Ashton's all too thrilled when Luke invites him to stay over one night. Michael is significantly less thrilled and spends the entire ride over complaining and mumbling in the backseat of Calum's car.

"It's big," Calum warns them.

"Are we talking about the apartment or Luke's dick?" Ashton's practically bouncing in the passenger seat. "Either way, I'm excited."

Calum sighs and pulls into the driveway of the apartment building, parking right next to Luke's expensive car, again. Michael huffs and grabs one of the bags from next to him in the back seat as he clambers out. Ashton follows after him happily, grabbing his hand and forcing a sigh from Michael, which leaves Calum to grab the other bag.

Michael and Ashton are stopped in front of the big glass doors, so Calum leads them inside and straight to the elevator.

"Feather boa boy, hello," the receptionist nods at him cordially.

"Nail polish lady," he responds. When they get into the elevator, Ashton can barely contain his excitement. He's nearly shaking with it. Michael sighs, like it's a burden to be dating him, and shoves Ashton up against the side of the elevator. He kisses his smaller boyfriend forcefully, quickly, and throughly, so when the doors open, Ashton just stumbles out in a happy daze.

"Stop doing that," Calum hisses.

"No," Michael says, just to be difficult. He turns to Ashton and presses their lips together again, probably more out of spite, than anything. Calum ignores them and knocks on the door. There's a thud from inside before the door flings open to reveal Luke's grinning face.

"Hiya!" Luke enthuses.

Calum smiles at him and reaches up to press a small kiss to Luke's mouth before pushing past him. "Hey, Lukey, baby."

Luke preens and Michael makes a gagging noise from behind them. He shoves his way inside and strips his shoes and coat off, handing the latter to Luke. Ashton lunges forward and wraps his arms around Luke's neck, forcing him down for a hug. Luke grunts when he's yanked down, diligently returning the bear hug.

"Michael," Calum sighs while Ashton tries to squeeze the life out of Luke. "Can you please come collect him?"

Ashton releases Luke and marches into the apartment, stopping to stomp on Calum's foot before he kicks off his shoes. He throws his jacket at Luke and bounces away in search of Michael, again.

Luke's cheeks are flushed bright pink when Calum looks over at him. He hangs up the jackets and bumps into Calum in typical, bumbling Luke style, then nudges their noses together until Calum kisses him again. "I missed you," he mumbles.

"It hasn't even been twelve hours since I last saw you," Calum reminds him, but Luke just shrugs and kisses him again.

After a couple seconds, Michael yells something incoherently from upstairs, making Calum pull away abruptly. "Ten bucks says he broke something."

Luke's eyes widen. He hurries towards the stairs, so Calum follows behind him, still gripping the bag over his shoulder. They find Ashton laying in Luke's bed and Michael in the nathroom, repeatedly flushing the toilet in the ensuite.

"Stop, it's going to overflow!" Calum jumps forward and smacks at Michael while he puts his hands up in surrender.

"No, it's a rich person toilet," Michael defends quickly. "It doesn't over- stop hitting me!" Calum slaps him one more time. Ashton trots in then and gasps at the giant shower.

"Woah! We could all comfortably fit in there!" He pulls the clear door open and gaps at the smooth stones inside. "Cal, take off your clothes, we're taking a shower together."

"We're not-"

"Ash, fuck the shower, look at the tub," Michael cuts in. Ashton spins around and zeros in on the giant tub.

"Fuck," he breathes out, like it's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen. Calum closes the shower door while he admires the huge tub. "We could all fit in there, too. Everybody, take your clothes off."

"One step ahead of you, babe," Michael chucks his shirt at Ashton and accidentally hits Luke square in the face. "Sorry, dude."

"Stop it!" Calum yells while Michael works at the button on his jeans. He grabs Michael's hands and holds them in one of his own, then stalks over to where Ashton's struggling to get his own shirt off. "We're not taking a bath together! Michael, put your shirt back on!"

"Stop ruining the fun," Ashton mutters bitterly, even as he tugs the hem of his short down. Luke gingerly hands the shirt back to Calum while using his free hand to twist the cross on his necklace.

"I'm not putting it back on," Michael mutters when Calum tries to hand him the shirt.

"Yes you are," Calum replies firmly, squeezing Michael's wrists until he flinches. "You're going to get to your room and- and, I don't care, have a friendly conversation, while I talk to Luke. Got it?"

"Mom," Michael whines, dragging it out. Calum jerks his knee up and hits him directly in the crotch, forcing a yelp of pain from him. He slumps forward, so Ashton hurries forward to comfort him.

"You're an asshole," Ashton scowls, but Calum just shrugs. He hurries the two of them out of Luke's room and locks the door behind them. Luke looks startled to say the least, rolling his rosary around in his hand and mumbling a prayer under his breath. Calum gently guides him to sit on the edge of the bed, holding his free hand carefully. As soon as he hears the quiet "amen", he reaches forward and tilts Luke's chin up.

"Alright?"

"It's a lot," Luke admits. "They're a lot. A lot of sin."

"Yeah," Calum agrees with a nod. "I know, Luke, but they're not terrible. I mean, they're inconsiderate assholes, but they're not terrible all the time. I promise."

"I know," Luke sighs heavily, so Calum lets go of his face and pulls the bag off his shoulders. Luke eyes it curiously. "What's that? I told you, you could just wear my clothes tomorrow."

"I'm planning on it," Calum responds casually as he unzips the bag. "You smell good, I'm probably going to wear the shirt you have on, now."

Luke glances down at it and wrinkles his nose. "Gross."

Calum snorts. "It's not clothes. Your apartment's boring, no offence, so we brought you some stuff. To, you know, Luke it up, a bit."

"Oh," Luke furrows his eyebrows and tries to peer into the bag.

Calum pulls out a few posters and some tape, first. "I'm going to bring over my guitar sometime, so you can put it in the corner and play whenever you want."

"I don't play anymore," Luke admits. "I- nevermind, I just don't play."

Calum gives him a strange look, but doesn't push it. He'll dig into Luke's brain later. "Then I'll play it when I come over. Ash has some of his art, too, we just have to get it matted."

"Matted?" Luke echoes.

"Yeah, so you can hang it," Calum nods while unrolling one of the posters. "These are some of the prints he made when he was at college, and a couple of my own posters." He tapes a Green Day poster to the left of the bathroom door, then a The Killers one on the other side of the dresser. He unrolls Ashton's prints as well and tapes them to the bland white walls around the room. When he's finished, he nudges himself between Luke's knees and digs through the bag again.

"We got you some bubblebath, too,"Calum pulls out the bottle and shakes it in front of Luke's face happily. "We'll try it out later, if you want. And," Calum pulls the remaining items from his bag and holds them up for Luke to inspect. He's got a bottle of lube in one hand and a pack of condoms in the other. Luke's face flushes red and he glances away quickly.

Luke takes a big, shuddering breath, and looks down, so Calum sets the items aside in concern. "I- we can't- I don't- I'm not-" Luke stutters for a few seconds, before Calum cuts him off.

"Hey, you're okay," he says softly. "It's okay, Lukey, whatever you're trying to say, it's okay."

Luke takes a huge breath in, chest inflating for a second. "I'm just not ready," he mumbles as he let's it out. "I'm sorry, I didn't- I'm sorry."

"Luke," Calum frowns, shoving everything up further on the bed so he can sit on the edge, next to Luke, leaving a good amount of space between them. "Luke, that's fine. That's okay, I promise you, it's completely fine. You know, I don't think I'm ready either, you know? I want to go slow with you, I want you to be comfortable, okay? Don't rush yourself. If you're not ready, we won't do anything. You just let me know, okay? Whatever you want, I'm going to help you through it."

Luke pauses, then hold out his fist, pinky raised. "Promise? You're not going to leave me for someone who's better and ready?"

Calum smiles fondly and links their pinkies together. "Promise." Luke twists their hands after a second and links their fingers together tightly.

☆☆☆☆

Calum keeps Michael occupied and out of the kitchen while Ashton cooks dinner. They crawl up the stairs and sit on the balcony of the second floor, legs slotted between the safety bars, so they can stare out the floor to ceiling windows in the living room.

"I spy," Michael trails off, gripping the bars in his hands like he's in jail. "Something gray."

Calum flicks his eyes over the view through the windows. "Is it a building?"

"Yeah," Michael nods. "Which one, though?"

Calum scoffs at that, shifting around where he's leaning on his hands behind him. "There's a lot of fucking buildings, dude, I don't know. That one?" He nudges his head in the general direction of a building towards the left of the windows.

"Cal, I can't see what you're nodding at," Michael's sighs, like it's just a huge disappointment to know Calum. Calum shifts his weight to one hand and uses the other to shove Michael's shoulder, startling a yelp of sheer anger out of him. "Stop it, play I spy with me like a normal friend!"

"You've picked a building the last fifteen times!" Calum accuses, which Michael just scoffs at, even though he smiles softly after a second because he knows it's true. They're quiet, then, Michael's feet swinging off the balcony and Calum's eyes flickering around the big windows in front of them, while Ashton and Luke mumble softly from the kitchen downstairs.

It's so domestic, Calum realizes, how Luke's probably pulling out plates in his big apartment, while Calum entertains guests (well, one guest) and waits for dinner to be ready. It makes a warm feeling rise in his stomach and a soft blush scatter over his cheeks. Michael glances over, but decides not to mention Calum's soft smile and tingly cheeks, apparently.

"I could get used to this," Calum mumbles, the phrase slipping out without his permission. He instantly looks down at his lap, especially when Michael's head shoots over to him in a panic.

"You can't leave me alone in that house with Ashton," he says quickly, rushing it out in one breath. "I love him with all my heart, but we need a mediator."

Calum laughs, throwing his head back, because he knows. He knows exactly what his role is in the house, knows how Michael and Ashton can't really stand each other for long periods of time. "Don't worry, dude," he assures him quickly. "Luke isn't- Luke's not ready for a big commitment, like moving in together, yet."

"Big commitment," Michael echoes, suddenly sounding curious about the entire conversation. "Like sex."

Calum's grown accustomed to Michael's blunt words by now, but he still flushes pink at the words. "I- yeah. Yeah, it's not going to happen for a while, I don't think. He's not ready, and I get it."

"Why isn't he?" Michael asks. "He already had his Big Gay Freakout, didn't he?"

"Yeah, I guess," Calum leans further back on his hands and tightens his muscles, arching his back in an attempt to crack it. He settles again, not that Michael notices, and shrugs. "It comes and goes, I think. Sometimes he feels really gay and sometimes he's- he's just really straight. Or- I don't know- he isn't attracted to me.its okay, though, I get it. He's still overcoming stuff, he's trying to learn that this is okay, I'm not going to yell at him and disown him, you know? I want him to know I'll stick around if we do anything, I want him to be comfortable."

Michael finally pulls one hand of the bars in front of him and sets it down firmly on Calum's shoulder, shaking it and gripping like he's proud, or something. "You really like him," he summarizes.

Calum doesn't even have to think about it before he nods. "I really like him."