Nutella (Alternate Version)

. 62 .

"Mikey!" Luke cheers excitedly as he bounds down the stairs, having woke up and heard Michael banging around trying to cook on the kitchen.

Michael frowns, he would've expected the blonde to be in a sore mood today after the rough day they had previously.

"Yes love?" He answers as Luke slides down the hall and onto the kitchen with his socks on the wood floor.

"Woah, be careful kiddo." He chuckles as Luke falls on his bottom. Luke pouts and looks up at Michael for sympathy, but the man is chuckling at the fall and Luke pouts.

"Don't laugh at me!" He objects and Michael raises an eyebrow.

"You don't yell at me, little man. What's got you so grumpy?" He warns and turns back to the food.

"Don't laugh at me!" The blonde says louder, if the last one wasn't quite yelling this one certainly was.

"Luke, youre being rude and if you keep that up you're going to wake up Calum." Michael warns in a low calm but still slightly threatening voice. "Do I yell at you when you do something I don't like?"

"Yes, you yelled at us the other day!" Luke argues and Michael rolls his eyes.

"Okay, yea I did, and I told you that that wasn't nice of me and apologized, didn't I?" He iterates.

"No!" Luke protests brattily.

"I did. I won't tell you again,  quit yelling. And I would like an apology as you are not being very nice right now. I understand if you're feeling grumpy, I'm sorry if it hurt your feelings that I laughed, I didn't mean to upset you, but the ah you're talking to me is not okay, Lukey." Michael says, back still turned to the boy as he focuses on the food.

"No! You're mean! Don't talk to me!" The blonde shouts.

"If I have to tell you again I'm putting you in timeout so you can fix your attitude, Luke." Michael warns and the younger man breaks out into shrieks and screams of protest, making Michael sigh heavily.

He doesn't hesitate to scoop the boy up and carry him to a corner.

"Im setting the timer for fifteen minutes. If you leave this spot I'm adding two minutes and restarting the timer." Michael informs but isn't sure Luke has heard him over the shrieking. "I'm not starting the timer until you quit screaming. Everytime you leave this spot I'm adding two minutes." He says firmly and loud enough he believes lukes heard.

"NOOOO! NO! YOU CANT MAKE ME YOURE NOT MY DADDY! LET ME GO! GO AWAYYYY!" Luke yells, kicking the wall as Michael tries to set him on his feet in the spot.

Michael's getting frustrated, he has no clue why the boy is acting like this- well, he can guess that it probably has something to do with the emotional rollercoaster the boy was on yesterday- and he's never acted like this with Michael before. He's sure he can't approach this the same way he would approach it with Calum, he's a bit at a loss and doesn't want to make any rash decisions or do something out of frustration, so he sets the boy on his butt on the ground in the corner, still screaming and kicking, and walks back to the kitchen, effectively ignoring the boys tantrum.

He hears tears and sobs start and sighs. "Lukey?" He calls.

"Leave me alone!" The boy screams so Michael sighs and does as told.

"Daddy?" Calum calls sleepily as he comes down the stairs.

"What's wrong Lukey?" He asks confusedly upon encountering the screaming crying blonde.

"Go away! I don't like you!" Luke screams and Calums eyes widen, eyebrow quirking as he steps around the mess of a boy and goes to the kitchen.

"Why's Lukey bein a brat?" He asks, unbothered by the insult because he knows Lukey loves him.

"I'm not sure, babes." Michael sighs. He hears the cries and yells getting closer as like crawls himself to the kitchen. Michael takes the food off the stove and turns to the boy.

"Would you like to talk about how you're feeling, Lukey?"

"I don't like you!" Luke shrieks, laying on the floor and continuing the tantrum with every intention of making the other two suffer. Michael contains his initial reaction to say something snarky and instead takes a breath. He quickly makes a plate and sets it at the table for Calum.

"Here baby, you eat, im gonna deal with Luke." He says quietly. He makes his way back to Luke and picks the boy up, carrying the loud and fighting boy up the stairs and to his and calums room.

He silently deposits the blonde on the floor and goes to a closet in the hall, pulling out a gate and bringing it to the door way. The blonde lays screaming and kicking, paying no attention to what Michael is doing as the man tightens the gate into the doorframe. It's almost as tall as the blonde boy, unable to be climbed, and without a key, cannot be loosed or taken out, only tightened. Any fiddling Luke could try to do would only make it tighter and harder to escape. He makes sure to get it tight enough that Luke won't be able to push or pull hard enough to knock it loose.

"When you fix your attitude and feel like talking, you call for me. I'll come check on you every twenty minutes. Your bunny is on your bed and there's dummies in the drawer." Michael keeps his tone calm as he explains and then he goes downstairs, where he can still hear lukes crying and yelling but not as intensely, and eats his own food.

He feels guilty about the whole thing, leaving the blonde alone up there. lukes clearly acting out because she can't emotionally process recent events in headspace, but he sees no better way to deal with the tantrum when Luke is screaming at him and trying to kick him. If it were Calum, he'd smack his bum once, which would usually startle the boy into listening, and then try to have a talk. He knows he can't do that with Luke. He'd tried to nice approach, and he doesn't want to feed into lukes tantrum in any way that would encourage the behavior.

He's startled by a loud bang and jumps up, running upstairs and hoping lukes not somehow injured himself. He sighs in relief when he hears the yelling start back up and sees that lukes not damaged himself or anything else, probably just kicked a wall or something.

Michael doesn't bother trying to talk to the boy, as he's still yelling how much he dislikes him, just goes back downstairs.

It only takes another fifteen minutes for lukes yells to die, his voice probably aching too much to keep it up, and Michael goes to check on him again.

"Lukey, are you ready to talk?" He asks. The boy sobs.

"Y-you le-left me!" He cries.

"Honey, I've been right downstairs listening and waiting for you." Michael sighs.

"Y-you lef-left me!" Luke repeats tearfully again.

"You asked me to leave you alone bubba. I know you're grumpy and sad and upset, I know, I'm sorry kid. Give me one second." Michael says as he unlocks the gate and loosens it from the frame, moving it without putting it away for now and coming to the distraught boys side.

"What do you need Lukey? You want Mikey to cuddle you?" He asks gently and Luke cries as he nods and pulls himself into the mans lap to be hugged and rocked.

"I got you sweetheart. You wanna talk about how you're feeling?"

"Mad, sad." Luke cries and Michael nods.

"Do you know why you feel that way?" Michael asks.

Luke shakes his head, tucking his face into Michael's chest.

"Okay. That's okay bubba. Do you need anything?" Luke shakes his head again. "How about we go eat, yeah?"

Michael decides not to reiterate anything that happened so far this morning. Maybe later when lukes calmer he'll remind Luke that being upset is okay but treating people badly isn't. Right now he figures it won't do any good, it'll only restart the tantrum or somehow further upset the boy.

"Yeah." Luke agrees weakly and Michael nods, lifting the blue eyed boy onto his hip and taking him downstairs, heating up their food and joining Calum on the couch to watch cartoons once they've eaten.

Michael hopes this whole tantrum thing is a one off occurrence.