.

Luke looked up at Michael. He said, "Come to the police station with me, Clifford." It wasn't a question. Luke almost always spoke in imperatives. Michael shrugged noncommittally but followed the two of them to Luke's car.

Michael had his own. A very nice red Ferrari, to be specific. If Michael didn't hate the fact that he was rich, he might have drove that around instead. But being rich reminded him of his parents. And Michael hated his parents.

"Ashton isn't coming with," Luke said. "They'd probably question his bruises."

Ashton seemed to sink even further into his hoodie.

Michael stuffed his hands in his pockets and kicked at the gravel beneath his feet. He wasn't exactly in the mood to deal with police and detectives and shit. He wanted to go home to his empty house, order a pizza, and watch the delivery guy's shocked reaction when Michael handed him a wad of twenties for a tip.

Luke called this obnoxious. Ashton thought it was bragging. Michael didn't care. He had too much money and no way to spend it all. Maybe he would just buy an island in Jamaica and live there in isolation for the rest of his life.

Michael climbed into the passenger seat of Luke's car. Ashton huddled like a vacuous mass in the backseat. Luke turned on his car, listened to the engine rattle, and then backed out of his parking spot.

"I mean," said Luke, "why haven't they put anything regarding Calum's case onto the news yet? Have they not found anything out?"

"You'd think with all their fucking technology that they would have come up with something by now," Michael said. Fucking was a brilliant word that existed frequently in his vocabulary. As was every other curse he could think of. He could practically feel Ashton flinching from the back.

"Maybe there wasn't enough evidence," said Ashton. His voice was hard, deep. The hoodie remained over his head despite everyone in the car knowing the secret behind it. "Maybe there aren't enough witnesses."

Michael thumped his fist to the beat of whatever was playing on the radio. Luke knit his eyebrows together, and for a moment, Michael saw the real Luke. Then, as quick as it happened, he straightened his shoulders and fixed his face.

"Maybe," Luke said. He didn't say anything else. Of course, neither did Ashton. Michael felt like the only one that was too loud for the world to listen to.

Michael turned up the radio and rested his dyed red head against the windows. He looked at his bare fingernails and thought about painting them black. He used to when he was younger just to make his parents angry at him. Looking back, he probably did it just to get them to pay attention to him.

Ashton was dropped off at Luke's house so that he wouldn't have to go home to his dad. Ashton got out of the car with his hood, as usual, pulled over his face.

"See you guys," he said as he slipped out of the car. Michael lifted his head from the window to lift a hand.

"Bye, Ash," Luke said, and then Ashton closed the door. Luke waited for Ashton to get inside, and Michael watching him walk to the front door. His slumped shoulders were visible underneath the black sweatshirt, and Michael felt rage built in his gut. He hated how Ashton wore that sweatshirt every time he got beaten bad. He hated that Ashton's dad was so terrible that he actually did that to his own son. Sober or drunk, it was always the same. Michael hated it.

The only parents of the four boys that were actually good parents were Calum's. Nice, loving, always there. Michael practically didn't have parents. Luke's worked too much. Ashton's beat him. And the one family that was actually working out well had a dead son. Funny how that turned out.

Luke drove the short drive to the police station. He glanced over at Michael.

"Did Calum have any enemies? Anyone who might have wanted to... you know." The police station rolled into sight. Luke switched lanes so he could pull into the lot.

"Hell if I knew," said Michael. Luke didn't look surprised.

"Hell if any of us knew," he said. He pulled into the parking lot, parking the car in between two parking spots. Luke pulled out the key and decided to leave in there anyway.

They walked into the police station. Behind the front desk sat an officer talking on the phone. She glanced up at them, said something on the phone, and hung up.

"Can I help you?" she asked. Luke approached the front desk and put on his famous Luke Hemmings smile. God knows Michael with his dyed hair and piercings couldn't pull off that charm.

"We were wondering if there were any advancements in the investigation of Calum Hood's case," said Luke politely. The officer raised her eyebrows and looked back down at at the paperwork on her desk.

"I'm not authorized to discuss cases under investigation," the officer said sternly. She looked at Michael's tattoos painted across his forearm. Luke smoothly moved to block her view of Michael.

"Look, we were good friends with Calum. I'm Luke Hemmings," Luke said. He pointed backwards toward Michael. "That's Michael Clifford. We were practically his brothers. We just-- we wanted to see if they had found out who had done it to Cal."

Michael wasn't sure what did it. Maybe it was the vulnerable nickname he gave Calum. Maybe it was Luke's charm and elegance, his polite and curious smile. Maybe it was luck.

But the officer smiled and closed her paperwork into a manila folder. She sighed. "I suppose I could look at the files to see if anything new has been investigated..."

Luke jumped on the offer like a vulture. "Yes, please."

The woman got up, took a key, and started searching through files stacked on shelves behind her. Michael watched her eyes glance over the file names until she found it, pulling it out of the middle shelf.

She brought it back to the desk and unlocked the box, opening it. Luke and Michael stayed silent while she glanced through them. Michael restlessly shifted from foot to foot. He twisted the black piercing in his eyebrow.

"I'm sorry to tell you that no new advancements have been made," the officer said apologetically. "Other than... well, they think the murderer may have been someone at his school, but they have no evidence to back it up."

Luke smiled at her. "Thank you, officer. We really appreciate it."

She smiled. Luke smiled. Michael let out a very loud sigh.

In the car, Luke slammed his fist onto his steering wheel. "So they have nothing. Shit."

"Shit," Michael agreed.

Luke backed out of his terrible parking job. "I want to see what is in those files. Surely there is something in there that can lead to clues. Local detectives are shit about their work ethic."

Michael looked at Luke. "Let's steal it."

Luke raised his eyebrows. "When?"

Michael allowed himself to smile. He really loved Luke sometimes. He hated him too, but he loved him.

"Anytime you're up to it," said Michael. "And Ashton."

Luke seemed fueled off this idea. The aggression in his shoulders loosened, his eyes watching the road but his brain somewhere else.

"What about the key? We need the key to open the box," said Luke. Michael rolled his eyes.

"You seriously think I haven't thought about that?" Michael held up the key. "Not that I couldn't break into the files without it, but. Less damage done."

It took Luke a moment to fully realize what it was. Then he snatched it from Michael's hands and said, "You fucking badass! I love you."

Luke admired the key in his hands, touching the jagged edges. Michael watched him with his head resting against the window. He absentmindedly touched his hair, feeling the strands between his fingers. He wondered if it was too soon to dye it black. He always liked it dark.

Michael jolted when Luke spoke again. "Tonight, we'll do it. We'll bring Ashton with. We'll all wear black and look like supervillains."

Michael picked at his fingernails. He thought about it for a moment, breaking into a police office and stealing top secret files. Luke twisted the key in the sunlight. The reflecting light blinded him.

Michael hadn't cried over Calum yet. Luke shed a few tears that was quickly wiped away the night after everyone found out. Ashton was an emotionless rock, too cold and bruised to feel anything too vividly. They were all sad, the three of them. Very sad. Very angry. They missed Calum. He was a part of their group, the four of them, inseparable. And then he was gone.

But they didn't mourn like normal people. They wanted answers. They wanted revenge.

"Do you even have to ask?" Michael said, even though Luke hadn't asked. He'd ordered. Michael took out his phone and called Ashton.

Ashton answered on the second ring. "Yeah."

"Order a pizza. And borrow some of Luke's black clothes. We're breaking into the police's office tonight."

Ashton didn't say anything for a while. Michael picked at his fingernails patiently and waited. Then, Ashton simply said, "Okay."

Luke grinned victoriously. Michael hung up.

---

"Are you guys sure about this?" Ashton asked.

The bruises had gotten darker and even more twisted looking on his face throughout the day. He was wearing black pants, as usual, and his black hoodie. He borrowed Luke's black Vans. He was staring at them all with his cold, light eyes.

Luke shrugged on a black hoodie identical to Ashton's apart from some brand name on the front. "Very."

Michael grabbed black fingernail polish and painted them on his nails. Ashton stared at them pointedly.

"You're just going to pick those off by tomorrow," Ashton said. Michael shrugged. So what?

Luke took a bite of pepperoni pizza. He chewed while tugging on black converse. "Michael. Tell us how we're going to pull this off."

Michael put down the nail polish, admiring his handiwork. "We'll go in through the window after I disable the alarms and cameras. We won't be in there long, just a few minutes." He spotted a smudge on his pinky and unscrewed the cap again. "We'll get the files. Take pictures of them, put them back, and leave."

Michael fixed the smudge. He looked at his distorted reflection in the polish. "Luke will watch for guards and distract them with all his charm and shit if he needs to. We'll have to be very quiet."

"Charm and shit," Luke repeated. "I like it."

Ashton sat silently on Luke's bed, an untouched slice of pizza on a napkin beside him.

"Being quiet won't be a problem for you," Michael added. Ashton shot him a poisonous look.

Luke tossed the crust of his pizza into the trashcan. He stood and wiped crumbs off his hands. "You guys ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," Ashton mumbled. Michael clapped him on the back.

"That's the spirit," said Michael. "I call shotgun."

Ashton didn't protest, and Michael didn't expect him to. The three of them locked the house up as they left and slid into their respective places in Luke's car. Michael looked at his freshly painted nails. Ashton looked out the window and tugged on his hood. Luke bit his bottom lip and revved the engine. The effect was less cool as it was desperate, considering the action was placed on a shitty, old car that nearly suffocated them with exhaust.

The night was dark. The headlights of the car were the only things lightening the road as they drove. Michael figured he should have felt nervous, but he was calm. He'd broken into places before. They all had the same security makeup. A police station will have more, no doubt, but still. Nobody tends to get fancy with technology if they don't absolutely have to.

Luke parked in the back of the parking lot. He switched off the car silently and looked at Michael. Michael nodded.

They got out of the car and headed towards the building. Michael touched the device in his pocket and scaled the side of the building. Ashton and Luke watched him with knit eyebrows.

Michael saw it then-- high up near the roof, a white box built into the bricks of the building. Luke squinted his eyes.

"That's the breaker?" he whispered. Michael nodded. Michael prepared for a moment, and then sprinted and lunged onto the side of the building, grabbing onto the pane of a window and using it to launch himself onto the crook of the roof, his back against a window and his foot braced against an uneven brick. The breaker aligned perfectly with his hands.

"Damn," Luke said. Michael pulled the device out of his pocket and pulled open the breaker, placing it inside and hooking it to the electrical wires. He set the timer.

"Alarm and cameras are dead," Michael said. "We have twenty minutes."

He used a knife to harmlessly unlock the window, efficiently pulling it open and dropping inside the building. He landed soundlessly on his feet in the receptionist area. Michael unlocked the front doors for Luke and Ashton. Then he looked at the shelves and shelves of files.

Luke and Ashton tiptoed in, Ashton either looking relatively at ease or just too quiet to care. Luke stood by the hallway and listened for guards.

Michael remembered it being on the middle shelf, and he quickly scanned the file names, which proved to be difficult considering they were all coded.

He had to guess and check a few using the key, but eventually, the right file fell into his hands. The key twisted and the box popped open.

"Perfect," Michael said delightedly. Luke shushed him.

Ashton checked his watch. "Fifteen minutes."

Michael opened the files and started reading through them. They were full of information everyone already knew. Biography details, witness accounts, character interrogations. He flipped further into the stack.

"Michael," Luke hissed. "Pictures!"

Michael pulled out his phone and started snapping pictures of the pages, even the most boring of them all. He didn't have time to read through them anymore, he just worked on taking pictures of all the files.

"Ten minutes," said Ashton. Michael set his jaw. Luke grew very still.

"I think I hear someone," he whispered. Michael shook his head.

"Just a few more..." he mumbled. Luke started to move from foot to foot restlessly.

"I definitely hear someone!" Luke whispered again.

"Eight minutes," Ashton said helpfully. Michael slammed shut the files and locked them with the key. He handed the files to Ashton to put away. Michael put the key back under the desk where it should have been all along.

Luke darted forward and locked the front doors. Ashton looked back to the hallway and this time, all three of them heard muffled voices. Soundlessly, Ashton used a desk to pull himself up toward the window. Michael followed after him, Luke taking the end. His pale blue eyes flitted nervously toward the hallway.

"Four minutes!" Ashton whispered once they were both on the roof. Ashton then jumped off the window, using the lower pane to edge himself to the ground. Michael helped Luke get out of the window and then Michael slammed it shut, just as he heard voices enter the receptionist area. Michael opened the breaker and took out the device, setting the security alarms back to normal. He helped Luke to the ground and then jumped, rolling on the concrete.

The three of them sprinted to their car, practically barrelling themselves into their seats. Luke was twisting the car out of the parking lot before Michael even had his door shut.

Then they were back on the road. Ashton pulled his hood down and glanced back at the station with his black eyes. He looked back at his two boys and allowed himself a grin.

"We did it," he said. Michael laughed loudly.

"Yeah, we fucking did!" he yelled. Luke joined him in laughing, pressing down the gas pedal joyfully. The old car squealed in protest.

Michael thumbed through his phone at all the photos.

"Perfect." He tucked his phone into his back pocket. "Let's find out who killed Calum Hood, boys."

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A/N: michael hates everyone except his buddies lol who can relate

hope you are all enjoying this story. sadly my life isn't quite as badass as 5sos's in this story

however, i hope you are still enjoying your summer. or whatever season it is where you are

thanks for reading! hope you enjoyed. pleaSE PLEASE PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT. like pls lol i am weak and fragile and my writing self-esteem grows when i get feedback.

see you in the next chapter. I love you to the moon

goodbyee