Dynasty Decapitated

Find Yourself SomethingWorth Holding Onto

((I think the title is off of fall out boys last ep??? City in a garden maybe???? Does anyone know!!!! I lost my notes!!!!!!! But I'm a Midwest bitch and I'm in Chicago all the time so it seems on brand for me

-Mel)) 

Michael is tired. He's got a hand resting lightly over the bandages taped to his chest, the other draped over the edge of the couch while his knuckles brush the rug. Luke had picked this rug out at a flea market and Michael absolutely fucking hates the green and blue stitched mess, but he brushes his fingers along the hard bristles anyway. And mopes.

"You know what?" He announces, voice loud like the apartment isn't one room. Calum visibly startles where he's standing in the kitchen and knocks his head against the top of the freezer. "I miss Luke!"

"Great," Calum replies as he jerks out of the freezer. He's got a bag of peas in one hand and uses the other to slam the door shut. The whole unit shakes, so he holds the peas out like he's going to stop it. When it stops moving, he turns around to face the couch with a frown. "You know what? I miss Luke, too."

"Really?" Michael asks. "You're lying, no one misses Luke. I'm just contractually obligated."

"You're not married?" Calum phrases it like a question, like he's not entirely sure. Michael isn't either, he's never actually bothered to check. Calum shakes his head and tosses the bag of peas through the room, watching it land with a wet sort of thump onto the floor next to Michael's hand. "Anyway. No one is making you miss him, you just have feelings. Like a human being."

"Also I watched him die," Michael tacks on. "Like, he died right in front of me in a real Jack and Rose Titanic scene."

Calum rolls his eyes and crosses over to the couch when Michael makes no move to pick up the bag of frozen peas. "He didn't die," he bends down and snatches up the bag, then drops it onto Michael's bandages. Michael flinches in pain. "He's not dead, I'm sure he just broke his jaw and got kicked around a bit. If he's got our dna, he's healed by now."

Michael shrugs as he remembers Luke bursting into flames. But they knew he could do that. Michael shifts the bag of peas further onto the bullet wound and lets out the most dramatic cry of pain he can possibly manage, but Calum doesn't seem even mildly interested in the noise. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and flops down on the edge of the bed, arm braced behind him and legs kicking the edge as he swings them.

"Hey, we never talked about Ashton," Michael says. "What the fuck was-"

"Spoke," Calum interrupts.

Michael pauses and stares at him until he looks up again. "What?"

"We never spoke about Ashton," Calum corrects. "Talked is bad English. Did you finish school or did you just kind of go sometimes?"

"I know how to kill myself now," Michael threatens. "Shut up or I'll do it." Calum holds his hand up in surrender before dropping it back down to scroll through his phone again, so Michael turns back to his original question. "What the fuck was up with Ashton?"

Calum tightens his fingers around his phone. "I don't know. I don't want to talk about it."

"First of all, speak," Michael points at him. "Second, I've got some theories."

Calum sighs heavily and locks his phone as he realizes there's no possible way to get out of this, short of leaping out the window and escaping into the night. But Michael knows he won't, not when he's laying injured with peas over a bullet wound for the first time in his life and Calum has a soft spot for injured people. Shifting his arm forward, Calum drops so he's laying all the way on the bed, feet still kicking over the edge where his knees are hooked.