Ashton Enchanted » [cashton] √

1.4

There'd been hours upon hours of debriefing with Crystal, she wanted to know everything, the ins and outs of what exactly it was that triggered his obedience and when it seemed to happen the most. Then she'd been quiet for a long time before announcing that she's figure something out and that he had back up now.

And she'd been faithful to her word, three weeks earlier, Calum had been up a tree on the oval, the rest of them were standing around underneath laughing as he crunched his way from branch to branch.

"laugh all you want, I'm not coming down until I find this fucking ball, I have a point to prove!" he called down to them.

"Seriously? I'm pretty sure I saw it go over the tree anyway," Luke said, his eyes rolling before starting to make his way back to the table they'd been sitting at. Michael and Sierra followed him with varying levels of exasperation. It was just himself and Crystal standing under the tree and squinting to try and see Calum amongst the leaves.

"You two should just come and sit down, he's going to be up there all lunch," Michael called over to them when they still hadn't moved. And though Michael had directed it at both of them, he wasn't really talking to Ashton. He'd been doing this a lot lately, what he really wanted was for Crystal to go back over to him rather than being with Ashton.

He wasn't sure if it came from plain old jealousy or if he really thought Ashton was up to no good, he guessed that if Ashton ever made a move on Calum, he'd find out.

"I just don't want him to hurt himself, he'll be down in a second," she called back, out of the corner of his eye he saw he make some sort of dismissive hand gesture and had to hold back a grin, he bet Michael would love that.

"Yeah, shut up Michael, I'm coming down, catch me, Ash!" Calum called from the tree. The usual sense of dread grabbed at his stomach, and he felt his arms come to make a cradle of sorts, and just as his front leg was about to lead him under the tree Crystal spoke just low enough for him to hear.

"Ashton, stop,"

And that was it, he stopped. It was an immense relief and a heartbreaking moment realising she could so easily do something he'd never been able to do for himself.

And it continued, half a week after that it was a friend of Michael's birthday. It was a person that Ashton had had minimal contact with, and so they didn't know just how strange he could manage to be, and he wanted to keep it that way. So, they were all gathered around the other friend groups usual table singing happy birthday above a slab of cake their friends had bought for them.

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Shane," everyone chorused as they blue out the candles, a broad grin on their face.

They were all laughing and joking around, overall, everything was going well, he was even enjoying himself, and he and Sierra hung to the back of the group, as neither of them knew anyone else there very well.

Then James appeared and patted Ashton on the shoulder, "grab a piece of cake," he told them both, and Sierra went to protest, but James continued, "don't be shy, stuff your face it's amazing!" and with that, he gave them a sparkling grin and turned back to the table.

Ashton gave him a reluctant smile back and nodded before his body started to make its way over to the table. He praised the Lord that the cake had been cut and plated already. Destroying one piece with his face was going to be embarrassing enough without being the dick who ruined the entire cake.

He must have had a mournful look on his face because before he could reach out and take a slice from the table Crystal's hand came down on his shoulder, and she said, "stop,"