Calum and Michael lay in Michael's bed together, cuddling. They put Luke, who had fallen asleep on the couch downstairs, in his bed in his and calums room and gone to lay and talk.

"Was being big all day okay?" Michael asks softly and Calum nods.

"Yeah, it was fine. I actually kinda liked taking care of Luke, made me feel good... does that make sense?" Calum asks and Michael nods.

"Yeah, I get it. I love taking care of you, both of you." Michael assures and Calum smiles.

"Kind of exhausting though." The maori chuckles.

"It sounds like you did a good job. Luke told me you're scary." Michael chuckles. Calum bites his lip.

"I smacked him. He ran off in the parking lot and I caught him and smacked his butt and took him back to the car and talked to him. I kinda felt bad about it, but it really scared me when he ran off, he could've got hurt, and he knew better. And he was fine, he wasn't upset about it or anything. I mean he cried at first but he wasn't upset afterwards." Calum explains and Michael listens quietly.

"I wouldn't have done it. But you and him have a different relationship and I don't necessarily think it's bad that you did." Michael says after a bit. Calum nods. "And I'm a bit shocked you're so much stricter than me with how much trouble you are little." The older man chuckles and Calum laughs.

"I'm stubborn that way I guess." The brunette laughs.

"Ashtons out of rehab next week." Michael sighs after a few moments of silence. Calum frowns.

"So... what's that mean for Luke?" Calum asks nervously.

"Nothing, if Luke doesn't want it to. I'm sure ashton will want something to change, but I'm not letting Luke do anything he's not comfortable with... and with the way he reacted when we went and saw Ashton, I mean I think it'll take a while." Michael says and Calum nods.

"Yeah... I don't want Luke to leave. And I mean, I doubt Luke would just want to go and move back in with Ashton after everything." Calum says and Michael can tell he's getting a bit worked up. He doesn't blame him.

"I don't either. I'm sure whatever happens won't come for a while, cal. Don't worry." Michael assures.

"I think Luke woke up." Calum says after a minute and Michael frowns and listens, hearing whimpers and cries and getting up as Calum does.

"Hey buddy, what's wrong?" Michael asks as he comes into the room and sees Luke curled up crying. Calum quickly sits next to the boy and cuddles up to him, comforting him, Michael joining on the other side.

"I h-had a n-nightmare ab-about Ashton." Luke sobs, curling into calum.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Calum asks quietly and Luke sobs harder. "It's okay bubba, it's alright. You don't have to, we can just sit here, and you tell us if you need something? Okay? Everything's okay, we're here." Luke nods and turns to crawl into Michael's lap, Calum scooting closer and rubbing his back, hugging him from behind, kissing his head, doing whatever he can to comfort the boy.

After a few minutes of lukes cries dying down the boy begins talking. "A-Ashton got o-out of re-rehab and I h-had to go li-live with him e-even though I d-didnt want to yet and h-he was l-like David, he d-drank and was m-mean and h-hurt me." Luke cries through his sentences and Michael rocks him back and forth, and Calum finds himself feeling a weird way, almost jealous that Michael's holding and comforting him rather than Calum himself. He ignores it and keeps rubbing the boys back and as if Luke can read his mind or something, the blonde turn and clings onto Calum, who lays back slowly with the boy on his chest and rubs his back, holding him securely.

"When Ashton gets out of rehab, you do not have to go stay with him if you don't want to, Lukey. Nothing has to happen that you don't want to happen, it's all up to you." Michael assures, sitting next to the two and petting lukes hair.

"B-but he-he'll want me to! H-his feelings will b-be hurt." Luke sobs. Calum shakes his head.

"No lukey, ashtons feelings don't matter, yours do. We won't let him make you do anything you don't want to do-"

"Ashton wouldn't pressure you to come live with him if you didn't want to anyway, Lukey, you know that, right? He'll wait for you to feel ready. He loves you and he understands if you need time to heal." Michael cuts off Calum, not wanting Luke's view of Ashton to become villainized like Calums statement made him out to be.

"Don't worry about it, lu. You know we're here for you and won't let anything bad happen." Calum assures, frowning a bit at Michael's statement. He doesn't want Ashton to "wait" for Luke tone ready. He doesn't want Luke to ever be ready, he wants Luke to stay here, with them. Ashton fucked up, he doesn't deserve Luke. He could always fuck up again, how can they trust the vulnerable little blonde with him? How could they give Luke up?

"I don't wanna be big anymore." Luke sobs and Calum nods and rubs his back.

"Why don't we get you some nice warm milk in a sippy and we can all cuddle up and sleep, yeah?" Michael offers and Luke nods, Michael leaves the two to go make the milk. Calum rolls so Luke is no longer on top of him but they're still cuddled up, arms and legs wrapped around eachother and lukes face buried in calums neck, sniffling.

Michael comes back shortly with the sippy cup and hands to the blonde, getting in on the other side of him and wrapping his arms around them both, and soon all three are asleep in the twin sized beds pushed together.