hold me || lashton {discontinued}

2.3

knock knock

no answer.

knock knock

not a single sound.

fuck.

fuck fuck fuck.

without hesitating, luke wiggles the door handle. surprisingly, the door opens right away. quickly stepping inside, luke calls for ashton. luke's trembling, something must be very wrong for ashton to call him over, but ending up not even answering the door.

the house looks horrible. shattered glass is everywhere, making it impossible for one to normally walk through the hallway. ashton leaves no reply to luke's calls, and luke's heart beats fast and heavily. willing himself to calm down, luke slowly and quietly breathes in and out, listening for any sign of ashton at all.

it takes him a few seconds to notice a faint sound of what sounds like labored breathing. luke's head shoots up, trying to find the source of the sound. although he doesn't want to believe it, deep down, luke knows there's only one person who could be making that noise.

luke snaps to his senses when he realises he's been standing at the same spot thinking for way too long, and he bolts up the stairs, to what seems like the right direction. he takes in the sight of his trashed surroundings and

oh lord

oh lord oh lord oh lord oh lord oh lo-

thud

the sound sets him off, sprinting through the slightly opened door.

... and the sight in front of him makes tears well up in his eyes.

lying with his back on the floor, chest rapidly moving up and down and body covered in blood, is ashton. his right eye is completely lidded, while the left one is half lidded, and blood is slowly seeping from the corner of his lips. one of his hands is balled in a fist and hovering close to the floor, and it only takes luke a second to realize he must have used that fist to indicate his location.

luke kneels next to the tiny boy's body, eyeing it from head to toe to get a good idea of the amount of damage done. before he's even taken in all the damage, luke's already getting out his phone to call an ambulance. ashton, however, glares at him through his half-lidded eye and tries to weakly swat the phone out of luke's hand. luke looks at him, surprised, and sees ashton slowly shake his head.

understanding ashton's gesture and wish, luke hesitantly puts away his phone and looks back at ashton. "do you want me to lay you down in bed?" luke asks, and ashton answers his question by weakly nodding.

luke sits himself in a better position to lift ashton as said boy wraps his arms around lukes neck. luke places one arm under ashtons back and one under his knees, picking him up in bridal style. while lifting the small boy, ashton sharply inhales, expressing his pain despite not being able to moan or whine. ashton instantly leans into his hold, head resting against lukes chest.

by the time luke has moved ashton over to his bed, his shirt feels wet, partially with tears, and partially with blood, and honestly luke would be lying if he said he didn't feel like crying along with ashton. he scans ashton's body once again, this time through blurry eyes.

the skin covering his cheekbone has an angry red color and a nasty bruise is forming above his lips. blood is trickling slowly from the corner of his right eye, making luke worry even more than he already was.

"are you sure you don't want me to get you to the hospital?" luke hesitantly asks, because honestly, luke is about drowning in his own worry for the other boy's health.

ashton shakes his head violently, an expression of fear  evident on his face, and luke looks around the room. "where are your pare-"

luke stops mid-sentence as realization hits him.

no.

it can't be.

luke bursts out coughing as he almost chokes on his own saliva. once the coughing fit has passed, luke asks, "who did this to you?"

he feels like he already knows the answer, but he asks anyway, just to be sure.

"it was your dad, wasn't it?" ashton's facial expression goes from fear to pure horror, and that's all luke needs for his thoughts to be confirmed.

by now, ashton isn't just crying anymore, but soundless sobs are now wracking his body and his hands are trembling.

"and you don't want me to call 911 because you're afraid he'll be taken away?" luke guessed. it seemed like a logic explanation to him, and ashton nodded slightly in confirmation.

"listen ash," luke started. "i have no idea what exactly that man has been doing to you all this time, but i've seen enough to know it's not healthy. it might sound scary and lame, but getting him away from you would probably be for the better."

ashton just looked at him with large eyes, fear written all over his face.

"i won't do anything you don't want right now, don't worry. but, when i notice your condition worsening, i won't hesitate to call an ambulance, okay?" ashton couldn't really oppose to that, so he once again nods his head.

"plus, we're gonna discuss things once you're able to, alright?" luke states, and he leaves te room to find a towel to clean ashton up a bit.

-
so, finally a new chapter.. this one was quite tricky to write, but i hope i did alright. i have decided to focus even more on school, and i'm currently taking an online oxford university course and planning on taking more, so updating will get even harder in between, but i'll try my best.

i'm sorry for the lack of updates, i hope to one day pay you all back ;)