Give me Michael - Malum AU

.19.

"MUM!!!"

Anne-Marie ran to the front door where she found her son facing Mrs Clifford. Only rage could be seen on Ashton's face. His mother put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it slightly. Then, she put her fakest smile on her face and looked at Karen.

"Good evening Mrs, what can I do for you?"

"Where is my son?" The woman's voice was as cold as ice.

"Michael? I'm sorry but he is not here..."

"You're lying."

"I am not. However, if you still don't believe me, you can come in and check by yourself." Ashton froze when he heard her mother saying that. How could she be declaring that whereas the pale boy was in fact on their couch?

"No, thank you." She responded, disgusted. Mrs Irwin was now wearing a small but real smile of contentment.

"I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave then."

Anne-Marie didn't wait and closed the door, sighing. She was really glad Michael's mother decided it would be awful to enter her house; otherwise, it would have been a proper disaster. Along with the blond, she headed to the living room. There, was Michael, petrified. He had his knee against him and his eyes closed. Luke and the brunette were looking at him worried and surprised. The older of the three teenagers walked to him and hugged him tight.

"She left. She's not here anymore. Mike' you can calm down now. Don't be scared. She won't do anything to you."

He didn't care if the others were listening. He needed the younger to know he wasn't in danger anymore. For the first time ever, they saw tears rolling down the blue haired boy's cheeks. "Shhhhhhhhhhhh" He drew circles on the back of his neck.

"You're safe. You're okay. I got you."

He brought the younger close to him and kept telling him sweet and comforting things. Calum was watching the scene in front of him, his heart breaking just as his mind was racing. Obviously, even if he knew he shouldn't, he was still trying to figure out what was Michael's secret. And then, it popped up in his mind. He knew. Everything was coherent. He couldn't move anymore, he was just standing still, shocked. Luke, on his side, was watching everything and just like the brunette, pieces of Michael's story puzzled his mind and he understood. He looked at Calum who was still stunned. The tan boy was about to take a step towards the pale boy but he grabbed his arm.

"He doesn't want any pity, remember?"

The Maori boy breathed out but stayed there. As Luke pointed out, it would have only made things worse if he had moved. Michael was slowly calming down. He had his eyes closed so he couldn't see anything nor anyone anymore. He was ashamed to have been crying in front of people.

"Mike', wanna get some rest?" Ashton asked in a sooth voice and the younger nodded. "Come with me then, you can have some in my room."

"Thank you, Ashton."

Michael would never admit it but he liked that the blond called him with his nickname. He had missed that. They both stood up and as the blue haired leaned against him, the curly boy headed to his room. Fortunately, the pale boy was soon lying on the bed, his whole body hurting like hell. Ashton put some blankets onto his friend.

"Get some rest, I'll check on you later and I'll bring you some food and drink as well."

"Ashton?" The blond stopped walking towards the door. "Thank you, for everything." It wasn't often that the colourful haired boy exposed his feelings or said 'thank you'. The blond nodded and began walking out of the room again.

"Could you... could you tell Calum that if he ever wanna talk or ask something... he can?" the younger spoke up once more.

"I will tell him. Now, sleep."

Ashton stepped out of the room for good and went to the living room where only Luke and his mum were. He frowned and asked where Calum was, he should have been there. During that time, the brunette was walking home faster than ever. His mind was messy from what he had just learnt about Michael and the itch had been transformed into urge. He was getting there again, he knew it. As soon as he was home, he went to his room and searched in his drawer for his pain eraser. He was clean for a month today... but that was it. He needed it. He needed it right now. He went to his bathroom and locked himself in it.

When he exited the bathroom more than half an hour later, he was emotionally feeling a bit better. He had been missing it more than he thought. He headed to his bedroom and unhooked his guitar from the wall. As surprising as it could seem, he was in the perfect mood to compose. Chords were chosen and put next to each other one by one. Lyrics were then found easily. Calum was focused on what he was feeling, exposing his heart out on a song. It was in those moments that he was writing the more beautiful and powerful songs. However, he often ended up saying it wasn't that great because he was the one creating it. His phone had been buzzing for more than an hour when he finally picked it up.

"Yes Ashton?"

"Are you okay? You left without a word to me, and I'm pretty sure you've understand everything, and you were stressed all day long, and you weren't picking up your phone and just..."

The brunette regretted to not have picked it up before. He had worried his best friend and now the blond was sobbing in his phone, scared something bad had happen.

"Hey Ash', I'm fine. I was composing and I just didn't hear my phone because I was lost in myself. I'm sorry."

Of course he was lying. He couldn't say he had relapsed and just didn't want to talk to anyone while his best friend was worrying sick.

"What about you Ash'? Are you okay?"

Calum knew he wasn't, but his question really means 'do you wanna talk to me about how you feel?' and the blond knew it. He knew the tan boy was here for him whenever he needed him. However, he couldn't talk to him, not if he wanted to keep him the happier possible. So he just answered 'yes'. The two of them talked for a while. And just before the blond had to hang up to bring some food to Michael, Calum said something that made him smiled.

"I'll see Michael within the next week, I think we need to talk a little bit more... but I need some time before."