Calum leans over and, no matter how much Michael leans away, Calum still catches his shirt sleeve and yanks him back up. Michael's shoulder smashes into Calum's chest, while Calum's arm wraps around the other.

"Look at that ass," he whispers and Michael groans out loud.

"Please, stop," Michael mumbles, accepting his fate and slumping against Calum's chest.

"Don't you just want to-" Calum makes a fist with the hand that's not gripping Michael's shoulder and makes a forceful, "Mmm," noise.

"Oh my god," Michael wheezes. Calum snorts and glances back to where Ashton's squatting in the middle of two desks, towards the front of the room, while Steve the gecko crawls slowly across his fingers. The students around him are looking on curiously, occasionally glancing back at Michael to make sure they're using their field trip time correctly.

The other animals are being passed around and, in some cases, hoarded at one desk. The hamster is rolling around in the little plastic ball Ashton had shoved him in, while Calum's commandeered the bunny for his own personal entertainment. Bucky, the pygmy hamster, is gnawing at a girls paper while she's attempting to draw him, but she hasn't made any move to stop him.

Michael will admit, Ashton's ass does look great in his stupid dress pants.

"Don't you have your own class to teach?" Michael asks, elbowing Calum in the chest. Calum releases him (finally), and quickly picks up the small rabbit hopping around the lab table the two of them are sitting at.

"How hard is it to run around a track?" Calum shrugs nonchalantly, patting at the bunny. It's roughly the size of his palm and Michael loves it. Michael blinks at him and Calum looks at him, before grinning. "I'm just kidding, I have free period third hour."

Michael rolls his eyes, and elbows Calum again, then focuses his attention back on Ashton's nice butt. Just as Michael looks over, he stands up and hands Steve to a student next to him. He turns and meets Michael's eyes, and Michael jerks forward to grab Calum's wrist tightly.

"Oh, god, abort, abort," he hisses, flicking his eyes down to the tiny bunny instead of Ashton's- well, bun.

"You got caught, didn't you?" Calum rolls his eyes when Michael's fingers tighten on his arm.

"It's just so nice," Michael whispers in despair. He scratches at the bunny with the hand that's not murdering Calum's wrist to make himself look busy, but it's no use. Ashton pulls out a stool on the other side of the lab table, right across from Michael, and holds his hand out flat, knuckles against the table. The little bunny hops over and crawls into his palm instantly, making Calum smile happily.

"S'cute," Calum coos. Michael releases his death grip on Calum's wrist, mainly because he's too busy watching Ashton's obnoxiously long fingers curl around the little bunny, practically dwarfing the tiny thing.

"Her name's Natasha," Ashton hums, petting her with his free hand. The bunny nuzzles into his giant hand and Michael's three seconds away from crying.

"Are you kidding me?" He asks instead. "Dude, you're fucking with us."

Ashton looks startled at the response and quickly glances behind him to make sure the students don't hear Michael's foul language. They're all so used to it, they don't even notice. Ashton turns back and clenches his jaw in a way that makes Michael shrink down and curl against Calum's side.

"No, I'm serious," Ashton says patiently.

Calum pets at Michael's hair now that his bunny is gone. "Your animals are all named after Captain America characters."

"Are they?" Ashton frowns, nose scrunching cutely. "Isn't he the one in the justice league?"

Calum pauses before shaking his head, which makes Ashton frown even more. He shrugs in confusion and glances down at Natasha again. The little rabbit nudges her head against Ashton's fingers again before hopping out of his hand and slowly sniffing her way back to Calum. Ashton pulls his hands up to set his chin in them, smiling fondly while Calum pets at Natasha.

"She likes you," Ashton says gently. Calum nods for a second, before he realizes what's happening. Ashton's looking at him fondly. Ashton smiling at him and the bunny. Calum glances between Michael and Ashton for a second, before ripping his hands aways from the rabbit.

"Am I breaking out?" He demands, pointing forcefully at his face. "I feel like I'm breaking out."

"No?" Ashton frowns in confusion, while Calum scratches at his cheek and hurries to stand up.

"I just remembered," Calum stumbles backwards, nearly tripping on his chair in his haste. "I'm highly allergic to bunnies. I have to go. Right now. Immediately. I have to go."

"Oh," Ashton nods, sounding slightly confused, but more concerned. "I have an epipen-"

"Not that allergic," Calum corrects quickly as he stumbles out of the room. As soon as he's gone, Ashton turns around, and Calum sticks his head back in to shoot Michael a thumbs up. Michael hates his friends.

"I think she likes me, too," Michael tries, holding his hands out to the small bunny. She rears back and jerks away from Michael, then hurriedly hops over to Ashton again. Michael huffs and bares his teeth, hissing quietly at Natasha as she curls into Ashton's palm.

"Did you just- did you hiss?" Ashton looks up at him in confusion, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed. Michael resists the urge to hiss at him, as well- it really would not help his case in any way- and just shrugs at Ashton. Ashton glances down at the watch on his wrist (which, of fucking course Ashton wears a watch, Michael wouldn't expect anything less). "Third hour is almost finished."

"Yep," Michael replies, always the conversationalist.

"I need to collect the animals," Ashton stands up from his stool, so Michael hurries to, as well.

"Oh," Michael nods in agreement. "Do you need any help, or-"

"No!" Ashton says quickly, eyes darting up while he clutches the bunny to his chest. "No, no, I've got it. You just- you sit tight and I'll- I'll handle it, Michael."

Michael flops back down onto his stool and leans forward, wiggling his eyebrows at Ashton suggestively. "I like a man that takes charge."

Ashton gives him a concerned look and opens his mouth, only to close it again and furrow his eyebrows. He does it once more, before his cheeks flush pink and he hurries away to return Natasha to her cage.