Lukes eyes flutter open and he frowns as he hears muffled yelling downstairs. Calums no longer next to him cuddling like he was when they fell asleep last night. He hears banging and whimpers, nervously scooting out of bed and tip toeing towards the door. He can hear better when he opens it. His eyes clench shut tightly at the yelling and covers his ears. After a minute or two he creeps closer to the stairs, still covering his ears. He sits on them and slides down one step at a time, as quietly as possible.

The yelling gets louder, he can clearly make out the words and Michael and Calums voices.

"He doesn't deserve to have anything to do with him or us! He's not getting better-"

"That's clearly not true Calum!"

"I mean Luke! He's not getting any more comfortable with him, he's clearly better off here-"

"We can't make that decision for him! We can't just cut him off! I understand that you love him and want him around and are feeling very emotional about the whole thing-"

"Don't go fucking blaming this on me being emotional! Don't you feel the same way? Or are just a heartless fucking bastard?! He shouldn't go and he doesn't want to! There's no reason to keep dragging him on and putting him through this when we could-"

"But it's not our decision to make! It's lukes! He loves him and he's getting a lot better, if he wants to keep trying he has every right and we need to be here for him in the meantime!"

"It's like you want him to leave! And Michael, he practically begs you to make the decision for him. He can't justify cutting off his caregiver even if that's what he wants and needs to do!"

Luke can hear the words, but his confused little tired scared brain hardly deciphers their meaning. He hears his name. He worries that they're making him leave, that they're sick of him and that's why they're fighting.

He whines as tears flow down his cheeks, his hands covering his ears don't do enough to block the sound, and as he hears the yelling escalate he stands and runs back upstairs, shutting himself in his and Calums room and then in the closet.

"Fuck." Calum mutters as they hear the noise of feet running up the stairs and then the doors slamming.

"Luke?" Michael calls as he runs up, Calum close behind him. It's not hard for them to hear his sobs as they enter the room and Calum rubs his hands over his face.

"Lukey, come out peach." Calum coaxes as he opens the closet and Luke whimpers.

"Hey, we're all done yelling bubba, we didn't mean to scare you, everything's okay. Can you come cuddle?" Michael asks. Luke looks at them and frowns.

"Fight?"

"We we're arguing, but it's okay. We're not mad at eachother." Calum assures.

"At Lukey?"

"No, we're not mad at Lukey. Come out? We can talk more while we cuddle." Luke nods and scoots out, letting Michael carry him to the bed.

"I'm sorry we scared you babe, we were just disagreeing, we shouldn't have been so loud." Calum repeats and Luke nods, cuddling into his chest.

"Why fight?" He asks and they both frown, not knowing how to answer. "Bout Lukey?"

"Honey, no, don't you worry. I know you heard us talking about you but it's just because we love you and care about you so much, okay?"

"Okay." Luke agrees, thinking for a moment. He remembers hearing them talk about his daddy and frowns.

"Daddy still sick?" He asks and Michael looks at him.

"No, daddies not sick anymore." Michael answers. He's confused at lukes asking, but supposes it's because he hasn't talked to the boy about it while he's been in headspace at all.

"Luke needa go home? With daddy?" Calum frowns and squeezes Luke tighter.

"No." He answers.

"Not if you don't want to, lu. Nothing you don't want to happen will happen, okay?" Michael amends Calums answer and Luke nods.

"Lukey call daddy?" Luke asks and Calums sits up and looks at him. The boy looks nervous to ask, or nervous to do it maybe. He wonders what makes Luke want to and it irritates him.

"Yeah, hon, we can see if ash can call. Right now?" Michael asks and Luke nods shyly.

"Okay, one sec." Michael stands and leaves the room and Calum frowns. He doesn't want this, what the fuck? Luke isn't supposed to want to reach out to Ashton, not right now, he hates this.

"Hello?" Ashton answers Michael's call hopefully.

"Hey ash. Lukes little, he wants to talk to you." Michael says awkwardly. To be honest, he feels uncomfortable with all this too. He figures it's natural to be. Things are weird and different now.

"Oh, oh good, okay, yeah." Ash stumbles, sounding nervous and happy.

"Right. Okay, one sec." he opens the door and calls Luke over.

Luke nervously takes the phone.

"H-hi d- ash- daddy?" The blonde says, not sure what to call the man.

"Do you want me to stay here or give you space?" Michael whispers and luke silently grabs his hand, signaling that he wants the man to stay with him. Michael nods.

"Hi sweetheart, how are you?" Ashton replies.

"Uhm, good." Luke stumbles. "Y-youre all done being sick? You feel be-better?" Luke seems to clam up trying to talk to his caregiver, and Michael comfortingly strokes his hand.

"Yeah, yeah Lukey I'm all better. You remember visiting me when I was better?" Luke frowns and thinks.

"I think so." He mumbles. What he doesn't say is that he does not remember it as a positive experience.

"Yeah. I miss you lu." Ashton says and luke fiddles quietly and awkwardly with Michael's hand in his own. When a second goes by without an answer Ashton fills the space. "Are you having fun with uncle Mikey and cali?"

"Yes." Luke whispers and Ashton sighs. The boys so quiet and nervous. He knows he can expect him to feel the same and be comfortable right away but it doesn't make it easier.

"Yeah? Are you being good for Michael?" Luke finds himself feeling very uncomfortable. He feels like Ashton doesn't have the right to ask about his behavior, it's none of his business.

"Um, yeah. Never get in trouble. Uhm, I miss you too." He changes the subject quickly.

"Yeah? Maybe we could all do something soon, meet at the park or for lunch or something?" Ashton offers gently and Luke bites his lip. Michael watches him, stroking his hand, letting him know it's up to him.

"Uh-uhm, yeah. Uhm, I-I wanna come over for lunch with Mikey and cali." Luke decides cautiously. He wonders what it will be like to be home, even shortly.

"Yeah? That sounds great, Luke. Me and Michael can talk about it when we're all done talking." Ashton says and Luke glances over as Calum peeks out of the door he's cracked open. Luke finds himself wanting to end this uncomfortable exchange and cuddle up with Calum instead.

"O-okay. Buhbye." He quickly hands the phone to a surprised Michael, Ashton only having time to say a quick "what? Oh, Um, bye?" Before Michael's on the phone again. Luke scurries into the room with Calum who sits with him on the bed and lets Luke cuddle up to him.

"How'd it go Lukey? Are you okay?"

"Didnt ike." Luke answers with a pout.

"Uhm, so, did you hear all that?" Ashton asks Michael when he greets him.

"Yeah. Um, listen, I want to talk to Luke a bit more, and out of headspace, about meeting up before making official plans. Uhm, no offense, just cause of last time, yknow?" Michael awkwardly says and Ashton understandingly agrees. Michael quickly wraps up the phone call and goes inside the room again to talk to the blonde.

"Hey lu, how are you?" He asks and luke shrugs as he climbs into the older mans lap. "Talk to me bub."

"I didn't like it." He answers. Michael frowns.

"What parts didn't you like?"

"When he asked if I'm being good. When he said he miss me. Callin him daddy. Whole thing." Michael frowns.

"I'm sorry babe. What do you mean by didn't like it, how did you feel about it?"

"Icky." Luke answers, seeming unable to come up with a better explanation.

"Okay. Do you really want to visit him, lu?"

"Not really." Luke answers. "Just didn't wanna hurt his feelings. I wanna stay here."

"You can stay here even if we visit lu." Michael assures and Luke frowns.

"Hell think it means I'm working towards living there again." Luke says, coming out of headspace.

"Maybe, but it's up to you. Maybe you'd be doing that, or maybe you'd be seeing if that's something you'd want to work towards." Michael assures.

"I don't wanna." Luke pouts and Michael nods.

"That's okay." Michael's not sure how he'll tell Ashton that but decides not to worry about it right now.