Michael groans as he wakes up. The past few days have been pretty rough. Lukes attitude did get better, but his misbehavior turned into mischief, which Calum is always happy to join in on, so he's had two rowdy and mischievous boys who's seemingly only purpose on life is to make his more difficult.

He can already hear them downstairs giggling and makes his way down, finding that theyve dragged a bunch of toys down from their playroom and are spreading them all over the living room. He knows it'll be a fight when it's time to clean up, but for now he doesn't bother making an issue of it.

"Good morning babes, come give me loves." He greets and the two look at him. Calum stands to do so but Luke giggles.

"No!" The blonde bites with a grin.

"Fine then, don't, my little brunette bug will." Michael teases and sticks his tongue out at the blonde. "Right Cali?"

Calum makes a thinking face and glances between the two. "No!" He repeats and giggles and Michael rolls his eyes.

"Fine then, I'll just take them!" The man stands and chases the two with his arms out, and the younger boys immediately take off running around the house giggling.

Michael frowns as he hears his phone ringing in his back pocket and stands straight, ignoring the boys trying to get him to chase them again and answering it, shushing them.

"Hello?" He answers. The boys watch quietly and curiously as Michael talks to whoever's on the phone. He sighs when he hangs up.

"I have to go into work." He tells the two and Luke frowns. Normally, for a few hours a day, Michael works in his office. Lukes really not sure what he does, he thinks it has something to do with insurance, but Michael hasn't had to go into work since Lukes been staying there.

"Who's gonna watch us?" Luke quietly asks Calum who looks at Luke. "No one, we gotta be big." He informs. The blue eyed boy frowns.

"I don't wanna be big!" He whines loudly and Michael sighs.

"I'm sorry bub, but you gotta. I can't leave you here when you're little. Maybe you two can do something fun like go to the mall or something, yeah?" Michael offers.

"B-but, I never had to be alone with ashy, even big-"

"Lukey, you won't be alone, im right here, yeah?" Calum says gently, already coming out of headspace.

"It'll be fun, okay buddy? Can you try and be big for me?" Calum coaxes, Michael watching with a smile.

Luke huffs and nods, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to be big. He feels his chest too tight and tears touch his eyes and sobs, pushing himself right back into headspace.

"No! Too sad when I'm big!" Luke cries and Michael and Calum both frown, feeling sympathetic. Whenever Luke has been out of headspace, which has been very infrequent, he's been very distraught, sad and anxious and stressed and overall emotionally miserable. They don't blame him for not wanting to leave his headspace.

"Okay, it's okay Lukey. You can stay little." Calum says with sad eyes to his friend. He turns to his dominant. "I'll take care of him, it'll be fine. You can go." He smiles and Michael gives him a worried look. He doesn't know how well that'll go down, especially with Luke being so troublesome lately.

"I don't know cal, you sure you won't slip? You can handle him?"

"I don't feel like I'm gonna slip at all, mike. I'm totally fine, I can handle Luke, I bet he'll listen to me just fine, huh buddy?" Calum asks the blonde who pouts and nods.

"But I don't want Mikey to leave." Luke pouts and Michael smiles small, remembering how attached Luke was to Ashton and feeling warm that Luke feels bonded enough to Michael to feel attached that way to him too, at least a little bit.

"I know bubba, I won't be gone very long, promise, okay?" Michael assures and Luke pouts. "And when I get back we can all hangout and cuddle and watch movies. I need you to be good for Cali though, okay? If I let you stay little you need to listen and go easy on him, and if you're naughty he'll call me, okay?" Michael says gently and Luke nods.

"I'll be good. I'll listen to Cali." The blonde assures and Michael nods.

"Alright. I'm gonna go get ready." Michael nods and stands and Luke whines.

"Don't leave!"

"Baby, I'm not leaving yet, okay? I'll give you hugs before I go, okay?" Luke pouts.

"Hey, Lukey, it's okay, why don't we play while we wait for Mikey, okay?" Calum tries to distract but Luke whines.

"Can I stay with you?" Luke asks, giving puppy eyes, and Michael shrugs.

"I suppose thats fine hon, but don't you wanna do something fun with Cali? Maybe you can help him find you guys something to eat? I'll be really quick and then I'll come give hugs, okay?" Luke pouts and nods, letting Michael run upstairs to get himself presentable for work.

"Alright Lukey, what're we gonna eat for breakfast?" Calum asks and Luke looks at him.

"Candy." Luke grins, quickly distracted from being upset about Michael leaving.

Calum rolls his eyes. "I don't think so, maybe later. How about you help me with waffles?" The brunette offers and Luke nods and runs to the kitchen, opening the freezer.

"Ah, not that kind bub. We're gonna make them from scratch." Calum grins and Luke frowns.

"I never done that before. How you put the squares in them?" Luke frowns and calums smiles, opening a cupboard.

"With this." He says and pulls out the mini waffle maker. Luke runs over and takes the device from Calum, looking at it.

"Ooh." He says and Calum chuckles.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool. Here, lemme plug it in." Calum says, unraveling the chord and plugging it into the wall. "Now you gotta put it on the counter cause it's gonna get hot." Calum directs, taking it from the boy and setting it down.

"Hey!" Luke whines and Calum fixes him with a look that surprises the blonde coming from his friend.

"Don't whine at me, you want to burn your hands? That's what I thought." Calum says sternly and Luke stays silent for a bit as Calum gets out ingredients. Wow, his friend is even stricter than Michael, and Michael's much stricter than ash. He never would've guessed.

Calum glances worriedly at the boy, squatting next to him when he finishes getting out ingredients.

"Did I scare you, lu?" He asks and Luke frowns and shakes his head.

"I'm not scared of you." The blonde teases and sticks his tongue out and Calum smiles.

"You should be." He teases back, tickling the boys side lightly before standing again.

"Alright, first we'll do the flour, can you find the measuring cup for me? We need two cups of flour." Calum instructs and Luke nods and starts opening drawers, searching for what Calum asked for until he find the metal measuring cups, bringing them to the brunette.

"Good job, now get the cup one and you can scoop the flour, if you're careful." Luke nods and separates the right one from the ring that holds them together, reaching it into the flour bag Calum holds out for him and scooping out the flour, putting it in the bowl and then doing it again.

"I wanna crack the eggs Cali!" Luke says excitedly when Calum gets to that part of the recipe.

"I don't think so bud, I'll do that part." Calum chuckles and Luke whines and stomps, trying to push Calum out of the way so he can grab the eggs.

"No! I wanna!" The blonde demands and Calum grabs his reaching wrist.

"Hey, knock it off and quit whining or I'm not letting you help at all anymore. I'm not not letting you do it to be mean, I don't want you to make a mess." Calum explains and Luke glares at him.

"None of that, you wanna sit your butt on a stool while I cook instead?" Calum asks and Luke whines.

"No! I wanna help!" He answers and Calum nods.

"Good, then behave yourself." Luke grumbles but doesn't make any further argument and Calum smiles. This whole dealing with bratty Luke thing isn't so hard, he doesn't see what Michael's problem is. Taking care of the boy is reminding him of all the babysitting he did on the side in highschool, he always thoroughly enjoyed it and he has a feeling he'll enjoy babysitting Luke. He learned then not to be a pushover with kids just to be fun, because then they'd never listen to him again.

"Here, grab me the whisk and you can mix this all together for me." Calum offers and Luke nods and gets the whisk, mixing the waffle batter as Calum holds the bowl so it doesn't go everywhere.

"Alright, now you can help me pour it in but this part can get messy so I need you to be careful, alright? Just take this, scoop it out, and pour it in there and we can close it and flip it." Calum directs and Luke nods and does as told, being as careful as he can to not spill.

"Alright good job bud, now close it... there we go." Calum says as he flips the device.

"Okay, time for me to go!" michael calls as he comes down the stairs and Luke rushes over to him and hugs him.

"I don't want you to go to work!" Luke whines and Michael ruffles his hair.

"You and Calum will have tons of fun and I will be back before you know it." Michael assures and Luke pouts at him and whispers.

"Calum is scary." Michael laughs.

"Well then you'd better be good." He chuckles, hugging the boy and then hugging and kissing Calum and wishing him luck.

"Have fun!" He calls as he goes out the door. Luke pouts and then they hear a beep and make their way back to the waffle maker.

"Before you ask, you may have Nutella on one of your waffles and the others can have peanut butter. I'm not dealing with you sugar hyped." Calum says as he gets out the waffle and puts it on a plate.

"But-"

"I said what I said, don't argue with me." Luke pouts and Calum flicks his lip, smiling at him.

"You're cute but that doesn't mean I'm gonna give you your way, kid." Luke giggles at the compliment and happily digs into the mini waffle covered in Nutella that Calum sets on the table for him.