calling to say • ot4/calm christmas one shot ✓

calling to say

a/n: there is some mention of religion (christianity), sorry if it offends you !!!! (mostly when the bold text says the location is belize)

december twenty-third, two thousand and fifteen, london, england, eighteen o'clock

ashton irwin moved to london six months ago, a month after the breakup. he always refers to the ending of his polyamorus relationship as the breakup, because it was a life shattering event that required its own name in ashton's mind. he moved to london to get away from his boys, and because he got a modelling opportunity. he works for some prestigious agency that he can never remember the name of, and he has a two bedroom apartment not too far from nando's.

luckily, ashton had found a new partner relatively quickly after moving to london. it's a monogamous relationship (for now), but he liked it- mostly. all the attention was on him, but then again all the attention was on him if he wasn't focused on carson.

clad in an oversized pastel christmas sweater, a white collar, a white tennis skirt with pastel pink tights and pale blue doc martens, ashton climbed the stairs to his fifth floor apartment. he had just said goodbye to carson, who was visiting his family until christmas day. he got nostalgic as he climbed the stairs, thinking of time before the breakup.

even if one of his partners was away, there was always someone else to cuddle. michael gave the best cuddles, calum was always super warm and welcoming, and luke was lanky enough to curl around you until you fell asleep in bliss. ashton loved having three partners. they all called him pet names that made him blush- carson only calls him ash, and kitten in the bedroom.

some crazy and irrational thing within ashton possesses him when he's back, sitting on his bed in his apartment. he scrolls down in his contacts to 'z,' where he still has michael, calum, and luke's numbers. he'd simply put a 'z' before their names so that they'd be at the bottom of his contact list.

before he can even process what he's doing, ashton swipes right on his samsung and is calling michael clifford. in the moment he doesn't care about long distance fees, but in the back of his mind ashton knew if michael picked up he'd be grumbling about the extra cost on his phone bill for at least a month.

december twenty-fourth, two thousand and fifteen, sydney, australia, ten past five o'clock

jane is woken up at the ungodly hour of five in the morning by her phone ringing a ringtone she didn't ever think she'd hear again. it was flaws by bastille- their song, when there was a them. seven months ago she smiled when she heard the song. but then again, seven months ago she was michael, a him.

not fully processing that hearing the song from her phone meant that one of them was calling her, jane sleepily answered her phone. "hello?"

"hi? michael?" ashton said, very surprised that the phone was answered at all. jane tensed up at the use of her dead name, waking up fully and realizing that dainty, baby faced, pastel ashton was calling her.

"oh my god," jane whispered.

"michael," ashton breathed back. jane was so conflicted. did she answer to that name? or did she tell ashton that she was trans, and was too scared to tell her partners and didn't come out until after they broke up? did she tell him that she had moved back home and lived with her parents again? that she was on estrogen? where did she even start?

"uh-um, it's not mich- it's jane now," she managed to say, not being able to say her dead name.

"sorry." there was an awkward pause before ashton decided to ignore whatever was going on with michael, and continued. "i'm glad this number is still good, i was scared that you'd changed it and that's why you almost didn't answer."