"Babyboy, how do you feel about going and spending a couple hours at michaels?" Ashton asks as Luke plays and Luke looks up with wide eyes.

"Yes! Yes please, daddy!" Luke cheers and stands, coming to stand in front of Ashton with puppy eyes.

"Even if daddy isn't there?" Ash asks. Luke frowns at that.

"Where daddy?" Luke pouts. He's in a very young headspace today.

"Daddy will drop you off so you can play with cali and go run some errands." Ashton explains calmly.

"No! Daddy stay, play too!" Luke whines, crawling into Ashtons lap and clinging on. Ashton smiles and rubs the blondes back.

"But baby, you'll be having so much fun playing with cal you won't even know daddy's gone, it'll just be a few hours."

"No daddy! Daddy stay." Luke whines.

"Well then we're not going to Michael and Calums." Ashton gauges lukes reaction. The boy pouts and whines.

"Daddy, wanna go play!" The little one cries, Ashton just shakes his head.

"Nope, only if you let daddy leave." Ashton bargains.

"No." Luke says stubbornly and crosses his arms. "No play. Daddy stay." Ashton sighs and nods, petting lukes hair and kissing his cheek.

"Okay baby, we won't go play." Ashton assures. Luke nods and lays against his caregiver.

"Snack?" He asks cutely and Ashton chuckles and nods.

"Sure babe. Play, I'll get you something." He puts the blonde boy down and goes to fetch him some trail mix, the boy happily eating the m and ms out and then eats the rest (except the raisins cause ew) as he plays. Ashton rolls his eyes and eats them for the boy.

The rest of the day goes as normal, and Ashton puts Luke to bed early and gets ready to sneak out.

The boy always sleeps through the night, he doubts he'll wake up. If he did he hopes he'd assume Ashton was in the bathroom and go back to sleep, never noticing Ashton was gone. If he did he can't imagine it would go over smoothly, but he's assuming he'll be back before anything has time to go wrong.

He slips on shoes and silently closes and locks the door behind him, checking to make sure he has his wallet.

He drives off with a small smile, but also a guilty weight in his chest.

He pulls in and hops out of the car, patting his pockets to make sure again he has his wallet and groans when he's missing his phone.

It's about a half hour after ashtons left when Luke accidentally rolls too far and falls out of bed and starts whining and crying for daddy. He goes for a bit and then sits go and crawls back on the bed when Ashton never asks if he's okay or comes to pick him up and comfort him. He looks as ashtons side and frowns when seeing it's empty.

"Daddy?" He calls and goes to the bathroom, glancing on and seeing it empty. He whimpers in fear and turns on the lights, going to the kitchen and looking around.

"Daddy!" He calls louder as tears come to his eyes. He flops down and sobs out, wondering why ashtons left.

The longer he waits the more he starts freaking out. Where could daddy possibly be for this long? Luckily his headspace mind doesn't assume ashtons cheating, but it does jump to conclusions such as Ashton not wanting to take care of him anymore and abandoning him.

He hates being apart from his caregiver so much, but eventually his sobs and harsh breaths die down in exhaustion and he looks around, seeing ashtons phone omg the counter. He sobs as he crawls over and grabs it, calling the first person he can think of, Michael.

"Ash?" Michael answers in a sleepy voice. He hears Lukes sobs and sits up straight in bed.

"Lu? What's wrong honey? Where's your daddy?" Michael asks worriedly, already standing and getting prepared incase he needs to go to their house.

"Gone!" Luke cries heartbrokenly.

"Gone? Where? Is he okay?"

"G-gone! Daddy gone!" Luke sobs harder and Michael nods.

"Lu, okay honey, calm down for me. I'm gonna come over, okay? Calum and I will be there in ten minutes, you're okay. Calm down." Michael says calmly as he picks Calum up out of bed and puts on slippers, grabbing the few things he needs and staying on the phone, listening to lukes sobs as he takes his little to the car and lays him in the back, driving quickly to the couples apartment.

"Luke, Were here sweetheart, come unlock the door, okay?" He says into the phone and Luke quickly goes and fumbles to unlock the door, the two coming in. Calums still sleeping like a log and Michael puts him on the couch and sits in front of the sobbing boy on the ground.

Luke drags his sobbing self into the mans lap for comfort as Michael tries to figure our what's wrong.

"Did daddy put you to bed?" He asks and Luke cries and nods. "Okay, good job, good boy, you're doing so good honey, and then when you woke up he was gone?"

Again, Luke nods and Michael sighs, rubbing the boys back. He hears whimpers behind him and glances back to see Calum waking up, looking around.

"Daddy? Where?" He asks.

"We're at lukeys." Michael answers. Calum frowns and stands, going to sit next to Michael.

"Why Lukey sad?" The brunette asks, rubbing the boys back as well.

"He doesn't know where ash is." Michael briefly explains and Calum frowns.

"It's okay Lukey, I'm sure he's okay and he'll be home soon." Calum assures and Luke turns and crawls to Calum instead, cuddling the brunette boy. Michael helps them to the bed in hopes maybe they'll both fall asleep, though he doubts Luke will, and lets them cuddle and Calum comfort a sobbing Luke as he looks around the house for any clue where ashtons gone off to, maybe a note or something.

He hopes to god the mans safe, hopes he's not gotten into something dangerous or maybe some thing happened and he had to go to keep Luke safe. He hopes more that the mans not messing around with someone else. He's not sure if the two have a sexual relationship, he's heard of caregivers getting sex elsewhere if they can't get it from their littles, he'd rather the man be dead than that. He knows how much it would hurt the blonde. If thats the case he resolves to take Luke away from the disgusting man.

He finds nothing to hunt where the man might be so he returns to the bedroom to see the two still cuddling, Luke sobbing and Calum empathetically assuring the blonde everything will be alright. Michael sighs, irritated at the other caregiver. He can't think of very many good excuses to leave his fragile little all alone in the middle of the night and sneak off, he's going to be having some serious words with the other man if he comes back without a scratch. In fact, if he's not already beaten to a pulp, he might have to make him that way.

Ashton says goodbye with a smile, and gets into his car with a sigh, heading home.

He frowns when he finds the door unlocked and rushes inside, finding the lights on and cringing when he realizes Luke must've woken, hopefully he hadn't gone out of the house. He rushes to the bedroom with a tight chest and sighs in relief when he hears the blonde, though he's crying, but seeing the other two as well in the room surprises him. He doesn't get a chance to speak before Michael is dragging him out and closing the door, pushing him outside of the apartment

"Where the fuck have you been?! What the fuck makes you think it's acceptable to leave sensitive little Luke in the middle of the night at home all alone?! What were you doing you fucking dick, huh?! You better have a damn good reason to make that boy call me in the middle of the night and sob his guts out for two hours! And I don't see a scratch on you so I find it hard to believe you have any excuse!" Ashton sputters, not use to seeing the chill man so angry or being yelled at and pushed around like this.

"Woah, calm down! I didn't think he'd wake up-"

"Fuck that, you bloody fucking cunt, of course he'd wake up! And that doesn't make it okay, why are you sneaking around behind your damn boyfriends back anyway?!" Michael keeps his voice at a volume that won't disturb neighbors, doesn't need anyone calling the police before he gets the chance to listen to his sorry excuses and beat the shit out of this man and get himself and the two boys out of here.

"I understand that, just listen! Okay, okay... shit." Ashton mutters when he realizes there's no good way out of this except lying, and even that probably won't work.

"Well?" Michael growls.

"I..." Ashton can't. He can't admit what he's done and he can't lie either. He's fucked, he knows he's fucked and Michael's going to beat the shit out of him.

"You're not gonna lie to me Ashton. Tell me what the fuck is going on. Are you cheating?"

"Okay! Okay, I swear I'm not cheating, I'm not. I love Luke-"

"Then why've you left him alone in the middle of the night you bloody fucking cunt!" Michael says harshly and Ashton tugs at his curls.

"I- I relapsed. I used to have a drug problem and I relapsed." He admits guiltily, he can feel Michael's rage and knows he's about to get punched, he sees Michael reel his arm back, when-

"Michael! I think lukes having a panic attack!" They hear Calum call and both rush inside but Michael stops Ashton.

"Leave, Ashton." He warns, and Ashton pauses.

"But-"

"I'll take care of Luke. Get out before I go through with beating the shit out of you." Michael whispers harshly, shoving Ashton back and heading into the the room, closing the door behind him. He sits on the bed and pulls the blonde into his chest, rocking him and coaching his breathing until the boy stops hyperventilating.

"Okay Lukey, you're gonna come to me and calis house now, alright?" He asks gently and Luke sobs.

"No! Want daddy!"

"I'm sorry honey." Michael sighs, setting Luke on the bed.

"Cal, I'll explain later, but stay with him, I'm gonna go make him a bag." Michael says and exits the room once Calum nods. He notes Ashton did what he said and left, scoffing, fuming about how stupid the man was. He can't possibly think he can get wound up with drugs and still take care of Luke properly, he should've gotten help the second he wanted to relapse.

Michael packs up a few pairs of clothes, pajamas, and pacifiers, as well as Lukes bunny before returning to the room the sobbing blonde is in with his boyfriend.

"Lukey boy, I got you something?" He says gently as he hands the bunny to the sad boy.

"Want daddy!" Luke says, but takes the stuffy, cuddling it close as he sits in calums lap.

"I know sweetheart." He glances at Calum to let him know it's time to go and Calum stands, Hoisting the blonde onto his hip and carrying him to the car.

Luke doesn't stop sobbing as they drive, sitting in calums lap, nor does he as they take him in and to calums room. Michael tries to offer him a bottle but he won't take it, only continuing to sob for his daddy. They give up, Calum laying down with the blonde curled up next to him, cuddling the boy as Michael strokes his hair until Luke finally cries himself to sleep.

Calum sits up and hugs Michael, yawning, and waiting for Michael to explain.

"Basically, ash came and said he used to have a drug problem and now he's relapsed-"

"You're not gonna let him take Lu like that, right?" Calum frets and Michael shakes his head.

"No, of course not. Lukes gonna stay with us, at least until ashtons clean again."

"How are we gonna tell Luke?" Calum frets and Michael sighs.

"We'll have to take him out of headspace and explain. Maybe tomorrow. For now, we all need sleep." Michael sighs.

"I can't believe Ashton would do this." Calum frowns. "I'm gonna stay in here with lu."

Michael nods. "You need anything? No? Alright baby. I love you, I'll see you in the morning. If Luke wakes up or you need help or anything come get me, okay?" Calum agrees, saying he loves michael too, and then lays down under the covers with Luke.