Broken Homes {Lashton & Malum}

XX

Luke was stood in the kitchen, scrubbing at the dirty dishes from dinner with a solemn look on his face. He'd had to spend the whole afternoon watching Ashton tend to a sick Calum, and while he understood Calum really wasn't well, he couldn't get that image of the two basically cuddling out of his head.

Ashton had trusted Luke and allowed him body contact, and it was almost something that bonded the two in a way that separated them from everyone else. And yeah, Luke was ridiculously proud of Ashton for having made progress, but that meant what they had wasn't really all that special anymore.

And quite frankly, that saddened Luke a lot more than he was prepared to admit.

"What did that plate ever do to you?"

Luke jumped, snapping out of his thoughts and dropping the plate in his hands back into the soapy water. Haley was leaning against the countertop, an eyebrow raised as she looked at Luke. "I've never seen someone scrub so intensely at a plate that is already clean. You must really like this job," she joked, but sighed when Luke's mouth didn't even twitch into a smile. "What's happened, then?"

"Nothing," Luke mumbled, picking up the next dish and scrubbing gently, "There was a spot on the last one that wouldn't come out."

Hayley gave him a knowing look but said nothing, simply giving him a small nod as she began to walk out of the kitchen. "By the way," she said, turning around to look back at Luke, "Ashton's in the living room. Alone."

Luke was pretty sure he was anything but subtle with the way his eyes lit up at the sound of that, and he bit his lip to contain his smile as he watched Hayley leave out of the corner of his eye. When he was sure she had left, he ditched the remainder of dirty dishes and made his way towards the living room. Finally, Ashton was alone, and this was Luke's chance to talk things out with him. He didn't think he could bare another minute of things being so completely wrong with Ashton.

He came to a stop in the doorway, seeing Ashton curled up at one end of the sofa with his sketchbook resting on his knees. The way his hand floated across the paper with such ease always amazed Luke, because the end result on the page was usually anything but light-hearted, and he didn't know how Ashton handled that constant weight on his conscience. Maybe if Luke could make things right between them, Ashton would feel like he could trust Luke again, and maybe that meant the story behind those terrifying drawings could finally be told.

Bottom lip caught between his teeth and arms crossed, Luke shuffled into the living room awkwardly, heart stopping when Ashton looked up at the sound of his footsteps. "Where's Calum?" Luke asked, trying to hide the bitterness in his voice.

Ashton simply put his head back down, focusing on his sketchbook again. Luke frowned; this wasn't a good sign. He was hoping Ashton would at least be open to listening to what he had to say. Luke crossed his arms, looking down at the ground in disappointment. Should he just say what he wanted to say and leave Ashton with it? Would Ashton be annoyed? Was he better to not say anything at all?

"Ashton," Luke sighed, taking a cautious step forward, but the boy still didn't look up from were his pencil was moving across the page. Eyebrows furrowed, Luke peered curiously at what Ashton was drawing, expecting to see the usual eerie shadows on the page. But there were no scary, dark blurs of black and grey this time.

The drawing was of Luke.

Luke felt a mixture of shock and anxiety. The drawing was good, Luke had to give him that, but why? Why him? Why had Ashton gone from the things he had admitted he saw in his nightmares, to a picture of Luke? The blonde nibbled at his bottom lip, wondering if he should say anything.

Ashton shuffled around and pulled the sketchbook close to his chest, feeling Luke's hard gaze upon him. He looked scared and nervous, and Luke wondered if he could tell that Luke had taken a peek at the sketch. The frightened look on his face upset Luke, because at one point they were both so close, and now Ashton seemed so tense around him.