Give me Michael - Malum AU

.18.

Calum passed the door and went straight to Ashton – who had stopped crying – and stared at him for a few minutes. He noticed his dull red eyes but didn't comment it. He knew the blond had cried mainly because he was worried about Michael as well as him. The brunette was wondering if he should ask him what had happened to the pale boy or not. He, obviously, had an idea of what it could be, he was even certain of it, but one thing stayed unexplained: why did they have to get Michael out by the window? He gave in and ended asking.

"Why by the window?" His question wasn't a proper English sentence but he couldn't care less. Ashton's head snapped up at him.

"Well, hum... what has Michael told you?"

"Not much. Can you tell me why then?"

"As long as Mike won't have told you everything, I can't. I'm sorry bud'."

"Why?! I mean, isn't it Bellamy who gave him is black eye? If it is indeed Bellamy, why the hell couldn't we get him out of his house by the front door, like normal teenagers?" The younger raised a little bit his voice, wanting to know more as the curly boy frowned.

"He told you it was Bellamy?"

"No, I've supposed it. It is the truth, isn't it?" Ashton let out a quiet laugh.

"No Cal' it wasn't him. You're extremely far from the truth... but as sorry as I am, I can't tell you what really happened. As I've already told you, this is not my secrets to tell."

The brunette pouted and sighed. However, he didn't try to make Ashton speak anymore. He could understand the blond and his ex-best friend. Besides, he wouldn't have appreciated if his friend had told the pale boy what himself had done. That's when the itch came back. He didn't know how but he had to ignore it, he just had to. However he began scratching his forearm without meaning doing it. Ashton noticed it and instantly took his hand in his. Calum had an apologetic look as the young man in front of him was concerned. He knew the Maori boy should have been struggling and fighting the urge for some time now since he usually had more self-control about that.

"Cal' I-"

'I'm fine, really." The curly haired boy stared at Calum.

"No. No, you're not but that's okay. You have every right to go through a rough time, as long as you don't keep it all to yourself, that's okay."

The teenager opened his arms and the tan boy came snuggling into him. He immediately felt soothed. The kiwi boy whispered a quiet "thank you". Their moment was interrupted by Luke and Ashton's mother entering the kitchen. The youngest smiled at the sight of his two friends cuddling. They seemed to be so close and important for each other.

"Ashton, honey, could you bring our patient some water, please?"

The blond nodded, and do so. When he arrived in his living room, what he saw made him smile and wanting to cry at the same time. Michael was on his phone, watching his pictures with the brunette. Of course, every single picture had been taken more than a year ago since they hadn't been spending time together since then. Ashton put the glass on the table in front of the TV, grabbed his own phone, searched for some pic of Cal', created really quickly a new folder of it and handed it to the blue haired boy. The blond laughed when he saw the puzzle expression on the pale boy face.

"I thought that maybe you wanted to see and have more recent pictures of him... You're not on the frame but on a lot of them, his smile worth being seen." The younger blushed and stuttered when he answered.

"Th-th-thanks, I guess."

"I brought you a glass of water as well."

During that time Luke and Calum had sat at the kitchen table with a glass of water each and a pancake for Luke. They were having some talking from school to the weather. They were getting to know each other and, so far, they liked the personality of the other one. The blond didn't know how far he could go so he tried to ask something and waited to know if it was okay with the tan boy.

"Can you tell me what happened between you and Michael?"

The brunette's body tensed. He wasn't sure if he should talk about it or not. A little voice in his mind was heard. 'Don't forget that everybody end up leaving and betraying you.' He was about to shake his head when he change his mind. The blond would probably know what their story was anyway, so perhaps it was smarter to tell his version of it. That's why he summed it up, saying what he had assumed until now and what Michael had just told him.

"Do you think you can forgive him or something?" Pause. "You don't have to answer if you don't feel comfortable to."

He quickly added. He didn't want the Maori boy to feel like he absolutely had to answer. Once again he heard the voice, but this time he also heard another voice telling him 'If Ashton trusts him, you can also trust him' so that's what he did.

"That's fine, don't worry. And to answer your question, I honestly do not know. Before I talked with him, I would have told you that there was probably no chance I forgive him, but now? I don't know. I feel like this thing he's hiding from me could change everything but as long as I don't know what it is I don't think I can move on. On the other hand, I also get his point when he says he doesn't want me to forgive him for something other than the person he is."

"So what? He doesn't wanna tell you how Bellamy threatens him and who did that to him?"

"Yeah exact"

"I think you don't need to know that to able or not to forgive him. In my mind, it's only up to you right now. You need to trust him again, but somehow, he needs to trust you too, because if he really wasn't the one who told everyone, you kind of have stopped believing him when there was no reason to, and his trust in you is as missing as yours in him. That could be a reason why he doesn't want to tell you. Plus, depending on what it is, he could be... ashamed of it? I don't know, this is just theory of course."

"Why do I feel like the bad guy in your story?" Calum asked shakily.

"No, not at all. All I'm saying is that if you think there's a possibility even if it's a small one that you can forgive him, you should try to gain his trust and he should try to gain yours again. I believe you can make a decision now, no need to be aware of everything to do so. And I also think that you're scared to make the wrong one, which is, by the way, definitely understandable."

"What would you do if you were me?" the blond took some minutes to think about it.

"Well it would depend of how much he's been hurting me but... I think I'd give him a new shot. I would spend one afternoon with him, for example, learning to know the person we've both become, and then I would take my final decision: Can I forgive him or not."