Blackout [lashton]

Chapter 12

Luke woke up in the middle of the night to Ashton's soft crying. Ashton was staring out the window and had somehow slipped out of Luke's arm to be staring at the open window.

"Ashton?" Luke asked, getting up to see him. He was staring at the fire escape and twisting his fingers together. "Ashton, what's wrong?"

Ashton turned around to look at Luke. His eyes were red and his cheeks were wet from tears. "I- I tried calling my mom."

"And?" Luke stepped closer to Ashton.

"No- nobody picked up." Ashton burst into tears and Luke hugged the smaller boy, Luke's long fingers running through Ashton's hair.

"They're okay, I promise." Luke murmured in Ashton's ear.

"You can't promise that." Ashton said, but rested his head on Luke's shoulder.

"I can try, Ashton." Luke smiled and said, "Can we go back to sleep?"

Ashton smiled slightly and nodded. This time, they faced eachother, foreheads touching, and they drifted asleep.

Luke woke up to his ringing phone, which he grabbed and answered lazily without even leaving the bed. "Hello?" He answered, "who is this?"

"Is this Luke Hemmings?" A frantic voice was on the other end.

"Um, yeah, why?"

"It's regarding your mother."

Luke widened his eyes and sat up straight. Ashton woke up too, but grumbled and nuzzled the pillow, still half asleep.

"What about my mum?" He said frantically.

"She was downtown when the tsunami occurred, and she got hit pretty hard by the flood. You're brothers are a little scratched up, but they're fine." The calm lady on the other end said.

Luke wasen't as calm. "Oh my god! Is my mum dead?"

"No, but she's in intensive care and has about a 50% chance of dying." There was a shout in the background and she said hurriedly, "I have to go. I'll call you if anything happens." There was a click and She hung up.

Luke felt like screaming. He felt like tearing apart their room, smashing the tv, burning the bed, punching the walls, and ripping the wallpaper off. He didn't though, and instead he curled into a ball and began to cry loudly, not caring who heard.

"Luke?" Ashton was up now, and he realized what happened. "Oh, Luke, I'm sorry."

"She's not dead yet." Luke took a deep breath, "but she might as well be."

"she's okay." Ashton said, trying to comfort Luke. "We'll be okay. I promise."

"You can't promise anything!" Luke yelled, tears pouring down his face. "Anything you promise to me is a lie, and I can't deal with that!"

Ashton looked like Luke had just punched him, and Luke immediently wanted to apologize, but Ashton said quietly, "so when you promise me something, its true, but when I try to make you feel better, I'm a liar?"

"I didn't- I was just trying to make you feel better!"

"What do you think I was doing?" Ashton yelled, then said in a much softer voice, "we'll be okay. If you want to fly back to Australia, or the states, I'd tell the others, I'm sure they'd understand."

Luke took a deep shaky breath. "Okay. I'll check for flights tomorrow."

"See? It will be okay." Ashton stared into Luke's eyes and grabbed his hands.

Luke took a deep breath. "I'm tired." He curled into a ball near the top of the bed, and he felt Ashton pull a blanket over him before climbing in and trying to wrap his arms around Luke. Luke couldn't help but smile at Ashton's attempt to comfort him, so he leaned back into Ashton and helped Ashton figure out how they fit together.