broken (muke/cashton)

prologue

"Shut the fúck up, bĩtch!"

That was the first thing Ashton heard as he walked through the door to his house. It was nothing unusual anymore; he had gotten used to the yelling. His parents were usually yelling. It was up to him to entertain, protect and basically raise his younger brother and sister.

He ran past the living room where his parents were yelling and upstairs to his sister's room. "Hey Lauren, how was school?" Lauren looked up at him.

"It was terrible Ash! One of the girls made fun of me because of my braces." She started to cry, and Ashton sympathised. He had been picked on a lot at school; he still was, in fact. He had gotten used to it, but Lauren was a beautiful young girl, with lots of friends, and he had never heard her say anything about being teased before.

He walked over and hugged her. "If people care more about the way you look than what you have to say, then they're not worth getting upset over. Because in the end, they are the ones missing out on knowing you, they are the ones missing out on seeing your beautiful face every morning, they are the ones missing out on what you have to say. If they're really that petty, then they don't deserve your time." He smiled, and she smiled back; and hugged him harder.

"Thanks Ash, you always know just what to say. I love you." She was still crying, but nowhere near as hard.

"Do you want to call Harry in and watch a movie?" He asked her. "You can pick." She nodded and Ashton went to find his younger brother.

"Ashy, why is Laurie sad?" He looked down at Harry, who had been hiding in his room playing a video game.

"Some girls at school were just being mean to her, that's all. Hey, do you want to come watch a movie with us?" Harry nodded quickly and held up his arms. Ashton laughed and picked him up, carrying him to their small playroom.

"I can see so much from up here!" Harry exclaimed with glee, and Ashton smiled. His siblings always managed to make him smile, no matter what had happened.

When they walked in, Lauren had already picked her movie. She held up Mean Girls, a movie that they had all seen hundreds of times, but he smiled and nodded anyway.

"No! I want Ninja Turtles!" Harry yelled from Ashton's arms. Ashton whispered in his ear ("Laurie's sad now, can we watch her movie so she'll feel better?") and Harry nodded slowly. Ashton laughed.

"We'll watch Ninja Turtles tomorrow, okay?" He nodded quickly.

Lauren turned on the movie and leaned her head on Ashton's shoulder, and Harry sat on his lap, and even though he could hear a door slam from downstairs, he was happy with the small family he had and wouldn't give them up for the world.

••••

Michael couldn't sleep. He had been staring at the same spot on the ceiling for over four hours; nothing was working. He had already tried doing things to help his sleeping; he had tried drinking milk before he went to bed, he had tried not using any technology for two hours before he went to bed, he had tried having hot showers every night before he went to bed, but no matter what he always ended up staring at that same spot on the ceiling.

That one stupid, stupid spot. By now he could say everything about that part of the ceiling, from the way a small part was a little darker than the rest of the ceiling to the way it had a slight indent. That one spot on the ceiling was where he always seemed to end up staring.

Eventually he gave up all hope of sleep. He pulled his phone out from under his pillow (don't ask why he kept it there. He just did) and opened tumblr, staring to reblog posts about his favourite bands and TV shows. He was quite popular on both twitter and tumblr, probably because he was always almost on it, but he didn't really care. If he was being completely honest, his favourite part was looking at pictures of Harry Styles shirtless, because damn, that boy was hot. But Michael wouldn't say anything, for two reasons; one, he would probably be teased even more than he already was, and two, Harry was Louis' baby and no one else's.